Pitching an idea

Apr 26, 2013 | Communication, Customers, Marketing, Sales, Small business

question

The most powerful way to get someone to agree with your idea is to ask them the leading question, and have them tell you.

Ronald Regan used this technique a lot. He did not tell the American people “your economic situation has deteriorated over the last 48 months”, instead  he asked the famous question during his election campaign: “Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?”. The answer was a resounding “NO” and he was elected.

Asking the right question can prompt a favourable, almost pre-deternmined response, but the formulation of the words to convey that response provokes a deeper, more intensive processing of the question. This leaves less room for ambiguity and uncertainty in the way the receiver responds to the question, and considerable committment to the answer. 

I have also found it a great way to generate engagement at the opening of a presentation.

The “Twitter Pitch”

Apr 23, 2013 | Communication, Small business

Mark Twain

Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) famously said “I do not have time to write you a short letter, so I have written you a long one”.

This statement is a pitch for twitter 100 years before it was conceived, as the sentiment of clarity through brevity is the same. Writing to convey an idea is a challenge, writing to convey an idea in a few words requires a discipline of thought that can be extremely hard.

The restriction of Twitter to 140 characters does seem to encourage a written shorthand that I find excruciating, but at its best, also adds a discipline to constructing an idea that squeezes out the superfluous, the hyperbole, the distractions,  and forces clarity by brevity.

It seems that the “Twitter Pitch” is replacing the “Elevator Pitch” first made popular by Dale Carnegie, but the idea is the same.

C21 Moments of Truth.

Apr 16, 2013 | Branding, Communication, Social Media

SAS

Former CEO of Scandanavian Airlines, Jan Carlzon  write a book in the eighties called “Moments of Truth” which reflected the journey of SAS from its commercial deathbed to being the most admired airline in the world. It was a best seller, articulating the then revolutionary idea that each interaction an enterprise had with a customer was a “Moment of Truth” a point at which the consumers experience would shape their attitude and future relationships with a brand.

It occurs to me that it has changed now, and the moment of truth that now matters as much, if not more, is now the point at which a consumer posts, tweets, or other wise publicly records the interaction and their experience with it for others to see, hear, and feed into their memory banks for reference.

The 21st Century has opened up a number of opportunities to interact with consumers Carlzon never anticipated, the referral power of the devices we now routinely use has changed Carlzons Moment of Truth to just the first of many crucial moments.

Velocity of ideas

Apr 10, 2013 | Change, Communication, Social Media

idea velocity

In the economy of C21, we are far less interested in physical stuff that we are in intangibles.

A measure that will emerge both as one of internal corporate performance, and the performance of markets is the velocity of ideas.

 How quickly do the ideas being considered in the executive suite filter to the shop floor, and in what form are they perceived?

How quickly is an initiative taken up by others externally upon which depends the success of the initiative?

This morning I was at a meeting of small businesses, 700 of them, gathering to voice our dismay at the total disenfranchising of small businesses in our political process.  Together we employ millions of Australians, are the biggest generator of economic activity, and we create, innovate, and drive the health of the economy, but are ignored.

Hopefully no longer.

By the end of the meeting, the  “#toobigtoignore” handle on twitter had generated substantial traction,  and the hits on the website www.toobigtoignore.org.au  were starting. The velocity of the spread of the ideas expressed will be a key measure for the success of the initiative, and by watching the velocity of the ideas, and the depth of engagement of those reached, will be not just measures of success, but leading indicators of that success.

Ignore the notion of idea velocity at your peril.

 

To Brand, to Brand.

Apr 7, 2013 | Branding, Communication

Apple question

Interesting verb, “to brand”.

On one hand, it can mean sticking a mark on something you own to indelibly claim ownership.
On the other, it implies a process of building a relationship with something that provides you with some sort of satisfaction and gratification that you value.
These two things are at opposite ends of the same stick. No sensible marketer believes any longer that they “own” a customer, although that argument is pretty common amongst corporations that have several divisions all servicing the same client.
An then you get something like this terrific Somerset Cider ‘Apple” advertising, It is a parody, it trades off the engagement people have with “Apple”, and I wonder if it adds to the Apple brand, rather than just taking an opportunistic, and parasitic position.
I suspect, it adds to the mystic of the “Apple” brand, as it is entertaining, interesting, feeds into the Apple target market and psychology, and holds Apple up as a “gold standard”, so Apple should be thanking the Somerset cider people.
However, I bet the litigious bunch in Cupertino are tearing their hair out, and my guess is that we have not heard the last of it.