If this isn’t the coolest thing you’ll watch this week, I want to know what is.  It’s the ultimate whiteboard video.  But just a second.

Let’s say you weren’t convinced by my meager whiteboard video and the concept of story in your messaging, because your product or service is mundane or boring.  I have friends that do a great job of selling really boring SaaS for 1099 filings.  (Gag!)  This is just the kind of service that needs a whiteboard.  The proof you say?  How about 750,000 hits?

OK.  Now you can look at the video.  As you do, think about the following:
•    The subject could be boring.
•    It’s a technical subject.
•    The video title contains the word “Terror.”
•    The opening music is “Jaws like.”
•    The  opening “hook” is “When people look at it, it looks crazy!”
•    Find the drama.  The odds, the potential crash, their reputations.
•    Notice the two second scene changes.
(click the image to play)

And they spent a little money.  But Mars curiosity will be landing one way or the other August 5th. Will you have seven minutes of terror or will you know your prospects are watching your video before it’s over?

Send your whiteboard video links.

Do Great Things!
Lee Stocking
Prairie Sky Group
Making Sales Cry With Qualified Leads
651-357-0110 (Cell24x7)

Share

My Grandson

In a recent post, People Don’t Read…What Are You Going to Do About It? I advocated the use of video to get your messages across.  But by extension, if no one watches your video, you’re still stuck.

I’ve tried a few videos.  They’re OK.  Not great, but I got a good number comments on them.  I tired to keep them less than two minutes in order to keep people’s attention.  But I wasn’t satisfied.  Something was missing.  Then recently it clicked when I asked my four year-old grandson to tell me a story.

This is his story.   “There was a elephant. His name was Ralph, and he had big teeth. (Not the same elephant that got stuck in the room.) Then he went to the store.  He chased all the people out.  So then they called the POLICE.  But he ate all the food.  Then he pooped. Ha, ha.  When the police came, he got on a fire engine and drove away.  THE END.”  I asked him what happened next, and he continued the story for another two minutes.

So what do George Lucas and my grandson have in common that can teach us something about your marketing video?

The most important aspect for marketing videos is that you have to tell a story.

The first thing is that every story needs is a “hook” or a reason to continue listening.  For example; an elephant with “big teeth” (why big teeth?), or “A long time ago in a galaxy far far away.”  This engages us in “The Story.”  It helps us suspend disbelief and allows us to listen and focus on what comes next.

Once you are engaged in the story, you need some conflict or drama such as calling the police, or a rebellion in a galaxy against the emperor.

Then the next key element is to keep us engaged.  Two of the most important words you can use are “and then.”  And then… what happened next?  My grandson, without thinking, naturally used “then” three times in his story.  But here is where the genius of George Lucas comes into play.  His version of “and then” was the “two-second” scene change.  What’s that?

We are evolved to look at motion.  We can’t help it.  From an evolutionary standpoint, sensitivity to motion protects us from the predators in the bushes.  By changing the scene rapidly, Lucas keeps us hooked into the action of Star Wars and raises our adrenaline levels.  We are forced to pay attention because we are looking to see what happens next.  Look at any commercial on TV today and you will see this phenomenon.  No scene lasts more than two seconds.

So how does this relate to creating a white board video?  In my video, I try to tell a story.  It begins with “a great idea.”  We all identify with the creation of a great idea; it’s a classic business narrative.  Conflict is created by failure to sell that idea.  Motion is created by drawing.  This is the equivalent of Lucas’s fast scene changes.  The viewer wants to see what is being drawn next, and this creates the “and then.”  Next there is a little humor to open our minds.  Finally, there is the resolution.  The elephant drives away on the fire engine, Darth Vader is thwarted, and a solution to a marketing problem is presented.

It’s not perfect.  It’s longer than I wanted, but I am surprised at how fast it moves.  It was created for less than $100.  And I want to know what you think.  Did it capture your attention?  Does it hit the mark?  What would you do differently?  Leave a comment below.

