Archive for the ‘High Performance Sales Team’ Category
The Art of Persuasion
Communication is a fundamental part of business and personal life. We now have many different ways of communicating from face to face to phones, social media, print media and broadcast media.
With all of these communication channels we are trying to inform, persuade, motivate, coach and manage relationships.
I would like to review a very important element of commuication: the art of persuasion. And I will limit my focus to B2B communication (mainly).
Win:Win Framework
Communication is always within a context or framework which may be implicit or explicit.
For some the word persuasion has ominous undertones and a worry about being manipulated.
I am assuming, in this discussion, that persuasion is used within a framework that assumes a (win: win) or positive outcome for both parties.
I assume that what I am persuading the customer to do will add value to the customer’s business and result in a (win: win) transaction.
Basic Persuasion Model
A basic persuasion model was constructed by Aristotle and consists of three elements:-
- Credibility – relates to the character and reputation of the persuader.
- Emotion or Empathy – the persuader must have the the ability to identify and understand the other person’s feelings, ideas and situation.
- Logic – relates directly to the logic of the argument.
Appealing to Credibility
In appealing to credibility, both the individual and the company he represents must be credible in the eyes of the audience. He must emit true sincerity.
Genuine sincerity means that you actually care about someone’s problems or concerns. It creates a certain amount of trust. And trust is the foundation of relationships.
The company builds its credibility on its successes and on its third party references. (In the B2B mainstream market (Early & Late Majority) positive references are key to credibility.)
The individual builds his individual credibility with integrity, historical success (supported by knowledge), skills and experience (as required by the audience). Initially the company brand will lend credibility to the individual but the individual must build and maintain his own over time.
In launching new products the phrase “Credibility before Visibility” is very apt. A lot of marketing and sales expense may be wasted in persuading the market to buy products that are not yet credible in the eyes of the target audience.
Appealing to Emotion
This using your heart as well as your head. It’s the ability to read emotions in others. It’s being able to experience from another person’s perspective. It is empathy.
It appeals to the emotions, imagination and self interest in the audience. In some cases to feel what the presenter feels.
The message evoking an emotional response may be delivered by words, messages but also by non verbal communication. The words may well be in the form of a story, a vision that transports the audience to understand the presenter’s point of view or to join him in envisioning the a particular part of the world as improved or as a better place. Music, colours, films, graphics etc. may be used to emphasize and communicate the required message.
Non verbal communication can give wither a positive or negative response. Such communication is delivered via facial expression, eye contact, gestures, posture and body orientation, humour, proximity, paralinguistics (tone, pitch, rhythm, timbre, loudness and inflection of voice), dress sense, attitude & confidence.
Emotion also includes building a relationship and a rapport that can reduce barriers to communication and engender trust which is a foundation of all human intercourse.
Appealing to Logic
Persuasion Techniques
Whilst techniques can be used to persuade they are most effective when supported by the persuasion model above. These techniques include structure, body language, speech, maintaining attention and the darker arts of weapons of influence.
Structure
- Introduction – Frame the topic. Prepare audience to be receptive.
- Narrative – a story in a form that is relevant to the audience that tells what you want them to do.
- Argument – proofs and supporting logic.
- Refutation – anticipate objections to the argument.
- Conclusion – appeal to the audience for understanding, its action and its approval.
Body Language
- Facial expressions
- Gestures
- Open or Closed Body Signals
- Spatial relationships – how close we are to our audience.
Speech
- Volume
- Rate of Speaking
- Tone, pitch and inflection.
Maintain Attention
If the audience is not paying attention you are not communicating, there is no communication and no persuasion can occur. Attention is best if it rises over time.
Most people have short attention spans.
Make the message memorable and understood.
- Say what you’re going to say. Say it.Say what you said.
- Keep it short 15 mins is optimal.
- Avoid distractions, interruptions and breaks
- Avoid large disagreements to what you say by ensuring that key members of the audience have been persuaded before the presentation.
Weapons of Influence
We have automatic behavior patterns that we use to simplify the modern world and enable action and void being frozen by too much analysis. These behaviour patterns make us vulnerable to persuasion by those who know how they work. These weapons of persuasion are part of thee dark arts of persuasion in that they do not always result in a win:win situation if used unscrupulously. In B2B selling , professional buying processes are designed to minimize or remove the impact of these weapons but they are used often in B2C selling.
