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)

No related posts.

MITX, under the umbrella of FutureM, organized dozens of  (mostly free) events dedicated to exploring and sharing how the newest technologies and insights are changing the way that marketers think, create, engage, and measure.  It was information-packed, exhilarating, and exhausting.

This post focuses on what excited me most as a B2B marketing consultant.  Hint:  My company’s tagline is “using customer knowledge to increase sales”.

Get it right the first time

Speaker after speaker referred to the fact that many products fail simply because they don’t address a compelling market need–something that companies could have determined prior to building and shipping the product.  Therefore, a lot of talks centered on various techniques that companies can use to gather customer information before and during the development process–and after the product ships.

Gather customer data early and often

While companies talk about being customer-centric, many treat marketing research as “one and done”.  They gather customer data at the outset of a project, perhaps once or twice during the development cycle and right before the product ships, rather than doing so on an ongoing basis.  Moreover, few companies perform research after the sale to find out why they won or lost.

A lot of the speakers, on the other hand, gather customer feedback weekly, others bi-weekly, and still others monthly throughout the development process.  Many recommended getting to market quickly with what Eric Ries referred to, in the Customer Development session, with a Minimally Viable Product (MVP)–and iterating post-launch to magnify the learning.

The point they emphasized is that everything is always evolving:  the surrounding environment, enabling technologies, the competition, customers’ requirements, and a company’s understanding of its customers’ needs.  Therefore, the development and marketing processes must be iterative,  and so must customer research.

Go where your customers are

Conventional marketing research relies on filtered information.  The sieve may be through the lens of particular functions such as Sales or Customer Service or the choice of questions for a survey or focus group.

Panelists encouraged audiences to gather feedback directly–and from multiple perspectives.  At the Customer Development session, they recommended going on site and observing customers’ environments directly, watching them work, and seeing with whom they interact.  At the Product Strategy session, they also recommended involving whole teams, rather than just individuals with a particular perspective (such as design, marketing, development, etc.)

Focus on actions not words

How many times have you seen market researchers ask a prospective user which features matter most–or what they would pay for something?  As we’ve discussed in this blog before, users have no idea–because they don’t fully grasp the circumstances under which they’ll be making the decision.

Instead, panelists at the Digital Marketing session recommended focusing on actions rather than words.  That is, learn from customers clicks.  At the Product Strategy session, Katie Rae suggested putting up PPC ads to see what attracted user attention.

At the Customer Development session, speakers recommended asking for the order, even if the product was not finished yet.  That way, you know that prospects truly value what you plan to deliver.

At the Customer Engagement session, panelists encouraged participants to focus on the big picture.  In addition to finding out why people came to the site, they recommended finding out where people went when they left the site and what they did with the information they got during their visit.

Engagement fosters relationships

At one of the sessions, a panelist pointed out that it’s now up to marketing to build and nurture relationships.  As we’ve noted elsewhere in this blog, by the time they contact a company many prospects have made their buying decision and just want to negotiate the terms of the deal.

Therefore, panelists at the Customer Engagement session noted that marketers must find out where prospects congregate and what they are discussing.  Doing so will enable marketers to engage prospects in a way that prospects find relevant.

At the Digital Marketing session, panelists said that in the future marketers will deliver less content and more utility.  They may engage prospects by facilitating conversations among them, rather than through direct participation.

They may also provide utility by helping improve users’ offline experiences–even those that don’t directly relate to the company’s offerings.  For example, a pharmaceutical company may sponsor an exercise program and a law firm may help hospital inpatients learn from others’ experiences.  When it comes to providing utility, mobile will often be the platform of choice because phones travel with their users.

Analytics are no longer optional

Another recurring theme was the importance of analytics–especially post launch.  Here, panelists focused on some of the related challenges including the rapid pace of change, integrating the various systems, making sense of all the data, and using the insights to empower communicators throughout the organization.

The marketer of the future?

At the Digital Marketing session, the panelists agreed that the marketer of the future must be a strong communicator, love technology, embrace qualitative and quantitative analysis, and adapt easily to change.

Visit these hashtags to see what others had to say #engagem #custdev2 #futuremdigital #prodstratm

Related posts:

1. Customer research makes gains in 2010
2. B2B marketers struggle to reach decision makers and measure marketing results

What happened to the focus on the customer?

