Revenue Journal®

Personas do have their place. When you're designing a product, you have to make decisions about what to put in and what to leave out. Personas can help with that process.

But once the product is designed, and it's time to create your web page, write selling copy, and train your salespeople, personas can get you into real trouble. They can make you think you're addressing the buyer properly, when in fact you are probably ignoring who the buyer is, what the buyer really wants, and, in many cases, insulting the buyer.

You see, if I'm the buyer, I already know who I am. So I'm not the least impressed if you think you know who I am. Besides, it makes me feel a little creeped out anyway, that you're so determined to know everything about me you can describe me to your buddies around the conference table.

Do you really have to know all those things about me to sell something to me? I mean, c'mon. What does it matter how old I am or how much money I make? I just want to buy something to fix a problem. I don't want my personal space invaded.

Not only that: Is it going to be a fun to buy your product, or are you going to make it a hassle?

There's a joke - you've probably heard one of the many versions of it - that I think of as the "demo" joke. My favorite version is the one starring Bill Gates:

Bill Gates died and found himself standing in front of St. Peter, who was sizing him up.

"Okay, what the Hell," said Bill. "Let's try down below first."

"Fast, right, cheap. Pick two."

Print shop owners used to like to post this little truism near the front desk of their shops. There's a lot of wisdom on those five words. If you do it too fast, it's likely to be wrong. If you take too much time obsessing over details, it isn't going to be fast. And if you get it cheap, you might also get it fast, but it probably won't be right.

The problem is, today's customers assume that they can get "all three" if they just look hard enough. Google has given them a virtual, endless, global shopping mall. If one vendor can't give them all three, they'll just keep looking. Click. Click. Click.

Lately I've encountered more entrepreneurs who have bought into the idea that they can just set up their search engine marketing and websites, and the orders will pour in. Oh, how nice it would be if it were true!

There are consultants who will say that it is possible, and say that they have made bundles of money doing it. But they sell one type of product (usually a guide of some sort), using one type of marketing method (usually a combination of search engine marketing, and a dedicated website that makes outrageous promises as it offers the guide for sale on the website). The website contains a single long-winded, direct-mail-like page that sells you on all the things that the guide will do for you, filled with convincing testimonials and "scientific" proof. And they let you pay and download the guide right there. This is a perfect product for the Web, and the method works well for that type of product.

These vendors often sell guides saying you can sell anything on the Web this way. Newbies have bought these guides and have become convinced that this method will work for any type of product - that all they have to do is set up this type of campaign and website, and then sit back and watch the orders flow in. It simply isn't true.

"That does it. I've had it."

That declaration is provoked by someone "stepping over the line." They've "gone too far." It's "too difficult."

All of us - low functioning and high functioning - have these lines, drawn over many years of interacting with others. I have an autistic brother, who is considered "low functioning," because he has no concept of the danger of traffic, the need for money, or the need to work. I could point to all sorts of areas where Michael is higher functioning than many "normal" people, and he has shown me more than you can imagine about human behavior, but that's not the subject of this article.

What is important here is that one of Michael's low-functioning traits is his inability to ignore or move beyond his demarcation lines.

The problem with marketing and sales is that they are the functions inside companies most likely to be driven more by emotions and anecdotal "evidence" than they are by facts. The result is never as profitable as it could be.

If salespeople dominate decisions, without the benefit of qualitative customer research and buying process analysis, the atmosphere is always dominated by fear of losing the next sale, and activity is always frantic.

The salesperson will send an email to the marketing person: "I just closed this sale. I sent this fax to them, and they read it while we were talking to each other, and the person loved this fax. We need an email and landing page that uses this copy!!!" The marketing person will comply. The salesperson will then talk to another customer, who will react positively to something else, and the salesperson will send another email to the marketing person, demanding another email and landing page.

Every business starts with a dream. Every buyer starts the buying process with a dream.

Every business can turn into a nightmare. And, every buying process - especially those involving large, expensive, important purchases - can turn into a nightmare.

These dreams - and fears of nightmares - drive the decisions and actions of both business owners and buyers.

We've all seen this at work in extreme cases, where an individual will let their own fantasy world overwhelm reality to the point where they lose their job or their business, and the people who supported them along the way.

