Understanding how your audience will read and interact with your thought-leadership content is crucial in developing senior relationships and building reputation. A recent study into IT decision-makers’ reading habits highlighted a couple of useful points, and our thoughts on how to exploit them:

95% of people pass on interesting content to colleagues. 91% claimed to read more online now than 2 years ago. Package up information appropriately for the medium – keep online information tip- and list-based and use this as teaser content to lead your audience to longer downloads or to request hard copies of pieces with a longer narrative. The beauty of the teaser information is that it can be resused in myriad ways, all leading back to your central content: circulated throughout the IT online sites using comments fields, forming part of email communications, linked from LinkedIn profiles and group discussions etc.

Only 13% do work-related reading at work. The other 87% do it at home and when commuting (61% at home) Online information consumption is typically in small units, different from offline ”compendium style” reading. Whilst CD drive guides and mp3 downloads for commuters are worth considering – Marc Bresseel of Microsoft mentions on his blog what he’s taking to read on the plane on the way to his hols for example – why not send key contacts novel-sized collections of your best thought-leadership or top 5 most popular downloads.

Clearly the content needs to be compelling in the first place for these tips to work. But extra effort thinking through the content’s hazardous journey through the audience jungle will be well rewarded.

The full research findings are available from Vanson Bourne. A final point to note: a massive 99% of respondents include online sources when looking for information needed to support an IT decision (with 61% only doing a Google search for it)  See this earlier post about the importance of your organic search strategy and how buyers find you

Ever wondered what sales would do in your shoes with your budget? Want to know what sales people think are the most effective types of marketing programme? Ron Rose of HP Exstream, career IT salesman tells all…

How did you get started in IT, and what path has your career taken?

I got into IT by accident rather than design – a variety of early roles led to working for a company producing software and hardware to process cheque remittances. I had a mentor there who spotted the sales potential I had and I then took a sales role within a legal software company. At the time, software was urgently needed by legal firms, conveyancing levels were high, as was debt collection volume. Solicitors needed to computerise their time recording, start to use email, log and track documents – it was the ideal industry for technology. The company I worked for was acquired by Sanderson, one of its major products, Minder, monitored debt recovery for customers like Barclaycard. Tallyman, also a debt management product, was then developed by Sanderson. I was involved in the launch of the product and went on to sell it to customers like Lombard and British Gas and Barclays. I went on to join the London Bridge Software sales operation (later acquired by Fair Isaac) selling their Debt Manager product. After launching and running my own software reseller business for 3 years, I joined HP’s Exstream division about a year ago.

What has shaped the way you work with marketing?

During my time at Sanderson, I was actively involved in the development for a debt management software product called Tallyman. This was my first experience of developing a joint go-to-market strategy with the marketing team, and was instrumental in shaping the way I work with marketing departments now. I saw the power of merging the two disciplines during the Tallyman launch. Sales and marketing were heavily involved in all aspects, from the creation of the position and message through to the creative aspects, direct marketing and follow up. I had to work through the whole process: how do we express what this software does? How do we make the differences it has versus the competition clear? How can we get the message out? I developed an appreciation that getting all of that right is not easy. Throughout the process, sales and marketing were not two separate entities, and were never seen as such – perhaps it is the nature of a new product launch that it clarifies and makes urgent what needs to be done. As a result, we had such a dependency on each other to make Tallyman a success that I developed a deep understanding of and commitment to the marketing process.

The second major factor was an experience at London Bridge. In conjunction with the marketers, we created a joint go-to-market plan for Debt Manager. The plan was designed to support the sales process along the length of the sales funnel and sales and marketing worked together on this. Sales drove the intel from the perspective of what clients were feeling and needing, and marketing drove the positioning and messaging to attract the right type of people. They also provided the engine room to execute the programme. It was an integrated campaign that took place over the course of a year or so, and included multiple elements from seminars and thought-leadership to lead nurturing and more gentle contact activity. There was no formal “handover” point; more colleagues working together to develop a market and generate quality interest. It re-energised a whole market for London Bridge, made the product relevant to people’s challenges brought in great opportunities and have us a number of excuses to go back to people.

What changes have you seen in the way that sales and marketing work together since your experiences at Sanderson?

I’ve seen quite big changes. Marketing is less a department and more a process – more a science. In my experience, marketing teams have always been concerned with lead generation, but it used to be in the direct response arena. The marketing teams would send follow up letters and collateral after the salesman’s cold call. It’s more proactive now, plus lead generation is not the be-all-and-end-all, it’s a component of a much wider discipline.

