24 Dec 2010
0

Make it easy for your sales prospects to say yes

“It’s too expensive, it’s too complicated, it won’t work for my company, I’m happy with my current supplier, I don’t understand it” – you name it, we’ve heard it. Welcome objections. See them as an invitation to clarify your product or service, rather than as the end of a conversation.  Answering objections is part of the selling process, it helps your sales prospect get to a yes. You can make this process easier by getting a few simple things right first time.

Meet a need – In order for a sales prospect to say yes, they have to see how your product or service could help their company day to day. By seeking to understand your client and their business needs, you can ensure they are getting precisely what they need from you. This understanding can lead to well informed new product development. If you understand what they need, and cannot match it to a product or service you currently have, then there is an opportunity for future growth for your own company.

Take the risk away – Buying a new product or engaging a new supplier always has an element of risk attached. Will the product meet the expectations given by the salesperson? Will the new supplier deliver on time and in the manner agreed? You can mitigate this risk by a number of means, for example:

Case Studies – These provide a great opportunity to showcase your current clients and describe how they have used your product or service to their advantage. It shows the sales prospect that others have taken the risk and it has paid off. Keep case studies up to date and only give the prospect case studies that are relevant to their own situation.

Adjust the price – The price of a product or service could represent a big risk to a company. By adjusting it, i.e. lowering it, to a level that the prospect feels more comfortable with you could get the sale. However, an element of caution is needed with this approach as it may devalue your product or service permanently. 

Agree to a trial – Often sales prospects need to see your product or service in action before they can see how it could be useful to them. If it gets you to a yes, you may consider the practicalities of offering this to wavering prospects.

Produce and distribute top quality sales enablement material – Your sales material could be the first introduction a sales prospect gets to your company. A well-produced set of promotional materials will help to get the client to say yes. It will also give them the tools to be an internal advocate for you within their own company. Of course, sales people are trained to speak to and deal with the decision maker, but in a time where economic pressures are obvious within tech companies, they have to be able to justify every expenditure. Your sales material will be used to do this.

Concise and Congruent – During the process of producing sales material make sure you brief the whole company on what your key messages are. From the receptionist to the CEO, everyone should know the essence of what you do and be able to communicate it in one sentence. Why is this important? It reassures the client – everyone is saying the same thing about the organisation and its product or service.

The road from sales prospect to customer is not a linear road. Mitigate some of the twists and turns by smoothing the road where you can.

23 Dec 2010
0

Have you got permission? Legal issues of email marketing

In the UK, you need to look to the Data Protection Act for guidance on the permissions you need for a compliant email marketing campaign. Getting these permissions is not a “nice to have”; it is a legal requirement to comply. You and your company could be in serious trouble if they are not met. Aside from that, seeking and gaining permission to email sets you and your company apart from spammers. In a world where email marketing has become a favoured way to communicate with clients, a client knowing they have signed up and given permission does give your email campaign more chance of being read.   That in mind, you have to make sure that when you are building your email marketing list that you comply with the rules.

    Make sure you BCC everyone – People on your email marketing list should not be able to see others. Aside from the fact that they could simply press reply all and send a dodgy message around the same group, this is about confidentiality. People sign up to your email marketing list believing their details will be kept private.

      Let people know who is emailing them – Send your email campaign from a named person. Firstly, it is a requirement via the Data Protection Act but aside from that it instils confidence in the recipient that they are not being spammed. You can also encourage subscribers to let emails coming from “Joe Bloggs@” onto their safe lists, that would not happen with a generic “admin@” email.

        Ensure the necessary information about your business is in the email – This includes full business name, address, phone number and company number. Again, this reassures that the company sending the email is valid and real.

          Provide an obvious opt out – although you have complied with the opt in permissions needed to create a legal email marketing campaign; there will always be people who decide that they do not want to receive your email newsletter. Place your opt out in a position where readers can see and use it if they want.

            Don’t send individual messages to people on your email marketing list unless you have specific permission to do so – Your email list is only as strong as the permissions that you have. It is not a personal contact list for you to use for networking or micro-targeting. If you think that when your email marketing effort matures you will seek to send individual messages to list members then seek the permission up front when they join.

            Mark unsolicited marketing emails clearly – Any email that someone has not given their express permission to receive could be said to be spam.  However, there may be exceptional times when you want to send out an email without permission. For example, sending an email to an older marketing list that does not have necessary permissions to ask them to join your current, compliant list. In this case you need to mark the email clearly as an unsolicited email marketing campaign.

