by William Walsh | Jul 1, 2024 | 2024
By Scott Gillum
Estimated read time: 3 Minutes
Want to take your ICP’s to the next level? Try using personality based marketing to understand corporate cultures.
Here’s why. Above are 2 SaaS companies in the martech industry. Our client is selling to the same buyer in each company. But the company situations are vastly different.
The first company is growing aggressively and has a corporate culture that is full of “Dominate” personalities.
The second company is under attack and has lost significant revenue and market share during the last two years. The corporate culture is skeptical, given the prevalence of “Consciences” personalities.
So what does all this mean?
First, it impacts the positioning of the value of your product.
Second, it helps you identify the right set of the sales and marketing assets.
In company 1, you position the value of the offering to help scale growth.
You communicate that through case studies with ROIs. Given their “dominant” culture, they are heads down operators so use relevant case studies that align, as closely as possible, to their situation.
In company 2, you position the value of the product on what it can do to drive efficiency.
This is a company fighting for its survival. It needs ideas on how to improve operations. As a result, use cases showing potential cost savings (business cases) are most important.
And given the culture, use data and research to support the use/business cases which is essential for building credibility in selling to an organization like this.
Before you even speak to a buyer you can understand the environment in which they operate. It allows you to create a connection — optimism for company 1, empathy in company 2.
ICP’s are not just an acronym, they’re people. Decisions are influenced by emotions. Motivations cause decisions, and personality dictates both.
The more you understand this the higher the likelihood of getting engagement, interest, and a decision. It’s a 1, 2 punch.
by William Walsh | Jul 11, 2023 | 2023
As previously published on 6/28/23 in MarTech
By Scott Gillum
Estimated read time: 5 Minutes
What if they are wrong?
When responding to questions about AI replacing humans in certain roles, most ‘experts’ claim that AI will replace some jobs, but will be a much more valuable tool for augmenting human intelligence and ability.
In all of the hype associated with this latest technology wave, an important trend is occurring across industries that could significantly change the impact of AI – the retirement of the knowledge worker.
We need to look no further than the last wave of intelligent technology – the “internet of things” (IoT) to see the impact.
The term ‘Internet of Things’ was coined in 1999 by computer scientist, Kevin Ashton. While working at Procter & Gamble, Ashton proposed putting radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips on products to track them through a supply chain.
“Machines talking to machines” started rolling out in early/ mid 2010 making their way into manufacturing, precision agriculture, complex information networks, and for consumers in a new wave of wearables.
Now, having about a decade of experience of how IoT has impacted certain industries and markets, perhaps it can give us some interesting insights on the future of AI.
In 2010, Cisco launched the “Tomorrow Starts Here” IoT campaign at the time when communication networks were transitioning from hardware “stacks” to software development networks (SDN).
The change meant that in order for carriers to expand their bandwidth, they no longer needed to “rip and replace ” hardware. They only needed to upgrade the software. This transition began the era of machines monitoring their performance and communicating with each other, with the promise of one day producing self healing networks.
Over this same period, network engineers who ushered in the transition from an analog to digital began retiring. These experienced knowledge workers are often being replaced by technicians who understand the monitoring tools, but not necessarily, how the network works.
Over the last dozen years networks have grown in complexity to include cellular, and the number of connections has grown exponentially. To help manage this complexity, numerous monitoring tools have been developed and implemented.
The people on the other end reading the alerts see the obvious, but have a difficult time interpreting the issue, or what to prioritize. The reason is, the tool knows there is an issue but is not smart enough yet to know how to fix it or if it will take care of itself. Technicians end up chasing “ghost tickets,” alerts that have resolved themselves, resulting in lost productivity.
The same thing is repeating itself in marketing today. As one CMO told me; “I can find people who know the technologies all day long, but what I can’t find is someone who thinks strategically. Ask a marketing manager to set up the tools and run a campaign and they have no problem, but ask them to write a compelling value proposition or offer for the campaign, and they will struggle.”
It’s easy to get sucked into the tools. AI generators are really intriguing and can do some amazing things. But based on what we have seen, the tools are not smart enough to fully deliver on their promise…yet.
Here’s the warning from IoT – as tools become more knowledgeable, the workforce operating them is becoming less. It is leaving a knowledge gap. As that knowledge is transferred from worker to machine, we need to ask ourselves what we’ll be left with. Will there be enough experience and expertise in our workers to know if what comes out of the machine is accurate, factitious, or even dangerous.
