"Just Get Out There and Sell"

"Just get out there and sell" is the now infamous answer that a former boss gave to me.  What was the question I asked to trigger such an 'obvious' response that may only be fit for used car salesman: "what is our business development process?"  You might be thinking, especially if you have had a sales job of any sort, that is an oversimplification of how sales work and maybe even a downright ridiculous answer.  Nevertheless, this mode of thinking is prevalent not only in unqualified managers, but also in lots of businesses across the country and world.

No matter what you are selling - product, service or philanthropic ideals - there needs to be a process or strategy in place for achieving your organizations goals.  No matter what you call this process or strategy, here are four brief questions that should help you along the way:

• What business am I in? May seem simple and obvious, but it can be quite complex.  Are you, for instance, in the office furniture, chair, or office chair business?
• Who is my clientele/customer/prospect? How you answer the previous question will determine the answer for this question.  This will help you wisely spend your marketing dollars with proper allocation and help in developing a pipeline of potential customers.
• What am I offering? Again, simple enough, but think about this carefully.  Are you simply selling a chair?  Are you selling a solution, that is to say are you selling a comfortable chair to for the employee to sit in and work?  Or are you selling the chair that will alleviate all bodily worries and make you work efficiently enough to be the next CEO of the company?
• Why should they buy from me?  Almost for sure, you will not be the only brand in your market trying to sell what you sell to that particular consumer.  You need to provide legitimate value for your consumer, on some level, that will compel them to buy from you.  You want them to buy from you not just when it is convenient, but even when it is not.

These questions certainly do not exhaust the pre-planning questions you should be asking, but it is a good start!

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Rethink What?

In what I think is a very strange turn of events, AT&T announced they will undertake a huge re-branding project.  This represents a shift from their recent "ours is bigger than yours" campaign against Verizon concerning their respective 3G networks.  AT&T's goal is to re-brand themselves as an innovation and lifestyle company and they, I guess, assume a new tagline and dropping their name from trademark logo will do the trick.  Of course this will not really work unless they up their product development and get some much better product development.  And then there is that pesky network problem that there are still trying to run from.  At this point they need to focus on making the only lifestyle brand they sell, iPhone, actually work as well as it's supposed to.

Interestingly, the new tagline, "Rethink Possible" makes me wonder.  While the copy does have a breath of innovation and out-of-the-box thinking entwined in it, it also makes me think of a basic question: does the line match the company?  Is AT&T really known for innovative thinking and lifestyle brands?  Esther Lee, VP-Brand Marketing has a huge task on her hands as she tries to move the consumers mind towards this line of thinking; and I do think it will take time.  In the meantime, maybe AT&T can rethink if it's possible to get those iPhones running smoother.

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Dell: Part 2

Originally there was not going to be a Part 2 to my original pontification of Dell's 54% revenue drop.  But, as if I needed to be proven right, last Tuesday on the Fox Business channels morning show, The Opening Bell, Alexis Glick, Charles Payne, Shibani Joshi and Ashley Webster opined about Dell as they see it.  So what did I hear from the experts on FBN?  All the buzzwords that got Dell into trouble in the first place.

• Dell may be a one-trick pony - As if this is bad?  As we saw in the last post, Dell was the market leader and highly profitable when it was a one-trick pony.
• Diversification - What?  They can't be serious.  Dell is diversified.  They sell everything from computers to televisions and almost everything in between yet their revenues dropped 54%.
• More distribution - Dell does have extended distribution in retail stores; do they need even more?  Maybe they should re-open their mall kiosks since those did so well.

This is a classic case of business management trying to expand the Dell brand to mean more things to more people, when they should be looking at contracting it.  Confucious said, "Man who chases two rabbits catches neither."  How many "rabbits" will Dell continue to chase before they figure it out?

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Dell: A Case Study of MBA Thinking

Yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported Dell's quarterly profit dropped 54%!  Wow, 54%!  Are the automakers even down that much?  But I digress...  So what is Dell's strategy to change this issue?  According to the Wall Street Journal article it is to focus on "profitability at the expense of market share."  While I think this is blatantly ridiculous, clearly it's not working.  So what is Dell's real problem?  Dell's problem is the breaking of a classic branding rule: you can't be all things to all people.  Yet the breaking of this rule is common thinking amongst some so-called business experts and Wall Street analysts.  Dell has lost it's focus of computers to go after the MP3 market, smartphone market, televisions and a recent acquisition of Perot Systems to put them into the tech outsourcing business dominated by companies such as IBM and HP.  Is this a good idea? According to some of these experts...YES!  What is the best way to grow (because that's what business is all about)?  Sell more stuff!  But what happens when you just sell more stuff or try to?  You lose focus.

