Business Development For Technology Companies with Complex, High Ticket Sales

What Causes This High Turnover Among CMOs?

2008-03-02T18:40:00.000-08:00

Why typical CEOs last for 44 months, on the job, Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) are replaced every 26 months?

David Meerman Scott has a very interesting entry on his blog entitled, "Why most CMOs get fired." It seems one of the reasons is that many CMOs waste far too much time and money on image marketing and brand awareness, instead of running tried and tested direct response marketing campaigns to generate revenue by supporting the sales folks.

The other problem is that in some 50% of the cases, CMOs are hired as proverbial silver bullets to fix collapsed marketing campaigns (usually ruined by top management) but are not allowed to participate in the company's operation on a strategic level.

And what I've seen a big problem is when top management says. "We don't like it."

Then the CMO says, "But it really works and we're" not the market that buys our stuff. The market has to like it not us."

And at this point of the battle, many CMOs just get fired.

Anyway, read the article, "Why most CMOs get fired", and see what you think.

Technology Brochures From The Drawing Board To The Rubbish Bin

2008-01-27T05:17:00.000-08:00

Check most technology companies' promotional materials and you realise that when they were designed, the focus was on creating glitz and glamour not results. The objective was pontification and self-aggrandisement not educating readers and invoking the next step leading to the sales..

These companies were kidnapped by some graphics designers and the result is just that: Nice graphics that will enrich the designer's portfolio but doesn't make a dickybird of a difference to the company's sales results.

And then salespeople spend around 30% of their time to hide all the rubbish created by the marketing department and to create some meaningful sales materials they can hand out to prospects and leave behind after meetings.

It reminds me, the former farmer, of a cattle rancher with a big hat and a fancy branding iron but no cattle. They can impress the market until potential buyers want to take a look at the beasts. Then our rancher is in deep shit...

So, in this month's article, we discuss how to put together client-centred brochures, entitled...

Technology Brochures From The Drawing Board To The Rubbish Bin

Value-Pricing At NHL Level...

2008-01-11T11:24:00.001-08:00

Over at the Verasage Institute we talk a lot about value pricing and the elimination of timesheets. One of the Verasage Fellows, Ed Kless, has just posted a brilliant example of value pricing at the Verasage blog.

If your company is still...

selling expertise on an hourly basis
forces employees to fill in timesheets
hire new employees for an hourly wage

...then you should read this post. It's pretty eye-opening, and rest assured this is how it plays out in the work of technology as well not only in ice hockey.

Actually, I've just read an interesting article about the performance of people who work for hourly wages. They were told that as soon as they complete normal eight hour's of work, they can pack up and go home for the day. On average, eight hour's of work was completed in three hours and 19 minutes, 41% of the allotted time.

What does that mean to you, the employer? It means that your people are smart. They learn the system and have become pretty good at playing to the weakness of the system. Their focus shifts from improving performance to marking time and filling hours to maximise their wages.

For many companies people relax during normal hours and then request overtime to complete the work. And you can't blame them because this is what they are motivated to do. There is a definite motivator to work slowly and inefficiently.

So, what to do? Well, you have to recognise that they are knowledge workers of the "knowledge age", as Peter Drucker defined it about a half a century ago, but most managers were so busy managing their feudalist empires that they didn't pay attention.

Then put your people on annual salary with a bonus structure, create an environment in which people are naturally inspired to do great work and leave them alone. If there is any problem, give them instant feedback and forget about the annual review. If your HR goons insist on the annual review, then throw them out of your department or, if you can, fire their arses.

Through living history, traditional HR practices have never contributed anything positive to the work environment, so there is no reason to keep old-fashioned, time-focused HR practitioners on the payroll. They have taught people how to lie on their resumes, how to doctor references and to perform consistently at sub-par level.

Anyway...

Read Ed's post at the Verasage blog and see how you could replace your time-centred organisation with a value-focused organisation.

Tomicide Solutions October 2007: Eleven Diseases Of High-Tech Business Development Departments

2007-10-27T08:01:00.000-07:00

In most high-tech organisations business development exists as a number of independent silos that are working on their own, on internally created mandates which often have nothing to do with the company's overall strategy.

And in this process, they often step on each other's toes and even undermine the company's overall strategy.

Here we discuss 11 areas we can improve to seamlessly blend these silos into one integrated department.

Tomicide Solutions October 2007: Eleven Diseases Of High-Tech Business Development Departments

Online Copywriting Dilemma

2007-10-15T19:15:00.000-07:00

There is a brilliant article at over at Future Now's website, entitled When Developers Write Copy. It's about an interesting situation when many companies scrape up the money to have one page, the landing page, written by a copywriter, and stitch the rest together for themselves. And visitors, after the initial interest generated by the landing page, get turned off and leave the site once and for all. And the owner company of the website is euphoric with joy and excitement that is saved a small fortune by not "wasting" money on a copywriter.

And as a result of this shortcut, the website performs way way way under its potential. Nevertheless, the accountant and the CFO are happy because of the significant savings. So, go and read When Developers Write Copy.

Tomicide Solutions September 2007: Eleven Website Mistakes That Turn Premium High-Tech Companies Into Cheap Commodities

2007-09-28T10:24:00.000-07:00

It's fair to say that all high-tech companies have websites. It's also fair to say that most of those websites do more harm to those companies' bottom lines than good. Nothing major really. They just fail to engage their visitors and encourage them to click deeper and check what the company has to offer.

So, this month's issue of Tomicide Solutions, we discuss 11 key problems with high-tech websites. Some are easy to fix, but some need some thinking.

The Emotional And Financial Costs Of workplace Bullying

2007-09-09T21:31:00.000-07:00

The Workplace Bullying Institute has just released it's 2007 survey on workplace bullying. It seems the issue is much more serious than most of us think. The findings are rather both interesting and sad. Well, we've always known that most managers, due to the traditional promotion process, are not suitable for managing, and this survey just proves it. 72% of bullies are bosses. 55% of those bullied are rank-and-file workers harassed by their bosses.

What makes these figures even sadder is that so many companies actually tolerate bullying because it comes from "high-performing" people in important positions. Even companies that say that people are their most important assets tolerate bullying.

Why is it tolerated? Because it doesn't have an entry in the accounting system, so corporate leaders don't relate bullying to financial loss. But obviously there is. And the price is pretty high.

And a recent article in Fast Company magazine, entitled "The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't" explains the staggering costs of tolerating even only one bully in the workplace.

White Paper Resource From The Master Himself

2007-09-04T05:21:00.000-07:00

White paper master, Michael Stelzner, has just released another white paper on how to use white papers for lead generation, entitled Fishing for Leads With White Papers: Where to Drop Your White Paper Line.

Since white papers are the "highest-responded-to" marketing pieces, it's a good idea to absorb everything Michael has to say. Check it out... quickly.

[Tomicide Solutions] August 2007: Building Team Selling Strengths In Technology Service Companies

2007-08-23T07:14:00.000-07:00

The world of technology selling has drastically changed over the last few years. This is partly due to the proliferation of the web, but also has a lot to do with people's overall attitude. While years ago it was fine harassing executives on the phone and knocking on their doors unannounced, today, they often don't even respond to communication because they desperately try to avoid salespeople.

