B2B Content Marketing

Why a taxonomy?

A little background, when I started in IT, back in 1981, I worked with a reference librarian at a large global company, her system would allow us to pull data up on request, serve it and on to the next request.    I liked that, it was simple, there was process, it was repeatable and best of all it was labeled, cataloged, sorted.  It was manageable. Then what happened?

From 1986-1992, my wife and I had 4 children, if we did not implement and have a process and order, things would of gotten out of hands very quickly.  I think that is where we are now, everyone is in a race to get their content on the web but often apply no rhyme or reason to what content, where is it coming from, how to serve it, why someone needs it, who needs it and why they need it.

In the hopes of helping others bring order to a process, our taxonomy framework will adopt, modify and adjust 2 open source frameworks:  The APQC Process Classification Framework (PCF) and the component and tagging concepts of Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA).

What is the value a taxonomy?

Often times when I hear the word, “content inventory” mentioned it is not in the best of light.  It is not a fun or glamorous work, to wade through page after page of multi-format content types looking for valuable data to be included in the components of a content strategy.  It is hard work, tedious and boring.  Yet, there are functional commonalities and content components in business process across companies; it’s called SG&A. With standard components we can serve any content anywhere quicker and more efficiently.

Why SG&A?  Introducing the component frameworks:

As we know each business process function and process has content assets, we choose SG&A because SG&A is measurable, for public companies in the U.S.A., through GaaP and soon to be IFRS. SG&A allows us to evaluate cost variances and justify process and content optimization initiatives.

What’s next?

We are mapping the PCF into content components; each component will have content assets.  When complete we will have a standard list of content components across SG&A.  With a content taxonomy your content strategy will be easier to create, adopt, rollout and maintain.

Since this is an open source project many hands make short work.  If you are interested in participating or have subject matter expertise in a functional area we would love to hear from you. 

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act put the CFO as the manager in charge while business intelligence, software as a service and open source has caused a democratization of IT. CFO’s have inherited the mantra of “do more with less” and must transition from aligning IT with the business to aligning IT with your companies’ customers. Their two primary objectives are:
• Increase total return to shareholder

• Achieve operational excellence

The changing role of the CFO
The CFO needs to be part of the business instead of chasing the business and needs to drive innovation, differentiation, competitive advantage and real value.
The new CFO will engage with functional executives to identify where value-creating opportunities exist and how resources should be allocated to capture them.
The new CFO balances the role of chief accountant with that of business partner. Their manta, productivity of the internal customer is the key to cost control and productivity is achieved through the world of measurement and performance metrics.

It’s college application and essay time.  This was written by my niece Erin Colonnese, on the art of customer satisfaction:

It wasn’t until my fellow co-workers told me that I “should be charging six-hundred dollars for a sundae” that I realized a little bit more about myself. For the two and a half years that I have been working at Dairy Queen, I have always been told that I pile on the nuts as high as the sky, or that the caramel shouldn’t be drowning the ice-cream. It’s not that these extra efforts are a problem; it’s that my co-workers think I am too generous with the amount of ingredients I provide per sundae. I always take my time making them, putting the few extra peanuts, the second dab of whipped cream, and not just one cherry but two. By putting the time and effort into each delight, I receive a sense of fulfillment doing my job. The joy in making each sundae gives the customers the satisfaction that I want them to receive from my unique concoction.

The smiles and happiness that I obtain from customers when I place each piled-high masterpiece on the counter is my motivation to continue. My efforts to make every sundae valued at six-hundred dollars were appreciated when a man came back up to me and handed me a five dollar bill. He complimented me for my efforts and said that his sundae was the best sundae that he had ever eaten. Bursting with energy and confidence I was satisfied with myself that I had made someone else happy with the valuable efforts I had put forth. I had five more dollars to put into my gas tank but my efforts as to how I made that sundae hadn’t changed. Did I put more nuts than I usually would? Was there more hot fudge drowning the ice-cream than normal? I gathered my thoughts and retraced my steps crafted into this indulgence. Each sundae I had made before this valued sundae, I had made the exact same way. No matter what type of sundae I made, whether hot fudge, strawberry or caramel, I made it how I would want to have my sundae made, lots of toppings and little extra effort into the process of making it. Everyday after this, I made sundaes the same way that I had done so previously. When making them, I always tried to figure out what I did differently with that one “five dollar deserving” sundae.

