Search Results: one of the few
A Better Way To Say It
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
There’s a little funeral chapel a few kilometres from where I live. A place that’s a far cry from the draughty stone churches I remember from my childhood in Dublin. A beautiful warm room with skylights that allow the sunshine in. It’s surrounded by bush and a cemetery where kangaroos roam and eat the flowers left by mourners who know, and don’t seem to mind.
Then there’s the lovely little cafe right next door with a shaded terrace overlooking the gum trees.
And then there’s the A4 paper sign taped in several places to the walls, that says it all.
Café for paying customers only.
Waiting area outside chapel.
There’s probably a better way to say what you want to say to the potential customers who pass by your door every day.
If there is you should find it.
Image by Jordan.
Hiding Behind The Truth
I walked into the empty store clutching my receipt and the faulty garment. After one wear and one delicate wash several holes had appeared out of nowhere in the fabric. My ten-day-since-purchase window had expired so I couldn’t get a refund but I was happy to take store credit.
The manager examined the holes. She told me this had never happened before and explained that she’d have to send my shirt to head office over east (a five hour flight away), to confirm that the fault was ‘genuine’. She spent time carefully putting tape over the holes (so that head office could immediately see the problem). She filled out forms. Took my phone number and gave me a receipt. If my complaint was ‘genuine’ I would get a call within a week to confirm my store credit and I could go back and redeem it.
Here in Australia sales in department stores tumbled by 10% last month, one of the contributing factors is the rise in online shopping. Big retailers are scratching their heads wondering how to get shoppers back through their doors and giving deeper discounts every day. And yet they create senseless rules and company policies to squeeze all of the joy out of the shopping experience for the few remaining customers they have left.
Yes you can protect your profits by giving your employees rules and manuals and policies, the truth that they can hide behind. But before you do, think about how that truth makes the customers you have left feel.
If bricks and mortar retailers can’t delight customers by empowering great staff to deliver outstanding service, what advantage do they have left?
Image by Jason Pier.
How To Scratch Your Customer’s Itch
filed in Storytelling, Strategy
Speak to the few, the ones who really ‘get it’.
Empower them to do what they want to do.
Find ways to help them do the things they don’t even know they want to do yet.
Tell them the reason you exist.
Remember what problem you are solving and spell out how you solve it.
Give them reasons to care, taste, buy, join, sign up or share.
Show them how you do this, so that they can do that.
Demonstrate how it works.
“What itch are you scratching for your customer?”
—Richard Reed Co-Founder of Innocent
Image by ML Duong.
Why Bother?
filed in Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Worldview
Why bother having a customer care line that informs of a thirty minute wait and asks people to call back later?
Why bother selling an awards based credit card, then capping the points your customers can earn?
Why bother creating cheap for the masses, when you can deliver quality to the few?
Why bother saying you’ll call if you don’t?
Why bother pressing send if you don’t care about the outcome?
Why bother asking if you don’t really want to hear the answer?
Why bother giving your restaurant a million dollar fit out only to cut corners on staff training?
Why bother saying you’re different when you’re clearly average?
Why bother telling me you care if you don’t?
Why bother lying when the truth works just as well, if not better?
Why bother showing up if you’re not going to leave the world better for your having been here.
Why not to be the best to the few and not just average to everyone?
Image by Montgomery County Planning.
Better Together
filed in Storytelling, Worldview
Putting your ideas out there is scary. Hitting publish is test of your nerve. Showing up most days involves commitment. Making room. Letting go of something else.
You don’t, as (Seth would say), expect applause… but it’s lovely when you get it, and even better when it sounds like this.
“Here’s a blog that succeeds brilliantly in balancing the expertise of the blogger with valuable, original, engaging content. Arresting headlines, considered imagery and a clearly nurtured and active readership make The Story of Telling a blog that’s easy to get into and hard to escape.
One of the commenters on the blog likens Bernadette Jiwa to ‘a female Seth Godin’ and I have to agree. A terrific example of a business blog that must do so much for the author’s business.”
—Robert Gerrish
Best Australian Blogs Judge
This week my blog won The Best Australian Blog Business Category.
I’m blown away, thrilled and humbled of course. There were so many great blogs on those lists. But here’s what I want to tell you.
Without readers there are words, but no story.
