SAMBA Blog

The status quo is always wrong

That's because the way things are, is nothing, compared to what they could be.  And it will always be that way, for two reasons:

1.  Adapt.  Human beings very quickly adapt to their conditions.  As soon as we make progress in a certain area, we get accustomed to it.

2.  Growth.  As Tony Robbins tells us this is one of the strongest of all Human primal needs.  We have a innate longing to improve, change, get better, progress, achieve mastery.

This fact, is not good or bad...it simply is.  And it means, we need people to constantly instigate change and make it happen.  And there are literally an infinite number of things that need to be changed right now.

Feedback is a Funny Thing

Do you always ask for feedback? Winners usually do.

And you always try to ask an assortment of people to get different points of view.

But a funny thing happens as you collect feedback. You immediately judge if the giver of feedback is right or wrong. 

Do you give feedback when asked? 

You always try to be accommodating and give the best feedback you can. After all, it's an honor and a privilege to be asked for your opinions, judgment, and experience.

But a funny thing happens when you give feedback. You immediately judge yourself to make sure that the feedback you give is right.

So you start censoring yourself and pick out only those thoughts that seem right and safe to give.

Never assume any feedback is right or wrong. That's not the function of feedback. 

Feedback sparks new thoughts and new questions. Feedback massages the brain.

Wasted permission

Every three or four days, like clockwork I'll get an e-mail from The Vitamin Shoppe.

"Buy 1 get one 50% off"

"Your $20 Coupon Expires today"

"Hurry your $10 coupon expires tonight"

Like clockwork.  What a complete and utter waste.  The hard part (as marketers know all too well) was obtaining my permission to send me emails to begin with, which (somehow) they managed to do.  After that, delighting me, isn't all that difficult if they were focused on it.  I mean for god's sake, they're in the health business, something I'm already fanatical about. 

But instead, how do they use this powerful opportunity of a virtually uninterrupted channel of communication with me?  By sending out promotions, discounts, and specials every single week.


Don't fool yourself.  You're not doing anyone a favor.  No one cares about your coupons, and everytime you send one in the usual impersonal, irrelevant, and selfish way, your brand dies a little. Every interaction with a customer either brings you one step closer to creating a raving fan, or one step further away.  There is no standing still.

And by the way, consistent and frequent promotions = marketing laziness.  (The only thing lazier is customers, like me, who continue to allow themselves to be tortured because they don't want to take the 20 seconds it takes to unsubcribe from the e-mail list, but thats beside the point) It's a signal that you've run out of ideas or you're simply afraid to execute on them.   Why not offer something of generous value, something that has worth, and that the receiver would be proud to share, delighted to share, feel obligated to share.

Unfortunately as we all know, this isn't a unique scenario by a longshot.  There are many large organization with enormous databases full of customer and prospect contact information that are rarely underutilized, but rather misutilized.  Is your organization a culprit?  Well then why isn't fixing this the biggest priority you have?

They're Loaded

Take a quick sampling at the cash or liquid assets held by some companies in the Fortune 500.

Google: $30.06 Billion

Microsoft: $36.56 Billion

Apple: $24.29 Billion

Omnicom Group: $543 Million

Cardinal Health: $2.76 Billion

Macy's: $1.21 Billion

Costco: $5.27 Billion

Time Warner: $4.24 Billion

Pepsi: $4.75 Billion

You get the picture. There is a lot of cash held in corporate coffers. In fact, cash levels are matching or exceeding historic levels.

There are many reasons for this. Corporations are unsure of the economic outlook so it makes sense to hoard cash for a rainy day.

But if you're an entrepreneur building a company in this depressed economy, you should be optimistic. When things turn for the better, which they most certainly will, our biggest corporations will spend cash. They'll look for interesting and innovative companies built during the depths of the downtimes and look to buy.

Your job as the entrepreneur is to hold out, try not to sell, and focus on on changing the world.

Policies

Standing behind policies is so easy.  It's a way to avoid responsibility and a great way to dismiss others.

But, that's not us.  Instead, it's critical we stand in front of our policies.  

It's important we're able to defend, without being defensive.  We should be able to explain the rationale, behind why they exist, and why they add value. 

If we can't, we should be helpful in trying to change them.  Considering the number of policies companies usually have, this can be exhausting, but it can also create a culture of change that results in truly phenomenal companies.

Customers are like snowflakes

Each one is unique. No two are identical.

This is why the future of marketing will be highly personal. It'll also feel invasive and uncomfortable at first as it forces a reconsideration of what is private and what is public. 

Where are we really most unlike everyone else in this world? 

In public, we try to fit in.

In our private lives we care about different things.

Picking up on the first ring

There are very few simple things that can more predictably wow people like answering the phone on the first ring.

It sends a signal.  One of enthusiasm, anticipation, organization, appreciation and preparedness.

That's why it's so rare.  So difficult.  So scarce.  So amazing when it happens.

Strategies Have Switching Costs

Isn't it interesting how things ebb and flow?

Just when we're getting good at measuring conversion, bounce rates, customer lifetime value, and other metrics, we're told that we need to get good at telling stories. 

Or just when we're starting to believe in the power of brand, stories, and experiences, we're told that we need to measure for ROI and move beyond storytelling,

It's enough to make a marketer mad.

If you've been a leader in marketing for any considerable amount of time, you've seen these mood swings in your CEO or board of directors.

And if you're as spastic as your CEO or board of directors, your marketing plan hasn't really had a chance to pay off. That's because even plans and strategies have switching costs. It's no wonder that the CMO position is the least secure job in the top ranks. Even CEOs last longer.

The one thing leaders should do before they come up with a plan or decide to switch strategies is to publicly state how long and how much they're willing to commit to the new strategy.

Do you give your plans and strategies enough time to prove themselves?

The Importance of Sacrifice

Many large organizational changes, small company changes, or even family change should happen, but don't because it forces only some parties to make sacrifices. 

The logic is sound..."let's try to negatively impact the least number of people we can in order to minimize suffering".

Unfortunately the most rational solution doesn't always work.  Rationality can often be incredibly unproductive.  There are a lot of social forces at play that make it very difficult to achieve change otherwise. 

If staff have to limit their expenses, maybe management should too.

If Dad and son have high cholesterol, maybe the entire family (even Mom and Sis) should join in on salad-only dinners too.


If the team is truly committed to the mission, to achieving something great together, sacrifice is not only a nice thing to do, it's essential.   The key is creating a culture and mission worthy of sacrifice. 

A modest proposal for the non-profit world

The time is ripe for some disruptive change and innovation in the non-profit world.

Even Jeff Raikes, CEO of the Gates Foundation, admitted that the foundation's grant making processes and communications were too complex and confusing. This results in grantee partners and potential grant applicants and the rest of the external world not having a good experience with the foundation and wasting time and resources.

Let's face it, whatever the cause, things move too slowly, exceedingly glacial, in the non-profit world.

We need a Y Combinator for the non-profit world. Rapid seed funding for rapid prototyping. Elements of the model might include:

• Social entrepreneurs get minimal funding to see if they can get traction. Let's leave defining what traction is for another day. The point is to allow good ideas and good people to get started quickly.
• Mentoring or guest talks by successful veteran social entrepreneurs like Jacqueline Novogratz of Acumen Fund or Fred Krupp of Environmental Defense Fund.
• Introductions to donors and foundations for the next round of funding - a tight knit world that is not so easy to penetrate by outsiders or new social entrepreneurs.
• A talent network - for those with valuable skills who want to jump onto the next great cause.

This makes sense in a world where we need to find new ways of building non-profits. This makes sense in a world where we don't always need to build permanent non-profit organizations to stand the test of time. Some problems just need immediate responses and solutions by linchpins who can move with urgency. Then they go away. No need to build a lasting infrastructure.

It's clear there is an opportunity to create meaningful change here. What are some metrics that we should consider to measure traction in the non-profit world?

Are there any brave souls out there who would help make this vision a reality?

The Social Media Train

Groupon is the fastest growing business in history.

The tea party is the fastest growing political movement in history.

Those who are still sitting on the sidelines waiting for "proof" at this point, will clearly never be satisfied.

The social media train is accelerating to full speed, and it's not too late to come aboard...but it's not going to stop for anyone.

Slow Motion

Watch around you as people panic from the changes taking place. 

Feel the panic creeping under your own skin. If you don't feel fear, you're not human.

But as the crowd turns into a pack of animals, remember that you're human.

Dangers of Social Proof

Do you read others' comments before you post your own?

Social proof is incredibly easy to succumb to (without even realizing it).  We must  constantly safeguard against it.

