Meet the new sales person, Marketing...

...& why you might want to re-think the budget !
by David Bookout

There has been a shift coming for some time, have you noticed? Sales used to be about cold calls, roaming door to door, using lobby phones, inviting people out to lunch, dinners and an occasional box of doughnuts. Not anymore. Today, sales is about the post choice, transactional components of the process; how many, how much, by when, shipping methods, warranties, etc. Everything else, and I mean EVERYTHING is marketing.

According to the American Marketing Association "Marketing" is no longer a “function”, but an integral process that includes every nook and cranny of an organization. Today, marketing is about “information”, both good and bad, that is available 24 X 7 X 365 to anyone with a computer, an internet connection and a friend.

The American Marketing Association's Definition - 2008
“Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”

The American Marketing Association's Definition - 2004
“Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.”

This new definition of marketing is more actionable, yet still doesn't really enable direct assessments of increased adoption rates, trial sales, and the ultimate result - repeat transactions. To take this a step further we prefer to say that "Marketing is the act of preparing the listening of another to accept an offer".

Either way, when we begin to think this way, marketing plays a much bigger role in terms of how goods and services get specified and ultimately purchased. But why, then, are the budgets for marketing and sales still reflective of the old model?

To me, this is because few see that Marketing is the new Sales. Fewer still see that Marketing is the best sales person they will ever have…

This is great news for the few small, medium business ( SMB ) owners, executives and managers who are attuned to this vision, and can make effective use of the significant competitive advantage this concept represents.

But now what?

Perhaps your a business owner that doesn’t think from a marketing perspective, and wants to try this on, what do you do?

Here are two relatively simple things that can get you started:

First, define your core offer at its highest level. For example, a school that helps men and women get their state contractors license could be considered to be in the construction industry. But, at a higher level the school really provides knowledge that in turn helps people improve their lives. So, the schools core offer is knowledge. Another example might be a contract manufacturing company that specializes in machining, forming and finishing of sheet metal, and light electro-mechanical assembly. This company also has specific equipment, knowledge and practices that enable this work to be done with very low overall deviation from part to part, and can be done very quickly. Some might say a quick turn machine shop. But, at a higher level the company provides peace of mind relative to the speed and accuracy with which it can produce custom parts and assemblies. A fun exercise you can facilitate with your team is continue to ask – “What is so great about that?” – in an attempt to keep bubbling the conversation upward.

Next, define your touch points. These are the places where your desired audience, prospects, and even customers come in contact with your company. These touch points can be anything from front line phone answering, to websites, faxes, quotes, service calls, invoicing, emails, seminars, trade shows, etc., etc. ALL touch points MUST CONVEY THE CORE OFFER. Period. In our first example, if the school doesn’t provide new student inquiries with enough “knowledge” to make a clear, no pressure decision, they are not living up to their core offer. In the second example, if the company is too slow in the customer’s mind to turn quotes, they can’t be counted on for “speed”, and as such they are not living up to their core offer either. These breaches, while perhaps sounding trivial, essentially break trust, short circuit critical word of mouth referrals, and limit the abilities of your best sales person ever – Marketing – to help you grow your business.

© Copyright 2008 - Effetti, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.


The title "Meet the new sales person, Marketing...", article, and contents herein, unless specified otherwise in writing - by Effetti, Inc. are ALSO licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available by contacting the author through Effetti, Inc. http://www.effettigrowth.com/about-contact.php.

The image shown, from the TV series "Mad Men", is either copyright to, or a trademark of AMC TV.

Looking for a signal...

...& how a little bit of market research can go along way!
by David Bookout

For those of you that have seen the movie “Ray”, you might recall the scenes in which Ray Charles feels the wrist of young ladies he has been introduced to. Singer, musician Ray Charles was blind.

Today, we are all a bit blind when it comes to how we are doing relative to fundamental marketing goals, such as; Generating Awareness, Building Interest, Facilitating Trial Sales and Sustaining Repeat Sales.

So, like Ray, we are looking for “signals” from which we can design. But, how do we get those signals? In many cases there simply is no wrist from which to assess the situation, or even check for a pulse. Much has been written over the past several years about the unparalleled power customers now have, and it may seem to owners, executives and managers that are trying to grow businesses, that their desired audience is actually hiding and doesn’t want to reveal themselves.

Customers and members of a company’s desired audience are not the only ones with new powers. Desktop publishing, the internet, eMail, video and a variety of other new ways exist for companies to attempt to “connect” within a variety of venues relatively quickly and easily. But, which is the best?

