Friday 27 January 2012

A picture paints a thousand words – even my words.

At last, my National Geographic subscription arrived (Christmas gift to self) and I was able to thumb its inspiring pages. No page was more provoking than that portraying the art of Jason deCaires Taylor, an artist, diver and photographer based in Mexico.

He uses the clear tropical waters as the backdrop for installation art exhibiting life size sculptures of ‘real people performing contemporary acts’.

The figures are cast from coral-friendly pH-neutral marine concrete, which soon host sponges and corals in turn attracting fish and colourfully assorted symbiosis of sea life.

Art is a multi-dimensional expression of feeling, emotion and service.

Service?

Yes, why not - service?

Why shouldn’t business communication tug at the human side of your client’s make up?

A procurement department sits all day tasked to source sustainably effective dip moulded plastic caps and sleeves, solutions for masking and protecting components in finishing.

Board Directors meet to consider financially and tax efficient solutions to build and protect their collective and individual wealth.

Architects and building groups are looking for build partners to effect roofing strategies across their development programmes.

But they are all ‘people’. So why don’t we treat them as such and write more personality into our CRM – our business communication strategy. Write to set yourself apart from the hungry competition.



Take this blog for example. Baited with a sickening headline, pictures of fish, an SEO-friendly video – and a few well chosen words (that is what I do after all), and I have a simple excuse to re-canvass my database.

The blog is like a crossbow bolt to fire by e-mail across the desks of those I hope to do business with, if not now, then at some time in the future. I sincerely hope that includes you.


Please call me - 02476 609 104




Thursday 12 January 2012

TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG - driving sales through your CRM

“ I think we should, but I don’t have time…”

As part of a corporate CRM, the blog is a great way to keep the sales communications plate spinning at the simple push of the return key.

Remember the days of the Newsletter when we used to fell and pulp forests to print and post interesting collections of headline-driven words and illustrated articles to remind clients and prospects of the breadth of service genres we had to offer ?    Well, now we blog it.

I don’t need to tell you how many stamps, trees and envelopes you save and how many dustbins now avoid the thud of the wasted mailing. But, perhaps I do have to tell you how the blog helps drive your CRM and how little of your time (practically none in fact) is required to make it happen.

Words, style, frequency, contents – leave all that to ASPIRUS Words.

By way of an example, let me show you how it works with Sinclair & Rush in Maidstone, Kent. They are a global plastics manufacturer and distributor, fabricating a huge range of product to protect components and goods in the engineering, finishing, HVAC, automotive, electronics and – well anyone needing to cap, plug, package and display work-in-progress, components and merchandising goods.

Materials revolve around the world of Plastic and the varying derivations thereof. Industrial, transit and display applications are limited only by the constraints of one’s imagination. They have a corporate website that umbrellas and collection of sub-sites, each presenting core brands, products and applications.

Customers use Sinclair & Rush products in such different ways that one would probably not recognise the other as having the need to buy from the same manufacturing supplier. On the face of it this presents a massive headache for the sales team – each prospect call being different from the last in terms of need, solution and application.

MD, Peter Boulton, started working with ASPIRUS in the Summer 2011. Having been referred because of a need for writing and communication skills, he soon realised that whilst words were the ultimate product, the actual service is based on a remarkable ability to appraise the corporate environment and build exciting solutions into the communication strategy.

Peter Boulton is a ‘Noah thinker’. A corporate thinker who instead of simply predicting rain, steps forth and builds an ark. Goals are important and their pragmatic delivery essential. His aim is to turn his technical team around, from an outbound sales resource to an inbound sales consultancy.

An effective communications CRM is already being implemented, working the database with a series of generic, brand, industry and application-based mailings and e-mailings, all written by ASPIRUS. Now, the thread that holds the process together and accelerates / supports the individual messaging, is the Sinclair & Rush blog. Each article reflects a product / brand / application and links directly to the appropriate web site page to support the reader’s understanding.

It has just launched and we will use this ASPIRUS blog to follow its progress: 
 http://plastic.blog.co.uk/

What S&R gain:
1.       Strongly branded regular communications.
2.       A zero cost key stroke presenting an illustrated case study.
3.       Examples of application, problems and solutions.
4.       A tool that removes the need to ‘predict contact timing’.
5.       A growing archive of brand / product examples that the sales team can use to illustrate solution possibilities.
6.       An electronic outbound to inspire application-related inbound.

And at what cost:
1.       A mutually agreeable fee.
2.       Ten minutes only, as part of a monthly marketing agenda – that’s all, as ASPIRUS do all the research and build the article from the half dozen key points offered by the Sales Manager.
3.       Well that is all – you really do not need to use your own time to gain the benefits.

Add life to your own CRM -
call ASPIRUS on 02476 609 104