Monthly Archives: May 2020

Consultant Marketing Cruise Control

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My promise.

I tell the consultants that meet me in-person or on-line that I can help them build their business, their brand and a life of joy.

I may meet them when networking, speaking at a live or virtual event but most frequently I have been referred to them.

Usually, my retainer clients come as a result of referrals. Most believe their marketing problem can be resolved with a web site update. All are surprised when we begin the engagement with a full backgrounder on how their business operates.

I look at:

  • Objectives
  • Operations
  • Financials
  • Vision
  • Mission
  • Prospect Viewpoint
  • Positioning
  • Profitable Niching
  • Value Proposition

All that is put in writing before we consider any component of their brand identity and promotion.

Why? Why not just jump in and build a website or videos or whatever?

They are just cruising

They are moving along at a steady pace just as you do when rolling down the interstate. That can be good or bad. If you get lulled into not paying attention to what is going on you can wind up miles down the road past a turning you should have taken. You can lose track of how much fuel you are consuming and when to refill. You can let things get away from you.

In business you can miss the signs of a disruption that will affect your organization or your customers. In the corporate world you can get siloed and lose track of the overall while running your part of the operation with consummate skill. Everyone gets comfortable with how things are going. And the business stagnates.

By looking at all those items noted above I can get most clients to shift to a better way.

Cruise Control

According to Wikipedia, “Cruise control is an electronic device that allows a vehicle’s driver to lock the accelerator on a specific speed and take his or her foot off the pedal. Cruise control is designed to be used on roadways without frequent stops, turns, or required driving maneuvers. 

You must still steer the vehicle and be alert for the unexpected.

Cruise control in your business comes when you have, either as a solo or along with your management team in a larger organization, done these things:

  • Everyone knows, understands and can operate based on your mission
  • All of you have the same customer avatars in mind
  • The value proposition is apparent in all your communications.

Remember, cruise control is only about maintaining a certain level of speed. Steering the organization, speeding up or slowing down, even stopping is still your job.

How you deal with disruptions or unexpected changes in the environment or industry in which you operate requires another gear.

Overdrive

Wikipedia has two definitions of Over drive:

  1. an automotive transmission gear that transmits to the drive shaft a speed greater than engine speed.
  2. a state of heightened activity going into rhetorical overdrive.

The second is what applies to marketing your business. Cruise control keeps you rolling at a steady pace. When you need to focus your creativity you need to shift into overdrive. With or without disruption, you need to hone your ability to focus and bring the extra drive to solving your business problems.

If you have a partner or a team, all of you need to go into overdrive when necessary. There is no need to stay there all the time. It is best applied based on the concern being addressed. The positive aspect is that you are delivering more power without stressing the engine of industry.

You can’t stay in Cruise Control or Overdrive all the time. Sooner or later you have to stop…for fuel or maintenance or just to see what is going on. Those kinds of stops occur almost without thinking about them. There is one significantly more important.

A Life of Joy

“Take a day or a week or a month off now and then and share the time with those close to you get to a life of joy.“

I call the ability to keep rolling at a steady pace Cruise Control and the ability to focus  your creativity, when needed, Overdrive.  Whatever you call your approach, it works. I add one element by showing folks the wisdom of getting out of the driver’s seat. It takes them away from the business and strengthens their relationships with the key people in their lives. The clients that I’ve been serving longest all say that this is their greatest takeaway from working with me.

And so it goes.

Jerry Fletcher is a sought-after International Speaker, a beBee ambassador, founder and CEO of Z-axis Marketing, Inc.

His consulting practice, founded in 1990, is known for on and off-line Trust-based Consultant Marketing advice that builds businesses, brands and lives of joy.

Consulting: www.JerryFletcher.com
Speaking: www.NetworkingNinja.com

Consultant Marketing Going Virtual

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Meet via Zoom, phone or in-person?

Frank and I will be Zooming in the morning.

There was a time when that statement would have drawn quizzical looks and, in all likelihood, some snide comments. No more. Today that company name has reached the level of brand penetration that compares only to Kleenex and some other brands that have become household names for an entire category.

