Aug 102011
I think leads are important.
[I know. Shocking.]
In fact I think the topic of leads is important enough to warrant at least 10-15 uninterrupted minutes of a CEO’s time each week.
As the owner of two small businesses, I know that’s expensive time. Leads are worth it.
In each of my next three posts, I offer a new reason why.
Why Leads Matter, Reason #1: Leads mark the key moment in time when previously invisible and anonymous people trust your brand enough to voluntarily “de-cloak.”
Why do they de-cloak? Do they do it because they’re ready to buy?
Sometimes they are. But at this point, probably not. They may buy later, if they still trust your brand and value your products. Right now, they just want information you have that (they believe) will be useful to them. So they volunteer information they have that (you believe) will be useful to you. And they would like this exchange to be frictionless.
What does “frictionless” mean to your leads in this context? It means that when they “buy” your product information with their contact information, they get what they pay for. Nothing less, and nothing more. If you promise people who fill out your registration form a free buyer’s comparison guide, give them a good one, and promptly. But don’t follow that up with an encore of three promotional emails per week until death-or-the-unsubscribe-link-do-you-part. And don’t tell your sales team to call blitz that group of people. Doing that may yield a few sales (that you might’ve won anyway), but it will leave a poor impression on the 90%-plus of your leads who don’t return your sales reps’ calls.
This kind of silent damage to your brand usually goes unreported. Your leads are too busy and polite to complain about it. But it only takes one disgruntled ex-lead to, in a fit of keyboard rage, flame your brand to 5000 Twitter followers, and their 5000 followers, and so on…. The choices only get worse from there, e.g., cease-and-desist letters, public mea culpas that distract your staff, etc…
Let’s not use the lead management process to mass produce disgruntled ex-leads. A poorly designed process won’t mass-produce revenue. In fact it might mass-reduce revenue. Instead, let’s help buyers get information with minimal friction, and then optimize the process to book more new customers.
When we remove friction we make room for trust. Trust, as you may have noticed, is a bit of a scarce resource these days. But real trust, which can only be earned and never bought, is a powerful thing. Trust attracts new visitors to your web site. Trust converts visitors to leads and leads to customers. And over time, trust makes customers into loyal fans who refer their peers and help you attract more visitors to your web site, and so on….
Image credit: Graur Razvan Ionut
Nov 222010
“A man’s got to know his limitations.”
The famous Clint Eastwood line from “Dirty Harry” sums it up. I’m a capable businessman and marketer, but don’t let me anywhere near the creative team when they’re trying to name a product. Oh I can define the product, describe the market for it, detail the buying process and funnel metrics for it, create a promotion or campaign to drive leads for it, etc…. But naming things is not really my forte.
One thing I do know about product names, however, is that the wrong name can be an expensive drain on your marketing budget. To illustrate this point, let’s consider a seasonal example: turducken. For those who – like me until a couple of years ago, or my wife until this morning – have no idea what turducken is, here is the Wikipedia definition:
“A turducken is a dish consisting of a de-boned chicken stuffed into a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed into a de-boned turkey. The word turducken is a portmanteau of turkey, duck, and chicken or hen.”
I haven’t seen any research to back up this claim, but I’d be willing to bet that (far) less than 50% of the U.S. population would be able to accurately define turducken without first asking a friend or looking it up on the Web. And among those consumers curious enough to learn the meaning, a subset would first have to stop giggling at a word that seems to include the concepts of “turd” and “uck.”
None of this is a problem for the individual consumer confronted with this word. His life will resume momentarily, with or without the addition of turducken to his vocabulary, or his oven.
But let’s consider briefly the hypothetical case of a marketer tasked with creating demand for this product. She has a product that has the potential to serve a large and horizontal market (i.e., people who eat gourmet poultry dishes). The product is well-liked among the group of consumers who know what it is. And there are probably some historical trends and benchmarks that can help her direct marketing budget and resources.
