Magnus Marketing Blog

So many consultants and firms specialize in doing something that is so commonsense, it blows me away - fostering marketing and sales alignment. The simple answer to how to achieve sales/marketing alignment is: SIT DOWN AND TALK TO EACH OTHER!

Marketing and their great ideas! When I was a Marketing Manager (really Director), the questions I asked were such: "What does a CIO really care about?", "What do you guys (sales) think about this?", "Let me go on the meeting with you!" When was the last time your marketing guy/girl went out on a sales call?

Typical technology marketing folks love to hear themselves talk, especially about their great ideas. Very often, they specialize in marcom, have little understanding of the business, and don't understand sales or business development. Unless they get the technology and business, understand the sales process, understand customers, and see the big picture - there will be no sales/marketing alignment.

I mentioned the "we put the "O" in outsourcing" debacle. That Marketing Manager had 20 years experience and was clueless about the business/technology. She commissioned 6 boxes of hardcopy brochures with beautiful metallic gloss and artsy icons representing each service at a cost of $150K. The copy was rife with branded slogans, artsy icons, flowery language and lovely service descriptions. There was a hint of business discussion and compelling research pertaining to why a CIO or IT executive would even WANT these services - that was my contribution.:) Well, that was done in March. By September, five boxes of beautiful metallic 8 page brochures was dumped in the trash heap at a loss of $100K. Why? Because the company completely repositioned for Post-Y2K and began launching Service Practice after Service Practice. I quickly realized that hardcopy brochures were not the right way to keep pace with the rapid technology changes and in 1999-2000 went to customized, in-house printed PDFS. The cost went down to less than $1.00 page. The language was more business focused, the collateral was put into customized case study packages that were compelling, and research targeting the VP/C-Level/Dir. was created. With the research and other changes, the marketing budget came in $25K or more under. The previous Marketing Manager went 50% over budget with no return. Did I also mention, I worked directly with the salespeople and created tools and support documents that they not only needed, but met the customers requests. BECAUSE I TALKED TO THE SALESPEOPLE AND SHOOK THE HANDS OF OUR CLIENTS!

Recently, I worked in a company with another 20 year Marketing Manager who ran the "Marketing Practice". Not only was she unshakable in her stone beliefs of how things "should be done", but likely never made a call to a senior executive to actually market anything. Out of her mouth was always, "MY IDEA IS"...and inevitably her "IDEA" had nothing to do with what anyone wanted. She delighted in making fun of the company's customers. It took 2 years before my former employer got rid of her. Unbelievably, she went long after me.

The right Marketing folks are going to ask the right questions to the sales people - starting with: "What do you need to do your job better?", "What do our customers care about?", "What do you say that makes them listen to you?", "Where are our customers going to be, what shows have they recommended?" and "How about I go on that meeting with you?". The really great marketers will try a few biz dev calls and experience the challenge of pushing their value proposition.

Maybe I just worked with and observed the left-behind marketing people, the ones who lost it somewhere in their careers. One of my clients is a VP of Marketing, she is very intelligent and gets the business and technology, I enjoy working with her. She helped to position my company in fact. Not every Marketing person is so out of touch. If your Marketing folks are more concerned about themselves rather than who they serve - send them packing.

The greatest example of superior management, teamwork, and customer centricity is found at Kohl's Department Stores - store in East Brunswick. The culture of the store is palpably different from other Kohl's stores and other retailers. Aside from the Corporate mandates of "Yes We Can" - a policy focused on providing support to the customer at all times, this particular store exemplifies the true embodiment of customer centricity.

The store workers are a true team and consistently provide support to each other whether it is personal issues or needs in other departments. It is not unusual to find a person who works normally in one department, assisting in another or on the register WITHOUT the manager's telling them to do so. Each department associate (many of whom average 3 - 5 years, the store opened 5 years ago) has complete ownership and pride in their department. Many of the associates are mostly college-educated and work part-time, having a variety of professional day positions. The racks are the most shoppable because the associates devised a system to ensure proper processing of merchandise (nightly the store is returned to opening day perfection or close to it). Customers are delighted with the service, because associates are properly trained and supported. Many associates take pleasure in providing personal service, assisting folks in picking out outfits and gifts. Many associates are on a first name basis with customers (who are referred to as team extensions) and are empowered at times to give "extras" as in discounts to good or loyal customers. Very rarely are associates terminated and turnover over the last few years has been minimal.

