There’s a reason marketers are literally pouring their budgets into new internet marketing programs. 

They work.

Marketers spent $16.9 billion on search, display and rich media in 2006, and that number could be $31.3 billion by 2011 according to ClickZ and IDC Internet.  Internet advertising is growing three times as fast as the overall ad spend, they explain.

B2B companies are still relatively new to internet marketing.  But even an entrenched, traditional firm can successfully implement an internet marketing strategy with dramatic results. 

But where do you start?  Optimize your website?  Launch a paid search campaign?  Try your hand at blogging, article writing, social media?  The choices are overwhelming.

Here’s a great springboard:  Add valuable content to your website.  Don’t just slice & dice your sales literature -- I’m talking about high quality pages, white papers, tools and other content that’s meaningful and relevant for your prospects and customers.

Enquiro has published a number of terrific studies about the role of search engines in the B2B buying process.  In their 2007 search study, 65.3% of business buyers said they would start their research with a search engine.  “We found a heavy reliance on online research in all aspects of the purchase cycle,” they say.  “Online resources are critical in the business purchasing process and a few of them stand head and shoulders above the rest, notably websites and search engines.”

Quality website content can help you take advantage of this trend and deliver three big benefits:  1.  Lure visitors and prospects, 2. Qualify & engage your audience, and 3. Build your brand.

1.  Lure visitors and prospects

Many B2B companies think of their website as a static brochure -- home page, product page, services page, about us, and maybe a news center.  And if people are searching specifically for your company or product name, they should find you.
 
But what about the prospects who have never heard of you?  What will they search for?  They’ll use a keyword or phrase that describes their problem, their pain or a general category of solution.

When your site is inwardly-focused, it’s virtually impossible to rank highly in search engine results for broad terms unless you pay for it.  Why?  Because you need GOOD content that’s relevant for those general descriptions people are using.

Search engine spiders need content

Search engine spiders scour the entire web about once a month.  They “read” as much of your site as they can and then decide 1. what it’s about and 2. whether it’s important. 

When you give the spiders more rich, relevant content about your area of expertise, you’re improving the likelihood that they’ll say yes, this is important and deserves to be ranked highly in search results. 

Spiders also prefer content that’s updated regularly.  In fact, when you update regularly they’ll visit you more frequently.  That gives you a chance to get your new content in the search engine results more quickly and can help your Google PageRank.

Generate more inbound links

When you offer more quality content on your site, you’re creating more reasons for other sites to link to you.  This activity delivers two benefits:

• People will click through from other sites.
• Search engines will reward you.  Spiders say, hey, this content must be valuable or other quality sites wouldn’t link to it.  And when they’re deciding what sites are the most valuable, these “votes” are a critical variable.

2.  Qualify and engage your audience

You’re probably painfully familiar with this vicious cycle:  Marketing generates leads but sales doesn’t follow up; salespeople complain that leads aren’t qualified and not worth followup. 

This morning I wasted 45 minutes of a sales rep’s time (and my own) because I misunderstood his service.  I had done a Google search, looked at a bunch of websites, and contacted a few that I thought were the best fit.  However, I wasn’t the ideal client for his company.

He could have shortened that call to 10 minutes if he had asked more qualifying questions.  Better yet, his website could have done it.

You can cover much of the early sales process with strategic website content.  Spend more time educating your prospects and your leads will be more qualified.

3.  Build your brand

Your website is often the first interaction your prospects have with you.  What does it say about you?  Does it create trust?  Does it make prospects want to do business with you? 

If your site is a standard brochure-type site with an inward focus, you’re missing an opportunity to build your brand (and B2B brands are important just like onsumer brands). 

Instead, create more content that communicates your brand promise.  Speak directly to your audience and their pain.  Build value and make them want to work with you.

Conclusion

It isn’t easy to write good content for the web, but a great copywriter can help you develop the strategy and create these valuable assets that can help you drive traffic, leads and revenue.  And consider creating content for different market segments or buyer personas, too.

Once you have solid content on your site, you can start adding social networking tools and campaigns to leverage that content. But you have to start somewhere … and that means creating content first.

This is a really long post and I want to share some specific content ideas and examples.  Look for them soon!

Technorati tags:  SEM | SEO | business | marketing | sales

Last week James talked about the unglamorous but important topic of distribution channels. It’s one of the “4 Ps” (“placement”), but many marketers and smaller companies don’t think about it as often as they should.  And it’s potentially the most important strategy in your arsenal. 

When you sell a physical product, it’s easy to keep distribution strategy and channels at the top of the priority list.  You may have a direct sales team, a network of resellers & VARs, a retail presence, a catalog and/or an e-commerce website.

But what about distribution options for intangibles like services?

Most service firms in the U.S. are small businesses under $1 million in revenue. Many are caught in the E-Myth -- the founders are working in the business with little time to work on the business.  And when you’re stuck in the E-Myth, it’s tough to find time to lead your company to hyper-growth.

For these businesses, a new distribution channel can be just the ticket.  The opportunities may not be obvious, but they’re there when you apply your creativity.

Here are some key questions to get you started:

1. List other products or services your customers use.

• What problem are your customers trying to solve when they buy from you? 
• Are there complementary services or products that come before or after they join you? 
• What else may be on your decisionmaker’s plate at the time they buy from you?

2. Find organizations who already have access to your prospects.  Think broadly about

• Media they consume (online content, podcasts, industry publications, newspapers, etc.)
• Services they subscribe to
• Consultants or vendors they work with
• Companies they buy from regularly
• Organizations they belong to
• Events they attend

The organizations you’ve listed are potential distribution partners or channels for you! 

Here are a few case studies to inspire you as well.

Strategy #1:  Buck tradition

Logoworks uses a non-traditional distribution strategy for their industry with enormous success.
 
There are thousands of graphic designers & firms in every city.  They compete for the same business and it’s difficult to gain leverage over their time. 

Instead of setting up shop and knocking on local doors, Logoworks distributes their design services via the internet.  They use search engine marketing (both organic and paid search), online ad campaigns and ongoing online publicity to gain clients all over the world.  It’s possible for them because they also distribute their product – logo designs – via the web.  

This distribution strategy also gives them a more compelling value proposition:  operational efficiency.  By using a pool of virtual designers, Logoworks is able to provide clients multiple design options at a much lower cost than a traditional firm.

Their internet distribution model has been extremely successful, and this spring, H-P acquired the company.  Why?  H-P wants to use the Logoworks offering as a value-add to their small-business customers.

That’s a smart distribution strategy.

Strategy #2:  Hang out with your customers

Here’s another distribution option: partner with a company whose customers need your service.

Geek Squad

Let’s say you’re launching a new tech support service. You could knock on doors and market your services locally.  Or you could raise millions and spend it on marketing, physical locations and overhead. 

