TARP Guidelines for Sales & Marketing Spending – much ado about nothing

This post was linked to a story on CNN (see the bottom section "From the Blogs")
Last Tuesday, I was quoted by BtoB magazine in an article entitled “Bank bailout a game changer. ” The focus of the story is the impact of the economic downturn and potential TARP guidelines on the financial services industry. What I said and what was written didn’t exactly match…so let me clarify.

What was quoted; “They can’t do anything flashy” said Scott Gillum, senior VP at consulting firm MarketBridge. “These guys are notorious because of relationship marketing. They have to relook at their investments. This is a PR nightmare now.”

“I’m expecting banks and insurance companies that are financially stable and sound to really take advantage of this opportunity,” he said. This is a business that has been relationship-based. You get the people, you get the customers.”

The first quote was in response to the Northern Trust involvement/sponsorship in a golf tournament. It’s the “These guys are notorious because of relationship marketing” part that needs to be clarified. What I said was that in the B2B world of Financial Services (Investment Banking, Commercial Insurance, etc.) marketing investments go to “strengthening the brand and the relationship.” Businesses are built on relationships and relationship managers...one of reason why Wall Street firms and AIG risk public outcry over paying bonuses to their top sales folks. If they leave, the business tends to go with them…the second part of my quote was correct.

What has driven this industry prior to the meltdown:

• The Brand – in the good times, a name actually meant something
• The Relationship – who you know and what they control
• The Deal – economic models, which we have now come to learn may or may not have been right/legal

FS companies have long invested millions in sponsorships, events and sports marketing. Not just to have their name/brand associated with the event but more importantly to invite clients for some good old relationship building. The industry has grown up that way and it is a culture of entitlement. Getting tickets to a prestigious golf tournament or a box seat at the "big game" has been a part of doing business. “These guys” aren’t “notorious because of relationship marketing”…they’re notorious because they are now spending someone else’s money (ours) to do it.

So with all the public flogging about their spending habits will anything change? In February, a Coalition representing various groups from the Travel and Events industries put together “guidelines’ to try and preempt the US Treasury . The group created a set of guidelines for companies who received TARP funds regarding Meeting, Events and Incentives. It could be one of the most transparent cases of the “fox in the hen house” I’ve ever seen. I’m sure that lobbyist are trying to get these guidelines “approved” as THE US Treasury endorsed guidelines.

But to this point, it appears that no formal guidelines or regulation have been issued by the US Treasury or anyone else, despite a lot of noise coming out of Barney Frank (Financial Services Committee Chairman, oh BTW check out his Top donors – good luck on getting real reform), and other opportunistic politicians who’ve taken companies to task for their spending. From what I’ve seen (or lack of) so far, nothing indicates that this industry will be forced to change.

Most likely, the practices that have driven the industry pre-meltdown will most like drive the industry post-meltdown...old habits are hard to change, unfortunately. In October of 2008, we conducted research in the Commercial Insurance industry on ways to improve the go to market model; a broker gave us this feedback.

"I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion and look forward to reviewing your results. I apologize if I came across too strong, but this is a subject near and dear to my heart…and wallet. The insurance industry is in dire need of change. Our long history of profitable results (both sides) has done nothing but perpetuate mediocrity. Eventually, those days will come to an end."

Even though no new real sales & marketing reform exists today or seems close, there are some things that have the potential to change the business, at least temporarily, such as:

• The Media – lots of villains out there that fit their 4 “C’s” of FS (Crisis, Controversy, Conflict and Crime). What has been amazing to watch is how “locked in a box” CEO’s of companies who have received TARP funding are when it comes to their business practices. How could you not know that people would be outraged at paying bonuses, or holding lavish meeting events…c'mon.
• Your buddy is no longer there – another 44K jobs lost last month in the FS industry
• Your buddy is there, but no longer has power - uh, oh, what happens to the relationship?
• The US Treasury might grow a “set” and create guidelines with some real teeth

But will this be enough to create real lasting change? When profitability returns to the industry, will anyone have the guts to do something different? Probably not, but it might be enough for a new competitor or two to enter and stir things up.

