Strictly Marketing Magazine julyaugust 2016

Strictl
MARKETING
MAGAZINE
$3.95 | JULY/AUGUST 2016
Use Google 8’s to
make your
Business GREAT!
Proven Success for
Lead Management
The Napoleon
Complex: Small
Company, Big Attitude
Should
Marketing own
Social Media?
David Mattson
Successful Sales Recruiting
Letter from the Publisher
Happy Summer everyone! I hope your Business is as
HOT as the heat here in Florida! Its summer break for
families and vacations are being taken, weddings
planned but don’t turn down the efforts your making
with marketing, if anything, kick it up a notch. If your
season starts in September, start marketing now! We
are welcoming a new face to our team, Jerry King,
Master Cartoonist will be adding a touch of humor to
each issue, putting some laughter into our marketing!
Welcome Jerry, we are super excited to have you as
part of our team.
A lot of people take this time to look for new
opportunities, so this issue is centered around Sales
recruiting and management. Don’t let great talent
escape you. We have collaborated with some excellent
resources to share tips and suggestions on finding and
keeping that ROCKSTAR. I had the opportunity to
interview David Mattson, of Sandler Sales Training.
David offered some excellent tips on being successful
at sales recruiting, all year long.
Wishing you continued success,
In this Issue…..
3
How To Respond When Your Prospect Says
The 6 Most Dreaded Rejection Words
5
Use Google’s Eight to make your Business
Great!
7
Successful Sales Recruiting - Feature
Interview with David Mattson
11
Media Spotlight - Fresh Tracks
12
3 Key Shifts for Mastering and Up-leveling
Your Social Media Mindset
14
Its all about .SOCIAL
16
The Napoleon Complex: Small Company,
Big Attitude
18
Proven Success Formula for Lead
Management
21
Future Marketing, becoming Big Social
Mobile - Should Marketing really own
Social Media
Credits
Columnists:
•Debbie Qaqish •Cynthia De Lorenzi
Strictly Marketing Magazine
info@strictlymarketingmagazine.com
Toll Free: 844-222-9740
•David Giannetto •Rob Basso •Jerry King
Contributing Writers:
•Michael Levin
•Alicia Nicole Waters
•Bill Glenn
2
Strictly Marketing Magazine July/August 2016
How To Respond When Your Prospect
Says The 6 Most Dreaded Rejection
Words
R
ejection. We in marketing and sales face it
everyday. Secretly, for many of us, rejection
actually comes as a relief. Once the prospect says
no, we’re freed from the discomfort of trying to
convince someone to buy. We can take a deep
breath, shuffle papers on our desk, look busy,
scroll through our list of prospects, disqualify
each one of them in our minds and otherwise
ignore the reality that we are paid not just to show
up but actually to sell.
Often, prospects want to let us down gently. They
won’t outright say no, if they have a shred of
empathy. They’ve probably sold for a living, too.
So they’ll come up with all kinds of excuses about
why they can’t or won’t buy. Often, it’s just as
hard for them to say “No” as it is for us to hear it.
The prospect’s number one way to get out of a
sales call without having to hear another word
from you:
“I’ll have to think it over.”
Well, what exactly do you have to think over, Mr.
or Ms. Prospect? If you knew the product or
service was right for you, you’d buy it. If you
knew it were wrong, you’d reject it. So what’s left
to think about? And yet, surprisingly, salespeople
actually welcome those six dirty words, because
they offer a diplomatic way to hang up the phone.
That’s because the dirtiest secret of all in sales is
that most salespeople hate selling. Oh, we like closing
deals, getting commissions, being top of the board,
making President’s Club or whatever, and
winning the all-expenses paid trip to Jamaica. No
worries, mon.
It’s the selling we secretly despise. So when we
get a rejection, especially a diplomatic one like “I’ll
have to think it over,” it’s actually fine.
It means we can stop selling and start…wasting
time. Here’s the good news: “I’ll have to think it
over” doesn’t necessarily mean no. It often means,
“I don’t have enough information, and I’m afraid
to ask you another question because I don’t know
if you’ll lie to me, pressure me, or assume I want
to buy.”
So the move we need to make is to welcome those
six words…not because they give us an easy out
but because they actually create a real path to making
a sale.
How, you ask? It all depends on how you look at
sales. If you think of it as getting over on the other
guy, or using a bunch of old school clauses, or a
numbers game, or any of the traditional boiler room
approaches, things never go well for long. But if
you think of sales as an opportunity to serve people
by getting them what they need and desire, and
above all, a search for the truth, everything changes.
When I hear, “I have to think it over,” here’s what
I do. I pause, and I speak softly. “You know,” I
begin, “when people say, ‘I have to think it over,’
there are two possible things happening. “One is
that they really don’t want what I’m offering and
they’re just trying to let me down gently. “If that’s
the case, it’s okay. I’m a big boy and I can take a
no.
“The other possibility is that there’s a question that
hasn’t been asked or a concern that hasn’t been
voiced. “Is that the case here? Is there something
I haven’t answered properly or thoroughly for
you?” The change in tone is essential. It indicates
to the prospect that there’s been a shift in the nature
of the call.
It’s no longer about me selling. It’s about you
getting your needs met and your current need is to
ask a question you haven’t felt comfortable asking.
Some people will tell you, “I’m really not
interested.” That’s great. You’ve got clarity.
Strictly Marketing Magazine July/August 2016
3
You can move on to the next prospect, safe in the knowledge that you’ve done your best. Or now the
conversation will take a deeper turn. You’ll find out what the prospect’s real concerns might be. And
then you’ll know how to act on them.
You’ll also learn to address that issue at the outset in future sales calls, because if one person’s thinking
about it, then it probably bothers a lot of prospects. You’ve also denominated yourself as that rare thing
in the world – a listener.
In today’s busy world, real listening is rare. It demonstrates that you care…not just about making your
numbers but about the other person. So the next time you hear “I’ll have to think it over,” smile. You’re
about to change the result from to deal from no deal. And you’ll do it in a way that makes you—and
your prospect—proud.
New York Times best selling author Michael Levin runs www.BusinessGhost.com, America’s leading provider of ghostwritten
business books.
Notable Notes in Sales and Marketing
(Venice, FL) Enzymedica, the leading digestic enzyme
company, has hired Kevin Tautkus to the position of
Executive Vice President of Marketing, Kevin was
formerly with Nature’s Way.
(California & Nevada) Marc McGinnis is now Vice
President of Sales for The Word & Brown General
Agency. Marc’s new role will be streamlining the
sales processes across California and Nevada.