That’s all well and good, but what if the hypothetical CEO of Turducken Incorporated — to whom our hypothetical marketer reports — throws down a gauntlet and says she wants to see turducken sales double this year, but only increases the marketing budget by, say, 25%. What should our marketer do? Clearly, small improvement on the organic growth rate will not get the job done. So trying to hit the sales goal by targeting the “turducken-aware” segment is likely to fail. This is a “Blue Ocean” marketing challenge — our marketer will have to find and/or create a whole new market of consumers who are willing to give turducken a try.
This brings us back to bad product names. Before we get excited about something, we usually have to know what the heck it is. Our marketer is quickly going to blow through her budget trying to explain her product to the uninitiated. A too-clever-by-half product name only confuses the prospect and delays the buying process. Two time-honored sales axioms apply here: (a) “a confused customer usually says no” and (b) “time kills deals.” A consumer who is uninterested in learning the definition of turducken is unlikely to buy it (even if he might otherwise enjoy the dish). And any excess time spent explaining a quirky word like turducken is time NOT spent selling it.
Since our marketer doesn’t have a large budget to fund missionary marketing of turducken, she should use simple, descriptive names — perhaps “three bird roast” or “turkey, duck, and chicken roast” — to help quickly define it for new buyers. Keeping the name simple will let her to direct those scarce dollars and resources to more targeted and measurable demand generation campaigns and programs.
Today I saw a question on Focus.com that I found helpful in re-lighting the TLOTL blog boiler, which had been silent since my vacation to Southern California in mid-August. I literally have 5 post concepts from that trip that I have committed to banging out at some point. But sometimes, seeing a business problem in the form of a question is all it takes for me to overcome a mild case of writer’s block. Here is the question I saw, and my response below it. Enjoy! And, as always, your comments, questions, and protests are encouraged!
The Question: “I just read this blog post from Cloud 9 Analytics (http://cloud9analytics.com/2010/09/02/3-tips-running-a-successful-weekly-sales-meeting/ ). I was inspired to take this to the Focus Network. What are you (sic) tips for running a successful sales meeting? What have you seen that doesn’t work?”
My Answer: Great question! We’ve all been in good and bad weekly sales meetings. And since the stakes are usually high, these meetings are always educational, regardless of how good or bad the numbers are.
The tone and substance of the article you referenced is nicely even-handed and process-oriented. So I’ll go the other way, perhaps erring on the side of bluntness. Here are my 8 tips (4 “WHAT WORKS” vs. 4 “WHAT DOESN’T WORK”) for a good weekly sales meeting.
WHAT WORKS
1) Right audience. The weekly sales meeting needs to strike a balance between too few and too many participants. It can’t be a back-channel meeting exclusive to lobbyists and senators, but neither can it be an unruly town hall. To promote continuous improvement, there needs to be an atmosphere of transparency and collaboration. In my experience, there’s always a point of diminishing returns in meetings, where the honesty becomes a bit less rigorous with each additional attendee.
2) Solid routine. If every week’s meeting seems like bad Reality TV, there may be a lack of structure to the meeting. Call a side-meeting with the stakeholders where you propose a “time budget” for how the meeting will be run. Also get agreement on the specific reports and forecasts to be reviewed each week, and who presents them. Establishing familiarity allows people to focus on analyzing results and proposing improvements.
3) Meeting discipline. This is the weekly sales meeting — a necessity for most companies. For those who need to attend, it needs to be treated with respect. It starts on time, and it ends on time. Habitual lateness and random absences are not tolerated. If you’re on the road and your schedule allows you to conference in, do it, even if you are not presenting. Usage of mobile devices during the meeting must, by definition, be more important than sales (which keeps the lights on and probably pays for, or subsidizes, your mobile device usage). So if you’re using your iCrackoid during the meeting, there must be a family emergency — in which case you should excuse yourself — or a sensitive corporate transaction that can’t wait till the meeting is over. Holster that nerd-gun for the next 60, sit up straight, and pay attention.
4) Facts vs. fiat. If we want to help drive sales, then color commentary must take a back seat to black-and-white truth. The functions that support sales (finance, marketing, operations) often resist quick changes without a logical justification. If they resist for a personal agenda, or no agenda, that’s a “sales prevention department” problem. But if they’re being good stewards of scarce resources (money, people, time), they should be able to review data, and collaborate on solutions. In the long run, this approach builds a broader base of support for the sales team, and drives better results on the top line.
