At this mornings BNI meeting - we were considering our USP - or unique selling point in our businesses. Coming up with a unique selling point it something that might sounds easy enough. ‘Lower prices’, ‘better service’ or ‘we do what we said we would do’. These were a couple of the answers that came back from the room when asked what their own businesses’ unique selling poing was. If you think you have a USP however, consider applying the following litmus test. “Would your direct competitor make the same claim?”. If the answer is ‘maybe’ or ‘yes’ then you haven’t really nailed what it is that makes you stand out from your competition. Tony McIntyre from Citadelmortgages seemed to have the best answer when asked about his USP. He comes to your home and advises you on the ptions
for mortgages in complete privacy - as compared to advisors who work from banks or hotel lobbies. Tony will arrive at any time of day or night to give that advice. So - it begs the question - would your competitor lay claim to your USP?

Over the past few years, we have been happy to welcome as customers a number of insurance brokers as clients. Having the ability to send and receive text messages
from your desk really cuts through the time relaying information, reminding staff of application details, reminding clients of appointments etc. Its a little oil that can ease your every day information flow in the office. It was through these customers that we learnt that the IBA was looking for a text messaging company to recommend when it came to offering business text services.

A short trip up to Merrion Sq. and a week later we were thrilled to hear that we were now going to be recommended to all IBA members. I guess the lesson that is to be learnt here is that despite all your best marketing strategies and execution, you can’t beat looking after your existing customers as a way to generate new business.

We was recently invited to the SMILE conference by Gerard Tannam of Islandbridge. Gerard has been organising the conference for the last two years - which promises to be the premier hospitality industry conference of the year. That claim was undoubtedly backed up with a very high powered cast of spreakers. Marc Charron, MD of Tripadvisor was first up. Trip advisor is a peer-review site where travellers can leave feedback on the hotels they have visited. With 20 million visits a month, its become a huge success in the US. Marc is based in London but flew over to give his take on why TripAdvisor is so successful and what the hotel industry should do about this very public forum for commenting on service.

You could feel the tension in the air as Marc started to put up some reviews of hotels on the 20ft high projection screen. He chose a few complimentary reviews to kick off but before long, the Four Seasons was coming in from a bit of a kicking from an irate reviewer. As waves of titters spread through the room, right up to the table where the Four Seasons general manager was sitting. The interesting thing to note though - was that generally these ‘rants’ were generally not seen as useful by other reviewers. Each review itself is voted on for usefulness and the particular review he threw up did indeed have a poor rating. A quick trip to - eh - tripadvisor confirms that interestingly - rants and raves are in the minority and receive fairly low ratings. Its as thought the community polices itself. I found this pretty interesting as we are considering adding a peer review section to www.piehole.ie. Previously we were afraid that it might get abused - but the tripadvisor experience would seem to indicate otherwise.

Stuart Fogarty of AFA O’Meara was another seemed to pick up where Marc had left off. Stuart is a director of the second largest indegenious advertising agency in Dublin. His theme was all to do with the fact that you can no longer categorize your customers as simply ‘ABC1′. Treating everyone in this category the same doesn’t wash. The demographic, or any demographic is so varied that designing a targeted message is just not feasable. Instead Stuart recommended a blindingly simplistic approach to developing your advertising strategy - find out what your customers want - give it to them. You want your customers to ’see - like - buy’ in that order. Tripadvisor seems to be an extroadinary tool for the hotelier industry to nail the requirements of their customers. Even poor reviews are an opportunity to clean learn about where you are going awry. The final speaker, David Spooner, of Mandarin Oriental Hotels spends small fortunes on trying to get this type of feedback by hiring consultancy companies. Tripadvisor can do the same thing for a smaller hotel at no cost.

If you own a business - or are thinking about starting a business - the chances are that the majority of your customers will come through word of mouth. Unless you have a shop front - you’ll find that the majority of business in Ireland is done around the village water pump - or more likely - village pub. It is the way that business has been done for thousands of years and no matter how many TV ads or online google ads you spend your money on - its the way it is going to work for thousands of years to come. Some even say that the future or marketing is in direct selling. Multiple Streams of income by Robert Allen predicts a world where multinationals will be spending as much paying its customers to recommend their products as they will paying pop stars to endorse their wears on the small screen.

Thats all well and good - but what if your a bit of a social idiot? Maybe you were last to be picked for the school socccer team or you’ve been too busy lavishing the love of your life with attention to keep up with any pesky friends? Well - there are ways to boost the word of mouth business you receive and you don’t even have to be socially retarted. The BNI is a professional networking organisation that helps you to build your circle of contacts without needing a new liver in the process.

BNI meetings provide a formal setting where you can hone your presentation and networking skills. Millions of euros in business are passed each year through this organisation - and that just counts the money passed in the meeting. No matter what the business - you can definatly learn a lot from a BNI meeting