Want to hear something shocking about B2B lead generation? A full 79 percent of marketing leads never convert into sales opportunities. (Source: Marketing Sherpa/ KnowledgeStorm) That means if you’re not taking the necessary steps to move your leads through the sales funnel, you might as well be throwing 79 percent of them in the trash.

Alarming, right? Especially when you consider the amount of money that goes into generating those leads in the first place. For example, how much did your company spend on that latest trade show? How about that advertising campaign or website redesign? Makes me cringe just thinking about it- especially the trade shows. Talk about throwing money down the drain if you’re not putting 100 percent into your leads. There’s a reason the finance guys break out in a sweat when they see you coming come budget time.

What is the Missing Component?

Whether your marketing budget is sky’s-the-limit or you get by on a shoestring, converting leads into business should be your top priority. A critically important, but often overlooked step is lead nurturing. The term ‘lead nurturing’ refers to a system for continuing a conversation with a prospect from initial contact until the prospect is sales-ready and/or the lead is closed and the business is lost or won.

Brian Carroll, founder and CEO of InTouch says, “Imagine your marketplace is like a field of banana trees. Your marketing people are those who nurture and pick the bananas. Bananas are harvested when they are green, and they turn yellow as they ripen. Fully 95 percent of your leads are like harvested green bananas, and, off the top, your sales team needs only the other 5 percent, those that are ripe.”

It’s those 95 percent that need to be nurtured.

Here’s my take on the basic essentials of lead nurturing:

1. Quality over quantity. Market towards and attract prospects that would make good customers. Common sense, right? Yes, but you have to remember to not stuff your sales funnel with noise. You might get 100 leads from an editorial you had published, but be sure you know how those leads were qualified. Are they just readers who clicked on the page? Or are they readers who clicked on the ‘send more info’ button? Same with the trade shows. Did the prospect’s business have projects for which your company is a good fit? Or were they through your booth to get free pens or other items?

2. Respond instantly. Whether automated or manual, a message should go out letting your prospect know you are going to contact him or her. Better than an email is a phone call. If you don’t have in-house telemarketing, invest in a high-quality, professional telemarketing firm that can speak to prospects on your behalf. As a matter of fact, numbers three through five below could be handled by the same firm.

3. Stay in touch! This doesn’t mean you need to badger them, but follow-up in a timely fashion, checking on the progress of projects, etc.

4. Engage. Offer to send relevant brochures, films or technical papers.

5. Keep detailed records. All exchanges with prospects should be recorded and extensive notes taken. You can do this in your business management system (like Salesforce), or your telemarketing firm can take care of this for you.

6. Close the sale. If the lead happens to not go your way, ask for a referral, and don’t forget to keep this contact in your system. You many not win the business this time, but you’ve laid the foundation for the future.

Compelling Statistics

Here are some statistics for you:

• Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales ready leads at 33% lower cost.(Forrester Research)
• Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads.(The Annuitas Group)
• Companies with mature lead generation and management practices have a 9.3% higher sales quota achievement rate. (CSO Insights)

Lead nurturing should be an integrated, strategic part of your marketing and sales plans. As you are crafting your marketing budget, lead nurturing should be a key component.

Says Brian Carroll, “Good, sound, effective lead generation is more often than not acknowledged to be the biggest single issue for contemporary business-to-business marketers today. It has also been pointed out, however, that up-to 80% of marketing expenditures on lead generation and collateral go to waste for lack of commitment and discipline, ending up in the scrap heap because the sales department doesn’t know what to do with them. The secret to successful lead generation, and in turn marketing, in the business-to-business space today is process. This process, that converts more inquiries into qualified leads and qualified leads into sales, is called lead nurturing.” (startwithalead.com)

The bottom line: Lead nurturing should be a strategic activity, not a tactical afterthought.

Social media is not a trend of the present; it’s the future of business. No one is debating that fact. But that doesn’t mean you should sacrifice good, old-fashioned personal interaction with your prospects and customers. Think of the social and personal as complementary to one another, creating a more complete package.

It’s no secret to anyone in business that social media is here to stay. Whether in business-to-consumer (B2C) or business-to-business (B2B) environments, social media is an integral part of the sales cycle.  That’s right, social media is not just about building brand awareness. More and more purchasing decisions are being made as a direct result of companies’ activities online.

Case in point: here are some highlights from a LinkedIn-commissioned study by Forrester Consulting and Research Now:

• 73% of IT decision makers have engaged with a vendor on a social network
• 3 out of 5 say that social media influences their purchasing decisions
• 58% make these purchasing decisions because they trust their peers on social media

According to Michael Weir, Head of Category Development for the Technology Industry at LinkedIn, “It’s no surprise that [IT decision makers] are heavy users of social networks. In fact, 85% have used at least one social network for business purposes.  What’s surprising is that 73% have engaged with an IT vendor on a social network – underscoring the value of the channel for IT marketers.  Even more revealing is the fact that social media is now a critical source of influence across the entire decision making process, not just during the initial research phase.” (Salesforce)

And according to another study, this one by JPL Integrated Communications, 54% of B2B buyers said they “followed group discussions, conversations or threads to learn more about their purchase.” But the respondents clarified by indicating that they “avoid direct contact with vendors over social media. They want objectively credible information, not a sales pitch.”

