In order to have a successful B2B marketing and communications strategy, you have to understand your Customers' Elevator Rant--the issues and challenges they're talking about on the elevator when you're not around.
This presentation provides a simple methodology for uncovering the Customer Elevator Rant and some tips on how to incorporate it into your B2B marketing and communications approach.
For more information, feel free to visit the London, Ink web site at www.londonink.com.
The document discusses shifts in strategic thinking for brands over time. It describes three phases:
1) The past focused on one-way brand messaging to consumers.
2) Currently, brands aim to engage in two-way partnerships as human/brand relationships changed with social media. New strategies focus on understanding consumer tensions and creating mutual benefits.
3) The future may see further shifts where brands emphasize access over ownership and collective, coherent purpose over separate brand and consumer identities. The goal is engaged communities united around shared goals.
Agency from Scratch is a call to action for traditional advertising agencies to re-visit their business model and their way of working to get in shape for today's demands on the creative industry. It is not a program about values and missions and other fluffy stuff that's nice to discuss. It is a program about habits, designed to change behaviour rather than just written commitments which are - in a fundamentally opportunistic service industry - rather irrelevant in praxis.
Fiddit is a startup that provides customized shirts for men. Over five days, Fiddit tested different customer segments, value propositions, channels and found the following:
1) Early to mid-career cost-conscious men in select industries were the most promising customer segment.
2) Offering an appropriately priced, convenient service with a high level of customization was the best value proposition.
3) Mobile apps and pop-up stores showed the most potential as customer acquisition channels.
4) Continued customer discovery was needed to refine the segment, test pricing tolerance, and determine if bundling products or a recurring revenue model would be beneficial.
The document discusses the importance of discovering customers' "elevator rant" by listening to their perspectives through one-on-one interviews. It recommends conducting 15-20 interviews of 30-45 minutes each with a mix of clients and prospects. Sample questions are provided to learn about customers' business priorities, industry reputation, and how the company's products are used. Learning customers' views can provide insights, new opportunities, referrals, and help ensure the company stays relevant to their needs. Other methods like job shadowing, product demos, and surveys are also recommended to understand the customer experience.
Bob London, president and founder of London Ink, advocates that companies should listen to customers instead of focusing only on their own perspectives. He recommends companies conduct 10-20 in-depth interviews with customers and prospects to discover their "elevator rants" or real issues. By asking insightful questions without being defensive, companies can gain fresh perspectives and insights to differentiate themselves and grow their business. London provides examples of how firms have improved their marketing and sales by truly listening to customers.
Bob London presented to students in the University of Maryland's Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship on various ways to understand the world from their customers' perspective.
The knowledge of jesus 3rd lesson, jesus the servant englishחגי חאמד
Mark presents Jesus as a servant to the Romans, drawing on references to a calf from Revelation 4:7 and crimson/red from Exodus 27:16. As a servant, Jesus healed the sick, saved lives, and died for humanity, bearing our infirmities and sorrows as Isaiah 53 describes. Jesus' work as a servant culminated in his resurrection, and he commanded his disciples to continue serving in his name by spreading the gospel message around the world.
The document discusses shifts in strategic thinking for brands over time. It describes three phases:
1) The past focused on one-way brand messaging to consumers.
2) Currently, brands aim to engage in two-way partnerships as human/brand relationships changed with social media. New strategies focus on understanding consumer tensions and creating mutual benefits.
3) The future may see further shifts where brands emphasize access over ownership and collective, coherent purpose over separate brand and consumer identities. The goal is engaged communities united around shared goals.
Agency from Scratch is a call to action for traditional advertising agencies to re-visit their business model and their way of working to get in shape for today's demands on the creative industry. It is not a program about values and missions and other fluffy stuff that's nice to discuss. It is a program about habits, designed to change behaviour rather than just written commitments which are - in a fundamentally opportunistic service industry - rather irrelevant in praxis.
Fiddit is a startup that provides customized shirts for men. Over five days, Fiddit tested different customer segments, value propositions, channels and found the following:
1) Early to mid-career cost-conscious men in select industries were the most promising customer segment.
2) Offering an appropriately priced, convenient service with a high level of customization was the best value proposition.
3) Mobile apps and pop-up stores showed the most potential as customer acquisition channels.
4) Continued customer discovery was needed to refine the segment, test pricing tolerance, and determine if bundling products or a recurring revenue model would be beneficial.
The document discusses the importance of discovering customers' "elevator rant" by listening to their perspectives through one-on-one interviews. It recommends conducting 15-20 interviews of 30-45 minutes each with a mix of clients and prospects. Sample questions are provided to learn about customers' business priorities, industry reputation, and how the company's products are used. Learning customers' views can provide insights, new opportunities, referrals, and help ensure the company stays relevant to their needs. Other methods like job shadowing, product demos, and surveys are also recommended to understand the customer experience.
Bob London, president and founder of London Ink, advocates that companies should listen to customers instead of focusing only on their own perspectives. He recommends companies conduct 10-20 in-depth interviews with customers and prospects to discover their "elevator rants" or real issues. By asking insightful questions without being defensive, companies can gain fresh perspectives and insights to differentiate themselves and grow their business. London provides examples of how firms have improved their marketing and sales by truly listening to customers.
Bob London presented to students in the University of Maryland's Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship on various ways to understand the world from their customers' perspective.
The knowledge of jesus 3rd lesson, jesus the servant englishחגי חאמד
Mark presents Jesus as a servant to the Romans, drawing on references to a calf from Revelation 4:7 and crimson/red from Exodus 27:16. As a servant, Jesus healed the sick, saved lives, and died for humanity, bearing our infirmities and sorrows as Isaiah 53 describes. Jesus' work as a servant culminated in his resurrection, and he commanded his disciples to continue serving in his name by spreading the gospel message around the world.