We live in an extraordinarily complex and stimulated environment, easily the most rapidly moving and complex that has ever existed. To deal with it we need shortcuts. We can’t be expected to recognize and analyze all the aspects in each person, event and situation we encounter in even one day. We haven’t the time, energy or capacity for it. Instead, we must often use our stereotypes, our rules of thumb to classify things according to a few key features and then to respond mindlessly when one or another of these trigger features is present. Sometimes the behaviour will not be appropriate for the situation. But we expect the imperfection since the alternative is that we would be left frozen, analyzing and miss the time for action.
According to Alfred North Whitehead “civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them”. These are the key weapons.
- Reciprocity – “One good turn deserves another…”
- People are more likely to give to you if you have already given to them
- Commitment & Consistency – “Stay on course!”
- We have a nearly obsessive desire to be consistent with what we have already done.
- If I can get you to make a commitment (that is to take a stand, go on record), I will have set the stage for your automatic and ill-considered with that commitment. Once a stand is taken, there is a natural tendency to behave in ways that are stubbornly consistent with the stand.
- People are more likely to behave the way you want them to behave if they believe that this behaviour is consistent with an existing commitment
- Social proof – “Monkey see, monkey do”
- People are more likely to follow a particular course of action if they see other people doing the same thing
- Authority –
- People are more willing to follow instructions if the perceive the instructor to have authority or expertise
- Likeability – “Jobs for the boys”
- People give preferential treatment to those that they know and like
- Scarcity
- Rare items and opportunities are much more attractive than commonplace equivalents.
Sales Leadership
What is leadership? What is the purpose and function of the leader? It is to deliver business growth and is achieved by 1-Set Objectives, 2-Engage & 3-Deliver.
Leadership
Leadership
The sales leader purpose is to deliver business growth and leads both direct and virtual teams to achieve this objective. Leadership is therefore key to business growth success.
Aristotle defined leadership as requiring Knowledge, Skills and Practical Wisdom – the ability to see the good and realize it in a specific situation. All three are necessary and mutually supportive.
Montogomery defined leadership succinctly as:
“The capacity and will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence”.
The purpose in an organisation has multiple levels. The company will normally have a vision which states why the company exists and how it will make the world a better place.
The sales team itself has a specific purpose that serves the achievement of this vision and as such will have specific objectives. The sales leader’s overall purpose is to deliver business growth. This is achieved as follows:
- Set achievable but challenging Objectives (or targets) within the context of the vision of the organisation.
- Engage his team to accept these objectives wholeheartedly and in good spirit and then to
- Deliver the performance necessary to achieve these objectives.
Leadership Model
Leadership is not fixed and is dependent on the task at hand. It is also dependent on the type of organisation whether transformational or transactional and on the maturity of the organisation. But I find the following simple model of leadership useful.
A leader requires Knowledge, Skills (&Tools) and Practical Wisdom.
Practical Wisdom
Knowledge may be learned, Skills may be practiced but Practical Wisdom is grown through through experience and reflection. Practical Wisdom is the ability to see the good and realize it in a specific situation. In other words to decide and do what is effective to achieve the required objectives.
This is not a set of universal rules to be learned or a pocket guide to be drawn upon for the correct solution. It is something only achieved through experience and reflection. It is realized through the ability to relate new experiences to previous experiences, in other words to recognize patterns in situations that facilitate understanding and resolution.
Practical wisdom is supported by the qualities of the leader.
The following list is in a generic order of priority. It is derived from the book “ How to Grow Leaders” by John Adair.
- Enthusiasm. A leader must demonstrate unquenchable enthusiasm for the achievement of the agreed goal.
This may be quiet and slow-burning enthusiasm rather than the heat and fireworks of passion, but it is always there. - Integrity. The quality that engenders trust. Trust is the foundation for all human intercourse.
- Demanding – coupled with Fairness. A leader has high standards and will not compromise on them.
But is also consistent, fair and will not ask of others more than he asks from himself. - Humanity. The raw material with which a leader has to deal with is people and must understand them and go with the grain.
- Confidence. No leader can operate without a quiet confidence.
- Humility. The result of having a proper sense of one’s own limitations.
Its hallmarks are a readiness to listen and to be taught, a willingness to admit when one is wrong, and a reverence for others. - Courage. Demonstrated by doing what is right, because the leader believes it to be right and despite criticism.
Knowledge & Skills
The knowledge and skills required may be described as:
- (1) situational skills and knowledge i.e. those relating to the particular situation which in this case is sales
- (2) generic leadership skills.
Situational Knowldege and Skills
Good Sales & Marketing knowledge & skills are the most obvious. General Management knowledge & skills enable better empathy and good communication with senior customer executives.
