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Are You A Pest, Peddler or Demand Creator
For the last 20+ years, I’ve spent my life working with businesses and salespeople. I’ve seen quite a bit change over that time – things that have both encouraged and discouraged me. On the encouraging front, I feel confident that today, the best, most capable and professional salespeople are there. Despite several calls for “The End of the Salesforce,” there are salespeople creating more economic value for both their employers and their buyers than ever before. Today, more than ever, the need for highly trained, capable salespeople is a must-have for businesses.
On the discouraging front, everyday, I see a majority of salespeople failing to create the very economic value that exist to create. While many salespeople have truly become professionals and executives, the overall “center of gravity,” if you will, of the sales profession has not moved markedly. This is damaging for two compelling reasons:
- First, in today’s ultra-competitive marketplace caused by the recent drought, salespeople cannot afford to be anything less than excellent to create economic value for the selling organization, and
- Second, the overall lack of professionalism and value creation on the part of sellers is causing an exponential increase in the number of buyers who actively finding ways to avoid dealing with salespeople altogether. They figure that since so many salespeople are commoditizing themselves, they might as well just treat them that way. This had led to the rapid increases in RFPs and the increase in power of procurement in buying processes.
Part of my company’s underlying mission is to end all of this bad selling and to support the understanding and growth of the strategic importance that sales and salespeople have. So, for the last 15 years, I’ve been keeping copious notes on the difference between bad salespeople, decent ones, good ones, and great ones. This has led to the creation of what I call The 5 Levels of Sales Excellence. Understanding these levels is important to ensuring that your sales efforts create value.
The 5 Levels of Sales Excellence
At the bottom are the pests. These are the salespeople who just go out and bother people. Their disciples of the “sales is purely a numbers game,” and gosh darn it if they don’t go out there pushing numbers. They’re the ones who show up at a networking event and greet all comers with the battle cry, “Nice to meet you, here’s my card.” They’re poor at asking questions, they don’t listen and they extract value from the process. The biggest problem they represent (even if you don’t have pests on your team) is that it is the profile of the pest that first comes to mind, and is most associated, with salespeople. When executives in your buyer’s organization here a salesperson from your company is coming, pest is the picture that comes to mind, even if they know that your salesperson isn’t one. So, you must always manage against this perception.
The peddler is focused on the “stuff they’re selling.” Often times, they’re great conversationalists (in that they can tell some terrific stories and have much charisma), and they play the part of resource, but you know you’re dealing with a peddler because they spend far more time talking than working to understand. Their “solution” is always the right one “if you’d just understand.” Peddlers don’t listen well, when they ask questions they’re not high value questions, and they don’t “go deep”. A peddler focuses on getting to the presentation/proposal/recommendation as quickly as possible and firmly believes that you have to ask someone to say “yes” five times to have a real chance at success. They thrive on objections, as they’re “buying signs.” Peddlers create little or no value in the sales process, and as a result they lengthen sales cycles and increase sales costs.
I used to call the commoditizer a “professional peddler.” The commoditizer is clearly focused on the solution. Typically, they have a significant level of expertise when it comes to the solution, and they believe firmly in it. Commoditizers ask a lot of questions (they’ve learned that’s important in selling), but the questions are very low value questions, and do not provoke and probe deeper issues. The problem the commoditzer has is that they are so clear about the solution that they suffer from the curse of knowledge. This means that to be fully understood and valued, the buyer must fully understand their problem (which they rarely do). Because they are so focused on the solution, buyer’s don’t view them as important until they have already decided that they need what the seller provides. At this point, decision criteria have been established and the buyer is typically in a shop mode, price becomes increasingly important in the selection process and differentiation is difficult (hence why we call this level the commoditizer). At this level, the sales person is doing an awful lot right, but because they are solutions focused they do not create value.
Important Point: This brings me to an important point. If the focus of your go-to-market efforts is on your solution and attempting to “explain why your solution is best” rather than on diagnosing you buyer’s issues, then you are peddling or commoditizing – at best!
