Believe It and Weep

While previewing a new manuscript from my friend Stephen Covey, I came across some terribly dispiriting figures from a Harris Poll of 23,000 full-time U.S. workers in key industries. Herewith a sample: 37% have a clear understanding of what their organization is trying to achieve; 20% are “enthusiastic” about their team’s goals. [TP: could the sample include the U.S. Olympic basketball team?]; 15% feel their organization enables them to execute key goals; 15% describe their organization as a “high-trust environment;” 10% believe the organization holds people “accountable for results.” (And so on.)

On the one hand I’m old enough to be jaded about organization life, and hence not surprised. On the other, how can one suppress a “What a waste!” Why don’t you (bosses) try these questions out on your unit of 3 or 333—and see how you measure up. And then consider in each case concrete, small, within-15-days steps to improve.

Key to the above: “15 days.” Life Rule #1: Don’t ponder such polls to death. Hit the road, electronically or physically, listen and take some “small” actions … IMMEDIATELY.

Respect

Was talking last week to a world-beating salesperson. (Female.) She dismissed most sales training as stuff and nonsense. “They teach you to ‘deal with’ ‘objections’ and the like. They ought to teach you how to keep your mouth shut and listen. You know, Tom, the old one about why God gave us ‘one mouth and two ears.’ ‘Great sales skills’ are 99% about respect and empathy and listening.”

I’m afraid my immediate reaction was to go into a funk about my own lost sales opportunities. Most have not been because I failed to ‘close,’ or some such. They were by-products of being so full of my product and its advantages that I’d go on for 20 minutes without taking a breath! (I point out that my discussion partner was a woman, because I believe women do make the best salespeople. Some may be less aggressive than a red-meat devouring male—and that may well be their primary advantage! Think about it—before you make your next sales hire.) (Hey, let me know what you think … please.)

Why “TALENT” Matters

Came across this quote from Microsoft’s former chief scientist, Nathan Myhrvold: “The top software developers are more productive than average software developers not by a factor of 10X or 100X or even 1000X, but by 10,000X.”

For what it’s worth I think the same is true with waiters and trainers and parking lot attendants. So … keep that “slot” open a little longer, and find the “10,000X woman or man.” Addenda: Finding the “scouts” who can unearth “10,000X people” is obviously Step One. My observation: Some people are gifted Talent-finders, and some aren’t. One sterling CEO I know is awful at finding talent. “For one big thing, he talks too much during interviews,” a colleague reported to me with a chuckle. “An ‘interview’ with him is an excuse for a monologue.” The good news: My CEO pal knows his weakness—and has a great stable of talent-finders at his beck and call!

Communications 101

If IM, Skype, and text are verbs in your vocabulary, you won’t need this information. However, if teenagers and techies seem to be speaking a language you don’t understand, here’s a 250 text messaging abbreviations that will come in handy.

Even if you decide to stick with “old-fashioned” cell phones and email, at least you’ll know what your kids are talking about. IYKWIM.

I Hate Spam

I had a dream last night … (OK, I didn’t really have this dream, but please imagine that I did. It makes a better story …)

In my dream it was the first day of “Worldwide I Hate Spam Week,” in which people all over the globe unite to boycott companies who invade their computers with email spam and pop-up ads, refusing to buy their products for the entire week. There were well-publicized lists of these companies, so everyone could see what products to avoid.

Expedia and Travelocity saw their bookings drop to zero. American Express Blue not only saw new card enrollments plummet, transaction volume became negligible. News media publicized these stories and many others, adding momentum to the anti-spam movement.

Spontaneous anti-spam rallies started happening concurrently all over the world. Corporate communication departments scrambled to get their CEOs on TV to pledge to end all unsolicited electronic marketing. It became regular practice to avoid buying from any company that sent you a spam, well after the week ended. The age of spam was coming to an end …

… could it happen? Or are we stuck wading through this—the most uncreative kind of marketing—for the rest of our lives?

Olympic Inspiration

Doping scandals, fears of terrorism, ever-growing commercialization, etc., etc., etc. It’s enough to dampen a person’s enthusiasm for the Olympics … but not mine. I love the Olympics.

Awesome examples of athletic prowess, personal achievement, and successful teamwork abound, and no other athletic event lets us see so much multi-national cooperation, world-wide communications, and great design all over the place. (The uniforms alone are worth a design seminar, not to mention the flags, medals, signage, and all the other paraphernalia.) I’m spending my evenings in front of the TV for a couple of weeks. You could call it research on leadership, globalization, and branding.

Re-imagining IT Services

Business techonologist Wilhelm Hamman of Computer Associates Africa cites Tom’s PSF (professional service firm) model in his itweb.com article about on-demand computing. His conclusion about what it will take to transform the IT service business to meet the demands of on-demand computing:

We need entrepreneurs focusing on enabling the new, laying the foundation for transformation and fighting the battles for the brilliant men and woman that produce extraordinary products and services in the IT department today. Forget the old MBA models generated for the industrial age, and accept the new thinking engulfing our age. It’s the business of change, innovation, young people, new technology and great products and service.

Somewhere in Johannesburg, there’s a well-read copy of Re-imagine!

Check Into This

Seth Godin’s blog is listed in our blogroll on the left side of our home page. Two of them, in fact. Brand new from Seth: ChangeThis is a sort of manifesto roll call. Click through on a front page entry, and you get an opportunity to—voluntarily—sign up to be contacted every two weeks, and to download a PDF file of whichever manifesto caught your eye. Here’s how ChangeThis defines a manifesto:

It’s an argument, a reasoned, rational call to action, supported by logic and facts.

And its political position:

We are against demagoguery, dishonesty, shortsightedness, superstition, fundamentalism, unequal rights, and violent argument.

And, you know, if three people do it, it will be a movement. ChangeThis … go there and join the movement of your choice.

This Is (Bad) Branding

I was having a really tough time with the CD drive in my laptop yesterday … I couldn’t listen to CDs, I couldn’t burn CDs … it just wouldn’t work. I called Dell tech support, and, after trying a few things, Ashley of tech support told me that I had to reinstall the operating system to get the CD drive working again.

Reinstalling the operating system is a fate worse than a root canal … it basically means wiping the hard drive clean and starting over.

My daughter’s 18-year-old boyfriend came to pick her up as I was suffering with my computer. He told me one simple thing to try, and the problem was fixed in less than five minutes.

How many clever, funny Dell ads will I have to see to resuscitate my Dell brand impression after this confidence-shattering brand experience? Hey Dell—don’t forget … everything is marketing, but marketing isn’t everything.

Why Direct

Following on Tom’s comments on direct marketing and direct selling …

The starting point for me is that BRUTE FORCE DOESN’T WORK any more. The “old” advertising-based view of marketing posits that if you interrupt your customers 20 times in a week, and a competitor only interrupts them 7 times, you’re more likely to make the sale. In today’s world, that thinking is ludicrous. Today’s customers are way too savvy and scrutinizing—and way too busy—to fall for that.

So … what kind of direct marketing/selling can work in an environment where brute force is no longer an effective marketing tool? Much direct marketing is no more than “advertising in envelopes,” meaning that it’s just more “get in your face, interrupt your life” brute force communication.

That’s not the secret to success. The answer is to use direct tools to engage with a customer in the kind of dialogues that, in concert with all other experiences she has with your company, build a strong Brand Harmony in her mind.

Direct selling and marketing tools can be a very effective part of that mix, helping a customer get to know you and your product and be able to say to herself, “I get it … I want it … and I can’t get it anywhere else.”