Sales & Marketing Effectiveness for Sustained Growth

Reasons to Contact Web Leads Within 5 Minutes

A business partner, David Svigel, Senior Consultant at MAARK Cleveland, pointed me to an interesting study that shows why web leads should be responded to ASAP. 

This study indicates that the odds of contacting a web lead by phone within 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drops 100 times. The odds of qualifying a lead if called within 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drops 21 times.
The study also provides data suggesting the best follow-up trends by days and time of day. However, possibly the most interesting point in the study, was that additional follow-up attempts after 20 hours may actually hurt your ability to make contact to qualify a lead.

Thank you, Insidesales.com/MIT for an interesting and thought provoking study.  The nine page study summary is worth the attention of anyone with a web lead form on your web site.

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Will Sales and Marketing Ever Get On the Same Page?

According to a recent article in the American Marketing Association’s publication, Marketing News, experts say complete alignment is unlikely, but point out that key objectives are imperative
Those objectives include:

• Determining and agreeing on what constitutes a qualified lead
• Defining the responsibilities of sales and marketing to one and other
• Collaborating on setting goals and building a consensus on key metrics
• Creating a system for marketing and sales to share customer data and leads’ progress

My opinion is that Marketing should be taking the lead – they drive lead development and customer loyalty.  and every company should keep striving to align their sales and marketing teams.  See previous blog post.

But, when all is said and done, the article states that probably the most important step is:
Don’t dwell on the differences between marketers and salespeople; instead, celebrate
the similarities.

Marketers and salespeople play different but complementary roles to accomplish shared objectives: attracting and retaining customers, says Lisa Dennis, president of Knowledgence Associates, a Cambridge, Mass.-based marketing, sales and customer service consulting firm with clients such as Mutual of Omaha and Unica. Dennis also is board president of the Boston chapter of the Sales and Marketing Executives International association.

With every customer interaction, sales reps are marketing the brand. Therefore, you want your sales team to feel a sense of ownership over the brand message they’re conveying, Dennis says, so get buy-in from your sales team before launching a new campaign. And as a marketer, you should be well-versed in your company’s sales process, so spend time in the field familiarizing yourself with what customers want and what sales reps need to get the job done. “As a marketer not knowing how sales works, I’ve got one arm tied behind my back,” Dennis says. “Your first customer is your sales team, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. If I give them what they need, they’ll do well and I’ll do well, and we’ll both get closer to the customer.”  Read Lisa's previous guest article, Cure “Deal-Blindness” by Applying a Territory or Account Map

I invite you readers to let me know what you think?  What are the chances of sales and marketing ever getting on same page? 

Wisdom from Marketers for Marketers

Once again, I must point out that nothing beats getting solid, down-to-earth advice from successful real-life marketers.  Well, except, maybe getting it for free!

Earlier this year, Marketing Sherpa released their 7th annual “Wisdom Report”, so if you haven’t heard about it yet, check it out and download it now. Their Marketing Wisdom for 2009 is packed full of real life stories, lessons learned and tips gathered from 101 marketers for marketers. 

The topics include email, search engine, B2B, lead generation, direct mail, metrics, customer service issues, and much more. 

You definitely don’t want to pass this up.  Plus, you don’t want to pass up logging onto the MarketingSherpa site at least once a week to review their marketing case studies, research, surveys, and access to free reports.  If you’re in the market for some great marketing advice and ideas, this is the place to go. 

Marketers Take Wrong Route to Revenue Opportunities

It appears that lack of existing customer insight and the tools to leverage that insight is creating a revenue roadblock for many marketers. 

Despite the critical need to leverage current customer knowledge, especially during this recessionary period, many marketers are throwing up their own obstacles to reaching solid, ready-and-waiting opportunities. 

Instead of concentrating on and maximizing their existing customer potential, too many marketers are spending their limited resources on acquiring new customers, while allowing their existing customers to fall by the roadside.  What a huge waste. 

