If unlimited comes for free, then everybody will embrace it as there are no borders, no constraints. Nobody cares as long as they can use it for free.

Pricing model with unlimited use

If people need to pay for an unlimited service, then they feel they will be paying too much as they won’t be able to use the capacity entirely. They feel they are paying for the unconsumed part too.
Customers just want to pay for what they actually use.
Unlimited is beyond their real needs.

Therefore unlimited is not a good value proposition.
If the user cannot use these unlimited amounts he will be looking for alternatives with your competitors or he will stick with a lesser bucket proposition.
Thus you need to limit your service or solution to a certain amount, level or capacity.

Limit is required

In order to comply:
- With human nature
- The parsimony of people
And to avoid pricing or discount discussions.

There has to be a limit of some kind:
- The amounts to be used.
- The capacity.
- The number of users.
- The functionality.
- The features included.

In this case “Less is more” applies:
Even if you could offer “Unlimited use” for the same price, for business reasons you just need to limit the capacity in order to get your customers paying.

Has your (web) service a limitation in the pricing model?

2UnLimited performing “There is no limit”

* Picture by thereallex

The Product Overview Comparison Chart

Marketing or Product Management spends a lot of time and effort compiling a Product Overview Sheet that allows comparing all of your products or solutions at one glance in order to state clearly all the features, functions and benefits of all products.

At first this seems to be a great tool for selling as you can:
- Inform the potential customer about all possible products
- Offer all possibilities to the potential customer
- Make sure no single solution is overlooked
- Proof the company has wide range of products

However:
- Too much data to absorb by the potential customer: People will remember 3 things max.
- Too much distraction of competing and similar products: “What’s this?”
- Too much possibility to raise interesting questions about the not suited products: “Why you need this?”
- Too much time to explain by the sales reps: “The seventh product is for …”
- Too much choice to choose from: “We like products 2 – 5 – 9 and 3″

In the end the potential customer is overwhelmed by the information but hasn’t got a clue.
The big product overview has the potential customer confused and he doesn’t know anymore about the features, benefits and reasons to buy.

They will probably select a different vendor that proposes the best suited solution as their salesman have extensively inquired, defined the problem and clarified the benefits of their best suited solution.
Less is more.

The added value of the sales rep.

Using the Product Overview Comparison Chart the role of the sales rep. is reduced to send or bring the comparison sheet and walk through the different options and alternatives.

However the sales rep. has a different role:
- To listen to the potential customer
- To asses the problem(s)
- To define possible solutions
- To present one best solution accompanied by one or two alternatives.

This is where sales rep. are:
- Bringing additional value for the potential customer.
- Limiting the choice to a limited number of products or solutions.
- Builds confidence and a relationship
- Could speed up the buying process

He can position:
- The best product (for both parties)
- Give the customer one or two alternatives in order to have the freedom of choice.
It is like a magician presenting you a hand with three cards and he knows the one you will be picking.
Less is more.

What to do with a Product Overview Comparison Chart?

Thus instead of presenting the great Product Overview Comparison Sheet, keep it internally for sales trainings in order to explain to your sales people or resellers what they should know and how to find the best solution for their potential customer.

A products comparison sheet is a D-I-Y (Do-It-Yourself) solution, to be used in a sales process without a sales rep. like catalog or online sales.

The sales rep can present parts of the Product Overview Comparison chart to differentiate 2 or 3 products, but not to offer the complete offering of a company.

The first rule in sales is to build trust with your potential customer, so don’t confuse them with a gigantic Product Overview Comparison Chart.

Confused people don’t buy.
Confident people buy (from trusted parties or parties that seem trust worthy).

Ever killed your sales with a Product Overview Comparison Chart?

Drip marketing

Drip marketing: send information by mail or email on a regular basis in order to keep potential customers aware of your progress or successes. The goal is to keep interest and make sure the lead or customer will not forget about your company or offering when he is deciding to buy.

Dripping to search engines

Instead of putting several pages online at one single time, it is more effective to publish one page at a time and wait until Google has visited again to put the next page online.

A new page is considered by Google as interesting. Search engines like websites that change.
Many new pages at one time is overwhelming and you can only produce a certain amount of content.
Thus you can’t feed the search engines anymore: they are like vampires needing blood (content) every time.

Google interprets regular updating as a busy site that is continuously creating interesting content.
This is like a blog or social website where the content grows daily or slowly.
This is why this blog is located under the domain name www.LEADSExplorer.com by www.LEADSExplorer.com/blog

If you publish all in one go, then there is no more content to be published.
And content is the most difficult to generate.

Thus less is more:
- Less content published on one occasion but regularly
- More interesting in the long run.