So where should one’s social media emphasis lie? It should be two-fold.

1. Post relevant, industry- or product-related case studies, reports or general information; in other words, content is king.

Potential purchasers should be able to engage with your brand via social networks without feeling like they’re being sold. You know that feeling you get when you walk onto a car dealership lot? You can see the sales guys jump up and trip over one another to get to you. Then they follow you around, hovering, when all you want to do is just look? That. You don’t want that.  Potential customers should feel free to browse what you have to offer, talk to others who have already purchased from you and come to conclusions without you breathing down their necks.

2. Constant monitoring

You should have at least one person continually monitoring your social media accounts, if not a team of people. And not just to update. You want to interact with your followers. Interact, not sell! (See number one.) If someone posts on your company’s Facebook page, there should be a timely and friendly response. One of the worst social media blunders is to have stagnant accounts where customers’ and potential customers’ comments and concerns go unnoticed. Because that’s poor customer service, plain and simple.

But more to the point: Your social media presence should not trump traditional, personal interaction. It should complement it.

While more and more purchasing decisions are in fact being made online, your customers and prospects should have a real-live person, in-person or over the phone, to discuss their particular needs.  This is especially true in some B2B scenarios, where complex engineering or technical situations are critical.

For instance, an engineer designing an aircraft engine isn’t going to spec in your part simply because he interacts with your company online. He should have a good feel (read: brand awareness) for your company, and hopefully have been given all of the technical information he may have needed, but at the end of the day, he’s going to want to speak with an actual person, probably R&D and sales, to get to the meat of his product needs. The same is true for a vast array of highly technical, engineering-based industries.

That’s where the good, old-fashioned personal interaction is always going to be needed. Whether you have the sales force to cover your prospects and customers, or you turn to highly-trained telemarketers to help move your targets through the sales cycle, personal contact is key to ensuring a successful outcome for all involved. 

Social Selling

There should be no distinct line between your company’s social media activities and sales activities. Instead, imagine a seam, where both parts are sewn together to make your unique brand. Even B2B enterprises can benefit from social selling- the use of social media for listening, customer engagement and internal collaboration- culminating with personal interaction.

The good news for sales organizations is that social selling isn’t a clean break from traditional selling; it’s an evolutionary step forward. Social sellers do not have to abandon email, phone calls or face-to-face meetings. Instead, their time on these traditional channels becomes far more productive when supported by deliberate use of social media. Social selling eliminates some of the most wasteful parts of the traditional sales process (like cold-calling) and enhances the activities that good salespeople already do to create wins and drive revenue. (Social Selling in B2B Sales)

Also, consider this from Lori Wizdo at Forrester Research, regarding today’s B2B marketing (and while you’re reading it, notice how today’s marketing and sales professionals are more closely aligned than ever!):

Engaging, throughout the customer’s buying cycle, requires completely different thinking.  B2B marketers must nurture prospects for months or years before they turn into sales opportunities, so it is critical to know how you are connecting with each buyer at each interim stage that buyer goes through.

When prospective customers interact with companies they expect more — more personal, more relevant and more timely communications. Marketers need to constantly and automatically evolve their programs based on how their buyers react to their marketing messages.  Behavioral marketing is no longer an option — it’s table stakes.

Stop thinking about campaigns and start thinking engagement.  Marketers who continue to build campaigns, and make offers, around products and product features will be perceived as “tone deaf” to the multichannel customer. Customers will engage with marketers who meet their needs – their changing needs – for different information and options during the buying journey. Marketers who continue to “go to customer” with product-centric campaigns and offers risk becoming irrelevant.  (Forrester)

The bottom line:

Social media has created a more empowered customer who knows more about your company than you think. Closing the sale, however, still comes down to personal contact.

“Drive thy business, or it will drive thee.” – Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanac

If you’ve been in business, particularly of the industrial variety, over the past several years, then you are familiar with the term continuous improvement. There are many variations on the CI theme, including Six Sigma, Kaizen and Lean.

Continuous Improvement (CI) can be defined as:  an ongoing effort to improve products, services or processes. Whether the goal is “incremental” improvement over time or “breakthrough” improvement all at once, the delivery (customer valued) processes are constantly evaluated and improved for efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility.

To break it down further, here are some additional definitions:

Six Sigma- Six Sigma is a highly disciplined approach that enables a company to focus on creating and delivering nearly-perfect products and services. The underlying idea being that if you can measure how many “defects” you have in a process, you can systematically figure out a way to eliminate them and get as close to “zero defects” as possible.

Kaizen- Kaizen (pronounced ki-zen) is Japanese for “improvement”, or “change for the better” and refers to a philosophy or practice that focuses on continuous improvement of processes in manufacturing, engineering and business management.

Lean- The core idea of Lean is to maximize customer value while minimizing waste. Simply, lean means creating more value for customers with fewer resources. A lean organization understands customer value and focuses its key processes to continuously increase it. The ultimate goal is to provide perfect value to the customer through a perfect value creation process that has zero waste.

Many of the most successful and profitable companies in the United States are disciples of CI, including Motorola, GE, AT&T and Pella.

