Author Archives: Jerry Fletcher

About Jerry Fletcher

Jerry is the CEO of Z-axis Marketing, Inc. which he founded in 1990. He is an expert at business development and has changed the way the way new business is acquired and introduced on three continents. He is known to meet with clients in dining rooms and boardrooms. He stopped counting successful introductions of new products at 207.

Trust, Technology and Teams

Posted on by

Hold on there, Abernathy!

You’ve built a relationship with this person. They may have been referred to you or you connected at a networking event then she or he simply called on you in your business. No matter how that initial meeting occurred you have now reached a point of mutual trust.

Before you go putting money down or signing an order or otherwise making a purchase from your new friend, what do you know about the team of which they are part? You are talking to someone standing on the shoulders of the those who are actually going to take care of you. Based on my experience I’d bet that the salesperson could not do some of the things the team must, to fulfill your expectations. This complex world of interlocking abilities and services that cross continents require that you pay attention.

You need to care, bunky.

You need to dig into the technology they are using and how they are applying the capabilities vis a vis your desired outcomes. Where are they in terms of their technology? What training do they have to work together smoothly?

Are those selling promises of better, faster and cheaper for real? What if the blandishments were better, faster and more expensive? Would the deal still look good? What if it were just a little bit better or faster and involved an expense you had not anticipated?

The consultant’s promise.

Frequently you will be faced with a decision to bet on the come if you have asked a consultant to look at your business concerns. He or she will delve into your data and statistics to find specific areas where you might profit from small changes in how you operate. You will have to do the work or hire their team to do it and monitor it to be sure you are getting the expected returns. Unfortunately, you have to decide before the work can proceed.

When it’s a no brainer.

Could you figure it out on your own? Probably. Could you train a team and shift them from their current roles to affect the changes? With some difficulty. Could you do it as fast, as well and at a reasonable price? I doubt it.

When the expected outcomes generate more savings or output or sufficient quality shifts to pay the consultant’s team fees in short order you don’t need to burn brain power to come to a conclusion. Those same improvements over more time will continue to make the organization more profitable.

Credibility to Cash

Every organization needs outside consultants, coaches, teams and technology to take it up a notch. Whether you provide a service or a product or a combination you get trapped in the day to day and can’t see the possibilities as well as an outsider.

Talk to an outsider with proven credentials about improving your product or service or the team that provide them.

Go from Credibility to Cash.

.

Jerry Fletcher is a sought-after International Speaker, founder and CEO of Z-axis Marketing, Inc. and a Certified WHYos Coach. See Jerry’s speaker demo reel.

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.

Credibility to Cash TM is his latest way to share experiences so you can take your business up a notch…or two. Get the Newslog at his consulting site.

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

Marketing on Purpose

Posted on by
.

Too often marketing gets disconnected from sales and operations and customer service.

Is your marketing operating in a silo?

You may not know if you’re running the company but there are simple questions you can ask folks in the marketing department to find out how far they are out of touch. Here are the ones I’ve found always work:

  1. You talk about our customer avatars. Can you connect me to one real person that represents that avatar, now, without calling them first?
  2. How does sales describe prospects?
  3. How do customers and prospects rate our customer service?
  4. When is the last time you surveyed:
  5. Customers
  6. Prospects
  7. Folks that abandoned the checkout process
  8. What did you find out?
  9. What is the purpose of your marketing activities?
  10. How do you know how well you’re doing? Be specific.

Your single most important follow up question is Why?

The purpose of your marketing must be known by you and your people before it can be implemented. It is the reason they do what they do. It is at the heart of their operating system.

They need to know WHY the company operates the way it does.

They need to know WHY you want to go after prospects that think a certain way.

They need to know WHY your products and services are made a certain way.

They need to know WHY the communications they devise must use the same language as the stated purpose of the company.

If you are a founder or the driving force of an organization it should reflect your WHYos.

Your complete statement of Purpose also includes HOW and WHAT which as Simon Sinek spoke about in a TED talk. Understanding your WHY Operating System is the first step in aligning all the components of your company for success.

Learn more. E-mail the word WHYos to me. Give me 15 minutes of your time and an incredible piece of technology I‘ll provide FREE will change your life.

Jerry Fletcher is a sought-after International Speaker, founder and CEO of Z-axis Marketing, Inc. and a Certified WHYos Coach. See Jerry’s speaker demo reel.

