The 8020Info Water Cooler

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The 8020Info Water Cooler
Issue #92 - Vol. 6 No. 12
28 August, 2006

1. Telling Employees The Hard Truth About Their Effectiveness

When an employee misses a deadline or doesn't react appropriately to a customer, many of us avoid directly addressing the problem. Harvard Management Update reports those incidents have been called managerial moments of truth in a book by Bruce Bodaken and Robert Fritz, and you need to take advantage of the chance to activate learning:

Acknowledge The Truth: Start a conversation with the employee by stating the facts: "The project was due Aug. 21 and it's Aug. 28." Your employee may cite excuses or blame others, but keep the topic focused on the project's lateness, repeating that fact if necessary. Avoid additional comments such as "you let me down" or "missing deadlines is unprofessional" since that increases defensiveness.

Analyze the situation: Once you and the employee have agreed on the fact of the situation, work together to track down the thoughts and decisions that led up to it, prodding the individual to consider where he went wrong but also acknowledging where you may have contributed to the problem.

Develop an action plan: Create a workable, practical plan to avoid a recurrence of the same situation. Let the employee come up with the plan, providing ideas yourself only if he has difficulty conceiving new approaches.

Create a feedback system: Ensure you are still in the loop to help adjust the plan if that becomes necessary. For example, the employee might touch base with you while drafting a project schedule and review progress with you periodically.

2. The Top Five Product Mistakes Top

Given all the planning and hope that goes into a new product launch, it's important to avoid failure. But many products go awry. The main reasons, according to consultant Martin Cagan in the Ivey Business Journal, are:

Confusing customer requirements with their product requirements: That sounds odd when we covet customer feedback, but sometimes customers don't know what they want or what is possible. It's up to you to deeply understand the target market and its needs, and to combine what is possible with what is desirable -- and then communicate the value to customers.

Confusing innovation with value: Innovation without a clear purpose is simply technology looking for a problem to solve. Just because it's possible to create something doesn't mean it has sufficient value to be bought.

Confusing yourself with your customer: You need to test the product's usability with customers rather than assume just because you like it that's sufficient for success.

Confusing the customer with the user: When selling to business, the customer who makes the purchase decision may not be the same person as the user. But often we deal with the purchase decision-maker. It's important to have first-hand understanding of the people who will actually use the product.

Confusing features with benefits: It's very easy to become preoccupied with the specifics of the features in a product and to forget the benefits those features provide.

3. Aquarian CEOs Deliver The Results    Top

Tough CEOs tend to get celebrated by the business media. But a study reported in Fast Company suggests that's not the model to follow. The researchers found that companies with far-sighted, tolerant, humane and practical CEOs returned 758 per cent over the past 10 years compared to 128 per cent for the S&P 500. Over the past five years, while the S&P lost 13 per cent, those companies returned 205 per cent. "Fortunately, it turns out that such soft skills can lead to hard numbers," writes Linda Tischler.

She calls the leaders Aquarian CEOs, men and women who inspire respect, loyalty and affection rather than fear. Raj Sisodia, a Bentley College professor who led the study with two colleagues, says this reflects a cultural shift: "People are expecting more from the companies they're working for, more from the companies they are doing business with, and more from the companies they're buying from."

4. Overcoming Obstacles To Your Goals    Top

Everyone finds at certain times that they are stuck and unable to move forward on their personal or business goals. The Success 77 web page suggests listing your internal and external obstacles in a journal, to make yourself more aware of what is getting in your way. Just being aware of the difficulties can help you find creative solutions.

Also consider the payoffs for not reaching your goals. Perhaps you don't want to change. Perhaps success might lead to losing some friends. It's human nature to want to keep the comfort and security of the status quo, but by confronting the obstacles you can move ahead.

