My Marketing Sucks... Where Do I Start?

Many organizations' marketing efforts either do not exist or produce sub optimal results. There are many reasons for this.  For purpose of this post, we will start by looking at what organizations should to if their marketing efforts consist of hiring sales representatives and hoping that they have a book of business and can close deals.  Unfortunately this is a common practice and most often ends with a couple of superstar sales reps staying with the company for years and the rest falling to the wayside.

Any company (whether new or not) that does not have a real marketing department needs to start by doing 4 things:

• Identify what industry will best be able to find benefit in their product
• Identify the best list of target companies that can afford to buy the product
• Identify who within the target companies will use the product
• Define the most cost effective strategy of communicating value to the final user

Notice that I use certain words, like value, benefit, user.  Marketing is about communicating value.  Business is about providing additional value to a user.  No one will buy a product if they do not see an additional value or benefit for using it.  Great product capabilities, or functionality is not enough.  Google+ is an example that is very relevant.  Google+ offers a number of features that Facebook does not, but so far most people are not deactivating their Facebook accounts for Google+.  The issue of creating and communicating value is the most important issue to understand and master in marketing.  It doesn't matter if you are cold calling, spamming or going door-to-door, you have to provide additional value to the potential customer and communicate it well.  

The next thing on the list is identifying what industry your product will fit in the best.  If your company makes widgets designed for hospitals you may not want to be marketing to the Automotive industry. (Okay, that was an extreme example, but the lesson is the same).  Finding these markets, verticals or targets is not always easy.  I worked for a company that offered so many different software packages that it was very confusing.  Package A, with Feature D&M were best for Industry A, but Package D with Feature A&Z was best for Industry K - huh?

This was so complicated that the majority of the time the Lead Generation Reps would call a company on their list and try to talk to executives on a cold call to try and learn what they were looking for, and then find that package that best fit them - this is putting the cart before the horses!  A better way is to have a clearly defined list of features aligned with industry pains and trends.

Make no mistake about it, finding and understanding these pains and trends are extremely difficult and aligning them to your product is also hard.    If you are a small firm and just starting, you probably have an idea already and the next exercise can help to materialize what you and your team have in your heads into usable knowledge.  The Five Product Levels consists of the following levels:

1. Core Benefit:  What is the most basic benefit that my product offers?
2. Basic Product: What is the most basic form of my product that produces the core benefit?
3. Expected Product:What does the buyer expect from the product?
4. Augmented Product: How does the product exceed the expectations of the user?
5. Potential Product: What could our product be in the future?

These questions can give you a start.  Translating the answers into marketable material will take a little bit of creativity.  There are so many channels to use to push you value proposition to the world that is daunting at times.  My advice is choose one (or two), and master that.  Make sure it is measurable and produces results - quickly!  If your product is truly complicated, in a big-boy industry and selling to corporate giants cold calling can work. Just be sure to train your lead generation reps to get an interested contact on the phone with a knowledgeable and experienced sales rep as soon as possible.  Email marketing may work if you are smaller, but I would not start sending spam to corporations - their firewalls are too good to produce results.  Webinars can be fun, but it is really hard to make sure you have the right people there unless you cold call and personal invite each one.  Doing that, negates the need for a webinar because if there is any interest it is better to do a personalized one.

So, true to the nature of business, there are always more questions than answers.  Good executives are good, not because they have all of the answers, but because they can find them and figure out complex problems.  If your marketing sucks your activities and value proposition is most likely not aligned with what the market is looking for.  Figure that our (Product, Market Need, Value) and then realign and your results will improve.  If they don't, you should be working in marketing.

Stereotypes Are Bad! Or Are They???

It is generally known that stereotypes are bad. We are taught as young children and we teach our children that stereotypes are bad. As an undergrad at Keene State College, I majored in Social Science with an emphasis on Sociology. As you can imagine, I spent many semesters trying to understand the root causes of many stereotypes and how they were unfairly and unjustly applied to individuals and groups of individuals. It wasn't until I was in my fifth semester of my MBA program that I realized that the use of stereotypes were not all bad.

From my sociology days, it was apparent that stereotypes are largely true. Stereotypes are society's way of grouping (fairly or unfairly) people. There are many stereotypes that we use everyday. More importantly, stereotypes are used by businesses in almost every decision made. Auto insurance company charge a higher premium for certain drivers and even certain cars. Consumer Packaged Good (CPG) companies target certain products to certain groups of people, for a certain purpose. Marketing is notorious for using stereotypes. McDonalds is aggressively targeting the African-American population with recent ads by using a Rap song to promote their new Mango and Pineapple Fruit Smoothie (the stereotype that all African-Americans listen to Rap).

