My Morning WalkNew day, uninterrupted thoughts

Signs like this are posted all over our town right now. It’s incredible. Really, it’s nice that administration cares about our road conditions, but seriously…do we have to cut off EVERY route through town simultaneously? When 15-20 minutes is added to your travel time and you have a child that has to be all the way across town on time, a 3 minute detour is a hassle.

You think this is about road construction, but it’s not…It’s about business. Many of the traditional paths to success taught by corporations, mentors, business schools, and other resources are being cut off. Businesses are now seeing signs like: “Dead End—Do Not Call, Do Not Solicit”, “Detour—Land Line Disconnected”, “Closed Indefinitely Due to Budget Constraints—Find Alternate Path to Household”. And yet the proposed alternatives are nothing more than revisions of the original traditional concepts: SPAM e-mail, automated text messages, and the inundation of visual brand images on television, in newspapers, and on Facebook ads. The interesting thing is that the general public will be a lot less patient with these “proposed detours”.

It took radio 37 years to acquire the attention of 50 million listeners and television 15 years to acquire 50 million viewers. It only took 4 years for the internet to acquire 50 million users. If you think building a road of alternative, permission-based marketing solutions is going to take longer than two years to build, I’d say you’re kidding yourself.

We all know that social media is here to stay, yet many are reluctant to engage. Traditional brands want to continue doing business in traditional ways…And they train all of the traditional best practices to traditional salespeople in their traditional courses. In yesterday’s presentation to a group of Iowa City Chamber of Commerce members, Maureen Osako of Infometrics stoked some new concerns for the long-term well-being of those who wish to refrain from these strategies. The biggest takeaways were surrounding two issues:
1. What’s the penalty for waiting?
2. What’s the penalty for just “jumping in” but doing it wrong?

The main challenge for those in either school of thought, in my opinion, is held in the context of these two strategic decisions.

The penalty for waiting in any game is the forced “catch-up” process… The panic instilled in oneself when they discover the boat has already left port and they’re still holding their suitcases. Trying to catch up with a moving boat leaves you exhausted, frustrated, and “all wet”. The greater challenge with social media is that it’s moving faster than the boat.

The penalty for doing it wrong is loss of credibility. If 95% of your Facebook posts are about what your company has to offer the general public and are “me-centered” instead of “them-centered”, it’s called mass marketing. If you tweet links to your business’ microsite 50 times a day, it’s SPAM. If one day you have 5 LinkedIn contacts and the next you have 500, what is that saying to your “audience” about the value you place on relationships?

So, what’s the context of your social media presence? What’s the history behind “why” you are doing what you are doing? What’s the “WIIFT” (not the traditional “WIIFM”)…What’s In It For Them: Your readers, friends, fans, contacts, followers, or whatever different platforms call those who are engaged in their conversations?

Thank you in advance for your comments.

On the doorstep last Friday sat a box which contained this book. “That’s unusual” I thought, since I didn’t order it. Inside the cover was a note from the ultimate “Linchpin”, a person whom I’ve never met who has become a tremendous mentor. Again, thank you for your generosity.

I picked up the book and started reading it this week. It’s really tough to put down because the theories are so timely and thought-provoking that the “hamsters” in my head are making the little wheel turn 100 miles-per-hour. Lisa Gansky persents a conceptual shift from an ownership mentality to a sharing mentality. Her most significant example is that of “Zipcar”, a car-sharing concept that would revolutionize the way we live in America, but she shares highlights from many other organizations as well.

This is an awesome read (so far). If you’re interested in learning more, post a comment and I’ll try to help you out.

The syndrome dates back to prehistoric times when men would hunt and gather food, at least that’s what we were taught in science or anthropology class. The story was always about some guy out hunting who ends up staring face-to-face at a saber-tooth tiger. Humorous in cartoons, but not so much in real life. The same thing happens when facing an opponent in a boxing ring or when two linemen square off at the line of scrimmage. Not difficult to determine what’s going to happen when it’s one-on-one. They match it up and fight it out, or, if one is kicking the heck out of the other, one person runs, thus “fight or flight”.

