Reputation to Revenue

More evidence that give-to-get is the key to success

It's pretty much a cliche to say that marketing today is all about give-to-get. You provide customers and prospects with new ideas, new experiences, and new connections in order to earn their attention. You keep at it until they open up to a conversation that, over time, can lead toward an actual sales opportunity.

In B2B, though, I'm constantly surprised at how often marketers pay little more than lip service to this essential idea. 

You see it in companies that persist in spending more on promotion and pitch than on interaction and collaboration. 

You see it in the cutbacks to customer research and insight (how can you "give" something of value to customers if you don't even pay attention to what they're facing?). 

And you see it when marketers hand off the first hint of a "lead" (e.g., a name from a trade show or white paper download) to the inside or outsourced sales team to begin "qualifying" opportunities.

A new survey from B2B agency Doremus and the Financial Times provides yet more evidence that the old ways are of little use. As noted by Doremus president Howard Sherman:

Recently, Doremus and the Financial Times collaborated on a survey called Decision Dynamics in which 470 worldwide senior level executives were asked: Which supplier is most likely to get work from you in tough times as compared to prosperous times?

Interestingly the top answer was not the cheapest or the supplier with the best/longest relationship, or even the one who could prove ROI. The answer was the supplier most proactive in helping you [emphasis in original].

Sherman goes on to list some types of help that marketing agencies in particular might be able to provide, including being more nimble, strengthening internal relationships, and rebuilding trust with investors and customers.

For me, the key point here is that give-to-get is more important than ever. The executives in the survey are saying "help me." 

Your customers need help, they want it from you (so long as you have something valuable to offer), but they're typically so stressed out by the daily grind that they barely have time to ask. And they certainly have little tolerance for promotional marketing. As such, the idea of "proactive help" should be front and center.

Practically speaking, this means:

• Investing more in understanding your customer's businesses and challenges; you can never have too much customer insight
• Putting more energy into developing real thought leadership in the market that demonstrates truly news ways to help customers solve problems
• Reaching out to your best customers with offers to provide legitimately useful briefings and demos (i.e., not sales pitches)
• Investing in social media skills, tools, and initiatives to help share the wealth of knowledge and experience that lies throughout your organization.

The concept seems easy. Is the execution so hard?

Photo: sekimura

Winning with thought leadership: Six lessons from IBM and Deloitte

B2B marketers know they need to invest in thought leadership, and many have indeed invested more during the last few years. Making the most of these investments, however, rests on having the right answers to a set of difficult questions:

• What topics should we highlight?
• How should we produce and package thought leadership content?
• How should we promote it?
• How can we measure success?

Absent good answers, thought leadership initiatives quickly fall prey to more traditional priorities around lead generation and sale support. The irony, of course, is that good thought leadership has increasingly become a prerequisite to making lead generation and sales support actually work with high value deals. Absent something interesting to talk about related to core customer issues, would-be buyers pay little attention to straight-on sales pitches.

ITSMA's announcement last week of the winners of its annual Marketing Excellence Awards featured two great examples of thought leadership marketing from IBM and Deloitte. Although few companies have committed to thought leadership investment at anywhere near the level of IBM and Deloitte, the basic lessons from their winning initiatives are totally applicable to any B2B firm that needs thought leadership. 

Full disclosure: I served as a judge for this year's awards program and used to run the whole program when I worked for ITSMA. And, yes, I cast my votes for both winning initiatives, so was pleased that the other judges agreed.

The Global CEO Study

IBM's biennial Global CEO Study is a massive undertaking focused on digging deep into top CEO concerns around the world. The 2008 edition, "The Enterprise of the Future," involved face-to-face interviews with 1,130 CEOs and public sector leaders from large organizations in some 40 countries. Released publicly in May 2008, the core report highlighted five strategic attributes that CEOs are trying to build into their organizations:

• Hungry for change
• Innovative beyond customer imagination
• Globally integrated
• Disruptive by nature
• Genuine, not just generous

Filled with data and analysis by industry, region, and more, the IBM report provides a wonderfully insightful look at how CEOs are dealing with the biggest questions of business strategy, culture, and organization.

The Risk Intelligent Enterprise

Deloitte's Risk Intelligent Enterprise program also addresses some meaty concerns: how companies should think about risk at the most strategic level. Through a series of white papers and other thought leadership publications and activities, Deloitte has taken a strong stand on what "risk intelligence" actually means, how it relates to business strategy, and how to operationalize it across the organization in even the most complex environments.