The irony is that gaining deeper insights into customer, or prospect needs, rarely shows up as a priority, let alone a high priority. Why not?

Is it because investments in gaining customer knowledge are not of interest to those doing the surveys? Or, do researchers assume that everyone knows all they need to know about customers?

Or, is the assumption that some form of marketing research, win/loss analysis, or customer data mining is an integral part of any marketing campaign–and therefore does not need singling out? Or, do researchers know from past experience, that while everyone realizes gaining customer insights is important, it’s not a primary focus or one in which companies invest heavily?

I don’t know the answer. I do know that while many companies do invest in learning more about their customers, others feel that they know enough–and/or cannot afford to learn more. The question is can any of us afford not to delve deeper into what matters most to those we depend on for revenues?

Isn’t customer knowledge power?

The devil is often in the details–and nuances in capabilities and/or messaging can make a tremendous difference. That’s why it’s not uncommon for consumer goods marketers, the messaging masters, to invest 10% of the anticipated cost of any marketing campaign in upfront marketing research.

Moreover, we all know of “first movers” that lost the race because they didn’t move down the learning curve. Instead, competitors pulled ahead by making slight, but significant modifications to the core offering or message.

Is everyone focused solely on lead gen?

From reading the marketing trade press, one gets the impression that a lot of companies do believe that deep customer insights drive sales.  These companies are investing in:

• Data mining tools that will help them pinpoint their most promising prospects and understand exactly what helped win their business
• Social communities that help assess the desirability of products and marketing messages before committing to their delivery
• Usability testing to find and remove product design elements that get in customers’ way
• Social media listening tools that enable marketers to determine where audiences turn for information–and what communications resonate most with them–before jumping in the fray
• Marketing campaign software that includes the ability to monitor conversions and determine what worked–and what didn’t
• Sales enablement solutions that make it easy to create and test responses to alternative lists, messages, and offers

Gaining deep customer insights doesn’t need to be expensive

Investments in increasing customer intimacy are not limited to large companies.  While many smaller companies may not have the financial or human resources to invest in the automated listening tools listed above, they have other options at their disposal.

Many of our clients gain deep insights by easy-to-administer programs such as:

• Using free social media listening tools to monitor market trends, conversations about the need for the solutions their companies offer, and any mention of their name and/or their competition’s
• Interviewing customers and prospects to learn about the steps these individuals took before making a recent purchase decision–and what triggered these actions
• Developing case studies about the benefits that satisfied customers derived from their solutions
• Following customers, and those who influence decisions about their products and services, on Twitter

The question, however, isn’t what others are doing, but what you’re doing. Will this be the year of the customer for your business?

Ready to start today? Test your customer IQ now!

Related posts:

1. Customer research makes gains in 2010

Imagine my relief when Peter Buechler, publisher of the Marketing Guy 2.0, told me that help was on the way. Full of hope and expectations I set off to attend this morning’s breakfast meeting: Social Media Overload—How to Make Sense of It All.

Kudos to the organizers

It was a fabulous morning with fantastic presentations packed with worthwhile information. That said I realized that I misinterpreted the title. Rather than addressing the problem of information overload, the conference offered ideas for reducing the time and effort it takes to process data. Thanks to Bob Collins and Diane Hession of Communispace for hosting a useful and informative event!

Start with aggregation

First up was Joe Cascio from People Browsr. When he asked, “How many social networks can you go to?” I knew I had met a kindred soul.

Joe then showed us a product he’s developed that will enable you to filter and view posts from multiple social media feeds (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) on a single dashboard. His perspective: “You shouldn’t have to go to multiple sites every time you want to communicate. After all, I don’t have 50 telephones”.

The “overload” is real

Before the audience became too complacent, Michael Durwin of Gathr Me upset the applecart with his company’s pitch video. This video presented statistic after statistic showing how many people add content to the Internet every day. For example, “Did you know that 184 million people publish a blog?”.

Tuning out is not an option

Tongue in cheek, Marta Kagan offered another solution for managing information overload—just stop listening. I have to admit that I’ve executed on that strategy more than once—because I didn’t have time to process all the information I so diligently gather.

She then warned the audience that shutting down is not an option. Instead, companies need to be diligent about “listening” to what’s being said about them—and more important to who is pretending to be them and speaking for them–or they’d end up like Exxon

Know what matters and don’t lose focus

Actually neither Michael nor Marta left the audience hanging. Michael advised defining clear objectives and Marta reminded the audience to concentrate their attention on the areas that mattered most to them.

