Posts Tagged ‘Sales’

Why you need marketing in your sales-oriented company

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008

When I talk to CEOs of small B2B companies, I often hear, “We don’t need marketing, we’re very sales-oriented.” I’ve heard it dozens of times.  Here’s why I think it’s wrong, but why I understand where those CEOs are coming from. When Mezzanine was in its early days, we were very sales driven too, and a lot of our success came from that orientation.  But something happens when a company grows - or tries to grow - beyond the size of what the CEO him or herself alone can sell.  It becomes very difficult to attract and retain business development people who can also do what the CEO does, because they rarely have the same expertise or industry knowledge.  And that’s when marketing is absolutely critical.  If the company doesn’t invest in marketing to build the reputation of the company, increase awareness and generate leads, the new sales people that the company attracts are going to have a very hard time being successful.  I’ve seen it cause hundreds of thousands of wasted dollars in recruiting, training and compensating business development people who end up failing in their role and leaving the company within a year. 

And that’s why you need marketing in your sales-oriented company!

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Posted in Business: General, Management, Marketing Strategy | No Comments »

Take Customers For Granted and You Will Lose Them

Thursday, August 21st, 2008

Someone asked me recently why I have gone to the same Italian barbershop for 27 years - even though the haircuts are often less than exemplary and the location is inconvenient.  The answer is simple - I feel valued there and have never been taken for granted as a customer.  The level of customer service I experienced 27 years ago is the same as today.  There is a television and up to date reading material in the waiting lounge - I am offered beverages, pleasantries are exchanged all around. 

My barber ‘Sal’ knows my name, where I live and what I do for a living.  He asks questions, refers back to past events in my life - he is genuinely interested - and as a result I am probably one of his best customers.  He always takes the time to thank me graciously and wish me the best ‘…until next time.’   

Earning a new customer - because lets face it - you must earn customers, is an accomplishment but not a win.  To win, you must earn and retain that customer.  Never take them for granted - even if they are lifers - especially if they are lifers.

When was the last time you genuinely thanked your best customers? 

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Laziness Gives Cold Calling A Bad Name

Thursday, August 7th, 2008

I had one of those ’shake your head’ cold calls recently. Mezzanine just appeared on the list of Fastest Growing Companies in Canada, so we’re getting inundated with calls from business services providers.

I have nothing against cold calls. It’s a successful lead generation tactic in many businesses. What does bother me is useless calls where there is no apparent preparation or focus.

Here’s how the call played out:

Phone rings. I check call display. Name of a local publication that I’m vaguely familiar with appears.

“Interesting,” I think to myself. “I wonder what they want?”

I answer the phone, “Lisa Shepherd”. Young voice on the line says, “Is this Lisa Shepherd?” (Uh-oh, I think). “I have Jane Jones* on the line, from XYZ Magazine. Would you take the call?” ( I know we’re all busy and time is precious, but this approach just seems pretentious.) But, I say “Sure”.

“Hi Lisa, how are you? I’ve put together a community of CEOs as a peer group to get together and talk about what problems they face.” No background on herself or company. My head reels. I’d been intently working on something else prior to this call, so a little context would have helped. Then she adds enthusiastically, “Tell me about your business.”

If I was unsure before, I’m now very sure that I regret picking up the phone.

I could go on with the details, but it’s too painful. After a couple of minutes of her rambling, I ask “What can I do for you?” She asked if I want to get together for coffee. Presumably this is preamble to joining the peer group. But talk about a dodge-dip-duck-dive strategy. Getting to the point would have been much better. I tell her I belong to a similar group already (Innovators Alliance), am actively talking to another (Entrepreneur’s Organization) and had been approached by another the previous week (Presidents of Enterprising Organizations). She is unaware of all these organizations, except the last one. I wasn’t sure if this was more dodge-dip-duck-dive or serious ignorance. At that point I was in too much pain to care.

I’m writing this because I want those who have to do cold calling (and it is a tough job, I truly admire those who do it well) to avoid this painful and embarrassing situation.

Here are some basic tips for a good cold call:

a) Do your homework. Don’t call me and ask me what my company does. It’s on the web for all to see. Asking me this question is laziness in the extreme. I can’t help but think “If this is what you do when you’re trying to sell me something, how bad is it going to be when we’re working together?”

b) Make it easy for me to understand who you are and what you want:

  1. State your name and company name.
  2. State what the company does or offers.
  3. State why I might care about what you offer (hint: it will help my business perform better, grow faster, decrease costs. Pick any.)

c) State what you want from me. 15 minutes of my time for an intro meeting is a reasonable request. Of course I will give you more than 15, but it’s nice to start with the small ask.

Cold calls aren’t usually so painful. All the same, I’m not going to answer my phone unless I recognize the number for a while.

*Not her real name