Stereotypes provide marketing people with a foundation of individuals that could possible be interested in their products. A value is then assigned to that group of people (based on the size of the market, economic demographics, spending habits, etc) which translates into how much a company thinks they can sell, or Expected Commercial Value (EVC). Many of our business processes would not exist if it were not for stereotypes. We wouldn't be able to target advertising to a specific group of people without using stereotypes. Although many stereotypes have changed, the majority of them have stayed the same. Take the recent commercials for Swiffer Duster. One commercial shows two women as dirt and mud on a kitchen floor waiting to meet the love of their life (a mop) and be swept off the floor. Another show a man as dust in between keys on a keyboard. Pretty clear where these two stereotypes are. How successful is the use of stereotypes? P&G shares rose 130% in Swiffer's first year.! P&G is the largest CPG company and reported $78 billion in revenue last year - I would say that is pretty successful.

Because of the negative connotation that goes with the word "stereotypes" it is politely relabeled as "Market Segmentation" in the marketing world. In Business-to-Consumer (B2C) as well as the Business-to-Business (B2B) markets segmentation is hugely important. Marketers are rewarded and more valuable depending how much knowledge they possess about their markets. This starts with getting a deep understanding of who your existing customers are:

• What do they buy 
• Why do they buy 
• What are the motivators (drivers) for purchases 
• How do they buy (bulk, on credit, impulse, planned and evaluations) 
• When do they buy (seasonal, life-events, delegated) 

The answers to these questions (and there are thousands more) are extremely important. These answers are then applied to existing stereotypes that are common in the market and products are marketed to those groups of people that fit the buying habits as well as the stereotypes. Get these wrong and your new product will not be successful. This is a huge challenge for marketers. A challenge that extends to new product innovation (NPI) as well as advertising and product launches.

Even before a product makes it to market, millions of dollars are spent on a concept that marketing is saying customers (or potential customers) want and R&D is saying is feasible (see my post in InnovAAAAAtion!). Add on millions of dollars in marketing, test case, product positioning strategies, graphic designs, packaging, distibution and many other complex functions of launching a product to the wrong market - you'd better get your resume ready!

Make no mistake about it, marketers are masters at understanding and using stereotypes to position products to the right groups of people.

Facebook is Bigger Than You Think -Part 2

In the last article I talked about the difference between advertising your business via "Traditional Media" versus "Social Media".

So...now what?

Well, one thing I learned from the the young entrepreneurs in Kenya is that they use Facebook to tell stories about their lives. Pretty much the same thing we all do with our profiles. We all post photos of our kids, our birthdays, our vacations, our new cars...everything! We talk to people and comment on their posts. They comment back. So why wouldn't we promote our businesses the same way?

I'm going to use muffins as an example again because I love'em. What can you do if you own a muffin shop? Come up with a new flavor and post it your Facebook page. Get someone to take some nice photos of your store and some of the muffins on the shelf and put it up. Offer a baker's dozen for the price of a dozen. Believe me, I will go in and buy a dozen muffins for a free one. You get the point. You can start being creative with your offers and updates.

The best thing that can happen is a little conversation with a customer. If I loved your muffins so much I'd become a fan and even might post something on your wall (or on my wall) about your muffin shop and how its the best thing to hit planet earth since the invention of the muffin itself. Now, if I post something like this, I'd like to hear back from you. And it doesn't have to be much. Just a "thank you for coming in" will do just fine.

I'm not going to lie, maintaining your Facebook page takes time and effort. It's grassroots marketing on the digital level. Truly. What you put into it, you'll get back. This also means that your business is "all out there". For everyone to see – good or bad.

We've looked at the good. Now what about the bad? This was one of the only questions the young Kenyans had. They told me there are "jokesters" out there who will just write bad things on your wall. This definitely, might possibly, could very well happen. Maybe. But it probably will. As I told them, you can do one of two things:

1.) You can delete the post.

2.) You can hit it head on.

It might seem crazy, but number two is your best bet. Someone is going to go into your muffin shop and have a bad experience. Who knows? Maybe the person at the register is having a bad day. Maybe someone accidentally put salt in the muffins instead of sugar. Maybe the customer was having a bad day and the muffin just wasn't enough to turn it around. So he or she goes back to the office and posts your worst nightmare.

"New muffin place on the corner...worst muffin of my life. Don't go there."

This is an opportunity to turn that customer around. Comment on his or her post, offer them a free muffin or cup of coffee. Ask what was wrong. Get that customer back. Put yourself out there. It's not impossible. Believe it or not, this is the kind of thing that particular customer is looking for. You know your muffins are the best thing on the planet. Don't let one bad experience bring it down.

A good friend of mine became the social media director at a fairly good size business. In the third week she was there, a customer had a bad experience at a particular branch. He immediately posted about how bad it was there and that he didn't want any part of going back. She got wind of this and took action - within 24 hours. She simply asked him what happened, apologized and let him know that they cared very much for his business. He responded immediately as well. He couldn't believe a business that big listened to him and responded to him so quickly. He posted his gratitude, took back what he originally said and even took the time to write a positive email and send it to corporate, which eventually reached the CEO.

Now thats the ultimate turnaround. That guy is probably still telling his friends to go there. There is no advertisement in the world that can make that kind of impression.

