How much time and money did you spend last year to make sure your sales and marketing teams could articulate your value proposition?  Now, how much did you spend making sure the rest of the company could do the same? If you’re like most organizations, with the exception of what might be in an employee manual or on a corporate brochure, the remaining employees (often over 80% of the staff) have been ignored. And so what is the result?

If you go into most mid-sized businesses and ask anyone outside of marketing and sales what the company does, you will get a different response from each person. There is no cohesiveness or understanding across the organization. But these are the people who are interfacing with your current and future customers on a daily basis. Outside the company they are talking to prospects, future employees, potential investors, you name it! Wouldn’t it make sense that they have a clear understanding of your business? That is where the Playbook comes in.

The Playbook is for everyone in the company. It isn’t an employee manual. It isn’t a business plan. It is a key to success. The average Playbook is about 20 pages long, and it clearly articulates your brand, your corporate values, and the business you are in. It defines your target audience, the value you bring to your customer and your unique selling proposition. It may contain other elements, like customer testimonials, lists of competitors, and quick examples of customer successes. It also explains the company’s missions and goals and your vision for the future.

Here is a sample outline of a Playbook. It can be modified or changed completely to suit your needs.

• What is your company mission or goal statement?
• What do you sell and how do you make money?
• What are the company values?
• What is the brand and why is the brand important.
• A three to five sentence description of what your company does, written from the perspective of the problems you solve for the customer.
• Who are your top customers?
• What are some examples of products/services you’ve provided to them?
• What was the impact on the customer?
• What the future plans are for the company, what is your vision?
• What makes a good prospect?
• Why did you start the company?
• How does the company define success?
• Why are the employees important to your success?
• Who is the management team?

You can start by sending a survey out to all your employees. Let them answer anonymously but ask them to submit the one burning question about the company they’d want you to answer. Get everyone on the same page and watch what happens.

I’m here to tell you that unless you plan on selling tennis shoes to teenagers or cereal to children, your logo is the least of your concerns.  Just make sure it fits the following criteria:

• It looks equally good in black & white as it does in color
• It is easy to ready (no fancy script fonts)
• It looks professionally designed (no clip art)
• You like it

That it.  Really.  Nobody will choose to buy your services or technology because of your logo.  They will buy from you because they have a need and you have the answer.

Thanks to the internet there are dozens of online logo design services, Logoworks.com and 99designs.com are just two that I’ve recommended in the past.  The quality of the work is excellent.  Sure, you get a few really lousy logo concepts but overall I’ve been very impressed with what I’ve seen.   One colleague used Logoworks to design his logo for an online social networking site for hair stylists.  It cost him $300 and this is what he got – he’s delighted.

As part of a case study I’m conducting I decided to get a logo designed for an online business I’m launching called Peace Happens.  The goal of this project is to get a business up and running on the Internet (including e-commerce) for less than $1,200.  It has to be generating revenue before I can spend more than $1,200.  I’m doing this because I see too many start ups and small businesses spending all their marketing budget on the wrong things — like logos and expensive websites — instead of whats important, like GENERATING LEADS.  There are too many inexpensive or free tools on the market (like WordPress) to use when building a website.  And services like Logoworks and 99Designs are an incredible resource for certain types of design work.

I decided to try using 99Designs because I liked the idea of having an open contest.  Designers from around the world read your design request (called a brief) and then choose to enter the contest with a concept of their own.  I am on a tight budget so I bid $195 for the design.  This is the Design Brief I wrote.

In six days I had 78 submissions.  Yes, some of them were lousy and obviously designed by students.  Others were extremely professional, creative and well thought out.  Here is a compilation of some of the designs that were submitted

I now have to select a winner and award the $195 prize.  I’m not sure yet which logo I’ll select.  I am taking surveys — you’re free to email me with the # of a logo that you like.  Just visit the contest page here.

The next step is to build the website.  I’ve purchased peacehappens.net from GoDaddy for $9.95.  I’ll be posting my progress on this blog.

Pull together a group of employees and create an imaginary company.  Then tell the team, “you are the management of that company and your job is to kill our company.”  So the team puts together a plan that leverages every single weak point in your firm.  That is the morning exercise.  In the afternoon, the team reconvenes and talks about how they are going to counter attack.  What a great way to look at your compay through a different set of eyes.  You also end up with a list of improvements to make to your company.  After all, your competition is out there already planning on how to win your market share.  You might as well beat them to the punch.

I reply to the prospect, “I’m going to have three clients call you and give you a reference on my services.  I’ll also provide you with their contact names and phone numbers, but because of your busy schedule I will ask them to reach out to you and hopefully you’ll avoid playing phone tag.”

This always impresses the prospect.  Some version of “Gee, she’s got clients willing to call ME and give me a reference.  She must be very good,” is what goes through their head.

Then based on the project,  I select the most appropriate three clients and ask them to be a reference for me.  If I get voice mail, I leave a message and follow up with an email saying something along these lines:

“I was hoping you could be a reference for me.  I’m being considered for an opportunity that is similar to what I did for you.  In deference to your busy schedule, and so you can avoid playing phone tag, I’m providing the contact info below for my prospect.  At your convenience, could you please call this person and provide a reference for me?  If you get voice mail, just leave your opinion of my services in the voice mail message.  If my prospect wants to follow up, s/he will. ”

Now my clients, who are happy to provide a reference, are able to do so at their convenience.  And if they get voice mail (a likely occurence), they are still able to leave a message voicing their opinion of my service.

Here is why this works – everybody feels like I’m being respectful of their busy schedule.  My clients are happy to give references, and usually leave glowing voice mail messages.  The prospect is impressed because I have obviously built relationships strong enough to ask my clients to pro-actively give references instead of waiting for a call.  On more than one occasion, I’ve been awarded a contract when the prospect never actually TALKED to one of my references.  But between the voice mails from my clients and the video testimonials on my website, they felt like they HAD spoken to several clients.

Try this for yourself some time, you’ll be amazed at how efficient and effective this can be as a sales tool.

Imagine if I came to you and said, “I’m going to build you a custom designed house.  It will be beautiful and I’m going to charge you thousands of dollars. However,  I’m going to keep title to the land I’m building the house upon.  I’m going to use building materials that only work on my property.  I’m going to let you live in the house, but if you need any repairs you will always have to call me because nobody else can get on the property.  But don’t worry, you’ll own the house.”

Wouldn’t you think I was crazy?  But this happens every day with websites.

You’re too busy to learn how to buy your own domain name so you let your website company do this for you.  That means they own the title to your house.

Then the website gets built using their proprietary inhouse technology.  You are assured that it is easy to use and you will be able to update your website any time you desire.  But this means you’ve used building material that will only work on their property.  And any future additions to your website (i.e., like a shopping cart, video testimonials, etc.) must be custom developed.  So now you can’t use any other repair men on your house, you can’t negotiate the best deal or find the best offer.  You’re stuck with the builder and what ever price they want to charge you.

Then they tell you that the website will get hosted on their server, which means they now own the land upon which your house was built.

Later on in the relationship, if you get tired of working with this web development company you’re basically hosed.  The website you spent thousands of dollars building can’t be moved to any other hosting company.  They own your domain name (www.yourname.com).  If they are really unscruplous they can hold this hostage or sell it back to you for thousands more than the $9.95 they paid originally.

With today’s open source CMS tools like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and many others; this is a problem that should never even happened in the first place.  There are too many free or inexpensive solutions available for developing your website.  That doesn’t mean you get a website for free. You’ll still have to pay someone to code the site, install it on the server and make sure the design you’ve selected is properly installed. You’ll also pay for good copywriting, hosting and customized graphic design.  But here are some ways to help ensure you won’t find yourself left with a website you can’t use and no more marketing budget:

1.  Buy your own domain name.  We use godaddy.com for all our domain purchases.  Regardless of which service you use, make sure you set up an account and centralize all your domain purchases through the same service.   List yourself as the administrator, you can add other administrators to the account later as required.

2.  Select your own hosting company.  We use inmotionhosting.com.  We like InMotion because every time we call for help, a human being answers the phone.  They know their stuff and have the patience of a saint.

3.  Make sure your web development company is willing to build your website using an open-source tool like one of those listed above.  If they start talking about custom coding, proprietary systems, or using words like “DreamWeaver” then find another firm.

4.  Make sure that your website development company gives you the original photoshop files for your website design.  You won’t be able to do anything with these files yourself (nor should you) unless you are an experienced designer.  However, if you and the web company part ways, you’ll have the design files that the next web development company needs in order to modify or update your website.

As a side note,make sure youhire a good copywriter.  Someone with experience writing for the web.  The web development company may have copywriters on staff.  But don’t assume the price you’ve been quoted for the website includes any copywriting.  That is often the most expensive part of the project, and well worth every penny if done correctly.

The impact that Twitter is making on people the world cannot be understated. In fact, the night I attended this workshop, Twitter shut down at 5pm for one hour of maintenance p. The shutdown, originally planned for midnight hours had been rescheduled at the specific request of the US State Department because Twitter was the only source for news coming out of Iran during the election protests.

Twitter has yet to figure out a revenue model. There are hundreds of companies springing up all around the world offering tools to help manage your twitter streams, tweet more effectively, tweet on your mobile device, the list goes on. So you have people either putting in their own money or taking the investment from someone else to build a product that supports a product that makes no money.