Project Management knowledge & skills enable better management of internal resources, better bid management and better planning. Technical knowledge & skills enable better understanding of products and how they can best be used to solve customer problems.
Skills will be supported by tools such as the sales model which enables:
- Performance monitoring,
- Performance appraisal,
- Close performance gaps through coaching and training.
Leadership Knowledge and Skills
Leadership knowledge & skills include:
- Defining Goals and Objectives
- Planning
- Communication
- Motivation
- Coaching
- Evaluation
- Execution
Purpose & Function
The Purpose of a sales leader is to deliver business growth. This is achieved as with the following functions:
1 – Set Objectives
A key purpose of a leader is to set objectives that will grow, change and add value to the organisation.
Objectives should not be dictated as they are unlikely to inspire the kind of effort and creativity that produces good results.
Objectives that are negotiated give team members an important sense of goal ownership. And people are naturally more committed to the things they own.
In addition, with this interaction the leader can be sure that the team members have the capacity and the understanding to achieve the objective. Understanding team members will help align objectives and explain them in ways that are motivational.
To set effective objectives a leader must be able to initiate an idea, inform the team and plan to determine if the objectives are feasible.
What are the characteristics of effective objectives? Most experts agree that objectives must be:
- Specific ( Greater as we go down levels. Sales persons objectives are often very specific)
- Clear
- Important (Recognised by team member as important)
- Measurable
- Achievable (But challenging)
- Time-bound (To be achieved in a specific time)
- Aligned (To company Strategy)
- Rewarding (Supported by appropriate awards)
- Ethical
- Resourced
Objectives will be better received by the team if they are perceived to have intrinsic value, to matter,
and to make the world a better place. Ideally the objectives will be aligned to a company vision statement that envisions and communicates a better future.
2 – Engage
The leader may be required to hire the individuals and build the team. The leader is required to develop the individuals such that their performance improves.
Further, a leader must engage with his team and inspire them to want to deliver a great performance and achieve the assigned objectives.
In the best teams the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Good morale, team spirit and mutual confidence between the leader and team members is the extra strength that creates a greater whole and inspires a great performance.
To engage his team effectively a leader must be adept at presenting, informing & supporting.
Engagement begins with participative goal setting ideally within the context of a positive and clear company vision statement. This is maintained through motivation, coaching and success. Success is the greatest single factor of good morale. All successes must be communicated.
Motivation is achieved through the application of rewards both intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic rewards produce more intangible forms of recognition such as personal satisfaction, a sense of accomplishment, personal control over one’s work and feeling that one’s work is appreciated. Extrinsic rewards are external, tangible forms of recognition such as bonuses, pay rises, promotion and sales prizes.
- Extrinsic – Financial Rewards
- Bonuses, Commission & Salary Increase.
- Extrinsic – Prestige Rewards
- Increase stature of employees in eyes of colleagues and others
- Intrinsic – Job Content Rewards
- Autonomy (Goal Setting participation, Increased Responsibility, Opportunities to participate in Decision Making),
- Mastery (Grow Professionally and do interesting and important work, Training, Coaching, New Challenge, Working with talented motivated people,
Recognition), - Purpose (Working in a company with a clear Vision, Making a Difference),
- Valued (Trust, Feedback, Coaching, Working in a positive respectful environment,
Working for a Good Boss)
Coaching is used to improve individual performance and to remove performance gaps. Used positively it can maintain and grow engagement as it facilitates individual personal growth.
Within a sales team focus is normally on extrinsic rewards but intrinsic rewards are very important and enable better performance and creativity.
3 – Deliver
A leader is ultimately judged on what he and his team deliver. How they execute a plan.
To deliver a leader is required to:
- Achieve the task.
- In a sales environment this is normally business growth measured by revenue growth, margin growth, market share growth, customer satisfaction and sales cost.
- Build and develop the team.
- Develop the individual.
The leader uses the sales model to enable him to:
- Monitor performance – Sales process, sales automation and sales management system.
- Appraise performance – Appraisal system.
- Close performance gaps – Coaching and training. Employee development.
- Handle problem employees.
- Remove barriers to performance.
Team members work best when given autonomy to deliver their goals and should know when to ask for help in removing barriers to performance. Identifying barriers to performance may be simple or may involve gathering data and problem analysis before a solution is reached. Barriers to performance often include the requisition of resources from other departments & from higher management to enable progress. They may include the resolution of a resource conflict or an interpersonal conflict.
As stated earlier the sales leader may be required to manage a virtual team in addition to his direct team to create and deliver a proposal to a prospect. Such a project may be complex and project management tools are useful to manage the delivery of a winning proposal on time and to utilise the resources of the company efficiently.
