Switched on staff wanted!

The Trade Practices Act changes that I outline below are important and may affect the way you price good and services in your business. Once I read about them I realised that they will change the way that we price services at Next Marketing. I encourage you to keep reading.

How is business going for you? I am busier than ever! All the talk of recession has made my business boom so I am in need of some help! If you know of a Senior Marketing person who is looking for some work then please get them to give me a call on 03 8060 8544.

Until next time!

Unclear about how to get PR?

Having worked in the Marketing industry for many years, I am familiar with the overall process of how PR works. Once I started working with small business owners, I realised that I spent quite a bit of time explaining about PR and the advantages it can have for businesses in general. Given the interest in this area, we have decided to base the Next Marketing Puzzle event on this theme.

Topic: PR – How to get more of it for your small business

Date: Tuesday, 26th May at 6.30pm
Venue: Northcote Town Hall.
Format: We will showcase a new Marketing Puzzle format with a live interview rather than 3 presentations as in the past. A guest panel of 3 speakers will be interviewed to share with the audience three different ways to get free PR for your business. Click here to register now! 50% of tickets are already sold!

New Trade Practices Act legislation

Are you aware that there are new amendments to the Trade Practices Act that will limit the use of component pricing in advertising and marketing? These changes are only new and are due to come into effect around 25 May 2009, the specific date is yet to be announced.

Essentially, the Government wants consumers to be able to readily identify the total price for a product or service. The crux of the new changes is that an advertised or quoted price must be the final price and be stated as a single figure only.

I have taken an extract from a Clayton Utz legal paper that highlighted some examples of what is and isn’t acceptable under the new legislation. If you would like a full copy of the report, please drop me a line.

Acceptable

• A company representing prices as “$39,000 + $3,900 GST for a total price of $42,900”.
• The price as “$25,000 + $2,999 taxes, fees and charges for a total price of $27,999”.

Note: If the total price can only be determined when the sale is finalised and it will depend on which particular features a client/customer chooses, then the quoted or advertised the price must stated as “from $2,500”.

Not acceptable

• Advertising goods and services as, “$500 plus fees and charges”. The total amount including those fees and charges will now need to be stated.
• A statement of a price “plus GST”, the GST inclusive price must be made clear at all times.

What clients hate – use it to your advantage

Recent research from Beaton Consulting has highlighted the Top 5 ‘pet peeves’ of clients who buy time with professional services organisations.

They are

1. Poor cost management – over servicing or going outside a project’s scope
2. Lack of innovation – taking a textbook only approach
3. Lack of response – taking too long to respond to phone calls or emails
4. Poor communication – especially when complicated jargon is used
5. Poor documentation – when documents have technical or grammatical errors

If any of these issues are ‘hot buttons’ for your clients, make sure that in all of your marketing communication tools whether it is brochures or website, you address these concerns and clearly state how and why your business is different. A great way to stand ahead of your competition!