Magnus Marketing Blog

Well, I am joyful to report that I did receive both my last payment and commission check from Arbita. And they had the respectfulness to communicate their apologies for the delay. First, that indicates that there was some condolences and recognition that I actually have to eat - particularly since I have to rebuild my client base. Second, apparently the human resource services market must be turning around which is good news for ALL HR services providers including technology, recruiters, and sourcers. Looks like Shally has some competition from Irina - an up and comer in sourcing and a lot of new technologies are coming out - the job market itself is soon to follow. Good news all around.

Perusing LinkedIN, someone asked whether the dial or the conversation was more important. I say in fact neither if it doesn't get you any further in the sales process! But seriously, first you have to connect to someone in order to have a conversation, then conduct the conversation to uncover the right information with the right questions.

It amazes me how in prospecting so many advocate leaving "benefit" messages and teasers and advocate not telling too much because then your prospect will have a "yes" or "no" and not respond. I ask why?

One of my clients engaged with a major manufacturer and is reselling their service for small to midsize companies. The major manufacturer, who is not doing that well in the market anyway (and whom I invested a few bucks), send over sales support material. I was shocked by the quality or lack thereof of the material designed to "engage the C-Level" prospect. All the material drove for was a meeting - get the meeting and business will come. Actually, after using their script and engaging in a dialogue with a "C" level prospect, I quickly realized that if I set up the "appointment" it would have led nowhere as the "C" level person had no clue about the particular parameters involved in the service - his IT Director, however did. I would have wasted my client's time, his technical support manager, my time, and the "C" level contact following the advice of the manufacturer. The manufacturer provided an "Objection handling" sheet that indicated that one should not be directed to Purchasing - uh, most smaller firms don't HAVE a purchasing manager! And, you wonder why the big boys can't sell to the SMB firms.

In sales, it isn't about "getting the appointment", it is understanding whether there is a need and determining whether YOUR offering (product, service, or self) will fit that particular situation. Much of that qualification can be done upfront without too many steps or too much involvement - a good conversation or two should do it.

So, lets talk about corporate culture, fit, and competitive advantage. In an autocratic, "this is the way it is", type company such as the one my friend was previously affiliated with, the focus is on what the management thinks, wants, and desires. It is a management centric and product centric company, not customer centric company. Many mature organizations as well as start-ups become ossified or frozen in a mindset because "this is the way it is" and lose the market focus and customer focus that is required for long term growth and success. Founders with deep experience may "dictate" the growth strategy based on their assumptions, which may not be validated against actual market demands or needs. Not to mention that rigid processes and task definition stifle employee productivity and inhibit growth.

For example: As a highly intelligent, creative,very opinionated and observant, customer-focused professional (modern knowledge worker), I cannot succeed in a position where: a) my skills and capabilities are not utilized to the fullest extent, b) where I have no empowerment, c) where I cannot grow. For example, the prospecting I do leads me to learn a great deal about prospect behavior which in turns leads to both strategy development and tactical development. After a few months of talking with prospects, I can easily turn around a very strong tactical marketing plan nearly guaranteed to target and "pull in" customers. I understand the buyers, know where they are, know what motivates them, etc and can develop tools, tactics, strategies to play into that - creating a force multiplier to identify the right buyers and attract them. And, by "staying in touch" directly, can detect shifts in the market quickly. I fit very well into a collaborative, structured environment with defined roles and direct, open, honest communication. A flexible and flat organization that focuses on the customer. I work very well when told, "we would like to grow revenues X%, acquire X customers, get meetings, etc" and am empowered to do what it takes to achieve that goal. Anything other than that, I am guaranteed to fail - either from demotivation or from "strangulation" - the inability to execute in the manner required.

