by Mel DePaoli

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

Businesses are always told ‘to do their research’ and ‘to make sure they really know their market.’ They often tell you that they do know their market and then proceed to describe them, (usually) in such general terms that might as well be anyone, someone, or even anybody—just as long as they breathe and have money. Sound familiar? No need to worry. We all do this at some point or another. The key is to recognize we are doing it (before it becomes a problem) and that it is okay to ask for help or say we do not know.

I have spent a good portion of the last year and a half doing research to find out if connecting a company’s culture with their branding was viable and determining the market and appeal. Overall, I think I have found some amazing results. I say found because what I thought going in was not entirely what I discovered to be true. I have been able to identify a unique niche that no one has and now I have the knowledge to fulfill it as well.

Because of the challenge of explaining an intangible, I have had a lot of opportunity to practice and get it wrong. It is still not perfect, but I describe it MUCH better today than I did a year ago! I also took to the opportunity to do some casual market research, once I was able to identify what I needed to clarify! That is the key; market research for research sake will tell you nothing. Research with a purpose will produce interesting results – often not what you expect.

I noticed that people kept associating what I did with a business coach, a marketing consultant or an executive coach. (For this, the terms coach and consultant are used interchangeably.) To me, the three are distinctly different and do not describe the services I offer. I will agree there is some overlap with all of them and the services I offer but, I do not describe the services I offer as any of those.

So, I designed a quick survey whose goal was to find out how people perceived the services offered by business, marketing and executive coaches (keeping in mind that coach and consultant are assumed to mean the same thing). While I did accomplish this goal, if I were to distribute the survey over again, I would add a few clarifying questions to make the results more accurate and more specific. I was so focused on finding out about the perception of the services offered that I forgot to ask who was taking the survey. Where they coaches or consultants themselves that were telling me about the services they offered? Or, were they people that had hired a coach? Having that information would have helped me target my market better and explain to other consultants how we could work together instead of view the other as competition. (Which I do not believe in, but that is a topic for another article.)

I found the results to be very interesting. Some of the results proved what I suspected, while others I found to be a surprise. In short, the survey proved that those are generic terms that really do not mean much of anything. While I am sure I will upset a few with that statement, it is not about what YOU say about your business, it is about how OTHERS perceive you. By using a generic term, you are confusing your prospects and doing yourself a disservice.

All of this information is interesting, but what does it mean?

For companies that offer these consulting services, I recommend they reevaluate how they talk about and promote their business. Yes, the general terms are easy for a quick conversation but they can devalue the services you offer making you a commodity. You cannot charge a premium price for a product or service that the client can get anywhere. Also, by being a commodity it means you have to do more work, more advertising and more marketing to show prospects why they should choose you over the consultant sitting next to you.

For my business, it confirms that I am not a business, marketing, or executive coach in a literal sense even though my services overlap some of the general perceptions. It also confirms that I do need to continue to refine the explanation of my services to prevent being pigeon-holed. Perhaps the most value I received from the survey was it gave me a better understanding of the top of mind reasons people reach out for help. It also showed that in a pinch, I can say I am an executive consultant. This is where the difference of a coach and consultant come into play. My services are more closely aligned with a consultant than a coach.

So, what do you do?

Please feel free to see the results for yourself at: Survey Results  

Mel DePaoli is the president and founder of Omicle located in Seattle, WA. She is also interviewing companies for her upcoming book series Brand or Culture: Which Comes First. Please visit www.omicle.com for more information about how Omicle can become your Catalyst for Discovery and www.brandorculture.com to get involved in the Brand or Culture Debate! Ms. DePaoli can be reached at mel@omicle.com.

by George Lane and Doug McIsaac

    This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

The Fundamental Trilogy, not surprisingly is comprised of three parts:

1. Do you know exactly what you’re selling?
2. Do you know precisely who you’re selling it to?
3. Do you give the people you’re selling to a damned good reason to buy what you’ve got?

If your competitors can’t answer these questions, you have a potential advantage.

Part one: Know exactly what you’re selling

At first glance this may seem silly. You already know what you’re selling, right?  Surprisingly, this is often not the case.  In actuality, you know your product or service too well and take too much for granted.

