Matt on Marketing

Technology, in many cases, makes us lazy. It can automate previously manual, repetitive or time-consuming processes that certainly make our lives and jobs easier. But it can also let us slip into lazy practices that compromise the integrity and quality of our work.

So let’s talk about networking. Building a quality professional network is still really hard work. It takes significant investment and time. The work required to initiate, develop and foster an active, quality network is completely different and separate from the tools & processes we now have at our disposal to manage that network.

These are two very different things. A large list of connections on LinkedIn is not a network. A huge list of Outlook Contacts is not a network, any more than the phone book is your network. A list of contacts means nothing, not matter how neatly they’re organized or how much information you can sort through about them.

A quality network is what’s behind that data and behind that technology. Who do you know, how do you know them, what’s the context and depth and value of the relationship you have. Some relationships will be far deeper than others, granted. But building that depth (no matter how narrow or wide you choose to pursue it) takes a lot of hard work. Every day.

LinkedIn and Outlook and Gist and any number of really fantastic contact management tools make the operations of networking easy. They speed up the organization and management functions. But the networking itself is still hard work. And that’s where your time is still very well spent.

The biggest advertising day of the year is upon us, and few Super Bowl advertisers are waiting until Sunday to launch.  Most have been preparing for months, and many launched their pre-event campaigns days or weeks ago.  But despite the fact that the vast majority of this weekend’s big ad spenders are marketing directly to consumers, there’s a lot B2B marketers can learn from their strategies and tactics.  Here are a few:

Use the whole event (before, during and after)
It’s not just about your 30-second ad or pre-game show sponsorship. The best Super Bowl campaigns use the game as a centering point for a wide variety of related events, campaigns and more for weeks before and after Sunday. This year alone, advertisers such as Honda and Volkswagen have generated tens of millions of impressions (not to mention invaluable PR and social buzz) for their Super Bowl ad teasers. And for many other brands, the Super Bowl is the kick-off of a new, ongoing campaign using the ad’s concept or theme as a starting point. The smartest Super Bowl advertisers have rallied marketing groups in their organization well beyond the advertising unit to take full advantage of the opportunity. This isn’t always easy, but the results are well worth it.

Don’t forget the tease
For many viewers, the ads are as important if not more important than the game itself. The anticipation of who will advertise, what they’ll show, what surprises are in store – all create buzz well before the game. And every year, advertisers get smarter and smarter at building that pre-event anticipation to drive awareness. Ten million people viewing a YouTube-hosted video teaser, a week before the actual game? When these brands do the math on whether the 30-second ad is worth it, you can guarantee they’re counting these out-of-game impressions as well. As you prepare for the big event (your product launch, trade show, whatever), don’t forget to take advantage of the tease.

Speak to the consumer, not just the business
Most Super Bowl ads, of course, are selling products to consumers. But many B2B marketers forget that they’re selling to consumers as well. The company may write the check, but the individual decision-maker signs the contract. Appeal to them directly, specifically, and you may unlock the opportunity to sell to the business. It’s subtle, but important.

Old-school tactics still work
Humor, sex, celebrities. They will always be a part of Super Bowl advertising. I guarantee there will be blog posts and commentaries after the game criticizing Bud Light ads, GoDaddy’s innuendos, and so forth. But they work. Know your brand, and what it can and cannot get away with. But following the time-tested rules can still generate predictable results.

Get your customers directly engaged
User-generated content isn’t just for Doritos ads. Why can’t B2B companies ask their customers, partners, employees and prospects to contribute creative ideas and other content to the cause? Some of the best B2B blogs I read publish a majority of their content from best practices among their customer community. Long gone are the days when marketers did all the marketing. Your entire organization, not to mention your entire user base, is now your marketing organization. Put them to work. They often work cheap!

Use the event, but don’t pay the tax
Of course, your other option is to draft off of the main event, but not pay to be a part of it directly. Plenty of brands this week are leveraging “The Big Game” (they’re not allowed to call it the Super Bowl unless they’re an approved advertiser or partner) to do their own game-day promotions. It’s not exactly the same, and it can sometimes reflect poorly on your brand and/or make you look a little cheap, but it can deliver results at a much lower cost. May B2B companies do this actively and successfully at trade shows, when their competitors have their own big launches, and so forth.