According to a recent study titled, “Routes to Revenue”, conducted by the Chief Marketing Officer Council (CMO), and based on a survey of more than 650 senior marketers, an astounding 75.9% of these senior marketers believe they are not realizing the full revenue potential of their current customers.  Only 46.5% of the surveyed marketers feel they have good insights (note, not excellent) into retention rates, customer profitability and lifetime value. 

Additional study findings include:

• 22.3% lack real-time data and analytics from across all customer touch points

• 21% say that selectively gathered information is inaccurate or incomplete

• 15.5% cite problems with data silos and restrictions in availability and use across the organization

Marketers were also asked what strategies they are using to realize greater revenue and profitability from existing customers.  Top responses were:

• 60.1% - becoming more personalized, relevant and precise in customer communication

• 44.5%  - finding new ways to cross-sell or up-sell current accounts

• 41.0% -  addressing under-penetrated markets or new customer segments

• 32.20% - using more efficient channels or alternative media to engage customers

“Many marketers, and in most cases, the larger organizations, don't have the insight into their customer data to be able to determine what the opportunities are The constrained environment we have today will force marketers to do more analysis, get more data, get more insight and intelligence into their customers, and map strategies to up-sell, cross-sell, partner and be more inventive in the ways they engage with existing customers,” noted Donovan Neale-May, Executive Director of the CMO Council. 

Neale-May said there are three core areas marketers should be focusing on to improve their overall performance: customer insight, customer experience and customer advocacy.

“That is all about retention marketing and more individual retention management,” he said. “Most creative groups tend to see value in external programs, rather than looking at the customers they already have, the cost of acquiring customers, the value of the deal and whether they are targeting customers that are most predisposed toward the company or brand.

“These do not all require outside media or marketing dollars. They require much more drilling and integrating with the customer database and sales organizations.”

So, are you leveraging existing customer insight to maximize your revenue potential?
If not, then why not?

If you want some guidance on these issues, then take a few minutes to review the following. I am sure it will help. Download Sales & Marketing Effectiveness Overview 

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Still Flying Blind in 2009?

The new year is already tick-tocking away. You, now have only 11 months to identity and solve your biggest sales and marketing challenges.  

How well you leverage, integrate, share and view your customer data, marketing analysis and resulting reports will likely predict your company’s position in the marketplace at the end of 2009 and into well into 2010. 

Are you equipped with the right tools, customer intelligence and focus to succeed?   

If you can’t definitely say “Yes!”, then I suggest that you review the following: MARKETERS ARE FLYING BLIND WHEN IT COMES TO LEVERAGING CUSTOMER DATA AND ANALYTICS. Lack of Customer Data Sharing, Integration and Insight is Impacting Competitiveness, Retention Rates, Revenue and Profitability.

Next, check out The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council website at http://www.cmocouncil.org
and start tooling up with their free executive summary and/or full report, titled Business Gain From How You Retain.  This is an impressive study that surveyed more than 450 senior level marketers across the globe, with 72% being in North America. 

Although, the study was conducted and reported on several months back, I think it’s safe to say the issues and obstacles addressed remain a huge problem for companies of all sizes, in all industries, everywhere. The summary alone is extensive and packed full of value, while the full report provides significant ideas on how to succeed in 2009, 2010, 2011…you get the picture. 

Consider the following stats:

• The average company loses more than 10 percent of its customers each year.

• Acquiring new customers can cost five times more than satisfying and retaining current customers.

• A two percent increase in customer retention has the same effect on profits as cutting costs by 10 percent.

• Loyal customers are 15 times more likely to increase spend than high-risk, intermittent customers.

Then consider some of the study findings:

• Only 50 percent of global marketers report having a strategy for further penetrating or monetizing key account relationships

• A surprising 45 percent rate the effectiveness of customer relationship management (CRM) systems as deficient or needing more work

• Only 15 percent of companies rate themselves extremely good or effective at integrating disparate customer data sources and repositories.