In the world of media, the best and biggest form of advertising is, and always has been, word of mouth. Today we live in the digital world, and social media gives everyone the biggest platform the've ever had to say whatever they want. Even on a global scale.

And who knows...they might be commenting about how good their muffin was this morning.

What the (bleep) does "Business Development" actually mean?

I recently read and participated in a discussion about the difference between Business Development and Sales executives. Although I responded, I did so in passing and did not really take the time to lay out what a clear definition is for each of them and how they integrate and overlap. I stated quickly (bad grammar and all) that "Business Development develops business and sales closes business." Seems simple enough I guess. But I think everyone would agree that there is a hell of a lot more that goes into Developing Business and Closing Business.

Even companies that enjoy recurring revenue from existing customer (I have heard of companies northward of 80%), have to to find new customers. There is only some much you can sell existing customers. In a perfect organization there are three types of activities that have to happen in order to obtain new customers. To obtain new customers you need to:

1. Understand your markets and the needs of non-customers 
2. Develop new relationships and become a trusted adviser to new prospects 
3. Close new deals! 

Ideally, these three aspects should be separate roles and in some cases departments. For now, let's leave marketing out of this (refer to my post I Work in MARKETING, not Advertising!). Let's assume that we already understand points 1 and 2, ready to go to market and start creating relationships. This is where Business Development comes into play. Business Development professionals should be experts in four things:

1. Identifying the right people to talk to 
2. Making initial contact with executives and gaining their trust 
3. Navigating an organization and understanding its structure 
4. Finding hot button issues and common pains across the organization 

These are the ends. There are a million means. What is important to remember is that this is not time to sell! During the business developing part of the sales process the potential customer is not ready to buy If they were, they would have already contacted you (as long as marketing is doing their jobs). Business development is about doing the research, working with executives that now trust you to better understand your industry. These executive are busy but very smart. They are experts in their industry, not yours. A VP of R&D may be knowledgeable about the ERP industry, but not like you are. It is your job to help them to understand the landscape. Who you are, what you offer, who your competitors are (and for pete's sake, don't say "we don't have any")? The more information you share, the more they will trust you, talk openly about their pains, concerns, and more importantly, help you to understand and navigate their organization (steps 3 & 4).

Business development is not about selling your product or service. It is about selling yourself, your company and your industry. In today's complex sales' process, it is impossible to call someone and end the call with a commitment to buy. That should not be your goal. The call should always end with sending information and an agreement to follow up at a later date. If you get an appointment scheduled with the prospect one of two things has happened: 1) You pushed too hard and will waist an hour of time for him and your sales rep or 2) you got lucky and found some one that is ready to buy. The prospect should hang up the phone and think "that was good, knowledgeable and looking forward to their info!" This is the foundation that will lead to further understanding whether or not they have a need for your product or service.

Later on when the sales rep is trying close business, the work that business development has put into questions 1-4 will make it much easier to close business. Closing enterprise deals (6-7 figure deals) has only gotten harder. Now companies are more strapped for budgets, more people are involved and decisions are more political. Getting in good with the VPs and C-level employees helps, but doesn't seal the deal. Plus, with more competitors in every market trying to sell similar or the same functionality can make it a nightmare for evaluation teams. Companies now have more buying power than ever before (thanks to the internet) and usually have a preconceived idea of who you are before they even contact you. Sometimes you may be behind before you even start. Most companies have become great at portraying themselves as the leader in a particular market by spending more money on marketing than they do on their product. Not a bad strategy if you are finding deals 10-to-1 over your competitor that is spending more on their product and less on marketing.   In this environment, business development has to be the bridge between sales and market. Business Development does both, has to be involved in both and has to own the process of finding new customers and entering new markets. Sales should not being doing this - they should be closing deals that they have in their pipeline. Marketing should not be doing it - they should be creating killer content and quit honestly, most marketing people lack the people skills and determination to be on the front lines! 

Additionally, please do not make the mistake of compensating your business development people according to revenue contributions. This is unfair and isn't the right tool for motivation. If business development reps wanted to be compensated and judged by revenue, they would be in sales. Instead, pay them well and put a great lead scoring process in place and reward them for great leads. Give them bonuses when things close. Get them involved in the development of the content as they are the Voice of the Prospect. Get them involved deep into the sales process with the sales representative. This will provide them additional experience, knowledge and confidence about how to control a good conversation with senior executives as well as provide support the sales representative while he/she gets comfortable and builds rapport with the project champion.

Make your business development representatives the bridge between your sales and marketing groups. I guarantee you will not regret it.

Google's Solution for Non-Apple Users!

With the release of Google+, Music Beta and the ChromeBook, we the people that don't use Apple can rejoice.  Adding these products to the existing web-based and Android-based products all of us that do not use Apple for one reason or another (yes, there are people without an iSomething) could possible have a complete solution to manage our lives as well.  Integrating all of Google's products into one platform, has provided everyone a free way to manage the most important things in life - Friends, Documents, Calendars, Emails, Music and Pictures.  What else is there to ask for!