            Legal permissions aside, email newsletters remain a strong way to communicate with clients and colleagues alike. Make sure you use this tool as best you can by ensuring that the correct permissions are in place for your campaign.

            21 Dec 2010
            0

            Effective B2B Marketing Blogs

            B2B blogs are a great way of engaging and informing your customers at the same time as seeking to position yourself and your company as the credible experts in your niche. However, with a slew of B2B marketing blogs appearing every day how can you ensure yours stand out and get noticed by clients, competitors and the wider market?

            1.   Content – The first thing that gets you noticed is your content. What are you blogging about? Every day office happenings are a no-no, while qualified tips and evidence based market insight will get people thinking. Use your B2B marketing blog as your calling card. It can be a place to show everyone how clever, plugged in, insightful you are.  Make sure your content and your overall blog has a theme – if it is B2B marketing, then stick to that topic. Don’t stray unless there is a clear connective link to the material.

            2.   Traffic – content, no matter how wonderful it is, is nothing without traffic. Register with the search engines and blog directories, spend some time commenting on other blogs – sneakily leaving an HTML trackback on a key word and make sure your content title and text are SEO enhanced. There are plenty of ways to build traffic to your blog. Use what “normal” marketing techniques you have to hand too – put the URL on your business card, put links on your website and email signature and put a reference in any email marketing you do too.  

            3.   Frequency– blogs are diaries. That doesn’t mean that you need to update them daily. In fact doing so, with the fantastic information you’ve committed to writing in them, would be a full time job in itself. Your updates have to be frequent enough to ensure people come back to check it and interact with it now that they have found it. For a B2B marketing blog, once or twice as week is enough.

            4.   Ability to share – blogs are relatively old school when it comes to social media, however that does not make them any less powerful. Marrying your blog with some of the newer kids on the social media block like Twitter and Facebook can be a powerful promotional tool. Use ShareThis or AddThis widgets at the bottom of each post to allow readers to share what they find useful. It is good promotion for you and gets you more traffic.

            5.   Guest posting – one of the most powerful things to do with your B2B marketing blog is to invite a guest poster. This could be a known industry commentary, a client or even a competitor. It gives your blog credibility and gives your readers views from another standpoint.

            6.   Theming – free blogs are available on WordPress and Blogger to anyone who wants them. The thing is – they look like free blogs. You can get a relatively inexpensive and good looking blog theme from Woothemes or try the new, and much lauded Thesis theme for WordPress. They make your blog look more professional and credible which is critical in the B2B arena. 

            View your B2B marketing blog as a very visual extension of your brand. As such normal marketing principles still apply to its promotion. However, using some of the above tips and tricks might just get you ahead of the curve and secure the all important differentiator needed to make your blog stand out from the crowd.

            20 Dec 2010
            2

            Social Media in B2B [INFOGRAPHIC]

            A few weeks back I read some very interesting findings on Social Media in B2B from a survey conducted on LinkedIn. The B2B Technology Marketing Community was surveyed on the changing landscape of marketing in B2B and specifically the rise of Social Media. You can read the full findings in Holger Schulze’s Slideshare presentation.

            Overall the survey throws up some interesting results. In fact, so interesting we’ve created an infographic to show some of the key findings.

            Unsurprising given the survey was conducted on LinkedIn and B2B marketing is often to a professional audience, LinkedIn came out as the most effective social media network for B2B marketers to use. Then came opt-in email marketing, followed by Twitter, then Blogs. Facebook was not seen as particularly effective for B2B marketing, which again is unsurprising given that it tends to be private individuals expressing personal interests rather than business orientated.

            B2B Marketing Tactics

            Over the last three years, social media, content creation, email communication and expanded web presence have been on the increase as effective methods of B2B marketing. The last three years, you will recall, have been times of substantial economic woes. These methods have increased in popularity not only because they are effective but also because they are cost effective and ultimately trackable.

            Use of events and webinars as part of the marketing mix trended flat across the same three year period. This is not surprising as it takes more effort to organise an event or hook up a webinar than it would to create say, an email marketing campaign. Chances are that for the effort, the email marketing is more effective.

