Marketing is more than just Marketing Communications

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Ira Michael Blonder

It is important to distinguish marketing activities from simply marketing communications, which is merely one of many marketing functions. Admittedly marketing communications includes all print (electronic or hard copy) promotional materials and, in part, any public presentation of products and/or services (for example business participation in trade shows, conferences, customer conferences, etc). However, the overall product plan (which is usually built by product marketing) usually specifies the resources available to marketing communications as well as the expected deliverables. Finally, the business plan itself sets the terms for product marketing, in other words, the product marketing objectives as well as the resources that will be provisioned to marketing (usually the budget) to attain targeted objectives.

Any so-called lead nurturing activity, as we see it, is a sales function. It is important to understand this distinction. Any activity like “lead nurturing” that is designed to deliver sales for the business, regardless of the length of time that may transpire from first contact to order, is a sales activity. In contrast, marketing communications activities (as a subset of the overall marketing strategy for a business) are designed to ensure that a marketplace recognizes, correctly, an intended presentation of products and/or services. Usually, marketing communications activities are implemented (and cost justified) to deliver specific levels of incoming inquiries from a targeted marketplace. Certainly it is appropriate to hold marketing communications accountable for failing to deliver planned levels of incoming inquiries, or for failing to deliver planned levels of incoming inquiries from representatives of a targeted marketplace. Nevertheless, we do not think it is appropriate to hold marketing communications accountable for legitimate inquiries that require “nurturing.” Inquiries need to be “nurtured” as the result of economic realities in 2012. The team needs to hang in for the long haul on these “nurturing” requirements, as we see it, is sales.

Tech innovators will benefit by keeping these distinctions in mind. Attending to these distinctions, we think, will lead to allocating as much of a businesses resources to product marketing in advance of a marketing communications effort as possible. After all, to follow our distinction along, the product marketing plan constitutes the best possible opportunity that tech innovators targeting enterprise business customers have to do better than the recently reported drop of 50% in the effectiveness of online and offline lead generation efforts from prior years (http://www NULL.meclabs NULL.com/training/publications/benchmark-report/2012-b2b-marketing/overview).

IMB Enterprises, Inc. maintains a keen interest in advising tech innovators in how best to maintain distinctions across a range of marketing functions. If you agree with our position and care to discuss your specific needs with us, directly, then please contact Ira Michael Blonder at +1 631-673-2929 to further a discussion. You may also email Mike at imblonder@imbenterprises.com.

Pharmaceutical Product Managers Could Still Use a Dose of Michael Porter’s Five Forces Competition Theory

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Ira Michael Blonder

We read a blog post by Dr. Jim Anderson, Product Managers Could Learn to Love Lipitor (http://www NULL.theaccidentalpm NULL.com/marketing/product-managers-could-learn-to-love-lipitor). We were interested to learn the steps that Pfizer has publicized that it will take to protect market share once its patent for Lipitor® expires. According to Dr. Anderson, these steps include:

offering cards directly to current retail customers that will not expire when Pfizer’s patent expires. These cards lower out of pocket co payment expenses for these customers to $4.00 per month
Directly delivering the product to retail customers. In addition, Pfizer will notify retail customers who choose to participate in the program when prescriptions need to be refilled
Negotiating with Health Benefit plans to ensure that the cost of Pfizer’s drug is completely aligned with the cost of generic alternatives

The common theme that runs through each of these three steps, as we see it, is an effort to lower cost for retail customers (only) and improve access (for retail customers only) to this medication. The third step, negotiating with benefit plans, could end up benefiting Pfizer at the expense of benefit plans.

If, in fact, Pfizer has taken these three steps as Dr. Anderson contends, we think they could have done a much better job had they paid some serious attention to Dr. Michael Porter’s Five forces (http://hbr NULL.org/2008/01/the-five-competitive-forces-that-shape-strategy/ar/1). As long as Pfizer has demonstrated that their production costs are lower for Lipitor than is the case for their competitors and, further, that they can retain profit margin despite keeping retail customer out of pocket costs at no more than $4.00 per month, then the card program works. Ditto for the notification program.