Perhaps most important, the Deloitte program highlights the idea that risk management is not just about avoiding overly risky behavior, but also about taking intelligent risks in a properly managed way to support growth and change.

Based on ongoing research as well as Deloitte's extensive experience working on risk management with companies of all stripes, the Risk Intelligent Enterprise program helps companies understand one of today's most critical management issues in a thoughtful, creative, and responsible way.

Lessons Learned

Stepping back from the specifics of these two initiatives, I see six general lessons for thought leadership marketers at any level:

1. Put Customers First. It sounds obvious to say that thought leadership marketing should focus on what your customers really care about, but far too many marketers take a product- or solution-first approach and try to fit some larger issue neatly around their offering. Buyers don't care about your offerings by themselves; they have their own problems to worry about. Engage them where they live. IBM is trying to build relationships with CEOs, so they research and talk about what other CEOs are doing. Deloitte works especially closely with Boards of Directors, CFOs, and other C-level executives; it's hard to think of a C-suite issue more pressing these days than risk management. What do your customers and prospects really are about?
2. Do the Research. Thought leadership without real research is just opinion, and opinions are a dime a dozen. Show buyers serious research, though, and they're much more likely to pay attention. You might not be able to interview 1,130 CEOs around the world, but you can survey and interview your customers and prospects, produce serious case studies (not puff piece "success stories"), and comb the literature and online conversation to produce new insights.
3. Say Something New. Thought leadership without a differentiated point of view is just an echo of conventional wisdom. Why should customers listen to your version then they've already heard it before -- or if you're only telling them something they already know. Smart customers want to be challenged. If you're not sparking at least some disagreement and debate, you probably haven't said anything new. None of IBM's five attributes are themselves shockingly new but the synthesis suggests and aggressive and innovative approach that goes well beyond conventional thinking. Deloitte's focus on the upside as well as the downside of risk clearly stands apart from the post-Wall Street collapse mentality of compliance first, last, and always.
4. Build a Pervasive Presence. Long gone are the days when thought leadership marketing meant publishing a white paper, research report, or journal article and then moving on to the next project. Media fragmentation, information overload, and the power of social media make it critical that thought leadership marketers put substantial energy into getting the word out across a broad range of media and activities. IBM's 360 degree campaign for the CEO study included traditional activities (email, Web, direct mail, advertising, press and analyst briefings, sales enablement, video, etc.) as well as a number of newer approaches (blogs, podcasts, online innovation jams, and branded content). IBM also produced 15 "flavors" of the main report for different industries and C-suite positions. Deloitte has similarly tapped a wide variety of media and activities to engage clients, prospects, and market influencers. For thought leadership marketing today, think multi-media, social media, and complementary online and offline engagement to build a strong presence wherever your stakeholders already spend their time.
5. Stick with It. IBM's CEO study is a two year project, and the 2008 version is IBM's third such study. To maximize marketing impact, IBM organizes a "teaser phase" (outreach to build awareness before the formal launch), a "reveal phase" (a multi-faceted public launch to build buzz internally and externally), and a "sustain phase" (ongoing engagement to dig more deeply into the issues with customers and others). Deloitte launched the Risk Intelligent Enterprise effort in 2006 and has continued to explore the issues, refine the point of view, publish, and engage. The point is to pick a core issue for your customers and stick with it. Thought leadership takes time. It's better to pick one or two issues and work them hard for several years than to flit from one issue to the next in a more superficial way.
6. Confirm the metrics. Far from an airy initiative, thought leadership marketing can and should focus on core metrics essential to business development and growth. Objectives for the IBM initiative revolved around relationship building with CEOs, corporate visibility and interest, ongoing engagement with key contacts, and sales leads. Deloitte takes a similar approach, focusing on competitive differentiation, influencer relations, client connections, and business development support. Setting and gaining organizational agreement on clear marketing and business development objectives provides the grounding and accountability that marketers need to justify the necessary investments.

Serious thought leadership marketing is not easy, but taking these six lessons to heart will go a long way toward success. At least that's my opinion! What do you think?

Aren't we past random acts of "selling"?

 

Sigh -- another random call this morning from a telemarketer on behalf of a large tech company: 

Caller: "Hi, this is [name] from [company name] on behalf of [tech company]. I noticed you downloaded some research. Did you find everything you need?

Me: To be honest, I don't remember.

Caller: Well, it would have been in the last 30 days, or maybe the last two months. Do you have any plans to purchase software in the next 18-24 months?

