social selling

April 9, 2014 by Marc Hausman

Lessons from Jill Rowley’s Sad Tale at Oracle

For the past few weeks I have been watching Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, a wonderfully educational and entertaining show produced by Fox TV and National Geographic.

My favorite episode discusses the evolution of life on Earth, the forces of natural selection and the “big five” mass extinction events. This served as a reminder that change can occur slowly over generations, or rapidly through a dramatic shift in environment or the impact of the unexpected.

Regardless of how it happens and its speed, sustained viability and prosperity requires the ability to adapt. It’s as true for businesses as it is for species.

This brings me to a fascinating article authored by SF Gate’s Thomas Lee entitled Social Media Evangelist Clashes with Oracle Culture. Here’s a chronological recap:

-Oracle buys Eloqua

-Jill Rowley is a successful sales rep at Eloqua who employs social media and digital communications to identify and nurture prospects

-Oracle hires Jill to educate their enterprise sales team on the practice of social selling, recognizing that customer needs and how they make purchase decisions continue to evolve

-Jill employs her honest and open brand of communication with external and internal audiences at Oracle

-Oracle’s management gets uncomfortable with change

-Oracle fires Jill

Jill’s change agent adventure in a corporate environment was sadly predictable. Unfortunately, it is something I have experienced on multiple occasions during Strategic Communications Group’s (Strategic) six-year shift from PR shop to provider of integrated content marketing and sales enablement programs.

I often refer to the achievement of sales metrics – such as lead generation, prospect nurturing and deal capture – as the “last mile of content marketing.” It’s a painful irony that what companies crave most from their marketing spend (a measurable ROI) is the most difficult to achieve because of their own unwillingness to accept change.

So…here you go…three things the person(s) who champions an innovative content marketing and sales enablement initiative must have and be willing to exercise:

1. Understand what is required of you and your organization to be successful.

2. Get buy-in from internal stakeholders who hold the budget and have the ability to provide (and enforce) direction to sales reps, marketers, subject matter experts, etc.

3. Measure outcomes without the fear of tactical failures derailing the program.

Jill’s change agent adventure at Oracle was sadly predictable. (Photo source: Brighttalk.com)

January 27, 2013 by Marc Hausman

What’s on the Mind of a CMO? And How Large is their Technology Budget…Really? The Answers May Surprise You.

CMO.Panel.Photo — Pitney Bowes Software hosted three Global 2000 CMOs for a panel discussion.

Engage Today is a shining star. The program aligns content marketing, social media, SEO, and Email and e-newsletter promotion with the tactical activities of enterprise sales reps to deliver a measurable ROI.

During the past two years Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) has had the good fortune to partner with the Pitney Bowes Software marketing team to design, implement and refine Engage Today. This year holds tremendous promise for the program as we continue to push innovation on multiple fronts, especially in the area of sales enablement.

It’s with this last piece in mind that Barbara Bernard – the client’s North American field marketing leader – invited me to speak at the company’s annual sales conference in Orlando, Florida. My goals were to further educate the company’s sales professionals about Engage Today, and inspire their participation and collaboration in the program.

I was just part of an action packed agenda that included an exceptional set of speakers and presenters. One of the other sessions I had the pleasure of sitting in on was a panel discussion of three top-flight chief marketing officers, including:

–Louis Cohen, Citibank

–Bryan Throckmorton, Acxiom

–Benjamin Karsch, Cigna

Here is a recap of a few of the highlights from the CMOs talk:

Suggestions on “Strategic Selling” to Marketing Leaders.

-Never make a cold outreach by phone or Email. Rather, leverage a mutual relationship to get an introduction. LinkedIn is an effective tool to make a connection, as is a referral from another part of the business, such as IT or corporate communications.

-Create an interaction based on mutual value. For instance, one prospective consultant engaged with one of the CMO panelists with an offer to interview for a column he was writing for Forbes Magazine. That led to a discussion of the consultant’s capabilities which has now turned in to a six month project.

What Challenge is Occupying their Time (and Budget)?