The document discusses gaining an understanding of customers' perspectives in order to improve marketing and sales strategies. It recommends asking customers about their top business challenges, key initiatives, and people priorities. This engagement with customers in a non-sales dialogue can uncover their "elevator rant" - what they complain about to others in your industry. Understanding this helps improve proposals, websites, and marketing materials by focusing on the customer's priorities rather than the vendor's agenda. An example customer discussion is provided to illustrate the type of information that can be learned.
Practical Techniques for early use in BA cycleSQALab
This document discusses stakeholder analysis techniques. It defines stakeholders as anyone who can impact or be impacted by a project. Stakeholders may be hidden and come from various groups like sponsors, customers, and experts. The document recommends mapping stakeholders on a grid by their influence and interest. Stakeholders can then be prioritized into categories like "keep satisfied" or "manage closely". It also provides tips for fact-finding about stakeholders through research. Finally, it advises creating a stakeholder map to plan engagement for a case study project.
This document provides an overview of lean planning and how agencies can adopt lean startup principles. It discusses that lean planning focuses on continuous customer interaction, establishing revenue goals from the beginning, and assuming features and customers are unknowns. Agencies are traditionally not built to be lean, focusing on large commissions and billings. The document advocates adopting lean principles like prototyping, testing hypotheses with customers, being willing to pivot ideas based on learning, and iterating campaigns based on customer feedback rather than assuming big, perfect campaigns are needed. The overall message is that lean planning prioritizes minimum viable products, continuous learning, and adapting based on discovering what customers really want rather than large pre-defined projects.
This document provides an agenda and summaries of presentations on Audience Builder and IMH Reporting. The first presentation gives an overview of Audience Builder's segmentation capabilities and consolidated data. The second is a case study on how threadless uses Audience Builder for personalized messaging. The third presents a case study on using Discover, a new IMH reporting tool, for data-driven insights. The last discusses best practices for working with customer data, including stakeholder involvement, data readiness, and post-deployment planning. The document concludes with an open question and answer session.
1) The document provides an overview of branding and advertising, including definitions of key concepts, roles in the industry, and case studies.
2) Methodologies discussed include brand auditing, industry analysis, and conceptualization.
3) Recommendations are provided for developing creativity as a student, employee, and organization through various activities and maintaining an open culture.
1) The document provides an overview of branding and advertising, including definitions of key concepts, roles in the industry, and case studies.
2) Methodologies discussed include brand auditing, industry analysis, and conceptualization.
3) Recommendations are provided for developing creativity as a student, employee, and organization through various activities and maintaining an open culture.
Atlanta Customs Brokers Social Media PresentationScott Case
Presentation to the Atlanta Customs Brokers and International Forwarders Association on March 12, 2013. The topic was the use of social media, digital marketing and branding for logistics companies.
This document discusses moving advertising and branding toward more participatory and interactive models. It suggests conceptualizing brands as APIs and platforms that allow users to project themselves. The author advocates for generating campaign models with as little waste as possible using lean startup principles of continuous learning through prototyping, testing and customer interaction. A process of customer discovery is outlined involving generating hypotheses, talking to customers, being honest about findings and repeating the process of learning and building minimal viable products or campaigns.
Slides from a presentation I gave at VC CEO portfolio summit on Unlearning as we scale enterprise software startups focusing on how to think about the "next-level people" and "dance with who brung ya" adages along with thoughts on generalizing the former adage, hiring next-level people, and unlearning in general, specifically with infering false causality for success.
UX as a core competence - TYPO3 conference Asia 2012samng
User experience (UX) design is about understanding how people feel when interacting with something that has been built. The document discusses UX and provides examples of companies like Zappos and Apple that are focused on designing positive user experiences. It recommends that to be in demand, one should get good at designing experiences across interactions and channels using UX design tools and methods like field studies, persona development, and usability testing.
The document is a presentation in Spanish by Enrique Fernández about reasons for becoming an entrepreneur. The presentation discusses 3 main reasons:
1) Dealing with a culture of "no" from bosses and wanting more freedom and control over decisions.
2) Having an exit strategy from his previous job lined up, securing a first client before resigning to have cash flow from day 1.
3) Having a vision for SupplierSync to solve problems he experienced finding reliable suppliers and helping both buyers and suppliers through the platform's features like reviews and suggestions.
The summary highlights the 3 main points made in the presentation about overcoming obstacles from traditional jobs, planning financially, and pursuing a company idea born from personal
The document provides an overview of branding and advertising. It discusses the speaker's journey working in software engineering and then various roles in advertising and branding agencies. It also covers topics like branding and advertising definitions, roles in the industry, case studies, reverse analysis of campaigns, the landscape of creativity, and ethics in advertising.
One Tree Content is a branding and content company that helps foster new brands and support established brands. They provide various branding and marketing services including positioning, branding, strategic planning, design, social media, and events. The document describes a case study where One Tree Content helped rebrand a B2B IT outsourcing company's website, which improved their visibility and lead generation and eventually led to an acquisition. It then outlines One Tree Content's key processes like briefing, content mapping, and lead nurturing strategies.
This document provides an overview of content strategy. It defines content strategy as assessing an organization's current content, comparing it to competitors, analyzing it against business objectives and audience needs, and planning for future content. The document emphasizes that content strategy is an end-to-end process that involves auditing existing content, creating a plan, producing and measuring content, and adapting based on what is learned. It also stresses that content strategy must consider the user experience and include understanding both audience and author contexts.
Why behavioural economics in b2b marketing will change what you do and how you do it. Insight into how the use of buyer psychology is changing how businesses can influence buyers and prospects throughout the buyer journey. For more information or to talk Behavioural Economics in business-to-business marketing email info@earnest-agency.com
Master Workshop Business Modeling - The Institute MexicoTheInstituteMexico
This document provides information about two people, Diana Vermeij and Steven Zwerink, and their work facilitating creative workshops. Diana helps companies improve their online and offline listening skills, and facilitates workshops on working with the internet to create smarter companies. Steven likes to show people what is possible so they can become better versions of themselves. The document then provides an example workshop agenda on business modeling, explaining why such workshops are useful and outlining the business model canvas tool.