The professional is focused on what the buyer needs. It is the professional that begins to earn a “seat at the table” and is viewed as an important player by the buyer. Buyers value professionals because they know that their best interests are being looked after. Professional’s ask high value questions, probe deeply and help to refine the decision criteria. Professionals create value in the sales process. Their primary drawback is that they limit their focus to the direct issues that their solution addresses and they rely heavily on “treating” the buyer’s awareness. While they do diagnose, they are not diagnosticians, so if the buyer is misunderstanding their problem or is merely aware of their symptoms, professionals will struggle in changing the perceived need, hence, they do not create demand.
Which brings me to the fifth, and highest, level of sales excellence: The Demand Creator. Demand Creators are superstars and when you think of them, you rarely think of them as “salespeople.” When Demand Creators sell (and believe me, they’re the most powerful sellers there are), it doesn’t feel like selling. Demand Creators are completely buyer focused, possess a tremendous degree of business acumen, and are viewed as critical resources by their buyers. Demand Creators have mastered results oriented conversations with buying organizations, have the ability to speak to a variety of levels of buyers and create value in everything they do. Demand Creators are tremendous advantages to their selling organizations, the selling organization doesn’t have to worry about “differentiating” because the Demand Creator is different. The Demand Creator is able to take the conversation with a buyer so deep that they eliminate competition. Demand Creators are comfortable that not everyone should buy from them, and that “now” may not be the best time to solve a problem. While Demand Creators work very hard, they make selling look and feel effortless. When you’re working with a Demand Creator, you know it.
So, where are you – and why? What stories can you share about salespeople you’ve encountered at each level?
Overpromise And Deliver
You show me a salesperson that doesn’t overpromise a little and I’ll show you a salesperson that’s not driving economic value for their company.
I hate timidity in the market. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a degree of humility, but timidity gets you nowhere. One of the surest signs of timidity is wrapped up in the statement that salespeople should “under-promise and over-deliver.”
I’ve written before about why the “exceed expectations” theory of customer service is flawed, and about the drought facing all businesses today. There’s an old adage that says, “if you’re not growing, you’re shrinking.” I’ll add, “If you aren’t getting better, you’re getting worse.”
Getting better is a state of mind, it’s a never-ending pursuit. It is easier, faster, and less risky when you are constantly getting a little better every day. Ten moderate improvements are far more effective than one big leap. Too often businesses attempt to get better in a chunky manner, where they make big improvements at various times.
Businesses launch new initiatives, new products, or new innovations. The marketing and sales teams are then directed to take these improvements to the market. Management sits back (a slight exaggeration) confident that more and bigger orders will flow in and margins will expand. Of course, this rarely happens.
When a go-to-market team (anyone involved in driving sales and retaining clients) isn’t constantly pushing the envelope, it becomes very static. It becomes increasingly product and/or solutions focused, and it thrusts itself into the middle of the commoditization trap. Customer and clients get a hardened viewpoint of the selling company, so that when a new, big improvement is introduced, it takes significant time and effort (typically time and effort that is not available) to get buyer and seller in sync. There is also far more risk involved in this approach because the innovation is driven by viewpoint of the selling company, not the demands of the buying company.
While overpromising sounds dangerous, when done properly, it’s not (please note overpromising is not the same thing as promising that you’ll do something that you either won’t do or can’t do – that’s lying). A salesperson overpromises when they identify a new need that they believe can be addressed by the company’s offerings, and they build the selling case on that need, even though it’s not been done before that way.
When a salesperson effectively overpromises, they drive three critical business results:
- They increase the perceived value of the sale (thus shortening the sales cycle time and increasing margins), because the sale is directed at a critical customer need, rather than a solutions-oriented benefit.
- They push their company to get better. They knock down the “that can’t be done” walls before they’re build. They force operations to find ways to get more done.
- Because they’re allowed to overpromise, they go deeper in understanding the customer, and the knowledge they gain from understanding their customer better than they understand themselves (the first, and most important, rule in creating demand) gives the company a significant competitive advantage.
What do you think?
When Is It Time to Sell Your Company
I was speaking with a group of CEOs in Detroit today. The speaker before me had been discussing the typical business cycle: envision – growth – mature – decline – envision – etc. As I was talking about the keys to creating demand, I commented that I don’t believe that the traditional business cycle is a requirement. I believe that it can, in fact, be broken. I shared that my business cycle looked more like this: envision – growth – mature/envision – growth – mature/envision – growth – etc.