But these situations are rare. The more usual, day-to-day situation is one where the seller and buyer are trying to find common ground, to negotiate a realistic solution where everyone can be happy.

Let's say you're a vendor in a developing country selling some kind of product or service to customers in more developed countries. You know you can provide what the customers there need, but you're not sure how get the attention of the right kinds of buyers, and when you do get a lead, you find it too difficult to close the sale. Something is standing in your way. That something is the negative reputation that your country or industry might have in the mind of the buyer.

This article will address both of these challenges while looking at the process from the buyer's perspective. The advice in this article will help anyone selling any type of high-risk product or service - even in well-established markets - as the dynamics are similar.

George Lucas, being interviewed recently by Kara Swisher of The Wall Street Journal, was pontificating on the difference between circus and art. He said that YouTube is circus - which the movie industry calls "throwing puppies on the freeway," because you just create something and put it up and see what happens. He then said that art, on the other hand, is "where the person contrives the situation and tells a story, and hopefully that story reveals the truth behind the facts."

This comment really caught my attention, because that's exactly what good marketing is supposed to do: reveal the truth behind the facts. And if you think about how George Lucas spins his stories, you realize how far marketing is from the ideal he describes.

At any given time, in addition to my Fortune 100 and medium-sized company clients, I always have a couple of entrepreneurs on my client list. I enjoy helping startups, and increasing the revenues of existing small businesses.

Typically, someone who starts a business is an expert in a particular area. In other words, their core competency doesn't lie in marketing and sales. As a result, they are constantly searching for any trick or technique that will help them make more sales.

This search - and in some cases it is a desperate search - makes them easy prey for any halfway plausible idea. They are constantly reading articles and books, talking to friends, and listening to vendors selling ad space, website design, direct mail, and so on. I often get questions by email - "I just talked to So and So, and they said..." Or, "I just read an article that said..." The questions are always about doing a specific thing that will supposedly help their sales increase.

The sad thing is, it's never one thing. And it's never the thing that you just read or that someone just told you. 100% of the time, the answer is right in front of you. Yes, I said 100% of the time. Always. Here's how you find the answers you seek.

Well, it's that time again. People are worried about a recession.

Strange, because according to the US Department of Labor, the unemployment rate is at 4.4%. For historical perspective, ten years ago (April 1997) it was 5.1%, rose to a high of 6.3% in June of 2003, and has been falling ever since.

Average hourly earnings have risen from $12.29 in January of 1997 to $17.10 as of January 2007.

How do I know people are worried? The phrase "How to make money during a recession" has started to become more common again in my search term results. Plus, the bigger companies have stopped spending while they wrangle over budget cuts. And entrepreneurs are focusing more seriously on making more sales.

If we do have a recession, what will happen? What typically happens in all recessions?

I've mentioned before that I buy a lot of software online. Recently I undertook an extensive search for software I could use to efficiently build outlines for books and other large, complex documents, because the outlining function in Word is pitiful and slows...the...creative...flow...to...a...crawl, and has a klutzy expand/contract outline function.

I must have looked at 25 programs, and trialed at least 10. For all of you out there selling software online, I have some very specific advice for you, from a buyer's point of view.

Every CEO and entrepreneur has a need for both graphic and website designers. Too bad there are so few good ones out there.

Sure, there are people who say they are designers. And they do, in fact, churn out work for clients. But I'd estimate that only one out of 200 actually know how to solve design problems, have truly satisfied clients, and consistently turn out good, solid work.

What's the problem? It goes back to something a CEO once said to me, about ten years ago. "No one is teaching kids how to think." He was right. Being a good designer means you follow a well-tested process. You gather all the input you need, you prioritize it and analyze it, and then you come up with solutions that meet the requirements.

There will be tradeoffs; the design process always involves a delicate balance between all of the various goals, resources, form, and function. But the best designers do a masterful job of meeting all the requirements while creating something pleasing and functional.

Instead of learning how to make these tradeoffs, young designers are taught to imitate established designers or to follow their own creative whim. It is easier to teach someone to imitate or to do whatever he/she wants than it is to actually teach the student to think - or be of service.

