The first implication of this data is obvious: conceptual thinkers are disproportionately attracted to workshops on psychological profiling.

The other implication is [...]]]> I just finished running a workshop for designers on the use of psychological profiling. Of the 15 attendees, 11 profiled as strongly conceptual thinkers. A random sample of the population would have seen just three such thinkers in the room.

The first implication of this data is obvious: conceptual thinkers are disproportionately attracted to workshops on psychological profiling.

The other implication is more important. Certain kinds of people are attracted to certain roles, to certain companies, to certain tribes. “Groupthink” is not the problem here. You could gather your crew and run a rigorous, argumentative and open process. You could come up with a whole new design or message, debate it, modify it, and end up with something almost everyone thinks is genius.

If the design is for you and your crew, that’s fine. If it’s for someone else, here’s the question: was anyone like them in the room? When I run these workshops, attendees often can’t believe how different people are. We usually attribute “not getting it” to stupidity. We need to attribute it to bad communication.

So how would you offer life insurance without the death of the policy holder? The end-point of this musing was allowing those suffering [...]]]> Edward de Bono was once playing mind games with the exec team at a life insurance provider. He asked them to take out of the equation something that was absolutely vital to their business. Someone yelled out: “Death!”

So how would you offer life insurance without the death of the policy holder? The end-point of this musing was allowing those suffering from life-threatening illnesses to cash in their insurance.

How often do you question what seem to be the fundamentals of your business? Here are a few examples I’ve come across this year, the pursuit of which is proving to be fruitful.

• What would happen if you kept your best sales guy at home? How would you restructure your sales operation? How could you reach those same leads remotely, and how could you delight them?
• How would things be different if there wasn’t a standard look and feel dictated by your brand guidelines and brand police? What if, like an interesting person, your brand spoke and dressed differently depending on the occasion? Could you measure the impact of the different voices and looks?
• Pretend that you are no longer allowed to sell a different product to different customer segments, but had to sell the same products to all of them. Does it turn out there is something common to all your customers, and can you repackage the product to appeal to that essence?
• What if you went ahead and did that thing that makes sense, and thanked your boss for inspiring you to have the courage to do so?

One solution is to actively chase great clients. Another is to be active on the events circuit and build a profile in the right circles [...]]]> Waiting for the phone to ring is a perfectly sustainable sales strategy for a service business that’s been around for a while. The problem is that this usually does not lead to the most fulfilling work.

One solution is to actively chase great clients. Another is to be active on the events circuit and build a profile in the right circles through opinion pieces and social media. A lot has been written about these approaches, and I don’t have a lot to add.

What I wanted to talk about here is another way that great clients can come your way: through great channel partners. These partners are the most important business development assets that I have. But I approached partnerships wrongly for years and years. Here are some of the things I tried, and why they failed.

If you’re thinking that options 2 and 3 could work under the right circumstances, then I agree with you. In my case, however, the reason they can work is so distinctive that I think it defines a whole new category of partner:

Someone who

• is completely driven by a passion that I share;
• has trust-based relationships with organisations that are aligned with that passion; and 
• sees my company as a tool to achieve significant outcomes for those organisations.

Now if that just sounds obvious to you, and you are a values-driven person, I hope you have a development strategy that invests significantly in finding and building relationships with people like that. Because they will make it a mission to introduce you to amazing organisations and individuals. Ego takes a second place to results, because we all care about the cause. Disagreements become exciting ways to get closer to success, not win/lose situations.

It’s taken me 11 years to spot, or at least articulate this. It’s made me go places I wouldn’t normally go, share things I wouldn’t normally share, and lose a lot of short term money in ways that would have otherwise seemed crazy. I would say it’s going very well. Please email me with your thoughts.

Kirk’s got an ego, bores easily, and he’s busy going places. So to start with, you’ve got to get his attention. You need a story, a hook, perhaps something emotional. Here’s a clue. “There are three [...]]]> A tidy, logical summary of your offer would be fine if you were pitching to Mr Spock. Unfortunately you’re trying to impress Captain Kirk.

Kirk’s got an ego, bores easily, and he’s busy going places. So to start with, you’ve got to get his attention. You need a story, a hook, perhaps something emotional. Here’s a clue. “There are three awesome things about this product: A, B, and C; let’s start with point A”…is not a hook.