To do so, they recommended basic tools such as RSS Feeds, Google and other readers, content aggregators, Google alerts and Twitter searches. One of Michael’s suggestions, that made me uncomfortable from a privacy perspective, was that we aggregate all our information using a single tool such as Gmail.

Extracting meaning is the holy grail

The last speaker, Michael Troiano sits on the board of Crimson Hexagon. Michael offered another great quote: “Data is abundant. Information is free. Meaning is what matters most.”

Crimson Hexagon has software that mathematically analyzes social conversations with the goal of extracting meaning. Michael told us about a recent project where the goal was to find out about how people feel about men’s grooming products.

The analysis showed that people care about effectiveness and price and that more people care about effectiveness than price—conclusions that the company’s marketers anticipated. The big surprise, however, was that men also want the product to feel good when they’re using it.

Michael then pointed out that this is just the beginning. When paired with a tools that tracks which content was produced by the most authoritative sources, marketers can also determine what or who drives interest in a particular product characteristic (such as effectiveness, price, or scent).

As someone who does a lot of marketing research, I was impressed with the potential power of this tool to help segment markets, develop buyer personas, and reduce research costs. As a marketing strategist, however, the real value will come from really pinpointing where companies should invest to wield the most influence over purchasers in each market segment they address.

Back to metrics

During the question and answer period, a number of people discussed metrics including Dell’s recent claim that Twitter had generated more than $3 million in revenue in 2008. The speakers were united in insisting that the only metric that matters is sales.

One distinguished between three activities: monitoring, engagement and activity. He said that social media can help with engagement but engagement does not translate directly to sales.

What engagement does do is build social equity. It brings people to the table and they may refer others to the table. But there are no sales until someone executes an activity. In the case of Dell, a message and an offer delivered via Twitter caused people to execute the activity of going to a landing page and making a purchase.

In short, the sales were produced by conventional direct marketing. Or, as one speaker noted, the strategies remain the same, social media only changes the tactics.

How do you manage the torrent of information?

If you’re reading this post, you’re probably a consumer of social information. Are you overwhelmed by the sheer amount of fascinating information out there? If so, what’s your social media strategy for managing the torrent of information—given there are still only 24 hours in a day?

Interested in determining how you can derive greater value from social media?

Find out how your organization can make the most of its opportunities.  Download the social media primer.

Related posts:

1. Social media: Insights from an in-house specialist
2. Social Media Marketing for Job Search
3. The search and social media paradox
4. Is social media an oxymoron?

In recent posts, we’ve discussed the characteristics of a compelling value proposition, and the importance of concentrating your firepower on those companies that most value your capabilities. This week’s post discusses concrete steps you can take to identify, validate, and test your value propositions.

Begin by gaining deep insights into buyers’ needs and purchase preferences

As Steven Covey said, “Start with the end in mind”. To develop a compelling value proposition, you first need to validate what matters most to prospective buyers. Else, if you make inaccurate assumptions, you’ll miss the mark and potentially end up wasting lots of money on ineffective marketing programs.

This can be a lot harder than it seems because there are lots of important questions you need to answer first. Approach this assignment as journalists do when researching a breaking story. Start by inquiring about the 5 Ws and the H.

Who are your most promising prospects?

As we discussed in the past, the most promising prospects are those that value your solutions most and will therefore pay top dollar, buy more quickly, and/or motivate others to also buy. To find them, first list all the market segments that need your capabilities.

Then, eliminate less desirable segments. Examples include market segments that are too small to meet your revenue goals, are so competitive that they will drive up your cost of sales, and market segments that don’t especially value your organization’s unique strengths.

To rank the remaining segments, and identify your target market, interview key stakeholders in each. Key stakeholders include everyone that the decision maker involves in the buying decision–from external advisors to the internal personnel who will use and implement your solutions.

When will prospective buyers need your capabilities?

The need for many solutions is event-driven rather than ongoing. For example, companies are more likely to seek out insurers when they are contemplating taking on new risks, marketing agencies when they are launching new products, or a new accountant when they are dissatisfied with their current service provider.

Often knowing what events trigger demand for your solution can help you develop a more compelling value proposition. To find out ask about last time they purchased similar services: What caused you to purchase then—rather than six months sooner or six months later?

