Marketing Clique

"Open plan" offices look cool. As the name implies, they're open, airy, and have a free, creative, Web 2.0 feeling to them. You've seen them. Or, perhaps, you work in one - everyone is sitting in the same open room with everyone else, with no barriers between each other.

Some office environments need to encourage collaboration and instant interaction with colleagues. An air traffic control (ATC) center would be an example. But what is the implication of an open plan for the typical B2B office of 2010? Research from Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia found that the open plan is counterproductive for health service managers, but I think the study has farther-reaching implications:

In an era of changing workplace reforms, health service managers are embracing innovative work place designs, such as open plan work environments, where employees may have more flexibility. Managers are constantly seeking different ways of transforming their workplace so that their corporate culture and image can be improved. On the one hand, they must respond to corporate pressures to reduce the costs of building facilities and on the other hand they are indirectly introducing different types of issues that affect their employees. Method: A review of the literature was conducted by examining textbooks and journal articles in relation to the various issues that affect employees in an open plan work environment. Results: Research evidence shows that employees face a multitude of problems such as the loss of privacy, loss of identity, low work productivity, various health issues, overstimulation and low job satisfaction when working in an open plan work environment. Conclusion: Managers need to have a better understanding of open plan work environments before embracing such workplace designs. A multidisciplinary approach is recommended when decisions are being made in relation to which type of environment is better suited to the requirements of their employees as this has an impact on workforce productivity and job satisfaction.

>> download study - 867KB PDF

A few years ago I was exposed to my first open office environment. It was at an IT research and consulting firm. I remember that it felt awkward, at first, and then I became accustomed to the noise, lack of privacy, and constant interruptions. The office was equipped with meeting rooms along the outsides of the open plan office space. The idea was that anyone could duck into one of these rooms if they needed peace and quiet.

A colleague and I questioned the validity of the open office plan at that company. We knew that it was counterproductive to our focused effort at making a high volume of focused sales calls, managing conference calls with executives and analysts, and so forth. We'd frequently have to use the side rooms, but then we weren't at our own phone extension, had to carry our laptop with us, and make sure we weren't in a scheduled room. Intuitively we knew that the open plan wasn't the most productive, and both of us had seen research that validated our concern.

What this means for sales and marketing

Even though it's tempting to create a "bull pen" for sales and watch them jump like monkeys to try and make sales, it might not be working in your favor, especially if your product is B2B-focused, and more strategic. If you're hosting a PBS fund raising drive, perhaps that's a different story.

And the marketing folks need peace and quiet too. Although sales and marketing are converging, they don't need to be right on top of each other. If you are redoing your office workplace environment, consider consulting with an efficiency expert who is certified in workplace productivity design. Sometimes business ideas that seem chic and hip are not as practical as we would hope.

More Research

My blog post is based on my opinion, with some supporting research. To be fair, there is additional research that supports the open office plan, and varying degrees thereof. One great source for office workplace design research is Knoll's Whitepapers and Topic Briefs web page. Knoll is a workplace furnishings design company. Check out Open Plan and Enclosed Private Offices by Dr. Mike O'Neill. It's a superb source of information and cites additional research on the subject.

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I was talking about this with a friend. What's the fundamental difference between:

• Company A: Developed what they suspect is a niche product that will hopefully be in high demand once people realize how cool it is. They've developed the product, now they're in search of, and need to get smart on, the market for which they developed the product. Sometimes this happens when an organization is overly focused on engineering, instead of sales.
• Company B: Had special knowledge of demand for a product within a niche market. The product was developed based on known demand.

It's common sense knowledge that Company B enjoys a distinct advantage over Company A, from a business model perspective. Company B scores even higher if it has any sort of "unfair" advantage in the market. The ideal scenario for Company B also involves Company B's ability to compete in a market where there are high barriers to entry.

I've distilled companies down into these two fundamental categories because most of us, realistically, operate in what amounts to a hybrid of these two domains. For example, we may have special knowledge of an industry segment, but we're competing in a market where there are relatively low barriers to entry.

Company B's advantage transcends basic market demand and product development dynamics. It extends into its core sales and marketing approach. Company B's product development is more in consort with the psychology of sales. Sales 101 dictates that the salesperson who understands a business' needs before trying to position a product is in a superior position than the salesperson who simply talks about how wonderful their product is.  While they may have a viable product they're assuming there's demand without first positively hearing it from the buyer.

Company A (product in search of a market) is typically stuck in a reactive sales environment. They put themselves out there and pray that they get sales. Conversely, Company B can be more proactive. Company B knows right where the demand is and can go after it.