Where can gaps between sales and marketing arise?

I’ve seen this in every IT organisation. There seems to be a cynicism, a kind of barrier, between sales and marketing people. I’m not sure why this arises, but in my view most marketing people seem very willing to engage in the lead generation process. Perhaps it happens because sales people just aren’t incentivised to engage with marketing. Sales training is also quite narrow – it doesn’t teach marketing engagement, which could be really helpful.

Poor mapping back to corporate objectives can often be to blame. The sales plan, the marketing plan and joint GTM plans have to back directly into the business’ strategy. Sales must sell what they have now, they can’t sell the future. Marketing have a more difficult balancing act; supporting now’s sales with tomorrow’s market and business development.

What’s the best example of marketing working well with you/the sales team?

It has to be the experience of the seminar campaign programme at London Bridge for Debt Manager. Why? Because in creating the GTM strategy we really questioned what we were doing. We reinvigorated a great product by building on its heritage and developed content that people wanted access to. We generated leads, all the time positioning us far enough from competitors that we were able to engage on our own terms. The programme enhanced our credibility as a company and the content we generated fed into the entire sales approach: sales pitches and bid support reinforced the messages and helped us close the deals.

What are the biggest opportunities sales and marketing have to work more closely together?

They are absolutely everywhere. It’s a question that’s very different because of the different cultures organisation to organisation. However, as a general point I would say that marketing people will get great knowledge and a lot of respect from getting more involved in the sales process itself. If they get out and meet customers, understand the products backwards, they can then get more involved in supporting the sales funnel right to the end. For example, a lot of bid documentation and presentations should have a marketing eye cast over them. Positioning, messaging, consistency – they’re critical in bids and marketing has a lot to add in this environment. I don’t believe in a designated handover point between sales and marketing, they should work together through the length of the funnel.

What would you spend marketing’s budget on if you had it?

If you asked 100 sales people, I suspect that 90 of them would say “corporate hospitality”. Partly because it’s a day out for them, and partly because they are incentivised around closing deals and the opportunity to build relationships is really valuable for them. Personally, I’d spend it on solid product awareness – being known by the right people for the right stuff. I’d want to make sure that I was automatically on the list to receive relevant RFIs; a seat at the table for big bids.

What are the most valuable things sales people get from marketing?

Lead generation without a doubt. It’s worth saying that lead numbers from marketing don’t impact my views of marketing effectiveness. My expectation as a salesperson is that I need and expect to be out there generating leads. If marketing’s doing its job well, that should be straightforward for me. Any leads I receive from marketing are a welcome bonus.

Market research is right up there too. There’s some great information and intelligence about competitors and key accounts around but I don’t always have time to track it all down. Marketing’s digest of this and view on what it means are really valuable.

The positioning, messaging and referenceability material is vital too.

What can sales teams do to work better with marketing?

The biggest battle is that sales need to believe in marketing. But sales teams are under pressure too, and the onus has to be on marketing to sell what it does and demonstrate the value. Best way to do that? It has to be to generate leads and work back from there. Marketers should work hard to develop joint GTM plans with sales and allocate a shared responsibility for its outcomes.

Understanding the psychology behind why people say “yes” can really improve both campaign planning and content. Psychologist Robert Cialdini has spent many years researching the factors of influence and persuasion and has identified the core ways in which they can be encouraged.

His book Influence is fascinating, but it’s how to exploit these techniques day-to-day campaign that’s important. Clearly there’s no substitute for great content and compelling communications, but using these methods as we’ve suggested below will definitely increase your chances of success. Here are two of the factors of influence and some ways that you could use them, I’ll cover the others in future posts:

“Much obliged…” If you feel indebted to someone else, you believe you have an obligation to return a favour, and will often go to quite staggering lengths to do so. Cialdini cites an experiment where a university professor sent Christmas cards to complete strangers and was staggered by the high number of cards received in return. In B2B marketing, we can use this technique in a number of ways:

-help someone do their job better – become a resource for them. If you can provide them with slideware or research that helps them prove their point, back up an investment case or provide a “quick-scan” guide to a new concept your content will be credited, circulated and used.
-be thoughtful – invite them to a genuinely useful event (see the Tom Ilube interview, where he says “All CIOs understand the game – they know that if they attend the event and get value from it, that they would give value back to that supplier by giving them some time face to face later on”)
-make someone feel you empathise with them and brighten their day: for example, someone sent me a very relevant Dilbert cartoon on marketing in the mail this week with a note attached, great for the standout factor
-consider the timing of your different communications too - if your recipient gets a useful download or research piece before you contact them, they’ll be more likely to speak to you than if you blasted out a non-personalised email saying “buy our stuff”.
 