This document discusses process optimization and customer experience. It notes that moments of truth (any customer interaction) and breakpoints (hand-offs between processes or systems) can create complexity, costs and failures. The document advocates documenting moments of truth, breakpoints, and business rules to understand the causes of work and points of failure in a process in order to optimize it for performance, agility and quality. Dates are also listed for CPP training sessions.
Just like humans, customers have unique love languages. But vendors don't take enough time to understand how their customers define love and appreciation. This presentation, based on the 2,600 B2B customer discovery conversations Bob London has conducted, will decode your customers' love languages so they stay longer and spend more.
8 B2B customer confessions. Understanding them can boost your acquisition & r...Chief Listening Officers
In case you're wondering what B2B decision-makers are thinking and saying to each other, but not to you, check this out.
These are 8 of the most frequent "confessions" or rants I've uncovered in conducting nearly 2,500 discovery conversations with my clients' customers and former customers:
1 “I wish you’d understand my goals—or at least ask me about them.”
2 “I hate when you say, ‘This isn’t a pitch,’ then launch into a 30-slide deck.”
3 “I ignore your laundry list of features and capabilities. Just tell me what you do best.”
4 “I dread talking to someone who is trying to answer detailed questions but can’t.”
5 “I’d love you to stop trying to upsell us before you’ve solved one problem really well.”
6 “I’m dying to know how your other customers solve this problem. I need context!”
7 “I hate when you say you’re our ‘partner. Just find ways to align with my interests.”
8 “I wish you’d be in touch when you don’t need anything.”
To read more about what each confession means and to see my disruptive questions that will get your customers and prospects to open up, check out these slides.
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The document discusses gaining an understanding of customers' perspectives in order to improve marketing and sales strategies. It recommends asking customers about their top business challenges, key initiatives, and people priorities. This engagement with customers in a non-sales dialogue can uncover their "elevator rant" - what they complain about to others in your industry. Understanding this helps improve proposals, websites, and marketing materials by focusing on the customer's priorities rather than the vendor's agenda. An example customer discussion is provided to illustrate the type of information that can be learned.
Practical Techniques for early use in BA cycleSQALab
This document discusses stakeholder analysis techniques. It defines stakeholders as anyone who can impact or be impacted by a project. Stakeholders may be hidden and come from various groups like sponsors, customers, and experts. The document recommends mapping stakeholders on a grid by their influence and interest. Stakeholders can then be prioritized into categories like "keep satisfied" or "manage closely". It also provides tips for fact-finding about stakeholders through research. Finally, it advises creating a stakeholder map to plan engagement for a case study project.
This document provides an overview of lean planning and how agencies can adopt lean startup principles. It discusses that lean planning focuses on continuous customer interaction, establishing revenue goals from the beginning, and assuming features and customers are unknowns. Agencies are traditionally not built to be lean, focusing on large commissions and billings. The document advocates adopting lean principles like prototyping, testing hypotheses with customers, being willing to pivot ideas based on learning, and iterating campaigns based on customer feedback rather than assuming big, perfect campaigns are needed. The overall message is that lean planning prioritizes minimum viable products, continuous learning, and adapting based on discovering what customers really want rather than large pre-defined projects.
This document provides an agenda and summaries of presentations on Audience Builder and IMH Reporting. The first presentation gives an overview of Audience Builder's segmentation capabilities and consolidated data. The second is a case study on how threadless uses Audience Builder for personalized messaging. The third presents a case study on using Discover, a new IMH reporting tool, for data-driven insights. The last discusses best practices for working with customer data, including stakeholder involvement, data readiness, and post-deployment planning. The document concludes with an open question and answer session.
1) The document provides an overview of branding and advertising, including definitions of key concepts, roles in the industry, and case studies.
2) Methodologies discussed include brand auditing, industry analysis, and conceptualization.
3) Recommendations are provided for developing creativity as a student, employee, and organization through various activities and maintaining an open culture.
1) The document provides an overview of branding and advertising, including definitions of key concepts, roles in the industry, and case studies.
2) Methodologies discussed include brand auditing, industry analysis, and conceptualization.
3) Recommendations are provided for developing creativity as a student, employee, and organization through various activities and maintaining an open culture.
Atlanta Customs Brokers Social Media PresentationScott Case
Presentation to the Atlanta Customs Brokers and International Forwarders Association on March 12, 2013. The topic was the use of social media, digital marketing and branding for logistics companies.
This document discusses moving advertising and branding toward more participatory and interactive models. It suggests conceptualizing brands as APIs and platforms that allow users to project themselves. The author advocates for generating campaign models with as little waste as possible using lean startup principles of continuous learning through prototyping, testing and customer interaction. A process of customer discovery is outlined involving generating hypotheses, talking to customers, being honest about findings and repeating the process of learning and building minimal viable products or campaigns.
Slides from a presentation I gave at VC CEO portfolio summit on Unlearning as we scale enterprise software startups focusing on how to think about the "next-level people" and "dance with who brung ya" adages along with thoughts on generalizing the former adage, hiring next-level people, and unlearning in general, specifically with infering false causality for success.
UX as a core competence - TYPO3 conference Asia 2012samng
User experience (UX) design is about understanding how people feel when interacting with something that has been built. The document discusses UX and provides examples of companies like Zappos and Apple that are focused on designing positive user experiences. It recommends that to be in demand, one should get good at designing experiences across interactions and channels using UX design tools and methods like field studies, persona development, and usability testing.
