That’s when the CEO chimed in: “Oftentimes the purchaser of our products and services is a different person than the actual end user.”

Eureka!

AdWords and other paid search programs track via cookies, which is functional most of the time except in a few cases:

• the user blocks cookies on their system
• the user disables javascript (needed for tracking code)
• the user takes more than 30 days to return and purchase (unlikely, but possible in B2B)
• the user leaves the site (or bookmarks it) and comes back on another browser or even another computer to complete the transaction

That last scenario is what I encountered. The user in need of the product was searching for and finding us online. They weren’t authorized to spend the 4-5 figure amount on the product and so passed the link on to the purchasing department.

In a B2B sale it is much more complex than B2C, including longer decision making cycles and multiple decision makers. Make sure your process accounts for that.

In my case, I devised a few early indicators of purchasing intent that I could track down to that initial user. Knowing that they probably wanted to save the page to share with a colleague, I made it possible for them to bookmark the page in a way that allowed me to set the tracking cookie. I also added an email form they could complete to share the link elsewhere. They had found what they wanted. Essentially I wanted to take them off the market so that they wouldn’t feel compelled to visit a competitor’s site. I set up separate conversion tracking for each action.

Problem solved. Sales still come in and I get a better (albeit still imperfect) way to monitor progress along the sales process. The moral of the story is to investigate all possibilities as to why sales are not showing up. Just because your reporting system says there’s nothing going on doesn’t mean that it’s the case.

If you’ve got a similar story or are stumped by a lack of conversions, please share in the comments section below.

Nadine Cino, LEED Accredited Professional

CEO of: Tyga-Box Systems, Inc.

Years as CEO: 15

What is your definition for the word “marketing?”

Creating awareness of brand name in conjunction with it’s most notable charactaristic(s) such as superior service, value and commitment to the environment.

Do you see marketing, advertising and communications as basically the same thing or as distinctly different functions inside your business?

Distinctly different functions. Marketing to me means creating brand awareness on a direct to individual basis, advertising is general shotgun approach and communications is about outbound subject matter that is important to the individual.

What are the 3 biggest obstacles that keep b2b companies from selling more?

In our case, it’s: (i) sales force development, (ii) marketing/contact management and (iii) development of local supply chain for servicing non-local customers

As CEO, how do you measure ROI on your marketing programs? If you don’t measure, why not?

We don’t measure — could use a comprehensive strategy and dashboard to track results. All is still to be developed.

How do you as CEO ensure that your products and services have “demonstratively” superior quality?

Currently, I micro-manage, and I look forward to building robust systems and clear procedures which will enable my staff to function more autonomously and increase their productivity.

When you identify a specific problem with your product or services, how do you usually learn about it and how do you move to fix it?

Generally speaking, problems are more often verbalized by my team proactively so as to avoid a customer experiencing the problem……I’d say 80/20 staff to customer ratio.

Do you feel that you overspend or underspend on marketing? Please explain.

Underspend–we’ve been in contract and survive mode for awhile. Of recent, order flow has stabilized at a slightly higher level than prior years, and it’s beginning to look like it may be the right time to re-invest in business needs.

Have you ever measured and modeled how much revenue flows in year after year from your customers? If so, how do you use this information?

We measure, but we have not modeled.

How central do you feel your role as CEO is in driving success inside the marketing and selling operation?

Very central — at the present time, my focus as CEO is on selling rather than marketing.

Do you operate from a formal marketing and sales plan that is aligned with your written business plan? If not, why not?

We are currently developing a business plan and expect to create an aligned, formal sales and marketing plan from that.

If you can, tell us about the worst sales meeting you’ve ever been a part of as CEO.

When the sales person we hired did not conform to the company’s protocol and input his sales data into our CRM program for the “upteenth” time…shortly afterward…..he was terminated.

What is your philosophy on maintaining a work/life balance as CEO of a b2b company?

Pursue all aspects of one’s life with passion, intentionally “slurping the juice” of every moment.

If you could have one super power as CEO, what would it be and why?

The power to truly inspire others with a vision in which thy see tremendous opportunity and benefit for themselves such that together, we create a scaleable company which grows by enthusiastic customer referrals and in which accountability is akin to bragging rights.

Any sage advice you’d like to pass on to aspiring CEOs about managing the performance of the marketing function?

