Breaking the Ceiling on ROI with e-newsletters
I’ve always been quick to advise clients that the world doesn’t need another newsletter.
In the old world, it seemed like every marketers job was dependent on how quickly he or she could get a newsletter written, printed, mailed and in the hands of every hot prospect and valued customer. Newsletters were typically long and drawn out brag bulletins and most offered very little value to the reader. The prevailing attitude among marketing departments of any industry was that “if they read it, sales will come.” Most often, they didn’t and neither did the second issue. Somewhere there must be an archive of all the thousands of newsletters that ended with the debut copy.
Things have changed. Digital newsletters have become one of the most powerful tools of marketing. Few mediums today can boast double digit open rates among target audiences. E-newsletters done right can.
Just recently I sent out a debut e-newsletter for a client. The content was written specifically for past customers and focused on issues of direct relevance. It was simple, to the point and powerful. The open rate for this newsletter broke all previous records, upwards of 30%, and got the phone ringing within minutes of hitting the send button. It also generated hundreds of new visits to their website the first day it went out.
What an amazing difference from newsletters of the past. The distinguishing factor is relevance. With tools like Constant Contact that provide simple to use templates, you can quickly and efficiently customize newsletters for various target segments and thus personalize the message down to the individual. The digital format also plays well with the new generation of consumers that will rarely commit to reading anything longer than a bullet point as they can scan headlines and click through on just the topics they care about.
As Larry Brummond, president of The Write Touch in Denver, Colorado, a Constant Contact (CTCT) Business Partner, says, “An e-newsletter should be an integral part of an email marketing program. If you provide good value in your e-newsletter, you’ll create trust, loyal following and many more revenue opportunities.”
According to statistics offered by Constant Contact, open rates and click-through rates in most industries easily exceed 10% for email campaigns. For medical services, the open rate is around 17% and the click through to corresponding websites around 13%. That is far better than response rates for most advertising campaigns utilizing other mediums.
The key to success is direct relevance. As Brummond puts it, it is all about “providing value - what they want, not what you want. “ That is one of the fundamental differences between the old style of newsletters and the new. The former was about the brand; the latter about the customer.
Making e-newsletters work:
Planning:
Like any marketing project, have a plan. Don’t just dump copy in an e-newseltter template and hit send. You need to have a strong understanding of your audience, what message will resonate the most at the time of the e-newsletter, and how to organize the flow of your message. Content flow is critical in digital communications. You have to give them a reason to scroll down and see what is below the screen. Good copywriting is essential. You must grab their attention and inspire them to read on immediately.
Part of your plan must be timing. How often is appropriate for your audience to hear from you? Too much frequency with too little substance results in a lot of opt-outs.
The foundation of all planning is to know what you want to achieve with your newsletter. Don’t just do one because you can. Do it because you want to drive visits to your website via click-through traffic, generate new leads for your sales database, keep your brand’s name, message, and products on your client’s mind – all of these are solid reasons for starting an e-newsletter program
Engagement:
Your e-newsletter is not a digital brochure. It is a tool to engage your customers with your brand, your product, and your core value. Engagement is enhanced by meaningful offers and incentives, and ROI is directly related to the quality of engagement, points out Brummond, who has seen an e-newsletter for an insurance industry client get above average open and click-through rates by including a contest, humor and personal information in its e-newsletters.
Data:
Without a solid customer database there is no reason to do an e-newsletter. Collect it, keep it current, and use it. Segment your database into customer groups and create newsletters that reflect the needs for each group directly and relevantly. Get email addresses from all customers and prospects and permission to use them you’re - newsletter. Before a solid data management system is in place you cannot be effective with any type of email communications campaign.
Measurement:
One of the greatest values in anything digital is that you can track results to the individual level. Always incorporate metrics into your e-newsletter so you can measure how it is working to achieve your business goals. You can learn a great deal of valuable information from this tool, such as:
What customer segments respond to which offers
What offers get the most response?
What time of month gets most response?
The accuracy of your customer data files. Emails that bounce back are a great indicator that something has changed with a customer or prospect.
When done correctly, e-newsletters work very well. According to Brummond, Constant Contact has seen customers increase revenue as high as 30% among existing customers from email campaigns. The key to succeed is to focus on the customer, include timely and actionable offers, track results in order to improve relevance and efficiency, and finally, stick with it. –
About the Author
Jeanette McMurtry is a sales and marketing expert specializing in psychology-based strategies for health care and other industries. She is the principal of e4marketing and can be reached at jeanette@e4marketingco.com or 970 390 6909.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Making Fans and Friends via Facebook
Making Fans and Friends via Facebook and other social media
By Jeanette McMurtry, MBA
Although I am dating myself, I remember a time when business owners, large and small, contemplated the value of creating a website for their brand. Was it worth the resources and would it really build their business? Now, just a few years later, business owners of all types and sizes are asking the same questions about Facebook and other forms of social media. While there are still many unknowns about how social media impacts sales, there are more reasons to explore a presence for your brand.
To begin, we humans are quite social by nature. We want to mingle, and engage with others in ways that are rewarding. The most meaningful rewards are not tangible trinkets, but more often positive feelings, such as pleasure, security, safety, acceptance, approval, and so on. When we are rewarded in ways that make us happy or feel good about ourselves, we tend to reciprocate appropriately, and in the case of business, that often means purchases and even loyalty. Providing a mutually rewarding experience for your customers should be the foundation of your core social media programs. There are many simple and affordable ways to do this. Just take a look at Facebook pages for some of the leading global brands – Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, sports teams, even Barack Obama, and more.
Facebook is the social site that is taking the Internet if not the entire universe by storm, at least today. It recently overtook Google as the number one website in the U.S. Its attraction is that it gives people a chance to connect with like minds; to voice concerns, thoughts, joys, ideas, and reconnect with people from their past. The fact that the fastest growing population on Facebook is now the middle aged (women over 55 grew 175% in a 120-day period in 2009) indicates that this is not a trendy site for young tech savvy adults who change loyalties the minute a new product launches. It has appeal to all ages, types, and nationalities, giving it staying power that few new media outlets will ever have.
So as adults throughout the U.S. are turning to Facebook for networking and connectivity to the bigger world around them, the choice to Facebook or not Facebook is becoming a bit more clear. Even for B2B marketers.
As Joe Markwith, an Internet marketing strategist, and president of TMA Guild of Denver Colorado, says, “Not having a presence on Facebook can be a negative thing for any business, regardless of industry or if you’re business-to-business or business-to-consumer. Facebook is your ear to your consumers, while your website is your mouthpiece. If you don’t have a Facebook page to enable dialogue and customer feedback, you may be sending the signal that you don’t care to listen to those that keep your business thriving: customers.”
Creating a Facebook presence needs to be more than registering on the Facebook site and posting your logo as your profile photo.
“You need to have a strategy for making your posts and other content relevant and for keeping it current,” continues Markwith. “You also need to be prepared to take the good with the bad as fans might post negative comments on your site or information about issues you might not want others to hear or know about. In some cases, having multiple Facebook pages, each addressing a specific audience, might be the best way to go.”