So if your video turns out to be an elephant, put him on a fire engine.

Do Great Things!

Lee Stocking
Prairie Sky Group
Making Sales Cry With Qualified Leads
lee.stocking@gmail.com
651-357-0110 (Cell 24×7)

Share

Hope is a projection of our past fears or regrets onto the future with the expectation of a better outcome.   It is characteristically human.  The ability to imagine different future outcomes has elevated the human species and driven us to our current position on the food chain.  Hope is also one of the few things that trumps fear.

In today’s marketing and sales, consumption-based, media world, a lot of messaging seems driven by fear.  Tune in at 10 PM to see why soccer moms are selling crack.  The president is destroying America.  Does your computer have a virus?

In sales and marketing, we often have the opportunity to create fear as a buying cause.  But fear, by itself, is not sufficient to create a sale.  You also need to create hope.

Without hope we would be trapped in a set of automatic responses.  So we hope for better lives for our children.  We hope we beat cancer.  We hope we find the right partner.  We even hope to win the lottery.

We think rather than hope if we buy your service or product that you will solve our problem.  This is because hope is intensely personal.  What we really hope for is that our lives will be better.

It’s difficult to have “hope” for a solution to a business problem.  Rather, in sales and marketing, it’s easier to create a “vision” of a solution to a problem.  The two are different.  Hope, is based on a feeling and a projection of what that solution will mean personally.   A vision for a solution is based on thinking about the technical results, and it’s very rational.

Successful marketers and sales people need to ask,  “What is the “hope” driving my prospect, and how can I help them achieve it?”  Is it to be respected, or to earn the love of their families by being successful?  It’s not just to provide a “left-handed crenznut” in order to improve the output of you sales force automation system that will lead to increased sales.

I am impressed by one simple example but elegant example of hope-based messaging.  An outsourced printing center moved onsite to corporate campus in order to provide that companies reproduction services.  In the copy rooms of the company they placed a sign above each copier.  It said, “Let us help you go home on time.”

In eight words they accomplished the following things: 1) They acknowledged the hard work people were doing, 2) they connected it to the services they provided 3) they offered help 4) the message was positive and 5) they made it personal by tying it to seeing one’s family.  They provided hope. They could have said, “Are you going to be late again tonight? Call 1-800-WePrint.”

So what hope are you delivering in your messages?   Besides just providing a “solution” or creating a “vision,” can you get your customer to personally imagine what their lives will be like after doing business with you?

It’s hard work, but just imagine how you will be admired if….

Do Great Things!

Lee Stocking
Prairie Sky Group
Making Sales Cry With Qualified Leads
lee.stocking@gmail.com
651-357-0110 (Cell 24×7)

Share

Clarity is your most powerful tool in sales and marketing.  It confers sincerity, and sincerity, along with competence, builds trust.

Our political discourse today is full of smoke.  As a result, no one trusts politicians.   The same occurs with sales and marketing.  We talk too much, we obfuscate, which (irony intended) means we don’t say what we mean.

We are often uncomfortable with the truth, so not saying what we mean is and attempt to make us feel comfortable, but it is really a form of dishonesty.

The best sales and marketing people are those that are honest and direct.  You can hear it in what they say and write.  They are clear.

Do Great Things!

Lee Stocking
Making Sales Cry With Qualified Leads
Prairie Sky Group
lee.stocking@gmail.com
651-357-0110 (Cell 24×7)

Share

I was talking with the COO of a small professional services firm the other day that had experienced 100% growth over the last year.  When I asked him how he managed that spectacular growth, he said he’d hired thirty-one people during the year.  He might have interviewed three or four times that many.

How did he do it?  His answer was succinct and direct.  He couldn’t always interview for specific skills or experience.  Others in his company could help him with that.  Instead, he said, he interviewed for the right values.  If he could find people with the right values, then he could worry about putting the right butts in the right seats.

The interesting thing was that the values for his company were written on a large sign in the lobby where his employees and guests could see them.  The list of five began with, “Always Add Value,” and ended with “Do the Right Thing.”