“I do…” We all have a mental picture of ourselves, and we will always look to act in ways that back that up. Basically, we all try to act in ways that are consistent with our previous actions and beliefs. This is known as consistency, and when used in combination with commitment it’s very powerful. If you can get someone to commit to an idea or goal, they are more likely to honour that commitment. Cialdini describes an experiment where researchers, posing as sunbathers at a beach, picked fellow sunbathers at random and put a towel down nearby. Pretending to go for a walk, another researcher posing as a thief then stole the radio the researcher had left on the towel. Only 4 in 20 of the sunbathers said anything to stop the “theft”. In the next test on a different group, the researchers asked the sunbathers to “keep an eye on my stuff”. In 19 of the 20 cases the sunbathers turned into veritable vigilantes, chasing the thief and even holding him down to stop him running away. Some thoughts on ways this can be used:

-read quotes, keynotes, results presentations (from the individual you’re targeting and the company) and approach them in a way consistent with their stated goals and previous behaviours (as well as the company’s brand values). If they’ve made a commitment to something (best company to work for, green goals, locally-minded) then use this in your approach
-make a strenuous effort to confirm people’s places at your event as soon as they have indicated they will attend. Mention who else is attending, how they’ve also made the commitment to go, explain what’s being done and laid on, what the benefit will be, reinforce the exclusivity and the limited spaces
-consider how your calls to action can encourage people to act in a way clearly in accordance with their self image, and how you can encourage them to make a commitment on this basis. If it’s likely people will perceive themselves as time-poor then openly acknowledge this in your communications and provide them with multiple quick ways to respond
-Personalisation comes into its own here. Just a small amount of research into name, role and function can have a big impact

It’s worth noting that these work best between people, rather than companies. If the recipient thinks it’s a real person inviting them to a useful event then it will clearly bring obligation into play in a much bigger way than sending the invitation from sales@companyx. That’s why in almost all cases, something that feels hearfelt and personal will work better than even the most stunning branding.

This photo was taken in Asda Walmart in Swindon on Saturday. This is about 1/3 of the checkout queues that stretched up and down the front of the store. As the man behind me in the queue commented “I’ve never seen it like this, not even at Christmas”. He’d driven nearly an hour to get to the store by the way.

If it’s indicative of Asda’s trade as a whole then it’s a very good reason to undertake sub-vertical targeting. “Retail” as a whole might be very challenging right now, but targeting the sub-verticals, the grocery and discounting areas, could prove very fruitful. 

Companies are increasingly turning to outsourcing in a recession, claimed IBM’s CFO Mark Loughridge, as the company unveiled 4th quarter results ahead of expectations (net income of $4.4bn on revenue of $27bn) on Tuesday.

UKHotViews said on Jan 21st that “Wipro sees 24% European growth” and on 19th December claimed that (as a bellwether of the outsourcing market) Accenture’s 6% revenue growth is “solid and encouraging” with outsourcing the best performer, up 7%. The report claims “outsourcing really is the place to be in a downturn – helping your customers to save money.”

In its report “What’s in store for outsourcing in 2009?” IT World quotes Gartner analyst Linda Cohen as saying “Whenever there’s a downturn people outsource more, not less. Organizations want to take costs out wherever they can.” However, the piece claims that outsourcing will increasingly flourish in a “different” way – with cost, consolidation and the ‘green’ing of industries being major factors. We think trust will be a major factor too.

Citi has just released a survey it carried out in Nov/Dec 08 on 2009 CIO budgets. The 200 CIOs (split between the U.S. and Europe) said that they expect budgets to fall for the first time in five years -  US CIOs are expecting IT budgets to fall 2.7 % in 2009, European CIOs are seeing decline of a more modest 1.9 %. Useful information on spending priorities (server consolidation, security) and possible areas of cutback are also covered.

