The Marketing Survivalist: May 2008

What to Do When a Recruiter Calls

One of the pivotal points in my marketing career was about ten years ago. As a product manager, I became a primary spokesperson and subject matter expert for the company I worked for. I had a much higher profile and started getting calls from recruiters. Not a lot, but enough that I decided I needed to learn how to handle these calls effectively.

I was not in the market for a new position, but something deep inside me told me that how I handled these calls could be important to my future. My mentors at the time gave me some important advice.

Never say never. You may not be in the market for a new role, but you never know. The role that they are looking to fill may be your dream job. At least listen to what they have to say.

Always have your resume updated. In the off-chance that you are interested and qualified, you don’t want to keep them waiting. Its old advice, but you should always have an updated resume available.

Find out if this is a retained or contingency search. There is a lot of information written about the difference between the two and suggestions on how to handle inquiries from both types. You should familiarize yourself with the difference.

Open the opportunity to your network. If you are not interested, chances are that someone you know may be. You can increase your karma with recruiters by passing the opportunity along to others in your network.

Unless I know the recruiter fairly well, I don’t pass along the names of individuals in my network. Instead I will ask for a job description that I can pass along to my network. Retained recruiters will almost always send you a copy as they will receive their fee even if your network doesn’t work through them. That said, make sure your network knows which recruiter passed along the opportunity so they can do the right thing and work through the recruiter.

Continually expand your network. If you continue to expand your network, you can increase your value to recruiters as well as members of your network. Become a hub for opportunities and you’ll get first pick.

Add the recruiter to your network. If you get to know the recruiter well, add them to your network. I will add my trusted recruiters to LinkedIn so they can see who I can connect them with. If someone in my network is looking for a new opportunity, I can also proactively introduce them.

Never burn bridges. Recruiters are people too. Some are downright bad at their jobs and others are complete jerks. But, that shouldn’t color your opinion of recruiters in general or affect the first impression you make when they contact you. And, if one does treat you poorly or disparages your qualifications, it doesn’t pay to burn bridges. Just let it pass and move on to creating more satisfying relationships.

In this day and age of increasing career mobility, each relationship you establish with a recruiter is an opportunity to ensure your future. Even if you are not interested in what they have to offer, it’s an opportunity to form a lasting impression with some important professionals. Make sure the impression you leave is a good one.

Calling all Marketers - Please Write on My Wall!

I am extending an open invitation to all marketers to introduce themselves to me through Facebook and to write on My Wall. Let me know who you are and your areas of expertise. Then, as succinctly as possible, share with the world (or at least my expanding circle of friends) your top piece of marketing advice.

If you are a long time Facebook user, you know what to do. If you've been meaning to try out Facebook, here's your chance!

Great Skill Building Site for Marketers

While we are on the subject of building your skills (see yesterday’s post) I wanted to give a shout out to my favorite skill building site for marketers – MarketingProfs. I am not affiliated with MarketingProfs in any way. I just believe that great people deserve recognition.

I initially joined MarketingProfs because I wanted access to their podcasts and online seminars on all things marketing. What makes MarketingProfs different from many other marketing sites is that their materials are informative and not commercial. Most of the presenters are marketing consultants. I’m sure they’d be happy to get a new engagement, but not once have I received a sales call after attending a session.

The seminars usually cost around $99 to attend, but if you sign up for a premium membership you can access all seminars and other online materials for free. I bought a corporate membership that covered five individuals on my team for less than $600. That’s far less than it costs me to send one person to a marketing conference.

There is a basic membership level that is free but it doesn’t give you access to many of the materials such as the online seminars. I also see a lot of students on the site so there may be a student membership available as well.

In addition to the online seminars and podcasts, there are other great tools on MarketingProfs including:
• Blogs
• Job Postings
• Forums
• Benchmarking Reports

My apologies to the blog purists who don’t believe in recommending products. I normally avoid it as well, but I believe so strongly in skills development that I am compelled to mention this site.

I have been searching for a similar site that focuses on more general business management and leadership topics. If anyone knows of one, I’d love to hear about it.

Where Do You Want To Be in Five Years?

I had a refreshing conversation with a CEO of another technology company this week. When he interviews a job candidate, he puts a new spin on, “Where do you see yourself in the next five years?” Instead, he tells them outright that they will probably move on from his organization in 3-5 years so he wants to know what skills they would like to develop while they work for his company.

What a great question!

Most industries have changed and no one stays long enough to get the gold watch anymore. Sure, many managers give lip service to that but no one believes that a potential employer wants to hear you are building up your resume so you can go somewhere else. Asking this question forces the employee to think about what he is going to accomplish in the new position and not what job he wants to hold.

Career motivated employees perform better than those who are looking for stability. They purposefully build their skills, they take on big projects, and they focus on results because they need to put something concrete on their resume. I would rather keep an ambitious employee for 2-3 years than a unmotivated one for ten.

As this CEO noted, the irony in this is that when you give these employees the tools they need to build their skills, and support them in their career goals, they tend to stick around longer.

I will be adding this question to my list of questions I ask all candidates from now on. In fact, I think I’ll ask it of my current team as well!

I Need New Friends

It’s not that there’s anything wrong with the ones I have. Seriously, I love you guys. I really do.