Values are different than business goals.  A goal is what you want to achieve.  Values are guidelines that we use for how we will behave and make decisions, especially when there is a conflict.

It seems to me that corporations don’t have values in themselves, but rather the people in them do.  When you put them on the wall, you are saying… this is how we expect you to make your decisions and conduct yourselves.  It helps hold others to the same code.

The test comes of course when really tough decisions have to be made or there’s some conflict between values.  In that case, you’d better have tested your own values beforehand.  Many companies simply put them up as they would office decoration.  Or they put up their business goals.  The real difference is can you live your values?

This is a time when positive impressions of business in America are at an all time low.  It’s easy to be cynical about corporate values when the company doesn’t live them or live up to them.  When this happens, it’s a huge demotivator and saps productivity and trust, both with employees and with customers.  However, this COO understood the value of values in creating a company that could grow at 100%.  Good values lead to good growth.  Values precede business goals.

Marketing and sales also own a big piece of the values for their organizations because they have the principle responsibility for communicating with clients, customers and prospects.   So what are you values?  Do you interview for them?  And how do you do that?

Do Great Things!

Lee Stocking
Prairie Sky Group
Making Sales Cry With Qualified Leads
lee.stocking@gmail.com
651-357-0110 (Cell 24×7)

Share

How many times have you had a sales person ask, “What’s our Value Proposition?”

The question I always ask next is, “Why do you ask?”  This is sort of a snotty response, and it doesn’t endear me to the sales team, but it has a purpose.

In my experience, too many sales people simply take the value proposition given by marketing and restate it to the prospect.  This is the worst use of a value proposition.  If you are in Marketing and you enable your sales team this way, then you are not helping.

A value proposition is a list of reasons why a prospect might benefit from buying your product or service, and it usually contains a number of elements.  The first is identifying a need, the second is some sort of differentiation, and the third is some sort of proof.

For example, “If you want fine flavor, then the smooth taste of Camel cigarettes is what nine out of ten doctors recommend.”   Parsed, the need is fine flavor and health, the differentiation is smooth taste, and the proof is that doctors recommend them.

While value propositions are good for internal dialogue and evaluation, as you know, simply stating the reasons why you should buy a product or service is bad sales form.  It’s also lazy.

When a prospect asks you, “What’s your value proposition?”  They are simply saying, “I don’t have time for this… just give me the Cliff’s Notes version, and I will decide.”

But the process they are going through is: 1) Do I really have this need? 2) Is this really any better? And 3) Do I really believe this, or do I trust you?  There is no way that a single “Statement” or “Value Proposition” will ever do justice to a prospect in answering these questions.  But if you fail to answer any of these, your sales and marketing efforts will falter.

So instead, slow down, and go back to basics.  Take your Value Proposition and turn it into a set of questions to determine whether the prospect has the need you believe your product or service can fill.  Then determine the prospect’s perception of the value to satisfying that need.  If it’s worth solving, then look at what their current vision is for solving that need.  Only then can you begin to explore an alternate vision and differentiation.  Your differentiation may be simply that you are not spouting a value proposition, but guiding the prospect through a process of discovery and helping them see things differently.  Proof doesn’t come until the prospect has a vision of capabilities they might need.

But please don’t just give your value proposition.  You might as well sit back, light up that Camel, and wait for good health to flow your way.

Do Great Things!

Lee Stocking
Prairie Sky Group
Making Sales Cry With Qualified Leads
lee.stocking@gmail.com
651-357-0110 (Cell 24×7)

Share

Yesterday, I had a colleague send me a link to a site that offers to write your blog for you.  The price was very reasonable, an introductory offer of $68.75 per blog!  He asked for my reaction.

My reaction was, “Really?”  And not in a good way.

Think about it.  Do you really want to phone it in?  If you are truly passionate about your business, how can you simply hire out the content and voice of your business’s soul?

