‘I know that half of my advertising budget is wasted, but I’m not sure which half’ Henry Ford.

In Henry Ford’s day, marketing and advertising were what drove sales and business success.

But the world is a VERY different place today: marketing and advertising have less and less influence on buying decisions every day: and the quicker businesses realize this, the better.

Your customers, previously disempowered and misled by clever advertising and hidden costs are now completely empowered via the power of the Internet and Social Media.

Very few people look at brochures when considering a hotel to stay in … they focus on feedback! And this habit will and is spreading to all aspects of business.

Feedback is the key: well managed it can generate fantastic PR, repeat sales, cross sales and referrals: badly managed (or, what is most common not managed at all and just ‘left to chance’) it can severely damage you almost overnight.

Feedback (done properly!!!!!) will also help you spend your remaining sales and marketing budget MUCH more effectively: it will tell you:

·         What’s working and what isn’t

·         What’s working for your competition

·         What your customers genuinely like experiencing (and what annoys them!)

Besides: research from leading businesses show what we know as common sense: it’s at least 6 times more expensive to get a new customer as it is to get a customer to return and be loyal.

Why on earth do most sales & marketing budgets focus on new customers?????

Besides, we all know as customers how much we love it when the organization we’ve remained loyal to for many years  gives a better deal that we get to new customers!

So: get real: start using your Sales and Marketing budgets to build customer loyalty, selling up and recommendation … via feedback and relationship building.

It’s far cheaper and far more effective.

For further advice on what to do and how to do it, please contact us.