In addition to running a marketing
agency, I also do quite a lot of training and coaching work. One of the
projects I have been working on recently involves delivering training courses
for unemployed people in marketing, market research and customer service.
The photo above was taken at a
full-day training course I delivered this week in Hull. I was training a
fantastic bunch of people who are all currently unemployed, but are keen to
start their own business. It was a really mixed group of budding entrepreneurs.
For example, one of them hopes to start a business selling sweets. Another one
wants to sell Lego and other collectable items online. There was also a building
maintenance expert, a children’s party organiser, and a fantastic photographer
who specialises in photographing new born babies.
I do these type of full-day courses on
a regular basis, and I always make a point of incorporating a large section
about customer loyalty and customer retention, because I feel it is very badly
neglected by most mainstream marketing trainers.
I think part of the problem is that
many people who deliver marketing training and consultancy aren’t really ‘marketing’
experts at all. At least not in the way that I understand marketing. And many
of them, quite frankly, aren’t very good trainers, and just see the work as a ‘nice
little earner’.
I have met with many people over the
years that do consultancy, coaching, mentoring and training around marketing.
Sadly, many of them are former sales people who have a very non-strategic
approach to marketing, which is really just glorified ‘selling’ with a bit of
academic theory thrown in, just to make it look like they are ‘marketers’.
A true marketing expert will
understand the strategic basis behind marketing, and how it fits into the
overall company vision and long-term corporate plans. They will understand that
not only do you need to win new customers, but you also have to play the ‘long
game’ and implement strategies to KEEP the customers that you have already got.
Before you decide to hold a marketing training
session for your own staff, I strongly advise you to check out the credentials
of the person doing the training. Are they really true ‘marketers’ or just glorified
sales people? Do they have qualifications in marketing (for example from the
Chartered Institute of Marketing)?
Are they experienced trainers, and do
they have a recognised qualification in teaching and/or training? Do they
understand business strategy and how to apply accepted strategic models to business
planning? And have they got experience of setting up and running their own
business (there is a massive difference between doing marketing for someone
else’s company, and in setting up your own company and making it genuinely successful).
Always ask these questions first,
before you waste your valuable training budget on charlatans and people who don’t
understand the true strategic basis of marketing, and the crucial importance of customer
service and customer loyalty.
………………………………………………
Darren Bugg
is a marketing and customer service expert with 30 years’ experience working in
this field. He holds a Masters Degree in Marketing and Innovation, in which he
specialised in the subject of customer loyalty. He also holds an accredited qualification in teaching and training. His new book ‘The Loyalty Gap’ will be published in the Autumn.
To see hundreds more articles visit our archive by clicking here
To see hundreds more articles visit our archive by clicking here