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marketingtimes1
Christmas Wish List
marketingtimesDecember 2011Official magazine of Sales & Marketing Executives International, Inc.
®
The Right Coach
Expressionsthat help me sell 7Digital
Trends
Customers that don’t complain
George Orwell’s help with branding
My C
are
er B
ack
on Tra
ck!
Strategies for retaining my profitable accounts
2011 Award Photos
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8 COMPENSATION & COACHING: 2012 STYLE
AAAAAHHHHH! (AND A LIST OF OTHER EXPRESSIONS THAT HELP YOU SELL)
SEVEN DIGITAL TRENDS MARKETERS SHOULD KNOW
ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS ALWAYS RIGHT?
A BRANDING LESSON FROM GEORGE ORWELL
HOW TO GET YOUR DERAILED EXECUTIVE CAREER BACK ON TRACK
PROTECTING YOUR CUSTOMER BASE: 3 STRATEGIES FOR RETAINING YOURMOST PROFITABLE ACCOUNTS
DEPARTMENTS
CONTENTS
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
4
16
18
20
10
7
14
12
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SMEI OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS 2011- 2012
OFFICERSJeff Fawcett – Chairman
Nathalie Roemer, CME – Secretary TreasurerClinton Schroeder, CME CSE - Chairman Elect
Jeffery Jackson, CME CSE – Immediate Past ChairmanWillis Turner CAE CSE – President & CEO
SENIOR VICE CHAIRSLynn Argenbright – Membership
Lisa Dennis – Affiliate & Chapter Relations Kim Ferguson – ProgramsBen Mastboom – Europe
Antonio Rios-Ramirez, Ph.D. – Mexico
DIRECTORSJose Corujo, CME
Colleen FrancisJeananne Hawking
Mike HilbertKeali’i Kane
Karl PostMary Tricaso, CSE
Jack Criswell, CSE – Chairman EmeritusDon Covington, Jr., CSE – Director Emeritus
Marketing Times is published quarterly by Sales & Marketing Executives International, Inc. (SMEI).
CERTIFIED MARKETING & SALES PROFESSIONALS ASSOCIATIONNathalie Roemer, CME – Chairman
Melissa Medley, CME - Immediate Past Chairman
SMEIPO Box 1390
Sumas, WA 98295-1390 USAT 312-893-0751F 604-855-0165
[email protected] www.smei.org
Willis Turner CAE, CSE – Executive Editor
Copyright Sales & Marketing Executives International, Inc.Subscription Rates: 4 issues/year
USA: $35.00Canada: $45.00
All other countries/territories: $95.00The statements and opinions expressed in this magazine are not
necessarily those of SMEI.
It’s been an amazing year for SMEI and we have been working hard with your SMEI leadership team all around the world. Earlier in the year we were in Vietnam to plan for our upcoming launch and also in Beijing to launch a new four year agreement for cooperation on SMEI’s professional certification programs.
SMEI just completed a four-city lecture tour in China lead by our president Willis Turner, CAE CSE, with stops in Beijing, Dalian, Jinan and Shenzhen. The theme of the lecture topic was “Creating Champions: The impact of sales training
JEFF FAWCETT, CSE [email protected]
chairman’sreportOfficial magazine of
Sales & Marketing ExecutivesInternational, Inc.
®
on your organization.” Feedback has been very positive with a local slogan being developed of “People before Profits,” with human resource managers and marketing leaders responding to the need for sales and marketing training. In this competitive world market, sales and marketing managers in developing countries are adopting SMEI’s certification programs in an effort to reach a globally recognized standard of professionalism.
SMEI’s Senior Vice Chair in Europe, Ben Mastboom has been instrumental in helping us set up a partnership with HAN University to promote membership and certification in the Netherlands. An SMEI study mission to Europe is planned for May 2012. Stay tuned for more information.
We have just returned from San Juan Puerto Rico where we partnered with SME Puerto Rico for the 2011 Sales & Marketing Conference. SME Puerto Rico President Carlos Marchi, CME CSE, the Puerto Rico board and staff, made us all feel very welcome. We held our SMEI board meeting, Certification Governance meeting and we ran a successful Leadership Training session. Next year’s Leadership Event will be held in Las Vegas during October.I want to end with a story from my visit to San Juan. On my family’s last day we visited the very large Plaza Americas. I visited the Bose Store, looking for a cable part I misplaced from our speaker system. I was greeted by the local assistant manager William, who asked how he could help. He took me to the portable unit area to make sure we were talking about the right system. He asked me where I was visiting from, I said Vancouver Canada. His eyes lit up as he explained his love for Vancouver. He was given the opportunity to open the Bose Store in Vancouver 4 years ago. He quickly disappeared to the back of the store and re-appeared with the cable part. He put it in a bag and said have a great stay in Puerto Rico. No payment was required. No good deed goes untold in SMEI’s world of Sales & Marketing!