Nevertheless, we think they should have attempted to identify customers using their drug for unexpected conditions with an eye towards identifying higher margin markets which, if developed skillfully, would permit Pfizer to retain present pricing levels despite a pending onslaught of generic competition.

Further, we hope that Pfizer thoroughly briefed its benefit plan partners about its planned three steps well in advance of notifying the public of its plans. All three steps could end up benefiting Pfizer at the expense of its benefit plan partners — not a skillful tactic over the long run. We think that methods of defending Pfizer’s market position could be formulated that would benefit benefit plans as well as Pfizer. These latter methods deserve study in that we don’t think that Pfizer should hastily burn its bridges with benefit plans. After all, benefit plans provide very high volume conduits into the marketplace.

If you are interest in product management approaches and are grappling with products in commodity markets, then we would like to hear from you. Please contact Ira Michael Blonder at +1 631-673-2929 to further a discussion. You may also email Mike at imblonder@imbenterprises.com.

Telemarketing Calls Deliver More Return as a Follow Up to Marketing Communications

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Ira Michael Blonder

Tech innovators with products and services for complex markets should include telemarketing programs within their sales efforts. But telemarketing campaigns will deliver much higher results when they are initiated subsequent to completion of electronic and/or print marketing communications efforts. Simply placing telemarketing calls from “out of the blue” to unsolicited recipients will deliver substantially less favorable results.

Obviously, the trick is how to obtain addresses for mailings, email blasts, etc. Certainly the best solution for accumulating addresses is to reach out to existing contacts (prospects, customers, industry participants, etc) to collect addresses; there is a stronger likelihood that these “familiar” contacts will be willing to provide addresses. We don’t see much value in purchasing address lists. We think participants in these lists have little “skin in the game” and, therefore, constitute a low probability as regards sales development. Therefore, better to collect addresses through any/all ongoing market outreach activities. Over time a sufficient number of addresses can be accumulated to justify an initial marketing communications campaign.

As Ernan Roman pointed out in “Integrated Direct Marketing”, NTC Publishing, 1995, the telemarketing campaign should commence within 24 to 72 hours of distribution of marketing communications. If your marketing communications effort is an email blast, we think it makes sense for you to use an email delivery service that will provide you with statistics on the number of times your email piece is opened and, even better, by targeted recipient. This type of tracking can be obtained by popular services like Constant Contact (http://www NULL.constantcontact NULL.com) or through Outlook Services for Microsoft Office 365 (http://www NULL.microsoft NULL.com/office365). Obviously, telemarketing should reach out to known recipients before working on the larger group of recipients who do not appear to have opened the communications piece.

Where truly opt-in recipient addresses are in short supply, another method of contacting the market is to distribute a press release. There are lots of services presently available in spring, 2012 to distribute press releases. It must be noted, however, that contacting a market through a press release will produce a bunch of contacts from the press, itself. Any sales prospect contact will have to be forthcoming from readers of your press release who opt to reach out to you for contact. These responders will be much fewer in number than participants throughout the rest of the market.

The best use of telemarketing in the aftermath of a press release campaign is to call media contacts who received the press release through the campaign. Once again, time is of the essence. Therefore these reporters, etc. should receive calls no later than 72 hours after your press release has been opened.

If your firm would like to learn more about how to coordinate telemarketing with print marketing communications, then please contact Ira Michael Blonder at +1 631-673-2929 to further a discussion. You may also email Mike at imblonder@imbenterprises.com.

