Email campaign

During our last email campaign we got 6% of undelivered emails. This happened in a times span of only 3 months after the previous campaign and clean-up.
This makes clear that many people have changed companies or have been fired.
And results in even more time consuming work to keep the email data base up-to-date as not only the people that are no longer with the company need to be removed from the data base, but new contacts need to be searched and found.

Maintaining email data base

As so many people are no longer with their company where have they gone to? Of course you could investigate in each of them using LinkedIn, but most people will only update their status once they have found a new job.
The quest is in finding the person who replaces and is in charge. If there is someone who replaces.

Perpetual Mobile

In the end the more recession, the more layoffs, the more work to be done on the email data bases. Once the the recession is over the trend will change again in hiring which again will require more maintenance to the email data base.
This is the Perpetual Mobile of the email data bases.

Recession opportunity

All we hear in the media about the economy is gloom and doom.
If you as entrepreneur or salesman start believing in all this negativism then your business will shrink. Instead you should see the gloom and doom or the recession as an opportunity due to the fact people in business will need to start looking for new or alternative solutions as they need to sustain their profits or make their business survive. It is not because the economy isn’t growing at full speed that there is no business. There is as much business as before, but people and companies will try to spend less money or more wisely.

Market leader

Of course in case you are the market leader or working for the market leader, it is likely your sales will decrease as your competitors are being solicited by your customers or typical clients in order to select the most appropriate solution in this new economical climate.

Avoid gloom and doom thinking

As an entrepreneur or sales rep you should avoid to think that the gloom and doom is the end of the world, but see it as an opportunity to find new customers. If you don’t believe in this opportunity then you better stop your business or leave sales.

Of course getting new customers will be harder than ever before, but there are still opportunities out there.
Stay optimistic and aim for getting new customers.
The gloom and doom should be an opportunity to reach out and acquire customers you would never be able to obtain before.

Are you thinking negatively or positively?

Missing a deal due to a missing feature

On many occasions salesmen claim they missed the deal because one or more features or functionality were missing.
The most obvious reaction of the Sales Manager or even the CEO is to demand this additional feature or function in order not to miss the next deal. If the solution cannot be found or developed in house then even an acquisition can be evaluated.

This push for more features not solely comes from sales but can also originate from marketing or product marketing as they require new features in order to be able creating new messages and campaigns or to have a me-too product.

The Feature Creep Monster

The Feature Creep Monster appears while slowly more and more features and functions are added to the product or solution.
If a sales rep or product manager can obtain a feature change or addition, it will be very difficult to explain why not to add the next required feature: that’s when the Feature Creep Monster gets into the drivers’ seat of product management.

Then more features are added until it becomes complex or cumbersome to use. The core of the product will go beyond the original specs. At the same time the group or market segment that was originally targeted when designing the product could get less focus or they might even no longer consider your product anymore as it falls into a different category.

Feature disaster

After adding one or more features, no client ever seems to require the added feature that had cause the loss of a deal previously. The issue the company now has that it needs to support the additional feature in every next revision of the product. What seemed to be a minor cost to add an additional feature that could bring significant more sales, has turned out to be a money burning feature that brings no revenue. As more and more useless features or features without impact on sales are added the Feature Creep Monster has turned into a feature disaster due to the high costs involved to maintain these features year after year.

Avoiding feature creep

In any case you have to shed that “The Customer Is Always Right” mentality. The customer just wants more at the same cost or the customer needed to find a reason to grant the purchase to a competitor.

Every change of a feature or each time an additional feature to be added is discussed a cost benefit analysis should be made:
- How much more sales or how much less sales will be missed
- Costs of developing, adding, promoting, selling and maintaining the feature

In any case don’t rush into adding a new feature as once you have added the feature it will be almost impossible to remove the feature. Investigate first by doing a market research which is beyond the one customer that asks for the feature. Also try to find out if your competitors have actually closed a significant number of deals thanks to the demanded feature or if it was just a one off.

Feature creep will happen with any product, just make sure it doesn’t make your product and sales creepy.
Also learn to say “No” to your customers when they want another feature in order to tale the Feature Creep Monster.

How much feature creep have gotten your products ?
How did you tame the Feature Creep Monster ?

Elected by a corporation

The CEO’s of small companies are always proud if they receive an order or proposition for cooperation from a large company for development or R&D purposes.

However when a large corporation addresses to or asks a small company for researching or developing a specific solution, this is not because the large company can’t develop it or misses the capacity to develop it, but merely to avoid internal problems such as:
- Writing the business plan for the new development
- Getting the budget approved
- Avoiding internal politics
- Wasting time over a long procedure to get a new development started
- High research or development costs that needs to be justified

Benefit for the corporation

The small company can probably research into or even deliver the required solution much faster at a lower cost without all the hassle of the hierarchical organization of the large corporation. Moreover the large company could get the research or development done at a very low price by teasing with the carrot of possible large orders and a long time cooperation.

Although the perception of the CEO of the small company is that they have been elected for their quality or professionalism of work but actually it is just to avoid any problems or major delays for the research or development of the new solution.

Contract – agreement required

Hence the CEO of smaller companies should think twice and negotiate a contract or agreement with the larger corporation in order to really be able to reap the benefits from the research or development done for the large corporation. Moreover the efforts should be paid for – and not given away for free. If the solution is crucial to the corporation and proves to be successful, it is likely the corporation will go over to an acquisition.

Has any cooperation with a large company brought you any benefits?

being a small B2B company and spending a lot of money on marketing or advertising is way too expensive and not economical feasible. You could run your business into problems by spending all on marketing and advertising.

What can a small company (small business or SOHO) do instead, in order to get customers ?

