I attended a talk last week that was presented by Bill Laggner of Bearing Asset Management. The talk was recommended by a friend who told me that Bill’s Hedge Fund is up 125% year-to-date. That’s quite a feat in today’s financial market.

He definitely had something to sell, but you wouldn’t know it. He was the quintessential trusted adviser. Instead of selling by selling; he was selling by teaching. He talked about how his team had been following the credit bubble, and how they realized a couple of years ago that much of the economy’s growth was due to credit expansion. And most importantly, that the growth was not only unsustainable but that many of our largest and most respected financial institutions would literally collapse. They shorted (meaning they purchased options that would allow them to benefit as stock prices fell) many major banks and Wall Street institutions when they were at their peak stock price, and then waited for stock prices to plummet. And plummet they did. Let me tell you, betting that most of our major financial institutions were going to tank at the very same time those very same stocks were soaring took guts.

His presentation was great. Within 45 minutes, you could see that everyone in the room was completely enthralled with his wisdom, ideas and foresight.  Then he allowed people to ask questions.

A woman in the back of the room stood up, and launched into a speech about Bill, investments, inflation and I can’t remember what else. She didn’t actually ask a question. She made a statement, and she seemed to know Bill, but I couldn’t be sure. As she was talking, I couldn’t help but wonder if she was a shill. I didn’t say anything, but the a man behind me turned to his friend and whispered, “Is she a shill?” If I was thinking she was a plant, and the men behind me thought she was a plant, then you could be sure that other people in the room wondered the same thing. And since this talk happened about a week after the Madoff scandal broke, people were sensitized to be being lured into bad situations. And she didn’t have just one speech, she had an encore performance too.

So, let’s review. Bill spoke, established credibility, and built a rapport with the members of the audience. Then a woman stands up, and instead of asking a question, she delivers two speeches. I have no idea if Bill ever met this woman before, but the more she spoke, the more she eroded the trust that Bill built with his audience.

What does this mean for marketers? What can we learn from this? We’ve entered into a new age. Building trust is harder than ever. People are skeptical, and they’re not willing just to hand over the trust they way they once did. Even just a hint of a strange scent in the air will send customers packing. Today, marketers need total transparency. We need to lay our cards out on the table even when we have no reason to do so. The age of marketing BS and false claims is over. The age of honesty is upon us.

In my opinion, Bill could have managed the Q&A portion of the presentation better. First, I don’t think he should have even had a Q&A session because he lost control of the message. He probably would have been better off just letting people crowd around him and ask individual questions. And second, if he did know the woman who made those unannounced speeches, he needed to explain the connection in order to maintain credibility. If he didn’t know the woman, he probably needed to be more assertive in asking her to hold her comments until after the presentation. And if he did know her, she still shouldn’t have been allowed to drone.

While I enjoyed the presentation and sense that Bill is a highly capable and trustworthy financial manager, the Q&A session left me with a question mark. I wonder if others in the room had the same reaction. As marketers, we have to manage all the variables, and go to new lengths to build and maintain trust. We need  to anticipate and allay concerns and fears about anything that might get in the way of our credibility and trustworthiness.

It’s not enough to be honest. You have to make sure that no one else can create any doubt about you.

“In these rough economic times, do you think this type of message is smart? Are they building confidence with this kind of messaging or is the painful message an overall turn-off? Your thoughts?”

On his blog, I offered the following comment:

Just to make sure you know what I mean by sticky, here are a few examples that you’ll recognize immediately:

• urban legends – the same stories make the rounds for years and years, without promotion;
• Proverbs – Remember “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”? This has been around for thousands of years;
• Jared from the Subway ads – Everyone remembers how Jared went from 425 lbs. to 180 lbs just by walking to Subway and eating the same sandwich every day.

The key to stickiness is that all of these ideas are remembered and passed on without the help of huge advertising budgets. But what makes an idea not sticky? No body sets out to create boring ideas that no one remembers, so what causes ideas to fail? Chip and Dan call it the “The Curse of Knowledge.” When you know too much, it can make it really difficult to present your ideas in a simple and sticky way.

The following table tries to capture their concept:

Robert Cialdini, best-selling author of the book Influence: Science and Practice, has an entire chapter on the power of reciprocation. People feel a powerful need to reciprocate. In fact, the need is so powerful that people will actually say “yes” to things that they would not have normally said “yes” to. He provides several interesting examples. In one example, he examines an experiment conducted by Dennis Regan in 1971.

Here’s how the experiment worked: Two subjects were both asked to rate the quality of some paintings as part of an experiment on “art appreciation.” However, one of the two subjects, wasn’t really a subject. He was “Joe” - Dennis Regan’s assistant - posing as another subject in the “art appreciation” experiment. In addition, this really wasn’t an art appreciation experiment. It was an experiment to test the idea of reciprocity.

