A survey of B2B customers by HR Chally Group pinpointed seven things customers expect to get from salespeople in addition to the product or service they’re buying. They are:

1. Personally accountability. The salespeople who get the largest part of customers’ business take personal responsibility for the customers’ results. They act as business agents who are responsible for every aspect of the relationship between buyer and seller.
2. Business acumen. This requires understanding how the customer’s business works — its competencies and business strategies. It means understanding the customer’s customers. It means seeing the customer’s business as its CEO sees the business.
3. Being an ally. Customers expect salespeople to be their representative within the salesperson’s organization. The best salespeople ensure that the solutions their customers purchased are delivered as promised. They act as the voice of the customer, keeping their company informed of customer needs.
4. Providing applications. Customers want salespeople who think beyond features and benefits to applications. They want to know how to use products and services to achieve their goals. They want to be sure they can properly implement the solutions they buy.
5. Accessibility. Global is local in today’s 24/7 B2B environment. Today’s best salespeople are always available to relieve customer stress.
6. Problem-solving skills. The closing of the sale mustn’t mark the end of the sales engagement and the end of the salesperson’s responsibilities. Now the closing of the sale simply marks the end of the beginning. Customers expect salespeople to not only solve their problems during the transaction itself, but throughout the business relationship. The best salespeople act as troubleshooters, committing to solving problems quickly and effectively.
7. Innovation. Salespeople must be innovative in responding to customer needs. Because change is the only constant in today’s B2B environment, customers expect salespeople to respond to their spoken and unspoken needs. To meet this demand, the best salespeople adopt the role of the innovator, being the first to recognize and react to new business opportunities.

Adapted from the book Accelerate the Sale by Mark Rodgers, a sales consultant.

MarketingSherpa’s 2012 Email Marketing Benchmark Survey asked marketers which element that could be tested and adjusted had the greatest impact on the success of their email.

The top five most effective elements worth testing:

1. Target audience. Keep testing your target audience and customizing your message accordingly, says 42% of email marketers surveyed.
2. Landing page.  This is another underestimated place to measure your campaign’s effectiveness; named by 41% of marketers as a “very effective” area to test.
3. Subject line. Whoa! Everybody’s testing this variable — 72% — but less than half of that number (35%) say it’s a “very effective” measure.
4. Call to action. Don’t just tell people to click a hyperlink or download a document — tell them why by describing the value they’ll get in return for their action. Examples: “Instant access” or “Start saving today.”
5. Personalization. Sure, everybody likes to send email that addresses the recipient by name. But take it to the next level: Reflect something you know about their product, services, audience, etc.

According to a recent survey, 94% of consumers said they’d switch brands to a business that supports a worthy social issue (if price and quality were the same).

Where do customers want to see their dollars go?

The top cause identified by consumers with charitable intents: economic development, named by 96%.

Other interesting factoids from the survey conducted by Cone Communications:

• 91% of consumers said they’d by a product linked to a cause
• 62% say they’ve made a cause-related purchase over the past year, and
• 81% would donate to a charity that was supported by a company they trust.

What’s it mean?

“It is critical for brands to support causes and demonstrate meaningful impact on important social issues,” says a Cone marketing expert.

Because it’s the world of corporate jargon. In some workplaces, you can’t get down the hallway to the next department without tripping over it.

“Outside the box” was the top buzzword/phrase that should be banished from this planet, according to a recent CareerBuilder survey of 5,000 workers. It was named the most unpopular buzzword by 31% of the participants.

Other words/phrases cited:

• Low-hanging fruit: 24%
• Synergy 23%
• Loop me in 22%
• Best of breed 19%
• Incentivize 19%
• Mission-critical 19%
• Bring to the table 18%
• Value-add 17%
• Elevator pitch 16%

Not listed in the survey but still working their way under your skin:

• End of the day
• Old school
• Back in the day
• It is what it is

What about you? Do you have anything to add to this list (see Reply box below)?

