Belief

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Jun 052012
 

I firmly ‘believe’ that having belief is one of the keys to success. This is not some spiritual intangible. It is an imperative. Wayne Gretzky, a Canadian hockey player, is often quoted as saying, “You miss 100% of the shots you never take.” It is as simple as that. Believing is about doing. Time and time again when a salespersons is convinced that an effort is futile it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Successful salespeople know that when all hope is lost the worst possible thing to (not) do is to give up. One last e-mail beseeching customers, one more call exploring alternatives, one strategic question to a prospect may turn things around.

One needs belief however. The belief that something may happen. Ironically, it is the more experienced and tenured salespeople that often fall victim to a lack of belief. They internalize the mistakes, failures and objections and project them into various current situations. It should be the opposite. The more pertinent question invoking belief is ‘have I sold before?” or ‘have I interviewed for such a job successfully before?’ or ‘Did I win in a similar situation in the last year?’… then why not again?

Your believing not only determines what you do, but it also determines that you do it. Moreover, it is the duty of the management and company to give, instill and maintain that belief. Salespeople are humans. They need support as much as anybody.

 

Selling Fear And Pain Avoidance

 Articles, Marketing, Prospecting, Selling, Selling More  1 Comment »
Jun 042012
 

People in sales and marketing might occasionally forget or possibly not be able to say what they know as succinctly as ‘fear sells,’ but unfortunately fear does sell. Think about the nightly news where the leading stories are negative items designed to instill worry, catastrophe, disaster or concern into the minds of the viewers “if it bleeds, it leads.” Think about salespeople scaring you that should you not buy X you will lose your health/pay more later/fall behind, etc.

For instance, a security alarm company will never approach homeowners with information such as “99% of houses in your area were not burglarized.” Rather, the message will go something like this: “a house down your street was burglarized. You could be next!” Cue homeowner to order security monitoring for the house.

Another related psychological imperative is the need to avoid pain. People are compelled by the need to avoid pain more instantly over seeking or finding pleasure. Think about it. Does someone want to avoid or escape a predicament first or seek a new pleasure? Pain Avoidance is a prime technique for making pressing sales and accelerating sales velocity. This instinct is inherent in our genes.

In sales the formula for success is quantifying the pain and problem and demonstrating to the customer that the solution being offered costs less than the problem it displaces.

Similarly, the sales collateral, proposals and discussions should be fashioned in the same way.

Examples (with ‘better’ prompting more urgent action than ‘good’):

  • Good: “you can sign our contract and get the product”  Better: “Get the papers out of your hair”
  • Good: “your solution will bear many years of results”  Better: “Your problems are about to disappear”
  • Good: “your promotion is likely” Better: “Your boss will immediately get off your back”
  • Good: “people will enjoy the new menu and word will spread” Better: “No more bad reviews or food poisoning”

However, and very importantly, a salesperson needs to 1- have asked about the pain 2- understood the imperatives (listening skills) 3- quantified the challenge and 4- has calculated a Return On Investment (ROI) aligned to the solution offered. As such, the above

Social Media

 Marketing, Uncategorized  Add Comments »
May 242012
 

It is not news that Social Media is taking on a bigger role. Most people have Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or LinkedIn accounts. Often when I eat at a restaurant I notice a sign proclaiming how a Wagjag or Groupon coupon would not be honoured under certain conditions. Alternatively, the hostess asks whether one is there with a coupon as if the food and service would be diminished. Most have more Facebook friends than actual ones, while LinkedIn and Facebook have been among the top ten largest IPOs of the last couple of years. Many companies such as Instagram have sold at unreasonable valuations.

Many companies have risen to the occasion and become ‘social.’ Whether it is a simple page or account belonging to a business, analytics to measure reaction or specific features such as Social CRM the future is set.

Over the weekend, I came across the two most concrete examples of the benefits of the Social media that I can think of. Agree with them or not, one cannot deny the tangible difference YouTube, Twitter and Facebook have made (in these cases) to the propagation of these the cases. It is not an exaggeration that the characters involved and the points-of-view would not get anywhere near the air they have without Social media participation and technologies. Companies and for-profit entities are a little more beholden to individuals. Here is proof that Social media is having impact far beyond hype.

 

“12-year old Victoria Grant explains why her homeland, Canada, and most of the world, is in debt.” Incidentally, her father works at Reserach In Motion the maker of Blackberry.

United Breaks guitars was a song written in protest by Canadian musician Dave Carroll and his band Sons Of Maxwell when United Airlines broke his guitar in 2008 and (initially) refused to pay for it or admit responsibility. After the initial fiasco, the airline did an about face and nowadays uses the song and video internally.

So what is Dave Caroll up to now aside from strumming? He has turned the publicity that ensued including millions of views of the song’s video on YouTube, which incidentally would never have a chance on a conventional music station, into a business called www.gripevine.com which bills itself as an “online voice” to get problems resolved.

Neither of these instances would have grown so big without the multiplying effect of Social Media and users spreading the word one update at a time.

Sage Rebranding? Renaming? Remarketing?

