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Posts Tagged Chad Wiesner

Entitled to our entitlements?

May 14

Posted by Chad in Chad Wiesner, Education | No Comments

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Chad Wiesner

Chad Wiesner

Having recently become self-employed as a sales and marketing advisor, I have learned how easy it was to take a steady salary for granted.  After 17 years working in the corporate world, a regular income with benefits was definitely earned but, I admit, sometimes taken for granted. Now don’t get me wrong, I have always counted myself among the lucky ones to have worked for companies that have enabled me to develop my career and grow professionally. I’ve learned a lot about how businesses work and the types of people it takes to make them successful.  For that education, I am very grateful.

As an entrepreneur, taking the risk to be self-sufficient and starting something new is, I believe, a commendable career path. I think many people today have either lost sight of, or just don’t have an appreciation for, the contribution that entrepreneurs of all types have made to our province and our country.  They are the backbone of our economy.

So, I must say that I was amused (and somewhat bewildered) to hear about a recent poll conducted among university students.  The poll revealed that the majority of students graduating expected to make at least $42,000 per year at their very first job, and within five years, expected to be in the $70,000 per year range. Those surveyed also expected to be promoted within a year and a half of accepting their first position. Most polled felt justified in their ambitious expectations as they feel they are entitled to the best jobs by virtue of the education costs they have incurred.  Sure, it’s great that these students are so ambitious, and no doubt they are well-educated. However, it does concern me that the majority feel entitled to rapid and lucrative advancement without feeling the need to gain more than a few years experience in the workforce. It also sends a message that many believe they can simply buy their way (via degrees) to success.   Education provides a critical foundation upon which one’s career is built, but it’s worrisome that so many graduates feel a sense of career entitlement based on that alone.

So, what does this mean really?  I think we need to question whether we are doing enough in our school and university systems to cultivate the skills and mindset required to cultivate a new generation of creative entrepreneurs.  In Nova Scotia, and the Maritimes in general,  students hear over and over that our huge public debt and high taxes are reason enough for them to cut bait and head West.  Our educators need to remind students that creativity comes from within and the education you gain, coupled with ambition to build a career here at home, can make a huge difference to our economy and our future.

So, to all those graduating students this month: forget your entitlements, take nothing for granted and get out there and start something new!  You won’t regret it.

Chad Wiesner

Chad has over 17 years of marketing and sales leadership experience with corporate management roles spanning the international export, credit information, manufacturing and telecommunications industries.  A collaborative entrepreneur by nature, Chad has successfully developed and executed strategic marketing plans pertaining to branding, communications, product development and sales for both small and large companies. His “real world” business acumen has taken him from the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies to the docks of multi-national seafood companies. With an eye for detail, Chad has crafted meaningful marketing strategies and communications plans that encompass the essence of the company and the customers it serves.

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Running on cruise control.

Mar 5

Posted by Chad in Chad Wiesner, Marketing Strategy, Sales | 3 Comments

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Why some mature businesses ignore marketing at their own peril

Chad Wiesner

Chad Wiesner

Have you ever dealt with a salesperson at a well-established company that just seemed to be from a bygone era? You know what I’m talking about…a nice enough individual, but just not overly engaged or knowledgeable about what’s new in the market or what the latest trends might be among his or her competitors. This individual is probably a long-serving employee and unfortunately embodies the tired culture of the organization. The company’s product or service is proven, the orders just tend to come in at a predictable rate and there seems to be a steady demand. Perhaps the owners have become complacent over the years and with a generally positive cash flow, there’s never been much of a need to look at things like brand marketing, sales strategy or product development. As a result, the business is essentially running itself and cruising along – completely oblivious to the dangers that may lie just around the next bend.

Wayne Gretzky once said “A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.”  In today’s business world, technology dictates who the winners are and who the losers will eventually be.  Businesses that neglect to re-evaluate their products, services and strategies on a regular basis are eventually doomed to failure, no matter how secure and comfortable things seem at present.  Companies have to plan for the future and develop strategies to deal with changing customer tastes and demands. One thing I’ve noticed over the years in my own corporate experience is that companies who embrace change and develop the necessary marketing strategies to take them forward, even though things are going along just great at present, are inevitably successful. The problem is, many business owners cannot get past the initial investment required to kickstart this process and many have a jaded view of what the actual return on their “marketing investment” will be. Truth is, not investing in marketing means that the business probably will never grow and when the ownership goes to sell the business, they may discover it isn’t worth as much as they had expected. That’s a hard reality to face after a lifetime’s work.