• Just 50 percent report they have fair, little, or no knowledge of the customer.

• While more than 35 percent of respondents report that the CMO or marketing department (38.9 percent) has primary responsibility for the customer analytics function, they are not leveraging its value. Over 31 percent of those surveyed do no data mining at all and 63 percent are only doing moderate levels of data mining for intelligence and insight.

• Key initiatives to increase customer retention include improving customer communications (65.2 percent); addressing complaints, problems and pain points (51.8 percent); and enhancing the customer experience (54.8 percent). Unfortunately, fewer marketers noted their companies’ willingness to modify busin  ess practices and policies to accommodate customer need

According to the study:

The research demonstrates a disconnect between what marketers say they want to do and how well they are equipped to do it. For example, close to 50 percent of the respondents say they are improving customer retention by enhancing front-line customer service, while at the same time, only 55 percent report that their customer service and support teams have access to real-time customer data.

A fair number of survey participants (23 percent) say they’re able to acquire a sufficient amount of customer data but don’t have the ability to share the information, while 33 percent think that there is insufficient data as well as an inability to share.

Another way to put it is: If you don’t retain, you don’t gain.

Are you equipped to succeed in 2009?  What about 2010 and beyond?  Is your company still wearing blinders or are you flying with vision?

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Have You Wrapped Up That 2009 Marketing Plan?

If not, there is still time, but not much, to wrap it all up.  Keep in mind, there is no Santa coming to deliver a nice tightly wrapped marketing package outlining your plans for success in the coming year. 

If your 2009 plan is still on the table and you’re yet trying to determine effective strategies and dollars, I encourage you to peruse the following links to 2009 marketing trends, surveys, advice and predictions.  These resources could help you finalize an effective marketing plan for the coming year. You need a plan that puts you ahead of the pack next year…and years after. 

And, even for those of you who have finalized your 2009 marketing plans, you might find some valuable ideas that you could integrate into those plans. 

Changes to Marketing Spending and Strategy Coming in 2009
For some excellent insight on potential marketing budget and strategy changes coming in 2009, you must read this post on 1to1 Media’s blog – Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog .  This article provides the results of a survey of their readers and LinkedIn members on potential changes to their 2009 marketing budget and strategy.  The survey conducted by Ginger Conlon, Editor-in-Chief of Peppers & Rogers Group’s  1to1 Media, and article comments are a wealth of information that you can’t afford to miss.

How’s That 2009 Marketing Plan Coming?
Also, back in August, Ginger Conlon posted this article based on 10 trends offered by Richard Feldman, managing partner of Source Marketing that may impact marketing in 2009 and beyond. As Ginger stated, “Keeping tabs on trends can help”. 

Media Alert: ANA Reveals 2008 Annual Conference Polling Results
Check out the results of a poll conducted by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) during their 2008 Annual “Masters of Marketing” Conference.  The 1200 attendees, including a mix of B-to-B and B-to-C marketers, were polled about their marketing mix, budgets, plans and tactics for growth in 2009.  Learning what other marketers are planning may help you with your 2009 marketing strategies. 

What won’t fly in that 2009 marketing plan
For some great suggestions and additional resources to help you solidify your 2009 marketing plan, read this post published on the Red on Marketing blog built by Business Communications Group.  The post covers several specific 2009 marketing strategy questions along with some good answers, ideas and additional marketing links/resources.  You don’t want to pass this by. 

Survey Says: Nearly 43 percent of healthcare marketers plan to spend more in 2009
Details of the survey were posted by Mac McIntosh, president of Mac McIntosh Incorporated, a sales and marketing consulting firm.  While the survey is centered on healthcare marketing, healthcare is a huge growing industry and a glimpse into what some healthcare marketers are planning and spending in 2009 could provide some great insight into marketing strategies for any industry. It’s a great read and may show you how to apply their strategies into your own.  Mac’s post also includes a one-question 2009 marketing budget survey which provides a comparison between 2008 and 2009 marketing budgets. 

