Now, not only was I disappointed that I couldn’t see what I clicked on, but now I was also a little insulted and put-off.

That’s the error page above. The idiot wearing the short-sleeved, orange, Hawaiian shirt at the Black Tie event is supposed to be me. The site visitor.

“Ever feel like you’re in the wrong place?” states the caption.

Wow! An interesting way to treat a guest to your site. I wasn’t digging around their bathroom’s medicine cabinet and got busted for snooping. I clicked on one of the main links on their site! Why are they making me feel like I did something wrong?

I know this sounds like a bit of a rant … But, the lesson is, the way your company handles your websites error page can say a lot about your company.

Some take time to make the error page fun, trying to make the best of the situation. After all, it’s a bummer for the visitor when something goes wrong, and it means something is broken with the site.

When trying to make a site as sticky as possible and something is broken or confusing, anything less than “Oh my gosh, so sorry … How can we help you find what you were looking for?” is not enough.

How are you supporting your web visitors when they encounter an error?

Call To Action

• Check out your site’s error page. No, you really should. In fact, why not open another browser window right now and check it out?
• If you aren’t sure what your error page looks like, enter the URL for your site and then put some junk characters after it. For example: www.YourSiteNameHere.com/icuraqtinvu
  I’ll bet you don’t have a page with that title, and your error page will be revealed to you.
• What does your Error Page say? Is if generic? Is it fun?
• Is is branded? Is it brand appropriate?
• Did you simply leave it up to the person who designed your site to create the page?
• Does it have search tools or ways to help your visitor get back on track?
• Check out what others have done on their error pages. See clever and helpful error page collections here and here, and here.
• By all means, while you may have fun with visitors to lighten up the fact your site is broken, don’t berate them.

To get started on your brand resolutions, here are 10 ideas by Shawn Parr of the design/innovation firm Bulldog Drummond.

10 Things to Try In 2011

1. Be Courageous Often

   Take bold steps to stand out from the crowd. Reflect on 2010, and look at what you did well and what you could have done differently. Take courageous steps to help your brand stand out in 2011.

   

2. Revisit and Refine Your Purpose

   Take the time to look back at your mission and vision, and ask if you were living it in 2010. Look for places to bring it to life with your team, explore whether you needto refine it. Remember: The words aren’t set in stone. If they’re not resonating, rewrite and revise!

3. Shut up and Listen

   There’s a lot to learn if you just take the time to listen. Make sure you ask your team for feedback, ideas, and suggestions. Listen to your consumers, and pay attention to research. Listen to what they have to say, and act on what you’ve heard. Honest, unfiltered feedback is fuel for change.

4. Who’s Your Enemy?

   An enemy gives you and your brand something to push against—something to challenge. An enemy inspires passion! This year define a clear enemy and rally your team. It could be a competitor, a trend, or an element of your culture. No matter what it is, create a plan to beat it, share the mission with your team, and go forth!

5. Set Some Big Goals

   Set at least one wild and audacious goal for 2011—something you’ve never tried before. Outline the goal, share it with your team, and challenge them to play their part in achieve it. Just don’t forget to celebrate the small victories and successes on the journey.

6. Create a Passionate and Engaged Team

   Your greatest resource is your team. This year, weed out the people who aren’t engaged and don’t contribute. Replace them with active, passionate and energized people who will make a true difference to the rest of your team and your brand.

7. Inject Fun Into the Everyday

   One of the best motivators for your team is a great work environment. This year, start doing small things that make your employees happy. A monthly massage for a team who’ve put in hours of extra energy, a weekly cookie pot-luck. Small gestures or events can make a big difference. And the benefits won’t just stop with your team, they will show through everything that your brand does. Happy people equals happy brand.

8. Plan for Learning

   This year, make a commitment to ensure your company is continually learning and is inspired by the world at large. Create a program that allows your team to take classes. Host a “learning lunch” monthly with guest speakers. Injecting new thinking in your organization will energize your team and, ultimately, benefit your brand.

9. Make Friends With Other Brands

   Partner brands can be your best ally—whether they’re in your space or not. This year, chart a “circle of love” identifying brands with similar values that you’d like to partner with in 2011. Set one member of your team with a each potential relationship, and have them explore how to collaborate. You’ll be surprised by the results, even in the initial conversations you’ll have about your own brand.

10. Say Thank You and Show You Really Mean It

    And, lastly, do what your mother told you! Thanking people goes a long way to creating valued and appreciated fans – internally and externally. This year, find new ways to show you appreciate your team, your customers and your partners, in ways that truly make a difference in their lives. You’ll be surprised and delighted by the results.

Shawn Parr is the CEO of Bulldog Drummond, a design and innovation consultancy headquartered in San Diego, Cal. Clients include Starbucks, Pepsi, Jack in the Box, Adidas, MTV, Nestle, Pinkberry, Virgin, Disney, Nike, and American Eagle Outfitters.

While these ideas may help your company become THE ONLY or THE FIRST in your industry, they also may seem too scary and risky for leadership. They may end up whittled down to something boring—or perhaps not implemented at all.

A method to reduce perceived fear and risk is to demonstrate how ideas are safe and how they fit in.

Book Smart

Book descriptions often start with the words:

• “Not since …”
• “In the tradition of …”

These lead-ins are crafted to help us quickly “get” what a new, different book is about by comparing it to something we already know. (The book description practice is was pointed out by literary agent Raif Sagalyn and described to me by Todd Sattersten, author of 100 Best Busines Books.)

“Not since Good To Great by Jim Collins has a book …” lets buyers know this will be like the best selling Good To Great. If you like Jim Collins, you’ll probably like this new book.

“In the tradition of Tom Peters…” lets you know this book will offer a bold Tom Peters-like leadership message.

Apply this concept to your risky ideas.

Reframe

THE FIRST becomes NOT SINCE.
Instead of focusing on the first time an idea is being done, indicate how it follows some other idea with “not since.” If you all look back fondly on what made project X success, show how the new idea is similar.

THE ONLY becomes IN THE TRADITION OF.
Instead of emphasizing that you’re the only company trying something, sell the idea internally with focus how the idea is “in the tradition of …,” something you’re already doing, or a successful idea from outside your company.

As you champion great ideas, emphasize how and where they fit into what you’re already doing. While it seems counter-intuitive, demonstrating how your ideas actually fit in may be the secret to getting you to stand out.

“Surround yourself with great people—and you’ll get great things,” so the advice goes. However, it isn’t enough just to surround yourself; you must also take care and nurture those people, too. The following story from the book, The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz is a great example:

Just recently, I was a guest at an all-day sales convention. After dinner that evening ,the vice president in charge of sales for the company passed out awards to the two district managers, a man and a woman, whose sales organizations had attained the best records for the year just ended. The vice president asked those district managers to take 15 minutes to tell the entire group how their organization did so exceptionally well.

The first district manager (who, I learned later, had been appointed a manager only three months before and therefore only partially responsible for his organization’s record) got up and explained how he did it.

He conveyed the impression that his efforts and his efforts alone caused the sales increase. Remarks such as, “When I took over I did such-and-such;” “Things were in a mess but I cleared them up;” “It wasn’t easy but I just grabbed hold of the situation and wouldn’t let go” characterized his talk.

As he talked, I could see the increasing resentment gathering in the faces of his salespeople. They were being ignored for the sake of the district manager’s personal glory. Their hard work, which was responsible for the sales increase, was completely unrecognized.

Then, the second district manager got up to make her short talk. But this lady used an entirely different approach. First, she explained that the reason for her organization’s success was the whole-hearted effort of her sales force. Then she asked each one to stand and paid a sincere personal compliment to each for his or her efforts.

Note this difference; the first manager squandered the vice-president’s praise entirely on himself. In doing so, he offended his own people. His sales force was demoralized. The second passed the praise on to her sales force where it could do more good. This manager knows that praise, like money, can be invested to pay dividends. She knew that the passing the credit on to her sales people would make them work even harder next year.