After many, many attempts, I just figured that maybe the five dollar sundae man was appreciative of my creation. There was no secret recipe or secret ingredient that was included. Maybe the man just liked the ratio of ice-cream to topping, or liked the fact that there was a little extra put into the process than my co-workers would have done. I apply this “little extra” ideology throughout all experiences that I am faced with whether it’s making sundaes at Dairy Queen, putting the extra effort into my school work or spending time with family and friends.

The man that appreciated the little extra nuts or the little extra fudge gave me insight into discovering just a small part of who I am as a person. The process of gathering the components to make a sundae and putting in the extra efforts to make each customer satisfied gives me the joy in making ice cream for each individual that crosses my path. With a little extra practice comes a little more success. With a little more effort comes a little more gain. With a little extra learning comes a little more value. My “six-hundred dollar” sundae was instrumental in giving me information about myself. I apply a little extra to everything.

With the economic rebound in play and knowledge and content gaps at an all time high, a sales information portal can transform process activities efficiently and effectively with just in time information.  Let’s first lets talk about the components, Figure 1 identifies a typical work flow of  a sales information portal:

Sales: Current inside and outside sales force and marketing.

Legal: Current terms and conditions document

IT: Technology used to support process

ATS: available to sell

WIP: work in process (product)

AR: accounts receivable

SME: Subject matter expert

CRM: Customer relationship management

The integration points is a taxonomy, process activity and anticipating what is in the mind of the buyer, i.e. is product engineering information is required during the sales process.

The ROI of Business Value 

Now more than ever before business value and ROI  is the decision driver for SG&A optimization based projects, i.e  for top line growth, using the internet and inside sales to add top-line revenue.  For bottom line improvements,  SG&A expense reduction through layoffs, downsizing and right-sourcing allows CFO’s to cut costs not without a knowledge loss risk.  Cost of sales and most SG&A costs can be softened with implementation of empirical best practices and a common taxonomy.

SG&A functions as a utility.

A SG&A  taxonomy has, on average has up to 1,800 activities that roll up to functional units, i.e. Finance, HR, sales or IT in a typical US business today.     Each function has two variables: what is cost to operate internally and price or external pricing by a service provider.   If you can reduce the cost of a function, a total value of opportunity can calculated.

ROI with no top line growth.

Often a project for a SG&A function has empirical best practices,  implementation of these proven practices continues paying dividends year after year based upon efficiency and effectiveness gains of your particular functional process or activity.

The bottom line.

In today’s economy a clear business value must be articulated for a project to get approved and completed.  Effectiveness, efficiency or cost  control must be at the forefront of every conversation.  Have a clear message and identify exact SG&A functions and activities where your  project’s solution effects bottom line savings or top line growth.  Articulate the value of implementation of best practices and don’t underestimate the best practices your solution or project allows to implement in short order, offering low hanging fruit for quick wins.  Most important have a taxonomy to speak the same language across the supply chain, HR,  sales, IT, and finance.

Think about it, from autos to xylophones every person who sets out to buy anything envisions themselves utilizing the product or service prior to ownership.  They might think about how others will see and perceive them, a sweeter note, or how it will save them time or money.  I call this personal value.

The same is true for B2B sales, people set out to buy goods and services to solve business issues, and a projects success or failure has ramifications to the buyer or buyers, a promotion, more responsibility or acceptance into a peer group.  Often overlooked by most, personal value to the buyer, has a strong emotional influence in everyone’s purchasing decision.

How to uncover personal value?

Often we spout on about our products and services, we talk about bells and whistles, features and benefits.  Do you ask your prospects and clients, “what’s riding on the success and failure of this project?”  In other words, “what is in it for you?”

