The Art of Letting People Think You Suck

Thomas Krol — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 13:33:16 +0000

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We’ve passed a few annual milestones recently – spring’s arrival, the end of Q1, first 100 days, and of course: the one-year anniversary of COVID-19 officially being declared a pandemic. As I look at the rest of the year, it’s got me wondering – have we seen the end of the B2B world as we know it?

Give this R.E.M. song a listen as we see what the experts are saying this week:

HubSpot Data Update – Q1 2021

It’s that time again! Let’s look at the HubSpot March 2021 data and see how sales and marketing activities are trending against the benchmark:

Deals created continued to increase – now up 34%!
Closed deals increased to 13% – the highest in Q1
Sales email sends further increased too, but responses remained 30% below
Marketing email sends remained comfortably at 30% over, with open rates around 11% over

Oddly enough, marketing emails seem to be proving effective and have strong open rates, but the same can’t be said for sales emails. Is it the poor quality of sales emails? Are sales reps relying too much on email? Are messages simply not targeted or relevant? Check this out:

Sales calls had a big (72%) increase over benchmark
Active conversation interactions were at 23% over
Contact growth was also impressive – 32% over

Last month’s data gives us a lot to digest. It seems to prove that success for sales is in conversations – and cutting through all of the email ‘noise’ out there. Seems like the activity for sales calls has increased, so perhaps the lack of sales email response is just showing how a combination of both sales email AND sales call is necessary to be effective – a true multi-channel approach.

This multi-touch/multi-channel approach is even more important in an ABM strategy. It’s imperative to use multiple touches for your demand/buying units – something I discussed at length with Alisa from Forrester/SiriusDecisions in our recent webinar. It’s all about getting the right message to the right person at the right time! Right? Right!

It’s Okay to Let People Think You Suck

I wouldn’t recommend you watch Lee Abrams’ video unless you are having trouble sleeping. But if you do, you’ll learn a lot about your audience.

Abrams helped create FM radio when FM radio mattered, and his hands guided music in the early days of SiriusXM. More recently, he shared a video that won’t win awards for production or drama but does a particularly good job of explaining audiences and how they react to and consume music and other media. Some interesting info, including my key takeaway – to succeed, you need to pick a single fan group to appeal to and everyone else needs to think you suck.

Bob Lefsetz says this isn’t new… this is just ‘marketing in general.’ I agree. As smart marketers we should all know this. We spend so much time talking about Ideal Customer Profiles, Relative Targeting, TAM/SAM/SOM – but I think sometimes we still try to be everything to everyone.

Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline? I hope not – let’s really focus our effort on our ideal customer profile/target market and the viewpoint of this audience. Maybe our work or offer doesn’t need to repel all other groups – but we should certainly not be concerned if they DO think we suck. Just focus on the right target, the right offer, and the right message, and we’ll all feel fine!

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello.

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

The post The Art of Letting People Think You Suck appeared first on Virtual Causeway.

Spanning the Chasm

Thomas Krol — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 16:00:50 +0000

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What were you doing 40 years ago (if you were even alive)? It’s hard to believe (for me) that a few days ago marked the 40th anniversary of Rush’s Moving Pictures album. A very influential album for its musicianship, complex compositions, and eclectic lyrical motifs – I think I wore it out listening so much!

Give this classic song a listen with me as we ‘get on with the fascination’ and ‘the underlying theme’ of the past week:

Segmentation is ‘In’ Again!

At times like these it’s dangerous to look too broadly for business opportunities. Instead it’s better to be very thoughtful about where to point your marketing and sales dollars. Now is the perfect time for a strategic rethink of which sets of customers are most likely to respond, despite – or as a result of – the ongoing crisis engulfing most countries around the world.

Crossing the Chasm was such an influential guide for me and many other high tech sales and marketing professionals. I loved the thoughtful process of segmentation and target market selection to help build awareness and move successfully through the Technology Adoption Life Cycle.

Chasm Group offers key guidelines for successfully targeting markets in today’s business environment:

Become the default choice for a specific set of customers.
Target a market segment that is big enough to matter.
Delve deep to identify a micro-vertical.
Think carefully about the issues/use cases you can serve better than others.
Less is generally more – the deeper you go, the more likely you can succeed.
Turn deals into references!

Check out the details here.

Concert Bubbles and Gilded Cages

Living on a lighted stage must certainly approach the unreal when your audience is inside 100 futuristic looking ‘space bubbles!’ The Flaming Lips have staged a unique pair of gigs recently in Oklahoma, with both the band and their audience inside individual inflatable balls. Each show accommodated 100 bubbles, holding up to three people each, with the band inside their own capsules.

Is this the future of live music?

Inside each bubble was a high-frequency speaker – which helped prevent the sound from being muffled – as well as a water bottle, a small fan, a towel, and an “I gotta go pee/hot in here” sign. If it got too hot, the bubble was refilled with cool air using a leaf blower, and fans who needed the bathroom were escorted by venue staff once they had put on a mask and stepped outside their cocoon.

I’m intrigued by the concept and look forward to seeing what other innovative ideas will be used by musicians and venues this year. How does this impact B2B? What will we start seeing at tradeshows?

A big part of any live event (music, B2B) is the ability to make connections with others. Other members of the audience, other business attendees, etc. Digital events seem to fall short on this front – but will our adapted event strategy be able to put aside the alienation and build that real connection that we crave?

Webinar – 2021 Demand Gen Strategies

We’re hosting another What Do B2B Marketers Do Now? event this month! Join me and Forrester SiriusDecisions as we discuss sales and marketing efficiencies and the best marketing strategies to hit your 2021 numbers!

As always, if I can help you out, let me know! Don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello.

(If you’re interested, here is a great explanation by Rick Beato on what makes “Limelight” by Rush such a great song – enjoy!)