StrategyDriven » Marketing & Sales

Rapport: The Key To Sales

Matthew James — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 11:20:34 +0000

Every sales person knows how important good communication is in building business relationships. But have you ever thought about what it takes to build instant rapport with anyone?

One time I was on a business trip, and due to a series of events I had to get a hotel room with no reservation. I called several brand name hotels only to be told they were booked. But I went to one of the hotels I had called and used some specific techniques to build rapport with the woman at the front desk.

The Foundation of Huna: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times
by Dr. Matthew B. James

From early childhood, Dr. Matthew B. James has trained in many disciplines, both esoteric and contemporary. But he is most passionate about teaching and living the path of Huna, the ancient science of consciousness and energy healing of the Hawaiian Islands.

One of the original names for Huna was Ho’omana, which can be translated as empowerment.

“And empowerment is what we are most lacking,” says Dr. James. “We have given away our intrinsic power to governments, systems, religions, cultures. For thousands of years, Huna has taught the path back to our empowerment.”

Huna is not a religion but an ancient science that dovetails perfectly with today’s quantum physics. It is an ancient psychological system that kept the Hawaiian people free of mental disorder for thousands of years – until it was banned from the Islands. Huna has resurfaced in the last fifty years, and Dr. James’s Huna instruction has attracted thousands of students, everyone from healthcare professionals to elite athletes to trainers in human potential.

“Basically, Huna says ‘whatever you think you are, you are more than that.’ Our work is to understand who we really are, then demonstrate that balance and power in our lives.”

As we talked, I matched and mirrored her tone of voice and the speed in which she spoke. Almost immediately I established rapport. She told me “I’m going to do whatever it takes to get you a room.” Even though I had been told earlier the hotel was overbooked, I ended up getting a room.

Most communication occurs outside our conscious awareness. Tone of voice accounts for 38 percent of communication and, in face-to-face contacts, physiology accounts for an amazing 55 percent. Only 7 percent of communication is made up of the words we use.

One of the best ways to build good communication beyond our words is called Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). NLP is a behavioral technology – a set of guiding principles, attitudes and techniques – that allows sales professionals to build rapport and trust, the basis for all business relationships. I have come to appreciate NLP as one of the most thorough and concise approaches for working with the unconscious mind – and consciously choosing behaviors that bring success.

The NLP sales model, designed to help sales professionals build rapport instantly with anyone, is based on the following five-step process:

Establish Rapport: Remember, people who are like each other tend to like each other. Match and mirror the physiology, tone of voice, representational systems, breathing and key words of the person with whom you are communicating.
Ask Questions: The questions you ask should be directly related to the business of the person you are interviewing. Speak the language of their business and ask questions that help you discover the client’s motivation, decision and reassurance strategies.
Find a Need: When you discover a need, you can establish a value. Propose a solution to the client’s problem, and then ask “do you see any value in this?” If there is no need, stop there and find another client.
Link Need or Value to Your Product/Service: Make a clear proposal for how your product or service helps solve the problem you uncovered earlier, without disclosing too many details.
Close: There are many ways of closing the deal. Just remember that there are really only four objections: I don’t have enough time, I don’t have enough money, it won’t work for me, I don’t believe you. Resistance to your message indicates a lack of rapport. If that happens at any point, it is time to build more rapport.

The benefits of NLP go far beyond sales to help people grow from every single experience, achieve the results they desire and create a better quality of life. When it comes to sales, though, there is no better method to build rapport for business relationships.

About the Author

Matthew B. James, MA, Ph.D., author of The Foundation of Huna: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times, is President of Kona University and its training and seminar division The Empowerment Partnership, where he serves as a master trainer of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), a practical behavioral technology for helping people achieve their desired results in life. To read Dr. James complete biography, click here.

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The Shortest Path to Higher Revenue

Kristin Zhivago — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:10:33 +0000

The fastest way to find out what your next customer wants to buy, and how they want to buy it, is to ask your previous customers what they were looking for and how they went about buying it from you. In other words, if you want to increase your revenue, reverse-engineer your successful sales.

Roadmap to Revenue: How to Sell the Way Your Customers Want to Buy
by Kristin Zhivago

Jill Konrath, author of SNAP Selling and Selling to Big Companies, says Roadmap to Revenue “Gives you a long-term solution that will enable your company and your revenue to keep growing regardless of the economic situation or the competitive landscape.” Sales guru Reg Nordman called the book “trailblazing,” and says “there is not a wasted page in the whole book.” Another reviewer, the CEO of a software company, said the book is “Definitely NOT ‘yet another marketing strategy book’ to read and then place on the bookshelf, or at the back of the e-reader. If, like me, you’re running a business and you have so much to do that you must ruthlessly prioritize your time and attention, you would do well to force this book to the top of your list, read it of course, but then ACT on it.”

The information you gather, and the customer-driven actions you take afterwards, will start you on a fast track to higher revenue. Everything your company does – from product development to after-sale support – will be more attractive to customers and generate the kind of revenue momentum that makes it fun to come to work every day.

Taking this approach eliminates the chronic problems that plague marketing and selling efforts, including:

The subjective, biased decision-making (“We did this at my last company, and it worked there!”);
The bitter animosity between sales and marketing (“Marketing never gives us what we need.” “Sales ignores what we give them, and produce their own presentations, which are totally off the reservation.”);
Marketing managers who can’t resist the latest marketing shiny object (“Oooooh, social media! Mobile! Google+!”);
Copywriters who write boilerplate copy that customers have seen a thousand times before, don’t bother to read, and wouldn’t believe it if they did read it; and
Website designers whose passion for flash over function actually impedes the customer’s buying process.

The reverse-engineering approach addresses and solves the problems we face in today’s rapidly changing markets. Sellers are no longer ‘in charge’ of the customer’s buying process. They never had as much influence as they imagined, but now it is obvious to everyone. The universal use of Google for pre-contact research, and the literal explosion of customer-generated content has forced company-generated efforts into the background.

What you need to know, in order to reverse-engineer successful sales, is what your existing customers were thinking as they were looking for you, how they looked for you, what their questions and concerns were, how they interacted with your content and your people, and how they feel about using your product or service and doing business with your company. Then you will put that information to work.

No one will reveal this information while you are selling to them. Nobody is dumb enough to tell salespeople what they’re really thinking while they’re being sold to. But after they have purchased from you, if you ask them correctly, they will be more than happy to reveal what they were really thinking, what drove them to buy from you, and how you could improve what you are doing to sell more. After they buy from you, they have a vested interest in your success. They want you to be around when they need service, support, or parts, or if they want to buy something from you again.

The trick is to make it convenient, interesting, and even pleasant for them to answer your questions, and to ask questions that give you the right data. You do that by interviewing them by phone (I’ve tried every known research method; phone is, by far, the most efficient and satisfying method), and asking open-ended, conversation-starting questions. I’ve developed a set of questions over thousands of interviews, which I spell out in Roadmap to Revenue.

When I interview customers for my clients, by the 7th interview, the customer issues, sentiments, and buying process are crystal clear. I know what my client is doing right, and what they could be doing better. I know which marketing and selling methods will work best. I know the message that we should be sending out into the market. I know how the customers want to buy, and how my client can make it easy for those customers to go from initial interest to purchase. I have uncovered the ‘barriers to the sale’ that have literally been driving customers away, and I know how we can remove them.

You may think that you already know your customers, and that this exercise won’t help you very much. If so, I need to tell you that every single time a client hires me, they tell me what they think is important to their customers. Then I do the interviews. Their customers’ issues, concerns, and priorities are always decidedly different than what my client believes.

Once you’ve interviewed some existing customers, and heard what they have to say, you will understand where your own efforts have disappointed potential customers. You will know which marketing channels and selling methods you should be focusing on, and which ones only waste time, money, and opportunity. You will be able to say, “No, we aren’t going to do that, because our customers really don’t care about that. What we are going to do is this, because that’s what really matters to them.”

Of course, gathering the data is only the first step. You will map out your customers’ buying process, in which you describe the buyer, the buyer’s investigative process and questions, the answers that satisfy them, and the changes you must make to your products, processes, people, and policies. You will all agree on what you have to do, to meet them at every step in their buying process with exactly what they need. You will build a Revenue Growth Action Plan, which will set those changes in motion.

Being certain about what customers want from you and how they want to buy it is so much more satisfying – and financially rewarding – than guessing and experimenting. Your own customers can show you the shortest path to higher revenue, if you ask them the right questions, the right way, at the right time, and then take the right action on what they tell you.

About the Author

Kristin Zhivago is a Revenue Coach to companies of all sizes. She helps CEOs and entrepreneurs increase their revenue, by understanding what their customers really want to buy from them and how they want to buy it. Clients have included IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Dow Jones, Bazaarvoice, and hundreds of other companies. Kristin also speaks worldwide on the subject of increasing revenue, marketing, sales, and social media. To read Kristin Zhivago’s complete biography, click here.

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Are You Ready to Declare War?

StrategyDriven — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 11:07:29 +0000

There are millions of companies in the world.

Most fail far short of the owners’ ambitions. You would think they fail or frustrate for millions of reasons.

But there are really only four.

How can that be? Only four? Yes and I will explain.

Let me start with the first:

Your Company Sucks: It’s Time to Declare War on Yourself
by Mark Stevens

It’s every businessperson’s nightmare: his or her company is failing, dysfunctional, stuck in neutral, and/or is disappointing overall, from the finances to the customer feedback.

Put bluntly – but – candidly—the company sucks.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way.

Every business can rebound from its lows, regain its momentum, thrill its customers, and be the source of pride and profits its owners and shareholders seek.

This U-turn must begin with you, the owner or senior manager, declaring war on yourself. You must face the fact that the malaise the business suffers from is ultimately your responsibility and your doing, and even more important,that it will not be rectified unless you take the lead. Face the hard truth. Take the difficult actions. Demonstrate determination, creativity and resolve.

This insightful book makes three points clear:

The key to long term business success is for the leader to declare war on him/herself so that the company never rests on its laurels.
Only four factors lead to business failure/decline/lack of growth/dysfunctionality. Identifying and addressing these plagues is the focus of the war.
Customer satisfaction is a curse in disguise. The overwhelming need is to thrill your customers/clients.

Your Company Sucks pulls back the curtain on business performance to reveal the four reasons businesses decline. It identifies your company’s red flags, and provides a powerful and innovative methodology to transition from failure to flourish. It’s not too late to turn your company around – go from sucking to soaring!

Rudderless Leadership. What do I mean by this? Well, there is likely a person with the title of president or chief executive in your business, but titles cannot run companies.

All too often, the person with the title and the corner office to go with it, lacks the vision , the courage, or both to make the difficult decisions that are always required to keep the company on strategy.

Instead of serving as true leaders, they engage in ‘followership.’ Just this week, I sat in on a client management meeting during which the president and owner of the company told her team that she wanted ‘buy in’ from the team before putting a strategy in place.

Nonsense. Do you think Steve Jobs sat in his bed wrestling with the idea, the hope, that we could secure ‘buy in’ for the Iphone? Absolutely not. Jobs was determined to bring the technology to market and anyone who stood in his way would not have a place at Apple.

Sure, there is great value in having your team rally around and execute your vision with passion and determination, but you can never make the mistake of running the company as a town hall democracy.

Leaders must lead. Popularity contests are for American Idol.
The Lust To Lax Syndrome: We all know the drill. In fact, we all know it too well. A potential customer or client appears before our eyes, and we lust after the score. Specifically, to land the new business. We may offer discounts, create all manner of Power Points, hold lavish dinners and the like, but whatever combination of romantic tools we apply, we are determined to give the object of our lust everything they may want to succumb to our courtship and come aboard.

And then the dream turns to reality, we hit pay-dirt, and all of the lust turns to lax. We dump the prospect into the customer file, assign them a number, conduct a transaction and move on to sweet talk the next object of desire.

And this is how we reward those who have committed to our businesses? All too often, the ugly truth, the sad fact, is yes. We all know how it feels when it happens to us. It’s when every interaction with the company we have committed to feels like a brush with frost bite.

How should a company, your company and mine, keep the lust alive for the after the win occurs? Treat the customer/client as family.

I have been eating at Mediterraneao – a northern Italian restaurant in Greenwich, CT, – for more than 15 years. It is wonderful, delicious, has a great buzz, but most important, treats me and my entourage as family. Every time.

We can make last minute reservations, always get the best tables, are never called anything but our first or last names. Every time the staff sees us enter, it as if they are welcoming their best friends into their homes.

It is not a business deal: it is a marriage made in heaven.
Complacency: just when it appears as if a business has broken the code, entered a period of non-stop growth, defied the odds and found a way to move along a continuously upward trajectory, real life (call it gravity) rears its ugly head.

The truth is (although no one wants to admit it), when the company’s growth seems so strong and certain that it can go on autopilot, management relaxes its reign on both the strategy and the execution of it, allowing a once-closely directed business to float. In the vacuum this creates, complacency takes hold. You know it by the unmistakable signs:
- Attention focuses inward, protecting turfs and egos instead of building market share.
- Warring camps develop, each seeking supremacy in what has become a political organization.
- Declining revenues are attributed to a downturn in the economy. Everyone internally is absolved of responsibility and freed from the need to address the real issues and to find meaningful ways to turn the company around.
- Most telling, the boss feels no need to declare war on the company’s failures and deficiencies. During the good years, the rise, he lost or abandoned the will to fight.
Conventional Thinking: So much of the business textbook, so to speak, is ruled by conventional thinking. Think of this as a set of rules and beliefs passed along through the generations that have stuck in spite of the fact that they have little value or may be destructive.

Consider the widely held belief in the 80/20 rule. In one application, this holds that 20 percent of a company’s salespeople will always account for 80 percent of its sales. Well, this may often be true, but we should not accept it as the gospel for a moment.

Why? Think about it: you are then accepting the ‘law’ that 80 percent of your salespeople are failures kept on the payroll to validate, yes, the 80/20 rule (which should be renamed the 80/20 myth).

Now you know the four reasons companies fail. And now you know I don’t believe you should allow them to take a toll on your business. Each can be placed in the crosshairs and corrected.

The looming question is: Are you ready to declare war?

About the Author

Mark Stevens is the author of Your Company Sucks: It’s Time to Declare War on Yourself (BenBella Books, August 2011) and CEO of MSCO, a results-driven management and marketing firm, and a popular media commentator on business matters, including marketing, branding, management and sales. To read Mark Stevens’ full biography, click here.

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How to Speak American: Building Brands in the New Heartland

StrategyDriven — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 11:11:44 +0000

“I think the Heartland is a nice place to raise children. People are nice, but they’re dumb, overweight and gullible. They wear tacky clothing and jewelry. They’re racist, unworldly and dumb.”

Marketing executive in New York City

If you are reading this column, you most likely play a role in building brands. You may even share the views of the marketing executive that I quoted above. If either is true, you need to take a deeper look into this massive segment of America.

How to Speak American: Building Brands in the New Heartland
by Paul Jankowski

A brand strategist for more than 20 years, Paul Jankowski has created and executed consumer promotions for some of the world’s largest and most successful companies, including Pepsi, Ford, FedEx, and Beyonce. His experiences targeting the ‘typical American consumer’ on the East and West Coasts coupled with several long drives within America’s interior in his Ford F150 provided fertile ground for his study of an often-overlooked segment of the population: what Jankowski calls ‘America’s New Heartland.’ As Author of How to Speak American: Building Brands in the New Heartland, Paul shares his groundbreaking insights and has emerged as one of the most respected voices in marketing today.

Through extensive third-party research and hundreds of interviews, Paul recognized and identified, and has brought to the forefront, the power of the New Heartland consumer group, one that represents more than 60 percent of the U.S. population. How to Speak American: Building Brands in the New Heartland is the first deep study of the role core values play in Heartland consumers’ purchasing decisions, and Paul’s challenge to branding and marketing executives is placing him in high demand for public speaking engagements and business media interviews and as a business consultant and Heartland ambassador for big-name corporations.

From what I’ve seen, many marketers don’t understand the New Heartland. At all. They have wasted time and resources, and the results delivered, no matter how strong, are only a fraction of what they could have been. The Heartland consumer is a unique segment that is ever evolving and requires constant attention for brands to remain relevant.

This segment is underestimated, underserved and misunderstood, and that presents a huge opportunity for brands who become Heartland savvy. It is my mission to make sure that your brand will be among them.