Ever apply this phenomenon to the marketing world? Remember when there used to be one salesperson representing one product squared off with one prospect with an unmet need? A lot of door-to-door salespeople made a lot of money fulfilling needs in this manner, and the odds were pretty good. Zig Ziglar got his start as a cookware salesman, or at least that’s what he says in his book “See You At The Top”. The days of one salesperson facing off with a prospect are over…just check your mailbox. How many pieces do you get every day for products/services that are ALL similar commodities? You’re right, I don’t want to know.

So now, instead of being one hunter facing off against one saber tooth tiger, there’s one hunter in the middle of a circle surrounded by a HUNDRED of them. How does that make you feel?

Remember the good old days when your parents were sitting at the dining room table with the insurance guy who came knocking on the door at 6:30 pm? We were all done with dinner, mom had the dishes done and counters clean and the kids were watching TV in the living room (being seen and not heard). The visitor came in and made some small talk and then got down to business. After about an hour or so, mom and dad decided to purchase that policy the salesperson had been presenting, they all shook hands and the man was off to his next stop. (We still have that policy today, by the way.)

Oh, how times change. What is YOUR family doing at 6:30 pm in the year 2010? If you’re like my wife and I, your family isn’t sitting together at the dinner table until at least 7, if they are sitting together at all. Between dance, football, baseball, soccer, basketball, band, parent association meetings, and just breathing after work, there’s barely time to make dinner (when there are even groceries in the refrigerator!) With all that happening, what is your response to the phone ringing at 6:30? What’s your reaction to a stranger who rings the doorbell at 7:00? Times have changed, right? So why do we keep pursuing “sales” in the same way we always have?

How many million people are on do-not-solicit lists? How many million people have canceled their land-line phone service? How many million people own DVR’s? How many million people watch TV on the internet instead of network TV, cable, or dish? How many newspapers have one-half the content they had 10 years ago? How many magazines are now extinct because traditional ads they used to sell became ineffective and were essentially ignored? How many SPAM e-mails do you delete from your inbox each day because you don’t want to fill out the obnoxiously long “unsubscribe” request, even though you never knowingly subscribed in the first place?!!!! How many hundred mailers do you get in your mailbox every month? Based on the trend of increasing postage prices, there should be a time coming in the near future where such mailings are cost-prohibitive. Then what??? Do all businesses just lock the doors or do they need to find a way to help people and not sell them?

Feel free to dispute any or all of these points, but in the end, change will win. Success depends on how we adapt.

How do you go about obtaining leads from internet lead providers? Buy them every week, have them sent to your e-mail inbox, and you or your team member quote the prospects, right? Hopefully you “earn” the business because of your “johnny-on-the-spot” technique. It’s even more likely if you impress them with your knowledge and background. Historically, that was enough to allow you to encourage the customer to be loyal enough to keep them from looking for a cheaper rate through at least ONE renewal cycle. NOT.

When you buy leads from internet vendors, can anyone confirm what happens at the 6-month or annual renewal? It’s an unconfirmed rumor that they are sent, by the lead aggregator, no matter if they are insured by your company or someone else, a REMINDER TO SHOP FOR RATES. So, let’s say you insure a customer with company X. They may be getting a REMINDER to shop rates not only at Companies A,B, C, and D, but also with your Company X, and the representative with Company X may NOT be from YOUR OFFICE.

How do companies overcome this potentially devastating breakdown in loyalty perpetuated by lead aggregators? Build loyalty through relationships BEFORE they can be destroyed by reminders to start shopping again.

It’s not going to work much longer.  During a wonderful discussion with one of my clients this morning, it came out that the old way of doing things (Calling or interrupting a semi-receptive audience to provide a quote or set an appointment) is soon to be overtaken by the same audience looking online to discover a different type of relationship with their service providers.  So what does that mean from an employer standpoint?

It means we as business owners may be looking for a relationship strategist instead of a receptionist.  It may mean we will be looking for a trust agent instead of a salesperson.  It may mean we will be looking for a Linchpin instead of a marketing account executive.  When this new wave for creating and maintaining relationships strikes, the business world as we now know it will be turned upside-down. 

Who are YOU hiring to create these systems?

So, you want to get started on social media. You really want to obtain more than that ONE LinkedIn contact…you know, that person that told you it’s the “future” and you accepted the invitation just to shut them up.  You see your company adding technology at light speed.   You’re finding it hard to breathe between all the e-mails introducing the changes and invitations to join the virtual training classes to help you learn about it .  In the meantime you’re trying to run your business the way you have always run it.  How is it possible to do all of this AND run your business?   It’s not, so stop doing it.  Step away…it’s the only way to prepare your mind for what is coming and to silence the “it’s not possible” voice inside your head. 

There is no more “the way you have always run it”. That’s how most people react to this evolution, by thinking it will go away. Ignorance is bliss, right? WRONG. It’s inevitable. Change is coming. It’s on the horizon, and if you haven’t thought about attempting to do business in a way that doesn’t constantly interrupt people to get your point across, the forward-thinking minds out there are going to bury you in your own traditions.

Instead of falling by the wayside, why not embrace it and become an active member of this tribe of change?  It would be better for everyone, including your clients.  And if you don’t know how to start, talk to Robyn at CaptiveAgents.com.  Sure she has an insurance background, but her information is applicable to just about any type of service organization out there.

How many businesses set up display booths at county fairs these days?  Our local fair just ended, where local representatives from my company rented a booth space.  We’ve done this for as long as I can remember, but this year seemed different.  Here are 6 observations I made while sitting at the booth for 2 days:

1.  People are reluctant to put their name and contact information on any sheet of paper, even if it means it gives them a chance to win something of value.  They’ve clearly been called by a salesperson in the past after they’ve completed an entry form for a prize. 

2.   People are picking up less “free stuff” than they used to, possibly because they now either realize that a.  nothing is truly free or b.  they don’t want to feel obligated to someone when they pick up that pen (like we can find you when we don’t know your name.)

3.  Even though people “shop” and engage in a conversation with a salesperson, most state up front that they choose to stay where they are until their current service provider does something wrong or experiences a substantial financial hardship as a result of their prices.    

4.  It doesn’t matter if you are an independent franchise owner, when asked their specific representative’s name, many people cannot tell you.  They CAN, however, tell you the company that has their account.  The ones who can tell you their representative’s name frequently have a deeper personal connection with that person beyond the products/services they buy from them.   

5.  If there are multiple providers of the same service who represent the same company in one geographic area, most people assume you work together, share expenses, and are funded by the parent company.  To take this even further, customers and prospects directly correlate the money spent on postage for correspondence and advertising and an ”excessive” number of storefronts in a given area to a waste of spending because they think these expenses all contribute to their individual rate.   Some of these assumptions are true, but many are false.    

6.  This one isn’t business related, but I mention it because I’m a dad:  Unattended children should be given an espresso and a puppy for the ride home with their parents.  Maybe that’s extreme, but seriously, kids under 10 should not be wandering around by themselves, or with friends of the same age, even if they have a cell phone, in an uncontrolled environment like a county fair.  Technology should never replace parental supervision. 

Overall, my wife is correct in her assessment of why we should keep setting up a fair booth:  “People will notice when you’re there, but even more when you’re not.”  Funny thing is that I didn’t set out a huge stack of business cards this year and people looked relieved.  Thank you to everyone who stopped by.  If you want me to help you, I’m online.  Just Google my company, hit “locate an agent”, and shoot me an e-mail message.  Here’s my philosophy:  I won’t call YOU…I’ll call you BACK.

When do advantages perceived as “unfair” become classified as “Karma”?  For some, manipulating the system can be a function of daily living.  Looking for loopholes in the tax and legal systems, gray areas in the rule book, or duplicate credits in the promotions handbook are all ways to get ahead, but at what cost? 

Eventually, these perceived advantages will get exposed…then what happens?

Maybe the quiet “worker bees” will get their shot.  Maybe the people flying “under the radar” will suddenly appear in the center of the target.  Or maybe, just maybe, the underdogs will come out on top.  Life’s a big game with a lot of rules, but if you play the game correctly, everyone’s a winner.  Isn’t that how it should be?