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.

Credibility to Cash TM is his latest way to share experiences so you can take your business up a notch…or two. Get the Newslog at his consulting site.

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

Tit for Tat

Posted on by
.

She wrote columns on communications for a handful of local newspapers, Her articles roamed from advertising advice to speech writing to one-on-one selling. She wrote and self-published a book on basic PR for business which got her on local TV and in the feature article that got my attention.

“Tit for tat will just get you hurt” was something she said early on in our conversation. I let it pass without questioning it.

The second time she mentioned it I asked what she meant. She asked if I had ever had a referral in business. I told her the story of my start up letter that had generated 6 responses from the 60 guys in my Advertisng Golf Club. Two said, “Good luck.” Two suggested possible leads and two asked me to work on a consulting engagement.

She explained that I should send handwritten thank you notes to those 6 and then do the same thing to those that had not responded. She was ahead of her time. She was telling me to pay it forward, to find ways to help folks without expectation of return because over time they would come to trust me.

Because of her:

  • I became the new programs committee chair for the Portland Chamber for 10 years.
  • I became the librarian of Pacific Northwest Association of Book Publishers.
  • I was in the room when a handful of people agreed to start the Portland Chapter of the National Speakers Association

Networking enhances your net worth. Relational networking where you give tips, assistance and referrals without expectation of reward changed my life. It is a key element in Credibility to Cash TM.

And so it goes.

.

Jerry Fletcher is a sought-after International Speaker, founder and CEO of Z-axis Marketing, Inc. and a Certified WHYos Coach. See Jerry’s speaker demo reel.

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.

Credibility to Cash TM is his latest way to share experiences so you can take your business up a notch…or two. Get the Newslog at his consulting site.

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

Posted on by

What’s Your Why?

.

That is not a smart-ass question.

A few years ago (2009) Simon Sinek wrote a book called Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action,

He spoke about it in a TED talk which kind of went viral.

In that talk he did a great job of publicizing the idea but never got around to describing how to determine your why or that of others. In 2017 he got a around to publishing Find Your Why: A Practical Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team.

A dentist in New Mexico. Gary Sanchez saw that talk and became fascinated by the concept, worked with Sinek to find his own WHY and for five years worked out a manual system to figure out other people’s WHYs, their way of approaching life.

The Why Discovery is what he called it. It was slow, taking hours for each discovery and required a certified coach to help determine how to apply the findings in your life, in your team and in your company.

Now it is the WHYos. After years of the manual approach Gary taught himself computer coding and wrote a program that has proven to be over 99% accurate and only takes minutes when you take it online. Get it FREE. just let me know.

Learn your WHY, your HOW and your WHAT in minutes. You’ll have:

·         A better grasp of how you operate as an individual.

·         A better connection in every relationship

·         A discovery of the joy of being fully engaged

Understand your brand.  Once you discover your WHYos you will have a firm grasp of your purpose and the perceptions that make you unique. The consistency you bring to your relationships will make you more memorable and more profitable.

That’s what credibility to Cash TM is all about.

And so it goes.

Jerry Fletcher is a sought-after International Speaker, founder and CEO of Z-axis Marketing, Inc. and a Certified WHYos Coach. See Jerry’s speaker demo reel.

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.

Credibility to Cash TM is his latest way to share experiences so you can take your business up a notch…or two. Get the Newslog at his consulting site.

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

New Normal Marketing

Posted on by

.

Had too many e-mails prescribing the tactics you should use next year to fill your marketing funnel/pipeline/sales telegraph.

Me, too.

What you need to do is what works for you.

There is no reason to change because some self-proclaimed expert is pitching what they believe is trendy. It is better to heed your own council and to do what serves your strategy.

State our strategy and keep track of your successes and your failures.

  • Write down the instruments you are using
  • Note the clients that came to you from each and their value.
  • Analyze the pattern and then delve into the specifics of the most successful.

That is part of what we compile in our Annual Consultant Marketing Survey for the industry. The study results are useful for Consultants, Coaches and Independent Professionals in all industries.

Trust is the single most important component of all Consultant Marketing.

That was true in our first survey and proven again in the 2021 survey. Greater intimacy in their business development process allowed older firms to stay in business and increase their market share in 2021.

Overall, those that have stayed in business are resilient.

