“After last year’s budget and staffing cuts, the answer may appear to be a resounding “No,” although it may surprise you to know, the answer to this question is an emphatic “Yes!”

 

“How do I have enough marketing budget to achieve my objectives after so many cuts?” you ask. The only way you can succeed, if you are not going to get any more money or staff right now, is to rewrite the rules of the game.

 

Over the next several weeks, this newsletter will be dedicated to providing you with practical approaches to reinventing marketing in your own company. These are NOT theoretical concepts – each of the recommendations has been proven out with our clients repeatedly and has been broken down into 4 steps:

 

1. Listen to the Voice of the Customer 

 

2. Start small with a Powerful Test Pilot Program 

 

3. Pick up team morale and Gain Buy-in with Short Term Wins

 

4. Shout it From the Rooftops (a.k.a. Socialize Your Results) 

 

 

 

Step 1: To act on the Voice of the Customer, you must first listen to the Voice of the Customer 

Where can you hear the voice of the customer without spending thousands of dollars?

 

1. Go where customers shop. Increase your customer or store visits (in some cases, start customer/store visits in the first place. After seeing customers in person and speaking to sales associates, you will begin to gain a real-life sense of what they need and want.

 

2. Go where customers call. Become friends with the call center manager and listen to calls as well as speak with the reps. Set up lunches with the call center monthly and make sure to attend yourself – do not send your junior staff. Only then can you speak from hard experience.

 

3. Go where customers talk to each other. Get on Facebook, Twitter and anywhere else you can find your customers speaking to each other online. Resist the temptation to join in or try to solve their problems – just listen. Remember, your goal is to develop an understanding of customer needs, challenges and behaviors – not to solve all the problems of the world. Not yet anyways.

 

The knowledge you obtain is only as valuable as your ability to leverage it to help drive change in the company. Start a monthly newsletter, highlighting your learnings to build buy-in. Begin with a limited circulation – your Marketing team, the Sales and Support teams, and then begin to expand into executive, product development, etc. over time.

 

Let’s recap the 4 Steps to help you take the Voice of the Customer and use it to rewrite the rules of your marketing strategy:

 

1. Listen to the Voice of the Customer 

 

2. Start small with a Powerful Test Pilot Program 

 

3. Pick up team morale and Gain Buy-in with Short Term Wins

 

4. Shout it From the Rooftops (a.k.a. Socialize Your Results) 

 

These are the seeds you plan at the outset. Remember you cannot be the voice of the customer until you actively listen to the customer. Start to uncover ways to solve your customers’ biggest pain points. By using the cost-effective strategies mentioned above, coupled with the ones we will discuss in the upcoming newsletters, you can start gaining momentum and achieving the buy-in necessary to rewrite the rules of marketing and reinvent marketing within your organization.

 

Good listening.