There is an ironic similarity between Twitter and the US auto industry. Both have millions of customers and can’t figure out how to generate a profit. Hundreds (if not thousands) of satellite companies exist to support both organizations. Will there come a time when Twitter is so integral to the way we communicate in the US that they’ll qualify for bail out funds just to stay online?

It was not that long ago that we saw millions and millions of dollars go up in smoke when the first round of dot com companies blew up. Back then nobody seemed concerned about building a company founded on sound business principles and a strong revenue/profit model. Instead, we wasted money on huge marketing budgets, ridiculous advertising campaigns and luxurious office accomodations. We kept telling ourselves we’d “make it up in volume.” Well, clearly that didn’t work.

This time round we still seem unconcerned about generating revenue, let alone a profit. Instead, it’s all about attracting users. Sure, we don’t see the wasteful marketing and advertising campaigns anymore. And today it’s less about having a fancy office and more about being able to telework from home. The investment dollars are getting spent on the infrastructure to support the thousands upon thousands of users these companies are attracting through viral marketing campaigns, word of mouth and smarter advertising.

But at some point don’t the Twitters of the world have to figure out how to make money? How many more millions of dollars will investors put into companies like this without figuring out a way to generate some sort of revenue? I’m definitely a Twitter fan although by no means a power user. I can grasp the incredible impact this tool has on our society. I love social media. But having been through one big dot com boom I would like to think we learned from our mistakes. The basics of business, no matter what business you’re in, remain the same. You have to generate revenue, manage your expenses and realize a reasonable profit. Otherwise you’re just building a house of cards. So where does that leave Twitter?

]]> http://www.capturekeepandgrow.com/2009/06/23/is-twitter-a-house-of-cards/feed/ 0 http://www.capturekeepandgrow.com/2009/06/11/pipelines-pipedreams/ http://www.capturekeepandgrow.com/2009/06/11/pipelines-pipedreams/#comments Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:15:53 +0000 admin http://www.capturekeepandgrow.com/index/?p=764 When developing marketing strategies for clients,  one of the first things we do is learn about the company’s sales process.  This includes going on sales calls, sitting in on sales meetings, viewing the pipeline reports, finding out how the sales cycle works — basically absorbing everything we can about the sales function within the organization.

One common complaint heard from CEOs time and again is centered around the pipeline (or lack thereof) and the shortfall that occurs every quarter.  The pipeline never seems to live up to its promises.  I’ve sat in enough sales meetings now to quickly figure out if a company has a real pipeline or a pipe-dream.  The four most common mistakes I see are listed below:

1.  Lack of a common sales methodology:

There are a lot of great sales methodologies out there and many are equally effective.  Whether you adopt Spin Selling, Sandler, or something else it is important that you make sure everyone is following the same one.  The strength of any process comes in everyone speaking the same language and following the same methodology.  That way every opportunity is being managed in a similar fashion and the entire sales team is moving in unison.

2.  Lack of common descriptions for stages of the sale:

As with adopting a common methodology, you want everyone on the sales team to use the same definitions and stages for the sales cycle.  It doesn’t have to be complicated.  Here is a five stage system we often set up for our clients:

Stage 1 – This is a “suspect.”  You have not begun the qualification process.  You got this contact from a networking event, participation in a webinar, an online inquiry, etc.  You “suspect” this company/person may need your services and want to start a dialog.

Stage 2 – The first level of a prospect.  You’ve had at least one conversation, you are starting to understand the prospect’s “pain” and how you might provide a solution.  The prospect is interested in learning more about what you have to offer.

Stage 3 – The second level of a prospect.  You are having specific conversations with the person(s) involved in making a decision to purchase your product or services.  You are gathering the information you need in order to submit a proposal.  You have information on the budget, time line for decision, your competition and you are formulating your solution.

Stage 4 – Proposal stage.  You’ve submitted the proposal.  Ideally, you presented your proposal in person or the phone and got an initial reaction from the buyer.  You have been told when a decision will be reached and you can “guesstimate” your chances of winning.

Stage 5 – Pending Contract.  You’ve won your proposal and you are now getting the signed contract, the deposit check, and setting up the first stages of implementation.  This is one of the most critical stages of the sales process.  Many things can go wrong even after you’ve received a verbal award or a signed letter of intent.  It is important to monitor your sale until the equipment has been shipped, or the first meeting has taken place and the initial check is in the bank.

Lost – If you lost the bid, you still want to track this prospect.  The company that won the award might not deliver.  Or you may have an opportunity to get back in the door with a different solution.  Your sales management should define how you recycle a lost prospect back into the sales process.

Using a common sales process and description for where a prospect is in the sales cycle can eliminate about 50% of pipeline confusion.  Once you’ve defined the stages in your sales cycle, make sure you also have defined criteria for each stage.  The criteria should be more than what we’ve listed above.  It should include information on the prospect (company size, number of employees, SIC code, etc.)  in addition to specific criteria such as “you can’t move to stage 4 unless you can tell your sales manager when the customer plans to make a buying decision and who will be involved in that decision.”

