SmartMarketers

Competing Against Mr. Do Nothing

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 10:19:13 -0800

So often my clients find their #1 competitor is actually the customer doing nothing. That’s right. It’s not the direct competitor or a substitute option or even a homegrown solution that cinches the deal but rather inertia or doing nothing that wins.

This can be especially frustrating and expensive when a sales team has invested a lot of resources to pursue a deal in good faith.

Partners Revisited – Seven Watch-Outs

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:59:07 -0800

Jeff Thompson, my partner at Aventi Group, and I recently worked on a project where we helped an important client revisit and optimize their channel strategy. The problem was that our client who sells directly and indirectly to the SMB segment, had partnerships agreements in place with over 9000 partners. But what they did not have is a clear picture of which partners were performing or even active.

Optimizing webforms to generate more leads through your website

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 07:29:39 -0800

After a talk on lead management, I spoke with several marketers from a company where one said, “We don’t need to qualify our leads because our web forms do the qualifying for us... then we send them to our sales team.”

Here's the problem with that model... long and detailed web forms often cause people to lie or simply leave altogether.

Should You Require Registration for Web Content?

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:20:35 -0800

Should you require registration in order for Website visitors to download white papers and other content? And if so, how much information should you require?

Perform a random survey of high-tech company Websites, and you’ll discover very quickly that there are widely varying schools of thought on this topic. Some sites (including those of some very well known brands) provide unfettered access to all content and require no registration whatsoever.

Should You Put a $ Sign on Your White Papers?

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 09:02:53 -0800

We all know that white papers are free documents, often used for lead generation purposes.

However, should we call them a report and place a dollar value on them to help improve their perceived value?

That is precisely what my friend and white paper peer Bob Bly recently suggested. Here’s what he actually said:

The Emperor's New Clothes Factory

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:08:10 -0800

Positioning is a funny thing. You want to hoist a flag that others will rally around--something unique and compelling, something easily understood and valued. It has to be different enough that you stand apart from the competition. But it has to be familiar enough that customers quickly understand what you're selling. That simple dichotomy--be different, be familiar--sometimes produces a viral feedback loop that can slow innovation across an entire industry.

Social Media & B2B Demand Generation

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:51:37 -0800

At CDI, a question we get asked often these days is: What are you doing in social media?

Perhaps a better question might be: What do social media have to do with demand generation? The answer is: plenty, but perhaps not in the way you’d think.

As a most basic example, blogs can be a highly effective lead generation vehicle, though most companies don’t take full advantage of their capability in this regard.

Who Should You Interview (when writing)?

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:44:30 -0800

Let’s say you’ve been tasked to create a white paper (or an article, blog post, …). Who should you interview in the process of preparing to write?

This is an important question.

It came up while I was training a group of engineers on writing white papers.

Building a Marketing Funnel and More Lead Management Tips

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:38:25 -0800

I was recently interviewed for an article on lead management by Chris Koch who works for ITSMA, the Information Technology Services Marketing Association.

In the article titled, "Building a Marketing Funnel and Other Lead Management Tips," I give the five tips on how you can make your B2B lead management more effective, which are:

Social Media Marketing Trends

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:17:06 -0800

There’s been a lot of discussion online about the adoption of social media as a marketing practice. Last week, the Wall Street Journal posted a story on their blog citing a report that claims the vast majority of online communities fail. One of the authors of the report quickly took issue with the interpretation of the data, and an online debate caught fire across Twitter, Friend Feed, and all the A-List blogs. Do “most” communities fail? Or just “many”? And is this a sign of the unrealistic expectations and hype over social media as a marketing phenomenon?

Why The World is Tuning Out (and why you need to change)

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:56:19 -0800

If you are a blogger, marketer or a writer you face a very serious challenge.

What’s the problem: People don’t pay attention anymore (I am a prime example).

Think about it:

Marketing to Small & Medium Business

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:47:41 -0800

I went to a NorCal-BMA breakfast on March 20th where Drew Meyer (Senior Product Marketing Manager at Network Appliance’s StoreVault division) spoke about selling to SMB – a hot topic among many enterprise companies looking to expand their footprint into this space.

Drew spoke about his experiences in selling to this segment and his findings made a lot of sense.

Jellyvision: Lead Qualification That Talks Back

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:53:26 -0800

As the name suggests, Chicago-based Jellyvision got their start creating children’s films. The company then went on to create “You Don’t Know Jack,” one of the best-selling game franchises of all time (4.5 million copies and counting.) Nowadays, Jellyvision has turned its expertise to creating what it calls “interactive conversations”: hosted, online presentations that, well, engage you in conversation.

Go-to-market Success Depends on Execution

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:44:19 -0800

The biggest obstacle to go-to-market success (and lead generation ROI for that matter) is the lack of good execution.

A recent Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council's study, “Driving the Bottom Line from the Front Line,” assessed the go-to-market processes and capabilities of global companies.

Adding the human touch back into B2B lead generation

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:21:13 -0800

I don’t know about you, but as a b-to-b marketer who focuses on telesprospecting and lead nurturing, even I’m a bit overwhelmed by the fervor around social media marketing.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve blogged for five years, and I’ve been Twittered, LinkedIn, Facebooked—and I’m waiting to be Pownced.