The SMB Exec Blog

If You Really Want to Be More Remarkable Take a Page from Apple's Playbook

Fortune magazine recently came out with their listing of the Fortune 500 (and 1000). A quick survey of the Fortune 500 shows that the company with the best performing stock return over the past decade has been . . . Apple--at an impressive 50.7% return per year. So, how did they do that? From my perspective, they did it by living at the intersection of the four keys to true remarkability.

1. Differentiation - In order for anything to be remarkable, it has to be different (even in the case where different is consistency, as in the case of Cal Ripkin). No one I've ever met has ever mistaken any Apple product for someone else's. No one picks up an iPhone and says, "Looks like a Nokia product." Or an iMac and says, "Looks like a Dell." Or an iPod and says, "Looks like a Sony mp3 player." Or at iTunes and says, "Looks like Walmart." Everything Apple does is different--and clearly different.

2. Innovation - Since the natural drift of life is from remarkable to ordinary to death, every company that wants to be remarkable has to continually innovate their products and services. And no company does this better than Apple. As long as I live, I'll never forget Steve Jobs' speech a few years ago when he stood up on stage and said, "The iPod mini has been the most successful product launch in the history of Apple (with a huge graph showing accelerating sales behind him), which is why today we're killing it (pregnant pause) . . . and introducing the iPod nano." Who else on planet earth would do that? Who else would kill a successful product that had been out for less than a year and was selling like hot cakes--other than Apple? Then again, maybe that's why Apple was once again recently named the Most Innovative Company on the planet by Business Week.

3. Positioning - In order for customers to believe that something is remarkable, it has to be positioned correctly. For example, Cirque du Soleil is clearly positioned to be a theatrical circus for adults vs. the traditional circus like Ringling Brothers. In the case of Apple, they've been able to pull off an Avis or 7-up strategy of positioning themselves against the dominant player. Even better, with the Mac vs. PC ads, they've been able to make the dominate player look like a Dilbert character--and who would want that? No one wants to remark to their friends, "Hey, I just bought a PC," (makes them look like "cubicle man"). But everyone I know loves to remark, "I just bought a Mac," (i.e. I'm now cool--and not a cubicle slave anymore).

4. Excellence - In order for something to be remarkable, it has to be executed with excellence. Just having a remarkable idea is not enough. For example, last fall when Michael Dell introduced a PC tablet with multi-touch (the thing that the iPhone made popular so you can expand and contract a picture by pinching or expanding two fingers) it sounded and looked remarkable except that what he demonstrated on stage and what you can actually do are two different things (i.e. the laptop you can actually buy doesn't work with multi-touch, only single touch). No excellence. No remarkability. On the other hand, even though Apple has had it's share of problems, there is no question that the products they produce are always done with excellence. In fact, the other day I picked up my first MacBook Air and just drooled for a moment (then I remembered I was supposed to be shopping for Mother's Day). However, I've never ever seen anyone drool over a Dell or HP or . . .

So as you take a look at your own company or organization, where can you find the place of intersection at the cross roads of differentiation, innovation, positioning and excellence? How can you make sure that no one confuses what you do with what anyone else does? Or how can you innovate what you're doing to introduce version 4.2? Or how can you better position what you do so you're the obvious choice? Or how can you do what you do so well that it elicits a "WOW!"?

It's worth wrestling with these questions because if you find that place of intersection, then, like Apple, you'll not only be more remarkable, you'll also be putting away some serious cash (e.g. Apple is currently stashing away around a billion dollars per quarter). So don't let anyone ever tell you remarkable isn't marketable. It is. It really is.

P.S. A simple staff discussion might be to take each of your competitors and their main products. Then ask of each, "How can we do this differently than they do?" And, "Is that different something our customers would want?" Finally, "And is that different so clearly different that it would move our customers to tell their friends, 'You've got to check this out?'"

Wolfgang Puck: Put Your Signature On It

If you could achieve Wolfgang Puck's success, would you? If you could go from being a young Austrian boy who was fired from his first cooking job to being a world renown chef and restauranteur with a global brand that includes 15 top rated restaurants (including the famous Spago Beverly Hills), 80 Gourmet Express locations, a catering company that hosts some of the biggest events around the nation (including the annual Academy Award's Governor's Ball), as well as producing a line of consumer packaged goods, kitchen appliances and utensils, books, media content and licensing, and television celebrity, would you want that? Probably! Without a doubt, life has been very good for the Austrian from Sankt Veit an der Glan.

But what got him from there to here? Apart from good fortune and good business partners, I'd suggest that the number one takeaway from his life would be the title of this edition of Remarkability Caffeine--he took ordinary things and put his signature on them.

When he first hit California, he worked at Ma Maison where he took french cooking and put his signature on it. Since California was bright, airy and health conscious he took classic french food and used lighter sauces and Californian ingredients to create a more healthy and fun french food.

Instead of a dark subdued and formal gourmet eating environment, he created light, airy and informal dining for gourmet food. He took an ordinary American favorite, pizza, and turned it into a fine dining option. His signature pizza was his smoked salmon and caviar pizza (something that clearly wasn't on the menu of my hometown pizza joint back then).

He also took Asian cooking to a new level by creating a category called fusion (because he fused together American, Asian and French cooking). You may not recognize the term, but I'd venture a guess that at some point you've probably had a Chinois Salad (a chicken salad with a Chinese mustard vinaigrette dressing).

The fact that some of these items seem so normal now is a tribute to the genius of Wolfgang Puck. For whenever you and I see genius, we quickly see others copying it (which is why the most remarkable people are always reinventing themselves and their businesses). Wolfgang Puck never stays still or content with what he's done. Everyday is a new day for him to put his signature on something different.

So how about you? What have you put your signature on? Or what has your business put its signature on? What have you taken and made new? What makes you unique and different from everyone else? While benchmarking has it's place, just keeping step with your competition is a losing proposition. You want to be the only one who does what you do. You want others copying you, not the other way around.

So what can you put your signature on? What is it that only you do? Refuse to be a "me too!" business. Take one thing you're currently doing (that all of your competitors do as well) and figure out how you can do it differently. Go ahead, be remarkable. Put your signature on something today!

Be Willing to Spend a Little More to WOW a Potential Customer

While remarkability tends to decrease the cost of customer acquisition (i.e. as more people remark to others about your products and services, you pay less per new customer because word of mouth doesn't cost you directly). However, what often drives remarkability is your willingness to spend a little more money on the new customers you do actually attract. For example . . .

Several years ago, when I used to pastor a large church, I needed to hire an architect to design our first building. After doing our research, we brought in two national church architectural firms that were used to designing and building large church buildings and one local firm that had a great reputation for building large public buildings, including concert halls, but hadn't designed a church (we liked to think differently so we thought that hiring a non-church building architect might allow us to create a church building that would be, well, remarkable!)