If there was no you with your big ideas on the other side of this monitor, then there would be a fair few words, but no real story to tell. You and your stories are what make my writing better. So thank YOU for showing up here too. For making my ideas matter and my headline hunting head, hurt. Thanks for caring and for making me care even more every day.
Image by Photosynthesized.
Reframing How You Think About Customers
How many business books have you read where you are urged to think about how to capture the attention of your ‘prospects’? Quite a few I reckon, I’ve read them too, and something about the use of that word in particular always makes me squirm. A ‘prospect’ by definition is either a potential source of profit or a likely customer. Nothing wrong with that you might say. We’re all in business to make a profit —no profit, no business. But viewing your potential customers as walking wallets is another thing entirely.
If you’re thinking about the people who you hope will buy from you simply as prospects, customers, clients, consumers, patrons, corporations or entities, you’re not only missing the point of doing business, you’re also blinkering yourself to a huge opportunity.
The products and services you want to sell will not succeed in the market if you don’t address the emotional wants of ‘real people’.
It’s not enough just to fulfil the material needs of prospects.
Business, (your business), needs to see past the labels it gives the people it serves, to their hopes, dreams, fears and aspirations.
Seeing beyond the ‘prospect’ label has enabled Pebble Technology to tell people the story of how their product will fit into their lives. They’ve raised $7 million and counting in a few weeks on Kickstarter in the process, not because ‘prospects’ needed a Pebble, but because ‘real people’ wanted one.
Customers can get good coffee on any street corner. Real people become regulars in places that take care of them.
Image by Kristen Mckee.
Why I Stopped Working For Coffee And 12 Reasons Why You Should Too
filed in Marketing, Strategy, Worldview
Are there still days when people ask to “pick your brain” and offer to buy you a cup of coffee? It’s tempting to take people up on those offers and flattering that they think you’ve got something valuable to contribute. I know. I’ve been there, done that and got the t-shirt. I understand the allure of those $4 an hour consults, because years ago I did my fair share too. Those caffeine filled hours were the catalyst for an eventual epiphany, something that frustrated me so much I decided to launch an independent brand strategy consultancy.
It finally dawned on me that those ideas and plans that were hashed out over a latte all too often never amounted to anything. I’d leave all fired up about this great idea and six months down the track, it was still just that…a great idea.
I believe that because they didn’t really pay for the advice my coffee friends had no skin in the game. They were actually demonstrating a lack of belief in themselves and their ideas. Sure it was fantastic to talk about starting something great. But talking is not the same as doing though and an idea without the execution is just an idea. It has no impact. The execution is what creates the impact and in turn makes money.
In the end I realised that I was helping people to feel good about having goals and dreams, when what I wanted more than anything was to empower them to follow their hearts, back themselves and make a go of those dreams.
WHY WORKING FOR COFFEE DOES NOT WORK
1. A $4 consult doesn’t help people in the long run
They aren’t demonstrating self belief or taking their idea seriously enough to invest in it and do the real strategic work required to make it a success. The result is a lack of execution.
2. You’re wasting their time and yours
There is always an opportunity cost. Time is the one thing you can’t create more of, so you need to use it wisely.
3. It sends the wrong signals to them and you
Teaching people that they don’t need to invest in themselves to achieve what they want isn’t being of service to them. It devalues you in your eyes and in the eyes of the client.
4. It attracts the wrong kind of client
You might work for free to attract business, but does a client-initiated coffee consult really attract your best customers?
5. You won’t do your best work
Cheap kills part of your creative soul. You just don’t do your best work this way. Seeing people fail to execute takes the joy out of your work. Getting reimbursed ups your game.
6. It prevents you from working on other things that do serve you and others
This doesn’t help you to build your legacy.
7. A fair fee for your work forces you to be excellent
As Jason Fried founder of 37signals puts it, “Charging for something makes you want to make it better. For customers, paying for something sets a high expectation. As an entrepreneur, you should welcome that pressure. You should want to be forced to be good at what you do.”
8. It means working with two different sets of expectations, yours and theirs
You are quite possibly hoping to convince them they need more of what you have to offer. They are most likely there to convince themselves that they don’t and that they can get what they need for free.
9. It’s not a fair trade
Your time and your expertise is worth more than a few bucks. Plain and simple.
10. The agenda is dictated by the coffee buyer, not by you
This means it’s not deliberate or intentional, as it needs to be.
