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Mar 14
0

The End of Marketing as We Know It

By | Books | 2 Comments

The "Good" – understanding that marketing is an investment not an expense, and a science not an artSergiobookcover_2

I recommend that you read Sergio Zyman’s first book, "The End of Marketing as We Know It."   Sergio is
infamous as the guy responsible for the biggest flop in the history of marketing….New Coke.  He’s come a long way since then and now runs one of the top marketing consultancies in the country.  While his book is primarily about consumer marketing, the lessons within are applicable to B2B marketing as well.  I was hooked by the first sentence of the first chapter.

"The sole purpose of marketing is to get more people to buy more of your product, more often, for more money."

It’s a simple but powerful definition of marketing, and I love it because it reminds people that marketing is a critical strategic function and not just a tactical group that does advertising, promotions and PR.  Here are some other key takeaways from the book.

  • When you understand that marketing is what you do to sell stuff, then
    the money that you lay out is an investment instead of an expense.
  • The marketplace today is a consumer democracy. Customers have options, so marketers have to tell them how to choose.
  • Plan your destination.  Make it where you want to be, not where you think you can get.  Once you have your destination, develop a strategy for getting there.
  • Marketing is a science.  It is about experimentation, measurement, analysis, refinement, and replication.  You must be willing to change your mind.
  • Figure out what is desirable and make that what you deliver; or figure out what you can deliver and make it desirable.  But remember, the former is a lot easier than the latter.
  • Sameness doesn’t sell.  The value of your product will be determined by its differentiation from the competition in ways that are relevant to customers.
  • Measure constantly but use the right yardsticks; focus on profit, not volume; on actual consumption, not share of market.
  • Don’t be blinded by visible demand.  Preference is perishable.  Keep selling the sold.
  • Strategy is your job, not the ad agency.  You agency’s job is to communicate it effectively.
  • Find the best available marketing professionals and create jobs around them.  You’ve got to have the best people, not the best organization chart.
  • Make sure everyone in your organization understands the destination, the business objectives and the strategy.  Then let them execute.

Mar 09
0

Will the Real Value Proposition Stand Up?

By | Web Marketing | One Comment

The “Bad” – trying to market a
product/service without having a clear, well-written value proposition

DollarsignI’ve worked
at some great companies but have been amazed at the lack of understanding
around the term “value proposition.” Try
this at your office … ask a bunch of different people in marketing, product management,
sales and R&D to define a product’s value proposition. I’ll bet that you get very different answers. The most common answer I’ve heard explains the value of the product by describing the main feature/benefit. For example, this security software helps users keep their data secure
as it is sent over the Internet, and thereby prevents identity theft. Unfortunately, this, and most other
descriptions of value like Wikipedia’s, don’t go far enough to describe the real value of using the product.

I like the structure of the Wikipedia approach but it is more appropriate for B2C products.  In B2B marketing it is critical to explain how the product enables the
customer to 1. avoid costs, 2. lower costs, 3. protect revenue, 4. increase
revenue.

For
example.

By
protecting sensitive information from online theft, the xyz software enables large financial institutions to:

  1. Avoid
    costly government penalties for privacy breaches and damages from class-action
    lawsuits.
  2. Lower your labor
    and communication costs since IT, legal, and marketing do not have to spend as
    much time fixing breaches or mailing communications to customers whose data has
    been stolen.
  3. Improve
    loyalty / reduce defections (protect revenue) by marketing the fact that your
    service protects customers from identity theft better than the competitors.
  4. Increase
    revenue by offering new high-value products online that you could not offer
    previously due to security concerns.

Of course this is a greatly abbreviated version and a proper value proposition contains a lot more elements, but it is essential that you focus on the financial values. They are
what your customers care about and are measured on…top line growth and bottom
line growth. Therefore, smart B2B
marketers write up detailed value propositions for each of their products and
communicate them to all internal audiences as the basis for all
marketing activities. If your employees
don’t understand the real value of the product, how are they going to
communicate it to customers?

Mar 02
0

Great List of B2B Blogs

By | B2B | One Comment

The "Good" –  keeping up-to-date with the latest thinking in B2B marketing

Thought I’d post a quick hit about this comprehensive list of B2B marketing blogs on Jon Miller’s "Modern B2B Marketing" blog.  Covers nearly all B2B topics from high-level strategy down to fine-grained tactical advice. 

Feb 27
0

Dell Finally Gets It … Will Others?

By | General Marketing | 2 Comments

The “Good” –  figuring out that listening to your customers
(really listening, not just holding focus groups) makes good business sense.

