by Becky Carr

Just imagine what it would be like if a conductor took the podium in front of a packed house at Carnegie Hall, handed out new music to all the instrumentalists and expected them to make beautiful symphonic sounds.  That’s what launching a marketing campaign without sales alignment would be like.  Playing from the same sheet of music does not mean literally passing it out with instructions, rather it requires a well orchestrated and coordinated plan with the common goal of making beautiful music and delighting the audience.

B2B Marketers beware – your most important lever to accelerating share and acquiring and retaining clients is your sales force.  Yes, you need to have the foundational elements in place from a solid web presence, multi-dimensional and integrated campaigns, and analyst and press support, but if sales isn’t on board, you’re wasting your time and your company’s budget.

To achieve that symbiotic relationship with sales and capitalize on productive campaigns, here are 5 essential elements:

1. Solicit input and take it to heart.  Get sales involved upfront in the process.  Cultivate a group of trusted sales advisors to provide their suggestions and then act on them.  Just like a good customer testimonial, there is nothing better than sales teams promoting the campaign.
2. Know Your Audience.  What motivates sales?   Compensation and competition.  Make sure to lay out the value of the campaign in terms of how it will retire quota and increase revenue.  Tout best practices amongst sales to invoke the competitive spirit in them.
3. Define (and automate) lead process.  Gain sales agreement on what constitutes a qualified lead and how it should be acted upon.  Automation through CRM tools gives sales full visibility on the disposition of their client or prospect and prepares them to act accordingly.
4. Target jointly developed KPIs. Agree on the goals of the campaign for both sales and marketing.  The KPIs need to tie back to the broader business plan.  Be transparent in reporting on the results and do so frequently.
5. Over Communicate.  Don’t expect the focus to remain top of mind unless you keep it there.  Leverage every medium possible from intranet, email, texting, podcasts, social media and more.  Promote the successes.  Every sales person will want his or her conquest publicly celebrated.

Executing a high impact marketing campaign is like conducting a symphony.  All musicians (marketing elements) working in harmony to create beautiful music (revenue).

 

By Anne Marsden

Google Plus is currently an invitation only beta, but judging by the excitement – and the positive reviews to date – it is definitely changing the landscape of social media.

I’m participating in the trial now and am inviting any of our readers who’d like to join in to send me your email and I’ll send you an invitation. In return, I’d ask that we share our experiences - both good and bad – with the Circles (communities) we create.

Let’s all check in …and check it out together!

Send your request to: anne@marsdenassociates.com

By Becky Carr

I just finished reading Onward by Howard Schultz and have to admit it was brand envy that drove me to learn more.  Here is a company that has turned itself around despite the macroeconomic environment. How is it that a company who exemplifies luxury grows despite the turmoil around them?  If Starbucks can get $5 for a cup of joe – and have customers who do so daily – why can’t other businesses demand higher prices for their wares and keep them coming back for more?

It all comes down to customer loyalty – but I would submit, it starts with employee loyalty and a brand they can be proud of.  Starbucks continued to innovate and improve operational efficiencies, they remained steadfast in their focus of delivering a differentiated customer experience but more importantly they created an environment where their employees were empowered and built a brand they could be proud of.

I’ve yet to speak to a CEO who wouldn’t describe their business as customer centric.  But are they really doing everything possible to differentiate the experience and creating emotional connections for their customers and employees?  Are they listening to their customers and then acting on the feedback?  Are they empowering their employees and making them part of the bigger business picture?  Are they part of something that serves the greater good in the world?

Customer loyalty can not be a stand alone initiative with a team of people whose charge it is to measure and act on customer relationships.   It truly starts top down, but then must be woven throughout the business. Employees need to be held accountable.  The very heart and soul of the business needs to be grounded in providing a fulfilling customer experience to its clients – each and every time.  And the most successful businesses recognize that it’s their responsibility to give back to the community and the environment in order to build pride and respect in their brand.

There has been so much written about how to improve brand and customer loyalty from marketers and analytical geniuses.  The real life case study that Howard Schultz authored depicts the depth to which a company needs to go in order to fully realize the rewards of an admired brand.  And the rewards speak for themselves through shareholder value, revenue growth and profitability.