As we continue execution on our marketing plan to help SMEI grow, get ready to reach out and share your SMEI with friends and business associates around the world.
Have a great holiday season.
Jeff FawcettChairman, SMEI Board of Directors
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Wow! Time has gotten away on me since we last communicated with you through Marketing Times. As you’ll see by this issue, it has been a very busy and enjoyable time for SMEI as we continue to develop SMEI globally.
It was a great privilege to be treated to the hospitality of Alan Zhang, CME CSE, CEO of SMEI China as we conducted a four city lecture tour in October. The many years of labor in P.R. China are beginning to bear fruit. I was very impressed with the professionalism of our leaders and members in every city.
WILLIS TURNER, CAE, [email protected]
president’smessage
I also had the opportunity to attend the Grand Opening Ceremonies for SMEI Vietnam, held in Ho Chi Minh City on October 28th. The event was professionally produced and many senior executives and decision makers attended the event. We presented the certificates to the first CME and CSE graduating class. A great start for Vietnam!
Visit SMEI on:
CME/CSE Train the Trainer Classin Beijing, P.R. China
CME/CSE Train the Trainer Graduatesin Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, Oct 28, 2011Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
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Compensation & Coaching: 2012 StyleBy Barry Trailer
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Compensation & Coaching: 2012 StyleBy Barry Trailer
SMEI was a supporter again this year of CSO Insights’ 2011 Sales Compensation & Performance Management study. More than 900 firms responded to our survey sharing their data, experiences and plans. The picture that emerged from this collective is both interesting and informative.
The interesting part is, that after a year’s breather, quotas are heading north again—(on average increasing $100K) and doing so at a speed that is outpacing compensation (targeted comp at quota down an average of $1150). No surprise there, but still worth noting. This also seems to beg the question: If 62% of reps met or exceeded their assigned quotas in 2011 (projected from data collected during Q3) what will change to allow a similar percentage to reach even higher numbers?
Incidentally, while it’s important that 100% of reps be able to make their number, you should know that comp plans are not developed with the assumption that they will. This may come as no surprise either and it is left to you to decide whether comp design with 30% not attaining their goal is being realistic (based on past performance) or cynical.
As with so many other things in life, since you can’t control this you needn’t spend much time worrying about it. Rather, you should examine what you can do and control to make sure you’re in the winners’ circle at end of year.
The top measures for compensation are quota attainment and new account acquisition. These are the results against which you will be measured and for which you will be paid. But you don’t do results; you do certain actions that are reflected in your results. This is where performance management comes in and, specifically, coaching.
What things can you do that, if improved and consistently executed, will get you the results you’re after?
The data clearly support higher levels of relationship and process implementation correlate with higher levels of performance. Have you sat down and planned your territory, accounts, mix of new/existing business, and developed a game plan and timeline for executing? Yes, good. Now, has your manager reviewed this and provided you regular and rigorous coaching?
My bet is that the more senior and experienced you are,
the more likely the answer is to be “no.” If I’m right, your sales manager is making a big mistake. Again, turning to the data, it is interesting to note that as the deal size goes up (presumably with the experience and responsibility earned by being successful), coaching actually tapers off—even in firms with a philosophy supporting rigorous coaching! (See table below.)
I believe this happens for a couple of reasons. First, managers see successful veterans and think, “I get this guy what he needs when he needs it, and the rest of the time I stay out of his way.” Besides, there are younger, less experienced and remedial reps that need a manager’s attention. The second scenario is more fear based, with a manager that would be willing to coach but fearing the successful rep will simply say, “Look, I don’t have time for this crap. If you want to inspect what I’m doing all the time, I’ll go to the competition where they’ll just be happy with my results and let me be.”
And yet, the data show that in those firms where coaching continues to be conducted even as deal size increases, performance also increases and turnover is lower!
Don’t be too big, too old, too smart, too proud, too busy or too anything else to not be open to coaching. It’s the #1 key to mastery and the surest path to you attaining that higher number you’ll be facing come January.
Barry Trailer is a Managing Partner of CSO Insights, a research firm that specializes in benchmarking how companies are leveraging people, process, technology and knowledge to optimize the way they market to, sell to, and service customers. Mr. Trailer has over 30 years of professional selling experience and is an expert on sales processes and methodologies for complex B2B environments. Prior to CSO Insights, Barry was vice president of North American Sales, then president of the GoldMine Division of FrontRange. He has presented to thousands of sales reps and executives and is a sought-after speaker.
Company’s Attitude Toward Coaching
No Coaching Left to Managers
Informal Coaching
Rigorous Coaching
% Reps Meeting Quota
58% 57% 61%
Total Rep Turnover 30% 22% 21%Deal Size <$10K 24% 42% 31%Deal Size $50-100K
32% 40% 17%
Deal Size >$250K 29% 46% 18%
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AAAAAHHHHH! (and a list of other expressions that help you sell) Dan Seidman
I’ve always wanted to use that as a title to an article. I love the sound of it. And honestly, I struggled between using AAAARRGGGHHH! and AAAAAAHHHHH! and believe you’ll agree that I chose the right one.
