Archives for Connection

How Many Licks Does it Take?

May 15, 2012

Remember that old commercial for Tootsie Pop® when the boy asks, “Mr. Owl, how many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a TootsiePop®?” Mr. Owl replies, “One, a two, a three…a three.” Funny that we still remember it now, thirty years later. Coincidence? I think not!

Ever thought about how many random things have to happen in order for you or your sales people to meet a new customer? It CAN be very few, but most often it takes “more than three” and timing can be everything.

I was at the Word of Mouth conference in Austin last week and had the privilege of being part of a conversation between a sales rep and his customer. The epiphany between the two was how serendipitous it was (they didn’t actually use that word) that they met over ten years ago. How several random conversations and common connections led to what is now a profitable and long-standing relationship for both parties. Don’t get me wrong! Several things had to occur along the way to nurture this long-term relationship. Excellent customer service, product availability, on-time deliveries, etc.

What’s ironic though are the random acts and coincidences that happen daily that we sometimes take for granted. Somebody moves from one state to another and had they not they might not have ever joined that LBM group and connected with Tom at Bastanchury Building Products and, therefore, wouldn’t have the amazing and profitable relationship they have today. If you hadn’t taken the time to send that handwritten note to John at Custom Manufacturing he wouldn’t have been able to introduce you to Steve, whose now your largest customer and was the best man at your wedding. 

You and your team work really hard to sell potential customers on your products and services, but maybe what you need to do is serve. A handwritten note, lunch for no reason, flowers to take home to their wife on their anniversary or just a shoulder to lean on during a tough time. A few random ways to serve that lead to those long-lasting relationships that build your business.

So, just how many “licks” does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a TootsiePop®? The world may never know….now, go out and create some serendipity by doing random things.

And make your presence felt!

P.S. Be sure you don’t miss a one golden nugget – subscribe to the Felt blog. 

Allison DeFord POSTED BY: Allison DeFord| Leave a comment

Why We Do What We Do

November 10, 2011

Courtesy of our heroes at Café Creative KFT

Lori Sallee POSTED BY: Lori Sallee| 3 Comments

Everyone Crazy ‘Bout A Sharp Dressed Brand

October 7, 2011

6 Ways To Make Your Brand A Rock Star
 

“Clean shirt, new shoes
and I don’t know where I am goin’ to.
Silk suit, black tie,
I don’t need a reason why.
They come runnin’ just as fast as they can
coz every girl crazy ’bout a sharp dressed man.”*

Make your customers crazy about your brand – and be a rockstar in 2012! Take an inventory of your signature line up:

1. MESSAGING
Do you have consistent messaging that differentiates your brand in the industry? Many companies in the building products industry are attempting to differentiate themselves by saying the same things: QUALITY, CUSTOMER SERVICE, SOLUTIONS. If everyone is saying the same thing, is it really a differentiator for you? The answer is NO. Make sure you have captured your “single thread” – the one thing that your brand can own that makes it different from all the rest.

2. PRINT
Is your printed literature up to date, or are you “using up” old stuff? Using outdated or incomplete catalogs, brochures and other sales collateral is like singing the same song over and over again. Not interesting. It signifies that things in your company are stagnant – when that COULD be the farthest thing from the truth. Keep your audience tuned in to just how dynamic your product line is and remind them how it benefits them to buy from you.

3. ONLINE
Are people standing in line to visit your website? Is it easy to use and navigate? Are ALL your products/services completely represented online? Can a user get anywhere in 3 clicks? Do you have an active blog where you are posting company and industry-related content? Your site represents your company 24/7. It’s got to be a hit. It’s like a great agent—representing you, promoting you, consistently and cleverly attracting the right attention.

4. CONTENT
Do you have an effective content strategy? Do you have a dedicated person or team of people that are actively involved in creating, scheduling and delivering content about your products/services online and in print? BtoB magazine recently asked top marketers what they were focusing on next year and all of them said content is a top priority. BtoB’s digital marketer of the year, GE’s Linda Boff, said the opportunities in digital (videos, photos, pure content, apps) are rich, but the single biggest area GE will be focusing on next year is content. How about you?

