Have you ever eaten roadkill? I know several people that have, but it’s not something that appeals to me. Besides the yuck factor, there’s the risk of disease. So why would you tolerate Roadkill Marketing in your organization?

What’s Roadkill Marketing? Just like it sounds. It’s driving in any direction toward a distant business goal, picking up whatever leads, prospects, or customers you happen across on the side of the road, and trying to build a growth path on the energy they provide.

There’s lot’s of good marketing going on out there, but Roadkill is particularly unconscious and insidious. Its main symptom is focus on marketing tactics ahead of marketing strategy. I’m a great believer in execution, but execution without direction is a waste of effort. Let me give you an example.

At a sales meeting I heard a marketing person ask a B2B sales team what they thought they needed. They dutifully gave the list of usual suspects: 1) a lower price, 2) more literature, 3) a prettier website, and 4) some advertising. When asked about the advertising, one sales person suggested a billboard. I found this last suggestion particularly interesting and my Roadkill radar clicked on. Since this was a B2B company, I asked on which highway would they place the billboard? Who did they want to message, and what message did they want to convey? And could the get the message succinct enough to be read at 50 mph and 50 yards away?

The biggest barrier to good marketing are not the tactics or communication channels. It’s identifying your market segments, the prospects, and understanding their business needs, developing a go-to-market strategy, creating a value proposition, positioning, and messaging. Then it’s experimenting in attracting attention, building a connection, creating a compelling reason to take the next step, and getting someone to actually take that step. These things take a little time.

But because everyone loves action, tactics take precedence. Marketers get to show they are producing literature, making the website prettier, and doing a billboard. Activities that are pretty much useless. Never mind that they don’t often complete many of these tactics, because they are rushing from one tactic to another without measuring what’s working. They are driving endlessly, hoping to pick up some roadkill.

OK, perhaps this is a little harsh. But action is easier than thoughtful planning and asking tough questions. But action doesn’t necessarily give you results unless you learn from it and adapt to what you’ve learned.

Marketers please take the following pledge… and let a little rage out in your comments.

The No Roadkill Pledge:

1.   My tactics will be based on sound strategy and planning.

2.   I will seek to understand my customers/prospects, as well as their businesses.

3.   I will support sales and be a team player.

4.   I will lead.

5.   I will listen.

6.   I will be agile. Experiment, learn, and adapt.

7.   I will complete one thing well on time rather than 10 things next month.

8.   I will not create boring marketing.

9.   I will constantly strive to improve our data and analytics.

10. I will measure the results of my programs and prove the ROI.

What did I miss? Take the pledge here.

Do Great Things!

Lee Hobart Stocking
Principal
Prairie Sky Group
hobart@prairieskygroup.com
651-357-0110 (C)

Share

You’ve worked really hard on your strategy and plan. You’ve communicated it to the troops. You’ve done this frequently though a variety of channels. But six months later, your strategy isn’t getting traction? There are lots of reasons strategies fail.

In a study by Donald Stull (MIT Sloan School of Management) and Kathleen Eisenhardt (Simple Rules), only 55% of middle managers can name one of their company’s top five priorities. Worse, when given five chances to list their companies strategic objectives, half fail to get even one right!

If you say this is unlikely to happen in your organization, then ask the questions. The CEO’s we work with are often shocked at the statistic above, but the problem is due to one simple error in thinking. Communications doesn’t equate to understanding.

Even if your team can parrot back your key initiatives and strategy, it still doesn’t mean understanding. And without understanding, it’s likely all your hard work on strategy will not materialize. What can you do about it? By now, you’ve discovered that yelling louder doesn’t help.

Here are a few recommendations:

1. Determine your audience first. Is your message for internal, board, stakeholder, or industry consumption? Messages need to be tailored differently for different audiences.
2. Keep it simple. The greatest communicators often have just one message. As humans, we have difficulty remembering three things, much less a dozen.
3. Explain why. Why is this your strategy? Why is it imperative? What’s changed?
4. Explain how. How are you going to implement the strategy? What’s the plan?
5. Use stories. We are geared to understand stories, metaphors, and examples. It’s the way we simplify and remember.
6. Help them see their role and what is expected. Participation in the process by all levels, not just the C-Suite helps.
7. Ask for confirmation. At all levels, confirmation helps reinforce understanding.
8. Incorporate your strategy into your performance standards and measures for employees.
9. Make sure your strategy communication is not just top down. It has to be top down, middle-to-middle, and peer to peer.
10. Test and measure.

