SalesVPI

Customer Interviews for Marketing and Selling Content

At our recent SMEI breakfast we had an excellent conversation on customer -- and video -- interviews. As a result, I suspected that most B2B marketing professionals don't have a successful framework for thinking about, much less acquiring, effective customer interviews for marketing and selling content. Follow on conversations with organizations large and small confirmed my suspicions. 

What do you call them? Success stories? Testimonials? Case studies?  What is the "come from" behind your approach? What is your primary intent? To have your customer tell your prospects things about you that you can't (or shouldn't) tell yourself? 

Or are you "coming from" a perspective of "helping buyers make effective buying decisions" by getting your customers to share insights that address specific buying questions -- by role, issue, buying stage, solution alternative? 

What is the "job" recorded customer interviews are expected to do? How do these expectations differ when you ask marketing vs. sales?  

There is a place for customers telling their (your) story. But it's limited in the grand plan of content requirements. Captured properly, customer insights can perform many "jobs" throughout the buying process. 

Do you have a formal process for conducting customer interviews? Does it look like this one? 

There is nothing wrong with this approach. It appears to be a universal approach. But it's also un-differentiated and not consistent with today's content marketing principles for creating relevant, educational content to help buyers make better buying decisions. 

 

Customer Acquisition Framework 

Here is a start at such a framework and interview process:

1. First, make a distinction between different communication objectives and approaches for customer interviews. Customer insights can help: 
   • Capture attention / generate  interest -- with short provocative sound bites 
   • Explain --  important insights that educate a buyer 
   • Tell -- a story 
   • Advocate -- make a case 
   • Answer -- questions, objections 
   • Persuade or Prove -- deliver proof points 
2. Use the frameworks you've established for the Customer Buying Process and the Questions Customers Must Answer to make their buying decisions. If you have these well documented it will lower your preparation time and improve your interview. Make sure you've aligned those questions to each stage of the buying process. 
3. Make role-based distinctions in the questions, issues, value criteria that are important to your buyers. 
4. Plan for later stage points that: influence  buying and value criteria that are favorable to your company, address customer questions and objections (you will have to talk with sales to get these), and address "step backs" in the buyers process that stall or derail too many deals.

 

Recommended Interviewing Techniques 

Here are specific recommendations:  

• Decide the important areas you want the customer to address, what specifically you want them to say. You really don't have much time with them. You must prioritize. 
• Align each customer and individual speaker to a specific set of questions -- not general -- ask yourself what customer questions they can best speak to? 
• Prepare multiple questions to elicit those points. You may have to ask the question in a variety of ways. 
• Provide preliminary input to your customer before the interview in the form of a checklist. Tell them you're hearing customers ask these questions. Ask if they are comfortable addressing them, allow them time to think and prepare. 
• Tell the customer you know people have a very short attention span, so you are looking for short, direct answers to specific questions, not long stories. Explain you will let them complete every point, but you may ask them to repeat their answer in a more succinct fashion. You need this, prepare them. 
• Don't be afraid to ask customers if they would be comfortable making a specific point (which you provide them) -- in their own words of course. 
• Keep it light, people will fatigue quickly, often as early as 20-30 minutes. You'll see fatigue showing up in bobbles and mistakes that require re-takes at the customer's request. At this point it's time to wrap up so as not to embarrass the customer. 

This is just a start. Please help me refine an effective framework for capturing customer interviews for the various marketing and selling purposes our organization's require. 

Here are links to helpful articles. Can you see the "come from" expressed in these articles? What distinctions are made between content suited to marketing's early/top of funnel and education purposes, versus proof point messages required by both buyers and sales in the latter stages of the buying process? 

Customer Success Stories Speed the Sale

Best Practices for Customer Success Stories

25 Ways to Build Trust and Sales with Customer Success Stories

The Power of Testimonial Videos

Reflection Films Website

Visible Gains Website

Content Marketing Principles and Practices

Subtitle: Lip Service or Disciplined, Consistent Execution?

A research briefing on Focus Marketing website call Best Practices in Content Marketing presents summary recommendations, a set of principles really, for conducting content marketing.

Executive Summary
"A content marketing strategy involves the creation of content for the purpose of engaging and establishing relationships with current and prospective customers, and subscribes to the belief that delivering high-quality information to prospects at the right stage of the buying cycle drives profitable action. There are several stages of a content marketing strategy each with many elements to consider before moving to the next. In this guide, Focus Experts Ardath Albee, Joe Chernov, Barbra Gago, Doug Kessler, and Stephanie Tilton have suggested their top tips and best practices for each stage of the content marketing cycle."

I highly recommend the briefing, the full roundtable discussion transcript, or the on demand recording of the full program. (I especially like that Focus offers MP3 and transcript versions, and wish more webinar providers would follow suit).

While the principles are quite clear and have been promoted extensively now for years, execution of the associated practices is indeed difficult.

How many of the recommended best practices does your organization execute on with consistency and discipline?

Request to Webinar Sponsors

I have two simple requests and recommendations that will improve the viewing experience, and through that, the outcomes sponsors seek: please make your webinars easier to consume, and improve the overall webinar quality.

A universal principle that is regularly preached is to make content easy and convenient for the customer to consume and share.

There are well over a dozen webinars backlogged on my "to view" list. Most are from really good thought leaders, people I respect and learn from every time I read or hear them. But who has 45 minutes to devote to viewing streaming webinars, especially during "prime" time. For me, prime time is anytime from 6AM when I begin work to 7PM when I end, but also includes 7-9PM (family time) and most of the weekends (personal, family and work time.)

So, when do I want to consume these programs? How about in my nice new Bose headphones while I'm exercising (OK maybe not the Bose for that), walking the dog, driving, hanging out at gymnastics and swim meets. I just can't devote prime time to the volume of programs I'd like to hear.

So my request is to ask you to post an MP3 version along with the recorded webinar (preferably chapter indexed), and the slides. If you really want to fulfill the principle of making content convenient to consume and share, how about a transcript.

If you could also modularize your content into smaller chunks, edit out intros, outros, Q&A (for some of you it's great content, for most, not so much), that would be a big plus.

I've lost count of the number of times I wanted to forward some interesting points to customers, prospects, and colleagues, but couldn't because the delivery method inhibited that action. Sometimes I wanted to point someone to a 5 minute segment embedded in a 45 minute webinar, archived without chapter indexing as a Go-to-Webinar, Webex or ON24 archive. I have no easy and fast way to direct my colleague to the specific section I want them to view. (Or, maybe I want to blog about it.)

Sometimes the people I want to send to, would prefer to get the segment as text -- especially if they're viewing on a mobile device.

My second, but related request, is for a higher standard of overall program quality. This isn't directed at the relatively few professional presenters and speakers, but the vast majority of amateur (to be kind) presenters who have something valuable to say, but could really use a delivery coach and a good editor before I have to hear it. Our customers tell us they really appreciate the results of a pre-produced process.

My company has been a webinar service provider for 12 years (starting in 1999 when it took about 4-5 people and good luck to run a successful event.) We stopped counting years ago at over 5,000 webinars and webcasts. My colleague has been writing about our view of the evolving state of webinars, and new ideas to improve the user experience.

Take note of my colleague's recommendation for much shorter (try 20 minutes to start) webinars, supported by a microsite of modular content that is available to meet the broad interests of your audience who are in different roles, buying stages, and learning interests.

Let's apply the principles we all read about to this long standing, important delivery method. Please join me in making this request of webinar sponsors you value.

Reflections on Sales Call Preparation Checklist

I'm a big believer in checklists. With the work I do with PrivateSalesCoach, and after reading Checklist Manifesto, we are applying checklists more rigorously throughout our business. I make sure to read most of what Nigel Edelshain publishes and his recent blog is no exception.

14 tips are quite a handful, so I thought as I share my reflections on these tips I'd also recommend you group them into three categories: Background, Tactical and Strategic. This relates mostly to the "when" these tips should be applied. I find that a pre-call process must be as efficient, brief and focused as possible.

Background tips are those that don't need to be worked out for every call. They should be worked on well before customer engagements begin, and simply selected and applied to each call. They tend to be related to account strategies and plans. Many are important to help determine who (company and individual) you should be calling on. Some of these tips apply across multiple accounts. In this category I would place tips #3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11.