When selling complex, high-ticket technology solutions, the courageous "go it alone" salesperson is not enough. It becomes vital to create a multidisciplinary team of business development professionals who can interact with various levels of the prospect's organisation to deliver the best solutions.

You find the full article on Building Team Selling Strengths In Technology Service Companies.

Film Celebrities vs. Valuable Actors and Actresses

2007-08-08T08:51:00.000-07:00

I've recently read an article about the ROI actors and actresses produce in return for their salaries.

The interesting fact is that some of the high-profile celebrity actors and actresses are pretty poor producers when it comes to return on investment.

Here are some names and the box office return they produced on $1 of their salaries.

One more thing... Forbes Magazine calculated the film's net revenue by adding the worldwide box office sales and the US DVD sales together, and then deducting the film's budget. Then this net revenue was divided by the actor's and actresses' salaries to produce gross income.

Top range

#1 Matt Damon $29
#2 Brad Pitt $24
#3 Vince Vaughn and Johnny Depp $21
#5 Jennifer Aniston $17

Mid-range

Tom Hanks $12
Tom Cruise $11
Will Smith $10

Bottom of the pile

Adam Sandler $9
Will Farrell and Jim Carrey $8
Russel Crowe $5

Interesting to observe that the Damon, Pitt, Vaughn, Depp and Aniston are pretty down-to-earth folks in comparison to over-hyped and over-glorified celebrities like Cruise, Carrey or Crow.

Why is this important?

Last week alone I received four emails from four Internet gurus with pretty much the same message, "Unfortunately the web is full of charlatans, scam artists and idiots, but lucky for you, I'm the real deal, I'm the real expert, and now you can join my $10,000 coaching programme and also receive $10 billion worth of bonuses. "

I have a sneaking suspicion that many of these "real deals" of the Internet are not real deals but loudmouths and good self-promoters. Just like some of the "great inventors."

Most people believe that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, Thomas Edison invented electric light and Guglielmo Marconi invented radio.

The fact is that it was Antonio Meucci, a Florentine inventor who invented the telephone in 1849 in Cuba. But he didn't have the money to file for patent, and had to settle for "notice of invention." Two years later, Bell filed for a patent, so now he's is the inventor.

Joseph Swann in England and William Sawyer in the US were also brilliant inventors. They invented the light bulb but didn’t understand the media and PR the way Edison did. When Edison learnt about his rival, he announced the invention of the light bulb before actually creating a prototype. So, Edison became the inventor of the light bulb.

Nikola Tesla invented radio in 1893, it was the 19 year-old boisterous loudmouth Guglielmo Marconi who announced it to the media. Instantly, Marconi became the great inventor.

Definitely not great inventors, but both Bell, Edison and Marconi were excellent manipulators and bold-faced liars.

Meucci, Swann, Sawyer and Tesla created huge value for mankind. Bell, Edison and Marconi turned themselves into celebrities and enjoyed their ill-deserved riches backed by other people's work and brainpower.

And most people are like the lady in the old Led Zeppelin song, Stairway To Heaven…

"There's a lady who's sure
All that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to heaven."

But I think in life not everything that glitters is gold, and not everything that is gold glitters. But people are obsessed with glitter. That's why crappy books with great cover sells. Most people judge books by their covers and don't care what's inside. Most of them don't read them beyond the first 5-10 pages anyway. The book becomes bookshelf ornament.

It seems to me that many of these Internet false prophets are so desperate to shine that in the effort they turn themselves into pieces of manure, stinking up the web and the lives of the people they contact with their hype-driven marketing materials.

So, be careful with them.

Some Comfort for Mistreated Salespeople

2007-07-01T15:28:00.000-07:00

I've just found something interesting. If you're a commissioned salesperson, and you get beaten up a bit too often, while everyone else in your company is treated like royalty, then I think you'll find this video rather interesting.

Eight Leadership Principles The Military Can Teach Business Development Folks

2007-06-24T08:09:00.000-07:00

I've just posted a new article on the website.

In this article we discuss some concepts that are missing in many technology companies, and because of this lack, the business development folks end up competing with each other, while blissfully ignoring the marketplace.

And then we discuss how the military manages to avoid internal competition, have soldiers work together collaboratively, and use 100% of their competitive power to fight the enemy.

Now I don't say that you go and kill the competition. Here we're discussing the mindset behind competition vs. collaboration.

Eight Leadership Principles The Military Can Teach Business Development Folks...

I hope you find the article valuable.

If Your Work Sucks Then Bill By The Hour...

2007-06-19T06:25:00.000-07:00

One of my VeraSage colleagues, Ed Kless has just done a brilliant workshop on value pricing, and generously made the recording available to learn from it.

He discusses many evil aspects of hourly pricing, including the fact that substandard companies can hide their incompetencies behind their time sheets, knowing they get paid anyway, regardless of how much value they deliver to their clients.

Ed also discusses that hourly pricing was invented by, based upon and made mainstream by an idea that believes that making a profit is evil. Yes, it comes from the notorious Karl Marx and his "masterpiece" the Communist Manifesto.

It turns out that hourly pricing is the ultimate price gouging because you get paid regardless of the value clients get from your help and support.

I encourage you to download the podcast and listen to it several times. You may have to listen to it a few times, but then you'll get that forehead-slapping "holy shit!" moment, and then you'll never go back to hourly pricing.

Now go and get the podcast.

The Power of Research-Based Copywriting

2007-06-12T21:33:00.000-07:00

The Heath brothers, the authors of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, have posted a brilliant message on their blog on the importance giving the market valuable details about what we're selling. In their message they use an example from the legendary copywriter, Claude Hopkins, the author of Scientific Advertising.

I suggest you read it because you'll find a huge lesson there, and you can instantly translate it to your business.

The Most Dangerous Job in Business

2007-06-12T11:29:00.000-07:00

There is an interesting article in leading B2B marketing expert, Mac MacIntosh's blog. In Fast Company there is a great article about the tenure of marketing managers in organisation. it seems that while CEO's have a typical tenure of 54 months, Chief Marketing Officers (CMO) have only 23 months. This number in the technology industry is only 15 months.

It seems to me that the CMO has become a scapegoat position. When something goes wrong and CEOs should accept responsibility, they often pass the buck to the next person. And who is the next person?

You can't lay of the CFO because it draws the attention of both Wall Street and the marketplace. You can't lay of the CIO (CTO) because you need technology. You can't mess with the COO because the whole company comes to a standstill. But someone must be blamed fro the CEO's crime. Well, then get rid of the CMO.
Since this offers a quick Band-Aid solution of patching up the symptoms more and more companies use this approach. It's too painful to address the real problem, so let's piss around with the symptoms, find a scapegoat and sacrifice him/her.

Next to this article, there is another one, Ambushed about some of the successful, nevertheless laid off marketing top dogs.

Luckily the situation is a bit better at privately held companies but just about. Getting the bloody nose from public company CEOs, more and more private company CEOs demand "instant" and "significant" results from their new CMOs.