The two national firms both sent us similar packages, packages you'd expect an architectural firm to send (with letters and references, basic outlines and images of projects they'd done etc either in a folder or comb binding). Neither was bad. In fact, they were good. But they were predictable (which means they were ordinary).

Then we received the package from the local firm, David Schwarz. David's package wasn't ordinary at all. In fact, it was a 272 page hardbound book,weighing in at a hefty  4.2 pounds. And it was gorgeous. The photos in in are simply stunning. As soon as I received it, I walked around my office and showed everyone ("Can you believe this?"). Still to this day, I can't think of any prospective company that's sent me anything as stunningly beautiful as that book. In fact, while the other architectural firms packages are long gone, this book still sits on my shelves.

Even though it's been four years since I first opened that book, I can still see my favorite image in my mind's eye.

Now, think about this. The architectural fees on this project were projected to be north of $1M. Realizing that, don't you think every architectural firm would want to WOW a potential client with more than a typical report oriented package? Absolutely. But how many do? Not many.

And this is true for most businesses. The typical thought process, usually driven by account types (and yes, I was an accounting major at UW-Madison) is to spend the least amount possible on acquiring a new customer. But spending the least, isn't always the wisest choice.

As soon as you or I consider the lifetime value of a customer, plus all of the other people they'll tell about our products and services (provided we actually do WOW them), there's no question that it's worth spending a little more to acquire and retain a customer.

So, in your business, what would WOW a potential customer? What can you give them or send them that would take their breath away? Or what might cause them to immediately tell others, "You won't believe what XYZ company sent me today?" Ordinary companies benchmark their competitors and do something similar. But remarkable companies do something different. They look at what everyone else is doing and say, "We can do better than that!"

Note: While we originally selected David Schwarz, we came to realize that choosing an architectural firm that specialized in large church facilities was a better choice for us so we ended up choosing Beck out of Dallas and were thoroughly happy with them. So don't read anything into my earlier comments other than that David's firm's 272 page, 4.2 pound book was a WOW I've never forgotten. I think highly of both firms and would recommend either firm to anyone considering an architect. At the end of the day, selecting the right architectural firm is about fit--and not just the talent fit for a specific type of project but also the relational fit as well, which can't be determined from a book or a report. That kind of fit is only discovered face-to-face, when you start working together. And in an architectural project, that fit really does matter as you're probably going to be spending a whole lot of time together :-)

How David Cook from American Idol Can Help Your Business

Whether you like watching American Idol or not, this season's favorite to win, David Cook, has demonstrated a number of important principles that can help any small business win in the marketplace.

1. It's Okay Not to Be First Out of the Blocks. Every year I skip the auditions (obviously, since I run a company named, Make it Remarkable Consulting, it's rather easy to surmise that excellence matters a lot to me--something seriously lacking in the auditions phase of the competition. So, for my own mental health, I simply avoid that whole segment of the show :-). I wait until the final selection and then try to pick that season's winner (and I usually guess right or end up picking the second place contestant). This year, when I heard David Archuleta, I was absolutely convinced he would win. When he sang, Imagine, I thought, "Pack your bags everyone. The season's over." But then along came David Cook and he's blown me away for the past three weeks (and yes, I've even purchased the three songs on iTunes). So, David's example reminds you and me to not give up when there's a clear front runner or "everyone's" counted us out of the race.

2. Take Something Familiar and Make it New. There's no way to listen to David's versions of "Hello," or "Eleanor Rigby," or "Billie Jean," and not think he's done something new to them. In most of our minds when we hear those songs we hear the voices of Lionel Richie, the Beatles or Michael Jackson . Yet, in each case, David Cook, has taken his own sound and created a new version that sounds and feels as though it is completely his. As a former musician, I stand in complete awe. Unfortunately, too many of the other contestants haven't quite created this same kind of experience. So David's example reminds us that if you and I want to stand out,  we've got to figure out how to take what we do  and make it unique.

3. Be Willing to Go Out on a Limb. Last week's rendition of "Billie Jean," was one of the best I've ever heard on AI. But it was also one of the greatest risks. In fact, as I was listening to it the first time, I kept hearing Michael Jackson's version in my head--but David's arrangement was so completely different--especially in it's tempo that the arrangement was brilliant! If you haven't heard it yet, Rickey.org has a great recording of it (or you can purchase the full studio recording of it on iTunes. Regardless, the arrangement was so radically different, that David's version could have either been a total wipe-out or a work of genius. Fortunately for him (and for us), it was pure genius. But he didn't get there by playing it safe. His example reminds us that if we want to win big, we've got to get out on the limb from time to time.

4.  Find Your Own Voice. One of the things I really like about David Cook is that he's clearly different. He has a sound that is uniquely his, which means he's not trying to be someone else. In fact, at times, he sounds very un-American Idol. Yet, each week, he's taken a different musical genre and made it succumb to his style. Without a doubt, he is David Cook (not Lionel, the Beatles, Michael, or any of the previous AI winners). And whenever you and I encounter someone who's found their own voice, it's worth taking the time to listen to them.

5. Deliver a Remarkable Performance. It's not enough to just be different. We need to be different . . . and good! Clearly one of the worst performances this season was when Kristy Lee Cook sang a country quick step version of "Eight Days a Week."  Oh, it was different . . . but it was also awful different!!! In other words, different alone isn't enough. At the end of the day, an idea is only as good as it's execution. And over these past few weeks, David has delivered the best performance each week (IMHO). At the beginning of the season, I didn't give him the time of day. But now I walk away each week (and let's hope he doesn't let us down now) thinking, "That was incredible!" And whenever anyone delivers what we believe to be a WOW, we all have a tendency to become raving fans.

So as you look at your business, what can David Cook teach you? Are you unique and different? Or are you trying to be like everyone else? Are you delivering a remarkable experience for your customers? Or just an average one?  Are you going out on the limb and taking some risks? Or are you playing it safe? And are you persevering when "everyone" else has given up on you?

When you think about those things, I guess it's possible that a young guy on American Idol can still teach a few of us "older adults" a few things :-).

Marketing Sin Number One

It doesn't matter whether a company is large or small, profit or non-profit, retail or  manufacturing, services or product-driven, the number one marketing sin is still the same--being ordinary (or boring). In fact, virtually every market in every category is awash in a sea of sameness. We see the same products and services marketed in the same way to the same people--and then we have the audacity to wonder why our marketing isn't effective.

For illustration's sake, let's look at the typical Chinese restaurant. I live in Germantown MD which is a little NW of Washington DC, which means that there must be at least 50 or more Chinese restaurants within a 15 minute drive of my home. I like Chinese food, but which one should I choose?

Clearly, I can't figure out which one to go to based on their marketing tactics. Why? Because they all market the same way--by placing copies of their menu in my front or garage door--usually on a legal size or 11x 17 piece of white paper with red or green ink with both chinese and english writing in a tri-fold or quad-fold format with a couple of coupons attached at the bottom, right? Of course. How did I know? Because I've lived in New York, Chicago, LA and DC and I've seen the same marketing tactic in every single location.