Organizations with such tightly defined processes create an assembly line mentality, even with customer acquisition. Customers are viewed as conversions or numbers, people to be sold to, not treated as valued partners. This transactional mentality quickly diminishes the value of the solution, creating a commodity. Without bidirectional communication, the organization loses touch with the customer and market. It is quantity over quality. The tendency is to provide tools, not ask - "what do you need to succeed".

Smaller organizations looking to gain advantage over established competitors or in more established markets, can make huge strides with a customer and employee centric focus. Even in larger ones, more people tend to shop in our Kohl's store rather than other stores because of the friendly and nice atmosphere and service our associates provide - they drive out of their way to come there because of it. Even in speaking with CIO's more recently, they told me outright - they would rather talk to me rather than a pushy, aggressive hard sell salesguy. So, if you want real differentiation - be nice, care about the customer, offer something of value and the money will naturally come.

A friend of mine was consulting with a small startup firm that had been bought out by some VC types. Working directly with the founders, she derived and explored various avenues for their homegrown product to fit, made tons of prospecting calls with zero marketing support (no money for lists, good collateral, good website, etc), set up initial meetings...all during the height of the recession when IT spending was cut significantly. One of the meetings led to the identification of a senior sales rep, a true down in the trenches heavily networked salesguy who - when laid off from his company (because he brought in not enough sales) started to work with the startup also.

Five minutes after said salesguy joins the firm, he does what any good salesperson does - breaks into his rolodex and sets up meetings. Not extraordinary or unusual by any means - in fact, quite expected. Well, the company gets one major opportunity and goes nuts. Suddenly the salesguy is put in charge of all sales and is managing my friend. The first thing that happens is she is removed from any executive level support and is shut down from any further input to the company, the second thing is that she is labelled a telemarketer and told to quickly bang the phone and get appointments. No proposals, no demos, no meetings without the micromanging oversight of the salesguy (who hasn't closed a deal yet). Her strategic and analytical manner and philosophy is quickly rejected. Said salesguy chats up the executives and is handed golden keys to whatever he needs - new website, collateral, anything.

The founders themselves, synergistic with my friend, are depowered and shoved into subordinate positions with little input into the company they built. The company, rapidly gaining a reputation for being friendly, flexible, and nice is becoming an ossified form of itself driven by words like "and that is how it will be" and "process over innovation" and "dollars over customers".

My friend, a senior level marketing and sales person who has closed deals, built inside sales and telemarketing teams, and brought innovation in business development process was told - you do what we say or else bye-bye. The job they were going to offer her was that of a telemarketer, pounding the phone. No longer were her skills, experience, and expertise a fit, no longer was she valued - of course, she would have been valued if she had a Rolodex and brought contacts.

Watching as her beloved founders and their product are taken over by people with no soul was too painful. She said the words "the engagement will have to end" and disgustingly walked away...knowing another firm with great potential will likely never achieve it because they don't care anymore about anything 'cept the green.

Moral of the story: Entrepreneurs - if you want real success, stay away from the venture capitalists, never give up more than 51% of your company, and retain control. Make sure the you hire people like my friend, people who can execute and do the job - find the holes and fill them. Competitive advantage can come from culture and customer focus too, ya know.

I cannot implore you business owners, sales people, CEO's, and Venture types to please, please hire and work with sales and marketing people who know something about your business. The worst thing any young, entrepreneurial firm can do is work with, hire, or engage marketing, biz dev, or sales people who do NOT get your industry, product, or service. Or even worse, really have very little marketing, sales, or biz dev experience at all.