5. Zingers    Top

Marketing expert Seth Godin says successful marketers tell two stories at the same time -- a shiny one and a deep one. The shiny story is easy to notice, easy to enjoy, and easy to spread. The deep story is fascinating, with texture and mystery, and lasts.
(Source: Seth's blog)

Behavioural change is more likely to come if you have a support group assisting in the change process. Your best coaches won't necessarily be outside experts but someone you respect who observes your behaviour from day to day. That may include your manager, direct reports, colleagues, customers, friends and family members -- just ask them to help.
(Source: Marshall Goldsmith's blog)

One way to build trust and credibility with prospective customers is to reverse the risk by offering to unconditionally return payment, or agreeing not to deposit the customer's cheque until the customer fully tests your product. If you are prepared to give the customer's money back if he or she is unsatisfied, why not make it an explicit, up-front promise?
(Source: StreetSmart Marketer)

If sorting through blogs seems too frustrating, try BlogBridge (http://blogbridge.com/) which has experts in categories like marketing, innovation, web 2.0 and knowledge management) who offer their suggestions on best blogs.
(Source: Wall Street Journal)

People who live in rural areas of Canada were more likely to devote time to volunteer work than their urban counterparts in 2003, the last year studied by Statistics Canada. In both areas, people with post-secondary education were more likely to volunteer than those with less education: 63 per cent of post-secondary graduates in rural areas and 42 per cent in urban areas.
(Source: Statistics Canada's The Daily)

6. Q & A with 8020Info    Top

Question: What can I do to improve the chances my direct mail piece will get noticed?

8020Info's Alison Sortberg responds:

People open their mailboxes expecting a batch of flyers emblazoned with bold headlines screaming about what they have to sell. They might read them or they might not; most throw them out and dread the next direct mail barrage. But direct mail can be something people look forward to, if done right -- there are three required elements of direct mail that are most commonly botched:

* The offer: What does the recipient get when they do as they are asked?

Be specific and include a call to action when developing your offer: Get a gift when you refer a friend. Sign up today and try it risk-free for a month. A clear reason for responding to the call for action will make a direct mail piece more effective.

* The list: An effective recipient list includes people who want to hear from you.

The better you know your clients, the better you can match a direct mail list with your offer. If you don't have your own database, mailing lists can be purchased from brokers or you can use Canada Post postal walks to reach specific neighbourhoods. Membership, subscription and attendance lists may be good sources of names: Do your main customers frequent local fitness clubs? Or perhaps they read Outdoor Life or attend gourmet cooking trade shows.

* The creative: Tell your story.

This is where most organizations using direct mail go wrong. Common practice suggests that bright colours and headlines in all caps will get noticed. These tactics are no longer unique, however, and the message just gets lost in the sea of junk mail.

Some marketers, such as the Swedish furniture giant IKEA, for example, do get it right. Imagine your customers interacting with your advertising for fifteen minutes, and then telling people about it. That's what happened a few years ago when IKEA sent out a creative piece with perforated stamp-sized pictures of furniture. Recipients could tear out the beds, end tables and couches to design new layouts for rooms in their homes. They were interactively engaged with IKEA products and had fun.

You may not have the advertising budget of an international furniture store, but a little creativity can go a long way in developing a direct mail campaign that will attract, not annoy, your customers.

7. News From Our Water Cooler    Top

Any great team requires a variety of talent, experience and skills. Recently we've been pleased to welcome Alison Sortberg to our team at 8020Info. She graduated at the top of her advertising class at St. Lawrence College and was awarded a place on the President's List. A member of the team that placed first at the 2005 Ontario Colleges Marketing Competition, Alison received a Greg Award for her creative work, and earned a coveted seat at the 2004 ideaCity Conference.

On current consulting projects we have also teamed up with some talented partners: Paul Blais of Blais & Associates Economic Development Consulting; Deborah Melman-Clement, a versatile and award-winning Kingston writer/researcher; and Kathryn Wood of Natural Capital Resources, who also serves on the 8020Info Board of Directors and our eight-member Advisory Board.

8. Closing Thought    Top

"Everything has both intended and unintended consequences. The intended consequences may or may not happen; the unintended consequences always do."
-- Dee Hock