Years ago I read an interview with Charles Schwab in a business magazine about the success of his company. He said that the reason he knew he was onto something (a direct model) was because his competitors refused to believe that customers wanted to conduct transactions in any other way than face to face.

As others get back to "business as usual," a company that has a disruptive model might just slip in unnoticed and change the way the game is played. If you look at what has happened in other industries, new companies emerge by catering to the needs of customers who feel/are neglected and/or who distrust the current system/providers.

Sounds like the setting is right, now let’s see what emerges. We might not get reform but we just might get a renegade.

Data Driven Action

Tell me if you’ve seen this movie before. After spending months debating about the right type of segmentation to do, you finally agree, do the research and…it never gets used. Or how about this one, you get a request from sales for information you’ve already sent to them…multiple times.

It’s a horror movie and it gets play out every day in organizations all across the country. Why? Why is it that we want “the data” but then we don’t end up using it? Based on my experiences with clients, I believe it comes down to few common problems that are manageable, if known.

The top 5 problems I see:

1. Insight – as in the lack of it…it’s the #1 reason why data doesn’t get used. Far too often the Ph.D’s will put out data without having interpreting it for the intended audience which then sets up the next problem.


2. Language/Communication – call it taxonomy, communication style, whatever, data folks and everyone else (in particular, sales & marketing) speak different languages.


3. Overload & Timing – yes, analysis paralysis does exist but not the way you might think. If you’re in a data rich environment, you’ve probably experienced this. Just too much info flying around and as a result, it often gets ignored. It’s not that it causes people to not take action, as much as it is people taken action and ignoring the data. In other situations, especially involving marketers, it may be a matter of timing. They may be in too much of a hurry to get something out the door to wait on the data.


4. 60-70% Complete - critical pieces are sometimes missing so you can’t see the insight. The dots haven’t been connected. The person responsible for supplying the data doesn’t, and/or wouldn’t, see the connection.


5. Skill set – CMO’s when asked the top reasons (see the chart in the post below) for the need for new skills in their organizations mentioned; “greater segmentation of market” and “increase demands for analytics” in their top 5. The problem is that there aren’t many of them out there.

Why is this important now? Because everything you do or want to do, or are thinking about doing, will have to be backed by data in this economic environment…you’ll need a rock solid reason for getting, or spending a budget.

Five things to do about it:

1. Apply the “So What” rule – yes, this rule is typically used to help define a feature from a benefit but it’s also effective at drawing out insight from raw data. If the data guys are presenting information that you don’t “get” ask them “so what?”…as in, what is this data suppose to tell me? And keep asking until you get to the “so what.”


2. Help connect the Dots – if the story is missing help supply/coach on how or where to connect the other pieces. If you’re the user know what you’re looking for and provide guidance on where to find it. As I mention above, researchers may not know or wouldn’t understand the connection. This also applies to coaching on communication. Help them understand the language you speak.


3. Chunk it up – sometimes there is just too much to take in and process. Chunk information into more digestible pieces. Take some time and think about what various groups can digest and how often…especially if you’re in a data rich environment.


4. Provide plenty of lead time and direction – don’t expect to get something insightful and/or useful if you don’t give adequate notice or direction. Getting a report on market share won’t tell you how to increase it, or why you’re losing it. Combining trended quarterly market share, key consideration drivers, and sales coverage will...but it takes time to collect. Know what you’re looking for and how to get it.


5. Hire an expert – as was mentioned above there is more demand than supply of talented people who can pull insight out of data and drive action from the insight. If you have to, partner with a vendor. It should also help with the timing/speed issue mentioned earlier. Additionally, they will have tools/approaches that help force out insight.

Data…leads to Insight…leads to Action…leads to Data…the cycle of life. It’s time to turn this horror movie into an action thriller.

CMO to Chief Revenue Officer

What will the post downturn CMO look like and how can you position yourself now?

My inbox is full of resumes of good marketers that I’ve been fortunate to come to know or work with over the years. Solid people, with great experience who are now having a challenging time finding new opportunities in this incredibly difficult economic environment. Many of these people could have had their pick of jobs as recently as last year. Given the situation, I thought I’d try to help by providing a viewpoint on what skills set, background and experience companies will be seeking once they start hiring again. I'll use two data sources to make the case.

