Leaders' Blog

Five ways to gain organizational buy-in

This is Rob DeRobertis with the Technology Marketing Center and here are five ways to gain organizational buy-in.

You have a great plan. Your product strategy is perfect. Your new product has a killer value proposition. All you need is to get it to market.

If you are in a large company, you are only half way there and in some cases where you have multi-layers of organizational inertia to overcome, you have a steep hill to climb.

Great product managers know this and have a knack for getting stuff done within an organization.

Here are five ways to gain organizational buy-in.

1) Dictatorship

Depending on your position in the organization, you might be able to dictate what you want to be done. Dictatorships work sometimes but may stifle inventiveness and leadership within the organization. If you take the dictatorship role all the time, you stop people from thinking for themselves and in the long term you will lose the best performers. And then again, sometimes the team needs a dictator to simply move the project forward.  Just use this tactic very wisely.

2) Sledgehammer

The sledgehammer approach is where you use your boss as a sledgehammer to force the organization to follow a path. This can work if there is organizational grid lock but should be used carefully to avoid the dictator approach.

3) Influencing the influencers

There are those people in the company that people go to for recommendations. They have battle scars and are considered experts. They are leaders that people trust. These are the people to convince first. By spending quality time reviewing your plans and incorporating their sage advice, you are on your way to a better path of gaining buy-in. With the influencer on your side, others will follow.

4) Let the data do the talking for you.

Present the data to the organization. Get them to work through the thought process you followed to come up with your recommendations. Present your logic and don't sell. Let the team come to their own conclusions. Conclusions may be different than your initial idea, it may be better. Integrate these perspectives into your plan and re-pitch the proposal.

5) Build a track record

Remember that influencer in item 3? Ask how they became influencers in the first place. It is most likely through years of battles with the organization. They did not achieve this respect overnight.

In many cases it might be useful to take an incremental approach towards gaining buy-in. If the project is very large, don't pitch the large project. Pitch incremental steps that can be cleanly tested before taking the second step. That said, make sure you have the organization focused on the big picture while taking these "baby" steps.

 

 

If You Don't Know Me by Now: B2B Digital Brand Development Considerations & Myths

As many of you Technology Marketing Center members are aware, brand differentiation has been on the rise when it comes to top-of-mind and share-of-budget considerations for B2B marketers today. Especially due to ever-lengthening B2B sales cycles that involve growing numbers of decision makers, influencers and communication channels, a strong, differentiated brand has become a critical component of a successful B2B marketing plan and its related sales cycle. 

According to a recent Forrester report on B2B sales processes (see Forrester-borrowed B2B sales cycle graphic above), B2B buyers have completed 90% of the sales process on their own before ever completing a form online or making a phone call to connect with the vendor. And because the lengthening of the sales cycle has occurred in the part of the process that isn’t controlled by you, brand-building via self-serve digital channels is equally as crucial to your B2B marketing success as the brand itself.

While delivering differentiated B2B brand communications digitally for a specific organization requires targeted research and discovery of where your specific audience is engaging – and how – online and offline, it’s also important to re-think 2 powerful myths when determining your digital brand-building steps forward.

 

Myth #1: Businesspeople Aren’t Consumers.

While on the clock, 64% of businesspeople spend time visiting websites that are unrelated to their work responsibilities or job function. Even off the clock, the personal / professional lines are blurred when it comes to digital content consumption with more than 80% of people logging into their work email accounts.

Outside of internet-related behavior, people simply don’t turn off their personal interests or personalities while in a business environment, and vice versa, contrary to countless B2B communication segmentation plans and systems. So, craft your digital brand content and distribution strategy accordingly, providing brand experiences that reach your audience as the integrated professional and personal beings they are.

 

Myth #2: Speak Directly to Your Audience.

The signpost of many-a-B2B marketing plan is a personalization strategy, especially through lead list-driven, segmented communications such as direct mail, email, display / search retargeting campaigns, etc; however, knowing more about your audience or user than they know about your brand can backfire quickly.

To avoid fallout from being too familiar with your audience, ensure that your online brand is strong at the outset and that your outreach matches the audience or user’s place within the marketing funnel or sales cycle. Are they an established customer? If so, using their name or referencing past purchases will support your communications with them. If they are a new prospect with no history of contact with your brand, this same approach will likely alienate them from your brand and possibly for good.