In addition to "prepare to fight the status quo" I would recommend reading Sharon Drew Morgen's writing on Buying Facilitation(TM). Her trademarked process focuses on the internal issues the customer must resolve to make a buying decision with ANY vendor. She eloquently points out that this is a key reason sales opportunities "go dark" or result in "no decision." We must factor in ways to help the customer understand their internal systems, and how to align those systems toward an effective buying process.

In a very simple sense, all sales involve change. How well is the organization (not just our enthusiastic sponsor) willing and able to change in the way that allows a decision -- especially our recommended decision -- to be made? Why must they change, what is "at stake" for all stakeholders involved in the buying process. There is a lot of enrolling, aligning and change management that goes beyond "fighting status quo."

Finally, where is the organization in the buying process? At what point are we engaging them? Again, not just the point person -- all stakeholders to the decision. Understanding and aligning with the customer's buying process and the related buying criteria is a breakthrough opportunity for all sales professionals -- especially those with a customer oriented, "best interest," and buying mindset.

Tactical tips relate to the mechanics of the call itself. They insure a smoother call, a better overall experience. These can be executed quickly and should become habitual, to the point of not requiring a checklist.

In this category I would place tips #2, 12, 13 and 14. To these I would add, review all previous account notes, including account activity captured in the marketing automation system or interactions conducted with service or support people.

My colleague Rob Scanlon has developed a format for a "sales prologue" as a method to begin meetings that goes beyond having a meeting agenda and confirming the participants. Part of this is confirming the objectives and expectations of each participant.

Strategic tips are the critical few: get them right, you have a successful call, mess them up and you could be in trouble.

Tip # 1 -- have an objective is in this category. I would add "prepare a questioning sequence" that is linked to listening objectives. Listening objectives are critical. You must be clear about what you want to "listen for" during conversations. In addition, plan what you want the customer to listen for. Then, plan ways to "set up the listening" so the customer is clear about what you want them to hear.

As I write this I'm watching the New England Patriots whoop up on the Miami Dolphins (#3 defense). The commentators remark at how well New England prepares for each game. Preparation is definitely key to sales success. Only part of preparation is pre-call. Preparation includes the plan for the entire sales process as well as the strategy and mindset of sales professionals.

Additional Thoughts on 10 Rainmaker Principles

As we all plan for a new year and for changes that will make a difference, a good place to start is with core principles and practices. Mike Schultz gives us a useful checklist in his recent blog 10 Rainmaker Principles and Keys to Sales Motivation, which I highly recommend.

Given my commitment to focusing on "being the best" I found this list especially helpful. Like all good points this post stimulated additional thoughts that I'd like to share.

Principle #1 -- Play to win-win. One of the challenges many of us have given our years of experience is to view principles like this through a mindset of "yes, this is a good one, I understand." I will be challenging my organization to re-think and re-apply this principle in ways that break through our "thinking as usual."

We will re-define what it means to deliver in the best interests of clients and prospects -- specifically and in detail. What does it mean to be "top performers"? How committed are we -- really? We will use this to set new levels of expectation.

Principle #4 -- Think buying first, selling second. I think this is a key principle to achieving our objective of being the best and taking our business to the next level. Again, we're re-thinking what it means to "think buying first." Aligning with the customer's buying process is an important starting point, and one we baked into our process well in 2010.

For this year, it means to start with a buying vs. selling mindset. This will drive our entire approach to prospects. Rather than thinking about "what can we sell them?" our approach will be based upon how well we can service them uniquely, and how our buying criteria fit with the prospect, i.e. we're "buying" a new customer.

Among our criteria will be "fit." We will work with customers where we are truly the best fit with their needs, values and beliefs. They will value the best, and be appreciative of our "secret sauce," the things that make us best. This is important because too many buyers do not meet this criteria. Either through ignorance, indifference, or the belief of commoditization of services, they refuse to appreciate our capabilities that provide real value.

Three important buying questions from our perspective: 1) can the customer be helped best by us? 2) will they allow us to help them? 3) will they value our help sufficiently to make them an ideal customer?