Instead, Geek Squad partnered with Best Buy to offer their services right inside their stores.   When Best Buy sells a computer, customers know that Geek Squad can service it if they have any problems. They even promote the Geek Squad brand in the parking lot.  
 
This partnership was so successful that Best Buy acquired Geek Squad in 2002.

Jigsaw

Companies that create software widgets can find great success partnering with bigger software companies that have a critical mass of users.

Jigsaw founders Jim Fowler and Garth Mouton were a pair of high-tech sales pros frustrated with the amount of time they spent searching for contact information. So they created Jigsaw, an online directory of more than five million business cards.

Now they needed access to salespeople, so they joined Salesforce.com’s App Exchange program, offering their service to any Salesforce user.

Salesforce.com is a major distribution channel for Jigsaw, giving them access to tens of thousands of potential customers.

They’re now one of the 10 top App Exchange applications.

Home Depot

How about a non-technical case study?  Consider all of the vendors who provide service via Home Depot.

When you hand over your credit card for granite countertops, flooring or a new garage door, you don’t have to DIY.  Home Depot will sell you installation services if you need them, but they don’t provide those services directly. 

Instead, they have teams of subcontractors in each market to perform those jobs.  Home Depot is a distribution partner for those contractors, giving them access to a large pool of customers who need their services right now.

Get serious about distribution!

Developing a new distribution strategy, then creating and managing the program can be tough work – particularly if you’re a service company with limited resources.

But if you’re looking for new ways to gain leverage and build your business, take a serious look at your distribution strategy.  You can start small with a single partnership and work up from there. 

Still reading?  I must have hit on something valuable!  How does your company think about distribution?  Have you considered new strategies in the last year?  What’s worked and what hasn’t?  Please share your thoughts in the comment area below.

Distribution channels have become the least glamorous strategy in the B2B marketing portfolio.  Who writes about building channels, nurturing partners and channel performance?

I feel grizzled just tackling this subject.  Social media, search marketing and new media are the topics with heat even in the B2B crowd (a small group compared to consumer marketers, I might add).  Frankly, there’s been nothing new or exciting to say about distribution strategy for many years.

Many marketers in established companies don’t give much thought to distribution strategy.  Maybe it’s because they think of distribution as the movement of a physical product from one place to another. 

Or maybe it’s because distribution is a strategy that’s only discussed in the executive suite, and marketers often don’t have a seat at that table.  Maybe it’s just because it’s rare to find new case studies and stories about innovative channel design and management.

A key marketing strategy

But distribution strategy (one of the “4 Ps”, BTW) is perhaps the most important weapon in your arsenal.  Great distribution strategy and execution can dramatically boost your top line.  A poorly-performing channel can do the opposite. 

For many B2B service firms (including SaaS companies like us who don’t physically distribute a product), “channels” are somewhat intangible and take creativity to apply. For example, you can create a private-label version of your service and offer it to large partners to offer to their customers.  Or you can create a packaged offering where you join forces with other companies to offer a larger suite of services. 

We’ll write more about creating channels for service companies in our next post.  Today I’m focusing on improving an existing channel using H-P’s PC division as an example.

H-P versus Dell

While H-P used to own the #1 spot in the PC market, Dell took over the top spot in 2003. Dell’s direct distribution model became the envy of all PC manufacturers and made them a darling on Wall Street (and a case study for all MBA students). Christopher Lawton’s post for the Wall Street Journal provides great detail about H-P’s fall and strategy to regain the top spot.

It started in 2005 when H-P CEO Mark Hurd hired Todd Bradley to run its PC business. Bradley quickly found out that H-P was concentrating resources where Dell was strong:   in direct sales over the internet and phone.

More importantly, in focusing in head-to-head competition with Dell, H-P was neglecting its retail stores. Bradley found a slew of problems:

• Late and incomplete deliveries
• Strained partner relations 
• No marketing focus (the printer division handled PC marketing)

H-P’s research also showed that 58% of PC buyers had no preference whether they bought a PC in a store or online.

Let the plum tree wither for the peach

So instead of fighting a losing battle online, Bradley shifted H-P’s focus to a battle it could win: in the retail distribution channel.

Bradley immediately began repairing relations with retailers, freshened designs to appeal to retail buyers, formed the PC’s own marketing group, upped his retail outlet marketing budget, and designed new campaigns targeted to the retail buyers.

Some of his campaigns such as “The Computer is Personal Again” with rapper Jay-Z and fashion designer Vera Wang alarmed H-P employees, who felt Bradley was too focused on consumer PCs, ignoring corporate business.

He shrugged off the criticism. “I wasn’t holding an election.”

The results? H-P’s retail outlet strategy vaulted it back to the undisputed world lead in personal computer sales.

When you’re losing marketing share, shifting the battle to one you can win might work for you. (It’s one of the 36 Stratagems of ancient China:  Let the plum tree wither in place of the peach.)

Six ways to improve your channel’s performance

If you need to improve your channel performance like H-P, here are six things you can do to improve your top line.

1.  Make it a priority. Devote resources to channel management – preferably at least one dedicated manager whose sole responsibility is to manage those relationships and build the marketing programs to drive revenue through the channel.

2.  Develop measurements and track performance. Know who your best sales performers are at each point in the channel. By tracking orders, volume and total revenue at each point, you can identify and improve underperforming partners and keep your top performers happy.

3. Communicate!  Build relationships at each step of your channel.  If you’re not talking with your partners, how can you identify problems and solve them?  And how will you know whether your programs are working and how to make them better?

4. Drive revenue through the channel. Take ownership of the marketing campaigns that will drive revenue at all levels through the channel.  Your partners have to focus on building their own customer base, not marketing just your product (remember that you’re not the only solution they offer). 

5.  Avoid pricing conflicts. Establish a pricing strategy and stick to it.  If channel conflict arises because of price, attempt to resolve it ASAP.

6.  Address conflicts swiftly. Since distrust and channel conflict is common, it’s important to address problems quickly to find a solution.

After writing this, it’s even clearer to me why there’s no buzz about channels. Building and managing traditional channels isn't glamorous and requires a lot of elbow grease. But even though channels have little sizzle in the marketing mix, they’re a big piece of the steak.

In our next post we’ll share ideas for applying the channel concept in a B2B service business.  And as always, please share your thoughts and questions via the comments below!

Technorati tags:  marketing | sales | strategy | B2B | business

It’s always challenging to recruit top talent for your team.

If you’re an early stage company, it’s even tougher. You need extremely talented people who share your passion and vision, are willing to work longer hours, carry more responsibility, in a less defined position, and for less cash than your established competitors.

Even if you’re an established small or mid-market company, you still need to differentiate yourself against well-known companies.

