BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING BLOG

I read a column recently by David Segal in the New York Times about one Lucas Fayne.  It seems that Lucas wrote a very nice testimonial for…(unnamed by me here as I’m sure the parties are now sufficiently embarrassed after reading the article)…a roofing company’s website, stating, “Getting the quote was quick and easy, and your staff started on time each day and worked hard. We are very confident with the job you did and have been recommending you to all of our neighbors.”

The problem is however, that a Google search on “Lucas Fayne,” turned up more than 50 of the same exactly-worded testimonials all over the U.S. for all types of contractor businesses.  Either “Lucas Fayne” was constantly on the move and had repairs done on all of his new homes, or perhaps Lucas Fayne had become the most popular name in America while we were all sleeping.

It turns out that all of the websites were created by software from Intuit, which offers web-design services for small business owners. The “Lucas Fayne” quote is included with a template for contractors, which has been bought by thousands of companies over the years. Obviously, the companies are supposed to swap out the fake name and blurb with a real customer name and testimonial.

Companies work hard to build a reputation and in this age of easy access to data on almost everything, you need to be as qualified and honest as you present your business to be.  Testimonials, especially from a recognized company (or even a recognized person in a local community), can go far in making your business stand out from the competition.  Word of mouth (and now word of fingers in the internet age) can be the deciding factor in businesses choosing your company, so keep it real, and keep it updated!

And do you understand what it is saying?  I recently watched  the Jeopardy show that pitted two of the highest winning contestants in the shows history, against IBM’s Watson supercomputer. In the two-game match, Watson bested both of the human contestants to receive the $1,000,000 first prize.

Watson only had trouble responding to a few categories, such as short clues with few words. The more information that was put into Watson’s database – the more accurately Watson was able to answer. More data equals more information and understanding.

Does the data you have about your customers tell you what you need to know about how to talk to them, when, through what channels, and with what offer? And does what you know about your current customers suggest who are the best prospects for new customer acquisition?

The more data you have about your customers – the more insights you can gain – and the more strategic you can be in your marketing efforts. At ALC B2B dozens of sources contribute to our Executive Masterfile database, resulting in a unique file with an unparalleled depth of executives and breadth of companies represented. You can leverage the power of this data by appending it to your own customer file. Then your data will really talk to you!

Meetings dominate the way we do business today, whether in person, webinar, or phone.  According to a network MCI Conferencing White Paper, Meetings in America: A study of trends, costs and attitudes toward business travel, teleconferencing, and their impact on productivity, there are approximately 11 million meetings that occur in the U.S. each day.  Most professionals attend a total of 61.8 meetings per month, and research indicates that over 50 percent of this meeting time is wasted.  If each of these meetings is one hour long, you would lose 31 hours per month in unproductive meetings, or 4 work days – yikes!

We all know that having meetings is crucial to staying to staying organized and keeping up to speed with your team, and incorporating new ideas.  If meetings are unproductive, they end up wasting everyone’s time, and many employees will drag their feet about attending or participating in future meeting.

Dale Carnegie comes out with a weekly e-mail about sales training, and I kept their last blast about: Tips for More Effective Meetings as a template

• Tip #1 – Decide If You Even Need a Meeting – perhaps an e-mail or brief report can do the job. Not only will scaling back meetings cut back on wasted time, but it will also make the meetings you have seem more necessary.

• Tip #2 – Prepare Objectives for the Meeting – you need to be focused – not overly specific, but not too broad. For example: By the end of the meeting, I want the team to…

• Tip #3 – Provide an Agenda for the Meeting – include a brief description of the objectives, the topics and who will be speaking about what. E-mail the memo a few hours before the meeting so the attendees can familiarize themselves to it.

• Tip #4 – Take Notes and Mark Action Items – EVERYONE attending should come with paper and pen, no one should be passively listening, all should be engaged by taking notes and marking action items.

• Tip #5 – Stay Awake (okay, just checking to see if you are still reading this)

Of course, there are big differences in meeting types, just department updates, or presenting new products and agendas, off site conferences – (hopefully in an exotic locale), but bringing a positive attitude can make all the difference.

And, if you are looking for the real experts in planning meetings for their companies and associations, check out the ALC Meetings & Convention Planners Database to sell your innovative promotional products, ideas, and meeting venues.

Jerry Seinfeld says: “There is no such thing as an attention span. There is only the quality of what you are viewing.”

How true!

It’s been reported that the typical executive gets 175 pieces of mail each week.  That is a lot of “stuff” to go through, but that is probably only a fraction of the emails and voice mails that they receive, and a lot of those are never opened or heard.  If you are looking to generate a response from these time crunched executives, a well thought out, well planned, and well written direct mail effort is one of the surest methods for success.

You need to have a compelling subject line, and your offer right up front.  Senior level execs are information junkies who are looking to get an edge on the competition and increase their market share, so offer them information that they can’t get anywhere else, such as a newly released survey or white paper, or a compelling recent story of success from your business.  You want to give them something that will get their attention AND a response.

Beware of words like FREE/URGENT/ACT NOW – nothing says Junk Mail more than teaser copy like that, and you may never even get your message past the mail room, or any gatekeeper that your mail piece will pass through before it hits your main target.

Keep it brief, make it compelling, and offer something extra to get the response you (both) need to be successful.

The ALC B2B Executive Masterfile delivers more decision making executives per company from – SOHO to big business – than any other source. The ALC B2B Executive Masterfile can put on you on the desks of over 7.3 million senior managers and C-Level Executives.