GroupEffects Marketing Blog

Experts Talk About Agile Marketing (2 of 2)

2010-11-01T10:18:52-07:00

This blog has moved. You can now find this blog at http://www.trellisone.com/blog. Please visit and update your subscription.

In my last post, three experts weighed in on the benefits of Agile marketing. Among other things, the experts said:

Mike Volpe, VP of Marketing at HubSpot: “Everyone should use Agile since it helps you accomplish more, have fewer meetings, and get more credit for doing useful projects.”
Gerry Murray, IDC Research Manager: “Benefits to adoption in Agile would be the ability to adapt quickly to unexpected changes, to facilitate collaboration and alignment with development and with sales.”
Marc Strohlein, Chief Agility Officer at Outsell, Inc.: “Agile (results in) happier, more engaged employees.”

If you are intrigued enough to consider adopting Agile marketing, in this second post, the experts talk about how to get going: Please click here to read the rest of this post.

Experts Talk About Agile Marketing (1 of 2)

2010-10-28T09:17:41-07:00

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“Marketing has become like software. You run it, test it, and it either works or it doesn’t.” * As marketing emerges from the black-arts and (with the help of automation and analytics) into the clear light of science, why not extend that transparency into management practices? Three experts discuss adopting Agile methods for marketing. Please click here to read the rest of this post.

Connecting Content to Meaning

2010-10-18T17:19:27-07:00

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Remember the party game that you won by memorizing a platter-full of random items? You scribbled down everything you could recall after the birthday kid’s Mom whisked the items away. Pencil, reading glasses, light bulb, golf ball, and, oh shoot, what else? Games are one thing. What if your customers experience your content as that random? Please click here to read the rest of this post.

IDC Marketing Benchmark: Preparing for 2011

2010-09-27T17:43:03-07:00

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IDC recently previewed the results of its eighth Tech Marketing Benchmark. They've got some specific direction for 2011 success. Rather than try to summarize the study or hit all its main points, I'll concentrate on a few elements I found particularly useful. Please click here to see the rest of this post.

The Right Kind of Social Network for Behavior Change

2010-09-16T14:26:38-07:00

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Viral ad campaigns, such as the Old Spice wildfire, get marketers' attention. We dream of creating runaway popularity. But if our real goal is a product sale - not just attention - then viral-envy may lead us to a faulty social network strategy. The type of social network that changes behavior is different from the kind that spreads information. Please click here to see the rest of this post.

GroupEffects Marketing Blog is Moving

2010-09-06T21:04:57-07:00

GroupEffects Marketing Blog is moving. I’ll be blogging at the website for my marketing consulting practice, TrellisOne Marketing Consulting. Please visit me there. You can now find this blog at http://www.trellisone.com/blog. Please update your subscriptions, come over and comment, and let me know what you think.

Here’s a brief description of Trellis One Marketing Consulting:

TrellisOne is a sales-savvy marketing consultancy transforming marketing practices to increase the selling power of B2B technology firms. Founder and principal consultant, Kathleen Schaub, has more than 25 years experience as a Silicon Valley executive. She combines proven proficiency in new practices, such as marketing operations and social networks, with solid operating expertise. TrellisOne services are delivered through consulting projects or retained strategic advisory services. Services are supported by frameworks, tools, and coaching, field-tested in real-world situations.

Why I Started TrellisOne Marketing Consulting I started TrellisOne to empower marketers for this exciting but challenging new era. Selling and marketing are much harder today. Digital and social media have triggered turbulence in an already complex sales environment. Vendors have lost their knowledge advantage. Buyers engage with sales people later in the cycle. They are intolerant of vendors who do not grasp their urgent problems. From “cold-to-close”, buyers engage with an exploding quantity of influencers.

In the current environment, the B2B sales funnel we’ve grown to know still applies. However, we need to change the way we interact with buyers as they move through it. In this new environment, Marketing’s augmented role includes:

Setting the context for sales success in the early stages of a buyer’s decision-making

Conducting the digital dialog from “cold to close”, advancing buyers from problem awareness to solution adoption

Enabling and orchestrating the inter-personal dialog the company will conduct with both buyers and influencers

About the TrellisOne Name The name TrellisOne is inspired by the role of a vineyard trellis. A trellis is an unsung but vital component of what we ultimately taste in a great bottle of wine. The trellis supports the growing vine, helping it grow taller and achieve maximum sun exposure.

