Blog Update
Posted by khaberer in Uncategorized on October 13th, 2010
Well, I suppose that it’s obvious that I’m not keeping up the blog! I’ve recently decided to apply my craft to another business venture, SiteHawk, so the marketing blog has not been a high priority.
However, my partner, Rob Boughton, is still active in the business and does fantastic work for companies of all shapes and sizes. You can still reach me via my contact info and I will be happy to refer you.
Regards,
Kraig
The Little Things
Posted by khaberer in B2B Marketing, Communication on May 26th, 2010
I spend a lot of time talking to companies that purchased my clients’ solutions and those that don’t. Despite the myriad of reasons why B2B technology companies win or lose, it often comes down to some very fundamental (and simple) reasons. Here’s a few of the top reasons why prospects choose to do business with one company over another – and none of them have anything to do with the product you’re selling:
- First to Respond – believe it or not, some companies simply don’t respond or don’t respond in a timely fashion even when inbound leads come in. In the unpredictable world of lead generation, inbound leads are the golden child for sales because these are people that are seeking you out. It’s an open calling card. In any competition, you remember the first contestant and the last contestant and in sales, the last contestant is too late.
- Walked in My Shoes – when I empathize with you because I truly understand your business and business challenges either because I’ve been in your shoes before or have enough industry knowledge to tell you something new, I win. Sales isn’t about selling, it’s about identifying, understanding, and filling a need.
- Easy to Work With – if it is difficult or seems difficult to do business with you in the sales process, my guess is that it’s going to be difficult to do business with you when it counts. Be available, be informative, return my calls, give me honest opinions, make buying from you easy because I’m the customer.
- Didn’t Assume – Don’t assume what I know. Don’t assume what I don’t know. Don’t assume that the facts alone are enough to convince me to buy what you’re selling. Maybe I need to see it, hear about it, use it – just ask.
So forget your product, forget your sales process – this is about basic human interaction and respect. The little things matter and if you don’t do the little things, you’ve never get a chance to do the big things.
Who’s the Customer?
Posted by khaberer in Communication, Marketing, Social Media on February 11th, 2010
Example A on how not to treat your customers. My kids play competitive hockey and volleyball at a local facility and we received the following emails from the for-profit facility for upcoming tournaments scheduled this weekend:
“On Saturday during the tournament at FACILITY we need one volunteer from each team for one hour during the day to help out. We need a front door person to greet customers as well as help to keep all food and coolers out of the building. However, we don’t want you to miss any of your children’s game while helping out. This is why I have included a matrix of all the teams schedules. Please call CONTACT or myself to let me know who can help out from your team for one hour. We may need help in the parking lot as well if anyone would be willing to brave the cold for an hour.”
First of all, they are your customers, not my customers. In fact, I think that the thousands of dollars that I spend every year with this you qualifies me as a customer. Think about it – in your profession, would you ever in a million years think about calling one of your customers and asking them to come over to the office to help you out? Maybe make some copies, answer the phones, process some expense reports…how about it Ms. Customer?
The second request was a bit more inviting as they offered to let us drive shuttle buses. As tempting as that might sound, I’ll have to pass. I don’t think that this is what we had in mind when we rolled out the idea of community marketing!
Content Marketing Predictions for 2010
Posted by khaberer in B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, Social Media on January 7th, 2010
The team over at Junta42 put together an ebook capturing the thoughts of industry marketing leaders regarding the potential for content marketing ideas and distribution in 2010. Read Social Media and Content Marketing Predictions for 2010.
Butting Heads with RAM
Posted by khaberer in B2B Marketing, Communication, Marketing, Marketing Automation on December 30th, 2009
The pragmatic sales definition of marketing is “to generate leads – as many as possible, as quickly as possible.” While this is a fine objective and an appropriate goal, marketers must fight the urge to RAM through a short-sited marketing plan. RAM, aka Random Acts of Marketing, involves creating a spreadsheet of marketing tactics that do not map to an overall marketing strategy or business plan. Rather, the marketing team defines the greatest number of tactics with the greatest number of potential leads and starts executing. The result? Sales then (correctly) states that the leads are not qualified and questions the overall usefulness of marketing.
The solution? Segment your marketing approach into three categories: 1) lead generation, 2) lead nurturing, and 3) sales acceleration. Lead generation is about filling the top of the funnel with as many prospects as possible. This might be achieved through events, content downloads, media releases, etc., really anything that helps build the broader awareness and develop the initial interest with the target market.
Skipping to the third segment, sales acceleration is focused on assisting sales with high-value content and activities that help move current sales-qualified leads along the buying continuum. Tactics here may include hosted seminars, case studies, customer video testimonials, and other impactful resources that generate the comfort and momentum for a prospect to commit to doing business with your company.
Lead nurturing, however, is often the missing link in many sales and marketing initiatives. Lead nurturing is the bridge that links and converts a generic prospect into a “sales-ready lead”, thus increasing the efficiency of your sales efforts and maximizing the yield of qualified leads from your marketing activities. In fact, according to DemandGen Report, nurtured leads produce a 20% increase in sales opportunities vs. non-nurtured leads. Marketo has a great Lead Nurturing eBook on this topic.
The bottom line is that lead nurturing in one way to herd the RAM and may be the missing link in your marketing plan.
Forces in the Technology Analyst Community
Posted by khaberer in B2B Marketing, B2B Technology, Competition on December 8th, 2009
Gartner’s intent to acquire AMR Research is an interesting play and a continuation of the consolidation in the technology analyst industry. You often see acquisitions as a result of market share desires or competitive solution gaps, but I think we’re seeing a different factor in play here: an evaporating market opportunity.
The technology analyst industry has always played a balancing act between vendor support and clients’ needs for objective evidence and vendor recommendations. However, it’s a slippery slope when the very vendors that your customers need unbiased opinions for are paying your bills. Technology buyers understand these relationship and sometimes have a hard time justifying the significant analyst fees for research that is often generated from the vendors themselves. Couple that with our ability to link to our peers more readily today through LinkedIn, user groups, etc., we can access unfiltered, direct feedback from actual technology users and buyers more readily than we ever could before.
I think that the greater opportunity lies in building a strong peer community of technology users that can be tapped for reviews, opinions, vendor evaluations, etc. that is unbiased and untouched by the vendor community. Keep in mind, this is coming from someone who represents the vendor community! My point is, I think that there is a better way, or better said, an alternative to some of the relationships that smaller vendors with innovative solutions feel they’ve been locked out of.
Windy Thanksgiving
Posted by khaberer in Uncategorized on November 30th, 2009
Not marketing related, but the sight of this wind turbine farm was truly spectacular. We passed this just north of Indianapolis on our way to Chicago for the holidays. There must have been more than 200 turbines spread over hundreds of acres right off the interstate.
It’s great to see the country starting to experiment and invest in alternative energy, especially in places that you wouldn’t necessarily expect!
Think Like A Publisher
Posted by khaberer in B2B Marketing, Communication, Marketing, Social Media on October 19th, 2009
I read this over the weekend in BtoB Magazine and thought that it captured the essence of the shift in the marketer’s mindset these days. The stat that 30% to 40% of the marketing team’s time is spent on content generation, research, and editing is probably right. For some clients and some roles, it’s even higher.
Furthermore, another significant chunk of time then needs to go into the merchandising of the content on the web, in lead generation programs, into channels, partners, etc. Content by itself is meaningless, it needs to be placed in a relevant and fruitful setting to drive interest and audience.
This sounds like publishing to me.
SandS vs. SaaS
Posted by khaberer in B2B Marketing, Innovation, Marketing on October 9th, 2009
SaaS (Software as a Service) is certainly the predominant form of delivering new software applications today. However, let’s discuss another form of business solution that is gaining ground fast: Software and Service (SandS). SandS combines a SaaS-based application with managed business services for a particular business process, industry process, industry content, etc.
Not to ride the generic “solution selling” train, but the great aspect of SandS is that it delivers results, not just technology. SandS providers do indeed provide a holistic solution that not only doesn’t require technology resources, it doesn’t require business resources. Think SaaS + BPO (business process outsourcing) = SandS.
SandS providers utilize the best of all worlds: cloud computing platforms to deliver collaborative applications, outsourced and/or offshore transactional resources for low cost, low value business process execution, and, finally, business expertise in the particular domain that you need. In return, the SandS providers are not just locked in as a technology platform (which, by the way, diminishes in a SaaS world), they are locked in as a business provider and can distinguish themselves with service as well as software.
Some good examples of SandS companies are SiteHawk in the chemical data management industry (full disclosure: they are a Ballista Client), Catalina Marketing in the retail POS and consumer data world, and PureSafety, an online training company that delivers employee safety training and content via the web. Software is still vital, but industry content and data solutions are gaining ground because buyers want answers, not just technology. And sometimes the answer just isn’t in the building.
Less is More
Posted by khaberer in B2B Marketing, Communication on September 4th, 2009
The job of marketing is to distill, synthesize, and refine ideas to the core and present those ideas to their audience in the simplest fashion possible. Many B2B companies get caught up in the “one more thing” syndrome where there is always one more feature, one more function, one more option, etc. that is available to meet the 99th percentile requirement for the buyer that has to be communicated.
Oftentimes, this just becomes noise and clouds the core value offering of your product or service. My advice – keep it simple, keep it short, say more with less words. Make it easy for your buyer to understand what you do, how you do it, and how much it costs.
The more talking that you’re doing, the more “selling” you’re undertaking, and the less buying is occurring with your prospect. Especially when a potential buyer is inclined to work with you already – less is definitely more.
In other words, “Just shut up and sell!”