Following are some things to consider when launching a Facebook page for your company:
Keep the word “Social” in mind: Social is not about selling, pushing products, collecting leads, it is about interacting, engaging, and exchanging thoughts, ideas. The dictionary describes “social” as a means to allow people to interact in a friendly way. This is precisely how you should be looking at tools lik Facebook. These tools are a means to an important end: positive, beneficial relationships with customers and prospects. After great relationships, come the sales.
Walmart’s Facebook page provides a great example of how to best use this medium. When Walmart poses non-product or sale type of questions like “What do you plan to do to celebrate Easter.” It gets hundreds of responses as we people love to talk about ourselves and get validation for our associations with others in good standing and for our individuality. When they post a poll about consumers vs. themselves, the response again is outstanding. Yet when that poll appears to be a solicitation for free endorsements or advertising for Walmart the responses dry up. For example, as of this writing, a poll on their Facebook page asking fans who the family clown was – Mom, Dad or the kids got 261,000 plus responses. On the same day, a poll asking fans about their favorite thing to do at Walmart got just one response. Point made.
Give people a reason to be a fan, and keep them happy: You want your Facebook page to have lots of fans as it immediately sends the signal that you are a company worth associating with, and that others endorse you by aligning with you publicly. To get fans, you need to give people a reason to sign up and come back often. Consider posting coupons, announcements about special promotions, and other incentives exclusively for your Facebook fan community. This will make them feel exclusive and appreciated and inspire them to view your page and read your postings regularly.
Interact, Interact and Interact some more. Facebook and other social sites should not be seen as venues to shout about how wonderful you are. They should be seen as sites that enable your customers to connect with you and get to know your brand on a different level. Fans don’t want to be sold on your site, they want to be engaged and informed in meaningful ways. They also want a venue in which they can be heard. Fans will tell you what you are doing right and wrong, invaluable for any company that wants to stay on top of customer satisfaction. Starbucks has more than 6 million fans on their Facebook page, many of which are quick to point out what they don’t like about changes to recipes, menu items, and more. If Starbucks is listening, they will bring back the old frapuccino mix and rejoice in the success of their new vanilla bean version.
One of the best aspects of Facebook is that it enables brands to show their “human side” or another “face” of their brand, and interact in ways not available elsewhere. When done right, Facebook can build more than relationships, it can build lasting friends.
About the Author
Jeanette McMurtry is a sales and marketing strategist for health care and other industries, specializing in psychology-based approaches. She is the principal of e4marketing and can be reached at 970 390 6909 or jeanette@e4marketingco.com.
By Jeanette McMurtry, MBA
Although I am dating myself, I remember a time when business owners, large and small, contemplated the value of creating a website for their brand. Was it worth the resources and would it really build their business? Now, just a few years later, business owners of all types and sizes are asking the same questions about Facebook and other forms of social media. While there are still many unknowns about how social media impacts sales, there are more reasons to explore a presence for your brand.
To begin, we humans are quite social by nature. We want to mingle, and engage with others in ways that are rewarding. The most meaningful rewards are not tangible trinkets, but more often positive feelings, such as pleasure, security, safety, acceptance, approval, and so on. When we are rewarded in ways that make us happy or feel good about ourselves, we tend to reciprocate appropriately, and in the case of business, that often means purchases and even loyalty. Providing a mutually rewarding experience for your customers should be the foundation of your core social media programs. There are many simple and affordable ways to do this. Just take a look at Facebook pages for some of the leading global brands – Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, sports teams, even Barack Obama, and more.
Facebook is the social site that is taking the Internet if not the entire universe by storm, at least today. It recently overtook Google as the number one website in the U.S. Its attraction is that it gives people a chance to connect with like minds; to voice concerns, thoughts, joys, ideas, and reconnect with people from their past. The fact that the fastest growing population on Facebook is now the middle aged (women over 55 grew 175% in a 120-day period in 2009) indicates that this is not a trendy site for young tech savvy adults who change loyalties the minute a new product launches. It has appeal to all ages, types, and nationalities, giving it staying power that few new media outlets will ever have.
So as adults throughout the U.S. are turning to Facebook for networking and connectivity to the bigger world around them, the choice to Facebook or not Facebook is becoming a bit more clear. Even for B2B marketers.
As Joe Markwith, an Internet marketing strategist, and president of TMA Guild of Denver Colorado, says, “Not having a presence on Facebook can be a negative thing for any business, regardless of industry or if you’re business-to-business or business-to-consumer. Facebook is your ear to your consumers, while your website is your mouthpiece. If you don’t have a Facebook page to enable dialogue and customer feedback, you may be sending the signal that you don’t care to listen to those that keep your business thriving: customers.”
Creating a Facebook presence needs to be more than registering on the Facebook site and posting your logo as your profile photo.
“You need to have a strategy for making your posts and other content relevant and for keeping it current,” continues Markwith. “You also need to be prepared to take the good with the bad as fans might post negative comments on your site or information about issues you might not want others to hear or know about. In some cases, having multiple Facebook pages, each addressing a specific audience, might be the best way to go.”
Following are some things to consider when launching a Facebook page for your company:
Keep the word “Social” in mind: Social is not about selling, pushing products, collecting leads, it is about interacting, engaging, and exchanging thoughts, ideas. The dictionary describes “social” as a means to allow people to interact in a friendly way. This is precisely how you should be looking at tools lik Facebook. These tools are a means to an important end: positive, beneficial relationships with customers and prospects. After great relationships, come the sales.
Walmart’s Facebook page provides a great example of how to best use this medium. When Walmart poses non-product or sale type of questions like “What do you plan to do to celebrate Easter.” It gets hundreds of responses as we people love to talk about ourselves and get validation for our associations with others in good standing and for our individuality. When they post a poll about consumers vs. themselves, the response again is outstanding. Yet when that poll appears to be a solicitation for free endorsements or advertising for Walmart the responses dry up. For example, as of this writing, a poll on their Facebook page asking fans who the family clown was – Mom, Dad or the kids got 261,000 plus responses. On the same day, a poll asking fans about their favorite thing to do at Walmart got just one response. Point made.
Give people a reason to be a fan, and keep them happy: You want your Facebook page to have lots of fans as it immediately sends the signal that you are a company worth associating with, and that others endorse you by aligning with you publicly. To get fans, you need to give people a reason to sign up and come back often. Consider posting coupons, announcements about special promotions, and other incentives exclusively for your Facebook fan community. This will make them feel exclusive and appreciated and inspire them to view your page and read your postings regularly.
Interact, Interact and Interact some more. Facebook and other social sites should not be seen as venues to shout about how wonderful you are. They should be seen as sites that enable your customers to connect with you and get to know your brand on a different level. Fans don’t want to be sold on your site, they want to be engaged and informed in meaningful ways. They also want a venue in which they can be heard. Fans will tell you what you are doing right and wrong, invaluable for any company that wants to stay on top of customer satisfaction. Starbucks has more than 6 million fans on their Facebook page, many of which are quick to point out what they don’t like about changes to recipes, menu items, and more. If Starbucks is listening, they will bring back the old frapuccino mix and rejoice in the success of their new vanilla bean version.