Have a promotion in marketing or sales that you’d like to share? Email your press release to
info@strictlymarketingmagazine.com. Not all entries will be accepted, please keep verbiage to no more
than five sentences. Include Name, Company and New Title.
4
Strictly Marketing Magazine July/August 2016
Use Google’s Eight to Make
Your Business Great!
2. Launch, then keep listening and asking. Seek
real-world input and perspective on your
marketing plans, prospect, product or services.
Working so closely on marketing our own business
we sometimes fail to see the forest for the trees.
Your marketing objective should be to help deliver
what your customers wants, needs or desires so it
is important to see how your customer really sees
what it is you have to offer.
H
ave you ever considered how Google has
been able to withstand the test of time and
continually innovate new technology and
products for their millions of users and followers?
What is it about Google that helped their company
grow, innovate and influence all of our lives?
Recently I read an article on Google’s Eight
Guiding Principles that has been the driver of their
culture of innovation. By examining Google's
approach to business and innovation perhaps we
can learn and apply some or all of these principles
to our own business and even stretch our
innovation muscle into marketing in business.
Google's Eight Guiding Principles:
1. Think 10x – At Google there is a belief that true
innovation happens when you try to improve
something 10 times rather than by 10%. The next
time you are developing a marketing plan, project
or program take time to project how it may be
possible to improve your marketing efforts by 10
times. What would it take to really push the
envelope in your marketing efforts? One strategic
way to do this is to always add “yes and” to your
marketing strategy and ideas. Create your
marketing statement or objective and keep saying
yes and to see where this line of thought leads you.
3. Share everything you can! Google believes that
collaboration is essential to innovation and they
put that in practice in all of their meetings. Getting
a group of marketing creative’s, the sales team,
project managers and leaders together can be a
challenge; especially when perspectives and
desired outcomes can differ, even subtlety. Talk
about everything that is going on in your business,
around you, outside your business and with your
competitors. Broad discussions can help you find
ideas that can propel your marketing efforts and
campaign in insightful and valuable new
directions.
4. Hire the right people! Of course that is obvious
and Google is renowned for hiring talent across all
spectrums of skills, experience and expertise. In
the marketing world it is invaluable to be
surrounded by creative, innovative, open, positive
people, especially those who possess great
instinctual insight into people and trends. Listen
to what they see going on in the world and see if
that may be something you can translate into your
marketing efforts.
5. Use the 70/20/10 model. Google sees that 70% of
projects are dedicated to their core business, 20%
of projects are related to their core business and
10% of Google projects are unrelated to their core
business.
Strictly Marketing Magazine July/August 2016
5
You are probably thinking that as a growing
business you need 100% focus dedicated 100% of
the time to growth. But it is this flexibility that can
help you find a new and better way to reach your
audience. Why, because you are thinking
differently and possibly more creatively by
thinking this way. How would you establish this
kind of approach in your business?
6. Look for ideas everywhere. I love this one!
Google believes that great ideas can be found
anywhere and they look for them everywhere.
Open your doors wide and see just what might
happen. Read, paint, walk or go to museums.
Whenever you can get out of your office and away
from your desk. It is in these spaces and moments
you can ignite an idea that will have you running
with excitement to test your new thoughts.
7. Use data, not opinions. Today you can readily
gather data from your efforts and slice/dice and
mine it for clues as to how your message is
reaching and impacting your marketing efforts.
8. Focus on users, not competition. If your
competitors are copying you it means that you are
the one establishing where business is going and
growing. But the most important place for you to
focus your energy and time is on your customer.
Make that the key point of your business and
marketing efforts. You customers will get it and
love you for it!
Cynthia de Lorenzi is an International Motivational
and
TEDx
Women
Speaker, Google+ and
Social Media Consultant,
Futurist,
Artist,
Photographer, CEO and
Chief Instigator Success
in
the
City
TV.
www.successinthecity.org
6
Strictly Marketing Magazine July/August 2016
David Mattson
Successful Sales Recruiting
trictly Marketing Magazine sat down with Dave Mattson, President and CEO of Sandler Training, to
S
talk about Sales Management and Recruiting. Dave oversees the corporate direction and strategy for
Sandler’s global operations including sales, marketing, consulting, alliances and support, with a focus on
sales leadership, strategy and client satisfaction. Dave shared some great tips and suggestions about sales
recruiting.
SMM: Our Readers would like to know a little more about you and how you got started in your business.
DM: I was a client of Sandler in 1986. At that time, I thought that salespeople were born, not made, so I
was a little skeptical. Once I learned more about Sandler, though, I realized that they had a very
conversational model and they weren’t trying to make me somebody that I wasn’t. It seemed to me that
selling was like a sport and that the more you learned, the more you practiced, the better you could become.
I began working for a local Sandler training office in Connecticut and that’s where I was first exposed to
David Sandler, the “guru” of Sandler, who would become my mentor. My first role was to train the trainers
but under David Sandler’s tutelage, I went on to run global sales and eventually became COO of the
company in 1994. When David passed away, I purchased 25% of the company; and then bought another
25% of it in 2007 and finally bought the company outright in 2012. Now I’m the CEO and we have expanded
the company to 265 training centers in 31 different countries. We have about 19,000 students a year coming
through our program.
SMM: In every industry, there seems to be a lot of turnover in the sales department. Why do you think
that is?
DM: If I look at it from the first-hand perspective
of a salesperson, sales is a very difficult business.
Much of the time, we’re out there making calls, but
being rejected. Many individuals don’t have the
self-discipline necessary to do what it takes every
day. If you were to ask most people, salespeople
especially, “What do you have to do every single
day to be successful?” they can’t really tell you.
They tend to be reactive rather than follow a plan,
so when things don’t work out, they don’t really
know how to fix the issue. I also think that most
salespeople don’t have a process in place, so they
don’t know how to get from point A to point B.
Strictly Marketing Magazine July/August 2016
7
They need to have best practices which they
consistently follow. There are a lot of hurdles to get
over, a major one being lack of sales management
because, in today’s world, less and less time is spent
on the individual. So that’s from the perspective of
a salesperson.
From a CEO perspective, high turnover is due to a
variety of reasons. It could be that companies don’t
onboard people properly. They spend a lot of time
recruiting, but not a lot of time onboarding and
there is a lack of formalized skill development.
A CEO has to ask, whenever we hire new
employees, do we actually have a clear path to
make them better, every time? I know the answer
for most companies is “No.” Most turnovers
happen after the full first sales cycle. About a year
into the business, people find themselves confused
and not doing as well as they thought and –
suddenly – there’s turnover.
