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Marketing Effectiveness

April 11, 2008

Exercise Your Vote, and Your Website

No matter the outcome, if we gain nothing else from the presidential primary this election year it will be that Senator Obama has changed the rules of campaigning for ever. This happened once before in my memory when a very 5:00 o’clock shadowed Richard Nixon made a very poor television presence during one important debate as compared to the young and dapper John Kennedy. From then on presidential campaigns were conducted on television. From this year on campaigns will be done online with the same fervor as chasing the evening news sound bite.

While I admire the Obama campaign for this reason as well as others, to me the more important lesson from this is that even stodgy old political campaigning can benefit from the new reality of the internet. More businesses need to learn from this, and hopefully will as a result from a successful end to the Obama campaign. Check out the March 19 issue of Fast Company for a nicely written article on the Obama campaign and the impact of web marketing.

Back in the USA

It was no accident that the Obama campaign found success on the web. Fate was sealed better thanks to the recruiting of Chris Hughes of Facebook fame. And there alone is probably a lesson. If you are going to build a better web strategy you want to find someone who understands the segment that uses it most completely to help you build a useful strategy.

But there are some other lessons to be learned as well. Perhaps most importantly is the amazing success of social networking for the Senator from Illinois. Most of my clients have no aspect of social networking in their web strategy, not even a blog site. Heck, I am happy if I can get a web strategy built for many of the organizations I support. Don’t think that just because your customers are baby boomers that social networking does not matter to your business. Viral marketing does not only infect twentysomethings.

However, you don’t need to recruit a web wunderkind to build your internet strategy to develop some decent cyber reach. You don’t really need to be all that fancy to find success, but you are not going to experience the benefits of web marketing without taking a step beyond your obligatory web site with your product overview, pictures of your management team, and job postings. Start a customer community and allow for user generated content (whether you do or not there are people talking about your products on a blog site somewhere else). Be careful, one of your customers might actually have a good idea or even better, a good experience to share.

So, get out there. Leverage the power of the web. And, don’t let those voting muscles get flabby between now and November.

February 29, 2008

Whipped Cream on Meatballs

I don’t know if it has to be all or nothing. Why can’t you have whipped cream on meatballs, Seth?

Can traditional marketing concepts live in peaceful coexistence with new marketing and the 2.0 era?

What happens if you have customers that live in both worlds? Viral videos on U-tube are viewed by a few senior citizens (my brother sends me URL’s all the time), but I also believe those same senior citizens are influenced by traditional marketing campaigns more.

Signage

OK, this is all about Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing Out Of Sync?, the newest from Seth Godin. It has had some pretty positive press since being released right at the turn of the year. Plus, if it was written by Seth Godin, it must to be the hottest sage advice to be followed by faithful new marketeers.

But I am not swayed all the way to abandon the sundaes yet. Meatballs are old fashioned business in the metaphorical world and the sweet appealing ice cream is representative of the new ways our internet-fueled universe has enabled marketing to be performed (especially to certain market segments). No value system driving the metaphor, just the facts mam.

Supposedly you have to revamp your old stodgy marketing function if you want to play in the new marketing sand box. That is the part I don’t swallow – I must have choked on the cherry or the nuts. Yes, of course you must embrace new marketing principles. I am beating on my clients every day of the week to build better web channel strategies. But I don’t think you have to rewrite everything else. This is a baby and bath water situation.

The web is a channel. It is a growing channel. For a few businesses it is the only channel. But the far majority of companies being run on the face of our planet rely on more than one channel, and the web strategy needs to integrate with those, not necessarily the other way around.

I believe it is fine to have a web strategy that integrates with a more traditional direct mail strategy. Two channels are better than one. Having two channels that are well integrated is even better. Go build your web strategy and connect it to how you reach your customers with standard campaigns, partners, and your field force. Think about how web impressions can enhance the other channels. But don’t feel like you are a Luddite just because you still want sales people to talk to customers live.

Hold the chocolate, I’ll take Worcestershire Sauce over my whipped cream

February 08, 2008

You Have Mail

I am amazed what an e-mail can accomplish. Back in the 80’s when e-mail became the communication medium of choice it was very easy to get into difficulties. The angry reply with too many people on the cc list was the typical culprit. I sent my share. We have all improved that skill over time.