One of the best aspects of Facebook is that it enables brands to show their “human side” or another “face” of their brand, and interact in ways not available elsewhere. When done right, Facebook can build more than relationships, it can build lasting friends.
About the Author
Jeanette McMurtry is a sales and marketing strategist for health care and other industries, specializing in psychology-based approaches. She is the principal of e4marketing and can be reached at 970 390 6909 or jeanette@e4marketingco.com.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Service Cultures
Service Cultures
February 3, 2010
My heart sank when the luggage carousel at Kuala Lumpur airport stopped moving, and my luggage was yet to show up. I had over prepared for weeks for my speaking tour in Asia, determined to have a flawless journey so that I could focus on my business engagement and have a successful outcome. And then this. I was the keynote speaker at a large conference the next morning, a workshop presenter in the afternoon, and both in front of large audiences of Malay people that were polished, well dressed and sophisticated. And there I stood at the airport in a pair of Lucky Jeans and a glorified t-shirt.
The airport staff and Singapore airlines staff immediately confirmed that my suitcase had been on the flight, and suggested that it had been “mistakenly” taken by another traveler, and that it would likely show up in a few days. Not encouraging. Even less encouraging was when I hit the local shopping malls near the hotel only to discover that my body type wasn’t on the mind of store buyers in Kuala Lumpur.
Yet something happened that I wasn’t quite used to. The concierge at our hotel decided to take my missing luggage on as his personal mission, all in part of providing unequalled customer service. Without my knowledge, he called Singapore airlines almost hourly to keep them looking for it as they had concluded it had been stolen; he called all the other large hotels in the city that served the international business travelers, and he called the airport office numerous times, refusing to give up on his quest to find my luggage. Two days later, I got a call at 11 PM. Singapore Airlines was calling to tell me that my luggage had been sent back to my first international destination, Auckland, New Zealand, a mere 18 hours away. It was scheduled to be on the next plane to my next destination, Shanghai China. Miracle accomplished.
As I reflected on this adventurous experience, I truthfully couldn’t remember this kind of customer service in a long time. The concierge at the Park Hotel in Kuala Lumpur had no relationship to me, would likely never see me, an American business traveler, again, and certainly wasn’t going to get bonus points or extra money for finding my luggage. But he remained vigilant when everyone in my party had given up, including me. Instead of this experience becoming a lesson on airport luggage protocol and how to avoid mix ups in the future, it became a life-changing wake up call about the state of customer service today. Most companies I deal with would have given up and forgotten all about the one customer out of thousands they were serving that week. Clearly it wasn’t profitable to spend that much time on my luggage. Yet this kind of service that produced a truly happy customer can often differentiate companies that succeed from those that don’t. I couldn’t think of very many companies in the U.S. that would have spent this kind of effort, and thus profitable time, on a problem that they did not create.
As I ran around five different countries in the Asia Pacific, it seemed that customer service and thus happiness toward a brand was a culture thing, and that various service cultures provide valuable lessons for businesses in all industries.
Service Cultures:
Some examples of Service Cultures:
In Australia, I was everybody’s best friend. Waitresses and hotel staff chatted like old buddies as did the people I met at business dinners and events. Their attitude toward making you feel at home was relaxing, and left me feeling comfortable, and cared for. If I’d had time to shop, I am certain I would have spent a great deal of money in that cozy little Aussie town on the Gold Coast.
Singapore’s culture was one of pride and commitment. It is a very beautiful place and it was clear that locals everywhere wanted you to enjoy their beautiful country. You were treated with dignity and respect and a sense of politeness.
Another service culture that stood out to me was that of Shanghai, China. Everywhere I went, I was treated as if it was a privilege for the other party to serve me. Whether it was a small market on a busy sidewalk, a touristy shop, or a hotel concierge, service was quick, never needed to be asked for, and it was always whatever it took to make me happy. Another thing I noted about Shanghai was that the people there seemed happy, and that was contagious.
And then I returned home to the states via San Francisco. Unfortunately, it was a severe case of culture shock. For four weeks, I was treated like I mattered. The minute I got off the plane and made my way through customs, I felt like I was invisible. No one noticed me struggling with my oversized luggage and offered to help as I had become accustomed to throughout Asia. And when I asked an airport employee a question, he grunted, looked away and angrily motioned for me to move forward. I was shuffled through the line like a non-entity and suddenly felt very small, not happy, or calm like I had in other airports abroad. I found myself embarrassed at the thought of any of the foreigners traveling to the U.S. on the same 747 being greeted in the same manner and thinking possibly that this was the American culture everywhere. Thankfully it is not.
Over the weeks that have passed since this experience, I have pondered the impact of culture on business and its relationship to longevity and profitability. And what I have noticed in this great country and culture of ours is that the companies that have the best culture, one in which employees are happy, are also the companies that have the most business success. Happy cultures produce innovative products, employees with pride, and a desire for all insiders to embrace outsiders in a way that makes them love the brand or product as much as they do. It is “happy” companies that seem to weather the storms and come out ahead, successfully reinvent themselves with changing times and technologies, and keep customer loyalty much longer than market averages. Companies with unhappy employees or those deliver the kind of greeting I got at the San Francisco airport are those that we likely won’t see around much longer.
What is your company’s service culture? Look around you and pay attention to how you and your staff interact with each other, with customers, with vendors? Do you create experiences that make people want to come back for more? Do you create happiness through your interactions and commitments?
Email me for a free survey form to help you audit your service culture: jeanette@e4marketingco.com.
Next month, some ideas and tactics for how you can create brand happiness through an inviting and engaging company culture.
About the Author:
Jeanette McMurtry specializes in training sales and marketing teams about psychology-based marketing and helping them create brand happiness through leadership, marketing, sales and customer engagement strategies. She can be reached at jeanette@e4marketingco.com.
February 3, 2010
My heart sank when the luggage carousel at Kuala Lumpur airport stopped moving, and my luggage was yet to show up. I had over prepared for weeks for my speaking tour in Asia, determined to have a flawless journey so that I could focus on my business engagement and have a successful outcome. And then this. I was the keynote speaker at a large conference the next morning, a workshop presenter in the afternoon, and both in front of large audiences of Malay people that were polished, well dressed and sophisticated. And there I stood at the airport in a pair of Lucky Jeans and a glorified t-shirt.
The airport staff and Singapore airlines staff immediately confirmed that my suitcase had been on the flight, and suggested that it had been “mistakenly” taken by another traveler, and that it would likely show up in a few days. Not encouraging. Even less encouraging was when I hit the local shopping malls near the hotel only to discover that my body type wasn’t on the mind of store buyers in Kuala Lumpur.
Yet something happened that I wasn’t quite used to. The concierge at our hotel decided to take my missing luggage on as his personal mission, all in part of providing unequalled customer service. Without my knowledge, he called Singapore airlines almost hourly to keep them looking for it as they had concluded it had been stolen; he called all the other large hotels in the city that served the international business travelers, and he called the airport office numerous times, refusing to give up on his quest to find my luggage. Two days later, I got a call at 11 PM. Singapore Airlines was calling to tell me that my luggage had been sent back to my first international destination, Auckland, New Zealand, a mere 18 hours away. It was scheduled to be on the next plane to my next destination, Shanghai China. Miracle accomplished.