It’s just that I want to play around with Facebook to see what it’s capable of as a platform for building communities. So far, I can only find three people I know on Facebook. I heard a stat sometime ago that most of Facebook’s users were over 35. So are most of my friends. And most of my friends are deeply involved in new technologies. There is a disconnect here somewhere that I haven’t been able to resolve.

So, for now, I will continue to look like an electronic introvert with my three friends. Eventually, either my current friends will get with the program or I will expand my circles.

And the Tweet Goes On

For those of you who thought I might have forgotten all about my Twitter experiment – I haven’t. Today I have cause for celebration because I finally found some value in Twitter!

I was doing some research on a potential business partner. The service that they offer is designed for IT professionals, mostly younger. It dawned on me that this group is more electronically plugged in than any other.

I used Tweet Scan to search for tweets mentioning the company name. Lots of hits! Probably just a small fraction of their entire customer base, but enough to give me a snapshot of customer perception of the company.

I know the reputation the internet has for allowing customers to skewer their vendor’s reputations. I was pleasantly surprised to see that most of the tweets were positive and simply examples of users helping other users navigate the company’s numerous product options.

Taming Type A Tendencies

I am a type A, there’s no denying it any longer. And, while I work in an industry (IT) that usually appreciates the drive and enthusiasm of the Type A personality, I have to recognize that it can drive people nuts too. And, left unchecked, it can wreak havoc on one’s health.

Over the years I have learned to channel my energy and make it work for me instead of against me. Three things that have helped me the most:

Avoiding caffeine. Scientists still disagree on whether caffeine is really hazardous to your health. A doctor told me once that if you shot a cup of coffee directly into your bloodstream it would kill you. Yeah? Well so would a cup of asparagus!

But, silly arguments aside, under the influence of caffeine I am less able to manage my energy. I talk too fast. I get annoyed much more easily. I lack patience. I like to think that I manage to cover it well, but I still feel it. I know I’m not being the most effective business leader I can be.

Exercising. For me, this means hard exercise. I’m not sure an hour of yoga would cut it even if I did have the patience to try. I try to run an hour or more a day. If I’m traveling, I might substitute an hour on the elliptical or stair master just to mix things up. Or, in the summer, I might rollerblade.

My husband posed an interesting question recently when he asked, “Do you think anyone who truly does an hour or more of aerobic exercise a day could be depressed?” I’m sure you could find someone, but I don’t know how. I can feel like all the blood has pooled in my feet (or elsewhere) after sitting in an all day meeting. One hour, even on a treadmill, and I feel reinvigorated.

Where do I find the time? I don’t know, I just do. That’s like asking me where I find the time to eat. Given my current schedule, I usually workout from 9-10PM. But, at other times in my life morning has worked best. I just go with the flow. Which leads me to…

Living in the Moment. I’m not sure how to describe this one. While it may seem quaint, the serenity prayer is the best explanation I can offer.

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

I try to enjoy what I am doing when I am doing it and not dwell on the rest of my to-do list. If I’m playing with the kids, I try to be there for them physically as well as mentally. I accept that I’m not omnipotent and there are just going to be some things I can’t control. Even if I can effect change, sometimes change takes time. The world runs on its own schedule and not mine.

Tip #4 – You Can Learn as Much from a Bad Boss as a Good One

It is likely that you will meet a few bad managers in your career. You may even have the misfortune to report directly to one. However, you can learn as much from a bad manager as you can a good one. These lessons will help you become a better manager – whether you are one today or aspire to be one in the future.

For example:

If you work for someone who never shares information, just remember how difficult it is to do your job while “flying blind.”

If you work for someone who takes sole credit for team accomplishments, remember how this damages team morale.

If you work for someone who stabs others in the back, remember how this damages your respect for them as a leader.

If you work for someone who doesn’t set objectives, remember how hard it is for the team to accomplish anything meaningful when they don’t know what the goal is.

Nothing lasts forever. This is certainly true of reporting relationships. Make it a habit to come out of any bad situation stronger than you went in.

Tip #3 Your Boss is Not an Idiot

OK, I will grant you that some are, but for the most part they are not. Peter principle aside, most people don’t advance in their careers unless someone saw real potential in them. However, listen to the watercooler conversations and you would think that companies are run by the least competent people in the organization.

Some bosses are in over their heads. Others are just bad managers. But, I’ve found that most simply have more to do than they can possibly get to. You can do your boss and your own career a great deal of good by proactively figuring out what he or she needs from you in order to be effective.

Corporate Survival Tips

I started this blog a few months ago intending to share my ever-growing list of tips for surviving and succeeding in marketing in corporate America. For the most part, I’ve stayed true to the theme of providing practical advice on marketing and career management. However, most of my posts have been longer than the quick pithy sound bites that I intended.

For the next few posts, I will go back to my roots and share quick bits of learning that I have found helpful in my career. Those of you who have been around for awhile will have a few of your own. Please feel free to share!

For those of you just starting out, I hope these tips allow you to avoid learning things the hard way!

Check Your Ego

A recent Marketing Ladders article written by Brandon Gutman, Director of Marketing and Business Development at Stephen-Bradford Search, an executive search firm, advised employees hoping to progress in their career to “check their ego.”

“Employees on the road to senior management need to lose their ego and practice the golden rule of how to treat others.”

