Here is my plea to business communicators everywhere  -- please take another look at your corporate descriptor. Would your grandmother understand it well enough to tell her friends "what you do?"

Consider this descriptor from an up-and-coming software company:

"We market enterprise mobility solutions that let you capitalize on the powerful new advantages of the real-time enterprise - accelerating revenue growth, productivity, operational efficiency and profitability, helping you make faster, better decisions."

Yikes. I challenge anyone to tell me what this company does (in words my grandmother would understand).   

What's Your Seven Word Blurb?
Ilise Benun mentors business executives and marketers in the art of self-promotion. Her seven-word blurb exercise has you express what your company provides in seven words or less. By keeping it this short, you're not tempted to throw in a bunch of words that don't add value. For example:

Good: We sell retirement plans.
Better: We assure you retire comfortably.

Good: We offer vacations the whole family will enjoy.
Better: We market family leisure and fun.

Good: We make movies.
Better: We market entertainment

I know what you’re thinking. Consumer communicators have it much easier than we B2B types and you’re not entirely wrong. Business is complicated. And IT companies, in particular, are challenged.  Here are some that are good, but could be even better:

Good: M5 Networks outsources IP phone systems.
Better: We relieve you of managing telephone systems.

Good: GEInsurance sells a wide range of insurance products
Better: We protect people, property and reputations.

Good: IBM helps small companies get on the Internet.
Better: We help small companies do business online.

If organizations as big and complex as IBM can do it, so can you.  Remember, it's hard to write short so give yourself a break. Just keep asking yourself if grandma would get it.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 05:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I noticed a blog post from Brian Carroll entitled "Why don't sales people update the CRM and what can be done about it?"  Brian mentions a marketing conference he was at:

"I was reminded of an experience last fall, when I spoke at MarketingSherpa's Lead Generation Summit...
I think it was Anne Holland, who then asked the entire audience, "How many of you [marketers] have a problem with sales not updating your CRM?" Nearly everyone (170+ people) raised their hands. "

At nearly every technology firm that I have dealt with the CRM data is in really poor shape.  As Brian points out this bad data leaves the marketing team with almost nothing to work with for their campaigns.  Inevitably it is a case of "rubbish in, rubbish out".  Sales people generally do not spend time making adequate notes on the suspects/prospects they have called and they do not fill in the fields that marketing uses to drive campaigns.

The biggest reason for this is that sales people are not rewarded for filling in data into a CRM system.  In fact in general there is a negative incentive for them - they would rather own the data on the contacts themselves instead of letting their employer.

On top of this sales people are typically not as "type A" as the marketing people and find data entry and CRM systems an annoyance when their main skills are communicating via telephone and in-person.

In the end solving this problem generally comes back to one of the greatest overall issues in business development for technology companies: getting sales and marketing working together as a team for the success of the company overall.

If sales people can be convinced that by entering good data into the company's CRM system, marketing people will help them "blow by" their quota for the year, you will be hard pressed to keep them away from the keyboard!

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 05:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)