The good news is that interactive marketing can support the sales and marketing efforts of both Company A and Company B. The key is to assemble a marketing strategy that is true to your company type, aligning appropriate tactics.

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Today, as I write this, it's Friday. Friday is a special day for salespeople.

Friday is when buyers tend to commit to orders and sign on the dotted line. That's not malarkey. It's what many salespeople experience.

But what are those mysterious decision-makers doing the rest of the week? Here's my best guess, which is where the malarkey weaves its way in (all for fun):

• Monday: Decision-makers are swamped with hundreds of emails, internal meetings, and next to no deals close.
• Tuesday: Decision-makers are meeting with your competition.
• Wednesday: Decision-makers are trying to generate business of their own, so they can pay you.
• Thursday: Decision-makers are working on their budget and trying to decide how they're going to spend their budget.
• Friday: Decision-makers are signing contracts and committing to spending money with you!

I hope you have a great weekend. If you're a decision-maker, know that you're making some salesperson happy when you sign the order and send it over. If you're a salesperson, I hope you close some business this afternoon. Smile when the telephone rings!

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Yes, we're all are using social media to disseminate increasing amounts of information. According to a recent Marketing Sherpa study, 78% of companies are participating on company-branded social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) and more than 50% of us are also sharing multimedia content, blogging, and using Twitter.

An evergreen leg of driving visits to all of these wonderful social outposts is still email...

Remember, email was the birthplace of the share this phenomena that has become a cornerstone of social media (It's so easy to simply forward an email to a person, or a group of people - for better, or worse). While social media is very effective in sharing information with many people, simultaneously, email is still able to deliver with a high amount of personalization, automation, and effectiveness. Modern email reporting is detailed and provides helpful quantitative insights on how our customers and prospects are interacting with our communications.

Keep using email in your marketing mix. Use it to drive interaction with your other marketing initiatives, especially social media and offline "real world" events. And ask yourself these questions:

• Does your email have a clear call to action?
• Are you making it easy to share nuggets of information in your email on social channels?
• Is your email personalized?
• Is email part of your B2B mobile marketing plan?
• Are you A/B testing different types of emails to different customer/prospect segments?
• Are you steering clear of common email campaign SNAFUs?

My opinion is that email marketing can be an especially important link for driving highly qualified, relevant traffic to your B2B social media marketing channels. Good luck, and please share some of your experiences.

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Our customers and prospects are everywhere. The trouble is they're not all in the same place at the same time. That's why we need to meet them where they're at.

Good salespeople have traditionally been adept at meeting their prospects and customers face to face. Today, with the increased adoption of technology to increase the efficiency of marketing it's become common that neither salespeople nor marketers will see their prospects during the entire nurturing process. Once the prospect signs on as a paying customer, sure probably. But during the six-month sales process? Maybe not.

While lead nurturing software, like Marketo and Eloqua, allows marketers to manage a much higher volume of prospects, there's still a strong reliance on email as the central vein of outbound communication. Logic paths are carefully planned so certain emails are sent to certain people at certain times, all based on certain prospect/client activities or inactivity.

My question is, will email continue to prevail as the preferred method of communication? Moreover has email already fallen by the wayside as the best way to nurture all prospects and clients?

Don't get me wrong. Email marketing is generally effective, especially when customers and prospects have opted in and indicated it's their preferred method of contact. But relying solely on email to nurture prospects and customers may be inadequate, especially with the growing acceptance of other communication forms: SMS/text, Facebook, Twitter. And don't forget about the old school methods that many people still hold onto: face-to-face meetings, phone calls, and even snail mail! By the way, if you must send snail mail, use FedEx. It's still better at getting someone's attention. People will almost always open a FedEx overnight envelope.

The take away

Try not to accept technology for technology's sake. If you can use technology to become more efficient in some areas of marketing and sales that's great. But one software solution isn't going to take care of everything.

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Social media may be free, but it can be costly when you begin adding up the time and resources required to do it right. Even though you don't have to pull out a credit card to create a Facebook Fan Page, Twitter Account, LinkedIn Business Profile, or even a YouTube Channel, you need to also consider:

1. The amount of time required to properly plan and develop a social media strategy that supports your business goals.
2. Whether you have someone on staff who is willing and able to absorb the tactical wave of activities required to stay afloat with new social media commitments.
3. The opportunity cost of having this person (you?) working on social media as opposed to your core business. Can you calculate the ROI?
4. The cost of producing special, quality content for YouTube.

My message is simple. Don't let the "free" sign up fool you. Signing up is only the tip of the iceberg. That said, social media can definitely be worth the investment of time and resources. So try and figure out a way to fit it into your already-busy schedule. Here are some tips...

