In this chapter, authors Treacy and Wiersema discuss the different kinds of value customers want, offer guidance for companies trying to find the one they should excel in and provide lots of examples of market leading companies that have found success through knowing what their customers want and providing that value. In the beginning of the chapter, three kinds of value customers want are defined.

“For one category of customers, the most important value of a product is its performance. There’s a limit to how much they will pay, of course, but price is not the most important consideration.

For a second category of customers, the most important value is personalized service and advice. Once again, price is a consideration (no one wants to overpay), but it’s not the driving force behind their choice of product or service. They prefer to pay a little more to receive better attention.

For a third category of customers, the cost of a product is the primary consideration. Total cost begins with price but doesn’t end there. Customers don’t want to pay a very low price initially only to have the product cost them in the long run because of constant repairs. the total cost refers to how much the customers will pay for the entire time that they own the product. Thus, dependability is as much a component of low cost as is initial price.”

The authors go on to say that for a company to be successful, they cannot solely focus on one value and ignore the others. Also, companies that try to excel in all areas and be everything to everyone are rarely successful. So that got me thinking. I think there are lots of successful companies that do more than one of these well, they just know the right value to advertise. Knowing what your customers/prospects value and then letting them know that you fulfill that value is key. I think I might do some testing to see what value really resonates with my prospects.

How do you communicate to your prospects that your product or service fulfills the value they are looking for?

Lots of good stuff in this chapter. Examples and case studies are mostly B2C, but the concepts work well for B2B Marketing as well.

Emanuel Rosen defines BUZZ as “the sum of all comments about a certain product that are exchanged among people at any given time.” He goes on to list why buzz is powerful today – noise, skepticism, and connectivity.

• Noise – “Customers can hardly hear you.” Marketing and Advertising are everywhere. There’s no escaping it. We get it in the mail, we see banner ads online, when was the last time you searched Google and didn’t see a paid ad pop up? And let’s not forget all of the email spam we dread every day. As Marketers, we must figure out a way to stand out in the crowd if we want to be heard (or seen). This creates buzz.
• Skepticism – “Customers are skeptical.” This isn’t surprising. They have been bombarded by marketing and advertising everywhere they go, all promising to the best results. Who should they believe or trust? Rosen mentions a survey that illustrates this point – “37% of the public considers information from a software company ‘very or somewhat believable’.” Wow!
• Connectivity – Today people are easily connected. We all have access to new tools that enable us to better share information. As Marketers, wouldn’t we rather them talk about us to our face instead of behind our back? Create places and opportunities for people to speak out about your products or services. Be involved.

Rosen goes on to say “If you want to create buzz, you have to know who your customers are and how you are reaching them. Start by answering these questions:

• From whom do your customers typically learn about your product?
• What do people say when they recommend your product?
• How fast does information about your product spread as compared with competitors’ products?
• Who are the network hubs?
• Where does the information hit a roadblock?
• How many sources of information does a customer rely on and which ones are most important?
• What other kinds of information spread through the same networks?”

Not only will these questions help us create buzz, they’ll also be helpful as we are launching new products or services, introducing new features, and thinking about other social marketing strategies.

Generating buzz doesn’t just happen overnight. It takes planning, seeding and well thought out execution. A good seeding program can be the launching pad to huge success. Rosen listed four rules for building a successful seeding program, these are definitely worth sharing and talking about.

1. “Look beyond the usual suspects. Identify social circles, industry segments, or academic disciplines in which people don’t talk about your product or service, and seed them.”
2. “Put products in their hands.” Let your audience touch or experience firsthand what you are offering. If your solution isn’t one you can easily experience, offer a free demo or show real results via a proven customer success story.
3. “Reduce the price barrier. Make the product free for seed recipients if you can, or at least offer a significant discount.”
4. “Listen for silence. When you hear silence, the network is dead. Pay attention to dead networks and do further seeding to wake them up.”

Remember, the goal of seeding is to “plant the seed to stimulate discussion in multiple networks simultaneously.”

At ReachForce we are rolling out new SaaS tools that enable Sales and Marketing teams to better identify and target their market “sweet spots”. Here’s how we are trying to create some buzz around these new product offerings –

• We typically sell to Marketers but with these new SaaS tools Sales teams might be a better target audience so we are doing some test messaging via email programs to a custom role-based list of Sales decision makers.
• We are offering these people free trials of the real time analytics software. We started out offering the new tools bundled with ReachForce data services and decided that stand alone, the analytics tools added value and created a sense of wanting more (data services). So we now are offering the new tools free for a limited time. We are hoping this is going to create buzz for both the software and data services.
• We are also experimenting with some very targeted advertising programs. Hoping these are going to drive some awareness as well as generate some prospect engagement.
• We are tracking our buzz program by measuring how many people actually log in and try out the free software tools. So far so good and we’re just getting started!

With all of these things we are trying to create buzz that ultimately turns into measurable revenue.

Anyone else actively working on a B2B word-of-month campaign? If so, I’d love to hear all about it.

