Richard Fouts

 At least half the mission statements I see include “We aim to exceed our customers’ expectations.”  This sounds great in theory, but in practice – watch out. Peter Block provided this caution in his book Flawless Consulting years ago, but many marketers may have forgotten his advice.

If you exceed the level of what you committed – you may have just set a standard customers expect. Now you have to exceed even the level you originally exceeded.

Why?  Because customers have short memories.  Our friends in IT services and consulting know this rule all too well because many of them have used a common sales strategy: 

• Get in the door with an deeply-discounted initial engagement. 
• Tell the client it’s a starter price – and if the client is satisfied with this initial gig, prices will return to list price in subsequent engagements.

Ah, the naïve people that still do this. You bid phase two, and bam – you’re suddenly dealing with sticker shock. And when you say, “But that initial phase was discounted,” the short term memory kicks  in, or the client simply doesn’t care.  You sold it once, you can sell it again. 

Now mind you, this is not a 100% rule. This trap usually occurs in repeatable solutions that are like the one cited above. It works better with one time situations. For example, when you have a solid service level that is well documented that you deliver to hundreds of customers, you have a shot at getting points for exceeding expectations.

 But you need to make a big deal of the situation, citing the  many layers of approvals you had to obtain to go above the bar. Even letting the customer know “this is a one-time deal” is a good idea in some cases. 

 It’s those situations where you “just do it” that can get you in trouble. Why?  Because it looks like your normal, stated service level is fictitious.  Or that you’re totally aware that it’s over priced or under scoped. After all, you exceeded it with little fanfare, so it must be a sales or marketing trick.

 I’m not saying you shouldn’t exceed expectations. When done right, exceeding expectations can contribute to loyalty and retention. Just be aware of the limitations and traps of such a practice.

There’s a whole movement around replacing marketing’s 4 P’s with the more modern 4 C’s.  And if you check out Paul Duany’s blog, you’ll get a taste of the conversation and controversy.

 By way of review, Dunay’s 4 C’s of B2B Marketing are:

Content – the creation of a steady stream of engaging content

Connection – connecting with the audience you wish to attract

Communication – communicating with them in an ongoing conversation

Conversion – and then converting them at the illusive moment of need 

In my opinion, the argument for the new model has merit – especially when you realize the 4 P’s were created in a physical world, with limited physical distribution and promotional platforms. Today, these platforms have been completely blown up by digital  networks that relieve these limitations, giving customers new ways to “participate” in the provider’s world,  not just “receive” what provider produces in the ways it wants you to receive them.

But – it’s taking control of the Product P (or at least influencing it) that put marketers at the strategic table in the first place. If marketers aren’t careful, they will migrate to this new model, putting a different type of limitation on it — which uses the model as a zealous promotional vehicle. 

No one wants to go back to the days of promoting whatever engineers throw over the wall.  So my advice to marketers that love this new model: make sure you implement the Connection C the right way:  as a channel that informs your product and service strategy – not just as your promotional mix and lead generation engine.

If you lose the Product P you’ll migrate yourself backwards to being a supercharged marcom manager. If you have any aspirations at all of becoming a CMO or sustaining your role as CMO, you’ll take this advice to heart.

Getting a seat at the table means you have a handle on valid market intelligence that informs you about what customers want. It’s your admission ticket to the strategic talks. 

The whole idea of the 4 P’s was to assure marketing got a seat at the table, largely through the Product P. By listening to the market (yes, we listened to the market even before social media) marketers adopted a “sense and sell” model versus the older factory model, commonly called “build and sell” (hence, the cliché “build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door”).

I still look at marketing plans from senior marketing executives – that are promotional plans, not marketing plans. If you adopt the 4 C’s in your zeal to become communicator of the year, you’ll become communicator the century, but never a strategic marketer. You can prevent this by using the Connection C as your path to the type of customer and market intelligence that gives you credibility to sit at the strategy table.