What to do?

• Identify which social media outlets complement your existing business plan. Do those, and hold back on the other ones. Better to do a few well rather than spread yourself too thin.
• Mark Hurst, Good Experience, recommends this: One social media tip: first build a good experience. I couldn't agree more.
• Create a social media "calendar" and decide on a manageable schema you can follow. For example, you may decide to Tweet 2 times per day, post something on the Facebook Fan Page once per day, blog once per week, and send an email to your subscribers once per month.
• Depending on your company's size, you may be able to solicit help from other parts of your organization. Recruiting contributors from various departments can add to the interest and diversity of your company's social media campaign.
• Draft a social media roadmap to help guide your team's efforts.
• Agree on how to measure success. Analytics will reveal quantitative information, but success in social media has to be measured qualitatively as well.

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When it comes to starting or expanding an on online marketing campaign companies of all sizes and sophistication levels are arguably all in the same boat. The basic blocking and tackling of online marketing, including social media, is a common denominator. Fortune 500 companies are jumping through many of the same firey hoops as a small business.

Also, there are some fundamental mistakes that both large and small companies make.

1. It's easy to think it's easy. Companies of all sizes tend to underestimate the amount of work that needs to go into an online marketing campaign. It involves input from many parts of the organization: sales, marketing, executive team, customer support, IT, graphic design, strategic business partners, and the list goes on.

2. Social media is free. Nothing could be farther from the truth, if you consider time and effort a "cost." It requires dedicated, significant time and effort required to successfully pull off a cogent social media campaign.

3. SEO (organic search engine marketing) is free. Uh, no. Again, the amount of sophisticated strategic planning, and continued thoughtful execution requires exhaustive efforts. Although SEO is well worth the work, it's certainly not free. It's critically important to be found by the right person at the right time.

4. PPC (pay per click) search marketing only costs when someone clicks on an ad. Here's another example of an online marketing activity that has low barriers to entry and has significant time and effort involved. Since the playing field has been leveled it means that you, as a marketer, need to do more to rise above the competition. PPC is often considered a tactical online marketing activity, but the proper roadmap and construction of a good campaign can be strategic in nature. A solid PPC campaign requires a lot of activity to keep it strong, and it's worth it. A well executed PPC campaign can be extraordinarily well worth the time, effort, and monetary costs.

5. Most companies, large and small, are dragging their heels when it comes to planning for how to embrace mobile marketing. It's true, and we all acknowledge it... mobile marketing is gaining momentum, is going to be huge, and a relatively small number of marketers are truly giving it a lot of time and effort. While mobile marketing may still be relatively small, there's a lot of room for testing and getting creative around how to interact with customers and prospects.

Action Items

• Sales and marketing needs to buddy up and identify some specific online marketing activities that are valuable, but require more effort. There are undoubtedly areas that could use a facelift, or more focused effort.
• Instead of spreading yourself too thin, focus on just a few social media outlets. Pick a few and do them right. Find out where your core prospects and customers are hanging out and be there.
• Think of SEO as a long-term strategy, and PPC as a short-term tactic. PPC is a great way to uncover keyword themes and other search marketing nuggets that will help your organic (SEO) efforts.
• Start testing some mobile marketing!

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I recently listened to a presentation by a marketing executive from a very visible, ostensibly easy-to-reach company. At the end of her PowerPoint presentation there was the quintessential how to contact me slide. Her presentation was fine, up until then. She looked up at her how to contact me slide on the presentation screen and began gloating that she's hard to reach; that she doesn't answer phone calls; travels a lot, and receives such an extreme volume of email that if she doesn't recognize the sender she's unlikely to respond.

The response from many in the audience was a nervous grin and a knowing nod, as if they too were so damn busy they didn't have time to communicate either. My reaction, however, was a gagging in my throat, and I think a few others felt the same.

Given the convergence of sales and marketing, I think it's incredibly important to meet customers where they're at. If a client or prospect "reaches out to you," it's a good thing to respond. In other words, they're not going to respect the idea that you're so busy that you don't have time.

The same goes internally. If you're a big, important executive who has an army of people who report to you, take the time to connect with your tribe. It's good for everyone. Employees are an important variable in the success quotient. Umm, they're human.

The convergence of sales and marketing means that marketing has to be more accessible

The lines are blurring. The roles are converging. Times are different in the B2B lead generation world. Be accessible. I'm not suggesting that you be available 24/7. But if you supposedly make yourself available via telephone, email, IM, then be prepared to use those tools when people are trying to contact you.

