Reversal of opinion

For the record, after reviewing our marketing efforts in January, I’ll publicly admit a shift in my thinking. I’ve always thought holiday cards were hokey and a complete waste of marketing time. So I’ll readily admit I wasn’t optimistic about the value of creating an electronic New Year’s missive.

However, I was intrigued enough to try one because our Xmas card: Do you know if Santa read your wish list? Johnny does… drove a significant bump in Free Account signups. Our Xmas “card” was a humorous and cleverly disguised product demo highlighting a kid using VisibleGains’ Outlook plugin to share his gift wish list and receive notifications when Santa read it.

As a new year’s follow-up, we decided to create a parody of the Old Spice Man—inspired by a draft script I created long ago. With some copy tweaks, we were off and running. We sent it to our core email distribution list. Happily, the HTML Open Rate on the New Year email Parody was 12.74%.

Data from our video app tells us roughly 1 out of 3 folks viewed the video and most stayed until the end. Google analytics (below) shows a spike in traffic the same day we sent it out when we didn’t have any other campaign running. Additionally 2.5% of viewers signed up for our Free Account that day. I know 2 to 3 percent is pretty standard but for the investment of time—and as a way to fill the lull between vacations when people are slow to get back to full throttle—we were happy.

So for a couple of hours of creative fun, we fed our Free Account program which in turn drives business. That’s better performance than many of the trade shows with speaking engagements we’ve invested significant more time and resources in! (Fodder for another blog post—or rant. In my humble opinion, trade shows are often too expensive for the return on investment.)

Are corporate Ground Hog’s Day cards or valentines worthwhile marketing investments? (Just kidding, I think.)

Never forget that you’re selling to people.

Sales are the backbone of every successful company and it’s always a good idea to study up on how to improve your sales ability through one to one communication.  In order to thrive, sales must engage personally though not necessarily in person – this concept is not always easy to grasp.  You can create personal engagements with the use of specific content that is relevant to the folks your sending it to.  This information could be in an email, tweet, landing page, text, or phone call.  Your not communicating to a company, your conversing with a person who has their own fears and concerns that you need to address.  Just because they aren’t sitting across from you doesn’t make the fear disappear.  It’s in you best interest to find out what their concerns are so take the time to do so.

Learn to say no

All leads are not created equal – not every customer is a fit. The sooner that you learn this and put it into practice, the quicker you will be able to move on to clients that are going to help you produce references and generate flows of revenue. Marketing will qualify through lead scoring in an attempt to let you know which targets have higher probability for you. Actionable insight is key for one to one sales communication. You need to learn to decipher who is a prospect in the market to buy your product and who will just waste your time. Look for the trigger event.  Just because they downloaded a paper does not make them a lead. It might sound harsh but time is money and yours does matter. Do not get clogged up with prospects you know cannot or will not be interested in your product.

Close the Right Thing

Have you ever been asked for a commitment way to early in the process?  I always think of car sales asking me – “how can I get you to buy today?”.  Instead of using a static tactic, try getting a smaller commitment instead. Not a commitment to buy, but a commitment for more of your prospects time for one to one communication, in return you give the prospect more of your time. Use this time in a persistent manner to show them more of your value, customer successes, or examples of your services that they care about. The less pressure you put on them, the more likely they are to want your services. There is no excuse to not ask for a commitment – just make sure its the right one.

Timing is Everything

They may be the right prospect however they are not primed to buy. You may think it’s a bad idea to push them back to Marketing to include them in a nurturing campaign and that you need to control the flow. Talk yourself out of it, control is an illusion and the prospect is already searching the web for data points.   You (may) run no risk at this stage of pushing back to Marketing with a request to nurture. I always felt its worth the risk as you need to be focused on time management.  You have prospects that are primed to buy and you need to be talking to them.  This point is VERY specific to the prospect and you need to be very conscious of what you are doing. Marketing groups will electronically communicate with the prospects until they pop up again with a more specific interest that you can personally address.

Skip the Company History

Prospects do not necessarily care about how your company was founded and how much of a profit you made last year. Keep your presentations relevant to the them and their concerns. Get the prospect emotionally involved with personal stories relating to the benefits of your products of services. Mention their competitors and or friends on Linked In that are using your products. Make your prospect feel like they have to have your product or they will be left out. It’s about them – not your company.

Give Them a Laugh

No one wants to buy a product from someone who is not excited or enthused about what they are trying to sell. People can tell when you’re passionate – it’s hard to fake – so relax with them. Do not focus on how you are going to sell your prospect, but instead focus on the value you are delivering and how you can motivate them to understand your services and the fit between you both – one to one.

Sales One on One Communication

Most people want to feel like they are special and indeed, every prospect is unique and special in their own way. Let them know how you can provide one on one personal service through tailored messages based entirely upon their requirements and interest characteristics.

Customer testimonials are typically hard to get. I thought I’d list a quick way that I have gotten video testimonials from customers in the past using flip cameras and dropbox.

1. Step one buy some video cameras Kodak Playtouch ($179) or Flip Cameras ($80) with your loaded logo (as of today you still can) – see picture to the right.
2. Step two send the cameras to your clients with an email & document asking them to find a quiet room that’s well lit.
3. Step three ask them to turn the camera on, sit in front and read the questions aloud and then answer (its also helpful to send a “best practices how to record”).
4. Step four ask them to upload the raw footage to your dropbox folder you have just shared with them – or ship the camera back.
5. Step five edit the video down to under 1:00 in total time.
6. Step six load the content to your site with appropriate tracking codes to see who watches and what they do next (don’t forget a call to action).
7. Step seven ask for their final approval and tell them to keep the flip as a gift.

Marketing should exploit the immediate connection and effectiveness of using video in their referral process. Video is an effective and simple way to make a connection. These types of clean videos come across as very honest as there is very little “production”. I’ve gotten five testimonials completed in 30 days using this method.

It might be obvious to some but the web is becoming a broadcast system. People love consuming content this way and it really has an impact. You don’t need large budgets or time to enable this component of your demand generation marketing engine.

The sales process of a complex product can sometimes look a bit like a game of telephone, with the original message sounding very different once it meets the final recipient. Traditionally, the process of presenting a customized proof of concept meant setting up several separate meetings, wasting valuable time and resources, and also made messaging vulnerable to the telephone phenomenon, if initial prospects didn’t communicate the concept to their superiors correctly.

Check out this clip of MaryAnne Sinville, Vice President of Marketing for Attivio, explaining how they have used video to solve this exact problem.

If you use video to record your proof of concept, prospects will be able to bounce your presentation easily throughout their organization, without the hassle of holding several meetings, and you can be sure your message will be communicated exactly in the way you intended when you slaved away on that proof of concept.

Creating videos this way is very simple especially if you demo the solution via GotoMeeting or Webex.

Has your sales team used video in the sales process?