Matt on Marketing

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.

Are you a sales professional that is trying to reach small businesses? Constantly on-the-go and feeling overwhelmed by all you are balancing?

Here are 12 quick tips from productivity expert, Elizabeth Bowman, President of Innovatively Organized based in Seattle, WA, where she shares ways to be efficient while staying on top of marketing ideas effectively.

1. Schedule buffer time to manage your email inbox efficiently so it doesn’t get overwhelming.
2. Pick a single task management app that will work for you.
3. Start your day by spending 15 minutes planning your to-do list.
4. Track the numbers. Pay attention to reports on a regular schedule such as daily reports, weekly reports, and monthly reports. Invest a little time upfront to set up the reports you are bound to need regularly so they are easy to find and have the needed information when you are ready for it.
5. Spend less time scheduling meetings with online appointment scheduling solutions like TimeTrade that automatically syncs with your calendar.
6. Stay on top of social media. Use apps like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to see an easy dashboard-like view of your social media conversations throughout the day. Tools like these will enable you to manage all of your social media accounts from a single source. You’ll be amazed by how much time you save now that you won’t have to log into 6 different sites each day to see who has messaged you.
7. Turn off notification emails from social media sites. Instead of adding more clutter to your inbox, set a time each day that you will review your social media marketing tools and take back control.
8. Schedule blocks of time to return phone calls, read email, and be interrupted by co-workers. If you pre-plan for these activities, you will be less likely to be annoyed by them sneaking up on you.
9. Organize your desk so that everything you need is within easy reach. This will cut down on all the time you may be spending walking back and forth or in circles trying to find things in your office.
10. Eliminate excuses of running late by making sure you are scheduling travel time onto your calendar. When you are a sales professional that is constantly on-the-go, you need to make sure you plan for the unexpected traffic or congestion on the roads or in the airports.
11. Be consistent in how you track your marketing efforts through standard naming conventions and defined process flows to ensure efforts are easily trained and repeatable.
12. Schedule your marketing meetings for 45 minutes instead of the traditional one-hour. The 15-minute difference will force you to stay on task during the meeting and provide you with a buffer going into your next meeting.

To read more email and productivity tips from productivity expert, Elizabeth Bowman, check out her blog where new tips and tricks are posted often.

You can also attend one of her upcoming webinars on topics such as Email Management 201: Manage Your Email so It Doesn’t Manage You on Thursday, January 26, 2012. Click here to register.

Many businesses, startups, entrepreneurs and even VCs & board members assume their idea, product or service is so compelling that they simply need to build it and the throngs will arrive. They assume that a great product doesn’t need marketing.

I would agree that the best marketing possible is a great product, but there are several problems with the “build it and they will come” approach. A tree falling in the forest, without anybody around, doesn’t make the news. And if you’re on the cutting edge of technology or innovation, it’s highly likely your customers – even your early adopters – won’t immediately recognize the value you can provide.

They might need time. Or education. Or repetition before it sinks in.

Your product solves a problem, but it inherently is a solution. If your customers can’t recognize the connection between your solution and their problem, then you also have a problem.

That problem may be temporary. The more you educate, the more you drive awareness of the problem and the fact that there are now in fact solutions for it, the more you do the value translation for your prospects to raise inherent urgency to solve the problem, the better you are and the faster you can sell.

Of course, that’s not product. That’s marketing.

Great products are, themselves, the best marketing you can have. But sometimes those products, as well as the outcomes they represent, need a little push.

We have more than 50 free sales and marketing resources available both on our Web site as well as via our SlideShare page. It’s a mix of presentations, templates, best practice guides and much more. Some sales, some marketing, some both.

Below are the top ten most-requested downloads, each linked to their respective download pages on SlideShare. Embedded versions are included below the top-ten list.  Enjoy!