In a virtual world, the old model indeed needs a facelift, especially since mass market production is evolving to the power of niche markets and micro markets.  For more on this, check out Wired magazine’s cover story, The New Industrial Revolution: the factory, the investors, the workers – obsolete. In an age of DIY manufacturing, all you need is a garage and a great idea.

One of our Account Executives, Amanda Duffy, asked me if SMS was the next voicemail. There’s no question voicemail has declined rapidly in recent years as we’ve shifted our messaging preferences to email, text messaging, and now Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Why the decline in voicemail?  Simple … it is not an immediate response tool, meaning, unless you’re on the same network, you can’t do a quick response to the sender. Secondly, we have gotten very attached to our email windows, especially as tools like Outlook have become aggregators of the messages we receive from our various social networks.

Voicemail will come back around of course, with speech recognition. Users will undoubtedly be seduced by the ability to speak a message into their phone, and have it translated to text and deposited in the recipients mailbox. Stay tuned on that one.

For now, can SMS be a productive business communications tool?  It already has. I have personally noticed many Analyst Relations managers are using SMS to keep in touch with me and to keep me informed.

What about best practices in using SMS for business communications?  The usual rules apply.  SMS is just a medium.  But messages obviously need to be short, clear and have a clear “call to action.”

Things like:

– I have two ideas for how we can add more value to our relationship. Do you have 5 min to discuss?

– Could we talk for 5 min about how we can help with your new initiative?

– Can you call me at 2pm to review how we can help you boost sales? I could also talk at 3pm or 430.

– One of our analysts has some innovative ideas for how we can help you kick start your marketing plan. Call me in the morning to arrange a conversation.

Bottom line:  any medium that is constrained by message size … requires a “teaser approach” to messaging.   Think TWITTER.  The tweets that drive the most traffic are usually preceded by the words, “How to …” and are less than 140 characters.  For example, my tweet “How to manage a customer reference program” was retweeted three times in 20 minutes.  

People are hungry for “how to get things done”  and “how to do something” …. so use the word “how” in your SMS messages whenever you can.

But remember … sensationalized messages are indeed ineffective and considered offensive. If you sensationalize the message just to get a return call … that’s a major offense.  Things like “Call me for tips on how to get rich in 10 days” tick people off.  You know the drill on that one…..

And of course, an entire new discipline, “mobile marketing” has sprung up thanks to cell phone adoption. As the guys at clickatell.com remind us:

“Consumers all over the world have come to rely on their mobile phone as an essential communications tool. They personalize it, take it everywhere they go, and many cannot imagine living without it”.

The biggest challenge is convincing customers to be references. Customers naturally become concerned about the time required to be a reference (especially if you want them to be available for a telephone conversation with a prospect).  Hence, there are two things you can do:

1.  Tell customers you put a limit on the number of times you will use them as a reference, for example once per quarter.  You can also rotate them out of the program after one year, or some other period of time. Refreshing your references is always a good idea because it keeps them current.

2. Tell customers you will instruct prospects to respect their time and only call if they have questions not answered in the written testimonial.

When you request customers to be a testimonial or case study that will be written up and published, there are a few things you can do to put boundaries on the customer’s  time.

• Have a well structured interview, that the client can complete by email.  Make this optional of course.  At least 80% of your clients will answer your questionnaire over email.  If you prefer a live interview, tell the customer it will take no more than 20 to 30 minutes. But, when you conduct the interview, make sure your questions are brief and easy to understand.  Stick to your agreement – do NOT go over the time frame you commited to .. and never make it more than 30 minutes. 

• Include your customer reference program as a natural step in your  sales cycle.  Too often, we look for references from our current list of customers, where we have no leverage. We are simply asking them for a favor.  Hence, it’s more effective to address the customer becoming a reference during the sales cycle as part of your sales negotiations. Think of every prospect as a potential reference.  Many providers get new customers agree to be a testimonial when they close the deal, in exchange for a discount, a free service or some other offer.  This is a very effective tool for increasing the volume of references.

