In today’s competitive marketplace, a compelling story is critical for your brand to remain front and center with customers and prospective customers. If your business does not create a compelling story that connects with prospective and existing customers or strikes a nerve, your business will not last very long.
What brand stories immediately come to mind? Here are some.
[1] You know him as Mark, Mark Z, or simply as Zuck. But we all suspect that we know the story (thanks to the movie, The Social Network). Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard so that he could dedicate himself 24/7 to the creation of a networking website. The website now known as Facebook has revolutionized how we connect with friends, family, and others – and has become an international phenomenon with over 1 billion users. According to ZDNet, users log in for 12 and-a-half minutes every day. And according to ComScore, U.S. desktop users spend 6 hours a month on Facebook, while mobile users spend an average of 11 hours on the site.
[2] Most people attribute the automobile to Henry Ford. But in actuality, he developed and manufactured the first auto that many middle-class Americans could afford. He was also instrumental in the development of the assembly line and a franchise system of dealerships throughout the United States and on six continents. One famous statement of his was, “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” Thank goodness, the Ford vehicles started the auto industry, or we’d all be riding horses.
[3] While Susan Komen for the Cure has been in the news recently, the main reason that the charity was created is a compelling story. The founder (Nancy G. Brinker) launched the charity to honor the memory of her sister (Susan G. Komen) who died of breast cancer and to raise money to eliminate the disease. Despite all the current negative press, the color pink will forever represent that charity and breast cancer awareness.
[4] While the publishing industry is undergoing a transition from print to digital, there is one newspaper that embodies its city, The New York Times. While you may not know the newspaper began in the mid-1800’s, there is no doubt that you have heard of The New York Times Crossword Puzzle, Art and Theater, Op-Ed section, and the Opinion section. Whenever someone wants to be heard, he or she comments in The New York Times. The newspaper’s motto was “All the News That’s Fit to Print,” but on its website, the motto was changed to, “All the News That’s Fit to Click.”
[5] According to Southwest Airlines Chairman/President and CEO Gary Kelly, “Southwest was conceived on a cocktail napkin when San Antonio businessman Rollin King and his attorney, Herb Kelleher, met at the St. Anthony Club and etched out what would become the “Texas Triangle,” charting a path for low-fare travel between Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. The vision was simple: offer business people a faster, more efficient way to travel at a lower cost and do it with warm, personable service and a smile.” Kelleher knew that in order for his employees to do a good job, they had to have fun. So Southwest allowed flight attendants to wear shorts instead of uncomfortable uniforms and tell silly jokes to passengers over the intercom. The airline continues to provide peanuts, soft drinks, and juice – when competitors charge or don’t offer any food or drinks. Southwest also invites passengers to travel with their baggage without charging, because according to their ads, “Bags fly free.”
So, as you contemplate the importance of storytelling for your brand, consider these questions. How do you decide on a compelling story? What elements do you include and which do you leave out? What is an appropriate length for your story? Do you feature a person (for example, your founder) in your story? But above all, what is the key take-away from your brand’s story, and is it easy to grasp or embrace?
If you cannot easily answer these questions, you need to go back to the brand drawing board and rewrite your brand story, or you’re going to lose customers. What’s YOUR favorite brand story?
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Image Credit: Thanks to Tom Fishburne for use of his cartoon with this post. Tom is the Founder and CEO of Marketoon Studios, a content marketing studio that helps businesses reach their audiences with cartoons. Check out his work at http://tomfishburne.com.
This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.
There are many statistics about employee engagement, but the most important fact that no one will deny is that employee productivity is tied to profits. When employees are disengaged and unproductive, there are fewer sales. By contrast, when employees surpass quotas with high productivity, sales rise. Therefore, productivity results in happier employees who remain with their companies longer, which in turn, results in satisfied customers. So, what does your business do to promote employee engagement?
Have you ever seen an engaged employee? Do you know what one looks like? According to Wikipedia, “an engaged employee is one who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about, his or her work and will act in a way that furthers an organization’s interests.”
