Despite my high interest in the Red Sox, I've watched only a few of the playoff and World Series games in real time. House guests and the need to get up early have forced me to record the games and view them at another time.
Almost all of the TV viewing in our family these days is time shifted.
This got me thinking about sales communications. We tend to rely heavily on real time communication methods: meetings, phone conversations, even email is quasi real time. I find if people don't view my email the day I sent it, the chances are pretty good it's going to get lost in the email backlog.
For all of us, real time is precious. Sales professionals need to master on demand communication methods to reach customers when real time conversations are not possible.
Two methods we are working with and developing proficiencies around are:
- Customer portals
- Multimedia vignettes (streaming audio graphic programs)
Rather than stuffing documents into emails which are sent throughout a 3 to 6 month sales cycle (longer if we start before customers are ready to consider a solution), we're creating portals for each customer.
Portals allow us to manage our collateral and messages in more convenient ways for customers. If they don't view one piece of collateral when we first invite them, they can still find and see it at a time that is more convenient for them. It makes our content easier for them to find and to share with colleagues. It allows us to know when (how often) a customer views content. Finally, in the aggregate, we're beginning to get some interesting data on collateral usage.
Multimedia vignettes are narrated PowerPoint shows. We tailor them to each customer and situation. We attach relevant collateral to shows, a concept we refer to as "merchandising our messages". By this we mean we use the narrated shows to explain key messages and introduce supporting collateral.
Links to shows are easy for customers to recieve, view and share. Multimedia truly brings messages to life and allows us to control the quality and consistency of message delivery, especially when they are passed around the organization.
We may not always be able to meet in real time with key customer contacts, but on demand programs are the next best thing. For customers who are not ready for a direct conversation, they are the best way to reach them.
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