Tell Me a Story!

Remember when you were a little kid and you didn’t want to go to bed and you looked up at your Mom and said, “tell me a story!”  And, your mother, hoping to distract you enough with a softly spoken words, would tell you a tale filled with adventure and fantasy.

We never grow up… we never tire of a good story because in the end, storytelling comes down to two things:  connection and engagement.  Whether it’s a shaman relaying his visions around a sacred fire, a family elder handing down her people’s history, or a marketer pushing the company’s newest line extension or service, creating stories and telling them are a most universal human activity. 

So, first, connection– success or failure of your company’s story is defined quickly.  Lose the audience and it doesn’t matter how important your story is.  Think about the difference between Al Gore, the former vice president, versus Al Gore, promoter extraordinaire of An Inconvenient Truth and unofficial pitchman for global warming.  The former was terminally stiff and uncomfortable, the latter, almost charming (though still in a button-up way).  The new Al is a guy your could connect with, a guy who could tell you a story and you might want to listen to it.

Once a storyteller has connected with the audience, the next job is to engage them.  Engagement is the ability to form a meaningful, sustainable relationship… usually with strong emotional underpinnings.  It’s at the point of engagement that the audience becomes a part of the story.

The fact that some people will tattoo a brand name on their arms, chest, back, and even their face shows you how engaged with a company’s story some customers can become.  The same level of engagement can happen in reverse illustrated by boycotts, protests, and flaming web sites.  When people take the time out of their lives to try to destroy a brand, product, or company, they are clearly engaged, although in a negative way.

Tell a good story and you create success.  Tell a great story and you can create a movement.  Wrap a great story around an iconic symbol, and you can sometimes create an industry.  When Michael Mann premiered Miami Vice on tv in 1984, he launched more than a wave of chronic pastel t-shirt abuse.  Suddenly, every middle-aged, teen-aged, any-aged regular guy was wearing pastel Hanes and thinking of himself as a hip, glamorous, and danger-loving chic magnet.  The hero who bends the letter of the law to enforce its spirit.  The wardrobe was clearly different, but it’s the Robin Hood Story all over again.

Whether you know it or not, your business is already telling stories.  Are they what you want to say?  Take control of your myths and legends and make them work for you.  Make sure your story cuts through the relentless bombardment of messages and resonates with your customers and prospects… that it gets heard, remembered and acted upon. 

   

Define VALUE so Prospects become Buyers

One of my clients was working way too hard at bringing new clients to her consulting business. She had dozens of prospects, but when she quoted her fees, too many prospects opted not to sign up.  So, I pretended to be a prospect and asked her to describe the things she does for her clients and the benefits of her services.  Instead of answering the question directly, she gave me a lot of colorful descriptive information about the success she has created for her clients which immediately made me want to be another one of her successful customers.  But, when I asked her how much of this information her prospects knew, “Very little,” she said.  Yikes!

I find that most business owners and marketers make the same mistake. They have a great product or service and they know all the ins-and-outs of all the features and functionalities, but they neglect to go those last inches and help their prospects fully understand the value of how this product/service will make the prospects life easier, better, faster, sexier, whatever.

The problem with most sales training is that it starts from the vantage point that your company does NOT have an effective marketing plan. Which is true…most companies DON’T have a systematic, sure-fire way to draw highly-qualified prospects to their doors like moths to flame.  Instead, most companies fly by the seat of their pants when it comes to marketing and either don’t do ANYTHING to attract highly-qualified, interested prospects to their business… so, they simply lean on their salespeople to “get out there and make calls”.

Or, if companies do any advertising, they use the “brand-building” or “image” advertising to attempt get prospects to call… and it simply doesn’t work.  People don’t get an emotional attachment to things that they don’t realize could solve problems or improve their lives.  So, these executives end up saying things like “marketing and advertising doesn’t work”… and force their salesteams to go back to the archaic, cold-call grunt work.

Ask yourself… what would you rather do?  Spend your time teaching your people all the latest “closes” and churn through dud after dud trying to occasionally find highly-qualified prospects…or would you rather just have the good ones come to you? 

The solution is simple.  You have to structure sales conversations to ask the right questions to get prospects talking about their goals and needs.  This conversation then sets the stage so that when you explain the product/service you provide, it’s clear that this item is the perfect solution to your prospects’ problems.

