Blog Entries

Disconnected Sales and Marketing

simon.shah@talktalk.net — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0100

A high tech firm was looking to prioritize their plans for the coming year. The full senior management team was in attendance. In reviewing their efforts the head of marketing noted that they were averaging 12,000 hits per month on the company web site.

Unfamiliar with the term, the CFO asked what ‘hits' were and before the marketing executive could answer the sales executive said. "It's an acronym and stands for ‘How Idiots Track Success' ".

The [...]

How do you take care of your top clients?

simon.shah@talktalk.net — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

I came across an interesting question posted by Craig J. Vom Lehn on Linkedin who asked How do you take care of your top clients? where he collated all the answers and posted at http://sayhitocraig.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-do-you-take-care-of-top-clients.html. Quite an interesting set of responses and something worth considering for anyone looking and building customer loyalty

Worldwide Matrix Marketing

simon.shah@talktalk.net — Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 +0100

As organisations continue to widen their international footprint, marketing leaders are also being tasked with managing across complex matrix structures that have the added dimension of cross border marketing and virtual team management thrown in for good measure.

There seems surprisingly very little written on the subject considering this model seems quite prevalent in the modern day. The complexity arises with how one manages conflict and priorities where local marketing teams qui [...]

Innovating Value

simon.shah@talktalk.net — Fri, 23 May 2008 00:00:00 +0100

The significance of the term ‘value' when considering marketing cannot be underestimated and signifies the association in the mind of the prospect organisation of the vendor's 'total marketing offering' against its cost and will most likely be compared to similar direct competitive offerings as well as some indirect offerings in the marketplace. The key term here is ‘total marketing offering' and implies that it is not just the product or solution itself which will be judged but t [...]

Do you find you end up discounting the price to win the deal?

simon.shah@talktalk.net — Wed, 21 May 2008 00:00:00 +0100

When I was working in Enterprise Content Management space I can recall the proliferation of competitor offerings and didn't envy the poor organisational decision makers that had to go through a lengthy RFP and selection process to evaluate the most suitable vendor for their needs. If that wasn't and enough I remember how stressed the sales guys would get, burning the midnight oil answering a string of questions in time to meet the stringent submission deadlines.

I also remember when I s [...]

How often do you walk in your customer and non-customer shoes?

simon.shah@talktalk.net — Wed, 21 May 2008 00:00:00 +0100

I was reading an article recently about a B2B supplier who had been supplying parts for industrial engineers. They had been supplying their catalogue on CD-ROMs for years yet many engineers reported that they weren't using it, even though it was more up to date than the paper catalogue. When the B2B supplier asked why, they were unable to articulate the reasons. It was only after a research team had a design engineer go to his desk and walk through how he found a suitable product, did it strike [...]

Are your customers Promoters, Passives or Detractors?

simon.shah@talktalk.net — Mon, 19 May 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Much has been debated about the low level of customer brand loyalty in an age where the balance of power has shifted from the producer to the consumer. This has been largely due factors such as globalisation and the prevalence of the Internet. As I see it, customer satisfaction is like a ‘hygiene factor’. In itself it is probably not enough to build sustained customer lifetime value (i.e. passives) but without it, you will probably end up with disloyal customers (i.e. detractors). Or [...]

Why SPIN selling is not spin

simon.shah@talktalk.net — Sun, 18 May 2008 00:00:00 +0100

I just got through reading a book on SPIN® selling by Neil Rackham. It is not a new book and was first published back in 1987 and most sales people would have heard of it or at least be familiar with the recommendations. What particularly intrigued me was that it was research based, and evaluated 35,000 sales calls made by 10,000 sales people in 23 countries.

The book laid out an excellent framework which challenged conventional wisdom up to that point of effective selling of high- [...]

How well are your leads scoring with your business?

simon.shah@talktalk.net — Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 +0100

I have seen quite a few hit and miss lead scoring solutions in the B2B world. Hot/Warm/Cold. ‘A' lead, ‘ B' lead, ‘C' leads and so on but whilst this type of categorization might well be appropriate for organisations who just don't generate the quantity of leads to warrant time and attention for more sophisticated methods, such scoring solutions can become problematic due primarily for the room for misinterpretation and as leads are passed between marketin [...]

