Jeremy Miller's Blog, page 26

Three Levers: Focus Your Strategy on Three Priorities

A jack of all trades is the master of none, and the same is true in strategic planning. A daunting list of priorities is not only distracting, it slows growth.

According to research by Booz & Company, “As an executive team’s priority list grows, the company’s revenue growth in fact declines relative to its peers.” The reverse is true too. Companies that focus on one to three strategic priorities outperform their peers.

It’s Easier to be Unfocused

It’s commonly understood that multitasking hurts productivity, but we still do it. Doing one thing really well takes deliberate focus and energy.

Coming up with a long list of priorities isn’t productive either, but it is easier. There are always dozens of mixed priorities and tactics you can employ to grow your business. Then throw in multiple management pet projects — marketing wants new software, operations needs equipment, HR wants new procedures — and the priority list gets even bigger.

Whittling down a priority list to three powerful levers is easier said than done. It requires a strong management team that is committed to clearly defining the three things that need to happen this year to grow the business. More importantly, it requires alignment and commitment to put everything else on the backburner.

Three Levers to Achieve Your Strategy

I emphasize “Three Levers” in Sticky Branding’s strategic planning engagements. We created the Brand Strategy Framework to help our clients distill their strategy onto one page.

The Framework has four core components:

Vision: What is the brand aspiration? What’s its impact?

Positioning: Where does the brand play and how does it win?

Goals: What are the business objectives for the next 12 to 36 months?

Three Levers: Define the Three Levers that your team needs to pull to achieve its goals. (These are your three priorities.)

The meat and potatoes of the strategic planning process is in the Three Levers. This is where you clearly define what needs to be accomplished.

For each of the Three Levers break them down into their base components:

Description: Frame each Lever in relation to the business. This includes their strategic importance, and why the Lever is taking precedence over all other priorities.

Tactics: Get into the weeds and articulate how your organization will pull the Lever. Often I recommend creating a specific budget and plan for each Lever. The details count, because this how you will convert a strategy into execution.

Metrics and Milestones: How will you measure performance? What are the metrics and accomplishments that your team can use to track their progress on a daily or weekly basis?

Getting to Three Levers is a commitment. You and your team are making strategic choices of where your business will play, how it will win, and what it needs to accomplish over the next six to twelve months.

It’s hard work, but it’s so worth it. Clear thinking drives results. The clearer you and your team understand what needs to be accomplished the more likely you’ll reach your goals.

When to Change Your Business Name: A-1 Rebrands to Rocketline

Changing a business name is a big decision, especially when it’s a thriving family business with 50 years of history. This was the situation for A-1 Shipping Supplies.

Founded in 1966, A-1 Shipping Supplies is a rapidly growing distributor, but it faced a real challenge. The company had outgrown its name.

The name was problematic for two reasons:

A-1 Shipping Supplies is a functional name that stated what the company did. The company has grown rapidly in recently years, and expanded its offering to serve a diverse client base in 5 distinct markets. Stating “shipping supplies” in the name created dissonance when selling food packaging or healthy and safety products.
A-1 dated the brand. The business name was optimized for the Yellow Pages, but in 2017 the name looked cliche. It didn’t represent the unique positioning or culture of the company.

Both issues were leading to one universal problem: the name was slowing down sales. When a business name is affecting sales performance it’s got to go.

I am excited to share A-1’s new brand: Rocketline

Creating a Whimsical Brand

The vision for Rocketline was to create a whimsical brand.

A great business name positions the brand. It sets an expectation of what it’s like to work with the company.

Sticky Branding led A-1 through a naming process to reposition the brand. The inspiration for the new name was Pep Boys. It’s a whimsical brand with a human touch.

Rocketline is run by four brother: Patrick, Alex, Peter, and John Malevris. They’ve created a dynamic company culture that emphasizes speed, customer service, and having fun. We wanted to find a name that encapsulated both their personality and their values.