1. Network business district
Network the local pubs in the business district just after business hours

2. Network on sports events
Network in the local football, golf or tennis club on Saturdays or Sundays

3. Network in clubs
Network in the fitness club in the business district during business hours

4. Charity by work
Charity will get you into networking: not by donations which is out of the pocket money but work and help

5. Charity by products
Donate products or a solution that you produce or buy at B2B prices

6. Free advice
Give free advice concerning your business specialty on local events

7. Newspaper or TV coverage
Get mentioned into the local newspaper or on the local TV for any good reason

8. Write articles or guides
Write useful articles or guides related to your business or industry to be published in local advertising magazines

9. Company car and vehicle branding
Advertise on your company car or company vehicles

10. Local billboard
Make sure you have a sign or billboard visible from the main road or highway mentioning at least your company name and the business

11. Illuminate building
Make sure the company building or a part of it is clearly visible by illuminate during the night and dark days as people will remember it and use it as a reference or landmark

12. Display time and temperature
Display time, temperature and company name or brand in front of your building

13. Road signs
Where ever possible and allowed place road indicators to your address

14. Mouth to mouth
Have a discount scheme for customers bringing new customers

There are probably more methods, solutions and opportunities to show your brand or company name or to network.

The perceived purchase risks

The role of a salesman in B2B is not selling hope, dreams or a better life as in B2C, but to take away or to lower the risk that comes with any purchase decision.

In B2B people are confronted with the risks of:
- Getting new problems while solving the existing problems
- Not solving the core or origin of the problem
- More operating costs instead of less costs
- Unexpected hidden costs
- Getting fired instead of getting promoted
These risks can be real or just perceived risks – similar to the fear of people for flying or a tunnel.

The salesman needs to take away these risk for the buyer in B2B.

Internet research for risk avoidance

This risk avoidance is also the main reason why people do research online for more information using:
- Forums
- Review sites
- Vendor website
- Competitor websites
The potential buyer will process all this information more or less rationally or subjectively leading to a perceived level of risk for each product or solution.

The role of the salesman

As all potential buyers will visit the company website during the collection of information, the salesman should be able to get all possible information about the company including the digital body language of the employees of a company on the website: the behavior of the probable customer. This is why salesmen need to know who visits the company website: the interested companies, their intentions to buy and their reasons and fears.
All this information from the multiple visits by each company will allow him to better estimate the needs and the fears the potential buyer has or perceives, which will allow the salesman to remove or lower the perceived risks more adequately. The salesman who performs the best has most chances to get the sales closed.

How much do you know about the perceived risks by your potential customers ?

Content marketing

The idea behind content marketing is that your freely shared informative content is used for converting suspects and prospects into leads and customers.
You trade your content for:
- Thought leadership
- Lead generation
- Direct sales
- Branding
- Customer retention
In general: generating interest in your products or services.

Demand and supply

For all products and services there is a valuation or perceived value by demand and supply. Hence this would also be valid for the content you offer for your content marketing.
The better the value of your content the more likely you will obtain your goal.

However even if there is a demand, the content needs to be found. As there is supply form any possible source and from your competitors it will be a challenge getting your content found on the Internet.
Hence content marketing requires promoting, positioning and marketing your content on the Internet.

Content targeting

All your content is not suited for all of your audience.
The content that is interesting for managers is probably not the same that matters to the CxO level.
- Managers need to know about advantages
- CxO level wants to know about tangible and intangible benefits
Hence you need to market your content to different segments of your audience.

Uniqueness or edge

Content that is generic and conforms to the general opinion will be hard to market. The content needs to be unique or have an edge compared to others.

Stickiness or engaging

For your content marketing there are several results that can be obtained with the content consumer:
- Stickiness of your content: the consumer of your content will remember it long after or compare with all other content he discovers or encounters. Making your content stick out.
- Engagement through your content: the content consumer engages and takes action

This is the trading value of your content:
- Demand and supply
- Segmented targeting of your content for each type of content consumer
- Uniqueness or edge
- Stickiness or engaging

Most marketing messages are geared towards generating leads in order to close more sales deals. This type of marketing is aimed at almost immediate results. Most companies only invest in this type of marketing.

Although more leads will eventually lead to more sales, it is the last step that remains the most important: the purchase decision.
The purchase decision is influenced by many parameters:
- The proposed solution
- The price
- The benefits of the solution
- The inconvenient issues of the solution
- The salesman
- The brand name
- The trust
Hence marketing can play an important role in the decision by building the brand name and trust in the company and its’ products.

Building a brand name requires time.

Building trust for a company or its’ products requires even more time.

This type of marketing is likely to be very beneficial in the long run as this will help during the essential phases of the purchase process:
- Getting on the short list by the brand name and awareness
- The purchase decision for the trust in the company or its’ products

Marketing is so much more than just lead generation.

The advertising habit

Once companies in B2B have started using advertising it is difficult for them to stop as it has become almost a tradition. Moreover a change in advertising could bring a decrease in lead generation and sales closing. Any change and decision in business involves changes in risk exposure.

The marketers in a company have probably a good estimate what advertising brings during the campaign directly, but the effects on the long run are unclear and uncertain. This is the long tail of marketing efforts as you clearly know the direct result but are unable to measure the long term results.

To be advertising or not

- If management decides to cut the advertising budget, then in the long run the brand awareness will most likely decrease. This could also dry up the other sources of lead generation and even affect the closing of sales.
- If they decide to continue but the results are not insignificant or near zero, then management is wasting money that could be used for other purposes.

Advertising is very costly and if there is no direct proven ROI then advertising should be stopped as with any investment or expense. However company management will not dare to do this (neither the VP Marketing or VP Marketing & Sales) as the effects could be short as well as long term.

Before taking any decision about quiting advertising, other means and methods for brand awareness should be evaluated after trialing them out: Email campaign marketing, Content marketing, Social Media marketing.