Colleagues of mine talked so much during a recent presentation that they 'bought back the sale' - that is, the project was theirs for the taking, but insistent conversation and over confidence about their deliverables turned the prospect off.  Within minutes of the presentation, my colleagues received a declination e-mail saying the prospect went with another vendor. They asked me what went wrong. 

I’ve been both a marketing and sales professional with more sales calls under my belt than I would like to admit. I’ve had the rare opportunity to manage all types of sales professionals – engaging each based on their various ‘sales’ gifts. One type is very technical – having the ability to talk forever on the technical aspects of a product or service feature. Another is highly sociable – providing anecdotes and keen insight on the latest sports conundrum or talking freely about the latest stock market debacle. What years of wisdom and street-smarts can I provide to these professionals (and my colleagues above) – who on many levels ‘think they are doing it right’? 

It’s really this simple, stupid! 

Embrace the warm-up – Often times we delve too quickly into a conversation, meeting or presentation without some type of warm-up.  It’s imperative that you do your homework and find some key nugget about everyone in the room. Engaging everyone in the room in the first five minutes will dictate if you get the next hour with them. Check out their web site – great information on the company and the employees can be found in their blog, careers or community section. Remember, it's all about them - not you. 

Start listening – It's the key to any relationship. Trust me, this has been a hard one for me as I can in every case ‘already see the end product or service’ in play.  It’s imperative that you ask open ended questions to engage prospects and customers regardless of whether you know the answer. Bottom-line, you actually come across more intelligent when you let others do the talking. 

Ditch the word ‘should’ – Most customers are trying hard to do the right thing – oftentimes they themselves make bad choices or worse, don’t know what they’re buying. We don’t need to remind them that they ‘should do this’ or ‘should do that’. The key to a great sale is giving the customer what they want, not what we think they need. You can always explore options later once the relationship has matured. 

Laugh out loud – If you enter into a sales situation that is uptight, predictable or contrived, you will fail. Enjoy the meeting, enjoy the moment. Customers who see your excitement will trust that you are confident and value the task/project/product at hand and they in turn will feel more comfortable with handing you the reins (ummm…the sale). 

Lastly, don't assume that any sale is truly sold. You will need to qualify and redefine the relationship on an ongoing basis. Find mechanisms to stay connected to your clients so that they won't be snatched up by someone else because you forgot to pay attention.

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Now that I’m an avid traveler, it has become increasingly important that I find the best travel, hotel or car deal. I routinely use Expedia, CheapTickets and even Priceline. Now, with the intro of KAYAK , I can maximize one-stop-shopping to all these sites by allowing KAYAK  to do all the work.   

        This is how it works     .     .     .     .     . 

KAYAK is a travel search site. Everybody knows what a search site is, and everybody knows what a travel site is. KAYAK is like both, but it’s different in some important ways. 

Like a search site, they can help you find what you want. What makes them different is that they’re specialized. Their tools are made to deeply understand things like airfares and hotel stays. And like a travel site they have flights and hotels. But they’re very different from most travel sites because they don't actually sell plane tickets, hotel rooms, or anything else. 

KAYAK  helps people find the best travel choices easily by searching the data from hundreds of travel sites at once. KAYAK  lets you compare options, and when you find something that fits your budget and tastes, you book it where you want: at the airline site, from the hotel, or from a travel agent. 

OK, now you’re wondering how they make money. It’s all advertising. Just like you can watch (most) TV shows for free, you can use KAYAK  all you want, free. 

KAYAK  has local websites in eleven countries including US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, India, and Spain, and offer free mobile apps for the iPhone, iPad, Android, and BlackBerry. 

Just for fun - check them out for your next travel destination.

Best,

Denice MacDonald 

You were just notified from your department head or the CFO that you budget for fourth quarter 2009 has been reduced – or worse yet, eliminated. What do you do now?

Like most organizations I consult with, marketing budgets are defined by reactionary initiatives. What can you do to safeguard your marketing initiatives and still get results?

The Power of Three

It is always advisable to do any type of marketing initiative that will yield three defined uses (create it once, pay for it once, use many ways). That is, if you do a direct marketing piece, you may consider an on-line version and an e-mail version to select recipients. If you’re doing a trade show (money already appropriated), consider some type of interaction at the show that will draw visitors to your online presence and a creative way in which to follow-up with trade show leads. 

Maximize Alternatives and Options

In the case of advertising dollars, some media outlets will allow you to ‘refine’ your budget so that you can reallocate resources to other initiatives – in lieu of one costly ad space, consider spreading your advertising dollars to smaller focused banner ads or thru the media outlet's e-mail/direct mail efforts. Staying connected over time and with more frequency will yield a higher return on investment against budget dollars. (Hint: reconsider costly yellow page ads that can't be tracked and are overpriced!)

Get Others to Pay for It

Lastly, collaborate with all departments and determine what channel partners, associations, or vendors you may have that may garner visibility for your organization. Online reciprocal links, shared webinars, speakerships, collaborative user groups and even shared web pages will multiply your efforts and the bottom-line without incurring any additional budget dollars.