Let me start by saying I have incredible respect for not only countless business professionals with MBA degrees, but also many of the programs themselves. And if I could go back in time, I probably would have been more serious about pursuing an MBA for myself.

That said, I think they’re wildly overrated.

If you want to work for a Top Five consulting firm or immediately make middle six-figures on Wall Street or get hired into the standard career path at Procter & Gamble, then you probably need an MBA.

But if you want to start a business, if you want a long and successful career in sales or marketing, or if you want any of the majority of business opportunities for yourself in your early or late-stage career – save your time and money.

Twenty years ago, an MBA was the gateway. It was your ticket. It was table stakes to a wide variety of jobs, opportunities and career paths.

Not anymore. Lots of things have changed. Hiring managers, venture capitalists and more are looking as much if not more for street smarts than book smarts. They know some of the smartest and most successful business leaders today and over the past 50 years don’t have Ivy League college degrees, let alone elite MBAs under their belt.

This isn’t a ticket to skip your college degree. But it’s a recognition that the pedigree of successful business leaders isn’t defined by that degree.

I wasn’t at Microsoft terribly long. But some of the smartest people I had the opportunity to work with and learn from were Ecology majors from public universities. A current client, a world-renown enterprise CRM expert and founder of several successful businesses, studied pharmacy for her undergrad. She does have a Masters degree – in teaching (reading specifically). She’s now one of the most recognized Oracle experts on the planet.

When the iPhone 2 first came out, and it had those awful antennae problems, Steve Jobs brought his son with him to China for a series of intense meetings to identify the problem and determine the right solution. He told his son at the time that the following 7-10 days would be worth far more than two years in an MBA program.

All that said, no matter what your instincts or natural business and “street” smarts you have, replacing the foundation and discipline of a traditional MBA requires a lot of hard work.

Show me a successful business leader without an MBA, and I’ll show you someone who is a lifelong student, devours reading on a regular basis, peppers others with questions to learn what they already know.

Those who succeed (with or without an MBA) make a daily habit of learning, a regular discipline of testing and validating their ideas. They still read case studies, then they go create them.

Succeeding without an MBA might actually be more work, harder work. But my point is that it’s more than possible.

Many marketers pride themselves with how quickly the move, how chaotic their days are, how many fire drills they tackle in a given workday. Speed, agility, the ability and capacity to move quickly with the market – those are all valued attributes of a successful marketer.

But so is planning. Long-term planning. Knowing today what you should be doing six months from now. Thinking well in advance of a product launch, a seasonal opportunity, a big industry trade show or more. This is also a valued attribute of successful marketers.

Agility, speed of thinking and execution, and long-term thinking aren’t mutually exclusive skills. They don’t conflict. In fact, with the world’s most successful marketers, they work together.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer deftly addressed this in a recent Business Week profile, using an athletic metaphor:

“They talk about fast twitch and slow twitch muscles, and I forget, long-distance runners have one and sprinters have the other. Well, on some senses all product teams kind of need a bit of fast twitch and a bit of slow twitch, because there are bigger innovations the take longer and there are other things that your an do in shorter periods of time.”

In sports, you can be a sprinter or a distance runner. In business, you need to be both.

No matter what your current role or future aspirations, networking is a critical skill and should be a top priority. And as with many things in business, there are no shortcuts. Building a strong, effective network takes daily activities and discipline.

You can make it complicated, follow a longer “daily do” list (not a bad idea), or make it easy on yourself and do just five things every day. I bet you can do them in 15 minutes or less once you make them a priority and get the hang of them.

Just five things, every business day:

Five Thank You’s via email or voicemail
Four Catch Up’s with those you haven’t seen or spoken with in awhile (via email or phone)
Three Recommendations (via email or LinkedIn)
Two Referrals (via email, phone, in person or other appropriate channel)
One Hand-Written Note (a thank you, congrats, etc.)

If this sounds like a lot, do less. Eliminate a step, or cut down on the volume. But these are the foundational, daily activities that – over time – build powerful networks.

I hate to pick on the United States Postal Service, but they made themselves an easy target earlier this week.