30 or 60 days ago? I can't remember last week. Do $1 apps for my iPhone count? Given the high-priced enterprise applications this company sells, I'm guessing not!

Me: I'm with a small consulting company. I don't think I fit your audience.

Caller: Well the [tech company's] new division specializes in companies from 5-500 employees. Do you have any plans to purchase...

You get the drift. How is this random calling to "qualify" a "lead" based on white paper download a month or two earlier worth anything?

White papers have their place (heck, I write some of them for clients myself!), and telemarketing, properly applied, can certainly have value. But it's hard for me to imagine that this archaic spray and pray approach to marketing and sales does the slightest good for your reputation, your pipeline, or your bottom line.

Aren't we past these random acts of selling? 

Photo credit: vlima.com

Rite Aid impresses with active customer service

Little things really do add up.

Like many people, I have several prescriptions with Rite Aid Pharmacy. Refills are easy; you just call the number on the bottle a few days before a prescription runs out, tap your way through the automated voice prompts, and pick it up the next day. Nothing earth-shattering, but it's convenient and a good, simple use of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology.

Today, though, I caught the next wave. Coming home and finding a voicemail on my home phone, I listened to an automated message from Rite Aid asking me to call an 800 number about my prescription. When I did, it took me through a several minute IVR session which proceeded by reminding me that my prescription was about to run out, asking me if I wanted to refill it, and then asking if I wanted to sign up for a free service that would automatically refill my prescriptions every month and let me know when they were ready for pickup. No more effort on my part, and I get to save an extra few minutes every month. 

Again, it's nothing earth-shattering. The technology has been around for a while. But how many companies are reaching out and touching their customers in a a true service-oriented fashion, not to sell new products or services but simply to improve the customer experience?  

Yes, the better companies bend over backwards to respond to problems (although most companies still don't). And yes, it's obvious that Rite Aid is trying to sell me more stuff, prescriptions and otherwise. Most likely they will, too. So it's definitely good marketing. 

What's different here is the basic approach: Service matters as much or more than the products themselves, promotion is less important than service delivery, and good things come to those who continually improve the customer experience.

What free services are you adding or changing to improve customer experience and build customer loyalty?

Photo credit: Seattle Municipal Archives

Bad service blowback - United Breaks Guitars

Lots of companies are still nervous about participating in social media; they fear negative comments, among other things. The reality, of course, is that if you're providing lousy products or service, the bad comments are coming anyway, and with an ever larger megaphone.

Example 8 million is singer/songwriter Dave Carroll's tuneful blast at United Airlines for breaking his guitar -- and then stonewalling Dave for a year against apologizing and paying damages. 

Four days after posting the video, and 1.3 million views later, United is rushing to make amends and even saying they'll use Dave's video for internal customer service training. Obviously the damage is done. And the main lesson here is not actually about social media, it's about customer service. If you're not doing the right thing, expect people to give you grief. Engaging more directly in social media might help, as Comcast is finding out, but the real answer is fix your service and don't give people reasons to shout -- or sing! 

Thanks to Marketing Pilgrim for the pointer.

New research and paper on "Four Steps to Solutions Growth"

I'm pleased to announce the launch of a new Point of View series with my partners at Solutions Insights.

Over the next several months, we'll release a series of short, research-based perspectives on how companies can improve performance in their solutions businesses.

Our first Point of View, Adjusting to the New Reality: Four Steps to Solutions Growth, is available now. It outlines four initiatives companies can take to accelerate solutions growth through the rest of 2009 while also repositioning their organizations for longer-term success.

Based on new research with our partner ITSMA, the Point of View highlights findings from a survey with more than 30 B2B solutions providers on four critical initiatives:

• Improving the solutions development process
• Reorienting value propositions and messaging
• Enhancing customer connections
• Better equipping the sales force to sell solutions

For example, we see that companies are looking mostly to develop more packaged and "mass-customized" solutions rather than relying mainly on fully customized, one-off solutions. Only 16% of the companies surveyed are looking to increase the number of highly customized solutions.

You can download the Point of View pdf here. I'd love to know what you think.

Learning from Gen Y

MediaPost, one of my favorite sources. launched a new blog recently, Engage: Gen Y, and the first few posts are already capturing my attention. Today's post suggested five simple rules for "snagging consumer 2.0" and they are well worth pondering even in the rarified air of high-end B2B solutions, where Gen Yers are still mostly consigned to support roles outside the orbits of purchase decision makers. 