In addition, we wanted to find a name that clearly differentiated the company from the competition. The competitors are primarily industrial companies with industrial names. Some are named after the founders, and others use invented words. Our goal was to choose a name that stood out in the industry like an orange tree in an evergreen forest.

Bringing the Brand to Life

Design and Develop breathed life into the Rocketline brand name. They took the brand strategy, and imagined how to visually convey the personality and style of the company.

One of Design and Develop’s key innovations is the “rocket man.” It’s a mascot that is used throughout the website, but it has immense potential.

As the brand evolves the rocket man can be incorporated into a variety of marketing assets and campaigns. It can become a symbol of how to identify the brand and what it represents.

Dealing with Domain Names

Domain names provide a real conundrum for selecting a business name. Most of the .com names are already registered. You may be able to buy the .com from a domain reseller, but often the price is cost prohibitive.

Rocketline found an excellent compromise. They chose GoGoRocketline.com. “Go Go Rocketline” fits the brand perfectly. It’s energetic and fun, and it makes the name even more memorable.

The Name Makes You Smile

A-1 Shipping Supplies to Rocketline is a big change, but it makes sense. The old name was becoming a sales liability. It didn’t reflect what the become had become, or where it was heading. The company needed a new identity.

Rocketline is a unique business name in a competitive landscape of sameness. It gets you to smile, and it demonstrates a company that wants to stand out. The Malevris brothers and their organization are proud of who they are, and they’re having a blast.

What do you think? Share your thoughts on the new Rocketline brand. You can contact me directly, or connect on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook.

Carter Wilkerson Created the World’s Most Popular Tweet, and Here’s Why

Any day now Carter Wilkerson will break the record for the world’s most popular tweet. The title has been held by Ellen DeGeneres since 2014 for her Oscars selfie with 3.4 million retweets.

If only Bradley’s arm was longer. Best photo ever. #oscars pic.twitter.com/C9U5NOtGap

— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) March 3, 2014

As of this writing, Carter is just shy of the record and will achieve the milestone in the next few days.

So what’s all the buzz about? Why are so many people rallying around this tweet? Who is Carter Wilkerson?

Carter Wilkerson is a 16 year old high school student from Nevada, and he wants a year of free chicken nuggets from Wendy’s. All he needs is 18 million retweets to get them. Seriously! I can’t make this up.

On April 5, 2017, Carter posted, “HELP ME PLEASE. A MAN NEEDS HIS NUGGS”.

HELP ME PLEASE. A MAN NEEDS HIS NUGGS pic.twitter.com/4SrfHmEMo3

— Carter Wilkerson (@carterjwm) April 6, 2017

Two days later Carter’s tweet crossed 1 million retweets. Wendy’s wrote, “1 Million?!?! Officially SHOOK”.

1 Million?!?! Officially SHOOK https://t.co/XZ1AafXo2p

— Wendy’s (@Wendys) April 7, 2017

The momentum was only starting. Carter’s tweet has been retweeted by brands like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Apple Music; and hundreds of celebrities and politicians.

Carter is even receiving support on Michael McDowell’s #95 NASCAR car.

#NASCAR #NuggsForCarter @Wendys @carterjwm pic.twitter.com/95EshQLmOF

— LeavineFamilyRacing (@LFR95) April 21, 2017

A Foundation for Conversations

Watching a 16 year old kid destroy on Twitter is exciting. It’s amazing to see someone who is not a celebrity generate so much support and buzz.

Carter’s success is exciting, but it’s not the story. What I find remarkable is Wendy’s brand, and how their approach to engaging fans created the Carter Wilkerson phenomom. This milestone is a result of the foundation Wendy’s social media team laid.

I wrote about Wendy’s brand earlier this year, and how they’re a delight to follow. I shared the story of how Wendy’s social media team deviated from convention, and trolled the troll. Instead of placating Twitter troll @NHride, Wendy’s stood its ground and defended its brand with humor. The internet loved it!

