Archives for the month of: May, 2012
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Findability, Credibility, Trust

May 11, 2012 //
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A few days ago my friend Ronald Bradford sent me the following one-line email.

Even in my own city, I am unknown!

Ronald is a database scalability and performance consultant and has numerous accolades and awards to his name. Soon he will have four MySQL books published as part of the Oracle series (two presently). His clients have included eBay, Electronic Arts, Thomson Reuters, and numerous startups. Ronald is a database god—his work generally results in a better Web visitor experience!

Ronald is extremely active in the MySQL community: Community Member of the Year; Oracle ACE Director for MySQL; organizer of the Effective MySQL Meetup in NYC (276 members), etc. He’s also very savvy at search engine optimization. Do any search on MySQL and he’s likely going to be at the very top. Try it now: MySQL Expert.

None of that mattered.

Remy Arteaga posted to the NYC Tech Meetup site, asking if anyone knew how to hire a MySQL expert. Remy and Ronald live in the same city and probably know many of the same people.

Remy did not perform an online search for “MySQL Expert.” Remy did reach out to his network in a forum he believes he can trust.

Is your business known and findable where your customers are looking for you?

[P.S.: Ronald ultimately got some help. You can’t survive without net promoters.]

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Axiom

May 9, 2012 //
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Context, not content, is king (and queen).

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Benefits of Listening

May 9, 2012 //
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I consider sales to be a function of marketing (the process of getting your product into the market, and all that entails).

In What a 9-Year-Old Can Teach You About Selling, Tom Searcy makes the point of using language that’s relevant to your prospect/customer.

On a meta-level, what he’s really talking about is communicating the benefits that matter to the person you are talking to at that moment.

If you can answer “What’s in it for me?” you’ve made a lasting impression.

But know that you’re probably not going to hear the question. You’ll need to answer it anyway because that’s the only thing going on in the listener’s mind before he/she will consider additional information.

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Axiom

May 8, 2012 //
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Advertising doesn’t have to look good, it needs to be effective.

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CRM = Crappy Relationship Management

May 7, 2012 //
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I received the following email this afternoon:

Hi,

I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself as your Salesforce Account Executive. I’d like to spend some time reviewing your account to make sure you’re getting the best value out of Salesforce.

Does it make sense to schedule a quick 10 minute call to make sure Salesforce is aligned with your current goals & projects?

I look forward to working with you and your team.

Best,

[Name]
Account Executive
Phone: (415) 882-2886
[name]@salesforce.com

Really?

Your company popularized customer relationship management and your own system cannot tell you what I’ve told every single one of your predecessors?

I have to say both Jigsaw (data.com) and Salesforce do a poor job of actually listening to the customer—or at least listening to me. I get a new rep every six months, and I inevitably (invariably?) get roped into this type of discussion.

The worst thing is when I do make a suggestion for how to improve the service, I usually get this answer: “That’s a really great suggestion. However, I don’t really care. You see, I’m not required or empowered to care. I may be a customer service rep (i.e. account executive), but actually listening to you isn’t part of my job description. You’ll now have to go to this site (“lemme give you the URL”) and type everything up you just told me and then hit the submit-button.”

You’ve got to be kidding me. Marketing departments have to learn that CRM = LRM (lifecycle relationship management). CRM/LRM is not software, it’s a process.

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Live, For Now

May 7, 2012 //
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This morning AdAge published an article called “Pepsi Tackles Identity Crisis,” highlighting the journey that PepsiCo took to arrive at its “Live For Now (press release)” global brand positioning. I really think we have more of a Mantra vs. Mission issue here, but that’s not what jumped out immediately.

What struck me is the discrepancy between consumer trends (toward healthier foods) and this particular campaign. Two related thoughts came to mind immediately:

Live with reckless abandon. (Woohoo!)

which quickly deteriorated into

Live, For Now. (Oh no!)

I like the intensity of the “Live For Now” slogan, but it seems to fly in the face of all other PepsiCo messaging. In case you are unaware, PepsiCo is one of the world’s larges food and beverage manufacturers with [U.S.] household brand names such as Frito-Lay, Tropicana, Quaker Oats, Gatorade, and Life cereal under its wing. All of these have been marketed with health and wellness benefits of late.

Brad Jakeman, president global enjoyment and chief creative officer, notes that Pepsi lost its “cool quotient.” He’s probably right—I wouldn’t know any better— and the consumer may not associate a sugary beverage brand with Quaker Oats. But actively promoting a sugar-high is in stark contrast to the entire brand portfolio repositioning that PepsiCo has been orchestrating.

In the end marketing’s challenge is to deliver the balance between what the customer wants vs. needs. That’s why we have jobs [still].

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Professional Context…

May 2, 2012 //
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Marc Simony

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