Jump-Start Business

The major goal of any agency or brokerage can be expressed in just one word: survival.

The mounting failures involving seemingly strong, well-established businesses that have been around for 15 to 75 years are of great concern.

The time has come for agencies and brokerages to take immediate action in order to survive a protracted economic downturn that may extend for several more years in some sectors of business or regions of North America.

Without question, crisis situations exist for many agencies today. Even though they may be getting by at the moment, an economy on the sick list for much longer will leave them with no alternative but to merge, be bought, or lock their doors. Although basic problems need to be solved with long-term strategies, many agencies need a jump-start to get their engines running. Here is an emergency strategy aimed at producing fast results.

Stop being coy. Show prospects that the agency wants their business. Fact:

Agencies have had to change the way they view customers. Customers want to feel that they're appreciated and valued. This has nothing to do with sending holiday gifts, having drinks after work, or doing lunch at the Ritz. It is, however, saying, eyeball to eyeball: 'Thanks. We're delighted to have you as our customer. We want you to know that you're important to us.' This goes for the smallest account as well as the biggest one. In fact, give special attention to smaller customers. They often feel neglected and take their business elsewhere.

Product-pushers are out. Stop gimmick selling. Such tired gimmicks are self-defeating and a waste of time.

Get customers and prospects to focus on the agency. Unless customers become 'believers' in what an agency can do for them, they'll quickly become 'shoppers.' The best way to galvanize customer relationships is by placing the emphasis on why it's wise to do business with the agency.

Get a new perspective. In other words, it's essential to stop looking at things the same old way.

In tough times, correct decisions are more critical than ever. Yet this is precisely the moment when the information to base decisions on may be the least reliable. This is not to suggest that everyone in an organization lies deliberately. It's simply that data, reports, studies, and projections can be adjusted to suit certain desired results.

Basing decisions on faulty information only serves to exacerbate existing difficulties. Get a new perspective. Get information from outside sources and make sure the information generated from within the agency and companies are compared to the externally derived data. Keep asking the question: Is this reliable?

Going back over the same ground may be one of the most serious problems in business. Salespeople, for example, tend to call and contact those customers and prospects they enjoy and who like them. Whether these are particularly good prospects is irrelevant.

In order to get results quickly, spend time building a new, extensive customer and prospect list. Ask penetrating questions about each existing account. The goal is to open new avenues to communication. The job now is to get the wheels going in new directions.

It takes time, effort, research, and serious, persistent effort to develop a growing body of valuable prospects.

Companies with solid products and services get in trouble in bad times primarily because they've become lazy when it comes to solid prospecting.

So-called 'niche marketing' has become a business buzzword. There is danger, however, in failing to think through the implications of the niche concept.

Too many agencies consider the task as 'carving a niche' for themselves. But when that niche goes sour or when competition increases, everyone scurries about to find another niche.

The key to niche marketing is identifying as many niches as possible, then customizing a marketing strategy, sales strategy, and tactics to meet the needs of each individual niche. It's like bouncing many balls at the same time.

Companies avoid this approach because it takes a lot of work. It's so much easier to deal with one 'big picture' rather than many small ones.

The immediate task is to build several niches with those selling and those buying. Then, and only then, is it possible to know and meet real customer needs.

From meetings come assignments. What follows is predictable: nothing. In the weeks following a meeting, the subject of conversation is all but forgotten by everyone other than the top brass who continue to believe they have made another positive impact on the agency.

In reality, the 'problem' of identifying customer needs, devising specific plans for communicating the agency's message, and being persistent in getting customers to value doing business with you is a task that goes on forever. It demands constant, never-ending attention. It is so important that it deserves to become the focal point of everyday activity.

Jump-starting a business in difficult times isn't easy and requires more than working harder or doing more. It can't be reduced to admonishing salespeople to 'go out and make one more call every day.'

By carefully changing a whole set of key strategies, agencies transform themselves. A new outlook emerges, one that comes across to customers as, 'We want to do business with you.' When this happens, sales increase.