7b661eef5adb458eba4b62d169ed468c

Using Your SWOT Analysis to Drive Your Market Research

Mon, 02 Mar 2020 21:06:17 GMT

Using Your SWOT Analysis to Drive Your Market Research

Now that you’ve already done the intensive work of conducting a SWOT analysis with your team—assessing your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats—you’ve probably got a lot of material to work with. Your SWOT analysis should give you a clear, comprehensive sense of your business’s internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as the external factors that represent possible opportunities and threats to your organization. Now what do you do with all this information? How does your SWOT analysis is inform the next market research campaign you take on?

Analyzing Your SWOT Results

As you fleshed out the four categories in your SWOT matrix, you probably began to recognize relationships between the items in its quadrants. Here are some questions worth asking yourself (and your team) to clarify the ways these four categories inform each other:

How can we act on our company’s strengths to maximize the business opportunities we identified?
How can we use the strengths we identified to combat or reduce the threats we described?
How can we overcome or minimize the weaknesses we identified so we can better use the opportunities we found?
How can we overcome or minimize the weaknesses we identified to avoid the threats we listed?
Will taking advantage of the opportunities we listed ultimately neutralize any of our threats ?
Can any of our strengths correct any of our weaknesses ?

Your initial answers to these questions don’t have to be complex, or even fully fleshed out (leave that to your market research). For now, you only need to recognize what you can utilize and draw on, and what needs to be minimized or avoided, in order for your business to be even more successful.

Once you’ve answered these questions, you’re in a position to prioritize which of these matters to tackle first in your market research. What you decide to prioritize will likely be based on some combination of:

1) the likelihood of it happening : you’re focusing on capitalizing on an opportunity or minimizing a threat

2) the feasibility of implementation : you’re focusing on utilizing a strength

3) a possible increase in profits : you discovered a viable solution

Translating a SWOT Analysis into Market Research Questions

For example, let’s look at a fictitious Japanese restaurant located in a seaside tourist town which used its SWOT analysis to inform its market research strategies. Naturally, your SWOT matrix will look different from the one below, but hopefully it will serve as a model for what it can look like when the results of a situation analysis are narrowed down, prioritized, and translated into a set of actionable questions you can use to research more.

SWOT Example

Note we didn’t include specific numbers here (e.g., the amount allocated for their advertising budget or the price differentiation from the competition) because we didn’t need them for this example. As you conduct your own SWOT analysis, you’ll want to include those details.

Now, let’s imagine how a strategic planning conversation around the restaurant’s SWOT analysis chart might unfold. First, the participants might realize there are some items on the matrix that can be improved with easy fixes. For example, perhaps someone is put in charge of researching and acquiring a straightforward and economical employee scheduling software platform, which takes care of the fact one of their listed weaknesses (the restaurant is “still scheduling shifts with pen and paper”).

Looking at the restaurant with a big-picture perspective, though, we see that it’s got a strong reputation (especially among tourists who pass through and give them rave reviews after), an outstanding product in their sake, and a fairly strong location thanks to out-of-town foot traffic. However, much of their business comes from tourists and there’s a concern about what that might mean with new competition opening up and a less-than-ideal parking situation.

On the other hand, the fact that the town is growing means the local population in town is increasing. Maybe some SWOT participants realize that, in catering to tourists, the restaurant hasn’t addressed the local population as well as they could. Maybe that means they should register to participate in the food fair listed under Opportunities. It would mean, after all, tapping into the local population the next town over. If they do well at the fair, those residents might be willing to make the 25-minute drive on a weekend to visit their new favorite Japanese restaurant.

But it also suggests that the restaurant needs to find other ways to strengthen and nurture its relationships with local residents—a population that perhaps cooks dinner at home to avoid evening tourism on Main Street. Perhaps they ask “how could we get local residents to try our food for the first time?” As you can see, their advertising budget isn’t great, so that avenue is closed. Looking over their SWOT, one participant points to that last item in Opportunities: “Potential for partnership with a catering service to work local events.”

