Why do consultants (marketing and otherwise) have such a negative reputation in the business world? Like any profession, you have highly skilled people and you have others who are not as skilled. No surprise there. But skills alone still don’t make a trusted adviser (the gold standard every consultant wants to achieve). Part of the problem comes down to people who simply oversell their qualifications but don’t have the skill to back it up. For clients, this smoke screen is difficult to penetrate but this is probably the primary driver of low satisfaction among clients. Ultimately, their experience with the consultant (or firm) is sub par which, in turn, reinforces the negative connotation of the profession.

However, there is another factor that generally flies below the radar - even good, highly skilled consultants fall into this trap. And the result is not good for anyone. The trap is “Let’s do what is easy instead of what is right for the client.”

I’ve become a fan of incendiary chef Gordon Ramsey. Not because of his obnoxious show “Hells Kitchen” (I hate that show) but because of his other show “Kitchen Nightmares”. Essentially, Ramsey is a consultant who offers tough, straight talk to turn around failing restaurants - typically due to the ownership and/or management who are not doing what is in the best interest of the business. He pulls no punches and cuts through the often sizable egos of his clients. Through all the f-bombs and brutal truth, you can see that Ramsey genuinely cares about the success of the business.

For example, I have worked with companies who were willing to spend money having consultants and outside partners do various marketing activities. Doesn’t seem like a problem, does it? The problem is that the activities were the whim of the president and not necessarily the activities that would actually fuel the company’s growth and success. Most were the marketing equivalent of busy work. There is no plan, no goals and the whims change direction constantly. Many initiatives that started are never completed. Not exactly a recipe for success.

Why would otherwise self respecting consultants go along with this? Because it is easier to take the money and go along with the flow. After all, that’s why we are in business, right? To go to the bank. However, this is not why the client hires outside expertise. They expect results. They may seem satisfied with the furious activity but at the end of the fiscal year, this satisfaction quickly evaporates because money was spent and goals were not met.

It’s difficult to push against this flow. In fact, you may even lose the business to other folks who don’t really care about the client’s best interests. The money is tempting. Nobody likes to tell a valued client that they are on the wrong path. There are many reasons to sit silent and play the easy game. But I believe that those of us in the business of helping our clients solve problems and create growth opportunities have a sovereign duty to always do what is right for the client - whether they like it or not.

Sure, it’s not easy. Of course they may not like it at the time. It may even require them to spend more money (Ouch!). But the fact is, they didn’t hire you to be a “yes man”. They hired you to solve their problems. Don’t be a wimp - do the right thing no matter what. And keep the swearing to a minimum.

Everywhere I turn I see companies attempting to leverage the much hyped “downturn” in the economy. All of a sudden, they are touting special “Recession” services and techniques to overcome impending doom. Marketing and advertising agencies are especially guilty offenders. So, in my inimitable tradition of cutting through the smoke and smashing the mirrors, allow me to deliver some straight talk (McCain and Obama aside).

When it comes to marketing, there is no difference between a recession marketing strategy versus a boom time marketing strategy. There are simply two ends of the marketing strategy continuum. On one end, there exists the Well Planned and Executed Strategy. On the other, the Wild Ass Seat of the Pants Unstrategy. That’s it. All companies are on this continuum somewhere.

If you find yourself on the right side of the continuum, you will experience more pain when the economy gets tight. It’s as simple as that.

The fact is that there are always deals going on. There may be fewer deals but even a 20% downturn means that 80% of business is still being transacted. Companies who have investing in “real” marketing strategies and programs (a customer centered message, a clear position, a consistent marketing communications effort, etc.) will naturally be in a better position to win business in this type of circumstance. Those who don’t have a best practices process in place will be victims of Market Darwinism.

So what makes a “real” strategy? Here’s a few points to help you figure out where you are on the continuum:

1. Objectivity: If your marketing and sales programs are based purely on internal information or the dictum of a single person, it’s most likely not going to be very effective.
2. Research: Going hand-in-hand with Objectivity is customer, competitive and industry research. Yes, it’s expensive and not as fun as building a new web site, however, if you really want to get the facts as to how customers buy, how competitors sell and how to leverage industry thought leaders to your advantage, no strategy should skip this important step.
3. Budget: Two opposing objectives are very common in businesses: Saving Money or Growing the Business. These objectives are mutually exclusive. You can’t save your way to success and making money requires careful, investment.
4. Commitment: Marketing programs take time to work. Pulling the plug every time the stock market hiccups destroys any momentum and equity your efforts may have created.
5. Execution: Having a well researched, objective, adequately budgeted plan means nothing if you don’t execute. Build a team and get it done. And keep doing it until it pays off.

