I recently asked a client of mine "How do you respond when someone asks you what your company does? What is your elevator speech?" Two executives had completely different responses. If I didn't know better, I would have thought they were talking about two different companies! They went on to tell me that they were reluctant to focus because they thought they would lose revenue opportunities, so they tried to "be all things to all people".
This is one of the biggest mistakes a company can make. They think they'll be better off by casting the net wide. Unfortunately, this failure to focus efforts often results in generating fewer opportunities, and those that they do generate, come at a higher acquisition cost. If a company describes themselves too vaguely or too broadly (we can do anything), potential customers are likely to move on. Additionally, it's hard to brand a company that tries to be all things to all people.
What is your company's elevator speech? Is it clear and succinct? Does it articulate "who you are and what you focus on"? In other words, if you recite your elevator speech will people have a good idea about what the company does? If so, congratulations. If not, consider working on your elevator speech.
Otherwise, everything is nothing!
Katie Wacek is the President of Sandia Mountain Marketing, a marketing consultancy that provides strategic and tactical marketing expertise to small- and medium -sized companies, professional service firms, and thought leaders throughout the United States. Learn more.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
It's What the Market Wants
America voted and the winner of American Idol for Season 8 is Kris Allen. Going into the finale, Adam Lambert was clearly the judges favorite. In fact, if the decision was up to the judges, I think Adam would have been the winner. But, after 100 million votes, Kris came out the victor.
What happened? Did America get it wrong? I don’t think so. If you think about Kris and Adam as two different products, with different features that appeal to different audiences, and you can only market one of them, how are you going to decide which one to market? You’ll probably do some market research to find out which product will generate the most revenue. That’s exactly what American Idol did on a weekly basis. It conducted market research to determine the market appeal for each of the singers. Kris appeals to mainstream America and Adam appeals to a niche market. Both are extremely talented
At the end of the day, it's less about what we as business owners, product managers, and marketers want or think should sell and more about what our customers and prospects want. We have to remember that we might not be the target market. We need to understand and listen to the market and be open to changing directions based on market research, if necessary.
Market research is a powerful tool to gain insight into your market needs, wants, and desires. How well do you know your market?
Katie Wacek is the President of Sandia Mountain Marketing, a marketing consultancy that provides strategic and tactical marketing expertise to small- and medium -sized companies, professional service firms, and thought leaders throughout the United States. Learn more.
What happened? Did America get it wrong? I don’t think so. If you think about Kris and Adam as two different products, with different features that appeal to different audiences, and you can only market one of them, how are you going to decide which one to market? You’ll probably do some market research to find out which product will generate the most revenue. That’s exactly what American Idol did on a weekly basis. It conducted market research to determine the market appeal for each of the singers. Kris appeals to mainstream America and Adam appeals to a niche market. Both are extremely talented
At the end of the day, it's less about what we as business owners, product managers, and marketers want or think should sell and more about what our customers and prospects want. We have to remember that we might not be the target market. We need to understand and listen to the market and be open to changing directions based on market research, if necessary.
Market research is a powerful tool to gain insight into your market needs, wants, and desires. How well do you know your market?
Katie Wacek is the President of Sandia Mountain Marketing, a marketing consultancy that provides strategic and tactical marketing expertise to small- and medium -sized companies, professional service firms, and thought leaders throughout the United States. Learn more.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
10 Tips for Tradeshow Success
Whether you're considering exhibiting at a local, regional, or national tradeshow, do your homework beforehand to make sure it's a worthwhile investment. Tradeshows can be a great way to have face-to-face contact with prospects and clients, but they can also be a resource drain.
1) Select the right conferences. Make a list of possible conferences to attend and then evaluate them based on a set of criteria. Include things like: demographics of attendees, percentage of your target audience attending, strategic fit with your business, and the financial and time investment required to exhibit.
2) Submit speaker proposals for targeted conferences. If you can get on the program, you will have added exposure for your company. As you build your conference plan, make note of speaker proposal deadlines. Some conferences have proposal deadlines a year in advance.
3) Create a strategic conference/tradeshow plan. Be specific about your objectives for the show. Think through all aspects of your booth space, signage, products or services you want to showcase, booth activities, etc. This will be your roadmap for the show.
4) Determine how you will be capturing and qualifying leads. Drawings often generate lots of leads but they are unqualified leads. Think about your objectives and what you hope to accomplish. Consider developing a lead qualification form.
