Mitalio SoftwareSocial Networking

Introduction

Judging by the looks of thingsthree proposals to our bread-and-butter type manufacturing customerslost. Its just plain embarrassing, so pardon me but I have to say itMitalio Software is definitely hacking away out there and has lost touch with the flow of the game, Tony Ardin said, with a wry southern drawl. We need to sync up with it again. Our game right now is way over par! This is disappointing, annoying, and, yes, a bit threaten- ingbut this loss is our friend, our great teacher. Its telling us to stop, change our focus, and get into the flow. When they hired the inspirational marketing mastermind, they said he saw everything, absolutely every- thing, as if it were a game of golf. But Carlos Romero wasnt prepared for that remark. Mitalio had been very successful until recently. Who did this guy think he was anyway? True, he was the new VP of sales, but really, now, marketing as golf? What the...flow? I dont understand, Carlos blurted out.

Background

Mitalio Software Inc., based in Sunnyvale, California, provided business process software integration and services for corporations in telecom, manufacturing, banking, financial services, healthcare, and insurance. These product categories are called enterprise business software in the technology industry. Most recently, Mitalios core focus was in emerging markets for a category of enterprise business software called business process management (BPM). The BPM software worked in close relation with the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software, which was the backbone of the companys information system.

The companys sales force was defined by a deep level of expertise in business solutions applications and specialization in the key markets served. The majority of the sales representatives had a technical degree or a business degree with a focus on management information systems (MIS). The tenure with Mitalio for employees was 3.8 years, just a bit below the industry average. For the last several years, the sales organization had enjoyed revenue growth surpassing 22% per year, hefty bonuses, and accolades. The BPM solution was differentiated by its flexibility, scalability, Web functionality, and reliable 24/7 technical support. More recently, however, compe- tition had matched Mitalios performance in many core aspects, making the importance of the sales force even more critical. Tony Ardin had been hired to find a solution to Mitalios falling numbers, and Carlos, as director of the digital marketing team, was now reporting to him.

The Sales Model Challenged

Tony continued speaking. Yep, flow of the game is just like the flow of life.There is an ease to the flow that is without force or panic, and it includes everything. When youve lost the flow because youre listening to some very tired or fearful thinking, you start hacking away at the ball and messing up. Instead, you have to stop, breathe, relax, and be stillvery stilland then look with fresh eyes. Youve got to see that the ball and the cup want to come together. In other words, you cant force, or push, the ball into the cup. Youve got to be the bridge that brings the two together.

The flow is all about relationship, he continued, a partnership with the whole thing and each other, cultivating this. It includes everything, even what seems on the surface to be a setback, and is more like synchro- nization, collaboration, if you will. Mitalio is out of sync with the flow of our game. We cant make customers come to usweve got to let them. They want to find our solutions, but we, sales and marketing, have got to be the bridge and give them a reason to connect up with us. Obviously, they are looking elsewhere for the informa- tion they need and not looking where we are showing up with our current communication strategy. We need to get involved. We need to make a change.

I know weve got some challenges: Mitalios products are modular and require us to thoroughly under- stand the needs, challenges, and goals of our customers in order for them to be applied. The customers decision is complex and requires a great deal of effort from the sales rep. This amounts to a long cycle through the sales funnel. (See Appendix A for the sales funnel.) Marketing needs to support sales with new ideas and creative tools. Essentially, this involves needs analysis, solution consulting, ROI, project management, installation, education, training, technical support, maintenance service, and follow up that ensures that satisfaction is a part of how we provide solutions. And, yes, this challenge is also what we do well when we are on our game here at Mitalio, and why Mitalio is a seasoned pro in this market. Mitalio knows how to deliver, how to be a true partner with our customers; weve just got to get back in the game the way its being played nowadays. Carlos was listening very closely now.

BEA Systems recently acquired the BPM software vendor, Fuego, and is getting attention using what the media is calling thought leadership. Thoughts that leadhmmmI dont get it and I dont know what it means. Carlos, I want you to help me understand whats new in what theyre claiming, and create a strategy because we need to counter it and neutralize it. Our customers cant hold any doubts about what we can do for them, now, and down the road.

