B2B companies still talk about the “sales cycle,” but that’s internal thinking. It’s about the company, not about the customer. For a long time now, customers have been in charge of the buying process — researching, finding, and comparing products on their own before ever speaking with vendors. So why are marketers still talking about “demand creation?” That’s still a useful concept, especially in consumer products companies, but B2B marketers also need to be thinking about the buyers they don’t even know yet — the ones who are already out there looking for solutions. Rather than just pushing information out to a big list of prospective customers, marketers need to have searchable, findable content available online, so that when prospects are ready, they can find you.

This means developing a variety of types of content, suited to the different buying-cycle stages where potential customers are at any given time. At some point, customers will talk to your sales people who will provide information in their own unique and valuable one-on-one way (presenting, objection handling, proposing). But even then, suitable content can help move the sale along.

Consider the customer’s buying cycle:

1.    Recognition of Need – The Buyer is looking for a solution to a specific business problem – Traditional demand-creation marketing blasts out information to many companies in the hope of finding buyers who are looking for solutions to a business problem. As lead generation response rates indicate, this type of communication falls on a huge number of “deaf ears.” Furthermore, the small percentage of businesses prospects who respond have probably already been out on the web searching for options. At this point, they may have already read articles in industry publications that identify types of product that address their particular problem. If any of the articles identify your company as one of the solution providers, all the better. Perhaps they have heard your executives or product managers speaking at industry events. These are opportunities where your PR people can help build awareness of what you offer. Collaborate with them to get the message right. If the articles are on-line and contain hyperlinks to your website, better yet. If you have informative product content posted on your own blog, prospects can learn that your company has a possible option for them. Do you have a user forum? Posts on a public forum may also lead prospects to consider you.

2.    Vendor Research - The Buyer is looking for companies that can provide some sort of solution to their problem – Having identified possible ways to address their problem, buyers start actively searching for solution providers. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is important in the early stages of the customer buying cycle, but is most important here. Having findable, relevant content posted and downloadable is key to being one of the vendors included in the buying cycle. Static website content is important, but downloadable content such as White Papers is even more so. At this stage your content needs to explain what you do and how you do it. Wording should show understanding of the customer problem and an explanation of how you solve it. Consider whether requiring visitors to register to download your content is desirable or not. You will lose a certain number of potential customers who aren’t ready to identify themselves yet. But those who do register are qualifying themselves.

3.   Comparing and Evaluating – The Buyer is identifying product attributes and evaluating which ones most closely match their needs – When prospective buyers have reached the stage where they’ve found your information and that of competing vendors, you need to give them tools with which to make a thoughtful comparison. Videos and online demos can make it clear how your product functions. At this stage, case studies and customer testimonial videos can be persuasive.

4. Consideration – The Buyer is seriously considering choosing one of the identified vendors – By now either the prospect will have reached out to you, or if you had them register when downloading content earlier, your sales organization will have reached out to them. At this point Sales will need to learn who else the customer is considering. Now is the time for competitive comparisons. If you have a great deal of confidence in the accuracy of your competitive information, post the comparisons on your website. Invite the prospects who are now in your funnel to one of your webinars and take the opportunity to clearly differentiate your offering from the competition’s.

All of the bold, italicized terms above are forms of content. It is essential that your content is well-written, readable, and pointedly designed for the stage(s) in the buying cycle where it is most likely to be read.

To boost awareness of your content, use social media to draw interested parties. Tweet about your video or White Paper with an intriguing headline and a link so readers can reach it. Post a description of your latest case study and a link to it in a relevant LinkedIn Group. Some companies use Facebook, but prospects need to already “like” your brand for this to be useful, whereas Twitter and LinkedIn are more openly available.

The start of a new year is a good time to review your content strategy and identify what you need to develop to totally support marketing throughout the customer’s buying cycle.

Read more about Content Marketing in articles my Mary:

• Content: The Heart of Today’s Integrated Marketing Process
• The Right Tool at the Right Time

Technorati Tags: content marketing, customer buying cycle, Integrated Marketing, SEO, Social Media

In my last post I described the demographics and content usage of respondents to our recent survey of KickStart Accelerator (our newsletter) subscribers. This time, I’m reviewing results on the questions we asked our readers in that same survey about their current marketing and sales practices and initiatives. Since these were all “check-all-that-apply” questions, the percentage totals will exceed 100%.

Bear in mind from the last post that our responses were predominantly from people in smaller to mid-sized B2B companies that sell tech products or services. Here is how they responded to questions about how they are engaging with customers:

Q: What media “channels” have been successful in reaching your customers?