I couldn’t agree more.

I’ve spent my career in IT, an industry filled with very smart people who have every right to be proud of what they have done and what they are capable of. However, I’ve seen entire business groups fail in their mission because a leader has failed to check his or her ego.

These “leaders” insist on bludgeoning employees with their ideas until everyone just goes along to get along. The only time employees hear from them is when the ego-driven business leader has an issue with something and you know it’s not going to be pretty. “Thank you” is rarely spoken by these people and when it is, it seems disingenuous at best. Peers never know when they are going to be openly attacked in meetings. The list could go on.

Checking your ego doesn’t mean you have to be a nice guy all the time. Some of the toughest people in business are the most humble. It also doesn’t mean you have to lack confidence or show false modesty. Both of those traits are annoying in any employee and can torpedo an executives’ credibility.

To me, checking your ego means, treating people with a basic level of respect. It doesn’t mean that you have to accept mediocrity from fellow employees or that you can’t have healthy debates. But you need to approach every situation with emotional maturity. As the communications experts would tell you, “You can’t let how you say something get in the way of what you say.”

It also means that you have to accept that the group is smarter than any one individual – including you. Great ideas can come from anywhere.

The sad thing is that these individuals often succeed in their own roles because they tend to be very driven. I suspect that they are often driven by a fear of failure and their “unchecked ego” is actually more of a cover for feelings of self-doubt. For example, the sales executive with an unchecked ego exceeds his quota every time because he fears the humiliation that comes from not hitting 100%.

But while the business enjoys the success brought by this individual everyone around him or her is miserable. No one wants to follow a leader who doesn’t inspire them with anything more than a fear of failure. It makes me wonder what the rest of the business could achieve if this individual were not standing in the way.

My Favorite LinkedIn Features

LinkedIn is no longer a passing fad. It seems to me that it has officially replaced the Rolodex. We all know people who have succeeded in business based on the size of their Rolodex. Even now, I occasionally run across job postings where an extensive Rolodex is a required qualification. LinkedIn makes building this contact base easier than ever.

If you are in marketing and not on it, you are missing out. Given that my audience on this blog is undoubtedly more electronically connected than the average person, I am probably preaching to the choir. Still, I run across business executives who are not LinkedIn.

LinkedIn has been around for roughly five years. In that time, it has grown to be a very feature-rich networking site. I am continually uncovering features that have either just been added or I didn’t know existed. Here are some of my favorite ways to use LinkedIn.

1. Research people I will be meeting with ahead of time. Anytime I am going to meet someone or have just met someone, I take the time to look them up on LinkedIn. I can review their profile to see their career history. Most people who blog have a link to their blog in their profile. I can even see details of where you went to school, awards you have won, and personal interests that you have. Assuming you have an updated profile, of course. All of this helps me prepare to for a meeting that will make effective use of your time and mine.

2. Let people know who I am. LinkedIn tells me how many people have reviewed my profile in the last ten days. With the basic setting, you can see a description of the last five people. These descriptions tell you the job function, the city, and the industry of the person who previewed your profile. While it doesn’t give the name, I often have a good idea of who the individual is – especially if I’ve been trying to reach out and make a connection with someone new.

3. Jobs Insider. I think this a new feature. Employers have been able to post jobs on LinkedIn for some time. Job seekers can review those listings and apply for jobs of interest to them. That’s all fairly standard. Jobs Insider is a handy little sidebar that shows who you know at that company or who you know who knows someone at that company.

4. Connect with the people and company driving the industry. If I see something interesting happening at a company and I want to make a connection, I will use the Advanced Search feature to see who I know who knows someone at that company. I can ask them to introduce me. Since I have a business account I can also send an InMail directly to that individual if they have their profile set to receive InMails.

One word of caution. Please use this feature for networking. If it starts getting used for unsolicited sales pitches, it will ruin it for everyone. LinkedIn is for networking, not for cold calling.

5. Taking care of the recruiters who have taken care of me. I have a handful of recruiters that I have accepted into my network. Usually they are individuals that I have worked with and that I trust. Many of my LinkedIn contacts are connected to my industry and the recruiter who is connected to me can see who I know. If they want an introduction to one of my contacts, I am happy to pass it on.

6. Recommendations. William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson at the Reach Branding Club talk about career karma. Writing unsolicited recommendations on LinkedIn is a great way to build it. It makes your colleagues feel good because they feel appreciated. I hope it makes you feel good to do something for somebody else. Usually, after writing a recommendation, you will receive one in return. If you don’t, that’s ok too. The laws that govern karma are not usually that direct.

There are many other features on LinkedIn that I haven’t had a chance to dig into yet such as:

News articles – I just started reading the articles served up to me. Good stuff, but my Google homepage is even more tailored to my preferences.

Chat – I don’t know anyone else who uses it either. Like many aspects of social media, it takes time to reach critical mass.

Service providers – If you are a service provider you can list your company. If you need a service, you can see details, including any recommendations, for the providers on LinkedIn. You can also see who you know who knows them. While I haven’t had a chance to use it yet, this seems very promising.

That’s my LinkedIn universe. I’m sure I’ve just scratched the surface of how this tool can be leveraged. I’d love to hear how you have used LinkedIn to open doors and uncover opportunities in your world.

