While I'm picking on salespeople...

I've had a couple salespeople call me twice recently...without their realizing it. If you are doing outbound calling, don't you keep track of stuff like that? And another guy trying to sell me an expensive ad package without qualifying me (or he would learn he is wasting his time). More salespeople lost in the MAZE.

Semirelated: I want to praise the guy who I bought my car from via eBay. His first email to me promised "you will not be dissappointed." He may not be a salesperson, but he understands the issue of buyer's remorse I was facing buying a car unseen. The book Pardox of Choice made a big issue of buyer's remorse as an impediment to sales--this guy gets it.

Oh, and yes, he delivered. I am not dissappointed with the car.

Semicon needs to execute better

The Semicon trade show in San Francisco last July gets a harsh critique for not executing its new combined 'front-end' and 'back-end' shows into one site, as published in Chip Scale Review Magazine:

"And some of this year's exhibitors, especially those who were exiled to the third floor of Moscone West-where you could fire off a cannon between rows without fear of hitting any visitors-will undoubtedly make their displeasure known to SEMI by not returning next year."

While I was bold enough to call Semicon nitwits earlier this year for their bulky 'free' mailer, publisher Gene Selven doesn't go quite so far. But he does point out all the shortcomings he saw himself, or heard from exhibitors (and we agree). In summation, there were two problems:

• Little effort to distinguish the two different types of show that were now combined
• And just as little effort to drive traffic to the different rooms/floors

My best experience with a two-floor show was at OFC in Anaheim where they put registration in the basement so that everyone had to filter through the basement at least once. At other shows, I've seen contests and refreshments offered at less traveled sections.

Certainly Semicon should have known that they were going to have these two problems. This, on top of the problem of moving the back-end show out of San Jose, where most of their show traffic comes from. According to Selven, a defection of exhibitors means they won't have to worry about driving traffic to the third floor next year!

Found in my spam folder

I found this approach interesting:

"There is one way to beat the Chinese threat to US manufacturing...

There is a way to beat the negative impact China has been having on manufacturing in the US. Don’t learn to speak Chinese. Instead, communicate more effectively about your product in English. That will increase the “perceived value” of your product. Notice, I didn’t say improve your product. I said, improve the prospect’s perception of the value of your product. In today’s marketplace there is only one way to effectively increase the “perceived value” of your product. The way is by getting a large number of news articles and feature stories published about your product.

...Check here so we can tell you all about our powerful marketing program and how it will help you beat the negative impact China is having on your business. Begin the process of defeating China’s negative influences on manufacturing in the US by taking care of #1. "

Dreams of grandeur

Well, it seemed like forever till I was able to be full-time marketing manager. And for my next dream, a marketing assistant. And that person's first assignment will be to deal with promotional item sales reps (logo-encrusted tschotchkes). Geez, I've probably had half a dozen contact me in the last week...including the relentless guy from Myron Manufacturing.

"No, don't need any pens right now." 'No, no calendars." "Don't need anything until next year." "Call me next year."

The thing is, putting them off is the easiest strategy. If you give any objections, then they think you are live prospect and will try to engage you. Most are just cold calling and never follow-up. They are caught in the MAZE (maximum activity, zero effect) per Tim McMahon's recent podcast.

Familiarity breeds...success

I found a couple more posts to share. These intersect somehow:

What makes an idea viral? by Seth Godin
Seth says that ideas are only shared if they are understood:

"No one "gets" an idea unless:
a. the first impression demands further investigation
b. they already understand the foundation ideas necessary to get the new idea
c. they trust or respect the sender enough to invest the time"

Myths and facts from Reveries
Tim at Reveries quotes Dr. Skurnik:

"Unless people have some countervailing context or information to grab hold of, they tend to regard information that seems familiar as true."
"It's not enough to ensure that people get good information from credible sources ... You also have to make sure that they'll be able to recall whether it's true or false later on."

All of which explains why I must have got the AOL/Intel merger/Bill Gates is going to send you money chain email today. Seriously though, the lesson I am getting is that a marketing message has to fit the knowledge, preconceived notions, or prejudices that the prospect has, or they aren't going to get anything out of it.