However, a recent jobs report from Gallup found that:
[1] 70% of workers hate their jobs or are disengaged.
[2] Bad managers were the biggest cause of the high percentage of disengaged workers.
[3] When employees work remotely, they’re more engaged and productive.
As a result of those staggering statistics, I asked 25 of my favorite leadership and employee engagement experts to answer the question, “What one tip would you give to employers to promote employee engagement?” Here are their insightful tips.
John Baldoni (@JohnBaldoni): Connect the dots. Managers do their employers well by linking the work they do with the vision and mission of the organization. When employees know that what they do matters to the organization, they feel that they are making a contribution.
Shep Hyken (@Hyken): Want engaged employees? Create a FUN experience. FUN is an acronym for Fulfillment, Uniqueness, and Next. Employees want to be fulfilled; so treat them right and make them feel appreciated. Exploit them for their unique talents; what they’re good at and what they can offer that others might not. And get them excited about what’s next; the next project, the next new product, or even the next day.
Bob Kelleher (@BobKelleher): Here are my three tips: 1) Develop and brand a captivating Employer Value Proposition (why do people work here?) that galvanizes all employees from C-suite to new hires; 2) Make sure there is a focus on purpose, which is key to capturing your employees’ hearts and heads; and 3) Eliminate all perceived “caste” systems like executive parking spots, executive perk of flying business or first class, etc. – anything that says “We are better than you” or “Us vs. Them.”
Ronald Thomas (@ronald_thomas): Manage your workforce by walking around. In order to build trust, leaders must connect with their workforce. That means getting out of the offices and conference rooms and walking the floor. Stop by employees’ cubicles, take a seat, and see what they’re working on. Trust between workers and organizations has been broken, and the connection must be repaired.
Steve Curtin (@enthused): Be intentional about learning the names, hobbies and interests of your employees. When you see them at work, greet them by name and, as time permits, inquire about their hobbies and interests. When employees believe you care about them as people with lives, histories, families, and dreams, rather than just as full-time employees who occupy job roles that enable production, their commitment, job satisfaction, pride, and willingness to expend discretionary effort will soar.
Eric Jacobson (@EricKCExaminer): Discover each employee’s passion and provide him or her with an opportunity to experience that passion at work. For example, some people like to blog. Others enjoy taking photos. Many take pleasure in volunteering for the community. Too often, each person’s daily job responsibilities don’t allow time for these passions. So, identify and create ways to engage the blogger, photographer, community service leader, etc.
Leigh Branham (@ReEngageBook): Listen to your employees with every intention of responding with meaningful actions. This typically means conducting an employee engagement survey and taking PROMPT action on the issues surfaced that are most likely to: 1) increase general workforce engagement (or decrease disengagement); and 2) result in increased discretionary effort among employees considered most critical to achieving key business objectives. It’s shocking and depressing how many companies just conduct the survey to see what their score is without following up with actions to change the culture or improve management practices.
Rory Trotter (@RoryCTrotterJR): The single most effective way to promote employee engagement is to have managers sit down with their direct reports and discuss what the direct reports want out of their careers. Every employee should have a career development plan. This way, if employees feel that their efforts at work are as much of an investment in the company’s future as their own, they will dedicate their energy to the company, which aligns with high performance.
Bruce Temkin (@btemkin): Share the mission. Employees want to affiliate with organizations that have a sense of purpose, so make sure they understand the mission and continually reinforce how their actions support that mission.
Doug Dickerson (@managemntmoment): My advice to leaders is to set the example. Don’t promote engagement and leave it to others to implement. If you want your employees to be engaged, then you must show them how.
Cynthia Trivella (@CyndyTrivella): Never stop communicating. If you don’t have an organized and scheduled communications tool in place, create one. Often, leadership teams fail to get the buy-in and support they need from their employees. But more often than not, people will step up and participate if given the chance, but they first need to understand the goals of the organization.
Terri Scandura (@terriscandura): To increase employee engagement, leaders should develop exchange relationships with all followers on their teams.