Fans rallied around the brand, and began baiting Wendy’s with funny requests. @devonpeacock_ asked, “How much does a Big Mac cost?” Wendy’s replied, “Your dignity.”

@dpeacock980 Your dignity

— Wendy’s (@Wendys) January 4, 2017

These small conversations built a bond with fans and followers. They demonstrated Wendy’s was willing to play with its fans, and would gladly take the bait when challenged.

Conversations Are Additive

Four months after the incident with @NHride, Carter Wilkerson tried to challenge Wendy’s.

#NuggsForCarter all started with a simple ask, “Yo @Wendys how many retweets for a year of free chicken nuggets?”

Wendy’s jokingly responded, “18 million”, but Carter took it as a challenge. He

replied, “Consider it done.”

@Wendys Consider it done

— Carter Wilkerson (@carterjwm) April 6, 2017

The tweet took off for a couple reasons:

Permission to engage: Carter was empowered to joke around with the brand, because of all the prior interactions Wendy’s was having with its fans. There was a clear precedent of engagement.

A community of fans: Carter leveraged Wendy’s fan base. Others were already engaged in conversations with Wendy’s on Twitter, or aware of the brand’s humorous tweets. When Carter asked for a retweet the group naturally rallied around him and participated in the fun.

The Carter Wilkerson phenomenon didn’t happen in a vacuum. It wasn’t a viral campaign, or a strategy for Wendy’s to generate a boatload of PR. #NuggsForCarter became a thing, because Wendy’s had grown a community of fans by having hundreds of conversations.

I find this lesson fascinating and empowering, because great things happen when you have fun and interact with your customers as people.

One Conversation at a Time

Carter Wilkerson’s story is remarkable, but it all started with a conversation. Wendy’s empowered its social media team to engage its fans with humor, and have one conversation at a time.

I love the power of conversations. Any company of any size can engage its customers in a conversation. It’s not complicated, it’s not expensive, but conversations do take time to get rolling.

Lay the foundation for your conversations to take off. Conversations build upon each other, and the more you have the more opportunities you will create.

Beware of Goals Masquerading as Strategies

Be wary of any business plan that sounds like:

25 in 5 ($25 million in 5 years)
30 by 30 ($30 million by 2030)

These big goals may sound appealing, but they are rarely achievable.

Picture This Situation

A management consultant leads an executive team through a strategic planning process. It was a busy morning. The team conducted a SWAT analysis and achieved clarity on the company’s competitive advantages.

During the afternoon session, the consultant poses a question to the group, “Where do you see your business in 5 years? What’s your goal?”

The team ponders the question and suggests, “We want to double our revenue to $24 million.” The consultant counters, “That’s not big enough. Think bigger! What’s your BHAG — your Big Hairy Audacious Goal?”

The team gives it some more thought and replies, “How about $50 million?” The consultant pounces, “That’s it. Now you’re cooking with gas. That’s a BHAG! And I’ve got the perfect name for your goal, ’50 in 5.'”

The team rallies around the idea. “50 in 5” has a nice ring to it. It is clear, specific, and motivating. And it is big. To achieve the goal the company will have to grow by more than 400% in 5 years.

In the energy of the moment, the big goal sounds amazing. But it’s not enough.

Goals Are Nothing Without the Work

A big goal is a destination. It’s what you want. Strategies are how you achieve your big goals.

“50 in 5” is a good starting point for defining a goal, but it’s not a business strategy. It’s a milestone. Where is the rest of the strategy?

What areas of your business are you working on?
Why is the goal important for not only your business, but for your customers? What’s the “why” behind your strategy?
Is the milestone achievable? The number sounds exciting, but does your company have the infrastructure and resources to achieve the goal? If not, how will you build them? If you do, why hasn’t your company already achieved the goal?

Crossing Revenue Plateaus is Fraught with Risk

Growing a company to $25-, $30- or $50 million is an admirable goal, but the journey is fraught with risks.

