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Customers often want advice when making decisions—particularly if they involve an emotional element. So, they seek the opinions of friends, colleagues, and marketers. Now research is showing that they also may seek a more personal connection with a salesperson when facing an emotional decision.

This researcher says that sales professionals who provide product information to customers may be judged according to how benevolent or expert they seem to be. The quality (benevolence or expertise) that matters to customers depends on the kind of decision they're making.

If they are making emotionally difficult decisions, customers tend to prefer benevolent information providers. (How do I start on this new restricted diet? What type of shoes will give me extra support?)

If they are making rational decisions, they tend to prefer expert information providers. (Will this time-share be worth the investment?) (Is this the right IRA for me?)

While all customers want to feel the salesperson helping them has a certain level of expertise, these results show they may also be looking for a bit of empathy when making tougher choices.

The Po!nt: Be nice. If decisions about choosing your product involve some emotional difficulty, train your salespeople to focus on being benevolent and kind.

A report by Forrester Research seems to think so, according to a recent article by Christine Kent at Ragan.com. "Blogs read like tired, warmed-over press releases," Kent quotes Forrester's Laura Ramos as saying. "Corporate bloggers [just] yak away about their companies and products." Yikes.

What's Forrester's beef with the B2B blog? It's too corporate. "Many B2B marketers fail to realize that good blogging style should resemble a coffee shop conversation, not a whitepaper," says the report.

Big Guy Bloggers should try learning from those who are getting it right. Here are some tips from John Dragoon, CMO at Novell, who was praised by Forrester for his authentic blog voice:

Offer inside scoops and viewpoints. "As an executive, you have a privileged view inside your company," says Dragoon. "I try to write and share something unique that readers wouldn't get through other channels of communication."

Don't get huffy about negativity. "Don't feel that you have to respond to or even publish overly negative comments or feedback," he says.

Be available. "I very often respond directly to folks who post to my blog via email and not through the blog itself," he reports. "They are very often surprised that I take the time to do that."

The Po!nt: Relax. Be yourself in your next post. Your own unique perspective just might get your company notiBefore you sign up for exclusive sponsorships, Rohit Bhargava suggests taking a hard look at what you really get out of the deal. Because if your sponsorship makes it difficult for people to get what they really want, the entire thing could blow up in your face.

Take the case of the the Olympic Games in Beijing, where Bhargava reports on shocked and dismayed visitors who had planned to use American Express or MasterCard at official venues. Though ad campaigns have long proclaimed Visa's official sponsorship, he argues most people still don't understand it's the only card they can use.

Discovering their mistaken belief at the ticket window won't endear Visa to potential—but greatly inconvenienced—customers.

"The end result is lots of negative experiences and consumer anger against Visa, including several people I spoke to who even said they would NOT get a new Visa card because of this tactic," notes Bhargava. "The incremental sales and revenue for Visa cards at the Games may be good, but the word of mouth generated for Visa at the world's largest sporting event is nearly all negative."

The Po!nt: "Ultimately, there are some brands who [sic] can realize the benefit of exclusivity and some that cannot," says Bhargava. "The trick is understanding where your brand fits before you drop a big chunk of your marketing budget into an exclusive sponsorship that won't deliver the way you expect."
Source: Influential Marketing Blog

released on----- 23 September, 2008