Word of Mouth Marketing Works 2

Two companies focus on relationships to grow sales, increase customer retention.

ustomer Relationship Management (CRM) has been around long enough to have experienced cycles. With an early emphasis on managing times and touches with customers, CRM later evolved into information technology (IT) term, or the computer mechanics that track those touches with customers.

Some young executives even are unaware CRM is more than software.

Now, two innovative agrimarketing firms are putting the rela1tionship back into CRM. Beck Ag Com, Inc., based in Wayne, NE, is the leading U.S. provider of Word of Mouth marketing and sales strategies in agriculture. AgCall, headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is the market frontrunner in designing and implementing CRM solutions that include on-farm sales calls with contract sales professionals, managing in-field research, handling performance inquiries, telemarketing and other related services – the focus is on providing a personalized brand experi1ence.

At first glance, the two could be competitors. However, com1pany leadership realized commonalities and envisioned how each complements services the other offers. That vision is now reality as a strategic alliance between Beck Ag and AgCall, created to provide unique, complete marketing and sales solutions for clients and their customers.

"This partnership between AgCall and Beck Ag provides mar1keters with one source for fully integrated WOM marketing and sales strategies designed to accelerate adoption of products and/or service offerings," Gordon Butcher, president of AgCall, says. "The two sales and marketing consulting organizations now can provide marketers with even stronger sales and marketing solutions."

"It's rather revolutionary," John Finegan, CEO of Beck Ag, says. "We saw we had clients in common and opportunities to complete the circle. Clients tell us it takes five to seven calls to close a sale. We know this can be condensed into one to two calls when you engage peers in a Beck Ag forum and have a follow1up sales call from a client's sales representative or from Ag Call's sales professionals.

This alliance comes as WOM marketing is becoming a larger part of the overall marketing and sales strategy inside and outside of the boundaries of agriculture.

"Marketing in general has been moving to a more personal1ized approach since the advent of customer relationship manage1ment," Finegan says. "And, more agrimarketers are becoming aware of WOM marketing. Effective WOM marketing and sales strategies strengthen a company's relationships with its customers and develops the loyalty marketers desire. That's what creates long-term profitable business relationships."

HOW'D THEY DO THAT?

AgCall and Beck Ag have built their businesses on knowing and engaging customers and their experiences. These two com1panies seem to acquire in-depth customer connection effortlessly.

How do they do it?

WOM marketing is defined as, "communication about prod1ucts and services between people who are perceived to be inde1pendent of the company providing products or services in a medi1um perceived to be independent of the company." The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) presents a simpler definition: "the act of consumers providing information to other consumers."

Beck Ag and AgCall create the strategies that make these def1initions come alive. Using patented AgTelePanels, AgTelecoms ®

and other tactics, all designed in unique, voice to voice forums Beck Ag creates an environment where shared experiences help prospective customers verify the value of the product or service discussed. The dialogue, professionally moderated and some1times featuring experts, accelerates the decision-making process to buy, resulting in faster and larger purchases. Focusing on building customized solutions, AgCall develops one-on-one, peer sales, marketing and service strategies typically resulting in an ROI of 3-10X. Butcher says many AgCall specialists are produc1ers themselves.

"This heightens credibility of our representatives and lowers prospects' resistance because they're dealing with peers," Butcher says. "When you multiply this with the power of Beck Ag's peer1to-peer or WOM strategy, successes for our clients greatly multi1ply.

"We're bombarded with upwards of 5,000 promotional mes1sages a day," Butcher adds. "It's critical to have prospective cus1tomers ready to receive – and act – upon a marketer's call to action. We help make that happen."

COMMUNICATION COMPLEMENTS SALES SOLUTIONS Finegan and Butcher quickly point out the solutions they pro1vide strongly complement marketing communications plans.

"Agricultural marketers are stellar at awareness building,"

Finegan adds. "Especially with new products the need to verify is greater. Our strategies help prospects to verify their purchase decisions.

"In order for a WOM strategy to work, we must have the awareness and familiarity that marketing communications gener1ates," Finegan says. "We all go through an awareness and verifi1cation phase before we buy anything, especially higher ticket items. Beck Ag and AgCall's approaches provide the needed forum for validation and verification, which results in accelera1tion of the decision making process and ultimately adoption.