The result is always something inappropriate for the client. I can't tell you how many entrepreneurs and CEOs are frustrated with the designs that come back to them, after they think they've provided the information the designer needed.

Marketing is a force. Like any other force, it can be used for good or ill. There are many people who say that marketing itself is evil. Not so.

Marketing is only evil when the power of marketing is used to misrepresent or hide the truth.

I supposed I could stop here, because that really is the essence of it. But I'll go a little further to and provide an example.

If you want to see a perfect example of a company that makes it easy to buy, take a look at Home Reserve. What an exceptional site this is. Let's look at what they do right.

First, the home page.

What's the first question when you're shopping for furniture? Cost. Most people have a specific budget in mind for a given room or situation. And, that's the first big question Home Reserve answers, right on top.

As you come to this site, first your eye goes to the two people, and, immediately, to the prices. Then to the pictures and the fabric swatches.

Home Reserve uses the circle motif to draw your eye to important areas of the site, including the shop button, the photo gallery, and the swatches. One thing I find interesting about this is how the first circle you see is emotionally comforting - the two people obviously enjoying each other as they look at color swatches. Does this encourage you to assume that all circles will be emotionally satisfying? Hmmm."

Here's the first sentence of a website selling an email security solution:

"In today's business world, email has become critical to daily commerce. But, it also contains serious threats, threats which have increased dramatically over the last few years. You can't afford to ignore those threats."

Whoever wrote these words has obviously never spoken to a real IT person, who has been fighting an endless battle against spam for years. Actually, even a technophobic grandmother who does nothing but email on her computer knows that email contains "serious threats" which have "increased dramatically."

Working with CEOs and entrepreneurs, I identify and eliminate barriers to revenue and turn stalled or slowing companies into revenue-growth machines. I have become a revenue engineer. I am an industry of one, and happy to be here.

I'm bringing this up to talk about self-reinvention, a skill that all of us must master in this age of fast-moving markets. As you learn more and become more experienced, and apply those lessons and that experience to your next job, you need to know what you are good at, what you can provide, and what you should call it.

As the leader of your company, what you decide to do is what gets done. At least, that's how it should happen. What you have control over (to a degree) are your own decisions, your own actions, and the management of your employees. You have some influence with your business partners. You have no direct control over your customers.

Of course, without customers, you wouldn't have a business - no revenue, no employees, no partners. The people most important to your business are your customers.

Whom do you spend the most time with? Employees.

I'm in the midst of rewriting about 50 "sales plays" for a client. These are intranet-based instructions for salespeople making outgoing calls to potential clients. Each "sales play" describes the product or product combination being sold (the "offering"), the target audience for that offering, what's included in the offering, why the client should be interested, and suggested voicemail, phone call, and email copy that the salesperson can use when pitching the offering to a client.

Rewriting these sales plays is reminding me how impossible it is to be a salesperson who is depending on copy written by copywriters who have never had to make a cold call. The plays I'm changing, although each one is written about a different product, all use the same language. They all talk about the customer's need and the product's benefits.

The people you hire can make a big difference to your revenue growth. That's why I help CEOs find and hire the best people for each position. I've been building a marketing and sales team for one of my clients for the past few years. The people we have found are making a difference. The company's revenues are way up. The marketing and selling efforts are bearing fruit.

All of the people we've brought in are contributing. The webmaster/IT guy is technically brilliant, as well as productive and pleasant. The head of marketing loves marketing online, has a great sense of the big picture, and understands how to optimize marketing and tracking efforts. The head of sales has been working with each salesperson to improve their outgoing efforts - and has set up programs to consistently interact with existing customers, at just the right time in their buying process. Sales to new customers has increased along with sales to existing customers.

One of the most satisfying hires is the data-oriented person we brought into marketing.

When I'm hired to help a company increase its revenues, clients come to me assuming that the answer will lie beyond existing products and markets. However, what usually happens is we find significant growth opportunities for existing products in existing markets.

There are several benefits to finding new revenue in existing products and markets:

The president of a small company recently sent me an email. "We've done well in a lot of areas of business, but what we haven't done is sorely inhibiting our growth. We need to master marketing and are committed to doing just that. Will you point me to the best learning tools?"

