Revolutionary Marketing and Sales Strategies

Putting Technology In Perspective

Technology has certainly done wonders for all of us in the Sales and Marketing professions.  Personally I love technology and using the latest and greatest tools.  I use many of them and have extracted a ton of value from them.  In fact. I've written about the underutilization of great sales and marketing tools.

At some point though, we (including me) need to get back to a more balanced approach.  Balanced between people, process and technology ... almost on a 1/3 : 1/3 : 1/3 basis.

I was watching a 60 Minutes segment with Prince Charles this past Sunday and something he said struck a chord with me.  He made a statement along that lines that in many regards technology has destroyed our socialization skills, our sense of human-ness.  My thought was that technology didn't do this but the way in which we use, and rely upon, technology has.

In the people/process/technology triad, my experience is that the people part of that equation is the most important part AND it has been the first-to-go as we become more technology reliant.  This applies equally, if not more so, at the management level than at the individual contributor level. Additionally, people skills are the most difficult to master and improve upon.  Whenever I don't feel like trying to work on "people" guess what I do?  I play around with technology.  So much so that my 1/3:1/3:1/3 balance is tilted way too much toward technology.

The challenge is getting us back to a state of equilibrium.

A good friend of mine, Kevin Ashworth, sent this to me the other day.  It talks a little bit about how relationships and friends used to be such an integral part of our lives:
Download TO_ALL_THE_KIDS_WHO_SURVIVED.doc (24.5K)

When Meeting Customer Needs is Not Enough - Part B

Article contributed by Barry Rosen, President of The Pursuit Group
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When it comes to “meeting customer needs,” top performers implement a structured and consistent program for identifying customer needs, then use this insight to generate solutions.   We call such a program Solutioneering.

Please note:  Solutioneering is not market research, where marketplace intelligence is gathered to identify new products and services for development.  Rather, Solutioneering is the organized practice of understanding an individual customer’s business issues – including those issues that don’t directly relate to your product or service – and aggregating a set of solutions that will make a difference for that customer and others with like needs.

 

An example:  ABC, Inc. has a network of service locations and couriers across the country.  Its insurance carrier provides an array of driver safety training that can reduce ABC’s accident rate and lower its insurance cost.  But, ABC is challenged to communicate the details, and manage compliance, for this training among its widely dispersed staff.  Through its Solutioneering effort, XYZ Insurance offers to create and administer a simple follow-up and testing program to ABC’s drivers that will increase compliance and identify additional training needs.  XYZ also creates a reporting form that it will review monthly with ABC to document progress.

In this example, Solutioneering works for XYZ on several levels.  For one, it demonstrates a clear understanding of the customer’s needs.  Secondly, it creates a meaningful differentiation between XYZ and other providers, even when the product – insurance in this case – is exactly the same.  And thirdly, it changes the comparative value proposition, forcing the buyer to evaluate purchase options on value received, rather than on price paid.

Starting an effective Solutioneering program at your organization will require a multi-discipline team that can think creatively about the customer’s needs and the solutions you could provide.  And, if your focus has traditionally been more “pushing product” than truly “meeting customer needs” you’ll need to address that first.   But it’s worth the effort.  Not only can it lead to a more loyal and profitable customer base, but effective Solutioneering may be the closest you can get to a sustainable competitive selling advantage. 

When Meeting Customer Needs is Not Enough - Part A

Article contributed by Barry Rosen, President of The Pursuit Group
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Using Solutioneering to Improve Sales Performance

Today’s sales managers typically agree that “meeting customer needs” is one of their team’s highest priorities. (In case they don’t agree, use this:  In a recent poll conducted by Revolutionary Marketing and Sales Strategies, 82% of top-level executives cited “Ability to demonstrate they understand my issues” as the number one reason for sales success.)

But what does “meeting customer needs” really mean?  And how can we do it better?

In our work with business-to-business sales organizations, we come across a wide range of perspectives for “meeting customer needs”.  Unfortunately, these perspectives are often observed in practice as “persuading customers that our product will meet their needs”. 

Highly successful sales organizations are clearly different ....

Find out how in Part B of this article which will be released on October 19th, 2005.

New, High-Powered Guest Authors

I am proud and honored to announce four incredible new guest authors to the Revolutionary Marketing and Sales Strategies weblog.  We're all looking forward to current, relevant and actionable content from these folks.  Enjoy, learn and grow:

Keith Eades - Chairman of Sales Performance International and author of two recently published books, "The New Solution Selling" and "The Solution Selling Fieldbook" 

Naras Eechambadi - CEO of Quaero, author of the soon to be released book, High Performance Marketing and on the Board of Advisors at CRMguru.com.

Renee Walkup - CEO of Salespeak and author of Selling to Anyone Over the Phone

Oreste "Rusty" D'Aversa - CEO and author of Sell More Technology NOW

Always trying to add value to my marketing and sales sisters and brethren :)

Planning your 2006 Marketing Strategy

Article contributed by: Laurie Hood, VP of Marketing @ KnowledgeStorm

As the summer ends - while many of us are still figuring out how to fill sales pipelines for Q4 - technology marketers are beginning their planning cycles for 2006. Even if your company does not do any "official" planning or budgeting, now is a great time to reflect on your 2005 programs, benchmark your performance against others in your market, educate yourself on new tactics and techniques as well as revisit the basics to begin thinking about how you will spend your time and money next year. One way to benchmark your performance is by taking a look at MarketingSherpa's IT Marketing Executive Outlook: Key Tactics to Improve Your Marketing Results Webcast to learn how other IT marketers are planning to spend their budgets in 2006. Based on what I am reading and hearing I wanted to point out some key trends in the market that you might want to consider as you start your planning.

Increase in online spend - for public relations, lead generation, branding, search engine marketing and search engine optimization. A lot of dollars are moving online with the biggest complaint being that is it hard to stand-out above all of the noise. Online marketing has grown into a multi-faceted discipline requiring a lot of specific skill sets. It is important to choose your partners wisely, leverage all of the capabilities that online brings (such as immediate feedback and access to extensive data) and view online marketing as an equal to the more traditional marketing tactics. Online is about having the reach to be where the buyers are going and deploying programs to put the right information in front of them when they get there.

Web events become as prevalent (if not more) than in-person events. Companies are leveraging the cost effectiveness of Web events. More importantly, a Web event does not have to be a one time thing. Once conducted and recorded, they can continue to be used as a lead generation vehicle and as a standard part of an organization's marketing materials.

Lead management continues to be the battleground between sales and marketing. Regardless of where you stand, all indications show marketing taking more responsibility of how leads are managed and nurtured within the sales pipeline. KnowledgeStorm has had the opportunity to do some research in this area, and we have the following resources for companies focusing on improving their lead management process: KnowledgeNote: The Fine Art of Lead Follow-Up, The Fine Art of Lead Qualification: Best Practices for Lead Responsiveness white paper and Best Practices in Lead Development, a Webcast presented by SiriusDecisions.

Key success factors will include:

• An understood and accepted definition of lead levels across the organization.
• A team (in-house, outsourced, wherever you can find the resources) to do some type of lead screening or qualification after the lead is generated and before it is passed to sales.
• Solid processes and reporting that help you identify and understand problem areas and provide you ideas with ways to fix them.
• Lead nurturing programs that support your investment in developing a lead until that company is ready to buy.
• Working as a team with sales to address this issue.

Lead generation and management is critical to your success as a company and it will take both organizations working together to make it an effective process. Networking with peers is one way to better understand what other groups are doing in this area and how you might be able to apply some of their processes within your organization. There is also a lot of research available in this area. In the end you will need to make the decisions that fit your organization the best. This is a difficult and iterative process, but one that is essential to an organization.

While there are many other challenges that marketers face, I wanted to call out a few of them and offer some suggestions on how to begin to address them.

Poll Results - Executive Suite Access

Months ago we began a poll where we asked the readership a simple multiple-choice question.  The question was:

What is the #1 reason top-level executives give for the reason they grant a salesperson access?

Here are the results:

• 15% said "Reputation of selling organization"
• 82% said "Ability of salesperson to demonstrate they understand their issues"
• 3% said "Executive understands the features and functionality of the offering"

Thanks to everyone who participated. 

My hope is that this is of tremendous value to those organizations that are trying to adopt a consultative sales approach and sell at the executive level. 

Marketing - it's your job to ensure that your messaging will resonate to reflect this finding and that you do everything in your power to get your Sales team prepared for what they need.

Sales - this will require more focused work than you're accustomed to but productivity will shoot through the roof

A new poll has just been started addressing sales training gaps.  Look in the right-hand toolbar.  I'd like to encourage maximum participation.

Selling With Stories

Article Contributed by Mark Satterfield, CEO of Gentle Rain Marketing, LLC
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Let me tell you a quick story. Perhaps you will find it relevant.

In the early 1990s Fortune magazine decided to do an article on selling. The question they set out to answer was:

Why were some people so good at selling while others so blatantly bad?

To find out the answer the writers interviewed 24 top sales performers across a broad spectrum of fields. Among those who were interviewed were financial advisors, insurance producers, executive recruiters and a wide variety of consultants and high-value services providers. Here is what they learned:

• The most successful sales people sell without it ever being apparent that they are in fact, selling. There was nothing obvious or obnoxious about their presentation. No Trial Close or Ben Franklin Close. They sold, but they sold invisibly.
• Moreover the Fortune article concluded that the more you are marketing and selling high-value services the more important it is to be able to sell invisibly.

So what exactly does this mean? How did the top performers go about building trust and credibility? How did they overcome often deep-seated skepticism? How did they persuade others to their point of view?

The one thing in common was, they all told stories.

Lots of stories. Stories that demonstrated how others had successfully achieved results by using their services. Stories that preemptively addressed objections or concerns. Stories that made it easy for others to refer them to their friends and colleagues. Stories that built credibility and reduced skepticism.

So, what is your marketing story? If you have not yet developed one, or think that what you are using now could use some punch, perhaps I can help.

Visit Marketing With Stories website @ http://www.marketingwithstories.com for more information.

Great White Paper - Rule Three

Article contributed by: Laurie Hood, VP of Marketing @ KnowledgeStorm

White papers are one of the most misunderstood, miswritten and misused marketing tools available. As I mentioned in my last post, there are several ways to ensure that a white paper delivers the results you expect. This post will cover Rule Three - "Follow the 3-30-3 Rule."  Upcoming posts will present other straightforward techniques that will turn your next white paper into a valuable competitive differentiator that supports and augments the sales process.

RULE Three - Follow the 3-30-3 Rule

Effective “short form” writing –- that is, writing that can’t take a novel’s worth of time to make an impression and accomplish an objective –- follows the 3-30-3 rule. This applies to great magazine articles, advertisements, brochures, press releases, business letters, web sites and hundreds of other short form formats, including your white paper.

It works like this: You must earn a browsing prospect’s interest within the first three seconds of glancing at your piece. In his bestseller Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell cites the latest research in neuroscience and psychology in support of how and why most people make “snap decisions” within the first few seconds of observing something. Decisions are made through a series of thought subsets, or “thin slicing,” and often the most important information leading to the best decisions comes from the very first “slice” of thinking. In three seconds of glancing at your white paper, a prospect will make the first “snap”judgment about your company: do you have something meaningful to say, and are you a credible source?

If you use your three seconds well, readers will move on to the next thinslice of their decision, and grant you 30 more seconds. In that time they will decide whether or not your message deserves more calculated consideration. Here, the first few paragraphs are key. A powerfully written introduction that speaks to the reader about his or her business need, and delivers the payoff of opportunity or improvement that can be gained through manageable and well-defined action, is absolutely necessary to win the next slice of the prospect’s time. Remember, you must do this quickly. You have only 30 seconds of reading time.

Assuming you’ve written a succinct, on-target introduction, your prospect now will grant you three more minutes to make your point. Here’s where many white papers fall apart. No matter how complex your product or service, no matter how challenging the business issue is, you need to build your case in the first three minutes. If you get more time, great. But don’t create a white paper that needs ten minutes’ time to make its point.

How do you make a complex point in three minutes?

• Remember to talk about business problems from the reader’s perspective, not products from your perspective.
• Honor the old adage that people who buy shovels don’t want shovels; they want to make holes or fill in holes as quickly and easily as possible.
• Make key points with devices other than body copy. Use illustrations showing the cycle from problem to solution.
• Graph statistics on the problem and the benefit of solving it.
• Use “display type” to showcase quotes from industry analysts, scientific experts or research studies.
• Segment your body copy with subheads that make the main point of the paragraphs to follow.

This information was created by The Content Factor and KnowledgeStorm to help companies better understand the importance of white papers and how they can be a more effective marketing tool. You can read the full paper on KnowledgeStorm (registration required).

Deepen Your Prospect Knowledge

Exactly how well do you really know the very people you are trying to sell to?  If you can't put yourself in their shoes, you don't know them well enough.  It's called empathy.  It's hard for sales people to be empathic when they've never played the role of the person they are expected to interact with.  No ... we don't want to turn sales folks into CFO's, for instance, but if the CFO is the decision-maker, they must be able to have an intelligent conversation with them addressing their issues in a language that they understand.  Here's a link to a potential solution for B2B sales people:

Executive Link - Vertical-Specific, Role-Specific Intelligence

How To Get Motivated Buyers To Call You First (Part 2 of 2)

Becoming The Emotional Favorite

So, if being the emotional favorite means being the person the buyer want to see succeed, how do you create this relationship?

Start by asking questions about the buyer when you meet for the very first time and at the end of EVERY sales call.

Think about the last time you encountered a ‘stereotypical’ sales person, the one who immediately launches into a sales pitch. How did you react? After a minute or two, did your eyes glaze over? As the sales person drones on, you stop listening waiting for an opportunity to end the conversation. Ultimately, that sales person falls to the bottom of the list of people you call when you need something. Not where you want to be if you’re looking to become the Emotional Favorite.

Asking The Right Questions

Obviously, you’re not going to start with ‘Hi, I’m Craig. What’s your greatest challenge?’

Start with open-ended questions: Ask about how the latest government policy changes, or shifts in technology has impacted their business. Relate their business to your other industry contacts and share some of your own insights. Then you can ask about their greatest challenges and you will likely get the answers you are looking for.

