Simplenomics

Word of Mouth Webinar by Zuberance

Mike Sigers — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:32:05 +0000

Zuberance is a “Word of Mouth” marketing company that provides an on-demand platform that enables B2B and B2C marketers to identify and mobilize their Advocates, generating leads and sales.

They’re putting on a webinar @ 11 AM PST on June 24 on how B2B companies can harness the power of WOM.

Here’s a link to the webinar registration: www.zuberance.com/webinar

Numerous studies have found Word of Mouth to be the number one influencer of business buyers’ purchasing decisions.

Word of Mouth easily has twice the influence, probably more, of advertising, press coverage, and direct mail and email, according to a recent study of B2B Word of Mouth by Keller Fay, a leading Word of Mouth research firm.

However, many business marketers are not yet harnessing the power of Word of Mouth to drive sales.

The Zuberance webinar will feature real-world case studies of how B2B companies are harnessing Word of Mouth to:

Increase sales in a down economy
Generate thousands of leads
Combat negative word of mouth

All attendees will receive a free white paper entitled, “Turning Word of Mouth into Sales Now for B2B Companies.”

Hyatt Decides To Do Business Like The Rest Of Us…Finally

Mike Sigers — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:54:59 +0000

I’m reading a NYTimes article that’s letting me know that, since times are bad, Hyatt has decided to finally value their customers and do business like the rest of us have been doing it for several decades.

I’m not that impressed, especially since it took a downturn in the economy to force them to use this strategy.

“In the days ahead, managers and employees of the Hyatt hotel chain will be doing favors for some of their customers. Maybe they always did them, but these favors will be different: they will be what Hyatt Hotels’ C.E.O., Mark Hoplamazian, has called “random acts of generosity,” like unexpectedly picking up the tab for your hotel-bar drinks or hotel-spa massage.”

I just stayed at The Renaissance in Tampa, while on business. They already knew how to do favors for their customers, like grab an Escalade and run a couple of guests across the road to a restaurant and then come and get them. Like room service that tastes great and is reasonable, even inexpensive. Like bottled water that’s actually in a bottle, is cold and is free. Like cold water with sliced oranges in it in the massive, exquisite foyer. Like employee’s who are personable, friendly, knowledgeable and professional.

“A coming paper in the Journal of Marketing addresses that very subject. Building on past research on the role of gratitude in human relationships, it argues that a customer who is made to feel grateful most likely becomes enduringly loyal as a result. Gratitude, as the paper bluntly puts it, can “increase purchase intentions, sales growth and share of wallet.”

Are they serious? Did it take you til 2009 to figure out that to get, you have to give.

How long has the rest of the world know about this? Ummm, since about the time that humans were created.

Wait, it gets even better. They have an educrat on board with this drivel:

“Robert Palmatier, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Washington and an author of the paper, says that making a customer feel truly grateful toward a business is harder than it might sound. And the hard-wired feelings of reciprocity that can trigger gratitude can just as easily trigger the sense that you’re being treated unfairly.”

What he’s saying here is he’s never done anything, marketing, customer service or sales-wise, outside of a classroom and he thinks being nice to people might backfire.

The chances of that are around 10,000,000:1 … I’m willing to take that chance.

Outside of my snarky comments, the article really is worth a read.

Reciprocity is real. Humans do respond to it and it shouldn’t have taken you or Hyatt this long to catch on.

By the way, I’m a Hilton family of hotels customer when it’s on my dollar and they’ve been doing nice things for me for years. It didn’t take a downturn for them to give in to this eons-old style of doing business.

Kroger Doesn’t Care About You Or Your Time

Mike Sigers — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:35:19 +0000

It’s 10:00 PM on a Saturday night. My wife needs some yogurt to go with some blackberries and strawberries she bought.

I head down the road, into town, towards my local Kroger. It’s a 60 second drive.

I walk straight to the dairy section, grab some organic vanilla yogurt and head staright for the Express Lane…except, it’s not open.

What The Hell Are They Thinking?

There are 3 “regular” check-out lanes open. They have an average of 6 people in line. Some have an entire shopping cart full of groceries, some have 1 or 2 items.

The people with 1 or 2 items are all glancing around think this same thing, “What the hell is wrong with these people? Are they this freakin’ stupid?”

Well, let me answer that for you.

Yes, they’re that freakin’ stupid.

And to make matters worse, it’s because they don’t care about your time or their profits.

Here’s How To Make More Money In Less Time

1 – Keep a Express Lane open at all times. Every minute the store is open.

2 – Tell everybody about it.

3 – Enjoy the fact that everybody who values their time will appreciate the fact that you do the same.

4 – You’ll process more transactions per minute than you do in a regular lane.

5 – People will make more trips, more often BECAUSE they know they’ll be able to get in, get their yogurt and get out.

6 – We’ll brag about it to our friends, who’ll start shopping there BECAUSE they value their time.

7 – You’ll have more customers and can stop wasting time advertising to untargeted, uninterested people.

8 – You now have more money to pay to your employee’s, who’ll be happier and do a better job.

9 – Shopping around happy employee’s will make the experience more fun.

10 – We’ll tell more friends and you’ll have more customers.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Simple, isn’t it?

Give Sales Presentations Like A Trial Lawyer

Mike Sigers — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:26:05 +0000

The basis of this post, the backbone, as it were, is a simply tremendous post, written by Brian Clark, of Copyblogger.com fame.

The minute I read his post, I saw another post inside of it, a sales-related post, screaming at me to set it free.

