Thursday, December 17th, 2009
Let’s say you need to talk about marketing with a non-marketing executive. How should you do it?
Don’t talk about marketing.
My life-long empirical study shows this: Most executives are suspicious of the marketing advice they receive. Why?
To quote one exec, “They keep talking about all this friggin’ marketing.”
Through my workshops and consulting, I spend a lot of time with C-level executives who don’t have a marketing background. They are skeptical when marketers sell marketing ideas as marketing ideas, and not as business ideas. They are skeptical when marketers look at a marketing budget as an entitlement, and not as an investment. And they are skeptical when marketers talk about marketing as a secret, magic formula, that only marketing professionals can understand.
My advice, if you need to sell a non-marketing executive on a marketing idea: Don’t talk about marketing.
Talk about business issues that matter. Talk about the business results your marketing program is designed to generate. Talk not about what your marketing program does, but what it does for the business.
If you want to sell a C-level executive on a customer loyalty program, don’t talk first about frequency of communications, and (please!) don’t talk about database technology. Focus on the untapped latent profit in your existing customer base.
If you want a new budget to focus on social media, don’t talk about social media as a mega-trend, and how it is important to show your customers you “get it.” Focus on how peer-to-peer marketing capitalizes on your company’s strength in gaining business through customer referrals.
Many marketers are reticent when it comes to talking about results because many of their most important programs can’t be tied directly to results; it’s hard to show how many customers came to you because of a story in the New York Times, or because you got more sign-ups on your Facebook fan page. But that’s all the more reason to talk about results. Because direct results are hard to demonstrate, it’s important to show that you have created marketing strategies that aim for the right results. A strategic foundation can build confidence when direct, measurable results don’t exist.
Change the frame of reference. If you have a business conversation, and not a marketing conversation, the person with whom you are speaking will be much more receptive to your marketing ideas.
Posted in Marketing | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009
Well, aren’t they? Can you think of a situation where an across-the-board cut was the wise thing to do? In today’s newsletter, Steve writes, “The worst kind of spending reduction– one you should avoid yourself and be suspicious of in others– is the across-the-board cut.” Read on for Steve’s advice on avoiding the behavior that leads to cutting without care.
Posted in Recalibration, Thrive in a tough economy | 12 Comments »
Thursday, June 4th, 2009
Apparently, a Microsoft executive read my tompeters.com post on Recalibration. That led to an interview with Microsoft’s Retailspeak magazine. Here’s a link to the interview.
Posted in Recalibration | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
Recalibration reality check: Are you saying “yes” more than you are saying “no?”
This has been a constant theme in the advice I’ve been giving to people throughout this recesssion recalibration. It is so easy to say no. (Not saying yes is saying no, by the way.) It is so easy to be scared. It is so easy to use the current economic mayhem as an excuse to put your head in the sand and not say yes. It is so easy to hide behind the misfortune the environment hands you.
Don’t!
Check yourself, everyday. Am I saying “yes” more than I am saying “no?”
Posted in Recalibration | 1 Comment »
Thursday, April 16th, 2009
1934 may have been the height of the Great Depression, but it is also the year that one of my favorite movies came out: Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert.
In a famous scene, Clark Gable removes his shirt before going to bed and reveals that he is not wearing an undershirt. Legend has it that undershirt sales dropped 75%, immediately, in the U.S. After all, if Clark Gable doesn’t wear an undershirt, why should I?
Imagine you are an undershirt manufacturer in 1934. You have three choices:
- Say, “this is just a fad,” do nothing, and wait for undershirt sales to return to normal levels.
- Say, “this industry is dead,” and get out of the undershirt business.
- Say, “our world is different now. We need to recalibrate our whole approach to our business in light of these changes.”
Not hard to guess which choice I think is the right one. Think about this: T-shirt sales after 1934 grew exponentially, as the t-shirt became not only an undergarment but a special piece of clothing in its own right.
Now, think about your world, right now. Changes in your world happened, essentially, in one night, and it didn’t take Clark Gable undressing for bed to cause these changes. Your world today, on April 16, 2009, is completely different than your world on April 16, 2008.
