(from guest blogger Jonathan Rudick, VP of Customer Experience at HSBC)

Good use of analytics is the only way to know what transactions are happening on a large scale.  Especially with financial services, data measures both transactions and behaviors, and leveraging this data can aggregate these trends and analyze them, providing a better understanding of the customer.  This deep customer understanding can help improve service across time, allowing the customer to develop a deeper and more loyal relationship with the brand.

Many marketers understand that analytics are creating more possibilities to understand the customer than before, but a recent IBM study found that 71% of CMOs aren’t prepared to use this data to help their business.  There are four main keys to getting the most out of data: Read More »

By Chris Frank, a former marketer at Microsoft and the author of a new book on decision making.

We have become a world of data addicts. But with more data comes the feeling of, “How do I make sense of all this? Can’t we break this down into a handful of simple points?” Critical questions about market demand, customer buying behavior, subscriber acquisition, brand positioning and your product’s roadmap are great. However, the interesting discussion comes to a screeching halt when the data arrives. Instead of being a well-arranged piece of music, it is a mash-up of sounds. The volume drowns the substance.

Data Rehab

Information is essential to making intelligent decisions, but more often than not, it simply overwhelms us. The 24/7 data explosion around us is both troubling and addictive. Consider that this year, The Economist estimates we will create 1,200 exabytes of data or more than 22 million times the amount of information contained in all the books ever written. That’s eight times the amount in 2005 and the annual volume is increasing geometrically.  The question isn’t how to stop the deluge, but how to get real value from it. How do you find the truly essential nuggets of information and use them with confidence to effectively grow your business and distinguish yourself in your company?

The answer, ironically enough, is found in asking questions. The smartest person in the room is the one that knows the questions to ask to separate the wheat from the chaff. This leads to discovering relevant facts, developing insights and delivering them with impact. Adapted from a new book, “Drinking From the Fire Hose”, below are three questions to ask yourself whenever you are suffering from information overload: Read More »

(this is a guest post by Jamie Kleinerman, of our sister program, the Sales Executive Council)

At last week’s annual Sales and Marketing Summit, “Inside the Customer’s Purchase Decision,” the keynote address was delivered by Dr. Robert Cialdini, author of the well-known book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

Dr. Cialdini’s work on persuasive techniques is always an interesting read for sales professionals, but what made his speech especially timely and relevant for the summit was that it was about persuasion during times of greater information overload and uncertainty.

Faced with more information than ever before, stricter budgets and approval processes, and greater internal consensus requirements, customers are increasingly uncertain about making purchases today.

According to Dr. Cialdini, people exhibit several possible responses when faced with decisional uncertainty:

• Freezing—a reluctance to act or make a choice until the uncertainty is resolved
• Loss Aversion—a tendency to prefer choices designed to prevent losses over choices designed to obtain gains
• Heuristic Choices—when choices are made, they are based on a single, relevant factor rather than a set of relevant factors

It’s no easy feat for sales forces – and marketers crafting commercial strategies – to contend with customers exhibiting these behaviors. Reps can help customers overcome their decisional uncertainty and hesitancy though, by using some key principles of persuasion and influence. Read More »

“Oil companies need holes, not drills” - Old Sales & Marketing Saying

This post was written by former colleague Andrew Kent of the Sales Executive Council. Visit the original here.

The utilities business faces a looming crisis—if not today, then in the decade or two to come. Simply put, the industry’s current business model is set up such that smarter use of its product threatens its profits, and this tension between supplier and customer can’t go on forever.

But utilities companies need not view this as a threat. On the contrary, leading utilities are already capitalizing on one of the biggest megatrends in Sales today: the need to make more money by selling less stuff.

The root of utilities’ problem is this: their ability to grow depends on selling more kilowatt-hours each year, but consumers and society have an urgent need to use less—and are waking up to the fact that they actually can. Peter Fox-Penner writes in the Harvard Business Review (July-August 2009): Read More »

This is a guest post by Aqualyn Laury of our sister program for medium-sized enterprises, the Marketing Leadership Roundtable.

We asked and you delivered! We received and reviewed over 30 campaigns per category – Digital Innovation, Sales Enablement and Cool Factor – to determine which ones would be top contenders for the top award. So the good news for all of you is that no wooden spoons will be awarded on Tuesday at Summit. Rather, three  companies’ submissions will emerge as the best of the best across the three areas.

To get to these top three winners, teams of category-specific internal reviewers read through each campaign to decide which ones should be promoted to top three status. These top nine submissions were shared with our team of external judges and they have selected the winners across all three categories.  So, do you think that you have what it takes to predict the judges’ decisions?  Let’s find out!

The finalists and a brief description of each campaign appear below. Who do you think they chose? Find out on Tuesday, October 18 at 4 P.M. live from the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Don’t miss what our judges and the winners will have to say about the big ‘aha’ of the winning campaigns!

Sales Enablement

Digital Innovation

Cool Factor

Editor’s note: We put this up (and in our member newsletter) prior to last night’s news that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had passed away. We’ll have thoughts on his legacy later this week.