Espresso anyone?

(Note: The Starbucks logo is the property of Starbucks and used for illustration only.)

By Becky Carr

In the market for a product?  For the consumer, items as simple as a set of golf clubs, a new television, or a washing machine can be purchased through a multitude of retail and on-line outlets.  For businesses, the choices are equally as pervasive for things from office supplies to network providers to software applications and more.

 

Is there a business that exists today that doesn’t have a multi-channel distribution strategy?  In order to maximize the market and revenue opportunities, companies must develop a broad ecosystem of partners. Whether to reach a new segment of the market, expand geographically or augment a proposition, partnership are essential.  There are a number of models to choose from and getting it right can mean exponential growth to your business.

Partner models and the corresponding go to market approach need to be integral to the business strategy.  They must compliment the overarching business objectives and be managed equally as rigorously as the direct sales channel.  Determining the model – sell to, thru or with is based on the strategic objectives for the business.  Regardless of the relationship model, there are four critical elements that must be addressed in order to have a mutually beneficial relationship:

1. Rules of engagement: Governance and specificity is critical.  The ultimate goal is to extend each company’s revenue and market opportunity so mitigating channel conflict for sales and ensuring clients don’t get in the center of debates are cornerstone.
2. Support tools and resources: From extranets to CRM tools to marketing collateral, and proposal materials – each needs to be easily accessible and kept up to date.
3. Brand Guidelines: From use and positioning of the name, logo and product, to pricing and market messaging.  Collaborating on joint propositions and collateral will yield the greatest benefits.
4. Shared Marketing Plans: Transparency and collaboration is the only way to go.  Extending the reach of your message and optimizing marketing funds is a winning solution.

Oh the places you’ll go by having well managed and governed channel partners.

New markets will open up and revenue will rise.  Look at Starbucks who 10 years ago only sold their coffee within the confines of their comfortable stores.  Today, their distribution partners make up nearly 20% of their overall revenue. Pick any B2B technology company and you’ll be hard pressed to find one that doesn’t leverage partners to extend its reach and value – from Cisco to HP to IBM to SAP and more.

Conversely if not properly cared for, distribution partners can either tap already stretched corporate resources, harm your brand image or deter customer relationships.  Just as in a lasting marriage, partnering companies need to quickly move from the honeymoon phase and work on the relationship every day.

Multi-channel distribution models are table stakes in elevating shareholder value by delivering solutions that address the clients’ needs. Doing it right can take your business to new heights.  Leverage best practices from those who have managed successful partner programs and oh the places you’ll go.

Tell us about your Channel best practices…or help us all learn from your mistakes…we’d like to hear your battle stories.

By Anne Marsden

How many plates do you keep spinning?

For many of us, the number (if high) is a badge of honor.  The more we have going (programs, projects, meetings, etc.), the more important, the more successful, the more in demand we must be.  Right?

I started musing on this while taking my shower yesterday…it was a mental detour from my review of what I was going to do that day…. who I needed to call, emails to return, writing assignments coming due, new clients and programs that required care and feeding.  I was getting pretty stressed over how much was on my plate, and in my frustration, my brain took this detour.

The adage “Don’t confuse activity with results” came rushing at me, quickly followed by another thought…”Was my busy-ness actually impeding my results?” Could I be spinning so many plates that it was just a matter to time before one (or more!) would come crashing down?

Then I literally stopped still in the shower, razor in hand, and had a scarier thought…

“Is there a subtle form of self protection and denial that goes on when we put all those plates a-spinning?”  Could making ourselves too busy be a shield against the inevitable – and all too understandable – crash when something just has to fall? After all, won’t the world see and forgive a slip up from someone who is clearly attempting the superhuman?

The reality is when we set too many plates (projects, meetings, deadlines) spinning, we set ourselves up for failure.  A failure that might not feels like it’s our fault.  But it is.

By not consciously prioritizing and deciding which plates/projects to focus on, we loose control and almost certainly ensure that one of the really important ones will fall. By taking control and actively choosing what not to do, we gain both the time (and responsibility) to give our best creativity and ability to the deliverables we believe matter most.