So if you were running a Chinese restaurant, would you do the same? I hope not! Why? Because sameness is the enemy of being remarkable. By definition, you cannot be different or a market leader by being like everyone else. So if your marketing looks like everyone else's, how are you going to stand out?

But more than marketing, being different is also about positioning as well. I've lived in Germantown now for almost nineteen years, but I can't tell you (based on how they've marketed themselves) how one Chinese restaurant differs from any other. I can't tell you which one is Cantonese or which one is Sichuan; which one is family style or which one is dim sum; which one is bowl or plate oriented or which one is healthy-oriented, which one is upscale or which one is pure fast food take-out. They all seem like the same (not that they are, it's just that you wouldn't know the differences based on anything they do outside of their restaurant).

But, enough of the Chinese restaurant referent point--how about you and your business? Are you positioned as being different than all your competitors? Or do you basically offer all of the same things that your competitors do--and even market to the same target in the same way? More importantly, do the people you're trying to market to see you as all the same? Or do they know the difference? And is the difference you offer so dramatically different than your competitors that none of your potential customers would confuse you with them?

I hope so because if you want to defeat marketing sin number one, you've got to be different. In fact, one of the easiest ways to do that is to take a look at what everyone else in your market space is doing--and then do the opposite. Sending out a copy of your menu (if you were a Chinese restaurant) might be easy to do, but it wouldn't be remarkable. It would be ordinary. And that's a sin in the world of marketing that would clearly be worth repenting of. So . . .

Be bold. Be different. Be outrageous. Be unique. Be remarkable!

Is Your Customer Loyalty Program Really Part of Your Strategy (Or Just an Add On)?

How many times have you been in a retail location that had a "customer loyalty" program that didn't really work? Not that the cashier didn't know how to punch the card, but that the store really didn't stand behind the offer? Or to put it another way, where you felt like the management had a "loyalty" program because they were "supposed to," but they really didn't want to have one? If you're like me, you've felt that way often.

Tonight was one of those kinds of nights. I typically do most of the cooking in our house, but wanted a night off. Since our family likes to eat reasonably healthy, I suggested, "How about Ricky's Rice Bowl?" As I was getting ready to head over to pick up dinner I remembered that I had a couple of old "loyalty" cards in my office which would allow me to get one large dinner menu item, which leads to my story.

Back in the early days (under different management), Ricky's ran a loyalty campaign called "Lucky 7". If you bought seven rice bowls (large or small), you would get a large rice bowl, plus a free drink for number eight. Even better, Ricky's ran special double stamp days each month. As a regular fan back in those days, all of us "regulars" were incredibly faithful. Not only did we eat there regularly, we'd plan meetings there, and we'd regularly check the monthly calendar to find out when the double stamp days were. And the result of the old Lucky 7 loyalty program was that the place was packed and it was hard to find a table!

However, as soon as the new management came in, out went the Lucky 7 program and begrudgedly in came the new Lucky 12 program, which killed traffic. Even worse, the new management no longer tells customers about the program, has printed on the "loyalty" card, "All stamps must be on the same card. Stamps can not be collated from different cards," no longer includes a free drink (even though you have to purchase five more meals than before to get the free rice bowl), and the management makes you feel bad that you're using THEIR "loyalty" card. Oh, and the result of all of these changes is that the place is empty--though, of course, the one silver lining in all this is that it's now easy to find a table at Ricky's (or two or three or . . . you get the point).

Same restaurant. Same food. But simply by changing the rules of their "loyalty program," one owner was able to pack the place and engender incredible buzz for the restaurant while the other was able to empty it and kill all positive word of mouth. Though I'm guessing that the second owner would say he has a loyalty program, he's killed his growth by not using it well.

So how about you? What kind of loyalty program do you have in place to facility more frequent purchases and buzz? And if you do have a program in place, is it working for you? Are you committed to it? Does in engender buzz? Are your customers buying more often? Or is it just something you have in place because some consultant told you to have one? I hope not, because if you use it right and make it a key part of your marketing strategy, a customer "loyalty" program (in whatever form it takes) can be one of the biggest drivers of growth for your business.

Your Staff Conflict Probably Isn't Over What Everyone Thinks It Is!

Over the past month, I've talked with several clients about a common problem, staff conflicts. And in each case, the primary cause of the conflicts has been the same (even though the businesses are all in radically different fields) And even though the issues in each of these businesses have been completely different, I still maintain that the primary cause in each of them has been the same. And what it that cause? Answer: Personality differences.

Let me explain. In my former career, I used to pastor a large church--and unfortunately, churches are rather famous for their conflicts and splits. Early on in my career I would get frustrated that "people" couldn't see what I could see. In return, they would be frustrated with me because I wanted to "move too fast," or "didn't want to wait until all the data came in."

However, in the midst of all this, in the early 1990's, one day I ended up re-reading Keirsey and Bates' classic book on the Myers Briggs Personality Inventory (MBTI) entitled, Please Understand Me--and the lights came on. What we were "fighting" over wasn't really what we were "fighting" over. We were "fighting" over how we see the world differently.

For example, I'm a classic INTJ. The N in the Myers Briggs typology means that I'm an iNtuitive. Intuitives go by their gut. They are future oriented. They sense something to be true and then act on that. However, most people are S's. S's, in the MBTI world are Sensors. Sensors need facts and data. They like to touch it, see it, hear it, smell it, and taste it before they act. Oh, and their orientation is towards the past (vs. the future of an N).

In other words, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that given just about any issue, N's and S's are probably going to have some conflict. In the case above, as a classic N, I'd sense something in my gut and "know" it was the right thing to do. And based on my past experience, I was confident that I'd be proven right if I had more data--but why wait. In fact, one of my favorite lines, which I stole from an architect I once worked with is, "You can believe me know or you can believe me later, but you're going to believe me." Spoken like a true INTJ. Note: unlike the architect who told me that during a conflict we had, my pastoral training has instructed me to only use that line in moments of levity :-)

However, most of the people I was working with were S's. And being true to their nature, they wanted more data and distrusted someone who didn't need the same amount of data they did. Furthermore,based on the difference of our orientations (future vs. past) they would often think, "Why should we start another project when we haven't completed the last one you talked us into?"

In other words, the conflict was almost never over the issue we thought it was. It was over how we all saw the world differently (and  we've only scratched the surface  of the N-S conflict, let alone the E-I conflict, the T-F conflict and the J-P conflict--all of which are huge).

So I'd encourage you to take a look at your current conflicts. How many of them are caused over personality differences? Not the simple ones like, "I value beauty" and "You value frugality." But the big inherent ones over how we see the world differently. My guess is that once you start using this grid, you'll be surprised at how many of them can be traced directly back to personality differences. I've been watching this for a decade and a half now and it's everywhere. In fact, I bet you can already begin to see how it's all around you as well

Note: If you're not familiar with Myers-Briggs, I'd encourage you to pick up a book on it and get familiar with the categories. Please Understand Me, The Art of Speedreading People, and Type Talk are three on my favorites.