            What is interesting and what shadows wider marketing trends is the steep decline in direct mail and print ads. This scattergun approach is looking more and more out of date compared to the targeted, audience definition that is offered by digital B2B marketing.

            Roadblocks to Success

            As 45% of respondents admitted to having a social media presence but no significant engagement, it seems B2B marketers are still dipping their toes in the water to see what social media is and how they can use it. They know it could be effective, but there are significant roadblocks to using it to its potential.

            The biggest roadblock by far is measurement of success. We have grown use to the formulas and precision on which digital display and search advertising is measured. Social media measurements are still evolving – that poses a problem for the marketer that needs to prove cost and resource effectiveness.  Indeed, 43% of respondents admitted to having no measurements in place at all. Overtime as the measurements evolve, the B2B marketing community will have more confidence that what they are doing is effective, and can be measured as such.

            Social Media Objectives

            By far the biggest reason for respondents to use social media was to build awareness. This is interesting, especially seen through the prism of 43% having no measurements in place. Building brand awareness has often been an expensive thing to do and a woolly, ethereal thing to measure. Every marketer wants to build awareness of their company or brand but as economic pressure pushes the need for measurement of effectiveness the two findings almost do not marry up. B2B marketers want to raise awareness of their brand but are nervous of, or simply do not use, measurements to see if campaigns have worked.

            Effectiveness of Social Media

            This leads into the next finding. Only 12.8% of respondents stuck their neck out and said they thought social media was effective. The remaining 87.2% were not as sure. Without effective measurement it is unsurprising.

            It seems B2B marketers are aware they need to be using social media. It is cost effective, draws targeted audiences and effectiveness can be measured. As it is relatively new however, there is still a great deal of hesitancy in the sector to fully embrace the potential of social. This means that early adaptors of social and all its applications can make significantly more impact than they ordinarily would.

            Feel free to use our infographic for your site, report or presentation, but please make sure to link back to us.

            20 Dec 2010
            0

            How the cloud is helping the design community

            For years, the end of the traditional nine to five job has been heralded by tech geeks keen to use technology to streamline their working process. Many of the technological advances of the last three decades have been assimilated into the workplace with relative ease, and with minor disruption to the work life status quo.  The hot and sticky commutes, magnetic pull of the office desk and punch in and out of micro management have won out. In the last few years, with the creation of the cloud, the trumpets are blaring again for the rules of work to change.

            Simply put, the cloud is an internet based tool. It allows people to store, share and amend documents in a collaborative way from wherever they are in the world. The cloud is revolutionising how the global design community operates and beyond these early adopters has huge implication for cross continental collaboration, and indeed for work life balance generally.

            What does the cloud allow designers to do?

            Store – Sites such as Basecamp and Huddle allow you to upload documents, presentations and creative files to their servers. This means that your own computer does not get slowed down by the amount of data it stores. It provides a cost effective back-up system for you and allows you – and indeed others – to access work from all over the world.

            Share – The big advantage of using cloud sites is that it allows others to access your work. Rather than sending huge emails bound to clog up systems and computer memory, simply log onto Basecamp or Huddle and view the documents there. Working in this environment, you need not worry about a missed email again. Cloud technology allows you access to the most up to date document at any time.

            Create – The implications of storing and sharing data is massive for the design community. This virtual world allows them to view the work of colleagues, comment on it, brainstorm ideas, collaborate with other designers and hone and refine work all from the comfort of whatever location they are currently at. Be in Suffolk in their pyjamas or Copacabana Beach in shorts, the design team can still see and collaborate on projects.

            Communicate - Both Basecamp and Huddle offer the opportunity to communicate with others via a conference call or indeed via remote video conference. Again, this is revolutionary. While all this technology is available in different places, the beauty of the cloud is that it is brought together under one roof as a virtual office.  This is a fantastic opportunity for designers. The hours spent travelling to meetings can be used completing client briefs and trying for a shorter working day.

            The cloud works on a smaller scale too. Sites like Campaign Monitor and Litmus allow email marketers to log in and amend campaigns, lists and newsletters from different locations. Again, others can collaborate with this process and ensure that email newsletters are the best they can be before sent out.

            Most big cloud collaboration sites like the ones mentioned have modest registration or usage fees. For such a low price, a new way of working is open to designers. From local to global campaigns, from colleagues to collaborators, from brainstorm to delivery – cloud technology will revolutionise how design is developed and delivered.