Frame your questions outside your existing sales professional to prospect relationship because by default, your customer will answer in terms of your products or services. Start with “Let’s forget about what I do for ABC Company for a minute” and ask:

• What is the biggest issue you have that you just can’t get to? or,
• What is the one thing you are looking for but can’t seem to find? or,
• What issue have you tried to solve but can’t find a satisfactory solution to?

Now shut up and listen! When the buyer stops talking, wait 6 seconds and listen to what they tell you next. First they’ll tell you about the problem. If you don’t interrupt them, they will tell you how the problem impacts them and the rest of their organization.

Now you have the enough information to connect the buyer with a solution and if it’s not available through you perhaps you know a colleague who can solve the problem. If you don’t know a colleague who can solve the problem, connect the buyer with a trusted seller using a lead exchange that has a rating system for the vendors in the exchange.

What Are The Benefits Of Asking The Right Questions?

• You gain a better understanding of buyers and their organization.
• You will improve your customer relationships while buyers do not need what you sell.
• You will get more time with buyers
• You may learn of opportunities to sell
• You can become the person buyers want to see succeed, by connecting them with trusted vendors who can provide the solution they are looking for

Most customers don’t tell you of needs they think are unrelated to what you sell. When you ask the right questions, you learn of opportunities to add value to buyers, become the person they want to see succeed, and get called first when they want what you sell.

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Craig Elias is a 15-year sales veteran, noted speaker and author on sales and networking, and the Founder of InnerSell - an online sales tool used by sales professionals so that no matter what their customer needs they can get it through them. Learn more by contacting Craig by phone (866.744.7904), email (Craig.Elias@InnerSell.com), or visiting www.InnerSell.com.

Overwhelming Under Use of Great Sales Tools

There is certainly more marketing and sales tools out there than anyone can possibly get their individual arms around.  The trick?  Dialing in the optimal combination of tools to use that give the most bang for the buck (time and dollars).

It is impossible for the majority of senior-level marketing and sales executives to adequately explore many of these new tools.  They're just too dang busy.  Unfortunately, this scenario is reminiscient of the woodsman that is so busy sawing down trees with a handsaw that when someone comes to show him a chainsaw, he simply has no time.  How much easier and productive would the woodsman's life would be if only he could find a minute to recalibrate?

It's too bad too because there are some unbelievable tools (technologies and services) out there.  I'm sure that there are some that I have yet to discover myself.  But I have finally dialed in the combination that works best for me.  Below is a brief description of the some of tools that have lead to success for me (and "no, I'm not receiving comp for saying these nice things either"):

Marketing Tools:

• SurveyMonkey - This is a great tool for creating slick, professional surveys and compiling all the data in a cool, presentable format.
• VerticalResponse - A email campaign management tool.  I use this to create, distribute and measure the effectiveness of various marketing campaigns.  They also have a postcard mailing program that I have yet to try. This is an awesome tool.
• Typepad - this is a very easy to use weblog publishing tool.  I am non-technical and created my weblog here and maintain it daily.
• Profits In Progress - Vanessa Lowry and her team will actually hand-write notes for you and mail them.  If your handwriting is like mine, INVALUABLE.

Prospecting/Research Tools:

• Lead411 - This is a great tool to find out company event specific information ... what companies just had management changes, received financing (how much and what purpose), or made an acquisition.
• InnerSell - Used to generate and gather referrals from other people.  This is the ultimate in the principal of giving to get.  Their CEO, Craig Elias, has written some insightful, well-aligned articles ... go to their website.
• LinkedIn - I use this tool to see who I know that can provide me introductions and/or referrals to the people I want to target.  The basic service, that I use, is FREE.
• Jigsaw - I use Jigsaw to get person-specific contact information (V-card stuff).  If you contribute data the service is FREE.
• X-Sells, Inc. - the strongest outsourcer for lead generation I know of.  Tim Young has built that company into a very well-oiled lead machine.

Sales Management Tools:

• Various CRM tools -  For planning and managing activities, contacts, pipeline:  Salesforce.com, SageCRM/SalesLogix, SugarCRM, RightNow Technologies, Inside Sales, NetSuite, SalesNet.  Cost for these tools are anywhere from $45 to $125 per month per user.

Sales Execution Effectiveness Tools:

• Executive Link - The best way I know to prepare to a specific vertical and role is to interview others in the same position.  That's exactly what Executive-Link offers.  Executive-Link has 56 person-years worth of research (14 people x 4 years) where they interview execs in all different verticals and roles and tell me what's keeping that person up at night.  Cost runs $45 to $65 per month per user (depending on size of client).

Presentation Tools

• COItalk - COI is a much lower cost version of WebEx.  It doesn't have all the bells and whistles but I don't use those anyway.  It's $25 per month for an unlimited number of uses.

How To Get Motivated Buyers To Call You First (Part 1 of 2)

By Craig Elias, Chief Strategy Officer and Founder, InnerSell, Inc.

How many sales opportunities have you lost to competitors who seemed to have the inside track? It’s likely the buyer purchased from their emotional favorite.

