In lead generation — knowing your target matters

March 15, 2007

We’ve talked about it before — people don’t like to do business with strangers.

And they don’t like to be called "hey you!" or by the wrong name.  Which means knowing who they are and what actually matters to them –should matter to us.

RainToday.com‘s new research report’s (What’s Working In Lead Generation) 2nd insight is all about the customer.  And how well we know them.

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No big surprises here.  The more you know about your prospect, the more successful you will be.  So why do you keep sending out the "dear neighbor" or worse — "dear customer" communications?

Marketing isn’t rocket science. But it does require some sweat equity and effort.  You need to qualify your lists.  Is that some heavy lifting?  Sure.  But the chart above shows you that you’ll enjoy a 40% increase in lead generation if you actually know the name of the decision maker. Isn’t that margin of success worth the extra effort?

Note:  The full RainToday.com report shares 6 key insights which I’ll be exploring over the next several days with you.  In the meantime, if you’d like to download their free 21-page summary, you can grab it here.

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It isn’t easy being green

March 14, 2007

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Does your company turn your competitors green with envy?  If not — why not?   

And what are you going to do about it?  How could you become more enviable?

flickr photo courtesy of hey joe…

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What’s memorable about you? (part one)

March 12, 2007

String If you had a client/customer who took their business to a competitor for a year or two and then decided to come back…how would they complete this sentence… 

"Do you guys still….."

What do you do for/with your clients that is so memorable that even 2 years later, they’d hope it was still part of your company’s culture?

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Tell us your new business horror story

March 11, 2007

We all have one.  That painful, horrifying moment when you were trying to sound/look your best in front of a potential new client and instead POW! fate smacked you right in the kisser with a faux pas that will haunt you for the rest of your days.

Come on…tell us all about it.  It will feel good to get it out.

Me first?  Fair enough.

Several years ago, a McLellan Marketing Group colleague and I were in an initial meeting with the CMO of a nursing home system.  We’d done some research and one of the facts we’d gleaned about this potential client is that they were known for taking care of the most severely affected Alzheimer’s patients. 

What made their work even more remarkable and reassuring to the families of their patients was that they very rarely sedated the residents.  They were just that skilled in dealing with the behaviors and health issues of these residents.

So I am trying to demonstrate how smart we are and that we’ve really done our homework.  So I say to the CMO (a woman in her 50’s who wasn’t so sure about us already)  "one of the things that really impressed us about your facilities is the fact that you don’t sedate your patients."

Unfortunately — that was what I meant to say.  But somehow, for some twisted and unknown reason, my mouth decided instead to say…"one of the things that really impressed us about your facilities is the fact that you don’t seduce your patients." 

Picture_2_8 To this day, I have no idea why that came out of my mouth.  But to make matters worse, I could not locate the word sedate in my brain. Instead, I stammered and stuttered until finally, what seemed like 20 minutes later, my brain synapes finally fired up, I corrected myself and limped through the rest of the conversation.

Needless to say, we did not get the business.  My team, however, got a funny story that they love to pull out at company parties, and other  public venues.

Okay, I’ve shown you mine…your turn!

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Sampler platter marketing?

March 10, 2007

Sampler Last night, I ate at a restaurant called Buddakan.  It’s offers modern Asian cuisine and since I was part of a large group (15) they served everything family style.  But their version of family style was lots and lots of small sampler sized items.  Everyone got to try a little of everything, but no one felt "stuck" eating just one thing.

Which got me thinking.  First about my agency brothren and sisters:

How good are we, as agencies, at offering clients that option?  Do you offer a "sampler platter" of marketing tactics or must a new client sign on for the whole kit n’ kaboodle?  Can a prospect take you on a test drive?

For the non-agency readers: 

How about you?  Does anyone in your industry offer a bite of this and a bite of that so the customer can determine the best option?  If no one is doing it, is it worth trying?

I wonder if this strategy isn’t a reasonable one for a business whose price of entry scares off otherwise viable prospects.  What do you think?

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Whip me, beat me, make me write bad checks…

March 9, 2007

Badcheck …but don’t ignore me.

This is one of the biggest marketing mistakes we make.  We ignore our clients.  Or at least they think we’re ignoring them.  We don’t return e-mails or phone calls promptly.  We miss a deadline.  We misspell their name.  You’re laughing but you know it happens every day.  And you know you’ve done it once or twice.

They want to be important to us.  Really, if they’re being honest — they want to be our only client.

Your goal — create the illusion that they’re your only client.  Or the only one that matters.

Do you think you do that well?   What’s your best "make them feel important" technique.  (And yes, it has to be genuine, not sleazy sales guy stuff.)

Flickr photo courtesy of aliceswnderland

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In lead generation – branding matters

March 7, 2007

It’s sort of a duh, isn’t it?

If someone knows who you are, they are more likely to listen and be influenced by you.  We covered that in the Don’t talk to strangers post.  And yet, there are many out there who will tell you — branding doesn’t matter.  Just go out there and sell. 

RainToday.com‘s new research report What’s Working In Lead Generation sides with me on this one.  (Or maybe it is the other way around?)
 

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The numbers tell the story.  Those companies that have are better known have greater success in chasing new business.  As we talked about in the first segment of this series, the research shows that companies are gearing up to be more aggressive out there. 

So reality check here.  Your competitors are going to be making more noise in the market place.  If they are also ahead of you in terms of brand recognition, you’ve got some serious trouble on your hands.  What can you do about it?

And then you’re ready to learn more from the research document.  More insights from the report are on the way….

Note:  The full RainToday.com report shares 6 key insights which I’ll be exploring over the next several days with you.  In the meantime, if you’d like to download their free 21-page summary, you can grab it here.