Social Media Communications will be Adopted by Enterprise Business

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Ira Michael Blonder

Opportunities to publicize products, promote sales and build prospect and customer relationships over electronic media should be exploited by tech innovators marketing products and/or services to enterprise businesses as well as large groups of users in the public and not for profit sectors. In fact, ignore these opportunities at your peril. When this group of buyers needs to purchase a solution they will research markets, and select purchasing options through online activities, including Internet search along with a review of web page content that speaks to their needs. All of this translates into a general tendency to reach out to sales at a later stage in a purchase decision, generally when pricing and availability need to be determined.

We need to presently add “gauging vendor reputation” to the above list. The fact is that social media is playing a significant role in the online behavior of buyers today. Therefore, tech innovators must maintain thorough familiarity with their online reputation as well as with prospect perception of product and services. After all, massive businesses like Dell Computers, HP, etc. have crafted social media features into their online customer support options. We think these companies gain important perspective on just how a marketplace perceives their brand through participation in these venues. Further, we think that certainly, over time, this specific class of buyers — enterprise business and large groups in the public and not for profit sectors — will make even more use of social media. The realities are that successfully implementing an internal Twitter, or FaceBook like online feature will cost substantially less than the cost of hosting legacy user conferences, etc.

These buyers are making the requisite effort to get these online social venues to work. For example, we have learned recently of a coming approval for NewsGator (http://www NULL.newsgator NULL.com), a social media add on for Microsoft® SharePoint® by a very large asset management firm headquartered here in the United States. This approval is important. The approval demonstrates that even within a heavily regulated business sector like Asset Management, businesses are taking the necessary steps to craft social media into authorized tools. In our opinion the obvious justification for this level of effort is the tremendous cost savings that these firms will realize through implementing a successful social program with their external counterparts, meaning prospects, customers and other industry participants.

We are very interested in this type of development. If your firm would like to learn more about this industry trend, then please contact Ira Michael Blonder at +1 631-673-2929 to further a discussion. You may also email Mike at imblonder@imbenterprises.com.

Content Marketing Delivers Valuable Results for Online Product Promotion

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Ira Michael Blonder

We have achieved high search engine rankings over a comparatively short period of time through regular online content marketing for client products and services. In a recent case we have taken a corporate blog from a PageRank of 0 to 3 in approximately 6 months. This same blog magnetized 1465 unique visits over 3 mos, from January 1, 2012 to April 1, 2012. Our missing piece (and we think a pervasive missing piece for online product marketing in general) is attracting visits for the right keywords. Not all key words are created the same. Identifying keywords that will stimulate promising visits from an appropriate segment of enterprise visitors is, therefore, a very important activity that will deliver valuable cost savings as compared to lost revenue or time lost ineptly pursuing weaker, less promising keywords.

An excellent first step with regard to choosing the right keywords is to locate the websites of market competitors. Of course, even this process of identifying the websites of market competitors is not as simple as it seems. In our experience, at the point at which we engage with clients few of them have correctly framed their value proposition for the market. In fact, many clients opt to work with us specifically around the task of framing their value proposition. We help them establish 3 critical assumptions:

Just what their unique value proposal happens to be for the market and
What is their average product production cost and
What their competition looks like and promises to look like in the near term future

Assuming for argument’s sake that steps 1 through 3 have been correctly completed, then the accompanying websites, blogs and online mention (with the exclusion of social media, which should be studied separately) need to be analyzed to glean a set of relevant keywords. The final collection of targeted keywords becomes, thereby, a combination of unique keywords suggested for a specific client, together with related keywords targeted by competitors.

Once a set of keywords have been collected we embark on an intense daily campaign of content production, usually through a blog. Each blog post includes a text call to action to provide site visitors with an accessible means of engaging with us directly from a blog post to learn further or, where it makes sense, to place an order for a client’s product and/or service.

Based on at least a month’s blog activity we decide which key words are working and adjust content creation plans accordingly. If you are considering an online content creation program to stimulate incoming prospect contact, then you should speak with us. Please contact Ira Michael Blonder at +1 631-673-2929 to further a discussion. You may also email Mike at imblonder@imbenterprises.com.