But it also amazes me how much business is actually conducted over e-mail now, especially business development. It is mostly informal, ultra fast, amazingly efficient, but, more and more, surprisingly effective.

Recently a customer of mine moved his Rolodex into his CRM Contacts and started sending out periodic e-mail blasts with updates regarding what was going on within his company and the marketplace. No creative, no graphics, just some pertinent information that was shared in a conversational tone. About 10% of those outbound messages regularly turn into meetings, which then lead to some kind of meaningful business. Marketing execs would kill to achieve that kind of lift. I think he is a genius.

Slow and Steady

What amazes me even more is how many companies ignore the e-mail channel for reaching their prospects and customers. Yes, I understand that there is too much spam. I am not talking about e-mail blasts that offer me opportunities for appendage extension; I am talking about legitimate sharing of information and offers that connect businesses with their customers. When was the last time you sent out information that updated your customers on a better way to reach your service center or changes in market conditions that could impact their thinking? You don’t have to write a big newsletter! But you can reach a lot of people with a few key strokes in a way that could have big impact.

You do have to offer some value, however. And you also need to know the e-mail addresses of the contacts you hope to reach. This latter requirement does not have to be a big deal. Recently one of my clients declared that it would be too hard for them to gather e-mail addresses for their purchasing customers. To the contrary, and with a small bit of investigating we discovered they already had access to a significant percentage, and had daily contacts that could allow them to capture the majority of their accounts within a few months – and with no appreciable extra effort. What it (collecting e-mail addresses) does require is to make the decision that this invaluable customer data element is captured and stored as a standard component of the customer or account record. No big deal, just make the decision and make it policy. Just stop making excuses for why it can’t be done.

And another thing - if you think your customers don’t use e-mail, you are most likely wrong. They do, they like it, and they are increasingly finding that they can’t work in any other way. Stop buying envelopes and stamps since they are too expensive, too slow, and more than likely getting thrown away (please recycle!).

December 14, 2007

How's Your Funnel?

Maidenhead

Everybody talks about the pipeline. Progressing deals along the continuum from lead to close, including the sacred forecast, it is the focal point of many CRM programs. No question that it is a big deal, with billions of commission payments at stake. OK fine, I’m on board.

But, what about the funnel? Maybe, this term is not in your normal lexicon. In addition to the concept of the opportunity pipeline, some organizations like to also think about having a funnel of leads that help to fill that pipeline. Probably the word hopper would be a better term here, but the funnel seems to be the accepted metaphor.

I tend to think of the funnel as the marketing portion of lead management and the pipeline as the sales portion of lead management. The pipeline gets a lot of attention, but the funnel is what feeds the pipeline, and a big cause of why the pipeline may not be full. Most companies have some sort of funnel – a way to pull in leads that are eventually handed off to the sales organization. Unfortunately, there are too many elements of the lead funnel that get neglected. Let’s look at some examples.

Probably the biggest problem in the funnel is the tendency for pushing leads through too fast. You get someone to stop by your booth at a trade show and they indicate an interest. That is a lead that you can choose to send along to the field force, or you can make sure it is ready. Based on my research of the research (and personal experience with my clients), 80% of leads are sent to the field before they are ready – which means they are wasted and lost.

This problem is due mostly to the fact that most marketing organizations don’t have an agreement with the sales organization as to what constitutes a lead that sales has found to be acceptable. Leads that they can purse as opportunities are to be considered ready. Leads that don’t cross that threshold are not. This does not mean they are bad, but it means that they are not ready, which leads us to the next problem.

Nature versus nurture – which do you believe? If a pair of twin leads were separated from their mother at birth and raised independently what will drive their success, their genes or their upbringing? We have learned it is pretty much all about the upbringing, which the lead management gurus call nurturing.

Most organizations do absolutely zero nurturing and this then translates into something like 80% of their very expensive leads are thrown away. Nurturing means that you take a green lead, that person who indicated an interest by downloading a whitepaper, and offer them a webcast or invitation to a local event. They may not be ready to buy at first, but they may be totally ready to hear more. After hearing more, they may be ready to buy – which means the nurturing worked. This is a far superior situation than forcing the lead to sales immediately just to find out they are not ready and please don’t call again.