I’m sure all of us have read Purple Cow at some point but it was nice to revisit the high points. It is hard to believe that what Seth was talking about at the time was so innovative when it now seems like common sense, at least to us smart marketers.

Purple Cow is all about creating an innovative product (or service) and marketing it to the right influencers, or “sneezers” if you will. Unfortunately for a lot of us, we are not involved in the product planning or design or we simply are trying to market a product that was created long before there was a marketing department. I believe that many of the rules for creating a purple cow can be translated to creating marketing campaigns. Here are six ideas from Purple Cow on how to change or product (or campaign):

• Think small – “don’t try to make a product for everybody, because that is a product for nobody.” For marketers this means creating messages specific to niche audiences. Target a specific message to a focused audience. No spray and pray, ’nuff said.
• Outsource – If your internal resources can’t think outside the box for a new creative campaign, you might try using an outside vendor. If the campaign is successful, your internal resource will learn to shape up or ship out.
• Build and use a permission asset – Create a user community to allow your customers to communicate with each other and you. If you do not have enough customer to warrant creating your own community, use one on Facebook or LinkedIn. At the very least have a customer advisory board to keep you in check.
• Copy, not from your industry, but from any other industry – B2B Marketers steal from our B2C cousins all the time. Look for a company that is running a remarkable campaign and copy it.
• Identify a competitor who’s generally regarded as “at the edges,” and outdo it - Aren’t we always trying to outdo our competition. My advice, make your campaign remarkable enough that your competition can’t copy or outdo you.
• Ask, “Why not?” – Wacky ideas are good. Always ask yourself, “why not?”

As I was reading this chapter, I kept thinking of online user communities. I don’t know if we are ready yet here at ReachForce, but I am intrigued by Metcalfe’s Law. “According to Metcalfe, the usefulness of a network equals the square of the number of users. Whatever you create becomes more valuable as more people use it. And the more valuable it it becomes, the more users it attracts.” This is obvious when you look at online social and networking communities like Facebook and LinkedIn. Facebook would have no value to me if none of my friends had profiles, but as more and more people join the value increases for each user, causing more users to join.

Being a marketer at a small company, I am curious how this law translates to B2B customer communities. The number of users for a B2B company community is limited by the number of customers. It cannot grow as organically as a community site like Facebook can. Should then small companies create user communities within a larger community? Have you had success starting a user community within Facebook or LinkedIn? Do you as a marketer belong to any online marketing communities?

This chapter in the book couldn’t have come up at a better time! Tonight I’m going to see Geoffrey Moore speak at a Texchange event here in Austin, TX. I hear he’s got a new book coming out and he’s going to be previewing it tonight. I’ll be sure to share anything interesting with The B2B Lead readers later this week.

Now on with Crossing the Chasm – I’m guessing most of you have read this book, probably back in the late ‘90s. Ten plus years later we as Marketers are still challenged with crossing the chasm from early adopters to more mass markets.

If you’re working a start up, make sure you read this chapter. As start up Marketers we must remember that the marketing tactics and strategies we used to acquire our initial customers may not work as well for the majority of our audience.

We do everything we can to get these first customers in the door and ensuring they are happy. But this isn’t a strategy for growing into the mass markets. As Marketers we must analyze what is working with these lighthouse customers and use this to figure out our real market.

Here’s a piece from the book I thought was worth sharing, a little something for all of us to think about as we are moving into mass markets or as we are considering a new vertical or market segment.

“In the context of this book, the work marketing means taking actions to create, grow, maintain, or defend real markets, not to create illusions. For high tech organizations that real market is defined as

• a set of actual or potential customers
• for a given set of products or services
• who have a common set of needs or wants, and
• who reference each other when making a buying decision”

I think this is a good basic definition of marketing and a great list of guidelines for us to consider as we are putting together programs for our audiences.

Anyone else have anything that really stood out?

In this chapter Guy Kawasaki uses some of his own great experiences (as well as other well known marketing moves made by companies we all know) to outline 11 ideas for driving your competition crazy. I’ve highlighted a few here for you.

1. First Things First: Know Thyself – Ask yourself these questions:

• What business are we really in?
• Where do you see your business in 5, 10, 20 and 50 years?
• If prospects don’t buy from you, from whom do they buy?

It’s important to keep these things in mind as we are building our strategies to drive our competitors crazy. Remember not to lose focus by trying to be everything to everyone.

2. Next Step: Know Thy Customer – A couple of more good questions to ask yourself:

• Who is using your product?
• How are products in your category used by customers?
• Are regulations or societal pressures changing your marketplace?

There are also some recommendations on how to go about getting to know your customers on page 152, check them out.

3. Know Thy Enemy – Ways to Get to Know Them (only sharing a few here, check out the rest on page 153 and 154):

• Become a customer – if possible, this is a great idea. This way you get exposure to how they treat their customers as well as any new product/service information.
• Talk to your competitor’s customers – This can do nothing but help you figure out ways to drive your competitor crazy. When talking to your competitors’ customers always remember you are representing your own company too.
• Attend trade shows and meetings – companies use events to announce new strategic direction, new products and customer wins.