I'll bet you can guess where I pointed him…right back to his own customers. Here was my reply:

Well, it's that time again. Elections. Always causes a bit of a dip in productivity, and a slowdown of the buying process, while everyone waits to see how the election will turn out.

Welcome to Distraction City.

In our news-dominated culture, distractions interrupt buying patterns. The larger the distraction, the larger the interruption. I tend to think of these periods as distraction-driven mini-dips. If there are a number of them in succession - especially those involving armed conflict or a terrorist attack - the dips can turn into a recession.

During these distraction-driven mini-dips, it's more difficult to generate revenue. Everyone still goes to work, meetings are still held, contracts are still signed, but if you're on the selling side, it always feels like the world is sliding sideways. As you attempt to finalize a contract, it's like talking to someone who is talking to someone else on a cell phone. Or who is pretending to be paying attention to you while simultaneously watching a movie. Sure, they will answer your questions, but they're not "all there." People are no where near as adept at multi-tasking as they think they are, especially if they have an emotional stake in the other task.

It's not just the buyers who are distracted. Sellers are distracted, too.

Major opportunity for you

As I help CEOs increase their revenues, I often find that they are not aware how inefficient their companies are, from the point of view of their buyers and business partners. They don't realize how much their own systems are broken - and how much those broken systems reduce their sales.

Why is this? Because CEOs depend too much on their employees for information. When I interview their buyers and business partners, the picture painted by those interviews is completely different than the picture painted by the employees.

It's not that the employees are being deceptive. It's that they assume that the CEO is aware of the problems, and is not going to change them. They try to make the best of their situation, devising workarounds for some of the inefficiencies, and just accepting others. They are also insulated from the effect that pitiful processes have on buyers and business partners. Sure, they hear the complaints, but they aren't aware of anything they can do about them.

One of the biggest barriers to your company's revenue growth is the battle that goes on every single day between marketers and salespeople. Each has legitimate grievances. Each group pays lip service to getting along - especially in your presence - but they really don't respect each other and they usually work at cross-purposes to each other. The smallest and the largest companies have this problem.

In the third article, we'll describe the solution and how you can put it to work.

This is part number two of a three-part article.
In Part 1, we told the dog's tale - the frustrations experienced by a salesperson who wanted to sell more, but never seemed to be able to get the necessary selling tools from marketing (the cats). This week, we look at the problem from the cat's perspective.

Marketing: Cool cats get cranky
As the head of marketing for a succession of companies in Silicon Valley, I worked hard to give salespeople what they needed. I made sure they had tools for every stage of the selling process. I enjoyed the work, but felt I could do more good for more salespeople if I worked in an agency. After working in a couple of agencies, I decided to go off on my own. My husband and I opened a tech marketing agency. It was April Fool's Day, 1979.

This is part number three of a three-part article.
First we told the salesperson's sad tale, then looked at marketing and selling from the marketer's perspective. This week, we provide a step-by-step solution. If you actually do this, your dogs and cats will finally find common ground and start working together to increase your sales.

How to stop the squabbling and supercharge your sales
The secret to getting your salespeople and marketing people to work together is to stop the interdepartmental, political arguments about the selling process and start focusing everyone's attention on the customer's buying process. This is the only way to stop the political tug-of-war.

Here's how you do it.

If you haven't been to the launch site for NXP, a spin-off from Philips, take a look - and prepare to be blown away.

The site is beautiful. Breathtaking, even. The Guy in the Green Shirt (below), who will talk to you while you're on the site, does a pretty good job of being professional and yet friendly, in a geeky/retro kind of way. So friendly, in fact, that when you return to the site he will welcome you back.

Most business activities can be managed in a fairly straightforward fashion. You decide what you're going to do, you create a project plan - complete with cost and timing - you get the right people to execute the plan, you build in checkpoints, and then you set the wheels in motion.

The chances of these activities being successful are fairly high. The barriers to success are internal politics, unrealistic expectations, and mismanagement or ineptitude as the project progresses. These problems can be overcome with effective management. Politics can be squashed by managers who are forthright and goal-driven. Unrealistic expectations can be avoided by seasoned managers who have "been there, done that," and they know what can go wrong. Mismanagement isn't a problem when the managers gather accurate data and make sound decisions. Ineptitude shouldn't get in the way - even when it is well-disguised - because good managers can spot ineptitude a mile away.

