Ideas & Musings on BtoB Revenue Growth
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A great set of tips about on-the-fly sketching from XPlane are directly related to a recent post here about “2.0ing your sales meetings”
Happy to see that collaborative selling approaches are becoming popular, and now insightful companies like XPlane and WhiteBoard Selling are helping sales reps get more interactive and collaborative. That can only translate into greater customer relevance, and more productive and valuable sales meetings.
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After 2 days at the Sales 2.0 conference, I fear we may be on the same path CRM took in its early days. Though some of the new tools are great, and MUCH easier to adopt, there is too much talk of technology, not enough about behavior and cultural changes. All things 2.0 are really about interaction and collaboration with customers. And that requires a change in mindset.
Basic example of 2.0 principles in action, that actually requires less technology. (A version of this focused on customer references was used very successfully by Beverly Chase and the BEA marketing team)
Instead of arming your reps with the new and improved power point presentation, design a white board talk. Script it with questions and discussion points instead of spiel. The result is a conversation where customers contribute ideas, and the content evolves based on the here-and-now in the room, and not what marketing thought up a month ago back at corporate.
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More ideas on cultivating customer contribution and creating opportunities for interaction by turning traditional marketing into Marketing 2.0
6. In-person events – These are expensive to put on, so why spend the entire time lecturing on information that’s already in your collateral? Third party presenters can be more interesting, but any lecture can get dreary fast. Give attendees lots of time to interact with you and with each other, while you listens and takes notes. Consider a workshop rather than presentation format so that the entire event is interactive.
7. Trade Shows – This seems like a highly interactive event, but most booth staffers are so focused on doing the demos and spewing the spiel, that the opportunity to listen is lost. (I adore alliteration.) To change the mindset, make it clear you’re at the show to interact with and listen to customers, not just to be seen and heard. Set objectives of specific information you want to gather from booth visitors or people attending your sessions. Ask a few questions or give a short (5 questions max) survey before handing out the tchachkis, or organize mixers and events that have information gathering as an explicit objective.
If a widely open a conversation seems too much of leap, try these by first letting a small group of customers you know well contribute and participate, then open further when you’re comfortable managing a broader conversation.
Have you tried these or other ways to engage customers in conversations? Share them in your comment!
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Turning Marketing into Conversations – Part 2
Turning Marketing into Conversations – Part 1
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More ideas about how to transform traditional marketing tools into Marketing 2.0 vehicles.
3. Websites – Don’t hide customer feedback and support in a corner of your site. Place feature request and comment links right on product pages, so that customers can respond immediately to the content they see. Asking a question gets the customer more engaged than downloading a white paper. Involve product management and engineering in responding to the queries. It’s a great way to for them to touch the customers they otherwise rarely or never see. Post the most interesting questions and answers or turn them into additional content.
4. Press releases – What if your PR people became your customers’ and partners PR people? Lots of stories would best be told by someone other than a vendor. (And would be more likely to get picked up for coverage.) Build relationships with your customers’ and partners PR departments to understand how and where they want to be seen, and how talking about your relationship can help with that. Have your PR staff assist partners and customer with replying to PR opportunities.
5. Webinars – Yes, by now, this is a “traditional” marketing tool. But many companies tend to make webinars too one-directional. Use all the interactive tools (and the many webinar hosting services that offer them). Polls, chat, and Q&A are the common set. Use surveys both before and after your webinar. And don’t limit the surveys to questions about the webinar like the all too familiar “Did you find this useful?” Instead, ask questions that help you understand customers or that customers will be interested in too. The latter gives you an excuse for a follow-up contact that actually delivers value.
Have you tried these or other ways to engage customers in conversations? Share them in your comment!
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Turn Marketing into Conversations – Part 1
Turn Marketing into Conversations – Part 3
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Social networking channels are not the only way to make your marketing efforts more interactive. While you experiment with social media, you can make traditional marketing methods conversational too.
Getting customers to contribute to the substance in your marketing content, events, products will raise the value and trust customers place in them. Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational, demonstrates that “labor enhances affection for its results.”
This week I’ll be posting a series of ideas on adding interaction and soliciting active customer engagement and contribution through traditional marketing tools. Here are a few to start off.
Have you tried these or other ways to engage customers in conversations? Share them in your comment!
Read More
Turn Marketing into Conversations – Part 2
Turn Marketing into Conversations – Part 3
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Everywhere you look, its web 2.0, and even 3.0 with the central theme being interactive communication, user engagement, and the democratization of content. But are we really interacting, or just blasting messages into the ether? Christopher Carfi’s recent post highlights a gem of a quote - Leave it to the Amish to distill the essence of the shortcomings of much modern communication.
With so many channels for communication, it seems customers should be more engaged than ever. Are yours? If not, or if not enough, take a look at how much time you (and your marketing organization as a whole) spend on outbound marketing and messages, and how much on creating and participating in conversations with customers.
Your customers are participating in social networking and contributing to social media. MyBlogLog, a site that attempts to consolidate data across multiple communities, lists 55 social media services. LinkedIn, Twitter, Technorati, Digg, Plaxo, a sea of blogging platforms… And new ones pop up almost daily.
The good news is that there really isn’t hope or reason to maintain ubiquitous presence. Instead, find out which ones your customers frequent, and design a process for participating in those.
Even better news: You don’t need to jump on every social media and networking tool in order to have conversations. You can make traditional marketing methods more interactive too. Next time: Some ideas of how to do that.
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