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Cowboy Sales Messaging Abstract
- 1. Cowboy Sales Messaging & Ways to Avoid It Kurt Ballard
- 2. “90% of marketing collateral is considered useless by sales” Source: Aberdeen
- 3. The Conflict RISK 3 Legal Exposure! RISK 2 Lost Sales! RISK 1 Wasted Time!
- 4. Product Management:A Framework For Growing Revenue & Market Share Solutions Marketing Design/Development/QA Solutions Marketing Product Management Assess Markets Create a Strategy Plan Product Releases Design & Develop Products Rollout & Launch Products Design & Validate the User Experience Deliver Sales & Marketing Materials Ideas Emerging Technologies Market Drivers Customer Needs Align Objectives with Vision Create Target Customer Snapshot Segment & Size Markets Define Business Requirements Create Functional / Technical Requirements Deliver Training, Service & Support Materials Quantify Revenue Potential Prioritize Target Markets Create Product & Solution Roadmap Analyze Market Trends and Drivers Train Sales, Service, Support & Channel Develop Product or Service Validate, Prioritize & Set Scope Requirements Value Chain Verify Infrastructure Readiness Assess Competition Identify Strategic Partners Create Product Release Plan Test & Assure Quality Map Core Competencies to Market Segments Align Operational Initiatives Approve & Communicate the Plan Validate Commercial Readiness Execute Marketing Plan Release to Marketing / Production Determine Most Viable Markets Identify Risks Approve & Communicate the Strategy
- 5. Positioning & Messaging Workshops San Jose – September 3 Houston – September 10 Los Angeles – September 24 Boston – October 1 New York City – October 8
Editor's Notes
- I am Kurt Ballard, a partner at ZIGZAG Marketing. I have spent 25 years in sales and marketing roles for large and small firms including General Motors, Hewitt and emerging technology and services companies. I’ve started businesses, bought/sold them, and closed them in 4 countries. That is a true global rap sheet. Most recently I was CMO at a global software firm and ran the sales, branding and strategy worldwide. I am a story teller. And our story today is about Cowboys.I have a confession to make: I have been a Cowboy.I’ve worked with Cowboys in here in the US, in Australia and even the U.K. Cowboys are everywhere.Today we’ll discuss Cowboy Messaging and some ways to corral it.
- Three of the most common risks associated with cowboy messaging are: Wasted Time. Product Marketing is creating tools of no value, while sales people spend valuable selling time creating their own messaging. This is costly on so many levels, especially time. In today’s economy sales pipelines are thin and qualified opportunities are more difficult to find. How much time and resources are lost creating tools that no one uses? Show study results. Lost sales. Confused buyers extend sales cycles and ultimately go to a competitor or do nothing at all. As buyers research potential vendors to learn who will best meet their needs they seek solutions to problems. Sales people too often talk all about the product and never mention how it will help the customer. This usually drives business away. Sales are being lost to competitors and to everyone’s arch rival “the status quo.” B2C - GM, Starbucks - missing the mark, B2B – Kodak – getting it right. Potential misrepresentation. Claims and statements of the cowboy messages often appear in proposals, statements of work and even customer contracts where the claims can become legally binding. Well-meaning sales people overpromise in the sales process and customers hold them to their words. Once the deal is won others must deliver on those promises while your sales person is off to the next deal. I’ve lived through this myself with a F500 client. Over promising and under delivering creates ill will at best and legal liabilities at worst. Any other risks come to mind?
- This is our framework, it’s a measureable, scalable and repeatable process product companies can use to build products and sales tools people will actually want.The objective is to get a process in place that works for you.They can be downloaded on our website.
- If the divide between your product marketing and sales teams has created more work with no visible uptick in revenue, contact ZIGZAG Marketing for an onsite Positioning & Messaging for Sales workshop. Here is our summer schedule. If this is an area that resonates with you please join us for our workshop on June 25th in Atlanta. We will delve more deeply into the process that produces results. Register at www.zigzagmarketing.com