august 2008

I’m not a baseball fan.  My wife accurately describes a typical game as 10 minutes of action jam packed into three hours.

Yet, I have always been intrigued by the non-traditional approach of Oakland Athletics manager Billy Beane.  Documented in the book “Moneyball” by Michael Lewis, Beane evaluates players based on their on base percentage, rather than batting average or runs batted in.  The result:  the Athletics have been a consistent playoff team even though their payroll ranks near the bottom of all Major League Baseball teams.

Does this atypical methodology for evaluating performance translate to the world of corporate sales?  The folks at business software vendor NetSuite sure think so.  In fact, last year they added Bill Beane to their board of directors.

GigaOm writer Carleen Hawn recently penned an excellent interview with NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson exploring how the company has changed its sales methodology and measurement criteria based on Beane’s “Moneyball” philosophy.

What Start-Ups Can Learn from Billy “Moneyball” Beane

http://gigaom.com/2008/08/23/what-startups-can-learn-from-billy-beane-and-moneyball/

I’m right in step with NetSuite on the importance of consistently measuring the effectiveness of tactical sales activities.  The same holds true for public relations and social media programs, which can now be evaluated using benchmarks like search engine optimization (SEO) and impact on pay-per-click advertising.

However, I also believe statistics can only take you so far.  One of the recommendations in Hawn’s article is to “trust your data even when your intuition suggests otherwise.”  That is a good guideline, yet successful selling requires what I refer to as a feel for the deal. 

Whether evaluating a product or professional service, a deciding factor for a prospect is the trust they have in the vendor and its representatives.  An effectives sales executive knows how to build relationships…when to push for more information…and (equally important) when to give a potential buyer some space.

Yes, it’s important to measure the tactics that support the sales process.  Just never underestimate the power of intuition.

Surveys are an effective tool to establish third-party validation of a concept, competency or company…except when there is a lack of full disclosure.

Take PRSourceCode’s annual survey to identify the “Top Tech Communicators” (http://www.prsourcecode.com/toptechcommunicators2008.asp).  The company that conducted the assessment provides public relations professionals and journalists with a suite of information products and services designed to increase their efficiency on the job.  Sounds good.

Plus, they queried more than 800 IT journalists to identify the public relations agencies, corporate PR departments and practitioners who rate the best in terms of responsiveness, reliability and overall recognition of editorial needs.  OK…works for me.

So, where does everything fall down with this survey?  One of the PR shops recognized as being the “best of the best” in the large agency category is O’Keeffe & Company.  In fact, this agency has achieved the distinction every year the survey has been conducted.

What is not disclosed is that the same individual who owns O’Keeffe & Company also happens to own PRSourceCode.  In fact, they share the same office address at 921 King Street in Alexandria, VA.  Hmmm…makes you wonder.

Admittedly, I have no knowledge of the methodology used to conduct this survey nor have I seen the raw data.  Everything may very well be on the up and up.  

However, the failure to disclose the connection between PRSourceCode and one of the honorees denigrates the credibility of the survey.

Staying true to the interest of full disclosure, here are a few things I need to acknowledge:

--Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) has never been recognized in this survey even though we work very hard to maintain productive and mutually beneficial relationships with the journalists who cover our clients’ industries.

--We often compete against O’Keeffe & Company, especially in the area of business-to-government public relations.

There is an adage in business that the specialist prevails over the generalist.  It’s why so many public relations consultancies segment their staff by practice group (i.e. we have market experts) and/or job function – we will call in our social media expert. 

We’ve taken quite a different approach at Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) by requiring our team of professionals to bring a broad-base set of market knowledge, skills and experience to their clients.  They represent companies in different, yet related technology and healthcare markets.  And they must be proficient in strategy, client service and the full range of public relations tactics. 

Yes…it is more challenging to recruit and train generalists.  Yet, the value they are able to deliver by offering an integrated approach to public relations and social media makes the effort well worthwhile. 

The “specialist versus generalist” issue was top-of-mind this evening as I read an informative post from Jonny Bentwood, an analyst relations professional with PR shop Edelman.  He listed the number of industry analysts who are now conducting research and interacting with companies via Twitter, a highly popular microblogging platform.   

This is a great example of the intersection of traditional PR and social media, and why it is critical for public relations professionals to be engaged in all facets of communications.  Strategic has experienced this first hand in our work on BT Americas “Secure Thinking” twitter community.  Followers include journalists, analysts, customers and prospects.

 My take:  in public relations it is the generalist who typically carries the day.

Read more at: http://www.strategicguy.blogspot.com

The backbone of public relations, social media, marketing communications and advertising programs is content that engages, educates and entertains.  Our methodology at Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) is to produce and/or package content once and then merchandise it across multiple channels.  This approach positively impacts awareness, credibility and lead generation (via search engine optimization and sales cycle marketing).

One of the zingers I typically drop to a prospect during a new business presentation is that “thought leaders have thoughts.”  Sounds elementary, yet I point out that most executives shy away from taking a stand on issues or topics that could be controversial.  And that limits the effectiveness of their company’s external communications program.

Now, it’s important that any thought leadership platform align with a company’s business objectives. There is simply no ROI in controversy for the sake of being argumentative.  Additionally, ideas need to be presented in a clear manner, supported by third-party commentary and (when possible) statistical validation.

Salesforce.com chairman and CEO Marc Benioff is the premier thought leader in the adoption of innovative technology by enterprises.  Salesforce.com’s “Say No to Software” launch campaign for its software-as-a-service (SaaS) CRM product ultimately redefined how many companies procure applications. 

Competitors like Oracle, SAP and Microsoft initially protested Benioff’s views and then were ultimately forced to play catch-up.  More important, Salesforce.com ignited a movement that spurred innovation across multiple segments of the market.  Strategic clients Avectra and GovDelivery are two examples of SaaS providers that are accelerating growth in their respective market niches.

Benioff’s back with a new thought leadership campaign that defines what comes after SaaS.  His premise:  view companies like Salesforce.com as offering a “platform as a service” that allows entrepreneurs to write, test and deploy software without cost-prohibitive infrastructure investments.

Citing vendors like Google, Amazon, Facebook and MySpace that are all employing a comparable “platform” strategy, Benioff brands this movement as Web 3.0.

While I find the Web 3.0 tag to be clichéd (a myriad of companies have already made a run at using this term), I applaud Benioff and Salesforce.com for their continued innovation in marketing and positioning.  

Take a few moments to read his guest column in TechCrunch IT.  It’s a well constructed argument for Salesforce.com’s approach and proves out that thought leaders truly do have thoughts with the potential to move markets.

Welcome to Web 3.0:  Now Your Other Computer is a Data Center

TechCrunch IT

http://www.techcrunchit.com/2008/08/01/welcome-to-web-30-now-your-other-computer-is-a-data-center/