April 25, 2007
Guide to Selecting a Public Relations Firm or Consultant
Guide to Selecting a Public Relations Firm or Consultant
To reach its organizational goals, today's management needs to communicate with a number of important audiences: customers, stockholders, special interest groups, the media, employees, communities, government agencies, banks, legislators, creditors and many others. Successful management turns increasingly to public relations counseling and the techniques of professional public relations to help enterprises communicate effectively with those audiences.
Often, organizations that have professional public relations managers on staff seek external communications consulting assistance, ranging from strategic counsel on some issues, to tactical implementation support on special projects.
Choosing the right agency or consultant for the work you have at hand is critical because it can bring an objective, independent point of view to help you achieve your communications goals.
External consultants are exposed to different organizations on several different levels; they can apply the best solutions to your communications challenges, using a variety of new ideas and tools along the way. You end up with clear, objective thinking and proven strategic and tactical solutions.
If you are thinking about retaining the services of a professional public relations firm or individual counselor, you should consider a number of elements before making your final choice. The selection process is the key to finding a firm that will fit your organization's needs.
In this article, we offer suggestions and information to help your organization select a firm that will be a valuable management asset. This "asset" can enable your organization to not only gain that vital edge it needs to both build a successful operation and keep it that way, but also at times, to ensure an organization's survival in an environment which demands that communication is a priority.
What is the Value of Public Relations to your Organization?
Today, the management of most Fortune 500 companies, large trade associations, smaller businesses, professional firms, government agencies and nonprofit enterprises recognize the benefit of retaining professional public relations counsel. Like these colleagues, your management is also involved every day in communicating with various audiences. How and what your communications convey will inevitably influence your organization's climate of acceptance and success; its positive corporate reputation.
The wise use of professional public relations strategy and services can add a great deal to the successful communications efforts of any organization. Sometimes, organizations don't have in-house expertise, or the human resources to get the job done; other times, internal public relations counsel seeks outside assistance in strategic plan development, or implementation, or both.
By closely assessing public opinion and interpreting it, public relations counselors can develop effective communications plans that can assist in heightening an organization's effectiveness, enhance public opinion, or, if called for, help change it.
Here are some of the ways in which a public relations firm can help
- provide an external, objective viewpoint or perspective;
- increase an organization's overall visibility;
- support a product or entire marketing effort;
- counsel in crisis;
- communicate with employees;
- inform investors (a regulatory requirement);
- strengthen community relations;
- interface with government agencies;
- critique existing organization policies as they affect public relations goals;
- measure and evaluate existing public relations programs;
- bring new skills to support and augment existing public relations efforts.
The many tools of the communications process require experience, specialized skills, solid judgment and concerned objectivity – all of which the right counselor or public relations firm should bring to bear on an organization's needs.
Step One - Define your organization's needs
Before your organization can communicate successfully with others or even retain a public relations firm to help it communicate, it first must know what it wants to achieve. The first step in the search for a public relations firm is to identify and prioritize your organization's corporate goals.
Later, these management goals can be shared candidly with the public relations firm you choose. They will become the basis for determining your organization's public relations goals; your public relations firm will use these to develop strategies, tactics and tasks specifically oriented to your management's needs.
An excellent goal-focusing exercise is to construct an informational backgrounder that would outline briefly:
- history of your organization (when founded, size, products, services, etc.);
- mission, aims of organization;
- any special public relations skills/resources sought;
- key "publics" or stakeholders with whom your organization has a relationship (don't forget to list your allies and opponents);
- issues or areas of potential concern of which the counselor or firm should be aware;
- current or past public relations efforts and an evaluation of their success;
- available market or public opinion research about your organization and/or its products/services;
- any requirements of collateral materials, advertising, etc.;
- budget commitment/parameters: it is important to be able to compare proposals at comparable budget levels; if you are not able to set these estimates, (even though it may be a range), you will likely receive proposals ranging from low to high ends of the scale;
- initial length of contract with selected firm or individual;
- special circumstances that would affect any aspect of the public relations program.
Developing this information will help to clarify the scope of your public relations program, which in turn will help to pinpoint the qualities and strengths your organization should be seeking in a public relations firm or counselor.
Later, in meeting with the candidates, the backgrounder can be used as an outline for discussion and to assess how well each firm's capabilities fit your organization's needs.
The Usefulness of Conducting a Public Relations Audit
If your organization wishes to strengthen its communication but is unclear about its corporate goals, you should be prepared to invest several months in working with a public relations firm to develop organizational goals, future direction and ultimately, a sound public relations plan.
The central activity during this initial period would be a thorough examination of the organization by a public relations firm or communications consulting firm. Called a public relations audit, this two-step appraisal, like an accounting audit, evaluates current practices and then suggests areas of improvement. Step one is a report based on interviews with key people both inside and outside the organization, an analysis of the ways and means by which the organization is communicating and a summary of the findings of this research. Step two is the preparation of recommendations which, in many cases, become the heart of an operating plan for the organization's public relations program.
Since an audit often addresses sensitive areas within the organization and requires total candor from those in the organization who are involved, the consultant and the organization generally agree to treat audit materials as confidential.
Other points in an organization's life when a public relations audit can be beneficial to it are when (1) it needs an objective review of a public relations effort; (2) it appoints a new public relations director or (3) it elects a new CEO.
Step Two - Identify a PR Firm or Individual Counselor
Now that your organization has looked inward, identified its corporate goals and public relations objectives and developed a backgrounder, you are ready to look outward at some public relations firms or counselors. Where to begin? Here are some good sources:
a) Peers
Talk with peers -- friends, business acquaintances, fellow members of business or civic groups. Find out if their organizations retain public relations counsel. If so, which ones? Are their performances satisfactory? Would they recommend them? What do they know about any other public relations firms in the area?
b) Go Surfing
These days, many firms are also reachable via the Internet. Several have home pages which can be found by searching key words such as public relations .
Step Three - Review Credentials and Capabilities
After identifying the public relations firm or counselor for your initial screening, contact a principal at each firm by telephone or letter. Describe your organization and its public relations needs as you see them. Ask if they would be interested in talking with you. If so, check to make sure that they do not already represent a client which might cause a conflict of interest. If their response sounds promising, ask the principal to a send a letter with:
- the firm's general background and any experience in your organization's area;
- its range of services;
- the depth of professional qualifications of the firm's principals and staff
- specialized skills or resources
- the firm's policies on charging for its counsel and services (fee structure)
Step Four - Meet with the Short List
After reviewing the responses, select those which best seem to fit your organization's needs and set up a meeting at the offices of each to get further acquainted. At this point, you should be down to a short list of three or four firms.
During this first visit (for which about two hours should be allowed) look for:
- a general capabilities presentation on the public relations firm, but with some information directed to your organization's needs as outlined to the firm earlier. Although the content of most firms' presentations will be similar, presentation styles may differ according to the orientation of the firms. Thus a firm focused on marketing may use audio visual, while another firm oriented toward specialized counseling may present its qualifications in an informal discussion format.
- an opportunity to talk with key senior members of the public relations firm who need to be clear about your organization's goals in order for their firm to provide appropriate support for yours. It is equally important that the key decision makers from your organization are in attendance. (It would be premature at this first meeting to expect to meet those individuals who would be on your organization's account team.)
- familiarity with the buzz words of your business and references to trends in your field -- a good indication of previous experience or homework done.
- a two-way discussion: the meeting should not only serve as an opportunity for the firm to present its credentials, but for you to discuss your organization's needs.
During your visit you might be asked to identify other firms with whom you are talking. It is perfectly appropriate to provide this information and you should not feel uncomfortable about doing so. In fact, it is to your benefit: the more the information a firm has to work with -- and this includes knowing the types of public relations firms you are considering -- the better it can qualify your organization's needs and provide a more focused response. However, you are in no way obliged to share this information and if you chose not to do so, your decision should be respected by all involved.
Chemistry Test with Key Players
Visiting the offices of the top contenders, hearing their presentations and talking with senior members should narrow your organization's search to one or two firms. Now is the time to request that each set up a meeting for you with those who would be the principal players on your organization's account team. Treat this meeting as you would an interview -- prospective employer to prospective employee. This is your opportunity to test the chemistry among all who will be involved on the account. Be sure to ask:
- how long will it take to get up to speed on your account?
- what reporting methods are used ?
- does the key account person understand your organization's needs and ask intelligent questions?
- does this key person appear to have the supervisory ability to lead the account team?
- does he or she have any experience in your organization's field?
- who is the backup key person when your account person is not available?
Step Five - The Proposal and Presentation
If after meeting with key people, you are still uncertain about which firm would be the best fit for your organization, ask each to send a written proposal, or make an hour-long oral presentation (with supporting documentation) outlining how it would provide the public relations services your organization needs to achieve its goals and objectives. The firms or individuals will likely focus on creative strategy to solve a business problem, enabling you and your colleagues to see how the individuals think and how you could work together. Remember, the more information with which you provide them at the time of your request, the better, more thorough results you will get as they seek out the solutions.
This proposal or presentation should not be confused with a public relations plan. It is inappropriate to ask firms or individual who make their livelihood in this manner to undertake speculative work, and in fact, most firms are not willing to submit speculative work. If your organization wishes, you can offer to pay each firm a set budget amount to help defray time and material costs. The return on such an investment would be a good one as your organization gains excellent insight into how creative and responsive each candidate can be to a client's needs.
Once your decision is made, the next step is to meet with the successful firm or individual to discuss fee arrangements and initial length of contract. The firm can then send you a signed letter of agreement outlining these terms. As soon as you return a copy with your signature, your organization's newest management asset will go to work.
It is important to notify all candidates as promptly as possible.
Most firms put a great deal into this process and deserve more than a call or a letter. It is more appropriate to meet with the unsuccessful firms shortly after the selection process is complete, to enable them to be de-briefed and understand why they were unsuccessful, or what qualities and capabilities the successful firm possessed.
Maximizing the Effectiveness of your Public Relations Firm
If your organization wants its public relations firm to succeed, it must supply more than monetary support. You must approach the relationship as a partnership. Be prepared to help your public relations firm or counselor help you. They cannot be expected to work in a vacuum. Your firm or counselor will require access and information and should be updated as routinely and consistently as you would any of your own top-level employees. Be as frank with your counselor as you would be with your attorney. Add them to mailing lists for any materials that pertain to or impact on their assignment.
If your organization ever faces a situation where a highly confidential matter may become public, alert your public relations firm. It is prepared to advise in such highly sensitive situations, to weigh communication alternatives and to develop the most appropriate approach.
During your public relations firm's learning curve, your organization will see much of the account team while it analyzes problems and opportunities and begins to define and (help) implement programs. To keep up the momentum of this interaction, meet with the key account person at least once a month to update him or her on how and what your organization is doing and to review the public relations firm's focus and progress on current and long-term objectives.
Looking Ahead
For both parties - the client and the public relations firm or counselor - the selection and familiarization processes are time-intensive. So once a choice is made, the best working relationship between the two is an ongoing one whether you are retaining a firm or individual for a project or for a long-term relationship.
After your organization approves the public relations program and budget either in their entirety or with revisions, you should expect to review the program with the public relations firm quarterly so that progress can be tracked and any necessary adjustments or changes made in response to new internal or external developments affecting your organization.
Fee Arrangements
Public relations firms charge for their time in much the same way as do most attorneys, accountants and other professional consultants retained to help businesses run more productively. Your public relations firm's hourly rates will have a high and low range depending on who works on your organization's account and you should be informed by your public relations firm of its range.
There are several options in billing for services, and based on its initial perception of your organization's needs, your public relations firm or counselor will recommend one of them:
a) Hourly fee against monthly or yearly budget
A public relations firm may establish a minimum monthly fee for its services based on the number of hours per month it estimates will be spent on the client. The minimum monthly fee arrangement is ideal for organizations which may need a variety of specialized services with time requirements which differ from month to month.
For instance, if your organization's annual public relations budget (for external counsel or support) is $60,000, then you should expect to allot approximately $ 5,000 per month. This minimum is billed in advance to the client each month, and then the members of the public relations firm charge their time against that minimum based on their individual hourly rates. If the hours worked exceed the monthly minimum fee, the client's next bill will include the cost of the previous month's additional time.
If your organization wishes to be notified if the hours worked in any given month will exceed the monthly minimum (so it can have the option of deferring an activity or task to another month), you should specify, and this requirement should be included in the letter of agreement.
b) Project Fees
Public relations services for a one-time project (such as the opening ceremonies for a new building) may be provided for a specific set fee which has been determined by the prospective client and which may include both services and expenses. Some firms may decline to undertake projects under such a fee arrangement.
If their estimate of the hours, supplier costs and out of pocket costs involved indicates that the project budget ceiling is too low. Others may be willing to take on the assignment to open the door to further work with the client or if they deem the organization is one whose addition to their client roster would make any time expended beyond the budget ceiling a worthwhile investment.
c) Retainer Fee
This arrangement works well for organizations which have their own communication capabilities but need counseling for complex communication questions and issues, or periodic help with specialized tasks such as speech writing.
With an agreed upon monthly retainer fee, members of the public relations firm will be available to assist the client whenever needed. In this instance, your organization pays a flat rate fee, billed in advance each month whether or not any services are used. Retainer fees should be reviewed periodically to determine if any adjustments are needed based on use of services.
Conclusion
A successful relationship between client and public relations firm or counselor is based on these fundamentals: the best match of capabilities to needs, total agreement on objectives, constant accessibility, full information sharing, continuous interaction, regular program and progress reviews and a clear understanding of contract responsibilities.
Underlying all is mutual trust and respect. Assemble these components and together, you can build a strong, rewarding and lasting business relationship.
To reach its organizational goals, today's management needs to communicate with a number of important audiences: customers, stockholders, special interest groups, the media, employees, communities, government agencies, banks, legislators, creditors and many others. Successful management turns increasingly to public relations counseling and the techniques of professional public relations to help enterprises communicate effectively with those audiences.
Often, organizations that have professional public relations managers on staff seek external communications consulting assistance, ranging from strategic counsel on some issues, to tactical implementation support on special projects.