Final thought for today. Just so we're clear. Types aren't meant to be prescriptive, but descriptive. Just because someone is a certain type, doesn't mean that have to act that way. It just means that, in general, this is how they'll act. So back to my case. Just because I prefer to go with my gut doesn't mean I can't accumulate and supply data to the people I'm leading (even though I don't "need" it).

Are You Blowing Your Marketing Dollars on Bad Lists?

This past week I received two pieces of mail on the same day from two different companies wishing me a happy birthday (Note: I turn 47 on March 29th). Though the gesture was nice, both wasted their marketing dollars on me because they both got the year wrong.

The first was from the infamous AARP letting me know I now qualify for membership (Note again, I'm turning 47--not 50 or 52 or some number higher). Now, while there may be some forty-somethings who can't wait to become AARP members, I feel pretty safe in predicting that the vast majority of us don't :-).

The second was from Gillette wishing me a "HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY!" (Off once again, this time by a mere 29 years). But even more amazing is that they sent a free Gillette Fusion razor (the one with five blades). The reason I say amazing is that the replacement blades for this razor require a bank loan (okay, maybe I'm overstating the cost, but at $27.99 for eight blades, I'm guessing a lot of 18 year olds would probably pass and go with the older Mach 3 to save some money for some other activities that 18 year olds prefer over shaving :-)

So, here we have two big companies who wasted their money, when they didn't have to--for different reasons.  I don't think AARP has to worry about brand recognition.  Once they get the right year (that would be 1961 in my case), all they need to do is send my wife a notice on my 52nd birthday and she would gladly purchase a membership in my name just for the fun of it. They don't need to mail 5 or 10 or more years early. They already own the brand.

But Gillette's the one that really blew it. In reality, I'm in their demographic. I'm a 47 year old male business owner who makes more than enough to afford $27.99 for a pack of eight blades. If they had simply left out the number "18", which was totally unnecessary, they would have had me (Note, if anyone from Gillette is monitoring the blog world, all you need to say is, "Gillette wishes you a happy birthday!" You didn't need to waste your money).

However, all of that is irrelevant to you and me. What we need to do is evaluate, "Where am I wasting my marketing dollars?" Am I sending my marketing materials to the wrong people? Or am I  sending the wrong message to the right people? This is a classic marketing problem for an awful lot of small business owners and senior executives.

I think Dan Kennedy is correct when he states that the selection of a list is the single greatest determiner of a direct marketing campaign. If my memory serves me correctly, he says something to the effect of, "One of the dirty little secrets of copywriting is, that a poorly written direct mail piece sent to the right list will always out pull a perfectly written direct mail piece to the wrong list."). If you didn't catch that, go back and read it again and again. Most of us are wasting a lot of money sending materials to the wrong people (ala AARP) or sending the wrong message to the right people (ala Gillette).

So if you'd like to stop wasting your marketing dollars, take the time (and spend the money) to make sure you're sending the right message to the right market for the right mission at the right moment using the right media for the right amount of money.

If You Want Your Marketing to Succeed, You Need to Master the Six M's

The other morning I was talking with a client about an upcoming marketing piece they were putting together when it became clear that they were missing a few pieces of the puzzle. However, I don't want to be hard on them because their ideas about marketing weren't that unusual. The reality is that most of the small business leaders I run into have a minimal amount of intellectual property concerning the subject of marketing--even though the success of their business is significantly related to it.

So to help you avoid making some similar mistakes, as well as to help you make wiser choices about your marketing campaigns so that you're not at the whim of the next sales person who wants to sell you on the "newest, whiz bang marketing solution," here are what I refer to as the six components of a successful marketing campaign. All six are critical and interdependent, meaning that the choice you make in one area, affects all of the others.

For a graphic presentation of the six components so you can hang this on a wall or use it at your next staff meeting, go to

http://makeitremarkable.com/freeresources.htm

and click on, "Six Components of a Marketing Campaign." That said, here are the six M's.

First M: Mission

This may sound obvious, but it's not. What's the objective of your campaign? Do you want someone to buy something? Attend something? Sign up for something? Become aware of your business? Do you want to create PR? Etc. In other words, if the objective isn't clear, everything else that follows is moot. Unfortunately, most small business leaders select their media choice (direct mail, radio, coupon pack, newspaper ad, etc.) without ever asking what the objective is. Major mistake!

Second M: Message

What do you want to communicate? What do you want to say? What do you want your potential customers to hear? How will they hear it? And will the message you want to communicate, accomplish your mission above?

Third M: Market

To whom is this message for? Note: Everyone is not an acceptable answer. Whether you're trying to reach single fathers in their 30's who make over $75,000/yr. or boomer couples with kids out of college and lots of discretionary income or  18-24 year old women who are attending liberal arts colleges in New England, your market does influence how you're going to shape your message.

Fourth M: Media

As stated above, most small business leaders start here (even though this is number four in the sequence). In other words, a sales person walks in (or calls) and sells the owner on radio spots or a coupon pack or a yellow pages ad, etc. After purchasing the media, the owner then asks, "Now, what should I say?" which is all backwards. Before purchasing or selecting any media, a wise small business leader will always ask, "What's the best media for me to use in light of my mission, message and market?"  Frequently, the answer will be different that where they started.

Fifth M: Moment

The fifth M is all about timing. When is the best time (the moment) to communicate this message? Where are you on the calendar? What season? What holidays? What events? What's the normal buying pattern for your product or service? When are people most receptive to your offer? All of our businesses have certain cycles. Wise people pay attention to them and then capitalize on them. Note: The Moment "M" also includes issues regarding frequency (how often you'll communicate with your target audience about this message).

Sixth M: Money

Eventually, it always gets down to this. The amount of money you have significantly affects each of the five M's above, such as your mission ("Can we blanket our community or only a sliver of it?"), your media ("Can we do radio or only flyers?"), your moment ("Can we send this out one time or five times?"), etc. Now, while most businesses tend to use a percentage of revenue (like 5%), a number of businesses use whatever returns a positive ROI (return on investment).

Now, whatever choice you make about each of the six M's above is completely up to you. But if you want to significantly improve the probability of your marketing campaign succeeding, then you won't want to leave the six M's up to chance. Instead, you'll want to make intentional choices about each one of these components. And the clearer you are about each one, the higher the probability that your campaign will succeed. As the saying goes, "Hope is not a strategy!"

At the End of the Day, Likability Still Wins in Politics and Business

Regardless of which political party you're in, or which presidential election you pick out of the past fifty years, the winner has almost always been the most likable of the two candidates (for example, Kennedy over Nixon, Carter over Ford, Reagan over Carter, Bush I over Dukakis, Clinton over Bush I, Bush II over Gore, etc.). And once again, in the Obama vs. Clinton race or the McCain vs. Romney race, we're seeing it played out again. Interestingly, as of this moment, McCain wins over Clinton, but loses to Obama.