About 60% of firms noted increases in business due to shifts in marketing strategy. Greater intimacy in their business development process allowed older firms to stay in business and increase their market share

Referrals Continue to be the marketing mainstay of successful consultancies. Referral marketing increased in 2021. Networking and Direct sales both more than doubled in use over 2020 while internet marketing declined by about a third.

The most successful consultants concentrated their marketing efforts in the areas that provided the most contact with clients and prospects.

It works. It is the way from Credibility to Cash TM.

And so it goes.

Jerry Fletcher is a sought-after International Speaker, founder and CEO of Z-axis Marketing, Inc. See Jerry’s speaker demo reel.

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.

Credibility to Cash TM is his latest way to share experiences so you can take your business up a notch…or two. Get the Newslog at his consulting site.

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

A Brand You Can Trust

Posted on by
.

Memorability is what every brand strives for.

But it is not enough.

In the digital world we live in today, clients/customers can damage any brand they feel has acted unethically.

Every brand walks a Trust Tightrope.

Your clients expect you to:

  • Act ethically
  • Operate consistently and transparently
  • Stand for something

Consumers buy a product or service based on reputation but nearly 60% will stop buying it if they don’t trust it. (Source: Edelman Trust Barometer 2022)

Brands that do the right thing can do better than their competition. The same Edelman survey also noted:

  • 59% of respondents are willing to pay more for a brand that has earned their trust
  • 55% will pay more for a brand they believe is doing good for the world.
  • 65% of Millenials and Generation Z adults award a Trust premium

What goes around comes around.

You must value people over collecting data. Client/customer privacy must be respected by you and all your partners. All parts of the product or service that face the public must be real, no tricks, no deceptions. Integrity in all things must be maintained.

There are no shortcuts.

Avoid exploiting situations in the marketplace. Don’t let problems fester. Stay tuned in to the issues your clients care about. Be worthy of their trust to move from Credibility to Cash.

And so it goes.

.

Jerry Fletcher is a sought-after International Speaker, founder and CEO of Z-axis Marketing, Inc. See Jerry’s speaker demo reel.

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.

Credibility to Cash TM is his latest way to share experiences so you can take your business up a notch…or two. Get the Newslog at his consulting site.

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

Quest For Serendipity

Posted on by
.

Serendipity is what happens when we make unexpected connections and create possibilities that never existed before.

For elite marketers it is not a matter of chance.

It consists of three components:

  1. Relevance
  2. Novelty
  3. Unexpectedness

Those can be combined in each and every piece of content and every behavior you exhibit in your business. The quality you need to strive for is to be both surprising and useful.

How to get to serendipity:

  • Follow the yellow brick road. Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Ozyou must be open to the possibilities. Take the road untaken, the path that may lead to connections. Go into your search with an open mind. Find the strengths in apparent weaknesses. Search for triggers. Find bridges that connect results.
  • Look for outcomes from combinations. Events may not be wholly beneficial taken individually but the unanticipated, unexpected and unsought can produce accidental discoveries that benefit you both short and long term.
  • Speak about your experience. The innovative value of your coincidental success needs to be shared. Incorporate the findings in a story.Let your passion spill over into the telling.

An example Christian Mickelsen offered food to his audience that had just returned from lunch. There were few takers. He then changed the offer to dessert. A few more showed interest.  Next he described the dessert as chocolate covered strawberries. Over 70% of the crowd was interested. Enthusiastically! He learned how the more specific an offer is the more powerful the connection with the audience. All of us can apply that serendipitious finding.

Look for fortunate strokes of Serendipity to move from  Credibility to Cash

And so it goes

.

Jerry Fletcher is a sought-after International Speaker, founder and CEO of Z-axis Marketing, Inc. See Jerry’s speaker demo reel.

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.

Credibility to Cash TM is his latest way to share experiences so you can take your business up a notch…or two.

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

Failure Is A Strategy

Posted on by
.

Act.

Do something.

Measure the results.

You don’t have to be sure your marketing is going to work.

But if you don’t take action you will never know. That idea will always just rattle around in your mind. It will stagnate and die never having seen the light of day. It will be resigned to the scrap heap having never been tested. It will die, stillborn.

Action is better than inaction.

We learn from our mistakes. Even if we don’t have a process in place we absorb what works and what doesn’t. We understand what is effective versus what is not. We gather information to formulate new approaches and discover connections we had not perceived before.

