Making Selling Simpler

Posted on September 3, 2010 by sdiorio

Here is a clever video our crack team created that explains a good way to make thought leadership selling simpler.

While the video oversimplifies many of the challenges of good solution selling or needs based selling – it zero’s in on the big sales support gaps we see at most organizations.  In particular:

  • Marketing does not support selling activities very well with good reasons to call or ideas that open doors and create repeat calls.
  • The sales processes most organizations use are good – but they take alot of time for sales people to execute – writing up reports and recommendations, and inputting data into the system.  They ignore the fact that sales and training time are incredibly scarce and expensive resources.  To generate real sales efficiency and the biggest bang for the buck, sales support investments need to focus on shrinking training and homework time.
  • Marketing automation and database analytics can only point the way to “probable opportunities” – no matter how much money you spend on analysis and lists, and how much data you mine – ultimately it takes a human picking up the phone to qualify and develop opportunities. And they receive very little support in that activity.

The video talks about our collaborative selling tool – called a Relationship Selling System - in very practical terms.  It addressed the very real issues facing human salespeople and relationship managers as they try to engage, qualify, nurture and develop leads and opportunities.  This tool fills the gap between analytics (that point salespeople in the right direction) and opportunity management systems (which keep score once they have done the hard work of calling and creating opportunities).    The tool is unique because it addresses the real issues facing sales support organizations who are under pressure to improve sales performance and drive measurable growth on limited budgets:

  • It helps salespeople perform better without alot of training time – which is very scarce.
  • It helps salespeople qualify and collect better profile data about customers
  • It helps salespeople deliver good ideas, sound advice and relevant solutions to customer problems – without “product pushing”
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A CEO survey by IBM reinforces the role of thought leadership selling in the future

Posted on September 1, 2010 by sdiorio

A recent survey of 1,500 CEO’s by IBM titled Capitalizing on Complexity provides validation of many of the concepts underlying thought leadership selling, including the growing importance of:

  • Creativity and original thinking in business success
  • Rethinking how you engage with your customers, and
  • Influence, insights and thought leadership..

The study frames increasing complexity – of markets, technology, products, customer needs and buying patterns – as a top challenge for organizations going forward.  It suggests several ways organizations can manage, and even capitalize upon this trend to succeed and grow in the future. Some of the key findings of the study include:

Creativity is the most important leadership quality according to CEOs.  60% of CEOs cited creativity as the most important leadership quality over the next five years. CEOs recognize that leading creatively will require them to shed some
long-held beliefs. Their approaches need to be original, rather than
traditional. Firms that capitalize on complexity practice and encourage experimentation and innovation throughout their organizations. These creative leaders take more calculated risks, find new ideas, and keep innovating in how they lead and communicate.  Creative leaders consider previously unheard-of ways to drastically change the enterprise for the better, setting the stage for innovation that helps them engage more effectively
with today’s customers, partners and employees.

Reinventing customer relationships— With the Internet, new channels and globalizing customers, organizations have to rethink approaches to better understand, interact with and serve their customers.  For example, when asked how their customers expectations of them would change in the next five years,

  • 82% of CEO’s surveyed by IBM expect that their customers will demand a better understanding of their needs.
  • 88% of CEO’s viewed getting closer to the customer as the most important dimension to realize their strategy in the next five years.
  • 76% of CEO’s believe delivering customers insight and intelligence as the most important dimension to realize their strategy in the next five years.

These CEOs are convinced they must not only stay connected (or reconnect) with customers, but keep on learning how to strengthen those bonds.

Influence, insights and thought leadership are important success factors.   The study suggests the real reward of customer connectivity is the intelligence to be gained from customers who trust that organizations will put the information they share to mutual advantage — for them, others like them.  30% of CEO’s cited market influence as the most important leadership quality over the next five years.

In our view, creating and delivering original thought leadership selling content through sales channels fundamental to achieving all of these goals. Some of the practical ways we see organizations taking action include:

  • Customer segment focused web sites that demonstrate a deep understanding of customer needs and help  your sales channels target and develop customers in your highest value market segments and differentiate your sales experience with advice and education targeted to their specific needs.
  • Micro sales campaigns that help your sales team deliver new ideas and compelling reasons to call customers, prospects and influencers again and again.
  • Client education events that deliver education and advice through a series of high quality and coordinated client contacts and face-to-face meetings.
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Thought Leadership is the New Sales Pitch

Posted on August 31, 2010 by sdiorio

A marketing agency, named the Basis Group, wrote a thoughtful white paper on establishing your brand as a thought leader.  The paper outlines how sales organizations are being forced to rethink their approach to cold calling, mass emails, and brand building in an age when B2B customers are saturated with e-mails, undifferentiated brand messages and 700 million direct mail pieces on a daily basis.  Their eight page paper, titled: Thought Leadership is the New Sales Pitch encourages marketing and sales executives to stop selling and start leading.  Unlike other papers on the topic, this one starts to deal with the practical aspects of how an organization can actually go about accomplishing thought leadership.

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A useful report for executives looking to differentiate their sales experience

Posted on August 31, 2010 by sdiorio

Profitable Channels recently published a good report titled: Thought Leadership Selling. The report does a pretty good job of explaining what we mean by Thought Leadership Selling and will show you practical ways that you can execute sales programs that engage your customers and differentiate your sales experience with education, ideas and insights.

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Thought leadership is essential to B2B marketing success

Posted on August 22, 2010 by sdiorio

A wide range of business experts– including the Gartner Group, Forrester Research, the Corporate Advisory Board, McKinsey and the Economist Intelligence Unit – are publishing studies that reinforce the growing importance of establishing thought leadership in improving sales results and better engaging customers.