The marketing spending were currently engaging in isnt producing enough revenue. Can it be were putting our money and focus into an ineffective direction? I think so.

Yep, this is what I love, Carlos!.Each challenge contains an opportunity. They dont, in truth, oppose each other. For example, some of the best golf shots in history were preceded by the worst. Youve just got to stay focused on the collaboration, the harmony, thats working in the challenge, and dont give in to panic and complaining, blaming, fear-based, tired, worn-out thinking. As I said before, this loss is our friend, our great teacher. Weve got to be the bridge to bring our customers and our solutions together. Its all about focus now, find out what the lesson is, and maintain our concentration on a deeper knowing that something incredible wants to emerge out of a seeming setbackthis is how you sync up with the flow.

Lets get back into our game, Carlos, the one Mitalio was meant to play. Seek it outI know you can do this. Find out where we need to be spending our marketing budget. Mitalio is a mature competitor in the BPM market, and should be playing the field easily and effortlessly like a prolike Bobby Jonesnot struggling and hacking away like we were some amateur. Time for us to come out of the shadows of the past, out of some very tired thinking.

Bring me a plan, Carlos, something we can sink our teeth into and gives everyone a reason to be fired up again! And get me the latest on this thought leadership buzz. I like the sound of thatit cant possibly mean we think thoughts that leador can it?....Weve been missing something. Get back to me in a week.

Carlos sat there speechless, yet energized. A fresh perspective had definitely arrived at Mitalio. What a shock, yet what a relief. Not knowing much about digital presence, he decided to engage a consultant recommended by a friend, a longtime advertising executive in San Francisco. This was the challenge that he needed to ignite his passion for the game he loved to play at Mitalio. Suddenly, he knew what the flow was. He felt that energy of enthusiasm, relaxed confidence, and ease. It was clear and revitalizing. And he knew that Carmen Anderson, a master at Web analytics and social media, was the perfect resource.

As Carlos left his first meeting with Carmen, a rush of fresh excitement and innovation ran through him. Wow, Tony is right on! he thought. Carmen has shown me a different perspective and helped me discover that there is ample room in the flow for everything because its all connected. You only have to look with fresh eyes. Finding the Solution within the Challenge

The following week, as he waited for his meeting with Tony to begin so that he could present his report, Carlos smiled to himself and thought: This is so much fun again. Who knew the problem could contain the solution? Hey, Carlos, please, please come in and tell me what youve discovered! I saw that smile and your relaxed expression and I know what it meansyoure in the flow! Tony remarked as Carlos entered his office.

Yes, Tony! Thank you. I was thrilled by this challengeI mean, seeing it from your fresh perspective amazing. This is what I discovered.I met with a digital media consultant, Carmen Anderson, who is excellent in Web analytics and is extremely successful running her own social media consulting firm. She put together some preliminary directions for Mitalio, and I drilled down to the level that explains the integration of social media with sales force activities. You said we cant make our customers come to us; weve got to let them, right? Carlos continued with enthusiasm.

Indeed! This sounds good, please go onyour enthusiasm is contagious!

Thanks, Tony! There is ample opportunity to meet our customers where they already are, specifically by getting involved in what they are already participating in, which is online, on the Web, and in social media. Right now we have scarcely any online presence in either search engine-generated traffic or social media. So how are they supposed to find us if we arent there? What expertise do we have that they desperately need, and how do we connect them with this? And what know-how do they have that we are not allowing ourselves access to? Thiswhat I just mentionedis the underlying reason that customers will want to connect with us, and it is called thought leadership.

Thought Leadership: The Reason They Want to Connect with Us!

Again, you said it, Tony; we cant make customers come to usweve got to let them. They want to find our solutions, but weve got to give them a reason to connect up with us and build a bridge to make it happen. Thought leadership is the path to that reason. If we cultivate this skillfully, thought leadership generates and captivates new leads in existing and new accounts. This in turn leads to enhanced brand awareness and loyalty, as it simultaneously improves customer satisfaction while it empowers them with new confidence and capabilities. Thought leadership connects customers with us and with the information and knowledge they so badly need to be thought leaders in their own industry.