Creating High Performance Sales People
What makes a high performance sales team? What makes a high performance sales person? Can we analyse best practice and use it to improve ordinary sales people? Are relationships important? How important is Value?
To create a high performance sales team it is useful to analyse high performance sales people to understand what makes them successful. Such best practice can then be applied to a scalable sales model that will turn ordinary performers into stars.
Based on research by Sales Performance International and recently Dixon & Adamson in the Harvard Business Review the following was found:
High Performance Salespeople Get the Basics Right
- They work hard & work smart. They put in the hours, prepare well, use tools and training to ensure their efficiency and effectiveness
- They react and solve customer problems . They understand the value of a happy customer as future references and as a source of future business. They have the ability to manage the organisation to deliver the resources to solve the customer problems.
- They build solid relationships. They are honest and deliver on promises and build trust with their customers.
High Performance Salespeople Deliver Value
- Open with Value and Close With Value. Successful salespeople use their deep understanding of their customers’ business to challenge current thinking and to create new solutions to old problems. They have a very clear view of how they can deliver value to the the customer and use this to open and take control of sales conversations. They understand the different concerns of the key players in the buying team. They know that such concerns change throughout the sales cycle and they work had to ensure that such concerns are adequately addressed. Successful salespeople use value as the cornerstone in all phases of the sales cycle and especially during negotiation and close. They understand that it is important to present value in language and models that the customer is comfortable with.
Best Practice Used to Raise Performance of all Salespeople
The most successful high performance sales teams use best practice. They learn from high performing salespeople and use this best practice to create a sales model that is used to turn ordinary sales people into stars.
- Hire Salespeople with High Potential. Sales people with the basics of a good work ethic, good basic relationhip building skills and a desire to win.
- Use Leadership. Building a high performance team in any discipline requires leadership to ensure that the team is focussed and inspired to deliver.
- Use a Scalable Sales Model. This will take all the best practice of the high performance sales people and use it in training and coaching and tools to turn salespeople with high potential into stars. This will include a Sales Process, a Sales Management System, Sales Automation and Marketing Integration. All will combine to improve sales efficiency and effectiveness.
Reward Systems
Three Steps To an Effective Reward System
A Reward System is the most basic communication from Management to its employees and Management need to ensure that what the Reward System is actually saying is what they had wanted to say.
To create an effective reward system it is best to follow three steps:
- Define the required performance
- Convert values, mission statements and strategies into tangible goals
- Convert goals into actions
- Devise comprehensive metrics
- Tracks actions and assessed progress towards goals
- Create financial and nonfinancial reward systems
- Meet employees needs
- Reinforces metrics
- Aligned with company goals
Step 1: Define The Required Performance
One very effective tool to make visions,missions, goals, and priorities actionable is the bull’s-eye exercise, so named because it is depicted as a three-ringed target as shown. In the outer ring go the goals and initiatives you are trying to make actionable eg customer satisfaction. In the inner-most ring goes the output of the exercise–that is, descriptions of specific employee behaviours that are deemed necessary to achieve the desired outcomes.- Testing Employee Buy-In to Top Mission/Vision/Principles and how realistic and real they are.
- Creates More Effective Delegation
- Lays the groundwork for more effective organizational processes
Step 2: Devise Comprehensive Metrics
Do not make major changes to the Reward system without first upgrading the metrics to ensure that performance can be measured. The strength of the reward system depends greatly on the competence of the metrics.
“Management gets what it inspects, not what it expects”
If something isn’t measured, you can’t give people feedback about it and they can’t improve.
In designing a competent measurement system there are major tradeoffs:
- Control vs Development
- Performance data can be used for both control and development but not at the same time.
- Rating vs Ranking
- Rating systems compare people (or organizations) to articulated standards
- Pro: Does not hinder teamwork. Gives a company wide view of performance.
- Con: Can enable shirking of evaluation decisions and over time all personnel can end up as high performers according to the rating system whereas in reality they are not.
- Ranking systems compare people not to expressed standards but to other people.
- Pro: Forces Managers to make tough evaluation decisions
- Con: Penalises managers who have overall better staff than another dept. It can discourage teamwork.
Sales Metrics may well be a mixture of rating and ranking. For instance all sales may be on a rating system but also there is a ranking system which offers a prize for top three sales people at the yearly sales management event.
Step 3: Create Reward Systems That Work
“Rewards are anything that increases the probability of a future response”.