I asked the group, “while companies typically wait for decline before they take the envisioning and new growth phases seriously, why couldn’t they envision the next, potentially disruptive, growth cycle while they were in the growth or mature stages of the traditional cycle?” I shared how companies like Intel do exactly this – they strive to make their offerings irrelevant while their current offerings are highly profitable, not afterward.
One CEO challenged me, asking if there doesn’t come a time where a business can’t envision and trigger a new growth cycle before the decline. He asked if there weren’t many cases where a business needs to go through the decline stage and the cutting and retrenchment that goes with it, while it creates new markets and new offerings allowing it to potentially grow again.
I responded that a) growth by no means is a guarantee or an entitlement to business. Certainly times come where the fundamental purpose of a business is no longer relevant and growth fades and disappears – trees don’t grow to the sky and neither do businesses. I added that b) if a business stays maniacally focused on who its customers are and continues to build a deeper and deeper understanding of their customers, they can reinvent themselves before the decline happens.
I believe that this answer is on-target 95% of the time. As I’ve had more time to think about the question, I realize that there is a third part to the answer. If a business is in the growth and early mature phase, and is unable to envision the next growth and maturity phase, then it is time to sell the business.
This is true for two reasons. First, it is at this point that the business is at it’s highest valuation and is the most attractive to buyers. Of course, the buyers are not necessarily wise here, but that’s not the seller’s problem. Second, the seller (or the investors) would be far better off taking money from a sale and reinvesting it in another company or set of offerings that are in the envision or growth stages.
There are only three reasons that a business doesn’t follow this advice:
- Hubris
- Ignorance
- The misguided belief that a business can create the next growth business while “milking” the decline cycle.
The reason you can’t do both is because the declining business eats your resources when the new growth business most needs it, and the declining business diverts attention and focus when the new business most needs your attention.
Even though the declining business is declining, it will still represent more revenue – and even profits – than the growing business. This makes it the master. So while you’re balancing the needs of the declining business with the needs of the new business – two types of competitors take you out. The upstart, who has no declining business to worry about; or your other established competitors (or worse yet the one who is consolidating the industry) who’s dedicated to the cash cow. Just take a look at Merrill Lynch (before being bought by Bank of America), Time Warner, or Dell to see how this game plays out.
The time to focus on the “next big thing” is while you are experiencing success, not when you are struggling. Please don’t misunderstand this point. If the next big thing is not directly aimed at your current core market, then it’s a distraction and you should follow the third part of my answer – sell. If you master the first unbreakable rule for creating demand, which requires a maniacal focus on knowing and understanding your core market better than your core market understands itself, you can initiate new growth cycles while you’re in the current one.
The Drought
On our recent webinar Making It Rain Even In A Drought, I focused on some of the key actions companies need to take to grow in any market conditions – even down markets. It’s a process we call The Raindance. The first is to understand the market conditions you are in. The are three underlying conditions (a Perfect Storm if you will) that are creating the margin and growth pressures businesses are now facing – I call this The Drought. I thought I’d share an excerpt of the program with you.
By the way, we do still have spots available for September’s 2 Making It Rain webinars. Click here for details.
A Terrific Example of Story
At the great (GREAT) risk of offending at least half of the people (or more) that read this blog, I came across this terrific example of how to take a complicated, convoluted issue and turn it into an entertaining and influencing story. The video below is about healthcare/insurance reform.
Please do not get lost in the politics of the video. The point here is not whether you agree disagree with the issue. The point is the producer of this video turned his viewpoint into a great story. My bet is that this little, inexpensive story will have greater actual influence than all the town halls combined. UPDATE: I’ve received some feedback and want to point out again that whether you agree with the producer’s viewpoint or disagree – it’s a terrific job of weaving a very complicated, nuanced idea into a simple, compelling story.
Now, take a moment and think about your business. How can you turn your viewpoint into a story like this?
Making It Rain Even In A Drought
UPDATE: in less than 24 hours we’ve “sold out” the Making It Rain Even In A Drought webinar. Because of how much it has resonated, we are adding more dates – see below for details.
The last three weeks have brought a tide change in the economic outlook. CEOs are looking at growth initiatives more than they have in two years. Despite the increase in optimism, there are still several challenges your selling team faces:
- Discretionary budgets remain virtually non-existent at most companies.
- Record layoffs have fundamentally changed the playing field at your buyer’s organizations.
