Art Petty on Management

Seven Suggestions to Consider When Creating A New Market

If you've ever worked in an organization or on a team that got caught up in the quest to create a new market you know that the experience is all consuming and exhilarating.

While the all-new pure white-space scenario is elusive, a fair number of organizations leverage their deep knowledge of a specific segment, a group of customers or a set of customer challenges to create new offerings that don't fit traditional market definitions or boundaries.  The combination of blazing a new trail and believing that what you have created and what you are espousing will help reshape and transform for the better how something gets done is intoxicating. 

I met the other day with a CEO living through this very situation right now, and from listening to her very real challenges and reflecting on my own experiences on one of these market-creating odysseys, I offer a number of leadership and management suggestions that might prove helpful on your own journey of market creation. 

7 Issues that Should Keep You Awake at Night on Your Way to Creating a Market:


1.  You have to surround yourself with flexible, free-thinking and adaptable people.  Hiring the former BIG CO executive who hasn't lived through what it means to swim without a life raft may not be the best plan in the early phases.  You don't have time to wean people off of big company practices...bring in the professionals that have already been through this process somewhere else.

2.  Listen to yourself and your people talk and read your own propaganda.  If everything that comes out of your mouth is about how great your new product is at the feature/function/capability level, you've got a problem.  If the answer to every business question is something about the unique capabilities and elegant architecture of your revolutionary product, you've got a problem.  If your web site is nothing but more of the above, the problem is real.  The prospective clients that you are seeking as early adopters are motivated by a bigger vision, not by the elegance of your technology.

3.  Markets don't emerge on anyone's schedule.   If you are banking on going from nowhere to critical mass on a short-horizon, you and your investors are likely to be disappointed.  While everyone in awhile markets emerge at remarkable speed, most of them take years and often never emerge.  If your market's emergence is dependent upon people and institutions changing long-standing practices and overcoming deeply embedded approaches, you better be planning for a marathon, not a sprint.    

4.  Back to the message coming from you and your web site.  Like it or not, you are evangelist and educator all at the same time.  If all you do is shout product, you will not appeal to either the hearts or brains of your prospective customers.  Make sure that your people, your web content and the preponderance of your conversation is educational and informative and not pure product propaganda. 

5.  Traditional marketing tactics don't work when you are creating a market.  Give it up and shoot your marketing head if he/she is suggesting advertising, trade shows and direct mail as primary vehicles.  (OK, this one will generate some controversy.  Sorry, I believe that the world has changed and people gather their information and assign trust in very different ways than they used to.  Before flaming me on this topic, read David Meerman Scott's: The New Rules of Marketing and P.R.  and then let's start the debate.)

6.  Traditional selling tactics don't work when you are creating a market.  See also the marketing comment above.  Transactional salespeople and sales approaches need not apply.  Your early focus is on market visionaries willing to take a risk to realize something profound for their business.  Match the value creation resource with the task to fuel the vision.

7.  Map the Influencers and figure out how to appeal to their fundamental need.  Don't know what that is.  It's simple.  Market influencers gain influence by having radical opinions on what's right, what's wrong and what organizations need to do about what's right and what's wrong.  Paint your vision for them, encourage them to develop their own vision and provide them with a soapbox to tell the world.  A good influencer will never back you or your product overtly, but if they see the opportunity to enhance their position by grabbing on to the issues that you are dealing with, they help educate the market.  This type of influence is not purchased with a subscription to an analyst firm or via press releases, it is gained through personal relationships and involving the right individuals in your strategic market and client discussions. 

The bottom-line for now:

The above 7-suggestions barely scratch the surface of what it takes to succeed in helping an organization create, define and profit from a new market.  However, they are important issues that I often do not hear the leaders of these exciting firms thinking and talking about.  Creating a market is a non-routine project, and as a result, non-routine thinking is required every step of the way.  Leave the traditional tactics at home, spend some time thinking beyond the moment and trust your gut that this is really challenging.  Remember, if you are right, you want to harvest what you spent so much time, money and gray matter pioneering.  If not you, the companies right behind you will be happy to benefit from your efforts.

