Four principles of Conscious Capitalism:

1. PURPOSE – “Business has the potential to have a higher purpose that goes beyond merely maximizing profits and shareholder value.”
2. STAKEHOLDERS – “There are other stakeholders besides the investors that matter. The customers, the employees, the suppliers, the community, and the environment: these are all interdependent on one another. It is the job of business to create value for all of those interdependent stakeholders.”
3. CONSCIOUS LEADERSHIP – “Leadership is conscious leadership or servant leadership that puts the values and the mission of the business first ahead of their own personal interests.”
4. CONSCIOUS CULTURE – “You have to create a culture in the organization that supports the purpose, that supports the stakeholder principle, and nurtures the leadership.”

Do you enchant others…in your personal life and through your work? Have you ever considered the value of enchantment? Guy Kawasaki, author of the book “Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions,” says that

“When you enchant people, your goal is not to make money from them or to get them to do what you want, but to fill them with great delight.”

Delight? How often do you come away from personal or business interactions feeling delighted? How often do you delight others? Kawasaki, former Apple evangelist and CEO of other companies, Silicon Valley venture capitalist, founder of Alltop.com, and the author of nine other books including “The Macintosh Way” (which was required reading when I was a software product manager several years ago), says that enchantment is absolutely necessary when we want to:

• “Convince people to dream the same dream that [we] do.” To do this, we have to “aspire to lofty, idealistic results.”
• Effect huge change
• “Overcome entrenched habits”
• “Defy a crowd” and create our own path…and get others to join us
• “Proceed despite delayed or nonexistent feedback”

Kawaski gives concrete and specific advice on how to be enchanting in the book, with chapters entitled:

• How to Achieve Likability
• How to Achieve Trustworthiness
• How to Prepare
• How to Launch
• How to Overcome Resistance
• How to Make Enchantment Endure
• How to Use Push Technology
• How to Use Pull Technology
• How to Enchant Your Employees
• How to Enchant Your Boss
• How to Resist Enchantment

Although “Enchantment” is primarily geared toward business, the principles are equally applicable to how to be personally enchanting. Kawasaki has mastered the art of enchantment. He is prolific on Twitter and posts about an incredibly wide array of topics. For someone so revered in the often nerdy high-tech world, he is personally charming, accessible, and humble.

His advice for how to achieve likability include things like finding out what the other person’s passions are; in other words, do your homework. Do they like to travel? Do they have kids? Do they enjoy fine wine? What’s their favorite sports team? Find out and meet them at that place of commonality. You will instantly enchant the other person if you care enough to do that.

The book gives many examples of businesses that enchant and how they enchant their customers. An example is REI, which was started in 1938 by 22 friends and now 3.7 million customers shop at 100 REI stores (and online.) People go there to shop, but also to socialize with other active people and to get advice from experienced cyclists, campers, or mountain climbers. Kawasaki says that the goal of enchantment is “long-lasting change,” which is “what happens when you change hearts, minds, and actions.” REI has built community and this community of enchanted customers is loyal and enduring.

“Enchantment” is an easy read and is filled with practical and enchanting tips. It’s worth a read and to keep on your bookshelf as a reference book (think new product introductions, starting a new venture, or captivating and signing a new customer). Want to keep abreast of what enchants the ubiquitous Guy Kawasaki? Join him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/enchantment or on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/Alltop.

Photo Credit: Renjith Krishnan

Are you one of those business owners who thinks “I shouldn’t waste money on marketing. There’s no new business out there right now. No one has any money to spend on what I offer so why bother.”???

I just got through reading Byron Katie’s book “Loving What Is” and she says that we should challenge our beliefs and statements through inquiry to determine their validity and relevance. She gives us a list of four questions to ask ourselves:

1. Is it true? Really? There’s no new business to be had and marketing wouldn’t help you acquire new business? I doubt that’s true.

2. Can you absolutely know that it’s true? Unless you have spent a lot of time investigating the market, you’ve actually spent money on marketing and seen absolutely no results, etc., then no, you can’t absolutely know that’s true, can you?

3. How do you react when you think that thought? Do you feel helpless, defeated, or resigned in your belief that the economy sucks, your business is going nowhere, and there’s nothing you can do about it?

