Word of the day - Nemawashi

"Nemawashi in Japanese company culture is an informal process of quietly laying the foundation for some proposed change or project, by talking to the people concerned, gathering support and feedback, and so forth. It is considered an important element in any major change, before any formal steps are taken, and successful nemawashi enables changes to be carried out with the consent of all sides." via Wikipedia

This word came across to me in an email. Working with Japanese over the years, I've experienced it, but didn't know it had its own term. Giving it a name makes it much more distinguishable as a tactic for change. It means that you already know what's going to happen before anyone says the word 'go'. It also means that you should be prepared and ready when someone does say 'go'.

Another neat trade-show tool for visitors

So I was at the TS2 show this week. This morning I get an email from the lead-swipe company Expo Exchange.

"To help you gain the maximum value from the event, we are inviting you to make use of a new attendee service - ExpoCard Visit Tracker - which contains the contact information for the exhibitors you visited during the event. This information was compiled by virtue of your use of the ExpoCard lead retrieval system used by our exhibitors. This service will allow you to be proactive in following up with those exhibitors you spoke to during the event."

How many times after a show have you tried to remember that company with the cool product? It was too early to get a call or literature back...or the company never followed up. Now you get a handy list of folks who swiped your attendee badge. Very nice!

(Of course it won't work for the exhibitor who asked for my business card and then stapled it into a notebook.)

Exhibitor U. and TS2 (look, a rhyme)

I went to Reed Exhibitition's "Exhibitor University" program yesterday, held in Chicago at the TS2 trade-show trade-show. Well worth the three hour drive each way!

The presentation was by exhibitor 'turn-around artist' Jefferson Davis. He knows his stuff and is a great presenter. His material didn't cover the nitty gritty of how to do the tactical stuff, but I'm hoping that Reed puts on future programs to do this.

Anyway, I'll be likely putting up a series of posts based on his materials.

---

TS2 was an interesting show to walk during our long lunch break. It was an interesting mix of exhibitors who would be trying to sell to people like me, and others targeting the exhibition trade. While there was much to comment on, here are two:

• The Skyline rep offered me an industry-focused white paper on exhibiting. He walked me over to where they had five different white papers guarded by a plexiglass cube. Apparently they did this to make it clear that you needed to 'get swiped' in order to get one in the mail. Seemed a little preposterous.
• The coolest find was a guy offering animated electroluminescent signs. Their website attempts to duplicate the effect, but in person they are show-stopping.

Rising star -- Office Pirates

It's not often you come across a website whose Bloglines subscribers more than double in a month. Currently at 110 subscribers (from 46 when I subscribed), Office Pirates seems to be attempting to fill all those lousy cracks in our day with Dilbert-esque humor. Not sure where they are coming from, but this site seems destined to some sort of success in an innovative way.

Check out this post for a sample: Be a Chicken Entrepreneur

DirectIndustry, or Direct Access?

On the last page of July's Test & Measurement World, there is an interview with Corentin Thiercelin, CEO of DirectIndustry.com. I haven't talked much about DirectIndustry here, but it is a directory targeting world-wide B2B supply.

The interview is typical of what you would expect, with bits like this:

"Google is so exhaustive that it can sometimes lack the order and logic necessary for professionals to compare products and brands effectively. As a search engine specialized for industry, DirectIndustry returns this order to the search, saving professionals time and headaches."

Info-commerce geeks and directory clients who read this blog should find the article somewhat interesting, which is part of the reason why I've posted it. This article leaves me with three questions, however:
1. Is this good content?
I've praised T&MW's content here before, but why this piece? Are engineers interested in the business of directories? The page subject is "Viewpoint, An exclusive interview with a technical leader". The most interesting part may be that Corentin was once a test engineer, which is why his website is lopsided towards test.

2. Is this a play to an advertiser?
DirectIndustry has been running a series of ads in T&MW celebrating their growth and longevity--is this why this interview is here? It's lack of typical editorial relevance smacks of direct access for advertisers. And the interview is all about his company, not really the 'role of the Web in purchasing decisions', as the intro promises.