Not that there was anything that his post was lacking, we just happen to be in different niches, blogwise…and brainwise. His is bigger and size matters

I asked to use it, he okayed it and it’s now set free.

Just in case you don’t understand, I’m going to copy a MAJOR portion of his content and adapt it to the sales and sales presentation arena.

His content, creatively adapted, majorly copied, starts now:

This Is How You Present Your Sales Case To A Prospect

When I was in sales school, one of my mentors—a no-nonsense Kentuckian with a Western Kentucky University pedigree—liked to say that those of us who actually became professional B2B salespeople would need to learn how to effectively communicate with “dumbasses and dimwits.”

That’s how he referred to purchasing agents.

Pretty brutal, I know. But his point was that despite all the high-level sales training being jammed into our heads, we’d still have to learn to translate complex features and benefits into a simple language that everyone could understand.

As I entered the world of B2B sales after I flunked out of sales school, I saw this first hand. The actual customer issues, sales theories, and sales territories involved were so ridiculously complex that we mainly tried to make our sales manager and our clients like us more than our coworkers and competition, in that order.

And you don’t win prospects to your side by talking over their heads or about things they don’t care about. You’ve likely seen this in action yourself.

How was it that Johnnie Cochran overcame an avalanche of evidence that suggested O.J. Simpson was guilty of murder? After goading the prosecution into the biggest of many mistakes (letting Simpson try on the shrunken bloody glove), Cochran gave the jury an easy-to-understand opportunity to let Simpson off:

“If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”

Now, the salesman’s duty to provide the best possible representation for his employer is one big reason why I don’t sell used cars. And maybe the benefits of your product or service are not as difficult to communicate as some nebulous CARFAX report.

But in an attention-starved world where everyone is constantly bombarded with competing information, your message must be designed to slip into the mind of your prospect as effortlessly as possible. In that regard, you might want to think like a trial attorney when “making your case” with your sales presentation.

Here are five ways that smart B2B salespeople are like smart trial lawyers:

1. Spot the Issues

The first year of law school is designed to change the way you think. It’s an exercise in training the mind to be able to spot the legal issues in any given fact pattern. B2B salespeople must do the same, but it’s called identifying compelling benefits and likely objections. The biggest way to fail with your sales presentations is to fail to understand the issues that matter to the prospective buyer, so start spotting the issues first, just like an attorney approaches a new case.

2. Use Short Words

A smart trial attorney knows that a short word is always better than a longer word with the same meaning, and smart B2B salespeople know the same. Short words are not only easy to understand, they also effortlessly pack more emotional power without giving the appearance that you’re “trying too hard” to persuade. Again, think Johnnie Cochran and Don King rolled into one human being…eeeewwww!

3. Use Common Expressions

Both attorneys and B2B salespeople must understand who they’re speaking to, and a big part of that understanding involves knowing and using the language the audience uses. Most people won’t be impressed with your unique vocabulary. They’ll be much more impressed that you’re “one of them.” Use the expressions, colloquialisms, and even slang that the people you’re trying to persuade use, and you’ll communicate more effectively.

4. Use Lyrical Language

You don’t have to resort to ridiculous rhymes like Johnnie Cochran, but language with rhythm and flow is pleasing and easy for the brain to digest. When choosing your words, be sensitive to opportunities for alliteration, repetition, and even subtle rhyming.

5. Paint the Right Picture

Great trial attorneys and B2B salespeople understand that words are simply symbols that trigger mental imagery, and that’s why the right words make all the difference. Make sure you’re not inadvertently painting a negative picture in the prospect’s mind with your metaphors and word choice, or you’ll see your argument fall apart fast.

Drag Out Your Inner Attorney

So that’s a crash course in how thinking like a trial attorney can help you become a force to be reckoned with in your industry. And you didn’t even have to suffer through law school or lawyer jokes to do it.

Again, MAJOR thanks to copyblogger for allowing us to adapt his work for our use.

Leave me a comment and then click thru to enjoy the original post…which happens to be even better than this clone.

Who Knew Fazoli’s Knew Marketing?

Mike Sigers — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:08:11 +0000

I hadn’t been in a Fazoli’s in a long time, but I’m gonna go back real soon for more marketing lessons.

Who knew Fazoli’s was a marketing hotbed?

The beautiful and brainy part of my life and I stopped in a Fazoli’s at the end of the weekend and the young marketer behind the counter actually upsold me. Me, the sales, marketing and advertising genius, or Guru Mike, as they tend to call me

She Who Must Be Obeyed ordered some kind of spaghetti combo with a salad and a drink. I went for the jugular and ordered Penne Rosa with Savory Chicken, which was durn good by the way.

I was about to order a drink, when the young marketing whiz hit me hard with this line:

“Every large drink is a winner.”

Huh? Was about all I could get out before he further enlightened me.

“Every large drink comes with a peel-off label. You’ll win a dinner or something worth a lot more than the drink.”

Sign me up, dude!

And with that we end today’s marketing lesson from Fazoli’s.

Unless, of course, you want to recap all the things they did right?

Okay, here goes:

If you want me to buy a large drink, give me a reason why
If you want me to come back again and again, give me a reason why
If you want a happy, satisfied customer, give me more than I deserve
If you want positive word of mouth advertising for zero cost, do what Fazoli’s did…and then do it again and again and again.

By the way, She Who Blogs A Lot took the peel-off label and the free spaghetti dinner that was on it.

That’s no way to treat a guru.