DATABASE SCREAMS!
The DMSI e-NEWSLETTER... Rants and raves from the database pros at DMSI.
Serving 3500+ Marketing Pros

In This Issue:

Dear Friends,

2005 has certainly been an eventful time for DMSI, and we hope for you, too. This issue presents an overview of B-B Database Marketing - particularly for the new practitioners in our audience. Also, a case study shows how our WiseGuys Marketing Software has helped a B-B and B-C marketer.

Finally, at this time of year we try to remember those less fortunate than ourselves. Again in 2005, we would like to highlight an excellent charity organization in the DC metropolitan area, and ask for your generosity in this season of giving. The Good Knight Child Empowerment Network teaches our youngest citizens how to recognize suspicious behavior and avoid becoming victims of violence or abuse. See below for how your contribution can help.

As always, please let us know how DMSI can fit into your database plans! Wishing you the best in the coming Holiday Season.

Bruce Gregoire,
President and founder,
Desktop Marketing Solutions, Inc (DMSI)

Adjunct Professor, Marketing Information Systems
Johns Hopkins University Graduate School

The Professor's Corner:
B-B Marketing Database Systems 1-001 - Get Out Your Chess Board!

Editors Note: In 2006, DMSI will occasionally include fundamental Database Marketing concepts in this section, for new practitioners in the field.

Background: Business-to-Business Marketing Database automation is a different breed of animal than it's consumer counterpart. I sometimes liken the difference between the two to the difference between a 3 dimensional chess game and the standard 2 dimensional game. Both approaches use targeting to get to the proper audience with the right offer. The 3rd dimension, however, in B-B is targeting the correct decision maker (e.g. by job title) within an organization. Some would say there is even a 4th dimension: time. Time becomes a critical factor when long lead times are required to complete a sale.

Short Descriptions: Two flavors of B-B DB Marketing applications are commonly found:

1. CRM/Sales Force Automation - These applications focus on "connections" rather than "selections". By connections, we mean integrating multiple silos of information together to form an integrated approach. They are often deployed for selling services to organizations, typically using sales reps. The long lead time requirements mentioned above require these systems to track multi-step sales approaches. Note that the term CRM (Customer Relationship Management) has replaced Sales Force Automation (SFA) to describe this genre. Goldmine and ACT were two of the earliest SFA applications. Salesforce.com, Siebel systems and Pivotal are three of the more popular CRM vendors.
2. Direct Marketing based applications - These applications are more similar to consumer applications, in that the focus on "selections" of customers and prospects to target. However, for B-B, they need to track multiple contacts at the same location - one or all of whom may be a buyer. Also, these applications depend more heavily on marketing analytics (to do targeted selections) than the CRM/SFA above. Consequently, they focus heavily on buying behavior, response analysis, and firmagraphic characteristics, such as SIC (Standard Industrial Code). NetSuite is a vendor that offers marketing automation and customer segmentation tools within its enterprise-wide solution.

Buyer Beware: Be wary of using consumer database software for business-to-business purposes. B-B presents a truly unique challenge for marketers. Here are a few other differences between B-B DB Marketing and Consumer applications:

1. Consumer applications track mailings and response that usually point toward making a sale in one or two steps. B-B, on the other hand, attempts to advance the sales process in many steps, or stages. CRM systems track the stages of a sale (from cold prospect, then qualification, and so on) in a multi-step process. This is sometimes described as the sales funnel.
2. Consumer approaches are more zip-code driven.
3. B-B marketing automation needs a relational database structure that links multiple contacts to an account or organization. Consumer database approaches are unable to do this well.

Learn More: CRM Guru.com contains excellent discussion of the CRM vendor arena. SellMoreNow.com, in the person of Rich Baan and is the "Roger Ebert" of CRM/SFA application reviews. And he charges less than $100 for a single review. Rich describes himself as the oldest, totally independent and brutally honest reviewer of CRM and SFA solutions in the analyst community!
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WiseGuys Case Study: The Alamo Group
In 2005, DMSI continued to hear success stories from users of our WiseGuys Marketing Software. Here is just one example - The Alamo Group.

The Alamo Group is a global supplier of industrial and agricultural equipment, and a WiseGuys user since 2004. At that time the marketing staff began using the WiseGuys RFM module to target their customers for catalog mailings. A recent interview with Chad Bagby, Marketing Manager at Alamo, revealed how WiseGuys was able to help their marketing in 2005: "We found out that before WiseGuys we were too convervative in our mailing strategy. RFM analysis showed that we could mail lower scoring customer segments and still break even. More recently, we have had great success with the CrossSell module. It showed us how to lay out our catalog to get obvious product pairs together." (Editors note: the CrossSell module calculates the percentage of time that two products are purchased together). A simple example was displaying temperature gauges with ammeter gauges. We had a 20-30% increase in sales in some of our product categories. And with WiseGuys, we are able to report sales history remotely to our territory managers, over the web. We're looking forward to 2006 when will make more use of WiseGuys with our web site.

Learn More: See how WiseGuys can jump start your marketing in 2006: details available at WiseGuys FAQ. [PDF], or call DMSI offices at (703) 941-8109.
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Holiday Appeal for a good cause: Protecting our Children
The Good Knight Child Empowerment Network, based in Maryland, teaches our youngest citizens how to recognize suspicious behavior and avoid becoming victims of violence or abuse. The Good Knight program uses a multicultural knighthood theme to demonstrate the ten basic deceptions used to victimize children, and goes one step further by inspiring youth to become protectors of their peers by teaching others what they have learned. These "Knight's Champions" build their self-esteem, and incorporate community service, character development and crime prevention information to help protect others in their communities. The job of the Good Knight organization, with your help, is to empower children everywhere so they are no longer vulnerable to any act of crime or violence. Please find it in your heart to donate to the Good Knight organization this holiday season. Donations can be from individuals or organizations, in any amount, and will be used to fund free giveaways of educational programs products. The organization utilizes a video which was created by kids and retired law enforcement professionals to help other children identify those who may want to harm them before the crime can be committed. The film received the President's Service Award Silver Medal for Public Safety from President Clinton after reaching over ten million families nationwide. "An ounce of prevention can eliminate a lifetime of heartache."

Learn More: Visit the Good Knight website. If you are interested in making a donation, email support@goodknight.org or call Mary Cascio at 301-595-8989.
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How Desktop Marketing Solutions, Inc. can help you!
DMSI is a full-service resource for database marketing software, programming, installation and applications. Whether you're considering a new software system or just need help assessing your current one, DMSI can help. The staff at DMSI offer the rare combination of database know-how and direct marketing expertise. Our niche is small to mid-size organizations who need the power of advanced database techniques to grow their business. We provide software product installation and customization for "best of breed" marketing database and CRM packages.

And now, pick up the phone! One call gets you 15 minutes of Free Database Advice
Step 1: Call DMSI offices anytime at (703) 941-8109
Step 2: "Ask the Experts" at DMSI - give us your toughest database question.
Step 3: No charge - no obligation. 15 minutes may be all the help you need to start solving your marketing database problem.
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