As you get into the meat of your pitch, you also need to anticipate when your audience is going to drift off. Then BAM, you hit them with a crazy visual, an example from their world, or a provocative question. And for Pete’s sake let them answer the question.

Does it piss you off to get side-tracked? Then you need to lose that. Kirk knows what he likes better than you do, so give him the space and air time to let you in on it.

These hooks and segues will make your pitch messier. People will draw on their marketing expertise and tell you to clean it up. They will be wrong.

Step 1: Make a list of the key qualities you’d like the name to convey. (Bear in mind that there are only nine of them in the whole world.) Step 2: Try to map almost all of these qualities onto a few key ideas or phrases. Step 3: Mash these ideas [...]]]> Here’s how you come up with a name almost certain to suck.

Step 1: Make a list of the key qualities you’d like the name to convey. (Bear in mind that there are only nine of them in the whole world.)
Step 2: Try to map almost all of these qualities onto a few key ideas or phrases.
Step 3: Mash these ideas or phrases up into a new word that is just weird enough or hard enough to say that the .com is free.

Follow these steps and you end up with a name like Excelerator (see what they did there?) – the old name for a fabulous organisation that is now thankfully known as the NZ Leadership Institute.

Here are some ‘Fail Tests’ that will help you avoid the Excelerator trap.

• Imagine your phone is ringing, pick up the receiver, and tell the caller that they have reached [brand name].
• Pretend to be the caller, and try to figure out how to spell [brand name].
• Tell your friends that you work for [brand name], and see if you feel cool.
• Be a customer, and say “The guys from [brand name] are really [insert qualities from Step 1 above].”

You’ll be amazed how many names this process rules out.

Sometimes the way out (see previous post) is to forget the brief and just generate some awesome names that pass the Fail Tests. Then check to see which ones meet your brief.

Pro tip: Make sure your largest shareholder/Board/spouse/boss knows about the Fail Tests before they pitch their brand name ideas to you.

I once had a client who was so underwhelmed by the photos I was suggesting we use in a brochure, that she told us to bring in someone with more grey hair.

So we asked a legendary creative director, Paul Dashwood, for advice. He said that we were [...]]]> People have been bugging me for another one of these. This edition: creative fail.

I once had a client who was so underwhelmed by the photos I was suggesting we use in a brochure, that she told us to bring in someone with more grey hair.

So we asked a legendary creative director, Paul Dashwood, for advice. He said that we were being too cerebral about the process. We were taking the brief, coming up with a killer concept, and then trying to get a photo to match the concept,

As a simple matter of probability, by limiting the pool of photos to only those that (sort of) fit a particular concept, odds are you will end up with a crap photo. Hence my client’s frustration.

Paul said that we needed to flip the process. Start by finding a great shot: you’ll know it when you see it. I still remember his random riff: ‘Like a shot of a Chinese dragon dancer who’s taken off his mask to drink a Diet Coke, while the other 7 guys carry on with the parade.’

A great shot inspires great copy, and you can often fit it to your brief. Even more exciting, sometimes you come up with new angles that weren’t in the brief – but are way more compelling precisely because of this unexpected element.

Next post: applying this lesson to brand names.

Below is my précis of Salman Rushdie’s novel, The Satanic Verses. Apologies to Rushdie and anyone who’s read it. If you haven’t read it, you can use this at highbrow parties, especially as it explains the novel’s title.

So it’s a little after 600AD, and Prophet Mohammed is writing the [...]]]> It turns out that ‘The Satanic Verses’ was a homily on branding.

Below is my précis of Salman Rushdie’s novel, The Satanic Verses. Apologies to Rushdie and anyone who’s read it. If you haven’t read it, you can use this at highbrow parties, especially as it explains the novel’s title.

So it’s a little after 600AD, and Prophet Mohammed is writing the Quran. It’s a sort of serialised text. Mohammed periodically goes to a mountain cave, where the angel Gabriel reveals more of the verses to him. He then comes down, and preaches what usually amount to new rules (Do’s and Don’t’s). Mohammed’s ability to attract new followers is inhibited by all these rules, which are viewed by many people as a bit of a drag. Luckily, after coming down from the mountain one day, Mohammed has new verses which allow people to keep acknowledging their existing Gods. This builds up the numbers, but some of his more devout followers question the verses: they seem to contradict earlier parts of the story, and display a jarring woossiness. After a time, Mohammed realises he’s losing his hard core of support. He goes back up the mountain, where it is revealed to him that the verses did not come from God, but rather were interposed by Satan. [The nature of this revelation, as recounted in the novel, meant Rushdie had to go into hiding for a couple of decades.] On Mohammed’s return, he declares the verses satanic, inspires and galvanises his followers with his no-compromise approach, and the rest is history.

