Indium Corporation Blogs

As business to business marketers, we've got a fancy label, "B2B". With that, comes an inclination, for some, to think that it's all about business. It isn't.

It's always all about PEOPLE. The consumers. The HUMANS!

Here's an example, from my personal life, of a business person who misses the point entirely (company name obscured):

"Thanks for contacting NNNNN support... regarding ordering boom arms from us. Sorry to say we don't sell finished good items. We only sell to dealer and distributors. Regards,"

You can imagine the sense of allegiance that was cultivated in my little consumer heart. "Regards"???

As a consumer, I would have appreciated a little background, perhaps some insight into WHY, and, of course, a list of local and online dealers for me to approach. Nope. None of that. Just a concrete-cold slap in the face.

There's ALWAYS a C in B2B.

Indium Corporation recently received recognition for some Marcom results. I was asked to comment. Amongst my responses was this:

"I was once told that every job on Earth is merely a matter of problem solving of one sort or another. To me, that makes perfect sense. So, rather than stuff square pegs into round holes all day – hoping for bliss, set out to hire people who love solving the problems that your customer’s experience. Then, get out of their way; let them shine.

"Don’t attempt to engineer or construct it. Keep it organic, keep it genetic. Build your staff with people who CAN’T STOP solving your customers’ challenges. Hire maniacs, then turn your company inside out and let your team amaze your customers and truly intimidate your competition.”

We all seek simple answers (they're the best). But they're not always available. Sometimes there is only hard work - work that requires time, patience, investment - and talent. To build a truly effective B2B Marcom program, we can't "wack-a-mole" our way to success. Only excellent people, operating over time, can create a winning B2B Marcom program.

If someone demands that you work magic overnight, you may be in the wrong place. If you are expected to edit, tweak, and hand-hold your way to success, you may be in the wrong place.

Get the right (clear) goal, get the right (self-motivated) talent, then get out of the way. Spend your time keeping your talent happy.

Some B2B Marcom (and Product Management and Sales) people lament that their products are, shall we say, "dry" and not as sexy as B2C products. If you are falling into that rut, take a page from the book of Clippard. This company manufactures pneumatic actuators (yawn), also called, "solutions for pneumatic, motion and process control devices to the scientific, medical, dental and analytical markets" (double yawn). It's easy for us to imagine them simply going to market with some images, graphs, and a static product display. This is especially true when you consider that pneumatic devices typically move out, then in, then out, then in. Not too exciting, right?

WRONG!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So, EVERY product is sexy, to the right person. Clippard is fascinated by the realm of pneumatic possibilities, and surely they have several customers who, under the proper circumstances, care very deeply about not only high-performance pneumatic solutions, but a vendor who is a thought leader.

So, how does Clippard explode out of the rank and file of uninspired competition and earn a special part in their target audiences' minds? How do they prove their thought-leadership? How do they make their slogan, "Quality People, Quality Products" ring true? They go WAY beyond what others do and craft a pneumatic air guitar! This steps far outside what a customer typically expects to see at an exhibition. It inspired one blogger to write,

"... it was the ultra-cool, illuminated air guitar that really caught my attention at the Clippard booth."

Check out the passion:
 

Check out the interviewer's fascination in this clip and note her opening salvo of superlatives, followed by the look of fascination on her face, (beginning at 1:09):

Don't worry about getting too far away from the real business at hand. When you position your "ultra-cool" demonstration in a trade publication, an exhibition, a technical conference, a sales call, etc., it is within the context of what your target audience needs and desires. Your customers are smart enough to bring it home. Note how Rob Clippard helps his target audience relate the novelty to their work when he weaves a memorable tag line into his elevator speech, "We'd love to make your machinery sing, as well."

People like Rob Clippard just get it. Note, in the video captured at the trade show (immediately above), even without the air guitar, Rob's exhibit has things moving all over the place.

You can get it, too. Remember,

• "It" isn't boring, you are. If you aren't fascinated with what you are selling, your customers will never be.
• If "it" IS fascinating, then find a way to convey that to your customers. Make an air guitar!

"39 Fantastic Inbound Marketing Blogs You Ought to Be Reading."

-HubSpot

Enough said.

I was on a roll with this one:

"Perhaps my analogy was a bit corny, but the kernel of my message should be pleasing to your ears."

Visit here to learn what the heck I was talking about.

A seven-year old kid loses a critical LEGO game piece (a central protagonist character) and, rather than shrugging it off or purchasing a new kit (you can't just buy the one character), he writes a letter to LEGO.

