Do you need differentiation?

“Differentiate or die” was coined by Jack Trout as title of his book.

- Do you really need to differentiate in order to survive?
- If you have been doing fine until now, why change?
- Apparently you have found a market for your products with a certain quality and functionalities at a certain price.
- A price that your customers want to pay as they find it reasonable enough to buy.

Comparing costs

Compare the opportunity cost of being different with the costs involved of being different.

Opportunity: Will you sell more if your products or solutions are different?

Cost of being different: What will be the cost of designing, producing, marketing and selling a product or a solution that is quite different?

In your marketing and during every sales process, you will need to explain the difference and convince your potential customers of the benefits provided by the difference. That will be consuming money, time and effort.

Lost sales: if people don’t understand or miss to see the benefit, sales will be lost.

Marketing the differentiators is hard to do

Of course being different gives you the opportunity to explain, stand out of the crowd and break away from the average or the mediocre.
If you have been heard or if your messaged gets passed on, people might listen or retain your message.
If not: then you stand no chance with your very different, unique and outstanding solution.

The questions are:
- Will the audience be listening and will they understand your differentiator?
- How much effort and costs will go into explaining the differences and the related benefits?
- Will they buy?

It will be harder and more difficult to explain the specific features, functions and benefits, than to tell what the audience wants or expects to hear. This allows them classifying your solutions or products in a certain category: that’s easy and convenient.
Understanding something new demands an effort. And it cannot be classified easily.

Even if they pay attention, they still can misinterpret and draw the wrong conclusions.

In case a business has a requirement or a demand, the decision makers or influencers will make a short list of solutions and solution providers, where your much different solution might not fit in anymore. Thus being left out of the short list as being too different.

There are more risks involved in being a differentiator than go with the flow.

Example of differentiator problems

A good example of differentiator was the Dyson Vacuum Cleaner with differentiators:
- No bag
- Constant suction
- Higher cost of purchase – lower cost of operation due to the no bag
James Dyson wrote a book about it: Against the Odds (autobiography).
It took years before the product was designed and it took a long time for addressing the right market:
- Originally the Dyson vacuum cleaner was intended for the High Income and it had a first success in Japan at a premium price.
- In the end the Two Income Families have bought the vacuum cleaner in large quantities.

The High Income families had cleaning ladies and thus didn’t care about the dust bag or the constant suction.
The Two Incomes Families had to vacuum themselves and running out of dust bags or less suction causes an interruption in their cleaning work.

The Dyson vacuum cleaner turned out to be a big success, but how many other solutions or products that are different turn out not to be successful at all?

To be different or not

It is well known that two shops with similar products in a street sell more than one, as it gives the buyers the opportunity to compare. Thus why be different?
People like to compare similar solutions and products.

Thus why would you want your products or solutions to be different altogether?
- The total price of being different can be too high: development, production, marketing and selling.
- The risks involved of technology failure and marketing failure.
- The incomparability problem: your different solution doesn’t compare with the other solutions in the market.

Having a market offering similar to the competition might be the best solution in many cases for most companies.
Standing out from the crowed is hard and challenging work and involves many risks.
Being different could be highly successful or a very big waste and loss: in most cases nothing in between.

If you have a ‘me-too’ product, you will need:
- Your marketing or your pricing need to make you stand out from the crowd.
- The best lead generation solutions to get the most and the best leads of your market.
This could turn out to be better than being a differentiator.

Do you have ‘me-too’ or differentiator products or solutions?

David Poteet of newcitymedia has an interesting explication why your website is not an online ad.

In the early beginnings of the Internet, company websites were a display of the company building and the products. Since websites have changed, however some websites still resemble an online advertisement.

The difference is:
- An ad is presented to an audience without they asked for.
   Compare an online ad with a billboard.
   You are walking or driving and notice a billboard.

- A website is selected by the audience in order to be visited.
   Compare a website to a shop or boutique.
   You go shopping with the purpose to buy.

Goal: conversation vs problem solving

The goal of an ad is to start a conversation.
This requires the audience:
- To remark the ad.
- To be listening.
- To respond.
The probabilities of each of these occurences need be multiplied in order to get the overall probability. The chances are relatively small to start any conversation with an online ad compared to the audience.

The goal of a website is to solve problems of visitors
A visit to a B2B website has a reason:
In most cases people are looking for solutions to their problem(s).
With every page they visit and the time that is being spent on the page, the problem they have should become clearer for you.
A website should provide the required information within a minimum of time requiring a minimum of clicks.

This requires the visitors:
- To find your website (SEO – Search Engine Optimization)
- To stay on your website
As people have a need or a problem, the likelihood of paying a visit and looking around for information on your website is quite high.