I have never been an Apple person.  I am the hip PC in the Apple commercials.  I had an iPod for a while and it was nice. It was just another thing to carry around with me until I lost it.  I have always been a Google guy (as my wife calls me).  I am always on edge trying to figure out how to use Google's free products better.  I was using Google Docs about 3 years ago, and would not have finished my MBA program without it. Now with the release of Music Beta by Google I finally have a real (and better) alternative to iTunes.  I have had everything in my Google Cloud for years now.  I pride myself is my Googleness and brag about not having anything on my PC.  With the new ChromeBook, which I can not wait to buy, I will have a Faster way to access and use it to manage my multi-functional life.

It is very interesting to me that Apple and Steve Jobs are the poster children for Innovation.  Through out my MBA program, many people used Apple for their case studies on their ability to innovative.  My sense is that Google has always been much more innovative and slowly but surely setting themselves up for a larger technology revolution that is finally taking shape, without the psycho Steve Jobs leading the charge (Yes, I called Steve Jobs a psycho!).  Yes, Google has had some near failures (YouTube) and some complete failures (Google Wave) but all in all - Google works and works well!  They may not have always been first to market, but who is these days?  Apple's iPod was not the first MP3 player on the market, but it was better.  Google Maps was not the first website to get directions from (for those of you who do not know, it was MapQuest), but it was better.  Google has provided us all with innovative and free alternatives to costly products (MS Server, Sharepoint, MS Office and even CAD software).   And now they are taking on the 3 giants at the same time (Microsoft, Apple and Facebook).  What other company out there in the Silicon Valley has the resources, talent and BALLS to pick that many battles and succeed?  None!

Jeff Jarvis explains how Google is able to innovate so quickly and effectively his book What Would Google Do?   He makes that point that Google is the master at launching products that people need and want, and letting the users decide how to improve them - hence everything is Beta.  Having the idea or a framework of what a product is going to do is one thing.  Letting the users use it, report on it, and suggest improvements is something entirely different.  Marissa Mayer (VP Customer Experience) created this strategy and has changed that game for every software product manager out there.  We now have a new vision.  A new plan on how we should go about starting new initiatives.  Follow the Google approach there are no longer missed launch dates and  embarrassment of bug-ridden releases.  What is also gained in return is a group of faithful and eager users (numbering in the thousands or millions) that are dying to try and test the new Google product.  Customer loyalty at its best!

Jason Fried's  approach (Rework) is parallel.  Doing something is better than doing nothing.  Starting is is the most important and hardest step.  Making it great is the easy part!  Getting your users' feedback is essential in your efforts to give customers what they want and not selling your customers what you have!  These approaches creates an entirely new culture of employees that now have to fight the old guard to get better products and services to market - faster.  Many companies struggle with this new approach.  Many companies see that there is a need, a weakness or a better way to do something.  They know it is there, they know it has to be done and they have to resources to do it.  "We need to look at this further!" is the response.  Time is wasted and opportunities are missed.  Fried's message - do it, do it well, and be ready to adapt to changes to new market requirements.  This is the new approach to innovation!

It is clear that Google knows exactly what it is doing, the balls to do and the resources to make it successful.  And I couldn't be happier that I finally have an real alternative (and better) to Apple's products.  One that does not control your content, provides great functionality, flexibility and is COMPLETE!

Thank you GOOGLERS!!!

I Work in MARKETING, not Advertising!

It is almost without fail that when I tell people that I do marketing for a software company there are two assumptions placed on me; 1) I am a technical person and 2) I do advertising, and send out spam.  This could not be further from my realty - I am not technical at all :) 


So, I decided to set the record straight on what Marketing really is, as a profession!  Marketing is a very important function of business,  maybe the most important.  In small organizations, marketing is confused with sales and in large organizations it is confused with advertising.  There are a lot of overlaps, but according to James Henley  and the MARKETING CONCEPT AND PHILOSOPHY, marketing has a very simple focus - meet the customers' needs at a profit.  As such, marketing is truly a function of every function in business.  


More specifically, there are a  number of activities that the marketer people have to be able to do - effectively:

1. Know who the customers are
2. Know what they want
3. Know what you can offer (products or services)
4. Know what you and the customer can afford
5. Communicate that you understand 1 through 4 in a way that adds value and gains attention

This is the core function of marketing, in its simplest form.  For each of these activities there are a lot of people and even professions that only focus one or two of them.  The most important aspect of marketing for any company is 1 and 2.  If you are a sales person an executive or anyone else and do not know who your potential customers are and what they want - FIND OUT and fast.  This knowledge it priceless.  You have to know your markets. 

David F. D'Alessandro makes a very clear point in his book Career Warfare.  To be indispensable, at any company, make sure that you poses some knowledge about how to do something that no one else knows how to do as well as you!  What else is more valuable than knowing who your potential customers are and what they need.  That is information that the CEO, VP of Sales, Chief Marketing Officer, R&D people and other functions in a company will want to know. If you play your cards right, they will ask you what you think! 

