People Can Figure out How2Do Things‍

While I can’t remember every single detail, I do clearly recall that years ago, a friend of mine – Brett Winter Lemon, was showing me his iPhone on Kirk Avenue in Downtown Roanoke. It was spring. We were outside. He excitedly started (actually) touching his screen – on his phone – and making this little device do the wildest things.

I think it was the original iPhone that Brett was proudly using. While I don’t recall the exact model, I remember exactly what I told him that day as I cradled my beloved Blackberry.

“I could never get used to texting on a screen like that.”

Now a little more than a decade later, I think I can communicate with my two thumbs faster than just about any human being I know. I can also surf the web, update my status, check on my business, deposit a check, transfer money, view the best route to drive to Yellowstone, grab a ride, or have Blue Cow Ice Cream delivered to my home.

The smartphone is a pretty amazing machine, really. The fact that these superfast mini-computers rest in the palm of our hands is a bit mind-blowing and perhaps a little too close to Maxwell Smart’s TV show.‍

What This Means4You‍

Could I have stayed true to my Blackberry, or my bag phone, PDA, or Palm Pilot? Of course. But think how much easier conducting business is with the right tool and the knowledge behind how to use it. As the new year begins, it’s a great time to ponder how you can better do the things you’ve always done in a new way.

Too often, leaders say “I’ll never” or “I’ll always.” That’s a huge mistake.

Think about how many ways you expressed that sentiment this time last year. Now think about how many ways you’ve gone back on that internal pledge. I am glad I made the switch to the iPhone all those years ago. Was it painful? For a few weeks, yes. But now, I am adept and comfortable enough with my phone to navigate all kinds of tasks. If you don’t believe me, let’s have a text race, and I’ll prove it to you.

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Bad Commercials2Get Attention‍

Every market has one of these types. Here in the Roanoke-Lynchburg television market, where our marketing firm is based, we are lucky enough to have two.

I’m talking about car dealers with terrible commercial campaigns.

No, it isn’t limited to just automotive marketing, but these guys are the obvious culprits. The two dealers I’m referencing, epitomize memorable commercials – but not in a good way. One of them does it because he wants his commercials to be bad as a way to be recognized. Ironically, the other one actually believes he is doing a good job. Apparently he has no idea.

I would imagine both of these guys get feedback from neighbors, frightened employees, TV sales reps, and maybe even family and friends telling them, “I saw you on TV”, or “great job on TV”. Oh they’re getting noticed and these types of ads may actually be creating attributable sales, but at what cost? In these situations I can’t help but wonder, how much more business the dealer would be doing with decent and “good” interrupting informative messages?

Ways4You to Improve Your Commercials‍

Honestly, a strong business that wants to cut through the clutter doesn’t necessarily need to hire an advertising agency to guide them toward making a greater impact. There are other capable resources for creative ideas and unique ways to achieve improved top of mind awareness. Whichever method you decide to use in order to move your business forward, I’d recommend you start with getting honest feedback from folks who know what they’re talking about.

If everyone around you is a “yes person” then it’s hard to get valuable and straightforward input. Business owners (just like car dealers) need people around them who will give input that will actually help improve things. That’s harder to do when you only interact with inside employees or people who will tell you what you want to hear.

This is true in the automotive world AND everywhere in business.

Finally, you need to discover a unique way to communicate your message. If you don’t, you run the risk of being just like everyone else or getting lost in the sludge of a three-minute commercial break.

The fact is, no one really wants to look and sound like everyone else, or be lost in the middle of a bunch of spots. However, either one of those situations is better than being remembered by viewers and your potential customers as a real life nincompoop.

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Help Smart People2Understand Marketing‍

For the past decade, I’ve noticed something that seemed kind of odd to me initially. Over time, I continued seeing this pattern and I figured it was time I identified it.

Some of the smartest people I know own companies, invent products, or find a better way to accomplish a goal. They are brilliant at what they do and have built a product or service based on some sort of genius technological solution. The work they do takes brains and grit. And, of course, a lot of other pieces have to fall into place just right for them to be able to start, sustain, and grow their companies.

These same people are often clueless about marketing and advertising.

To me, it’s almost humorous because what my company does is so simple and logical, it seems rather obvious. Yet, marketing know-how often escapes these experts and entrepreneurs. When that happens, it still catches me off guard.

The Power of High Marketing IQ4Your Organization‍

You may have the most amazing product, service, or platform. But, if you can’t explain it to investors, partners, consumers, and your target audience, it is meaningless. Without demonstrating how you can help or fill a gap in the marketplace, you’re simply wasting a great opportunity.

Advertising must interrupt. It has to gain attention so that the recipient is ready to hear more, investigate, and learn. Marketing must explain and position. The way you communicate about your company can position you for success and detail the ways your product or service meets needs and satisfies the user. It’s simple.

So why do smart people freeze? I’m convinced they actually want to complicate things and that’s where they get tangled up. Get out of your own way and put into place the people who can translate your product or service's special value to those who need to hear about your solution. Allow them to directly communicate your message to your target audience. That’s really being smart, you know.

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Investing to Reach the People

Years ago, I wrote about the value of “going where the eyeballs are” when it comes to advertising. It’s an age-old axiom, but as you evaluate your place in the business community, it’s one that deserves a little closer examination. If you have exceptional messaging but aren’t sharing it with the right people, then what is the value? If you build an incredible advertisement then show it to no one, what have you accomplished?