Marketing Into The Storm: How The Recent Crisis Will Create New Opportunities 
This article by Mike Gospe, Co-Founder of KickStart Alliance puts forth three marketing truths that companies need to embrace and act upon in order to achieve success and excel in 2009.  Great advice for the coming year and all the time. 

Strategic Thinking 3.0 - A media forecast for 2009 
These 2009 media predictions offered by Nick Brien is president and CEO of Mediabrands provide some valuable opinions about marketing in 2009.  Although, this forecast seems to embrace advertising firms, it is valuable for all companies since many B-toB and B-to-C organizations use ad agencies for much of their marketing efforts.  Definitely worth your time. 

InfoGrow Corporation Website and Blog 
Last, but hopefully not least, is my company’s website and blog. I invite you to visit both sites and look over the solutions we provide to all companies everyday in order to help them achieve sales & marketing effectiveness.  Solutions that worked 20 years ago, will work in 2009 and in the future. 

I hope these links/resources are of value to your marketing efforts in 2009 and years after.

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for the New Year

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Some Industries Thrive During Hard Times

Good news!  There are those industries that actually grow during tough economic times, so opportunities still abound for your sales and marketing people. Just need to know where to look. 

I’m not sure any industry is what I would call recession-proof, but according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there were 72 industries that grew throughout the recessions of 1990, 2001 and, again, in 2007.  Based on the BLS statistics, these industries are the most likely ones to continue growth now and in the future. 

Among the industries that have typically thrived during recessions are:

• Healthcare
• DIY industry for hardware, supplies
• Debt management
• Consulting
• Energy

There are lots more and you can find a complete list at Career Hub.  You can also find more information on these recession-proof industries at BizChicksRule, Yahoo! HotJobs, Wikipedia, plus numerous other places. 

So, check out the links above and do your own search for other valuable lists.  No doubt, you will get some ideas on how to better focus your sales and marketing efforts, find new and better prospects, and most important, thrive also. 

As I stated in my last post, Hard Times Require Hard Work, a slow economy shouldn’t slow your marketing efforts. 

And, if you have an idea or suggestion of any other recession-proof type industries, add a comment and let us all know.  There is enough business for everybody, even during hard times.  We just need to know where to look and see the opportunities. 

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Driving Sales to Existing Customers Takes a Marketing Dive

According to a joint study by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and BtoB Magazine, the marketers’ role is evolving beyond their primary function of communications.  The survey, conducted in February and March by research firm Guideline, is a follow-up to a previous ANA survey, which found that 70% of marketing organizations have been reorganized in the last 3 years. 

In the newest survey, B-to-B marketers were asked which best described their pre and post organization functions.  Following is a summary of the results:

Marketing Communications
  -  62% pre
  - 47% post
Responsible for Strategy / Innovation
  - 14% pre
  - 24% post
Drive Sales to Existing Customers
  - 14% pre
  -  7% post
Direct New Business Development
  - 10% pre
  - 23% post

While it’s refreshing to see that B2B marketers might finally be recognized for making large contributions to business growth, I’m amazed that the role of B2B marketing in driving sales to existing customers was cut in half! Plus, this function in B2C marketing also took a 3% dive. It was equally surprising that neither ANA or BtoB mentioned this change while discussing the survey results. 

Have marketers forgotten that retaining and driving sales to existing customers is critical to business success?  If you’re not driving sales to existing customers and giving them a reason to stay with you, your competition will certainly give them a reason to leave. Customer retention, which includes cross-selling and up-selling propels profits.  Most surveys, across all industries, prove that keeping one existing customer is 5-7 times more profitable than acquiring one new customer.

So, why did this survey show that the marketing role in driving sales to existing customers was cut in half?  Does that mean companies don’t place a marketing emphasis on this function?  If marketing isn’t driving sales to existing customers, who is? 