To what Seth said, until the message fits client in the way he described, he's not going to ready to go to his boss and tell him why your product is better. And Dr. Skurnik may predict that his boss may cling to familiar facts that he regards as true and reject the proposal anyway. Ouch!

Blog catch-up: Here are some links

It has been two weeks since my last post. Maybe a record for a non vacation period in the 3+ years of this blog. With our annual sales meeting and congested internet service here at work, its been tough to get posts up. Hope you haven't been wasting away waiting ;)

To get things going again, here are three links I had lingering in my Bloglines account.

1. Father Flanders points to a great tool for testing and creating CSS style sheets called TypeTester. (Okay, Mike, I know you blogged it, too.)
2. Lab Reports riffs on being genuine and honest in your marketing and PR. This post may show its age by talking about Katrina, but ends praising the Menard's Guy approach (those in the Midwest know who he is talking about).
3. Jeremey Porter provides a good summation from the B2B Conference on email deliverability. I'm not doing direct-email, but I found it informative to know what hurdles I should be prepared to jump.

A way to make trade shows better

Its fun to go to the mall and wonder around...unless you want shop for shoes. Now you have to figure out where all the shoe stores are, which can sometimes be frustrating, even with a mall map.

And so it goes with trade shows. Despite show guides that contain our 50 carefully crafted words about our companies, most attendees are happy to wander around, as actually trying to figure out which booths to go to beforehand is hard.

I just got a email from the Semicon Show saying they would use 'matchmaking' software to recommend booths for attendees to visit. And they would also reverse the process and give vendors targeted attendees lists.

The company that makes this software has a very sparse website, but it does provide a good summary of what they do and the value it offers:

BDMetrics: "We grow attendance at conferences and events by identifying the unique people, companies, products, and knowledge that each individual registrant needs to see. We help exhibitors make money by identifying attendees who are the best leads and marketing to them. And we grow revenues for show owners by boosting attendance, increasing exhibit sales, and adding new revenue streams. BDMetrics is radically increasing the business value that attendees and exhibitors get from attending events. "

In other words, if a potential attendee can easily show his boss all the companies relevant to his job, he is more likely to get approved to go. And he will also be more likely to visit your booth when he gets there. I'm looking forward to seeing it in action.

Suggestions needed: web resources for sales reps

Next week is our annual sales meeting. I always prepare a 'technology' presentation to help our reps take advantage of their computers and the internet. This year I am going to present web content that can help them be better salespeople. Four distinct categories quickly emerged: blogs, podcasts, newsletters, and 'tools'.

Podcasts may be the ultimate 'on the go' tool for the salesperson of the 21st century, but I've only found two so far.

Can you help add to my list? I've created a del.icio.us account to track my selections and tag them by category.

Bought a car on eBay

I've spent more time shopping for lesser things. It was a great price, its a Honda, and it suits my needs. Yea, its not exactly what I wanted, but at several thousand less, I'm willing to compromise. Part of the the compromise, too, is that I need to share it with my wife, who now has a long commute to grad school 2x a week.

Making major purchases is always a lesson to me about salesmanship, marketing, and the customer experience. The honesty in the auction listing was certainly a confidence builder. Part of the reason for the good price was that the car had been rebuilt after an accident. They explained what they checked and fixed. The low price makes the decision easier, because if I don't like it, I can resell it and not be short a bunch.

Now gotta plan a train-ride to Chicago to pick it up.

Creating passionate...what?

Honest, I'm not getting lazy, I really like what Kathy has to say at Creating Passionate Users blog. Can I assume all my readers are reading her blog, too? No, so that allows me to make what looks like a fresh post to some of you. Three good posts I didn't want to slip by:

The Smackdown Learning Model talks about how to have a smackdown fight between alternatives to help the user learn about their choices. I thought this was a great lesson in writing competitive material, especially when one of my new goals is to make the user's choice clear (ref: Paradox of Choice)

Reference vs. Learning: Pick One allows Kathy to get on her high-horse about the advantage of conversation writing to improve user learning. But to a marketer (and we all are marketers), its a good lesson in limiting or separating your messages depending on the task: reference or learning. I've seen too many pieces with reference content written in a learning/conversation style that is awkward and unreadable.

