Your Last Action Speaks The Loudest

February 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Your Last ActionIt is SUCH a great feeling isn’t it? When you complete a huge project successfully, or hit that major goal it feels like nothing can stop you – and there certainly is no reason to hold back on the celebration. In fact, celebrating big achievements properly can encourage us to tackle the next assignment with the same energy as the last. Time marches on though, and those who allow the celebration to last for weeks… months… years… (I knew someone who celebrated for decades!) may be brought back to the present with a rude awakening.

Please don’t confuse what I am trying to describe for mere “remember the good old days” talk. No, that is nostalgia and a different (if not equally unhelpful – in business) feeling altogether. Nostalgia wishes for different circumstances around a person, while what I am describing is someone wishing to be a different person… to be the person they felt like during a past win, even though they are now facing a new and different challenge.

To avoid the trap described above, always remember that your last (most recent) action speaks the loudest. It is the most true depiction of who you are as a person, and more importantly how finely tuned your skill set is to meet current challenges.

I’ll prove it to you in just two words. Lance Armstrong. Ok, maybe that was a cheap shot. How about… General Petraeus. Ok, ok… imagine instead for me the BEST new home marketer in the world… in 1995. Lets say he stopped learning and interacting with the outside world until we dropped him in 2013. Would he still be the best marketer in the world? His skills have not kept up – he is no longer competitive. He’s never even heard the words “online lead” before. Yet, if you called him to a meeting he would likely reference his domination of the marketing world… back when news print was king. No one would care… and they shouldn’t! Past successes more than three years ago do not indicate any better chance of future success than someone who is unproven but well prepared. Yes, the world is changing that fast. The answers for the test back then will not work on today’s final exam.

What to do then? Focus on continually increasing your skills, and not on telling others how you’ve “done this before” or “did that once.” Always be analyzing the surrounding landscape and asking “do I have the skills to appropriately tackle this challenge should it arise?” Again, if you succeeded at the same task more than three years ago, you are likely to be blindsided without careful self evaluation.

True experts will focus on skills that will serve them well forever. Can you learn quickly? Can you teach yourself? Are you disciplined? Can you interact well with other people? Can you lead them? Motivate them? Motive yourself? Can you analyze? Strategize? Take action? Are you self aware? Those will serve you much better than becoming a MySpace expert (even if it seemed important in 2006), or an expert App developer (in 2012).

So today take some positive action, and don’t coast – because tomorrow your new boss won’t have anything else to judge you on. He certainly won’t care what you did 3+ years ago.

PS. Your resume is not a piece of paper in today’s world. It is the connections you’ve made, how you’ve treated them over time, and your last few actions. That’s it. (this goes for companies too! Mind your brand.)

Filed Under: Customer Loyalty, Marketing Psychology, Marketing Strategy Tagged With: , , , , ,

Mission Critical For Your Business

January 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Mission CriticalThere are only two things that are always mission critical in business – customer satisfaction and profit. Many companies talk about how important it is that every member of their organization is actually part of the “sales force” no matter what their actual title or position is. I think, however, that it may unintentionally get everyone in the company focused on a metric that doesn’t always matter – volume. Sure, there will be periods of intense growth in any company where reaching a certain level of volume will matter and create efficiency, however taking your eyes of off what is mission critical can do serious damage.

Why do I keep using the term “mission critical?” All companies have a purpose – a mission, and the items that are crucial for that company continuing to do business are critical. Satisfaction used to be the lesser concern behind profit. Back in the “good old days” for some companies, customers had no true voice that could match the power of advertising. As long as your product was profitable enough, you could buy your way out of trouble.

Things have certainly changed. A couple bad Yelp reviews, or one ticked off customer with 30,000 Twitter followers can seriously harm your ability to continue. The best way to deal with these issues? Prove that those less than ideal testimonials are nothing but a freak accident – representing only .001% of your customer’s experiences. A secondary option is to have a brand so strong that it can take a direct hit and still give you time to prove (or improve) the prevoius point. Most companies, despite their own opinions, aren’t quite strong enough for that though.

Yes, profit keeps the doors open and the engine of business turning – but it now plays a secondary role to customer satisfaction. Even if you are nothing but a pure capitalist then you understand that a predicatbly higher satisfaction level than your competition will let you charge a higher premium – and increase your profit.

So today, look around and ask yourself how you can have the biggest impact on your customer’s experience and take action. Your companies margins will be glad that you did. Haven’t a clue where to start? Then start listening to your customers – closely.

Filed Under: Branding, Customer Loyalty, Marketing Strategy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Beginning A New Year? Learn To Tie Your Shoelaces

December 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Start again - learn to tie your shoes

A whole new year is right around the corner. It is fresh start with nothing but huge opportunity in front of you. Surely there is no time to waste, and BIG new goals need to be both set and acted upon in BIG ways. I mean, you already learned all of the lessons from the previous years… don’t waste time rehashing what you already know.

Start with a bang.

Or, you could begin by learning how to tie your shoes – again. John Wooden was the head coach of the UCLA men’s basketball team from 1964 to 1975, and he won 10 national titles. He was also the first person to be inducted into the basketball hall of fame as both a coach and a player. So when each new season came around, many people are surprised to learn that he always started by teaching his players how to tie their shoes.

It served real purpose too. Improperly worn shoes could encourage unnecessary sloppiness of play, injuries, and ultimately could cost the team their ultimate goal – winning. You see even when a star junior player returned for the following season, he was not exempt. In fact, he would fully embrace this review of the most basic of fundamentals – because he knew how it had positively impacted his previous season.

Of course, you still should set your goals and plan to win your own national title this year… whatever that may be.

