A Day at Works

As the essence of lead generation is an understanding the right person to be targeted, the tactic is also important – just the same as STP is nothing without differentiation and 4P. The tactical level of lead generation, at least consist of:

First, valid and ‘enough’ database. For contact data, you must have at least 3 deep and 3 wide. This means you must have 3 level contacts and 3 peers for each contact, for instance to reach executive corporate Director, you must familiar by GM and his/ her secretary; while to contact a retail end customer, you need to familiar with the spouse and friend. If those deep and wide are not available, then contacting customer is risking money and time. So how to enrich our database? Buy it, or populate it through social networking and social event; both now even available on-line.

Second you need permission and an offer, generally by mail or e-mail. This permission open-up communication and create awareness and need of targeted customer. Common practice is using combination of media to bring customer deeper into relationship, for instance a mail as i) permission, and ii) information or survey to reveal his/ her need then enclosed with iii) a statement of an offering relevant to the need then a statement that the firm will contact customer a week after to follow-up. Without a permission, for instance the firm contact customer by phone directly, customer usually will feel invaded or/ and unprepared thus will result in negativity. Without a ‘bridge’ to reveal need, any offering will useless. Without offering, a contact will loose its essence, what’s in it for me (customer).

As the first is a fertile soil, the second is food for the seed (fertilizer, water, etc), then the third is irrigation; not irritation. At this level the firm need to contact customer with rich media/ channel to develop a positive experience. The media is considered rich if able to deliver and capture verbal and non-verbal message, for instance face-to-face meeting conducted by Sales person. If the firm needs an indirect media, then a phone call is the most appropriate – once again if direct contact is not available. To develop a positive experience, the firm need to communicate at head and heart level; not only communicate the competitive benefit to solve customer need but also to communicate that the firm understand and a partner for customer. The aim of head communication is positioning, the aim of heart communication is acceptance. Positioning says that our product is different and better than competitors, while acceptance grows from feeling that we are in the same side with customer.

Customer loyalty across industry is declining, driving a new paradigm of managing customer. Instead of pushing loyalty to certain product, you needs to realize that customer’s need is growing thus migration must be managed to the way profitable for the firm. In managing customer migration, you need to understand the indication of migration, and redevelop value.

But before you manage migration, you must sure whether customer migrate or defect. Defection is occurred when customer value (what value customer seek for) is remain the same but competitor offering is better. Migration is occurred when customer value is changes because:
1) customer need is changing due to changes in lifecycle and/ or social status, for instance mini sedan buyer migrate to buy medium sedan
2) customer seek variety due to active competitor, for instance apparel buyer who buy from new designer who do promotion. Based on above reason then we understand indications whether customer will migrate or not.

Value redevelopment can be conducted by many ways, from the most essential to the most superficial: 1) product re-design, 2) enhance delivery channel and 3) developing marketing program –after understanding why customer see existing offering is not relevant anymore, and whether customer will come back.
Product redesign commonly happened when the product status is decreasing, for instance Volvo is considered as vehicle chosen for executives, but as Volvo maintaining its value proposition, corporate executive nowadays changes to be younger, and casual thus making BMW more relevant. To gain back his position, then Volvo design is changing to be more casual and feminism.
Delivery channel enhancement can be conducted by enhancing frontline’s service skills, adding augmented value in delivery such as tracking system. Developing marketing program includes developing loyalty rewards, and ways to enable cross loyalty.

Technology by itself does not make anybody more productive. The idea is that technology sometime adds complexity to work environment, and every ounce of complexity dropping productivity. Secondly technology as a tool could not solve problem in people, structure and strategy.

These simple ideas, more often fail to understand by management. For instance installing a new prospecting software replacing the old manual report of daily prospecting activities at Sales Dept. The software will require special time of Salesman to input into the system, more time for Supervisor to monitor individual Salesman’s performance. Other example is how management thinks installing new technology can solve bureaucratic corporate culture; the result is from an hour of time required to write a simple letter to more than a day to do the same thing.