Now the restaurant suddenly has a direction for its market research campaign. A whole set of questions suddenly arises: How financially viable (let alone profitable) could such an endeavor be? Is there even a market for Japanese event catering in this area? And what do they mean when they say “this area”? A 15-mile radius? 30? How many catered events even occur in “this area”? And on it goes.

Our restaurant would then have to create a strategy for answering these questions. They might begin by reading industry reports on the state of the catering business (yes, they’re out there). They’d learn about industry growth, forecasts, and average profitability. They could narrow their search to data such as payroll and profitability by state. They might then seek out catering companies within a 50-mile radius of their restaurant, learn about their prices, their profitability, what their marketing looks like, how busy their social media profiles are, whom they’ve catered for. Maybe they’d look through local newspaper archives and marriage records, or contact cultural organizations such as museums, opera houses, and places of worship to find out how many events (weddings, holiday celebrations, graduation parties, and so on) are held annually in their town.

If initial research suggests that a catering company might indeed be a successful endeavor, it’s then time for primary research. This might come in the form of a simple questionnaire handed out to customers, a more formal, in-depth survey sent out to local organizations who often host events, or even a focus group composed of local event planners who could advise the restaurant on what they look for when hiring a catering company.

As the restaurant moves forward in its research, the questions would get more detailed: what dishes would prospects want, what dietary restrictions should they prepare for, what would customers be willing to pay for additional services, and so on.

Post-SWOT Analysis Steps

Hopefully, this fictional SWOT example gives you an idea of what’s possible in creating your own action plan. Your own SWOT analysis will allow you to take the following four steps to ready yourself for research:

1. Define the problem you want your market research to solve. There’s a lot of information out there, and diving into the data without a clear objective is only going to overwhelm you. Knowing what you need to know and why you need to know it will keep your research on target. Our restaurant, for example, used one primary question to lead their market research: how profitable would it be to introduce a catering aspect to our already-thriving restaurant?

2. Form a hypothesis about what your market research will reveal. You may end up being way off, but that’s not the point. Forming a hypothesis will keep you actively engaged in the process. What will you do if your predictions are proven right? What consequences will it have for your business? What if you’re proven wrong? Do you have a back-up plan in case you’re taken by surprise?

3. Translate your question from a business problem into a research objective. Once you know what you want your research to accomplish, you’ll have to figure out how to obtain the data to accomplish it. Will you have to dig into public data like financial records and annual reports? Will you gather your own data from surveys, focus groups, and one-on-one interviews? What sources will best answer the question you have? What will your methodology be? How long will it take? What are the costs?

4. Determine your sample size. How many people will you need to hear from to have an accurate picture of what your target market wants? How many prospects would have to express an interest in a new feature or service to make further research worthwhile? Your sample size will depend upon many things, but it’s good to have this criteria set before the research begins. After all, you’ll need to know when it’s time to stop, so you can move forward with implementation.

Congratulations! You’ve got your market research question in hand. In the next section, we’ll dive into the details of competitor research—the strategies for gathering as much valuable information about your competitors as possible.

The Ultimate Guide to Sales Voicemails

183:792022565 (Jeff Ince) — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 18:07:04 GMT

The Ultimate Guide to Sales Voicemails

Around 97% of sales calls end up going to voicemail. This is discouraging as it leaves you with only a 3% window of opportunity to have a meaningful conversation with prospects.

Does this give you nothing to work with?

Well, the reality is brighter than you think. Voicemails open the doors to a new path and deliver results.

With a bit of research, and working with our most experienced account executives, we have put together the ultimate guide to sales voicemails.

The Importance of Salespeople Leaving Great Voicemails

(no, it’s not because you don’t have any other option!)

Let’s start with the three main reasons why leaving sales voicemails is important.

#1 — Don’t leave your phone, because voicemails lead to callbacks

According to Howard Brown, the CEO of Ringlead, every voicemail left increases the chances of getting a callback by 11%.

This shows that more attempts translate to success.

#2 — Leaving voicemails shows that you care about your prospects

Giving the right first impression is important when you contact prospects and not leaving a voicemail on your first call sends a negative message to your prospect that they aren’t important.

Leaving voicemails right from your first call sends a positive message to your prospect, showing them that they are important and you took the time and effort to reach out to them.