Choosing the right agency or consultant for the work you have at hand is critical because it can bring an objective, independent point of view to help you achieve your communications goals.
External consultants are exposed to different organizations on several different levels; they can apply the best solutions to your communications challenges, using a variety of new ideas and tools along the way. You end up with clear, objective thinking and proven strategic and tactical solutions.
If you are thinking about retaining the services of a professional public relations firm or individual counselor, you should consider a number of elements before making your final choice. The selection process is the key to finding a firm that will fit your organization's needs.
In this article, we offer suggestions and information to help your organization select a firm that will be a valuable management asset. This "asset" can enable your organization to not only gain that vital edge it needs to both build a successful operation and keep it that way, but also at times, to ensure an organization's survival in an environment which demands that communication is a priority.
What is the Value of Public Relations to your Organization?
Today, the management of most Fortune 500 companies, large trade associations, smaller businesses, professional firms, government agencies and nonprofit enterprises recognize the benefit of retaining professional public relations counsel. Like these colleagues, your management is also involved every day in communicating with various audiences. How and what your communications convey will inevitably influence your organization's climate of acceptance and success; its positive corporate reputation.
The wise use of professional public relations strategy and services can add a great deal to the successful communications efforts of any organization. Sometimes, organizations don't have in-house expertise, or the human resources to get the job done; other times, internal public relations counsel seeks outside assistance in strategic plan development, or implementation, or both.
By closely assessing public opinion and interpreting it, public relations counselors can develop effective communications plans that can assist in heightening an organization's effectiveness, enhance public opinion, or, if called for, help change it.
Here are some of the ways in which a public relations firm can help
- provide an external, objective viewpoint or perspective;
- increase an organization's overall visibility;
- support a product or entire marketing effort;
- counsel in crisis;
- communicate with employees;
- inform investors (a regulatory requirement);
- strengthen community relations;
- interface with government agencies;
- critique existing organization policies as they affect public relations goals;
- measure and evaluate existing public relations programs;
- bring new skills to support and augment existing public relations efforts.
The many tools of the communications process require experience, specialized skills, solid judgment and concerned objectivity – all of which the right counselor or public relations firm should bring to bear on an organization's needs.
Step One - Define your organization's needs
Before your organization can communicate successfully with others or even retain a public relations firm to help it communicate, it first must know what it wants to achieve. The first step in the search for a public relations firm is to identify and prioritize your organization's corporate goals.
Later, these management goals can be shared candidly with the public relations firm you choose. They will become the basis for determining your organization's public relations goals; your public relations firm will use these to develop strategies, tactics and tasks specifically oriented to your management's needs.
An excellent goal-focusing exercise is to construct an informational backgrounder that would outline briefly:
- history of your organization (when founded, size, products, services, etc.);
- mission, aims of organization;
- any special public relations skills/resources sought;
- key "publics" or stakeholders with whom your organization has a relationship (don't forget to list your allies and opponents);
- issues or areas of potential concern of which the counselor or firm should be aware;
- current or past public relations efforts and an evaluation of their success;
- available market or public opinion research about your organization and/or its products/services;
- any requirements of collateral materials, advertising, etc.;
- budget commitment/parameters: it is important to be able to compare proposals at comparable budget levels; if you are not able to set these estimates, (even though it may be a range), you will likely receive proposals ranging from low to high ends of the scale;
- initial length of contract with selected firm or individual;
- special circumstances that would affect any aspect of the public relations program.
Developing this information will help to clarify the scope of your public relations program, which in turn will help to pinpoint the qualities and strengths your organization should be seeking in a public relations firm or counselor.
Later, in meeting with the candidates, the backgrounder can be used as an outline for discussion and to assess how well each firm's capabilities fit your organization's needs.
The Usefulness of Conducting a Public Relations Audit
If your organization wishes to strengthen its communication but is unclear about its corporate goals, you should be prepared to invest several months in working with a public relations firm to develop organizational goals, future direction and ultimately, a sound public relations plan.
The central activity during this initial period would be a thorough examination of the organization by a public relations firm or communications consulting firm. Called a public relations audit, this two-step appraisal, like an accounting audit, evaluates current practices and then suggests areas of improvement. Step one is a report based on interviews with key people both inside and outside the organization, an analysis of the ways and means by which the organization is communicating and a summary of the findings of this research. Step two is the preparation of recommendations which, in many cases, become the heart of an operating plan for the organization's public relations program.
Since an audit often addresses sensitive areas within the organization and requires total candor from those in the organization who are involved, the consultant and the organization generally agree to treat audit materials as confidential.
Other points in an organization's life when a public relations audit can be beneficial to it are when (1) it needs an objective review of a public relations effort; (2) it appoints a new public relations director or (3) it elects a new CEO.
Step Two - Identify a PR Firm or Individual Counselor
Now that your organization has looked inward, identified its corporate goals and public relations objectives and developed a backgrounder, you are ready to look outward at some public relations firms or counselors. Where to begin? Here are some good sources:
a) Peers
Talk with peers -- friends, business acquaintances, fellow members of business or civic groups. Find out if their organizations retain public relations counsel. If so, which ones? Are their performances satisfactory? Would they recommend them? What do they know about any other public relations firms in the area?
b) Go Surfing
These days, many firms are also reachable via the Internet. Several have home pages which can be found by searching key words such as public relations .
Step Three - Review Credentials and Capabilities
After identifying the public relations firm or counselor for your initial screening, contact a principal at each firm by telephone or letter. Describe your organization and its public relations needs as you see them. Ask if they would be interested in talking with you. If so, check to make sure that they do not already represent a client which might cause a conflict of interest. If their response sounds promising, ask the principal to a send a letter with:
- the firm's general background and any experience in your organization's area;
- its range of services;
- the depth of professional qualifications of the firm's principals and staff
- specialized skills or resources
- the firm's policies on charging for its counsel and services (fee structure)
Step Four - Meet with the Short List
After reviewing the responses, select those which best seem to fit your organization's needs and set up a meeting at the offices of each to get further acquainted. At this point, you should be down to a short list of three or four firms.
During this first visit (for which about two hours should be allowed) look for:
- a general capabilities presentation on the public relations firm, but with some information directed to your organization's needs as outlined to the firm earlier. Although the content of most firms' presentations will be similar, presentation styles may differ according to the orientation of the firms. Thus a firm focused on marketing may use audio visual, while another firm oriented toward specialized counseling may present its qualifications in an informal discussion format.
- an opportunity to talk with key senior members of the public relations firm who need to be clear about your organization's goals in order for their firm to provide appropriate support for yours. It is equally important that the key decision makers from your organization are in attendance. (It would be premature at this first meeting to expect to meet those individuals who would be on your organization's account team.)
- familiarity with the buzz words of your business and references to trends in your field -- a good indication of previous experience or homework done.
- a two-way discussion: the meeting should not only serve as an opportunity for the firm to present its credentials, but for you to discuss your organization's needs.
During your visit you might be asked to identify other firms with whom you are talking. It is perfectly appropriate to provide this information and you should not feel uncomfortable about doing so. In fact, it is to your benefit: the more the information a firm has to work with -- and this includes knowing the types of public relations firms you are considering -- the better it can qualify your organization's needs and provide a more focused response. However, you are in no way obliged to share this information and if you chose not to do so, your decision should be respected by all involved.
Chemistry Test with Key Players
Visiting the offices of the top contenders, hearing their presentations and talking with senior members should narrow your organization's search to one or two firms. Now is the time to request that each set up a meeting for you with those who would be the principal players on your organization's account team. Treat this meeting as you would an interview -- prospective employer to prospective employee. This is your opportunity to test the chemistry among all who will be involved on the account. Be sure to ask:
- how long will it take to get up to speed on your account?
- what reporting methods are used ?
- does the key account person understand your organization's needs and ask intelligent questions?
- does this key person appear to have the supervisory ability to lead the account team?
- does he or she have any experience in your organization's field?
- who is the backup key person when your account person is not available?
Step Five - The Proposal and Presentation
If after meeting with key people, you are still uncertain about which firm would be the best fit for your organization, ask each to send a written proposal, or make an hour-long oral presentation (with supporting documentation) outlining how it would provide the public relations services your organization needs to achieve its goals and objectives. The firms or individuals will likely focus on creative strategy to solve a business problem, enabling you and your colleagues to see how the individuals think and how you could work together. Remember, the more information with which you provide them at the time of your request, the better, more thorough results you will get as they seek out the solutions.
This proposal or presentation should not be confused with a public relations plan. It is inappropriate to ask firms or individual who make their livelihood in this manner to undertake speculative work, and in fact, most firms are not willing to submit speculative work. If your organization wishes, you can offer to pay each firm a set budget amount to help defray time and material costs. The return on such an investment would be a good one as your organization gains excellent insight into how creative and responsive each candidate can be to a client's needs.
Once your decision is made, the next step is to meet with the successful firm or individual to discuss fee arrangements and initial length of contract. The firm can then send you a signed letter of agreement outlining these terms. As soon as you return a copy with your signature, your organization's newest management asset will go to work.
It is important to notify all candidates as promptly as possible.
Most firms put a great deal into this process and deserve more than a call or a letter. It is more appropriate to meet with the unsuccessful firms shortly after the selection process is complete, to enable them to be de-briefed and understand why they were unsuccessful, or what qualities and capabilities the successful firm possessed.
Maximizing the Effectiveness of your Public Relations Firm
If your organization wants its public relations firm to succeed, it must supply more than monetary support. You must approach the relationship as a partnership. Be prepared to help your public relations firm or counselor help you. They cannot be expected to work in a vacuum. Your firm or counselor will require access and information and should be updated as routinely and consistently as you would any of your own top-level employees. Be as frank with your counselor as you would be with your attorney. Add them to mailing lists for any materials that pertain to or impact on their assignment.
If your organization ever faces a situation where a highly confidential matter may become public, alert your public relations firm. It is prepared to advise in such highly sensitive situations, to weigh communication alternatives and to develop the most appropriate approach.
During your public relations firm's learning curve, your organization will see much of the account team while it analyzes problems and opportunities and begins to define and (help) implement programs. To keep up the momentum of this interaction, meet with the key account person at least once a month to update him or her on how and what your organization is doing and to review the public relations firm's focus and progress on current and long-term objectives.
Looking Ahead
For both parties - the client and the public relations firm or counselor - the selection and familiarization processes are time-intensive. So once a choice is made, the best working relationship between the two is an ongoing one whether you are retaining a firm or individual for a project or for a long-term relationship.
After your organization approves the public relations program and budget either in their entirety or with revisions, you should expect to review the program with the public relations firm quarterly so that progress can be tracked and any necessary adjustments or changes made in response to new internal or external developments affecting your organization.
Fee Arrangements
Public relations firms charge for their time in much the same way as do most attorneys, accountants and other professional consultants retained to help businesses run more productively. Your public relations firm's hourly rates will have a high and low range depending on who works on your organization's account and you should be informed by your public relations firm of its range.
There are several options in billing for services, and based on its initial perception of your organization's needs, your public relations firm or counselor will recommend one of them:
a) Hourly fee against monthly or yearly budget
A public relations firm may establish a minimum monthly fee for its services based on the number of hours per month it estimates will be spent on the client. The minimum monthly fee arrangement is ideal for organizations which may need a variety of specialized services with time requirements which differ from month to month.
For instance, if your organization's annual public relations budget (for external counsel or support) is $60,000, then you should expect to allot approximately $ 5,000 per month. This minimum is billed in advance to the client each month, and then the members of the public relations firm charge their time against that minimum based on their individual hourly rates. If the hours worked exceed the monthly minimum fee, the client's next bill will include the cost of the previous month's additional time.
If your organization wishes to be notified if the hours worked in any given month will exceed the monthly minimum (so it can have the option of deferring an activity or task to another month), you should specify, and this requirement should be included in the letter of agreement.
b) Project Fees
Public relations services for a one-time project (such as the opening ceremonies for a new building) may be provided for a specific set fee which has been determined by the prospective client and which may include both services and expenses. Some firms may decline to undertake projects under such a fee arrangement.
If their estimate of the hours, supplier costs and out of pocket costs involved indicates that the project budget ceiling is too low. Others may be willing to take on the assignment to open the door to further work with the client or if they deem the organization is one whose addition to their client roster would make any time expended beyond the budget ceiling a worthwhile investment.
c) Retainer Fee
This arrangement works well for organizations which have their own communication capabilities but need counseling for complex communication questions and issues, or periodic help with specialized tasks such as speech writing.
With an agreed upon monthly retainer fee, members of the public relations firm will be available to assist the client whenever needed. In this instance, your organization pays a flat rate fee, billed in advance each month whether or not any services are used. Retainer fees should be reviewed periodically to determine if any adjustments are needed based on use of services.
Conclusion
A successful relationship between client and public relations firm or counselor is based on these fundamentals: the best match of capabilities to needs, total agreement on objectives, constant accessibility, full information sharing, continuous interaction, regular program and progress reviews and a clear understanding of contract responsibilities.
Underlying all is mutual trust and respect. Assemble these components and together, you can build a strong, rewarding and lasting business relationship.
The Truth about Web Site Statistics
Inherent Problems with Web Stats, and What to do about Them.
Web analytics are growing more sophisticated. We're developing methods to measure media, understand customers, predict trends and assess return on investment (ROI). What no one is telling you is that all these systems and numbers are based on flawed statistics.Web analysis is based on counting a very limited number of things. People visit websites and read pages.
Therefore we can count people, visits and page views. That's all. In counting people, visits and page views, it's important to understand how accurate we can be about them. The bad news is that we can't assess any of these with perfect accuracy. Inaccuracies are unavoidable, caused by the nature of Internet technology itself.
We Can't Precisely Count Visitors
It's not possible to count people on the web. People don't visit web sites. Their computers do. So, web statistics are counting the number of visits from a computer, not from a person. How does Web analytics software determine visits and visitors?Every computer uses an operating system and browser. The combination is the "user agent". Every computer also has an Internet protocol (IP) address, expressed in a format that looks like this: 63.236.64.164. In Web analytics software, the standard method for identifying a unique visitor is to combine the User Agent and IP address. In theory, combining the full User Agent with the IP address produces a unique identity. But this identification methodology is far from accurate. For example, every single person inside the Ford corporation has the same IP address. They all go onto the web from the same gateway in Detroit (even the 88,000 employees in Europe).