“One example of the way continuous improvement has improved our processes is the implementation of “just in time” (JIT) manufacturing — meaning that Pella Corporation does not carry a large inventory of products in stock. Instead, we build them “just in time” to meet our customers needs. This reduces costs — savings we pass on to you.”- Pella

Continuous Innovation?

Continuous Improvement and innovation are not interchangeable, but they are complimentary.

According to Robert E. Cole, from the University Of California-Berkeley, “This discussion begs the question of just how useful is the common categorization of continuous improvement versus innovation. The common assumption is that continuous improvement is small scale and that innovation is discontinuous and large scale. Yet, there is no logical reason to associate the term innovation with large-scale discontinuous change. Consistent with a dictionary definition, innovation is best associated with creative solutions, and these can occur at a small as well as a large scale, and can be more, or less, discontinuous. Put more bluntly, there is plenty of innovation that occurs in the course of continuous improvement.”

While the drive to maximize shareholder value has never been in higher gear, sometimes businesses are faced with an unfortunate side effect: disruptive innovation (innovations that improve a product or service in ways that the market does not expect, typically first by designing for a different set of consumers in the new market and later by lowering prices in the existing market.)

From Clayton Christensen, “Similarly when Toyota was making rusty little subcompacts, it made no sense for General Motors to go after the subcompact market, when the profits they could get on bigger SUVs and pickup trucks made all the sense in the world. Toyota just made their products better and better, until eventually customers who used to [buy] bigger General Motors cars could now buy cheaper ones. Now Toyota is making the best in the world, while at the bottom, the Koreans, Kia and Hyundai, have stolen the low end of the market. It’s not because Toyota is asleep at the switch. They have to decide, ‘Should we go down and compete against Kia? Or should we go up and compete against Mercedes?’”

In response to the issue of disruptive innovation, most of you are probably aware of the new term that has popped up in the past few years: continuous innovation.

Continuous Innovation can be defined as the ability to combine operational effectiveness and strategic flexibility – exploitation and exploration – capabilities that have traditionally been regarded as antithetical. (International Journal of Technology Management)

Continuous innovation is seen by many experts in business to be the answer to disruptive innovation- although some also say that the former is not possible when a company’s main goal is to maximize shareholder value.

One company that has turned the naysayers’ objections on their ears is Apple.

“‘Anyone familiar with Professor Christensen’s work will quickly recognize the causal mechanism at the heart of the Innovator’s Dilemma: the pursuit of profit. The best professional managers — doing all the right things and following all the best advice — lead their companies all the way to the top of their markets in that pursuit… only to fall straight off the edge of a cliff after getting there….’

“Yet firms like Apple [AAPL] have been able to achieve continuous innovation and customer delight by setting aside maximizing shareholder value.

‘They [Apple] can do it because Apple hasn’t optimized its organization to maximize profit. Instead, it has made the creation of value for customers its priority. When you do this, the fear of cannibalization or disruption of one’s self just melts away. In fact, when your mission is based around creating customer value, around creating great products, cannibalization and disruption aren’t “bad things” to be avoided. They’re things you actually strive for — because they let you improve the outcome for your customer.’”

Jumping Off the Cliff

Letting go of the long-engrained value of having a laser focus on increasing shareholder value in favor of continuous innovation can be extremely hard for some companies. Externally, it’s a tough sell to investors; internally, it’s equally as difficult to get executives on board. That’s why continuous innovation can be nearly impossible to implement, let alone sustain.

From Forbes: “The inexorable shift from shareholder value to continuous innovation and customer delight will not be an easy transition for many companies: they will perceive it as too risky. However the much bigger risk in the medium term is not making the transition: by failing to get on a path of continuous innovation, the firm subjects itself to the more serious risk of disruptive innovation, which leads inexorably to corporate death.”

The bottom line: Most companies already engage in continuous improvement activities. Almost all have probably implemented some sort of innovation initiative.  Those that don’t subscribe to continuous innovation do so at their own peril.

The technical definition of Voice of the Customer (VoC), according to Six Sigma®, is: a process used to capture the requirements/feedback from the customer (internal or external) to provide the customers with the best in class service/product quality.

The slightly less technical definition is: the in-depth process of capturing a customer’s expectations, preferences and aversions.

However you slice it, VoC means finding out what your customers really expect and want from you- and what they definitely don’t. In the simplest of terms, are your customers satisfied? If not, why? How do you fix it?

Gone are the old days and ways of thinking that if you make a great, needed product, customers will come no matter how you treat them. No sir, not in today’s digital age. You can be the biggest, baddest overnight delivery service in the country, but guess what? You’ve got smaller, more versatile competitors popping up everywhere, just waiting to gobble up a piece of your pie. You ignore your customers’ satisfaction and little by little, you’re left staring at your empty plate, fork in hand, thinking, “What happened?!”

Customer satisfaction, the other guys’, not yours, is what happened. Those agile up-and-comers swooped right in, and by using VoC like pros, took your market share right out from under you. Are you paying attention yet?