Consider money and feedback. Both are good rewards. Offering money to do something increases the likelihood that it will be done. Feedback enables people to systematically improve their performance. But whilst the high performers get most of the money rewards, the low performers tend to get most of the feedback. The key point is that some of the powerful rewards that can be offered are non financial but are often overlooked or discounted by management.
These are also known as intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Intrinsic rewards produce more intangible forms of recognition such as personal satisfaction, a sense of accomplishment, personal control over one’s work and feeling that one’s work is appreciated. Extrinsic rewards are external, tangible forms of recognition such as bonuses, pay rises, promotion and sales prizes.
A Reward System could and should include Financial (Extrinsic) and Non Financial (Intrinsic) Rewards.
- Extrinsic – Financial Rewards
- Pro: Most people will go to great lengths to get more money
- Con:
- Commodity. Only a limited amount of money to go round. Tricky to administer.
- Does not promote engagement.
- Uncontrollability. Almost all performance measures contain some level of uncontrollability i.e. outside the control of the team member.
- Interdependency. Most outcomes are the result of work by many people. How much was done by the team member.
- May stunt creativity and team work for complex tasks.
- Extrinsic – Prestige Rewards
- Increase stature of employees in eyes of colleagues and others
- Pro: Cost effective. Not a commodity. Can bind employee to company
- Con: May not be valued by all. Scarcity of Rewards.
- Intrinsic – Job Content Rewards
- Include Clear Feedback, Increased Responsibility, New Challenge, Trust, Recognition, Autonomy, Opportunities to participate in Decision Making, Grow Professionally and do interesting and important work, working in a positive respectful environment, working with talented motivated people, working in a company with a clear vision, working for a good boss.
- Pro: Unlimited availability. Engages team.
- Con: Not much. Can sometimes be taken for granted.
A good reward system has key components:
- Availability & Eligibility
- Eligibility is intentional unavailability
- May only be available to certain categories of people. Motivates people to climb the organizational ladder
- Visibility
- Must be visible at a minimum to those who receive rewards
- Contingent on Performance
- Rewards should be based more on performance than on seniority, titles or organizational membership.
- Timeliness
- To be maximally effective, rewards should be received soon after the reward-worthy action has occurred.
- Reversibility
- Ideally should be able to take back a reward you shouldn’t have given
- Or at a minimum the recipient should not get it again
- Dangers of rewards being taken for granted
Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail
Plans - Improve effectiveness and efficiency. Don't waste time.
Plans improve Effectiveness and Efficiency
Effort spent in planning will reap rewards in sales effectiveness and efficiency.
Planning tools include Territory Plans , Account Plans & Opportunity Plans. These plans are most effective if stored on a Sales Automation system to ensure that the information is retained and communicated as required.
Territory Plan
A Territory Plan focuses on the segmentation of accounts and opportunities in a defined territory in order to prioritize which ones in which to invest sales resources. It will normally include:
- Customer Profile and Qualification Criteria
- Market Analysis
- Segment Accounts by Business Potential and Current Business Relationship
- Alpha High Future Business Potential – prioritised by level of current relationship
- Beta – Moderate to Low Business Potential, high level of Current Relationship
- Delta – Little or no near term Business Potential, insufficient data to accurately assess potential, low level of current relationship
- Territory coverage strategy
- Messaging Strategy
- Resources allocated to Alpha, Beta and Delta accounts.
Account Plan
- Account Profile
- Company, Financials, Offerings, Market Analysis, Competition, Exec Biogs, Likely Business Issues, Potential Capabilities Required
- Install Base
- Recurring Revenues
- Customer Satisfaction levels
- Recent Projects
- Key Player List Summary
- Account Team & Coverage Summary
- Current Initiatives/Projects happening inside the Account
- White Space & Share of Wallet analysis
- Current & Future Opportunities
- Total Opportunity Portfolio
- Action Plan
- Resource Plan
Opportunity Plan
Each Opportunity will have its own plan. The size of the plan will be in relation to the size of the opportunity. It will normally include:
- Business Pain/Issue
- Value Proposition
- Customer Rules
- Analysis & Presentation
- Is it compelling?
- Key Player List
- Coverage strategy
- Access to key personnel?
- Qualification Status
- Solution Creation status
- Evaluation Plan /Buying Process
- Competitive Strategy
- Analysis of Strength and Position
- Negotiation & Close Strategy
- Implementation Plan
Using Value to Sell Complex Services
Value must be recognised by the customer - use his rules.
Selling Complex Services
Services are invisible, intangible so how best to sell them?
By describing clearly the value that they can bring to the customer.
This is done by estimating the value to the customer, the investment required and describing how a customer reference has received similar value .
