Moreover, most of this money came from investors reinvesting in later stage deals that they had financed in earlier years.  This caused Peter to ask how we will finance new deals in a highly fragmented regulated industry where solutions are selling at commodity prices.

The panelists

The panelists included a broad spectrum of clean tech executives: Dr. Marcie Black, CTO, Bandgap Engineering; Marty Flusberg, CEO Powerhouse Dynamics; Howard Nunes, CEO, Pepperdash; Stu Patterson, CEO Nexamp; and Tom Zarrella, CEO, Sustainx.

They discussed a wide range of issues from financing sources to business models to value propositions.  This post highlights some of the takeaways from the perspective of this B2B marketing consultant.

Company overviews

In the introductions, we heard a little about each company.  Powerhouse Dynamics is pursuing a consumer market, has 140 dealers in North America, and sells online at Amazon.

Howard told us Pepperdash is developing the first building management systems that make automated decisions, based on predictive modeling of long-term use patterns.  The company is self-funded.  He noted that sales were just under $3 million last year and that grant money is hard to get.  He said that 2200 companies applied for 26 grants last year.

Marcie relocated her company from Los Alamos because she felt being a part of a clean tech cluster is essential.  With the help of the community, she succeeded in raising seed and Series A capital from VCs who have been great partners.  Her company is aiming to increase the efficiency of solar energy to the point where it is cost-competitive with electricity.

Tom previously ran GT solar, where he achieved a 20x return for private investors.  His company, SustainX, is developing completely mechanical isothermal technology to address the grid-scale energy storage problem.  Where alternatives run on batteries, Sustainx’ solution is completely mechanical.

Stu is raising a Series A round from VCs for Nexamp.  Nexamp originally planned to target energy solutions for buildings.  After receiving several stimulus grants for solar deployment of waste water treatment, the company shifted its focus.  Going forward, he said the company will probably pursue both markets, although possibly as two separate companies.

Financing

From there, the panel turned to a deeper discussion of financing.  The panelists were raising money from a variety of sources including self-funding, stimulus grants, VCs, and angels.

They remarked that that raising money was particularly difficult now.  Howard was self-funding and hoping to raise additional funds from revenue.

Stu was minimizing his financing needs by partnering with developers that would work for sweat equity.  Marcie’s plan called for using existing manufacturing processes to constrict funding needs.

Martin raised $2.5 million, mostly from angels, a couple thousand dollars at a time.  Tom, on the other hand, raised the entire $20 million that he needs to take his company to commercialization.

Market heterogeneity

Next, the panel discussed the difficulty of operating in a heterogeneous market where regulations and growth drivers differ from region to region.  For this reason, among others, Marcie said she was also targeting overseas markets.

Utilities

The panel discussed some of the difficulties of selling to utilities.  For one, utilities move slowly, especially as pertains to IT.  They only do RFPs once every year or two so candidates need to wait.

Someone pointed out that buying an existing utility partner was a way to expedite the process.  Another panelist had worked with a Wharton class to tier utilities by the mandates they must meet.

Martin eschews utilities because they won’t buy products that are on the “other side of the meter”.  This is one of the reasons he opts to work with affinity partners (e.g. consumers, chains, HVAC distributors, etc.)  The problem is that it’s hard to get traction with small sales.

Growth drivers

Apparently, just like health care, clean tech is another industry with perverse financial incentives. Today, the focus is on $/panel; the problem is that customers buy “energy” rather than panels.  Also, everyone talks about roundtrip efficiency rather than return on capital.

Marcie noted that in the most mature segments, solar and wind, look at cost/kilowatt hour.  The Department of Energy however, is interested in the dollars per watt which creates a bias for less efficient cells.  Moreover, solar incentives vary by region across the globe.

Tom finds that with Sustainx, just as in the early days of solar, he finds that he has to build market benchmarks.  He finds that he also needs to develop a different value proposition for each market.

He warned Marcie that Asia avoids introducing new technologies and that you need to find companies with development lines in their manufacturing facilities.  She responded that there is a supply glut, lower tier will go out of business, and some companies will realize that they can get a major bump in efficiency and need to differentiate to survive.