What do key stakeholders value most?

The only way to ascertain whether you solutions provide sufficient value to garner sales is to first find out what matters most to decision makers. Ask: What are their goals? How are they measured?

Then, ask the same questions of the remaining stakeholders. Although only one person can approve a purchase decision, others can block it if their needs are not met.

In fact, you may need multiple value propositions in order to win the company’s business. For example, the decision maker may be bent on achieving market share. Finance may require a certain return on investment. Supporting departments may care about the cost and ease of ongoing maintenance. Users may focus on ease of use and access.

Where do decision makers get their information?

Some decision makers learn of new solutions through trade journals or trade association meetings. Many expect those that work for them—and have subject matter expertise—to make them aware of the need for new solutions. Others turn to trusted advisors and colleagues for recommendations.

Where ever your decision makers turn for information, that’s where you need to place your marketing messages. Else, you run the risk that you will not even make the short list when it comes time to evaluate new solutions.

How do stakeholders decide whether or not to recommend your solutions?

Not only do different stakeholders have different goals, they often require different evidence to reassure them that your solutions will meet their goals. They seek this information to address their reservations and mitigate risk.

Some will require media coverage in marquee publications, others will require references and/or testimonials from industry leaders, and still others will require demos or tools that will help them calculate the return on investment they can anticipate. Again, whatever their preferences, you need to do it their way. Else, they may never access your value propositions—and you may lose the deal to the competition.

Developing a value proposition is an iterative process

Once you’ve identified a few value propositions, do some testing. Send out a direct mail piece and see how many people respond. Develop google ad word campaigns that offer a free demo. Offer a free webinar and see how many people attend.

If people show interest you’ve probably discovered something of value. If people invest time in learning more, you may have a compelling value proposition. If not, you need to go back to the drawing board.

Validating your value proposition helps you make the most of your marketing investments

Remember, it’s not what you think that’s important; it’s what matters most to your most promising prospects. That’s why industry leaders always invest in marketing research despite the fact that they have ongoing experience with existing customers.

With the marketing investments they’ve made in product development—and plan to make in promotion–large companies know they can’t afford to miss the mark. Chances are neither can you.

What surprising information has your organization learned when validating your value propositions?

Ready to try your hand at strengthening your value proposition?  Download our free do-it-yourself guide now.

Related posts:

1. Capturing buyers’ attention: What makes a value proposition compelling?
2. How to create a compelling value proposition: Do it yourself in 3 steps
3. Getting top dollar depends on first determining who values your solutions most
4. Value proposition example for a professional service provider

Your value proposition must target your most promising prospects

Nevertheless, to be truly effective, your value proposition must target your most promising prospects. Willie Sutton robbed banks because that’s where the money was.

Yet, one of the most common mistakes that many businesses make is selling to profitable markets, without questioning whether better opportunities exist elsewhere. When they do, they run the risk of expending valuable sales and marketing resources in the wrong places. That’s what happened to several of my clients before they focused on first determining who valued their services most.

Not all value propositions are equally compelling

One of my clients had been marketing its analytic software as a productivity tool that streamlined regulatory compliance and reporting. When a new marketing vice president joined the company, he engaged my business-to-business marketing consultant company to validate the company’s value proposition.

We interviewed decision makers in a number of market segments in search of unmet needs. Eventually, we discovered a more profitable application for the company’s products. We found a set of decision makers that were seeking analytic software that they could use in a pre-sales environment to reduce investors’ risk. Because these customers felt such a tool would help them attract new clients—rather than just reducing reporting costs—they were willing to pay top dollar.

As a consequence, my client was able to penetrate a new market segment and increase revenues by 9 million dollars—after marking minimal modifications to the customer interface of an existing product. Today, sales of the new product have totally eclipsed sales of the original solution. That’s 9 million dollars that the company had previously left on the table because they failed to validate their marketing assumptions.

Your market decides what value proposition is most compelling

Another client found a more profitable market by happenstance. This professional service organization was marketing its engineering consulting services to large accounts in a highly competitive market. At the same time, the company was turning down smaller projects that required the same capabilities because the company “wasn’t in that business”.

When we reviewed the company’s win/loss data, the owner realized that the requested services were far more profitable than the ones he was currently selling. He, then, decided to actively pursue the market the company had been avoiding. A year later, he had a new million dollar business that leveraged his company’s existing capabilities. Had he neglected to regularly analyze his wins and losses, he would have continued to do business as usual and missed out on a highly profitable business.