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The Sorry State of Lead Management

Getting new leads is great, but turning them into lifetime customers is what counts.  The biggest challenge facing companies today is the art of turning prospects into lifelong customers and those customers into company advocates.  And, the first critical step in that process is how you manage your sales leads. 

Unfortunately, a recent study from the Sales Lead Management Association (SLMA)  shows that many companies are ignoring their sales lead management.  Their 2nd annual Sales Lead Management Study, conducted with 144 businesses in Southern California, revealed the following results:

• 68.8% don’t qualify leads before sending them to their sales teams
• 52.4% have no formal process for compiling sales forecast reports
• 82.8% don’t track ROI for lead generation investments
• 55% rated low satisfaction with their SFA/CRM system, at 5 or less on a 10-point scale
• 52.1% use no SFA/CRM system to track the lead process

If 52% are not using a CRM system, is anyone surprised by the survey results?  One would think that with all the CRM technology and sales lead management expertise available, that numbers like those above would be a thing of the past.  However, after all these years, it is still the norm and not the exception. 

Aren’t marketing efforts and dollars spent, whether it is direct mail, websites, trade shows, branding, or advertising, for the purpose of generating leads?  How much money do companies lose by not managing those leads?

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Trade Shows Remain a Marketing Priority

According to BtoB Magazine’s “2008 Marketing Priorities and Plans” survey of 213 B2B marketers, trade show marketing is slated for a 49.5% budget increase this year. 

In addition, CMO Council’s 2008 Marketing Outlook indicates that Event and Trade Show budgeting expenditures are among the top 5 areas of marketing allocations for 2008. 

Yes, trade shows are here to stay despite tough economic times. How can you successfully promote your trade show in a down economy? 

Francis J. Friedman in "Surviving A Down Economy - Take steps now to ready your show for what lies ahead" published in EXPO Magazine, provides some useful tips to consider.

TIPS FOR PROMOTING YOUR SHOW IN A DOWN ECONOMY

1. Write for the CFO
Many attendees need permission to attend a trade show. Your pre-show brochures need to be the sales tool that enables an attendee to visit your show. Pre-show promotions need to be written as if you are speaking directly to the CFO asking for travel money. Be specific and benefit oriented. Answer the question: What will I take home and put to work if I attend your show?

2. Showcase new as problem solving
People attend trade shows to see what’s new. In a down economy, new has to be re-cast as problem solving in pre-show brochure copy. By presenting new in the context of helping to solve problems, a trade show becomes more relevant to its industry and better able to justify CFO travel approval.

3. Engage exhibitors to promote the show
Most shows already encourage pre-show exhibitor promotion. In a down economy, however, this activity needs increased attention by show management. Exhibitor customer service reps should tout free pre-show promotion tools. Continuing exhibitor pre-show follow-up will be necessary to ensure these tools are actually implemented.

4. Engage the facility and the city
A fall-off in economic impact from a show hurts a city and a facility. Many facilities and cities can provide in-kind services to help organizers promote their show. These services can include attendee telemarketing, e-mail blasts, blogs, links from their Web sites to your show and CVB newsletters. Ask what they can do to help market your show

If trade shows are part of your marketing plans, this article is a priority read.      

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When Your ‘Nice’ Customer Fires You By Spending Elsewhere

• A customer who has had 1-2 bad experiences will tell up to 20 people
• A satisfied customer may tell 5 other people
• It costs 5 times more to attain a new customer than to keep one you already have
• Just 4% of your customers will bring a complaint to your attention, so for every complaint you hear about, there are probably dozens you haven’t heard about. 

My marketing support manager has been reading over older sales and marketing materials. I have to say, though she keeps abreast, she is not always agreeable with advancing sales and marketing technology.  She insists that, even with all the available current tools, nothing has truly changed in how sales, marketing, customer service, indeed, the entire company attains and keeps customers. 

Yes, she agrees, the tools can help, but without the major understanding of what constitutes a customer and their needs, why bother with the technology?  To her, understanding the customer is what sales, marketing, customer service; in fact, the whole company should be about. 