Going back to "advertising" for a minute. Advertising, Pay-Per-Click, Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization and email marketing (spam) are all functions of communicating what customers want.  Imagine if the customers desired a new widget that did ABC and you spent millions on a TV spot, a new website and a Facebook page offering DEF... would you sell anything?  NO!  

Marketing is simple and it is not spamming people.  Marketing helps the R&D and Innovation groups understand what people want.  Marketing is not responsible for selling people things they don't want or don't need.  Marketing is the most strategic of functions, making sure that the company is going in the same direction as their potential customers.  Understanding what people want is hard work.  Making sure that you can offer them what they don't realize they will need in 5, 10 years is even harder.  


The solution, learn who your potential customers are and what they want.  Learn it well, and communicate it even better!  Be the Voice of the Customer!

Facebook is Bigger Than You Think -Part 1

A few months ago I took a trip to Kenya. It was part of a state-sponsored trip with the University of Connecticut to mentor young entrepreneurs. I went with a crew of highly intelligent and educated professionals from all over Connecticut. Some of them have studied multiple languages and indigenous tribes, some of them are top level professors of masters programs, some have traveled to other third world countries and started organic and fair trade divisions for their product lines and some are even involved with homeland security for our nation.

Me? I graduated from Keene State College with a Bachelors of Science degree in Graphic Design.

For some reason, some genius decided that it was a good idea I go along with all these over achievers and run a seminar on social media marketing as part of the 4 day required course for the young entrepreneurs. To put it into perspective...Was this a joke?

I knew nothing of Kenya. I'd never stepped foot out of America, unless you count Canada, which I think is just the actual North America with better strip clubs. I had to find out more.

I knew it was a developing country. I knew it was in Africa. But I didn't know if teaching a course on Social Media Marketing would make any sense at all. Did they have websites for their businesses? Did they have marketing budgets? What kind of businesses are they actually running? Who is going to be at the seminar? Did they even have access to the internet? Questions and more questions flooded my mind. I'd never given a lecture to anyone, other than in college for a project.

Well, we had a week to visit some of the businesses in the field before the actual seminar got under way. Some of them were in Nairobi, some were farther out in the country. One guy had an internet cafe, which is where most of them check their email and surf the web. Electricity is hard to come by in Kenya. We had rolling blackouts at our hotels every night. So you can imagine there are not many power lines roaming the landscape. Therefore, there are no internet lines following those power lines. It all helped to develop my part of the seminar. Trying to understand just how they thrive in business down here when resources are so limited.

I just kept asking as much as possible until I got my answer. Cell phones. Everything is wireless, including the internet. The majority of them don't have credit cards. They have cell phones that trade "credits" to purchase items. Want a stick of gum or a bottle of water? Whip out your cell phone. They all have cell phones. And more importantly, there were all on Facebook.

It was astonishing. They could all keep in touch on Facebook through their cell phones. This is a country that is going to skip a few levels of infrastructure, simply because they don't need it. They'll go solar before somebody ever thinks of spending the money for power lines. One of the businesses going on down there was actually selling a small solar panel with a light and a switch as a package for homes. They're not powering up mansions anyways, so it makes sense.

So when my seminar came around it was all about getting your business up on Facebook. It made the most sense for them and after roughing out a lecture minutes before I gave it, it made sense for any business any where. For these entrepreneurs it was all about access and funds. They have no money for a marketing budget. They have no money or knowledge to build a website. In fact, the first part was asking about "Traditional Media."

"Traditional Media" is what we first think of now. For example, print ads in magazines and newspapers, billboards, radio spots, tv spots and building a website. Now let's just say we want to advertise in the daily paper. Because we're a small company, we can only afford a small ad toward the back of the local section. That ad might cost $250 for a one time shot. Let's say the circulation of the daily paper is 50,000. So, 50,000 people are set to receive this paper. That doesn't mean it goes to 50,000 mailboxes. Stacks of these papers go into the boxes on every street corner, sometimes the return is high. Lets say that 30,000 people actually receive and read this paper. That's 60%. You're a local business and this paper is statewide. So let's say that your immediate area for your business is 8,000. Sixty percent of your area is 4,800. Of these 4,800 people, 2,000 read the whole paper, 1,000 of them look at all the ads and coupons. Lets hope 10% are interested in your ad. Out of the 100 people that have seen your ad let's figure 2% will take action.

So, for $250 we got two new customers. Not bad. However, that's $125 per person. Is there ever a scenario where you would spend $125 to sell a $2.50 cupcake to somebody? I hope not, you'd be out of business pretty fast.

This is where social media comes in to play. It's free to set up an account for your business on Facebook. How many friends do you already have on Facebook? One hundred? Most likely, the majority of those friends are interested because they know you already. Let's just say 30 of them tried your business and 10 actually liked it. Enough to share it on their Facebook walls. Maybe they each have 100 friends. That's 1,000 people that just saw somebody say something good about your business. Let's be honest, sharing something on your Facebook page is the same as a recommendation. Now, using the same 2% from the newspaper return, that's 2o people that came in and tried your business. From this point it's up to you and the quality of the product to keep them coming back.