 

Thoughts, Overheard.

To further illustrate the value and connection between brand building and digital channels, I’d like to take you inside the annual THINK conference created and produced by the nation’s largest credit union service organization – CO-OP Financial Services.

Since the first annual, breakthrough conference in 2008, THINK has quickly evolved into a powerful thought leadership brand whose core audience is made of up of the credit union industry’s collective C-suite – a community-driven group of change makers positioned to disrupt the financial services vertical from the ground, up.

I recently had the opportunity to co-produce several digital marketing and audience engagement efforts surrounding CO-OP Financial Services’ THINK 13 conference in Chicago, Illinois – a 4-day knowledge sharing event that brought together visionary business leaders to share their diverse viewpoints and success strategies and move the credit union movement forward.

Amid the countless, disruptive strategies and game-changing thought starters shared by the elite group of speakers including Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Google+ pioneer and musician Daria Musk and Shark Tank’s Daymond John, a recurring topic of discussion among the THINK conference’s audience was finding the best way to educate those outside the movement about what credit unions are – or the credit union movement’s identity itself.  Throughout the conference – from within round-table discussions on the general session stage, to questions posed by audience members from the floor and via comments posted on monitored social media platforms – the solution to the brand-building need most often presented was social media and related digital channels.

 

That’s Our Cue

Not only are CO-OP Financial Services and its member credit unions already putting this connection between brand building online in motion in inspiring ways in the coming months, THINK 13’s C-level attendees – the very segment your targeted B2B marketing efforts are directed to – are themselves vouching for the value of defining their industry’s brand and doing so online as a core need to drive their industry forward.

So, let’s take a cue and shape our B2B intentions accordingly, focusing on the substance of brand identity to support the entirety of our C-suite-destined marketing programs and doing so by leveraging and testing the strengths of the diversity of digital channels at our disposal. Then, the conditions will right and the stage will be set for self-directed digital brand experiences to be had, a deeper connection with your brand to be created and more, qualified leads to be generated.

Founder Effects on Technology adoption

This is Eugenia Jones, signing in to the technology marketing center leader’s blog, offering the second installment on “The Founder effect.”

In the last post I described “the Founder effect” and briefly discussed two examples of firms where implementation of the founders vision was, and is, one of their key competitive differentiators. In this post I will examine how the founder effect can impact the technology adoption cycle.

 

The success or failure of start-up companies, which generally have a single technology product in their portfolio, is intimately tied to the product’s ability to acquire mainstream market share. Before any technology product crosses the chasm, reaches the tipping point and is purchased by the mainstream market the new product needs to be accepted by a community known as early adopters. And early adopters watch market innovators to determine which products may be of interest. Product acceptance by innovators is the first critical step in the technology adoption lifecycle, and it is this step that is most heavily influenced by the founder effect.

Innovators differentiate themselves among their peers not only as risk takers, but also as extremely knowledgeable, capable of rapidly distinguishing junk from gems. Innovators acquire an emerging technology to determine if the product meets expectations, i.e. if the product does what it claims to do. Innovators are driven not only to be among the first to acquire, but may also be the customers with the greatest unmet need. Innovators provide the independent proof of concept and functionality needed to garner the attention of early adopter community. If the product performs as promised for the innovators, you’re positioned well, but disillusion them and as the saying goes, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” Innovators do not need to be enchanted, but they do need to be believers in the technology and the product derived that technology.

Founders comprise three groups, the inventors, the venture capitalists, and the business entrepreneurs. For start-ups it is the reputations of these groups, as well as the advertised product functionality, that defines the innovator’s expectations. Selling products to innovators requires different types of proof when compared to selling to customers elsewhere in the adoption cycle. Innovators adopt novel products, without external performance data, so they use other cues to determine if an offering is of interest. One of those cues is reputation.

Innovators frequently are familiar with a companies entrepreneurs and inventors, and that familiarity can play a significant role in determining if a customer will consider purchasing a product. Here the sale is consultative, relying on the reputation of the technology and the individuals involved. Reputation alone can cause a product to fail to gain share in a market.