Now, this isn't meant to be a final predictor of who'll win in the fall. Who knows how the race will shape up and who will come off being the more likable (for example, who would have thought six months ago that McCain would be more likable then Romney), but the track record of likability is pretty consistent. Why? Because at the end of the day, we all like to do "business" with people we like.

In fact, just recently I was interviewing a lawyer for a speaking engagement I'm doing in May. During our interview he mentioned to me that he has to train the lawyers he's hired to learn that most people will decide within four seconds if they're going to do business with a lawyer. Four seconds! And what can someone decide in four seconds? "Do I think I'm going to like this person?"

Now, lest you be tempted to think that likabilty isn't relevant to business growth, just review the people you do business with. Yes, you may endure a cranky business owner from time to time, but most of the time, you choose to do business with people you like. Now, occasionally you get stuck in a place where there isn't much of a choice and neither option is likable. But whenever there is a choice between doing business with someone who's likable vs. someone who's not, likable wins every time (and in most case, you're willing to pay a premium for the likable option--which is another good reason for taking likability seriously.

But it's not just about you being likable, it's every person in your business who has contact with any customer being likable. That means that the front desk person has to be likable. The bookkeeper or accounts receivable person has to be likable. Your VP of Marketing has to be likable. The cashier has to be likable. Etc. You pick the position. But whatever the position, the person in that position better be likable. Why? Because if they aren't I can almost guarantee you that you're not making as much money as you could.

So as you look through your business, grade your people on the L-Factor (as Tim Sanders calls it in his book, The Likability Factor). Who are your A players when it comes to likability? Your B players? And then your C and D players? Next, make a game plan for ensuring that you (and they) are all moving toward being A players when it comes to the L Factor. And finally, talk about likability frequently--especially with your managers and leaders. Why? Because you (and they) only have four seconds to win a customer over--and most people, when given the choice, prefer to do business with people they like.

How Often Do You Evaluate Your Competitive Advantage?

Quickly: if I were to ask you to answer the question, "Why should anyone (meaning a potential customer) use your business over any and every other business in your market space?" what would you say?

Secondly, what would your customers say?

Thirdly, is your answer quantifiable?

And finally, when was the last time you updated your competitive advantage?

If you're like most small business owners, your answers are probably, "Not sure." "Don't know." "No." And "Have no clue."

Well, you're not alone. I just finished listening to a web presentation by Jaynie Smith on competitive advantage through the American Management Association's Thinker series of webcasts. Jaynie did a great job, but my favorite line was from her interview with David Neeleman, Founder and Chairman of Jet Blue.

Jaynie asked David, "How often do you review your competitive advantage?" To which David responded,

"Once a week we ask ourselves three questions.

1. What do we do better than them?
2. What do they do better than us?
3. How can we do that better than them?"

What a great list! Now, most of us aren't in as competitive an environment as an airline, so we may not need to ask those questions every week, but certainly we ought to be asking them every month and undoubtedly every quarter (a year is simply too long and infrequent, let alone a decade :-).

So when was the last time you reviewed and updated your competitive advantage? Is it quantifiable?  Believable? And  compelling? Will it cause potential customers to say, "I have to use XYZ because of [insert  your competitive advantage]." If you don't have a compelling answer to the question of, "Why should I choose to use your business?" then start working on it. After that, write down this quote from David Neeleman. And finally, make sure you ask those three questions every month.

Note: These are not the only questions to ask regularly. For example, a great strategic question to ask each month would be, "What is no one else doing that we ought to be doing?" which gets you away from merely competing with your competitors.

Create Incentives for Customers or Prospects to Update Their Data

Almost every small business I've run into has struggled with keeping contact information up to date. So they  tend to avoid doing anything about it (until a new system is put in place and then they have to invest massive amounts of time to verify data and delete old records because nothings been done on the database for years :-). But rarely do these same small businesses ever calculate the cost of having bad data (like sending hundreds/thousands of mailings to old addresses or to people who don't want materials from that company--and haven't for years).

Well, I was pleasantly surprised this week when I got an email from the American Management Association (AMA) asking me to update my contact information. The reason I say pleasantly surprised was because they didn't just ask me, they created an incentive for me to do so. In fact, here's what they said,

Consider All You Get When You Hear from Us.

From seminars and research studies to conferences and special events, AMA is here to help you improve your job performance and supercharge your career.

But we can't tell you the whole story if your contact information is out of date. Just provide us with your most up-to-date contact information and you'll receive 20% off any AMA seminar.*

PLUS, your response will automatically qualify you for a Grand Prize drawing of a $500 Amazon voucher. **

Now, I'm a book guy and a voracious learner so a chance to win a $500 Amazon voucher is a no-brainer for me. Plus, for just verifying my data, I could get a 20% reduction from an AMA seminar (which is easily worth hundreds of dollars)--all for just verifying my data. Not bad.

But it got better. In the email, they not only included the data (as you can see in the screen shot of the email (click on it to get a larger image), they also gave me two options. Option one was, "Click to Update," and option two was, "Click to Confirm." That was it.

The whole process was quick and easy. Totally painless. And for just a few brief moments of my time, the AMA was willing to offer me several hundreds of dollars off of a seminar I might have gone to anyway and a chance to win a $500 Amazon voucher.

Now, since I never win any drawing, I doubt I'll ever get the voucher. But the fact that they were willing to give me two nice options for just taking a moment to either update or confirm my contact info, was incentive enough for me to take the 15 seconds to update the info that they incorrectly had for me (i.e. if they hadn't created the incentive, they'd still have bad data on me).

So what can you do to create an incentive(s) for your customers/clients/members and prospects to update their own information? What can you do to automate the process? And how can you make it easy for them? If you follow those three steps, I think you'll find that keeping the contact info on your people and prospects up-to-date will become infinitely easier--and make your business more profitable!

Note: I don't know about you, but one of my pet peeves is when a company gives me a blank form to update my data so I have to fill out all of the information again. The least they can do is to make sure they send or print out the data they have in their database. In this day and age, that's not a difficult technological feat :-)

196 Possible Marketing Plan Questions

Putting together a marketing plan is a challenge most small business leaders wrestle with. But the key to creating a winning marketing plan is to start by asking great questions. Why? Because the quality of the answers you get is directly related to the quality of the questions you ask.

So to help you figure out the universe of questions, out of which you'll select the actual questions you want to ask and answer as you create your marketing plan this year, I've compiled a list of 196 different marketing plan questions.

A sampling of some of the questions you'll encounter in this list looks like the following.