Rebecca Bales (@LuminaLearning and @RebeccaLBales): According to recent Gallup findings, “When managers focus on their employees’ strengths, they can practically eliminate workplace disengagement.” This is huge because we know that people need to feel valued and that they make a difference. To leaders everywhere, prove that people make a difference in your business.
Adrian Swinscoe (@adrianswinscoe): I think it was Marcus Buckingham who first said, “People join companies and leave managers.” Therefore, my tip to employers who want to promote employee engagement is to invest in training for managers at all levels.
Lyn Boyer (@Lyn_Boyer): Employees must be challenged, and they must feel trusted, but they are only fully engaged when they have enjoyable relationships with supervisors and colleagues. Therefore, when employers build and promote workplace relationships, they enhance employee engagement.
Steve J. Gill (@sjgill): From the outset, tell new employees how their jobs contribute to the success of the organization. Keep reminding them of this and praise them frequently for contributing to the success of the organization. This applies to frontline employees as well as senior executives.
Mike Henry, Sr. (@mikehenrysr): Employers should help employees to create the best job possible for employees. This is a true partnership because an employee’s best job makes the employee happy, and a happy employee is also a great employee.
William Powell (LeadrshpAdvisor): Understand which emotions will create the type of engagement that your organization needs to achieve its goals. Whatever those emotions are, develop an appropriate culture featuring those emotions.
Sharlyn Lauby (@sharlyn_lauby): Create a feedback mechanism. It can be an employee survey, a town hall gathering, or dedicated one-on-one meetings. Find a method of sharing information and obtaining feedback. Then use the information to improve the workplace.
Louis Efron (@LouisEfron): Make every job the most important job at your company.
Scott McKain (@ScottMcKain): Employers should ask each employee: “If we could change ONE THING about how you do your job in order to make it easier for you to be more productive, what would you suggest?” And a corollary is: “If we could change ONE THING about your job to make it more enjoyable for you to become more engaged and productive, what would you suggest?” The employee must prioritize, and discussion is stimulated. If the question were, “What would you change?” and the employer doesn’t make the change, then the employee thinks that the organization doesn’t listen.
Doug Brown (@DougKBrown1): Since investing in engagement pays sound dividends and generates bottom line profits, a successful strategy is to develop leaders who understand the benefits of employee engagement and have the skills to inspire and motivate performance.
Stephen Baird, Esq. (@DuetsBlog and @WinthropMPLS): Lead by example.
Michelle Braden (@CoachingLeaders): Here are my three tips: 1) Engaged employees begin with authentic and engaged leaders; 2) Engaged employees are ones that take ownership of their work, which means that the leader has to give the opportunity and create a culture of taking ownership; and 3) Engaged employees enjoy and have the talents in what they do, so leaders have to make sure they have the right people in the right places – using their strengths rather than trying to make people something they are not.
Erika Andersen (@erikaandersen), author and leadership expert, wrote about employee engagement in a recent post for Forbes. “If a company’s focus is ‘How can we give our customers what they want,’ then that company needs great employees. To come up with the ideas, to make the great products, to interact with the customers. Employees aren’t a begrudged necessity in that kind of company – they’re what makes it possible. And if my company feels like that about me, and treats me that way, then I’m most likely to feel that way about my company and treat my company that way. Voilà: engagement. AND productivity, reduced turnover, attracting top talent. AND delighted customers, great products and services, big profits.”
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For more inspiration on this topic, visit my Employee Engagement Board on Pinterest:
http://pinterest.com/debbielaskeymba/employee-engagement
Take the Employee Engagement Universal Driver Survey from Leigh Branham:
http://www.quantumworkplace.com/app/gw/employeeengagement
Read Erika Andersen’s post on Forbes:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/2013/07/17/the-management-theory-that-explains-why-70-of-workers-are-disengaged
Image Credit: Thanks to Steve Curtin for the use of his image with this post. Read Steve’s Blog: http://www.stevecurtin.com/blog
This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.