In her opinion, without customers and their loyalty, there would be no companies, no products, no CEOs, CFOs, COOs, VP Marketing, VP Sales, no newsletters, no blogs, no new products, no podcasts, no social networking, no webinars, no whatever they come up next with.  Without customers, there is nothing – companies simply don’t exist. 

In keeping with that, I’d like to introduce a short article, actually something she took from another source, and printed years ago in a company newsletter. 

The ‘Nice’ Customer Who Never Complains — and Never Comes Back!

You know me.  I’m a nice person.  When I get lousy service, I never complain.  I never kick.  I never criticize and I wouldn’t dream of making a scene. 

I’m one of those nice customers.  And I’ll tell you what else I am.  I’m the customer who doesn’t come back.

I take whatever you hand out, because I know I’m not coming back.  I could tell you off and feel better, but, in the long run, it’s better just to leave quietly. 
 
You see, a nice customer like me, multiplied by others like me, can bring a business to its knees.

There are plenty of us.  When we get pushed far enough, we go to one of your competitors.
Source-(Celin-o-gram, Celina Group, 1 Insurance Square, Celina, OH 45822 )      

How many “nice” customers do you have? 

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Does It Take a Recession Threat to Shape Up Marketing Efforts?

I keep reading articles, blog posts, and newsletters packed with advice for marketers on how to ride-out the recession, economic downturn, revenue slow-down, tough times, or whatever one decides to call this unsure economy. 

The following are all great marketing tips, but does it take the threat of a recession to shape up our marketing efforts?

• Stay in close touch with your current customers and make sure you know everything you can about these target accounts.
• Keep a good eye on your competitors.  Learn their strengths, weaknesses, long and short-term goals.
• Reactivate your old leads and tighten up communications to those leads you’ve been slowly nurturing.
• Prioritize your marketing budget. Decide what you must have, what would be nice to have, and what you can do without. 
• Motivate and reward your sales teams with programs and qualified leads that encourage them to excel.
• Target wisely.  Don’t waste precious time and resources on those not likely to buy; instead focus on your most profitable customers and prospects.
• Strengthen relationships with your existing customers and business partners.
• Segment your customer base and measure lifetime profitability value and overall sales.
• Don’t cut back on marketing and advertising because your competition is likely holding back now. You have the playing field.

This last one gives me hesitation, though I read this tip everywhere. I truly doubt that anybody’s competition is sitting on the sidelines right now, or ever. I would say to spend more wisely by focusing correctly and that will get you ahead in any times. 

I find it interesting reading all of the “how-to-market-in-a-recession advice,” but one BIG thought strikes me.  Actually, it makes me worry. Shouldn’t marketers be performing all of these activities regardless of economics?  Isn’t that just good marketing? 

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Marketing Wisdom

Nothing beats getting solid, down-to-earth advice from real-life marketers.  Except, maybe getting it for free!

Marketing Sherpa has released their 6th annual “Wisdom” report.  This invaluable report is packed full of real life stories, lessons learned and tips gathered from marketers for marketers.

Included are topics on email marketing, business-to-business, lead generation, direct mail, business-to-consumer, and much more. 

It’s definitely a must read, so if you haven’t done so already, download your free copy of Marketing Wisdom for 2008 here.

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It's Not Too Late To Set Your B2B Marketing Goals For 2008

Yes, January is over, but for those of you who haven’t done so yet, it’s still a good time to establish goals that will increase your sales and marketing effectiveness throughout the year and, for that matter, the years to follow.

With that in mind, I encourage those of you who are getting a late start, to visit Todd Ebert’s blog – Bad Marketing, The good, the bad and the ugly of B2B marketing, and ideas on improving it.  Todd offers some great ideas on how to improve your marketing efforts in this new year. 

I especially like (though all are valuable) the idea about reviewing your marketing/customer database for completeness.  If you choose to do nothing else, do this! Without accurate data and consistent quality updates, chances are you are slowly losing customers and prospects.  Read more about this issue in my Sept. 19, 2007 post, When Was the Last Time You Reviewed the  Completeness of Your Data? 