"Forward-thinking agencies realize the need to engage experts," he says. "Their core competency is building and main1taining awareness, while ours is driving the adoption process and carrying those strategies through retention."

Ross Harvey, director, strategic services, of AdFarm in Calgary, Alberta, says the results generated by strategies Beck Ag and AgCall implement reach far beyond a single event.

"We've implemented a variety of approaches, from grower roundtables to AgTelePanels," he says. "We like word-of-mouth, or peer-to-peer marketing because it diversifies how we deliver our messages. It's measurable. It creates spinoff opportunities in channel communications, direct mail, and point of sale, as well as others. More importantly, WOM marketing fills a tactical void. It complements, rather than replaces advertising and sales.

"Our clients appreciate the ability of WOM marketing to tar1get. By sharing experiences between users and non-users or, even users and users, a huge amount of credibility is added to the mes1sage," he says.

It also builds awareness and sales. Research conducted by Beck Ag shows participants in WOM programs consistently rec1ognize marketing communications materials such as ads and brochures at a higher rate than prospects and customers who are not a part of a WOM program.

More importantly, sales continue to increase after a WOM marketing event. Purdue University research shows increased sales of $26.70 for every $1.00 invested over a three-year period.

(See sidebar about Purdue study)

WOM FITS VARIOUS STAGES OF THE PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE WOM marketing strategies can apply during any stage of a marketing cycle:

a) Launch phase – when there is a need to build a low advo1cacy base b) Growth phase – when the advocacy base is stable, yet sales increases are needed c) Maintenance phase – when the product/service is prof1itable, but there is a need to stave off competitors d) Repositioning – when an older product needs to be revived or a new use for an existing product is to be intro1duced)

e) Issues management/crisis management – when there is an opportunity to educate customers with facts about issues such as labeling, environmental awareness or when media attention that has been raised f) Product Performance management – typically crop protection and seed offerings generate some performance related inquiries from customers. AgCall and Beck Ag have combined to offer a turn-key solution for their clients to manage these potentially negative situations and turn them into sales opportunities that can retain and even grow customer business. Their approach integrates on farm visits with opportunities to learn from experienced product advocates.

Whatever the stage of the product life cycle, Butcher says fully understanding the situation at hand is paramount to creating strong WOM marketing and sales call strategies.

"The real strength of our partnership lies in the fact that both companies first work to realize client needs and challenges, then we custom build a solution," he says. "This can be from pre1launch stage through advocacy building and to retention. The strength of this approach allows clients to have the tools needed to acquire customers and retain them for a long time."

Finegan concurs. "We provide a hybrid of marketing and sales. We can come in toward the end of the marketing phase (awareness building) and right at the beginning of a sales strate1gy," he says. "If a customer/prospect participates in one of our forums and receives a follow-up call from the client's sales force or an AgCall sales professional, there's a much higher probabili1ty the sale will close at that time. It is an effective way to drive adoption."

Specific approaches range from the peer-to-peer AgCall on1farm sales and service calls, to Beck Ag's AgTelecom small group peer influence selling forums, to large group programs fea1turing a keynote speaker or expert panel, to TeleSpecialists and TeleExperts with extensive backgrounds who engage prospects in one-on-one consultative discussions.

Finegan and Butcher emphasize no program is ever duplicat1ed as each client's situation is different. Beck Ag and AgCall con1sultants and program facilitators specialize in specific markets, as well as industry segments, such as crop protection/seed, animal health, pest control, equipment, etc.

In addition to innovation in marketing strategy and sales tac1tics for their clients, WOM affords new opportunities to BAC and AgCall.

Butcher concludes, "Because we are willing to further explore the market and are truly dedicated to helping customers succeed, and succeed via word of mouth, our partnership will allow our customers to realize the power of word of mouth through the syn1ergy we jointly offer."

BECK AG COM, INC.

Beck Ag Com develops customized marketing and sales solu1tions designed to accelerate prospect decision making and increase client revenues through the use of word of mouth strate1gies. These include peer influence selling, advocacy building, and education through facilitated experiential dialogue.



Word of Mouth Marketing Works 2 - To learn more about this author, visit John Finegan's Website.

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