True value of Networking

You just never know where people will be in their careers.

Story time:  I've been going to the same bar for 6 years running.   One of the bouncers there made getting in one of the biggest challenges.  I don't know what happen but it took maybe the first year for him to see I wasn't going anywhere and I planned to keep coming back.

Let's fast forward to today,  This bouncer went from low on the totem pole to now Director of Security at a new bar.  The relationship and struggle I had with him, carries over into his new career where he gives me dap and is always glad when I make an appearance.  I also don't have to wait in line at this new bar either--Thanks to the relationship that was built with him.

Who knew?

We talk about the importance of networking for your personal development but it also works for your business.  It's got to be genuine though.  Many times I see like minded professionals give each other the proverbial "F off" because of "competition."  You just never know where people will be in their careers.  I've seen former co-workers from 3 years ago head into promotions where they can make decisions on if they want to do business with my employer or not.

"Who wouldda known?"

In prospecting, we are taught to target decision makers at the top and work with influencer's and gate keepers at the bottom.  That may be true, but most professionals try to get past the gatekeepers instead of keeping them in the loop.  My experiences has taught me some gatekeepers are always in the know with the business.  If you get on their good side, good things will happen for you.  Sometimes what you think is impossible becomes the possible from just being genuine.


Who whoudda thought?

Chasing appointments

It's been a while since I... posted some content.  I was almost tempted to recite lyrics to Staind. 

A lot of you can identify with this scenario.

Scenario

You've been talking with a prospect about why they should have a meeting with you.  You understand a base line about their challenges and you know you offer a solution that solves that problem.  The dialog reads in a very pleasant tone.  The only issue is they are busy and they want you to call them back same time next month...

You want to respect their time so you nudge one more time and then you set a reminder to contact them the same time next month.   Next month rolls around and now what was once an appointment, is now a pursuit.  The month keeps getting pushed back.  It's a trap, don't fall for it.

What's frustrating about this situation is every time you call, you find out more information and it leads you into a chase.  I always say embrace the chase, but to an extent.

Embrace that Waldo is in the room and you have to find him.  You have to find Waldo and point him out.  If the prospect had 0 interest, they usually would tell you flat out they are not interested.  There's something more going on...

Sometimes it's not about the chase

Interrogation is never a good feeling for a prospect.  People naturally raise their defense if they are uncomfortable.  TONE is everything and remaining calm is key.  I like to feel that prospects "test" you with their personal evaluation of you..  Naturally, I like to be the hero of their problem and push my story.  My previous posts have always said there has to be a story with an antagonist (problem) and a protagonist (hero)


Well, sometimes there's no antagonist.  People just don't see their problem or want to realize it. Sometimes the fairy tale ending is not what people want. To paraphrase Steve Jobs,

" A lot of times, Prospects don't know what they want until you show it to them."

 Stop chasing but don't lose contact.  Don't ever lose the contact. Every prospect has something that makes them "feel."  By feel, I mean get out of their programmed responses and demeanor.  They care about something and it's our jobs to figure out what that is.

How do you define marketing?

If you were to take multiple professional marketers in B2B, their definition of marketing would vary. The term "marketing" leads to multiple answers and also, multiple concerns.  The one common denominators for them all would be: Growth and Revenue.

But how do you set your parameters for growth and revenue?  Is it just marketing involved in this conversation?

I'm not talking about marketing objectives or goals-Those should be clear and concise.  We should be SMART after all right?  What I am talking about is how you define marketing and how it supports sales.  There's a blurry line between sales activity and marketing activity.  I come across Marketing professionals with more experience with sales and they can't really define their parameters of how marketing impacts their business.

Story time

I had a recent discovery call with a Senior VP of marketing.  When asking him about what he did for marketing, he simply responded by giving me hundreds of salespeople on his team and briefly explained rudimentary marketing.   Marketing to him was having his small team create PDF's for email blasts. This prospect has a website with a lot of content.  He mentioned the website represented only 5% of their business.  He didn't seem comfortable explaining the effectiveness of their e-commerce site.  My team was able to see that  their marketing efforts go to supporting their sales people that send quotes and close deals.   Sales enablement was actually more vital than their E-commerce site.  Their industry relies on wo(man) power and the motivation of their sales people.  While it's questionable they do nothing with their e-commerce, they at least have defined what the value of marketing is for them.

IT has a loud voice

Some industries are behind when it comes to marketing and also, technology.  Technology is now a big part of marketing.  Data and insights are just as important to CMO's as overall brand recognition.  They actually work hand in hand.  Multiple articles have described the relationship alignment between CMO's and CIO's.   The digital side of marketing is making it a necessity for both Marketing and IT to define their success online. 

Marketers are tasked with understanding how they should define marketing.  It's not quite cut and dry as it used to be.  No matter what type of marketing you do, it has to translate to sales and growth.  How you do it only matters if it isn't working for you

The toughest words to say

When people get married and the priest says: "Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?"  The woman doesn't say Yes.  She says, "I do."

When you buy a product from someone and you both agree that it is going to help you, I'm willing to bet you rarely hear the word "yes."  The litany of responses will be: 
-Let's go with it.
- When can you deliver it?
-This makes sense.
-I'm on board.

In your professional life, you have so many people that are scared to tell people they can't do something that they avoid the "No" Response.

You know who will give you a straight yes or no?  Little kids.

When we all were little kids, if we didn't like something we weren't shy to say how we felt.  There were no filters.  A kid can "No I don't want to" and not feel pressure to be PR friendly.  Now these filters are important as we get older, but why is it so hard to elicit a simple yes or no?

