Hello & welcome to the Battle of the Marketing GUUURRRUUU’s
…
INNN the RED corner… Frommm Essex, we have ‘Steeeeve Claaaarke‘ of Eureka Sales – left school at 16, ran and sold some very successful businesses, retired, got bored playing golf and is now back amongst us as a ‘Speaker’ to help us all out through his experience and words of wisdom: “GOOD is Good Enough… Crack On!”
INNN the BLUE corner… Frommm Berkshire (I think), we have ‘Niiigel Temmmple‘ of The Marketing Compass – didn’t leave school till much later than 16, runs a very successful marketing business, didn’t retire and is still amongst us as a ‘Speaker’ to help us out through HIS experience and words of wisdom: “Delight your Customers, go that extra mile,they’ll love you for it”
Now gentlemen, we want a good clean fight, you hear?…
No biting, head butts, or elbows…
Let’s GET IT ONNNN!!!…
Where should I start? who should I listen to, I was a bit confused – ‘I was torn between 2 Guru’s, feeling like a fool, and loving both of them was breaking all the rules.’ (^o^)
ROOOUUUND 1
Round 1, Initially, I decided to come out from Nigel’s corner, after all the man’s a marketing ‘ledge’, he must know what he’s talking about, surely. The other guy, didn’t even go to college, and looks like he loves himself a little bit more than I love me – (which is quite hard, believe me ? what could he teach me?…)
Just before the fight, a new client came to us for a Logo Design. They were opening an Estate Agency in Old Harlow called ‘Mulberry Green Estates‘. They’d seen some of our design work and were suitably impressed, but wanted to get the best price they could from one of the local creative agencies.
When we put our estimate in, we found out that, not only were we cheaper than our rivals, but in their opinion we were also more creative – so it was a bit of a ‘no brainer’ for them to award us the contract…
As the punches started reigning in from the plucky Essex Boy, Nigels words weren’t the only thing ringing in my ears “Delight your (uggh) Customers, go that extra (aggh) mile, they’ll (ooof) love you for it”…
In order to delight them, we decided to not only give them a new logo design, business cards, letterheads and compliment slip, but to go the extra mile and also design their shopfront, for sale board, A1 coming soon poster, wall sign, and square format Twitter / Facebook icon. OK, admittedly it was a slow week, but you get the picture, we wanted them to love us!
Here (ooof) are our (uggh) design concept (aggh) proposals:
Mulberry Green Estates Logo Design and Stationery
Mulberry Green Estates Shopfront Design
Mulberry Green Estates A4 Property Card / For Sale Board / Interior Glass Signage
Mulberry Green Estates A1 Coming Soon Poster & Twitter / Facebook Icon
…It worked, they were amazed at the quality and attention to detail in our design work and they loved us for it so much, that they even said they ‘looked forward’ to receiving our invoice.
ROOOUUUND 2
Round 2, Nigel & I decided we’d taken enough punishment from this persistent Essex chappie, who was getting his message across in no uncertain terms, he meant business and we were on the receiving end of his vast experience.
It was time to swap sides, (as you do) and do it quick before the bell went… This time I came out from Steves corner. After a bit of ducking & diving and shuffling round the ring for a bit, Nigel got his breath back, he came off the ropes and punches started reigning in from the Berkshire bloke. This time it was Steves words ringing in my ears “Bikini, Fur Coat, Transit van?” (…wrong saying, hang on…)
“GOOD is (uggh) Good (aggh) Enough… (ooof) Crack On!”…
OK, now I know this is hard to believe, but, the lady who walks round the ring in a bikini (ah, that’s where the bikini came in) holding up the round numbers, just happened to be looking for a top graphic designer in the area, to do her a leaflet for an up coming charity event… (I know what you’re thinking, while I was there in Steves corner, why didn’t she ask ME to do it) you’re absolutely right, that’s exactly what happened…
Thing is, I was right in the middle of trying to delight a new client and make them love me… bit of a dilemma! (da – da – Dahhhh!) …What to do, things were getting confusing now and I was strapped for time. I didn’t know who’s side I was on… Delight your (uggh) GOOD Customers (ooof) is Good Enough I think (aggh)…already… Give me a (the referee stepped in and said…) BREAK!
Just what I needed, a quick break so I could ‘knock out’ a ‘Twestival‘ leaflet. The Twestival is a worldwide fund raising event to help local businesses become more familiar with social networking and how to use social media marketing more effectively – all in aid of charity (…It promises to be a fantastic evening ?)
Twestival A5 Leaflet
…anyway where was I… Oh yes, right in the middle of a rumble in the Essex Jungle… So who is right and who is wrong, WHO IS THE WINNER?… Will the referee raise the hand of ‘Nigel Temple‘ or ‘Steve Clarke‘ in glorious victory?…
The answer is (and you’re going to hate this) they’re both right, of course… On the one hand we managed to delight a customer and make them love us and on the other hand we ‘cracked on‘ and produced a leaflet (which, although it won’t win any design awards) is Good, (whether it’s Good Enough time will tell, when we see if anyone turns up at the event ?)
In conclusion (yesss! I hear you all cheering) you can listen (and so you should)
to as many marketing guru’s as are out there – and there are quite a few (admittedly not as many as SEO experts, but quite a few) the trick is sorting out the wheat out from the chaff, cherry picking the little gems that suit your business and disregarding the ones that don’t.
‘It’s always better to do something rather than do nothing’ (has anyone said that one yet?)
I’m desperately seeking my own catchphrase and until I find one, I’m going to sort of borrow and combine one from both of MY favorite marketing guru’s…
“Crack On – AND Delight Your Customers”
…”I may have been sat at the back, but I was listening to every little gem, thanks for all your help & advice gentlemen!“
…
For more Sales & Marketing gems from Steve Clarke: eurekasales.co.uk
For Nigel Temples Free Marketing Toolkit & more: nigeltemple.com
PS. Nigel, if you’re not from Berkshire, please accept my apologies, I didn’t have time to check and the blog had to go out, so I hope you agree with Steve on this one – ‘GOOD is good enough!’