Corporations hide internal IP addresses for valid security reasons. Most people in Ford have the same browser and operating system (what Ford calls the Global Client). Thus, according to standard identification procedures, more than 320,000 people are the same unique visitor. This will hold true for any corporation with shared Internet access and a common standard for their workstations. On the reverse side, many Internet service providers will assign a different IP address every time a home user or small business connects to the web. This means the same visitor will look like a different person on every visit — throwing off counts of unique visitors.
"Cookies", an identifying file placed on your computer by Web sites you visit, can help improve the accuracy of visitor identification. However, multiple family members often use the home computer and some people block or remove cookies from their computers. Studies indicate that between three and five percent of all visitors block session cookies and many more delete stored cookie files. The more "techie" the visitor, the more likely they'll avoid being counted. What all of this means is that you're probably only getting about 90 percent accuracy with identification of unique visitors. Not bad, but not perfect, and certainly more valuable than no Web analytics at all.
So, in making business decisions based on Web analytics, you must always take into account a potential 10% error factor in your statistics.
We Can't Precisely Count Duration
Most Web analytics are also inaccurate concerning duration of visit.When someone is visiting your site, they click on a link to retrieve a webpage. Then later they click on another link to retrieve another one. Web analytics software measures the duration between the two clicks as the time spent reading the page. Add all these durations up and you've got the total time of the visit.This creates a problem for one-page visits. Since there is no second page, we can't calculate a page duration. Officially a one-page visit is not a visit; it has to be two pages to count as a visit. Some Web analytics software packages won't count the zero duration one-page visits when they determine average visit duration, but you'd be surprised how many do — producing flawed duration statistics.
In most cases, no duration can be calculated for the last page a visitor reads because there is no second click. As a result, web analytics software is under-reporting the time people spend on your site, because it can't tell how long someone spends on the last page. Or, if someone starts reading a page, then minimizes it for 10 minutes to work on something else before maximizing it to further review the page content, the clock keeps counting throughout the time it is open — thereby overstating actual eyes-on-page duration.
We Can't Precisely Count Visits
A Web visit is usually defined as a series of page requests with a gap of no more than 30 minutes between each one. If someone asks for a page 31 minutes after the preceding page, it is usually counted as a new visit. But page views often exceed 30 minutes, especially on pages with complex products like mortgages, insurance and other financial products.On the other hand, what if someone views your site, goes off and compares it with a competitor, then returns after 20 minutes? That still counts as part of the same visit. Technically it constitutes a single visit of two sessions, but almost no one differentiates sessions and visits.These examples illustrate the inherent inaccuracies when visit counts are based on an arbitrary selection of 30 minutes as the magic number. For most purposes this is fine, so long as you accept it is as a reasonably accurate, workable but flawed number, not a precise measurement of visits.
Log Analysis Issues
Many Web site owners use log analysis to get their stats. Log analysis is much less accurate than page-based tracking. Here's why: Spiders and RobotsSearch engine spiders automatically read your site and so do performance monitoring software packages. Typically, the automated search engine spiders rapidly read every page of the Web site, and thereby dramatically increase the number of page views. Since search engines go through pages at a rate of one per second, their rapid fire "reading" reduces average visit duration and average page read time. Most log analysis software doesn't distinguish between page requests by humans and page requests by automated robots. If you don't account for the activity of spiders within your Web site, you are not getting an accurate picture of usage by human visitors. It is likely that you have fewer human visitors than you think and that the average duration of a visit is longer than your web analytics software is reporting to you.
Most Web site owners believe the average visit duration to a website is three to four minutes and the average page duration is about 30 seconds. In reality it's about twice those lengths.
SWF Files
SWF files are flash files. Without getting into the details, flash files are a problem for log analysis. If you've got flash files as both full pages and as page elements, then it's unlikely you're getting accurate stats from log analysis.Caching and Cache bustingMost browsers store a copy of each webpage you read. If you hit the back button the browser serves you that page instead of bothering to ask the server for another copy. Log analysis misses this because the server never saw the second viewing. Saving pages like this is called "caching."It isn't just browsers that cache. Corporate gateways cache commonly requested pages to save time and bandwidth. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) may cache for the same reasons.It is estimated that uncounted cached pages reduce the reported number of page views and advertising impressions by about 30%.So, if you're using log analysis for your stats, you're missing about one-third of your activity.
Wake Turbulence
Many people exit a site by repeatedly clicking their back button. Log analysis doesn't pick this up (because it doesn't record cached pages), but page-based tracking does. This means many visits end with a series of one or two-second page views in reverse order from the first half. This activity increases the average number of page views per visitor and reduces the average page duration. There's no official term for this, but I call it "wake turbulence." Most analysis tools don't even recognize this problem, let alone deal with it — and there seems to be no practical way at the present time to compensate for it.
User Resistance
Some of your visitors don't trust you. Some major-name Web analytics and tracking systems are listed as spyware and blocked. Some people block cookies. Some people clean out their cookies regularly. If you are tracking repeat visitor behavior with cookies you have to accept some degree of inaccuracy as people block or remove them. Transversal LossesTransversal is what you do when you click a hyperlink — you transverse from one page to the next. Sometimes people click on a link but never arrive at the other end. Browsers crash; people change their mind, and so on. This is becoming a source of contention in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. The user clicks on the ad, but doesn't get through. Because of this phenomenon, Google often charges for more visits than Web logs show — sometimes by as much as 25 percent or so. Google believes this is a minor and rare problem, but many PPC advertisers are not so sure. This problem is not unique to Google. It occurs to a greater or lesser degree with all forms of inter-site link activity. This means that return-on-investment calculations for PPC advertising and affiliate marketing cannot be perfectly accurate, and need to permit a margin of error.
Conclusions
At the present time, absolute precision is impossible in Web analytics. You have to accept a degree of fuzziness around your stats for visit duration, number of pages read and average page read time. The inaccuracies are an inevitable consequence of the nature of Internet technology, not because analytics software is shoddy. This level of inaccuracy is acceptable for the time being as long as users of analytics software don't make business decisions based on small statistical differences. It is important to understand and accept that visitor stats are accurate plus or minus five or even 10 percent. In general, people are probably spending a little longer on your site, or maybe a little less depending on the content of your pages. To protect against these inaccuracies, it's important to add a margin of error to financial and ROI calculations.In fact, exact numbers shouldn't matter too much. Trends do.
Effective Web analysis, therefore, should focus not on the raw numbers, but on the trends over time. Individual numbers may be inaccurate but trends tell the story.We have to accept that web analytics software is in its infancy. Compared with five years ago, we can do great things with web analytics software today, but we have only just begun. Life's full of uncertainties and web analytics is no different. Somehow we all manage to get by.
Article source: http://www.cyberalert.com/webanalytics.html,Brandt Dainow, Think Metrics
Web analytics are growing more sophisticated. We're developing methods to measure media, understand customers, predict trends and assess return on investment (ROI). What no one is telling you is that all these systems and numbers are based on flawed statistics.Web analysis is based on counting a very limited number of things. People visit websites and read pages.
Therefore we can count people, visits and page views. That's all. In counting people, visits and page views, it's important to understand how accurate we can be about them. The bad news is that we can't assess any of these with perfect accuracy. Inaccuracies are unavoidable, caused by the nature of Internet technology itself.
We Can't Precisely Count Visitors
It's not possible to count people on the web. People don't visit web sites. Their computers do. So, web statistics are counting the number of visits from a computer, not from a person. How does Web analytics software determine visits and visitors?Every computer uses an operating system and browser. The combination is the "user agent". Every computer also has an Internet protocol (IP) address, expressed in a format that looks like this: 63.236.64.164. In Web analytics software, the standard method for identifying a unique visitor is to combine the User Agent and IP address. In theory, combining the full User Agent with the IP address produces a unique identity. But this identification methodology is far from accurate. For example, every single person inside the Ford corporation has the same IP address. They all go onto the web from the same gateway in Detroit (even the 88,000 employees in Europe).
Corporations hide internal IP addresses for valid security reasons. Most people in Ford have the same browser and operating system (what Ford calls the Global Client). Thus, according to standard identification procedures, more than 320,000 people are the same unique visitor. This will hold true for any corporation with shared Internet access and a common standard for their workstations. On the reverse side, many Internet service providers will assign a different IP address every time a home user or small business connects to the web. This means the same visitor will look like a different person on every visit — throwing off counts of unique visitors.
"Cookies", an identifying file placed on your computer by Web sites you visit, can help improve the accuracy of visitor identification. However, multiple family members often use the home computer and some people block or remove cookies from their computers. Studies indicate that between three and five percent of all visitors block session cookies and many more delete stored cookie files. The more "techie" the visitor, the more likely they'll avoid being counted. What all of this means is that you're probably only getting about 90 percent accuracy with identification of unique visitors. Not bad, but not perfect, and certainly more valuable than no Web analytics at all.
So, in making business decisions based on Web analytics, you must always take into account a potential 10% error factor in your statistics.
We Can't Precisely Count Duration
Most Web analytics are also inaccurate concerning duration of visit.When someone is visiting your site, they click on a link to retrieve a webpage. Then later they click on another link to retrieve another one. Web analytics software measures the duration between the two clicks as the time spent reading the page. Add all these durations up and you've got the total time of the visit.This creates a problem for one-page visits. Since there is no second page, we can't calculate a page duration. Officially a one-page visit is not a visit; it has to be two pages to count as a visit. Some Web analytics software packages won't count the zero duration one-page visits when they determine average visit duration, but you'd be surprised how many do — producing flawed duration statistics.
In most cases, no duration can be calculated for the last page a visitor reads because there is no second click. As a result, web analytics software is under-reporting the time people spend on your site, because it can't tell how long someone spends on the last page. Or, if someone starts reading a page, then minimizes it for 10 minutes to work on something else before maximizing it to further review the page content, the clock keeps counting throughout the time it is open — thereby overstating actual eyes-on-page duration.
We Can't Precisely Count Visits
A Web visit is usually defined as a series of page requests with a gap of no more than 30 minutes between each one. If someone asks for a page 31 minutes after the preceding page, it is usually counted as a new visit. But page views often exceed 30 minutes, especially on pages with complex products like mortgages, insurance and other financial products.On the other hand, what if someone views your site, goes off and compares it with a competitor, then returns after 20 minutes? That still counts as part of the same visit. Technically it constitutes a single visit of two sessions, but almost no one differentiates sessions and visits.These examples illustrate the inherent inaccuracies when visit counts are based on an arbitrary selection of 30 minutes as the magic number. For most purposes this is fine, so long as you accept it is as a reasonably accurate, workable but flawed number, not a precise measurement of visits.
Log Analysis Issues
Many Web site owners use log analysis to get their stats. Log analysis is much less accurate than page-based tracking. Here's why: Spiders and RobotsSearch engine spiders automatically read your site and so do performance monitoring software packages. Typically, the automated search engine spiders rapidly read every page of the Web site, and thereby dramatically increase the number of page views. Since search engines go through pages at a rate of one per second, their rapid fire "reading" reduces average visit duration and average page read time. Most log analysis software doesn't distinguish between page requests by humans and page requests by automated robots. If you don't account for the activity of spiders within your Web site, you are not getting an accurate picture of usage by human visitors. It is likely that you have fewer human visitors than you think and that the average duration of a visit is longer than your web analytics software is reporting to you.
Most Web site owners believe the average visit duration to a website is three to four minutes and the average page duration is about 30 seconds. In reality it's about twice those lengths.
SWF Files
SWF files are flash files. Without getting into the details, flash files are a problem for log analysis. If you've got flash files as both full pages and as page elements, then it's unlikely you're getting accurate stats from log analysis.Caching and Cache bustingMost browsers store a copy of each webpage you read. If you hit the back button the browser serves you that page instead of bothering to ask the server for another copy. Log analysis misses this because the server never saw the second viewing. Saving pages like this is called "caching."It isn't just browsers that cache. Corporate gateways cache commonly requested pages to save time and bandwidth. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) may cache for the same reasons.It is estimated that uncounted cached pages reduce the reported number of page views and advertising impressions by about 30%.So, if you're using log analysis for your stats, you're missing about one-third of your activity.
Wake Turbulence
Many people exit a site by repeatedly clicking their back button. Log analysis doesn't pick this up (because it doesn't record cached pages), but page-based tracking does. This means many visits end with a series of one or two-second page views in reverse order from the first half. This activity increases the average number of page views per visitor and reduces the average page duration. There's no official term for this, but I call it "wake turbulence." Most analysis tools don't even recognize this problem, let alone deal with it — and there seems to be no practical way at the present time to compensate for it.
User Resistance
Some of your visitors don't trust you. Some major-name Web analytics and tracking systems are listed as spyware and blocked. Some people block cookies. Some people clean out their cookies regularly. If you are tracking repeat visitor behavior with cookies you have to accept some degree of inaccuracy as people block or remove them. Transversal LossesTransversal is what you do when you click a hyperlink — you transverse from one page to the next. Sometimes people click on a link but never arrive at the other end. Browsers crash; people change their mind, and so on. This is becoming a source of contention in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. The user clicks on the ad, but doesn't get through. Because of this phenomenon, Google often charges for more visits than Web logs show — sometimes by as much as 25 percent or so. Google believes this is a minor and rare problem, but many PPC advertisers are not so sure. This problem is not unique to Google. It occurs to a greater or lesser degree with all forms of inter-site link activity. This means that return-on-investment calculations for PPC advertising and affiliate marketing cannot be perfectly accurate, and need to permit a margin of error.