Gravity in the funnel is the key. The problem with the web today is that it is easy for people to find you – even if you are not trying very hard. Then, you get excited because somebody came to your website. Remember, just because somebody visits your site, it does not mean that they want to buy. Go back to the previous paragraphs – they probably need nurturing. But, what do you do when you start attracting people to your site? Pull them in, but for the right reasons.

If you sell toilets, don’t give away iPods to attract people into the funnel. Give away a really, really compelling article on why your toilets never clog. That will provide the gravity to bring in the prospect that your field sales folks want to talk to. They don’t want to talk to people who want free mp3 players. My kids use toilets, love free iPods, but have no intention to buy a toilet that does not flush. Content on your site, like a good white paper, is one of the best means for creating positive gravity. Pull the right prospects through your funnel and into the pipeline. Let the rest of the riff raff hit your site then swirl away if they don’t truly intend to buy.

October 05, 2007

Harvest Time - Is The Fruit Edible?

A number of years back I was lamenting to a friend that the company I work for was not generating enough new business. This fellow, who has been a marketing wiz for his entire career, made somewhat of a flippant reply that our basic problem was that we did not generate enough leads. It was an intensely obvious point, but at the same time, it was a significantly profound revelation for me.

Back then our business model was entirely based on partner referrals – a software partner would sell licenses to a new customer and suggest that we assist with the process of implementing the software. Back in 1999 it was a reasonable way of doing business, as we were riding a strong wave of CRM expansion (and it did not hurt that we aligned ourselves with the market leader).

Harvest Time

When the market started to pull back, so did our alliance referrals, and we became heavily reliant on our installed base for generating revenue. However, this segment can only deliver a finite pipeline that needs replenishment continuously. So, we took control of the helm and went after new business development independently. Since then we have been quite successful in identifying, on our own, companies who are in need of the services we provide. This business development capability is something that most people refer to as lead generation.

This was a fundamental change to our business model that has had very positive results. I can’t imagine how we could be successful today any other way. However, what surprises me is how many of my clients don’t have this fundamental capability in place, or don’t have a fruit-bearing lead generation mechanism cranking out opportunities for the sales organization.

So, I have decided to explore this situation a bit further. Why is such a fundamental business development capability less mature for so many companies?

One of my early conclusions from this ongoing investigation is that the typical sales organization is not confident that lead generation from a marketing function can actually bear edible fruit. The perception that investments in lead generation, beyond the obligatory trade show attendance, will be fruitless serves as a limitation to business development success. Ultimately this causes a self-reinforcing negative loop. Marketing remains under-funded and provides only sour or un-ripened leads, while field sales is rewarded with higher commission rates for bringing in new business. With this the perception that the field must perform its own hunting remains solidly in place.

If you find this to be the case in your organization, I suggest that you look at a way to break that cycle. There are challenges to overcome. First, marketing has to get funding to build a lead generation function correctly. Buying worn out lists and pounding them further with spam is the best way to prove to the field that they should do their own hunting. Building a process to identify interested prospects, then nurturing those leads until maturity, and, finally, qualifying opportunities before handing off the lead to sales is the only way to begin changing perceptions in the field. However, it will take some time.

Don’t give up after the first pilot hands out leads that are ignored. The sales reps will need to see a solid trend of qualified leads hit their inbox or home page before they will be won over.

Feedback on lead relevance is also key to making this all work. Understanding which leads, and which lead sources are generating true opportunities is the best way to optimize the lead generation tactics. But one caution - feedback is not the easiest thing to get back from sales (quality feedback that is).

September 14, 2007

Changing Rules

While searching through a folder of articles that I have saved on a diverse set of topics (poorly organized and therefore hard to find easily) I ran across a Peppers and Rogers Group article focusing on how the rules for Marketing have changed. The basic gist of the article was how changes in buying combined with the increased diversification of channels have forced marketing functions to manage campaigns differently than more traditional approaches.

This is all fairly common messaging in the marketing trade rags these days. The interesting thing is that the article I was reading was from 2004. The rules have not only changed, they have changed again.

Rules

What makes this all interesting to me, interesting in the Chinese curse kind of way (“may you live in interesting times”), is that too many of my clients are still using marketing strategies from 1984, let alone 2004. Plus the changes between today and 2004 are just as significant as the changes between 1984 and 2004.