A typical business person begins the day…

Booting up computer…OK, 200 emails that I am expected to respond to…18 phone calls I must make today…7 hour-long meetings…this email says that we can't use the approach we all finally agreed upon…sigh…phone rings…boss…wants me to call into a meeting he's holding now…there goes my "quiet" time…calling in…hmmmm boring…why did he think I needed to hear this?…May as well do something productive while I'm listening…briefcase handle broke yesterday, need a new one…let's see…Google…typing…

briefcase leather black computer pocket Briggs & Riley

Hmmm…MSN Shopping shows a bunch of them, looks like…clicking…ah, good…wait, boss is asking me a question…yes…yes…yes, we've got that under control, I'm sending you the project plan…email to boss…OK, back to briefcases. Man, they're expensive. Better sort by price…OK…I'll look at this and this and this…

We all know that this is the reality of a busy person's day, and the reality of a busy person's buying process. Yet we write as if they are sitting around with their feet up, luxuriating over every precious word of our promotional copy, like a recreational shopper with too much money and all day to spend it.

As I write my second book, in one chapter I'm describing how people think when they buy Light Scrutiny products (one of the four categories of products and services, characterized by the amount of scrutiny the buyer applies to the purchase). I'm listing the three questions people ask themselves when buying a Light Scrutiny product:

- Do I want this?
- Can I afford it?
- Is there any reason I shouldn't buy this?

I note in the book how the answer to the last question is usually related to self-discipline:

If I buy that bag of chips, I'm not going to lose any weight today.

If I take that trashy magazine home and read it, I probably won't get around to the more important things I need to do today.

If the buyer exercises her self-discipline, she won't buy that bag of chips or that trashy magazine. The company that sells chips will make one less sale. The publisher who crams his magazine with gossip about celebrities will sell one less magazine. And the buyer will go home, sticking to her diet resolutions and getting her projects finished.

The buyer wins, the seller loses.

I was evaluating at an attractive-looking website while talking on the phone to the entrepreneur who created it. As I clicked around, I realized that the website suffered from a common problem. "I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but this whole website is about 'dead chicken parts, fried in grease at 200 degrees,'" I told him. "What's missing from this site is 'finger-lickin' good.'"

In other words, the entire site was all about the process behind his product, rather than the satisfaction his customers will get from the product.

He's going to change the site, after he interviews some customers to find out what they consider to be "finger-licking good" about his product.

What is "finger-licking good"?

There's a conflict between the information you want to get from your potential buyers - in order to market to them effectively - and the fact that asking for that information can prevent them from interacting with your website or making a purchase. Asking for too much information too soon is like the owner of a retail store "greeting" you at the entrance and forcing you to sign a guestbook before you can start shopping. Most people would decline and leave the store, which is exactly what is happening on your website - except you can't "see" them leaving without resorting to in-depth web stat log analysis.

How do you find out what you need to know without placing barriers in their way?

Kimberley Deane makes beautiful, reasonably priced jewelry. Her photography skills are top-notch. Her website and printed materials are stunning.

The only problem is, Kimberley hates to sell. She'd rather spend most of her day creating her wares, not "selling." Most artisan entrepreneurs, especially those who open up one-person shops in order to sell what they love to create, hate to sell. Selling is a distasteful, intrusive activity. It grosses them out and causes them to break out in a cold sweat.

Kimberley wants to increase her sales, but she didn't want to have to sell in order to do it. Once I understood her problem, I was able to tell her that she doesn't need to "sell" in order to increase her sales. She just has to make it easy for people to buy from her. That was a comforting thought for Kimberley. Then we started working on exactly how she would do this.

Entrepreneurs, listen up. You may feel like you are alone in your struggle to increase your sales. You're not. Every single entrepreneur struggles with the same issues. And every conversation I have with an entrepreneur follows a similar pattern, and has a similar happy ending, once I show him where his solution lies.