Marketing Fundamentals

I was reading a recent Forbes article about how to win at nearly everything from golf to shuffleboard. I loved this quote from a golf pro.

"Winning in any game is a result of consistent execution of proper fundamentals…"
Hank Johnson

Business is a game, though rather more serious than sinking that next put. (Although that put may seem to be rather important at the time.) Like golf, business success is often a matter of executing the fundamentals.

Each area of business has its own fundamentals, just as each player in any team sport has their own tasks that they must perform well. I’ll leave the 4Ps to the academics. After 20 years in marketing, these are what I consider the fundamentals:

1. Know what success looks like for any project that you take on. This definition of success should be linked as tightly as possible to the objectives of the business. If you don’t have a goal that’s linked to the business objectives for every project you take on all you are adding no real value to the organization.

2. Treat marketing as much like a science as an art. The marketing profession draws so many creative types. However the art of creating compelling messages is as much a science filled with variables that can be measured and changed to alter the outcome. If you are not measuring and testing alongside your creative efforts you are only doing half the job.

3. Target market niches. In the B2B world, generally, the tighter you can segment your market the more effective your marketing is going to be. You may need to have several target segments to reach sales goals, but targeting niches is more effective than a mass messaging approach.

4. Know your prospect. Notice that I didn’t say know your customer. So many marketers limit their face-to-face time to their best customers. These best customers probably are not representative of the majority of your customer base. And, they almost certainly are not representative of the market that you have yet to reach. Find ways to spend face-to-face time with people in your target market who are not your customers. Associations, trade shows, market research, observing sales calls are all good ways to get to know this group.

5. Repetition. As much as being creative is good, there is such a thing as being too creative. We all know the axiom that it takes six impressions before a prospect begins to notice your message. That means six similar impressions, not different campaigns with a different look and feel and different messaging. Make sure your messages resonate by doing your homework on prospect needs and then give these messages time to work.

6. Consistency. Marketing success, like most things in life, requires that you keep at it. It takes a lot less time to slide back into oblivion than it does to build brand awareness.

I could go much more deeply into working habits that are keys to success. For example, none of the above six fundamentals means anything if you don’t develop the habit of effectively prioritizing and focusing on the task at hand. But, I think I’ll leave that for another post.

Need to Cut Costs? Part 4

The Home Office
My final suggestion, at least for now, on cutting costs out of your marketing is to cut down on the size of your office and let your employees work from home.

I have to admit to having a bias toward home offices. I haven’t worked in the same state as the person I report to in more than twenty years. Even when I worked for Microsoft, I did much of my day-to-day work out of my home office and just came into the main office for meetings.

To say I’m “self-motivated” would probably be an understatement, but I refuse to believe that I am unique. I believe that many people, especially in the technology industry, are just as motivated and that all they really need is strong leadership and someone who trusts them. What matters is what they accomplish, and not that they came to the office from 9 AM to 5 PM.

Here are just a few of the benefits of allowing employees to work from home:
The Home Office
My final suggestion, at least for now, on cutting costs out of your marketing is to cut down on the size of your office and let your employees work from home.

I have to admit to having a bias toward home offices. I haven’t worked in the same state as the person I report to in more than twenty years. Even when I worked for Microsoft, I did much of my day-to-day work out of my home office and just came into the main office for meetings.

To say I’m “self-motivated” would probably be an understatement, but I refuse to believe that I am unique. I believe that many people, especially in the technology industry, are just as motivated and that all they really need is strong leadership and someone who trusts them. What matters is what they accomplish, and not that they came to the office from 9 AM to 5 PM.

Here are just a few of the benefits of allowing employees to work from home:

Better productivity. The famous chats around the watercooler that everyone talks about can be informative. However, in my experience, they are often filled with irrelevant company gossip and grousing. And, all offices have at least one “Chatty Cathy” (or Charlie) that spends hours a day hanging over cube walls talking to co-workers and disrupting the flow of business.

Factor in the time that employees will save in not having to commute and you could have hundreds of added hours of productive work time without adding headcount.

Lower costs. Less people in the office means that you can cut down on the office space you need. In addition, you cut down on other amenities you provide in the office such as coffee, tea, etc. You do need to factor in increased phone costs but there are ways to keep those costs down as well.

Employee satisfaction. This is a given. Most employees love the freedom to work out of their home and come into the office when needed.

Better get used to it anyway.
I never understood any IT company’s reluctance to let some of their employees work from home – even if that home is on the other side of the world. We work all day with customers, suppliers, alliance partners, and resellers – most of whom we see face-to-face maybe once or twice a year. Most of our interactions are over the phone or computer by necessity. If we can learn to work effectively with these people, why can’t we work more effectively with our own co-workers in the same way?

In addition, many companies are starting to outsource work such as support, development and even marketing to lower costs providers in emerging countries such as India and China. We have no choice but to learn how to collaborate with these individuals using technology and not relying on face-to-face interactions.

My experience is largely with software companies. I realize that not every company culture is conducive to allowing their employees to work from home. In addition, there are just some jobs that need to be in an office.

But nowadays I’ve even seen support specialists, a role that everyone assumes would need to be in the office, working from their homes. Technology has made these arrangements possible. Calls can be routed to the specialist whose line is open regardless of where he or she sits in the world. Support specialists can be online helping a customer, accessing a central knowledgebase, and even helping one another over Instant Messenger while they work together to try to solve a customer’s problem.

