Business promises | customer votes

Is it not politically correct to deliver on your promises

I like many others continue to be
frustrated, no, angry with the never ending stream of promises made by
organiastions that never materialise and politics is one of the worst
breeding grounds for this disease. In fact on BBC radio there was
a discussion this morning on a similar topic to determine what the
point of having politicians really is. I believe we need a complete
restructure or overhaul of the system, but that is a whole different
topic by itself.

So, whatâ€™s this got to do with sales and marketing. Well, when
election time comes around its the job of the political parties
competing for office to set policies and sell and market themselves
to win our votes.

They scrabble around trying to find out what is concerning us all
(apart from the political system itself) and then cobble together their
policies in an attempt to address these issues, which we all know
either get no better or continue to worsen (or thats how it appears to
most of us).

When faced with no clear winners your approach to the voting
booth can consume you in a feeling of emptiness, which leads to
paralysis of the penâ€¦..where do you put the cross ?â€¦..maybe the party
least likely to get in or the one fighting for that single great cause.

Exciting, compelling and involving it is not. With falling voting
figures and a general dislike by the population of political parties
and politicians it is no wonder that people have no interest or care to
vote or involve themselves in the process.

Well the same can be said about business. When expectations are set
high and the delivery low it should come as no surprise when customers
stop buying or times get hard, unfortunately this lesson never seems to
be learned.

Just because your a big company or have a captured market does not
mean that you should stopping focusing on your delivery. Winning
customers is hard enough, but losing them and failing to deliver is a
crime, as the damage is considerable.

Not only are they 10 times harder to win over again but they become
an agent acting against the organisation and with the increase in speed
and power of communication (just like bloggs such as this one) the
results can be disasterous in the long term.

Yes, its much harder to cover it up.

Recently Cardburys experienced a problem with the quality of their
products. It turns out that this has happened before and its now
stopping people buying and will continue to affect their brand.

Having great sales and marketing operations will never be a
substitute for a sub standard product or service. Yes a strong brand
will enable you to ride out this nasty problems, but not for ever.

Monopolies, such as the big communication companies will continue to
loose customers in their droves as poor service levels and new
technologies make it easier for people to choose alternatives.

Even the banks have recognised some of this in recent years and are
now back out there meeting and greeting people after that terrible
battery hen approach to customer service which destroyed all cusomer
loyalty, and gues what, they are finding it hard.

The answer is simple, you need to keep innovating and keep being
creative, your products, the experience of dealing with your company
and your sales and marketing operations should continue to evolve while
supporting the principals of what your business does.

Marketing and innovation make moneyâ€¦..everything else is a cost!