Selling goes beyond communicating the value of your products and services. Selling is also about communicating the value of doing business with you. It is about connecting with buyers and becoming their ‘Emotional Favorite’.

Success in sales requires three things:

1. A viable product that addresses a need
2. Credibility
3. Timing – being in front of the right buyer at the right time

Some in sales claim in sales timing is everything; experienced sales professionals know timing is the ONLY thing.

There are a plethora of credible businesses with viable products. To be truly successful at selling you need timing - to be the first or second person motivated buyers talk to when they need something.

There are three simple ways to get timing:

1. Sheer numbers – if you contact enough buyers, you’ll eventually find opportunities
2. Referrals – someone tells you the buyer has a need for your product or service
3. Become a buyer’s ‘Emotional Favorite’ – a motivated buyer calls you first

Value Of Being First

Being one of the first suppliers in front of buyers at the time they need what you sell is key to getting the business. Once the buyer begins to shape a solution around a vendor’s product or service, they become emotionally tied to that solution. People tend to make decisions and move on to the next problem.

What Is The Emotional Favorite?

Think about the last time you purchased a product or service. When you picked up the phone, did you call the person who helped you in the past? The person who adds value to your business or your career every time you ask for their assistance? Chances are you did. The fact of the matter is most people do. They make emotional decisions and rationalize them afterwards.

It used to be that people bought from those they know, like, and trust. To be successful in sales today, you need to go one step further and connect with buyers to become the person the buyer knows, likes, trusts…and want to see succeed – Their ‘Emotional Favorite’.

The emotional favorite is the person a buyer calls first, regardless of what they need.

Becoming The Emotional Favorite

So, if being the emotional favorite means being the person the buyer want to see succeed, how do you create this relationship?

We'll answer this question in part 2 of this series

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Craig Elias is a 15-year sales veteran, noted speaker and author on sales and networking, and the Founder of InnerSell - an online sales tool used by sales professionals so that no matter what their customer needs they can get it through them. Learn more by contacting Craig by phone (866.744.7904), email (Craig.Elias@InnerSell.com), or visiting www.InnerSell.com.

A Vapor Trail from SAP - Chris Selland

Is Salesforce.com getting under the skin of SAP?  You betcha !!! Read this post from Chris Selland, one of the most insightful and imbedded sources in the CRM marketplace.

A Vapor Trail from SAP

Cisco, CEO, Chambers Calls For Verticalization

The concept of verticalization is rapidly spreading.  In this article, "Chambers Issues Verticalization Call To Partners", John Chambers, Cisco's noteworthy CEO, has made the call to all partners to go vertical.  In this article he acknowledges that the challenges to move in this direction will be great, but the ultimate payoffs can be even greater.  In this same article, Cisco's SVP of Worldwide Channels, Paul Mountford, says, "You can make more margin based on your differentiation".  He is referring to relationship differentiation only possible with going vertical.

Any time an organization changes from a technical, horizontal-focus to a vertical-focus AND their solutions are complex, enterprise-wide impacting, like Cisco's, the transition is even more difficult.  This is because complex, enterprise-wide impacting solutions require an executive level sales approach.  As I learned the hard way, early in my career, in this case the executives require that you have a certain level of expertise in their vertical.  You must, right off-the-bat, demonstrate that you understand their vertical and their role specific issues.  That's a far departure from selling at the lower levels where product knowledge is king.

I will be conducting another webcast on this subject this Thursday, 8/11, from 2-3pm Eastern Time.  If you are interested in attending just shoot me an email as an RSVP.  In turn you will receive an invitation with web info and dial-in info.

Boosting Marketing / Prospecting Effectiveness

For a minute, put yourself in the shoes of a CFO in a healthcare organization.  You receive two letters; one from John Doe of Selling Org, Inc. and another from Sally Mabry of BizSolutions-R-Us, Inc..  Both companies are well known and have offerings that are comparable and would meet the needs of the CFO.

John Doe’s Letter:

·        Is a standard letter John uses for all prospects regardless of vertical market or role

·        Explains a new product that his company has just introduced

·        Discusses features, functions and benefits of Selling Orgs offering

·        Highlights an example of how Selling Org has helped other clients and the benefits derived

Sally Mabry’s Letter:

·        Is written specifically to a CFO of a healthcare organization - Language/jargon

·        Addresses one or more specific issues that Sally has learned that healthcare CFO’s are currently experiencing

·        Directly links her company’s offering(s) to the specific issue that executive is facing

·        Highlights an example of how BizSolutions has helped other healthcare CFO’s and the benefits derived

Ask yourself … c’mon be honest!  If you were the healthcare CFO which person are you most likely to grant access to and invest your time in?  I know this is a setup, but most (almost all) sales forces opt for John Doe’s approach (“throw enough stuff against the wall & something is bound to stick” philosophy).  I will reiterate my favorite saying … “Executives buy, not because they understand, but because they feel understood.”