I’ve been a
Dell customer for years, and have also used Dell products at several companies. I’ve had mainly good experiences as a
consumer but have listened first hand to the trials and tribulations of my IT
department as they tried to deal with Dell service issues and got nowhere since Dell wasn’t really listening. I’ve also been a Dell shareholder but sold
all my shares a couple years ago … not because of any deep financial analysis
but simply because of a gut feeling that they had lost their edge. That
premonition seems to have been true since HP has outsold them for the last
couple of quarters.

So, when I
read about Dell’s new program in Lewis Green’s blog bizsolutionsplus I was impressed to see they finally realized that they need to listen to
their customers criticisms.  Check
out the official announcement on Dells’ blog.

Dellideastorm_1

IdeaStorm enables customers to post ideas and issues that they want Dell to address. Then the entire user community can vote on
the ideas. The ones with the most votes
rise to the top and then hopefully are addressed by Dell engineers. As a marketer I love this win/win approach. Dell gets immediate market research and lets
customers set their priorities. Customers get their biggest issues fixed. They better, because if this is just a PR
gimmick then Dell will really have a mess on their hands.

Dellstudio

 

StudioDell allows customers to post their videos of how they use Dell products. A good idea that certainly helps Dell gather
market research and marketing testimonials but not quite as rewarding for
customers as IdeaStorm. 

As we all
know, PCs are pretty much commodities these days (as evidenced by the dozens of
identical machines in the Sunday paper circulars). So this is a great first step by Dell in
trying to re-establish differentiation by listening to customers and delivering
better products and better service than the competition.

Feb 20
0

Top 10 B2B Lead Generation Marketing Mistakes

By | B2B, General Marketing | One Comment

The “Bad” – being a lazy marketer who doesn’t focus on the details of execution and doesn’t regularly  test/tweak  to improve effectiveness and ROI.       

Sherpalogo_1
I just
re-read this great report by MarketingSherpa and thought I’d share the list of
“bad marketing” as a public service.  The full 10-page report is available for free (note the short reg form).  I’ve listed their ten mistakes below and added my commentary …

  1. Calling a
    monthly email newsletter a “nurturing program.”     Leads are so valuable that you should score the newest/best ones and contact
    them personally versus just sending them a generic one-size-fits-all
    newsletter.
  2. Phoning
    leads to qualify them … days later    . Leads go cold so fast that you need to call
    them the same day, and even within an hour if possible which is when your
    product is on their mind. If your
    company has enough lead volume you’ll need to hire a dedicated phone rep but
    the ROI will be worth it.
  3. Big booths
    at the big national shows    . The bottom
    line is that the ROI is terrible. At my
    last company I tracked big show leads for years and can honestly say I never
    saw one of them convert into revenue. You are much better off sponsoring a dinner off-premises or conducting a
    regional series of breakfast briefings with key customers/prospects.
  4. Using a
    free trial or free demo as your mainstay offer    . You need to have other offers for people who are further up the funnel
    and not ready for a free trial. Though
    boring, I’ve found issue-focused whitepapers and guided presentations get great
    conversions.
  5. We, us, our. If your collateral or web copy uses these
    words then you are talking too much about yourself and not enough about the
    customer. I’ve seen this when a marketer
    takes the easy way out and relies too heavily on the product manager for
    content.
  6. Art-Director-Itis
    (stock photos, hard to read type)    . Rather
    than boring stock photos, why not use some decent pictures of your own lab,
    your own people and your own customers. Take
    some yourself for cheap or hire a pro, but either way your materials and your brand
    will be more authentic. And, there is no
    excuse for having small, unreadable fonts, but it happens all the time when
    agencies get caught up in trying to be stylish (e.g. I’ve seen lots of grey
    fonts lately). Don’t let them put form
    over function.
  7. Not working
    referrals    . Everyone is talking about
    word-of-mouth marketing these days but very few B2B companies are doing
    anything about it. Why not poll your
    user group for referrals? How about
    having customer service reps and CRMs ask for referrals if the situation is
    right?
  8. Lack of
    investment in PR    . Prospects trust trade
    journals and analysts way more than any ad or direct piece you can ever put out. Don’t spend too much time on press releases
    since they mean very little to customers. Instead focus on getting speaking
    slots at major shows, mentions in influential blogs, articles in trade pubs,
    product reviews in magazines and best of all mentions in analyst reports.
  9. Blocking
    search engines from your best content.     This is a no brainer.  You probably have tons of older whitepapers, technical
    docs and recorded webinars that are behind registration forms. Why? Take away the form and pump up your Google rankings. Moreover, isn’t it better to have satisfied
    prospects who got what they were looking for with minimal hassle? They just might become leads later!
  10. Registration
    forms that appear daunting or too time-consuming.     Do you really need all that
    info or can you get it later after you engage the prospect? Test a short form for 30 days and I’ll bet
    your abandon rate drops significantly. Wouldn’t you rather have more leads?