In a recent WSJ article, Melissa Beebe, an oncology nurse, commented on how she relies on her observation skills to make life-or-death decisions. When an alert said her patient in the oncology unit of UC Davis Medical Center had sepsis, she was sure the AI tool monitoring the patient was wrong.
“I’ve been working with cancer patients for 15 years so I know a septic patient when I see one,” she said. “I knew this patient wasn’t septic.”
The alert correlates elevated white blood cell count with septic infection. It didn’t take into account that this particular patient had leukemia, which can cause similar blood counts. The algorithm, which was based on artificial intelligence, triggers the alert when it detects patterns that match previous patients with sepsis.
Unfortunately, hospital rules require nurses to follow protocols when a patient is flagged for sepsis. Beebe could override the AI model, if she gets doctor approval, but faces disciplinary action if she’s wrong. It’s easy to see the danger of removing human intelligence in this case, it also illustrates the risk associated with over relying on artificial intelligence.
AI will free us from low value tasks, and that is a good thing, but we need to redistribute that time to better developing our people, and our teams. The greatest benefit from these game changing technologies in the business to business environment will be realized when we combine equal amounts of human intelligence with machine intelligence.
by William Walsh | Feb 21, 2023 | 2023
By Scott Gillum
Estimated read time: 5 Minutes
Imagine adding one of the world’s greatest artists to your creative team. Or, how about saving time and money on creative brainstorming by starting with a first draft to inspire the team. How about creating dozens of creative concepts in the same time it currently takes to develop a handful.
Intrigued? This is the promise of AI creative engines for B2B marketing. And with that possibility, could it also help make B2B marketing as sexy and exciting as B2C advertising?
The big story of this year will be the widespread adoption of AI creative tools. Chat GPT is just the beginning. Expect to see agencies widely embrace AI for all types of creative – not just content. Open AI’s CEO, Sam Atlman, sees the “greatest application of AI for creative use,” not in replacing blue collar jobs as many had predicted.
After experimenting with AI tools for the last couple of months, you may be interested to know that I totally agree with Sam’s statement. In fact, the image used for this blog was created using Jasper’s AI image generator.
I selected Salvador Dali as my inspiration, acrylic paint as the style, the context of creating an exciting and bold prediction for the future, out pops the image you see. There were almost endless options of possible combinations that could be used from style to mood, and everything in between.
Rather than these tools being utilized to replace people, they have the potential to be incredibly useful tool sets that in a sense, may serve as an “inspiration engine” for creatives. The potential for increase in productivity is huge!
In fact, think of the possibility of having a famous artist inspire the creative team. Instead of replacing people, you’re gaining access to an incredible talent pool that would otherwise be impossible. Talk about shaking up the world of B2B that has a tendency to lean on technical language and images of products.
The creative process is nothing if not iterative. Imagine how fast the team can play around with concepts by using AI content generators to create first, second, and third drafts that are then edited and approved by a human as final copy.
Consider the time saved by having a designer build the exact image they want, rather than scanning Getty Images for hours on end. Oftentimes, just getting started creates a delay. Working off an AI generated first draft could accelerate the process – at least, that’s the hope.
Now the warning. It is very easy to write long form and short form copy using AI tools, especially for digital ads, blog posts and emails. For B2B marketers, this could mean that there is an easily accessible cornucopia of content to blast out to prospects. Please use these tools judiciously.
The assumption that more content equals more engagement is incorrect. Relevant content is closer, but it still requires insight and strategic thinking, which you will not find in AI tools. The new generation of AI generators is very powerful, in particular, with the coming release of GPT-4 and the advancements made in language modeling.
The tools still require time to learn and understand how to best utilize their power and get the output you desire. There is, however, a learning curve – it is not as simple as input and output. There are numerous variables that need to be refined or manipulated by humans in order to achieve a quality output. The expression of “crap in, crap out” still holds true.
Agencies and companies who carefully consider experimenting with these new tools will now be better off in the long run as technology continues to advance. And here’s another warning based on our learning in young marketing using technologies, they are not the goal.
It’s not enough to only know how to use the tool, you still need to think creatively. AI generators can be great tools to aid the creative process, don’t let them become the process.
