Turning down the daily stress dial (#8)

7 marketing sins (by Seth Goden)

Brutally insightful as always; on this occasion delivering wisdom that sits at confluence of how we fail and how we wish to succeed.

 Seven marketing sins

Impatient... great marketing takes time. Doing it wrong ten times costs much more and takes longer than doing it slowly, but right, over the same period of time.

Selfish... we have a choice, and if we sense that this is all about you, not us, our choice will be to go somewhere else.

Self-absorbed... you don't buy from you, others buy from you. They don't care about your business and your troubles nearly as much as you do.

Deceitful... see selfish, above. If you don't tell us the truth, it's probably because you're selfish. How urgent can your needs be that you would sacrifice your future to get something now?

Inconsistent... we're not paying that much attention, but when we do, it helps if you are similar to the voice we heard from last time.

Angry... at us? Why are you angry at us? It's not something we want to be part of, thanks.

Jealous... is someone doing better than you? Of course they are. There's always someone doing better than you. But if you let your jealousy change your products or your attitude or your story, we're going to leave.

Of course, they're not marketing sins, they're human failings.

Humility, empathy, generosity, patience and kindness, combined with the arrogance of the brilliant inventor, are a potent alternative.

Which Muppet are you? (fantastic 'borrowed' article)

 "Every once in a while, an idea comes along that changes the way we all look at ourselves forever. Before Descartes, nobody knew they were thinking. They all believed they were just mulling. Until Karl Marx, everyone totally hated one another but nobody knew quite why. And before Freud, nobody understood that all of humanity could be classified into one of two simple types: people who don’t yet know they want to sleep with their mothers, and people who already know they want to sleep with their mothers. These dialectics can change and shape who we are so profoundly, it’s hard to imagine life before the paradigm at all.

The same thing is true of Muppet Theory, a little-known, poorly understood philosophy that holds that every living human can be classified according to one simple metric: Every one of us is either a Chaos Muppet or an Order Muppet...."

Read on here....enlightening to say the least: Muppet Theory

Good things

www.confluence73.com

New Business Venture? Ask the BIG 3!

 (Useful read. Great for Clarity. Thanks INC.)

Before you waste your time with a business case, sales pitch, or SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), put yourself in your customers' shoes. Then, answer these three simple questions:

  1. Why do I need a product or service like this?
  2. Why do I need yours?
  3. Why do I need it now?

Seems simple?  Try it.  Not so easy, right?  

The first question, "Why do I need a product or service like this?" will help you clearly define your value proposition.  If you don't have a good answer to this question, stop now, and come up with a different idea.

The second, "Why do I need yours?" will force you to define your differentiators.  Why is your product or service better than others out there?  Why should the customer pick you over a competitive or do-it-yourself solution?  Answer these questions in bullet points, not paragraphs.  Your answers need to be simple and clearly compelling.
 

The last question is always the toughest, "Why do I need it now?"  To me, this is the most important one.  What is the compelling reason, event, pain, or opportunity that is going to make someone make the choice to use your product or service right now?  Not six months from now, not six months ago, but right now.  This question inspires thinking about what the urgency is to get that deal closed now.  People are busy and have a lot of priorities and decisions to make.  Is the 'pain point' that you're solving top of mind for your customer or user?  If not, a tool or method to resolve that pain won't be either.  If you don't have a clear answer, you may be too early for a market or possibly too late.  You may have long acquisition cycles or a long and expensive market education path ahead of you.
Let's put it into practice.  Here's a hypothetical scenario:

Product/Service: ABC Mobile Phone Carrier (topical)

Why do I need a product or service like this?

Business: I can be more productive on the road.
Personal: My family will be safe if we get a flat tire.

Why do I need yours?

Best network coverage as measured by XYZ Measurements, Inc.

Largest selection of business mobile devices.

Only network with a family plan.
 

Why do I need it now? 

Every day that you don't have one you're...

...losing out on potential revenue
...wasting valuable time in airports and cars
...taking a risk that your family may not be safe if stranded on a road

Every time you put together a business plan, vet a new product idea, or evaluate a sales presentation, always start with these three questions.  Always challenge your team with these questions, too. They force them to a deeper level of thinking and generally result in a better offering.  We've been using these three simple questions for over ten years religiously and they have never failed us.  

Try it, give yourself and your team this truth test. I promise you it's worth the exercise.