Wow! 2009 was a busy year, despite the economic downturn.
My TripIT summary for this past year gives you a good idea:
28 trips
103 days
252,000 km
35 cities
7 countries
All this when many companies focused on cost and staff reductions. You cannot cost reduce your way to success.
Always be in front of customers when competitors are scaling back. It's a time-proven strategy to increase your visibilty when there's not competitive 'noise' to distract from your message. When the economy improves, customers tend to remember those who were focused on solutions to their problems during the tough times.
As much as cut backs may be needed in a down economy, companies need to step back and understand the customer's viewpoint. Our colleague John Cousineau, CEO of Innovative Information, found that in speaking with customers, the one most expressed need was 'GETTING HELP' from companies they want to do business with. But is anyone listening? In fact, we've found companies need help in three key areas:
1. Lost sales they didn’t know about
2. Lost sales they didn’t respond to (Aberdeen Group analysis: 70% of all sales leads are never contacted)
3. Lost sales they didn’t follow-up effectively
To help companies connect with customers, we started two new ventures in 2009. Both focus on customer engagement. Both use the social media platforms. Both help companies to accomplish much more, much better.
Focus on your customers and next year, you be able to say that 2010 was a busy year, despite the economic times.