The first conversation always starts out with the entrepreneur telling me what he has been doing about marketing and sales, and what he thinks he wants to try next. His options always involve decisions about marketing vehicles ("Should I do PR? What about my website? Should I follow the advice of this person selling direct mail services? What about this local agency that is trying to get me to run radio ads?")

I listen until he has given me the whole picture. It doesn't take long, because 35 years of selling every type of product helps me fill in the blanks--if he's selling direct, I know what his business model looks like; if he's selling through partners, I know right away the problems he's having in that area.

After asking him a number of questions - including "Are you interviewing your customers on a regular basis?", I can see why he is struggling with his marketing decisions. The problem is, he's focusing on his selling process.

"Demand generation" is the new name for "marketing." It has its roots in every salesman's fantasy. Salespeople are happiest when their product is in demand, when they're writing orders rather than having to make cold calls and trying to convince people to buy. The sweetest phrase a salesman can say to himself is, "I'm in demand!"

But "demand generation" has nothing to do with the customer's buying process. The only time "demand" can be applied to the customer's buying process is when a child is demanding something from a grownup. Picture the full-blown, in-store temper tantrum employed by the three-year-old, or the more subtle--but just as irritating--Major Sulk employed by a teenager using more "sophisticated" methods. But even in these cases, the child doing the demanding is not even the final decision-maker.

Every day, potential buyers are calling your company for the first time. They are also calling competing companies. This is the "first contact test."

If you are like most companies, your first-time callers will be confronted with a recorded voice that tells them to "select from the following options."

They must then pay careful attention to the options presented. As the voice rattles off the choices, #2 may sound hopeful, but not quite right. They try to remember #2 while they listen to all the other options, still hoping that one of them will lead to what they need. When the voice finally gets to #9, then says "press pound to hear the menu again," they realize that none of the options were appropriate and they are not going to be able to get human help by pressing zero.

If this is how your company's current system works, and you'd like to grow your sales, scrap your system.

The CMO Council and MarketBridge just conducted a study to determine how marketing is perceived and how marketers think they're doing. The results agree with what I've observed for many years: the very nature of marketing has changed and many marketers haven't changed with it.

Your website is one of the most important "employees" in your company. It is your company's most important salesperson and service person.

What kind of employee is it? Is it friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable? Or snarly and surly, thwarting the customer (and sabotaging the sale) at every turn?

I just bought a new laptop and its associated software and accessories. As I purchased and configured the computer, I was reminded again how stark the difference is between companies with a helpful website and companies with an obstructive website.

On the good side of the equation, we have CDW, the large computer company based in Illinois. I was considering buying my new laptop from them, but became convinced it was a good idea after talking to Jim Sterne. He told me he had gotten a cold call from them one day, which quickly turned into a warm call, which caused him to go to their website, and actually buy something. He has continued buying from CDW, over and over. Having now gone through a very pleasant and successful buying experience with them, I can understand his enthusiastic loyalty. More on CDW in a moment.

Here I am, money in hand, looking for a specific software solution.

While visiting about a dozen sites, several times my efforts to download are thwarted by a glitch in the process - where something should work just fine, but for some reason, it doesn't.

I usually send an email to the company when this happens. I seldom receive a reply.

Way too many software companies are asleep at the switch. They're so busy trying to get new leads, they ignore people who are much further along in their buying process.Not a good idea. It is the active buyer, the one who is perfectly willing to pay you - today (as in NOW, this minute) - who interacts with your site and sees screens like this one:

"What?!!? He said that? You're kidding. You're not kidding? He actually said we have to do that? Starting tomorrow? Does he realize what he's asking? Oh, of course not. What an idiot! That means I'm going to have to drop everything I've been working on for three weeks and start running full speed in the other direction! I can't believe it."

This conversation, which takes place in millions of hallways across the world each business day, ends with everyone going back to their desks, carrying their cups of coffee, heads down, grumbling all the way.

Because of something a manager or manager's manager said, employees are going to be working on something that doesn't make sense, something that will mess up everything else they're working on, something that will probably inconvenience customers - or, worse, make customers shake their heads in disgust and go find a company who has a clue about what they need and how they want to buy.