Demanding to double sales within only 4-6 months are fairly typical demands of CEOs. Especially from CEOs who have never done any marketing only forced selling. And when any ethical CMO tell the CEO that a good marketing programme takes about 18 months to kick into full throttle, then most CEO s throw these CMO candidates out of their offices and hire more peddlers to do cold calling and door knocking because the silly bugger CEO believes that this will create instant sales.

Anyway, read the articles. You'll love them.

Hiring Good Sales Folks

2007-06-09T12:50:00.000-07:00

Hiring good technology salespeople is a rather daunting task. Some have these skills and some others have those skills. You hardly ever find the right skill combination.

So, what then?

Seth Godin has a great perspective in his blog.

His suggestion is that first and foremost find people who can be coached, thus have the ability to grow. It's not about merely learning new skills. The whole idea of coaching is that the person grows as a human being and becomes a better person in all dimensions, that is, mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Yes, salespeople have to learn the relevant sales and technical skills to successfully sell technology solutions, but even more importantly, they must become better people, so they can attract better clients.

So, go and read Seth's blog entry on Being coachable, and see how you can shape and shake up your hiring process for sales folks.

The Secrets of Market Driven Leaders

2007-05-27T06:36:00.000-07:00

Marketing and PR experts, Craig Stull, Phil Myers and David Meerman Scott have just published a brilliant special report on The Secrets of Market Driven Leaders.

It explains why technology companies are doomed if they try to reach their success purely through their technology, sales volume or client demands. They basically say that whatever problem you might find yourself in, the only way to get out of it is by marketing yourself out of it.

The authors outlines seven secrets along with several lethal flaws.

SECRET #1 = Work as a Trusted Advisor
SECRET #2 = Build from the Outside-In
SECRET #3 = Simple is Smart
SECRET #4 = Leadership is Distributed
SECRET #5 = Stop Being a Vendor
SECRET #6 = Marketing with a Big “M”
SECRET #7 = Measure only what Matters

I believe that in a world where so many technology companies try to stay alive by hiring more salespeople and chasing more suspects harder and longer, this report can open the minds of many business development managers to realise that there is another, a more rewarding way of doing business.

So, go and grab a copy of The Secrets of Market Driven Leaders, and see what's possible for your company.

The World Of Selling Technology Is Changing. Is Your Company Changing With It?

2007-05-19T14:40:00.000-07:00

The big hairy naked truth is that most technology companies are not changing as the world is changing around them. Correction. They're changing. They keep spending more and more on top notch technology. This is how they're changing.

Otherwise they're simmering in the pungent stench of the status quo by doing what they've always done but doing it longer, harder and better technology. And doing more of the same, they expect different results. It's like a jockey who is using two whips to motivate his horse to run faster without realising that the horse has lost a horseshoe and is seriously limping.

It reminds me of the situation when two people meet but they don't speak each other's language. So, they start yelling at each other hoping that the louder they scream the more likely that their "conversation partners" understand what they're saying.

In most cases business development is the same...

The Big CRM Bottleneck and The Victims That Choke to Death in It

2007-05-08T12:29:00.000-07:00

In case you're involved in CRM either as a user or a distributor (or I hope both), here is a white paper, "Why Naked CRM Systems Don't Work", which you might find valuable.

While CRM could be a powerful tool in the right hands, in most companies it's nothing more than a pain in the arse cost. Over the years CRM has become one of the most controversial technology solutions.

Is the concept to blame?

No. Not at all. So, then where is the bottleneck? Well, at the top of the bottle. Similarly, where is the CRM bottleneck? At the top of the organisation.

The technology is great but it not used properly. CRM requires the sales and marketing departments to work together. Instead, what you see in most technology companies is a constant was between the sales and marketing departments. Of course, they have high resistance to participate in a programme where their success can depend on another department.

And as a result of this antagonistic relationship, the CRM system the company has just spent the king's ransom id grossly underutilised.

In "Why Naked CRM Systems Don't Work", author Ardath Albee outlines some vital points on why most companies fail to get the biggest bang out of their CRM bucks.

Kelly Didn't Pay Commissions, Did he? Do You?

2007-05-06T18:24:00.000-07:00

The other day I was watching (again) the movie Kelly's Heroes, and it reminded me of the whole commission pay structure.

Essentially the commission pay structure to salespeople is something like this, "I give you the privilege of working for me for free. You take 100% of the risk, do 100% of the work, and if you bring in new business for me, I'll give you a tiny percentage of the rewards. And you should be proud of being part of our company."

Don't get me wrong. I'm not against the "piece of the action" type of compensation if it's distributed in a fair manner. Unfortunately most technology companies use the commission structure in a communist manner, "I keep most of the reward and give you just enough to keep you alive and have you come back tomorrow for more abuse."

And don't tell me communism is about equality. I lived in it for 27 years, and never experienced equality.

When Kelly found out from the German colonel that there was a pile of gold bars in a bank somewhere in Germany, he started organising some people and supplies to go and get the stuff.

And here is the interesting part...

He didn't say to anyone, "You risk your life and do all the work for free, and then bring me the rewards and I'll give you a competitive(ly low) percentage of it."

No…

When Kelly went to see Crapgame, the stock keeper, to arrange some supplies, he even gave him a bar of gold as a deposit for his commitment and participation in the mission. Of course, at that point Crapgame realised Kelly was dead serious about this gold stuff.

Now, considering that the typical B2B sales cycle can be as long as three years, isn’t it amazing that so-called “successful,“ and even “world-class” technology companies expect salespeople to sign up with them, and are supposed to live on their own savings until they land their first deals because these “world-class companies” with their “world-class” stuff to sell don’t have the balls to invest in their own futures, but expect their salespeople to finance the companies’ clients acquisition with their personal savings.

One thing clients expect of technology professionals is objectivity. But how can we expect objectivity from people whose rewards are directly tied to selling the most expensive whatever they sell?

I firmly believe that if you pay commissions to your salespeople, all you do is alienate them from the rest of the company, and while short-term focused predators, as they are often referred to, can bring you some quick buck, you also land in a constant and never-ending hunting cycle for new business because these clients won’t be giving you repeat and referral business. So I suggest that you put your salespeople on the payroll and let them be part of your company. Then you have a better chance, having a real team, to achieve your sales goals.

Are You Destroying Your Company?

2007-05-01T20:53:00.000-07:00

Doug Davidoff over at The Fast Growth Blog has a brilliant article on The Self-Destructive Habits of Good Companies. Doug names 7 habits of highly destructive executives who unbeknownst to them are running their companies to the ground.

Read the Article, and make certain you don't fall into those traps.

Meeting Prospects From Smaller Organisations

2007-04-26T04:14:00.000-07:00

I've just finished a new article, entitled "Meeting Prospects From Smaller Organisations", and it is available on my site. It talks about how differently owners or smaller businesses make buying decisions and how to prepare for meetings with these people.

Treating them the same way as treating prospects from larger businesses can cause various problems. There are a few differences between corporate and small business buyers, and while on the surface both seem to be B2B engagements, dealing with small business owners is more like B2C engagements. And that requires a different kind of preparation and qualification.