What do this month’s revelations about outsourcer Satyam mean for the marketing and selling of outsourced services? (Chairman Ramalinga Raju resigned on 7 January, admitting the firm had falsified accounts and assets and inflated its profits over several years).

First, a quick round-up of the headlines,

• which range from the near-hysterical (India’s Madoff? Satyam Scandal Rocks Outsourcing Industry in BusinessWeek),
• through an analytical look at the family ownership of other Indian SIs by Anthony Miller,
• to ComputerWeekly’s report on likely effects on Satyam customers (including Unilever, Sony, Tesco, Boots, Nestle and Fifa) and analyst predictions (”‘The Indian technology market had already been weakened by a tough 2008, and the badly dented broader market sentiment is sure to impact on other Indian IT services providers,’ said analyst firm Ovum”).

But other than the potential for Satyam’s customers to look elsewhere (which raises the question – would it be vulgar for marketing to target them?), does this change anything else?

It will certainly add power to a significant trend of the last 2 years – the rising influence of the Procurement department (and not only for outsourcing deals; this will be used as a wake up call for any major supplier decision-making).

So when we look back on this, it will be interesting to see if Satyam contributes to the effect started by the credit crunch to market increasingly on trust. In consumer marketing, you only have to look at the joy with which Lloyds TSB trumpets its record as Britain’s most trusted bank 8 years running.

And because we’re all human (whether deciding where to invest our life savings, or who to shortlist for a BPO deal), it seems likely that there will be knock-ons for who and what to focus on in marketing complex services. A few ideas to start us off:

• It would seem to be a good idea to start emphasising in-country and near-shore capabilities alongside the scale of offshore operations.
• Procurement can be a friend to prospective suppliers looking for a level playing field or hoping to sell on value/trust/reliability rather than just price. Time to start building relationships if you’re not already.
• There may be a backlash against the movement towards selling ‘business value’ as the way to get a prospect’s attention. We may find prospects a lot more engaged by hearing about guarantees of reliability & repeatability than about the benefits they already know they need.
• We mustn’t forget the power of the great examples that all outsourcers have of pulling off successful projects against the odds, or delivering advantage in a uniquely innovative way – mismanagement at the top of Satyam shouldn’t detract from the skills shown in building client relationships and delivering complex programmes.
• Finally, it is probably time to take a hard look at the strength of relationships between outsourcer and customer (and between customers themselves) – it’s going to be more important than ever that people are emotionally convinced that they are making the right decision (which means that they need to feel part of the pack, not out on a limb).

Pick a cosy chair, open a bottle of wine and take a look at the B2B and ICT marketing articles and white papers we will mostly be reading in January.

-Richard Holway’s “State of the ICT Nation” PDF download from the excellent TechMarketView, covering where ICT has been and what will happen next. (free and no registration required)

 -The New Power Couple by Peppers & Rogers.  Getting better synergy between sales and marketing – a framework for good strategy and process. Good thinking in here, even though it does lean somewhat to the technology side in places. (registration required, but free)

-McKinsey’s most popular interviews of 2008 - especially the interview with the head of Global Business Services at P&G about how to make the back office a strategic partner and the “Crafting a message that sticks” interview with Chip Heath on the keys to effective communication.

-Marketing Prof’s piece B2B Lead Generation: Marketing ROI & Performance Evaluation Study - why lead quality is critical to improved ROI. Makes a strong case for lead nurturing activity and a closer link between sales and marketing, as argued here. Registration is required but the link above takes you straight to a free, non-registration article that covers the salient points in good detail.

Building lead generation programmes for 2009? We’ve put together our 7 critical success factors – the things we’ve seen the best lead generation programmes have in common.

The 7 factors below are in order chronologically. Approaching them in this order (starting with the data, moving through the development of a reputation, building access at the right level and then a concentration on timing) has the greatest cumulative effect.

Factor 1: The best campaigns have a deep understanding of the data set to be campaigned on. Typically, the data set and a joint go-to-market strategy around it have been developed with the sales team at the outset. Marketers who use the sales teams’ knowledge to help segment and tier target organisations and develop specific programmes for each will have best success.

Factor 2: The internet is rapidly becoming a fantastic source of information. Both to get your data (sources such as LinkedIn and ZoomInfo) and to work out who should be in it (searching Monster for job descriptions similar to those of the people you are targeting, reading end-user blogs (ie Waitrose’s MD kept a blog for the whole of last year). Real-time information helps targeted campaigns strike at the most opportune moment.