The rules are these:

• Authenticity Trumps Celebrity
• Niche is the New Norm
• Bite-Size Communications Dominate
• Personal Utility Drives Adoption
• Consumers Own Brands

As the title says, this is consumer-oriented, but the application to B2B and solutions marketing should be clear immediately, and not just in thinking about Gen Yers. Consider the perspective of the buyers you're trying to reach in B2B:

• Authenticity: Let me speak with and learn from real experts, and get the real story. No hype allowed.
• Niche: Know my industry and my business; don't bother with your generic pitches and solutions. 
• Bite-Sized Communications: Don't waste my time! I will eventually dig into the details, but you've got to pique my interest pretty damm quick.
• Personal Utility: What's in it for me? You've got to pay attention to my personal-professional agenda as well as my company's.
• Brands: Personal and peer experience is what matters; I could care less about your carefully crafted messages and materials.

Maybe us boomers and Xers are not so different from the next generation after all. 

What do you think?

Smarter marketing at IBM: Big Blue's latest green consulting launch

Pardon me for talking about IBM yet again, but the company continues to impress me with its ability to ride the green wave with intelligent and high-potential offerings. The latest example is last week's announcement of a new Sustainable Procurement consulting offer. 

According to IBM, the offer is designed to help companies set cost, efficiency, and sustainability goals and metrics for their entire set of procurement activities, including "all supplies, materials, ingredients, components, finished goods and services they purchase to run their operations and to develop, manufacture and deliver their own products or services." 

The potential scale of this is enormous, covering just about every aspect of the world's supply chain. And IBM is certainly thinking big, outlining coverage of six main Corporate Social Responsibility aspects of supply chain management:

• Environment -- reducing energy and water usage, minimizing waste and the use of potentially hazardous chemicals and materials, increasing recycling and recyclability, and improving efficiency;
• Community -- ensuring suppliers support and contribute to the communities they operate in;
• Health and safety -- promoting safe workplace practices as well as ensuring safety in products and services;
• Ethics and financial accountability -- ensuring suppliers practice appropriate business ethics and adhere to applicable standards for financial accounting and transparency;
• Diversity -- encouraging diversity and inclusiveness throughout the supply chain;
• Labor practices -- ensuring suppliers adhere to local, national and internationals laws, rules and standards for labor practices.

To back up the offer, IBM points to its own efforts developing Supplier Conduct Principles for its own supply chain, which includes some 30,000 supplier locations in 60 countries. 

If the practice grows, and I'm certainly hoping it does, the benefits for companies, communities, workers, and the environment can be enormous.

Marketing Lessons

At the same time, the initiative points to a powerful reminder for B2B marketers in today's challenging economy. At a time when so many companies and marketers are obsessing over which tactics are most likely to deliver short-term revenue, broader strategy remains absolutely essential. My own takeaways from the IBM launch including the following:

• Now is the time to identify new sources of revenue that leverage existing capabilities and assets
• Tap into the green wave; it's big and getting bigger
• Always reinforce the larger corporate brand and story
• Always back up the offer with credible proof points

In these ways, IBM's new offering reflects the best of strategic marketing -- focused on how to drive growth for the company in responsible and intelligent ways, with great potential for short- and longer term success. I'll be curious to follow the tactical side of the initiative, as well as the results, of course, but this is already another good example of how "big M" Marketing can and should the foundation for corporate direction.

Do you agree?

 

*For more on IBM's new offering, check out these resources:

• IBM podcast on the new offering
• IBM consulting and thought leadership resources on green and Corporate Social Responsibility
• The Challenges and Opportunities of Sustainable Procurement 
• Heather Clancy at ZDNet

Bank of America comes through with great customer service

We all love to vent about poor customer service -- long waits on the phone, overseas reps talking from a script, repeating the same story over and over again to every new person who fails to resolve the problem. It's pretty much my expectation, and it's why I dread making the call. And why it's worthy of comment when a company, especially a a big bad bank, confounds expectation.

Racing through Whole Foods yesterday morning, I was momentarily stymied at the checkout counter when my Mastercard failed approval. The clerk was confused; it wasn't an overdraft notice. I paid with (sigh) another of my handful of cards, and went on my merry way. At home, though, I had a voicemail from Bank of America requesting that I call. Figuring it relates to the non-approval (brilliant deduction, I know), I called, and here's where the happy story begins.