According to a recent analysis of IT salary data released by tech research firm Foote Partners salaries for employees with certified IT skills have been declining since 2007, with Foote seeing decreases in 19 of the last 21 quarters for the 274 IT certifications the firm tracks.

Meanwhile, premium pay for employees with non-certified skills has increased in six of the past eight quarters.

Why are certified skills declining in value while others are increasing? Foote attributes the trend to a few possible factors: First, many companies are focused on new IT skills for which there aren’t yet certifications available.

Also, as there have been more IT professionals with certifications looking for jobs, businesses may be placing more emphasis on real-world experience rather than education. Companies are also valuing business acumen more in their IT hiring, especially as more pure technical jobs are being handled by external service providers due to the rise in cloud computing.

Of course, not all certifications are created equal, and experts point out that there are some that companies still prioritize when they’re looking for IT staff.

These are the certifications that were named the most valuable at this time last year:

1. Microsoft (MCSE, MCITP, MCTS)
2. CompTIA (A+, Network+, Security+, Linux+)
3. Cisco (CCNP, CCNA, CCiE)
4. Apple (ACSP, ACTC)
5. International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (CISSP)
6. Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA)
7. Project Management Professional (PMP)

QR codes are those little black-and-white squares, populated by a large number of tiny black squares and white space.

It’s a matrix for a two-dimensional code that can be read by specialized devices (usually smartphones).

You see them almost everywhere now — newspapers, magazines, sides of buses … the list of locations grows almost daily.

How it works, in a nutshell: When a consumer sees the code displayed he or she scans it with a smartphone equipped with the necessary software apps (available for download) to read the codes.

The codes than generate text, images and even URLs that bring customers to landing pages that might be off the map to non-QR consumers.

There might be special offers, games, competitions — even an ad that wouldn’t pass muster on a general-access site, like Calvin Klein’s “uncensored” videos.

But the key for marketers, at least at this stage of the game, is finding ways to successfully convince customers this technology and the information being conveyed through it are more than useful — it’s essential.

The learning curve is a bit steep, found a recent survey from Russell Herder, a marketing form.

The technology is gaining visibility.

Slightly more than 70% of consumers surveyed said they recognized a QR code symbol. But 30% also said they didn’t know what it was.

Even as the kinks are still being worked out, it appears:

• 31% of consumers who say they’ve scanned a QR code say it’s been what they expected, and what they get is “always” or “usually always” worth their time
• 52% said it was “sometimes worth” their time, and
• 17% it’s “rarely” or “never” worth their time.

Another hurdle QR codes must overcome:

The Internet bad guys have already discovered a way to set up malicious QR codes.

When a consumer scans the code, the user is taken to a malicious site.

Email marketing garners higher ROI than any other direct selling method, according to research by the Direct Marketing Association ($45 return for every dollar spent).

But high response rates aren’t a given. They’re the result of targeting the right prospects, writing copy that sells, and — most importantly — choosing subject lines that compel prospects to open the message.

Almost 75% of prospects open email messages within the first 24 hours (if they open them at all). That means the biggest challenge for sales organizations is writing a subject line that grabs prospects’ attention and creates urgency for them to click on the message.

An annual study published by MailerMailer, which analyzed over 3 million emails, also revealed:

• Messages that are personalized with prospects’ names in the body of the copy have higher response rates, while those that include their name in the subject line actually have the lowest response rates (because prospects assume they’re spam).
• Emails with subject lines that are less than 35 characters are opened 3% to 4% more often than those with longer subject lines.
• Open rates are highest on Monday and decrease every day as the week goes on (Friday emails are opened 4% to 6% less than those sent Monday).
• The smaller and more targeted the recipient list, the greater the response rate.
• Copy that’s specifically written for small clusters of prospects (e.g., 250 to 500) based on past buying history (similar title, industry) is the most effective.

A recent MarketingSherpa survey found that 64% of key decision makers now view most of their emails via BlackBerrys (or other mobile devices).