The point of that expression? The fact that it represents an emotion, an outburst of feeling. Say it again, right now. Did our title come flying off your tongue as a good feeling, or one of disgust, possibly despair?
We open today’s column with a feeling because the understanding of emotions is one of the least understood, and certainly least taught, concepts in selling.
Here’s what you want to walk away with, after today’s teaching:
You must evoke emotion when you converse with prospects.
How best to do this? By crafting your questions so that they create, not simply a logical, but a gut response from your buyers.
How do we know this is important? How do we know it works?
The study of Neuroeconomics is a combination of research from the fields of psychology, economics and neuroscience. It looks at the role of the brain when we evaluate decisions, categorize risks and rewards, and interact with each other.
Almost every study on decision-making reveals that when a buyer decides to buy, she or he is first driven by emotion, then validates or rationalizes with logic.
Therefore, as a sales professional, we need to understand that evoking emotion during a sales call is key to helping buyers buy. If you neglect to create an environment where an emotional response occurs, you’ll end up with a clinical, rational prospect who decides with his or her head vs. their heart. If this fascinates you and you want more information, you’ll be captivated by the stories, research and applications from Jonah Lehrer’s book, How We Decide.
Corporate marketing executives understands this quite well. For example, at the writing of this article, BMW came out with an automobile commercial that illustrates this point:
BMW: What you make people feel is as important as what you make.
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This means you can develop questions that generate either positive or negative emotions. Here are a few examples.
Positive emotions
●Excitement
●Empathy
●Hope
●Calm
●Surprise
Negative emotions
●Disgust
●Irritation
●Fear
●Embarrassment
●Stress
You reinforce the power of emotion when you ask your questions by directly inserting a bit of feeling. Try this one out;
“You had customized books ordered for your national sales conference and they arrived at the end of the event? Oh no! What did your boss say?”
Now you can assume, the “oh no!” shows you’re empathetic to the bad experience (much like former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s classic “I feel your pain”), but the boss question is a real rough one. Your buyer will most likely go right back to that place and time where his manager, executive or owner got angry with the poor person for letting this mistake happen in the first place.
Evoke emotion! Take a couple of your favorite sales questions and use both words and vocal tone to bring some emotion to the surface.
For a chart of the 48 emotions and sample questions, send me an email at [email protected].
Dan Seidman’s 900 page encyclopedia of best-practices in sales training will be released globally in February, 2012. For a unique keynote or to review your existing sales training program (it might be time to redesign!), contact Dan at 1-847-359-7860 or [email protected].
AAAAAHHHHH! (and a list of other expressions that help you sell) Dan Seidman
We don’t just make cars, we make joy!
It is accompanied with many images, all connected with the word “joy,” a powerful emotion.
It’s time for sales pros in across our planet to intentionally adapt these practices as well.
The basis of all our questioning strategies centers on evoking emotion first. Which means we need to understand the emotional component of every benefit we offer and every problem solved by our products and/or services.
When prospects make decisions they will either choose based on benefits, good things they get, or they will be motivated to take action and buy based on avoiding problems, in the present or future.
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Changes in the digital world of marketing keep coming fast and furious. As a marketer, it can be challenging to know which online trends are important and which are nothing but fads. One thing most marketers do know by now is that digital marketing is marketing — in other words, with your audience having fully migrated online to search for suppliers, products, and services, digital marketing is the most effective way to connect with your prospects and customers.
Here, then, are seven digital trends worth paying attention to.
1. Online events
According to a recent GlobalSpec Marketing Trends Survey, 47% of industrial companies are increasing their spending on online events. Online events, sometimes called virtual events or online tradeshows, are a trend made possible by high bandwidth availability and emerging technologies that allow media companies to produce and host highly-interactive experiences. Online events targeted to your specific audience offer you an excellent opportunity to showcase your product line, build your brand reputation, provide content to your audience, and connect with prospects and customers. What’s more, you can do it all from the comfort and convenience of your desktop — as can your audience.
By Chris Chariton
7 digitalTrends Marketers
Should Know
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in your industry. Online advertising networks also offer the convenience of reaching many sites with a single buy, helping you save time and make the most effective use of your budget. Banner ads are highly visual; they offer great branding opportunities and can drive qualified, targeted traffic to your website.
6. Testing and Analytics
One big advantage of digital media is that it is easy to test and measure. A/B testing is becoming a popular way to optimize e-mail campaigns, Web pages and other online media. A/B testing basically means you split your list in two and send each list a slightly different version of what you’re testing, changing only one thing at a time and measuring what performs better. In addition, every company should be performing some type of Web site analytics such as measuring traffic, page popularity, and visitor behavior to help make informed decisions about optimizing your site.
