Account Based Marketing Archives

The High ROI of Capability Assessments

November 15, 2018November 15, 2018 by Eskinder Assefa

Though capability assessments are important tools for driving corporate success, businesses are often unable to recognize the importance of examining and fine-tuning their capabilities. The Boston Consulting Group explains the term “capability” in the context of business as “an ingrained ability to do something well in a way that improves business performance.”

At the core of a capability are behaviors— “the activities, interactions, and decisions made by a set of individuals in a company who exemplify that capability.” In addition, a capability is built on four underlying components that strengthen each other and pave the way for long-term behavioral change in a company:

Competencies: the skills, knowledge, and beliefs of employees.
Tools: IT, databases, apps, and related systems.
Processes: activities, resources, and responsibilities that regulate the division and execution of work.
Governance: accountability, KPIs, incentives, and reporting structures.

Many companies launch transformations that involve changes to company strategy, business model, culture, organization, and more in order to stay competitive. These transformations often serve as much-needed responses to the changing demands of a dynamic industry. In other instances, transformations prepare companies to enter new market segments in search of growth. Whatever the motivation, transformations are essential undertakings that can yield growth, profitability, customer loyalty, improved manageability, and predictability for businesses— among other benefits.

However, transformations fail to deliver lasting results when companies focus too much on the end goal and not enough on the capabilities needed to reach and maintain the end goal. Lasting transformations depend on capabilities, which must be initially evaluated using a capability assessment and then systematically integrated into the transformative process. According to a Boston Consulting Group study, behavioral capabilities such as strong leadership, engaged employees, and collaboration are closely tied with a company’s ability to create value. Building capabilities is an indispensable element of transformation, though it poses some serious challenges.

Capability building requires coordination across different departments and functions, but most companies find it difficult to unify their groups and end up performing a cursory attempt at what should be a thorough process. Business executives hand the job to HR or set aside a few days for training, neither of which yield potent or sustainable results. New capabilities also call for behavioral changes, which are not easy to sustain. Without a comprehensive and systematic approach, businesses tend to revert to their old behaviors once the transformation stage is over. For reasons such as these, attempts to bolster capabilities fall short in the long-term.

In a 2014 McKinsey global survey of business executives, 50 percent of respondents ranked capability building as one of their top 3 priorities. However, survey results showed that few respondents had effective approaches to assessing their current capabilities and identifying skill gaps. Only 18 percent of respondent organizations used structured and objective third-party diagnostics, as most respondents preferred manager assessments or self-assessments. Unsurprisingly, 37 percent of respondents cited a lack of credible metrics as one of their companies’ biggest challenges in building capabilities. 1 in 5 respondents reported that their organizations did not measure the efficacy of their learning programs at all.

In order to successfully build and sustain capabilities that generate value for the company, businesses must diagnose their skill gaps through objective and systematic capability assessments. Objective third-party assessments help companies assess their skill gaps relative to industry peers and quantify the potential financial impact of addressing these gaps. Once this step is done, companies will have a deep understanding of their capabilities that allows them to more effectively design learning programs and enact sustainable transformation.

Before hiring more resources in order to meet your growth targets, conduct a capability assessment to find where gaps are that might hinder performance. Without removing these performance obstacles, your investments in new payroll or systems will not likely payoff to the extent you expect.

SOMAmetrics provides a complete sales and marketing assessment that takes 3 to 5 days to perform. A thorough investigation of the company’s internal capabilities and adherence to stated Senior Management goals is conducted through interviews and a review of systems, processes, and publications.

Schedule a quick call to see how we can help.

Insights into Missed Sales Quotas

November 15, 2018November 8, 2018 by Penny Zheng

Missed sales quotas are becoming the new norm

Misses sales quotas are becoming the norm rather than the exception. An extensive digital transformation of the commercial world has left many B2B sellers floundering in the dust. Accustomed to the personalization, immediate fulfillment, and transparency of consumer experiences fueled by artificial intelligence, buyers have changed their expectations of sellers. Unfortunately, B2B sellers are too often unable to meet these new demands. According to CSO Insights’ 2018 Buyer Preferences Study, about half of sales representatives were meeting or exceeding their quotas in 2017— the 5th straight year of decline in quota attainment.