Ultimately, like Ray, we need to design ways in which we can receive and interpret our own signals to develop a keen sense of how we are doing in our efforts. Within this, a constant effort to really understand your customer’s / desired audience’s concerns, and effectively address them is essential.

From this perspective, here are four ideas to help alleviate some of the dillemas produced by these new found powers; First, figure out “who” your desired audience is. Demographic profiles can be very helpful, and developing customer characterizations can be fun.

Then, spend some time discovering “what” this group, or groups care about. Sometimes it is easier to get this process going by listing what you, and your team know they don’t care about. It is also important here to understand economic drivers and value perceptions.

Follow this by doing some concept testing. Actually ask customers, and members of your desired audience what they think about your message. Include questions that relate to message style and platform. This doesn’t have to be fancy and expensive. You just need to have a few people you can trust, that fit the considered set(s), give you honest answers. You also need to use some common sense. For example, don’t start with your most important customers, and DO NOT SELL in this process. Instead listen, observe, and don’t extrapolate, or “stereotype” what you hear. Most importantly note what people “do”, as this is often different from what they say.

Finally, based on the responses, move the message components; positioning, look, feel, tone and manner, or change the audience demographics until things begin to resonate with what you think is a large enough transaction pool (actual purchasers) to make your financial pro forma work.

Sound daunting? It is a bit of work, but well worth it, and perhaps important to remember that Thomas Edison didn’t invent the carbon filament light bulb on his first try. Instead, he simply designed a way to continue development and assess directional improvements that ultimately led to success.

© Copyright 2008 - Effetti, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.


The title "Looking for a signal...", article, and contents herein, unless specified otherwise in writing - by Effetti, Inc. are ALSO licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available by contacting the author through Effetti, Inc. http://www.effettigrowth.com/about-contact.php.

The image of Ray Charles and the name "Ray Charles" are either copyright to ( 2004 ), or a registered trademark of Ray Charles Enterprises, Inc.

A Dating Approach to Sales

Managing Your Network Increases Your Return on Investment
by Steven Brown

One of the critical lessons for becoming successful in sales is realizing that you must call on the person who can commit to the sized deal you want to close. You have to open a conversation with them, develop rapport, and then ask for the order. This same strategy needs to be considered when networking for business, career, or pleasure.

Enterprise sales executives are masters of the complex sale. They know how to execute corporate level discovery of needs by examining the career aspirations and objective responsibilities of various people. They know how to get introduced to new people they need to meet. Even when those people do not want to meet them. These sales people know their success depends upon the specific skill of discovering the needs of the right people and proposing a business relationship to address those needs.

This same skill is pertinent in job searches. 99% of the people I meet who are looking for a new career opportunity aren't aware of who they need to be meeting, or are befuddled as to how to get to that person. Then, to my amazement, this same high percentage simply don't ask for what they want.

These same issues exist in dating. To illustrate, let's look at a friend who was single when we met. Despite being a successful salesman with a fantastic townhouse, a healthy investment portfolio, and in fantastic physical condition, he was having some trouble with his dating. I have to admit I was quite surprised. Of all the people I knew, this guy seemed to have the social scene down and be able to banter with anyone. I was intrigued by the reasons contributing to a salesman having trouble with dating.

As a creative person I thought I'd offer a systematic approach I use in business to help him solve his problem. When he agreed, we started with open ended fact finding, first defining the goals for closed business. Next, we analyzed the steps in the sales process, and examined the alignment of the value proposition with the desired audience and reviewed the sales approach. Finally, I suggested that he look at the success rates for each of the transition phases in what is called the sales funnel. Within this process sales growth inhibitors are usually quite obvious.

During this process, and to my surprise, I discovered that my friend was actually pretty shy. While he appeared to banter easily, he was actually only interacting with people he already knew ( trying to increase revenue by simply selling more to existing customers ). He had subscriptions on Match.com and was a regular on Craigslist personals, but he wasn't happy with who he was meeting from either effort ( Networking the wrong way, and / or in the wrong places ). His dating problem was that he simply was not prospecting properly. Without an adequate number of introductions ( possibilities ) to potential dates, he was dependent upon unrealistic success rates ( turning opportunities into trial sales ) on his way through the process.