Stop right there and change the words. Imagine it is you, asking for support with your car's power windows, or your PC's software, or the shirt you received as a gift. Make it REAL to you.

OK, back to the kid. He sends a message to an unimaginable, monolithic, corporation that has no face, personality, or ... or ANYTHING (as far as he knew at the moment). It must have been a bit scary, hopeful, hopeless, and more.

Now, back to you. Honestly, don't you (don't we all) have the EXACT SAME feelings when we communicate with our car manufacturer, PC maker, and major retailer. Frankly, we expect to be processed like sausage.

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH:
We all know that earning a new customer is much more expensive than retaining an existing customer. And we also know that, after placing our trust in a person or a company, being shunned, disrespected, or ignored really hurts. So, what did LEGO do with the kid's letter? They made magic.

What happened next is that Richard, a LEGO service rep, received the letter and went into character. From the perspective of living in the LEGO playland fantasy, with the ability to have a childlike imagination, and with total commitment to the story of Ninjago and the Ultrasonic Rider, Richard "consulted" with "Sensei Wu" and made magic. He gained "special permission" (from the revered sensei) to not only craft a unique version of the story's hero, but he also threw in special weapons and a special bad guy. In essence, he went into the customer's mind.

Richard began with an existing customer, a customer who did the preliminary research and who put his trust (and money) into LEGO. A customer who really committed to the brand. Richard then went into character - he entered the customer's mind. Richard did NOT follow company orders, nor did he do what all the other service reps do in similar situations. Instead, Richard became the customer, he felt the customer's pain, he imagined the resolution that the customer was seeking, evaluated the costs and consequences, and went exactly where he should have gone. In essence, in this moment, Richard became a bit of a super hero, himself.

What if your car manufacturer consulted with the team that actually designed and built your windows? What if you called your software company and the programmer talked you through the issue - in YOUR words, at YOUR speed, and met YOUR goals? What if your clothing retailer understood the significance of your gift and pulled out all the stops to help you? What if these people went into character as THE SPECIAL PERSON, the super hero, who could satisfy, even delight, you?

THE MOMENT OF YOU:
What if we, in the business to business world, do the same? What is to stop us from going into character? What if we become the superhero who can connect to any department and person in our extended organization, the person who digs for THE answer, the person who champions the customer's desires, needs, expectations - even hopes?

If we all begin pretending that we are super heroes, and if we do it wholeheartedly - for long enough, we will eventually BE those heroes. Consistently, automatically, rewardingly.

Image: http://twitter.com/lukaapps

B2B Marcom practitioners are keenly aware of the admonition, "Believe Half Of What You See And Nothing That You Hear." Famous words from Edgar Allan Poe ... or was it Benjamin Franklin? Hmmm ... I've seen it attributed to both men - not sure WHAT to believe.

And THAT is the problem. Virtually ANYTHING can now be manipulated, twisted, or simply misstated. The effect ranges from this example of a quote, to the photoshopping of fashion models, to alleged blatant reconstruction of the facts to create news.

This condition places an extreme value on integrity. Never before has it been easier to fabricate the "truth", and never have trust and honesty been more meaningful.

While trust can be eroded in an instant, it takes an entire career to build it.

Never compromise your integrity in B2B Marcom. Ever.

Today we celebrate the birthday of the co-discoverer of indium, Hieronymus Theodor Richter.

Hieronymus Theodor Richter (pictured left) (21 November 1824 – 25 September 1898) was a German chemist who was born in Dresden. He co-discovered indium in 1863 with Ferdinand Reich while working at the Freiberg University of Mining and Technology. In 1875, he became the director of the school. He was born 21 November 1824 in Dresden and died 25 September 1898 in Freiberg, Saxony at the age of 73.

Ferdinand Reich, (pictured right) German mineralogist and chemist (19 February 1799 – 27 April 1882), co-discovered indium in 1863 with Hieronymus Theodor Richter. Reich, who was born at Bernburg in Germany, studied at the University of Göttingen and taught at the Freiberg Mining Academy.

In 1863, when indium was discovered, Ferdinand Reich was 64 years old. His assistant, Hieronymus Theodor Richter, was 39. Imagine that scene! Reich had obtained a yellow precipitate from some local zinc ores while he was checking sphalerite, a sulphide ore of zinc, with a spectrograph looking for thallium (which was discovered in 1861). Reich asked his assistant, Richter, to examine it spectroscopically (Reich was color blind, or could only see in whites and blacks. For this reason he needed Richter to examine the colors produced in reactions that they studied). Richter observed a bright blue stripe, unknown in any other spectrum, and distinct from the blue stripe of cesium. To this new element was given the name "indium", because of the bright indigo blue spectral stripe.