So, I hope you enjoy "Meeting Prospects From Smaller Organisations", and find some valuable points you can implement in your company.

"We're Not Boring! Really, We're Not!"

2007-02-25T08:15:00.000-08:00

In a recent blog entry, Who Needs Enron? Microsoft Just Got Talked Into Doing A Great Sally Fields Impersonation At The Oscars For A Mere $1.7 Million Per 30 SECONDS... And It's All Perfectly Legal, David Garfinkel, one of my copywriting mentors nicely outlines the general problem with most advertising and branding agencies.

And what did Microsoft's ad agency come up to utilise the 30-second ad space?

"We're not boring! Really, we're not!"

This is amazing. Anyone with some marketing knowledge knows that the subconscious mind can't handle negatives. As the message shifts from the conscious mind to the subconscious mind, the word "not" mysteriously vanishes.

And what stays in people's subconscious minds is...

"We're boring! Really, we are!"

Then the agency's ad executive explained the situation this way...

"You do something to seed engagement in the minds of people watching it."

What engagement? The fact the Microsoft is not boring?

Anyway, read the full blog entry and admire how allegedly savvy businesspeople still fall for the, more often than not exaggerated, promises of fancy advertising agencies.

Security, Throw This Customer Out Of here... Right Now

2007-02-18T17:43:00.000-08:00

The other day I was watching Hell's Kitchen on TV. I love Chef Gordon Ramsay's juicy British accent.

Imagine this...

All of the sudden a dissatisfied woman walked up to Chef Ramsay while he was preparing some dishes for serving. He asked her to wait a moment until he'd finish serving the food. She decided not to wait and started knocking over completed dishes waiting for service.

How would you react to this situation if you were the Chef? Most people would drop what they are doing in order to satisfy the unreasonably dissatisfied woman. Unfortunately, people who get so easily dissatisfied are virtually impossible to satisfy.

So, would you drop everything to fulfil her wishes?

No, not Chef Ramsay. Without raising a sweat or raising his voice, matter-of-factly he called out, "Call security and throw this woman out of the restaurant... Right now!"

My question for you is this: How many clients do you have that expect you to turn on a dime for them, be available 24/7 and want you to drop anything you're doing, and fully focus on their problems when they have some?

You see, Chef Ramsay didn't care about the consequences of chucking that woman out of the restaurant. He knew that one crappy guest could mess up the atmosphere in the whole restaurant, ruining the evening for dozens of guests. And regardless of the money that woman would have paid for a meal, the Chef decided to get rid of her.

So, how brave are you to stand up to some of your clients who try to abuse your contract and demand more than they're willing to pay for? Do you have the courage to give them a - even partial - refund and kick them in the arse right out of your client roster once and for all?

(Mis)diagnosis in Selling

2007-02-13T05:49:00.000-08:00

I often compare the sales process to that of a diagnosis with a doctor. Now I have to correct my statement from "diagnosis with a doctor" to "diagnosis with a good doctor."

In his new book, entitled "How Doctors Think" by Dr. Jerome Groopman. According to Dr. Groopman’s research, some 15-20% of all medical diagnoses are incorrect, and some 10% leads to serious injuries or death.

Also, some 25% of radiological (CAT or MRI) tests are misinterpreted when the results are applied to defining the course of remedy.

So, what causes all these misdiagnoses?

According to Dr. Groopman, the average doctor interrupt patients after only 18 seconds of presenting the symptom. So, the average doctor, instead of listening to patients’ explanations of the symptoms they’re are experiencing, interrupts patients, and starts prescribing the solution based on his own "speculation".

And what is the result?

Every year, some 98,000 patients die in the US alone due to medical errors. And many of these errors are caused by erroneous diagnosis when doctors develop the course of remedy without fully discovering and exploring their patients’ symptoms.

Sadly, the same is happening in the world of selling technology solutions.

Salespeople, especially the ones on full commission, are eager to sell something on a “whatever it takes” basis because otherwise they have no money for the mortgage payment. So, instead of taking time to fully understand their prospects’ symptoms, they often start manipulating the diagnosis process and start recommending the kind of solution that is favourable to what they sell.

"Hm, so you want to reduce your sky-high manufacturing costs. I think you need our robust, leading-edge, world-class, proprietary CRM system. Let me arrange a demonstration for you."

And we all know what that leads to. After politicians, salespeople are the second least trusted and respected “professionals”. And this is just one thing.

Buyers who buy from traditional salespeople who still practice the “peddler” approach, often end up with buyer’s remorse. Many of these solutions don’t work out because they were based on partial, often incorrect, diagnosis.

And these incorrect diagnoses are caused by the fact that most technology companies expect their salespeople to turn every hunk of warm meat with a pulse beat into paying clients. Everyone must be manipulated into buying something regardless of her symptoms.

How do you deal with this problem? How do you avoid misdiagnosis?

One solution is that the marketing folks should better qualify prospects, and face-to-face meetings should take place only with prospects who have a pretty clear indication of the symptoms your solution eliminates.

Technology companies must understand that their solutions are limited to certain symptoms, and they are not solutions for everything ranging from the bubonic plague to the dreaded green lurgy.

Knowing that not every prospect is a potential client, we have to eliminate the “close the deal whatever it takes” mentality in salespeople. A good way of doing this by eliminating the commission structure. Pay all your business development people a flat base salary and put a certain percentage aside for bonuses.

But if you want all your people to work as a team, you have to pay them as a team not as a bunch of individuals who happen to be working under the same roof.

This approach removes your salespeople’s money worries, and they can focus on correctly diagnosing the prospects and proceed only with the ones that have the right symptoms.

Who Knows? Maybe the Next Disneyland?

2007-02-07T07:42:00.000-08:00

What a brilliant idea.

Ozzfest is an annual heavy metal music festival organised by rock legend and Black Sabbath frontman, Ozzy Osbourne and his business-genius wife, Sharon.

For 2007, they came up with the idea of running the event for free, and I think it's a brilliant marketing idea. "

And why do they do it?

They understand the basic concept that in order to acquire new clients the best way is not saying to them, "Hey, give me your money.

They want to offer an unforgettable experience for the audience, so they are more likely to return. They also know that the large part of the revenue comes from ancillary products and services, not from the ticket prices.

So, they are willing to forego the revenue from the tickets in order to attract more people who buy more ancillary products and services. And they - I believe quite correctly - anticipate that the extra revenue from ancillary purchases will far outweigh the lost ticket revenue.

Here is Sharon's perspective: "This will change everybody’s impression of the way touring in the summer in America should be."

And she's wise enough to know that to achieve this they have to plant first and the plentiful harvest is almost unavoidable.

What I see here is that the Ozzfest will soon become the proverbial Disneyland for heavy metal lovers. It becomes a legend and people from all over the wold will go there to have the heavy metal experience of a lifetime.

Visually Impressive vs. Profitably Impressive Websites

2007-01-27T17:11:00.000-08:00

B2B copywriter, Bob Bly has a brilliant post on his blog about what sells on websites: Eye-popping design or Basic design and kick-arse copy.