• Position the testimonial as a promotional tool for your customer.  Testimonials and case studies, tend to be all about you.  This is logical of course, because it’s a tool to demonstrate what a good provider you are; that you have satisfied customers. But you can also use the testimonial and case study to promote the good work your customer is doing.  When you write the testimonial, include copy about the customer’s value proposition and their successes.  When prospects see this, they often agree quickly to become a testimonial because it is essentially free promotion.

When sales people hand out the published case study or testimonial to prospects, they are increasing the customer’s brand awareness. 

And, in many cases, sales representatives report that prospects become interested in doing business with their customers.

Ask your customers directly:  What can we include in this testimonial or case study, to promote you?  What is it about your value proposition that would like us to highlight?   

Manage your customer reference program just as you manage your sales funnel.

Track your conversion rate. Sales people don’t expect every prospect to close, hence they build a list of prospects with a pipeline value that exceeds their quota. For example, if your conversion rate of prospects that become customers is 50% and your quota is USD $ 1 million, you always have at least USD $ 2 million in your pipeline. You can manage your reference program using the same technique.  For example, if your goal is to develop 10 solid references, you know you should be working with at least 20 customers as reference candidates (assuming you have a 50% conversion rate).

Make sure your references represent a broad range of types.  Too often, our customer references are similar. For example, they all fall into the same industry or they are of a similar size. Account managers are famous for not using a reference if it doesn’t mimic the exact issues of their prospect. Make sure your spreadsheet of potential references that you are tracking includes a broad range of customer types.

Manage your reference program as a two-way street.  Always give something in return. Customers that agree to be references are your most valuable asset.  Brand is about what others say about you, not what you say about you, so make sure you’re acknowledging their contribution.  After a testimonial is published send your customer a gift.  For example,  I send Gartner clients a series of books from Gartner press.  

Again, the best technique is to include your reference program in your sales cycle as a negotiation tool.  This is effective since it costs the prospect nothing and gives them something in return.

One of my favorite pieces of advice from Guy Kawasaki’s book, Reality Check, is about the value of entertainment. As business leaders, Guy tells us that our number one goal, when presenting, is to entertain. 

Sure it’s important to inform, and you have to be insightful, but if you bore people to tears, you won’t achieve anything.  Hence, entertain first, inform second. 

But let me qualify it a bit. Guy is referring to certain types of presentations, for example – the keynote speaker at a conference. Or you’re doing a webinar, or a seminar, or speaking at an association meeting. So you needn’t worry about your stand up routine at tomorrow’s staff meeting. Those are more instructional or status oriented; in fact, if you try to entertain at those things, people might think you’ve lost it, or that you don’t take them seriously.

But what if you’re not an entertaining type of person? What if you’re not funny?  Well, you can always get yourself to the Comedy Club; watch and learn. Or just learn to be lighter, more human. Think about how you behave at a social gathering. Pull out the personality you already have. Lighten up.

How many times have you said, “She was born to be a finance manager, or a realtor, or a cab driver … or a competitive analyst?”  I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone link DNA to these other professions, but plenty of people still think sales people come from the factory with special “sales genes.” 

Convinced that this question was old school and antiquated – I decided to poll 10 clients just for fun. “After all”, I thought, “Sales is a business process just like any other business process.” 

And can’t it be learned as we learn other processes?  No one has ever said to me, “You were born to be an IT analyst.”

But interestingly enough, the results came back 50/50.  Yup, half the respondents to my informal survey said with absolute conviction that salespeople are born, not made. Are they right?

We’re all told to “never bash the competition” when we take our first Sales 101 course. However, when I was a 24 year-old sales rep for HP, my boss (an amazing guy named Phil Endliss)  told me that rule didn’t apply when it came to IBM. Apparently it was okay to bash the big guys, but only if they were really big, to the point where a little bashing sure as heck wasn’t going to change anything.