In Good to Great, Jim Collins explains that great companies get the right people on the bus before they decide where to drive. When you have the best people on your team, you have more opportunities, experience and insight on where the bus should go.  And even if you take a wrong turn, the right people can help you turn around and find your way.

Finding extraordinary talent takes special effort.  You’re looking for the best and you have a lot of competition for their time and talent.  You need to position and brand your company to your prospective employees. 

Yes, recruiting is all about marketing!  And Simona Covel of the Wall Street Journal ran a piece last week about an incredibly creative recruiting campaign that should inspire every company looking for top talent.  

Red 5 Studios, an online videogame startup in southern California, was frustrated with traditional recruiting strategies.  So CEO Mark Kern decided to market directly to his top prospects.

They started by creating a list of 250 top videogame developers (“It starts with Google, and then you branch out from there,” said Kern). Then they spent 4 months whittling their list to 100 of the best and brightest.

Red 5 created five Russian doll-in-doll-style nested boxes and put an iPod Shuffle in the smallest box – and it was engraved with the candidate’s name.

Even better, Red 5 had loaded a custom message from Kern.  He spoke directly to the candidates about their past work and invited them to visit the Red 5 website to learn more about their “golden ticket” opportunity.  

Needless to say, candidates were blown away, and three of them joined Red 5 within four months (another one is interviewing).  And Red 5 got a lot of attention for their campaign, raising their profile in the industry, landing them in the Wall Street Journal, and increasing their total resume flow tenfold.

Total cost for this campaign?  $50K.  And while you may not have that kind of budget, you can use a similar creative approach to find your next superstar:

1.  Define your target market. A good list is the greatest success factor for any campaign. Why not create a list of potential candidates for your position?

2.  Craft your message. Why should candidates get excited about your opportunity?  What’s in it for them?  Create messages that will make them feel special and want to talk with you.

3.  Design your creative. You don’t need to create a five-piece Russian box with an engraved iPod, but do think of another creative execution that will grab attention and convey your brand in the process.

4.  Budget based on your projected return.  Any form of recruiting is expensive, particularly when you need to engage a specialized search firm.  So project your response rates and expected number of hires.  Then determine what each hire is worth to you.  This projection will tell you how much to budget for the campaign. 

Consider the additional long-term and publicity benefits you may gain as well … remember that Red 5 increased their total resume flow tenfold and got worldwide press coverage, which will produce returns for years to come.

5.  Shape your call to action. Make sure you end with a strong one – get prospects to contact you now.  And make it easy for them to respond quickly without major commitment.  If you make them send an updated resume with a cover letter to your HR team, prospects may not respond quickly.  Remember that you’re going after them for a reason, so get the dialogue rolling!

6.  Execute!  Make sure your interviewing process lives up to the promises you’ve made.  You want to maintain the enthusiasm and momentum, then make offers and close deals.

Finding great people is no different than finding great customers. This time you’re selling your company, your vision and your opportunities, not your product. 

This time, you’re selling a ticket for a bus ride.  All aboard!

PS – Check out these 10 great recruiting tips from Guy Kawasaki, including how you should hire better than yourself to avoid the Bozo Explosion!

Technorati tags:  marketing | recruiting | sales | B2B | business

Have you ever considered firing your star salesperson??

I thought not.

Yet that’s just what the CEO of Anthropologie did.  It’s one of the great stories in “Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win” by William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre. 

We’ve talked about hiring sales reps that live & breathe your brand. They connect with your market every day.  And when they don't personally convey your brand personality, they negate your entire brand strategy and competitive positioning strategy. 

Great companies are original and different, say the authors. They have a strong purpose and cause that they live and breathe every day.

CEO Glen Senk has helped grow Anthropologie (a women's apparel and accessories retailer) from one location and $2 MM in annual revenue in 1994 to 77 stores and $500 MM in 2005.  He’s achieved this success in part by focusing on their passion and sticking to their cause.

Here’s how Senk describes their brand:

“Our customers are our friends, and what we do is never, ever, ever about selling to them. It’s about helping people put together a wardrobe or create an eclectic home. It’s about helping someone look great and feel good about themselves. It’s never about the quick sale.”

Back to the star salesperson.  She consistently sold $6,000-$7,000 of merchandise daily.  Her store had an incredible day whenever she was on the floor.

But Senk watched her in action and made a discovery:  she didn’t really care what she was selling.  She just wanted to make the sale.

“She let people walk out of the dressing room with things that simply didn’t look good,” Senk explained. 

He fired her immediately.  She wasn’t treating customers as her friends. 

Anthropologie has a clear brand personality and believes their employees must radiate that brand. No exceptions.  And it’s hard to argue with their success.

In many B2B companies, people are the brand and the ONLY differentiator.  Sales reps, account managers, customer service and support teams all shape the customer experience.  And that makes it even MORE important to hire team members that live & breathe your brand promise!

Have you experienced this in your business?  Any recommendations or thoughts for our readers?  Please share your thoughts in the comments lbelow.

For more great ideas, here’s the book on Amazon.  You can also download a free manifesto at the Mavericks at Work website.

Technorati tags:  business  | marketing | sales | Mavericks at Work | B2B | Anthropologie

Carol Hymnowitz’s recent Wall Street Journal article “CEOs Are Spending More Quality Time With Their Customers” highlights a trend that can directly impact your company’s competitive strategy.

CEOs of Nike, Intel and Sun are becoming more involved in the selling process, focusing on tailoring products and services to meet the demands of their top customers.

And it’s more than just a ceremonial visit. These CEOs are overcoming objections and negotiating deals, giving them an intimate understanding of market pain and the value they may (or may not) provide.

From a marketer’s perspective, this is a great trend!  A CEO who works directly with customers often gains a new appreciation for the strategic landscape.  And that makes it easier for marketers to gain the CEO’s support for strategic initiatives.  It can also help marketing gain a stronger voice in C-level discussions on business strategy.

From a CEO’s perspective, a deep understanding of true customer needs is a critical variable when shaping your company’s competitive strategy.  It gives you an unvarnished look at your position in the market and a clear understanding of the issues your marketing needs to address. 

Better yet, these CEO/customer meetings can trigger big ideas that can take your company in exciting new directions.  Take, for example, Starbucks.

In the early 1980s, Starbucks was a wholesaler selling coffee beans.  On a trip to Milan, Howard Schultz (a VP at the time) visited a coffee bar and came up with the idea to re-create the Italian coffee-bar culture in the United States.

The company founders resisted Schultz’s recommendation to change their business model from wholesale to retail.  Recognizing the opportunity, he quit the company and started his own.  He achieved immediate success and bought out the Starbucks founders in 1987.  We all know the rest of the story.

