Sales & Marketing Management - November/December 2007 - (Page 13)

> SMART MARKETING 3 QUESTIONS MICHAEL McLAUGHLIN PRINCIPAL MINDSHARE CONSULTING LLC, A PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FIRM IN PORTLAND, ORE. THE BIG PICTURE THE BIG The Network of Me BY SCOTT HORNSTEIN Q. What kind of innovative marketing activities can customers offer to or facilitate in conjunction with a sales organization to help drive new business? A. Some method of continuously educating clients about what you do is a big help when it comes time to make any referral. It’s like anything else: Most customers may like you, but forget really easily, and they don’t remember you when it comes time to make a referral. So you need to do a continuous process of education. Stay top-of-mind by providing them not just product information, but things like seminars customized for them, and relevant research and information that might be helpful for them. Q. How can marketers figure out what materials are most effective in driving new business from current clients? A. You probably want some balance between educational material and promotional material, because they’re not just going to read a brochure about your company. And they’re not necessarily going to internalize it if they do. You want to find something that is valuable to them and then include some promotional information along with it. Q. When it comes to old clients, what are ways marketers can approach them to drive new business? A. The easiest way to regenerate an old contact is to tell them something new. Come to them with some competitive information happening in their industry. Say, “I know we haven’t talked in a long time, but I just learned about seven trends in your industry. Would you be interested in hearing about them?” They’ll almost always say yes. The tectonic plates of the marketplace are slowly and inexorably altering the landscape. Customers’ sense of individuality, demand for privacy and technological empowerment are the driving forces, and they are unstoppable. It’s time to build a house where the new coastline will be. The poster child for this change is the mobile phone. I hold one and I feel the ground shaking … or is that the vibrate mode? No one, but no one, leaves home without it. For the 18 to 34 age group, the mobile device is becoming a remote control for their lives—a tool that links the physical and digital worlds, giving each of them the power to turn on or off their own private network of information. They have created “the network of me.” The network of me is, by definition, idiosyncratic. Who do I want to connect with? To whom do I make myself available? Do I want to be entertained? Do I have commerce on my mind? To state the obvious, it’s all about me. How do you get invited to be part of the network of me? I’VE GOT TWO BIG IDEAS: TRUST AND RESPECT. they want to be treated. We’ve got to value the answers, because as we know, happier customers stay longer and buy more. The above sounds very logical: Trust = a preference for our brand = long-term profitability. But the only way the development of trust can become a corporate strategy is if there is a corresponding system of measurement and reward. Until that time, we’re whistling while the barn burns. Respect customers’ privacy. Let’s pretend I am the customer: I want a sturdy fence around my privacy. I think opt-in is respectful and opt-out is disrespectful. If I give a company any personal information, I want them to use it for the purpose I intended. It’s okay for them to use it to treat me better, but that’s it. Many of the privacy policies I read are based on opt-out—that’s where the company retains the right to do just about anything they want, unless I holler for them to stop. There are powerful forces at work here, and that can become enormous opportunity. The choice is ours—we can adapt or die. The allegory is the music industry. Confronted with the network of me, they chose to fight. We might as well turn, draw our swords and march to do battle with the tide. 2 [THE PULSE] 1 42% SOURCE: 2007 ICROSSING STUDY of consumers say information on brands and products obtained from Web sites like Wikipedia play a major role in their online purchase decisions. Build trust. The customer is in complete control. The most powerful competitive differentiator is for your customers to trust that you will always treat them well. Not just adequately, mind you, but well. Customers expect to be treated poorly. I think they’ll pleased to tell us how Scott Hornstein is the co-author of Opt-In Marketing and president of Hornstein Associates in Redding, Conn. He can be reached at edit@salesandmarketing.com. NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2007 SALES&MARKETING MANAGEMENT www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com 13 http://www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Sales & Marketing Management - November/December 2007

Sales & Marketing Management - November/December 2007 Contents Editor’s Letter Management Strategies What “Tell Me More,” Really Means Sales Strategy Marketing Management Motivation/Incentives Training Technology The Brains Behind the Brawn Are You a Bad Manager? Pipeline = Lifeline Feeling the Squeeze; The Foray Mobile Workmate; Seeking the Sights of Pittsburgh; Testing the Social Media Waters. Gadgets & Gear Books That Improve Strategic Thinking, People Skills and Sales Work/Life Take-Aways

Sales & Marketing Management - November/December 2007

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