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Posts from the ‘Marketing’ Category

Mar 14

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Ignore the 5 Ps of marketing at your own peril

Just wipe it off and good as new!

In the various social networking groups that I belong to I often see people talking about “strong” products. The argument goes that success in the marketplace is reliant upon the importance of having software with strong feature sets using current technology.

I always find this to be an interesting point of view.

Interesting, but wrong.

In general, customers don’t purchase products solely based on strong features and current technology. Most companies routinely select products that are not considered the best on features alone because of other considerations in the decision-making process.

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Mar 9

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I’ve got some bad news for you, sunshine

For those not in the know, the title of this post was taken from “In the Flesh” – a song on Pink Floyd’s The Wall album. The Wall resonates heavily with themes of abandonment and isolation and relates the story of a protagonist who steadily builds up a wall to hide behind in response to the negative pressures in his life.

[Here's a link to the video for those interested: WARNING FOR LANGUAGE AND THEMES THAT MAY BE OFFENSIVE TO SOME. Please don't click if you are one of those folks that get offended at such things. In fact, no one should click on it. I'm asking you not to.]

I think the themes are appropriate as the next few articles are going to focus on the Sage Transformation journey.

What exactly is the “Sage Transformation” journey?

From what I can tell (and please understand that the following is just my opinion and is not endorsed, confirmed, approved or in any other way agreed upon by anyone at Sage), at its core, the Sage Transformation journey is a plan designed to help Sage respond to the rapidly changing landscape of software publishing.

It includes many different elements including re-branding, introduction of subscription pricing, re-organization efforts, direct sales, closer interaction with end user customers, improved cross-selling, connected services and many more. We’ll cover some of these topics in the coming days but for now, let’s keep our focus on the big picture.

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Mar 2

Wilzoch leads Sage CRM Group on roadshow

The checkered flag is mine!

Dan Wilzoch, Head Honcho of the Sage CRM Group, has been making regional visits lately to meet with Sage channel partners and to discuss the future of the Sage CRM solutions – Sage CRM and Saleslogix.

I was fortunate enough to attend the roadshow in Chicago on 02/23/12. Dan was accompanied by Frank Downes, Brian Potter and Brian Neirby for the well-attended event (roughly 40 attendees).  While there were some points of contention, overall, I was pleased with what I heard.

Most impressive was the bold, take no prisoners attitude expressed by Wilzoch. To me, this is a breath of fresh air and gets my blood flowing.

I am a big believer that attitude, not aptitude determines your altitude (thanks to Max Sacks for that quote).

A fundamental truth of software applications: there is no perfect solution for every business. Shocking, right? If you accept that truth, then success comes down to the team with the better strategy and execution.

Sage has a great strategy – working with a strong channel of extremely talented individuals to market and sell and support the Sage CRM products.

There have been some hiccups lately in execution of this approach by Sage but overall Wilzoch’s message was strongly partner-centric. The last 60 minutes or so of the roadshow consisted of Dan fielding questions and queries with refreshing directness. After responding to each point, he would re-state “Ok – what can we do for you?”.

I greatly appreciate Dan’s “Ok – what can we do for you?” approach. He wasn’t making bold, outrageous comments or suggesting sweeping changes. He was talking about a fundamental connection between human beings that resonated nicely.

It goes further than that though.

Asking a question like “ok – what can we do for you?” over and over like that begs the reverse question “ok – what can we do for Sage?”.

Maybe I’m alone in that thought but if we are partners – true partners – we have to ask that question of ourselves.

As a partner, what can we do for Sage? How can we help them sell more software? After all, doesn’t helping them, help us as well? And, more importantly, if we believe in the software, doesn’t it help our customers?

I believe in Sage CRM. I believe that small and medium-sized businesses are struggling to do more with less. I believe CRM is the answer to these problems.

How can I do better at getting that message out there? Helping more customers? Helping Sage? And, of course, helping my firm?

I don’t have all the answers to that one but leaving the roadshow left me more determined than ever to get my ass in gear with my own marketing efforts and spreading the gospel of Sage CRM.