Reich and Richter ended up isolating the indium, creating a small supply.

At the 1867 World Fair an ingot of 0.5 kg (1.1 lb) was presented.

It wasn’t until 1924 to 1933, when Daniel Gray (Utica, NY), while working under the direction of William Murray, created a process to extract and refine indium, that the commercial possibilities began to be explored. Dr. William S. Murray, the founder of Indium Corporation, received the first patent to process indium in 1926. The first commercial quantities of indium were discovered in Kingman, AZ in the same year.

Their work led to the founding of The Indium Corporation in 1934.

Today indium is used in a variety of applications: as a low melting solder in electronics applications, as a transparent, conductive coating (ITO) for touch screens, LCDs, and solar panels, and as well as a thermal interface in many of our electronics devices – to name a few.

Info sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indium,

http://www.vanderkrogt.net/elements/element.php?sym=In

I hate being “bought”. I feel both devalued and trivialized when that sort of thing is proposed. It actually turns me off when I am offered $5 to complete a survey. When I read opinion survey results, I often wonder how tainted the results are. How many of the responders were compensated? Do they always tell us that the results are derived via compensation?

Bottom line, true referrers, people that really CARE about your product, don’t want, or need, to be bought. When bought, referrals are neither heartfelt nor meaningful.

When you are seeking B2B Marcom referrals, testimonials, and references for your products and/or services:

• Aim for much less quantity and much higher (meaningful, useable, specific) quality.
• Seek individuals who you’ve really moved.
• Seek people to whom you truly matter.
• Seek people who are ALREADY talking about you.
• Seek referrals with huge amounts of traction.
• Seek sales leads that will be pitched to by a passionate 3^rd party (the person recommending you).

Go that route and you will chase fewer leads, score more repeatedly, and proceed more dependably.

BONUS: You'll also learn the TRUTH about yourself.

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B2B Marcom involves a lot of projects.

We're always working on an event that needs literature, or a conference that requires a presentation and some collateral material, or an exhibition that requires a trade show booth, graphics, and more. All of these items become their own projects (getting the three posters in the same format, the same size, and installed in the exhibit; or making sure the PowerPoint presentation matches the accompanying printed technical paper). Pretty soon, completing the project means completing the job.

When we think and act this way, we end up having no “plan to sell”. In the worst case we can end up with no thought at all as to what we will do after our target audience sees our project. In other words, it can become all about the project and not about the process. That's wrong.

We are here to advance our business, to sell our products and/or services - to complete the process. Therefore, we must always "plan to sell" by developing a complete series of projects that take us right through the process to the end - to the sale.

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Brad Smith (@BradleyESmith) writes:

There are only three ways social media can help your business:

1. Increase brand awareness by growing your reach
2. Build customer loyalty by engaging more and providing support
3. Increase sales by getting more people to purchase, more frequently

Now pick one goal, and prioritize your tactics to solve that piece.

If you're nodding your B2B Marcom head in agreement (like I did), read his article,

5 Social Media Lessons 'Small' Business Can Learn From Big Business.

Be prepared to continue nodding your head - and to increase your engagement.

Nice work, Brad.

Yes, we came in 3rd ... and we couldn't be prouder.

Indium Corporation's headquarters, and several of our facilities, are in the Utica, NY, USA area. Utica is the home of the famous Boilermaker 15k road race. Runners come from around the world to compete and to have fun.

This year:

• 5,000 volunteers supported the race!
• 14,000 runners entered the 15k!
• 30,000 people lined the streets of Utica, cheering the runners on!
• 40,000 people attended the post-race party!

Nearly 25 of those runners came from The Indium Corporation. They ran individually, and as a team in the race's "Corporate Cup." The Corporate Cup is broken into categories - and we qualified for the "medium" size company grouping. This year our men placed 3rd in the Corporate Cup challenge. Pictured are many of our 2012 running team, a few days before the race.

After the race, our team captain, Mike "Wolfman" Dunn said,

"To Team Indium,

I want to personally congratulate all of you on a great job. As we all know, it was very humid out there, and once the sun came out, it got HOT!

I am pleased to announce that our Male Team finished in 3rd place this year for the CORPORATE CUP CHALLENGE!

The Female Team finished in 6th place.

Congratulations on a job well done!!"

This event is all about community spirit, mutual support, and having a great time.