Sunlight infuses the grape with the essential energy needed to produce flowers and fruit. The grape’s ripeness, color, and flavor, are all influenced by sunlight. Grapes in the wild tend to be of poor quality and may not fully ripen. Grapes grown on trellis systems will reach maturity and taste fantastic. Trellis scaffolding also makes harvesting the fruit easier.

Marketing teams can play this same role within their companies. Well-chosen and well-implemented marketing strategies, frameworks, tools, and practices, expose a company to its best growth opportunities and make it easier to reap returns on those opportunities.

I’m very excited about TrellisOne.
I look forward to dialoging with you about marketing and sales enablement trends, tools, and insights in my new home!

Forrester's Santucci: Sales Enablement Defined

2010-08-23T16:27:02-07:00

Forrester recently published a seminal report called Sales Enablement Defined by Scott Santucci. Scott and I have had passionate conversations on this topic over dim sum. But with this report, Scott takes the possibilities of Sales Enablement to another level.

Most people think of Sales Enablement as provisioning and training the quota-carrying folks in field, inside, or channel, sales (in fact, this was my position as I highlighted in a recent post). Scott broadens Sales Enablement beyond the department of people with sales titles.

Here is the Forrester definition of Sales Enablement:

“Sales Enablement is a strategic on-going process that equips all client-facing employees with the ability to consistently and systematically have a valuable conversation with the right set of customer stakeholders at each stage of the customer’s problem-solving life cycle to optimize the return on investment of the selling system.”

The focal-point shift from “sales people” to “client-facing employees” happens naturally if we direct ourselves to truly serve the buyer’s needs. Scott talks about how buyers now want to buy differently. Buyers desire a more relevant, outcome-driven, interaction. Buyers expect quality decision-support at every step.

Digital interactions are extending well into the actual “valuable conversation” selling steps. Complex sales still have lots of touch points, lots of steps. More and more of these touch points are digital. While no one can deny the importance of a professional sales person and interpersonal engagement, digital interactions aren’t just reserved for awareness anymore. Sales people are pushed back further in the sales process. Today’s buyers are well-informed about companies and products long before engaging with a sales person.

Who conducts the increasingly digital part of the conversation as complex selling becomes more like eCommerce? It might not be intuitive to consider these client-facing employees when talking about Sales Enablement, but more and more people touch customers along the demand chain. I would encourage Scott to further extend Sales Enablement constituents to include influencers, as buyers are also extensively socially-engaged.

While Scott doesn’t specifically address the digital aspects of selling, he does a solid, thorough, job of describing the case for why Sales Enablement is needed and important. The tasks of Sales Enablement are also well covered.

Sales Enablement is both being defined and simultaneously ratcheted up to a new level. I’m excited about the work that Forrester is doing in this area and look forward to the dialog.

Scott blogged about his report. I encourage you to read his explanation of his research process, the points he views as most important, as well as how to get the report.

Rethinking the Influence of Peers

2010-08-14T14:59:46-07:00

One of B2B marketing’s accepted truisms has been that our customers trust their peers more than any other source of useful buying advice. But is it time to reexamine this perspective?

Earlier this year, the Edelman Trust Barometer 2010 uncovered an unexpected data point. Peers, as a source of trusted information, lost ground. This category declined from 47% in 2009 to 44% in 2010 – a 6.3% decrease.

At the same time, many other sources of information increased in trustworthiness. Notably, the Analyst/ Experts category remained the most trusted source increasing from 62% in 2009 to 64% in 2010.

Here’s a quote from the report’s executive summary:

“Informed publics value guidance from credentialed experts over ‘a person like me’ which lost ground as a credible voice of information for a company. This desire for substantial information points to why academics and experts, and financial and industry analysts are becoming the most trusted spokespeople for a company.”