As I reflected on this adventurous experience, I truthfully couldn’t remember this kind of customer service in a long time. The concierge at the Park Hotel in Kuala Lumpur had no relationship to me, would likely never see me, an American business traveler, again, and certainly wasn’t going to get bonus points or extra money for finding my luggage. But he remained vigilant when everyone in my party had given up, including me. Instead of this experience becoming a lesson on airport luggage protocol and how to avoid mix ups in the future, it became a life-changing wake up call about the state of customer service today. Most companies I deal with would have given up and forgotten all about the one customer out of thousands they were serving that week. Clearly it wasn’t profitable to spend that much time on my luggage. Yet this kind of service that produced a truly happy customer can often differentiate companies that succeed from those that don’t. I couldn’t think of very many companies in the U.S. that would have spent this kind of effort, and thus profitable time, on a problem that they did not create.
As I ran around five different countries in the Asia Pacific, it seemed that customer service and thus happiness toward a brand was a culture thing, and that various service cultures provide valuable lessons for businesses in all industries.
Service Cultures:
Some examples of Service Cultures:
In Australia, I was everybody’s best friend. Waitresses and hotel staff chatted like old buddies as did the people I met at business dinners and events. Their attitude toward making you feel at home was relaxing, and left me feeling comfortable, and cared for. If I’d had time to shop, I am certain I would have spent a great deal of money in that cozy little Aussie town on the Gold Coast.
Singapore’s culture was one of pride and commitment. It is a very beautiful place and it was clear that locals everywhere wanted you to enjoy their beautiful country. You were treated with dignity and respect and a sense of politeness.
Another service culture that stood out to me was that of Shanghai, China. Everywhere I went, I was treated as if it was a privilege for the other party to serve me. Whether it was a small market on a busy sidewalk, a touristy shop, or a hotel concierge, service was quick, never needed to be asked for, and it was always whatever it took to make me happy. Another thing I noted about Shanghai was that the people there seemed happy, and that was contagious.
And then I returned home to the states via San Francisco. Unfortunately, it was a severe case of culture shock. For four weeks, I was treated like I mattered. The minute I got off the plane and made my way through customs, I felt like I was invisible. No one noticed me struggling with my oversized luggage and offered to help as I had become accustomed to throughout Asia. And when I asked an airport employee a question, he grunted, looked away and angrily motioned for me to move forward. I was shuffled through the line like a non-entity and suddenly felt very small, not happy, or calm like I had in other airports abroad. I found myself embarrassed at the thought of any of the foreigners traveling to the U.S. on the same 747 being greeted in the same manner and thinking possibly that this was the American culture everywhere. Thankfully it is not.
Over the weeks that have passed since this experience, I have pondered the impact of culture on business and its relationship to longevity and profitability. And what I have noticed in this great country and culture of ours is that the companies that have the best culture, one in which employees are happy, are also the companies that have the most business success. Happy cultures produce innovative products, employees with pride, and a desire for all insiders to embrace outsiders in a way that makes them love the brand or product as much as they do. It is “happy” companies that seem to weather the storms and come out ahead, successfully reinvent themselves with changing times and technologies, and keep customer loyalty much longer than market averages. Companies with unhappy employees or those deliver the kind of greeting I got at the San Francisco airport are those that we likely won’t see around much longer.
What is your company’s service culture? Look around you and pay attention to how you and your staff interact with each other, with customers, with vendors? Do you create experiences that make people want to come back for more? Do you create happiness through your interactions and commitments?
Email me for a free survey form to help you audit your service culture: jeanette@e4marketingco.com.
Next month, some ideas and tactics for how you can create brand happiness through an inviting and engaging company culture.
About the Author:
Jeanette McMurtry specializes in training sales and marketing teams about psychology-based marketing and helping them create brand happiness through leadership, marketing, sales and customer engagement strategies. She can be reached at jeanette@e4marketingco.com.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Does community service pay off for brands?
Here's an article I wrote on a program that Xerox is doing to send thank you cards to the troops. Would love your thoughts on how and if small businesses can make community service pay off at times when marketing doesn't do as much as quickly as it used to?
LITTLE GESTURES HAVE BIG PAY OFFS
When the economy is rocky like its been for the past several months, one of the best ways to poise yourself for profitable times ahead is by engaging in random acts of kindness. Simple things like supporting local charities, hosting events for the homeless, and in the case of Xerox, sending postcards to U.S. troops at war, can have a big impact on keeping your brand’s visibility high and equity growing.
Since 2005, Xerox has invited people all around the country to go on a website, select a card and write a personalized message of thanks to U.S. troops abroad. At last count, more than 23 million messages of support have been sent.
Not only is the volume of Thank You cards sent through this program impressive, so too is the good will and community partnerships it has built for Xerox. School children throughout the country have designed and created postcards for the program, businesses have partnered with Xerox to print the messages, and a non-profit organization, Give2TheTroops, works to deliver them in care packages to the troops. Celebrities, such as Whoopi Goldberg and George Lopez, have signed cards for the troops as well, further broadening the reach and impact of this campaign. These are just a few of the relationships resulting from this campaign.
The program, called Lets Say Thanks, brings together many people all for a good cause that has no commercial gain, yet the marketing value is significant.
Because of this effort to do something kind in a random manner, “Many people are now aware of Xerox and what the brand stands for that were not before,” says vice president of Global Public Relations for Xerox, Carl Langsenkamp. “We know we’ve made an impact on our community by the high number of thank you’s we get from people participating, literally hundreds a week.”
Adding to the brand visibility Xerox gets from this campaign of kindness is a strong burst of random viral marketing. I, for one, received numerous emails from friends encouraging me to participate and expressing their appreciation to Xerox for such a great program. Consumers are emailing and celebrities are tweeting about this great way to thank those that serve our country.
Clearly a program like Let’s Say Thanks which involves printing and distributing millions of greetings cards abroad requires a large company like Xerox to pull it off. Yet there are many lessons for small businesses in all industries. The obvious one of course is that giving campaigns gives back to brands. Nothing new here. The wide reaching impact and viral marketing of Let’s Say Thanks illustrates the importance of staying engaged with your communities at all times. Xerox is highly engaged with its customers who use Xerox equipment to print the postcards, and communities all over the U.S. who sign the cards and send their thanks.
At times when advertising might produce what it used to in terms of sales leads, and buyers are spending as freely as in the past, staying engaged sets your company up for greater success down the road. In the case of Let’s Say Thanks, Langenskamp has received comments from participants stating that if they were in the print industry, they’d buy Xerox products because of what they are doing for the troops.
Following are some ways you can stay engaged with customers and communities that don’t take the resources or technology of a global brand:
1. Be there. When your community needs help, step it up. Send your CEO, not just your junior staff, to the Food Drive to hand out boxes to people in need, or serve the homeless during the holidays. Show your company cares at all levels, and that your values start at the top.
