Magnus Marketing Blog

Jill Kornrath does it again: Jill Kornrath blog link . Here she talks about targeted emails. Soon, she will run a seminar on how to do this. Let me save you the $79 dollars.

Starting at Hexaware in 1999, I moved the salesteam to this method of getting business. Calling it the "research, target, destroy" methodology of account penetration, the email direct marketing phase is step one of a three step process (Research, Email, Call). The results can be phenomenal.

But First: Look at this email that a salesguy actually sent from one of my clients. Things have been changed for anonyminity.

My Company can help you with your Computer requirements. Our specialized national corporate technology service options include......
* Service 1 - As an award-winning company with roots in service, my company offers services for all types of stuff.
* Service 2- Trained personnel audit/test to insure the maximum value is gained. Through our proven channels, my company provides you the industry's highest returns Our proprietary internal technology provides complete reporting.
* Service 3- Free service if you meet certain requirements.
* Service 4- Your company will suffer if you don't do this work properly with us.
* Service 5 - We provide all these other things. (There are 3 more services listed)
Why My Company?
- Over ten years of industry-leading experience, offering low-cost,
high tech service.
- Guarantee complete compliance
- Selected by the award winning bestower as only one of X-number national firms to do this service.
- Winner of the prestigious Industry Award.
- A "100% Customer Service Policy",

Bored yet? Do you care about anything? Of course not, this doesn't talk to me, it talks at me about nothing of any relevancy to me! Delete.

Here is an email I sent on behalf of a reseller of multiple technology products. This is typical of the type of emails I craft. This email was forwarded to a VP and sent across the organization to Europe counterparts. The company is a Fortune 1000 firm.

Dear Name,

I understand that teams usually form to develop games and toys which typically integrate focus group information and customer feedback. Web-based collaboration tools are becoming a standard in terms of team collaboration and even as a means to facilitate feedback.

Adobe Connect, with the ability to connect up to 2,500 simultaneous users and launch at a click of a button, is a cost-effective, easy to implement, collaboration tool. Integrating this tool for your product development staff makes sense…

Consider the following potential applications:
• With some difficulty experienced in the “visualization” of a new game or toy, Connect can allow the designer to author and narrate a product demonstration-type presentation for a group of people to review and discuss. This ensures clarity of vision and “on the same page” behavior.
• Consider how Connect can integrate into the Product Development process. Leverage it as a technological tool to facilitate “higher touch” collaboration and a way to reduce engineering/design translation errors, especially since Your Toy Company is more process driven.
• Consider an interactive meeting by Connect led by R&D to educate marketing, graphic design, and research on the new toy.

Based on Flash technology installed on more than 97% of desktops, Connect allows rapid deployment of customized material for marketing, training, or sales. No special software is needed and your organization can be up and running in no time.

With Connect products you can:
• Create large or small net meetings instantaneously including webcam video-conferencing
• Start collaborative meetings right from Adobe Reader or Acrobat
• Transform basic Powerpoint presentations into Flash interactive multimedia published on-demand
• Own turnkey webinar functionality for in-house custom authoring
• Select from a variety of hosted plans or purchase a server outright

Comparatively, Connect product(s):
• Are more cost-effective than leading web-conferencing solutions.
• Offer potential for real-time PDF document collaboration
• Require little technical knowledge to install and run
• Enable VOiP functionality for mass conferencing (Connect Professional).
• Extend across platforms more smoothly and conveniently then competitive solutions.

Reseller. (www.reseller.com) offers Adobe’s full line of technology solutions, plus other leading hardware, software and support services. We invite you to preview the capabilities of Adobe Connect at www.adobe.com/products/adobeconnect and consider the integrative possibilities.

I look forward to learning more about Major Toy Company and discussing how Connect can cost-effectively bring your team closer to their goals.

Sincerely,

A great deal of research went behind this email to learn how the company did product development. The idea was to find the departmental fit for the solution and see how the product can make a difference.

Paragraph 1: Business issue and trends in the industry are highlighted or touched upon. I show I understand what is going on.
Paragraph 2: Proposed solution that can fulfill the anticipated need.
Paragraph 3: The intelligence, some ideas as to how the solution can work in the department, man - this stimulates some interesting conversation and gets attention.
Paragraph 4 & 5: Product differentiation, why this solution is the best to review.
Paragraph 6: Differentiating the reseller - in the final email sent, I believe I added a bit more about the reseller. Driving people to company website and demo.
Paragraph 7: The close and promise to follow up.

This took work to create, a lot of work. But it got us to the point of a potential Fall Demo.

Beware: You cannot b.s., you must be educated and ready to discuss the ideas and thinking behind it and ask clarifying questions if there are any assumptions made that were incorrect.

Research: Dig deep into the company
Target: Develop a compelling reason to look the product/service and buy from the company.
Destroy: Follow up with a killer call, in this case the contact emailed me and I followed up with her boss. Kill the prospect with intelligence. Throw some good support collateral with that also to literally seal the deal.