WHAT DOESN’T WORK
1) Hand-waving. If you present at this meeting, you must inspire confidence in your audience. For most of them (especially your CEO) this probably isn’t their first rodeo. They know it’s hard, and that’s why they hired (or had someone hire) a talented guy/gal like you to figure it out. So if you’re not yet performing to plan, show them how you’re getting closer to that goal. And ask for, and accept, help.
2) Learned helplessness. If you took an action last week to fix a problem, please be prepared to discuss either (a) how things are better now, or (b) how things will be better next week. This is especially true if you serve the sales team in a support role. But it’s also true for sales managers who enforce policy.
3) Needless sparring. Some bickering is inevitable when building cohesive teams. But frequent food fights not only waste time, they discourage contributions from smart people who prefer not to enter the Sales Thunderdome — i.e., “two men enter, one man leaves.”
4) Empty proclamations from the ivory tower. I’m talking to you, Marketing-executive-giving-the-monthly-update. We actually do care (a lot) about the focus group or web site usability study you recently conducted. And the Google Analytics reports showing the “engagement lift” from last month’s social media push are interesting (really). But unless you can discuss, numerically, how these projects grow revenue in the current quarter, let’s save it for later. This is the weekly sales meeting.
Every Lead Converts
b2b marketing, b2b sales, B2C, considered purchase process, copywriting, graphic design, inside sales, lead conversion, lead generation, lead nurturing, marketing automation, marketing communications, marketing to sales handoff, personal training, Pilates, sales effectiveness, sales lead management, social networking, social networks, web marketing
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Aug 052010
A slight detour for today’s post. Let’s pay a brief visit to the land of B2C retail fitness, to see if any insights apply to B2B sales and marketing.
One regular “client” of my consulting practice is the Pilates and personal training business my wife Heather and I have owned for the past 3.5 years. I have no formal training in Pilates or personal training, and to be honest, until this year, my physique more closely resembled the guy in the classic “BEFORE” photo than the slimmer “AFTER” version. For this reason and others, I’ve typically worked more behind the scenes in that business, handling finance, operations, and marketing, supporting our staff and Heather as they support their clients.
Heather wears several hats too, including the very important Head of Sales hat. This is a challenging and rewarding job for her. She helps people make and manage investments in their health. According to HealthyPeople.gov, a service of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, only about 23 percent of adults in the United States report regular physical activity for 20 minutes or longer 3 or more days per week. Heather’s trying to engage the subset of that population who:
- live close enough to our studio in Seattle to make regular ongoing visits with their trainer
- are able to invest in private instruction (we don’t offer group classes)
- are willing to pay for an elective health service not covered or subsidized by insurance
- are physically able to exercise
- have the time, or are able to make the time, to attend training sessions
- aren’t already working with a trainer at another facility
- value our services, people, facilities, and the way we do business
So yes, Heather has a challenging and rewarding job. Her business is highly relationship-driven. I know, I know, everyone’s business is relationship-driven, but hers really is. She’s learned, and taught me, a ton about how these relationships get started and grow. And as good as she has become at listening to prospects, educating them, and building their trust, the old adage is as true for her as it is for any sales person: you can’t win ‘em all. For any number of reasons, some within and some beyond her control, not everyone she meets will become a client. But every potential client, whether she meets them or not, will ultimately make some kind of decision, conscious or otherwise. That decision may be about whether to become a client, or it may be about whether to visit the website, pick up the phone, or ask a current or past client about their experience. And this brings us back to the theme of this post: every lead converts.
To explore what I mean by this, let’s apply the sentence in the broadest sense possible.