Lessons from Evergreen

When asked about lessons learned from Evergreen Solar, answers included too high a requirement for capital expenditures, missed opportunities to  learn from others by deciding to do everything themselves, and government tax credits for job creation are short term drivers–but very powerful.

Advantages of different funding sources

Job creation is not a factor in the venture world.  All that matters is economic payback.

Nevertheless, government provides certainty.  Presidential directives are facts.  Agencies must execute right or wrong.

Utilities change goals year by year, and state by state.  It’s essential, therefore, to pick the right region.

Q&A

During the Question and Answer period, panelists told us that:

• Predictive modeling is important even for businesses with fixed use patterns because people’s behavior is unpredictable–except in the long term.
• Less developed countries are generally where products get a second life, rather than where innovation happens.
• The west coast VCs make quicker decisions but a good investment will sell on either coast.
• Chinese and US VCs are partnering to take advantage of deals in each others’ regions
• Because clean tech is new, the business model is still developing.  No one has exited or built relationships for the long haul.

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One of my longtime friends, who also happens to be an expert writer and consummate marketing expert, has always been fond of saying “In America, you are what you say you are until proven otherwise.” I love that line because you can apply it to just about any facet of life, politics certainly but also your personal or business life as well. But for me, I always pull it out whenever anyone wants to talk about their value proposition and price.

Money talks

That’s because the price you set says a great deal about what you think of your value proposition. For example, when I was back in graduate school one of my professors gave us all a “price test”. It was a list of bicycles with various descriptions for the type of wheels, gears, shifters, seats, etc. that they each included. Plus, each bicycle had a list price.

Our task was very simple. Rate the various 20 or 30 bicycles on the list by quality on a scale of one to five; five being the best and one the worst.

At the next class the professor returned with our test results. As we guessed, there were no wrong or right answers.

Instead, he had run a regression analysis on the variables or descriptions of the various bicycles along with each bike’s price to determine which variable influenced our ratings the most.

Guess which variable won? Price. By a wide margin.

People often use price as a proxy for value

What none of us had realized (or at least most of us), was that the descriptions often repeated (or nearly so), and in those cases only the price changed. This fact was pretty well masked by the professor’s use of narrative descriptions that were lengthy and didn’t follow a set pattern. That is, one might start out touting it was a 10 speed (this was some time ago), while another would start by stressing its superior brakes.

In short, for a lot of the students, the list of features became a blank wall of text, so predictably we fell back on price as the best or only available gauge of quality. The list of bikes became what a lot of marketers would call a “blind item”. That is, something that the buyer typically doesn’t really know how to rate on a real quality scale, so they look to other clues that rightly or wrongly (but hopefully) give them a good measure.

Diamonds are often given as a perfect example. (I mean seriously, how many of us really can see that slight flaw, with or without the jeweler’s loupe? We just nod our head to avoid looking like we don’t get it.)

But, even “difficult to evaluate” products have a price ceiling

So what does that say about price and your value proposition? Well, if you take this concept to its ultimate conclusion, you might assume that the highest end of the market is the limit, since the higher you set your price the higher your product’s perceived value.

Alas however, we all know that it doesn’t work that way. First, there is a limit to the “blindness” of even the most difficult to evaluate products.

Value becomes evident with experience

But further, while quality may be hard to gauge up front, most products become much less so over time. That is, use has a way of showing the buyer their purchases’ true value.

So for example, while the class as a whole might have rated the most expensive bikes as the best on paper, if a number of us had actually purchased a few bikes we very well might have discovered our error and undoubtedly word of how we had been duped would get around. We also had limited time and to some degree, limited interest.

True buyers might be willing to put in a lot more time before drawing a final quality conclusion that was sealed with our hard earned cash. Hence, the second part of my good friend’s quote, “… until proven otherwise.”

Think twice before cutting price

So where does this story most often apply? I bring it up whenever I’m speaking with someone who is playing with an urge to price their product low.

Perhaps they are enamored of the freemium to premium concept. Perhaps they are hunting for ways to shorten their sales cycle for a while, or maybe they are simply looking for a way to move a few more “units.”