Companies grow through predictable revenue plateaus: $1 million, $5 million, $10 million, $25 million, $100 million, $500 million, $1 billion. At each level, growth can slow down or stall.

To break free of these plateaus involves a major shift for the business. It requires investing in the infrastructure of the next level (business processes, talent, systems, operations, sales, marketing).

“30 by 30” or “50 in 5” does not prepare your team for what’s ahead.

Going from $5 million, or even $25 million, to $50 million in a short period of time is transformational, and the journey consumes enormous resources to facilitate this level of growth.

Unachievable Goals Destroy Credibility

A number-based goal is only motivating when your company is on track. If your company is growing quickly and on pace to achieve “50 in 5,” it’s a motivating goal.

As soon as you hit a bump in the road the phrase can haunt you:

If you fall behind, the number becomes even more daunting.
The team can rebel if crossing a revenue plateau is too painful or expensive.
The leadership team can lose credibility if the organization fails to stay on pace, or misses the goal entirely.

I’ll repeat it. “50 in 5” or “30 by 30” are effective milestones, but they are not business strategies.

Teams Need a “Why” to Change

The biggest problem with number-based goals is they don’t inform your team on how to act.

Growing through the revenue plateaus puts a lot of pressure on your team, and they need to clearly understand why changing their behaviors, skills, and jobs are so important. “50 in 5” does not explain why change is important for the business.

Delve further into your goals, and ask why a desired revenue target is important for you and your customers:

What will achieving the goal mean for your customers?
How will achieving the goal change your industry, and the way business is conducted?
Why is it important for your company to reach this goal?

These are the questions your employees need answers for. The number-based goal may sound great at a management retreat, but its residual impact is limited. The number does not engage your people’s hearts. It does not tell them how to act, or why they should change their behaviors.

Your team needs to understand what it means to achieve the goal. They need to know why their contributions matter.

Clear Thinking Drives Results

Effective business strategies have depth, and clearly articulate three things:

What your company wants.
Why your company wants to achieve its objectives.
How it will get there.

The more clearly you can articulate the how and the why the more likely you’ll achieve what you want.

A Simple Hack to Spark Conversations

The phone rang while I was working on an ebook. I had set aside a couple hours to write, but without thinking I grabbed my headset and said, “Hello, Jeremy speaking.”

“Hi Jeremy. This is Jen calling from Pitney Bowes. How are you today?”

Me, “Good.”

Jen, “That’s good to hear. I am calling today about a new promotion we’re running on postage meters. We’re offering two free months off all your mailing …”

I let her ramble on for another minute. When she paused I said, “Sorry. Not interested. Thanks.” And I hung up.

I didn’t give my response a second thought. It just fell out of my mouth like it was an autoresponder. My brain subconsciously assessed the situation, and selected the appropriate response.

We use autoresponders all the time.

If someone asks, “How are you today?”, you have a response for that — good, busy, or great.

If someone asks, “What do you do?”, you’ve got a response for that.

If a door to door salesman knocks on your door to sell you something — water heaters, lawn services, a new roof — you’ve got a response for that too.

Every day we have dozens of interactions that are based on mental autoresponders. Each routine interaction generates a canned response.

You don’t think twice to hold the elevator for someone at your office, and you don’t think about your pin number when you use your credit card. You simply do.

Autoresponders make our lives easier. Imagine how difficult it would be to get through your day if you had to think deeply about each and every interaction. You’d dread the question, “How are you today?” A thoughtful, accurate response to this question every single time would destroy your productivity.

As beneficial as autoresponders are for your productivity, they also dull your senses. Each time you use an autoresponder you are completing a transaction:

Getting through a conversation
Completing a purchase
Social rituals like saying hello or goodbye

Most of the time the autoresponder is the right tool for the job. But what if you want to change behaviors? What if you actually want a person to engage with you?

If you want real engagement, change your autoresponders.