The document is a presentation in Spanish by Enrique Fernández about reasons for becoming an entrepreneur. The presentation discusses 3 main reasons:
1) Dealing with a culture of "no" from bosses and wanting more freedom and control over decisions.
2) Having an exit strategy from his previous job lined up, securing a first client before resigning to have cash flow from day 1.
3) Having a vision for SupplierSync to solve problems he experienced finding reliable suppliers and helping both buyers and suppliers through the platform's features like reviews and suggestions.
The summary highlights the 3 main points made in the presentation about overcoming obstacles from traditional jobs, planning financially, and pursuing a company idea born from personal
The document provides an overview of branding and advertising. It discusses the speaker's journey working in software engineering and then various roles in advertising and branding agencies. It also covers topics like branding and advertising definitions, roles in the industry, case studies, reverse analysis of campaigns, the landscape of creativity, and ethics in advertising.
One Tree Content is a branding and content company that helps foster new brands and support established brands. They provide various branding and marketing services including positioning, branding, strategic planning, design, social media, and events. The document describes a case study where One Tree Content helped rebrand a B2B IT outsourcing company's website, which improved their visibility and lead generation and eventually led to an acquisition. It then outlines One Tree Content's key processes like briefing, content mapping, and lead nurturing strategies.
This document provides an overview of content strategy. It defines content strategy as assessing an organization's current content, comparing it to competitors, analyzing it against business objectives and audience needs, and planning for future content. The document emphasizes that content strategy is an end-to-end process that involves auditing existing content, creating a plan, producing and measuring content, and adapting based on what is learned. It also stresses that content strategy must consider the user experience and include understanding both audience and author contexts.
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This document discusses process optimization and customer experience. It notes that moments of truth (any customer interaction) and breakpoints (hand-offs between processes or systems) can create complexity, costs and failures. The document advocates documenting moments of truth, breakpoints, and business rules to understand the causes of work and points of failure in a process in order to optimize it for performance, agility and quality. Dates are also listed for CPP training sessions.
Similar to Do you know your B2B customers' elevator rant? (20)
Just like humans, customers have unique love languages. But vendors don't take enough time to understand how their customers define love and appreciation. This presentation, based on the 2,600 B2B customer discovery conversations Bob London has conducted, will decode your customers' love languages so they stay longer and spend more.
8 B2B customer confessions. Understanding them can boost your acquisition & r...Chief Listening Officers
In case you're wondering what B2B decision-makers are thinking and saying to each other, but not to you, check this out.
These are 8 of the most frequent "confessions" or rants I've uncovered in conducting nearly 2,500 discovery conversations with my clients' customers and former customers:
1 “I wish you’d understand my goals—or at least ask me about them.”
2 “I hate when you say, ‘This isn’t a pitch,’ then launch into a 30-slide deck.”
3 “I ignore your laundry list of features and capabilities. Just tell me what you do best.”
4 “I dread talking to someone who is trying to answer detailed questions but can’t.”
5 “I’d love you to stop trying to upsell us before you’ve solved one problem really well.”
6 “I’m dying to know how your other customers solve this problem. I need context!”
7 “I hate when you say you’re our ‘partner. Just find ways to align with my interests.”
8 “I wish you’d be in touch when you don’t need anything.”
To read more about what each confession means and to see my disruptive questions that will get your customers and prospects to open up, check out these slides.
Bob London Master Class, Part II - Aligning Voice of Customer & Voice of Your...Chief Listening Officers
In Part I of this Master Class, we talked about uncovering your customers elevator rant which is basically the topics that are most important to them that they share on the proverbial elevator when there are no vendors around. And how important it is to understand those rants and the language they use - because that’s the language we’re going to use back to them when we message them.
And that’s what this presentation is about: Synthesizing the voice of your customers into a compelling, customer-first messaging strategy.
Bob London Master Class - Aligning voice of your customer with voice of your ...Chief Listening Officers
HOW TO GROW BY TEARING DOWN THE VENDOR-CUSTOMER WALL
A master class on aligning the voice of your customer with the voice of your company
In this two-part master class, "B2B marketing Jedi" (per Forbes.com) and customer discovery expert Bob London will deliver actionable tips for how to
Uncover your customers' Elevator Rant - what they're really saying when vendors aren't around; and
Craft an authentic, customer-first messaging strategy that will increase your marketing and sales traction.
Bob has conducted over 2,300 conversations with his clients' customers and used the resulting insights to develop their go-to-market messaging - as well as build a compelling Strategic Narrative that creates excitement and buy-in from employees, customers and investors alike.
Session I: Uncovering Your Customer's Elevator Rant
Bob's disruptive customer discovery questions that yield candid responses
How to frame conversations, ask questions and follow up
Tips on "listening between the lines" to maximize insights
Session II: (to follow) Crafting a Customer-First Messaging Strategy
Positioning your company in the marketplace
Developing a crisp, winning value proposition
Creating sales messages that start with the customer
These sessions are designed to give Founders, business owners and senior B2B executives - CEOs, CMOs, Chief Revenue Officers and Chief Customer Officers - immediate and actionable takeaways.
Bob London of Chief Listening Officers presents these tips on how to have more strategic, revealing and insightful conversations with customers. Great for customer success, sales, product and marketing teams who need to get customers to open up and reveal their TRUE problems, priorities and perceptions.
Bob London of Chief Listening Officers on "How to Have More Strategic Custome...Chief Listening Officers
This webinar, originally hosted by ChurnZero on 9/16/2020, is full of actionable tips for customer success teams.
Description:
"That's enough about me, let's talk about you. What do you think of me?" This great movie quote describes how customers often perceive their vendor interactions.
So ask yourself, are your customer conversations and QBRs really about them - or are you focused on asking what they think about your product? Do you understand the "why" that drives their day to day priorities? Are they giving you their unvarnished perspective in a way that can help your company learn and grow?