These days, it seems as if everyone is talking about customer data. There’s big data, business intelligence, and mobile data. But with all of these sprouting warehouses of data, how much time do businesses spend to gather, share, and understand their customer data?
What exactly is big data? According to Forrester Research, “Big Data is the frontier of a company’s ability to store, process and access (SPA) all the data it needs to operate effectively, make decisions, reduce risks, and serve customers.”
In plain English, “Big data is not about the size of the data, it’s about the value within the data,” as described by Dave Wellman (@dwellman on Twitter).
In the B2B arena, most businesses use large-scale software systems, such as, SalesForce or customized CRM systems, to capture leads and maintain customer details. Several departments are involved in the data-gathering process because there are multiple customer touch points: contact centers and customer service, sales, and marketing departments. As a result, many departments are responsible for entering and updating customer records.
But how many businesses actually maintain organized procedures for storing and accessing data? How often are the records updated? How often are the records purged if a customer goes out of business? What are the basics when it comes to entering names, addresses, and common business abbreviations or terms including Inc., LLC, etc.? Bottom line, how many businesses discuss how to enter information into their customer databases as part of new employee onboarding?
While customer data is critical for business success, no leadership team should endorse “spying” on its marketing department when it comes to obtaining, storing, and understanding customer insights. This data should be easily accessible to all members of a leadership team, and it should be easily digestible by all – whether one is a member of the finance team, the personnel team, or the manufacturing team. The data should be frequently shared by a member of the sales or marketing team – and even better, by members of both specialty areas – to the entire leadership team.
When this happens, everyone can learn which products or services yield the most sales and the least sales, which result in the most problems and how the problems were handled, and where attention should be paid to make improvements.
This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.
Image Credit: Thanks to IBM for providing the image that served as inspiration for this post.
Do you remember “Heaven Can Wait?” In the 1978 movie starring Warren Beatty, a football player meets his death earlier than expected, but he was able to return to Earth in another body to continue to lead the life he wanted. A similar theme formed the basis of Bill Leider’s book, Brand Delusions, the fifth book in the Debbie Laskey Summer Reading Series. This book should be required reading for all CEOs and all members of leadership teams, no matter the size of the company they lead.
Let’s return to this “fictional” story. In Brand Delusions, a CEO was visited by a business expert who wanted to help analyze the CEO’s business, brand strength, and leadership team. While the book’s story may have been “fictional,” the truth is, the journey chronicled in the book could happen to any CEO in America today, whether the CEO leads a small business, a midsize business, a Fortune 500 business, or even a non-profit organization.
So why should this book be required reading when there are so many other books about management, leadership, marketing, branding, finance, operations, human capital, etc.? The answer lies in the secret jewel that appeared on the book’s early pages and reappeared on a regular basis.
Every leader throughout the fictional story’s company was asked to define the company’s brand. While many of the company’s leaders presented an acceptable definition of the brand, none thought their departments had any impact on the brand – except for the sales and marketing Vice President. The HR department was not tuned in; the finance department was not tuned in; the manufacturing department was not tuned in, etc. Each department within a company impacts its brand – and this is the secret that everyone started to understood as the book went on.
In the words of Bill Leider: “Your brand is a widely held set of beliefs and expectations about what you deliver and how you deliver it, validated by customers’ experiences.” This definition allowed each business unit to understand how they contributed to the development of the overall brand. If an advertisement did not tell the proper story about the product, that made an impact. If the product arrived late or damaged, that impacted the brand. If the customer service department did not know how to fix a customer’s issue, that impacted the brand. If HR did not hire employees who embraced the company’s mission and values, that impacted the brand. These are just a few examples.
So, for all you leaders, are your employees clear as to how they ALL make an impact on delivering your brand’s expectations? If not, you have your work cut out for you. Start by reading Brand Delusions.