Again, there are multiple reasons why strategies fail. This is just one. When you reach a level of understanding, remember that is only the first step. Then the real work begins.

Do Great Things!

Lee Hobart Stocking
Principal
Prairie Sky Group
prairieskygroup.com
651-357-0110 (C)

Share

A CEO of a $50M SaaS company is faced with a strategic implementation problem. In order to recognize his strategic vision of double-digit growth he has challenged his sales team to get so many orders that his implementation team leader literally cries.

Failure of managers to work across disciplines to implement strategy is one of the top three killers of strategy. After working to develop a great strategy and plan, you’ve communicated and helped your organization understand the strategy. Then you’ve put performance standards in place. Your objectives are cascaded. It’s what happens next that’s important to your success.

80% of managers say that their objectives are limited, specific, and measurable. An incredible 84% say that they can count on their bosses and their direct reports to support them in working on the strategic objectives. But here’s the rub. Only 9% say they can count on a colleague in another discipline all of the time. And only 50% say they can count on them most of the time! (Donald Sull, Rebecca Holmes, Charles Sull -HBR Mar15)

Consider the ramifications. Sales waits on marketing to launch a new campaign. But marketing is waiting on development to release the specs. Compound interactions and delays will kill the launch. Of course it’s nobody’s fault. Everyone has a valid reason or rationalization.

Here’s what the CEO in the “Make Implementation Cry” situation above did to solve his problem. He brought all the leaders from each of marketing, sales, development, implementation, and service together. He’d made sure that they all had a common objective and reward for hitting the vision when the strategy launched. So he congratulated sales for making implementation cry. He reminded them that they weren’t going to make their bonuses if they couldn’t figure out how to help implementation because their bonuses were tied to revenue that wouldn’t be recognized if their software wasn’t installed. Within an hour the team had figured out a solution. Marketing would give implementation $200K to hire more installers and trainers. Problem solved. They hit their year-end mark.

Is your strategic implementation hanging fire because different departments aren’t working together? What did this CEO do? Here are a few solutions to the inter-department strategic implementation killer:

1.    Make sure your team has the same key objectives and rewards.
When a new strategy is launched many hang onto the old strategy. You can’t have a tacit strategy and an official strategy. Everyone needs the same strategy, objectives, and rewards.

2.    When you launch a new strategy and plan, makes sure you’ve budgeted for it.
One reason strategic plans fail is for lack of budgeting, both financially and resource-wise, as well as management attention. When you add new objectives or work, have you also budgeted for it or taken something off the table? Many managers complain they can’t support new initiatives (or cross-discipline efforts) because of this.

3.    Try Agile Development across other disciplines
A solution to doing many things poorly or slowly is to do one thing really well and fast. If this is supporting a new strategic initiative or another discipline then your rate of success is improved. (see the Prairie Sky Group e-Book on Agile Marketing)

4.    Hire for Teamwork
More than all of these there is one thing that the CEO did in this example. He made sure that one of his company values was teamwork, and he hired for it. Marketing didn’t see giving up part of their budget as an obstacle because they were wired to work as team. They all knew they had each others’ backs. Look at your core values if your have cross-discipline issues in supporting your strategic initiatives.

Solve the cross function issue and you’ll be well on your way to a successful implementation of a new strategy. How many other solutions to this problem are there?

Do Great Things!

Lee Hobart Stocking
Founder
PrairieSkyGroup.com
hobart@prairieskygroup.com
651-357-0110 (C)

Share

The first thing to die on the battlefield is the battle plan. The same thing applies to strategic plans.

A big problem with strategic plans is that they often assume a static view of the world or the competitive landscape. For example, assuming that if you reduce your price, competition will just let you take more market share. The real world rarely works like that.

Yet many CEO’s are insistent that the “Plan” be followed. After all, you’ve spent a lot of time and resources working on it.

Two keys to success here are making sure your team understands the plan objectives, and then giving them the freedom to work out problems when they hit new obstacles. Only 20% of managers say their companies do a good job of moving resources, budgets, people, and focus to respond to new contingencies in implementation of a strategic plan.

One reason for this statistic is that resources and budgets are tied up in non-strategic initiatives. For example, many companies are slow to exit or sell lagging businesses. There are lots of reasons for this.

