S&MM SoundOff

Making an Especially Positive Connection

By Mike McCue, Editor in Chief, Sales & Marketing Management

Every day, as I get deluged with e-mails from increasingly obscure and specialized organizations, I marvel at the way modern life allows us to define ourselves to the smallest detail. I haven't checked, but I can honestly say I wouldn't be surprised if there is a group out there comprised of trade press editors with brown hair and hazel eyes. (If there is, please don’t e-mail me with an invitation to join.)

But once in a while, I see something that makes me happy we’re all able to connect with each other the way we are. That happened last week, when I first became aware of www.GettingHired.com, a job portal and social networking tool that connects job seekers with disabilities to employers, vendors and advocacy groups who specialize in the specific needs of that market.

The 23 million Americans with disabilities are a largely untapped pool of talent, so GeetingHired.com’s ability to identify their skills, talents and experience, prepare them for interviews, and then connect them with employers, is one of those great ideas whose time is long overdue.

The official site launches on October 22 to coincide with the start of the National Disability Employment Awareness Month, so be sure to keep it in mind the next time you have an opening!

Communication Improvements?

Are workers becoming better communicators? A new survey on workforce preparedness implies that they are, claiming that communication skills have increased by 20% over the past three years. Could this be so? Can our communication skills be so significantly improved over such a short period of time? I believe it can be true—not because of improvements in communication skills, though, but because of improvements in communication capabilities.

It was not long ago that if you wanted to get something across the globe, you’d have to physically place it in a mailbox and wait for snail mail to deliver it to its’ final destination (I have a feeling our grand children are going to get a big kick out of that crazy notion). What was once a truly revolutionary means of global connection is now an archaic system predominately used to send birthday invitations or thank you cards—not for business communication.

In today’s wireless world, even the most remote corners of the earth are typically only one click away. Cell phones, the internet, social networking websites, text messages, instant messaging…the possibilities for instant communication, regardless of geographical location, are endless!

So what does all of this mean for the survey’s claim? It means that it may be true, but it is misleading. I don’t believe that we as a human race are increasing our communication skills at such an alarmingly fast rate. I question whether Webster’s dictionary adding words such as supersize (to increase considerably the size, amount, or extent of) and mouse potato (a person who spends a great deal of time using a computer) to the dictionary in 2006 increased our communication skills by 20%.

What I am willing to believe is that the constantly improving technological capabilities are resulting in better communication.  After all, it’s a lot easier to send out an e-mail giving someone instructions than it is to sit in front of a crowd of people and persuade them with what you’re saying.

So, in essence, I am not waving the challenge-flag with full force at the survey.  It is very possible that given our technological capabilities, communication effectiveness has increased. Take away those electronic aides, though, and I would not be surprised to hear that communication skills decreased by 20%!

Unless, of course, we have all just vastly improved our orthoepy (the art of just pronunciation).

Recessing Economy, Increasing Sales?

If you hoped the impending onset of the economic recession would just go away by ignoring it, you'd better think again. It seems that the tone has already been set amongst consumers and corporations alike, according to an article posted today on NYtimes.com. Consumers everywhere are saving their well-earned paychecks and spending less, which means a call for some smarter marketing overall.

Of course it won't be long before the decreased expenditure creeps up the corporate ladder. Some corporations are already advertising with a money-saving focus (such as Wal-Mart's 'Save Money. Live Better' campaign and an increased dollar-menu selection at McDonald's) and are proving successful across the board at retaining customers and generating revenue over competitors. But these corporations are not alone--more are now following suit: Starbucks is testing a one-dollar coffee promotion with free refills in Seattle and Sovereign Bank is trying to entice new customers with a $100 gas card incentive.

With the country's well-noted name-brand corporations now answering the call to action, or so to speak, will your company join in? Perhaps it already has...

Whether your sales and marketing teams are part of a large-scale Fortune 1000 company or a small-to-medium-sized business (SMB), what will you do to help meet your quotas during trying times? What measures will you take to ensure that the incentivizing discounts don't sap revenue dollars from your totals?

Enough with the Pink Ladies

Just when women thought they had grown past the inherent stereotypes of childhood Barbie dolls, butterfly barrettes, and pink-hued outfits, Camel introduces its new cigarette variety, Camel No. 9—whimsical and complete with fuchsia packaging.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco recently embarked on a branding campaign to increase its share of the female cigarette market, launching a new variety of Camel cigarettes for female consumers. The Camel No. 9 cigarettes—along with a new name—will come in brightly colored fuchsia and teal packages.