The CEO of a very well-known company I used to work for once explained to me:

"Greg, I always answer my phone and respond to emails. Why? Not because I know who everyone is. Quite the opposite—because I don't know who everyone is. It could be someone who helps me and my business. Quite often it is. I'm still in control. If I'm through with the telephone conversation I let the person know. Likewise, I'll tell the person via email what to expect as a next step, and sometimes it's 'don't bother following up with me any further.'"

I can tell you, first-hand, that he held true to his communication ideals. He responded to all direct communications. We were in a taxi together, after hours, and his cell phone (a number he provided on his business card!) rang. He didn't know who it was, didn't recognize the number. It turned out to be a reporter from the Wall Street Journal. She was on deadline, needed to crank out an article within the hour, and wanted a quote from my boss. He gave her a snappy quote. It appeared in the WSJ the following day, was read by many thousands of businesspeople and furthered my boss' position (and our company's) as an authority in the marketplace.

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It's somewhat of a surprise, but marketing and sales still rely heavily on paper-based collateral. The reality is that businesspeople of all generations will still hold onto and study something that's printed on paper.

Given the evergreen approach of using paper in your marketing and sales efforts, put your best foot forward:

Business Cards - A crisp, professionally-design business card still makes a favorable impression. Some of what happens is subconscious: people get an impression of your company's quality and style. A thin, flimsy card may give the wrong impression.

Marketing & Sales Collateral - B2B sales collateral has changed. Partly because of a growing trend to becoming more open, authentic, and transparent, there is a willingness to share information that builds trust with buyers. Sellers add value by providing helpful information that benefits the buyers, regardless of whether they buy. For example, marketing automation SaaS company, Marketo, offers a formidable resources page on their website. Marketo's Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing is an exceptionally well designed [paper] guide that adds value to any marketer who's trying to figure out lead nurturing.

• If you're going to hand out whitepapers, or other paper marketing collateral at a conference or trade show, make sure they're quality. Yes, most people will throw them away before they leave. But you've got a chance to make an impression. What kind of impression do you want to make?

Proposals - Once you are ready to propose, it's a good practice to provide a paper-based proposal for your prospect. Ideally, the proposal will be something you can present to the prospect in person. These days it's becoming increasingly common for proposals to be delivered as attachments to emails. But if you get a chance to deliver a beautiful full color paper proposal, do it.

Hand-written Thank-you Notes - Diana Huff recently wrote about 7 Old Fashioned Marketing Tips That Set You Apart. She reminds us that the hand-written thank-you note is a welcome differentiator in today's digital world. I couldn't agree more. Sending your client a hand-written not on quality stationery makes a statement about you and your business. Show your clients and prospects that you have some class and care about their business, personally. It's okay to be personally grateful in a professional relationship.

Training & Instruction Guides - If your product or service requires training, there's another opportunity to show off your brand and create a favorable marketing impression. Training collateral is all-too-often overlooked as a branding and marketing opportunity. Take the time to ensure your training materials are presented in a way that allows your company's product or service to be presented optimally.

Can you think of any other paper-based opportunities for your company to step it up? Let me know if you have an example, positive, or negative, that illustrates the importance of paper-based collateral in today's digital world.

Thanks for reading this digital post. If we end up doing business together maybe I'll send you a hand-written note!

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Marketing and sales is the life engine of most B2B and B2C companies. This increased reliance on marketing and sales working together – to coordinate and design effective revenue generation plans together – is both strategic and tactical. But given the cost of turnover at an estimated 150% of an employee's total compensation package, and the average sales and marketing tenure of less than 2 years, why do companies continue to fall short with the most important element of their company?

I don't claim to have all of the answers, but I can offer three ways to help:

1. Make your company more cult-like. No, I'm not joking. When marketing and salespeople feel that their company has purpose, and that they're part of it, they begin operating from an intrinsic standpoint. They will contribute more to the company's overall success, both externally and internally.

Purpose drives employee engagement, which is intuitive -- people feel great about working for a company that is making a difference in the world. My view is that brands that are not driven by purpose will have a tougher time acquiring talent, especially as globalization and the influx of younger workers shape the composition of our employee base.
—Erin Mulligan Nelson, June 2010 AdAge article

2. Realize that sales and marketing are melding. When you need marketing at a meeting, invite sales. When you need sales at a meeting, invite marketing. The two work together. If you encourage the two groups to work more closely it will help the bottom line, and esprit de corps.

3. Encourage an open organization. Companies that operate with more open principles can benefit. Marketing and salespeople will gleen the benefits of an open organization. Want to know if your organization is truly open? Take a look at this Openness Audit from Charlene Li's new book Open Leadership:

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