Posts by Alastair Thompson
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Oh dear mucked that post right up.. * memo to self * always use preview before posting.
Lets try again.
-
ANNOUNCEMENT.....
Chapter 2 of this exercise has been kicked off http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1685,speaker_surviving_small_ii_changing_process.sm in a thread started by Rod Drury - CLICK HERE
You are of course also welcome to keep talking here also.
Alastair
-
David
I think that it illustrates a point - everybody is looking for solutions and so perhaps the we can take some lessons from that. This is the approach we have been taking to sales.
1. Make the calls - your clients are interested in hearing from you - and it cannot hurt to talk to them
2. Offer to help them, find out more about their issues and offer solutions.
3. Its competitive and if you are to succeed with keeping clients and/or expanding their spend you will need to offer somethig more.al
-
Well thats interesting Mark (and advertising sales is not at all like you imagine Andrew - thats what I thought corporate training was all about :)
This bit of your post left me wondering if you could expand a little more mark as it is very much what we have been doing too. I wonder how universal the experience is.
2. make sure we are bringing in every sale we can.
We are innovating in our approach to our customers and becoming more customer focussed; we are opening up new revenue opportunities; we are cutting deals;
...
the issue we're facing is in convincing those advertisers who recognise the need to continue marketing work to get the business that is still out there that we are the best vehicle.
Basically as we continue to chase the sales in this environment we have been finding it necessary/beneficial to get much more personal and close to our clients. I guess that we are facing an environment where everybody is triple checking every piece of expenditure and everything needs to make full sense - not just possibly be a good idea.
I would be interested if you could expand a little on what you mean by "cutting deals" and see if its the same thing that I mean (without giving away commerical secrets obviously).
al
-
Mark,
Your experience and strategies being employed is eerily familiar.
What are your magazine titles?
And while we are on the subject - what aspect of the advertising business are you in Andrew?
-
Back on the subject of news about the union movement.
We carry lots of it on Scoop.
Just thought I would mention that.
http://search.scoop.co.nz/search?to=Unions&sort_by=relevance&q=unions
Admittedly its not really news - just statements from unions - but its something.
-
Further to my above possibly intemperate remarks about bank lending to small businesses. It seems that Fed Farmers' Connor English was also kind of unimpressed with Mr Bagrie's remarks.
Banks Should be Clear on Govt. Guarantees costs
Banks need to be clear about which guarantee they are talking about and what it costs when they say it is a reason for higher interest rates than otherwise, Conor English, CEO of Federated Farmers said tonight.
This follows an interview on tonight’s TV One Close Up program when a senior bank economist gave the government guarantee as a reason for higher interest rates than otherwise would be the case.
“Banks should be clear – there are two guarantees, and for our main banks the costs may not be as great as some may think.
“The first is the “deposit guarantee” for depositors into New Zealand banks. It guarantees that people will get their money back from the bank if the bank gets into trouble. Depending on weather the organisation seeking the guarantee is a bank or not and its credit rating the charge for this varies, staring at 10 basis points. (details http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/finstab/3463154.html)
“The second guarantee is called the “wholesale guarantee”. This guarantees overseas banks who lend money to New Zealand based banks who then lend this money out in mortgages or overdrafts to New Zealanders. This is done on a case by case basis. To date we understand that only one bank has actually utilised this guarantee for about NZD $180 million. The cost of this guarantee again depends on the organisation and its credit rating and starts at 85 basis points.
Meanwhile the news from ASB about its 5% job protection $1 billion lending fund certainly seems a positive development.
-
Ok... one suggestion apply some truth serum to Cameron Bagrie. He just explained that we need to pay higher interest rates that aussies because our economy is in worse shape. Its an interesting theory - blame the victim.
I would encourage small businesses to move their banking to Kiwibank and lobby the Government to push the bank to provide realistically priced credit. Unfortunately Kiwibank is very credit risk averse and is not altogether friendly to small businesses as I understand things.
-
Just watching closeup. Seems like finally there is some pressure coming onto the big banks to lower small business lending rates.
-
Al: Did you find a problem with clients? Did anyone not take you seriously because you were working out of your house?
Not really. But I suspect that is a bit of a function of the business we are in. Our clients did not as a rule come to visit our premises and mostly they do not do so even now. We are not a consultancy. That said I imagine that many clients in the current environment may be pleased to see that they are not having to pay to cover huge overheads.