Revolutionary Marketing and Sales Strategies

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).

The Shift in Technology - and Relationship Power

Just a quick alert that I've submitted a post to my weblog providing my thoughts on how technology is shifting away from corporate-controlled applications such as Enterprise Software, CRM and SFA and toward more customer-controlled social applications such as weblogs/RSS, social networking and mobile applications.

How will companies adapt their Marketing and Sales strategies (or as Scott would say, how will they revolutionize them?) as the customer takes charge of the relationship?  Interested in hearing your thoughts (as always) - comments welcomed either here or there.  If you don't want your comments seen publicly, you should also feel free to e-mail me at  [email protected].

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).

Consumer Sales - They Just Don't Get It!

Recently I went shopping for a new pair of casual shoes. I went to the high-end stores because I wanted "quality" stuff. Although I don't expect "super" sales people even at the high-end places, I do expect good product knowledge and most definitely courtesy and the ability to communicate effectively.

I was apalled at what they didn't know about their product line, and worse yet, the complete lack of interest in satisfying my need. I ended up without a pair of shoes!

I'm sure their Marketing guys would have wanted them to act differently. This raises a lot of questions for me:

• Do these guys have too much business, so they don't care?
• Is there common courtesy/politeness missing from our culture?
• Should there be better selection and training of front-line employees?
• How can the Marketing and Sales organizations work together to achieve the goals of the organization?
• How do we make front-line employees understand the financial impact of losing one customer in one store (multiplied by hundreds like me)?

Front line employees make or break the day for many companies. And it is absolutely critical for companies (whether consumer or business markets) to pay more attention to this valuable resource.