Remember, praise is power. Invest praise you receive from your superior. Pass praise to your team where it will encourage still greater performance. When you share praise, your team will know you sincerely appreciate their value.

A final Note

The one thing this story is missing is that investing praise must be genuine. If the second district manager said those things without meaning it, she would be as bad as the first. It is probably better to have a boss that hogs praise than one who shares with insincerity.

When investing praise, be both generous and genuine.

The story “Don’t Hog Glory, Invest It Instead” is from pages 209-211 of the book, The Magic Of Thinking Big: Set Your Goals High Then Exceed Them by David J. Schwartz. © 2006 Pocket Books.

In 2009, consumers spent $23.6 billion on gift cards during the holidays, with an average spend of $40 per card. That’s 590 million gift cards. 590 million customers. That’s a lot of people. Beginning December 26, many of these card-wielding people, will be your first-time customers, new to your business.

Are you ready?

What are you doing to ensure you make a remarkable first impression on their first visit to your store or website?

We have the chance to roll out the red carpet for these new customers, to make the first time at our business as welcome and as easy as possible. But this can be a challenge because we forget. We and our employees spend so many hours in the business, we forget what it was like to be new and not understand the process. We suffer from the curse of knowledge.

Here are ways customers may feel lost or intimidated:

• Technical Knowledge
  Is the technology of your product confusing? I’m not sure which TV features I need. What is the difference between the Wii, XBox, and PlayStation game systems? What tools do you provide your staff or directly for the customer to clear confusion?
• Jargon
  Do your products call for jargon to understand and order? How about a Starbucks double-tall, extra-foamy, non-fat caramel macchiato anyone? At Waffle House restaurants, you can order your potatoes: scattered, smothered, covered, chunked, diced, peppered, capped, topped or “all the way.”
• Barriers to Ordering
  Do you make customers create a full account on your site before you let them place an order? Is it necessary? Isn’t an email and order number enough for the customer? Are your days and hours of operation such that it makes it a challenge for those with full-time jobs to access your business?
• Demonstration Is Required
  Some products need a demonstration or trial before they really get what you’re about. Some products need to be tried before buyed. (Yes, it’s terrible grammar, but it’s also an important rule.) An example would be perfume. You smell a few brands before you buy. Often, someone came in planning to spend a minimum amount, but after trying and understanding your wonderful products, departs spending more than either you or the customer expected.
• Demonstration Is Required
  Some products call for an in-store demo before the customer takes it home to try. Espresso machines are a good example. As great as directions may be, it always helps to see it done and try it yourself when there is someone there who can help with questions.
• Batteries Not Included
  It is incredibly disappointing when you rush home with your new gift to find out you don’t have all the pieces to make it work. Batteries are a great example. You need to alert customers when they’ll need something else to make your product work.Did you know an espresso machine (and sometimes a coffee maker) need to be primed before using them? Yep, you’re supposed to run white vinegar through it to get out any factory residue and pre-clean it. If you don’t, it will make your drink taste like oil or metal. Despite knowing this, I never understood why Starbucks (back when they used to sell espresso machines) didn’t put a small bottle of white vinegar in with the machines at the factory. How disappointing the next morning when excited for your home-crafted Starbucks latte to find out you can’t make it. Even worse, to ignore the instruction and start the day drinking a nasty tasting latte?!

And, I’m sure there are many many more examples …

It is important to note, make sure, when warming up to your new customers, you don’t leave your current, loyal customers out in the cold. Royal treatment should be given to every customer.

Long story short

Make sure your employees are ready. Make sure they understand it may take these “newbie” customers a little longer to understand. Give your employees the tools to make it easy to share and teach the customer. Let the use of a gift card be the start of a conversation between your employees and the customer.

Treat them poorly, and spending that gift certificate is the last you’ll ever see that customer. Treat these people properly, right from the start, and you can have a customer for life.

You visit a new restaurant for a tasty dinner, do you ignore the rest and only order the top item at the top of the menu? I don’t believe you would.

In both situations, before making a decision, you would first review all your options. You’d scan each of the books in the marketing section. You would read the entire menu. Then, from that full selection of offerings, make the best choice.

We appreciate and expect variety and choice with these decisions, but often when making bigger, more financially critical decisions at work, deny ourselves.

In the name of efficiency, when faced with problems or challenges at work, we go forward with the first workable option we can think of. Business pressure, to get things done quickly and efficiently, causes us to miss key opportunities. This can cause us to miss the best solution.

If you go with the first, only idea you have, that isn’t decision-making. That’s a last resort. Decisions require choosing from a pool of options. Selecting among two alternative ideas isn’t a decision either—it is only choosing this or don’t do this.

A wise person once shared with me, “Decisions improve in proportion to the number of interesting, attractive, and doable alternatives you have to consider.”

We must pile up a list of unusable ideas. The more ideas you think up, the more likely you are to arrive at one that is brilliant and remarkable.

Even if you think you’ve happened upon the best idea right from the start, you should think up a few more. Picking one idea from a pool of one isn’t a choice. Don’t stop at the first one that seems to fit. Keep thinking. Come up with at least two more ideas for a total of three to choose from.

If that first idea is the one you go with, you can have the confidence that you’ve made a choice. That you weren’t just forced into using the first idea that popped into you mind.

Choice and options, when it comes to important decisions, isn’t a luxury, but a requirement. The next time you or your team start moving with the first idea that pops into mind, entertain other options. You deserve the right to decide, not simply be forced with an approach due to haste. Brainstorm a few more workable ideas. You deserve choices. Remarkable ideas spring from choices.

In seeking guidance, I wrote a letter to an advice columnist. (This is long before the Web existed).

The advice I received in my written reply (long before email) was this:

“You really can’t make anyone like you. However, patience and understanding, as well as acceptance, will go further in letting someone know you care for them than anything else.”

Funny thing about this problem … I’ve spent my career wrasslin’ with this same issue. Oh, not about whether or not cute girls like me … (Who am I kidding? I’ll always hope for that.) But, helping companies know what to do to get potential customers to like them.

The same advice I was given to attract the smart, pretty, popular girl is the same we can apply to attract smart, pretty, popular customers:

1. Be patient. You can’t rush or force yourself on your customer.
2. Be understanding. Make sure you understand their needs, what she is looking for. Then meet those needs … Better yet—exceed them!
3. Be accepting. If you’re getting the signal that she’s not interested, accept it, and move on.

So, no, you can’t make your customers fall in love … You just have to do the best you can, and follow this advice.

This line from the 1992 movie “My Cousin Vinny” stated by someone claiming to be an eyewitness to a crime provided the slick, New York, first-time lawyer a clue to the innocence of his clients.

More so, it truly and accurately represents the way Southerners feel about their grits.

Instant: Form Factor Furthest From Fresh

It is no surprise about grits. This rule applies to nearly any instant food product. Instant is the furthest point, on the opposite end, from fresh. Instant grits. Instant potatoes. Tang = instant orange juice. Even “juice from concentrate” pales in flavor compared to freshly squeezed oranges.

We Americans love convenience, but we often trade it for quality.

To hear Starbucks launching its VIA Ready Brew instant coffee last September was shocking. To rephrase that line from “My Cousin Vinny”: No self-respectin’ coffee lover uses instant coffee.

I got my coffee training and education from Starbucks. We were clearly taught that if Starbucks was as close to godliness coffee could get; instant and flavored coffee were the devil.

Speaking of treasured coffee …

Starbucks Christmas Blend, The Most Special Coffee

At Starbucks, as special as its whole bean coffees are, Christmas Blend has always been considered the most special. It has been blending Christmas Blend for 26 years. While we know it contains Latin American coffees and Aged Indonesian coffee, the rest of the recipe is a guarded secret.