The Economist Intelligence unit has identified Thought Leadership Marketing as a top B2B marketing “megatrend” in a global survey of senior executives entitled, Reaching Global Executives: Twelve Megatrends in B2B Marketing. The survey found that B2B executives view their top challenges as “positioning the business as a thought leader in the industry” and “standing out from the competition” as traditional marketing approaches lose their effectiveness.  In particular, B2B leaders emphasize the importance of customer education events and original ideas, research, best practices and insights as the top things they expect in the selling experience.

This is good advice. The Profitable Channels web site does a good job of explaining how to create disciplined programs to deliver the thought leadership assets including customer education events and frequent “micro-sales campaigns” that deliver new ideas and relevant insights to customers in sales calls, e-mails and “you should know” phone calls.

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Gartner Group Report on Thought Leadership Marketing

Posted on August 20, 2010 by sdiorio

A chorus of consultants are emphasizing the importance of thought leadership to creating sales success.  The Gartner Group cites Thought Leadership Marketing (TLM) as a major business trend that was incubated in high technology and consulting circles but is now rapidly becoming an established field in marketing and a basis of competitive differentiation.  report “Marketing Essentials: How to Use Thought Leadership Marketing for IT Services Providers.” According to Gartner Group, the essence of Thought Leadership Marketing is to show, rather than tell what a company can do, and to do so in a way that positions and differentiates that company’s offering for the chosen target audience.  Leading sales organizations like IBM and Cap Gemini  spend up to 20% of their marketing budget on Thought Leadership Marketing programs that  open doors for salespeople, establish or expand permission to participate in a deeper/ongoing sales dialog, build visibility and credibility in the market, and reinforce the brand promise and image.

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An example of Thought Leadership Selling In The Sugar Processing Industry

Posted on August 19, 2010 by sdiorio

One good example of how a B2B selling organization in a commodity industry – Sugar Processing – has executed a systematic thought leadership selling program is The Imperial Sugar Company.  The Imperial Sugar Company created its own newsroom and has captured thought leadership in a commodity industry.

Looking under the covers, we think the ISC Newsroom is unique and effective thought leadership selling program for several reasons.

It is built on high quality proprietary content. It is populated with original thought leadership content and stories created by Imperial Sugar – it does not simply aggregate content from third party sources like 99% of thought leadership web site.  This single asset allows it to differentiate it’s brand and selling experience from all other sugar companies many times it’s size with much bigger advertising and marketing budgets.

It has content that directly supports sales. This original content helps Imperial Sugar’s salespeople make compelling and relevant sales calls, like this article that cites new research indicating cane sugar is in fact a healthy part of the diet.  This piece gives sales professionals relevant news and educational insights that allow them to continue their ongoing dialogue with food manufacturers about the tradeoffs between cane sugar vs. corn based fructose. The focus on content that gives salespeople reasons to call, reasons to call again, reasons to be referred and reasons to be remembered is the key to turning marketing and communications dollars into measurable sales results.

You can learn about how this program was started and supported in this article by its founder David Henderson called Making Your Own News. In it, he proposes it takes CEO level leadership, a formal thought leadership organization and a new breed of marketing services provider to make thought leadership selling happen.  All of these conditions exist at Imperial Sugar.

David also wrote a great book on the entire Thought Leadership Selling trend entitled: Making News in the Digital Era. The book discusses how traditional advertising and public relations agency support structures is ill equipped to execute 21st century thought leadership programs because they lack the tools (read press releases don’t work), the original content and stories, and skills to execute programs that selling channels – including support face to face selling, call center, interactive, mobile and social media channels.

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What does Thought Leadership Selling Mean?

Posted on August 2, 2010 by admin

Thought Leadership Selling means taking a programmatic approach to helping your sales people deliver new ideas, relevant advice and compelling solutions to prospects and customers. A Thought Leadership Selling program provides salespeople with a sustained stream of education and advisory content that helps them open doors, make more effective sales calls, differentiate your organization and deliver trusted advice. A Thought Leadership Selling program is:

  • Based on an integrated strategy that incorporates sales process, communications, branding and product sales goals
  • Built upon a well thought out set of thought leadership assets including selling content, tools and resources

Delivered to customers using disciplined multi-channel programs and a coordinated set of customer touches

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An example of Thought Leadership Selling In Business Banking

Posted on February 23, 2012 by sdiorio

 

SunTrust Bank recently won Nine Greenwich Excellence Awards for Outstanding Service in their business- to-business service lines – Small Business and Middle Market Banking.

In the press release quoted below SunTrust cited their innovative thought leadership selling programs as one of the keys to behind their success in developing deeper customer relationships in these challenging and highly competitive market segments.

“SunTrust is proud of these prestigious Greenwich Excellence Awards, which are a direct reflection of our continuous efforts to provide our small and mid-size business clients with innovative solutions to help them be successful,” said Tom Kuntz, SunTrust commercial line of business executive.  ”We recognize that businesses need a financial partner who understands their needs – from enhancing cash flow to financing their business. We are committed to delivering the best quality service to our clients, whose business and trust we greatly value.”

As part of its ongoing commitment to building solid relationships across business segments, SunTrust continues to deliver valuable insights and resources such as the recently launched Cash Management Evaluator (available at www.bizsolutionscentral.com) which helps small businesses learn more about where they have the best opportunities to improve cash flow along with actions they can take to keep their business on solid ground.

For anyone interested in differentiating their sales experience by delivering original and valuable trusted advice to high value clients, it is probably worth a look.

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