A few years ago, we teamed up with a professor (John Josephs)at Kellogg on a couple of research projects aimed at getting a better understand of what creates a high performance marketing organizations. Internally, we thought of it as the “head” and “body” studies because we first studied the marketing organization (the body) and then the follow year CMO’s (the head). We surveyed not only CMO’s and marketers, but also CEO’s, about their views on what makes marketing effective. The research was then published by the CMO Council. Here are a few things we discovered along the way.

CEO’s view on how to measure marketings performance

CMO’s view on what is driving the need for new skill sets.
This information is a few years old now, but I can tell you that based on client work that the down turn has done nothing to change this, if anything, it has placed greater importance on the top 3-4 responses. And I’d bet that "Analytics and Accountability demands" has move up the chart. Keep the top responses on these charts in mind as we move to the next section.

Last month, I was given access to a database of senior level marketers (SVP and up) to do some analysis for the organization that owns it. We looked at the background and experience of over 800 marketers with the following titles:

• 50% were CMO’s
• 32% EVP’s of Marketing
• 8% SVP’s of Marketing
• And interestingly enough 10% had CEO titles but had recently been the head of marketing

They came from large, medium and small companies including start ups:

• 25% - Large (over $500M)
• 32% - Medium ($100-$500M)
• 23% - Small ($50-$100M)
• 22% - Start up or under $50K

We were interested in assessing their area of expertise, experience and tenure.

Experience & Expertise

Tenure by year
Although executives with Product Management and Sales Enablement/Demand Gen experience represent only 27% of the total group, they represented a disproportionate amount of executives with the longest tenure. In fact, they were twice as likely (as a representative percentage) to be in the 2-5 years tenure category than those with Brand, Advertising and Corp Comm backgrounds. And they made up half of the individuals in the more than 5 year category.

Another interesting thing we picked up is that markerters in the NYC area were more likely to be new in role versus other regions (higher than average churn...probably attributed to a higher supply of talent).

Spencer Stuart has for many years reported CMO tenure rates (less than the life of a gold fish) but I’ve never seen them look at tenure by background…which makes a difference based on our assessment.

Finally, let’s look at Supply & Demand.

The Top 20 Advertisers in the US have been decimated. Think about…half of the Top 10 advertisers in 2007 were automobile manufactures. As a result, agencies have put hordes of people on the street. GDP in Q4 2008 is estimated to have declined by 6.2% from Q3 that declined by 0.5%. Revenues are down on average of 30-40% from the prior year in most firms (at least the ones we work with).

As a result, there are a slew of marketers with advertising, branding, and corporate comm backgrounds (73% of the database that we analyzed) in the market.

Let's put it all together:

1. CEO's measure marketing effectiveness by revenue growth and market share
2. CMO's see the greatest need for new talent being driven by the integration of sales & marketing
3. A large supply of "above the line" marketers exist in the marketplace
4. Conclusion - potentially high demand and a low supply of marketers who can drive revenue

So…the marketers that will be in the highest demand coming out of the recession will be the ones who have been aligned or have had direct responsibility for growing revenue. Marketers that can speak the language of sales. Unfortunately, it will be a slow process for folks with a Brand PR and Corp Comm or the Ex-Agency/Media guys.

Marketers with backgrounds in Product Management/Marketing who have owned a P&L, folks with sales backgrounds and/or marketers who can show that they can drive revenue/growth will be in demand first. The challenge for the other groups is that of supply. It’s not to say that good Brand and Agency folks won't find positions it’s that it’s going to be hard. Expect that you will be competiting with many other qualified candidates and it may be difficult to differentiate yourself.

What to do:

• Downplay the advertising awards (Clio’s, Echo’s, etc.)
• Play up your experience in driving revenue and results
• Find contract work that is connected to driving sales/revenue
• Invest time in learning more about digital and analytics
• Seriously consider relocation, especially if you live in the NYC area

Unclogging the Pipeline

This post was recently featured in an article on MarketingProf's

Pipeline slowed to a trickle? Opportunities backing up, lead-to-close time seem like forever…yea, welcome to the recession. With customers delaying and/or postponing decisions altogether the ol’ pipeline ain’t what it used to be.