- The purchasing function has seized more control than ever in buying organizations – leading to even more acute commoditization.
So, the question you must be able to answer is:
How are we going to make it rain – regardless of the weather?
On August 27, 2009 I will be hosting a special webinar to answer this very question. As a reader of this blog, I invite you and your guest to attend this webinar free of charge. Here are the details:
When: Thursday, August 27, 2009-SOLD OUT Tuesday, September 15, 2009 & Tuesday, September 29,2009, 2PM (EDT)
Where: Anywhere you have an Internet connection
How Long: 55 minutes
Registration Information: Click Here for September 15, 2009 or Click Here for September 29,2009
I am going to be keeping the number of participants on this call to less than 25 to ensure that it is interactive – allowing you to ask questions and maximize the application of the ideas I am going to discuss – rather than making it the typical “talking head” presentation. While your questions will clearly impact what is covered on this call, I can promise we will address the issues:
- The 3 Critical Actions You Must Take to Drive Growth In High-Margin Areas
- How to create your own “Business Oasis”
- How to shorten the sales cycle – in any industry
- Monetizing the sales process by creating Cash Flow Farms
- The single most important focus to ensure you business thrives in any market condition
Why I am doing this for free, you may be asking? Is this just a sales pitch in disguise? The reason:
With increased talk and focus on the possibility of recovery, we realized that many businesses are positioning themselves to make the very same mistakes they made that got them into this mess. We want to start a new conversation and provide small and mid-sized businesses a newer, clearer direction that leads to more profitable business growth.
With only 25 slots available make sure you register now! Click here for September 15, 2009 or click here for September 29,2009 to ensure you’re Making It Rain – no matter what.
Selling Is Not War
I admit it. I’ve used military analogies from time to time to explain both strategies and tactics. War analogies are easy to use, easy to understand - and easy to misapply. For years, I’ve written about the various myths of selling, but the one that just gets my goat is this one – Selling Is War.
Recently I came across a sales oriented blog that finished their message on selling strategies with this paragraph:
If you are in sales, you are perpetually in a state of war. All salespeople are warriors who must fight the relentless march of time and enemies who are trying to defeat them daily. Sales is an intense hand-to-hand battle fought between two people or two groups of people who are each trying to win over the customer. The victor outsmarts, outmaneuvers, and overwhelms his enemies. In sales, just as in war, there can be only one winner, and today’s conqueror can quickly become tomorrow’s vanquished. The deciding difference is strategy.
If I searched the world for one paragraph that was at the focal point of what is wrong with selling, I could not find one better than this. What scares me about this, and why I’m pointing it out in this post, is that I think a lot of executives and salespeople believe this philosophy.
After reading the paragraph a couple of times, I admit that I’m not sure whether the author is saying that the customer is the enemy, the competitor is the enemy or both. What I do know, is that author is clearly communicating that sales – at it’s core – is a win/lose proposition. And this belief is at the core of why businesses are being so relentlessly commoditized.
Let’s be clear – SELLING IS NOT WAR; and any allusions to selling as war make your job as a fast growth executive or salesperson more difficult. Is it any wonder that top performers and brilliant salespeople bristle at the idea of “selling.”
The reality is, selling done right, is
• A win/win proposition
• Collaborative
• Creative
• Value Creative
• Fun
War is rarely, if ever, any of these (and the war referred to above is clearly none of these). So, let’s drop the silly war analogies, and get back to creating value for our prospects, customer and clients. When you do that, your competition (the enemy) becomes irrelevant.
Amazon + Zappos = Not So Sure
On the surface it sounds nice. Combining Zappos.com with Amazon sure sounds like a powerful combination. Both companies care about their customers obsessively. Both are innovative. And Amazon has sure built an amazing distribution system.
But, I’m not sure. While I don’t follow Zappos.com or Amazon closely, I wonder if the sum is less than to total of the parts. While it certainly hasn’t been a wise idea to bet against either of these companies, I wonder if this won’t be looked at more as a distraction than an accelerator.
The purchase of Zappos.com accentuates the fogginess to the question: What is Amazon? The purchase by Amazon opens up the question as to whether the internal cultures of these companies will actually mesh. Will all of the things that made Zappos so special transfer after the purchase in the long-term?