Factor 3: It’s not just the data you have – you need to ensure you are positioning to attract the right kind of customers. If you occupy the right position in people’s minds, they will come to you, or at least meet you halfway. In building a compelling set of content using to communicate intelligently with it, you’ll find you are attracting people, and your data set will grow organically as contacts and colleagues add themselves to your database.

Factor 4: In the lead generation space there’s a lot of debate about spend on brand awareness versus lead generation. The best campaigns acknowledge that it’s never about one or the other. Continuous campaigning builds brand through the very process of a longer term communication strategy that adds value, changes opinion, positions… and in doing so, generates leads.

Factor 5: In designing the content of a campaign, first consider the prospect’s next step. In enterprise B2B marketing, the next step is very rarely to click and buy. Think through the journey you want the prospect to go on, and sell the next step more than selling the product or service.

Factor 6: The quality of the content you’re providing is critical. In the spirit of reciprocity, people receiving your campaign will only give once they’ve taken – it’s all about a value exchange. It doesn’t have to be big on spend, but rather big on thought. What do they really need to help them do their jobs better? Become a resource for your target audience  – crack this and you’re streets ahead of a traditional campaign.

Factor 7: Work hard to know when it’s right. Industry statistics suggest that only ¼ of leads generated are ever sales ready at the point of generation. Monitor news and accounts and keep good records of purchasing cycles. Work a mixture of useful information and harder sales messages through your ongoing communications, pushing harder when your intel suggests you should, and taking a softly-softly approach at other times. Factor 2 can help you here as well, intelligence from the research (the web, your sales team etc) can tell you when you approach a company or industry.

At our recent S&M Forum event it became clear to me that the reports of the death of the sales and marketing disconnect have been greatly exaggerated.  

Some of the sales people in attendance said that marketing departments can be ‘intellectually smug’. “They don’t ask what we need” claimed one salesman, “and they make it all far too hard to understand.” One of the main reasons marketing suffers from such a poor reputation in B2B was highlighted by a few more salespeople, who claimed “no-one knows what marketing does.”

Whilst the views from around the table highlighted that marketing now clearly understands it has to support and enable the sales team, in responding, some marketers said they feared they wouldn’t be able to “do their jobs” due to being mired in sales support - something highlighted by Kotler, Rackham & Krishnaswamy in their HBR report on getting sales and marketing working better together. There was also a feeling that sales was selling “the wrong thing.”

During this particular strong exchange of views, it struck me that the benefits of seeing business development as a single, end-to-end process worked on by both the sales and marketing teams will be invaluable this year.

In a December blog post, Paul Dunay says that “marketing is the department a company builds to interact with the market place and the customer base.” But in B2B, how often is this really the case? I can’t think of many companies where the marketing department is closer to the market than the sales team. And therein lies the rub I suspect.

It’s even more important in this environment to get both teams working together to identify profitable segments and clients, as McKinsey’s report, the downturn’s new rules for marketers identifies, as well as a new report by Peppers & Rogers. But too often marketing is generating leads that sales don’t want, can’t close, or both – because it’s simply too far from the coal face.

So how to work more closely, spend more wisely and deliver results?

After much debate, it was agreed that one of the best ways to solve the mismatch was in sales and marketing collaborating over the creation of the go-to-market strategy (GTM). By starting with the business’ strategic plan, and working as a single team to plan the GTM, the S&M Forum delegates believed that marketing could deliver strategic ends whilst supporting the sales process. Thus there was peace on earth – or at least peace in the business development process.

Advice for speakers and delegates alike to those attempting this: 

-Start small, but do start

-Get everyone responsible for BD in a room, declare a truce and thrash out a GTM plan, by customer if necessary. Our account-based marketing tool might be useful here

-Communicate and collaborate along the length of the business development process. Marketers, get out on sales calls with sales colleagues. Sales, take the time to review campaign materials and target lists

-Put in place joint measures and commit to them

-Don’t be tempted to hand over leads too soon, keep leads in the marketing pipeline until properly sales-ready and keep campaigning continuously to pick up all the potential in the market.

-Work hard at the lead handover process – not a spreadsheet or an email, but a phone call between sales and marketing to cover the background and agree next best steps

- Build, share and buy into a data platform. Use it for all decision-making

- Execute small, quickly and use what the market is telling you to further develop and broaden when confident. Use this checklist to make sure it’s all on track.