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Visit Bill’s site: http://billleider.com
Follow on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/BillLeider
Image Credit: www.pinterest.com
There is no denying the fact that the business environment has changed over the last decade. Telecommuting has seen an increase. The rise in the phenomenon known as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to work has resulted in easier access to projects. With BYOD, there is also an increased possibility of security breaches. But, perhaps, the biggest change in the business environment is how employees are hired.
As a result of social media, employers have the tools to conduct a comprehensive background check of all potential hires before ever speaking on the phone or meeting in person. A hiring manager can conduct a Google search and quickly see a potential hire’s digital footprint. This digital footprint can, and often does, include a LinkedIn profile, Twitter account, Facebook page, Pinterest page, YouTube channel, SlideShare account, and Google Plus page. And these sites form just the tip of the social media iceberg.
Back in February 2013, Vala Afshar, Chief Customer Officer/CMO of Enterasys, wanted to hire a social media professional but removed résumés from the process. Instead, he asked that candidates apply via Twitter with a hashtag phrase of #socialCV and a link to their LinkedIn profile. Additional requirements for consideration included a minimum Klout score above 60, a minimum Kred influence score of 725, more than 1,000 active Twitter followers, and blog experience. Enterasys found its employee online, and this “experiment” is no longer viewed as an experiment in the chronicles of social media hiring.
So, how can a midsize business use online social media data to its advantage? After a detailed job description is created, the hiring manager needs to understand what success in a specific job looks like. Then, he or she can appropriately review a potential employee’s social sites with a better understanding of how the prospective employee would fit into the company’s culture and accomplish a position’s tasks.
Here’s what hiring managers should look for when conducting social media reconnaissance:
[1] If a prospective employee has a Twitter account with an egghead avatar, this probably means that he or she doesn’t have a professional photo or doesn’t care.
[2] If a prospective employee has a Twitter account with a few Tweets or statements about where he or she dines or the movies watched, then he or she doesn’t understand this platform – make sure that the person actually Tweets about his or her specialty area.
[3] If a prospective employee has a personal Facebook page and has photos from college parties or other weird events, this probably means that he or she doesn’t understand Facebook’s Privacy Settings or doesn’t care about the image being presented.
[4] If a prospective employee has a blog with posts filled with incorrect spelling and poor syntax, then you definitely don’t want to hire this person for any copywriting position.
[5] If a prospective employee has a YouTube channel, make sure that the uploaded videos don’t just feature funny cat antics – unless your business is a circus.
Is this the wave of the future? The answer will depend on your industry, the size of your business, and your corporate culture. But, one thing is certain: If you conduct social media searches for new hires, make sure that you understand social platforms and know the difference between appropriate content and inappropriate content. Your workplace success depends on it.
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Image Credit: Thanks to Scott Hampson for use of his comic with this post. Check out Scott’s work at http://www.agent-x.com.au/comic/your-true-profile/
This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.
With summer well underway, are you progressing with your catch-up reading? My summer reading series has provided introductions to a customer service survival guide, a branding manifesto, and a leadership guidebook. With this fourth installment of the Debbie Laskey Summer Reading Series, I introduce you to Sandy Carter of IBM’s Social Business Initiative and her blueprint entitled, Get Bold Using Social Media to Create a New Type of Social Business.
In today’s social economy, who doesn’t have a passion for connecting? If you want to know what your competitors are doing, or want to learn about a prospect before going on a sales call, it’s too easy to Google it. But, in the words of Sandy Carter, you must “have a bold agenda to engage your clients, your partners, and your employees…This book is just a start. I continue to learn from my colleagues, peers, clients, and partners.” Here’s how to follow Sandy’s path to getting bold with your social marketing efforts.
Your business must have three traits to succeed in the social economy:
[1] It must be ENGAGED: A social business connects people to expertise – information is shared, creativity is shared, and brand exposure is shared – and the results are trust and solutions to business challenges.
[2] It must be TRANSPARENT: A social business is constantly learning – tools and leadership models are embraced from many sources, and analytics are used – and the results yield solutions from inside and outside the company.
[3] It must be NIMBLE: A social business leverages social networks to use real-time data to make better decisions – this allows employees to quickly adapt.