Dr. Regan brought in several subjects one by one, and teamed them up with “Joe” who pretended just to be another subject. Each time Dr. Regan ran the experiment with a new subject, he’d have “Joe” do one of two things.

1. For half of the subjects who were asked to participate in the experiment, “Joe” and the subject would rate art for awhile, and then Joe would leave the room during a break and would return with two Cokes. He’d offer one to the subject.
2. For the second set of subjects, he’d leave the room during the break and just come back. He didn’t even mention a Coke.

Now for the real experiment…

For all of the subjects who participated, at the end of the day “Joe” would ask the subject to do him a favor. He told the subject that he was selling raffle tickets for a new car, and that if he sold most of the tickets, he would win a $50 prize. The tickets were 25 cents each, and the more they could buy, the better. You can guess what happened, right?

The subjects who “Joe” gave a Coke to earlier in the day purchased twice as many tickets. That’s the power of reciprocity. Pretty powerful idea, right? I bet your wheels are spinning wondering what you can give away to be able to have these kinds of results. And you’re probably also thinking about all the people who have pulled this same trick on you.

This is the reason why most major companies prohibit their managers from accepting any kind of gift from outside vendors. They know that it’s easy to influence people with something as small as a nice dinner or tickets to a Broadway play.

How do you employ this idea of reciprocity in a Kosher way? While I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a nice meal with a customer on occasion or buying them a small and meaningful gift from time to time provided the intent is genuine, but the best Kosher thing you can give away is knowledge. By teaching people how to do things better, you create a real bond and they will have a strong desire to help you as well.

I’ve actually come to the conclusion that the more generous you are with knowledge, wisdom and guidance, the more you’re rewarded. And while it’s true that you may not receive back the same gift from everyone, overall you and everyone around you will benefit. And even if you were to give away all of your knowledge, it’s your experience that’s truly valuable.

What types of knowledge can you impart to your customers that will help them form a closer relationship with you? What can you give them that will help them be more successful in their business, so they need to buy more from you?

Be good. Market Smart.

Which email ad would you be most likely to open? The answer is pretty obvious. Dog owners who own a dog with arthritis experience almost as much pain as the dogs themselves. In the second ad, Gordon Magee, Internet Marketing and Analysis Manager for Drs. Foster and Smith, didn’t sell by selling. He sold by teaching. By providing useful information about arthritis, he educated his customers and became a trusted advisor. He created relevance. Although his conversions and click-throughs were only slightly higher with the second ad, the major improvement was sales. Because customers knew more about the subject, they put more items in their shopping cart.

Let’s take a look at which of the Ten Commandments of Kosher Marketing he followed.

Download a copy of the white paper for more information on the commandments and Kosher Marketing.

Kosher Marketing is about doing good things for people. The first ad was all about the sale. The second ad was all about the customer. What would I recommend to improve the ad?

Now that we know that content-based ads are more effective than sale-focused ads, I’d turn my attention to the design of the ad and the offer. I’d test to see what happened if we eliminated all of the product information and just invited people to read an article interspersed with relevant products. I’d test different colors, typography, but most importantly I’d try to find an image that was sticky. Would it be possible to show an image of a dog and owner that truly shows the agony of arthritis? For example, my mother-in-law pulled her arthritis inflicted dog “Tico” in a wagon when she took him on walks because he had so much trouble walking. Images that tell a story and create emotion can be extremely powerful. I’d also provide the first paragraph of the article in the ad, and I’d make sure that it really hooked customers in. The ad might also be a nice opportunity to promote a social network that caters to people who own dogs with arthritis. Perhaps they could offer an informative arthritis webcast?

Congratulations to Marketing Sherpa and DrsFosterSmith.com for their great work.

I want to hear your thoughts. How would you improve the ad?

Your customer’s questions and concerns change dramatically as they move through the buying process. By understanding their mindset at each stage, you can give them exactly what they want, where they want, and when they want it.

Click to enlarge.

Here’s a personal example of the process I went through when I bought my first digital camera:

First, I wondered why I would even need a digital camera. After reading several articles in the New York Times, I realized that digital photography was a better way to fuel my passion - taking pictures of my kids. When I wanted to learn more, I did a Google search on “digital camera”, and found many hobbyist sites. After learning new vocabulary like megapixels, jpeg, RAW, and image stabilization and reading a buyer’s guide at dpreview.com, I decided I needed a DSLR. After going to Nikon.com and Canon.com, I chose Nikon, a specific model number and a combination of lenses. The Google searches became more specific “Nikon D100, review, telephoto, sports photography.” Once I knew which lens I needed and found reviews confirming my choices, I had to figure out where to buy it. So I asked a friend, and he recommended B&H Camera.

Click to enlarge.