Here are 7 Pipeline Management Best Practice tips taken from leading companies that might help:

1. Weekly Pipeline Meetings with Sales AND Marketing - yes weekly…and with Marketing, do it in country and at the region level. You may also do it at the corporate level with the CEO , like IBM.
   
2. Apply BANT – CRM is great at increasing visibility into opportunities but it tells you nothing about why opportunities aren’t advancing. BANT will. By qualifying and re-qualifying opportunities based on Budget, Authority, Need and Time you will get to the bottom line on why leads are not advancing. Reps will say that it’s “B” but I wouldn’t assume that. Companies are still spending (not as much) but now it takes a C-Level to approve (is your sales force getting to “A)? Budgets have moved higher in the organization and have been centralized. Also, business cases are required for EVERYTHING so if you aren’t submitting one with every proposal you’re not address “N”. Timing (T) of course, things are slow so you need to find out as much as you can about when budgets might get released and then check again, then again...


3. 90 day Movement Limit – this is one of my personal favorites. If a lead (that is truly a lead) does not advance within a 90 day window it moves back to the previous stage in pipeline or is killed. Given that lead cycle times have lengthened…considerably, you may want to make the window 120 days. Up or Out…learn it, live it, love it.
   
4. Define a lead and stick to it – look, it’s going to be difficult road but be honest with yourself on what is truly a lead. A response to a campaign offering a free gift card, or a download of a white paper off the website, aren’t leads…they’re responses and should be treated that way. Leads are defined by meeting a BANT criteria…see above. People will want to get fast and loose with the facts to satisfy the sales force or make marketing targets but don’t let them…stay firm, you’ll thank me when the recovery starts.
   
5. Response Management – so now that you’ve removed the “junk” out of the pipeline it’s time to do something with it. In reality responses aren’t “junk” (well, some are), they’re potential leads that just need to be nurtured…for a long time in today’s environment. Don’t disregard them, I’ve seen too many companies do nothing with this group. In the good times most of them would be leads. How to find them? Simple, ask this question during you pipeline call; “who owns responses that aren’t qualified leads…” wait for the silence. Bingo, there’s your answer. Take the last 6 months of campaign response and start digging.
   
   Sort through the “junk” and find the diamonds in the rough, pick out the ones who are in the right companies or have the right titles and work them. These are folks who are in the learning process, they may see the need but may not have the funding or approval yet. Make an effort to nurture it will pay off in the long run.
   
6. Lead Gen to Sales Enablement – it’s time to move marketing down the pipeline. Lead generation aimed at acquiring new opportunities is a waste of money in a recession. The cost of a qualified lead has skyrocketed…don’t believe me go do the analysis you will be surprised and in some cases shocked. So it’s time to invest against sales enablement and helping the sales force move opportunities already in the pipeline. Here’s another fact for you…B2B sales channels create 80-85% of all leads so cutting lead generation programs will not hurt you…I’ll say it again, redirecting investments away for lead gen activities will not hurt the pipeline. What is sales enablement, and how does it help the sales force? Well, it’s things like business tools that can prove a ROI, sales presentations loaded with proof points (case studies) on your value, and a robust customer reference program (see the graph above). By aligning marketing activities to moving the BANT levers you will be investing marketing dollars were they can have the greatest return…and your sales force will thank you for it.


7. Comp on or Emphasize Customer Meetings – if you build comp plans based on revenue and lead targets/production you may want to consider over emphasizing face time in front of the customer for the first half of the year. You’re probably saying to yourself, “but Scott, why would I do that if customers aren’t buying?” Right, but they can tell you why, when things might loosen, and who you need to get to (see my rant on BANT in bullet #2). It’s during these times that you need to have your reps in front of customers so they can collect the information needed to provide you with update during the weekly pipeline call. Use your sales enablement team (see paragraph above) to provide them with high value material to share with customers in order to get those meetings. See how it all connects?

I hope this helps. Unfortunately, it looks like we’re going to be stuck in this situation for all of 2009. Be strong…the bad times, just like the good times, don’t last forever.

