Well, it’s already a few days into the New Year and yet it still looks like a Christmas scene here in the North West. In fact the last two days have been very difficult and it took me over two hours to drive in to work yesterday.
The main reason a bit of snow is so disruptive, unlike countries that have colder weather, is that we are not properly equipped and prepared. It’s exactly the same for every business and I think that now would be a good time to carry out a winter check up to make sure you’re properly equipped and prepared for the year ahead.
Is your business ready to take advantage of the opportunities that a recovery will bring? I would recommend you to set aside some quiet time, make a cup of tea and try to look at your business as an outsider. Here are some of the questions you need to be thinking about:
• What shape is your product or service portfolio in?
• How does your offer compare to key competitors?
• What changes in demand are likely to occur in the next twelve months?
• Have you recently developed new products and is your intellectual property properly protected?
• Where are you positioning your product and how does its price compare to your competitors?
• Have you developed close partnership working with key suppliers?
• How do you intend to reach new customers?
• What’s your promotion strategy?
• What routes to market do you use and are they still valid?
• How are you going to get paid?
There are lots of other things to look at and, I’m sure you can all come up with dozens more. I’d be interested to hear from you, but I wanted to finish with something I think gets less focus than it deserves:
How will you sell?
Selling is so important to businesses but, sadly, in this country we tend to look down our noses at “reps” and I think we’re wrong to do so. You can have the best product in the world, but if you don’t sell it, you’re nowhere.
Take advantage of this time to review your business and its readiness for the challenge of the year ahead and you will reap the dividends.
Good luck and a very Happy New Year
3 comments
Comment by sarah posted on
Dear Clive,
Thank you for the blog that you posted on the ukti web page.
I just wanted to ask you as our product is quite niche and in the UK market there are about 10 of us at the size we are, is there anything else we could do to market ourselves more efficiantly.
We have our own web page and we receive all information from website hits from Statcounter and I have made a page for us on Facebook.
We are also the prefered supplier of furniture to one of Britains biggest science supplier to schools Scientific and Chemical, we have a web link into this companies web site.
However with all this in mind we are still finding we are having quiet spells and coupled with the recession this is having a negative effect on our business.
Do you have any other advice as to how we approach another way of advertising for the company, any advice would be appreciated.
Kind Regards
Sarah Blinman
Comment by Clive Drinkwater posted on
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for reading my blog and I'm pleased you're looking at how to be prepared for the year ahead.
First, do you have a market segmentation plan at all? What are the end user markets you're aiming at? I would tend to devise a separate messaage and use different channels to get the message across to the different segments.
I think you've seen the power of social media and I would try maybe starting a blog of your own that hopefully would provide useful information to people that would be interested in your products. I'm sure there will be blogs that the appropriate industries will read.
Have you audited the trade press in your area? I know that if you're looking to export, press notices with a really good photo to trade press in the US will see you have a profile in S America and Asia as US trade press is often the most widely read. What trade press does your sector in the UK read?
Speaking of exporting, have you contaced your local UKTI team? The phone number for our team in Yorkshire is 0845 6048048. Their email is info@uktiyorkshire.co.uk They will be able to offer lots of advice about expanding your sales overseas and can provide access to all sorts of help from experts in marklets as well as sector specific help in, for example, the education sector.
Given the sort of equipment you supply, have you considered how to reach the specifiers? I don't know the industry myself, but if there are specific architects or building contractors that specialise in the area you're targeting, have you thought how best to reach and influence them?
I'm sure our team in Yorkshire will be able to help in all sorts of ways, so I've copied this to Mark Robson who is our Director for Yorkshire and Humberside so that he can arrange for somebody to get in touch.
Thanks again for your comments and I wish you a very happy and prosperous new year.
Comment by sarah posted on
Hi Clive,
Thank you for getting back to me, wow you know your stuff! Thank you for getting business link to contact us, that is appreciated. I have recently been contacted by yorkshire forward with regards to the 2 day event in Harrogate in March, god willing we will be there and thank you for the invite.
We are looking in to exporting in a big way this year all being well and things go well for us, we hope to see a significant increase in our manufacturing output this year, we would like to double our output this year and really get our name out in the market. Hopefully we can find the best way to market our product which will get people and other businesses to notice us, who knows what will happen we will have to wait and see.
Thank you again anyway for getting back to me.
Take care
Sarah