As companies slowly recover from recession and look at their sales and marketing strategy again, Andrew Scott, Managing Director of Purplex Consulting, asks whether it’s time to stop the back-biting and get back to professional marketing.  

This year was a landmark for British politics, as the three major party leaders followed our American cousins and went head to head on live TV, hoping to sway the votes of the British people.  The show certainly drew in the viewers and did wonders for British politics, connecting with audience demographics that otherwise would have shown little or no interest in voting.  But what did it do for the party leaders?

While Brown and Cameron attacked each other throughout the debate, Clegg’s popularity increased minute-by-minute.  Was it his policies that overwhelmingly swayed the electorate during the debate?  While Clegg obviously had his part to play in his rise in popularity, Brown and Cameron did most of his selling for him, by undermining and attacking each other.

It’s not just in politics we see this trend.  In response to the recession, both Tesco and Asda have tried “comparison marketing” on TV by pointing out how much lower their prices are than their competitors.  And who came out the winner? Sainsbury’s, who posted a significant increase in profits.

Understand your customers

Marketing is not about how big your budget is, how clever you are at attacking your competitors, or how brash your PR machine is.  Sustainable, long term business growth and profitability comes through really understanding and connecting with your customers in a positive way.

The recession has damaged the fenestration industry and we’ve seen a significant drop in volume.   In such a market, customers – and potential customers – don’t want to see suppliers fight it out or undermine each other, it makes them nervous.  It might give a few short-term wins, but in the long run it damages your brand. We all know an animal is at its most dangerous when wounded.  Do you want to portray your business in this way?

Successful companies who are at the top of their game are driven by marketing principles and ethics that focus on the customer, not their competitors.  Mercedes-Benz may be BMW’s arch rival, but you won’t hear them say “we’re better than they are” because they know it will devalue their own brand values.  Instead, they focus on the demographics of their target customers and what their products will do for them.

With so many changes occurring in the fenestration industry, there is a temptation among sales and marketing departments to undermine or attack competitors, creating rumours or publishing mistruths.  But this is a double edged sword that could be damaging their own business by pushing customers away.

In the long run, companies with strong marketing principles and ethics (brand equity) will ride the wave of recession better because customers will remain, on aggregate, more loyal.  Companies with little or no brand equity are likely to lose customers faster, and it is often these companies who revert to the negative marketing strategies discussed earlier, with the effect of turning off even more customers.

Today, we have a multitude of marketing channels available to us.  But whatever channels we choose as part of our sales and marketing strategy, creating a sense of brand value and integrity will eventually pay dividends.

In the final analysis, we all like to surround ourselves with positive, successful and dynamic people.  It’s human nature. We don’t want to associate with negative people, those that run down others or gossip. 

Promoting your company, your products and your service positively, enthusiastically and professionally will attract like-minded customers.  Not just in advertising or promotion, but with the sales team in the field. Selling the positive benefits of your products – rather than undermining your competitors, will gain you respect, credibility and long term benefits.

Andrew Scott is Managing Director of Purplex, the business, marketing and training consultants to the window industry. www.purplexmarketing.co.uk.  Andrew has acquired, built and sold several window companies and advises major organisations on business strategy.   A Fellow of the Institute of Sales & Marketing Management and member of the Institute of Direct Marketing, he has won numerous awards for business growth and strategy.

Window Widgets, the supplier of specialist products for the glazing industry, is one company who recognise the benefit of database marketing. After seven years using another data supplier, the Gloucester based company signed up to Salestracker – the world’s first online fabricator and installer database developed by Insight Data – to track down new customers and as MD Dan Gill explains, they have never looked back.

“Salestracker is now a vital ingredient in Window Widgets marketing strategy. The Insight database allows us to target prospective customers through phone, fax and email and keep track of all our sales leads quickly and easily. Since teaming up with Insight Data our customer base has grown considerably and I have been delighted with the results.”

Aside from being impressed with the accuracy of the data and easy to use features of Salestracker, Dan is also delighted with the working relationship Insight Data has forged with his sales team. “If we ever need anything, someone at Insight is always on the end of the phone or able to visit our offices to ensure we are getting maximum value from the system” Dan comments. “Insight provide us with a very professional service and I would certainly recommend Salestracker to any companies in the glazing industry serious about growing their business.”

So what sets Salestracker apart from other online prospect databases available on the market? The system has been developed by Insights own in-house software development team which means it is continuously being developed and improved and can easily be tailored to meet individual customers needs. For example, a new Credit Manager application (APP) has recently been launched. This APP gives users a snapshot of financial information in an easy to understand format, meaning they can select prospects with good credit history. In short it provides credit status, credit rating, recommended credit limit, details of any County Court Judgements against them, and net worth, helping sales and marketing people to make informed decisions.

