By: Zachary Sniderman
Businesses love cause marketing, and the belief is that supporting a good cause translates into stronger sales.
The Cause Marketing Forum has some pretty convincing numbers: In 2009, 72% of American consumers said they avoided purchasing products from companies whose practices they disagreed with. Accordingly, two-thirds of brands started engaging in cause marketing in 2010, up from 58% in 2009, according to a study by PRWeek and Barkely PR.
Consumers have taking a healthy shift towards doing good, with 86% of global buyers believing that businesses need to place at least equal weight on societal interests as on business interests, according to an Edelman survey. It’s not enough to make money — businesses also need to do good.
Okay, so you need to get on the cause marketing train. Unfortunately, the term has received a strange reputation thanks to cries of “greenwashing” and “cause-washing” — the act of hijacking important causes just to sell more stuff.
How do you run a successful cause marketing campaign that reflects well on your brand and also does some serious good? We’ve got five tips for you:
1. Do Your Homework
You can’t just pull off a cause marketing campaign overnight. It’s important to take a look at a several non-profits and causes and make sure that they have enough infrastructure to pair up with your business. This may not seem like a big deal for small business, but if you’re Pepsi or
Justin Bieber, you need to make sure your non-profit partner can handle the increase in donations and web traffic without crashing our losing track of funds.
It’s also important to properly vet any non-profit to make sure their track record is above-board. Look them up on sites like GuideStar.org or request their financial records so that you know exactly with whom you’re going into business. Nothing can deflate your brand faster than launching a campaign that turns out to be a scam.
2. What Is Your Brand About?
Of course, the other part of doing your homework is making sure that the cause matches up with your brand’s target demographic and with your brand image. For example, KFC got some
serious backlash for its partnership with Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Many were upset that breast cancer awareness would be associated with an unhealthy food like fried chicken.
By the same token, non-profits need to be careful of their corporate partners. You wouldn’t want a heart disease research non-profit accepting money from a cigarette company.
Think of partnerships that make sense. A sports equipment seller could pair up with a non-profit aimed at weight-loss or youth exercise. A technology company could pair up with non-profits focusing on education or startup support in developing countries.
Once you’ve found a non-profit that matches your brand image and customer base, it’s important to give the non-profit organizers a seat at the table, says Susan McPherson, the SVP of Fenton, a business consultancy that specializes in cause marketing and public interest communications. Not only does this show good faith, but the non-profit will know their cause better than you and can give you valuable information about how best to incorporate it into a campaign.
3. Involve Your Employees
If your business is embarking on a cause-marketing campaign, then your entire team needs to be on board. Talk to your employees about the causes that are important to them and make sure to get them engaged and motivated once you’ve picked a cause. Some companies offer their employees paid “volunteer” time, allowing them an hour each week, for example, during which they can volunteer at local charities or with the company’s partnered non-profit.
Once you’ve made a partnership, the cause is part of your business strategy. You’re not losing money by letting your employees contribute their time.
4. Manage Expectations
We’ve been speaking about cause marketing in terms of a long commitment. Most successful cause marketing campaigns aren’t one-offs, but rather sustained, mutually-beneficial partnerships between a business and a non-profit. This will be a less daunting proposition if you’ve done your homework and found a cause that syncs well with your brand image.
“For a cause marketing campaign or program to be successful, it must be planned and executed as a partnership,” McPherson says. “It must not be one-sided, and both the for-profit and non-profit partners must each have a stake to make it successful. Given that, a well-thought out and researched plan with milestones, deliverables and ROI built in needs to be created and agreed to at the get-go.”
It’s possible to run a one-off cause marketing campaign, but be clear what your goal is: Are you trying to make a difference in the world? Are you trying to sell more product? Are you trying to improve your brand image? These are each valid goals, but keep in mind that consumers are placing more and more emphasis on a business’ desire to do good, not turn a profit.
5. If It Hits the Fan
Sometimes things just don’t work out. If a partnership falls apart, it’s important for any business to take responsibility to their fans and be honest and transparent about what went wrong. If you find out your non-profit partner isn’t doing what they said they would, tell your audience and vow to find a way to keep supporting the cause.
If the partnership just wasn’t the right fit, like the KFC example above, tell your audience you made a mistake but stand by the message (being healthier, for example) and find another cause speaks to that message and syncs with your brand (sports training, for example).
Most often, people are turned off by cause marketing because it reeks of marketing lingo and has an uncomfortable PR sheen. Honesty and transparency will help combat this stereotype while drawing in your audience to get behind your chosen non-profit.
Cause marketing is a growing industry, but it can be susceptible to a “business-first” mentality. Anyone undertaking a cause marketing campaign will be fighting an ingrained preconceived notion that brands will just use non-profits to get more cash and fans. But when done properly, these partnerships aren’t just about profits and bottom-lines, but about making a real difference and putting brand power behind important issues.
By: Mary Freeman, Demand Media
We live in what is known as a “global village.” Interaction takes place between people of all origins, nationalities and cultures. If you are in sales or marketing, it is imperative that you understand a few basic concepts when dealing with new clients from a culture and background different from your own.
Take Action
There is much you can do throughout your interaction with international clients that will help make the process go smoothly. Remember to listen very carefully to everything they say. There might be a language barrier and difference in conversation style. Without listening, you might miss something important. Consistently ask questions to be sure that your client understands you and that you understand him. When first developing a relationship with a new client or market, you will be required to put in a little more personal attention. Once you have found something that works with a specific culture, remember it and possibly even record it; undoubtedly, you will be able to use it later on.