I believe that marketers and business bloggers need to provide thought leadership, push the envelope, and not just offer rehashed stuff.  Because when you do rehashed stuff, your readers won’t tell their friends about your posts.  It will be boring.  Your readers will drift away from your blog.  Your posts will wind up like my insurance agent’s newsletter.  I will never read his stock subject, “Summertime Grill Safety.”  I might look at “Five Ways Not To Blow Yourself Up.”  But no newsletter or blog service will ever come up with that title.

Like every other industry, the marketing business can also follow the path of mass production.  Figure out how to produce more at a lower cost, offer it for a lower price, and then spend the money you make “marketing or advertising” your service to the masses.  You may sell something.  So will a hundred other organizations.  They will all be the same.

Yes, occasionally there is a technical discontinuity that happens in the marketing business.  For example, the creation of websites becomes more automated and doesn’t require experienced html programmers.  This can lead to lower costs for putting up a site, and suddenly there are website companies springing up from South Dakota to Manila.  This doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of improvements in technology or marketing.

We are told that blogging helps generate leads, and social media helps leverage your content.  I believe this to be generally true.  But you need to do the hard work.  Thank you to those that do it.

So if you are contemplating blogging and want to generate leads, I would advise against using a blog mill.   You might just as well lock yourself up with everyone else… or blow yourself up.

Do Great Things!
Lee Stocking
Prairie Sky Group
Driving Sales With Customer Focused Marketing
lee.stocking@gmail.com
651-357-0110 (Cell 24×7)

PS: For those of you who want to stop the other kind of mill you can visit this site.

Share

How long do you think you have to make a good first impression?  Yes, the number may depress a few of the less confident out there.  Various studies say the number ranges from three seconds to thirty seconds.  These impressions then often guide other’s opinions of us regardless of how hard we work to change them.  As “they” say, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

Why?  The answer is simply that this is the way our brains are wired.  We make snap judgments because it has somehow helped us survive, pick a better mate, avoid a harmful conflict, or negotiate a better position.

Even in the digital world, many inbound and outbound marketers forget the axiom about first impressions.  It’s especially true when encountering trigger events, such as registering for a newsletter or webinar.  However, unlike your hunchback, there are things you can do to make a good first digital impression.  Here are five steps.

Step 1.   Be responsive

Marketing Sherpa data says that immediate response to a trigger event will get you double the response rate compared with waiting twenty-four hours.   Fall-off continues with more time.   If you are batch and blasting or filtering trigger events, you are losing traction and should consider an automated response.   Simple thank-you emails with a little personal touch (hope you enjoy the webinar, or let us know if you have specific questions) go a along way toward establishing trust.

Step 2.   Deliver value

Nothing pleases prospects more than getting something of value they didn’t expect. Sure they registered for a webinar, but what if you gave them a complementary whitepaper or assessment in your response?

Step 3.   Be explicit about your communications

Let them know how frequently you will communicate, what you will communicate, and how you will protect their information.

Step 4.   Open the door

It’s also important to make sure they’ll receive your communication.  A step to ask them to white-list you or test your communications guarantees that your email will get through.

Step 5.  Keep your communications short, sweet and relevant

Really.  Respect your prospects.  Just because you have their email doesn’t mean they want to see the latest photo of your new CEO.  Underscore relevant.

Do these things and soon you’ll have enough clients and customers to have that hump removed before face-to-face meetings.  What hump?

Do Great Things!

Lee Stocking
Prairie Sky Group
Making Sales Cry With Qualified Leads
lee.stocking@gmail.com
651-357-0110 (Cell 24×7)

Share

I asked my three year old grandson the other day (proud photo inserted), how many cookies did he eat?  I told him he could have two.  He answered very quickly that he had eaten three, and held up three fingers.

Now let me ask you:

       1.  How much do you weigh?
       2.  What’s your college grade point average?
       3.  How far did you run?

A lot of people answering these questions tend to minimize their weight, inflate their grade points, or say they ran 5 miles when they only actually ran 4.4 miles.  Why is this and what does this have to do with marketing or sales?