Where should I start my rant on this ridiculous marketing campaign?

Wanting to expand your market and reach new customers is great. Camel has maintained a majority of male consumers—70 percent—as opposed to its competitors Newport and Marlboro who have maintained an equal number of consumers from each gender, reports the NYTimes.com article. Camel has a large potential margin for growth in the female consumer sector. But I have to question why that has been the case. I highly doubt the use of the former Jo Camel mascot was the only reason (the cartoon character appealed more to children and teens anyway). Could it be that Camel cigarettes are stronger and less tasteful than the other brands? Maybe women just don’t like the product.

Something to Smile About?

Wal-Mart Stores announced a new plan for its flexible workforce last week that seems anything but revolutionary, yet much happily received. The new plan will force employees to follow work schedules conforming to daily shopping trends, which means more cashiers and store-floor attendees will be on hand during the busier shopping times--weeknights and weekends.

This announcement strikes me as positive. I live four miles from a Wal-Mart and while it is the best place to buy everything I need, I dread having to go.  The store is always congested and never has more than four cashiers working on its more than 10 registers. The result is long lines and lots of un-needed frustration. As a shopper, it's a relief to hear that the management acknowledged this and took action.  And I'm not the only customer rejoicing--Wal-Mart's stock rose three percent with the announcement.

Yet I can’t help but wonder what repercussions this shift switch will have on employer/employee relations.  Wal-Mart may stand to lose a good percentage of its workforce to the change if current employees have scheduling conflicts.  If that’s the case, how will it reflect on the company? For example, what if a single mother works at Wal-Mart during the day while her children are at school and is told she must now work nights or face losing her job?  I don’t think the public will be understanding of that scenario. Criticisms and negative PR could be in store for the company, which is already under attack by retail critics for its treatment of workers and ad campaigns.

I guess this is a risk Wal-Mart is willing to take to increase the bottom line. After all, better customer service equals happy customers, who will return more frequently.  When you offer the basic goods people need at cheaper, more reasonable bargain prices, they’ll keep coming back no matter what.  But how long can the bottom line increase without satisfied employees to enhance the customer experience?

What do you think impacts the bottom line more—satisfied customers or positive employer/employee relations?

Too Many Sales Reps

By Dave Stein, CEO & Founder, ES Research Group, Inc.

Last  week Pfizer announced it would be reducing its sales organization by 20 percent--more than 2,000 people. Jeffrey Kindler, Pfizer's CEO, said, "The changes we are making today will better align our sales organization to our overall customer and business needs. This is an important step toward making Pfizer a more agile and effective company."

This is big, big news not only for Pfizer and the pharmaceutical industry, but also for anyone in sales. For years, many doctors have had issues with the tactics of detail reps, not to mention the sheer number of them.  Last year WSJ columnist Benjamin Brewer, a family practice doctor in Forrest, Ill., decided he would no longer see drug sales reps in his office. One of his many complaints was that drug companies sent multiple salespeople pushing the same drugs, hoping one of them would succeed.

Oops! I Did It Again

What do you do when your company makes a major blunder?

NYTimes.com recently reported a voluntary recall of about 11 million bottles of 500-milligram acetaminophen caplets made by the Perrigo Company. The pills, which the Food and Drug Administration reported as containing traces of metal fragments, had been sold at major retailers, such as CVS and Wal-Mart, for as long as three-years.  The company said the metal pieces were the result of premature equipment wear-out and an investigation discovered metal in roughly 200 pills of the 70 million it tested.

Big oops, Perrigo. What I want to know is how did it take the company up to three years to discover the contaminated pills?  What could have been done differently and what was overlooked?  And what are the consumer ramifications?

When any business makes a major, potentially preventable, mistake, the effects can be incredibly damaging to the bottom line –- new clients refuse to contemplate collaboration; existing clients question their current partnership; and previous clients go back and reevaluate the services they had rendered.  My question is, how does a company recover from a major blunder? Can it be exonerated for such an enormous mistake and its reputation restored –- or will the error indefinitely remain as an unforgiving scar?

* Editor's note: Read up on the latest management best practices on ManageSmarter.com to help prevent your own business "oops."