2. Enlist your customers: Whether you have a store front with cash registers, or you meet with clients at their businesses, find ways to involve customers in a worthy cause. Ask them to help sponsor a charity you’ve adopted to help for the year; ask them to engage in joint volunteerism or match a charitable donation. When you do this, you create a partnership based on like values that lasts far beyond business transactions.
3. Share your value: Whenever possible, share your skills with others that can’t afford what you do. If you’re in marketing, do a pro-bono campaign for a local charity. If you sell equipment, donate refurbished or used items to non-profits in need.
These are just some of many ideas for engaging with your communities. Whatever you do, make it real and make it sincere. Don’t expect marketing returns, just expect to do something worthwhile. That is when the true pay off happens.
About the Author:
Jeanette McMurtry is a consultant and trainer specializing in customer engagement and marketing strategies. She is the principal of e4marketing and can be reached at jeanette@e4marketingco.com or 970 390 6909.
LITTLE GESTURES HAVE BIG PAY OFFS
When the economy is rocky like its been for the past several months, one of the best ways to poise yourself for profitable times ahead is by engaging in random acts of kindness. Simple things like supporting local charities, hosting events for the homeless, and in the case of Xerox, sending postcards to U.S. troops at war, can have a big impact on keeping your brand’s visibility high and equity growing.
Since 2005, Xerox has invited people all around the country to go on a website, select a card and write a personalized message of thanks to U.S. troops abroad. At last count, more than 23 million messages of support have been sent.
Not only is the volume of Thank You cards sent through this program impressive, so too is the good will and community partnerships it has built for Xerox. School children throughout the country have designed and created postcards for the program, businesses have partnered with Xerox to print the messages, and a non-profit organization, Give2TheTroops, works to deliver them in care packages to the troops. Celebrities, such as Whoopi Goldberg and George Lopez, have signed cards for the troops as well, further broadening the reach and impact of this campaign. These are just a few of the relationships resulting from this campaign.
The program, called Lets Say Thanks, brings together many people all for a good cause that has no commercial gain, yet the marketing value is significant.
Because of this effort to do something kind in a random manner, “Many people are now aware of Xerox and what the brand stands for that were not before,” says vice president of Global Public Relations for Xerox, Carl Langsenkamp. “We know we’ve made an impact on our community by the high number of thank you’s we get from people participating, literally hundreds a week.”
Adding to the brand visibility Xerox gets from this campaign of kindness is a strong burst of random viral marketing. I, for one, received numerous emails from friends encouraging me to participate and expressing their appreciation to Xerox for such a great program. Consumers are emailing and celebrities are tweeting about this great way to thank those that serve our country.
Clearly a program like Let’s Say Thanks which involves printing and distributing millions of greetings cards abroad requires a large company like Xerox to pull it off. Yet there are many lessons for small businesses in all industries. The obvious one of course is that giving campaigns gives back to brands. Nothing new here. The wide reaching impact and viral marketing of Let’s Say Thanks illustrates the importance of staying engaged with your communities at all times. Xerox is highly engaged with its customers who use Xerox equipment to print the postcards, and communities all over the U.S. who sign the cards and send their thanks.
At times when advertising might produce what it used to in terms of sales leads, and buyers are spending as freely as in the past, staying engaged sets your company up for greater success down the road. In the case of Let’s Say Thanks, Langenskamp has received comments from participants stating that if they were in the print industry, they’d buy Xerox products because of what they are doing for the troops.
Following are some ways you can stay engaged with customers and communities that don’t take the resources or technology of a global brand:
1. Be there. When your community needs help, step it up. Send your CEO, not just your junior staff, to the Food Drive to hand out boxes to people in need, or serve the homeless during the holidays. Show your company cares at all levels, and that your values start at the top.
2. Enlist your customers: Whether you have a store front with cash registers, or you meet with clients at their businesses, find ways to involve customers in a worthy cause. Ask them to help sponsor a charity you’ve adopted to help for the year; ask them to engage in joint volunteerism or match a charitable donation. When you do this, you create a partnership based on like values that lasts far beyond business transactions.
3. Share your value: Whenever possible, share your skills with others that can’t afford what you do. If you’re in marketing, do a pro-bono campaign for a local charity. If you sell equipment, donate refurbished or used items to non-profits in need.
These are just some of many ideas for engaging with your communities. Whatever you do, make it real and make it sincere. Don’t expect marketing returns, just expect to do something worthwhile. That is when the true pay off happens.
About the Author:
Jeanette McMurtry is a consultant and trainer specializing in customer engagement and marketing strategies. She is the principal of e4marketing and can be reached at jeanette@e4marketingco.com or 970 390 6909.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Integrating Mind and Media
INTEGRATING MIND AND MEDIA
Advertising’s recession started long before the rest of the world’s. For years, global spend on mass media has seen dramatic falls. Reasons for the fall of the mighty media are as complex as the economy is frail. Undercurrents that cannot be ignored include the demise of trust for brands globally, and eroding credibly for the paid message. Worldwide, consumer trust for business has declined 50% in recent years, and 78% of consumers trust other consumers more than traditional information sources.
Yet throughout it all, one traditional form of marketing continues to hold its own: Direct.
Direct is much more than “mail” as many perceive it to be. Direct marketing as it was named in its early days as Lester Wunderman’s brain child is all about generating responses directly from the consumers via multiple channels rather than just creating more awareness and boosting a brand’s image. While we’ve put on a new face since Wunderman’s pioneering days of toll-free numbers and magazine subscription cards, direct is the still among the best methods for generating sales.
As this new era of consumerism continues to unfold, and marketing as we used to know it diminishes daily, the path for continued growth and profitability is clear: creating relevant brand episodes by integrating consumer psychology, personalized value, and marketing channels that support today’s lifestyles and emotional needs.
Integrating Consumer Psychology
More important than coming up with new discounts and promotions to create short-lived revenue boosts, marketers need to focus their efforts on what really drives consumer buying behavior. Research that delves deep into the human mind validates that we consumers are not very rational, making highly emotional decisions that aren’t always practical. Note the overwhelming levels of credit card debt that imprison consumers. How rational was it to spend beyond our means for years? Clearly it wasn’t, but the emotions of having something cool, prestigious, or fun overrode common sense and drove behavior. Nothing has changed, and in fact, the key characteristics of what makes us humans happy haven’t changed since the beginning time.
Psychologists past and present teach us that happiness is predicated on fulfilling the soul through meaningful relationships, feelings of worth, and the ability to impact others’ lives and make a difference in the world. Happiness due to getting a great deal on a new product, or something for free because we are VIP customers is fleeting. To generate lasting happiness among customers, we need to create feelings of connectedness, fairness, and relevant value.
Successful marketing today is based then based upon understanding the emotions behind consumer behavior, rational and irrational, and how to address them accordingly via various marketing channels. Research that tracks the unconscious mind shows significant increases in brain activity when presented with messages that have emotional relevance. And quite often, this activity leads to sales or another desired behavior.