Strategy in hand we began with basic metrics - in this case his dating ( business ) goals. I won't be explicit, but let's just say he wanted to achieve what every successful, attractive man wants to achieve when he's not feeling like he's dating well ( he wants more sales ). He wanted to date a lot ( increase opportunities ). We defined his goals in terms of how many women he wanted to meet ( possible sales ) and how often he wanted to meet new possibilities ( deal flow ). This approach may sound strangely male oriented, but the tables can certainly be turned should my friend have been a woman. Only the prospecting, sales approaches, and offering would have been changed.

By identifying conservative success rates for each step in the sales funnel, we determine how many client prospects were needed. In my friend's case we decided that he needed to say "Hi" to 5 new women every day. All he had to do was say "Hi", and the normal processes ( discovery ) and the odds of personality alignment ( rapport building ) would take care of themselves. He would in effect increase his discovery rate, and make offers from there. I'm not sure which of us was more surprised with the results he produced.

Today, the good news is he's happily dating one special woman. I'm very happy for him and like her immensely. I've been told I should be a dating coach, or write a book on dating. That feels a bit smarmy to me. But I have to admit the parallels of the dating process and the sales process can be a powerful parallel as these steps do apply. And the analogy can be an insightful one that might not be obvious to small, medium business owners stuck in a rut about increasing sales.

A logo is NOT a brand...

...in most cases it's just a graphic image.
by David Bookout

In this short post I want to offer an opening to what I hope is a more valuable, actionable perspective regarding logos and their place in brand strategy, and brand development.

Brand, branded, and branding have recently become commonly used terms. But, to me, the way most people use these terms is a bit off relative to what is actually happening, or more to the point, not happening in regard to their own logo.

Branding originally hurt, and still does in that context, then became an expensive process ONLY for big companies and now is even a topic for nascent entrepreneurs.

Today almost everyone talks about their "brand". The real issue, particularly for small to medium business ( SMB ), is that they don't have a brand. Too many people think that because they've had a logo developed that they have a brand. Too many people think that if they put a logo on a piece of paper, or other medium, that they are branding. Too many people think that if they have a done a little positioning work, have come up with a tag line, which is usually a full on slogan, that they have effectively branded themselves. In reality these thoughts are absolutely, and completely false. In fact, this is where brand building actually begins. Where brands exist the logo itself has symbolism, the logo has distinct meaning for people, and those same people have a picture, actually more like a short movie, in their minds about how the company, the product, or the service connects to and with them in their life.

In our next post in this series we'll have some FUN with our friend Dilbert and talk about effective, and ineffective logos.

Brand Review - Honda...

It's ALL about "Mobility"!
by David Bookout

Dejavu. Some may, but I certainly don't, remember the debut of the Honda Accord in 1976. The car was an upscale version of the Civic, a concept test by Honda to evaluate the American market, and consumer appetite for an automobile that could run a long, long way on a gallon of gas. Back then Honda's goal was to become an automotive brand. They succeeded.

Fast forward 32 years, look closely, and we can observe a new ambition for Honda. My speculation, Honda wants to own the word mobility.

Outside of requiring a vision that extends 1/2 to 1/3 of a human life time, what can small, medium enterprise ( SME ) learn from what Honda is doing relative to brand development?

Well let's see:

First, vision is required. We're often in such a hurry that we overlook the bumps in the road, the detours, and breakdowns that we actually bring into our own journey. A little time focusing on the essence of your offer, and a compelling value proposition is essential.

Second, patience is required. I often tell people that to go fast, they need to slowdown. Again, we're often in such a hurry, and want to change, or do things that are really non-essential. Why? Because we can. Technology and the internet are actually conspirators against young brand builders. Technology and the internet enable constant, rapid change, and along with that the ability to break established ( but, you have to know rules to break them, right? ), time tested rules of establishing market leadership and successful brand building.

Third, solid strategy & creativity are required. Amongst several different examples, the brilliance of combining The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Yo Yo Ma, and an ASIMO robot by Honda is exquisite brilliance.

What can you do, within a rational budget, to compellingly position your business and create customer centric examples of the value that you, your team, your business, your products and services bring ?

When in doubt, ask actual members of your desired audience, and your customer base !!

White-Knuckle Driving in NASCAR

Gripping the wheel of your career in the "New Economy"
by Steven Brown

I dream of driving a race car someday. My home state of Oregon has some spectacular stretches of Highway and mountain roads that elevate your adrenaline. But the thrill of competitive driving has called to me for years. Maybe someday I'll make it to Infineon Raceway for one of their driving schools. For now I have to settle for the thrill of bumper to bumper driving at 20 mph on interstate 880 here in the east bay.