Conclusions
At the present time, absolute precision is impossible in Web analytics. You have to accept a degree of fuzziness around your stats for visit duration, number of pages read and average page read time. The inaccuracies are an inevitable consequence of the nature of Internet technology, not because analytics software is shoddy. This level of inaccuracy is acceptable for the time being as long as users of analytics software don't make business decisions based on small statistical differences. It is important to understand and accept that visitor stats are accurate plus or minus five or even 10 percent. In general, people are probably spending a little longer on your site, or maybe a little less depending on the content of your pages. To protect against these inaccuracies, it's important to add a margin of error to financial and ROI calculations.In fact, exact numbers shouldn't matter too much. Trends do.
Effective Web analysis, therefore, should focus not on the raw numbers, but on the trends over time. Individual numbers may be inaccurate but trends tell the story.We have to accept that web analytics software is in its infancy. Compared with five years ago, we can do great things with web analytics software today, but we have only just begun. Life's full of uncertainties and web analytics is no different. Somehow we all manage to get by.
Article source: http://www.cyberalert.com/webanalytics.html,Brandt Dainow, Think Metrics
How to Market to CFOs
SUMMARY:If your target audience is CFOs, you're probably in a world of marketing pain. As our new report reveals, CFOs ignore most ads. So, how can you get them to respond?
Our new Special features a wealth of research to solve your problem, including copywriting tips, top 3 pain points, and both demographic and "psychographic" data. You'll get inside the mind and even the daily routine of a typical CFO.
P.S. We showed a preview copy of this Special to the Managing Editor of CFO Magazine, and she said it was right on target:
Let’s say you need to create a marketing campaign with the ultimate goal of getting your field sales rep a meeting with a prospect's Chief Financial Officer (CFO). You'll probably try one of the following tactics:o Cold call using an outsourced telemarketing firm or your inside sales folks.
o Invest in an expensive, glossy DM or advertising campaign promoting your “solution” that “optimizes” productivity.
o Send an email campaign to a list you rented (or place a lead gen offer in an email newsletter CFOs read).
Your campaign falls flat. You have no clue why.
Welcome to the world of marketing to CFOs – a world where its inhabitants turn a deaf ear to marketing lingo and a blind eye to flashy creative. If catchy headlines aren’t going to reach the people “who sign the checks,” what will?
First, let’s talk about who a CFO is, the day-to-day job, and how issues such as Sarbanes-Oxley are affecting the CFO and businesses in general.
Twenty years ago, CFOs toiled in relative obscurity managing back-office functions like bill paying and budgeting. According to CFO Magazine, risk management meant buying insurance, not “guarding against terrorist attacks.”
No longer a “number cruncher”: CFO's three roles
Times have changed for the CFO, who is now seen as a strategic partner to the CEO, many of whom see CFOs as their second-in-command. Due in part to technology and accounting software – which have freed up finance departments – CFOs have seen their roles significantly expanded.
According to the Spencer Stuart report, “The Global Fifty: Perspectives of Leading Chief Financial Officers,” today’s CFO is responsible for the following three roles:
Role #1. Strategic planning and decision-making To be fully effective, a CFO must understand the changing dynamics of the “big picture,” and provide insights and knowledge of the competitive landscape.
Role #2. Financial community liaison CFOs are now responsible for communicating the company’s value, building rapport with analysts and investors, and most important right now, maintaining trust and communicating integrity – in the CFO, the company, and its numbers.
Role #3. Management team member In order to be effective, a CFO must partner with COOs, CEOs and other members of the management team. A CFO’s main job is to take away the “financial worry” from a CEO and provide opportunities to “see the horizon.”
Demographic data & how CFOs spend their time
According to surveyed CFO Magazine readers, the majority of CFOs are male (82%), are 35-45 years old, hold a CPA and MBA, and have risen through the ranks of finance departments. A CFO earns anywhere from $100K on up -- including options and other forms of executive pay -- depending on the organization type (public, private, non-profit, government, etc.), geographic location, and revenues. A typical CFO has been on the job for at least five years.
CFOs purchase or authorize procurement for the following products and services:- Accounting/Auditing- Budgeting and Planning Software- Performance Management Systems- 401 (k) Providers- Insurance- Risk Management- Health Group Benefits- Technology Services- Legal Services- Outsourcing- Executive Staff/Education
Like other C-level types, finance officers spend most of their time in meetings, either on conference calls or face-to-face, talking with industry analysts, department heads, and ratings agencies.
The rest of the CFO’s time is spent on questions about data: finding good data in a timely fashion and dealing with incorrect or inaccurate data. Budgeting and budget forecasting is a pain, with many companies still using Excel spreadsheets to generate numbers, as is preparing for board meetings. According to Natalie Alarcon, Controller for QAS, makers of QuickAddress software, such preparation can take over 20 hours a month and is incredibly labor intensive.
CFOs work on two levels – the micro and the macro. An effective CFO delegates number crunching activities so he can think about how to create capital and resources for the future. His job is to make sure the company is there in 10 years.
Top three CFO pain points:
CFOs today have a full plate of issues and pain points – everything from pesky shareholder activists and costlier than ever auditors to rising health care costs and pension plans.
Says Wick Sloane, currently of start-up ChangeToolKit.com and a 25-year CFO veteran, including stints at University of Hawaii, Aetna and other companies, “Salespeople are continually pitching products to me but none of them understand my headaches. I don’t need securities, I need clear data on how to manage assets, liabilities and risks at my company.”
Caroline Smith, Director of Marketing for CFO Magazine, confirms Sloane’s complaints.
“Financial and accounting rules are changing all the time,” she says. “CFOs are thirsty for knowledge. Give it to them and you’ll get their attention right away.”
The three top issues facing CFOs today are: compliance, communications, and financial planning. What follows is a brief run-down. If you’re serious about marketing to CFOs, it behooves you to research these and other topics in detail.
Pain #1. Compliance
The most significant change to federal securities law in the U.S. since the New Deal, The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (or Sarbox as it’s called) was signed into law in 2002 and is designed to review dated legislative audit requirements and protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures.
In short, CEOs and CFOs are now criminally liable for signing off on misleading Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
Despite its intent, however, Sarbox is a pain in the butt for CFOs. According to a November 2004 study by J.D. Powers and Associates, nine out of ten CFOs say the costs of complying are greater than the benefits. The study also found that “many of those involved in the auditing process, from senior management to the audit committee on down, are feeling the pressure of increased requirements.”
Regulations are even affecting how companies woo clients. The Wall Street Journal recently reported financial organizations are cutting back spending on high-profile corporate junkets – like the Masters golf tournament. The National Association of Securities Dealers has cracked down on excessive gift-giving and entertainment and is forcing companies to rethink spending millions of dollars to impress clients. (“Junkets with a Twist: Wall Street Clients Get Bills for the Fun,” April 7, 2005)
Pain #2. Communications
Gone are the days when a CFO was responsible for merely producing P&L statements. In addition to understanding the entire enterprise, seeing the “big picture,” and providing sound financial advice to the management team, a CFO also needs to communicate the company’s value and integrity to analysts, investors, and employees alike.
“In my twenty-five years in this business, no one selling me products has yet talked to me about how to communicate finances to the people in the company,” comments Sloane. “A CFO needs help combining business ideas and finance metrics. How, for example, can I show employees that their jobs are directly related to the numbers? Reports for rating agencies or analysts are for that audience, not employees.”
Adds QAS’ Alarcon, “I need financial benchmarks so I can interpret our company’s metrics to my CEO; for example ‘What is the cost per lead or cost per employee for companies like mine?’ And I need information about big picture issues, such as compliance, not another product pitch. I don’t have time to listen.”
Pain #3. Financial Planning/Reporting
More than 40% of respondents to a jointly produced survey by CFO Publishing Corporation (owners of CFO Magazine) and Geac reported one of their top priorities is to improve their planning processes and to provide better forecasts. However, many CFOs don’t have the necessary tools. Indeed, 61% of survey respondents say they “need more or new technology to buttress their decision-making capabilities.”
A whopping 90% say their finance organizations get bogged down during the planning season with “low-value, seemingly trivial tasks” due to organizational dynamics and inconsistent internal information. And, 44% say they still use spreadsheets and manual processes to manage corporate performance!
Copywriting that CFOs respond to: information, information, information
“We’ve done research,” says Smith. “CFOs are a discerning bunch. They are not impressed with flashy marketing material, hate clutter, and can’t stand marketing language. Anything that gives them information, however, is going to capture their attention.”
CFOs want information on how to run their businesses and finance teams, how issues are affecting other companies in their industries, how to improve communication, risk management, etc. Give it to them – in the format they want – and you’re well set to open the sales conversation.
Believe it or not, CFOs want printed material with large fonts formatted for easy readability -- because many of them wear glasses. Loading something down with graphics or pictures is not going to get a CFO’s attention, no matter what your high-priced ad agency says. And, steer clear of lingo such as “optimize” and “solution.”
Says Smith, “We’ve found CFOs routinely use the ‘printer friendly’ feature on our Web site for printing articles to read on the plane or elsewhere. Emailing articles to other people is also big.”
Here are some more hands-on tips for the four most common marketing tactics used to reach CFOs:
Tactic A. Direct mail
According to Smith, a simple one-page direct mail letter in a plain #10 envelope works best. Creative mailers to this audience are simply a waste of time. The letter should have a clear, well-defined offer for information – CFOs love high-level white papers (it goes without saying they should be clean and well-written). Executive reports based on studies or research results are also very popular.
Tactic B. Telephone
A typical telemarketing cold call is not a good tactic to use with a CFO. However, calling a CFO after sending a special report or white paper works well – provided you’ve done your homework. Know whom you’re calling, what issues the company may be facing, and how you can help solve problems. Again, don’t pitch – ask questions and develop a rapport.
Tactic C. Email
Email can work well provided it’s “plain vanilla” in terms of graphics with easy-to-read copy that offers CFOs high-value information.
Tactic D. Events
As with other C-types, well-heeled executive breakfasts, roundtables, and presentations (online or off) are quite effective. Events should feature A-list experts on topics that concern CFOs. Says Smith, “We’ve found events featuring speakers from research companies are very popular.”
Lastly, learn how to talk to a CFO in his language. Says Sloane, “It’s wonderful when I meet someone who ‘gets it’ – that is, someone who understands finance and my job.” If you know little about finance, Sloane recommends reading, Finance for Dummies and The Portable MBA. Attending CFO association meetings is good, too.
Above all, follow through with promises. Says Alarcon, “I often ask salespeople to send information so I can read it later. I would say 90% of the time, nothing comes.”
Useful links related to this article:
CFO Magazine & CFO.com :http://www.cfo.com/
QAS:http://www.qas.com/
ChangeToolKit :http://www.changetoolkit.com/
Spencer Stuart:http://www.spencerstuart.com/
Our new Special features a wealth of research to solve your problem, including copywriting tips, top 3 pain points, and both demographic and "psychographic" data. You'll get inside the mind and even the daily routine of a typical CFO.
P.S. We showed a preview copy of this Special to the Managing Editor of CFO Magazine, and she said it was right on target:
Let’s say you need to create a marketing campaign with the ultimate goal of getting your field sales rep a meeting with a prospect's Chief Financial Officer (CFO). You'll probably try one of the following tactics:o Cold call using an outsourced telemarketing firm or your inside sales folks.
o Invest in an expensive, glossy DM or advertising campaign promoting your “solution” that “optimizes” productivity.
o Send an email campaign to a list you rented (or place a lead gen offer in an email newsletter CFOs read).
Your campaign falls flat. You have no clue why.
Welcome to the world of marketing to CFOs – a world where its inhabitants turn a deaf ear to marketing lingo and a blind eye to flashy creative. If catchy headlines aren’t going to reach the people “who sign the checks,” what will?
First, let’s talk about who a CFO is, the day-to-day job, and how issues such as Sarbanes-Oxley are affecting the CFO and businesses in general.
Twenty years ago, CFOs toiled in relative obscurity managing back-office functions like bill paying and budgeting. According to CFO Magazine, risk management meant buying insurance, not “guarding against terrorist attacks.”
No longer a “number cruncher”: CFO's three roles
Times have changed for the CFO, who is now seen as a strategic partner to the CEO, many of whom see CFOs as their second-in-command. Due in part to technology and accounting software – which have freed up finance departments – CFOs have seen their roles significantly expanded.
According to the Spencer Stuart report, “The Global Fifty: Perspectives of Leading Chief Financial Officers,” today’s CFO is responsible for the following three roles:
Role #1. Strategic planning and decision-making To be fully effective, a CFO must understand the changing dynamics of the “big picture,” and provide insights and knowledge of the competitive landscape.
Role #2. Financial community liaison CFOs are now responsible for communicating the company’s value, building rapport with analysts and investors, and most important right now, maintaining trust and communicating integrity – in the CFO, the company, and its numbers.
Role #3. Management team member In order to be effective, a CFO must partner with COOs, CEOs and other members of the management team. A CFO’s main job is to take away the “financial worry” from a CEO and provide opportunities to “see the horizon.”
Demographic data & how CFOs spend their time
According to surveyed CFO Magazine readers, the majority of CFOs are male (82%), are 35-45 years old, hold a CPA and MBA, and have risen through the ranks of finance departments. A CFO earns anywhere from $100K on up -- including options and other forms of executive pay -- depending on the organization type (public, private, non-profit, government, etc.), geographic location, and revenues. A typical CFO has been on the job for at least five years.
CFOs purchase or authorize procurement for the following products and services:- Accounting/Auditing- Budgeting and Planning Software- Performance Management Systems- 401 (k) Providers- Insurance- Risk Management- Health Group Benefits- Technology Services- Legal Services- Outsourcing- Executive Staff/Education
Like other C-level types, finance officers spend most of their time in meetings, either on conference calls or face-to-face, talking with industry analysts, department heads, and ratings agencies.
The rest of the CFO’s time is spent on questions about data: finding good data in a timely fashion and dealing with incorrect or inaccurate data. Budgeting and budget forecasting is a pain, with many companies still using Excel spreadsheets to generate numbers, as is preparing for board meetings. According to Natalie Alarcon, Controller for QAS, makers of QuickAddress software, such preparation can take over 20 hours a month and is incredibly labor intensive.
CFOs work on two levels – the micro and the macro. An effective CFO delegates number crunching activities so he can think about how to create capital and resources for the future. His job is to make sure the company is there in 10 years.