Personalized Value
Personalization has long been leading the way for response rates and marketing ROI. It is now taking on a new life and product category through personalized digital books and photo albums. The fact that these one-of-a-kind personal products are a $25 billion business in the U.S. alone validates what psychologists say about us consumers. We want to feel connected and part of something fulfilling. And we want products, communications and experiences that are all about us, not about pushing some brand’s sales message that sounds like everybody else’s.
Integrating Lifestyle Media
Discussions at marketing conferences worldwide in which I have participated this year all point to the need to integrate our messages throughout various touch points in consumer lives. While direct mail might drive existing customers to new information on a website, mobile marketing might be used to send instant coupons for goods and services consumers can use “right now.” Print, e.g., magazines and newspapers also play an important role in reinforcing brand values and characteristics, both of which influence choice and loyalty. Social media too is critical as it shows customers your brand is not only a part of their world, but actually gets it. Consumers support innovative brands and move on from those that aren’t.
Successful media integration today involves three key phases:
1. Set up the relationship: Personalized direct mail gets attention, states the value of the relationship, and sets the stage for all other communications. In addition, it quite often pulls in double digit responses.
2. Define the value: Personalized URLs are a great way to create individual value and support the customer relationship. Populate these sites with information that informs, involves and inspires consumers.
3. Address the lifestyle: Consumers use multiple channels to manage their world and so should we. We are always connected to some form of communications – text, phone, email, websites, networks. Ignoring these channels is simply ignoring what matters most to your customers.
Advertising’s recession started long before the rest of the world’s. For years, global spend on mass media has seen dramatic falls. Reasons for the fall of the mighty media are as complex as the economy is frail. Undercurrents that cannot be ignored include the demise of trust for brands globally, and eroding credibly for the paid message. Worldwide, consumer trust for business has declined 50% in recent years, and 78% of consumers trust other consumers more than traditional information sources.
Yet throughout it all, one traditional form of marketing continues to hold its own: Direct.
Direct is much more than “mail” as many perceive it to be. Direct marketing as it was named in its early days as Lester Wunderman’s brain child is all about generating responses directly from the consumers via multiple channels rather than just creating more awareness and boosting a brand’s image. While we’ve put on a new face since Wunderman’s pioneering days of toll-free numbers and magazine subscription cards, direct is the still among the best methods for generating sales.
As this new era of consumerism continues to unfold, and marketing as we used to know it diminishes daily, the path for continued growth and profitability is clear: creating relevant brand episodes by integrating consumer psychology, personalized value, and marketing channels that support today’s lifestyles and emotional needs.
Integrating Consumer Psychology
More important than coming up with new discounts and promotions to create short-lived revenue boosts, marketers need to focus their efforts on what really drives consumer buying behavior. Research that delves deep into the human mind validates that we consumers are not very rational, making highly emotional decisions that aren’t always practical. Note the overwhelming levels of credit card debt that imprison consumers. How rational was it to spend beyond our means for years? Clearly it wasn’t, but the emotions of having something cool, prestigious, or fun overrode common sense and drove behavior. Nothing has changed, and in fact, the key characteristics of what makes us humans happy haven’t changed since the beginning time.
Psychologists past and present teach us that happiness is predicated on fulfilling the soul through meaningful relationships, feelings of worth, and the ability to impact others’ lives and make a difference in the world. Happiness due to getting a great deal on a new product, or something for free because we are VIP customers is fleeting. To generate lasting happiness among customers, we need to create feelings of connectedness, fairness, and relevant value.
Successful marketing today is based then based upon understanding the emotions behind consumer behavior, rational and irrational, and how to address them accordingly via various marketing channels. Research that tracks the unconscious mind shows significant increases in brain activity when presented with messages that have emotional relevance. And quite often, this activity leads to sales or another desired behavior.
Personalized Value
Personalization has long been leading the way for response rates and marketing ROI. It is now taking on a new life and product category through personalized digital books and photo albums. The fact that these one-of-a-kind personal products are a $25 billion business in the U.S. alone validates what psychologists say about us consumers. We want to feel connected and part of something fulfilling. And we want products, communications and experiences that are all about us, not about pushing some brand’s sales message that sounds like everybody else’s.
Integrating Lifestyle Media
Discussions at marketing conferences worldwide in which I have participated this year all point to the need to integrate our messages throughout various touch points in consumer lives. While direct mail might drive existing customers to new information on a website, mobile marketing might be used to send instant coupons for goods and services consumers can use “right now.” Print, e.g., magazines and newspapers also play an important role in reinforcing brand values and characteristics, both of which influence choice and loyalty. Social media too is critical as it shows customers your brand is not only a part of their world, but actually gets it. Consumers support innovative brands and move on from those that aren’t.
Successful media integration today involves three key phases:
1. Set up the relationship: Personalized direct mail gets attention, states the value of the relationship, and sets the stage for all other communications. In addition, it quite often pulls in double digit responses.
2. Define the value: Personalized URLs are a great way to create individual value and support the customer relationship. Populate these sites with information that informs, involves and inspires consumers.
3. Address the lifestyle: Consumers use multiple channels to manage their world and so should we. We are always connected to some form of communications – text, phone, email, websites, networks. Ignoring these channels is simply ignoring what matters most to your customers.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Never Under Estimate the Power of Color
Never Under Estimate the Power of Color
As marketers, we spend a great deal of time and money crafting strategies, messages, catchy headlines, and compelling offers in hopes of capturing the attention and business of our target consumers. Yet according to several different studies on what most influences purchase decisions at the point of sale, the above components of a marketing campaign pale in importance to the choice of colors we use in our design. Research conducted by the Institute for Color Research reveals that we consumers make an unconscious judgment about a product, person, and our environment within 90 seconds of introduction, and that color influences up to 90% of our assessment.
While color has different meanings in different cultures, e.g., yellow is caution, cowardly or fun in the U.S. and represents royalty and prosperity in parts of Asia, color is universal in its influence on our reactions and attitudes towards products, messages, and brands, and even people. Most often, according to Diane Roggow, principal of Market Illumination and an expert in how color impacts marketing, color dictates how we feel about a brand without our realizing it. Yet when it comes to color choices in marketing, they are most often made according to personal preference than strategic reasoning, and this can negatively affect a brand’s image and sales.
For example, says Roggow, a lot of brands like red and black as they are clean and bold, yet when used together, they can create feelings or attitudes of hostility or unfriendliness. “If you use red and black in your logo and combine it with a tagline stating ‘great customer service’, you’re likely sending mixed signals to your consumer as their conscious mind sees ‘friendly’ in your words while the unconscious mind feels threatened,” says Roggow.
Another example Roggow cites is Black and Decker and their use of black and yellow. Per Roggow, these colors are predatory colors and create a sense of dominance, or “top cat” if you will. As a consultant, Roggow has seen clients move inventory that sat idle and generate significantly higher response or desired awareness of brand attributes by simply changing the color of products or brand iconology. “
Color not only taints our perception but our responsiveness to marketing materials as well, or so says independent research by Jan Whit, Ronald Green, and Virginia Johnson, which collectively state:
* Color versions of the same ad are read up to 42% more than their black and white counterparts
* Color is 80% more likely to be read than black and white marketing materials
* Consumers tend to find information in color up to 80% faster than information in black and white only
* Communications materials produced in color increase leaning and retention up to 78%
And according to research by Frank Romano for the Digital Printing Council, when you add color to a direct marketing piece, the response rate can increase by 45%.