Schultz's first-hand experience gave him the insight to create an entirely new market.  But it’s difficult to drive such innovation from a VP position.  He had to quit Starbucks to make it happen on his own.

Schultz delivered what the authors of the popular book Blue Ocean Strategy call value innovation.  Instead of just trying to beat the competition, make the competition irrelevant.  Create a leap in value for buyers and you can open entirely new and uncontested markets.   

Every CEO dreams of becoming the uncontested leader in a new market space. It’s also the best spot for marketing directors.  After all, defining a new market space is usually more exciting and rewarding than battling in the trenches in a noisy market with established competitors.

But it’s rare for companies to achieve this goal. Logic tells me that meaningful value innovation comes from a deep understanding of the market and customers.  It’s more than data and customer surveys.  It takes big-picture right-brained thinking -- empathy, synchrony, creating meaning. 

Remember what Henry Ford said?

“If I’d built what people were asking me for, I’d have delivered a faster horse!”

It seems pretty clear that value innovation is an enormously powerful business strategy. And since CEOs need to drive strategic changes, it’s important to know the market like the back of their hand. But they need to know more than just the numbers.  They need to understand customer experiences to truly innovate.

What better way to learn than to experience it than by selling?

Technorati tags:  marketing | business | sales | strategy | B2B

Today we’re finishing up our series on Dan Pink’s A Whole New Mind.  In our first post we introduced Dan’s premise that we’re in a new Conceptual Age where companies will succeed or fail thanks to right-brained, "R-Directed" thinking.

Last week Nancy introduced his six critical right-brained skills:  design, storytelling, symphony, empathy, play and meaning.  Many B2B marketing programs are dry and dull, so she ended with six ways to apply those concepts to your next campaign.

Today I’m going back to old-school left-brain thinking.  Frankly, most marketing teams aren’t doing enough of it.  What most B2B companies need is the “Genius of the And” – more right brain AND more left brain. 

B2B marketers often face a credibility gap in their own companies.  After all, most C-level executives didn’t come from the marketing function.  Many of them think of marketing as a purely creative function (think “advertising”) that produces questionable results.  And if it can’t be measured, then it’s logical that the marketing budget is the first to go when revenue is down.

To overcome this problem, marketers need to beef up their “L-Directed Thinking” as well.  It’s about analysis, numbers and processes:  ROI, conversion rates, defined stages, revenue projections, gross sales, net profits, asset values.  These terms resonate with C-level executives and VPs of Sales.  These figures provide the credibility and strategic value that most B2B companies need.

Marketing Champions (by the MarketingProfs founders) goes into rich detail on this subject. The key is to show a method behind your madness.  Every business function except marketing typically has a systematic process, metrics and a purpose that’s aligned with the C-level vision.  By instilling these same concepts in your marketing function, you’ll improve your performance and stature within the company.

So how can you apply more process, purpose and metrics to your marketing efforts? 

• Develop your marketing plans to support and drive your CEO’s business strategies
• Set tangible goals that you can measure
• Tie marketing campaigns to specific sales goals
• Measure and continually refine to improve your results
• Communicate outcomes in financial terms

If you’re a right-brained marketing director wondering where to start, try this:  Take one of your finance or accounting people to lunch and pick their brains about measurement and analysis.  Ask them to help you set up specific metrics so that you can communicate your results in the financial and process-oriented terms that C-levels crave:

• What was the ROI of this campaign?
• How much of the sales process do I own?
• What’s our most valuable market segment?
• How much does my budget contribute to the company’s bottom line?

By building out your team’s left-brained focus, you’ll be in a far stronger position to bring your company’s business strategies to life.  It can help you save your budget from the relentless red pen, close the credibility gap and give you a well-deserved seat at the executive table.

Yet remember that function, process and metrics aren’t enough to differentiate companies in the Conceptual Age.  We need to focus more on design, symphony, empathy and storytelling.  But alone, either set of skills is only a half a brain.  What we need is a whole new mind.

Links for more reading:

• Our first and second post in this series
• A Whole New Mind - Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future and Dan Pink's blog
• Darren Rowse from ProBlogger did a great series about creativity this past week
• Marketing Champions:  Practical Strategies for Improving Marketing's Power, Influence, and Business Impact by Roy Young, Allen Weiss and David Stewart 
• Built to Last:  Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras

And our Technorati tags:  business | marketing | Dan Pink | Whole New Mind | B2B

Our last post talked about Dan Pink’s groundbreaking book “A Whole New Mind.”  His premise is that we’ve moved into a new era -- the Conceptual Age -- where people and companies will succeed or fail thanks to right-brained skills like inventiveness, empathy, joyfulness and big-picture thinking. 

Dan isn’t suggesting that left-brained analytical skills aren’t important any more.  It’s just that “L-Directed Thinking” isn't enough to create compelling products and services.  For example, the iPod dominates its category because of its design and how it makes us feel – right-brained attributes.

How can we become more right-brained and create this whole new mind?  Dan lists these six “R-Directed” skills that we should try to master:

1.  Design sense.  In the Conceptual Age, pure functionality isn’t enough to differentiate a product, service or experience.  Functionality is a given.  So these days it’s crucial to incorporate great design as well – that’s what brings pleasure, meaning and beauty to our lives.  

2.  Storytelling.  We’re mired in data, arguments, points and counterpoints.  To rise above the clutter, we need to focus not on pure logic but on telling stories that take people on a meaningful, memorable journey.

3. Symphony.  As routine analytical work is relegated to Asia and automation, we need to build what Dan calls “symphony” --  the ability to synthesize rather than just analyze.  It’s a skill that enables us to see relationships between seemingly unrelated elements so that we can combine them into compelling new ideas.

4. Empathy.  When we’re saturated with information and analytical tools, logic just isn’t enough.  We need to empathize:  understand the feelings of others, recognize what drives and inspires them, and build relationships. 

5. Play.  “Too much sobriety can be bad for your career and worse for your general well-being,” says Dan.  Inject your personal and professional life with laughter and fun!  Plus it’s easier to create stories, build empathy and symphony with a smile on your face. 

6. Meaning.  Most of us are fortunate to have our day-to-day needs covered.  As a result, we have the opportunity to focus on the big picture – purpose, meaning, lofty desires.  We can pursue not just what we need, but what we want – and that’s to add joy and success to our lives. 

Dan devotes a full chapter to each concept – there are lots of great ideas to help you flex your right brain and apply these principles to your work and personal life.  For example, he suggests checking out museums to build your appreciation for design.  (He also claims that an MFA is the new MBA.)

B2C brands have had to master these principles to create ad campaigns that make consumers feel certain ways about their products.  B2C marketers don’t typically talk about functionality, product specifcations, or other dry details.  Instead, they tell stories; they empathize; they use design and words to evoke emotions; they attempt to create meaning. 