Fortunately, this is easy to fix with a little exercise:

- Imagine you’re explaining your product/service to a big spending but nit-picking customer, and they keep asking “But what else does it do?”
- Then ask yourself how your product does what it does. What goes into making your product/service?
- Now imagine that nit-picking customer again. And this time they want to know exactly what will happen when they become a customer. What are the exact steps between taking on a new customer and giving them their order?

Describe every last little thing about what you sell, even the bits that seem inconsequential to you.

Even on its own, knowing exactly what you sell - down to the smallest detail - gives you a massive competitive advantage. You can find things you do that your competitors either don’t do or don’t talk about, and can then use these overlooked points in your marketing and sales pitch.

This repositions you and guards against your prospects making like-for-like comparisons.

Part two: Determine who you’re selling to

Again, you already know this, right? Wrong. Many business owners think they know their customers but most of them can do much better.

Picture your typical customer and tell me are they:

- Businesspeople or consumers?
- Men or women?
- How old?
- Married or single?
- Rich or poor?
- Do they have children?
- Where are they? (Local, national, international)
- What kind of job do they have?
- What values/beliefs are important to them?
- Where do they hang out, online and offline?
- What problems do they usually have when they come to you?
- What are their hopes and desires?
- What do they fear the most?

If you could not quickly respond to these questions, go find the answers.  Why? Because the better you understand your customer, the easier it is to sell them what they want. The more comfortable your customers feel towards you, the more they’ll respond to your marketing, thereby generating more interest and sales.

Part three: Make it happen

Parts 1 and 2 of the trilogy involve what you sell and who you’re selling to.   Part 3 involves joining these previous parts together and making sales by addressing core human buying emotions. People buy things to fulfill one or more of these nine emotional needs:

1. Make Money 
2. Save Money 
3. Save Time/Effort 
4. Help the Family 
5. Feel Secure 
6. Impress Others 
7. Gain Pleasure 
8. Self Improvement 
9. Belong to a Group

For real life proof, watch a few TV commercials with this list in front of you and check off the needs they imply their product fulfills. When you do it for the first time, it’s like seeing The Matrix.)

The magic starts to happen when you weave all these relevant emotional needs into your marketing. How do you do this? Here are a couple of ideas:

- From part 1, look at your list of all the things your product/service does and how it does it. Next to each item, write down the emotional need (or needs) it helps your customer achieve.
- Next, remember all the things you know about your customer from part 2. How would you tell your typical customer that their core emotional needs can be fulfilled by what you sell?

Take your time on these two points. They are more potent than they first appear; use them with care.

If you make the link too obvious, you can appear crude and manipulative. The secret is to be a little subtle and imply you fulfill your customers’ emotional needs without embarrassing your prospect or making them uncomfortable.

Remember, almost no one wants to buy clothes from a store with a sign selling “fashionable trousers” but many people would be interested in “Fresh Frozen Lemonade” on a hot day.

It may take a couple of attempts to frame your message but if you can elegantly associate what your business does with your customers core buying emotions, the rest of your marketing and sales will effortlessly fall into place.

By utilizing the Fundamental Trilogy, marketing success is almost inevitable.

Online4Offline was formed by George Lane and Doug McIsaac, two award-winning marketers and social media experts.  Sign up for their $1 coaching special NOW! (It won’t last long).  Their aim is to give away great marketing & business building information many marketing “gurus” have been charging for far too long.  They can be reached at: www.online4offline.com .

by Susan Wilson Solovic, CEO, SBTV

    This article was published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

Because customers and clients are bombarded with advertising messages, it’s becoming tougher and tougher to make sure our marketing messages are heard. Think about how many ads you’ve heard already today. Now ask yourself how many you actually paid attention to and remember. Let me share with you how one creative entrepreneur captured media attention for her business. By the way, she just happened to have been my mother. 

Mom opened a children’s store in the small town where I grew in the late 50s. I’m sure she didn’t have a lot of money to market but she always managed to come up with some imaginative ideas. In March 1960, she read an article about the newly born Prince Andrew in England who was wearing hand-me-down diapers and she saw and opportunity. (This was before invention of disposable diapers.) She boxed up a dozen cloth diapers to ship to Buckingham Palace for the newly born Prince and notified the press. Here’s a copy of the front page of the March 14, 1960 newspaper with my mom on front and center. Pretty clever. 