Another factor is that sales management doesn’t
have a coaching plan in place for individual
salespeople. As a sales manager, if you don’t have
the time or a plan in place to help your people get
from A to B with the skills necessary for them to be
successful, then you’re set up for failure.
Unfortunately, no one really tracks the cost of
turnover. I meet with companies and ask two
questions to which I never get a good answer: How
long does it take from the time that you hire
somebody to the time that they’re profitable in your
company? Most people don’t know that answer and
if you don’t know the answer, you can’t make it
better.
Second, what’s the cost every time
somebody leaves your company? They don’t track
it. They may be tracking other things that are
perhaps less important, but the cost of turnover is
very expensive, both from a brand standpoint and
an economic standpoint. It’s a critical statistic that
few take into account.
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5 Strictly Marketing Magazine September/October 2014
SMM: What are some strategies that companies can
implement to prevent that turnover?
DM: Well, one of them is a more realistic interview
process. What I mean by that is, a lot of companies
are selling the blue sky - they want you so badly that
they oversell what’s necessary to be successful. I
have yet to hear somebody say, “Look, here’s what
it’s going to look like in the first 6 months. You’re
going to have to build a book of business, you’re
going to have to do this, etc.” Most sales managers
or recruiters are saying, “It’s wonderful here, it’s
awesome,” instead of “I sell a dream because I need
a body in the position. But I probably haven’t
accurately painted a picture of the things that it takes
to be successful, the things that you really have to
do every single day to thrive.” And those are two
very different things. When you are up front and lay
out for people exactly what they will need to do in
order to be successful, then there will be less
surprises at review time and you will have less
turnover.
As an example, I have 4% turnover in an allcommission-based job. Think about that – it’s
incredibly low. That’s because the salesperson
knows going into it what it takes to succeed and
what it is going to take to fail. We spend a lot of time
on that versus selling the dream. The on-boarding
process that I talked about is important and what I
laid out is really simplified. But it’s one of the things
that somebody should know in the first six months
in order to be one hundred percent successful at their
job. The second: give them an example, and give
them a script.
You should also have behavioral plans for new hires.
Right from the start, a new hire should know what
they are supposed to be doing every single day, every
week, every month, in order to succeed. Because if
they don’t, they will fill their day doing things that
they think are productive, but won’t really help them
become successful. It’s very important for them to
have a recipe - a formula for success.
I also like the library of best practices, which we also
successively use to cut turnover. We identify
different functions of the sales process or the job, and
we actually record it or create scripts to demonstrate
the best practice and encourage our people to
replicate it.
What we tend to do is to say, “This person was 500
percent above quota so therefore they will be a
superstar in my business,” and that’s not accurate.
You should be looking at an applicant to disqualify
them from the position, not to beg them to take the
job.
Once the new hire is armed with a plan and best
practices, you can ask, “Hey, how are you doing on
your on-boarding plan? Can you actually do those
things? Are you doing these things every day to be
successful?” And if they haven’t, then you know
they’re not going to be successful. You don’t have
to wait six months to a year to figure that out
because they haven’t done anything that was
outlined for them to be successful.
I interview like I conduct a sales call: I don’t want
to put something through the sales funnel that
doesn’t fit, and I don’t want to do that to an
applicant. While I want to make sure he or she is a
good fit, I’m also looking for the reasons why there
wouldn’t be a fit - something most people overlook.
I believe that the disqualification mindset is a good
one. You should make sure that there’s a good
cultural fit, and production numbers are great
indicators, but you have to make sure that the
person’s not going to be disruptive or will not really
blend into the overall dynamics of the team,
especially if you are team selling - a bad apple in
team selling can destroy the whole team. So look for
culture, look for job fit, look for the candidate’s fit
based on skills and experiences and results, and
make sure that they have some sort of plan in place.
SMM: What top mistakes do recruiters make
when they’re hiring for the sales department?
DM: Many times, they haven’t been provided with
an accurate job profile. Recruiters should make a
list of pertinent questions, such as, who will this
person be calling on? What’s the average sales cycle?
How are they being paid? When looking for
somebody to call on the C-suite, with a six-month
selling cycle, $5M and above services, you really
shouldn’t be hiring somebody who calls on
purchasing agents for a transactional $50K sale. You
need to match the job profile to the individual. You
should also follow the SEARCH model: Skills,
Experiences, Attitudes, Results, Cognitive skills,
and Habits.
If I were a recruiter, I would look at a few major
things: Do the skills of this person match up to the
job profile? Do they have the skills necessary to
succeed, or will they need to be trained? Do they
have the required experience? Have they done this
somewhere else? And most importantly, have they
produced these same results? If I’m looking for a
hunter, I want to know if the majority of their
business at their current workplace came from new
business? And they’ll need to show it to me because
I need to know that this person will fit nicely in the
job
that I’m
filling.Magazine September/October 2014
5 Strictly
Marketing
SMM: Would it be better if the sales manager did
the hiring or does it matter if human resources is
involved?
DM: Here’s how I’ve seen it most successfully
work time and again: HR and Sales create the job
profile and the interview questions. HR culls down
the field to the top 5 or 6 candidates and then let the
sales manager hire from that group. Sales managers
will likely tell you they don’t have the time for all of
those interviews, and that’s fine. Then sort it down
to a more reasonable number, but let them make the
ultimate decision.
SMM: What are some questions that the candidate
should be asking during the interview?
DM: What will I do day-to-day? How do you
judge success? What would my overall portfolio
look like?
9
Is it relationship-based? If a commission-based
position, I’d like to know up front how the
commission structure works? What is your turnover
rate?
Other big picture questions: If I want to grow, how
do I grow with you and your company? Do you
promote from within? What’s your process? The
applicant should treat a job interview like a sales
call - you just happen to be selling yourself. The
bottom line is that most applicants are doing the
exact same thing that the recruiters are doing:
recruiters are saying, “It’s awesome, it’s awesome,
it’s awesome.” The applicants are saying, “I’m great,
I’m great, I’m great.” And nothing of substance ever
gets discussed. Avoid this trap.
SMM: Can you offer some tips to create a sales
environment that would attract the right
candidate?
DM: Your company should have a coaching
culture, and a playbook for success. Tell new hires,
we’re going to give this to you on day one; here are
your scripts and your qualifying questions; here’s
what you should be doing, and how you should do
it; here’s how we train you. That is a fantastic sales
environment. You make the assumption applicants
are leaving their other positions because they’re
unhappy with something - money, lack of support?
So when you outline the ways your company
supports new hires, you’re creating a culture. I
always ask a prospective employee, aside from
money, what is the number one reason you’re
leaving.