Like a bad bluff in a poker game, it’s hard to walk away from the chips you’ve already put in, but it hurts like hell when the guy across the table (or the market) keeps raising your bluff. Prairie Sky Group sees this reluctance in many companies looking to raise money for blue ocean strategic opportunities. The first question we ask is, “How is your current business.” Often we find CEOs and Managers reluctant to abandon bad bets. And most often, we find personal reasons such as loyalty to a manager running the business.

A smart response to changes on the battlefield is to allow your team flexibility to respond. This means moving attention, resources and budgets quickly. The ability to do this is called Agility, “the ability to think and draw conclusions quickly; intellectual acuity… the power of moving quickly and easily; nimbleness.”

Agility should not be confused with pursuing everyone’s new idea. Otherwise you’ll be chasing your strategic soccer ball like a group of five-year olds.

The freedom to overcome obstacles is real Agility. Companies that allow for flexibility of resources and budgets wind up being more profitable and successful.

Do Great Things!

Lee Hobart Stocking
Founder
Prairie Sky Group
651-357-0110 (C)

Share

It’s not just your differentiation that makes your strategic plan successful. It’s where that differentiation occurs in the Value Chain, and whether it’s worthwhile.

When my daughter was younger, she came to me and asked me to help her develop a plan for a terrarium business. I thought it might be a teaching moment. So the first question I asked her was, “Are you going to cast your own glass?” Admittedly, I can be a pedantic jerk sometimes. (Look pedantic up.)

She said of course not. Then I asked her why. She said it would cost too much to buy a kiln and blow glass for the terrariums. She could buy them online. Then I asked her if she was going to build a green house to grow the plants? She said she might because she enjoyed gardening. Next I asked her if anyone would buy her terrariums if she grew the plants and put them together? She said that she thought they would.

So finally I asked, why not try to sell them before you grow them and make them? She asked why.

I told her that it’s important to do the last experiment first, a lesson taught me by an old 3M research chemist, Dr. Gerry Larson. When I ask him why you would do the last experiment first, he said that way I would know if all the other experiments were worth doing. Why waste your time otherwise?

There are two critical strategic principles in this little story that many CEOs often overlook. The first is where in the value chain you are going to compete. The second is whether it’s worthwhile.

Too many organizations miss value chain analysis. They rely on history (the way they’ve always done it) or simply ignore it. It’s especially important to consider it when industries are going through disruption.

Try getting your team to think this way in your next strategic planning session. It’s an inexpensive way to avoid costly mistakes. It’s also the last experiment.

Do Great Things!

-Hobart

Lee Hobart Stocking
Founder and Chief Provocateur
Prairie Sky Group
651-357-0110 (C)

Share

At Prairie Sky Group we listen to dozens of business plans for small and medium sized businesses each quarter.   We have a belief that focus and execution are keys to business success.   Often by asking one key question, we can determine how the client is doing.   That question is, “What’s your strategy?”

Strategy is tantamount to focus.  Without a clear strategy, it doesn’t matter how much effort or execution you put into your business.  You will be pursing any road that is convenient, and often many roads at the same time.  This can be confusing to your organization.

For example, if you are a sales person, should you cut the price to get the deal or walk away?  It depends on your strategy.   Is your strategy to be the biggest or the most profitable?  Does your organization start pursuing new market opportunities only to have them fail?  It depends on your strategy.  Is it to dominate one segment or sell in as many as possible?

Unfortunately, too many CEOs, Presidents, and Owners can’t articulate their company’s strategy.  As a result their organizations waste effort and often suffer cultural confusion.  It is said that culture trumps strategy in success, but certainly a clear strategy helps culture.

At Prairie Sky Group we often hear confusing replies when we ask, “What’s your strategy?”  For example, from one client we heard, “Our strategy is to help people get healthy.”  From another we heard, “Our strategy is be honest and work hard.”  And from another, “Our strategy is to be the biggest aircraft seat supplier in the North America.”  None of these are strategies.  The first is a mission statement, the second is a set of values, and the third is a vision statement.   So let’s outline the hierarchy of company statements and what they are first.

1.    Mission:  Why you exist.
2.    Values:  What you believe in, and how you will behave.  (Especially when there is a conflict.)
3.    Vision:  What you want to become.