Top three CFO pain points:
CFOs today have a full plate of issues and pain points – everything from pesky shareholder activists and costlier than ever auditors to rising health care costs and pension plans.
Says Wick Sloane, currently of start-up ChangeToolKit.com and a 25-year CFO veteran, including stints at University of Hawaii, Aetna and other companies, “Salespeople are continually pitching products to me but none of them understand my headaches. I don’t need securities, I need clear data on how to manage assets, liabilities and risks at my company.”
Caroline Smith, Director of Marketing for CFO Magazine, confirms Sloane’s complaints.
“Financial and accounting rules are changing all the time,” she says. “CFOs are thirsty for knowledge. Give it to them and you’ll get their attention right away.”
The three top issues facing CFOs today are: compliance, communications, and financial planning. What follows is a brief run-down. If you’re serious about marketing to CFOs, it behooves you to research these and other topics in detail.
Pain #1. Compliance
The most significant change to federal securities law in the U.S. since the New Deal, The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (or Sarbox as it’s called) was signed into law in 2002 and is designed to review dated legislative audit requirements and protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures.
In short, CEOs and CFOs are now criminally liable for signing off on misleading Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
Despite its intent, however, Sarbox is a pain in the butt for CFOs. According to a November 2004 study by J.D. Powers and Associates, nine out of ten CFOs say the costs of complying are greater than the benefits. The study also found that “many of those involved in the auditing process, from senior management to the audit committee on down, are feeling the pressure of increased requirements.”
Regulations are even affecting how companies woo clients. The Wall Street Journal recently reported financial organizations are cutting back spending on high-profile corporate junkets – like the Masters golf tournament. The National Association of Securities Dealers has cracked down on excessive gift-giving and entertainment and is forcing companies to rethink spending millions of dollars to impress clients. (“Junkets with a Twist: Wall Street Clients Get Bills for the Fun,” April 7, 2005)
Pain #2. Communications
Gone are the days when a CFO was responsible for merely producing P&L statements. In addition to understanding the entire enterprise, seeing the “big picture,” and providing sound financial advice to the management team, a CFO also needs to communicate the company’s value and integrity to analysts, investors, and employees alike.
“In my twenty-five years in this business, no one selling me products has yet talked to me about how to communicate finances to the people in the company,” comments Sloane. “A CFO needs help combining business ideas and finance metrics. How, for example, can I show employees that their jobs are directly related to the numbers? Reports for rating agencies or analysts are for that audience, not employees.”
Adds QAS’ Alarcon, “I need financial benchmarks so I can interpret our company’s metrics to my CEO; for example ‘What is the cost per lead or cost per employee for companies like mine?’ And I need information about big picture issues, such as compliance, not another product pitch. I don’t have time to listen.”
Pain #3. Financial Planning/Reporting
More than 40% of respondents to a jointly produced survey by CFO Publishing Corporation (owners of CFO Magazine) and Geac reported one of their top priorities is to improve their planning processes and to provide better forecasts. However, many CFOs don’t have the necessary tools. Indeed, 61% of survey respondents say they “need more or new technology to buttress their decision-making capabilities.”
A whopping 90% say their finance organizations get bogged down during the planning season with “low-value, seemingly trivial tasks” due to organizational dynamics and inconsistent internal information. And, 44% say they still use spreadsheets and manual processes to manage corporate performance!
Copywriting that CFOs respond to: information, information, information
“We’ve done research,” says Smith. “CFOs are a discerning bunch. They are not impressed with flashy marketing material, hate clutter, and can’t stand marketing language. Anything that gives them information, however, is going to capture their attention.”
CFOs want information on how to run their businesses and finance teams, how issues are affecting other companies in their industries, how to improve communication, risk management, etc. Give it to them – in the format they want – and you’re well set to open the sales conversation.
Believe it or not, CFOs want printed material with large fonts formatted for easy readability -- because many of them wear glasses. Loading something down with graphics or pictures is not going to get a CFO’s attention, no matter what your high-priced ad agency says. And, steer clear of lingo such as “optimize” and “solution.”
Says Smith, “We’ve found CFOs routinely use the ‘printer friendly’ feature on our Web site for printing articles to read on the plane or elsewhere. Emailing articles to other people is also big.”
Here are some more hands-on tips for the four most common marketing tactics used to reach CFOs:
Tactic A. Direct mail
According to Smith, a simple one-page direct mail letter in a plain #10 envelope works best. Creative mailers to this audience are simply a waste of time. The letter should have a clear, well-defined offer for information – CFOs love high-level white papers (it goes without saying they should be clean and well-written). Executive reports based on studies or research results are also very popular.
Tactic B. Telephone
A typical telemarketing cold call is not a good tactic to use with a CFO. However, calling a CFO after sending a special report or white paper works well – provided you’ve done your homework. Know whom you’re calling, what issues the company may be facing, and how you can help solve problems. Again, don’t pitch – ask questions and develop a rapport.
Tactic C. Email
Email can work well provided it’s “plain vanilla” in terms of graphics with easy-to-read copy that offers CFOs high-value information.
Tactic D. Events
As with other C-types, well-heeled executive breakfasts, roundtables, and presentations (online or off) are quite effective. Events should feature A-list experts on topics that concern CFOs. Says Smith, “We’ve found events featuring speakers from research companies are very popular.”
Lastly, learn how to talk to a CFO in his language. Says Sloane, “It’s wonderful when I meet someone who ‘gets it’ – that is, someone who understands finance and my job.” If you know little about finance, Sloane recommends reading, Finance for Dummies and The Portable MBA. Attending CFO association meetings is good, too.
Above all, follow through with promises. Says Alarcon, “I often ask salespeople to send information so I can read it later. I would say 90% of the time, nothing comes.”
Useful links related to this article:
CFO Magazine & CFO.com :http://www.cfo.com/
QAS:http://www.qas.com/
ChangeToolKit :http://www.changetoolkit.com/
Spencer Stuart:http://www.spencerstuart.com/
E-Mail List Rental Tips
Despite all the issues swirling around e-mail, you can still utilize outside e-mail lists. But with all the lists out there, how do you determine which to use and which to pass on? Which are legal and which aren't? Which will work? Which won't?
E-mail lists are compiled in several ways. Many were built by swapping and harvesting. Today, when considering any list, legal and marketing concerns must factor into any decision. Several things you'd better be darn sure of:
E-mail lists are compiled in several ways. Many were built by swapping and harvesting. Today, when considering any list, legal and marketing concerns must factor into any decision. Several things you'd better be darn sure of:
- The list owner is the company with the right to mail third-party offers to people on that list. And those people have opted in to receive such offers.
- Opt-in data, IP address, date, and time logs should exist and be retrievable on demand. If a list owner pushes your offer and your company serves the graphics and hosts the landing site, your company will be affected by any complaints.
- When the list owner sends the e-mail, it uses its name or brand in the message's sender field.
Whether you work through a manager who represents the list owner or directly with the owner, the three points above are absolute and nonnegotiable. Read and review the opt-in language and the original privacy statement. Confirm all these points in writing. Add the following language to your agreements with list owners or their representatives:
As the list owner for [list name], we hereby confirm that:
- We will mail your offer only to those people who have expressly given us the right, via opt-in checkbox, to send them third-party offers.
- We will send the e-mail messages with your offer to those people from our servers using the sender address consistent with the offer opted in to by the consumer.
- We will provide you with the IP address, date, and time for any consumer who complains she didn't opt in.
(You may wish to add a penalty for lack of compliance.)
If the owner isn't willing to provide these assurances, go elsewhere.
To borrow a page from the postal list industry, data cards (information about a mailing list) include a lot of useful information that can help determine list quality. E-mail lists don't provide that same level of detail for the most part. So I devised a report card to help evaluate e-mail lists you already use or may use in the future.
Before I provide the categories and parameters, let's look at some list rental challenges:
Lots of brokers offer lists. Some make dubious claims about them and their actual ownership.
It's not always clear how lists were built. They may be customer lists, sweepstakes entrants, direct product inquiries, third-party checkboxes, and so forth.
It may not be clear whether names are all single opt-in, double opt-in, opt-out, or a combination.
You almost never know how often a list is used, or by whom. Even if you request this information, you rarely get a straight answer (except for lists represented by professional managers).
In the postal word, most data cards publish "usage." This indicates which advertisers had success with a given list.
Many e-mail lists are built solely for rental purposes, so there's much less emphasis on quality.
Some lists (I'm sure you know this) are illicitly harvested from many sources. Using them will get you in trouble.
Many list owners and lists peddlers will take money from any advertiser willing to pay. They allow totally unrelated offers to be mailed to their list in a quest for bucks.
For many lists, even if a test mailing is successful, rollout results are almost always different. Lists are constantly in flux. It's nearly impossible to make projections. You could lose your shirt on rollouts.
Some unscrupulous characters actually sell lists. They require you to use their e-mail blast service, although their mailings are blocked by major ISPs. This, of course, results in gross under-delivery.
Most professional list managers in the postal world are ethical and will dissuade you from renting a list they don't think will work for your offer. Such ethics can be absent in the e-mail world. They'll take your money even when they know your offer won't work.
Most e-mail lists aren't updated with an e-mail cleaning service, analogous to the postal National Change of Address (NCOA).
Should you not even consider renting an e-mail list? I wouldn't go that far, but you do need to exercise extreme caution. Gather information about any list you're thinking of using. For a detailed list of questions to ask, please email me at dtoor@mercurymessages.com with a reference to this article "Email List Rental Checklist."Use a spreadsheet or database to keep track of the details about each list, including:
It's a lot of work to gather these data and create a grade for each list, but it's the only way to discover the great lists and weed out the losers.
For help in obtaining quality rental lists for your e-mail marketing, contact us at 770-777-9489 or e-mail info@mercurymessages.com today.
How to Market to Sales Executives
What’s the #1 secret to marketing to sales executives? Understand their number one overwhelming pain point.
Pain Point #1. Meeting quota
Sales executives are judged by whether they make their “number” or sales quota – monthly, quarterly, yearly. If a sales executive’s quota for the year is $100 million and his sales force hits “only” $82 million, he is not a happy camper – and neither is the CEO.
The last thing a sales executive wants, if he works for a publicly traded company, is to have his CEO on the hot seat at the analysts' meeting. Wall Street doesn’t like it if sales projections aren’t met and will respond accordingly. When you hear those financial news summaries about earnings reports and stock prices going down . . . understand that behind that stock drop is one unhappy sales executive getting berated by his CEO.
Ditto for sales execs working for private companies – these people live or die by their sales quotas.
Secret #2 on how to market to sales execs? Get to the point, FAST.
A sales executive is stressed, he’s accountable, and he does not have time for poor salesmanship from a vendor. Says Mac McIntosh, B-to-B sales lead consultant, “The worst thing you can do is go in talking about fuzzy marketing activities like branding. Sales execs want results and they want them now. Show a sales exec how he can gain a competitive advantage – in the short term – and you’ve got a foot in the door.”
Confirms John Nuzzi, VP/Associate Publisher, Selling Power Magazine, “Sales executives don’t have a lot of time to read. Long drawn out letters, proposals, or telemarketing pitches with convoluted messages won’t get their attention.”
Henry White, an executive VP who oversees sales VPs at his company, All Seasons Services, a supplier of vending and office refreshment services, says, “Sales executives are very intolerant of bad sales. Just the other morning someone called me. I had no clue what he was selling and finally had to tell him to get to the point. Even after he did, I still don’t remember what he was pitching to me.”
Demographics & job profile of typical sales professionals
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, there are more than 4.9 million sales managers in the U.S and they supervise 17.2 million sales people which includes retail sales. (In comparison, there are fewer than half a million marketers.)
The majority of sales executives are male, 86.8% versus 13.2% female, according to reader demographics provided by Selling Power Magazine. More than half have college degrees ranging in subjects as broad as liberal arts to the more technical, including engineering and science.
Roughly a third of those surveyed by Selling Power have post-graduate degrees.
Depending on the company, a sales executive can report directly to the CEO, the Chief Marketing Officer (who oversees marketing and sales) and or even the COO. The average salary for an executive (depending on the company) can range from $145K to over $200K, including bonuses and commissions. The median age of a sales executive is 45.
As to be expected, a typical sales executive is rarely at his desk. He puts in very long hours, especially if he’s supervising sales reps located in other time zones. Sales executives are very pressed for time. They are frequently on the road attending client meetings, trade shows and other sales-related functions.
For a sales exec, customers and sales come first – with everything else a distant second. Don’t take it personally if a sales exec reschedules your meeting – most likely, a hot prospect wants to see him NOW and he’s out the door without even thinking about it. If a sales exec is not in the field, he’s at the office meeting with the CEO or other executives and doing paperwork.
“Sales executives are moving targets,” says McIntosh. “They tend to be reactionary versus strategic, and they want to deal with things now, rather than later. They are also relatively easy to reach if they’re in the office because they do answer their phones.”
They also tend to be “early adopters” and love all types of gadgetry that keeps them informed and in touch with people. Cell phones, laptops, Blackberries and PDAs are all part of a sales exec’s arsenal of tools.
Sales Execs' #2 Pain Point
As has been stated, a sales exec’s main job – and his number one pain – is meeting his sales number on time. But he has another pain point and that’s retaining and motivating his sales force.
“Motivating the sales force is a real concern for a sales executive,” says Betsy Harper, CEO, Sales and Marketing Search, a contingency sales recruiting firm. “Rather than hire additional sales people and increasing head count, many companies are simply raising the sales quotas. This puts even greater pressure on the VP. He has to make sure his reps are performing – and performing well. Having a rep just meet his number is not enough. Sales execs want top performers – those who exceed their numbers on a regular basis.”
Indeed, according to a recent Sales and Marketing Management survey, 75% of those surveyed said their quotas will increase for 2005, with 42% stating those increases will range from 11-30% – a significant increase.
“A sales executive is like a good coach,” says Nuzzi. “Sales reps are up one day, down the next. Sales is a real roller coaster and a good manager understands this and helps his force through these highs and lows.” A good sales exec also inspires loyalty and trust: the more his sales reps know they can count on him, the harder they’re going to work.