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How to choose an agency: Meet & Greet (part 2)

March 3, 2007

Eenie You’re hiring an agency because you want results.

This is not about making your ads look prettier. This is about doing more business, smarter.

So, how do you choose the right partner?  Eenie Meanie Mienie Moe?

Well, if you read my earlier post you know I don’t think it should be an RFP.  But on the other extreme, it shouldn’t be just because your cousin works there either.

Following a simple process (simple to understand, but will take discipline and time to execute) will protect you from making an expensive mistake.

The phases of the process are:

  • Know what you want  (ask yourself questions)
  • Do your homework (ask the prospective agencies questions)
  • The meet and greet (get together and ask questions)

There’s only one step left.  But it’s probably the most important step of all.   At this stage, any of your finalists are most likely more than qualified to do the work.  That’s the easy part.  But are they the right fit for you, specifically?

Let’s assume that all three agencies did a good job on their presentation.  (If one bombed — eliminate them before this final step.) After the presentations, tell them you want to schedule an on-site visit.  (Or you can schedule their presentations there.)  Much like walking through someone’s house will give you an incredible amount of insight into their life and personality, you’ll find the same is true of agencies.

Take a tour.  Ask to meet everyone who would touch your account, from the front desk staffer to the accountant and everyone in between.  What does it feel like to be there?  What does the environment tell you?  Does it all feel authentic or are they putting out the good china because company is coming? There’s a fine line here. You want to be treated as though you’re special.  But, if you can’t sit on the sofa without a slip cushion — yikes!

Here’s the leap of faith.  After you have visited all of the finalist agencies on their home turf — you need to trust your gut.  Any of them would be more than competent or else they shouldn’t have gotten this far.  But that’s sort of like saying your prom date was okay.  You want (and deserve) WOW!  Who was most engaging?  Who seemed to "get you and your team" the most?  Who did you trust?  Who felt like they were blowing smoke up your skirt? Who felt genuine?

Who feels right.  Remember — every buying decision is based on emotions.  And this one is no different.  At a certain point in time, you have to close your eyes, trust your gut and leap off the cliff!

Voila — you have a new agency.  Congratulations to you both.

Of course — now the hard part begins.  Building and maintaining the relationship!

 

The rest of the How to Choose An Agency Series:

Flickr photo courtesy of PeeJ0e

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How to choose an agency: Meet & Greet (part 1)

March 3, 2007

Eenie You’re hiring an agency because you want results.

This is not about making your ads look prettier. This is about doing more business, smarter.

So, how do you choose the right partner?  Eenie Meanie Mienie Moe?

Well, if you read my earlier post you know I don’t think it should be an RFP.  But on the other extreme, it shouldn’t be just because your cousin works there either.

Following a simple process (simple to understand, but will take discipline and time to execute) will protect you from making an expensive mistake.

The phases of the process are:

  • Know what you want  (ask yourself questions)
  • Do your homework (ask the prospective agencies questions)
  • The meet and greet (get together and ask questions)

So, you’ve gotten back the written responses to your questionnaire.   Using criteria you’ve already determined (the "right" answers to the questions you’ve asked) whittle the list down to 3 agencies.  If you have to go bigger, no more than 4.

Pick a specific strategic, marketing-oriented challenge you’re facing.  Invite each of the finalist agencies for a meeting.  At that meeting, give them everything you’ve got.  Research, stats,  stories, sales figures.  Whatever is relevant to this very focused  issue. 

Then, ask them to come back to you in a couple weeks with some ideas.  Here’s where there’s a fork in the  road.  Some will tell you to ask for spec creative, marketing ideas, media plans etc.  If you ask them for all of that and don’t pay them for their time — that’s robbery, in my opinion.

Agency people get paid to think and be strategic.  So be reasonable.  If you are not going to compensate them for their time — then just ask for enough to see how well they listen, what kinds of questions they ask and how they think.

Schedule in person presentations.  At the presentation, you want to be watching for not only how they think but how they translate their thoughts to you.  What are their ideas based on?  How did they explore the issue?  What ideas did they discard?  How would they advise you execute?  How well did their ideas match your culture and your brand?

Here’s another key to this part in the process.  How well did they follow instructions?  If you said no spec creative and they bring it any way — what does that tell you?  How do they explain the deviance from your request?

There’s only one step left.  But it’s probably the most important step of all. 

The rest of the How to Choose An Agency Series:

Flickr photo courtesy of PeeJ0e

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Put on a different hat

March 2, 2007

Hats You know, sometimes life takes on a little mini-theme.  I have posted quite a bit lately about the importance of being able to put on and take off the many "hats" of your potential audiences as you craft a marketing strategy or message.

I was doing my daily jog through some of my favorite blogs and stumbled upon Roger von Oech‘s post "Change Viewpoints."  Let me entice you to go over and read his post by sharing an excerpt.

"Whereas the first group asked, "What if we bury somebody alive?" the second group asked, "How can we make sure everyone we bury is dead?"

How can you not go see how that plays out?

As marketers — it is absolutely vital that we find ways and challenge ourselves to think differently, from different points of view.  The faithful among you will know that I’ve been beating this drum quite a bit lately.

We’ve talked about the emotional truths that can be discovered by really walking around a question or challenge and seeing it from all angles.  And we’ve explored how an insider’s view of things is, by its  very nature, not a very clear or accurate picture.  Donning another person’s "hat" and turning your view finder is a skill that far too few marketers employ.

Check out Roger’s post and if you’d be so kind — share some of your methods for making sure you’ve broadened your view.

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