The main challenge for today’s sellers is that “buyers are changing substantially faster and to a greater degree than sales organizations.” Sellers are slow to change alongside the rapidly developing array of consumer options available to business buyers, who transfer their consumer experiences into buying expectations. Buyers no longer view salespeople as a valuable resource, since so much information is available online and through Artificial Intelligence technologies. A CSO Insights survey of business buyers revealed that only 23 percent of buyers view vendor salespeople as a top three resource to solve business problems. In general, vendor salespeople placed ninth out of ten buyer preferred resources.

Sales Reps are no longer the preferred source of Information for Buyers

Because sellers are no longer as valuable to buyers, buyers are not inclined to engage sellers early in the buying process. CSO Insights found that about 70 percent of buyers preferred to engage a seller only after they had already developed a clear understanding of their needs, while almost half of buyers preferred to wait until they had also identified a solution to their needs.

Unfortunately, the longer a buyer waits to engage a seller, the less value a seller can offer to the buyer. If key buying decisions have already been made, sellers have less time and creative space to demonstrate their value. Instead of helping the buyer identify and prioritize needs, sellers are relegated to explaining their products while asking questions to understand what the buyer has already learned.

As a result, sellers start to look alike to the buyer. In fact, almost 60 percent of buyers in CSO Insights’ study saw little difference among sellers. Buyers see sellers as representatives of products rather than solvers of business problems, which drives their tendency to engage sellers later in the buying process once they have already identified a solution, which in turn constrains the seller’s ability to demonstrate value and ultimately feeds back into the perception that sellers are merely representing products. If sellers continue to be perceived as lacking value, they can be excluded from the buying process altogether.

However, 90 percent of buyers are open to engaging with salespeople earlier in the process— which would allow sellers to break out of this dangerous cycle. According to the CSO Insights study, there was more interest in early engagement when the business challenge was new for the buyer, perceived as risky for the business, perceived as risky for the buyer, or complex— in that specific order. Those who feel that salespeople exceed their expectations are more likely to involve sellers in the initial stage of buying. So, how do sellers demonstrate that they are valuable, expectation-exceeding resources?

What Sales People should do to become Relevant to Buyers Again

Today’s buyers want four things from sellers:

1. Understanding of the Buyer’s Business

Because retail websites collect data about customer digital activity in order to provide tailored recommendations and customized search results, consumers are used to the idea that sellers already know their needs and preferences. Buyers want sellers who have already conducted extensive research on their businesses and industries. What they don’t want is having to waste time explaining their challenges and circumstances to the seller.

2. Excellent Communication Skills

For today’s buyers, every interaction needs to be compelling, concise, and worth their time. Each interaction can either build or degrade the seller’s relationship with the buyer.

3. Focus on Post-sale

Buyers feel that sellers focus too much on the buying phase and fail to demonstrate enough commitment to the post-sale phase. Sellers need to show continued interest in the company’s success after the sale, as long-term relationships require long-term investment.

4. Insights and Expertise

Providing perspective is the seller’s biggest opportunity to exceed buyer expectations and differentiate themselves from other sellers. However, this capability can only be mastered if the seller has already acquired the first three— deep understanding, communication skills, and long-term focus. Buyers want to learn new methods for progressing toward their future goals, along with insights that shape their vision and expand their expertise.

Integrating these four components into the selling process will require commitment to holistic change. In order to close the gap between buyers and sellers, sellers need to employ a systemic solution in transforming the way they sell. SOMAmetrics is here to facilitate this process so that sellers can consistently win new business in a changing commercial environment.

SOMAmetrics is a marketing strategy and execution practice with a proven 4-step process for differentiating clients from their competitors. They also provide clients with compelling, well-researched, high-quality digital content that increases their chance of being included in their Buyers’ short lists. Schedule a 20 minute call so we can determine how we may be of help to you and your business.

The Future of B2B Sales Has Changed. Here’s the Data that Proves It.

October 8, 2018March 27, 2018 by Eskinder Assefa

When it comes to B2B sales, 73% of all B2B companies say that winning new customers is their top priority.

Yet, 50% of B2B Sales Leaders don’t believe they can meet their targets.

Here is the research data that explains why.

Business-to-Business (B2B) buying has always worked the same way. When a new initiative or need arises, staffers are directed to conduct research and report back with a short list of recommended solutions and providers.