You can out-spend or out-teach is today's lengthy rant that contained this gem about creating passionate users/customers:

But passion requires real learning. Nobody is passionate about skiing on their first day. Nobody is passionate about programming in Java on their first day. Or week. It's virtually impossible to become passionate about something until you're somewhere up the skill/knowledge curve, where there are challenges that you believe are worth it, and that you perceive you can do.

There, I think she drove the point about why her learning mantra is so compelling, so spot-on. Learn what doesn't work (like using a paddle-boat for fishing), and insist on the right gear next time.

Lives are on the line, after all

Probably your marketing program is like mine—its in auto-pilot. Programs and products are in place, salespeople are closing orders, and customers are happy. More-or-less, anyway.

The point I want to make is that we don’t often realize how much is depending on us marketers. The blunt extreme is this: if there are no sales, there are no jobs. We hold the fate of people in our hands, whether we realize it or not.

Catching fish:

I am not a sportsman. Just this year I started fishing with the nudge of my neighbor and my kids. Its actually fun, but I don’t like holding the fish (or cleaning them). The fish are just too slimy and wiggly to securely hold, so I use a towel or glove. And tossing the fish back eliminates the cleaning part.

While on vacation a couple weeks ago, one of my boys (8) and I were on a paddle-boat fishing, after unsuccessfully trying from the shore of the small lake. My son quickly got two that we threw back. As we were paddling, I got a bluegill. Because we were moving, the hook was deep in the fish’s jowl and I couldn’t get it out.

Suddenly, the fish flipped, I flinched, and my pliers went flying into the water. Now I had a fish with no way to get the hook out (it is one of those three-hook spinners) and no equipment to keep him. My son had a pocket knife, so I cut the line and let the fish keep its new jewelry.

Being prepared:

We paddled back to shore, my nerves jangled and feeling guilty. And pondering a lesson about being prepared, being confident, or something bad may happen...to someone or something else. Since then, a couple other personal and work incidents had me feeling the same way.

I think that President Bush and a lot of others got caught on auto-pilot last week. They were assuming the SOP as they had done well with Charley last year would work. Instead, they should have been actively engaged in the situation, actively changing their response based on the situation and threats. And so should you and I! Lives are on the line, after all.

Is Google going to change the world with pay-per-call?

I wouldn't normally attempt to be a Google watcher/pundit, except that this touches my post about pay-per-call last week. Well, and the implications of what Google is up to is huge. WebProNews posts an article that brings all the pieces together, but is unclear and loses the true implications, IMHO. They start with a good quote from another publication:

"In a Business 2.0 article, Mr. Malik wrote that Google could 'use VOIP technology to dial phone numbers that appear in local search results.' With a massive rollout of Wi-Fi and the first version of Google Talk on the Web, combined with Google's scheme of providing Gmail invites to US mobile phone users, the potential use of pay-per-call becomes clearer. "

Google's buying up 'dark cable' and plans for stock issue to raise a bunch of capital they otherwise don't need are also part of the puzzle.

Here's my take: Google will help grow the connection between phone and internet networks, enabling pay-per-call on a widespread basis. So much more than niche pay-per-call like I blogged about. Think about it...

1. If one uses Google on their cellphone, they are much more likely to call based on the search results.
2. On your PC with GoogleTalk, one can click on a hyperlink that automatically calls the advertiser.

Looking at access stats

Shedding my sales responsibilities has given me a bit more time to take closer looks at marketing data and resources. I feel almost like I'm squandering my time, but I hope what I may find is valuable. This morning I ran my web-access reports for August. Studying them closer, I noticed a referrer from a competitor's site--so I started digging. Here are some tidbits I found looking thru my server logs and reports:

• Above mentioned referrer is junk, caused by a crawler/bot called Zeus.
• There are a number of other bots hitting my site heavily, including noxtrumbot, ichiro, & nutch.
• Hmmm, are these bots inflating my access stats?
• Back-tracking on a Google Syndication referrer brought me to a link/engine-spam farm.
• Firefox hits are now 9.9% of accesses!
  

Overall, I've decided that the access data has been pretty uniform over time to the point where trend-tracking is not valuable. That means that I can change to a different web-access tracking method. Why change? Well, to get those bots out of my access-stats for one. That might give me a better view of actual site traffic. And the client-side tools give a better picture of usage, too. Client-side measurement has been on my to-do list for a while.