Results:  Instead of lowering prices to get more business, companies can increase their fees.  Even in a strange economic environment, you can still position yourself for competitive advantage and make more money.  Wouldn’t you like to have prospects eager to pay the prices you charge?

When your prospects fully understand of how much better off they’ll be or how much more successful they’ll be with your products and services, more people will want to work with you and buy from you and they’ll happily pay more to do so.

Where Do Great Ideas Come From?

To hear some of the Inc. 500 tell it, it’s not from books or market research; it’s from keeping your eyes, ears, and mind open to new ways of doing things. 

Back in the mid 1980s, whenever Mike Pratt hit his Salt Lake City health club, he started his workout by wrestling a too-big gym bag into a too-small locker. One day Pratt — a high school graduate working as a car salesman — pried out his bag, drove home, and headed for the drafting table he had acquired to support his design hobby.

Using cardboard, scissors, and tape, the 24-year-old athlete created the model for his dream duffel. He shaped the rectangular bag not only so that it would slide into a standard gym storage unit — measurements he’d obtained that same day by calling several manufacturers — but so that it would easily hold shoes, a water bottle, and toiletries. And unlike most soft-sided bags, Pratt’s prototype surrounded a durable rigid frame that made it easier to access the bag’s contents.

That wasn’t Pratt’s first invention. At 19 he’d designed a cup holder for use in cars and, thanks to a tip from a local businessman, arranged to have it manufactured in Macao. Five years later Pratt again looked to Asia and, based on a recommendation from another entrepreneur, contracted with a factory in Taiwan that he still uses to manufacture his bags.

Back in the States, many retailers were skeptical about Pratt’s Original Locker Bag. “Who’s going to want to carry around a box?” one asked. But Foot Locker agreed to take a batch on consignment; after selling 50 bags in a single weekend, the sporting-goods chain ordered more. Sales soared as Nordstrom and other retailers followed suit. In 1987, Pratt officially launched his company, Ogio International. (The name, pronounced OH-gee-oh, sounds catchy but, Pratt says, means absolutely nothing.) The following year, Pratt recalls, “we had $8.5 million in sales for one bag in three colors.”

These days Ogio employs almost 100 people at a 90,000-square-foot distribution center about 25 miles south of downtown Salt Lake City, plus an international sales force. The company, which had 2001 revenues of more than $47 million, still makes gym bags but now manufactures backpacks and golf bags as well. Pratt, now 41 and the father of four, still works out and, like many of his employees, sky dives, hang glides, and rides snowmobiles. “We’re kind of an extreme company,” he says.

57 ^% of the Inc 500 CEOs surveyed got the original idea for their business by spotting an opportunity in the industry they worked in. 

Do’s & Don’ts of Entrepreneurship

Taken from Alexander Muse of Texas Startup Blog.  Martin Plaehn presented the following list of ‘Do’s and Dont’s of Entrepreneurship at the University Venture Fund’s annual conference.  Pay attention:

Do’s

1. Do ensure for yourself (as founder or chief) that you are addressing a real market and a sustainable one; where the exchange of value is transacted and measured in U.S. currency
2. Do only hire for pre-identified expertise, operating need, and the energy to accomplish excellence; if you get more, great; don’t hire otherwise
3. Do always know your cash level, weekly cash spend and receipt rates, cash-runs-out date, and close-up liabilities amounts; start finding funding choices when you hit t-minus 6 months until operating cash runs out
4. Do money deals with money people (e.g. Angels, VC’s, banks, and credit unions); do product deals with product people (eg. Commercial companies); and do risk deals with risk people (e.g. Insurance companies). Don’t get these confused. If a product company wants to invest in your company, can they afford to take the whole thing? If not, then not.
5. Do ensure that at least one of your early formal investors has the financial wherewithal to keep investing in subsequent increasing rounds many years down the road; do make sure your different investors are really compatible
6. Do always accumulate choice; two by definition, three of four is better; then make decisions and have a back-up
7. Do let the stress of overload and/or capacity strain the triggers for expansion; demand flexing the edges of the system is usually the truest sign of real growth
8. Do track revenue and cost per employee; have trigger thresholds for when to add staff or subtract. Human efficiency and innovation is what creates value