The good news is, it’s never too late to renew and re-position your business for the future!  A thoughtful marketing strategy should not be just about renewing the brand image or website, it should be a comprehensive exercise that involves every department. As I have mentioned in a previous Blog, a solid marketing strategy must be viewed as a strategic “roadmap” for your business which takes into account the various facets of  a business: sales, brand marketing, finance, customer service, production, engineering, research and development, etc.  Dialing these departments into the strategy requires active participation from employees. My experience has been that engaging people in any process creates a greater sense of team and accountability. In fact, some of the best new product ideas, processes and perspectives often come from your employees. Injecting new energy, an outside perspective and some “real-world” expertise into a mature business will further motivate your employees to reach farther and “get with the new program”. Plus, there’s a certain comfort to employees during difficult economic times when they see their company investing in the future. Investing in the future means jobs, financial security and prosperity in the community.

If you have any examples of how embracing change and developing a thoughtful marketing strategy has helped a well-established company build for the future, I’d love to hear about it.

Chad Wiesner

chad@phigroup.ca

Chad has over 17 years of marketing and sales leadership experience with corporate management roles spanning the international export, credit information, manufacturing and telecommunications industries.  A collaborative entrepreneur by nature, Chad has successfully developed and executed strategic marketing plans pertaining to branding, communications, product development and sales for both small and large companies. His “real world” business acumen has taken him from the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies to the docks of multi-national seafood companies. With an eye for detail, Chad has crafted meaningful marketing strategies and communications plans that encompass the essence of the company and the customers it serves.

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Outsource Your Marketing Department

Feb 15

Posted by Chad in Chad Wiesner, Marketing Strategy, Outsourcing | No Comments

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GrowthIn a recent conversation with a colleague of mine who owns a small business, he lamented the catch 22 situation of wanting to increase sales and his company’s market share while keeping overhead under control. Bottom line for him was adding a salesperson to pound the streets, or a telesales rep to “dial for dollars”, seemed the safest route to go. The problem is, he noted,  there just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day for him to help those salespeople develop a thoughtful sales strategy, let alone craft a comprehensive marketing strategy to guide the company beyond the next Quarter. Keeping customers satisfied, employees paid and servicing the company’s debt were his priorities. For owners of small businesses and start-ups in particular, this is a very common scenario.

I’m the first to concede that cash flow is king, sales are what makes a business move forward and puts money in the pockets of its shareholders. No doubt about it.  The reality is, however, that many business owners have never actually sat down to create a comprehensive business marketing strategy and their sales plans are generally the product of their own efforts in their chosen industry. While this will work for the short-term, long-term sustained growth becomes a challenge without a meaningful plan in place.

So, how can a small business owner gain the marketing support required and develop the necessary strategies to take his or her business to the next level?  The answer lies in “outsourced marketing.”

If your business doesn’t have the budget to hire a full time marketing  director, then outsourcing your marketing to a reputable firm that specializes in these services may be a viable alternative and will cost you much less than adding a new employee to your staff.

Need a new website, brand update or sales strategy advice?  Maybe you’ve been putting off getting that demonstration video put together, or you’ve been thinking about whether “social media” is right for your business?  By engaging a qualified outsourced marketing services firm, you gain access to a team of experienced sales, creative and management professionals that will work with your existing staff to develop and execute a marketing strategy that works for your company.  Essentially, they become your company’s Marketing Department.  This diversity of skills, capabilities and professional backgrounds gives your company access to a depth of knowledge and practical, “real world” advice you could never hire in just one individual.

So what are you waiting for?  Take your business to the next level!

Chad

chadw@phigroup.ca

Chad Wiesner

Chad has over 17 years of marketing and sales leadership experience with corporate management roles spanning the international export, credit information, manufacturing and telecommunications industries.  A collaborative entrepreneur by nature, Chad has successfully developed and executed strategic marketing plans pertaining to branding, communications, product development and sales for both small and large companies. His “real world” business acumen has taken him from the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies to the docks of multi-national seafood companies. With an eye for detail, Chad has crafted meaningful marketing strategies and communications plans that encompass the essence of the company and the customers it serves.

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Creating Emotional Connections With Inexpensive Web Video

Jan 22

Posted by Chad in Guest Blogger, Low Budget Advertising, Marketing Strategy, Social Media, Video Production, web video | No Comments

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Whatever your product or service, finding customers in a broad, cluttered market served by many competitors requires  more than a good website and brochure. It takes a lot of cold calling, relationship building…and, yes, sometimes sleepless nights and a little bit of luck too!

Fact is, to generate sustainable success, you’ve got to capture your customer’s attention by zeroing in on their specific product application or need, and then appeal directly to the points of pain associated with that product or process. In other words, you need to find an emotional connection and demonstrate clearly how your product will solve their concerns or inefficiencies.