I can only think of the medical profession where people are given a clear 2 options but even then, you're never given a yes or no.  It's positive and negative.  Positive can mean a bad diagnosis.  You're given suggestions. (Thanks to insight from my friend in healthcare)

No seems to scare people because it signals the chance of losing an opportunity.  Even if that person is not interested, the thought of saying No could mean never.  Saying Yes shouldn't be hard but if you say Yes too much, people question your backbone.  

People avoid situations where they have to say Yes or No.  If you were to google "Yes or No",  You will see blogs and articles with people giving advice on how to avoid saying Yes or No.  ( I did the homework for you- "Yes or No")

Who's got a problem? Everyone!

I had a marketing operations professor in college named Dr. McDermott (brilliant man) that would always challenge his students to up their critical thinking skills.  We would always talk about successful companies like Virgin, Apple, Nike, and others.  In these conversations we didn't talk about what made them successful.

We had conversations on what marketing challenges would they expect to have.

Salespeople that sell marketing services deliver a pitch and hear "We're good. Not interested."

They aren't perfect.  Every company is facing a challenge that they can't quite figure out. Young companies want to figure out how to grow.  Mature companies worry about how to maintain on top, and everyone in the middle is just trying to stay afloat.  Why are some companies blind to their challenges?  The question of worth often gets in the way.

"If I ask for help, does that mean I'm not good at my job?

No.  It means you care enough about the business that you want to find ways to stop challenges before they happen.  Having a marketing plan is a no brainer, but how often do you change that plan?

The Harvard Business Review had an article dating back 1969 highlighting business executives and the fear to change.  Executives know there's a problem, it's whether that problem affects them personally in some way.  Maybe if it's technology, it could mean it removes something valuable from your every day operations.

It's amazing when you can admit, see, and be comfortable with being vulnerable to what your company needs to be stronger.

Content-we love a villain

I love reading original blog posts.  I really do.  Like a TV show, there's various villains that pop up on your posts and content.

I love when there's a passionate discussion going on within a specific post.  I've been on teams where people worry about when a poster disagrees with what the copywriter created.  I really enjoy when that happens.  It's not because I'm combative.  It tells me that people actually care about what is being written.

I've always believed it's better to be disliked or liked than someone having no opinion or feeling about you.   There's a villain for every hero-It's generated billions of dollars at movie box offices.  Why can't there be a "villain" for a copywriter.  Trust me when I say, a villain is not the troll that you see on random posts from people.  That villain does quite a bit of things.

They solidify our target 

Everybody writes.  Everybody has a voice.  Not everybody knows who their target is suppose to be. Target market means more than just gender and age-there's psychographics involved in it.  When you post content for review,  the villain creates dissension and that helps identify who our target could be.  There has to be a conflict and disagreement.  From there, we can actually find out more about the people that respond to our villain.

 They challenge us

Villain's challenge our views and how we write.  They help us become better because they offer a perspective that's foreign from our own.   As writers, we tend to look at what we write and sometimes forget how to make people feel and react.  The villain sparks that emotion in themselves and fuses it toward others.  Suddenly, our post that only received 5 comments, now has 50 with a serious internal debate going on.  If it weren't for the villain, that wouldn't have happened.  Every time someone disagrees with my content, I feel like I have gotten better writing and understanding people.

They help us "kill with kindness."

When people disagree with you about something passionate, it's hard to just smile and carry on.  There's always a villain who simply just wants you to slip up and lose your credibility.  Being diplomatic is a life skill that is also an invaluable work skill.    The way you respond to villains via your content responses shows how genuine and sharp you are to participants.  If the villain has a valid statement, there's no reason they shouldn't be heard and acknowledged. 

Whether marketing and sales respect expectations

Have you ever seen the movie "The Weatherman" with Nicholas Cage?  It was not intended to be a sales movie, but it follows life lessons that can relate to being a salesperson or marketer.  Cage plays a Chicago weatherman that is successful, yet constantly deals with problems outside of his work profession.  He's so immersed in his work that he becomes estranged from his daughter and father, who is dying of cancer.  He then takes an archery class and it becomes his therapy to cope with stress.

We've all had a "weather" moment.  In marketing, we make predictions on trends and we try to anticipate what the results will look like.  When the results aren't what people expect, we face criticism and credibility trust issues. Much like a meteorologist who's wrong,  there's various relationships that need to weather the storm.

Sales vs. Marketing

Scenario: Sales is upset with you.  You provide them "crappy" leads and the wrong collateral that won't get them the deal.  There's a strain between these departments and part of it is the perception each department has on the other.  You're ability to research leads that are warm help reduce the amount of "cold" they receive.  It's not the Sales departments job to understand the various challenges you face, they just want leads and collateral now.  Sales has an argument in that they are revenue generating and keep the lights on for your business.  You need them and they need you.

Advice to Sales: Be patient with marketing.  Don't be a fair weather fan.  They consistently have the attention of several departments and clients.  They are listening but tend to get caught up in campaigns and a deliverable that must be measured.  They may not face the monthly quotas you have but they have the pressure of consistently being consistent with brand messaging and ensuring campaigns are run without major hiccups. When you have a minute, talk with one of them to understand what goes on in their world.  At my company now, we have a scrum meeting where salespeople are able to talk with marketing on what they need to succeed.  

Advice to Marketing:  Remove the stigma you have of sales professionals.  They are not all jocks and reckless.  All the secondary research you analyze can pale in comparison to what your salespeople can say about specific customer targets.  Leverage the sales departments ability to talk to prospects and figure out what challenges you are not privy to know.  Communicating with your company's sales team will help in audience persona, inbound lead nurturing campaigns, and also cohesiveness.  

"Being a weatherperson"

Sometimes when it rains, it pours.  Sometimes, it's a dry spell.  Leads come and go.  It's a rinse and repeat process.  Sales and marketing need each other to weather the storm.  Campaigns are learning experiences and both sides should become better after every single one.  Let's not be fair weather fans.