The American Repossessor

Here we are at the beginning of another month and one that will be busier than the one before hand.  My travelling shoes seem to have become a fixture and of course, that means that they are ‘part and parcel’ of the work that I do.

At the end of June I was a speaker at the RSIG Conference held in Connecticut and my subject matter was one that I hold close to my ‘business heart’ – Marketing!

There were several hundred repossession companies attending, in addition to many vendors and clients.  Yes, our clients are out there and taking note of what we do and indeed, what we say.  Marketing starts with ourselves and that first impression is the only one that will be remembered!

Having worked within the Repossession Industry for the last 7 years or so, and working with many repossession companies, I know that marketing, or lack of, is one of their main weaknesses .  Often marketing is a  business principle that is put on the ‘back burner’ because of the lack of knowledge in how to market to the Financial Institution sector.

This sector requires targeted marketing not ‘shot gun’ marketing.  Why?  Because the first one you can control and manage, the latter, hey we all know what a shot gun does and there lies the example.

One of the biggest problems I have found is that company owners are so busy worrying about the repossession, that they do not concentrate on the very thing that gives them the repossession – marketing!

So what is the Challenge?  The Challenge is the mindset of the repossessors (company owners) repossess and somebody else does the rest!  How many company owners still go out and repossess?   Who is DRIVING  your company, when you do that?

If you understand marketing, you will understand the customer!

You need to move beyond the repossessor mindset to being the customer.  Moving from delivering YOUR service to delivering what the CLIENT WANTS.  Remember, it is much cheaper to keep an existing client than it is to go out and try to recruit new ones.

If you want things to be different, then YOU have to be different and change! If you keep doing things the same old way, you will get the same old results.  BUT if you change the way you do things, you will get different results.

So what is Marketing?  According to the American Marketing Association Board of Directors (October 2007) definition ….

MARKETING – Is the activity, set of institutions and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large.

Is this your marketing – “THE PACKET” – which normally consists of loose pages: Insurance Certificate, Workers Comp. Certificate, List of Zip Codes, Fee Schedule, Business License (if relevant), Copy of Bond, W9 Tax ID IRS form.  What does this tell the client about your company and services?

Not a great deal.  It tells them that you can legally do business, in a set of zip codes that most clients have no idea where they relate too, at a certain price and that is it!

Instead, your marketing should be informing the client about you and your credibility, your company, your services, the technology you use and what that means to them, amongst many  other things.  For example, a colorful map of your location and the regions you cover, has more impact than a list of numbers, plus the reader can immediately associate themselves to the geographical region you cover.  Step ‘outside the box’ and start to look at your company through the eyes of the client and I guarantee you will have a completely different perspective of it.

Unfortunately, we are often too close to our company and see what we want to see and not what we need to see.  Plus, your thoughts will predominantly  be about how hard you have worked to get where you are today, and no-one can take that away from you, BUT, you should not take things personally, as any negative comments should be seen as business  comments and not as a personal attack on you.

When talking about marketing, business planning and other related business activities, I always come back to the following analogy, because I still have to ponder and try to understand why companies do this, or should I say, don’t do this -

‘….When you are considering taking a vacation, buying a new home, preparing for an event eg., a wedding, preparing for your children’s future, what do you do to ensure that you get what you want and the transactions are successful?  YOU PLAN.  So why are you not planning for the very thing that provides you the resources to do the aforementioned – YOUR BUSINESS?…’

You need to be mindful of the fact – and it is fact – that for every client you approach for new business, there are another 30 or 40 repossession companies right behind you trying to get the same client that you are.  That is how competitive our market place is.

Never under-estimate your competitors – or your clients for that matter.

Marketing is NOT an ART or SCIENCE. Marketing is about PEOPLE- it’s about you and me.  It’s about putting and PROMOTING the right PRODUCT (service) in PLACE at the right PRICE, at the right time!

Contrary to what you may believe, Marketing is not a stand alone business principle – the action of Marketing is only as good as your services, your field agents, your staff, your prices, your technology, your office staff, your trucks, your managers and so many other things.

If you don’t have all the business elements balanced, you will not be able to support what you say in your marketing and indeed, the delivery of your services – and let’s face it, we do promise our clients the world, don’t we?  Natural to do, extremely difficult to support if the right infrastructure and people are not there to support what we say.

Before you approach a new client, be sure that you have everything in place, as  you will only get one chance at the first contract and if you fail, it will go to your competitor, make no mistake about that.

There is not enough space on the www.theamericanrepossessor.com to cover the subject of marketing as there is so much  more to it, than just sending your company information to a potential client, much more.

As I have said many times before, you need to work smart not hard!

GOOD MARKETING IS THE PATHWAY TO SUCCESS.

I love to find old quotes that are very pertinent in today’s world and have survived and handed down to us.   A fellow countryman of mine said many moons ago…….

“Knowledge is Power“  This quote is from Sir Francis Bacon, an English Philosopher 1561-1626

Another famous quote goes back thousands of years to 600 BC, which was said to be written by a record keeper called Lao Zi  …”Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.  Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power”….

Sometimes we have to look back (and in this instance way back) so that we can move forward as these words are as strong today as the day they were written and have outlived millions, and still survive today.

Ask yourselves this question.  WHAT IS YOUR REAL CHALLENGE?    The answer is YOU!