Each year, global research company Forrester recognizes companies that excel in VoC implementation. Below are the 2012 Voice of the Customer Award winners:

• Barclaycard US. The credit card provider stood out for its VoC-fueled cultural transformation. Employees begin each day by listening to a randomly selected real customer call, a practice that has led to cross-functional dialogue and swift changes to policies. A newly-created Customer Experience Hopper consisting of 75 “customer evangelists” from across functional areas has already implemented 25 key initiatives, with plans for 60 more this year. This approach has even spurred a change to the way the company creates products, including a new model in which it combined social media, financial education, and online banking to craft a crowd-sourced credit card. These collective initiatives have paid off: Customer complaints are down 50%, and customer attrition has improved by 28%, adding up to more than $10 million in annual benefit.
• Cisco. The network technology company stood out for its laser focus on making it easy to do business with Cisco. The program analyzes insights from surveys, social media, and a core employee listening post to identify opportunities to simplify processes and remove customer, partner, and employee pain points. For example, the online customer support website needed some help, so the company streamlined processes and improved navigation to enable customers to solve their problems quickly. The result is that 81% of issues are now resolved online, which avoids 356,000 cases per month.
• Vanguard. The investment firm stood out for its ability to integrate and centralize data. Using both passive and active listening techniques, including in-depth interviews, focus groups, analytics, and client feedback surveys across channels, the company integrates all of the data sources to understand clients fully. All of this data lives with a centralized Client Insight group, members of which act as “client advocates” by delivering tailored, actionable insights and research to the rest of the business. The resulting improvement projects range from crew coaching to streamlining processes to service recovery efforts. Collectively, these improvements have resulted in $5.1 billion in additional assets, $1 million in savings, and a 33% increase in referrals of $100,000-plus leads.

So what can you do to get on the VoC track? Or if you’re already on it, improve your momentum? Here are a few key items that should be in the mix:

1.    Shore up solid support from your executives.

This one is a no-brainer.  Support from the top means that you’ll be able to get all of the tools needed for VoC in place prior to any action.  The best way to gain this support to is to provide research and evidence of the intrinsic value of VoC activities. In other words, show them how this is going to affect the bottom line.

2.  Formulate a plan.

Strategize before you implement a thing. And not just for the fiscal year. You need to set up long-term goals and plan for the next two, three, four years out. Make it scalable, and don’t forget to think about your company’s overall customer satisfaction strategy.

3. Centralize. But reach out.

For most companies, having a centralized group of people responsible for VoC activities is the way to go. Grouping these employees together, with a single set of tools, to gather, interpret and report data can result in greater process efficiency. That being said, more often than not, people from across the company, both location- and job function-wise, will need to be brought into the fold to bounce around ideas and interpretations of customer data.

4.  Ensure data integrity.

Make sure your data accurately reflects your larger customer pool. According to Forrester Research, “Data is simultaneously powerful and dangerous. It’s all about striking the right balance between data that’s accurate enough and what you need for program execution.”

5. Don’t forget text analytics.

This one is my favorite.

From 1 to 1® Media:

‘Unstructured” or “indirect” data is everywhere now. There’s information spread across emails, texts, social media sites, blogs, Twitter feeds, videos, photos and online forums. Such sources account for 80 percent of collected business data.

This data provides new views into customer attitudes, sentiments and behaviors–if only we can make sense of it. However, businesses often fail to analyze this information successfully because of the ineffective, manual processes required to do so. Text analytics is a must-have if your company wants to find the customer voice needle in the unstructured data haystack.

Text analytics transforms this “noise” into real business insights on which you can base business decisions. Incorporating this information into a customer experience program that integrates with all customer engagement channels is a critical step in turning active listening into active doing.

6. Integrate.

After interpretation, all data received from VoC activities needs to be funneled back into your organization.  The ways to go about this vary from company to company and depend on many variables.  A great deal of companies will import customer data into existing CRM or other business systems. Smaller enterprises may rely on communications from their marketing departments to handle the task. There is no one-size-fits-all answer, but the truth is the same for any organization- your customers’ feedback should be integrated into all aspects of your business.

I’ll wrap up with this interesting statistic from Inc.com-

“When it comes to keeping your existing customers, customer service is three times more important than price–and five times more important than functionality.” Ouch.

The bottom line: Your customers’ experience, his or her voice, matters. If you’re not listening, don’t be surprised when you don’t hear them leave.

Morris Binder makes a good point, “…always put yourself in front of the decision-maker, it saves a lot of time.”

The first goal of a telesales/telemarketing call is to speak with the prospect who will be the most captured, swayed and motivated by your message (for our purposes today’s message is about digital contact management). This prospect will understand the business pain that the solution will resolve and have some authority or influence in the budgeting process. Common titles that meet this criterion include IT Director, Operations Director or anyone who would benefit from the solution but is the leader/director of the department or division, also known as the dream prospect (i.e., target contact).

With this individual your message is being heard and understood. As a result the prospect is able to champion your product as “the solution we desperately need”. This prospect is the clear winner, but you may not always be so fortunate to reach this person on the first try. Sometimes you may have to present to someone who understands the solution but does not have budgetary influence or vice versa. This may be an issue of the list you have or that you are following up with everyone who stopped by your booth at a tradeshow.

In the event that you can’t reach a prospect of dream status you must present to the prospect you have, which may mean starting at the bottom. We have a policy: No prospect left behind; many diamonds have been found in the rough.