Just because you’re doing well, doesn’t mean you’re not leaving money on the table

What are the lessons learned here? Just because you’re doing well, doesn’t mean that you’re not leaving money on the table. Your most promising prospects may not be who you think they are. The value they seek may not be what you think it is. The only way to be absolutely sure what the market values most is to gain deep insights into prospective buyers’ needs and priorities.

When developing a value proposition: ask don’t guess

To determine what prospective customers value most, it’s important to ask buyers directly, rather than making assumptions. This can be more difficult than it appears.

In most companies, multiple parties have direct contact with customers. They, therefore, think they know what matters most to the customer and how to create a winning value proposition.

Sales may believe that the reason the company made—or lost—its last sale highlights the solution’s value, and will be true for all sales. Marketing may push for value propositions that generate a lot of leads—rather than a few higher quality leads. Finance may push for replicating past successes because their analyses show these accounts are the most profitable.

It’s like the old story about the blind man and the elephant. Everyone in the company has had experiences with customers. The problem is that no one has had discussions with a broad spectrum of decision makers that focus exclusively on these decision makers’ goals, totally independent of the vendors’ solutions.

Consider engaging an expert to help you discover your value proposition

Sometimes you need an outside perspective—someone who can help the team step back and see the whole forest—rather than just the trees. It often takes someone who is less invested in the outcome of the decisions and is less likely to have assumptions about the market.

This individual is more likely to focus on prospective customers’ needs–rather than the value they place on existing solutions. Rather than asking questions about what prospective buyers value, experts are trained to ask how their employers measure their success, what their goals are, and what’s getting in the way.

Getting to the heart of the matter also requires specialized ability and training. Much more than just the ability to ask open-ended questions and probe for clarity, success depends on knowing exactly what questions to ask—and how to ask them–to uncover needs that the decision makers, themselves, may not yet fully recognize or be able to articulate. Equally important is the facility to translate the information that the interviewer gathers into solutions, marketing messages, and marketing programs that will accelerate the sale.

Value is in the eye of the beholder

More important than developing a compelling value proposition is first determining the highest value your company can deliver. Although performing marketing research can be time-consuming, it’s usual the single most effective investment that any company makes. That’s why Fortune 500 companies invest so heavily in marketing research, they can’t afford failure, they don’t want to spend money on rework, and they abhor leaving money on the table.

What steps has your company taken to assure your solutions are aimed at your most promising prospects—rather than those with smaller budgets or less urgency about buying?

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

Related posts:

1. Developing a compelling value proposition: What you need to know
2. Maximizing Sales Productivity Depends on Meeting Marketing Requirements

“Thank you for your e-mail regarding your account. It is always our aim to provide the highest level of customer satisfaction. We are always concerned to learn that any customer is unhappy with the service we provide.

All applications are processed by our Customer Recruitment Department, so you will need to contact them directly [at phone number] with your request.

I must also advise you that if we do not hear from you within eight weeks of the date of this e-mail, we will assume that your complaint is resolved. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.”

The note ended with the writer wishing me his kindest regards.

Branding is the sum of the buyers’ experiences

This communiqué came from a business that regularly spends exorbitant amounts of money on branding their company, extolling the virtues of their products, and encouraging prospective customers to buy. Yet, they had clearly not spent as much effort developing their post-sales strategy.

What did this company do wrong? Rather than addressing my concern, the representative first gave lip service to the importance his company places on providing “the highest levels of customer satisfaction” Then, he suggested that I turn to someone else in his company for help. The buck clearly didn’t stop with him.

This “service” representative also made it clear that the onus was on me to resolve the issue. Finally, adding insult to injury, he apologized for the inconvenience he and his company must surely have been aware they were continuing to cause me.

What do you think my impression was of this company? What was the ultimate cost of this communication to the company? What could this representative have done differently to preserve good will–if not the sale?

When you think about these important questions, the answers are probably obvious to you. Why weren’t they obvious to the company in question?

Return on marketing investments are not always positive

It just didn’t add up. This company had invested in a direct sales force to sell me the product. They had invested significant sums in free gifts to sweeten the offer. Yet, in just one email communication, they had succeeded in reversing all the efforts they had made to get my business. Worse, they may have jeopardized any possibility of doing business with me in the future.