Price reductions can backfire

Now, there are a whole lot of reasons to look at any of those moves a bit sideways. After all, not every product fits a freemium/premium model and not all sales cycles can be forced to go any faster regardless of the price. But as my little story tells, one additional reason is that it might just say your product stinks.

Douglas McCartney is a revenue-focused sales and marketing executive with more than 15 years of senior leadership experience at start-up to mid-sized B2B software companies. You can find Doug via his LinkedIn Profile here: http://www.linkedin.com/in/dfmccartney

Have you determined the highest value your company can offer?  Download the “Do it Yourself Guide” for developing compelling value propositions.

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Shortly after I got up this morning, I strolled over to Marketing Over Coffee for a quick shot before heading off to work and found this great article, entitled How to restore the faded luster to marketing by Rich Guha.  In my opinion, it’s a “must read” for anyone looking to build a business or aiming to build a career in marketing.

It’s about the big picture

Referencing management heroes such as Peter Drucker and Ted Leavitt, the article discusses what companies have lost as marketing becomes more specialized. Guha advises marketers that wish to add significant value to the business to:

• Step back from tactics and understand the “theory of the business.”
• Understand what are the ways to measure performance which drive market value.
• Understand which levers in the business will increase market value.
• Regard tactics as components that can only be used with an understanding of the entire business plan.
• Understand the customer and end user intimately.
• Focus on Product, how it is priced, presented, and where it is available to customers.

It takes intimacy and integration to hit the mark

In short, he emphasizes the importance to successful businesses of a) understanding customers’ needs across the spectrum (yes, back to the 6 Ps*) and b) understanding which levers in the business will increase market value.  Without these important capabilities, front and center, companies often end up missing the mark and spending way too much on “marketing”.

Guha quotes Drucker as saying, “If Marketing were to do its job perfectly, Sales would not be needed.”  In other words, if you really understand all aspects of a prospects’ needs , products would sell themselves.

This is not the same as “build it and they will come”.  The needs to which Guha and Drucker are referring, go way beyond the product features and benefits.

Upfront investments in market intelligence save money

Nevertheless, Marketing can’t do the job perfectly.  That would require mind reading.   Still, an upfront investment in marketing research can save a lot of money down the road–if either the product, or its promotion and distribution, will cost a lot to accomplish.

There  are many ways to gather prospect  information from surveys to customer shadowing to watching click streams.  The key is knowing what you’re looking for, and how to use the information you get.

Else, you’re likely to miss the market window.  Or, if you’re “lucky” spend a lot of money on  rework until you get it right.

Start with deep customer insights

Therefore, a lot of companies are investing in developing buyer and user personae before making the much larger investments in product development and content. They capture the “voice of the customer” and then create archetypes for the three to five most important roles at the companies in their target market.

To bring these archetypes to life, many companies give them names.  These examples help multidisciplinary teams discuss and figure out “What Jane would do” or how “Mike would like to receive information”.

Test, iterate, refine

The most successful companies do this in an iterative fashion.  They gather information, form hypotheses, test their hypotheses, and then refine their hypotheses until they hit the measures they’ve set as goals.

Use high-fidelity prototypes

In the development world, see Eric Ries and Cindy Alvarez’ work on lean start-ups (although there is broad applicability for other product development groups).  In the usability world, see Jared Spool’s and Carolyn Snyder’s work on high-fidelity prototyping.

Watch customer behavior

As for communications, hypothesis testing is now the province of analysts that study click streams.  There, however, companies are still working out the timing .

Since digital communications are relatively inexpensive to produce and deliver,  many companies delay testing until after they launch.  It’s too early to have definitive data on how early missteps affect branding, or the extent to which upfront research could have prevented extensive rework.

Marketing never stops, always changes

Nevertheless, it’s not a perfect world.  You can’t anticipate all customer needs upfront.

Things are always in flux.  Economic conditions improve. Regulators introduce new rules.

Technology innovations make the improbable possible. Competitors’ actions cause priorities to shift.  For these reasons and others, it’s essential to gather information on an ongoing basis.

