Category: Uncategorized

…and build a house on a mountain makin’ everybody look like ants.”

Have you ever listened to Ingrid Michalson’s music? The tone of her voice makes me want to get into a hammock between two trees and take a nap.  I had never heard of her until my daughter’s playlist mysteriously appeared in my cloud.  Funny how that happens, isn’t it?

What’s even better?  Discovering the depth of a song’s lyrics through clear headphones instead of in a car or home sound system.   I’ll bet there are songs you love listening to that, unless you know them by heart, may illicit a totally different mental state when you actually focus on the words.

How fulfilling could life be if we focused on making music instead of giving attention to the noise created to distract us?

When I was a kid, my dad used to spend every Saturday morning from 7am to Noon at the grain elevator lobby in our local town.  He and a dozen other farmers got together to talk about anything anyone wanted to discuss.  When I went along, one of the men always gave me a shiny quarter to buy an Orange Crush in a 10-ounce bottle from the Coca-Cola chest-cooler.  Back then, I thought it was because he liked me.  Now that I’ve been a father for 18 years, I’m pretty sure it was to keep me quiet so dad could socialize.

Why did I tell you this?  How is 1972 applicable to today?  Because people like my dad and his friends were all about community.  Their sense of belonging made time stand still because they shared common world views. Today the Internet adapts the desirable characteristics of 1972 while diminishing or even eliminating the constraints of geography.  Consumers’ options are longer defined by the yellow pages.  Businesses, their products and services, and even their representatives can be searched, researched, located, contacted, interacted with, mapped, and transacted with…no matter where they are in the world.

What does that mean to consumers?  A couple of things.  First, if you’re already being served by a business, but you don’t share complementary world views with the representative you were formerly bound or assigned to, you can research and locate a provider you ARE compatible with.  Doing so contributes to the creation of a community where you belong instead of feeling like a prospect constantly  being sold to.  Second, you can regain control of your time.  You’ll be able to confidently ignore a majority of the interruptions competing for your attention every day.  If you have the desire, you can now research and compare every brand that you believe to be a fit to provide for YOUR needs as well as identifying the company representatives you feel most compatible with.

When you follow this process, you’ll find yourself in a much happier place.  You’ll be part of a community of people who share similar world views.  Everyone is set free from the continuous interruptions by representatives who “just don’t get it”.

Sounds pretty appealing, doesn’t it?

Everyone is as unique as their DNA, so how do we define who we are? Who in your life matters most?  What matters most?  What pisses you off?  What makes you totally happy?  How do you feel about money?  If you have kids, what activities do you enjoy doing with them?  What activities are they passionate about?  What are your favorite sports?  How do you feel about politics? Do you like to travel or stay home?  Do you enjoy art?  How about history?  What era?  Are you a religious person?  If so, what denomination?  What kind of music so you enjoy?  What are your favorite movies or TV shows?  What about food and beverage?  Do you like to cook and/or bake?  Do you like cars?  What organizations do you support/volunteer for?

If you could talk about anything with a group of people with a common interest, what are the top 3 topics you’d select?

Of all the items listed above, what are the absolute deal-breakers that stop a conversation before it starts? What are three more that you would be okay with, but wouldn’t participate because of a lack of knowledge?  When you cross off those 6 items, what’s left is a solid cross-section of you and your worldview.

Now go get connected and start some fun conversations.

You need food, clothing, shelter and money.  And you need to preserve all of them.  If they’re lost or damaged you don’t want to spend large sums of your own savings fixing or replacing anything.  

There are a plethora of brands out there providing very similar solutions for your needs.  How do you decide who to work with? 

 

You send out 1000 mailers to the general public per month but throw away your junk mail without reading it.

You call people at home to set appointments for your business but screen calls or hang up on people that call your residence.

You send electronic sales-related messages to your customers several times a week, but have an Outlook rule set up that directs all incoming SPAM to the trash folder.

You sponsor a local school or civil organization but refuse to associate with or promote them.

We’ve all been hypocrites at some point, some more than others.  The important question isn’t if we’ve been one, it’s how often we STILL consciously do it.

Everybody would be doing it.   Social media is great at making you FEEL like everybody IS doing it.  Everybody but you, that is.  The number of blogs, podcasts, and online platforms increases exponentially every day…as does the amount of information available on your mobile device—literally at your fingertips.

It’s easy for Chris Brogan, Gary Vaynerchuk,  Ann Handley, Seth Godin, and other influencers to post their thoughts for our reading pleasure, but how can you make something happen?

Forget about fomo.  You’re not as behind as you think.

The key is connecting with the right people, hearing the right message, filtering the right information, and creating a specific plan that leads your team to victory.  Not knowing where to start doesn’t mean you should sit on the sidelines, or worse, forfeit the game.

Until you break away from the traditional paradigms and best practices, you’ll never be able to create a new path forward.  Building and executing a plan aligned with the customer experience expectations of the next 20 years  is critical to success.   The part that’s holding you back is in the mirror.

Your opponent is YOU.

It’s possible for anyone to do who has the right attitude—who’s doing something they love that other people will pay for them to provide. That’s the key. Unfortunately, either they have the wrong attitude or they don’t have enough people who want or need what they provide.

Here’s the missing piece of the puzzle:  People will pay for an above-average product when delivered by someone who makes them feel special.  They won’t always pay for an exceptional product when delivered by someone that makes them feel average.

Turn the hiring process upside-down.  Most employers look to fill a role with a body.  As recently as 5 years ago, many products and services were not yet considered commodities.  Companies maintained leadership positions in their industries by differentiating their advertising efforts.  Today, the ad channels are clogged with noise.  Consumers aren’t paying enough attention to most brands’ advertising to be able to tell them apart.  What does that mean?  Differentiation and market advantage must take place BEFORE perceptions are formed about the brand.  It must take place at ground level.  Enter the new hiring model.

Employers used to hire individuals based on their ability to “get it”.  In other words, they hired them and trained them on the features and benefits to prepare them for success–the ability to proficiently overcome a sufficient number of objections to close deals and generate revenue.  Many of today’s customers research products and services on their own, essentially addressing concerns and closing deals before they ever seek advice.  So how does that change the sales role?

In a nutshell, anyone who wants to serve (not work for) any employer in the future will hire themselves by being passionate about their purpose.  They may even create their own roles inside an organization.  Traditional companies have rigid job descriptions and hierarchies for keeping people in line and bases covered.  In my company, I expect three specific things: 

• Unquestionable loyalty to the parent brand to whom I am committed to serving.  Without their brand value proposition, my sub-brand does not exist.
• Development of expert understanding of the products and services we provide.  That is the only thing that will offer customers the confidence they are seeking when they reach out to us.
• The passionate pursuit of your own identity enabled by consistently advertising your worldview.

What if applicants actually started subscribing to these concepts?  How would the labor market change?

There used to be ONE great customer whose caller ID appeared as “anonymous” that I was excited to talk to, that is until telemarketing companies decided to make hiding their phone numbers a best practice.

Playing practical jokes on each other has always been a favorite pastime around our house.  Imagine being handed a glass of lemonade that turns out to be limeade, or taking a drink from a pop or beer can that had been filled with water or spiked with a hint of vinegar.  If you’ve done these things to anyone, you’re likely recounting the memory of being chased by the targeted person while laughing hysterically.  If you’ve been on the receiving end, it’s quite probable that just hearing a relevant word or phrase is enough to cause your taste buds to short-circuit.

That’s exactly what seeing the word “anonymous” on their caller ID does to a lot of people these days.