Last week, I had the opportunity to visit Madison, Wisconsin to attend the Society for Marketing Professional Services Conference. Jim and I were “manning the booth” and were situated in such a way that allowed us to see all of the presentations (and the mesmerizing view across the lake). The presenters made some interesting points that I am definitely going to add to the “Tim Repertoire”.
To sum up the speakers….
Diane Chamness stressed:
Strengths are no longer differentiators (because everyone has strengths). Competitive advantages are what clients are looking for. Made me think of one of my favorite people in the world – me. The Tim Rochette competitive advantage war chest includes about 10 years of experience in the professional services world, having the experience of visiting a couple of hundred engineering, architectural, and other services based firms over the years, the ability to think of my feet and apply the application I know so well to many of the situations I am in, wanting those around me to succeed, and being very loyal to those who give me a chance.
You can’t sell anyone anything unless you know what they want to buy.
We all know the importance of discovery and conversation before we make try to make the sale, but are we asking the right questions. A recent USA Today article stressed that with the economic climate dictating people’s buying attitudes, value needs to be stressed as much as possible. Why not add that to the conversation before we start the demo instead of just assuming everyone values profit, utilization, and a low DSO? So simple that I am a little embarrassed I have not been asking this question all along.
Rachel Gold and Liz Kuntz spoke to social networking tips, tricks, and best practices. I.E. – this blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, and a touch of twitter. Unfortunately, no one can really derive a good proactive business case on how to use these tools that are quantifiable, but instead spend the time with “paying it forward” type of a mindset. Rachel and Liz had a unique point of how potential clients could use it as a tool for prequalifying products and services before you engage in purchasing. You only have to qualify yourself once, and then you need to perform. Some of the other key questions/points raised by the presenters….
Why use social networking? No, not to find out that someone is “Going to Dinner” or other ordinary life updates. The major reasons to use social networking is to achieve customer intimacy, credibility through authenticity, accessibility anytime, anywhere over the web, and to drive traffic to a website. This presence is important because brand visibility
Business development tool
Intelligence on prospects
Accelerates sales cycle
Lead generation
Easy way to keep in touch
Tom Farley.
Tom is not only the author of the recent biography “The Chris Farley Show”, but also the managing director of Farley BDG, a brand development consulting group. Tom’s ADD was in high gear as he made some great points throughout the hour.
Tom spoke to:
Teams have a lack of commitment, avoiding accountability, and in-attention to results. It is always how am I going to be perceived on this team? An ensemble allows all voices to be heard. Start with 10 basic ideas before you pick one to go forward with.
Think broadly beyond your brand. What is your strategy?
What is the Tim Rochette Brand? Problem solving? Be passionate. There are no people who do it better. Take ownership of the brand. I will be the evangelist and find connection and disconnect everywhere. Get the story out there.
Branding is about telling a story. Storytelling comes from a vision that can be developed into brand. Stay away from length of service or intelligence. Go above and beyond. Find the story that is relevant. How does the story differentiate you? Tell the story. How it changed you, what does it do to you? Personalize it. Make it passionate. What do people think of Cambridge, MA? Smart, MIT, etc.
Projects need teams and need planning in order to be executed.
Idea generation time requires an ensemble with voices to be heard. It leads to innovation.
What is empowering you, what motivates you, what makes you run?
How do you make something boring exciting. People need a brand that is tangible. The people are tangible. Not always doing what you are doing, but where you are doing it, who you are doing it for
Excuse the jumping around above. It really gives you a sense of Tom’s presentation.
Scott Klug spoke to the stimulus dollars and how to get them. He spoke to Obama’s big three priorities of the economy, health care and energy. Scott says that the stimulus package is not the bonanza that people originally thought it was going to be as the money has to go through Washington. He also spoke to the Highway Bill that is yet to be finalized which means the stimulus is only half the amount of dollars that should be spent at this time. If it was stimulus AND Highway Bill, more dollars would be spent putting us in a much better position for recovery.