Create a detailed plan and measure the results consistently and in real time. Periodically review the outcomes and adjust plan accordingly. Quarterly is a good time frame for the review/keep/adjust action.

There were lots of questions about organizational dynamics between the CEO, Marketing, Sales, and the Customer, as well as other topics such as the future of social media – this is catching on a lot faster as a way to do business in India than in the USA, and after my trip I have the Linkedin views, and online interview completions to support this observation.  I think maybe American businesses have some long established practices that now hold us back a bit from fast adoption of some of these technologies?..although my dad is now on Facebook so there is hope for all baby boomers!  India businesses are very new, and moving fast with technology even if the business is outside the IT space.  I still don’t see this happening as fast with companies outside the IT space in the US eg. manufacturing, or professional services…I still dont see these technologies having a big impact that surpasses word of mouth as a way of igniting business at the top of the sales funnel as the phone, and direct marketing tactics like Google PPC can and have for many many of the business I work with.   

After all was said and done, we shook hands, and said good-bye, and one participant addressed me as a “marketing guru” – which honors and embarasses me a little now that I have had the intensely beautiful experience of staying in an Ashram where a spiritual guru lives. 

The Ashram is located in Tiriupati.  Rakesh warned me ahead of time that it would be very simple, and if I wanted to stay in a hotel we would.  Boy am I glad we didn’t.  We had about a 4 hour drive to reach the Ashram, and for the first time I got a view of the spectacular countryside of India outside the densely populated cities.  The ride was easy, and it was fun to see three Indian men chatter on with bright eyes about their spritual guru and his many amazing achievements. 

They are followers of the great spiritual master ShrinGurvanand Guruji.  Here is his biography.  He is also on Facebook.  See what I mean about the IT adoption?  For those interested, he will be in the USA for the next few weeks, and speaking in various cities.  I am going to attend in talk in Washington DC the first week of September. 

One of my favorite stories about his life was that he was born, and almost died of kidney failure.  His parents could not save him with doctors so his mother took him to Devraha Baba who said I will heal your son, but you must give him to the world.  And so she did…Devraha Baba is a mystic who lived on a platform in the Indian jungle for 250 years.  He would talk to animals.  I guess if you sit still long enough you figure out some amazing things about yourself, the universe, and dance a bit with infinity. 

A beautiful moment for me came during 20 minutes of prayer at the Ashram temple with Rakesh.  We sat down in the temple by ourselves, and prayed.  It made me feel a surprising joy. Rakesh and I sat in silence for the first and last time in the entire whirlwind trip, and prayed together as quiet friends with no shoes, on a floor, on a big rock spinning around a ball of fire at the heart of a universe we can never fully understand…but for that moment it was a heck of a lot of fun to try – or not try – or try untrying. 

B S Praveen

CEO of: BAG electronics (India) Pvt Ltd, Pune, India

Years as CEO: 1.25 years

Website: http://in.linkedin.com/in/bspraveen

TCG: What is your definition for the word “marketing?”

B S: Convincing customers to buy your product.

TCG: Do you see marketing, advertising and communications as basically the same thing or as distinctly different functions inside your business?

B S: Different aspects of one function. They all exist together and could be sometimes one inside another. But all of them have to be coordinated well for a successful outcome, the proportion of each depending on the individual situation.

TCG: What are the 3 biggest obstacles that keep b2b companies from selling more?

B S:

1. Taking the customer for granted, once the business starts flowing in.
2. Not keeping up to the latest changes to the customer’s needs, or foreseeing their future needs.
3. Leaving the communication with an ongoing b2b customer to a lower level.

TCG: As CEO, how do you measure ROI on your marketing programs? If you don’t measure, why not?

B S: We started an Excel table after attending your session in Pune. We thought that was an excellent idea and it is working well for us. We can make data-based promotional decisions rather than going by gut feel, or a decree by the CEO.

TCG: How do you as CEO ensure that your products and services have “demonstratively” superior quality?

B S: 

1. Ensure your people walk the talk.
2. Ensure you (the CEO) are easily contactable by the customer or consumer.
3. Solicit regular and genuine feedback from your customers, and quickly act upon it, and then feed them back to the customer.
4. Of course, have a good quality product, to begin with – otherwise none of the above can do much in the long run.