The confusion comes from the fact that ads can be informative too, trying to solve a particular or specific problem. However the ad will only work for a certain segment of the market, thus limiting its’ reach.

Interrupting vs flow

Advertising is interrupting all work processes and are on/off:
You are interrupted by the advertisement while surfing the Internet or browsing a website.

Just like a billboard interrupts and asks for your attention when you might not be ready for it.

Websites become a part of the problem solving process and thus of the workflow.
You are actively searching for a feasible solution for which your website could provide a solution.
The visit to the website is part of the information collecting and even the learning about the problem and solutions.

You enter a boutique or shop only when you have a need: you are ready and interested.

Websites are not online ads

Thus don’t build your website like an online ad, as it will be less effective:
- Fewer conversions.
- Less leads.
- Less revenue.
Website should contain content that helps to solve your potential customers’ problems.
In order to be effective the content should be easy retrievable from your website.

Is your website an online ad or a problem solving tool?

According to a survey from IDC, you might be losing up to 50% of your potential customers as your content or collateral on your website has not adequate information or is not related to their problems.

This is the result of a survey of approximately 400 IT buyers by IDC concerning website content:
- In-depth product information
- White papers
- Case studies
- Articles
- Vendor collateral

It revealed that the online vendor marketing information is relevant to the prospects less than half the time.
Thus about 50% is not satisfied by your content.

It appears that only 42% of potential buyers find information on a vendor’s website that is interesting and helpful.
Your chances of getting sales can be reduced by 45% by the lack of relevancy of the information found on your website.

The potential customers slip out of your website just like sand out of your hand.

The causes and reasons can be multiple:
- The visitor ended up on a website not relevant to his problem.
- The information is very generic trying to solve all of the potential problems of all of the customers.
- The information was edited and compiled by people not in the business.
- The content was created by people who never have used the product or solution.
- The management of the company, the marketing or the product manager never has listened to their customers.

Websites are for solving problems
People visit a website in order to find answers and solutions to their problems. This is exactly what the content and collateral on the website needs to provide.
The collateral that is the most appropriate to a problem of a visiting needs to be found easily.
And the visitors need to recognize their problem and the collateral needs to explain clearly the solution.

How well fitted, problem addressing and interesting is your online content and collateral?

When the deal is lost, then the real selling starts after you have investigated in order to find out the real, the good or the bad reasons why you have lost the deal.
Now you can decide to:
- Forget about the deal
or
- Counterattack as a Raider of the Lost Deal.

The altered proposition

The only way to turn this around is to make a better or more suited proposition based upon the information received or collected from several sources n the company?

This proposition can be:
- A lower pricing
- Different pricing model: renting or leasing instead of buying
- More services for the same price (not a good idea)
- Higher service level
- Better product or solution
- Lesser quality product or solution
- Limiting the number of function or features (if possible)
- Extending the contract duration
- Shortening the contract duration
- Larger quantity over a longer time span
- Older model or type of product

Anything or any conversation or any threat, that can help to get the sales in order to generate revenue, recoup the investment of the sales process, and keep the competitor from scoring is good enough.

This is the real selling requiring your sales skills.

The 5 advantages after losing the deal

As you have lost the deal and know the reasons, you have four advantages:
1. You have nothing to loose as the deal is lost already.
2. The winning competitor is not expecting new challenges: thus you might take him by surprise.
3. Decision makers may have overlooked important facts and benefits that have been revealed by your source.
4. After the closing the deal, some negative facts previously not known can be revealed by the salesman or vendor.
5. Although the decision has been taken, nobody is completely satisfied.

Thus time to start selling in your best manner.

Even if you make only a small profit, you don’t have the loss of the sales process costs, which represents a big difference in operating income.

Are you a Raider of the Lost Deals?

The complex sales process

Every sale goes through a sales process: longer or shorter depending on your products.

The complex sales process involves telephone conversations, organizing web seminars, email inquiries for information, replying questions and more questions, sending documentation on features and functions, explaining benefits, set up meetings, make price quotes, circumventing challenging propositions of competitors.

Although very different in all cases, still there are patterns and similarities in all sales processes.

The Lost Deal

If you don’t get invited for further meetings and price or specific negotiations which will lead to “Close the Sale”, you probably won’t hear from the prospect for a while.
Thus:
- You call him in order to find out about the progress or what is hampering or delaying the decision.
or
- Unannounced you get the message: “We have chosen for a different vendor”.
In both cases you just have lost the deal!

Always investigate

If you hang up or don’t reply the email immediately, then you are probably bringing to an end all conversations. In that case you are sure to have lost the deal.
If you don’t investigate, you will never know why you have lost the deal.

Start inquiring and investigating with the appropriate questions in order to find out more.
As a first you need to know who has on the deal.
This information the prospect should tell you or confirm you (as you could should know the winning competitor).

