New Sales Rep, Key Account: Top 10 Tips for B2B Success
Smart business-to-business (B2B) marketers work hard to create and keep great relationships with their clients.In my last post, I shared the story of how a new B2B sales rep nearly destroyed a 10-year client relationship with my marketing agency by making six crucial mistakes in the first meeting.But transitioning a legacy client to a new sales rep doesn’t have to be a sales minefield. When handled well, assigning a new rep to a key account can be an opportunity to increase the client’s satisfaction and boost sales.Here are 10 things a new sales rep can do to ensure a smooth transition and earn a long-time client’s trust.
How NOT to Make a First Sales Call on a Long-Time Client
In business-to-business (B2B) marketing, the sales representative’s relationship with the customer drives sales and referrals.But when a trusted rep moves on and a new one is assigned to a long-time client, there’s potential for big trouble if the transition is handled poorly.Case in point: I recently met with a new sales rep from a company I’ve done business with for more than a decade. In less than 20 minutes, he managed to break six cardinal rules of effective customer relationship management and came very close to jeopardizing a long-term business partnership.Here’s where this salesperson went wrong and what can you learn from his mistakes for your smart marketing strategy.
New Prospect, Bad Client? 7 Red Flags for Marketing Agencies
Every advertising and marketing agency is in a constant search for new business. But as a marketing agency president, I’ve learned the hard way that not all prospects should become clients.Even if you're a marketing agency looking to grow, sometimes it's smarter to walk away from prospective new business than enter into a bad relationship. How do you know when to stay or go?Here are 7 warning signs that a new prospect could become a bad client for your marketing agency.
#FAIL: The 11 Most Overused Creative Themes in Marketing
A fresh creative concept is crucial for effective advertising and a smart marketing strategy.But too many advertising and marketing campaigns recycle the same, tired creative themes and copy phrases over and over and over.This is more than annoying. It’s a guaranteed audience turn-off and a misuse of the marketer’s resources.Here’s the 2011 edition of my annual list of the most overused creative themes in marketing. How many do you recognize?
40 Questions for a Smarter Marketing Strategy
Are you getting a good return on your investment in marketing? Could it be better?One way to find out is to conduct a top-to-bottom review of your entire marketing plan to determine what’s working and what isn’t.This process is sometimes called a marketing audit. I’m often asked to guide audits as an independent marketing consultant and I recently shared advice on how to do an audit effectively.What specific factors should you assess in a marketing audit? Here are 40 questions I recommend for evaluating the effectiveness of your marketing and developing a smarter marketing strategy.
The 7 Most Important Things to Do with a Sales Lead
Business-to-business (B2B) marketers often use such tactics as direct marketing, e-marketing, advertising, trade shows, and web marketing to generate sales leads.But a smart lead generation marketing strategy goes well beyond the creation of the marketing campaign.If your goal is to build a relationship with a business prospect, increase your sales conversion rate, and maximize the value of your sales resources, you need a careful plan for what happens after the lead comes in.Here are the seven steps you should take with a marketing-generated sales lead to achieve success.
Talkin' About My Generation? Using Cultural References in Marketing
“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,” I heard a marketing consultant say in a recent meeting.I knew he was quoting the scene from The Wizard of Oz when Toto pulls back the curtain to reveal that the Wizard is just an ordinary man. But judging by the puzzled looks on their faces, the twenty-somethings in the meeting had no idea what he was talking about.Situations like this don’t just make you feel your age. They painfully illustrate the fact that cultural points of reference are constantly shifting and big gaps can exist between generations.If you’re marketing to a specific generation and using cultural references in your marketing campaign, your message will miss the mark if you don't get it exactly right.Here’s advice for how to use cultural references effectively in your smart marketing strategy.
What Makes Bad Advertising So Bad? It’s Not Believable
When an advertising campaign is so bad it makes you groan out loud, there’s usually a simple reason: It’s not believable.The worst offenders are campaigns that attempt to portray real-life situations. The dialogue often is so forced or the setup so phony that your only reaction is to roll your eyes and think, “Yeah, right.”But lack of believability in advertising is more than annoying. It’s a waste of the marketer’s money.Here are two ways to achieve believability in your advertising and two examples of smart marketers, including one in Northeast Ohio, who are doing it right.
21 Tips for Power Networking: When the Product is You
If you break into a cold sweat at the thought of walking into a business networking event as a complete stranger, you’re not alone.Networking is essential to building and growing a business, especially for business-to-business (B2B) marketers who participate in professional associations and trade shows.But it takes skill and experience to feel confident in a networking situation, and it takes careful planning to capitalize on the value of networking for lead generation.Here’s what I’ve learned about personal marketing and successful networking at B2B events, and 21 tips you can use to make networking a powerful component of your smart marketing strategy.