• 91% – Email
• 68% – Web
• 50% – Social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
• 45% – Telephone
• 32% – Video
• 23% – Direct mail
• 23% – Podcast
• 0% – Mobile

“Other” write-ins:
– TV/print
– All things web (including webcasts and social media)
– Webcasts (multiple write-ins)

 
Q: In the last year, how have you learned about needs and concerns of your customers?

• 68% – Sales reps
• 58% – Surveys
• 47% – User group meetings
• 37% – Win/loss reports
• 32% – Channel partners
• 26% – Focus groups
• 21% – Customer advisory boards
• 16% – Customer satisfaction studies

“Other” write-ins:
– Talking with customers directly
– Old fashioned research

 
Q: How do you stay in touch with, nurture existing customers and prospects?

• 79% – E-newsletter
• 60% – Periodic emails
• 45% – Social media
• 35% – Blog
• 10% – Advertising

“Other” write-ins:
– Telephone (multiple write-ins)
– Community/Customer Meet-ups (regional)
– In person

 
Q: How is your organization developing new prospects?

• 65% – Webinars
• 50% – Cold calling
• 45% – Email lists
• 45% – Trade shows
• 35% – White paper syndication
• 35% – Other online advertising
• 20% – Banner ads
• 20% – Media site email blasts
• 15% – PPC ads
• 10% – Print advertising

“Other” write-ins:
– Events
– Telemarketing
– Downloads of open source versions and live cloud trials
– Networking
– Partner referrals

 
Q: What type of sales tools does your organization use?

• 95% – Case studies
• 80% – White papers
• 75% – Demos
• 45% – Sales playbook
• 40% – Competitive guide
• 40% – Proposal tool
• 25% – ROI calculator

“Other” write-ins:
– Presentations (multiples write-ins)
– Technical application notes
– Lots of demos, free tutorials, partial training days (really extended demos),

 
While our readers’ practices in connecting and engaging with prospects and customers seem not to have changed significantly in the past 5 years, we found they are dabbling in use of new tools and social networks for in their businesses. Could our readers be on the brink of big changes in the way they conduct marketing and sales? We’ll need to follow up and check the pulse again before this time next year.

Technorati Tags: customer, Marketing, Sales, survey

So much has changed in marketing and sales in the 9 years since we founded KickStart Alliance. Because we wanted to learn how our readers are operating in 2011, in April we sent a survey to our newsletter subscribers rather than publishing our usual monthly newsletter. The response rate was lower than we anticipated, at 4%, so we followed up in May asking for additional respondents. That generated just one more survey response. So while there wasn’t enough data to be statistically reliable, we’re sharing in this post some of what we did learn.

Completes – 85% of respondents completed the survey, including sharing information about themselves.

Demographics – Of those who completed information about themselves:

• Market – 89% are in the B2B market
• Business type – 83% are in corporations, 11% are contractors/consultants and 6% are in marketing agencies
• Business size – 61% described their company as SMB, 28% as a start-up, and 11% enterprise-sized businesses
• Industry – 50% are in the software industry and 23% are in tech manufacturing other than software. Under 10% each were in non-tech manufacturing, clean tech, business services, and “other.”

Content Sources – This was a check-all-that apply question, so results total greater than 100%:

• Webinars and Online Trade Publications – 60% each
• Trade group meetings/conferences and social media/networks – 55% each
• Analysts – 45%
• Blogs – 40%
• Classes/courses and Print Trade Publications – 25% each

Devices Used for Browsing – In addition to 100% using PC or Mac, there is plenty of mobile browsing:

• 50% use a smartphone
• 25% use an iPad or other tablet

Social Media Elements Used – For their own business, and again a check-all-that-apply question, responses were:

• 95% use LinkedIn
• 70% read blogs
• 30% post to a blog
• 30% comment/participate on others’ blogs
• 30% use Facebook for business
• 25% use Twitter
• 20% participate in online forums
• 5% use QR codes

Based on this information, we’re keeping a close eye on mobile marketing, including QR codes, and continuing to work social media and content marketing into our practice.

We’ll follow up in another post soon with information about the survey respondents’ current marketing and sales initiatives. Stay tuned!