More Thoughtful Career Advice to Ignore on Your Path to Becoming a Sales Leader

From the same organization that brought you this enlightened sales manager and his timeless advice on how to prosper:

"The only way that you will succeed on my team is if you are married to the job," and "The reason that I am not in any family vacation pictures is because I'm on the phone.  If I'm in the picture, you can be sure I have a blackberry stuck to my ear," is back with:

"The problem with you is that you care too much about people."

I love this organization.  There are very few other places where a simple phone call offers me a priceless quote on really bad ideas from lousy leaders.

Sales and Marketing Managers: Use the Lead Refinery Approach to Improve Results

I talk with a lot of marketing and sales managers and have spent most of my life working in these environments. In spite of the dramatic advancements in software tools available, I still find gaping holes in the way many sales and marketing organizations manage and account for the flow of leads into the sales pipeline.   Although there are undoubtedly some technology constraints, I suspect that the primary issue is one of process more than anything else.  Employed properly, changes in the output of the lead refinery foreshadow expansion or contraction of volume in the sales pipeline. 

Here are some thought-starters for employing the Lead Refinery approach to improve your performance:

Why Sales Managers Shouldn't Hate Performance Reviews

I don't know too many Sales Managers that relish the opportunity to conduct performance reviews with their Reps. In fact, come to think about it, I don't know too many Sales Managers that actually conduct performance reviews with their Reps. Unless you count the token compliance that a few accommodate through a "half-hearted, fill out the form to get HR off my back" approach that some Managers confess to employing. That's too bad, because all parties involved are missing out on valuable conversations that can contribute to the growth of the business, the strengthening of the sales bench and the development of sales superstars.

Improving the Product Management and Sales Relationship

The relationship between the Product Manager (or PM team) and the Sales force is one that is filled with great potential for all parties and also prone to frequent misuse or abuse.  Frankly, it is a complicated relationship that should be governed by some shared rules of engagement and some good commonsense about when to throw the rules out in support of getting the job done.

I have a great degree of respect and empathy for the individuals on both sides of this relationship—I've been in both roles and managed both teams.  Product Managers need to be in the market engaged with clients in order to grown and learn. Sales Reps naturally benefit from showcasing the "expert" with current and prospective clients. 

However, these mutual needs can quickly become unbalanced without some over-riding rules governing the relationship.  I've been in too many meetings where the semi-well-intentioned Rep will kick-off a sales call with some witty banter and then turn to the unwitting Product Manager and say, "John is here to tell you why our product is so great and how our next version will bring you to the promised land."    Alternatively, I've spent too much time sorting out the confusion over a Product Manager's well intended but misperceived comments to a client. 

Marketing versus Sales and Corporate Tribalism

Alan Weiss, noted independent consultant, author and speaker, recently posted an entry about the divisiveness and battling across functions that is so commonplace inside organizations.  His posting, entitled: Corporate Tribalism, is worthy of review, printing and framing for its great advice. 

Reading this compelling entry prompted me to again take up one of my favorite topics: the ridiculous, never ending battle for corporate supremacy or at least for moral high-ground between Sales and Marketing.

Sales and Marketing-It's time to improve your performance on the trade show floor

Hey, sales and marketing manager(s), have you evaluated your team's trade show performance recently?  If not, it's time to get out and walk the floor, work the booth and listen and learn. 

In my own B2B experience, trade shows were important components of an overall program to build thought-leadership, strengthen industry and influencer relations, and of course, generate leads.  It's too bad that many companies flush valuable money and time right down the proverbial toilet, by failing to execute properly on the show floor and throughout the event. 

You can avoid this problem by paying close attention to this short-list of trade show best practices:

#1:  Who's Staffing the Booth?