Try coming up with your initial opinion before exposing yourself to the inevitable influence of others'.  Sure, be ready to change your mind afterward...just make sure your decision to is both conscious and deliberate.

When Even Stupid Questions are Appreciated

When someone has taken the time to prepare a good presentation, they've poured a little of their soul into the work.

They're giving a gift to the audience. 

The worst thing for a presenter is to finish her performance only to be greeted by a pool of silence.

Silence deprives a presenter of challenging questions that force her to become even better.

Silence deprives a presenter of feedback that helps her give a better show next time.

Silence gives the false impression that you weren't paying attention as an audience and could care less about the topic at hand.

Give a gift back to the presenter. Ask a question. Even if it's a stupid one.

The Real Problem

The problem people come to you with is very rarely their really problem.  It's usually a temporary solution to their real problem.

When someone tells you they don't know how to begin a project, It could mean they're terrified to...and being ignorant on the mechanics is a very convenient excuse.

When someone complains that they're furious because your policy is unfair, anger isn't their problem...Its their solution.  They really feel disrespected and insignificant, and anger/yelling is a great way to feel significant and gain back power.

Trying to address the surface level problem alone is not only ineffective, but it can be destructive.  True customer service and sales artists, understand this quickly, and deal with real problems, not just the surface ones.

The Size and Speed of Trust

Trust in a social media-driven world will look a little different from Trust in your grandfather's world of yesterday.

In the past, trust amounted to certificates and "references upon request." You were granted trust if you possessed a college degree. You were granted even more trust if that degree came from a prestigious Ivy League institution. Advanced degrees conferred even more credit because they were so rare. And if you belonged to the old boys club, you had it made.

Today and more so tomorrow, trust in degrees and certifications will decrease because too many people have degrees and certificates. We have an oversupply of college educated people.

So what will confer trust in the near future? Well, we live in a world of Search and Social Media now.

Search will help us find all of someone's content online. Social Media will help us decide whether we should trust someone or not.

When the barrier to publishing content is so low (free tools abound from Facebook to Twitter to Squidoo to Wordpress), people will gain trust by the quality and quantity of content they produce and share online.

When you create a lot of content, whether helpful or useless, you send a lot of "honest signals" that help us figure out if you're trustworthy or not. We may not be accurate, but we will decide more quickly.

The Benefits of Cooperation

Coca Cola and Pepsi are heated competitors yet they cooperate all the time.  Same with the big oil companies and even Apple and Microsoft work together in many ways.

The reason these juggernauts have such deep and consistent relationships with each other is simple.  By coming together for joint ventures, partnership opportunities, or just the exchange of ideas and best practices, both sides benefit greatly.  And it's this collabaration that often helps "the rich stay rich...and get even richer".


Yet, how often do small businesses cooperate with each other? 


How often do all the pizza places in town have a meeting to discuss a joint marketing promotion? 
Why don't the local boutique hotels arrange a referral relationship with each other? 
Can two small blogs in the same space leverage each other's permission asset so that both grow?

The ability to work with a competitor is a no-brainer, yet it takes a business mindset requiring maturity and often putting emotion (and ego) in the backseat.

When Relationships Trump Quality

The more things change the more they stay the same.

Sales used to be about relationships. A big deal would come down to whether or not the client or customer liked the salesperson.

Then the age of Total Quality Management and Six Sigma ushered in an era when better quality was enough to confer a competitive advantage. Lucky salespeople at companies that produced better quality products didn't have to "kiss up" so much. Customers wanted what was best in quality and sold themselves.

But quality is a commodity now. Every company has figured out how to optimize their factories to deliver quality products. We assume that every gadget we buy ought to work reliably. Quality is now just the entry fee to play.

If quality is something we expect from every vendor, what do we look for to help us make a buying decision? We're back to salespeople building competitive advantage by building relationships. 

The Power of Indecision

Indecision isn't just the delaying of decision...it is a decision. 

It's the decision to succumb to fear, doubt, and comfort.  To deny possibility and potential.

But because its consequences are hard to see, feel, or measure...it's power is underestimated.  Indecision is almost always the worst decision you can make.

I Could Do That

"Art?"

"That's not art...I could do that..."

But I didn't do it.

Much like business, entrepreneurship, and innovation...it takes a linchpin, an artist to ship...to do it.

And it helps if you did it first.