Bottom of the chain strategies:

The idea here is that the message goes up the chain of command, not down (similar to complaints). Pitch your way to the top. The burning question is how does this relate to an objection? And, more specifically the budget objection. Often, when a prospect does not understand the benefit of the solution you will hear the budget objection. Why? Most people can’t argue with a budgetary limitation and that is the quickest way to get you off the phone. After all, you aren’t giving away your solution for free.

Prospect gives budgetary objection, but you suspect he does not truly understand the benefit of the solution: Tell your prospect that while budget may be an area to tackle down the line, your concern is ensuring that they understand how digitizing their customer database will remove the paper-mess management aspect of his daily routine, which is currently keeping him from running his reports on time and often keeps him in the office past closing.

The key here is not to assume that you are being given this objection just to rush you off the phone. If you are told that budget is an issue and continue to pitch, you may be closing the door on your own foot not to mention making yourself an annoying orange. To avoid this blunder, ask when planning will be done for the next quarter or fiscal year. If you get the old, “I’m not sure” then you can assume they are simply putting you off. If they give you a timeframe, by all means continue.

Prospect does not have budgetary involvement: pitch to the pain they are experiencing and how the solution will meet their needs. Give them the cost-benefit info that you want them to pass on to their superior. Ask for the name of that superior and follow up.

Prospect only has budgeting involvement (e.g. CFO): explain how much their situation without the solution costs them, “Without a digital prospect management system your workforce spends 2 hours every day just organizing, filing and managing paper.” If you get “buyoff” from the CFO you can ask for a referral back down the chain to the prospect who will understand the company’s pain. Nothing starts off a call better than, “I was referred to you by John Smith, your CFO. He is interested in X solution and asked me to contact you.” You’d better believe you’ve got their attention now.

Stay tuned next week for…Budgets: The Almost Deal Breakers.

“The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.” Ferdinand Foch, early 20th century French military theorist

We’ve already established this basic truth: Innovation does not happen by chance. Innovation is accomplished consistently and systematically, by listening to the voice of the customer and having a process for delivering solutions.  Now comes the part that most companies don’t get: without creating a culture of innovation, your most valuable asset, creativity, is doomed to die out.

One of my clients asked me to help identify the best practices of leaders who were the most innovative in his organization. In many interviews and meetings, there was very little discussion about brainstorming, generating ideas, prototyping, and the like—the kind of things most of us think about when we consider institutionalizing innovation. Instead, I heard what many of us would call excellent practices for leadership. My one-sentence conclusion: Excellence in leading innovation has far less to do with the leader having innovative ideas; it has everything to do with how that leader creates a culture where innovation and creativity thrives in every corner. Okay, maybe I cheated by having a sentence with a semi-colon but you get the gist in short form. (Scott Edinger. Don’t Innovate. Create a Culture of Innovation. Forbes.com, 2012.)

Most companies with exponential growth will tell you that it’s the culture of innovation that lights their fires- creativity is given a chance to run wild, burning a path and leaving in its wake the ability to solve problems and create solutions, both big and small.

Here are a few benefits that these companies enjoy:

1.     More active and enthusiastic employees

Employees who are engaged with management, and with the process of innovation, are in turn more active and enthusiastic.  Instead of trudging through the daily grind, they’re excited- invested in not only their daily work, but in the final product- the company’s success.

A stagnant workplace is a breeding ground for complacency.  As job satisfaction increases, so too does the happiness of your employees. And when it comes down to it, we all know that great employees are your most valuable assets.

2. Attendance improves

Did you ever have a job that you disliked so much you started dreading the work week on Sunday morning? There are two possible reasons for that. Either you’re honestly in the wrong job or your company is not embracing innovation. When the right mix of people are working together in a culture of innovation, employees WANT to come to work. That’s right; it becomes something to look forward to, ripe with possibilities for personal and professional growth.

3. Solutions will be targeted to real issues

“When a company’s culture is centered on a common innovation process, the discipline exists to fully investigate the dimensions of their problems, needs or goals. Consequently, their developed ideas, solutions and actions will be more appropriate and effective.”  Tim Callison, Vice President of Business Development at Connects Marketing Group.

This also applies to a company’s continuous improvement objectives. Continuous improvement and innovation go hand-in-hand.

4. A flood of creativity    

Innovation breeds creativity breeds innovation.  To arrive at a culture of innovation, your company has to have invested in creativity, and as you move forward, creativity will become second nature.

A great example of this is Google’s ‘Doodles.’ If you’re a regular user of Google, you’ve surely noticed that sometimes the famously plain homepage is creatively altered for occasions ranging from holidays to obscure culturally significant events. There are even official Google Doodlers. How cool would that be?

Here’s an excerpt from Brian Padden’s Google ‘Doodles’ Reflect Company’s Culture of Innovation

Doodler Jennifer Hom said the team creates more than 300 Doodles each year in many different languages, but stays away from topics that are political or controversial.  

“We basically think of anything that is innovative, artistic and nerdy, something that is appropriate for Google,” said Hom.

She said Doodle ideas can come from just about anywhere. Many, like the suggestion for an interactive rendering of a “buckyball” – a form of carbon composed of 60 atoms that looks like a molecule – come from inside the company.