And that’s where fear can creep in.  When we deliberately choose which projects and meetings and assignments to undertake, and execute to our best ability, then the results speak for themselves.  Choosing the right things to focus on and then executing well yields the positive result we desire.  Choosing the wrong things, or poorly executing does the opposite.  And then – Yikes! We have only ourselves to blame – and the mistakes are harder to fix.

But regardless of whether overcommitting ourselves is a subconscious act to avoid responsibility or simply an inability to say “no”, the result is the same:  Something is going to come crashing down.

I finished my shower with a resolution: I will take some plates (projects, plans, people) and set them down, rather than worrying anxiously how to keep any of them from falling.  I will own which plates I keep spinning, and hold myself accountable for the results.

What will you do?

Six tips to transforming a sales organization

By Becky Carr

They finally did it!  My “seventy-something” in-laws succumbed to the advice and went out a got a MacBook Pro.  Their nine year old PC was laid to rest and despite the trepidation and fear, they wanted to believe that life would be so much easier with a Mac.  (Perhaps the threat of not offering any support if they took the easy way out and bought a PC helped too.)  It’s been one month since that glorious day and they couldn’t be happier or more productive.

The only constant in life and business is change. Business in particular has evolved at warp speed over the last decade, spurred on not only by the macro economic environment but the digital revolution.  Gone are the days when employees punched a clock, sales was more about taking orders and governance took place on Lotus spreadsheets. As Benjamin Franklin said “When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.”

To remain competitive, businesses must constantly re-invent themselves whether it’s innovating the next product, taking customer intimacy to new heights or driving operational efficiencies.  In every situation, the front line sales organization needs to embrace the brand tenants and deliver on the strategic imperatives.  Sales professionals are the face to the customer or prospect.  They are the brand ambassadors who can create immense shareholder value and advocacy.

Transforming a sales organization takes more than just a few training classes and new marketing materials.  It starts with having clearly articulated objectives that align with the business plan; a compensation plan and incentives that reward the targeted behavior; and the tools and resources available in a variety of mediums that allow salespeople to maximize their time in front of customers.

Six tips to transforming a sales organization:

1. Patience.  Rome wasn’t built in a day.
2. Reporting: New objectives mean new analytics.  Provide transparency and publish frequently.
3. “Just in Time” Tools.  Succinct, focused and powerful resources that sales can digest whenever and wherever they need it.
4. Best Practice Sharing.  Sparks the competitive juices and promotes confidence.
5. Compensation & Incentives tied to transformation initiatives.
6. Brand “air cover”.   The market has to know and believe in the company’s ability to deliver on their brand promise.

If a “seventy-something” couple can step out of their comfort zone and tackle what they previously thought unattainable, then surely anyone can. If a pig can learn how to swim, then anything is possible.  A successful sales transformation will open new markets, increase customer and employee loyalty and deliver profitable business results.

What have been your toughest challenges in a sales force transformation?  What did you learn that you can share?

 

 

a post by Ann Strople

A few weeks ago I bought a couple of cans of 9-Lives cat food at my local supermarket. At the checkout, the automatic coupon machine delivered a coupon for a dollar off six cans of Friskies, a competitor’s brand. The next time, I purchased the Friskies and used the $1 off coupon. That purchase netted me a coupon for 75₵ off — but only if I purchased 12 more cans. What this said to me was that Nestle Purina, Friskies’ parent company, was willing to invest more to acquire a new customer than to cement a relationship with an existing customer.

This little grocery store coupon experience got me thinking about customer acquisition versus customer retention in general. Whether you’re a B2B services firm or a consumer packaged goods business, you probably spend most of your sales resources, human and financial, on acquiring new customers. But what about the customers you already have? Are you doing all you can to ensure that they don’t abandon you for your competition?

There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that enriching your relationship with existing customers is good for business. According to Frederick F. Reichheld, author of The Loyalty Effect: The Hidden Force Behind Growth, Profits and Lasting Value:

• It costs five to seven times more to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one.
• Over a five year period customer attrition rates can reach as high as 50% if [customer] databases are left dormant.
• Businesses that boosted customer retention rates by as little as 5% saw increases in profits from 5% to as much as 100%.