If you’ve read this far (!) you’re probably nodding your head about these ideas.  So as a forward-thinking B2B marketer or executive, try applying these six principles to your next marketing program or campaign.  For example:

• Empathize with your prospects.  Understand their human feelings and the real reasons they buy (or shy away from) your product.
• Draw on your powers of “symphony” to come up with wild new creative ideas.
• Develop a story that will resonate with your prospects.
• Take them on a meaningful journey.  Show them that you really know them, help them feel good and see how your product/service can improve their professional lives.
• Incorporate humor and fun into your message.  Business buyers are people too!
• Use design to differentiate.  Make your story look and sound unique, stimulating and beautiful.

If you can incorporate these principles into your marketing programs and campaigns, you can help your company stand out in the Conceptual Age.

But good strategic marketing isn’t just about creative campaigns.  We still need plenty of L-Directed analytical thinking to build processes, crunch numbers and measure our success. 

In fact, most sales & marketing teams don’t have enough left-brained thinkers to fulfill this vision of a “whole new mind.”  So in our next post, we’ll talk about L-Directed skills and processes that help the marketing function truly drive the strategy of a business.

Again, here’s a link to the book.

Technorati tags:  business | marketing | Dan Pink | Whole New Mind | B2B

A friend recently introduced me to Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind.  It’s a profound and exciting book and I couldn’t recommend it more.  So I’m writing a series of blog posts to share his ideas and apply them to the world we live in – that of the CEO and marketer in a small-to-midsize company.

First the credits.  Dan is the author of Free Agent Nation, a contributing editor for Wired  and a contributor to the New York Times, Harvard Business Review and Fast Company. 

And now his premise:  The last few decades have belonged to left-brained thinkers – computer programmers, lawyers, MBAs, accountants.  Linear, logical, sequential, analytical thinkers. 

But that time is over.  We’ve moved beyond that Information Age into an era he calls the Conceptual Age.  And in the Conceptual Age, people and companies will succeed or fail thanks to right-brained skills like inventiveness, empathy, joyfulness and big-picture thinking. 

In this era, skills that may once have been considered frivolous are now a competitive necessity for companies.  Logical and linear is now in the passenger seat and creative, high-concept thinking is behind the wheel.

To say his idea is big would be an understatement.  And Dan lays out a very convincing argument.  He points to these three root causes for the shift from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age:

1.  Abundance.  We have everything we need.  Now we have an opportunity to focus on adding meaning to our lives.

2.  Asia.  There are more highly-skilled and trained workers in Asia than the entire population of the U.S.  And they can perform highly-skilled, linear, logical work for 10-20% of the cost.

3.  Automation.  Computers can automate almost any repetitive task and do it more quickly than a human could ever dream. 

U.S. workers and companies who want to thrive in this next economy should ask themselves three tough questions:

1.  Can someone overseas do it more cheaply than I can?
2.  Can a computer do it faster than I can?
3.  Is what I’m offering in demand in an age of abundance?

If our skills, products or services can’t stand up to these three questions, then we’ll suffer in the Conceptual Age.

The good news is that companies and individuals can increase our focus on right-brained aptitudes.  In my next post, I’ll write about the 6 aptitudes that Dan thinks will increasingly guide our lives and careers in the Conceptual Age.  Then I’ll talk about how to apply those aptitudes in your company. 

If you’ve read Pink’s book, what did you think of his arguments?  And have you applied any of his principles to your business?  Please share your thoughts, questions and ideas with our readers!

Also, here’s a link to the book and Dan’s blog.

Technorati tags:  business | marketing | Dan Pink | Whole New Mind | B2B

Our last post about Parker Hannifin’s pricing strategy brought up a lot of great questions from our readers and colleagues.

To recap, Parker Hannifin (a $9 billion company) was struggling with their profit margins, so they modified their pricing strategies. 

They grouped their 800,000 products into categories based on their level of differentiation in the market.  For their most highly differentiated products with little or no competition, they raised prices substantially.  Then they implemented less dramatic increases for more competitive categories.  As a result, they generated an additional $200 million in operating income.

Their story offers a great case study on pricing strategy. But the question we’re hearing is “How do I evaluate whether I can truly increase prices without jeopardizing my sales volume and profitability?”

After all, a price increase can be very risky.  As we all know, when you increase prices, you should expect a drop in sales volume.  But the real question is this:  By how much will that volume rise or fall? 

For example, if you raise prices 10% and your volume drops 20%, you’re in trouble.  But if it only drops 5%, you’ll generate more profit at the higher price point. 

The same is true if you’re lowering prices – if your volume increases at a greater rate than your price cut, you’ll generate more profit at the lower price.

So how can you measure this price sensitivity?  It’s difficult to calculate accurately unless you have plenty of historical price and volume data and an economist on staff. 

However, you can use these eight steps to generate a general estimate and test your new theory before you roll out a new pricing strategy.

1.  Know your value proposition.  If your pricing strategy and value proposition aren’t aligned, you’re contradicting yourself, confusing the market and limiting your opportunities.

2.  Group your products/services into categories:  Commodities, partially differentiated, substantially differentiated, custom.  And remember that your opinion may be different than that of your target market – while you may view your products as “highly” differentiated, they may think “partially.” 

3.  Evaluate your competition for each group of products.  How do your prices compare to those of your competitors? 

For many B2B companies, this step is easier said than done -- you’re less likely to find specific pricing info for your competitors.  If that’s the case, you can try to “secret shop” your competitors, ask prospects for feedback or just estimate a range.

4.  Talk to your sales reps.  If they’re very close to their prospects and customers, they may be able to provide solid estimates. 

Give them a chart and ask them “If our price was X, how many incremental deals do you think you could have won (or lost)?”  Provide 3-5 values for X.

5.  Survey your lost prospects and customers.  As in the previous step, you’re trying to project the number of deals you could have won or lost at different price levels.

You can have your sales reps contact prospects and customers or you can use an independent third party or formal survey.  Your goal is to find out whether they would have bought from you (or whether existing customers would buy more/less) at different price points. 

6. Calculate your total estimated profit at each price point.  First, calculate your total current profit at your existing price(s).

Units sold * (Price – Cost of Goods Sold) = Total current profit

Then look at your surveys and estimates and calculate the number of additional units you could sell (or lose) over the same time period.

(Existing units sold + incremental units sold) * (New price – Cost of Goods Sold) = Total projected profit

7.  Test your theory.  If possible, before you implement a company-wide pricing change, set up a statistically valid test to evaluate your new pricing.