Copyrighted Ads

On Tuesday I attended AdTech, the self-described #1 event for digital marketing. Even in New York, the supposed center of advertising, it’s easy to forget how many billions of dollars are spent to make me buy things. This conference certainly reminded me.

The conference also showed how little advertisers and marketers understand the youth demographic. As a 23-year-old, I’ve made some commitments, but I haven’t promised myself to a computer brand, type of beer or model of car. Advertisers take note—my spending money is up for the highest bidder, e.g. the one with the best ad campaign.

That’s why I was surprised to hear Peter Naylor, the Senior VP Digital Media Sales for NBC describe YouTube as a “frienemy.” That one word pretty much sums up NBC’s relationship with the site. The company posted this satirical video of “Bill the Promo Guy” on YouTube that encourages people to watch NBC shows while mocking the self-importance of its ad team (friend). But after the Google buy-out, NBC took down all of its copyrighted material that had found its way to the site (enemy). To me, this seems like a big mistake. Until YouTube, I rarely watched the Daily Show but after seeing illegal clips on the site, I became a real fan. Likewise, the clips I saw of My Name is Earl were certainly better pitches for the show than a picture of Jason Lee on the side of a bus.

NBC is being short-sighted to see copyrighted videos on YouTube as theft instead of as free advertising. What’s a better testament to your product than a free sample?

Diversifying During a Slowdown

In an effort to make up for business lost amid a cooling housing market, Home Depot is taking a big step to diversify. It's adding new products and services outside of its traditional home-improvement market. At various retail locations across the country, customers are starting to see candy bars and sodas at checkout, special room in the aisles for seasonal decorations, and even parking-lot convenience stores that sell gasoline and car washes.

The new strategy goes against the gospel of Home Depot’s founders, who were adamant on keeping a singular focus on home-improvement related wares. Nonetheless, CEO Bob Nardelli sees this as a necessary step to keep its retail division afloat during a housing slump, and he isn’t afraid to invest some $350 million to makeover 500 stores, according to the New York Times.

Getting Googley in New York

Yesterday Google unveiled its posh New York offices to the press, providing a tour of its vast loft-like space replete with kitchens stocked with free food, a game room, privacy booths for making personal calls and glass offices with floor-to-ceiling windows. The Manhattan office serves as the company’s North American sales headquarters, and is the only location outside of corporate headquarters in Mountain View, California, where salespeople and engineers co-exist.

Google kept mum on its exact plans for future products, but did mention that we should expect new offerings in print and audio ads from the Web advertising giant. Sales VP Tim Armstrong also mentioned that “hundreds” of salespeople are housed here (Google doesn’t like to reveal the exact number of its sales personnel, but more than 500 people currently work in the New York office) and engineering director Craig Nevill-Manning didn’t deny that the company was working to expand free Wi-Fi outside of midtown Manhattan’s Bryant Park.

Throughout the press tour, I was struck by how pervasive the Google corporate culture is—that being “Googley” apparently isn’t just corporate-speak. Brightly colored, erogomonic balls that are indicative of the Google brand were everywhere, and I was almost run over several times by employees whizzing by on Razor scooters. Several gleaming kitchens serve Googlers free breakfast, lunch and dinner. The game room is an informal meeting area. Engineering director Marcus Mitchell mentioned that sales/engineering socials would occur here from time to time to encourage commingling.

What was also implied in the impressive digs, however, was that as much as Google gives to its employees, it also expects back. Could providing food and entertainment, for instance, be a way to keep employees at work ‘round the clock? Or would any Googler worth his salt put in those hours anyway—thus making free meals simply an improvement over late-night pizza delivery?

Whatever the implications, Google still espouses its “Don’t Be Evil” motto, and part of that appears to be providing an impressive work environment. I’m sure that having the new space won’t hurt client relations, either. Aside from the curiosity I’m sure prospects have for wanting to see Google’s offices, Armstrong mentioned that during the company’s early days in New York customer meetings occurred at Starbucks, at a special table that the staff learned to set aside for him. Now, Armstrong and his team have over 100 meeting places to choose from (including the phone booths, large meeting rooms, and “huddle rooms”). Not too shabby for a company that started in the garage of a Silicon Valley home (which the company recently purchased as a reminder of its humble beginnings.)

Here's more on Google's sales & marketing strategies.