Tactical Compass

I was called in to officiate at a funeral yesterday. A long time client had created a core program to outperform the one I had developed with them almost a decade ago.

The old program had been delivering decreasing results every year, but the results of the new one made my program look inspired.

The owner invited me to come by to explain what was happening.

That was pretty easy. Yup, he’s dead, Jim.

What was entertaining was how they had developed their new program by massive internal discussions, like the boys in Animal House cranking up Belushi with, “Toga, Toga, Toga...”

From the story they told, their customers never had a chance to participate...so they never did.

Our old program had evolved, from looking at what was working, begging and pleading with the customers to take a minute to tell us what they might want that was better, and then finding a cost-effective way to provide it.

We took a middle-of-the-pack performer and made them the segment leader in less than a year.

In the 1800’s, if you were a cotton broker, you could develop a business model and leave it unchanged for four or more generations.

Today, serious tweaks are usually required in less than a year.

It’s less expensive to leave the buyers out of the planning, but it’s also less valuable.

I’ve read how Steve Jobs could create many new product categories all by himself, but I find that getting tactical data from customers points the direction to effective strategy, and at the same time develops the customer base for when the new offering is available.

How much are you hobbled by your prior opinion?

Kick off the New Year Right at Talk Your Business - How to make more and better sales right away! Wednesday Jan 30, 11:45 - 1:00 at the Arlington Chamber Small Business Roundtable

Did Dr. Welby Need a Certificate?

Marcus Welby, MD had a diploma and a license, both unprominently displayed somewhere in his office. He was known by reputation in the community. Although Welby was a fictional TV character, he portrayed the community doctor.

The community was close and people talked regularly – reputations were shared, recommendations offered.

Today you still need a license and it is popular, but usually not required, to have a certificate if offering a service. This documents that you have the minimum requirements and have passed a test – both originating from the professional society, training organization, college, or university providing the program. These organizations are strong proponents of certification programs – which represents a 'product' in their offerings. The certificate-holders may frame and display their certificate, but will certainly add the designation behind their name in professional documents to convey certificated status. This process evolved as the communities disbursed and local conversations all but disappeared.

Thirty years ago in the human resources field, a certificate program was launched with time-in-role minimums and qualifying tests – all provided by the HR professional society. I carefully reviewed the value of these certificates and determined that they offered no unique advantage to serving in the HR role, did not mean anything to the employees served, and were not valued by the employer. My performance (and reputation) was determined by results achieved for both the 'customer' and 'boss'. Now 30 years later, with many certificate-designated HR roles, performance and reputation continue to be determined on results, certificate or not.

As I see it – when the buyers are segregated from the beneficiaries, certificates do matter – to the buyer; however, the beneficiaries continue to evaluate on results achieved. The certificate is an attempt to fill the void of shared community feedback and local reputations. Is this more effective than recommendations on the internet by folks you don't know?

Given the choice, would you rather receive services from a certificated person or one with a positive reputation among their peers? Why?

Kick off the New Year Right at Talk Your Business - How to make more and better sales right away!

Wednesday Jan 30, 11:45 - 1:00 at the

Arlington Chamber's Small Business Roundtable

Arlington Chamber of Commerce
4600 Fairfax Drive, Suite 804
Arlington, VA 22203

Chamber office - NEW LOCATION - the building is behind the Holiday Inn on Fairfax Drive.

Communities Of Interest

Someone used Communities Of Interest to describe the many civic and social groups they support. A lovely term...until I started to think about it.

I came to the conclusion that there are few, if any, communities of interest.

The people who support projects are in it for WIIFM. “What’s In It For Me?” As long as the group provides enough value, the supporters continue to contribute.

My new realization was that every person in a group probably has a different definition of WIIFM.

The Internet disintermediates (takes out the intermediaries or intermediate tasks) required for the administrivia of some groups. Setting up a new group gives an opportunity to streamline the processes and reduce the effort required to operate the organization. In other groups, administrivia can become the main reason the survivors stay together.

The enlightened navigator of a community of interest needs to provide enough rewards to allow the group to thrive. That means tolerating the needs of as many of the people who perform as possible.

I’ve wormed my way on to several boards by inventing and supplying recurring services to the members that were later replaced by technology. Several times, the work was not continued, leading to a fast rightsizing of the group.

It’s much easier to scale down than to ramp up.

A thriving group attracts people to the warmth of getting things done. That doesn’t mean they perform for the group. Nor is one lack of performance a permanent condition. One of my favorite navigators spends a lot of time defining successful roles for his workers, his Scouts, his kids.

Fulfilling the role of the enlightened navigator is not a life sentence. I often use the promise of succession planning to get promising navigators to strengthen our offering in a new direction.

Groups follow a sine wave, of up, down, up, down. New efforts are prototypes, and they are infinitely improvable over time.

In golf, good shots come from experience. Experience comes from bad shots. However, good shot or bad shot, if you don’t strike the ball, it doesn’t move.

What is your best advice for improving a community of interest? 

Kick off the New Year Right at Talk Your Business - How to make more and better sales right away!

Wednesday Jan 30, 11:45 - 1:00 at the

Arlington Chamber's Small Business Roundtable

Arlington Chamber of Commerce
4600 Fairfax Drive, Suite 804
Arlington, VA 22203

Chamber office - NEW LOCATION - the building is behind the Holiday Inn on Fairfax Drive.

A Breakthrough Approach

A common topic at business meetings is smartphones and cellular service, often with a new owner attempting to show the features of the latest phone.

Whether the phone is Android, iPhone, Windows, or Blackberry, the on-board features and upgrades - along with the extensive collection of apps - make this hand-held device the user's portal to the internet, email, text messaging, navigation, or finding deals and restaurants.

The carriers sell time on the cellular network and provide help for some of the basic phone features – such as setting up voicemail - but are not much help with complex questions or undocumented features. Republic Wireless is has created a powerful structure by setting up a community to discuss and solve the complex questions raised by users.

A beginning trend for smartphones is to use wifi when available for voice, data, & text, and use cellular at other times. The cellular signal has a much smaller bit rate and around home and work, the user spends 80% of the time on the faster wifi.

Republic Wireless is capitalizing on wifi/cellular service – they encourage and support a community for excellent user support (better then carrier 'customer service' reps), no lock-in contracts, and unlimited voice, data, and text for a flat rate of $19.95 per month.

Once you buy your phone (with the switching software installed), at activation you are invited to join the user community and contribute to forums on discoveries, problem & resolutions, and suggestions for new features, all raised and answered by users.

Republic is using game theory to encourage participation in the forums by users, awarding points for solutions to problems and discovery of undocumented features. Republic staff participate in the forums as well to validate user solutions, cheer on the discovery of undocumented applications of phone features.

The knowledgebase is an extensive and growing collection of tips, techniques, and answers asked by users and answered by users and staff. The response to user questions is very quick – often within hours.

With this intimate and continuing conversation with other users, the customer gets a flood of referral prospects. The company receives intensive feedback about service and hardware, as well as thoughtful suggestions for improvements. The company communicates with their customers through the forums and users can communicate with each other and develop a road map for future versions of the service, operating system and new business areas.

This innovative collaboration of Republic staff, users, and others creates a rich, functional environment and gives all stakeholders role in a highly responsive process for solving immediate problems and developing future improvements. Their active community setting is not only more effective than other approaches, the savings are evident in the cost of service.

Imagine inviting the users to participate in the discussion, solutions, and development of a communication system – a true breakthrough!

Know of another innovative breakthrough? Please share.

Excellent

Coming to the end of the year?

Think you should be getting ready for a better year next year?

Stopped because you want a better way to proceed?

Try this:

Why are you excellent?

When I am considering working with someone, my biggest concern is, “Can I trust this guy?” “Is he any good?”

Do you already answer that? How do you figure out what to say?

Well, if you want something done right...(What’s the response?)

So start with, “Why am I excellent?”

However, since Eve, no one has ever done anything by themselves. So next try, “Why are we excellent?”

