So great when it happens…

One of my favorite marketing things to do is talk to customers. I especially like it when I get to do it on behalf of one of my clients in particular. Never, in my 28 years of tech product marketing, have I ever experienced anything like the joy factor that comes out of most of my conversations about how folks are faring with this particular client’s products.  No, it’s seldom entirely a pure love fest - sometimes there are problems, sometimes there are wish lists, sometimes there are ticked off customers - but mostly these customers are pretty darned happy. (What’s even more extraordinary is that, when I’ve done loss analysis for this company, those who chose another product are genuinely complimentary, and as often as not went in another direction because they had a corporate site license in place for a competitor, or because of some minor feature of the competitive platform. Sure, to some degree, the customers - and losses - I speak with are a bit cherry-picked: I’m seldom calling into a situation that is known to be contentious, peril-fraught for whatever reason. Still…) But I digress…

One of the projects I work on for this client is finding customers to take part in their webinar series, a highly successful program that really and truly tries to deliver on real content, not just a thinly veiled sales pitch.

When I’m talking to a customer, I will generally make a note in my file about whether I think they have the personality and presence to shine in a webinar, but not come across as slick or canned, which would be anathema for our techie audience.

So far, I’m batting 1.000 on the candidates that I’ve brought in.

A couple were a bit rough going to begin with, a bit nervous about being “on stage”. Here, I will credit my coaching and preparation with them a little, and the skill of the moderators we used a lot, with bringing the customers out and getting them relaxed and open.

But my most recent win. Wow! Couldn’t have been better.

When I was asked to come up a webinar participant for this particular product, I recalled that, about 6 months ago, I’d spoken with someone and had noted “great personality; lively and fun” in my file. And did she deliver: she was personable, informative, had great war stories, and was very funny. If we had scripted every word, we couldn’t have come up with anything better. She even jumped in and added to the conversation in places where the script - and, yes, we do have a loosely-followed flow-guide - called for our internal guy to talk about an issue with the moderator. Our customer got right into it, and, completely unprodded, came up with an anecdote that supported the point we were trying to get across.

I used to say that one of the best things about managing is when you luck (and, admittedly, skill) into a team that makes you look good. Same goes for our customers: this person really made me look good. (And I have, indeed, let her know.)

I know I can’t count on this to happen with every webinar I’m involved in. And I sure hope that my client doesn’t think I have a whole raft of folks like CJK up my sleeve that I can pull out and deliver. But it is just so great when this happens.

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