Mass media advertising is expensive and you probably won’t get the results you desire. So what creative things are you doing to get the word out about your business? Think about ways you can tie into current events. Look for unique ways to touch your customers. Pay attention to where they get their information. What types of activities are they involved with?  Also, if you have marketing strategies that have worked for you and are willing to share, please do so. As small business owners, we are always looking for new ideas.

Susan Wilson Solovic is CEO of SBTV.com – Small Business Television.  SBTV.com is the first and only video news and information destination site for America’s small businesses. Solovic is the author of “The Girls’ Guide to Building a Million Dollar Business” which is consistently ranked among the top 25 books for women in business on Amazon and was listed as a “must read” in Entrepreneur magazine.  A winner of many prestigious awards and a popular guest speaker, Solovic has also spoken to more than 250,000 small businesses over the past four years. New members can sign up at SBTV and receive many benefits of membership. Solovic can be reached at: ssolovic@sbtv.com

by Melanie DePaoli

    This article was published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

You see me one time. This is someone’s license plate in the community that I am living. Since it is on a Corvette, at first I just thought it was funny. The more I saw it, the more it got me thinking—it’s true! We make decisions all the time based on this simple philosophy.

Prospective clients normally make their decision about a company with the very first person they meet or speak to and within the first minute. WOW that is a lot of pressure! It sounds like interviewing for a job . . . wait it is!

Think about when you hire a new employee. You are very selective, want the most for the best price and try to decide if you will like the person’s personality—if they will fit. Is this someone you can work with? Is this someone who your current team will work well with? Will this person be able to help us grow? Will this person be able to grow with the company? A lot of companies believe that most skills can be taught while personality cannot.

This is why it is so important to have a strong culture and to define what it is that your company stands for. By taking the time to define this, you create a work environment with standards for how decisions are made, a set of expectations for how customers will be treated and employees will interact, and you establish boundaries of what is right and wrong.

By defining your culture you also create what your internal perception and a desired external perception of your company. The internal perception is how the employees perceive each other and how they perceive the company. Do they work for a company that they cannot stand or is it a company that they feel supported by and takes care of them?

When people hear [insert your company name], what do you want them to think? What do they need to think in order for you to turn the prospect into a client? This is your external perception or your brand. Money can only buy so much; eventually true colors always reveal themselves. This being said, why risk walking a path that will end up costing you more in the end. Take the time and do it right from the start: define your culture so your culture becomes your brand and your employees and clients are saying the same message because they WANT to.

Mel DePaoli is the president and founder of Omicle located in Seattle, WA. She is also interviewing companies for her upcoming book series Brand or Culture: Which Comes First. Please visit www.omicle.com for more information about how Omicle can become your Catalyst for Discovery and www.brandorculture.com to get involved in the Brand or Culture Debate! Ms. DePaoli can be reached at mel@omicle.com.

   by Victoria Duff

     This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

There comes a time when every executive or entrepreneur realizes that he needs help – the kind of help that nobody in his company can provide.  Usually it is a task that requires specialized expertise and he either doesn’t have the proper skill set or has no time to devote and can’t spare any of his employees for the job.

When you define what you need and hire a well-regarded consultant to fill that need, you not only get the task done properly but you save a lot of money and anguish.  On the other hand, the wrong consultant hired for a vague reason can cause a lot of expensive damage, and waste valuable time.

Define your need
First:  Ask yourself what you want to happen that isn’t happening.  If you are in doubt about the true source of poor performance or cannot decide where change is needed, you might want to ask for a short review and recommendations from the consultant you are considering hiring.  You should expect to pay for this, but it will allow you to evaluate the consultant’s work before committing to an extensive engagement.

Second: Ask some questions.  Asking the right questions of people who are close to the problem will give you an idea where the source of the problem might lie.  A good way to limit consulting costs and increase the likelihood of a successful project is to know exactly what you want the consultant to accomplish and be able to describe that goal during your initial consultation. 

Third: A large national consulting firm is not necessarily your best choice.  You might be better served by an independent consultant who has experience in your industry and who specializes in small or mid-size companies.  Such a consultant usually has experience gained in a large company but can customize her services to suit the needs of your company, while a consultant from a large national firm will most likely present solutions that involve proprietary packaged services offered by that firm. 

