STA is helping professional services businesses and non-profit organizations start the year right. How? With free, engaging communications strategy briefings to get your best minds thinking in new ways about old challenges—and possibly help take the organization to the next level.
Briefings are available around the following subjects:
» STA builds awareness of these briefings through referrals. Do you have a relationship with a business principal, executive, board member, or adviser whose organization might enjoy receiving a strategy briefing? Please consider how you can help STA extend this courtesy as widely as possible.
STA’s CEO Peter Mirus has presented strategy briefings to businesses ranging in size from start-up to the large enterprise in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Briefings can be conducted in person or through virtual environments (such as GoToMeeting or Skype).
Examples of organizations that have benefited from these presentations:
Professional services firms (such as information technology, business consulting, marketing, architecture/engineering/construction, accounting, law firms, etc.)
Forrester’s Stephen Davidson reports on tech marketing priorities for 2012. Highlights: demand management process, brand/rebranding, thought leadership and content marketing, and digital marketing (including engaging with the community through social media).
Most information technology product and service companies claim to know who their competitors are. In some cases this perception matches reality—but not in many instances. Throughout 15 years of marketing information technology, I have often encountered significant inability to identify competitors.
Why IT Companies Don’t Know the Competition
There are numerous reasons why an IT provider might be unable to name its competitors. Here are four primary reasons...
During my recent vacation, I spent some time reflecting on how to create fundamental improvements in the technology companies that I have encountered over the past several years. Here are three key ways in which I would like to see technology companies improve in 2012.
1. Internal Communication
Many companies do a poor job of establishing internal communication channels, and technology companies are no exception. In 2010 and 2011 I found this problem in several good companies that could become great by improving communication up and down the ranks. The problem manifested itself in various ways, including:
Lack of understanding of corporate vision and cultural values
Poor implementation of new processes and systems
Misunderstanding between the company and its key partners
Inadequate knowledge transfer between account executives and project managers
Many company executives think that these frustrating problems are only felt internally. On the contrary, the problems are often evident to customers—and this has a detrimental effect on the company’s ability to attract and retain profitable relationships. Better internal communication should be a strong priority for businesses that want to make the next step to greatness in 2012. Executives, Communications, and Information Technology need to develop and nurture the necessary channels.
2. Grasp of Employee Knowledge and Capability
In many technology companies the knowledge and capabilities of employees are carefully vetted during the hiring process, but portions of that record become lost in subsequent months and years.
Most companies that I speak with simply do not know the capabilities of their employees.
There is no talent database
Regular talent audits are not conducted
Managers do a poor job of regularly reviewing their teams
Correspondingly, employees at all levels let me know that their companies are missing new business opportunities due to poor knowledge of on-staff expertise. Also, some employees commented that their companies’ seeming lack of interest in knowing and leveraging available skillsets was contradictory to the cultural message expressed by the executive team and HR—contributing to some problems with job satisfaction among talented employees.
Missed business opportunities that would have fit within the strategic development plan are always a bad thing. Also, I expect that retention of skilled employees will become a larger issue for businesses in 2012 and 2013. So companies that want to maintain or grow both market share and internal excellence will improve their grasp of employee knowledge and capability.
3. Customer Knowledge of Services or Products
It is typical for customers to be unaware of the full range of products or services offered by technology companies. This lack of awareness represents many missed opportunities to grow business both within the existing customer base and through referrals from that base. Moreover, customers often indicate that they would like the companies with which they do business to provide products or services that arealready provided, or could easily be provided, by those companies.
This imperfect situation should be perfected through a variety of means. Among them:
Acquire a better understanding of customer business priorities, challenges, and needs
Regularly brief customers on the full range of services and products offered
Tell stories: let your customers know how others in analogous situations benefitted from your products or services
As a further aspect of achieving excellence in this area, I would also like technology companies to take greater advantage of customer research. When properly performed, customer research fuels a number of marketing and business development efforts—and in the process can identify customer segments that have an imperfect understanding of your brand and an insufficient knowledge of your offerings. Customer research should be given serious consideration, particularly by small/midsize businesses that are not already engaged in such activity and want to increase revenue and profit in 2012 and beyond.
A solid brand strategy can be very helpful when attempting to create a position shift and influence outside perception of your company. In this case, an enterprise communications and workflow management firm—known primarily as a solution provider—wanted to be also perceived as a services firm with valuable strategic insight.
This effort also marked the client’s first foray into developing a comprehensive brand strategy. As such, it was an exciting opportunity to tell the story of the firm’s unique value as had never been told before. During STA’s relationship with the client we provided:
Strategic orientation to the purpose and function of a brand, particularly in regards to marketing services and methodologies
Team discovery sessions to identify and prioritize company differentiators
Development of a brand position statement that expresses the promise and essence of the brand
Development of a brand messaging architecture, including primary messages directed to current/prospective clients, employees, and partners. The architecture also anticipates objections that might be raised by each audience and provides responses with proof points.
The result of these initiatives is a durable brand strategy that enables the client to tell its story in a clear, compelling, and consistent manner. It will also serve to shape outside perception of the firm as a strategic-minded service provider.
The client will use the brand strategy to revitalize its business development and marketing efforts. For example, the brand strategy will guide the development of valuable web content and presentations to improve lead generation and support/shorten the sales cycle.
STA’s current work includes brand strategy development for two information technology firms. The firms have different areas of expertise and are at different stages of development. However, there are some notable similarities. First, both firms are talented, focused, and determined. Second, they both face the challenge of identifying, honing, and messaging a strong differentiator that will help take them to the next level.
The information technology landscape is very competitive. In order to grow revenue, profit, and value, the ideal position is to couple a well-defined niche with a strong differentiator. Placing a company in this position is a constant process of improvement—so a brand strategy reflects both the company as it currently stands and the company as it aspires to be.
Keeping those considerations in mind, you can see how there is a strong relationship between the brand of a business and its operations. In order for the aspirational part of the brand strategy to become a reality, there has to be changes at the operational level. Perhaps products or services need to be fine-tuned to better address customer needs. Perhaps the company needs to make better use of research to anticipate emerging market trends. Perhaps customer relationship management needs to be restructured and reinvigorated.
Embracing the relationship between brand strategy and operations is an important challenge. The strategy work, with its accompanying discovery process and resulting insights, should be viewed as an opportunity. Information technology companies that understand this have the best chance of success. STA’s aforementioned brand strategy clients have this viewpoint, which is great for both us and them—the result is a more effective brand strategy that costs less to develop.
It is also exciting to perform work for companies that want to BE better, not just APPEAR TO BE better!
Throughout my career, I have encountered business principals who view marketing as a “mystical” or “mysterious” process. Some marketers, over the history of the profession, have encouraged this perception because it can lead to big paydays with little accountability. “If you really want to grow, hand over your checkbook and then wait while Marketing delivers the results. (Don’t look behind the curtain.)”
That era of marketing is largely (but by no means completely) behind us, with many companies demanding better accountability from their marketers. The increased demand for transparency and measurability has improved and also broadened the field of marketing.
In fact, marketing is not particularly mysterious. It can be perceived as mysterious when complexities in both the market and in the company itself are poorly understood. However, good marketing gathers information about these complexities, feeding important data into business decisions.
This part of the marketing process—which helps to provide the “reason why” for brand awareness and lead-generating campaigns—doesn’t receive the awareness it deserves. And if you don’t know the reasons why marketing campaigns should be performed, of course you might believe that marketing is mystical, to the extent that its methods seem arbitrary.
Moreover, if you don’t have the “reason why,” all campaign recommendations seem unnecessarily risky. A standoff may occur in which Marketing blames the principals for being highly risk averse, while the principals blame Marketing for courting risk without good reason, and then close the checkbook.
So, marketers have a responsibility to not only use a good process, but also find ways to articulate the process in a manner that resonates with business principals—producing a “demystifying” effect. Of course, there’s a shared responsibility: while marketers need to be able to demystify their process, principals need to demand this information and have an appetite for consuming it.
I recently became acquainted with the work of Sector Three Services (S3S), which provides “sustainable nonprofit IT solutions.” S3S has only been around for about a year, but in that short time is gaining momentum both in number of clients served and in the benefit it provides to those clients.
In my view, there are two primary things that separate S3S from similar competitors. First, it has a strong strategic vision that places its primary emphasis on using technology to strengthen and accomplish mission-related goals for the client.
Second, though it has not yet received official non-profit status, S3S has established itself as a non-profit and operates from that mindset. S3S would be legitimately pleased if every client swiftly outgrew the need for its capabilities—though its strategic viewpoint is so valuable I doubt that would ever entirely be the case.
S3S’s target market is the Washington DC/National Capital Region, but it is worth pointing out that many national non-profits of various sizes are headquartered in the area. It is doubly worth pointing out that S3S need not be on site to provide a broad technology strategy survey and assessment that would be valuable to any non-profit and provides multiple discussion points for internal strategy reflection.
Building a marketing strategy involves identifying objectives that will create a competitive advantage, then outlining strategies that will be used to meet those objectives.
The “deliverable” for marketing strategy is defined in many different ways by experts. A basic marketing strategy deliverable from STA incorporates the following elements:
Research, to build an accurate picture of the market and competitive landscape
Objectives that will create a competitive advantage
Strategies that will support the achievement of the objectives
STA’s basic marketing strategy deliverable outlines but does not provide detail for initiatives or tactics that support the strategies. Additional work may be performed to develop a marketing plan and/or go-to-market strategy—these provide granular-level detail, an action program, budgeting and/or financial forecasts, etc. The extent of the work performed is custom-devised for the client’s needs and budget.
STA helps technology clients to SEE the market through the eyes of their customers, TRANSFORM themselves to approach the market, and then ACT to engage the market using sustainable and measurable means.
See the graphic at right. This approach becomes the center of STA's Process (see below).
All parts of the SEE. TRANSFORM. ACT. approach create valuable knowledge that enables principled, informed decisions at every stage of development. This leads to a strengthened corporate identity that facilitates growth.
STA's Process Is Consistent With Its Approach
STA's process for client engagements is consistent with its SEE. TRANSFORM. ACT approach. The process is a repeatable cycle that uncovers ever more accurate information about both the market and your organization with each revolution.
See the graphic at right. The process starts at the top and moves counterclockwise.
First, we begin by helping clients to understand the market in which they operate. This understanding leads to a strong strategic approach to branding and marketing.
Second, we help clients to review their own internal capabilities/resources and build the marketing plan.
In the third phase, marketing tactics are executed.
Fourth, post-op analysis is conducted to gather knowledge and assess results. Acquired knowledge feeds the creation of a more accurate view of both the marketplace and internal performance, and the cycle restarts.
I enjoyed Mike Fischler’s recent article in IT Marketing World, “Gigantic ROI: What Marketing Does Best”. Fischler points out that return on marketing investment (ROMI) is often difficult to measure. He also lets us know that there are factors outside of Marketing’s control that affect traditional revenue-based ROMI measurements. For example, if Marketing delivers some sweet leads and Sales drops the ball. Is Marketing then responsible for missed revenue goals?
Fischler then goes on to point out another way that ROMI can be measured: viewing Marketing’s impact in terms of cost savings. “We measure and pitch the ROI of most tech solutions by decreased cost, not increased revenue,” he writes. So why not measure marketing ROI with the “Saves Money” (rather than the “Makes Money”) approach? As an example, he focuses on how product collateral shortens or removes steps from the sales process—a cost savings.
Should “Saves Money” replace “Makes Money” ROMI measurements? The “Saves Money” ROMI is an important viewpoint and taken alone may justify marketing expense. However, revenue is important. There is no problem using “Makes Money” ROMI measurements if the proper “how” and “when” of those measurements is understood and corresponds to realistic goals. However, alone they are not sufficient.
The proper approach to measuring ROMI needs to include several metrics that paint the full picture. Fischler’s article on “Saves Money” ROMI underscores the importance of taking a broad view.
Virtually the only thing Netflix did right was the last thing: promote increased selection for streaming content. Pretty much everything else was a disaster.
Gartner's Allen Weiner (Research VP for Media Service) commented, "But you have to admire the transparency that [CEO] Reed Hastings and Netflix has had. This isn't something they've done in secret and then sprung on customers. They've been really open and honest about it..."
Weiner was only halfway paying attention. Yes, there's a value to transparency and honesty with customers: admitting when you’ve made a mistake is important.
However, let's rewind a bit and take a look at what really happened. Hastings, via blog posts and a video message to customers (Netflix content on YouTube), admitted that the company communicated poorly regarding the reasons for the business split and price increases. Compounding this, Hastings simultaneously proposed the further step of spinning off the DVD service as a separate website—an announcement that caused many customers to immediately lose patience with Netflix, and caused the company to do a rapid about-face.
Disclosure: I’m a Netlfix customer. Though I am amazed at Netflix’s apparently clumsy efforts to steer its ship on a new course, I still think I’m paying a decent price for the service that I receive. My general feeling is that I was getting a pretty good deal before, and I’m still getting a decent deal. Alternatives to Netflix don’t appeal to my tastes as a consumer. I think streaming video is already great and will get much better. So I’m not full of vitriol over this—just shaking my head and laughing. Even after all this, I want Netflix to thrive and get better, not worse.
And ironically, Netflix could have avoided all of these problems by asking me—or any business-minded person familiar with Netflix’s services (perhaps you). Who among us would Netflix have found to say, “Well, I think you should charge a lot more, then tell people you’re going to make enjoying the service more difficult, then admit to twice making a huge mistake. Finish it up by telling people that the price hikes will remain in force. That’ll be peachy!”
At the end of the day, this is a question about leadership. The question must be asked: have the leaders at Netflix become so divorced from reality that they didn’t see this train wreck coming? And if so, should they be leading the company into the future?
When I talk to software product development shops, discussions on user interface (UI) design encompass a wide variety of principles—perhaps ten to a dozen interrelated ideas that help to create a functional and enjoyable experience for the user. However, there is another reason to focus all the more intently on a great UI: product marketability.
Products don’t just need to be usable—they also need to be marketable. Usability, marketability, and UI design intersect properly only when the UI leads the customer to assign value to the product.
Emotions in Technology Purchasing Decisions, As Affected by the User Interface
Both designers and developers can forget that that purchasing decisions are often strongly influenced by emotions. While we like to think of the software purchase/subscription decision as being a shrewd comparison of features and benefits, it is in part an emotional transaction. (How much emotion comes into play varies dramatically from customer to customer.)
A good UI helps customers to bridge the gap between their current needs/aspirations and a new reality of knowledge and capability, and this results in a greater value being assigned to the product. Potential customers need to feel intellectually and emotionally rewarded through the product experience.
Moreover, designers need to remember that customers may arrive at product testing with strong emotions created by outside factors. A good example: upsetting past experiences using “unintuitive” and “unhelpful” software to perform critical tasks. This may not only have limited the customer’s ability to get things done, but may have contributed to frustration and anxiety about team/individual performance assessments.
The customer will push the “panic button” early in product testing if the “next move” isn’t immediately obvious. So which “panic button” will the user choose to push? The marketability of the product may depend on it; the value that the customer assigns to the product may be going down by the second.
One Way to Control the Panic Button: The Help System
An area of good UI design that is critical to building positive user emotions is the Help system. It is very important that the customer feel supported throughout the product experience. UI designers can control the panic button by placing Help system cues at appropriate locations within the system. (Hiding a small question mark icon in an over-cluttered toolbar barely counts.)
In my observation, over the years designers have become better at placing help cues throughout the interface. Developers have become better at making help systems respond intelligently by providing information relevant to the context in which the user is attempting an action. But there is still a lot of room for improvement in the location of Help cues, the presentation of Help information, and the content of the information itself.
If the struggling user is able to access the Help system quickly, get the instructions/explanation needed, and get right back into the game, the sense of panic or frustration can be turned into accomplishment and appreciation. What might have been a threat to marketability becomes an asset.
The Wrap Up
Many user interface design decisions are hotly debated, and only so much time and budget can be spent on the design process. Often, design decisions are the result of some type of compromise.
However, software development shops need to have some conception of how the UI is influencing perceived product value and overall marketability. Otherwise, you risk increasing the marketing budget and decreasing return on investment for both the product’s development cost and its marketing expense.
Creating an integrated marketing strategy, with proper budgetary allocations for each channel, is a difficult balancing act. Forrester helps by highlighting how customers look to analysts, vendors, consultants, colleagues, and peers to influence their purchasing decisions. The report sheds some light on which channels are valued by each influencer. Hopefully, this will lead to less error in selecting the right channel(s) through which to deliver the appropriate information for each audience, and greater ROI in technology marketing.
This blog post is the introduction to a new article, available in PDF format, about the value of an effective hiring process (including an outline of the process).
The first rule of effectively marketing a professional services firm is to hire the right people to provide those services. Hiring the right people will significantly minimize your marketing expense and hiring the wrong people can scuttle your ship before she sails.
As a marketer, representing the best interests of a client, you have something to say about the marketability of the product that is being put on the shelves. Shy away from this responsibility and you place both yourself and your client at risk.
In the blockbuster business book Good to Great, author Jim Collins makes very clear: to make a great company you need the right people. Having talented, disciplined people on board is critical—great companies get the right people on board before figuring out the best path to maximum business success.
For these reasons—and because I hate to raise a potential problem without helping to create a solution—building fundamentally sound methods for effective hiring has become fascinating to me.
This article is about the value and process of “effective” hiring. I define “effective” as providing the maximum opportunity for business prosperity and a great corporate culture. The subject matter of this article applies to all types of business—from the local coffee shop to the Fortune 500 company.
Perhaps ironically, this article does not discuss how to advertise the position you are hiring for. Most employers can find effective avenues within a matter of minutes. If you don’t know how to advertise the position, then you need an HR specialist. (There is an addendum to this piece which discusses Marketing, HR, and ROI.)
Rather, this article is intended to address fundamental issues of creating a hiring process that elicits the best from your candidates and results in the right hire.
Many technology service firms think primarily of customers when they consider making changes to their brand and marketing strategies. This makes sense: revenue comes directly from customers—therefore marketing ROI is most clearly demonstrated through success in the customer approach.
However, successful (high value, high profit) professional services firms place the hiring and retention of quality talent near the top of their list of challenges/priorities.
Your people are the product you sell. Keep the supply lines strong!
The employees of your firm provide the “product” that is sold to your customers. So in order to field a competitive product—one that can command a premium price—you must establish powerful supply lines. If your positioning and messaging architecture are focused solely on the prospective customer, those supply lines will underperform.
Formulating the right message to prospective employees and delivering that message through the appropriate channels is of great importance to successful recruitment. And it makes it easier for HR to attract top talent.
Applying communications/marketing principles and skills to HR.
In my experience, communications and marketing principles are under-applied in the job solicitation process used by many professional service firms. Proper application at your firm can help to create distinction and dramatically improve the odds of your firm's success.
Your HR communication is a part of your brand.
All public communication from your firm becomes a part of your brand—and HR communication is no different. These communications say, “This is the kind of company we are. These are the types of people we hire. This is what our culture is like.” Savvy prospective customers will look at the way your firm communicates to prospective employees to determine: (1) the quality of your team members; (2) the types of relationships that you desire in your dealings with others.
The bottom line: ROI
You can see that the benefit provided to HR (through better marketing and applied communications skills within HR processes) creates an additional benefit: your hiring practices and how you articulate them can become a differentiator that helps your company to close new business.
So there are several ways in which the ROI is created:
Brand and marketing strategy improves the recruiting process by increasing prospective employee lead generation, increasing the talent level, and increasing close percentage.
Superior staff quality leads to improved competitive performance. Over time, this will help with business development: improving contract close percentage and shortening the sales process.
Better people, better pricing and better contracts are factors that will drive higher profits and a premium valuation for your firm.
Arguably, the first rule of marketing technology consulting (such as IT consulting) services is: "Hire great consultants." Following this rule doesn't guarantee marketing success, but it sure does make everything easier. The better your product, the easier time you will have selling it.
Therefore, in the Fall of 2009 my team held a couple of internal meetings focused on defining the essential qualities of a top consultant, or what we called the "true consultant."
Without specifically using these terms, the blueprint that you see below argues for adding experienced and disciplined members to your team.
After much discussion and reflection, here is the “true consultant” blueprint that was established.
Excellence in relevant technical knowledge
High ethical standards
Intelligent problem solving, including
A strategic mindset, with attentiveness to maintaining objectivity
Having the big picture vision while still cultivating an attention to detail
Intellectual agility/adaptability
Diligence and creativity in conducting and applying research
The ability to apply logical diagnostic tools to problems
Appropriate prioritization of tasks and goals
Knowledge of risk assessment and management
A proper approach to creating business cases and analyzing cost/benefit
Superior communication ability, including
Present findings that comprehensively and effectively addresses all important data
Empathy
Broad and ready vocabulary
If you have any feedback or suggested additions, contact us!
This article was originally published on June 8, 2010 updated on September 21, 2011.
Here are 10 important rules for success in selling technology services, based on my experience, third-party research, and industry case studies.
1. Services old to you might be new to a client. Many a company has developed new service offerings as a path to growth when its current customer base isn’t fully aware existing services. A recent client of mine had extremely strong customer relationships (a fact supported by customer research). However, the same customer research revealed that 80% of customers admitted to ignorance of the full range of services offered. This is representative of a huge missed opportunity.
2. Offer services that are in demand. Try to avoid speculative investments in new service development. Determine whether the services you propose to offer are in demand, and if the audience views the new services as being consistent with your brand. If you are a systems engineering firm, and 40% of your customers want you to offer Cyber Security services, go there. Pioneering a new service concept can be lucrative, but may present additional audience education challenges/expense beyond the norm. Know what you are getting into.
3. Understand how the customer wants to be approached. Current customers prefer a one-on-one briefing when being offered new services. Tech companies with poor pitch skills tend to fire paper (real or digital) at the customer from a remote location. Develop your pitch, and make sure you get in front of the customer. Prospective customers want to be marketed to through relationships/networking and being able to find valuable and relevant web content.
4. Know the criteria with which you are being evaluated. Focus on understanding client needs, technical qualifications, past performance, relationships, and reputation (in that order). Bring enough to the table in each of those areas, and you’ll have an easier time signing customers to new services. This is why hiring carefully for intelligence, capability, experience, and relationships is extremely important to technology services firms focused on generating growth and building value.
5. Understand and anticipate customer concerns. Right now, many customers are focused on current or foreseen shrinking budgets. It’s a reality that needs to be addressed proactively. Flexibly restructuring agreements can be a key aspect in client retention, and can earn a future ear for the discussion of new services. Examples of additional concerns: infrastructure consolidation, availability/scalability of resources, successful project completion, long-term planning, relocation, solution durability, measurable success, project management, communication throughout the project, etc.
6. Be aware: the customer’s challenge can be addressed in more than one way. A problem can have many possible solutions. You may only be aware of the part of the competitive field that provides the same solution as you—an inaccurate reflection of the competitive field as a whole. On average, your list of known competitors will overlap by only 25% a customer-provided list of your competitors. So you need to shape the discussion to favor your solution. The way to accomplish this is by learning to engage in regular discussions with customers at the level of business priorities and key challenges. Also, learn their “problem language” and use it for refining your brand messaging and marketing copy.
7. Be an advocate for your customers. There are two ways in which you must be a customer advocate. First, the account executive needs to be the voice of the customer inside your business. This is a key to making sure that services are properly aligned to address customer needs; that customer priorities, values, needs, and concerns are not underrepresented. Second, promote and showcase your clients whenever possible. This keeps the relationship alive and mutually beneficial beyond the day-to-day provision of services.
8. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but parts of it were. Solve one problem, and likely you’ll be asked to solve another. Solving a simple problem right away creates a foothold for building your empire. There are always better, more ideal solutions to client problems. Some symptoms really can’t be addressed without curing the disease, but others can. What can you solve right now that will help the customer feel understood and supported? Otherwise, you run the risk of being perceived as a knowledgeable company that pitches great solutions but fails to be attentive to on-the-ground concerns and immediate needs.
9. Your brand is important. Many technology services firms know how to build good systems, but don’t understand how to build a good brand. A brand is more than a logo: part of building a brand is the crafting and deployment of clear, consistent, value-focused messaging. Getting this right need not be expensive, and is critical to success. If you fail to be clear, consistent, and value-focused, you introduce unnecessary obstacles to building the relationships that will determine your success.
10. Provide marketing training to non-marketing staff. The most successful (high value, high growth) technology services firms make marketing a priority throughout the company. Employees need to understand the brand, appreciate the role of marketing in building a prosperous firm, and understand how to participate in the marketing process as necessary.
Bonus Point: Do no more than is necessary to attract and retain profitable customer relationships. Marketing has numerous processes and best practices. There are particular ways to market technology services that will, by and large, lead the way to success. However, your firm’s makeup, its current state of development, and the preferences of your current/potential customers factor heavily into your marketing decisions. When thinking about what is the “best way” in marketing, balance it against the real needs and buying behaviors of particular prospects. This helps to concretize what to do, what not to do, and what can or should be put off until another time.
Remind your customers why they are awesome... and also why you are awesome.
Human nature being what it is, once we have been in a relationship for a while, it is easy to start taking the other person for granted. It is prudent to assume that if you haven’t recently reminded the other person of how great they are (and how great you are!) they might lose track of the value in the relationship.
Business relationships are defined by the value proposition (or “quantifiable truth”) associated with two entities engaging in business based on the merits of the various parties and the benefits to be gained on each side.
However, as I said, merits aren’t always immediately apparent, so good communication is necessary to make sure that the value propositions are heard and understood, and that those propositions continue to be reinforced and strengthened through continued communication over the course of the relationship.
It would be an interesting exercise if we applied the same amount of discipline to assessing our personal lives. I’ll use myself as an example. What is the value proposition that I present to my wife in our relationship? What is the value proposition that I present to my children? To my parents? To my friends? Moreover, how do I effectively communicate this value—not just at the start of the relationship, but throughout its entirety?
In order to have good, long-term relationships with our customers, we find a more productive mode of interaction that is sustainable over the long term. Keeping this communication alive can be difficult and require discipline—but if you commit to this discipline as part of your relationship, it becomes part of who you are—it informs your character. You begin to see the reward of doing the difficult things, and then those things become less difficult to commit to.
Or you don’t, and things start to fall apart.
The recipe for good customer relationship management is going the extra mile, doing the hard stuff, being attentive and communicative, and constantly communicating value. Moreover, it is about creating true friendships whenever and wherever possible.
In short, it is about making a commitment to excellence!
When spouses don’t pay attention to one another, or communicate productively, they risk losing touch with one another.
Be attentive.
Imagine this scenario: the girl changes over the course of the marriage; new “customer priorities” emerge. Did the boy recognize those changes as they took place, or two years after the fact? Was he being as attentive as he should have been?
As a good spouse or a good business owner, you need to be attentive not only to the other party specifically, but also to everything that is happening around that person (in other words, the environment or operating conditions).
Example: Your business maintains a high profit margin by keeping your prices high in a poor economy. You aren’t paying enough attention to the conditions in which your customer is operating. Will you retain that customer?
Communicate clearly.
Business relationships, as well as personal relationships, can be very complex. If I talk to a mid-level manager in a company about a strategic change of direction, I'm not just talking to that person. Through that person, I'm certainly talking to superiors and subordinates.
Through that person, perhaps I am talking to a spouse or a valued friend. Perhaps I am talking to other consultants with overlapping areas of expertise.
This underscores the importance of good business relationships and clear communication. All of the above individuals may have some impact on business decisions. My message has to be clear enough to be received in close to its original form so that the facts and arguments that I have presented are not misconstrued.
The strength of the relationship with the client, moreover, helps to ensure that my thoughts receive a warm reception not just at the point at which they are delivered, but beyond through the multiple possible relays.
I once read a book called “Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Black Book of Connections: 6.5 Assets for Networking Your Way to Rich Relationships”. The very first statement in the book, and I mean THE very first (printed in large letters on the inside cover), is this:
“All things being equal, people want to do business with their friends. All things being not quite so equal, people STILL want to do business with their friends. HINT: To climb the ladder of success, you don’t need more techniques and strategies, you need more friends.”
That’s it in a nutshell. When you create a friendship, based on honesty and personal responsibility, trust takes over and both parties look for ways to further benefit each other within the relationship. Within the constraints of prudence, generosity gives way to generosity.
If you place a high priority on trust within friendships, it means treating the other party with respect, being willing to listen, and making decisions that are in both parties’ best interests. Communication is frequent and forthright.
When you have that kind of relationship, mistakes made are construed to be “honest mistakes” and the tendency to deal with those issues productively is much greater.
However, we don’t strive to create good relationships just so that the occasional mistake will be tolerated. We need to continue to strive to be the best and not use friendship as an excuse for mediocrity.
What we need to shoot for is this: All things being MORE THAN EQUAL, people want to do business with their friends.
In a marriage, the spouses can’t just each bring 50% to the table. Each individual has to bring 100%. You can’t “kind of” commit to a marriage, and you can’t “kind of” commit to good customer relationship management.
In both marriage and business, the cost of not having a good relationship can be very high.
In a marriage, it costs a lot to get divorced: estimates that I have seen indicate that the average cost of a contested divorce is between $20,000 and $40,000—and that is just considering legal fees.
The cost of losing customers due to poor relationship management can also be high. One firm with which I am acquainted lost 30% of its total business in a week through lack of attentiveness to customer needs. What are the symptoms of a negative relationship?
I have worked with companies that are naturally good at relationship management, and others that are horrible at it. You can recognize right away the difference between the two. In companies that are horrible at relationship management, every perceived problem is automatically escalated to the highest volume, and the blame is always placed squarely in the other camp.
If you have been around multiple businesses, you know that there is often a negative tendency to attribute differing priorities between the company and the customer to “unreasonableness”. If the customer wants something that the company doesn’t seem to be able to provide, the company is being “unreasonable”. Likewise, the company thinks that the customer is “unreasonable” for wanting what it wants. If you have been around enough marriages, you’ll see the same negative tendency.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
Good relationship managers both in marriage and in business make the “exchange of differences” productive and positive, work to resolve differences when possible, and ensure that respect and personal responsibility remain a focus. In this way, the customer/spouse always feels valued—even when the decision is to “agree to disagree” or to resolve the difference at a future date.
One byproduct of good relationship management: it keeps the tone of conversation amicable and placid, and that can go a long way in helping both parties feel out the “difference between the differences”. When there isn’t a productive dialogue, all differences seem large—but logically, we know that there are degrees of differences, and each difference has its own importance relative to the others.
Because the skills necessary for good relationship management both in business and in personal relationships are so comparable, I often tell both the staff at my firm and our clients that learning good relationship management (within sales work, project management, personnel management, etc.) will benefit them in their personal lives—because that is the truth. How we handle workplace relationships can spill over into our personal lives, and vice versa.
There is a good deal of humor surrounding the analogy between sales work and dating, and between customer relationship management and a marriage. The joke that applies immediately after the marriage ceremony is this: “Now, a lifetime of good customer service to ensure retention!”
The marketing/sales process is like a courtship—a romance, if you will—occurring between the company and its customers.
Boy meets girl
Think of the classic story: boy meets girl, and a romance begins. Let’s take the boy’s viewpoint. Within the romance, the boy (if he’s smart) tries to find out as much as he can about the girl. He scrutinizes her closely – who is this girl? What makes her tick? How can he endear himself to the girl in the most efficacious manner?
The boy finds out, as best he can, all he can about this girl. Now he puts on his proverbial thinking cap. He takes stock of what he has to offer, based on what this girl wants. He tries to figure out what he can change about himself to improve his chances.
So, this boy comes up with his checklist and starts to transform himself. Why? So one day, one memorable day (for better or for worse), he can ask that girl to marry him.
In my business, we refer to this as the “See, Transform, Act” model. The boy sees the girl, transforms himself for the girl, and then he acts!
Hopefully, she says yes… and then, as mentioned… a lifetime of customer service to ensure retention!
Possible courtship roadblocks
Now, obviously there is rarely such a thing as a simple romance, and rarely such a thing as a perfectly executed business plan. Various factors, many unexpected, introduce themselves along the way. Here are a few (still from the guy’s point of view):
The girl plays “hard to get”. You begin to execute a plan for finding out all about your customer, and the customer indicates interest. Yet, for some reason, you aren’t able to get the information that you need from the customer to move forward!
The girl doesn’t share all of your ideals. When the customer doesn’t share your ideals, you have to ask yourself if the relationship will feature enough points of compatibility.
The girl wants too much change. The customer likes you, but doesn’t like your product. How much transformation are you willing to undergo for the sake of the customer?
The girl doesn’t know what she wants. The customer knows they need something, but isn’t sure about what they need (but somehow knows enough to know what they DON’T need when they see it…which turns out to be practically everything.) But for some reason they still are interested in you.
Comparisons between marketing/sales and a courtship abound! But now, let’s move to consider the marketing/sales that takes place inside the marriage: customer relationship management.
This article is part of the Branding and Government Contractors series. Click the link to read the introductory post and a list of articles.
Problem: Lack of clarity in brand position and messaging creates unnecessary “friction”. In other words, a poor brand can create confusion as to the purpose of your company and the value of your services. As a result, building relationships contracting officers and program managers can be more difficult.
Solution/Advantage: Accomplishing audience awareness of your brand’s existence isn’t enough; recognition of your brand is only the first step. In order to create new opportunities, your audience must also:
Understand your brand and its relevancy to their mission
Retain relevant information about your business for future reference
Feel strongly enough about your brand to prefer you at the point of making a business decision
If you don’t have a clear, value-oriented message, the relationship-building process will be much more difficult. Resistance created by a weak brand will hinder your ability to accomplish the goal of being the preferred vendor and contract winner.
Your audience encounters you at different points in the decision-making process. What can you provide to help them to move efficiently along the decision path? What information will aid them during the process? How can you automate aspects of the educational process?
What information is right for each stage? How can you stay in touch without overreaching? Are there other means of strengthening the relationship?
The essential information about your business must be delivered in a tiered way—the right information at the right time, in the right place and through the proper/right channels. This can have a profound impact on how you are able to engage effectively with decision-makers in government.
This client was a national consulting firm providing essential services to drive high profile fundraising campaigns. Already well known for its core area of business, the company had spent the previous two years introducing and fine-tuning several new services (including IT services) that were designed to change how the company was perceived by its market.
The firm had re-positioned its brand, but strategy and tactics were playing catch up. The client needed that “catching up process” to occur quickly; to meet revenue goals, the firm had to begin targeting an audience of 500 non-profit prospects within the year. Functions performed in this engagement included:
Strategic direction and project oversight for research, brand messaging architecture, go-to-market analysis, and marketing strategy development
Development of marketing campaign concepts to show the client dynamic ways in which marketing strategy could be implemented
Provided counsel as to how the company could improve communications with existing clients to increase client satisfaction/retention and firm profitability
Provided insight as to how the client could develop strategic partnerships to improve brand awareness and lead generation
The result of these initiatives was a strategy by which the firm could approach its client prospects while simultaneously establishing itself as the clear leader and innovator in its field. The strategy development process established firm consensus at all management levels, leading to tactical implementation within the established timeframe.
The last three years have produced a shakeup in the non-profit sector. At the height of the economy before 2008, I was contacted by at least two non-profit start-ups per month. Since then, I’ve heard only from a couple over three years. I’ve personally seen several non-profit organizations go out of business or take a hiatus. There has also been some consolidation, as non-profits combine to eliminate mission redundancy and increase operational efficiency.
So what is the non-profit market forecast? Based on trends and studies (such as from Guidestar, Blackbaud, and the recent Nonprofit Research Collaborative report), I expect non-profits will have the opportunity to realize revenue increases throughout 2011 and into 2012.
Taking the prevailing economic climate into consideration, here are five areas of strategic focus for the remainder of 2011 and 2012.
1. Clarify your messaging. Clarity and consistency in messaging are more important than ever. Organizations that are well understood by key audiences stand the best chance of remaining top-of-mind when spending decisions are made.
2. Build affinity into community. A non-profit that wants to be preferred need to capitalize on like-mindedness by finding ways to welcome the audience into its mind and heart. Successful non-profits create communities by consistently engaging the audience in ways that are both intellectually and emotionally satisfying.
3. Improve online marketing skills. Online marketing/fundraising continues to grow. Social media is a big part of that trend, but it must be used properly. A recent study from Idealware shows that Facebook holds great potential for non-profits in many areas. However, only about 30% of organizations who use Facebook have successfully increased donation revenue through its use.
4. Get the right people on board. No compassionate executive likes to lay off people in a difficult economy. But non-profits should view this economy as a buyer’s market and look for position upgrades that will advance the organization’s capabilities. Many non-profits face increased demand for services, so increasing capability/capacity where possible is very important.
5. Align systems for optimal efficiency. Many non-profit organizations have poorly aligned systems, such as constituent/donor relationship management and online marketing tools. Select the right system, make sure it is properly integrated, and get the training necessary for all staff to fully exploit available capabilities.
This client had three practice areas: business process transformation, project management consulting, and organizational change management. The company (offices in Maryland and New York) had an excellent reputation for helping its government clients to solve complex problems within short timeframes.
Though it had achieved great success in the public sector, the client struggled to move that success into the private sector. Initial marketing efforts were unsuccessful, and the client was unsure if it had the right messaging and marketing plan. Functions performed in this engagement included:
Direction of client work sessions to brief executives on brand/marketing strategy process and drive discovery for future work
As a result of these projects, the client gained the knowledge and confidence necessary to begin an effective approach to private sector prospects while continuing its public sector excellence. The client was prepared to effectively launch its refined and refocused brand, engage in a strategic pursuit of new business, and instill the new brand position in employees across the firm.
I typically see technology companies measuring marketing cost as: dedicated in-house marketing staff + outsourced services + material (and similar) expenses.
This measurement does not reveal the true cost of marketing because it does not fully measure the allocation of resources necessary to drive business growth through the marketing process.
In order to understand the true cost of technology marketing you need to build one or more scenarios that consider how marketing will be implemented within your company. Putting the scenario(s) together need not take a lot of time.
When doing so, there are four helpful considerations, often overlooked, that will help you to keep from making critical errors in judgment in cost evaluation.
1. Marketing is 50% performed by non-marketing staff. If 50 hours are invested by the “marketing team,” 50 hours will be invested by other people. For technology marketing to be successful (and cost effective), many people within a company need to be involved in the process. The actual portion of total marketing effort that is performed by the marketing team varies from firm to firm, and from one stage of development to another. But the 50/50 rule is one to get you thinking.
2. Will your strategy run out of money before it generates ROI? If you take six months to revitalize your brand, three months to begin executing a marketing plan, and three more months to begin closing leads, you might be waiting 12 months to realize substantial ROI on your investment. If that is too long to make an investment without seeing results, you’ll need to build a different scenario—one that is practical and accomplishable.
3. Lack of knowledge and/or lack of commitment can increase costs exponentially. If you’ve neglected your brand and marketing efforts, there might be some “catch up” work to be performed before liabilities start turning into assets. You need a good strategy and total company commitment. Remaining in a “knowledge poor” or “commitment poor” positions kills marketing projects and wastes money, so you need to allocate resources to make sure the correct knowledge is acquired and the necessary commitment is sustainable.
4. Now, what about the cost of NOT doing certain things? Example: The marketing team has rightly recommended a content marketing strategy. But key subject matter experts (including firm partners) refuse to make content generation a priority, so the recommendation is squashed. Meanwhile, competitors develop robust content marketing strategy and develop strong pipelines leading to more qualified leads and customers.
This is by no means an exhaustive set of considerations. However, taking these items into account will help to make sure that your company understands the true cost of what you are proposing to undertake!
Both for-profit and non-profit businesses that consider using social media are confronted by three questions. Answering each of these questions is critical to exploring whether the use of social media will bring a net benefit to your organization.
1. How do you decide if social media is right for reaching your audience? This decision largely depends on whether and how your constituency uses social media. You also want to find out if social media interactions have the power to influence your constituency’s behavior (such as purchase or donation decisions). To learn this, you can conduct an online survey of your constituency. In addition, a recently released Pew Internet report sheds new light on the impact of social media—including who is using each major social media site, and why.
The picture of how to use social media effectively is becoming increasingly clear, impacting the ability of both non-profits and for-profits to make educated decisions on using social media effectively for business.
Many people claim that tracking the effectiveness of social media is difficult. I don’t see it that way. The effectiveness of social media can be tracked in ways very similar to typical web analytics: simply use the right tools to ascertain whether your activity results in action. It is more a matter of discipline than capability.
One thing to be aware of is what I call “social location shift”. This is what occurs when a portion of your constituents moves from one location (such as your existing website) to a newly introduced location (such as your Facebook page). This can result in initially promising results from social media analytics, only to find that the total net effect is the same. Social media success depends on the ability to expand audiences and/or create more dynamic relationships. (In my reading about social media, “social location shift” hasn’t been much discussed; hence, my emphasis on it here.)
3. Do we have the internal capability/personality to use social media? The answer to this question depends to a large extent on current use of social media by your staff for personal or professional purposes. If it is something that your people feel drawn to, you are more likely to be able to harness existing tendencies.
However, it may be possible to make effective use of social media even if your current team doesn’t naturally orient in that direction. The ability to do this effectively is dependent on reducing social media participation to a process with expected results. This is true of marketing activity in general—though it does require a particular skill set, there are many tasks that can be performed by “non-marketing staff” if the process is understood and the benefit is explained.
Strong companies with forward-thinking corporate cultures properly utilize technology to create advantage. As a Communications expert with a background in Information Technology, I’ve viewed with interest the try/fail/try/fail/try/succeed efforts to introduce new technology in business environments.
Today, at least by my observation, the average office worker is more embracing of technological advancements at the office than was the case ten years ago. However, resistance to the introduction of new systems can still be a struggle. This is often due to a general disconnect between IT staff, executive leadership, and the end-users.
A Case In Point: Office 2007
I saw this disconnect present itself very glaringly with the introduction of Microsoft Office 2007, which was the first version of Office to sport the new “ribbon” interface as opposed to the traditional menu bar. This transition was not difficult to those who are early and eager adopters of technology and like to play around with a lot of different systems (with different user interfaces). Nor was it a problem for such individuals as user interface developers who, while debating the pros/cons of the approach, were able to figure the system out pretty quickly. But the change was creating a good deal of consternation for the majority of end-users. The updgrade caused efficiency loss at many companies. Resulting concerns regarding the supposed inevitable havok caused some companies to postpone the upgrade.
IT offices were concerned about user adoption of 2007, but often failed to implement a reasonable transition plan before rolling out the upgrade. Those who think from a Communications mindset, and hence who are concerned about how new ideas will be received, would have (and did) think of a solution.
The Solution
When providing Communications insight to one IT team, my primary concern about receptivity to the Office 2007 upgrade centered around Microsoft Word as the most frequently used application in the suite (in the environment under consideration). Outlook, though a source of concern, did not change to the ribbon for its main interface.
The first thing we talked about was the communication schedule. We wanted to be very out-in-front in defining the upgrade schedule, and we wanted all users in the organization to be aware of precisely when the upgrade was going to take place. However, we knew that this would lead to an “anxiety period” both before and after the upgrade if we did not take additional steps.
We needed to avoid any anxiety for two reasons. First, anxiety leads to anger, leads to resentment. Second, this process wasn’t just about this particular upgrade—it was about building a trust relationship between IT and the users. How this effort was handled would affect the success of future efforts.
We knew that IT could talk about benefit in the upgrade all day and not have the necessary effect—some user groups (this one included) have an inherent distrust of IT’s optimism regarding how easy to use new systems will be.
So to counter the anticipated anxiety, we targeted early adopters in the company and worked to upgrade their systems before the general upgrade schedule was released. Early adopters in the user interface learned to enjoy the advantages of the upgrade and then bragged about those advantages to other users. This introduced jealousy. Jealousy is a powerful motivator in getting people to want something that they previously disdained.
We did a bit of research and found an Office 2007 add-in that would reintroduce the traditional menu system alongside the ribbon interface. When the Office 2007 upgrade was performed, the add-in was installed as well. This allowed users to explore the new system while being able to reference the old system when the frustration level got too high. The supposed benefit of the task-oriented ribbon system was to make tools easier to find and use. Making the old menu system available allowed users to see whether or not that was actually true over time, without anxiety about whether or not they would be able to perform critical, time sensitive tasks.
The rest of our communications process revolved around good messaging, positive reinforcement, and support availability. The early adopters, who had been using Office 2007 more than a month before the rest of the staff, eagerly answered the questions of their coworkers and mitigated support requests that would have otherwise been directed to IT technical support.
The Result
The combined efforts of IT and Communications created a very smooth transition process in adopting a significant product upgrade. So, how did this help to build a strong corporate culture?
The joint effort helped to prepare a process for introducing new technology in a productive manner. The users developed a more trusting attitude towards how the IT team would perform in future situations. Executives developed a more open attitude to proposals regarding the introduction of new technology; concern about user confusion and possible backlash (resulting in productivity loss) was reduced.
Additional Tidbit
Once, a number of years ago, I couldn’t get a company executive (who held the IT purse strings) to realize the efficiency increase in putting two flat-screen monitors on every desk—something that my office had long-since introduced for efficiency in research/writing, graphic design, user interface development, etc. The executive wouldn’t even try it out himself for two weeks.
So I instructed that two beautiful flat-screen monitors be given, free of charge, to his executive assistant. Shortly thereafter the green-eyed monster took charge. It was only a matter of time before two displays became commonplace in the corporate office.
Most companies use presentations in some way. If you have a two-person landscaping business, you need to be able to make design concept presentation to the customer. If you are large a technology firm, you might need to be able to present research findings to an executive committee.
An acquaintance (and former client), Dr. Andrew Abela, has developed the Extreme Presentation™ method to designing presentations. It “integrates the five essential elements of an effective presentation: logic, rhetoric, graphics, politics, and metrics”. The related book is recommended reading.
However, some people have the tools to follow this blueprint, and others do not. Communications experts are prepared to understand and execute the concepts expressed by Dr. Abela. They are also prepared to provide communications training to staff, which helps to improve presentation preparation.
Why does this matter? What difference do effective presentations make to the corporate culture?
Successful organizations are by no means built through perpetual accord between its leaders (see Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't). So good presentations might not always engender accord, but rather might rather raise key points of heated debate.
However, successful organizations are built through disciplined thinking. Because of the five essential elements that it takes into consideration (again: logic, rhetoric, graphics, politics, and metrics), a well-developed presentation both requires and exhibits disciplined thinking.
Every individual who presents in this manner helps to build a disciplined corporate culture—one of the hallmarks of a great company.
In addition, a greater level of communications/marketing awareness across the company staff leads to superior growth and profitability. A recent study by the Hinge Research Institute shows that the most successful professional service firms make marketing training a priority. This training would logically include how to make effective presentations both within the company and to its customers.
This article is part of the Branding and Government Contractors series. Click the link to read the introductory post and a list of articles.
Problem: When government contractors think of branding, they often think primarily of the approach to potential customers. However, there are at least six primary audiences that should be considered for strong brand messaging.
Current and potential customers, including:
Influencers
Contracting Officers
Program Managers
End Users
Small Business Specialists
Current and potential employees
Current and potential prime contractors
Current and potential vendors and subcontractors
Politicians
Taxpayers/Voters
Solution/Advantage: Create a brand messaging architecture that governs your approach to each audience. Formal audience research may be necessary to properly develop this architecture.
A messaging architecture includes identification of key customers or prospects, key messaging points, critical objections that might be raised by each audience, and your response to those objections. The messaging architecture creates the gateway for future communications with these audiences through presentations, website, proposals, etc.
A poor brand can work against you. Companies that have been inattentive to the development and/or maintenance of their brand may have a liability on their hands rather than an asset.
Here are some points of consideration as to why a poor approach to branding can hurt, or hold back, a government contractor.
Job solicitations released by Human Resources are an important part of brand messaging. For this reason, in well-developed companies, Communications often provides some level of support to HR.
A good job solicitation, which employs Communications best practices, has several positive effects. The most obvious effect is that a well-written solicitation increases the likelihood that a technically qualified candidate will be found. The other effects are less obvious, but are important to securing top-flight employees and creating a strong corporate culture. Here are some pertinent thoughts.
Don’t just find a qualified candidate; find a superior candidate.
Good job solicitations go beyond the expression of technical requirements, chain of command, compensation level, etc. The solicitation should further pre-qualify potential candidates by expressing a vision of the corporate culture that is integrated into the required qualities for candidates. This increases the likelihood of hiring a superior candidate.
Good job solicitations are marketing material.
Good solicitations are marketing material. Every time one of your solicitations is released, you are touching a large talent pool. Most of these people will never work for your company, but one of them will be hired now, some of them may be hired in the future, and others may be in companies that partner with or purchase from your company. Well written solicitations are clear and persuasive: “We are a good company, we know exactly what we need in the people that we hire, and we know how to use their abilities to maximum effect.”
Distributing solicitations internally helps to achieve maximum success.
Companies also benefit from using internal solicitation distribution mechanisms, for these reasons:
Internal distribution increases referrals. (“If you know of excellent candidates, make sure they put themselves forward.”)
Worthy candidates within the company can be identified. The best candidate might already be “in the system”.
This creates an internal channel by which your staff is exposed to your marketing message.
There may be occasions when it is appropriate to prepare a separate solicitation draft for internal release. Some information that might be inappropriate for public release will help to better qualify the position for internal staff.
An inch wide, and a mile deep: specificity is both attractive and memorable.
Some HR personnel might be concerned that stating requirements too specifically or too rigorously decreases the chances of finding a qualified candidate. However, the more common outcome is that the solicitation becomes attractive because of its specificity. The most qualified candidates like to believe that the organization already knows how to utilize the position properly. Fail to give that impression, and you will miss opportunities.
The Result: Improved Outcomes
The desired outcome of the hiring process is not merely to fill a position, but to continue to increase or maintain a standard of excellence, guaranteeing vitality in the corporate culture. Using Communications best practices and skills within the HR process helps to guarantee this outcome.
The strength of your brand is easily measured by determining your market visibility and your market reputation as tied to your sales and profitability. Those figures are used to create a brand strength index. Some research is necessary to ascertain visibility and reputation.
I’ll keep it brief. In the most literal sense, your brand is your unique mark (name, logo, etc.) that distinguishes you and your property from competing companies and their property. However, today we talk about "brand" in a broad sense—the sum of your positioning, messaging, and visual identity.
In an abstract sense a brand might be defined as the emotional and intellectual relationship that you have with your customers. This definition is based on the viewpoint that perception is the better part of reality: no matter what qualities you want your brand to project, it can never be greater than how it is viewed and experienced by the audience.
Updated 7/7/2011 — Attorney (and my good friend) Christopher Collins adds an excellent point: "Peter, you are correct in the marketing sense. As we move to the legal arena, a brand or trademark means the unique source of your goods or services. In other words, your customers identify the mark or name with a specific point of origination." Chris counsels clients in all aspects of intellectual property protection.
The advantage of pioneering a new discipline is that you get to own the space. The disadvantage is that being a pioneer can be lonely—you might have a well-defined audience (perhaps you even know them by name) that is completely unaware of its need for your discipline and its associated service(s).
Here are some recommendations for curing your loneliness by increasing brand visibility and lead generation.
Establish a clearly defined professional discipline. Some pioneering businesses don’t think beyond the service context and so miss the opportunity to establish and name a new discipline. Control the discipline so you are in a better position to maintain leadership claims and defend your space.
Seek leadership roles. Determinedly marketing yourself as the leader in your discipline. Seek opportunities to participate as a featured speaker, presenter, or panelist at conferences/tradeshows and in the media.
Pursue highly visible, credible partners. Establish relationships that will increase your brand’s visibility and enhance your reputation as a trusted authority—these are critical to lead generation.
Utilize research as a tool for benchmarking your audiences and initiating outreach. Create verifiable information about prospect practices/performance and related needs (this is essential to branding and marketing). Begin the outreach process to your target audiences.
Recognize your #1 competitor. Your greatest competitor might be internal teams at your potential clients. Pitch your involvement as placing new, dynamic tools in the hands of the client’s in-house experts and avoid this possible barrier to entry.
I’ve seen several discussions on LinkedIn from IT marketing managers or executive leaders who wonder: “How do I get my busy techies to participate in the creation of marketing content?”
I know this issue from both sides, as a marketing expert who also has extensive experience in business process re-engineering. I’ve been both the “techie” and the marketing manager trying to get the information out of systems engineers and programmers.
Well, here are some practical and cost-conscious suggestions about how to “get the techies engaged”. First I’ll list a few practical tips for making the job easier on everyone. Then I’ll address how to get the necessary buy-in.
Some Practical Tips to Lighten the Load
Record, Then Write. Schedule a 15-minute dialogue with your technical staff on a particular subject. Do this with a digital voice recorder (or similar) in hand, and then turn the dialogue into an article for the team to review.
Encourage Bullets. Some willing technical staff members are still daunted by the idea of putting the information into a format that is engaging. Encourage the material to be submitted to you as bullet points—no need even from complete sentences. You can massage the material into the correct form.
Build the Big Ones Incrementally. Blog posts can be used to create longer pieces like articles, white papers, etc. So, one idea is to work on a series or group of blog posts that can be subsequently turned into a stock piece (like an article, whitepaper, or case story). This helps the technical staff to view the larger projects in increments.
Systems and Schedules. Create systems and schedules for content development and stick to them. Contact me know if you would like to know how to do this effectively.
Proposals Can Become Marketing Content. Technical folk may already be involved in the RFP response process. If performed well, proposal content should generate a source for marketing content. For example, past performance narratives can be made into case stories. If this isn’t the case... well, then you’ve got two problems!
Secure the Necessary Buy-In
Here are some interesting points that will help to bring technical staff onto the marketing train— particularly as regards to content development.
Do You Want to Have a High-Growth/High-Value Company? Research from the Hinge Research Institute has shown that high growth, high value companies provide marketing training to non-marketing staff. This is because companies are more successful when important people are engaged in the marketing process. This is particularly true of key technical staff. So, it is important for the executive team to figure out how to make marketing a priority for everyone in the company... not just for the marketing team.
Both Executives and Techies Must Understand the Process. But in turn, it is important for both the executive team and technical staff to understand the marketing process. For example, a common pushback from technical staff for writing web content is "Who comes to our website right now? If it is so few people, why are we spending all of this time writing for them?" or “How is this going to help the customers that I need to be serving right now?” There are excellent answers to this question... you have to be prepared to give them.
Ego, ego, ego. Technical staff may seldom be interested in marketing writing, but they often have good egos. There are two tactics that you can use to appeal to ego.
Make sure that authors are credited where the material appears, whenever possible. If you don't do this, they won't be as concerned with the final outcome of the material.
Emphasize guest blogging as a part of the web marketing strategy: it is a great way to get links back to your own site and to improve your SEO rankings. The staff might be willing to contribute content if they know that it is being seen by more people, including potential customers, partners, and their industry peers.
Building Not Just Company Value, But Also Personal Value. Finally, technical staff might not be willing to engage in content development for the company per se, but they might be willing to do it for their own motivations if you will facilitate and provide the platform. In other words, you should tell the technical staff that participation in both content development and social media like LinkedIn increases their market visibility and value. This can be a double-edged sword because raising the visibility of your individual staff members can attract the attention of recruiters, which in turn can result in higher turnover if your company is vulnerable to having its employees picked off.
In the course of performing some client research, I recently examined the websites of approximately 20 competitors performing work in the areas of Project Management, Business Process Transformation, and Organizational Transformation (or similar service labels). The size of the consulting firms ranged greatly in size and had many permutations in disciplines, methodologies, solutions, audiences, etc.
What I learned is that many of the competitors in this space do not message themselves well, at least online. There’s a lot of cloudiness in terms of who each firm claims to be, what audiences they are talking to, and how the firm delivers value to those audiences.
This underscores that it may not be necessary for a firm to be “unique” in order to compete in this space. To create a significant advantage, it might be sufficient to possess critical similarities to competitors and then create and deliver superior messaging.
This client was a proven C4ISR contractor serving both defense and civilian agencies, most notably performing in a SETA capacity. The company had extremely high rates of award, near 100% contract renewal, and extremely high customer satisfaction.
Unfortunately, the client’s brand was far from being caught up to its current state of development—which created pain in the areas of business development and talent recruitment. A comprehensive brand strategy was called for. Functions performed in this engagement included:
Research and SWOT analysis
Key differentiators
Positioning
Creative direction for visual expression
Messaging architecture
The result was a clear Brand Strategy that had the backing of the full executive team, and formed the basis for clear internal communication and robust marketing messaging.
Written Communications, when produced and stored properly, creates a “permanent” and readily available record of the important company dialogue.
Corporate policy, which states required best practices for building a strong business, is a prime example of the importance of written communication. In order to move beyond the regulatory effect, corporate policies must be both clearly expressed and value substantiated. Accomplishing this is a balancing act. Is it necessary to “sell the benefit”, and if so, to what extent?
Policy adoption becomes easier when employees understand the policy itself, understand the reason behind the policy, and feel they can rely on the good will of the policy creators. These three things also reduce time spent in policy enforcement, increase employee retention, and improve the success of recruitment efforts (more on this subject later). Simply stated, this is a clear area in which spending money on Communications—Written Communications in particular—is a good investment.
For these reasons, in a large company, administering the communication of corporate policy is ideally placed in the hands of a Communications expert. In a company of lesser size, hiring a consultant to review the communication of corporate policy is advantageous.
Here are some books that I have found helpful! The most recent additions are on top. Topics include business branding, marketing, management, and leadership.
The client is a successful website dedicated to helping members of the Catholic faith stay connected with news and commentary on current events, as well as cultural resources. However, the client needed to increase its income in order to remain a viable entity.
The goal of the project was to increase revenue to the organization, primarily through increased knowledge of user/donor preferences and behaviors. Functions performed included:
Extensive user/donor research
Marketing strategy consultation, including donor relationship management consultation
Website design direction
Information management consultation
The sustained efforts over 2009 and 2010 led to annual revenue increases of just over 20%—an excellent accomplishment for a non-profit weathering a harsh economy. This growth pattern is projected to continue in 2011.
I once participated in a client meeting at which approximately eight different departments were represented (not including MIS, Communications, and a C-level executive). We were discussing Web Communications strategy, and there was a lot of talking about the various needs of the departments.
Sometimes at meetings you have “talking at cross purposes”, which is when people think they are talking about the same thing, but in fact are talking about two entirely different things. But in this case, the opposite was true: what people wanted was about 90% the same, but nobody realized it.
In this case, I was able to use Communications skills to get people on the same page, build consensus, identify trouble spots, and talk about a plan to move forward.
There are many circumstances in which Communications personnel have the ability to be inter-department translators. First, Communications experts know how to lead someone to express their position in a positive way, separating knowledge from assumptions from emotion. Second, Communications experts are used to absorbing and assimilating information—and then representing it in a digestible manner for a broader audience.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, Communications should be able to assume the perspective of everyone in the room. One of the necessary aspects of being successful at Marketing is being able to see yourself as the market sees you. In other words, you have to be able to step inside the shoes of your competitors, customers, etc. Now, translate that into internal Communications, and put yourself into the shoes of each “stakeholder” and eyeball the issue from that vantage point.
You can assume whatever you want by looking at people’s shoes from across the room, but that doesn’t help you to determine with certainty why they chose to purchase those shoes, why they decided to wear them today, whether or not the shoes are comfortable, and whether the person covets someone else’s shoes (or if other people’s shoes are otherwise upsetting to them).
This task is all the more complicated in that most shoes are hidden under the conference table, and you can’t see those shoes without being seen sticking your head under the table (which is embarrassing for you and everyone else). So Communications can help to draw out who is wearing the highly polished Allen-Edmonds business oxfords, but secretly has always wanted to wear bright red sneakers with his suit, like Garrison Keillor.
OK, enough with the shoe analogy. The point is that Communications is adept and creative at boiling everything that is being said into a common language, and making sure that the conversation doesn’t get unnecessarily bogged down because of hidden things that have to be tactfully unearthed in order to move forward productively. And in this, Communications tries to see things from all positions, without judgment, as truth-seekers.
In fact, Communications should take the perspective that everyone is right until they are proven wrong—not by someone else, but by information. If Communications takes this demeanor when contributing to the internal dialogue of a company, it elevates the level of that dialogue and lends a good contribution to building a strong corporate culture.
One of the characteristics of a strong corporate culture is a thriving internal communication through which vision, values, principles, goals, ideas, data, etc. are discussed. In such a culture, when these important discussions take place, they occur in a clear, consistent, timely, and persuasive manner.
The importance of good internal communication to a strong corporate culture is evident. Miscommunication leads to poor action choice. Poor action choice leads to missed opportunity. Missed opportunity creates income loss. These conditions create frustration and breakdowns in cultural unity. When attempting to build a strong corporate culture, these are undesirable circumstances.
“Internal Communications” is the field of work that takes responsibility for the creation and facilitation of excellent standards for a company’s internal dialogue.
When a company employs experts in this area, either as internal staff members or outside consultants, it is a healthy declaration of two things:
“We know that different people have different abilities (both natural and trained), and that those who excel at Communications can improve the output produced by a team.”
“We are committed to building a strong corporate culture by investing in better action choices through improved communication.”
As a career communications, marketing, and technology consultant to many companies (from SMB to the Fortune 1000) I’ve taken part in this internal dialogue at many levels. In all cases, I have never been engaged to provide “Internal Communications” per se. However, my skills have always been used to create the productive internal dialogue necessary to generate good decisions and perform successful projects.
Based on my experience and research, I can tell you that when Internal Communications is conducted properly:
The executive team is relieved of unnecessary administrative burden
Mid-level management spends more time increasing revenue and profitability
Human Resources produces more and costs less
Information Technology facilitates more and costs less
Marketing ROI increases
Employee satisfaction and retention increases
These are just some of the benefits—and all of them contribute to building a strong corporate culture capable of sustained growth and increased profitability.
The articles in this blog category are intended to be insight into—but not a comprehensive treatment of—the exciting and helpful role of Internal Communications.
If you would like to learn more about how Internal Communications is worth your deep strategic consideration, please read the related articles available here, or contact me for a conversation.
In my last music for working post, I featured three albums of the contemplative/classical genre. This time, I'm going to write a little bit about jazz and feature three very different albums. I have listened a good deal to all three of them while working through the years. Like old friends, they are with me as I move through the different challenges and moods of life.
The first is "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" performed by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. Most people are familiar with this work at least in passing from much-loved CBS the television special—this is the original soundtrack. And correspondingly, most people are familiar with the tune Linus and Lucy. The CD album features a nice toss-in: Fly Me to the Moon—which is an additional track that was not included on the original LP.
The second is an incredible album called "Roy and Diz", which features jazz trumpet legends Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie, who play through nine tunes on an album that runs more nearly 75 minutes. The renditions of Blue Moon and Pretty Eyed Baby are awesome--on the latter you will find the artists scat as well as they play. The virtuosity on display in this album is amazing, and the trumpeters duel within terrifically arranged, well structured pieces. As if that weren't enough, the backing is provided by Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown and Louis Bellson. It probably doesn't get much better than this.
The third and final album is a complete departure from the other two: "Beyond the Missouri Sky" pairing Charlie Haden and Pat Maheny. This is best described as a contemplative, simple work. As Charlie Haden writes, "Our criteria for choosing songs were simply to find beautiful melodies and chords that inspired us." Both artists grew up in small towns in Missouri, and the music is more than partly influenced by the landscape. The result is an emotionally evocative album. This album features a number of familiar tunes (Two for the Road, He's Gone Away, and the main theme from Cinema Paradiso) as well as a original compositions by both artists.
For this A/E/C firm focused on government contracting, the goal was to assemble and train a team capable of improving the company’s proposal win rate—at that time on par with the industry average of 20-30%. Functions performed included:
B2G team recruitment, development, and resource management
Application architecture for past performance data management
The efforts improved the contractor’s win rate to above 80% and maintained that level over five years, culminating in such results as a $500MM IDIQ prequalification.
AIA's members include the top 20 Fortune ranked companies in the Aerospace and Defense industry. The goal for this engagement was to renovate the organization’s web properties to better engage with its members, government, and the public. Functions performed included:
Marketing strategy consultation
Web communications direction, including staff recruitment
Website design and application development
Supplier Management Council brand renovation
The efforts accelerated the organization’s strategic development schedule and created approximately $45,000 in cost savings. The renovated websites received positive feedback from the constituencies.
NovusCG was “the world leader in independent enterprise storage consulting and data solutions” focused on serving the needs of the Global 2000. The goal was to build the perceived value of NovusCG to potential acquirers. Functions performed included:
Marketing strategy consultation
Creative direction
Brand messaging direction
Web communications direction
Sales and customer relationship management consulting
The efforts increased industry recognition for the company and significantly increased qualified leads (by 1,000%). NovusCG was acquired by IBM in 2008.
Obviously, business owners and executives are supposed to make the rules. One of the hallmarks of a bad manager is a lack of knowledge of how to effectively make and apply rules. Here are some rules for making effective rules!
Decisions should never be made in a “frustrated moment”. Good rules are well considered.
Don’t make a rule if you (1) don’t have the ability to enforce it, or (2) don’t have the desire to enforce it. Rules have to have teeth.
Rules must be made for a particular goal, not because of personal preferences. For example, if you want your employees to wear green shirts because you like the color green... bad rule. If you want employees to wear green shirts because your primary customers are women and studies show that women feel welcomed, safe, and growth-oriented when they see green... good rule.
Generally speaking, your staff must be your employees first and your friends second. If you have an employee that is consistently breaking the rules because they believe they are your friend, and hence the rules don’t apply to them... politely but firmly redefine the relationship.
Some rules will be vital to the success of your company, others will not. Know the difference.
Always have a central repository (a wiki, or whatever) that contains all rules in writing. Email should never be the sole location for referencing a rule.
Be worthy of your employees’ respect.
Making and applying good rules is particularly difficult when you are making the transition into management, particularly if your former coworkers are now your employees. Here are some tips for effectively making that transition. (These rules are applicable to all managers, but particularly to those in transition.)
Keep a good sense of humor. You may be tested a little bit, and your ability to respond with good humor (while being firm) will be very important.
Make sure that your “leadership communication” is clearly distinguishable from your “friend/coworker” communication. For example, do not send a single email with both administrative information and social comment. Send separate messages.
Rules are best made verbally, to the entire group, and then reinforced in writing.
When announcing a rule, do it in this way: state the challenge/problem; quantify the negative impact of the challenge/problem; state the rule; quantify the benefits of the rule; thank your staff in advance for applying the rule diligently; ask if anyone has questions; answer questions; thank staff again.
Make eye contact when you are having rules-related conversations with your staff.
I hope these ideas will aid in your ability to be effective in your leadership role!
CMA is a national professional member organization advancing ethical standards in healthcare. The goal was to create a marketing strategy to build a more credible public profile, increase new membership, and improve member retention. Functions performed included:
Best practice consultation for creating strategic and business plans
Marketing strategy consultation
Brand renovation
Web communications direction
The stated goals were accomplished: membership growth was sustained over a two-year period (to the current date)—a total membership increase of approximately 30%.
After using OpenX’s hosted ad server solution (now called “OpenX OnRamp”)—my recommendation? Don’t use it. During my team's approximately three-month trial, we encountered multiple system failures (experienced not just by us, but also by many members of the OpenX hosted product community). We have never experienced such severe and persistent malfunctions with a hosted software solution.
Though the OpenX product presented an easier learning curve than other free hosted options (such as DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) Small Business by Google), the stability of the Google product is by far superior. The market needs a free hosted ad server with a relatively low learning curve, good features and stability. OpenX showed promise with its easy-to-understand feature set, but ultimately fell way short of the mark—the product was often unusable.
(In our test, the OpenX hosted solution deployed ads to a website with approximately 900,000 page impressions per month.)
This organization was engaged in a multi-year initiative to introduce significant federal legislation. The goal was to successfully bring the legislation to the attention of the American public, while countering strong opposition from those opposed to the legislation. Functions performed included:
Marketing strategy consultation
Creative direction including brand design and standards development
Web communications direction
Public relations process development and execution
Though the legislation ultimately failed to pass, the precisely deployed marketing strategy was successful in building and sustaining both coalition movement and media attention. The legislation was introduced to Congress to the maximum possible effect.
Rituals play an important part in business life. They help to create a sense of normalcy, get into a groove, solve problems, stay healthy, etc. But rituals can also be counterproductive and destructive.
We hear a lot about baseball players and their pre-game rituals. Players do certain things in order to get physically and mentally ready for the game. They eat certain foods, listen to particular kinds of music, arrive at the stadium at a particular time, dress at a certain time, and take batting practice at a certain time.
With so many games on the schedule for an MLB team, rituals become deeply ingrained. They are not just superstitious practices, but rather important habits that bring comfort and familiarity both at home and away from home, when the players are in unfamiliar surroundings.
Baseball is also known for its in-game rituals, particularly for prima donna hitters who step out of the batter’s box to adjust their gloves and helmet, spit sideways, post a Tweet, and whistle a favorite song before facing the next pitch.
Arguably, these are unproductive rituals—they slow down the game, thereby increasing game length and decreasing game “watchability”. There has been much talk about whether the game is adversely affected by such elaborate rituals and whether or not institutional measures should be taken to prevent them.
I liken this to business. In business, we have rituals that help us to create the right frame of mind for productive activity.
Take office workers like me. We get to work at a certain time, grab our cup of coffee, say good morning to our coworkers, settle in at the desk, log-in to the computer, skim the headlines, check the email—and then we feel ready to address the first important task of the day.
These are pre-game rituals for business people. They are important because they put us in the proper frame of mind to work productively. I’m not out of town on business often, but when I am, I try to make sure that the important aspects of my ritual remain intact.
As with baseball, business rituals can be taken to an unhealthy (and unproductive) extreme. Obviously, it would not be productive (in most business environments) to develop the ritual of checking the sports headlines every 30 minutes, updating your Facebook status four times in the morning and six times in the afternoon, spending every lunch hour completely sedentary, and taking a half-hour nap under your desk in the middle of the afternoon.
Good business rituals are important. Poor business rituals are a challenge to both employees and management. Today, let’s think about our rituals—and whether or not they will contribute to our productivity and happiness.
Google continues to make news (and associated commentary). Many are concerned about the vast amount of user-related data collected by Google, what Google does with the data, and how it plans to use that data to manipulate user behavior and interests. Will the comments made by Google CEO Eric Schmidt increase the groundswell of demand for regulation?
In the last few months Eric Schmidt, the gaffe-prone CEO of Google, has made public statements that make us question whether the company's slogan still is "Don't be evil." In interview after interview, Schmidt has made tactless comments on especially sensitive and controversial topics such as online privacy and net neutrality.
As CEO, one of Schmidt's largest roles is to act as a spokesperson for the company, but that ironically seems to be his Achilles' heel. Here are some of his more recent faux pas.
1. "The average American doesn't realize how much of the laws are written by lobbyists." Schmidt made this remark last week. While he expressed shock at how Washington works, he neglected to mention that Google spent $1.34 million last quarter on lobbyists--an increase of 41% year-over-year--and as much as $2.72 million in the first half of 2010. If lobbyists are writing the laws, then Google is certainly dropping enough dough to make sure it's controlling the pen.
Different people have different gifts. For example, when I have home bathroom renovation that needs to be done, there are some things that I can do myself (simple plumbing, electrical, etc.) and some things that I can’t do myself (like decorative tilework). Some people are able to take tilework to a high level.
Businesses aren’t much different. Oftentimes in business, success simply lies in proper use of the right gifts to create a strategic advantage.
Professional marketing writers (I place myself in this category) have the gift of being able to communicate value through writing, and make that writing return value to you. So we’re the specialists in written communication, and you are the specialists in your line of business. When we need what you do, we don’t waste our time trying to do it ourselves—we give you a call. So when you need high-value written communication...
Let’s just say that your company has a dedicated staff of experts that respond to federal RFPs. You want to bid a $100M IDIQ? Great! You’ve got the necessary gifts to do it.
But if you don’t have those gifts, are you actually going to stop everything that your key people are doing, drag them into a proposal development process that they don’t have time for... and for what? To deliver a lackluster, non-compliant proposal thrown together out of boilerplate material and shoestring?
Another example: you need to put together a mind-blowing demonstration of value through the content on your website. Again, if you have consultative, web-savvy marketing writers on your own team—by all means knock it out of the park. But if you don’t, are you going to spend months struggling through the process to turn out something that doesn’t persuasively express the heart and soul of your business?
Now, perhaps my language in these examples will seem a bit rude to some folks. However, I’m attempting to combat an oft-encountered misconception: that writing, like speaking, is a common, basic business skill that doesn’t require a specialist.
In fact, many important business writing situations call for a unique combination of analytical and creative abilities in order to achieve a superior result. That’s a fact—just as it is a fact that everyone can learn to tile floors, but not everyone is then qualified to handle a $40,000 luxury bathroom project with extensive decorative tilework. You don’t want inexpert tilework—you want a tilework specialist that will achieve the desired result and increase the value of your home.
Let professional marketing writers handle your critical written communication projects and you’ll receive an attractive mosaic that increases the value of your business.
A friend, Tom Loarie, is Chairman and CEO at Mercator MedSystems in San Leandro, California. The company made news in late September with its presentation of a “novel therapy designed to treat drug-resistant hypertension” at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) 2010 Conference in Washington, DC. You can read the full press release on the AlphaTrade Finance website
Congrats to Tom and all at Mercator MedSystems! I hope you will have a long and prosperous future.
Often thought of only as an international fraternal benefit organization, the Knights of Columbus are also a life insurance company—and at the time of this engagement was listed in the Fortune 1000. The organization needed a significant public website to serve its members, councils, insurance agents, and the Catholic public. Functions performed included:
Web communications direction
The newly created website boosted visitation by over 2,000%, and provided critical resources and functions to all of the aforementioned constituencies. New web-based processes development dramatically improved the performance of key functions of the organization (such as shortening the life insurance application process by approximately two business days).
Researchers at Duke ran several experiments to determine this disconnection between brand importance and religiosity. In one, the team analyzed geographic areas for the number of Apple, Macy's, and Gap stores per million people. These statistics were compared with brand-discount stores. "Then they compared these rough measures of brand reliance against the number of congregations per thousand and self-reported attendance in church or synagogue, controlling for income, education and urbanization differences," the report says. "In every analysis, they found a negative relationship between brand reliance and religiosity."
No, you didn’t read that headline wrong. Someone actually has been doing a good job of keeping me informed on the healthcare landscape: my insurance broker.
ABSI comes through where it counts most—keeping us informed so that we can make prudent decisions. General Manager Sim Pace provides us with personal email bulletins outlining legislation and drawing our attention to summaries, timelines, and business articles. President Patrick McEnerney provides great insights, answers questions, and explains options.
This equals a benefit to HR managers—at least, for those who take advantage of the information that is being offered. ABSI might not be able to do anything about those brutal 20% premium increases, but they do the best they can to be communicative and consultative in their approach—qualities that many brokers claim, but few care to deliver on.
There are two ways to improve the outlook of a company: (1) improve the way it performs; (2) improve outside awareness of its performance levels. Everything else is fluff: if your business actions don’t specifically assist one area or the other, you are either wasting time or recreating.
Correspondingly, there are two kinds of companies that I (and my colleagues) can help: companies that underperform and companies that perform well but too few people know about it. Communication plays a key role in addressing both concerns—and we excel at improving business communication.
Wise business leaders know that there is always room for improvement. Excellent communication helps to drive business. Soliciting the opinion of an outside, objective consultant... even if it costs you a few bucks... worth it?
Most of us use social media in some way, even if it is only by opening a LinkedIn account. But some of us have also become high-volume consumers/producers of social media.
While exploring the personal and business benefits of LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc., have we noticed additional stress level? Have we become consumers just for the sake of participation? Has the constant barrage of email, text, and status updates improved the effectiveness of our communication, bettered our social interaction, and made us more successful and happy?
So many articles, studies and books have been written about this very subject, but I thought this recent post (exploring Harrisburg University's one-week ban on social media) was particularly interesting/entertaining.
So has social media become too influential on our lives? At least one alarming statistic from the survey indicates so. According to Darr, about 15% of students said they were spending between 11 to 20 hours on social media sites--per day. How does one even have time to sleep with all that tweeting and Facebook updating?
I'm curious: would it be more or less revealing for the university to conduct the same test, but this time with the administration and faculty as the subjects?
If you were to go without social media for say, two weeks, would your life be better or worse? (Next step, lock the Crackberry away for a week.)
Many people like to listen to music while they work, and I am no exception. I have very eclectic tastes when it comes to music, and listen with pleasure in a great number of musical genres and sub-genres. So I have a very wide selection to draw from when picking music for the various work-related projects that I have in hand.
Today I was performing some research and catching up on business correspondence, and pulled a couple of selections from my contemplative collection.
The first selection features the amazing bass-baritone Bryn Terfel: "Simple Gifts", a collection of "sacred, spiritual, and meditative songs—songs of inspiration that range from classical to folk to popular..." Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus sits side by side with Deep River (a Traditional American tune). Bach's Ave Maria is sandwiched between Nearer My God to Thee and Sondheim's Send in the Clowns—the latter is a selection I don't understand for the album, but it is a good performance nonetheless.
The second selection features the Cambridge Singers: "Sing, ye Heavens", a collection of hymns that "span over fifteen centuries of the history of Christian Europe". Really, an awesome album including a wide variety of selections (many arranged by John Rutter), and beautifully sung with accompaniment by harp, organ, and the City of London Sinfonia Brass.
Since I have mentioned Bryn Terfel, I think I need to toss a nod to the album "Opera Arias"—tremendous. The rendition of Madamina, il catalogo e questo from Don Giovanni is unbelievable.
Last night’s Redskins game demonstrates that wins aren’t always pretty. But, “a win is a win is a win”, right? However, there are more felicitous ways than others to achieve the desired outcome. Winning a football game 13-7 with no offensive touchdowns—and snatched from the jaws of defeat by a holding penalty as time expires—may be more stressful than it needs to be for all involved.
A professional football game, other than being a “game”, is a business project. You plan for the engagement, and you execute your plan during the game. Afterwards, you do post operative analysis to see how you could have performed better, and then you move on to the next project. Even though they won, the Redskins will take a long look at the game film and apply lessons learned before moving on to the next project.
People often review unsuccessful projects, and review successful projects less frequently. However, even successful projects need reviewing. For example, some companies experience a growth period (multiple wins in a row), and then experience a painful adjustment due to the staff attrition rate—they worked the players too hard. Good post-project reviews might have helped to avoid this problem.
So how to judge the true success of a project after it is completed, especially when the scoreboard shows a win?
There are three primary ways by which I judge the success of a business project. The first, obviously, is whether or not the desired result was achieved. But as I said, there are better ways to accomplish the goal than others. So the second thing I look at is whether or not there was attention to detail throughout the entire project lifecycle. Good attention to detail throughout, from estimating to delivery, usually means a good project.
The third way I judge the success of a project is by the attitudes or postures of the people involved, over the course of the project. Was the demeanor generally positive and upbeat? Was there a healthy amount of productive disagreement? Did the team members work well together?
These are important things to consider in both team sports and individual sports. In other words, whether you have a large or small business team, these good principles apply.
A good website is all about getting the message across, and not about good design per se. Design should always be at the service of the message. For this reason, web content is the most important aspect of a website design consultation—content first, then design. The design should be chosen to complement the message, rather than first creating the design and then determining the content.
The point of having a website is to be persuasive. The message is what sells; design helps the customer understand and value that message. That is why content (the message) needs to have priority over design if a web project is really going to be successful. If design isn't entirely at the service of message, it is just candy. Customers typically don't go to sites to see artistic prowess, they go to sites to get answers.
Web content is so critical, both for its persuasiveness and for its ability to draw eyeballs to the site, that the Content Phase (which occurs immediately following the Kick Off Phase) is the often the longest part of a website development project. It is that important to get the messaging right across all areas of the site. Also of importance: make it easy to navigate through the various aspects of that message. Good web navigation helps to preserve message accessibility and continuity.
When properly performed, web design allows the message to stand out and create the maximum possible response. Then, web design is effectively used to ensure that response is presented with an outlet—such as engaging in a transaction.
The “awesomeness of you” (your business) can sometimes get lost in the day-to-day grind of business life. So one of the unique challenges of business is to step outside of the usual operating mode in order to focus on your marketing message.
Some companies switch gears in this way very effectively, and others do not. Whether you do or don’t, my team can be a powerful ally in creating and delivering marketing messaging.
There are two reasons for this. The first is that we have a business mindset and can quickly understand—and then work to draw out—your important value. But even if you are very good at doing that yourself, my teams have additional value to offer: we are language surgeons—able to craft a precision message for the right audience, at the right time, to deliver maximum impact.
Let’s take an easy, clear-cut example. You have a potential client, and have to deliver a proposal to win the contract. I can put together a team that analyzes the RFP and communicates to you exactly what value you need to demonstrate, in writing, to the buyer. You provide the value, and we create the persuasive message that communicates that value—according to best practices and compliance requirements, of course! Seems like a good pairing of skills, right?
Developing high-value written communication, directed to your current and potential customers, brings great joy to me. Sure, the work has its trials and tribulations. But at the end of the day, my job is to help you to remember the “awesomeness of you”, and then effectively communicate your awesomeness to prospective buyers. What could be better than that?!
Many small business owners, or organizational leaders working on a tight budget, wonder how they can economically get the "outsider's viewpoint" of their company without spending any money.
Simply having the input of one intelligent outsider can make a big difference to maintaining professional objectivity -- sometimes we are so close to our problems (challenges!) that we can't take a step back. What seems inexorably complex to us may seem absurdly simple to the outsider.
There is one simple way in which this goal can be attained, and it needn't cost any more than lunch once or twice a month. Cultivate a relationship with someone that you respect, and meet with them once a month (or every two weeks) to discuss your business. Make it reciprocal: during one meeting talk about your business, and at the next meeting talk about his business.
This is actually a very good practice for business owners and executives regardless of business size and budget. As busy people, we naturally spend most of our time at work and at home. The time that we spend outside of the home with friends may not be a good or productive opportunity for serious discussion of business problems. You really need to schedule one-on-one time, with a friendly outsider, for the specific purpose of discussing business challenges.
Finally, be sure to pick an outsider that doesn't have any kind of vested interest in your company, and is unlikely to do any kind of business with your company in the future. And if you choose an existing personal friend, make sure that you can count on critical and objective thinking and a free expression of ideas. If you choose as your "outsider" a friend who won't raise "the BS flag" on you (as needed), then you've lost the advantage.
Here’s what executive coaching provides: principled guidance that helps you to identify personal and career goals/priorities/values while at the same time assessing benefit and costs associated with those items. Ultimately, the goal is to discover the right path for your executive career within the context of your personal development, and then to help you follow the path successfully while maintaining a good work/life balance.
Here’s what executive coaching does not provide: a ready blueprint for your success. In other words, your coach isn’t going to simply hand you a detailed roadmap for your specific future after the first session—just like reading Good to Great by Jim Collins won’t provide you with a detailed blueprint for the success of your specific company. The principles and guidance are provided, but you still have to participate in the legwork of building the plan. You have to build it so that you can own it. The time that you invest to the executive coaching process must vastly exceed the time spent in session.
One of the proven tenets of life: establish goals for yourself and you are more likely to be successful. However, many people set goals and then come up way short (including myself, from time to time).
Goals have to be realistic, and you have to learn how to accomplish them.
Someday, I would like to play on stage with Harry Connick, Jr. and I would like to start at midfielder for a top-level European football (read: soccer) team. Are either of these things going to happen? Certainly not the latter, and most likely not the former (unless I somehow meet Harry, and he is happy-drunk when I ask him to let me sit in). So to create those goals in my life would be unrealistic.
However, there are plenty of realistic goals that I can set, such as getting to heaven, adding a reasonable amount of new revenue to my company, getting/receiving more benefit in time spent with my children, etc.
Moreover, you have to learn how to achieve your goals.
Let’s say you are a college freshman. You have your first paper due in three weeks, on an assigned subject. Ergo, to meet the goal of getting a good grade on the paper you must prepare. You must learn about the subject matter. You must learn how to craft a thesis statement. You must learn how to create an outline, etc. You can’t just say, “OK, now I’m going to write a paper” and then spin it out of the air. You won’t meet your goal.
So many times in life we set goals and then fail to provide ourselves with the opportunity to meet them. We need to figure out how to apply proper discipline to our goal setting process.
Want to lose weight? Learn how to eat healthfully, and learn how to exercise properly. Set up your schedule and keep the goals right in front of you. If you know that you are prone to get bored with exercising, give yourself the opportunity for plenty of variety. Plan it out! Make it attainable!
Want to grow your business? Learn how to market effectively. About 50% of new business growth comes from referrals. Is that true for your business? Can that be true for your business? Set your plan and learn how to execute it.
To be successful in life, you have to be disciplined. A part of applying that discipline is creating realistic goals and putting yourself in the position to attain them.
Last week I conducted a “Strategic Planning & Business Planning” workshop, during which I had the honor of presenting to an interested and mentally acute group of attendees from for-profit, non-profit, and government enterprises.
The goal of the workshop was to draw out the necessary difference in roles between a strategic plan and a business plan, as well as how the two plans harmonize with each other.
Whenever I present on this subject, a good deal of interest is always placed on the difference in mindset between strategic and business planning.
Strategic planning gives freer rein to the heart and to the imagination. The challenge of strategic planning is to free your mind to envision what your organization would look like at the peak of its effectiveness.
Business planning, on the other hand, requires a somewhat more pragmatic mindset—the challenge here is to discipline your mind through the rigor of proving the sustainability of your strategy.
The reason the question of “mindset” is interesting is because it begs this question: what “heads” need to be involved when going through the process for either kind of plan? It seems as if each plan requires a different key individual to drive the process. And to a large extent, this may be true. Frequently, I have heard it expressed that it is very difficult for one person to change back and forth between the two mindsets on a regular basis, and certainly some people engage in one mode better than in another.
Over the course of my career, I have observed a number of beneficial business partnerships where the CEO (or similar) primarily took the lead in strategic planning and the COO (or similar) primarily took the lead in business planning. These relationships, where each role balances the other, can often work wonderfully.
Correspondingly, I have seen a number of relationships where the difference between the “dreamer” and the “businessman” seemed ideal at first, but proved to be divisive: the “dreamer” felt too constrained by applied business logic and “businessman” despaired of ever forcing the dreams into bottom-line context.
At Trinity, I have assembled a team of capable professionals who each add something unique to the strategic and business planning processes. The differences between us are important, and the different mindsets are necessary to achieve a good balance and “put the whole thing together”. We all work well with each other, with just enough firm difference of opinion to keep things interesting!
In all business pursuits, the quality and “role appropriateness” of the people involved is what will drive success—and strategic/business planning is no exception.
Probably the most fun part of Strategic Planning for any organization—and one of the most healthy parts—is taking the time to envision the future success of the business. However, in performing this envisioning process, many do not mentally move to the point of defining what the organization would appear like when operating at the peak of its potential effectiveness—or in other words, to “Think Big”.
This big thinking is important because it helps the organization to mentally transcend the constraints of current conditions, which may not be ideal. The organization should then identify what obstacles are preventing peak effectiveness from being attained. If guiding this process, Trinity would ask, “Are these obstacles within your ability to control? If so, outline goals for eliminating them. If not, outline goals for navigating around the obstacles or minimizing their negative impact.”
This strategic process of “thinking big in reverse”—from the end goal back to the present—is valuable because it keeps the organization outcome-oriented rather than feature-oriented. In other words, the organization, while remaining operationally grounded, needs to be about its accomplishments rather than its activities.
If the article on Wikipedia is reliable, Ajax cleanser was introduced by Colgate-Palmolive in 1947, with the slogan “Stronger than dirt!” (Ironically, if you visit the related page at Wikipedia, you will see “This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.”) [Emphasis added.]
The Wikipedia article also points out that an early jingle for Ajax featured these words: “You’ll stop paying the elbow tax, when you start cleaning with Ajax.”
AJAX is also the acronym for “asynchronous JavaScript and XML”—and ironically, the early jingle still applies. Indeed, AJAX does help you to “stop paying the elbow tax”, meaning that if implemented properly, the web developer’s brand of AJAX will help you to spend less time performing common “household (read “business”) tasks.
Those who only vaguely know what JavaScript or XML are—in other words, most of us—have a hard time understanding why AJAX makes that big of a difference, and what value it carries. So, the value of AJAX is better revealed not by talking about what AJAX is, but what it does for you, the user.
Example from Real Life: Account Management
Let’s just say that you have a web-based business application that allows you to manage your customers: more than 25,000 of them. There is a good deal of information stored about these customers. When you access the customer’s records you have a number of tabs that allow you to access different parts of the customer record: addresses, purchasing history, billing history, sales communications log, customer complaints, etc.
In a traditional web application, not using AJAX, there are one of two options for the application developer that affect you, the user. First, the software engineer can choose to have all of the data for all of the tabs loaded when you first access the page. This allows instant access to the data when you click on a tab. However, this increases the time that it takes the web page to load dramatically, because so much information is being returned at once.
Second, the engineer can load the information for each tab individually (when you click on it), while refreshing the web page. However, this means that you have to wait while every page element reloads. Eight tabs, and you have to load the entire page and all of its elements for each tab. You see this form of application in any situation where a lot of account data needs to be reviewed. Click a tab, wait for the page to be refreshed. It...takes...a lot...of time.
The burden falls on you, the user, to click and wait. It’s the virtual equivalent of having to “pay the elbow tax”—more time/work needed to get the result that you need.
By contrast, in an “AJAXified” customer data program, another option is introduced: AJAX allows the your web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, what have you) to speak directly to the server without a page refresh. Exercising this option, when you first access the customer record, the page loads very quickly because data is only being loaded for the first navigation tab. Then, as you click on each of the other tabs, the data for the selected tab is loaded instantly without requiring a page refresh. This speeds things up considerably (and provides additional return on investment that I won’t get into here).
Another Example: The Search-as-you-type Box
Another common place you will see AJAX implemented is in “search while you type” mechanisms on websites. Before AJAX, you would enter the full key word or phrase, click Search, and then wait to see the results. With AJAX, common search phrases (or actual search results) are suggested to you as you type—which both helps you to see if you are on the right track and helps you to avoid misspelling words that you don’t commonly use, such as “onomatopoeia”.
In a customer database environment, you might start typing the last name of a customer and watch the matching customers appear as you provide the information. “Br” brings up both all “Browns” and “Bryants”, add the “a” and you see just the “Bryants”. (You get the idea.) You can access the record you need so quickly, and once you get to the record itself, access the data so fluidly (as in the first example)! What’s not to love?
So, “clean up” your web applications with AJAX to “stop paying the elbow tax”. Moreover, demand the same from companies who provide the web applications that you use every day—so that you can perform work more efficiently while using their systems. Or, choose a new application that provides a better user experience by making use of AJAX (or a different method that provides the same advantages).
There is a good deal of “black humor” surrounding the analogy between sales work and dating, and between customer relationship management and a marriage. The joke that applies immediately after the marriage ceremony is this: “Now, a lifetime of good customer service to ensure retention!”
In both marriage and business, the cost of not having a good relationship can be very high. It costs a lot to get divorced: some estimates I have seen state that the average cost of a contested divorce is about $50,000—and that is just considering legal/mediation fees.
If you have been around multiple businesses, you know that there is often a negative tendency to attribute differing priorities between the company and the customer to “unreasonableness”. If the customer wants something that the company doesn’t seem to be able to provide, the company is being “unreasonable”. Likewise, the company thinks that the customer is “unreasonable” for wanting what it wants. If you have been around enough marriages, you’ll see the same negative tendency.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Good relationship managers both in marriage and in business make the “exchange of differences” productive and positive, work to resolve differences when possible, and ensure that respect and personal responsibility remain a focus. In this way, the customer/spouse always feels valued—even when the decision is to “agree to disagree” or to resolve the difference at a future date.
One byproduct of good relationship management: it keeps the tone of conversation amicable and placid, and that can go a long way in helping both parties feel out the “difference between the differences”. When there isn’t a productive dialogue, all differences seem large—but logically, we know that there are degrees of differences, and each difference has its own importance relative to the others.
I have worked with companies are naturally good at relationship management, and others that are horrible at it. You can recognize right away the difference between the two. In companies that are horrible at relationship management, every perceived problem is automatically escalated to the highest volume, and the blame is always placed squarely in the other camp.
Because the skills necessary for good relationship management both in business and in personal relationships are so comparable, I often tell both Trinity’s staff and our clients that learning good relationship management (within sales work, project management, personnel management, etc.) will benefit them in their personal lives—because that is the truth. How we handle workplace relationships can spill over into our personal lives, and vice versa.
I place a strong emphasis on personal responsibility within client relationships, which means treating clients with respect, being willing to listen, and making decisions that are in the client’s best interests. What bothers me more than anything else? When there is something out of tune in a relationship, or when we cannot (for whatever reason) have productive communication with a client.
It is this strong value for good relationships that characterizes my teams, and what makes us so valuable to customers.
Copywriting, simply stated, is the process of using words to promote something or someone. Once a term that only pertained to writing for traditional (old, legacy) media, in contemporary parlance “copywriting” also includes writing for new media (such as the web). Good copywriting is a part of good brand development, and as such is of great benefit to any company.
This article is about what I call “developing a language for your company”, which is the process of approaching copywriting strategically for a company that needs a comprehensive overhaul of its marketing copy. If performed properly, the resulting copy will become the vernacular for a company both internally and in market-facing functions.
Producing a large body of content in a single major initiative, with accompanying guidelines for immediate copy usage and future copy development, is a critical part of developing brand standards (along with logo mark development and related usage guidelines).
Some written material will never be effectively produced without a design component (even if that be only a graph, flowchart, or map)—and much written material is made more effective by judicious use of visuals. Therefore, design is a critical partner in the “language development” process.
In fact, effective strategic copywriting is never performed without a broad consideration of actual and potential design context. After all, by some definitions graphic design is no more than the “harmonious juxtaposition of words and symbols, for the purpose of conveying one or more messages.” A well-formed strategic copywriting initiative will include the creation of a defined quantity of rough (or finished) marketing pieces incorporating both copy and design.
The cost of strategic copywriting is not flat, but rather is scaled to the particular engagement. The major cost factors are:
State of client brand development (including a number of sub-factors, which I won’t list here)
Number of participating client "stakeholders"
Interest/aptitude/commitment of those stakeholders
The efficiency and effectiveness of the copywriter(s)
The regional market in which the work is taking place
Because it does not take some factors into consideration, prepackaged pricing for content development carries a high risk of ineffectiveness due to over-commoditization of the provided services, producing a generic result rather than an effective, unique solution.
Copywriting, performed as a major initiative rather than piecemeal over multiple projects, produces the following Return on Investment benefits.
It provides ready copy that can be distributed with little adjustment for a wide variety of purposes. This allows the company to take advantage of marketing/PR opportunities that it would ordinarily let pass by (due to lack of ready response), or would ordinarily perform ineffectively. This likely means that the same marketing dollar is producing a better result.
Content is more effectively and efficiently developed in concentrated blocks of time with time and opportunity for broad consideration of the strategy and subject matter.
For all following projects, the number of drafts/proofs are reduced, ergo...time-to-delivery is reduced.
Depending on the rate of corporate growth and development, this work would be reevaluated for necessary adjustment/expansion on a quarterly, semiannual, or annual basis.
Good copywriting is necessary for all business. If you’d like to discuss the function that excellent copywriting can perform in your company’s better future, feel free to contact me.
In today’s market, being on the web is imperative for most businesses. The degree to which each business needs a web presence is determined by the expectations of the market: you need to respond to the needs of your potential/current customers and keep your competitive advantage. These are the primary considerations when exploring the necessary scope of building a new web presence.
The reason I do not write “web site”, but rather “web presence” is because many companies require a distributed online presence, which might include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other venues of similar purpose. This presence might be further extended to include content on trade association websites, professional member association websites, promotional partner websites, etc. Where companies once extended their brand to a single website (their own), they may now further extend the brand to other multiple online locations.
There are many, many web consulting companies and freelancers to choose from. Competition is thick, particularly at the lower levels of the market where the advent of the pre-configured Content Management System (CMS) [Wikipedia] and simple web graphic tools have made many an entry-level web designer.
However, it is imperative for small to mid-sized businesses that two critical issues* are understood by their chosen web consultant:
Brand Management: both in terms of Logo Design and in terms of Content Development
CMS Extendibility, Portability, Scalability
Brand Management
Your brand is defined, in part, by your logo and your content.
Logo Design
Because your brand is (or may become) so extended/visible both online and offline, it is important that your brand be:
Unique, so as not to infringe on the established registered mark of another company
Well-designed for appropriate flexibility (for various applications, including web)
Accompanied by “brand standards” or “logomark usage guidelines”—so that all future designers, developers, printers, etc. clearly understand your expectations for how the logo(s) should be reproduced
Content Development
Proper content development begins offline through the development of an effective language by which your company speaks to the market. This language will be extended to all of your marketing collateral, including your web presence. The web consultant needs to understand the entire content development process as well as the value of appropriate content development—and not just from a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) standpoint.
Importance
Your web consultant must have a clear understanding of brand management concept and application so that he/she can properly identify the current brand development stage, provide appropriate advice if you need to backtrack in the brand development process before beginning web development (for your overall good and for web effectiveness), and then apply your brand across your web presence.
If there are holes in the brand development/management process which cannot be remedied at the time of web development, the web consultant needs to develop (or advise you in the development of) your web presence in such a manner that making brand changes will not be prohibitively difficult or expensive (to the extent possible).
CMS Extendibility, Portability, Scalability
First, your web consultant must have knowledge of the dividing line between functions that the CMS provides natively and what functions will need to be added by available plug-ins, extensions (etc.)—or through custom development.
Second, your web consultant must know to what extent your CMS data is portable in case you need to move it to another hosting location using the same CMS, or move it to another CMS altogether.
Third, your web consultant must know the scalability of the CMS and the hosting environment in which it is placed. In other words, the consultant should know the physical limitations of the web setup that he/she is recommending for your website.
Importance
These three areas of knowledge are important because they speak to your ability to use your web site as the center of your web presence, in a way that is durable, as your needs develop. The abilities of the CMS will dictate how you can use it to further online content syndication and social media interaction, as well as to develop new online tools as the market develops. To the extent possible, the CMS and the hosting environment in which it is placed should allow easy in-place growth or admit of rapid, inexpensive transition to a location with greater available resources.
Conclusion
Many web consulting firms or individual consultants do not have sufficient knowledge in the above-mentioned areas. When you find a firm that does have these capabilities, typically you will be moving into the mid-level tiers of consulting rates—you won’t be paying rock-bottom prices, but you won’t be receiving a sub-par solution.
Many buyers have the concern that such a web consulting firm will force them into a more robust solution than is needed at the buyer’s present state of development. Talking to a couple of reputable firms with the appropriate level of knowledge should help to assuage these concerns. The right firm will ascertain your current state of business development, supply you with the right roadmap, and then help with flexible and scalable solutions that will have you moving in the right direction.
These solutions need not be expensive (though “expensive” is certainly relative to budget and expectation). However, it is important to note that the development of your web presence is an investment in your future that cannot be skimped on—you will pay for the results (good or bad) at some point.
* For the sake of brevity, I chose only two critical issues. There are many.
Wherever I go, I run across consulting/service firms that guarantee they can get your company’s website on the first page of Google’s search results. Usually this claim is to be accomplished by using something called “SEO”. Let’s take a minute to understand the term “SEO” and evaluate claims made by SEO firms.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM)?
SEO is the practice of improving the amount and/or quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine listings. In other words, the goal is to have pages from your website rank high in the natural search result listings. By contrast, SEM is the practice of improving the amount and/or quality of traffic to your website through paid advertising (such as Sponsored Links on Google).
Some SEO offerors improperly include SEM within the SEO designation. In fact, they are two different but related areas.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
As indicated above, SEO deals with organic listings. Typically, increased organic rankings are achieved by the quality of the content on your website and the frequency with which others on the Web link to that content. Therefore, SEO practitioners have as their primary goal to increase the quality of your web content and to advance your outreach to increase linking from your online market: web-savvy consumers, peers and partners.
The effectiveness of your website’s content, considered as part of an SEO strategy, is very dependent on your ability to manage the content fluidly. SEO-ready web content management systems (CMS) are a prerequisite to competent SEO management.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
High organic search result rankings are generally preferred to high advertising positions (such as you might see in Google’s “Sponsored Links”) gained through SEM. However, SEM provides several valuable functions. First, at the least SEM gives you a search engine presence while you are working on the position of organic listings. Second, SEM can provide reinforcement for your organic listings (the consumer sees your company in two different positions on the same page). Third, SEM might provide more return on investment than your SEO efforts—thus making it the place where you decide to devote your resources.
Guarantees
Once you have found out how the offeror achieves the result (SEO and/or SEM), it is important to note the nature of the guarantee (if any). Examples:
For SEO, the guarantee might not consist in the ability to get your site on the first page of search results, but merely that you won’t pay unless the desired results are achieved. For example, once a page from your website hits the top 10 in response to a given keyword search, you will be charged $400 dollars per month, per keyword for every month in which the same result is achieved.
Also for SEO, the guarantee might state that you will not have to make any changes to your website. This means that the results will likely be achieved solely by setting up referral content (content at other frequently visited websites that point to your site).
For SEM guarantees are much less frequent, because the position of your advertisement is based solely on your ability to fund the campaign necessary to achieve top rankings.
Further Questions for the Consultant
Be careful to ask discerning questions about methodology—some consultants use less than scrupulous methods, which will result in only short-term gains.
Ask what level of control the consultant will need to have over your content (whether it appears on your website or elsewhere). Your content represents your company. Make sure that the consultant doesn’t start populating your website (or feeder sites) with poorly written content that drives traffic but does not result in sales and further, degrades your brand.
Request a preliminary review of the SEO ability of your current website—this will make sure that you don’t get halfway through an engagement, only to find that you need to spend thousands of dollars on renovating your site.
Request case studies of work performed for named, knowledgeable companies that paid going rates for the services that they received from the consultant.
Finally, SEO/SEM consultants can spend between several hours and thousands of hours on related strategy, management and execution for your company. Make sure that you clearly state your budget and expectations when hiring a consultant.
There is much more that can be written on this subject! However, this article should provide a primer for those pursuing SEO/SEM consulting services to benefit their company.
Small businesses often wonder at what point, if any, they should seek an outside consultant to provide objective marketing advice or run their marketing functions. There is no clear-cut answer to this question. However, I do offer a few words of advice to small business owners (or managers).
Define your needs. To the extent possible, you should know and be able to articulate exactly where you feel such a consultant would be able to help your business. This is important because it helps you to be (and feel like) a partner in the marketing process when you begin to interview consultants. It also helps you to remain a partner as the relationship progresses.
Quantify success. Once you have defined your needs, be sure to identify how you will quantify success. After all, regardless of the number of marketing actions taken, you will judge the consultant by the level of success attained through those efforts. Since this is the case, make sure you define your expectations for success (your goals) and be prepared to relate them to the consultant.
Define a budget. A good starting point is to determine how much marketing spend you can afford per dollar in earned revenue. This information helps to provide marketing parameters by stating what marketing expense can be tolerated within your industry (and within your particular model of operation) while remaining competitive and profitable.
Be open to scrutiny. Small business owners, particularly first time business owners, can feel very personally about their business. As a small business owner, I know this to be true! You might be flustered by the level of scrutiny that will be brought to bear on your entire business by a good strategic marketing consultant. The many questions that you receive are designed to probe your knowledge of your business, of the market, etc. At some point the consultant may recommend that your business model be adjusted in order for you to be competitive. Be prepared for this possibility.
Be involved. The marketing process will be a partnership between the consultant and the business owner; both parties must commit to the success of the business venture. Therefore, the business owner needs to set aside time each week for following, understanding, and being involved in the marketing efforts.
For a specific need, hire a specialist. Good strategic marketing consultants bring a circumspect approach and like to look at the big picture. So if you are looking for someone to handle a specific need (rather than to provide comprehensive insight for your marketing plans), you aren’t looking for a strategist or overall marketing manager—you are seeking a specialist. For example, if you merely want someone to manage your existing graphic design and printing needs, you should consider hiring a graphic designer/director who takes a consultative approach and is used to working directly with printers to manage projects.
Interviewing and selecting a marketing consultant, as well as the engagement process itself, will no doubt influence positions established prior to the hiring process. You may work with the consultant to create a revised set of needs, a goals statement, and budget. However, all of the above items are necessary groundwork to define for what purpose and at what point it is reasonable to hire a marketing consultant.
I recently worked with my friend Chris Pelicano to develop the Building Society Through Business™ brand. The purpose of the brand is to provide a clear visual representation of our commitment to build society through principled and disciplined business action.
The Building Society Through Business™ brand depicts a flowchart as the root system of a fruit tree. The brand illustrates that well-performed business organically both produces corporate growth and also bears fruit for the good of all members of society. The brand will appear on this website to let current and potential clients know that, while focusing with skill and diligence on their initiatives, we are constantly looking to transcend the moment.
How does our work help business to flourish? How does our interaction contribute positively to the client’s corporate culture? Beyond that, how can we best make a difference to the world around us? These are questions that I hope to answer in all of my business engagements.
A reader requested that I provide some thoughts directed at sole proprietors who are just getting started in business. This got me wondering: what sort of advice would I give to someone who was in the process of setting up their first business? Here are some tips.
1. Make sure that you do everything necessary to legally operate your business and to limit your potential liability. Incorporating your business will limit your personal liability. Make sure you secure the additional licenses required for your type of business (if any). Secure insurance policies as necessary.
2. Define what accomplishment/success means for you in your business. Create clearly stated goals based on this definition. Create a business plan that outlines how you plan to meet your goals and achieve success.
3. Create a goals for your personal time management, create a schedule, and do your best to stick to it. Many new business fail because the owner is unable to properly manage his/her own time.
4. Don’t figure out your bookkeeping after you get started on your business. Learn how to keep your books properly, and get the system set up before you get busy. Many small business are uncertain of their current financial status due to ineffective bookkeeping. This inhibits confident decision-making. In addition, poor tax planning can be murderous to a business.
5. Many new businesses fail, for a large variety of reasons. Particularly if others are dependent on you, your business plan should include risk assessment and an exit strategy. If you don’t have an exit strategy, then you haven’t defined the line past which “enough is enough" and you need to cut your losses and move on.
From the article “See, Transform, Act”: In the “SEE, TRANSFORM, ACT” model, your organization sees its customer, transforms itself to accommodate the customer, and then moves towards and engages with the customer. All parts of the SEE, TRANSFORM, ACT process create valuable knowledge that enables principled, informed decisions at every stage of development. This leads to a strengthened corporate identity that facilitates growth.
Recap: The SEE part of “See, Transform, Act” presents a roadmap for growing business through an effective market approach. In the TRANSFORM part of the model, the company readies itself for this approach by applying necessary internal change.
Having done these things, it is time to ACT.
ACT means execute. The company uses all of its investigation and transformative (or “readying”) action to move forward aggressively in pursuit of clearly stated goals.
ACT means courting your market. ACT equals attaining the object of your desire. ACT means winning the contract, superior performance in product/service delivery, and high customer retention.
The “See, Transform, Act” model takes the company on a full development cycle. SEE (Marketplace Diagnostic), TRANSFORM (Internal Diagnostic), ACT (Tactical Plan Development/Execution), and finally SEE again (Post-Plan Execution Analysis). This last part of the process ensures that gathered statistics and learned lessons are fed back into the strategic plan for improved execution in subsequent iterations of the cycle.
The entire process increases the organization’s body of general knowledge and intellectual property, which strengthens the organization and leads to growing effectiveness and confidence in decision-making.
I’ve been working with non-profit organizations for 14 years. In that time, I’ve compiled a matrix for non-profit formation built not only on my own experiences, but also on expert consensus. This structure, called the Non-Profit Best Practice Concurrence Matrix™ (The Non-Profit Matrix™, for short), was first composed in my thoughts and project notes, subsequently researched, and then finally assembled into structured document/presentation form in early 2009.
The Non-Profit Matrix deals with the roles of leaders, management, staff, and volunteers. It also addresses such fundamental areas as board composition, strategic planning, and business planning. The last mentioned area includes such items as asset review, budgeting and reporting, market research, communications/marketing activity, staffing, and appropriate use of technology.
At present the structure includes just over 50 principles for action that should be considered by most if not all non-profits. The Non-Profit Matrix seeks to encourage not only the tacit acceptance of its principles; rather, it seeks to encourage that the principles be embraced and discussed by the individuals who are responsible for enacting them.
An example of a specific (and very important) subject dealt with in The Non-Profit Matrix: board composition. A well composed board is vital to the success of a non-profit organization—and once you find yourself with an ineffective board, it may prove a difficult problem to rectify.
On the subject of board composition, The Non-Profit Matrix includes several principles, including “the board’s role and responsibility for setting the organization’s values and philosophies should be firmly established” and “each board member should understand the key elements necessary to the success of the organization”. Other principles encourage utilizing proper criteria when nominating board members, implementing various forms of accountability for the members, and planning for succession at key board positions.
The Non-Profit Matrix seeks not only to consider non-profit concerns per se, but also concerns that are universally applicable to considering profit and long-term value in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors.
At present The Non-Profit Matrix is not available for distribution and serves both as an internal consulting tool and as the foundation for several presentations (such as on Strategic and Business Planning for Non-Profits). However, if you have any questions about how its principles might be able to help your non-profit organization, please contact me for a conversation.
From the article “See, Transform, Act”: In the “SEE, TRANSFORM, ACT” model, your organization sees its customer, transforms itself to accommodate the customer, and then moves towards and engages with the customer. All parts of the SEE, TRANSFORM, ACT process create valuable knowledge that enables principled, informed decisions at every stage of development. This leads to a strengthened corporate identity that facilitates growth.
In the TRANSFORM part of the model, the company readies itself for this approach by applying necessary internal change. The TRANSFORM process analyzes people, process, and environment. Are the right people in place? Are the necessary processes and policies defined? Is the environment equipped for operational requirements of the plan?
Sustainable business growth is enabled by the right people, working toward common goals by means of well established processes and policies, operating effectively in an environment that is equipped with necessary tools.
TRANSFORM readies a company to aggressively, doggedly, and successfully execute a market approach.
In my business we talk a lot about “value propositions”. Essentially, a value proposition is a quantifiable truth that helps to build the business case for a particular course of action. For example, if I was asserting that a client should launch a magazine advertising campaign, I would bring market information to bear that presented the measurable benefits of pursuing this course of action as opposed to the measurable cost. The benefits, as exceeding the cost, are either referred to as individual value propositions or collectively as the value proposition.
Business relationships are defined by the value proposition associated with two entities engaging in business based on the merits of the various parties and the benefits to be gained on each side. However, merits aren’t always immediately apparent, so good communication is necessary to make sure that the value propositions are heard and understood, and that those propositions continue to be reinforced and strengthened through continued communication over the course of the relationship.
It would be an interesting exercise if we applied the same amount of discipline to assessing our personal lives. I’ll use myself as an example. What is the value proposition that I present to my wife in our relationship? What is the value proposition that I present to my children? To my parents? To my friends? Moreover, how to I effectively communicate this value—not just at the start of the relationship, but throughout its entirety?
Legitimate, uncompromised good will is rare in the business world. When that good will is coupled with top industry knowledge/capability and superior communication it is a powerful force. This is analogous to what we should try to accomplish in our personal relationships—uncompromised good will, combined with a mastery of creating and communicating value.
From the article “See, Transform, Act”: In the “SEE, TRANSFORM, ACT” model, your organization sees its customer, transforms itself to accommodate the customer, and then moves towards and engages with the customer. All parts of the SEE, TRANSFORM, ACT process create valuable knowledge that enables principled, informed decisions at every stage of development. This leads to a strengthened corporate identity that facilitates growth.
In the SEE portion of the model these ideas are immediately brought to bear. SEE is, in its essence, an exercise in humility. SEE means viewing your company not just from the inside out, but from the outside in. How does the market (customers, competitors, peers/partners, analysts/experts, government, etc.) see you?
To SEE, or examine yourself through the eyes of the market, requires the humility to recognize the value of what others have to offer.
SEE is gathering information. SEE is building knowledge. SEE is essential to business growth, and the more clearly you SEE, the more successful you will become.
The poor economy has prompted many companies to reevaluate their customer focus. In some cases, companies have had to reassess what customer service means to both themselves and to their customers.
On hearing this news, the customer's knee-jerk response might be: "Why weren't those idiotic companies providing great customer service to begin with?" In some cases this is a reasonable complaint.
However, it is also important to consider that the company may simply be responding to the consumer's changing evaluation criteria. In the current economy, consumers are more clearly focused on value for the dollar--which might represent itself in various ways. Companies are investing more in polling and other forms of customer research as a way of learning about how changing priorities affect purchasing decisions.
Economic woes have imparted many difficult lessons, but that is not to say that many of these lessons aren't good for us. Companies that learn to value the customer more dearly, even if this learning experience is forced upon them, will be better off in the long run--as will be the customer.
As with any relationship, consultant/client relationships can be very complex. Here's an example: If I talk to a mid-level manager in a company about a strategic change of direction, I'm not just talking to that person. Through that person, I'm certainly talking to superiors and subordinates. Through that person, perhaps I am talking to a spouse or a valued friend. Perhaps I am talking to other consultants with overlapping areas of expertise. Perhaps I am even talking back to my own staff!
This underscores the importance of good business relationships and clear communication. All of the above individuals may have some impact on business decisions. My message has to be clear enough to be received in close to its original form so that the facts and arguments that I have presented are not misconstrued. The strength of the relationship with the client, moreover, helps to ensure that my thoughts receive a warm reception not just at the point at which they are delivered, but beyond through the multiple possible relays.
Again, this is an area where business imitates life. To be success-oriented, you should strive to communicate clearly and with charity at all times, whether at home, in the community, or in the workplace.
Your computer and network are tools that impact the ability to perform your job properly (effectively and efficiently). When the employer provides an inadequate IT toolkit, it places roadblocks in the way to success. The company places each staff member and the entire company at a competitive disadvantage, and creates frustration in many aspects of daily work.
Frustration mounts when poor communication pertinent to IT concerns exists between the IT department (or outside consultants), staff, and management. Part of good IT administration is effective communication regarding new systems, policy changes, etc. At times, IT problems and failure to communicate and/or apply a correction can result in high levels of workplace toxicity!
Beyond merely helping your staff to be happy and successful through proper application of IT, you should consider what technological advancements will allow you to create even greater efficiencies. If employee productivity is increased, over time you should be able to do more with the same amount of people without increasing workload per person. This in turn can have positive effects: increased employee compensation and benefits (increasing the likelihood of staff retention), increased profitability, etc.
Four years ago, an IT consulting firm (that I worked for) collected research from diverse sources about improving user performance through Information Technology. Specifically, we were looking for low-cost solutions that did not require implementation of sophisticated process automation.
What we found, based on the available statistics, is that one could theoretically increase worker efficiency by more than 200% per person by spending less than $2,000 per person. (Among employees that were heavily reliant on a computer on a business network in order to perform their jobs.) When we reviewed the claims through testing, we learned that many of the claimed IT efficiencies represented best-case scenarios or were created from bogus statistics. Even assuming that 20 different IT-backed solutions produced an efficiency increase of 10% per solution: due to may considerations, it is impractical to assume that a single person already operating at an average efficiency level could realize a 200% gain in efficiency by implementing every one of the available solutions.
As you can imagine, the firm I worked for did not immediately sally forth with a marketing campaign based on improving workplace efficiency by more than 200% overnight. We knew from experience that would be a ludicrous proposition.
What we did do was test solutions that could be implemented in our own office, and checked the results. Then, for our market approach, we focused only on solutions backed by reasonable claims. We could clearly go to market with the potential of increasing user performance by at least 20% in many environments. In many cases, we could make cost-offset arguments in favor of the necessary expenditure.
An example from our work:
About two years prior to our review, a study emerged indicating that the average user could experience efficiencies in work performance of up to 10% by adding an additional display (monitor). If I recall correctly, this study was funded by a display manufacturer (or group of manufacturers), so we decided to test this theory for ourselves. A couple of our staff were already using two displays, but most weren't. We deployed this in our work environment over a period of time, starting with our "power users" and extending the policy through to our administrative staff, interns, etc.
After 15 days, 30 days, and 60 days we interviewed staff to learn the result of our experiment. It was very difficult, and impractical, to perform process studies to precisely calculate the efficiencies gained after adding the additional display. However, the qualitative evidence was clear. After a very brief period of initial orientation in which efficiency decreased slightly, efficiency increased noticeably for all users. The impact was that many tasks were made easier, and none more difficult, by adding the additional display.
I was confident that the application of a second display for all computer users results in a productivity gain of at least 5% per user. Therefore, we felt very confident recommending this expense to our clients. If the client was reluctant to incur the expense, we gave company decision-makers a free 30-day trial. (Once you have two widescreen displays on your desk, you don't go back—the benefits are palpable.)
When I was trying to get my first business off the ground, I would work really long hours to make sure that everything got done. For several years, I worked 60-70 hour weeks on average—some weeks more. Thank goodness, since the first year of my marriage I have never had a commute longer than 25 minutes (now I live near my office, and have a 5-10 minute commute).
Working a schedule like this places a strain on most of your relationships, particularly if you are young and trying to figure out how to be a good spouse and parent—as I was. I learned many lessons the hard way, caused a lot of damage, and had to mend a lot of fences. I was tired, I was impatient, I was angry. I bent just about as far as I could without breaking.
For those who are in similar circumstances, I offer a few words of advice.
Get your rest. Few people can shortchange themselves on sleep severely and routinely without depriving themselves of the ability to behave normally and make good decisions.
Don't kid yourself—introspection, reflection, and spiritual contemplation are important even for the working person doing important things and trying to support a family. Take the time to get perspective and maintain your ability to make good decisions.
Exercise is important. For one thing, your time in contemplation will be made easier through improved concentration facilitated by exercise. Even if you don't exercise for any other reason, exercise so you can be more contemplative. Don't always exercise with the radio, iPod, or the TV on. Let your mind wander over the day's problems while you move your body. Sometimes releasing your anger is a way of releasing pent up energy. If you find yourself getting angry, you may need to exercise. No matter how much you feel like sitting in front of the TV and vegetating—don't. Get your tired rear in gear and whip out a walk around the block or a hundred jumping jacks. Make it happen.
It is all too easy to get into vicious work cycles, where you are so tired that you no longer realize when you have reached "the point of diminishing returns". How many times have you worked on something late into the evening for hours, only to solve the problem in 15 minutes the next morning? Rest, exercise and contemplation all bring perspective. Time away brings objectivity.
It can be difficult, when working so hard, to listen to others. When you become defined by your work, it is very difficult to hear someone tell you that you shouldn't be working so hard, or that you need to take more time for contemplation, for family, for exercise. You'll think that they just don't get it. They can't understand why you need to do the things that you do.
And maybe you do have to do those things. Maybe there isn't another way. But that doesn't excuse uncharitable behavior. It doesn't excuse myopia or insularity. It doesn't excuse striking out in anger. You have to figure out a way to make it work, and that includes giving others a chance to lend a hand.
Being able to address "the elephant in the room" or "the obvious major hurdle", when no one else wants to do so, is essential for the business consultant. If the client doesn't want to acknowledge or address the problem, that is its choice. But the consultant does not do either itself or the client a favor by ignoring a major problem just because it might be a sensitive subject.