We met all our goals!

Nothing to do with B2B Marcom - but I wanted to update you on the progress of the cornfield I have been using as an analogy in recent posts.

This photo was taken on 02 July 2012. So much for, "knee-high by the Fourth of July!"

Have a great summer, everyone!

Have you ever entered into a situation and felt like everyone knew what was going on - except you? Or, worse yet, ever been in that situation and NEVER knew that everyone except you was in the know?

Conversely, have you ever been on the inside track? Ever been the person who knew exactly what was happening, even when no one else did?

We all know which situation feels better, and where we are more powerful.

Check this famous Pepsi MAX promotional video featuring "Uncle Drew", then read on.

SPOILER ALERT: I'm going to clue you in. "Uncle Drew" is not a 60-year old man. He is actually the 2011-2012 NBA Rookie Of The Year Kyrie Irving. And he is one of the very few people in this video who know what is actually occurring. Needless to say, Kyrie enjoys a tremendous advantage during this event.

Why this matters in B2B Marcom:

Let's say someone from your organization is speaking at a technical conference, presenting information at an exhibition, or meeting a key customer - maybe making a critical demonstration. Certainly THEY know what they are going to do and say - they've probably rehearsed a ton. But, do they know if Uncle Drew is going to be in the room? Is there a key customer in the audience? A key decision maker? Are competitors in the house? Is a hiring candidate in the room? If any of the answers to these (and more) questions is "yes", then what are their motives? And what should you do next?

There is no way to know everything, but very few people take the time to consider the potential scenarios that lie before them. Even scarier, not too many people "work the room" (or the organizers) in advance of the engagement. When we don't do that, we miss opportunities to learn if an "Uncle Drew" will be present. When we DO think ahead, we set ourselves up to enjoy a tremendous advantage. And THAT is exactly what we all strive for in B2B Marcom.

As I wound up a recent interview process, I shared some thoughts with my colleague. I usually keep my advice to myself unless someone asks, or unless the person has particular promise. This man has tremendous promise.

So, I found myself offering these thoughts:

Bottom line, we don’t get paid to be "normal." Do NOT be normal. Don't even strive to be “better” than your peers or competition - don’t even THINK about the “competition.” Instead, strive to BLOW AWAY your target audience. Own them! Be their THOUGHT LEADER. Don’t aim to be read, aim to be shared, engaged with, etc. Aim to be invited to speak and to coach. Aim to matter.

"Aim to matter." I like that.

It's far from original. This phrase was rolling around in my head after conversing with John Waire of The Wairehouse, and after reading a recent Seth Godin post. They both matter.

I walked into my office and there it was: a purple bag. THE purple bag!

I knew exactly what it was - and it brought a smile to my face. In fact, it caused me to put down the things I had in my hands and pick it up to examine its eagerly-awaited contents.

We have several vendors here at The Indium Corporation. They're all important to us, but many simply blend in. Their invoices look the same, their packaging looks the same. Heck, even their sales people look and act the same. Blending in, being average, can be beneficial at times, but being unique, being recognized, and standing out can also offer tremendous advantages - especially if you're good.

Bottom line: be good, be iconic. Stand out and be recognized. Step away from the pack. Be the purple bag.

Remember the old days in B2B Marcom, when companies hid behind stock photography and glamorous spokes models? Those days are long-dead.

I've been saying repeatedly, for years, that the best way to influence your target audience is with your authenticity. To do that, turn your company inside out. Let your formerly behind-the-scenes staff talk to your audiences.

I spoke about exactly this in a BtoB NetMarketing Breakfast in Manhattan in 2009. See the post-event video interview here. I appear at 1:48.

We, at The Indium Corporation, turn our company inside out in many ways, including tech paper authorship and presentations, technical session chairing, editorials, interviews, and blogging.

How do YOU turn your company inside out? I'd love to learn.

In my previous post, "Will Your Marcom Be Knee-High By The Fourth Of July?" I predicted that the corn that grows across the road from Indium Corporation HQ would be knee-high by June 20th. I snapped this shot yesterday - proving that the corn is above knee-high on June 18th. The tallest plants are up to my hip!

So what?

The point of my previous post was to plan ahead, and to take advantage of any vision that you may have. This is a great way to create a highly powerful B2B Marcom project. I said, "Remember, we don't get paid to be average. We've got to OUTPERFORM our competitors if we are to grow, thrive, and distinguish ourselves."