Each year it is featured in custom-created packaging that serves as the center point for the Christmastime promotion. In fact, the packaging is reviewed and approved by Chairman and CEO Howard Schultz himself.

There was a time in the late 90s when customers would call to reserve pounds of Christmas Blend and stand in lines to pick it up. If, to a little kid, Christmas is all about Santa coming down the chimney delivering presents—that is the same anticipation folks had for Christmas Blend.

And Now …

This month, Starbucks launches Christmas Blend as an instant coffee: Christmas Blend VIA Ready Brew. It has taken its highest form of coffee and produced it in the lowest format. It’s “selling out” (compromise integrity) its most precious product.

Now what? It is a coup for VIA, but a bad day for Christmas Blend.

Too Much Too Soon?

So let’s put aside my old school, purist, golden days at Starbucks. Anyhow, some think they blew that reputation when they started offering Frappuccino.

Let’s say you’re okay with instant coffee. And Christmas Blend—regular or instant—doesn’t bother you.

As a marketer and/or product manager, from a strategic marketing perspective, is the VIA product team doing too much too soon?

VIA Ready Brew Timeline

Within 14 months they’ve done all there is to do with their new platform.

Other than adding more flavors and varieties—creating the Starbucks version of General Foods International Coffees—it doesn’t seem there’s anywhere else to go.

What do you think?

• Am I too old school about Christmas Blend?
• Does anyone associate Starbucks with the highest quality coffee anymore? Or is it all about convenience?

What about the timing and extensions of the VIA Ready Brew product?

• Too much, too fast? Or would you have managed it the same way?
• What about next year? What’s left for VIA to offer?

Stelzner offered these tips:

• If you want someone knocking on your door, turn on the light.
• Be prepared to give something away.
• Engage visitors, and they will love you.

Building on his great start, here are some additional lessons we can learn from Halloween:

• When it comes to Haunted Houses, the more attention to detail you put into it, the better and more believable the experience is for guests. The same applies to your business. Pay attention to delivering quality at every customer touchpoint, and the more they’ll believe you’re a great brand.
• The best scary movies have music to build suspense and fear. What soundtrack plays at your business?
• Walking through a Corn Maze can be a blast. Try to find your way out, navigating turns and dead-ends, is what makes it fun. If you get really frustrated or stuck, someone is there to guide you.Have you ever experienced a “corn maze” at a department store? You just want to find the shoe section. Or, heaven forbid, an open cash register so you can pay and get out of there!Be sure you haven’t created a maze with your retail location or website. Make it easy to navigate. Just in case someone does get lost, provide someone or something there as a guide.
• If your plan is to scare kids on your front porch, you’ll have much better success if you keep your mask on and stay in character. Same thing applies to front-line employees, while customers are present, they need to stay in character as the “friendly, happy, sweet salesperson.”
• Being “friendly, happy, and sweet” isn’t enough. Employees need to be genuine. Just like Halloween candy, too much artificial sweet will upset stomachs.
• Word-of-mouth marketing was probably invented by trick-or-treaters: “Be sure to stop by the Jones house … They’re giving away king-size Snicker bars! Skip Old Man Moore’s house—he gives you a penny and a handful of popcorn.”
• Every day is Halloween at your business. Characters of all shapes and sizes (some scary) come to your door looking for treats. If you don’t deliver, the trick is they won’t return.

The Best Boss

Respects

1. Earns Respect: Understands that title alone doesn’t grant respect. Respect is earned. And the fastest way to get respect from your team is to respect them first.
2. Never Belittles: Criticizes in private. Praises in public. A good boss doesn’t reprimand employees in front of other people. Growth comes from constructive feedback. Tearing someone apart in front of their peers kills morale and says more about your need to wield power than help your employee.
3. Stays Grounded: She doesn’t let having an executive assistant and a corner office let her forget what it was like in the cubicle trenches. She remembers and is willing to roll up her sleeves.

Trusts

1. Stands By Me: Shows loyalty and support. When someone from another department has a complaint about one of your workers, a good boss listens to get a clear understanding of what happened, then speaks with that person before forming judgment.If you were out of line, she’ll have you fix the situation. If you were in the right, she’ll return to the person who complained to set things straight.
2. Respects the Role: Despite what they show on Mad Men, your employees won’t respect you if you leap out of your chair to poke your head out your office door to check-out a co-worker as she walks by. It is also really out of line to sleep with your department’s human resources representative. (True story, by the same boss.)

Supports

1. Keeps Distance, But Is Always Near: Sometimes, an employee needs micro-management. When they don’t, stay out of the way. However, like a life-ring at the pool, be nearby when you are needed.
2. Sets You Up for Success: While a good boss may push and challenge you, he won’t throw you to the wolves or sharks. He has realistic expectations of what can and needs to be done, and sets you up for success.
3. Is a Bulldozer: A great boss clears a path for her employees. If there is a new well-thought and well-planned program that may get resistance from another department, she works to clear the path for the program.
4. Support Themselves: The best boss hires an awesome Executive Assistant and treats them like gold. Truth is, bosses don’t run companies, assistants do. Their skill to serve as air traffic controller for your team and busy schedule is critical.

Fosters Teamwork

1. Sets The Example: Actions speak louder than words. A “do as I say, not as I do” approach may not work. For example, if you want your team to respect deadlines, lead by example.
2. Plays To Our Strengths: Knows his department well enough to form teams of people with complimentary skills.
3. Teaches: Be a boss your team can learn from. You don’t have to know all the answers. It’s enough to know where to find the answers.
4. Doesn’t Air Dirty Laundry: If there is a problem or dysfunction among the team, this is information and a situation that should be handled within and among the department—perhaps behind closed doors. Don’t expose co-workers, internal customers, or clients to your problems.

Communicates

1. Knows “The Five Work Languages”: This riffs off the book by Gary Chapman called The Five Love Languages. Chapman describes, in personal relationships, there are five ways we speak and understand how expressions of love. They are:
   1. words of affirmation
   2. quality time
   3. receiving gifts
   4. acts of service
   5. physical touch

   Though you may appreciate “words of affirmation” as an expression of love, your partner may prefer to spend “quality time” as a measure of love. Common understanding of these leads to more fulfilled relationships.

   These can be reapplied at the office as The Five Work Languages. (I think there is a book idea here!)

   These categories match with what a boss should look for in their employees.

   1. words of affirmation (Tell me I’m doing a good job.)
   2. quality time (Take time out of your schedule for me.)
   3. receiving gifts (Show me the money.)
   4. acts of service (Do something for me that requires thought, planning, time energy and effort.)
   5. physical touch (Thank me with a handshake or pat on the back.)
2. Dishes the Inside Scoop: Most companies require employees to be able to manage certain levels of change and ambiguity. Reorganizations, layoffs, and new departmental structures can throw hard-working employees into a spin.One boss used to call an “emergency meeting” when something fairly major was going to happen within the organization. She probably would have gotten in trouble for sharing what she knew before the company-wide general announcement. But, she respected (and trusted) us to provide us with the inside scoop. Her goal was to have us better prepared when the announcement took place.Instead of being in a panic when the change was announced, we already had time to think about it (just as she had) and were able to prepare—mentally and logistically. We didn’t waste time in a panic; we put the knowledge into immediate action.

Recognizes

1. Recognizes And Rewards: A great boss knows the job well enough, they appreciate the work it take for an employee to do it right.It can be very deflating, for an employee who works their butt off, to accomplish a huge project simply to have the boss fluff-off the effort.
2. Gives Credit and Takes Blame: When things are going well, she recognizes the efforts of her team. When things get messed up, she accepts responsibility to make it right.

