FT’s Decision Dynamics – 3

This is the third and final part of a look at the FT’s Decision Dynamics survey (see here for part 1 and part 2. This part looks at the role of social media in decision making.

Frankly, I think there’s a lot of tosh and assertion on the importance of social media in influence. In short, while there’s been a rapid rise in the use of social media there’s little evidence that it’s impact decisions, particularly in the B2B world. We’re all blogging and Twittering and ‘LinkingIn’ to each other but not in the context of decision making. Anyway, back to the FT survey.

This first chart (below) illustrates that rapid rise in use of social media by enterprise decision makers. As the FT notes, “Work-related use of social bookmarking and community sites has exploded in the past year.” It has, but only to the levels seen to date for reading blogs and using professional networking sites.

(Source: Financial Times Annual Decision Dynamics Survey 2009)

The most telling chart, though, is this next one, which shows the usage of various types of social media in a work or leisure context. It’s interesting to see the use of social bookmarking (Dig, Delicious, etc) as a decision making aid. But webcasts and streaming video are also important and more established in the B2B marketing mix.

Most surprising, given the volume of noise on the subject, is the low penetration of Twitter.

(Source: Financial Times Annual Decision Dynamics Survey 2009)

My own take on this is that Twitter:

(a) Is useful if you know who you want to follow, but can’t help identify important people

(b) Is a great echo chamber of followers and followees, but has limited reach outside the Twitterverse, and

(c) Is really only used by people that don’t have a “traditional” job (autonomous, mobile, networked), which may include most of the readership of this blog and most analysts, but not your average CIO.

FT’s Decision Dynamics – 2

This second installment of thoughts on the FT’s Decision Dynamics survey focuses on the importance of providers to business strategy. We saw in my first post that providers (suppliers) have suffered a consistent decline in trust since 2003 when the FT’s annual survey began. What’s interesting is that the level of trust in suppliers does not correlate with the criticality of those suppliers (as in the chart below). In other words, suppliers provide important services to firms and, despite a decline in trust they are still considered vital. Reading between the lines, this could mean that the services provided are important but the suppliers themselves are not, due to falling trust levels. This then would translate into a greater competitive environment.

(Source: Financial Times Annual Decision Dynamics Survey 2009)

So how do suppliers bridge the gap between demand for important services and the decline in trust in suppliers? The FT survey points to the key factors in choosing a supplier (besides price). Interestingly, high ethical standards comes out on top, though one wonders how a supplier can communicate this effectively (and differentiate on it). The more predictable string management and financial performance come next. Stable employee relations and a sense of the environment and communities are least important.

(Source: Financial Times Annual Decision Dynamics Survey 2009)

The recession has had an impact on decision-making. Not surprisingly, price becomes more of an issue, but the increased involvement of senior supplier management can also be a differentiator. Recession drives competition, as can clearly been seen (below) by the increased likelihood of trying new suppliers and the longer shopping lists of suppliers considered by decision makers.

Impact of recession on choosing suppliers

(Source: Financial Times Annual Decision Dynamics Survey 2009)

Perhaps what’s most interesting is that, regardless of the recession, what is most important in winning business is the ability to be proactive with prospects, and to build a long and fruitful relationship. Although there is some shift in the score awarded to each of these depending on the prevailing economic situation, they are both the top parameters in determining which supplier is most likely to get work.

(Source: Financial Times Annual Decision Dynamics Survey 2009)

As I’ve said before on this blog, the biggest influencer on your success is you. Proactivity and relationships make a real difference and help to influence others in the market – influence starts at home.

FT’s Decision Dynamics – 1

I was recently sent a copy of the FT’s Decision Dynamics report. It’s an interesting read on how senior execs make decisions. There are several observations relevant to the subject of influence, so I’ll break these up into separate posts.

The first is the shift in levels of trust in suppliers. One might expect the decline in trust in bankers, given the various collapses, bail-outs and bonus scandals. It’s interesting that this reaches corporate decision makers as well as the ‘man in the street,’ which indicates that perceptions of banking run deep.

More importantly, there is an overall decline in trust of suppliers, not just bankers. The chart below shows the decline in trust in professional services providers. All show net negative levels of trust. What’s driving this? A general decline in trust and a rise in skepticism? A recession-driven reaction to more aggressive sales techniques?

(Source: Financial Times Annual Decision Dynamics Survey 2009)

This next chart shows some further provider categories, more technology based. Similar picture – all categories show a net decline in levels of trust.

(Source: Financial Times Annual Decision Dynamics Survey 2009)

What’s most relevant across these two charts is that trust in suppliers has declined since the survey started in 2003. There is an exodus of trust away from suppliers. The question is, where does trust now lie? There are two options: it lies in third parties (I’d call them influencers), or it lies in peer individuals and organisations. Or (more likely) some combination of the two.

What’s clear is that if you’re a provider you’re increasingly destined not to be trusted. Customer reference programmes and influencer marketing approaches are essential.