8.    Why should anyone choose to do business with us over everyone else in our market space?

16.    How can we dominate our market?
17.    What makes us stand out from the crowd?
19.    To what question are we the answer?
20.    What would cause someone to say, “Get me ________!” Or, “We need ___________!”
21.    What’s our core message? What’s our unique POV (point of view)?
22.    What makes us controversial?
23.    Is there too much competition to be competitive in this market space?

46.    Why do we think that our offerings are the best offerings for our potential customers to solve their need/want/problem/challenge?
47.    What’s missing from our competitor’s offers? Or what can’t they find in other places or with other businesses?
48.    What value do we provide for our potential customers? What results do we produce?
49.    Where is our market under-served?

66.    What products will help us create a herd/following?
67.    How can we create deluxe options?
68.    What is our irresistible offer?
69.    Why should our customers act now? What’s our call to action?
70.    What kind of guarantee will we offer?

132.    What is our lead generating system?
133.    How can we better leverage our networks?
134.    What ten (or more) tactics can we use simultaneously to attract new customers?
135.    How can we build our potential customers’ interest in our product/service or business?

170.    How does someone in our target market decide from whom they’ll buy?
171.    Why do they buy?
172.    How can we make it easier to buy?
173.    How can we better qualify prospects?
174.    How elastic is price for our potential customers?

181.    What could create a short-term sales surge?
182.    What conversion rate are we shooting for?
183.    How can we maximize total customer value?

To get the whole list (which is free :-), just go to the following page on my free articles page.

196 Possible Marketing Plan Questions

Free Report on Avoiding Common Small Business Mistakes Now Available

If you'd like to avoid the 12.6 most common mistakes that small business leaders make, then simply enter your name and email in the boxes at the top of the right hand column in this blog. As soon as you hit submit you'll be immediately taken to the download page for the free report.

Once you download the report, you'll want to read through it and write down, in the margins, any specific actions you need to make in response to what you've just read. After you've completed reading the report, there are a series of questions to help you apply what you've just read. And finally, at the end, I've included a one page summary sheet, which reverses the 12.6 mistakes and turns them into positive actions you should regularly engage in (in order to avoid making the 12.6 most common mistakes that small business leaders make).

So don't delay, just enter your name and email under, "Claim Your Free Report," and in moments you'll be reading your free 36 page report!

When Was The Last Time You Updated Your Website?

As a small biz leader, you know that getting a website up and keeping it up-to-date with current information is a job. In fact, it often requires so much time and effort from us (or our team) that once we get one up, we tend to keep it up . . .  forever. The problem, of course, is that tastes and technology change rather quickly these days.

This is complicated by the fact that more and more people check our businesses out by going to our websites before they ever have a conversation with us. So, if we're still using the website we designed two or four or six (yikes!) years ago, we are communicating a message--but probably not the one we want to communicate.

It's kind of like clothing. I used to wrestle with some of my staff over this one. I'd have to keep reminding them that for the vast majority of people, when they come to do business with us they bring their eyes. Whether we think customers should make judgments about us based on how we dress is irrelevant--they do! Which is why I was forever reminding them (and others), "Clothes don't make the person, but they do make the message about the person."

The same is true for our websites. Whether we think customers or potential customers should make decisions about us based on the quality or design of our websites is irrelevant--they do The only relevant questions then are, "What kinds of messages are they currently  getting?" and "What messages do we want them to get?" Everything else is extraneous.

Personally, I had to face this issue this month. It was hard for me to believe that I had actually designed my website two years ago (time flies). Realizing that, I started doing some web research on web 2.0 design changes etc. Once I did that, I had to admit, my two year old site looked very old school. In another posting someday soon, I'll talk about the changes I made and why, but for now, I just want to leave you with the question I started with, "When was the last time you updated your website?" And I'm not talking just about content. I'm talking about a wholesale update. If your answer is any number over two, it's probably time for an extreme makeover.

Note: If you click on each of the images, you'll get two larger images. Then you'll actually be able to see the differences between the '06 and '08 versions. Though neither is perfect, you can at least clearly see the change in philosophy and design between old school and new school (and this is only a two year difference)

To see my company's new site up close and personal, click on http://www.makeitremarkable.com

 

Key Strategic Decisions at Quiznos That Could Mark Your Turnaround

Fortune Magazine has a great article this week on the turnaround at Quiznos. But like most turnaround stories, it's been marked by a few key strategic decisions--decisions which any small business can learn from.

According to the article, since Greg Brenneman took over last year, he's made a couple of key strategic decisions for Quiznos. 

1. He slashed discounting.
2. He simplified the menu from 29 items down to 21
3. He found new suppliers for everything from meat to cookies
4. He introduced a new low end product (the Sammie, a small flatbread sandwich, for $2 to compete with Subway et al.)
5. He reconnected with his franchisees.
6. He added online ordering

Now, I'll freely admit, none of these ideas seems like a blow me out of the water idea. However, none of them were being done before (even though the company had a lot of bright people working for it). In other words, turnarounds don't always require radically new ideas. Often they simply require the application of existing ideas which aren't being implemented at that moment.

Furthermore, each one of these top level decisions has made a huge difference on the bottom line. For example, by adding online ordering (not necessarily a new idea :-), one franchisee reported that 25% of his orders now come online.  The new sandwich, the Sammie, not only allows Quiznos to compete with Subway and others for price-sensitive customers, it also costs less to make, thereby increasing profits. 

Cutting out discounting was key because it was training customers to only come in when they had a coupon (something Bed, Bath and Beyond should probably reconsider :-). Reducing the menu got rid of their menu "dogs" (i.e. they eliminated the eight least profitable items), which again increased their profitability (plus speed). And, of course, renegotiating their vendors reduced their costs.

In retrospect, these all seem like such obvious moves to make. But they weren't--until someone from the outside came in, made some assessments, and then said, "Here are a few obvious things that need to change." And then executed on those changes.

So as you look at your business, what "obvious" changes do you need to make?  Or when was the last time you took an entire day or two away just to think about the big picture of your business, analyze the data, and then make five or six big decisions that could radically affect your business? One of the reasons why strategy consultants like myself love to do strategy work is because we know that turnarounds usually reduce themselves down to just a handful of key decisions made at the top. Knowing which ones to make is the hard part. But when you make the right ones, there are few things more rewarding to watch.

So what do you think are the five most important changes you need to make this year in your small business that'll have the greatest impact on your bottom line? Take it from Quiznos. A few key decisions can make all the difference!

Refuse to Allow Your Options to Be Limited By What You Think is Possible

Business Week ran a story on community colleges in this week's edition that reminded me of this principle.

When you think of a community college, how large of a target market do you think of? Twenty miles? Fifty miles? A hundred miles? My guess is that you probably can't imagine that many people would drive more than an hour or two to get to a community college. I'm with you. After all, the word, "community," would tend to indicate a shorter geographical target market.

