The Propoganda of Distraction

Hey, I created a new blog, Ted's Marketing Blog! It's a lot like this blog, but it has a more mundane title.

http://tedsmarketingblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/propaganda-of-distraction.html

How many leads will it take to hit next years sales objective?

How many leads will you need to reach next years sales objective? This is a simple question, but one many people do not want to answer. Why? Simple, the answer is "a lot."

You could look at the current year's run rate, then see how many leads came into your sales organization that got you to that number. The danger is that you will include sales to your existing customer base in your calculation. Look at how many new customers you gained, and the number of leads that were generated to get to that number. There will be a stark difference between the two numbers. The other error you need to avoid is the failure to include the churn rate of your customer base, or how many customers did you lose? One more factor to consider: New customers typically don't buy at the run rate of your existing customers in the first year. For the sake of this discussion, we will assume they purchase 1/2 the amount of existing customers.

Let's look at a fictional company and see how these numbers play out.

• Annual sales volume: $100,000,000.
• Number of existing customers: 2000
• Avg. purchase of existing customer: $50,000.
• Churn rate: 15%
• Customers lost: 300
• Avg. purchase of new customer: $25,000
• Number of new customers needed to replace lost revenue 2 x 300=600.
• Sales growth target: 10% or $10,000,000
• Number of new customers need for growth target: 400
• Total of new customers actually needed to achieve 10% growth: 1000

Now, if you need 1000 new customers, how many leads do you have to generate? Assume that you need five hot or warm leads to gain one customer. (I am being generous.) You will need 5,000 hot or warm leads.

A study by the Direct Marketing Association revealed a average response rate of 2.61% for direct marketing programs. Using that number, to generate 5000 leads, you would need 191,600 impressions.

It's just math, right?

You can plug your own company's numbers into these calculations. The important thing is to include all the variables. The biggest issues I have experienced in marketing are an overly optimistic view of the response rate of a marketing campaign and how many of the leads generated will turn into a sale.

You should have all of the data available inside your company. Some of it will take work to figure out. However, you must do this exercise to find out where you are, and what it will take to hit your revenue objectives.

You can't build a sales and marketing plan based on wishes and good intentions. It takes discipline, and more than a little work.

Time Enough for Selling

I often have conversations with people regarding their sales targets. If you have been in the sales and marketing game long enough, you will recognize these simple rules: 

• Next years targets are always higher than this years.
• These targets will be achieved by increasing the quota of every sales person.
• To ensure that sales knows we are serious, there will be a process of tracking the sales person's progress. This process will take up the time of the sales person, leaving them LESS time to pursue the increased sales goals.
• To ensure we are getting the most profit from our sales, we will approve all quotes at headquarters. We can't trust our sales team to make the right decisions.

In summary, the strategy is by making life difficult for the sales team we will achieve increased sales.

Sounds crazy? If you want to be horrified, find out what percentage of time your sales team actually spends selling. If you ask your sales team you will hear a number from 25% to 50%. If you do some actual research, you will find out the number is closer to 10%. What are the biggest time wasters? Administration and problem solving. Together the can eat up more than 45% of a sales persons time. That great new process you implemented that has the sales person filling out forms, building spreadsheets, reporting, etc. just ate up 30% of available time. Add another 15% for the time a sales person spends on trying to find out the status of the order they have already closed. Go down the list and add up all the time wasters.

Are there ways of getting more out of your sales team? Of course there are. But if your sales team doesn't have the time to learn and implement them, they are all for naught.

Step 1. Ask you sales team what the time wasters plaguing them are.

Step 2. Eliminate them.

This may seem simple, but it likely won't be. Things that waste time have a way of justifying themselves. Question anyone who says something is necessary. Force them to prove it. Opinion doesn't count here.

"What are the facts? Again and again and again -- what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what "the stars foretell," avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable "verdict of history" -- what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!"

- Robert Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long, from Time Enough for Love

Tithing for Marketing

This is a story about the power of tithing. Tithing is the process of giving 10% of your gross or net pay to your church, or other religious institution. This practice is done by many Christians. My brother is a minister at a church in Fresno, California. I don't know how many of his flock tithe, but I know he does.