TCG: When you identify a specific problem with your product or services, how do you usually learn about it and how do you move to fix it?

B S: Learn about it – Reviews with your people; discussion with your customers or distributor; or if you see a problem outside your organisation, then actively check if you have a similar problem – don’t assume that you are fine. Ensure people (howsoever small) within your organisation can fearlessly contact you and say things to you, howsoever unpleasant. Imbibe a culture in the organisation where people don’t live with problems, but surface them out, discuss and solve them permanently.

TCG: Do you feel that you overspend or underspend on marketing? Please explain.

B S: Underspend a little bit. In my present situation I think I should be spending at least one third of my time on marketing, whereas I am spending about 25%. This is because presently we are in a rapid growth phase, new to the market etc and also the marketing team doesn’t have a great marketing experience (but they do have lot of common sense). I could spend even 50% of my time in marketing, but that would come at a cost of affecting other functions – and in the end would still hurt marketing.

TCG: Have you ever measured and modeled how much revenue flows in year after year from your customers? If so, how do you use this information?

B S: We are in the beginning phase, so we sort of know it like the back of our hands. But as we grow, we definitely plan to measure and keep data, like we are doing for other things. Presently we are more focussed on which product is selling how much in order to work out our promotion strategy and understand the nature of the market.

TCG: How central do you feel your role as CEO is in driving success inside the marketing and selling operation?

B S: We have two parts in our business. One, where we sell to our parent company, and we hardly need to do much selling. The other is to the real market. In the latter one, the CEO’s role is absolutely central right from strategy to making sure actions are happening and we are improving based on feedback. And focussing just on marketing is not enough, it has to go to product development, servicing, delivery performance etc. Fantastic marketing can’t sell goods if these aspects don’t support well.

TCG: Do you operate from a formal marketing and sales plan that is aligned with your written business plan? If not, why not?

B S: Yes, we do – very much so. But we also keep adjusting the plan based on performance and feedback, to make sure we reach our short term and long term goal, and don’t get lost in the woods.

TCG: If you can, tell us about the worst sales meeting you’ve ever been a part of as CEO.

B S: One of the recent meetings (wasn’t just a Sales meeting, but it was a product development meeting involving marketing and Engineering) – Typical example of communication distortion. With my Mktg head we jotted down broad specs of a bottom of the pyramid product. The Mktg head asked his team to translate into proper product specs and give to Engineering. Then Engineering added their own flavour. When I saw what specs had come out in that review meeting – I realised that the basic concept of the product being low spec and low cost (bottom of the pyramid product) was completely lost, and they were all talking about just another product similar to what we already were running with (only minor differences). So it was very important for me to communicate the whole background to the team myself and not leave it for the system to take care, when especially the message is one that is out of the ordinary (we had never talked about bottom of the pyramid before, we only have mid to top products now).

TCG: What is your philosophy on maintaining a work/life balance as CEO of a b2b company?

B S: If you want to be successful in the long term, then work/life balance is essential. But if you are a short termer – very successful for 5 to 10 years and then a miserable failure for rest of your life in most aspects (not just work), you may ignore the work/life balance. Nothing wrong with either thinking as long as you know what to expect from which strategy.

TCG: If you could have one super power as CEO, what would it be and why?

B S: To be able to instantly know what the other person is really thinking – for obvious reasons.

TCG: Any sage advice you’d like to pass on to aspiring CEOs about managing the performance of the marketing function?

B S: I am myself a new CEO – so no sage. But whatever my experience I will share. First thing is not to have a too distinct separation in your own mind between functions – because unless all functions coordinate well in harmony you can’t get the results you want. So Marketing can work well only if all (literally all) other functions work like a well-oiled machine. So as a CEO, do focus on marketing, but other functions as well – other functions can be slightly out of focus, but never out of sight, or in a blind spot.

Kishore Keswani

CEO of: Shore Auto Rubber Exports Pvt. Ltd.

Years as CEO: 5

Website: http://www.shoresilicones.com

What is your definition for the word “marketing?”

Creating new leads and nurturing old clients.

Do you see marketing, advertising and communications as basically the same thing or as distinctly different functions inside your business?

Yes, we are a small company ($ 5 million) and cannot separate these functions.

What are the 3 biggest obstacles that keep b2b companies from selling more?