Neither Sally nor John has ever been in healthcare, much less a CFO in a healthcare organization.  Somehow Sally was able to communicate to that executive, “I get you!”  So how was Sally able to create such differentiation?  She had single source access to real-time intelligence that enabled her with enough domain-level expertise to be viewed by that executive as someone who could potentially add-value.  Look at this link to see the vertical-specific, role-specific intelligence Sally had that gave her such a huge relationship advantage:

Healthcare CFO Profile - Areas of Responsibility, Primary Issues, Reasons for the Issues, Potential Solutions to the Issues, Others In the Organization Impacted & How, and Key Performance Measures

Sally's company, BizSolutions-R-Us, can also tailor to include their specific offerings to match up with role specific issues their specific clients are facing.  Talk about a targeted, aligned approach to Marketing, Sales and even Product Dev/Mgmt ... all real-time, collaborative and available 24/7. 

The above app is called Executive Link and it will arm your organization with a previously unheard of level of intelligence.  Intelligence needed to improve win percentages, close business and develop key executive relationships that ensure client retention.

CRM and Sales Effectiveness

Hats off to Scott Ehmen, now with Salesforce.com (previously in this article with Intellinet).  After reading several of my posts and then this article where Scott Ehmen is interviewed by Inc. Magazine, you'll see why we align so well.

A Second Act for CRM: Customer relationship management software is back -- and worth another look. Really.

THE MAGIC IN CRM SUCCESS IS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION ... PERIOD ... PROCESS, PEOPLE AND PREPARATION

8/4 Webcast: "Boosting Executive Level Relationships Across Verticals"

Subscriber Invitation

I will be conducting a webcast on Thursday, 8/4, from 2:00-3:00pm EDT on "Boosting Executive Level Relationships Across Verticals".  The subscriber-base of this weblog are cordially invited to attend by RSVPing via email to the Executive Link Event Team.  Shortly after you RSVP you will receive an email confirmation with dial-in and web access information.

Looking forward to providing a high ROTI (return on time invested).

We can only accomodate a maximum of 15 participants at a time.  Seats will be accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis.  If we run over the 15 max another event will be scheduled.  All who want to attend will be able to attend.

Verticalization Trends Mounting

It seems that, across-the-board, the trend towards verticalizing solutions is taking hold.  Verticalization of the sales, marketing and product development teams that develop and support these solutions is taking hold as well, especially on the sales front.

Read this below article:

• Verticalization of CMS Continues, this short article by Tom Byrnes, principal analyst for the Web Content Management and Enterprise Content Management channels on CMS Watch.

In this article Tom posits the questions "will it last?" and "the meaning of this trend?".  Verticalization works because it allows the selling organization's customer teams to better align and relate to the folks they are interacting with.  So to answer the question "will it last", I say yes, to the degree that we successfully execute the verticalization concept. 

The "meaning of this trend" is:

• the world we live and sell in has changed and in order to survive, and thrive, we must adapt to this change. 
• we all know the benefit of selling organizationally high and that she/he that owns the decision-making relationship will, more times than not, win (or at least be given the opportunity). 
• the decision-making suite is busier than ever, they have more responsibilities and expectations put on their heads and have fewer resources to make this happen than at any time in my business life (20 years)
• in order to penetrate the executive suite you/your organization must demonstrate credibility and a certain level of domain expertise ... you must show the executive that you get them, you understand what they are experiencing in their industry and, specifically, in their role
• bottom line ... they want to know that you understand them

To quote a phrase that I use a lot (as far as I know penned by Bob Beck, author of Mutual Respect, and my boss), "Executives buy, not because they understand, but because they feel understood".  That, in essense, is the "meaning this verticalization trend".

Great White Paper - Rule Two

Article contributed by: Laurie Hood, VP of Marketing @ KnowledgeStorm

White papers are one of the most misunderstood, miswritten and misused marketing tools available. As I mentioned in my last post, there are several ways to ensure that a white paper delivers the results you expect. This post will cover Rule Two - "Your Title is the Key to the Success of Your Paper."  Upcoming posts will present other straightforward techniques that will turn your next white paper into a valuable competitive differentiator that supports and augments the sales process.

RULE TWO - Your Title is the Key to the Success of Your Paper

The title is one of the most important parts of your white paper because the point of writing a white paper is to maximize the number of targeted prospects who read it. A creative, meaningful title drives readership, whether you promote your paper online, distribute it at a conference, or pitch it to trade magazine editors. Explore some timely magazine article titles, or go online, to get an idea of how to name your white paper. Focus on benefits, and use words that connote an easy, enjoyable read–not a dry textbook treatise. A title such as “What Hackers Know That You Don’t” is far better than “An Exploration of Computer Security Measures.”

