{"id":423,"date":"2012-06-03T18:57:01","date_gmt":"2012-06-03T23:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/?p=423"},"modified":"2013-02-16T13:38:28","modified_gmt":"2013-02-16T18:38:28","slug":"nothing-kills-a-bad-company-faster-than-good-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/index.php\/nothing-kills-a-bad-company-faster-than-good-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"Nothing kills a bad company faster than good marketing"},"content":{"rendered":"
Really… what are your customers saying about you?<\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"I<\/p>\n

A few years ago my agency worked with a large interior design company whose customers were homeowners that numbered in the thousands. The design company’s business had grown substantially over the years on the strength of referrals.<\/p>\n

As sales slowed in 2007, the company asked us to help them develop a marketing program to help re-ignite sales amongst a broader audience.<\/p>\n

Before spending their money, we recommended a quick customer survey to the CEO, which was approved. The survey asked customers if they would be willing to refer the services of the design firm to friends or colleagues, and gave those customers a scale of 0 <\/em>to 10 <\/em>by which to express their support (10<\/em> being \u201cextremely likely\u201d<\/em>). The CEO struggled with the findings. The conversation went something like this:
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Us:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Only 33% of your customers love you.<\/em><\/p>\n

CEO:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don’t get it. Our customers rave about the work we do. Every job!<\/em><\/p>\n

Us:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But sales are slowing. The referrals are slowing.<\/em><\/p>\n

CEO:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Maybe we have to go after new markets.<\/em><\/p>\n

Us:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Maybe there’s something else going on.<\/em><\/p>\n


\n<\/em><\/p>\n

The next step was to dig deeper with the 37% of customers who gave them a 7 or 8, and the 30% of customers who gave them 6 or less. The next conversation went like this:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Us:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The majority of your customers love your design work, but really
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>don’t<\/em>\u00a0like your billing and collections. Apparently,\u00a0there have
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>been a lot of\u00a0<\/em>screw-ups. As a result, you received more 7s and 8s
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>in the survey than<\/em>\u00a0your design success\u00a0would suggest.<\/em><\/p>\n

CEO:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Accounting is really boring.<\/em><\/p>\n

Us:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Clearly.<\/em><\/p>\n


\n<\/em><\/p>\n

If we had charged ahead with a full-blown marketing campaign, the design company would have spent a lot of very dear money exposing the weakness of their company to many more people. That would have been the path to a saw-toothed, not a hockey stick, sales curve<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Do you know what your customers are really saying about you?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

0<\/span><\/a><\/div> <\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Really… what are your customers saying about you?
\n <\/p>\n

A few years ago my agency worked with a large interior design company whose customers were homeowners that numbered in the thousands. The design company’s business had grown …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[47,30,49,48,46],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":491,"href":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions\/491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}