Aug 12, 2013 | Uncategorized
In any B2B sales situation of a complex product, the prospect is usually shopping for a solution to a problem, rather than shopping for a product, although most conversations I see still seem to be about a product.
This idea that a potential customer is product shopping rather than problem solving leads to the conclusion that alternative products are commodities, and all that differentiates is the applicability of your commodity to the solution of the problem.
It holds then that the more information you have about the problem faced, the more likely you are to be successful at building the case for your solution.
Clearly, customers do not see all purchases as solutions to problems. Often buyers just repurchase product X because it worked in the past, quick, and saves the risk of being wrong.
Therefore, it is incumbent on the seller to understand the context of use sufficiently well to be able to point out where your option will not just solvethe problem, but do so better than any alternatives. The pitch then has the chance of being persuasive, as the problem has been articulated, rather than just having the buyer leaping to a solution.
In most cases these days, the early part of the sales job has been replaced by the search capability of the net, in most cases a buyer believes they have most of the information they need to make a decision, with just a few details outstanding, predominantly price.
The sales job therefore is to make that last little bit really compelling, differentiating the pitch from all the rest.
This challenge of articulating the problem, rather than competing on product specifications holds true for the SME around the corner, as much as it does for multination enterprises.
Aug 8, 2013 | Governance, Leadership, Marketing, Personal Rant
I have come to the conclusion that the crop of marketing and strategy development people looking after the current crop of Canberra wallies are about as useful as Harold Holts flippers.
After watching a host of political advertising last night, even on the ABC, (heaven help us, is there no refuge) I realised as well that:
- I am either a cynical old bastard, or the marketing and strategy people who “advise” our pollies think we are all truly, truly stupid enough to believe the patronising, paternalistic slogans they are delivering after the shenanigans of the last decade, and that,
- We are all so cynical, and feel so betrayed by our so called political leaders, simply because of years of shitty marketing.
Well, I am a marketing consultant, so you would expect that may influence the way I see things.
Consider what both leaders of the big parties are doing, although I do not exclude the dills from the edges who are at least as loopy.
After a decade of slight of hand, ducking responsibility, blame shifting, non-core promises, and outright bullshit, they now tell us what they are going to do, and expect us to believe it, and run to the ballot box in joy.
They tell us what they are going to do this time around, (while pouring scorn on the other lot, with access to exactly the same information), but do not tell us how they are going to do it, or why it is important.
This is a commodity sales pitch based on the political equivalent of sticker price, and we all know that commoditization and brand building, which necessarily includes trust based on behavioral standards are mutually exclusive.
Where is the value proposition?
When you think of really great marketing, it is based on explaining “Why“. The classic Apple ‘Think Different” commercial which set the tone of Apple brand building until very recently. Owning an “Apple” meant something, it conveyed a Why. It is not a computer, or an ipod, ipad, it is an “Apple”. Surely there are enough examples of great marketing around that they could have learnt something?
Is it so hard for someone to at least try to articulate the “why” they deserve our vote, the value they put on it, and how they will use it to build a better place for us, and our children?
Aug 6, 2013 | Branding, Customers, Marketing, Social Media
Many SME’s do not engage with Social media, or do so at a very superficial level, having a facebook page, and wondering why people do not flock to them with their wallets open.
These are the most common I hear:
• Not enough time
• Just for the kids
• Do not know how to use it
• Waste of effort
• Why would I put my business in the same place as all those stupid cat photos
• I have been successful doing this for a long time, why change now
• I hate sitting in front of a computer, much more important stuff to do
• My neighbor went on it, and she got stalked, why would I want to risk that?
• Nobody I know uses it
• My customers all know about me anyway
• It is just a fad
• My employees will waste the time I am paying them to work for me talking on facebook
I am sure you can think of many more.
Now, here are a four things that will happen as a result of the above:
• Others will control what is said about your brand and business
• You will be failing to communicate with a substantial proportion of (most) products markets. Leaving aside incontinence pads for ageing baby boomers, every product is being discussed on social media, somewhere by your potential customers.
• You will be seen, when you are seen (refer below) as “behind the curve”
• Invisibility equals commercial death, and visibility these days is all about Social media
If that is what you want, easy, do nothing, but Social media is not going away. Many of the ways we communicated last century are, by contrast, going away, so if commercial survival is on your bucket list, you had better get with the program.
Aug 1, 2013 | Change, Governance, Marketing
The first post on this “StrategyAudit” blog was on March 30, 2009, and I wondered at the time if there would be a second.
Where were the ideas going to come from?
Would I have the discipline to just keep at it?
Would anyone care?
Now, a thousand posts, and four and a half years later, at least one of those questions has been answered, and much to my surprise, I have stuck at it. The ideas still come, mainly because I see things, read things, make connections that previously I was unaware of, but now I write down, and sometimes they turn into posts.
Does anyone care? Well, a few do. Several hundred subscribers get an email every time I post, and a good proportion get opened, although the rate varies with the headline. (you can always tell an interesting headline) and more are open via twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media. Thanks to you all, and more reposting, and retweeting would be appreciated.
So, What has changed over the life of StrategyAudit?.
Marketing has changed, absolutely. The world is now digital, and the practice of marketing. has been radically transformed, and by observation, many of Australia’s enterprises have missed the boat, so far.