What Dell needs to do is re-focus.  Dell used to be a highly profitable company, ironically, when they sold less stuff.  Think about it; how did Dell become the company that was #1 in the PC market with the best stock performance on the 500 companies listed on the S&P during the 1990's?  By selling one product, with one distribution method, to one consumer; personal computers direct to businesses.  Then what happened?  Analysts said Dell needs to keep up with their previous level of growth (there's that word again).  Dell listened to the analysts and in 1997 they announced they would go after consumers.  Then in 2003, they dove - pun intended - headfirst into the consumer electronics market.  You can even get a Dell in Walmart and Sears.

What Dell needs to do is simple, but they will never do it.  They are third behind HP and Acer by unit shipments, only have a 1% profit margin in their consumer business, and now they are trying to take on IBM in the service sector.  Is that common sense?  No.  Dell needs to return to their roots; sell off the other businesses and get back to selling one product, one way, to one market.  There is no need to sacrifice market share for profitability.  Dell proved that in their early years, maybe they have forgotten.

Nobody said it better than Al Ries and his 2005 book - Focus: The Future of Your Company Depends On It.

Is your brand focused?

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SEMA Lessons

I was fortunate enough to spend some time this week in Las Vegas at the SEMA Show.  Even with the economy in the shape that it's in, the show was packed and ripe for B2B marketers to make the best of their opportunities. While there were some very nice setups there were some not-so-nice setups as well.  Regardless of space, there are a few things to do to make sure you leave the right impression at tradeshows, consumer shows, or roadshows; and for that matter, any experience marketing environment.

1. Work it - Your staff is an extension of your brand mantra, whatever that might be.  Make sure they look the part and act the part.  Whatever your band is, I'm sure it's attributes are not cold, stale, and un-energetic.  Get your staff up on their feet greeting customers as they walk into and past your booth; inject them with Red Bull and coffee if you have to.  But nothing says "bad" like all of your tradeshow staff sitting around, reading email, updating their Facebook status, and adding apps to their iPhone while potential customers wander aimlessly around your area.

2. Useful Giveaways - Everybody is giving something away at these shows; posters, pens, wristbands, etc.  Whatever it is you choose, make sure it is useful and not just a gimmick.  The best tradeshow giveaway I have received is from Cosworth at SEMA last year.  It was a plastic business card holder with their logo on it.  Very practical and sure to get usage throughout the show as you network.  Every time you exchange cards and pull the cardholder out people notice it.  I didn't get a chance to get by the Cosworth booth this year, but I hope they brought those back.

3. Business Cards - Of all the touchpoints for your brand, maybe the most important one is your business card.  At tradeshows or not, your business card is often all that is left behind once you have given your elevator speech.  What does your card say about your brand?  Here's a test: close your eyes, and feel it.  What does the quality of the stationary say to you?  Is it easily bent or is it thicker and have some strength to it?  What does that say about your brand if it is printed on cheap, thin stationary?  At busy tradeshows like SEMA where you can potentially hand your card to hundreds of people you need to make sure you are handing them the right impression.  Have you reviewed your company's business card lately?  You should.

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3-Step Drop: Rivalries

What a great weekend for college football fans coming up with the marquee games on the schedule.  Topping this list of rivalries and big games are USC v Notre Dame and OU v Texas.  What can your brand learn from these annual match ups?

1. Brands Need Brands - If your marketing agency has done a great job during the discovery and account planning process, your brand will be able to pioneer a new category free from competitors, initially.  But with today's resources and technology, some other company will copy you and come to market soon after you enter.  Do not worry, you want and need this to happen.  Why?  Think about it...how else would we be able to judge how good USC or Notre Dame is unless they play another team?  It would be ridiculous to crown Texas as national champions if they didn't play a game all year, right?

Your brand is the exact same.  If no competitors come into the market after you, the consumer will likely not give you the credibility you deserve.  Consumers need a way to gauge your brand against others to see just how good it really is; whether or not your "big idea" is as big as you think it is.  Past the initial phase of newness, consumers tend to think, "it must not be that good if nobody else is doing it."  You have a decided advantage when you enter this new market first, and you will have chances to "out play" your competition with better strategy, just as USC and Texas will this weekend.

2. Consumers Need Brands - You might be thinking this statement should be the other way around.  You would be correct; brands do need consumers.  But it is equally as true that consumers need and want good brands as well, for three main reasons.  The first being it saves time.  Assume your favorite college football team has a bye this weekend, will you not watch games at all?  Most likely not.  So how will you choose?  You will scan your TV Guide channel and look at the match ups.  Certain teams/universities have built brands over the long term that give you a sense of what to watch; OU v Texas being one of them.  Your brand is the same way.  Once you make a name for yourself, it will be easier to sell to the consumer because the consumer knows what they are getting.