Assess which actions will have the greatest impact

As mentioned above, however, it’s equally important to know how to use the information you gather–or as Guha notes know which levers will increase business value.  This is especially important in a tight economy where companies can only afford to take the most effective actions.

Too often, companies focus too much on one of the “P’s”, to the detriment of the overall marketing effort.  Engineering firms will sometimes focus all their efforts on fine tuning the product, while “marketing organizations” expend too much on a particular type of promotion, relative to the return they’ll get on that investment.

Embrace diversity

This is where true marketers, who work with multidisciplinary teams, add their greatest value.  By understanding the whole customer, his/her environment, and impending change, he/she can help the company optimize the resources it takes to unite customer and solution.

Wondering where to start?  Test your preparedness by drawing on your market knowledge to create a compelling value proposition.  Or, learn more about the value creation process, first.

*Product, positioning, packaging, pricing, promotion, placement (sales channels or distribution)

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This morning, I attended a program at the Massachusetts Technology Leadership forum featuring John Lewis, Regional VP of Sales, of athenahealth. John’s presentation centered on his company’s  experiences of selling what he referred to as health care’s first cloud-based service.

Following on the heels of recent conversations, I’ve had with CIOs, about placing confidential patient data in the cloud; I expected John to tell us how he overcomes this objection.  Instead, he spent the morning convincing us that operating in the cloud is his company’s competitive advantage.  John supported this thesis with figures, facts, and logic.

The figures

athenahealth supports 33,000 health care providers and processes $5 billion in collections/year.  The company has a 30% growth rate.  This growth rate is an indication of satisfaction–since as a SaaS provider, athenahealth’s success depends on client renewals.

The company also offers an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) application and a patient portal.   John told us that the majority of recent prospects have been buying both the revenue cycle and the EMR products.

The facts

Health care standardization has been slowly evolving for the last twenty years.  Nevertheless, it is still largely a world of “one off” transactions.

Each patient is different, has different ailments, and therefore requires different treatments.  Each health care provider has a different system for treating patients and recording the services and results.

Some of this variation is attributable to the differences between patients.  Some is an artifact of a largely manual system that has made it difficult to group like patients and develop standards of care.

To complicate matters, each health care payer pays differently.  This is because payers’ rates take into account volume discounts.  Furthermore, health care providers sometimes need to collect payments from more than one payer for a single patient.

Knowledge management

John argues that by providing services in the cloud, one of the main advantages athenahealth offers its customers is simplification of a complex process.   Because the company process claims for thousands of practices, it collects a lot of data and can spot, and respond to, trends quickly.

Visibility leads to continuous improvement

The company’s original goal was to speed up revenue cycle payments and reduce receivables.  They did so by reducing the number of claims that payers reject.

The company constantly analyzes the revenue cycle to identify hiccups in the system.  Each time a payer rejects a claim for any of its practices, athenahealth updates a central rules set.

Anything the company learns on behalf of one practice benefits all the practices.  Today, the company flags most errors before the claims reach the payer.  Because claims go in right the first time, practices also save on small claims that its clients wouldn’t formerly have bothered to reprocess.

Meaningful use

athenahealth also uses knowledge management to help its clients comply with meaningful use criteria.  For example, the company noticed that a lot of clients were falling behind in measuring demographics.  Once it spotted the problem, athenahealth developed a program that taught users to ask patients about their races, so that the practices could then qualify for greater reimbursement.

Streamlining workflow

athenahealth now reviews the data to spot opportunities to streamline practice workflow.  For example, they now batch all their clients’ claims before delivering them to payers.

There’s power in numbers

What struck me as interesting, is that John indicated that because, athenahealth serves so many practices, they are–or will soon be–in a position to negotiate with other parties about the way in which the two entities exchange information.   If so, this may be an important step in accelerating data standardization in health care.

Responding to change

John points out that his company’s cloud-based solution is particularly compelling when you consider how quickly health care is changing.  Since everyone is running on the same instance of software, athenahealth can respond to changing rules quickly–without requiring clients to install new software.  For example, when athenahealth obtained certification for its software, all of its users received certification at the same time.

Readiness for bundled payments

When someone asked whether bundled payments would erode athenahealth’s competitive advantage, John responded that the company already supports capitated practices.  He said that while fees may decrease on the revenue cycle side, the complexities associated with health care payment will merely shift to the clinical side.