4. Who would you be without that thought? Maybe you’d feel free to actually take a risk…spend some money on marketing…give it a try. Maybe you would feel powerful and actually believe in what you offer and want others to experience it, too. Maybe?

Byron then urges us to TURN IT AROUND. Maybe the turnaround is “My business sucks and that’s why I’m not marketing it.” or “My thinking is what sucks…I’m stuck and am afraid to spend money to take my business to the next level.” Ah…now we’re getting closer to the truth.

I’m always amazed at businesses that cut marketing first thing when their sales start to suffer. They should do MORE marketing, not less. How else are they going to create demand for what they offer and cast the best light (and a light that people can actually SEE) on their company?

So when you start having those thoughts that you can’t afford marketing and there’s no use in it anyway, TURN IT AROUND. There are lots of people and companies out there making money in this economy and the ones who are know how to (and are spending the money to) market themselves, their brand, and their company.

Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Imagine that you want to buy a new washing machine. You go to the store and a sales clerk blasts you with the details about a certain model. There are many other washing machines to consider with different price points, functionality, etc. so you’re wondering WHY SHOULD I CARE about this particular washing machine? If the sales clerk really wants to make a sale, he/she should ask what is important to you in a washing machine and answer this question for you. If he/she prattles on about features you don’t care about, he/she is wasting your time; you’ll probably go elsewhere to make a purchase.

It’s the same in writing. The basic thing you should keep in mind at all times is to answer the question your reader will ask about your writing: WHY SHOULD I CARE? Sure, your technology, service, or product may have great bells and whistles. Super. WHY SHOULD I CARE? Sure, your company has a great reputation. Fabulous. WHY SHOULD I CARE? Another version of this question is the familiar “What’s In It For Me?”

In practicality, if you’re writing a datasheet that lists features and functionality, you still have to talk about benefits for the intended audience. Who IS your intended audience for that datasheet (or any other document)? You should know that before the writing begins so that it can be slanted to those people. There may be several stakeholders with various interests and needs; you must answer the question WHY SHOULD I CARE? for each of them and show that you understand why this product or service can meet their needs.

Bottom line? Take the focus off look-how-great-this-product (company, service, or whatever) is and put the focus on the customer. Don’t be an over-indulgent washing machine salesperson. Instead, show your target audience that you understand their needs and that you have a solution to help them meet those needs. Then they will show you WHY SHOULD [THEY] CARE about your company.

Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

With PowerPoint, anyone can create a presentation…right? WRONG. Some people just shouldn’t.

Before PowerPoint, presentations were only created by marketing people who worked with graphics professionals to create slides. These are people who know how to write and how to design and use color. Most people now who create presentations don’t have a clue.

Here are some things NOT to do when creating a presentation.

1. Don’t use too many words on a slide. You’ve all seen those slides with tons of words crowded on one slide and people are squinting to read what the slides says…if they bother at all. Most likely they won’t bother.
2. Don’t use too few words on a slide. While forcing too many words on a slide is ineffective, so is creating a slide with too few words on a slide. Presentations are often passed around to customers, prospects, sales guys, and other managers. They will have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about if you don’t use enough words to explain what the bullets mean.
3. Don’t use a gazillion different (and competing colors). Some people just don’t have a sense of color and they use too many colors randomly. It just looks awful. Don’t do it.
4. Don’t capitalize every word in a bullet. This is a personal pet peeve of mine. What’s the point of doing this? There is no point.
5. Don’t use amateurish clip art. I once did consulting for a client who insisted that the presentations she gives at conferences are very professional. That client used the kind of clip art your elementary school kid would use for a school project. There’s nothing professional looking about that. AT ALL.
6. Don’t use a picture or any kind of graphic if it has no relevance to the slide. Sure, using a picture adds interest to a presentation, but make sure it adds something to the slide. You don’t want the viewer to be sitting there thinking “Huh?” when they see the picture.
7. Don’t include information or pictures without giving (or purchasing) proper credit. Do you have permission to include that chart from XYZ analyst or did you at least acknowledge below the chart that the analyst developed the chart? If it’s a photo, did you buy the rights to use the photo (or get it from a free site like the ones I’ve used on my blog so far)? Have you acknowledged copyrights?
8. Don’t use different fonts and type sizes for titles and the same level of bullets. When I see a presentation that has Arial font, point size 24 for the title on one slide and Trebuchet font, point size 18 for the title on another slide, I can guess that the presentation was developed by a non-marketing person. Ever heard of consistency?
9. Don’t use too many special effects. Sure, those diagonal fade-ins are pretty cool, but if you use special effects like that on every slide and on every bullet of every slide, all of a sudden the presentation is huge. And it can be rather annoying to the person watching the presentation.
10. Don’t ramble and don’t go on too long. No one likes a presentation that drags on and on and doesn’t really go anywhere. Stick to the point (you do have one, right?) and give the customer/listener what they came to hear.