Research Different Cultures
Before marketing to anyone of another culture, you should have some sort of understanding about that culture. Research the economics of the culture. Distribution of wealth greatly influences consumer spending habits. Something that might sell with a certain group in one culture will be more marketable to a different group in a different culture. Likewise, you must know how age is dealt with in the culture. In the United States, a 15-year-old might seem to be little more than a child. In other cultures, though, 15-year-olds are treated as adults. Always be aware of the religious and cultural taboos of your client, too. For instance, in most of Europe, giving what Americans know as the “peace sign,” the forefinger and index finger extended in a V-shape, is highly offensive.
Have Knowledge of Intercultural Communication
A professor of anthropology and leading researcher in intercultural and professional communication, Geert Hofstede, has developed a set of five dimensions that represents ways in which a culture communicates. Nations receive a score for each dimension; a score represents where a nation sits on the spectrum for that dimension. These dimensions show how cultures deal with power distribution, individualism and collectivism, gender roles, acceptance of uncertainty and the value of face-saving over pragmatism. Knowing these dimensions and where your client’s culture stands with them will make all the difference. For instance, someone from a highly masculine-oriented country that is quite individualistic and prefers certainty will respond positively to a sales pitch that is straight to the point, clear and practical. A person from a vastly different culture might expect you to make appeals to his emotions, building a relationship with him and gaining his trust before he agrees to do business.
from: smartsalestips.com
Businesses can have all the sales they need to be wildly successful. How you ask? Well you could sit in your office cold calling, but that is a numbers game and most salespeople don’t like doing it so they are not very effective. Most people don’t buy from a cold call – do you?
Or do you reach out to someone you know for a recommendation? Most people tend to buy from people they know and trust and that’s why making connections and building relationships is the key to increasing your sales.
How many networking events do you attend each month? Are you getting enough leads from those?
Unfortunately, all too often I walk into “networking” events and see the following: people register, walk into the meeting room, find their friends or coworkers, sit down and start eating. They chat with the people they know and then listen to the speaker while they finish their meal. When the speaker finishes the raffle prizes are given and people leave. Or sometimes I see the ‘product-pushers’ who aren’t interested in connecting or learning anything about you, they just want to sell their product. Sound familiar?? I don’t consider either of these networking.
Networking is one of the easiest and most important things you can do to increase sales – when done effectively. But to get results you need to develop a strategy, set goals, and you need to do the follow up.
By: Kevin Davis
There are a lot of things about selling—and especially about losing a sale—that can seem mysterious. How you can deliver a well-received sales presentation only to learn a few weeks later you lost the sale to a competitor; why an almost-sure sale dries up at the last minute, because the customer decided to do nothing; why a formerly enthusiastic buyer goes silent, and doesn’t return your phone calls, just as you think you’re about to close the deal…the list could go on.
If you find yourself losing more sales than you can afford, here are some tips to get you back on track:
1. Be the first in the door
Studies have shown that customers, managers and executives will often buy from the first person who helps them understand their needs. Step up your prospecting. Think high persistence, not high pressure.
2. Listen before talking
Salespeople have been taught how to get through the steps of their sale quickly and sales managers often encourage them to close a deal faster. What salespeople haven’t been taught is how to slow down and get the customer to do more of the talking.
3. Identify more customer needs
The first need a customer mentions may be at the forefront of their minds, or it may be something one of your competitors planted in their brains. When the customer is talking, listen for additional needs. Probe some more. The more needs a customer recognizes, the greater urgency they will feel for taking action.
4. Go down the chain before going up
Have you been taught to get to executive-level decisions makers as quickly as you can? That’s not bad advice…unless you go there with nothing interesting or important to say about their business! Going downthe organizational chart to talk to users about their challenges and needs can give you insights that will help you deliver a more compelling sales message to executives.
5. Don’t just dance with the one who brung ya!
Most major purchasing decisions are made by a team of people. You can hit a lot of speed bumps if all your knowledge comes from only one customer contact. Identify all the decision makers on the buying team. Ask your contact, “What other key people should I talk with to gather more information about these problems and needs?” Get to a second decision maker as quickly as you can in the process.
6. Link your differentiators to priority needs
For a differentiator to become a competitive advantage it must be connected to a customer problem. The customer will see you as the best choice only if the things that make your solution different from your competitor’s are directly connected to what they see as their most important needs.
7. Figure out what step of buying the customer is in
When a prospect calls, many salespeople fail to ask a vital question: “What steps have you taken thus far in your decision-making process?” You need to learn whether the prospect has just starting thinking about this idea, perhaps wondering if they have a need to do something, or if they have already been meeting with some of your competitors and are now shopping around for a good price.
8. Measure success based on customer actions
You may think a sales call went great, but what did the customer doafterwards? Did you have them commit to take a specific action by a certain date? If not, why not? Every call should get the customer to move forward another step, or at least another inch, through their buying process.
9. Schedule a follow-up
Customers often start to have second thoughts after they’ve heard all the presentations or read all the proposals submitted to them. This is not the time to back off. Stay in touch so you can address any concerns the customer raises about what you’re offering.
10. Slow down
Good salespeople are enthusiastic and knowledgeable—it’s very hard to fight the urge to rush in and fix everything with your good advice! But you’ll get farther with the customer, and faster, if you fight the urge to sell on your timeline. Think instead about helping the customer through their buying process.
Now more than ever, sales leaders will be those who differentiate themselves not by what they sell, but by how they sell…and how they treat customers after the sale.
