My dad was a great teacher and role model. But every once in a while, I’d start whining at him, “Dad, you’re telling me I should do these things, but you don’t! Why do I have to do it, if you don’t?” Jokingly, he would always respond, “Do what I say, not what I do…”
While he was always teasing me, this seems to be the modus operandi for far to many organizations. They declare certain things, whether at their websites, in press releases, in the speeches/webcasts executives do, in the way their sales people engage and work with customers.
As you might expect, somehow, I have found myself on the “lists” of a lot of organizations having to do with marketing, selling, or customer experience. Whether it’s a new technology, training programs, consulting services, lead gen, messaging, tools, other sales/marketing/customer experience offerings, my mailbox, social feeds, mobile are filled with communications from these organizations.
It’s not unreasonable to assume that since these organizations present themselves as the “experts,” in some aspect of marketing, sales, customer experience, their execution of great selling/marketing would be flawless. One would expect, they practice what they preach. Even demonstrating in their execution, the value their offerings provide.
One would expect, very carefully targeted outreach–focusing on their ICP. Researched, personalized and deeply relevant engagement messaging. We would expect their sequences to be appropriate–frequent enough, but not annoying. We would expect these sequences not to be word for word repeats of their prior messages, or “Did you get my message.” Instead, we would expect them to build a story, adding onto their prior messages.
We would also expect those outreaches to be issues, insight, problem oriented, not, “Our product has the leading features and functions, beating every other product on the market.” When presenting proofs, one would expect proofs to be relevant to us and our business. So, for example, I’m underwhelmed to know that Google, Microsoft, BofA are your customers, because our business is very different.
It is not unreasonable, since they purport to be the experts in customer engagement, sales, marketing, and customer experience; their execution of great selling, marketing, and service would be the benchmark of at least very good performance, if not great performance.
But I cringe with virtually every outreach from these organizations. The execution is among the worst I’ve ever experienced. Clients outside this space are often far superior in their demonstration of their marketing, selling and servicing prowess.
Somehow many of these people feel they need to engage me daily, a couple feel the urge to engage me 2-3 times a day. Perhaps they think my situation and needs change on an hourly basis, so this morning’s communication didn’t catch my attention, but all of a sudden, a few hours later it’s on the top of my priorities.
I may attend a webconference because it may be an interesting discussion on issues important in our field, and ALWAYS, I get a follow up on my interest in their product, usually asking for a demo.
Customers always expect us to “walk the talk.” To demonstrate that how we work and engage is consistent with what we have said. And our failure to do this speaks louder than any words we might say.
And, within the sales, marketing, customer experience markets, it is even more important that the way we engage and work with our prospects/customers models what we are telling them great sellers/marketers/servicers do.
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