The Author as Technology Spokesperson at TI

Years ago, I was a Product Marketing Engineer at Texas Instruments (TI). In that role I wore many hats — writer, event planner, conference speaker, technology spokesperson on radio and television, tradeshow manager, and more.

One of the biggest hats I wore was to present to customers about our artificial intelligence (AI) products — the artificial intelligence expert system software for the PC called Personal Consultant and the LISP machine Explorer. I got quite good at assessing customers’ needs before meeting with them and tailoring my presentation to them. So good, for example, that I was hand picked to present in front of 500 people at a conference in Bogota, Colombia and to the Young President’s Organization there.

One thing I learned rather quickly was the power of story. I loved to tell the story of a guy who worked for the Campbell Soup Company. Campbell had several multi-story vats around the country that were used to heat huge numbers of soup cans to make sure the soup inside was safe. Sometimes these enormous vats would break down and this one guy was the only person in the world who had the expertise to fix them. He was nearing retirement and they needed to capture his expertise and put it into an expert system, which was an AI software program on a PC, so that technicians could take advantage of his expertise to solve problems. Campbell Soup used TI’s Personal Consultant and it functioned like an expert-in-a-computer.

Depending on how I slanted this story or other stories like it, a glint of recognition appeared in the eyes of manufacturers or other customers as I told the story. They could see how (as I hammered home how this story was relevant to them) they, too, could benefit from using Personal Consultant. I told the story of the Campbell Soup guy through a slide presentation and showed actual pictures of the guy, the huge vat, etc. Of course we had Campbell Soup’s written permission to tell this story and that’s essential.

When you are talking to customers about your product(s) and/or services, tell them a story that they can relate to. Then show them the similarities in how the story you told them relates to them. If I can help you develop the narrative of a story through a presentation, case study, success story, or speech, let me know. Once you have a compelling story, you can tweak it slightly for each prospect or customer and use it over and over to market your products and services. People love a good story!

Photo credit: Michael Marcol from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Are you one of those people who think Marketing and Sales are the same thing? Think that’s a crazy question? A lot of people confuse the two. They aren’t the same. They use different skills and perform different functions. I’ve had people try to talk me into taking work that was clearly Sales. Let’s break down what some of the differences are.

Okay, this is pretty easy, right? Sales people SELL things…they try to convince prospects, current customers, influencers, resellers, and partners that what they have to sell will fit their needs and get those people to buy it. To do that, Sales people need tools and support. That’s where Marketing comes in.

MARKETING

In a nutshell, Marketing supports Sales. Marketing does things like:

• Defines and maintains the brand. Each company and product has a brand. It’s the answer to “Who are you/your company/your product?” or “Who do you want people to think you are?” It’s the logo, the packaging, the colors, the design, the functionality…all of that…but it’s also how you want the buyer to feel if they purchase your product and who that buyer is. 
• Creates messaging. How would this product benefit that target audience? What is the value proposition of this product for the target audience?
• Creates collateral. These are documents that Sales can send to their prospects (or send the URL for) to help them better understand the features, functionality, benefits, and value of the product. Collateral can include things like datasheets, white papers, articles, customer success stories (also called case studies), brochures, solution briefs, presentations, and more.
• Creates and executes marketing programs. These programs can include the launch of a new product, a program to increase sales for a particular product, a program to get new leads of prospects for a product, and more.
• Manages the web presence. The web is your company’s face to the world (and your customers) and it is vital to have the right content, targeted messaging, and consistent branding on every web page.
• Plans and executes events. Events are designed to increase leads, company and product awareness, industry thought leadership, and more. They can include webinars, conferences, trade shows, open houses, analyst and press tours, and more.