In the past, the short list predictably consisted of well recognized sellers. It paid to attend conferences, shake hands, and pass out plenty of business cards.

However, the old selling model is not working as well today. In fact, B2B sellers report a 57% increase in cost of sales since 2011.

The way B2B buyers make purchasing decisions has dramatically changed in the last five years (download the list of additional findings here):

90% of all product and vendor searches happen online (with 50% of them on mobile devices while at work)—without ever speaking with a sales representative.
71% of B2B researchers start a generic search for a solution to their problem with little regard for brands.
As a result, 57% of the buying journey is completed by the time B2B buyers begin contacting sales reps.
It’s no wonder that 90% of B2B buyers reportedly NEVER respond to cold calls. They believe it’s just a waste of their time.

The seller that ends up on the short list today has compelling information that buyers need on an online, preferably mobile platform and knows how to drive its prospects to that information with highly targeted marketing and business development campaigns.

This is the only proven way to continue to win new customers in a highly competitive digital era. Here is a case study that demonstrates this model.

We are here to bolster your sales and facilitate growth. Please contact us to set up a quick call to find out how we can help you consistently win new business.

How to Enter New Markets

November 2, 2018November 30, 2017 by Eskinder Assefa

Why Companies need to Enter new markets

Companies enter new markets in hopes of increasing revenues. Most often, this happens when they find it difficult to meet revenue targets in their current market(s).

However, experience tells us that successfully entering new markets is a far more difficult task to achieve than it may seem.

Companies tend to severely underestimate the time and cost required to generate adequate sales in new markets. In fact, many have bailed out of new markets after sinking significant money without seeing the returns they expected.

Does this mean that entering new markets is a bad idea? No.

It simply means that companies should know what they are getting into before spending money. They should have a much firmer grasp on the level of investment in money, time, and effort required. In addition, they should have more realistic expectations of how much revenue they can expect and by when.

Below is an outline of what we believe is the minimal preparatory work necessary for successfully entering new markets.

Definition: Let’s start by defining a new market as one in which you have little or no presence today.

The Basic Elements

We can think of 9 basic elements to consider before entering a new market.

1. Compelling Need

Identify a compelling need that your product can solve in that market. This is the most crucial and most difficult step for many companies, which could explain why their new market entry efforts don’t produce the desired results.

Definition: A compelling need is a problem that customers cannot live with any longer than they absolutely have to.

If you have identified a compelling need, customers with such a need will jump at the chance to try out and purchase your solution. If the need is not compelling enough, they may still try it but will think too long and hard about spending the money, if at all.

Lack of compelling need makes market entries a very prolonged and expensive exercise in futility. If you cannot identify a compelling need, it is better to wait until you find one before entering a new market.

2. Target Segment

Very few products solve compelling needs across a wide range of customers. Such “Killer Apps” are few and far between.

In the vast majority of cases, we can at best define a compelling need for a specific group of customers who have the same or highly similar operational context and pain.

According to Geoffrey Moore, the noted high tech marketing guru, a market segment consists of a specific business role (someone charged with achieving specific business results) in a specific industry and probably in a specific geographical setting.

For example, “Chief Medical Officers in hospitals with 200-500 beds in California” is a well-defined market segment. “Healthcare CXO’s” is not.

The more precise the segmentation, the easier the rest of the market entry work will be.

The best market segment to select is one that is adjacent to the segment you are currently serving, and for which you have identified a compelling need that you can address.

3. Access to Decision Makers

The next challenge is determining how to access the above target group. Are they members of any organization? Do they regularly attend certain conferences? Do they subscribe to certain trade journals? Do they open emails or take calls from unknown sources? Are they active on any social media network?

In short, what are the best ways to reach them, and how cost effective are those?

While the cost of your marketing and sales is expected to be quite high initially , you want to ensure its reduction to acceptable levels (no more than 30% of sales) once you achieve a certain degree of name recognition and presence in that market—which should happen after 12-18 months of consistent marketing and sales efforts.

4. Competition

All sales are replacement sales, since you are trying to replace an established product with something new— your product.

No matter how compelling a need you may have identified, you must assume that your target customers are currently solving their problem in some way, to some extent.

Competition always exists. That is a given.