Whoa, partnerI love your enthusiasm, but back up a bit and tell me exactly.Thought leadership? Im not sure I get it, said Tony.

Of course.I got carried away in my own excitement! In a nutshell, thought leadership positions us as having expertise our customers need and are vitally interested in and involves true collaboration with them. This attracts attention to us from outside media and competitors in a way that puts us back in our proper position as the professionals we truly are. Its all about letting informationour expertiseflow where it needs to go, and synergistically helping others do the same, including customers and competitors. There is ample room for all to play the game the way it was meant to be played.

This is really great work, Carlos! Tony exclaimed in amazement. I love it when the solution emerges out of the problem itself! This is what gets me up in the morningits so invigorating!

Yes, and it works for us in another way as well. Its not only about expertise that we can provide, but what expertise do our customers and competitors have that we also really need and are not allowing ourselves access to? We need to tap into this and encourage it to flow to us. I prepared a chart that explains it in detail. (See Exhibit 1 below.)

Tony, you already had an intuitive sense for thought leadership when you talked about seeing that our customers want to connect with us, weve just got to let them. Now that weve identified the reason for them to connect with us, lets take a look at building the bridge to our customers so that they can find us in todays market. To make the bridge strong and solid, we need to know why this strategy works and discuss the know- how it takes to implement it.

Exhibit 1. Thought Leadership A thought leader is a firm that is recognized as a leader in its field and is respected because of its deep understanding of the business, the needs of its customers, and the marketplace. A thought-leading firm is followed and quoted by journalists, analysts, and experts, and its Web content is linked to by many market players. The firm is able to powerfully differentiate its expertise and effectively demonstrate the benefits of its products and/or solutions to its customers. It has distinctive expertise in identifying clients problems, nurturing solutions in a collaborative manner, and providing tangible benefits to its customers. Thought leadership is a commitment to a greater goal than merely the generation of the next sales lead. It is driven by a sincere interest in benefitting the industry and raising the level of practice in the field. Thought leaders influence others by creating and sharing ideas.

Social Media and Web Site Presence: The Bridge to Customers This isnt difficult to accomplish, so lets begin by encouraging and cultivating it with a two-pronged strategy. Tony and Carlos began outlining the critical steps to implementation. 1. Ignite momentum in the internal environment. Lets challenge our employees to create ways to tune in to whats hot in our customers minds; specifically, giving attention to qualified prospects, existing, and even unqualified, prospects and suspects. Employees at all levels can seek opportunities to add value or inspira- tion, provide expertise, seek expertise, connect, invite collaboration, discuss sustainability and corporate social responsibility, be a bridge that brings ideas and information together that need to find each other, or professionally and respectfully, clarify and challenge what they know is not valid. We can implement this without much difficulty because today the vast majority of Internet content is user-generated content (UGC). Specifically, there are blogs, podcasts, wiki posts, social networks, communities, virtual worlds, product review comments, and videos. And the employees that interact directly with customers and feel passionate about this can energize themselves and the customer experi- ence by creating and distributing content that is alive, and is an expression of whats hot, what matters, is timely, and relevant to whats going on now.content that expands, stimulates, energizes. Getting involved in social media such as blogs, wikis, or social networks would be the choice of each employee.

Carlos continued in more depth: Sales and marketing spending has drastically shifted from what it used to be just three years ago in the B2B world. This has happened because of the advent of social media and the Web, and the natural gravitation towards and intense usage driven by millenials. Social media has brought with it a profound global shift in communication that favors relationships over contacts, eliminates cold calling, and puts the buyer in control of the sales process. (See Exhibit 2 below.) As you can see from this chart, Tony, social media, digital, and online presence are the hot choices for marketing spending by B2B marketing managers.