11. It’s not strategic
It encourages people to grasp at ,myriad of tactical straws instead of building from a solid foundation.
12. Often it doesn’t align with your values
Somehow coffee consults end up feeling “off”. You won’t be doing your best work and you won’t be as invested in the effort as you need to be.
Of course there are always exceptions to any rule and yes, I still create for love sometimes, for good causes which are close to my heart and in win-win situations. The difference being that, for the most part, the approach is initiated by me. In those instances, I make sure that the work is legacy building, not just ego building and that those choices are made from a place of love.
If you’re still in doubt you can use the handy Should I Work For Free flow chart to help you decide.
Tell me about your experiences of working for free and how you strike a balance.
Image by Mikey G. Ottawa.
How To Make Your Message Stick
filed in Marketing, Storytelling
I read an interesting fact on the last few pages of my friend Mark’s new book Return on Influence, apparently most people abandon a business book after reading one third of it. This is an audience who decided they believed in the idea, author or maybe the title and cover design enough to invest, only to abandon it just as she was getting started. We have so many choices now, that we even choose to abandon the things that we choose.
How do you hold people’s attention and get your message to stick?
Think about any book you’ve read, what you remember are the stories. I remember how Klout’s founder Joe Fernandez found himself housebound with time on his hands after he’d had his jaws wired, that this was when he began exploring social scoring and planning world domination. I remember Mark’s story about seeing a friend’s poor review of a restaurant he was at, and how that affected his experience that evening.
“People don’t want more information.
They are up to their eyeballs in information.
They want faith.
Faith in you, your goals, your success, in the story you tell.”
—Annette Simmons
Take a leaf from the book of one of the most successful non-fiction authors of our time Malcolm Gladwell. Make your facts real by painting an unforgettable picture with a story.
Image by darkmatter.
The Best McDonalds Adverts McDonalds Never Made
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
The golden arches might be ubiquitous, but now we can and do, choose to ignore advertising campaigns created by even the biggest global companies. We skip commercials and we switch off, while marketing departments spend plenty best guessing what might capture us for a few more seconds.
What fascinates us, what holds our attention in the moment is not the product itself, but how it in some way makes meaning in our lives. Marketing is the tough job of working out what makes meaning on seven billion different levels.
As consumers we are no longer waiting for manufacturers and marketing departments to create context for us, we are doing it for ourselves. The 50,000 best McDonalds adverts ever made, (and counting—hit refresh), were created by you and me.
The opportunity for marketers is that consumers are now creating content about that context and they are sharing it with their friends.
Image by hustle roses.
You Need A Story Not Just An Introduction
filed in Marketing, Storytelling
If you’ve ever been to any kind of round table meeting where each participant introduces themselves, you’ll know that after the first few introductions most people switch off. In a world of shrinking attention spans you’ve got seconds to grab them. If you feel uncomfortable about bigging yourself up, or standing out from the crowd think of it like this. What you’re actually doing is helping your audience cut through the clutter and they’ll appreciate you for it.
One of the best introductions I know of took place at a story seminar and it goes like this.
I remember my first day on the ward. There I was all decked out in my pristine white coat, complete with my newly minted name badge and Parker pen at the ready.
“Good morning doctor,” the ward sister said as I swept onto the ward stethoscope flying.
“Good morning sister, what can I do for you today?” I replied.
“We’ve got a post operative patient with nausea who needs something, could you write that up for her please?”
“No problem,” I said, as I whipped out my prescription pad and Parker pen. “What do we usually prescribe?”
“Stemetil.”
“Ah yes….. and what dose?”
“12.5 mg.”
“Of course….how often do you think she’ll require it?” I said thoughtfully chewing the end of my pen.
“Three times a day,” replied sister Moriarity, “and the rest of the information you need is written on your name badge.”
You’re no going to forget this guy in a hurry, (me neither, I married him). If he’d said hello I’m so and so and I’m a doctor, I’m a specialist in… and I work…blah blah…., you see you’re falling asleep already. But you won’t forget the story where he showed you that despite all of his training and everything he thought he knew, he was still learning and not too humble to admit it.
Think of your introduction as more than a few stiff lines that you skim through under your breath in a big heap hurry. Spend some time working out what will make someone want to know more, and practice telling them that in 60 seconds.
The introduction is what gives you the opportunity to tell the rest of the story later.
Image by Clydeorama.