Good times or bad, it pays to bring your marketing programs up to par with the rest of your carefully planned business. Of course there is more to it than can be covered here. But this is a start. Marketing is a business process. The outcome (increased market share, revenue and profit)  is only as good as the process used to get there.

Click here for Part One

The Power of Publicity

One of the most useful skills I acquired in the music business is how to work with editors and reporters. I learned that you cannot trick or fool these folks. They are smarter than you and me. They’ve heard it all before. I learned to bring them good stories that fit their mission and publications. When they called me I always made time to talk to them. We also made sure all of the appropriate reporters and editors were on our comp list and had a tab at the bar. I wanted them to have a great experience at my show and I delivered on this promise. The result was a series of mentions and features about the band and our recordings. Each time an article was published, we instantly saw a surge in the audience and more importantly, merchandise and CD sales.
Branding
When I first started performing in bands I had no idea what a “brand” was. In my defense, I was only fifteen. However, I was lucky enough to perform with a number of great blues artists and it was their sincerity that gave me my first inkling of the importance of an authentic brand. I wasn’t a good enough musician to play every kind of music and everything I played came out sounding similar – a mix of honky-tonk, blues and New Orleans juke joint, good time dance music. As soon as I embraced my sound and stopped trying to emulate my heroes, my unique brand was formed. Over the years, I honed this brand so that everything the public saw and heard supported this concept – from clothing and song choices to posters and CD art.

Negotiating
I was baptized by fire as a young man when I walked into a local club and attempted to sell my band to the grizzled curmudgeon behind the bar. We played for free that night. The club, on the other hand, made out quite well. It didn’t take me long to figure out that there was a game at play. At first my goals was to get as much money out of the club as possible with zero concern about its bottom line. As my education progressed, I realized the clubs and talent agents wanted the same thing I did – to make money. I learned to craft win-win deals that shared risk among all parties. As long as everyone did what they promised, everybody came out with a pocket full of cash. Many clubs even awarded us unexpected bonuses at the end of the night because they were so pleased with the show and the attendance levels. We, in turn, handsomely tipped the bar staff. Now that’s a win-win scenario!

Contracts
Handshake deals are fine for friendship, but not for business. When deals are hashed out over a number of beers, details tend to drift. If there are strippers involved, all hope is lost. Enter the contract. I used to think contracts kept people honest. I’ve learned that a contract means nothing to dishonest people. One of the most important lessons the music business taught me is to only do business with people you trust. The contract simply records the details of the deal (acceptable colors of m&m’s, quantity of cold cuts, etc.) so all parties don’t forget or get confused. As my group became more popular, many deals were struck a year in advance so the contract was a critical part of the exchange and ensured mutual benefit and understanding.

I’m sure there are other things the music business taught me (like hippie chics are great dancers and the darkest, smelliest clubs always have the best food…) however, my most valuable lesson is that knowledge often comes from the least expected places and people. I owe a debt of gratitude to my music mentors – some famous, some not. They taught me the blues but their lessons and advice have allowed me to build several successful businesses, support my family and help others do the same.

I don’t play much anymore but I still miss the feeling of fronting a super tight band in a hot, sweaty dive packed with a couple hundred music affectionados all existing in the same zone at the same moment. I would have never thought that the lessons I learned in these dark, hallowed dance halls would serve me so well, so many years later. But I guess that’s what life is about - you learn as you go.

As I look back almost two decades of helping companies grow, I amazed by how much I’ve learned from the experience. I was first exposed to marketing and sales in a very unorthodox way: my first job was as a professional musician. At the time, I wasn’t thinking about sales processes and marketing communication, I was simply looking for a way to meet girls and get paid. Performing music paid for my college tuition and helped my launch my first company – a marketing firm that grew from nothing to over three million dollars in revenue. Of course I’ve learned an equal amount from mentors and clients over the years but the music business unexpectedly gave me the tools to succeed.

Leadership
I discovered early on that if I was going to benefit from the joy of performing music, I singularly needed to make it happen. I had to take over the business of the band because if I didn’t do it, nobody would.  At first, I tried to dictate everything from wardrobe to what notes to play. Surprisingly, that approach didn’t work. Then I switched to the democratic model – everybody gets a vote, everything is debated and discussed and we do what is best for everyone. That didn’t work either. Finally I settled on a more effective approach - first, to surround myself with people who were much better than I was in terms of musical and instrumental ability (what we hip musicians call “chops”). Secondly, to provide direction and structure and let them simply do what they did best – perform. Once I counted on my carefully chosen band mates, we won some music awards, outgrew most of our venues and, most importantly, our fees quadrupled.

