Archive for Uncategorized
Why Asking Sales What They Need from Marketing is a Bad Idea
Posted by: | CommentsA cardinal sin of a marketer is to ask the sales team what they need to be competitive. The response to that question elicits a range of requests, often unrelated to the realities of the market.
Recently, two independent reports confirmed for me a trend I’ve been seeing for years: that sellers have far less control over how products are sold than they believe, and it’s buyers that are increasingly making up their minds before contacting a supplier.
MarketingSherpa published a B2B Marketing Benchmark Survey that reported that B2B sales cycles are getting shorter.
The MarketingSherpa survey correlated lower deal prices to shorter sales cycles, but I believe something more significant is happening.
The Corporate Executive Board published a study reporting that…
“Buyers are not contacting suppliers until they are, on average, 57% of the way through their purchase process —meaning they have already determined their needs, completed due diligence, and have even begun to do some comparison shopping.”
Given this market dynamic, asking the sales team what they need would be a foolish exercise and a waste of company resources. In the end, the sales team would get what they asked for, but not get what they need to be competitive.
Customer engagement starts well before first contact with a salesperson and they are much further along in their purchase decision. Whether the prospect makes contact or not will largely be determined by the information provided to the buyer, the company’s reputation, and market visibility. The marketing team, therefore, plays a decisive role in helping prospects with needs determination and due diligence.
Update: Additional insight from Beth Negus Viveiros over at Chief Marketer
“Recent Corporate Executive Board research shows that B2B customers may look at up to 10 sources of information about potential purchases prior talking to a vendor. Many of these sources are typically not supplier related. In a survey of 1,900 B2B customers, word of mouth was cited by 72% of respondents, while 62% cited non-supplier blogs and 47% cited trade journals.”
The One Thing That Makes You Better
Posted by: | CommentsGetting better at what you do or who you are takes commitment. It doesn’t happen by accident and no one is going to do it for you. Each day you have an opportunity to become a better professional, a better dad, a better sister, a better friend, and a better spouse. Find The One Thing you can do today to make you better. Then tomorrow find another. Don’t stop.
Launch Clinic Top Product Management Blog for 2012
Posted by: | CommentsStrategic Product Manager listed Launch Clinic as a top product management blog for 2012 – booya! Thanks, Stewart!
Hopefully this whole ‘the world is going to end thing’ doesn’t pan out and I’ll earn my way onto the list for 2013.
How to Say ‘No’ Without Getting Fired (part 3)
Posted by: | CommentsMarketers struggle to say ‘No’ to requests they know are frivolous. Sometimes it’s just easier to go with the status quo than make waves. But admit it: you (and your team) do a lot of extra stuff that is a waste of time and resources.
Part 1 was about linking everything you do in marketing to the goals the CEO values.
Part 2 discussed the importance of knowing your buyers.
The final installment of “How to Say ‘No’ Without Getting Fired” is an exploration into one more thing effective product marketers need to know: the buyer’s process for making a purchase decision.
Buyers follow a process that leads to a purchase decision
Why should anyone in Marketing be concerned about how buyers buy? Your Sales team takes care of that, right?
Salespeople are expected to know how buyers in an individual deal make a purchase decision. Marketing should know how buyers in a market segment make a purchase decision.
First, there are patterns (steps) in the way buyers in a market segment arrive at a purchase decision. The pattern is logical and predictable. Second, there are different buying roles that get involved in making a purchase decision, and they get involved at different times in the process for different reasons. Third, is the two previous items sets the stage for identifying marketing gaps that can facilitate a purchase decision, and help prioritize marketing projects.
According to the Corporate Executive Board…
“57 percent of the purchase decision is complete before a customer calls a supplier, providing a large opportunity for Marketing to influence the early stages of the purchase process.” – http://www.executiveboard.com/sales-marketing/challenger/insight-led-marcomm/index.html
Where do you go from here?
Three things are needed to confidently say ‘No’ to frivolous marketing requests without getting fired:
- Having a clear understanding of business goals and how they relate to what you do
- Mastery of the people who influence a purchase decision
- Knowledge of the purchase decision process
Saying ‘No’ Without Getting Fired is about knowledge not power. Oh and it makes it much easier to say ‘Yes’ with confidence too.
iBooks Author: A Game Changer for Marketers
Posted by: | CommentsToday Apple announced iBooks 2 and iBooks Author, effectively disrupting the business of school textbooks. I wrote that the “Apple iPad Will Be a Game Changer for Education” when the iPad was originally announced, but it didn’t take a rocket surgeon to figure that out. iPad-based textbooks in the K-12 marketer are well within Apple’s distinctive competence.
iBooks Author a Game Changer for Marketers
The implication for marketers is immense. Let me get the conversation started…
- Deliver rich, interactive marketing collateral where you can not only create a persuasive message but a persuasive delivery to match
- Create game-changing product documentation
- Develop instructional materials that actually teach
- Self-publish thought leadership books without the need of a publisher
Stop what you’re doing, go to the Appstore, and download iBooks Author. Get to know it and how to use it. It will change the way you go to market and give you a competitive advantage (professionally and personally).