5) Create menu cards. These are simple cards listing offerings you're highlighting in the booth. It's a great way to direct the conversation of booth visitors, especially when they ask "What's new?" Typically they are printed on card stock and include your logo, phone number, and web address.
6) Visualize the booth traffic flow. Are there barriers that obstruct the flow of traffic? If you place a table across part of the entrance to the booth, a lot of people won't walk in your booth for fear of being trapped. Make necessary changes.
7) Train your booth staff. Make sure all booth workers know what is expected of them. They need to be on board with the goals and objectives for the show, products and services being highlighted, booth etiquette, conversation starters, booth schedule and more.
8) Follow-up on the requests for more information or a sales call immediately. This is where many companies fall short. It might take them weeks to follow-up versus days. You need to respond quickly while you're still top-of-mind for them.
9) Debrief after the tradeshow. What worked well, what didn't work as well as planned? What would you do differently next year? Capture this information and make notes on things to change for the next tradeshow.
10) Track sales that resulted from the tradeshow. Depending on your sales cycle, you might not be able to track the success of the tradeshow until several months or a year later.
Katie Wacek is the President of Sandia Mountain Marketing, a marketing consultancy that provides strategic and tactical marketing expertise to small- and medium -sized companies, professional service firms, and thought leaders throughout the United States. Learn more.
1) Select the right conferences. Make a list of possible conferences to attend and then evaluate them based on a set of criteria. Include things like: demographics of attendees, percentage of your target audience attending, strategic fit with your business, and the financial and time investment required to exhibit.
2) Submit speaker proposals for targeted conferences. If you can get on the program, you will have added exposure for your company. As you build your conference plan, make note of speaker proposal deadlines. Some conferences have proposal deadlines a year in advance.
3) Create a strategic conference/tradeshow plan. Be specific about your objectives for the show. Think through all aspects of your booth space, signage, products or services you want to showcase, booth activities, etc. This will be your roadmap for the show.
4) Determine how you will be capturing and qualifying leads. Drawings often generate lots of leads but they are unqualified leads. Think about your objectives and what you hope to accomplish. Consider developing a lead qualification form.
5) Create menu cards. These are simple cards listing offerings you're highlighting in the booth. It's a great way to direct the conversation of booth visitors, especially when they ask "What's new?" Typically they are printed on card stock and include your logo, phone number, and web address.
6) Visualize the booth traffic flow. Are there barriers that obstruct the flow of traffic? If you place a table across part of the entrance to the booth, a lot of people won't walk in your booth for fear of being trapped. Make necessary changes.
7) Train your booth staff. Make sure all booth workers know what is expected of them. They need to be on board with the goals and objectives for the show, products and services being highlighted, booth etiquette, conversation starters, booth schedule and more.
8) Follow-up on the requests for more information or a sales call immediately. This is where many companies fall short. It might take them weeks to follow-up versus days. You need to respond quickly while you're still top-of-mind for them.
9) Debrief after the tradeshow. What worked well, what didn't work as well as planned? What would you do differently next year? Capture this information and make notes on things to change for the next tradeshow.
10) Track sales that resulted from the tradeshow. Depending on your sales cycle, you might not be able to track the success of the tradeshow until several months or a year later.
Katie Wacek is the President of Sandia Mountain Marketing, a marketing consultancy that provides strategic and tactical marketing expertise to small- and medium -sized companies, professional service firms, and thought leaders throughout the United States. Learn more.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Winning Culture
I completely agree with Rosabeth Moss Kanter's closing statement in her blog posting In a Recession, Put Everyone in Marketing. In it she says,
"Challenging times divide winners from losers. Winners survive because they never forget the important enduring truth: High quality products and services are created by engaged employees who know and care about customers."
The winners also know how to create a culture of getting the best out of their people. In this kind of culture, employees feel valued and respected. They feel empowered to make decisions. They will go out of their way to "do whatever it takes to delight the customer". There's a mutual respect between the employer and employee.
Everyone wins in this type of culture...customers, employees, and the employer.
"Challenging times divide winners from losers. Winners survive because they never forget the important enduring truth: High quality products and services are created by engaged employees who know and care about customers."
The winners also know how to create a culture of getting the best out of their people. In this kind of culture, employees feel valued and respected. They feel empowered to make decisions. They will go out of their way to "do whatever it takes to delight the customer". There's a mutual respect between the employer and employee.
Everyone wins in this type of culture...customers, employees, and the employer.
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