They Call Me The Call Blitz Queen

May 23, 2013 Leave a comment

Call BlitzThey call me the call blitz queen. More accurately, some of my clients call me the call blitz queen. My husband calls me Honey, and my friends call me Samantha, or occasionally Mantha. But I digress! Call Blitz Queen is a crown I wear proudly.

What’s a call blitz you ask?

A call blitz is a focused full day of calling on prospects and/or customers as part of a sales program.  It has a specific offer, targeted list and short-term goal(s). It differs from any other day in a call center/sales office by its intensity and focus.

Be a momentum trigger

Why do a call blitz? There is a lot of science to selling. But there is just as much emotion. Call blitz campaigns are about stirring up emotion, taking an ordinary week and making it extraordinary. It should be viewed as a momentum trigger.

The six ingredient recipe for a full-proof call blitz

  1. Instant gratification – Sales people are human beings which means they are motivated by games. In order to create intensity you need to create incentives that are tangible and achievable on the same day. For complex products perhaps you measure new names added to the database, client referrals you secured, demonstrations booked, or quotes distributed. Make sure your prizes are visually in front of the team, and there are multiple ways to win throughout the day. If you only have one or two “master” prizes energy will ebb and flow throughout the day. Set first, most, best and team goals with prizes that scale in value accordingly. And don’t forget money is always appreciated but not a good call blitz incentive. Instead give out tickets to a big game, look for unusual experiences like a luxury car rental or gift certificate to a hot restaurant. Good sales people can buy what they want but they love the thrill of the hunt.
  2. Compelling offer – It’s not enough for your sales team to have a good reason (aka prizes) for achieving above normal goals. You must give them an offer that clients will find compelling. Special pricing, new product introductions and bundles work well.
  3. The right list – You can build the most effective offer and put great prizes in front of sales and still fail. Call blitz campaigns only work when you have a targeted, warm list of prospects to call.
  4. Shake up the environment – A call blitz day should not feel like any other day. Shake up teams, set out lunch and breakfast, bring in an afternoon ice cream treat! Skip the bagels and pizza and focus on high protein/energy foods that are going to boost energy. Visually track performance and make some noise. One client even had everyone dress up – Halloween in May, why not?
  5. Teamwork – Individual incentives drive activity, but you also want to evoke team work. Give both team & individual prizes to keep the energy high and the spirit of cooperation in full swing. Eat breakfast and lunch together. Kick off with a bang in the morning. And re-energize post-lunch with a surprise contest or two.
  6. Cheerleader/Executive sponsor – Just like any good performance you need a facilitator to keep energy up, congratulate the success and coax non-performers to play the game. It’s most effective if the facilitator is not the sales manager. While they play a role, call blitz efforts work best when the reps feel pressure to perform above normal.

Exclamation 3d markAlert: Pitfalls Ahead  

Call blitz campaigns can be incredibly effective, but there are common mistakes you must avoid to optimize their value.

  • There is too much of a good thing – Call blitz campaigns work because of their intensity and focus. They are great ways to kick off momentum around a new theme or offer. The biggest mistake organizations make is hosting call blitz’s too frequently. While there is no magic number of days required between call blitzes I generally find 8-10 week breaks are optimal.
  • Go big or go home – If you don’t have all six ingredients for your call blitz don’t do one. The worst thing you can do is get everybody jazzed for a momentum trigger than it feel like any other day. Call blitz are emotional stimulants you must hit all the hot spots to be effective.
  • Avoid setting the wrong goals – Call blitz campaigns work when you set aggressive but achievable goals. If no one believes they can meet the goals no one will try.  Another common mistake is setting long-term goals as a way to measure and reward participants. Without instant gratification, call blitz efforts fall flat.

Happy calling!

Filed under Marketing Best Practices, Sales Enablement

Thank You Mom

May 12, 2013 5 Comments

My Mom cuddling with one of her grandsons

My Mom cuddling with one of her grandsons

I’m a lucky woman. I have four amazing children who are both brilliant and infuriating – often in the same day. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

How did I get here?