Mobile has not just arrived, but now dominates many net usage categories, particularly social media. Overall mobile now delivers 25% of web traffic, and growing at warp speed.
Marketing ROI. You can now calculate the ROI of most marketing investments based on data, where previously it simply was not a reliable calculation. For the first time, the old adage of “50% of my marketing budget is wasted, just wish I knew which 50%” has become nonsense. It can now be calculated with considerable accuracy using free web analytics. Given that data is free, there is no excuse not to use it.
Crowdsourcing. Creative input, money, advice, as well as crowdsourcing routine clerical jobs. No longer is Intellectual Property king, Intellectual Capital has taken over, as it is what you have between your ears that can influence tomorrow that really counts. It is now much less about what you did yesterday, and are protecting in the hope that it can be a win again tomorrow, than what you can do now that counts.
Visual has arrived, from the growth of YouTube, to Vimeo, slideshare, visual podcasts, instagram, Vine, the list goes on. Content is now visual, a picture replacing a thousand words writ large.
Fragmentation has overcome social media as it has matured, just as the manner in which we get news fragmented a decade ago when suddenly the newspapers, radio and evening TV news became almost redundant. There are choices you now make about which social media for which purpose, the way you use it, the content, et.al. Social is now part of our commercial world, not the habitat for our teenage children, and smart organizations are starting to understand the nuances, and use it well, rather than just chasing “Friends”.
Marketing automation is upon us. Everything from consumer CRM, to social media posts and content bait is combining to disrupt the sales and marketing processes that evolved over last century. It is particularly potent in B2B sales and marketing, removing the demarcation that is the base of so many organisation structures and cultures.
Transparency has evolved from operational and logistical environments into marketing. There is now huge volumes of great info on the net aimed at helping people to think about and measure the impact of their marketing. It is the age of helping, in the hope of gaining a customer for life, rather than just creating a transaction. Jay Baer has just written a second book, “Youtility” on the topic, and last week put up a long post that includes slideshare presentation on “how to” publish, doing exactly what he advocates in the book.
“Big Data” has arrived, although most have no idea what it is, and so are missing the opportunities that evolve from the mass of data now available to those with the capabilities and tools. Apart from the academic interest driven by the challenges of analysing zettabytes of information, enterprises across many categories are looking at ways to leverage the potential. It has also spawned a new job description,” Data Scientist” those who do this mining. Wonder how our universities are coping with teaching something only 3 years old, that is rapidly becoming a defining discipline of the 21st century?
Mortar to virtual retailing has arrived, along with the “Showrooming” whereby people use bricks retailers to touch, feel, test and size products they then buy on line a bit, sometimes a lot, cheaper. However, the research still evolving tends to suggest that the “showrooms” that get visited are first “webroomed”, increasingly from mobile, social media connected devices, and the total of sales is increasing, stimulated by the available information and marketing, while bricks retailers are missing substantial opportunities by concentrating on price as a competitive tactic. In effect, to be successful retailers need to be “Omni-channel” retailers. However, as noted below, we still go to the local store for much of what we buy.
Local. This is an emerging trend that leverages technology to disrupt at a local level by providing services specifically tailored to the individual. Airbnb, just a couple of years old is busily disrupting the hotel business, and from nowhere Uber, disrupting taxi and limo services is now a billion dollar baby. (Just how the absurdly regulated taxi industry in Sydney reacts will be an interesting exercise in the status quo Vs common sense). Nowhere is this trend more visible than in the growth of local growers markets in urban areas. Web strategist Jeremiah Owyang is calling it the Collaborative economy, and it is just getting started, but what a huge baby, at a current estimate of $26 billion.
Empowered consumers. Consumers now have enormous amounts of information at their fingertips, and this has removed from sellers much of the power they used to have in the selling process, weather it is paperclips or power stations that are being bought. This means that an ordinary value proposition is simply not good enough any longer!
Bullshitting the boss. Marketing was always a balance between art and science, but the pendulum has swung decisively in favor of the boss. The “black art” component has been removed, senior management have been around this stuff long enough, and are smart enough, to now be able to discriminate between the real marketers and those who just know the jargon. Baffling the boss with marketing bullshit no longer works, Full stop!
And, what has not changed.
The net has not turned all of us into wise, super informed consumers, and few of us are hyper connected, yet, and most of us are just a bit confused at the array of choice. However, if the pace of change continues, and I expect it will only accelerate, another decade will see us living in something akin to a sci-fi movie as Gen Y takes over.
Our behavior has not changed all that much, just because the tools have changed. We just have a bigger choice of tools, many of which most of us cannot, or choose not, to use. What we like and dislike, the people we choose to share a meal with, and how we spend out time have not changed all that much, human behavior is too hard wired for rapid evolution. The exception to this sweeping generality is social media, which has been adopted in the manner of a starving man being presented with a feast.
The web has not replaced our old buying ways completely, despite the hype. Most of our shopping (95% depending on whose numbers you use) is still with bricks and mortar retail, and much of the so called lost 5%, the B&M’s would not have made anyway, as the demand is a creation of the information and choice available via the new tools.
The web is not a cure for the disease of crap advertising and communication we suffered last century. If anything, it has multiplied the opportunity for us to be bored, turned off, and just plain aggravated. Were it not for our innate ability to ignore that which does not interest us, we would all be bonkers by now.
I’m glad you stuck with me this far, thanks, I hope I have scratched your brain. And so, on to the next thousand.