Look for skills
Using a consultant referral service is a good way to find a choice of consultants - particularly one that constantly rates consultants; however, it is not necessarily to your advantage to deal with referral services that encourage consultants to bid for jobs based on price.  While you may need to keep costs within budget, your aim is to find a professional with the right set of skills, not simply the lowest price provider.  All good consultants will try to cooperate with you if you tell them your budget.   Do not fall for a sharp sales pitch or the least expensive fees.  Look for consultants that have been pre-vetted by a person or service you can trust.  An outstanding consultant might charge a little more but the added value she brings will prove the bargain.

Never forget you are hiring a professional for his or her skill and experience with subject matter that you may not have mastered.  Let the consultant demonstrate what he knows.  You should not feel as though you need to learn how to do the consultant’s job.  The most important way to assure you will have a good experience hiring a consultant is to look for someone who can display skills.  A promise of great results is merely a sales technique.  What you are looking for is years of work experience that demonstrate mastery of a skill set.  A good consultant should be able to describe his procedures for discovery, how he manages the project, and how he expects to provide your solution.  Such information from a prospective consultant allows you to make an intelligent decision based on facts rather than sales tactics.   

Victoria Duff, founder of Southern California-based aBusinessPlan.com, is a widely acclaimed start-up facilitator, enterprise analyst, strategic advisor, venture finance catalyst, investor liaison, author, and speaker.  Her depth of experience lends itself well to efficiently providing solutions to over a decade of happy repeat clients.  Her advisory practice can be found at:  www.aBusinessPlan.com  Ms. Duff is available on a retainer or project basis vduff@abusinessplan.com .

by Mel DePaoli

  This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute Newsletter

If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shoddy furniture, let us be more ashamed of shabby ideas and shoddy philosophies. . . . It would be a sad situation if the wrapper were better than the meat wrapped inside it.  Albert Einstein

Once again, Einstein was ahead of his time!  But, in this case, he was only half right.

There are many companies out there that have hired an incredible designer that was able to initially cover up the shoddiness of the business as Einstein might lament. On the flip side there are many GOOD companies that for whatever reason will not or do not invest in quality design, and this is as sad a situation as Einstein described.

How does good design affect your business, be it for a website, marketing materials or any other aspect that the public views? What is the value of design? Can you control the effect of quality design? And, does good design impact my bottom-line? Since these questions are all intertwined, there is no clear yes or no answer to any of them.

The world is as it is. Unfortunately, no matter what our parents tried to teach us, we do judge a book by its cover, even when we may not mean to. That being said, when your business has nicely designed materials, this is a direct representation of HOW you do business. Think about it, if you do not care enough about your own ‘stuff,’ how are your customers to know you will provide top quality and treat them with respect?

“But we want that mom-n-pop feel.” That is great; there is value in this as well. But leave that to a designer to accomplish because just using clip art and having someone without experience putting your materials together does not give the perception of ‘mom-n-pop,’ it gives the perception of cheap! Does this mean that the more expensive the designer or firm the better your materials? The answer is a firm: “No”.  Price can be misleading just as with any other profession.

The secret is that you need to know who your company is and what it stands for BEFORE you talk to the market or put your materials together. Why? Because when a prospect views your materials (this can be anything from a magnet to your website and everything in-between) a perception is created in their mind about the experience they will have when doing business with you. If they like the perception, they will want to do business with you. Of course, once you create the perception, you need to deliver!

This is where most companies miss the boat. They think that advertising and marketing are separate from how they do business. I am here to tell you that they are not—they are one in the same! Your marketing and advertising efforts are laying the ground work for the experience that your customers will have. People like what they expect.

It truly is amazing how the smallest thing can have the biggest impact on your bottom-line and can create an industry standard. By creating an industry standard, your competition will not survive unless they (at least) match your level of service and how the market perceives you. This is a great way to minimize your competition. An excellent example of this is the McDonald’s Happy Meal. It is a child size portion of food, in a fun box with a cheap toy. It not only shows that McDonald’s considers children an important part of their market, but the design is perfect to capture their attention. No fast food or family restaurant will last long without offering their own version of this. It is simple but VERY powerful.