Authors Emmet C. Murphy and Mark A. Murphy made similar observations in their book, Leading on the Edge of Chaos, adding that:

• A 2% increase in customer retention has the same effect as decreasing costs by 10%.
• Customer profitability tends to increase over the life of a retained customer.

This is not to say you don’t need to acquire new customers. Just don’t forget to protect your relationship with your existing customers while you do. Ongoing communications with existing customers can contribute significantly to protecting your customer base and building your relationship with them. While you may not be able to speak directly to every customer on a regular basis, you can reach them in other ways:

• Reward loyalty with special offers in statements, email, postal mail, text messages and customer-only sections of your website.
• Create social media programs that target, engage and reward loyal customers.
• Send your customers a monthly email newsletter that contains information that is relevant to them and to the products or services you provide.
• Leverage trade shows and professional meetings to meet with, learn from, and show appreciation for your current customers.
• Make it easy for your existing customers to do business with you by providing streamlined processes for placing orders, asking questions and getting issues resolved.

Take a moment and ask yourself – are you spending all your sales efforts on getting new customers? If so, you’re ignoring a potential goldmine of new sales, and even perhaps jeopardizing current revenues.  Do you measure and reward internally for customer renewals and up-sells? Do you analyze buying patterns to identify opportunities to bundle services?  What about segmentation and analysis of your customer base to enable personally relevant promotions?  Do you proactively consider how to turn anonymous buyers into loyal fans?  If you’re not sure where to start – listen to your customers!  A well-designed survey can yield valuable insights into your customers’ needs and preferences. And that knowledge can in turn help you target the right communications, offers and incentives to your most receptive audience.

So if it’s time to start loving the one(s) you’re with, but you don’t know where to begin, or which investments will have the best payoff, give us a call. Marsden and Associates has helped companies just like yours build and execute cost-effective marketing and communications programs that create a win-win for you and your customers.

Webinars can be a highly effective tool for gaining visibility, generating leads and connecting with customer and prospects.  They can be...  Like any marketing program, “god is in the details”.  Do it right and you’ll engage and inform.  Do it wrong and you’ll not only blow that one opportunity to connect with your market – you could severely damage that tool’s usefulness in your marketing arsenal because participants in a poor experience will not sign up for future ones.

Assuming you’ve done the right things to get people to register and attend (that’s a topic for another day), here are 5 quick and vital tips (+ a bonus tip) for planning your next webinar:

1. It’s a radio show with visual aids more so than a live presentation.  In a live presentation your audience is sitting in front of you and while they may daydream or work on their Blackberries, the number of distractions is limited. Not so a webinar where your audience has far more opportunities to abandon you. That means your voice inflection and your visual aids are your hooks for keeping participants engaged instead of doing email.
2. Visuals: More images, less words.  Probably THE most important element of a meaningful webinar experience. What’s on the screen is your chance to grab their attention and focus that attention to what you are saying.  It’s a proven fact that people cannot read and listen effectively at the same time.  And, if you put words on the screen, they’ll read – rather than listen. And when they’re finished reading, they still won’t be listening. They won’t be engaged with you.  So use your screen to visually “suggest” your points, but don’t write them out.  It’s hard work to create visual props, but it’s worth it.
3. Tell stories. We are wired to learn by example.  We’re interested in things that happen to others and we automatically apply their experiences to ourselves.  By using stories, you can educate without pontificating.  As you’re planning your webinar, pick a short number of key messages and some examples to bring each point to life.  Simply.  Adding more facts or talking faster to “get it all in”, is a surefire way to loose your participants.
4. Intersperse interactivity: Ask survey questions. Have a contest to give away a goodie to whomever answers a question (about prior material) the fastest.  About every 6 minutes or so switch from focusing on your presentation material to attendee engagement.  People are naturally competitive.  Use that and it’ll pay off in both participation and retention of your key message points.  Did you know that GoToWebinar has a feature that tells you when participants move off your webinar’s browser window…a perfect indication that attention has wandered.  Use tools like that to guage when it’s time to stop talking and start interacting.
5. Don’t take your self so seriously! Adding some humor helps to lift your tone and can bring back the attention wanderers. Not a natural comedian?  Don’t force it. Find a funny picture to help make a point or a way to nicely poke fun at yourself.  However you do it, a bit of levity or self deprecation can win listeners and drive home your messages.