Lack of market information.

As CEO, how do you measure ROI on your marketing programs? If you don’t measure, why not?

No. of deals closed / Rs 100,000 spent
Value of deals closed / Rs 100,000 spent

How do you as CEO ensure that your products and services have “demonstratively” superior quality?

We take part in international exhibitions and highlight our quality certifications and the specifications that we meet.

When you identify a specific problem with your product or services, how do you usually learn about it and how do you move to fix it?

Talk to consultants – research on the net – trial and error.

Do you feel that you overspend or underspend on marketing? Please explain.

Overspend…for our size of company we travel a lot. But because of the international nature of our business (purely exports) this is unavoidable.

Have you ever measured and modeled how much revenue flows in year after year from your customers? If so, how do you use this information?

No.

How central do you feel your role as CEO is in driving success inside the marketing and selling operation?

Bang in the center.

Do you operate from a formal marketing and sales plan that is aligned with your written business plan? If not, why not?

Due to the size of our company we do not have these formalities in place…its more at my whims.

If you can, tell us about the worst sales meeting you’ve ever been a part of as CEO.

We were discussing the turnover of our top customer and we did not have any data of the history of the sales with the company.

What is your philosophy on maintaining a work/life balance as CEO of a b2b company?

“Off” time is very important to me to give my 100%. As CEOs there is no really “off” time as we are mentally strategizing even when we are going to bed. But try to keep fit, as only then can you give 100% at work

If you could have one super power as CEO, what would it be and why?

Work around the clock!

Any sage advice you’d like to pass on to aspiring CEOs about managing the performance of the marketing function?

In good and bad times, your marketing budget should be a distinctive amount, and a direct percentage of of sales. In good times, we often ask ourselves “why do any marketing”? But these are the times you should make your presence felt.

I arrived in the New Delhi airport after a long travel schedule and my body was conflicted and confused with a desire to sleep and to press on through the highway-wide hallways of the New Delhi airport, dig through baggage claim, slip past customs, and finally walk out into the thick night heat and bustle of one of the most populated cities in the world.  I had turned on my Blackberry, and I knew if I could just find door 15 Rakesh would greet me with his warm smile along with my first impressions of India that had been awaiting me now for over two months.

Making my way through the crowd I congratulated myself that I had made it here in one piece.  Rakesh and I found one another, and he quickly pulled me toward the street where cars four or five lanes deep were honking and beeping in a symphony of communication that I am now convinced has some sort of undeniable magic that somehow impossibly prevents accidents.  We located the car driven by his nephew, loaded the bags, and squeezed in…a feeling I would become very familiar with over the next week of planes, trains, and automobiles India style.

Rakesh told me we were heading to his nephew’s home where we would sleep and head off to Pune by airplane in the morning where upon arrival we would conduct a full day workshop around Strengthening the CEO-Customer Relationship for MCCIA which is the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA).  MCCIA is a premier industry association with over 2,200 members from different sectors like Automotive and Auto Ancillaries, Electronics, Agribusiness, Information Technology, Bio-Technology, Environmental Technologies, Chemicals, etc. It is one of the most prominent and active Chambers of Commerce in India catering to Pune.

As we drove, I had as many thoughts in my head it seemed as vehicles in the street.  I looked out of the window as we weaved our way to the apartment.  I was immediately struck by the warm greeting I was being given.  It was nice to stay the first night in a private home instead of a hotel.  The meal I was served when we arrived at the house, and the brief conversation we had prepared me for many such gracious encounters during my stay.  I was amazed at the beautiful manners and traditions of Indian hospitality.  I was invited by several different CEOs from the sessions to come to their homes for meals.  I was touched by the personal invitiations in a professional setting, and was only too happy to take a few of them up on their generosity and their enthusiasm to show a stranger the true India.  I will always be grateful.

When I closed my eyes to fall asleep in this man’s home I was sure of two things – I would sleep well, and I would never forget traffic in India until the day I die.

Click here to view a fun YouTube video of New Delhi traffic…it will give you a sense…but you really have to be in it.  Do you see any stop signs? Or traffic lights?  Having spent another life in Rome which has an international reputation for driving insanity – trust me when I tell you that India traffic makes Rome look like a beginner’s driving class.