5. TRADE SHOWS
Do you have a 2012 trade show strategy? (Before/During/After) Are you taking advantage of pre-show connecting? If the answer is “no”, you’re not alone. Driving qualified traffic to your booth takes far more than adding a “visit us at Booth X” graphic to your industry pub ads. There are so many ways to connect pre-show and start the conversation ahead of time. Once at-show, those leads are already warm. Your sales team will thank you. What are you doing to connect post-show? With a trade show strategy in place, you’ll know exactly whose responsible for follow up, how they’ll do it and when. Your targets will be clearly defined. There will be no question whether or not the show was a chart-topper.

6. SOCIAL MEDIA
Are you rockin’ social media marketing? 90% of the building products industry is invested in print; create the unexpected buzz online. Be the 10% that capitalizes on that opportunity. Be active on the big three: Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, Stay abreast of the changes on each network. Did you have a Social Media Strategy in 2011? Do you have one for 2012? Its a must. Many B2B marketers in the building products industry are still questioning whether or not social marketing is something they should engage in. Let me just remind you that ten years ago the same people were questioning whether or not they needed a website…

Rocking center stage doesn’t happen overnight. There’s a lot that happens backstage. Make sure your roadies plug in the strongest brand amplifiers: messaging, print, online, content, trade shows, and social media.

They’ll come runnin’ just as fast as they can, coz everyone’s crazy ’bout a sharp dressed brand.

If your brand was a famous rock band, what would it be called?

*ZZ TOP lyrics are property and copyright of their owners.”Sharp Dressed Man” lyrics provided for educational purposes use only.

Lori Sallee POSTED BY: Lori Sallee| Leave a comment

Love Is The Drug

October 5, 2011

My pen is out of ink

I like pens, and I have a plethora of them.

This didn’t just start yesterday.

I covet them, and “save” my favorites. I probably have pens that are older than your children. I have pens with different colored inks, ballpoint, sharpie pens, click pens and pens with caps. I have a pen that looks like a log, and another with sparkly liquid and a blue boa feather on top. (a lovely gift from my niece.)

In recent weeks I have become enamored with my Uniball Gel IMPACT pen with the blue ink. It glides across the paper effortlessly. Its thick enough not to make a hole in the paper or huge indentation when I get excited and push too hard. Let’s face it: what I’m writing about can be very exciting sometimes - if only to me.

Today I realized my pen was out of ink. [scary music queued here. the sound of a woman screaming.]

It took me a while to “get that”. I kept going back and “trying to find my cheese in the same place”. I tried to continue to use it. I shook it. I unscrewed to top and added a couple of drops of water to the ink. I replaced the top and shook it again with renewed vigor and hope. I looked at it curiously. I looked at my creative partner. She didn’t look back. It was a kind of desperate, silent communication. Usually she responds to that. Had a broken pen ruined our level of unspoken communication? I think you can see what kind of strange of madness was happening here.

I was bewildered.

I looked through my vast collection of other pens (read: less important). No Uniball Gel IMPACT pen. I went to my savior, the Utility Cabinet. No Uniball Gel IMPACT pen. I went back to my desk and looked in every drawer. No Uniball Gel IMPACT pen. (I did find those dog bone paper clips I like so much..)

But, there was no pen joy.

Not one to dwell, I picked another pen. It took 10 minutes. For real.

Each pen I have has a personality, a reason, a thing it does better than all my other pens. Whether its for color or thickness, or the best pen to suit the story, each pen has a purpose. Try as I might to substitute another, less qualified pen to do the job of the Uniball Gel IMPACT pen, it was a 44 oz. serving of dissatisfaction. I could barely write at all. Each stroke felt like it was a 50 lb. weight in my hand dragging across an uncooperative page.