Want Better Marketing Results? Audit Your Marketing Strategy
What’s the best way to maximize the return on your marketing investment? Take a step back from your day-to-day marketing projects and conduct a marketing audit.A marketing audit is a top-to-bottom assessment of your entire marketing program, from branding to tactics. The beginning of a new year or the start of a new budget period is an ideal time to do it.How do you conduct a marketing audit? And how can an audit help you develop a smart marketing strategy? Here are some answers.
Landing the Big One: 10 Tips for Selling to Large Companies
Do you market products and services to businesses? If large companies are your target market, it can be tough to break in as a new supplier. Here are 10 tips for a smart sales and marketing strategy that can help you land a big client.
10 Marketing Questions to Ask Before Changing Your Company Name
Are you thinking about renaming your company? A new name can help your customers, prospects, and competitors see you in a new light. It also can help you make a splash in the marketplace and get media attention. But changing your company name is a major undertaking that requires substantial marketing resources. Before you take the plunge, you must be sure you have the right name and a smart marketing strategy to deploy it. Here are 10 strategic marketing questions to ask yourself when selecting a new name for your company.
7 Things Every Marketer Should Know About Their Best Customers
Are you hard at work on next year’s marketing strategy? If so, there’s a critical first step you should take for a more effective marketing plan: A thorough assessment of your best customers. If your company is like most, you have a core group of customers that drive a large percentage of your sales. Here are seven things you should know about your best customers in order to develop a smart marketing strategy.
How Bad Direct Mail Can Sink a Customer Win-Back Strategy
Verizon says they want me back. But based on the direct mail package they just sent me, I don’t think they mean it. Reactivating lapsed customers is an important marketing strategy for every business. It’s easier to reengage a former customer than create a new one. If you’re using direct marketing to win former customers back, however, you’d better do it right. Here’s how a major marketer blew a customer win-back opportunity with poor direct mail, and five lessons for more effective win-back direct marketing.
Secrets of the Mailroom Trash Can: 3 Lessons for B2B Marketing
There’s a giant trash can in the mailroom of my office building in Cleveland, Ohio. Every day, it fills up with discarded business mail. Sometimes I peek in the can to see what my fellow tenants have thrown out, and it’s quite revealing. Here’s what I’ve observed as a casual mailroom trash inspector, and three valuable lessons from this experience for business-to-business marketers who want to develop a smart marketing strategy.
B2B Sales Communication: 5 Tips for 1-to-1 Success
Call it contact management, lead follow-up, or just good salesmanship: One-to-one communication from sales representatives to prospects is vital to a smart business-to-business marketing strategy. But how do you do it well? Here are five tips for creating a one-to-one sales communication plan that engages prospects in a dynamic sales dialogue with your company and converts leads to sales.
7 Simple Principles of a Successful B2B Marketing Strategy
Business-to-business marketing doesn’t have to be complicated or elaborate to be effective. In fact, the most successful B2B marketing is often based on a simple strategy: Deliver clear, relevant messages consistently well over time to carefully selected prospects. Here are seven principles of a simple but smart B2B marketing strategy.
How a Sloppy List Can Sabotage Your Email Marketing
Savvy direct marketers know that the list is the most important factor in the success of a direct marketing campaign. That’s why so much time and effort goes into keeping mailing list data current and complete. But too many direct marketers fail to pay this same kind of attention to the cleanliness of their email lists. Case in point: The Wall Street Journal. Here's how a major marketer's poor email list hygiene ruined their promotion, and five lessons you can apply to a smart marketing strategy.
How to Select a New Logo: A Checklist for Branding Success
If you’re launching a new company, changing your company name, or revamping your brand identity, selecting a new logo will be one of your most important marketing decisions. The logo is the most visible element of your brand identity and the foundation of a smart marketing strategy. A great logo gets attention, sets you apart from competitors, and solidifies your position in the marketplace. A poor logo makes a permanently bad impression on prospects and confuses people about what your brand stands for. Here's a checklist of seven factors to consider when your creative team or marketing agency presents you with new logo design concepts.
A Direct Mail List Mistake Lives On Forever
Ms. Jean Gianfagna is tired of getting Mr. Gean Gianfagna’s mail. When I started a marketing consulting business in Cleveland in the early 1990s, someone who was compiling a direct mail list of small businesses made a typo in my name. I became Gean Gianfagna on this list and the compiler assumed that I was a man. It’s hard to believe, but nearly 20 years later, I still get direct mail addressed to Mr. Gean Gianfagna. This address has been so wrong for so long that I instantly discard any mailing that uses it. But it’s more than an ongoing annoyance: It’s an example of poor list hygiene and bad marketing strategy.