The most common answers are, I don’t respect my
manager; I’m not being paid attention to; or I don’t
have the tools to succeed. The training culture, the
coaching culture, providing playbooks - that’s a
huge draw for people, especially when you’re 40+.
Explain how they can help your company grow.
People want to contribute, they want to become part
of a bigger thing.
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5 Strictly Marketing Magazine September/October 2014
SMM: If you’re hiring a sales manager what tips
would you offer to choose the right candidate?
DM: Sales managers are often the least-trained
group of people in a company. They were promoted
to the position, but never trained on how to be a
great coach – something integral to being a great
sales manager. 8 out of 10 companies can’t write
down the sales process, from the time they prospect
to the time that they sell additional products and
services. If you think about that for a second, how
is a sales manager supposed to manage a team when
everyone’s doing things differently? It’s impossible.
We set up most of our sales managers to fail, and we
don’t even know it.
Do you have the right processes in place, to get
clients, take them through the sales process, to do all
the things necessary? Are you supporting your
people properly? Do you have the right people on
the bus? (There are a variety of assessment tools out
there to determine that).
I talk to sales managers all the time. They say, “Well,
my people call me when they need me.” That’s so
untrue. Get your processes in place and then create
your own cookbook (a list of things that you should
be doing as a manager every single day.) This will
be benefit your own job and, more importantly, help
you to grow your people. Here are the questions
that I ask my sales people all the time: What should
we be doing more of? What should we be better at?
What should we be doing differently? If you have
that quick conversation on every call, you’re going
to increase effectiveness. If you have to train
anybody in your company, train your sales
managers.
David Mattson is President and CEO of Sandler
Training. To learn more about Sandler, visit their site at
www.sandler.com.
To find out if you are hiring the right talent get our
complimentary e-book.
http://reports.sandler.com/new-hires-social/
MEDIA
SPOTLIGHT
Fresh Tracks
Podcast: Fresh Tracks with Kelly Robbins
Website: http://www.FreshTrackswithKellyRobbins.com
Description: The Fresh Tracks show is for entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, and marketers that
know there is more to building a profitable business and living a life than being busy. We have to power
to create whatever we set our intention to create and we don't do that by following cookie-cutter
formula's and doing 'what we are supposed to do'. Life is a journey. Our listeners want to live on
purpose, are open to examining themselves and understand that there is personal development work
involved in building a business. They are interested in creating a holistic life/business.
The show brings a variety of viewpoints on how to build your life your way. We do this by creating our
own Fresh Tracks in life and not following in the footsteps of others before us. This may mean bucking
the trends of our family, corporate background and society as a whole.
How often is your show released? Twice a month.
What would you like a potential guest to submit to you? Bio, Headshot, Contact Information, Website
Link, 5-10 Sample questions and Topic Summary.
Where should someone submit this information for guest consideration? Email this information to
Kelly@FreshTrackswithKellyRobbins.com
Get your FREE Media consultation today! Fill out our complimentary assessment to get more exposure
for your business! https://strictlymarketing.wufoo.com/forms/qahl71w0dfvjtr/
Strictly Marketing Magazine July/August 2016
11
3 Key Shifts for Mastering & Up-leveling Your Social Media Mindset
I
n order to be a successful entrepreneur online,
mastering your marketing mindset is the most
critical factor for achieving your best results. As
most know, using social media is not always as
simple like a walk in the park. It has several
components that have to be continuously mastered
and/or upleveled.
Having the right social media mindset and
learning how to effectively use each platform often
challenges a lot of business owners, causing them
to have limiting beliefs about creating consistent
success through their online presence. In turn this
often impacts their attitude, mindset and leaves
them feeling like they can not win no matter what
they do on social media.
I recall having a powerful dialog with Kerry
Heaps, on the Strictly Marketing Talk Radio Show
about how your marketing mindset truly sets the
tone for your business. We talked about the
importance of having the right attitude, aligned
marketing strategies and the common mistakes
that most entrepreneurs make with online
marketing that creates limiting beliefs and derail
their success.
I addressed how I've personally had my own share
of limiting beliefs and held myself back on many
occasions based on a lack of confidence and
competency for how to best utilize social media to
my advantage. Instead of continuing in frustration
and beating the drum of the same routine with no
real results, I had to shift my perception and
change the way I looked at social media. I began
with up-leveling my social media mindset in order
to redesign a success model for real results. The
art of making the proper shifts to master your
social media mindset is what’s most important
even before coming up with a strategic marketing
plan.
12
Strictly Marketing Magazine July/August 2016
We've been taught in the world of business to do it
the other way around. We create the plan without
first developing our marketing mindset for success.
This is exactly why most can not or will never
create scalable, sustainable or successful marketing
models. If we don't fully understand what it takes
to cultivate the right mental environment for our
social media success, we'll be ready to quit and give
up every time we feel invisible, rejected or
incompetent. Giving up or taking unnecessary
pauses in our social media momentum instead of
making subtle shifts or up-levels, could potentially
create more limiting beliefs, develop negativity
towards our target market, other successful
business owners or even resent social media
altogether. This is why mastering and up-leveling
your social media mindset is non-negotiable.
3 Key Shifts for Mastering & Up-leveling Your
Social Media Mindset
Master the art of accurate thinking and aligned
focus: It is often stated that what we focus on or
think about the most is what we vibrational create
externally.
their limitations and then flip the script to make
social media work for our greater good.
We have to start adopting the belief that social
media is always working in alignment with our
mission instead of thinking that it's not working for
us. Even though that's easier said than done, when
we feel blocked or can't get the results that we want,
we must begin to see every opposition or even
opposing opinions as opportunities to up-level.
Developing the right mental muscle to handle the
various aspects of social media involves being
willing to change your point of view with least
resistance and then take right inspired actions.
Begin shifting your mindset to use low visibility
challenges or little to no feedback on
products,services or your brand as an invitation to
realign those areas for greater expansion to become
more than you can imagined. This also provides an
up-leveling opportunity to trick your subconscious
mind to succeed vs sabotage by aligning your focus
with what is true and best for your business.
If you've ever watched some of the original Looney
Tunes, there was an episode where Elmer Fud was
confused about which season it was for hunting.
Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck kept deflecting the
focus off of themselves trying to get Elmer to
believe that it was the others season. Bugs,
brilliantly used reverse psychology to get Daffy to
declare it was duck season, causing Elmer to open
fire on him. Our limiting beliefs can challenge us
in this way. We get confused about when, what
and how to share our offerings. Like Bugs, we have
to learn how to masterfully reverse the roles in our
mindset around our social media efforts and
somehow cause our non-serving beliefs to expose
9 Strictly Marketing Magazine September/October 2014
Don't compare yourself to others: Most
entrepreneurs get into the comparison mode when
they measure their social media results to others.