For simplicity, let’s define “every lead” as every person that engages Heather’s business. Not just the people who call her to ask about studio services or rates, or come in for an introductory session, or consider a membership package, but everyone. Any person who ever:
- walks by the studio and takes a flyer from the box outside
- drives by and notices nothing more than the window graphics or other branding elements
- visits the studio’s web site
- visits a third party review site (e.g. Yelp)
- observes or engages in a social media conversation about the business
- meets a current or previous client at a business function, or a kids’ soccer game
- meets a current or previous prospect at a [insert business or social event here]
Simplified Conversion Model
And now let’s define “convert” just as broadly. Not just the conversion of qualified prospects into clients, or of leads into qualified prospects, or even of traffic (foot, phone, or web) into leads. Let’s define conversion as any change in a person’s opinion of her business — no matter how strong or subtle, how temporary or permanent, or how grounded in fact or fiction — based on currently available information available.
And now, let’s go one step further and give a B2B-sounding name to this entire cycle of people gathering information and developing their opinions. Let’s call it: the considered purchase process.
Back here in the B2B world, we are trained to be efficient, mechanical, and sometimes even a bit mercenary about demand generation. And the military-industrial language we use to describe our trade – e.g., driving conversion, filling the pipeline, growing revenue (exponentially), launching multi-channel integrated campaigns, etc. – reflects the intense expectations of management that we take the beach deliver results.
But as we focus our energy on the relative few who ultimately decide to buy, it’s helpful to remember that every person’s opinion of our company changes as they interact with us. We may be leaving money or value on the table when we ignore those who don’t take our prescribed next step. Or worse, we may be creating headwinds for future sales efforts by handling these people in a careless way. Every lead converts, in either a good way or a not-good way. And unless you’re selling to a market of infinite size where no one ever bothers to share their impressions of your business, each one of those conversions matters.
Doing the things that get more leads to favorably convert, more of the time, helps us build healthier pipelines and more predictable revenue growth.
Guest post from Bruce Lee: 10 simple techniques to improve your advertising and web site copy.
b2b marketing, b2b sales, collaboration, copywriting, graphic design, indoor rowing, inside sales, lead generation, marketing communications, marketing to sales handoff, personal training, Pilates, spinal tap reference, Thought Leadership, truth in advertising, Uncategorized, wordpress themes
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Jul 282010
[Post #1 in the "Other Voices" series, featuring Bruce Lee of CreativeLee Advertising.]
This week I’ve been doing, with a little help from my friends, a mini-makeover on the TLOTL blog. A few of the changes:
- Installed a new WordPress theme. Thank you to Sayontan Sinha for giving us the elegant and simple “Suffusion.” I gladly made a small PayPal donation in support of your excellent work on this theme.
- Replaced the mugshot that was taken when I was 38 pounds heavier. Thank you to my wife Heather, to Concept2 Rowing (makers of my Concept2E Indoor Rower), and to my personal trainers at Conscious Body Pilates for supporting my renewed commitment to improved health.
- Incorporated the “Tall Poppy” color element from the Scearce Market Development brand palette. Thank you to Penny Laine for your work on the original SMD palette and logo. And thanks to Chirag Mehta for publishing your helpful “Name That Color” lookup tool. The HEX# for that color, C04027, doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.
I’m throwing shout-outs to these people and companies, some of whom I’ve never met in person, to underscore how much the creative process — in marketing, selling, or anything – is a team game. Which brings me to the fourth change I made to the blog this week: a new tagline.
“Tips, tools, and inspiration from marketing and sales masters.”
I’ve always thought the “Lord of the Leads” concept was about mastery of a process; specifically the process of generating and managing “the leads.” But successful practictioners of the marketing and sales arts understand that real mastery depends on integrating an incredibly diverse range of expertise — strategy, financial, product, creative, technical, analytical, operational — into a compelling buying experience for customers. A marketing leader, in particular, must be highly skilled at eliciting and synthesizing high-value contributions from experts in all of these areas.
So, starting with today’s guest post, I’m turning up the volume (to eleven) on the voices of other experts in the marketing and sales workflow.
First up to bat: Bruce Lee from CreativeLee Advertising. Bruce and I are members of a consultants’ roundtablegroup here in Seattle. Two other similarities: it turns out we live about 1/2 mile apart (98112 baby!), and we both previously worked for companies that were acquired by Best Buy. We are also both self-styled word warriors, though there the differences quickly begin to emerge. Because, quite honestly, I’m Don Quixote to Bruce’s Sun Tzu.
