Digital Snake Oil Salesmen

I have noticed lately that just about any problem you have can be solved by way of some sort of electronic communications.  You can get rich via webinar, loose weight from a blog, and repair your love life with an online conference with a the company's registered Lothario.  You can do even better if you also purchase the e-book.

Or so they say.

It has been the history of each new media that the earliest adapters are the purveyors of porn and magical remedies for all that ails you.  The snake oil salesmen.  The internet and social media are no different.

What is different is the democratic nature of the internet.  An ad for Rolls Royce gets largely the same treatment as the con man selling magic pills.  In print media, there are expensive, high status publications in which the cost of entry is enough to keep out at least the most questionable of advertisers.  The same thing for television and radio.  Not so much with the internet.

The same open qualities of the internet that allow a young musician to post her new songs on You Tube and find an audience and an entrepreneur to find a disperse but loyal customer base, make it ripe territory for other, less desirable uses.  I don't think we can, or should, try to prevent these uses.  I do think that we need to learn to be smart consumers.

Also, I think it is important for reputable businesses to embrace the possibilities of internet media options.   As has happened time and time again, when reputable companies step up and establish a strong presence in a media, the snake oil salesmen tend to get pushed to the side.  Which is a better place for them!

Father Figure

My father celebrates the 41st Anniversary of his 39th Birthday today.  Happy Anniversary Dad!

It is natural on anniversaries to become a bit reflective.  I thought in honor of this day, I would share some of the things I learned from my father about leadership.

The lessons Dad taught me were taught by example.  I learned them by watching him.  I am not sure he knows that he was teaching all of this time...although I am pretty sure he will SAY he's known!

Leadership as experienced with my Dad:

1. My Dad is very free with advice.  He gives it all of the time. Yet he never demands or expects that I take 100% of his advice. All he asks is that I listen and then decide, not the other way around.  A leader tries to help when he can, yet allows people to find their own way.
2.  My Dad loves nothing more than a good debate.  Throughout my teenage years, we stayed close by arguing.  Both of us are usually willing to take any side of an argument, as long as it was opposite the position taken by the other.  I lost a lot of sleep during those late night debates, but gained valuable hours with my father.  I learned to love the art of a good argument, how to be a gracious winner and, occasionally, a good loser.  A leader doesn't shy away from a conversation, a discussion or an argument.
3. One of my Dad's debate techniques, when he doesn't have or can't find facts, is to make his statements with a great conviction.  His conviction and certainty in what he is saying is enough to give an expert pause.  His enthusiasm for winning has showed me that leaders pull out all the stops to achieve their goals.
4. Actually the one thing that Dad loves more than debating is his family.  And his friends.  And making new friends.  And meeting new people.  Dad is a people person.  Leaders get energy from the people around them.  They thrive on the power of interactions.
5. Dad is thrilled when he can connect people with each other, especially if it helps them solve a problem. I am guessing that he has made a good share of his friends by sticking his nose into their problems and helping them out.  Leaders appreciate the people around them and figure out what they can do for others, not the other way around.
6. My Dad has always been a salesman.  He has had many jobs, some which don't involve sales, but he has always been a salesman.  Leaders don't have jobs or careers, they have callings.
7. My Dad is the only person I have ever heard of who takes coffee or lemonade out to the garbage men.  My dad never thought twice about it.  My Dad taught me that a leader is kind to people.  All of them.  But especially to the custodians, secretaries and garbage men in your life.  They literally and figuratively hold the keys to your life.  If you are getting along with them, things go smoother.  If you don't get along with them, your life can get stinky and disorganized quickly!
8. If Dad chooses to work with someone, he is trusting to a fault.  I sometimes get frustrated by his blind trust in the goodness of people that he barely knows.  In the end, though, the few times he has been burned have been dwarfed by the friends he has made, the trust he has earned back and the stress and worry he has avoided.  True leadership is positive in focus and nature.  
9. Even though he has had more than his share of ups and downs, my Dad almost always has a positive, can-do, make that will-do, attitude.  A recent accident had him in inpatient rehab, reportedly for up to four weeks.  He was out in less than two. A leader lets his attitude be an asset, not a roadblock.
10. My Dad has the corniest sense of humor I have seen in anyone, except for maybe me.  A leader creates a legacy and passes it on to the next generation.

Happy Birthday Dad!  Thanks for the lessons!  I am looking forward to learning many more!  I love you!