Your title also should convey a benefit of reading the paper, whether or not the reader eventually believes yours is the best solution. Self-serving titles such as “Keeping Your Computer Secure With ABC Company” lack appeal and are likely to be ignored for their obvious sales slant.

Finally, the benefit promised in your title should appeal to the appropriate audience. “What Hackers Know That You Don’t” is compelling to an IT professional whose job is to keep a company’s computer systems secure. “Five Ways to Avoid the High Cost of Vulnerable Computer Networks” is much better for the financial person who must approve of investments in computer security systems, software and services. The content, as well as the title, should be tailored to these different stakeholders involved in evaluating your product.

This information was created by The Content Factor and KnowledgeStorm to help companies better understand the importance of white papers and how they can be a more effective marketing tool. You can read the full paper on KnowledgeStorm (registration required).

Great White Paper - Rule One

Article contributed by: Laurie Hood, VP of Marketing @ KnowledgeStorm

White papers are one of the most misunderstood, miswritten and misused marketing tools available. As I mentioned in my last post, there are several ways to ensure that a white paper delivers the results you expect. This post will cover Rule One - Use A Linear, Logical Approach.  Upcoming posts will present other straightforward techniques that will turn your next white paper into a valuable competitive differentiator that supports and augments the sales process.

ONE - Use a Linear, Logical Approach

All good communication has an objective. The primary mistake people make when writing white papers is to use the paper to talk about their product or solution. Instead, a white paper must be educational, not promotional in tone. It should possess the following linear objectives:

1. It must attract the right audience. The right audience is not every sales prospect. Because they contain multiple pages of detailed content, white papers are highly audience specific. You should write different white papers tailored toward different groups of stakeholders.

2. It must engage your reader. An engaged reader has given you his or her full attention. Readers who are drawn into your message are willing to commit the time to fully explore it. You can engage them by showing them you understand their problem and that you “feel their pain.” You can also engage them by quickly showing mastery of the subject, and through good, clear writing. Nothing hurts readership more than dense language or overuse of business, industry or technical jargon.

3. It must inform your reader. White papers are not obvious sales pitches. Solid, engaging white papers are written more like an objective magazine article than a sales brochure – hopefully an article the reader can’t put down. Their power is that they objectively present a problem, the business case for solving the problem, and alternative ways of solving the problem. In this way, the reader gains knowledge from having invested the time to read the paper. Ultimately, the reader feels informed, not sold.

4. It must convince your reader. Only after you have attracted, engaged and informed your reader can you credibly move to the next step in a white paper, which is to convince the reader to give your organization consideration. In fact, your conclusion should more or less “fall out” as a natural result of the logical argument and information you have presented. For example, if your product has a high up-front cost but lower maintenance costs, your paper might include an analysis of ongoing “hidden” costs and a ROI model that shows how a high initial investment might actually be more cost-effective over the life of the purchase.

This information was created by The Content Factor and KnowledgeStorm to help companies better understand the importance of white papers and how they can be a more effective marketing tool. You can read the full paper on KnowledgeStorm (registration required).

Giving It Away

Article contributed by Tom Barnes, CEO of MediaThink

Are productized Unilateral Concessions the new tchotchkes?

Type the word "free" in to your next email--even if your list is 100% double opt-in--and watch your open rates plummet. Free is a word that triggers almost every spam filter.

Free used to be one of the most powerful words in marketing--now it's perhaps the most useless. People equate free with "waste my time." Time is life's most valuable commodity. This moment is more valuable than any other (by the way--thanks for sharing it with me). Dubious? Ask any banker or religious scholar. It may be the only thing they agree on.

Marketers must still provide sampling opportunities and open, unilateral concessions in order to build credibility to help qualify prospects. It must be done because it's our job as marketers (b2b or b2c) to lower our prospects' risks around spending their money with us. We are charged to communicate a case for lowered risk the best we can.

So there's the challenge: How do we very simply communicate our U.C. (unilateral concession) in a credible way (without saying free)? Perhaps more importantly, how do we figure out what it is that we are unilaterally conceding that effectively lowers our potential buyer's risk?

Let's go with the latter first. Sometimes knowing what it is you're conceding (giving away) makes it easier to communicate its value. A UC must have value--intrinsic value--or it's wasted. In fact, I would argue that almost all sales collateral is useless, unless it has a clear value (other than helping your competition).

Building the UC

Chances are you know what your company or product's unique selling proposition is. Start there to ask yourself how you acquired that USP and what you learned during its acquisition.

Then, think about which of the following standard UC's work best to communicate your learning.

• White papers
• Applications (crippled or full-blown)
• Business cases/models
• Financial cases/models

These are the tchotchkes of our time--the new sales collateral.

To know that they will be effective, they must be leveragable (sales is negotiation, right?). You must be able to use them to heighten demand or to inform customers about your unique selling proposition.

Advertising, brochures, and proposals are simply not enough. They do not add value like they once did, because technology has allowed a more thorough understanding of almost any offer. In other words, as buyers, we are all sophisticated enough to understand that ANYBODY can advertise, build a nice brochure, and write a proposal.