We’ll see how it goes in the coming months and years but, one thing is for certain, my future will be in my hands and not anyone else’s. And isn’t that why I started my own business? And why I’m proud to be a part of a small business? I’m sure many of you reading this feel the same.

In summary, Dan Wilzoch clearly drew the line in the sand at the roadshow: we aren’t settling for where we are – we are going to kick it up a notch and start to make sales.

I applaud this attitude and encourage Sage to have more of these types of events.

Mar 1

2 Comments

A no-cost way to improve customer and prospect satisfaction

Anything missing from this before I drop it in the mail?

I’m going to keep this one short and sweet.

Like a lot of folks, I’m drowning in information every day – phone calls, emails, appointments, meetings, social networks, you name it. I’m sure regular readers of this blog are in the same boat.

So …

If you email me and ask me to call you … or even if you aren’t asking me to call but there might be a chance that I will call … how freaking hard is it to include a signature line that includes the best way to contact you?

Preferrably a phone number – right there at the bottom of your email.

It could not be any simpler and it takes no time to set up.

Oh yes … I could pull up my favorite CRM system and look up your record and your phone number but why should I have to? If I’m staring at your email, it should be there.

I can’t think of a single reason why it wouldn’t be.

All businesses serve two functions: marketing and innovation (thanks to Peter Drucker for that truth).

Your email is a form of marketing and it says a lot about your character and how easy you want to make it for others to reach you and work with you.

Do yourself – and your prospects and customers – a favor. Include your damn contact information.

Feb 7

Drowning in email? Try this simple trick

And every day the paperboy brings more ...

If you are like me, you probably get way too many emails each day.

Some of them – from co-workers, customers, prospects, your spouse – absolutely need to be reviewed. Ok … maybe “absolutely” is the wrong word for some co-workers, customers and prospects, but you get the idea.

A lot of them, again if you are like me, are digests, summaries, information from various sources. Personally, I’m subscribed to more than a few blogs, marketing lists, LinkedIn Digests, Facebook feeds, Google Alerts, etc.

And I shouldn’t forget about the three (more?) different feeds from Wayne Schulz’s different properties!

There is no problem with all these information sources … if you are actually reading them and getting value from them.

If there are certain feeds that you read religiously and rely on as great information sources to guide your actions (think of them as a new world version of reading the daily newspaper), then these are keepers.

But what about the rest of them?

You know … the ones that just seem to pile up in your inbox and give you that twinge of “man … I really need to make time to read those”.

I was recently given a great suggestion by the one and only Ed Kless.

It was so simple, so damn stupid simple that I almost blew it off.

Here it is: Unsubscribe.

Shocking, right?

Just unsubscribe from those sources that you don’t rely on and don’t regularly read. Most of them are available at the originating  source so … let go.

So you miss a post or two? So what? Life goes on.

Besides – you are probably missing them anyway as they stack up in your inbox.

Getting rid of them will do nothing but boost your productivity and will have a side benefit of eliminating the twinges of remorse of not finding the time to read them.

You no longer need to find a lazy Saturday to go through them. Reclaim your days and peace of mind!

Some might suggest that it’s no big deal to delete them. I would suggest that attitude is much like having a newspaper delivered that you never read. Sure – you can just take them out to the recycling bin every once in awhile but, in the meantime, they pile up and clutter up your space.

Unsubscribe – save yourself the hassle.

Part of the reason why this simple suggestion took a bit longer than necessary for me to act upon was the old view that unsubscribing from a list lets them know that you are a legit email address. The concern is that will bring more and more junk to your inbox.

I think that was true years ago but with new and improved spam guards and spam laws, it is no longer true.

So … take this simple advice and free yourself by unsubscribing from those distracting sources.

PS. If you found this article of interest, please subscribe in the box on the right. :)

Feb 5

6 Comments

Are you guilty of killing your business without realizing it?

I'm the guy with the white t-shirt - do I stand out?

I recently read a great article by Jason Blumer on the importance of creative pricing and getting out of the time and materials business.

It was a tad overlong for my infant-like attention span (think: “and to summarize my position, I would like to say … oooh something shiny! Pretty! Uhm, what was I saying?”) but well worth the read and I encourage everyone to give it a shot.