We tend to live in a world that values appearance or image more than truth.  None of the three questions I asked can really be verified easily.  They also don’t seem very important, and the consequences of exaggerating don’t seem to hurt anyone.  Some would call exaggerating answers to these little white lies. 

In marketing and in sales, we are often responsible for appearance, and we often have the opportunity to tell little white lies.  For example: “We’re the leading vendor of XYZ.”  (When we forgot to add… in the five state region).  “We’ll be able to deliver that service by the 15^th.”  (When we know it won’t be until the 1^st) 

Of course the issue is that there are difficulties in determining the boundaries between a small exaggeration and a bigger exaggeration, and we seem to easily slide into…

• “You don’t really need a down payment, you qualify for the loan.”
•  “These real-estate derivatives are rock solid.”
• “You can’t go wrong.” 

You don’t really need a lecture on telling the truth.  But sometimes we forget that telling the truth, even what I call “Micro Truths”, helps build trust.  And in marketing and sales, this is the single biggest factor in whether someone does business with us. 

Telling a Micro-Truth is sometimes harder than it seems.  Try answering the small questions with your own personal Micro-Truth next time.  For example, “Why were you late to the meeting?”  Answer simply, “I just forgot,” rather than, “I was on the phone.”  Take responsibility.  See what happens.  People will trust you more.

I just read a survey that said that only 30% of Americans trust corporations.  Marketing and sales own this problem.  So tell me… how many moons of Jupiter were discovered on your shift?

Do Great Things.

Lee Stocking
Prairie Sky Group
Making Sales Cry With Qualified Leads
lee.stocking@gmail
651-357-0110 (Cell 24×7)

Share

Here are three scenarios:

1.  The stock market crashes
2.  Your company is acquired by your biggest competitor
3.  Two of the largest vendors in your market merge

You’re in marketing.  What do you do?

Marketing is easy when things are sailing along smoothly.  But sooner or later, you are going to get an unexpected event because markets, competitors, vendors and customers change all the time.  Nothing stays the same.  If you expect things to always be smooth sailing, you may be living in another world.  So one of the issues marketing needs to deal with is how to respond to the event.

When I checked my finance page yesterday after the market dropped six hundred points, I saw something that reminded me of the need to quickly market to the event.  There was a pop-up ad promoting the book of some guy who predicted the last crash.  There was also an ad for gold.  These people were marketing to an event.  Their response time for their campaign was several hours.

A previous client of mine was acquired by their largest competitor.  It was an event.  With several months to go before the acquisition close date, they were susceptible to a fall-off in sales.  People didn’t know if they even had jobs, and who wants to buy from a company that may not be in business in three months.  Their marketing group activated a campaign within a day to assure current clients and provide a rationale for the merger to prospects.  The result was record sales in the month before closing.

In my current assignment, the number two and number three sized vendors just merged to become the largest vendor in the market.  What did we do?  Within an hour we pulled together our internal team, assessed the move, wrote a 1500 word paper, contacted 4000 prospects through an email campaign, issued a press and media release, and created a short video of the CEO speaking on the subject.  The result: five article placements, increased site traffic, increased lead traffic, and lots of new opt-in subscribers.

Marketing to the event is a short term tactic.  With today’s marketing tools, it is easy to react quickly and with a broad reach.  The question is… can your team respond?  It’s often the human element that is the weak link.  So here are a few questions for marketing.

• When the event happens, who owns the response? Do you?
• Do you know who you will use to help respond?
• Does your management team understand and value a quick response?
• Do you have a prepared list of stakeholders with whom to communicate?
• Will your communication fit your messaging strategy?
• Will it be timely, relevant and actionable?

How can you…marketing, take advantage of a drop in the market?  Are you going to be the next roadkill in the corporate budget, or are you going to lead your company?  You can imagine the drill.  Get ready.

Lee Stocking
Prairie Sky Group
Making Sales Cry With Qualified Leads
lee.stocking@gmail.com
651-357-0110 (24×7)

Share