Category Archives: Marketing

“Buyers want a shortened sales cycle?” You’re not dreaming, but you do need sales enablement tools

A recent post at the IDC sales productivity blog cites proprietary research that revealed that IT buyers want to reduce their buying cycle length by 40%. If this doesn’t fall into the category of “nice problem to have,” it’s hard to imagine what would. But what is really interesting is what additional findings from the research revealed: the solution to the problem falls squarely in the crosshairs of sales enablement. When asked about the primary vendor cause of buying cycle delays, almost 50% of respondents cited the salesperson’s lack of understanding about their company and industry.

Salespeople should be busy selling, not doing industry and company research. Even if they had the time, most do not possess the research, analysis, and synthesis capabilities to do this work effectively. However, creating a market intelligence capability that is able to feed the sales force insights on prospects and industry trends would deliver the results desired by the buyers, would keep the sales people focused on developing the relationships, and would put market intelligence gathering in the hands of people who have the skill set to execute this most effectively. Similarly, the needs of the 15% of the buyers who cited a lack of preparation for meetings and poor follow-up could be addressed the sales enablement resources: meeting preparation and follow-up are precisely the issues presentation and email templates help to resolve.

This situation is a classic example of the cloud’s silver lining. The buyers are unhappy with the service being provided, but enduring their satisfaction is within the grasp of any company that is willing to invest in the tools the sales force needs to deliver what the buyers want. Indeed, this research suggests that the company that makes the investment to develop strategically sound sales tools will successfully and positively differentiate itself in the minds of buyers.

QR Codes: Don’t Hesitate, But Do Think

No one who sends out any significant quantity of response-driven direct mail should neglect to test the use of QR codes. Period. Given the continuing growth of the use of smartphones, it’s a strategically sound opportunity to improve response rates by facilitating the connection between a mailed piece and an electronic response. Recent data from comScore MobiLens highlights the opportunity: 14 million mobile users in the US scanned a QR code on their mobile device in June 2011 alone.

That being said, the devil, as always, is in the details. Just sticking a square filled with dots on a DM piece is a waste of effort if you don’t think through what the objective of including the QR code should be and your expectations for the entire user experience that will be activated through the code. For example:

  • Are there certain segments of your audience that are more likely to respond to QR codes and how and when are they likely to scan the codes? To answer this, you’ll need to assess what percentage of these segments own smart phones. Then you’ll need to determine the likely scenarios in which they might use those phones in response to the presentation of a QR code?
  • If the code will be used as mechanism for increasing awareness of a product or service, are you sending the QR code user to a mobile friendly website? Is the information easily and comfortably accessible on a mobile device (e.g., web pages as opposed to pdfs, which are still often hard to view on mobile phones)?
  • Will you be using the code for lead generation? If so, is your lead capture form built to be completed on a mobile device?

Working through these kinds of questions should not dissuade you from using QR codes, and it’s important to remember that the process won’t guarantee that a QR code will provide significant lift to your DM efforts. But by investing the time in planning, you will ensure that your test of integrating the QR codes will be an accurate read of their current potential impact for your audience.

Market Research Pitfalls, Part 2: Avoiding the “now what do we do with this information” problem

How often have you been presented with market research that, even if well executed, leaves you saying “that’s great, now what do we do with this information?” In our experience, this happens with remarkable frequency and stems from the fact that those responsible for commissioning and even conducting the research fail to keep in mind the most fundamental tenet of any research initiative: you have to be able to articulate how the insights gained will affect future strategy decisions.

Like any investment, research should be justified through its impact on the top and bottom lines. The exercise of building the case for strategically important research should lead to the development of valuable insights because building the case requires defining exactly how the research will impact strategy. Thinking through and committing to a set of strategic insights enables the design of more efficient research because it forces the definition of what should—and shouldn’t be—included in the research objectives. If you can’t articulate how an element of the research will deliver insights that can lead to meaningful, strategic decisions, you shouldn’t include it.

Developing a strategic justification for each question pushes aside superfluous questions and forces the research instrument to be lean. In this regard, the exercise serves as a powerful tool for beating back the almost inevitable requests for additional questions that don’t deliver on the strategic objectives. As with the overall research objectives, any additional question that fails this “describe the strategic insight” test should be targeted for elimination.

Defining the strategic justification for every research initiative and all its components may seem to be too significant an effort, but the investment will deliver multi-faceted benefits in both the short and long terms. Articulating the strategic value and impact of the research and questions reduces waste in the research design phase by pushing aside extraneous elements and questions. This, in turn increases the efficiency of the research as it leads to more precise surveys and interviews that enjoy a better completion rate and more reliable data. Finally, this exercise ensures that when it comes time to report out on the research findings, the link between the insights and strategic issues is easily and powerfully expressed—which strengthens the organization’s confidence in the value of the research and ability to apply it.