An Integrated Marketing Method is the Best Solution for Ongoing Production of Sales Leads

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Ira Michael Blonder

In 2012 an integrated direct marketing method is the best option for tech innovators who need to sell products and/or services to enterprise business and large groups of technology users in the public sector.

What Is Integrated Direct Marketing in 2012
We use the term integrated direct marketing to refer to simultaneous implementation of the following 6 product promotional tools:

Online Content including so-called web 1.0 and web 2.0 activities
Search Engine Optimization for targeted key words
Product Promotion via Social Media
Direct Mail Product Promotion
Telephone prospect contact including telemarketing and teleprospecting
In person prospect contact including visits, conference participation, etc

We are confident that tech innovators, regardless of market engagement strategy (under the radar vs overt), can successfully build long term sales leads programs through a product marketing program that includes each of the above 6 components

Why are 4 of the 6 tools specific to electronic media?
As the result of substantial improvements in the quality of information delivery methods, principally over Internet data communications protocols, more potentially relevant information is available to buyers than ever before at substantially lower cost. This information cornucopia, together with several years of global economic downturn, has spawned the development of “new” buyer who generally will not engage with sales personnel until:

Business needs have crystallized into a tangible form and
An Initial set of potential solutions have been collected that can satisfy (1)

Therefore, tech innovators need to build and manage online content that will appeal, persuade, convince tech buyers in 2012 to reach out to establish contact. This imperative does not preclude the use of direct marketing tools like targeted email, direct mail and outbound telephone contact campaigns. Rather, this imperative provides a complement that, depending upon specific milestones in a business plan, may, in fact, prove to be essential to the success of a business plan. To put it simply, ignore online to your peril in 2012.

If you share our point of view, then you should be able to understand why the best method of addressing these market realities for enterprise tech products is to either install an internal function vested with oversight over this integrated marketing method, or to secure the services of a firm that can outsource this function for your business. We think it makes total sense (in terms of cost) for early stage, funded, tech innovators to opt to outsource this function. We welcome opportunities to discuss this method. Please contact Ira Michael Blonder at +1 631-673-2929 to further a discussion. You may also email Mike at imblonder@imbenterprises.com.

Key Components of an Actual Cost Calculation for a Tech Sales Lead to an Enterprise Business Prospect

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Ira Michael Blonder

Quantifying the actual cost of a tech sales lead for an enterprise business prospect must include the following information to ensure a level playing field for comparison purposes:

a definition of a tech sales lead and
an accurate cost for any/all internal work that may be required to nurture the components of a sales lead — contact information and stage of lead maturity — to the status of an authentic lead

Without the above information an accurate cost of sales lead metric can not be produced.

A Definition of a Tech Sales Lead
We define a sales lead as an opportunity for a member of a client’s sales team to meet with a verified decision maker (or a committee vested with the same authority) who is actually pursuing solutions to a defined need that may include a client’s product or service. This meeting can take the form of a face to face visit, email exchange, telephone call, etc. What is important is that this meeting provides a natural opportunity for us to transition a sales lead to a client.

We define any other information that may be related to a sales lead, for example, contact name/title/telephone number/etc as components of a potential opportunity that may or may not produce a sales lead.

Our lead generation services clients have the option of purchasing components of potential selling opportunities or sales leads.

An Accurate Cost for Developing Sales Leads with Internal Resources from Opportunity Components
The actual cost for a tech innovator that opts to use internal resources to produce sales leads from opportunity components will vary substantially from tech innovator to tech innovator; therefore, we cannot quantify a fixed cost.

On the other hand, we do know that any/all sales leads that we deliver to clients have to pass through 7 preliminary steps (from an initial discussion all the way to a preliminary (unqualified) meeting between our team and presumed decision makers on a presumed requirement) prior to a transition from us to a client at step 8. Our experience indicates that, typically, well in excess of a man month of time can (and usually does) elapse from contact identification to client transition.
Depending upon the complexity of a client’s product, an interval as long as a year or longer may be required to successfully nurture conversations along to sales lead status.