What we must clearly know before moving forward are:

How currently underserved/poorly served this new market is.
If there are any entrenched competitors that are complacent today but will wake up and fight back if challenged
How capable and willing they are to fight back to keep their customers

The more you know about whose business you are trying to replace with yours, the more successful your strategy shall be.

5. Complete Product

One common fallacy is to assume that the same product will work across different segments.

For example, an accounting package that was originally created for manufacturing companies will not, out of the box, work adequately for hotels. Yet, product makers routinely think that they can simply make some cosmetic changes (such as a new name) and expect the same sales results in a different market. A mechanic may think a car is a car, but a Mercedes owner never thinks her car is the same thing as a Kia.

If you don’t know the customer’s context—what drives their business, what their top challenges are, where and how they make money, how they are regulated, who they compete against, and so on— then you don’t know enough to make a product that addresses their needs.

A product must completely address the compelling need for which it is made. It must work turnkey.

If you expect your customers to buy your product as is and then figure out how to make your product fit their existing systems/processes and business model, you may do a lot of demos but will close very little business.

The only reasonable way to build a turnkey product is to limit the scope of what that product is expected to do— go narrow but deep. This can only be accomplished through the pursuit of a very specific market segment rather than a broad one.

6. Pricing

Products must be priced to sell, which means that neither the amount nor the pricing model should create a sales hurdle.

The amount itself must work—it must be easy to show financial metrics such as a reasonable Return on Investment (ROI) and Payback Period. If the price is too high, these numbers will be too weak and you will find it hard to close deals.

It is also critical that the pricing model (how customers pay) works as well. Many companies continue to use the same pricing model when they enter new markets without first researching how the target customer expects to pay for a similar product or service.

For instance, if customers are used to paying at the end of the month, they will be outraged if you expect them to pay up front for 12 months. If the payer in the new market is typically someone other than the end user in a similar context, end users will be upset if you expect them to pay for the product.

Remember the early days of cable? Cable network providers were tasked with convincing TV viewers to pay for what they were already getting for free, since advertisers were paying the TV stations.

Cable companies had to provide considerably more channels with fewer/no commercial interruptions, as well as a much better quality of reception, to convince viewers to pay $10 a month. Today, many TV viewers routinely fork out $200 or more per month for cable subscriptions.

7. Communication

Communication consists of more than just the message. It is also the mode of delivery (online, mobile, print, broadcast, face-to-face, etc.), the timing (when, how frequently), the freshness, relevance, and usefulness of the message that makes it work.

Companies often replicate their communication from their current market to be used for the new market with little or no change. This will not work. Even worse, it actually turns off the new market since the vendor clearly doesn’t know anything about them.

However, the message is only one component of communication that needs to be customized. The whole communication strategy must be redefined around the new target market.

In some cases, customs dictate what is acceptable and what is not. It is not a good idea to send a message that sends the wrong message (no pun intended). Crossed fingers may mean, “hoping for good luck” in the US, but it could mean something totally different in another culture. Do your market research.

It is not just customs that we need to worry about—we could inadvertently violate laws. For example, some countries allow calls only between certain hours of the day, while others have no restrictions. Still others have very specific laws as to how emails are sent, and so on.

Whether violating customs or laws, both can get companies into real trouble.

8. Sales

Selling can also be different among different markets. Some markets conduct business only after they have met face-to-face, wined and dined, and shaken hands. Others are comfortable closing large amounts of business over emails and phone calls. Customs and traditions are a big deal when it comes to sales.

Salespeople need to have “situational fluency” in the new market. They need to speak the language, know the right words and terms to use, and adequately understand their customers’ business and how they make money (which means understanding their customers’ customers) in order to truly engage their prospects.

Furthermore, size matters. Even in the same vertical space, the size of the customer can make a huge difference. For example, very large banks may behave differently from small community banks. If you are currently selling to very large banks, you may find it difficult to conduct sales with community banks, and vice versa.

This may require that you hire different sales reps who have the right background in the new market you wish to enter. It could also mean that you need to manage and compensate them differently.

9. Positioning

We think of positioning as a shortcut to sales, as it refers to how you make it easy for customers to buy your products by creating a brand they recognize and trust. That is a deceptively loaded statement.

