2007 Sales Effectiveness Study

After four straight years of economic expansion, companies are now developing and implementing plans to capitalize on changes in their competitive markets. The “Sales Effectiveness” study, fielded in Q4 2006 by MarketBridge in partnership with Sales & Marketing Management magazine, identifies the most effective sales strategies for maximum growth, while revealing major sales challenges going forward.

The insights of nearly 200 sales and marketing executives and managers generated some provocative findings, among them:

• More than half of respondents said their sales forces spend 50 percent or less of its time actually selling. Furthermore nearly three-fourths said their sales forces spent 50 percent or less of its time in direct contact with customers.
  
• Top three strategies for growth: Introducing new products or product extensions (45 percent); reorganizing the sales organization (39 percent); changing the focus on customer or market segments (35 percent). That said, exactly one-third said they had “high confidence” in their companies reaching their growth goals in 2007.
  
• Greatest customer demands: Companies are strained to offer “new products at reduced prices,” and to follow up on those offerings with “better service.” Further, more than a third (34.7 percent) said they were just “somewhat prepared” to deliver on those customer demands.

The findings of the study were highlighted in the May edition of Sales & Marketing Management magazine. For more informatin on the survey results see our website.

Telecom Sales Effectiveness Study

Here's an upcoming Webinar you may be interested in joining

Telecom Marketing & Sales Outlook

Join industry experts for 30-minutes of informative discussion and audience interaction on marketing and sales challenges, strategies, trends and best practices in the telecommunications space.

What: Complimentary “Driving Telecom Marketing And Sales Effectiveness,” Webinar, presented by MarketBridge, Telephony Magazine and the Kellogg School of Management.

When: Tuesday, April 19, 2007, 1:00-1:30 p.m. (EST)

Who: Mark Donnolo, Senior Vice President of MarketBridge head of our Telecommunications Practice, Estelle Conover, VP Alliance Channels, AT&T Southeast, and moderator Dan O’Shea, editor-in-chief of Telephony Magazine

Why: This event is based on the first annual “Driving Telecom Marketing & Sales Effectiveness Survey,” which gathered insights from 350 marketing and sales executives and managers from 160 leading Telecom Carriers, Wireless Providers, Cable Companies and Equipment Manufacturers.

Topics to be discussed:

• Focus on Enterprise, SMB, Consumer


• Growth Strategies


• Focus on Customers and Prospects


• Key Challenges

How: To register (complimentary) click here

The “Driving Telecom Marketing & Sales Effectiveness” final report will be available for download on the day of the webinar. For a brief overview and interpretation of the key findings, listen to the podcast with MarketBridge’s Mark Donnolo and Telephony’s Dan O’Shea. We hope you will join us for what promises to be an informative event!

PR Firms - You're Next

Happy New Year and Welcome Back!

In keeping with the New Year tradition, I'd like to make a prediction for the year...PR firms are going to feel the pain that the big agencies have felt over the last few years.

Last year, big agencies continued to take a beating...shrinking profitability as spending continues to shift to online and away from TV and other profitable media, massive loss of talent to clients and/or new start-ups, and finally, clients dissatifaction with the traditional agency model, etc.

Big Agency Model

Dissatifaction with the Big Agency business model you say – but why? Here's one man's cynical view of how the "game" works.

Big agency wins account using outsourced, incredibly talented "pitch team", really innovative creative, and a promise of a global platform which promise to improve the "message", create synergies, improve spend, etc. The client drinks the "kool aid" but then quickly comes to realize that it was a sham. The account manager is not the person who pitched them and starts to do a very good impression of the "invisible man". The once huge and skilled account team is also disappearing, being replaced by a staff that contains mostly fresh faced kids just out of school.

The account relationships sputters along with marginal performance. The client BU’s and Regions get fed up with the "Global Platform" (never getting the attention and team promised) and start going outside using smaller, smarter and more valued agencies (who happened to have the talent who have recently left a big agency…after being purchased). And the innovative "Creative" they showed to win the account turns out to be the only creative thing they've produced in the last few years (oh, and it was created by a smaller specialize agency).