It seems to me that Amazon is following the path of Ebay, who built a tremendous business by disrupting the auction and classified advertising businesses. Ebay was a world-beater and could do no wrong. Then, in the name of synergy, Ebay went on a buying spree. The result has been a company that has gone nowhere.
Apple, on the other hand, has followed the path of going deeper and deeper to delight its core customers and to allow new customers to find the core. As the graph below highlights, Ebay was a far better performer than Apple from 2001-2005 (disclaimer: I am by no means saying that stock performance is the key factor in judging success, I’m merely using this to highlight a point). As Ebay spread itself thinner, Apple became a far better performer and has outperformed Ebay by a factor of 8!
My recipe for success is that results equals focus times velocity. I wonder if both companies wouldn’t be better off in the long-term if they had pursued their own paths and increased their focus. We’ll never know. But in this time of celebrating the marriage of two wonderful companies, it’s a question worth asking. What do you think?
UPDATE: Just read a take on the merger from Seth Godin. While he doesn’t clearly express his opinion about the merger, his observations echo my thoughts. When you look at the list of “what Amazon is buying,” it doesn’t contain anything that Amazon hasn’t already built – thus making the rationale less than clear.
Carpe Opportunitas
Seize The Advantage! I’m seeing it. Businesses and consumers are beginning to lift their heads out of the sand. They’re hoping – they’re waiting. What are they waiting for? For someone to step up and really make their lives better – and I mean really.
What does that mean? It means that those companies that step up and create and deliver on a resonating promise will see profitable growth – and loyalty – beyond their wildest imagination. Companies that stop making buyers sacrifice will become the sellers of choice. They’ll gain such an advantage that it will be a generation before their competition will be able to narrow the gap. Don’t believe me – check out this study from The Kaufman Foundation. I love the tile, by the way: The Economic Future Just Happened.
Think about what that title means. If you haven’t radically changed your approach to the market, you’re now behind. So, ask yourself – and start answering:
- What would you have to do to deliver a selling proposition that was so resonating your desired buyer wouldn’t consider going anywhere else?
- How can you make money doing it?
Less Is More – Can Newsweek Do It?
I’m fascinated by what is taking place at Newsweek. Newsweek, whose circulation once stood at 3.1 million, is looking to decrease – that’s right DECREASE – it to 1.5 million. They’re raising their prices, completely redesigning (or should I say completely redesigned) the magazine and the website. Gone will be the superfluous restatements of information that is available everywhere and instead they will focus on “in-depth reporting and argument.” They explain their new website this way:
Can they do it? Will it work?
My opinion is that if they can do it (which is a big if) – it will work. In an era where more and more people are throwing more and more crap out there, people are looking for a semblance of order. I applaud Jon Meacham (the editor) for moving in this direction, and I hope he will be able to stick with it. I’m sure they’re going to make some mistakes and it my hope that his board will allow him the time to find the right pace. Here are some points Meacham (and every body else) should pay attention to:
- Be really, really clear on who your audience is. This strategy can only work with a maniacal focus on who your customer is – and who it isn’t. I call this the first rule for creating demand: Know and understand your customers better than they know and understand themselves.
- Respect the audience. Make sure that the advertising you present to them is every bit as worthy of my attention as the journalism you are promising. Remember that your customer is your reader – not your advertiser. Too many media companies say this very thing, but then act in a completely different fashion. Don’t bombard me with data that doesn’t mean anything to me – if you do, I’ll stop paying attention and you’ll lose the very asset you are looking to monetize.
- Don’t take shortcuts (this is a subset of point 2). Allow the time it takes to create a new relationship with your readers – both old and new.
- Content is king. You are making a big promise – now keep it. Give me great journalism – and be a maniacal filter for me. Do those two things, and you will become must read.
I applaud Newsweek’s decision to focus on its core and to be great. I’m even thinking about getting a subscription.
What do you think? How can you apply Newsweek’s strategy to your business?
Driving Sales With Content
When I talk about Creating Demand or Conquering Growth Barriers, one of the ‘ah-ha’ and entertaining moments comes when I advise businesses to make their offerings a “prescription drug.” Long-time followers of mine have heard me talk and write about this concept several times.
For those not familiar, answer this questions – what is the obvious difference between a prescription drug and an over the counter drug? One needs to be authorized by a qualified professional while the other does not. The reason that some drugs need to be authorized is because of potentially harmful side effects that occur if the drug is not properly used.