Develops

1. Replaces Themselves: One goal of a great boss is to develop employees to be their successor. You’ll never be able to promote if there is no one to fill your shoes.
2. Builds Bench Strength: While developing a successor, they are also building up a manager for a director role. While making sure specialists are ready to move into the manager role.
3. Is a Gardener: Great bosses grow great employees. They develop their team. They measure themselves by how much they’ve grown their team.
4. Pushes: The best boss pushes you. They know what you’re capable of, and ask for a bit more. This helps you grow.

Kevin, I hope this helps you. I invite everyone to join in. Please add your experiences below. Perhaps, start your comments with either @GOOD BOSS or @BAD BOSS so we can sort through the advice.

As Morgan D. Jones writes in his book, The Thinker’s Toolkit: 14 Powerful Techniques for Problem Solving – “The aim of problem restatement is to broaden our perspective of a problem, helping us to identify the central issue and alternative solutions and increase the chance that the outcome our analysis produces will fully, not partially, resolve the problem.”

“Restate or redefine the problem in as many different ways we can think of. This allows us to shift our mental gears without evaluating them.”

Below I’ve provided eleven different methods to help restate a problem. The first five are found in Jones’ Thinker’s Toolkit.

Suggestions Jones suggests include…

(1) Paraphrase:

Restate the problem using different words without losing the original meaning.

Initial statement:	How can we limit congestion on the roads?
Paraphrase:	How can we keep road congestion from growing?

(2) 180-Degrees:

Turn the problem on its head.

Initial statement:	How can we get employees to come to the company picnic?
180-Degrees:	How can we discourage employees from attending the picnic?

Jones points out that taking the opposite view of a problem is a surprisingly effective technique.

(3) Broaden the focus:

Restate the problem in a larger context.

Initial statement:	Should I change jobs?
Broaden focus:	How can I achieve job security?

(4) Redirect the focus:

Boldly, consciously change the focus.

Initial statement:	How can we boost sales?
Redirect focus:	How can we cut costs?

(5) Ask “Why”:

Ask “why” of the initial problem statement. Then formulate a new problem statement base on the answer. Then ask “why” again, and again. Repeat this process a number of times until the essence of the “real” problem emerges.

Initial statement:	How can we market our in-house multimedia products?
Why?:	Because many of our internal customers are out sourcing their multimedia projects.
———
Restatement:	How can we keep internal customers from outsourcing their multimedia projects?
Why?:	Because it should be our mandate to do all of the organization’s multimedia?
———
Restatement:	How can we establish a mandate to do all of the organizations multimedia?
Why?:	Because we need to broaden our customer base?
———
Restatement:	How can we broaden our customer base?
Why?:	Because we need a larger base in order to be cost effective?
———
Restatement:	How can we become more cost effective?
Why?:	Because our profit margin is diminishing?
———
Restatement:	How can we increase our profit margin?
Principle problem has emerged:	How to obtain a mandate to do all of the organization’s multimedia projects.

In their book Strategies For Creative Problem Solving, the following are what authors H. Scott Fogler and Steven E. LeBlanc call “problem statement triggers” These are how they restate problems. They use a breakfast cereal for each of their examples.

Original Problem Statement:
The Toasty O’s cereal is clearly not getting to market fast enough to maintain freshness.

(6) Vary the stress pattern:

Try placing emphasis on different words and phrases.

• Cereal is not getting to market fast enough to maintain freshness.
  (Do other products we have get there faster?)
• Cereal is not getting to market fast enough to maintain freshness.
  (Can we make the distance/time shorter?)
• Cereal is not getting to market fast enough to maintain freshness.
  (Can we distribute it from a centralized location?)
• Cereal is not getting to market fast enough to maintain freshness.
  (How can we keep cereal fresher, longer?)

(7) Substitute:

Choose a term that has an explicit definition and substitute the explicit definition in each place that the term appears.

• Breakfast food that comes in a box is not getting to the place where it is sold fast enough to keep it from getting stale.
  (This restatement makes us think about the box and staleness. How might we change the box to prevent staleness?)

(8) Opposite:

Make an opposite statement, changing positives to negatives, and vice versa.

• How can we find a way to get the cereal to market so slowly that it will never be fresh?
  (This restatement makes us think about how long we have to maintain freshness and what controls it.)

(9) Change Adverbs Of Frequency:

Change “every” to “some,” “always” to “sometimes,” “sometimes to “never,” and vice versa.

• Cereal is not getting to market fast enough to always maintain freshness.
  (This change opens up new avenues of thought. Why isn’t are cereal always fresh?)

(10) Replace Persuasive Words:

Replace “persuasive words” in the problem statement such as “obviously,” “clearly,” and “certainly” with the argument it is supposed to be replacing.

• The word clearly in the problem statement implies that if we could speed up delivery, freshness would be maintained. Maybe not! Maybe the store holds the cereal too long. Maybe the cereal is stale before it reaches the store.
  (This trigger helps us change the implicit assumptions made in the problem statement.)

(11) Diagram:

Express words in the form of an equation or picture, and visa versa.

• Freshness is inversely proportional to the time since the cereal was baked:
  (Freshness) = k/(Time since cereal baked)

Try out one or more of these techniques. Problem restatement helps you focus on the core of the problem. Identifying the core saves immense time, effort, and money. As a bonus, sometimes restating a problem points you directly to a solution. However, it shows there is more than one problem and helps identify them.

Sources: Restatements 1-5, and examples from:
The Thinker’s Toolkit: 14 Powerful Techniques for Problem Solvingby Morgan D. Jones.
Problem Statement Triggers 6-11, and cereal examples from:
“Strategies For Creative Problem Solving by H. Scott Fogler and Steven E. LeBlanc

Does it involve snake oil? Well, it isn’t a secret and, no, no snake oil. Author and inventor, Doug Hall has studied years of research of successful (and not-so-successful) brainstorming sessions at his Eureka! Ranch think tank.

He includes his finding in his book Jump Start Your Brain v2.0: How Everyone At Every Age Can Be Smarter And More Creative. He has determined there are three key components that dramatically affect the output of big ideas during brainstorming sessions.

• Stimulus creates associations which lead to big ideas.
• Diversity multiplies big ideas.
• Fear shuts down big ideas.

Hall reflects this as a formula: his Eureka! Formula For Creativity.

Eureka Ideas = Stimulus to the power of Diversity divided by Fear

How do these elements work together?

Stimulus

Surround the brainstormers with input that will allow them to build, and form associations. Images, words, sounds, smells, tastes, textures. Engulf the team with all these elements. These pieces work like Lego bricks and can be connected and re-connected leading to clever and remarkable creations.

In the olden days a thesaurus, dictionary, pictures cut out of magazines, a set of encyclopedias, and Sears catalog were key tools. It is much easier now with access to zillions of bits of information found through Internet word and image search engines.

Provide as many options as possible for brainstormers to make associations and connections.

Diversity

By including a diverse team, you invite those with a framework different than yours. When your tight-knit, three-person team (who has been working on this project for six months) sees a bit of information, the three of you will probably process it in a similar manner.

Bring someone in without that same background, and they interpret that same information in a very different way, providing insights you wouldn’t have thought of. In his book, Hall recommends seeking out these types of people.

• Diversity of Opinion: Include those who think differently and/or are from different backgrounds. Find butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers.
• Independence: Include people from different geographical locations, different sides of the tracks, and different walks of life.
• Decentralization: Include micro-experts, people with specialized knowledge about each element of the challenge, who hold it up to the light and look at it from all sides and angles.

Additionally, (not mentioned in the book) there are successes in bringing in the blunt honesty of a teen, and the basic questions of someone who knows nothing about what you’re working on.