On Facebook, for no money at all, you've advertised, captured some testimonials, retained a pretty good customer base and, the best part, the word is still spreading around to even more people.

The Right to Win!

A while back I read an article by Booz & Company called The Right To Win.  Although this company, website and magazine is geared towards business, I thought that this was an interesting concept for personal application as well.  Similar to Cheshire's point in his last post - Anonymity  - The Right to Win is more about being relevant and a leader than it is about winning.  The idea of marketing ourselves is not a new one and it is a skill that everyone has (or needs to develop).  Without it, none of us would have the jobs that we currently have - we sold our skills, experiences and personalities to the hiring managers of where we work.

The Right to Win theory goes a lot further.  When we compete against other businesses, applicants, or any other form of competition for that matter, the best product or person doesn't always win.  Remember back to the SuperBowl XLII.  Sorry everyone, The Giants were not the better team.  They played better that day, but were not the better team.  Their strategy going into that particular game, coupled with their flawless execution gave them The Right to Win that day, the only day that mattered.  (Yes, I am a Patriots fan)

Gaining The Right to Win takes vision, determination, strategy and flawless execution.  Knowing where you would like to be in 5, 10, 15 or 20 years helps you to work on gaining the skills you will need to place yourself in the best position for success.  A lot of people believe that they already have this right due to some sort of entitlement from birth, or a specific degree from a specific institution   Although these things do help to achieve goals and increases your odds of winning, they do not entitle you to The Right to Win.  In this global economy The Right to Win can only be achieved by matching your skills perfectly  with what someone is looking for.

This is true on a personal and business level.  Your product can only have The Right to Win is you find a potential customer that has the exact features your product offers.  This does not mean that you should add more features (or personal skills), but instead it means that you should focus your features and skills on the exact market that is looking for exactly what you have to offer.  Remember, the essence of strategy is lies in what you don't do..... This gives you The Right to Win!

InnovAAAAAtion

InnovAAAAAtion is what you hear every CEO yelling at the top of his lungs to his Senior VPs.

"We MUST innovATE!  We have to be innovATIVE to stay competitive!"

What he doesn't realize is that these VPs already know this!

Who are these VPs and what is the innovation that Mr. CEO is looking for?  Well, titles usually range from VP of R&D, Chief Innovation Office (this is newer), VP of New Product Development and of course you have some VPs of Engineering and Marketing.  Innovation in its simplest definition is any product or service that meets an unmet need in the marketplace.  A new way of doing something (Ford's Line Manufacturing) or a new feature to an existing product (the windshield wiper) or a completely new product (although these are rare).

In Scott Berkun's book "The Myths of Innovation" he explains that even the popular belief of innovation relating to a completely new product is a myth.  The iPod was not a completely new product, but an innovative way of using 1,000 existing products in a new way.  The shape was the only thing new.  Innovation has to be grounded in existing products or materials, or they take forever to develop and there usually is not a market for them (aka: no knows how the heck to use them).

So how does Mr. CEO go about getting his team of VPs to innovate.  There are a million strategies on answering this question but, most companies (and I have dealt with many) usually start with a common exercise (which actually relates well with Jason's last post on a personal level as well).

1. What are our core competencies?  What do we do well?  
2. What products or services can we reposition into adjacent markets?
3. What products or services in our markets are we not making now, that we could make better than our competitor?
4. What products or services do not currently existing in our existing markets? What cool new features do our customers want in a new product?  
5. What markets can we combine into one product offering?  (Blue Ocean Strategy)

After answering these questions, I guarantee you will have more questions to figure out:

• Do we have the right people with the right skills to makes these products?
• What type of Return on Investment (ROI) will we see?  What is the potential Commercial Value (ECV) of this product?
• What are our competitors doing?
• And on, and on, and on it goes.....

Companies are able to manage this madness with a simple formula:  The Right People, The Right Culture, The Right Process and The Right Technology.  Without all four of these aspects Innovation is not sustainable.  The right people are entrepreneurial at heart and love figuring out new things; otherwise they get bored.  The culture is founded in executives that are not afraid to fail (often and fast), and are not afraid of letting their employees experiment.  The right process has to take you from Ideation, through development and post-launch of new products.  There are many processes out there, I recommend Stage-Gate, although it is not the end-all, by-all process.  The right technology has to do with software - MS XL and MS Project will kill you trying to find and manage data....TRUST ME!  Do yourself a favor, get a PPM software solution if you are managing lots of projects.

How important is this topic and sub-topics?  The Aberdeen Group found that companies that have a robust portfolio management process (all four parts of the formula) realize 25% more revenue from their innovation projects.  A study from Kalypso found that 52% of medical device companies were unhappy with their return on investment.  Remember, what is not growing is dying!  Don't let your business be one of them!  In order to grow your business, you need new products and services that meet unmet needs.  Otherwise you are competing in price alone and that is a recipe for disaster.  No one can always be the low cost provider and be profitable!