Emotional Decision-Making

If you question whether our relationship to our things is emotional, consider for a moment how we talk about the things we own and use.

When was the last time you heard someone say, "I appreciate the utility of this cellular phone" or "The features of this automobile are not the ones I need."

We say "I love my phone!" or "I hate this car!"  And we mean it when we say it.

There is a reason Facebook has you "Like" something versus "Approve" or "Appreciate" something.

There is a reason that so many ads skip facts and details about the product or service.  Instead, they focus on the feeling you will get, or the status you will achieve, if you purchase Product A or use Service B.

We humans are emotionally driven animals.

Even in the costliest decision most of us will make, we base our decisions, when we are honest with ourselves, on our emotional responses.  When my parents made the decision to buy the last house of my childhood, they could tell us about the trees in the backyard and the color of the curtains in the family room - things that excited them emotionally - but they couldn't agree on how many bathrooms there were.

Although we like to pretend differently, emotions also drive decisions in business.  Most often, the reams of analysis and brainstorming ultimately end up supporting an emotionally driven decision.  Despite the window dressing of Gant Charts and regression analysis, decisions are made because "she had a good handshake" or "something in my gut tells me this is going to work" or "this is going to be good for my career" or "if I did that my boss will be angry."

I am not sure that this is a bad thing.  I don't think I want business decisions to be made in a dispassionate, totally data-driven environment.  Too many aspects of important decisions are difficult or impossible to quantify.  Too often, the implications of a decision are complex, multi-level, and involve countless variables.  I believe that our minds use our emotions as a way to summarize the complex morass of decision implications.

After all, think about the array of implications involved with something as simple as buying a pair of shoes.  Will I wear them?  Are they in fashion?  Will they stay in fashion?  Should I be spending this money on something else?  On someone else?  Will these shoes be comfortable?  Will they go with any of my clothes?  Will they last long?  Will they still look good in 6 months?  Do I need to get rid of a pair of shoes if I get these?  Is this store the best place to get these shoes?  Etc.

Imagine the variables and decision impacts around something like opening a new store, or adding a new feature to your widget!  The implications are astounding.

The challenge is to find a balance.  If the emotions that are controlling your business decisions and are mostly driven by self-preservation, it might call to question whether your decisions are as good as they could be for the company.  If your decisions are devoid of emotion (as if that were possible), one would wonder if consideration was given to impacts of the decision on "squishy" things such as employee morale, organizational image and customers' loyalty.

Using data to make decisions, especially big business decisions, is essential and logical.  I guess I would just encourage decision-makers to acknowledge, and incorporate their emotions, or gut, into their analysis.  You are doing it anyway.  You might as well acknowledge it!

**********
In the United States, today is Memorial Day.  I want to thank all the men and women who have served this country in the military for their service!

Related articles

• Neuroscience and Decision Making
• The Many P's of Marketing: Passion

Annoyingly Optimistic

I have a friend who looks at a glass that is 50% full and refuses to consider it as half full OR half empty.  "It is half enjoyed," he insists.

My friend can be annoyingly optimistic.

I have another friend who would look at the same glass and not even notice how full it was.  "I wonder how they washed it," she would ponder aloud, causing everyone in our group to think, at least for a moment, about food borne illnesses.

My friend's germ paranoia can be contagious.

I have a third friend who rarely talks about the glass or its contents.  He does, however, fill his glass with different contents.  He quietly orders whatever he wants, rudely ignoring the whims of popular convention at the moment.  I am not sure if this friend is aware of how much attention the rest of us pay to what he does and doesn't order.

I am sure he doesn't care.

My friends aren't trying to be opinion or thought leaders.  They aren't overtly trying to sway others' perspectives to their own.  They aren't trying to manipulate, persuade, cajole or entice anyone into thinking like them.  Yet they all do.

The same thing happens with your organization.  What you do, how you respond to something, the attitude you present to your customers and constituents, has an impact.  It impacts not only what they think about your organization, but how they feel about the entire industry and, in some cases, all organizations.  How often have you read a news story about a corporate executive who was caught with his hand in the till and thought to yourself, "They're all a bunch of crooks" or heard that a particular company was in trouble and found yourself assuming the industry was in a slump?

Organizations, like friends, lead by example.  A company that voluntarily engages in environmentally sound practices makes it easier for the next company to believe that environmentally sound practices are possible and feasible.  The first company doesn't need to give speeches or shout their green ethos from the rooftop.  They don't have to create a brochure.  They just have to do it!

