Selling in Hard Times

By Geoffrey James

Last week, I featured three interviews with Howard Stevens, CEO of the sales-oriented research group HR Chally, about the challenges of selling during a recession. After I posted them, Howard contacted me to say that he'd recently interviewed sales uber-guru Neil Rackham on this very subject, and that he could get me a clip. Here's the clip, which is definitely worth watching...probably more than once.

Please click screen shot below to play the video.

Source: Sales Machine Blog, BNET Business Network, www.bnet.com

Sales and Marketing in an Economic Meltdown

In a sick sort of way, I embrace economic downturns. When the economy and our businesses are humming along, many of us have the tendency to get a little complacent. We all work hard in good times and in bad, but in better economic climates we do have the luxury of spending time on more lofty notions and we often spread our time, energies and resources too thin.

Challenging times force us to focus our energies and resources in very targeted manners. My professional experience has shown that if we keep our cool and if we are strategic, we will come out at the end stronger and leaps and bounds ahead of where we were prior to the downturn.

The reality is that in times of uncertainty, people become nervous and scared. When we are nervous we have the tendency to do really dumb things—we shut down (I will put my head in the sand and wait for the storm to blow over), we become erratic (something will work if I try enough different things) or we become too cautious (my job will be safe if I just don’t mess anything up).

Now, we are all intelligent people. For most organizations, a period that is being dubbed as “the gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression” is probably not the time to go to management requesting funds for unfocused, grandiose ideas. However, this is most definitely the time to think long and hard about what we want our organizations to look like in six months when the economy is in recovery. In six months or so when the sun is projected to begin shining on the economy again, do we want our organizations and our strategies to be gutted, or for our customers and competitors to see us as weak and without resolve?

Or, do we want to confidently stride out into the sunlight after having spent difficult months working closely with key partners, after having strategically kept our sales pipelines moving and after having given thoughtful consideration to our organizations’ futures?

The following are six thoughts for managing sales and marketing efforts in this challenging economic environment.

1. Remember Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs from Psychology 101? Maslow asserts that we cannot move up the pyramid of human desires without fulfillment of the needs underneath.

Thankfully, most of us have our basic physiological needs met. We are breathing, we have food and water, and maybe we are even getting some sleep. So, let’s move up to safety. Do most of us feel safe right now? Many of us probably do not and our customers don’t either. The times are very uncertain. So, our sales and marketing messaging should focus on making our customers and prospects feel that working with us is the safe choice. Maybe you are the leader in the market for your products or services—leaders are a safe choice. Make sure that your customer and prospects know that you are a leader.

Maybe you organization is smaller and more nimble than that of the market leaders. You offer the ability to assure your customers and prospects that you will work very hard to make certain that their needs are specifically met—also a safe choice.

2. In uncertain times you do need to make your customers and prospects feel that you are a safe choice, now is not the time to become silent. Keep communicating, let them know that you are alive, healthy and weathering the storm.

3. Tough times dictate that we should all work closely with key partners. This is not the time to spread time and energy resources around foolishly. Whether we use this approach for working with customers, vendors or both, we need to use our energies and perhaps diminished resources to their best effect.

4. To quote Warren Buffet, “Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful.” In times like these, people are fearful. Your competitors become scared and make bad decisions. Although this is not the time to spend money like a drunken sailor (unless you are the government or are “too big to fail”), move forward bravely and thoughtfully. If you take this approach it will take your competitors months to catch up, if they ever do, when the economic environment improves.

Interestingly, according an Inc. magazine article, recessions are often the best times to start a business—“Starting a business in a recession is like vacationing in the off season.” Some of today’s leading businesses—Microsoft, FedEx, CNN, GE, HP—were founded in periods of recession. If HP, founded during the Great Depression or GE, founded in the wake of The Panic of 1873, survived, thrived and grew into the juggernauts that they are today, is it reasonable to say that this might be a good time for us to think about pulling the trigger on a new product or service idea?