Managing People
Getting a group of musicians ranging in numbers from four to ten or more to move in the same direction is akin to herding cats. Drunken, goofy cats that show up late or not at all in some cases. I tried everything from fining them to begging and nothing worked. Finally in my exasperation, I started looking for more professional musicians. So I ran a classified ad.  For every one hundred people who auditioned, all of them had some deal breaking issue. Some simply couldn’t play. Others showed up drunk and stoned. Still others didn’t have working equipment or transportation. This is when I learned that simply having the ability to play a lot of notes in a short period of time isn’t enough. Your team has to have a similar mindset, (professional, capable and sober). They need adequate equipment and transportation. Above all they need the right attitude. When it comes to managing people, I learned that everything starts with hiring the right people to begin with. The best musicians are referred by other great musicians. When you have great leadership and the right people, they don’t need to be managed. The lesson? Stop managing and start hiring the right people.

Promotion
It’s hard for me to think about the years I spent playing for an audience of empty chairs. I’m sure those chairs really enjoyed the show but I didn’t. Promoting a band is not much different from promoting anything else. You need to understand your audience. It took me a few years to realize I had two interdependent audiences: blues fans AND club owners. I had to please both. Another key concept I learned was  “awareness equals perceived quality”. I found that the more often people saw the name of the group (frequency), the more they correlated this with quality. “They must be good – I see their name everywhere.”   So we made sure our gigs were always in the papers, our posters were ubiquitous, we were on the college radio station semi-weekly and we sold thousands of T-shirts and CDs. Of course we needed to make sure that our product was indeed a high quality experience and we worked hard to ensure an ultra professional, tight show. Once we understood what people wanted and the more we extended our brand into the community, venues and our calendar started filling up.

Click here for part two

Meanwhile, if you want to hear some of my music, heck these live cuts from my past life. I’m playing guitar and singing lead …

Born In A Biscayne (by Spencer Bohren)

Girl on the TV News (by the Belairs)

My Baby’s Lovin’ (by D. McClinton)

Parts is Parts But Pie isn’t Pie.
I’m often asked to consult on very narrow parts of a marketing and advertising program. For example: “Pete we just want to you tell us why our web site isn’t producing the number of leads we think it should.” Or, “Pete, just take a look at this direct mail piece and give us your recommendations as to how we can make it better.”.

The problem is my guesses probably won’t be any better than your guesses. Sure, I can make pretty good guesses because I’ve spent the last two decades solving these types of problems but ultimately we will still be guessing. Guessing is the antithesis of great marketing.

The trouble here is that we would only be looking at a tiny slice of the pie. Figuring out why the pie tastes terrible requires looking at the quality of all of the ingredients, the process of making the pie, checking the oven to ensure it’s working properly, ensuring the pie is the right kind of pie (nobody is going to like a pie made of sweat socks - apple might taste better). The pie is simply the end result of many steps. And let’s not forget the experience and talent of the pie maker.

In my experience, no single tactic (an advertisement, a direct mail piece, a web site, etc.) can be expected to move a B2B suspect to buy. It takes a coordinated series of contacts in multiple media formats to provide maximum performance of a marketing campaign. But even more importantly, these tactics must be based on a holistic view of all the factors that drive the buying decision. These factors typically can include:

• How customers make buying decisions
• Competitive offerings and methods
• Industry trends
• Perception of the brand
• Relevancy of the message
• Targeting
• Pricing
• Placement
• Length of time campaign runs
• and many more factors.

Once all of the factors are considered, it may be possible to make changes to specific tactics and improve said tactics performance. But if there are systemic problems within the organization or it’s marketing planning process - these issues must first be solved before any marketing program or promotional campaign can be expected to produce a real return on investment.

But making and selling great pie isn’t as simple as it might seem. You must use the best ingredients, measure these ingredients precisely (unless you’re my mother who has an uncanny knack for tossing handfuls of stuff into the pie and it turns out great every time), bake the pie at the right temperature for the right amount of time, display the pie for your customers and receive feedback as to how much they like it. And if the majority of the customers love your sweat sock pie, then you make more sweat sock pie. You don’t have to eat it. You just have to sell it.

I made a new business contact about three weeks ago. All of our interaction has been by phone thus far. I’m very impressed with her - she’s smart, enthusiastic and very knowledgeable in her field. We decide to set up a meeting so I can get a better idea of how I might be able to refer business and generally get acquainted.