There are many more things that Marketing does, but the bottom line is that Marketing exists to support Sales and to define, maintain, and promote the vision the company has for itself and for its products. But of course you already knew all of this, right?

Photo Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Perhaps you have a small business with a killer product or service and you’re just starting to do marketing. Or perhaps you are feeling the pinch of the economy, but are savvy enough to understand that if you don’t market what you have, no one will know about or buy it. Either way, your marketing dollars are limited. So where do you start? What’s the best way to spend your limited marketing dollars?

I recommend starting with your website. It doesn’t have to be fancy and you don’t have to pay a web designer thousands of bucks to have a really cool site.

Look what I just did with this site. I previously had another site, but wanted something different — something I could incorporate my love of writing/blogging into.

I built this site on the WordPress platform and it took very little time to get it up and running. Because it is built on a blogging platform, there are limitations. But it is FREE and there is no monthly hosting cost. The only thing I needed was a domain name, which costs $10 or less a year. Cheap.

Perhaps you already have a website. Then you need content.

It’s important to have good information about what you offer and to make sure the information is well-written. Even if you have a really good writer at your company, pay a marketing writer to at least check over the site for errors. You’d be surprised at how many companies (even large ones) have spelling and other errors on their web pages.

There’s a saying “Content is king” and I agree. Not only do you need good web copy, but you need good documents on your website. These can be a brochure, datasheet, article, white paper, solution brief, customer case study — anything that gives prospects information about your business that will pique their interest and hopefully help turn them into customers. If you’re a technology company, a product manager may be able to do a first rough cut on a datasheet, but hire a marketing pro to do the formatting and final polish. A good marketing person will craft targeted messaging and create a compelling piece that encompasses the hardcore technical details.

Once you have a website that conveys information about who you are, what you do, and how to contact you and you have good content to go on the website, you just start sending out that link to prospects and current customers. Include it on your email signature, business cards (if you still use them) — everywhere. Keep your information on your website updated and continue to add new content. You want to keep them coming back again and again and again.

Photo Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What do you do? Hire someone to help you…right? What should you look for and what should you expect? Here are a few tips and questions to ask yourself. (And of course, you can always just call or email me about how you could work with THIS marketing consultant.)

Do you need to hire someone who lives close to you or can you work with someone who lives anywhere in the country?
I have clients who I have never met in person and we work efficiently and effectively via email and sometimes phone.

• Is it important to you to meet face to face with a consultant?
• Do you feel comfortable interviewing someone over the phone and maybe never meeting them?
• Can the work be delivered via email or are there times when you need the consultant to show up for meetings, conferences, events, etc.

Do you have a concrete project in mind or do you just need help in general?

• Consider starting with a small project that takes under 20 hours. This allows you to see the quality of the consultant’s work and to determine if you feel comfortable working with them on future projects.
• Be open to suggestions from the consultant on what to work on. They are in business for a reason. They are accustomed to listening to clients and can give you ideas and feedback that may really make a difference to the success of your business.

How do consultants work? By the project? By the hour?

• It usually depends on the actual work. If you have something like a brochure or datasheet or something very concrete with very few variables, the consultant may be able to give you a flat rate for how much they will charge for the project. Sometimes this may not be an exact dollar figure, but instead will be quoted as a range or as a “not to exceed” figure.
• If there are a lot of unknowns about the work and the time it will take, the consultant will probably work by the hour. Some consultants prefer to do all work by the hour. That way they get paid for the actual amount of time they invest and you pay only for the time they spend on a project.
• Another option is to hire a consultant on a retainer basis. Usually consultants will give you a break on their hourly rate if you hire them for a set number of hours per month for several months. This can be a win/win for both parties. You are guaranteed a set number of hours of the consultant’s time each month and they have income they can count on.

How do we get started?

• Most consultants will draft a Letter of Agreement for you to sign to start work. This will include details about the work to be done, when the work is to be completed, how much is to be paid and when, and other terms of agreement.
• If you are a small business and a new client, expect to pay a deposit up front. The consultant will usually begin work after your check clears.