Marketing to an Engineer
This lens describes some information I've pulled regarding engineering-types. The lens is written for marketers, sales professional, product managers, and brand managers who produce and sell products to engineering minded buyers.
Why is this an issue
Marketing to whom?
The reason for this confusion is simple. The education, thinking skills, experience, and overall demeanor of engineers are uniquely different from other consumers. They need special attention from the marketing and sales departments.
The information presented here is collected from multiple sources, including best-selling books, industry research, data from successful campaigns, and academic research on engineering communication, decision making, learning, and personality.
How to use this information
You've read everything. Now what?
You should read through this lens when you are re-evaluating and re-tooling your sales and marketing campaigns, including lead generation campaigns, email newsletters, print collateral and your web site. The topics will help you present your product in a way that is more amenable to engineers.
This information won't help you if you have a sub-standard product. If your product offering is broken, no amount of marketing will ever help. Go fix your product first, then come back.
This information won't help you if you have a sub-standard product. If your product offering is broken, no amount of marketing will ever help. Go fix your product first, then come back.
What defines an engineer
In my writing, I use the term 'engineer' in a broad sense. I needed to find one word to describe them all. Of all the possibilities, I chose 'engineer.' Keep in mind that this is only a convention, as there are several categories falling under this term.
Keys Takeaways
Read this in case you don't want to read the entire lens
- Engineers have a mistrust of sales people. You must overcome this barrier before you can proceed.
- Use data to improve your marketing material
- Write in a practical, non-grandiose manner regarding your product
- Don't hide the product's shortcomings
- Be ready to back-up and verify all benefit statements
- Know your lead generation pipeline. Engineers require different types of information at different stages of their development process.
- Engineers respect knowledge and experience. It's not enough to be an expert on your product, you must be an expert on their product
- Use data to improve your marketing material
- Write in a practical, non-grandiose manner regarding your product
- Don't hide the product's shortcomings
- Be ready to back-up and verify all benefit statements
- Know your lead generation pipeline. Engineers require different types of information at different stages of their development process.
- Engineers respect knowledge and experience. It's not enough to be an expert on your product, you must be an expert on their product
If there is one thing to remember....
Engineers don't like marketers (Who can blame them?)
In the purchasing process, someone plays the role of the buyer and someone is the seller. In this case, the engineer is usually buying a complicated piece of software. And, this is where the issue comes up.
If you were to put an engineer in a room, you would find a different communication style, a different way of absorbing information, and a unique pace at making a decision. The choice of clothes, cars, homes, and vacations would be vastly different from the general populace.
And, because of this, the way they buy products is different.
A company selling into a group of engineers usually starts from a disadvantage. The first thing you should realize is this - your instincts are probably wrong. All the grandiose, loud blather, it will usually fall on deaf ears.
The viewpoint on engineering from Myers-Briggs
Although this test isn't a complete picture, it is instructive to review the literature in regards to engineers.
A study performed on a group of engineers found that 42.2% were of the 'ST' mode, indicating a 'Sensing' orientation to collecting and processing information, and a 'Thinking' orientation to making decisions.
What words best describe this type?
Practical, detail oriented, consistent, focused, rely on past experience, orderly, methodological, hard to dissuade once their mind is made up, energized by data.
The first big point on marketing
How to sell them on your idea
Use data to prove your points. In your campaign, you should use data to prove your product abilities. And, not just any data, you should use data that can be analyzed and is easily verifiable by the engineer.
The information you use about your product - how well it scales, how fast it is, how small it is, how many users it can support, whatever - needs to be backed up by real, accurate, meaningful data. You can't make a claim about the speed of your product and then not support it. The minute you do that, you've lost all credibility.
Once you have the data, you will also be asked to explain the circumstances under which the data was gathered. This is just another way of verifying the data. All engineers know that tests and experiments can be flawed. By providing the circumstances surrounding the data collection, you are further improving your standing. Providing data from other customers or independent third parties is a good way to present this information.
The best way to use data in your marketing?
Provide your own numbers and then give the customers have a trial run of the product. Let them reproduce the numbers themselves.
The information you use about your product - how well it scales, how fast it is, how small it is, how many users it can support, whatever - needs to be backed up by real, accurate, meaningful data. You can't make a claim about the speed of your product and then not support it. The minute you do that, you've lost all credibility.