To me, the challenge is on what set of rules to bring these marketing organizations up to speed. Do we jump from 1984 to 2008, or do we go incrementally? Each has their advantages. Wasting time with a marketing approach that is behind the times, even if advanced for the organization, is delaying the benefits that the Web 2.0 provides (especially since most of these organizations have customers that are buying in the current paradigm). On the other hand, making big leaps often causes problems and the approach of baby steps can be a strategy for success.

Chances are the answer to this question of small change or big change will depend on a number of factors. Perhaps the biggest factor is what the customers expect to receive. If they are not satisfied, they can easily defect to a competitor. A second factor, not to be overlooked, is what is required by the sales organization for lead management and sales support.

Either way, marketing according to the rules of 1984 can’t continue. At least getting into the current millennium would be a start.

August 24, 2007

Educating Marketa

A recent article in CRM magazine postulated that marketing professionals have been educated for communications and creative content, but not adequately educated on managing marketing operations. When it comes to CRM automation this is precisely the benefit that the technology brings to the business – improving the ability to manage operations. However, to get the most out of the technology it is still important to have an educated process. Acquiring the ability for campaign automation, while campaign management processes remain immature, will likely lead to little gain.

Beer Rule #9

I have recently encountered several clients that spent considerable sums on marketing automation, bundled with other CRM functionality, which has morphed into virtual shelfware. So, what causes this? It is primarily a factor of believing that campaign automation will autmagically lead to new processes for conducting campaigns. But, when push comes to shove, if you don’t know how to manage a solid campaign, the software won’t do it for you.

Some of the best CRM ROI comes from the ability to target customers with appropriate offers and push leads from these campaigns to the sales organization. Small marketing functions that don’t contain sufficient campaign management skills should seek external help to get campaign processes built. The automation will provide a lot of muscle once this is in place correctly.

Getting campaign management correct can make the difference between a successful CRM program and one that just plods along. It can also help a small marketing function transition from obligatory staff function to strategic business contributor. I think the latter is more desirable

June 08, 2007

Who's Listening?

You might have seen the May issue of CRM magazine that has an article proposing that marketing needs to think of themselves as feeding sales. I especially like the elucidation of the metaphor that claims that marketing is not exactly starving the sales function as much as it is causing malnutrition by feeding them junk food. Excellent stuff!

I like the use of metaphors to describe things and this led me to a variation that I think is also useful in understanding the relationship between these two business development functions. Lead generation is like a conversation and marketing is the speaker with sales as the listener. Think of all the other well known dysfunctional relationship types that are plagued with speaking and listening problems (all of you married folks in the audience know what I am talking about).

Back in a previous life, I ran an exercise in one particular workshop that helped illustrate a thing or two about listening. It went something like this. Two people had to draw a complicated geometric diagram, but without the ability to see – each had someone describing the diagram verbally – one person would serve as the speaker and one as the listener. However, the catch was that one of the listeners could ask questions and one could not.

What do you think were the results? You guessed it – the person who could ask questions would replicate the drawing almost exactly. The person who could not ask questions would make all kinds of bad assumptions about what was being said, and the drawings were horrid. The conclusion that everyone would glean from this exercise was that good listeners need to ask questions, give feedback, and in general be in control of the conversation – not the speaker!

So what - what could this possibly have to do with sales and marketing? Let me get to the point. Marketing is the speaker – they need to give stuff to sales – leads, messaging, market insight. Sales is the listener, but the problem is that they are not listening. They need to be in control of the conversation, but marketing mistakenly keeps control (there is no control, actually). However, with control comes responsibility, and that includes giving feedback and asking clarifying questions.

Getting back to the listening exercise for a moment; I would ask the listeners how successful they thought they were. The one with no feedback felt they did a good job, and expected to get a good picture in return. The one with feedback felt they did a bad job because there were so many questions, and expected the pictures to be poor. Of course we know the results were just the opposite.

Now, getting back to marketing, the measurement is the picture, not whether we think we are doing a good job of communicating. What should marketing be measuring to determine if the speaking and listening process is working? Well, the equivalent of the good picture in this case is something like lead conversion. If the process is working well, sales will convert a higher percentage of leads to opportunities. But the feedback needs to be there as well. Information about what leads are good and what are not must be returned back to marketing to achieve the best results.

