Posts filed under 'Marketing'
Better than shooting in the dark, prospect profiles (aka targets or ideal customers) make sales and marketing more successful.
They screen out the undesirable and demote the mediocre, making efforts more effective, optimizing investments and producing more desired results (leads, meetings, bids, sales, etc.).
Traditional profiles are good for bucketing prospects’ demographic criteria, such as:
- geography – state, MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area), zip code
- prospect company size – revenue, employees, square footage, etc.
- estimated contract size – annual $s, FTEs, or HPWs (calculated from company size)
Traditional Profiles Stuck on Demographics
However, demographics aren’t the whole picture.
Psychographics (the attributes relating to personality, values, attitudes, interests, or lifestyles) can highlight a true affinity between a contractor and desired future customers, instantly identifying prospects.
Psychographics of people and companies can include:
- socially conscious (eco-green) or personally ambitious (profits) only
- prompt payers
- politically savvy working bureaucratic processes
- detailed down in the weeds or 50,000 foot visionary
- open, honest & with integrity
- fun to work with
- data-driven or fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants
- blame-oriented or personally accountable
- loyal
- risk averse/tolerant
- experienced old-hand or arrogant greenhorn
- people who value your contributions & expertise
Yet these aren’t captured in demographic data.
Profiles target Companies, Not People
Traditional prospect profiles target companies only, not people – and companies aren’t as friendly or accessible as people.
Instinctively people relate to a company as if the company is another person.
Think about how you feel when stuck in a long line to board a plane, or when holding that first, hot cup of Starbucks on a cold morning.
Whatever made you feel that way was definitely human, and since it’s highly unlikely you know the individual, you associate those feelings with that company. Voila! From that point on that company feels like a someone to you (until they do something out of character and you revise your feelings).
That’s a major drawback because traditional profiles aren’t energizing, they aren’t a welcoming beacon.
Keeping Sales People Motivated
Sales people must continually overcome the day-to-day obstacles of convincing prospects to become customers. Anything your firm can do to help them move forward increases sales’ ROI.
That’s what a motivating, energizing profile should do – pull sales people, like an extreme magnet, inexorably towards prospects.
Not just ordinary prospects, but to perfect prospects, because the point of perfect prospects is that they become perfect customers when sold. Perfect customers are always worth extra effort.
A New Type of Prospecting Profile: Personas
Personas can be a tool for enhancing sales motivation and accuracy towards generating the perfect kind of new business.
Originally created for software programmers, personas are an archtype of the perfect customer. They’re a fact and story based description that includes psychograpic and demographic data.
Personas are based on data from live prospects and customers.
Through research in surveys, focus groups and one-on-one interviews, qualitative data forms the basis of the persona’s pyschographics . Quantitative data forms the basis of its demographic data.
Both are combined into a narrative about a specific, fictional, yet representative person. The research identifies the number of personas to be used, but typically there can be 3 to 5 different personas.
A persona works at a company of:
- a particular size
- in an industry / market vertical
- in a geographic area
They work:
- in a specific position/role
- overseeing a service contract of a certain size
- employing a type of contractor -or- in-house staff
- within a budgeting / bidding cycle & schedule
- in a company culture of A/P & reporting practices
The persona also includes descriptions of their personal and job-related:
- goals
- motivators
- objectives
- personal profile
Additionally, the persona includes:
- a picture
- quotes
- anecdotes
- personal stories
3 Powerful Reasons to use Personas
Personas used to profile perfect prospects deliver three key benefits.
#1 Glitteringly Clear Picture
Using personas presents diamond like clarity for targeting perfect prospects.
Personas enable our minds powerful ability to pull partial information about people and then create a coherent bigger picture, which can then be projected into new situations.
This is exactly what profiles should do – point prospecting efforts unequivocably towards perfect prospects.
#2 Energizing the Quest
Personas provide sales people a warmer, welcoming target to go out and seek. That keeps them at it.