Fear

Hall points out the key things we fear are: being laughed/ridiculed, losing what you have/fear of change, rejection, the unknown, and insecurity. To overcome these, Hall recommends:

• Look to Teammates. Put yourself with people who can offer mutual support.
• Take Action.  I love this quote: “Fear is a mirage arising from your own uncertainties.” Just do it. Taking action is better than standing still. And as Ben Franklin said, “An ounce of momentum is worth a pound of courage.”
• Cover Your Bets. Who says it is all about risk? Suggestions include:
  • Underestimate expectations. Then you won’t be disappointed. I hope for the best, but expect the worst.
  • Build back doors. Have a fall-back position. “The more options you have today, the more courage you’ll have tomorrow.”
  • Replay past success. Remember prior wins. Recall the great ones.

From my own experience…

Who says you have to invite the entire department to your brainstorm session? Why do we build our brainstorming team with a huge net. “Bring the whole department. Bring the team on the eighth floor!”

Instead, be extremely deliberate in who you include in your brainstorm sessions. Hand-pick your players the same way you did when you selected your dodgeball team.

If there is fear because co-workers don’t want the boss to judge their “silly” ideas, don’t invite the boss. Or don’t invite the fearful person. Or— if you have to include both scary boss and fearful employee—start the session explaining to the participants that you’re not allocating resources today. You’re simply coming up with ideas. No money, labor, or factory equipment will be wasted in simply discussing interesting ideas. No need for fear.

For the next brainstorm session, try surrounding your team with stimulus, so they can make connections and associations. Include others who aren’t so close to what you’re doing and those so close they can dig into the minutia. Finally, host a fear-free meeting.

This combination is guaranteed to give you bigger and better ideas.

One problem they had in the factory was moving molten chocolate from one machine process to the next. In what sounded like a crazy idea, one of the factory workers suggested “a bathtub on wheels.”

And there you see one below. These are still in use today.

Hershey didn’t hire “creative” people—he hired factory workers. Hershey nurtured a creative climate that welcomed ideas from those who understood the challenges best: the workers.

They became experts at their jobs. Because Milton encouraged thinking, his employees weren’t mindless laborers, but thinkers. They created their own methods of making the job more efficient.

The October 2010 issue of Inc. Magazine features a four-page, pull-out section called “How To: Hire For Creativity.” It is part of its series offering readers a “monthly guide to policies, procedures, and practices.” The article provides ideas on how to attract and interview creative candidates. That is terrific. However, this advice is only helpful if you have a company culture receptive to transformational ideas.

Though there is a small part in the article warning not to put people in “an environment that squashes creativity,” there is no mention of building a culture that allows creativity and innovation to thrive.

The lack of creativity at your office isn’t due to “not enough creative people,” but a company culture that resists change. This is what stifles remarkable ideas.

Creativity means change and exploring different ways of doing things. Change scares people. And fear can paralyze.

Most of have had some great idea we had to fix or improve something at work. And, upon bringing it up to the boss or supervisor, we had it summarily shot down. If that happens enough, we stop trying.

Wait, here’s a better example … Remember those beginning few weeks when you first started your job? Remember when you were fresh and saw opportunity for improvement around every corner? All the things you wanted to fix? Knew you could fix?

Remember at the nine-month mark when knew enough to to realize you couldn’t fix things as you hoped? Eventually, you accepted that the machine just grinds on, and you gave up on fixing. You end up spending your creative energy finding workarounds to get things done in spite of it.

I don’t intend to sound grim. That creative energy should be used for progress, not to do slightly better than the status quo. But this is the reality in many organizations. And it doesn’t have to be.

Why does this happen?

At many companies, job security is accomplished by doing your job while maintaining the status quo. A taller tree, with roots. On the other hand, the creative company rewards growth through improvement and change. A better sail.

Yes, I’m advocating change for the sake of change. Your industry is changing, the marketplace is changing, how we reach our customers is changing, what our customers demand is changing—why would your company stay the same?

It takes a mind shift across the whole organization to make real change. This is typically a result of a strong, dynamic champion and leader. (This could be you!)

How do you build a culture for creative thinking?

1. Recognize and reward change makers. Let it be known that it literally pays to make a difference.
2. Allow mistakes. Build awareness and encourage learning from mistakes. Making mistakes means you’re learning faster.
3. Be assumption intolerant. Just because something is the way it is, does it mean it has to be that way?
4. Admit when something is broken, and do something about it.  “It has always been done that way” isn’t justification for broken.
5. Allow constructive critique of any part of the business. At the same time, encourage solution suggestions, not just pointing-out the problem.
6. Encourage mingling between departments. We learn best practices from others as well as understand the bigger picture of how different gears of the company fit together.

If your culture does already foster a culture that encourages change, the above article will be helpful.

If creativity is stifled at your company, use the advice in the Inc. Magazine article to first hire a senior leader capable of leading change.

The engineer runs his business as if it were a locomotive. He gets the business onto the right track, fuel the engine, watch out for crossings, and prepare to arrive at the next station.

The pilot, without rails to guide direction, constantly monitors her surrounding and gauges. Flight direction is constantly affected by external forces. Small adjustments to the controls are made to compensate and keep the aircraft on target.

Pssst! The opening was a trick question. The pilot’s got the right idea.

Situational Awareness

One of the first lessons they teach student pilots is to constantly ask themselves, “Where am I? What’s going on around me?” This situational analysis loop allows the pilot to stay on course to their final destination by making necessary small adjustments.

The low-energy, repeated monitoring can also keep you on course at your business.

For Your Brand, Company, Products/Services

On a macro level, you should be monitoring your company, competition and the industry.

• Where are you now?
• Where are you going?
• What is going on around you?
• Where is your competition?
• What’s happening in the industry?
• What is the latest information on your product/service category?
• What is the latest in your product/service research?

For Your Programs, and Promotions

On a micro level, you should be monitoring your programs and promotions.

• Are you meeting your goals?
• Do your customers “get it”?
• Do you need to extend the program? Conclude it sooner?
• Are you getting the participation you expected?

Manage Small Issues, Not Problems

One of the best methods for solving problems is to not let them happen. Problem first start as small issues. By acting as a pilot does – constantly monitoring the situation—you can make small adjustments, react, and fix small issues.

A great way to evaluate your ideas is by categorizing them into what Edward de Bono in his book Serious Creativity: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas calls End Categories.

Understanding and using these categories will help you to focus, prioritize, take action, or reject the right ideas. The last quarter of your brainstorming agenda should be dedicated to categorizing ideas in these buckets.

1.) Directly Usable

These are your best ideas. You’ve determined they have value and could be used. These babies are worth exploring deeper and finding resources to support.

2.) Good Ideas, But Not For Us

These have value and support your objective, but are not a good fit. Maybe you lack skills or resources, but most often your brand filters eliminate these ideas. In a future round of thinking, you could explore these and ask,  “How could these be modified to be a good fit?” But more than likely, these ideas should be discarded.

3.) Good Idea, But Not for Now (Backburner)

These have value and are a good fit—but are not right at this time. Current resources, capacity, or priorities may not allow you to act on these. Put them on the backburner. Revisit them in a month or a quarter.

4.) Needs More Work

Ideas with potential, but are half-baked. With more work you can transform these into Directly Usable ideas. Get some folks working on these.

5.) Powerful, But Not Usable

These are usually great ideas blocked by some external force. Factors you can’t control that de Bono calls “regulations, environmental concerns, very high risk factors, cannibalizing existing products and so on.”

6.) Interesting, But Unusable

These are some of the most productive ideas. Not because they become usable, but because they spark other usable ideas. They often offer new ways about thinking of things. These are the ideas that start as “Hmmmm?” and spark “A-ha!”

7.) Weak Value

These ideas work and they fit your organization, but they lack value. The return on the effort invested in these may be disappointing. The danger with Weak Value ideas is that sometimes we accept and implement these just to “have something out there.” They support a “something is better than nothing” approach. Don’t fall into this trap. There may be ways to re-work these ideas so that way they work, are a fit, and become high contributors.

