You’d Make a Great Company Evangelist!

Posted by Jeff Ogden on August 4, 2011

Aprimo is a great client of Find New Customers and for some time one of their top marketing executives has been saying this is my core competency.

“You would make a great company Evangelist.”

But this begs questions and I recently had a chance to ask her a these questions (We choose not to mention her name.):

How would you define an “Evangelist?.”
What are the duties of an Evangelist?
What is the business value a company would get from an Evangelist?
For whom would an Evangelist work?

This Aprimo executive answered quickly and clearly:

“I think the definitions could vary widely, but I’d define it as someone whose job it is to promote a company through speaking, in writing, or by meeting with customers and influencers to get the message out. Thought leadership role.

Company Evangelist

Usually they have some kind of personal platform that combines with a company platform and both are synergistically promoted. Company would get awareness and increased SOV (Share of Voice) which would over time lead to more prospects and customers.

It could vary widely who they’d work for. Anyone from CMO to VP of Marketing to Director of Marketing at a large company, even product marketing sometimes depending on the size of the company and structure of the marketing org.

Just my 2 cents.”

Jeff is also a speaker for the Business Marketing Association.

Thanks Aprimo. Does this sound like something your company needs? If so, contact Find New Customers by calling (516) 495-9350 or sending an email to jeff dot ogden at findnewcustomers.com.

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Jeff Ogden (@fearlesscomp) is President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers and is considered by many to be one of the best connected marketing executives anywhere.

To learn about Jeff, please click Who is the Fearless Competitor?

Find New Customers helps companies (with between 150 and 5,000 employees who sell complex products to businesses) to implement world-class lead generation programs. As companies struggle to create quality sales opportunities, they turn to lead generation companies like Find New Customers.

“Find New Customers can certainly help your business dramatically improve the flow of sales-ready leads to salespeople.” Paul Dunay, Buzz Marketing for Technology.

The 10 Commandments of B2B Social Marketing - guest post by Mike Stiles of Vitrue

Posted by Jeff Ogden on August 4, 2011

B2B Demand Generation | Social Media in B2B

We’re pleased to present this guest post by Mike Stiles (@MikeStiles) who is a writer/producer for Vitrue. To learn about Vitrue, please visit the Vitrue blog.

Are businesses still debating whether or not there’s a role for social in B2B? Sure you’ll still find pockets of resistance (and nostalgia), but the amounts of marketing dollars being moved to social say the debate is all but over. It says at the very least, serious businesses do not intend to get left in the dust if their competitors start building relationships and having ongoing dialogues with buyers via the social networks.

Better that you be the one to beat your competitor to the punch in establishing a comprehensive, integrated social marketing strategy. But if you’re going to do it, it’s best to descend from the mountaintop with some basic rules etched in stone.

I. Thou shalt know who you want to talk to and where they are. If a community doesn’t
exist for your targets, thou shalt create one.

II. Thou shalt use the social networks to offer something your buyers want or need,
thereby making their jobs and lives easier.

III. Thou shalt track results so thou canst prove to thy superiors your social efforts are
getting pleasing leads and conversion rates.

IV. Thou shalt hire exceptionally qualified community managers to run your social
marketing efforts and invest in the technology tools to make those efforts efficient
and effective.

V. Thou shalt pursue sCommerce and the ability for your buyers to conduct
transactions right within the Facebook environment.

VI. Thou shalt actually respond when someone reacts positively or negatively to what
you post.

VII. Thou shalt be a thought leader and educator in your area of expertise.

VIII. Thou shalt be consistent. Don’t start something you’re not going to keep up.

VIX. Thou shalt use social to supplement your overall marketing efforts, and shall
integrate your efforts with other departments and personnel in thy company.

X. Thou shalt listen and get feedback from your targets on their impressions of your
offerings.

Keeping these things in mind should give you a solid foundation on which to build your B2B social marketing society. So don’t drop them.

Jeff Ogden (@fearlesscomp) is President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers. Find New Customers helps companies dramatically improve revenue results by attracting and earning trust of prospective customers.

“Find New Customers can certainly help your business dramatically improve the flow of sales-ready leads to salespeople.” Paul Dunay, Buzz Marketing for Technology.

The 12 Beliefs of Good Bosses

Posted by Jeff Ogden on August 4, 2011

12 Beliefs of Good Bosses - from the book Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki

He quotes Bob Sutton, a professor at Stanford University and author of Good Boss, Bad

Bob Sutton

Boss: How to Be the Best…and Learn from the Worst. Professor Sutton compiled a great list of twelve beliefs of good bosses, which we share here. (Click the highlighted words for the permalink)

We’ve personally worked for the very best - and the very worst.

I really hope you find a way to share this post with your boss…..

I have a flawed and incomplete understanding of what it feels like to work for me.
My success - and that of my people - depends largely on being the master of obvious and mundane things, and not on magical, obscure, or breakthrough ideas or methods.
Having ambitious and well-defined goals is important, but it is useless to think of them much. My job is to focus on the small wins that enable my people to make a little progress every day.
One of the most important, and most difficult, parts of my job is to strike the delicate balance between being too assertive and not assertive enough.
My job is to serve as a human shield; to protect my people from external intrusions, distractions and idiocy of every stripe - and to avoid imposing my own idiocy on them as well.
I strive to be confident enough to convince people that I am in charge, but humble enough to realize that I am often going to be wrong.
I aim to fight as if I am right, and listen as if I am wrong - and to teach my people to do the same thing.
One of the best tests of my leadership — and my organization — is “what happens after someone makes a mistake?”
Innovation is crucial to every team and organization. So my job is to encourage my people to generate and test all kinds of new ideas. But it is also my job to help them kill off all the bad ideas we generate, and most of the good ideas too.
Bad is stronger than good. It is more important to eliminate the negative then to accentuate the positive.
How I do things is more important than what I do.
Because I wield power over others, I am at great risk of acting like an insensitive jerk - and not realizing it.

What do you think? We love comments and those who share our content.

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Jeff Ogden (@fearlesscomp) is President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers and in his long career, has worked for a few of the best and many of the worst - bosses anywhere. This is why he is looking to share key ideas.

To learn about Jeff, please click Who is the Fearless Competitor?

“Find New Customers can certainly help your business dramatically improve the flow of sales-ready leads to salespeople.” Paul Dunay, Buzz Marketing for Technology.