Changing your autoresponders can be easier than you think. You don’t have to rearrange social convention, and create new forms of conversation. Rather, you can change your own canned responses to spark engagement.

The next time someone asks you, “How are you today?”, change your autoresponder. Instead of saying good, busy, or great, I’d like you to respond with a new phrase, “Spectacular.”

Try it out.

Imagine we just met and I ask, “How are you today?”

Now say it out loud, “Spectacular.”

How did it feel to say spectacular? Was it weird? Did it feel odd? If so, that’s great. A little discomfort is a good sign. It’s your body telling you that you’re onto something.

Here’s the neat part of the exercise. When you change your autoresponder it will cause others to react.

People accept autoresponders as easily as they use them. You too will accept an expected response as a natural step in a conversation. When you ask, “How are you today?”, you’re expecting the usual response — good, busy, or great. But an unexpected response will catch your attention.

An unexpected response can disrupt the interaction. People aren’t anticipating “spectacular.” The simple shift in your autoresponder triggers a response. The other person will pause and take notice of what you said, and it may even cause them to inquire why.

Sometimes all that’s need is a little nudge to catch a person’s attention.

Changing autoresponders starts with you. Try the spectacular exercise. Almost immediately, you will notice how changing your autoresponder with an unexpected response can trigger small conversations.

Small conversations are the real benefit of changing your autoresponders. Getting someone to pause and engage with you creates a little space, and that can be all you need to steer the person to something greater: a meeting, a discussion, a sale, or a relationship.

Start with an easy autoresponder:

How are you today?
Spectacular!

Codify Your Thought Leadership to Monetize Your Expertise

Ideas don’t become thought leadership until they’re written down and codified.

You might have brilliant ideas or know how to help people in very tangible ways, but that expertise is trapped if it’s locked in your head.

What thought leaders do differently is codify their expertise.

A thought leader is an authority in a specific topic who is able to monetize their expertise. The key phrase in that definition is “monetize their expertise.”

If you want to get paid for your expertise, you’ve got to codify it. This means systematically documenting your ideas so they can spread beyond you.

Capture Your Expertise

If you were to share your best advice, what would it be?

Everyone has 5 to 7 things that they know to be true. These are the core ideas of your expertise, and where you naturally gravitate when solving problems or giving advice.

The 3% Rule, for instance, is one of my core ideas. The rule argues that at any given time 3% of your market is buying, the rest is not. I use the Rule extensively in my work. It’s a principle in my book, Sticky Branding, and a tool that I use in my consulting and speaking.

The 3% Rule comes across as a simple idea, but it took me a while to codify the model. It’s gone through several iterations to make it a shareable tool that anyone can use.

You too have core ideas that ground your expertise. Take the time to document each of your core ideas. These are the building blocks of your thought leadership.

Make Your Ideas Tangible

Thought leadership is also an act of branding. Capturing and documenting your ideas is the first step to codify your thought leadership. The next step is to package your ideas so they are easy to share.

Treat your core ideas like products. Give them a label or a name, and provide each with a short statement that explains it. For instance, the “3% Rule” is the name, and the statement is “At any given time 3% of your market is buying, the rest is not.”

Packaging your core ideas has two benefits:

Make ideas concrete: Documenting your ideas makes them concrete. By giving the idea a name and explanation makes it a tangible concept that you can share with others.

Give ideas gravitas: A clear explanation gives your ideas credibility. The packaging exercise separates the creator from the idea, and allows the idea to stand on its own.

Monetize Your Thought Leadership

Documenting your ideas makes them tangible. It takes skills that you deliver in your job or when you trade time for money, and converts them into saleable units.

Each of your core ideas has value. They can be converted into keynotes, courses, books, training materials, or a host of other services. The challenge is pulling them out of your head so that you have the building blocks to work with.

Take the first step, and codify your 5 to 7 core ideas.

A Brand Name Is the Longest Living Artifact of Your Company

A brand name sticks around for a very long time. The business will change, customers change, and products change, but the name does not.