This will show up in the conversations we have with customers. They will sound like a journey of discovery and alignment, rather than directed questioning, pitching of value propositions, or even traditional discovery.

Principle #5 -- Be a fluent expert. Everyone in our organization must know, appreciate and be able to communicate our unique expertise -- where and how we are the best -- and how this provides value to customers. This must be delivered not in a pedantic or typical competitive sense, but to gain alignment and verify appreciation.

Principles #6 & 7 -- Create new conversations - Lead masterful conversations. Of course, it's all about conversations. But conversations about what? Not about us and our ideas and services (as tempting as that is). Leading conversations is about leading the buyer to better understand their current situation, their business and personal objectives, to notice symptoms that indicate problems they might not appreciate, to understand what's possible, necessary and required to resolve their problems. The quality of conversations dictates how well we execute on our vision and plan.

Our conversations will focus first on becoming related, on sharing our vision and values, on establishing trust and a common view. Like good buyers, we will discuss shared criteria to making the best mutual decision.

Each of the principles in this post bear reflection and serious application. How we interpret and apply the principles is the real challenge and opportunity. What insights can you share as you reflect on the original principles or my observation and application of them?

Content and Social Media Marketing Predictions for 2011

I’ve just read this compilation of insights and predictions published by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI).

Two strategic insights I found especially helpful:

• Must have a real-time mindset (David Meerman Scott)
• The “consumerization” of B2B marketing (Tom Pisello)

 

This summary of especially salient points looks like a pretty good content checklist:

• Content will get shorter (Doug Kessler)
• Relevance will become the new standard (Sandra Zoratti)
• Must become better storytellers - Some brands will understand that they are nothing
• more than a story and brands that tell their story will win (Simon Kelly)
• Create original high value content (think unique) (Valeria Maltoni)
• Education oriented better than humor (Russ Henneberry)
• Frequency, quality and relevancy not only matter, but will be essential to maintaining a competitive edge (Barbara Rozgonyi)

 

• Ability to generate content that engages audiences and motivates them to take action (Paul Roetzer)
• Quality over quantity
• Content strategy and planning -By the end of 2011, a marketer not having a content-related marketing strategy will be more the exception than the rule ( Russell Sparkman)
• Alignment with internet fueled buying cycles (Tom Pisello
• Allow customers to engage and consume content on their own terms (
• Customized (personalized) content delivery
• Attention spans are diminishing … alleviate information overload (Ambal S. Balakrishnan)
• Content rules when it shares or solves, and doesn’t shill (Ann Handley)

 

• Facebook will rule (Leslie Lindeman)
• Track audience preferred devices
• Challenge of standing out within the cacophony of content
• Focus on syndication
• Content curation
• Get webinars "right" - viewers won’t accept mediocrity anymore - (Shelley Ryan)
• Micro sites
• Leverage mobile
• Video will be the most significant development (Marc Laplante)

My (SalesVPI) addition:

The business front line (sales, sales support, inside sales, customer service, account managers) will become more active selecting, tailoring and proactively delivering content to target audiences. The front line can best understand the specific interests, timing, relevance factors, and convenience considerations of those audiences.

Sharing a customer's story

I'm just back from a client review meeting. We assist our customer with lead management and content. This week they started a campaign, here is their story.

As a result of our customer's ability to track and score buyer consumption of content, initially delivered through an outbound campaign, and supported by a content microsite, our customer identified several people whose content consumption behavior indicated heightened interest.

This triggered a move of this "lead" in their (Marketo) lead management system from the initial "inquiry" status to "marketing qualified lead" (MQL). The lead scoring algorithm also triggered their inside sales person to conduct an immediate phone follow up. All of this was communicated automatically within their Salesforce.com system, virtually in real time.

The "buyer" turned out not to be the actual buyer at all, but the administrative assistant for the President of the company. She indicated they found the content so valuable they were very interested in conducting a conversation and evaluation of the proposed services. The content addressed the customer's situation and avoided vendor oriented "chest pounding." The lead was handed off to sales along with the notes of all consumed content and the phone conversation.

This simple story is being repeated regularly within companies that have deployed an automated lead management program.