In addition, I’d like to add a few other suggestions that can make a substantial impact on your marketing efforts and bottom line. 

Get your sales and marketing teams working together - Develop and implement an effective lead generation process.  Begin with the basics such as: what constitutes a good lead, what are the steps in qualifying a lead, how should marketing track the leads they distribute, how should sales provide feed-back on the leads they receive, how do they best both close the loop. 

Sharpen your focus on your best customers – Perform a comprehensive database analysis to determine who your best customers are and where they are, and use that information to find more prospects like them.  There is nothing more important when searching for leads than profiling and ranking your best customers in order to determine where you should be investing your targeted marketing efforts and sales reps’ time. 

Break down your data silos – Pull together information from your multiple customer information sources (accounting systems, customer service, POS systems, sales reps) into one database that can be accessed and shared by all employees who interact with the customer.  This provides a single view of the customer; identifies key sales drivers, trends, issues and cross-sell/up-sell opportunities; maximizes lead management.

Analyze your trade area(s) – Whether your customer base is retail, commercial or a mix of both, understanding where your customers are in relation to your stores, branches, distributors or sales reps is key to focusing your marketing efforts. Understanding who in your proximate area are NOT your customers helps you identify new prospects and concentrate your budget on your best opportunities.

I welcome any tips you’d like to share on improving a company’s sales and marketing efforts.

Have a great year!

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What’s Your Opinion of the AMA’s New Marketing Definition? Can You Do Better?

The new definition reads: "Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large."

Here are some bits and pieces of various comments I’ve read regarding this new definition.

• “has the AMA ever heard of the KISS principle?”
• “about as useful as a straightened paper clip"
• “sounds like it was written by academics”
• “meaningless crapola”
• “use English instead of jargon”
• “I have no idea what it means”
• “makes it difficult for non-marketers to take us seriously”
• “classic committee-created definitions”
• “too many words used to say nothing”
• “perfect example of what is wrong with most marketing”
• “makes me pass out in boredom”
• “the 1935 definition was much better”
• “I’d hate to hear their elevator speech”
• “Is there a typo in the definition?  Or is it really this tedious?”

Of course, I’ve read a few (very few) positive comments.  Unfortunately, those read like the new definition itself – wordy, vague, and difficult to understand. I quit reading after the first sentence or two. 

Why not try your hand at forming a definition of marketing and share it with us.  Maybe you can help the AMA out with their next attempt at defining marketing which is slated for 2012.

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Does Your CFO Understand the Value of Marketing?

We all keep reading about sales & marketing being on different planets, or some such adage, but an equally important issue, especially to marketers, is the disconnect between finance and marketing.  Forget the planets – these two entities are in separate galaxies, speaking entirely different languages. 

As indicated by MarketingSherpa research, “ if you run marketing for a business technology firm, your salary, your staff and your entire marketing budget represent – on average – only 3% of total company annual revenues.  Only 17% of B-to-B marketers we queried were sure their CFOs understood the value of lead generation programs."

In a September 6, 2007 B2B article, ANA/MMA study finds greater need for alignment between marketing and finance, by Carol Krol, she sites the results of a 2007 study conducted by the Association of National Advertisers in conjunction with Marketing Management Analytics, a marketing measurement company. “The study found that a relationship between marketing and finance is often lacking. Sixty-one percent of marketers surveyed for the study said there is “some” cooperation between the two departments when establishing metrics and methodologies for measuring marketing ROI, while only 22% said there was “full” cooperation. In addition, 42% of marketing executives said they are dissatisfied with marketing ROI measurements within their company, up seven percentage points from last year’s study, while 45% said their organization lacks marketing ROI definitions (up 20 percentage points).”