8.  Develop a communication plan.  If you’re raising prices, your sales reps and materials will need to easily overcome any objections they face.  Consider giving existing prospects a window of time to buy at the current price.  And if you’re lowering prices, it’s a great time to plan a major campaign to announce your news.

Know other good resources, case studies on pricing strategy, price elasticity and/or testing?  Add a comment below or send us an email – we’ll share it with our readers.

Technorati tags:  business | marketing | sales | B2B | price

How does your company determine the price of your products and services?  Do you try to maximize revenue with prices based on value, or do you use a formula where you add a desired profit margin to your cost?

Consumer product marketers generally try to set prices based on what the market will bear.  They’ll define prices after reviewing loads of market research on market share, competition, consumer behavior, focus groups and brand strategies.

But many business-to-business companies still use the old “cost plus” method.  They’ll take their wholesale cost, add a flat percentage and viola – the price.

Unfortunately, this strategy could leave substantial revenue on the table.  Under this model, your profit margin is always the same, even when customers are willing to pay more.  There’s no reward for lowering your costs and you miss the opportunity for earnings growth. 

Donald Washkewicz, the CEO of Parker Hannifin Corp., found himself in this rut in 2001.  Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal (page 1) chronicles how he changed his company’s pricing strategy and boosted operating income by $200 million since 2002.

Parker Hannifin is a $9 billion, 89 year-old industrial parts manufacturer headquartered in Cleveland.  And while Mr. Washkewicz knew they needed to re-price their products, they have 800,000 of them -- no easy feat.

They started by grouping their products into five categories that reflected the level of differentiation and value those products provided to the market.

Once they’d grouped their products, they adjusted their prices for each category: 

It was a massive undertaking but well worth it – an additional $200 million in operating income and a jump in the company’s return on invested capital from 7% in 2002 to 21% in 2006.

This story is a tremendous example of how to move away from formulaic pricing.  Even if you only have 8 or 800 products, a strategic pricing adjustment can help you capture revenue that you’re leaving on the table. 

Technorati tags:  marketing | sales | B2B | business | Parker Hannifin

Suzanne Vranica’s article “On Madison Avenue, A Digital Wake-Up Call” in today’s Wall Street Journal (page B4) highlights how critical it is for today’s ad agencies to understand and embrace digital media. 

Nike has worked with the brilliant creative agency Wieden + Kennedy since 1982.  Their founders have a longstanding close relationship. 

Yet Nike needs more than terrific traditional campaigns.  They need to take full advantage of the internet and build a cohesive online strategy to reach their target audience, build their brand, foster their community and drive sales.

Apparantly Wieden didn't prioritize online marketing to the degree Nike needed.  And so earlier this month, Nike announced that they'll move their interactive assignments elsewhere.  

This wakeup call about online expertise isn’t just for big consumer ad agencies.  B2B marketers, consultants and agencies should pay attention as well. 

After all, B2B marketing budgets are on the rise.  Veronis Suhler Stevenson forecasts that B2B online spending will reach $2.4 billion this year, a 23.7% jump.  And a BtoB Online report says that marketers plan to spend those budgets on customer acquisition (62.3%), brand awareness (19.5%) and customer retention (11.0%). 

Many large B2B companies understand that the internet has fundamentally changed selling.  They use the web to provide prospects with the information they need, when they need it, to make a buying decision.  And their web strategies include lead generation, brand building, sales support and customer retention.
 
You don’t need to panic if you don’t have an integrated digital media plan in place.  Most small to medium sized B2B companies don’t.  A standard website, some occasional email blasts and a few paid search campaigns is often the norm for many companies between $50 MM and $250 MM in revenue.

But it’s time to start leveraging the power of the internet in your marketing mix.  Start learning about these opportunities and incorporating them now -- they’re only going to become more important with each passing quarter.

Here are 9 tips to get you started:

1. If you use a marketing agency or consultant, really learn about their online (aka “interactive”) expertise.  Many agencies are scrambling to add this expertise to their offerings, and many have a long way to go. 

2. Get smart about online opportunities.  Start using more web services, read online marketing blogs and pay attention to what other firms in your industry and outside it are doing online.

3. If you’re a B2B consultant or agency, trumpet your interactive expertise and show clients how you can truly help them build their business.  You should be able to execute a cohesive internet strategy including robust web development, paid search, organic SEO, email marketing, content offerings, blogging and social media, online publicity, and online ad buys.  And make sure to fully integrate these tactics with your clients’ traditional campaigns.

4. Make sure your website conveys your brand.  Ten years ago it was all about your corporate brochure.  Now it’s all about your website.  What impression does yours leave? If you’re not sure, take an informal poll and match it to your brand personality traits. If they don’t match, revamp your site.

5. And make sure your website sells.  Everyone reviews websites before engaging in a sales process.  Make sure your site gives prospects the information they want and need at each stage of your sales process.

6. Help prospects find you.  To show up in search engine listings, offer rich content on your site and launch an ongoing search engine optimization program that includes link-building, content strategy and on-page optimization techniques.

7. Consider paid search campaigns.  If your website is effective at generating qualified leads for your product or service, test some Google Adwords campaigns to generate more targeted business traffic. Consider creating a white paper or valuable report to generate qualified leads, or promote a special offer directly in your campaign.  Don’t forget to create specific landing pages to grab attention and hold the traffic you've just paid for.

8. Improve your email marketing.  Many B2B companies just use email to send out one-way sales messages instead of engaging prospects in an interactive, meaningful dialogue.  When done well, your email campaigns can truly help move prospects through the sales process, making reps more efficient and reducing costs. You can also use email to upsell and cross-sell to existing customers.

9. Learn more about online advertising.  As more and more industry journals and publications move online, online advertising becomes more effective and important.  Make sure to use landing pages to continue your call-to-action and ensure that response turn into qualified leads.

Looking for more resources? 

• Check out our blogroll (on the left) for great online marketing blogs and links to other websites. 
• BtoB Online’s 2006 Interactive Marketing Guide has detailed online spending statistics and trends for B2B and B2C marketers. 
• Our Strategic Marketing Process ebook provides a quick intro to all of these online disciplines.

 
And here is ClickZ's take on the news. 

Technorati tags:  business | marketing | advertising | Nike | B2B

In my last post I wrote about giving your next presentation a plot.  Whether you’re trying to persuade one person or a thousand, you need to grab attention, build value and close with something meaningful and exciting. 

Just like your favorite filmmaker!

Today I’ve got tips about storyboarding.  When you create a storyboard instead of just typing bullets into PowerPoint, you can really map out your plot and create a more compelling flow for your presentation.

If you’ve developed TV spots, videos or major websites, you’ve done this before.  You probably used huge boards filled with drawings to help the entire production team visualize your key points.

To create your storyboards, start with a pile of paper and colored markers.  And if you’re creating a sales presentation, grab a few sales & marketing team members to collaborate.