7. Online Marketing Budgets
The top eight channels for increased marketing spend in 2011 are all online — from social media and SEO, to Internet banner advertising networks and online newsletter sponsorships and more. In addition, according to GlobalSpec’s 2011 Industrial Marketing Trends Survey, companies spend an average of 38 percent of their marketing budget online and 50 percent report that online marketing is a larger percentage of their overall marketing budget this year than last year. Online marketing should continue to take a bigger slice of the marketing budget in subsequent years, as more marketers experience the ROI associated with online programs and discover they can connect better with customers and prospects online.
About the Author:
Chris Chariton is Senior Vice President of Product Management & Supplier Marketing for GlobalSpec (www.globalspec.com), the leading providers of online marketing programs for companies interested in reaching the engineering, industrial and manufacturing communities. She oversees all direct marketing, demand generation, product management and market research, as well as public relations and advertising. She can be reached at [email protected].
2. Video
Video is experiencing a significant growth spurt, in fact, a high percentage of companies are increasing their spending on video, and it’s easy to see why. In the age of YouTube, videos are cheap to produce; homemade production quality is not only acceptable, but cool. Also working in video’s favor is the fact that many people like to watch, not read. Looking for some good ideas for video? Try brief interviews with executives, conversations among product managers, product demonstrations, or on-site visits to customers where your products are being used.
3. Social Media
Although many companies have begun implementing social media, make sure you understand the specific reasons and goals for your own social media strategy. For example, the top reasons companies use social media are for branding and lead generation purposes, yet only 3 percent of companies state that social media is one of their top three sources for leads. At this point in the maturation of the social media market, increasing brand awareness and building relationships are the outcomes most effectively achieved. LinkedIn is the most popular social media platform for sectors such as the industrial industry, followed by Facebook and then Twitter.
4. Digital Content
A few years ago, everyone was saying “Content is King.” Well, in many ways, content still is king — digital content — as attested to by the huge growth of e-readers, the iPad and other devices for consuming digital content. And it’s not just Web pages. There are videos, Webinars, downloadable PDFs, e-books, interactive tools and more. Your customers and prospects are hungry for content to help them do their jobs and make better purchasing decisions. Your job is to create that content and get it to them in digital format.
5. Internet Banner Advertising
Internet banner advertising has become a strong value proposition for marketers because of the availability of highly-targeted advertising networks that can place your ads on specific sites frequented by professionals
digitalTrends Marketers
Should Know
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In business, the squeaky wheel almost always winds up getting the grease. Customers tend to be rewarded for complaining, but that strategy leaves money on the table, according to marketing consultant Betsy Kruger.
No one likes hearing a complaint, so when a customer complains, a business quickly and resoundingly rectifies the complaint. The problem with this strategy is that disgruntled customers bring in less profit than loyal customers. Your business should focus on gratifying your most profitable customers.
Contrary to popular opinion, the customer is not always right, Kruger says.
It’s wrong to reward complainers. You should reward loyal customers since they reward your business with higher profit. You should value their business since loyal customers value your business.”
The 80/20 rule governs all results, including profits from customers.
When you sort customers by their profitability, this universal law predicts that the top 20 percent of your customers will generate 80 percent of your profit. Conversely, the bottom 80 percent of your customers will generate only 20 percent of your profit – and virtually all of your complaints. This means you should
target the top 20 percent with a top market strategy.
Your business can profit from the 80/20 rule by enacting these steps:
· Distinguish your top customers – Identify ways the top 20 percent of your customers differ from other customers and what characteristics they have in common. Realize that your top customers are highly profitable.
· Target your top customers – Gratify your top customers with a top market strategy. Discontinue marketing to the bottom 80 percent of your customers by automating all interactions with that group.
· Promote to top prospects – Focus resources on converting similar prospects into top customers. When you replace your less profitable customers with these new customers, you can expect your total profit from customers to quadruple.
“You may feel it’s rude to consider some customers as less valuable than others, but research proves it’s true,” Kruger says. “The top 20 percent of your customers magnifies your profit, whereas the bottom 20 percent of your customers magnifies your complaints.”
I feel it’s rude to reward complainers since loyal customers deserve to be rewarded. When you prioritize your customers with the 80/20 rule, you are prioritizing your profit.
Are Your Customers
always Right?
About the Author:
Betsy Kruger heads Strategic Power, a marketing consultancy committed to empowering world prosperity, one business at a time. Business Expert Press released her book, Top Market Strategy: Applying the 80/20 Rule, in August 2011. This book enriches marketing and strategy textbooks and shows business leaders exactly how to quadruple their profit from customers. She writes articles, motivates groups, leads seminars, and consults with clients on how to prosper from the 80/20 rule.
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Are Your Customers
always Right?