The booth staff must be knowledgeable, well trained on your firm's offerings and capable of conducting professional floor demonstrations/explanations as well as be competent at probing for qualifying questions.  Many organizations mistakenly put an inexperienced and mismatched crew on the floor, often bowing to internal pressures to avoid "booth duty" from more experienced sales and marketing professionals.  This is a mistake.

The floor staff should include a mix of senior and junior associates, as well as a cross-section of sales, product management and technical professionals.  The goal is to ensure that visitors to your booth are treated professionally and ideally, engaged for follow-up on potential projects.  Fielding the right booth staff is essential to floor success.

#2: Who's Managing the Booth?

While ensuring that the booth is up and functioning and that necessary services are in place are all responsibilities of the company's Trade Show Manager, managing the floor staff is the responsibility of sales and marketing management.  The Booth Manager must manage schedules and breaks, to ensure that visitors are properly served and to keep the staff focused on their floor responsibilities.

I encourage firms to rotate this responsibility between Sales Managers, usually opting for the territory manager where the show is located.  Everyone working the floor is responsible to the Booth Manager during show hours, and expectations for support should be communicated in advance of the event.

#3: What's Our Message?

For a fascinating experience in communications, walk up to almost any booth on a trade show floor, read the signage and then ask several of the booth staff these simple questions:

-What do you do?
-What's new here?
-Who are your competitors on the floor?
-Why are you better than your competitors?

Most of the time, you will receive unintelligible, cliché filled answers with little substance.  The more people you ask the in the same booth, the more confused you are likely to become.

A key to trade show success is ensuring that your entire staff is educated on the core messages well in advance of the show.  I encourage clients to develop a simple, clear message map as a supplement to an internal "Show Planning Guide" that provides the basic answers to each of the above questions as well as other important show message points.  The message points should be reviewed at a pre-show group meeting, and the Booth Manager and senior representative from Marketing are responsible for monitoring floor discussions to ensure that they are being used throughout the event.

#4: What do we need to know from show visitors?

For a fleeting moment in time, you might have the attention and interest of someone that controls a large budget and has a need for your products or services.  Or you are engaged in an animated discussion with someone gathering information for a competitive report.  Or you are talking with someone that has no ability or interest in buying what you are selling, but they liked the new flat-panel screen in your booth or they wanted a t-shirt.  Which one is it? 

Next to ensuring that everyone understands the core message points for the show, teaching your floor staff the right qualifying questions as well as how to capture that information is critical.   This is where the rubber meets the road at trade shows, and the better you are at qualifying and classifying the visitor's needs, interests, ability to decide and time-frame, the better-armed your marketing and sales teams will be to beat competitors to the punch during and after the show. 

Failing to qualify properly is like dropping the football on the one-yard line after mounting a long drive: a lot of energy goes into the drive and you cannot afford to come away without putting points on the board. 

#5: Where are the leads?

The value of a lead reduces in half (or more) for every day after the show that the lead is not followed up.  Many organizations are rightfully protective of paper and electronic leads, and of course many sales representatives rightfully covet the "hot" inquiries.  Take too long to get the leads back out to the field after a show and you risk frustrating your sales associates and losing out to speedier competitors.  Fail to watch your leads closely and they will end up in the well-intentioned pockets of your sales members.  Good lead management processes are essential to avoiding these problems.  Here's how I advise clients:

-Ensure that all leads are properly collected in the booth—during and at the end of the day.  Sales representatives and the Booth Manager should have a procedure for flagging "hot" leads and ensuring that the Rep has a copy of the information for immediate follow-up. 

-Electronic leads should be uploaded nightly to corporate and someone responsible for entering them into a database or CRM system the next morning.  Paper leads must be forwarded to corporate at show close.