This is a huge debate between web designers and business development folks in most companies. Web designers sit in front of their computers Monday to Friday, busy designing more and more amazing images and technical feats but the business development folks are actually accountable for the sales made on the website.

On this post you will also see several responses from different perspectives, so you can make an intelligent decision about whom to put on your next web project: A designer (and artist) or a marketer (a scientist)

Do You Hire Real Talents or Proud Owners of Impressive-Looking Resumes

2006-12-27T22:26:00.000-08:00

The other night I was watching one of Tom Berenger's films, entitled the Sniper.

Thomas Beckett (Berenger) is a top tier sniper in the US army, and he is sent to Panama to take some naughty characters out of the way. But at the previous mission his spotter was killed during a screwed up extraction, and he's going to Panama with a new spotter, Richard Miller, (Billy Zane) a former Olympic shooting champion.

Miller is now working for the National Security Agency, and based on his impressive achievements (a.k.a. resume) he is selected for this dangerous and delicate mission. And he has to work with a veteran shooter who is a n expert in jungle fighting.

There is one problem. Miller has never shot a rifle to kill. He is a sports shooter. He knows how to shoot in peaceful situations but is totally paralysed when the stakes are high and the heat is on.

At one point he even starts shooting at his partner. Whatever qualified him in the first place to go on this mission was a huge blunder of biblical proportions. In spite of his impressive "resume", he has to unlearn his false pride and ego, and properly learn how to work in a sniper element. (Element is the name of the team of two people: The spotter and the shooter)

As a result of Beckett's patience and perseverance, Miller quickly learns the ropes and the sniper's life in the jungle.

What does all this mean to your business development team?

Well, first of all, you make a huge mistake by hiring impressive resumes. Resumes tell you all about people were taught (not what they learnt) in school. There is overwhelming evidence that a large percentage of business school students cheat to pass their courses.

Linda Treviño, Franklin H. Cook Fellow in Business Ethics at Penn State's Smeal College, and her colleagues Donald McCabe of Rutgers and Kenneth Butterfield of Washington State examined survey results from 5,331 students at 32 graduate schools both in Canada and the United States. It turns out that 56% of business students admitted cheating during their courses.

And many students justify their cheating activities by saying that the world of business is built on cheating, lying and deceiving, and these are the only ways of staying alive in the 21st century "kill or be killed" business culture.

Now, if 56% admitted, how much more do you think actually cheated?

The questions is this: What happens if you hire some of these liars with impressive resumes, 56% of which is a lie. You may run an honest, and ethical organisation, but now you're poisoning it with these semi-crooks who learnt in school that cheating is just fine, and the ends justify the means. Any means.

And whatever they learnt in school, they didn't leant the right character traits, which are more important than skills. After all, anyone can learn any skills, but regardless of the number of years of schooling, a liar is a liar and a cheater is a cheater.

And after several years of schooling, a liar becomes a liar, BA, MBA or Ph.D.

So, just think about this when you're assessing the next resume, and realise that the majority of what you're reading on that resume is a lie. That's why a friend of mine, Carlitos, calls it Ridiculum Vitae.

The old saying is still true: If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance (real expertise), then baffle them with bullshit (resume).

Some Business Development Questions for 2007

2006-12-23T21:22:00.000-08:00

Doug Davidoff of The Imagine Companies has some interesting and thought- provoking questions for us about growing our businesses in 2007. Read Doug's questions and and think about what you could achieve in 2007.

The problem is that most business owners ask questions about the investment part of the ROI equation, while grossly neglecting the return part.

So, the typical - and the wrong question becomes: "What can we achieve with what we have and know right now?" In this question the strategy (what to achieve in the future?) is kidnapped by current tactics (with what we have now).

The correct question is: How can we achieve specific outcomes? The tactics are flexible.

Remember, strategies are carved in stone, but tactics must drawn in the sand and they must be flexible enough to serve the strategy in the most cost-effective manner.

Holiday Wishes for Business Development Departments

2006-12-21T18:02:00.000-08:00

B2B sales and marketing expert, Mac McIntosh has just published a great article, entitled Wish lists for B2B marketing and sales. There are lots of great points in the article, and it confirms one of the biggest mistakes companies make when they want to increase sales. Namely, hire more salespeople and send them out cold prospecting.

In the meantime hire a minimum-wage kid to do some graphics design and other "image stuff", and let's call it marketing. So, now the company has a sales and marketing department, although the salespeople and the marketing kid hardly ever talk to each other. Maybe once a year over Christmas dinner.

Read the article. I think you too will like it.

Tomicide Solutions: Eight Benefits of Using Education-Centred Marketing

2006-12-10T08:11:00.000-08:00

I have just posted a new article on my website, entitled...

Eight Benefits of Using Education-Centred Marketing.

From this article you discover why hurrying the sales can only hurt your results. Prospects buy when they are ready to change, not when you want to sell.

I hope you find it valuable.

"Type 4” Managers in Action

2006-12-10T07:24:00.000-08:00

There is a great post on Bob Sutton’s blog on "Type 4" managers. The type of managers who perform really well financially but violate organisational values in order to achieve that high performance. In their opinions, anything goes to make more money. The best way to recognise them is that they suck up to their bosses and kick down to their people.

I see this in so many sales managers and business development executives. They have the pressure to produce high sales, but how they achieve it is irrelevant. Or, it’s relevant but if they violate some values in the process, that’s just fine. As long as they make the money, they are the good boys and good girls.

You can read the article on Bob Sutton’s blog.

Increasing Sales at Lower Costs

2006-11-26T08:10:00.000-08:00

Here is something valuable for folks who still believe that increasing sales is about hiring more salespeople.

B2B lead generation expert, M. H. "Mac" McIntosh, has just published an article in which he mathematically proves that direct response lead generation marketing is a much more effective way of increasing sales than merely sending out more people to do cold prospecting grunt work.

You can read Mac's article here: Build Business for Less: Use B2B Marketing for Sales Lead Generation.

Tomicide Solutions: Seven Early Warning Signs of Mishiring Business Development Team Members

2006-11-17T05:01:00.000-08:00

I have just posted a new article on my website, entitled...

Seven Early Warning Signs of Mishiring Business Development Team Members

You find it here.

In this article we discuss how traditional hiring practices - through agencies or impressive resumes - fail to fulfil employers' expectations and cause high level of unnecessary attrition in the business development department.

I hope you find it valuable.

Tomicide Solutions: How To Test Your Marketing

2006-10-25T16:55:00.000-07:00

I have the pleasure to tell you about the recent article I've just posted on my site, entitled...

How To Test Your Marketing

Some questions we seek the answer to…

* Research vs. testing

* Split-testing on your website

* Vital items to split-test

* Split-testing off-line

* Tracking your responses on voice mail, snail mail, fax and email

I hope you find it valuable.

Have You Fallen Into The Portfolio Trap

2006-10-01T05:35:00.000-07:00

Have you noticed an interesting phenomenon out there? And more and more buyers fall for it like dead flies. The disease is called "Can I see your portfolio?" They seem to care less and less about quantifiable results but put far too much emphasis on the portfolio.