An organization that steps up to solve a community problem or address a market need often finds, if the need is great enough or the way they address it effective enough, that they are not alone in addressing that need for long.  Sometimes this is good for the first company.  Often it means competition.

This is, however, a door that swings both ways.  An organization that devotes the lion's share of its time and resources on negative issues, such as worrying about competition, or regulation, or uncontrollable market forces, will likely find plenty of competition, regulation and uncontrollable market forces to worry about.

If, instead, that same company paid more attention to its customers, employees, or products, it would find that those market forces that it can't control would matter less and less.  It would also find that customers and prospects would like the organization more and more.

At some point they might even like the organization well enough to go have half a drink with it!

Related articles

• The cost of a smile

Or else

I had a boss once who would ask "Is this the best you can do?" whenever you handed him some work.  If you answered no, he handed the work back without waiting for excuses.  If you answered yes, you knew that it had better be your best work.  The "or else" was never spoken of, articulated or, honestly, thought a lot about.  He was just the type of guy that you knew there would be an "or else" that you wouldn't like.

Sometimes, when I am experiencing exceptionally bad customer service, I think that the person delivering that service must not be thinking about the "or else."

The "or else's" for bad customer service are many:

• the sale could be lost
• the customer could never come back
• the former customer could tell others about the bad service she got and convince others not to come back
• other employees could see that bad service is tolerated and some of them may start taking the easy way out (good customer service usually takes a little effort and initiative)
• The customers of those employees could stop coming back and stop making purchases
• The business, facing declining sales and lowering public perception, could be forced to cut expenses
• The sales person who started this all could lose their job.
• The company is forced to close because the smaller sales force makes it impossible to be responsive to customer needs
• The industry is struck with rumors of decline, sending stock prices plummeting and closing more businesses
• The economy, facing a sudden and unpredicted business sector collapse goes into a tailspin, and then..
• Well...you get the idea.

I am not seriously suggesting some sort of customer service butterfly effect (where a butterfly flaps its wings in one part of the world and creates a hurricane elsewhere in the world).  I am proposing that customer service, good and bad, DOES have ripple effects that are difficult to predict.  I am saying that the small gestures, like a smile or a courtesy to a customer, CAN come back to you multiplied many times over.  I am suggesting that we would be a lot better off if we each asked ourselves if this was the best we could do.  

I am also recommending that we consider the "or else."

Related articles

• The Art of Customer Service
• The Many P's of Marketing: People

"Social" media

One of the reasons some companies fear social media...



For more cartoons like this, visit the marketoonist, Tom Fishburne at tomfishburne.com.

Related articles

• Blurring the Lines

The Many P's of Marketing: Personal Philosopher

Marketing has gotten more and more nuanced, as new technologies and strategies have opened up many options for marketers.  It is my contention that today, the marketing mix contains much more than the traditional four or five P's that are taught in school.  In this series I am exploring the Many P's of Marketing.

Personal Philosopher:  I think that there is value in having one or more people who act as your personal philosophers.  These people serve as touchstones or measuring sticks in your career.  They serve as philosophical sounding boards to help you work through decisions.

In my mind, personal philosophers are different than mentors.  Mentors help you out with the day to day navigation of your job.  If they are internal mentors, they tell you where the bathrooms are and where you can get the best coffee.  If they are external mentors, they give you examples of what others are doing in their companies and strategies for dealing with day to day issues.  They work with you on how to do your job.  A personal philosopher, on the other hand, is someone whom you use a guide as to why you do your job.  They provide the moral career compass.

The handful of people I use as my personal philosophers are people who work in the same or similar industries as I do.  I know them and their work well enough to be inspired (and somewhat awestruck) in what they have accomplished.  Two of my personal philosophers are people I talk to regularly.  One is someone I have never met personally.  All three are people who are transparent enough and open enough about how they approach their work and why they do it that I can learn from them.  None of them know that they serve this role for me.

I would equate the way I "use" these personal philosophers as being similar to the way some Christians use bracelets and posters emblazoned with WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) to help remind them to live a spiritually centered life.  I use my personal philosophers to help me rationalize how to approach certain marketing/PR/communication challenges and to help me set career goals and targets that are realistic and appropriate.

It is great to have a team to bounce ideas off of.  Maybe one day I will let them know they are on my team!