If you want to know more about this, email me. I just saved you $79. I can save you even more money and get you visibility at the VP level too!! :)

I don't belong to SCIP, AIIP or drip (joke) which governs the ethical gathering of research. I might join those groups eventually, but right now I am too busy trying to develop a business and deal with real competitive activity rather than sit in a meeting postulating about it.

I do not need to resort to "I am an MBA student", "I am shareholder", "I am Bob's friend", or other LIES to get names or find people in organizations. There are enough legitamate tools around to find everything about companies and competitiors out there. Plus, friends, relatives, and clients who will give you info.

Competitors beware! I will know everything or many juicy good things about you!

My former employer for example hired an analyst who I think is a kid and just graduated, changed another guys title from "Manager" to "Sr. Analyst" (which he deserves, a demotion!), got some guys to work for them in St. Louis and Florida - that I got from LINKEDIN. I found the kids on MySpace, which comprise most of their workforce. Plus, my spy told me the rest of the internal stuff.

I laugh mercilessly.

The company in MA which is close to mine is run by a kid complaining about the costs of running his business. His staff also has some MySpace denizens, one of which has no discernable technology experience. So much for experienced folks making calls for start-ups, my-my. My former employer needs to sue him for using a purportedly trademarked description of a service. I know that he doesn't have the level of expertise on his staff, his costs must be higher than mine, and his VP is probably recycling the same junk from a leading sales intelligence firm - I saw their stuff, baby-cakes.

I laugh mercilessly.

My client forwarded me a "canned" ad for a woman run marketing firm specializing in telemarketing. A little research later, I see the chick hires local folks who sit in their homes and are paid $10/hr. NO LAZY PEOPLE allowed was in her job ad. Nice lady to work for! She makes an $8 margin or more. I would partner with her for high volume telemarketing, she has her act together.

I laugh mercilessly.

I did a competitive research analysis for a client, it was amazing the stuff I found. Enough to gain serious positioning insight, enough to find salespeople for him to poach, enough to identify new services, enough to do a real SWOT Analysis....

Sometimes marketing and PR have benefits, sometimes they can lead to your competitor outpricing you, poaching employees, positioning better against you, and just....

laughing mercilessly....all the way...to the bank. $$$$$$$$
(and saving money from SCIP, AIIP, and drip).

Another title for this is vet the vendor. What sparked this was some recent news postings about a company that I followed for some time. For the sake of anonmynity, we can call this firm ConsultingRUS.

Some time ago, ConsultingRUS was named an honorary winner of an award presented to up and coming businesses. In addition to the prominent addition of this award to the website, the press release noted a quote from the award presenter saying that this firm was recognized for excellence that included employee training, motivation, performance and commitment to excellence. Then, a release popped up about the firm's founder who was named leader of a prominent organization. Next this same person was identified as one of the 40 under 40 on an entrepreneurial leader list.

Well, you could have blown me away. In fact, most of the former employees of that firm were blown away. Because according to those I spoke with: One person was fired from the company for providing feedback to a junior person who did a lousy job, an incident where that same person called a colleague to task for not completing her work appropriately was also cited. The person was the Quality Manager. No lie. Quality? Excellence? The same company had 100% turnover within one year - one person was fired because they couldn't find him a suitable spot, they made him beg for his job first in a humiliating and sadistic way, many walked out without so much as a day's notice. They replaced the senior people with lower paid people, yet charged clients for the same "quality". The owner co-opted ideas from others as his own and talked as if he came up with the ideas...the employees had excellence in training for sure. The same "leader" who was so stellar, cursed people and drove people to tears - he was so aggressive in his manner, I wouldn't be surprised if he talked people to death and hammered them to lead that organization. People in the company resorted to therapy to deal with the abuse they suffered. The company website contains little factual information, like some executives aren't with the company any longer. The company was known more for its Style, not Substance. Yet, it won awards and its leaders are prominent figures. It is a joke. By the way, the "award" was one of those that you PAY for - contribute money and commit to attending some event and you "win" an award for your marketing. It isn't real. On principle as a deference to my friends who worked at ConsultingRUS, I am boycotting the organization that awarded it and will advise my clients to do the same.

Meanwhile, I, my colleagues who have businesses, and my clients who consistently deliver never get so much as a nod. One of my clients has been in business for 10 years and is truly a top shelf guy - goes out of his way for clients, passionate about his work, does everything the right way and is 39 years old was not named to a 40 under 40 leadership list. I and my colleagues are mostly under 40 and are building solid client relationships. Chances are we will never see a 40 under 40 leadership list nomination.

Why does the world continue to reward the ones who raise their hands the highest, rather than the ones who actually study? In the business world, it is all the same. Maybe things are changing in sales/marketing, the pushy aggressive jerky salesguys are losing vogue.

I would advise in account penetration to combine the style with the substance and genuinely give your clients the best work possible. I would advise buyers to beware of people and firms like the one highlighted, ask about quality of delivery. Don't be fooled by the blue ribbons hanging off a website.

Lately, a number of market research and telemarketing/biz dev firms are offering account profiling and account profiles. I have seen some products from leading firms. Those who have been reading this blog know my peeves about "Surveying" as Prospect Research, having Research people do prospecting, and the importance of sales intelligence as being a key to uncovering passive sales opportunities. Today, I will try to outline what an account profile is versus strategic research and try to get across why you need experienced and knowledgeable people engaged in this type of true sales intelligence work.

Account profiles are usually data compilations that include a variety of information from various public resources such as: Main business information and headlines/news, contact location, technology infrastructure, decision-makers, financial profile (which to be effective is 3 years of data), key industry drivers (which may be generalized statements like the pharmaceutical industry is looking at PAT technologies), an org chart. The major thing is the primary research where a few key people in the target company will be interviewed to determine: buying cycles, key projects, vendor preferences, timelines, etc. Most information is obtainable from Hoovers, CBS Marketwatch, Harte-Hanks, Gartner, and other major research sources. What the purchaser is paying for is the TIME factor involved in having an external person/party compile the info versus a salesguy who should be SELLING, not sitting behind a computer for hours on end pulling the info together.

Strategic research is more than just an account profile and in fact may not even be in an account profile. Strategic research is going far beyond those basics to begin looking at longer term needs and opportunities, analyzing information to determine needs that may not be publicized, or affects that are happening that are not well known. One example is from an effort my team and I completed at our previous employer:
A technology firm engaged my employer to identify ways to further penetrate an existing client which was a non-profit healthcare firm. I was assigned the job of compiling the information to identify avenues in which our client could strategically enter and grow this account further. After completing the Account Profile portion, I then proceeded to "look for things" that would get our client an "in". I began reading a ton of stuff on the healthcare industry visiting hundreds of articles and sources to piece together a picture of healthcare. Things like Electronic Patient Management, Wireless technology, and Emergency Response Mgmt Technology were rising as trends and areas where the target was examining. Turned out the target firm had done a lot of work in specialized patient care/disease management databases - this was not obvious material, snippets of information were all over the place (literally). I began building a scenario and a big picture view of environmental affects to the target. As I was combing through tons of documents, I came across one interesting little report on financial reporting in non-profit organizations (not particular to healthcare). I read down this thread and looked even deeper into financial reporting in non-profits, recently some firms were penalized for mis-reporting in the past and a "crackdown" of such was occuring with closer examination. Then I found the smoking gun, a report from one of the Big Four with a single notation: "non-profits will be subjected to SOX compliance regulations starting next year". If you didn't look hard, it was easy to miss. Notice I stopped looking at technology and started examining the business and environment, tracking down a trail, making connections that would inevitably involve technology. The effort took hours to do, this was no half day exercise.

My business development partner, an experienced prospector, made the calls into this large non-profit. I had done a couple of calls to validate the database building which they validated and were continuing to do (an opportunity). She did the heavy lifting and under my research direction called the Chief Medical Officer's office. The first meeting was secured with the new CMO to discuss some medical informatics and tech initiatives based on the long-term view of trends we had uncovered. The second meeting was secured with the Director of Finance....they were in the beginning stages of SOX compliance and were interested in speaking with a firm that understood the SOX area. Both were impressed by our knowledge, the way we spoke as if we came from the industry, and our intelligent portrayal and positioning of our client directly into the uncovered opportunities. It was later suggested to the client that they look at other non-profit healthcare organizations and run a campaign about SOX, while the budgets may not be as large as commercial firms, the opportunity is still valid. (This could have led to more business for my employer as well).

The work, the analysis, the "digging" went far beyond a simple review of a few websites. I became quite educated on non-profit tax and financial reporting, the healthcare industry, and the ins/outs of this target firm. This type of work requires higher level critical thinking and analytical skills, plus the ability to "follow the trail" to efficiently uncover THE RIGHT information. The conversations with prospects went into true business development - where are you with the disease management database development? Will this be linked to proactive wellness sites? How will you do that? Have you looked at Emergency Response Management technology? Who is working with you on that (identifying potential partners for our client). The questions weren't standard stuff like: Is your platform IBM and when do you intend to buy more servers. We also didn't talk to the tech people, we were holding conversations with the medical professionals and learning more about what was really happening in this company.

Account profiles are only that, typically junior level basic looks at an account - the cost can be crazy too. If I am going to spend a few hundred or thousand dollars, I would rather have strategic research - something that is truly "actionable" and "intelligent" that will put my salesperson at the level or just below the level of the target person. Deducing real opportunities from a crazy quilt of info is fun, but difficult work - not for people with pages on MySpace or phone jockeys who dial for dollars.