A brand name is the longest living artifact of a company.

Many of the companies that we interact with have long, well-established histories. Colgate, for instance, was founded in 1806 by William Colgate. The company first manufactured starch, soap, and candles. Toothpaste wasn’t introduced until 1873, and it took another 23 years for the company to sell toothpaste in a tube.

Colgate is known around the world as specialists in oral health care, but the company served customers for decades before it cleaned its first set of teeth.

A brand name will outlive marketing, people, and products. It’s the one consistent thing that connects a company to its past.

A Name Is a Vessel of Meaning

A name grows and takes on meaning with time.

It’s not easy to change your name, because it’s packed with meaning. Your name is a vessel for who you are, how you behave, and what you have accomplished.

In 1993, Prince changed his stage name to an unpronounceable symbol. It was weird and it generated a lot of media attention, but Prince couldn’t escape his name. He just became known as “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince.”

In 2000, Prince dropped the symbol and went back to using his name. It’s who he was.

Brand names are powerful, because they contain the history and experiences of the company. The name is a vessel for what the company represents.

Changing Names Requires Moving Meaning

Choose your brand names deliberately. They stick around for a long time, and they are hard to change.

In 2004 I led the rebranding of my family’s business. Due to a variety of reasons we changed the company’s name from Miller & Associates to LEAPJob. Developing the new name was actually the easy part. The harder part was moving our customers’ relationship with the old name to the new name.

Changing a brand name can be like hitting the reset button. The brand’s history, meaning, and relationships are intrinsically linked to the original name. To transition customers requires consistent, direct communication — often more than you expect.

We spent over eighteen months conditioning our customers to the new brand name. We ran both names in parallel for a period of time, as well as several marketing campaigns to communicate how and why we were changing the company’s name.

A name is like a label on a file folder in your mind. It’s easy to overlook the importance of the label, because it’s just a word or phrase. But if you transition the name too quickly or don’t communicate the change effectively, you can risk losing the contents of the folder.

Brand Names Improve with Time

Hold onto your brand name for a long time. It improves with age.

Our relationships with brands are built over years, and often decades. Every interaction, customer experience, and story gets connected to the brand name. Over time that name becomes packed with meaning and emotion.

Hold onto your brand names and defend them. They’ll outlive your products and people, and they’ll connect your company to its past.

4 Website Design Trends in 2017

Your website is one of your most important marketing assets. It’s the face of your company, and often your customers first point of interaction with your brand. Your website better look great.

Design trends play a big part in defining whether your website is current or out of date. You’re making a first impression. Here are 4 website design trends for 2017.

1. Semi-Flat Design

Google’s influence on website design is profound. In 2014 Google introduced Material Design, a design standard for Google and Android products. The design emphasizes flat 2D images that use sharp angles and bold colors to demonstrate space and motion.

Google’s design system was picked up extensively by graphic designers in 2015 and 2016, and we saw an explosion of flat illustrations and designs. You can see the influence in Salesforce.com Trailhead. The Trailhead illustrations are simple, flat, and colorful.

In 2017 flat design is still in, but designers are adding a touch of sophistication with shading and graphics. The addition of light shading and 3D elements adds complexity, while retaining the boldness of Material Design. Stripe is a good example of a firm that is using semi-flat design to make simple illustrations pop.

2. Custom Graphics and Illustrations

Building upon the semi-flat design trend, brands are standing out with custom graphics. This isn’t to say that stock photography is dead. It’s not. But with custom graphics you can create a website and brand identity that is uniquely yours.

Slack is definitely a brand to watch with its custom illustrations. They are experimenting with multiple illustration styles to bring the brand alive.

Webflow is another brand using custom illustrations effectively. The company is using very simple geometric designs to demonstrate the “building blocks” of web development.

3. Color Transitions

Color transitions are hot in 2017. A fade adds a touch of sophistication.