Will cloud solutions triumph?

The jury is out.  Hospitals are under pressure to contain costs, but patient privacy remains important.

Even though IT professionals in other regulated industries are also beginning to move data to the cloud, John admits that his is still a missionary sell.    Nevertheless, the facts, figures, and logic that John presented convinced me that athenahealth offers advantages that many practices find appealing.  The bonus will be accelerated data standardization if athenahealth gains sufficient market power to influence some of the parties with which it exchanges information.

See examples of how BB Marketing Plus works with health care clients in the health care marketing section of this website.

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I bookmarked today’s MarketingProf’s article entitled “Three tips for maintaining a solid voice-of-the-customer program”. And, I recommend that you do the same.

For one, it’s chock full of useful tools that companies can use to find out what matters most to customers–and why.  For another, it provides a link to some great statistics captured by Right Now in their Customer Experience Impact Report 2010 that are a good reminder of the importance of great service.

It’s easy to assume that all customers care about is price

So often, I hear company spokespeople say that all their customers care about is price.  This research argues otherwise.

Nevertheless, I can hear the naysayers’ skepticism.  The report is anecdotal.  It relies on customers’ self-reports–rather than their behavior.  How do we know what customers really did–as opposed to what they said they did?

Also, how do we know that customer behavior doesn’t vary with the type of product or service?  Isn’t it possible that price trumps service in some instances, but not others?

Anything’s possible, but check your assumptions

Sure, it’s possible.  That said Right Now’s report should at least motivate everyone to check their assumptions.

What’s your company doing to ensure that lack of customer enthusiasm isn’t cutting in to your margins?

- Are you secret shopping your own products and services?

- Are you reviewing or sampling the conversations customers have with your service personnel?

If you aren’t, these ideas may offer a good starting point.  If you are, the MarketingProfs article offers more automated tools that you can use to take your research to the next level.

Customer insights drive sales

Then, use that information to your advantage.  Mine it for new product ideas.  Capture testimonials.  Broadcast the fact that your service rocks.

Learning more about what matters to your customers just may be the differentiator that elevates your company’s brand above that of the competition’s.  Our clients find that no matter how well they think they know their customers, there are always surprises.

Even subtle differences in perception can make a big difference.  Think about the impact what you learn could have on your value proposition–or your content strategy….

Have great service?  Modify your value proposition to let others know using our free do it yourself value proposition guide.

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I have a friend with a son who is a sophomore in high school.  This morning, she told me that she can’t believe how many money colleges waste precious funds on expensive direct mail communications.  She described the quality of the paper, the outsized packaging, and the heft of the packages they’ve been receiving–all of which she tosses in the waste bin.

Direct marketing mail campaigns are often cost-effective

As a marketer, I told her that her would-be correspondents may not be wasting their money.  After all, college tuition for four years is now in excess of $100,000–perhaps more than her fully loaded salary as a manager at a Philadelphia-based research organization.  If only 1 or 2 students that they contact eventually enroll, a school can easily justify the cost of the mailing.

Success depends on a compelling value proposition

I suggested she open a few to see if they had a message that would compel her to act, something that was important to either her or her son.  So, she opened one that arrived yesterday.

Sell, don’t tell

As she expected, it was just like all the others.  It started by pointing out that her son ranks higher than most students in the country.  They knew that.

The letter said that they are seeking students who want the types of challenges and experiences, from which others shy away.  Then, the letter told him they were looking for students.

Response mechanisms can erect barriers

Finally, before closing by asking that her son visit their website or send them a card, they said they were a prestigious liberal arts college–even though they confided, they prefer to think of themselves as a school that nurtures collaboration for big results.  The Admissions Director included his phone number under his signature.

Good design contributes to the message

The collage of pictures on the letter didn’t seem to add to the message.  In fact, if one just saw the pictures, he or she would be hard-pressed to guess what the sender was advertising.

Most prominent was one of the Dalai Lama.  Another was of clinicians in an operating room.