Jason drives home some great points about the importance of aligning goals through strategic pricing (aka pricing on purpose, aka value pricing, aka goal-oriented pricing) and all of the surrounding issues.

With me, he’s preachin’ to the choir and, of course, the choir always loves the good preachin’. Lay it on me, Mr. Blumer!

It got me thinking along a tangent though.

All the folks out there in service firms that are still billing by the hour are killing their businesses. In fact, it’s even worse than that.

Billing by the hour is killing the service industry.

How can I make such an outrageous claim?

It’s somewhat a matter of perspective. I help businesses become more profitable through effective and efficient usage of CRM.

In that role, I work with a lot of small and medium sized businesses and get a first-hand view into what’s happening out there. And it ain’t pretty.

The internet has changed the game for all of us. I’ve written about this previously so I won’t re-cover it here except to add one sobering thought for all of us:

Even if you have a one in a million idea, there are at least a thousand other folks out there on the internet – just a click or two away.

There’s little to no differentiation out there.

Most service firms have visions, missions, values and messages that are completely interchangeable. You could swap corporate names in and out of their marketing literature like some kind of demented fill in the blank, Mad Libs exercise designed to point out how similar each firm is to their competitors.

Combining this lack of differentiation with pricing by the hour guarantees a slow and steady drive toward a competitive landscape filled with “me too” solutions at increasingly lower prices.

Oh, I can hear some of you saying “But damnit, we ARE the best service firm and we do truly partner with our customers! Those other guys are just saying that but we really do it!” or even “But damnit, we ARE the experts in this particular field!”

Ok, ok … I believe you.

But – you don’t need me believing you. You need the customers and prospects to believe you.

And just like driving by a block full of McDonalds, each one looking nearly the same, how can your customers and prospects tell which one is going to provide the best experience? The best value for their dollar?

Hint: they can’t.

Pricing projects based on value received and offering a money back guarantee is a good start to standing out from the “me too” crowd.

Again, it’s a good start. It’s not an end game solution.

When done correctly, pricing projects based on value will change your culture and change what drives you. It enables you to discover what you really love to do and are good at and can make money at.

*This* is the start of true differentiation and will serve you well in the coming years.

If you aren’t prepared to do it, don’t be surprised as customers steadily start going to the low cost provider over the next five to ten years as they can’t figure out any other reason to choose you over your competition.

I’ll leave you with this quote (first introduced to me by confidant and fellow game-changer, Ed Kless):

“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”  General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff, U. S. Army

Jan 30

4 Comments

A quick tip about interfacing with other people

Wait … what?

Recently I was in a phone call with a vendor representative who was talking about how he would need to “interface with his team to determine a resolution to the current matter”.

Wow.

The first thought that comes to mind when I hear people talk like this is … “no”.

“No” – as in … no – I didn’t actually hear you say that. And no – I can’t believe someone would actually say it.

Just using “interface with” when “talk to” works (and works better) makes my skin crawl.

I get how it happens.

Sometimes it’s a sign of an overly complex corporate culture run amok – where big words are a part of the landscape. Typically though, using big words is a sign of over-compensation and covering up of a perceived weakness.

Here’s the thing though: it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy because when we use big words to look smart or important, it kind of makes us look … dumb. Particularly if they are used incorrectly or bastardized from their normal definition (which often happens when people break out the ten cent words).

Maybe “dumb” is too strong of a word.

But, certainly, there are many times where being a sesquipedalian makes your language stand out like a clown attending a funeral.

Personally, I think it’s better to be useful than smart anyway. If I have a choice between working with someone that gets the job done with no muss, no fuss or someone that is too smart for their own good, I”m going with door number one every time.

To me, the worst part about this interaction was that the individual in question was in the marketing department and really should have known better. One of the fundamental rules of marketing is “communicate clearly and concisely”.

So if you find yourself over-syllabating in an oppulent manner, shift your paradigm and adjust your linguistic demeanor pronto.

The folks you are “interfacing with” will surely appreciate it.

(For a slightly different take on word usage, check out Ed Kless’ article here.)

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