Love what you do.

People often ask me, "What did you go to school for?", to which I quickly respond, "Marketing!".

More and more lately I find myself appreciating the broad role marketing plays within a business. It's the perfect mix and balance between sales and operations. A little bit of both, never the same, always changing, always progressing...

Consumer Appeal, a true thought.

If someone were to ask you, “Would you like to eat this stick of butter?” I’d assume your answer would be something like, “NO!”.
If someone were to ask you, “Would you like to eat this butter croissant?” there would be a much greater chance that your answer would be, “YES!”.

There quite possibly could be the same amount of butter in a stick of butter as in a butter croissant. With that in mind, what is the difference between the two offerings and their associated response?

Branding, Packaging, Marketing…and quite frankly, Consumer Appeal.

When a product or service is not well positioned in the marketplace, there is a good chance the consumers first response will be a loud and noisy “NO!”. However, by simply changing your perspective and making a few spruced up adjustments…you begin to create an opportunity for the response you really want, “YES!”.

NOW I get it...

Ate an amazingly sweet orange today. Then suddenly noticed the second orange still sitting on my desk had a little sticker on it. Quickly, I searched for the company online only to find they didn't have a Twitter link...

A few posts back, I blogged very honestly and admitted that I wasn't sure about the whole “Social Network” movement. With hindsight being 20/20, I now see that anyone who boasts negative statements on the subject are clearly naive.

Being a Business Development Guru, I'm not shy with a telephone. If you want the deal done, pick up the phone and dial away. But this time was different. This time I was visiting this Orange Companies website as a consumer, not a deal maker; and as a consumer, naturally I don't want to call them, I don't want to be intrusive. WOW!

Now I get it. Now I understand the consumer to brand interaction that is creating this social media crazy, and why it is such a powerful tool. If my Orange Company had been sporting a friendly little birdie link, I could easily have sent a shout stating their oranges were amazing...with little effort hiding behind the screen of my computer. Is social media turning our consumers into a lazy breed of people afraid of human confrontation and interaction? Or are we as consumers simply adapting to the expectations of simplicity that technology affords us? I say the latter.

Tenacity

There is always a solution to every problem, never give up until you find it.

Efficient. Not Reactive.

Opinions are rampant. This afternoon consisted of a very long planning and development meeting regarding an upcoming product launch. Rather than focus on the functionality of the product, the meeting quickly became a melting pot of irrational ideas and opinions mixed with “he said she said” accusations!

How often do we argue our opinions within the workplace, with friends and family or more recently, through our cyber personalities on all of our online portals?

Avoid arguments and overstated opinions by establishing clear goals with guidelines and definitions. Business Development is no longer a world of stuffy suits. Now more than ever, it is about relating with clients and building friendships. The priority should not revolve around being heard but instead choose to be patient, and strategically respond accordingly. Business Development should be efficient and friendly, not reactive.

Like the CIA?

A key aspect of Business Development is simply gathering intelligence on customers and competitors. The consistent accumulation of data.

This Year...

This year is flying by and so far I feel rather unaccomplished.

I need a new challenge.

Business Development, No Longer A Numbers Game

Aim and then fire. Business Development is more than a fancy name for Sales and this world of Business Development is no longer a numbers game.

Over the past few years new companies threw their names around by blasting mass emails and phone campaigns hoping to do business with whoever responded. Now in this digital age of 2010, companies along with individuals are being inundated with marketing. If you want to land a deal and make a difference, the approach must be that of a Joint Venture.

Strategically select a company with synergies and a large customer base. Make sure your target companies do not already offer your product / service or something too similar. Be deliberate and establish a point of contact who is a decision maker for the company, begin to build a relationship then ask for a partnership. This may take time, however the long term benefits and revenues will be much stronger in the end.

Business 101, “It’s not personal, it’s business”

Often, I wish I could be the squeaky wheel that gets the grease. Wish I could be the mad, mean, loud customer that always gets their way. But instead, I’m consciously torn between emotion and logic with an inward knowing of right and wrong. It’s not right to pitch a fit and act like a two year old when you’re a grown adult. Yes life is expensive, costs money, and sometimes the product delivered does not meet expectations…that being said, here’s what happened today.

A customer called in and spoke with our customer service department requesting to cancel their subscription to a website service we were providing. After 11 months of continued hosting of their site, the customer is demanding a full refund. Our customer service representative did as she was trained to do and clearly communicated to the customer that a refund was not possible as they should have canceled their subscription long ago. Needless to say the issue escalated to me, and then to our CEO.

After several offers of partial refunds and service credits, the customer continued to refuse stating she was going to pursue other options. At the end of the day, we issued her a full refund. Naturally, I did not “feel” she deserved the refund as 11 months of hosting equaled 11 months of fees for our company, however as our CEO clearly explained, “It’s not personal, it’s business”. Make one person happy to create positive ripples instead of an enemy who may cause a heap of chaos while bad naming us to thousands before silencing.

Discipline

Why is the line so fine between legalism and discipline?

If I say I’m going to run 4 miles but you want me to stop at 3.95 miles, some would say it’s legalistic of me to argue the need to finish the remaining .05 miles. When in fact I would suggest it is only being disciplined. I prefer to train the mind and body to do what I initially set out to do, with no shortcuts in the name of fleeing legalism.

This same discipline should be applied to business as well. When forming a new partnership or joint venture, the integrity of the relationship is much determined by the discipline of each party. Following through to ensure what you each say you will do, gets done with no cut corners. The outcome of a mutually strong and trusting relationship will be a worthy reward for the effort.

Focus

While walking into a social setting, character one approaches character two and asks, "Hi, how are you doing and what's been going on?". Character two quickly replies with the canned response of, "Oh I'm good, I've just been super busy!".

Why is this scenario so predictable? We've all done it and continue to do it. This is the question I've been asking myself lately on a daily basis to re-frame my mind. In reality, I'm really not that busy. The only way to be busy is to be caught up in to-do lists and busyness that typically are not of high importance.

The best life example to offer is in the office. Everyone has stacks of paperwork and pending items. But do those pending items bring money to the bottom line? If not, then practice diverting your attention to new ideas, new business and revenue opportunities and change. Re-focus.

So Many Changes

10 years ago as a fresh and new marketing assistant, I spent hours perusing book stores in search of the "Wow" marketing books that would make me successful. Books were paged through as I read a little here and a little there then quickly signed up for college.

10 years later I find myself laughing at the world of marketing today. Although many books must have said "the future will be different, look ahead!", I don't think any of them said there would be a site called Twitter that changes the travel of education.

Just recently have I joined the Twitter brigade as I'm fumbling to catch up and figure out how tweeting works. But today I was amazed as my follower count grew and I began to notice how quickly informational resources, blogs, success stories and quotes were flown around the online portal.

At first I was amazed at how easy and quick I could find cool posts, blogs, articles...I later realized I'd learned nothing! Skimming through posts and blogs, aka Tweets, I noticed I wasn't retaining any real hard data. Everyone wants to boast "10 ways to do this" or "10 ways to do that" which to me simply equaled a whole lot of opinions about nothing.

I'm going to continue to dive into the Twitter world but am no where near ready to abandon my faithful bookshelf. To be continued...