Thanks for the kind words and thoughts. I love the idea of looking at this from the customer's worldview...I wrote it form the vendor's perspective. And you're right -- customers who merely ask for a quote expecting price are shooting themselves in the foot. The presentation is what they're buying.
If you ask a company those questions and the answer you get is "we have no idea, we're innovating", wouldn't you agree that's a flag you ought to investigate? Eliminating risk in business isn't your goal as a leader or investor, but managing risk is.
No. The most important number is the first year projection. And more importantly, the deep understanding of how it will be achieved.
<...the companies who best answered the questions above weren’t guaranteed to be successful, but the disproportionate number of companies who could answer the above questions in detail were.>
Yes! That's the clip I linked to within the post - embedding isn't allowed. And it's a great example of the bland use and commodity elements of business cards.
Joel Bauer is a character - nice way not to call him an ass :) And although his video on the business card is funny, there are a lot of truths in it. Common wisdom is to put name, rank, and serial number on your card. The problem is, no one really cares...just corporate egos worrying more about their titles than their message.
The Ginsu knife is a product most famous for the activities that were used to promote it. It was made famous through a series of long-form advertisements in the 1970s and it is claimed paved the way for the modern day infomercial with its use of quirky catchphrases, comical quips, and urgent call to action, including the phrase "how much would you pay...don't answer" and "but wait, there's more". ~via Wikipedia
I wrote a lot of white papers before I thought of it. It's so obvious, but I missed it for a long time. I "discovered" it accidentally while profiling white paper readers. I wrote all the things I'd like them to do after reading. Having them give the white papers to others was in the top two - calling the author was #1. It seemed like an easy request...the rest, as they say, is history :-)
It's a good debate. And even better test. It's something marketers should test and run with what gets the best result - most likely measured by lead quality, volume, and sales.
I wish I had the link for you now, but I read an article at one point by a guy who made those websites that get you to opt-in to a horoscope subscrption to your phone.
His finidings through testing were that when he requested a zip code up front, his initial click-through rates were lower, but his response rates on the back end were much higher. It turned out that people who gave a little information up front were much more likely to give a lot more later on. It really boils down to trust.
Thanks to all for the kind words and thoughts. The calls to action are effective, more so if you really pour yourself into everything that proceeds - not writing a fluff piece, but offering something of real value. Treating the reader like they're already a customer.
I'm sure all of you already know this, but when I use the term white paper in the context of this post, it equally applies to case studies, guides, reports, etc. I use this tactic in all such doscuments I write and consistently find it effective.
You can have the greatest, most feature rich offering in the world, but if your target market doesn't value the problem you solve or the opportunity you enable, you're never going to have revenue success. At best, you'll be opportunistic. And your product or service is effectively worthless.