The following is a guest post from Robert van Alstyne, a media and technology analyst with our sister program, Iconoculture.

It’s a testament to technology’s ascendant role in pop culture that today’s Apple press conference had more consumer buzz than any new TV show this fall season. With media-saturated consumers’ tastes increasingly splintered, gadget lust is now one of the last common denominators uniting the masses.

Heading into today’s press conference, professional pundits and John Q. Public speculated wildly, debating what new treats Apple would unveil. Would we get an iPhone 5 or just a new iPhone 4? Prior to the event, rumors of a slimmer, 3X-faster iPhone 5 reached a crescendo. By the time new Apple CEO Tim Cook took to the stage this morning, online chatter had reached such a pitch that one colleague speculated on Twitter, “I wonder, did America stop what it was doing in, say, 1953, when the next model *car* was announced?”

In a move that disappointed some true believers, there was no iPhone 5 announcement, “just” the iPhone 4S, which will hit stores October 14. The new phone still boasts impressive hardware advancements. Among the iPhone 4S’ selling points are the ability to switch intelligently between two antennas to transmit and receive (thereby doubling data download speed), along with a serious camera upgrade. Initial online reaction was “meh,” but we’d be shocked if the 4S doesn’t sell extraordinarily well, just like its predecessor.

Right now, Apple’s main selling point is its image as a cutting-edge company, so the product details matter relatively little to the average consumer. By tirelessly turning their brand into an essential emblem of digital savvy, Apple has carved out both a cult-like following and an ever-broadening base of users. Apple’s old-guard faithful might be disappointed, and they might not “need” the latest iteration of the iPhone. But whatever the specs, in a growing number of consumers’ eyes, Apple’s latest remains a cherished status symbol, broadcasting to all that they’re in step with our fast-moving information-driven world.

MLC members, for more great Iconoculture insights, check out the selected pieces we publish each week on the latest consumer trends.

This post was written by former colleague Andrew Kent of the Sales Executive Council. Visit the original here.

In my previous post, I argued that the conflict of interest between energy & utility companies and their customers makes these companies’ business models unsustainable. In short, the more efficiently customers use energy, the less money energy suppliers make—and customers won’t remain in the dark forever.

The solution, I believe, is to stop selling stuff (kilowatt-hours, therms, or joules) and start selling outcomes (light, heat, and motion). Indeed, one forward-thinking utility company recently shared with us their new Commercial Teaching pitch that focuses B2B customers on the money they could save from energy efficiency building retrofits, and off the price per kilowatt-hour.

It’s a compelling pitch, especially in deregulated markets. The customer saves money off its energy bill (the payback period is typically just 3-5 years), and the supplier picks up a new account.

But while energy investments make economic sense, customers have been surprisingly slow on the uptake, frequently rejecting energy projects that are in their economic self-interest.

For example, a contact in the green building industry warned me that most decision-makers are unreasonably skeptical of energy solutions, due to a lack of case studies proving they work, and the inherent difficulty with quantifying energy savings (i.e., external conditions may cause energy use to increase, even though that increase may be less than it would have been otherwise thanks to energy saving projects.).

Therefore, just as in any case when a customer is not thinking about its business properly, the burden falls on Sales to reframe how customers think about energy use. Read More »

(this is a guest post by Aqualyn Laury of the Marketing Leadership Roundtable, our sister program for CMOs of mid-sized companies)

Disclaimer: The title makes no warrantees or guarantees about the types of awards to be shared. That said, we advise you to do everything in your power not to receive a wooden spoon – the shame! Read on for a best practice strategy of avoiding the wooden spoon.

Perhaps we will not bestow platinum or wood at this year’s B2B MarComm Awards, but we will deliver a degree of edutainment unmatched by years past. Combining the spirited insights of a select group of judges with the enlightening elevator pitches of our finalists, this year’s event is certain to be among the best opportunities to learn, laugh and retool to lead your organizations with new, actionable insights.

So are you a Player or a Watcher? Players have already submitted their campaigns to the Awards competition for consideration. Watchers have not.

Players will be eligible to take an active role in the Awards experience. They will compete to be the last company standing in one of four categories:

1. Digital Innovation – Creatively Pushing the Boundaries
2. Sales Enablement – Integration for Impact
3. The Cool Factor – A Brilliant Blend of Art & Science with a Touch of Mojo
4. Viewer’s Choice – The Power of Public Opinion

All Players will be recognized on our website, but only the few Players left standing will enjoy all but one of the following:

• Recognition on stage during our winners presentation
• Premier positioning in our online B2B MarComm Campaign Database
• Recognition in our PR campaign targeting business media and marketing trade media
• An invitation to the next royal wedding or a trip to the Andromeda Galaxy – whichever comes first!

As for the Watchers, they haven’t suited up yet and we can’t imagine the reason.  They are certainly capable of playing with the best of them. So, rather than increase my workload by having to source wooden spoons, would the Watchers please decide to get in the game?

How to Avoid the Wooden Spoon:

1. Quickly review your strongest marketing communications campaigns from 2010-2011.
2. Choose a campaign to enter into the Awards Competition.
3. Do this before July 15^th – The earlier, the better!