This can absolutely ruin, and I mean RUIN, and company. If it doesn't outright cause bankruptcy, it can set a company back significantly. A friend of mine worked for a company with a VP who came from another discipline and ran marketing, needless to say - the lack of tactics and application caused the firm to lose visibility, hurt lead generation, and caused the loss of business. It set the company back. The company brought in consultants to help the situation who lacked the business and product knowledge which made it even worse, because the tactics were completely inappropriate to the market. The friend is looking to leave the company due to the sheer frustration being experienced - she has the knowledge and experience, but the company - like most firms want the "expert" outside opinion from the CEO's buddies. Recently, a friend of mine that has tangential technology knowledge is seeking software clients to provide sales strategy and business development services to. I don't question the sales ability, but I shudder to think about the software firm that expects this person to generate results given there is zero experience selling software which is more business driven anyway. Another former employer - one who drove a company to near bankruptcy due to his incompetence in sales and marketing and who surprised me by becoming a Director of Sales/Marketing at another technology company - lasted 2.5 years before probably being fired yet again. No surprise there. These people, just from their credentials, show a lack of knowledge. Some things, some can be learned - however, learning should occur in a respective position. People in VP/Director roles should be able to drive the effort and possess the skill and the respective industry knowledge. The friend lacking software selling should work for a mature company in a sales representative role to gain the right knowledge and training. The former employer just should NOT do anything with sales and marketing and stick to the core expertise he has.

I don't work with clients where I do not have some understanding of the business, industry, or solution (more likely some combination thereof) and have a level of certainty that I can be successful. I don't proffer my marketing expertise unless I know how to bring a company, product, or service to the market. I know people at Gartner, I was behind the scenes at Brainstorm, I did soup to nuts tradeshow coordination, collateral and web development, venture capital business showcases, email campaigns, PR,market research, advertising - I have done everything in marketing and biz dev, even closed some sales. I have sold software, hardware, solutions, professional services to every industry. My MBA enabled me to learn industry issues and how to STRATEGICALLY research and analyze companies. This knowledge, this motivation, this long experience through different companies makes me and, subsequently, my clients successful.

And successful they are with meetings and leads still being generated fairly consistently even in a tough market.

I implore you, like the big companies, do due diligence and hire sales and marketing people that get it.

Once upon a time, in the land of Management - there was a Manager, who had a team of managers and employees. He worked in the land of Management for about 3 years, one of the longest tenure Managers. Sometime around the 2.5 year mark, something happened or something changed and the Manager was not in favor with the LordoManagement. Suddenly, his division was not run "up to standard" and LordoManagement began to crack down. His dislike of Manager wreaked havoc on the Manager Team and the employees. The employees morale sunk as continually negative reports were received about the employees, down and down - affecting their own happiness and productivity. Employees were made to work harder and stay later and later to make sure that LordoManagement was satisfied. Manager racked up OT costs and blew budget because of the overtime. Manager Team was also affected with stress visible on their once happy visiages - some weird things happened, like extra Manager Team members showing up without warning - killing budget and further diminishing morale. This cycle of nitpicking and negativity continued for six months with Manager showing such signs of stress that employees thought he would have a heartattack.

One day, employees showed up and Manager wasn't there - he left they said, he was offered a fix-it period, but rejected it. Point was Manager wasn't there. LordoManagement came in and suddenly his reports were positive, even though nothing much had changed. People realized that LordoManagement had it in for Manager and took out his ire until Manager, who likely ticked him off, left the company. A new Manager is joining, one who is familiar with the company and will adhere to LordoManagement's rules and policies.

To think that the employees had to suffer with extra work, negativity, and a poor morale because the Boss wanted the subordinate out. I have seen some bad stuff and been through enough bad stuff - which seemingly never ends, but this ridicious situation takes the cake. Lesson Here: If you don't like someone - fire them and please spare the team the pain of your personality conflict.

So, the clients that departed have all been replaced and things are back to normal, a very surprising outcome given the economy. Many people I have worked with are starting out on their own either as full time contract resources or as supplemental resources adding to their full time jobs. This of course means my own network has expanded.

Janet Pinto is offering her marketing communication skills on a supplemental freelance business, she also has a weekend web venture supplying custom made therapeutic aromas and perfumes. It is good to see her flexing her entrepreneurial muscle.

Delia "Sandy" Lehr is offering 20 years of experience to provide payroll and accounts payable support to small businesses.