“I never heard of what this was, but there were like 10 to 12 people in Google who are obsessed with buckyballs,” said Hom.

Google’s culture of innovation, the relaxed environment, the mix of work and play helps the creative process.

Doodle Engineer Khris Hom, no relation to Jennifer, animates artists’ drawings. He said he first got involved with the team as part of a program to nurture innovation and growth.

“My involvement started out as a 20 percent project, which is a phenomenon at Google, where engineers get to spend one day a week or 20 percent of their time working on whatever they want. So I was building some little animation, and someone from the Doodle team saw them and said can you do that on the home page, and I’ve been having a blast here since,” he said.

These Google Doodlers say the irreverent humor of the artwork reflects that culture of innovation and the idea that Google should be a fun place to work or visit online.

5. Employees are capable of solving problems at their level directly and in real time

It’s no secret that everyone wants control over their lives, and it is no different in the workplace. People want free reign to do their jobs without constantly having to answer to a micro-managing superior.

In the culture of innovation, it is essential that employees are given this freedom- in fact it is one of the fundamental building blocks of such a culture. As long as the goals and outcomes are clearly defined, employees should be allowed to work as they see fit. With this autonomy comes increased confidence and the ability to solve problems as they arise.

6. Employees explore personal improvement and skills growth

As the culture of innovation sweeps through your organization, employees become more confident and engaged. This, in turn, leads to many seeking ways to grow personally and professionally.

I’m a huge football fan, so this point makes me think of the great show “Friday Night Lights.”  Coach Taylor came in and turned that program around; he made the players feel like part of a family, working towards a goal together. As a result, the players worked harder, not only on the field, but in all areas of their lives. They wanted to be better men and contribute all that they had.

7. More fun!

To put it simply, if you’ve implemented a culture of innovation and you’re not having fun at work- you’re doing it wrong. When you’ve embraced innovation and integrated it fully into your daily work, fun is a natural by product. Creativity is flowing, opinions shared and collaboration embraced, whether in a meeting room or over a game of darts in your innovation space.

The bottom line: The innovation culture of a company is a complex recipe of many different ingredients. But if you get it right, the outcome is delicious indeed.  

You’re past your introduction and well into the explanation of your call. Once you describe the product or solution of interest, the contact declares that a budget is not available for the purchase of any new products. That means yours, wise guy.

What does a contact mean by “no budget available?” Rest assured it’s a legitimate objection. But, before we address some possible responses, we must first familiarize some common terms. You guessed it! One response does not fit all.

“We are on a company-wide spending freeze.”

“Our department has already spent our yearly budget.”

“Our department has already spent our quarterly budget.”

“Our yearly departmental budget has already been designated.”

“Our quarterly departmental budget has already been designated.”

“Our entire budget is designated for the next two years.”

“I am not involved in the budgetary process.”

“I do not have influence in how the budget is spent.”

“Your product is too expensive. We don’t have enough of a budget to make a purchase.”

“We won’t know our budget allowance until the next quarter or year.”

Notice how some objections seem similar, but the time involved is either quarterly or yearly? What is the difference between ‘designated’ and ‘spent’? Why does it matter if your contact is not involved in budgetary decisions? Stay tuned as we deconstruct the actionable objections and practice those responses with the potential to keep your foot in the door.

“If you want people to think outside the box, do NOT put their brains in a box.”
- Gerald “Solutionman” Haman, Thinkubator

The daily grind is named such for a reason. For many people, the daily grind is, well, a grind: Get up; get your household moving, fed and out the door; trudge to the office; assume the position in your cubicle; work; go home; do it all over again tomorrow.

What the smartest companies realize, however, is that happy employees are more productive, and that implementing innovation as a key strategy to company growth means starting from the ground up. Your employees are the lifeblood of your company, and as such, any worthwhile endeavor should start with them.

Your employees are more than likely a diverse group of individuals, each with their own unique abilities that may or may not be being used to their fullest potential. Tapping into that potential will allow everyone to grow and contribute in more meaningful ways. And a more fulfilled workforce means a more successful company.

“We operate in a global workforce 24/7 and organizations are required to perform at the multi-faceted intersection of business strategy, people, technology, process, compliance and fluctuating market conditions. At this intersection lies a unique opportunity for organizations to rethink how they manage their employees. By thoughtfully motivating and retaining their human capital, high-performing organizations skillfully add significant momentum to their bottom line.” - Nancy Mobley founder and CEO of Insight Performance

Here are five ideas to create a workplace that fosters innovation.

1. Have a weekly basketball game.

Have a basketball goal installed in the parking lot. Then, set an hour aside one day a week to have a pick-up game. Kick off the loafers and heels and go at it. The more the merrier. You’ll be surprised how quickly Joe from accounting will open up when you take him away from his spreadsheets.

If you don’t have the room or budget for a basketball goal, play hacky sack in the lobby or the break room- anything to get people up, moving and relaxed with each other. (Tip- stay away from dodgeball.)