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As I walked into my office today, there was a copy of George Orwell’s 1984 on my desk. On the book was a sticky note attached to a page with a drawn arrow that pointed to a certain passage. The note wasn’t signed, but I knew that the words “READ THIS!” were written in my assistant Heather’s handwriting. Like most books I was supposed to read in high school, all I can remember about George Orwell’s 1984 is what Cliff Notes told me to remember. And what I remember most are warnings against evil dictators, Big Brother and the thought police. As I wondered if Heather was trying to send me a message, I sheepishly started reading the passage. By the time I was done I was ready to give her a promotion.Here is an extract from the passage the arrow pointed to: The book fascinated him, or more exactly it reassured him. In a sense it told him nothing that was new, but that was part of the attraction. It said what he would have said, if it had been possible for him to set his scattered thoughts in order. It was the product of a mind similar to his own. The best books, he perceived, are those that tell you what you know already.
The context is less important than the content of this message. But if you’re interested, it’s in Chapter 9 when the lead character finishes reading a book he had been struggling to get his hands on.Heather has known for a while that I have a fascination with the similarities between stories and brands. She also
Jim Signorelli
A Branding Lesson from George Orwell
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Jim Signorelli is the founder and CEO of esw StoryLab, a Chicago-based marketing firm. Signorelli’s 30+ year career in advertising began as a “copy/contact” with Marsteller and soon expanded to account management with major agencies like N.W. Ayer, Frankel & Co. and W.B. Doner. Over the years, he has worked for a number of national consumer and business brands including Citibank, Kraft Foods, Burger King, Toshiba, Emerson Electric, and The American Marketing Association. Signorelli’s agency has been cited as one of the fastest growing independent companies in the U.S. by Inc. Magazine for three years running and, in 2010, he was the recipient of the “Smart Leader” award given by Smart Business Magazine and U.S. Bank. He currently resides in Evanston, IL with his wife. For more information, please visit www.eswpartners.com.
knows that this passage supports what I believe is yet another in a long list of parallels that can be drawn between good stories and good brands.To understand why Orwell’s passage resonated with me, I should first let you in on a couple of beliefs I have about brands, in general. You should know that I don’t think brands are objects; rather they are labels given to objects for which we associate certain meanings. Furthermore, you should know that I believe that the “best” brands contained within anyone’s favored set of brands satisfy needs that go beyond product or service functions. Rather, they are brands that have meanings we value as important. Mercedes means something important to the owners of Mercedes, as does the meaning of Subaru to its owners.Understanding this, the real “ah ha!” for me is a point that Orwell makes in this passage about “best books.” He says they tell us what we already know and that they are the “product of minds similar to ours.” In other words, they don’t create beliefs and values as much as they reinforce what’s already there. And they do this by awakening our minds or putting “our scattered thoughts in order.”When Steve Jobs passed away, one of the most poignant comments I heard about him was that he didn’t give us Apple computers, iPods or iPads. Rather, he gave us Apple. He gave us a meaning that we could connect with emotionally for those of us who, like Jobs, value what is promoted through Apple’s theme line, “Think Different.” The reason we could connect with this meaning isn’t because Steve Jobs put that meaning into our belief system. It was already there. Like a good story, meanings associated with Apple are meanings that, to borrow from Orwell, “fascinate or more exactly reassure us.” Apple gave us something we were already predisposed to receiving.The reason this is an important concept is plain to see when examining powerful brands like Apple, Harley-Davidson, Disney, Nike and others that tap into and/or celebrate our existing values. But just as there are lessons from success, there are lessons from underestimating just how important it is for brands to crystalize rather than create meaning.Try as they might, brands like stories cannot change beliefs and associated values if we are not ready to have them changed. Marketing history is rife with examples that prove the point. Oldsmobile learned this lesson the hard way when it tried to convince its audience that “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile.” Despite its clever attempt to shed a different light on its brand, the belief that Oldsmobile is a car for older people was too entrenched to be radicalized. As Sears learned through its efforts to shed light on “The Softer Side of Sears,” it was impossible for us to let go of its harder side image we had come to
associate through brands like Craftsman, Die-Hard, and Kenmore. We gave Radio Shack a “you’ve got to be kidding” snicker when they tried to go from geeky to hip with its new moniker “The Shack.” And then there’s the archetypal New Coke mistake that taught us that changing an image, especially when it ain’t broke, can be a costly mistake. Time and time again we hear Chicken Little pronouncements by management that “we must change our identity (read: meaning) or we are going to perish.” More often than not, the only thing that needs to change is an improved sense of meanings that haven’t changed. At its core, Old Spice is a brand we have learned to associate with masculinity. Granted, it might be our father’s aftershave. But “Smell Like A Man,” didn’t bother to change Old Spice’s meaning in order to reignite its appeal. Rather, it stayed the course merely with a more contemporized frame of reference we now have for masculinity. Volkswagen’s Beetle found its link to its reverse snobbery roots when it reestablished a cult following by introducing the new Beetle with alternative rock music. It furthered that link by attaching a flower vase to its dashboard. Sperry Topsiders, an old, tired brand sold mostly to men, dramatically increased sales by making its long-held association with the good life, on or around the water, relevant to women and kids. Thank-you George Orwell for putting my scattered thoughts in order. And thank-you Heather. You’ve been elevated to Super Assistant.
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Executive recruiter Colleen Aylward wanted to figure out how many executives had been displaced by the poor economy over the last few years, but before she got her numbers, she discovered something else even more troubling.
“No one actually keeps track of those stats,” said Aylward, president of recruiting firm Devon James and author of Bedlam to Boardroom: How To Get a Derailed Executive Career Back on Track (www.devonjames.com). “When I tried to look it up with the Bureau of Labor Statistics and even talk to some of the bureau’s staff, I couldn’t get a straight answer.”
Instead, Aylward took the bureau’s 2010 figures for layoffs in all categories and cherry-picked the job categories that she knew, as a recruiter, to fit the executive profile. Her top line figure – 2.5 million executives out of work – is both troubling and telling of the depth of the current economic crisis.
“Many of these are not the high-priced CEOs that are being criticized for taking too much money in salary and bonuses,” she added. “These are the managers in the trenches, who spent decades in the corporate world making the trains run on time, and have since been displaced by younger, cheaper executives who lack the experience and institutional memory of those they replaced.”
Aylward’s specialty as a recruiter is to help those displaced executives find work and she has figured out a few key tips to help those who were insiders for so long, but now find themselves on the outside looking in.
Those ideas include:
●Be a SpecialistFor many years, an executive’s resume was an exercise in being all things to all people, but that’s not what corporations want these days. They don’t
How to Get a Derailed Executive Career Back on Track
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want a general manager of all things executive, but rather, specialists who have niche expertise that can be applied immediately. It’s a culture shift for many executives, so it may seem difficult at first. However, everyone has at least one, maybe even two areas in which they could lay claim to being a specialist. Highlight those areas in your resume and you’ll find a lot more opportunities open to you.
●Be CreativeHiring an executive is a big commitment for many companies, as well as an expensive one. Don’t be afraid of creating a situation that puts you back in the saddle while at the same time mitigating a company’s risk. If a company is on the bubble about bringing you on full-time, offer to take on a specific project as an outside contractor and then tie your compensation to the completion of the project. If you screw it up, that’s on you. If you succeed and deliver, not only will you get paid, but you might also win a full-time gig.
●Get Out and NetworkThe days of working for one company forever until you retire have been over for a while. Executives have to view even their full-time jobs as freelance gigs with a limited shelf life. In that respect, displaced executives should look toward more project work instead of just waiting around for that dream job to drop in their laps. They need to get out, network and use their days not to root out jobs, but rather to talk to individuals in companies that might have a problem your expertise could solve. More often than not, one well-executed project will turn into more.
“The old ways don’t work, anymore,” Aylward added. “In fact, they haven’t worked in a while, but the executives who have been laid off over the last few years never had to read that particular news update. They are still vital and have plenty to offer, but they need to find new ways to show it. The dream job doesn’t look at all the way it used to look and executives need to change their perspective if they are going to have a shot in the corporate world of today.”
About Colleen AylwardColleen Aylward is the president of Devon James Associates, a top executive recruiting firm. Her startup clients have included such industry pioneers as Amazon, Visio, Spry/Compuserve, Xylo, Quintessent Communications, Rhapsody Networks, Avenue A, Cranium, InfoSpace, and many others who have depended on her onsite recruiting “war room” approach to kick-start their revenue machines. She holds a BA in Business Administration from the University of Washington. (www.devonjames.com)
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Protect Your Customer Base: 3 Strategies for Retaining Your Most Profitable Accounts By Michael Leimbach, Ph.D
Continued on Page 24
Strategy 1. Assess Your PortfolioTo strengthen ties with your best customers, start by making sure you know who those customers are. Analyze the type and quality of business delivered by each account, and assess the cost of sales compared to revenues. Are some customers using resources that could be better spent on securing more profitable relationships? Are there customers with the potential to provide more business? And what is the status of your relationship with your loyal customers who offer a steady flow of good opportunities? Are they getting the attention and level of service they expect and deserve?When it comes to the less-productive accounts, sales leaders are sometimes surprised to discover how much it costs to keep customers who are not consistently providing good sales opportunities. Often these same customers demand value-added services they don’t want to pay for. The resources spent to keep these accounts might be better applied to building value for other customers. As you evaluate your better, more profitable accounts, look for those that were more productive in the past. These
Sellers as well as buyers are taking stock of priorities as the economy continues to show weakness across most industries. As a result, most sales organizations are pursuing new business—which often means taking advantage of competitors’ complacency or mistakes in providing service to customers. In the face of relentless competitive pressure, sales leaders are looking for smart answers to an urgent question: How can we protect our customer base from erosion as competition intensifies? While there are a variety of potential answers to this question, most fail to get to the crux of the problem: a lack of understanding of how customers want to buy, and a subsequent failure to apply the right resources in the right accounts to ensure protection from predatory competition. The following discussion offers three effective strategies for strengthening your relationships with your most profitable customers. The goal is to first free up resources that may be tied up in unproductive accounts. These resources can then be applied to create value for your best customers, which will make them resistant to even the most persuasive cost-cutting competitor.
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business. Consider cutting your ties or pulling back from these accounts, and re-allocate the resources to build stronger connections with genuinely profitable customers. Also look at renewing relationships with accounts that have potential for increased business. Strategy 2. Strengthen and Protect Current “Big R” RelationshipsAs you assess your current business, determine what type of relationship you currently have with each customer, and what kind of relationship you want. First, it’s important to keep in mind the difference between what could be called a “Big R” and “little r” relationship. We define “Big R” as long-term relationships with strong company-to-company connections. The best of these customers are loyal to your organization—for reasons to be reviewed in a moment—and provide a steady flow of good business. We define “little r” relationships as the networks of interpersonal connections sales reps must build with individual customers. These “little r” relationships—built on personal trust and confidence in the sales rep—are absolutely necessary, but not sufficient to protect a customer from predatory competitors. As every salesperson knows, individual contacts may change roles, leave the company, or otherwise become unavailable to influence buying decisions. (One study suggests that as many as 33% of employees change jobs each year. ) When the relationship between your two companies is strong, the loss of even a key contact is less likely to affect the customer’s commitment and ongoing sales.So one question to ask is: How many Big R relationships do you have among your productive accounts, and what are you doing to make sure these customers continue to do business with you? The advantage of having these customers in your mix of accounts is that price is usually secondary for them. Typically they are buying solutions from you that are more integrated into how they do business and for which they may lack expertise. Their concerns are with the kind of training and support you offer, your track record and stability, and your capability to grow with them. These factors create switching costs. This means it is not easy for these companies to change suppliers without incurring significant costs associated with re-training, disruption of their business, and other issues.To retain these Big R customers, you need to:• Provide high-quality support and service commensurate with the customer’s investment in your offering and the relationship.• Keep them well informed about your organization’s technology, business direction, and development of new capabilities and products.
may have the potential to provide more business again in the future. And look carefully for customers with whom you have a relationship, but where business may have fallen off due to benign neglect or a lack of adequate service. These should be viewed as “at risk.” With renewed focus and a greater investment of resources, some of these customer relationships could be the source of more revenues.
But how do you determine which customers are too costly, and which should be kept and strengthened? What is needed is an objective way to evaluate which customers are your real “keepers,” and which ones should perhaps be “fired.” Below are some questions you might want to ask to get a more systematic analysis of your account portfolio.Questions to Ask About Your Important Accounts• How do you know which accounts are the most profitable? You are probably tracking sales per customer, and know the sales and revenues you are gaining per account. But how recently have you compared the cost of sales for key customers? Do you know what you are spending in terms of time and other resources to gain those revenues? If you are tracking COS you may have this data, but many sales leaders say they have focused primarily on the top line and do not necessarily compare the COS to revenue per account. • Are you aware of which accounts are regularly providing good, winnable opportunities? As you review your customers, look closely at the quality and quantity of opportunities in each account. Ask these three questions:o Is there a consistent flow of real opportunities?o Do the opportunities tend to bring true value for both your organization and the customer?o Do you generally win the opportunities you identify, or are you competing for business at the cost of discounting and providing value-added services the customer doesn’t pay for?• Do any of your current customers have potential to deliver more sales?o Did any of your accounts previously provide more business?o Are there accounts that have been neglected or taken for granted?You may find that some of your long-time customers, even key accounts, are taking up resources such as technical advice, consulting, and other services they don’t pay for. And some of these customers are not yielding a comparable amount of good
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If you find that you have a lot of these types of accounts, make sure they are paying their way. If they are, make sure they are being well served and are completely satisfied with the relationship. Most salespeople can only manage a few of these accounts at best, as they do tend to require a lot of hand-holding and rightly expect quick responses to their questions, problems, or concerns. If they don’t receive the level of support they need, they may begin to question the wisdom of remaining locked into your solutions. This is why it is so critical to make sure you are not neglecting the needs of these customers, and that there are adequate resources available to keep the relationship strong and thriving. As long as you are demonstrating your understanding of what these customers need from your organization, your competitors are unlikely to make headway, even if they offer the lure of discounted prices.