All of these folks provide additional support and direct supplemental services to my own and together we can really provide a start-up or small company many services that they need in one spot.

I just hope that as they acquire their own clients - they don't get stiffed on invoices!

It is time to discuss the deadbeat clients, the clients who in my opinion steal services and disappear without nary a note or a check. I am completely infuriated at the fact that I spend my time, my talent, and my resources providing support for organizations that then turn around and decide that they cannot or more likely the case will not pay me. Not one client, not one, ever complained about my work and I have contracts with all of them regarding payment and service provided. I too have bills to pay, a family that I contribute to, and obligations. Because I only work with a handful of clients at a time, mine is not a commodity business, when a client decides to disappear or walks off without paying an invoice, it creates great anxiety and financial harm. I am finding that in order to collect, it costs more to hire a lawyer and spend time in court or with collections to get the bill settled. While Obama is pushing healthcare, people like me have no recourse to inexpensively get what we worked for, what we are legally due, and owed. I marvel over the lack of conscience and how the law does not consider this theft?

The Wall St Journal wrote about how small businesses hurt because of this, I like how a respondent noted that the bigger companies think they are banks and, essentially, put the screws to the little guy. Someone mentioned on the internet that you need to qualify your clients - my clients were paying relatively on time up until the last invoice. And, there were zero complaints about performance - again, I have contracts that govern performance and payment.

This has been the experience so far and I know this list will grow!

Siba Padhi's (former CFO of a billion dollar telecom group) conglomerate including Indibar Technologies, Clinwell, Maxelor, and Agnicient owes me $4,492.50 for months of business development and research work. After they lost a major client, the check "was in the process of being co-signed". Turned out there was no check and after consulting with my lawyer who went through the demand letter process, I learned the company was near bankruptcy with mass layoffs and hadn't a thin dime to spare. Many vendors were up in arms over non-payment. After being terminated, I never heard a thing from anyone regarding any payment or reason for delaying any check in the first place. I have learned and written this off as cost of doing business. When a check doesn't come in 30 days, end the relationship - there are paying clients out there.

Mike Salem's Vorex, Inc. (www.vorex.com) provider of SAAS hosted solutions. Stiffed me on the last invoice for $1,440 for one month and report creation which included a host of analysis as to why their solutions failed to gain market traction. After he requested me to send the invoice, I never heard from him or anyone from the company again. No return calls, no emails, no communication at all.

Don Ramer's Arbita, Inc (www.arbita.com) is holding out on payment (it is 60 days past the 45 day due date!) on my last invoice for $992.00. Even after receiving an acknowledgement on July 29 indicating that all invoices (for all vendors) will be paid and the balance zeroed out, I am STILL waiting for my turn. I recently reached out to the finance department, even to Shally Steckerl - who passed me back to the finance department. No status update, no email, no check. This is a company that ERE acknowledged had major growth, I mean they put a press release out that they had 600% growth and were doing well. You would think that such a tiny amount is coverable. They still owe me commission on a deal - a deal that paid for me for a year or more!

A company that cannot remit a $500, $992.00, $1,440 payment is one that clearly has major cash flow issues - that is chump change, particularly for a larger firm. I bet the electricity bill is larger than that! If they can't pay me chump change and alienate suppliers, how do they keep the lights on or for how long will they?

I have absolutely no recourse to collect any money, a lawyer costs more than that - these people are out of state. I did find a collection agency that I may contact, turns out you can hold a company responsible for a few years. I don't forget a deadbeat - and neither should you.

Well, the lucky streak ended for MagnusMG - such is consulting and go-to-market. My client engagements ended, all of them except two. Oh, does it suck - the loss of the stability, the loss of the predictable monthly income - I think they call it "cash flow". I actually wish I was married, so that I would have a husband who could provide the support while I rebuilt the business. Slightly sexist comment, but true.

