Naylor's Mailer #3: Win/Loss Analysis: The Cooperative Angle
Naylor’s Mailer #4:
Connect Through Social Networking
Naylor’s Mailer #5: Elicit Market Intelligence through Sales!
Naylor's
Mailer #1: Introducing
Cooperative Intelligence
Cooperative Intelligence
is relationship building one person at a time. It is the green light to
effective competitive intelligence (CI). You can have the most
effective processes in place and be the most intelligent, analytical,
insightful, strategic CI person, and deliver a stream of products.
However, if they don’t believe, trust and respect you, you won’t have
staying power.
Cooperative Intelligence
practices and attitudes are a win/win of the CI process. It is the
process of developing your network by finding ways to help others.
Reciprocity is the engine of networks. You are helped because you help
others: no strings attached. Instead of focusing on self-interest, you
are seeking the common good. Donna Fisher and Sandy Vilas, co-authors
of Power Networking remark on the boomerang effect when help
arrives without explicit requests. Like a boomerang, the help we give
comes back to us, though often in a roundabout way.
We can’t control other’s
attitudes about us: however we can control our own attitudes and
behaviors. Our attitude sets the tone, regardless of the other person’s
motivation, position or personal issues. We can project a positive
attitude as one who provides a valuable service, intellectual capital
and great connections. This is the backbone of Cooperative Intelligence
as practiced in competitive intelligence.
Cooperative Intelligence
also encompasses emotional intelligence and appreciative inquiry –
practices to make us more balanced advisors. Many companies do not
take advantage of learning based on interviewing customers when they win
significant business or have a great relationship. CI professionals are
often so critical that we don’t seize the opportunity to build on our
company’s strengths in our cold pursuit of the competition. Wouldn’t
Sales respond better to the more positive approach of appreciative
inquiry: “How will we improve market penetration in this industry?”
versus the more critical approach of “We’re losing share in this
industry: what are we doing wrong?”
We need to broaden our
scope in CI to include market developments, competitor history, global
ramifications, and technology, for example. Thus we can lift ourselves
out of tactical CI and offer a more balanced perspective of our shifting
position in the ever changing global marketplace. The esteemed former
chairman of Motorola, Bob Galvin, shared his broad perspective towards
CI during his keynote address at the SCIP (Society of Competitive
Intelligence Professionals) 2005 Conference in Chicago. He went as far
as to say that Motorola would even study the archeology of a culture
outside of America to gain further insight into how a competitor’s
leadership thought and might act.
Regardless of what type
of company we support, CI professionals cannot afford to be passive data
collectors, who merely monitor competitors and identify new targets. We
have a great opportunity to pro-actively help our companies identify new
markets, new technologies, and ways to expand current markets. The
Internet, secondary databases and trade journals are essential sources
to monitor the competitive landscape and to locate people. However, if
we just rely on secondary sources and don’t connect directly with the
right people, and connect people with each other, we will fail in our CI
efforts over the long-term.
“Most information never gets written down—it’s just
floating in people’s heads. The only way to access information is to
talk to people.” Jan Herring, CI Guru
Incorporate the
following Cooperative Intelligence practices and attitudes, and you will
benefit by building and maintaining professional relationships that will
be enduring, the backbone of any CI unit:
Treat your clients with
respect
Take a problem solving
attitude, but don’t solve their problems
Identify the currencies
of exchange with your contacts
Be a source for
acknowledgement and appreciation
Maintain a positive
attitude
Don’t take yourself too
seriously
Promote continual
communication
Ellen Naylor, founder of Business Intelligence Source,
has been a competitive intelligence practitioner and consultant for more
than 20 years and an active SCIP member since 1990. The Business
Intelligence Source’s offerings range from developing a CI process,
conducting win/loss or trade show analysis, and training workshops. Our
latest practice, cooperative intelligence, helps CI professionals become
more effective in networking and communicating with people—the backbone
of any successful CI operation. Ellen lives at 9,000 feet in the
Colorado Rocky Mountains with her husband, Rodgers the artist and Cocoa
the cat.
You are free to
forward Naylor's Mailer to colleagues, print it or use it as you like as
long as you credit The Business Intelligence Source and link to the
source:
www.thebisource.com.
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Naylor's Mailer #2:
Introducing Cooperative Communication
Never in the history of mankind has it been so easy to communicate.