5. When times are good many value statements in our sales and marketing messages focus on helping customers to grow their businesses. During challenging times, our messaging needs to focus on minimizing risk, saving money, providing measurable and concrete results. This does not mean that we should automatically lower our pricing, but it does mean that we need to focus on utilizing our products and services to help our customers feel secure , to reach measurable goals and to help them to stretch their resources. Do your products/services save labor costs, help to better manage assets, save time, decrease waste, save energy? If so, this is a great time for this messaging.

6. Rethink trade show and conference activities. My trade show and conference organizer friends are going to kill me. However, it has been said that marketing budgets are always the first to be slashed. I don’t think that this is true anymore. From my observations, travel budgets are now the first to be slashed. The first measure many companies now take in uncertain economic climates is to implement travel restrictions. This means trade show and conference attendance will be lighter especially in the first half of 2009.

This could mean that we should not decrease trade show exhibition and conference sponsorship participation, but rather take advantage of lighter traffic and have more involved conversations with the customers who are in attendance. On the other hand, maybe it means we should reel in our presence at trade shows and conferences and spend energies and resources communicating with our office-bound customers and colleagues. Perhaps online opportunities or other elements of the marketing mix might be more effective in reaching these customers and prospects.

Hopefully, this post sparked an idea or two. We will all get through these challenging times. I am just thankful to be working in an industry that, at its heart, is fairly recession proof. At least we are not selling products and services to housing developers—talk about indigestion. Yet another bright point, as members of an industry that treats indigestion…opportunities abound.

Reduce “Reverse Spam”

An effective landing page is a terrific way to generate specific action by your target customers via a specific message or offer. Most often, landing pages are used for some type of lead generation purpose.

A landing page should create a landing experience that portrays the value that your target customer will receive if they take action.

We always should keep in mind that lead generation is a moneyless transaction scenario. Your target customer "pays" for the information you are offering with their contact information. You are working to hit lead generation objectives by “selling” information of value to your target customer in order to receive their contact information.

If the information you are offering (white paper, demo, podcast, webinar, videocast, etc.) is not in line with, or is not perceived to be in line with the information you require to access the information, the prevalence of "reverse spamming" will be much higher. Reverse spamming is a when your prospective customer gives false contact information so that they can access your information without really "paying” for it.

There is no question that a prospective customer is less likely to "reverse spam" when they feel confident that the information being offered is of value and the information is being presented by a respected and viable solutions provider.

Four specific ways to reduce "reverse spam" in your next lead generation effort:

1. Implement well-rounded, integrated marketing programs. Prospective customers will be much more likely to give you accurate contact information if they know and respect your company. Branding efforts either offline or online increase familiarity with and respect for your company and your solutions.

2. Create compelling landing pages. Offer enough provocative information in the headline, graphics and body copy of the landing page to "sell" your target customer on the value of the information you are providing.

3. Keep the information you are asking for (required fields) in proportion to the value of the information you are offering. For example, access to a product demo is probably not as valuable as access to a research report on a pressing industry issue. Therefore, you likely should ask for a little information to access a product demo, but can ask for more to access the research report.

4. Consider a multi-page landing page in order that you can more specifically target a customer's interests and information needs. Via a multi-page landing page you can offer different information based on the customer's job function/area of responsibility, their current challenges and other factors.

For more information about creating effective landing pages, the following is a great blog that offers a lot of insight and discussion:

www.nomorelandingpages.com

Earth Friendly Trade Show Promotion Idea

I must confess that I have become somewhat of a minimalist and a quasi tree hugger. This probably would have been a more convenient and fashionable state of being in my college years. I could have participated in demonstrations, attended poetry readings and basked in youthful self-righteousness. Owning a minimal number of possessions in college is pretty common. I could have positioned myself as being liberally cool rather than just broke.

However, in my college years I was much more closely aligned with the Young Republicans crowd and concerned myself with making Phi Beta Kappa, the shine on my penny loafers and frat parties. The state of the world around me was fairly far from my mind.

This description of my youth is somewhat of an over exaggeration, but in recent years I have become progressively more concerned about environmental, ethical business, political and human rights issues.