Accordingly, for clients who understand the importance of factoring in the above information, our services deliver very high value. In fact, our services can be used as a powerful method of saving cash that would otherwise be expended on full time staff requirements. If you care to learn more about our offers, then please contact Ira Michael Blonder at +1 631-673-2929 to further a discussion. You may also email Mike at imblonder@imbenterprises.com.

Lead Generation Programs Should Produce Opportunity Rich Meetings for Sales Teams

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Ira Michael Blonder

Tech innovators focused on selling products and/or services to enterprise businesses and other large groups of users in the public sector should establish metrics to gauge the value delivered from lead generation programs. We think that recording the number of meetings with decision makers at targeted prospects who are in the market for relevant products and services is a useful metric for this activity. Of course, other objectives — for example, collecting the opinions of a market segment about pressing short term, or long term needs in a specific market place — will require different results for a determination of the actual value delivered from a lead generation program. Nevertheless, if driving sales is the overall objective of an investment in a lead generation program, then counting the number of meetings that match the above noted criteria makes a lot of sense.

In fact, there is little, if any reason to pay for anything less than these types of meetings. Paying for names and contact information for leads that are at an earlier stage of maturity; for example, without any identified needs or decision makers, will require sales personnel to assume the burden of lead development. We don’t think that sales personnel have the requisite skills required to nurture leads through the maturation process; therefore, otherwise promising opportunities may, in fact, result in a dead end that could be avoided had lead generation efforts finished their job.

Our lead generation efforts, therefore, deliver substantial value to our clients. The leads they receive are contacts within prospect businesses who have been completely verified as decision makers. Further, we have completely verified that prospects are in the market, at the point in time when we deliver leads, to purchase products and/or solutions that broadly approximate our client offerings. Finally, each lead is willing to meet with our client as a potential supplier for the sought after solution.

Sales personnel are free to pursue other promising opportunities while we undertake the nurturing required to manage a lead through a maturity cycle. The revenue they can, therefore, deliver while we handle lead generation in some cases exceeds the cost of our service. In these instances our offering is, indeed, a “gift that keeps on giving.”

We share the same method of establishing that a lead fits acceptance criteria with our clients to ensure that all parties are operating on the same principles. For example, we provide daily activity reports on all leads. These activity reports include a score for each lead. With leads scored our clients can determine likely lead pipeline volume as well as the amount of time that will be required to deliver a targeted volume of leads.

If you are in the market for the type of leads that we have described, then we would certainly like to speak with you. We offer monthly and annual plans. Please call Ira Michael Blonder at +1 631-673-2929 to further a discussion. You may also email Mike at imblonder@imbenterprises.com.

Implement a Lead Scoring System to Gain a Useful View of Revenue Prospects for Technology Products

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Ira Michael Blonder

Product marketing plans must include prospect profiles for businesses and related contacts. In parallel, a typical maturation cycle for leads must also be assembled. With a prospect profile and a typical lead maturity cycle in hand, then a scoring system can be implemented for leads. Through the application of this lead scoring system a useful picture of present, near term future and longer term future sales activity takes shape. This picture will become more valuable over time as more data is incorporated within calculations.

Using a scale of 1-10, where 1 represents the lowest value, a numeric value can be assigned to any and all leads. This numeric value directly correlates to a stage of lead maturity for a specific prospect interaction, as follows:

Gathering Information from Prospects
Communicating Information to Prospects
Formulating an Initial Needs Assessment for an Opportunity
Collecting a List of all Contacts within a Prospect who must be included in steps 1-3 above
Establishing the authenticity of decision makers as well as presumed requirements through additional conversations with contacts at the prospect business
Utilizing internal and external contacts to schedule a meeting with decision maker(s)
A meeting with contacts who appear to be decision maker(s) to discuss potential requirements for products and/or services
A meeting with a decision maker who needs to find a solution to a specific requirement for products and/or services manufactured by our company
Presenting this decision maker with a specific proposal, complete with cost information
An Engagement Letter is signed, or a purchase order is received for our product or service

Steps 1-6 in this maturity model are the responsibility of lead generation personnel. Step 7 can include lead generation and sales personnel. Steps 8-10 are entirely the province of sales personnel.

