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Be careful what you Twitter for….. you just might get it.

June 28, 2009 By 1 Comment

 

When you Twitter, you have to have a Plan. You wouldn’t build a house without a blue print, would you? Even if you are a most excellent engineer…c’mon.  You wouldn’t design a process without a beginning, middle and end in mind. So when you use social media, you have to have a plan. 

When you employ internet marketing for business development, you’d better have a plan.

I have to admit. I was Twittering the other day. The Search function on Twitter allows you to identify individuals with similar interests, and follow them. It’s a good way of finding out what folks in various technical fields are talking about.

I found a bunch of fellows, probably service technicians and marketing folks from a well-known manufacturer, Twittering away. They were all saying the same thing: talking about some great engineering conversion chart their company had just developed.  The tone of each Twitter post was the same: same information, same words, with a somewhat sheepish apologetic spin. Sort of like: “They are making me do this.” Whoever “They” are.

It sounded like one of their bosses went out to the plant and basically found anyone with a Twitter account and said: “Thou shalt Twitter.”  I guess this is grass roots buzz marketing?? It’s more like throwing Twitter spaghetti against the wall and hoping that it sticks. Perhaps there was even a bit of an internet marketing plan:  generate some transient interest in this conversion chart, depending on the Twitter followers each Twitterer had amassed.  Which can be all over the board. Think about it.

Your Twitter followers can be your local softball team, co-workers, thought leaders, even your mother-in-law. Not necessarily a targeted marketing opportunity.

Well, some of the Twitters had the link to the chart. And others didn’t tell me where to find this conversion chart, so like most folks I went to the company website. Oh boy.  I tried to find this fantastic conversion chart. And tried… and tried.  If I didn’t have that link to the chart, I couldn’t find it. So these buzz Twitters drove traffic to an ineffective website that didn’t reward me for the time I spent on their website… basically 2-5 seconds. Because that’s the amount of time you have to engage any visitor on your website. Really.

If the plan was to drive more traffic to their website (which I doubt) then the website was a dead end for finding information on the conversion chart. If the plan was to generate interest in the conversion chart, what was the calculated return on the Twitter investment? If this company felt that return on investment was high, because it costs nothing to Twitter, they need to think again.

It cost them plenty for that buzz Twitter campaign. Anyone seeking information on that conversion chart hit an Internet dead end.  And if this company thought that interested parties were going to call, fax or email for this information, guess again. Who has time? Especially after going to an ineffective corporate website that delivers the message that they are going to make it hard to find information and therefore do business with me.

The question is: did they really have anything other than a short-term plan, if any? Or just a crazy “let’s try this” impulsive idea?

Be careful what you Twitter for. You just might get it. And have to live with it.

 

Filed Under: Professional Development & Social Selling Tagged With: , , ,

I hope you are thinking INSIDE the box!

June 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I will say it again. I hope you are thinking INSIDE the box.

An unconstructed box is an amazing creation. With a few folds, the mostly two-dimensional unconstructed box morphs into a three dimensional structure with a lot of functional space to fill.WOW. That’s a lot of possibilities.

HOW MANY OF YOU ARE THINKING INSIDE THE BOX? I mean, thinking inside the ENTIRE VOLUME of the box, using all your grey cells to come up with solutions to fill that creative engineering “box”?

What would it take for you to come up with a solution using all your grey cells needed to fill the entire functional working volume of the box?

So many of us feel we have to “think outside of the box.” We struggle to come up with what we feel pressured to produce: wild, impractical, crazy, unfeasible stuff that is costly to prototype and unscalable for a full production run. The marketing folks are upset because you aren’t reading their minds. You are frustrated because the sales and marketing folks aren’t describing what they need in concrete terms.

When you think inside the box, you can:

turn the box upside down……. or on its side……or lean it against something.

You can even shake its contents. The box is concrete and abstract AT THE SAME TIME.

But you know what’s in the box. At least what you started with. You are familiar with it. You are creating a variation on a known theme. Only different. You are testing the properties of what’s inside that box. Perhaps reverse (or upside down) engineering your way towards a solution.

It’s not like I’m asking you to stand on your head and solve an engineering problem. I’m just asking you to use all the corners of that box – you know, where the cobwebs are – to think on. And think on them a lot.

You are an engineer. You like thinking. So poke around the corners of the box and turn the project upside down and around and THINK INSIDE THE BOX. At least start there first, and rigorously.

You may be surprised at what you will find.

When you THINK INSIDE THE EXISTING BOX FIRST you establish the baseline parameters for where to go if you venture outside that box. You may not need to think more than 1mm outside that box to create an entirely new solution, technology or prototype.

Think about it. THINK INSIDE IT. Three-dimensions, corners and cobwebs included. All the space you normally ignore going for what seems obvious to you. Or the solution no one seems to “get.” Or maybe even the easy solution. The easy solution isn’t necessarily the simple solution. Volume yields robust solutions.

THINK INSIDE THE BOX… AT LEAST FIRST.

WOW.

Filed Under: Entrepreneurs and StartUps, Sales & Engineering Collaboration Tagged With: , ,

Are you an Advocate for your customers?