8.) Unworkable

These are fundamentally impossible. Not even if you worked hard on them.  They’re duds—and should be rejected. Period.

Finally …

Turn these ideas into action by assigning Action Steps to individual owners for each idea. This makes one person accountable for an idea.

• Begin exploring the Directly Usable ideas.
• Take a final look at the Good Idea, Not For Now before putting those into short-term storage.
• Get folks cracking on Needs More Work ideas.
• Tinker with your Interesting, But Unusable to see what other ideas they could spark.
• And make everyone promise not to monkey with the Weak Value or Unworkable ideas.

“Time to make the donuts” is the phrase Fred the Baker would repeat in a somber tone as he was getting ready before dawn, day after day, to make sure fresh donuts were ready at Dunkin’ Donuts.

Great job on the ads, Dunkin’. It has been thirteen years since those ads ran, but the catchphrase is still with us.

Many of us can relate to Fred —doing the same thing day after day.

In these commercials, Dunkin’ was trying to convey the advantage they have over their competition—grocery stores—fresh baked donuts each and every day. As Fred states in the commercial, “I”ll bet the grocery store guys are still in bed.”

While we’ve turned the phrase to mean something we must do routinely that we may find grueling, many of us have forgotten the last scene of that commercial. When the store opens, Fred turns and faces his customers with a welcome smile.

The marketing lesson here … The life lesson in fact, is that much success can be found in simply following through. Being there consistently. And, consistently delivering on the promises you’ve made to your customers.

But it isn’t easy.

The last role I had at Starbucks Coffee was helping to develop customer service strategy. One of the biggest challenges in delivering customer service is being consistent.

As customers, we prefer to receive “slightly better” service all the time than to have awesome service one day, and a crummy experience the next. But that service roller coaster was happening at Starbucks. Up and down. Service at the same location could change from day to day, and it wasn’t consistent from store to store. It is a challenge many retailer’s face.

Consistency is so important, we’re willing to sacrifice quality for something we can count on. McDonald’s success is built on this. No one is claiming McD’s has got the best burgers in the world, but what a comfort to know they taste exactly the same in Rhode Island as they do in Russia.

In another version of the commercial (below), we see Fred in rain, storm, and snow going to make the donuts. He’s got sticktoitivity.

The recipe for consistency is:

• 1 part, Commitment—showing up day after day.
• 1 part, Anticipation—being prepared for the inevitable glitches.
• Stir constantly.
• Provide consistency, and for your customers, “it’s worth the trip.”

Quick Notes:

• I’m proud I’ve been “makin’ the donuts” here at the Daily Fix each Friday for over three years. And like Fred the Baker, I do it with a smile.
• Fred the Baker was played by actor Michael Vale who passed away at the age of 83 in 2005. When Dunkin’ retired the character, it held a “retirement” parade in Boston and offered free donuts to customers on that day.
• Amil Gargano of Ally & Gargano, the agency who created these commercials, has a new book “Ally & Gargano” coming out next week that tells the story behind some of the agency’s famous campaigns.

This week, I received a promotional email from a local day spa.

You know, massages, manicures and pedicures. In addition, it also offers a retail line of lotions and aroma therapy oils. The spa is positioned as a higher-end brand. Its pricing and build-out is higher than a quick-service spa place you’d find, for example, find at a mall location.

The email contained two offers:

1. An incentive.
2. A special seminar.

The incentive:
For each $100 in gift certificates you buy, you receive a $10 gift card. This is a sales driver.

The special seminar:
A “Yoga Basics” class. The spa’s expert guest will teach about yoga, the benefits, and a few of the basic moves. It listed the date, time, and the cost of the class—$5 cash. Though this may have been created as a way to do something special for customers, this should really be considered a traffic-driving tactic.

The Offers Reviewed

What I’ve explained is pretty standard stuff. We see (and create) these type offers all the time. A special offer to drive gift certificate sales and a relevant class/program designed to help customers. But, each of these has poor consequences. Let me explain where I think the ideas have gone wrong.

$10 Offer (Sales Driver)

Get a free $10 gift card for every $100 gift card purchased.

I give them credit right off for not offering “10% Off!” Percent-off is in-your-face discounting. A “free $10 card for you when you buy a $100 for a friend” is not as blatant, however, it is still discounting.

The problem with discounting is that it reduces the perceived value of the good or service. Why would I ever pay $200 again for a massage that has been offered at $180? It is obviously worth only $180 or less. I’m now going to wait to purchase when the price is low.

Instead of offering a discount, offer a value. I mentioned they have a line of beauty products. Why not give a $10 pack of beauty products free with each gift certificate purchase?

It provides a $10 value, but what you’re actually doing is driving trial. Someone (the giver or receiver) is going to try the products. What if you were able to convert them into a product buyer in addition to a service buyer? Now we have just increased the value of this customer to your company by increasing the average purchase.

Special Seminar (Traffic Driver)

Come to our class, bring five bucks. Seriously?

I mentioned this was a swanky brand. What’s with “bring five bucks? I know, it the cash fee to pay the person who is giving the class. This prevents the spa from taking the money out of their petty cash. But, they’re missing the point. This isn’t a five-dollar-per-person cost … It is an investment. The purpose of bringing people in, is NOT the class. It is a chance to DRIVE TRAFFIC to the site to DRIVE TRIAL of products.

The chance to offer participants a short massage, a chance to use the beauty products. This is a chance to roll out the red carpet and make them feel welcome. Show them why you’re worth paying more for. Perhaps the value of coming in every four weeks instead of every six weeks.

Asking participants to pony-up five bucks make the spa sound like a cheapskate. The spa should either charge $50 a person (make it seem of high value), or make it a free seminar and use the traffic as a way to drive trial, and future purchase.

In Conclusion

As I said at the beginning, on the surface these ideas are pretty standard. And, you have to give points to the spa owner for doing something.

Something isn’t always better than nothing when it can cause damage. The smart strategy not only works to achieve the short-term goals, but also supports or builds the brand in the long run.

There is a neat feature of Google search you may find helpful:  the Wonder Wheel.

When you perform a search on Google, one of the additional options is to have your results presented in a hub-and-spoke diagram. A wheel of wonder, if you will.

The hub shows your original search term, and the spokes show terms relevant to your search.

Select Wonder wheel

The link to activate Wonder Wheel should show up in the left column after you perform a normal search. Click to see your results in this hub/spoke layout. (You may need to click the “more search tools” to have it displayed for you).

The wheel to the left, the search results of the “hub” word are presented on the right.

Below, my original term was “marketing.” I then clicked the result spoke for “marketing strategy,”which led to “marketing tactics” and then here to “guerilla marketing tactics.” All the while, to the right were relevant websites about each topic.

Practical Use

The Wonder Wheel works well when you’re not sure what you’re exactly looking for. A way to start at a main topic—your hub—and work your way to what you may be looking for.

It also serves a brainstorming tool. Start with you key thought and click spokes to sort of wander around the topic to find inspiration.

It is also worth noting, in addition to standard, and wonder wheel searches, you can also view results presented in a time line and view searches related to yours with related searches.

Sometimes, when brainstorming, people become attached to certain ideas. Or maybe there is an idea they’ve brought in with them to the meeting. Or you’ll come across that “great idea” put upon the team by a company executive … who heard it from his nephew.

Though any of these may seem brilliant, until they are justified as both (a) supporting business strategy and (b) logistically practical, they can’t be considered viable.

To assist with this step during brainstorming sessions, I created a paper guide which allows participants to document to make sure they think through, and solve, both “why” and “how.”

You’ll also notice, at the bottom of the guide, I provide additional filters. In the case of the attached example we measure for ease, investment, and reach. (Insert your appropriate filtering questions there).

Why+How=Great Idea Guide [Word document, 46 KB].

It is a simple tool, but serves its purpose to ensure ideas are not just clever, but appropriate and feasible.