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Feb 022012
 
UK-based Sage is one of the largest providers of business management software.*
Those following the company know that the firm has been making marketing moves for the last few years focused on the naming and branding of its products. Approximately five years ago the company, which has a slew of products, assigned strategic products to one category (Sage Accpac for example), products that would go into maintenance to a ‘Value’ line (Sage Pro for example), divided everything into Small and Mid-Market and finally decided to push the name ‘Sage’ more and more over its better-known sub brands, which had mostly come under the Sage umbrella following acquisitions.
In North America more people were familiar with Accpac or MAS, ACT or Simply Accounting than they were with ‘Sage.’ Consequent to the decision to rebrand to the mothership the firm began giving more prominence to the word ‘Sage’ on its packaging and on its websites and also pushed the name ‘Sage’ more in its advertising and radio spots. A new logo and simplified design was also introduced.
Of course, some would argue the best rebranding is making one’s products better and better, but to be realistic marketing does move things.
Part of the problem is that now Sage has more than one Sage 50 or 100 across the globe. These products would have the same name, but are not the same products. Additionally, 50 is not upgradeable to 300 is not upgradeable to 500. That seems confusing and a recipe for many customer questions to come. To make things even more confusing several Sage products are not being transitioned to the new naming convention. Sages SalesLogix will remain… Sage Saleslogix. Sage’s bright hope for the future X3 (formerly Adonix) is remaining X3.
The Sage move has been controversial. Sage employees, partners and customers have questioned the move and raised several flags. Sage’s relatively new North American CEO, Pascal Houillon, has been insistent. He used to manage part of the European business in France and is bringing North America in line with the European nomenclature. Last year he had to move to address Sage ecosystem concerns and seems to have somewhat allayed fears about the change.
It is a brave change. Products that have sold millions of licenses are being called something else going forward. Is it worth it? Is it a case of short-term pain for long-term gain? In that case, it is a risk and a brave change. Did I already say that?
The cynic might say that a new CEO would want to have his stamp all over his new job. Another point-of-view is that an ‘outsider’ can look at things more critically and more objectively. The new CEO has less allegiance and nostalgia towards a set of products. 
The ‘Connected Services’ mantra, which describes Sage’s partial and largely incomplete attempt to sell its plethora of products (say Fixed Assets and CRM) horizontally is now also part of the same marketing effort.
 
*I used to work for Sage.

Best Sales Technique

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Jan 252012
 

People often ask, “what is the best sales technique (I can use)?” The question is general and unclear.
For the question to be answered one has to understand the difference between effectiveness and efficiency. Effectiveness is about output. Something is effective when it yields the best result. Efficiency, however, is closely related to resources and input/output. A process, in this case a sale, is efficient if a relatively good outcome (a sale? profit? margins? above average numbers?) has been obtained through a minimal amount of resource having been expended.
Think about it. The best sales technique, as far as efficiency is concerned, to give away the customer whatever he or she wants.
Salesperson: “Hello. How much would you like to pay for X?”
Customer: “I would like to buy this car with all the options included for $5.”
Salesperson: “No problem. I will drive it out for you.” Thinks: “Great day, so far today I have sold 10 cars and we have been open for 15 minutes.”
That is pretty efficient. The dealer has sold ten cars in fifteen minutes.

The catch is… well you know exactly what the catch is. It might be the best sales technique, but is not profitable, sane or sustainable.
Think about the way the group discount websites operate. They offer a big discount on something giving businesses the hope that the ‘something’ becomes a loss leader that generates volume or repeat business. I won’t get into the doleful nature of a business that wants to win business by doling out ‘deals’ or the sordid nature of a consumer that purchases solely based on ‘deals,’ but one thing requires particular attention. The ‘group buy’ websites, such as WagJag, GroupOn or Living Social, do not practice what they preach. I doubt any of these websites offers mass discounts to its customers (the businesses that buy into the promotions). After all, GroupOn has investors and sales and margins it needs to protect. It aims to be a long-term business and does not give in to the efficiency of whatever the merchant demands.
So, a better option is to have people find, crave and want you. Apple is the obvious example. Word-of-mouth, utility, group-think and momentum deliver Apple what it wants: sales. It is not price sensitive (Apple is often the most expensive of its category) and not subject to competitive pressures as much as other businesses. People come to it because it has a good reputation. It is known and liked. It knows what customers want and it crafts it.

In the era of modern and instant communication, the Internet and pervasiveness of information a business needs to stand out and draw prospects and customers in. The same goes for persons.
What is your inbound marketing strategy?

The Marketing Continuum 7

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Dec 072011
 

Just over a month ago I wrote about different marketing techniques and types:
 http://www.alighaemi.com/wp/?p=846

As a follow-up I want to discuss a general Marketing Continumm (feel free to download the slide from the link at the bottom).