I consulted for a company with a good product that performed as advertised, met a market need, and yet was having a hard time gaining traction, while a less complete solution that didn’t quite live up to expectations was gaining share. It only took a few phone interviews with perspective customers (innovators) to realize the issue was two-fold; the inventor was summarily disliked and the management team was unknown to the market. The inventor had a reputation as undeserving of the attentions and accolades he had received, which caused potential end-users to be wary of the utility of the product. The potential client expected the product to be as overblown and useless as the man who had invented it. This was exacerbated by business teams inexperience in this market; the end-user couldn’t use a favorable impression of the business team to counteract the inventor’s poor reputation. Had innovators in this market had a positive impression of either the business team or the inventor, they likely would have tried the product, because they perceived the risk to be lower. Ultimately the company failed. 

A new technology product can garner the interest of innovators with an unknown business team if the inventor is well respected by the target market, or vice versa. A product with an unknown inventor and business team, may eventually gain traction among innovators, but if either has a questionable reputation innovators are unlikely to try the product. The founder effect arises from the willingness of innovators to test the product based on the founder’s reputation. Without the proof of product functionality, provided by the innovators use of the product, early adopters are out of reach. 

Combating Sales Friction

Geoff Anderson back for another edition of TMC's Leader's blog. This time I would like to talk about something I call "Sales Friction". It is the phenomenon where if you have more than one product to be sold by your sales team, inevitably, one (or more) will get less attention. There are many causes of this. Perhaps one has a longer, more involved sales process. Maybe the sales team is better suited to selling one product line (matched with their expertise or confidence). Or, it can be as simple that one product is significantly lower in price, and hence they have to sell more of it to meet their quota. Regardless of the reason, as marketers, we need to lubricate the sales process to reduce the friction experienced in the sales process.

How do you reduce friction? Just like a machine, there are several abatement methods. Some are more likely than others, such as altering the selection of construction materials to improve surface on surface friction and wear, or selecting the right lubricant. In the marketing realm, selecting the right materials is analagous to reducing the differentials between the products. As an example, given two products, Product A is the high price, high value product, and Product B being about 1/3^rd the ASP as Product A, it is natural that the sales team would rather spend their time selling Product A. To equalize this imbalance, a savvy marketer will make more of the pre-sales investigation to be automated, and "pull" based (meaning giving prospects the ability to gather information without a sales person being the gatekeeper). This reduces the time commitment by sales to close an order for Product B, and reduces the friction in the sale process, leaving them freedom to focus on the higher value Product A.

Another example would be where a sales team is much better matched to one product over the others. This is common when a business unit acquires a new product. Often, the combined sales team will be most comfortable with the original product (Product A), and will preferentially dedicate time to Product A, while letting Product B languish. As marketers, our job is then to increase their awareness of Product B. The focus should be on training and collateral that eases the concerns of sales people, yet smooths the sales process. If you are successful at lowering the perceived deficit of sales knowledge, you increase their confidence to pursue the opportunities. Perhaps you get involved in a few cases with each sales engineer (lead by example), or you develop quick study guides that they can review the evening before meeting with a customer.

Summary

While I could go on for thousands of words on this, I think you get the point. Part of our job as marketers is to identify, understand, and reduce friction in the sales process. While it is impossible to eliminate it, you certainly can improve the sales process by careful development of improved or targeted collateral, and sales training. Do you have any examples of sales friction? Please comment below, and until next time, happy marketing!

Five things about our aging industry.

Let’s face it; the people running the high technology industry are getting old. Some of the great founders of our industry have retired and other greats have passed away. In a recent study by UBM Tech, it was pointed out that the average age of engineers in our industry are in their mid to late fifties, and are, for the most part, a group of grumpy old men. That is at least for the United States and Europe. In China this dynamic is very different. So what will happen to our industry in the next 10-15 years as the rest of us go off to the final “production run”? Will the legacy of the generation that founded high technology leave behind vibrant growing companies or cash in their chips and move to Florida?

There is the next generation of course. You know, those kids with their noses in their iPhones or Samsung Galaxies. You know, the kids that invented Twitter, Facebook, Dropbox and Squarespace.

After all who wants to Tweet? Why would anyone want to use Facebook? That social media stuff isn’t useful for our business. No one will watch video on a computer... And yet these youngsters have found ways to innovate and drive change. The new industries are being created by the younger generation; a generation getting ready to take over. So is the old guard suppressing this generation or inspiring this generation?