A number of years ago, when my brother was an assistant pastor in another church, he and his wife found out she was pregnant. It was a very happy surprise to them. There was only one problem, for my sister-in-law to stay home with their new born child, she would have to quit her job. They would lose her income stream. My brother would need a 30% pay increase to make ends meet. (Assisant pastors always have to work a "real job" to support their families.) Faced with this challenge, what did my brother, Brother Tim do? Most people would cut back on their expenses to save-up some cash for the new-baby expenses and the loss of income. Not Brother Tim. He began tithing at the salary he wanted to make. That's right, he calculated what 10% was at his target salary, and tithed that. He believed and was investing in his future.

What happened? At his annual performance review at the electrical wholesaler where he worked, he was moved to an outside sales/support position, given a 30% pay increase and a company vehicle. Unbelievable. Yet, it happened.

What does this have to do with business? In a economic downturn, one of the first things cut is the marketing budget. To those of us who are marketing professionals, this makes little sense. "Sales are down so we should stop trying to sell" seems to be the offical wisdom. A major issue marketing managers face, especially in capital equipment markets, is the sales cycle is longer than any given fiscal year - eighteen to twenty-four months is not unusual. It is very difficult to link this year's marketing programs to this years sales. The only way to defend the marketing budget is to link it to potential sales, i.e. leads. If you don't have an automated marketing process, you are, frankly, doomed. The need for automating sales and marketing processes is a topic for discussion in a future blog.

Back to the topic at hand. Marketing budgets and the programs funded by them need to be based on what the sales target is xx months out. The spend is established by the target, not current market conditions. The benefit of this strategy, especially in a down market, is that while your competition is cutting their marketing budget, you are pushing ahead. Maintaining a consistent market presence provides your company with a healthy financial image. Your marketing programs impact is increased with each cut by a competitor. Moreover, marketing outlets, websites, direct marketing companies, magazines with lists of your target customers and others, are more willing to deal. The overall effectiveness of the monies you have go farther.

Now, some people will say, of course their marketing budgets are based on sales targets! Those of us who have weathered other economic storms, or senior management strategies, know this is not so. "You can bullshit the fans, you can't bullshit the players." What we need to argue and push for is tithing for the target. That does not mean 10% of revenues go to marketing, but rather the marketing spend is based upon creating xxx amount of sales leads, of which xx% will be turned into actual sales.

Perhaps the hardest thing for people to accept is gaining new customers costs money. It can be seen as a lot of money. This is where the marketing professional must be able to state the facts. There is hard, empirical data on just what it takes to create customer interest and sales leads. Use it. Push back on the belief that your company's customers are somehow different than the rest of the world. Use case studies of successful companies, how they plan and execute successful marketing programs; how they track and measure success. It's just math. Calculate your marketing tithe, and go to the mat for it. If your company does not believe in its own future success, you probably shouldn't be working there anyway.

What The World Doesn't Need Now

A few months ago I sat through a one hour "Go-To-Meeting" from a marketing firm in New York. It was a very good presentation, from what was a top-notch agency.

I did, however, squirm in my seat for most of the presentation. I really don't have the time to sit though a presentation that I have seen many times from many agencies. I was being "nice." When the presentation was over, the asked for my thoughts. I told them that their business model was wrong for the current economy. No one has the budget for a full-blown agency, doing extensive market studies, customer focus groups, long term market planning, or complete end-to-end services. Not only do we not have the budget, we don't have the time.

They question I ask myself everyday, is "What I am going to do TODAY to generate customer interest in my product, a lead, or a sale?" It's about today, and tomorrow, and maybe next week. Most companies are living literally day to day. Businesses are being shuttered everyday. We need sales, we need them now. How can I find the customer who is wants to buy, but needs to feel very good about a decision to buy, today? What can I do to help the sales force make one more call, today?