Have a virtual day.

The more I though about how one product has come to dominance because of the Coronavirus the more my mind began to delve into how we may be ready for a spread of that virtual acceptance to all our approaches to business.

What if, at 8:00 AM your phone chimed and presented this message:

Translation:

8 to 8:30 E-mail

8:30 to 10 Planned phone calls

10 to 12 Team Brainstorming

Noon Lunch

1 to 2 Video Call, file attached

2 to 4 File work

4 to 5 Chat with coworkers

5 Outa here for a beer.

All of us are more comfortable with icons than you may think. I’d be willing to bet that most of you didn’t need the translation to understand most of that schedule. Take that a step further and consider how quickly you and your colleagues could be ready for your day using the same icons all the time.

If you are working from home and using a virtual assistant/scheduler this could be the front end of a cloud-based system to keep you on track.

Imagine a complete connection

As I’ve reported here, I now work with a Virtual Assistant. Cristy is located in the Philippines. I work a 10-hour schedule from 8 AM to 6 PM Pacific. She works an 8-hour schedule from 2 PM to 10 PM Pacific. For her that is night-time. She goes to breakfast when I tuck it in for the night. We meet Monday through Friday at 2:00 PM Pacific to review what needs to be done and at 6:00 PM to confirm the day’s work and check signals on the following day’s schedule.

Microsoft Teams makes it work

You can put your whole team into the system and assure real communication. Audio calls, Video calls. Chat that is like texting on steroids (Those of you, like me, that prefer typing to thumbing will love this!) The ability to share files, edit and annotate so everyone can see them. Huge amounts of cloud-based storage. And it is always being improved and uses the familiar Microsoft suite of products.

It turned this solos mind around.

I stopped collaborating on a regular basis when I left the Ad Agency business in 1990. When pushed to do so by colleagues I refused. I felt the tools were clunky and having worked with creative development found business types a little boring. But collaborating with a young lady half a world away has brought back that wonderful feeling of finding solutions to problems from a different slant.

In one month her recommendations and implementation have increased my blog following four fold. My Linked In comments and approaches are at record levels. And Facebook by which I’m totally eluded is beginning to be a place I visit because other folks are visiting me.  That will continue and increase next month when we add even more video to the equation.

Will I operate more virtually coming out of the Pandemic? I already am. What about you? There is no turning back.

And so it goes.

Jerry Fletcher is a sought-after International Speaker, a beBee ambassador, founder and CEO of Z-axis Marketing, Inc.

His consulting practice, founded in 1990, is known for on and off-line Trust-based Consultant Marketing advice that builds businesses, brands and lives of joy.

Consulting: www.JerryFletcher.com
Speaking: www.NetworkingNinja.com

Consultant Marketing Failing Forward

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Dr. Ali Anani, my friend from BeBee where I blog internationally, got me thinking about how failure is a major part of learning for just about anyone in business.

Fail Fast and Frequently to Succeed.

I quoted that rubric in response to one Dr. Ali’s postings. I’ve been lucky enough to work with entrepreneurs that have been successful. I’ve participated in over 200 successful new product launches.

There have been some failures as well. The camera kerfluffle may be the best example about what not to do but I’ll get to that in a minute. First, let’s talk about failure leads to success.

Fail towards success

  • Tell everyone your product idea and listen. The hard part is hearing what they have to say. You start with everyone because it is easiest. But as quickly as possible begin gathering input from folks that are probable buyers. Sometimes you discover that the people you thought were customers aren’t. Sometimes you discover that the product is not in the form or what they want. Once in a while you get confirmation. But it is the failures that keep you from spending more time and money than you need to in order to find a viable product.
  • Assume that everyone understands the user interface. There is no single thing that everyone understands. Nowhere is this more true than in technology products. Engineers design and incorporate as many functions as possible in a device without considering the average user. An example: last week a friend and rather sophisticated coach told me that her internet/TV/phone service guy showed her how to answer her smart phone by swiping the button. Until then she was jotting down the number and calling back. Starting up a new flat screen TV took me three phone calls and a very patient technician to get it to work.Seldom, if ever do technology companies wise up and have real users try things. It took Microsoft at least seven years before they looked for customer input on how windows worked! Every time you’re required to simplify operations based on a user failing to be able to make it work is a success.
  • Let YouTube provide the manual. I’ve been victim to this syndrome personally. It took my Virtual Assistant and I three days to figure out that we would have to upgrade a piece of software one level to be able to use it on social media. We made the decision that it was probably not worth the expense because it was so poorly documented. They failed but not successfully. In retrospect we should have picked up on the probability based on the marketing. The idea is good, but the greed in the pricing and the obvious lack of real interest in the customer will, in the end shut them down. The more you think through how a customer is going to use the product and the better the instructions you provide the better off you are going to be.A “genius bar” is a nice piece of customer service branding but I would appreciate a little more genius in documentation. Most people would.
  • Drag all your preconceptions along. This usually happens in the hardware side of things but I’ve been involved in a couple of software and service situations where this failure prone approach has not led to success. In one case, a company which will remain nameless received the largest order for a new product that they had ever received from a single company. It was from a company they had never worked with before. The testimonial ad was presented in a divisional management meeting and caused a furor. Management said, “Our products are for engineers and scientists, not for the likes of insurance companies. Do not run that ad and advise the sales force to seek appropriate customers.” The lesson is that when you offer a product and an audience you had not figured on starts buying you failed to see that market but they could make you a success.

The Camera Kerfluffle

There was a time when a 35 millimeter Single Lens Reflex camera was what the upcoming pros used. If you were an amateur, into photography, had money and wanted something better than a Kodak Brownie you looked at 35mmSLRs. You wanted something with the control a Pro would use and the possibility of using different lenses.

But there was also a market for small, aim and click cameras that used 110 film. Kodak jumped into this market as well as a number of Japanese companies. Use of plastics throughout these products made them incredibly low cost. My client, a manufacturer  and distributor of 35mmSLRs saw this as a new market for which they could provide a higher quality product. The client was willing to spend the money to do some research. We set up focus groups searching out people that said they wanted a simple way to take “record photos” of special events and vacations.

Given the choice between the simple point and shoot cameras and the 35s they oriented to the models of one Japanese brand of 110s that were offered in multiple colors. They wore curious about the 35s but felt they were too complex.

The young product manager assigned mistook the interest in the 35’s and the company went ahead with design and development of a 110 camera with changeable lenses.

Back to Focus groups with early production models along with competitor products. Again, the focus group participants were curious about the all black tiny camera with interchangeable lenses. But asked which one they would like to take home oriented to the competitor multicolored units.

No argument could convince the product manager to reverse his decision to go forward with his pet project. It cost the company millions. But there was one good thing that came out of it. The company learned that the more their lowest cost model could be simplified the better it would sell to the people that wanted just a little more than point and shoot. As a result, it has become the standard in photography schools across the globe.

“It is not a failure if you learn from it”

Both my mother and my father said this. Both taught me the patience to see things through and to acknowledge mistakes but always to look for the lesson in the outcome. I try to pass this wonderful knowledge on to all those I work with.

And so it goes.

Jerry Fletcher is a sought-after International Speaker, a beBee ambassador, founder and CEO of Z-axis Marketing, Inc.

His consulting practice, founded in 1990, is known for on and off-line Trust-based Consultant Marketing advice that builds businesses, brands and lives of joy.

Consulting: www.JerryFletcher.com
Speaking: www.NetworkingNinja.com

Consultant Marketing After the “All Clear”

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Yes, I’m more than a little squirelly.

Yes, I’d like to go back to business as usual.

No. That is not going to happen.

Maybe in Korea or New Zealand but not in the United States. It is never boing to be the same for consultants here.

