The missing ingredient for entrepreneurs in a systems-driven world
by Fred Roed on 17/06/07 at 9:25 pm
2 comments
If business is a series of relationships that result in a series of transactions, then a large part of our role in business should be focused on those relationships.
Instead, as entrepreneurs, most of us tend to focus on distractions.
We spend much of our time on tinkering with our product, tweaking our systems and toiling at the numbers. These are important facets of business, but they can lead us astray from the critical role of developing relationships.
The ability to develop healthy relationships is often the missing ingredient to a high potential business achieving success. Marketing strategy should be all about developing this skill.
Who are we in relationship with?
We interact with four key areas:
With our Target Market
Your target market includes both current customers and potential customers. The typical entrepreneur will be most interested in the first area, since this is where our bread is buttered – but even this area is neglected. How often do you interact with your target market? How many customers do you know by their first name? If selling a mass-produced product, how often do you go out and meet with customers face-to-face?*
With our Team
This is the day and age of turn-key businesses and system-driven workplaces. Our team members are considered vital cogs in a machine, yet employees and colleagues get lost in the Matrix without having a clear sense of purpose or direction. Internal relationships become purely mechanical. As a result, employee turnover is higher now than ever. Do you really know your team? Do you know what they want? Do you know what their personal goals are? What their passions are?
With our Suppliers
Each sector of industry is swelling with more and more competition. Technology is breaking down barriers to entry, and as the workforce expands, small businesses are entering domains that were previously untouchable. We have so many suppliers to choose from that they become disposable and interchangable. Is this a good thing? How strong are your relationships with your suppliers? Do you trust them? Do you care whether their businesses succeed?
With our Network
Network include friends, family, connections and other entrepreneurs. If word of mouth is the most powerful form of marketing, how proactive are you about connecting at a deeper level with the people in our sphere of influence? Do the people in your network understand the core benefits of your offering?
The Four ‘P’s way of Marketing is dead!
In the past, the preferred ‘model’ was known as the 4 P’s of marketing – Product, Packaging, Place and Promotion. In the past, this often meant marketing systems that lead to impersonal and random communication. From the time when advertising first when mainstream, the primary goal was to reach ‘demographic sectors’ and ‘focus market groups’. Marketers were obsessed with communicating to as many people as possible. Instead, in today’s marketing environment, we must focus on reaching individuals.
Real people, with real faces, with birthdays and families that we actually know the names of. We must look carefully – and without cynicism – at what it really means to be in relationship, and apply this to our business strategy.
*I saw first-hand a great example of this a month ago at Constantia Village mall when I walked past the chairman of the Pick n’ Pay group, Raymond Ackerman, at the entrance. Standing with a colleague, he was greeting customers as they walked into his store.
Fred Roed is the marketing guy in the Ideate crew. Fred is the CEO of web marketing company World Wide Creative and the co-founder of online learning portal Heavy Chef. Fred loves writing about people out there doing marketing right. Follow Fred on Twitter here. View more articles by Fred Roed.
Jay Ehret
Jun 20th, 2007
Fred,
You highlight a perplexing dilemma faced by most entrepreneurs.
Your advice flies some against E-Myth author Michael Gerber’s credo of working on the business, rather than in the business. E-Myth Revisited was on you Top 5 small business book list.
I agree with you that developing relationships is a necessary marketing skill, but should an entrepreneur focus on that at the expense of tinkering, tweaking and toiling on what you call “distractions?”
While I have worked with many clients who are open to intimate marketing and developing relationships, many of them have ignored the necessary work on the business and thus their marketing efforts are fruitless. I forgot who said it, but it’s true; great marketing can’t save a bad business.
Fred
Jun 27th, 2007
Hi Jay,
Thanks for the comment.
I don’t necessarily agree that this post flies against E-Myth principles. I am a huge advocate of working on the business (hence: “These are important facets of business”) but there are two areas highlighted here.
One is the systems, which many of us – myself included – spend tweaking and refining in a Quixotic display of perfectionism. The second is the relationships. The main thrust of this post was to highlight that without relationships your business sinks.
I personally know of a few businesses that have been built on relationships alone, even though their systems and delivery are useless.
However, you can have the best systems on Earth, and, without a good understanding of relationships, your business will fail.
Ideally, the end goal is to create a balance of the two: Good relationships built on a foundation of great systems.