4. Focus on Customers – “The best way to drive your competition crazy is to make your customers happy.” Enough said.

5. Concentrate on a Decisive Point – Find a Niche or Provide Alternatives
More great examples here on pages 156 and 157.

6. Turn Customers in Evangelists –

• Create a cause – Evangelists need something to believe in.
• Find the Right People – Go to the end users of your products not executive management, they’ll help spread your word much faster!
• Don’t Forget Employees – All employees should be Evangelists.

Don’t stop here, go back to your book and check out the remainder of the list. This one was a quick read, great ideas we should all consider when building out our lead generation programs.

Any of Kawasaki’s other ideas stand out for you?

Be sure to check out Kawasaki’s latest project, Alltop. And don’t forget to look for The B2B Lead on marketing.alltop.com!

I found that the first step in the ladder really stood out to me: Find Prospects and Pull Them In. Raphel and Raphel write “Start by asking yourself, ‘Where do most of my current customers live?’ More likely than not, that’s where your prospects live.” You would think that this doesn’t really translate to B2B marketing, after all you probably won’t being buying a database of households in a zip code for a direct mail campaign but this theory can be applied to your business. Think of it as “What do my customers have in common?” because my prospects probably share those characteristics. It could be geography but more likely it is industry, revenue range or employee size.

By evaluating your customer wins, you can build a profile of your perfect customer to help you target new prospects. Warning, shameless ReachForce plug: We at ReachForce are offering free customer wins analytics through the Appexchange. All you salesforce.com users can log in using your salesforce account to see a profile of where you are winning in the market and see how many more companies are out there that match that profile.

We’ve all heard of the authors of Chapter 7, Peppers and Rogers, and although they are typically more B2C focused there’s a few good points in this chapter worth mentioning. Whether we’re B2B or B2C, marketing to our customers is important. We all know or have at least heard that 80% of our business comes from 20% of our customers. So are we doing enough to keep the 20% that generate the most revenue for us?

As B2B Marketers, we are now able to personalize almost everything we do (one-to-one marketing). This is especially true when it comes to marketing to our customers. We are able to call out specifics about each individual customer engagement and tailor our messaging directly to them. Peppers and Rogers list 5 questions we need to be able to answer before building out these personalized programs.

“To increase your share of customer, one customer at a time, you need answers to these questions:

1. Which customers are the most valuable ones, and why?
2. Which of your current customers aren’t worth catering to at all?
3. Which customers will give you more business by referring others to you?
4. Which prospects would you like to convert to customers?
5. What types of consumers [leads] do you consider real prospects?”

ReachForce Promo alert – as you are pondering these questions and trying to figure out how to get the most accurate answers, check out ReachForce Insight Lite.

My biggest takeaway from this book was that the Japanese see everyone in the company as marketers and that often they do no even employ a marketing department. (Not to self: must find new career if moving to Japan) I think that this can be applied to any B2B company. I know here at ReachForce we have multiple departments working directly with customers and other than writing case studies, I have very little interaction with customers. We do obviously have current customer programs, as evidenced by this book club, but our sales, operations and customer success management teams are really on the front lines and know the most about what our customers and prospects think about us.

As marketers, we should use this to our advantage. We should empower those customer facing teams to know what we are doing in marketing and make sure they are well educated on any upcoming product launches. They can then in turn empower our customers with this information. These teams are also a useful source for gathering feedback. They can be especially helpful in determining new products and features. Developing personaes is very popular right now and they are the best source to tell you about your customers. Knowing as much information as possible about your customers will not only help you to further develop those relationships but to also help you find more prospects that match their profile.

Did you have any takeaways from this chapter or have any personal experience working with Japanese companies?

While this chapter is obviously more applicable to B2C sales, I think it does have a few tricks that translate to B2B Marketing. One of Thomas Stanley’s forms of networking is called Give Information; Get Clients. Stanley lists 4 steps in this process:

1. Focus: For B2B Marketers, this means narrow your targets. Know the industries you are trying to target and the types of companies within those industries. Also, focus on the revenue range, employee size and geographies that are in your sweet spot.
2. Enhance your credibility within an industry: Make sure you are in the same places that your prospects go for information and thought leadership. These days that includes more than just industry publications. Be sure you are also commenting on the right blogs (and hopefully have your own), monitoring user communities and posting on Facebook.
3. Target the leaders of the affluent group: I would translate this to targeting the leaders in the industry. And you don’t have to create an association like Stanley suggests. Find out who has the hottest blog in the industry or latest book out and try to connect with them. Just be sure that this is a mutually beneficial relationship and not a one way street.
4. Recruit top professionals as speakers and network contacts: This doesn’t have to be limited to individuals. Work with your partners as well to create joint webinars or have a top executive from a partner be a guest blogger.

I believe that the more ways you can position yourself/your company as an industry thought leader, the more credibility you will have in the market and ultimately more customers.

Be sure to check in next week when we will be covering chapters 6 and 7.