-It’s how their company can improve the customer experience to increase profitable growth. This is more than brand positioning and presentation. The experience is about understanding what is important to the customer in service or product delivery, support and reputation, and then consistently delivering on a promise.

-Other topics and needs of high value to the CMO include collecting and managing big data, analytics and business intelligence, and measuring effectiveness and competitiveness.

Does the CMO Really have a Technology Budget Larger than the CTO?

-Kind of. If you consider infrastructure (i.e. systems, servers and other hardware) and maintenance projects then the answer is “no.” However, if the criteria is solely on technology investments that touch the customer or designed to fuel revenue growth than the answer is “yes.”

-The overall corporate strategy and priorities of the business are defined based on growth. That’s a marketing function and each of the CMOs are in a position where they no longer require approval from the IT department to initiate a new program or area of spend.

January 27, 2013 by Marc Hausman

What's on the Mind of a CMO? And How Large is their Technology Budget…Really? The Answers May Surprise You.

–Louis Cohen, Citibank

–Bryan Throckmorton, Acxiom

–Benjamin Karsch, Cigna

Here is a recap of a few of the highlights from the CMOs talk:

Suggestions on “Strategic Selling” to Marketing Leaders.

What Challenge is Occupying their Time (and Budget)?

-Other topics and needs of high value to the CMO include collecting and managing big data, analytics and business intelligence, and measuring effectiveness and competitiveness.

Does the CMO Really have a Technology Budget Larger than the CTO?

January 2, 2013 by Marc Hausman

Lazy Sales Rep Shatters Best Practices

Although I am no longer in the business of providing public relations and media outreach services, I still find Rafe Needleman’s Pro PR Tips a wonderfully entertaining and informative read.

Rafe delivers again with today’s post entitled “It’s a press release, not a graduate thesis.” While some may find his sarcastic prose and mocking of PR reps offensive, I believe Rafe’s motives to be genuine and just.

His message today is simple, relevant and (unfortunately) too often ignored: write in plain English.

I have followed Rafe’s path in a series of posts that chastise the ill-informed and lazy outreach efforts of certain sales reps. In fact, I had a client send me kudos after I published “Killing the Sales Pipeline One Call at a Time.”

Included below is an unsolicited message I have now received three times on LinkedIn. Even if we put aside the typos, grammatical errors, and babbling, run-on sentences, this note shatters several absolutely critical best practices when it comes to sales outreach.

1. Invest the time to learn about your prospect’s professional background and tailor the message accordingly. At least Jacky acknowledges that her message is sent to a “random selection or (sic) members.”

2. Don’t hide behind a vague offer of networking. I know you’re selling something. It is cool; most of us have to do it. Get to the point by explaining what it is you are selling and why it will help me.

3. Never spam someone in an online community. It breaks the rules of trust and relationship that bind participants in a social network. It’s OK to approach, yet you need to do it in a way that is consistent with mission of the community.

JackyLopez.com lookbigrunsmall@gmail.com has sent you a message.

Date: 12/30/2012

Subject: I look forward to expand networking opportunities

Hi Marc,

I recently join the group and decided to introduce myself to a random selection or members.

I see we’re an affinity group who are in business or help others who own one, which is a great opportunity to get to know each other well, grow the group and promote some discussion for mutual benefit.

I’m an enthusiastic networker with a passion for helping people transition through change in a way that makes them comfortable, because change often isn’t. But I believe we can do a lot to remove the stress of dealing with technology by breaking down terms that are foreign to our ears, and yet we feel like we should ‘adopt’ or ‘upgrade’ or else we’ll be left behind in the dust by the competition.

Some of those intimidating terms are: cloud computing, transform your business with mobile, data analysis,
apps development, application integration, and the list goes on and on.

If you visit my site jackylopez.com, chances are I’ll be online to chat with you right away, by clicking (on the right) LIVE support icon, if not leave a comment/question and I’ll respond within 24hrs. I wish you and your love ones a peaceful holiday and prosperous 2013!

Kind Regards,

jackylopez.com
Mobile Website & App – Cloud Computing – Application Design & Development -Application Integration

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