Again, not for everyone, but many more companies are exploring this arrangement. I’d love to hear if you’ve tried it and if it worked for you.

Are book publishers behind the times?

I run across several books a week that I realy want to read on sales, marketing or business topics. Unfortunately, the inventory managers at my local bookstore don't seem to have the same interests that I do. And, I don't think my local library has bought a new book in the last ten years.

I can buy these books online, of course, but that requires that I actually wait for the book to be sent to me. Even overnight might be too long if I have a flight to China that leaves in the next hour and am looking for a good book to keep me occupied.

I would spend thousands of dollars a year on books if they were just in downloadable form. It could be e-books. It could even be audio books (unabridged please) that I could load onto my ipod. I don't care, I just want them now.

So why do book publishers insist on going through the traditional order of publishing - first hard cover, then paperback, and maybe once in a blue moon onto audio. Is it just me, or is this industry missing an opportunity?

Need to Cut Costs? Part 3

As promised, in Part 3, I will move up the ladder to the tactics that senior management is usually responsible for. It’s possible that midlevel managers can also take some of these approaches in some organizations. But, regardless of who is responsible, the decision to use these cost cutting measures should not be taken lightly.

As in Part 1 and Part 2, each of these tactics are designed to help you cut costs out of marketing without cutting the meat of your programs that drive opportunities. However, these last few ideas are closely connected to organizational culture.

Evaluate the Money Pits
As promised, in Part 3, I will move up the ladder to the tactics that senior management is usually responsible for. It’s possible that midlevel managers can also take some of these approaches in some organizations. But, regardless of who is responsible, the decision to use these cost cutting measures should not be taken lightly.

As in Part 1 and Part 2, each of these tactics are designed to help you cut costs out of marketing without cutting the meat of your programs that drive opportunities. However, these last few ideas are closely connected to organizational culture.

Evaluate the Money Pits
This is similar to the sacred cows I mentioned last time, but I want to expand this to include an example for those of you who market through a channel. I’ve spent my career in business to business software sales and marketing. An example of a potential money pit in this industry is the reseller co-op program that is common to so many large software developers.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with co-op programs, many large software developers allow their VARs (Value Added Resellers) to earn funds that can be spent toward qualifying marketing campaigns or business development programs. VARs earn these funds based on their annual sales volume.

Before I make an enemy of all my friends and colleagues that work in these organizations let me say that co-op programs, in theory, are great. Ideally it should motivate resellers to increase sales. And, theoretically, VARs with higher sales are going to make more effective use of the marketing dollars.

In my twenty year career, I have never seen a co-op program that delivered a demonstrable return on investment to the software company that funds it. I believe the problem is in accountability. Usually, VARs are required to submit proposals for how they are going to spend the money. The problem is that there is no follow through to determine how the money was spent and no effort to measure the campaigns success.

No in-house marketing department would get away with spending the money that gets invested in these programs with no effort made to produce or report on results. A company under pressure to cut marketing costs should take a close look at the accountability of its co-op program. It could be far more effective to bring the marketing in-house, establish benchmarks and accountability for the campaigns, and create opportunities on behalf of the channel.

If it’s not obvious, the reason this is a senior level management decision is because companies who sell through channels rely heavily on the goodwill of their channel. Any decision that could be seen as negative by the channel needs to be evaluated carefully. And, once decided, it needs to be carefully communicated. Those of you who have been in this position know exactly what I am talking about.

The Hiring Freeze
This is a common strategy used by companies that are trying to cut costs. Usually, hiring freezes are temporary and designed to get the company through a rough quarter or two.

While managers who need to add key roles tend to hate hiring freezes, I like them for two reasons. First, it gives business leaders a chance to slow down and carefully evaluate the headcount requisitions. For publicly held software companies, revenue per employee is an important metric. Full-time headcount should not be added lightly.

Second, it stops the empire building. I have worked with more than one manager who judged their success more by the size of their team than the results they produced. Sometimes, it’s an ingrained part of the corporate culture so it’s less of a personal failing that a matter of corporate survival. However, I don’t think it is healthy for the organization and a hiring freeze is as least a temporary reprieve.

Hiring freezes are usually c-level decisions. However, managers at any level in an organization can take it upon themselves to make wise hiring decisions. Go ahead and be unique. Dare to buck the trend and produce amazing results with small teams!

I have one last suggestions, but it’s such a meaty one that I have decided to leave it for the next post. I think it deserves to stand on its own and I can’t wait to share it with you.

Need to Cut Costs? Part 2

Last Friday I shared several ideas for cutting back on marketing expenses without cutting into the meat of the programs that drive your business success. These first four suggestions were ones that marketers at any level in the organization could implement.

In this next segment, I’ll move a little higher up the corporate ladder. In most organizations, it’s the midlevel managers and higher that have the authority to carry out these next four suggestions.
Last Friday I shared several ideas for cutting back on marketing expenses without cutting into the meat of the programs that drive your business success. These first four suggestions were ones that marketers at any level in the organization could implement.

In this next segment, I’ll move a little higher up the corporate ladder. In most organizations, it’s the midlevel managers and higher that have the authority to carry out these next four suggestions.