They don’t become a threat for replacing humans if you understand how to use them properly. And no, I didn’t use an AI content engine to write this blog…or did I?
by Christina | Sep 15, 2021 | 2021, Marketing, Sales
As previously published on 9/9/21 in The Drum
by Scott Gillum
Estimated read time: 5 Minutes
I went for a bike ride on a trail that I’ve traveled many times but have avoided lately because of the ‘Covid crowds’.
Taking off in a southern direction on the 10-foot-wide path, my focus was on the bike computer between the handlebars. As typical, I was locked in on my speed and spin rate. Knowing the scenic path along the Neuse River well, I put my head down and focused on my performance.
That was until I ended up in a parking lot. Trying to piece together where I was and how I got there made me realize that I didn’t notice any of my typical landmarks, which then caused a bit of a panic.
Pulling my phone out to unravel the mystery, I discovered that the focus on my performance put me two miles past my usual turnaround spot. After figuring out the situation, I decided to keep my head up on the return.
As I pedaled back, I noticed that a scenic overlook, which served as an important landmark, had been expanded and recently landscaped. The biggest surprise, which was somewhat startling, was a 100-yard clearing of trees for the expansion of a housing development not more than 30 feet off the trail.
The scenario I just described is not unlike what happens with our audiences during their workday. They step on to the 10-foot path that is their job in the morning and travel it like a well-worn trail to their usual destination.
Their computers narrow their focus and attention even more, just like my bike computer. It’s a heads-down routine that often makes them oblivious to changes all around. This creates an opportunity for us to discover new insights that enable us to redefine our position and messaging that gets their attention.
A ‘locked-in’ mindset makes us vulnerable to bias and blind spots. The longer someone has been in the job or industry, the more likely they are to believe they know ‘the path’. The brain seeking to reserve ‘brain power’ moves routine tasks to a part of the brain that requires little cognitive energy. This is the reason I ended up in the parking lot on a trail I thought I knew well.
As a result, we can bring new insights to this audience. Typically, there are three fertile areas to explore:
- The unknown. This is the typically the hardest to discover, but the most powerful.
- The underappreciated. What has changed that makes something known more impactful or significant?
- The undervalued. What are they missing that may be impacting their success, their mission or their customers?
Depending on our audience’s personalities, some of these areas are more impactful than others.
For example, on the way down the path I kept my head down and focused on my performance. This very much aligns with a personality type that is career driven. We can gain their attention through messaging that alerts them to something ‘unknown’ down the path.
If that audience segment only focuses on one or two things that they believe drive their business or performance, like my speed and spin rate, what can you tell them about the importance of understanding another factor?
What is on their ‘path’ that they may be missing, like a parking lot two miles from the usual turnaround spot? What ‘unknown’ is just over the horizon that may impact their success?
On the return journey, my behavior was like another key audience that is constantly scanning the horizon for new things to share with others. They will be looking for the changes to establish ‘landmarks’ to share, like me telling a neighbor who also bikes the trail about my discovery of the construction area.
This audience segment seeks and brings new information into the organization. They’re not as focused on the ‘path’ as much as they are on what is happening around it. As a result, that typically leads them to sharing information highlighting the undervalued or underappreciated.
In both cases, the new information I gained will change my behavior and will cause me to act, which is the goal of marketing. The new construction will disrupt my biking experience. In the future I will avoid that section of the ‘path’. I also now have a new appreciation for checking the distance traveled, and occasionally picking my head up to determine where I am along the trail.
Buyers ‘lock in’ every day at work, and a message right in front of them on the well-worn path will not disrupt. They’ll ride over like a bump on the trail. To capture their attention, search off their beaten path and over the horizon. It’s what they don’t see, or realize, that matters – because no one wants to end up in a parking lot.
by scott.gillum | Jun 9, 2020 | 2020, Marketing
by Scott Gillum
Estimated read time: 3 Minutes
Episode 5: Getting Sales to Buy Into Inbound Marketing with Special Guest, Matt Stevens
Supporting Sales with Inbound Marketing. Matt Stevens, former head Digital Marketing at Gartner and CEB, faced a significant set of challenges in building out an inbound marketing engine that would deliver sales. Scott and Matt discuss how he was able to get the sales organization to accept Inbound Marketing as a solution to increase their productivity and make quota.
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