These are no small numbers. Yet I think its safe to say that most marketers spend far less time planning color schemes than messaging themes. Roggow has seen many a sound color strategy rooted in psychological research killed by a CEO who simply wanted something else.
So what does this mean for you and your marketing programs? It may not be prudent to go about changing your corporate identity overnight because you discover the colors of your logo don’t represent your brand attributes. But you can perhaps apply some color psychology to your advertising and direct marketing materials. Do your homework and find out how colors have different meanings for different cultures within and without of the United States, and how even different tones of the same color can change meanings; and per Roggow’s suggestion, how combining colors can hurt or help you.
Some examples:
• Direct Mail: If you are trying to create a sense of status or privilege for your brand and those that use your products, try using tones of purple as it symbolizes wealth, nobility, luxury and extravagance.
• Display ads: If you want your brand to stand out on the page or in a publication as the stable, trustworthy choice for your business category, use blue as it symbolizes all of the above. As Roggow says, it is no mistake that many banks use shades of blue in their company color palettes.
• Brochures/Annual Report: If you want communicate growth, harmony, safety, security, and even stability, use shades of green of and blue.
There are many resources available to help you get a better understanding of how to use color to visually create the power of your brand. Whatever resource you use, use something. The visuals you use to promote your brand are no small matter. The total imagery, not just your color palette, defines your brand’s level of sophistication, expertise, quality and success immediately to your audience, and creates a first impression that cannot easily be redone.
As marketers, we spend a great deal of time and money crafting strategies, messages, catchy headlines, and compelling offers in hopes of capturing the attention and business of our target consumers. Yet according to several different studies on what most influences purchase decisions at the point of sale, the above components of a marketing campaign pale in importance to the choice of colors we use in our design. Research conducted by the Institute for Color Research reveals that we consumers make an unconscious judgment about a product, person, and our environment within 90 seconds of introduction, and that color influences up to 90% of our assessment.
While color has different meanings in different cultures, e.g., yellow is caution, cowardly or fun in the U.S. and represents royalty and prosperity in parts of Asia, color is universal in its influence on our reactions and attitudes towards products, messages, and brands, and even people. Most often, according to Diane Roggow, principal of Market Illumination and an expert in how color impacts marketing, color dictates how we feel about a brand without our realizing it. Yet when it comes to color choices in marketing, they are most often made according to personal preference than strategic reasoning, and this can negatively affect a brand’s image and sales.
For example, says Roggow, a lot of brands like red and black as they are clean and bold, yet when used together, they can create feelings or attitudes of hostility or unfriendliness. “If you use red and black in your logo and combine it with a tagline stating ‘great customer service’, you’re likely sending mixed signals to your consumer as their conscious mind sees ‘friendly’ in your words while the unconscious mind feels threatened,” says Roggow.
Another example Roggow cites is Black and Decker and their use of black and yellow. Per Roggow, these colors are predatory colors and create a sense of dominance, or “top cat” if you will. As a consultant, Roggow has seen clients move inventory that sat idle and generate significantly higher response or desired awareness of brand attributes by simply changing the color of products or brand iconology. “
Color not only taints our perception but our responsiveness to marketing materials as well, or so says independent research by Jan Whit, Ronald Green, and Virginia Johnson, which collectively state:
* Color versions of the same ad are read up to 42% more than their black and white counterparts
* Color is 80% more likely to be read than black and white marketing materials
* Consumers tend to find information in color up to 80% faster than information in black and white only
* Communications materials produced in color increase leaning and retention up to 78%
And according to research by Frank Romano for the Digital Printing Council, when you add color to a direct marketing piece, the response rate can increase by 45%.
These are no small numbers. Yet I think its safe to say that most marketers spend far less time planning color schemes than messaging themes. Roggow has seen many a sound color strategy rooted in psychological research killed by a CEO who simply wanted something else.
So what does this mean for you and your marketing programs? It may not be prudent to go about changing your corporate identity overnight because you discover the colors of your logo don’t represent your brand attributes. But you can perhaps apply some color psychology to your advertising and direct marketing materials. Do your homework and find out how colors have different meanings for different cultures within and without of the United States, and how even different tones of the same color can change meanings; and per Roggow’s suggestion, how combining colors can hurt or help you.
Some examples:
• Direct Mail: If you are trying to create a sense of status or privilege for your brand and those that use your products, try using tones of purple as it symbolizes wealth, nobility, luxury and extravagance.
• Display ads: If you want your brand to stand out on the page or in a publication as the stable, trustworthy choice for your business category, use blue as it symbolizes all of the above. As Roggow says, it is no mistake that many banks use shades of blue in their company color palettes.
• Brochures/Annual Report: If you want communicate growth, harmony, safety, security, and even stability, use shades of green of and blue.
There are many resources available to help you get a better understanding of how to use color to visually create the power of your brand. Whatever resource you use, use something. The visuals you use to promote your brand are no small matter. The total imagery, not just your color palette, defines your brand’s level of sophistication, expertise, quality and success immediately to your audience, and creates a first impression that cannot easily be redone.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Why Sales Training is Rarely More than an Oxymoron
Why Sales Training is rarely more than an Oxymoron
We spend countless hours and dollars developing clever messages, compelling promises and expensive graphics, and training sales teams to get to “yes”, yet we often neglect to “train” our customer facing employees to deliver exceptional experiences that create enthusiasm, even excitement for our brands and all that we offer. Instead, most often sales teams focus on selling, and who wants to be sold? When we feel sold or like a transaction toward a sales quota instead of being treated as partners working toward a common goal, all marketing efforts can quickly be for not as customers remember the bad or lackluster customer experiences far better and far longer than they do the award-winning advertisements.
Example:
I recently test drove a car at a nice luxury car dealership. Before leaving, I called the sales person to tell him I was coming. He confirmed that it would take me about 30 minutes to get there. Twenty minutes into my ride, he called to tell me that the car I wanted had just sold, but since I was only 10 minutes away, I should still come and look at some others (higher priced of course). Though I didn’t fall for this sales game, I decided to go drive the car anyway. I loved it!!! I wanted to drive it home that very day. And even though I could afford it, I refused to purchase the car from someone who had gamed me. I questioned everything about anything he had told me about any of their cars, especially when my husband called the next day just to find out the lower priced car I was supposed to see had not sold at all. Weeks later it was still being promoted on their web site.
In this case, I was ready to buy and because of a bad apple sales rep or more likely entire culture, I walked away and called the competition, willing to buy the same car at a higher price from someone I could trust. My experience is unfortunately not so uncommon. The best and most expensive advertising is for nothing if you don’t train your sales staff to deliver on the promises you make in every way. In fact, sales training should be stopped altogether as we shouldn’t train someone to sell, we should be train sales people to create experiences because again, we consumers don’t want to be sold, and quite often walk away, like I did, even when they want the product, if they feel they are being sold, rather than served.