The funny but insightful story is how USA and Russia solve a problem of writing a note in the International Space Station: because there is no gravity thus conventional pen fails to work. Russia provide simple solution, a pencil instead of a pen developed by USA which required more money and time in development.

In Sales Dept, installation of new technology usually to ‘help’ following process: sales lead generation, sales contact, sales tracking, sales record, and sales retention. All of these process can be improved by technology, as long as giving Salesman flexibility in place and time –as well as the nature of the work, and giving Salesman more but practical support. In these 2 requirements, Japanese is more sophisticated by using work tools which is observable and always available, such as simple board using colors, and plate.

Sales in marketing field currently is treated like a step child, and the failure to recognize the importance of selling skills is not just a business, but also an academic failure

According to US Dept of Education, over the past decade, US colleges and universities have awarded approx 1.1 million MBAs. Guess how many of those MBAs were awarded with a concentration in Sales? Answer: ZERO. Guess how many colleges offer even a minor in Sales as part of an undergraduate business degree? Less than 40 – out of several thousand institutions. So no wonder that right now even in Indonesia, Salesman position is undervalued and tend to be fulfilled by high school or diploma background employees.

Why is Sales a pariah when it comes to academia?

While colleges awarded degrees in art (art, literature, etc.), many believe that because Sales is an ‘art’ therefore is not appropriate for colleges to teach and award this subject. Same reason also applied, to the one said that is because Sales is a ‘people skill’ or because too ‘airy-fairy’ and ‘vague’ to be a valid subject compared to counseling, and religion.

So why?

1. Business school are dominated by Marketing Professionals, who have a vested interest in minimizing the importance of Sales. For a Marketing Professionals, the ideal world is one where there is no need for Sales because Marketer know exactly what consumer wants, able to develop differentiated products, and consumers buy directly to manufacturers. They fail to recognize that (Consultative) Sales is the only way for customer to make sense of the complex offerings. In short Marketers believe that their role is to live ‘supply creates its own demand’
2. Academia in general considers commerce unclean.

As academia treat Sales inappropriately, 2 negative outcomes are:

1. Create Sales training industry without quality control, or standard of performance. In Indonesia, a good sales training is the one which is fun, and motivating – without any skills advancement or systematic sales strategy.
2. Lack of real Salesman, make it is impossible to have a Sales Professional. In turn it would make sales career easily insulted, and practiced without ethical standards.

Because everyone sells, it does not mean everyone can sell appropriately… same as everyone can write, does not mean everyman can be a novelist.

From customer perspective, quality is the ability of the product to fulfill its promise to solve customer’s problem. From company perspective, high quality reduces (potential) cost. Low quality yield for additional cost, high quality input, process and output do not.
When quality product or when delivery met expectation then customer will be satisfied but satisfied customer does not always come back for repurchase and spreading good word-of-mouth. This reality broke the Service Profit Chain concept.
Satisfied customer actually indifferent in his/her attitude toward the product, thus in this stage customer service initiative generally is fruitless, even increasing customer expectation or hygiene factors. Then company should aware that customer service initiative sometimes is a long and hard decision. In macro level this decision is similar to phenomenon that increasing production capacity or go to capital intensive will eventually produce less profit for the whole industry.
CRM concept as a verbose has many definitions, but simply it is an initiative to identify, keep, and develop profitable and loyal customers. CRM is advancement of CS, it ensure that customer service activities directed to the right customer, that is: who can be loyal to company as well as provide profits in the long-term relationship. CRM then make sure company effort will keep desired customer from churning, and develop this customer in term of involvement, trust and commitment (3 basic elements of attitudinal loyalty) and behavior (transaction: referral and repurchase; form of repurchase: buying the same product, other group of product or cross-selling, and buying higher margin product or up-selling).

Thus when company wants to calculate accountability of CS activities such as B’day greetings, executive lounge or simply extra discount then company should move to CRM.