Rules for Failure as a strategy:

  1. Take action. Don’t wait. Do it now or forever lose this chance.
  2. Note trial components. Write down the strategy and expected results. Reduce the test to as few elements as possible. Use multi-variant design if you can’t reduce things to A-B split testing.
  3. Analyze results. Look at what happened versus what you thought might. Do not wear your rose-colored glasses. Delve into the fundamentals and scan for hints of affirmative outcomes while quantifying both positive and negative consequences. Look for both strategic and tactical effects.
  4. Build a winners file. Make note of what works whether it is graphics, words, colors, sounds, video or animation. Look at the combinations that work and how changes in one of them impacts your outcome.
  5. Assemble your findings.  Build a check list or diagram or a process report that incorporates what you’ve learned. I’ve been doing this since I opened my consulting firm. When you sign up for my Credibility to Cash Newslog you get the benefit of what works by avoiding 25 years of failures.

The longer you wait the less you’ll learn.

Credibility to Cash is a shortcut to success.

And so it goes.

.

Jerry Fletcher is a sought-after International Speaker, founder and CEO of Z-axis Marketing, Inc. See Jerry’s speaker demo reel.

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.

Credibility to Cash TM is his latest way to share experiences so you can take your business up a notch…or two.

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

No Change, No Gain 

Posted on by
.

There is not a lot I remember from my High-School French class.

One phrase is stuck in the little gray cells:

plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

That translates to “The more things change the more they stay the same.”

Kinda true!

When it comes to marketing, you need to adapt to the Normal particularly the New Normal.

You can’ keep doing the same thing and expecting a better result. That won’t work. (Some people say that is the definition of insanity!)

What has changed and what stays the same?

The ways of presenting your message, carving out a brand for yourself, your service or your product are increasing and morphing on a daily basis. Even the internet is enduring continuing change. Successful Marketing acknowledges and uses new technology (Pepsi is betting on Web3.0 and NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens)

BUT, human nature is slower to change than technology.

Today I read some research that shows the younger generation prefers face to face over on-line to build relationships. New technology comes at a premium in terms of money and time but since we humans are slow on the uptake, smaller firms can orient to the customer, stick with earlier technology and still compete.

Exploit the changes while maintaining client/customer Trust.

Watch the “big guys” as they experiment with Web 3.0. Learn from their mistakes but do not commit staff, funds or time until you can see a clear path to changing tactics that stays on the winning strategy to stay connected to your customer.

And so it goes.

Jerry Fletcher is an international speaker with clients from Singapore to Spain.

He guides elite individuals and organizations to become more memorable and more profitable.

New Normal Uncertainty

Posted on by
.

The disruption is too great.

We will never get back to the Normal we knew before Covid.

The financial arena is in turmoil but the predicted inflation problem is the least we have to worry about. The growing separation of the wealthy and the poor is the real problem. When a tank of gas costs well over $50 your commute from the suburbs, the only place you could afford a home, gets more and more expensive. And if you are not a corporate officer parking will have to come out of the same pay check you are already stretching for food and education and medical care.

Millions of people are walking away from jobs each month.

When you can’t stay ahead of the cost of goods and you don’t see a way out with a current employer you go looking. You look for a better position. You look for a side hustle. Many become desperate.

Hope becomes the best marketing tactic.

Those anxious millions become reckless and impulsive. You will see deals with benefits that are unbelievable.

They are. At the con man level the Nigerian Prince hustle morphs to a perceived charity that selects you as a winner in a drawing. When your situation seems hopeless you are most prone to buy in to schemes cloaked in righteousness.

Trust becomes more valuable than ever.

When the economy is stripping away your lifestyle you begin to look for friends, people that you know really well, merchants that you like and brands that haven’t let you down.

Suppliers that know that Trust is important to you will do everything they can to not betray it. They will stay consistent, truthful and engaged with you. That is how you extend the life of your service and your company.

You can’t go back. You can only go forward.

Your business will have to cope with the disruptions. Your marketing will have to accept the changes and communicate that understanding to customers that are disheartened but yearning for words of shared beliefs.  Heed their words and their actions. The life of your company depends on it.

And so it goes.

.

Jerry Fletcher is an international keynote speaker with clients from Singapore to Spain and across the Americas.

He guides consulting individuals and organizations to become more memorable and more profitable.