You would be surprised how many organizations within your network are in the same situation and would welcome a joint campaign to elevate marketing efforts.

Best,

Denice MacDonald 

In the tough economic times to come, customers will look for service and value when they choose which companies to do business with. Now’s a good time to make sure they won’t vanish when you’re not paying attention. Here are a few direct marketing suggestions to stay connected. 

Webinars with topics directly related to client economic issues  

Give the audience ideas and information in a way that will help them be successful as it relates to their issues. Provide timely updates to busy C-level and senior executives with a quick, one-hour webinar while providing smaller user groups with a live event such as a lunch-and-learn seminar. Don't worry about the number of attendees - concentrate on the quality of content and its relevance to targeted participants. 

Targeted e-mail  

Following on the footsteps of the webinar concept, provide e-mail content that is relevant to your audience. Make suggestions on repurposing existing ideas, assets or concepts (example: less branding, more targeted ad spending). Provide a case study or two with ROI and how to execute.  All of it, of course, should be free and easily accessible from the e-mail and on your web site. 

Competitors as channel partners 

This is typically a hard concept for most customers to understand. Why would anyone want to partner with their competitor? Competitors should be viewed as potential collaborators because they are experiencing the same issues you are. There may be synergy or possibly co-marketing dollars that will help both parties maintain customers during an economic downturn.  

Simply calling 

Sounds very simple, but calling customers (both C-level and frontline personnel) during an economic downturn can be very healthy if not downright smart on your part. Discuss specific scenarios they’re liable to face during tough times like recession, layoffs, acquisition or other major organizational change and provide suggestions and solutions to overcome them (example: ask to include and/or quote them in campaign ideas above). The simple act of asking will help keep your customers connected now and in the future. 

"Must Read" Resources 

Don't Stop Marketing: Marketing During an Economic Downturn By Vista Consulting  

Marketing In An Economic Downturn By Michael J Obrien

Facts on the Value of Marketing During an Economic Downturn/Recession By Demand Telemarketing, Inc.

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Organizations want to do great work and make clients happy, but when should they draw the line with a disrespectful client? Here are a few client situations that may resonate with your organization along with possible solutions.

SCENARIO: The client continually calls at the last minute to have a service completed – even when you have provided suggestions on minimizing last minute requests.

SOLUTION: If the client continues to provide last minute requests, suggest a separate and distinct rate for the quick turn-around (example: 15-20%). This type of behavior is hard to adjust without radical resolve. If the client continues to argue the point, consider transitioning them out. 

SCENARIO: After each monthly invoice, the client asks for you to cut the charges in half.

SOLUTION: If the client continues to ask for steep discounts on your services, they don’t see the value of your services.  Communicating with the client after each completed service may aid in validating charges.  If the price reduction continues, gladly suggest a competitor as an alternative and provide a ‘hand-off’ of 30 days to transition. You will be surprised how quickly the client will become compliant.

SCENARIO: You hear from others in your industry that your key client is unhappy and is bad mouthing your services. The client tells you that he is happy but hasn’t called back for more work.

SOLUTION: To diffuse this type of behavior immediately, ask to quote the client and/or include them in a very visible event or product announcement or blog.  If they truly are bad mouthing you, this is your chance to flush out the reality of the relationship – good or bad.

More Resources:

Entrepreneur: Fire Your Bad Clients

Legal Marketing Blog: Are Bad Clients Keeping You Up at Night?

Webmaster World: Three Warning Signs of a Nightmare Client

Best

Denice MacDonald

As a marketing consultant, I am exposed to diverse organizations with differing goals and strategies.  The one constant I urge them to do is the review and evaluation of client engagement.  Engagement can mean a lot of things to different organizations based on market reach and industry focus.  

In simple terms, client engagement is defined as how the organization involves, interacts and influences clients to act (buy, sell, refer, recommend and so on). 

To begin the process of determining an organization’s client engagement, I suggest we detail the marketing funnel (aka sales cycle) as a function of engagement.  Moving a client from suspect to prospect to client through engagement is the key to shortening the sales cycle resulting in conversion and sales.

Suspects (unknown buyers):  This group requires education on your organizations products and services and reflects the longest selling cycle.  They are motivated by initiatives or communications that readily let them know who you are, what you sell and that the organization is highly credible/knowledgeable.  

Prospects (qualified leads): This group reflects individuals or organizations that are predisposed to your organization and offerings.  They know who you are, what you sell but are not totally convinced. They are motivated by virally generated initiatives, social media and similar client work. 

Clients (includes actual buyers, employees and stakeholders):  Clients require one-on-one relationship management, high level of servicing and ongoing evaluation of needs. Over time, clients can become suspects or prospects depending on the rapid changes within their organization and will require similar initiatives outlined for suspects and prospects. 

Once the three segments above are delineated, it will become clear what initiatives will support engagement to move diverse buyers down the funnel.