Monthly Archives: December 2014

Passion of Pursue

Posted on by

Passion of PursueI said, “A Linked-In contact in the Middle East described her ongoing education saying, “rather than pursuit of passion, I like the Passion of Pursue :).”

Gail, our writer, replied, “The tenses and words are all twisted around but there is a beauty in the comment.”

Rick, ever the practical direct marketing guy surprised us all saying, “There is something magical in what she is observing.”

“Magic?” questioned Rob.

“Magic.” Said Rick. “All of us spend our days working on ways to build our client’s businesses. They expect us to be passionate about it. But we can never be quite as passionate as they are. And as much as they think that for us it is all about the money. It isn’t.

For us the passion is in what we are doing. It is about psychic rather than physical rewards.”

Surprisingly, Kate, the tough sales consultant was nodding in agreement.

“How often,” she said, “have each of us admitted that we would do what we do even if we didn’t get paid for it. Ours is the passion of pursue… getting it done, making something happen, wanting to make the world a better place.”

“That reminds me of Steve,” I said. He was flat broke when he came across an article in the paper. By the time he realized what was happening he had started what will become a charity. It has a crazy name: Carbon Sucking Trees. Take a look at the website. He’s done all this work with no hope of a personal payback. It’s the Passion of Pursue.”

“Carbon Sucking Trees,” mused Rob, our branding guru. “That is one of the weirdest brand names I’ve ever heard. I’m not going to ask, I’ll just go to the web site and figure it out. But I have to tell you this playful approach to words is one of the techniques commonly used to position and brand products and services. Here are some examples:

  • Famous:           The Uncola for Seven Up
  • Not so famous: The Untangler for Shell Tain a money consultant who is one of Fletch’s former clients
  • Sorta Famous: Digimarc (the name Fletch came up with for a “digital watermarking company”
  • Not so famous: KDI Americas (Fletch suggested adding the ‘s’ to broaden the scope of a company already known in Asia and Africa which was moving into this hemisphere. It worked.

I responded, “Bubba, you are kind to use examples from my portfolio. I do appreciate it. But I’d like to get back to what Rick and Kathy were saying. I agree that the true professionals in business development do it for more than the money. They are passionate about it, but it is the results that gets them involved.”

Chris, the digital director said, “Then how come the very best cost so much more than others?”

“They do and they don’t,” I said. If they are good at what they do, they are always working. They have less time and because of that they raise their rates. And the world knows they are good at what they do and more people are eager to work with them. That cycle repeats and repeats. But they are still intrigued and if you can lay a problem in front of them that gets their interest the price to you might not be as high.

The Takeaway

Don’t be put off by your fear of the cost of an expert. That expert may get you answers much, much faster. More importantly, if your problem is intriguing they will give you value in multiples of what you pay. And, should you catch them at the right time, their advice may cost nothing yet be the best you will ever receive because theirs is the passion of pursue.”

The lunch bunch is a group of marketing and sales professionals that meet for lunch each Friday. They discuss what’s new, what’s old, what’s good, bad and ugly but mostly what works. Jerry Fletcher is the ringleader and the one that writes up their comments. Sign up to get updates on all their discussions at www.JerryFletcher.com/profit

 

Jerry Fletcher has been researching and implementing marketing that builds businesses, careers and lives of joy for 20 years as President of Z-axis Marketing, Inc. Learn more at www.JerryFletcher.com

Schedule a personal appearance. Jerry speaks internationally on Networking, Marketing and Contact Relationship Magic. www.NetworkingNinja.com

CRM and a Grain of Sand

Posted on by

Little things mean a lot in CRM“Little things do mean a lot, ” I said as I took a seat at the Friday lunch gathering and passed out copies of my year end thought starter:

“Take a single grain of sand. It’s the most common element on earth. You can find it on every continent. And not just along the shores. It is at the heart of each computer and just about every permanent structure that serves mankind.

A single grain is virtually invisible…unless it happens to be the mote in your eye.

In that case, that single well-placed speck is the most important thing in your life. That tiny messenger, by being in the right place, can demand all your attention. Nothing else can get your undivided focus until you have removed it.