You could call this guerrilla marketing, tactical marketing, ninja marketing, or even TODAY marketing. The point is we as marketers have to try a series of small strikes to see what works. Better to try five things fast and one of them stick, than try one for ninety days and see it fail. We don't have ninety days. No one does.

Regardless of the recent Wall Street ups and downs this isn't over yet. We need to keep operating like the lives of our companies and careers are hanging by a thread. Because, they are.

What are you going to do, today? More importantly, what am I going to do?

The Urgency for Original Thought

I attended a trade show in Las Vegas in the early this year. One of my duties as a V.P. of Marketing was to meet with the media, specifically various members of the trade press. During one of the conversations, a magazine rep was going over their focus on sustainability in 2010 and 2011. After listen to sustainability this, and sustainability that, I asked, “What does the term sustainability mean to you and your readers?”

The man was stumped. He knew the newest buzz word, but he could not articulate it into a defensible argument. Finally, he said something about “Using products and …….that are good for the environment…..?”To help the gentleman save face, I said, “I just asked because there seem to be differing opinions on what, exactly “sustainability" is.

The truth is even the U.N., the main proponent of sustainability, does not have a precise definition. The first sentence in definition from Wilkepedia seems to fit best. “Sustainability, in a broad sense, is the capacity to endure.” It doesn’t say much. That really doesn’t excuse anyone from chattering about something they know little about.

Lenin envisioned a world run by experts. We are there. Someone is touted as an expert, and most people’s minds shut down. “Someone smarter than me has already figured this out….” At one time Americans were very skeptical of “experts.” Newspapers were seen, and known, to be propaganda outlets for robber barons and bankers. Healthy skepticism was part of the American way of life. Maybe that was due to the wild days of snake-oil salesman, miracle devices and cures that simply did not work. Whatever it was, we need it back.The painful lessons of following the herd and succumbing to group think are evident in history, including very recent history.

The world’s financial “experts” did not see the crash of 2008 coming. The same experts told us that they are the ones to guide us out, we just have to hand over a few trillion dollars. (They were a little short at the moment.) Someone published a book called The World is Flat, and all the possible negatives of globalization were swept aside. Tom Peter’s wrote In Search of Excellence and “teaming” became the new business fashion. Only later did we find some parts of the book were fiction. Lean, Six Sigma, ISO9000, TQMS, web stores – you better have one, email newsletters, the list of ideas, trends, buzz phrases, paradigm-shifting (remember paradigm?) all at their time were the latest in forward-thinking business. There is a reason business books have the lowest value in the used book market - they have little value past their publication date. There are as many new ideas and experts to go along with them, as there are hairs on the heads of people who follow them.

Over and over again people fall into the trap of letting someone else think for them. If you hand over your brain, you might as well hand over your wallet too.

My personal eternal truths:
• Bubbles burst
• The more dollars in circulation, the less valuable they are.
• Government intervention makes things worse.
• Banks’, like casinos', goal is to keep your money.
• The majority is always wrong.

If there ever was a time that we need to "grow a pair" as a society it is now. If there ever was a time for original, creative thought in the business world, it is now. The great success stories of the first three quarters of the Twentieth Century did not happen because Thomas Edison or Henry Ford, went to a seminar, or read a business self-help book. Neither one had an MBA hanging on the wall. They were American originals.

Think for yourself.

Ten Minute Social Media Primer

The Ten Minute Social Media Marketing Primer

A few months ago, I posted a comment regarding a question on LinkedIn. It inspired me to write this piece. Social Media is a fast moving discipline. A simple question put my mental wheels in motion, "Which social media tools should I use in developing a marketing strategy for a small company?"

Most responses were typical: "Social Media needs to be part of your over-all marketing strategy.", "Do strategy first, then see where social media can support it.", "Social Media is not a silver bullet." There were many repetitive cookie-cutter answers like these.

I thought a different question needed to be posed. If "Social Media", "Web. 2.0" (whichever name you prefer) was the only choice available in your marketing tool box, what would you do? Given the current state of the economy and companies' propensity of cutting their marketing programs first (the “We're not selling enough, so we'll stop trying." strategy), this isn't an unreasonable scenario; it's a situation many of us have or will find ourselves in.