When I look at my own parenting – full of giggles, cuddle time, dinner conversations, over-reactions, scraped knees, tears and too many stains to count I’m in a bit of awe. How did I go from the three-year old girl who would hide in the closet anytime someone dared to say hello, to the woman I am today? How is it I’m able to look past all the what-ifs that plague mothers and focus on what’s next?

I keep coming down to one simple truth – I have no idea! But I do know something very important shaped who I am today as a mother, daughter, wife, marketer, speaker, facilitator and friend. My mother. She did something extremely important and that was to expose me to all kinds of ideas and strong role models.

Growing up I knew very clearly how my mom felt about too short skirts and dedication to my school work.  I yearned for her affection even when I pushed it away. We had the luxury of visiting exotic sites and historic marvels across much of Africa, Europe and Asia.   But it’s not the buildings I remember, or the hours and hours of flights. It’s the laughter we shared when we couldn’t eat a never-ending bowl of noodles with chopsticks. Or the “study cocoa” mom made when I had a big exam – even when it was 90 degrees out!  Most of all I remember the appreciation my mom had for woman of all backgrounds.

My mom made sure I was always surrounded by woman of all ages who had passions different from her own. I learned from my mom what it meant to be a friend; how to appreciate the good in others, even when it was hard to find. Most of all I learned from my mom that to BE was to be part of a community. You could either embrace that community with enthusiasm – or you could wither away, and withering was not in Mom’s vocabulary.

If the water was out we showered in the rain. If there was no Girl Scout troop in our country she would make one. An important part of my community was always my mom, but also the amazing women she encircled around me. Whether it was my great-aunt who I might go months or years without seeing, or family friends who celebrated Thanksgiving with us on the beach, there was always someone to admire and to learn from.

In the most direct way my mom shaped who I am today. It wasn’t just who she was that mattered, it was watching her cherish all the other strong women in our lives that had the most impact.

Thank you Mom.

 

Filed under Just For Fun

The Six Tenants of Experience Design

May 10, 2013 Leave a comment

Design Is about experienceI had the great pleasure of hearing Don Norman talk about the tenants of good design at a recent conference.  Visually, Don is not particularly remarkable. He wore, almost a cliché, all black. He quietly approached the podium and somewhat humbly began his talk.His slides were mostly text.  A passerby looking in on the session would likely keep on going. But behind the modest persona are ideas that inspire and light up the idea of design. Just like the lessons Don teaches us design is not simply about visual appeal, it is about creating an EXPERIENCE. The experience Don took us through was inviting and full of practical advice. He was funny. He was memorable. He was so much more than a graying professional in all black who had trouble getting his slides to advance.

He taught us the six tenants of experience design:

  1. Understandable
  2. Pleasurable
  3. Self-explanatory
  4. Discoverable
  5. Interruption-proof
  6. Don’t give error messages, offer help

I found his talk a healthy reminder that looking good is not the goal. Making your audience FEEL good is the real accomplishment of good design, and good marketing in general.  There are few products that excel at all six of the tenants he describes but if you look around you’ll see many of them at play in unexpected places.

Take interruption-proof for example. I use Word Press to publish this blog. I start writing, get distracted by a phone call, the dog barking or my bladder yelling loudly to please take a break. You know what, when I come back the page is exactly as I left it because Word Press auto-saved as I wrote. It is a small feature that I pretty much ignore, but boy does it make my experience better.

The next time you are tasked with bringing a new solution to market remember to test against all six of these ideas. Give control to your would-be user and let them discover what works. Do they smile as they uncover unique new tips? Are they frustrated at having to search for how to execute a command? When something goes wrong do they know how to fix it? Or do error-messages leave them wanting more?

At the end of the day we don’t build products, we build experiences. Here’s to making them amazing!