Never have we had so many choices about when and how to communicate. Yet
communication is a major shortcoming in many competitive intelligence
(CI) operations. One reason is many people don’t really know what
competitive intelligence is, and often confuse it with simple
information, rather than actionable analysis that can help with
decision-making. Another reason is the depersonalization of today’s
workforce. Witness the replacement of face-to-face meetings with
teleconferencing and webinars, or telephone conversations with
electronic communication.
Let’s face it, many of us are stretched too thin to complete our many
assignments, so time management encourages us to communicate as much as
we can electronically. Electronic communication is essential, once you
have initially connected with each CI client. There is no more effective
way to disseminate data, and e-mail gives you the opportunity to be
thoughtful and deliberate in ways that oral communication can’t, and
erases the time barriers of global communication.
Due
to the increased use of electronic communication, we get less practice
with face-to-face meetings and telephone conversations. When we lead or
attend face-to-face meetings, we are under more pressure from co-workers
to be at the top of our form because of the value of their time.
Yet
a sustainable CI operation depends on people and relationship building!
When
setting up a CI operation, you have two objectives in Needs Analysis
interviews:
1.
Find out how CI (YOU) can help meet their business objectives
2.
Educate and persuade them on the value and necessity of CI
It’s
a lot easier to make this Sale if you understand each person’s specific
needs and what really motivates him or her prior to each interview. It
also helps to recall that most people operate in the WIIFM (what’s in it
for me) and MMFIAM (make me feel important about myself) modes.
As
preparation I focus my investigation on the Four P’s:
Profession, Politics, Predisposition and Personal Issues
Understanding the Four P’s is the first step toward communicating
cooperatively. Put yourself in your CI client’s position. Learn who
they are, which is influenced by what they do, how your company rewards
them, what motivates them, their behavioral predisposition and their
personal life. I also like to find out if and how they have used CI
previously. Note: you may need to dig deeper to find out what motivates
them personally—and recognize that this changes over time.
Before conducting Needs Analysis interviews, use what you have learned
from the Four P’s to develop specific questions that your CI client will
relate to. Be an active listener and don’t judge the person you’re
interviewing, but listen with an open mind. Good listening will
differentiate you from almost any other person your CI clients
communicate with. When people realize that you are really listening to
them without bias—regardless of their style and motivation—they will
respect you and open up to you.
If
the topic of Cooperative Communication interests you, please join
me in sunny NOT TOO HOT San Diego on August 23 for a full-day workshop,
”Networking and Communication Best Practices,” sponsored by SCIP’s
Institute.
http://members.scip.org/scriptcontent/BeWeb/events/eventdetail.cfm?&PRODUCT_MAJOR=INSTAUG07.
If you have further interest in this topic, I would love to hear from
you at 1-303-838-4545 or
answers@thebisource.com.
Ellen Naylor, founder of The Business Intelligence Source (TBIS), has
been a CI practitioner and consultant for over 20 years. TBIS improves
your marketing prowess by coaching you through CI process development,
Sales and Customer intelligence, and results-driven workshops. Our
signature practice, cooperative intelligence, helps CI professionals
build the right people skills to run a dynamic CI operation through
leading, connecting and communicating. Ellen lives at 9,000 feet in the
Colorado Rocky Mountains with her husband, Rodgers the Artist and Cocoa
the Cat.
Please share
Naylor's Mailer
with colleagues.
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Naylor's Mailer #3: Win/Loss Analysis: The Cooperative Angle
Win/loss analysis is my favorite tactical cooperative
intelligence practice as it offers the best ROI of any sales
intelligence tool. You gain intelligence by interviewing your customers
shortly after the sales event to find out why they chose to do business
with you or decided on a competitor. The data gathered combines
knowledge from Sales, Customers, Competitors, and your marketplace.
Consider these points to develop a cooperative B to B
win/loss process:
1. Clearly identify objectives for conducting win/loss
2. Invest the time to develop the questions you want answered
3. Include Sales
4. Maintain professionalism throughout the process
5. Don't just "survey" your customers
6. Don't just interview "losses"
7. Communicate findings broadly
Be very clear about what you hope to learn through win/loss
analysis so you conduct interviews with the right customers. Be specific
about your goals and don't just aimlessly interview customers.