Sometimes what appears as the success of another
can be a surface illusion. Regardless, we are each at
different phases or levels on our entrepreneurial
journey.
Focusing on what others are doing or comparing
causes you to create more social media mindset
challenges. Instead of getting distracted in the
comparison zone, find out what you can learn from
others or use your challenges to pioneer a new way
of social media success. Making this mental shift will
open fresh new ideas for your social media goals.
See social media as your business partner: Up-level
your perception by viewing social media as your
business partner and/or chief advisory counsel for
sales, marketing, advertising and mindset shifts.
Instead of looking at social media for just
promotional ambassador purposes for your brand
or business, connect with the energy of the social
media as a whole. Begin to create a partner based
relationship with it. The most effective way to begin
this process is to get present and set time aside every
week or month to decide what are the best platforms
or methods to use, how often, and explore
uncommon ways to serve your target market
correctly.
Alicia Nicole Waters! is the CEO of Alicia "Waters" Cross
Industries Intl., which is a global cross niche media
communications and cross brand marketing training empire
for helping entrepreneurs re-purpose their efforts to serve in
diverse industries. She is the author of over 100 book
publications and specializes in cross niche journalism
marketing, cross industries branding and serves as a media
communications mentor.
Visit her site at www.aliciawaterscrossindustries.com
Strictly Marketing Magazine
July/August 2016
13
It’s all about .SOCIAL
S
ocial media networks come and go. How many
of us remember MySpace? How about Xanga?
LiveJournal anyone? The beauty of a .SOCIAL
domain is that it evolves with you and
www.yourbrand.social can redirect to Facebook today,
Twitter tomorrow, and the social media platform of
the future the following day. But even if the social
media platform of choice is changing faster than
most people change out their toothbrush, the
influence of third party platforms on the internet
continues to grow. There are currently nearly 3.5
billion internet users around the world and over 2
billion active social media users. Gone are the days
when a brand’s entire digital identity was tied to a
single website connected to a single domain.
The question is, how can brands both large and
small, make the most of the time, energy and resources they commit to third party social platforms?
The simplest answer doesn’t require special content
creation or a contract with a social media marketing
firm (not that these are outside the realm of reasonable actions but they do require more in-depth planning and budgeting). By assuming responsibility
for their audience’s experience finding their content, brands can dramatically improve the experience, ensuring that their audience finds them and
enjoys the experience.
This is where a unique and memorable domain
name comes into play. Most third party platforms
automatically assign users an altogether forgettable
web address like www.facebook.com/yourbrand or
www.twitter.com/yourbrand. While still possible for
customers and fans to find said brand using a search
of the brand’s name, each step along the way decreases the likelihood that a brand’s audience will
successfully find them. A brand that curates this
experience by registering www.yourbrand.social and
redirecting it to a third party platform of choice
increases their likelihood of being found and provides a memorable experience along the way.
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Strictly Marketing Magazine July/August 2016
For brands that find it difficult to pick a single social
media channel, there’s the option of pointing a .SOCIAL domain to a social media aggregation site
where fans and potential customers have the advantage of seeing all of a brand’s third party content in a
single place. Social media aggregation is beneficial
for customers who don’t have the time to follow your
brand across a handful of third party platforms, providing a comprehensive portrait of any and all news,
promotions and updates.
Lamborghini is currently utilizing the site,
www.lamborghini.social to redirect to a social hub
where customers can find links to the brand’s comprehensive social media profile including Facebook,
Twitter, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram,
Spotify, Pinterest, Vimeo, SoundCloud, FourSquare,
VK, Weibo, Youku, WeChat, Vine and Periscope.
For a single customer, however invested in the Lamborghini brand, to keep track of this many profiles
without the benefit of a single site would be challenging at best and impossible at worst.
The New York Post offers a similar function to their
customer base at www.nypost.social with a page that
links to their Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+,
Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, Vimeo and YouTube.
While the purpose is similar to what Lamborghini is
doing with .SOCIAL, both brands are unique in how
they represent themselves on their respective pages.
Of course, for some brands the power of .SOCIAL is
less about the advantage of social media and more
about the fact that the word is an exact match for
their brand or project. Information about Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzgerald’s book The Art of Social
Media: Power Tips for Power Users is available at
www.artof.social because that’s their brand and they
just so happened to find a new gTLD that perfectly
summed up who they are and what they represent.
Most recently, musician Rick Springfield and legendary act The Doors have registered .SOCIAL domains
and are using it in two different ways. For Springfield, it’s being used as a re-direct to his website
where he is promoting his latest album, “Rocket Science.” For The Doors, the domain serves as the main
website, allowing fans to then navigate the site the
way they choose – News, Gallery, Store and more.
Meanwhile, even Pope Francis has realized the value
of new domain names! Scholas.social is his new platform that enables schools an education networks to
be in contact with each other. In this case, the new
domain name offers an extra dimension – far better
than neutral extensions like .org or .net.
Additionally, websites branded with a .SOCIAL
domain are appearing with increasing frequency
across the most popular website builders, including
WordPress, Weebly, SquareSpace and Wix, indicating that it’s not just larger brands that have clambered aboard the .SOCIAL train.
While many gTLDs are relatively new, many brands
are already embracing this opportunity, utilizing a
.SOCIAL domain to redirect to the following social
platforms:
For individuals, startups, and SMBs, a .SOCIAL
domain can represent a more affordable option
than an expensive .COM, while resolving dilemmas
ranging from how to create a memorable call to
action, branding microsites and creating a memorable and clear path to social media content.
●
Facebook
●
Google Plus
●
Twitter
●
Bitly
●
LinkedIn
●
Instagram
●
YouTube
●
Tumblr
●
Periscope
By Bill Glenn, VP of Marketing for Rightside.
For additional .SOCIAL use cases visit
http://showcase.ninja/tagged/.SOCIAL.
Strictly Marketing Magazine July/August
2016
15
The Napoleon Complex: Small Company, Big Attitude
I
can clearly remember my first day in operation
running my payroll company. I was finally open
for business and there was only one problem; I had
no clients to actually prepare a payroll for. I had a
fancy new printer, a great little computer network
and I even had my first staff member- does my mom
count as a staff member? I guess so. Nevertheless,
I was in business and ready to take on the giant
payroll processors of the world. Armed with not
much more than my enthusiasm and vigor I began
guiding my fledgling operation on a path to conquer
the industry, well at least my little piece of it.
