home about tme website

b2BeHeard is an informed resource that offers practical insights and best practices in sales and marketing alignment shared by TME Communications and its customers who serve diverse markets, from information technology to financial services. This Blog is less about starting a conversation and more about educating, based on our experience and expertise. Want more? Talk to us.

April 28th, 2010

Are your e-mails trusted information sources?

Do you need another e-mail? Who does? But if you are associated with a product or service or in the market, it would be nice if your interests stood out over the e-mail clutter. Yet, many product or service providers do not follow e-mail/interactive marketing etiquette, and are often not SPAM compliant. To become a trusted information source with your market, regular e-mail touch points require focused communications and the appropriate frequency to limit opt-outs and to avoid over-saturating your databases. Your primary goals should be to establish recognition with your suspects (new opt-in lists); help convert your prospects; and reassure stability and create up-sell opportunities with your customers. E-mail is one of the best and easiest ways to measure how your message is delivered and received—but it all starts with compelling subject lines that entice the recipient to open your e-mail, then you can present a clear and compelling call-to-action. Limit your details within the e-mail to increase click and conversion rates. Additionally, be sure to use an e-mail management tool that provides both quantitative metrics and qualitative intelligence about your contacts. This will yield cleaner databases and opportunities for your sales team.

February 24th, 2010

Are Smartphones making us dumb?

Marketing = sales support.
Sales support = shortening the sales cycle.
Shortened sales cycles = sales and marketing alignment.

You know what the real barrier to all of this working smoothly is? It’s not what you might think. What we’ve come to find is that internal communications (or miscommunications) tend to be the real hang up when it comes to conveying the external message out to the market. In a world inundated with iPhones and BlackBerrys and millions of social networking mediums, communication has become easy, instantaneous, constant… but also overwhelming. It seems our modern world of communication provides many forums but lacks EFFECTIVENESS.

With the onslaught of information at our fingertips and ever decreasing attention spans (made even shorter by Twitter) we’ve found it’s hard to get/keep someone’s attention long enough to read and absorb a simple email. We’re not the first to say it but it is true. Ease of communication has led to over-communication which backfired resulting in an inability to communicate clearly and directly with colleagues and clients. This, obviously, makes it difficult to keeping moving the ball forward.

But we’re communications experts and we’ve adapted to ensure our message is conveyed precisely. We’ve employed, and recommend you do the same, new tactics when it comes to our internal communications. Our approach is one where less is more. And when all else fails go face-to-face. If I can’t convey what I need to in three sentences or less, I make the call instead. I put the action item in the subject line. I use bold text or yellow highlighter to call-out the “need to knows” knowing that my reader will skim the contents of my emails. No doubt we all enjoy and rely upon innovative means of communicating—but you must use these advancements methods thoughtfully or your message is sure to be lost in the virtual abyss.

February 16th, 2010

Warming up prospects? The truth about cold calling.

The last thing a sales associate wants to hear from his manager is “make these cold calls.” Truth is, if you’re selling B2B cold calling is NOT going to work. Why? Sales turn on calling to get leads and turn it off when no value is yielded. Cold calling is hit-or-miss because, more often than not, the approach is not aligned to your sales process. So consider this: what if your approach to calling is the problem, not a lack of interest? We know its marketing’s role to prequalify and warm up suspects, to build the sales pipeline and scrub databases. Truth is that, when integrated and timed with online/offline direct marketing tactics, teleservices can be a cost effective marketing tool to pre-qualify suspect lists, boost event registrations, and/or improve customer relations. When used strategically, teleservices can succeed in converting target audiences, heightening awareness, obtaining new contacts, scrubbing databases, and gaining business intelligence. How?

Ask yourself the following questions. If you answer “no” to any, you need to adjust your approach and refocus your marketing efforts to warm up your calls…and your prospects!

  • Do you have a call-to-action/compelling event?
  • If yes, is it strong enough to create demand?
  • Have you properly, specifically identified your target audience?
  • If yes, are you reaching them?
  • Do you have something readily available that the caller can leverage real-time on the phone?
    i.e. 15 minute demo or free 30-day trial
  • Have you evaluated how teleservices fits into your unique sales process?
February 5th, 2010

No science to human factors, just a good process

In the late 1990’s, dot com companies were sprouting up fast racing toward an IPO or quick exit strategy. Cha-ching! Right on their heels up-started interactive design firms that smelled blood, and preached the psychology of usability (”human factors science”). Been there, seen that. Your requirement: excessive hours and budget commitments across your executive team, marketing and R&D, even before any technology is integrated—your real intellectual property. There is no debate here regarding the value of an intuitive website, software application or interactive sales and educational materials. But, if you want to get to market fast and in a cost efficient manner, a team of Sigmund Freud lookalikes in turtlenecks are not required. The basic ingredients to consider are:

  • Innovate one step beyond your competition (the vision)
  • For software applications, ensure sales can sell and R&D can build
  • Assemble a team that follows user-centric design and communications principles
  • Unite all development stakeholders with a project plan
  • Gain feedback from your customers early and often (the validation)
  • Form a go-to-market plan to reach customers, prospects, and new audiences

FYI: The majority of the aggressive dot com’s and thirsty Freud designers shut their doors. New companies emerged or retooled with smarter growth strategies and budget management practices.

January 20th, 2010

A picture is worth a thousand words: Selling using visual marketing

Since business-centric buyers in the complex world of IT want to be educated and sold to in layman’s terms (not “techy” terms) and without over-wordy documentation, it helps to explain a systematic process using a graphical diagram to illustrate the “big idea” upfront (example). Whenever you can use a graphic, visual aid, or picture to explain anything, it generally pays off handsomely. For instance, all types of personnel can understand a process much better if there is a simple graphic to anchor the team’s view of the project life-cycle and future expectations. Or, in manufacturing, a visual aid can be used to show the key elements of a process so all audiences comprehend a new method for marking assets with unique identifiers (example). Providing graphical diagrams to your current and potential buyers directly aligns sales, marketing, and delivery with your buyers’ expectations, reducing risk, and ensuring a better project outcome.