The farmers that dogmatically planted their corn on schedule this year will see their corn ready for harvest all at the same time, causing a time crunch (they need to get it all in at the same time). But those farmers that had the vision to take advantage of an early Spring spaced out their planting times - and their harvest times. They'll be able to take in their harvest more comfortably, and may be able to take a larger than average harvest, as well.

In farming, as in B2B Marcom, that isn't the end. That's just the next step in an endless race. The question then becomes what do we do with our project after we've enabled ourselves to take advantage of our vision and insight? Well, projects combine to create programs. And programs are always about what we do NEXT.  Frankly, it gets really tiring hustling like mad, trying to figure out the next insightful move. That's just not productive, nor professional. To avoid this kind of fatigue and burnout, it is imperative to have a comprehensive Marcom program, complete with contingency planning.

When you encourage and inspire your team to see the big picture, to craft a big plan, you foresee MANY opportunities and challenges. When you cultivate contingencies for various possibilities, you enable confident and fast decision making and actions.  Your progress, confidence, and achievements go up, and your worries and fatigue go down.

Average farmers planted, and will harvest, on the traditional schedule. Good farmers took advantage of the early Spring and staggered their planting and harvests, making their lives easier. Great farmers staggered their plantings AND made plans for what to do with their time during this summer's harvest and beyond.

Perhaps my analogy was a bit corny, but the kernel of my message should be pleasing to your ears.

I grew up around farming. My family didn't own a farm, but we were surrounded by them.  I spent MANY hours working on farms as a boy - starting at the age of 12 (when no one else would, or could, hire me). Between repairing buildings and fences, milking cows, and "haying", believe me - I've got stories! It was HARD work, but it made me appreciate many things in life. After my first season of working on a local farm I was able to buy a brand new 10-speed bicycle - all the rage in 1972!

Living in Central New York, I remain surrounded by farming. Did you know that New York State is the USA's 3rd-largest dairy producing state? I really enjoy this lifestyle and appreciate what our farmers do for us. Bottom line, I like to eat. Therefore, I LOVE farmers! I hope your logic leads you to the same conclusion.

Here is a photo of yours truly in a cornfield, right across the road from Indium Corporation HQ in Clinton, NY. (Sorry about the serious look - I was watching a ton of ants scaling my camera.) It was taken today - June 1st, 2012. Notice anything unusual? This corn is TALL! About one-foot tall already. And there is something else that you can't see - it is growing really fast.

The slogan, "knee high by the fourth of July," is more than just a saying, it is a guide - a benchmark to help farmers gauge whether or not they are on the proper timeline. I predict that this corn will be knee high by June 20th. Way ahead of schedule.

In my area there are a few corn fields that are this tall, but most are "average". When I asked a farmer about their "average" corn she told me she had planted at the usual time. I know that the farmer across the road from my office planted early. He was enabled by two things:

• our unusually warm and early Spring
• his being prepared to go as soon as possible

If a farmer plants too early she risks the chance of the entire crop being damaged by frost. So, these early birds take a risk. But, if it works out, they are rewarded with flexibility and a little more control over their busy harvest schedule later in the season. This is highly valuable at a time when many crops are ready for harvest at the same time.

Bringing me to B2B Marcom. We've got to constantly survey our situations for opportunities. While it is important to maintain schedules and to know what is "normal" in our worlds, we can make magic happen if we are vigilant about seeking opportunities.  We've all got "routines", such as editorial calendars, trade show timelines, and advertising schedules - but it is precisely their very regimentation that lulls us into complacency - and into "normalcy" - and into being average.  Remember, we don't get paid to be average. We've got to OUTPERFORM our competitors if we are to grow, thrive, and distinguish ourselves.

So, look for routines. Seek their value and their beauty. But, also look them over for opportunities to break patterns, to change things up to your advantage when possible. Your average competitor's corn will likely always be knee high by the fourth of July. Yours might just be different - in just the way you want it to be different - if you are prepared and seize the moment when it presents itself.

"Social media is the nexus of customer support, recruiting, public relations, brand awareness, lead generation and even product development. No company can afford to ignore or minimize a medium that touches all levels of the sales funnel and all stages of the customer lifecycle. Effective social strategies reduce churn, spark word of mouth, create demand and accelerate deal-flow."

Quoted from a blog post by Jeremy Victor.

I was looking for something meaningful to post, and came across Jeremy's statement. I could think of no better message to share with you today. Simply excellent! Well said, Jeremy!

Jeremy Victor is the founder of Make Good Media and editor in chief of B2Bbloggers.com, where he helps businesses integrate business-to-business social media and content marketing with traditional marketing practices.