Outsource Marketing Functions
If you’ve been reading my blog you know that I am a fan of outsourcing some of the marketing functions. It keeps revenue per FTE high, which can be an important metric if you are a public company. It keeps committed expenses low, including the overhead that comes with an FTE. And, it keeps the team more agile. I can hire the expertise that I need when I need it without commitment to a long-term relationship.

Use Interns
First let me say that I believe in paying interns. As the saying goes, “You get what you pay for.” If you hire someone as a volunteer the results will show it. The one exception to this rule may be the not for profits where there is a “cause” the intern may buy into. Those of us who are capitalists will have to shell out an hourly wage to get the results we are looking for.

Don’t just hire any intern. Look for someone who has the qualifications to fill an entry-level position in your organization. I like interns because they usually have strong technology skills and they bring in a fresh perspective. But I also look for experience with certain applications, strong communication skills, and outstanding writing skills. My interns usually do a significant amount of editing work that no one else wants to do.

The bottom-line is that you can hire two part-time interns for the same price as one full-time entry-level hire. And, with the interns, there is no long-term commitment not the full overhead associated with an FTE.

You can easily blow the intern approach by having too much sympathy with your interns as they approach graduation. I have seen many seasoned managers move heaven and earth to hire someone “they like” on as a full-time employee even though they didn’t really need to add that role.

You are giving interns great on-the-job experience and I hope a significant amount of mentoring. Help them develop their skills while they work for you, but don’t compound your expense issues by feeling obligated to hire them. And, please, for their sake don’t dangle that carrot in front of them unless there is a very good chance that will have a position to offer them.

Put Everyone on a “Plan”
In Part 1 talked about setting metrics that directly link to the company’s objectives. When it comes time to start cutting back on marketing, it’s time to start evaluating everyone’s job performance against their goals and pay rates. I hate to sound heartless but you can’t afford the employees that hang on year after year without providing any real value.

Some corporations make a practice of “stack ranking” everyone and cutting off the bottom 10% every year. That probably seems a little harsh to most but in the corporate environment they’ve built, it’s expected. Even if you don’t go to that extreme, you should evaluate every employee by the value they add. If you, or their direct manager, can’t explain how their performance drives business objectives you’ve got an employee who needs better management or redeployment – potentially in another organization.

Another individual in this a category is the seasoned worker who has been in the same position for years and because of yearly merit increases is now paid far in excess of what the job is worth.

These can be sensitive issues to deal with. You should involve your HR manager if you are planning to “manage an employee out of the company.”

In my next post, I’ll move up the corporate ladder again and share ideas that may require even more authority to be carried out.

Need to Cut Costs? Part 1

For some reason marketing is always an attractive place for businesses to cut costs. I put the blame partially, or maybe even entirely, on us as owners of marketing for not making the link between marketing and business objectives more obvious.

For some reason, many marketers hate to measure their efforts. Maybe they see it as a measure of their success or failure instead of the success or failure of the tactic. But, if you don’t measure your marketing metrics that have a direct link on the success of the business, qualified opportunities for example, you’re always going to be at risk when it comes time to “streamline the business.”

O.K. enough admonishing everyone to measure, measure, measure. You are probably already familiar with my passion for metrics anyway. Let’s say it’s too late and you’ve been asked to cut back. Where do you start?

In this first segment I will focus on ideas that can be implemented no matter where you are in the corporate structure. These ideas may help you trim the fat out of your programs without sacrificing performance. In the next segment, I’ll focus on ideas that are designed more for the manager and senior manager level.

Go Electronic
Direct mailings through the U.S. postal service must still work in some sectors because I am still receiving them. It’s been years since I looked at one. If you are still doing “snail mail” direct mail, please measure you’re return on these. The cost of a physical mailer is significantly more than the cost of an html mailing.

Are you still printing out expensive brochures so you can hand them out to barely interested prospects? At any given trade show you can burn through hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in printed collateral and not see an ounce of return. Why not save the money on brochures and buy memory sticks with your logo on them to hand out to interested prospects. These memory sticks can be preloaded with all of your relevant materials. And, they will be saved far longer than your expensive four color brochure.

Establish an Identity
One marketer I know was recreating every campaign piece and every piece of sales material from scratch. As she put it, “Isn’t creative supposed to be creative?”

This is just bad branding. If you want to build awareness for your identity you need to reuse it. Even if one brand crosses multiple target markets, you can still reuse the same basic templates. Obviously, some of the messaging changes and you might change some graphics, but this is a lot easier and a lot less expensive than starting from scratch.

Measure Everything
Did I mention this already? You need to know which campaigns and tactics are providing the greatest return so you know which ones to keep and which ones to cut. This will be vital information to have if you need to defend any of these investments to management.

Consider Sacrificing the Sacred Cows
Are there things you do just because you’ve always done them? For example, I see many companies attend trade shows year after year, although the best result they can show is that they had “lots of good conversations with prospects” – but no sales. Attendance is justified year after year because they feel they are building awareness. There are a lot less expensive ways to build awareness.

If trade shows participation can be directly linked to sales, by all means, keep it on your marketing mix. But, don’t do these things just because it’s been part of the mix for years.