2. Have a space dedicated to creativity.

Block off an area in the office that is dedicated solely to employee creativity- a place where people can go when they need to sort out a tough problem or flesh out some ideas. Go crazy with it. I’m talking bean bag chairs, dart boards, Rubik’s Cubes, puzzles, a pool table, an ice cream bar..heck, even a dance floor.  It should be somewhere people can go to let off steam and allow the creativity to flow.

Inc.com recently asked its followers on Twitter to share some of their coolest workplace perks. Here are just a couple:

Ogilvy & Mather Midwest
Chicago, IL
Aside from office parties, the Ogilvy softball team and impromptu happy hours, public relations and communications firm Ogilvy & Mather’s Midwest division also offers massages once every two weeks to employees, free ice cream and a game room complete with a pool table, Ping-Pong and Foosball. Such activities keep the creative spirit alive in the office and create a relaxing environment for work.

Pinnacle Services
Minneapolis, MN
Pinnacle extends its mission to provide stellar services to seniors and those with disabilities to its employees by making it a family-friendly workplace. The company allows new mothers to bring their babies to work with them up to nine months old, and the office boasts a foam pit, Velcro wall, swings, arcade games and more to satisfy the inner child within all its employees.

3. Brainstorm like there is no tomorrow

Have you ever held a company-wide meeting, wrapped up your presentation and opened the floor for questions and comments, only to be met by the sound of crickets? You can practically see the protective barriers coming up. It’s because no one wants to rock the boat and say something that might be considered wrong in the eyes of their peers.

Here’s what you need to do. Have a monthly brainstorming session. Break out the sticky notes, markers, giant notepads and a gigantic silly hat. The wearer of the hat gets five minutes of everyone’s undivided attention. Go around the room and let each person have a turn to wax poetic about the topic at hand. Think of all of the “what ifs” and then some. You’ll be surprised what you can learn when employees are given the chance to voice their honest opinions.

4. Laugh.

Let’s face it. You and your employees spend way too many hours of your lives at work for it not to be fun.

Psychologist Steven Sultanoff, Ph.D., former president of the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor says, “Humor and play are in the corporate mission statements of Southwest Airlines, Google and Ben & Jerry’s. At most places, you won’t read it in the manual, but I think companies should be thinking about it.”

Used properly, humor is a powerful tool with which to lift people up, and it’s no secret that happy employees are more productive.

Dr. Sultanoff lists three ways that humor impacts people: cognitive, emotional, and psychological. “From a cognitive standpoint, humor can help put a problem into perspective for employees, and can help people to relate to a difficult issue. Emotionally, humor can supplant stress or frustration. People who effectively use humor often have a better ability to interact and connect with others, which can lead to a more productive workplace. As for the psychological aspects of humor, people tend to work better when they are happy and feel good, and when they perceive their environment as positive.”

5. Buddy up.

One of the greatest things you can have in your professional life is a mentor- someone who takes you under their wing and puts you on a path to your better self.

Pair up your new, younger employees with those who have been in the workplace longer. They don’t even have to be in the same department. Mentoring builds a sense of community on the job. When you know there is that one person who has your back, who wants you to succeed, it’s a powerful motivator.

Hey, it works for Zappos!

“Our vision is for almost all of our hires to be entry level, but for the company to provide all the training and mentorship necessary so that any employee has the opportunity to become a senior leader within the company within five to seven years,” says Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com. “For us, this is still a work in progress, but we’re really excited about its future. Without continually growing and learning both personally and professionally, it’s unlikely that any individual employee will still be with the company ten years from now. Our goal at Zappos is for our employees to think of their work not as a job or career, but as a calling.”

The bottom line: A happy, creative workforce will ensure a constant flow and exchange of new ideas- Innovation that will nourish your ultimate goals: customer creation, expansion and retention.

In August of 2012 we addressed stalls as defined in business terms.

Let’s follow up with a dialogue on objections.

Stalls and objections are often lumped together in the same category as both hold a negative connotation. Stalls are purposely placed whereas objections are responses to statements. Objections are both intentional and unintentional. Why does this matter? Objections open a pathway for discussion since there is usually an underlying question in disguise. It may be used as a conversation killer (e.g. no budget, company closing, etc.), but unbeknownst to your audience, they have given you a free license to professionally challenge their statement whereas with stalls you are forced to accept the limitation and break your back to work around it. Objections require your target to think on his toes which gives you each a shared responsibility and vested interest (sure, you have more of the vested interested) in finalizing the stance on an objection.

Again, why does this matter? It’s a conversation, an honest to goodness exchange of ideas born from a random phone call in a *heroic effort to save the target company money, time and resources. It’s not an email exchange nor IM chat or text. It’s that rare WIN moment when you have a human being to converse with and the chance to develop a believer in your message.

Next week, we’ll use an example of a real objection and start delving into those so called opportunities.

*Yes, telemarketers can be likened to superheroes, e.g. resolves of steel.

“Fast-growth companies must keep innovating. Companies are like sharks. If they stop moving, they die.”

—Marc Benioff, founder and CEO, Salesforce.com

Go ahead. Be innovative. You know you want to. All the cool kids are doing it! But your question is: what IS it? What is this magic word innovation everyone is bandying about these days?

One part of innovation, certainly, is creation. But creation alone does not equal innovation. No, for something to be truly innovative there needs to be added value. It’s creating something new that no one knew they had to have, but now can’t live without. It’s changing the game.