Uberflip launched its new website in early March. The design emphasizes a pink to purple gradient. It’s also interesting to note, Uberflip uses semi-flat illustrations throughout the site.

The trend towards color transitions began in 2016 with Instragram’s logo update. Instagram went from the cartoonish camera to a flatter designer with a gradient.

4. Bright, Bold Colors

Bright colors are in style for 2017. This is exciting. Bold colors are fun and add energy to your brand.

Asana has one of the brightest websites. The site is like a color wheel. Each section uses a different color, and they are all electric.

As you look at all the brands listed above, you will see the bold use of colors. Slack, Stripe, and Uberflip are not afraid to engage your eye.

Make It Your Own

Website design trends are fickle. What looks amazing today can quickly look out of date. The key is to continually evolve.

Pick and choose the trends that fit your brand and the stories you’re telling. There’s no rule that says you have to use all or any of these trends. Rather, it’s your job to create a visually compelling experience that makes your brand relevant.

Your website is the face of your company. Use the website design trends to keep it current and fresh.

How To Measure Brand Performance

The number one value of growing a strong brand is sales. Sticky Brands sell more faster, and you’ll see it in your data:

More demand
Higher profits
Less competition

Your sales metrics are an effective measure of brand performance. Sure, you can look at other metrics like social media engagement or the number of visitors to your website, but all those metrics roll up to one big question. Is marketing moving the sales needle?

A strong brand has a quantifiable impact on sales in three areas:

Volume: The demand for your products and services.

Velocity: The speed a customer travels through the buying process.

Value: The ability to sell at a premium and avoid discounting.

These metrics are the 3Vs, and they’re where I start to measure brand performance.

Volume: Is your company drowning in leads?

Walk into any Apple Store and you’ll see dozens of people examining the devices. The stores are always busy.

Apple’s brand is so effective that it creates a halo effect. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Apple draws so many shoppers that its stores single-handedly lift sales by 10% at the malls in which they operate.”

Apple’s ability to attract customers is a measure of its brand performance. High foot traffic translates into higher sales. It’s estimated that Apple’s revenue per square foot is $6,050, which is double what Tiffany & Co achieves.

What is the demand for your products and services? Look at your lead generation metrics to assess Volume.

Velocity: Are customers kicking the tires or making decisions?

A strong brand translates into faster sales. Customers who love your brand are fast, efficient buyers. They don’t “kick the tires” or shop for the lowest price. They buy, because they know your brand, like it, and trust it.

Velocity is a relatively easy metric to capture. Track the time it takes a customer to move through each phase of the buyer’s journey, from inquiry to close.

Your brand will accelerate sales performance, because your customers already have a relationship with your company. They know it, like it, and trust it, and that means they’ll make decisions faster.

Value: How often does your sales team discount to win?

Strong brands don’t discount to win. In fact, customers will often pay a premium for the market leader.

Growing a strong brand is like building a moat around your business. It insulates and protects your products and services in measurable ways:

Increased perceived value and affinity towards your products and services.
Increased customer attraction and retention.
Decreased price sensitivity.

The moat gets deeper and wider the stronger your business becomes on these three dimensions.

To measure Value look at pricing metrics. Is your company able to price products and services at a premium? How often do your sales reps discount to win? How often does your company run promotions to move the sales needle?

Strong Brands Drive Sales Performance

There is no shortage of metrics to manage your business, but CEOs and shareholders want to see two things:

Revenue: Is the business growing?

Profit: Is the business making money?

To measure your brand’s performance work backwards from these two questions.

The 3Vs help you quantify brand performance. They will help you see how your brand is moving the sales needle, and indicate where your brand is succeeding and where it may be lagging.

3 Steps to Eliminate Sales Proposals

Proposals are a standard step in the B2B sales process, but they’re brutal. Sales proposals slow down the buying process, reduce sales productivity, and most importantly, they’re unnecessary.

