‘Designing Strategies’ Newsletter
May – June 2007 Volume 4 – Issue 16
A crucial business facet that can be affected by the mass migration of Baby Boomers toward retirement is your company’s market share and sales volume. If your business has been built over the years through contacts and influence with people of this age demographic, you may soon see that valued network disappearing. Your sales volume and market share may well disappear with them. If you are gambling on continued success based on an existing and static group of customers, you could be in for a big surprise.
Effects From a Mass Migration of Baby Boomer Contacts
Years of loyalty from that set of consumers can no longer be a guarantee of continuing or future business. While you may have been ‘in like Flynn’ for years, you could be ‘out’ in a heartbeat as new, younger employees take their place in the decision making process. When your contacts take their gold watches and head for warmer climates, your market share can go along as well. The coming mass migration of Baby Boomers can provide a gaping hole in your connection to long time customers.
If you have not yet experienced the leading edge of this mass migration phenomenon, now is the time to do something proactive about it. How can you turn the tides in your favor? Think about doing an analysis of your customer list. Are there any obvious market segments where you see sales and profits dropping? Can your long time customers also be experiencing the mass migration of Baby Boomers from their workforce? This should raise red flags for your firm.
Don’t just think about the companies you deal with, but the people within those companies . It is especially important to consider the contacts who are ultimately responsible for the purchase or specification of your products and services. How many of those in positions of influence are Baby Boomers nearing or thinking about retirement? Have a significant number of positions of influence have already changed hands? How can you get your foot in the door now to meet and create relationships with the new people? Don’t be viewing the departing Boomers from behind. Get ahead of the curve and set strategies to stem that mass migration.
You may have heard about the dawning of the day of the consumer. Consumer voices are being heard online through chat rooms, forums and blogs in staggering numbers. Consumers are involved in creating advertising messages for major corporations. If you want high-quality input, and not merely venting, go directly to the consumer for information.
Prepare for a Mass Migration of Baby Boomers
Take a survey of customers to see what their opinion is of your company, products and services in terms of strengths and weaknesses. An outside, objective opinion is worth its weight in gold. Keep the survey short and to the point with a limited number of questions. Ask them what you can do better, and what your competitors already do better. Ask what there is about your business sector that just drives them crazy.
This can be done easily through an e-mail survey, but a personal interview delivers far better results. If you opt for the impersonal survey, have your sales staff alert customers that the survey is coming and ask for their cooperation. Most written survey formats bring back one or two word responses. Personal interviews glean more information through follow up questions and open-ended responses.
Take the information you gain and use it in marketing and sales materials to get you back in the door after your contacts have left. Your staff will need to meet those who have previously not done business with you. These types of surveys can be a great source for marketing messages. Ask clients if you can use their response as a testimonial. NOW is the time to begin working on a plan to replace contacts from your ‘old buddy’ system, not after they have retired and moved away. Don’t forget to learn more about the changing generations you will be working with in the near future. Set strategies for these changes and allot appropriate staff time and funding to make the transition work smoothly.
VISUALIZE — ANALYZE — STRATEGIZE
Plan for the Continued Success of Your Small Business!
Now that we’ve been connected through this newsletter for over two years, it’s time for a change. No, ‘Designing Strategies’ newsletter is not going away. With the exception of a few readers who comment on each issue, our newsletter experience has mostly been a one-way street. What I miss is the ability to connect better with all of you, hear your comments on articles, learn what other topics interest you. Our objective is to be able to better ‘reach out and touch you’.
So, Maurer Consulting Group will be introducing a blog to better connect our community. The format will be less formal and decidedly more interactive. I hope some of you will find the time to check out the blog and send feedback to spice up the conversation about our professional arena.
The name of the new blog: ‘Designing Strategies: The Blog’. I know, I know, “How creative.” The strategy is to keep the name easy to remember for those used to receiving this publication. As soon as we are ready to launch the blog, we’ll send out a notice with the URL address. We are also looking forward to an internet-based newsletter. That format can include links, surveys and other interactive tools to better serve you. It’s time for us to move to Internet 2.0. Stay tuned for future developments!