Technorati Tags: content marketing, Marketing, Sales, social networks

Last week I attended a SalesCraft roundtable hosted by Sharon Little, Director of Global Field Communications at VMware.  SalesCraft is a forum for Silicon Valley sales leaders to talk about strategies and trends for empowering successful sales teams. The topic: “PlayBooks – A Top Trend for 2010.”  Presenters included Larry Ball, Sr. Director of Global Sales Development at POLYCOM, and Jenine Young, Sr. Manager of Field Enablement at VMware.   Here is a brief recap of how these two Silicon Valley companies are deploying PlayBooks to arm their sales teams with information, processes and best practices to drive productivity and revenue.

POLYCOM, a global leader in telepresence, video, and voice solutions, is a $1B public company with over 700 sales representatives.

• Sales Enablement Challenge:
  • Improve consistency among its sales organization and implement a more prescriptive selling approach.
• PlayBook Vendor:
  • POLYCOM selected Kadient – an on-demand sales enablement application that combines Sales Playbooks, Dynamic Sales Content, and Sales Performance Analytics—all embedded within a CRM system.
• PlayBook Implementation:
  • POLYCOM had an aggressive schedule, launching Kadient with 12 PlayBooks in just 3 months. Each PlayBook has either a vertical market or strategic partnership focus.  Content is organized around the company’s selling stages and links to content stored in an online portal. Partners view the content in a separate partner portal.
• PlayBook Benefits:
  • Drives repeatability in the sales process
  • Pushes content at the right time based on the sales stage and vertical market or product focus
  • Includes “check-points” within each sales stage that reps should complete before moving to the next stage
  • Integrates into the Salesforce.com Opportunities tab
  • Provides management with visibility into the selling/buying process through standard Salesforce.com reports and dashboards
• Learnings:
  • Identify content owners to oversee and manage the content. POLYCOM is unique that it has a VP of Marketing, and owner of content, reporting into the Sn. VP Global Sales.
  • Develop templates to keep content consistent – down to the font size
  • Roll-out and reinforce the PlayBooks through ongoing training, communication and top-down executive mandates
  • Be prepared to revisit or revise corporate and product positioning and messaging and the sales process. In POLYCOM’s case, the project forced them to quickly develop solution-based content versus product-based.
• Results:
  • Although just released in February 2010, the PlayBooks have helped align sales and marketing and have become an invaluable tool for sales – especially in ramping new hires and getting reps up to speed on new solutions and competitive issues.

VMware, provider of solutions for business infrastructure virtualization that enable IT organizations to energize businesses of all sizes, had revenues of $2B in 2009.

• Sales Enablement Challenge:
  • With over 2,100 field reps and roughly one acquisition per month, VMware was looking for ways to help reps sell newly-acquired products and solutions outside their comfort zone. It started by consolidating content from over 700 SharePoint sites into one sales portal to make it easier for sales reps to find the information they needed to drive deals. The project was such a success that the Sales Enablement team rallied management support to develop PlayBooks as a next step in making the content more actionable and relevant based on the sales process.
• Playbook Vendor:
  • VMware selected SAVO, a sales enablement application that allows salespeople to be more efficient.
• PlayBook Implementation:
  • VMware implemented five PlayBooks based on product areas. The content is organized by sales stage. The solution is not currently integrated into a CRM system as the company is transitioning from Siebel to Salesforce.com.
• PlayBook Benefits:
  • Provides the most relevant and up-to-date content for a given sales opportunity
  • Flexible – content and layout are easily modified using HTML
  • Sales “Flight Plans” or summaries of key selling strategies are featured in each PlayBook
• Learnings:
  • Involve the sales organization in building the Playbook. VMware selected 10 successful reps to serve as a beta group to suggest content and identify content gaps. This “built by sales for sales” concept has also paid off during rollout and training to boost user adoption.
  • Set guidelines on the amount and length of content with content owners.
  • Have a solid rollout, training and communication plan. VMware’s process has included podcasts from the VP Sales, VMware Radio spots by Geo heads, discussions via conference call with regional sales teams, and newsletters.
• Results:
  • Feedback from the beta team has been very positive. Reps appreciate the structure and content and offer suggestions to make the PlayBooks even more useful.

Although POLYCOM and VMware have implemented PlayBooks in different ways, these two leading Silicon Valley companies are demonstrating that the days of the Sales PlayBook in a binder (that is out-dated as soon as it’s published) are over. Leading companies will continue to experiment with online PlayBooks that give sales the information they need when they need it so they can have meaningful conversations with prospects and ultimately, drive productivity and revenue.

