marketing

• Segment-based. In the epiphany and awareness stages, with minimal client information, the value proposition is defined to address the needs of a specific market segment. The segment-based value proposition is not designed to sell. The purpose of the statement is to get potential buyers to take action to learn more. That action can be going to your Website, picking up the phone to call you, attending a Webinar, or reading a white paper.
• Role-based. Moving from the awareness to interest stages, the value propositions become more targeted to subsegments and specific roles within organizations, such as CIOs, sales management, or business unit leaders. Such individuals often have different perceptions of value based on their roles and responsibilities. Role-based value propositions resonate when they address the specific business needs of the people or personas the company is trying to reach. They require a deeper level of understanding of the like-minded groups of people the company is communicating with, including their needs, desires, motivations, expectations, goals, fears, skills, and biases.
• Client-specific. These value propositions are designed to move prospects from interest to confidence or buy mode. The client-specific value proposition addresses the particular needs of actual, not archetypal, clients. However, knowing the client goes beyond defining the decision influencers’ and makers’ titles and roles. It also means knowing the client’s educational background, personal pursuits, association memberships, business goals and how they are measured, the client’s definition of success, and, of course, the client’s pain points.

While there are many ways to set-up and manage online events, here’s what’s working well for us in our webinar programme:

1. Weekly events at a fixed time slot (identified through a user survey).
2. Limit events to one hour (timeslot identified through user feedback). A few minutes introduction, followed by a main presentation of 30-40 minutes and 15-20 minutes of questions. Strictly time manage the event (punctual start, completion on time). Beware of time zones - we usually have participants across 10 to 15 timezones.
3. Limit sound to host and speakers. Participants can chat only (handling 100 sound cards & microphones online does not provide a good webinar experience).
4. A chat pod allows participants to introduce themselves at the start of the event.
5. A second chat pod allows users to submit questions.
6. Questions are addresses one at a time at the end of the presentation - never during the presentation.
7. Before the event, speakers are briefed on the use of the Adobe system and a protocol for the event is agreed.
8. After the event, we circulate slides, the link to a recording, an answer to a question not address. There are so many ways to keep users engaged, and gradually build a vertical community around the topic of the webinar.

Every senior executive knows that business decisions are seldom better than the information behind them. Yet although it is usually lower-level employees who interact directly with the customer, decision makers rarely ask them how, for example, new products will fare. Leaders therefore deprive themselves of information that could enrich their analysis and reduce the risk of ivory tower decision making.

Some executives understand that valuable information lies scattered around the organization but don’t know how to retrieve it. Others don’t even try, perhaps for hierarchical reasons or because they suspect they might get answers colored by the desire to second their real or assumed viewpoint.

The most popular post I’ve written to date is a review of prediction market software. Today’s post is going to be the same, but for idea/innovation software (henceforth referred to as innovation software).

Trying to even find and identify all the different types of innovation software is difficult because of the different ways people and companies think about innovation. Prediction markets are straightforward; they’re futures markets, so the software is largely the interface between the user and the order book on the database. That is not at all so for innovation software. Different people think about innovation in different ways, which I referred to in a previous post.

The list below is likely not complete, but I believe it does pick up the major players.