Value Proposition
The delivery vehicle for communicating value is known as a value proposition and can be used for all kinds of sale but is particularly useful for complex services sales.
It is normally used initially in prospecting to get the attention of an executive and to get agreement from him to assign resources to work together on an evaluation plan. This will include the creation of a detailed business plan to ensure that it is the right decision for the company.
Simple Example
A very simple value proposition example using the services offered by O’Brien Business Solutions is shown below.
We believe that Customer A should be able to
- Achieve Business Growth by a minimum of 15% in the next year
Through an ability to:
- Launch New Products and Services
- Create a New High Performance Sales Team
- Win New Breakthrough major Accounts & create positive references
- a Business Solution designed and implemented to deliver delivering Sales and Marketing programmes.
- £YK.
- an 1 year contract and a start within 2 weeks.
- a similar Business Solution to Customer Reference A where a Business Growth of 20% was achieved in the same timeframe.
A more complicated BPO example
We believe that Company A should be able to
- Increase efficiency by 10% resulting in a 5% increase in profits per annum.
- With an upside of
- Improve knowledge sharing, security and workforce effectiveness
Through the ability to
- Design and implement new business processes using the latest technology
As a result of
- Outsourcing specific document intensive processes in HR, Legal & Supply Chain departments
For an investment of
- Set up – £XM set up
- Ongoing – Annual Service charge of £YM
Based on the following Assumptions
- 5 Year contract
- Set up in Yr 1
- Relevant staff transferred according to TUPE.
- Benefits realized in years 2-5.
Best relationships are based on value
Value is referenced throughout the sale. It may well start with a straw-man, built using data from a previously successful customer or reference and extrapolated to address this particular customer. It will be developed as the sale proceeds as more detail on the solution is developed and information on the assumptions is discovered. In some cases, some pilots may need to be implemented to test some key assumptions in the value equation.
The best relationships in business have the delivery of value as their foundation. A sales person that is perceived to consistently deliver value (advice, information, solutions) will be better placed to form better relationships.
Value flows throughout the organisation
For instance the CEO may have an objective of increasing the average revenue per user. This will be come a lead generation objective by the marketing department and an opportunity conversion objective by sales. A Value chain may be created to move from clearly known objectives at the top of the organisation to create new ones lower down the organisation.
Selling Complex Services into the Early Market
Selling into the Early Market is characterised by no or very limited customer references that will underpin the value proposition.
Whilst the Early Market is also characterised by buyers that are more innovative and as such prepared to take a risk, they do need some rationale for taking a decision to proceed.
Services do have more difficulties here than say selling a product like a piece of equipment in that a piece of equipment can be tested by a third party and the benefits verified.
Complex services such as BPO require at least one customer reference before the value proposition mat be truly verified. And as such it underlines how important the customer references are and therefore it is worth the company putting a lot of resources into obtaining the first contract an delivering it. It is worth noting also that it will take time before the benefits can be calculated and therefore will take time before the contract can become a true customer reference.
What can be done in the absence of a customer reference? A number of options can be explored:
- Start with a good relationship and trust as a foundation?
- Can you use process that is being done inside (selling) company’s own organisation?
- Does the new process utilize a core competence of the (selling) company? For instance a new technology that will improve the process. Examine its use in customer processes and obtain results.
- Utilize Market research to verify the value proposition.
There are two methods to achieving the market research:
- Find market research by a respected third party that will verify the claims made in the value proposition.
- If adequate market research is not available then conduct bespoke market research that will verify the claims made in the value proposition.
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 Framework
Web 2.0 is a convergence of social and business practices rather than a technology transition. In fact many of the technologies that make up Web 2.0 were available during the early 90s.
The elements that make up Web 2.0 are as follows:
- User-generated content
- Rich Internet applications (RIA)
- Social Networking
- Cloud Computing
- Web-centric development and architecture models
- Data
- Mashups
- Scale free and long tail
- Mobility
In a little more detail:
- User-generated content: Wikis, Blogs, Communities, Photos eg Flickr, Videos eg YouTube Collaboration and Collaborative Technologies
- Rich Internet Applications: Practices, Technologies and Frameworks.
- Techologies include: HTML, HTTP, CSS, Javascript, AIR, Silverlight, XHTML, Ajax, JSON,
- Frameworks: JQuery, RubyonRails (RoR), Dojo, Yahoo Widgets, Google Gadgets.
- Social Networks: Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, LinkedIn, Friendster, Ning, Jive, Socialtext, Awareness, Google, Microsoft, IBM, Social Networking standards and interfaces.