Here’s the process I use:

1. List (or draw!) your audience members on the first sheet.  During the entire presentation, they’re going to be thinking “What’s in it for me (WIIFM)?”  You want to create a presentation that answers that question.

2. What action do you want your audience to take when you’re done?  Write it on another sheet and add a giant “B.” 

3. Grab three more sheets and come up with three key benefits that your audience members will realize when they take action.  These benefits should be meaningful -- your audience needs to care about them.  Again, they’re thinking “WIIFM?”   List one WIIFM per sheet.

4. What’s the biggest benefit that can get your audience really excited about your topic?  Write it down and add a giant “A.”  You’ll create a hook around this point.

Now organize your sheets so they look like this:

Now you’re ready to get to the meat of your presentation.  Your mission:

• Grab their attention with the hook (A). 
• Tell a story that takes them on a journey that addresses their three key needs (1-3).
• End with a conclusion that gets them excited about taking action (B).

To plan the detailed “plot points” for the heart of your story, list two or three major benefits or supporting points for each of the three WIIFMs.  Write each one on a separate sheet, then narrow the list down to create only ten slides (that’s the “10” in Guy Kawasaki’s The 10-20-30 Rule of PowerPoint).  You’ll force yourself to stick to the most important points and save yourself from going overboard on the bullets.  

Your storyboard should now look like this:

 

Follow your story through the arrows.  Does it flow logically so it’s easy for you to remember and explain without tons of notes?  Will your audience find it interesting?  Convincing?  If not, move things around or change your bullet points until you can confidently say yes, I can comfortably deliver this presentation and the audience should respond to the story.

Once you have this structure in place, put on your director’s hat again.  Instead of filling up each slide with text (no smaller than 30 points, says Kawasaki), try to come up with a simple visual that represents the point you want to make in each slide. 

There are so many reasons to create visuals rather than bulleted lists:

• They’re more memorable for your audience
• They create interest and intrigue
• You won’t be forced to read, which kills the drama

You don’t have to be a graphics whiz to create your visuals.  You could use

• A photo with a headline (get inexpensive photos from BigStockPhoto).  It can be any photo that represents your concept, not just a product shot or a bunch of smiling people around a table.
• A few boxes and arrows from the PowerPoint graphics menu.
• Screen shots of web pages showing the latest news, trends, competitive info, etc.

When you truly can’t show your point with a graphic, then use bullets, but stick with very short phrases and 30-point type.

At this point you’re ready to rehearse!  And if you’ve structured it effectively, you should only need a few run-throughs.  Just make sure you remember how to transition from each key point to the next.

Voila!  This process may have taken some time, but the results should be worth the extra effort.  After all, you need to be strong, memorable, comfortable and persuasive.  With a great plot and story structure, you’ve tackled the hardest part.

And if you really need to create a fantastic presentation, get yourself a copy of Jerry Weissman’s “Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story.”  It offers detailed flow structures for a variety of presentation topics and is really a must-read for executives, entrepreneurs, salespeople and marketers who need to capture an audience. 

Know of other great presentation resources?  Contact us or add a comment below!  And here's some more additional reading:

• Guy Kawasaki’s “The 10-20-30 Rule of PowerPoint”
• Ruth Sherman’s tips on technical issues
  

Good luck!

Technorati tags:  PowerPoint | persuasion | marketing | sales | business  

When Martin Scorsese won his long-awaited Oscar® two weeks ago, he joked that The Departed was his first film that actually had a plot.

What do Marty and marketers have in common?  Stories.  Great plot or not,
we’re all in the business of telling stories. 

We tell stories in campaigns and sales materials.  When we meet with colleagues to go through recommendations and proposals.  And of course when we present to prospects, partners or our entire companies.

When you’re watching a movie, it’s really hard to connect with a story that wanders this way and that, introduces a ton of ideas, is riddled with bullets and fails to build to a rousing conclusion.  You may walk out liking the film, but did you rave about it to family and friends?  Maybe.  Or maybe not.

Like most great films, terrific presentations have a strong plot.  And whether you’re leading an informal discussion or standing at a podium, you’ll be more persuasive and memorable when you treat your presentation as if it’s a story that you care about.  It’s easier to remember your key points and you’ll sound more natural when you’re telling a story instead of reading a pile of slides. 

And you’ll be a lot more persuasive as a result.  

So next time you open PowerPoint to create a new presentation or modify an old one, take a look at the story you’re about to tell.  Your presentation should have

• A hook that gets your audience involved right off the bat – BAM! 
• A series of key story points (benefits) that take your audience on a journey and keep building their interest
• An exciting conclusion that your audience will care about

Once you have those elements in mind, don’t just start churning out bullets in PowerPoint.  It’s too easy to use your deck as a crutch.  If the words are there, we’re tempted to read rather than to engage.  The meeting turns into a soliloquy.  Thus the term “death by PowerPoint.”

Instead, think like a film director and create a storyboard for your presentation.  Rather than just typing up slides, map out your hook, your key story points and your conclusion.  Then fill in the details with diagrams, phrases and images that will bring your story to life. 

With this simple shift, you can change your presentations from run-of-the-mill to award winners.  And while you may never walk a red carpet, you’ll win more support for your ideas and have more fun in the process.

In my next post, I’ll offer tips to help you with the storyboarding process.  In the meantime, here’s some additional essential reading on the topic. 

• Guy Kawasaki’s classic blog post, “The 10-20-30 Rule of PowerPoint”
• Ruth Sherman’s tips on font size and technical issues
  

Technorati tags:  PowerPoint | persuasion | marketing | sales | business

I just finished reading today's Business Week special report on customer service and wanted to pass it along.  It offers a rich look at companies who have excelled and stumbled in their service efforts. 

Though it focuses on consumer brands, its messages and lessons are relevant for B2B companies as well.  Great weekend reading and inspirational ideas.

Here are links directly into some of their articles:

Customer service champs:  A ranking of 25 client-pleasing brands that included JetBlue until the runway fiasco.

Playbook:  Ideas for delivering great service consistently and effectively.

An Extraordinary Stumble at JetBlue:  Their plans for recovery -- will they work?

Slide show:  Tools, techniques and strategies to improve your service

Plus more articles here. 

Enjoy!

Technorati tags:  marketing | customer service | Business Week | JetBlue | business

Fifty years ago, Peter Drucker said that “any business enterprise has two – and only these two – basic functions: innovation and marketing.”

Yet even in 2007, industry leaders are still lamenting that the marketing function is broken. 

Issue #1:  Companies have vastly different definitions of “marketing.”  To some it’s a creative function that develops slick websites, glossy brochures and expensive campaigns.  To others, it’s an MBA crunching numbers on market share.  And to many small-to-midsize B2B companies, it’s an expense that delivers questionable results.