I invite you to give it a try. Let me know how it works for you.

However, at the office, working in teams among differing business disciplines creates situations where there are opposing opinions on how to reach a similar goal.

There are times when you don’t need to win, but you do need diplomacy. You need “best possible.” To strike a balance. A happy medium. This situation calls for a Target Diagram!

This graph is great for plotting something that falls within a realistic range of choices … The prime space between NONE and ALL. It is what you use when you need the right mix.

It is different from a Quadrant Diagram. That categorizes the lows and highs of something. The quadrant is great when you’re pushing for the extreme. To maximize.

This is not that.

It is almost like a Venn diagram—where the two or three circles meet representing the perfect blend.

But, it isn’t that either.

The target diagram is a great way to gauge you’re within established boundaries. Not too high or too low. The business equivalent of what Goldilocks was after at the Bear’s house—”just right.”

To try it, put your two sets of opposing forces at either end of the axes. In my example, I’m balancing website design between what we really want, and what we need to do to meet logistical needs. The goal is to find ideas that comes close to the middle of the target.

Next time your ideas need diplomacy, try graphing them on a target diagram.

“No duh.” Right? We’re marketers here. Our job is presenting things to create an effect.

No wait, keep reading … Hear me out. We should be using these super persuasion powers of ours to help our companies be more innovative. So many innovative ideas get quashed early—never making it off the whiteboard. Not because the ideas are bad, but because of the way they were presented.

Psychologists have found that the more assertively you express an idea, the more likely it is the person hearing it will resist it.

Experiments were conducted in which an idea was presented to someone in one of two ways: either as a proposal or as a suggestion. As a proposal, the idea was given as a statement: “What you should do is … ” As a suggestion, the same idea was expressed as a question or reflection: “I wonder if … ?”

When an idea was proposed, almost half of the recipients received it skeptically and challenged the idea. (Sound familiar?)

When the same idea was suggested, only 1 out of five recipients stated difficulties. Telling people what to do can make them defensive, push back, and shut ideas down. Putting forward a suggestion makes it impersonal—allowing the idea to be adopted in the mind, instead of forced.

As the graphic shows, if you suggest ideas they are more likely to be adopted and developed than if you propose them.

When presenting new ideas—especially in situations where you expect others to be defensive avoid phrases that begin with:

• What you should do is …
• I think you ought to …
• The best idea would be to …
• If I were you I would …

Instead, put your ideas forward as suggestions. Take out references to “you.” Try these:

• I wonder if it would be possible to …
• Has anyone ever thought of …
• I don’t suppose we could …
• What if it were …

That same persuasion we use to woo customers should also be considered when we’re trying to develop innovative ideas within our organizations. Next time you have a “crazy idea that just might work,” don’t propose, suggest it.

(I learned this technique from the the book Out Of The Box: 101 Ideas For Thinking Creatively by Rob Eastaway. The study was mentioned in the book Improve Your People Skills by Peter Honey.)

New to my market, I’ve made it a goal to get out of the office once a week to meet and mingle. When attending networking events with the goal of driving sales, the strategy is to meet and gather business cards from potential clients and those who may be able to generate leads.

While I have a contact management system, I did not have a formal process for filtering and categorizing the cards before I put them into that system.

Brushing up on my networking skills, I picked up a copy of Get Clients Now!: A 28-Day Marketing Program for Professionals, Consultants, and Coaches by C.J. Hayden. Among many other strategies and tools, Hayden outlines a simple method to manage gathered business cards.

Inspired by Hayden’s process and the paper place mats used in wine tastings, I created a “Networking Follow-Up Guide.” A one-page “place mat” (pictured below) to print out and use to sort business card piles into actionable categories.

I’ve linked the Networking Follow-Up Guide (PDF, 23kb) for you.

Summary: Following Up With Contacts

Here is a quick overview of the process Hayden outlines in the book. (You’ll find more detail on the print-out and in the book.)

1.)  Sort your business cards into three piles:

• Prospective Clients,
• Useful Networking Contacts, and
• Other.

2.)  Next, subdivide the Prospective Clients pile into: Hot, Warm, and Cool leads. The Hot leads are those who already indicated they need you. The Warm, those who mentioned a problem or goal you know you can help with. The rest would be Cool.

Hayden recommends you stop sorting and immediately follow up with the Hot and Warm leads.

3.)  Then, split the Useful Networking Clients pile into (a) those who could directly lead you to prospective clients, and (b) those who may lead you to potential marketing opportunities (speaking gigs, networking events, etc.).

Again, she suggests follow-up right then and there. This time, with those who may have leads for you. Your goal among these contacts is to build an ongoing give-and-take relationship.

I provide detail for each of these steps (and more) on the sheet.

A real ah-ha! moment for me was in Hayden’s final step. After review and follow-up, including the Cool Leads and Marketing Opportunities, you’ll still have your pile of “Other” cards. Her smart advice: “Unless they belong to people you would like to have a personal friendship with now, throw them away. If they aren’t worth following up with now, they don’t belong in your contact management system.” Such smart advice. Why waste your time? Why waste their time?

I hope you find the one-pager helpful. It helps me manage new contacts and act to get new clients.

I recommend Get Clients Now! Hayden not only does a great job helping build a comprehensive ‘new client’ strategy, she also provides details on how to implement the tactics and tasks.

As I followed, I was able to keep up for a while, but then I began to fall behind. Whoosh, these hills were tough. As we went downhill, he was able to speed even further ahead.

If he looked back, he would have seen me falling behind. But, he just kept pedaling forward. A second set of hills, and before I knew it, he was so far ahead he was completely out of view.

This guy was being a terrible leader. What good is leading if you don’t have a follower? At this point, he wasn’t a leader at all … but a lone ranger.

I rode another quarter mile, but there was no sign of him. Frustrated, I turned around to head home. It was hot, and I decided to get ice cream.

In the middle of all this, I saw a business lesson. What took place on the bike trail, takes place in the office.

You’ve got someone with vision, direction, and the desire to lead. They recruit followers, but forget to communicate important details, such as the big picture, how long the road is ahead … and where the end point is. As a follower, lack of information is frustrating and demotivating.

Great leadership not only requires vision and direction to move forward, but also the ability to look back. Drive forward confidently, but also “lead.” And provide your followers the ability to follow.

Some say the lack of innovation within organizations isn’t because of a lack of ideas, rather a lack of action. There are too many ideas and not enough implementors.

But, ideas need champions to implement them. Just the same way seeds need farmers.

A popular recommendation is: Stop generating ideas and start taking action. Stop the brainstorming and get to work. To maintain the farm comparison, since crop production (innovation) is down we need more farmers (execution) and fewer seeds (ideas).

But that doesn’t work. We’d end up with a bunch of hungry farmers standing in cropless fields.

Fact is, we need both.

There is a symbiotic relationship between these pairs. One can’t get along without the other. We ‘get’ that a seed isn’t a plant. We should understand an idea isn’t a plan. Seed (and ideas) take time, patience, pruning, and weeding to bear fruit.

And brainstorming is for more than idea generation. It is also a solution-finding process. We meet for more than creating ideas. Brainstorming and strategy sessions help us choose the right idea to properly solve the problem or grow the business. Which seed is right for the soil you have? For the amount of water you have access to? What is right for the crop you want to produce?

Next time you run into someone bashing ideas, remember… It isn’t one or the other. We need to be good at both idea generation and idea execution.

We spend so much of our time time trying to make and keep our customers happy that we may forget others—the competition—are trying to make them happier. Blasted competition!

But, my customer and I have a wonderful time together. I say and do all the right things. What more could they be looking for?

With laser-focus attention on understanding customers, we don’t notice the competition offering something smarter, better-looking, faster (or slower), or sexier.

Find out what this is before your customers do.

Shop your competition’s stores, test their products, call their phone customer service, talk to their customers, visit their website, test their return policy.