When design + marketing and advertising + how you do business come together harmoniously authenticity is achieved and there will be a positive impact on your bottom-line—guaranteed!

Mel DePaoli is the president and founder of Omicle located in Seattle, WA. She is also interviewing companies for her upcoming book series Brand or Culture: Which Comes First. Please visit www.omicle.com for more information about how Omicle can become your Catalyst for Discovery and www.brandorculture.com to get involved in the Brand or Culture Debate! Ms. DePaoli can be reached at mel@omicle.com. 

by Jeff Shomay

This article was originally printed in The Productivity Institute (PI) newsletter

“Can you tell an intriguing story in just six words?” This challenge was once given to Ernest Hemingway. According to legend, he did, and considered it his best work. Is it possible? Here is his story, judge for yourself: “For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.”What do you think? Here are some more:

• Honey, have you seen the baby?
• Patrick had never eaten worms before…
• Thought I was right. I wasn’t.
• Once upon a time… the end.
• I came, I saw, I conquered.
• Three went to Iraq. One came back.
• Both sisters - breast cancer - I’m scared.

Each six-word line has a totally different impact, doesn’t it? How do they make you feel? What do they make you think? Six words can be powerful. But what does this have to do with marketing?

Read on…

Besides being short and to the point, which is always good, this exercise scratches the surface of something much larger - the art of planting small seeds that grow into powerful thoughts. Isn’t that the purpose of marketing - to plant short messages in your consumers’ minds that become thoughts like “That’s just what I need, I’ll take it!” Looking back at the above lines, let’s uncover some of the principles at work, making their sums more than just six words.

1. The power is in the unexpected. These lines use words or phrases that don’t usually go together to get a bigger effect. “For sale: baby shoes, five dollars” is not as interesting, in fact we likely would skim right over it. But those two unexpected last words get our attention and our invoke feelings. When you want to make an impact, try connecting unexpected words or ideas together.

2. The right words = the right response. When you only have six words, each one counts. “Three went to Iraq, and two died” just doesn’t have the same impact. Never say in three words what you can say in two, and always ask if you can say something in a stronger way.

3. In the end, less is more. To make an idea grow, it has to leave your ad and enter their mind. The best way to do this is to give them only what they need to fill in the rest of the story on their own. Maybe they need more than “Once upon a time… the end,” but if Hemingway wrote a six-sentence paragraph about why the baby’s shoes were never worn and how sad it was, it may be more melodramatic, but it sure wouldn’t get the same impact or be remembered. Lay guidelines, but leave it up to your audience. When your customer is filling in their own story, they’re selling themselves, and you can’t do better than that.

4. If you move them, you’ve won. We react strongly to things we can identify with. I don’t know about you, but the breast cancer line really hits me. I don’t even know who the woman is, but I can feel her fear and want to help her. Find an emotional aspect of your product or service or sell the benefit in emotional terms, and people will listen and take action.

This is a quick intro into some powerful principles that you can employ when you want your message to make an impact. Do companies really use this in real life? Have you ever heard these lines?

• Melts in your mouth, not in your hands. (Not exactly six words, but the principles are the same, and that’s what’s important)
• No one can eat just one.
• Where do you want to go today?
• Read my lips: no more taxes.
• What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
• Friends don’t let friends drive drunk.
• The few, the proud, the Marines.

These lines all have specific built-in meanings and feelings to influence their audience. They work. Can you identify their power principles? Start putting these principles to use for yourself and see what happens!

Credit: some of the above lines came from online posters - britta02, Graeme Gibson, Kevin Smith, and Julius Caesar.

Jeff Schomay is CEO of “Inspire Your Buyer“. Marketing and Branding that stands out and gets results. “Turning potential buyers into inspired buyers”. www.Inspire-Your-Buyer.com

“Inspire Your Buyer” creates powerful branding and marketing for you, using the same principles that Hollywood Filmmakers, Top Entertainers, and Marketing Gurus use to capture and captivate an audience and shape its response. We’ll get you a stronger reaction, check us out!

Challenge: Send your own six-word marketing lines to jeff@inspire-your-buyer.com. The top selected 5 will get special free and discounted services. Must receive by New Years!