This is Rob DeRobertis with the Technology Marketing Center and here are five pieces of advice for our aging industry.

To those just starting out in High Tech

1) Never stop innovating new products. Keep an ear to the customers but look beyond their immediate needs. Look for game changing ideas. Be the champion to drive that innovation forward.

2) Never stop innovating business models. High Technology has been doing business pretty much the same way for years. Look for innovative new business models. Just as Steve Jobs turned the music industry on its ears with iTunes, you can do it for High Tech.

3) Take risks. Your management got into their positions by taking risks. They may not remember (or they may still feel the battle scars) but they all made risk decisions at several points in their career. You must now take the risks. Leverage the advice from your management to avoid some of the scars but be willing to stick your neck out.

4) Talk back to your management. Talk back to your management in a respectful way. Make alternate recommendations. Be passionate but don’t alienate yourself.

5) Stay young. Don’t become a grumpy old man. Avoid being a cynic. Keep the positive edge. Work through adversity. Stay passionate about your beliefs.

To those currently at the helm

1) Nurture youth. You will not be at the helm much longer. Have you made succession plans? How deep into the company are you reaching for leadership. Are you relying on your inner circle or welcoming the newcomers and listening to their view of the changing global economy.

2) Invest in innovation. There is a drive to optimize profits. You are driven there by the investment community. Are you balancing profits with investment into the future? Is your R&D organization really innovating or making incremental improvements? Are you driving a franchise organization like a McDonalds that is continuing to optimize the value meal or are you driving game changing innovations like Google does all the time. (Do you even look at innovations from these companies? Test: Do you know what Google Glass is?).

3) Teach the risk takers how to manage risk. Mentor and develop the careers of the risk takers. Look for those who are passionate about the industry and take them under your wing. Teach them! Help them learn how to drive profitable businesses and to take the proper risks that will move the company forward. Do not stifle creativity, watch where it goes.

4) Listen to the new generation. The new generation is closer to the customer than you are. Listen to that generation. This generation lives a very different lifestyle than what you started out with. After all you most likely invented much of what enables their lifestyle. Are you leveraging and building upon the changes you helped create?

5) Stay young. Don’t be a grumpy old man. Avoid being a cynic. Keep the positive edge.

50 Shades of C-Suite Selling Success

Today’s the big day. You’ve been nurturing your prospective client relationship for a while now and identified the perfect product or service solution to fit their need. You’ve priced, packaged and produced the perfect sales proposition and are ready to prove to your prospect that your product or service set will deliver.

And, today, they will . . . what? Sign on the dotted line immediately? Verbally approve the proposal and take it to their board? Get demoted or transferred or laid off tomorrow and forget all about you and what you’re selling?

When it comes to selling services or products through to a C-level decision-maker, what does success look like?

 

Set Your Sights

For my second contribution to the Technology Marketing Center, I'll be focusing on the need to define indicators of success for your sales process. At the outset, it is crucial to balance the idealism at the heart of any sales process just enough that you define what success looks like for you so that you direct your energy – and time – in the most fruitful direction at any given moment. The challenge in applying this approach when your sale requires C-suite approval is that success isn’t simply defined, or even apparent, at the time.

Envisioning success in this sales scenario implies, tenuously at best, that the salesperson is in control or somehow masterminding the sales process toward a win for them. Let’s be honest. If you are selling products or services on behalf of either your employer or yourself, chances are you aren’t a C-level employee responsible for making multimillion-dollar decisions regularly and are therefore at a status and experiential disadvantage.

 

Pivot & Redirect as Needed

This disadvantage is overcome by supplementing your client-side network and assessing needs via the C-person’s influencers, immediate workforce and gatekeepers. Envisioning success in this scenario is typically much simpler, and you can more quickly build confidence in the queues of engagement (how quick are they to respond to communication?) and trust (do they believe I understand their need?) and of course sales metrics like sales price, service / product quantity sold, sales cycle length, etc.

Regardless of your status or decision-making experience, your approach to selling to the CFO, CMO, CTO or CXYZO is ideally full of potential success indicators along the way, sometimes including the factors of engagement and trust mentioned earlier along with some more veiled indicators that are more comfortably applied when assessing relationships in general.