Technorati Tags: sales enablement, sales guides, sales operations, sales play books, sales playbook, sales tools, sales training

Human behavior. It seems to fall into grooves so easily. And it is often very, very hard to change. Change is not necessarily always good, but even when people know it would be good, it can seem impossible to make it happen. Besides that, people don’t always realize when changes would be improvements. They’re comfortable with what they know, don’t want to “rock the boat.”

The Heath Brothers, Chip and Dan, authors of Made to Stick, are back with a new book that is being released today by Broadway Books. That new book is Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard. I was fortunate to receive an advance review copy of the book and found it every bit as demystifying and useful as their earlier bestseller.

These guys have a talent for giving readers a new framework for approaching issues that they encounter in business, non-profit organizations, or in personal life. In Switch, they lay out a simple metaphor for the different parts of how we need to deal with change. First, there is a rational part, then there is an emotional part, and finally there is a situational part.

The new structure for thinking about change that Chip and Dan offer is that you don’t need to always be focusing on what’s wrong. They instead focus on what is working – “bright spots” as they call them. The solution to a problem often begins with finding out who is doing things differently and to better effect, and then crafting the alternative in clear and simple to understand terms, following up with plenty of motivation and a supportive environment.

Sound hard? It doesn’t need to be. The authors have packed the book with what I’ll call “case studies” where people have addressed the rational brain or the emotions, and sometimes they simply alter the situation to create change. And as with their earlier book, the Heaths use breakout exercises called “Clinics” where you can think through change situations yourself. They end with one-page takeaways and ample reference notes. You simply cannot read this book and not feel fully armed to tackle those issues that are getting in the way.

With the recovery getting underway, we all need to be thinking about new, better ways to look at our businesses. See if KickStart’s Momentum Builders, and the Heaths’ Switch can help you make it happen.

Technorati Tags: change management, leadership

“I’m looking to hire a campaign manager to oversee our integrated marketing programs.  What are the characteristics of the best campaign managers?” 

I get asked this question a lot.  Earlier in my career, I worked as a campaign manager at HP, Sun, and Ariba , so I’ve seen the good, bad, and the ugly.  I’ll be up front with you and say that I’ve made my share of mistakes along the way.   That experience opened my eyes to the marraige of marketing expertise with an appreciation for internal politics.    

The biggest challenge campaign managers have is that they have a purview over an integrated marketing campaign (aka the “big picture”) but no direct authority over the team players who will execute the campaign.  They walk a tightrope between meeting the campaign goals while aligning and carefully guiding a team of folks who have other masters.

With that in mind, the most effective campaign managers have these traits in common:

• A recognized, well-rounded marketing leader familiar with the target market
• Proven leadership experience in “managing by objective”
• Attentive to detail, but smart enough not to micro-manage
• Diplomatic and politically savvy
• Patient
• A good facilitator, seasoned in active listening techniques
• Excellent written and oral communicator (with the team, to upper management, and in front of the steering committee)
• Knows when and how to provide constructive feedback in real time during team meetings; knows when and how to provide direct feedback in one-on-one settings
• Is prepared to make hard decisions and trade-offs for the greater good of the campaign
• Most of all, doesn’t let their ego get in the way of sound recommendations

There’s art and science in this role.  The science comes from understanding sound marketing best practices.  More important than understanding the specific products being sold, the best campaign managers bring an awareness and appreciation for the customer and their business problems and opportunities.  While they usually won’t know all the answers, their expertise comes in knowing the right questions to ask the team in order to define, architect, and execute the best, most effective integrated marketing campaigns.  That’s the art.

Looking for more information on integrated marketing campaigns?  Please visit my blog: Marketing Campaign Development.

Technorati Tags: campaign managers, Integrated Marketing, marketing best practices

By “It”, here, I mean content. In the sense that marketers and publishers use the word, “content” means (according to Wikipedia) information and experiences that may provide value for an end user/audience in specific contexts. You may think of content as something contained on the Web, but it can be in other media as well, including broadcast media, CDs, and even print.

The key to content being useful for marketing purposes is that it must be information or an experience that can be easily:

• Captured
• Stored
• Forwarded
• Repurposed

What does content have to do with social media? Updates or announcements with associated links posted on social networks are a great way to draw users to your content! And from there visitors — the ones thinking of buying — can find their way into your sales funnel. Increasingly buyers are finding their own way through the sales cycle via the internet.

If you’re ready to give this a try, first, stop and consider what you would want social media to do. Who do you want to reach? Which social networks are those people in? What action do you want users to take when they see your social network presence? What happens next?