By definition, you have no position in the new market since few customers, if any, know you exist. Only visionaries buy from someone they don’t know who promises to give them something they want badly. The problem in selling to visionaries is that they have their own ideas of what they want from you and are constantly requesting custom jobs. If that is what you want, fine. Otherwise, if you want to sell products, you must focus on the mainstream market.

That is where positioning is really critical.

Remember, all sales are replacements of something already in place.

Pragmatic buyers need to see documented evidence that your product will do what you claim it will do for their business before they rip out what they have and replace with yours. They want to see case studies, benchmark studies and the like. Even more so, they want to see what other companies that they regard highly are using your product. That’s the catch-22.
Conservative buyers are even worse. They want to know that you have been in business for a long time (think a decade or more), have a large installed base, and that you have some highly recognizable names as customers— before they even think of buying from you. Then they want deep discounts.

Winning Strategic Accounts early in the new market is the key to winning in the new market segment.

Critical Success Factors

As we see it, there are three critical success factors (CSFs) to success in a new market segment:

Select a segment that is as adjacent to your current market as possible so you can leverage name recognition and validation.
Win at least 3-5 Strategic Accounts as early as possible. These are the linchpins in that new market. As they go, so will the rest of the market.
Invest adequately in product development, support, marketing and sales for two years minimum. New market entries typically fail because they are starved of the resources they need— or worse, senior management pulls the plug on the whole project too early because of unrealistic expectations that will likely not be met.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while new market entries are a viable way to grow a company, they should only be undertaken after significant internal discussion has resulted in a strong consensus and commitment on the nine elements discussed above, and after adequate preparations on each element have been made.

Companies are especially advised to seriously consider the three CSFs and to refrain from entering new markets until they are fully committed to ensuring that the CSFs will be met.

SOMAmetrics provides the consulting and implementation services necessary to assist clients in successfully entering and developing new markets.

Please contact us for an initial discussion.

B2B Market Segmentation for High Growth

September 27, 2017March 18, 2017 by Eskinder Assefa

What is Market Segmentation

Market segmentation, along with positioning, is one of the two strategic components necessary for effective sales and marketing.

Without market segmentation, there is no marketing strategy. The pursuit of any objective without strategy will likely turn into failure. Even when success looks prevalent, it very likely came about at too high of a cost to achieve truly promising results.

That is, after all, the purpose of strategy – to discover the optimal way with which to consistently achieve an objective.

Therefore, consistently and predictably achieving revenue goals requires a well-thought out strategy; and market segmentation is a crucial foundation element of any revenue strategy.

In this article, we will further explore why market segmentation is critical and suggest a practical approach to properly segmenting a B2B market.

Why Market Segmentation Is Critical

Market segmentation, at its core, focuses a company’s sales and marketing efforts. Simply put, it is a statement of decision to pursue a singular important objective and forego other less fundamental pursuits.

Once a company identifies “XYZ” as its optimal market segment, that company commits to marketing and selling to that specific market, and only that market.

That being said, if a customer from a market other than XYZ comes to the company and indicates that they want to buy its products and services, the company will, of course, sell them what they desire.

There exists a very big cost difference between processing an inbound lead and generating a lead through an active outbound marketing and sales campaign. A company should always process an inbound lead, provided that the prospect is willing to bear the full cost. We are saying that a company should carefully select which market it wants to sell, and then commit to optimizing everything in its power towards that chosen market.

The purpose of market segmentation, therefore, is to enable the optimization of all resources around a chosen customer profile so that it can maximize value for the customer and profits for the company, simultaneously.

Why Companies Don’t Segment their Market

Clearly, experienced executives understand this segmentation concept, so why do they hesitate to pick a specific market segment and commit to it?

The hesitation seems to come from the fear that perhaps they would lose business and profits from other areas of the market if they didn’t elect to go after those as well.

However, what ends up occurring is the opposite:

Either a company must sell a watered-down version of their product to a broad market, losing out to focused competitors who maximize value for the customer, or
A company has to spend a massive sum of money optimizing its products for a broad category of customers, thereby losing out on maximizing profits.

Either option is a losing proposition – hence the need for strong market segmentation.

Sometimes, executives simply cannot choose among a number of segments that all appear equally attractive. In such a case, it doesn’t really matter much which market segment the company chooses to focus on. What matters is that the executive selects one, and only one, segment and commits to it maniacally.

