Marketing Vs. Sales

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Aug 122011
 

Most people have a feel for the difference between sales and marketing and the demarcation points, but defining them has proven more difficult.

Here are the definitions of marketing according to the Oxford English Dictionary:

Marketing: The action of buying or selling, esp. in a market; an instance of this.
Selling: To give up or hand over (something) to another person for money (or something that is reckoned as money).

Marketing is the set of activities that turns a goods or service from an abstract concept into something desirable for the user. Marketing folk are trained to make a connection between goods or service to consumption factors a.k.a promotion.

Marketing is the support and engine for sales. All advertising, collateral, promotions or programs are aimed at creating the awareness, information and encouragements that a customer needs to make a sale happen. This tool arms the sales team to make the correct impression and create alignment between the buyer and the seller.

Marketing needs to ascertain what the company is producing is what is needed and the correct information is available to support the sale. The sales group must leverage that to influence the customer to make a favourable decision and exchange the company’s expertise into money.

Both groups, which are simply different points on the same spectrum, are tasked with explaining to the customer why the exchange of goods or services between the provider and buyer is beneficial to the latter. It is marketing’s job to correctly supply the arsenal of the sales team and provide support, while the sales group is tasked with taking correct advantage and applying and leveraging the marketing program to the fullest. It is critical that the teams support one another and provided two-way feedback.

Is it “all in the pitch”?

 Articles, Marketing, Prospecting, Selling  1 Comment »
Aug 112011
 

Now I do not condone using sex as a sales technique, but a new CBC report on Toronto panhandlers is a good reminder of how important it is to cut through the jammed clutter of modern life to get the message through.
At least two enterprising Toronto-based panhandlers are using key words like ‘sex’ to grab the attention of passers-by to solicit money. Judging by the reported results it is working. They are holding up signs, which are, er, an upgrade over the standard ‘hungry, please help’ verbiage usually used!

As the article points out, while having meat on the bone i.e. a good product or service is key, grabbing the attention of prospects requires something that stands out from the masses (competitors) and a dose of humour or flash does not hurt.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/07/25/panhandlers-pitches.html

Do you have the required flash and pizzazz and do you stand out?

Do Not Forget The Emotion

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Aug 032011
 

I don’t mean to understate the value of facts, data or rationality, but when selling never forget the power of emotions.
As much as we like to think we make good choices based on regimented and thought-out reasons, emotions are a big factor in our buying decisions and often a bigger criterion than most of recognize or understand.

Think about it. We all make decisions based on how we feel about something. After all, if emotions were not a major buying factor wouldn’t everyone buy the same car with the highest price-to-feature rating based on the class of vehicle one required? Of course, we consider a car’s features, horse power and fuel efficiency, but when all is said and done, we must like the look and image of the car. Wouldn’t the market for CD cover designs diminish rapidly? After all, we would be buying the disc based on its content and its style. Many managers know, but may not openly admit, that they hired a candidate based on a ‘gut feeling.’ There are numerous examples.

What this means is we need to understand the power of emotions when selling. It follows that we need to consider the customer’s feelings. The buyer must be comfortable. They must trust. They must have that ‘gut feeling.’ This is why advanced selling is often called ‘relationship-based selling.’ This is why they say ‘you have to sell yourself.’ Give people a reason to buy from you. Give yourself some emotional appeal. Make yourself part of a story… at least until human beings evolve to more rational beings!
This is not to suggest creating and demonstrating value is meaningless. It is meant to address the need for a balanced (using that word in this context seems odd to me) approach.

Your manager or company will ultimately not care if you made the sale because the prospect felt sorry for you, laughed at your joke or counted the most number of benefits in your service versus something else.

Why Is Customer Service So Bad?

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Jun 102011
 

A new Consumer Reports investigation reveals companies know something we don’t: bad customer service pays (apparently).
Which one of us has not had a bad experience at the hands of a company’s customer service representative or department? How many of us have decided against a purchase because of this? The catch is that the lack of service often comes after purchase.
The Consumer Reports article points out that the “Better Business Bureau logged 1.1 million complaints against North American businesses last year.” The worst of the worst in a study of eight industries? None other than Walmart and Sam’s Club. As I said, these companies know something we do not. They are not only the worst of the worst, but also the biggest of the biggest.

Things That Need To Go Away:
-Someone returning a Bible is told books are not returnable.
-Dell replaces computers with refurbished units should the computer be more than 90 days old. The replacement took a month to arrive and was a different model.
-An American trying to disconnect his AT&T home telephone spent 6 hours on the phone to India and the United States, with the added bonus of being disconnected several times.