Others were of people talking, a building, an outdoor snapshot, a row of apartments, and kids kicking a soccer ball.  There were also headshots of people of different races and national origins.

Calls to action must resonate

The calls to action encouraged students to give the school a chance to get to know them before they apply–and offered to provide advice that would help them apply to any school.

She threw the package away.  Now perhaps there are students with whom one of these marketing messages will resonate–but I think the schools can do a better job of convincing their correspondents to take the next step

Capitalize on the data you have

Clearly, this school was able to get students’ names, PSAT scores, and zip codes.  Even without additional information, they could probably guess the student’s sex–and assume that he or she was a sophomore in high school.

Think through the implications

From just the zip code, they knew that her home is in a middle-class community several hundred miles north of the school.  From that they could have discerned that the recipients likely weren’t aware of the school and would probably require financial aid.  Yet, nothing in the communication addressed either concern.

Step into the buyers’ minds

The letter writer had sufficient information to recognize that the main marketing messages wouldn’t resonate.   Having had no previous interaction with the school, which didn’t have a national reputation, neither mother or son was likely to care that the school was seeking students–or wanted a chance to get to know the son before he applied.  Moreover, there was no reason to believe that the family would contact a complete stranger for help applying to other schools.

The letter also didn’t speak to the son’s needs.  In March of his sophomore year of high school, the son wasn’t seeking out more challenges.  Instead, like most boys his age, he’s focusing on the here and now:  his schoolwork, his friends, his extra-curricular activities, and sports.

Timing is everything

Unless the school could obtain information from the PSAT administrators that would enable them to speak to his current needs, a letter to the son was premature.  Also, the chances are slim that any teenage would call an adult and this marketing communication didn’t offer an email option.

I had to agree with my friend’s initial assessment.  Even organizations that seek small response rates can’t afford scattershot approaches.

Create campaigns that generate leads

How much more effective would this lead generation campaign have been if the sender had:

• Focused on its most promising prospects
• Spoken to their needs and concerns
• Tailored its message to where prospects were in their buying process
• Tested its calls to action
• Offered multiple response mechanisms

My guess is that the college could have gotten a far better return on their marketing investment–if only they’d thought a little more about the audience–rather than focusing exclusively on their own goals.  The question is how often do businesses make many of the same mistakes?

Need help confirming assumptions about your audience?  Try our Revenue Accelerator Quick Start program.

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Stimulating? Exciting?  Scary? Each of these are words that came to mind this morning as I listened to Google National Industry Manager, Seth van der Swaagh’s presentation to members of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) on Google’s Digital Vision – The Acceleration of Everything.

Accelerate with AIM

The topic and the speaker were an interesting choice when you consider that AIM represents companies in industries that have been around since the Industrial Revolution.  Yet, one of the conversations I had prior to the meeting shed light on how the Digital Age affects everyone.

Manufacturing in Massachusetts

The man with whom I spoke runs a manufacturing plant that is operating at full capacity.  In fact, he’s even importing ball bearings to other parts of the world.

This came as a surprise.  After all, isn’t this a down economy?  Isn’t MA a high cost state?

Manufacturing in the digital age

As the manufacturer explained to me, he  runs a high tech operation.  Ten percent of his employees are engineers.

Because he has almost-fully automated his operation, his quality is better and his costs are only slightly higher than factories that produce similar parts elsewhere.

Skilled work forces make the difference

With currency fluctuations now in his favor, and long lead times in China, demand is outstripping supply.  His main problems are keeping up with the technology and finding enough skilled workers to maintain production.

Experience Google’s vision here

So, after helping ourselves to coffee, we settled in to hear about the Google’s vision–and what “the acceleration of everything” would mean for each of our businesses.  Just click  here to read what we heard.

The presentation was excellent–and itself fast-paced.  I highly recommend reading it–and perhaps exploring some of the links–before continuing.

The media is the message

One of the main messages I took away was that the media is truly becoming the message. By the time Seth finished, I think everyone in the room was worrying about their business’ mobile and video strategies.  Without new media strategies, Seth warned us, our content would neither be relevant–or engaging.

Whither brands?

