"Many of my customers have survived," said an old colleague of mine over coffee the other day.
"But, they’ll never be the same."
Arguably, the economy is on the rebound, but as many experts predicted, it is not the rebound that we hoped for. Such a fall from lofty economic heights surely deserved a much better bounce that what is before us now. The road to beating unemployment is long and fraught with difficulties, it will likely take years. Returns on investments are still lagging, and getting back to an even strength portfolio may take even longer. Consumers are saving, not buying…at least, not like before. Businesses are still trying to find ways to cut costs, work on smaller margins, increase value and position themselves to be more profitable when better times arrive.
Through all this however, there remains an optimistic and hopeful attitude towards commerce and the consumer products industry in general. Bottom line: people need "stuff." That will never change, but the "stuff" they need and what they will give up in exchange for it will.
Ten years ago, the giftware, home décor, floral and personal care industries were a veritable boon to all businesses trying to jump into the market. Today it represents more of a wandering wasteland with a few gems, but relatively risky and bumpy terrain. Make no mistake, we will all get out of these doldrums, but when we do, we may in fact be surprised to find that the business world as we know it has changed. In fact, the signs are not hard to see all if we look at the real, societal world.
Business is about relationships. Relationships are founded on and grounded in trust. Trust is built through ongoing, structured, positive actions and communication. And let’s face it, communications mediums both digital and otherwise have become log jammed with superfluous messages and empty promises. It’s no wonder consumers and businesses have a wary eye on each other. Doing business, whether in the consumer products industry or the aerospace industry requires trusting, lasting communication.
Today, there is less face to face communication and more shortened, quick electronic communication. This lack of interpersonal connection has led to a mass breakdown of the sales- customer connection. Couple this fact with a reeling economy and you have a complete flattening of a huge segment of the consumer market: those that can’t afford "stuff", those who don’t trust business enough to do so and those who fall into both difficult categories.
But through such a meltdown lies a unique opportunity for small businesses, an opportunity to build trust in a way that uses available communication and fosters an ongoing, symbiotic and most importantly, personal relationship. I like to call it "FaceBook Commerce." It’s not e-commerce and it’s not internet marketing. In fact, don’t let the term fool you, it’s not about cyber-anything. What FaceBook Commerce is about is taking the concept of an online social network like FaceBook and brining its core values into the marketplace of business ideas.
The concept of "casting a broad net" (mass digital marketing) has become too easy too quickly and cost too much in time, resources and customer trust. What was once the promise of a digital one-to-one future has resulted in a sea of mass confusion, a shell game resembling electronic gimmicks complete with smoke, mirrors and distractions packaged to showcase 21st century speed and efficiency.
Take this as an example- if I want to reach 100 customers, I would send 100 emails, send 100 faxes, make 100 phone calls or a combination of these efforts to the accounts I am trying to reach. If I want to connect with 100 customers, I need to give them a much better reason to respond than a phone call, fax or email. Such exercises are akin to searching for John Smith on Face Book. There are far too many of them out there and the chances that you are going to connect with the one you are looking for upon your first search is very unlikely.
Small businesses have become too obsessed with reaching customers and not nearly as concerned with connecting with customers. Herein lies the new world or business communication. Face Book business (sites like Linked In have begun to pioneer such opportunities) takes the reasons why one would want to find a John Smith in the first place and applies those reasons to the business world. Maybe John Smith was an old buddy, maybe John Smith was recently in the news, maybe John Smith recently won the lottery. Whatever the rationale for your search, the reasons prompt you to look for him specifically.
As a small business, you are "John Smith." Your customers are the searchers. You need to give them the same reasons as John Smith has for his search to look for you whether it is online over the phone or in person. You need to give your customers a reason to come find you. You can’t just say, "hey, here I am, I have email and a website, come see me." You have to generate a reason to have a customer see you. Many times, it is a personal connection, a group of friends who are your closest and best customers simply by the sheer nature of knowing you. Maybe you have a group of referrals from this core group. Maybe a sales representative has personal connections. Maybe you are attending trade shows, publicizing in trade magazines, advertising or charitable giving. All these things create a buzz which creates communication which creates trust which creates relationships.
These relationships are circles, they are not huge masses. Face Book business is about circles of trust in the business world. And as we emerge from this era of difficulty it will be these small trusting circles that will be the core of our businesses activities. The days of expensive mass digital marketing are coming to an end. Generating customers will be even more difficult than before, but keeping them will be easier as long as any business realizes that it is not about reaching anymore, it’s about connecting.
