I was clearing out some old paperwork recently and came across an Internal Memo dated 1st July 2005, that related to a BIG DAY EVENT TRAINING SEMINAR for business owners and managers. Our MD Julie and Operations Manager Carl, had attended. I was immediately struck by the fact that much of what was recorded in the notes, is as relevant now as it was 14 years ago.
Whilst many of the methods used to achieve business objectives have changed, some of them quite drastically, the objectives themselves and reasoning behind them, have changed very little. What has changed, is the way many objectives are now achieved.
For example, in 2004 Solar Solve was heavily into mailshots as its primary method of marketing to the global marine industry. Today we no longer send out mass mailshots and only on very rare occasions do we send out a small mailshot targeted at a specific sector.
Just like most other organisations, especially those that trade globally, Solar Solve’s marketing is achieved almost exclusively via the Internet and World Wide Web. It has opened up a vastly bigger audience of customers and prospects and quite literally, for our company, the results have been awesome.
Getting back to the memo; following are three of the statements made. Readers will probably identify with some of them and be doubtful or disagree with others, as I was. I still think they are worth mentioning after 14 years have passed since they were made.
1) You are in business to service your customers, not match your competitors’ price.
2) Leverage the value of your product to get the price you want.
3) Satisfied customers are worthless because they may not buy again and they may not recommend your product. However, loyal customers are priceless and the second order is the most important order. – I have never thought that our satisfied customers are worthless. At Solar Solve we have always tried to delight our customers anyway. We do have a significant database of loyal customers who we have traded with for decades and who always return to Solar Solve when they need our type of products. We do not take them for granted though and always make every effort to continue delighting them.
Every customer is important and appreciated by all of the Solar Solve Team.
JHL MBE SSL Co. Chairman