First, my wait time was but a few seconds until Juan picked up and tells me the card was suspended due to possible fraudulent activity. He read out a list of recent transactions on the card, and it turns out the main ones in question had just happened a few hours earlier: three "magazine subscriptions" within minutes of each other at about 5:40 am, adding up to less than $100 total. He also wondered about several over the last few days from California (where my daughter is in college). 

Juan is extremely nice and helpful, but now I have to hang up and check with my daughter on a few transactions just to be safe. 

After waking up said daughter in her dorm room (hey, it was only 9 am for her; she's a student!) and confirming that she had indeed bought the books, hats, and whatever else, I had to call BofA again.

This time Greg picks up instantly, quickly reviews my situation, double checks a few more recent transactions, finalizes the fraud investigation, and agrees to send me new cards overnight (waiving the FedEx fee although normal policy is apparently regular mail and 5-7 day wait). He updates a few more things on my account, points out a few service providers with whom I'll  need to update my card number once I get the new cards, and we chat briefly about Red Sox opening day and how great Boston is, and then I'm done.

So BofA flags possible fraud within a few hours, puts a temporary hold on it, and calls me right up with an alert. Juan is extremely nice and helpful on the phone, lays out the situation and my options, and gives me a more direct number to call back once I've checked with my daughter. Greg is equally friendly, helpful, and efficient. Total time on phone: 15 minutes. Inconvenience level: minimal. Satisfaction that BofA is on the case: Absolutely. I'll resist a cute line ending with "priceless," but this is how customer service is supposed to work.

Phone companies racing to the top in sustainability

Tom Schueneman of the indispensable TriplePundit blog on corporate social responsibility has a great review today of AT&T's holistic approach to sustainability. The lede is the phone giant's new $500 million commitment to put 15,000 alternative fuel vehicles on the road in the next decade. It's a great example of how big companies can aim to do good and do well at the same time. The program should save the company money in the long run while winning useful public plaudits, and, as important, make a real impact in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, provide clean energy jobs, and support the expansion of the alternative fuel infrastructure.

The clean car initiative represents a big splash in sustainability, but it also reflects a much broader and more comprehensive approach at AT&T. Schueneman's interview with Beth Shiroshi, AT&T's assistant vice president for Citizenship and Corporate Responsibility, tells the larger story, and it provides some useful lessons for any company looking to strengthen its sustainability approach:

• Look comprehensively across the company: Even thought AT&T had a long history of environmental and corporate social responsibility initiatives, the company brought in an outside agency, the nonprofit Business for Social Responsibility, to conduct a systematic review of the issues most important to employees and stakeholders.
• Demonstrate commitment at the executive level: Following the new review, AT&T elevated oversight and management of sustainability efforts to the officer level. 
• Balance strategic focus with multiple entry points: AT&T now highlights six priority initiatives while allowing a great deal of flexibility for divisions, local offices, and employees to contribute in different ways. You can see details of the initiatives and program examples in AT&T's recent report, Connecting for a Sustainable Future.

"AT&T isn't in the business of sustainability," as Schueneman notes, "but to the degree that they and other corporate 'giants' make it a part of their (triple) bottom line, the business of sustainability fights the natural resistance to change, moves forward, and creates ripples of transformation." Not to mention positive movement on the reputation needle, stronger employee interest and loyalty, and important new business opportunities.

 
Nokia, meanwhile, is similarly making sustainability waves, most recently at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona last month. As Lucas Daniel recounted in Sustainable Life Media the other day, Nokia is now embedding a set of applications and services in some of its mobile phones to bring users green tools, community, and information. 

Working with several large environmental organizations, Nokia is rolling out:

• we:offset: an online tool that helps travelers calculate their carbon emissions on the road and buy offsets right from the phone
• Green Explorer: a web-enabled widget that highlights green travel options, including restaurants and hotels, with room for users to provide their own recommendations  
• Eco Zone: a phone app that provides information and video from WWF
• Mobiledu: a mobile app available in China that promotes environmental awareness and education  

As with AT&T, Nokia's recent splash is just part of a larger sustainability story. As Daniel explains, Nokia's larger environmental effort, "the power of we," includes efforts to build mobile devices with healthier materials and packaging, a push for new sources of energy, support for recycling old phones, and partnerships with groups like WWF.

It's a smart strategy, and Nokia's comprehensive approach to greening its products, supply chain, communications, and customer experience provides another useful template for companies looking toward sustainability as an opportunity to strengthen the entire reputation-to-revenue cycle. 

What do you think?