 

Success Stories

In my experience, if your C-level prospect does the following, he / she might be a future or returning client: 

-       Calls you before a board presentation to get your feedback on his / her message

-       Remembers or wants to know more about your background and your non-work related interests

-       Doesn’t play their hand too close and intentionally reveals what’s motivating their decision ($, achievement, ego, etc.), helping you both succeed

-       Acknowledges your effort to assess their need and define a solution either explicitly or subtly

 

So, when it comes to approaching that C-suite sale, set your sights on your goal while clearly defining what success looks like. But, be sure to revisit that vision regularly because the performance metrics you use to check yourself and focus your efforts in simpler sales don’t always apply.

Remove the likely status or experiential barriers by humanizing your relationships with the C-suite. And if after you’ve given it your best and it turns out the match wasn’t meant to be, that just means there’s someone out there better suited for what you’re selling. 

Founder Effects- what is it and how does it impact your brand.

This is Dr. Eugenia Jones, signing in to the technology marketing center leader’s blog, to bring you insights and inquiries into the biotechnology and healthcare markets.

“She didn’t lick that up off the streets.” A phrase my grandmother, who lived in Ireland, oft repeated whenever her American grandchildren would do something that was peculiar or improper in her eyes or those of her friends. It is a phrase that frequently comes to mind when I am consulting for a group that knows there is a problem, and seems unable to be able to pinpoint it’s source.

The source of the problems shared by ethnic grandmothers and start-up businesses are essentially the same; it is called the founder effect. In biology the founder effect refers to the unusually high expression of a particular trait in a group when compared to the whole population, for example red hair. The unusual trait can be traced back to a single ancestor, or small group of ancestor, who traveled to new territories and started new populations. The trait becomes prevalent in the new population because there is little genetic diversity among the founders.

Start-up companies are in many ways like these pioneers, and if there is not enough diversity among the company’s founders then the start-up will display an unusually high acceptance of business practices that are not common in the business community as a whole.  This way sound like a criticism, and it can be if the traits that flourish are those that decrease a business’s likelihood to survive. On the other hand the founder effect can also be a key differentiator; that thing or collection of things that make a company and it’s brand distinct in the market. 

Two readily recognizable examples of positive founders effect, are Apple and Starbucks. It is difficult to separate the company and brand successes from their respective founders, Steve Jobs and Howard Schultz. For Steve Jobs form was just as important as function. So much so that customer’s believe that every product that bears an Apple logo will wow them with easy to use innovations that will make their lives simpler and more enjoyable. For Howard Schultz coffee was not just a drink it was an occasion to gather and commune, and every store not only invokes the smell of espresso to the consumer, but the idea of a comfortable, environmentally conscience, place to meet a friend.

How engrained the founder effect becomes in business practices depends a great deal on executive level buy-in. If executives “drink the cool-aid” and adhere to the founders principles the company will continue to flourish in absence of the founder as long as market conditions and consumer attitudes are unchanged.

If the founder should depart, and e-level manager do not embrace the founders vision, then the company will head in a different direction, sometimes to the brand demise. Such was the case when Howard Schultz handed the reigns to group of former Disney executives who moved the company in a direction that did not resonate with customers. Luckily Schultz returned in enough time to right the ship and salvage the brand.

These two examples are not representative of the majority of small businesses whose products and services have not “crossed the chasm,” but they do beautifully describe the founder effect. Over the remainder of this year I will post about how founder effects play a key role in determining the success or failure of technology start-ups. I’d love to hear from you if you have an example of a founder effect or a comment on this post. 

Freemium and Strategic Marketing

Geoff Anderson back for another installment of the TMC Leader's Blog, and taking a slightly different tact.  As a practicing product manager, I am a heavy 'tool' user in my daily duties.  One benefit of the Web 2.0 revolution is the proliferation of some genuinely awesome services that make your life easier. I regularly use services like DropBox, Evernote, Remember the Milk, as well as others. They all help increase my productivity, and provide value to my workflow. But, as a marketer, I often step back and think about how these services become viable businesses.  For these "service" offerings, it is increasingly common to use a business model called "Freemium". Different from the classic "limited time trial", these services are pitched as free to some level forever. The idea is to start with some level of capability that you give away, and as people become engaged and dependent upon the service, entice them to upgrade to the paid version giving them more function, more storage, or more options. Simple enough (I bet everyone can think of a analogous business model) in concept, but often difficult to execute well.

