A story of two coaches

November 16, 2009 By David Crankshaw

Olympic players

Two high school water polo coaches take new jobs at similar high schools in Southern California. Both have similar levels of experience. But their stories are very different.

The first coach waits to see who tries out each year. He builds a team around this group. He’s a good coach, but the team’s record varies from year to year depending who goes out for the team.

The second coach is constantly on the lookout at his school for potential players. He looks for tall students – basketball players, volleyball players. He talks to members of the swim team about his sport. He starts a club for high school players to train and scrimmage in the off-season. This coach starts another club for middle school students so they can get excited about the sport and (he hopes) play in high school. He gets together with other club coaches and schedules informal tournaments.

The second coach can see who his team will be in two, three and four years. He can plan ahead and groom players for positions. His team’s record is more steady because he has cultivated a flow of players for his varsity team.

Marketing and Sales faces a similar choice. It can look for people who are ready for its products and services and help them become a customer.

Or it can cultivate the market. Identify the profile of companies who would be good customers. Search them out and make an introduction. Educate these companies about the problem you solve and answer their questions. Help them move from stage to stage in their journey.

Companies that work in this way will have an experience similar to the second coach. Not only will their record for customer acquisition improve, they’ll have more predictability and control over their results.

Filed Under: Marketing Strategy Tagged With:

Houston, we have a problem

November 9, 2009 By David Crankshaw

Apollo 13 command module after a successful return.

Apollo 13 command module after a successful return.

The flight controllers and support staff in Houston had a challenge that they had to meet. They were suddenly given a series of problems that must solved in a short amount of time. They had no time for task forces, meetings, or politics. Everyone was focused on bringing the lunar module containing Apollo 13 astronauts James Lovell, John Swigert, Fred Haise back to Earth safely.

Hours earlier, Apollo 13 had radioed with a serious message. On a routine stirring of the oxygen tanks, the number two oxygen tank in the Service Module had exploded.

The mission launched on April 11, 1970 at 13:13 CST. Two days later, while the mission was en route to the moon, a fault in the electrical system of one of the Service Module’s oxygen tanks produced an explosion which caused a loss of electrical power and failure of both oxygen tanks. The command module remained functional on its own batteries and oxygen tank, which were only designed to support the vehicle during the last hours of flight. The crew shut down the Command Module and used the Lunar Module as a “lifeboat” during the return trip to earth. Despite great hardship caused by limited power, loss of cabin heat, and a shortage of potable water, the crew returned safely to Earth, and the mission was termed a “successful failure.”

NASA was entirely focused on solving the problem of bringing the astronauts home safely. It was a problem they MUST solve.

Although it’s unlikely that your buyer will feel the problem you’d like to solve this acutely, this is what is meant by a troubling problem. When a problem is felt this strongly, there is no doubt that the pain of inaction exceeds the pain of action.

Filed Under: Content Marketing Tagged With:

It takes more than benefits to motivate a buyer

November 2, 2009 By David Crankshaw

Value EquationValue = Benefits – Cost.

It’s simple, right? If the benefits in your value proposition exceed the costs, then it’s logical that the buyer will become a customer.

But when it comes to motivating buyers to move forward in their buying cycle, the benefits in your value proposition are not the end of the story. They are the beginning.

Here are four factors that affect whether the buyer moves forward in the buying cycle. They are present at every stage of the buying cycle. Pay attention to these factors and you’ll accelerate the rate at which buyers take action.

Four factors that motivate buyers to move forward on their journey.

Four factors that motivate buyers to move forward on their journey.

Moving toward what the buyer values – Value is what the buyer wants. Creating value at every stage of the buyer’s journey is the North Star of Marketing and Sales. If you can create value at each stage, answering questions and solving problems, the buyer is more motivated to move forward.

Moving away from a troubling problem – No matter how much value you create for a business buyer, if the buyer does not perceive that there is a problem, your conversation will go nowhere.

Most businesses will buy only if there are negative consequences of not buying. If they believe that the pain of inaction is less than the pain of action, then they won’t act.

As Hugh Macfarlane points out:

In other words, what will it cost them to do nothing? The pain of action includes your price, implementation time and disruption. But what will it cost them if they don’t act – the “do nothing” option? If they believe that the pain of action is greater than the pain of inaction, they won’t act.

Buyers live in an interconnected web of problems, many of which they have simply learned to live with. Your job is to show how the problem that you know how to solve is the one that the buyers feel they MUST solve.

Reducing the friction of working with you – Reducing friction in your company is a factor that you have a lot of control over. Friction takes its form in the myriad of little things that your company does that make it more difficult for the buyer to do business with you. It starts at the beginning of the buyer’s journey, well before you are even aware of the buyer’s potential interest.

From making it easy to find information about the problem the buyer is trying to solve … to simplicity in your contracts and ordering process … it is a constant battle in your company to find these sources of friction for the buyer and to make the path more smooth.

Reducing the friction inside the buyer’s company – You have much less control over the friction inside the buyer’s company. In fact, as sellers we are often uninformed about the nature of the friction inside the buyer’s company. We proceed with our selling activities, not knowing that ahead of us is an obstacle in the trail that will prevent the sale from going forward. Even the buyer you are working with is likely to be unaware of many of these obstacles.

Organizations have a system and that they don’t like to change. The more you can minimize the amount of change the more likely the buyer will be motivated to proceed. The more you can find and address the obstacles to change, the better chance you have of engaging with the buyer.

Filed Under: Content Marketing Tagged With: ,