You can view Andrew’s talk in three parts below.

Richard Thomson of TW Associates delivers an interactive workshop on making the most of business networking at Chez Pierre, Edinburgh on the 19 May 2009. Parts two and three of this video can only be viewed by members of 6 Degrees Networking.

On Wednesday 22 April 2009 I attended a selling and marketing seminar “Creating buyers in difficult markets’ organised by Scottish Enterprise. The venue was the Norton House Hotel, Edinburgh, UK.

It would be unfair to reveal all the compelling points made in the seminar, so I will highlight a few of key points that resonated the most with me.

After an introduction from Mark Hastings from Scottish Enterprise, 3 guest speakers took to the stage. First up was René Carayol (MBE). René is a broadcaster, columnist, business and leadership speaker. René’s compelling business philosophy is founded on his own board-level experience with brands such as M&S and Pepsi. Watch his show reel below. Read his biog here.

Many of René’s points in the seminar were drawn from his decade at Marks & Spencer (major British retailer). He recalls how staff and management ‘worshipped at the altar of St. Michael’. M&S and its sub-brand St Michael enjoyed huge success for 30 years without much marketing activity as customers were very loyal to the brand. UK citizens will be aware of problems at M&S and how it’s stores have struggled in recent years. M&S boss, Stuart Rose has made dramatic wholesale changes, which have improved performance but M&S has many challenges ahead from the major supermarkets and current economic climate. Utimately, M&S must continue to innovate and introduce new business models in order to survive.

With the current economic downturn, many businesses are in crisis and must re-invent themselves or improve their marketing and service to the customer. Such improvements needn’t cost a fortune. Free advertising and brand awareness can achieved using technology such as YouTube. David Holmes, a member of South West Airline’s cabin crew rapped the safety announcement which was posted on YouTube and watched by half a million viewers.

This flight attendant is definitely a brand ambassador. He would be a brand assassin if he did the announcement in slovenly way with no one really paying attention. By rapping the everyday task of the safety announcement he was able to add value to the flying experience with SWA and generate publicity around the world on YouTube, newspapers and blogs like this one.

Some passengers have said that his rap version made them listen to the safety announcement for the first time.

René asks if you and your staff are brand ambassadors or brand assassins, as having the wrong attitude can have negative impact on the business. As he adds:

“how can you reach altitude with the wrong attitude?”

Overall René is a world class speaker and offers stimulating insights into business and how to be successful. More footage of him can be viewed on YouTube.

The second speaker, John Leech, CEO of Winning Pitch. WP deliver practical high impact solutions that are proven to create sustainable growth in sales and business development performance.

He emphasised the importance of living in your customers world and connecting with them. Selling skills can be improved by practice and a good salesman keeps going when times are tough.

John lamented the lack of good selling courses in the UK. However, Jan Thomson from Carnegie College, Dunfermline pointed out that they offer sales and marketing courses with Professional Institute qualifications. Course one, course two.

He also regretted how ‘selling’ still has a bit of a stigma and is a role not everyone likes to do. He believes that through good training staff can become more confident and generate more sales for their company.

How your business is positioned in the market is also crucial. The re-invention of Lucozade is a favourite case study of marketers, but it’s transformation from a popular drink for hospital patients into leading sports energy drink in the eighties is an re-positioning example UK citizens can easily relate to.

The final speaker, Russell Ferguson, from RFM also offered low budget marketing ideas. Key among them were using PR. He gave an example about how a Scottish manufacturing business got coverage in a Moscow newspaper. The business told it’s customers and suppliers about this unusual piece of PR. News about news is an effective tool for raising a company profile.

On a final note, all 3 speakers agreed that discounting on price was not always an effective way to differentiate in a recession. A business should find other ways to add value and persuade customers to buy from them. For example, M&S and Subway are now available at petrol stations around the the UK.

Overall it was an inspirational seminar that provided plenty of food for thought. It’s up to the members of the audience now to take action.