Making waves in search engine land

It is like making waves:
One big splash is less effective than many smaller waves that keep coming.
For every page found, a search engine needs to analyze the content and allocate keywords in their enormous data bases. These are the waves created by each page and that roll like a wave into the memory of the search engines.
If you have one big amount of content, then there is only one big wave into the system.

The search engines favor collaboration and democracy, one page at a time comes closest to this, whereas multiple pages at one time is more like dictatorship.

Collaboration:
- The internal (inbound) and external (outbound) links: you can provide the internal ones
- Participation by multiple contributors: not feasible

Democracy:
- Increase of content page by page
- Book marking and voting on social websites: your book markers need to cope with the amount of content

Collaboration: Never forget to link pages internally with 3 or 4 links by page in order to show the relations and the close relatedness of the content. Unlinked pages as considered as loose ends, thus with less value for the entire site as these are not related.

Dripping to Google, Yahoo, MSN Live is effective now, until Google & co change their algorithms as with all SEO and SEM tricks.

During a recession market research is important as explained in the previous post.
As budgets are tighter or you need to limit your expenses, you will minimize spending on market research.
In order to do so, you can start to look on and use the Internet.

1. Spying your competitors:
Look into their websites and search on the Internet in order to find traces of their new initiatives.
Compare functions and features of your competitors in a spreadsheet.
If they are traded on the stock market, listen to their quarterly earnings conference call or read their quarterly reports.

2. Investigating the market:
Search the Internet in general for conferences or events in order to gather relevant information for free. This is not the same as attending conferences, but it is at a much lower cost and requires less time.
Search for presentations from conferences or events to look into the messages inside.

3. Listen in to webinars
Signup for webinars from consulting companies in need for customers, or even web conferences from your competitors.
You can always try to pose questions which might give you answers as people always tell more than planned.

4. Spy your customers and leads on your website:
Analyze the search queries of your website visitors, in order to know what they are looking for when they arrive on your website. For this purpose additional content related to your products and services will bring more visitors, thus also more search terms used.
Organize this search data by business segment, by type of business, split up customers and leads in order to get an overview and spot a trend. (This requires a service that reveals the company names of your website visitors like LEADSExplorer)

5. Blogging for reactions:
If the company has a blog, new ideas and concepts can be explained and explored, having reactions measured if there are any comments upon your blog posts.
However these new ideas are also available to your competitors, who will be grateful for your initiative and will investigate in the reactions of the public including your customers.

6. Search social media and blogs:
Search social media for statements related to your business and the sub seeding comments.
Search blogs and review the comments made in order to grasp the tendencies and the changes in the market.

7. Generate responses on social media
Use social media, as an individual not related to your company, to:
- Pose questions
- Make interesting or bold statements
- Challenge people
in order see what reactions these generate.
Of course as comments are posted only by a minority of people, this is not always representative for the whole population. Still it can bring forward good indicators of future trends or current mindset.

8. Use RRS feed filtered using Yahoo pipes
There is too much information available on the Internet.
There are too many RSS feeds that can be interesting.
Use Yahoo Pipes to aggregate, mashup and filter out the interesting posts on keywords.
Just like this example of sales and marketing blog aggregation
That should keep you up-to-date at no cost.

9. Do not spend on industry analyst reports
By not buying reports from Forrester Research, IDC, Gartner, Butler group, Ovum, Yankee Group, Aberdeen Group, Celent, Bloor, Datamonitor, Frost & Sullivan, JupiterMedia, Patricia Seybold Group, Saugatuck Technology, Yankee Group, you will save a lot of money.
They have been interpreting the facts, figures and events just like you do and probably as biased.
On one hand they have more overview on the market, but you are in the business and you meet customers expressing their needs.

Still if you can get a copy of a research on the Internet for free then read it.

Even on no budget market research can be done in order not to miss completely on the next new or improved product or solution.
The main expense is of course your priceless time. Less is more?

The short sales pitch

Can you define in one short sentence:
- The problem and the solution your company delivers?
- The main benefit or benefits of the solution?
No?
Then just question yourself: How will your internal promoter or influencer be able to sell to his CEO, VP Sales, COO, CFO, CIO, CTO, or any other CxO?

Thus you are in trouble for progressing in the sales process and getting sales.

The shorter the better is not only for yourself, but also for the internal promoter of your solution or the influencer, as he has to reproduce your sales pitch. Less is more.

You have “won” the internal promoter or influencer

You have convinced a high placed person in the potential customer company organization. He is completely in favor of your proposed solution. You “won” him.
a) You have obtained an internal promoter for your solution or product. Great achievement!
b) You have convinced the influencer for your solution or product. Great achievement!