June 15, 2009 By Leave a Comment

 

 

How do you serve your customers? Are you an order taker or an innovator? Are you a trusted partner or someone who provides service without the service quality delivery? No, this blog isn’t about the meaning of life. However, it is a consideration of whether you serve your customers in their best interests or not. Do you go to bat for them? Within your own corporate environment? Do you challenge your company to do their best on behalf of your customers?

If a customer is merely a means to an end, a commission, meeting a sales quota, then completing a job is the way you keep your own job.  Well, that’s probably the status quo in your corporation.  Sounds like slinging burgers in a fastfood chain.   

Ask yourself: am I being paid to be mediocre? Can I really hide behind merely completing a job? Compared with doing a job “right”? Compared with bringing a job in on time, under budget, with modifications that positively impact your customer’s productivity and therefore their bottom line? Which is equated with their repeat business and loyalty?

If you are satisfied with being mediocre, or are functioning in a corporate culture that reinforces mediocrity – and you’re OK with that – you can stop reading this blog right now. Except I can’t see how any company that reinforces mediocre return on investment can expect to survive in this economy.

If you are talking with your customers, really discussing the full scope of their needs and deliverables in terms of their bottom line, then you are ENGAGED in service quality delivery. Which means if you encounter resistance within your own corporate culture that might negatively impact service quality delivery for your customer, you are prepared to defend their needs against your corporate culture.  Because you understand that in serving the needs of your customer, your corporation will improve themselves as well. Which means you will advocate for your customer’s best interests.  And you know what? Your CEO likes that.  It takes guts, confidence, a plan for your customer, knowledge of your own corporate plan and leadership to stick your neck out on behalf of your customers.  Especially in this economy.

Advocacy as defined by Wikipedia, is the art of influencing outcomes.  To me, that sounds like manipulation. So I don’t buy that definition. Advocacy, in my mind, means taking on the challenges of others because you believe in their system of belief, their perspective, their worth. You believe that your time is worth spending in fostering their ideas within your own sphere of influence. You believe that you can improve yourself by working on their behalf.

Advocacy is gutsy service quality delivery. Advocacy is leadership moderated by common sense, experience and confidence.

Something to think about. The next time you serve your customers.  Today? or Tomorrow?

 

Filed Under: Entrepreneurs and StartUps, Sales, Pitching & Business Development Tagged With: , , , ,

What are YOUR Core Values?

June 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment

 

Every day we spend our time trying to justify to our customers and our prospects why they should be doing business with us.  What do we, and no one else, bring to the table?

We develop “account entry strategies” or “value propositions” to get our foot in the door via phone, email, personal or internet customer touch points.   These strategies tell prospective and current customers about our companies’ core competencies.

Well, forget what our companies’ core competencies are.  If, in fact, you/your Personal Brand are one and the same with delivery of your company’s brand / core competencies, what are YOUR core competencies? Do you follow me?

Ultimately, we can’t be switching gears constantly, moving from sales spiel to engineering spiel to personal spiel. I don’t know about you, but unless you manage split personalities, how can you keep all these “spiels” straight? In fact, why should you compartmentalize?

If we say the same thing to everyone, we don’t have to remember what we say. There’s consistency.  Between every facet of who we are as professionals and as people. Because we are one with our Core Values.

A number of years ago, I figured out just what my Core Values are. Took some time, some introspection and in-my-own-face honesty.  I encourage you to think about yours.  Develop your set of core values and COMMUNICATE your values in everything you do.

I have four Core Values: TRUSTWORTHINESS, INTEGRITY, ETHICAL BEHAVIOR, RESPECT.  And no matter what I do, or with whom I speak, or whatever hassles I am dealing with, I return to my Core Values. And my family, friends, clients and prospects know that these are my core values. Because I’ve told them.

Trustworthiness – I am true to my word. I will always be truthful with myself, my family, my friends, my clients and my prospects. Painfully so. It’s better to put the cards on the table and work out solutions from a position of truthfulness than dancing around an issue. Always. Which means people can trust me and entrust me. Which means I must be honest and direct with myself. I accept that responsibility – to myself and to others. And I will not betray the trust that I have earned.

Integrity –  My actions consistently reinforce the high value I place in my relationships with others. I will not impart, use or manipulate the information with which I have been entrusted by my valued family, friends, customers and prospects in order to achieve personal gain. I will honor my commitments to others. Because I honor the commitments I’ve made with myself to my Core Value system.

Ethical Behavior – I will make commitments to and with others that are consistent with my Core Value system.  I will not enter into behavior which I feel compromises my Core Values. If I feel an individual, a situation or a request compromises my Core Values I will contemplate and/or discuss my differences. I am prepared to push back from the table if I cannot reach a viable resolution.  After all, at the end of the day, we all have only One Ultimate Reporting Relationship, don’t we?

Respect – I respect myself. I respect my Core Values. I respect my family, friends, customers and prospects.  I respect their points of view. Because I respect myself, and my commitment to my Core Values, I will weigh what I am asked to do against whether doing or taking action reinforces self-respect or compromises me because of disrespect. My actions reinforce my Core Values, consistently.

So there you have it. At the end of the day, my Core Values are truly my personal brand. Which means that Personal Branding is more than a veneer that exists in an internet blog or an email / voicemail / personal account entry strategy. 

It’s what my life is all about and what matters most to me.

 

Filed Under: Professional Development & Social Selling Tagged With: , , , ,
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