Even though people don’t want to tell anything, if you can have a conversation by being gentle and pose some open ended questions people will tell you something: more than they want to tell.
Now you will need your sales skills.

In a complex sale, there are several people involved. You can contact each of them.
The more people, the more talking, the more clues: thus a higher chance to get information from the prospects’ side.
Moreover as several people are involved in the decision making, there will be always people who do not agree with the decision. They will tell more or describe the reasons for the decision. You will probably know who was on your side.

The official reasons and the reasons given in confidence should give you a clue what action or proposition to take next.

The loss is higher than the lost deal

If you give up now, the investment made by your company in this sales process is a complete loss as it adds up:
- Not getting the sale is less revenue to support the operational costs of the company
- Complex sales process investment is lost
- Making the competition stronger in the market

The costs involved are not to be under estimated. The losses neither.

What do you do in case you have lost a sale?
Investigate and report or forget all about it immediately?

Read in part 2: about The Raider of the Lost Deals

Failing Internet advertising

Eric Clemons – Professor of Operations and Information Management at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania – explains on TechCrunch a number of reasons why advertising is failing on the Internet:
- Consumers do not trust advertising
- Consumers do not want to view advertising
- Consumers do not need advertising

The same reasons should apply to businesses:
- Do businesses trust advertising?
- Do businesses want to view advertising on the Internet?
- Do businesses need online advertising?

Do you click on online advertising?
Probably not as you are reading this blog.

The Economist published similar remarks about the online advertising that was supporting the web 2.0 growth and predict the end of the free lunch (free online content)

Advertising and media

Traditional media was a one way communication: radio, movies and television.
This allowed:
- Pushing messages and content in one way.
- Preformatted sequential access to content.

The Internet has become a two way media:
Although the Internet website originally started out as just a display of content, changes have taken place over the years:
- Content with interaction from the Internet surfers.
- All people can publish content too on the Internet: forums, articles, reviews.
- Simple and convenient to interrupt the content stream and change from content source.
The internet is information and entertainment on demand. It has become the easiest and trusted source of products and solutions information using professional reviews and peer reviews.

If online advertising is failing to meet its’ objectives, then other means are needed, as businesses need to get traffic to their website in order to get leads – to get sales – in order to survive.

Email marketing is not the solution

A first possible solution could be email marketing campaigns.
These campaigns require sending thousands of emails in order to generate one lead.
However obtaining thousands of email addresses is not possible for most companies – thus a company would need to buy email lists.
Not exactly the best or most appropriate solution as you will be addressing to people you don’t know.
Moreover companies need to keep buying new lists for ever, thus not a sustainable business model.

Publishing content

As a company cannot control professional reviews or peer reviews, then apparently the only solution left is providing content and distributing your content over the Internet.
Content that can be indexed by search engines in order to get your website found. A part of the visitors on your website will be interested and read your business proposition.

Thus you need to create content that you publish on:
- Your website
- Your blog
- Your press releases
in order to get found on the Internet.
The more content and the more unique content: the better for getting found on the Intrnet.

Just avoid publishing duplicate content as that gets penalized by the search engines.

What’s your take on less effective online advertising?
Spending more or looking for an alternative?

Cold calls: interrupting and disrupting

Cold calls are intrusive and obstruct the normal day workflow.
Thus in most cases people are not interested in your call.
Callees don’t want to get cold called as it disrupts their working day and can confront them with a dilemma they don’t want to decide upon.
Many of the incoming calls are cold calls: up to 50% depending on your function.
Customers normally don’t call – Sales men do call.

The callee perspective

As a cold caller you should be able to place yourself into the position of the callee.
The callee should be able before the sales pitch starts, to state the moment is not appropriate.

What does the callee want and needs to know?
1. If he recognizes the company name
2. If he recognizes the products or services
3. If there is a mutual acquaintance or a connection
4. If the product or service offered could match his responsibility
5. If not responsible if it is worthwhile to pass on to the responsible
6. If there is a reference customer that he knows
7. If there is a benefit for him included
8. If there is a benefit for the company
9. If there is a big disadvantage or risk involved
10. If it concerns an innovation or a novelty
11. If there is a catch in your proposition
12. If he can sell it internally to his management
13. If it is a waste of time already
14. If he is the first to be contacted or not

The order of importance of these matters is different from callee to callee.
Every person in a company is in a different situation related to work, home, family and friends. All these influences and sentiments do influence his decision.
You cannot know all, but the more you know the better you can ask questions and present your proposition.

The prepared sales pitch

In any case as your time during the introduction is limited, you need to get to the point quickly:
After stating clearly the company name, the connection or acquaintance and the product name is required for reference and then the compelling reason as the callee need to connect with it.

