Anyone For Mini-Tennis?

Some time ago, whilst on a visit to the UK Tennis Training Academy
at Bisham Abbey, professional tennis coach Annette Smith was fascinated to see children as young as six rallying and playing matches using softer balls over lower nets on smaller courts. Inspired by what she saw, Annette returned home and hatched her business plan.

Everyone Can Play

Proudly featured on the show this week, Annette's Tennis 4kids is an inspiring tennis programme for children aged between 5 and 12. Designed by Annette to bring quality tennis to children of all abilities, through primary school tennis programmes, after school clubs and tennis camps. Tennis4kids is the ideal introduction to sport where every child experiences success at their own level and it's great fun too!

Upping The Game

Annette has a quality product but is competing heavily for her target audience of educators and group leaders. The challenge here is to confidently present Tennis 4kids as an 'out of box' solution that will excite and attract children to the game and at the same time, effortlessly slot into the school or community programme.

Over To You

How do you suggest Annette might attract more children (and teachers and parents) to her business? Listen back to the show on Kickstart Your Business and let us know what you think.

We'd love to hear from you.

Try To See It Your Way

You don't have to work with me for too long to know how much importance I place on seeing things from the point of view of your customer.

Simply put, I believe great brands always take the customer as their starting-point, as it helps them to meet their requirements much more effectively. But a recent chat with one of our clients has persuaded me of another great reason for getting to know your customer better: it can quickly rid you of any sense of entitlement. And a sense of entitlement is one of the great enemies to truly remarkable customer care.

I was reviewing customer research with Tomas Conefrey of Conefrey's Pharmacy in Dublin, and discussing the various strengths and weaknesses of his offer when compared with competing pharmacies in the area and seen from the point of view of his customer. Now this 'warts and all' exercise already demands a certain humility on the part of the business-owner. None of us likes to hear about the shortcomings in what we do. But Tomas took it a significant step further.

He remarked that it was only by looking at his own offer and those of his rivals from the far side of the counter that he'd started to truly appreciate why a customer might choose to buy from someone else. Previously, when a customer went somewhere else, he'd felt a little aggrieved or let-down, but putting himself in their shoes helped him to make sense of their choice. After all, if he wasn't offering them what they wanted, why wouldn't they go elsewhere?

His frankness prompted me to think back to my own recent experience, when a company in Galway that we were hoping to do business with chose a local brand-builder instead. Although I like to think of myself as magnanimous in defeat, my nose was immediately put out of joint when I got the news. Why hadn't they told us that being local was likely to count for more when they'd invited us to tender for the business? I found myself growing more and more annoyed that they'd made their choice on what seemed to me to be an unfair basis.

But when I put myself in their shoes as Tomas had done, I saw things differently. All other things being broadly equal, I'd prefer to do business with a local company too. It's much simpler after all. So why wouldn't they choose a neighbour, someone they could meet with easily and at short notice if required, maybe even known to them directly through a business network? They'd made the right choice for them, even if it was one that didn't suit me.

For our part, we'd simply failed to demonstrate any compelling reason to do business with us rather than a local firm. That wasn't their fault; it was ours. Next time, we needed to do better.

By stepping into the shoes of our customer, both Tomas and I saw the world differently, and were able to move past the sometimes self-absorbed point of view of the shop-keeper who sees things only from their side of the counter. Most importantly, we lost that sense of entitlement that can dog customer-care and send mixed messages to those making a choice as to what to buy.

When we recognise that our role in business is to help our customer make the right choice for them (rather than one that simply suits us) then it changes everything.

So step out from behind the shop-counter and onto the shop-floor. You'll see things better from there.

Branding Starts With The Customer

Having difficulty knowing where to start when it comes to branding? 

Here's my take on it from an article I wrote for The Hub on AllAboutBusiness.ie

My customers sometimes tell me that the thing they find most difficult about branding is knowing where to start. And I know exactly what they mean.

When we look at the big brands, the celebrity brands, the ones that make the headlines, it seems that they ooze a power and charisma that’s way beyond the reach of a mere mortal brand. Our own efforts can appear grey and mundane by comparison and we can despair of ever finding something remarkable to say about what it is we do for our customer.