Then, since customers know best, how about “Why do our customers think we are excellent? Helps to have some kudo letters or written recommendations.

Finally, without vision the people perish. With six months of planned improvement, “How are we going to be excellent?”

So here are four ways to answer the Excellence question: I, we, they say, and we’re gonna!

Which is best? The one you can believe in most. And it changes during the week.

Try the exercise with your tribe. Tell us what you learn. Happy Merry!

Please join us at the Capital Technology Management Hub on December 11 at 6:30 for 300 seconds of Rainmaker 17 – Breaking The Invisible Wall, What we learned at last month’s GMU Annual Startup Challenge Competition at TeqCorner, followed by Joshua Green explaining Cleantech Open—The World’s Largest Cleantech Accelerator -Funding Green Technology Startups

A Modern Legacy

This is the most blatant example I've seen about how a traditional business can adapt the internet revolution to increase value.

I sat down with a high school buddy, who for the last 40 years has run a specialty instrument company. These instruments, which are globally famous, are used by labs, hospitals, and research facilities - they are the clear leader of biological/electronic devices world-wide.

In the past we rarely met in person due to her extensive travel schedule around the USA and Europe for business development and distributor recruiting and training.

When asking about the business, I was surprised by the changes since we last met – her travel is now almost nil while sales are steady.

Her explanation:

• Each instrument is showcased by a 5-minute video showing the features from the users viewpoint, how to do typical operations/tests, and a sample of output/report options.
• The videos are incorporated into their website and available on demand at any time
• There is an 'anytime' link to take the viewer directly to the pricing/purchase screen
• She has become the entire sales force, supported by their website and videos
• A global network of warehouses to provide immediate local delivery has been consolidated to single central national warehouse near an airline hub for overnight shipping.

She now spends time with customers by phone and video conference and uses their input to guide development of new features and products. As a result, her improvement cycle captures and responds to changes suggested by her users, who she admits, know more about the products than the maker.

Effective use of the internet, immediate shipping, collaboration with users, and a rapid development cycle has dramatically transformed this manufacturing business. A poster child of the trend for the future?

Please join us at the Capital Technology Management Hub on December 11 at 6:30 for 300 seconds of Rainmaker 17 – Breaking The Invisible Wall, What we learned at last month’s GMU Annual Startup Challenge Competition at TeqCorner, followed by Joshua Green explaining Cleantech Open—The World’s Largest Cleantech Accelerator -Funding Green Technology Startups

Loyalty Up, Loyalty Down

I was watching a friend get crushed by his incompetent superior. It seemed inadvertent, unsuccessful, and painful.

Actually, incompetent was too strong a word. The superior was overmatched by his environment, and didn’t take appropriate action. I see that happening a lot.

Which got me thinking about loyalty.

There is an internal efficiency to demonstrating loyalty down the chain. One action is communicated to all subordinates, behavior improves. Loyalty down is a force multiplier.

Loyalty up is for one person, may be appreciated, often not.

Loyalty down has more impact.

Please join us at the Capital Technology Management Hub on December 11 at 6:30 for 300 seconds of Rainmaker 17 – Breaking The Invisible Wall, What we learned at last month’s GMU Annual Startup Challenge Competition at TeqCorner, followed by Joshua Green explaining Cleantech Open—The World’s Largest Cleantech Accelerator -Funding Green Technology Startups

Rainmaker 17 – Breaking The Invisible Wall

Last month’s GMU Annual Startup Challenge Competition was the first I remember where I got to sit in the audience and watch…

I wasn’t presenting.

What I saw (and remembered) is an idea that because we are presenting, we have to respect that invisible wall that separates actors from the audience, the cast of Cheers from your living room, separates the presenters from THE BUYERS!

How would you present differently if you were trying to sell those very people sitting in the chairs in front of you? Pretend this is not a drill.

1. Leave something of value with the judges, audience, and even the other competitors (like our handouts) before the presentation.

2. Have business cards and special event coupons (implements of selling) at hand and give them to ‘interesting’ and ‘interested’ people.

3. Provide the judges with required material for the competition (of course), and before the event, give them a summary copy of the points you will make (or plan to), and any complex tables, figures, and charts.

4. Provide the audience with a single-sheet highlight of the principal benefits of the product/service from the user’s perspective along with instructions how to buy.

5. Make it easy for people to a) know who you are; b) know how to reach you, on some disappearing slide if you must, but how about on something they can take away?

The Goal: when you leave the stage you have given your pitch AND you have made it easy for people to know who you are and how to reach you to buy something.

What's your story?

Please join us at the Capital Technology Management Hub on December 11 at 6:30 for 300 seconds of Rainmaker 17 – Breaking The Invisible Wall, What we learned at last month’s GMU Annual Startup Challenge Competition at TeqCorner, followed by Joshua Green explaining Cleantech Open—The World’s Largest Cleantech Accelerator -Funding Green Technology...

Previous Rainmakers:

#16 - LinkedIn: Your Personal Publicist (10/9/12)

#15 - Dropping The Other Shoe (9/11/12)

#14 - The Myth of Full Capacity (5-26-12)

#13 - Making the Most of Your Opportunity? (3-27-12)

#12 - The Future is NOW - Makers (3-11-12)

#11 - What Have I Done For You Lately? (2-8-12)

#10 - Tune Your Work for the Internet (1-2-12)

# 9 - Your Internet Personality (12-24-11)

# 8 - Google + Your Personal Website (9-15-11)

# 7 - Mark Your Territory (8-22-11)

# 6 - Networking IS Business (5-25-11)

# 5 - Start With an Offer (4-27-11)

# 4 - Time, Talent, and Treasure (4-10-11)

# 3 - How to Sell Your Skills (3-1-11)

# 2 - The Name Tag (1-5-11)

# 1 - Gifts (11-5-10)

And, Introducing Rainmakers (11-3-10)

The Artist

As a young boy I lived with my family in Cuba, where my father was stationed. We lived in a village near the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, and I played with the neighborhood kids or fished off the back deck of the house (when I wasn't in school).

I have a vivid memory of a street vendor, wheeling a rickety cart down the dirt streets each day selling oranges. To a young child's eyes, these oranges were huge (so sweet you had to smile while eating them), and the vendor would peel it for a buyer. He was full of fun, jokes, and laughter as he made his way down the dusty street, clearly enjoying life, his customers, and followers (us kids).

What I remember most was him peeling the orange – he had an old kitchen knife, sharpened so much that the cutting edge of the blade was curved like a replica of Guantanamo Bay – but sharp as all get-out!

He started at the top of the orange and create a single 'rope' of peel precisely a quarter of an inch by a quarter of an inch – it would cascade down in curlycues from the orange at almost blinding speed. Perfect every time. One long peel every time. A peel-rope with ¼ x ¼ dimensions every time.

We kids would follow him for a while, begging for the peel and playing with it until we only had a handful of pieces left...and then we'd beg for another one from the orange vendor.

As an adult, I look back to that experience fondly, realizing that I was seeing an artist at work. He chose to spend his time enjoying those around him and chose to create and meet the challenge of peeling the orange in a distinctive and incredibly difficult way – drawing satisfaction from his creation. I realize now that I was in the presence of a true master – an artist creating a unique experience for the buyer (or the kids following him around).

Illustration of the orange vendor at work today – the 'bagger' at the Costco checkout who engineers a precisely packed cart.

I think about the expressed desire by many in business and public service to have the higher-ups create a challenging and rewarding role for them – and wonder if the manuals, regulations, and procedures we've put in place have extinguished the 'artist' in each of us? 
 

Please join us at the Capital Technology Management Hub on December 11 at 6:30 for 300 seconds of Rainmaker 17 – Breaking The Invisible Wall, What we learned at last month’s GMU Annual Startup Challenge Competition at TeqCorner, followed by Joshua Green explaining Cleantech Open—The World’s Largest Cleantech Accelerator -Funding Green Technology Startups