While your company may understand these three traits, is there a Social Business Culture? If not, here are some tools to create one:
[1] Define the role of management and employees.
[2] Empower everyone to participate.
[3] Educate and enable.
[4] Build a culture for participation started inside and top down as well as bottom up (everyone might not participate, but everyone must understand what it means to be a social business).
[5] Experiment and have a structured approach to learn from mistakes.
Do you have social computing guidelines? If you’d like some examples, check out this site for nearly 250 policies from large companies as well as non-profits: http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php
As you develop your strategy, your company must leverage six principles of engagement:
[1] Focus on a goal for your engagement and define your goals upfront.
[2] Focus on your subject matter expertise and value to the reader – not on selling.
[3] Be consistent in commenting and engaging.
[4] Have a content strategy – don’t post content that is too far off-topic, and be timely.
[5] Focus on relationships, not numbers – don’t concentrate on the number of likes or fans.
[6] Integrate social techniques – share a message on several social platforms and be consistent.
There were countless examples provided in the book, and here were my favorites. The television channel, The History Channel, leveraged Foursquare, the social check-in site, so that when someone checked into a historical location, there were historical facts about that site. Imagine learning that you just checked into a small hotel where George Washington slept or that you just rode the first elevator in a city. Another fave is how 1-800-Flowers.com has integrated Facebook birthday reminders on its website and into emails as well as leading its industry when it comes to resolving issues in real-time.
So what are you waiting for? If you want your company to be a Social Business, it must “embed social into your soul.” Your social efforts must be just as important in your day-to-day operations as finance, R&D, personnel, sales, technology, PR, and marketing. Your social efforts must align with your overall growth strategies. This is the only way that your social efforts will create a competitive advantage and substantive value for your customers. Be bold!
This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.
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Read Sandy’s Blog: http://socialmediasandy.wordpress.com
Follow on Twitter: http://twitter.com/sandy_carter
Image Credit: www.gabe-harris.com
RELATED LINKS:
Summer Reading Series: How to Create A Customer Service Survival Kit
http://debbielaskey.blogspot.com/2013/06/summer-reading-series-how-to-create.html
Summer Reading Series: Branding Is More Than Just Logos
http://debbielaskey.blogspot.com/2013/06/summer-reading-series-branding-is-more.html
Summer Reading Series: How Leaders Can Turn Lemons into Lemonade
http://debbielaskey.blogspot.com/2013/07/summer-reading-series-how-leaders-can.html
In some businesses that are large enough to have separate sales and marketing departments, there can be, and too often is, tension between the two departments. This can occur for any number of reasons, but more often than not, the tension is the result of miscommunication, unfulfilled requests, and misunderstandings. However, the two departments have the same goal: an increase in both profits and satisfied customers.
As a marketer, I wanted to step into the shoes of some sales experts, so I recently asked for some perspectives from the other side of the aisle. I asked 20 sales experts this question: What one piece of sales advice would you give to marketing team members to either facilitate the sales process or improve the working relationship between sales and marketing teams?
Here are 20 tips to bridge the gap between sales and marketing – followed by Twitter handles:
Gary S. Hart (@SalesDuJour): Salespeople are marketing’s eyes and ears. They learn directly from the customer which marketing is effective and which is not. They learn what the customer wants and doesn’t want. They are a wealth of marketing research. So, marketers, embrace your salespeople and cultivate a mutually-beneficial relationship.
Jill Konrath (@jillkonrath): Review everything you create through the eyes of a prospect. Your opinion doesn’t matter – it’s only what customers think that matters.
S. Anthony Iannarino (@iannarino): Give salespeople the tools to nurture relationships in front of an opportunity. Don’t keep them behind the garden wall.
Leanne Hoagland-Smith (@CoachLee): People buy from people, not from glossy brochures or “fancy dancy” websites. Be authentic and get to know the person first. Your goal is to make a friend first, be valuable second, and this will allow you the opportunity to earn a sale.