In addition to motivating sales reps, sales executives also spend a great deal of time on employee issues.
Says White, “I often have to work with HR to develop compensation plans. Are we compensating our sales force enough? Are we using the right incentives? I also worry about companies stealing my good sales reps. Of course, I also have to work hard to ensure I hire the right people in the first place and that they do their jobs. Web-based tools like Salesforce.com are wonderful.”
Which brings up another issue – CRM (customer relationship management) software...
Sales Execs Highly Cynical About CRM
Sales executives have “been there, done that,” when it comes to CRM. According to an unscientific poll on SellingPower.com, of those answering the poll question, “How much do you trust CRM vendors?” only 10% replied, “Yes, the majority are trustworthy.” 26% stated they don’t trust any CRM vendor!
Says McIntosh, “Sales execs understand the value of CRM, but getting the sales force to comply is difficult. Sales reps would rather be in the field making calls and closing sales, not sitting at computers ‘filling in the little boxes.’ So if you’re pitching a CRM package to a sales exec, you better have done your homework and have a real pitch that shows a measurable – and short term – competitive advantage. Citing benefits and features will not get a sales exec’s attention.”
Pain Point #3 – Love/hate relationship between sales and marketing
“Marketing’s job is to help create sales,” comments Harper. “Marketing should be giving the sales force market and industry information, the company’s value proposition, and messages that clearly resonate with the company’s prospects. Instead, there’s a huge disconnect between marketing and sales.”
Part of this disconnect includes marketing and sales tools/collateral that can’t be used in the field. Reports one sales guy, who asked to remain nameless, “One company gave us professionally designed PowerPoint templates. They were very well done, but it was obvious no one had tried to use them. The first time I did, my prospects couldn’t see the light-colored letters on the projection screen. I ended up making my own template.
“Another thing my prospects wanted was data. I was forever asking for new data images on CD, but could never get marketing to give me what I needed. The final straw was the ‘sales kit’ they made for us. It came bound with a metal cover that scratched my prospect’s executive cherry wood desk. It also weighed a ton. If marketing had to carry that thing to meetings, they would have known no sales guy was ever going to use it. The whole marketing effort was a huge waste of money and incredibly frustrating.”
If you’re a marketer, how can you help your own sales people do a better job? McIntosh gives the following three tips:
Tip #1. Interview a couple of prospects and customers every week. This will help you better understand their needs and points-of-view – giving you the insight to craft on-target messages.
Tip #2. Regularly accompany sales people, reps, or dealers on sales calls. This will give you a better understanding of what your own sales people are up against and what sales tools you should be providing to help reps close more sales.
Tip #3. Treat your company’s sales people as if they are your customers (rather than just thinking of end-users as your customers). This will allow you to better focus on providing marketing programs that actually drives sales.
How to get in front of a sales executive – 7 marketing tips
Getting a sales executive’s attention isn’t hard, but it pays to be nimble. It doesn’t matter whether you’re doing direct mail or telemarketing, the following tactics apply in any scenario:
Tactic #1 – Focus on one thing at a time: Advises McIntosh, “Don’t overload your emails or other marketing messages with too much information. Get to the point and make sure you give the busy exec only one thing to do – like respond to an invitation to an executive breakfast or golf tournament.”
Tactic #2 – Show quantifiable ROI: Remember, sales execs have to meet their numbers. They are short-term thinkers. “Sales execs are very competitive,” says McIntosh. “You’ll definitely get their interest if you show what their competitors have achieved.” In your marketing messages, show them quantifiable results that don’t rely on hype. Sales execs want to know:-> How to get more sales leads -> How to close more sales-> How to hire, motivate, and retain top-producing sales reps
Tactic #3 – Don’t discount less pressing pain points: In addition to meeting their quota, sales execs also have a number of other concerns, including developing and delivering presentations (a biggie for anyone in sales), sales training, and planning sales meetings (the big ticket kind for the entire sales force). Show a sales exec how he can do his job better in any of these areas and you’ll get his attention.
Tactic #4 – Use marketing best practices: Sales execs are just like you and me – they want to be “wowed” by good marketing. Says White, “I love getting boxes in the mail [three dimensional mailers]. Flyers don’t do it for me – I just toss them into the wastebasket. Boxes are great – it’s like Christmas – and I’ll definitely open them.
“The other day I received one – it was from a firm telling us about new construction sites that are possible locations for our vending machines. However, they sent me a ton of poorly designed collateral that was very hard to read. I threw it away. It would have been better if they had sent me one or two pieces with just one message. And, a pen or some other tchotchkey would have been nice, too – but not absolutely necessary.”
Tactic #5 – Do your homework: “Know who you’re calling and why,” advises McIntosh. “Have your pitch honed and practice before making any calls. Get right to the point and don’t waste the sales exec’s time.”
“You really need to give sales execs a compelling reason to meet with you” states Nuzzi. “Know about the company before you call, know the industry buzzwords – salesbuilder.com is an excellent tool for this – and personalize your message. Be creative in your presentation.”
Tactic #6 – Use the personal touch: “Nothing cuts through the clutter,” says Nuzzi, “like a handwritten note.” Take the time to send articles, magazines, or other items with a handwritten note that says, “Thought you might find this of interest.” You’ll definitely get an executive’s attention – because not everyone does this sort of thing anymore.
Tactic #7 – Follow Nuzzi’s rule: “Nothing takes the place of face-to-face”: Attend trade shows. Find a show in the industry you’re targeting, make a list of the sales execs you want to meet, then call them to set up appointments. Of course, not all of them will call you back, so go to their booth and introduce yourself. (Remember – get to the point, fast.) Once you’ve made the introduction, says Nuzzi, you then have the privilege to send the executive notes, articles, and build rapport.
Sums up Harper, “The best way to get a sales executive’s attention is to simply understand the pressure he’s under to achieve results. The more you can help him achieve those results, versus making another ho-hum product pitch, the better your own sales efforts and success rate.”
Useful links related to this article:
Sales and Marketing Searchhttp://www.smsearch.com/
Selling Power Magazinehttp://www.sellingpower.com/
Sales and Marketing Managementhttp://www.salesandmarketing.com/
All Seasons Services, Inc.http://www.allseasonsservices.com
Pain Point #1. Meeting quota
Sales executives are judged by whether they make their “number” or sales quota – monthly, quarterly, yearly. If a sales executive’s quota for the year is $100 million and his sales force hits “only” $82 million, he is not a happy camper – and neither is the CEO.
The last thing a sales executive wants, if he works for a publicly traded company, is to have his CEO on the hot seat at the analysts' meeting. Wall Street doesn’t like it if sales projections aren’t met and will respond accordingly. When you hear those financial news summaries about earnings reports and stock prices going down . . . understand that behind that stock drop is one unhappy sales executive getting berated by his CEO.
Ditto for sales execs working for private companies – these people live or die by their sales quotas.
Secret #2 on how to market to sales execs? Get to the point, FAST.
A sales executive is stressed, he’s accountable, and he does not have time for poor salesmanship from a vendor. Says Mac McIntosh, B-to-B sales lead consultant, “The worst thing you can do is go in talking about fuzzy marketing activities like branding. Sales execs want results and they want them now. Show a sales exec how he can gain a competitive advantage – in the short term – and you’ve got a foot in the door.”
Confirms John Nuzzi, VP/Associate Publisher, Selling Power Magazine, “Sales executives don’t have a lot of time to read. Long drawn out letters, proposals, or telemarketing pitches with convoluted messages won’t get their attention.”
Henry White, an executive VP who oversees sales VPs at his company, All Seasons Services, a supplier of vending and office refreshment services, says, “Sales executives are very intolerant of bad sales. Just the other morning someone called me. I had no clue what he was selling and finally had to tell him to get to the point. Even after he did, I still don’t remember what he was pitching to me.”
Demographics & job profile of typical sales professionals
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, there are more than 4.9 million sales managers in the U.S and they supervise 17.2 million sales people which includes retail sales. (In comparison, there are fewer than half a million marketers.)
The majority of sales executives are male, 86.8% versus 13.2% female, according to reader demographics provided by Selling Power Magazine. More than half have college degrees ranging in subjects as broad as liberal arts to the more technical, including engineering and science.
Roughly a third of those surveyed by Selling Power have post-graduate degrees.
Depending on the company, a sales executive can report directly to the CEO, the Chief Marketing Officer (who oversees marketing and sales) and or even the COO. The average salary for an executive (depending on the company) can range from $145K to over $200K, including bonuses and commissions. The median age of a sales executive is 45.
As to be expected, a typical sales executive is rarely at his desk. He puts in very long hours, especially if he’s supervising sales reps located in other time zones. Sales executives are very pressed for time. They are frequently on the road attending client meetings, trade shows and other sales-related functions.
For a sales exec, customers and sales come first – with everything else a distant second. Don’t take it personally if a sales exec reschedules your meeting – most likely, a hot prospect wants to see him NOW and he’s out the door without even thinking about it. If a sales exec is not in the field, he’s at the office meeting with the CEO or other executives and doing paperwork.
“Sales executives are moving targets,” says McIntosh. “They tend to be reactionary versus strategic, and they want to deal with things now, rather than later. They are also relatively easy to reach if they’re in the office because they do answer their phones.”
They also tend to be “early adopters” and love all types of gadgetry that keeps them informed and in touch with people. Cell phones, laptops, Blackberries and PDAs are all part of a sales exec’s arsenal of tools.
Sales Execs' #2 Pain Point
As has been stated, a sales exec’s main job – and his number one pain – is meeting his sales number on time. But he has another pain point and that’s retaining and motivating his sales force.
“Motivating the sales force is a real concern for a sales executive,” says Betsy Harper, CEO, Sales and Marketing Search, a contingency sales recruiting firm. “Rather than hire additional sales people and increasing head count, many companies are simply raising the sales quotas. This puts even greater pressure on the VP. He has to make sure his reps are performing – and performing well. Having a rep just meet his number is not enough. Sales execs want top performers – those who exceed their numbers on a regular basis.”
Indeed, according to a recent Sales and Marketing Management survey, 75% of those surveyed said their quotas will increase for 2005, with 42% stating those increases will range from 11-30% – a significant increase.
“A sales executive is like a good coach,” says Nuzzi. “Sales reps are up one day, down the next. Sales is a real roller coaster and a good manager understands this and helps his force through these highs and lows.” A good sales exec also inspires loyalty and trust: the more his sales reps know they can count on him, the harder they’re going to work.
In addition to motivating sales reps, sales executives also spend a great deal of time on employee issues.
Says White, “I often have to work with HR to develop compensation plans. Are we compensating our sales force enough? Are we using the right incentives? I also worry about companies stealing my good sales reps. Of course, I also have to work hard to ensure I hire the right people in the first place and that they do their jobs. Web-based tools like Salesforce.com are wonderful.”
Which brings up another issue – CRM (customer relationship management) software...
Sales Execs Highly Cynical About CRM
Sales executives have “been there, done that,” when it comes to CRM. According to an unscientific poll on SellingPower.com, of those answering the poll question, “How much do you trust CRM vendors?” only 10% replied, “Yes, the majority are trustworthy.” 26% stated they don’t trust any CRM vendor!
Says McIntosh, “Sales execs understand the value of CRM, but getting the sales force to comply is difficult. Sales reps would rather be in the field making calls and closing sales, not sitting at computers ‘filling in the little boxes.’ So if you’re pitching a CRM package to a sales exec, you better have done your homework and have a real pitch that shows a measurable – and short term – competitive advantage. Citing benefits and features will not get a sales exec’s attention.”
Pain Point #3 – Love/hate relationship between sales and marketing
“Marketing’s job is to help create sales,” comments Harper. “Marketing should be giving the sales force market and industry information, the company’s value proposition, and messages that clearly resonate with the company’s prospects. Instead, there’s a huge disconnect between marketing and sales.”
Part of this disconnect includes marketing and sales tools/collateral that can’t be used in the field. Reports one sales guy, who asked to remain nameless, “One company gave us professionally designed PowerPoint templates. They were very well done, but it was obvious no one had tried to use them. The first time I did, my prospects couldn’t see the light-colored letters on the projection screen. I ended up making my own template.
“Another thing my prospects wanted was data. I was forever asking for new data images on CD, but could never get marketing to give me what I needed. The final straw was the ‘sales kit’ they made for us. It came bound with a metal cover that scratched my prospect’s executive cherry wood desk. It also weighed a ton. If marketing had to carry that thing to meetings, they would have known no sales guy was ever going to use it. The whole marketing effort was a huge waste of money and incredibly frustrating.”
If you’re a marketer, how can you help your own sales people do a better job? McIntosh gives the following three tips:
Tip #1. Interview a couple of prospects and customers every week. This will help you better understand their needs and points-of-view – giving you the insight to craft on-target messages.
Tip #2. Regularly accompany sales people, reps, or dealers on sales calls. This will give you a better understanding of what your own sales people are up against and what sales tools you should be providing to help reps close more sales.
Tip #3. Treat your company’s sales people as if they are your customers (rather than just thinking of end-users as your customers). This will allow you to better focus on providing marketing programs that actually drives sales.
How to get in front of a sales executive – 7 marketing tips
Getting a sales executive’s attention isn’t hard, but it pays to be nimble. It doesn’t matter whether you’re doing direct mail or telemarketing, the following tactics apply in any scenario:
Tactic #1 – Focus on one thing at a time: Advises McIntosh, “Don’t overload your emails or other marketing messages with too much information. Get to the point and make sure you give the busy exec only one thing to do – like respond to an invitation to an executive breakfast or golf tournament.”
Tactic #2 – Show quantifiable ROI: Remember, sales execs have to meet their numbers. They are short-term thinkers. “Sales execs are very competitive,” says McIntosh. “You’ll definitely get their interest if you show what their competitors have achieved.” In your marketing messages, show them quantifiable results that don’t rely on hype. Sales execs want to know:-> How to get more sales leads -> How to close more sales-> How to hire, motivate, and retain top-producing sales reps
Tactic #3 – Don’t discount less pressing pain points: In addition to meeting their quota, sales execs also have a number of other concerns, including developing and delivering presentations (a biggie for anyone in sales), sales training, and planning sales meetings (the big ticket kind for the entire sales force). Show a sales exec how he can do his job better in any of these areas and you’ll get his attention.