So, if you were going to recruit new students to your community college, how many of you would ever think of going to someplace like, let's say, Vietnam to recruit? Yes, you read correctly. Vietnam. In fact the lead paragraph in this article talks about a recruiter from Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming (yes, Powell, Wyoming) going to visit the International High School in Ho Chi Minh City and landing a student "Gracie" Thienan Nguyen.

Does that surprise you? Probably. Why? Because most of us tend to limit our ideas about what's possible based on what we think or have experienced. Yet, as soon as someone suggests an out of the box idea it often makes complete sense. In this case, for community colleges, a foreign student brings more revenue (usually between two and ten times the revenue a local does) and a more multi-cultural presence to the campus. As for the foreign student, attending a community college allows them an easier opportunity to enter the American educational system and a chance to get used to living in America before entering a four-year university--if that's their educational goal.

However, regardless of whether you like the idea of community colleges recruiting from other continents, the point is that most of us would never have come up with that idea on our own. Yet that one idea has been and will continue to be another source of significant revenue for a lot of community colleges around our nation.

So, back to your business. Do you tend to think of all of the new streams of revenue for your business all by yourself? Do you tend to limit your ideas of what products or services you might offer, or what markets you might enter, based on what you think is possible? Or what you've experienced?

If you do, may I remind you that there are always more opportunities out there for growth than any of us can imagine alone. So who can you bring alongside you to help you think of ideas outside of your box?

P.S. We all have built in limitations. My bubble was recently burst when I heard Dan Kennedy talk about a dentist who does his advertising in "In-flight Magazines." Think about that one :-)

Discounts Don't Trump Theater in Retail

When I first arrived in Germantown, MD back in 1989, Giant was the "in" grocery store and Safeway was "out". Then, around the turn of the century, Safeway relocated to a new location with a better design, look and feel. Shoppers started migrating.

Then a few years later, even with a better looking (and newer) store, Safeway again did a whole new makeover solidifying the difference between the two of them so that it's undoubtedly clear they're not in the same league. Since selling is theater (meaning that the look and feel of the place matters), Safeway has literally been a Giant killer.

However, this past week, Giant tempted me with four 10% off my entire purchase coupons (one for each of the next four weeks). Since I normally spend around $150 week in groceries I thought, "Hey for $15-$60 bucks, I'll give Giant one more try to see if anything has changed over the past few years." Boy, was that a mistake!

From the moment I entered I kept thinking, "Fifteen dollars isn't enough to comfort my soul." The whole look and feel (the theater part) of the store was abysmal. I can't think of a better phrase than that it was "soul-less." It felt like a throwback to the 80's. Ugly tile. White paper signs with big black type. Yellow and red "Everyday Low Prices," signs. Wide aisles because they're not moving enough inventory (I wonder why?). Bright white lighting. Employees who don't smile or ask, "May I help you?" Etc. It was depressing.

It didn't feel like any improvement had been made to the store in years. There was no energy. No excitement. No passion. It was soul-less. Ten percent off the total purchase at a grocery store is a nice discount, but not for what it cost me. In other words, their discount got me to come to their store one time. But that shouldn't have been their goal.

Their goal should have been to so WOW me that I would be willing to leave Safeway and start doing my business with Giant. However, the good news for Safeway is that they have nothing to fear. I'll be back "home" at my local Safeway next week--and every week after that. Why? Because discounts just don't trump theater in retail. Safeway's got it. Giant doesn't. And that difference is worth a lot.

So, as you take a look at your business, if you're in a business with a fixed location (retail, commercial, office, church etc.), what does your physical plant say? Regardless of what you may want to think, it is saying something. The question is, "Is what it's saying Wowing your customers or pushing them away?"

P.S. If you're willing to take the risk, invite three to five people to  tour your facility THIS WEEK and give you honest feedback about what it's saying and what they noticed (like the ceiling tile that was water damaged three years ago that hasn't been replaced yet :-).

Note: This is not a post about every Giant or every Safeway store in the country. So please only read it as an example of how theater really does matter when it comes to selling.

Four Keys to Raising Total Customer Value

Most businesses spend more money than they need to trying to attract new customers when they haven't really extracted out all of the value from their current customers. So, if you'd like to do more of the later (which is less costly and yields higher results) than the former, then you'll want to pay attention to the following list of ways to increase total customer value.

1. Raise your prices. This sounds so simple, but most businesses undervalue what they offer. I remember the first time I went to a conference by Alan Weiss. In the promotional literature there was a bulleted item, "How to double the amount you get paid per speech." At the end of the seminar Alan hadn't addressed that question. So I walked up to him and said, "Alan, your promo said you'd address how to double the amount you'd get paid per speech but you didn't cover that in your presentation. So could you tell me what strategies and ideas I could use to double my rates?" He just looked at me and said, "Double them!" I did and didn't miss a beat. In other words, don't let fear get in the way. Charge for value.
2. Increase the average order or purchase size.  It would be impossible to not remember, "Would you like fries with that?" Or, "Today's specials are . . ." However, most businesses don't take advantage of this simple idea--at a lost of 30% to them in increased sales nationally.
3. Increase the frequency with which people buy. Hair salons have figured out that if someone comes once every six weeks for a hair cut, but the salon can suggest a date in four weeks, then that client has just gone from 8 haircuts to 13 per year (for an increase of 62.5% in revenue).
4. Increase the number of options - Can you add a new product or service that your customers might appreciate? Can you innovate a new solution? Can you create new or special packages or bundles for them? If you can, then you've probably just increased your total customer value. One note of caution: in most cases you don't want to offer too many options (other than in retail). Why? Because a confused mind is a non-buying mind.

So as you take a look at your business, which of these four ways can you use? If you want to get the most from this, my encouragement would be for you to take out a piece of paper, write out the four ways and then brainstorm how you could use them (or do this with your executive team). In the vast majority of cases, I'm confident you'll find that you can increase your revenues without significantly increasing your costs--which seems like a win-win to me!

Gordon Ramsey and Walking Your Competitor's Businesses

Have you watched Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares? If you haven't, you're missing out on one of the best--and free--small business educational experiences around. You don't even need to be a foodie to enjoy the show, just a small business owner or senior executive.

Now, if you haven't watched the show, the basic story line is that Chef Ramsey walks into a restaurant that's a "nightmare" and in just one week turns the restaurant around. It's great TV and the characters are fascinating (although, at times, it does make you wonder if you ever want to walk into a restaurant again :-)

Each week there are certain activities that Gordon engages in and one of my favorites is when he walks the local area and surveys the competition (in this case, restaurants).

You'll see him say something like this, "Italian, Italian, French, Mexican, Italian, Fusion, Greek, Italian, etc." He'll then come back to the restaurant in trouble and say, "I now know what you're going to be. What this community needs is . . . a good old fashioned steak house (or whatever is different than what everyone else is offering).

What's great about this is that this is great strategy work. Note these three things.

1. He doesn't decide on what kind of restaurant they're going to be based on what kind of restaurant they've been.
2. He makes his decision based on surveying the restaurant's competitors and then choosing something different than what "everyone else" is doing.
3. He bases his decision on what the customers of that community might like (not necessarily what the owner's think).

On one level this seems so simple. Yet, small businesses (and large ones) blow this right and left every day all across our country.

So when was the last time you surveyed your competitors? Even better, used their service or bought their product? And based on what you've observed, how will change what you do so that what you do is dramatically different? As Gordon Ramsey knows, you've got to occupy that space in customer's minds that no one else does.

Do You Like Having to Call Back?

On Monday, December 17th I went to open my QuickBooks for Mac 2006 edition. A window popped up saying something to the effect, "Can't download updates, insufficient memory." The screen disappeared and then, right before my eyes, QuickBooks started erasing all of the files on my desktop (a total of six gigabytes of data). Gone! As a Mac guy, I'm not used to this!

Fortunately I do back up and it didn't affect my whole hard drive, but still six gigs is still six gigs and restoring files takes a fair amount of time. I immediately contacted QuickBooks by email to let them know what happened (it turned out to be a problem on their servers). On Wed. December 19th, one of their reps called me. She got information from me about what happened and how--and then offered to send QuickBooks for Mac 2007 when I asked her how they were compensating us for the inconvenience (clearly none of us were using our QuickBooks programs until we were assured the bug was fixed). She assured me that she would send the new program out immediately and that their fix should be in place shortly.

At that point I was happy and figured, it's almost Christmas. I'll get this in two days and then be on vacation. Wait. Wait. Wait. Still no Quickbooks. So on Thursday, December 27th, I called again to check on the status of my order. This time the lady who answered said, "I'm sorry, but your order didn't get processed for some reason. I'll take care of it for you." "Promise?" "Yes sir, I'll get this out immediately to you."

Okay, I hate calling back, but sometimes mistakes happen. Well, today is January 9th (almost two weeks later) and still no QuickBooks. So I once again had to call back and go through the whole ordeal again in order to make sure they sent out the new version of QuickBooks to me--which I finally think the guy I talked with today made happen since I just received an email confirmation that the order has been processed.

However, I'm still a little concerned about this since the order form says that the shipping method is, "UPS Next Day Air" with an expected delivery date of 1/11 - 1/16. You can't make this stuff up!

So as you look at your business, in which area or department do your customers have to regularly call back? Who isn't diligent on returning phone calls or following through on promises?  Where are your delivery systems breaking down? While this is terrible in a big company, in a small one, it can be devastating. So how can you assure that your customers won't have to call back two or more times to get what your business promised them in the first place?

Don't Lead With Your Title When Networking

When someone asks, "What do you do?" how do you respond? If you're like most people, you respond with your title. "Well, I'm the owner of XYZ company." Or, "I'm the Executive Director of ABC." Or, "I'm a lawyer." Etc. At that point, what happens? Exactly. Nothing. Right?

It's almost as if the moment we say our title, the other person's brain shuts down, breathes a sigh of relief, and then kicks back into gear with another topic, "So, what did you think about the big game Sunday?" Networking opportunity started and aborted within seconds. So, how can you turn that around?

Easy. Don't focus on your title. Instead focus in on what you do to help solve someone else's problem or pain or need or situation. The simple formula would be to say who you help and then the problem you help them solve.

In my case, when people used to ask me, "What do you do?" my old answer was, "I'm a strategy and management consultant," which was almost always the kiss of death (I mean, let's be honest, who wants one of those? Even worse, what is it?)

Instead, now when someone asks, "So what do you do?" (using the above formula), I answer, "I work with small and mid-size business owners and senior executives who are struggling to lead and grow their companies into larger, more profitable ones," at which point people say, "That sounds pretty interesting. So, how do you do that?" In other words, it opens up a whole different conversation--which is what you and I want at a networking event (or whenever we meet someone new).

So, how about you? How can you rephrase what you do? Start with who you work with (that helps qualify if this might be a fit) and then what problem or need or hurt you help solve or meet or heal. Instead of saying, "I'm a plastic surgeon," you might say, "I help people who don't feel good about their appearance gain the confidence they need to be the best they can be," (sounds better doesn't it? And intriguing!).

Now it's your turn. How will you answer the question, "So, what do you do?" the next time--without using your title.

Do the Unexpected (The Christmas Story)

Whether you buy into the Christmas story or not, you have to at least be amazed that over two thousand years later, in America alone, over $450 BILLION will be spent, that businesses will organize their sales cycles around, and that employees will organize their vacations around a day designed to remember and celebrate the birth of a little baby boy born to two teenage "parents" in a small rural town, six miles south-east of Jerusalem. Any way you add it up, that is rather remarkable.

But one of the reasons why this story is so remarkable (apart from it's religious significance) is because it's an unexpected story line. For example, if any of us were God, and we wanted to come to earth, I'm pretty sure most of us would have chosen to come to earth in full regalia, with lots of fanfare, attendants, and a couple of PR dizzying displays of power. We would have done all the major news shows and talk shows of the day. And we would have stayed in nothing less than a Four Season level hotel or eaten in a restaurant no less than a Citronelle level restaurant. As the saying goes, "When you've got it, flaunt it!"

That would be the expectation. However, that is not what we're celebrating two thousand years later. The story line we're celebrating (whether you believe it or not) is about how God came to earth in the form of a little baby boy, born in a feeding trough to poverty stricken teenage parents in a two-bit small rural town so that he could identify and be one of us. Again, whether you believe the story or not, you have to admit--that's a pretty unexpected story line.

In essence, what makes any story remarkable is its unexpected nature. And, as a business leader, your business has a story to tell. If that story line is predictable and ordinary, it won't be remarkable. But if you do some unexpected things (or some different things from your competitors), your story line will become more remarkable.

For example, I recently read about a dentist who caters to children who redesigned his office for "short" people by lowering the receptionist area so the receptionist was at eye level with the kids who entered, who gave away a free bike to every child who came back with a home care Report Card completely filled out, who called each child at home the night of their treatment and who gave each child an 8" x 10" autographed glossy photograph of the three of them from that day (the child, the dentist  and the dental assistant)! Based on your experience with dentists, don't you think that every family that left that office remarked to other people about their experience? Absolutely! Why? Because it was different and unexpected.

So, if you'd like to grow faster and gain more word-or-mouth advertising, how can you do something unexpected for your customers or clients this year? How can you differentiate your story line from your competitors? And how can you keep telling a series of compelling stories to your staff and customers/clients to ensure that you create a more remarkable culture? Don't rush by this principle too fast. Why? Because culture is ALWAYS created through the telling and retelling of stories. So become a great story teller!

P.S. If you happen to celebrate Christmas, I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! And if you don't, I wish you a most Happy Holiday and a Happy New Year!  Regardless of your faith orientation, we all have so much to be grateful for--and one of the things I'm incredibly grateful for is you!