What to do with detractors :Business Strategy /Financial Advisors

Inevitably, some people are more predisposed to your firm than others. It
is this difference that allows us to detect an NPS amongst customers.
Similarly, the idea of an Influencer Promoter Score depends on the spread
of disposition across a market’s influencers. It begs the question: if we
have detractors how do we turn them into promoters for (or at least
neutral towards) the firm?

Some firms we know label influencers as detractors or sceptics: influencers
that are fixed in their hostility towards their firm. Nonsense.
Influencers start out neutral. Always. They don’t care whether you are
better or worse than your rivals. This is because influencers don’t buy from
you. Even those influencers that have commercial relationships with you
(e.g. systems integrators, resellers) only do so because it serves their selfinterest.
If you fail to deliver suitable margin they’ll drop you without a
second thought. It is further supported by the efficacy of the Delphi
approach to forecasting.

Delphi uses a panel of experts to reach a consensus
forecast, proven to be a reliable indicator of future outcomes
The first step is to determine whether your perception of detractors is
accurate. Some influencers appear sceptical in an interview situation, then
actively promote you once they’ve digested your news and discussed it
with others. For those influencers that publish their thoughts it’s fairly easy
to determine their favourability, but for other types of influencer it’s much
harder. You have to dig deeper into the DME to find out more.

So why would an influencer become a detractor? Are they naturally
sceptical about any new initiative? Have you given them cause to doubt
your sincerity? Have you offended (or, worse, ignored) them in the past?
The biggest reason for an influencer becoming a detractor is that they
haven’t been marketed to appropriately. This means that they’ve probably
been sent press releases (about you) rather than been consulted on
relevant issues (about them).

Occasionally, an influencer will have an allegiance to, or be, a competitor.
In fact, it’s rare for a competitor to be an active and outspoken
detractor these days, but it does happen. It’s always worthwhile marketing
to a competitor or a channel partner: if they have to insult someone let it
not be your firm. And channel players are notoriously promiscuous,
frequently changing their allegiances. With independent influencers you
will sometime encounter an intellectual disagreement, where they just
don’t agree with your strategy or viewpoint. These can be the most
difficult situations to deal with because influencers can be intransigent
in their views. And then there are the petty reasons such as professional
jealousy and envy.

There are three strategies for dealing with detractors. You can convert
them, surround them with other influencers, thereby neutralising them, or
you can ignore them.
Converting influencers is all about practising influencer marketing. If
you follow the steps that we have outlined throughout this book we’re
confident thatmost detractors will come around. They want some TLC, and
influencermarketing is an idealway to deliver it. Aswe said, themost likely
reason for thembeing detractors in the first place is that youweremarketing
to them badly or not at all. Change this, and you’ll change the influencer.
You’ll remember that influencers cluster together and that they get a lot
of their influence from each other.

Influencers love to influence, and they’ll try to influence each other. Surrounding detractors with neutral
and positive influencers means that some of the positive influence should
rub off onto the detractors. So creating environments (forums, influencer
meetings, even blogs) in which influencers can interact are very effective.
This only works if you have more promoters than detractors, otherwise the
opposite effect may occur. You also have to make sure that you follow up
any group interaction with 1-to-1 marketing, to reinforce the positive
messages relayed from the promoting influencers.

Ignoring influencers is a risky strategy, but it can be effective in some
cases. What we’re actually recommending is that you pretend to ignore the
influencer, by excluding them from your overt attention. But you keep
very close to the influencer to assess their actions and responses. Again,
what you’re trying to do is to create opportunities for influencers to meet
each other, and if your detractor is excluded from these occasions it can
soften their stance towards you.

It could, of course, have the opposite effect, which is why we say it’s a risky approach. This technique works best with influencers further down the order of priority – don’t try it with
your top 20 influencers. Once you detect some movement in their attitude,
swiftly welcome them into the community again. Influencers hate to be
isolated.