What are your ideas? What could you do with iBooks Author?
How to Say ‘No’ Without Getting Fired (part 2)
Posted by: | CommentsProduct marketing managers struggle to say ‘no’ to requests they know are frivolous. Sometimes it’s just easier to go with the status quo than make waves. Admit it: you (and your team) work on stupid stuff that you know is a waste of time and resources (believe me, you’re not alone).
In Part 1 of How to Say ‘No’ Without Getting Fired I discussed the importance of understanding the goals that matter most to the CEO and translating it into what you do as a product marketing manager.
But even if you have a clear understanding of the business goals, a limited understanding of your buyers would not prepare you to say ‘no’.
Companies don’t buy products
Companies don’t buy products, people do. That was sage advice to me early in my career and it still applies today.
So if companies don’t buy products and people do, who are these people? How well do you know them?
I’m comfortable you could tell me their job titles, but what else? What is their annual salary? How do they get compensated? Who is their boss? What is their personal win?
In any market there are patterns. One of the patterns relate to buyers. We call this kind of pattern a Buyer Persona. A Buyer Persona helps you identify a likely buyer in the wild, and how to get inside his head.
Understanding buyers isn’t a desk job
Getting a full appreciation and perspective of your buyers requires work; field work. You can’t make it up and you can’t rely exclusively on your salespeople or the one subject matter expert in the company.
Think like an anthropologist. Find time to interact with real potential buyers in the wild. Observe them in their habitat, how they eat, raise their young, and forage for food.
Building an understanding of your buyers takes time and it takes perseverance. But the payoff is huge. Saying ‘No’ is especially empowering when backed by market evidence.
How to Say ‘No’ Without Getting Fired (part 1)
Posted by: | CommentsProduct marketing managers are inundated with requests for all manner of marketing collateral, sales tools, and sales support. So many that the list of requests grows faster than the ability to complete them in a timely and quality fashion.
When product marketing managers decide to push back and say ‘No’, it’s met with displeasure, disdain, or disgust. Usually the person with the most power or most senior job title decides the priority, and the product marketing manager is powerless to defend her position.
Jeff Bezos said it so eloquently: “The great thing about fact-based decisions is that they overrule the hierarchy. The most junior person in the company can win an argument with the most senior person with regard to a fact-based decision.”
More power isn’t what’s needed, it’s facts.
Unclear Goals Result in Unclear Priorities
Product marketing managers need to be clear about how they, as individual contributors, support the goals of the business. In particular, the goals that matter most to the CEO. Unfortunately, the goals of the CEO (lofty or not), aren’t always translated to product marketing managers in a way that is meaningful.
Knowing the goals that matter most to the CEO is the first step in saying ‘no’ without getting fired. When you understand which goals matter the most you’ll find yourself in a safer place. Beware that there could be different agendas at play between you and the CEO which can result in different interpretations of the goals. Your job is to clarify the goals and use it as a center of gravity to help you make better decisions.
According the to 2010 Pragmatic Marketing Product Management and Marketing Survey, product marketing managers support 2 product managers and each product manager supports 3 products. This implies that product marketing managers support 6 products.
Without a clear understanding of the most critical goals the CEO values, you are left to travel without a compass to guide you.
Time for a Dose of Reality
You can’t market each product equally and expect them all to deliver top results. The product managers you support will be pressuring you to provide more marketing for their products. If the roles were reversed you would do it too. Your mission isn’t to provide unlimited marketing support to every product manager, it’s to help achieve the goals of the business.
Which products support the CEO’s goals the best? How do you know? Who will you need to talk with to know for sure?
SEOmoz: 8 Things You Can Give Away to Earn Links + Mentions
Posted by: | CommentsKenny Martin over at SEOmoz has a nice list of easy things you can do to earn links that can help you build better organic search rankings.
Ah, nice outfit Kenny.
MarketingProfs: 15 Lead Magnets to Help You Capture and Convert Leads
Posted by: | CommentsHere’s a link to a nice article by Tyler Garns at InfusionSoft, via MarketingProfs. What I like about Tyler’s approach is the focus on understanding what your visitors want first.
Many websites do a horrible job of capturing leads. Businesses think that slapping a “Contact Us” or “Sign Up for Our Newsletter” Web form on the homepage of a website is compelling enough to get visitors to give up their personal contact information. Think again.
Most websites capture less than 10% of their Web traffic. Think of how much revenue your business may be missing out on because you’re not capturing the traffic you spend big bucks to get. If your business is throwing Web traffic in the trash, start re-evaluating your lead-capture strategy by looking at the effectiveness of your “lead magnets.”
“Pragmatic” is the word of the year for 2011
Posted by: David Daniels on December 16, 2011 | Comments (1)Merriam-Webster named “pragmatic” the word of the year for 2011. So nice to feel like one of the cool kids for a change.
Pragmatic – advocating behavior that is dictated more by practical consequences than by theory or dogma
Are you taking products to market by theory or dogma or by practical consequences?
See also: Effective Product Marketing and Product Launch Essentials