Bob London of Chief Listening Officers has conducted over 2,000 interviews with B2B customers and other decision-makers. In this presentation, he covers:
- Bob's go-to questions that yield candid responses
- How to frame conversations, ask questions and follow up
- Tips on "listening between the lines" to maximize insights
The document provides tips for companies on how to engage customers during uncertain times by conducting customer interviews to understand customers' challenges and needs. It recommends asking questions like "What's on your whiteboard now?" and follow ups to gain insights. Companies can then use those insights to design products and services that address customers' top priorities like cash conservation, remote work support, and client satisfaction. The document also shares resources for customer discovery and feedback.
Bob London Presents: How Founders & CEOs Can Go Back on Offense, Courtesy of ...Chief Listening Officers
Due to the pandemic and economic downturn, many technology and tech-enabled companies have adjusted or even cut back on their typical sales, marketing and customer communications approach. But your company still has to go forward at some point. You have to sell and grow. So, when do you make the shift to offense? And what does that look like?
Now's the time to think about it. This webinar is for curious founders and CEOs who want answers regarding the "when-how-who-what" of going back on offense.
Bob London, CEO of Chief Listening Officers and Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Maryland’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship will lead an interactive workshop-style session covering:
What's on your target audience's whiteboard now vs. 60 days ago?
How can you align your solution with their new normal?
Are you "hugging" your existing customers enough?
Do your home page, prospecting emails or existing customer outreach reflect your positioning and value prop?
WHAT ABOUT BOB?
Bob London, founder and CEO of Chief Listening Officers, is a 20+ year marketing strategist who helps emerging B2B companies develop marketing strategies that start with learning the customer’s true perspective—what he refers to as discovering the customer’s Elevator Rant.
Bob serves as an Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Maryland’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship. Bob's clients have been honored more than 20 times on the Inc. Magazine list of 5000 Fastest-Growing Private US companies. Bob is a regular and passionate writer and speaker on the topic of listening to customers, and his work and writing have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Forbes, the Miami Herald, USA Today, Inc. Magazine and The Washington Business Journal.
Bob also serves on boards of advisors for several high-growth tech companies and other organizations, including ParkMyCloud (acquired by Turbonomic), IQExchange and DCA Live.
- The document discusses how companies can conduct "Agenda-less Listening Tours" to discover customers' unspoken needs and feedback through open-ended conversations.
- It recommends companies have disruptive, thought-provoking discussions with current and former customers to understand their perspectives better without any sales agenda.
- Tips for these discussions include starting with the customer's priorities, asking follow-up questions, dropping ego, and embracing both positive and negative feedback to gain valuable insights for improving products, services, and communications.
This document provides tips and strategies for discovering customer needs and priorities through agenda-less listening. It discusses conducting listening tours to understand what customers and prospects aren't saying directly. Key tips include starting conversations without an agenda, keeping questions open-ended, embracing customer rants, and focusing on understanding their goals rather than selling. The purpose is to gain insights that can provide value to customers and inform product strategy and positioning.
Agenda-Less Listening: How to Discover & Leverage What Your Target Audience R...Chief Listening Officers
I had a wonderful experience doing a talk/workshop with a group of CEOs, courtesy of Lee Self's Renaissance Executive Forum. We discussed the importance of discovering your customers' Elevator Rant (every customer has one!) and the method for doing this, Agenda-Less Listening.
The group was incredibly interactive and creative in their understanding and interpretations of the content. These are the best workshops--when the teacher learns something new to make the next workshop better.
Thanks all!
Bob London (Chief Listening Officers) Presentation to WNG Entrepreneurs Round...Chief Listening Officers
This document discusses the importance of thinking like a customer to grow your business. It recommends starting with authentic curiosity about customers' perspectives, listening to unfiltered customer feedback, and identifying unsolved customer frustrations. The document provides tips for having open-ended conversations with customers that focus on understanding their needs and priorities rather than selling. Conducting "elevator rant" sessions by asking disruptive questions and focusing on customers can help improve marketing, sales, and business strategy.
I did this webinar in March 2018 for an international group of YPO members in the manufacturing sector.
You can get the FREE Customer Re-Discovery Playbook, which includes the entire methodology, at www.customerrediscovery.com.
THE PREMISE
- It turns out many businesses don’t fully understand their customers’ & prospects’ real problems & priorities.
- In this presentation I'll share a simple, “listening-first” approach that improves your ability to deliver additional value, differentiate & grow.
CHALLENGES
Customers Have More Knowledge/ Power.
Their Needs Change Over Time.
Irrelevant, Automated Marketing Creates Wall of Noise…Inhibiting Intimacy.
GOOD NEWS
Our Human Traits Can Close the Empathy Gap.
Invaluable Insights Are There for the Asking.
INTRODUCING THE CURIOSITY CODE
A new type of open-ended, unfiltered, non-sales conversation with customers & prospects solely to discover what the world looks like from their perspective.
TOP 5 REASONS TO LEARN YOUR CUSTOMERS’ 4 P’S
1. Clearer positioning & differentiation—less competition on pricing.
2. Improved marketing metrics & ROI.
3. Shorter sales cycles, increased win rates.
4. Increased customer retention rates.
5. Increased top-of-mind awareness, goodwill & trust.
BOB LONDON / WWW.CHIEFLISTENINGOFFICERS.COM
Get the FREE Customer Re-Discovery Playbook at www.customerrediscovery.com
ChurnZero Presents Bob London: HOW TO LEARN WHAT YOUR CUSTOMERS AREN’T TELLIN...Chief Listening Officers
This document provides a framework for customer success managers to discover and share customer insights. It discusses conducting curiosity calls with customers to gain unspoken or unexpected insights. The framework involves assessing a company's innovation, insights, value-add, customer service and core offering from the customer's perspective. Customer insights should then be shared with relevant teams through executive summaries highlighting insights and recommended actions. The goal is to use customer feedback to make real improvements that can increase value, revenue, sales messaging and reduce churn.
