Listening Post Interview
Posted by Nancy Porte on Wed, Nov 02, 2011
Today’s guest was Lisa Nirell. Lisa is the Chief Energy Officer of EnergizeGrowth®. She helps B2B companies grow customer mindshare and market share.
We invited Lisa to the Listening Post because since 1983, her practical marketing and growth strategies have helped companies such as BMC Software, Microsoft, Adobe, Trend Micro, and Wells Fargo Advisors. Lisa is also a sought after speaker, FastCompany expert blogger, and the author of EnergizeGrowth® NOW: The Marketing Guide to a Wealthy Company.
Nancy Porte: In your book, you show the reader how to understand the benefits and pitfalls of running a growth company. One of the techniques you advocate is building online communities to foster customer evangelists. Can you give us some examples of companies that have done this well?
Lisa Nirell: When my book was launched it was hard to find B2B companies well. B2C seem to be leading the pack. Companies like Zappos have led the charge! They have this wonderful blend of online and offline activities going on in parallel to get the word out about their products and amazing service. Over 110 employees are tweeting and blogging - Tony Hsieh, CEO, has over 1.8 million Twitter followers!
NP: One of the first warning signs of a company in trouble is that the ideal client profile changes significantly. Yet many growth companies, particularly in the early stages, don’t know their ideal customer profile. How do you recommend they identify the profile – and how should it be monitored over time?
LN: The first thing is to define the early stage company – I define it as a company that is pre-revenue or a company with a handful of customers that has passed the proof of concept stage. At this stage, it is very difficult to exactly define the ideal customer profile. This is the time that companies need to let the market guide them and develop feedback mechanisms using solutions that Vovici offers.
Once a company gets through the early stages, the biggest mistake made is using a “left-brain” approach to defining the ideal customer. They look at demographics like location, industry, etc. The bad news is that competitors are using more than demographic data – they are using behavior data. And behavior needs to be considered just as much as demographics!
NP: There is a description in your book of a personal career setback because of not creating a customer relationship as part of the process. Can you tell us more about that and what you learned from that?
LN: Many years ago I had a position as Global Account Manager and my largest client was Microsoft! We had a global account planning session and developed a fantastic roadmap to increase revenue from $2M to $11M in just a few years! We went to the Redmond offices and presented our plan to 18 Microsoft executives – and that’s where the wheels came off the wagon! We had failed to test the plan with them. So, when we shared everything the senior executive lost his temper – and I was asked to leave the account. Lesson learned was to engage customers in the planning state early on – and not have the bravado to plan for the customer without involving them.
NP: Your book offers very valuable tools for gathering external feedback to identify how to harvest the most value from your business. I particularly liked the list of questions to ask clients. Who in the organization should contact clients? How often should it be done? How should results be used?
LN: Getting feedback is not nice to have – it’s essential. I recommend using a third party to do client interviews. Customers open up more to an independent party than someone they work with day to day. It is important to have a blended approach, using surveys and other listening posts.
We appreciate the time and information shared by Lisa Nirell. For more information, visit www.energizegrowth.com or contact Lisa directly at lisa@energizegrowth.com.