You make your offering a “prescription drug” when answer the question, “what would go wrong, or what would fail to go right, if someone does not buy from you?” Then you focus your message and your approach on teaching your market about these consequences.
Today I was in Vancouver, speaking to a TEC Canada group of CEOs. As I was discussing the concept Making Your Offering a Prescription Drug™, one of the attendees asked a question that I think many people ponder (even if they don’t have to words to think about it consciously). He asked:
How do you teach potential buyers about the consequences without being overly negative or becoming a fear monger?
The answer is as simple as it is difficult to master – with a content development strategy. (If you’re interested in mastering content as a marketing driver check our Joe Pulizzi’s Junta 42 blog or read his book Get Content Get Customers.)
The reason that blogs, articles, white papers, seminars, and webinars (to name a few) are so powerful is because they allow sellers to demonstrate their expertise in a manner that creates value and educates at the same time. Committing to a content development strategy is challenging for four reasons:
- It’s time consuming – someone has to conceive, create, and package the content.
- It’s not a short-term strategy. Content increases in value as you create more content. That means that, typically, the least valuable content you create is the first piece. Early on the content does not drive meaningful results – but you can’t quit, you must stick with it.
- It’s hard to stay focused and not to stray. A solid content management strategy is like an effective political campaign – you must stay on message. And the reality is that it’s hard to stay on message.
- Creating content is almost never “urgent.” No one will notice, per se, if you don’t keep to a schedule. No one will notice the article you never wrote. The phone will ring; your employees and customers will interrupt you. You’ll have days where you just not motivated to create. But, you must do it anyway.
Despite this difficulty if you want your business to be anything other than a commodity selling organization – you must (I repeat MUST) implement a content strategy to support your business development efforts.
FINAL NOTE: Before you say it (or think it): when I say every business I mean every business. If you’re finding yourself thinking (to the effect), “well our business is different,” or “our buyers don’t read;” stop and reread the previous paragraph.
Value Adding Your Way to Oblivion
The fundamental purpose of marketing is to differentiate. As I shared my post Monday – the problem with differentiation is that when everyone is trying to do it, it becomes meaningless noise and customer ignore it.
In today’s excerpt from my speech at EO’s Nerve Conference from last week, I share this insight – what I call The Value Add Trap. Think about the last time a salesperson said to you, “this is our value add.” What was your visceral response? The problem with traditional, offering-centric approaches to marketing is that all they end up doing is adding to the complexity. In today’s over-complicated world, buyers just shut you out.
Instead of taking a company centric viewpoint, start looking at everything from the persepctive of your customer. The simpler you can make their life – the more powerful your value proposition will be.
Commoditization & Noise
Last week, I spoke at an EO conference. EO is a great organization of leading entrepreneurs and the theme of the conference – Nerve – was to seize today’s circumstances and turn them to their advantage. I spoke about my favorite topic – Creating Demand.
Over the course of the next few weeks, I’m going to share some of the insights I made (and have been making) about creating demand. Today, I highlight the underlying cause that is making business tougher, and why traditional marketing approaches just make things worse.
The “noise” that is created by traditional marketing methods makes connecting with customers and prospect almost impossible. Overcoming the noise barrier with more noise, more “we do’s” won’t work.
What can you do instead? Stop forcing your customers to understand you, and instead make them feel understood.
Make Your Offer Clear
Today, I got an email from a company offering to lower my TCO. Yeah, I didn’t know what that meant either. After considering it, I think it means total cost of ownership. I have no idea who this company is or how good they are, and my intention is certainly not to embarrass them. The only reason I noticed the email is because it completely nailed the problem that small and mid-sized businesses (SMEs) are having in the market today.
The vast majority of companies across the board are complaining about three things:
- How difficult the market is.
- How unwilling customers are to properly value offerings – thus putting tremendous pressure on margins.
- How difficulty it is to get a prospective client to talk to a seller.
While I will certainly admit that competition today is fierce, and breaking the buyer code is tougher; the bulk of the problem is being caused by the inept way businesses are going to market. I was talking with a client of mine recently about the challenges he was having with a new salesperson; and I commented that the root of the problem was that long before the rep had an opportunity to say anything the rep’s actions and approach were commoditizing the company. So, no matter how well the rep “talked” they were going to be defined by their price.
