Mainstream products

There are products that are the core of a solution which will get most of the attention and interest during the purchase process.
There are products or appliances that are an important part but getting hardly any interest in the purchase decision as they have become mainstream.

It is like the refrigerator when buying a new kitchen where interest goes to the furniture and complex appliances but not to the fridge. People assume the refrigerator will do its’ job of cooling and freezing. They expect nothing outstanding from the refrigerator. Still the fridge is an important appliance in the kitchen not only because of keeping the food fresh, but also for the non-existence of the possible noise the motor and pump can produce.

How to diversify?

If your solution is like the fridge as part of a larger solution then you have 4four options for differentiation:
- Price: stand out by a low price given a certain quality
- High quality: stand out with a high quality claim (long lasting, low power consumption, …)
- Design: stand out by great design (which can be copied within months by competitors)
- Brand name: have the brand name support the perceived differentiation and quality.

This is because adding features or benefits will not make the difference as they will hardly be noticed or understood by the decision makers.
Your product has, just like the fridge, a certain perceived and expected functionality or service but nothing exceptional. Trying to change this would be an uphill battle, costing too much money for this product in a market with common and mainstream products as the perceived functionality, value and benefits will kill your efforts.

Forget disruptive products

Even if you would have a disruptive new concept it would cost you development, marketing and sales time, money and efforts to present, promote and sell your new product. Just compare with the hurdles James Dyson had to overcome and survive with his bagless vacuum cleaner.
Forget about disruptive products or solutions as they can kill/ruin your company (bankruptcy)

Are your products like the fridge in the new kitchen ?

So there you are standing on your booth.
Waiting for the next visitor to address to you.
However there is no real interest on the booth.

Marketing has been spending money on getting the best spot on the floor.
There have been many discussions on the booth design and banners.
However there is no real interest on the booth.

Marketing has emailed thousands of people a free entrance voucher.
They even promised a gift if someone would visit the booth with this invitation.
However there is no real interest on the booth.

The expenses for travel and lodging must be high with all these employees on the booth.
Don’t count the wasted hours from all those employees.
However there is no real interest on the booth.

The Black Berry keeps on buzzing keeping you up to date with the outside real world.
Good there are still prospects and customers emailing and calling you.
However there is no real interest on the booth.

The trade fair neighbors aren’t doing any better as there is little venue.
People do pass by but they are not of your target market.
However there is no real interest on the booth.

You open your portable connecting to Wifi in order to respond to your emails.
Now you have something to do.
However there is no real interest on the booth.

A visitor enters the booth and several sales reps jump on him.
Although he asks the wrong questions, they do keep on talking in order to keep him on the booth.
However there is no real interest on the booth.

You wish you where in the office working through all your sales administration.
Or in your car on the way to the next potential customer.
However there is no real interest on the booth.

Where are all those interesting leads you had before on trade shows?
They probably are in their office searching the Internet for information.
However there is no real interest on the booth.

You hope next year management takes the decision not to be at the trade show anymore.
So you can do your business as usually.
Meanwhile the company’s website is getting all the interest instead.

Why are companies still spending time, capacity and money on trade shows during this Internet era?

Obtaining trust

What does it take to obtain trust from a company to actually make a purchase order ?

How much time does it take ?
How many website visits ?
How many emails ?
How many telephone calls ?
How many meetings ?
How many advertising views ?
How many brand marketing messages ?
How many blog posts ?
How many press releases ?

Missing trust assets

Most companies are in the market over many years and have build-up their branding and their trust image.
Obtaining trust is a very slow process requiring patience. and a pounding marketing message.
Getting reviewed in industry magazines or being referred by bloggers are a big step-up for obtaining trust just like the word of mouth from peers.

New companies are missing these assets and have to convince people in companies of their trustworthiness in a fairly short amount of time.
Trust can be build through authority on certain matters in a specific market which can be achieved by blogging which should be supported by advertising. As people in companies trust people in companies, human contact is required.  The best is when people turn to you for advice on certain matters which could happen using your presence on Social Media as it lowers the entry level: it is easier to address to someone on Social Media than to send an email to the same person in a company.

Still obtaining trust remains a long and slow process and you have to be heard.

In most (start-up) businesses you haven’t got this time for building trust and thus you are required to take a short cut by providing a free trial as this takes away the hurdle of risk.

Or do you have any other means of proving your trustworthiness ?

The birth of sales training

Sales booth camps were successfully introduced by John Henry Patterson of NCR (National Cash Register) in order to train his sales force on the 16-page NCR handbook written by Joseph H. Crane – his brother-in-law. The goal was to memorize the 450-word primer.
By gathering the entire sales force in one booth camp and completely disconnected from the outside world their focus was on the matters and topics of the sales booth camp: the birth of sales training.
At the same time team building was achieved.