During these initial moments of the conversation, the callee makes his first decision: reject or not.
In case of rejection, you still have a little chance to persuade the callee using solid benefits for him or his company.
In order to pass this second chance, you need to know as much as possible about the company and the person you are calling in order to ask the best suited questions and to make the most appropriate proposition. The available information on the Internet about the company, competitors and the callee can help a lot.

You need to know the perspective of the callee in order to have a successful cold call.
The web service LEADSExplorer will help in this matters as you will know his interest and you are able to retrieve Internet information at a click of a button.

What do you know of a callee before you make the call?
How do you prepare your cold call?

Blogging the Internet stars

When you use these popular well-known brand names in the title of a blog post, they will generate more clicks, more views.
We have experienced this phenomenon with this blog several times.
Maybe Facebook should be added to the list of Google, Apple, iPhone and Twitter.

Apparently these brand names act like a magnet to the Internet public.
They are like movie stars that will fill the movie theatres whatever the content of the movie is.
Whatever the subject of your blog post is you will get more clicks.

It is like the PerezHilton blog that gets attention by the gossip it creates by writing about the rich and famous (preferably in bad situations).

Thus if you blog about the “Internet stars”, you will generate more traffic.

However the problem with these gossip visitors is that most of them aren’t interested in your products, solutions or value propositions. It is very unlikely they will ever buy anything from you.

Wondering how long their stardom will last.
A few years ago Skype and BitTorrent were hot, but not anymore today.

Stardom for your company?

The chances of your company brand name achieving stardom are probably zero?
Thus the best is to link up your brand with one of the Internet stars.
Even a big company like Salesforce used Twitter to get into the headlines.

How could your company brand link up with one of the Internet stars?

One of the selling methods we frequently encounter as a company is the selling of the unique opportunity for exposure to an industry audience.
Being selected for the unique opportunity of addressing the decision makers of your target market, should be an irresistible offer.

Opportunity knocks

A service company contacts your company with the message the company has been selected for a unique opportunity.
The unique opportunity is related to a well-known industry body or a respected organization having a highly valuable audience that meets your needs: the decision makers of your target market.

For one reason or another, your company stands out as an example in the industry.
The organization or industry body wants to present your success story to their members as an example, which should be stimulating during this recession.

This opportunity should be the once in a life-time chance for the company for getting such an exposure.

However there is just one thing that stands between you and the opportunity: an article, a presentation, a page in a directory or a video.
This is where the service company will help you to achieve the best exposure possible as they have the experience and the expertise on these matters. Help: means at a certain fee.

As a matter of fact, the goal of the call is to sell the writing, production and editing of the required format: an article, a presentation or a video which of course comes at an expense.
As the quality standards of the organization need to be met, you cannot produce the content yourself.

In order to sell the potential business the exposure holds is being compared with the expense of the production of the content.
However it is still an important amount of money for marketing purposes on a project beyond your control.

The tricks of this sales trade are:

- The honor of being selected
- A unique exposure to your industry audience
- Professional marketing service by professional people

The questions to ask are:

- Why are you selected as a company amongst so many?
- Is there a real opportunity?
- Are their members interested in your offering?
- What’s the reason the decision makers have become members? Probably not for getting exposed to a sales pitch.
- Why does the service company decides and controls the format?
- Why does the agency decide on the content?
- Why is this agency, instead of the Industry body, contacting you?
- Will there be a guaranteed exposure to the members?
- Will they pay any attention?
- How many sales pitches are presented every month to the members of the organization?
- Will your content be approved or is there a jury or selection committee from the Industry body?
- Is the exposure free or comes it at an additional cost?

This method of selling the unique opportunity has existed since long.
It used to be in print with industry catalogs or directories, now it is online with video.
Old wine is a new bottle.

How frequently is your company selected for the unique marketing exposure opportunity?

The good times marketing:

Not so long ago banks could choose from a vast series of words and eye catchers in their advertising and leaflets in order to excite or to tease people and businesses.
During these times slogans and teasers like:
- High interest rates for your savings
- Easy credit cards
- No-income-requirement mortgage
- NINA loans – No Income No Assets
- The whole world in one bank
- Your bank never sleeps
- Not Your Typical Bank
- The Thinking Behind the Money
- A passion to Perform. Leading to results
- Solid partners, flexible solutions
- We understand your business (we might not understand ours)

The recession marketing:

Since the banks have been running into problems creating a massive recession (or depression) the most exciting words are:
- Solid
- Stable
- Reliable
- AAA or AA rating

Not exciting at all!

People and businesses are looking for security over growth.
Thus the marketing for financial institutions needed to change.

Times have changed; marketing has changed too – not solely in banking, but also in your industry.

What are the changes you encounter or are implementing in your marketing?

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.