Author: Dave J.

(I just dug this post out of my Blogger drafts, and seems even more needed after my recent post about a job definition for marketing manager. At the time I wrote this, I didn’t like what I had to say, but don’t remember why.)

In December Seth Godin wrote about someone looking to hire a senior marketing manager, whose job it would be to ‘increase revenue’.

Seth wanted to know how much latitude this manager would have to change the business. The implication, which defines how Seth sees marketing, is that marketing is about the product, the process, and the business. He specifically used the word architect.

But, realistically, B2B marketers aren’t architects of strategy IMHO. The product and business process is already in place, and it is the context from which we must work. Instead, we protect the brand, create the customer, support salespeople, and advocate for the all three. This is tactical work, not strategic—the work of Guardians, not architects.

This is not to say that we shouldn’t advocate strategic changes. Guardians fix bridges, we don’t redesign them.

Did you all see this post: Brand Autopsy: Broken Windows. Broken Business? John Moore is summarizing a book, which can be further summarized by this one sentence from his post:

“According to Levine, broken windows are telltale signs to customers that a business doesn’t care, that it is poorly managed, and or it has become too big and arrogant to adequately deal with little details.”

Like John, I like this concept because it helps me understand why we do the things we do as marketers and businesspeople. We don’t take short-cuts, we buy new, we overspend on making a good impression. It also makes me understand my feelings as a consumer, for example when visiting a small restaurant with chairs that look and feel like they cost $40 max.

I repeatedly talk about being a tactical marketer and ‘the details will kill ya’, but this only proves the point. We have to be guardians of the brand–making sure all the broken windows are fixed right away, putting a fresh coat of paint on, and sometimes rebuilding. There is no ROI, no increased sales, no appreciation for our efforts. It’s strange how being a guardian is really just being a maintenance person.

So when being quized on your budget for next year, don’t feel ashamed for asking for a website rebuild, or a new show booth. There is no ROI, but it needs to be done. Your customers (and fellow employees) will notice if you don’t.

(Pictured is my favorite Guardian, Bob, from Reboot)

New B2Blog term: YAD— Yet Another Directory

SourceTool.com B2B Directory Launched · MarketingVOX: “Former executives from B2B search directory ThomasB2B.com have launched a new supplier directory at SourceTool.com”

What’s makes this YAD different:

• Conextual ad revenue based (i.e. AdSense)
• Use of UNSPSC (United Nations) business classification
• Search results are limited to companies and just link to their home pages
• The website is based on an open-source CMS back-end (Joomla)
• No salespeople to call me

Thomas had killed the thomasb2b project earlier this year. Looks like these guys want to take that idea and run with it. Unfortunately, the way the website is set-up, it doesn’t encourage searching. Look at their home page, for goodness sakes (even their search page sucks, IMHO). The site is ready to go, I don’t know why they are running the site this way.

Their search results are pretty good just because they are limited to business websites, but the stack of grey-text keywords below each is almost unreadable. They make a big deal of the UNSPSC classification system, but they make it invisible in the search results, so I’m not sure how our company is classified in their system.

In summary, this YAD gets a ‘yadda, yadda, yadda’ rating.

I sell to engineers. They’re a fickle bunch. Unfortunately, I made it through the Mechanical Engineering program before deciding I didn’t want to be an engineer. But the background was helpful to sell to them at their own level…and now market to them.

MarketingSherpa posts a white-paper on GlobalSpec’s experience developing an online game aimed at engineers to promote their website. While this probably isn’t a task I’m going to be faced with, the insights are useful to understand what engineers are willing to respond to.

B-to-B Web Site Game Thrills Half a Million Engineers

Paraphrased:
Rule #1. No easy wins.
Rule #2. Lots of details–Engineers love to tinker.
Rule #3. Educational (but still fun.)–“have to justify that playing a game at work is useful.”
Rule #4. No engineering mistakes.
Rule #5. Variable time to play. (workfriendly)

They also tested their emails to registered users to announce the game, and found the word ‘engineer’ in the subject provided better response.

Here’s a B2blog classic post on the same subject Six things you should know about marketing to engineers, and link to the original article by Robert Bly.

When I first griped about importing addresses into Goldmine, I had a problem with zip-codes losing the leading zero for New England. Russ was kind enough to suggest saving as a DBF file, which is effective. I’ve since learned a couple things through instruction and hard knocks about using DBF files.

1. Only visible characters in the spreadsheet are saved. It was suggested to use Courier font and then adjust all the column sizes to fit all text.
2. Numbers should be formatted as such (not ‘general’) to avoid truncating decimals.