The evolution of sales booth camps

During 120 years the concept of sales booth camps has survived two world wars and tremendous changes in industry and business: industrialization, automation, mass production, global distribution, …
The format and presentation methods of sales booth camps have changed over time: salesmen no longer sleep in tents, books have been replaced by emailed pdf documents, …

The decline of sales booth camps

Until a few years ago information and communication technology was mainly limited to the premises of the company or at home as a fixed line was needed for data exchange.
As the wireless Internet has become omnipresent and almost the entire sales force is online all of the time, the question arises if sales booth camps are still effective?
Will salesmen still pay attention during sales booth camps when they have their smart phone at hand and are continuously connected with the outside world? Instead of keeping their attention to the sales training, they can be in constant contact with their prospects and customers. Getting new leads and closing deals are more interesting than the actual sales training.
The salesmen have less focus on the topics presented as they keep doing their business from their smart phone by email or make calls in order to keep their business going during breaks. They have all the necessary information available on their smart phone: the CRM system, contact lists, price lists, price quotations, order follow-up, delivery schedules.
- Deals mean commission now or soon
- Sales training is maybe commission later.

Of course management could prohibit the use of mobile internet and smart phones during the sales booth camp. On the other hand management requires the salesmen to perform and bring in sales, thus prohibiting smart phones will decrease the sales achievements. In most cases and companies the current quarterly sales is more important than future sales.

New sales training methods are required

The goals of sales booth camps are no longer achieved due to the available communication technology which attires the attention of the salesmen for business throughout the sales training.
Sales booth camps are no longer as effective as they used to be.
New sales training methods are required – probably using the Internet as salesmen could be trained when they are wasting their time like waiting at airports, during commuting and travel using their smart phones.

Merging the mediocre

The joint venture of 2 small or unsuccessful companies won’t emerge as a big or successful company.
The combination of 2 average solutions won’t create a great solution.
The combined offering of 2 partners with poor or me-too solutions will not become a top selling leading offering overnight.
The merger of 2 unmotivated under performing sales or marketing departments of one company will not create a great sales team or marketing department.
In most cases both parties involved just hope it will be better by adding functions, features and benefits while forgetting market research and testing the value proposition in the market.

Unlikely creation of greatness

More is required to turn two turkeys into an eagle as the value proposition of the product or the combined service has to be outstanding. All to often when two mediocre value propositions are combined, the combined offering is still mediocre.

How could two turkeys offer a better price/value, price/quality or exceed competition by just combining their existing products or services?
In order to achieve greatness their innovation needs to exceed, which each of the parties involved haven’t achieved on their own. So how could they ever achieve this when already the merger will consume time (discussions, culture differences) and capacities (people, money and goods). Creation of greatness is unlikely to happen any time soon.

Market research for suiting solution

Instead of hoping to excel after a merger or combination of products or services, start market research with analyzing the market for what are their needs, requirements and then innovate, develop a suiting solution.

Pounding messages for brainwashing

In consumer business it is common to communicate the same message over and over again in order to get people to believe that marketing message. It is like brainwashing.

The more sources that proclaim the same message the will widespread and the more consumers will believe it as being true.

The same is probably true in business-to-business by pounding the same marketing message over and over again and having other sources proclaiming the same message. Preferably trusted sources like recognized analyst firms, business bloggers, journalists and even the TV-news should spread the message in order to have influencers and business decision takers to believe it and influence their decisions accordingly.

The message content

The first challenge is to find an message that is interesting enough and sets your company or solution apart from your competitors. The message must be easily understood and inspire in order to trigger interest from your target audience. A message just like Steve Jobs proclaims as he pretends and makes you believe his company makes the best products and are worth the large amount of money they cost.

Engaging media for pounding the message

Publishing is no challenge as content for your website, your blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and multiple press releases are easily created and executed. Additionally advertising can help in spreading the message, comes at a high cost but is just straight forward.
However achieving the engagement of analyst firms, bloggers and journalists this is a huge PR undertaking which starts on the website of the company and with a press release, but will need the mysterious influence of a PR agency.

Good luck with pounding your marketing message!

Friends on Facebook

It is easy to find people you know as prospects or customers on Facebook through the search function. Then you could add them as friend which will send a request to them. Will they accept your request to become “friends” on Facebook? That’s a challenge.
What is the benefit for them to become your friend ?

The social media gamble

What is your benefit to become friends with people working at companies that are prospects and customers?
Why would you want to become friends with your prospects or customers?
You will enter into their personal life and start knowing better their interests, habits and doings. This could give you an advantage over your competitors or additional opportunities with your customers as you know them better.
If you have common interests then becoming friends could be beneficial. If not then it starts to look as a disguised sales effort where you are intruding into their private lives.

If they accept to become your friend, then at the same time they will start finding out things about you, which in the end might not stimulate your sales at all as you could have quite different opinions, views or interests than they do. Thus every statement you enter into Facebook needs to be carefully checked.