Big agency realizes the account is at risk and begins acquiring the small agencies that are serving the client to secure the account. If the client is willing to commit to retaining the agency after all this...they promise to win them an award and get them really good concert tickets.

PR's Turn
Ok, now it's PR turn in the barrel. But I think the thing that is going to most threaten the PR firms is new PR software vendors/tools like Vocus. They threatened to disintermediate them because in the past PR firms traded on the tact that they knew who to contact, about what and when. Tools like Vocus are taking a little mystery out of the PR magic.

They contain a database of key media contacts, contact tracking, links into channels like PR Newswire, etc. Everything you need to "do it yourself". But Scott, what about the relationship that PR firms have at the media outlets that you're targeting? Forget about it. Here's the bottom line...relationships don't matter.

The Media "establishment" has no loylaties...they take want they need to meet a deadline. If you make it easy for them, give them something of value (something that meets the 3 "C's" critirea) and/or help them out in a pinch...you have as good a relationship as anyone else.

So what is the threat? I think the smart companies are going to start bringing more and more of the PR activities back in-house. Most likely, it will start in small and mid-tier sized companies and will work its way up the ranks. Combine this with the framentation of media, smaller niche players targeting specific market segments, Web 2.0 technologies and you have a situation where companies will be able to get their message to their target audience better then ever and at a much lower cost.

I'm not a betting man, but this one looks like a sure thing.

Here's to a successful and profitable 2007

Web 2.0: Please!

I am soooo over the hype on the "second coming" of the Web. So here's my Christmas present to you. Do you want to know what Web 2.0 is about? OK, so many of you may be saying what the hell is it?

Good question, the media has been hyping it for what seems like an eternity but I still haven't seen a good simple explanation. Some like BtoB magazine are even calling it a "Revolution".

Here's what I think B2B 2.0 is really about ...it is about creating an engaging and useful web experience that is designed by the user community...and of course, all the web tools/applications to enable this (Blogs, Podcast, social networking, etc.). Yes, that's it. Creating opportunities for audiences/visitors to you feedback on their experience with your company, products and services -- and you (Company X) actually paying attention and doing something about it.

The best part is that you don't have to wait until the hype and new technologies start rolling out to build your own Web 2.0 site right now. In fact, you probably already have pieces of "Web 2.0" in site right now.  A few tips for getting started:

• Track/Determine Interaction Time and/or Engagement Level- go beyond measuring typically web metrics (traffic, clicks, etc.) to measuring Interaction Times. Determine not only if the visitor is returning to your site but also how much time are they spending on it. You also need to understand where they have come from, your sales process by product, where customers spend their time (in what channel to learn, shop and buy) and finally, how long it takes (on average). As you can see from the graphic above, in Hi-Tech customers surf among channels (both online and offline). Complex sales, as you would expect take much longer and consume more Face-to-Face resource time. Oh, by the way, the research done to produce this graphic was conducted for a client in 2003. So much for the "revolution" of Web 2.0.
• Build Information "Depots" - if you want customers to give you feedback, give them something to respond to and an opportuntity to do so by giving them vehicles/channels to communicate. HP is experimenting with giving IT professionals new media tools such as Blogs to engage with customers. And Intuit has created a feedback button called "We Hear You" that enables Quickbook users to submit product feedback. Keep in mind, if you want something of value (information) you have to give something of value. If you don't have an even exchange you will not get the information you want...so get those offers together (white papers, research, etc.).
• Go beyond Community Building - You'll hear a lot of hype around "communities" and many of you probably have robust user communities. Get the communities more involved in building, testing and promoting your products, website, campaign,etc. Start measuring "Net Promoters" - a metric of customers who would recommend your products. Word of mouth is still THE most powerful marketing tool, but with recent regulatory changes, be careful on how you motivate customers to sing your praises.
• Leverage Existing Tools - years ago we started to leverage an Online Training tool called Brainshark. It allowed us to create On Demand sales and marketing presentations using PowerPoint and a phone...very simple and convenient. But the most valuable part of the tool was the tracking. We were able to see who was viewing the presentation as soon as they opened it, how long they viewed it, how many pages and who they sent it to, etc. We able to measure the interest levels inside a company, decide on who to pursue and predict when we would acquire the account -- all by watching how people interacted with us in a "virtual" world. This functionality now resides in most Webcast tools so make sure you are taking advantage of your investments in Webex, Placeware, etc.
• Before, At and After the Web - think about what information you want to collect at each of those stages. Also, think about what you want the visitor to see and retain in each of those areas. Organize and integrate your activities by segment (customer, product, etc.) against these three stages to create a seamless experience that reinforces your message. With complex products/solutions, for example, each stage should communicate a portion of the total message, and subsequent stage should reinforce the previous stage. Breaking the message up into pieces and then, hopefully, rebuilding it in the mind of the visitor piece by piece as they go throught the buying process. So a customer may see a TV ad, then visit your website and finally call you contact center to place the order. You must anticipate, plan and, hopefully, direct the customer buying behavior to drive the response, conversion, close and yield rates.