Don’ts

1. Don’t hire of goodness of heart or friendship
2. Don’t hire anyone who you and your team are not genuinely excited about
3. Don’t tolerated mediocre engineers; for that matter, mediocre anyone. An early sign of mediocrity is when you downgrade tasks and expectations to align with an employee
4. Don’t count on your investors to take care of you when things get rough and/or protracted
5. Don’t over interpret or count on the stated operating “value-add” from investors during their solicitations during fundraising
6. Don’t build out your staff or infrastructure in expectation of rapid growth; be strong enough and tolerant of market back-pressure or order/service backlog
7. Don’t keep the same sales and marketing execs if the business isn’t growing or charging for growth; no sales and marketing VP was ever fired prematurely
8. Don’t over delegate to consultants, accountants, or lawyers; even the great ones are only as good as you are as an engaged client; read and understand everything; if left alone, you must have a point of view, right or wrong

Blog on a Schedule

Once you’ve made the wise decision to have a company blog and decided who on your executive team will write and be the “voice” of the business, blog on schedule.  Blogging is about consistency and frequency.  Since you are using your blog to build your company’s reputation, publishing content on a reasonable schedule is key.

At minimum, one to two posts a week is acceptable.  Three or more posts a day is considered overkill and often leads to negative responses from readers. 

Search engine page ranking evaluates a blog’s publishing schedule on many factors including season influences ( ex: blog about skiing more in the winter than in summer) and the time lapse between posts.  Consistency will score higher than frequency. 

When your business blogs on a schedule, it gives your readers a reason to want to come back.  Make it easy for them to subscribe to your blog’s feed, but most of all, make them want to come back. 

Like serial stories, make your readers think about what you’ve written long after they’ve left your blog.  Leave them wanting more… and put them on the edge of their seats to see what’s coming next. 

Turning Customer Experience into Competitive Advantage

The customer experience is now the battleground for competitive advantage.  In a global and information-rich economy, many of the familiar avenues to gaining and keeping a competitive edge, such as product innovation or speed-to-market, are not as effective as they once were.  Faced with a market rife with product commoditization and marketing blitz (where customers are in control) a company’s competitive advantage depends on delivering a consistent, satisfying customer experience. 

Delivering poor customer experience puts customer relationships and revenue at risk.  It also leads to the destruction of enterprise value.  “Suppose a customer calls to complain to your firm, and his complaint doesn’t get resolved.  He may not actually defect to a competitor for some time, but the likelihood of his defecting has suddenly increased, and the probability of his buying more things from you has just as suddenly declined,” state Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D., in their book Return on Customer.  “When this customer hangs up the phone… your company loses value at that very moment.”

Even companies with the best of intentions have struggled with transitioning from the strategy to execution stage of customer experience management.  Below are three Customer Experience Management best practices designed to help a business bridge the gap between “planning” and “doing.”

1. Walk a Mile in the Customer’s Shoes:  How many companies can confidently answer the question:  What’s it like to be one of our customers?  Most business still view their clients through functional silos which creates disconnected processes and a fragmented customer experience.  Instead, aim for a cross functional approach that gives personnel on the front line the knowledge they need, when they need it.
2. Recognize Customer Differences:  From a business’s perspective, individual customers differ in two important ways:  their value to the enterprise and their needs.  Value and needs insight should be matched up to deliver targeted treatment strategies for different customers.  Customers will be satisfied because experiences are tailored to their needs.  Companies are happy because they are focusing resources on those customers that provide maximum value. 
3. Remember that CEM (Customer Experience Management) is not a One Time Event:  How can CEM be sustained?  Consistently and regularly taking the customer’s point of view is a prerequisite for motivating customers to change their behavior.  With that foundation in place, the organization can design interactions that are not only profitable to the company but also engender customer trust. 

To truly deliver successful customer experiences across all touchpoints, from sales to marketing to customer service, a company must first understand who its customers are and how they differ based on their value to and their needs from the company.  Most companies aim to retain customers for a lifetime, and it requires foresight to understand who your valuable customers are, what they need now, and what they will want in the future.

