By Francis Moran
There may be nothing quite so ubiquitous in the normal sales cycle for the enterprise software market as the software demo. And there may be nothing that kills as many promising deals as the software demo done poorly. And yet, the demo is such a critical part of the sales cycle. Delivered at the right stage in the sales process and sharply tuned to the prospect’s real needs, there are few tools in your sales kit more potent than a well-run demo.
The karmic gods must believe I deserve punishment for some dire past offence for they have obliged me to sit through well more than my share of wretched demos. The only solace I can take is that I don’t seem to be alone in this; a quick scan of colleagues plus my own experience made the following list of software demo failures all too easy to compile.
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Editors Note: As guest blogger Denzil Doyle addressed last month, Canada is a branch-plant economy with fewer and fewer head offices, which are usually the driving force behind the R&D needed to create a strong innovation economy. In today’s post, Maurice Smith relates Scotland’s comparable situation as a result of the concentration of economic decision-making in the south of England and how this impacts the rest of Britain.
By Maurice Smith
The independence debate is dominating Scottish political debate right now, and will continue to do so for at least the next 15 months.
On Sept. 18, 2014, Scotland will decide whether or not to remain within the U.K. The political debate embraces many issues, but the biggest is the economy.
I realize I don’t have to tell readers in Canada too much about the nuances of constitutional debate. TV reporters in Scotland and Quebec are already boosting their air miles crossing the Atlantic to produce speculative pieces about next year’s poll.
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By Leo Valiquette
Summer, as I wrote in my last post, is no time to slack off from a marketing and PR perspective, but this raises the obvious question, what to do through July and August?
Most community business networking events are on hiatus. So too are conferences and trade shows. On any given week key spokespeople and thought leaders in your organization may be on vacation.
It may be a quiet time, a down time, but there are still things you can do.
The most obvious is focus on your social media channels and your blog. Throughout most of the year, busy marketing and communications teams struggle to keep these machines fed and use them as they are intended to engage in valuable dialogue with target audiences on a consistent basis. So use these summer workdays constructively to create and ingrain good social media habits into your organization. And if developing a sound and comprehensive social media strategy is one of those things that just keeps sliding off of the plate, now is the time to tackle the project in earnest so you are ready to pull the trigger when everything shifts into top gear again following Labour Day.
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By Jay Innes
Marketing and communications pros – hell, even PR folks and business developers – can force a smile after reading a study examining Canada’s productivity and following that with a scan of a Branham report on the Canadian ICT industry.
Deloitte Canada recently released The Future of Productivity: A Wake Up Call for Canadian Companies, assessing the worrisome trend that sees startups flourish and then flounder because growth and productivity aren’t sustained. The slowdown and full-blown failure of many startups is, the report states, a partial result of business leaders “not investing in the activities required to sustain growth.” The authors advise firms to increase their focus on gathering competitive intelligence as part of an effort to avoid slipping behind their peers.
“Canada’s entrepreneurs may have mastered the art of creating fast-growing businesses with great potential, but they fall short when it comes to sustaining them,” states the Deloitte study.
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By Hailley Griffis
As per our usual Friday schedule, we have rounded up some of the best articles we’ve come across in the past week to share with our readers. Front and centre this time around are Social Media Today, SocialMediaB2B, Marketing Sherpa Blog and Econsultancy.
How much content do you need? Here’s a formula
Jay Baer looks into a formula for content marketing. Is there a certain amount of content required? According to Jay, if you want to make your content useful, there absolutely is. You need to look at personas, budget stages and the number of questions you need to answer, before moving to the next stage. The formula involves all of these numbers and helps you figure out how many of your customer’s questions your content should be answering.
Daily social media usage includes B2B customers and prospects
Though some companies seem to think their customers aren’t on social media, Jeffrey Cohen writes about recent statistics that reveal that 40 per cent of the world uses a social media site every day. The study goes into which social networks are used and when specifically their traffic peaks throughout the day, with information such as “2.1 billion search queries are conducted on Twitter every day. That’s almost half as many as performed on Google.” The importance in these numbers for marketing lies in understanding where your customers are on social networks. With that information, you can create the presence, and the content, to find them.
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Social media marketing: Pitfalls and how to avoid them
July 04, 2013 by Chamber of Commerce
Most people understand how to use social media to find friends, activities, games, etc. Businesses are also becoming more adept at finding both their current customers as well as new ones by using social media sites to their advantage. But social media can be a […]
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Why confidentiality? (Part 2)
July 03, 2013 by David French
This is Part 2 to an earlier posting on the above topic. In Part 1 we addressed “confidentiality agreements,” and “nondisclosure agreements – NDAs” […]
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June roundup: What does it take to get technology to market?
July 02, 2013 by Hailley Griffis
Last month’s content lineup featured great posts that shattered common myths about listening to feedback from investors, the future of the tech-world for entrepreneurs and how far a little cleverness can take you in your marketing strategy […]
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Happy Canada Day long weekend!
July 01, 2013 by Hailley Griffis
From all of us at Francis Moran and Associates, we hope you have a happy and safe Canada Day long weekend. Regular posting will resume tomorrow.
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Great articles roundup: Entrepreneurial missteps, marketing strategy, the world of PR
June 28, 2013 by Hailley Griffis
As per our usual Friday schedule, we have rounded up some of the best articles we’ve come across in the past week to share with our readers. Front and centre this time around are Startup Professionals, Financial Post and the Huffington Post […]
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Running faster is not the solution to Canada’s productivity challenge
June 27, 2013 by Denzil Doyle
Canada’s debate on productivity is one in which the country’s high-tech industry has both a right and a responsibility to participate. […]
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International Startup Festival hits Montreal for third edition
June 26, 2013 by Francis Moran
Outside of my annual summer vacation, one of the things I most look forward to when the weather turns hot is the International Startup Festival, returning to Montreal from July 10 to 13 for a third great year. I chatted this week with Phil Telio, the festival’s maestro […]
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Summer is no time to slack off
June 25, 2013 by Leo Valiquette
Here we are, a few days from the Canada Day long weekend. For many of us, it marks the beginning of a two-month stretch of general slacking as many workplaces downshift in response to mass vacation taking. Or … maybe not […]
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By Francis Moran
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The Future of A&R – Walabe : [...] http://francis-moran.com/marketing-strategy/top-10-questions-every-strategic-communicator-should-ask... [...]
Traditional Marketing is Dead – Long Live Bikini Waxer Marketing | Scalexl : [...] pointed out by Alexandra Reid on the Francis Moran website content marketing is becoming more and more like journalism. So, it is not just about the content, [...]
It’s Summertime…and the Networking is Easy? | THE MERRAINE BRAIN : [...] In fact, summer is perhaps one of the times least used to network, yet at the same time has shown to be the most productive time to network. People tend to be in a brighter mood compared to during the gloomy winters-especially where I am from in England! Networking needs to be fun and not approached as another chore, like mowing the lawn. (http://francis-moran.com/marketing-strategy/social-media-strategy-why-meeting-in-the-real-world-matt...) [...]