Tactic #4 – Use marketing best practices: Sales execs are just like you and me – they want to be “wowed” by good marketing. Says White, “I love getting boxes in the mail [three dimensional mailers]. Flyers don’t do it for me – I just toss them into the wastebasket. Boxes are great – it’s like Christmas – and I’ll definitely open them.
“The other day I received one – it was from a firm telling us about new construction sites that are possible locations for our vending machines. However, they sent me a ton of poorly designed collateral that was very hard to read. I threw it away. It would have been better if they had sent me one or two pieces with just one message. And, a pen or some other tchotchkey would have been nice, too – but not absolutely necessary.”
Tactic #5 – Do your homework: “Know who you’re calling and why,” advises McIntosh. “Have your pitch honed and practice before making any calls. Get right to the point and don’t waste the sales exec’s time.”
“You really need to give sales execs a compelling reason to meet with you” states Nuzzi. “Know about the company before you call, know the industry buzzwords – salesbuilder.com is an excellent tool for this – and personalize your message. Be creative in your presentation.”
Tactic #6 – Use the personal touch: “Nothing cuts through the clutter,” says Nuzzi, “like a handwritten note.” Take the time to send articles, magazines, or other items with a handwritten note that says, “Thought you might find this of interest.” You’ll definitely get an executive’s attention – because not everyone does this sort of thing anymore.
Tactic #7 – Follow Nuzzi’s rule: “Nothing takes the place of face-to-face”: Attend trade shows. Find a show in the industry you’re targeting, make a list of the sales execs you want to meet, then call them to set up appointments. Of course, not all of them will call you back, so go to their booth and introduce yourself. (Remember – get to the point, fast.) Once you’ve made the introduction, says Nuzzi, you then have the privilege to send the executive notes, articles, and build rapport.
Sums up Harper, “The best way to get a sales executive’s attention is to simply understand the pressure he’s under to achieve results. The more you can help him achieve those results, versus making another ho-hum product pitch, the better your own sales efforts and success rate.”
Useful links related to this article:
Sales and Marketing Searchhttp://www.smsearch.com/
Selling Power Magazinehttp://www.sellingpower.com/
Sales and Marketing Managementhttp://www.salesandmarketing.com/
All Seasons Services, Inc.http://www.allseasonsservices.com
How to Market to HR Professionals
SUMMARY:Are you running a marketing or ad campaign targeting human resources
If you’ve struggled with marketing to human resources (HR) professionals, it may be because you don’t know to whom you’re marketing and why.
Quick profile: Stats, daily challenges, who does what
Today’s HR industry is huge – the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) boasts over 190,000 members in more than 100 countries – and its practitioners are varied.
You can liken HR and its job functions to the medical industry: you have the GPs, or general, who are usually aligned with a business unit and who know a little bit about every aspect of HR.
Then you have those who specialize in one aspect of HR, such as:
Finding the right person to market to, especially in companies that employ a number of HR people, can be difficult. “Do I want the benefits specialist or is the GP where I should start?” “Do I need to speak with the Director and specialist together or should I go straight to the Senior VP?”
HR professionals – at all levels – are incredibly busy (you’re lucky if you get one on the phone). In addition to having to put out day-to-day fires – GPs for instance, are usually dealing with employee relations issues and the like – HR professionals spend 10-40% of their time in meetings and the rest in dealing with strategic issues, such as lowering turnover, improving the recruitment process, or reviewing programs from a cost perspective.
One thing to note: MBA types are moving into HR, which is now seen as a respectable and results-driven field (versus its “pink collar” ghetto reputation of the 1990s).
Robert Bogosian, Principal of HR consulting firm RVB & Associates and formerly VP Performance Development at Wachovia/Evergreen Investments, confirms this assessment. “HR has shifted from policies and procedures to understanding a business’ challenges and how to meet them,” he comments. “In the 1990s, HR wrapped its arms around the ‘consultative’ approach with its business associates [those within the corporation]. Over time, we figured out how to get invited to the executive table.”
Mark Willaman, CEO and Founder of HRMarketer.com, agrees. “HR is now a very strategic functional area. This is so important given today’s ‘bottom line’ issues, from compliance and offshoring to finding and retaining top talent. And, more women are moving into senior level positions.”
Indeed, according to Human Resource Executive magazine, 19 of the 50 largest companies in the U.S. have women in the senior HR spot – up from nine in 2001 and “only a few” in 1991. Merrill Lynch Co. Inc., PepsiAmericas, Accenture, and SBC Communications are just a few of the companies that now have female Senior VPs of HR.
The Telemarketing Debate: HR pros hate it -- but it may work
Which marketing tactic is a big turnoff for HR professionals no matter what their level? Telemarketing was the number one complaint of the professionals interviewed for this article.
Comments include:
“I receive so many calls, I’ve stopped answering my phone.”
“Cold calls! Ugh! They drive me crazy.”
“I delete the voice mails left by vendors – they’re usually selling something I don’t need, plus they always get my name wrong.”
Yet, according to Willaman, and John Brady, Executive Vice President for Business & Legal Reports, Inc. (formerly HRNext), telemarketing to HR professionals is actually quite effective.
So why the disconnect? Simply put, those making the calls that get deleted – and doing other marketing activities that HR professionals routinely ignore – do not understand their target audience or their jobs.
Four Key Challenges HR Pros Face Now
Use your knowledge of these challenges to craft your white papers, webinars, and other informational marketing. Real "pain points" equal real results.
#1. Regulations and inefficient processes
Says Pat Tures, Panera Bread’s Director of HR for Company Operations, “We have cafes in 35 states. Not only do I have to keep up on all the laws and regulations for each state, I also am trying to make our recruitment process more efficient and lower turnover. I need front-end assessment tools that will help me weed out unqualified people. Having someone call and hawk a benefit plan is not going to interest me.”
#2. Resistance to change
Marketers and sales people also need to understand how slowly change takes place in a corporation. According to Bogosian, HR professionals walk a delicate line. They have to instinctively understand how far and how fast to push change within a department or team and when to back off. This fine line, says Bogosian, is a challenge for HR execs, who also have the additional challenge of getting their executive colleagues to understand the connection between the business element and the human element.
Because change is slow, HR people keep information on file and will call suppliers – sometimes up to two years later.
Says Evelyn Flaherty, formerly of Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) and Lotus, “I receive a ton of information, most of which I throw away. However, if a piece of collateral offers me solid information, I’ll keep it – and will call the vendor when I’m ready to purchase.”
#3. Technology solutions could be better
One major benefit HR professionals seek is Web-based employee self-service, according to SHRM’s 2005 HR Technology Survey Report. However, only 38% stated their HR technology included this functionality.
And while 80% felt HR technology helped them achieve measurable successes, many stated that they still encounter serious obstacles and challenges, including little or no improvement in recruiting effectiveness and employee satisfaction.
And, something to pay attention to – 65% of respondents indicated they are not measuring ROI for their technology systems! Show an HR professional how to do this – and how demonstrated ROI can help them build a business case at the exec table, and you’ll easily begin a fruitful sales dialogue.
#4. Executive ethics and compliance is huge
HR execs are struggling with defining metrics for measuring compliance and how to shift the mindset of an organization’s ethical value system.
Several of Bogosian's clients, which are large financial services organizations, are paying close attention to risk and compliance. “This is a major issue at the top of the house,” he says, “and can be a lucrative opportunity if you do it right.”
10 HR Marketing Dos and Don’ts
So how do you reach these people if they don’t answer their phone and routinely throw away information? Willaman offers the following strategies for breaking through the clutter:
Direct mail/email
DO: Use direct mail and email to send out non-salesy offers for white papers or case studies, which HR people love. Ensure your mailings are clean and professionally done, have little “glitz” and offer practical information an HR professional can use.
DON’T: Make over-the-top claims. HR professionals are skeptical of marketing, so something that reads, “Prove training and development ROI like never before!” will be instantly trashed. Says Bogosian, “This type of marketing is trite and insults my intelligence.”
Teleconferences and Webinars
DO: Invite A-list speakers to present at teleconferences and Webinars. Says Flaherty, “Webinars are great. I can share the information with my staff and more important, I can multitask while sitting at my computer.”
DON’T: Use a Webinar to pitch a product demo.
Case studies and PR
According to Willaman, HR professionals rely on their peers when choosing suppliers. As a result, case studies that show how you helped another company work very well in terms of gaining credibility. He also recommends positioning your company as an expert in the field.
Write articles and send press releases to the major HR trades, develop reports or conduct surveys, and speak at industry conferences.
Industry conferences and meetings
DO: Regularly attend industry conferences. Despite being a large industry, HR is like a small village in that HR folks talk to one another. Sit at the luncheon table and listen to people and their issues/concerns. Adds Willaman, “Conferences are the places where people trade stories about suppliers and products – if you spend your time listening, you’ll pick up a great deal of competitive knowledge.”
Bogosian recommends joining your local HR association and regularly attending the meetings – to learn, not to sell. Says Bogosian, “Spend more time as a consultant, not as a marketer. Learn to understand and respect the challenges of HR.”
Telemarketing
Respect an HR professional’s time by doing your homework first. Know whom you’re calling and why. Use good phone manners and begin the call with, “I’m doing some interesting work with Morgan Stanley that is similar to what your company is doing. Do you have ten minutes to chat?” Instead of pitching your product, initiate a dialogue by talking professional to professional.
DO: Follow up – politely – to a white paper or report you’ve sent out.
DO: Call early in the morning or late in the day. You’ll have a better chance of someone picking up the phone.
DO: Hire a high-quality call center (if you outsource this function) that knows how to make professional, courteous calls.
DON’T: Employ telemarketing’s sins: Predictive dialers, boiler rooms, and rude, untrained callers. If you want to be successful and make sales, you won’t use them.
Sums up Tures, “Understand the HR world and how I fit into it. Give me information on how I can do a better job. Better yet, before offering me a free report, spend some time reading SHRM newsletters and other industry publications. If you sound like you understand me, I’ll be much more inclined to talk to you.”
Useful links related to this article:
Society for Human Resources Management and HR Magazine: http://www.shrm.org/
HRMarketer.com: http://www.hrmarketer.com/
Panera Bread:http://www.panerabread.com/
RVB & Associates:rvbandassociates@aol.com
Business & Legal Reports, Inc:http://hr.blr.com/
- 10 Dos & Don'ts including the telemarketing debate
- How HR pros have changed since the 90s
- Must-read topics for white papers & webinars
There are 190,000 HR pros around the world who'd make great prospects for your products or services ... but only if you understand them before you begin marketing:
If you’ve struggled with marketing to human resources (HR) professionals, it may be because you don’t know to whom you’re marketing and why.
Quick profile: Stats, daily challenges, who does what
Today’s HR industry is huge – the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) boasts over 190,000 members in more than 100 countries – and its practitioners are varied.
You can liken HR and its job functions to the medical industry: you have the GPs, or general, who are usually aligned with a business unit and who know a little bit about every aspect of HR.
Then you have those who specialize in one aspect of HR, such as:
- Compensation and benefits
- Compliance
- Community relations
- Crises communications
- Diversity
- Employee recruitment, development and training
- Health and wellness
- Labor relations
- Legal issues, including immigration
- State and Federal regulations, such as overtime, and new laws
- Workplace safety, including domestic violence- Sexual harassment, including training and responding to complaints
Finding the right person to market to, especially in companies that employ a number of HR people, can be difficult. “Do I want the benefits specialist or is the GP where I should start?” “Do I need to speak with the Director and specialist together or should I go straight to the Senior VP?”
HR professionals – at all levels – are incredibly busy (you’re lucky if you get one on the phone). In addition to having to put out day-to-day fires – GPs for instance, are usually dealing with employee relations issues and the like – HR professionals spend 10-40% of their time in meetings and the rest in dealing with strategic issues, such as lowering turnover, improving the recruitment process, or reviewing programs from a cost perspective.
One thing to note: MBA types are moving into HR, which is now seen as a respectable and results-driven field (versus its “pink collar” ghetto reputation of the 1990s).
Robert Bogosian, Principal of HR consulting firm RVB & Associates and formerly VP Performance Development at Wachovia/Evergreen Investments, confirms this assessment. “HR has shifted from policies and procedures to understanding a business’ challenges and how to meet them,” he comments. “In the 1990s, HR wrapped its arms around the ‘consultative’ approach with its business associates [those within the corporation]. Over time, we figured out how to get invited to the executive table.”
Mark Willaman, CEO and Founder of HRMarketer.com, agrees. “HR is now a very strategic functional area. This is so important given today’s ‘bottom line’ issues, from compliance and offshoring to finding and retaining top talent. And, more women are moving into senior level positions.”
Indeed, according to Human Resource Executive magazine, 19 of the 50 largest companies in the U.S. have women in the senior HR spot – up from nine in 2001 and “only a few” in 1991. Merrill Lynch Co. Inc., PepsiAmericas, Accenture, and SBC Communications are just a few of the companies that now have female Senior VPs of HR.
The Telemarketing Debate: HR pros hate it -- but it may work
Which marketing tactic is a big turnoff for HR professionals no matter what their level? Telemarketing was the number one complaint of the professionals interviewed for this article.
Comments include:
“I receive so many calls, I’ve stopped answering my phone.”
“Cold calls! Ugh! They drive me crazy.”
“I delete the voice mails left by vendors – they’re usually selling something I don’t need, plus they always get my name wrong.”
Yet, according to Willaman, and John Brady, Executive Vice President for Business & Legal Reports, Inc. (formerly HRNext), telemarketing to HR professionals is actually quite effective.
So why the disconnect? Simply put, those making the calls that get deleted – and doing other marketing activities that HR professionals routinely ignore – do not understand their target audience or their jobs.
Four Key Challenges HR Pros Face Now
Use your knowledge of these challenges to craft your white papers, webinars, and other informational marketing. Real "pain points" equal real results.