Do you have a current map of all customer interactions across touchpoints?  Do your employees have access to the knowledge they need to deliver positive customer experiences? 

Managing Your Image

Whatever you do, you leave an impression. We send out signals all the time, and it’s like walking through fresh snow. Our brand is based on the experience people have with us. Every action, every word, every element of our appearance is noted, recorded, and judged by the people we meet.

We have a choice. We can either leave the brand-building process to chance, hoping that people will understand the message we express, or we can take charge and CONSCIOUSLY and DELIBERATELY craft the message we want to send.

Your ability to gain influence with others is dependent on how they see you, whether they judge you to be trustworthy, whether they think you really know what you’re talking about, or whether you can manage the tasks you claim you can. Either we choose to develop our own brand… or our brand is decided for us.

In 1976, Oxford University biologist Richard Dawkins coined the term “meme” (rhymes with cream), which he defined as a basic unit of cultural transmission that passes from one mind to another and instantly communicates an entire idea. For example: the skull-and-crossbones symbol on a bottle is a meme that conveys “poison, dangerous.” Other well-known memes are the hitchhiker’s thumb, the white flag of surrender, and the Red Cross.

Memes, with their power to communicate a complete thought in a flash have the potential to revolutionize your personal marketing and brand. Memes are more effective than logos because they do more than just identify a company identity… logos don’t tell others what their business actually does. By contrast, a well-conceived meme can cut through the branding clutter and instantly inform your clients, your prospects, and complete strangers just met exactly who you are.

YES, Looks Do Matter

Repeatedly, branding is a big topic here at Wendistry, but I’m always surprised by the fact that not everyone is aware of the power of creating a brand for oneself. Your personal brand is all-important, particularly when you run a business. Think Kate Spade, Martha Stewart, Oprah… these are all individuals who created entire businesses around their own successful self-branding. And they know that what they look like is key to conveying their company’s success.

Yes, your business standards and ethics, your personality, and of course, your performance are all fundamental parts of your personal brand. You should have a clear understanding of who you are, what your values are and what you’d like to be known for to be able to develop a successful image. However, before you’ll even have the chance to prove your outstanding performance and steadfast integrity, you have to make a first impression to get your foot in the door. And to do that, you’re going to need to look the part (without trying too hard, of course).

With some knowledge that I’ve gained by working diligently with Ayo Fashola of Ice Cream Style to hone my own brand to accurately reflect everything that we’re about here at Wendistry, here are her (and my) highest recommendations:

1. First impressions count. Clothes, hair, makeup, teeth……they’re all a part of first impressions. Don’t wait until you lose 20 pounds or land that next big client to start taking care of your image. Your client’s first impression will be hard to shake if it’s not a good one. If you are building a brand around yourself, keep in mind that whenever you leave the house, your brand goes with you. This doesn’t mean that you can’t run out for coffee in your sweatpants on occasion, but if there is an opportunity that you may meet a potential client, you’ll want to present yourself accordingly.

2. Wear clothes that fit. If you remember only one thing from this article, please let it be these four words. Just remember the last woman you saw wearing a button-down shirt that was too tight or a skirt that was entirely too short for a professional environment and these images alone should be enough to convince you to wear clothes that fit.

3. Discover your signature look. Each one of us has unique features and style. What you perceive of as a flaw may in fact make you memorable. Think of someone like Jackie Kennedy: whether you liked her politics or not, she launched a thousand styles that were copied and are still considered classics… the pillbox hat, the big sunglasses. If you’ve been trying too hard to look a part, you’ll end up looking like you’re trying too hard. Instead, focus on those characteristics that make you unique and are truly you. Whether it’s always wearing a particular accessory (think Bono with his sunglasses) or carrying off an unusual fashion choice (say, the ability to make mismatched clothes work well together), a unique signature to your style will make you memorable. Just be sure that the unique signature is authentically yours and represents what you want to say to the world.

4. Be consistent. Once you’ve established a style that works for you, stick with it. If you look like a carefree bohemian one day and a buttoned-up businessperson the next, potential clients may perceive you as inconsistent and therefore, unreliable. Because…

5. What you wear is a costume of sorts. What does your costume say about who you are? Since it can be hard to be objective about ourselves, ask for feedback from people who will tell you the truth. While you may think that your relaxed fit cotton casual pants say “approachable and low-key businessman,” to someone else they may scream “hopelessly out-of-touch dork with pleats.” I’m not saying that you won’t be able to wear cotton, but you may have to shift to a pant style that is of this century.

