I once owned a partnership in the Sheila Yeates; a gaff-rigged topsail ketch.  She was a beautiful ship, 48 feet on the water line and 65 feet overall, built in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, and launched in 1976.  The Sheila Yeats sank in the north Atlantic in 1989.

For a long time the Sheila Yeates was fitted with a 1932 Fairbanks Morse six cylinder diesel engine.  A concession to a lack of funds and some romantic notion that fit the image of a traditional sailing vessel, it cost $1500.  It also blew so much diesel smoke that it virtually guaranteed anyone who went below in a sea would heave lunch.  The one consolation was that the 2000-pound engine kept its heat overnight in cold anchorages.

The engine was problematic.  On one crossing under motor-sail, I noticed the oil pressure had dropped to three pounds.  On questioning the captain, he indicated that the manual said it was good down to three pounds.  When I asked if he used detergent oil, he indicated that the manual didn’t mention detergent oil.  The manual had been printed in 1932.  Shortly after that the engine threw a rod.  It kept running however, not having the good sense to quit immediately.

The captain elected to replace the engine with a more modern Perkins Elmer.  He had gotten a deal from the Duluth Votech on a rebuilt engine, never mind that the engine was not a marine engine and had been used for logging.  After spending a good deal of money removing the chart house and installing the newly “rebuilt” engine, the engine ran for two minutes and then seized up.  They swore it had been dynamometer tested.  Another rebuilt engine was eventually installed.  Installing the two engines cost more than a brand new Perkins Elmer marine engine.

So here’s the deal.  There is a difference between cost, quality and value that confuses many people.  Price is what you pay.  Cost includes the price and associated costs of training, maintenance, and so on.  Quality is defined as meeting your specifications.  You can have a high quality Yugo or a low quality BMW.  It depends on your requirements.  If you are vague on your requirements, you might get anything.  Cost doesn’t always equate to quality.

Value = Quality/Cost

Value is the quality divided by the cost.  If it meets your specs and costs very little then maybe you are getting a value.  Both engines for the Sheila Yeates were low price, and had high costs.  They barely met the requirements.  As a result, the perceived value of a low price did not yield real value.

I see too many marketing executives and even CEOs go right to price when buying new tools.  It might be a sign of the tough economic times.  But the next time you buy a new marketing tool, take time to make sure it’s what you need, or it will wind up costing you more, and you will get very little value.  You’ll wind up heaving your lunch in rough seas.

Do Great Things!

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

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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)

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As marketing and sales people, we live in a world where we have access to email, phone, social media and cloud based work applications on a 24×7 basis.  Even with these tools, there are demands for increased productivity, and the drive for us to do more.

But few of us have positions or jobs that are simply task-based.  Doing more activities or tasks is a tough way to increase your personal productivity.

We can also think of productivity as being dependent on creativity.  Figure out a new way to do something, and productivity can increase.  But here’s the problem.  You can’t be creative by answering email and being on call 24×7.  You’ll never win that race.  You will never out compete your colleagues and suddenly be recognized by the CEO or the board for your diligence.  This doesn’t mean that you don’t work hard.  But if you want to succeed, stop hitting your head against the wall and try being creative.  Easy prescription, but how?

The Greek, Archimedes of Syracuse (circa 287 BC to circa 212 BC), was a brilliant scientist and mathematician.  Some of his inventions are still used today.  There is the story of him and the golden crown.  He was faced with the difficult problem of figuring out if a gold crown was pure gold or an amalgam.  He was not allowed to scratch or assay the crown.  The more he thought about it, the more he thought the problem might be impossible.  But one day, as he was relaxing and stepping into his bath, he absently noted that the water rose as his foot went into the bath.  He had discovered the principal of displacement.  He realized that he could calculate the volume of the crown through displacement, and if he knew its weight, he could calculate the density, and thus tell if it was pure gold or not.  When he realized this, the story goes, he was so excited, that he ran naked into the street yelling “Eureka!” (I’ve found it.)

One key to creativity is letting your mind be occupied by something else.  We need down time and relaxation for our brains to come up with new ideas and solutions to problems.  Even simple ones.  Have you ever noticed that when you are trying to remember a name, or the artist for a song and can’t, that as soon as you stop trying, it comes to you.