Difference internal promoter and influencer

There is a difference between internal promoter and influencer:
The internal promoter is involved in the solution with responsibility as his team or division will need to use it. Thus in the end the best solution will bring him indirectly a personal benefit in his work environment.
Whereas an influencer is in a staff function with no operational responsibility. He has recognition within the organization for his knowledge and experience on many matters.

Train how to sell

Now you need to make sure he is trained in selling your solution internally. You have to train him in selling. Thus you need a short sales pitch as your chances to train him are limited in time.
Again the shorter and more clearly stated your short sales pitch is, the easier to train him.

Or would your “man” be able to reproduce this?

The meeting problem

Consider two different kinds of meetings:
- A face to face meeting with his superior (CxO) he has to explain is just a few words the purpose of your solution or product and the benefits. The CxO hasn’t all day and his mind is set on other things (closing of the quarter, stock price, his new car)
- A meeting with several staff members and the CxO, your man needs has to hold his short pitch. Interest will fade away quickly if the pitch is to long or to complex. And the more remarkable the better.

In both cases he needs to state very clearly and convince the others about your product or service.
In both cases he needs to get the attention and keep the attention.
He needs to be interesting in his sales pitch.
You have no control and no possibility to interfere in this internal sales pitch.

If he stumbles on his wording
- or isn’t capable of describing the problem, the solution or the method to address the problem
- or takes shortcut in his expose nobody understands
- and making the business benefits clear, then you have lost your sales or it will be delayed for a long time. As it will be labeled as “Not interesting”.

So how goes your short sales pitch?

Write it down and make it shorter.
Eliminate the obvious, add the specific.
Make it remarkable in order to have internal promoters or influencers remember it after the meeting with you. This requirement is even more needed for the meeting of your internal promoter or influencer with the CxO or staff members meeting with the CxO.

Just write down your short sales pitch and notice how many sentences it requires.

Kevin Sasser in The Sales Wars blog says although many sales methodologies like solution selling, spin selling, strategic selling , selling to the vito (Very Important Top officer) exists and are promoted, the fundamental answer to success in sales is: G.T.T.F.P.Q.

Get To The Freaking Point Quickly

He questions why a potential buyer should care about the:
- Company history
- Existing customers
- Profile of executives and founders
- Analyst views
- Vision of the company
during the sales presentation or pitch?

Why be boring?
Why be bore your audience, when they are listening?
After all the money spent and all the efforts you have gone through for lead generation, cold calling, direct mailing campaigns, emailing campaigns, trade shows, conferences, setting the appointment you don’t deliver. What a waste!

Be happy: you have the appointment and the audience is listening.

Limited number of messages
People can only understand and absorb 2 or 3 messages at a time.
Thus if you waste these 2 or 3 during the intro of the company, then the real important messages on the product or solution are lost.

Grab the attention

In order to grab the attention immediately by telling or explaining:
- How to solve one or several problems of the company problems: tangible benefit
- How to make/save money for the company: tangible benefit
- How to make life better for management: intangible benefit

We would like to add to this:
- Bring something remarkable for them into the conversation: amaze, astonish or excite them
- Show them you understand their complete picture: maybe you are giving away free consulting
- Find a personal benefit for the decision maker (intangible benefit)
- Make ‘em laugh (intangible benefit)

Keep the pitch short

The main advice is to keep the pitch short.
Just claim your intention of the purpose of the discussion and ask for confirmation of this goal.
All of the points in the discussion during the meeting should relate to these.

Keep it simple, to the point and short – less is more.
So we named this Get-to-the-Point selling.

How to know what the lead needs?

In order to start your To-the-Point sales talk without loosing time as suggested by Kevin Sasser in G.T.T.F.P.Q., you better have:
- Investigated on the company upfront: The good, The bad and The ugly.
- Investigated on the people you meeting with: what are their drivers or hurdles?
- Know what they have been looking for on your website
in order to present exactly the solution they need.
All these investigations are supported by LEADSExplorer.

Machine gun marketing

A machine gun is a fully-automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rifle cartridges in quick succession.

Machine gun marketing is fully-automatic sending of large amounts of emails: email marketing.

- You send thousands of emails to people you don’t know.
- You use your own email lists (exhaustive) and probably bought opt-in lists.
- You send messages with subjects, the majority of the addressees don’t want to know about at this moment.
OR
- You hire a call centre to call decision makers in companies from a purchased list.
- You have written a script for the operators on a subject that might not be of interest.

This is like shooting with a machine gun: hardly hitting anybody as it is like a spray of bullets.
You might get a few replies or hits on your website, but you have big overhead.