In my years working in the foodservice equipment industry, I was responsible for marketing innovative equipment solutions that ultimately could provide operators with cost savings and a better quality product for their customers. The challenge was how do you convince a well-established, multi-national chain it should change the way it prepares its core product (in this case, beverages)?  Equipment is often viewed as a commodity and just another capital expense. To get a buy-in, an emotional connection was required where my product could address and demonstrate a solution to specific points of pain in their beverage preparation and delivery process.  However, demonstrating the product solution to all the decision makers, as well as the field operators,  would be a very expensive and time consuming exercise if we chose the “face to face” path. A fast, inexpensive way to reach the right people and communicate the most important points about my product, for a very specific product application, was what was required.

The solution was to develop a series of videos that demonstrated our product in action, solving a specific problem for a niche application.

The key to success here is that the videos need to be produced and delivered quickly to the customer, preferably shot in the customer’s environment for maximum effect, and they need to be short and to the point. The result? Instant demonstration of the product application in the customer’s environment that could easily be uploaded on the web or emailed to key decision makers. In fact, the process worked so well that the concept was expanded to include development of preventative maintenance and technical training videos. These videos were assembled into an easy to navigate, Flash-based user interface that enabled a customer to easily get the important information they needed about the product.

Similarly, in developing new market space for the MorSwift (www.morswift.com) morswift siterubber banding and bundling system, the challenge was to find a way to bring this innovative packaging solution to the attention of customers accustomed to using  traditional packaging methods.  Demonstrating the various niche applications for MorSwift would not only help the customer visualize how the banding system could fit into their production process, but also enables a way to communicate the key selling points of the system.  By developing short, cost-efficient videos with on-screen bullet pointsmorswift videos page (see http://www.morswift.com/videos.html),  then uploading these to the web, MorSwift is able to reach customers all over the world.  Rather than promote the MorSwift system as a broad, “packaging solution”, the company is able to use the videos to promote specific, niche product applications such as rubber banding of broccoli, crab, lobster, printed material, tools, etc.

It’s important to note that this is a dramatic change in approach to the traditional use of video where most applications of video are for broad strokes of image, company brand, and sales pitches.  Instead, the specific niche application for the product and related messaging is the focus of the video. Quick, to the point, in your face!

PHI Group can help you deliver creative, cost-effective and professional-looking product application videos that will knock the socks off of your customers!  The result?  Close sales faster by offering a more relevant, targeted sales pitch to your customers and reduce your travel and marketing expenses in the process.

For more examples of using video to promote your products and services, visit www.phigroup.ca

Please share with me your thoughts on this topic, I would like to hear from you.

Chad Wiesner (chadw@eastlink.ca)

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Re-Thinking Marketing Strategy

Dec 3

Posted by Chad in Chad Wiesner, Guest Blogger, Marketing Strategy | No Comments

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On the road

Building a successful Marketing Strategy is more than churning out a glossy brochure…it needs to be a living “Road Map”

Marketing guru Philip Kotler said “When marketing is very successful and people like the new product, word-of-mouth spreads fast and little selling is necessary.” This sounds simple enough, and is certainly the desire of probably every business owner. To have a product that takes off without investing boatloads of time and money into sales is a dream come true. The reality, of course, is that many businesses don’t necessarily understand what goes into building a successful marketing strategy and underestimate the required complexities and thought that needs to go into building such plans.

“Vision without action is daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.”- Japanese Proverb

Whether you’re a small or large business, your corporate business plan is likely doomed to failure in the long term without a solid marketing strategy.  The term “marketing strategy” is unfortunately often used as a blanket term that can have many different meanings and interpretations for different people: is it a brand plan? a sales strategy? an operations plan? a customer service plan? product development plan? market analysis?  The answer to all of these questions is a definitive “yes”.

A strong marketing strategy needs to be more than just a glossy brochure and a nice website.  What’s required is an understandable and executable plan that distils all this information into a strategy that the entire company – sales, marketing, engineering, operations, finance, etc. – can rally around and help move forward.  I prefer to call this strategy a “Road Map” for your business.  Your company’s Road Map should be a living, ever-improving and collaborative window on your business at any given time. A corporate Road Map, then, is more than just a marketing strategy, it is a comprehensive plan that engages your entire company.  A solid Road Map defines your corporate values and personality, it identifies you brand message and brand icons, but it also puts into play a “real world” action plan that accounts for the critical inputs that affect the “customer experience” across various departments of your company.

To effectively you tell your story and build a cohesive, memorable brand you need to deploy a team with “real world” corporate experience in helping build a solid Road Map for business growth, a Road Map that accounts for the daily realities of your company and your industry.  It’s a necessarily comprehensive process, but the end result will be well worth the effort!  I welcome your comments and discussions in the Road Map process.

Chad Wiesner

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