Instead of going into detail about conversion rates, and what defines success, I would rather step back and look at the original go-to-market strategy, and from that, a view of what makes a valuable customer. The "freemium" model really has two overarching market segments, the free-riders, and "customers". There are lots of variations, but little consensus on how the "-mium" enters the equation. Many great ideas start out as "Free" products. The advent of cloud computing and vendors like Amazon AWS, and Rackspace to name two greatly reduce the barrier to entry, and provide a straightforward path to a service product and scaling. But as buzz builds, and volumes go up, the costs also rise to match. One day, you have to seriously consider how to flip free-riders into paying customers. Here's where some forethought at the initial business case pays off, and highlights the need to engage marketing at the program start.

Marketing will guide you begin by focusing on the product that "customers" will pay for, what problem are you solving, or what pain you are relieving. The end state is the "whole product". Then you alter the whole product to come up with a tantalizing, addictive "free" offering. Promote the heck out of it, gain word of mouth, go viral, whatever. When it is time to turn on the revenue spigot, you have a lever that people will pay for. Think about DropBox. You get 2G free, sync across all your devices and computers, wherever you are, you have access to that 2G of data. But one day, you will hit your limit, and, knowing how much you have come to rely on it, you are going to buy the bigger space.

If your revenue spigot (the "whole product" that provides value that customers will pay for) is an after thought, or not properly planned for at the start, you're liable come up with a service like RunKeeper. I use this service to keep track of my workouts. I run/walk/cycle with it, and the app on my iphone feeds me updates, posts my workouts to their database, and tracks milestones. I can login to their web site, and see my progress. Pretty cool. All for free. Upgrade to "elite" for a mere $5 a month, and you unlock some features including more training plans, better mid-goal reports, and advice on how to maximize the effectiveness of your training. Perhaps that is useful to some people, but most of us pavement pounders will be just fine with the free version forever. I see no reason to spend that extra money.

These are but two examples, I am sure you can come up with more. The fact is that unless you plan for how to attract customers, anything you tack on to a "free" offering is not likely to generate a grat conversion rate, regardless of how much you scale the business. Work done at the genesis of a product development effort, particularly for a new, novel service, to identify the true customer segment, and the value that you will offer them, then you are well positioned to flip the switch to revenue. Neglect this component, and you will struggle to unlock value in your user space. Until next time, happy marketing!

Five indicators that your marketing strategy is failing

Hello all.  Rob DeRobertis checking in for the Technology Marketing Center.

We have a lot of discussion in the TMC about setting marketing strategy. Contained on this site are excellent case studies and audio “podcasts” covering the front end of setting a strategy. But how do we know that a strategy is working?

Marketing strategies are organic. They need to dynamically change, they need to be agile and need to adjust with market conditions. Measurement is key to success. If you do not have measurement built into your marketing strategy then you are just creating marketing fluff. The rubber hits the road as you place the team executing the strategy at task to deliver measurements towards reaching the goals. But more important, the team who internalizes and take action on poorly performing measurements to adjust the strategy, in the long run will be the winners.

So what are you measuring?

Here are five indicators to watch:

1) Is the marketing organization filling the funnel? Are true leads of target customers being delivered. Are messages being delivered resonating? What are the trends of leads generated to closure by the sales force?

2) Is the sales team equipped? How many customer meetings are being held? What are the results? Does the sales team “get” the value proposition? Are the sales people exercising and delivering the value proposition correctly to the customers? If the sales team cannot deliver your value proposition, it may not be because they are stupid. It may be because there is a flaw in your definition of that value proposition.

3) Are customers buying into the value proposition? Are customers asking for features that are “off strategy”. That is customers don’t want your product but something different. If too many customers are asking for products that are “off strategy”, maybe your strategy is off instead.

4) Are your competitors reacting? Which competitors are you monitoring? Are they changing their value proposition?

5) How well are the customer engagements closing? Is the funnel filled with early adopters or are you gaining momentum with the early majority. What are you doing wrong if the customers are not crossing the chasm?

A strategy is a lot like growing a garden. Once you plant the seeds, you need to cultivate the garden, protect the seedlings, remove the weeds, prune the plants and harvest the results. Driving a strategy is a lot of work and without continually questioning progress, your fruits may die on the vine.