Once you have the data, you will also be asked to explain the circumstances under which the data was gathered. This is just another way of verifying the data. All engineers know that tests and experiments can be flawed. By providing the circumstances surrounding the data collection, you are further improving your standing. Providing data from other customers or independent third parties is a good way to present this information.
The best way to use data in your marketing?
Provide your own numbers and then give the customers have a trial run of the product. Let them reproduce the numbers themselves.
Seeking the truth
To some people, they may come across as 'blunt' or 'rigid.' In practice, they are only making decisions based on pure data. They realize that all projects are a trade-off of resources, and during product evaluations, they are always analyzing this trade-off.
They strive to understand the pitfalls of a particular product, not because they want to belittle or degrade the product, but because NOT knowing that information could be detrimental to their project.
Don't hide the short-comings of your project. If someone points out a deficiency in your product, don't try to play down the issue. Be frank and open. Remember, the technical buyer is not making a judgment call, but is only evaluating the issues.
It may turn out that a perceived deficiency, could be only a checklist item that doesn't carry much weight for the buyer. However, should you try to hide the issue, you've lost your credibility.
Features versus Benefits
The issue? Benefit statements are not verifiable. "Improves your time-to-market" or "Reduces develop time" is something that is non-verifiable and is perceived as prejudiced and biased.
Telling someone your product 'Decrease their design time' has little weight on engineering. They want to understand the specific steps that enable this productivity gain.
In your benefit statements, you should back up the claim with 2 pieces of information - the aspect of your product related to the benefit and how the claim has been tested and verified.
Continuous learning
The average U.S. citizen reads one book a year. The engineer personality read much more. In one study, a group of engineers were found to read approximately 10 books each year.
The learning doesn't extend just to books, it also extends to other information sources. In the same study, engineers were asked to rank their preference for television shows. Of those who watched T.V., the majority watch education/documentary and discover type shows over anything else.
How can a business use this information? Create an ongoing campaign to discuss and teach topics related to your field. It is a great way to generate traffic and keep eyes on your site.
A corollary to this finding - Engineers respect authority and expertise.
What types of information?
The type of information made available matters to engineers. And it changes over time. Depending on where and how your product is used in the engineers job, the consumption pattern for information varies.
Here's a rough breakdown -
- In the early stages of the development lifecycle, conceptualization and definition, information relating to trends, analysis, and emerging technology are consumed in greater quantity
- In the later stages of the lifecycle, information like training and reference information is more readily consumed
Know where your product is in the lifecycle and create the appropriate information. Additionally, you should create a continuous stream of information to convert new customers into lifelong customers.
Here's a rough breakdown -
- In the early stages of the development lifecycle, conceptualization and definition, information relating to trends, analysis, and emerging technology are consumed in greater quantity
- In the later stages of the lifecycle, information like training and reference information is more readily consumed
Know where your product is in the lifecycle and create the appropriate information. Additionally, you should create a continuous stream of information to convert new customers into lifelong customers.
Other interesting things
More information from a study of 680 engineers:
- They are loyal to their employer (even after changing jobs an average of 3 times )
- They are loyal to their family and share in the childcare and household responsibilities
- Engineers believe the U.S. will be leading innovation in the next several years
- 70% of engineers vote regularly, with the majority falling into either Republican or Independent stances
- They are most likely to take on DIY home projects
(18% responded that they enjoy DIY activities, which came in 2nd to participating in family activities, which came in at 19%)
- They are loyal to their employer (even after changing jobs an average of 3 times )
- They are loyal to their family and share in the childcare and household responsibilities
- Engineers believe the U.S. will be leading innovation in the next several years
- 70% of engineers vote regularly, with the majority falling into either Republican or Independent stances
- They are most likely to take on DIY home projects
(18% responded that they enjoy DIY activities, which came in 2nd to participating in family activities, which came in at 19%)
If you have any questions...
I have done much, and continue to do, research related to marketing in technical fields.
If you have questions on the information here, or if you would like to understand how to apply this to your marketing, please email me at mkcraig@gmail.com .
If you have questions on the information here, or if you would like to understand how to apply this to your marketing, please email me at mkcraig@gmail.com .
Books from Amazon
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by Kyle
Kyle
M. Kyle Craig started his career with a degree in computer science , where he first started programming semiconductors in the embedded software market.... more »
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