When you saw the word Heartland in the title, odds are images of John Cougar, rusty pickup trucks and cornfields came to mind. That seems to be the general theme the media, most movies and music videos portray of the Heartland. But I’m here to tell you that limiting the Heartland to this stereotypical image will get your brand nowhere – really, really fast.

Having worked in and around both coasts for more than 20 years, I always smile when my friends in New York joke about the world dropping off after the Hudson River. I can almost picture this huge chasm, a vast valley of nothingness extending all the way out to the hills of L.A.

Now, in their defense, New York and Los Angeles are amazing. Both cities are hubs of culture, entertainment, sports, media, fashion and business; both have worldwide fame and influence, not to mention affluence. In that light, I can understand how such a coast-centric view could take shape. To my New York and L.A. friends, it must seem like the rest of the country is just filler.

But it’s not. There is a NEW Heartland that is as complex and diverse as the rest of this great country. It includes large cosmopolitan cities, small rural towns and the middle of nowhere. Its residents are corporate executives, factory workers, celebrities, soccer moms, debutantes, tobacco farmers and US presidents. It is comprised of the Midwest, Southeast and parts of the Southwest, which have more in common than you might think.

As a brand marketer, it is your responsibility to help your brand form deep, lasting relationships with Heartland consumers. However, if you haven’t spent your life in the Heartland, you must rely on research to learn what we’re all about – the feeling of the Heartland. That’s like me trying to explain what it feels like to be pregnant. With four kids, I certainly understand the process of getting there. I can relate to the end result but I can’t understand the actual feeling.

So, you have no doubt conducted volumes of market research to find ways to engage your customers, to uncover those legendary insights that can be the game-changing difference between becoming an iPod or just another MP3 player. You’re not alone. Hundreds of millions are spent annually on market research.

But research is only valuable if you’re asking the right questions of the right people. Even then, research by itself is very limiting. A vice president at an L.A.-based agency recently told me that her team understood the Heartland consumer. After all, they conducted focus groups in a Chicago suburb for one of their industry-leading clients. She may as well have done them in Pasadena, because she probably would have found similar results. One focus group in a suburb of the third-largest city in America will not capture the essence of the Heartland lifestyle.

Too many brands and their agencies along the East and West coasts assume that we Americans fit neatly into little categories that don’t really differ by region: Moms in San Francisco and San Antonio are driven by the same values. All 20-somethings, regardless of where they live, emulate the pop star du jour. Doctors in the suburbs of Boston have similar lifestyles as doctors in Peoria, Lubbock and Macon. But you know the old saying about assuming.

If you want to form a deeply rooted relationship with the 177 million New Heartland consumers, you must first understand their lifestyle and core beliefs. Yes, that’s 60 percent of the US population. Surprised?

As a card-carrying member of the New Heartland, born in Illinois and raised in Tennessee, I have always been reminded of this region’s uniqueness during my travels around the world. I’ll admit that there have been times when I tried to dilute the fact that I’m from the Heartland. Each time I boarded the plane to New York City for meetings, I would subconsciously tone down the southern twang, walk a bit faster and wear more black. Why? Because I know – as do many Heartland residents I have talked with—that we are often dismissed and not taken seriously.

Many brands come across the same way: dismissive and arrogant. Of course, no marketer of any merit would assume their own life experiences were representative of such a large population. Right? So I hopped in my F-150 and took a drive. A really long drive. Actually, several really long drives around the New Heartland to meet the people who live, work and play there.

I talked with all kinds of people in my research in order to best articulate the voice of the Heartland consumer to you. On one of my ‘conversation tours,’ I met a preacher in Tennessee, a business exec in Missouri, a nurse from North Carolina, a family from Oklahoma, a country band from Texas and big-time basketball fans from Indiana.

I’ve driven thousands of miles and had conversations with a cross section of Heartland residents and asked: What defines you as a person? What is important to you? How would you define your core values? You’ll find snippets of these conversations on HowToSpeakAmerican.com.

Then I took what I heard and compared it with a significant amount of third-party research. What I found was a very strong common values system – a vital lens through which Heartland residents view your brand – that can determine whether you win us over or turn us off. These values and lifestyle activities provide an entry point for brands to start the conversation and ultimately build a relationship.

Please hear me when I say that these values are not exclusive to the Heartland. There are pockets of communities and individuals all over the country that share similar beliefs. However, these values are inextricably woven into all aspects of our lives, and they present the greatest opportunity for brands to create lasting relationships with Heartland consumers.

Key Takeaways:

The New Heartland is a cultural segment that needs (and wants) your attention
Core values such as Faith, Community and Family should be considered when creating campaign creative and promotional tactics
Embrace what makes the New Heartland unique and you’ll reap the rewards of building lasting consumer relationships.

About the Author

A brand strategist for more than 20 years, Paul Jankowski has created and executed consumer promotions for some of the world’s largest and most successful companies, including Pepsi, Ford, FedEx, and Beyonce. His experiences targeting the “typical American consumer” on the East and West Coasts coupled with several long drives within America’s interior in his Ford F150 provided fertile ground for his study of an often-overlooked segment of the population, what Paul calls “America’s New Heartland.” As Author of How to Speak American: Building Brands in the New Heartland, Paul shares his groundbreaking insights and has emerged as one of the most respected voices in marketing today. To read Paul Jankowski’s full biography, click here.

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Forget Brand Preference – Win the Brand Relevance War

StrategyDriven — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 11:49:47 +0000

There are two ways to compete in existing markets – gaining brand preference and making competitors irrelevant.

Brand Relevance

The first and most commonly used route to winning customers and sales focuses on generating brand preference among the brand choices considered by customers, on beating the competition. Most marketing strategists perceive themselves to be engaged in a brand preference battle. A consumer decides to buy an established product category or subcategory, such as SUVs. Several brands have the visibility and credibility to be considered – perhaps Lexus, BMW, and Cadillac. A brand, perhaps Cadillac, is then selected. Winning involves making sure the customer prefers Cadillac to Lexus and BMW. This means that Cadillac has to be more visible, credible, and attractive in the SUV space than are Lexus and BMW.

Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant
by David Aaker

Prius. Whole Foods Market. iPod. Kindle. Not only are these brands phenomenally successful – they are examples of product categories where competitors are nearly irrelevant, says branding guru David Aaker. In his groundbreaking new book, Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant, David shows how any company can use the “brand relevance” strategy to achieve long-term, competitive success.

Brand Preference vs. Brand Relevance

Despite extensive reliance on brand preference strategies to win customers, companies must abandon this approach and focus on brand relevance instead, explains David. Pursuing a brand preference strategy means constantly striving to be faster, cheaper, and better than the competition – an endless battle where competitors quickly match each other’s product improvements. With brand relevance, the goal is to make competition irrelevant – to offer something so different and special that it creates its own unique category and customers don’t perceive that there are any alternatives to consider. Detailed with more than two dozen case studies, Brand Relevance lays out the four key tasks required to attain brand relevance:

Finding New Concepts
Evaluating a Concept’s Prospects
Defining and Managing the Category or Subcategory
Creating Barriers: Sustaining the Differentiation

“Success today is not about winning the brand preference battle, but about winning the brand relevance war,” asserts David. “Understanding and managing relevance can be the difference between winning by becoming isolated from competitors or being mired in a difficult market environment where differentiation is hard to achieve and often short-lived.” Brand Relevance provides the tools companies need to generate innovative offerings that can create long-term financial success.

The brand preference model dictates the objectives and strategy of the firm. Create offerings and marketing programs that will earn the approval and loyalty of customers who are buying the established category or subcategory, such as SUVs. Be preferred over the competitors’ brands that are in that category or subcategory, which in turn means being superior in at least one of the dimensions defining the category or subcategory and being at least as good as competitors in the rest. The relevant market consists of those who will buy the established category or subcategory, and market share with respect to that target market is a primary measure of success.

The strategy is to engage in incremental innovation to make the brand ever more attractive or reliable, the offering less costly, or the marketing program more effective or efficient. It is all about continuous improvement – faster, cheaper, better – which has its roots in Fredrick Taylor’s scientific management with their time and motion studies a century ago and continues with such approaches as Kaisan (the Japanese continuous improvement programs), Six Sigma, re-engineering, and downsizing.

This classic brand preference model is an increasingly difficult path to success in today’s dynamic market because customers are not inclined or motivated to change brand loyalties. Brands are perceived to be similar at least with respect to the delivery of functional benefits, and often these perceptions are accurate. Why rethink a product and brand decision that has worked when alternatives are similar? Why go to the trouble to even locate alternatives? Seeking alternatives is a mental and behavioral effort with little perceived payoff. Further, people prefer the familiar, whether in regard to a route to work, music, people, nonsense words, or brands.

Brand Relevance Competition

The second route to competitive success is to change what people buy by creating new categories or subcategories that alter the ways they look at the purchase decision and use experience. The goal is thus not to simply beat competitors; it is rather to make them irrelevant by enticing customers to buy a category or subcategory for which most or all alternative brands are not considered relevant because they lack context visibility or credibility. The result can be a market in which there is no competition at all for an extended time or one in which the competition is reduced or weakened, the ticket to ongoing financial success.

More formally we define brand relevance as occurring when two conditions are met:

The target category or subcategory is selected. There is a perceived need or desire on the part of a customer for the targeted category or subcategory, which is defined by some combination of attributes, applications, user groups, or other distinguishing characteristics.
The brand is in the consideration set. The customer considers the brand when he or she is making a decision to buy or use that target category or subcategory. In other words, the brand passes the screening test.

Winning under the brand relevance model is now qualitatively different than under brand preference competition. Under the brand preference model, the winning brand is preferred to others in the established category or subcategory. Under brand relevance, in contrast, winning occurs when other brands are not considered given the selection of the category or subcategory. Some or all competitor brands are not visible and credible with respect to the new category or subcategory, even though in other established categories they might not only be visible and credible but even have the highest reputation and customer loyalty. When competitors’ brands are not considered; the only relevant brand wins by default.

About the Author

David Aaker, author of Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant, is Vice-Chairman of Prophet, a marketing consultancy that helps senior executives balance their organization’s short-term business needs against their long-term growth goals, and Professor Emeritus of Marketing Strategy at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. One of the world’s leading experts on branding and the winner of three awards for lifetime contributions to the science of marketing, David has published over 100 articles and fourteen books; including Strategic Market Management that has been translated into eighteen languages. To read David’s complete biography, click here.

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Pricing Strategy: Pricking the Veil of Value Exchange

StrategyDriven — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 11:17:02 +0000

Our understanding of pricing has come a long way since 1890 when Alfred Marshall published his treatise on the economic scissors of supply and demand. Pricing is no longer a purely economic challenge to be addressed through studies of market elasticity. It can’t be solved by lowering prices until customers’ purchases improve factory utilization rates. And, it can’t be solved by allocating costs and adding markups. Rather, pricing today must be focused on value exchange.

Pricing Strategy: Setting Price Levels, Managing Price Discounts and Establishing Price Structures
by Tim J. Smith, PhD

The most comprehensive pricing text on the market, Pricing Strategy highlights the stakeholder’s importance in making decisions, as well as key trade-offs to consider when choosing between opposing outcomes. Readers gain a better understanding of the most important influences to consider when making pricing decisions. This book strikes an appropriate balance between quantitative skill sets and the qualitative concepts necessary for business growth. Core concepts are presented in chapters with optional appendices that require more rigorous knowledge of introductory calculus. The book draws the best thinking from numerous disciplines, including marketing, economics, and finance, to deliver a comprehensive presentation that comes alive through numerous case studies, memorable examples, and graphs.

While experts and executives agree that price should reflect value, the pricing to value mantra fails to clarify the decisions executives must make. That is, what is the value that price should reflect? Whose perception of value should determine price? And, how can value be modeled and quantified? In other words, pricing decisions today requires actionable insights.

These insights must derive from a marketing orientation of the firm with a clear economic understanding of value exchange. The marketing orientation focuses the purpose of the firm towards serving customer needs profitably – an orientation supported by the late greats Peter Drucker and Theodore Levitt. The economic understanding of value exchange reminds us that customers will purchase when the product delivers value in excess of its price after adjusting for alternatives, and the firm must deliver products at a price in excess of their cost. These are two very simple concepts.

Combined, the marketing orientation of the firm, and the economic understanding of value exchange, provides the foundation for developing insights required for executive decision making in pricing strategy.

Identifying the Nature of a Pricing Challenge

Executives can structure pricing challenges into one of four types: price setting, price discounting, price structure, and overall pricing strategy.

Price setting refers to the challenge of setting the right price in the first place. Different pricing setting approaches can be used for different products, and the appropriate pricing setting approach for a product will evolve as the market evolves. Each of the dominant approaches to setting prices, exchange value models, market research methods, and economic price optimization, share an orientation towards capturing profitable customers through mutually beneficial value exchange.

Discounting refers to the inevitable challenge facing firms when customers call for a lower price. Not all products must be discounted, but most executives discover that discounting can enhance profits. Unfortunately, discounts can also destroy profits. To navigate the quagmire of discounting decisions, executives should recall the core purpose of the firm, to serve customer needs profitably, and accept that different customers will place a different value on the same product.

Appropriate discounting enables the firm to price the same product to different customers according to their willingness to pay, as long as the price is above the marginal cost to produce. Evaluating the willingness to pay of millions of customers requires the development of a new corporate capability. Proper monitoring techniques, decision processes, analytics, and incentives must be implemented to enhance the firm’s discounting decisions.

Price structures refer to the strategic approach through which specific transactional prices are set. Unit pricing, two-part pricing, complementary pricing, versioning, bundling, subscriptions, and yield management are all different price structures. Each of these price structures can enhance the profitability of some markets, and each is completely inappropriate for other markets. The selection of the optimal price structure is, at its core, an economic challenge to be informed by an understanding of differences between customers within the market, the cost structure associated with delivering the product, and the firm’s market strategy.

Overall pricing strategy challenges arise in considering the actions of the firm in the context of its industrial environment and its strategic resources. Competition, product evolutions, and legal decisions all influence the latitude a firm has in setting its pricing strategy. Attaining the right fit between the firm’s resources and the market opportunity enables the firm to achieve higher profits, grow faster than its competitors, or both simultaneously.

Going Deep

Various qualitative and quantitative analytical techniques have been developed to enable decisions that reflect both the marketing orientation of the firm and an economic understanding of value exchange. These analytical techniques go a far way in delivering the right answer to the right pricing question, one customer at a time, a million times a day. Each analytical technique provides tremendous insight into the nature of the pricing decision confronting an executive and the opportunity to improve results.

A good analysis requires both quantitative and qualitative insights. Despite the seeming clarity delivered through quantitative analytical techniques, executives cannot overly rely upon the output of a single equation.

Pricing is a strategic challenge, not an engineering challenge. Angus Maddison, professor of quantitative macroeconomic history at the University of Groningen, once stated, “no sensible person would claim that (quantification) can tell the whole story.” Similarly, quantitative models in pricing enable terrific insight, but they must be informed and tempered by a qualitative understanding of the opportunity.

Understanding Value Exchange

Each of these four types of pricing challenges can be addressed through the marketing orientation of the firm and the economic understanding of value exchange. Moreover, quantitative and qualitative analysis can be used to further clarify the alternatives and trade-offs. Our understanding of pricing has come a long way, and it is time for executives to grasp this modern understanding to improve the results of their decisions.

About the Author

Tim J. Smith is the founder and Managing Principal of Wiglaf Pricing and an Adjunct Professor of marketing and economics at DePaul University. Well-known in the industry as a thought leader in pricing, Dr. Smith has presented seminars on pricing to professional audiences around the globe. With hard-hitting, focused messages for executives, Tim encourages actions that lead to dynamic results. To read Tim’s complete biography, click here.

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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 59 – An Interview with David Aaker, author of Brand Relevance

StrategyDriven — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 11:25:02 +0000

StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 59 – An Interview with David Aaker, author of Brand Relevance explores the creation of offerings so different that they create unique categories within which customers perceive no other product or service alternatives. During our discussion, David Aaker, author of Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant, shares with us his insights and experiences regarding:

the difference between brand relevance and brand preference
advantages of achieving brand relevance over brand preference
several key factors needed to gain brand relevance
how a company establishes and manages a new category or sub-category
how a company maintains brand relevance over time
key characteristics and competencies an organization must have to successfully pursue a brand relevance strategy

Additional Information

In addition to the outstanding insights David shares in Brand Relevance and this special edition podcast are the resources accessible from his website, www.Prophet.com. David’s book, Brand Relevance, can be purchased by clicking here.