Replace your sales proposals with contracts. The logic is simple. If a customer isn’t ready to sign an agreement then there isn’t much point sending them a proposal either.

Ok, I am leading with a strong position. There’s more nuance to this idea then a simple call to arms.

Salespeople would gladly stop writing proposals if given the option. The problem is they can’t. They’re using sales proposals to close deals, because they don’t have the right infrastructure to eliminate them.

Sales reps are writing proposals to clearly articulate value propositions, capabilities, and pricing. They are documenting exactly how the solution will work, and working to instill confidence in the customer. It’s a critical document, especially if the brand doesn’t sell for itself.

To eliminate sales proposals your organization has to provide the sales team three things:

Strong brand
Effective marketing collateral
Training and culture

Customers Choose Strong Brands

The stronger your brand the more velocity you can drive into the sales process.

Velocity is a key measure of brand performance. Customers who love your brand are fast, efficient buyers. They don’t “kick the tires” or ask for proposals. They buy, because they know your brand, like it, and trust it.

A strong brand translates into faster sales. Instead of establishing trust and rapport with prospects, salespeople leverage the existing relationship with the brand to advance the sales process.

Marketing Anticipates Questions

Everything that goes into a sales proposal can be clearly documented elsewhere:

Website: An effective B2B website should sell as well as your best salesperson. It should clearly articulate your company’s value proposition, educate customers on how your services work and what they can expect, and drive them to next steps.

Sales Collateral: You won’t publish all of your content on your website. Some information has to be presented in context. Provide your sales team standard documents that answer customer questions. There’s no reason for your salespeople to write custom documents for common questions.

You can make your sales team a whole lot more efficient with the right collateral and marketing support. This also fits into how your customers want to buy. A key trend in B2B marketing is customers binge before they buy.

Customers do their homework before making a major purchase decision. They study your website, download your white papers, watch your videos, and get informed.

The burden of facilitating the binge falls to marketing. The marketing team has to anticipate customer questions, and provide customers the information they want when they want it.

It’s a careful balance, but the better your company facilitates the customer’s binge, the easier it is to eliminate sales proposals.

A Culture of Selling

The final step to eliminating sales proposals is cultural.

It’s hard for a salesperson to say “no” to a customer request, especially if it’s for a proposal. A request for proposal is usually a good sign. The customer is demonstrating a buying signal and wants a written document.

The challenge is to guide your team to offer a service agreement instead of a proposal. This has two benefits:

Qualify Buyer Intent: It doesn’t cost a customer anything to ask for a proposal, and many people use the request as a way to deflect salespeople. Train your salespeople to ask, “Would you like me to send the service agreement?” The customer’s response can be very revealing. If the customer isn’t ready for the service agreement then there’s more sales work required. The deal isn’t ready to be closed.

Improve Sales Performance: Writing a custom proposal is time consuming. Salespeople can spend two to six hours on one proposal. This is an unproductive use of time if the customer isn’t ready to buy, which leads us back to qualifying buyer intent.

Providing a proposal is the path of least resistance for the salesperson, but not necessarily the best route. By challenging and training your reps to eliminate proposals will make them better salespeople.

Make the Sales Proposal a Brochure

I’d love to fully eliminate the sales proposal, but some customers just can’t live without them.

Another approach to streamlining the proposal process is to standardize the document. Treat it like a brochure:

Cover Letter
Product or service information
Service agreement

The body of the proposal can be standardized. If your website sells as well as your best salesperson, you can basically pull the service pages and use them in the body of your proposal.

Using your website content in your proposals has the added benefit of raising the bar for your company’s marketing collateral. If the content isn’t good enough for your proposals, it’s not good enough for your website.

In these proposal templates, the only areas your salespeople will have to modify is the cover letter and service agreement. They’re basically sending a contract with a few extra pages. This will save your reps tons of time, and satisfy your client’s need for a formal proposal.

What do you think? Send me a note on our Contact page, or chat with me on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook.