Google started a pretty amazing program called “Google Engage for Agencies”, while it’s a great outreach program to help generate brand advocates that act as a sales team for low to no cost, it’s much more then that!
Google has generated a program that has done a few things, but I want to center on two, Content and Education!
1) Google Engage is a program that is producing content for Google. Agencies are now telling stories for Google about Google and tying it directly into local communities! The Engage program has agencies and consultants that now have stories that tie back to their community, ones that give all the recognition to Google and the AdWords platform.
2) Google is flooding the market with the correct information and empowering agencies and consultants through education to provide the correct and effective services. In a time period where consumers distrust agencies and digital marketers (and they should) Google has decided to empower those that want to learn, want to provide value making it much harder for those that are not genuine to survive.
The Engage program has provided others, like myself with direct education and training. The information that I now have as a professional has been advanced by the support of Google, both in a distance education program and done in conjunction with Dale Carnegie trainers at Google.
I made a comment earlier that consumers distrust digital marketers and agencies and that “they should”. I stand by that statement, in fact, I started blogging because of that very fact just a few years ago. Walk into a small business owner these days and don’t be surprised when you get a question like “what makes you different then the other 100 sales people before you” and it’s a great question, in fact if business owners and organizations had asked it sooner we wouldn’t have the distrust that the marketing industry has earned.
Google made a commitment to provide a service that they believed helps connect people on the web to solutions providers and services. That incredible tool has been defiled by digital marketing consultants and agencies. As Seth Godin has explained, marketing had it good until the illusion vanished. Out of fear and greed the economy was destroyed overnight by those that worked to game the system, be in PPC, SEO or just selling products, services and solutions that they didn’t care if it worked as long as they got paid.
Google had another great surprise for those of us in attendance, a LIVE Google Hangout with Seth Godin, “America’s Greatest Marketer“ as claimed by American Way Magazine. Seth’s presentation was excellent and while he did a great job sharing information with us, the Q&A was a treasure. Seth’s message is that success comes from being genuine and often takes a long time, in fact Seth admitted it took his blog three (3) years to gain traction.
A day at Google confirmed one thing, the world is full of fraud and the marketing industry has a disproportionate number of contributors. The bright note is that for those of us that take the time to genuinely try solve problems and not just generate sales or revenue, we can and will be successful. In this case, Google is genuine about wanting to connect people with what they are actually looking for, be it through organic search or paid search. Google is acting like a leader, providing the right and accurate resources to the community. The Google Engage program is just one of the resources that Google has invested in to empower the professionals that are trying to do the right thing by their clients, customers and business.
In the end, Google was impressive at every turn. Google New York had Food, Fun and Value! The information was only surpassed by their commitment and methods to deliver it! A methodology that I feel is worth any successful business or corporation pursuing.
As a fellow Google Engage Agency, and someone who attended the NY training with you, I agree completely! Google is taking a perfect approach to training, since without great training, it makes it difficult to sell their services. They make it easy by training and offering all the assistance you may need.
And, I agree, with your assessment that they provided great “food, fun, and value”.
I can’t wait until the next training session!
Craig
I think the next time around I like to jump into the fundamentals class, just so I can see the basic foundations again and make sure I still know whats best for clients and those I teach!
Thanks for your insights Basil. Having been invited there as well, I found Google to be extremely generous in putting so much effort into helping agencies in this manner. It’s not often sales training is offered up for free, from Dale Carnegie no less. But to be involved in a close knit session with Seth Godin, for those of us who are in the business of digital marketing, was like “meeting your maker”. Many attendees certainly had some “fanboy” moments, but I digress…
The thing that struck me most, was how Un-Google the sales training was. There was no specific tactic or approach to sell Google services. We all simply came away with solid sales strategies that would be useful in any situation. I for one, applaud Google for approaching the day in this manner. That to me carries alot of weight in my book.
Ironically the next day, I received a sales call from Facebook, offering “free” training on how to better use their ad platform. “Free” for agencies managing over $10K in monthly ad spend or individuals spending a minimum of $1500.
No thanks… I’ll stick with Google on that one.
Yea, Facebook will take time before they have the resources and experience that Google does, while I am a fan of Facebook (Passive Ads) it will take them some time before they realize they’ll need to open it up to agencies that could sell 10k not just the ones that are, after all one of the biggest things that scares me is the ones selling 10K finding out their doing it wrog and not changing because of profits or some other silly reason.