When sales people are looking for someone they like and who likes them, they’re more confident. This helps get novice sales people over the starting hump and reinforces experienced sales people to continue.
It’s like looking for a known friend out there amongst strangers.
#3 Multiplying the Uses
In addition to prospecting activities, personas guide marketing and social networking efforts as well.
Personas provide a specific target audience for developing marketing messages. Think how much easier and effective copy writing for ads, web sites, and brochures will be when speaking to that perfect reader, the persona.
Personas also provide a process for uncovering where perfect prospects live, work and socialize. That’s developed during the creation of the persona, and shows sales people where they should go to network, i.e. Facebook, Twitter, or Chamber of Commerce mixers.
People & their personas make the world go round
For selling and marketing it’s all about people: prospects, customers and sales staff.
Using personas makes the early out reach efforts clearer and more enjoyable, which for sales people means more likely they’ll continue doing it well year after year.
Good luck.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue IQ
June 3rd, 2010
The bathwater. The baby. New is better.
Too frequently a “new” sales practice comes out that’s the next answer for every sales woe (and you should buy the book and attend the seminar too).
With the “new” comes the exhortation that the “old” was a failure, or else why would you need the “new”?
But some of the old sales practices (used appropriately) are still valid, and required. For example, the sales process in the book “Never Cold Call Again
” needs a few “cold calls” in the beginning to get started. That in spite of its clever title.
Starting a new opt-in, permission-based mailing? You’ll need help getting the attention of potential subscribers. An effective way is to use online ads or direct mailings offering promotions to subscribe. Yes, the new millennium still has a place for ads and direct mail.
Even though online commerce has changed many things, there’s still a need for the intelligent use of traditional sales and marketing.
The (really) new sales practice: MarSpecTing
Here’s my attempt at marrying the best of the old with the new: MarSpecTing. Making up a new word? Yes. Hypocritical? Yes. Clever title? No.
MarSpecTing is for individual sales people. It combines selling 2.0 with the relevant bits of old-timey selling. It’s evolutionary, not revolutionary. And as you may have guessed, MarSpecTing is a combination of:
- Marketing-by-salesperson
- Prospecting
- Networking
As you’d expect, prospecting and networking are legacies from old-timey selling – though they’re flashier now because of the web (twitter, LinkedIn, etc.).
And as most facility service contractors don’t have marketing departments, that leaves marketing out in the cold. MarSpecTing fixes that by folding marketing into individual sales practices. Voila! Marketing-by-salesperson.
But marketing-by-salesperson is only a part of MarSpecTing, and with the other practices can help sales people achieve their individual sales goals.
Marketing-by-salesperson
WHAT: One-way messages out to the anonymous masses in your marketplace. Maybe you’ll reach a qualified prospect, maybe not. Align your expectations with reality: marketing never made a sale, it can lead to, but not finalize the deal.
BENEFITS:
- Raise prospects’ awareness
- Establish your credibility
- Earn the opportunity of sales speaks with prospects
HOW:
- Ads
- Direct mail & email blasts
- Digital newsletters
- Seminars
- Publishing articles, blogs, sharing subject matter expertise
- Trade shows & sponsorships
- PR
AVOID: Misplaced expectations & overspending (match investments with measurable goals)
Prospecting
WHAT: Seeking the first LIVE contact with a qualified prospect for a two-way conversation. Phone calls, web meetings and IM chat can allow you to more efficiently identify a prospect from a suspect. However, most facility service sales require a face-to-face at some point to get down to the nitty-gritty of data gathering.
BENEFITS:
- Luck out with the “right-place, right-time” prospect who is actively seeking what you provide right now!
- Begin developing long-term relationships
- Gather data on individual prospects
HOW:
- Telemarketing for face-to-face appointments
- Smokestack for drop-ins (old-timey definition: drive around until you see a smoke stack, then drive in)
AVOID: Wasting prospects time by NOT knowing anything about them and/or NOT having a concise positioning statement (why would they spend their time with you?)