Here is a question for you. If I'm looking for a web designer because I'm artistically challenged, how can I assess a web designer's expertise by looking at her portfolio? I could only assess her by her portfolio if I were a designer myself, in which case I wouldn't be looking for one.

But even me, the artistically challenged one can assess a designer by the results her design has created for her clients over the years.

Has her design generated sales leads?
Has her design generated sales?
Has her design generated newsletter sign-ups?
Has her design generated interest for a free report?
Has her design generated more website visitors?

Or...

Has her design earned her an award?

Because if not, that design is dead design regardless of the colour scheme and the bells and whistles.

The top five points are client-centred benefits. The bottom one is a designer-centred ego-trip which is roughly as useful for clients as a barbershop on the steps of the guillotine.

You see, some people build portfolios in search of awards and recognition. Just see the award-winning "Got Milk" ad, Pepsi commercial with Michael Jackson or a few years ago the Nissan commercial. All three of them won numerous awards and were great ego-candy for the ad agencies, but financially all three bombed miserably, having lost millions of dollars for their clients.

What are your clients seeking in your help? Fortune or fame? Money or medals?
Profit or portfolios? Rewards or awards? Cash or cachet?

When you need a dog to protect your home, what do you select. And freshly bathed and polished award-winning pedigree pooch or a shaggy Rotweiler?

And I've always thought that selecting professionals based on their "portfolios" with no regard to the financial improvement in their clients' businesses is just as retarded as selecting surgeons based on their portfolios of fancy incisions and award-winning stitches with no regard to the fact of how many of their patients died.

This reminds me of an interesting and relevant story. One day, the European aircraft manufacturer, Airbus held a test evacuation exercise on its A380 plane. The exercise was a blazing success. That is, the exercise was completed within the allocated time frame. Although several people were hurt, one broke his leg, but the tasks were completed within the allotted time frame, so the real outcome was deemed to be irrelevant.

Or...

I've recently talked to someone who is a co-ordinator at a government-sponsored self-employment programme. After taking these courses, some 75% of participants, instead of starting their businesses, get a job and live the rest of their lives as employees, just as they did before. To my surprise the co-ordinator explained to me, "Tom, you don't understand how government programmes operate. As long as we dispense 140 hours of classroom tutelage and can prove that every participant wrote document entitled "business plan", we are blazingly successful regardless of the actual failure rate. And we are blazingly successful even if they end up on welfare or homeless begging on the streets."

Interesting perspectives.

Fancy portfolios carefully hide one thing, the most important thing from the client's perspective: Was that initiative profitable for the client? Was it a wise investment with substantial return or just another idiotic waste of time and money?

Tomicide Solutions: Befriending The Media

2006-09-13T20:16:00.000-07:00

I’ve just posted the latest issue of my newsletter Tomicide Solutions.

It’s about befriending the media and benefiting from all the - almost - free exposure you can enjoy to enhance your notoriety.

Befriending The Media. Read it here.

Some More On Lead Generation With Valuable Information

2006-08-27T21:25:00.000-07:00

David Meerman Scott has just written a great atrticle on MarketingProfs about lead generation with educational content in e-books, entitled, "E-books: A Hip and Stylish Younger Sibling to the Nerdy Whitepaper."

The marketplace is changing. Buyers are not as receptive to pithces as they were 100 years ago. Also, solutions are more complex than ever before. Buyers need significant amount of education to find the best solution. Guess what? If you provide the education itself, you have a damn good chance to be asked to provide the service itself. It's plain psychology. Try it. You may get pretty surprised.

Lead Generation With Papers And Special Reports

2006-08-27T21:05:00.000-07:00

The competition is intensifying in every industry. It’s becoming harder and harder for service companies to generate high quality sales leads in high enough quantities.

When sales leads dry up, most service companies desperately hire more peddlers and hucksters, hoping that using their innate charm and glib to manipulate people, they can land some new business. And this is where the problem lies. In their attempts to quickly drum up new business, they often end up antagonising their best prospects. They try to reach too quickly into their prospects’ purses, and, of course, prospects don’t like this approach.

Instead of these desperate measures, service companies could sustain a healthy rate of lead generation using valuable special reports and white papers, instead of burdening their target markets with their retarded pitches.

MarketingProfs has just published a brilliant article from Michael Stelzner, entitled "How White Papers Can Turbo-Boost Your Lead-Generation Campaign."

There is more and more proof that the best lead generation is done using valuable, educational information. It works basically in any industry. Read the article. I'm sure you'll find it very informative.

First Impressions On The Web

2006-08-25T04:41:00.000-07:00

There is a brilliant post at Website optimization.com on how people digest information when they arrive at a new website, and how they form their judgements as to whether to stay or leave.

While I truly believe in the value of great content, there are some aesthetical considerations too. And these consideratinos may not be what your web designer recommends you (Most often, adding more and fancier graphics).

You will find some great examples for effective simplicity.

Free Report: "The One Piece of Advice You Can't Sell Without?"

2006-08-13T06:45:00.000-07:00

Rainoday has published a new report entitled, "The One Piece of Advice You Can't Sell Without?"

This is a compilation of pieces of advice from a small group of highly successful entrepreneurs who reveal bits and pieces of their own sales methodologies.

The contributors are...

Alan Weiss, author of Million Dollar Consulting
Keith Ferrazi, author of Never Eat Alone
Mike McLaughlin, author of Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants
Mike Schultz, Publisher, RainToday.com
Paige Arnof-Fenn, CEO of Mavens & Mogels, columnist for Entrepreneur
Paul Dunay, Director of Global Field Marketing, BearingPoint
Sam Reese, CEO of Miller Hieman sales training company
Seth Godin, author of Small is the New Big & Purple Cow
and some others

You can download the report here.

Selling to Big Companies

2006-08-06T17:54:00.000-07:00

Jill Konrath, the author of the popular book, Selling to Big Companies has just been interviewed by Steve Gershik, the Director of Marketing Innovation at Eloqua Corporation.

I've read Jill's books several times and I think it's the best book to help salespeople to break into large accounts. Well, buy the book, but first listen to the podcast. (right-click to save to your desktop).

Best and Worst B2B Lead Generation Methods

2006-07-29T19:47:00.001-07:00

Marketing Sherpa has just released its 2006 B2B lead generation study. How interesting, but cold calling is not even mentioned. Hm. Maybe because it's so inefficient that it doesn't even count, although far too many companies waste far too much time and energy to practise it?

It turns out that the best lead generation bait offers are informative content of high educational value. Yes, you use this stuff to start educating your market right from the start.

So, while most companies will spend an enormous amount of money on a larger Yellow Pages ad, repeating the same dumb ad from last year, printing more chest-beating and self-aggrandisement, called brochure and hiring more minimum wage telepeddlers, they would be better off by hiring a kick-arse writer.

But good writers are expensive, and the top management of most companies are so everlastingly stupid that they are still seeking instant gratification (give us a good harvest and maybe next year we’ll plant), so they keep wasting millions of dollars on all the useless marketing approaches.

Read this stuff. It can open a new door for you.