#3 — Leaving voicemails is standard practice

It is shocking that over 80% of salespeople still don’t leave voicemails!

You need to make six to seven phone calls (in actuality, the average is an underwhelming two times) before you stop contacting your prospects. So, it makes sense to leave them a voicemail and initiate the relationship.

The BIG section of DON’Ts when you leave voicemails

1. DON’T sell your product

Selling is your job and it might be tempting to pitch your product when you leave a voicemail, but hold back and don’t. Pitching on voicemail is one of the most common mistakes salespeople make.

Here’s one example of a voicemail script where a sales rep is evidently pushing the product:

" Hi Mary, this is James calling from Consultincey, I’m calling you today with an excellent offer from our company. For so many years, spreadsheets and other inferior products have occupied the contact management space. Today, we’re so proud to launch our product that breaks all barriers and lets salespeople just sell. Our product is called XCRM and…

Why this won’t work

A big reason why this will not work is that your prospects will stop listening as soon as you start talking about the “offer from our company.” The voicemail will go straight to the trash.

What can you do differently?

Instead of selling the product to your prospects, sell them a meeting. Catch their attention with what they are interested in and not what you need to sell.

" Hi Harry, this is Thomas from Consultincey. Did you know that over 70% of businesses never see the light of day because of poor contact management? I’d love to connect with you to give you more context on this. You can contact me at <phone number>. That’s <phone number>.

2. Prospects are not your better halves — you DON’T need to leave a heavy voicemail

Think about it, how often do you listen to a long voicemail from an unknown number? Like, almost never?

Exactly.

The same applies to your prospects. They don’t want to listen to voicemails that are overly long and one that goes past 30 seconds.

Why this won’t work

While long voicemails won’t work, your prospects are also unlikely to listen to a short voicemail. The trick is to find the right balance.

What can you do differently?

The optimum length for a sales voicemail has to be 10-20 seconds. Leaving a voicemail of this length instills a sense of curiosity and grabs attention without wasting your prospect’s time.

" Hey, Sam, how have you been doing? This is Thomas with Consultincey, Just checking in about a module you’ve been using currently. If you have any questions regarding it, I’ll be glad to help you. Connect with me at <phone number> or you can just respond to the email I’ll be sending you shortly. That’s <phone number>.

3. You have a small window of time to work with — DON’T talk about irrelevant information

It seems natural to leave a voicemail that has a structure that more often than not follows with you leaving your name and the company you work for.

Why this won’t work

Not sticking to short and crisp points will not entice the prospect. As soon as the prospect realizes the salesperson is lingering and not getting to the point, they will send the voicemail straight to the bin. Also, mentioning your name and company along with your product name multiple times will likely force the prospect to cut your voicemail short almost immediately.

What can you do differently?

In the voicemail, talk to the prospect by leading them with what is relevant and important to them.

" Hi Adam, this is Thomas from Consultincey, I hope you had a chance to go through the deck I shared with you after our previous conversation. If you have any questions or requests for implementation, call me at <phone number>. That’s <phone number>.

4. DON’T ZIP through your phone number — you know your number, your prospects don’t

It’s commonplace to rush through the things you know and are clear with. It’s a general human tendency. But just because you are clear with some information doesn’t mean that your prospect is as well.

Why this won’t work

Speeding through your contact information will force your prospect to listen to the voicemail twice. This also implies that you’ve been calling multiple prospects all day and gives off the impression to the prospect that they are just another name on a list.

What can you do differently?

Start with a normal tone, and by the time you get to your point and personal information, you should slow it down considerably. This method makes it more likely for prospects to finish listening to your voicemail.

5. DON’T sound desperate — you’ll sound pushy and downright anguished

It’s okay to assume that your prospect may not know anything about your product, but don’t make overblown claims or offers in an effort to make up for it.

Why this won’t work

You’ll basically come across as pushy, aggressive and desperate because you were assuming about a lot of things.

Take this sample, for instance:

" Hi, Kate. This is Paul with Consultincey, we’re running a campaign next week regarding our product and I’d love to have a salesperson in your area to give you more context. I’m eagerly looking forward to hearing from you. Kindly give me a call at your earliest convenience.