Of course, "it's not about the bike!" Software is an enabler. Content is the fuel that makes this work. Quality lists are critical. The right strategies and discipline to consistently conduct customer education oriented campaigns is essential.

But the ability to see in real time exactly who is consuming content within all online vehicles, and to determine probable levels of interest, is too considerable to be neglected.

Many people conduct email campaigns with good content. What's too often missing is the ability to capture the results of buyer behavior, to manage relationships with large volumes of individuals with different interests and issues, at different stages of their decision process, and to measure and report with timely, actionable information.

Timing, indeed, is everything. The combination of regular, problem solving, content oriented campaigns increases timing odds.

Automated lead management is an essential enabler of an organization's revenue engine. Early and effective deployments still provide some level of competitive advantage. But there is a learning curve. Playing catch up will be painful and expensive.

Repurpose Content, Important, Not a Panacea

The topic of repurposing content is a hot topic right now among marketers as they look to reduce content development time, effort and costs.

Our company has repurposed content for customers for over fifteen years, and developed several techniques. But first, a warning. Repurposing content is not a panacea to creating the right content the right way the first time.

This is why a content strategy that develops a content engine to continuously create content like publishers is so important.

If content is not relevant, remarkable or compelling, repurposing won't necessarily make it so. If content is all about the vendor and their products, it can be difficult to repurpose into effective customer educational content that is high demand today.

Think of house renovations. This works well when it's a room or two. Most contractors will tell you there is a point -- major re-work -- when it's cheaper to tear down and start over.

But some of the practices we've developed to repurpose content are worth noting. They even apply to creating content like publishers:

Acquire subject expert insights and ideas in audio.

Subject experts show up continuously. They are our market and product experts, customers and third party contacts -- even key sales and sales support people. They can be found creating content for product launches, events and webinars.

By recording these insights and messages in audio you can edit and repurpose content created as internal or external briefings, training or marketing content, into content for other purposes. By transcribing audio into text you have great source content for writing blogs, articles, or small lead nurturing content pieces.

This technique applies especially well to live training programs, webinars, user and partner conferences, customer reference programs, and any time (expensive) third party analysts or experts are employed.

Extract content from existing training and video productions

For years we have heard sales people observe: "some of our best content is in our learning programs, but it's not in a form that is suitable for delivery to customers." This content is in a training "voice" and physically built in learning technologies, packaged for delivery as training programs, not as customer ready content.

Existing videos are another example. I may want to send a ninety second segment to a customer, but it's contained within a five minute video, most of which isn't relevant to the customer.

The publishing approach would be to create this content for multiple purposes in the first place. It would keep source content in a highly modular form that is suitable for assembly and delivery to meet marketing, sales and customer purpose. But extracting and editing this content can make it useful for other purposes.

Convert white papers to multimedia vignettes

Over the last several years many companies have invested heavily in white papers. Excellent, extensive work resulted in a "point production" -- a white paper. Repurposing involves leveraging this work to take the content and edit into scripts for other purposes, such as a:

• Ninety second promotion vignette
• Eight minute executive summary vignette
• Stakeholder, issue, industry specific version
• Segment for a marketing webinar
• Sales prospecting tool

Repurposing content is the first cousin to thinking like a publisher. It's a great way to optimize the use of subject expert insights contained in existing content. But learning how to create like publishers is the best long term way to achieve an organization's content objectives.

Second Voice Vignettes for Telesales and Prospecting

As a sales professional, telephone selling is a key element of my sales job, especially in the critical, initial stages of prospecting and engaging new customers. For many sales people this is a frustrating, time consuming, low probability of success activity.

Here's an approach that significantly improves your odds, provides value to your prospects, gives you important feedback and, for now, will clearly differentiate you from other sales people.

I've been thinking about the binary nature of sales prospecting and cultivating initial customer relationships. Consider, with most sales calls:

1. We either connect, or don’t
2. Leave a voicemail, or not
3. Send an email, or not
4. The prospect answers, or doesn't
5. Is willing to talk, or not
6. Is interested, or not
7. Is willing to meet, or not
8. Is the right person or not, etc.

Of course, the odds of a favorable outcome for each option don't favor us.