In addition, this strategy really fires up employees and gets them engaged and energized. Productivity in- creases simultaneously with customer satisfaction. Carmen was very clear about this correlation. The second chart shows how strong the link between the two is when a two-pronged strategy is employed. (See Exhibit 3 below.)

Tony examined the charts and began a second page of notes.

2. Ignite momentum in the external environment. We can do this and emerge as the pro we are in this industry! To implement thought leadership, we need to put a Web strategy in place and create a dedicated team to manage the company Web site and presence on social media. Some of the best and proven ways to attract our target audiences attention are to promote the current user comments and reviews about our products on the Web page, providing free downloadable white papers to promote thought leadership and our solutions. It is critical to become visible and then back it up by effective lead generation and capture.

Tony, this project has got my juices flowing, said Carlos. The role of marketing is being turned upside down. More than anything, this has been, at a personal level, a radical rethinking of my experience and my beliefs on approaches that yielded good results for most of my 15-year professional career.

In addition to the charts I brought, I also sketched out my understanding of how to integrate marketing and sales in the context of a new digital posture for Mitalio. I would like for you to have a look and think about whether this is a feasible starting point for our work. You have access to the CEO and the Board of Directors and are able to better assess how we should proceed. I will put on hold any new move until we meet next week. (See Exhibit 4 below.)

Carlos, Ive got to say that your findings are right on point and timely. Before our meeting, I was on the phone with the CEO. We were discussing the marketing budget effectiveness, and I hinted at the need for a change. He was aware, yet resistant, as he expressed a big concern about the potential for blowback. He noticed that a competitor had implemented an online presence and, in his opinion, suffered for it. A disgruntled employee had posted a false, unprofessional rumor about the CEO online, and there were a lot of repercussions as a result. Youve given me the info I need to reassure him on how to manage this. Things happen, people are frustrated, and disappointment appears sometimes. And yet, what employees post in these circumstances is usually not true and not to be feared. It can be managed, and the benefits to be realized of moving in this digital direction far outweigh any of the negatives. Carlos, youve uncovered the info I need to help the boss move past his fear and into a focus on empowerment. Freedom from constrictive ideas is always an invaluable tool. Thank you.

Mitalio Software Social Networking

Case Synopsis: Mitalio is a software developer with a solid presence in the enterprise business software. Its installed base includes European and American global corporations and its products are also gaining traction with Asian customers. Mitalio, a specialized vendor, competes in a crowded field with many highly regarded technology brands (e.g., IBM, SAP), that cover a much broader spectrum of business applications. While IBM, SAP, BEA, Tibco and other major competitors have embraced social media tools almost from the beginning, and showed willingness to learn through trial and error, Mitalio has lacked the internal leadership and vision to build its internal capabilities in Social Media. They need now to play catch up in Social Media, and try to gain parity in a short period of time. The case examines the purpose, contribution and the role of social media tools in the marketing of business software solutions.

Question 1) How should Carlos go about designing a strategy for social media initiative?

Exhibit 2. Leaders Shifting Marketing Mix Faster Growth of Marketing Spend over the next 2-3 years(1) %All Respondents Grow Decline "Somewhat" and "Strongly Non- Leaders Leader (Grow Leaders Morel Less L Decline Grow Grow 71% 67% 5% Social Media +4%, 66% 63% 11 64% Digital & Online +7% 65% 58% 61% Public Relations 5% +6% 62% 56% 58% Data Analysis 5% 0% 57% 57% Business Devel. & Marketing Collateral 14 57% 8% 58% 54% 60% -6% Direct Marketing 48% +1% 48% Paid Search 10 48% Events 0% 45% 46% 19 45% Print 14% 8% 67% TV & Radi 74% 9% 6% Out-of-Home 10% -6% 35 8% 4% Neutral responses are notincluded Totals maynot add due to rounding Paid Media Advertising & Sponsorships category Note: 132 responses. 51 Leaders Source: Marketing Profs, B2B Marketers to Boost Spending on Social Media, Digital Marketing, September 16, 2010. http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2010/3911/b2b- marketers-to-boost-spending on-social-media-digital