My minimalist tendencies are probably in large part driven by the fatigue created by continually dealing with “stuff.” Constantly picking up the stuff in my house, trying to organize the stuff and spending time getting rid of the stuff I don’t use. Frankly, I am tired of stuff.

This “stuff management fatigue” does tie in nicely to my true concern about the state of our planet. We have become so obsessed by accumulating more and more possessions that it is taking a very real toll on our environment.

With this mindset I was incredibly heartened when earlier this year I met Healthcare Communications Group (HCG), a clinical trial patient recruitment company. At the Drug Information Association (DIA) Annual Meeting HCG featured their Ribbons for Research Memory Wall in their booth. In lieu of traditional trade show giveaways, HCG makes a donation to one of 16 different medical research organizations in the name of each individual who stops by their booth. In my opinion, this is a great way to engage potential customers in conversation, donate money to great causes, generate tradeshow leads and reduce the number of the petroleum-based chachkis that often hit our landfills shortly after they are acquired.

In 2007 HCG donated nearly $14,000 to the 16 different organizations included in Ribbons for Research.

More information about Ribbons for Research can be found at www.ribbonsforresearch.com. HGC encourages other companies to implement Ribbons for Research programs at various trade events and has created an easy to implement program for those who do not wish to reinvent the program already created.

I cast no judgment on the many great companies, including many of our clients, that take a more traditional approach to trade show premiums. We all need to do what we feel is most effective for our businesses. However, in past years I have taken home enough squishy balls and mouse pads to last me for the rest of my life.

While I pass no judgment, please do not be offended if I politely decline one of these items at the next trade show—my storage closets will thank you for your understanding.

2009 Pharmaceutical Industry Priorities, Concerns and Opportunities

As we all begin to think about, prepare and plan for 2009, I thought that it made sense to take an “informational temperature” of the pharmaceutical industry—what are the top priorities, concerns and opportunities as we position ourselves for a new year.

This was not a formal, statistically projectable study. Rather, it was based on my firm belief that if you ask any handful of smart, qualified people a question, you will get an awfully good idea of what is really happening out there. I have found that my LinkedIn network is a very conducive tool for conducting these dialogs, so if you are interested in participating in mini dialogs every few weeks and in seeing what your peers and industry counterparts have to say, feel free to pop me a LinkedIn invitation. I believe you will find the following insights interesting, however, because this questioning was not conducted within the context of a formal research study, there are likely industry functions that are underrepresented.

Without further ado, the following are the Top 10 priorities, opportunities and concerns for the manufacturing, operational and development areas of the pharmaceutical industry in 2009 (the list is presented in David Letterman style descending order).

#10
Availability of patient populations to support the growing number of clinical trials, coupled with regulatory pressures forcing companies to undertake more clinical trials.

#9
The cost of capital is anticipated to rise in 2009 warranting a close look at how to improve operational efficiencies.

#8
Navigating increasing cost pressures on western manufacturers due to increased Indian and Chinese manufacturing input. Competitive impacts from fast growing international regions such as India are increasing and from new virtual companies aggressively formulating generics as patents erode

#7
Managing and preventing (as much as possible) Intellectual Property rights violations in markets like China are a real concern. As the U.S. and European markets become more and more active in China, knock-offs will have to be increasingly contended with.

#6
The uncertainty of the current regulatory environment is a factor on the industry’s mind. In addition, responding effectively to increased regulatory demands is a priority.

#5
Working to develop serialization/pedigree programs and technologies to improve supply chain security.

#4
Determining how to fill the pipeline with innovative new products within an industry environment that is sometimes more focused on M&A activity and other financial moves rather than supporting true innovation.

#3
Adopting Quality by Design (QbD) principles to assure a more risk-based approach to pharmaceutical development and manufacturing.

#2
Adopting LEAN planning/production principles, increasing efficiencies in manufacturing/production

#1
(This is a BIGGY—nearly universally at the top of the list of all who participated in this dialog—no surprise to anyone given the events of 2008)

Maintaining quality, cGMP compliance and supply chain integrity amongst all supply chain participants particularly when working with partners in developing regions such as China and/or India. The industry is working to redefine the risk/reward ratio of outsourcing to partners in developing nations--if the risk is sizeable, the reward must also be sizeable.