- Cloud Computing: Compute and storage infrastructures are available to use as utility rather than within one’s own infrastructure. Can include computer hardware, platform service and complete applications (eg Salesforce.com) as an external service.
- Web-centric development and architecture models: |Web 2.0 provides a different way of building applications.. Applications are hosted with a fast feature velocity (ie features added much quicker timeframe – days rather than months), use development methods such as agile and scrum, have massive scalability, use frameworks such as Mapreduce, Hadoop and BigTable and use interfaces such as JSON and REST.
- Data: Content Aggregation, Syndication and Federation via RSS and Atom. Analytics. Trending towards Semantic Web and Web 3.0.
- Mashups:Web apps are increasingly becoming mashups where content is combined, annotated and aggregated from different sources.
- Scale Free and Long Tail: The Applications are scale-free. Websites must cope with peaks in usage and must not crash under the occasional heavy load. The long tail is the concept that. although there are some products (eg new books, music, movies)that are popular and sell a large number of single products, there are also smaller markets that prefer many related products that are rare or less well known.
- Mobility: Mobile phones , Tablets and mobile phone networks have become pervasive and all powerful.
Lead Generation Terminology
Target Market
The Target Market or Target Market segment is a list of companies (B2B) or consumers (B2C) that possess the required buyer profile that make them pre-disposed to buy the product.
Territory
A territory is a part of the target market which has been allocated to a sales person or sales team.
A Lead
A lead is a potential opportunity sometimes known as a prospect – For example, a person met at a conference who expressed interest, or someone who filled out a form on the company website.
Lead Conversion (Or Qualification)
If the lead is qualified and the salesperson and decides to pursue it, the lead is “converted,” and becomes an opportunity. ( Note that the term conversion is used somewhat loosely and in many cases in Digital Marketing does not end up with an opportunity but with a (more qualified) lead that still requires further qualification before it becomes an opportunity.
An Opportunity
Opportunities are the sales and pending deals that are tracked in that Sales Pipeline or Funnel. The pipeline is built by adding more opportunities will contribute to the forecast.
Opportunity Qualification
Opportunity Qualification means that the prospect has provided information and performed certain actions that show that they are at a minimum in the market for the product, have the budget to buy and are willing to do so within a reasonable timeframe.
Qualification is tailored to the specific sales process which is itself aligned to the specific buying process in place.
In a simple B2C eCommerce transaction the qualification is a very simple process.
In B2B solution selling the qualification is a process that may be spread over weeks or months that forms a large part of the sales process due to the relative complexity of the buying process.
For instance in B2B solution selling:
- A Lead may be qualified initially by an internal telemarketing team who may deem it good enough to pass on to the field sales team.
- The Field sales team would initially qualify the company known as a suspect to avoid confusion with the term prospect. At this stage it would enter the funnel as a qualified suspect.
- Further levels of Qualification would then take place with the other members of the buying team such as the Sponsor (Person Driving the Project) and the Power Sponsor (Normally at Executive or C Level).
An Account
An account is the company or consumer that makes the purchase. An account may deal with several opportunities.
Digital Marketing Strategy
Build Foundation for Success
The key to success is to create:
- Clear Value objectives (or Clear Return on Investment objectives or Business Case)
- Clear measurement (“You can’t manage what you don’t measure”)
Value = Total Benefits – Total Investment.
Deliver Value
The Value delivered by a Digital Marketing Strategy is:
- Customer Sales
- Part or all of the sales process depending on sale complexity.
- For Complex B2B Digital Marketing can:
- Create Awareness & Stimulate interest,
- Generate Leads
- Audience Engagement
- Customer/Market Insight
- Is the market aware, Ready to buy? Are my customers satisfied?
- Used for Product Development or to Gauge the Appropriate Sales & Marketing Strategy.
This post will focus only on Customer Sales & Audience Engagement.
Deliver Customer Sales
Digital (Online) Marketing integrated into the Sales Process
Digital Marketing allows niche markets to be targeted at a comparatively reduced cost.
Create Awareness
Use
- Display Advertising
- on websites that are relevant to the product being sold.
- Social Media & Blogs
- to engage with target market, to help educate and to announce new products.
- Email Marketing
- to distribute newsletters, whitepapers to stimulate interest.
- Website
- to educate.
Use in combination with Offline Marketing in the right blend to enhance success.
Generate Leads
Use
- Search (a mixture of organic and paid),
- Display Advertising (on websites that are relevant to the product being sold) &
- Email Marketing.
- Social media (networking and leads from engaged audience)
- Website (Capture inbound inquiries)
Use in combination with Offline Marketing in the right blend to enhance success.