The next thing I know, I’m naked and laying on a table.

At the time, it didn’t seem that strange to me but now that I’m thinking about it, I don’t think I’ve ever stripped out of my clothes at a first meeting. Maybe the third or fourth meeting but this seemed like we were moving too fast.

The strangest part was that our conversation was exactly the same as what you might overhear at a Starbucks on any given Tuesday morning. Soft music was playing and the lights were dim, it was one of the better meetings I’ve had in a long time.

OK, I’ll let you in on it. My meeting was with a very talented massage therapist who graciously offered to do some work on my train wreck of a spinal cord. She is fantastic and one of the most generous, “pay it forward” types of people I’ve ever met. Check her web site here: http://www.brandischunk.com

I write about being authentic and do my best to live by my belief that authenticity is really what makes relationships (business and personal) work. And let me tell you - it’s hard not to be authentic when you can’t hide behind a suit or as I prefer, a baggy golf shirt.

I look forward to adding Brandi to my list of friends and will actively look for ways I can return the favor. After all, I need to keep her on my side because she knows exactly how fat I am, that I haven’t seen the sun since 1978 and that I have the skeletal system of a 90 year old woman.

Now THAT is authenticity.

In an ideal world, sales teams and marketing folks should be best buddies. In this ideal world, business would come easily, profit would grow on trees and everyone would hug at the end of the day. Ok, back to the real world.

It is not uncommon for sales and marketing departments to have divergent agendas. This can range from teams that simply argue over details to outright hostility. When the atmosphere is closer to the latter, this type of culture can seriously effect business development efforts, increase sales costs and generally make everyone’s lives miserable.

Bringing these teams together to create a three hundred and sixty degree information cycle is critical to achieving superior growth. Sales should constantly provide feedback to marketing and marketing should reciprocate with tactics and strategies that support the sale methodology. That was easy to say but how do you make it happen?

The key is implement fair and transparent processes throughout the planning and execution efforts. This creates a culture of trust and commitment that motivates people to execute the strategy and embrace it of their own accord. Without a fair and transparent process, there is distrust, non-cooperation and in some extreme cases, sabotage.

A fair process engages all players from the beginning and continues to engage them throughout the execution of the strategy. When I work with companies, I not only invite the executive team to planning sessions, I insist on including the people who will carry out the strategy – from marketing directors and assistants to sales people and support personnel. In these sessions, titles are checked at the door and everyone gets equal input and the opportunity to present their ideas and opinions.

I encourage all participants to refute anyone’s ideas or assumptions without negative consequences to strengthen the level of discourse and enhance collective wisdom. By allowing people to speak freely and by engaging them in the strategic process, management can show people that they and their ideas are respected.

This is not to say that every thought and idea of those present will ultimately make it into the final strategy. Management and executive teams still make the final decisions.

The primary purpose of the process is to ensure that all parties fully understand the reasoning behind the strategy, the standards set for success and what is expected of everyone. Another benefit is gaining insight and ideas from individuals who are directly involved in carrying out the strategy, thus avoiding strategies that don’t align with the day to day realities of the front lines of business.

Utilizing the traditional “top down” approach doesn’t create a sense of ownership and is often counter productive to execution. When people feel that they are valuable contributors to the success of the organization with communication lines open and clear, mutual respect is achieved and execution is voluntary. Besides, even the janitor might have a million dollar idea.

I recently shaved off my goatee due to a terrible shaving accident. I was able to salvage a reasonable “jazz dot” from the remains of my facial manhood. (You may know this type of facial hair as an “imperial”, “royale”, “soul patch” or “nubbin”). So what does this somewhat personal information have to do with marketing? Hang in there while I spin another fascinating and insightful yarn.

My “jazz dot” is my personal homage to my former life as a touring blues musician. It also is a nod to to some of my favorite musicians. What I didn’t know was that this style of facial hair was historically worn by French officers as a badge or adornment of military rank or status (thank you wikipedia).

However, last week a 10 year old kid in my neighborhood looked at my fabulous soul patch and said, “You have Hitler’s moustache but it’s on your chin!”.

This kid had his own unique perception of my look - with none of the understanding behind my intention or my own perception. He simply dealt with what he saw and framed it within his own point of reference.

As marketing people we often generalize or stereotype target audiences, lumping them together into like-minded groups and presenting them with a message that we believe will come though loud and clear to the majority of the constituents within each group. We expect their point of reference and perception to match ours and receive the message we intend.