And the one that got me today is more subtle. When exporting, I was losing about half my Excel columns. Turns out that because I had done a quick test with just a few columns, Excel had defined that as my ‘database’ despite my adding columns. Here is a better explanation:

“This is because, when you first exported the Excel file to a .dbf file, Excel created a “named range” for that .dbf file. If you do not modify this named range, Excel will continue using this original range and, thus, not include any added rows or columns on subsequent exports to .dbf of the same file.” —Tips about uploading a dbf file

Keeping a theme going this week: I’m mastering my &@#$% tools!

It’s been a year since I bought and implemented Goldmine as our new CRM system. It’s not the most beautiful software, but it suits our needs well. But the Paradox of Choice still leaves me wondering if it was the best choice.

Last week Jim at CRM Mastery E-Journal posted a link to an article by SearchCRM.com reviewing Forrester Research’s report on ‘midmarket’ CRM (which you can buy for $795). This report was only for real software, not online services like salesforce.com.

“Forrester found Siebel System’s Professional Edition, Sage CRM’s Saleslogix and Pivotal’s applications best suited for midmarket firms, while FrontRange and Maximizer Software best fit the needs of small businesses.”

Looks like I made a good choice, based on this comment. Cool.

Last post I tried to remind my readers to be masters of your tools. And that’s why you should pay attention to the latest release of Firefox 1.5. It introduces new features for web designers to use.

And even if you aren’t a designer, you will need to talk to one when you update your site. Like talking to an auto mechanic, you are more comfortable when you know the difference between an alternator and a starter. Maybe some of these new features would be beneficial to your website, but don’t expect the designer to offer them…push them and remain the leader in the project.

To that end, here’s a good review of the new features from the latest SitePoint Tech Times newsletter.

Get Firefox
BTW, now would be a good time to walk away from IE6 and join the Firefox world. My favorite feature of Firefox? A search box for your bookmarks. Second favorite is the on-page search. And I’ve finally decided that the Google toolbar is worth adding on (I’m a PageRank junkie and the simple extension to show PR doesn’t work with 1.5). I’ve added a link on my home page where you can get both in one click, if you like (and Google gives me credit).

In addition to creating plans and budgets for next year, I also have to create and manage monthly business reports to monitor our sales activity.

One of our new promotions has goals that I want to highlight when met. Usually, graphs are the way to do this, but not with over 15 records to monitor. Instead, I am creating a straight-forward table as the published report. But how to highlight when a goal is met? Automatically? My brain said that Excel should be able to do it, and Google confirmed that what I wanted is a standard feature:

Excel — Conditional Formatting: “Conditional formatting allows you to set rules for cell formatting. If the rules (conditions) are met, then the formatting is applied… For example, you can set conditional formatting so that a cell turns blue if it contains a value higher than 75 and turns green if it contains a value lower than 50. “

Now even my boring spreadsheet reports will be easily digested. I’ve already automated much of my reports in the past by assuming Excel must have some way of making it easier, and figuring it out. Be a master of your tools.

Thanksgiving is upon us again. Christmas is fast approaching. It can be a draining season. I know that I am loathing the long drive to Tennessee my family will start this afternoon. Holidays take energy, but they can be rewarding, which is why we love them so.

Same thing goes for budgeting for 2006. Gotta slug through reports, create calendars, joggle the numbers, and get your boss to agree on it all. But the reward is a plan and freedom to act on it for the coming year.

Segue:
I was not keen on ‘business’ podcasts, as I want to be entertained, but I’ve quickly become a fan of Motivation on the Run by Larry Hendrick. His podcast will help me keep going during the budgeting/holiday season.

I’ve been listening for 10 weekly shows (he does the show every Monday “because it is written down”). Larry does this because he is genuinely interested in motivation and leadership, not to sell his services or a book. I encourage my readers to download a show (each is 20 minutes) and hear what he has to say, or at least subscribe to his blog.

If if were easy, there would be no sluggards or clock watchers at your work location. Everyone would be productive and when finishing one job, would jump up and find another to get started on, and the harder the better. Doesn’t sound like your place of work? Mine either, but like I said, it takes hard work and practice.

Just because this question came up a couple times recently, let me provide some definitions:

International business: A group of sister corporations that operate independently around the world. Each unit usually addresses the local market as best they see fit. How about Ford, Pizza Hut, Masterfoods.

Global business: a group of company divisions that work together as a single business entity. Think IBM, Samsung, Sony.

We are seeing our clients act more and more like Global businesses, which creates new challenges and makes doing business that much more complex.