(NOTE: the blue bars are 2010 data and the purple 2009)

Interestingly, this data point comes at a time when B2B marketers are scrambling to figure out how to best use social media (effectively a massive peer group) as a source of influence.

There are several factors that can make social media untrustworthy as an advice source. For example, we don’t always know the speaker’s motivation. Also, rather than getting a balanced, rational, debate, we can often get “herding” towards a monolithic, extreme, viewpoint.

Could it be that the rise of social media is souring our appetite for peer advice? Or at least, making us rethink who we should really consider as a “peer”?

Ideas for Winning on the Buyer's Twisted Path

2010-08-11T07:03:56-07:00

Marketing and sales models that assume a logical, linear, path to a closed deal don’t tell the full story. Enterprise buying is convoluted. Digital and social media have further twisted an already complex buying cycle. How can we win given this twisted path? Here are some ideas based on the scenario described in my last post.

2007: A problem has been buzzing like a gnat within Bob the Buyer’s company. Bob doesn’t remember when he first noticed it.

Filter: First, ask yourself the contrarian question, should I care about Bob? The most promising customers have mission-critical problems that your solution can uniquely solve. If Bob’s question is just a gnat, Bob might not be promising.

Create Urgency: But maybe Bob’s problem is truly important and he’s not facing reality. In that case, turn that gnat into a timebomb. Bob will jump if a credible authority tells him an adrenaline-fueled story with a tangible, dramatic, ending. Demonstrate that you “get” Bob’s pain. If you can’t tell this story, go back and re-read about filtering.

2008: For the last two years, Bob has simmered in a lukewarm, on-line, information soup about this gnat-problem. Although he downloads white papers, talks to peers, and cases websites and YouTube videos, Bob doesn’t consider himself “in the market.” He’s just trying to get a feeling for “what’s out there.” Bob gets annoyed when someone considers him a lead. Only his low-level staff members give out their real contact information – and it’s mainly to get their kids a toy.

Be Discoverable: Engagement now starts with people checking each other out on-line. This is how Bob decides whether to spend his valuable time with you. Your website will be the second place he will check. Your email... maybe Bob will open it later, if he likes what he sees on-line. First, Bob must discover you actively adding value to his eco-system of interest. Bob is fickle. You will need a special relationship with his tribe in order to stand out.

If you prove you are the go-to company for his problem, possibly Bob will even contact you!

Serve: In pre-digital days, a sales person would have helped Bob understand what he needed in order to buy. Now, Bob wants to anonymously peruse fascinating, information-packed, and easy-to-digest, content that quickly guides him to his own choice. But if Bob has a question or is confused, he wants a live expert to instantly appear, respond, and, then, get out of the way. Customer service is the new marketing.

Build Trust: Trust is the other critical ingredient that Bob must acquire before he will buy. Trust emerges from your prior interactions. In other words, does Bob feel you “get” him? Have you helped him? Trust also comes from what others say about you. Endorsements (votes, scores, testimonials, etc.) are an obvious source. Bob will also pick up on the quality, credibility, and engagement level of your influencer network.

Early 2009: By now, Bob and his IT team think they understand the vendors who could solve their gnat-problem. They have formed opinions. They know which vendors to consider -- IF and when they decide to buy.

Late 2009: Each year at budget time, someone in Bob’s company has proposed solving the gnat- problem, but there were always more critical priorities. Then suddenly in November, the project gets funded! No compelling event causes this change, just fewer strains on the budget. The IT team starts price-shopping, sending Requests for Proposals (RFP) to three solution-vendors.

Sales Enablement: Selling is no longer a discrete function. It has become subsumed in the problem-solving process. Start enablement by arming anyone in your company or network (your sales team, influencers, indirect channel, etc.) that might talk with Bob along the way.

Bob wants the easy questions answered on-line. So, data sheets and corporate presentations are mostly useless sales tools at this point on the path. By the time Bob gets here, only his hard questions remain. The sales team needs blocking and tackling tools for opportunity scoring, adaptive proposal support, executive and technical deal-closing support, competitive strategies, and customer-specific information.

Early 2010: Just as IT has completed the RFP review in March, the project gets delayed. Bob is re-thinking his requirements. The blogs are buzzing about an issue he hadn’t thought about.