In reality, there is simply no way to predict how someone will translate and perceive your carefully researched and thought-out concept. You have no idea how each person’s personal experience and points of reference will impact the meaning of your communication.

Until marketing communication can truly be “one to one” this limitation will continue to exist. The good news is that the majority of your audience will “get it”. The others will probably compare you to Hitler.

I’m a huge believer in polling your customers to uncover key insights into how they buy, what they think of my clients, how they evaluate similar suppliers, etc. In fact, most of my assignments start with customer phone interviews because the information uncovered during these conversations is priceless when it comes to developing a strategy that is truly relevant to the people who actually buy your products or services. Fundamental marketing.

So why did I recently refuse a client’s request to make these critical calls? Have I decided to cut the customer out of the marketing process and simply guess at what they need? If you believe that, I have some nice Florida swampland to sell you.

Here’s the scenario. I had worked with this client’s sales team for several months with good results. However, I was also tasked with working with the marketing director. He had very different ideas when it came to “marketing”. After giving my recommendations as to the direction of the customer survey, I received a short list of questions he wanted to ask his company’s clients. Everything seemed fine until I saw the questions.

This smart, capable marketing director wanted to ask an audience of high level, technology buyers questions including:

“If you were to buy us a drink, what kind of drink would it be?”
“If we were a car, what kind of car would we be?”
“If we were an airline, which airline would we be?”

What would you think if some marketing guy called you up and asked you these questions? He had done this type of survey before and was dead set on repeating this folly. In my experience with this person, I knew that there was no chance of changing the direction of the survey. Not only would I not embarrass myself or my client asking such superficial, pointless questions, I could not see how this line of questioning would provide us with useful information that would help fulfill the CEO’s dictum – to increase sales, revenue and profit.

I know that a lot of marketing people ask these types of questions and think they are uncovering useful information. My problem with this approach is that it is far too subjective and open to interpretation. For example, if a customer says you are a Jaguar, you might think, “We are high end, performance oriented, expensive and desirable.” However, the client might have a very different view of Jaguar and might have meant “Overpriced, conspicuous, prone to breakdowns and impractical.”

If the client wanted to buy us a “White Russian” how could I possibly distill anything from such an answer that would specifically help the company sell more products or enhance their value? At least I would know how the client prefers to pick up girls at the bar.

My questions would have been much different. They might include:

“What is your buying criteria and how is it ranked?”
“If we stopped doing business, who would you buy from and why?”
“How do we compare to the competition based on your buying criteria?”
“What is your buying/selection process?”
“In what areas do we need to improve?”
“Why do you continue to buy from us?”
“What other needs might you have that we could fulfill?”

But what do I know. If I were a car, I’d be a 1965 Corvette.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that your customers don’t really care about the latest whiz-bang feature of your new whatchamathingy. I’m also willing to bet they don’t really care that much about how big you are, how small you are, how nice your office is, what your vision or mission might be or how awesome your last ad campaign was. Over the course of doing many surveys and focus groups with executives and physicians, one thing has been absolutely consistent. Customers want you to solve their problems.

This could mean reducing costs or hassles (which usually incur added costs) or increasing revenue. But promising these broad concepts isn’t good enough. You need to understand your prospect’s and customer’s problems on a case-by-case basis. And you need to be up front about whether you can truly solve these problems.

For some of you, this might seem painfully obvious. However, take a look at all of your outward facing marketing and sales materials. Do they specifically state the types of problems you solve? Can your sales people articulate the types of problems typically faced by customers and align them with solutions?

For example, FedX solves the problem of getting packages to their destination when they “absolutely, positively have to be there overnight”. If your problem involves delivering a package within 24 hours, it is pretty clear that FedX is in the business of solving this specific problem.

Another way to look at this equation is to think of it in terms of pain. For example, when I am talking to a prospect I may explain my capabilities in terms of the types of pain the prospect might be feeling. For example:

I work with CEOs that are:
- concerned about a lack of new opportunities coming through the door.
- frustrated by spending on marketing programs that don’t seem to impact revenue goals
- angry that their sales and marketing teams are at odds resulting in missed opportunities

My point here is to deliver your message in emotional language the prospect can understand and to which he or she can relate on a personal level. A list of features just isn’t effective in created the gut-feel buying impulse that causes the buyer to choose your offerings over your competitors.

Whether you are selling electronic boxes or accounting services, at the end of the day your customer buys for his or her own reasons. Rarely do they buy based on logic. How can you tap the emotion of the buyer and clearly communicate how you can improve his or her condition?