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About the Author

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Winning Time-Starved Customers

StrategyDriven — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 11:02:51 +0000

Adrian Ott, author of The 24-Hour Customer, was a recent guest on Fox Business Live; sharing her insights on:

how to win the business of time-starved customers
aligning products and services to meet customer’s needs and time availability constraints
synchronizing with the customer so to be positioned to serve them when they are ready to buy

Adrian Ott on the StrategyDriven Podcast

Last month, we were privileged to talk with Adrian about her new book, The 24-Hour Customer, on the StrategyDriven Podcast. Listen as we explore the impact of time on customers’ buying decisions; how to identify the time-value impacts associated with a product or service, the market opportunities created by the impact, and then how to formulate and position one’s offerings to create increased time-value and earn more sales.

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Social Media Marketing and the Strategic Shift from Destination to Audience

StrategyDriven — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 11:26:04 +0000

Social media marketing has transitioned from being an ancillary marketing strategy to become a strategic business imperative. All businesses and brands need a social Web presence for a single, fundamental reason – that’s where the customers are. Brands that aren’t represented on the social Web are missing a significant opportunity that another business is more than happy to seize.

30-Minute Social Media Marketing: Step-by-step Techniques to Spread the Word About Your Business
by Susan Gunelius

BIG PRESENCE isn’t just for BIG COMPANIES anymore! A social media marketing handbook for small business owners on the go.

Social media has opened the door to anyone who wants to promote themselves – including small businesses. Designed specifically for busy small business owners, this book puts you on the fast track to maximizing your business’s visibility and generating profits – regardless of the size of your marketing budget or the time you have to devote to it.

30-Minute Social Media Marketing provides 22 short chapters packed with real-world examples, templates, sample marketing procedures, and screen shots taking you step-by-step through the essentials. With little time and effort, you will master the arts of:

Blogging and microblogging
Social networking and bookmarking
Audio and video
E-books and webinars
Direct and indirect marketing
Brand and relationship building
Word-of-mouth marketing
Expanding your reach and establishing your position
Integrating with traditional marketing
Evaluating results

By the end of the book, you will have completed a social-media marketing plan that produces real results and created a strategy for future marketing plans–all in just 30 minutes a day.

With the broader embracing of social media marketing by businesses of all sizes comes a necessary shift in thinking. While traditional marketing is a highly destination-centric communications channel, social media marketing is a very audience-centric communications channel. When a business develops a traditional ad, the creative team’s goal is to match the message of that ad with the destination where consumers will see it. However, there is no way to predict where a message on the social Web could end up. It’s impossible to know where a consumer will find it once that message has been shared across social Web connections and audiences.

Along with that sharing and spreading of messages across the social Web comes a big benefit for businesses, because consumers are given the opportunity to make those messages their own, which empowers them to take ownership of those messages through conversations and content creation. Ultimately, those behaviors enable consumers to become emotionally involved with those conversations, and emotionally involved consumers are likely to become loyal brand advocates. The power of the social Web in terms of brand building comes from the band of brand advocates that talk about brands and protect those brands from negativity.

The social Web offers the potential for businesses and brands to directly connect with more people than ever and to integrate traditional and social media marketing initiatives in order to effectively surround consumers with branded experiences from which they can self-select how they want to interact with the brands they support. Make sure your strategic imperatives address the social media opportunity in 2011 and beyond.

About the Author

Susan Gunelius is a 20-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored numerous books about marketing, branding, and social media. Her marketing-related articles can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, FoxBusiness.com, WashingtonPost.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. She is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company, and speaks about marketing at events around the world. To read Susan’s complete biography, click here.

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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 55 – An Interview with Adrian Ott, author of The 24-Hour Customer

StrategyDriven — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 11:42:49 +0000

Special Edition 55 – An Interview with Adrian Ott, author of The 24-Hour Customer explores the impact of time on customers’ buying decisions; how to identify the time-value impacts associated with a product or service, the market opportunities created by the impact, and then how to formulate and position one’s offerings to create increased time-value and earn more sales. During our discussion, Adrian Ott, author of The 24-Hour Customer: New Rules for Winning in a Time-Starved, Always-Connected Economy, share with us her insights, approaches, and real-world experiences regarding:

the money value of time as it relates to customers and their buying decisions
the Time-ographics Framework and what information business leaders can glean about their products and services once they are plotted within this matrix
several ‘in principal’ alterations leaders can make to products and services to increase their time-value
actions business leaders should take to transform time-value insights into a cohesive, go-forward strategy that provides a roadmap to creating new and/or enhance existing revenue streams
how business leaders can measure the effectiveness of their time-value initiatives

Additional Information

In addition to the incredible insights Adrian shares in The 24-Hour Customer and this special edition podcast are the resources accessible from her websites, www.24HourCustomer.com and www.ExponentialEdge.com. Adrian’s book, The 24-Hour Customer, can be purchased by clicking here.

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About the Authors

Adrian Ott, author of The 24-Hour Customer, is the CEO and Founder of Exponential Edge, a management advisory firm that assists leading global corporations in identifying and building new roads to revenue. Consulting Magazine called Adrian “one of Silicon Valley’s most respected strategists.” She has worked with some of the most innovative Fortune 500 and start-up companies in the world; helping them gain a market edge in today’s exponential economy. To read Adrian’s complete biography, click here.

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FULL ACCESS to StrategyDriven’s premium content for 14 days
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The Heart of Sales

StrategyDriven — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 11:41:41 +0000

Sales, the most manipulative and greed-filled of our business practices, could easily become a spiritual practice – and bring in far more revenue. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

For decades, I have been a proponent of, and keynoter in the field of, Spirituality in the Workplace. In my work life, I have focused on the sales profession, as I believe (as the very foundation of business), it offers the capability of making each person, each interaction, and each company, based on true service.

Unfortunately, with the focus on profit, solution placement, timelines, and commissions, the potential for true servant-leadership has been overlooked. Indeed, it’s possible to make money AND make nice.

Dirty Little Secrets: Why buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell and what you can do about it
by Sharon Drew Morgen

Every day, business people face critical buying decisions – from new software to revamped website design to employee training programs. But all too often, the long lag time between recognizing the need for a new solution and actually purchasing and implementing it leads to lost sales, lost opportunities, and lost productivity. Thought leader Sharon Drew Morgen has uncovered what keeps organizations from moving forward and in her new book, Dirty Little Secrets, she reveals what potential buyers need to know to expedite the process of bringing positive change to their companies.

Dirty Little Secrets offers dozens of examples to clarify precisely how buying decisions can be facilitated through the right kind of questions, including an in-depth case study of a marketing manager who recognizes the need for a better website and wants to bring in an external design team. Sharon Drew explores what happens when he stumbles in the dark trying to bring his fellow managers, the internal tech team (which is responsible for the current site), and the CFO (to whom the tech team reports) on board. She then presents the same situation using Buying Facilitation^®. The result? “Decision facilitation” enables a smoother, faster process that leads to a better outcome for both the marketing manager and the design firm.

Selling and Serving

The sales job focuses on needs assessment and solution placement. Of course this is necessary – but only as the final stage of issues buyers have to address. Sales overlooks the off-line, behind-the-scenes decision issues that buyers must face privately before they get the buy-in to make a purchase.

But this is where the true servant-leader connection is: imagine having the capability to serve folks by first helping them discover all of the internal, values-based decision issues they must address, and being a support for them in the process. And once this is done (and it makes the sales process about 600% more efficient), then we can sell.

But we can’t continue to use our positions merely to influence others. Let’s look at what we’ve been doing until now.

Sellers, unfortunately, have a belief that if by offering the right data, in the right way, to the right demographic, or use the right incentives/push/pitch/influence, that people will buy, or acquiesce, or agree. Yup: I’ve got the important data that you need – now let me tell you about it and explain to you why you need it.

But that premise is false: sales only close 7% of prospects. And that’s an average. Why doesn’t this model work? Because it’s based on information push, and ignores the underlying values that people must match before they are willing to buy anything.

People don’t make decisions based on data: all decisions are made according to our internal values/criteria/beliefs (There is no such thing as an emotional decision, even if it looks that way to an outsider.). We do not choose to do something that goes against our values, so all behavior is a rendition of our beliefs in action, even thought it might be unconscious.

When we create data-driven vehicles for marketing and sales, we have no idea if the mode, the message, the presentation, or the actual verbiage, go against someone’s internal criteria. As a result, we have no idea how our message will be received. That means, we’re either lucky or we’re unlucky. Bad odds: with the best solution in the world, we are dependent on luck for our results. Not to mention that we are missing opportunities to connect with, and serve, another person.

There is a Way to Influence with Integrity

But there is a way to help buyers discover how to make the decisions and manage the change (and every purchase – indeed every decision – is a change management issue) by using their own values.

It’s possible to help buyers:

assemble the appropriate Buying Decision Team members
define the criteria they must ultimately meet
explore every opportunity to resolve their issues with familiar resources (like current vendors or by fixing current)
get necessary buy-in from whoever, whatever touches the final solution
operate with the new solution without facing major disruption

Buyers need to accomplish all of these things anyway, with us or without us. Sellers sit and wait while they do them. We can continue to wait to make a sale, or become a true Servant Leader and lead our buyers through these decision points. It’s not sales – it’s change management – but it will afford an opportunity to serve, and buyers will fold the seller in to the decision, with no objections.

I’ve developed a new type of question (Facilitative Question) to help people uncover their unconscious criteria to make new decisions, or re-weight old beliefs. It works alongside my Buying Facilitation™ model as a decision facilitation tool to manage change. Questions like:

How would you know when it was time to add a new skill set to the ones you’re already using successfully?

What would you need to trust to recognize that by facilitating buying decisions and entering the buying journey earlier that you can close more deals and make more money?

How would you know that adding a change management skill set would be good for business, and enable a true collaboration of trust and respect?

Until or unless people choose to reconsider all of the elements within their status quo, and can find a way forward that doesn’t disrupt their status quo irreparably, they will do nothing.

Start the buyer/seller relationship by helping buyers manage the idiosyncratic decision issues they must address internally. Then, once they’ve determined their route, you can sell. It’s a good way to help people get to the very core, the very heart of the matter and create real change. And it gives us the opportunity to truly serve by leading the change.

About the Author

Sharon Drew Morgen is founder of Morgen Facilitations, Inc. (www.newsalesparadigm.com). She is the visionary behind Buying Facilitation^®, the decision facilitation model that enables people to change with integrity. A pioneer who has spoken about, written about, and taught the skills to help buyers buy, she is the author of the acclaimed New York Times Business Bestseller Selling with Integrity and the new book Dirty Little Secrets: Why buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell and what you can do about it. She lives in Austin, Texas.

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The Future of Business Is Social: Seven Principles That Lead to Social Success and the Companies Already Getting Them Right

StrategyDriven — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 11:07:03 +0000

More and more, companies are realizing the revenue-driving value of connecting socially and collaboratively with their customers. Social Nation sets forth the foundations for this new way of doing business.

Let’s face it: The business world is changing. Rapidly. While the object of the game is still to drive revenue, the methods have changed. Instead of a monolithic one-way interaction, business is now being conducted through constant and meaningful two-way conversations between organizations and constituents – at every stage of organizational development. And it’s a good thing, too.

Social Nation: How to Harness the Power of Social Media to Attract Customers, Motivate Employees, and Grow Your Business
by Barry Libert

It’s time to join Social Nation and prosper! This book will show you, as an employee, customer or partner, how to use new social technologies, make yourself heard, and produce better products and services.

As a leader and manager, you’ll learn how to use these tools to harness social interactions to improve your business and to create your own social nation. The book provides a social assessment for leaders, managers and employees to scientifically evaluate your individual social skills and competencies. Leveraging case studies, Social Nation illustrates the principles and strategies that will help you to:

Integrate social skills into existing leadership practices
Overcome common objections cited as obstacles to becoming a social enterprise
Adopt new forms of social leadership across your organization
Attain social intelligence by listening and measuring outcomes
Realize tangible economic benefits and ROI from business initiatives & offerings

Not so long ago, the object of the game was to be cutthroat and dictatorial about business, and it helped if you could check your emotions and personality at the door. Deep down, did most of us really buy the old ‘nothing personal – it’s just business’ line? Of course not! After all, building a thriving business is all about making lasting, personal, reliable connections inside and outside of your company. And these days, there’s no better way to do that than through social media – in essence, by building your company’s own Social Nation.

As the chairman and CEO of Mzinga^®, a company that provides social software to businesses, quite literally, it’s my job to be social media savvy. And building your own Social Nation is increasingly necessary in the business world.

It’s true. Your employees and your customers want to be engaged on a very personal level, and not just through a survey or an annual conference. And here’s the clincher: If you choose not to engage with these folks, they’ll do it without you – and you definitely don’t want that.

Examples of Social Nations are everywhere. Today, customers want to rely on what other diners have to say to help make decisions about where they should eat next, rather than relying on traditional restaurant advertising. Open Table has brought together a nation of diners who connect online. Amazon has brought together a nation of readers for those who want to share their feedback about books and help influence the choices of other readers. A community of travelers help us select hotels that meet our personal preferences thanks to Trip Advisor. TheStreet.com steers us toward the stocks we should buy.

And it does not stop there. These and many other companies are all beginning to understand the power of creating friends, fans, and followers to build their businesses.

Building your Social Nation means changing what you think it means to build a company. This emerging social era is about engaging everyone around you to redefine what you do and how you do it – including sales, marketing, R&D, customer support, and product development.

Still skeptical? Then take a look at the hard numbers. A 2009 study by the Nielsen Company revealed that employees, partners, and customers spent 17 percent of their online time social networking or blogging – and 83 percent more time in online social networks than the year prior. What’s more, these constituencies are driving advertisers to spend an expected $2.6 billion on these social sites by 2012.

Essentially, these statistics tell us that companies need to embrace and capture the voices of their employees and customers if they want to innovate and thrive. And at the same time, customers and employees want to impact all aspects of business by sharing their opinions, criticisms, and praise with companies – and with each other.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that building communities for customers, employees, partners, and investors is critical to the future vitality of business. In this new era, you can’t underestimate how important emotional and social connections are, and how crucial it is to fulfill the needs of others and the desires of customers. When you embrace the Social Nation revolution, you’ll create a better, more profitable, and more viable company or organization.

Excited to learn more? Then read on to learn about my seven rules for implementing a successful social media strategy in your organization and learn how real-world companies have put them into action:

Rule 1: Develop Your Social Skills. Leaders in this new Social Nation are expected to follow as much as they lead, collaborating with their colleagues while still providing structure and support. In boardrooms and offices around the world, leaders are starting to become more interconnected, to put others’ needs first, and to find motivation in helping others succeed. They facilitate rather than control.

You can’t expect your organization’s Social Nation to be successful if you as a leader don’t think about the needs and wants of your employees and customers. I’m reminded of Andrea Jung, CEO of Avon. She strives to make Avon a ‘company for women,’ and feels that it’s very important to empower the company’s saleswomen by talking with them about what matters to them as well as to Avon. And guess what? Avon was one of the few companies to chart growth during the 2008-2009 recession.

Rule 2: Let Culture Lead Your Way. When building your social organization, remember that the DNA of the company is very important, so let an open and honest culture be a guiding principle. After all, culture defines your company because it tells employees what to expect and lets customers know who you are and what you stand for.

For a great example, look at Zappos – a company whose success is due largely to an emphasis on culture. Zappos is based around ten core values, which all employees know and understand. Beyond that, working at Zappos is fun, personal, and social. For example, there’s a Dance Dance Revolution machine in the lobby! Most importantly, though, employees are encouraged to connect authentically with each other and with customers. They feel good about where they work – and that shows in their engagement and performances.

Rule 3: Mind Your Online and Offline Manners. How you say something – be it online or off – is as important as what you say, and can help make the difference in gaining fans, friends, and followers. And remember that technology connects people in faster and more transparent ways than ever!

Social media can definitely propel your company forward, especially when employees are excited and involved. Australian telecom company Telstra gets this concept. In fact, at Telstra, social media participation is mandatory! However, the company trains each employee on how to appropriately participate, basing its guidelines on responsibility, respect, and representation. Very, very smart.

Rule 4: Listen, Learn, Adapt. Social intelligence enables your company to benefit from all that is happening around you—including the conversations of your constituents – so you can adapt what you do and how you do it to better meet the needs of your customers, employees, and market demands. After all, it’s a good thing to understand what your customers need and want and how they interact with your products and services.

If you have a younger child, you’ve probably heard of Webkinz, which has turned out to be a brilliant concept by Ganz. Kids receive avatars of their stuffed animals in an online community, which allows them to interact with other children and to care for their ‘pets.’ But more importantly, Ganz is able to keep tabs of how many customers it has, how long they spend online, and how they feel about the products they’ve bought. Using this information, Ganz is able to improve its product and its customer interaction.

Rule 5: Include Others in Everything You Do. As an organization that is seeking to benefit from membership in the Social Nation, relying on others in every part of your company is the only way to alter what you do and how you do it to generate new revenues and increase profits.

Ducati really personifies this strategy. In 2003, the company did away with its traditional marketing in high-end magazines and the like, and re-centered itself around community members, their needs, feedback, and conversations. Ducati made sure that fans and owners could attend plenty of rallies, races, parties, and bike shows, as well as become involved in an online community. Now, Ducati has become even more popular due to fan enthusiasm – and its products and services have improved due to customer feedback and suggestions!

Rule 6: Rely on Others for Growth and Innovation. Friends, fans, and followers are instrumental in achieving growth in today’s connected world. Instead of the ‘old’ method of relying on focus groups that meet behind two-way mirrors, it’s time to engage customers in a two-way conversation to innovate new products and services that matter.

Take Mountain Dew, for example. Instead of traditional product development efforts, PepsiCo created a ‘DEWmocracy’ campaign to decide what the next Mountain Dew flavor would be. Anyone could log on to Mountain Dew’s website and play an exciting multi-leveled game, through which they could rack up points toward their preferred soda being chosen. Essentially, the company’s next soft drink was in the hands of its Social Nation. Power to the people, indeed!

Rule 7: Reward Others and You Will Be Rewarded Too. As organizations focus more and more on connections and relationships, customers want to be rewarded emotionally as well as financially. Successful businesses have to meet both needs.

Apple is the poster child for rewarding fans. Anyone can develop an app for the iPhone or iPad. Now, just three years after the release of the iPhone, the app craze has become a $2.5 billion yearly earnings extravaganza for the company—and that’s just Apple’s share of the rewards. In fact, individual developers are offered a 70/30 profit division – in their favor! – to create apps based on their individual views of the community’s wants and needs. You’d better believe that these folks are emotionally and financially connected to Apple, as well as socially connected to each other!

When you follow these Social Nation-building rules, you’ll achieve the results you desire based on customers who care and employees who enjoy what they do every day. It’s true: With open communication and all-around engagement, your company’s social media and new technologies will realize new revenue sources and transform your business.

About the Author

Barry Libert is the author of Social Nation: How to Harness the Power of Social Media to Attract Customers, Motivate Employees, and Grow Your Business. He is Chairman and CEO of Mzinga^®, the leading provider of social software, services, and analytics that improve business performance. Barry has published five books on the value of social and information networks. He is a regularly featured keynote speaker at industry associations and for leading companies on the power of social media. He has been published in Newsweek, Smart Money, Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, and he has appeared on CNN, CNBC, and NPR. Barry currently serves on the Board of Directors at Innocentive and The SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. To learn more about Barry, click here.

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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 54 – An Interview with Gail Martin, author of 30 Days to Social Media Success

StrategyDriven — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 11:10:20 +0000

Special Edition 54 – An Interview with Gail Martin, author of 30 Days to Social Media Success explores approaches to effective business marketing using social media outlets such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and blogging; marketing that drives traffic and ultimately results in increased sales. During our discussion, Gail Martin, author of 30 Days to Social Media Success: The 30 Day Results Guide to Making the Most of Twitter, Blogging, LinkedIN, and Facebook, share with us her insights, approaches, and real-world experiences regarding:

what social media marketing is and several examples of this type of communication channel
quantifiable results businesses realize as a result of implementing an effective social media strategy
how social media marketing results can be quantifiably measured
costs associated with implementing a social media marketing strategy in terms of time and money
how Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and blogging can be effectively used as marketing tools

Additional Information

In addition to the incredible insights Gail shares in 30 Days to Social Media Success and this special edition podcast are the resources accessible from her website, www.GailMartinMarketing.com. Gail’s book, 30 Days to Social Media Success, can be purchased by clicking here.

Final Request…

About the Authors

Gail Martin, author of 30 Days to Social Media Success, is a marketing expert and international speaker, and the owner of DreamSpinner Communications. She is the ‘Get Results Resource’ for marketing that works; helping small and start-up businesses, consultants, coaches, authors, and solo professionals succeed through affordable publicity. To read Gail’s complete biography, click here.

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How to Genuinely Enjoy Cold Calling

StrategyDriven — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 11:40:40 +0000

Five perspectives that will (honestly!) create enjoyment in your cold calling

Most of us dread our days of making cold calls. We take a deep breath, pump ourselves up, and prepare to talk with a perfect stranger. Is there any wonder a gray cloud sometimes hangs over our desk?

It really doesn’t have to be this way. Cold calling can be an interesting, intriguing, fulfilling adventure.

Here are five perspectives that will give you an entirely new outlook on cold calling. When you apply these new perspectives, cold calling can actually be enjoyable. It can become personally fulfilling as well as financially rewarding.

Unlock The Game^TM

Unlock The Game is a radically honest sales and cold calling approach based on integrity and common sense. It challenges traditional sales thinking and helps you achieve better sales results.

It’s the missing link – a new mindset and language that converts selling into a natural conversation between you and your prospect.

It offers you a new way of thinking about selling, from cold calling – the most dreaded selling experience of all – to the end of the sales process.

You don’t have to abandon the selling skills you already know – Unlock The Game gives you a new approach and new tools to help you let go of old behaviors that bring you negative results.

It’s incredibly effective.

Best of all, it’s easy to learn.

1. Focus on Helping the Other Person

It’s against our nature as human beings to create an uncomfortable situation with another person. That’s the core reason many of us get that knot in our stomach when we start dialing a cold call.

When we’re only focused on making the sale, this is not a natural meeting place for both people. We want the sale, but the other person usually wants us to go away. Being intrusive is not the finest of character traits, and on some level we know it.

So how can we feel good about cold calling? We change our mindset from getting the sale into being helpful. We look at cold calling as an opportunity to assist.

How can we possibly feel uncomfortable doing that? Helping people is one of the best character traits we possess.

When cold calling is aligned with our very best way of being, it becomes an adventure. We truly want to help people. We feel very good about this, and it shows in our voice. People hear it. And their response will surprise you.

2. Be Honest and Truthful

You’re in a very good place when you choose to be truthful in your cold calling. If you’re not trying to fool anyone, you naturally feel better about making the call. You know that you’re trustworthy. And people respond to you in a positive way.

When you approach a potential client with integrity and common sense, you’re more personable and less tense. Being fully honest is one of your better attributes. And it gives you an opportunity to enjoy the interaction rather than being artificial or manipulative.

People do seem to have a sixth sense about integrity. When they feel you can be trusted, you can truly shine as a person as well as a potential supplier.

3. Be Yourself

Engage people in natural conversation. The more natural you are, the more comfortable you will feel. This makes the other person feel more comfortable as well.

Avoid playing a role, especially reading from a script. Most people can tell when you’re using a script. There’s nothing personal about it, and they pick up on that.

Being artificial puts you in the ‘typical salesperson’ category, which is exactly the role most of us detest. It doesn’t feel authentic. And unless you’re a born actor, it makes you feel skittish about cold calling.

Give yourself permission to follow the rhythm of natural interaction. Allow the conversation to ‘breathe.’ Let it be the kind of conversation you would have with a friend.

Practice this and it can turn your cold calls into pleasant conversations. And you may actually look forward to meeting that new person the next time you pick up the phone.

4. Get into the Other Person’s World

Shift your mindset away from what you have to offer and focus instead on what their problem is.

So many of us have been trained think about our services and products, which we don’t think about the client’s point of view. We aren’t really interested in their issues and how we can help solve them.

Be interested in their world and their challenges. You’ll find this intriguing. Most of us have a natural flair for problem solving. We enjoy ‘fixing things.’ So find out what’s going on with the person you’re talking to.

Make sure the solution you have really does “fix it.” Get rid of any hidden agendas and truly listen. Let them know you’re interested in them and their world.

Move outside your own sales agenda to focus on the needs of others. This makes you a better human being and helps you leap past the fear of cold calling.

5. Let Go of Expectations

Never assume anything beforehand. Allow the conversation to be one of exploration and discovery. Stay focused on the dialogue instead of any private agenda.

Determine whether it makes sense to continue the conversation by truly listening. Never presume your prospect should buy what you have to offer, even when it seems they’re a perfect fit.

You are not calling to create a situation that is focused on your personal gain, but on helping the other person. Simply have a conversation to explore whether you can help them in some way. This takes pressure off both of you. You’ll be more relaxed and they’ll be more honest about where they stand.

Believe me, once you start applying these perspectives it will transform your day-to-day work life. Instead of dreading cold calling, you’ll anticipate the adventure of creating a situation where everybody wins.

About the Author

Ari Galper is the World’s #1 Trust-Based Sales Expert and the Creator of Unlock The Game^®, a new sales mindset and approach that has revolutionized the world of selling. His profound discovery of shifting one’s mindset to a place of complete integrity, based on new words and phrases grounded in sincerity, has earned him distinction as the world’s leading authority on how to build trust in the world of selling. Ari has been featured in a multitude of leading sales and business books for his unique and special trust-based sales approach and interviewed on networks such as CNN Money and Sky News. To read Ari’s complete biography, click here.

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10 Ways to Get More Video Views

StrategyDriven — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 11:36:01 +0000

YouTube is the worlds second largest search engine and Google owns YouTube; so ignore video in your online marketing mix at your own peril. Google reports an 80 percent click rate on videos that appear in the search results. Video is here to stay so get into the game by adhering to these 10 tips.

Everspark Interactive (ESI) is a full-service, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Agency specialized in getting their clients’ websites to rank in the top position on Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Currently, Everspark Interactive has roughly 25 clients and $2 million in revenue, offering a wide range of services from website design and layout, to full, top-tier SEO. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Everspark Interactive was founded in June 2009 by internationally-known Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expert, Jason Hennessey and 20-year marketing veteran, Chris Watson.

Configure Your YouTube Channel for Optimal SEO – The 2nd biggest search engine on the internet deserves special attention when it comes to SEO. Use your keywords in your title, description and tags.
Syndicate Each of Your Videos – Don’t just put the video on your site and on YouTube, get it on as many video platforms as possible – such as Revver, Tube Mogul and Daily Motion.
Use Video to Educate – There is a concept in Internet Marketing called ‘extending the free line’ – if you want more views then stop thinking sell and start thinking ‘educate’.
Keep It Brief – Unless your video is objectively fascinating, viewers are increasingly likely to tune out if you don’t respect their time – shoot for 5 to 10 mins per video.
Call to Action – Think of each video as it’s own marketing / pr / advertising campaign. What do you want your viewer to do? Are you asking them to do it?
People Like People – Every time we look at a picture with people in it, we pay far more attention. Of course it depends on your subject matter, but try to include humans, don’t overkill it, no one wants to watch a talking head for 5 minutes – just consider in the edit ‘did I include enough human in my video?’
Story Tell – In your 5 to 10 minute video – try to tell a story by hitting these marks. 1. Why your doing what your doing? 2. How your doing what your doing? 3. What your doing with what your doing? 4. What’s been happening because of what you’ve been doing? 5. What you can do for them?
Include Your Video in a PRWeb Press Release – spend the extra cash and embed a video in a press release, if a media outlet is going to run the printed word, many of them will also carry the video.
Keep an Eye on Trends – By watching Google trends and setting your Google Alerts for specific topics, you can be first to market with a video that satisfies a real and current demand.
Do It Right – Whilst there is merit in ‘just doing it’ – if your going to take video seriously and make it part of your ongoing marketing mix, either get good at it by becoming a student of online video – or – hire someone who does it for a living.

About the Authors

Jason Hennessey is an internationally-known Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expert. Over the past seven years, Jason has been a vigorous student/practitioner of search marketing – dissecting, testing, debunking, and reverse engineering the major search algorithms.

As the director of SEO at Everspark, Hennessey oversees search marketing campaigns for high profile celebrities, lawyers, politicians and Fortune 500 companies. Within the industry he is known as ‘The Secret Weapon‘ people call on when they want to rank for extremely competitive terms in short periods of time. Jason played an instrumental role in turning Everspark Interactive into a $1.2 million agency in only three months.

Chris Watson is a 20-year marketing veteran, with a wealth of knowledge and experience in the magazine publishing industry. Over the span of his career, Chris has won numerous industry awards for his work with the InfoLink stable of publications in Australia.

In January 2010, he partnered with three colleagues to create a full-service SEO agency called Everspark Interactive. With Chris’s extensive background and creative vision, he has helped grow Everspark Interactive into a $1.2 million company in just three months; making it one of Atlanta’s fastest growing new companies.

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10 Ways for Getting Better Links

StrategyDriven — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 11:38:23 +0000

‘Links’ are the currency of the internet and ranking on Google has much to do with how many inbound (one way) links a site has coming into it. Essentially, it’s an election of sorts and not all endorsements (links) are equal. This article covers proven techniques as to how to obtain strong, quality links of various values, weights and strength.

Install a WordPress Blog – WordPress is the blogging platform of choice for most SEO’s – once installed on your site – make sure you have the All-In-One SEO Pack + SEO Slug plug ins installed. Then, when you write a blog post, use your keyword in the Title + create an anchor text link.
Become a Guest Blogger – Bloggers in your industry want new content from industry experts – reach out to them and offer to lend a hand (and include your keyword link in your signature).
Article Syndication – Write as many articles as you can, try to become a subject matter expert – then take those articles and place them on Ezine Articles, Articles Base, or Article Alley.
3rd Party Blog Posts – Go to Google and type in “Your Keyword + Blog” – spend some time going through the first 3 or 4 pages – choose blogs you’d like to comment on and do so – again, in your signature, place your keyword link.
Set Google Alerts – Using your Gmail account, find Google Alerts – set an alert for every time someone writes a blog or a forum post for your keyword – then go leave comments.
Have Great Content – There’s a novel concept – actually have content people want to link to naturally. This is the very best way to link build so spend some time looking at Google Trends and find out exactly what the market is looking for and serve it up.
Video – It’s one thing to have a video on your site – it’s quite another to syndicate that video content. Every time you place a video on another site – (in most cases) you get a link back to your site.
.Edu Links – These are some of the most powerful links you can get – one way to get .edu links is to find .edu forums and engage in the comments. It stands to reason these forums are pretty heavily monitored, and rightly so – so make sure you’re really there to participate (Tip: participate in your college / university alumni forum).
Bookmark the Pages of Your Website – There are a number of sites that make book marking easy, for instance SocialMarker.com.
Directory Listings – The search engines pay attention to where your site is listed. Some of the best directories you can list in (for SEO purposes) are Yahoo Director, BOTW.com, Business.com, and DMOZ. Also, look for strong directories that are specific to your industry or at least, subsections of directories that address your industry.

About the Authors

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10 Tools to Audit Your Site

StrategyDriven — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 11:40:16 +0000

Gaining clarity on where your site really is, is half the battle. SEO must be looked at through 2 lenses – lens 1 has to do with your site, lens 2 is your competition. To move forward and spot opportunities, you have to get your arms around your strengths and weaknesses and that of your competition.

SEO Book Tool Bar – A free download that allows you to see the SEO health of every site you look at.
Market Samurai – We like to use this tool for competitive analysis – gives the metrics of the top 10 ranking sites on Google for any keyword/phrase.
SEOMoz Linkscape – The back link checker is terrific, allows you to not only see the number of links, but anchor text volume.
SEM Rush – This tool is always handy to see what keywords a site ranks for and has a nice feature in the paid version that allows you to sort by ranking.
Keyword Spy – Kind of similar to SEM Rush but the parts that have a lot going for them are the real time search data that appears when you are doing Google searches + the ad words keyword checker – so you can see what every site is bidding on.
Raven Tools – I’m in love with this tool. You can plug in all the keywords/phrases you are targeting and it gives you and overview of all your rankings and shows weekly progress (a bit on the pricey side but for client reporting – it rocks).
Google Data Centers – Often, we’re looking at only one data center, you want to see all the data centers so do a Google search for ‘Google Data Centers’ and have a look at the real time rankings across all the Google DC’s.
Rank Checker – The little engine that could. It’s such an overlooked tool but I find over the years, I still go back to it for spot checking (you’ll find it in the SEO Book tool bar).
Alexa – Sure, most of us already use this tool but we can’t write a 10 tools to measure without including it – Alexa ranking is one of the best and easiest ways to track performance.
Google Webmaster Tools – Allows you to see the same thing that the Google spiders see. Allows you to properly set your canacolization as well as check load times + broken links. It is also, the easiest way to get in touch with Google.

About the Authors

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Win Loss Analysis: A Strategic Imperative

StrategyDriven — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 11:47:15 +0000

The first question salespeople ask themselves when they lose in a new business situation is, “Why did I lose?” Salespeople often ask prospects why they lost a deal, but they don’t typically get a straight answer. In fact, according to sales research data, the complete truth from prospects is shared only 40 percent of the time. This means that on average, in 60% of new business situations, salespeople do not have a complete and accurate understanding of why they lost.

From a Good Sales Call to a Great Sales Call: Close More by Doing What You Do Best
by Richard Schroder

Create a Tailor-Made Sales Strategy Using Lessons from the Field!

When things don’t go well on a sales call, you probably ask yourself, “Why did I lose that sale?” . . . and then move on.

But the question remains: Why did you lose that sale? Learning the answer can mean the difference between landing and losing the next sale. From a Good Sales Call to a Great Sales Call teaches you how to assess your strengths and weaknesses based on information you can get from the most qualified source available—the buyer. You’ll learn how to:

Approach post-decision prospects using best practices and proper etiquette
Design a comprehensive “debrief” questionnaire
Obtain more candid and accurate feedback from prospects
Identify important patterns in your techniques
Use what works and improve what doesn’t to close more sales than ever

Filled with sample dialogs you can use with prospects, From a Good Sales Call to a Great Sales Call is neatly organized into eight easy-to-follow steps that take you through the whole process:

Step 1. Discover the Benefits of Successfully Debriefing with Prospects
Step 2. Understand the Post-decision Mind-Set of the Prospect
Step 3. Recognize How Salespeople Can Inhibit the Feedback Process
Step 4. Design a Prospect Debrief Questionnaire
Step 5. Utilize Proven Interviewing Techniques for Conducting Debrief Calls
Step 6. Identify and Analyze Your Win/Loss Trends
Step 7. Benchmark Your Feedback
Step 8. Implement the Right Techniques to Increase Your Close Rate

Refreshingly direct and right to the point, this system is based on 12 years of research and thousands of sales prospect interviews. This comprehensive, powerful program leads to better sales techniques and increased close rates. In short, it works.

Understanding why a deal is won or lost is critical, yet most sales teams and companies have a limited understanding of the true reasons for winning and losing. Clearly there is a significant opportunity for many companies to improve their close rates by better understanding prospect perceptions.

One proven way to achieve this is to implement what has become known as a Win / Loss Analysis Program, whereby an independent third party interviews prospects after buying decisions have been made. It is only through this type of process that sales teams can learn the true, candid reasons why they win and lose. Although over the last decade more and more companies are implementing formal Win / Loss Programs, at present, less than 20 percent have done so. Therefore, the majority of companies are missing a critical opportunity to improve their sales performance, better understand their competitive landscape and enhance their products and services.

In order to understand why Win / Loss is so critical, it is important to first recognize some of the reasons why it is difficult for salespeople to gather this information:

Prospects feel uncomfortable giving feedback and criticism directly to sales reps.
Prospects often have issues with the sales rep or sales process that can impact their candor.
Sales reps are not in an objective position to obtain feedback because they are too emotionally involved in the situation.
Sales reps usually do not know the right post sale questions to ask (and how to ask them).

This problem is compounded when fragmented (and often faulty) prospect feedback is spread throughout an organization. Since salespeople typically do not get an accurate depiction of why they lose, they often unknowingly disseminate incomplete or inaccurate information within their organizations. Compounding this problem is that there is usually no clear process for capturing and relaying prospect information company-wide.

This common organizational behavior ultimately corrupts decision making as senior managers make decisions based on inaccurate information derived from prospects who were not fully candid and salespeople who are not in an objective position to gather and share unbiased information. Collectively, this can lead to strategic misalignment.

One proven way to circumvent this problem is to implement a formal Win / Loss program whereby someone who is uninvolved in the sales process interviews prospects post-decision. When accurate Win / Loss interviews are captured by an independent third party, information can be shared in a more organized manner and most importantly, the information stays consistent at every level. The information does not change as it moves around the organization and therefore, better strategic decisions can be made.

The most important long term goal and benefit of Win / Loss is to increase a company’s new business win rate. This is achieved through an improved understanding of how a company’s sales team and products and services compare with the competition during the sales process. Other benefits include:

Identifying a company’s strengths and weaknesses.
Improving the effectiveness of sales presentations.
Determining key drivers for closing new business.
Formally sharing prospect perceptions across all areas of an organization to enhance product and service development.
Benchmarking and tracking a company’s sales effectiveness and products and services against the competition.

Win / Loss Analysis offers companies a significant accumulative advantage over the competition, the benefits of which can grow substantially over time. By committing to a continuous and unbiased prospect feedback loop that can be shared with all areas of an organization, companies can more accurately make enhancements at all levels. Over time, this management tool can allow a company to charge ahead of its competition by continually keeping a pulse on industry trends, the competition, and needed enhancements to the sales process, products and services.

About the Author

Richard Schroder is president of Anova Consulting Group, a leading market research, sales training and consulting firm. He is a sought-after speaker and a recognized thought leader in win/loss analysis and sales training. He is the author of a new book, From a Good Sales Call to a Great Sales Call: Close More by Doing What You Do Best. To read Richard’s complete biography, click here.

Learn more about the Anova Consulting Group at www.TheAnovaGroup.com.

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10 Ways to Improve Click Through Rates

StrategyDriven — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 11:41:43 +0000

So much time is spent on trying to get more traffic and all of that can be pointless if the user experience is poor once they reach your site. You have a split second to give users a sense of who you are. When a user comes to your site, the enemy is ‘Frustration’ so think about the blockers, think about the experience, and think about implementing these 10 simple but effective conversion techniques.

Include a phone number in your meta description
Make sure the title tag on your page is relevant to what they’re searching for.
Include a call to action in your Meta Description
Include your unique selling proposition in your Meta Description
Focus on keywords that have the strongest Commercial Intent (OCI) – the OCI score can be found using the Market Samurai tool.
Keep your title tag 64 Characters in length
Keep you Meta Description no more than 160 characters
If possible try to use the word ‘free’ and ‘you’ and ‘your’ in your Meta Description.
If possible include the keywords your trying to rank for in your url
Most searches happen at the local level – so mention the location of your business or service.

About the Authors

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Are You A Strategy Driven Storyteller?

StrategyDriven — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 11:31:48 +0000

Marketing professionals refer to strategy as your unique selling proposition while sales folk use the term ‘positioning.’ However you view it, the implementation and outcome need to be taken very seriously. Whether you are a sales professional, entrepreneur or candidate for a new job, the same techniques come into play.

Hired!: How to Use Sales Techniques to Sell Yourself On Interviews
by Elinor Stutz

Most people today act in desperation to take ‘any’ job. Even worse, they interview as a victim, solely focused on themselves. They are missing the vision of finding a job that will provide both career growth and satisfaction. It’s possible to have both – you just need to know the how-to techniques!

HIRED! is written by Elinor Stutz, author of Nice Girls DO Get the Sale. She writes, “The interview is not about you, it’s about how well you will solve the company’s problems and fit in with the company culture. This is the only way you will get a job you actually enjoy!”

Not only will you read how-to execute what you need to know, but you will also read true stories of interviews that went awry as well as those that succeeded. They are real-world and entertaining to quickly grasp the strategies and get to HIRED!

This book is a must-read for the easier ‘how’ to get HIRED!

Achieve the right mindset for successful interviewing
Specific research prior to the interview
Leadership skills required for advancing a 2-way interview
Specific questions you MUST ask on the interview
Strategies for negotiation
Most importantly, Selling Strategies designed for interviewing to get you HIRED!

I have learned that there is no true competition in business because we each have our unique ways of delivering service. How are those in your field servicing their clientele and what are they saying to attract attention? Is what they are saying truthful? How can you differentiate yourself yet move with integrity to make you the preferred choice?

To be on top of your game, you need to know what is most important to your prospects and clients. In fact you need to be familiar with their challenges, needs and deep down desires or wish list.

One past experience of long ago best exemplifies the process. For a very short period of time I sold long-term healthcare insurance for a corporate giant. When a loved one were to take ill, there were a number of seemingly ‘red tape’ steps the partner would need to take to get the care that was required. Yet our competitive companies would boast they required no red tape at all. Instead, their clients could simply call anyone in for care that they desired and the company would reimburse the fees.

How do you overcome simplicity in favor of bureaucracy? I gave this considerable thought. I soon had a smile on my face with the answer. Instead of waiting for the objection, I took the offensive and volunteered the predicament my company was in followed by my praise of the required procedures.

I simply explained the dilemma and then returned a question to continue the conversation: “When your loved one takes ill, no matter the illness will you seriously know the best person to call for help? That’s why we have steps in place to make certain you get the best care.” This was followed by, “Which method sounds best to you?” Obviously I got the buy-in and agreement that my company was the right choice.

When you are interviewing and told “I like you but you just don’t have experience in…” Have a story ready to share about how you were once in a similar situation. Describe how you scrambled to learn what you needed, assembled team mates to help and worked long hours to accomplish far more than what was expected of you. Follow your story up with, “Do I sound like the type of candidate you are seeking?” They would be nuts to say “no.”

One of the most successful strategies I learned is to become a story-teller in all situations. As you saw above, whenever an objection or question is posed, use your previous experiences in short story format (no longer than two minutes to verbally describe) how you experienced a similar challenge, found a solution and ended the challenge with your glorious outcome.

The story-telling technique allows people to get to know the real you working to increase the trust and confidence in you. Strategy driven business increases revenue and leads to a very Smooth Sale!

About the Author

Elinor Stutz, CEO of Smooth Sale, LLC believes building relationships before the sale and continuing long after is the only way to sell and build a dynamic business. Elinor’s book, Nice Girls DO Get The Sale, is an International Best Seller. Her new book, Hired!: How to Use Sales Techniques to Sell Yourself On Interviews (Career Press), is based upon her own experience and years of community service. To read Elinor’s complete biography, click here.

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Doing ‘Different’ Right: Ten Big-Time Difference Makers and How They Made Some Serious Dough Thinking Outside the Box, part 2 of 2

StrategyDriven — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 16:36:44 +0000

The Difference Maker: The Bargains Group

The Dared to Be Difference: Teaming up for A-level customer service. Jody Steinhauer began The Bargains Group in 1988 from her kitchen table by purchasing a variety of different clothing and reselling it to discount clothing stores. Today, she runs a multi-million-dollar firm with over 4,000 different items for sale, but the most interesting aspect of the company is its employees.

…And the Clients Went Wild!: How Savvy Professionals Win All the Business They Want
by Maribeth Kuzmeski

Discover just how powerful your biggest fans can be!

And the Clients Went Wild! gives you the tools to take an eclectic approach to your marketing, and pick the best, most wildly successful marketing methods – traditional, online, or both — to win at achieving your marketing goals. And, whether by means of Facebook, Twitter, streaming video, or by old-fashioned word of mouth, public relations, or personal sales skill, the goal is to win, right? Combine social media with traditional marketing techniques for breakthrough results! While social media is doing much to change the marketing landscape, it doesn’t mean you have to take an either/or approach between it and more traditional methods.

Find real-life examples of success from some of today’s best businesses
Shows how to integrate and benefit from both traditional and new marketing methods
Uses the proven business growth strategy Red Zone Marketing® as a central concept
Author has proven the concepts successful in her work for numerous major clients

Don’t throw out tried and true marketing techniques just for the sake of the new. Do what works! Perfect your marketing mix and win with …And the Clients Went Wild!

The Bargains Group is a discount wholesaler of promotional business products, family clothing, accessories, gifts, toys, bedding and linens, personal hygiene products, and tradeshow promotional materials. So how exactly does a small firm with only 20 employees manage to make millions every year without offering prices much lower than their competitors? It’s simple: They hire the right people. By focusing on hiring fun, vivacious people who believe strongly in the culture of service, they are able to actually service each of their customers personally. They don’t even have a voicemail system!

While a lot of firms advertise how ‘different’ their people are, or how they focus on service, The Bargains Group actually proves this assertion. They don’t advertise or employ salespeople – yet they manage to make millions of dollars selling their products. Make sure that your staff is a differentiator for your company. There is great value in good customer service. Happy customers will not only stick around, they will also spread the word!

The Difference Maker: Dillard’s Septic Service

The Dared to Be Difference: Doing the dirty work (literally). James Dillard, owner of Dillard’s Septic Service in Annapolis, Maryland, runs a business that most others might consider ‘beneath’ them. Yet Dillard earns a six-figure income doing what many of us would call mundane, boring, or downright disgusting. An October 10, 2007, article in USA Today by Del Jones, entitled ‘A Dirty Job, But Someone Has to Get Rich Doing It,’ featured Dillard and other business owners who have entered into careers that many others simply would not. And it is a potential avenue for business owners who are looking for a way to generate more income. In fact, in the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans for 2009, less than glamorous fields and products – including discount tires, roofing, salsa, lumber, and tequila – have produced extraordinary income.

You might not consider these to be businesses that would create such great wealth. But all of these business owners found their niche, and, through it, their differentiation. Think about a product or service that you can offer that no one else will. You don’t always have to be wracking your brain to come up with a product or service that is better than anything your competitors offer. You can also come up with a product or service that they simply won’t offer. Products or services that others are afraid to touch can mean big opportunities for you!

The Difference Maker: Man Cave

The Dared to Be Difference: ‘Manning’ up before the rest. Who would have thought a Tupperware-type party for men would be a good idea? Cofounders Nick Beste and Kevin Carlow saw the success stories from female-centric companies like Tupperware, Silpada, and Partylite and thought, why not? As a result, they created Man Cave, an in-home party where hosts throw ‘Meatings’ complete with a set of ‘Man Laws.’ For years, thousands of companies have demonstrated and sold products to groups of women in their homes. Now Man Cave does it for men. They aren’t just the leader in their industry; they ARE the industry – and they anticipate crossing the $3-million mark by November 2010.

Don’t shy away from an idea just because it’s never been done before. In fact, discovering an untapped market can be like striking gold in this economy. Instead of following trends, you have to be brave enough to be a trendsetter. It can be the gateway to a big idea and a big payoff.

The Difference Maker: Realtor and Inventor Jean Newell

The Dared to Be Difference: Recognizing it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Veteran Realtor Jean Newell had an idea for her fellow real estate agents. She invented a personal utility pouch (PUP) – a multi-zippered mini-pack designed to carry all the technical tools, keys, contracts, and more that a real estate agent needs. Judging by the initial reaction she received, she knew she was on to something that people wanted. Her objective was to get on QVC, but she was turned down by gatekeepers again and again.

So she decided to reach out to her network, which consisted of other agents, buyers, sellers, etc., and ask for their help. She sent out an email requesting help to find a contact person at QVC for her new product and received an overwhelming response. Within a few days, she had 40 emails from people providing contacts at QVC. She created a quick video to show how she would promote the bag and sent it off to QVC. Within two weeks, she was accepted! Since her initial appearance on QVC, Newell has become a sales superstar and media darling.

A great idea is just an idea unless you can get it into the right hands. It’s vital for you to find ways to leverage what you have to offer. Get in front of people who can connect you to the places you want to be – it can be anybody – and don’t be afraid to ask the people you know. Leveraging your connections can be the difference between making it and breaking it right now, so you really can’t afford not to.

The Difference Maker: Toy House

The Dared to Be Difference: Advertising curiosity. In Jackson, Michigan, a city and state hit hard by the economy, toy store owner Phil Wrzesinski was struggling to compete against local big box competitors like Toys “R” Us, Target, and Walmart. And then he had an idea. In August 2008 he began running ads on the local radio station that had local DJs wondering what was in the men’s bathroom of the store. Droves of customers started coming in to see what actually was in the men’s bathroom. (The product in question, by the way, was a nightlight that projects stars on to the ceiling and walls of a darkened room.) The result? Despite the down economy, Toy House has seen a steady increase in both loyalty and sales ever since!

Just because your product may be ordinary, it doesn’t mean your promotion of it has to be. Clever advertising can peak interest, create buzz, and get people talking – exactly what you want at a time like this. Don’t be afraid to take risks with your promotion. Show that your company has an edge. It will set you apart from your competitors.

To beat your competition in today’s economy, you have to be offering something that no one else is – be it a unique product, promotion, offer, staff, or culture. You can’t expect to keep customers coming back if you are offering only the status quo. Don’t be afraid to take risks, think outside the box, and be a little daring. Not only will you grow your business, you’ll find yourself inspired, recharged, and motivated.

About the Author

Maribeth Kuzmeski, MBA, is the author of five books, including …And the Clients Went Wild!: How Savvy Professionals Win All the Business They Want (Wiley, 2010) and The Connectors: How the World’s Most Successful Businesspeople Build Relationships and Win Clients for Life (Wiley, 2009). She is the founder of Red Zone Marketing, LLC, which consults with businesses from entrepreneurial firms to Fortune 500 corporations on strategic marketing planning and business growth. Maribeth has personally consulted with some of the world’s most successful CEOs, entrepreneurs, and professionals. An internationally recognized speaker, she shares the tactics that businesspeople use today to create more sustainable business relationships, sales, and marketing successes.

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Leverage Your Business Exponentially

StrategyDriven — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 11:37:28 +0000

In the early years of my entrepreneurial life two words were shared with me that made a very big difference for my audience reach and business planning strategy. These two words are ‘repurpose‘ and ‘leverage.’

As I began to read marketing materials, it was clear I needed to create a multitude of product and service which seemed close to impossible. Upon speaking to a business coach, I was advised to repurpose materials. It was further explained that whichever vehicle comes first the underlying themes can be a basis for further content. There is no sense re-inventing the wheel. Additional cautionary advice received suggested I take the initial offering to more in-depth levels.

Hired!: How to Use Sales Techniques to Sell Yourself On Interviews
by Elinor Stutz

This book is a must-read for the easier ‘how’ to get HIRED!

Achieve the right mindset for successful interviewing
Specific research prior to the interview
Leadership skills required for advancing a 2-way interview
Specific questions you MUST ask on the interview
Strategies for negotiation
Most importantly, Selling Strategies designed for interviewing to get you HIRED!

A few years later, another business advisor suggested I develop a sales tip sheet as a gift when someone purchases a product or service from me. His last sentence sent the wheels in motion: “Develop 10 tips and for each one develop another 10 tips – you will easily derive a total of 100 tips for your clientele.”

From that point on I was able to successfully repurpose and leverage everything I do to the exponential power of 10. When you have one service – you have one clientele. When you offer a combination of 3 products and services, you reach 6 audiences by multiplying 3 x 2 x 1. What takes place is a crossover between services. For example, reading your book will lead to wanting your training; in turn this may lead to a request to have you speak at a conference. Now consider taking each venue to 10 – you have a grand total of 3,628,800 possibilities – a truly exponential number!

For example, blog grows into an article; many articles and newsletters will turn into a book. The book becomes a platform to speak at events, be interviewed, contribute articles and blogs to high traffic sites, and provide the opportunity to host your own radio show to interview others. In turn, you may become a guest on a television show. One day you may host your own cable TV show and create additional revenue streams.

You can see by utilizing the principles of repurposing and leveraging, you quickly grow your business. Whether you are the CEO of a huge corporation, an entrepreneur or a job seeker the principles work the same. As a job seeker, my advice is to not focus on one core area of expertise but think of complementary avenues you may pursue to increase your chances of finding interesting work. These alternate avenues will serve to give you added insight should you decide to return later on to your core competency.

As you grow your business in this frame of mind, you begin to attract much wider audiences. My analogy for business is that it should resemble an umbrella. Your core business is the covering and moves down into the center of the umbrella becoming your handle. The streams of income resemble the spokes of the umbrella. Keep in mind the spokes intersect and support each other as well as the cover.
Likewise, everything you implement must work in unison to support your business core.

And when you add relationship building and selling every step of the way, you will attract many more prospects, clients and opportunities leading to a continual Smooth Sale!

About the Author

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Doing ‘Different’ Right: Ten Big-Time Difference Makers and How They Made Some Serious Dough Thinking Outside the Box, part 1 of 2

StrategyDriven — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 11:36:37 +0000

If you’re looking for ways to set your business apart in this economy, look no further. There has never been a better time to be different. Here are ten companies that have done ‘different’ better than the rest.

In today’s business world, ‘business as usual’ is likely to put you out of business. If you’re using the same old marketing strategies today because they brought in business in years past, you’re in danger of being pummeled by your competition. In order to keep your customers happy (and happily spending!), you have to get their attention, and that means your typical tried-and-true marketing tactics aren’t going to cut it anymore. To beat your competition, you have to stand out and find ways to be you – uniquely!

…And the Clients Went Wild!: How Savvy Professionals Win All the Business They Want
by Maribeth Kuzmeski

Discover just how powerful your biggest fans can be!

Find real-life examples of success from some of today’s best businesses
Shows how to integrate and benefit from both traditional and new marketing methods
Uses the proven business growth strategy Red Zone Marketing® as a central concept
Author has proven the concepts successful in her work for numerous major clients

Don’t throw out tried and true marketing techniques just for the sake of the new. Do what works! Perfect your marketing mix and win with …And the Clients Went Wild!

With all the noise in your clients’ and potential clients’ daily lives, it certainly hasn’t become any easier to attract attention and appeal to your target market. But for your business to survive, you have to find ways to cut through that noise. Attracting attention often means that you have to step outside of the current norms and stand out.

If you aren’t sure where to get started, take a cue from other companies that have taken innovation to heart and used it to successfully win and keep customers.

Read on for some innovation inspiration from companies that found ways to make their customers take notice – while sticking with their values:

The Difference Maker: Buc-ee’s

The Dared to Be Difference: Banking on bathrooms. Sometimes what your competitors consider to be “unimportant” may just turn out to be the differentiation that gets customers coming back for more. Buc-ee’s gas stations—located throughout Texas—have focused their number-one offering on what people dread most about stopping at a gas station: the bathrooms! Each of the 30 locations has incredibly clean, substantially sized bathrooms, along with full-time attendants to keep them in tip-top shape. Buc-ee’s built their entire business around the bathrooms – a feature they knew they could use to differentiate their business.

This is a great example of how looking at things from a different perspective can really pay off. Instead of focusing on what clients liked about their industry, they chose to plan their strategy around what customers liked the least and improve upon it. Think about what people dislike most about your industry, service, or product offering. What solutions can you offer? It’s a great way to differentiate yourself from your competition and to create some buzz in the process!

The Difference Maker: Odwalla

The Dared to Be Difference: Juicing with a conscience. Juice company Odwalla was founded in Santa Cruz, California, in 1980 by Greg Steltenpohl, Gerry Percy, and Bonnie Bassett. The trio took the idea of selling fruit juices from a business guidebook. They began by squeezing orange juice with a secondhand juicer in a shed in Steltenpohl’s backyard. Their plan was to make enough profit to help fund music programs in local schools.

Odwalla was driven by a corporate conscience and a goal of leading the public toward a closer to-nature way of nourishing their bodies. The juices were very highly rated for taste. But the true success came in the way that they appealed to their customers. The founders hired marketing and advertising experts and created what they called their ‘Drink Tank’ – a group responsible for developing and managing the Odwalla brand. In building the brand, members of the ‘Drink Tank’ focused on authenticity, alignment, clear narrative, and the value of a strong corporate culture.

With very little advertising, Odwalla differentiated their brand by extolling the benefits of drinking and supporting a “juice with a conscience.” As a result, people cared and followed and bought. Odwalla appealed to their customers’ consciences and it paid off. Essentially, they called their customers’ consciences to action. But the strength of that call to action led them to success. How strong is your call to action? Do you frequently tell your customers what you want them to do? It can be an incredible way to drive your customers and potential customers to do exactly what you want them to do.

The Difference Maker: Geico

The Dared to Be Difference: Ensuring brand awareness. When you think Geico, what comes to mind? Perhaps their slogan, “Fifteen minutes could save you 15 percent or more….” Or maybe that gecko with the British accent. Or the stack of money with the eyeballs that seems to distract and attract everyone near it. Or those oft-offended cavemen. Or maybe – just maybe – you think of all four! Geico has done a particularly remarkable job at grabbing attention for their insurance products. And they’ve done it by frequently and consistently distributing their simple and somewhat annoying messages to establish brand awareness.

For Geico, frequency of their messages has brought them incredible brand awareness. You don’t have to have millions to spend on TV, radio, and print advertising to achieve the level of recognition Geico has achieved. What Geico has done is simply repeat, over and over, their message to their prospects. Think about what you can do to repeat your marketing messages to your target market. Do you frequently repeat your core benefits or offerings to your prospects? It’s a simple tactic that can yield high results.

The Difference Maker: The Australian Government

The Dared to Be Difference: Offering the world’s best job. The Australian Government promoted what they described simply as “the best job in the world” with a creative and extremely successful Internet campaign. The position they were advertising was a six-month contract to be caretaker of a series of islands in the Great Barrier Reef. The government released the story through traditional media (Reuters) and then sustained the buzz over an array of online networks including YouTube, Ning, Twitter, and Facebook. The contest’s website received one million hits the day after its launch when the campaign’s goal had been to receive just 400,000 hits over the course of the year. Furthermore, the program attracted over 34,000 applicants and generated over $70 million worth of global publicity.

The lesson here is an important one. You have to evoke an emotion in your customers if you want a response from them. Whether it’s hope, love, happiness, anger, or even hate, you want them to feel something. When people are passionate about something, they will act on it, tell their friends about it, and get involved. Think about what messages your company can convey that might provoke an intense reaction.

The Difference Maker: Vistaprint

The Dared to Be Difference: Giving it away for free. As a global company, Vistaprint employs more than 1,850 people, and ships to more than 120 countries around the world. The secret to their huge success? Business cards. Vistaprint wanted to offer their customers something that no other printing company did, so they decided that their hallmark would be jaw-dropping value. By offering 250 business cards for free, with a nominal $5.67 shipping and processing charge, they were able to appeal to their target market: cost-conscious small businesses. Today, 66 percent of Vistaprint’s business comes from returning customers. In the first quarter of 2010 alone, they acquired 1.4 million new customers – many who started with a free order.

If you offer something of real value for free, people will listen. In fact, ‘free’ can convert price shoppers into very loyal customers. Don’t concentrate on the money you may lose by giving away something. Instead, focus on the potential revenue that you could bring in. After all, those free business cards allowed Vistaprint to convert a typical commodity service – printing – into a company that generated over $500 million in revenue in 2009.

Next Monday: Doing ‘Different’ Right: Ten Big-Time Difference Makers and How They Made Some Serious Dough Thinking Outside the Box, part 2 of 2

About the Author

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Top Ten Pitfalls to Avoid When Going Social in the Business World

StrategyDriven — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 11:24:57 +0000

Businesses can gain a lot from building a “Social Nation,” but only if you’re networking smart.

If you were to make a list of up-and-coming business trends, social media strategies would probably be near the top. Actually, scratch that “up-and-coming” part – social media is already here. However, thousands of companies are rushing headlong into the profile-creating, news-tweeting, blog-posting frenzy…only to find that their valiant efforts are not getting the results they had hoped. If you’re looking for fans, followers, and friends to build a Social Nation around your business, don’t panic. There is simple advice that will help businesses avoid the pitfalls and make a strong online impact.

Social Nation: How to Harness the Power of Social Media to Attract Customers, Motivate Employees, and Grow Your Business
by Barry Libert

Integrate social skills into existing leadership practices
Overcome common objections cited as obstacles to becoming a social enterprise
Adopt new forms of social leadership across your organization
Attain social intelligence by listening and measuring outcomes
Realize tangible economic benefits and ROI from business initiatives & offerings

It’s true: there are countless benefits to joining what I call the Social Nation revolution – but just like any strategy for growth, social media isn’t foolproof. If you don’t want your company’s social strategy to fall flat, there are some guidelines you’ll need to follow.

As the Chairman and CEO of Mzinga, a company that provides social software to businesses. Quite literally, it’s my job to be social media savvy. And before you start building your own Social Nation, you need to have a well-researched game plan.

When it comes to building a successful social network for your company, you need to understand that there’s a lot of prep work to be done. You can’t just set up a Facebook profile for your company, tweet once or twice a day, and expect public interest in your company to shoot through the roof. Far from it, actually.

Think about it this way: if you were in charge of your company’s booth at a trade show or conference, you wouldn’t just slap your company’s logo onto a piece of poster board, place your business cards on the table, and hope for the best, would you? Of course not. Yet that’s exactly how some companies approach social media – and that’s why so many of these initiatives fail.

If you want to become a meaningful part of social conversations and interactions, you’ve got to know who your target “fan base” is, where they spend their time online, and what sorts of content and programming is valuable and relevant to them, and will foster their continued interest and participation. You also need to make sure you have the wherewithal to commit to growing and sustaining your Social Nation, and you’ve got to make sure that you have buy-in from within your company. And that’s just for starters.

Sure, it may sound intimidating, but don’t give up yet. Half the battle is knowing which mistakes not to make:

Pitfall #1: Running a Social Nation like a traditional business. If you want to run a social company, you first need to understand that almost everything you do is a two-way street. That is to say, you’re not going to prosper if your products and services are designed solely by folks on the inside. You need to embrace the perspectives and contributions of your employees, as well as those of customers and partners.

Pitfall #2: Underinvesting in social initiatives and abandoning them too soon. Understand that a Social Nation is organic – it won’t materialize with a proverbial snap of the fingers. Early on, you’ll need to invest a good deal of time, thought, and money in attracting fans and followers – and your efforts will need to be sustained. Only after you’ve built a firm foundation will your social network begin to sustain itself through participant contribution and recommendation.

In general, successful strategies include posting quality content that people want to consume, letting customers tell their stories and post their grievances, and then responding to their criticisms. Also, make sure that prospects are able to learn about your business through customer and employee testimonials. Lastly, remember that using multiple approaches – for example, a blog, Facebook profile, and interactive website – will reach more people.

Pitfall #3: Neglecting to find ways to encourage and inspire your Social Nation’s followers and fans. When you stop to think about it, you’ll realize that your fans and followers are essentially volunteering their time and energy to serve as developers, sounding boards, and advertisements for your company. So for goodness’ sake, respect what they have to say and take their input to heart!

Pitfall #4: Relying on a “build-it-and-they-will-come” mentality. Ummm…you don’t really think that launching a new website and firing off posts at various online networking hotspots will bring fans and followers flocking, do you? Of course not! To some extent – usually a large one – you’ll need to purposefully reach out to potential community members and make it worth their while to accept your invitation.

Rolling out a community and just expecting people to join as friends or followers is a flawed philosophy. Marketing 101 principles still apply. That means you need compelling incentives to have people join your community. You also need an aggressive programming strategy, one that includes defining your key audiences and targeting them through all available channels, to ensure that they know that you want to build a relationship with them.

Pitfall #5: Delaying the process of going social. Contrary to what you may wish, your company doesn’t have the luxury of waiting until it’s “convenient” to go social. Why? Well, you have competitors, right? And if you don’t start gathering loyal followers and fans now, there’s a good chance that some other company will woo them first.

One of the best strategies for going social as quickly and effectively as possible is to designate employees and subject matter experts to act as community success managers focused on fostering community growth and member satisfaction. Separate from your sales and support teams, these community leaders should have the ability to advise members of the community on how to best participate with the company and with each other. If you do things well, you’ll find that they’ll generally serve as internal and external advocates for others in your organization – be it employees, partners, or customers.

Pitfall #6: Underestimating the power of a Social Nation. If you believe that social networking is just a window dressing that your company “needs” (but not really), then think again. Social media and community collaboration bring many benefits, including brand-building, customer loyalty and retention, cost reductions, improved productivity, and revenue growth.

Pitfall #7: Neglecting employees, partners, investors, or customers when building your Social Nation. Yes, set up a “focus group” of employees to serve as community leaders who will shepherd your company into the social networking world, but don’t put all of the power in their hands. Social Nations are organic organizations, so the more people who are empowered to influence yours, the better.

You’ll find that leaders will emerge from your community population – whether they are employees, partners, customers, or prospects. Future leaders will come from places you never expected. Empower every member of your community with the resources they need, then listen and be responsive to their insights, needs, and ideas. Oh, and here’s a bonus: by doing this, you’ll reduce support costs since community members can help each other!

Pitfall #8: Relying on traditional approaches when designing your Social Nation. A decade ago, you probably would have been horrified at the thought of releasing ideas and products into the hands of your customers before they were as complete as you could get them. With social networking, that monolithic approach is now becoming obsolete.

Pitfall #9: Developing your own social software and analytics solutions. You wouldn’t dream of placing “remodeling the office” or “handling legal issues” in the Do It Yourself category, would you? Not too many would. Instead, you’d hire someone skilled in those areas. Do yourself a favor and use the same strategy when it comes to building your own Social Nation.

Do what you do best and outsource the software and community building to the experts. Various vendors provide ready-made, complete solutions to help you build your fans, followers, and friends. Remember, Facebook and Twitter encourage fans and friends to advance their businesses, not yours. Consequently, although you should leverage the communities they have built, you need to create your own community to ensure your long-term success.

Pitfall #10: Getting caught without partners to help you succeed. I have alluded to this one before, but it bears specific emphasis: make sure that you truly treat your community members as partners, not just as fans or numbers. Yes, integrating into the social web (Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks) is key to your company’s future success, but being connected to the social web is only a part of what you need to do. Shifting your business strategically, culturally, and operationally are key components to the equation.

Essentially, that means creating a community for the people who matter most in making your business thrive – a place that is all theirs and that is connected to your brand. Remember, your constituents want to connect with like-minded peers, and they want to feel as though they are contributing to a purpose that’s bigger than themselves. Given that they are buying products and services from you, investing in your company, and working for your organization, providing them with a community they can call their own is the least you can do for them.

We are on the cusp of a new business era. Building a new Social Nation isn’t just about a paradigm shift in technology. It also requires a business and cultural shift in how your company is organized and run. Now is the time for leaders, their organizations, and you to find a way to connect to individuals – be they coworkers, investors, customers, or partners – on personal and social levels. Do all of this with an appropriate amount of forethought and planning, and you’ll succeed in creating enduring social and emotional value for your organization.

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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 50 – An Interview with Marshall Fisher, co-author of The New Science of Retailing

StrategyDriven — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 11:22:41 +0000

Special Edition 50 – An Interview with Marshall Fisher, co-author of The New Science of Retailing examines the use of analytics to improve an organization’s supply chain performance in a way that ultimately enhances the bottom line. During our discussion, Marshall Fisher, co-author of The New Science of Retailing: How Analytics are Transforming the Supply Chain and Improving Performance, shares with us his insights and illustrative examples regarding:

actions business leaders can take to improve their forecasts
what a ‘Flexible Supply Chain’ is and the benefits it provides
capabilities an organization needs to possess and steps leaders must take to develop a ‘Flexible Supply Chain’
methods to determine the amount of supply chain flexibility needed
how leaders can align their supply chain operations with the organization’s goals
key factors executives should consider when making decisions regarding which technologies to pursue in order to enhance their supply chain operations

Additional Information

Marshall’s book, The New Science of Retailing, that he co-authored with Ananth Raman, the UPS Foundation Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, can be purchased by clicking here.

Final Request…

About the Author

Marshall Fisher, co-author of The New Science of Retailing, is the UPS Professor of Operations and Information Management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and co-director of the Fishman-Davidson Center for Service and Operations Management. To read Marshall’s complete biography, click here.

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Lessons from the Best Global Brands 2010: Building trust and stability in the age of transparency

StrategyDriven — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 11:16:58 +0000

This year, Interbrand’s annual Best Global Brands 2010 ranking of the top 100 brands was notable for showing a remarkable shift in consumers’ spending habits. Public scandals like the BP oil spill and Goldman Sachs’ mortgage securities fraud compromised consumers’ trust in brands, and as a result, consumer loyalty was at an all-time low. At the same time, the stops and starts of the recession have created savvier, more budget-conscious consumers who are just as likely to cut spending by choosing private label toothpaste, as they are to match a Zara skirt with a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes. And not only are brands more vulnerable to shoppers’ unpredictable whims, but tools like social media mean that consumers also have more control. Today’s consumers now have the ability to watch and respond to every brand’s move – positive or negative.

The challenge for today’s brands is to adapt to this new real-time environment and the increased call for transparency. The real test will be if brands can use these channels to forge deeper relationship with customers. While the rules may be shifting, the long-term sustainable advantage gained by building a strong brand – a brand that builds stability, trust, loyalty, and drives a premium price – remains consistent.

Figure 1: The Interbrand Best 100 Global Brands 2010

A look at two brands’ performances from this year’s table offers insight into how brands can navigate today’s marketplace. Santander, which made its debut on this year’s list, is a best-case example of a brand that stayed true to its brand promise and saw it pay off. Goldman Sachs’ performance, on the other hand, should be viewed as a cautionary tale – what can happen when a brand loses sight of its brand promise in a risky, real-time landscape.

Santander: building trust and stability through brand

Unlike many of its financial services competitors, Santander emerged from the financial crisis, relatively unscathed. Unlike competitors, Santander stayed out of U.S. subprime mortgages, instead doing business the old-fashioned way, with 80 percent of revenues derived from retail banking. When explaining his decision to opt-out of the fast lane to the media, Emilio Botin, the company’s 76-year-old chairman claimed that it all came down to a tried and true belief: “If you don’t fully understand an instrument, don’t buy it. If you will not buy for yourself a specific product, don’t try to sell it. If you don’t know very well your customers, don’t lend them any money.” It is because of this transparency, honesty and respect for its clients that Santander is seeing so much current success. Time magazine may have called it “the most boring bank in the world,” but after the crisis, its conservative approach is looking more appealing than ever; it is a brand that played it smart and safe. As a result, it is a brand that consumers can trust.

Santander has also done a good job at leveraging its promising position, by embarking on a number of aggressive acquisitions since 2008. Now the Eurozone’s largest bank, it has plans to further establish its presence in the U.K., the U.S and Latin America. While so much expansion can be tough on a brand, Santander is moving quickly to rebrand all of its acquisitions under the Santander name and launched substantial marketing campaigns in the U.K., which resulted in an increase in brand awareness of 72 percent between 2004 and 2010. Santander has also been innovative when it comes to social media and mobile campaigns. For example, Red Brick, a bridge-building puzzle game available through iPhone and Facebook apps has increased awareness.

Goldman Sachs: what happens when you lose sight of your brand promise

Goldman Sachs, on the other hand, has seen its reputation tarnished in 2010. After emerging relatively unscathed from 2008’s financial, Goldman Sachs has since faced enormous animosity from the public, as information about its conduct over the past 10 years comes to light. Even as the brand performs better than ever, allegations of fraud continue to scar its reputation: First with the SEC’s accusations that it defrauded investors by shorting its own investments in subprime mortgage, then with news that the firm helped Greece conceal its financial weaknesses with inventive accounting when the Mediterranean country first applied for membership in the EU. To the general public, it has come to epitomize the dysfunction of Wall Street—the greed, risk and lack of ethics that drove profits over the last twenty years, but went relatively ignored until the recent collapse.

Unlike Santander, Goldman lost sight of its brand promise. This is a company that built its reputation as a trusted advisor to its investment banking clients and considered its first and most important business principle to be “our clients’ interests always come first.” While Goldman’s employees were clearly very engaged, it is evident that this promise was not used as a central organizing principle. If client’s interests came first, then Goldman’s employees wouldn’t have behaved the way they did.

As Goldman continues to face bad press, it has been making efforts to reevaluate its codes of conduct, tightening up standards and enforcing a mandatory transparency between employees and clients so the risks associated with any give security are understood. But unless it ensures that this is communicated with weight and importance to employees, it will have difficulty swaying public perception. While its recent image advertising campaign is a move in the right direction, it needs to focus within to achieve real change. The brand may continue to prosper financially, but until it gets its external perception in line, it faces obstacles in the long-term.

As Santander and Goldman Sachs demonstrate, in 2010 trust and transparency were the key messages for brand to communicate. And yet, while the rules and priorities may be shifting in today’s unpredictable marketplace, the foundations of strong brands still hold true. As long as brands stay true to their brand promise, communicating it authentically and effectively at every touchpoint, they are likely to weather even the most difficult of challenges.

About the Author

Jez Frampton is Interbrand’s Global CEO responsible for managing the firm’s worldwide interests and enhancing its strategic and creative offerings. Jez is a member of the Marketing Society, the Chartered Institute of Marketing, the Market Research Society, the Design Business Association, and the Institute of Directors. He is a frequent lecturer on the subject of branding.

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Tap into Your Think Tank: Twenty Ways to Generate Ideas That Will Boost Your Business

StrategyDriven — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 11:55:36 +0000

In today’s business world, your ideas are what set you apart from your competition. Here’s how to get your creative juices flowing so that you can out-think and out-earn your competition.

The lightbulb. Bubble wrap. The Post-It. The iPod. The Snuggie. Facebook. Twitter. These inventions, products, and businesses all started with an idea. An idea that to anyone other than its creator(s) may have seemed like an insane thing to invest much time, money, or effort in bringing to fruition. But for the masterminds behind these great ideas, the risk paid off and so too can your next great idea.

Attention! This Book Will Make You Money: How to Use Attention-Getting Online Marketing to Increase Your Revenue
by Jim Kukral

This book provides an educational and motivational guide to using social media to market your brand or business online. In three parts, it teaches readers how to get off the ground and thrive in the social mediasphere. Whether they’re just starting a business, just moving it online, or are already established and looking to take their business to the next level, Attention! is the key to success, and getting attention often starts with that first great idea.

Now, you might be thinking, I am not going to come up with today’s equivalent of the lightbulb. That’s fine. You don’t have to. Great ideas come in many shapes and sizes – whether it’s something as small as a new logo for your business or something as big as rolling out a brand new product. What’s important is that you give your best ideas a shot at life.

Great ideas are like gold. Everybody hopes to find them buried under the floorboards in their house. But just like finding gold, you often need a treasure map. In fiscally constrained times such as these, ideas are what matter most. Businesses live and die from the ideas they come up with. Great ideas get attention and bring people through the doors. The tricky part is figuring out how to find them.

So what does a great idea look like in practice? Peter van Stolk, founder of Jones Soda Co., is a business owner who wasn’t afraid to take his great idea and run with it.

Van Stolk took his $20-million business to $42 million in four years by coming up with an idea that generated $25 million in free publicity. Jones Soda was a small Seattle-based beverage company competing against Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola. Combined, those two monoliths spend a billion dollars a year on advertising.

So how did van Stolk and Jones Soda compete? In 2003 van Stolk had the idea to create a “Turkey & Gravy”-flavored soda to be released around Thanksgiving. Soon his brand began to get mentioned in the national media, and his product began to sell out.

Peter had the idea in his car one day, and he acted on it. Ever notice how you get your best ideas when your mind is not trying to come up with them? Think about it. How many ideas have you thrown away on the treadmill or in the shower that you should have tried that could have earned you millions?

Everyone has great ideas. The problem for most people is realizing that even the most silly or outrageous idea they come up with could in fact work. Generating ideas – useful ideas – is a skill, and, like any other skill, it can be learned. The more you practice, the easier it will be to come up with ideas whenever you need them. Read on for a few suggestions on how to generate killer ideas to jump-start your venture:

Carry a notebook. The only thing worse than not being able to come up with an idea is thinking of an amazing idea, not writing it down, and then forgetting it. You may think you will remember, but you won’t. Having a small notepad or digital recorder with you at all times guarantees that those ideas will not escape. Keep one in your glove compartment, on your nightstand, and in your desk drawer. Keeping a few spare sheets of loose paper in your wallet or purse is a good idea, too!

Eavesdrop. Listen to people talking on the bus, at the coffee shop, or in the elevator at work. You’ll get a good feel for what people care about: their concerns, wishes, and interests. And you may also hear a great idea or two in the mix. Build on the snippets of conversation you overhear to create a story, and let that story lead you to a brilliant idea.

Do something new. Sign up for a class, take up a new hobby, listen to a different kind of music, or do anything that is new to you. Not only will it get new parts of your brain humming, you’ll meet and connect with new people – which is a great way to find great new ideas.

Hold a grudge. What annoys you? When you think about the list of things you wish were different, the chances are those things also annoy other people. Keep a running list of all things that bug you and find solutions that will make them better.

Find the peanut butter to your jelly. Take two ideas and put them together to make one new idea. After all, what is a Snuggie but the mutation of a blanket and a robe? Think beyond the obvious connections to come up with something truly innovative.

Get physical. Movement increases the flow of endorphins, as well as sending more blood to your brain. Okay, I’m not a doctor and I don’t play one on TV, so maybe I don’t have all the physical stuff exactly right. However, I do know that getting active helps me think. I keep a mini-trampoline in my office and jump up and down for a few minutes to get my blood moving. Run, skip, jump, climb stairs, or otherwise get your pulse rate up to get your brain moving, too.

Get an outsider’s opinion. There are times when you are so close to a project that it creates a mental block for idea generation. Bringing in a fresh perspective can make all the difference. Get someone who is not familiar with your situation to ask you questions about it. It may be over dinner with friends, with a colleague at the water cooler, or in line at the grocery store with a stranger! They may ask things that lead you to an idea that you overlooked because it was too obvious. No one around? Imagine that someone is coming to you with the problem you are trying to solve. What would you tell them? Your answer may be the solution you are looking for.

Just listen. It may sound obvious, but really listen when customers talk to you. When you do, you will hear ideas for new products and services, ways to improve customer service, and uses you never considered for your products that can open up new markets for you. Your customers may not recognize when they are giving you ideas, but you need to be able to spot them. Are several customers making the same comments or asking the same questions? Act on it! You can get great ideas this way!

Change your routine. New surroundings and new experiences can help your brain to shift gears and get you to think differently. Drive a new route to the office, try a new restaurant for lunch, start work a little earlier (or a little later), work in a different place, or anything that busts you out of your rut.

Listen to music. You may find that a little Mozart awakens your creativity, or you may respond better to a little Metallica. Whatever works for you, fire up your iPod, get into the groove, and let your mind work.

Take a shower, walk the dog, do the laundry. How many great ideas do you get in the shower? It’s not a coincidence that great thinking happens in the shower. Showering is a mindless activity (the only thing you really have to think about is, Have I already repeated, or just lathered and rinsed?). And the warm water is relaxing. Other mindless activities are great for brainstorming too. Wash the dishes, walk the dog, or fold the laundry. If you give your mind the chance to wander, you’ll free yourself to come up with a brilliant idea.

Make a list (and check it twice). This is a tried-and-true method proven to work wonders. Get out a notepad, or fire up your computer, and write down everything you can think of related to your issue. For example, if you need a new slogan for a product, write down every feature and benefit you can think of, the types of people who need the product, the problems it solves, and so on. Pull out a thesaurus and start looking up synonyms. When you are done, you will not only have your slogan, you will have a library of words and phrases you can use in your marketing and publicity campaigns.

Wear a silly hat. Use a prop when it is time to be creative. It could be anything (such as wearing a silly hat) that signals to your brain that it is time to go into idea-generating mode. Have a routine that you follow when you want to be creative. It might be to put on your hat, grab a ball to toss up in the air, and lean back in your chair with your feet on the desk. Once you are in your “Creative at Work” position, start coming up with ideas. Do this a few times, and you will be conditioned to start generating ideas as soon as you see the hat. Your brain will have been trained.

Be a bookworm. Read everything you can get your hands on: business books, novels, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and everything else. The more raw materials you take in, the more you learn, and the more you know, the better you will become at putting together seemingly unrelated concepts to create something new.

Sleep on it. Just before going to bed, think about the ideas you want to generate. Be specific: “I will come up with great ways to promote our new widget.” Tell yourself you will come up with a solution while you sleep. Keep a pad and pen or a recorder next to your bed so you can capture the ideas as soon as you wake up.

Ask the almighty Google. When you are stuck on an idea, try entering a few words related to what you are looking for. Google will try to automatically complete your query, and may come up with just what you need. Then look at some of the search results to see what inspires you.

Doodle. Make random doodles on a white board or piece of paper. Draw, jot words, make circles, or what you do when you doodle. As you loosen up, ideas may start to form on the page.

Forget everything you know. Too often, we let our biases creep in and influence our thinking. Start fresh, without preconceived notions of what you must do or what is impossible. Be open to anything and everything.

Borrow an idea. Everyone thinks that their business is not like anyone else’s. The truth is that all of our businesses are more alike than they are different. Look at what others are doing in other industries and see how you can apply their ideas to your own business. If a solution is working for someone else, there’s no reason it won’t work for you, too. By the time you adapt their idea and tailor it to precisely fit your business, it will be unique.