Web 2.0 ... It's a state of mind

On one of the marketing forums I belong to, young marketers often lament that they’ve been asked to put together a Web 2.0 marketing plan. “Where do I start?” they ask.

Some talk about Web 2.0 as though it’s a specific piece of software that went through a major upgrade. Others talk about Web 2.0 from their own unique area of expertise such as search engine optimization or social media.

But, Web 2.0 isn’t so specific nor so narrow as either one of those. To find a definition, I went to one of the tools that Web 2.0 made possible.

According to Wikipedia…

Web 2.0 is a term describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies. The term became notable after the first O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004.[2][3] Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use the Web.

Hmmm. While technically accurate, this description doesn’t begin to capture the revolution that Web 2.0 represents.

Does anyone else remember the circa 1984 Apple Macintosh Introduction commercial? In this spot a woman with a sledgehammer busts into an Orwellian gathering of drably dressed people presumable being brainwashed by the individual droning to them from a super sized screen. In dramatic fashion, the woman does a superbly delivered hammer throw right into the middle of the screen.

It was a great commercial for Apple because the Macintosh dragged ordinary individuals out of a ho-hum world of computerized mindlessness and into a place where they could actually enjoy using their computer.

A similar revolution is taking place with Web 2.0. People are breaking through their static ways of thinking about how they interact with one another, and with whom they can interact, and developing a whole new way of interacting.

The best I can do is to give you some examples of what’s happening now.

Wikipedia – as I already mentioned, is one of my favorites. It’s a free online encyclopedia where anyone can contribute and provide edits to articles. Today, there are more than 2 million articles in English and more than 10 million articles in more than 250 languages. Who would ever have thought this was possible?

LinkedIn – my favorite social networking site. These sites take the concept of “six degrees of separation” and put it to practical use. Apparently, I am three degrees of separation from each of the Presidential candidates. Of course, not everyone is on LinkedIn yet. If I wanted to get a message to the Dalai Lama, for example, I’d have to try another way.

Twitter – takes the concept of Instant Messenger and opens it up to the electronically gregarious. You can tell complete strangers what you are thinking or doing as long as you can do it in fewer than 140 characters. Of course, you can also use it to connect with important business contacts that you would never have met any other way.

Blogs - If you’ve been following the political process you know what a force these people have become. However, blogging has become an amazingly easy way to get your opinions on anything shared with the world if you’re so inclined.

Web Tools – Corporate web pages have gone from static e-brochures to interactive sites where you can engage your prospect. If I can’t find your business online, don’t count on me to go back to the phone book. Eventually, I’ll get to the point where I won’t do business with any business that doesn’t allow me to book my own service, such as a haircut or dentist appointment, online.

Personal websites are also becoming much more common and much easier to create. I remember when we first built a website for my husband’s online storefront ten years ago. He bought a huge book on HTML and studied it. Now, there are all sorts of tools that allow you to set up your own website in less than a weekend. Any HTML you do need is usually already available so that all you do is cut and paste. For example LinkedIn provides the HTML for a button that you can add to invite others to review your profile right from your site.

I predict that more and more people will start their own websites showcasing their careers and accomplishments to use as an interactive electronic resume. Won’t that be a nice change from the static black and white resumes that never represent anyone adequately anyway.

The list of Web 2.0 innovations could go on and on. The point is that Web 2.0 is more about busting down the limits of the human imagination than it is about the technology itself. It’s taking the technology that is available today, coupled with dramatic increases in computing power and availability, and reaching out to the world in ways never imaged before.

So, the next time your boss asks you to develop the web 2.0 marketing plan I hope you are excited. He or she is recognizing that we’re on the verge of a new frontier in human interaction. You should see it as a vote of confidence in your ability to tackle this new opportunity and make some sense of it.

Just open your mind to all the possibilities and explore. Some opportunities will make sense right away while others may take some time and experimentation. Not everything will last and it may be hard to keep up with all the new tools available. But, what an exciting time to be in marketing!

Graciously Accepting Input

Yesterday’s “thought of the day” on the Forbes website was priceless.

“Listening to advice often accomplishes far more than heeding it.”
Malcolm Forbes

Now those are words for any marketer to live by.

Your colleagues are less likely to have an opinion of what color the company should paint the walls of the office than they are on your materials, product plans, pricing, and whatever other marketing deliverables you are responsible for.

No one has a corner on brilliance. As marketers we get great ideas from those who are not trained in marketing, but may have a unique vantage point. We need to be accepting of this input because you never know where the next great idea will come from.

On the other hand, you’ll also get your share of half-baked ideas from people who don’t understand that you’re marketing to a target audience and not to them. Who cares if the sales team thinks you should get more creative with the web site. Can your prospect easily find what they are looking for? Is the site interactive enough to allow you to engage with the prospect, but not so much that it becomes annoying? Does the message resonate with the prospect and entice them to respond to your call to action? That’s what matters and not the opinion of the head of sales who thinks that you should use pictures of ‘widgets” instead of people.

I find that it helps to have ways of responding to half-baked ideas. The following phrases are nonconfrontational but also noncommittal:

• “Tell me more.” I used to say, “Can you elaborate?” But I found this to come across as confrontational so I switched to plainer English.

• “That’s an interesting perspective.” “Point of view” is also more confrontational than “perspective” because it implies a difference of opinion. “Perspective” implies both are valid.