Filed under Brand Building, Marketing Best Practices, Product Management Tagged with ,

Four Vows You Owe Your Database

April 26, 2013 Leave a comment

Hidden Treasures

Hidden Treasures

There are few things in marketing that can make an almost immediate and huge impact on direct marketing success. Cleaning your database is one of them. There are hidden treasures in your database lost behind bad email addresses, faulty phone numbers and misunderstood interests.

According to a 2013 Data Quality Benchmark Report produced by NetProspex more than half of all US organizations work with bad quality data.  That’s a whole lot of unopened emails, returned direct mailers and frustrated sales calls.

Take a look at the picture to your left. If you look quickly. What do you see? Probably some cliffs, snow, maybe a tree or two. After a little observation you may notice that some of the cliff seems to have unnatural shapes. Our database is very much the same. On the surface we can easily see where blank information resides, track hard email bounces and notice when area codes don’t match the known contact’s location. Look a little more carefully and you’ll see that the unnatural shapes are in fact ancient cliff dwellings. But unless you spend the time to focus on the image you’d never get the pleasure of experiencing that unexpected treat.

Our databases are the same. They need care, attention and a whole lot of marketing love or we’ll miss the opportunity to delight our buyers.  This seems so obvious, so why are so many companies working with lack luster databases? Because maintaining good quality databases is hard.  In order to put your best foot forward you have to commit to the following:

#1 I shall regularly delete junk – Say it with me, its OK to delete data. No one likes to take names out of the database but if that contact hasn’t responded to a single piece of content in the last 2 years, or the phone number is disconnected you may want to take a deep breath and let go! Take out those Mickey Mouse and Joe Smith at ABC company records. I promise, they aren’t real people with real interest or they would have given you a real name and address. Whatever criteria you build, just do it. Your response rates will go up and your energy can be focused on the people with true interest.

#2 I shall partner with the rest of the company to fill in the blanks – It’s great that someone visited the website and downloaded a few case studies. But what does the sales rep in the territory know about them? Do you know their physical location? Can you identify their industry? How large is their company? We create fields in our database for a reason – because they help us segment and align messages to buyer need. Don’t let them sit empty.

#3 I shall access data quality on a quarterly basis - Sadly most organizations do a big data quality push. Everything is in top order, they feel great. Then each week the quality degrades as people move, new data flows in, sales people make more phone calls. Data quality can NOT be one time or annual process. You should be looking at it monthly, but at least commit to quarterly assessments and corrective steps.

#4 I shall honor contact preferences - Legalities aside, this is the right thing to do. Don’t force unsubscribes by giving contacts only one choice – get our email on our terms or don’t get any at all. Give them choices, and honor their requests.

Keeping your database high quality is hard, but it IS worth it.

p.s. You may also enjoy reading this article that appeared in CMO.com which spotlights the 2013 data quality benchmark report and offers some tips for getting started by myself and two other marketing leaders.

Filed under Marketing Best Practices, Sales Enablement Tagged with

I Am Also Grateful

April 16, 2013 10 Comments

In the aftermath of the Boston marathon bombings I am angry. I am sad. And I am scared. These are the feelings those who attacked want me to feel.  And as much as I’d like to deny them the satisfaction of tapping into our vulnerabilities, I cannot.

I am all of those things – angry, sad and scared, but I am also grateful.

  • I am grateful for the heroes, in and out of uniform, who risked safety to help those who were injured and scared.
  • I am grateful for the medical expertise which saved limbs and lives.
  • I am grateful for the technology that let us connect quickly across the city, across the state and across the world to bind our community together.
  • I am grateful for the disaster plans we had in place to secure our environment.
  • I am grateful for all those runners who may not have crossed the finish line, but who survived.
  • I am grateful for the American flags I see lining the streets this morning. Today we are not democrats or republicans. We are not Muslims, Christians or Jews  –  we are Bostonians and we stand together.
  • I am grateful for the Patriots Day memories of the morning where we laughed together side by side celebrating our heroes past and present.
  • I am grateful for the messages, prayers and support of friends, family and acquaintances near and far who have reached out.