Here’s a highlight of the solicitation email (again, I am showing this not to embarrass the company but to (hopefully) enlighten readers):
There are four fundamental mistakes the seller made here:
- I did not ask for this email.
- It created no value. (Points 1 & 2 make it SPAM).
- It pretends to make a promise; but because the promise isn’t clearly defined AND it speaks their language instead of mine – it means NOTHING. (BTW, the promise would mean nothing for either of those reasons, the fact that both occur just amplifies the problem.)
- Their slogan “change for the better” means absolutely nothing – does their competition stand for “change for the worse.”
Without meaning to, this company has clearly communicated that they mean nothing; that there is no compelling reason I should break from my current thought patterns and allow them into my world. As a result, the solicitation creates a result that is worse than having done nothing. If I wasn’t looking for this type of service, the solicitation does nothing to create demand, and if I were looking for this type of service, the message commoditizes the company and I’m going to burrow right to price. I’ll take up their sales time (increasing their sales costs) and decrease their margins at best or completely waste those resources at worst.
It’s unfortunate, because this company is so close to having a positive impact. The email looked good, and the intent of their message is good. I could (emphasis on could) love the focus on total cost of ownership. The reason I don’t (yet) love it is because: a) they talk about lowering my TCO and I have no idea what that means, and b) even if they did mention total cost of ownership – I don’t know what my current cost of ownership is, so I have no way of understanding the value of the offer.
If instead of trying to convert me to a buyer, they had taken to opportunity to begin a conversation, they would have been on to something. Every SME I know is looking for creative ways to reduce costs while improving their capabilities – THEY JUST DON’T KNOW HOW. And, until I know how to do that I am incapable of understanding them. With their current offer, even if I were curious how to lower by costs, I would be afraid to call them because they’ve positioned themselves (unintentionally) as a peddler rather than a trusted, subject matter expert.
This solicitation makes the single biggest and most frequent mistake of marketers – it’s asking me to think like the seller. Your job, as a growth executive, marketer or sales exec is to think like your customers. Stop making your customers think like you.
This is what the content revolution is all about – creating thought leadership; and allowing that leadership to lead the sales efforts. Sure, it’s harder than peddling your wares, but it’s got three key benefits:
- It provides bigger margins.
- It actually shortens the sales cycle.
- It makes you competitor proof.
So here’s what I’d recommend:
- Drop the slogan – it adds nothing and isn’t necessary. Speak to me like a person.
- Create a campaign that creates value for key buyers. To do that, the seller must first go through a painstaking process of understanding who their customer really is (which I can tell from this solicitation they have not done).
- Create content that supports their value proposition – and teaches me (the potential buyer) how to understand their value proposition in a way that creates value for me, the buyer, even if I don’t buy from them.
- Make a clear promise – one that is easily understood and valued.
Increasing Confidence
Kelly Spors, the Wall Street Journal Small Biz columnist, is leading a panel A Small Business Survival Guide to the New Economy. She sent out via twitter a request for good questions to lead the panel off with. I recommended, “What can a small business owner do to create confidence for themselves and their employees when soooo much is uncertain?” Kelly liked the question and turned it on me. Given that twitter only allows 140 characters in response, I thought I’d reply via this blog.
Here goes:
- Remember that life has always been uncertain and that today we have only increased our awareness of uncertainty.
- Keep your focus on the future – not on the past. When I was a financial advisor, I used to say that every day you make a buy/sell decision. It doesn’t matter where your stock was, it matters where it is. The key is to focus on the actions that give you the best possible chance for better results in the future.
- This leads me to my third, and by far, my most important, point. When times are difficult, focus is the key to success. Narrow your focus and expand your yield. Prioritize – don’t work on more than five things; and have one area clearly delineated as the most important. Keep a warboard in front of your entire company. Focus on doing something important every day, even if it means you take less action.
- Finally, report the news to your people. Small business owners (and even larger business executives) mistakenly believe that hiding bad news from employees keeps confidence up. Trust me, if you leave your people to assume reality; their assumptions will be far worse than reality. When everyone know what is going on, they can work well together.
What would you do?
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Resources
Doug's Washington Business Journal Columns- Intelligent Growth Articles
Third Wave Selling Blog
Products to Grow
