Doctors and Marketers - Not so Different?

When you go to the doctor you expect careful examination of your specific ailments, right?  You have no interest in a template response that doesn’t evaluate your pain points or symptoms.  You do not want to be treated like a textbook.  So, why are there so many sales and marketers treating their leads and prospects like data and not like companies with individual needs?

If your doctor measured your weight, height and then factored your age to spit out a remedy for your problem, you’d probably be dissatisfied with that visit and quickly look for a new physician.  Let’s call those measurements, firmographic data.  On the other hand, if your physician sat you down and listened to some of your symptoms and engaged in a conversation that allowed he/she to understand why you are having the symptoms, they would much more likely be able to make an accurate assessment and provide you with helpful remedies. Let’s call these symptoms, triggers. Sales and Marketing is no different. 

This is not to say that at the doctor’s office they shouldn’t measure your height, weight and age.  It is a necessary starting point.  In sales and marketing, firmographic data is important.  We need it in order to begin the segmentation process, but you can’t stop there; there are other symptoms to consider. We like to call these symptoms event triggers.  What events have occurred that could factor into your leads buying process? Did they just have an M&A? Did the VP step down?  Did they just publish their earnings?  These are important questions to help decide what your next move will be.  Think of yourself as the doctor – how are you prepared to best help your prospects’ and leads’ pain points? Firmographic data will only get you so far; you need dynamic data to make an accurate assessment of your patient.  You need to research and listen to their needs to find the best remedy that your leads and prospects deserve.

How do you find that data?

Finding dynamic event data is much simpler now that there are automated solutions to help you discover which companies need your services. Not taking advantage of these services is like a doctor only looking at weight, height and age and prescribing you medicine that you might not need when you might not need it.

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5 Ways Triggers Help to Avoid Negative Brand Equity

I am not sure if triggers could have helped in the BP oil spill, but certainly for United and Dell, they could have listened a little more closely to their leads and clients, preventing the negative backlash that now, they just can’t shake.

Here are our tips:

1. Provide personal, pointed messaging.  Take segmenting to a whole new level using event triggers. You just discovered that Facebook acquired Instagram; do you have something that Facebook needs?  See your opportunity to provide the right message to the right people, so that they respond.

2. Time your message.  When do you want to send your targeted message and to whom? In other words, read the writing on the wall.  Is it the right time?  Use technology to help you find the right person to send your message to and when. Did they just acquire a new company?

3. Remember: It's not about you; it's about them.  Don't proselytize your product, but LISTEN and commend your leads' and clients' achievements.  For example, Congratulations on your big sales win!

4. Show Authenticity. Be you, in your own voice, demonstrating a keen understanding of both, your product and your prospects’ pain points. Triggers let you show that you have done your research.  Your leads and clients will listen more intently, if they know you know a little bit about them.  Don’t send a template email that doesn’t highlight any of your leads achievements; they can always tell.

5. Create consistency.  Especially in B2B, consistency in the backbone of building trusted, long-lasting relationships with leads and clients at enterprise companies.  Event triggers keep you posted, and let you set up a system for when the best time is to reach out.

Take Away:

Whether it is learning to truly segment lead lists for marketing, or learning to send a personalized email highlighting prospect’s latest achievements for sales, the point is: it is time to pay more attention and be more thoughtful of your clients, leads and prospects. Why? Because this bolsters positive brand equity, letting you truly stand out from other competitors. How do you stand out in the crowd? You deliver a message that will get you heard.  And how do you discover the message? You use triggers to keep you in the know.

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Storytelling: Not Just for Marketers Anymore?

Can we measure up to some of the best storytellers of all time? There are some that can.

We all know that guy/girl at the party that attracts a crowd of eager-beaver listeners with merely the sound of their voice intonating that an anecdotal story is coming. What do we do: we, not only stop whatever it is we are doing to listen and laugh, but by the end of the story, we feel completely connected to our storyteller-at-large.  We may even reach out later on Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter to follow up with that existing relationship.  We feel like we know them and want to hear more.

Brands are told to create compelling stories too. Everyone wants to feel connected, even the most rigid and technical companies. Traditionally, it is marketing that is told to create the story: think Mad Men and the Kodak projector and Facebook with the introduction of timeline.  We can agree that the beginning of the funnel is the place for the storytelling process, but it is equally important to communicate a convincing story through out the entire sales cycle.