1- Preamble – type of marketing? What is appropriate for the business?
2- Objective – what is the definition of success? How will it be measured?
3- Duration – what is the implementation and control/cessation period?
4- Target Market (Who Or Which?) – Includes the P’s (place, price, product/service or promotion) and cannot be ‘everybody’ as that is too broad.
5- Branding – Includes message, byline and logo
6- Milestones – Time measurements that determine the project’s timeliness and success. Be realistic and beware of mission-creep. What steps need to be complete?
7- Repeat Or Recurring Activities – what are they and are they budgeted for time and money-wise?
The slide is here:

THE MARKETING CONTINUUM

Types Of Marketing Techniques

 Articles, Marketing  2 Comments »
Oct 312011
 

 

 

How many different marketing techniques could you name? Broadly speaking, ignoring the sub-types (like say Guerrilla Marketing), here is a list many of which complement one another and intertwine:

1- Content Marketing: The essence of marketing is propagating content towards a target audience and creating a response and emotion – need or want. Think corporate brochures, but also think more modern and digital techniques as described below. Even media marketing is a type of content marketing. Why did they have a blast in Las Vegas in The Hangover and not in Saskatoon?

2- Program Marketing: Devising programs and incentives to attract one’s target audience to one’s goods or services. Every large corporation has programs to entice its customers or channels to engage and get involved. The goal here is to create a win-win mix.

3- Mail Marketing: Mail as in postal mail. Higher budgeted perhaps, but more and more special and exclusive. American Express occasionally sends out electronic goods to its top borrowers. A corporation I worked for mailed out wine bottles to top customers, while another sent PlayStation Controllers with the promise of a console to follow if certain requests were met. Even simple invitation and seasonal cards are part of this type of marketing. The word ‘chachka’ comes to mind here.

4- Internet Marketing: sub-types include SEO (Search Engine Optimization) where a name, website, key word(s) or description is propelled towards the top of a search engine results (search for ‘best drink in the world’ and lose faith in the Internet when Vodka comes up). E-mail marketing including spam and legitimate opt-in mailing list to an interested targeted audience. With the latter getting the frequency is paramount. Sending too many messages will result in consumer dissonance and legitimate opt-outs, while too few messages lose their efficiency and certainly might leave a potential unfulfilled. Newer and prevalent marketing types that are related are Mobile Marketing (the returning Beavis & Butthead have an exclusive mobile presence on Virgin Mobile phones) and Social Media Marketing, which has transformed Facebook or Twitter from places where people connected to places where brands grab and measure audiences. Adobe, for example, has an active and dedicated group dedicated to measuring, monitoring and engaging buyers, customers and happy/unhappy users on Social Media.

5- A favourite of marketers is Event Marketing. Companies appear and participate at relevant fora where the company’s target audience might be present. Marketers target both horizontal (usually competitive or complementary goods and services) and vertical (value chain) potentials for their business. There is a whole outsourced industry that has sprung up to facilitate event marketing from hospitality and transportation to banners and printed material.

Clearly, all sales are part of the marketing mix (and vice-versa) whether they are inbound, outbound, internet-based or face-to-face. Marketing is about relevancy of material and message.

Perhaps a future article will deal with analytics and monitoring software that has sprung up around marketing. These include the data processed, measured and sold by Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and others.

Do any of these marketing types not belong here? Could you add more?

Sales: A Numbers Game?

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Sep 152011
 

If you believe the B2C marketers sales is a numbers game. Cast as wide a net as possible and reap the maximum rewards.

Case in point: the credit card companies. Their mantra: offer the most number of people, the highest amount of credit, sit back and watch the filled out applications come in.

Sales technique: adorn the mass mailing with words like ‘exclusive’ or ‘limited’ or ‘deadline’ or ‘act now’. ‘Limited’ as in limited to 3,000,000 Canadians.

At which point does one cross from sales technique to cattle call territory? When will the government step in to regulate industries-gone-wild and their untrue statements?

 

*Things That Need to Go Away: Marketing that the company knows is false, the customer knows is false and the regulator allows.

Does The Sales Funnel Still Function?

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Aug 232011
 

For years the sales funnel has given order to sales opportunities, forecasting and businesses’ financial predictions and revenue reporting. But does it still matter? Does it work? The sales funnel or pipeline typically began with awareness/contact and progressed to the sales process’ completion. Nowadays though customers come much better informed, occasionally knowing what they want, having seen/ran their own demos online and care nothing for the sales process. In the information era how can a funnel exist if customers can enter it anywhere and anytime?

What is branding?

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Aug 192011
 

To successfully compete every company needs a brand. Whether a large corporation, such as Pepsi, or an upstart branding is important in establishing one’s company and taking charge of the message that we desire the entity to convey.
The list of companies that have done an effective job is well-known. Think of Dell Computers as the low cost computer leader, Coca Cola and its refreshing connotations or how about Emirates Airlines and luxury?

What does branding include and which considerations need to be included?
Who are you? What do you do? What is your proposition? How do you give benefit and what sets you apart?
What does the market want? What does the market need? What has garnered you a positive response?

Part, but not whole, of this discussion is having an appropriate name and a logo. Think about Nike and how it stands for something, is recognizable and people think of it when they say ‘just do it.’ The rule of thumb is to be related, but not too obvious. Copyrighting the same is typically done at the local level, but could be escalated with legal assistance to a country or continent.
The most important aspect of branding though is the content. Your results, products, customer approach and support become your brand.

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