Why Are Key Success Factors So Important For Business Success

Welcome Back For 2015

Hello again everyone and a very happy new year to you all as we usher in 2015 in what will undoubtedly be a very dynamic and interesting year in marketing and social media.

And to kick us off for January you may remember a while back I wrote a blog post on the key criteria for determining how you accurately establish which potential market segment or segments are the most viable for you and your business, as an important preface to choosing which segments your business will or won't target.

Segment First

Once the business has decided what criteria they wish to segment the market with as detailed in an earlier post but most commonly including some combination of the following dimensions:

1. Demographic
2. Geographic
3. Psychographic
4. Behavioural

From there, specific and defined smaller market segments will emerge and can be individually evaluated on the basis of the Key Success Factors (KSF's).

Key Success Factors

Key (or as it's also sometimes referred to as Critical) Success Factors are those factors that the business deems critical to achieve to be able to be viable within any particular market space to be able to effectively position your brand, consistently meet customer needs, cope with competitive brands, whilst always running efficiently enough to make the whole process economically viable and ultimately profitable. It is not an easy process and may explain why around eighty percent of start-up businesses fail within the first five years of starting business operations.

Examples of KSF's

There are many common examples of widely used KSF's in business that can relate to multiple markets that include but are not limited to:

• Availability to funding or lines of credit
• Expertise and specific skill sets
• Ability to bring in additional employees
• Access to multi skilled employees that can perform multiple roles
• Access to additional warehousing space
• Ability to apply and receive council permits
• Eligibility for government grants and support schemes
•  Ability to leverage economies of scale
• Potential to form strategic alliances with complementary businesses and brands
• Expertise in cost minimisation, debt collection and short terms of payment
• The ability to effectively differentiate the businesses product and positioning
• Sales expertise that can effectively drive qualified sales leads and top line sales
  
  
  

  The Matching Process

  The final step naturally will be  simply a process of objectively matching the compatibility of what each segment requires a business to have and or do to what it has or can get, to see how viable that market slice is for that organisation.  Additionally specific KPI's can then be formulated to ensure that the business continues to achieve necessary standards over time in each of these critical performance areas which again will help maintain long term success.
  
  There is a full and detailed explanation of this process also provided on the Dan & Matt video series of twelve workshops that fully explores the subtleties and nuances of the process in greater detail and can be obtained online at:
  www.danandmatt.com 
  
  
  You will be able to get the full program beautifully packaged with a genuine 30 day money back guarantee if the program does not fully meet your needs.
  
  
  So until next time everyone, good luck and good marketing.
  
  
  Regards,
  Daniele.
  
  

Creating Wow Factor Means Going Beyond

Like so many other intangibles Wow Factor is difficult to define, identify and certainly quantify. But one thing that is certain is that we all know and recognise it when we see it. What is wow factor and how do we create it in the minds of our target audience, customers and prospects alike?

In simple terms, wow factor is when someone's expectations are not only achieved but significantly surpassed. As a consumer of many products and services I can honestly say that I rarely if ever see a genuine wow factor, but when I do I rave about it.

Recently I was doing an intrastate trip for business where I was due to give a presentation to a group in Portland and drove for several hours to arrive by 6pm with the scheduled starting time being 7.30pm.

On arriving I drove into the hotel I was staying at that thankfully was also the venue for the nights presentation, and on leaving the car noticed how incredibly dirty it had become through the trip and how I would need to find a car wash in the morning before starting my 6 hour journey home or else risk being stopped and fined by the police for driving an unroadworthy car. Annoying but for now I couldn't do anything about it, so I put it out of my mind and continued to prepare and focus on the workshop that I needed to deliver in an hour or so.

The next morning after having successfully negotiated the workshop the night before I went to my car and was amazed to find it clean. Under the window whipper there was a small printed note saying,
" The Management and Staff at the Premier Inn would like to express their appreciation for you staying with us and would like you to please accept this small gesture of appreciation in the hope that you have a safe trip back home." Wow Factor.

Incredible a business that is overtly interested in me and my needs, that have nothing to do with my hotel room, meals and costs me no extra.

Think about it for a while. What additional product (good and / or service) can you potentially offer to the mix to add this type can you add to your existing mix to generate this type of goodwill and excitement. There are probably plenty and all it needs is a little extra thought. And please by all means let's hear about some of your new ideas to generate some thoughts that may help others as well.

Until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Regards

Daniele.

Big Winner and Loser for 2011

As 2011 quickly comes to an end, it is perhaps a good time to look back and ponder who the big winner and losers are for the year.

Although there were many incredible successes for 2011 I think it would be difficult to go past Google as a worthy winner.

Google continued to refine and develop all its existing products, and significantly brought out Google + where it now legitimately has a product that can in the not too distant future, rival Facebook as the worlds leading social networking site.

Through this the value of perseverance was also highlighted as Google learned from earlier mistakes and brought out a quality alternative with some true aspects of differentiation and genuine business insight.