It's easy to write these down as ideas and philosophical theory, so I thought I might show you how we've put the Unilateral Concession into practice:

Bill Gates said it: "There is no shortage of strategy. Everybody is a strategist." So at Mediathink we give that piece away rather than charge for it. We've found that people want to pay for execution because it is more easily measured. Few executives are so naive as to believe they can do marketing by themselves anymore than they believe they can competently navigate the complexity of the healthcare system alone.

To demonstrate the U.C. in action we built an application on our website that allows anyone to get a quick benchmark of their marketing efforts. We're not alone either. Cymbic has built a really cool R.O.I. calculator that provides a similar service.

We write white papers like this one and we work with top PR agencies to build them for our clients, too. It's a paradigm shift for some in PR because, for a white paper to work, it must share the right secrets and genuinely educate people--not just publicize features and benefits. Few people actually care as much about your features and benefits as they do their own bottom line.

Rich media is a bleeding-edge way to communicate what you've learned in a valuable and novel way, too. When made more efficient than reading a white paper, rich media may well have found its killer app. See how that can work here.

Finally, there is the sweet mystic beauty of the Unilateral Concession. When given something of value, the recipient is forced to wonder what it is that you have that you would charge him for. The act will drive recall and may cause your prospect to seek that very thing you are selling, and value it most.

So follow Anthony Kiedis's advice and "Give It Away."

To get the latest from MEDIATHINK in your e-mail click here

Eight Rules for Creating Great White Papers

Article contributed by: Laurie Hood, VP of Marketing @ KnowledgeStorm

White papers are one of the most misunderstood, miswritten and misused marketing tools available. While many companies think they need a white paper, few manage to write, design or use them to their full potential. This is unfortunate, because – written and applied well – white papers are one of the most powerful tools in the sales and marketing toolkit.

White papers make companies credible. They help position companies as thought leaders, and they aid the selling process by informing and educating the prospect base.

The best application of a white paper is to provide information that helps solve a problem that is meaningful to the reader. It should justify why the problem must be solved, objectively explore alternative ways to solve the problem, and logically lead the reader to the conclusion that your organization has the knowledge, expertise and tools required to solve the problem.

White papers should be written to help move prospects through the sales funnel; but they must do so using objective analysis and thorough, informative content. Too often, white papers are written in ways that place them in the domain of technical papers or documentation, or alternatively, in the territory of sales brochures and data sheets – either of which greatly diminish the paper’s impact. Even worse, white papers often are written in ways that fail to engage any interest at all. The result: a wasted opportunity, a wasted investment.

Properly conceived and executed though, white papers work. In one recent IT buying study by Forbes.com, 72% of respondents contacted a vendor or reseller after reading a white paper. In the same study, 57% of respondents said that reading a white paper influenced a product buying decision. There are several ways to ensure that a white paper delivers the results you expect. Upcoming posts will present eight straightforward techniques that will turn your next white paper into a valuable competitive differentiator that supports and augments the sales process.

This information was created by The Content Factor and KnowledgeStorm to help companies better understand the importance of white papers and how they can be a more effective marketing tool. You can read the full paper on KnowledgeStorm (registration required).

New Cross-Functional Authors

Please join me in welcoming several new distinguished business/thought leaders to the Revolutionary Marketing and Sales Strategies newsfeed as co-authors. The reason that I chose so many high-quality, diverse individuals is because I don't want my subscribers to be side-saddled with simply my point of view or a Marketing/Sales-centric view of those very subjects, Marketing and Sales. Those of you who know me well enough understand that I'm coming at this from an overall organizational, cross-functional view.

As you will see, every one of these individuals could easily support a readership base of their own, and many actually do. Every one of them, though, adds some element that I consider to be unique and worth integrating and sharing. As the value need dictates additional authors will be continuosly added. Below is a bio link on each author. As you read their bio, you'll see why I feel such excitement about content:

• Bob Beck, CEO, Sales Builders, Inc. and author of Mutual Respect
• Peter Dunning, Executive Vice President for Worldwide Field Operations, RightNow Technologies
• Michael Thomas and Brenton Leary, Partners and Co-Founders, CRM Essentials
• Chris Selland, Vice President, Covington Associates
• Tim Young, CEO, X-Sells, Inc.
• Kevin Ashworth, Vice President of Operations, Brickstream
• David Nour, Managing Partner, The Nour Group
• Alex Armbruster, Office Solution Specialist, IKON Office Solutions
• Dan Lessard, National Recruiter, RDA Corporation
• Michael Hunter, Founder and Senior Partner, Channel Development International
• John Salek, Leader of Parson's Receivables Cycle Mgmt Practice, Parson Consulting
• Jim Barnes, CEO, Customerteam
• Tom Barnes, CEO, MediaThink
• Grant Monson</