Business Innovation in a downturn in 2009

Afternoon all,

It seems my writing style/ability has surprised some people who should know better - so looks like this blog is creating a discussion of sorts - hopefully it will move so that people actually post their comments on this site.

OK, today's subject matter is that of partnering up in a commercial sense. In these times of so called economic gloom all companies (large or small) need to look at how they can make a difference to their bottom line.

Whether this is looking at costs or income, the facts are the same - everyone needs to be innovative in terms of looking after their business. Some companies will cut costs, others will increase spend, some might look at alternative ways of reaching their audience (social media being the topical case in point) but the key question is which way is the best way.

If you take the old perceived wisdom of

1. identifying your targets,
   
2. running a specific campaign,
   
3. measuring the impact of that campaign
4. then following up the leads
5. and push for sale

then it seems like a lot of wasted effort to hit that magical 1% of target that will result in a sale. The new way seems to suggest embrace your network, grow your network and see where it leads - which to many is an equal waste of time.

However if you really step back and think about it, it is exactly how most humans behave anyway. Imagine that you are a parent wondering which school to send your beloved child to - how do you go about that, well I'd suggest that you will probably

1. Ask friends and locals about the best schools
2. Check Ofstead reports / league tables (to either confirm what's been said or to create a list of possibles)
   
3. Do some online research (starting with Google probably)
4. Read school / local authority literature/websites
   

Not much different to the on-line world - or asking your network for a recommendation, if they have none doing an on-line search, and that fails then responding to any advertising / links you come across.

So what does innovation in a recession mean?

1. Firstly it is about a new considered relationship with your potential clients - especially if you think that 4 years ago YouTube, Facebook, Flickr & Twitter didn't exist, and that Twitter is growing 40% week on week.
   
   
2. The sales funnel is now different, it is about
   

• Creating Content (Content is King!)
• Generating Conversations
• Converting to Exchanges
• Meaning new trusted relationships

To me, this means looking at extending your business network as wide and as far as possible - as you never really know who finds you interesting, or indeed who you might surprise with your ability to write.

It means generating as much relevant content as possible (stories, PR, Tweets, Blogs etc) and having as many face to face conversations as poss. This might mean forming informal relationships with people/companies - for instance a client of ours has started pushing events, the events company rang me to see if I wanted to attend, we spoke (got on) and I spoke about how bad their site was. The person then suggested I put that in writing - which I did. This led not to doing the events site, but a very high profile charity site for the MD's famous friend.

Another innovation is to ensure people can find you - when did you last Google your own name?

Finally, and this I think is the interesting element - find like minded companies and huddle together - its warmer in the cold if you huddle. We are looking at formalising some company relationships - so that we create more opportunities to have that face to face conversation, as well as making our offering stronger and perhaps most importantly being able to offer your clients a solution that they might need - as per the MD's famous friend.

Next question is how do you manage all those relationships effectively - don't know the answer to that yet, but that's where one of you can contribute and initiate your own content.

Hope that made sense

Tony