The bottom line is that Web 2.0 is not "revolutionary". The concept is not new, in fact, if we had to do the first round of the Web all over again we would of done it this way...let your visitors/customers design your website the way they want to use it. But what might be different this time is that I think we are ready to listen to them.
Have a great holiday! Talk to you in the New Year.

CRAP - The Secret to Quick Execution?

Over the years I've marveled at the speed at which some organzations are able to go from concept to in-market execution...and those who can't seem to get out of there own way.

Dell, for example can "turn the ship on a dime"...changing promotions, campaigns, and the sales compensation plan for telesales reps within a day or two in order drive greater revenue or profitability based on quarterly performance projections. Other companies struggle for years to get a campaign or product out the door.

So why does this happen and what are the keys to quick execution? Beyond corporate culture, which is a major contributor to the ability to execute, there seems to be four essential elements that I like to refer to as the CRAP Process:

• Create - one of the things that I've noticed over the years is how efforts can stall or be delayed at the starting point. Getting past the starting gate is typically the hardest and most difficult point in the process. Anxiety builds, expectations are high, everyone is looking for the "big idea"...it all adds up to a huge speed bump slowing the creative process. Lower expectations for the first draft by getting something-anything into a first draft, no matter how ugly right after the discussion or at some point on the first day.
  
• Refine - after you have the draft, send it around for comment, refining the concept as it goes from person to person. The chain is email and the document is in word; it's important to use the edit feature. It's like a game of "hot potato" - you only get so much time to hold onto the email and then you need to through it to someone else.
  
• Act - the most important point in the process is getting it 70% completed and then get it into the market and/or to a customer and let the market/customer complete the other 30%. Define the "70%" mark early in the process so you know how far to go. Give the team an expectation on the timing (within 3 weeks, etc.) to be in market.
  
• Perfect - yes, perfect the product or campaign after it is in market. Sounds counter intutive, right, but companies do it all the time...Microsoft comes to mind immediately. The key is setting the expectation on peformance before you launch. Define performance at each stage of the process so that you know what to go back and refine/fix. Too many companies get caught up in trying to create something "perfect" internally without customers or market input. The age of what I like to call the "Incremental Perfectionist" is upon us.

You'll also need to build your teams around this concept. You need to identify the skills sets and personailities of your team and designate a couple of "starters" (the creative types), the "refiners"(usually specialists - product, industry, etc.), and the "perfectors" (anal types who love the detail). You may find that this approach trumps any typically"Org Chart" approach in creating a high performance team.

The other important thing to remember is if you are afraid that someone is going to scream about a mistake or poor performance then you don't have enough going on inside your organization. The key is to have lots of activities at various stages, if some are failing, no one will notice because the high performance (Perfected Stage) programs give you air cover to refine the underperformers.

As someone at IBM once said; "if you are going to fail...fail fast". The real key is go fast at every stage, the best companies learn more from failure than success...they also know how to get CRAP done.