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No more Beach Boys singing on Miami Beach or B.B. King at the New Orleans House of Blues. Gone are the lavious corporate parties with glowing ice cubes in the cocktails and endless hospitality. Bad sign #1 – when vendors say, “What traffic I am getting is good…I just wish there was a lot more of it.” The U.S. banking tradeshow industry has been on a downward decline since 2001. I have only attended one show since, whereby vendors have been excited to be there. We are seeing fewer attendees (potential buyers), fewer exhibitors, increasingly modest sponsorships and smaller booths. More vendors are trading in their exhibitor applications for attendee badges. As a vendor, the return on your tradeshow investment is how well you use your time. Are you using every breakfast, lunch, cocktail hour and dinner for achieving your objectives? Are you walking the halls for potential partnerships and garnering industry intelligence? Can’t attend all the sessions? Get copies of presentations you ca...

I was asked recently to write an article for a client's newsletter. This may be helpful to people marketing technology solutions within financial services industry... Crystal balls are, at best, cloudy, but the study of current trends and data to predict the future is still an important business exercise. This is especially true in the banking industry because technology is such an integral part of bank operations and also a major line item in budgets. As the editor of Bankers As Buyers ™ for the last five years, I have collected and shared research from some of the most respected sources in the banking industry. This study has always been written from a “looking forward” view—what would drive technology and related expenses in the coming year. In preparing this article, I reviewed five years of information to see patterns and clues as to what we could expect in the coming years. Each year seemed to bring new priorities and concerns to the forefront, but budgets and expenditures f...

As a business owner myself, I fully understand that, when decisions on how best to allocate budgets are made, the preference is to base those decisions on the ability to easily, quantifiably measure the return on investment of the product or service. As a Public relations professional, I also fully understand that we, as a group, and our clients, have been thinking about and discussing effective ROI measurement in greater detail over the last few years because everyone (PR practitioners and clients alike) seems to be more accountable than ever before. If my clients had larger budgets to work with, I would welcome regular primary research to uncover perceptions and track awareness in their respective target markets. However, it is significantly more difficult (and expensive) to survey specific titles and departments within financial institutions, than to survey 18-22 year olds on their mobile phone preferences. Therefore, we have to look for ways to effectively measure business-to-b...

I have had many conversations over the years whereby people have considered the fate of a communications program based on its impact to sales. The thought being, “At least with another salesperson, I know there will be someone calling on prospects who can buy or customers whom should be using more of what we have to offer.” In a business-to-business environment, companies that sell a solution, professional service or information need people who can close deals. God knows we could all use a few more competent people like that. There is a link between public relations to sales, but it is more likely to be a part of the sales chain. We do hear about a door that opened, a spike to the company’s website or request for a demo because of a well-placed article or finely written press release. Capturing these stories is akin to our industry’s “Cobbler’s children having no shoes.” It is important, but we are all too busy to track them down. And if we do, there is usually someone else there t...

There is an old saying that goes something like, “I don’t care what they call me…as long as they call me.” When you are selling products, services, information and or technology solutions to banks or other financial institutions, the point is to make it easy for someone to buy. That means they have to know who to call. Bankers buy from people and companies – they don’t buy products. What? That’s right, bankers select vendors, not products. According to my friends at Financial Insights, most bankers see technology as a commodity. So the major difference between product A and product B are the companies behind them. Vendors have to show they are capable, well-run businesses with staying power. From a practical standpoint that translates into focusing your money and effort in promoting the company and capabilities – the company brand, not products, is the only brand that matters.

Previously, I wrote about the “complex sale” as those sales to financial institutions, which are usually characterized by: • A sales process that involves a committee or input from multiple people, • Buyers who seek multiple options, • Long sale cycles, and • Decisions that address a strategic need or solves a mission-critical issue. Getting to “safe” status means convincing your prospects that your company, even if small or new, is the right choice. The earlier post described the challenge and some insights on accomplishing the mission. Now, let’s look at how to get to safe status through communications. As background, most everyone in our industry who manages or owns the marketing/communications area of a company did not arrive there via a straight line or career path. Most came from sales departments or did marketing in other industries. I don’t believe there is a “Marketing to Financial Institutions” degree available either. Therefore, most people have to learn on the job and thro...

My first post of the year is appropriately enough, Bankers As Buyers. It is a look at how U.S. bankers are going to spend money on technology and related services in 2007. If you would like to be considered for inclusion in the next edition, please shoot me an email at scott@williammills.com To access the full report, please follow the link below, enjoy. Scott http://www.williammills.com/pdf/bab2007.pdf