Those are my top 5 quick tips.

Now the bonus tip – not so quick – but definitely worth the extra effort:

Read this article:  The Seven Deadly Sins of Storytelling – based on the book The Dragonfly Effect by Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith.

Avoid these deadly sins and keep your webinars off of life support.

And for those interested in harnessing social media for more impactful marketing, go one step further and read the book. You’ll learn invaluable lessons that go well beyond webinars, showing you how to use social media to create social change and to better engage with clients, prospects and colleagues.

So what are your tips and tricks for effective webinars? Share your experiences and while I can’t send each of you a special prize – we’ll all be winners from our combined experience.

“Summertime, and the livin’ is easy”….well this year it’s more like…
“Summertime, and the livin’ is busy!”

We are thrilled to have new clients, new fun projects, and new additions to Marsden’s Associates. I’d like to introduce you to Ann Strople, our newest member of the team – though no newbie to marketing. Ann brings a strong background in building brands, crafting communications and developing on-line marketing presence for companies both large and small. For Marsden & Associates, Ann is focused on helping our clients hone their message and ensure it is hitting the mark in both on-line and traditional channels.

We’re already excited about Ann’s contributions to our clients’ marketing initiatives. Now we’re also looking forward to what she has to contribute to our blog. Please give her a warm welcome – and don’t hesitate to sing out if her message strikes a chord. (Yeah, I know that got a bit cheesy, but musicals always do that to me….)

It’s me again! I’m dedicating this blog post to Sam Deiner, he commented on When email sucks” saying, I”m curious what you think about cold email….”. Well here’s what I think.  Enjoy! ~ Erica Williams

Have you ever been to a restaurant, starving, you’ve already made up your mind what you want, way before you reach the table. In one quick breath you rattle off your order “I’ll have the steak with loaded mashed potatoes and green beans”.  As soon as the words leave your mouth your stomach growls with approval and anticipation. Fifteen minutes later, you spot the waiter walking toward your table, holding a tray of steaming hot plates. Your mouth waters, and you slide your glass of wine to the side to make room, you can almost taste that steak! The waiter stops at your table and plops down a delicious plate of sautéed salmon and steamed vegetables?  *record scratch*. “

Ummmm….I didin’t order this.” You politely say to the waiter. For a half second you almost tell him to leave the plate, you’re hungry and you do like salmon. But you ordered the steak, you send it back. That’s kinda how I feel about “cold” emails.

I’ll be honest; I have a steak/salmon (love/hate) relationship with cold emails. I love them, because they usually have some information that I could probably use. On the other hand, I hate them because well-I didn’t order (subscribe) to them. I have enough emails in my inbox, which I asked for, and sometimes I don’t even get a chance to read them. Yeah you may have awesome info but chances are I’m going to send it back (unsubscribe).

My advice for sending emails…I’m undecided. Send? Don’t send? It’s a toss up for me. If you decide to send, follow these simple guidelines:

• Tailor your cold emails to be more appealing to the recipients…if you obtained email addresses from a partner/vendor, shape your email message to appeal to that vendor’s buyers.
• In a B2B world, go straight to the value add –what information/education/assistance are you providing?
• Don’t ask them to answer questions (bogus survey), don’t try to sell – provide some truly valuable info/insight/research.  Earn their trust and they may give you the chance to talk to them again (by not unsubscribing, or worse, reporting you as spam.)
• Give them something free. You want them to actually subscribe to your emails right?

Don’t be discouraged; If your cold emails aren’t being read, just find another way to get your message across. Be creative. Just remember, no matter how good your salmon (cold email) looks, I ordered the steak and that’s (usually) what I want!