But I think it would be wise to also consider your shoelaces when your first practice begins.

Filed Under: Marketing Strategy, Selling Strategy, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

Case Study: Home Builder Billboard Part 1

March 31, 2012 By 1 Comment

Schumacher Homes BillboardAs I was driving yesterday I had an opportunity to safely take this photo of a home builder’s billboard that caught my attention. It originally caught my attention because of how simple the ad was (a good thing!) and how prominent the website was. However what really surprised me was that it was done by Schumacher Homes.

I grew up in Ohio and worked for a home builder there for several years, and so I’ve been very aware of Schumacher Homes and their brand. They build a good home at a fair price on your own home site. Their advertising was always well executed and thoughtful. I even had a moment to meet Paul Schumacher and one or two of his executives at this year’s International Builders Show and they all were really sharp and engaging people. So before I begin my analysis let me say that the actual builder here is coincidental – and I wish Schumacher continued success!

I have actually seen similar billboards for Schumacher in several states recently (Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia). I have a hunch they they may have partnered with either a national billboard company (a Lamar board is pictured here) or several regional ones to place one large buy of inventory at a greatly reduced price. I have purchased billboards at up to 90% off of their retail price using similar tactics. To be clear I’m not anti-billboard at all if they are purchased smartly. I think in the right locations for the right price they can be very effective. As a medium though, they can suck cash out of your budget quickly if done improperly – so be careful.

Let’s continue on to the creative design of the board. It is very clear and straightforward in its main message (best price per square foot) and its call to action (the website). The “on your lot” banner and energy star logo are nearly lost completely and probably should have been dropped or repositioned. The image I’m also hoping they have changed per market to appeal to those who are most likely to pass by, but I can’t confirm that is the case.

Lets talk for a moment about the large and clear website on the bottom. I’m becoming convinced that website names in certain forms of advertising are become less important every day based upon how people interact with the web. IF you have an SEO strategy and execute it properly then you don’t have to try and brand the website as much as your company. When the prospect sits down at the computer they will type your name into Google and find you quickly and easily. I tried typing in Schumacher Homes with about 15 different spellings and each one brought me right where I was trying to get to. Perhaps they were concerned that their traditional logo would be unreadable at higher speeds, I’m not sure. In any case how likely is it for a prospect to go to that website the moment they see it while driving 70 MPH down the freeway?  Or will they wait until a later moment in time and attempt to recall what they saw – most likely by typing it into a search engine. Something to think about – especially if you’re not confident in your SEO strategy.

The last item I want to discuss on the creative design is the selection of color. While it is true that black and white are a high contrast combination, they also tend to feel a bit lifeless and bland. If you’ve seen ads of theirs in other mediums, or you’ve visited their website then you know what a great job they generally do with color. In this case though, it subconsciously tells consumers that the way they achieve the best price is by potentially cutting quality. Which is a shame because using color would not have cost any more – however that is still what is inferred.

We’ve covered the medium and creative design, but there is much so more to discuss. Come back and we’ll look deeply at the message and the psychology behind it in part two.

What do YOU think about billboards as an advertising medium? What about their design for this one?

Filed Under: Branding, Case Study, Marketing Psychology, Marketing Strategy, Media Buying Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The Real Story Behind What’s Missing on the New iPad

March 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Siri isn't on the new iPadThe reviews are in, at least the ones that count. Over 3 million consumers voted with their wallet in the first few days after the latest version of the iPad was released. There’s been the usual mix of reviews praising it as perfection, and others saying it’s not much more than a cash grab. However, what I was both surprised by – and impressed with – was the lack of Siri (Apple’s digital assistant on the iPhone) and Facetime (Apple’s version of Skype) over 4g networks.

Now since you probably already know that I’m a huge tech head, you may be wondering why I was impressed that something was intentionally left out (although maybe not if you recall my “missing list” post a while back) – especially since both are really software issues? 4g is certainly fast enough for Facetime to work well, and Siri would certainly run well on a device that is every bit as powerful as the iPhone 4s. So why did Apple choose not to include them?

Neither met Apple’s own internal minimum standards for delivering a reliable customer experience that they would be proud of. Let me explain. (If you aren’t familiar with Siri, please watch this first)

Siri records sound from your device, and then sends that sound over the internet to Apple servers who interpret the sound and send back a response. This means that on the Wi-Fi only (very popular) versions of the iPad customers would have heard a reply like “Sorry, I can’t help you with that right now” anytime they weren’t on a Wi-Fi network. Imagine if they saw an advertisement of an iPad running Siri and theirs often ”didn’t work” for a reason they likely do not understand – how frustrating! This isn’t an issue with an iPhone because except in airplane mode (or if the user is techy enough to navigate multiple menus to turn off cellular data) it is always connected via 3g to process the data and give Siri its witty reply to your request.

Similar story with Facetime. 4g coverage isn’t wide spread enough to reliable offer a seamless experience, and a customer’s data plan could be eaten up real fast during a Facetime call causing a larger than expected data bill and – again – an even more negative (and expensive) experience.

This is all layered on the idea that Apple products are “just supposed to work.” A perceived failure rate (remember – the software isn’t failing) of even 15% on these two singular experiences could have harmed Apple’s brand. They weren’t willing to risk it, and I applaud them for it.

Some people say Apple thinks that the people who buy their products are too stupid and that is why they make decisions to “protect people from themselves.” I think they have too much respect for their reputation, the product they deliver, and their customers to offer an unreliable experience.

What do you think? Should they have included them? Is it brave or stupid to make a decision like that? Why?

Filed Under: Customer Loyalty, Marketing Psychology, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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