So yes. I am angry. I am scared. And I am sad. But I am also strong, grateful and proud. The attackers can’t take away my ability to choose and I choose to feed these feelings.

With this choice I take away any victory the attackers could celebrate because being cherished, being strong and being proud outweigh anger and fear any day, any where.

 

 

Filed under Leadership

Are You A Sociologist?

April 8, 2013 Leave a comment

While at a client’s party someone asked if I had a background in psychology  or sociology. I too quickly said no. I explained that while I had been a peer counselor and minored in ‘formal organizations’ in college, whatever that means, I had no sociology or psychology education.

But on reflection I should have answered very differently. I should have said yes, I am a student of behavioral sciences every day. As a marketer I am constantly looking at buyer motivators, seeking to empathize with their fears and pain. I get thrilled matching their challenge to pain relief my clients can offer.

As a marketer we strive to educate, motivate and create urgency every day. We do it by evoking emotion. In fact every marketer should think of themselves as a student of human behavior. It’s a responsibility we can’t take in stride. And for me, the studying is never done. We get it wrong, sometimes many times, before we get it right. And each product, each buyer is different.

  • We use consoling techniques to learn. Asking questions like – how many users do you have? What is your measurement system? Which of these features is more important to you? What appeals to you about that ad over this one?
  • We listen to signals. What pages on our website did they visit? Where did they abandon their shopping cart? What button did they press? Did they like us on Facebook? Have they tweeted about our solution?
  • We analyze our buyer profile to find others who have similar characteristics.
  • We nurture our clients emotional well-being. Are they happy with support? Do they know how to use the product they purchased? How can I make them loyal?
  • We strive for long-term relationships with our clients; to encourage them to refer us to their peers. After all the cost to acquire them is the same whether they stay with us for 6 months or 6 years.

With all of this considered if I’m asked again about my background in psychology or sociology. I’m going to say “Yes. I study humans each and every day from the point of view of a marketer and leader. And so do you. Why do you ask?”

 

Filed under Just For Fun, Marketing Best Practices, Social Marketing Tagged with , ,

Make Today’s Browser Tomorrow’s Buyer

March 29, 2013 Leave a comment

"You're Not Welcome" - Is that really the brand message they wanted to portray?

“You’re Not Welcome” – Is that really the brand message they wanted to portray?

I was walking through a local mall yesterday when a piece of paper attached to the glass door at the AT&T store caught my attention.  It read “Please Do Not Use This Store As A Hallway”. They might as well have said “You Are Not Welcome”!

Let me explain the genesis of the sign. The store has a door at the front which leads to the interior of the mall, and one in the back that leads directly to the parking lot. While I can understand employees at that location want to focus on buying customers, I took a peek inside at the three lonely store clerks serving no one and wondered wouldn’t they like some foot traffic even if it was only a passer-by?

What if instead of turning away would be future buyers they embraced the hallway traffic? Here are a few ways AT&T could to leverage their location and make some new customers in the process.

  • Make passing through fun - Play up that the store is a hallway. Make a clever sign inviting people to ring the “AT&T bell” as they pass through. Keep visitors coming back for more by every so often giving out a prize to the bell-ringer. Special bonus: The sound might just stir up some new visitors passing by in the hallway. You might even get the occasional Facebook or Twitter mention.
  • Pass out coupons - Shoppers may only want to pass through today but you can give them a reason to come back.
  • Collect market data - Why not ask visitors to fill out a short survey and give you their email address in exchange for entering a contest? A free meal at one of the mall restaurants, or AT&T goods might just be enough incentive to build your mailing list and learn a thing or two about the local buyer.
  • Hand out AT&T store branded loot - Balloons and shopping bags are great inexpensive items that will be carried throughout the mall. Why not invite your passerby to advertise for you?

Here’s to making today’s passerby tomorrows buyer!

Filed under Brand Building, Just For Fun, Marketing Best Practices

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