The management is not only a team, but open to suggestions, ideas, and complaints from employees. They listen to employee concerns, address them immediately, and take action when required. They are extremely respectful of the sales/POS associates and allow the employees to do what is needed, when needed, in the manner in which they feel best. It is a culture of almost complete empowerment and respectful autonomy. Rare is it to see management chiding or reprimanding associates, common is it to see managers working alongside associates and chatting about township activities or life issues. They take an interest and have concern about employees. The good employees are consistently recognized in many ways and are held as standards for others to strive for. They "pick battles" wisely, allowing at times gum chewing on the floor (which is technically a no-no), but assuring proper dress code (which helps sell the merchandise).

Customers who visit this store comment on the "hard work", "total service", "family atmosphere", "helpful attitude", and "go the extra mile" effort. The East Brunswick Kohls store has achieved what many businesses WISH for - complete teamwork and focus on the customer. It is a top-down driven event with management reflecting the values embodied by the workers and the values possessed are strong - ranging from work ethic, customer concern, to department ownership. Everyone is aligned with the overarching goals of "selling more merchandise" through friendly, helpful, and personalized service.

If anyone wants to see an example of real teamwork, good management, and strong customer centric values in place - visit Kohl's Route 18 in East Brunswick. A Harvard Case study should be written about it.

For those of you desiring to work in sales or business development, keep in mind that there is a huge difference between sales/biz dev and customer service. What brought this post up is that many times people in customer service (aka INBOUND) think they have what it takes to do biz/dev or sales (aka OUTBOUND). Survey people are much like Customer Service folks - another point to why Market Researchers are not suited for Prospecting. THE SKILL SET IS DIFFERENT.

Asking rote questions whether surveying or diagnosing issues, is NOT THE SAME as asking probing questions to uncover issues and SELL. One is information extraction, usually from a willing party, the other is information extraction, plus the push to secure a buying goal. A lot more persuasion, tenacity, and rapid thinking is needed - especially when the sale is around something that isn't so completely and comprehensively defined. While clarifying questions may be asked, dealing with rude people will be encountered, and uncovering issues is shared - the way it is executed and the processing is different. There is also more hunting in biz dev and "complex schmoozing" involved in sales.

I also think that in each case the "script" varies from company to company and person to person, which also means the questions and conversation will vary. No true script exists for real prospecting or sales.

It is a leap to go from customer service to outbound calls where rejection is common, pressure abounds, and stronger goals exist. It almost impossible to fail as a customer service rep, while not everyone is going to make it in sales/biz dev.

In the recruiting industry, there is a function that does for recruiters (the sales guys) what we in sales intelligence/biz dev do for salesguys called sourcing. The parallels are amazing. This is what a master researcher AmyBeth Hale mentioned on her AmyBeth Hale- Research Goddess blog:

"How does the sourcer role fit into recruiting and/or HR? For example purposes I'm going to assume for the rest of this reply that sourcer = researcher. How a researcher fits into a recruiting office or an HR team is that the researcher can take the pressure off the recruiters to put in hours of research on their own. I truly believe that the research that goes into uncovering leads is the most time consuming part of the recruiting process. A search that takes me 5 hours to generate a list of 30 contacts can be knocked out in less than an hour by a recruiter. Recruiters who are doing all of this background information gathering themselves are either spending too much of the working day on this task to the detriment of their phone time, or they are sacrificing their evenings and weekends (and families!) to do so. Researchers are part of the behind-the-scenes backbone of the office that keep those who generate revenue 'closest to money'." (ERE Discussion, Defining Sourcing 5/1/2007)

Change "Recruiting Office" to "Marketing/Sales Department", change "Recruiter" to "Sales Guy/Girl". The contacts are qualified candidates - change that to qualified sales opportunities. Look at the time and cost savings. When you get QUALIFIED Sales Intelligence Analysts - people who are experienced in identifying opportunities, the right contact names, and business issues, the sales and even telemarketing team is focused on further qualification and closing or as AmyBeth well articulated "staying closest to the money".

Another point was made about the role on the same post:

"What should the duties of a true sourcer be? Research. Pure and simple. Company research, lead generation, networking on professional networking sites and associations, etc. The more directions you pull the researcher in that are away from research, the less research they will be able to do (duh!). When you have them posting jobs, managing the intranet, and other miscellaneous tasks, they will not be doing research. Same reasons why recruiters ought not be disturbed during phone time. Let them do what they were hired to do - recruit. In the same breath, let researchers do what THEY were hired to do - RESEARCH"

Lead generation, company research, networking - all apply to Sales Intelligence as well. I take SI further into prospecting which is form of qualification research.