Feb 05
0

The 3-Legged Stool of Sales & Marketing Effectiveness

By | B2B, General Marketing | No Comments

The "Bad" – developing and implementing marketing plans/programs with product-focused messaging and one-size-fits-all sales tools.

The
American Marketing Association just launched a great new resource focused on
driving higher sales and marketing effectiveness. The Marketing and Sales
Alignment (MSA) Forum is divided into three practice areas: demand generation, sales effectiveness and
customer messaging. I really like the
AMA’s structure since it represents three-legged stool of great B2B execution.  I’ve seen too many excellent marketing strategies collapse due to failure to
execute on one or more of these areas.

· Demand Generation – In my experience, this is a B2B marketer’s primary objective
(driving revenue) and is also the primary concern from sales reps, who always
want more leads and higher quality leads. Therefore, it is essential for marketers to partner with sales/sales
operations to jointly create a lead management system. And critical to that system is Sales
defining their EXACT criteria for targeting and their EXACT criteria for an A
lead vs. a B lead vs. an inquiry.

· Customer Messaging – Foundational to all great marketing and sales
programs is the right message.  I’ve seen too many marketers that develop
inward-focused, product-centric messages that talk about how great they are,
how well their stuff works, and why it’s better than the competition. Instead, they need to create messaging that
shows the customer how they can help them accomplish a goal, solve a problem or
meet a need.  Customer focused messaging is essential to power compelling
Sales meetings/proposals and compelling demand generation campaigns.

· Sales Effectiveness – Hitting revenue goals requires
that marketing properly equip the sales force to build customer solutions,
communicate value, and clearly differentiate from the competition.  As described above, standard product
brochures and presentations are a complete waste of time. Marketing has to develop tools that the
sales force will actually want to use! For starters, marketing must develop a library of presentations that
addresses each of the top pains customers have (i.e. helping them solve a
problem). In conjunction, there should
be a well-written business case for each pain, including a customizable section where the
sales rep can leverage an interactive TCO / ROI calculator to model the
customer’s unique situation. The icing
on the cake is proof-proof-proof in the form of customer case studies and video
testimonials.

These
three areas might not be as sexy as branding, advertising or viral marketing,
but they are where B2B marketers should spend the bulk of their time if they
want to impact the top and bottom line.

Jan 26
0

Bridging the Sales-Marketing Gap – Part 2

By | General Marketing | No Comments

The "Good" – forming a true partnership between Sales and Marketing where both parties have skin in the game.

Continuing
from my last post, here are some of actions I’ve used to bridge the gap between
sales and marketing.

When
you join a new organization spend the first 2-3 weeks out in the field with as
many account executives and customers as possible before doing anything
else!!! You want to get real customer
input before being biased by headquarters thinking.

  • For both reps and customers ask about their business
    challenges, what they value in a company/vendor, how the company compares to
    competitors, etc.
  • Ask the reps what marketing support they really
    need. If they had limited money and
    could only pick one thing what would it be (leads vs. awareness)? Have them define their ideal lead … i.e.
    what makes an A lead different from a B lead? Get tons of input on this and then publish the lead-scoring criteria to
    all reps for comments. This is
    essential before you start shooting leads to the field!  (I’ll write lots more posts on this later)

You must also spend a couple of days double-jacking with
Inside Sales reps, CRMs and Customer Service reps as they complete the picture
of the customer experience. Ask them
the same questions and you’ll likely get different answers from the field reps.

Work
closely with the Regional Sales Directors to get their honest assessment on
marketing and what needs to be improved. Attend their regular staff meetings to keep them up-to-date on changes
you’ve made and solicit their feedback. Once a rapport is established you gain valuable real-time feedback on
plans and tactics.

Create
a formal Advisory Council with representation from each region and the CRM
group but try to keep it manageable in size … about 6 members. As mentioned in the last post, make sure to
have senior management establish the council as recognition/reward for top
performers or it will fail.

  • Fly the council into headquarters for a full-day strategy
    and brainstorming session on the product mix, segment priorities, competitive
    threats, value-proposition, positioning, best marketing tactics, etc. (do this
    twice a year at a minimum).
  • Then include the council as formal reviewers as you progress
    through the marketing plan development. Use a Wiki or online team-room where council members can post their
    comments/plan edits for all to see and modify.
  • Once you’ve finalized the plan, have several of the members
    present it to the rest of the field via web conference. Then it becomes everyone’s plan not just
    Marketing’s.
  • Once in execution mode, have each council member take
    ownership for reviewing / improving one specific tactic. For example, one rep can review/edit the
    customer presentation, while another can review/edit the direct marketing
    materials. Keep it focused on one
    tactic since they don’t have much time and need to stay focused on sales not
    marketing.
  • Systematically communicate the recommendations of the
    council to the broader sales force (a bi-weekly summary email works well) as
    this recognizes sales contributions and helps with buy-in.

