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Personal Business Coach
Inspired Development and Coaching |
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Relationship Marketing, by Regis McKenna, Century Hutchinson, 1992
Although it is over 15 years since it was published, this remains a key management book and the principles McKenna presents so clearly and compellingly still have not, to their cost, been fully embraced by many organisations. His central argument is simple: successful companies must be willing and able to adapt their products and services to fit their customers’ needs”.
Mass marketing is history – technological advance and programmability has allowed mass customisation and greater choice for the customer. For McKenna, this accelerating trend must not simply be restricted to production and administration, the way organisations approach marketing and sales must change in exactly the same manner.
Collaborate with the customer – McKenna argues that “the old approach – getting an idea, conducting traditional market research, developing a product, testing the market and finally going to market – is slow, unresponsive and turf ridden”. It cannot “keep up with real customers’ wishes and demands or with the rigours of competition”. Instead, companies need to develop an infrastructure of suppliers, vendors, partners and users whose relationship will help sustain and support the company’s reputation and technological edge”. “It is a fundamental shift in the role and purpose of doing marketing: from manipulation of the customer to genuine customer involvement; from telling and selling to communicating and sharing knowledge.
Marketing is part of everybody’s job, from the receptionist to the board of directors – this means that it is a matter of building relationships with customers at all levels of the organisation. Rather than fighting for market share, organisations should either customise to satisfy specifically the identified needs of their customer base, or get close enough to their customers to be able to identify together new market gaps.
Customers are becoming immune to advertising – what they need is dialogue.
Your customers are your best developers – Because customer requirements and demands move so quickly and unpredictably, McKenna recommends partnering with a few key customers at the development phase and cites Microsoft as a company that has adopted this approach.
Leave others to chase market share – Rather than meeting competitors head on, McKenna suggests using closeness to and dialogue with customers to identify and create new markets. He uses Apple as his example here.
Adopt a market, not a marketing, driven approach – This means that, rather than relying on complex surveys and statistical analysis, companies should put more emphasis on dialogue with customers as the key mechanism for constantly modifying and adapting their offering.
You need to get out more! – McKenna stresses that all managers should get out and talk to customers on a regular basis and adds, “Marketing is too important to be left to marketing people”.
The salesperson as consultant – Sales people should no longer be product peddlers but knowledge professionals, the great differentiators for their products and the company. They should be the link between product design, the factory and the customer.
Pick away at larger companies markets one niche at a time – companies that are unusually close to their customers can capture and protect niches that give high returns.
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