Posts Tagged ‘linkedin’

The Show Must Go On

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Posted in Social Media, Tradeshow on February 12th, 2009

Empty spaces – what are we living for
Abandoned places – I guess we know the score
The show must go on.
Lyrics from The show must go on by the rock group Queen.

I suspect that there will be quite a few empty spaces for the promoters of industry tradeshows in 2009. Growing booth cost, rising registration fees, travel expense, show promotions – it all adds up.

In November 2008, convention attendance in Las Vegas was down 16.4 percent to 3,276,040 attendees, compared with 3,484,710 in the same period the previous year, according to the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority.

Apple decided to pull CEO Steve Jobs from Macworlds keynote speech — and announced that 2009 would be its last year at the show. Other industry giants, such as Adobe, Belkin, CreativeLabs and Seagate, had already pulled out.

It’s unclear what will happen to the conference following Apple’s departure. The show’s presenter, IDG World Expo, says the 2010 event is on. But, it also plans to hold a “town meeting” where it will solicit ideas for the future.

I recently had lunch to discuss the subject of tradeshows with Thomas Joyce, Vice President Customer and Industry Affairs for Hershey’s. Tradeshows are a big part of Hershey’s budget. Customer relations and lead generation aside, he suggested that marketing, packaging and R&D might be the biggest beneficiary of tradeshows. “The people in these departments don’t always get the opportunity to see the competition and customers close-up,” said Joyce.

According to Joyce, a trend that is gaining ground is the concept of the shared event sponsorship with non-competing manufacturers. Select customers, senior leadership and one-on-one conversations without all the competing distractions are the key benefits.

There are signs that Apple is entering a new era not unlike the concept that Hershey’s is exploring. It seems pretty clear that Apple chafed at the idea of having to introduce some of its best new products a few weeks after the close of the holiday selling season. Most consumer electronics companies like to make their big product introductions toward the end of the year, rather than the beginning, but the timing of Macworld forced Apple into a different schedule.

Apple now hosts several of its own events every year, such as the June Worldwide Developers Conference and the September music event.

Stephen Nold, President, Advon Technologies notes in his blog at Tradeshow Week, “Yet whether the era of the big trade is over is an interesting question. Social media has driven marketers to more carefully research and define relevant markets with great expectations shaped around targeted messages reaching interested communities. If large tradeshows burden the sales cycle with inefficient lead generation operations, then maybe there is a new shift in tradeshows.”

Call it a shift or an evolution; business needs to conduct a serious tradeshow audit. Tradeshows are essentially a place where a given community meets to exchange ideas, socialize and develop contacts. How are online communities any different? My alternative to traditional tradeshows include:

  • Appoint a social/business networking leader within your company to be the architect of a community building strategy.  LinkedIn has 33 million members and Facebook has just surpassed 150 million active users.
  • Get serious about your position as the thought leader in 2009. Hosting webinars for your industry is an effective way of reaching the community of buyers. You’ll never have to worry about qualifying the prospects, because only interested prospects will attend!
  • Does your target market need on-going certification? Help prospects gain their continuing education credits by hosting regional conferences. You help them. You learn more about their business. You own a captive audience.

Changing familiar marketing tactics like tradeshows takes courage, perseverance and an understanding that marketing is an evolutionary process. That means fully utilizing technology to reach prospects that are already engaging in different types of communities.

I guess I’m learning, I must be warmer now
I’ll soon be turning, round the corner now
Outside the dawn is breaking
But inside in the dark I’m aching to be free

The Show Must Go On – Queen

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Relationship Selling in a Down Economy

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Posted in Branding, Business Development, Customer Service, Relationship Marketing on October 27th, 2008

When the economy slows, where do many companies begin slashing budgets and people? Marketing, the primary vehicle companies use to generate growth. Please explain that logic to me? I know that cutting marketing is partially a result of fear. However, once fear permeates the senior level, it becomes a virus that will spread and negatively impact employee performance and company profits.

Bad economic times are a catalyst for the laws of natural selection to play out. Are you going to eat or be eaten?  Most of us prefer to stay higher up on the food chain. It’s easy to point a finger at poor business development planning or, failure to get the marketing plan out of your head and on to paper. If you’re in either category, recognize it and move forward.

It’s time to get strategic.

Let’s assume that you have won and kept the business because it was based on trust, knowledge and respect. Now, how do you leverage that trust, knowledge and respect differentiator to markets that don’t know your brand?

Leveraging Your Existing Customer Relationships
Have you sat down with your customers and asked them to think about industry peers that might be a good fit for you? People enjoy recommending quality partners. Ask them about trends within their industries. What are the hot topics at their industry conferences? Besides picking up leads, you also become a more informed partner.

Leveraging Your Employee’s Relationships
LinkedIn. Facebook. MySpace. Twitter. Need I say more? Personal relationships are the key in business development. Educate, encourage and teach your employees to use the power of their social networks to develop introductions into new markets and companies.

Spreading the Word
You’ve built the business through the cultivation of authentic relationships. The challenge is replicating that strategy into new markets.

Public relations is a key component. Developing thought leadership papers, webinars, and writing for various trade publications are the first steps in establishing prospect trust. And without trust, you have no shot at a relationship. Here’s an example from Mike Schultz, a service-marketing consultant.

A company sales developer sets up a meeting for Dave with Joyce, the vice president of operations at a large commercial shipping company. After introductions, here’s how the meeting went:

Joyce: Nice to have you here. Over the last several years it’s been great getting to know about you and your firm as a result of being included in your communication program. I’ve read your white paper on emerging supply chain management technologies as well as listened to you deliver webinars on strategies for global sourcing in my industry.

For one reason or another, some of the events either didn’t work with my schedule or they didn’t fit into what was on my plate at the time. But I’ve been getting the event invitations and brochures in the mail along with the research briefs you send out. So I’ve followed along.

Dealing with supply chain technology is now in the middle of my plate. So when your marketing department sent me the email to view your on-demand presentation on your capabilities in this area, I put it on my to-do list to call your firm. Of course, your team called me first so I was more than happy to set up this conversation. I’m ready to dive in with you to see how you might help.

That exchange is carried out regularly as a result of executing a disciplined approach to marketing and business development. Because Joyce received the company’s regular multi-channel communication, she:

  • Knew about the company.
  • Already had assigned the knowledge and respect to the brand (2/3′s of your brand differentiator).
  • Could likely articulate how the company helped people like her solve problems.
  • Remembered the company during her elusive time of need and planned to call.
  • Felt an affinity and preference for the company before ever interacting with an individual from the company personally due to the education she received from the company’s marketing efforts.

Client referrals, employee social networks and consistent end user focused communication are key drivers in building brand awareness in new markets and categories. If customers have already assigned the respect and knowledge attributes to your brand, then all that is left is for you to build trust. And that, as Humphrey Bogart said in the closing scene of Casablanca, “Is the beginning of a beautiful relationship”.

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