Sales organizations that want to maximize the effectiveness of their
emails can respond to that by:

• Including a button when prospects register on their site, asking if they prefer a “mobile phone” version of your emails or HTML.
• Create a separate e-mail for that audience which uses mobile-friendly text, and
• Include a link to the “HTML” version of the email.

The folks at CFO.com have come up with a list of questions that will help you segment applicants so that you can at least be in the right ballpark with your search.

They base their questions on a new IBM survey of CIOs around the world. You can download a copy of the survey here.

Bottom line: There are four kinds of CIO. Depending on the needs of your organization, you should go after the type who’ll deliver what you want. There are CIOs who:

• Leverage — take what you’ve got and make the most out of it day to day
• Expand — streamline your operations and bring new capabilities to the organization
• Transform – find new technology that will change the way you do business, and
• Pioneer – this CIO kicks it up a notch and re-invents the wheel and the organization’s relationship with technology.

Most people in a recent survey by Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide said they stick with the tried and true when it comes mobile payments.

Ogilvy & Mather asked 500 online customers to rate the brands they’d trust to handle their mobile payments:

• Visa: 39.6%
• Mastercard: 35.9%
• American Express: 35.8%
• PayPal: 34.3%

No surprises there.

Flashy brand names not associated with financial services fared poorly in consumer trust:

• Apple: 22.9%
• Microsoft: 22.3%
• Google: 19.5%

Facebook landed at the bottom of the heap. Only 12% of those surveyed said they’d place their trust in Facebook payment processing security.

One recommendation: Smaller tech brands should join forces with the heavy hitters — the most-trusted brands — and use that partnership to show customers they can trust your level of security.

Not anymore. The new way of catching a customer’s eye (and business) is to feature an upscale area code (like 310) with a phone number.

The physical addresses just aren’t doing the trick anymore, according to a survey from j2 Global Communications.

Area codes give businesses the opportunity to be linked with a community, even if the business is physically located elsewhere.

Most businesses said using a recognizable area code provides more “legitimacy.”

Other findings from the survey:

• 71% of businesses said they rated area codes as more important than zip codes
• 68% said a specific area code gave it a competitive edge, and
• Only 8% of small businesses said having a trendy physical address was important to success.

That, obviously, was before we had the Internet.

Now, more people are relying on the Internet to provide what they once found only through television.

A new survey on social media use habits shows that 56% of people said they’re spending more time on the Internet now for entertainment than they were a year ago. In terms of social media, specifically, 49% of Americans are spending more time with it than a year ago.

At the same time, 52% are spending more time on their mobile phones.

What’s drawing consumers to the Internet is the perception that social media is an enjoyable form of entertainment.

A warning to businesses: Be selective about how you target your marketing and sales efforts. Nearly nine out of 10 (88%) U.S. consumers opposed turning free entertainment sites into pay-to-play experiences.

A new survey on cloud adoption in U.S. companies found that many of the companies’ senior managers are opting to cut out the IT middle man to use the services – and most aren’t facing any consequences for their activity.

The survey was sponsored by Avande, a business tech services company that’s a joint venture of Microsoft and the tech consultants at Accenture and conducted by Kelton Research, which collected 573 responses from C-level execs and business  unit chiefs.

They found that 20% of those responding bypassed IT to use cloud services

Of that group, 61% said it was easier to access the services themselves, and 50% said it takes too long to go through IT. And this is despite the fact that 60% reported that they have corporate policies that prohibit such activity. Seems the policies aren’t much of a deterrent.

Other data from the survey may indicate why these execs are rebelling against their IT group.

Overall, the survey found that 74% of enterprises are using some form of cloud services, which is a 25% increase since Avanade conducted a similar survey in 2009.

Why? Over the past three years, the number of Facebook member profiles has grown to 51% of Americans older than 12. Three years ago, it was 8%.

In fact, a new report from Arbitron, Inc. and Edison Research asserts 96% of people between the ages of 12 and 50 say they use Facebook.

More than half of those people say they’ve increased their Facebook use over the past year.

Another survey from Bank of America and AllFacebook, digs down a little deeper.