Once you have established your learning objectives, assemble
the right people to develop the questions you want answered through
win/loss interviews. As a team, develop a company SWOT of why you think
customers buy or don't buy from you. Ideally this exercise is done with
Sales, Marketing, Product Development and at least one Sales VP. The
questions you want answered will flow out of this exercise.
Win/loss can be political and threatening to Sales. Unless
your company's culture is unusual, do not have Sales conduct win/loss
interviews as customers typically respond better to a third party. Yet
Sales buy-in is essential in this cooperative intelligence practice. You
need Sales input on who you should interview in their account and that
person's predisposition. Marketing and Competitive Intelligence (CI)
need to show Sales how they can win more deals in the long run,
if armed with intelligence from their customers collectively.
There are three levels of professionalism to consider: your
company's, the customer's, and the interviewer's. Make sure all involved
parties in your company clearly understand the objectives and
implementation of your win/loss analysis process. That includes Sales
VPs, Sales
Managers, Account Reps and Product Managers. Let Sales tell
their customer to expect the interviewer's first communication. Insist
that the interviewer clearly explain your company's intentions for their
interview and is sensitive to your customer's time commitments.
While the survey process allows you to collect trends which
are valuable, you may be missing other insights the customer is willing
to share during each interview. Get your money's worth and enable your
interviewers to use their intuitive skills to collect that insight!
Loss analysis is like conducting an unbalanced SWOT analysis
where you just focus on your weaknesses and threats. You gain balance
and perspective as you interview those customers who chose your
solution, particularly if the sale was competitive. Furthermore, you
want to continue those practices that help you retain and gain business.
You leave Sales with a negative feeling about their performance if you
just focus on their losses, which can increase the ill will that often
exists between Sales and Marketing.
Communicate what you have learned soon after conducting the
interviews. Armed with enough win/loss data, you can observe trends
among buying and non-buying customers. Put on your critical thinking cap
along with a team of Product Managers, Sales, Marketing and Strategy
folks to analyze this data further.
On a final point, if at all possible, end your report to your
sales organization on a positive note, since Sales is an essential
market intelligence source. Adopt these cooperative intelligence
practices and I guarantee you, your B to B win/loss process will be
successful!
Ellen Naylor, CEO of
The Business Intelligence Source (TBIS), has been a CI practitioner and
marketing consultant for over 20 years. TBIS improves your marketing
prowess by coaching you through Sales and Customer Intelligence, CI
process development, and results-driven workshops. Our signature
practice, Cooperative Intelligence, helps you build the right people
skills to run a dynamic marketing operation through leading, connecting
and communicating. Ellen lives at 9,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains with
her husband, Rodgers the Artist and Cocoa the Cat.
Please share
Naylor's Mailer with colleagues.
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Naylor’s Mailer #4:
Connect Through Social Networking
In the spirit of the
holiday season when we reach out to friends and family, this issue is
dedicated to reaching out electronically. Social networking is an
electronic means to reach far more sources that you possibly can through
the conventional means of connecting with contacts inside and outside of
your company.
According to a recent
Deloitte State of the Media report, social networks make up just
over half of all content that Internet users consume. According to
Technorati, there are over 71 million blogs across the World Wide Web.
I believe that social
networking has blurred the distinctions between secondary and primary
research. More importantly, if you connect through social networks for
your industry, and identify the right blogs and RSS feeds to monitor,
you will find many more industry experts to interview when you conduct
primary research. Recognize social networks are a moving target, as new
ones are being formed daily!
When conducting
research or competitive intelligence (CI), it is advantageous to have a
large, broad network to connect with more people. So I will focus on
LinkedIn, one of the largest B to B social networks with 16 million
users as of Nov. 2007. (For a link to many social networks, go to:
http://web2list.com/?menu=all.)
Through LinkedIn
contacts, you can get answers to questions that you are unable to get
through your other networks since its reach is so vast. As with other
sources, you need to qualify their validity since it is easy to be a
self-appointed expert through the Internet.
There can be a
downside: some strangers will ask you to join their LinkedIn Network.
They might be recruiters or people who found you through an association
you both belong to. You might receive cold calls from LinkedIn contacts,
calling to pick your brain.