 

Cracking the C-Speak Code: Digital Marketing for C-Suite Buyers

Signing on for my first TMC Leader post as an official Technology Marketing Center contributor, this is Amanda Vande Brake. First, a big “Thank You!” and happy 2013 to TMC! I’m thrilled and, frankly, a bit intimidated to be passed the mic for a bit every quarter, and I hope to connect with you all via your comments, corrections and support along the way.

My stake in all things TMC centers around enhancing this powerful community’s ability to influence and drive change in marketing technology products by employing proven and emerging digital marketing tactics to break through to the C-suite buyer today. In short, the C people need the right message, at the right time, the right way to make the right decisions, and it’s up to us to figure that magical mix out and then recalibrate continually. 

With the proper framework - or structure - channeling the proper information or data, communication in any form can be managed, measured and delivered to any audience, even to the shadowy C-levels whose mystifying communication preferences may well be more mirrors than smoke, reflecting technology marketers’ own complex yet potentially unexplored communication needs.

 

Before defining a few steps forward toward refocusing your attention in C-level technolgoy marketing in the direction of structure and data, let’s step back for a quick moment of affirmation.

Say it with me, now:

“It’s okay for messages to be complex.”

“It’s okay that not everyone understands what I’m marketing.”

“It’s okay to generate questions instead of answers.”

Now, hold onto those thoughts for the next 10 minutes as we explore three key considerations to also hold close when rethinking your 2013 C-suite marketing tactics.

 

#1: You Are Not Your Target Market.

Not only does this fact serve your messaging strategies well by keeping you focused on listening to and understanding your audience’s needs before you message to them, it is also a critical position to take when reaching out to those in section C. The truth is that technology and media innovations are altering decision-making behaviors and needs faster than ever before, making a continual flow of feedback and performance data the most valuable asset in the marketer’s toolbox today, not to mention how properly listening to your audience is the key to obtaining this rich intel.

Channeling this information directly into a value proposition for your C-level buyer focuses the message on performance and projected outcome rather than preferences and an overt sales pitch – something this audience isn’t provided at the beginning or middle of the B2B sales funnel nearly enough of the time likely because defining a custom value prop is generally a complex task. But, with the proper structure in place, data can be paired with the proper selling points to drive the marketing message home and strategically drive the sale.

 

#2: Engagement Is a Requirement.

Before a potential buyer receives a marketing message, they have likely already consumed content intent on educating them on a need, a solution or both, as detailed in Geoff Anderson’s pre-holiday TMC post [link to: http://technologymarketing.typepad.com/tmcleadersblog/2012/12/tectonic-shifts-in-marketing-products.html]. And, as Geoff also illuminates, content and influencers are recurring characters in the mix. The real magic happens, then, when all components – content, influencers and a marketing message push – are triggered by direct target market engagement via the user opting in to receive communication that serves their needs while achieving the organizations’.

 

#3: You Need Friends to Make Friends.

The real clincher in the journey to incorporate structure and data within your C-level marketing communications efforts is that it requires a scalable technology backbone in a broad way (web- or enterprise system-based) and / or in a more specific way (via licensed, white label or custom databases and applications) to produce results. And somehow you need to project results to justify the big investment in enabling structure to leverage all that valuable data.

Well, fortunately, technology is on your side! Departments can share the costs and enjoy the benefits enterprise systems – and structure – produce. So, make it your priority to understand other departmental goals and objectives and incorporate them into your pitch to the top, showing organization-wide value for the structure your communications require.

The infrastructure you build to leverage data should deliver compelling, relevant marketing messages serves not only your direct b2b marketing purposes, but also your sales team’s, and ultimately your entire organization’s. And, the capabilities inherent in digitally driven communications enable you to measure, optimize and extend all the benefits while continually testing innovations and swiftly resolving deficiencies.

 

Data-rich, self-serve custom messages are the heart and soul of effective selling to the C suite. And complex high tech value propositions require an equally complex technology-driven approach to crack the C-communications code.

So, start your 2013 by looking beyond the end of your nose, listening before you talk and making more friends. Your prospective customer will thank you with their attention and have a stronger propensity to incorporate your product within their purchase intentions!