Sales skills do not equal negotiation skills
Sales training that lasting impact on business goals is much more than negotiation skills, and even account management techniques. It is about creating genuine experiences that are all about the customer, not the brand, and feelings of trust, credibility and affinity. Training needs to teach sales staff how to build emotional bonds through random acts of customer engagement that surprise and delight the customer.
Emotionally-engaging training is inspiring. It inspires sales staff to rise to a new level of service and customer care, and it inspires customers to want to learn more about how you can become their partner for the long-term. Following are some of the characteristics of what training needs to be in order to build your business for the now and long-term:
Characteristics of Successful Selling:
1. Selling is not a process of manipulation. It is a process of forming partnerships based upon mutually-beneficial outcomes for both parties.
2. Selling is not about closing the deal. It is about creating an experience that is gratifying beyond the product or service sold.
3. Selling is not about a single contract or a transaction. It is about a lifetime of continuous service.
4. Selling is not about one sales person and his/her customer. It is about embracing customers within a culture that is all about them.
5. Selling is not about making revenue goals or quotas. It is about representing a company with integrity and honesty at all costs.
Look at all the ads you encounter today. My guess is that the majority of them all have some claim about quality service, honesty and integrity. And my next guess is that most of these companies have done little to nothing to assure that their sales people treat their customers accordingly. In fact, in my years as a marketing consultant, and as a customer, I am pretty amazed at how many brands don’t even show their sales teams the advertisements their marketing teams have created full of many promises yet to be fulfilled by sales.
Lifetime Sales Starts with Basic Human Psychology
And beyond the above characteristics, sales training really shouldn’t be about sales skills but rather basic consumer psychology. This is where my training differs from many experienced sales consultants. I believe that far more important than sales skills is a strong understanding of consumer psychology and what makes us humans approach a new offer or a sales person or withdraw and look for alternatives. We are all born with affective systems – the predisposition to approach new ideas eagerly or withdraw to comfort zones – and these affective systems govern nearly all of our behavior and decisions without our realizing it. As neuromarketing expert and authority Gerald Zaltman says after years of experience in studying the brain’s reactions to stimuli, 95% of all thought is unconscious. When a sales person understands what is going on in the mind of a customer or prospect, consciously and otherwise, he/she can be far more effective in building trust, credibility and worth as a partner for life vs. a sales person trying to meet numbers.
Sale and marketing strategies and programs must go far beyond the fundamentals and newest communications channels to address the lifelong customer experience, and without training, you have no way to control the experience and create consistency for your customers at every interaction. Adding Training to your marketing mix gives you that competitive edge that today is critical to survival.
We spend countless hours and dollars developing clever messages, compelling promises and expensive graphics, and training sales teams to get to “yes”, yet we often neglect to “train” our customer facing employees to deliver exceptional experiences that create enthusiasm, even excitement for our brands and all that we offer. Instead, most often sales teams focus on selling, and who wants to be sold? When we feel sold or like a transaction toward a sales quota instead of being treated as partners working toward a common goal, all marketing efforts can quickly be for not as customers remember the bad or lackluster customer experiences far better and far longer than they do the award-winning advertisements.
Example:
I recently test drove a car at a nice luxury car dealership. Before leaving, I called the sales person to tell him I was coming. He confirmed that it would take me about 30 minutes to get there. Twenty minutes into my ride, he called to tell me that the car I wanted had just sold, but since I was only 10 minutes away, I should still come and look at some others (higher priced of course). Though I didn’t fall for this sales game, I decided to go drive the car anyway. I loved it!!! I wanted to drive it home that very day. And even though I could afford it, I refused to purchase the car from someone who had gamed me. I questioned everything about anything he had told me about any of their cars, especially when my husband called the next day just to find out the lower priced car I was supposed to see had not sold at all. Weeks later it was still being promoted on their web site.
In this case, I was ready to buy and because of a bad apple sales rep or more likely entire culture, I walked away and called the competition, willing to buy the same car at a higher price from someone I could trust. My experience is unfortunately not so uncommon. The best and most expensive advertising is for nothing if you don’t train your sales staff to deliver on the promises you make in every way. In fact, sales training should be stopped altogether as we shouldn’t train someone to sell, we should be train sales people to create experiences because again, we consumers don’t want to be sold, and quite often walk away, like I did, even when they want the product, if they feel they are being sold, rather than served.
Sales skills do not equal negotiation skills
Sales training that lasting impact on business goals is much more than negotiation skills, and even account management techniques. It is about creating genuine experiences that are all about the customer, not the brand, and feelings of trust, credibility and affinity. Training needs to teach sales staff how to build emotional bonds through random acts of customer engagement that surprise and delight the customer.
Emotionally-engaging training is inspiring. It inspires sales staff to rise to a new level of service and customer care, and it inspires customers to want to learn more about how you can become their partner for the long-term. Following are some of the characteristics of what training needs to be in order to build your business for the now and long-term:
Characteristics of Successful Selling:
1. Selling is not a process of manipulation. It is a process of forming partnerships based upon mutually-beneficial outcomes for both parties.
2. Selling is not about closing the deal. It is about creating an experience that is gratifying beyond the product or service sold.
3. Selling is not about a single contract or a transaction. It is about a lifetime of continuous service.
4. Selling is not about one sales person and his/her customer. It is about embracing customers within a culture that is all about them.
5. Selling is not about making revenue goals or quotas. It is about representing a company with integrity and honesty at all costs.
Look at all the ads you encounter today. My guess is that the majority of them all have some claim about quality service, honesty and integrity. And my next guess is that most of these companies have done little to nothing to assure that their sales people treat their customers accordingly. In fact, in my years as a marketing consultant, and as a customer, I am pretty amazed at how many brands don’t even show their sales teams the advertisements their marketing teams have created full of many promises yet to be fulfilled by sales.
Lifetime Sales Starts with Basic Human Psychology
And beyond the above characteristics, sales training really shouldn’t be about sales skills but rather basic consumer psychology. This is where my training differs from many experienced sales consultants. I believe that far more important than sales skills is a strong understanding of consumer psychology and what makes us humans approach a new offer or a sales person or withdraw and look for alternatives. We are all born with affective systems – the predisposition to approach new ideas eagerly or withdraw to comfort zones – and these affective systems govern nearly all of our behavior and decisions without our realizing it. As neuromarketing expert and authority Gerald Zaltman says after years of experience in studying the brain’s reactions to stimuli, 95% of all thought is unconscious. When a sales person understands what is going on in the mind of a customer or prospect, consciously and otherwise, he/she can be far more effective in building trust, credibility and worth as a partner for life vs. a sales person trying to meet numbers.
Sale and marketing strategies and programs must go far beyond the fundamentals and newest communications channels to address the lifelong customer experience, and without training, you have no way to control the experience and create consistency for your customers at every interaction. Adding Training to your marketing mix gives you that competitive edge that today is critical to survival.
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