3. What about loyalty to KellySearch?
T&MW is a Reed publication, which also owns KellySearch.com, a DirectIndustry competitor. T&MW has KellySearch as a tool on its website. Are the editors passive-aggressive towards their forced association with Kelly? Or trying to look unbiased?

What do you think?

So, why were you calling me?

Just got a call:

Him: "I just spoke to Tom (one of our sales reps). He said I should talk to you to see if you are exhibiting at XXX show."

Me: "Uh, no. Are you a sales rep for the show?"

Him: "Oh, yes...so are you planning on attending."

Me: "Didn't Tom exhibit at that show himself last year?"

Him: "I don't know. I just go down the list of names...so do you think you'll be attending?"

Me: "No, wasn't planning on it."

Him: "Okay, thanks."

Well, that was a waste of my time. But I pitty the show manager who wonders why his show isn't selling out this year.

I'll be at TS2 in Chicago next week

I've signed up for the "Exhibitor University" sponsored by Reed Expo, which is at the TS2 Trade-Show Show in Chicago next Tuesday. If anyone out there is going to be there, I'd enjoy the chance to shake your hand. Drop me a note.

B2B content trapped in need for completeness?

The one thing I like about writing is that I get to address the topic as completely as I feel I need to. Over the years I've found that the one detail I leave out in a email or brochure or webpage is the one piece of information that folks call back looking for. When blogging, I write until I feel I've addressed the topic until it is resolved in my mind. Writing saves interuptions and makes revising easy. The end result is a complete document.

Reading an article in this month's Wired called What Kind of Genuis Are You (a facinating article about two types of creatives, nicely summarized here at Reveries), I find myself identifying with 'experimentalist' creatives like Cezanne who only signed 10% of his paintings because he was never sure if they were complete or not.

Regardless, the point is that one goal of B2B marketing is communicating information effectively, which means completeness. But perhaps we are overachievers. Engineers need certain data from our materials, but they aren't dumb. They can connect the dots. We don't need to spoon-feed them.

Yet we continue to produce 'features and benefits' lists that treat them as dumb. That's because we are told that benefits sell, not features. And it becomes complete that way. How many of you have written something like this...

"Our latest model features a smaller footprint to save your valuable lab space."

Perhaps we are lacking feedback on our writing, because on the other side, this is what is happening:

Engineer reading web page: "Duh!"

How much smarter is it to leave your marketing incomplete and let the reader do the heavy lifting? The conclusion may be obvious, but the conclusion is now theirs. They own the idea now. Even complex concepts may fair better, because explaining them takes more effort then just pointing the reader in the right direction. (This happens in art and B2C advertising, but they also have the benefit of multiple mediums to make this more effective.)

Or to quote a Chinese proverb I saw somewhere else this week:

"Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand."

I think I've reached the asymptote of completeness with this post, so I'll leave you to figure out what it means to you. (Of course I'm wondering if your reading this going 'duh', how obvious.)

UPDATE: Kathy Sierra latest post complements (adds to) this one: Hooverin' and the space between notes

Barriers to entry per Seth

"I think the reason you don't see a lot of kids on unicycles is that they don't come with training wheels." --Seth Godin

More here: Seth's Blog: Training wheels (July 5th)

(I was originally going to do my own personal take on this post from Seth, but the quote seems so much more poignant when you have to ponder it yourself. Which leads into the next post I am working on.)

What he said--review of online directories

Robert J. (no relation!) just found my blog and left an interesting comment on my last post. In it he left a link to an article called:

Industrial Search Engine Marketing - Industrial Search Engines and Directories.

The author, Mark Forst, offers to "review the major industrial search engines and directories to provide some of my personal experiences and opinions on their quality." He goes on to give pretty fair assessments of ThomasNet, GlobalSpec, KellySearch, and some others. He errs on the side of being polite, but is more judgmental about cost. Oh, and he does name prices, in case you didn't know how much these services can cost.