But for most of us, life isn’t a glamorous whirl of parties and high society, and just as I don’t look to the celebrities of cinema and sport for clues on how to lead my own life, I don’t recommend that you look to celebrity brands for guidance on how to build your own brand.

Instead, I suggest that you start with your customer and the problems they face and work from there. All business begins when somebody has something to sell that solves a problem for someone else. This is the basis of your brand, the reason why a customer will choose what you have to offer over what’s for sale elsewhere. The purpose of a brand is to make this obvious to your customer, so that they naturally and easily choose you as their favourite supplier.

So the first question we must ask when we brand is: What problem does my product (or service) solve for someone else?

Too often, we don’t even get that far. We’re so proud of what we have to offer that we don’t bother to ask why that should matter enough to someone else that they would be prompted to pay for it. If we don’t make it obvious to our prospective customer that we will help them to fix something in their lives that’s broken, or replace something that’s missing, then our product won’t attract their attention or win them over.

When we make it clear what problem we fix for our customers, then we can go on to say how we do it in a way that’s better than how our competitors do it.

So how does this work in practice?

Say, for example, that you’re an accountant offering the usual mix of financial services. You’re surrounded by other accountants, most of whom have studied at the same institute as you and have the same qualifications. Now look at the situation from the point of view of the difficulty facing your prospective customer. Their problem is not in finding a suitably qualified accountant. They’re spoiled for choice. You’re going to have to work a little harder if you’re going to stand out from the crowd.

Say that you get talking to that prospective customer and you learn that they find meeting their accountant to review annual accounts a frustrating and demoralising experience. They tell you that this has nothing to do with the actual accounts, just the whole experience of looking at numbers that they don’t really understand.

For them, this is the real problem. It’s also an opportunity for you. You might determine that you will be an accountant who helps your customer get on top of the numbers. Now you have a real problem to fix for your customer and a real basis for branding, a reason why prospective customers might choose you over other accountants.

So when my customers tell me that they don’t know where to start when it comes to branding, I tell them to start at the very beginning. Start with your customer and ask them what problems they face in their lives. When you’ve identified a problem that you can help them fix, you have the basis for your brand.

Perfect Strangers

We're on holiday in France and earlier this week our neighbour spotted the tennis racquets we'd picked up for the kids and invited me to join him for a game at the nearby courts. Now, I'm no tennis-player, and thankfully what he had in mind was more of a knockabout than a real match of any sort.

We've spent the last few evenings sending the balls back and forth across the net in mostly companiable silence. We break it occasionally to congratulate when one of us hits an elegant or well-placed shot although those moments are rare and for the most part the game is played silently and in the slow-motion prompted by late afternoon heat (and not, of course, by advancing age). Nobody keeps score and that seems to suit both of us just fine although we didn’t come to any formal arrangement about it.

We did exchange names on the second evening but that’s as much as I know about my neighbour. His children have struck up friendships with mine and could probably tell me more about my new friend but I’m not especially curious. There’s something very relaxing about our impromptu game; if one of us spots the other on the terrace, we gesture towards the court and off we go. We play for an hour or so before one of us calls time, or is called for dinner. Even then, we don’t rush off but play a few last rounds just for the fun of it.

No appointments, no commitment. Perhaps it’s down in part to our limited grasp of one another’s language but I think it’s more about the lightness of a very loose and friendly, no-strings arrangement in a world that’s often very heavy on schedules, contracts and the synchronizing of watches.

Maybe as brand-owners too we can get too caught up on the idea of lifetime loyalties when sometimes our customers are simply looking for a light and friendly exchange of goods or services. Of course, it’s not just the game with my neighbour that works on an informal basis here on holidays. There’s something very refreshing about strolling down to the bakery for bread in the morning and being greeted with a friendly smile by someone I may never see again or haggling harmlessly with a street-vendor over some seaside trinket.

It seems to me as I bask here in the warm holiday glow that sometimes back at the brand-factory we’re too concerned with customer relationship management and elaborate loyalty schemes at the expense of a simple, uncomplicated and smiling exchange with an easy-come and easy-go customer.

For the next few weeks at least, I'm happy to enjoy the perfection of strangers.