As a consultant, one of the most difficult times to speak up is when the elephant is the person that walked you in the door. The temptation to "dance with the one that brung you" just to preserve the business opportunity is strong. However, the consultant needs to find some way of accessing a higher authority and presenting the business case against that person without prejudice.
At my company, some our greatest successes in consulting have come through telling a current or potential client the hard facts. That decision hasn't always resulted in revenue, but it has always moved our company in the right direction. Shying away from problems is easy. Confronting them builds character.
When I have to relate a "difficult fact" to a client, there are two things that I try to focus on: (1) presenting cost/benefit of solving the problem as opposed to leaving it in place; (2) displaying due consideration and appreciation for all perspectives, with charity toward all people involved.
Everything that you do in business should be performed with an eye towards long-term value and profit. Ultimately, that is the message that my company tries to deliver to the client when we recommend confronting a difficult situation or solving a problem. The goal is to turn liabilities into assets, to make strengths out of your weaknesses.
The reason why it is so hard to confront problems in business is partly because of the fear of what you might lose if you admit your failings. Fear of losing control, of losing one's job, of losing one's company, of losing the good opinion of one's coworkers, of having to change (or require others to do so), etc.
The value that the consultant brings to the table is expertise and objectivity. However, the consultant should never ignore the fact that many problems in business come from fear or other equally powerful (and often, to some degree, rational) emotions.
It has been said that "the truth may set you free, but it doesn't make you rich". That's as may be. The consultant's job is to speak the truth in the best way possible, and take the consequences. This is essential to being a good consultant.
I have spent the last five years trying to convince some clients, in ways both direct and indirect, that they are going about staff recruitment backwards. Companies should never hire people who do not possess qualities that the company does not plan on teaching to them.
If a company does not plan on teaching morality (or ethical behavior, if you like) to employees, then morality should be sought in candidates. If the company is not in the business of teaching its staff to solve problems intellectually/rationally, this quality should be pursued in candidates. Etc.
If you are hiring for success, for most positions the following two requirements should be the first listed on the solicitation.
Personal character and integrity, matched with self-motivation and a good work ethic.
Strong intellectual ability, including the ability to assimilate and quickly represent a high volume of information. This should include attention to detail and the ability to multi-task.
Following the first rounds of candidate screening, the interview process should include the following key elements:
Elaboration on ethical standards as applied in life and business situations
Approach to learning (mode of learning; willingness to learn)
Leadership attributes (self-leadership; leadership of others)
In addition, in the interview I like to ask each candidate to state his/her greatest professional strength and weakness. The answers received are very revealing.
The successful and motivated manager can influence the cultural direction of his company, if in a position of influence, by modifying the staff recruitment approach to lead with the above foundational elements.
Another point: Companies are people. The cost of a "bad hire" can easily exceed the cost of an extremely thorough recruitment process. There is a very strong argument to be made on a cost-offset or return on investment (ROI) basis for taking the time and trouble to perform recruitment in the right way. This allows you to make the case for better recruitment policies without leading with a moral argument.
Though recruitment isn't specifically listed on my company's website, it is a part (indeed, one of the most important parts) of strategic business development—for organizations in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. I do consult with companies on strategic emphasis in recruitment, which encompasses all aspects of the process—beginning with identifying hiring priorities. So, don't hesitate to contact me with questions.
As an ethical businessperson, you have to look at statistics very carefully to make sure that you don't create lies or spread "third-party manufactured lies" to others. In marketing, statistics are sliced, diced, julienned, cooked, garnished and served to present appealing-looking business solutions.
For example, let's take something as fundamental as customer satisfaction. A service company surveys its clients and receives an actual approval rating of 85%. If not satisfied with this percentage, rather than address the problem with better service, the company might find a way to exclude a certain percentage of the survey results.
Let's say it determines that 12 out of the 15 percent of "disapprovers" each paid less $10,000 annually to the company—the lowest tier of service customers. (In other words, the company was neglecting its smaller customers.)
The company then adjusts the statistic-based statement to read "97% customer satisfaction", on the grounds that those providing less than $10,000 per year in revenue are receiving a service level with which they cannot possibly be satisfied because they have not made a sufficient level of monetary commitment.
Even true statistics can give a false impression if they are not accompanied by other relevant statistics or necessary back-story. Example: if a company broadcasts that it was voted one of the five most influential companies in its industry/region, without broadcasting the fact that it was also voted one of the five most hated companies.
We need to figure out how to create value propositions that do not rely on glitzy statistical extracts that do not have the weight of truth behind them. This may seem problematic when competing with companies that do not play from the same rulebook. However, this apparent limitation may actually be an opportunity—if your company takes a proactive approach by focusing on the definition and creation of true differentiators that don't require deception, rationalization or bad logic to make a strong case for your business.
One of the best ways to advance your sphere of influence in the business world is to invest in relationships. Word of mouth drives a significant portion of growth for many companies in many industries.
A popular vehicle for doing this, particularly for the small business crowd, is BNI — the "largest business networking organization in the world." But there are oodles of others that exist at all levels of business: chambers of commerce, trade shows, conferences, executive roundtables, etc. You create a connection, find common ground, and start developing a relationship.
The basic principle of relationship-based business networking is to get to know and respect other individuals within your network, and to refer as much business as possible with the hope that you will receive referrals in return. "Givers gain" — the constant BNI mantra.
Once you have spent a certain amount of time "networking" (or "friending", as some call it) you come to recognize falsity when you see it. An inevitable aspect of these types of environments is that they attract hustlers who just acquire and dispose of relationships as pure commodities. So much so, at times, that ethical people who have had disappointing networking experiences might wonder if being ethical and "friending your way to the top" have any compatibility.
Responsible people shouldn't develop relationships under the guise of friendship when the purpose is in fact utilitarian. You don't befriend someone solely for getting to their money, or their contacts. You don't stay in the relationship just long enough to get everything that you want. We should not play it like that; but rather live to a higher standard than the "ethical requirements of our profession".
So, here are the rules of engagement (from my point of view) for "friending your way to the top".
Be above board. Make sure that the people you are engaging with know that your interest is primarily motivated by business. Don't act like you want to be everybody's bosom buddy if you have no intention of being anything remotely close.
Don't make commitments that you have no ability to keep. Business networking can often create an aura of eagerness, where everybody tries to please everybody else. It can be catching, heady, cathartic. Don't say you will buy anything that you won't. Don't feign interest in getting together with someone socially outside of the group when you have no intention of doing so. Don't say you are interested in donating to something that you know, in your heart, is out of the question. Don't take five business cards knowing you are going to throw them away as soon as you get out the door.
Don't abuse friendships outside of the group by giving junk referrals that you know will never pan out. In other words, don't tell a carpenter, cosmetic salesperson, or insurance broker "I have a friend who might need some of that" when you don't really know if your friend needs it or not. (Hey, everybody needs insurance, right? All women wear makeup, right?) Your friends should not get cold calls (or worse, impromptu home visits) from people who they have never met and probably will never do business with.
Don't assume that you know someone just because you have spent 10 one-hour sessions with that person (and numerous other people). Almost everyone puts on some sort of a facade for business networking. Maybe you can cultivate an eye for genuine people, but there are many (MANY) inveterate liars out there who can keep it up for a very long time. Do your own research outside of the group before you refer any person in your group to anybody.
In business networking circles built on affinity (such as religious), don't assume that people are competent because they share the same religious beliefs, and don't expect that anyone should have the same trust in you. First, not all religious people are invariably honest—some people can really split hairs between “this is what my religious teaches” and what is “just business”. Second, not all honest people are competent in their chosen profession. You should never do business with someone in ignorance of their other important characteristics—you aren't doing anyone a favor in the long run.
I once had a prospective client in which I had invested some time, and for which my company was assembling the scope for a project. Near the end of the scope discussions with the prospect, I said, "Great! We'll put together a Statement of Work for you. If you like what you see, just sign it and we'll start the project."
To which the gentleman replied, "Sorry. I never do business with anyone unless we can work together on a handshake basis."
Uh...what?
Respect for appropriate boundaries is a part of life and a part of business. The only way that you can have respect for the boundary is if you know where the boundary is. The only way you can know where the boundary is (and remember it) is if that boundary is written down and both parties agree to respect it—by applying their John Hancocks.
Trust is earned. It isn't automatic, and you can't buy it. Enough money can make you more comfortable working without trust and without a signed agreement, but for me that would have to be a whole lot of money. After all, a project or relationship with no scope defined is an open-ended project or relationship. Open-ended = expensive.
Once trust is achieved in a business relationship, the best thing is still to put everything down on paper (within reason). This makes sure that everyone stays on the same page.
This principle is even more true when you are working with a friend or family member. If you are ever in business with a friend or family member who says, "No need to put things down on paper, we'll work it out", say with polite firmness, "Look, I value our relationship too much for that. We need to get this worked out and documented."
So the moral of the story is this: if you are inclined to do business on a handshake basis, particularly in a business relationship with no history (and no built-up trust), sit on your hands until you see a signature line, and then read carefully.
In common "business speak" we talk about people as assets all the time. "The company's most important asset is its staff." "Leverage early adopters for promotion." "A great manager is a great asset."
One of the great challenges for the ethically-minded businessman is to ensure that prudent business decisions are made in the current market (including the economic climate) while retaining the ability to treat staff as people rather than just assets to be manipulated and positioned to the best advantage. The pursuit of this goal can be very intellectually and emotionally taxing.
So: It is inevitable that I will use business language in discussion of the "assets of the organization", which includes ownership, executives, board members, shareholders, managers, employees, volunteers, vendors, subcontractors, customers, etc. However, the conversations using this language should be assumed to be within the framework of ethical ideals.
The basis of my marketing approach is knowledge gained through self-discovery. The path of vision to self-discovery is directly through the eyes of your market.
Imagine yourself standing on a grassy slope with a wide open plain in front of you. Filling the plain is your market—not a crowd of people, but a group of individual persons. These individual persons extend across the plain and into the foothills of a mountain range on the other side. These individuals are flowing down streams that come down from the mountains, through the foothills, across the slope, and out onto the valley floor.
The place on which you stand is not high enough to see each individual person. In fact, you can only see a half-dozen rows deep. You want to see more. The mountain range on the other side of the plain is undoubtedly a better vantage point, but you worry that if you ascend so high, you won't be able to see the individuals any more—just a massive pool of humanity. But you move into the plain, you might be able to see even less than you see right now.
So, how do you engage the entire market?
Easily. You stop being concerned about who you can see, and how clearly you can see them. Instead, you close your eyes and imagine yourself in the shoes of each person standing on the plain...and you ask yourself: "What do I see when I look up at that slope?"
It isn't literally possible to put your feet into every pair of shoes. So instead, you deploy your forces. You send messengers out onto the plain, who gather information and convey it to monitors that you have stationed on the mountain ridges. You delve into the ranges, you find the source of the mountain streams, and follow them back to the plain. You understand where each person came from and how they got to this place.
You ask questions, and organize persons into groups of people. The questions are many, but the ultimately what you are trying to get from each person, and from each group, is the answer to the master questions: Who are you? What are you looking for? What do you see?
In business, the only way to see yourself truly—as you really are (not as you want to see yourself, or as it is convenient to see yourself)—is to understand how your market sees you (or whether they can see you). The way you know yourself only on the inside is, to a great extent irrelevant if each individual person (customer, client, partner) does not see you in the same way...and find something of value in that vision.
Ironically, if the person sees value in your company, it will be as they see themselves through the prism of the goods and services that you provide.
You need to see and know yourself through the eyes of others. It is the only way to make sure that you are valued, that you are wanted, that you are needed. It is the only way to comprehensively engage the market.
In order to engage your market, you must know yourself as your market knows you. In other words, you must see yourself through the eyes of your customer!
This is the fundamental principle of marketing, but it is often ignored (or not fully executed) in marketing and business development endeavors. The reason for this omission? In order to truly put this principle into practice, you must instill humility as a core competency. Seeing yourself as others see you can be a painful process, and most of us do a pretty good job of developing protective mechanisms to shield ourselves from the criticism of others.
This shielding allows us to cultivate a positive self-image that is not challenged by those outside of our chosen circle(s) of influence. We don't like the truth to find us—rather, we like to find what we are looking for (and often do), and then call it the truth.
However, sometimes the shields go down (and often not by our choice). The shields can be taken down, for example, by a catastrophe—when we are forced by a disaster to confront what we really are.
It is the strong individual, and the strong company, that brings the shields down voluntarily in order to not only stave off disaster in advance, but to rather put oneself in a position of strength and then create a perpetual strengthening exercise (that is hopefully paired with continuous growth).
This is one clear area of life in which business maturity and personal maturity go hand in hand. Cultivating the ability to hear and understand the viewpoint of the other party, in both personal and business relationships, is essential to creating a strong bond. That ability requires humility.
My marketing philosophy has three parts, which require at least the willingness to embrace corporate humility as a critical underlying principle. Those three parts generate a very practical process for marketing and business development. This subject material will be covered in future posts.
Outside of Christian expression, the title "evangelist" is one that has been applied either in an official or unofficial manner to the professional product enthusiast. This enthusiast is harnessed to employ his natural talents to encourage others to buy into the qualities of the product/service, and encourage a sense of community and lifestyle associated with the consumer's affinity for the product and the company that created it.
The first time that I came into contact with this usage of the word "evangelist" was some years ago when I first encountered the term "Apple evangelist" or "Mac evangelist". This expression was treated with delight by Mac enthusiasts, skepticism by the PC indifferent, and derision by those who favored the PC.
So many companies receive a substantial portion of their business through word of mouth. Therefore, it can be very advantageous to identify courageous "early adopters" of products (particularly technology) who live in both the "world in the details" and the "world of people". These individuals maintain a near obsessive product knowledge and associated value while widely, warmly, and enthusiastically carrying that message to market.
To harness the evangelist to your purposes, you absolutely must (to one degree or another) welcome him into the inner circle and provide a level of access that helps to solidify his sense of solidarity as a stakeholder in the product's continued success. You may also need to provide some sort of subsidy (if not salary) to make sure that continuing to act in this evangelical way is a sustainable proposition.
No one would ever mistake me for being an evangelist at the elite levels, but I am passionate about good products, retain the product information easily, and broadcast that information with enthusiasm.
For example, about three years ago I developed a thing for Nordstrom SmartCare shirts (tailored cut) and haven't gotten off of that kick yet. I tell people about them all the time (because people tell me my shirts look nice, which is a great opportunity), and Nordstrom has sold a few shirts because of me. What do I get out of that? Nothing. But as I said, I love a great product -- and I think that people who produce great products should be patronized.
However, real evangelists naturally create much broader social circles than I do. The web, and then the blogosphere, and then social networking, has given evangelists a greater reach than ever before. Pair that with a little brand backing, and you expand that social circle exponentially.
This is all major food for thought not only for the enterprise but also for the small business. To what extent are these evangelists identifiable? Does one or more already work for my company? Can they be put into harness? What is the cost/benefit?
It is often said that great products sell themselves, and that is true to a certain extent. But somehow you need to get the product in front of the consumer, and word of mouth is often the fastest and most direct way to make that happen. If you can find and partner with the person who can make the connection between product and consumer in the most effective manner, then you have your gospel messenger.
It can be a great benefit to have your veteran graphic designer attend the "press check"—the last phase of production for print communications. By doing so, the designer accompanies the project from initial concept to ink-on-paper, thereby completing the print design production cycle. The press check is, in a sense, the most critical phase of production—and the last chance to make small detail or global design adjustments prior to the actual print run. The presence of the designer "on press" can ensure that the client's interests are being heard—because even a good commercial printer will be a bit more attentive to its own priorities (work flow, press time, paper consumption, etc.) than to the client's aesthetic concerns.
In this digital age, a print design may never appear on paper until it gets to the printer. Digital Proofs (mostly PDF documents) are often circulated via email because of the benefits in efficiency. However, because the same document can look very different on the wide variety of display screens, a predictable standard is needed.
Therefore, the designer sets the standard for accurately evaluating digital layouts and proofs.
I work on a color-calibrated screen in a room with controlled, balanced lighting. This calibrated digital work station allows me to accurately anticipate the difference between on-screen color and ink-on-paper color. Moreover, an experienced designer has what I like to call good "color memory". This means that throughout the entire print design cycle the artist knows what the key colors are and how best to achieve them on screen, on proofs, and on press. Familiarity with the entire design development process and the capabilities of modern press technology allow the designer to avoid potential problems and create a piece that is "printable".
Ultimately, when the job gets to press, the designer is the best interface with the resident pressman— whose own color sense may influence how he sees color on the printed page. The pressman's expertise is the operation of the press—not color interpretation. So it is doubly important that the designer be there to make sure that the client's interests are represented.
Conclusion
So, whenever necessary and possible, include the designer at the press check! It is a great way to ensure that you get what you intended out of your printed communication pieces, ensure smooth press checks and runs, and solidify the relationship with your printer.
Additional Note
While including the designer at the press check may not be practical for small projects, the designer should be included for large significant projects, or when the printed piece is highly complex.
). So good presentations might not always engender accord, but rather might rather raise key points of heated debate.
Having done these things, it is time to ACT.
In the TRANSFORM part of the model, the company readies itself for this approach by applying necessary internal change. The TRANSFORM process analyzes people, process, and environment. Are the right people in place? Are the necessary processes and policies defined? Is the environment equipped for operational requirements of the plan?
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