As you can see from the diagram and the camera example, a customer’s questions and information needs change as he moves through the buying cycle. As his Google searches evolve, so do the places he looks for content. The more he learns, the more depth he wants and the more assurance he needs that he’s making the right decision. In short, a Kosher Marketer has to not only target specific customers but he has to understand that their needs for answers will change dramatically over time. The marketing pieces you create have to lead the customer through the entire buying process, and ultimately to your front door.

In the coming weeks and months, we’ll explore each of the stages of the buying cycle in depth, and discuss the kinds of content you should create for each stage.

If they’re doing that for cars and cameras, you can imagine how much time they are spending to learn about complex B2B products and services prior to giving your sales rep a call.

While customer training can be a nice source of revenue after a sale, offering free training prior to a sale can be one of the most powerful weapons in your marketing arsenal.

For complicated products, customers want to know whether the product is really going to do what they hope. As useful as white papers, Web sites, case studies, podcasts, data sheets, and demos are, customers won’t make a commitment to your product until they’re sure it will meet their needs and that they can put it to good use. That means they have to understand how it works, and they need to kick the tires in a meaningful way to see whether it’ll work for them before they make the commitment to place an order.

In short, while they may not be ready to speak to someone in sales, they may be very ready to study your product in detail on their own.

The best way to accomplish early buying cycle training is by helping your prospective customers try your product and learn to succeed with it. Oddly enough, you might find that your trainers could become your top sales people.

Here are eight tips for making early buying cycle training a success for you and your future customer:

1. Trainers need to be trained by marketing how to answer questions in a meaningful way that addresses the customer’s underlying concerns. It’s essential that the trainer understand not only the technical aspect of the question being asked but also the underlying concerns of the customer, so that the answer can address real objections.
2. You need to assess the level of detail you want to go into for your pre-sales training. You don’t want to give prospective customers so much depth that they find the training boring, yet you don’t want to be superficial, either. You’ll have to gauge the proper duration and depth by talking to customers prior to developing the training program, and you may even want to offer different levels of training.
3. You want your customers to succeed at doing something tangible and useful without overwhelming them with complexity. You have to design your training so that your customers can appreciate your product’s range of options while helping them accomplish something simple.
4. Build customer success stories into your training. Offering interesting anecdotes and short case studies throughout the presentation is an excellent way to both explain the benefits in a meaningful context and keep prospective customers engaged.
5. Provide a student guide. You want your prospective customers to have a tangible student guide laced with additional feature/benefit and customer success information. In short, you want to give them a useful handbook that’s stuffed with your features, benefits, and case studies in the margins.
6. After they’ve gone through your training, make sure they feel like they’re “in the club.” Bags, hats, mugs or any relevant and useful item is a nice gift to offer them on their way out the door.
7. Give them a comparative buyer’s guide. Handing out a document that frames the issues to facilitate a competitive evaluation can help shorten decision timeframes.
8. Offer an honest assessment of the market options, and don’t be afraid to recommend another product if it’s truly a better fit for a customer. Not every shoe fits every customer, and you’ll do wonders for your credibility by just giving an honest opinion.

When people feel you’ve empowered them, they’ll love you. Pre-sales customer training empowers your sales prospects and helps your reps to close the sale.

There’s an added benefit to offering early buying cycle training to potential customers—you can bring your competition to tears. Why? Once potential customers learn how your product works and feel good about the interaction with you, they’ll be comparing your competitor’s product to your product every step of the way. You’ll be the benchmark to beat.

And keep in mind that training can be offered in many formats. You can offer instructor-led training, video training, or even e-learning by leveraging the same core set of training materials. Big prospective customers can get the in-person, instructor-led training; customers with less potential can get the online video version delivered from your Web site.

Once you’ve built a good curriculum and core set of materials, you can use them throughout your marketing campaigns.

While you’ll still need whitepapers, podcasts, datasheets, case studies, demos, and all the standard fare in marketing, a well-constructed training program offered early in the customer’s product-research process will give you the unfair advantage that your sales reps will love.

The word “kosher” has many meanings like good, genuine, and high quality, and that’s exactly what Kosher Marketing strives to be. Kosher Marketing takes the high ground. It’s about combining smart marketing with pure and wholesome goodness to build meaningful relationships with your customers –  relationships built on trust, kindness and your generosity. And most importantly, Kosher Marketing is about fueling people’s passion, not your own ego.

Kosher Marketing works. Practice and research prove it. By engaging in it, you won’t sacrifice return on investment. In fact, you’ll be rewarded. You’ll make better decisions, you’ll need less content, and over time your response and conversion rates will increase because your relationships will be deeper.

You’ve heard it many times before. Nice guys finish last. But with Kosher Marketing, nice guys can and do finish first. Kosher Marketing is good for everyone – you and your customers. If you’re a marketer, I invite you to participate at koshermarketing.com, and I welcome your ongoing input.

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