The second reason is that brands project the right message to the people who will be judging you; and face it, we all judge.  Again, assume your favorite team has a bye this weekend and you choose to watch these two marquee match ups.  Let's say both of these games end up being one-sided blowouts.  Will anyone fault you for tuning in to these games, even if they become blowouts, instead of Central Seaweed State v. Northern Turkeyneck University?  No.  But if you tune into the Turkeyneck's game and OU v Texas is a close nail biter people will think you're nuts for not even tuning in at all.  Nobody will fault you for choosing those marquee match ups and you, as a consumer, don't lose any image points.

Lastly, and closely related to the second point is brands provide consumers with an identity.  Consumers need an identity just as much as brands do.  Being a fan of USC or OU aligns them with a group of like-minded people.  However they choose this association, for now, is irrelevant.  What is important is that consumers WILL choose things, groups, people, and/or products that will help people identify them and so they can identify themselves.  If you want to be seen as cool and hip, you might buy an iPhone.  When people see you with that iPhone they will think that you are an up-to-date, tech-savvy, cool person.

3. Brands Are Long Term Assets -  When we look at these games, today we see them as the big games of weekend.  But were they always that big?  No.  There was a time when OU v Texas only had meaning for people associated with those institutions.  Eventually overtime with the success of the teams and the national championship implications, this game itself became a brand, hence the name the Red River Rivalry, as well as the teams that play in them.  This did not happen overnight.  It took years on the recruiting trail for the coaches, countless wins, loses, championships, and marquee players to get this game noticed at the national level.  Now when someone mentions the Red River Rivalry we don't need to ask who's playing in that game.

Your brand will start small and may need years to prosper to the level where it is synonymous with a particular category.  It takes consistency, cash and an ability to cut through the competitive clutter.  Don't believe me?  Red Bull took nine years to exceed $100 million in annual sales.  It took Microsoft ten years to exceed that same amount.  How long did it take the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart (with approximately $339 billion in annual sales), to reach the $100 million mark? FOURTEEN YEARS!  Be patient and don't expect instant results with your brand either.  Eventually your brand can reach the heights of a USC, Notre Dame or the Red River Rivalry as well.  Fight On!

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3-Step Drop: Huskers v. Mizzou

Wow!  What a football game that was.  Finally the Huskers come through in a big game.  If you went to bed early, you missed one heck of a rally from the children of the corn.  Nonetheless, let's learn something about marketing from this stellar football game.

1. Don't Change, Adapt - Both Mizzou and Nebraska run wide-open offenses.  And both teams skew their play calling towards the pass.  But with last nights rainstorm during the game, one might conclude that more traditional offenses would fare better than these new-age schemes and you would probably be right.  But would it be good for the Huskers to start lining up and running plays as if Tom Osborne were still coaching?  Should Mizzou have started lining up in the I-Formation and let their QB be true dual threat like Corby Jones?  No.

What they did was adapt.  They threw shorter passes, screens, Missouri ran the ball more than they probably would have.  Both teams stayed true to who they were and adapted to the conditions.  Your brand needs to be the same way.  There will be times when conditions outside of your control - economic climate, political climate, new regulations - will force you to make a decision about your brands direction.  The right answer is to stay true to your brands promise and not pretend to be you are not.  The Huskers could not become the Huskers of old with Power-I formations and throwing only 10 passes in a game.  They don't have the expertise in personnel to pull it off.  Same for your brand.  Trying to do something that you don't have the expertise or capacity to do is silly.  Stick to your game plan and you'll have a far better chance of winning.

2. Don't Shoot Yourself in the Foot - Football, like business, is hard enough facing a fierce competitor that you don't want to compromise yourself.  Mizzou did this at key times last night.  Not that Mizzou would have won the game, but 8 penalties for 100 and 3 turnovers is bad enough.  But when you factor in when and where they happened in the game it was devastating for the Tigers.  You know the competition in your market and you don't need to give them anymore help than they already have.  Don't let your CEO get caught driving drunk, don't screw up a product and have a big recall, don't become the next Enron.  Luckily for Mizzou, this is their first loss and they are not out the championship hunt.  For your brand, a screw may not mean you go out of business but a loss of market share instead.

3. Momentum: Ride The Wave - The Huskers hit a big pass to Niles Paul for a 56-yard touchdown.  They then scored twice more quickly before putting the nail in the coffin with just 56 seconds left on a 5-yard run by Roy Helu Jr.  The Huskers lacked big plays all night and finally they had a burst at the end; when it counted most.  The Huskers rode that momentum and emotion to what turned out to be a crushing loss.

Hopefully, your brand will get some momentum on some event.  It might be because an influential blogger tries your product and blogs about how much they like it.  It might begin on a positive story highlighting you brands commitment to a cause or charity.  It might even be strong earnings on Wall Street.  Use your creative and PR to highlight these accomplishments internally and externally.  Whatever it is, be ready for it; seize it; and ride it to victory.

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