So, marketing, give control to sales. Sales, take control, but don’t be apathetic – ask questions and give feedback. Let’s generate some business.

Stay Away

May 19, 2007

Voice of the Buyer

The Voice of the Customer concept is becoming a popular approach for marketing functions to develop a better understanding of customer interests, and, therefore, behavior. Back in March, CRM Magazine ran a short piece on this method for getting into the customer’s proverbial head. The article provides some insight for infusing this customer-orientation mind set into the organization at a number of levels. Good stuff. Here is an idea for how you might be able to leverage this approach for very effective outcomes.

You may have read a posting on this blog site, Balancing Act, which looks at the need for striking a balance along a number of different dimensions to run an effective CRM program. I think the concept of the Voice of the Customer is a beautiful way to accomplish a balancing act of one type, and enable the Marketing function to provide some critical value to the sales function.

In this case the balance dimension is a selling versus buying orientation. When we focus on sales effectiveness we tend to focus on what things to do to sell more things. In this case the perspective is from that of the seller. But there can be some value in understanding the sales process from the perspective of the buyer. Could we do better if we were more understanding of the buying cycle, buying criteria, the needs of the buyer? There is no question.

Blowin' His Horn

The voice of the customer can serve as a mechanism to help better understand the needs and requirements of the buying process. Should the marketing function become effective at gathering this kind of valuable insight, it could then share this knowledge with the sales force to better tailor their process to be best aligned with their customers and prospects.

And what good would this do? Well, there was that research study reported last summer in the Harvard Business Review, which indicated that customers prefer to work with sales professionals who understand, are sensitive to, and follow the customer buying process, not just push the deal through their own selling processes.

Listening to your customer is not good enough. How you act on the information you hear is the real opportunity for success. Gathering buying information is a great value from the Voice of the Customer tool. Helping sales utilize this data to sell more effectively is priceless.

March 23, 2007

Charlatans

When I was a kid I had a brother-in-law, Ted, who was a Lutheran Pastor. Once a week Ted would create a sermon to be delivered to his flock on Sunday morning. His approach was to use an event from over the course of his week as a topic at the center of the sermon. The church calendar would also dictate that the sermon teach the lesson from a specified bible passage. It was easy for Ted to come up with his story for the week. It wasn't always easy for him to tie it into the requisite scripture reading. There were plenty of Saturday nights consumed until dawn making this connection. It was hit or miss.

I find that this same approach works for me when it comes to producing this weekly blog entry. For those of you who have not noticed, I post an entry each Friday. However, two things are different for me than they were for Ted. First, I don't have a required bible passage to tie in. And Second, I don't stay up all night on Thursday composing. The nice thing about this blog software is that you can post-date entries. Some of mine have been weeks late.

My entries do relate to an event or activity of my week, or the week before. And, while I don't need to connect to verses from the Good Book, I do keep things relevant to the theme of customers on the edge. So, what was the experience this week that led to the title of "Charlatans"? A difficult client meeting, what else?

I have a client, who after months of working together, still treats me as if I am trying to pull a fast one over on him. You will have seen a previous entry describing this as a broader problem – consultants are often linked with other notorious professions. In the minds of some we are all just charlatans.

For an interesting dialogue on client / consultant relations check on this blog site.

Charlatan

This same perception can leak over into other industries as well, particularly when it comes to marketing, and especially on-line marketing efforts. I have seen banners and gimmicks from Fortune 100 tech firms that are no different from those hawking dating services, porn call-in numbers, and get rich quick schemes. Under these circumstances the damage is self-inflicted. There is absolutely no reason to use nefarious means to lure people to your site. If you offer an iPod give away you are going to attract people who want a free iPod, not necessarily those who want to buy your services. And if you forward those contact details onto your sales force as if they were real leads, you are only doubling the damage.

The use of a Trojan horse to get someone to visit your site and check out your product does not have to follow this slippery path. Offer a white paper or webinar that is on a topic relevant to your product or service. This stands a much better chance of attracting quality prospects into your funnel. This can be a hard concept to get across. My own marketing VP will argue that our last M&M giveaway brought in a legitimate client. I’m OK with giving stuff away – it does build a certain amount of good will. However, when it comes to the use of techniques to lure those to your site, stick with product or service related content. It will save you from being lumped in with the rest of us charlatans.