I now find myself in the position of all of my clients - having to really "go to market" and find clients. I mean, this time, I have not only a THREE year history and a fan club of satisfied clients! I mean 3X Systems hired an internal Marketing Manager and Sales/Marketing VP - they are going to the next level - 50 demos is nothing to sneeze at, JobMachine was acquired by Arbita and doubled in size internally also - with full-time employees and extended services under the ACES division...a couple of others are project engagements that are ending with leads, meetings. I ended a project with a Business Intelligence firm and the Practice Manager was nearly gushing over the information I obtained. With very few exception, I think any of the people I worked with would say that I did not do the job or have an impact on the company. The ones who would say otherwise, they had strategy issues or in one case - salespeople that couldn't close. Uh, we are in the WORSE Recession in 30 years or more - I still paid for myself!!!

I have a very consistent track record of developing business, steering strategy, and finding tangible market opportunity. However, on this outing - I have to compete with unemployed people transitioning to new jobs, telemarketing agencies desperate for business, and companies with no money. I truly am disgusted by the firms I encounter who want to pay for a lead or pay commission only. How stupid and desperate anyone would be to work like that - it takes MONTHS, particularly in this environment to catch someone's attention - and the work involved. Today, it isn't a list or script, you need to research, target, message, position, call and follow up - email and phone - just because you get a meeting - doesn't mean its a sale. Amazingly, many of these firms pay consultants and office staff a salary, but won't pay a sales or marketing person a base or fees. Please folks, avoid wasting your time - unless they have a product or service that has a wide market and lots of interest - commission or pay-per-lead aint going to pay your bills. I damn to hell all those firms that started that bs trend. I want to see consultants get paid only when they deliver a project on a flat rate, lets see if that flies!

Those "success model" companies will fold pretty quickly because they are victims of their own cheapness. 1) They don't know or understand the market, 2) the salesguys own the client and can easily take the client to any other company, and 3) half the leads will never turn into any revenue. I wouldn't join a start-up prescribing to that model for any amount of money - yah, what money - they pay "equity"...you'll see nothing in return.

Anyway, so out to market I go - recreating my value proposition, messaging, email and calling companies that I like and think are interesting. I am hoping to find another AlphaPoint or 3X, maybe another reseller or mature small company that wants a solid pipeline. I am sure they are out there - somewhere and will be smart enough to work with a "quality" resource like me!

Recently, I had another article posted on the Fordyce Forum - which is linked to here. At least the Fordyce Forum recognizes that I have something valuable to contribute to business development - actually I wrote some commentary also on the Customer Collective - that is a great sales site also.

My respondent, as you can see, asked me how long "I worked a desk" and mis-interpreted my "carefully crafted" post. That article/post was developed from over 50 calls to staffing agencies, plus other calls to corporate recruiters and experience from the agencies I worked for in the past two years. My respondent who advocates cold calling and provided tremendous support for my post, unfortunately missed the point. You can't just make hundreds of calls looking for job orders, a job, to push a product unless you have something meaningful to say. Folks, the limited amount of employed professionals and decision-makers are BOMBARDED with communiques from a myriad of people, many of whom are selling the same products and services. You MUST find differentiation and it should not be just price oriented.

On a similiar note, a recruiting agency executive wrote a post on ERE seeking help for web copy as the company was launching a "new recruiting model". I wrote back and said, take a look at what I do and lets discuss what you need. Without even a phone call to discuss her situation, the executive replied - doesn't look like you do what I need. Uh, write compelling copy that will launch your recruiting model and get you business? Yah, I guess I don't do that - I am such a lousy copywriter and commmunicator that my clients are still getting appointments and leads even in the dead of summer in the middle of the worst recession in decades. OK.

Much like the technology resellers which caught on to the power of marketing and dedicated business development, the staffing agencies need to do the same thing. My respondent is right, it is about sales which isn't easy - it takes a lot of work, smarts, and perserverence to achieve business today.