Search has historically been the strongest digital channel for lead generation. It has been found that the yield is improved when combined with other channels such as Display Advertising.
Demonstrate Value using a Marketing Funnel
Use Marketing Funnel Above Sales Funnel to demonstrate Value
Whether you are B 2 B, B 2 C or non profit your marketing activities can be best viewed using the sales funnel.
Marketing at its heart is geared towards lead generation, but can also help in development and closure. The Value of any Marketing Campaign must be measured in the number of leads generated and opportunities created.
A Marketing Funnel may therefore be added above the Sales funnel. The exact breakdown of the Marketing and Sales Funnels will vary depending on the nature of the customer buying process. In general for B2B, the Marketing Funnel moves the target market members to Awareness, To Lead and To Converted Lead which then becomes an Opportunity for development by Sales. In Small Sales Teams, with no specialized Marketing help, this may well be all done by the sales team.
Demonstrate Value using an ROI Model
The actions to create a model are as follows:
- Map out a number of channels whereby a target company engages and becomes a lead, for example:
- Search Engine –>Main Site –>Download Whitepaper –>Registration
- Search Engine –>Blog–>Main Site–>Enquiry Form
- Twitter–>Blog–>Enquiry Form
- Facebook Fan page–>Main Site–>Enquiry Form
- Display Advertising Banner–>Product Microsite–>Main Site –>Enquiry Form
- Create KPIs and predicted relationships between KPIs and Leads generated, for example:
- Main Site Visitors
- Actions Performed (eg Download Whitepapers)
- Facebook Fans
- Twitter Followers
- Create Model
- Predict Customer sales
- Estimate Break down by Lead Generated and Path
- Estimate Costs
- Do Pilot Campaigns
- Compare Different blends and strategies
- Implement most successful on full market.
Initially, Social Media will be all about building awareness but if an engaged audience can be created then inevitably it will generate leads.
Social Media sites like Linked In are used by Sales Teams as part of their networking strategies.
Measurement and evaluation are very important. Every business is different and requires some testing to achieve the optimum blend of digital marketing channels.
Deliver Audience Engagement
The collateral benefit of Digital Marketing strategy is the creation and growth of engaged audiences (customers and prospects). A more engaged audience delivers the following benefits
- More Likely to purchase – A Mature engaged Social Media Audience can be a Lead Generation source.
- Better Retention – more likely to stay
- Brand Advocate leading to referrals and good references
Digital Marketing is Now Mainstream
Value Delivered is Nothing New.
The value delivered by Digital (or Online) Marketing is nothing new. It delivers, or helps to deliver:
- Insight into customer requirements
- Customer Sales
- Customer Service
Digital Marketing uses the internet which has taken market share from Newspapers and other traditional media and provides new ways of gaining customer insight and delivering customer service.
But, Digital Marketing Is Now Mainstream
But, Digital Marketing is now Mainstream and must be a key part of any sales and marketing strategy.
In the US it is a substantial $26Bn business (2010 comScore):-
- 15% year on year growth from 2009 (and 11% growth from 2008 – 2009 declined)
- 16% of the total advertising spend in the USA in 2011 (comScore and IAB/Pwc)
- 25% of predicted total advertising spend by 2015 (IAB/Pwc).
- No.2 in spend to TV. Newspapers number 3.
Globally, it is an estimated $55Bn business (using Google splits of US/International as guide)
The UK it is £4.1 Bn and is about 25% of the total Advertising spend( Enders Analysis).
- 13% year on year growth
- 25% of total advertising spend
Search still dominates . Search is dominated by Google at approx 70% market share with Microsoft Bing at approx 24% (comScore) now that it has done deals with Facebook and Yahoo.
Display has shown good growth, driven by Social Media and led by Facebook. Facebook had approx 40% of all impressions in 2010 and passed the trillion mark with Yahoo next at half that amoun
Driven by the pull of Online Content
The growth in online content is pulling a greater audience online and keeping them there longer:-
- Stores (From Cars to Music)
- Entertainment (YouTube, BBC iPlayer etc)
- News (Mainstream to Blogs, Video to Text)
- Search
- Social Networks
The growth in richness of the online content is enabled by the growth in bandwidth to the home (in UK average is 6Mb and growing )and the penetration of internet globally.
And Online Advertising Cost Effectiveness
And the growth in the sophistication and cost effectiveness of online advertising:-
- Better targeting ( Using profiles on social networks and relevance by search or by product)
- Performance based pricing (Pay on Click through – accounts for 65% of all search advertising)