The novel demonstrates the power of fanaticism: sticking to a personal truth that may turn many people off, but turns some people on. You can’t brand a middle-of-the-road, wishy-washy offering.

In modern terms, what would you think of Mark Zuckerberg if he kowtowed to the Chinese leadership and Facebook was allowed into China on the condition that it censored expression and handed over personal data to the authorities? What would it do to Facebook’s brand? Can you imagine fanatical fans of that company?

An exercise: What profitable opportunities would you say ‘No’ to, because they go against your principles?

An even harder but potentially more important exercise, for a true fanatic: What profitable opportunities would you say ‘No’ to, because they don’t draw fully on your specialness?

Sometimes you’re the one who has to do the remarking, as in this seminal passage.

Han Solo: I’m captain of the Millennium Falcon. Chewie here tells me you’re lookin’ for passage to the Alderaan system? Obi-Wan: Yes indeed, if it’s a fast ship. Han Solo: Fast ship? You’ve never heard of [...]]]> Being remarkable means doing stuff that people will naturally remark upon.

Sometimes you’re the one who has to do the remarking, as in this seminal passage.

Han Solo: I’m captain of the Millennium Falcon. Chewie here tells me you’re lookin’ for passage to the Alderaan system?
Obi-Wan: Yes indeed, if it’s a fast ship.
Han Solo: Fast ship? You’ve never heard of the Millennium Falcon?
Obi-Wan: Should I have?
Han Solo: It’s the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs…

I can help you tell a remarkable story, but it really helps when you do remarkable things. There’s been quite a bit of that going on, so sorry for having been publicly quiet for a while.

Russ gathers his motley men together and tells them to “Hold…Hold” – hold their ground against their instincts. It looks brave, but in fact it is the only way for them to succeed.

Building a brand requires [...]]]> There’s a scene in the movie ‘Gladiator’ where Russell Crowe and his buddies are getting charged by a numerically superior group on horses and chariots.

Russ gathers his motley men together and tells them to “Hold…Hold” – hold their ground against their instincts. It looks brave, but in fact it is the only way for them to succeed.

Building a brand requires that same kind of logical courage. If you find that special intersection point where your expertise, your passion and an important problem all intersect, then you need to spend almost all of your time there. As a leader you need to invest all of your marketing budget there, focus the entire design brief there, network there. You might even need to fail there for a while.

If the results aren’t coming, you need to back yourself and be patient. Look again at the definition of that intersection. I promise you that if you’ve really found that zone, it will always lead to good things eventually. So hold.

When you stand your ground, you also stand for something.

I must admit that I cringe when I [...]]]> When Kiwi businesspeople pursue international opportunities, there’s a band of experts on hand to tell us that we have to come out of our shells. We need to step it up, turn up the volume. But then another band of experts tell us to retain our authenticity. Which band do we listen to?

I must admit that I cringe when I see people taking the first path, coming over all fake and desperate. Apparently I’m not alone, since most people I know opt for the second path. Authenticity provides a comforting moral high ground as well as an excuse for not going out there and doing anything really scary.

Part of me is pretty sure that we need to do scary things, though. I had a chance recently to talk to Rob Adams about the dilemma. His advice is summed up in the title of this post. He loves the New Zealand culture, and wants us to stay true to it. But being understated and phlegmatic doesn’t mean we have to be cowards. So make that call you’re afraid to make. Walk right up to that guy who could open a massive door for you. Tell that lady what you think a fair price is for your product, and why. There’s no need to be a dick about it, though. What’s required is bravery, the courage to put yourself out there. And it should be you who’s out there, not some dick version of you.

It’s a pretty simple formula and, once I understood it, I started seeing it all over the place (thanks Lance, Rowan, Nicole, Pel…). I’m trying my best to put it into practice. I’ve got a ways to go, but definitely recommend you try it.