(NABOE) 5 Questions to Reveal What Your Customers & Prospects AREN'T Telling YouChief Listening Officers
Get the FREE Customer Re-discovery Playbookwww.chieflisteningofficers.com/free.
This Playbook includes 12 questions, listening tips and a sample project plan for your Listening Tour.
(c) 2017 Bob London, CEO, Chief Listening Officers, LLC.
How Leaders Are Creating Meaningful Differentiation Using AGENDA-LESS LISTENINGChief Listening Officers
1) The document discusses how leaders can use "agenda-less listening" to better understand what customers aren't telling them and create meaningful differentiation. It advocates having open conversations without preconceived notions to learn customers' perspectives.
2) It provides tips for conducting an "agenda-less listening tour" including creating a target list of current, former, and prospective customers, asking thought-provoking questions others don't ask, and discovering customers' "elevator rants" or raw, unfiltered feedback.
3) The insights gained from these conversations can be used to improve various aspects of the business from product development to marketing messaging to customer experience. Listening without bias is presented as a way for companies to better
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Do you know your B2B customers' elevator rant?
1. The Customer
Elevator Rant
Before you can have an effective
marketing and communications
strategy, you have to know what
your customers are bitching about
on the elevator when you’re not
around.
Bob London
President
London, Ink LLC
www.londonink.com
2. In B2B marketing
& sales, we often
have the wrong
perspective
My Elevator Pitch…
Our “About Us” Section…
Our Sales Proposal…
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
3. HEY, I HAVE A GIFT FOR YOU:
A BEAUTIFULLY FRAMED PICTURE!
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
4. Of me! It’s an awesome picture of
me, your pal, Bob London!
It has an
elegant, hand-
carved,
Featuring my wooden frame!
patented
“casual-jacket-
thrown-over-
the-shoulder”
pose
Tell you what,
I’ll even sign it.
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
5. “UH, THANKS BOB…BUT I DON’T NEED
(OR WANT) A PICTURE OF YOU.”
“What I’d Really Love to Have…”
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
7. Now that’s what I’m talking about.
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
8. In B2B Marketing & Sales,
You Often Have the Wrong
Perspective: Yours.
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
9. You Have a Quota Your Customer Has
2 – 3 Gigantic,
Burning Hot Priorities
Your marketing and sales
approach needs to resonate on
their terms, not yours.
Your Customer Has
You Have a Quota 2 – 3 Gigantic,
Burning Hot Priorities
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
10. Sound obvious? Consider this:
In a London, Ink study of 50 B2B proposals, the
average amount of focus on customer perspective
was just 7%, based on word count.
Web Site Design/Dev, $100K Custom Content/E-Newsletter,
Budget $70K Budget
• % of Proposal Devoted to • % of Proposal Devoted to
Customer Perspective Customer Perspective
o Vendor 1: 20% o Vendor 1: 6%
o Vendor 2: 3% o Vendor 2: 8%
o Vendor 3: 5% o Vendor 3: 3%
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
11. To shift your perspective and have an
effective marketing and sales strategy…
You have to understand your Customers’ Elevator
Rant.
What are their biggest challenges and priorities?
What are they complaining about when you’re
not around?
It might not be directly related to what you are
selling.
Understanding your Customers’ Elevator Rant helps
improve every aspect of your marketing and sales mix.
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
12. How do I uncover my
Customers’ Elevator Rant?
Try asking your customers
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
13. Engage 5 – 7 customers in a
non-sales dialogue.
1. Their Perspective on Their Business The most valuable
• What are your top 3 business challenges next year? 45 minutes you
• What key initiatives have you prioritized to address those will ever spend
challenges? with your
2. Their Perspective on a Specific Functional Area customer.
• Does (industry) have a reputation?
• What do you expect from a (functional area) provider? The best time to
• What are (functional area) providers missing? talk with
customers is when
3. Their Perspective on Your Business (Connect the Dots)
you are not trying
• How do your priorities and challenges relate to to sell them
(functional area)? anything.
• What would make you a customer for life?
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
14. BUT WILL OUR CUSTOMERS
ACTUALLY TALK ABOUT THIS STUFF?
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
15. Since you asked…
Bu sin ess c h a l l en g es > k ey in it ia t iv es >
Peo pl e pr io r it ies
CHALLENGES I NI TI ATI VES PEOPLE PRI ORI TI ES I NVOLVED
Big g est bu sin ess c h a l l en g es HR EARLY?
• External: trying to divine • External: stayed behind • We’ve involved HR in plan on No
strategy amidst uncertainty, re collecting own data how to involve staff in getting
healthcare payments, etc. on outcomes/ quality, analysis; use operational plan to
• Vendors really need to define value prop. We will have to adjust. have to leap forward. restack resources; seats on the
• Spend a lot of time with clients—understand what they need vs. Everything will change • Designed to address bus.
• Everyone’s looking for more tell them what they need. within 3 years, we don’t market factor – prove • We’ve used HR a lot to set
Example 1
know how. what we do works. goals, deliverables, make
value from us at the same or • No more suitcase, here’s what you need.
• But don’t chase rabbit trails; Clinical outcomes, connection between indiv perf
lower prices. • Need great strategic listening skills. goals are a part of operational
Discipline of acting and not patient quality
acting. measures. plan…rely on HR for this.
• Business strategy/ • L onger sales cycles these days. • Helping other staff succeed!
prioritization and HR • Pulling out what is usually consulting which we would normally pay for. redacted • Some staff are finding
themselves in new roles.
functions are totally • Then they can shop around for price.