Working on things that don't make sense - things that will hurt the company because they won't help the customer - is, by far, one of the biggest problem in business today. It's an epidemic, and nobody talks about it. Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, owes a lot of his popularity to the sad fact that the stupidity of Dilbert's boss rings true for a lot of workers.

"You want a service that fits you perfectly," the headline says. "We tailor to your size."

What service?

The rest of this ad, which appeared in The Wall Street Journal Online Edition, doesn't help answer this question. There's a picture of a tape measure - one of the most worn-out clich�s in the history of advertising, online or off.

There's a link to "More information"; again, totally useless. There's the great, informative tagline that probably cost the company $30,000 to create: "Making more possible." Gee, who else could that tagline apply to? Only about 3 million other companies.

I recently interviewed Greg Jarboe, one of the founders of SEO-PR, a company that has established itself as one of the market leaders in the field of search engine optimization using public relations techniques. I've known Greg for many years; back when my husband and I were in Silicon Valley running a high-tech marketing agency in the 80's, Greg was director of communications for the then high-flying Ziff-Davis.

Greg has always been urbane and prophetic, so he's fun to interview. But he's also learned a thing or two about optimized PR. Here's what he had to say.

PR in general:

At the highest level, marketing has changed radically in the last 10 years, and most parts of the marketing mix are aware of it. It seems the PR people became aware of it last. They knew the world changed, but they didn't know how, because they didn't have a good system of measurement. If you're measuring clips, you're measuring outputs, but not outcomes. How many clips do I need to make a sale? That's the real question. Otherwise, you have to resort to "ad equivalency" measurements.

Let's assume someone really good-looking swept you off your feet with promises of a life of bliss. You dated, got engaged, and then tied the knot.

About five minutes after you left the church together in your limo, your new spouse suddenly turned into the ugliest, meanest, rudest person you had ever met. A broken heart and many months later, you were free, and you vowed to yourself: "Never again."

This is the mindset of today's software buyer. Especially those considering big-ticket, enterprise-wide programs.

These people are Skeptical, with a capital S. They have already been badly burned by "revolutionary" systems like CRM and ERP. Some of them almost killed their own companies trying to put these systems into place (and almost did it again when they had to remove those same systems).

Think you can impress these buyers with flowery promises? Not anymore. Think they'll believe that "It will be different this time - we will actually take care of you?" Ha! Think you're going to convince someone to champion your solution to their CEO? Dreamer!

They don't trust any promises; too many promises have been broken by everyone in the software business, from Microsoft (the biggest promiser and promise-breaker of all time) on down.

No wonder it's so tough to sell software.

Economies are driven primarily by consumer beliefs and behaviors. When consumers are confident, they buy more. That's why economists watch consumer confidence levels. But that one measurement doesn't tell the whole story.

The real source of consumer confidence

A large portion of consumers are workers, employed by a company. Their confidence is directly linked to the confidence level of their boss. Workers watch their bosses carefully. If the boss is worried about the future, and openly agonizing about competition, slow sales, or too-high expenses, the worker is going to play it safe and hang on to his money.

He'll nurse his old car along; he won't buy a new house; and he'll resist making other purchases until his boss' attitude changes. He will also be more careful with the company's money. He'll watch his business spending. He'll take longer to make decisions, dragging out the buying process.

His boss, the company's owner, is also a consumer - of both consumer and business-to-business products and services. In addition to having an impact on the behavior of their employees, CEOs and the world's growing league of small business owners have a direct impact on the economy. They play a significant role as their company's top dog, and as consumers in their own right.

It's finally becoming clear to everyone that marketing is not about relationships. Customers don't want relationships with sellers. Instead, they want to be able to find a product or service, get their questions answered, and make a purchase - without being forced into a "relationship." No one wants the local car dealer showing up for dinner. It was sellers who wanted a relationship, as if they could somehow magically make a customer loyal for life.

"Marriages" don't happen in the world of commerce. In real marriages - the romantic, lifetime kind - the partners stick it out through thick and thin. Commercial "relationships" are really one-night stands. One partner provides the goods, and the other partner pays the money. If the provider of the money isn't satisfied with the goods, he'll go find another partner.

If not relationships, what is marketing about?