According to Dan, this new APP is worth its weight in gold and has saved Window Widgets considerable time and money. “The new Credit Manager APP gives us a snapshot of our prospects financial information before we contact them, making sure we only deal with financially sound companies. This is priceless information and helps our sales team use their time much more effectively and not chase after prospects that simply wouldn’t make suitable customers.”

So what does the future hold for Window Widgets? Dan concludes, “We plan to continue our growth throughout 2010 and bring our products to a wider range of customers. Salestracker is going to play a major part in this growth and will give our sales team the tools they need to prospect for new business.”

For more information contact Insight Data on 01934 808293 or visit www.insightdata.co.uk or for more on Window Widgets visit http://www.windowwidgets.co.uk/

WHS Halo is the latest big name to subscribe to Insight Data’s architects and specifiers database, opening up a market worth £31.372 billion a year (according the Office of National Statistics) and giving them an opportunity to further cement their position as one of the UK’s leading system companies.

Containing the contact details of 15,000 professionals in the building industry, the database allows WHS Halo to target architects early in the specification process, giving them a greater chance of having their products written into the architects design.

“The nature of the commercial market means it makes sense to get your products in front of architects at a very early stage” comments Gerald Allen, WHS Halo’s Marketing Manager. “This new database contains the details of the people we need to target and allows us to contact them through by phone, fax, direct mail or email – giving us a great opportunity to get a slice of the massive £31.372 billion on offer.”

Helen Costeloe-Hughes, Insight Data’s Commercial Director comments “the commercial database is accessed online meaning WHS Halo can simply log on and instantly pinpoint architects specialising in key sectors such as housing, education, health, retail, or leisure and if necessary, drill down further into sub-sectors such as social housing or schools. The system also has a built-in Contact Manager so they can track marketing campaigns, record notes and follow up leads effectively.”

Insight Data have recently reported a surge of companies signing up to the architects and specifiers database, highlighting how more companies are beginning to move into the commercial market in search of potential customers. “Fenestration plays an important role in the aesthetic and functional design of most commercial, public sector and residential buildings” comments Insight’s Helen Costeloe-Hughes. “And with changes to the Building Regulations meaning that architects need to design carbon neutral buildings, they are very willing to receive marketing material on the latest glazing products. Our customers are using our architects database to take advantage of this and to move into this lucrative new market.”

Contact Insight Data on 01934 808293 or visit www.insightdata.co.uk

Revenue is being hit because companies are failing to put in place sufficient measures to ensure email marketing messages are delivered, according to the Direct Marketing Association.

A white paper by the Association’s Email Marketing Council says bad practice is putting marketing strategies at risk and damaging ROI.  To view the white paper in full click here.

The document outlines “ten steps to improved deliverability” including taking measures to improve data collection, monitor sender protection, reduce SPAM complaints and introduce “good list hygiene”.

So what happens to companies in the window industry who want to carry out an email marketing campaign but don’t have the time or resources to follow ‘best practice’ guidelines? According to Pete Fealey, head of Insight Data’s email marketing division, using a specialist agency to carry out your campaign is the ideal solution, saving time and money.

“Insight Data provides clients with an email marketing service that generates leads and gives excellent delivery rates and ROI” explains Pete. “Now companies in the window industry have the opportunity to target their prospects in a digital medium without the hassle of managing the campaign themselves. ”

Insight Data has developed Mailminx, a dedicated email system that dramatically reduces the number of emails caught by SPAM filters and junk email folders, ensuring more emails get through to the intended recipient.

“Instead of sending our 5,000 emails in one go – a strategy which will result in getting blocked by Internet Service Providers – we ‘stagger send’ our emails” explains Pete. “We also INBOX test all our messages against various email clients such as Outlook, AOL, and GMail to ensure consistency, and format emails to take into account the “viewing pane” on Outlook.

While research shows email data degrades on average 5% a month, Insight Data’s full time team of researchers continually cleanse the data and keep it up-to-date.

“Managing an email database is simply too time consuming for a busy window company” Pete comments. “Our full-time team of researchers refresh the database every day, saving our clients a lot of time. We currently hold 50,000 email addresses of people operating in the window, conservatory and building industry, meaning you can reach a broad section of your target market and win their business.”

For more information contact Insight Data on info@insightdata.co.uk, by telephone on 01934 808293 or visit http://www.insightdata.co.uk/Emarketing.htm