6. Match your style to your business. (On a personal note, this is where I’m having the most difficulty adjusting… I just pulled 20 black suits from my closet. What am I? A professional funeral attender?? YIKES!) If you’re a tax accountant, you’ll probably find a suit and tie to be a more successful look than, say, grunge. There does need to be a certain correspondence between the nature of your look and your occupation. That’s not to say that you can’t be a flamboyant tax accountant, but chances are, you’ll have more success in the entertainment industry than at a Fortune 500 company. (Again, I did spend 2.5 years in the financial services world, hence all the black, gray, navy suits. However, now I’m a marketing, strategy, and brand development consultant… creativity for clients is a key. So, creativity must be a part of my Brand Image and attire.)

7. Be authentic. Since every aspect of yourself contributes to your “brand,” it helps to be authentic. If at heart you are a hillbilly, don’t pretend to be part of the east coast elite. Though American society is relatively fluid compared to many other places in the world, pretending to be what you’re not will not help you to achieve a personal brand. A personal brand is quintessential you. So, embrace those aspects of yourself that make you unique instead of denying them.

Finally, remember that no amount of branding on the outside will make up for a failure to deliver the goods. You’ll need to know how to use your manners, collaborate and otherwise display the emotional intelligence and diplomacy that makes the world go ’round, while also delivering a quality product or service on time, no matter how good you look.

Strategic Planning: How-To

A strategic planning meeting should be held at least once a year and should include all executive managers as well as any key supervisors with front-line knowledge and experience. Bring a copy of your company’s business plan to the meeting so it can be referred to when needed. Keep in mind the purpose of the meeting, which is to evaluate past projects and goals and to develop new strategies based on opportunities discovered through market research and analysis.

The following list can help create a more effective strategic planning meeting:

1. The meeting should be held off-site in a casual setting so participants will feel relaxed but away from distractions.

2. Make sure everyone knows that each person will be treated as an equal and everyone will have an equal voice in terms of suggestions and criticisms.

3. To promote a more comfortable atmosphere, have everyone dress in casual clothing.

4. Encourage discussion of subjects mentioned in the meeting. This will not only encourage more brainstorming as the meeting progresses, but it will also serve to fully define the subject and determine its merits.

5. Don’t let the meeting digress into endless criticism. Point out areas that merit praise, and when discussing areas of weakness, explain how certain suggestions may not fit into the overall scope of the company’s strategy.

6. Don’t try to prioritize items brought up in the meeting. The strategic planning meeting is mainly a brainstorming session where ideas are explored in relation to their strategic impact on the business.

7. Don’t assume that everyone will come with a notepad and pen. Make sure you provide both.

8. Make sure you cover each topic thoroughly before progressing to the next. Keep in mind that you are exploring strategic solutions. When discussing each subject, apply timelines for specific actions after the meeting has been adjourned.

9. Write a summary of the meeting and circulate it to everyone who is part of the strategic planning team. Then, make sure you have follow-up meetings to review each person’s progress.

10. Wrap up the meeting with allowing everyone to share their biggest success over the last year and how that knowledge and experience will be utilized moving forward into the next.

Don’t Ignore Your Best Performers

Sometimes CEOs are so busy trying to keep their business alive that they forget the people that got them there. Don’t ignore your stars. If you ignore them and assume that they will just keep on giving above and beyond for too long, they will go elsewhere just to be appreciated. And, they’ll even take less money for it.

Every business owner out there has experienced this scenario: an employee with key knowledge walks into your office and says, “I love you and I love working for you, but I have an offer I just can’t refuse.” Most of the time, the CEO finds extra money or whatever is necessary to keep the employee. My suggestion is to be proactive about keeping key people in the first place.

Pay increases and performance bonuses are more than extra money to an employee. It’s your way of saying, “You are valuable around here and I appreciate you.” Try giving that key employee 1/4th of the money you would have to give them in the “I’m quitting” scenario. See what kind of loyalty and morale you build then.

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