Mid- 2010: One of Bob’s company’s existing suppliers acquires a solution-vendor. They bundle the new offering for a sweetheart price. Bob isn’t happy but the CFO overrides him and signs the deal.

Alternative Ending: While the enterprise complexity can always throw you a curve ball, if you were successful with the above strategies, this sad ending never would have happened. Either you wouldn’t have wasted your time because Bob isn’t a promising prospect or the deal would have been transacted ages ago because you lead Bob down a clear path to value. According to Forrester, 65% of executives say they "almost always" or "most of the time" select vendors who can accomplish this result.

The Twisted Path to a Sale

2010-08-04T08:55:38-07:00

Marketing strategies typically depend on buying models that outline a linear, logical, and direct, path to a sale. In these models, buyers establish need, search for solutions, find them, study them, and finally, buy. But the enterprise buyer’s path has always been more twisted than the model appears. And now, digital and social media have warped it even further.

Models are very useful tools. We use several good ones, including the sales funnel and the marketing communications process (awareness, consideration, etc.). Sirius Decisions has standardized a way to assess buyer readiness with their Demand Creation Waterfall. Models are useful symbolic representations of the real world that help us to quickly convey complex realities.

However, we can’t take them literally. The models above assume that a buyer follows a straight path – search, find, study, buy. If models were real, the buying scenario might go something like this:

A compelling event has occurred! Bob the Buyer’s company now urgently needs our help (need is established). Bob looks for solutions (search/awareness). He finds our widget along with those of our competitors (inquiries/consideration). Bob compares our widget to others (leads). Our widget is the best so we become the preferred vendor (study/ preference). We negotiate a good deal and Bob purchases (close).

Models are symbolic. Joseph Campbell, a prominent scholar of the world’s symbols, describes a model’s limitations this way:

“Symbols are only vehicles of communication… No matter how attractive or impressive they may seem, they remain but convenient means, accommodating to the understanding… Mistaking a vehicle for its tenor may lead to the spilling not only of valueless ink, but of valuable blood.”

If we accept a literal interpretation of our marketing models, the valuable blood we risk is authentic relationship equity, as well as the chance to truly progress an opportunity.

Behind the symbol, organizational reality and the buyer’s digital education experience make the buying path more convoluted and shadowy. Here’s one real-life buying experience:

2007: A problem has been buzzing like a gnat within Bob the Buyer’s company. Bob doesn’t remember when he first noticed it. (Need is established, kind of, I guess)

2008: For the last two years, Bob has simmered in a lukewarm, on-line, information soup about this gnat-problem. Although he downloads white papers, talks to peers, and cases websites and YouTube videos, Bob doesn’t consider himself “in the market.” He’s just trying to get a feeling for “what’s out there.” Bob gets annoyed when someone considers him a lead. Only his low-level staff members give out their real contact information – and it’s mainly to get their kids a toy. (Consideration is definitely being built, but not in a direct way)

Early 2009: By now, Bob and his IT team think they understand the vendors who could solve their gnat-problem. They have formed opinions. They know which vendors to consider -- IF and when they decide to buy. (Preference is determined and they’ve never actually talked to any vendor)

Late 2009: Each year at budget time, someone in Bob’s company has proposed solving the gnat- problem, but there were always more critical priorities. Then suddenly in November, the project gets funded! No compelling event causes this change, just fewer strains on the budget. The IT team starts price-shopping, sending Requests for Proposals (RFP) to three solution-vendors. (Did we get lucky?)

Early 2010: Just as IT has completed the RFP review in March, the project gets delayed. Bob is re-thinking his requirements. The blogs are buzzing about an issue he hadn’t thought about. (Oops, go back a couple stages)

Mid- 2010: One of Bob’s company’s existing suppliers acquires a solution-vendor. They bundle the new offering for a sweetheart price. Bob isn’t happy but the CFO overrides him and signs the deal. (No deal).

By recognizing the reality behind the model, we have a better chance of accomplishing our objectives. In my next post, I’ll suggest some ways that marketers can engage prospective buyers in this twisted environment.