Obviously this is just a cursory overview of a very involved
process, but in my experience, it is absolutely worth the investment. When I joined Pfizer I followed a process
similar to this that enabled me to develop a true partnership with Sales and
marketing plans/actions that really hit the target. In contrast, when I started at another company, marketing worked
in an ivory tower and you can guess how that impacted relationships with sales
and the efficacy of marketing plans.

Jan 23
0

Bridging the Sales-Marketing Gap – Mary Delaney at CareerBuilder.com

By | B2B, General Marketing | No Comments

The "Bad" – thinking you can beat the competition with Sales and Marketing in separate silos.

I attended a great presentation yesterday by Mary Delaney, Chief Sales Officer at CareerBuilder.com.  The event was hosted by the Chicago chapter of the BMA
which is really good compared to some other trade groups. They get top
notch executive speakers and 200 – 300 attendees per meeting, with more
execs than vendors, but I digress. Mary’s topic was bridging the
Sales-Marketing gap. Its an issue that all marketers face, especially in
B2B companies where the sales force is the primary link to the customer, and it can lead to really bad marketing.

Mary
discussed how CareerBuilder.com’s model of strong sales-marketing
partnering was one of the primary reasons they were able to overtake
Monster.com and become the largest online employment site in less than
3 years. Mary advocates that all marketers create a Sales Advisory
Council that provides systematic and candid input on strategy and
tactics. CareerBuilder.com takes this council very seriously . . .
Account Execs are elected or "hired" to the council and have to be top
performers, making quota for two consecutive years. Moreover, they must
actively contribute or risk being "fired" from the council. Among the
keys to success, Mary listed listening and recognition as the most
important. The marketers really listen to Sales and take actions based
on their advice. Additionally, they go to great lengths to recognize
top contributors. For example, one particularly creative Sales manager
helped lead the development of their high successful ad campaign
featuring monkeys and was bonused for all commercials that finished in
USAToday’s Top 10. Another example involved flying the Mother &
Father of the council member to the national meeting and having them
participate in his/her award ceremony. Now that is recognition!

The
bottom-line is that to be a successful marketer you have to get both
the strategy and the tactics right. You can’t sit in your office and do
it alone. You must have a regular process to get real input from the
field, and you have to make it worthwhile for the Sales people or they
won’t do it.

In my next post I’ll outline some of the methods I’ve used that really worked.

Jan 23
0

Battle of the value meals

By | Advertising, General Marketing | No Comments

The "Bad" – not using a real/meaningful customer insight to build your ad campaign.  Sorry, another consumer marketing example but I couldn’t resist.

I
watched a lot of football this weekend (Go Bears!) and really got tired
of seeing the same commercials over and over and over. One that really
perplexed me was the Wendy’s
commercial for their value meal. It features two guys sitting in a
library eating value meals … one is eating a Wendy’s value meal with
normal size burger/fries/drink and the other is eating an unknown brand
that is miniature in size. Of course the guy eating the Wendy’s meal
gloats that he has the better deal since both are the same $2.99 price.

First
of all, is a library the best setting for a battle of value meals?
Secondly, the message makes no sense. Wendy’s is trying to say that
their meals are a better value but does anyone really think that
McDonald’s or Burger King value meals are small compared to Wendy’s. If
anything those two chains have built huge brand awareness around "super
size." So why is Wendy’s trying to compete on size/value when they
aren’t differentiated at all on those attributes? The Wendy’s marketing
folks should ask themselves if there really is a large group of
consumers that have a problem with the value they are getting from
McDonalds, Burger King, et. al. Obviously I don’t have Wendy’s reams of
market research but my gut tells me there isn’t, and in fact both Micky
D’s and BK were running commercials about their dollar menus during the
same broadcasts. Instead of trying to manufacture a differentiation
where one doesn’t exist, Wendy’s should look at what their customers
really value about their restaurant and then try to build the
awareness/preference on that attribute … perhaps quality, taste or
freshness.

In contrast, during the same football games Subway
was running their commercial poking fun of ALL burger chain value
meals. The commercial shows a woman ordering a #6 value meal at a drab
burger counter and then changing her mind to order a #9 value meal. The
smug server takes the #6 box and turns it around to become a #9 and
then pushes it back to the customer. The commercial then shows the
Subway fresh value meal and mentions the variety of choices customers
have (bread, meats, veggies, etc.). It ends with the tag line "where
freshness meets value." Subway gets it. They understand their real
differentiation from the burger joints and have consistently reinforced
it in their commercials year after year.