So, what are you going to do? Hunker down and wait for the undershirt business to come back to “normal?” Get out of the undershirt business? Or … recalibrate your approach to your business, finding opportunity in the new world order?
The choice is yours …
(P.S. As Arna and I were being married, on January 21st, 1984, the VHS recorder in our apartment was, at the same moment, recording It Happened One Night off of our local PBS station.)
Posted in Recalibration, Thrive in a tough economy | 5 Comments »
Friday, April 3rd, 2009
We’ve been blindsided by two hype-bubbles in the last 10 years.
One of the many lessons we should have learned: If something looks wrong/fake/stupid/overblown/disingenuous/hyperbolic/ exaggerated/too-good-to-be-true … it probably is.
So, if something looks fishy, smells fishy and/or tastes fishy, call it a fish.
If you see a big purple elephant on the table, don’t look around it, call it a big purple elephant.
One very important piece of recalibrating your approach to business in this post-hype-bubble world is to question assumptions, question prevailing attitudes, question things that just don’t seem right.
In 1971 Pete Townshend wrote and Roger Daltry sang, “We Won’t Get Fooled Again.” Want to sing the same song 38 years later? When you see the truth, say the truth.
Posted in Recalibration | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
Today I’ve been thinking a lot about recalibrating the approach to customer interactions.
The day started off with a meeting with a client about a potential project. Our discussion explored how this very successful company can develop more business from current customers, especially in these tough times where it is harder to find new customers.
As we talked, it became clear that the best answers lie not in more lucrative promotions, better offers or a new loyalty program. It’s much more fundamental than that. Interacting with customers during this time of economic uncertainty and turmoil requires, more than ever, an approach based on the customer interaction principles that have obsessed me for years.
- It’s not about customer service. It’s about the relationship-building encounter. Customer service is not what you strive for; it has become basic hygiene. (Yes, some companies still don’t brush their teeth.) The goal of every interaction between a person in your company and a customer is to make sure that the relationship with the customer is better at the end of the interaction than it was at the beginning.
- Stop shouting already! People hear Brand Harmony. This is the worst time to dial up the brute-force marketing techniques, trying to out-shout, out-promote and out-sizzle your competition. The world is way too noisy and your customers are way too scrutinizing. Interact with customers in a way that matches how they form impressions of you: By creating a strong sense of Brand Harmony that communicates a clear, compelling, comprehensive story.
How much better would your business be if your organization, with the talent of virtuosos, adhered to these principles?
Posted in Brand Harmony, Customer Encounters, Recalibration, Thrive in a tough economy | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
Today’s newsletter, sent this morning to those of you who subscribe, focuses on recalibrating your brand story.
Here’s the idea, in a nutshell: Everything about your customers is different than before – what they care about, what they think about, how they make decisions, how much money they have to spend, even who they are.
If your customers are so different, isn’t it time to recalibrate your brand story to make sure they care about it?
Please comment below! And, if you’d like to subscribe to my bi-weekly newsletter, or to this blog, look to the right.
(Here’s my post today on tompeters.com, also on recalibrating your brand story.)
Posted in Brand Harmony, Recalibration | 3 Comments »
Thursday, March 12th, 2009
I’ve started publishing a six-part series on tompeters.com, focusing on my Six Recalibration Questions:
- Where is the latent profit in your business, and how can you rethink how you generate results?
- How can your current customers help you unleash that latent profit?
- How can you unleash latent profit with new customers?
- Is your brand strategy right for the times, i.e., what do you want customers to think about you?
- Are you communicating optimally at all customer touchpoints?
- How clear and compelling is your internal brand?
If you approach each of these questions, with a “spirit of recalibration,” you will greatly improve your chances of thriving during this economic mayhem.
Here are links to parts 1, 2 and 3 of my series on tompeters.com. I’ll update when new posts are published over the next few weeks.
tompeters.com Recalibration series, part 1
tompeters.com Recalibration series, part 2
tompeters.com Recalibration series, part 3
Posted in Recalibration | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
Today’s newsletter, Recalibration, suggests that you “Stop Tweaking and Start Recalibrating.”
Don’t hunker down! Make real changes, in a world that is really different.
Please share your comments below.
Posted in Recalibration, Thrive in a tough economy | 3 Comments »
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