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Why Tim Tebow Would be an Exceptional Marketer

The sophisticated, feature rich marketing automation solution from Eloqua helps organizations put in place scalable programs for lead generation and nurturing.

In fact, I came away from last month’s Eloqua Experience conference with a notebook loaded with tactical tips,  ideas and best practices that we’ll soon incorporate into our client programs.

Yet, I also believe the human element involved in sales and marketing is critical and something that simply cannot be automated — especially in a business-to-business or public sector environment.

Relationship building to establish trust and confidence is an imperative.  And that’s something created over time through leadership, honesty and integrity.

Here is a wonderful example from the world of sports.  While Tim Tebow’s abilities as a football player can certainly be debated, his standing as an exceptional person is beyond reproach.

If football fails to pan out for Tebow, he will make a wonderful marketer or sales professional.

 

Thanks to Twitter, Tebow Calls Survivor of Northway Crash

I’m not a huge Tim Tebow fan as a football player but what he did on Monday night makes me a huge Tim Tebow fan as a person. The Jets quarterback called Matt Hardy – one of the two survivors of Saturday’s Northway crash that left two others, Shen football player Chris Stewart and Shen softball standout Deanna Rivers dead.

 

Tim Tebow (image source: Sports Illustrated)

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Reflecting on Experience and Eloqua’s Challenges

I had an amazing time at Eloqua Experience last week in Orlando!

The conference was well constructed and organized.  The folks from Eloqua were gracious hosts.  The speakers were top notch (especially Eloqua CEO Joe Payne and Jeffrey Hayzlett). And the attendees were a mix of senior level and more tactically oriented corporate marketers.

Yet, all is not 100 percent groovy in the world of Eloqua as I see the company presented with a formidable set of challenges.

1.  The majority of Eloqua’s customers use only some of the software’s capabilities to run their programs. 

This presents quite a dilemma for Eloqua.  Like all software vendors, the company is in a race to add functionality to meet the requirements of its most advanced users, while staying ahead of the competition.

2.  Eloqua gives away for free its most important differentiation. 

The company’s Revenue Performance Methodology and the portfolio of marketing best practices it has compiled serves as the foundation for success for all Eloqua users.  Yet, that’s tossed in for free in both the sales process and once a company becomes a customer.

3.  Automation lacks a human element and, ultimately, that is the driver of success for sales in the business-to-business environment. 

I say it to clients all the time:  their products and services are what they do.  A relationship based on trust is why the customer buys.  The relationship building process cannot be baked into software.  It’s an outcome of human interaction.

What do you see as the most significant challenges faced by Eloqua and other marketing automation software companies?  I welcome and encourage your thoughts.

 

Eloqua Experience brought together more than 1,500 corporate marketers, including the author of this post (Marc Hausman).

 

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Hayzlett’s Gauntlet and My Microsoft Mistake

Principles mean something only when they are inconvenient.  Prepare to live your brand promise in bad times and good.

Jeffrey Hayzlett, Author

Running the Gauntlet

Chapter 5

 

I am emotionally invested in my clients and the programs we work on together.

A must read, Jeffrey Hayzlett's latest book.

At Strategic Communications Group (Strategic), we only take on a handful of client engagements at any one time.  I strive for intimacy in each relationship and will represent a client’s interests with passion.

Plus, I pride myself on loyalty to anyone who hires Strategic.  I promote their interests and successes.  I provide counsel and guidance, and, when appropriate, I serve as a professional mentor.

A few years back I reacted harshly in a meeting to a client contact at Microsoft who made poor decisions about the direction of a program we had concepted and developed called FutureFed.

I was frozen out by the client for nearly three years, even though my predicted outcomes proved correct.  FutureFed is a shell of what it could have been.

After the Microsoft incident, I concluded my reaction was a mistake.  I should have been more gracious and accepted the client’s decisions, even though I believed them to be flawed.  And it was an error in judgment to call her out in front of others at a meeting.

Now I’m not so sure I was off-base.

This past week I was fortunate to attend Jeffrey Hayzlett’s keynote presentation at the Eloqua Experience.  I then tore through his book entitled Running the Gauntlet in a day.

Jeffrey’s premise is that success and longevity in business (and in life) is about tackling obstacles with creativity and innovation, and embracing the tension that comes with demanding excellence.

If you piss off some people along the way, so be it.  It’s more important to adhere to your core principles.

With me, Hayzlett achieved his goal and got me thinking.  Perhaps it’s OK to say that “FutureFed sucks.  And I told them it would.”

 

Repeat after me:  no one is going to die from the changes you make in business.  Say it:  “No. One. Is. Going. To.  Die.”

Jeffrey Hayzlett, Author

Running the Gauntlet

Chapter 1

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3 Ways Eloqua’s CEO Wow’d with His Keynote

I have had the good fortune of seeing a number of exceptional corporate speakers.

Cisco’s John Chambers was polished, professional and personable during his keynote at a government conference a few years back.  The way he graciously (and effectively) dismissed competitors like Juniper Networks and Tellabs was pure magic.

A keynote by Marc Benioff of Salesforce was equally compelling.  His energized style captured the imagination and left the audience hungry to share and participate in the company’s vision.

And now I can add Eloqua’s Joe Payne to the list of must-see CEOs.  Joe has had quite a year having led the company through a successful IPO.  It would have been perfectly understandable for his keynote at Eloqua Experience (the company’s annual user conference) to have fallen flat.

It sure didn’t though.  Joe’s presentation style was confident and charming, with a healthy and successful dash of humor.

Here are a few things during the keynote that played well:

1.  Make an over the top entrance, yet tie it to your key theme.  After showing a video of the Red Bull Stratos space jump, Joe arrived on stage in a space suit.  The theme of innovation in modern marketing flowed from this memorable opening.

2.  Engage the audience…make the presentation interactive.  I’m not referring to the clichéd approach of asking the audience to raise their hand in response to a question.  Rather, Joe called out specific customers in the audience for their successful use of Eloqua software, and rewarded them with praise and a gag gift.

3.  Spread the wealth.  At several points during the key note, Joe invited two of his colleagues on stage to demonstrate a new product feature of capability.  This established credibility for the company’s management beyond the CEO, while also introducing different voices into the presentation.

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Disclosure:  Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) is an Eloqua partner and I have a personal relationship with Joe Payne.

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Today’s Top Tweets from “Eloqua Experience”

If there’s one thing corporate marketers attending Eloqua’s annual user conference have in common, it’s how much they love to tweet. If you haven’t been glued to Twitter today, chances are you’ll have a hard time catching up, especially as the continuous stream of tweets continues to pour in. Not to worry, however, as we, the editors of All About Experience have been faithfully monitoring the social media activity throughout the day.

Today’s panel discussion, “How Brands Become Publishers and Create Customers” featured several industry leaders including Toby Murdock, CEO of Kapost, who left attendees a-buzz with this key takeaway: “Content is the force that moves the buyer down the funnel.”

Readers may recall the recent Q&A we posted featuring Michelle Burrows, Vice President of Demand Marketing at inContact, in which she previews the presentation she gave earlier today on aligning marketing and sales departments. Attendees gave rave reviews:

And last, but far from least for the day, was marketing guru, Charlene Li, Founder of the Altimeter Group, who wowed attendees with her presentation on the modern marketer. Key takeaway: “Modern marketing is all about relationships and mastering the art of failure.”

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