Strategy 3. Build a Strong Track Record with Your Important Transaction CustomersThink of your Big R customers as buying in a Relationship style. Then think of another set of customers you have who do not buy from you all the time, but buy regularly on a repeat transaction basis—order by order. These customers can provide very good opportunities, and may even be the “bread and butter” accounts you count on for a regular stream of profitable business. Unlike your long-term Relationship customers, however, these Transaction customers typically avoid getting locked in to a given supplier. Their business model and the products they buy make it possible for them to “play the field” if they wish, as they are not going to incur much in the way of switching costs. These companies are less dependent on a supplier for support, expertise, or long-term mutual growth. They are most likely purchasing a solution or product that is viewed as a commodity and are more likely to be responsive to offers of price reductions. How do you ensure you don’t lose these Transaction customers to competitors? By providing them with what they care about the most:1. Price—These customers do care about getting a competitive price and are vulnerable to cost cutters. 2. Conformance to specifications—They may have quality specifications and other requirements they expect to be met; it’s important to make sure they receive exactly what they need, every time.3. Delivery—How and when do your Transaction customers need and expect delivery? If you can be faster than your competitors or more able to deliver at certain locations at certain times, you will have a competitive advantage with these customers.4. Availability—Transaction customers need to know they can rely on you to have what they
need, when they need it. A supplier who runs out of stock or asks the customer to wait to receive the materials or products they need may not get another chance to fulfill an order.So these Transaction customers have the advantage of being low maintenance and lower cost in terms of demands on your sales resources. At the same time, it is critical to pay attention to hitting their targets every time with quality and consistency. They need to feel you are providing them with a fair competitive price, a product or service that consistently meets their specifications, and delivery and availability that fulfill their expectations—without exception. Since they do have choices and it costs them little to switch from one supplier to another, it is imperative to be responsive to the concerns of these customers. If they are completely satisfied, they are far more likely to continue to give their business to you, rather than to a competitor.With competitive pressures to contend with and finite resources, your best strategy is to focus the time and energy of your salespeople on building strong and lasting relationships with your most valued customers. Taking customers for granted is the enemy of retention. Make sure you know what kind of relationship you have with each account, and that your sales reps are aware of their customers’ expectations based on those relationships. Keep abreast of any changes in the customer’s business model and buying preferences. That will ensure you are providing Big R customers what they need from your company, while meeting the very different needs of good Transaction customers as well. If each customer feels you are providing not only valuable solutions, but selling to them the way they want to buy, your relationship with them will be a strong barrier to competitor encroachment.About the Author:Michael Leimbach, Ph.D., is Vice President of Global Research and Design for Wilson Learning Worldwide. With over 25 years in the field, Dr. Leimbach provides leadership for researching and designing Wilson Learning’s diagnostic, learning, and performance improvement capabilities. Dr. Leimbach has managed major research studies in sales, leadership, and organizational effectiveness, and has developed Wilson Learning’s impact evaluation capability and return on investment models. Dr. Leimbach has served as a research consultant for a wide variety of global client organizations, is on the editorial board for the ADHR professional journal, and serves in a leadership role for the ISO technical committee TC232: Standards for Learning Service Providers. Dr. Leimbach has co-authored four books, has published numerous professional articles, and is a frequent speaker at national and global conferences.
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SMEI Honolu Receives Chairman’s Gold & SMEI Raymond Bill Award
SMEI Akron Receives Chairman’s Gold Award
SMEI Vancouver ReceivesChairman’s Gold Award
SMEI Minnesota ReceivesChairman’s Gold Award
2011 Sales & Marketing ConferenceAwards & Recogntion
Ritz-Carlton ResortSan Juan, Puerto Rico
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SMEI Hampton Roads ReceivesChairman’s Silver Award
SMEI Past Chairman Award Received by Nathalie Roemer CME on behalf
of Jeffery Jackson CME CSE
SME Puerto Rico Recognized as2012 SMEI Conference Host
SME Puerto Rico President Carlos Marche CME CSE Opens Conference
Ritz-Carlton ResortSan Juan, Puerto Rico
2011 Sales & Marketing ConferenceAwards & Recogntion
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2011Pinnacle Awards
Ceremony
Angélica Fuentes TéllezAngélica Fuentes Téllez is one of the
most influential women in Mexico and Latin America due to her proven track
record as a businesswoman, her influence in development of public policies, and her philanthropic commitment with the community, women from Latin America
and the arts.
Jeffrey Hayzlett, CME CSEJeffrey Hayzlett is a global business celebrity and former Fortune 100
c-suite executive. From small business to international corporations, he has put his creativity and extraordinary
entrepreneurial skills into play, launching ventures blending his leadership
perspectives, insights into professional development, mass marketing prowess
and affinity for social media.
The SMEI Academy of Achievement was established in 1990 to recognize notable lifetime contributions to the free enterprise system through personal and corporate success in sales and marketing. It is SMEI’s Hall of Fame. Each year, individuals who have made a substantial contribution are recognized as Arbucle Fellows. Right Photo: The 2011 Arbuckle Fellow awards were presented, l to r - Jeffery Jackson, CME CSE (presenting) Clinton Schroeder, CME CSE; Lisa Dennis, Jeff Fawcett & Willis Turner CAE CSE (presenting).
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