What can golf teach you about demand generation?

simon.shah@talktalk.net — Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 +0100

A few years ago I had a series of golf lessons and remember the instructor teaching me to do the exact reverse of what my intuition was telling me. Rather than attack at the ball as hard as I could he told me to loosen up and concentrate on the swing. It felt strange at first but the advice paid dividends as my accuracy and range improved significantly.

I witnessed a similar counter intuitive episode when working closely with the VP EMEA sales for a leading Enterprise technology vendor and le [...]

A harder working marketing budget versus working hard for your marketing budget

simon.shah@talktalk.net — Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 +0100

B2B sales can be very complicated and protracted affairs and involve multiple points of touch at different stages. To add to the complexity, they can be with different organisational stakeholders at different points in the sales cycle.

As a marketer your job does not stop at the brand awareness building stage but you should enter into a dialogue with your future customers well into close stages and beyond - to ensure customers for life. It's important to recognise that comp [...]

7 Habits for Highly Effective Marketing

simon.shah@talktalk.net — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 +0100

A specific personal experience I had lives vividly in my mind and always brings a smile to my face, whenever I recall it. When I was posted overseas to Kazakhstan where I was responsible for sales and marketing of confectionery for a leading Western brand, I was invited to the home of our warehouse director for a feast called ‘datsarkhan'. The host brought out a sheep's head that had been boiled in broth and offered me the eye to eat as an offering to give me increased wisdom. I won't g [...]

Global Reach, Local Touch Marketing

simon.shah@talktalk.net — Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Very few technology companies are restricting themselves to just a single geography and the term globalisation is a common term understood by most. But whilst there are increased opportunities associated with expanding your geographic footprint, there are also increased complexities with marketing and communication activities across borders.
The challenge for any marketing professional who has a multi-geographical remit is to maximize the best use of resources available across all market [...]

Why Email Marketing Alone is a False Economy

simon.shah@talktalk.net — Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Online marketing is increasingly becoming the de facto mechanism by which B2B organisations enter into dialogue and relationships with prospects and buyers. And with the increasing demand for marketers to demonstrate value to their board for every dollar/pound/euro invested and the constant need to demonstrate quality and a continuous feed at the sales pipeline level, it is now time that marketers took a more unified and holistic view of their interactions with their intended audiences.

What comes first? Sales or Marketing?

simon.shah@talktalk.net — Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Still a common misconception amongst many in organisations is that marketing is there to sell a company's products and services. Actually this is a rather limited view of true marketing. In the days when demand for goods and services outsrippped supply and consumers had little choice, things were different. However in the modern day, we now see the impact of globalisation, proliferation of products and a more discerning consumer where brand loyalty can change at the click of a mouse. These fa [...]

Are your solutions too convergent with your competitors?

simon.shah@talktalk.net — Mon, 05 May 2008 00:00:00 +0100

In a world of slower market growth, globalisation and increasing commoditization, all companies struggle with how they set themselves apart from the typical convergent ‘me-too' offerings so prevalent in industries. As such they look to innovation to help them but tend to take a myopic view of innovation across dimensions of R&D and New Product development.

Mohanbir Sawhney, director of Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management's Center for Research in Technology and Innov [...]

The Sales and Marketing Disconnect

simon.shah@talktalk.net — Thu, 01 May 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Multi Modal Approach - The New Business Imperative

simon.shah@talktalk.net — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0100

As I have been marketing B2B propositions for several technology firms, some things have become very evident and I am sure many of the points will resonate with my sales and marketing peers:

Complex sales with different buying influences and politics imply that as a seller, you are going to have multiple points of touch before you close the sale. I like the term ‘moments of truth' to explain that each point of touch is your opportunity as a marketer to further establish or break the [...]

Organisation Strategies In a Downturn

simon.shah@talktalk.net — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0100

I was recently directed to an article suggesting that Trader Joes, MTV and iPod were all born during times of recession and if handled correctly a downturn can be a good thing for a company. The article went on to suggest that whilst everyone else may be turning their backs on advertising, companies should be advertising more.

I am not sure it is totally correct to suggest that if handled correctly a downturn can be a good thing for a company. Sounded a little too much like journal [...]

Rise above the crowd with Thought Leadership

simon.shah@talktalk.net — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0100

In B2B tech industries, unless you are a leading brand and are almost guaranteed media pick up from your press release distribution activities you are going to be hard pressed to make serious headway into engaging with media.

One way is to use your customers as advocates for the company and pitch their success stories to the journalist community. That's a very good tactic and an approach that I have used on several occasions to good effect. However media outreach is not just about swit [...]