Marketing efforts should aim to generate sales leads for a business. A little obvious, yes, but how many times have you seen one of these attempts fall short or lose sight of itself? Be sure to keep this in mind with Social Media marketing as well.

If you haven’t started using the power of social media to attract and retain customers, you need to. However; before you do, remember that social media marketing is going to require daily work to be fresh and relevant. This is real marketing and it takes real work. Assigning it to your administrative assistant to handle it isn’t going to cut it. Figure out your unique value proposition and start communicating it. Most importantly, share information.

The Ten Minute Course

LinkedIn - LinkedIn is your professional business face to the world. If you are not on LinkedIn, you must have been living in a cave the past few years. Get on it! If you are on it, and have not maximized your profile contents, do it today. If all you have as connections on LinkedIn are employees of you current company, or the last one you worked at, you are not capitalizing on it's power. Go through all those business cards of people you have met over the past year, and find them on LinkedIn. You can then get introductions to there connections, and your network grows. Join groups and contribute to discussions. Pose questions. Be active.

Facebook - Facebook is your more personal face to the world. This is where you are a "real person." Facebook is where you chat with people you actually know, and comment on what they are doing. The business power of Facebook comes from Fan Pages. A Fan Page is your customer lounge area on Facebook. This is where you can share news and tidbits about your company. Be careful not to turn your Fan Page into a spam machine churning out useless "buy now!" information. People will drop you, and Facebook will cancel your account. If you want to get some ideas on how to use a Fan Page, become a fan of others! See what others do, and see what some are doing wrong. If you don't like something, chances are other people don't either.

YouTube - YouTube is your 24/7 TV channel, and it is free! If your business has video content, create a channel and post it. If you don't have video, start shooting. Most people don't read anymore. They prefer their information delivered to them in moving pictures. Don't worry about spending a lot of money on professional production. Make sure the lighting is good, and put the camera on a tripod! Shakey cam is the fastest way to have people exit a video.

Twitter - Twitter is the fastest way to communicate to existing or prospective customers, and your social network connections. NEVER use it as an advertising outlet or as a way to push press releases. Twitter is about real conversations with real people. Do use twitter to share your new blog post, YouTube video, or to re-tweet something you found interesting. Re-tweeting is a great way to build followers too. Search for tweets about your company or your industry. Interact with those people. Build relationships.


How do you get followers? Follow them! Search for topics on Twitter and you will find someone tweeting about it. I have found that around 50% of the people I start to follow will follow me.

SocialOomph - One of the more difficult tasks in keeping your social media fresh is finding the time for regular updates or tweets. There are thousands upon thousands of social media accounts that were started with good intentions, but have since gone stagnant. SocialOomph is a great tool that allows you to compose updates, then bulk upload them to be sent out on a schedule. I have used it, and it has proved to more than worth the monthly fee.

TweetDeck - By now you might be asking, "How do you manage all of these social media accounts and how can I easily use them for business intelligence?" TweetDeck is your answer. From a single interface, you can manage LinkedIn, Facebook and multiple Twitter accounts, as well as do key-word searches and a host of other activities.

Blogs - You're smart. You work with other smart people. Between all of you there is some great expertise on what your company can do for potential customers. Find the experts in your company, make a list of topics and start blogging about them. Encourage people to write an hour a day during working hours. Allowing people to share their knowledge is a great way of building employee loyalty as well. BTW - Search engines LOVE blogs. Blogger is owned by Google. Take a wild guess which blogs tend to show up first.

Finally, tie them all together. Have your Twitter and YouTube links on LinkedIn and Facebook. Put a "follow me on twitter" link in your email footer, but use it carefully. Delete it when you don't think it would be welcome. Have a Facebook link on LinkedIn. You get the idea - have everything tied to everything.

This short article was intended to give you some ideas to get going fast with social media. Don't wait until tomorrow, or until someone in the company comes back with a big power point on their analysis of social media. Just get out there and do something today.

ted@greatwater-llc.com