NETWORKING
WHAT: Accessing qualified prospects through the people you know. It’s critical that you’ve defined your targets very well. Knowing who you want to talk to drives who you may know that knows them.
BENEFITS:
- More face-to-face warm meetings & returned calls
- Access higher ups within prospects’ org
- Understand the inner politics, situation & lay of land inside prospects’ firms
HOW:
- Social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, twitter, etc.)
- Professional networking groups
- Traditional networking events (Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, etc.)
AVOID: Falling into social media’s sink hole of squandered time & DON’T throw handfuls of business cards into the air (ala confetti) in the stadium when your home team scores a touchdown.
MarSpecTing is a comprehensive approach to individual selling. One that adds marketing to the salesperson’s traditional activities of prospecting and networking.
The new millennium ain’t like the old one, but that doesn’t mean leaving behind that which works. It only means being selective, intelligent and working diligently. But you’re doing that, right?
Good Luck
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue IQ
May 12th, 2010
I’m recovering from the flu and as you can tell by this post’s title my crankiness hasn’t left. So here are a few gripes about business dealings as seen from the customer’s POV (point of view), that’d be mine.
And if there are business lessons here, they’re about how we should be mindful of what we say, or do to our customers. Or we’ll get a message from them saying “What’s Wrong With You?” (which I’m fully expecting after this post). Here’s what we’ll look at:
- Framing the Conversation with a Sledgehammer
- A Bill by any other name, would still smell…
- The Pit of Despair: Phone Message Options
Framing the Conversation with a Sledgehammer
Watch for messages with titles that leave no doubt as to which side of an issue the publisher is on. Here are a couple of examples framing different sides of the same topic (politics).
#1 CNN’s special programming called “Broken Government“
If you watch CNN, you’ve probably seen their graphic of Broken Government as they present an issue, or in the upcoming window on screen.
By framing the conversation in the title this way it leads one to think:
Broken Government = Current Administration is broken = Obama’s presidency is broken
I searched and couldn’t find CNN running this special programming during the Bush presidency. So, the way CNN has framed this title says they’re against Obama’s presidency (my observation).
However, CNN’s implication of government being broken highlights several underlying assumptions:
- Government is something that can be fixed
- Government was fixed at some time in the past
- CNN knows when Government is fixed
Those assumptions put me into rebuttal mode with:
- What if the nature of Government is to be constantly changing, always fluid?
- What if Government will never be fixed because it’s unfixable, like water?
- Is there a trusted source that could tell us when/if it’s fixed?
#2 Moveon.org’s email: “Washington’s Broken”
Here’s one from the liberal citizens’ movement Moveon.org. The same sledgehammer approach to framing the conversation. This time the rationale goes like this:
Washington’s Broken = Must Fix It Now Or Bad Things Happen = Take the Action We Want You To
One can identify the same underlying assumptions, and my rebuttals that go to this messaging. It’s just trying to get the audience to do something different than CNN’s messaging.
Takeaway for Businesses
When framing the conversation is done heavy-handedly, it becomes manipulation. And when it’s that obvious, it raises hackles and throws objectiveness and credibility out the window (some might say it shoves the BS meter off the charts).
That’s a shame because there may be valuable information to be gained if one starts with an open mind.
For your customers: when composing messages, titles, banners, headlines, etc. seek some level of objectivity. Otherwise you’ll lose that which you’re seeking: customers’ open minded attention.
A Bill by any other name, would still smell…
Comcast provides a bill online, Ecobill, and you can discontinue the paper bill. They”re greenwashing it as an ecologically responsible way to pay.
That’s really stretching the green thing. Yes, I’m not receiving paper, and that makes it green. But the company is saving millions in not printing and mailing these dinosaur bills.
When is doing something that’s just plain better for a company’s bottom line going to get pushed in customers’ faces as doing something for the environment?
Takeaway for Businesses
A little more honesty upfront and you can still keep the self-serving catch phrase.
In Comcast’s case, if they’d included a little honesty that they were saving money, then the message would be more believable. Ecobill could have stated they were passing those cost savings on to customers by keeping their costs down (see, didn’t even cost them anything).
The Pit of Despair: Phone Message Options
Here’s a great example of developers not working with users for a better interface.
Of the many different phone services that have voice mail options, few get the order of instructions right. There are many different phone services, not all have you press the same key to just leave a message.
Some services say just hang up, or press #, or press 1, or press 79, or press.
You get the idea, there’s a different instruction with different services. Not all have you do the same thing.
Here’s the problem. Almost every service doesn’t tell you what that key to press to leave a message UNTIL the end of a long list of other options, such as review, revise, delete, priority, etc.
And leaving a message is probably the most common choice 95% of the time. So why wait to the end to tell us that? Start the instructions by telling us how to do what we want to do 95% of the time?
And while I’m at it, why don’t all the phone services get together and decide on a common key for leaving a message, or replaying, or re-recording, or appending, or deleting, or…? Create a standard messaging system protocol, make it easier on all customers.
Takeaway for Businesses
It’s almost too obvious, but getting customer input in the development phase is crucial, even for a facility service offering. If not through focus groups, then one-on-ones with friendly customers/prospects.
Time to Rest
Hoping to return to some form of normalcy shortly and shake the flu. Maybe this post has prodded you to consider where in your customer communications or interactions you’re getting it maddeningly wrong.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue IQ
March 10th, 2010
Service contractors can should learn a great deal from web marketers.
Web marketers are data diligent and process aware.
They’re focused on “conversions” – points in their online process that are measurable, lead to a tangible next step, and eventual sale.
They track performance at those points and with that data continually tweak presentation and offering for incremental improvements.
Conversion results are regularly reviewed and improvements continuously made.
Stuck in the mud
Compared to web marketers, service contractors are prehistoric. They focus on “advances” – those major steps in the selling/buying process.
Contractors rarely define their new business process at the granular level, not to mention measuring and improving steps in the process. It’s almost entirely done on an ad hoc basis.
Conversions in contract service sales
Switching one’s thinking from “advances” to “conversions” can increase sales by focusing on the data and process in manageable chunks.
Then focusing on accomplishing the smaller goal directly in front of you.
It helps that you can see what needs to be improved and have the measurements to assess results.
Start at the web
The truth is that almost every prospective customer will check out a contractor’s web site. Even if the contractor was referred by a trusted source. Web site’s are a quick and easy check. Who doesn’t Google or Bing?
Starting at the web for conversions makes sense.
The thought and discipline used for online conversions can be used with customers off line as you begin selling.
Getting started on the web requires setting up web analytics, which…
…requires defining your conversion goals, which…
…requires defining customers’ actions in measurable ways, which…
…fully shows all the steps you need to secure contracts, which…
…provides metrics to track results and identify improvement areas, and which…
…shows the improvements you need to make on your web site and in your sales process.
All these conversion activities are valuable to the off line sales process. Even more so when you consider that sales don’t occur until the end of the process. A lot of effort, time and money can be spent up front and then lost in the end because the final off line steps were weak.
A quick look
The following graphic highlights common conversion points that can be tracked. Once tracked, they identify easily managed improvement projects. What’s to stop you?
How are your conversion points?
~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue IQ
January 7th, 2010
I’d like to thank you for making 2009 a successful and productive year for Revenue IQ. As the weekly blog for facility service contractors, it’s the only sales posting (I know of) that’s not for beginners. You, dear reader, are interested in post graduate education in sales and marketing.
And with those flattering words, here are the best posts of this year. These are the “best” because:
a) They received the most page visits as tracked by Google Analytics
b) They generated the most reader feedback (via email, hoping to get you to comment online in 2010)
c) I felt they were the best out of what I’d written
The Best of Revenue IQ in 2009
These are grouped for easy navigation but aren’t in any ranked order. Enjoy, and please let me know of any topics you’d like explored in 2010.
Selling, Proposals & Presentations
Customers & Buying
Marketing
Happy Holidays and a healthy and prosperous 2010
~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue-IQ
December 22nd, 2009
Last week’s post, The Greatest Sales Question, drew numerous reader responses. A number of them were around a common sales issue facing service contractors.
Why aren’t customers more (open / responsive / interested / curious / concerned) about how to improve their service?
To simplify this would be to say:
Why won’t customers talk with me about how I can help them? -or- Why won’t customers let me sell them?
It’s All in the Mind of the Customer
Sales and marketing activities must be (should be) dictated by the customer’s place in their buying cycle.
That’s in their buying cycle. Not where we are in our selling cycle.
Recognizing where customers’ minds are focused is a sales essential.
It’s like going fishing and standing at the river but not knowing:
- What kind of fish you’re fishing for
- What they eat
- Where they’re safe from predators
- Where they hang out to conserve energy
- What kind of food they eat
- What part of the river they find their food in
The 1,000 Word Picture
Describing how to deal with this sales situation can be very wordy. So I’m presenting the following graphic to put a voice to where customers are at, relative to our wanting to sell them. It’s all about hearing their voice, and then directing our sales and marketing actions accordingly.
Here’s the graphic:
What to Do
If you haven’t already read the 3 Stages of the Buying Cycle you should. It lists specific sales and marketing actions to move customers towards selecting your firm depending on where they’re at.
By starting from where the customer is at, your actions will be more effective and eventually produce the results you want, whether that’s:
- A returned call or email
- An introductory appointment
- Getting on their bid list
- Making their short list in an RFP competition
- Securing their contract
- Re-securing their contract
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue-IQ
December 11th, 2009
What’s important to you?
Or put another way, what is your single most pressing challenge today?
That pressing challenge is the one keeping you from getting or enjoying what’s important to you.
So, that’s it. That’s the question – what is your single most pressing challenge today?
As a reader of Revenue-IQ you are……my customer. You’re developing new business and/or holding onto what you already have.
I want to know because…
The more I know about your challenges, the better I can share industry and market knowledge that might not have come across your radar screen.
Your Answer
Not looking for a perfectly worded, formatted or even rational answer from you. Just what’s on your mind regarding getting new, and/or keeping existing service contracts.
How to Answer
Post Comments Online
Try posting your comments on this blog. Use an anonymous screen name if you like. Here’s a quick
8 Easy Steps to Start Posting Comments.
Email Me
If commenting online isn’t for you, just email me at carlen@serviceperformance.
Heads up: If this is the first time you’re emailing me, you’ll have to prove your human. That is, I use SpamArrest, a web service that asks you one time to verify you’re not a spam mail robot.
~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue-IQ
December 3rd, 2009
They’re different; marketing and selling.
However, they seem to get mixed up in the minds of many who’s job it is to bring in new business.
You can see it in proposal responses that are trying to “educate” decision makers. Those are the elaborately long answers to RFP questions that go off into the ether and entirely miss the need to sell at that moment.
And you can see it in marketing that presents only features and benefits…in every message. Messaging without a compelling customer experience. It’s as if you sit down in a restaurant and the first thing you’re given is the bill, before ordering, even before eating the meal.
Here’s a quick, non-academic separation of church and state (marketing and selling):
Marketing is…
- Speaking to the anonymous many in a market
- Understanding the needs (hidden or explicit) of customers in that market
- Publishing compelling messages about the valued customer experience your firm delivers
Selling is..
- Solving one customer’s specific service needs
- Connecting that customer’s service needs to the impact they have on their business results
- Presenting a unique solution to address those needs & help customers reach their goals
Do the right thing – market when you want to:
- Raise awareness
- Get qualified, motivated leads
- Seek to own a specific position in a market
Do the right thing – sell when you’re:
- Introducing your firm the first time face-to-face
- Writing a proposal & answering an RFP
- Presenting your proposal in-person as a short-listed supplier in a bid process
How do you differentiate between Marketing & Selling?
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue-IQ
November 25th, 2009
When internal sales talk crosses the line to become outside customer conversation, your perspective and word-choice can leave you fully exposed and vulnerable.
The words used in customer conversations are a dead give away for how you see the world, and how customers will see you.
Customers intuitively pick up on your approach to solving their problems and serving their needs. They’re deciding if you should be their supplier based on your communications, which are driven by your choice of words.
Competitive Advantage vs. Value Proposition
Consider this, if you’re describing your competitive advantage to customers your naked. Why?
Because, competitive advantage is “internal sales talk”. It’s needed when talking sales and marketing within your company. It identifies what you do against the competition and helps you design service offerings.
However, customers aren’t interested in hearing about your competitive advantage (read competitive comparisons).
They’re interested in what you’re going to do for them.
Specifically, how you’re going to:
- Lower their costs
- Improve their performance
- Make them look better
They’re interested in your value proposition.
Speak to customers about what they care about
Ultimately, customers seek what serves them best.
It won’t matter that you’re the world’s best in xyz, if customers don’t care about xyz.
For sales people that means not crossing the line, unless and until you’re communicating appropriately from the customer’s perspective, using words that show it.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue-IQ
November 5th, 2009
The following story is fictitious, but you’d have guessed that anyway.
The marketing and selling lessons in it are true AND absolutely essential to marketing and selling anything, but even more true (if that’s possible) for selling contract services.
Here goes…
I’d just moved to a foreign country where I happened to speak, read and write the official language (lucky for me it was English).
While I was settling into my new home and work, I started hearing about something that I absolutely must buy: Yorwin.
My neighbors praised Yorwin.
My colleagues at worked swore by Yorwin.
I saw newspaper and TV ads imploring that I buy Yorwin, telling the story of the greatness that is Yorwin.
I read on the Yorwin web site about the founder and his struggle from poverty to undreamed of wealth and prosperity.
I even received a visit from a Yorwin salesman at work. If I could have gotten a word in edgewise I might have been able to ask my Yorwin questions.
But the salesman was a non-stop river. At 120 words per minute I heard the Yorwin story (already knew it from ads), about the Yorwin founder (already read about him on the website) and the Yorwin community (already overwhelmed by recommendations from neighbors). After the salesman left my office it took me 25 minutes to refocus on my work.
However, at this point in time I was still in the dark. Everyone told me that Yorwin is the name of a company, based on a founder named Yorwin. Everyone knew Yorwin.
So, I admit, I was curious about Yorwin.
But curious about what?
Not the story of Yorwin, that was everywhere.
Not the size and strength of Yorwin.
Not the ubiquity of Yorwin (seeing Yorwin embossed paper towels in public restrooms sealed that perception).
What I Didn’t Know
This is what I didn’t know as a potential buyer:
- What is Yorwin for?
- Why do I need Yorwin?
- What will Yorwin fix for me, that I need fixing?
- How will I feel once I buy Yorwin, whatever it is?
- What is Yorwin going to cost me relative to what I’m getting from it?
I didn’t know the answers to any of these questions. I was numbed.
I was blind to its ads and positive Word of Mouth. I was unenlightened about the value one gains from Yorwin.
In the end, I didn’t buy Yorwin.
Marketing Lessons from Yorwin
There must be a message about value, one that solves customers’ pains, delivers their goals, and does so at a price much less than the cost of NOT fixing those pains or achieving those goals.
This universal message is for the mass audience in a marketplace.
Selling Lessons from Yorwin
The universal marketing message must be revised to fit an individual buyer during the sales process. Otherwise, it’s a hit and miss affair on a buyer by buyer basis.
The only way to target the universal message into a specific buyer is for the salesperson to ask the buyer questions and get explicit answers.
Only then can the salesperson define and communicate value to their buyer.
The Moral of the Story
You can’t sell a company’s wares without communicating the value their offering will provide to a specific buyer’s individual needs. Otherwise, there’s no point for a buyer to buy.
Just remember Yorwin.
~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President
Revenue-IQ
July 9th, 2009
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