• Set goals, stay clear on
independent. No need to • Once we got nod, then there’s negotiation. objectives.
involve HR during formation • Internal: we have grown but • Strategic plan, identify No
of business priorities. •
redacted
Level of people who have these jobs aren’t strategic. seeing net revenues decrease, new sources of revenue,
Example 2
• Two types: good at day to day 5500 forms, insurance renewals, so need to make major big internal shift, look
adjustments/ corrections to for new opportunities.
• Retention is far and away the
# 1 concern and challenge. •
operational/ admin, 401K.
“Cu st o mer f o r l •if e?
Then more senior people in big orgs that are a partner—never going ”
higher net revenue with new
initiatives, then new non-
New tech platform
(A M S). Web site,
to get someone like that due to outsourcing, budget, size, etc. dues revenue – greater rebranding.
return.
• W hat we’re missing is: ― what are we missing?‖
• HR providers should focus on understanding that staff retention and • Esp when we get involved with workforce rationalization: how do we need to operation in 6
• CEOs/ ED’s change in
recruiting is greatest challenge in coming years due toknow they workforce 3 years; skills, dev current staff,TPO & L ondon, Ink
Proprietary & Confidential,
• ― People don’t leave getting new ones, etc.
aren’t HR experts. They
companies they leave • Boomers exiting, difficult to replace skill set, millennials.
know there are things • These are things outside of day to day resp of on site person—they don’t have time to
managers.‖ • Candidates aren’t readily available, not looking.
they don’t know. think about and we don’t expect them to bec of their hours.
Will it be greener on the other side? • TPO’s relationship with • M ost HR providers do good job dealing with tactical part of HR needs; where a lot don’t do is
us gives them an 5 initiate strategic part of HR. M ight have capab but don’t promote it.
Proprietary & Confidential, TPO & L ondon, Ink
opportunity to • Strategic: every department: accounting, HR, production needs a biz plan for the year, chapter
proactively assess and in biz strat: what does HR see as challenges, internally or externally.
recommend—even (or • Have to be able to market it…it’s really a conversation; perhaps day to day consultant isn’t
especially) without being capable but C-level person more appropriate. Very easy for HR providers to get wrapped up in
asked. tactical needs of a company.
• Strategic conversation
needs to happen with C-
L evel person, not HR
redacted
• Our HR person had high level HR position for 30 years but bec there are so many changes
on reg basis, she can’t keep up
• TPO gathers latest changes (health insurance, etc.), disseminate to their team, bring to us.
consultant. • Don’t know that they do this but would be a nice benefit, great service offering.
• Would definitely value • TPO could be experts in disseminating info.
broader perspective on
best practices— • I have 1 HR person and she’s great, but I look at TPO as having an HR team. I have a desig
knowledge areas beyond consultant but that person should bring entire TPO org knowledge to bear on big issues.
what our consultant is • Not sure if TPO functions that way—is there emphasis on changing trends, directions that
comfortable with. they download to the individual consultant so that person is bringing collective knowledge.
• That would be very valuable: not just hiring consultant, hiring team.
• This should be proactive.
• Not interested in the idea that I have to bring them in. They know the big picture
so they should be thinking about this. Proactively: if you want to achieve these
Proprietary & Confidential, TPO & L ondon, Ink goals, here are recommendations we would make for you to be successful. 12
16. How many of you would like
to have customers “for life”?
How many have actually asked your
customers what it would take for
them to become customers for life?
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
17. Technology Outsourcing Firm
1st Gen Message 2nd Gen Message Elevator Rant
We keep you up We get to know “I need someone to help
and running! your business! us make sense of big
technology trends
coming down the road,
so we don’t get
blindsided or miss an
opportunity.”
New Revenue
New Positioning
Opportunities
New Service
Offering
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
18. Business Intelligence (BI)
Consulting Firm (Public Sector)
1st Gen Message 2nd Gen Message Elevator Rant
We’re BI software We know the “60% of BI software
experts! public sector. implementations fail to
meet expectations. Tell me
what I’m doing wrong.”
New Positioning
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
19. Data/Solutions Firm
1st Gen Message 2nd Gen Message Elevator Rant
We provide Our solutions “There are a thousand other
competitive deliver ways we can use your data.
intelligence in competitive So stop trying to sell me your
your industry. intelligence to existing solutions and start
your call centers. helping me figure out where
else I can use your
competitive intelligence. And
don’t charge me for
consulting hours.”
New Revenue New Service
Opportunity Offering
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
20. The customer’s answer to the
“customer for life” question is
usually their Elevator Rant.
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
21. HOW DO WE SHOW CUSTOMERS WE
“GET” THEIR ELEVATOR RANT?
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
22. How do we show prospects that we
“get” their Elevator Rant?
1. We write it down in
our proposals.
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
23. Use the “Proposal Word Count Test”
# of
Customer
Focused Should be at least 25%
Words in
Proposal
Customer Focus
= Quotient
Total # of Words in Usually under 5%
Proposal
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
24. Your proposal should start where
your last conversation left off.
• I heard your overall business challenges and priorities.
(NOTE: This is not their pain point relative to what you
are selling.)
• I accurately understand your requirements/pain.
• Here’s our overall approach given your situation.
• Here’s how we will address your requirements.
• Here are some other ideas and recommendations to
think about.
• Now, here’s some more about us.
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
25. Even the file name of your
proposal sends a message
Customer-Focused
Vendor-Focused
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
26. How else can we show prospects
that we “get” their Elevator Rant?
2. We reflect it on our
Web site.
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
27. It’s Not All “About Us”
• We obsess over the “About Us” Section
• Do we spend enough time on “About You”?
o Articulate their Elevator Rant
o Describe how you address the Elevator Rant
o Define our sweet spot in a way that resonates
o Give examples/case studies!
Your goal should be for prospects to see
themselves in your web site.
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
28. How else can we show prospects
that we “get” their Elevator Rant?