• “That’s good to know.” This is useful when someone gives you a fact that you know is rubbish but it doesn’t serve a purpose to confront them.

• “Let me give that some thought.” Since those with the strongest opinions are also often the most relentless, this helps to get them off the topic. It’s helpful if you can then comment on something that brings the conversation back to a more productive topic.

All of these phrases show that you are accepting input but they don’t promise that you will act on it. On the other hand, they also leave you with room to consider the opinions offered and to change your own mind. Nothing’s worse than deciding that someone else’s idea is better after fervently, and publicly, arguing against the proposed approach.

A marketing professional needs to have the humility to accept input and understand that others may have better ideas than their own. But, they also need to have the emotional maturity to accept input without debate, even of they don’t intend to act on it. Finally, they need to have enough confidence in their understanding of marketing principles that they can carry out the strategies and tactics that they know will allow them to achieve the company objectives.

Shout Out to Japanesepod101.com

Do you need to learn a new language to advance your career? Or, do you just want to become more familiar with another culture? I’d like to take a moment to give a shout out to one of my favorite sites – www.japanesepod101.com. I am in no way connected to JapanesePod101.com or its parent company. I just love the site.

I started learning Japanese last summer, mainly because I am interested in the culture. Bunmei ni kyomi ga arimasu. Or, at least I think that’s the way you say it in Japanese. I welcome any corrections. While my marketing responsibilities don’t yet extend into Japan, they easily could someday. For now, it's just a very satisfying hobby.

I’m the type who wants to understand the grammar of a language. I suppose it comes from being a marketer and needing to craft content carefully. I want to not only be able to use a language – I want to understand the correct useage. For this, I comb through fairly dry books and internet resources.

Japanesepod101.com does have some of the basic grammar, but what it does is add some fun. The lessons are engaging and informative. They are easily paced at about ten minutes each so I can pop my ipod on while I do some mundane chore. Or, I can listen to a series of them when I go out for a run.

Best of all, interspersed between the language lessons, are culture lessons. These give important clues to Japanese culture such as the practice of “warikan” or dividing a restaurant bill equally between everyone at the table regardless of who ordered what.

The podcasts, several hundred of them, are FREE for download. That’s simply amazing. There are also two paid levels of subscription where you can get access to more grammar explanations, writing tools, and other learning materials.

If you visit the Japanesepod101.com site and scroll down to the bottom of the page, you will see other sites for other languages – French, Italian, Arabic, German, Spanish, Korean, etc.

Thank You Blogger!

I want to send a quick thanks to Blogger, the developer of the tool that I chose for my own blog. They have added the ability to schedule a post. Now, I can write to my heart's content when my muse comes to visit and I don't have to remember to space out my posts. Yeah!

Now, if you could just find a way for me to easily post an MP3 file without hosting my own site.

The Marketing Personality

In a recent post I mentioned that I look for a “marketing personality” when I hire marketers. This is more important to me than a specific degree or where you went to school. Of course, results trump everything, and personality is not always an indicator of talent. That being said, the interview is a small snapshot from which you need to judge whether a candidate can do a job. Personality is going to be one of the factors you will use.

So what is a marketing personality?

The list of traits below are the ones I try to judge when I interview a potential marketer. One exception to that would be in the role of product managers. Product managers in the software industry need to work with developers so their personality can be a little more analytical and perhaps a little less outgoing.

Marketing Personality Traits

1. High-energy, but not spastic. Maybe this is a little bit of my personal energy levels clouding my judgment, but I think marketers should be high-energy. If I’m bored just talking to someone, I can’t imagine they are going to be able to produce anything that wouldn’t bore the customer. On the other hand, if they are a little too high-energy, I have a problem imaging them sitting down and getting the job done.

2. Task oriented. Almost everything in marketing is a project and can be measured. I like it when marketers talk about the different projects they worked on and what was accomplished.

3. Focused. A storyteller is good. It gives me a sign that the individual is creative. But don’t stray too far off the topic. One individual I interviewed wanted to talk about Moore’s law. While interesting, it was irrelevant.

4. Articulate. This may seem obvious but there is one caveat. People who are articulate with the spoken word are not always good writers and vice versa. If I am looking for a writer I will judge them more by their samples. If I need someone who can represent the product verbally, I will judge them by the words they use in the interview.

5. Plainspoken. You may have the IQ of Einstein but don’t let that come across in the words you choose. Marketers need to be able to communicate with all sorts of people. Simple words are usually the best.

6. Meticulous. If you’ve read my previous post you know I take issue with typos and grammatical errors. I know they happen. Given the quantity of content that I’ve written, I am sure you could find a few in my posts. However, marketers need to pay attention to the smallest detail. If I see more than one, especially if they are obvious errors, it’s not a good sign.

These are the traits I look for. I’m sure there are others that I’ve missed, just as I’m sure that arguments could be made against some of these. Let me hear from you.

Something to think about...

Are emoticons the electronic equivalent of dotting your "i" with a little heart?

Maybe that's a little harsh, but they are a current trend that you should be careful with. While I do use them from time to time in emails, I try not to use them too much. To use them all the time seems a little immature. Either that, or an indiciation that you need to do a better job wording your emails so that they aren't misunderstood.

The Marketing Survivalist