Sourcing in recruiting is used to identify passive candidates, people who aren't looking for a job (not advertising themselves), but may be thinking of a change or are prompted to change. Plus, they find these "Hard to find" people using a variety of targeted tactics and prequalify them. Passive candidates are usually a 98% fit with a job - meaning if they join, the longevity and performance of the candidate is greater than active candidates. Recruiters like passive candidates (who, according to AmyBeth, "tend to make the best employees") because they are stickier.

Think about this principle in a marketing perspective - any response to a public marketing tactic will yield an active sales opportunity - meaning the initiator is actively looking at a number of vendors which can translate to price margin pressures, competitive issues, and puts the initiator in a power position. If I identify potentially qualified sales opportunities proactively through research, I intelligently am ahead of the competition. Plus, I likely identified a great fit for the company's competencies and the needs of the "passive company opportunity".

If you get this principle - then you understand what Sales Intelligence is all about. Add prospecting in and your sales team is ONLY receiving the best leads with the highest probability of closing or at least a qualified account entry path. Not every passive candidate joins a company, but a relationship is built - a memorable one - that can lead to a future consideration. It doesn't get any better than that.

Further to ROI, with a great team of researchers/biz dev people - theoretically, you can dump most Marketing Communications, all Advertising, and all PR which are costly and focus efforts to find only the best opportunities. A great model for B-to-B where high volume isn't an issue.

Email me to learn more about this! I'd love to hear from you.

Jill Konrath is a kindred spirit: check out www.sellingtobigcompanies.com. I would have loved to have been her sales support/marketing person - together there is no account that would have remained unpenetrated. Maybe we can partner some time in the future.

She did a webinar today, accessible via WEBEX discussing sales strategies, everything pretty much was not new stuff - but was right on. She amended my view that if you encounter objections or someone doesn't call you, your value proposition likely wasn't strong enough. She also mentioned that there are multiple ways into an account and that the RESEARCH is KEY to opening an account, because it feeds the unique value proposition.

One thing she said was particularly great and reinforces another point. Collateral is not necessary in the early stages of a sale. Moreover, she said, collateral can actually HINDER entry because it can raise objections. Plus, no one cares about "speeds n feeds" or as she put it - the trite product/service benefits. UNLESS, they can be directly tied to a BUSINESS benefit and that takes a deeper dive into the company situation than just b.s. about high level generic industry "pain points".

Again, today, I had a back and forth email with a Chief Medical Officer of a major healthcare company who was on for a meeting, but then cancelled a meeting with my client - I tried to reinvigorate his interest. How did I get him to email me - at MY HOME email address? Through research! Because I understood what he had done and mapped it to my clients technology solution. There are a few other things that were said and stated, of course. But still. NO COLLATERAL! Just a voicemail and well written email done just right. If he doesn't do the meeting, someone in his organization will.

OK, admittedly there is something to be said for a pleasant female voice, that does have a little to do with it also.

Marketing needs to learn to work with sales and become a strategic resource. Stop the b.s. collateral, fancy expensive toys, and blogs,podcasts,pretend monikers and create an intelligent presence. Customer-centricity is achieved when the focus and attention is on the customer - marcom needs to reflect it.

Some Sales Intelligence firms are offering Target Prospecting, which in my opinion sounds a lot like surveying. I want to reiterate to the visitors of my blog that one must be very careful in engaging firms to do any type of prospecting work on your behalf.

Image is everything. The right person on the phone can make an account. Having the wrong representative calling into a key account can destroy any hope of a relationship and if something gets blown, it may be blown for a long time. This happened in my former company - the boss engaged a firm that was largely a research organization who would call into difficult pharmaceutical/life science accounts. A person unskilled in prospecting hit one firm and either hammered them or said something so badly that the company prohibited any further contact from the client. Ethics also plays a part - some firms use the old "MBA student ploy" to get into accounts - which is illegal.

One thing I learned in the past also is that biz dev people respect and perform well working for people who have been there, done it. How else can someone grow or learn unless they have a coach in the field? Research and surveying and prospecting are different skill sets, one is data gathering - the other is data gathering to sell and selling is a specific talent. Same issue with outsourced firms, most companies avoid "telemarketing offshore BPOs" or should - because someone in India is not going to be able to discuss weather, traffic, pain issues within various U.S. geographic regions. Companies are really taking a risk engaging a firm, saves money in the short run, but may hurt reputation or relationship in the long-run.

Having the right, skilled person on the phone can make all the difference. Remember, this person is representing YOUR company and people will judge your firm by the pleasant voice on the other end. Be careful who you choose to represent you and don't buy into the b.s.!