3. We incorporate it into
our elevator pitch.
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
29. Don’t focus your pitch on you
or your service.
• What we are. (Quickly establish what bucket you fall into.)
• Why people need us. (The Elevator Rant they can identify with.)
• How we serve that need. (Your approach that addresses the
Elevator Rant.)
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
30. But we’re in a commodity
business. It’s so transactional.
It’s hard to differentiate.
Everyone focuses on price.
• Then the Elevator Rant is even more critical.
• It positions you as customer focused.
• It can help differentiate your entire
marketing approach.
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
31. Summary
• Change your perspective from “About Us” to “About You.”
• Understanding your Customers’ Elevator Rant is critical to
having a successful marketing and sales strategy.
• The Elevator Rant isn’t hard to figure out. Just ask your
customers.
• Do the “Proposal Word Count Test” today.
• Talking to your customers when you’re not selling will yield
new revenue opportunities.
(c) London, Ink www.londonink.com
32. Thanks!
Bob London www.londonink.com
President bob@londonink.com
London, Ink LLC +1 240.994.7644
Editor's Notes
So before you go off developing your elevator pitch and distributing it to your sales team, executives, managers and other employees, make sure you invest the necessary time and effort to uncover your Customers’ Elevator Rant. It’s certain to pay off.Bob London is president of London, Ink, a Maryland-based marketing and communications consulting firm, and serves as a Virtual VP of Marketing for growth stage companies that need an injection of marketing experience and leadership to drive key initiatives and results. Learn more at www.londonink.com and www.insideoutbranding.com.
That’s enough about me, lets talk about you. What do you think about me?
What is ERDefinitionWeb design/devWho loves getting rfps? Why? Price comparison. Hard to differentiate ourselves.We are service oriented!We get to know our clients’ bizOur Proposal is completely self-focusedWord countDid you differentiate yourselves?ER ExamplesCoreUpstreamHow to get ERTalk to customers when you are not trying to sell them somethingGive eamplesHow to Use ERPitchStart with rantProposal – wordcountWeb design/devWebLiving FAQs (inbound marcus)Here are my requirements???
How to get a free headshot: Pay thousands of dollars for your son’s bar mitzvah and the photog will take a headshot of you for free.
That’s enough about me, lets talk about you. What do you think about me?
We’re perceived as a commodity.Our space is crowded.Customers are demanding more value for less money.Customers want ideas for free!It is hard to differentiate.Prospects are focused on price.RFPs suck!How are we going to grow?OK, we want a proposal: here’s a chance to show your stuff!
B2B Marketing/Sales Elevator RantCommodity businessCustomers want more for lessCustomers want ideas for free!Hard to differentiateHard to get to the decision makerProspects focus on priceRFPs suck!The Customer Elevator Rant (CER) is what your ideal prospect says on the elevator ride with his/her boss when you are not around. The CER is your prospect’s candid, specific and sometimes emotional articulation of his/her pain in trying to get some part of his/her job done correctly–perhaps something your product or service can address.The only way for you to know if your product or service solves that pain is for you to figure out the rant. Here are some very basic ways to start doing this:
Ask the Prospect. Yes, it’s obvious but think of how infrequently we ask questions unless we’re already trying to sell something. As soon as a sale or deal is in the air, the prospect will go into his corner and put on his company hat, and is unlikely to share any real insights with you. Any successful salesperson will approach the prospect at least once or twice before trying to sell something. They will ask him how things are going. What’s his experience with customer support or service delivery. What was his golf score at the management off site and, by the way, what was on the agenda. Once they start talking, listen carefully as the rant may be in there–it might jump out at you or it might be somewhere between the lines.
EXAMPLE- healthcare services firmExternal: trying to divine strategy amidst uncertainty, healthcare payments, etc. We will have to adjust. Everything will change within 3 years, we don’t know how. But don’t chase rabbit trails;Discipline of acting and not acting.External: stayed behind re collecting own data on outcomes/quality, have to leap forward. Designed to address market factor – prove what we do works. Clinical outcomes, patient quality measures.how to involve staff in getting analysis; use operational plan to restack resources; seats on the bus. We’ve used HR a lot to set goals, deliverables, make connection between indivperf goals are a part of operational plan…rely on HR for this. Helping other staff succeed! Some staff are finding themselves in new roles. Set goals, stay clear on objectives.EXAMPLE – medical device association#1 is med devices converging with IT, greatly changing the marketplace of who’s making devices, what stds need to be set, who’s going to maintain them, huge mkt shifts, potential to impact us greatly. Haven’t yet impacted but we’re going to change somehow. Biggest challenge is to be ready for that and position ourselves for a very different marketplace. A bit late to party—Mary came 3 years ago. Did org assessment and said we are late—we’ll be extinct. Predecessor didn’t want anything to do with changes and neither did staff.Establish credibility with non-trad (IT pple in hospitals not medical) audiences – bunch of projects in the works. Help clinical engineering audiences see that they need to change to be ready—so they are valuable and have jobs. Strategic plan goal around creating their future.
Anecdote about asking for referrals – Optimal Networks. Largest client might not renew. Need to get out and ask for referrals! Meet with clients intending to ask for referrals. How’s business?
Who loves getting RFPs? Why? Price comparison. Hard to differentiate ourselves.We are service oriented!We get to know our clients’ bizOur Proposal is completely self-focusedWord countDid you differentiate yourselves?
Who loves getting RFPs? Why? Price comparison. Hard to differentiate ourselves.We are service oriented!We get to know our clients’ bizOur Proposal is completely self-focusedWord countDid you differentiate yourselves?
Who loves getting RFPs? Why? Price comparison. Hard to differentiate ourselves.We are service oriented!We get to know our clients’ bizOur Proposal is completely self-focusedWord countDid you differentiate yourselves?