In the face of competition, we often bypass our client’s or prospects individual concerns and go directly to the group of decision makers en masse. We look inward at the product, because we are trained to think that the consensual nature of a decision depends on the cumulative discovery of facts. With that we think, the decision is determined by a group, rather then individuals, yet we all know that is not true, the best man does not always win.

Don’t get me wrong, the group will engage in rational calculation of benefits and cost, but the group’s decision criteria does not take into consideration individual wants or motives.  The individual will make it appear, articulate and justify their decision based upon adequately rational facts, and often justify their choice under the guise, “ready willing and able to do the right thing.”  Here is my point, you  can have the best product or service and not win the deal.  Why?  Perhaps if you took off your company’s hat for a bit, and ask the question, “what’s in for you?” you will win more deals, one heart and mind at a time.

Keyword marketing assumes you own the word string via a domain registration service.  Search engine optimization on the other hand you are vying for position for a particular keyword string based on campaigns.

Today with over 75% of click throughs from organic search, insure organic placement takes precedent over pay per click.

With 8 word searches and multiple suffixes showing up in search results it’s still  quality, relevant content that gets top organic placement and the click throughs.

A major benefit for undertaking an account, content and sales information portal (SIP) initiative is to reduce the cost of sales.  Sales investments should always contribute directly to key corporate sales goals and tied to measurable outcomes.  Here a few items to help justify an account, content and SIP project:

• Establish metrics on the number of meetings per marketing initiative, and did it lead to securing a meeting with the right level within the target company?
• After an initial meeting, measure how many salespeople understand and can articulate your prospects business issue. Identify now if subject matter experts are required and  inventory what knowledge is required and create, modify and archive.
• Create a vision for the client and establish a procedure to articulate it to prospects.  Client’s and prospects will need to  understand how your product or service will solve their particular business issue.
• Develop an ROI-  the salesperson must be able to have a conversation with the client about his or her business issues and your unique differention.  This is where most sales people need the help,  in  understanding and articulating a clear vision of your business value and unique differentiation

Three steps to control sales support spending:

1. Inventory random acts of sales support

2. Audit spending on sales support across SG&A

3. Discontinue programs that don’t drive sales.

Control sales costs

According to Sirius Decisions, “ Unrelenting expense pressures are forcing sales leaders to rethink the affordability and disposition of all their sales support resources.”  The evolution of sales to content marketing provides a sales information portal that allows the sales person to become a subject matter expert.  A recent Forrester study cites up to 19% of SG&A expense is tied up in the hidden cost to support sales, the report continues, “Few are aware of this enormous amount because costs are hidden- tucked away in many different budgets dispersed throughout the organization.”

We realize selling is often a cross functional activity,  this initiative will lead to better coordinated resources across SG&A and equip client-facing employees with a process  and the necessary tools to meet your sales goals and reduce sales costs.

A major benefit for undertaking sales alignment and content marketing initiatives is to reduce the cost of sales.  According to Sirius Decisions, “ Unrelenting expense pressures are forcing sales leaders to rethink the affordability and disposition of all their sales support resources.”  The evolution of sales to content marketing provides sales a platform that allows the sales person to become a subject matter expert.  A recent Forrester study cites up to 19% of SG&A expense is tied up in the hidden cost to support sales, so the RIO numbers are huge.

From Sirius Decision’s perspective, they describe the development of microsites augmented with rich media that allows salespeople to access content or people resources to differentiate their goods and services from their competitors. Not only does sales information portals and content marketing allow you to find, care and feed website visitors but reduces the cost of the sales process too.

Are you one to believe in conspiracy theories?  One of my favorites is the one about the new world order.  Looking at twitter these days, at least in the people I am following with few exceptions, we are all starting to sound alike, comment alike, pitch alike, sell  and market alike,  in other words we are turning into ZOMBIES.   Even our websites are starting to look alike!  Watch any zombie movie, they all act the same, like lame ducks inching to its prey. The point is, its not about the technology.  Our new microsite is nothing fancy, the URL cost 6.95, Wordpress is open source, I do use Thesis and I abhor other peoples advertising so  developed my own player. That is of course unless I need the perfect piece of  and it belongs to someone else: