by tradesmeninsights | Aug 3, 2016 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing, Uncategorized
By John Sonnhalter, Rainmaker Journeyman, Sonnhalter
Close to 70 million visitors a month, five times more traffic from business owners than Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn. SlideShare was purchased by LinkedIn a few years ago which allows both platforms to work seamlessly together, which is good news for you.
Why should you consider using it? Contractors like visuals and are wanting to learn more of how or why to do things a certain way.
It’s a great way to market your business, and showcase your expertise as an industry leader. Not only can you put up Power Point presentations and white papers, you can upload videos by using SlideSharepro and have a way to repurpose your webinars or online training options.
If you’re worried about sharing your information with the world, you can upload content that you can make available to select audiences (by invitation only).
The most important reason for using SlideShare is to generate leads. Peg Fitzpatrick wrote a great post on Social Media Examiner on ways to capitalize on getting leads.
She focuses on ways to collect emails from viewers, how to use links in slides, why you should add visual calls to action and lastly, why the description. It’s a good quick read. (more…)
by tradesmeninsights | Jul 26, 2016 | Marketing Tips, Traditional Marketing
By John Sonnhalter, Rainmaker Journeyman, Sonnhalter
It may be time to reflect on ways we can do better moving forward to better identify ways to reach contractors and professional tradesmen. I have found one of the biggest issues and one of the easiest ones to correct is communications between sales and marketing. As you can see in the chart below, most companies see room for improvement.
Sales and marketing must work together to define the ideal client and determine how and what to get in front of them. They need to share information and have a plan in place to hand off a lead from marketing to sales.
Social media and the internet in general have changed the way people buy. Today, research is done online long before the potential customer identifies themselves to a prospective vendor. So what can you do to ensure that when the buyer is ready, you’re on the list to talk to?
This is an issue that continues to frustrate marketers and sales across the board. Both disciplines have insights to offer and neither should be working in a vacuum. Marketing’s role is to provide qualified leads to the sales team so they can more effectively close more sales.
I read an interesting article by John Jantsch from Duct Tape Marketing that addresses this very problem.
He states: “My take is that for organizations to take full advantage of the dramatic shift in the way people and organizations buy today they must intentionally blend inbound marketing, outbound marketing and inbound selling in a way that mirrors today’s customer journey.”
He offers some suggestions on how they can work together. Here are some highlights of shared responsibilities:
- Planning – When marketing is creating a plan, involve sales. They have insights that marketing doesn’t. Their insights are invaluable in helping define the customer journey.
- Editorial – Even if sales people aren’t great writers, they certainly can identify pain points along the way and possible solutions for marketing to write about.
- Social – Make sales aware of social opportunities, whether it’s LinkedIn or participating in an industry forum that social is a good networking tool.
- Engagement – Have sales and marketing make calls together or write a proposal.
- Measurement – Forget quantity and focus on quality of lead and how you can take them down the sales funnel. Focus on creating a profitable customer.
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by tradesmeninsights | Jul 13, 2016 | Marketing Tools, Marketing Trends, Traditional Marketing
By John Sonnhalter, Rainmaker Journeyman, Sonnhalter
I recently read an article by Mark Buckshon from Construction Marketing Ideas where he was talking about how contractors need to identify what makes them different from all the rest. It got me to thinking about farther up the food chain (manufacturers) and how they all have a hard time differentiating themselves. How many times have you heard the following:
- Best in Class
- Industry Expert
- Leading Source
- Industry Leader
- World Class
- Award Winning
- One-of-a-Kind
- Innovative
The point is, what do these really say about your company that sets it apart from the competition? Phrases like these are marketing hype and nothing more. You need to look hard at those things that really truly set you apart from the competition. Manufacturers typically look at products as the points of difference and in some cases, that might enough. But no manufacturer can say that across their entire product line.
Maybe you should be looking at other points of differentiation such as tech/field support, customer service or distribution policies. For example, in the plumbing fixture category, there are tons of competitors. Yes, some like Kohler and Grohe go after the high-end, but what about the regular guy who needs a new faucet or shower head? If you were a contractor, who would you recommend?
Here’s a good example. Gerber Plumbing fixtures are sold only through plumbing wholesalers and plumbing contractors. Now if you’re a contractor, that would make a difference. They offer similar styles and finishes as their competitors, but they don’t have the hassle of a customer going to Home Depot and telling them they can buy that same fixture for $50 less than what you’re quoting. That’s a competitive advantage. Gerber has the contractors’ backs because that’s their target market.
Here are 3 questions you need to answer regarding your positioning:
- Is it True?
- Is it Relevant?
- Is it Provable?
So I might suggest you take a look at your positioning statement and see if it passes the test.
by tradesmeninsights | Jul 6, 2016 | Marketing Tools, Traditional Marketing
By John Sonnhalter, Rainmaker Journeyman, Sonnhalter
Beyond the normal marketing things you do, what are you doing to get closer to your customers and LISTEN to what their issues are?
May I suggest a contractor council? You all have brand advocates out there, why not get them together a few times a year and get a better sense of what’s happening in their world and what keeps them up at night. You could even pass by new product ideas before putting them into production. If you make the meetings about them and not you, the outcome will be more positive.
You know these guys talk to each other, either through social media like forums or at association and trade meetings. Meetings could be planned around major trade shows or meetings, and you’d ask them to come in a day ahead of time for say a half-day meeting.
I’d also suggest that some of the meetings could be held at your location (at your expense) so they get to meet other members of your team. Keep these meetings on track with an agenda that should include issues they want to talk about as well. There also should be action items coming out of each meeting where they can see that you actually did listen and are taking some action. Note that all action items don’t have to have a positive resolution, but the council needs to know that you at least took it under consideration.
Other than the ultimate end user, do you sell through independent reps and or distributors? These should be on your radar screen to get closer to as well. Rep and Distributor councils can also reap great results.
- Reps are in the trenches daily and can give you valuable insights not only on the end-user level, but also what’s happening at the distributor level.
- Distributors can give you insights on not only current avenues of business, but might be able to point out new possible areas of growth.
Bottom line is, I’ve seen firsthand what a well planned council can bring to a company. It’s a great long-term strategy that will help you set your brand apart.
Have you done one?
by tradesmeninsights | Jun 15, 2016 | Marketing Tips, Traditional Marketing, Uncategorized
Trade show season is upon us and for those of us that are still going to them, you know that the costs to play aren’t going down. That’s why ROI and documented metrics are so important. I talked to Vince Tricomi recently to make sure his post from a year ago still was appropriate and he assured me it was, so I thought I’d remind us all of these metrics.
Vince Tricomi, VP, New Business Development at PFI Displays, explains ways you can maximize your efforts.
Most of you participate in various trade shows from time to time. If you do, you know that they can be very expensive and management is always looking for an ROI. That’s why it’s important for sales and marketing to work together to make sure they get the best bang for the buck.
Except for a lucky few who still write orders at trade shows, most exhibitors can’t tie a specific revenue-generation figure to their trade shows.
That’s OK though. Consider how marketers tie sales figures to a magazine ad: They can’t, and that’s why they measure things like impressions, reach and awareness.
Trade shows offer plenty of measurement opportunities for the savvy event marketer. Some of these metrics are firm, others are calculated estimates, but they can be combined to create clarity into the effectiveness of any trade show program, large or small.
Here are a few of our suggestions:
1. Leads:
a. Let’s get this easy one of out of the way
i. Don’t mess around with collecting business cards
ii. Renting a lead retrieval machine that loads your lead data on a flash drive is money well spent
b. SAVVY TIP: Break these leads down into A, B, and C categories for better insight into the show’s quality.
2. Cost Per Lead:
a. Take the total cost of your exhibit investment and divide it by the total amount of leads collected
b. Compare this to other marketing efforts to see how your show stacks up
c. SAVVY TIP: If you exhibit at multiple shows, this metric also shines light on the comparative effectiveness of each show.
3. Demonstrations:
a. If you’re launching a new product, consider giving one-on-one or group demonstrations
b. Count how many demonstrations you give and how many audience members listen or interact
c. If you’re doing multiple presentations each hour, you’re having a great show
d. SAVVY TIP: Find out from the VP of Sales an average cost of a trip for a sales person to give a demo at a prospect’s office. Compare that with the show’s average cost per demo, and suddenly trade shows look like a bargain!
4. Website Traffic:
a. Know the average visitors to your website before the show, and compare that to the visitors during and immediately after
b. Pay special attention to the pages for the products and offers you featured at the show
c. SAVVY TIP: Don’t forget that trade shows are about face-to-face interactions. Generating web traffic is a great metric, but for most exhibitors it shouldn’t be the main goal.
5. Press Mentions:
a. These hold special appeal, and therefore more “weight” as a viable metric, for all classically trained marketers
b. SAVVY TIP: With the abundance of trade magazines, writers and bloggers at every show, if you’re not getting mentioned, something is wrong; try setting up interviews and press walk-throughs well before the show.
6. Post Show Appointments:
a. In today’s hectic, time-starved business world, one of the hardest challenges faced by every salesperson is securing a face-to-face appointment
b. Commit the sales team to informing you of every show lead that generates a follow-up appointment
c. SAVVY TIP: You’ll have friends for life if your shows facilitate setting post-show meetings. Think creatively about a space in your booth dedicated solely to this endeavor.
Whoops; did that headline say “5 metrics?” Consider the last one a bonus. As you can tell, these suggestions are only the tip of the iceberg. Please share some of your favorite, and most effective, metrics with us.
In closing, leading, full-service exhibit companies, like PFI Displays, offer innovative, easy-to-use software tools that will help you measure your shows—and do a lot more, too.
I’m sure you can add to the list and I’d like to hear ways your company is measuring the effectiveness of trade shows.
If you like this post you might like:
5 Ways to Improve your Trade Show ROI
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by tradesmeninsights | Jun 14, 2016 | Marketing Tips, Traditional Marketing
By John Sonnhalter, Rainmaker Journeyman, Sonnhalter
Every year, Industrial Distribution magazine puts out their annual survey of distributor operations. Here are some highlights from the 69th version and my opinion as to where they should be spending their time and effort.
While the economy is their biggest concern, it’s one they have little control over. Truth be known, I don’t believe the industrial segment of the market ever got back to levels pre-2008. Sales and margins are down (show me a business that doesn’t have similar issues) and that’s a natural reaction when sales drop, you try to protect existing business and the easiest way of doing that is lowering prices. Distributors can sometimes be their own worst enemies. Sell value not price.
Here’s my view of what these distributors should be concerning themselves with:
- Specialize – if you’re a general line distributor, I wish you luck as you won’t be in business too much longer. If the only thing you have to sell is price and availability, the big guys are going to eat you alive. The cutting tool, power transmission and other specialized distributors who add value to the sale will and can be more competitive. If you have a cutting tool problem on a CNC machine, Grainger or Amazon aren’t going to be sending anyone out to help you solve the problem.
- Promote value-added relationship selling – they are the local guys and should be selling themselves as the guys who have your back (assuming you have value to add). If not, look for a buyer.
- E-Commerce – Get in or you won’t be long for the world. We live in front of a computer screen and the “I want it now” mentality that we find on the consumer side has trickled over to ours. Let’s face it, some people would like to place orders after hours and they would like to know if you have it available and can have it delivered the next day.
- Buying groups – If you’re not in one, get in one. They are the easiest way for you to stay price competitive, and many offer other services in the day-to-day operations.
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