But what if there were a third option?

I use "second voice vignettes" to capture prospect attention, to help them understand why I'm calling, to get feedback on whether my message resonates or might be relevant to the prospect, to make it easy for my initial contact person to refer me to the appropriate person.

At each stage of the above process it provides a third option that significantly increases my chances for success.

Here's pretty much how it works:

1. I create a short (three minute or less), personalized vignette that addresses the relevant business, sales, marketing or communication issues of my prospect (this is what our business is all about, the process is noted in many places)
2. I send the vignette in a VERY short email with a customer oriented, compelling title (the art of this is critical and is addressed well by many experts)
3. I make my call and if the prospect doesn't answer, I leave a message (the message is also critical, covered elsewhere, but it MUST be oriented to the business issues I'm looking to discuss -- and not be "pitchy"
4. In the message I refer the person to their email "to view a 3 minute custom streaming video that I assembled to introduce them to the issues I'm interested in discussing." I also suggest that my email be shared with others in the organization who have responsibility for the issues
5. If I connect with the prospect, my conversation is very short, issues oriented, requesting of a fifteen minute meeting -- but I'm now focused not on binary options, but more open dialog about the impact of the issues, how they are prioritizing them, etc.
6. The vignette helps me approach the prospect from a problem solving, educating perspective, to see if they would be open and interested in viewing my vignette. It gives me another tool to support the full range of questions that prospects use to delay and diffuse sales inquiries
7. When the prospect views the vignette, I get an email notification (each time). This gives me feedback (and motivation) that my message and issues might be relevant. It helps me prioritize this prospect for follow up.

This method is no panacea. But it is a game changer. It intrigues and captures prospect attention. It helps the prospect understand why they should talk with me. It helps me capitalize on that attention in much more impactful ways than an email message.

If I've selected the right issues, I have a high probability the prospect will listen to my three minute message. Think about it -- three minutes! Audio and visual impact vs. a couple of text sentences that will be skimmed in seconds from an email.

This always reminds me of the infamous Crocodile Dundee scene when he's in New York City with his girl friend who tells him to give the punk assailant his money because "he has a knife …"

Once you start using customized, personalized vignettes, you'll realize the phone and email are limited communication tools for prospecting. You need a bigger knife.

Sales VPs CEOs and the New Revenue Engine

Our business partner, Marketo, has been articulate promoting a shift in thinking in B2B selling organizations from a sales engine to a new revenue engine. This is an important read.

The key impacts of this shift include:

• Lower Customer Acquisition Costs
• Reduce Wasteful Spending --(reducing cold calls, direct and email blasts --IDC estimates 25% of sales time is spent on unproductive prospecting)
• More Predictable Sales Forecasts
• Greater Pipeline Stability

After many years of listening to the diatribe about the "marketing and sales disconnect," it's refreshing to hear solid discussion of a collaborative marketing and selling process that is focused on the common goal of revenue growth, aligned around the customer buying process, and addressing the questions customers must answer in order to solve their business problems and make a buying decision.

In the past I was among those from the sales side of the equation who thought "marketing didn't get it." For over twelve years we've worked with B2B selling customers, and sales consulting partners, to get marketing to assist sales in the shift from being "product providers" to becoming "consultative problem solvers."

The complexity of most B2B sales demands it. Not just because there are more and complex products (there are), or that there are more competitors, but because of the sales challenge of adequately preparing for effective conversations with a committee of buyers, each with different perspective, objectives and even language.

Higher margins, win rates and much more depend on this shift.

Sales doesn't have the time or expertise to figure all this out while responding to insatiable pressure for monthly closes.

But marketing wasn't prepared to provide this support. Perhaps most still aren't. But at least the marketing community is onboard, promoting sales enablement through more and better sales ready opportunities.

Sales VPs and CEOs

Now it's time for sales and senior executives to join the game. Too many senior executives are clueless about marketing, and especially the potential today's marketing practices have to "pressurize the revenue engine."

Sales costs for most B2B organizations are huge. Yields should be much better. Higher marketing costs, appropriately applied, can drive revenue growth AND lower selling costs.

Be sure to read the Marketo case study at the end of the New Revenue Engine Report.