A compelling story that conjures up an emotional response makes your prospects and leads connect and trust you—it could make all the difference in shortening your sales and marketing cycles.

There are a plentitude of resources available to educate marketers on good storytelling techniques, but not nearly enough resources available to educate salespeople on the importance of a good story, and often this skill is over-looked entirely because closing the deal—the result, becomes more important than the journey.

So, how do you tell a good story?

Remember the 5Ws of Journalism?

WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY and (HOW)

Your story starts here. The 5ws will help you deliver the right message in both, marketing and in sales.  Furthermore, this is the chance for true collaboration with marketing and sales.  Discovering the Ws is much less daunting when using triggers.  As you build a relationship with prospects and leads remember that triggers can help you build trust.  You have done your research and because of that research your story just became that much richer.  Humanize your brand, your product and watch as your leads convert-- with just the intonation in your voice.

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Could Event Triggers be the Marketing Assist that Sales Needs in order to Score?

Being a Boston-based company and with the Stanley Cup approaching, we thought what better way to explain the importance of triggers to sales and marketing then with a hockey analogy.  Don’t worry baseball and fishing fans, we will be sure to make those analogies as the spring and summer kick into full gear.

In any given hockey team, we have these key positions: Goalie, Defense, Right/Left Wing and Center. 

Here is how we equate hockey positions to your org chart:

Goalie: VP of Marketing/Sales

Right/Left Defense: Marketing

Right/Left Wing : Marketing or Inside Sales depending on the size of your company

Center: Sales

Left/Right Defense gets in there to grind out the puck from the corner and push it out to an open Left/Right winger.

Left/Right Wing carries the puck out of the defense zone and into the neutral zone, ideally passing the puck off in the neutral or offensive zone to the center.

Center is available to receive the pass, particularly in the offensive zone.  They are poised and ready for the pass. They shoot; they score!

This is, of course, the most ideal scenario that any coach would love to see their players execute flawlessly.  We know that it gets a little more complicated in practice. Why? Because the neutral zone is where communication breaks down. It is in the neutral zone that it is mandatory to read the other player’s signs and make adjustments accordingly.  Something we like to call triggers.  What events occur to make us decide to puck handle versus make the pass to center?  Should we nurture that puck a little longer in order to have the center move into a more prime position to receive the pass and increase their likelihood to score? 

Luckily in business, we don’t need to make Nano-second decisions, but can react to event triggers daily to see what events occurred to make us want to pass the puck to the center versus carry it through the neutral zone a little bit longer.  We may even need to make a pass back to defense.  But, we must be in position to read the digital body language™ in order to see where the puck should go. This takes both, agility and flexibility and a willingness to see this dynamic data as key to making your next move as a salesperson or a marketing person.

In your next Marketing and Sales meeting try this explanation:

1.     Know your positions – Don’t chase the puck.  Get yourself into the right position to receive the pass.

2.     Communicate in the neutral zone --You want to know when and who to pass to, but you need to read the signs; the center might not be open yet, in which case you should stick handle a little longer. 

3.     Remember that an assist is just as important as the goal --The center wouldn’t be able to score unless you pushed the puck to him at the right time.

4.     Evaluate – Even after the winning goal is scored, analyze the steps along the way, see if there is any room for improvement or if what you did as a team is repeatable.

And because we wouldn’t be Boston fans without a little shout out – Go Bruins!  See you at the Stanley Cup – Fingers X!  

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If Only We Had a List of Triggers to Help Us Find True Love...

Many of us have spent time in bars hoping that we might find that true connection. OK, well, maybe not lasting love, but at least the hopes of a second or third date.  I often wished that if I had been armed with the correct knowledge about the guy sitting next to me, I would know whether or not I was willing to continue the dating process. I wanted something equivalent to event triggers in the business world. Wouldn’t it be easier if we all had our trigger list open for everyone to read? Unfortunately, we don't have these event triggers available to us in the dating world, but we do, however, have the technology to find event triggers in the business world.

We can now know that Company X needs you because they just had a record growth year.  And vice versa, if CEO, Joe Smith just spent the last week watching his furniture get repossessed, wouldn’t you want to know, so you don’t waste valuable time and money going after Mr. Smith?