It found:

• 82% of Facebook users are concerned about privacy
• 48% have (intentionally) clicked on a Facebook ad
• 40% of users check the site more than once a day
• 36% of members check Facebook more than once a day from a mobile device.

According to this new survey, that all-important team could be one of your company’s biggest threats.

As demonstrated by the on-going legal saga of Terry Childs, the San Francisco network administrator who was jailed after refusing to turn over critical passwords to the city’s computer system, insiders can wreak havoc on an organization when they put their minds to it – and if they get mad enough.

In this case, San Francisco said the recovery after the incident cost more than $1 million. The city insisted that Childs believed his job was in jeopardy and withheld the passwords to make himself indispensable.

Other examples of this type of threat involve former staffers using access privileges that have yet to be shut down to sabotage the company’s network or steal sensitive information.

Many organizations are at risk of similar events, according to a recent report from security vendor Venafi.

According to the survey of 500 IT pros:

1. 36% said they would be able to hold their company ransom by refusing to turn over encryption keys
2. 31% said if they left the company, they could continue using their privileges to access sensitive information, and
3. 43% said they’d be able to cause havoc for their current employer if they left the company.

What can companies do to protect against those threats? The first key is for IT to avoid situations in which only one employee knows a critical encryption key or password.

Second, privileges should be revoked immediately after some leaves the company. That goes for staffers in the IT department, as well as the rest of the company — IT leaders must communicate with HR so they know right away when someone quits or is fired.

But beyond all this, it’s important to make sure your IT team is staffed with folks who’ve demonstrated their integrity and work ethic. Work with your IT hiring managers to focus on these qualities when they’re interviewing job candidates.

And, as always, make sure you’re a leading example of this kind of behavior. Loyalty and fairness in the way you treat your employees is the best insurance against this kind of behavior.

But there’s something organizational leaders need to be aware of when mulling a cloud move with their IT team: A new survey reveals the distressing news that most vendors don’t care about keeping data secure.

That’s the word from a recent survey of cloud providers conducted by the Ponemon Institute. Among the U.S. vendors surveyed, 73% said their service doesn’t “substantially protect and secure” customers’ data.

Providers also aren’t putting a whole lot of effort into security — 79% of the vendors surveyed said they dedicate less than 10% of their resources to security.

Why is that? Cloud providers don’t believe that protecting data is their job, or that customers care. Just 25% of vendors said they view security as one of their most important responsibilities, and only 19% said security is a competitive advantage for cloud vendors.

For IT managers, this means they must be even more diligent about evaluating vendors’ security and conducting audits. It’s easy to assume a vendor will take the lead in protecting the data it stores, but as this report shows, that isn’t necessarily the case.

Businesses can keep their data safe when it’s in the cloud by:

1. Checking up on a vendor’s security controls — including learning about how its employees are hired and trained — when choosing providers
2. Making sure the provider can accommodate your company’s specific compliance and security needs, based on regulations for your industry or the company’s own policies, and
3. Keeping data with high security needs in-house. When dealing with information that’s especially sensitive, a cloud platform may not be the best option.

It’s IT systems, which are getting the blame for the problems of most finance pros these days.

A recent KPMG survey of finance pros found that more than half (52%) of respondents from the United States blamed aging and inflexible IT systems for their inability to improve the effectiveness of the finance team.

Asked what puts finance at risk for failing to reach its objectives, 73% of U.S. finance executives listed finance technology and systems. Growing organizational complexity was the only “risk” that registered higher among respondents at 78%.

While finance pros can take much of the credit for helping their organizations navigate the recent recession, budget cuts and reduced capital expenditures are likely much of the reason for systems that are behind the times and less than helpful.

Figuring out how to spend what’s needed for up-to-date systems will take careful coordination and cooperation between finance and IT teams.

And it’s likely to be the job of senior management to referee struggles between the two vital teams. Making sure that each values the contributions of the other will go a long way toward crafting the compromises necessary to provide finance with the tools it needs without breaking the bank or the backs of the IT team.