That is not to say that the product is complete. Far from it there is still a long way for Google to to in refining its platform such as allowing businesses to generate vanity URL's for their business pages as seen on Facebook.No doubt this and other refinements will come in the not too distant future. Suffice to say Google + is an enormous achievement and worthy of your attention.

The biggest loser on the other hand (on a more abstract level), is all of us collectively with the death of Steve Jobs and the loss of one of the worlds great developers and pioneers.

It is now well known that Apple were all but broke after Jobs left the firm, and were it
not for his timely return to the firm, Apple would today would almost certainly be gone.

So the baton for its future success now passes to others that must sure that the iPhone 5, The iPad 3 and all the other cascade of products continues at the cutting edge of computer and IT standards.

What about you. Who would you nominate for the best and the worst of 2911?

And as 2011 quickly draws to a close, let me say a Happy New Year to you all and until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Census Data Provides A Rare Opportunity For Perfect Demographic Data

Rarely are we in a better position than right now as marketers to be able to be more certain about the specific potential size of any target market locally based on either demographics or psychographics. This is of course because of the recently conducted statistical, national census.

We all know how difficult it is to be sure about the data that we base our decision making on, but for now at least we all have access to an almost perfect representation of the national profile.

Incredibly when I ask students and clients about how they go about breaking down their market and validating segment sizes and attitudinal and behavioural data, rarely if ever do people respond with the answer that I'm looking for. Namely "I call the ABS and purchase the latest report".

For the record not only is this data incredibly current and accurate, but concurrently incredibly inexpensive and oozing with information that properly used will deliver true insight about your target audience, who they are, where they live, how much they earn, etc., etc.

It goes without saying that the more time passes the older the data will get and yes, potentially inaccurate. But for now it is the real Mc Coy.
So don't wait, don't hesitate. Either call the ABS or visit them on their website (www.abs.gov.au) and search out all the incredible data that may very well lead you to better defining your audience and what USP you may be in a position to offer them that others can't.

Let's hear how you go. And until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Daniele.

The Single Biggest Mistake In Social Media Marketing Continues to be the Hard Sell

Social media continues to undergo change and development at a staggering rate.
However despite the dynamic nature of this medium the biggest mistake that continues to be made by marketers is the unfailing desire to sell their product.

Message to the uninitiated, Social media is not about selling its about being part of a community of individuals with a common passion, problem or defined need.

Once this community is established and attracts members, the members gain currency within the group be ongoing involvement and engagement.

People's expectation is not to be sold to but given information, support, empathy whilst providing appropriate content as needed.

Over time as you gain standing within your community the opportunities will eventually arrive where as part of a balanced discussion and solution you will earn the right to provide a possible solution and redirect the discussion away from a communal platform to a commercially based location such as a corporate website or fan page with commercial service capabilities.

A balanced approach for example may include ten blog posts with another directly providing an offer for a commercial product or service, given that it is an effective option to meeting some aspect of the person's unmet need.

Social media is about being social, otherwise it would be called business media marketing.

Don't make the same mistake that so many others make. Contribute, care provide content and eventually were appropriate, commercialise your wares.

What other mistakes do you see people making with their social media marketing?

Until next time, good marketing and good luck.

Daniele.

Marketing Metrics: Should 'The Bottom Line' Be The Real Bottom Line

In recent times I seem to have had several discussions on metrics with different people.
Why do we need them, which are the ones most people use,  are some more appropriate based on the  different stages stages in the sales process, and so on. All good questions to be sure.

Interestingly in every case I have found that each of these individuals were most focus on the proverbial bottom line as a definitive metric  to measure the success or failure of their social media and electronic campaigns. No problem there you say. True but consider this.

Despite the fact that the lifeblood of any business is it's ability to earn, sustain and grow its profitability over time, at any given point this level of profit is a historical marker that granted is the ultimate metric for what has happened to this point.  However there is a more dynamic and predictive marker for future profitability i.e. satisfaction.

How satisfied are your clients, customers, patients, key accounts or members?

Quite conceivably your profits especially during the launch, re-branding or  restructuring phases may be modest and tracking below budget, however if your client base is genuinely satisfied and pleased with your work, there is a tremendous capacity to leverage this goodwill to drive future sales.

Despite its obvious importance to few businesses (and especially SME's  routinely benchmark, set goals for and measure the level of satisfaction within their most important resource. Their customers.
 Please don't also make that mistake. Until next time.
Good marketing and good luck.

Welcome to: The Road Scholars Marketing Blog

Hello my name is Daniele Lima and I am the founder and Managing Director of Road Scholars Marketing and Strategic Consultancy (Website: www.roadscholarstraining.com ).

As part of our desire to add additional value for all our clients and followers in general, we are starting our new blog which will periodically update on all things marketing, sales and business.

Feel free to join our group and follow our updates as we try to keep you apprised of the main changes in the global marketing picture. Please also forward the posts on to anyone you think may enjoy or also benefit from them.

Best Wishes
Daniele Lima