Bruce is contributing “10 simple techniques to improve your advertising and web site copy.”
1.Have someone outside your department read what you’ve written, and ask them if they understand it thoroughly. Chances are you’re using some term that makes sense to you, but not to your intended reader. Someone from outside your fishbowl will catch that.
2.Don’t use acronyms. If it’s important enough to mention, it’s important enough to spell it out.
3.Don’t get cute.Never use any derivation of the Got Milk campaign (for example, “Got Trash?” or “Got Pho?”). Never make any allusion that “size does matter.” Leave humor to the experts.
4. Don’t lie. Exaggeration and hyperbole are lies. Omitting important details, or burying them in the fine print, is a form of lying. Someday soon, credit card companies will pay for this transgression.
5. Proofread it out loud. Then have someone else proofread it out loud while you listen.
6. Say it correctly. “Happens only once a year” is better than “Only happens once a year.” (Only Jack kissed Mary. Jack only kissed Mary. Jack kissed only Mary.) Misuse “it’s/its” or “your/you’re” only if you want the reader to think you’re incompetent.
7. Resist the urge to use an exclamation point. Resist!
8. Unless you’re simply listing a commodity and a price (1 gal. 2% milk, $3) include at least one product benefit. (Chocolate Milk. Builds strong bones and kids love it. 1 gal. $3)
9. Try to find a way to work the word “you” into the headline.
10. Know when to bend the rules. You’re trying to communicate with people using only symbols. But when a person reads, they hear a voice talking in their head. It’s sometimes okay for that voice to start a sentence with a preposition.
If you’re responsible for generating lead quantities in the thousands (or tens of thousands), in support of a sales team with revenue targets in the millions (or tens of millions), you probably already have a fairly well-developed analytical side. And work in the lead generation field provides an endless buffet of left brain delights like data mining, segmentation, A/B testing, campaign optimization, etc…. But in all of that analysis – as critical as it is to marketing success – it’s sometimes easy to forget that all those database records are real live people.
And if your plans involve generating leads at any significant scale, you will at some point (if you haven’t already) implement a marketing automation solution or service. Once you do that, you will have a very powerful weapon in your hand. But even a highly-skilled user of these platforms can do unintended harm if not guided by principles of an ideal customer experience, informed by a solid understanding of your nurture leads.
The leads in your nurturing process are unique in at least two ways:
a) In most cases, they’ve already “voted once” to engage your brand, either by completing a web form or otherwise making themselves known to you (e.g., trade show, chat, direct mail response, social media interaction, etc)
b) By definition, they are not yet ready to (seriously) talk to a salesperson.
These two attributes make these people different from any other buying constituency your marketing programs touch. Accordingly, your nurturing campaigns should reflect this difference. Considerable thought should be given to how you communicate to this group. Some of the factors to decide include:
- Frequency of touches/contacts
- Type of touches/contacts (email only? Email + call? Email + call + twitter direct message? Etc)
- Tone (e.g., familiar or professional)
- Voice (e.g., authoritative or collaborative)
- Offers (e.g.,
transactional value: “First month free for a limited time! Call me!”
educational value: “I found this blog post that I thought you might like. Here’s the link.”
entertainment value: “While you consider my request for a meeting, I had my marketing team create this funny comic strip. Here’s a link. Enjoy!”
For many marketers, it helps to write out a brief defining how customers should be treated as they go through the nurturing process. Sales should contribute to the creation of this brief and it should be shared with anyone who creates content used in campaigns. Finely tuning these and other aspects of your nurturing program can not only make a big difference in conversion rates, it can strongly influence brand perception among those people who do NOT convert. And, at least in the short run, the non-converters will far outnumber the converters.
While marketing is ultimately tasked with delivering qualified leads to sales, it is also expected to represent the company effectively to the market writ large. These two objectives are complimentary. A well-designed nurturing program is mindful of the impression it leaves with all of the people it touches, which ultimately improves brand preference, and naturally attracts more buyers.