Firmographic data isn’t updated enough to keep you in the know.  You need dynamic triggers, which can give you the timing you need in order to know whether or not Mr. Smith is moving in to his office or moving out. Or whether, Mr. Right is really as dapper as his Hugo Boss suit appears.

Fortunately the business world is much simpler than the dating world.

How Triggers Work:

Marketers, if you knew that Mr. Smith and his company are having a bad year, you will probably change your messaging accordingly, or wait until Mr. Smith gets a brand new office to deliver your 4Ps.

Sales, because you now know that Mr. Smith is in no position to buy, three things happen:

1.     You won’t waste your time or resource going after a bum deal.

2.     You won’t make Mr. Smith angry, because you try to pitch him something that he just can’t buy.  Don’t make Mr. Smith feel bad; he just declared bankruptcy.

3.     Because you didn’t pummel him with services he didn’t need when he wasn’t ready, when he is back on his feet, not only does he hold no resentment, but also he sees you as a fresh and inviting face.

Timing is everything.  Good luck out there finding Mr. or Mrs. Right!

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Can you Define a Marketing - Qualified Lead? And, Then What…

With our continued focus on diminishing the divide between sales and marketing, we thought we would take a moment to define a marketing qualified lead.

We pulled definitions from a lot of different sites, blogs, groups on Linkedin and here is what we found for a MQL(Marketing-Qualified Lead):

1. Are they in the correct sector?

2. What is their size and company revenue?

3. Are they decision makers?

4.  What have they touched in your campaigns thus far—ie. White papers, tradeshows, site visits, demo forms, webinars?

5. Do they need you—can you find their pain points?

6.  Will they be able to buy in an appropriate timeframe?

7.  Do they have the budget to afford your services?

In theory, everybody agrees that this checklist defines MQLs, but when in practice, we think the above list has some grey areas for who is willing to take action to answer Phase 2 and 3.  What is the most effective way to extract that information?  Should marketing ask in a lead form? Should inside sales call to qualify? Should sales reps make the call? Nobody is better at extracting this information than sales reps, but it is unlikely that they will, so what now? The lead falls into no man’s land, resulting in wasted marketing efforts, missed opportunities and fewer closed deals.

Is there a middle ground?  We think technology helps to offer a credible solution; when you know the condition of your leads and prospects, then you have a better idea of when they are ready to buy. Company X just had three good earning releases; looks like they have a budget to buy.  Sales will feel compelled to follow up with this kind of evidence.

Remember that static information won’t help marketers or salespeople. Static information is only Phase 1 on the checklist.  A contact list is just that, only a list.  You need dynamic data (Phase 2 and 3) that let’s you know the pulse of the organization you are following. And if you can’t get sales or marketing to take ownership, then leave it to technology to help bridge the communication gap.

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The Marketing Mind & The Sales Psyche - Where do you Fit?

As we delve deeper into causes of the divide between sales and marketing, we thought it necessary to take a peek from 30,000ft and define the characteristics of a marketing mind versus a sales psyche.  Our hope is to uncover the similarities, as well as the differences between these two very important roles in an organization.  Here are some of our discoveries. Where do you fit?

____

___________________________________________________________________________________________

What does this mean in terms of the divide? 

We need to appreciate our individual skills sets and use our attributes for the better of the organization; then, we can truly learn who, when and why to nurture. Sales and marketing will no longer act as two disparate minds, but become one cohesive unit. 

Takeaways:

1.     Just because sales and marketing minds may work differently doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t all play in the same sandbox. This means creating open lines of communication between departments, whether it is over coffee, that mandatory Monday meeting, or just stopping by at each other’s desks.

2.     Marketing folks – Don’t think that once you created a list full of possible leads that you are done for the day—to really qualify leads, you need to know what is happening in your targeted companies.  Do your research; we know you are all information seekers. You may deliver less quantity, but we promise you will deliver better, more qualified leads that the Sales team will be satisfied with, and they may even come by to say thank you.

3.     Sales folks –Don’t be lone wolves, let marketing folks join you on a sales visit, so they can really listen to the pain points of your leads and clients and create better targeted messaging. Everyone will benefit from more communication and stronger understandings of what one another contribute to the organization.  www.ilantern.com