Travel Karma Part I...The Bad

Given all the bad economic news of late I thought I’d post some lighthearted comic relief at my expense. This post has nothing to do with Sales or Marketing, best practices, etc. If you here looking for something insightful please scan down to my last post. If you’d like to be entertained for a few moments (hopefully) read on.

I’ve pulled this from the archives and it's for anyone who’s ever had “one of those days”, or in this case...four days. For those of you who don’t believe in travel karma this may change your mind…pay attention to the time/date stamps.

This is the first post of two on Travel Karma…first the bad and then the good.

Schadenfreude!

Day 1 - Monday June 11, 2007

Travelogue 5:45 pm – arrive in Detroit early, nice airport… can’t believe I've arrived early. Call Lara because I can’t find Mark’s flight information on the arrival board. Lara tells me that his plane is delayed and won’t arrive until 7:30 pm. No problem I’ll grab something to eat and wait for him and Sean.

-----Original Message-----

From: Mark
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2007 6:03 PM
To: Scott Gillum; Sean
Subject: Flight delayed- still on the ground in ATL

Scott and Sean:

I've been stuck on the tarmac for about 90 minutes they say due to weather up North. No sign of anything at the airport taking off to the North.

What time do you arrive? Looks like 8:00 to 8:30 if we get out in the next half hour. Otherwise I'll probably shoot myself... And then it won't matter.

BTW, who booked me on Northwest?? Very tight, very hot in here...

What's your status?
Mark

----- Original Message -----
From: Scott Gillum
To: Mark, Sean
Sent: Mon Jun 11 18:11:08 2007
Subject: Re: Flight delayed- still on the ground in ATL

I've arrived and am sitting in a nice air conditioned bar in the A terminal about to have a nice Greek dinner.

Got to go... my drink just arrive, call me when you get in. Headed to the hotel for a good night of sleep after a big dinner.

Good luck and safe travels. Oh, here comes my appetizer. Bye.

----- Original Message -----
From: Mark
To: Scott Gillum; Sean
Sent: Mon Jun 11 18:14:10 2007
Subject: Re: Flight delayed- still on the ground in ATL

Oooooooh. You're just getting me ramped up. Don't expect any mercy from me when the moment is right.

Mark
Sr. Vice President
MarketBridge

-----Original Message-----

From: Scott Gillum
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2007 6:39 PM
To: Mark, SeanSubject:
Re: Flight delayed- still on the ground in ATL

Sorry I couldn't respond sooner, you really need your hands to eat Greek food.

You realize that I probably have cursed myself on the outbound flight now.

Call me when you get in...unless it's too late. I really need my sleep to be on my game.

Travelogue 7:00 pm - Catch the Hilton shuttle bus to the hotel a quick 5 min ride. Arrive at the hotel – “OMG, what a shit hole”. Under-construction, the front is completely gone…contemplate getting back on the bus. Suck it up and enter to find a lobby in the hallway. Check-in and walk thru the Workout Area (a former hotel room) and thru the make shift restaurant which looks to be meeting room. Diners don’t seem to notice that I’m walking thru with my bags. Enter room and open the curtains for a fine view of what looks to be the Motel from the Eminen movie 8 Mile across the street. Look at the direction for the meeting tomorrow - the map and notice we’re a good 20 miles from the client…meeting starts at 8:30 am.

Travelogue 8:10 pm - Mark and Sean land…decide to flee and find a hotel closer to the client. Check and make a reservation at the Weber Restaurant & Hotel. A well known steak house in the area that happens to have added a hotel that “get’s a lot of press for its indoor pool” according to a review on Google.

Travelogue 9:30 pm – arrive at Weber and check-in. Clerk has a problem finding the reservation…finally finding it under “Scott Dillum”.

Day 2 – Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Departing on the 3:17 pm to Washington. All of us are leaving at about the same time.

Travelogue 1:00 pm – check voicemail and hear a message from Northwest Airlines that my flight has been canceled and I have been rebooked on the 9:00 pm flight. Call and speak with my assistant who works with the travel agency to book me on the 5:35 pm.