Also if you “like”, “comment” or “share” statements or interests of your friends, your prospect-friends and customer-friends can become aware of certain things they don’t agree upon or have a different view upon which would not help your sales.

Becoming friends on Facebook seems turning out to be a gamble: you could benefit from it by knowing better the people at your prospect and customer companies to be used at your advantage, but it might also turn out negatively as business and pleasure don’t match.

Connections instead of friends

Will being friends on Facebook:
- Increase the chance of closing a deal? Possible and not possible
- Increase sales to existing customers? As they will be remembered frequently of your existence it could be
- Generate more leads for you? Probably not: as chances are minimal that the friends of your business friends are in the same business or have a need for your business.

Maybe it is better just to stick with LinkedIn by building an keeping your connections of business relations on this less personal social media as is less outspoken as Facebook.
Connections on LinkedIn can be useful but will not bring more insight into prospects and customers.
Being friends on Facebook could bring insight from both parties which might be less beneficial in the end.

You can find our company on Facebook and on LinkedIn.

The perception that buyers or decision makers have of the salesman is important.
Besides the evident interest in the product or solution, people will also show interest in the image and external indicators of wealth and success.

The car of the salesman

If the salesman travels with an above average business-like car it indicates for most people the company and the salesman are successful. However if he parks his expensive saloon or sports car (Don’t posh with your Porche) in front of the building, people will associate high prices and possible rip-off. On the other hand if the sales rep drives a small budget car people assume business is not so good.

The clothes of the sales rep

The same applies to the clothing of the sales rep: just above average is good, whereas fancy, chic or expensive requires caution as the price will be too high. Way below average with cheap suits gives the perception of not so successful business.

The accessories of the business development manager

- Expensive watches versus normal or budget watches
- High end brands for portable computers vs common brands
- iPhones versus Android smart phones
- iPads vs a piece of paper

Subjects of interest

During the initial small talk more indicators for success or or lacking of success can be revealed by the use or comments on certain topics by the salesman. Even then he should be careful as people quickly get the wrong impression. Especially if there are several people present at the meeting: what please to one person or seems to please, can cause rejections amongst the other people in the meeting.
Not all people want to hear about the last golf holiday in an exotic location by the salesman as it can create jealousy and miss all possible sympathy.
If the salesman is into extreme sports he shouldn’t brag about as it will influence the perception for risk taking and being different.

The expected perception is required in the sales process

All these matters can generate a different perception by the influencers or by the decision makers leading to a change in the buying decision.
The image you portray of your self (and thus the company) should match the image your probable customer expects. Anything that differs from the normal expectation will be seen as an additional risk in the decision process.
Less can be more in sales.

The new marketing is Content Marketing: Content being the King. The idea is to produce enough content that will draw in interested parties and generate even more traffic as your highly valued content is passed on from one to another. Then a large part of this traffic should convert into leads.
However in reality this is not happening.

Content marketing is not Sales pitches

Your blog or your content is not generating any significant traffic and hardly any of your visitors converts into leads and therefor no sales.
Your content doesn’t get replicated, re-tweeted or forwarded to other people.
It seems hardly anybody finds your content any interesting.
The main reason is because your content is too much marketing content as it discusses your products, solutions or worse yourself, management or your company. Your Content Marketing is just a sales pitch.
People don’t want marketing messages.

Similarly in the past press releases and newsletters about the company or the products weren’t generating much interest neither.

Content Marketing: value, compelling and entertaining

Instead people want real valuable and quality content.
It is time to stop treating Content Marketing as Marketing and start creating content that really interests your target audience and which in the best case engages them. Your Content Marketing should bring some sort of value to them.
Moreover it should be compelling and entertaining in order to keep the attention of the audience. Marketers will have to become entertainers too.

Change your Content Marketing for the better.

Email marketing list

It might be a surprise but the length of your email marketing list has no importance !
Is a list of 125,000 names any better or worse than a list of 25,000 names ?
What’s the value of the list ?

The people on the list are just people who are opt-in or names and addresses you have bought from a list broker.
There is hardly any relation between them and potential buyers.

Value of mailing lists

How do you know who is a potential buyer on your list ?
How do you know what product really interests them ?
How do you know when they are interested in a certain product ?
How do you know you are wasting your and their time instead of successfully nurturing ?

The shorter list can contain more interested and potential buyers than the long list.
Even having no list can have more value in case you have more prospects than you can handle.

Reaching out to potential buyers only

You can email the people on the mailing list with hundreds of messages and still not getting one purchase. Meanwhile you will have to do maintenance on the huge list to keep it updated as people change jobs and companies.

A much shorter list containing only interested parties with real buying potential is much more valuable than a very long list.
Your website can provide this list of potential buyers as you can reach out to your leads early in their buying cycle using a website visitor identification service. Moreover they are showing buying intentions as shown in their visit behavior.
By knowing the product that interests each of them, will allow you addressing them with matching nurturing messages.

So no longer brag about the length of your email marketing list as only sales results count.