Survey On Increasing Sales Performance

2006-07-16T13:33:00.000-07:00

CSO Insights, research firm specializing in sales effectiveness, has recently published a report entitled, “Optimizing Lead Generation – What’s The Payback?”, in which authors Jim Dickie and Barry Trailer report on companies’ responses to an interesting question. The question is…

“During the coming year what, if any, sales effectiveness initiatives will your company be undertaking to improve sales performance?”

The winning first priority is “Optimizing lead generation programs.”
The winning second priority is the same.
The winning third priority is “Revise our sales process”.

After optimizing lead generation…

9.3% of salespeople achieved quota (increase from 56.8% to 66.1%)
16.5% lead to real opportunity increase (32.2% to 48.7%)
7.0% in win rates (48.6% to 55.6%)
7.0% in reduction in no-decisions (20.9% to 14.7%)
10% reduction for new salespeople to reach full productivity

You can download the whole white paper from Eloqua's website.

Think about this lead generation stuff because it’s powerful.

What surprises me is that no one considers price increase as an option. A mere 1% price increase could mean as much as 12% increase in net profit, but no one seems to care. While companies are busy increasing sales volume, they gracefully ignore ways of increasing margins. Hm.

Make Money For Me And Hand It Over

2006-07-02T19:34:00.000-07:00

An interesting situation has just happened to a friend of mine just recently. He’s a salesman for an Internet marketing company, and the company has decided to revoke his base payment and put him on pure commission. He’s been pretty good at selling, and has brought in some great deals for the company, and he was pretty ticked off when was notified that his base would be removed and he would remain on the same commissions percentage as before. See it as a hefty pay cut.

We had breakfast and he asked me what I thought he could do. Based on what he told me, it was obvious that the company moved the goalposts simply out of greed. The less the company pays him, the more the owners can pocket for themselves. It was clear that the company wanted to squeeze more out of him. It was the typical company policy practised by so many companies with their sales professionals. Hire them -> use them -> abuse them -> dispose of them.

So, we were thinking about what he could do. We came up with the idea that he could become, instead of a salesman for one specific company, a broker for buyers who need Internet marketing services. We wrote down some thoughts how he could operate.

Here is the letter he sent to his boss, explaining how he planned to work with the company in the future.

===================================
Dear Fred,

Responding to your initiative of removing my base salary without increasing my commission percentage, here I present a solution that can help us to carry on working together.

Some of the points may sound rough, but since you decided to “sideline” me this way and eliminating me from your company after three years of selling your services, I’ve decided to take my own preventive actions.

1. I seize to exist as your company’s salesman, and become and independent broker for clients in need of Internet marketing.

2. I generate leads and close the leads. I negotiate and price the projects. Then when everything is lined up, I issue a request for proposal from you and nine of your competitors.

3. Jointly with the prospect I review the proposals and select the most suitable firm for a competitive fee to do the work according to my instructions.

4. On the rare occasion when you get in touch with the client, you clearly identify yourself as my subcontractor. You do not hand out your business cards or any of your promotional materials, and never talk about your personal business at any time.

5. You are not allowed to do any promotion to this client.

6. You perform the work according mutually pre-agreed instructions, and do not agree to any altered, modified, or new conditions with the client. Any such client requests will be passed on to me for decision.

7. The client pays me the pre-agreed fee, and I pay you a competitive hourly rate.

8. You agree that the work assigned to you will be completed within a specific time frame, and your payment is capped at that point. In other words, you don’t receive a blank cheque on a “let’s see how long it takes” basis.

9. You get paid within ten days of the submission of your time reports at the conclusion of each month, providing that all individual progress reports have been submitted.

10. All work created and all materials provided by you are the sole property of my brokerage firm. You cannot name this organisation as your client, and you cannot solicit references or testimonials.

11. Before commencing work, you are required to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

12. You conduct yourself professionally, observe business ethics and courtesy, and meet the work requirements above. Failure to do so in the opinion of the client or me results in termination of the contract and the cancellation of payment.

13. The name of the client never enters your database, and you have no right whatsoever to stay in touch with the client to solicit future business. All negotiation takes place between the client and me, and you carry out the work according to my specifications.

I regret that the situation has come to this, but yours is the second Internet marketing company that has sidelined me after significant contribution. I realised that the name of the game for you and the other two owners is to make more money even at the expense of staff members. I suppose we all try to stay alive as we can. You use your skills to squeeze us, and I use mine to try to keep most of the money I make.

Please let me know if you want to be one of the ten firms I will request proposals from for future projects. If I don't hear from you within 48 hours, I assume you are not interested in my proposition.

Kind regards
===================================

The response came rather quickly. Fred, the boss was outraged. He accused my friend of betraying the firm and his colleagues. But what colleagues? He always worked all by himself hunting for the next deal. He barely knew the others who worked at the firm.

We’ll see what happens, but considering his contacts, my friend is rather optimistic with his new brokerage business.

Now some people may say what he did was unethical. I’m not sure. What is unethical about not tolerating crappy treatment from your employer? For three years the company treated him as a mercenary, and now he’s decided to act like one. There is nothing wrong with that.

I’m certain everything will work out for him nicely. He’s got a great personality, and his clients love him. No, he is not an Internet marketing expert, but as the Harvard, Stanford and Carnegie Foundation studies showed, the overall success in life is about 85% people and self-management skills and only 15% of technical skills.

He's got the 85% and the 15% is available at a competitive price from many firms.

The Never Ending Battle Between The Folks In Marketing And Sales

2006-07-01T17:19:00.000-07:00

I've always been surprised about the battle that rages between the marketing and sales folks. In most companies the marketing folks are busy creating cute marketing messages for the band and image nonsense, and then the sales folks spend a huge chunk of their time and effort to create "client centred" materials.

There is a clear-cut conflict. The marketing folks are residing happily in their ivory towers blissfully ignoring what the rest of the company does, while the sales folks get beaten up if they don't make quota, so the marketing folks can pick up their hefty paycheques in appreciation for the "creative work" they've done.

And I've just come across a post on Seth Godin's blog entitled Nine Things Marketers Ought To Know About Salespeople. It presents a pretty realistic case from the sales folks' perspective to help marketing folks to better understand what's going on in the real world.

How Business Owners Mess up Their Follow-Ups and What to Do about It

2005-06-25T13:31:00.000-07:00

Look at most websites and what you see is the online equivalent of "Hey, wanna buy my stuff" or "Hey, let me sell you something cheap"? They are blunt and pretty retarded sales pitches. In a way this is the sales equivalent of date rape: Get the other person to the meeting place after sunset, wrestle her to the ground and fulfil your pervert desire while she is screaming "no".

When visitors arrive at most websites out there, they scream "No! Not another bloody sales pitch." But they get sales pitches over and over again.

You must understand that people go to the web to search for information not to be sold to. This is the reason why most websites out there fail miserably. They are blatant and pretty poorly structured sales pitches.

We have to overcome this "used car salesman" mentality. We have to court prospects before they become clients. And we have to court them without pitching them over and over again. With our communication we have to create an environment in which they can make up their minds without being pitched to all the time.

