Monday, December 5, 2011

SME Trend: Work Anywhere

People are Working Anytime, Anywhere: The Internet, mobile networks, Web-based services, and the Cloud are redefining the workplace.

Fact: 3/4ths of the US workforce will be mobile by 2013.

Watch: http://youtu.be/x8FylR9vzB8

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Synectic Small Biz Advice: Strategies for Finding Customers and Keeping Them Loyal!

There are essentially two ways to increases sales: find more customers or find new ways to sell more things to the customers you already have. Both strategies are important, but often one or the other gets short shrift.
  • In a start-up, when the focus is on new customer acquisition, it’s easy to overlook upselling opportunities.
  • Over time, as a company gets more established, the focus shifts to upgrades and add ons for existing customers. Finding new customers may get the backseat.
Getting both acquisition and retention/upsell strategies working together is the key to smart marketing. You need new customers to replace inevitable attrition and stay innovative. At the same time, keeping current customers loyal pays huge rewards: a 5% reduction in your customer defection rate can increase profits by 25% to 80%.Here are five ways to keep your acquisition and retention strategies in balance:

Know your value: Regularly ask yourself, “Who is my customer and what value am I delivering?” Focus on problems you are solving for your existing customers that helps make them more competitive in today’s economy? Apply what you have learned to markets/customers you haven’t tapped yet.

Know the competition: Instead of simply trying to beat the competition, analyze what they are doing and how it impacts your acquisition and retention strategies. What problems do your competitors solve that makes them attractive to new customers and gives them the potential to make inroads on your current customer base?

Know the decision makers: Remember that the people making a buying decision do not always have the same set of criteria as the person actually using your product. That’s why simply repeating your core marketing message to decision makers won’t work. You have to target their hot buttons—how are you making their life easier? Helping them achieve their goals? What could make the decision maker at a prospect choose someone else, or at an existing customer decide not to remain loyal?

Make it easy for new and existing customers to reach: Give new customers, existing customers and decision makers the option to “self-select” on your website. Use the capabilities in your communications system—such as customized routing, hunt groups, multiple incoming lines, and connections to salesforce.com etc.— to get a streamlined presence on the phone that’s critical for both acquisition and retention strategies.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Synectic: Avaya's SME Partner of the Year


Oh happy day! Synectic Technologies has received a prestigious award from communications giant, Avaya, as its Small and Mid Enterprise (SME) Partner of the Year for 2011. Read all about it here, thanks to MarketWire.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Synectic Showcase Customer: Peninsula Eye Physicians

So happy to announce that Peninsula Eye Physicians has chosen Synectic Technologies to implement Avaya's IP Office for its growing practice. It's an honor to count Peninsula Eye Physicians as a client. To see what Peninsula Eye Physicians said about the implementation and IP Office, click here. To read the whole story, click here.

Unified Communications for Small Businesses

Here's a great video on how Avaya IP Office can help your small business can collaborate for accomplishing a goal. Synectic can help you do the same for your small business. Click to watch!

Monday, November 7, 2011

November is National Entrepreneurship Month!

President Obama declared that November is National Entrepreneurship Month. The U.S. Small Business Administration, is leveraging this declaration to entrepreneurship in a number of ways.
  • The SBA launched the Student Startup Plan to help more college graduates learn how to lower their loan payments in order to get the “breathing room” they need to start a business.
  • The SBA will host a Young Entrepreneurs Series (YES) to help more young people come together, exchange ideas, and get on a path toward building a viable business. We will start YES with young veterans in San Diego (Nov. 7) followed by young entrepreneurs from rural areas in Ames, Iowa (Nov. 9).
  • The SBA is kicking off the “Apps for Entrepreneurs Challenge,” which starts this Saturday and runs through Nov. 20. It has $20,000 in prizes for the best mobile apps that help America’s entrepreneurs tap into federal programs to help them grow a business and create jobs.
The entire Administration has been highly focused on making sure entrepreneurs have the tools they need. After all, small businesses create about two of every three new jobs each year.

Your Customers Drive the Conversation!

Provide your customers and prospects with the right information, in the right context, at the right time. Often quoted data from Bain & Company states that if your customers are happy, they tend to be loyal. And if they’re loyal they not only buy more, they refer other customers. Bain & Company also found that, for many companies, an increase of 5% in customer retention can increase profits by 25% to 95%.