Here’s another sample of a voicemail, this time pushy and a bit aggressive:

" Hi Harry, this is Mike with Consultincey, we’re running this campaign I thought you’d be interested in. Call me back at <phone number> when you get this. I’m looking forward to hearing back from you.

What can you do differently?

Refrain from telling your prospect what to do. This will make the process of returning your call a chore or demand on their end. You want them to be interested to call you back, without a push.

Here’s an example of a voicemail where the caller doesn’t sound desperate.

" Hey, Adam. This is Tom from Consultincey, I just wanted to connect with you and let you know about a campaign we’re running next week that has already businesses accelerate sales by 20%. If you’d like to hear more about this, you can call me back at <phone number> or respond to the email I’ll be sending you shortly. That’s <phone number>.

Callback-Guaranteed Sales Voicemail Scripts

The Lever Method

What is it?

The lever method of leaving voicemails firmly establishes the fact that you know what you’re talking about and lets your prospects know that this isn’t just another cold call.

A lever voicemail usually contains information about the prospect’s company, relevant information, and some history you have in handling their requests.

Here’s a sample of a lever-based voicemail method:

" Hi, George. This is Thomas with Consultincey. I have been working closely with you and your team down at <company name> for the last year and a half. I have something really interesting that has just come across my desk, George, and I’d appreciate it if we can chat briefly. Please reach me at <phone number>. Again, this is Thomas with Freshworks at <phone number>.

Note that the lever in this voicemail is the history involved between you and the prospect you are calling.

The ‘Instilling Mystery’ Method

This voicemail strategy plays well to instill a sense of fear of missing out (FOMO) on something that is potentially important.

Here’s a sample of an ‘instilling mystery’ voicemail:

" Hi George, this is Thomas at <phone number>. That’s <phone number>.

Notice the subtle beauty with leaving a voicemail like this. It gives nothing away. No company name, no product name; simply nothing. What’s also great about leaving a mysterious voicemail is that it’s short and can be left to multiple prospects in a short span of time.

At the end of leaving a voicemail that follows this strategy, your prospects will be asking themselves the following questions:

Why has this person called?
What could this call be regarding?
What if this is a potentially important call?
What if I don’t call back and it backfires?

And eventually, you will get a callback.

‘Presenting a Value’ Method

Why should your prospects call you back when you leave a voicemail? What’s in it for them?

Add some value in the voicemail message you leave your prospects. This could be about saving them valuable time in doing something or saving some money. It’s all about making something easier or better for them.

But this contradicts something I spoke about before—don’t pitch the product. And this method definitely looms around becoming something like that. But hey, you can limit its use to existing customers.

The ‘Urgent’ Voicemail

Creating urgency in the voicemail you leave can increase the chances of your prospects calling you back.

You can create urgency in any form, but it has to be real and valuable. You can’t tell a prospect that their trial period has expired way before it actually does. This creates a sense of urgency only to eventually annoy your prospects.

The Combo Method

Once you’ve mastered these four key voicemail strategies, you can combine any two.

Here’s a sample of the ‘Lever + Instilling Value’ method:

" Hi, George. This is Thomas with Consultincey, I have been working closely with you and your team down at XX Inc for the last year and a half. Something has just come across my desk, George, that has already helped teams in similar companies experience a 20% growth in sales . Again, this is Thomas with Consultincey and you can reach me at <phone number>.

Ways to Leave the Perfect Voicemail — A Strategy to Perfect It

Now that you’ve understood the various types of sales strategies for voicemails, what you shouldn’t be doing, and why voicemails are important, here are some tips on how you can perfect your voicemails.

Follow a trial-and-error method and pick the voicemail strategy that you are most comfortable with and add your own take on it. Do this multiple times to find the perfect voicemail script you can follow and record yourself while doing it.
Every time you are posed with a ‘beep’ tone, try and stick to one voicemail type a day and leave a message along these lines every time. Listen to recordings of each voicemail iteration and assess yourself. Then, pick the best one of the lot and try sticking to this type when you leave voicemails.
Record multiple voicemails. Lots of Cloud-PBX solutions allow you to record preset voicemails so that you don’t have to manually leave one every time. This allows you to mix and match seamlessly.
Be ready to get call-backs. You’re not done once you leave a voicemail, right? You need to be ready to talk to your prospects once they call you back. So be prepared to get right into the conversation.