Social media content editorial calendar template
Social media daily punch list sample
Lead disposition process sample
Inside sales compensation & incentives best practices presentation
Secrets to successful social selling guide
Webinar execution process sample
Audience needs to messaging matrix sample
10 B2B metrics worth your commitment presentation
Lead and opportunity stages, definitions and next steps sample
Sales appointment setter – sample model

Guest post by Dan McDade, president of PointClear

“Plus ca change, plus c’est la même”

Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (1908 – 1990) is credited with saying these words, though Bernard Shaw, Winston Churchill and several song-writers including Jon Bon Jovi have picked up variations of the theme over the years.

The French phrase, translated into English is, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Sales lead management is a basic business process that is broken in most companies today.

Given the technology available today—CRM, marketing automation, BI tools, LinkedIn, and Twitter—we can zip an ever-increasing number of poorly qualified leads to sales, more quickly and at a lower apparent cost, then ever before.

Incredibly, rather than fixing this problem, senior managers are hoping that marketing and sales teams will somehow fix it themselves—despite the fact that the problem has been around since there were such things as marketing and sales.

There is a myth that Ostriches bury their heads in the sand. This likely dates back to early AD when Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79) wrote, “Ostriches imagine when they have thrust their head and neck into a bush that the whole body is concealed.”

I ask you to take a good look at what is going on in your organization and evaluate whether or not your head is in the game or in the bush.

It doesn’t really matter exactly what percentage of leads end up wasted. Suffice it to say that it ranges from 80% to 94% consistently in most companies. SiriusDecisions estimates that average companies are leaving 80% of potential business on the table for more agile companies to win. How your company compares against average and best-in-class companies is interesting, but not the critical starting point for improvement. There is so much improvement possible—VERY LOW-HANGING FRUIT—that starting with the following three critical improvements will substantially improve results:

1. I hate to say it, because I know you have heard it before, but having marketing and sales agree on a common definition of a lead is the first, most critical step to improving results. I am consulting with a company right now that typifies the situation in most companies. Marketing is compensated on the basis of the quantity of leads. Sales, obviously, is compensated on revenue. The result is that an avalanche of leads is poured into SFDC with very, very few of those leads ever receiving sales attention. The problem is that leads are passed to sales when they are raw, too early and without valid interest. In Bridge Group research during 2011, just 7% of field sales reps surveyed considered 75% or more of the leads they received as fully qualified.
2. The second most critical step is to have sales accept AND then qualify leads. Acceptance should be on the basis of the lead meeting the agreed upon lead definition. Here is why this is important and why it is not done today: Sales reps at average companies only qualify about 30% of the lead flow they receive. Just over 20% of those leads close. When the average sales rep receives a lead they have a choice. Either they officially qualify the 30%, making them accountable for losing four out of five times. Or, they provide as little visibility as possible until they are absolutely certain they are going to win the business. Everything else (the four out of five) will probably end up as “no decision” or simply appear stalled in the sales force automation system. Changing this involves two things. Measurement of sales accepted leads and an acknowledgement that closing some percent of qualified leads is acceptable. Without these changes, the finger pointing will continue, and results will be comparatively poor.
3. The third most critical step is the establishment of a lead qualification and nurturing function that “pre-certifies” leads prior to their going to sales AND allows for the flow of leads that are not accepted or qualified back into this group for reheating and/or nurturing. Neither marketing nor sales can own this function. It is a hybrid function—let’s say equivalent to the Supreme Court—which is held accountable for effectively “certifying” and nurturing leads until they are sales ready. It is funded by marketing investment savings and the need for fewer sales people because you focus the top 80% of your sale team on fully qualified opportunities rather than low-level, unfiltered, low-quality leads. The article, Why Your Sales Force Needs Fewer Leads, provides a roadmap for success.

An old friend of mine has a great expression: “Even the man lost in the woods knows where he wants to go.” If there is an executive in your company that has their head in a bush, it is time to help them out of the woods.

We had a great turnout for our “How to Manage & Improve Your 2012 Marketing Plan” webinar yesterday morning. The deck from the event is available below, as are several past blog posts that go deeper on the tips, tricks and best practices we covered.

Four steps to a better marketing plan

How to write a marketing plan in five questions

The three things you must know before any marketing campaign

Why sales should review and approve your marketing plan

How to put your marketing plan (and budget) on a diet