NASCAR is a different breed of racing from the Portland Champ Car races I've attended. The wrecks in NASCAR are so spectacular, the fan community almost celebrates them. The most exciting replays are from the on-car camera of a driver who can't avoid driving through the smoke of a wreck. This aspect of NASCAR is so popular that video games advertise this as one of their most attractive features!

As I look around I’m sure there are many executives who might feel like things are a bit out of control, just like they are driving through the smoke, or worse, going up in flames. Wall Street has certainly had very well-publicized troubles of late, and those issues are beginning to cascade into other sectors.

As we find ourselves driving 200 mph in turn 4 (Q4); trying to avoid running into one of the wrecked cars, or someone who slowed down for the smoke, it's important to stay calm, and focus on the customer, on business, on creating measurable contributions. Water-cooler conversations and continuing to look in the rear view mirror will do little to move your car safely through the smoke and wreckage.

And just like in NASCAR, it’s ok to be a bit sad because no driver likes to see those wrecks, particularly the wrecks of their teammates. People we have known and worked with. But we have to move on, and keep driving through these times towards the exciting opportunities ahead of us in this race. I for one anticipate a lot of exciting changes coming. I can see them and I feel the adrenaline kicking in to keep me from over steering in turn 4. Maybe a pit stop is in order to check my tires and fill up on racing fuel. For today, I have marketing collateral to develop, programs to manage, and customer success stories to publish. My knuckles are white...holding on tight!

Be careful - every conversation is a Negotiation!

How to thrive in life, work, and love
by Steven Brown

In my personal and professional development activities I have spent many hours on the subject of negotiation. In addition I have explored the nuances of language in communication, assertiveness, power and relationships. As I have experimented with various techniques and incorporated new skills in my everyday life I have come to believe that we live with negotiation at every turn. I like to tell people that every conversation is a negotiation.

To most people the word negotiation means conflict, a fight of cunning skill over some object to be acquired in exchange for other resources. This derives from what is called a Scarcity Mentality - where the individual(s) involved believe there is a fixed pool of stuff that is available for discussion. That the "winner" comes away from a negotiation with more of the stuff. The alternative to this approach is known as an Abundance Mentality. Where an individual believes that even though there might appear to be a fixed pool of stuff, that with creativity and a willingness to flexibly examine what you value, more can be exchanged.

Abundance and Scarcity

Some other terms have been created to categorize negotiations: Win/Win, Win/Lose, Lose/Win, and Win/I-Don't-Care. Win/Win is where each person is after the win for themselves AND the other party. Win/Lose is an orientation to Win by forcing the other party to Lose. Lose/Win is an orientation to sacrifice so the other party Wins and likes you. Win/I-Don't-Care is the notion that you Win, and the other person's outcome doesn't matter to you.

They might also be called Abundance/Abundance, Abundance/Scarcity, Victim/Victor, and Scarcity/Destruction. I added different labels to illustrate the flair with which Scarcity can be applied. It's very important to know which situation you're in so as to not only maximize your outcome, but sometimes even save the other party from themselves. I believe that frequently people are predisposed to Scarcity because they feel like everyone around them is that way and they need to survive using those tactics. In fact they usually are creating their own reality. As a person that tries to operate from Abundance, I perceive I have an opportunity to invite others to see, learn, and work with me in Abundance.

There is a negotiation training tool called the "Red Black game" which can provide exactly this Scarcity vs Abundance mentality experience, if facilitated properly. Two teams of people enter into a series of potentially identical negotiations. They are very simple negotiations (similar to the Prisoner's Dilemma), so the only real complexity is deciding between Abundance and Scarcity.

Language

One of the more fascinating dimensions of negotiation is how language can play a very important role. I believe that language represents what people really think. That may sound overly simplistic. A consistent observation I have made is that as people learn and grow, they begin to adopt more positive and precise language to represent their thoughts, feelings, and what they want.

What this leads to is the realization that conversations are negotiations. If you look at a conversation as a connection, as building a relationship, as creating potential to influence, you are negotiating. Maybe for the future, or maybe in the moment. You are developing an impression in others of your propensity for Abundance or Scarcity. People are drawn to those who are Abundant. People share more with those that are Abundant. Negotiations are easier with those who are Abundant.

Conclusion

There are many dimensions of this short post. The one I hope you latch onto here is Abundance versus Scarcity. I believe that all other dimensions of negotiation are tactical skills. Even planning a negotiating strategy to win is tactical, if you've already decided to operate from Scarcity. How do you view negotiations?