It is a daunting task to start your own business
regardless of your industry. I had chosen a business
sector that I had been a successful salesperson in for
only two short years. I think one of the reasons I
thought I could actually compete and do a good job
in the payroll industry was a result of my naiveté
combined with my complete and utter lack of
understanding of how difficult it would really be to
run my own organization. Some say that ignorance
is bliss, and I agree that sometimes when you are
starting a business it is better not to know what
challenging times may lie ahead or you might not
even start down the path.
Fast forward a fairly grueling 20 years and my firm
is now the most respected payroll services provider
in the region we serve and we compete with the big
guys on a level playing. In fact, my company is a
topic of discussion at every one of the industry
giant’s sales meetings. They are constantly
attempting to undercut our pricing, discredit us and
downright lie to try to persuade our loyal client base
to jump ship and cross over to the dark side.
Secretly, I know our competitors respect us. Why
do they need to resort to such base behavior? It’s
simple. We provide better services all around than
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Strictly Marketing Magazine July/August 2016
they do, not to mention many of our clients quickly
tired of being treated poorly by these larger firms
and were happy to find a home with a smaller
provider that could respond to their needs more
appropriately.
Does this sound familiar? Whether you are a
smaller company just starting out or have been
around for a while, I am certain you understand
exactly what I mean. How do you compete on the
same level as the larger firms when you don’t have
the money for extravagant marketing campaigns,
can’t hire the best sales staff available, pay rent at
the swankiest address or sometimes even afford
some of the basic necessities to make your operation
run smoothly? Here are a few tips that will leave
the industry giants in your rear view mirror.
Lead the community scene – Being a smaller player means you have to find novel and lower cost
way to get noticed and be taken seriously. Taking
a keen interest in your local, regional or trade community will raise your ability to come in contact
with the influencers you need to meet to help your
business soar.
Example: When I started my firm I made it a point
to be on the board of regional charities and civic
organizations.
Not only was it personally rewarding, but it paid big
dividends as some of my best clients (that I still
work with today) came on board as a result of this
charity work and my company’s interest in our local
community. Plus, getting involved in local charity
events is great, free PR.
Care about your clients entire business - It’s not
enough anymore just to do your job well at a reasonable price. You need to be on the lookout for ways
to enhance your clients business even if it is not
directly correlated to what you are providing them.
Example: If you are a health benefits provider and
you are selling services to clients with less than 50
employees the rates for services will be the same
with any broker they choose. By offering complimentary services like payroll, education savings,
and retirement planning through partners you can
help your client with more than they ever expected.
Be different, but recognizable – You want to be able
to stand out in from your competitors, whether irreverence is the angle, a slightly different solutions
offering or you offer a twist on your delivery method. Whatever angle you use to raise your profile, it
should be different enough to be eye-catching and
memorable, without confusing your prospects or
customers on your product offering.
Example: Several years back, a local limousine
service in the northeast was the first one to introduce hybrid cars in to their fleet. They tapped into
a burgeoning market of travelers who want to be
environmentally friendly. While the upfront vehicle purchase was initially higher, the operating costs
are lower than standard vehicles over the long term
and this organization made themselves stand out as
different and forward-thinking in a sea of lackluster
vendors. They appealed to and solidified a solid
consumer base in a new, young generation that will
use them for years to come.
You can find anything you want just by doing a web
search. While this is true, being a trusted source of
pertinent and relevant industry information for
your clientele and followers means that they will be
happy to use your website and staff consistently as
a resource while thankful you did the research for
them.
Example: I received a fantastic white paper from an
ERISA attorney that was so well written and informative, I called him up and asked him if I could
share it with my entire client base. I am sure he was
counting of some of the recipients to react this way.
The attorney has since done some work for my firm.
I would not have looked for this information on my
own, but was pleased to have it and share it with my
customers. My customers were also happy to have
received pertinent information to help them run
their business.
My firm quietly took market share for over five years
before really being on the industry leaders’ radar.
The reality is that while we are a complete nuisance,
we’re not really a threat to their existence. That is
probably the outcome that most of the entrepreneurs
that choose to go head to head with the giants of their
industry face. The brilliant and lucky few sometimes
find a way to become the big guys. I ask if they are
really “lucky” to become that big? I would rather be
a company with a Napoleon complex- a smaller
company with a big attitude.
Small business and
Entrepreneur Advocate,
Expert and Author Robert
Basso is founder and
president of the New York
region’s largest independent
payroll processing firm,
Advantage Payroll Services
and a regularly sought out
small business guest speaker,
mentor and media expert.
For more information visit http://www.RobBasso.com
Do a better job than your competitors in educating
your customers – Information is ubiquitous.
Strictly Marketing Magazine July/August 2016
17
Proven Success Formula for Lead Management:
How to Overcome Five Common Challenges
H
ow frustrating is it that over 50% - 70% of leads
sent from marketing to sales never receive
sales follow-up? This is a well-researched statistic
that has not improved for the last five years. As a
result, the time, money and effort applied to
generating sales ready leads is often much more
impressive than the actual revenue results realized
from this activity. The primary culprit in this missed
opportunity is how marketers execute lead
management. Most marketers treat lead
management as a series of ad-hoc, poorly
coordinated marketing activities rather than an
intentional, cross-functional business practice.
I recently facilitated a focus group on the topic of
lead management. As part of a pilot for a lead
management course, 11 different companies and 16
marketers at a manager/director level from a range
of industries and company sizes gathered to discuss
the topic. Not only did this one-day training serve
to pilot our lead management class, it also acted as
a focus group to highlight common challenges and
validated a practical framework for effective lead
management.
This article presents the challenges most often
experienced by marketing and details a practical
framework for addressing these challenges. This
approach will re-energize your lead management
practice, ensure the leads you send to sales are both
appreciated, acted on, and deliver the attribution
and revenue results you have worked to earn.
Defining Lead Management
Let’s begin by establishing a working definition for
lead management. Lead management is a
methodology whereby marketing generates
qualified leads, passes them seamlessly and
efficiently to sales and sales/marketing processes
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2016
them through to close. It is a combination of people,
process and technology, a shared capability for
marketing and sales and applicable to both
prospects and clients.
Five Most Common Lead Management Challenges
In working with the pilot group described above as
well as with my B2B clients, I see five common
themes or challenges for an effective Lead
Management practice.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Everyone is “doing it.”
Not managing as a practice.
Run as a marketing-only capability.
Lack of best practices and structure.
No business case.