“It is my personal opinion that an adequate strategic vision of the outsourcing dynamics is going to be one of the major challenges for the next future; nowadays the balance between owned manufacturing facilities versus the TPM facilities is rapidly going to the latter, increasing the need of continuous support to the cGMP standards compliance management of the externalized network; this could be a demanding exercise, requiring focused resources able to well judge the business demand versus the compliance expectations, streamlining the effort required to maintain the highest level of control without drifting the related costs.”

-Compliance/External Audits Director, Leading Pharmaceutical Company

Information Consumption Preferences--Another Marketing Segment?

I think we can agree, marketing used to be a whole lot easier. We have all heard the story. There used to be three television networks, a few local radio stations and newspapers, and a handful of national magazines. From a marketing and media standpoint, the landscape was pretty simple—a marketer could reach 90% of America with media placements within a few media vehicles. Now, there are hundreds of cable television stations, thousands of magazines, satellite radio, millions of web sites….

There are strong parallels within the B2B marketing and media landscape.

Thousands of B2B industry publications, thousands more websites, new conferences popping up, webinars, podcasts…. B2B information sources are segmented very narrowly by industry, industry segment, job function and other classifications.

Crossties, a bi-monthly publication of The Railway Tie Association, is a quality publication I am sure. However, this is a great example of how specific the B2B world has become. An entire magazine, website and association dedicated to the needs of producers and users of rail ties. Wow! I am not criticizing at all, I am sure that the rail tie industry has very specific issues and concerns, as does specific areas and functions within the pharmaceutical industry. But, I think you get the point.

Our customers are difficult enough to reach because they are consuming information from sources very specific to their needs and preferences. I hope to avoid tomatoes being thrown at me, but I have challenging news. In addition to the fact that our customers have broken themselves into narrow interest and job function classifications, I believe there is a fairly new segmentation we need to consider as marketers—information consumption preferences.

What I mean is that I am seeing the pharmaceutical industry segment themselves further by the manner in which they prefer to receive and consume information—print, digital, audio, video, in-person and so forth. Many industry professionals strongly prefer information in print, many rely heavily on digital information sources, many are heavy users of podcasts and other audio pieces, yet others love to receive insights and information in a video format. In short, our customers want information that is not only targeted to their needs, but is provided in their preferred information format. What they want and how they want it.

How do we reach our target audience effectively when our customers and prospects have segmented themselves into fairly narrow functional classifications and now information consumption classifications? Very thoughtfully is my short answer.

My next several posts will focus on integrated media ideas, research on the topic and other thoughts to consider. My purpose is not to make our jobs even more challenging (so, please, no tomato throwing), rather to continue to explore the rapidly changing world of sales and marketing.

More Complete View of Digital Advertising

As I have discussed in previous posts, I believe the manner in which much of the marketing community is measuring the success of digital marketing and marketing in general is incomplete, sometimes shortsighted and eventually problematic.
Effective sales and marketing requires influencing buyers' behavior, attitudes and perceptions. Human beings, as I have discussed previously, are complex. In addition, B2B sales and marketing is a complex and often long process.

In my opinion, we are kidding ourselves if we think that we can measure true marketing ROI by counting how many clicks are delivered or even the number of downloads we receive from a lead generation program. B2B sales and marketing is simply a great deal more complex. Clicks, time spent on a site, page views and download activity allow you to gauge interest and engagement. Of particular interest to me is measuring escalating engagement--if a specific decision maker is downloading every piece of information they can get their hands on for Company XYZ's product, one could probably assume that buyer is in heavy research and decision set creation mode.

The following charts provide a clear illustration of the branding, awareness generation and perception changing impact of online display advertising. These undoubtedly will be unwelcome illustrations for many of us in the marketing community as we are all looking for silver bullet metrics. But, I do believe that it is important to continually remind ourselves of the realities of successful marketing--it just is not as easy and clear cut as we would like it to be.

Illustrations © 2008 Publishing Executive magazine, August 2008 issue.