Segmentation Technique

Assuming we have made the case for market segmentation and why it is critical for high growth, we will now turn our attention to the question of how to segment. There are many books on this subject, and segmentation is one of the oldest topics in marketing, especially in consumer marketing.

However, for B2B market space, the techniques are somewhat different. Below, we offer a simplified version.

The steps are to first segment the market and then segment that space by account. We discuss this in some detail below.

Step 1: B2B Market Segmentation

B2B market segmentation typically consists of three elements: Role, industry, and geography—in that specific order. The chart shows that as a company starts looking at potential customers that are further away from its “sweet spot”, they will look less and less similar, making it significantly more expensive to maximize value for these outlying potential customers.

1. Role

In B2B, products are sold to solve the problem of a specific business manager (typically called a business driver). This person may or may not also be the decision maker in their respective company.

An example of a Role of a business driver might be “Head of HR,” “Head of Sales,” or “Head of Compliance”. Note that in some companies, this could be a C-level role, in others a VP role, and still others, a director level role. Therefore, it makes more sense to simply refer to it as a “Head of something” for segmentation purposes. Once an actual list is purchased, specific titles may be requested.

Role is the single most important criterion for segmentation, as all features and capabilities of a product/service are targeted towards making that the Role’s headaches go away and their burdens lifted.

2. Industry

While Role might be sufficient, adding industry to segmentation will make it significantly more focused, enabling both the maximization of value for the customer and increasing profits for the company. The reason is that while the heads of HR of the Hospitality industry have many things in common with the heads of HR of the Financial industry, the degree to which the two are regulated are different, thereby requiring more controls in products for more regulated industries.

For example, if we have products that target heads of Compliance, the degree to which an industry is regulated becomes a significant issue in determining how complete a product is for that market.

Some industries are also more concentrated than others. For example, the Pharmaceutical and Oil industries are typically more concentrated than the Financial Services industries.

Concentrated industries tend to be more uniform in size and type, while more fragmented industries have significant variations in size from the smallest to the largest. Therefore, in fragmented industries, there are more niches than in more concentrated ones.

3. Geographic Location

The geographic location of a company is important because the further out the customer is from the provider, the higher the cost. The most obvious cost is that of travel. But there are additional costs that come as a result of distance including differences in time zones, idioms and languages, local customers and laws, and more.

If it is important to meet face to face in order to build rapport, then selling becomes expensive when the customer is further out than the provider. Either the provider has to spend traveling expenses, or has to open and maintain an office local to the customer.

The issue of geography is typically not a problem in concentrated industries since they also tend to be geographically concentrated. However, in fragmented industries, a provider will either have to pick a geopgraphic location, or find an optimal way to sell products and services on a national or international scale.

Closing Words

The first step in market segmentation is to decide whom to sell to, which is a factor of the targeted role (function), what specific industry, and where is the geographic location of potential customers.

In the end, we want to arrive at a statement for our company such as “Hospitality Industry Heads of HR in the DC Metro Area” – this focuses product development, support, marketing, and sales.

Part 2: B2B Account Segmentation

Once we have chosen the specific market segment we want to go after, the next step is to segment all accounts in that market to focus our resources such that our most expensive resources are allocated to the most profitable accounts.

A simple and practical approach is to segment accounts into three categories: Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. The chart below shows how we would allocate resources to each tier.

Tier	Description	Resources
Tier 1	These are the crème de la crème accounts and they typically represent between 5 to 10% of all accounts, but probably would represent 50% or more of all sales potential in that segment. Winning these accounts enable the provider to say, “Our clients include Hyatt, Sheraton, and Holiday Inn”, names that most of your prospects would immediately recognize.	Sales Executive Led Your top sales reps aided by highly experienced Business Development Reps (BDRs) to help them get in.
Tier 2	These are less well known, perhaps local or regional players that nevertheless are significant sized customers. They consist of 20-25% of your target segment in number, but probably make up 35 to 40% of the sales potential in that market segment. Winning them brings both sales and profits, but not necessarily name-dropping benefits.	BDR Led Prospect with experienced Business Development Reps (BDRs) and assign to your sales reps.
Tier 3	These are the rest of the market. They typically represent 65 to 75% of the market in number but probably would not exceed more than 10-15% of the sales potential in the market.	Marketing Led Use Marketing to prospect and process only inbound leads.