Utilizing this lead maturity model it is possible to obtain very efficient results from sales personnel who ought not be involved in steps 1-6. Sales activity should be categorized into each of the 10 steps. Usually, at an early stage of implementing this method, sales activities will overlap lead generation activities. Management can use this information to require changes in sales activity to eliminate duplication of effort. Indeed, for very early stage businesses with lots of leads scored as a 1-6 value, there is little need for sales involvement at all. Rather, we recommend that sales personnel utilize these early stages for product and market training. Better to leave the task of nurturing leads through stage 1-6 to lead generation experts who can be much more effective at this task.

IMB Enterprises, Inc. specializes in identifying sales leads for information technology companies targeting enterprise business and large user groups in the public sector. We nurture leads through stages 1 through 7. We collaborate with sales on stages 7 and 8. We offer monthly and annual services plans that will produce targeted lead levels to be determined by our clients. Please call Ira Michael Blonder at +1 631-673-2929 to further a discussion. You may also email Mike at imblonder@imbenterprises.com.

Include a psychological picture of sales and marketing candidates as standard operating procedure for innovative tech recruitment

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Ira Michael Blonder

Analyzing the results of personality testing tools like a Myers Briggs profile or the results of a Kuder vocational aptitude test is a worthwhile activity for recruiters who need to identify staff for innovative technology businesses. In our experience there are identifiable patterns of personality types with regard to assembling a composite picture of a “right” individual to either lead an innovative technology business or to fill a management requirement. The above mentioned tests can and will shed light as to whether or not an individual is a good candidate for targeted requirements.

Therefore, innovative technology businesses should have the resources to purchase recruiting services that provide, at a minimum, the results of these tests or acceptable substitutes. Deviating from the norm is not recommend with regards to choosing senior managers. Further, the internal hiring team should ideally include individuals who have experience recruiting winning teams of participants. If the members of the internal hiring team do not have this type of experience, then management should select a recruitment firm that can fill the gap.

Consistently adhering to these guidelines pays off. Simply consider the success of EMC Corporation in the mid 1990s. Many of the regional sales executives of EMC in the period of 1995 to 2000 pulled down compensation packages in the high 6 figures. Some of the regional executives earned 7 figure compensation. Of course, these compensation packages were the direct result of excellent performance to sales plans. The facts were that EMC was trouncing competitors across most markets; therefore, sales compensation was very attractive and entirely consistent with sales performance.

Much was said at the time about the competitiveness of EMC Sales staff; specifically, management had made a point of recruiting individuals who enjoyed competition, usually through sports. By carefully selecting a “right” personality type EMC sales management successfully assembled a super team of producers who more than delivered planned revenue targets.

If a joy in competition and, specifically, winning is an important personality trait for highly successful sales staff, then persistence against adversity, patience, and a dedication to merciless self reflection and a willingness to take counsel from a wide range of confidants is clearly characteristic of successful entrepeneurs in the tech business space.

As mentioned above, we highly recommend that innovative technology businesses pay close attention to staffing candidates to ensure that the candidate chosen for a position does, in fact, embody the personality traits required of the position. We can certainly help make the likelihood that such a choice becomes a reality. Please call Ira Michael Blonder at +1 631-673-2929 to further a discussion. You may also email Mike at imblonder@imbenterprises.com. We will be happy to show you why you should be thinking about the Internet and Social Media to engage with your marketplace.

Marketing, Promotion & Sales Consulting for Business

IMB Enterprises, Inc., Huntington, NY 11746 +1 (631) 673-2929, imblonder@imbenterprises.com