What are the Optimal Channels in Customer support?

183:792022565 (Jeff Ince) — Sun, 26 Jan 2020 17:08:54 GMT

Improve the way you support your customers

15 years ago, your customers wouldn’t write or call to seek support; it was too much of an effort. But now? There is Twitter, Facebook, email, phone and more. With the rise of new channels in customer support, businesses are struggling to keep up.

In order to provide effective customer support, businesses need to identify channels that are optimal for their business By doing so, they can ensure they are present where their customers are.

However, the buck doesn’t stop there. Businesses should not only provide support across channels but should also be able to deliver a unified support experience. In order to do that, customer support agents need context. Something that you can achieve with Omnichannel support.

Make the most of the season by following these simple guidelines

websitebuilder@1and1.de — Sun, 26 Jan 2020 17:00:26 GMT

The new season is a great reason to make and keep resolutions. Whether it’s eating well or cleaning out the garage, here are some tips for making and keeping resolutions.

Make a list

Lists are great ways to stay on track. Write down some big things you want to accomplish and some smaller things, too.

Check the list regularly

Don’t forget to check in and see how you’re doing. Just because you don’t achieve the big goals right away doesn’t mean you’re not making progress.

Reward yourself

When you succeed in achieving a goal, be it a big one or a small one, make sure to pat yourself on the back.

Think positively

Positive thinking is a major factor in success. So instead of mulling over things that didn’t go quite right, remind yourself of things that did.

Keep in touch with site visitors and boost loyalty

websitebuilder@1and1.de — Sun, 26 Jan 2020 17:00:25 GMT

There are so many good reasons to communicate with site visitors. Tell them about sales and new products or update them with tips and information.

Here are some reasons to make blogging part of your regular routine.

Blogging is an easy way to engage with site visitors

Writing a blog post is easy once you get the hang of it. Posts don’t need to be long or complicated. Just write about what you know and do your best to write well.

Show customers your personality

When you write a blog post, you can really let your personality shine through. This can be a great tool for showing your distinct personality.

Blogging is a terrific form of communication

Blogs are a great communication tool. They tend to be longer than social media posts, which gives you plenty of space for sharing insights, handy tips and more.

It’s a great way to support and boost SEO

Search engines like sites that regularly post fresh content and a blog is a great way of doing this. With relevant metadata for every post so search engines can find your content.

Drive traffic to your site

Every time you add a new post, people who have subscribed to it will have a reason to come back to your site. If the post is a good read, they’ll share it with others, bringing even more traffic!

Blogging is free

Maintaining a blog on your site is absolutely free. You can hire bloggers if you like or assign regularly blogging tasks to everyone in your company.

A natural way to build your brand

A blog is a wonderful way to build your brand’s distinct voice. Write about issues that are related to your industry and your customers.

Tips for writing great posts that increase your site traffic

websitebuilder@1and1.de — Sun, 26 Jan 2020 17:00:25 GMT

Write about something you know. If you don’t know much about a specific topic that will interest your readers, invite an expert to write about it.

Speak to your audience

You know your audience better than anyone else, so keep them in mind as you write your blog posts. Write about things they care about. If you have a company Facebook page, look here to find topics to write about

Take a few moments to plan your post

Once you have a great idea for a post, write the first draft. Some people like to start with the title and then work on the paragraphs. Other people like to start with subtitles and go from there. Choose the method that works for you.

Don’t forget to add images

Be sure to include a few high-quality images in your blog. Images break up the text and make it more readable. They can also convey emotions or ideas that are hard to put into words.

Edit carefully before posting

Once you’re happy with the text, put it aside for a day or two, and then re-read it. You’ll probably find a few things you want to add and a couple more that you want to remove. Have a friend or colleague look it over to make sure there are no mistakes. When your post is error-free, set it up in your blog and publish.