Social Networking - Am I a Fan?

So yesterday I was with my Academy of chief Executives group ACE 2 at the Holiday Inn in Elstree. Our Morning speaker was a chap called Mike Nevin whose company, Alliance Best Practice does what it says on the tin. Looks at the best ways of bringing a team together to deliver a project in the most cost effective way whilst probably increasing the available skills by working with all types of Partners to make it happen! Very Interesting I thought! Fortunately the talk was not about this, but about the phenomenon of Online Networking. Interestingly about 95% of the room yesterday had some kind of profile on LinkedIn, about 95% of them used the free model and did not have a complete profile including myself. However having listened intently to Mike for a few hours I can see major benefits in putting myself and my company out there and using online business networking to increase exposure and perhaps help to further support our clients. I used to belong ot a group called BNI or Business Network International and there motto was 'Givers Gain'. That is, 'that I I give you business, you will want to give me business.' There is a lot to be said for this especially in a tougher economic climate than most of us are used to. It is important to note that selling on price alone is a recipe for disaster so being able to 'add value' to the proposition is what it is all about at Merchandise Mania. It seems like after yesterday one of the ways in which we can add value is by networking efficiently with our customers and prospects.

I know my next job is ensuring my profile on LinkedIn is complete!!!!

Doom and Gloom or the Green Shoots of Recovery???

It is increasingly obvious to me that whilst we are incredibly capable of talking ourselves into situations we do not seem to be capable of talking our way out of the same situation. Clearly I am talking about the 'Recession' oh no I said it out loud....the 'Recession'........I said it again. I think it is a sorry state of affairs that even when we are clearly still in a downturn that the press seem incapable of giving us the lift and positive headlines that will help restore the confidence that they ripped from us.

That said, is this the fault of the press? No, of course not. I do feel that they have a responsibility to balance the arguments rather than heavily stack it one way or another.

On a really positive note, we at Merchandise Mania have been able to help our clients budget go further. Even more positively is the fact that activity is well up in the months of July and August so far, this coupled with positive news from the banks and the $$$ weakening to Sterling will definitely help.

Lets hope so anyway.


Simon

How can I motivate, when all around the news is glum?

Focus, Focus, Focus!!!!

Just because Honda are stopping production for 4 months or this one is shedding this many jobs or that one is closing its factory, does not mean that there is not also good news mixed in with the bad. Why only today Subway announced it was opening a further 600 stores in the UK & Eire creating 7000 jobs. There are still many opportunities in times of recession and even more importantly we have to motivate our teams to go after those opportunities and grasp both hands around them when we find them.

Motivation should not be hard in a climate such as the UK today, but surprisingly it is very difficult. You would think people were thankful to still be in a job and that they would work even harder to ensure that it stayed that way. Human nature does not work like that and unfortunately the bad news is impossible to avoid and no matter who you are, I believe, it has to have a detrimental effect on morale.

I guess as a business leader it is my role to inspire my team to achieve, to invigorate where energy wanes and to coach where the need arises. Is it enough? Most of the time, yes it is but in these strange times I am not sure. I think more is needed and that is the motivation.

One way businesses can motivate is cash. Cash bonuses are real, tangible and effective some of the time.

Another is product bonuses. This could be points with prizes, length of service awards, employee of the month etc. It is generally felt that these type of prizes have an increased perceived value compared to the relative cash bonuses. Only when a cash bonus becomes substantial does the cash seem more!

Is now a good time to introduce a motivation programme? Absolutely! Why? It is widely felt that it is harder to motivate in a difficult climate than when things are good. Motivation can increase sales and of that there can be no doubt. So many Sales People tell me they are self motivated and driven individuals, they probably are most of the time but even the best need a nudge in the right direction from time to time.

So there is no better time to look at a programme for your employees to help and maintain motivation, we at Merchandise Mania can clearly help with that. This is the shameless plug part!!!!!

Until next time……..

Some Credit Crunch Tips For Business!

So I was minding my own business. Well actually trying to manage my own business when I received a mail from my Bank Relationship Manager asking if I could help her out. Imagine my surprise, it is most definitely me asking the Bank for help not the other way round! Needless to say I decided to do what was being asked of me and there are 2 versions in this blog. The first is the full article from HSBC and the second is the edited version of just little old me!!!!

I hope it helps someone!!!

Just Little Ole Me!!

Simple Economics

The Stock Market is in freefall, Consumer Confidence is low, House Prices are falling, Inflation rising, Marketing Budgets are being cut………..

Now tell me the odd one out?

Yep you guessed it, Marketing Budgets being cut. In an Economic downturn one of the first budgets to be cut (after Overtime) is marketing. Now has anyone spotted the mistake here? That’s right, if we want to increase market share, sales and ultimately profits we need to actually market ourselves more in a downturn thereby strengthening our position against that of our competitors who are not marketing themselves effectively. Perhaps we should look at the tangible side of marketing such as promotional merchandise, this way we can clearly see who we are strategically targeting. Of course a further alternative is to utilise a Gift with Order or an On Pack offer, this is where you up sell using the promotional merchandise as a ‘carrot’. There are many ways of ‘skinning a cat’ and we can go into greater detail or discussion if you wish to contact me directly on email simon@merchandisemania.co.uk.

The second part to this instalment is about budgeting. Now I don’t want to patronise anyone with this next statement, but effective budgeting is the one of the important key skills of the business world. I say skill, because the way finance teams are cutting budgets each of us is going from ‘Tesco Finest’ to ‘Tesco Value’ in terms of our marketing spend. How can we make the £££’s go further? If we liken the Tesco Products to Promotional Merchandise, there are many ways of making those £££’s go further. What we need from you are the number! The number of items you would like and the number you have in your budget to pay for it? Once we have this we should be able to come up with many different ideas and ways of using your numbers to satisfy your needs. Give us a challenge; I am sure we will come through for you!

Remember, the pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity; the optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

The First day of the rest of your life!!!

So there I was reading through a colleagues blog earlier today (http://paulsmania.blogspot.com/) when I found myself thinking, 'You know what Simon, you should really do one of those!' Then the panic, and the self doubt. What will I say, how will it sound, will anyone actually read it. After careful consideration I decided that none of that mattered and as part of my ongoing learning I would jump right into it.

So what the heck is all this about I here you ask, well simply put I will be imparting my, possibly useless, knowledge in the blog. Along with my business experiences, even down to the simple don’t try this at home type of thing. It pains me to say so, but I have made many, many mistakes in my life. Some have definitely been larger than others. My philosophy is that your gut is usually right, unless of course you had a serious curry the night before, so trust it and act quickly. If you don’t act, someone else will. This works in good times as well as in bad. An example within Merchandise Mania would be my missus, Lisa, coming up with the idea for Recycled Mania. This was specifically to provide services that were only available in a limited way from other companies. What it meant to our customers was that they could find leading edge environmentally friendly products from us, a good six months before the general market could get close. We were manufacturing fleece made from 22 plastic water bottles before 90% of the High Street stores. Of course the important thing from this for our customers was that they were way ahead of their competition in terms of creativity, and ethical accountability……Priceless!

Ok, so I guess the first one is at an end….keep checking back and lets see if we can learn together.