Workshop in Pune hosted by

MMCIA and The Academy of Chief Executive Officers

My Main Take Away?

India Small Business Isn’t Thinking about Marketing…yet.

It’s Sell! Sell! Sell!

The workshop with MMCIA began early in the morning with a private group of thirty five to forty CEOs.  After introductions, I asked the CEOs in attendance what were their “burning issues” that they wanted to make sure I addressed during the course of our time together.  And I was given a list that surprised me but it remained noticeably consistent in each of the cities we visited when I asked this question.  It surprised me because it was almost exclusively limited to sales management issues.

The reason I found this interesting is because in the USA many CEOs at this portion of the workshop will bring up things like “Do I need to brand?”, or “How do I measure the return on my marketing invesment?”, or “What are the qualities to look for in a Marketing Director?”, or ”What are the most effective B2B lead generation techniques?”, or ”How can I get more transparency into the marketing function?”

During this workshop, most interesting to India CEOs were much more heavily weighted to management of the sales function.  They wanted answers to questions like: “How do I sell more?”, “How do I improve deal conversion?”, “How do I incentivize my sales people to get them working harder?”, “How do I manage the sales process?”, “When is it time to hire more sales people?”, “How do you find the right sales people?” (many CEOs referred to their sales people synonmously as the marketing team)….and many other questions like this.

I thought this was very curious, because in the USA I see CEOs referring to and using terms like advertising, and communications, and promotions as totally synonomous with the term marketing and often they need clarity on how to separate and understand the definitions of these narrow components of a potential marketing strategy so that they stop lumping it all under one catchall word of “marketing” whose definition is then too vague to them to be helpful when they try and discuss using marketing to grow their business.

In India when these CEOs are trying to start the marketing discussion – it keeps circling back to the sales management discussion – not in the sense that marketing is there to sell, and so is sales, and how do we get them to work together better? Rather in a more basic way there is a lack of clarity that is hurting the development of the marketing function at all inside these businesses because the CEO mentality seems to be in general “I have marketing taken care of because I have sales people.”

I started to believe small businesses there are not ready for marketing yet.  They will be soon enough.  For now, they have so much demand that they are seeing tremendous growth from old fashioned brute force sales. “How much do you want?”…and then of course “How much do you want to pay?” And this was another very interesting challenge that kept repeating which I am told is not only a practical concern, but a cultural pressure which is pushing everything on price instead of value.

This is great for now, but the price pressures make it hard and will continue to make it harder and harder for the small business owner to compete under tight margins for the risk they are taking on over the long haul.  So this will be a very interesting trend to watch play out in India over the next 5 to 10 years.  Most of the small businesses are operating sales forces that are directly reporting to the CEO and skipping over the marketing function completely because it takes more care and time to develop and plan to bring effective leverage to the business. Complexity? Coordination? Who needs that when these companies are moving faster than anything I have ever seen?

So many of the India small business CEOs are not spending their precious time there, and it is not hurting them in the slightest, because right now it is all about sales, and sales are great!  I met more than one business started in the last three years with over 1,000 employees.  Yet what will the ramificaitons of glossing over the marketing function be when these businesses do hit the growth wall?

I imagine when that moment arrives they will be forced to take a step back like any business anywhere and clarify a few things.  Once this happens they will see the enormous effectiveness and efficiency of the marketing lever, and they will want to wield it inside of their operations.  Armed with the marketing lever, their obvious creativity and total determination will drive through the growth wall with easy power instead of straining force.

So when I got my invititation to the opening of painter Anastas Konstantinov who I affectionately refer to as “The Rainbow of Bulgaria” I locked in my ticket.  Konstantinov was seen as a dangerous voice during communist times, but now life is changing quickly in the fourth oldest town in the world.  And coming along for the two day extravaganza in the Thracian hills was a long-time friend (a successful CEO and entrepreneur himself) who I roped in by posing the question:”If you had an invitation to lunch with Picasso…would you go?”  He smiled, and replied with an emphatic “YES.”  So I replied, “Well, you do.  So let’s go.”

Here are some of the photos from the exhibition:

After an amazing time with friends it was time to say good-bye.  My travel companion went on to see his family in Switzerland, and I was now rested and ready to take on India over the next 9 days in a 7 city foot-race as the guest of The Academy of Chief Executives.