Consider this tidbit:

The innovation paradox is the need to find answers we didn’t know we needed, from places we didn’t know to look–the very antithesis of what we often do. – Sam Ford, director of digital strategy for Peppercomm

Now consider Apple. Seated comfortably in the top spot on Fast Company’s annual list of the 50 most innovative companies in the world, Apple landed this prime position because the company dominates the technology world. Wherever Apple goes, other technology giants follow, trying desperately to get in on the game. Apple’s Siri interface created a new arena, and big dogs like Google and Amazon were forced to put up or shut up. No matter what, they had to invest in their own Siri technologies.  To quote the late Steve Jobs, “Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have… It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.”

According to the Harvard Business Review, there are five skills that the most successful innovators possess:
1. Associating: The ability to connect seemingly unrelated questions, problems or ideas from different fields

2.Questioning: Innovators constantly ask questions that challenge the common wisdom. They ask “why?”, “why not?” and “what if?”

3. Observing: Discovery-driven executives scrutinize common phenomena, particularly the behavior of potential customers.

4. Experimenting: Innovative entrepreneurs actively try out new ideas by creating prototypes and launching pilots.

5. Networking: innovators go out of their way to meet people with different ideas and perspectives.

To put all of this information into one point you should remember: innovation is the lifeblood of your company.

Innovation does not happen by chance. Innovation is accomplished consistently and systematically, by listening to the voice of the customer and having a process for delivering solutions.

So How Does This Translate into More Customers?

It’s a pretty basic concept. Create value and they will come. Truly innovative products and services attract customers because these products and services add significant value.  And the question you should be asking your customers is WHY they really come to you. For example, people don’t buy greeting cards because they want a folded rectangle of heavy paper with fancy photos and funny sayings. They buy greeting cards as a way to share thoughts with the recipient on a special occasion. Therefore your question becomes, “How can I make that process easier, faster, more fun for my customers?” Therein lies innovation.

Engaging with potential customers and engrossing them in the process of innovation is how some of the top innovators are so successful. Here’s a specific example: Jane Customer would love to see that new show everyone is always talking about, but who has time to watch television, let alone catch up on a DVR?

Enter HBO Go, the world’s first comprehensive mobile TV service. HBO subscribers have access to all of the channel’s content from any personal mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet. Stuck in the airport on a Sunday evening? In the waiting room at your dentist’s office?  How about, instead of getting sucked up into the never-ending abyss that is your work inbox, you catch up on True Blood while you wait? And who wouldn’t rather get lost in Game of Thrones than anything work-related?

According to Alison Moore, HBO’s senior VP of digital platforms, “On the iPad, all you have to do is [swipe your finger] and you see everything else HBO has done. That’s a pretty powerful reason not to disconnect.” Add to that all of the interactive features that are built into HBO Go, and you have a recipe for customer satisfaction.

Become a Verb

Become a verb. That’s right, a verb. I remember vividly the first time someone asked me, “Have you heard of Google?” The year was 2001. The answer was no. Fast-forward to January 2013, and I’ll tell you I google at least five times per day. I could tell you that I search, but why would I, when we both know that google=search? In fact, the folks over at Merriam-Webster officially declared google a verb in 2006.

google: to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web

Talk about a marketing coup.

The following is excerpted from Who Do You Want Your Customers To Become? Copyright 2012 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.

Google Gets It: Creating Better Searchers

Google provides an excellent example of understanding and acting on “The Ask.” The company’s PageRank algorithms–honed and polished by cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin–fundamentally redefined the power and potential of Internet “search.” Google’s link-based architecture quickly became more than the world’s most successful search engine. The technology effectively made its users partners and collaborators. The multibillion-dollar innovation investments made in hardware, software, and network technologies were also investments in the collective intelligence of Google’s users.

“Google gets smarter every time someone makes a link on the web,” declared Tim O’Reilly, the publisher and Internet investor who coined the Web 2.0 sobriquet. “Google gets smarter every time someone makes a search. It gets smarter every time someone clicks on an ad. And it immediately acts on that information to improve the experience for everyone else. It’s for this reason I argue that the real heart of Web 2.0 is harnessing collective intelligence.”

O’Reilly is correct. Google’s algorithms continuously build on its customers’ collective intelligence. What makes the company’s collective intelligence algorithms so brilliant, says Google research vice president Alfred Specter, is that Google is constantly learning from–as well as about–its users. This is Google’s distinguishing competence.

Consequently, declaring that Google is in the search business radically misunderstands both its technology and business model.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat

Born of the very essence of the concept of innovation is this no-brainer: innovation is a continual process. It’s why Amazon didn’t stop with the first version of the Kindle and why LinkedIn isn’t just about finding your next career step. These companies, as well as all innovators, know that you can never stop creating, sharing and becoming more useful.

Innovation keeps you in the loop. It keeps you fresh. And sometimes it’s the only way to unseat the top dog in your industry. Did someone say MySpace?

Because what happens when companies stop innovating is that customers stop coming, and these companies die on the vine. Two painful examples: Blockbuster and Borders.

Just remember, innovation can be as simple as the bendy straw.