The survey was distributed online, in partnership with Guideline Research, and surveyed over 200 senior-level marketers/ANA members. The 2007 ANA Marketing Accountability Committee, formerly a task force, is comprised of 57 ANA member companies including IBM, Coca-Cola. Microsoft, ING, and Nestlé USA. 

In addition, an informed survey conducted among 16 of the 200 attendees at the September 2007 ANA Marketing Accountability Conference revealed that approximately one-third of respondents said marketing’s representation on the board of directors was 20% or less; about equal numbers sited frequent or minimal contact with their CFO; one-quarter said they never see the board of directors and half see them only one or two times a year.    

Marketing and finance are equally crucial for building and maintaining a successful company. Both need to learn the other’s language and communicate often in order to understand their mutual initiatives for growing sales.  Marketing needs to do a better job of proving its value as a revenue producer and finance needs to treat marketing as an asset rather than an expense.  After all, marketing feeds sales and sales feeds the company.  Without either, the CEO and CFO cannot meet the growth objectives of the company. 

Are you a marketing VP or CMO? If so, please share your experiences or opinion on this issue.

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Word From The Marketing Masters

The Association of National Advertisers Conference - The Masters of Marketing - took place in October 2007.  This year’s premiere event for senior marketers, chief marketing officers and marketing industry thought leaders, was centered around the theme, “Transforming the Marketing Landscape”.   

Through various electronic polling devices, attendees were asked for their opinions and participation. Following are some of the results: 

Where will companies see the largest increase in investment?
   - 49% Web Advertising
   - 17% Direct Marketing
   - 11% Sales Promotion
   - 7% PR
   - 6% Search Engine Optimization
   - 10% Other

What will mean the most to marketers? (Top scorers)
   - 33% Creative
   - 31% Marketing Analytics

Which marketer will be most trusted?
   - 52% The one with the best analytics
   - 48% The one with the next “big idea”

How important is user-generated content to brand marketing?
   - 49% Essential
   - 46% Worth a Shot
   - 5%  A shot in the dark

Which trend was over-hyped in 2007? (Top scorers)
   - 31% Widgets
   - 30% Mobile

The 30-second ad is:
   - 70% Its (disappearance) is exaggerated
   - 8% Dying
   - 7% Dead
   - 8% Other

Do any of you top marketing executives have opinions on the above or other topics to address? 
    

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What is Your B2B Sales & Marketing Wish List for 2008?

There was a great article published in 2003, by Mac McIntosh of Sales Lead Experts.com, titled Wish lists for B2B marketing & sales.  Mac’s article is very insightful and there is probably not much difference in the wishes throughout the last 5 years.  Will these wishes be fulfilled within the next 5 years?   

As far as wishes go, my big wish is to solidify the data silos. To the farmer, silos are structures used to store and separate various materials like grain.  In the sales & marketing world, ‘silos’ describes the condition where customer information is stored in an assortment of places (with sales reps, account system, on post-it notes).  With data silos, users do not have available that one view of the customer.  My wish is for one database where sales, marketing and customers are on the same page, truly knowing the customer and building that long-term relationship. 

I invite you to make known your sales & marketing wish for 2008.      

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Solid Marketing Tips

I get a lot of value out of Marketing Sherpa’s research and publications.  For those of you who don’t know, Marketing Sherpa is a business research firm that focuses on the marketing profession.  Their name refers to the Sherpas, or mountain guides from India and Nepal who have led summiteers to the top of Mount Everest.  Their goal is to be your friendly native guides who help make your tough climb toward great marketing results a bit easier by handing you research on 'what works.

They consistently produce some of the best research and marketing advice available, so I want to let my readers know that their 2007 Marketing Wisdom Report can be obtained, for free, here at http://wisdom.marketingsherpa.com.  The 2007 Marketing Wisdom Report features 110 real-life stories and tips from professional marketers. 

This is MarketingSherpa's fifth annual Marketing Wisdom Report. Each year's edition is read by more than 237,000 marketing and advertising professionals and is packed full of valuable marketing tips and advice.

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