Consumer Reports July 2011 Customer Service Deteriorating

Discounting – Do Not Do It

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Jun 032011
 

One of the worst behaviours in the realm of sales and sales management is discounting. The corporate euphemism is usually something along the lines of ‘providing the customer an incentive to buy.’
Hold on a second! Why does a customer need another incentive to buy if the product has benefits and offers superior advantages over the competition?
Discounting – or positively responding to such requests from potential customers – is self-defeating and bad practice. It is a negative not just for the seller either. It is also a negative for the buyer. How so?
First, giving away margin and price points upfront is rarely, if ever, a temporary situation. The new lower price is now the permanent price. A customer that has successfully obtained a lower price will demand the same going forward. Not only are customers prone to protecting their gains, but also the discounted price is perceived as the fair value price for the product or service. Any salesperson that agrees to a lower price should not be under any illusion that the loss will be made up later. There is no such thing as an introductory price anymore.
Moreover, prices are set according to costs, business plans and market conditions. Losing the required profit margin might imply incurring a loss and jeopardizing the seller’s longevity or security. Buying a customer’s business is the wrong notion.

Why is the lower price ultimately bad for the customer? It does several things. A buyer and a seller should maintain a mutually beneficial synergistic relationship. When one is threatened, the other should be concerned. The seller needs to provide after-sales support and, in most cases, enhancements, maintenance and upgrades. Furthermore, discounting tells the buyer that the initial price was dishonest and false. Not a good start to a relationship. Pricing integrity takes honesty and courage in the short-term, but is a good idea for the long-term.

    1. Maintain a healthy pipeline
    2. Allow your fair pricing policy to become your reputation
    3. Sell according to identified benefits and Return On Investment and
    4. Remember that a customer should not be a loss leader.

      Microsoft ISV Summit

       Articles, Marketing, Uncategorized  1 Comment »
      Jun 012011
       

      I attended the Microsoft Canada ISV Summit yesterday. It took place at Microsoft Canada’s office near Toronto. One of the speakers was marketing thinker and writer Mitch Joel.

      He promised to be provocative and he was. He was unbridled and extremist in his support of the web, digital and social media. I didn’t discern much, or any, limit in these regards with him. Fortunately, for I and those like me who despise the style (or lack thereof), he was not a ‘ra-ra’ style speaker and kept his delivery intelligible.

      He spoke about the humanization of technology: real interactions with real human beings as his subject.
      He talked about a huge shift: to be present when and where potential buyers/interested/consumers are. He made a case for making it simple for people to buy from you (that should be marketing 101). He implored the audience to be active in their worlds and not wait for customers to come to them.

      Joel spoke of his 6 points (pixels) of separation:

      1- Accept it
      2- But don’t stop everything else you are doing
      3- Don’t write cheques that Social Media cant cash: improve your digital marketing value (websites, mobile, etc.)
      4- Be open (social media should be shareable and findable)
      5- Think like a publisher (it is content after all) and a marketer: have valuable content
      6- Don’t ask what you are doing, ask why… focus on strategy and build value for your brand

      Key Provocations:

      • This is the first time in history that marketers are behind consumers. Utilize and rejoice the disintermediation with your potential customers and users.
      • Remove yourself from traditional value systems, don’t be stuck in the old ways.
      • Keyboards are like rotary phones.
      • Get online, be interactive, open up to technology and its semantics.
      • It is not just for teens. Youtube and Facebook are dominated by middle-age or older demographics.

       

      Other speakers talked about the company’s cloud focus. However, one senior Microsoft manager was bold enough to announce the end of the Cloud era. Calling the proverbial Cloud the past, he told the (likely surprised) audience that 2011 is the beginning of the end of the Cloud era. 2011 and on belongs to NUI (the heir to the throne of GUI, namely Natural User Interface) comprised of human interactions like voice, touch, gestures and thought. The fastest selling consumer good, the Microsoft XBox Kinect is an actual example of what the speaker had in mind.

      Other speakers were quick to emphasize the company’s Cloud (SAAS, PAAS and IAAS) capabilities and exhort the ISV partner community to jump aboard the Microsoft Azure ship.

       

       

      Kinect

      *I do work on behalf of Microsoft

      The $0.99 Pricing Plague

       Articles, Marketing  1 Comment »
      May 152011
       

      In Canada, and much of the Western world, most pricing is set in the $0.99 format.
      This annoying policy of the business is misleading to the consumer, wasteful, propagates nearly useless loose change (1 cent coin or the penny) and perpetuates the antipathy most people feel towards business.

      Businesses mislead customers by pricing their goods with a 99¢ ending. This allows them to set a price at $19.99, for example, and advertise it as “less than $20” or “under $20″ when the price, a penny notwithstanding” is $20 and not $19, $14 or $1.
      Wal-Mart has taken this type of pricing to the extreme with $18.97 and $7.48 type pricing stickers. So for the meaningless savings of 3¢ or 2¢ respectively the average person is stimulated to travel further, spend more time, burn more gas and pollute and possibly hoard goods that potentially go bad in the fridge or pantry. Ironically, when advertising ‘buy 2’ or ‘buy 3’ pricing Wal-mart reverts back to even pricing, as in ‘buy 3 for $5.’