3.  Not tracking the numbers

Sales is a numbers game.  You need X amount of suspects to get X amount of prospects to get X amount of meetings which will result in X amount of proposals which will result in ONE new customer.  The task of marketing and sales management is to shorten the sales cycle by reducing these ratios.  But if you aren’t tracking the numbers you have no idea what you’re reducing (or increasing!).

It takes 6-12 months to get a good “read” on the ratios that apply to your company sales cycle.  Once you have these ratios you can quickly look at a pipeline report and determine how realistic your quarterly revenue projections are going to be.  If the ratios in the pipeline don’t match your pre-determined sales cycle then you have a problem.

4.  Not using a centralized sales tracking system

It doesn’t matter if you choose ACT!, GoldMine, Salesforce.com, or any of the other sales tracking tools on the market today.  You want all the data in a centralized location.  We highly recommend using something that is web-based so that you and your management team can access the data from any location.  For many sales people, their rolodex is a valuable asset.  It isn’t uncommon to leave a company and turn in a laptop that has been wiped of all contact information.  Then management has to go in and try to recreate everything.

With a sales tracking system, you can enforce the stages of your sales cycle, you can assess your metrics, and determine (on an individual basis) who within the sales team is driving their sales forward and who is filling their pipeline with dreams.

I can’t guarantee that eliminating these four mistakes within your organization will ensure you hit your revenue targets.  However, I can guarantee that if you implement a standard sales methodology, adopt common sales stages and enforce criteria for each step of the sales cycle, measure your metrics and use a company-wide online sales tracking tool that your pipeline reports and revenue projections will be realistic, credible and far more accurate.

There was a time when it was unusual to receive anything but plain text into your email box. Then we moved to designing branded newsletters and “postcard-like” invitations that would capture the attention of our readers. Now, thanks to ever-improving SPAM filters a lot of those fancy invitations, announcements and emails aren’t even making it to our desktop. And for those that do get through the fire-wall, we’ve become jaded and tired of looking at all those designs. We just want the information – short, sweet and simple.

Playing on this hunch we recently experimented with a client that has been holding a series of seminars. As is typical, invitations had been sent out using HTML and branded design. But registrations were down and we were looking for a way to drive attendance. So we sent out another announcement about the event, except this was a simple text email. In the “from” section we had real person’s name. In the “subject” line we inserted the name of the seminar. In the body of the email was a sentence inviting the recipient to attend the seminar. We had about 3 key “what you’ll get” bullets and the basic description of the 2 hour session.

Within 24 hours of sending out the text email we received an additional 10 registrants for the event. Since the event was capped at 25 attendees, this was almost 50% of our audience!  We thought we might be on to something, so we did again for another client event.  And again, the results were similar.  The plain text email out performed the HTML invitation by over 50%.  Why?  I think our brains are just a little tired.  You can compare this to walking down the Las Vegas strip at night.  At first the lights are beautiful and everything captures your attention.  But walk the strip every night for months and months and after a while those pretty flashing lights aren’t going to capture your attention any longer.  You are going to simply focus on arriving at your destination.

Because of this, I believe that we’re coming full circle back to a more old-fashioned way of communicating.  I don’t have time to read my online newsletters as often as I would like.  But I notice that on Sunday afternoon I sit down and read several print journals I get in the mail each month.  The “cold-call” email blasts never capture my attention but last week I got a very clever direct mail piece that gave me pause and actually got me to call the service provider.  And I recently signed up for a webinar on advanced search engine marketing techniques that I learned about from a plain text email that was delivered to me from the owner of the interactive consultancy.

Am I advocating that we do away with HTML newsletters and announcements completely?  Of course not.  Those have a place in our marketing mix as does everything else.  I am suggesting that you consider alternating HTML with plain text and that you experiment with both.  If you’re holding an event, why not alternate each notice — the first in HTML, the second in plain text, etc.  And the day before the event — send out a plain text reminder.  And let me know if your response rates start increasing with this “old-fashioned” approach to email marketing.

I think he did a great job on the article, and I still think the business was a great idea.  The problem is I fell in love with the idea instead of the viability of the company.  And I didn’t think through the aspects of fulfillment.   In retrospect, I did all the things I tell my clients to avoid every day!  It is common for tech companies to fall in love with the idea of the new technology and its capabilities without spending enough time evaluating whether there is a customer need and enough budget for the delivery, sales and marketing of the technology.

I have a lot more ideas perculating and I suspect there are several more startups in my future.  At least I hope so!  Every experience builds on the next.  The lessons learned can be applied not just to how I run Zephyr, but also to my clients (present and future) who sometimes become enamoured of the idea instead of the business viability.  At least now I can say “Been there, done that.”