In my mailbox was quite possibly the worst direct mail letter I’ve received in a long time. I scanned and posted it here (click on the image to see it in all it’s glory).

I can count at least nine problems:

1. The envelope was plain white, and addressed to “Postal Customer”. No personalization, no stamp, not even a USPS logo in the corner.

2. Even the top of the letter itself was addressed to “POSTAL BUSINESS CUSTOMER”, in all caps no less in an apparent attempt to make me feel even more like an anonymous prospect.

3. Although I like the bulleted list of benefits, the subsequent payoff is ambiguous. Provide POSTAL products and services to my customers? Why is POSTAL in all caps again? And do they want me to sell my customers stamps?

4. The next line tells me they’ll give me signage, counters, equipment and training. They know I’m a marketing agency, right? Or do they assume that every business that gets mail is a retail location?

5. A lot of actual prospects who receive this might be interested in the “keep a percentage of the sales” part, but it’s hidden at the end of the first paragraph. Even if I cared (or were still reading), this benefit gets lost.

6. The first call to action is to attend one of their upcoming seminars. No mention of where, when, link to a calendar of option. Nothing.

7. Oh, wait. I can call the two people listed. No email addresses. No social media options. This doesn’t surprise me, but I’m willing to bet Wendy and Liz have email addresses. Why not list them?

8. The letter ends by hoping I become a POSTAL partner. I’m still not entirely sure what that means. I guess I could attend the seminar, but I have no idea when or where that is. And I don’t have time to call Wendy or Liz.

9. The letter, of course, is signed by SEATTLE DISTRICT RETAIL. Seriously, it couldn’t have at least been Wendy or Liz?

I’m sure I’ve missed other issues, but there’s clearly lessons here for all of us on what NOT to do – in direct mail, email, Web copy and more.

Every sales organization has meetings. But are most of them worth the time? Too many sales meetings happen on a regular rhythm but without a purpose, without an objective, without an explicit need or outcome in mind.

Regular sales meetings are fine, but they should follow a strategy. Here’s a three-meeting rhythm that works for many sales organizations.

Daily huddles
Typically 10 minutes long, 15 at the most. First-thing in the morning so it sets the tone for the day. Everybody stands up. Rapid-fire updates from the previous day – highlights from the floor, quick sales promotion updates, sharing of any industry news or competitive moves. Review your key metrics, the previous day’s performance, month (or quarter) to date, and today’s goal. High energy, in and out.

Bi-weekly trainings
Every other week, take an hour (90 minutes at the most) to train the team. Have a calendar prepared in advance of topics for future meetings, so the team knows what to expect and so that presenters have plenty of time to make the training worth everyone’s while. Training will focus on product updates, competitive reviews, consultative selling best practices, role-playing, the occasional book review, etc.

Monthly huddles
Once a month (towards the beginning of the month), do an hour-long huddle. Detail the month (or quarter) just past – what was good, not good, needs improvement. Celebrate the wins, as a group and individually. Launch the new sales promotion and explain how it’ll work. Get a business update from the CEO.

You can use a sales meeting system like this with two per-requisites.

One, you have an effective, non-email communication tool to disseminate information more regularly without interrupting everyone’s time, at the same time, with meetings. This can mean Yammer, Salesforce.com’s Chatter or similar internal collaboration tools.

Two, if you’re a larger sales team, you need an effective system of front-line sales managers to help distribute information and answer questions on a daily basis.

It’s not for everybody.  For many CEOs and others in leadership or influential positions, getting them to participate (if not lead) via the social Web may be an ongoing, uphill battle.

But I’m talking with more and more CEOs that truly want to give it a go, to engage with their customers and other key constituents more actively via social channels, to accelerate their own thought leadership and personal brands via more frequent writing.

For those CEOs – the ones who should be more active and have a propensity to do it – here are six tips to get them motivated and moving.

1. Make it easy to get started
Break down the start-up process into small, bite-sized steps. Sit down and walk them through the basics if necessary, or point them towards guides that take just a few minutes per step. Then give them a deadline to get it done. Especially if they want to get it done anyway, they might need it made easier plus a little accountability (deadlines) to make it happen.