Kelley Robertson (@Kel_Robertson): Invest more time asking questions so you can position your solution more effectively.
Mike Kunkle (@mike_kunkle): Spend a week with top sales reps who are working leads provided by marketing. Don’t just talk to the reps – but work with them and become involved in the process: making calls, sending emails, following up. See and feel what is and isn’t working firsthand.
Tibor Shanto (@TiborShanto): Marketers need to remember that they are part of a food chain, and as such, they should make sure that what they do can easily be handed off to sales – so that sales can do their part before they hand it off to the next link in the chain. Marketers should ensure that they enable sales “to get a firm grasp” to avoid slowdowns. The easiest way to achieve this is to establish an ongoing and two-way communication process.
Jeffrey Gitomer (@gitomer): Whether you are selling to a consumer or a business, whether you are selling on the phone or face-to-face, the process and the emotional involvement are the same. Someone wants to take ownership, and your job is to get them to visualize it, be engaged by you, agree with you, believe you, have confidence in you, trust you, accept your price, and pull the trigger.
Mike Weinberg (mike_weinberg): Please give me compelling, relevant, customer-focused talking points to help get a prospect’s attention. Help me get in the door.
Trish Bertuzzi (@bridgegroupinc): To know a man, you must walk in his shoes. Every marketer should spend at least one day a month following up on the leads he/she creates. Where the rubber meets the road in lead quality is in having real conversations with potential buyers.
David A. Brock (davidabrock): Everything the salesperson does must fundamentally address the issue of “What’s in it for the customer (individual and organization).” If we cannot answer that, then we are unprepared to pursue a business opportunity, to make a sales call, etc. If we ask ourselves that question before we target a customer, before we make a sales call, throughout the execution of our sales process, then we will increase our value and be focusing on customers that really want to buy.
Ian Brodie (@ianbrodie): Get your feet wet – jump into the pool. Don’t analyze things to death, act like sales and just “do.”
Ardath Albee (@ardath421): B2B marketers will build a better relationship with the sales team if the leads they provide are from accounts/companies that can actually buy from them. The right title and right industry may be great, but if the lead cannot buy, salespeople lose respect for marketing because their time is wasted. It’s time to tighten up lead scoring and make it a more valuable part of the process by including attributes from ideal customer profiles to flip the usual focus from quantity to quality.
Richard Ruff (@saleshorizons): Learn what information in what form salespeople need in order to influence each phase of the customer’s buying process.
Mark D. Synek (@MarkSynek): To make the relationship between sales and marketing a powerful force multiplier, grade both departments on some of the same metrics. It used to be that “sales” was all about a number, and “marketing” results were harder to quantify. Today’s marketing automation and lead generation tactics allow both teams to use SHARED GOALS that align the organizations more tightly.
Brad Hanson (@managementbrad): We need to stop selling and find a person with a problem.
Lisa Woods (@ManageAmericans): Use the customer’s words because that is what they listen to first.
Josh Lowry (Josh_Lowry): Here’s some advice to either the CMO or Vice President of Marketing: Stay close to sales. Measure everything and hold marketing accountable for the results delivered to sales. When you review your positive results with the CEO or Vice President of Sales, and the CEO asks the VP of Sales if he agrees with your contribution, unless he says, “Yes, I cannot hit my number without their great work,” you are not close enough to sales.
Babette Ten Haken (@babettetenhaken): Think twice before you trust your data. Ask yourself: Does it even make common sense?
Dave Stein (@davestei): Sales and marketing teams should collaborate to define what determines a qualified lead.
In the words of advertising and positioning gurus Al Ries and Jack Trout, there is definitely something that both sales and marketing teams can agree on: “The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospect’s mind.” Hopefully, the insights provided in this post will help to bridge the gap between sales and marketing teams in your business so that owning a word in your prospect’s mind might happen for you!
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Image Credit: Thanks to Ted Goff for use of his cartoon with this post. Check out Ted's work at http://www.tedgoff.com.
This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.