My first experience with The Academy was a little over two years ago when I gave a talk in New York City to their chapter members.  One of the gentlemen in attendance, and the event organizer, was Rakesh Bhargava who is an amazing individual.  He is a very succesful entrepreneur who after coming to this country started a business which he later sold to a Fortune 500 company.  Subsequently, he became involved as the owner of several hotels and hospitals.  Today, as a way to take a break from the real-estate hedge fund he founded and manages, he likes to give back.  One of the ways he is doing this is as the Global Director of India for The Academy of Chief Executive Officers.

Rakesh has always been highly enthusiastic about the unique perspective on the B2B marketing and sales challenge we bring to CEOs.  He is amazed at how a lot of what needs emphasized to successfully plan, execute, and manage the marketing and sales operations is totally transformed by looking at the challenge through the eyes of the CEO. So when he approached me about a tour in India to speak to CEOs and business owners I immediately knew it would be a great opportunity, and a lot of fun.

I had no idea what to expect beyond that.  I had never been to that side of the world before.  I was looking forward to it.  Yet, when Rakesh emailed me the schedule draft (Check it out! And tell me you wouldn’t feel a bit light headed?) I admit I had to sit down for a minute to think about what I had agreed to, because there wouldn’t be time for that once we arrived in India.  He had organized presentations with some of the largest learning associations for CEOs and entrepreneurs in India.  And I am going to tell you all about it…but not today.  So stay tuned.

By way of teaser though, in following posts you will hear all about arriving in New Delhi, my impression of India traffic, how you get to 1,000 employees in less than 3 years, getting started in Pune, audio recordings from Indore, why India doesn’t need marketing, why price pressure is a cultural hurdle in India that many CEOs there struggle to overcome, what NOT to eat, how to sing Karaoke in Hindi, and much more…

Before we get into it though, by wrapping it up, I do really wish to say the people in India were absolutely amazing, and so beautiful and graceful and kind toward me.  The CEOs were excited and open in their participation in The Strengthening the CEO-Customer Relationship Workshops, and I want to thank them all!

So, please enjoy the posts.  Simply too much happened to handle the content in one sitting – so grab some tea, and let’s take our time, because everything is BOOMing in India…but nothing happens fast…kind of refreshing actually. – Namaste…

John Rodella

CEO of: RoData, Inc.

Years as CEO: 25

Website: http://www.rodata.com

What is your definition for the word “marketing?”

I define marketing as the awareness support for the sales team. The marketing folks design programs and processes for sales to support their efforts. In warfare the ground troops are sales while air support is marketing.

Do you see marketing, advertising and communications as basically the same thing or as distinctly different functions inside your business?

Very different.

What are the 3 biggest obstacles that keep b2b companies from selling more?

1. Keeping close relationships with customers
2. Keeping the sales force on task
3. Understanding that everyone sells and the integration of the team must be seamless to the customer

As CEO, how do you measure ROI on your marketing programs? If you don’t measure, why not?

We measure with statistics on campaigns. It is tricky to do.

How do you as CEO ensure that your products and services have “demonstratively” superior quality?

We survey the customers.

When you identify a specific problem with your product or services, how do you usually learn about it and how do you move to fix it?

We learn from an angry customer. We run to them and not away.

Do you feel that you overspend or underspend on marketing? Please explain.

Underspend.

Have you ever measured and modeled how much revenue flows in year after year from your customers? If so, how do you use this information?

Yes. We try to understand the importance of major customers and treat them accordingly.

How central do you feel your role as CEO is in driving success inside the marketing and selling operation?

Very central.

Do you operate from a formal marketing and sales plan that is aligned with your written business plan? If not, why not?

Yes.

If you can, tell us about the worst sales meeting you’ve ever been a part of as CEO.

The customer was all business and the salesperson was unfocused and did not understand the cues from the customer.

What is your philosophy on maintaining a work/life balance as CEO of a b2b company?

My life is integrated. I am never off. As well I am never on. I live my life not from 9-5 but 6am to 6am.

If you could have one super power as CEO, what would it be and why?

X-ray vision on demos and in person meetings.

Any sage advice you’d like to pass on to aspiring CEOs about managing the performance of the marketing function?

Understand sales and marketing early. Trust but verify. Do not abdicate your responsibility.

I welcome any questions for clarification.