Mark, if you keep writing handy articles like this, you'll put B2Blog out of business :-)

Guess what is the top B2B marketing tool?

Us poor B2B marketers...the top three things buyers look for in a product aren't under our direct control...price, service, quality. We can add sizzle to these, but ultimately, the buyer will discern the truth.

So what is our #1 marketing tool? Amazingly it is something we've only had for ten years...our websites. Results of a user survey by ThomasNet were summed this way:

"Of course, competitive pricing, good customer service and high quality are a given, but the next single most important thing buyers mentioned is a detailed, user-friendly Web site. "

The article has lots of other handy tidbits from the survey:

Comments by users like this:
"Provide enough information within their Web site for me to make an educated decision-? comparative product details, listed prices, and list of distributors that I can purchase from if they don't sell direct."

This factual gem:
36% of the time users will seek out new suppliers for a new purchase.

Look at the top two of '10 Things Buyers Look For In a New Supplier'
1. Easy-to-navigate Web sites with accurate, detailed product and pricing information
2. Companies that are easy to find and have a strong Web presence

This shouldn't really be news to us B2B marketers...but after ten years, we may have grown complacent about our websites. From the details of this survey, I say our target audience has become even more discerning and faster to pass on poor (to them) websites. We can't become complacent!

Read more: It's Not Who You Know. It's Who Knows You

Managing cancer clients

Do have customers that you wish you didn't? Ones that flip-flop what they need halfway thru the project. Or worse, at the end. The revenue seems hardly worth the effort.

We had one recent client who said that we were complying with their safety rules for the equipment we were building. Until suddenly we weren't complying. "This needs to be resolved now", etc. Ugh!

Well Sean De'Sousa of Psychotactics.com made this suggestion in his recent newsletter titled How To Get Rid of Cancer Clients: The Riot Act:

"'Ms. Client, we have a clause, called the Riot Act. We'll do everything in our power to do all of the above. And you in turn should do all in your power to help us do our job. The moment you run into issues with us, you have the right to fire us. The moment we run into issues with you, we have the right to fire you. Is that fair?'

Watch for the client's eyes to pop.
Watch as her jaw drops.
Watch as the pencil tumbles in slow motion to the floor."

Sean may have more flexibility to fire a services client than we can, because we are building something physical as a one-time project. But his point should be valid: the terms of the relationship need to be more explicit than seems necessary at the beginning.

Quotations, fine print, and unseen 'policies' are often used as CYA tools after the fact. But is there a step in your business process that outlines what you will and won't do?

I think it could be as easy as the salesperson highlighting lines in the quote prior to taking the order. I've felt better when salespeople I am buying from warn me about what will or won't happen 'back at the office'. At least I know where I stand.

But fear of losing a sale may cause them to keep their mouth shut. Then you are stuck with the 'cancer client'. That's why adding the 'riot act' as an explicit step makes sense. Maybe its smarter to have it come after the order, and from the 'home office', to squelch whatever the salesperson may have implied or promised, and to establish a tone of control. (Just don't sound evil when you do it, as I think that's a real risk.)

YAD: OpenFos.com

YAD? Oh that's my acronym for "Yet Another Directory". I don't comment on everyone I see, unless there is something to talk about.

Today's YAD is OpenFos.com (named Focus On Sourcing), which I found in my monthly review of referring websites. It was hard to miss, as it was ranked right after Google! A closer look at my stats showed four different directory listings for our company with similar traffic numbers each.

I suspect the high referrals from their site is due to the screen-shot they show on the listing pages. One listing record is interesting because it identifies US Government 'Contract Listings" that we have recently won.

Googling openfos, I started finding sites like Office Supply Leads which offers a (paid) subscription to searches of government bids for certain commodities. Apparently, that is where this company is focused for revenue.

As far as a directory, OpenFos has a long way to go. For the category of three-gas incubators, they list a number of unrelated 'suppliers' like "Affordable Treasures".

Once again my acronym proves true: Yadda, yadda, yadda. (Well, assuming all those hits are junk, anyway.)