New research sheds light on how sales managers can maximize their effectiveness – and boost profits in the process.

Today’s sales managers spend more than a quarter of their time in meetings or dealing with internal tasks, found CSO Insights’ 2011 Sales Management Optimization Survey.

Managers spend another 16% of their time traveling for the company and training new salespeople, and another 44% of their time out in the field, working with and/or coaching salespeople.

While that reflects a commitment to peak performance, the exorbitant amount of time managers devote to low-priority tasks represents a substantial breakdown in efficiency.

Sales managers may want to consider the following tactics as a way to maximize productivity:

• Cut down on travel by having senior reps attend certain events
  on the company’s behalf.
• Hire an intern or part-time admin to handle minor tasks that distract you from big-picture initiatives.
• Partner top salespeople with new trainees, so you have more time to work with — and develop — veteran reps.
• Place a time limit on weekly meetings, ask to be excused from meetings that don’t require your presence, and set an agenda before each meeting — so you’re sure to stay on point.

It may also help to audit how much time you devote to specific tasks each week, so you can pinpoint which responsibilities represent a significant drain on productivity.

Info: For the complete findings of the CSO Insights Sales Management Optimization Study, click here.

A recent MarketingSherpa survey of more than 1,000 B2B marketers found 79% of companies still count direct mail as an effective part of their marketing strategy (22% of those respondents believe direct mail is a “very effective” channel).

Only 21% of companies believe direct mail is “completely ineffective” in terms of generating new business.

The question managers need to ask themselves prior to launching a new direct mail campaign is: What edge can direct mail provide that e-mail cannot?

Here are four reasons companies may want to consider direct mail campaigns instead of (or in addition to) e-mail:

1. Direct mail copy isn’t subject to spam filters
2. It gives companies the option to add graphics and vibrant colors, both of which have been proven to increase response rates
3. Lists don’t dwindle over time as prospects “unsubscribe,” and
4. It gives marketers the option to use creative envelopes or packaging to increase open rates.

The survey also revealed the size and location of a company play a major role in determining whether to use direct mail or e-mail

Two types of companies that tend to see better results from direct mail:

1. small companies of 100 employees or fewer that cater to a close-knit pool of customers, and
2. companies located in rural regions, where e-mail isn’t as widely used (or popular) as direct mail.

According to a HubSpot survey of more than 1,500 small- and mid-size businesses, maintaining an online blog via the company’s website yields (on average):

• 55% more site visitors
• 434% more indexed pages (which have a dramatic impact on a company’s visibility via search engines), and
• 97% more inbound links (which also improve search engine optimization).

One of the keys to making a business blog successful is enlisting the resources (translation: employees) necessary to constantly update the blog.

When blog content’s fresh, visitors have a reason to stop back on a regular basis. More importantly, it starts to build a captive audience, which eventually drives sales by linking to a company’s products/services and explaining why they provide the ideal solutions for overcoming the common challenges prospects face.

One way to get started: See if you can get each of your salespeople to write one post a week on a topic of their choosing. They might even enjoy doing so, because it can help build their credentials/influence within an industry — not to mention boost prospecting results.

Source: “Study Shows Small Businesses That Blog Get 55% More Website Visitors,” by Rick Burnes, Hubspot.com.

More than 1 in 4 people surveyed said they used Facebook (on a mobile device, one would hope!) while in the bathroom.

A recent AIS Media survey asked 500 people about their Facebooking habits. Of those who said they did use their time in the bathroom to keep up with Facebook, 54% were women and 46% were men.

Most were 30 to 49 years old.

Facebooking in the bathroom isn’t so absurd as you might think.

A lot of people carry a phone with them everywhere they go, and if an email comes in alerting the person of a new Facebook posting, many people will, out of instinct, reach for the phone and see what it says.

That behavior naturally carries over into the bathroom.

Consider the growth of social media and our strong personal need to stay connected, it’s a logical development.

More than anything else, experts say, it’s a growing opportunity for marketers to “engage customers like never before.” Although how is up to you.

Any ideas?