So, Mr. CEO is right - you must innoVATE!

Anonymity

My name is Jason Cheshire. I'm an art director at an advertising and marketing agency. My wife calles me Bubba. In college there were so many "Jason's" in our fraternity that we all went by our last names: Dex, Locke, Fraser, Cheshire. From that point on I was known as Cheshire. My closest friends have shortened it to Chesh. Now I go by Chesh. I've met people that were friends of friends and I've always introduced myself as Jason. Inevitably, after talking with them for a while, it comes up, "Wait, you're Cheshire? Oh, I've heard about you."

Recently, I came across a quote that simply says, "Design should never be anonymous." Well, in my opinion, nothing should anonymous. Not your writing, not my designing, not your selling, and especially not yourself.

Even when you meet someone for the first time you begin to market yourself. You want to be remembered. No one wants to be forgotten the moment they leave a prospective client for the first time. Who wants to be just another "Jason" in the crowd? For me, introducing myself as Cheshire seems to work.

For my clients, I need to help them with their "identity", so-to-speak. Not who they are everyday, but what they're perceived to be through their business card or their website or their billboard. I help them market themselves.

In our business, we come across people who aren't quite sure of their business identity. One thing that gets them thinking on the right track is their "elevator pitch". If you're in an elevator with someone who could be a potential client, what could you tell them in that amount of time to sell yourself or your business? Or simpler yet, what can you tell them that they will remember? Give it about 30 seconds. This narrows it down pretty quickly. It really gets them thinking what they do best. Pretty soon they're confident in that mini-speech and they don't hesitate to give it.

Sometimes it's not a speech. If I'm in an elevator with someone who hands me a unique business card, I'm holding on to that thing. As a designer that's the kind of thing that sticks out in my mind. It tells me they thought about that moment and they obviously pay attention to the details. That they want to be remembered and stick out in a sea of "Jason's". And it works.

Other times, it's a bit of random conversation. Once in the elevator in our own building a guy asked my if my shoes were Clark's. They were and that started up a conversation pretty easily. I remember thinking what a nice guy he was and that he'd probably be easy to do business with.

So think about how to market yourself. Think of your best assets. Find something that people will remember about you. Hand them your cool, new business card. Tell them in a simple way how you're going to make a big splash in the business world. Tell them you're having a bad hair day. Tell them anything.

But, for pete's sake, don't be anonymous.

Cold Calling - 101!

Last week while in the office I got a cold call from a “Lead Generation” company.  Seeing that I make about 50 cold calls a day and this is my bread and butter, I am usually very nice to struggling telephone sales people.  This started wrong, and went terrible south, fast, and then proceeded to get worst.

Here is what happened and how to do it better.

Me: This is Jeremy!
Caller: Hey Jeremy, what’s up, this is Jimmy from ABC Lead Generation...
Me: Mmmm, Ok, How can I help you?
Caller:  I got an email from one of my colleagues stating that you don’t have any need for outsourcing your lead generations any time soon; I wanted to follow up to make sure I understand everything.
Me:  Mmmm, Sure... (although I don’t know what else there is to talk about).
Caller: So, as I understand it, your company doesn’t do any lead generation and your sales reps wait for info requests from your website - is that right?
Me:  No, that is not right, I do what you do, only better.
Caller:  I doubt that!
Me: Thanks for calling!

About five minutes later I receive an email from him with a brochure, no text and his signature - that is it!  I didn’t read the brochure!

So, let’s look at how bad this call really was!

First, never use “What’s up!”  We are not friends, I don’t know you and it sends the message you are trying to be too informal and friendly.  Secondly, the caller started by reaffirming that I have no interest.  Restating this negativity only further turns me off.  Thirdly, if I make a joke at your expense, go with it , DON”T try to defend yourself, you are only going to offend me (which he did!).  

Cold calling has a very negative imagine.  No one likes doing it, no one likes to interrupt their days’ activities to answer the phone and be sold on something they probable don’t need.  That is why real cold calling is not about selling . It is about making connections and starting relationships that may or may not result in a sale.  

The first 10 seconds of any call makes or breaks it, based on a simple formula:  No one will ever buy anything from you if they don’t trust you, and they won’t trust you if they don’t listen to you and they won’t listen to you if they don’t like you!   Getting some one to like you in the first 10 seconds has to be the goal of a cold call not to sell your product.

Using “what’s up” doesn’t send the right message, which is “I am smart, aggressive and busy just like you - I don’t want to waist your time, nor mine.”   Making sure you understand that there is no need waists people’s time.  Defending yourself after a small and harmless joke reinforces the stereotype that the rest of use professionals in the industry are trying to reverse and just PROVES MY POINT.  

If a call does go bad, DON”T send an unsolicited email with no text, this just shows that you are regurgitating the material that your marking team worked hours to develop and unable to communicate the value of your company yourself.

You

Me
BETTER!

I am a writer (and a Leo). Hear me roar.

"Please, keep writing," my grandfather said to me, his voice wavering with emotion and his eyes brimming with tears. He held me so tight against his body that I feared his 81-year-old body might crack from the pressure.