Chances are that many of you have received similar missives from equally well-known companies. How do strategic errors like this happen and what can companies do to prevent them?

Product Development – Giving buyers what they want the way they want it

Two posts back, we discussed the fact that if you want to speed up purchases, you need to know what’s important to customers and give them exactly what they want, the way they want it. This company clearly missed the boat. They got the core product right, but neglected to consider the ancillary services required to deliver it satisfactorily.

Although many companies think of product development as ending at launch, that’s not how buyers see it. Rather, buyers view the product in terms of their entire experience—from pre-sales offers, to purchase, to conformity with their expectations about functionality and ease of use. When their overall experience is positive, they buy again. When it’s not, they may even go so far as returning the product or canceling a service.

Nevertheless everyone makes mistakes. When businesses take steps to rectify the error, many buyers will give them a second chance and consider other products. When, on the other hand, companies are cavalier in their treatment of complaints, dissatisfaction can escalate. In the worst scenarios, buyers refuse to buy any products from the company and significant sums of promotion dollars spent on branding the company also go to waste.

Integrated marketing campaigns begin with integrated product development

What can businesses do to avoid these consequences? Here are some suggestions:

• Re-define “product” success to include the buyers’ ultimate satisfaction 6 to 12 months following the purchase, rather than mere execution of a sale.
• Encourage a culture where everyone in the company is motivated to personally contribute to the advancement of buyers’ satisfaction.
• Involve every internal department in the product development process to increase the chances of anticipating all buyers’ concerns, avoiding missteps, and ensuring seamless delivery.
• Ask them to research what actions their organizations can take to stimulate delight in their own areas of expertise—and what practices they’ll need to avoid.
• Review the ultimate proposed delivery process from the buyers’ perspective. What issues might arise? What can the company due to avoid them altogether? For unavoidable issues, what steps can be taken to resolve them sooner rather than later?
• Test the process with real users before launching and correct as necessary.
• Follow up on all system failures and take corrective action.

One manufacturing concern I worked for convened cross-functional teams weekly to review and determine the root cause of all customer-reported problems. First, however, they classified any shipment that resulted in dissatisfaction—for any reason–as “dead on arrival”.

Marketing Research shortens the sales cycle

At BB Marketing Plus, we work with clients to look at the whole picture, upfront, from the perspective of prospective buyers. To step into our clients’ buyers’ shoes, we do a lot of primary marketing research but we also gather information from internal experts–such as sales people and customer service personnel–who know from experience where potential pitfalls lie. Cross-functional development teams then use this knowledge to guide the entire product development and launch process.

We find that mapping the buying process —and finding out exactly what prospective buyers expect at every stage—greatly increases our clients’ ability to hit the mark with both their product offerings and their marketing messages.

How does your business find out what’s important to prospective buyers so that you can give them what they want—and do it their way?

Related posts:

1. Maximizing Sales Productivity Depends on Meeting Marketing Requirements

At that point, however, most buyers have a heightened awareness of the cost of delay–and are anxious to move forward. When they don’t, it’s a telltale sign that your product or service is missing the mark.

When interested buyers fail to purchase, after learning about how your solution will address their concerns, sales cycles stretch out as they seek a better match. If they find another provider that will give them exactly what they want, they’ll purchase there. Even when prospective buyers later purchase from your company, delays hold up your ability to recognize revenue—and may also run up your sales and marketing expenses as you try to close the deal.

In short, maximizing sales productivity clearly depends on your readiness to give prospective buyers exactly what they want, the way they want it. The question is, “How do you determine what that is?”

Effective marketing research is the fastest route to winning solutions

To design great solutions, you need a thorough understanding of prospective buyers’ most pressing needs and want. To get this information, it’s helpful to conduct primary marketing research by going straight to “the horse”, but not necessarily to the horse’s mouth.

One of the best ways to find out what’s most important to prospective buyers is to observe what sells and what doesn’t. One common mistake, however, is asking prospective buyers what they want. That’s because most of us only think we know what we want. We get it wrong, however, because we fail to take into account all the factors that come into play at the time of purchase.

We’re lousy predictors of our own behavior

Look at your own clientele. If you ask them, many would say they want an accountant who will find tax savings that they would otherwise miss. They might add that for this reason they seek out professionals with experience in their industry with a demonstrated track record of generating savings for others just like them.

Nevertheless when you look at actual buying behavior, many factors come into play—some of which ultimately end up taking precedence over the ones that are top of mind. Examples include availability when clients need to meet a pressing deadline, the ability to accept 90 day payment terms, a pleasant reception when they contact your office, or a plethora of other factors that prospective buyers are not fully aware are important to them until faced with a real situation.

Look to actions, rather than words

In our experience, the best way to find out what prospective buyers want is to look at their past purchasing patterns. That’s because we’re creatures of habit. We tend to do things the way we’ve always done them and maintain the same priorities.

One way to do that is to start with your existing clientele, specifically your best clients since they’re likely to be the best proxy for your most promising prospects. If, on the other hand, you’re losing the most promising prospects to the competition, start there with prospective buyers that chose to buy elsewhere. In either case, it’s important to focus on just your most promising prospects because you can’t be all things to all people.

Get at past purchasing patterns by reviewing your company’s sales history. If you maintain a lead tracking or contact management system, review your notes to determine:

* Which solutions did prospective buyers purchase right away?

* When they delayed why did they delay?

* What questions did they ask?

* What was the single most important reason they purchased?

* What concessions, if any, did you need to make to get their business?

* Under what circumstances were they willing to pay a premium and why?

* What caused them to select you over the competition?

* When they recommend your company, what do they say?

* If they went to a competitor, what was the reason?

* When you lost, what if anything could you have done to get the business?

If you didn’t record answers to these questions, it’s okay to go back and ask. Nevertheless, remember to focus on past purchases. As we discussed above, most people make far better reporters than analysts.

Worried about annoying people? Don’t! Most people are flattered that you’re interested in their insights and happy to share them with you if you are courteous and schedule an appointment in advance. If you’re just starting out, and don’t have any clients, interview your competitors’ clients.

Tip: Build your sales history as you go

At BB Marketing Plus we do a lot of marketing research to help our clients rank development priorities. Here are some tips your company can use to capture what is important to your clientele:

1. Implement a system that helps you map prospective buyers’ behavior including the stages of their buying process and:

* Who was involved at each stage

* What information each individual required

* What follow up questions each individual asked

* The time it took to move to the next stage

* The reason for any delays it took to move from one stage to the next

* Why you won when you won

* Why you lost when you lost

2. Ensure that you keep your system up to date, calling back buyers and prospective buyers to fill in knowledge gaps

3. Ask a lot of questions to get a sense of their entire situation and priorities, rather than just their immediate requirements

* Keep your questions open-ended, rather than making assumptions

* Ask individuals to report on past behavior, rather than to predict the future

4. Follow up regularly to assess satisfaction

* Ask about every aspect of your business interactions

* Find out what you’ve done well and what needs improvement

* Act on what you learn

* Thank people for their insights and communicate what you’ve done as a result.

Our clients find that they can learn a lot from the past. One of the findings that many find surprising is that while price is important, it’s generally not the deciding factor. Another revelation is that their clientele often has different perspectives—than they do–when it comes to defining quality. These are important insights when your goal is to give prospective clients exactly what they want and do it their way.

Related posts:

1. Shortening the sales cycle starts with getting into buyers’ minds
2. Getting top dollar depends on first determining who values your solutions most
3. Making the sale depends on addressing an urgent need
4. Shorten the sales cycle next year: Year end marketing planning

Getting the sale depends on affirmatively answering all three of the following questions:

• Have they heard of your business?
• Do they know that you can address the problem?
• Will they remember you when it comes time to buy?

Brand awareness is not sufficient. Think back to your own experience.

Sure, you’ve lost sales because prospective buyers haven’t heard of your business. But, I’ll bet you’ve also lost business because prospective buyers just didn’t realize that you offered a particular product or service.

For example, three years ago, when I needed my hedges trimmed, it never occurred to me to call the arborist who prunes my trees. That is, not until I asked a neighbor for a reference and she told me she used my arborist.

I was taken aback. Even though I was highly satisfied with his services, it just never occurred to me that he also trimmed hedges. That’s because in my mind he was a “tree specialist”.

And, my mistake was not uncommon. In fact, most people only think of your business as doing the last thing you did for them–unless you take conscious steps to correct that impression. We’ll discuss how in a future post.

