Leading Results

So while I have lots of ideas of how to help small businesses work more cost effectively with traditional media; referrals, grassroots and guerrilla marketing – new media – blogs; podcasts, youtube; facebook – are all still a learning experience.  One of the best books I have read on the subject is The New Influencers.  Paul Gillin does a great job going over the basics and his web site does a better job of keeping the content current.  Its an easy and effective read.

Heard an interesting exchange today between a sales director and one of their channel partners (dealer).  The dealer said they haven’t had a pipeline this strong in 5 years  (in this “economy”).  When the sales director asked why was business good – why the pipeline was strong – the dealer replied “well, I am only trying to sell to people who want to buy”.

What a concept – selling to people who want to buy… so how is this dealer finding people who want to buy? He’s asking the right questions: 

1) “Are you really serious about making a decision, or are you just looking for information right now?” (if you are just looking for info, I can point you to my web site or send you something to read/lookat)

2) If they are serious.. “what is the time frame and decision process you are going to go through” and “who besides yourself is going to be involved in the process”

3) If they are just looking for information…”Can I add you to my email newsletter list ?  It will give you more information and when you are serious about making a decision,  we can talk in more detail.”

So what has this dealer done - He protected the one asset he can truly control: His time.  If you are selling, it is the only part of the process you can truly control, and by not spending his time with people who are not buying, he gets to spend more time with those that are.  What a great idea!

In my career I have worked with over 500 small businesses in conversations about marketing and lead generation. Sometimes they are high level, basic marketing conversations; sometimes they have been in depth, full bore marketing and business development planning sessions. I think that 90% of small businesses confuse the purpose and expected results of advertising.

By advertising, I mean any paid, mass market medium where your organization has no control over who specifically receives your message. This could be radio, TV, print, outdoor or even web banners (though web banners can be pretty narrowly targeted)

In a business selling to business environment, advertising by itself holds little value unless you are selling a commodity product (like paperclips or toner) to a the mass business market. If you are doing any type of B2B sales, and think advertising is helping you, you are either spending ALOT of money, or you are simply misleading yourself. In the B2B, advertising is for brand building and for promoting specific events, offers or to drive a specific result (eg go to this website for a great promotion).

With a limited budget – if you have to choose between spending on ads or a telemarketer, take the telemarketer – and then make that even more productive by building (NOT buying) the best list you can from your service area. If you disagree, support this position or have a story related, I’d love to hear it.

One of the best articles/posts I have read in a long time on web marketing/sales is the penny gap – written by Josh Kopelman, Managing Director of First Round Capital.  I am an old school marketer relearning my craft in a social media – always on – web world.  In the old days of the 80’s, we learned alot about pricing as part of the marketing mix and especially the concept of price elasticity (volume goes up as price goes down – to a point of diminishing returns).  The web has turned these economics on its head (or at least its side), and Josh does a great job of looking at this from the VC point of view.  Its worth the read…   Think about how this applies to you in a business-to-business marketing world – especially if you market to small businesses

http://redeye.firstround.com/2007/03/the_first_penny.html

Routes to market is always an interesting discussion – should I sell my product direct or should I use a distribution channel/partner(s).  Answer – it depends.  Depends on the cost and commoditization of your offering. Depends on how much configuration or service is needed. Depends on the reach and resources of your company.  There are advantages to both – but one common misperception that I will come back to at a later time is that one is less expensive than the other.  Both have costs – they are just different, and in many cases, equivilent.  Excellent writing on this in Geoffrey Moore’s “Dealing with Darwin”

I work with many small businesses, that sell to small businesses.  60% or better of my customers say they get their best customers by referral – word of mouth… but what do they do to enhance the volume of their referrals?  In the business selling to business world, do you know who your customer’s advisor network is – their CPA, their Lawyer, their investors?  If you have a happy customer, you should know, because your happy customer is the introduction to their business network.  What better way to expand your referral base than to work with your customer’s advisor network to gain introduction to their clients.  It is not just what you know, but who you know, and who they know, that lets you grow your business.

Good customer service is not a difficult concept – set appropriate expectations, and then meet them.  Don’t over promise.  Say sorry when you mess up. Civility is a lost concept with many people and organizations today.  The companies I keep going back to and ones that I recommend to my friends and family are those that are just plain pleasant to work with, and they do what they say they will do.  Think about that the next time you want to get angry with a customer or when you make a promise.