“With the stroke of a pen”, the pleasure of writing had all but disappeared.

Thankfully, an office supply fairy made a bulk purchase of 4 new Uniball Gel IMPACT pens at lunchtime, and my descent into writing hell was derailed.
Sometimes its the little things, like the tragedy of losing your favorite pen, to bring home how important your brand can be to it’s customers.

Moreover, my pen-tragedy-behavior nicely illustrates the cycle of brand love. But for those of you who don’t think in pictures like me, here it is (start at the top, and move clockwise):

The Cycle of Brand Love
When a person is connected to a brand, no other will do. That commitment is immune to similar products, similar features and/or benefits, price and/or availability. The brand experience (gliding effortlessly, no unnecessary holes or indentations) and ensuing brand trust and loyalty, prevents people from going to the dark side: the competitor.

Even in the face of diminishing brand experience (out of ink), people are catapulted to action in order to feel the brand love again. (buying the bulk pack of Uniball Gel IMPACT pens) Brand love – almost like a drug for some. No one I know, but for some…

Love Is The Drug. Hmm. Wasn’t that a Bryan Ferry Song in the 80’s?

According to a study on peak achievement article entitled, “UNDERSTANDING AND ACTIVATING YOUR BRAIN’S PLEASURE CENTERS” by Jonathan Cowan, Ph.D. and John Starman, MA,

“Having our full measure of happiness powerfully changes our view of life, our reactions to events and situations. It is amazing how different things appear when we are in a state of fear, rage, dire emergency or struggle compared to our experience when in a state of harmony, fulfillment and love. We are all looking for ways to be happy more of the time…and the possibility of influencing the system…”

In reviewing our illustration, you can see that brand love is indeed, a continuous cycle: experience-connection-trust-loyalty-[re]experience. Shower, rinse, repeat. The drive to reconnect with a brand experience inspires your audience to actively reconnect with your brand. After my pen-tragedy-behavior this morning, I can assure you that brand love is like a drug. Come hell or high water, nothing was going to keep me from my Uniball Gel IMPACT pens.

Does your brand inspire that kind of love, loyalty, connection and action in your customers?

I’ve heard that if its not “hell yes!”, its “no”. What are your thoughts?

Lori Sallee POSTED BY: Lori Sallee| 1 Comment

Build A Brand That’s A Lifesaver

September 12, 2011

Years ago – a decade, in fact – Kevin Kline starred in a movie called LIFE AS A HOUSE. It was about an estranged family, splintered from divorce and dreams unrealized. In the movie, a house renovation ends up bringing that same family together in unexpected ways.

The house becomes a symbol: the heart of the family. This inanimate object (in the magic of movies) was able to reshape each family member’s behavior – helping them feel safe, familiar and ultimately, connected to each other again. Yes, its cry-worthy:

I thought about that on Thursday night as I was driving up north through central California. Some stretches of highway seem so isolated in the dark – just flat with lots of cow smells. Color comes by way of freeway signs for restaurants, motels and gas stations. Even if you’re not getting off on that exit, you are inevitably a little excited to see those signs coming up on the right.

The colors, the brands that you know; the “food” you want to eat; the places you would stay at; and the gas that you put in your vehicle. I’m an ARCO girl. Why? Because I like no-frills. I’m a get-in-get-the-gas-and-get-out kind of person. Besides, the way gas prices keep climbing, ARCO usually has the cheapest gas.

On a particularly lonely stretch of the 5 freeway, I noticed I was getting low on gas. “Low” for me, is anything below half a tank. Especially on that road. Sometimes its so deserted, you wonder if you’ll ever come across a town again? It was dark – black as coal – and a little windy to boot.

I started enabling my inner fatalist, wondering, “What if I get stuck out here? Who would pull over to help me besides a serial killer? Remember DUEL in 1971 with Dennis Weaver?