-Good internal qualifying and lead disposition processes will have leads entered and a course of action for every single lead determined and this information shared between marketing and sales.   I encourage clients to use a qualifying process that ensures that someone makes contact with every booth visitor immediately following the show.  If this additional qualification step calls for sales action, the lead moves accordingly to the right rep, while many will become important entries into a corporate database for incubation and follow-up over time.   However, in all cases, timeliness is essential.  Chances are that your competitor has this same lead. 

Don't let clunky lead processes jeopardize your show success.  Move the leads from the floor to the right party to take action as quickly as possible and you will avoid the battle cry of, "Where are the leads?" heard so often in organizations that haven't thought through this critical step in the event management process.

The Bottom Line:

Trade show marketing remains an important part of promotion and lead generation, and it is surprising how many firms spend money for presence but don't take the time to execute on the floor.  Take the time to plan your show staffing, management, messaging, qualification and lead disposition processes and you will dramatically improve your return  on your trade show investments. 

Marketing Leadership-An Oxymoron?

This is a return to one of my favorite rants-marketers giving marketing a bad name.  In my 2007 article, Marketing Misunderstood, I described the struggle that many top B2B executives have in trying to understand the value that marketing contributes to their business.  While there is ample blame to go around for why the nature, purpose and outcomes from this valuable role in an organization are unclear, at least part of the responsibility for this marketing value confusion falls on the shoulders of the top marketers themselves. 

Some marketing professionals have a bizarre tendency to shoot themselves in the proverbial foot by displaying one, several or all of the following tendencies:

• Marketers understand the impact that they are supposed to have on a business (direction, strategies, brand, visibility, leads) and some take themselves a bit too seriously.  I've observed marketing leaders that viewed their professional existence as a slightly higher calling than those laboring in other functions.  This elitist attitude comes through loud and clear to the rest of the organization-with obvious impact.

• Instead of ensuring that marketing activities are transparent to the organization and other executives, marketing metrics are often self-serving, non-existent or confusing.  Additionally, they are often not integrated with other functional metrics to provide proper context.  This is especially common when evaluating lead metrics and attempting to connect them to changes in the sales pipeline.

• In some organizations, I've observed a silo or even bunker mentality where marketing has grown tired of taking shots from the rest of the organization and has retreated into its own world.  An "us versus them" mentality exists from the top of the marketing food chain to the bottom.  This usually spells a death knell for the marketing leaders.

• The "What Were They Thinking?" trap.  A major B2B technology company recently brought in a new marketing team that immediately identified the most abstract, costly and non-value add thing that they could do--they rebranded the company.  Shame on top management for letting it happen, and shame on the B2B marketer that pulls out the re-branding tactic as their start-up tool.  The effort burned money (a lot of it), time and valuable energy.  Shortly after the roll out of the new identity, the company was sold.  There was no cause and effect.

Before you jump down to the "Post a Comment" button to highlight your disgust with my anti-marketing diatribe, let me give equal time to the other side of this coin.  I've had the pleasure of working for, with and around some tremendous marketing professionals that managed to avoid the above bad habits.  Here are a few of the best practices of really great marketers that I've observed:

• True marketing leaders understand that "marketing" is much more of a philosophy and a set of tools than a function.

• Top marketing professionals work hard to make certain that everyone understands their agenda, their activities and their outcomes.  Metrics are developed in concert with other areas of the business and they are refined to help provide a clear and complete picture of marketing outcomes.

• The best marketing professionals understand that their role is to cross boundaries not to create them.  Their egos are checked at the door and they understand that they play a valuable role in both educating and learning from others in the business.  Great marketers build bridges.

• While innovative marketing professionals and teams push the boundaries of creativity and experimentation, they also understand that their efforts must add value to the firm.  For example, re-branding may be a necessary step, but it is  never the step that is chosen as a reflex action or as a means of self promotion. 

Like any profession, there are great, good and lousy practitioners and marketing is no exception.  Philip Kotler, the distinguished professor of marketing at Northwestern University and the father of modern marketing, is reported to have said: "Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department."  Great marketers intuitively get what Kotler meant and conduct themselves accordingly.