by Tim Hughes | @Timothy_Hughes | LinkedIn
We talk with many, many companies and the one thing they have in common is that they are scared.
The world has changed, we have been using mobile phones for many years now. Apps like Uber, Shazam, Facebook etc unheard of ten years ago are now used by us regularly.
We buy things differently. Sitting in a cafe on a Saturday, we can use our mobiles to look companies up and buy products and services. It’s easy, we all do it, but have our companies really changed to meet the challenge of the internet enable buyer?
I was reading on LinkedIn the other night that an individual things that nothing has changed in sales and marketing. Really? Of course, he wants you to believe that, it would mean he needs to change, he would need to rewrite the training materials he’s used for thirty years. For him it would be a hardship.
If we know that our reactions and interactions with the world has changed, why hasn’t our own company? Why is our sales and marketing still not the same it was pre-mobile?
Let’s look at our own reactions to what goes on around us. We get bombarded with adverts everyday, so much that they just become noise. You may not use them yourself but many people use ad-blockers, in fact their use is growing at 30% year on year. If this is the state of the nation, why are you still spending money on advertising?
Many companies still use cold calling and email marketing, but we all hate these distractions and interruptions. A cold calling expert in Canada told me the other day that cold calling was dead in Europe. Two factors, one the ease you and I can block callers on our iPhones and because of GDPR legislation. Not because GDPR enables us to invoke our right to remain forgotten. Similar how the Mailing Preference Service (MPS) killed spam via the post.
Recent research “We Analyzed 12 Million Outreach Emails. Here’s What We Learned https://backlinko.com/email-outreach-study via @Backlinko” concluded that “The vast majority of outreach messages are ignored. Only 8.5% of outreach emails receive a response.” And this is a pro-email marketing article!
So why do we continue to spend budget on these things that we hate and know generate us little or nothing?
Some people are making a switch to “digital” at my last company, (now this was 3 years ago) they had switched over 50% of funds to digital. But what does that actually mean?
It does not mean using digital platforms as the next way to push and broadcast like you did on all the other channels. There was a senior VP posting about her company on LinkedIn the other day. Of course this isn’t a switch to digital it’s just an advert and sales pitch. The same thing we ignore on analogue channels, so we will ignore it on digital channels. Regardless of how many of her direct reports like the post.
There is where as leaders we need to make a switch and show the way.
Our prospects and customers are on social. Why don’t we connect with them? Build relationships, have conversations with them?
Rather be known for the companies that keep pushing our products. Why don’t we be known as the company that is insightful? Educational? Helpful?
Why, when we (you and I) would expect this as a buyer do you still think it’s OK for your teams to ram products down our throats. Interrupt us with cold calling and unsolicited emails? Why does you teams still think we actually look at adverts? It’s time you questioned this at your Board Meetings and got it stopped.
This is, after all, nearly the second decade of the 21st century and you know it’s time to start acting like that, rather than marketing like it’s 1980! It’s time for us leaders to …… lead!
People who read this article also read these:
https://dlaignite.com/modern-selling-trust-inside-and-out/
https://dlaignite.com/what-is-the-future-of-sales/
https://dlaignite.com/when-your-product-is-in-a-hole-stop-digging/