I was vividly reminded of this story when I saw an ad in today’s New York Times by Barrie D’Rozario Murphy .. the 2009 O’Toole Award Winner for best small agency. In a case of head-on, no holds bar, blatant, unapologetic, take-the-gloves-off advertising, Murphy ran an ad for itself. They congratulate themselves, but graciously include a hearty congrats to their bigger fish competitors as well.

Ah, but keep reading. If you like sarcasm, you’ll love this ad. As the winner of best small agency, they admit that they would prefer to be a bigger player.  Why?

Well, for starters, they would get to charge three times more for similar work, bill by the hour, throw 12 creative teams at every project, and conduct big dog-and-pony shows for big prospects … but then take the pups and ponies away after prospects become clients.

If you’ve ever worked with big agencies (famous for their our-way-or-the-highway approach and their attitude that all clients are dummies) you’ll get the sarcastic undertones.

I’m not sure if it was Dave, Stuart or Bob that dreamt this up (maybe it actually came from one of their creative people) but I have no doubt it was the idea of  one person. Things like this rarely emerge from a committee .. and the ad is actually a representation of letting creative thought have its own way without interruption.

Congratuations guys .. for building a good agency .. . and giving me a bit of entertainment on an otherwise typical Wednesday at Starbucks in midtown Manhattan.  Two patrons couldn’t help notice my sly smile and asked me what I was reading.  You gotta love nosy New Yorkers.

It’s tempting in any economy, but especially one where demand is soft, to cast a wider net in hopes of generating more leads. But with sales costs soaring, it’s more important than ever to keep lead quality high. Nothing can burn dollars faster than chasing down unqualified opportunities.

Carlos Hidalgo

In this interview, lead management consultant Carlos Hidalgo of The Annuitas Group talks about several best practices in managing lead generation – from how lead quality can close the gap between marketing and sales – to when and how providers should get serious about lead scoring.

Contact Carlos Hidalgo at chidalgo@annuitasgroup.com

There are volumes of books, articles, blogposts, classes ….tweets .. on what it means (and requires) to be a customer-centic organization (I just googled “customer centric” and got 1,880,000 returns). Every highly paid management consulting firm in the world makes boatloads of money in this space. But quite frankly, is it really that hard? 

Okay, I admit that the things that are obvious are often the most difficult. Some of the “easiest looking” exercises my personal trainer puts me through are the toughest. Moreover, when I proposed my research on “How to Construct a Unique Value Proposition” it was met with “but isn’t that obvious?” and it’s now my most popular note (that and “How to Craft the Perfect Elevator Pitch” .. another painfully obvious topic, right?).

So how do these obvious things that “everybody knows how to do” get off track?  Well, there’s a whole other industry on that topic as well. But for now, I’ll stick with customer-orientation and some simple advice:

1.  When you write your market messages, imagine a real live customer. No, no .. I mean a REAL customer.  One with a name … and a checkbook. For example, I started writing a piece for CEOs the other day. Then I thought, “okay, let’s say I’m actually saying this stuff to Jeff Immelt or Jack Welch, or Warren Buffet.”   Wow, I tore it up and started over. Half my copy fell into the category of “stuff they already know.”  When you imagine your copy being read outloud by a real customer, you tend to sharpen up and get real.

2.  When you engage in an activity that you think is worthless or of borderline value ask yourself, “Would a cusotmer be willing to pay for the activity I’m engaged in right now?” 

3. Talk to people, not companies.  Companies don’t buy your product, people do. When you market, sell, tweet, blog .. or whatever … who are you really talking to? If it’s the CIO, acknowledge what CIOs are going through. If it’s an IT infrastructure manager, same thing…. or an HR professional, or the cleaning service. One of the best things you can do?  Think about how and why your target buyer will get a raise this year. What would your target buyer need to do to get a promotion?  Now, go write to that. Stop talking about how you’re going to increase profitability, improve business performance, or reduce costs, unless of course, it’s in the context of how these things help your buyer get a raise or get a promotion. Or how they stay employed. Knowing this one thing will change your messaging bigtime.