However, I love
LinkedIn’s upside for connection and offer these ideas to help you reach
out:
-
As a new hire, read
profiles of fellow employees as you develop your internal networks
-
Read executive
profiles before you meet them
-
Research companies
through their employees. Some profiles contain company data
-
Find media contacts
to interview
-
Find experts, such
as when you’re getting into a new market
-
Connect with
ex-employees of competitors
-
Connect with
recruiters who specialize in your industry
-
Gain customer
intelligence for Sales
-
Do background
checks on industry or equity consultants to gauge their credibility
-
Re-connect with
colleagues you worked with previously
-
Become informed
when contacts change jobs
-
Find out a college
friend works for a competitor or is an industry expert
The ways to connect
through LinkedIn are as numerous as your imagination. Remember, it is
easy to reach someone on-line, but it is much harder to develop a
relationship. To encourage a relationship, follow-up on the phone or
set up a meeting to solidify a connection.
Happy Connecting and
Happy Holidays!
Ellen Naylor, CEO of
The Business Intelligence Source (TBIS), has been a CI practitioner and
marketing consultant for over 20 years. TBIS improves your marketing
prowess by coaching you through Sales and Customer Intelligence, CI
process development, and results-driven workshops. Our signature
practice, Cooperative Intelligence, helps you build the right people
skills to run a dynamic marketing operation through leading, connecting
and communicating. Ellen lives at 9,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains with
her husband, Rodgers the Artist and Cocoa the Cat.
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Naylor’s Mailer #5: Elicit Market Intelligence through Sales!
Over the years many
colleagues have expressed the challenge of capturing useful information
from their sales force. I ask, "What do you give to Sales that will make
them want to contribute?" Unless the information you seek will increase
their close rates or improve customer retention, Sales is usually not
interested.
However, Sales is
interested in job security which is longer term than meeting their
quarterly quota numbers. Simply put, job security is more assured if
your company develops and effectively markets the right products and
services. If you engage your sales force in this effort, it's amazing
the additional insight you will gain since the variety of customers they
chat with will give you ideas that R&D and Marketing Research won't.
Also Sales is out there every day: this is not a periodic market
research project. If you allow Sales to easily communicate their
findings with you and acknowledge them, you will gain an incredible
competitive advantage!
Not only does Sales
need to know the questions that Marketing and Strategic Planning want
answered to develop the right products and services; they also need to
understand the WHY behind these specific questions. Better yet,
Marketing and Strategic Planning should solicit input from Sales to
develop these questions.
Companies spend big
money on sales training, ranging all the way from account planning to
closing deals. So Sales is already trained on how to ask customers great
questions and to be good listeners to close deals. They already have
great improvisational skills which are also useful for elicitation.
As marketers or
competitive intelligence professionals, we are qualified to teach Sales
how to interview and elicit market intelligence, which sales training
totally omits. This elicitation can be blended right into the sales
process.
You want this
elicitation/interview process to be a win/win with customers, so you
need to organize the company information Sales can share with your
customers before your sales people interview their customers to gather
market intelligence. Sales will become more knowledgeable about the
marketplace during this process, and this will enhance their credibility
with customers. Selected findings can be shared through a company
newsletter for your customers.
Another key point
is that you need to make it easy for Sales to share what they learn. Use
your company culture and existing processes to make this EASY. You also
need to update your Strategic Marketing questions to stay on top, and
Sales is a great resource to contribute.
The biggest "Aha" I
have heard from Sales after elicitation training is that they never
thought about planning and organizing interviews in order to maximize
what they collect just in the course of a normal conversation. Not only
does Sales collect valuable market intelligence from such training:
these same skills can be used to close more deals!
Ellen Naylor,
CEO of The Business Intelligence Source (TBIS), has been a competitive
intelligence (CI) and marketing professional for 25 years. TBIS improves
your marketing prowess by coaching you to integrate Sales and Market
Intelligence; develop a CI process; and engage through results-driven
workshops. Our signature practice, Cooperative Intelligence, helps you
build the right people skills to run a dynamic marketing operation
through leading, connecting and communicating. Ellen lives at 9,000 feet
in the Rocky Mountains with her husband, Rodgers the artist and Cocoa
the cat.
You are free to
forward Naylor's Mailer to
colleagues, print it or use it as you like as long as you credit The
Business Intelligence Source and link to the source: www.thebisource.com.
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