March 16, 2007

The Iridium Rule

Ghost Town

You were taught to live by the golden rule but recently you may have run across the platinum rule (treat others they way they want to be treated). The platinum rule has been postulated by Tony Alessandra as a tenet for a more effective approach to selling.

Well, today, I would like to offer up The Iridium Rule. Come on, you know iridium. It is element number 77, right next to platinum on the periodic table, very similar in characteristics, costs about the same, and is even found in the same deposits when mining. We don’t really talk about it much however.

We do talk much about how to sell. So it is no surprise that the platinum rule along with its namesake precious metal gets more exposure. So what the heck is the iridium rule? It is for the marketeers – “market unto others the way they want to be marketed to”. Sounds silly? Better not – it is a new requirement of today’s demand creation. We need to talk about this more. Let’s make iridium a popular metal too.

OK. You conduct a campaign that sends an e-mail to a high potential contact from a company that should want your product or service. You got the contact details through a purchased list and you made a proposal to those on it to check out the quality of your offering through a no risk promotion. A portion of those on the list are going to be interested in taking the next step with you, but what is that next step?

Are you hoping to call them next to set up a sales call? Do you want to send them a white paper? Are you hoping they will download a software demo, or maybe attend a webinar? Perhaps they want to stay connected but not take the exact action you are proposing. Is it to subscribe to a newsletter? Do they want to open a chat session because they are ready to take an action sooner, but have questions?

Are you prepared to offer all or any of these? Because, that is what is necessary to increase your chances of keeping the prospects in your funnel rather than swirling over to your competitors. Buyers today expect to connect up with your marketing efforts in a way that satisfies them. They might be able to chat but not e-mail. They may be interested in your newsletter for a future action, but not ready for the software download. They might want to read the whitepaper, but have no desire, yet, to speak to a telemarketer. And, if you only offer the action that you want (or are capable of) a percentage of those prospects are going to land somewhere that offers the medium or action that fits their requirements or preferences.

So, The Iridium Rule – market to your prospects the way they want. Build your capabilities to match the different ways your prospects neet to connect with you. Flood your funnel. Engorge your pipeline. Strike gold.

March 09, 2007

A Change in Behavior

I should not have been surprised, but I was. Minding my own business, surfing through the virtual store isles of eBay, I stumbled across CRM software for sale. First it was Microsoft CRM, then ACT appeared, and then Goldmine. Back in the days when the “killer apps” first came along, CRM software was sold to the early adopters by an elite crew of smartly dressed sales professionals. My how times have changed. (Yes, I know there are still a few sales reps out there donning Brooks Brothers).

The web has changed everything. And, if you have not adopted the changes to business development brought about by the ever new and changing internet buying behavior, then your competitors are winning.

Bho Dog Gone Wild

I’m not talking about eBay (although some of you do have competitors who are selling their products there). Most of my clients are in the B2B space and their customers are shopping on the web, just like the average consumer.

For example, prospective customers interested in buying services to improve their partner channel effectiveness are performing Google searches to find who the vendors are. Some may look directly at which vendor has what for sale. More advanced shoppers search for what company has produced what intelligence. They look for evidence that a vendor has expertise, not just the ability to put marketing hype onto a web site. White papers can serve as evidence. Speaking at industry events is another example. Once the prospective buyer has determined who has the capability, they zero in on the short list and surf the vendor sites for more evidence of capability.

By now you have the capability to track who has visited your site. However, do you know all the content that they perused? Can you compare that to previous visits or interactions? If you combine this set of buying behavior data points into a composite picture, you will have a better understanding of what they are looking for. This will position you to make them an offer – targeted to the interest that they have displayed to you. They have been spending time looking at your security software offerings, especially retinal scan. Offer them a white paper. Offer them to see a pod cast on the topic. If they bite, they are a hot lead, and you need to treat them as such. If they don’t bite, they are still a lead, but perhaps a bit cooler and need a different approach.

This is the new world of demand generation and the rules of changed. Sending 1000 contacts a direct mail offer to attend a retinal scan seminar may hit 999 who have no interest. Sending an e-mail with an offer to view a pod cast to the 50 who have visited that portion of your product description content on the website may lead to 35 who will take the next step with you - better targeting trough more intelligence and stronger lead generation as a result.

Stay tuned.