2. Leverage peer pressure
If the CEO should be more active, it’s likely their leadership team thinks they should be too. Get others to reinforce the value and priority of getting started. Find the other members of the leadership and management team who are already doing it, and showcase some of the results they’ve already achieved for themselves and the business in general.

3. Translate the ROI
Point out the specific business value of being active, not just overall but specifically based on the business priorities the CEO has already focused on this year. Demonstrate clear lines between activity, performance and business results. Show examples of how this has worked for other CEOs and other companies already.

4. Point out their peers
Pick a handful of CEOs in the same industry who are already active on Twitter or regularly blogging. Show the impact it’s having on their brand, their visibility, their perception of leadership. This sometimes is motivation enough.

5. Do a 30-minute idea brainstorm
For blogging specifically, sit the CEO down with a whiteboard and walk her through a brainstorm of possible topics. What does she have to share, unique to her position or perspective? What will customers want to hear from her? I can almost guarantee you’ll fill the whiteboard in less than the allotted time, and having specific topics will make the CEO more motivated to convert ideas into content.

6. Hire a ghost writer
Even if the CEO is a good writer, don’t require her to sit down and draft herself. Hire a ghost writer to listen to the CEO pace in her office and talk, then translate that perspective into a solid first draft. Over time, she may want to do more of her own writing. But to get started, and see the early results, make it easier and faster.

Especially in early-stage businesses, proactive brand management often isn’t a high priority or isn’t strongly/actively managed as it would be with consumer products.  Some of this may come down to the presumed, pragmatic nature of the product, its market and the end customers.  More of it could be the priorities and background of a sales, lead generation and response-driven marketing team and leadership group.

But whether you manage your brand actively or not, brand happens. The market, your customers, your potential investors, your employees – they will develop their own perspective on who you are and what you represent if you don’t lead them in a particular direction.

Consistent brands can accelerate not just awareness and preference, but response and conversion. That’s the lesson for response-driven B2B marketers who forgo brand development in lieu of the next campaign or offer.

If you don’t have dedicated resources to manage your B2B brand, there are still several things you can do to ensure passive, consistent and successful brand development. Here are four steps to get started:

1. Create and publish guidelines
Take the time up front to develop a positioning framework, consistent look and feel requirements, tone attributes and keywords. Be explicit about what’s required and what’s a guideline for execution. Share the framework with the entire organization (not just the marketing team) to ensure everyone has the tools to execute consistently.

2. Secure executive sponsorship
The CEO needs to be behind the brand effort. Even if the organization continues to be response-driven, the CEO and (ideally) entire leadership team needs to buy into why brand is important, and help enforce it across the team.

3. Designate brand advocates
Each functional marketing team (acquisition, retention, etc.) as well as each other customer-facing team (sales, customer service, billing/collections, etc.) should have a designated brand advocate that helps ensure consistency.

4. Balance brand with action and testing
Continue to have a bias for action, test aggressively, and keep your organization focused on metrics, response and sales. But allow the day-to-day decision-making to be balanced by the needs of the brand. It’s not a win or lose game. It should be a balancing act. This may take some practice, but it will accelerate your results in the long run.

It’s not you, it’s me.

The other day I listened to a sales rep’s voicemail with my wife nearby. She heard me cut it off towards the end and asked if I deleted it. When I said that I did and that I wouldn’t be responding, she was aghast.  She thought it was rude.

I felt guilty too.  The poor guy on the other end was just trying to make his number. But if I returned every voicemail I get from vendors who want our money, that’s pretty much all I’d do all day.

It’s not that I don’t have the time. That’s just part of it. It’s the combination of not enough time, and not enough value, to make it worth my while.

There are plenty of sales voicemails I do return, just like there are unsolicited emails I answer and surprise invitations to webinars for which I register. But the difference is value. If you’re going to take a moment of my time, in part because you want more of my time and money in the future, make sure there’s explicitly something in it for me.

A voicemail asking if I want your product doesn’t provide value. A return voicemail asking why I didn’t reply to the first voicemail doesn’t do it either.

Even if you don’t take the time (or have the time) to learn a little about my business before you call, at least assume something about who I am, what we do, or what category we’re in to come up with something, anything, to make a few minutes of my time worthwhile. You’ll have plenty of time to sell me something if you earn my time and trust first.