To all of the Players – we applaud you for stepping up and getting those submissions in by July 1^st. It’s now redemption time for the Watchers. It’s in you – you can do it! Suit up and join the illustrious Players on the field and get ready to rumble. We’ll see you in Vegas!

(the following is a guest post from Andrew Kent of the Sales Executive Council, our sister program for heads of sales)

Nobody can sell an idea better than television’s Don Draper, the creative advertising genius in the show Mad Men. And after watching nearly the entire series in an embarrassingly short amount of time, I think I know what makes him so good: Don Draper is a Challenger™. He understands his customers’ businesses better than they do, and isn’t afraid to tell them. And if a customer ignores his advice in favor of bad ideas, he’ll likely fire them.

Here are three things Don Draper knows that most sellers and corporate executives haven’t figured out:

1. The customer is always wrong.

   Watch Don Draper tell the customer they’re wrong

   The “customer is always right” mantra has long driven marketers and salespeople to bend over backwards to satisfy insane customer demands, only to then wonder why customers are disappointed when they get exactly what they’d asked for.

   Not Don Draper—he leaves that attitude for customer service. Don Draper knows that if he were to create the advertisement the customer asked for, he’d end up producing the same ad as every other agency. Not a recipe for loyalty.

   Our research – as well as practical experience – indicates that customers do not always know what they want, and serious work is needed to unearth unarticulated and poorly-understood desires within the targeted company or segment. MLC members, see how companies like Reynolds and Reynolds and Texas Instruments achieve customer understanding beyond articulated needs.

2. Too much productivity can be a bad thing.

   Don Draper is famous for taking naps at work, lying on his couch until inspiration strikes. In one episode, when new management tries to clamp down on employees’ down-time, Don fires back, “You came here because we do this better than you… and part of that is letting our creatives be unproductive until they are.”

   The lesson for marketers isn’t that we should start napping instead of working, but simply that there’s a limit to how much activity we can squeeze out of ourselves before it takes a toll on the quality of our work. In complex sales, MLC research shows that Marketing and Sales need to be creative and innovate on deals, and reps need to take time to research customers before charging in. But creativity can’t be forced. A whole body of recent scientific evidence proves what Don Draper knew instinctively: that the brain needs time to relax and wander in order come up with good ideas.

   MLC members: check out our ideation topic center for more on developing innovative marketing and sales approaches.

3. Emotion trumps reason in sales.

   Everyone these days seems to want a better ROI calculator. “If only we can quantify the value we bring,” the thinking goes, “we can convince the customer to buy.” But Don Draper knows that people buy because of emotion, not reason; they use ROI to justify in their heads a decision they’ve already made in their gut.

   Instead of pitching customers on his ads’ ROI, Don Draper tells stories that connect to their deepest emotions, and forcefully challenges customers to see their business in a new light. Our work on customer loyalty confirms that products’ emotional benefits drive greater differentiation than their functional benefits. Financial impact matters, but it’s a piece of the puzzle, not the Holy Grail.

   MLC members: learn how Dow Chemical discovers what drives loyalty at the segment level, and how Fannie Mae ensures that sales reps are working loyalty drivers into their conversations with customers.

Do any Mad Men fans out there have additional sales or business lessons they’ve gleaned from the show? Please leave them in the comments below!

(the following is a guest post from Robert Mulrennan at Iconoculture, MLC’s sister program that tracks consumer trends)

China is the world’s most populous country and the fastest-growing economy.  With 1.3 billion people, it’s a giant piece of future market potential for global brands.  As marketers try to tap into the growth offered by the Chinese market, many are watching Chinese brands beat them to the punch, making rapid inroads into established, western markets.   Haier is a noteworthy example: an established home appliance brand in China, this brand has carved out a prominent space in the highly competitive US appliance market.  Watching Haier we can learn a few lessons that might inform our own strategies for entering growth markets outside of our current footprint:

• Finding White Space: Haier Group made initial inroads in the U.S. market by focusing on novel product categories such as refrigerated wine cellars; Haier has since captured 50% of the market for these devices, gaining a foothold that they can use to migrate from niche to big ticket purchases.
• Leveraging The Halo Effect: After establishing itself in compact refrigerators and wine coolers, the company has entered other categories—it now sells 2% of all full-size refrigerators in the U.S., 16% of window air conditioners, and recently introduced a line of flat-screen TVs and DVD players.
• Playing to Local Perceptions: The name Haier was adapted from German to deliberately obscure the company’s Chinese origins and play to North American perceptions of German quality and reliability.

So what about western brands entering the Chinese market?  Join Iconoculture’s lead Consumer Strategist covering East Asia, Jeff Yang on May 3^rd, for an overview of recent trends, developments, and shifts in consumer behavior in China. We’ll unpack the unique “cultural DNA” of this incredible market and take a closer look at brands that have successfully captured the mindshare of Chinese consumers. Council members can register here.

For a quick look into what consumers are doing in China, Council members can also check out a few of Iconoculture’s latest global consumer observations.