So, how to do that?

Listen to marketing legend Claude Hopkins, the author of the world-renowned book "Scientific advertising".

"Remember the people you address are selfish, as we all are. They care nothing about your interests or your profit. They seek service for themselves. Ignoring this fact is a common mistake and a costly mistake in advertising. Ads say in effect, “Buy my brand. Give me the trade you give to others. Let me have the money.”

That is not a popular appeal.

The best ads ask no one to buy. That is useless. Often they do not quote a price. They do not say that dealers handle the product.

The ads are based entirely on service. They offer wanted information. They site advantages to users. Perhaps they offer a sample, or to buy the first package, or to send something on approval, so the customer may prove the claims without any cost or risks. Some of these ads seem altruistic. But they are based on the knowledge of human nature. The writers know how people are led to buy."

We all know that the best way of getting new people into our sales funnel is by giving them something of high perceived value. It can be a free report, executive briefing, consumer guide, etc., it can also be some audio stuff.

And this is where the dead dog lies so to say. Most business owners are out for instant sales because they don't understand the value of building databases. In a way they are like whores, going for instant gratification.

So, where the cricket can we start?

Everything starts with a form where people can enter their names and emails, in return for the free giveaway offer.

So far so good, but here people fall into two categories. Some collect names the wrong way, and some collect them the right way.

Here is the wrong way:

The visitor comes to your site and sees the "Get our free report" sign. She yells out in delight - "This is the bee's knees, the cat's arse and the wasp's nipples. This is what I need."

So, she enters her name and email into the system. Upon submitting her details, she arrives at the "Thank You" page and there is the link where she can download the report.

But the problem is that many people give you false email address, because they want only the free report, but you failed to sell them on the value of receiving your newsletter that comes to them (every month or week) after downloading the report.

You have to sell visitors both on the report and the follow-up, that is, the newsletter.

And since they gave you false email address, you lose them forever. You want to create so much perceived value that people are looking forward to your messages. Every message must be of high perceived value.

Now, let's look at the right way of doing this…

The visitor comes to your site and sees a well-crafted letter, which is basically an informative article.

She reads the article that introduces a special report on a very specific topic. Stay away from retarded topics like "how to stay healthy" or "how to get rich". They are too vague. Be very specific. "Ten ways one-eyed, overweight female lawyers can increase their fees" is a lot better than "How to grow a law practice".

So, while your visitor is reading the landing page, she sells herself on the idea of getting your report. She also agrees to receive your newsletter too.

So, she enters her name and email in the box at the end of the article.

And this is where the rubber hits the road for you…

Make sure that in the form you inform your subscriber that you will send a separate email with the download link. So, now she knows she has to enter a correct email address, otherwise she won't get the report. Not even a sausage.

Upon submitting her details, she arrives at the "Thank You" page and that link informs her that the link will be delivered via email (second instruction).

But now she is compelled to get the free report no matter what. Let you visitors know that they have to expect an email from you with the download link to the report.

So, now she receives the email. But before anything else could happen, she has to confirm that it was her who actually submitted the request.

After the confirmation she receives another email with the link to the report.

Now you know that you have a legitimate email address from a real person and you can start your follow-up process.

I don't say these leads turn into instant sales, but these are high-quality leads and now they are in your sales funnel until you piss them off so much that they leave. So, now it's up to you to provide quality content both in the original report and in your newsletters.

The the journey from first contact to signed contract has started. Make sure they enjoy the ride.

The Brain Centre of Your Business Development

2005-04-28T09:47:00.000-07:00

Imagine a wheel. A normal, pedestrian, garden-variety car wheel. What do you need to have on that wheel to make it able to turn and carry the car built on it down the motorway? You need a rim, spokes and a tyre. However, if you have only these three parts without a hub, that wheel won't work. In a way the hub is the brain centre of the wheel. Everything else rotates around the hub.

So, how can we transpose this image to your business development and your website? Provided your website is built correctly (only some 2% of all websites). So, let’s look at the website. The website is the hub itself. It must be a theme-based website with lots of valuable content whose job is to pre-sell the products and services your business offeres. The rim, spokes and tyre of the wheel are the marketing elements. And this is where most website owners make a terrible mistake.

They get their websites built, but they only hope and pray for traffic. But the traffic doesn’t come. So, sooner or later the business either dies or the owner tears the website down, which is nothing more than a fancy ornament, a loss centre. These marketing elements are methods of bringing traffic to the website. They are newsletters, search engine optimisation, off-line direct mail inviting people to visit your site, your opt-in email courses, Google AdWords and other fiendish methods.

But a website alone is not enough? Well, you can have the best hub in the world, but unless you have a rim, tyre and spokes, your wheel won't be able to turn. So, unless some good marketing methods are in place, your website alone is just as useful as a catflap in the elephant house. And sadly this is happening to some 98% of all websites out there.

Why to Avoid the Sales Trainer Who Wants to Teach You to Cold Call

2005-04-26T15:21:00.000-07:00

Salespeople are supposed to sell. Cold calling is not a selling function but a lead generation function. So, it is not salespeople who should do it. Leads are supposed to be provided to them by the marketing folks.

Most sales training programmes don't work beyond the spike of temporary motivation, which dies down in a few days, so then salespeople are back to square zero. The other question is why a large part of sales training is motivation.

My stab to the answer is this: A group of uninspired but motivated (which is an external threat in disguise) people go out and chase another group of people (prospects) who run for dear life to avoid the former group like the plague.

When the members of the former group catch up with the members of the latter group (prospects), wrestle them to the ground and beat them until prospects give in and buy something.

After the successful "transaction", the member of the former group start chasing other members of the latter group. And the same process repeats again and again.

And this is what most sales training programmes teach.

The problem with many sales trainers is that they are sales trainers. They can't see sales in the context of business development, which includes marketing and post-sales service too. They get blindly bogged down with chasing more and more people. For many of them marketing means nothing more than prospecting.

But really marketing, selling and post-sales service make up the business development continuum as three seamlessly integrated processes. They join together like the oceans: Seamlessly, invisibly. As far as I know there are no signposts floating in the oceans: "Welcome to the Atlantic Ocean", "End of Indian Ocean".

The other problem with sales training programmes is that they are training programmes not education programmes. And there is a huge difference between training and education.

This may sound brutal here, but if it is, so be it. I have a problem with sales trainers who advise their clients to do more cold calling. The fact is most people hate doing cold calling, and because of this fact they are likely to fail. Hey, how can you succeed in something you hate? It's plain retarded. So, they fail, and then the sales trainer can go back to do more cold call training. The world is sceptical enough, so unless you sell newspaper subscriptions, cold calling is call for disaster. People hate making them and hate even more receiving them. One must be an idiot to force one's people to do it.

This reminds me of the words of Jeffrey Pfeffer, Thomas D. Dee Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Stanford Graduate School of Business: "What kind of doctor would you be if your patient was bleeding faster and faster, and your only response was to increase the speed of the transfusion?"

For salespeople to thrive, they need qualified sales leads generated by the marketing folks. And in this age of technology leads can be easily generated 24/7 using automated systems, not manual labour.