One small particle can capture if not captivate you.

A handful can demonstrate human nature. Think back to the last time you scooped a handful of sand up and poured it from hand to hand. Wander down memory lane to the beach and cupping your hand to hold as many grains as possible. Remember what happened when you squeezed it. Do you recall how it first squirted and then dribbled out between your fingers and how much less there was when you again cupped your hand?

Customers and prospects, family and friends, staff and employees are all like that handful of sand. The harder you squeeze the less you have. The more you put pressure on them the more they stream away from you.

An open caring relationship keeps more of them with you.

Can there ever be enough? Each of you must make that decision. But the more there are, the greater the risk of losing some through inattention and the vagaries of the winds of time.

Think about that picnic on the beach when the breeze picked up. How about the first time you saw a sand dune. Stop now and consider the number of grains that there were in that dune you climbed. Imagine stacking them up to get someone’s attention. What do you see in your mind’s eye? Do you see the dune or the grains? Your business, your career and your life are like that. Each action, every statement as well as any and all your behaviors add to the stack, grain on grain, until people see the combined aspect.

That shifting, wind-sculpted mass is your persona. It’s the face you present to the world, at once ever changing and yet the same. It is your achievements taken together, which are perceived.

You, your career and your company are the sum total of your deeds and those of the folks you draw around you.

You can choose to be a mild irritation blown helter skelter by each passing breeze or
you can add a little water, some lime and cement and have mortar.

Mortar. With it you can lay brick on brick and build strong and straight and tall. Suddenly the world sees you differently. You’re no longer a drifter. You’ve settled. You’re going to make something of this choice you’ve made.

But be wary. You must mix well to make sure the edifice stands. Too little sand or too much and the hold on the bricks crumbles.

Better perhaps to add some chunks of rock to the mix and fill a form with the amazing material the Romans discovered and named.

We call it concrete. It is a reasonable symbol of how a business or a career or a life can be built that will last. One of the Roman’s aqueducts still carries water to Rome centuries after it was built. It was conceived by engineers and constructed by men proud of their craft. It was a joint effort. No single individual could claim all the credit.

Yes, some took more risks than others but all acknowledged it was a group effort.

They, like we, were and are interdependent. Today that interdependence is global. The World Wide Web is allowing more of us to be swept along together than ever before.

The Takeaway:
The grains are accreting.

Some are trying to squeeze profits from them. Others see only the encroaching dunes. This Age of Access is still in flux. Nothing, as yet, is cast in concrete.

Only the sands of time will tell.”

Each week Jerry and his rowdy but experienced crew of business development consultants gather for lunch and a discussion of what works, what doesn’t as well as the good, bad and ugly marketing and sales they have observed during the week. Yes, their conversation will be back next week. Sign up to get your copy of every blog here.

Jerry Fletcher is a Networking Ninja, Marketing Rainmaker and a CRM Magician. Learn how he answers the question “What do you do?” View the video on his home page at www.JerryFletcher.com

View videos of him speaking at www.NetworkingNinja.com

What Is The Best Pick-up Line Online?

Posted on by

Rick said it again, “A pickle label is the best pick-up line.”

Pickup line on line

Gail, one of three ladies at the table responded, “I love you dearly lad but believe me you need a great deal more. How long have you been married this time?”

She was just the first. All the rest jumped on him with varying degrees of disgust based on their age and their sex.

It fell to me as the oldest guy at the table to ask “What are you really talking about my crazy Direct Marketing friend?”

“Finally,” he said, “A person who is not besotted with carnality. What I meant was that failing all else play to the problem your target has. Label it. Help them understand what you are talking about even if you can’t bring yourself to use socially unacceptable language. Get as close as you can.”

Rob, our branding Bhudda smiled and said, “Now I get it. How many of you know what this headline was for: Within the curve of a woman’s arm…

Gail, copywriter and editor answered, “I don’t remember the product but it was the first underarm deodorant for women.”

“Hold it, I said, “What has that got to do with a pickle label?”

Rick replied, “It is kind of a shorthand way of saying that people will pay more attention to you on line if you tell them what you’re selling or problem you’re solving in their terms.”

Chris, the digital marketing director chimed in, “So what you’re saying is that in Adwords for instance I’m better off to use a headline that Includes the Main Keyword.

“Exactly,” Rick responded, “When your main keyword is in the ad and it matches the search query, the keyword will show up in bold.

Test your way to success.

The Takeaway

Test what you’re doing on line. Start with the pickle label and use that as your base of comparison or control. For instance:

Snoring (the pickle label)

Stop snoring (the benefit pickle label)

Stop Snoring Guaranteed (The benefit pickle label with a guarantee)

There are lots of alternatives but does that make the concept understandable to one and all? Remember, include the pickle label, the keyword that appears in your targets search in order to get your ad clicked on. That is what makes it a great pick up line on line.”

 

The lunch bunch is a group of marketing and sales professionals that meet each Friday. They discuss what’s new, what’s old, what’s good, bad and ugly but mostly what works. Jerry Fletcher is the ringleader and the one that writes up their comments. Sign up to get them all at www.JerryFletcher.com/profit .

Jerry Fletcher has been researching and implementing marketing that builds businesses, careers and lives of joy for over 20 years as President of Z-axis Marketing, Inc. Learn more at www.JerryFletcher.com

Schedule a personal appearance. Jerry speaks internationally on Networking, Marketing and Contact Relationship Magic. www.NetworkingNinja.com

A Nudge Is Not A Call To Action

Posted on by

Wake up! Call to ActionThanksgiving weekend. The plane was full. He collapsed into an aisle seat pulled his ball cap down over his eyes, lowered the seat back and in seconds was in deep slumber.

When we pushed back from the gate a flight attendant tried to wake him. Three times she nudged his shoulder and said “Sir.”

It didn’t work.

Then she whispered in his ear, “Honey, wake up!”

He startled and came immediately awake.

The ladies of the lunch bunch snickered and the guys looked puzzled.

I said, “It is not an uncommon problem. Sometimes, no matter what we do we can’t seem to get their attention. The answer is in finding the emotional hook that penetrates deep into their psyche.”

“A female voice. An intimate name. A command.” Rick, our Direct Marketing wizard noted. “That, my friends, is one delicious call to action. It works because it operates way below the logical level. It taps into the old brain, the one that causes us to bolt and run at the appearance of danger or to leap up to rescue the maiden.”

“You might could say that stewardess got that fellow’s attention,” said Rob. Rob looks like the Gerber Baby after about 50 years and is our bouncing branding expert. He went on, “Much as I preach at y’all about branding this is one of those areas where I stand in awe of folks like Rick. When you have to make the sale in print or on the air or on-line knowing how this sort of thing works is worth every penny ya’ got to pay for it.”

“Thanks, Bubba,’ said Rick.

“If you two start holding hands I’m going for an ice bucket,” said Kate our sales doyen. “So why did you bring this up Fletch?”

“Because I was trying to figure out how to help an acquaintance in an Agency in China who had noted a sales problem in his operation. He and his sales manager were concerned about the necessity of making a bunch of cold calls and having to generate lists of folks to call on. This is a digital agency that landed a few whales to get started but now those projects are running out and they are discovering that professional service businesses, like agencies, need rainmakers.”

Gail our resident copywriter and editor piped up, “And they need to know how to network to new business.”

I said, “The way you do that in my book is:

  • Go where the money is
  • Sell what they want to buy
  • Do it again.

That works in all businesses not just professional services but the key to get the contract is to find that emotional hook that pushes the new prospect to take action. My acquaintance understands nurturing a market for a client but doing the work got in the way of finding a way to sign up new business. ”

“And the moral to that story, “said Rick, “is that no matter what business you are in the call to action is critical. If you can’t get them to move you have no business. Even in business to business situations an emotional hook performs better than anything else. Always.”

Jerry Fletcher focuses on making the techniques of enterprise level marketing available to entrepreneurs, professionals and small businesses. His consulting website is www.JerryFletcher.com

Jerry speaks professionally on Networking, Marketing and Contact Relationship Magic internationally. His speaking website is: www.NetworkingNinja.com