All of these are required for growing your business.  But what are the elements of a clear concise strategy?   There are three.
1.    Objective:
2.    Scope:
3.    Advantage:

Your objective is the ends the strategy is set to achieve.   This includes a time frame.  So for example, “Our objective is to… become the leading online web assessment tool in our segment in four years.”  Often we will hear, “Our objective is to grow profitably.”  To which we ask, “Which is it, to grow or to be profitable?  It’s hard to do both.”  So in your objective statement, avoid platitudes, be specific, and include a time frame.

The second element is scope.   Scope is the domain in which you play.  So for example, “Our scope is to serve US hospital marketing departments.”  This provides both a geographic component and a market segment.   It helps avoid confusion of whether you would also serve the Managed Care markets or sell outside the US.

The final element is your advantage.  This is the most critical aspect of your strategy.  We get to this question when we ask, “What is your value proposition?”  This is your uniqueness or differentiation.  It answers any of three questions for your prospects.
1.    Why should I change from what I am doing now?  (Process)
2.    Why should I by your product? (Product or Service)
3.    Why should I buy from your company? (Company)

The second part of scope is answering how (Means) you are going to deliver that value to your customers?”

For example,  “Chief Medical Officers say we offer the most evidence-based medical assessment in an easy-to-use online subscription form.”

At the highest level, it is easy to outline what goes into a strategy statement.  But a blog post only does it lip service.  It’s can be much harder than that.  So if you are struggling with top line growth, ask yourself if it’s because you can’t articulate your strategy.   At Prairie Sky Group, helping clients with this problem is the first thing we do.

Do Great Things

Lee Stocking
Prairie Sky Group
651-357-0110 (Cell 24×7)

Share

As a boomer, I’ve done a terrible job of helping my children learn one particularly useful life skill, that of managing their financial lives.  (Insert here all the self-recrimination about giving them everything I didn’t have, and being the financial safety net in case they get in trouble.)
Today’s twenty-somethings are ten years behind the previous generation due to multiple recessions, the collapse of the housing bubble, and exorbitant college tuition.  It’s tough, but opportunity is still there for financial success.

While there is freedom on both ends of the economic spectrum, I prefer that my children have a choice about which end they select.  So I’ve written them this letter and some advice on 11 things I’ve learned about managing money.  You can download it here.

Dear Children;

I never learned about managing money from my parents, and I don’t expect you to pay much attention at this point.  But for what it’s worth, there are a few simple lessons that might help you live a comfortable financial life.  This is not a “How To Guide,” but rather a guide to some fundamentals.  There are lots of resources you can look to for tips on the former.  Since you get what you pay for, and this is free advice, take what you want.  It’s your choice.  The first thing I have to say is that you are responsible for your own financial success.  The second is that, while a lot of these lessons seem like clichés, the reason most clichés are still with us is they hold an element of truth.

Here are a few things to think about.

Your Papa

PS: Please comment here after your download.

Do Great Things!
Lee Stocking
Prairie Sky Group
Making Sales Cry With Qualified Leads
lee.stocking@gmail.com
651-357-0110 (cell24x7)

Share

I just put up two different websites using two different vendors.  One was relatively complicated, while the other was straightforward.  They both took the same amount of time: three months.  I decided I would formulate a new law of website development.  Every website takes three months.

Then I thought about other vendor projects that I’d contracted.  They all required three months.  Three months to get set up before launching.  Three months to get the new messaging.  Three months to work out the databases.  Maybe I was onto something.

But why?  Everything shouldn’t have to take three months.

Maybe it’s because, no project is any one person’s focus.  Every one is doing multiple projects, and as a result, everyone’s schedule is busy.  Once a project is launched, it takes a week to schedule the next meeting.  There are approval and review steps. And so on.  Pretty soon, three months have lapsed.   This is corporate marketing and control at it’s worst.

Time is the new currency.  It doesn’t have to be like this.

Agile Marketing provides a new mechanism for dealing with the three-month law.  Its core tenant is “Do, Learn, Adapt,” and it leverages small teams focused on completing one thing rather than ten.  To get an idea, you can check out my new e-book, The Problem With Marketing.

But here’s an extension.  If you are a vendor to corporate America, why can’t you use Agile techniques to drive your clients projects to completion in 30 days instead of three months?   Focus, meet everyday, and deliver.  I understand that there is a risk and cost to dedicated resources.  But this can be offset by variable and part time staffing.

I think agencies and organizations that help their clients do things faster will gain more customers, will have more satisfied clients, and will grow faster.

I’m looking for vendors like this.

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

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