Want more sales? Give them something to talk about. The point is that people talk about the exceptions or the unexpected. In B2B technology, either services or products, it's a little hard to wrap your technologists in woolly hats or roll them in Cocoa Puffs. So we asked the expert, Lois Kelly, for her opinion on how to give your sales team more tools to create conversations. So for some tips, check out our podcast.
Paul Dunay, director of global field marketing, BearingPoint
Conversations control business: Beyond Buzz is a conversational book--about how to achieve influence and business through conversations. Author Lois Kelly seems to be sitting down next to us with a cool drink explaining how the trivialized "word-of-mouth" marketing can be used for powerful and persuasive ends. Most impressively, she talks about true meaning, and passion, and accuracy. This isn't a book about "spin" but one that may cause your head to spin as you consider the vast potential you're probably missing in guiding your customers', clients', and colleagues' discussions and conversations.
Alan Weiss, author, Million Dollar Consulting
Tools for global conversations: The Cluetrain Manifesto was a call for corporations to wake up to the global conversations about them, and potentially with them. In Beyond Buzz, Lois Kelly gives corporations the practical tools to answer that call.
Walter J. Carl, Ph.D., Assistant Professor Department of Communication Studies,
Northeastern University
A must-read for every marketing manager: This is an amazing book, a must read for every marketing manager in America interested in improving ROI. Stimulating, informative, lively, beautifully written, it's loaded with more insights per page than any marketing book I've read. I love it..
Dr. Kevin Clancy, author, The Marketing Revolution and Counterintuitive Marketing
The "How To" book for conversational marketing: This book is an absolute MUST for any marketer who wants their sales reps to make more calls by give them something interesting to talk about! Lois gives you plenty of ideas and questions to ask in the process of turning your organization into a 21st Century marketing machine. A brand is what your customers think it is, not what the company says it is, so marketing's purpose is to help people understand your organization and products in ways that are meaningful to them. And conversational marketing is the way to make that happen!
Paul Dunay, buzz marketing guru, Buzz Marketing for Technology producer
Hype-free advice for connecting with customers: To quote Mark Twain, “I like a good story well told. That is the reason why I’m sometimes forced to tell them myself.” Beyond Buzz is filled with no nonsense, straightforward, and – heaven help us! – hype-free advice for marketing professionals on how to tell a story well. Kudos to Ms. Kelly for reminding me of why I got into this field in the first place – to connect those who want to tell a story to those with whom they want to share the story…and to help them tell it in a meaningful, respectful, relevant, and passionate way.
Peg Culotta Kates, Director, SAP Global Public Services
Engaging customers: What a refreshing, honest look at the emotional side of marketing. This book does a great job of summarizing what it takes to add the "buzz" to your marketing mix. It's easy to read and you will definitely find information in here that will help deliver your marketing message. It connects the product/service end of the business with the personal side. We have instituted many of the suggestions in Beyond Buzz and it is working splendidly for us. I recommended this book to our management and sales staff because I feel it is so relevant in today's marketplace. Clients/customers want to be engaged at every level. "Through conversations, people become more involved..."
Ray Aubin, CEO, Attleboro Farms & Gardens
Standing out in an over-hyped world: I first encountered Lois Kelly at a conference a couple of years ago. She was the bright light among many excellent speakers...conversational, engaging, dynamic, coming to you with fresh ideas and a unique point of view. Her message: marketers can unleash their companies by getting them to have exactly these attributes. I wanted to know more about what she did and how she thought. Beyond Buzz is that more, and more. It builds on her important ideas and offers a comprehensive set of tools and strategies for standing out in our already tippy-toed, over-hyped world.
Mark Lundegren, Strategic Planning Leader, Swiss Re Americas
Must read for today’s brand builders: To become relevant, you need to engage your customers. Beyond Buzz is a practical guide how to develop conversational marketing techniques in today's consumer-driven world. A must read for today's brand builders.
Mike Janover, Vice-President of Marketing, CNET
Non-nonsense, meaningful conversations: Lois shows us how to have meaningful conversations with our customers in a practical no nonsense way. The dialog about our brands is now in the consumers hands. If we are going to influence that dialog as marketers, we have to change the way we think about our messages. I found this book insightful and practical."
Laura Stanton, Director of Marketing, Dunkin' Brands
Connecting technology was only the first step in the revolution: In 1998, during the emerging years of the Internet, Kevin Kelly wrote that "The only factor becoming scarce in a world of abundance is human attention" as part of his seminal work New Rules for the New Economy. His predictions then regarded the ways that connected communications like the Internet would change our lives. Looking back on his predictions, not only was Kevin Kelly correct about the role of technology in changing our society, he also accurately predicted the importance of human interaction and attention in our new networks.
Now in 2007, Lois Kelly (presumably no relation to Kevin) extends the ideas of Kevin Kelly to the actual practices of any person responsible for communicating with a public audience. Her primary contention is that communicators must be worthy of and skilled in engaging a public into a conversation. Executives and communication personnel who work in public relations, marketing, sales or politics must acknowledge that their audience is not a waiting receiver of prepackaged messages that are broadcasted in any number of available channels. Kelly writes that communicators must transcend the technology itself to make conversations relevant between senders and receivers. And in any real conversation, there is human attention.
Beyond Buzz is a great handbook that outlines the many methods of creating and maintaining useful conversations, including the effects of our Internet technologies. I would recommend this book for any PR, sales, advertising or marketing person who wishes to take the next step beyond the marketing fundamentals of price, product, positioning, etc. Or, to combine the ideas of both Kellys, to engage scarce human attention in today's hyper-connected network world, one must create an interesting conversation as part of a human relationship. I am sure that when we look back on 2007, we will see that Lois was just as prescient as Kevin was in 1998.
James Andrus, CEO, NetroCity