In his Unconventional Thinking blog, Mark Stevens makes a great point about defining marketing and its role in business:

“The most dangerous term in business – marketing department – sounds harmless enough on the surface. In fact, it may even sound like a good thing. The company has a function dedicated to marketing the business.”

Yet creating a marketing department “balkanizes” the marketing function, Mark explains.  It creates an environment where marketing is viewed as a solitary team – and usually one that focuses on campaigns and creative materials.  An expense that gets cut in tough times.  A fiefdom.

“Marketing is the process of growing a business,” he continues.  And when you stick marketing into a department, it's easy to end up with a narrow, independent function that isn’t involved in business strategy.  As a result, you’re “effectively diminishing the impact marketing can have on the company.”

We agree.  Marketing isn’t a budget line item or a collection of creative materials and campaigns that provide questionable results.  Marketing is the entire strategic revenue-generation process: 

• Developing your business strategy,
• Creating the tools and processes to deliver that strategy and
• Generating and managing customers.

Savvy companies treat marketing as a strategic process that involves many functions beyond the marketing department:

• Senior management
• Finance
• Sales
• Product management
• Customer service
• Human resources
• Technology

In savvy companies, these teams work together to develop business strategies, create tools and processes, and build (and retain!) a strong customer base. 

If you’re not happy with your company’s marketing function, look at the way you’ve structured that team.  Are they involved in strategy or are they primarily focused on tactical campaigns and materials?  Do all of your teams truly work closely together toward a common goal or are you dealing with infighting, competition and finger-pointing? 

Sound familiar?  You’re not alone.  But if you have ambitious goals, don’t let your company treat marketing as a line item expense. 

Remember Peter Drucker’s advice – your company has two things on your plate.  The first is innovation.  The second is marketing.  It’s a group effort, a process should be driving your business forward rather than sitting alone on an island.

Technorati tags:  marketing | sales | Peter Drucker | business

I just ran across this post by Paul Allen "the lesser" and had to share it.  Paul runs an internet business incubator called Provo Labs and has founded a number of successful companies including Ancestry.com.

In this post, Paul talks about the long tail cumulative effect of guerilla marketing tactics.  He explains that building website traffic and repeat customers take time to pay off, and you need to be patient and persistent as you market and grow a fledgling business.  (He’s using an internet company as his example, but these concepts are true for any business.)

Paul gives us a great example of a company that invests in building online traffic through link-building, participating in community forums, and other legitimate tactics.  For a while it looks like these efforts are useless with a negative ROI.  But they take time to produce traffic and customers, and the economics really change if you evaluate your results over the long term.

His recommendation:  “Market [your] company’s products at every opportunity, in every possible channel, using every possible tactic.” 

If business is slowing, don’t panic, spend tons of money and sideline your guerilla initiatives -- you'll lose their long-term cumulative effect.  “You can still be profitable when you are spending money to get every visitor to your web site, but not nearly as profitable as when you use a nice combination of paid marketing, guerilla and viral.”

Read Paul’s full post here.

Technorati tags:  marketing | sales | internet | Paul Allen | business

Here’s the fourth and final post in our “shorten your sales cycle” series.  In the first article we provided a general intro to the problem of growing sales cycles and identified three things you can do to solve the problem.  Step one is to improve your lead quality.  Step two is to improve your sales execution. 

Now we’ve reached step three.  You’ve done a great job of pre-qualifying your leads.  Sales and marketing are working together to execute an efficient sales process, guiding your prospects with the right information and materials at the right time.

If your sales cycles are still growing, it’s time to take a step back and look at the big picture.  You might have a great campaign generating highly qualified leads for terrific sales reps, but if your product, value and price aren’t properly aligned, you’ll negotiate endlessly or lose deals to competitors.

Prospects rarely tell you the real reason they don’t buy.  They may say “we decided to go with another company” or “we’ve decided to wait until next fiscal year” or “we’ve tabled this issue for now.”  But there’s a deeper underlying reason they chose another company or decided not to move forward.

They don’t see enough value in what you’re offering. 

• They don’t feel your solution is the right one.  There may be a better solution out there, or maybe a competitor has just done a better job of illustrating and proving value.  Perhaps a competitor has built more trust or has gained commitment through a short-term offer, a trial, a demo, a short project, convincing case studies and testimonials, or another method.
• They feel no urgency because the pain is minor.  Sure, your product or service may help, but perhaps your solution just isn’t important enough to warrant a commitment right now.
• Your value proposition doesn’t resonate.  Perhaps your positioning, branding and messaging don’t focus on the key reasons the prospect buys.
• You haven’t differentiated enough.  What is it that truly makes your solution better, unique, and necessary?  Do these messages ring loud and clear?  Because without this differentiation, you’re competing on price.
• You know you’re competing on price and you’re not the low price leader.

How can you find the real reason prospects are taking so long or failing to convert?  Ask! 

Have a neutral person call and talk with your prospects.  Or take a more formal approach with a robust survey.  Either way, you should get to the bottom of the issue so you can resolve it.  After all, if you’re having trouble closing deals, there are storm clouds over your entire business strategy.

Whether you use a trained interviewer, a research firm and/or a survey, consider approaching prospects who didn’t buy and those who did buy but after a prolonged period.  Here are some key questions to ask.

• What did you decide to do – did you choose a competitor?  Table the issue?  Solve it in-house?
• Ultimately what were the three most important factors in your decision?
• What could we have done to gain your business?
• How is your life any different now that you’ve made this decision?
• Is there anything we could have done to help you make your decision more quickly than you did?  For example, is there anything we could have shown you?
• If our product/service was priced higher than it is now, what difference would that have made?
• If it was lower than it is now, would that have made a difference?  At what price point would you have bought from us?
• If you were in our shoes, what would you do to win an account like yours?

Through this research, you’re addressing the real reasons that prospects don’t buy:  your value proposition, brand and pricing.  And these strategic issues drive your entire business forward or lead you to tough times.

The good news:  By measuring the length of your sales cycle, you can identify and resolve these issues more quickly and effectively than you could otherwise. 

Your sales process is something that all of your sales, marketing and management teams should care about and improve on a continual basis.  It’s an essential element in your strategic marketing process and a great example of how all of your strategies and tactics tie together to drive your success! 
 

Technorati tags:  marketing | sales | sales cycle | B2B | business

Here’s the third post of four in this “Shorten Your Sales Cycle” series. 

In my last post I talked about the first step in shortening your sales cycle:  Improve your lead qualification.  Today I’ll focus on the second area of improvement:  Executing your sales process. 

(New to the concept of “sales process?”  These posts address why you should document your sales process and