      Consumers need to understand and react negatively to this type of marketing, or in this case trickery.
      Governments need to step in and free the populace from misleading so-called savings that cost us more than they save us. Essentially, as it often does, legislation would be freeing business from itself and people from themselves in the same way as traffic lights mitigate and hinder people to everyone’s advantage.

      In the meantime, I will cross the street for the same good if it is priced and tagged honestly i.e. evenly there.

      Cold Calling Or Cold Mailing

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      Apr 032011
       

      The rule of thumb in recent years for the success rate of cold calling prospects or following up on mailers by telephone has been a five percent achievement. In other words, typically in these situations, 5% of prospects allow the seller to advance further in the sales process.

      That ratio is now likely obsolete and too high. Nowadays, there is a whole cottage industry of experts and methodologies on how to prospect, or not to, but the fact remains that responses are less and less likely. It could be that the positive responses are at 0.5%. In other words, for every 100 prospects that receive an unsolicited call or brochure less than 1 moves forward and shows interest.

      Why? What can a marketer do?

      Knowledge is power. Prospectors need relevant information with which to target their customers. That means, one must call into a company in possession of much more information than before. One cannot cold call prospects without having up-to-date information. In fact, that would not even be cold calling.

      The ‘need to know’ goes beyond having a name and having perused a website nowadays. Know the name, the history, the events, the news and the website’s information. Have you studied the prospects’ social media profile? Have they tweeted something? Is your pitch aligned with their needs and is it targeted and customized?
      No more mass mailers. The mailing list requires customization and personalization for each an every prospect.
      Every potential client is unique and the marketer needs to incorporate that in the approach or risk failure.

      Read this again: http://www.alighaemi.com/wp/?p=508

      Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

       Articles, Marketing  Add Comments »
      Mar 292011
       

      I attended the launch of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011* earlier today.

      Dynamics CRM 2011 is really version 5.0 (should you forget how there was not a version 2.0), but Microsoft has synchronized its products’ releases nomenclature. The usual feature advances were touted. Among these were Connectivity, Familiarity and Intelligence. However, the emphasis was the ‘Social’ aspect of the release. The phrase ‘Social CRM’ was uttered more than once, as was the connectivity to the likes of LinkedIn and Twitter.

      Case in point: aside from Microsoft Canada President Eric Gales, presenters and panellists were Jordan Banks, Managing Director, Facebook Canada, Jonathan Lister, Managing Director, LinkedIn Canada & Latin America, Brian Solis, author of Engage! and Paul Greenberg, author of CRM At The Speed Of Light.

      The ‘Social Media’ aspect and emphasis of the new release is evident. How many companies are actually paying heed? Is there a need out there? Could it be a case of ‘build it and they will come?’ Where does the input occur? Is it hype to differentiate product? In reality, time will tell, but how many companies are actually making ‘Social Media’ integration a search criterion is one question. The answer is ‘not many.’

      Earlier this year Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had introduced the product in a Webcast. Clearly, Microsoft is not ignoring this product.

      Microsoft CRM

      *I do work on behalf of Microsoft

      Marketing Techniques

       Articles, Marketing, Selling, Uncategorized  Add Comments »
      Apr 042010
       

      I recently read a story about how when customers were offered several dozen tastes of jam sales decreased compared to when potential buyers were offered a mere four choices. This has been an intuitive finding of many marketing and sales professionals. Put yourself in the shoes of a customer given too many choices. Too many options often lead to paralysis. One goes back to the drawing board. One figures that there is a need for more research. Perhaps more investigation is needed? Should I consult friends? Read up more on the Internet?
      In other words, choice is bad. Capitalism loses. Do not confuse your customers by offering too many choices.

      While I am here, another counter-intuitive nugget is how companies want their salespersons to sell their top-of-the-line and most expensive offering. In that case, that option needs to not be the most expensive option. What? Precisely that. This is a sales technique that Starbucks perfected years ago. When faced with $6, $4 and $2 options most customers opted for the $4 option. Knowing that most customers would shy away from choosing the most expensive option and would also avoid the cheap option, most Starbucks customers picked the quasi-coffee product the company really wanted them to buy in the first: the $4 option. It was just that Starbucks had added a ‘luxury’ $6 alternative of which it didn’t expect to sell too many.
      If your goal is to sell your ‘gold’ or top-of-the-line option then be sure that your offering includes a ‘platinum’ or topper-of-the-line choice for your customers to not choose.

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