Apr 3, 2014 | Branding, Communication, Management
Talking with a couple of mates over a beer recently, one of whom has a successful boutique recruitment agency, we found ourselves reflecting on the changes in word usage that had occurred over the last 20 years, and how we had contributed to the changes, most of which we did not feel were improvements.
A few examples.
“Gay”. A friend of mine at school was named Gaye, lovely girl, great fun, bet she has changed her name.
“Like”. It actually used to mean something, rather than acting as a tool of verbal punctuation.
“Green” used to be a really nice colour, not a political label.
The kicker for me was “passion”.
I have been guilty, there are several posts over the years talking about how important passion is, so I have made a contribution to turning this word into a management cliché
Do we have to be passionate about everything? Cooking. Suddenly we have to be passionate about cooking, when sometimes cooking is just to refuel, and jobs. A quick look at any jobs site will tell you that to be considered you must be passionate about your job, the mission of the enterprise, collaborating with others, and so on, Sometimes, a job is just a job, it pays the bills, keeps the kids occupied , and with luck delivers some intellectual and emotional support.
“Passion” has become a cliche, and has an unfortunate simile, Pretentious.
If you really want someone to be passionate, to make the emotional investment you are seeking, you had better give them a very good reason, because passion is a very private emotion, not given easily.
Apr 1, 2014 | Branding, Communication, Customers, Marketing
What do I do now?
The great paradox in selling is that to sell successfully, we often raise the expectations of those to whom we are selling, but to have satisfied customers, we need to under promise and over-deliver.
Complicating that dilemma of the potential mis-match of promise and delivery is that people hear what they want to hear, filtering out stuff that is inconsistent, unexpected, off their personal radar, or is just uncomfortable, while interpreting and exaggerating the stuff they want to hear. This particularly applies to sales outside the expertise of a customer.
Flicking through the TV channels last night, a bit slower than usual, I saw (another) ad for some sort of home training device that promises to deliver me the body of an Adonis in 10 minutes a day with little effort. A classic case of over promising if ever I saw one, but I guess someone is sucked in every minute, or they would not be aired.
Wonder if the poorer suckers ever get their money back? Guess not, but they do get to keep the flab.
The only antidote is to build a brand that customers trust. To do that you need to deliver on the value proposition consistently, over a considerable period, and act with honestly, humility and transparency. Big call for the “fat-be-gone” industry.
Mar 31, 2014 | Uncategorized
When you have nothing else to offer, price is what people use to make a judgement about which alternative to buy.
Yours or someone else’s alternative?
However, most people also recognise that you get what you pay for, and that what you pay for is not always just more widgets in the box. Sometimes the widgets last longer, fit better, are not the same as everyone else has, are the first seen, the box just looks better, and sometimes it is a bit of all of these, and many more factors that may influence the purchase.
Every person will have a different definition of what constitutes value in any given set of circumstances. Purchase of a box of paper clips has a different set of circumstances driving it than the purchase of a new car, but the process is the same.
Last week I watched a lady in one of those supermarket type office supplies places make a choice of a box of coloured paper clips over the standard ones, paying a substantially higher price for her choice. Same number of clips, same size and shape box, just a more colourful design on the box, and of course, the coloured clips.
Well you say, it may be just a couple of dollars, so it does not matter much, which is true, but when I chatted to her at the checkout and asked why she chose the coloured clips, she did not say they were only a dollar or two more, she said she “just liked them better”
Surely our job as marketers is to find those little things that lead our customers to say those magic words “I just like it better”, and give them what they like.
Price is so often used as an excuse for a lack of imagination that it makes me cry.
Mar 28, 2014 | Communication, Marketing, Social Media
Hunt around in Google, and there are thousands of posts out there giving you lists of things to do to have a successful blog. A few Are pretty good, but most a just lists of the blindingly obvious, hoping that the headline “Top 20 tips for success” and their ilk attract attention.
My contribution to the pile is a really simple list of three:
- Know who you are talking to well enough to, well, talk to them. It is after all just a conversation.
- Be original, relevant, interesting, and engaging, by reading widely, building on the ideas, looking for angles and unexpected applications, and offering connections to your readers.
- Do not forget rules 1 and 2.
Pretty simple, but like most seemingly simple things, there is much to distract from the simplicity that needs to be distilled out, hard choices need to be made, and focus found.
Never easy, but rewarding.
Mar 25, 2014 | Customers, Leadership, Sales, Small business
Many years ago, pre-digital, I gave time to a sales rep who rang up and promised to bring in some samples of brand new products from Europe that had changed the dynamics of the market segments they were in. I presumed that all contained the stuff he sold, but the pitch was persuasive.
The upshot was that he brought in some examples that were at best mundane, that I had seen before, were not innovative in any way, and that I was not interested in hearing about. Then I had to be rude to get rid of him and his lying pitch, but was further subjected to a stream calls, letters, offers, and promises from him and his superiors that “spoke ” to me as if I was a red hot prospect, desperate to throw myself at their shitty product.
He wasted my time, misled me, and then continued to irritate by trying to waste more of my time and presumed a relationship that did not exist, and that I would not have, and I have never forgotten the lesson.
Don’t waste peoples time!
The older I get, the more intolerant I seem to get when someone consumes that most valuable of all our resources, time, and I was pretty “bolshie” 25 years ago when this happened.
Whilst today everything moves so much faster than before, our time is if anything more valuable, but the presumption of those who want our attention seems to be that we all have plenty to share and usually waste.
One of the most effective sales people I have ever seen made appointments for 10 minutes each. He promised not to take more than the 10, and to deliver something of value while he was there, and he always did. No coffee, no chat about last nights football, straight to the point in 10 minutes or less, and any more time spent was entirely at the discretion of the appointee, he was always ready to leave, having delivered his pitch.
He valued peoples time and attention, so he got more of it.
Are you asking your people to waste not just their time, but that of those with whom they are paid to interact?