Experience what is attracting your customers away. Then consider, what your competition has that you’re missing? And, what can you offer that your competition can’t?

Don’t get stood up at your cash register. Keep customers happy by proactively meeting their needs. Don’t let them be seduced away from you by the competition.

1. To SOLVE or fix something
2. To GROW a part of the business
3. To THINK of ideas you can apply to your business
4. To CREATE new ideas and innovates.

Understanding the purpose of a meeting will make your time more productive and profitable.

To Solve

“Houston, we have a problem … ” While we don’t like to admit we have problems, admission is the first step in fixing them.

Whether you call them problems, challenges, or opportunities, you’ve got something broken needing fixing. The key to finding solutions is identifying the reason. Often, we fix the symptoms (apply tape to water pipe leak) and not the root cause (cracked pipe).

To Grow

Increasing, expanding, enhancing are all forms of growth.

You may want to GROW sales, customer service scores, or your brand’s reputation. “Growing sales” is the most common reason for brainstorming about growth. However, sales growth is the result of growing other aspects of your business.

Sales growth is based on:

You will have success when you break your growth goals into smaller strategies and develop tactics for each.

To Think

This is “filling your idea pipeline.” Your company wants to generate new beverage flavors for the next 24 months. Maybe you need to think up ideas for your fiscal year 2011 promotional calendar.

The beauty is that these ideas don’t have to be new. They can be a new application of an old idea.

Cold Stone Creamery didn’t invent the OREO Cookie, but were the first to create an OREO Cream Filling flavored ice cream. They applied an existing idea/flavor in a new way.

Keep on top of the trends in your industry. Also look for ideas in non-related industries. See something popular or that is working really well? Maybe there is an opportunity to implement it or modify it for your use.

To Create

Creating is developing innovative ideas. Brand-new ideas that have never been done before.

The key difference between creating and the previous category thinking, is that creating something doesn’t offer you a model of comparison.

You are the first person to do this idea in this particular way. You won’t have benchmarks and existing rules of success to guide you. For certain, more risky.

Innovative ideas can be scary. Be sure your ideas have champions who can show the upside for taking a bit of risk. Test innovative ideas in a small area first. Proven success in one market will draw interest from others.

Your Next Meeting

Next time you’re hosting a meeting, be attentive to the core reason behind your agenda items: to solve, grow, think, and/or solve. This will allow you to refine your approach and generate more ideas.

Artwork © Idea Sandbox

We don’t perceive these changes. At work 50 hours a week, this stuff happens too slowly to notice. Like watching your front lawn grow, day to day, nothing really happens. But, go away for a week holiday, and it grows to a jungle.

This is the jungle that your customers experience.

When they were last at your business, the light above the register hadn’t blown out yet, and it was pleasant and bright. The front door didn’t squeak each time it shut. The WiFi sticker on the window hadn’t been peeled and torn by that little kid. The floorboards hadn’t been scraped and marked by the mop bucket.

Now a week later, these small changes add up. Individually, each change is  hardly noticeable. When seen all at once, they leave a poor impression.

How do you maintain the quality of the experience for your customers?

Out of college, I went to work at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla. as an attractions host (someone who operates one of the rides).

The way Disney ensured quality from day to day was with a full-show walk-through check list. Every single light bulb, every show element, each animated character, every painted surface and square-foot of carpet is examined to confirm it is working and contributing to providing guests with a “good show.”

Broken items were immediately reported to the night-time maintenance crew who fixes them by the next morning.

If it could not be fixed and was considered critical to the show, instead of exposing guests to a “bad show,” Disney would shut the attraction down. Disney’s philosophy was: “No show is better than a bad show.”

This worked at Disney for two reasons. It had the systems and discipline to 1.) spot problems immediately and 2.) fix them quickly.

At the theme parks, it may not have been your specific job to fix a cracked sidewalk or re-paint scraped hand rails—but it was everybody’s job to notice these things and report them. This way, there was a team vigilant for elements that may potentially break the magic for the guest.

Maybe you can’t afford to shut your store down for the day if you found it presenting a “bad show” for your customers. But ask yourself:

• Do you pay enough attention to your customer experience?
• Can you view your business the way your customers experience it?
• How do you pay attention to the details?
• Do you have systems in place to rapidly fix what’s breaking?

How do you ensure a “good show”?

Chances are, unfortunately, you have probably heard one of these statements from someone whose job is to help you.

It could be the person at the motor vehicle department, the woman who works in accounting, or someone on your own team. People can be pretty stubborn and sometimes bitter about what they are willing to do (despite what they are actually able to do).

I’ve recently come across a communication and knowledge management model called DIKW that is about how we act at our jobs. The acronym represents: Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom.

DIKW expresses how we process information—starting with raw data and mastering it as wisdom.
Well-operated companies are run by people who know how to act and react in different business situations. They have a level of wisdom.

• They know how to swiftly remedy varying customer complaints.
• They know how to build a marketing promotions that successfully connect customers with products/services.
• They know how to create or change product and services to meet customer needs.

Presented below are the elements of DIKW–slightly modified to meet our marketing/business needs.

Data

Data are the raw facts. A description of the pieces of the puzzle, but not understanding what the picture is. An employee notices something happening, but it pretty much stops there.

Information

Information is data prepared/presented in a meaningful way–with context. Information involves understanding how different pieces of data connect to each other.  An employee sees water (what) on the floor (where), drips (what) currently (when) falling from (where) the overhead pipe (what). They conclude there is a leaky pipe. Hopefully, they’ll forward this information to someone.

Knowledge

Knowledge is acting on information. Data and information are combined; understood and proper action is taken. The “how” is figured out and applied.

Wisdom

Wisdom is understanding “why” and instinctively knowing how to act and react.

As an employee becomes more seasoned, and grows in their job role they gain more wisdom. Unfortunately, as I started this article, some choose not to apply their wisdom (but that’s a topic for a different post).

What can you do to empower your employees and co-workers to do more than inform and apply knowledge to act? (Early in my career a boss taught me, “Don’t bring me problems. Bring me solutions.”)

How can you develop employees to use wisdom to prevent problems? How far along the DIKW scale are you, your employees, and team members?

Read more about DIKW on Wikipedia and this article by Gene Bellinger.

Business can be unpredictable. Teams are large. There are a slew of moving parts involved in getting something done.

• The delivery didn’t come in.
• The version that was shipped had a typo.
• The gal who knows that answer is out sick today.
• Our location doesn’t have a ladder tall enough.
• The district manager has been out of town.
• Our mop handle broke.
• We didn’t expect this much demand.

Those of us running the business consider these legitimate reasons “why” something is the way it is or why something wasn’t done. We accept the situation. “Someone dropped the ball. It’s a bummer, but what are ya gonna do?”

When a business doesn’t deliver what it promised you,  you don’t care why. You just want them to follow through and fix it a.s.a.p. So, why do we think our customers care about our excuses?

Over-promising and under-delivering to your customers today will make them someone else’s customer tomorrow. Your customers don’t care about the delivery, the typo, employee illness, the short ladder, the vacation schedule, the condition of your cleaning supplies, or your inability to forecast.

Yours is not the first company to experience these problems, and they will happen again in the future. So, why aren’t you prepared with a “Plan B” or a quick fix?  And why do you pass the consequences onto your customer? They shouldn’t know the difference.

A lesson I learned early in my career is that all businesses have problems. A company’s ability to shield the customer from behind-the-scenes glitches—and maintain a high-quality, consistent experience—that makes it great.

Customers just want:

• the product you promised
• easy-to-read signage
• enough knowledgeable staff available
• a well-lit store
• someone responsible to complain to
• a clean location
• the advertised product that they drove to your shop for to be in stock

Stop accepting and caring about the excuses—because your customers don’t want to hear them—and focus on fixing the problem.