If you want to sell anything nowadays, you need to know who is actually buying. When most companies put together a marketing or sales plan, they identify the most obvious customer groups or “segments” and build a plan to target each segment in the plan. These segments are usually the traditional buyer of the company’s products or services. This is a good practice, but it rarely goes far enough.

If you really look at how most companies buy, you will find a host of hidden buyers and influencers that have as much or more influence in the buying decision than the traditional buyer does. If you look deeper you will also see each influencer in the buying chain have very different requirements. In some cases they are gatekeepers such as procurement officers, a technical buyer such as a CIO, or an economic buyer such as a CFO. Any one may stop or approve an entire category of purchasing. If you are serious about your marketing plan, you will look beyond your traditional buyer and include those he or she must get on board internally to buy from you. Each company is different in this regard, but they often break down into these roles in the buying decision:

Ninety Seconds take away:

The most important part of any good marketing plan is intelligence gathering. Roll your sleeves up and get past the traditional buyers and get to know how your target companies make decisions internally. Make sure to include the important myriad of influencers and gatekeepers who can wave through or kill a purchase with your company. This is a deeper level of investigation than traditional market research. After you gather as much possible intelligence on the decision chain as possible, revisit how you are going to communicate to each of these buyers. This will assure you leave no weak spots in your communications approach. This exercise will also help you avoid being too narrowly focused with a “thin” message that misses addressing critical decision points.

• Need more qualified leads and sales?
• Need to market your business but have minimal staff to do it?
• Are you leaving money on the table with existing clients?

Why do businesses need a Merge Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)?

• Most small to medium-sized businesses are cutting what little marketing capability they have due to economic conditions. This can lower badly needed sales and make acquiring new customers much more difficult.
• MergeCMO solves this problem at a cost small businesses can afford, even in this down market.

MergeCMO will help you:

• Acquire new customers
• Reduce marketing cost
• Improve marketing return on investment
• Launch new products and services faster and easier
• Increase customer value
• Increase customer retention

What is Merge’s CMO service?

• You “lease” one of our Merge CMOs, a highly experienced C-Level marketing executive who will help you develop and execute a measurable, return-based marketing program.

How do we do it?

• Merge only hires seasoned CMOs with a solid track record of producing results. Experts in research, technology, and marketing execution support every MergeCMO. Our average CMO has over 20 years experience leading successful marketing programs.

What do you get?

• Your own, MergeCMO
• Marketing plan with specific metrics and milestones
• Oversight of your marketing execution against your business strategy
• Quarterly performance results (CMO Scorecard)

What can you expect?

• Better results for less money
• A strategic, measurable, results based marketing program
• An immediate advantage over your competitors

To learn more contact

• Michael Taylor 404-724-4942 ext. 4525, michael.taylor@mergeagency.com or
• Judy Willis at ext. 404-724-4942 4502, judy.willis@mergeagency.com

I am CMO-at-large for several companies. One of most important things I am doing for each company right now is finding the absolute greatest impact for the least possible investment – in some cases, no investment. If ever there were a time to put on the Zen monk hat, this is surely it.

So, with this hat on (or head shaved – whichever you prefer), let’s look at the essence of what we are dealing with right now: Less. Much less. You could say scarcity is our most abundant resource this year. Scarcity is your raw material, so get real, dump waste and focus like a laser beam on what matters most to you and your customers. If you handle this resource well you will not only survive, but you’ll also have a far better, more meaningful business in the long run. Here are a few thoughts for using scarcity as a marketing resource:

Ninety Seconds take away:

• Look at every line item in marketing. If you cannot tie it to something that addresses a fundamental need or shows a specific return greater than the investment, eliminate it.
• Consider dumping traditional advertising altogether. For example, opt, for more targeted and measurable social media and online marketing tools(such as the eBlast/blog you are reading now) over expensive, hard-to-track print ads instead.
• Look at your customers, potential customers and those with whom you do business. Focus on your lowest cost to acquire sales and new leads: your existing customers and those with whom you do business.
• Zen Master take away: “Pay it forward” with your clients. Think of what your customers are facing in this market and find a way to help them. Don’t worry about making a sale – just help. If you take this approach, the goodwill you generate will find its way back, especially if you don’t weigh your efforts down with expectations of how it will return to you. Just know that it will. Everyone I know who has run a successful business for more than 20 years knows this is true. It not only feels good, but it is a way to take scarcity (something we have always thought of as lack) and turned it instead into goodwill – the stuff that long-term companies are made of. And yes, sales, too.

There is a cottage industry developing right now. I call it the “I am now a recession expert because my usual business tanked” market. I was just on a website this morning that wanted to charge me $399 for a report on the “Secret Tactics Successful Companies Use To Grow During A Recession.” I will suspend my cynicism for a moment to tell you something far too simple for anyone to make money on. The best guidance for you right now is not from a website or high-dollar research service, but the people right in front of you. I know this is painfully obvious, yet I am surprised at how few companies actually ask their customers meaningful questions that could result in adjustments that assure results. As your new CMOO(Chief Master of the Obvious Officer), I propose this simple 90-second take away:

Ninety Seconds take away:

Select a sample of each group of people important to your business to take a short survey and/or interview. Make sure you only ask questions that will give you answers you can act upon. Keep it simple, use a combination of personal one-on-one discussions with quantitative surveys that will help you understand your customers’ priorities. Use inexpensive survey tools like Survey Monkey, ask current customers, prospects and lost customers to build a clear picture of their world, from their point of view. The marketing decisions you make that really work will be the ones you make standing in their shoes (not yours). I did not buy the “Big Recession Secrets” $399 report, but my guess is this idea was in it. It is now yours for whatever amount of cash you would like to send your new CMOO.

For most businesses, effective marketing is less about how much you spend than the brainpower behind your decisions. I see our marketing peers focusing on getting clients to spend more with over-simplified statements about spending on marketing in a downturn. It is well documented that marketing in a downturn is critical, but spending with no idea of what your return will be is just flat wrong. This applies in an up or down economy. Most small to medium size businesses cannot afford an executive level CMO. I mean someone who has the experience and depth to build an outcome-based marketing plan and execute against a specific return on your investment. Small to medium-sized businesses often execute marketing projects with minimal or no outcome-based strategy. The impact of this is wasted money, minimal results and the directionless malaise that comes from executing tactics with no discipline.

Ninety Seconds take away:

If you do not have the expertise internally to perform this role effectively…“rent”. It may sound strange, but it is a simple idea that has been a low cost, high return service for our clients. All of our senior marketing people know they will be CMO for several companies. Ten hours a month of the right executive will yield far more results than 160 hours of someone who executes tactics alone.

I started this company smack dab in the middle of the ‘90-‘91 recession. We had a quick ramp up while in the depths of the downturn, and we landed two huge clients we had no business landing for a start-up agency. It was dumb, naïve luck to put so much energy into getting my new company’s word out at a time when most people were pulling back into silence and the mood was grim. I was not aware at the time that I had just learned a couple lessons about times like these…lessons that I feel even more strongly about now, after almost 20 years, 150+ clients, and two other recessions before this one.Here are the two very simple lessons I learned living through previous recessions while helping our clients navigate through the same:

1. Recessions always end…I mean always, including this one.
2. Your biggest opportunities are often right smack in the middle of a downturn.

Ninety Seconds take away:

• Spend less, market more and better, keep it simple
• Measure the outcome of every marketing dollar you spend
• Use the Internet more…old media less
• Make your message crystal clear
• Meet more people face-to-face and do an excellent job following up with them