Everyone is “Doing It”
Anyone with an e-mail system or a marketing
automation system and a goal to produce leads for
sales is “doing” lead management. Yet, “doing” is
not enough. “Doing” is the reason that 50% - 70%
of all leads go unprocessed and untouched by sales.
The first thing that has to happen for effective lead
management is to realize that the current ad-hoc
approach to lead management is not enough.
Marketers need to move from “doing” to “practice.”
Not Managing as a Practice
In most companies, lead management is not
conceived or executed as a specific practice. Rather,
it is habitually managed as an ad-hoc set of
disparate activities that have grown organically
over time. The Lead Management Framework
(LMF) below details the six key areas of an effective
Lead Management practice.
Establishing Metrics
If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Peter
Drucker. Let’s begin by admitting if we can’t
measure it, we can’t manage it. Taking the time to
develop a set of performance Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs) for lead management is a key step
to creating a practice that results in predictable
revenue. A KPI is a value you choose to measure.
It might be tactical (measures the effectiveness of
your marketing activities), operational (measures
the efficiencies in your processes), or revenue
related (measures attribution, pipeline and
revenue).
Defining a Sales Ready Lead
Step 2 in the Lead Management Framework is to
carefully define a sales ready lead. This key activity begins to define a common language used by
marketing and sales and presents the ideal opportunity to begin a business collaboration with sales.
A sales ready lead is determined using demographic data (size of company or title) and digital
body language (online actions). The value of digital body language is continuous in that it helps
score a lead (part of defining sales ready) and
provides on-going insights for making better sales
pursuit decisions.
Creating One Common Lead Funnel with Stages
and Statuses
Step 3 in the Lead Management Framework uses
the common language established in Step 2 and
common marketing and sales goals to create one
common funnel. In this common funnel, both marketing and sales have unique and cross-coordinating responsibilities.
Multiple technologies enable managing one funnel.
Architecting Lead Processing and Routing
Step 4 in the Lead Management Framework depicts the detailed flow of how a lead is processed
(people, process and technology) and routed. The
development of the flows should involve sales
input and be optimized through technology. This
is an especially important step when an organization is using any kind of tele-sales or tele-qualification team – whether sourced internally or
externally. I see many leads lost when this team is
added and what I should be seeing is a set of
greatly improved results. This can happen with
lots of collaboration and careful architecting of
people, process and technology for this critical
juncture.
Developing Lead Scoring
Step 5 in the Lead Management Framework is to
develop the lead score for a sales ready lead. This
is a MUST to do with full involvement of the sales
group. After all, they are the consumer for the
leads that you will produce and if they do not
perceive value in the lead, they will not follow up.
The lead score for a sales ready lead is determined
using demographic data (size of company or title)
and digital body language (online actions). The
lead score is not a “set it and forget it.” It needs
continuous review and optimization.
Implementing Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
The final step in the Lead Management Framework
is to develop SLAs. This document describes the
roles, responsibilities and KPIs for marketing, telesales and sales. Jointly developed with sales and
tele-sales, getting buy-in and behavior change
around this document is often quite challenging for
marketing.
Run as a Marketing-Only Capability
Lead management is most often viewed and
executed as a marketing-only capability. In
contrast, best-in-class companies run lead
management as a highly collaborative, crossfunctional capability.
Strictly Marketing Magazine July/August 2016
19
Marketers are often surprised at the level of
collaboration required to make lead management
effective, but also state it is worth the effort and
time. Of particular importance is the relationship
with sales and the tele-sales group.
Lack of Best Practices and Structure
There is a stunning lack of best practices and
organization around an effective lead management
practice. Since so many marketers have an ad-hoc
set of activities that comprise lead management,
this is not surprising. Once a framework for the
practice is established and the key stakeholders are
identified and involved, best practices can be
identified and optimized and the appropriate
structure can be put into place.
No Business Case
One of the biggest surprises from the focus group
was the lack of understanding of the potential
value of lead management across stakeholder
groups and to the organization as a whole. It’s
almost as if marketing is so busy “doing stuff,”
they don’t have time to create a solid business case
for the value of lead management. This is no
excuse given the dismal follow-up rates on leads
and the resulting monumental loss in time, money
and effort.
The Business Case for a Dedicated Lead
Management Practice.
A best-in-class lead
management practice produces effectiveness,
efficiency and revenue for sales and marketing.
Benefits for sales include a more predictable sales
pipeline, more time on leads that convert,
continuous digital body language intelligence,
higher average deal size and a shorter sales cycle.
Benefits for marketing include predictable
marketing contribution to sales pipeline, businessoriented investment decisions and transformation
of marketing from a cost center to a revenue center.
To develop your lead management practice
business case, follow these steps.
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Strictly Marketing Magazine July/August 2016
Step 1:
Understand what intentional lead
management looks like (no more ad hoc). Research
your competitors and peers in your space.
Step 2: Define the value in terms of your
organization. You know the results you are getting
today.
Step 3: Provide proof points. Research, research,
research.
Step 4: ID and collaborate with key stakeholders
– especially sales and tele-sales. It’s never too late
to start.
Step 5: Implement & optimize with transparency.
As you reshape your lead management practice,
be transparent on both activities and KPIs.
The Lead Management Framework and the insights
shared in this article provide a foundation for
moving from “doing” to “practicing” and for
realizing ROI from your lead management practice.
Debbie Qaqish is The Queen of Revenue Marketing,™ and
has been helping B2B companies drive revenue growth for
over 35 years. As Principal Partner and Chief Strategy
Officer of The Pedowitz Group, Debbie manages global
client relationships and leads the firm’s thought leadership
initiatives.
Debbie is author of the award
winning book – “Rise of the
Revenue Marketer,”
Chancellor of Revenue
Marketing University, and
host of WRMR Power
TalkRadio for Revenue
Marketing Leaders, which
showcases marketing
executives from companies like
GE and Microsoft sharing
advice on marketing transformation. A PhD candidate,
Debbie also teaches an MBA course at College of William &
Mary on Revenue Marketing. In March 2016 Kapost
named Debbie among the Top 40 Most Inspiring Women in
Marketing. In February 2016 SLMA named Debbie one of
the Top 40 Most Inspiring in Sales Lead Management.
Connect with Debbie via LinkedIn, email:
Debbie@Pedowitzgroup.com or phone: 770-331-4443.
Future-Marketing, becoming Big Social Mobile Should Marketing Really
Own Social Media?