Moreover the next time you send an email with an interesting subject, the addressees could ignore it completely.
OR
People will click on the link, but bounce immediately as they misinterpreted the email or don’t relate their problems to the content of the landing page.
OR
When you call those who have been selected by the operators, they seem to have a different need.

Sniper rifle marketing

A sniper rifle is a rifle used to ensure accurate placement of shots at greater ranges than other small arms. A typical sniper rifle is built for optimal levels of accuracy, fitted with a telescopic sight and chambered for a military centrefire cartridge.

You could also target only those companies who have shown interest by visiting your website.
- You will send messages with the best suited message based upon the pages visited on your website.
These companies are a very precise target.
OR
- You call the decision makers from these companies personally with all your sales skills for knowing if there is a fit or a possible interest.

This is sharp shooting emails or cold calls, like shooting with a sniper rifle.

You will be very effective in generating visits or replies to your communication.
Thus very efficient lead generation: more leads, less work.

Less is more

So what is the most efficient lead generation?
Addressing those companies who have shown interest in your products or services by the visits they have paid to your website.
This is the advantage LEADSExplorer by providing the benefit of being more successful at less effort, less costs, less time.
Less is more.

Mike Moran has written an interesting article on “Why Web marketing Favors Small Businesses” for the Small Business Unleashed. We found it interesting because it relates to ourselves, that we have deepened it a bit further.

Marketing was dominated by large companies

The world of marketing used to be dominated by large companies having large budgets.
Thanks to the web, small businesses can use the Web to do more marketing than ever moreover the Web actually is an environment that allows small businesses to succeed, even against larger competitors.

1) Ideas
Having ideas that customers care about are the most important success factor in Web marketing.
Money can’t generate ideas.
Even when having multiple ideas, the more money you pit behind the ideas, the harder it will be to decide which idea is the right one.
Due to the amount of money involved, the safest idea will be selected instead of the best one.

2) To impress in house
Large companies spend money for impressing the CEO or President of the company.
Even if there is no relation between lead generation or customer retention and the marketing campaign on the Web.

3) Failing
Failing to experiment and to innovate are typical for larger companies.

How are small companies favored by the Internet?

In our view:
- Reaction speed:
A small company can react almost immediately upon an happening or an event, whereas in a larger company the campaign or budget needs to get signed of.

- Focus:
A small company has its focus on one market segment or/and has limited number of products or services.
Whereas large companies need to address different market segments and have different products or services to offer.

- Daring to experiment:
Trying out a new channel or method can be done easily on the Internet and the result can be measured. A small company will dare more than larger companies.

- Closer to the potential customer:
As the small company is very near or close to its customers, the marketing manager or the leaders of the company are able to think and write with the mindset of their customers.
Working in a large company makes you think differently and the distance to the customer companies is greater.
Most customer companies are small: they outnumber larger companies many times.

- One clear message:
A small company can succeed with one clear message, whereas the large company needs to explain the different offerings.
One message is enough for marketing. Multiple messages confuse the audience.

- Content rich:
As the leading managers of a small company feel very close to their business, their passion and knowledge is in the content of their publications or communications.
In a large company the content needs to be written by someone “working from 9 to 5″. This person has certainly less passion and knowledge about the offerings and the market.

- Press releases and communications: freedom
These messages don’t require getting approval and censoring of the legal department, the VP of Sales, the CEO office.
Fewer constraints for press releases, presentation, speeches and interviews.

- Shorter decision times:
If someone in a small company has an idea, the hierarchical decision can be taken ‘next door’, not in the head quarters far away.

- Multiple communication channels:
As there are many communication channels on the web, a small company can use them just like large companies.
Probably the small company will use these channels even more efficiently.

- Free communication channels:
As many of the channels on the Internet are free, there are no limitations or constraints by budget anymore. Just the time invested.
Channels: Press releases, blogs, forums, comments on blogs, directories, award participation, even video or Instant Messaging
Of course smaller companies will use advertising too and spend money.
Still a lot of interest can be generated through free channels.

Conclusion points:
Equal chances or winning by shorter, faster decisions

The Internet has brought equal chances for large and small companies.
It is not so much the money to be spent, but more the effort and the effectiveness of the marketing.
The small company can take advantage by being smaller.

Content counts – money less

Of course a large company can pay an impressive country-wide or continent-wide ad campaign, which will have its effect and will generate leads.
However the small company with the right catching message, propelled over one or more Internet communication channels can have equal or even more impact at a minimal cost compared to the ad campaign.
Small companies just need the right idea with the appropriate message at the best moment.

Less is more

Probably “Less is more” applies for the marketing of smaller companies:

Less money, less constraints, less messages, less advertising, less waste of time.
More content, more initiatives, more innovative, more focus, more close to customers and leads.