Suddenly, there was my lifesaver: THE ARCO STATION. I knew I’d see the familiar Blue and Red, be able to get my gas without a TV commercial talking to me at the pump, and not pay an arm and a leg – because EVERYONE KNOWS that extra 7 cents a gallon will JUST PUSH YOU OVER THE EDGE!

So, I pulled off into a town-I’ve-never-heard-of, and was embraced by the friendly, low prices of the blue and red. My fears were assuaged, as I was no longer in danger of being chased by a psychotic truck driver in my non-existent Plymouth Valiant.

When I drove away with confidence and a full tank of gas, I thought about how relieved I was that ARCO was there. In the sea of darkness of a lonely California highway, I found a familiar brand – just like the one around the corner from my house. Indeed, they DID have the cheapest gas from miles around. Most importantly, I was in and out quickly (so the highway serial killers and psychotic truck drivers couldn’t catch me). Am I a brand evangelist for ARCO? You bet your sweet bippee!

I started to think of all my favorite brands what they make me feel like.
Here’s a short list:

Apple – Cool. The coolest “what’s next”.

Starbucks – Thirsty. Really good brewed iced tea.

Target – Relaxed. Everything I need.

Crate & Barrel – Intrigued. Beautifully designed things.

How does your brand make your customers feel?
Is your brand their lifesaver?
If it isn’t, would you like it to be?

 

Lori Sallee POSTED BY: Lori Sallee| 1 Comment

Say Something New…To Your Inner Circle

August 30, 2011

How to Make Every Employee a Brand Ambassador

It’s a known fact that employees who UNDERSTAND the brand promise and BELIEVE in the brand work harder—and better.

Most importantly, when employees see themselves as brand ambassadors, they create BRAND DIFFERENTIATION for your customers—something hard for your competition to replicate.

(Think about it. Your competitors can match you in each of the 4 P’s of marketing: product, price, promotion and placement. It’s the PERSONALITY of your brand—its people—that truly separates you from the pack.)

This differentiation becomes part of your competitive edge, and your employees can provide that edge. But only if they understand your goals and philosophy and feel empowered to uphold them in their daily dealings with customers.

So how do you impart that understanding and sense of empowerment?

In Guy Kawasaki’s latest book, Enchantment, he says “the single best thing that a company could do to enchant its employees is to provide them with a MAP.” This allows your employees to “MASTER new skills while working AUTONOMOUSLY for a company with a higher PURPOSE than simply making a buck. The company should be making the world a better place in some way or another.”

Guy’s theory is that in a recession, cost-cutting efforts don’t have to impact how you enchant your employees. Paying them reasonably is only one part. You must use mastery, autonomy and purpose to enchant (MAP). Here’s how:

1. Teach them how to do their job better. Offer classes. Bring in specialists. Give them access to online info, blogs and/or training.

2. Help them set goals, then get out of the way. Remember, a sense of autonomy is key to building brand loyalty and ownership among employees.

3. Show them the bigger purpose your brand has in the world. For example, FedEx’s purpose is to give people peace of mind when they absolutely, positively have to get something delivered.

4. Trust them to make the right choices. Empower your employees to go the extra mile and do the right thing for a customer in need.  I omitted the reference to your transmission story, since non-subscribers reading this blog entry won’t have that context.

5. Don’t forget what it’s like to do their job. Empathy is powerful.

6. Celebrate achievements in a creative way. Think small and meaningful vs. big and expensive. Thank you notes go a looong way.

7. Remind employees that “you want them.” Verbally, in writing and in action.

8. Recognize employees in meaningful ways. Get business cards for everyone, even the warehouse guys. Give them an email address at the company. Make sure they have a workspace and that it’s inspiring in some way.

The bottom line: Enchant your employees and they will enchant others. They are your brand ambassadors.

Do you have other ideas for the list? What do you say to your inner circle? Leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you.

Here’s to creating a sensation and saying something new!

Allison DeFord POSTED BY: Allison DeFord| 1 Comment