#1. Regulations and inefficient processes
Says Pat Tures, Panera Bread’s Director of HR for Company Operations, “We have cafes in 35 states. Not only do I have to keep up on all the laws and regulations for each state, I also am trying to make our recruitment process more efficient and lower turnover. I need front-end assessment tools that will help me weed out unqualified people. Having someone call and hawk a benefit plan is not going to interest me.”
#2. Resistance to change
Marketers and sales people also need to understand how slowly change takes place in a corporation. According to Bogosian, HR professionals walk a delicate line. They have to instinctively understand how far and how fast to push change within a department or team and when to back off. This fine line, says Bogosian, is a challenge for HR execs, who also have the additional challenge of getting their executive colleagues to understand the connection between the business element and the human element.
Because change is slow, HR people keep information on file and will call suppliers – sometimes up to two years later.
Says Evelyn Flaherty, formerly of Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) and Lotus, “I receive a ton of information, most of which I throw away. However, if a piece of collateral offers me solid information, I’ll keep it – and will call the vendor when I’m ready to purchase.”
#3. Technology solutions could be better
One major benefit HR professionals seek is Web-based employee self-service, according to SHRM’s 2005 HR Technology Survey Report. However, only 38% stated their HR technology included this functionality.
And while 80% felt HR technology helped them achieve measurable successes, many stated that they still encounter serious obstacles and challenges, including little or no improvement in recruiting effectiveness and employee satisfaction.
And, something to pay attention to – 65% of respondents indicated they are not measuring ROI for their technology systems! Show an HR professional how to do this – and how demonstrated ROI can help them build a business case at the exec table, and you’ll easily begin a fruitful sales dialogue.
#4. Executive ethics and compliance is huge
HR execs are struggling with defining metrics for measuring compliance and how to shift the mindset of an organization’s ethical value system.
Several of Bogosian's clients, which are large financial services organizations, are paying close attention to risk and compliance. “This is a major issue at the top of the house,” he says, “and can be a lucrative opportunity if you do it right.”
10 HR Marketing Dos and Don’ts
So how do you reach these people if they don’t answer their phone and routinely throw away information? Willaman offers the following strategies for breaking through the clutter:
Direct mail/email
DO: Use direct mail and email to send out non-salesy offers for white papers or case studies, which HR people love. Ensure your mailings are clean and professionally done, have little “glitz” and offer practical information an HR professional can use.
DON’T: Make over-the-top claims. HR professionals are skeptical of marketing, so something that reads, “Prove training and development ROI like never before!” will be instantly trashed. Says Bogosian, “This type of marketing is trite and insults my intelligence.”
Teleconferences and Webinars
DO: Invite A-list speakers to present at teleconferences and Webinars. Says Flaherty, “Webinars are great. I can share the information with my staff and more important, I can multitask while sitting at my computer.”
DON’T: Use a Webinar to pitch a product demo.
Case studies and PR
According to Willaman, HR professionals rely on their peers when choosing suppliers. As a result, case studies that show how you helped another company work very well in terms of gaining credibility. He also recommends positioning your company as an expert in the field.
Write articles and send press releases to the major HR trades, develop reports or conduct surveys, and speak at industry conferences.
Industry conferences and meetings
DO: Regularly attend industry conferences. Despite being a large industry, HR is like a small village in that HR folks talk to one another. Sit at the luncheon table and listen to people and their issues/concerns. Adds Willaman, “Conferences are the places where people trade stories about suppliers and products – if you spend your time listening, you’ll pick up a great deal of competitive knowledge.”
Bogosian recommends joining your local HR association and regularly attending the meetings – to learn, not to sell. Says Bogosian, “Spend more time as a consultant, not as a marketer. Learn to understand and respect the challenges of HR.”
Telemarketing
Respect an HR professional’s time by doing your homework first. Know whom you’re calling and why. Use good phone manners and begin the call with, “I’m doing some interesting work with Morgan Stanley that is similar to what your company is doing. Do you have ten minutes to chat?” Instead of pitching your product, initiate a dialogue by talking professional to professional.
DO: Follow up – politely – to a white paper or report you’ve sent out.
DO: Call early in the morning or late in the day. You’ll have a better chance of someone picking up the phone.
DO: Hire a high-quality call center (if you outsource this function) that knows how to make professional, courteous calls.
DON’T: Employ telemarketing’s sins: Predictive dialers, boiler rooms, and rude, untrained callers. If you want to be successful and make sales, you won’t use them.
Sums up Tures, “Understand the HR world and how I fit into it. Give me information on how I can do a better job. Better yet, before offering me a free report, spend some time reading SHRM newsletters and other industry publications. If you sound like you understand me, I’ll be much more inclined to talk to you.”
Useful links related to this article:
Society for Human Resources Management and HR Magazine: http://www.shrm.org/
HRMarketer.com: http://www.hrmarketer.com/
Panera Bread:http://www.panerabread.com/
RVB & Associates:rvbandassociates@aol.com
Business & Legal Reports, Inc:http://hr.blr.com/
Seven Deadly Sins of Pay Per Clip PR
FULL DISCLOSURE: My firm, The Attention Group offers a unique "Pay Per Clip" program for healthcare and consumer products, revenue producing biotech firms and known brand names. We are one of the only recognized firm that offers it as a professional and ethical option for qualified companies who choose this election. Although we offer this -- we do it with a caveat --we only offer it where we think it is in the best interest of the company. Most companies as you will learn about below offer it because it is in their best interest to make as much as possible in the shortest period of time, without regard to having a professional relationship with their client.
This article, takes a look at seven of the most common problems/issues tied to Pay for Play.
"Pay for Play" - the "commission sales" side of public relations, is condemned as unethical by the prestigious Public Relations Society of America - and for good reasons, not all of them obvious.
While it is possible for an ethical and upright public relations agency to execute a legitimate Pay for Play campaign for a client without scamming or otherwise taking advantage of the client, the risks of being scammed are significant, and the potential for abuse by the agency is even more significant.
Pay for Play is quite frankly seductive to some clients - "we only pay for what we get," they say, thinking that they'll save money (they won't) and - perhaps more important, they won't waste money (which they, in fact, will). Like all "something for nothing" schemes, the risk is in the fine print.
Here are just some of the risks:
Motivation: This is primarily a risk clients assume when dealing with ethical agencies. Because everyone in business is revenue-driven, agencies that take on Pay for Play clients will quickly lose interest if they don't generate immediate results; and in effective public relations, it often takes months of hard work (laying groundwork, building relationships with reporters and editors, creating background PR materials, etc.), none of which is specifically covered in a Pay for Play agreement.
At a point in time (generally six weeks, in my experience), the lack of immediate results causes the agency to lose focus and interest. Senior staff members are assigned to "paying clients," where they can generate billable hours, and only the more junior staff keep working on the client - even then, always giving priority to paying clients and billable hours. The end result is an ultimate loss of interest and activity, and a costly (in terms of time and opportunity cost) failure for the client.
Loyalty: Good PR agencies develop strong bonds with their clients, and are constantly looking out for the clients' best interests. They scour editorial calendars (a time-consuming process), then spend months courting editors, ensuring their clients get covered. They seek out opportunities for product reviews (another very time-consuming process), comparisons, award programs and competitions, etc. - things which, when published, add real benefit to the client - but which are, by their nature, both speculative and time-consuming. The agencies do this because they are constantly looking to serve their clients' best interests, knowing that if they succeed, their clients will remain loyal to them. This is a two-way, long-term commitment based on mutual benefit - something that literally can't exist with a hit-or-miss Pay for Play arrangement.
Continuity: Public relations is not a "hit-or-miss" activity - most companies, especially start-ups (who seem most attracted to Pay for Play because of budget limitations) need a measured, sustained public relations campaigns. They need to create awareness, generate interest and motivate action - both on the company itself and on their products - and this can not be done on a hit-or-miss basis. This process, from scratch, takes months of consistent, well-funded and highly-focused activity - something that Pay for Play cannot deliver. A company and a product that are both well-known are frankly the best candidates for a successful Pay for Play campaign (because it can build on previous awareness), but they are the least likely to take such a fly-by-night approach, since they've long since learned the benefit of sustained PR efforts.
Counsel: Public relations is more than press clips. Strategically, PR offers counsel to clients - up front advice, based on years of professional experience - that can help clients both maximize opportunities and avoid pitfalls. Such counsel can be especially effective in times of crisis - the resignation of a C-level officer, a strike, a product defect/recall, etc. None of this counsel is available from Pay for Play agencies - or if it is, the client must always be aware that the counsel may be skewed by agency self-interest - the client's needs are never first with a Pay for Play agency, and this must always be taken into account.
Limited Impact: Public relations is more than just a few fancy press clips. Effective PR involves the creation and maintenance of effective websites (complete with website press rooms that reporters need in order to effectively cover a company or product), press kits, backgrounders, corporate histories, corporate exec bios, etc. One of the most important parts of PR is follow-through - the distribution and building upon individual success efforts - something no Pay for Play agency will do, as there's nothing in it for them. In some instances, companies invest in all of these tools, then let a Pay for Play group come in and skim the cream of the hard work done by others - taking the credit (and the reward) for what is essentially the work of others. However, companies without this kind of resource-base are unlikely to receive useful press coverage.
Value Received:
Costly Clips: Pay for Play sounds like a bargain - until you run the numbers. Because there is on ongoing retainer to cover costs, and because this is a highly-speculative (high-risk) effort for the agencies, the fees received for specific and individual pieces of often-disjointed press coverage are - they have to be - extraordinarily high. No agency is not only going to take all the risk AND work for competitive rates - there is no business sense in that at all. As a result, even if the clips are useful, their cost will likely be exorbitant.
Worthless Clip: In any Pay for Play scheme, it is difficult (if not impossible) to set up (in advance) criteria on which clips are useful, and which clips are less-than-useful (or even which clips totally worthless). Even an ethical agency will seek out all the low-hanging fruit, regardless of its actual merit to the client - while an unethical agency will only look for volume. And every agency knows ways (legitimate for some clients, who understand what's being done, but not useful for all clients) to "salt" the clip files of their clients. A couple of examples of ways that legitimate PR activities can be "cooked" in order to provide Pay for Play agencies with huge windfall profits for services that should cost clients (under traditional relationships) only a small fraction of the Pay for Play reward:
--MAT services - in this, an agency will pay a fee to place an article (generally of 500-750 words) with one of several services that provide ready-to-run articles to small and mid-sized newspapers, mostly in "heartland" areas of the U.S. For some clients (those with widely-sold products, for instance), this is a legitimate and useful service. But for specialty companies, tech companies, new product/start-up companies and others, there is little value in this service (unless the release is carefully written and targeted). Still, a typical MAT Service release will land in 750 newspapers across the country - and if an end-user is paying $500 for small clips under a Pay for Play agreement, this one placement could wind up costing $375,000 - a huge sum for something of very little worth. Even if the clip is worthwhile, under a retainer agreement, the entire process could be handled for under $10,000 in most cases.
-- VNRS - Many Pay for Play agreements place a premium on television coverage, and often for good reason. What end-users don't know is that PR agencies know how to create and place news stories - called "video news releases" (VNRS) - with from 50 to 100 local stations at a time, using companies that specialize in creating such news stories. VNRS are often legitimate; but they are also reasonable in cost for those who need them. However, under a Pay for Play agreement, the agency could create and place a VNR for about $25,000 - then when those 50 uses come in, collect a quick quarter-of-a-million dollars (assuming a "reward" of $5,000 per incidence of local TV news coverage)
-- Internet - Because of the huge importance of Internet media (e-zines, business news websites, etc.), coverage here is almost always included in Pay for Play agreements. What end-user clients don't know, however, is that most "linkfarm sites" (sites which pray on people who misspell "Google" when doing a search and give them a faux site) automatically pick up and republish virtually every business press release sent out over a wire service to add "legitimacy" to their site. If a press release costs $250 to place in a small market, and the reward for Internet placement is just $500 per "hit" (not unusual or unreasonable), literally every press release issued is guaranteed of earning the Pay for Play agency a $5,000 profit - even if the release is never picked up by any legitimate news sources.
-- Wire Services - Wire services such as The Associated Press, Bloomberg and others (not to be confused with paid press release services, such as PR Newswire or BusinessWire) are useful ways of disseminating news to a large number of local and regional news media sources. When a story has a certain sizzle, it can be picked up by many newspapers around the country, all based on a single placement. One client we worked with had an AP story that was picked up (according to Bacon's media clipping service) by just over 1,000 newspapers, radio stations and other media - all for a single PR placement effort that took about five hours, beginning to end. But under a Pay for Play agreement, those 1,000 clips would have cost the client around $500,000 (instead of the $750 they were billed for the effort). Wire service are legitimate, for sure - but is any one story, endlessly repeated, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars?
Bottom line - It is the business of PR agencies to create news coverage for their clients - and to do this, ethical PR agencies have a wide variety of perfectly legitimate approaches that are routinely used to generate coverage on an ongoing, reliable basis - all with the bottom-line intent of helping the client meet their corporate goals for image, awareness, and business support. Under a retainer agreement, these legitimate approaches provide the foundational coverage that solid campaigns are built on - they are not the end-result, but only the first step. However, by "gaming" the system, a creative and profit-driven Pay for Play agency can cost a client literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs, without generating anything like reasonable benefits for those costs. Not all Pay for Play agencies are unethical - many provide a legitimate service for those willing to take the risks involved - but very seldom do they generate sustained PR efforts that, in a cost-effective way, really help their clients.
Effective PR campaigns are well-planned, well-supported, and sustained over an extended period of time. They often include sage counsel (including crisis counseling when a business venture "explodes" in the client's face). Each clip generated is the result of a targeted effort linked to the plan (and ultimately to the client's bottom line goals). They support sales, help launch new products, build investor confidence, or lay the groundwork for future corporate expansion. While any of these things "might" happen under a Pay for Play agreement, all such results are secondary to the agency's primary goal - create clips (of great or little value) in sufficient quantity to generate the kinds of profits that support the risk such agencies are set up to generate.
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