The other significant takeaway was that everyone and everything is moving toward commoditization–now that consumers can comparison shop anytime and anywhere.  According to Seth, even TV stars with strong brands are at risk.

He pointed out that a pre-teen amateur named Fred has a larger following on YouTube than does a famous late-night comedy host on broadcast TV.  Although after viewing his performance, I have no idea how he accomplished this feat.  That said, I don’t stay up late enough to have viewed the competition…

Now what?

So, what does that mean for the rest of us?  Seth says his advice to his own kids will be to explore broadly, stay open, and try many things before going deep.  After all, he noted, when he graduated college Google didn’t even exist.

Download our SEO and social media starter kit and place your messages where your best prospects seek information.

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B2B marketers will welcome Paul Gillin’s and Eric Schwartzman’s latest book, Social Marketing to the Business Customer. As the authors note in the preface, most discussions about social media marketing, focus on consumer marketing–even on occasions when B2b marketers make up the majority of the audience.

Great overview of B2B marketing

While the book centers on social media marketing, it is really an excellent overview of B2B marketing in the 21st century.  In addition to a description of all things social, readers will also find sections on search and content strategy–and examples of how to combine them with conventional activities such as public relations, direct mail, and sales collateral creation for maximum impact.  Perhaps the only innovations the authors don’t go into in detail are those of a physical nature (e.g. SaaS and mobile).

B2B and consumer social media marketing differ

Early on, the authors dig deep into the differences between B2B marketing and consumer marketing–and why B2B companies need a book of their own.  This section alone may be worth the price of the book, since many MBA marketing courses still focus on consumer marketing.

Key to the section comparing B2B and consumer marketing is the discussion of sales cycle length and the consequent importance of gaining deep insights into how prospects prefer to buy.  It is this section that tees up discussions, throughout the book, about the need to tailor one’s marketing messages–and their delivery–to buyers’ readiness to consume them.

“How to” sections and examples

Probably of more interest to today’s busy B2B marketer, are the multiple “how to” sections: how to measure success, how to pinpoint the most promising prospects, how to select the most effective marketing strategies, how to plan and execute tactics, and most important, how to knit all of the pieces together into an integrated marketing campaign.  The authors support each of these sections with case examples drawn from a wide range of practitioners–helping readers learn from their peers about what works and why.

Leads from blog are highly qualified

For example, the chapter on Lead Generation recounts how a company that sells solder paste achieved a six fold increase in their contact list in six months–with most referrals coming from the blog.  Through this example, we also learn that leads coming from the blog tend to be better qualified; because prospects who chose to download white papers, or custom answers to their questions, were often ready to buy–and happy to accept a sales call.

The media is the message

Later in the same chapter, the authors include a three-column chart that describes which marketing activities work best at each stage of prospects’ buying processes (shameless self-promotion: Paul and I collaborated on this one).  One column displays the traditional media tool and the other column displays the social media equivalent.

Social media is searchable and faster

Nevertheless, the authors are careful to point out, that while social media has the advantage of being both searchable and faster, most conventional marketing tactics still have their place.  Readers will find examples of campaigns that integrate old and new throughout the book–often accompanied by helpful graphics.  These depictions help us quickly grasp how each tactic contributed–and how all the tactics worked together, to achieve the desired results.

Will help even skilled social media marketers improve their game

From discussions about how to sell the boss on social media, to examples of how companies can use “crowdsourcing” to design better products, to tips for determining what type of social community will best help you achieve your business objectives, Social Marketing to the Business Customer has something for everyone.  Even the most skilled 21st century marketers will find nuggets they can use to take their games to the next level.

Need help getting started with search and social media?  Contact us about our SEO and social media starter kit.

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Evidence is not always persuasive

As I interpreted it, the gist of the blog is that marketers should be wary of using evidence to persuade buyers to purchase.  Instead, Godin notes that testimonials, lots of them, from people that buyers know of and trust, are often the key.

Testimonials are often more convincing

I agree.  Marketers have long known that testimonials, and case studies, are very persuasive.

Facts are not the be all and end all

There are a number of reasons why this is so.  One is that evidence, often presented as facts, may not apply to one’s own situation.

Another is that “facts” can change over time.  As a colleague told me recently, “A  lot of smart people thought Pluto was a planet for a long time.

A third is assumptions, based on assertions from trusted sources, often prevail until sufficient evidence from new sources amass.

Such is often the case in medicine.  For example, few doctors recommend alternative treatments to their patients–until one of their own patients has succeeded with a particular regimen.

“Facts” often require verification

Therefore, it is not surprising that decision makers may believe that all “facts” require independent verification from sources that they know to be reliable.  Much quicker than doing their own research, is often seeking out recommendations from those who they already trust–or believe will understand their unique concerns.

Those who rely on recommendations, aren’t necessarily sold on opinions alone

So, while I appreciate Mr. Godin’s overall message that facts often aren’t as persuasive as personal recommendations–I don’t agree with the conclusion of the post.  In explaining why few people still believe that the earth is flat, or why political parties some time change their platforms, he says, “”It wasn’t that the majority reviewed the facts and made a shift. It’s because people they respected sold them on a new faith, a new opinion.”

Testimonials are a form of evidence

For one, this surmise melds decisions about objective information (the shape of the earth) with subjective conclusions (political platforms).  For another, for the reasons stated above, I count testimonials as evidence–and as evidence that often carries equal weight to facts.

Trust but verify

I draw this conclusion because most people don’t just blindly accept any old opinion.  Instead, they look to those they trust based on these individuals’  or organizations’ track records.

Persistence is persuasive

Moreover, as Mr. Godin points out, the tide rarely turns quickly.  Rather, most people need to receive the same message, persistently, before they change their minds.

Evidence is in the mind of the beholder

What he and I can both agree on are a series of actions that one can successfully use to persuade others:

• Don’t invest in a lot of time in evidence-based marketing without first finding out what evidence it will take to influence prospective buyers
• Get testimonials from sources buyers know of and trust
• Repeat your messages clearly and persistently to achieve the desired effect.

Looking for more information on testimonials that sell?  See Ten steps you can take to create compelling testimonials.

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Value is in the eye of the beholder

Although not stated explicitly, it is essential that marketers define the value proposition with the target audience’s perspective in mind–and that the content directly contributes to the delivery of that value proposition.

While these points may seem obvious, there are many websites that start by describing what makes the company unique without making the connection to the value their target audience seeks to derive.   The content of these websites, when they highly optimized for search engines, attract attention but  fail to convert prospects into repeat visitors or customers.

Start with deep customer insights

The implied “step zero” of Kristin’s process is gaining deep insights into the “who”, “what”, “when” , “where” and “how” of your prospects’ buying process.  Do this  by developing detailed buyer personae of your most promising prospects–and the individuals they involve in the buying process. It is this knowledge that enables development of compelling value propositions–and “remarkable content”.

Create content that addresses needs on multiple dimensions

Content is only remarkable when it squarely addresses content consumers’ needs and preferences.  In addition to speaking to their most pressing concerns, what makes this content remarkable is that it appears where intended audiences look for it–and in the form they prefer to get it.

Engage with frequent and consistent communications

When their requirements are met, audiences find the content so remarkable they come back for more, they share it with their friends.  It is this process that ultimately induces them to engage with the individuals and companies that produce it.  So, when executing the 6 steps that Kristin recommends, also make it a goal for each of your communications to contribute to the delivery of the value that your products and services will ultimately provide to your most promising prospects.

Tailor communications for each audience and buying stage

Here are two examples that pertain directly to the medical device companies attending the upcoming meeting.  To reach patients, especially at the early stages of their “buying process”, medical device companies may want to deliver content via health education websites, in addition to their own.  To address physicians’ needs, nearing the end of their “buying process”,  these same companies may want to create instructional videos that demonstrate how to use these devices in their practices.

Tools and tips for value creation

Need help getting started with your own marketing efforts?  Use the value proposition formula to help you develop marketing messages that capture attention and compel action.   Then, read this post for ideas about how you can discover the  content that captures attention.   Then, before you post, double check to ensure that everything you’re about to publish is tightly integrated with the value your best prospects seek to obtain.

Related posts:

1. Shortening the sales cycle starts with getting into buyers’ minds