If I have to mention my one Achilles heel when it comes to running a business I would surely say ’marketing’. I’m not much of a visual person to determine what looks good and what does not. I don’t see the direct power of various media and how they relate to sales and a success of a business. After six years of entrepreneurship, I have learned that in spite of this we as a company have been highly successful in using the most effective marketing tool there is – word of mouth.
In my first years of entrepreneurship, I struggled with sales. Although sales have steadily grown in HUONE every year the rate has been tedious. Or tedious for me as a salesperson, I wanted to have a faster hockey-stick graph to show. I have got many recommendations to use more money in marketing tools and hire “this super person to do marketing”. Luckily, I couldn’t afford any of that.
With no extra funds to spare I have had to concentrate on each of the customers who have understood HUONE’s value and bought our service. I have had work hard to improve the personal service. We have had to figure out a way to exceed our customers’ expectation on a day-to-day basis since there were no securities that our company would even see the next day. And because of that personal care and focus on my customers we have succeeded taking care of them exceptionally well.
This has resulted in where we are today. Most of our clientele comes from reoccurring customers or recommended by our previous customer. The turtle has won this match after the snowball-like effect of more and more recommendations. And we will do our best to keep it going.
I have learned about my most powerful marketing tool only later. I highly recommend reading
Seth Godin’s ‘Purple Cow’ about the same insights. Put all your funds and focus to make your core product better every day. Make it a purple cow that forces people to talk about it to others and it will be your most successful way of marketing.
This year we have begun to collect our NPS score for the first time. I am proud to say we have an NPS score above 70, an exceptionally good number in an industry where experience is the key. This reassures me to work harder with the best marketing tool – keeping my customers happy and sending them out there to tell a good story.
Jussi
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