Flight departs from the gate but…

----- Original Message -----
From: Scott Gillum
To: Mark; Sean
Sent: Tue Jun 12 17:58:45 2007
Subject: What comes around...

Sitting on the tarmac... in the parking lot... grounded because of a weather delay...no time given yet for wheels up.

Great, they just shut the engines down...

-----Original Message-----

From: Mark
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2007 6:34 PM
To: Scott Gillum; Sean
Subject: Re: What comes around...

Oh man... The sweet taste. I couldn't reply sooner because I had to finish my frosty ice cream cone I just picked up after landing.

Mark
Sr. Vice President

-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Gillum
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2007 8:40 PM
To: Mark, Sean
Subject: Perfect karma

Spending the night in Detroit...

Travelogue 9:00 pm – arrive back at the gate with tension headache and taste of bile in my mouth. Buy underwear, shirt, socks, Tums and Tylenol. Check into an airport hotel…not the Hilton.

-----Original Message-----

From: Sean
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2007 10:09 PM
To: Scott Gillum; Mark
Subject: RE: Perfect karma

Sitting in Seattle and I can't help but think you brought this all on yourself, Scott Dillum.

Regards-

Sean
MarketBridge

Day 3 – Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Departing on the 6:30 am to Washington connecting to the 8:30 am Delta Shuttle to New York. No flights available to New York direct from Detroit. Need to be at a important client meeting in NYC for 10 am meeting. No chance to make it on time but my colleague Chris is catching a 7:30 am flight on USAir and will be there on time to cover.

-----Original Message-----

From: Chris

Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 8:05 AM

To: Chris, Scott Gillum
Subject: Also having flight issues .

Will arrive at LGA at 9:30

I will have Lara contact the client.

Travelogue 8:30 am – make the shuttle to find Chris sitting on my plane. No chance of being on time for the meeting now. Ingest 2 Tums and Tylenol.

Travelogue 6:00 pm – call Lara to make sure my 6:30 pm shuttle is on time and to check weather condition. Make comment that if there looks like there are any problems I will go to the train station. Lara confirms that the flight is on time and looks good.

Travelogue 6:15 pm – check-in…flight is on time but notice 5:30 pm has been cancelled. Plane departs gate on time. Pilot announces that we will be parked for at least a half an hour waiting for our flight sequence.

Travelogue 7:00 pm – Pilot announces that he has no news but will update in 15 minutes…bile taste coming back, grab Tums. 15 minutes later…no update…15 later…we’re #5 for take-off. We’re airborne.

Travelogue 8:00 pm – Pilot announces that DC has stop inbound flights because of storms in the area. We’ll be circling Dover, Delaware for at least 30 minutes. Search briefcase for Tums to find a banana that I thru in earlier that day….completely destroyed…feels like wet oatmeal.

Travelogue 8:30 pm – Pilot announces that he has no news…but will update us again in 15 minutes. 15 minutes later makes announcement that they are still not taking flights and if we don’t get the word in another 15 minutes we’ll have to re-route to another airport to re-fuel.

Travelogue 9:15 pm – we land…in Baltimore. No gate available which is not a issue because…no one is available to bring the plane into the gate, work the jet way, etc. Tums are gone.

----- Original Message -----
From: Scott Gillum
To: Lara
Sent: Wed Jun 13 21:21:50 2007
Subject: Didn't make back again

Landed in Baltimore tonight. Catching a cab...if I'm lucky. I may or may not be in tomorrow.

Travelogue 9:45 pm – catch cab, 45 minute should be home finally. Get on I95 to find that 2 lanes are closed…traffic slows to a crawl. Bile returning, stomach churning, head out the window…possibility of hurling very real. Call home and announce to wife that I’m quitting my job.

Travelogue ? – lost all track of time but finally home….car at Reagan National.

Day 4 – Thursday, June 14, 2007

Car service takes me to Reagan to pick up my car.

Travelogue 12:45 pm - finally, in my office searching online for a Psychic to get my "Aura" adjusted. Find that I now have a twitch above my left eye brought on by any mention of a storm, airport or plane. Just submitted a PO request for a “Madden Cruiser.”