Hire a professional. If you’re really and truly stuck on something, or if a deadline is rapidly approaching, there’s no shame in hiring a little outside help. Hiring a consultant can be a great investment. Often times, they don’t even have to come up with the ideas for you. They simply ask the right questions that will lead you to the great idea that’s buried in your brain.

I keep up with my great ideas on a Word document that I’ve uploaded to Google Docs. This document holds some of the most creative thoughts I’ve ever had. I’ve never shown it to anyone, nor will I, as it contains ideas that might seem silly to other people, but I value it greatly as a place where I can think freely and creatively without criticism.

That’s truly the key to coming up with great ideas. You need to free yourself from worry about what other people might say. If you have a place where you can brainstorm and record some of your most outrageous thoughts for getting attention without having to worry about someone else laughing at you, then you’ll find that it’s much easier to be creative, and, well, outrageous. And before you know it, your great ideas will be boosting your business.

About the Author

Jim Kukral is the author of Attention! This Book Will Make You Money: How to Use Attention-Getting Online Marketing to Increase Your Revenue. For over 15 years, Jim has helped small businesses and large companies like FedEx, Sherwin-Williams, Ernst & Young, and Progressive Auto Insurance understand how to find success on the Web. Jim is also a professional speaker, blogger, and Web business consultant. Jim teaches thousands of students around the globe as an adjunct professor for The University of San Francisco’s Internet Marketing Program. He has been quoted or featured in some way in online and offline print publications such as Forbes, Brandweek, Entrepreneur, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, BusinessWeek, Inc., Small Business Trends, FeedFront, Revenue Today, Marketing Sherpa, and Duct Tape Marketing Network. Find out more by visiting www.JimKukral.com and www.AttentionTheBook.com.

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“Dead”-On Business Rules: Ten Tie-Dyed and True Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead, part 2 of 2

StrategyDriven — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 11:21:10 +0000

Lose control of your marketing messages. A Grateful Dead concert was about having fun, meeting friends, checking out great music, escaping the everyday, belonging. Each person defined the experience a little differently, and the group defined the whole. There were interesting subgroups wandering along as part of the larger odyssey that was the Grateful Dead experience.

In building a community, the Grateful Dead were willing to give up a large degree of control over how they were defined and instead hand it to their fans. While this approach is highly unusual, it is also often very successful. When organizations insist on operating in a command-and-control environment with mission statements, boilerplate descriptions, messaging processes, and PR campaigns, their strategies can both hamper growth and backfire in execution.

Let your community define you, rather than trying to dictate what’s said – and how – about your company. When you let others define and talk about you, it is more likely that a community will develop.

Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History
by David Meerman Scott
and Brian Halligan

Brian Halligan and I provide an overview of the band’s marketing genius in our new book Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History (Wiley). Each of the 19 chapters presents and analyzes a marketing concept practiced by the Dead and provides a real-world example of a company employing that concept today. The goal? To show you how to think and market like the band—which is to say, in a way completely unlike your competition.

Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead is filled not only with information about the band and how they came to be loved by so many, but also with advice on how the Dead’s marketing brilliance can be used in today’s business world.

We were eager to write this book because we’ve identified many lessons in what the band has been doing for more than 40 years that can be applied today. These lessons are an important tool for helping to understand the new marketing environment in a language and with examples that are familiar to all. It’s knowledge that we hope will keep you and your business “rocking on” for a long time to come.

Put fans in the front row. Unlike nearly every other band, the Grateful Dead controlled the ticket sales for their concerts. While other bands moved toward selling tickets through electronic systems of the day, like Ticketron, and later, Ticketmaster, the Grateful Dead established their own in-house ticketing agency in the early 1980s. The system allowed the Grateful Dead to announce tours to fans first and treated supporters to the best seats, driving passionate loyalty.

The Grateful Dead teaches us to treat customers with care and respect. Yet we see so many organizations that do precisely the opposite. Instead of putting loyal customers first, they ignore them while they try to get new ones. While we’re all for growing a business, we don’t think it should come at the expense of annoying existing customers. Always remember, your most passionate fans are also the people who tell your stories and spread your ideas.

Free your content. Unlike other bands, the Grateful Dead encouraged concertgoers to record their live shows, establishing “taper sections” behind the mixing board where fans’ recording gear could be set up for best sound quality. The Grateful Dead set their music free by allowing and encouraging these tapers. You would have thought that giving their music away would have diminished their success, but actually, it was fuel on the fire. The band removed barriers to their music by allowing fans to tape it, which in turn brought in new fans and grew sales.

The takeaway here is that when we free our content, more people hear about our company and eventually do business with us. The way to reach your marketplace is to create tons of free content like blogs, videos, white papers, and e-books. This is because each piece of content you create attracts links from other websites. When you give content or small pieces of your product away, it attracts a lot more interest and really opens up the top of your marketing funnel in a dramatic way.

Partner with those who are eager to sell your stuff. Most bands prohibit the sale of merchandise in parking lots because they want to ensure that only “official” merchandise is being sold. While the Grateful Dead also sold their own gear inside, they partnered with the vendor community, resulting in some very creative uses of the band’s “Steal Your Face” logo, such as on baby clothes.

Find the entrepreneurs who would like to make money from your brand and work with them to do so. Do you have people selling versions of your products and services that seem in competition to your direct sales efforts? Maybe the right thing to do is to partner with those entrepreneurs rather than send them a legal notice.

Better yet, proactively find and approach companies that seem to be competitors and work out a way to help one another. For example, if you’re a realtor, why not forge a partnership with a home improvement company? Manufacturers or retailers of baby and children’s products should work out a deal to sell merchandise on so-called “mommy-blogger” sites.

Give Grateful-ly. The Grateful Dead frequently threw their support behind causes and ideas they believed in, especially anything related to improving life in their home base of San Francisco. Giving back to the community became an essential element of the band’s brand image. At the band’s regular shows, they invited favorite organizations to set up tables in the hallways and educate fans on issues like organ donation and voter registration. Concertgoers knew the Dead’s commitment was authentic and that added to the perception of the band’s positive and supportive approach to making music and helping people improve their lives.

A consistent and sustained level of giving back to the community is of significant benefit to companies. When a company carefully chooses a particular charity or cause to support and makes it a part of their corporate culture, continuing the commitment over many years, the accrued benefits to both the brand and the recipient charity can be enormous.

Do what you love – even if it takes a while to get it right. Because the Grateful Dead loved what they did, they stuck with it and (obviously) eventually prospered. That passion helped them persevere through some very rough times. For example, on the first gig they booked, they were contracted to perform two nights in a row. They were so bad the first night that the owner of the joint replaced them with three elderly gentlemen in a jazz band. The band members were so embarrassed they didn’t even bother asking the owner for their one night’s pay. Rather than throw up their hands and give up, the band went back to the studio and doubled down on the practice routines. It actually took several years and a great deal of practice before they really started getting good market traction with their unique sound.

The Grateful Dead teach us to live our own dreams – not someone else’s. Not only does doing what you love increase your odds of success, but it dramatically increases your happiness. You spend more than 50 percent of your waking adult life working, so you might as well do what you love. Doing something you don’t enjoy during more than 50 percent of your waking adult life takes a toll on your psyche that goes well beyond the boundaries of the workplace. Conversely, doing what you love pays huge dividends in your personal life.

Instead of obsessing over recording, the Dead became the most popular touring band of their era, selling hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of tickets, and creating a highly profitable corporation in the process. Without hit records, the Grateful Dead achieved elite success, becoming one of the most iconic rock bands of their era and inventing a brand that democratically included their consumers and literally co-created a lifestyle for Deadheads.

About the Authors

Since his first Grateful Dead show when he was a teenager in 1979, David Meerman Scott has seen the band perform over 40 times. David is a marketing strategist and a professional speaker. He is the author of the BusinessWeek bestselling book The New Rules of Marketing & PR and several other books. He speaks at conferences and corporate events around the world. He loves to surf (but isn’t very good at it), collects artifacts from the Apollo moon program, and maintains a database, with 308 entries at this writing, of every band he has seen in concert. He is a graduate of Kenyon College, where he listened to a heck of a lot of Grateful Dead in his dorm room.

Brian Halligan has seen the Grateful Dead perform more than 100 times. He is CEO & founder of HubSpot, a marketing software company that helps businesses transform the way they market products by “getting found” on the Internet. Brian is also coauthor of Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs and is an Entrepreneur-In-Residence at MIT. In his spare time, he sits on a few boards of directors, follows his beloved Red Sox, goes to the gym, and is learning to play guitar.

You just finished reading “Dead”-On Business Rules: Ten Tie-Dyed and True Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead, part 2 of 2! Consider leaving a comment!

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“Dead”-On Business Rules: Ten Tie-Dyed and True Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead, part 1 of 2

StrategyDriven — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 11:07:05 +0000

Viral marketing and social networking have arrived on the scene after a long, strange trip indeed. The Grateful Dead were much more than a bunch of rock-and-roll geniuses; they were pioneers of the digital age marketing landscape.

When you think marketing visionaries, what companies come to mind? Apple? Google? Maybe even Microsoft? It’s true that each of these companies in one way or another has come to define marketing in the digital age. But the practices they’ve been pushing – viral marketing, social networking, giving away products or services, asking for and acting on input from customers – have somewhat, well, groovier roots than you might imagine.

Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History
by David Meerman Scott
and Brian Halligan

These marketing ploys were born on the road with one of the most iconic bands of all time – The Grateful Dead.

Everyone knows the Grateful Dead as rock legends and amazing musicians. But not as many realize they were marketing pioneers. In the 1960s the Grateful Dead pioneered many social media and inbound marketing concepts that businesses across all industries use today. Every business can learn from what the Grateful Dead has done over a 45-year career.

The Grateful Dead is one huge case study in contrarian marketing. Most of the band’s many marketing innovations were based on doing the exact opposite of what other bands (and record labels) were doing at the time. The Dead pioneered a “freemium” business model, allowing concert attendees to record and trade concert tapes, building a powerful word-of-mouth fan network powered by free music. It’s a model that has influenced many of today’s very best marketers. For example:

Carve out your own landscape. The Grateful Dead created a business model that was the exact opposite of every other band’s at the time. Rather than focusing on selling albums, they focused on generating revenue from live concerts, and in doing so created a fan “experience” that was unlike any other. The concert-as-business-model worked, and the Dead created a passionate fan base that became an underground cult that catapulted the Grateful Dead into the rock-and-roll stratosphere.

Products that are highly differentiated can still succeed today, but it’s much harder to win if your business model is the same as your competitors’. Your job is to do research about your industry in order to build a killer business model. You want to break free from the competitive landscape and create a cascade of unique benefits for your customers.

Today’s big winners typically win because of unique business model assumptions, rather than some new technology or complicated improvements. Prime examples include Netflix (vs. Blockbuster) and iPod and iTunes (vs. MP3s and downloading). Like the Grateful Dead, these companies turned the core assumption of how their industry works on its head to create an unlevel playing field for themselves.

Choose memorable brand names. Love it, hate it, or don’t understand it – whatever you may think of it, the Grateful Dead is a name that you remember. The dictionary defines the term as a type of ballad involving a hero who helps a corpse who is being refused a proper burial. For the Grateful Dead, the strange cosmic quality the name evokes – a world beyond consciousness – was perfect. Fast-forward to four decades later and the name seems ideal. The choice of name worked to help advance the Grateful Dead to its widely recognized status as the most iconic band in history.

When you select an uncommon name – one appropriate to your company image and target market – it’s unlikely that consumers will confuse your product with something similar. They will remember you. And in today’s world of online communications and of search engines, unique names for your company, products, and services allow you to own the search engine results for your brands.

Mix up your marketing department. Some argue that the Grateful Dead were not the best musicians, but their deeply diverse backgrounds made for a powerful combination that created a sound unlike any other. In addition to having musicians with diverse backgrounds, the Grateful Dead often had musicians with very little experience and even less formal education. The mix of unique backgrounds unencumbered by conventional wisdom proved to be a powerful combination.

Does your marketing team look like everyone else’s? If so, it’s time for a change in organization, some new skill development, and new blood.

Organize your marketing team in this way: You want someone responsible for “getting found” (filling the top of your funnel), someone responsible for “converting” the folks who are getting pulled in, and someone responsible for “analyzing” the numbers and helping you make better decisions. Look outside your marketing department (inside your company) and look outside the marketing industry (outside your company) to fill in talent gaps.

Experiment! (No, not with what you’re thinking!) The Grateful Dead played over 2,300 concerts and each one was completely unique due to their improvisational style. The Grateful Dead experimented with musical forms and genres – both as a group and individually – creating unique musical experiences. Despite the occasional poor performance, they didn’t become conservative and stop experimenting. They continued to push the edge and learn from the mistakes they made in the process.

Like the Grateful Dead, marketers today need to experiment in their craft in order to make big breakthroughs. Instead of seeing failure as something to be avoided, CEOs and management teams need to free their marketers to experiment, quickly learn from failure, and experiment again.

Like music, marketing is a creative discipline. Instead of worrying about making mistakes, you should be doing at least five times more experiments than you are likely doing today. In terms of marketing, this could mean starting a blog, freeing your employees to Tweet or write posts for your blog, or leaving comments on others’ blogs.

Next Wednesday: Learn the final six tie-dyed and true marketing lessons from the Grateful Dead

About the Authors

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The Secrets To Winning GSA Contracts

StrategyDriven — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:07:19 +0000

As a small business owner you may have heard of a General Services Administration Federal Supply Schedules contract, more commonly known as a “GSA contract”, but what is it exactly? How does it work? Is it difficult to obtain? Is it worth the time and effort to research, submit and manage?

The Definitive Guide to Government Contracts: Everything You Need to Apply for and Win Federal and GSA Schedule Contracts
by Malcolm Parvey and
Deborah Alston

In the new book The Definitive Guide to Government Contracts, Malcolm Parvey & Deborah Alston take you step-by-step through the GSA contract proposal – initial research; understanding the requirements; finding the correct schedule; and completing the paperwork. The book also shows you how to upload your contract details to GSA’s online site and prepare your Schedule Contract pricelist.

What is a “GSA Contract” anyway? Picture yourself on bended knee, proposing to the GSA. Tell them all about yourself….what you do, your terms and conditions, how the two of you will make a great team! As long as your proposal meets their standards they will award you a contract, as this is a non-competitive proposal. The GSA contract proves to a potential federal buyer that you are a responsible vendor.

Remember – a GSA contract is NO guarantee of sales. It has been compared to getting a hunting license – you still have to go out there and hunt for the sales, but now you have some legitimacy in the eyes of procurement officers. You have proven your willingness to dedicate time and resources to getting Approved Vendor status.

Minimum Sales Requirement: You will NOT be awarded a GSA Schedule contract unless the Contracting Officer estimates your sales will exceed $25,000 in the first 2 years and $25,000/year thereafter.

Patience and Perseverance: How long do you think it would take you to become a vendor of Wal-Mart or IBM or General Electric or any other Fortune 500 company? How hard would it be to get an appointment to make your sales pitch? How long would it take you to prepare the presentation? Fly to the corporate offices? How many more appointments would it take before you get any results?

The federal government is the biggest customer in the entire world for what you do. They have opened the door and asked you to make your presentation from the convenience of your office. They offer staff to assist you; they are fair and impartial; and you never have to take them to lunch!

Return on Investment (ROI). No doubt about it, a GSA Contract can be a wonderful opportunity, but you need to be aware of the investment of time and effort you need to make in order to submit, maintain and manage it. Remember, a GSA contract does NOT guarantee sales. If you make the effort to submit the proposal but do not subsequently work to market it, you risk making very few sales, and your time will have been wasted. Be prepared to do some initial research; find out if there is a demand for your products and services, and who your competition will be.

About the Author

Deborah Alston has worked for many years with small businesses, helping them with all aspects of federal government contracting. She has consulted with small businesses from many different industries, working closely with them to submit their GSA Schedule proposal; the Department of Defense’s ‘E-Mall’ proposal, and several other industry-specific federal procurement programs. In 2008, she co-authored the successful book Winning Government Contracts (Career Press 2008) with Malcolm Parvey. The book showed small businesses how to get involved in selling to the federal government, taking a step-by-step approach, and assuming no previous knowledge of this marketplace. In 2010, she partnered with Malcolm Parvey again to co-authored The Definitive Guide to Government Contracts (Career Press 2010) which included details on how to research, submit and maintain a GSA Schedule Contract award. Deborah can be reached at deborah.alston@dkagov.com.