The Best Marketing Collateral is Field Validation

During a recent enterprise IT infrastructure/AI vendor briefing, the marketing director asked me what I’d recommend they develop for marketing content. They really needed to accelerate their sales pipeline. She described some of the collateral they’ve previously developed, much of it in response to never-ending sales requests. A lot of their content is copy-written in-house by junior marketing staff (i.e. non-technical with little IT experience) because they need to spend effectively, get something done fast and stay focused on messaging. But their problem was that nothing they produced ever excited the sales team nor resonated with prospects.

A quick look at their online resources showed most of the standard checkboxes were filled including data sheets, an ROI calculator, a major logo solution/use case profile and a couple of desktop-recorded sales engineer demo videos. And there were press releases full of quotes from their own execs each with one or two generic big analyst firm sound bytes. Yawn.

I asked them what challenges their sales people experienced while “guiding prospects down the funnel.” They told me they get a lot of internal sales feedback, but it’s all over the place. Overall, it sounded like they just don’t earn the intended buyer’s trust quickly. I suggested that their prospects are probably looking for multiple types of validation before moving forward:

• Vendor Validation – Is the vendor as a company stable, committed and well funded, led by a strong technical and business team? Are they demonstrating progress and growth? Are the employees happy? Is this a company that will not only be around to support what I buy, but will be responsive, proactive and even predictive of what I will likely need in the future?
• Customer (Peer) Validation – Do they have publicly referencable customers? Is their solution something that actually works in production at scale, or is it still an R&D project? Is the solution secure, supported, and loved by end users? Is it really game changing when deployed in a real company (especially”like mine”)? Does the solution deliver what it promises?
• Financial Validation – Do customers end up with a real, documentable ROI? Are there hidden gotchas in the real-world TCO? Is the licensing model equitable or is it filled with surprise triggers and traps? Is there real danger of lock-in? Creeping subscription costs?
• Technical/Solution Validation – How does the solution actually improve or evolve what I do today? Is it easy to teach, learn, use and manage? Is it worth the cost of implementation and change? Is it full of bugs? What is the actual time to value? Are there hidden risks, costs, or gotchas?

Field Validation Covers Your Bases

Imagine all of the above types of validation combined into one easy-to-read piece of content with supporting video and social media!

Small World Big Data can create this trusted validation as an industry expert authored report that satisfies prospect needs for actual customer references. Our Field Validation can be used at many points in your marketing and sales pipeline – nurturing interest and providing real-world use cases, valuable peer insights, recognized financial returns, and more. By capturing your best references’ perspectives and wrapping them with analyst insight and recommendations, you can leverage your references to maximum effect throughout your sales efforts.

How does our field validation work? You nominate a small group of your best references for us to interview. We will then talk with each for 40-50 minutes at their convenience using a casual interactive style. Most conversations are by phone or online meeting and are not digitally recorded to maintain a level of comfort and open discussion. We capture (in true journalistic style) important quotes, anecdotes, the gists of key stories, significant results and even critical feedback. Because our approach is conversational, the interviewee often learns as much from us as we learn from them.

One of the best values is that we can include the stories of awesome clients that aren’t publicly referencable. We simply profile and anonymize those references to their industry/vertical in our report (e.g. “We talked to a Fortune 100 financial services firm and this is their experience…”).  For sensitive key verticals this is a great way to capture and leverage your best “secret” customer stories. In past Field Validation projects, we have presented “non-public” customer references in Oil & Gas, Media & Entertainment, Healthcare Insurance, State and Federal Government, Education, Defense and Financial Services.

Field Validation Works

Our Analyst Field validation earns a prospect’s trust. It’s not just internal marketing hyperbole. It succinctly meets many validation needs. It can always be in the sales holster – and can have a useful lifetime of several years.

Importantly, it prevents the overuse and burnout of your live references. It keeps everyone on message. We can also provide supporting video clips, online event participation and in-person analyst presentations for more leverage.

Small World Big Data Field Validation can easily become your most requested piece of sales collateral. For details or any questions just give us a shout or use this handy form.