Next time you’re faced with a tough marketing or sales problem, step away from the email.  Let it go.  Plan some down time.  Try doing something that occupies your head in a mindless way.  One irony of creativity is that the more you try to generate it, the more elusive it becomes.  Creativity is the Chinese handcuffs of thinking.  So go take a bath.  But stay out of the street.

Do Great Things!

Lee Stocking
Making Sales Cry With Qualified Leads
Prairie Sky Group
lee.stocking@gmail.com
651-357-0110 (Cell 24×7, except when I’m bathing)

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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.

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A lot of marketers and companies ask themselves if they should start blogging in order to generate leads.  It’s the new conventional wisdom.  So there are millions of business blogs.  And there are thousands of marketing blogs, some great, but most very dusty.

I started the Prairie Sky blog as an experiment.  I had some grandiose ideas, a few ulterior and selfish motives.  I wanted to see if I could create 25 posts with a small investment of time.  I wanted to test the conventional wisdom that you need a blog to generate traffic and leads.  As goals, these turned out to be important, yet not as important as I thought they would, so I keep asking myself, why I blog?

I thought my blog would be about the technical aspects of how to create leads.  I have a few posts on these subjects such as how to create a name based gender-assigning algorithm, or 30 tips for running a webinar, or how to create an automated marketing campaign or great landing page criteria.  I will expand some of these because I’m involved in the technical details of tools and trade every day.

But rather, it is the soft subjects of sales and marketing management, messaging, motivation, understanding clients and culture that I have gravitated toward.

One reason is that I see such a poor understanding of the fundamentals amongst my clients, especially at the management level, that the tools and technical discussion seems wasted.  For example, it doesn’t matter if you have a competitive keyword analyzer or generator if you haven’t thought your story through and written for humans.  It doesn’t matter if you can run an automated campaign or create a landing page if you don’t understand your prospects.  So I have leaned toward the basics.

This doesn’t answer the question of whether you should blog.  But if you are thinking of starting a blog for your company because it will make you famous, create a jillion leads, sell more product, it is just one step.

In some ways, I am surprised at reaching the 100 mark.  This is small in comparison to many, though more than most.  I’m not sure what I expected… perhaps a band and fireworks.

I’ve learned a lot.  In the end, the reason I blog is because it’s simply the right thing to do.  It allows me to connect and help other people, dialogue (internally and externally), test ideas, and serve our marketing community.  I am compelled to do it.  I recommend it.

I’m excited to see where it will lead next.  Thanks for your support.

Do Great Things!

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

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So, if you don’t make New Year’s resolutions, here is a list of items from my posts during the year that might make good subjects for reflection.

1.     How can I support my sales team more?

2.     What is my real customer experience?

3.     What can I learn about my clients and customers?

4.     What core messages do I want to deliver internally and externally?

5.     What things about my business make me uncomfortable, why and what can I do about them?

6.     What three things will I spend less time doing?

7.     How can I keep my commitments?

8.     How can my team have more fun?

9.     Who will I mentor?

10.  What am I thankful for?

Thank you for your encouragement and comments throughout the year. Have a healthy and bountiful new year.

Do Great Things!

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

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I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions.  The way I figure it, if you don’t have the discipline to decide to do something or not during the year, then a resolution is not going to help.  Resolutions are mostly about things that weren’t important enough to begin with or we would have done them.  Indeed, most of us abandon by February, what we resolved to do on January 1.

On the other hand, I do believe in spending time reflecting on your marketing, sales or personal plans.   Every year, I take a week off to do this.   Yes, really, a whole week. I do this in a one-room cabin in the north woods.  Removed from the distractions of emails, meetings, kids, or whatever other personal demons you may possess; the pace of life changes, and the mind calms.  I read, I hike, I sleep when I want, I listen to music, and eat simple meals.  I don’t use my cell phone or talk to others.  It’s a week of silence.   If I’m lucky, I may find out something about myself.  I may find out what I thought I wanted was not what I really wanted.  Or I may find myself, asking new a new question that leads me down another path.

It works for me.  It may not for you, but it’s worth trying to find our what allows you to gain perspective.  Otherwise, you can try making New Year’s resolutions.

Do Great Things!

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

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Here’s a video book review of The Trust Edge

I recommend you put this book on your Christmas
list for any marketing or sales people you know.

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

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Many companies still rely on the “presentation” as a sales tool.  But a couple recent studies may indicate a major problem with this approach.  A University of Maryland study of undergraduates found that after a lecture by a well known professor, NONE of the students could answer the question, “What was the lecture you just heard about?  In another study, Nobel Laureate, Carl Wieman quizzed his students about a key fact in his lecture presented just 15 minutes earlier.  Only 10 percent remembered it.

So now you’re saying, but these are hung over, drugged-out students, and, of course, you’re not speaking from personal experience.  It’s well known that college students have these characteristics.

However, in another experiment, at the University of British Columbia in a physics course on electromagnetic waves, one group of students was taught by standard lecture, while a second group was broken into smaller groups and asked to work on the problems in an interactive problem solving session.  The first group scored 41% on the material, while the second group scored 74%.

College students are not business prospects.  But the takeaway is that no one wants to listen, or will remember your 25 slide presentation.  Occasionally we get roped into giving a presentation, and there are specific things you can do to give a great presentation.  But instead, what if we worked with smaller groups and individuals on problem solving?

Sales, the next time you ask marketing for a presentation, ask why you need it.  Marketing, the next time you provide a presentation, ask what other tool or skill set you should have provided to sales.

Do great things!

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

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Group dynamics in meetings and decisions are influenced by the social pressures of the group.   You’ve heard the cynical old expression that the best decision of a committee is worse than the best decision of any one individual in the meeting.

Here are some signs that you may have a problem.
• Your business project or goal is deteriorating. You have missed deadlines, costs are rising, and there is a lack of participation, or even defection of members.
• Blaming and excuse making.  You hear, “It’s not my fault… I’m dependent on someone else, and they didn’t do their job.”
• Private discussions.  Individuals looking for support for their unheard position while tacitly agreeing with the group decision.
• Ad hominem attacks.  Attacking the person rather than challenging the assumption, the stated fact, or reason .  “He can’t possibly deliver on time because… he’s too tall, never here, not old enough etc.”
• Failure to celebrate successes, and being lavish with praise.  Though marketing and sales people aren’t kid soccer players that get trophies for fifth place, we all like to hear we’ve done a good job.

The first key step in avoiding the Road to Abilene is to prepare for the meeting, discussion or decision.
• Invite the right people.  People who have knowledge and expertise as opposed to just influence.
• Make sure that data and information are available prior to the meeting.  Many meetings spin off because there is no data.  As a result, the person with the strongest opinion or power often dominates.
• Make sure that everyone knows the objective of the meeting and the results expected.
• Have a process for evaluating options and impacts.
• Allow enough time for making the decision.

The second step is to understand the difference between real agreement and mismanaged agreement.   Both have the same visible end result and may be hard to distinguish.  Understanding the signs and circumstances of false agreement can help tip you off.
• Is the “boss” or one person of power dominating the meeting?
• Do people feel free to really express their opinions?
• Are they allowed to express their ideas?
• What is their body language?
• Is the discussion respectful?
• Is the discussion ever allowed to boil over?
• Are the participants comfortable with disagreement?
• Is the leader comfortable with disagreement?
• How comfortable are the participants and the leader with risk?
• Does the group understand how the final decision will be made?  By consensus or by the leader?
It is helpful to establish a set of guidelines for discussion that allows everyone to gate keep when others are being ignored or disengaged.

My belief is that 80% of misalignment in meetings and decisions is by two factors;  1) individuals feeling like they didn’t get heard, and 2) the fear individuals have of making a mistake or sounding stupid.  It takes some guts to challenge the social power of a group.  Individuals also often mimic the quietness of a leader mistakenly believing that speaking last, or not talking, is a sign of power.

It also takes some guts for a leader to expose themselves by checking and probing individual positions and gate keeping.  Patience is a virtue here.  It may seem like the process is taking longer than it needs to, but consider the costs of mismanaged agreement; lack of buy-in, low morale, low productivity and even counter support and sabotage.

Another step is to ask if all possibilities have been investigated and whether the group is confident with the data and information.  Each individual’s perspective and knowledge is unique and they each have something to contribute.

Just because you’re on the road to Abilene doesn’t mean you can’t turn around. Unless you need to go on to get your tattoo.

Do Great Things!

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

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