4.  For Pete’s sake, stop starting every message with the word “we” or “our” or your company name. If you’re customer-oriented, and I’m sure you think you are, why does every sentence of your web site copy begin with the word “we”?  Start with the customer’s situation, not yours ,..because

Marketing is not about you and it never will be.

Someone asked me the other day to direct them to a web site that I consider customer-centric. It was an easy answer: EchoSign. I’m not endorsing their product in any way, but seriously, they have the most customer-centric web site I’ve ever seen.  It has customers everywhere. You’ll be hard pressed to find any paragraph that begins with “we.” EchoSign’s VP of Marketing, Loretta Jones, doesn’t do anything in a context other than what customers want and need .. in the context of her product of course.

So cancel your expensive consulting engagement on “Becoming customer-oriented” and start doing these things. If you’re a marketing manager, start leading by example. When someone answers a question with the word “we” .. ask them to re-phrase it. If they think you’re nuts, help them out.  If someone says, “We are going to have the highest traffic of any booth at this trade show”  try something like ” buyers will come to our booth in droves because we’re showing tangible evidence of how Insurance providers improve claims processing throughput by 50% or more with our solution.”

When you ask customers why they like you, they will rarely talk about your product. Try it. You’ll see that they tend to talk about the results or business outcomes you helped them achieve. Marketing managers spend so much time crafting the perfect message, usually about themselves .. when lo and behold, ask your customers what they think. There’s your message.

About half the marketers I talk to in technology firms, manage just one of marketing’s 4 Ps.  Promotion.  About 25% of them manage promotion – with influence one of the other P’s such as product management or distribution (aka, Place). 

The rest don’t even know the other three exist (because they are educated in fields other than marketing) or they just let their senior managers relegate them to marcom and promotional campaigns. Hence, “throw it over the wall” marketing is alive and well. It is particuarly rampant in Silicon Valley.  When I call on smaller vendors in the valley, this age-old phenomena is everywhere. But even marketers in the divisions and BUs or larger firms are often limited to promotion and lead generation.

If you’re a marketer that’s trying to get out of the marcom trap, there’s a body of research about the CIO’s move to the strategic table that Gartner has published for years. And it’s working. Since Gartner started coaching the CIO who simply “keeps the trains running on time” to become educated in business strategy, more and more CIOs have successfully done two things:  they are reporting to the CEO, and they are successfully shifting more resources to projects of strategic, not just tactical, value.

What an odd coincidence. Many marketers are in this same situation. Without going into the details of how a marketer can get out of the weeds and garner an inviation to the strategic table, let me illustrate with an example.

Nick Jones writes an interesting blogpost about “the end of mobile isolation” and how the killer application in mobile is still the phone call. In his post, he describes several capabilities mobile phone manufacturers can start exploiting for greater differentiation.

Mobile marketers should be all over his advice. But unfortunately, they are so buried in promoting phone calls and other current gizmos that they will do what they always do: wait for engineers to throw products over the wall for them to promote.

However, by getting involved in new product ideas up front, and in fact actually leading the charge, they can put their skills to work to to align (and quantify) various strategic business options with the competencies of their companies. 

For example Nick talks about audio wiki, photo conferencing, spill-over video, VuPoint, multiplayer mobile games, and how to take more advantage of context. But in so many cases, the decisions to pursue these developments won’t be market driven, rather engineering or product driven … meaning, those ideas that engineers are comfortable with will go to the top of the list, versus those that have the highest potential for market adoption and traction.

So marketers, start getting in front of the curve on new ideas. Garner the respect of your senior managers with your knowledge of business strategy, not just promotion.