"I will. I promise," I said, feeling light-headed and confused that the nonsense I wrote on my blog could mean that much to anyone other than me.

That was four months ago. And until tonight, I hadn't written anything outside of work. I've written 100-page marketing plans, press releases, bylined articles and everything in-between. But the creative voice that is usually boiling up from inside of me has been silent and unmoving. I've written nothing for me.

My old blog -- which was a fun experiment and a creative outlet for awhile -- lapsed. I got lazy. I got busy. So, I didn't write. I didn't keep the promise to my grandfather and -- most importantly -- I didn't keep my promise to myself: to be a writer.

My whole life, I've been a writer. When I was six years old, I wrote stories about red-eyed people and mermaids that I tucked away in a lime-green pocket folder that had a picture of a koala on the front. When I was in middle school, my teacher "published" a 100-page novella I wrote about a family with 12 kids and put it in the school library (years later, my sister and her friends found it and declared they "loved" it). In high school, I continued to write short stories and was praised for my "college-level" explications of poems. In college, I wrote bad poetry when I was in love and had my pieces read aloud as examples in my creative writing classes. And throughout my 20's, I looked back on my life with one regret: that I wasn't a professional writer. Because I'd always felt that was my destiny.

But I continued to write for me. For fun. Until I stopped. And everyone -- including my grandfather -- asked me why.

So, when Jeremy asked me to start writing for this blog, I didn't miss a beat before answering "yes." And here I am.

I'm still not sure what I am supposed to be writing. I am unclear on the goals of this blog. But when you are a writer -- when prose and paragraphs and ideas fly through your brain at all times of the day -- and someone asks you to spill your guts and share your thoughts in a creative forum, you say "yes." So, here I am.

I promise to be entertaining, emotional, honest, snarky and fun. I promise to be real and let you get to know me. And I promise to write consistently.

Most importantly, I need to keep a simple promise I made four months ago: to just keep writing.

Right-Right Decisions

I have been thinking a lot about one of my assignments during my MBA program.  How do we make decisions?  How do we decide what is best when both outcomes seem to be right?  How do we define what is right?

There are many every day situations everyday when there is no wrong answer, so what the hell do we do?  A pessimist would see these situations as "Screwed if I do and screwed if I don't" as there is no way to make everyone happy.  I see that that the real opportunity here is to find the solution that has does the most good for the most amount of people affected.  Joseph Badaracco (Harvard Professor) came up with a framework to manage and analyze these situations.  Here are the 4 steps:

1. Which way creates the most amount of happiness for the most amount of people?
2. Which individuals and which groups have rights we cannot violate?
3. Where is the uncrossable line?
4. What will work in the world as we know it?

Tough four questions and the old days of doing a Pro/Con list or Risk v. Rewards list simple doesn't work because they only take into account what is a risk or reward for you.  In today's global world there are just simple too many people that are effected by your decisions.  It is difficult to see some times (even though are people that believe they are the center of attention) but everything we decide to do or not do does affect the world (indirectly of course).  

Badaracco's framework provides us a foundation to look at the serious decisions:  Taking a new job, moving the family across country, getting a dog, having or not having kids, choosing a college, etc.  There are a million of these decisions in a lifetime. It would be too much to expect ourselves to use this framework for all decisions and I think we all sort of go through this process for the big decisions.  

I would argue that most of the time we get stuck on one or two aspects of the framework and tend to focus too much on that one aspect and lost track of the complete picture or assign a greater weight to one net consequence than another based on our preferences and not objective facts.  This is extremely dangerous when serious issues such as health care, economy, religion are added to the situation for analysis because it increases the number of people affected by the decision and each person has strong emotional ties to his or hers "objectivity."  The book "Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking"  is  a good place to start for those who want to be objective about issues and decisions.  

Best of luck and as always - just my $0.02 worth!

JS

Post- BIG events

It is funny how major events all seem to come at the same time.  As you already know (or don't), my wife and I gave birth to our first son (Evan Cipriani Scully) on May 31, 2011.  This was also the Tuesday following Memorial Day Weekend, and the 9th week out of my 10 week semester for my MBA, and the last semester of my MBA program.  So, this really means that I was learning how to be a father, taking care of my "hurt" wife, and trying to finish off the last two weeks of my MBA program.  Thankfully, I was able to get it all done, get some sleep and actually enjoy the first two weeks of my son's life.

I bring this up not because I want congratulations, but because no matter how hard we try to control when and how things happen, the further we are from how they will actually happen.  When I started my MBA program, I envisioned that by the time I was done I would have had multiple job offers, maybe a new job, maybe even selling software to Latin America (the underlying reason I wanted an MBA).  I never once imagined that I would be a father at almost the same exact time I was completing my MBA and looking back on it (two weeks ago), I wouldn't have it any other way.

So we can struggle to make things happen the way we envision them or we can let things happen sometimes and enjoy the one hell of a ride that comes with this journey called life!

JS!