The answers may seem obvious, but sometimes the obvious confounds people. Even smart people.

Even those well-versed in marketing can be thrown off by familiar industry jargon. For years, B-2-C in business has stood for business-to-consumer advertising while B-2-B has always referred to business-to-business advertising. If you are targeting end-user consumers, you employ B-2-C tactics and channels. If you want to reach business owners and decision makers, you use a B-2-B approach.

The only problem with that theory is that when it comes to buying things, even business-to-business focused decision-makers are themselves consumers.

A Valuable Concept for Your Marketing‍

As you evaluate your advertising spending and determine how you will allocate your 2021 investments, think about new ways to reach the standard audience.

During the height of COVID, the time consumers spent in front of computers was at an all-time high. That was the same whether it was a business owner or a stay at home dad. Whether you were a soccer mom or a CEO, you were bound to your home and watching a screen. It was a pattern that transcended any type of demographic. Get it?

The majority of people in the spring and summer were also watching more TV and consuming more video and internet information. You may not have noticed it then, but think back now, and you’ll realize many of the advertisers you saw were corporations like Microsoft, Salesforce, ADP, and Adobe.

In other words – anticipate where the majority is casting their gaze and use a strong message that cuts through. The money, new deals, and business expansion will be much more likely to follow.

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Leaders Forgetting What It's Like‍

Many of you know that before starting this marketing firm eleven years ago, I was in the television industry. Like a lot of sales organizations and similarly structured companies, there is a tiered system in place. From the men and women pounding pavement on the proverbial street to the “big wigs” looking out from the top, most sales-driven, big businesses operate the same way.

This isn’t a knock against that way of organizing a sales force. After all, I’m not sure there is another way to do it. Instead, it is an observation based on my own experiences as a salesperson, a sales manager, a director of sales, and a person that reported to plenty of vice presidents of sales.

The further you get from the frontlines, the easier it is to simply tell people how things need to be or should be done. Sounds simple enough. It’s just that this approach is completely backward.

A Simple Solution to Improve Relationships‍

A seller who is meeting routinely with clients (whether face-to-face or on Zoom calls) may not have the sales experience or acumen of a VP of Sales for a big organization, but you can bet they get much more truthful feedback. They hear what’s actually happening and encounter real objections and hard-to-answer questions.

When I was a local sales manager, I went on sales calls on a weekly – and sometimes daily – basis. As I progressed in my management career, I noticed it was harder to leave the office and visit clients. There were too many obligatory reports and meetings. As a director of sales, I would manage to make it to sales calls every week or every other week, but nowhere near as often as when I was an LSM or an account executive. Rare were the times I saw our general managers make calls. In fact, in the twenty years I spent in the sales business and almost a dozen more as a client, I can’t recall a VP making their way from corporate headquarters to the storefront of a local or regional client.

Why is that?

If you want a better, more authentic business and you want to find out what people really think, how they genuinely want to conduct business, and how to win “on the street” – you can do it. Encourage your upper management and company leadership to regularly interact with all levels of customers. And don’t stop there. Get those VPs in front of real, hard-to-sell, and full-of-questions prospects, too. It doesn’t work to put them in front of the cupcake people, show those further away from the frontlines what it's really like and do so as a routine.

It’s the only way to uncover the truth. It’s the only way for those VPs to get honest feedback and to help make the organization better. Out of the ivory towers, folks. Take it to the street – or even to the Zoom call – and, once again, listen.

And learn.

Simple Observations for Business Growth‍

Over the years people have asked me how I decide what to write about in our monthly columns. Often it is noticing something basic and then pondering how it fits into marketing or business operations.

I have a teenager, which means I have to deal with the constant cycle of updating, repairing, and replacing of mobile phones. My normally sure-handed young man occasionally drops his handheld device and, after a few such instances, I found myself at the local iPhone repair store. As I observed the owner working to make the little hand-held computer we call a telephone function properly again, I noticed two pretty obvious things:

To fix something as intricate as a mobile phone, you’d better have a lot of knowledge and you best have the right tools to help you get the job done. That day I realized the same principles hold true in commerce.

Knowledge & Tools for Improvement‍

Have you ever heard the story of the plumber who charged a customer $150 to fix a clogged pipe?

He went to the house, gathered the information needed, pulled out a wrench and forcefully hit the broken pipe. Before the customer knew it, the pipe was fixed and the water was flowing again. The tradesman gave the customer the bill, prompting the homeowner to ask, “How can you charge me $150 just for hitting a pipe?”

The confident plumber replied, “Well it's $50 for the call and $100 for knowing exactly where to hit the pipe and how hard.”

The iPhone repair guy figured out what was wrong with my son’s phone, pulled out a minuscule instrument from Apple, and proceeded to fix it. He knew what to do and he had the proper tools to make the repair.

It’s the same in your business. Employ people who can help you fix what is broken, give them the knowledge they need, and make sure they have the pieces on hand to take care of the job. If you decide to fix something yourself – you’ll need to follow the same basic steps.

While this may seem pretty obvious, it’s the simplest observations that frequently make the biggest difference in business, marketing, and operations.

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