Imagine that you are in a sales negotiation. As part of your services, you will create a solution for an inventory problem that your customer is having. In the middle of the negotiation, a member of your team tells you that this solution can only be implemented manually, which will drive up the cost $250,000. What do you do?

• Omit the solution in the next agreement draft and hope the other side forgets the whole thing.
• Tell the other side that you’ve made a mistake, but you will absorb the cost of the additional $250,000 since it was your mistake.
• Immediately notify the other side, apologize for this mistake, and tell them that if the solution is still of value to them, $250,000 will have to be added to the price.
• Say nothing and eat the additional $250,000.
• Keep silent. Add the $250,000 to the price and address the issue at the very end, and only if the customer brings it up.

We conduct negotiation training exercises such as this with our clients, but sometimes not even the best negotiation training can prepare you for all the tough, pressure-filled situations you will encounter. In this instance, the third choice is probably best.

The fact is this: Almost everything we do in a negotiation effects either credibility or leverage in some way—usually both. That’s why you have to prepare and manage information thoughtfully.

Call me crazy, but I believe customers truly want me (us) to bring innovative ideas to the table. The obstacle we face is that these same customers have been conditioned to believe that I can just pull innovations out of my bag; as though our industry has standardized highly predictable innovative outcomes as a technology. Have you heard of the fuzzy front end of innovation? It’s fuzzy because the methods for tightly targeting product and service opportunities are non-existent – at least in the broader CRM world. The framework exists, but no one seems to care.

A twitter follower reminded me (this post has been a draft for 2 years) of an article I wrote awhile back that I think shows some of the symptoms of having a fuzzy & customer controlled front end to CRM.

For a good period of time, I was dealing with the symptoms, and I made a great living at it. After 15 years of CRM, however, I believe customers are beginning to expect more from their consultants – a lot more. The age of the CRM contractor is nearing an end and the age of the outcome oriented front end CRM consultant is dawning.

We're fans of content marketing. In fact, we're big fans of content marketing. We're such big fans that we recently wrote 150 blogs in 50 days to determine if it would increase our traffic and improve our SEO. 

It did both. 

Content marketing works. More businesses are learning this. They're figuring out that content marketing drives traffic, leads, and customers. 

Why Does Content Marketing Matter? 

Content truly is the new SEO. Each and every new Google algorithm update places an even greater value on useful, fresh, and unique content. Google is demanding that businesses blog, produce videos, and that those videos and those blogs are regularly shared via social media. 

Simply hiring an SEO company isn't enough (unless that SEO company also produces on-site content). 

The old rules of SEO no longer apply. Content marketing is king. 

Why Do We Care About Content Marketing? 

We're not a content marketing company. We don't produce content for other companies. We're not an SEO company. So why are we such proponents of content marketing? 

Because it drives traffic and traffic produces phone calls and phone calls mean that you need call tracking. And we know it works. 

We're not entirely altruistic. 

Lately we've seen several articles decrying call tracking. Most articles point out that there are specific and important ways to use call tracking correctly that DO NOT HARM SEO. These articles advocate call tracking, even after raising concerns.

They treat a nuanced subject with an appropriately nuanced response.  

Other articles aren't quite as nuanced. They condemn call tracking because there are some call tracking providers (I won't name names) and some clients that use call tracking incorrectly and thus, hurt their SEO. 

These articles WRONGLY advocate that call tracking shouldn't be used at all. These articles claim that marketers shouldn't use call tracking even when it is totally safe. 

They are throwing the baby out with the bath water. 

Why Marketers Shouldn't Do This

We've written several articles about call tracking and SEO. Here's a list of them:

  Another good article was written by the Minnesota Marketing Association. They discuss how call tracking can be used effectively. We'll also link to that article here: 

If marketers just reject call tracking out-of-hand because they fear that it will hurt their SEO, they are making a huge mistake. The question of call tracking and SEO is somewhat nuanced. It therefore deserves a nuanced answer. Not a blanket, YES or NO statement.

That's why some of the recent articles are so frustrating.