We’ve also all lost business because we’re not “top of mind” when the buyer finally develops a sense of urgency. We’ll also discuss how to stay high on prospective buyers’ radar in a future post.

In the meantime, we’ll discuss 4 questions you need to answer before launching a marketing campaign or engaging an advertising or public relations agency.

Who do you need to reach?

Often, it’s not just the decision maker. While he or she may make the final decision, many others often influence the sale. Without first engaging these individuals’ support, it’s often impossible to sway, or sometimes even reach, the decision maker. Prospective audiences for your marketing messages may include industry analysts, trusted advisers and internal staff such as technical evaluators and financial personnel.

How do you get their attention?

As Marshall MacLuhan said the media is the message. That means that the delivery vehicle is often as or more important than the message.

Most people are busy performing urgent tasks and are not receptive to messages about anything else—unless the information comes from a trusted source. Examples include advisers, existing suppliers, trade publications to which they subscribe, or presentations that they attend.

If, on the other hand, the prospective buyer is ready to purchase, he/she may be actively seeking out information. In that case, consider adding paid Internet search and website optimization to the marketing mix. If you’re already a trusted source, you may be able to save money and go direct—via telephone, email or direct mail—with confidence that they’ll open your communication.

How do you capture their interest?

Always speak specifically to the most pressing concern of the target audiences–in their language. General messages are not nearly as effective. So, it’s essential to first identify the target audience—and then what’s keeping them up at night.

As we discussed last week, you may need to prime the pump before speaking about your solution—or even the benefits it offers–if the problems your solution addresses are not particularly pressing. Consider developing intermediary messages that heighten prospective buyers’ awareness of the consequences of not addressing the problems your solution addresses. Follow those with messages that generate a sense of urgency about addressing these problems sooner rather than later. Then, and only then, will prospective buyers be receptive to messages about your solution and the benefits it delivers.

When is the best time to deliver your message?

The best time to deliver messages is when the audiences are most receptive. That however is hard to establish. That’s why marketers often say, “It takes 7 impressions to make an impact.”

In some cases, key events trigger needs for services. For example, everyone needs accounting services when taxes are due. Many require accountants when starting or acquiring a business. Nevertheless, the safest approach is to communicate your marketing messages consistently and frequently since recipients are generally pre-occupied with something else. Just by the law of numbers, if you communicate often you’re more likely to get a hit.

Once you get the answers to these questions, you’re ready to begin promoting your solutions.

Next week, we’ll discuss what to do once you prospective buyers’ attention.

In the meantime, develop marketing messages that capture interest.  Download our free guide for developing compelling value propositions.

Related posts:

1. Shortening the sales cycle starts with getting into buyers’ minds
2. Capturing buyers’ attention: What makes a value proposition compelling?
3. Shorten the sales cycle: one marketing message at a time
4. Follow the money: How to capitalize on opportunity in a tough economy

Step one is recognizing that for the most part, we can’t convince anyone to buy something from us that they don’t want. When it comes to shortening the sales cycle—as with other forms of behavior change, the thing to remember is that it’s all about attraction and motivation—rather than persuasion and pursuit.

Purchasers decide what they want to buy and equally important how they prefer to buy it. All we can do is make it easy for them to buy from us.

The key to success is anticipating prospective buyers’ needs and then making sure you give them exactly what they want, when they want it, how they want it—before they ask. When we neglect to first understand how our clients prefer to buy, we run the risk of failing to make the necessary connection and causing sales cycles to stretch out. Let’s look at a few examples.

Suppose prospective buyers need a written understanding of what you will deliver, and you don’t have it. Sales cycles will stretch out while you prepare the necessary documents. If they require certain payment terms, and you can’t provide them, the sale stalls until you obtain authorization to give them what they want—or worse, you may end up losing the deal. If they depend on their trusted advisors for recommendations and these advisors aren’t familiar with your business, you’ll need to wait while they perform due diligence, or more likely, miss out on the opportunity altogether.

The better you understand prospective clients’ buying behavior, the greater is your ability to anticipate obstacles, and then take action to shorten the sales cycle. In short, upfront marketing research pays. More about that in a later post.

Related posts:

1. Accelerate revenues, reduce the cost of sales, and boost profitability
2. Shorten the sales cycle: one marketing message at a time
3. Maximizing Sales Productivity Depends on Meeting Marketing Requirements
4. How search and social media will shorten the B2B sales cycle.