To network well you need to be a great host

The best piece of advice I ever heard on how to network is by Kesh Morjaria, Owner of thebestof Brent, on an interview on the KnowledgePeers site. He says that you should act as a host, even at other people’s events. Welcome people, introduce them to others, show interest in them. It’s a great mindset to have at these large networking events where you don’t know many people.

The KnowledgePeers service is growing into a useful collection of small pieces of advice on a wide range of topics relevant to SMEs. There’s even an intro to Influencer Marketing featuring your truly.

Presentations at the IDM

A few weeks back I spoke at the IDM’s seminar on Influencer Marketing, along with Lisa Hutt from salesforce.com. The lovely and efficient people at IDM has posted both presentations on their site. The links are:

http://www.silverstream.tv/istream_idm/ecampaign/DuncanBrown.html

http://www.silverstream.tv/istream_idm/ecampaign/lisahutt.html

Thanks to Joanna, Lucy, Caroline at the IDM for organising a really well-run evening, and to Debbie Williams, Chair of the Institute of Direct Marketing B2B Industry Advisory Council, for hosting and chairing the event.

How influencers can get it wrong, or why I gave back my Blackberry

In May I wrote about the influences on my personal choice of mobile device, and how I chose a Blackberry 8900 Curve. At the time it was a simple exercise in noting the variety of people that influence a fairly basic decision.

Except that I got it wrong. I have, frankly, hated my new Blackberry.Why? I’ve been ‘loyal’ to the brand since 2005 and craved a Blackberry for even longer. Here’s my analysis:

1. I’m not loyal at all. I just wanted/needed (in some proportion) a device that both allowed mobile calls and handled email. Blackberry was the no-brainer market leader in 2005.
2. In previous renewal cycles my needs hadn’t changed, and the later variants of Blackberry suited me just fine.
3. Apple has changed the game. It has changed the user interface expectations. It has changed the application expectations.
4. The Blackberry implementation of mapping and GPS is laughable, to make it unusable. I got lost in Wiltshire trying to use the GPS system. I gave up using the mapping tool and went back to my paper AtoZ.

If Blackberry had just stuck to their knitting (mobile email) at least I’d have known what I was getting and had my expectations set. Because they’ve added so many other features to keep up with Apple and others, and because they’ve been implemented badly, my user experience was awful.

I sent my Blackberry back and swapped it for an iPhone. Initial impressions are that it’s fabulous. It does email. It does GPS and mapping. It does hundreds of other things that I know I’m not going to live without ever again (try Tube Exits).

So, despite eating a bit of humble pie, and despite the  “I told you so” gloating from Nick, I’m now an iPhone junkie.

Or I would be if I can get my son away from it…

More on digital (online) influence

Interesting article in PR Week (not that I read PR Week, you understand…). Anyway, good intro to digital (=online) influence. Doesn’t ask any of the hard questions (e.g. do links really equate to influence?) but makes some important if basic points about how influence is different to popularity, etc.

The article would be strengthened if the tools described had bee given the same task, rather than different ones, so we could compare the results.

Wikipedia has a section on digital influence tools and their uses and limitations.

Should you sue your influencers?

Via AnalystAnalyst I see that tech vendor ZL is suing Gartner. Interesting tactic. My first thought was that this strategy is unlikely to encourage Gartner to write nice things (or anything) about ZL in the future. They’ll probably just ignore them. Which is probably worse than being in the bottom left corner of the MQ.

ZL might have invested more time and money in analyst relations than in lawyers fees, but I’ll watch the outcome with interest. For example, might this action lead to Gartner requiring vendors to sign a ‘promise-not-to-sue’ agreement (must be a legal term for this…)? Might Gartner refuse to cover the more litigious vendors? Or, if ZL wins its case, will it make analysts’ analysis bland and generic?

Influencer Marketing – it’s all about engagement

So you use one of the 70 online influence measurement firms to compose a list of your top influencers (= those people that influence decision makers). How do you make this information executable?

The whole point of understanding who your influencers are is that you engage with those influencers in order to influence them, making them more favourable (or less unfavourable) towards you.

The RoI is all in the engagement. You can use influencers to attract prospects to seminars. You can use influencers to create marketing content. You can embed pre-existing influencer-led content in your sales messages. You can tap influencers’ networks for lead generation. You can position influencers to overcome sales objections and close deals. And so on.

That’s what Influencer Marketing is all about.

Who do you influence?

What, and who, do you influence? Thinking about influence from your own perspective can change your understanding of how influence works.

My list (work in progress):

• My Wife (but not much…)
• My kids (more than I know…)
• Extended family
• My boss
• My work colleagues
• Clients
• Prospects (maybe!)
• Wednesday night football mates
• Sunday morning football under13’s parents
• My window cleaner (competitive new entrant muscling in to his patch)
• Building Control (don’t build on Pitt Manor)
• Local politicians (you need to earn my vote)
• Teachers
• Neighbours
• etc.

And so on.