Nothing happens unless you make it so. When you have thought through your strategy and figured out how to move ahead, be sure you follow these basic rules:
1) Learn to write great headlines – The posted information needs to include a very short, intriguing “headline” or subject line that gives readers a good idea of what content they will see when they click the link.
2) Make the content truly relevant and valuable – When your company draws users to information that makes them more knowledgeable, you do them a service and boost your brand’s credibility. Make sure your content is related to your industry or product and will make visitors smarter for having visited.
3) Don’t push – Most visitors, still in the information-gathering stage, can be put off by advertisements pushing a product before they know enough about the subject. Let them learn at their own speed. Today’s buyers will anyway.
4) Provide a call to action – If visitors like your content and they’re ready to learn more, giving them a link to more detailed information on your products or services will encourage them to explore further. Use a simple info form (name, company, email address) to enable access to more in-depth information such as White Paper downloads. Now they’re genuinely prospects.
5) Stay open and accessible – If the content is a blog post, allow visitors to leave a Comment. Include RSS capability so they can subscribe to your blog. If they want to receive updates from you, give them a simple form to subscribe to your newsletter and emails.
6) Keep your content fresh – Develop and maintain a Content Calendar with topics, dates and contributor names. Publish new content frequently. If your website becomes stale, people won’t keep coming back. If there is something new and interesting, they’ll tune in.

Every time you post new content, by all means, tweet about it on Twitter or post an update on your Facebook page. If the content is really delightful, people will share it with others and help you spread the word.

Technorati Tags: content marketing, Social Media

There are companies buying products and services, even in this recession.  There are companies that will grow.  Many companies will be able to maintain a good business and there are even some new emerging business areas.  Buyers are out there.  They just may be a little harder to find and in industry segments that are not as familiar to you.

Companies that supply necessities will be able to maintain a good business through a recession.  Luxuries and nice-to-have items are not in demand but necessities are still required.

• Transportation necessities: delivery services & fuel providers
• Business consumables: paper & ink cartridges for printers & copiers, raw materials for production
• Consumer necessities: food, water & utilities

Companies that are likely to grow in a recession are ones that help business and consumers protect and extend use of existing assets.  Companies and people look to get a longer useful life from their existing assets.

• Repair & maintenance: production equipment maintenance & automotive repair
• Network optimization: IT infrastructure support
• Safety & security: insurance, premise security & online protection

New companies will emerge or existing ones will grow in areas that provide cost effective alternatives.

• Consumable alternatives:  A great service that saves about 50% compared to new purchase is refill services for ink cartridges
• Self-service alternatives: Web self-help services, order management, online stores
• Outsourcing non-core services: A recent client of mine found a PEO (Professional Employment Organization) was able to provide payroll, HR, benefits & workman’s comp for 25% less than in-house staff.

Look for companies that help protect the planet: Recyclers, repurpose & re-use.

Look for companies or organizations that will reap the benefits of federal government stimulus funds.

• Public well being:  education & healthcare
• Services: police & social services
• Infrastructure construction: roads, railroads & mass transit
• Energy: solar, wind power & efficient operation alternatives

Companies are buying products & services in a recession.  You just need to look at the marketplace in a new way.

First impressions are even more important when selling in recessionary times.  Sales is all about them, it’s not about you.  Customers are concerned and want their money to go a long way.  They are looking for long term value, short term payback, transparency in the business transaction and an on-going relationship.

Long term value: Your first impression needs to build trust.  Listen more.  Ask questions about what is important to their business today and over the long term.  What’s out: Slick sales pitches & fast talking.

Short term payback: Leave the impression that you will help the customer investigate options.  They will do comparison shopping, whether you like it or not.  As you build trust you may be able to help them establish criteria for comparison, which can help highlight the value you bring.  Expect the buying decision to take time, customers are cautious and thoughtful.  What’s out: Pushy sales people & “buy now” deadlines.

Transparency in the Business Transaction: Your open, genuine and honest approach will help leave the important impression of transparency.  Help your customer.  They are not an expert in your business: educate them, teach them what questions to ask, show them how to make a good decision.  If they feel you are hiding something or surprised as new information is revealed your impression will get your thrown out.  What’s out:  The old “just-trust-me” approach & “oh-BTW” surprises.

On-going Relationship: Leave the first and lasting impression that you are working for them.  Customers want great short term payback along with great long term value which means they want you to be their business partner.  What’s out: False promises & deal-closer-only relationships.

Good selling.  A good first impression will provide the imprint for a long term relationship.  There are plenty of sales opportunities, even in recessionary times.

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