I
n the last edition of this column we talked about
layering analytics to uncover potential consumers
who could be most easily converted to customers,
more quickly, at higher value and with an increased
CLV. But once we have them identified, what should
we do with them? The typical answer is that
someone in marketing, or perhaps digital marketing,
will create personalized messages for them and…
that’s pretty much the end of it—consumers either
respond or they don’t. Of course, there will be an
endless string of increasingly less personalized
emails and advertisements and eventually coupons
until the consumer eventually sees no value and
unsubscribed. What else is a good marketer to do?
The honest answer is: perhaps nothing.
Marketing themselves really can’t do much more.
That’s why the world’s best digital operators don’t
leave social solely in the hands of marketers. In fact
marketing might not be the right group to actually
own your social media initiative. If you are a
marketer reading this, you are probably rebelling at
the very thought of giving up control over what has
given your department such power. It turns out that
just about anyone else in your organization might
do a better job at convincing consumers to become
customers than your marketing department.
Consider how these other departments and
functions might add more value before you decide:
What I call today’s “social consumers” are doing
more than just purchasing from a company; they
are building a relationship. And relationships
require long-term value to survive. Marketers
address this by mixing holiday messages and
discounts with standard sales/marketing content.
None of this gets at the heart of what consumers
really want: insider information on how your
product or service must make their life better, easier,
or just more fun.
Unfortunately marketers can’t create content that
meets this need the same way R&D, product
managers, operations, customer service or even sales
subject-matter experts can.
Experts tell you
something you could never have figured out on your
own; marketers too often tell you things you already
knew in a cool format, with great graphics or using
140 characters.
Social Consumers also form relationships for
another reason: they like what “friending” a brand
says about them (or perhaps more accurately they
like what it will make people think about them).
Do they want to be viewed as hanging only with
the cool crowd, or showing they can accept the
unpopular? Social media practitioners know this,
and respond by trying to make their brand look as
popular as possible—and therein lies the problem.
A company can’t be all things to all people and still
effectively convert consumers to customers. Tight
branding, supported by on-point marketing
collateral and a knowledgeable, communicative
sales people lets consumers know what a company
can do for them, and can’t. And that earns their
confidence and their loyalty. Senior management,
product managers, implementers, installers,
designers, even sales people, all understand better
than marketing what is at the core of why
consumer’s purchase and how they really use the
product once they do. After all, they designed the
product, they work hand-in-hand with the
consumer integrating it into their lives and they are
most likely to hear about the unhappiness. From
that standpoint, your organization is better off with
customer service owning your social initiative
(please don’t confuse this with social customer
service—there is nothing worse than creating a
social customer service department).
Strictly Marketing Magazine July/August 2016
21
Ask someone in your marketing department to go
to the front of the room and sell you your
company’s product or service. You will be
shocked—and disappointed. Social media has
blurred the line between sales and marketing.
Selling is part process and part art form—just as
marketing is. But they are two different processes
and require two different artistic talents. What to
sell to your community? Use a sales person. I’m ok
with marketing owning the social sales process as
long as marketing is willing to adopt a revenue goal
for that new channel. Suddenly not so interested
in owning a sales channel? I didn’t think so.
Big data (derived from social and mobile sources)
can be used to determine the relationship between
discounting and propensity to purchase, or nearly
any other consumer-oriented fact (if the data
collection process are set-up properly). In the first
edition of this column we used it to identify our
perfect customer; in the second edition we used it
to identify the perfect pattern of interactions and
which consumers were most likely to conform to
it. Too often marketing departments adopt social
campaigns that do little more than offer discounts
and coupons, training consumers to wait until that
next discount is offered before they make that next
purchase. Marketers do not make very effective
data scientists—even though they now control
more data than almost any other department.
Sales, customer service, product development and
nearly every other department brings some specific
and unique piece of information to the table that
can positively impact the corporate-consumer
relationship; the average marketing department
repackages this for reuse across the digital
landscape. This is no small thing. It is a core
competency that highly effective big social mobile
enterprises rely upon. But this skill is useless of
each of the other areas of the organization are first
doing what they do well.
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Strictly Marketing Magazine July/August
2016
Their functions—and knowledge—is critical if an
organization wants to use its digital initiatives to
convert consumers to customers—too use it to
create tangible results. Which is to say, if an
organization wants to use social for more than just
happy birthday coupons, advertising and product
information (with the occasional cat video mixed
in). And it won’t be long before social is required
to deliver quantifiable results that equate to greater
revenue and profit, not just more friends,
downloads and data.
The realization that marketing may not be the best
place for these digital initiatives might run against
the grain, but ask yourself what you are really after
with your social initiative? What are all of those
tweets, posts and pictures actually getting you? At
the end of the day it has to be more than just
goodwill.
So, at this point you are expecting me to offer up
an alternative—to tell you who should own social.
My answer? Marketing.
Marketing has one thing that no other department
in the organization has: a deep understanding of
how social, mobile and even big data can be used to
support the larger efforts of the organization.
Therefore, marketing must own it; the only other
alternative is to create social within each department
(are you starting to see why social customer service
makes me cringe?). Doing this makes social, mobile
and big data initiatives even more expense and
creates significantly more risk for your organization.
Each department will use it differently, send a
different message out into the digital domain. From
a consumer’s perspective your organization will
quickly take on the look of someone with multiple
personalities—and social consumers hate that.
Therefore, the key to success is integrating these
initiatives into each other and into the organization
itself. Marketing must give up some of this newly
won power, and become what I call a “content
conduit”—a group that helps other areas of the
organization connect directly to consumers and
customers so that deeper, more meaningful
relationships can be formed—relationships that can
then be more easily monetized.
David F. Giannetto helps organizations leverage technology—
providing both the technical and business insight necessary to
create, understand and utilize it to improve performance. He
is SVP of Services at Astea
International, the leader in
service management and
mobile workforce technology.
He is author of Big Social
Mobile: How Digital Initiatives
can Reshape the Enterprise
and Create Business Value
(Palgrave Macmillan 2014),
the first enterprise-level
methodology
that
helps
organizations integrate social
media, mobile technology and
big data into their core people,
processes,
technology,
information and strategy to
create tangible improvements in revenue and profit. Visit his
site at www.giannetto.com
For now, consider what unique information each
department or function within your organization
has and try to document it. What specific
information do they have that would make the
customer’s life easier, less expensive, fuller and even
just more fun? It can be anything from little known
product features, creative ways to use the product,
add-on products or services that add value to yours
(even if they aren’t delivered by your company)—
anything. You will become the conduit that carries
that knowledge from them to your customers and
your consumers. Then your content will become
truly personalized and valuable. We’ll explore how
to do that next time.
Strictly
Marketing
Magazine
July/August2016
2016
Strictly
Marketing
Magazine
July/August
2723
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