Is it just me, or is this type of messaging, targeted at professional service firms, popping up with greater frequency?
“… fierce completion, reduced budgets, and new technologies make it easier than ever for competitors to take your customers. Therefore, your marketing efforts need to be re-engineered and laser focused on ROI.”
I hope the reason I’m seeing this type of advice more frequently is due to copycat marketing. Personally, I think this type of “advice” is a bunch of hooey. It’s a (weak) scare tactic coupled with bad logic.
New technology is not stealing your customers. And shouldn’t you know if your client is having budget issues before the competition? If your customer is cutting your services because they are costing more than the value you are delivering, is that a “marketing ROI” issue?
Will someone please explain to me how using technologies that focus on finding new customers more cheaply (ROI) helps prevent losing existing customers to the competition? Are we to believe that having our customers stolen is inevitable, therefore we should focus on finding the cheapest way to acquire 3 new customers to replace the 2 that will be stolen?
If this is the first time you are visiting my blog, you may not realize that I am a big proponent of technology, measuring results, and accountability in marketing. However, I’m not a fan of scare tactics, using technology for technology’s sake, or gobbledygook disguised as advice.
New technology isn’t going to make you lose customers, so if you really want to lose customers, I offer these five tips (with tongue firmly inserted in cheek):
- Don’t listen to your customers. Better yet, pretend to listen but never respond.
- Think of them, not as people, but as “suspects, eyeballs, leads, opportunities, and engagements”.
- Focus your efforts on getting 3 customers to replace the 2 you are going to lose, rather than working on retaining the two.
- Make complete utilization of software like
final cut proto market your brand with intuitive videos. - Spend your time developing new “Return On” metrics – ROIN (return on influence), ROS (return on spend), ROPB (return on personal brand), ROTLA (return on three-letter acronyms), rather than talking to customers.
- Avoid discussions about money, budgets, and value delivered until after you receive notice that your customer is moving to one of your competitors.
Technology, social media, and inbound marketing techniques all have a place in helping professional service firms find new customers affordably. But if you really want to build your top line, make sure you listen and respond to the needs of your existing customers.