Negative Impact

The virus had a negative impact on over 85% of consultants that responded to our annual survey! They said things like this:

  • “People will have to get better at online marketing because onsite is taking a hit.”
  • “Business will never be the same–smaller locations, work from home, telecommuting, more younger people, more technical”
  • “We will use more virtual communications, marketing and delivery. Agility might become more important to clients and prospects.”

An on-line happy hour

Tribal customs die hard. A client sent me a Zoom recording of an exit meeting following a successful engagement with a client company. The entire team had gathered by Zoom with a drink at hand to celebrate the work they had done together, work which will ultimately make the company stronger as they emerge from the social distancing requirements.

Six months ago they would have met in a local tavern, clinked glasses and bottles in shared toasts and enjoyed the camaraderie of a group that had come to know each other better than before because of their shared experience.

Shared memories are a significant part of what happens in any consulting engagement. A happy hour gathering is a pleasant way to share them. That won’t go away when the country “opens for business.” We can expect social gatherings to continue. The only question is when.

“We are a solution. That will continue”

That was one respondent’s take on what the future of consultant marketing has in store.

She was right.

That is what consultants do. They help solve problems which may not always be apparent to the folks that wind up hiring them. That won’t change. But the digital wind has picked up force in the last five years.

The digital shift

Another respondent said, “There will be more digital than ever before.”

Back in 2015, out of 100 billion monthly Google searches, those from mobile devices finally surpassed desktops for the first time. WordPress powered 25% of web sites as of early November. Usage of both has soared. A shift to digital has finally started to impact Consultant marketing.

Referral Marketing is still, far and away the most used consultant marketing strategy. But selling online and internet marketing are showing significant gains across all three of the categories we’ve been studying all these years (start up, growth and established firms). Internet marketing is now preferred over networking, direct marketing and chasing new contracts from former employers and clients.

Controversial and social media

In follow up conversations via old -fashioned phone calls and using the bright shiny technology of the moment (Zoom) I found myself looking for a way to summarize what was working for those who were using digital marketing to their advantage. Here’s what I came to believe:

            “Controversial gets you heard. Proof gets you hired.”

Building a brand onsite or online requires a unique trust-based identity that is memorable. You need a hook. Being controversial is one way to do that. The few consultants that go out of their way to be controversial do it with the end in mind not just as a knee-jerk reaction.

They consider the question or concern and based on their knowledge of similar situations and successes in the past disagree with the common assessment providing convincing arguments for their viewpoint based on solid analytics.

The awareness of their name/company name has grown exponentially as has their ability to generate new business from sources they had not considered before. Yes, they still must find a way to interview prospects, analyze their situation and provide a value-based proposal. Yes, they have to provide clarity and speed to solutions. Yes, they need to keep their eyes and ears open for follow-on work. But they no longer discount the source of the initial contact.

After the “All clear”

There will be “New Normal.” The established firms will be the first to take advantage of the digital technology to build a business development approach. A few will structure business development around powerful video capabilities almost like establishing a “personality newscaster.” Some will do ongoing research with an eye toward finding the areas where “common knowledge” ain’t. A segment will build a “tribe” that become willing purchasers of individual products, events and subscription services. My short- hand way of identifying these approaches is:

  • Video Personality
  • Opposite Viewer
  • Productizer

The biggest shift

One major shift will happen because of the Coronavirus. The strip mall and other shopping centers will be converted to housing locations faster than it has been happening already. Small and medium businesses will abandon the idea of having leased offices. They will shift to home offices renting shared offices and meeting spaces on an as-needed basis. Larger companies will take a long look at the lower cost of providing all the equipment needed for a home office versus the cost of “cubicle farms” as they digitize more and more of the administrivia.

I’m betting that along the way we’ll find some new ways to take care of our “social critter” needs.

And so it goes.

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Jerry Fletcher is a sought-after International Speaker, a beBee ambassador, founder and CEO of Z-axis Marketing, Inc.

His consulting practice, founded in 1990, is known for on and off-line Trust-based Consultant Marketing advice that builds businesses, brands and lives of joy.

Consulting: www.JerryFletcher.com
Speaking: www.NetworkingNinja.com