During this past week, I lost an opportunity partly because I had been trained how to sell at Xerox in the early 80s.

This opportunity included integrating their marketing strategy and execution with their sales process. To net this out, our plan included using PR, direct mail, email and social media to create awareness and uncover interested prospects. We would start by building a predictive model from their existing customer information and use that model to target the right people with relevant information and offers. To respond to the offer, the prospect would be asked to visit a landing page where we could measure what they were clicking on and actually ask them some questions, if they were game. Based on their activity, the interest could be scored, and folks exhibiting behaviors indicating a higher interest level would be prioritized and sent on to the sales force. The sales force would be trained in advance with an opening statement reflective of the prospect’s interest, some non-threatening talking points and a relevant offer to allow the prospect to investigate further. The verbal conversation would be reinforced by an email or direct mail with the same offer depending on the prospect’s preferences for communication.

I hear through the grapevine that one of the people on the committee thought this would be too pushy based on my Xerox experience. I learned a lot at Xerox but here it is in a nutshell: 

Domino’s Pizza has created the holy grail of buzz with their new ad campaign. In the spots they basically own up to the fact that their pizza well…sort of sucked. So they’ve changed everything, the sauce, the crust, the cheese and they are offering a whale of a deal to get the masses to try them again. It’s always refreshing when corporate America tells the truth and Dominos does a pretty good job of sharing what they heard and how it made them feel demonstrating the impetus behind the revamped product.

Nearly 90,000 Print Industry Employees lost their jobs in 2009 (footnote 1)
Trends indicate almost 7,000 less printing establishments by end of 2010 (footnote 2)
Online advertising to pass print ad spend by 2011 (footnote 3)
1 Trillion Unique URLs on the Web (footnote 4)

 

This industry is rapidly changing, and from my vantage point it will be very difficult for companies under $5m to survive if they don’t change to meet the challenges and opportunities. They will not have the critical mass to compete in an industry that is becoming increasingly price driven. Their size makes it hard, if not impossible, to invest in the automation needed to profitably produce print at a price the market will bear. Add the expense of a sales team that are little more than order takers and you have a going out of business strategy. 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8Z-dkI4QLQ

…slam their head down in the water but if they don’t take a drink, what then?

 

Years ago I worked for a man who had an unending supply of great ideas. As a leader though, he couldn’t put together a team who could execute his ideas. I knew the wheels were off the bus, but I couldn’t figure out how to convince him of the impending danger. As my warnings grew stronger and more urgent, (read emotional) his ability to listen or react grew weaker. Unlike Chicken Little, the sky eventually fell on us, and it wasn’t pretty.

 

I vowed that should I be faced with a similar situation in the future I would keep my emotions in check. I would present facts in an unemotional assessment of the situation in order to persuade and then help to develop and execute a plan to change the outcome. 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygpkg__d2XY

There’s a concept in Blue Ocean Strategy, one of my favorite books, called value innovation. To create value innovation, companies must orient themselves to deliver a “leap in value” for both themselves and their customers. 

 

Most organizations are satisfied to compete in a red ocean stained with the blood of those who came before them and swim there now. They are ensnared by the structures of the way things have always been done. 

 

Value innovation is about breaking free of those restraints, taking a fresh look at the needs of people and constructing something new that transcends current offerings. To accomplish this, you have to challenge everything about the way you do business today…including your marketing.