Can you answer this question? Your customers can.

At a casual business gathering this week, I overheard the CEO of a Fortune 1000 company being asked what his company did. He appeared to intentionally bite a cracker just at that moment, to buy time and think about his response. “Well, it’s complicated,” he finally replied.

This smart, educated Chief Executive Officer was elbow deep in company operations yet hadn’t an (uncomplicated) response to that 'simple' question - not because he was oblivious, of course, but because he had spent the last several years buried in finance, production runs, board meetings and other demands. Demands that took him farther and farther away from his customer, farther and farther from a good response. So when he was asked “What does your company do?”, he could only respond to the question by explaining details about the company’s software.

The ability to describe your product is a start, but it’s an answer to an altogether different question, that is, “How do you do it?”.

Perhaps counter-intuitively, the question “What do you do?”, whether asked about you or your company, isn’t actually about what you do, it’s about the value you offer. “What does your company do?” is a question that summarizes several others, such as, “Who do you sell to?” “Why do customers buy from you?” and “What’s next?"

“What do you do? …to provide value to your customers?” It's not a question that only the CEO needs to know. Everyone in the company from the receptionist to the CEO should be able to articulate the company's value, because it should be the motivating factor for going to work every day. If you’ve spent the last several years being pulled farther and farther away from your customers, it is possible that you yourself may find this question harder and harder to answer.

But your customers know. It might be time to ask them.

A Living Death

George A. Romero was an early contributor to the genre with his 1968 film, Night of the Living Dead. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

No, this post isn't about the Zombie Apocalypse, although that'd get a lot of page views. Its about yet another pundit suggesting something is dead. That too gets page views. Death, vampires, and celebrities. Dead celebrity vampires are especially good for page views. But I digress.

No, this post is about a recent speech to the IoD given by Saatchi and Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts who boisterously proclaimed (as ad people are fond of doing) the following things as dead:

Marketing.
Value Statements.
Strategy.
The 'Big Idea'.

Suddenly I'm not feeling too good myself.

In fact, these things are not dead, they are merely changing. I'd use a caterpillar/butterfly analogy here but I fear metaphors may be dead too.

Marketing used to be about positioning, segmentation, and anticipating customer needs. Roberts says that approach is dead because change is too rapid today. Essentially, he says, think too long about it and 'poof!' its different and you're on the wrong track.

That's not death, that's just an acknowledgement of the importance of agility. Marketing requires greater agility than ever before. It means marketers have to listen more than ever before.

Value statements are dead and dreams are in. Dreams are in all right, dreams in the form of stories that register with customers. That's not death, that's an ability to convey moods, emotions, and to create relevance for your brand among customers. Tell a story, don't recite a fact... build a relationship, not a transaction.

Strategy involves too much consideration in a hyper world. Take an action, any action. Strategy is death. Still, if you don't have a destination in mind, to paraphrase the Cheshire Cat, any road will get you there. Strategy isn't dead. Analysis paralysis is dead.

Big ideas are dead, small ideas are where the excitement is. A series of ideas appealing to segments to build relationships that taken together add up to that one... big... idea. Dead? No. Chopped into little pieces to create something new? Very much alive.

Marketing isn't dead. It's just that the margins for error are slimmer. So the decisions we make now as marketers just appear more, well, life or death. 

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Can I hear an Amen?

So, the other day I was thinking about an upcoming sales meeting and product launch plan. My attention turned to sales enablement, branding, and the difficulty in getting salespeople just as fired up as, say, the engineers are, over the latest incarnation of their product. "C'mon, guys, our new AXT4000 Johnson Rod has four times as much monkey oil as the competitor's Johnson Rod!"

Yeah, well, I'm not excited either. And I write this stuff.

So who is excited? Who is so danged fired up that they'd get dressed to the nines and go door to door during their free time to talk to desperate housewives? Who's so convinced of the value of their product that they'd tote their entire families and a forest worth of pamphlets with them to be certain everyone had a chance to share their enthusiasm, including their kids? Who's so completely convinced of the superiority of their value statement that they'd give up everything to take two years to do nothing but sell, sell, sell?

Girl Scouts, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Mormon Missionaries, respectively.

For me I marvel at their commitment even as I brush them off. (I am a salty snack favoring Methodist so thanks, but I'm covered.) When was the last time you encountered a salesperson at your company with the earnestness of a Girl Scout, the persistence of a Witness, or the commitment of a Mormon? Before you complain, maybe you should start with a mirror.

I understand that in technology sales as in other industries, we aren't talking about salvation and deep set belief systems. But that's the point, right? Perhaps we need to approach sales enablement with the fervor of a Chautauqua preacher converting the heathen masses. When was the last time YOU got excited the latest version of software or throughput on a server? And if not, why not?

As you prepare to talk to salespeople about a new product, service, or feature, first answer for them the question they must answer all the time: "Who are you and why should I care?" If you can't answer that with the enthusiasm of an itinerant preacher, you can't expect it from your congregation of salespeople, either.

Even if you threaten their eternal soul.

Know thyself

"The essence of leadership today is to make sure that the organization knows itself." -- Mort Meyerson

This statement by Perot confidant and former EDS Chief Executive Mort Meyerson is my advice for you in 2008. Not far from the platitudes “Know thyself” and “To thine own self be true”, Meyerson’s statement emphasizes the importance of a widely understood, and closely followed corporate Vision that drives a firm’s mission, principles, and strategic direction. An organization that knows itself knows how to spot opportunities, navigate troubled waters, and work together toward common goals. For individuals, it helps define roles and responsibilities, establishes their individual value to the organization, and builds the foundation for empowerment in decision-making.

To thine own company should each employee be true.