Category: Zigging when others zag
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Using Advisory Councils to build customer relationships
When a big-ticket business-to-business company launches a customer advisory council, the top salespeople always compete to get their favorite customer on the council, and also to make sure the council is lavishly entertained. Which is actually a mistake. Most companies have a small subset of customers who have the insight and energy to help guide…
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How to make your resume serve your future. #li
Don't just dump your past into your resume. Advice at the Intersection of Work and Life: Resume Advice You Never Hear, 2011-Oct-5, by Penelope Trunk The most important thing about a career is that it is a tool to create a vibrant future. Your career is a mutable, dynamic story that you control. If you cannot…
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Accept slow growth to maintain loyalty #li
Nordstrom competes by ignoring its rivals and trusting its customers and employees. I highly recommend this article which shares how thoughtfully and cautiously they are building their business. BusinessWeek: How Nordstrom Bests Its Retail Rivals, 2011-Aug-11, by Cotten Timberlake (via Reveries) After a slapstick impression of tying the shoelaces of a recalcitrant child, he warmed…
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Passport to loyalty
I look forward to the day I have one. New Rules for the New Economy: Since a relationship involves two members, investing in it, its value increases twice as fast as one's investment, 1998, by Kevin Kelly If you shop a lot you will carry a "passport profile" based on the P3P protocol (or one…
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How to talk about yourself in advertising
While it's important to share your intent, your audience just not that interested in your plans, hopes and dreams. They want to know what you're doing and how it can make a difference. Share facts about yourself, what you make and how you do it. Let your actions speak for themselves. Digigen & the TinMan:…
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Using attention like real estate
One of the ways to capture attention is to be scattered around in many places, buying your attention small and wide-spread. It's a pain in the neck to have accounts over many networks, but if you use each one strategically, you can dramatically improve your visibility. The challenge is tying them all together. Blog: Paying…
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Making conversations that help
If 'markets are conversations' (Cluetrain.org), then marketers must maintain conversational skills of the highest quality. I've been meeting many new people lately, and I try to stay away from the opening line 'what do you do?' but maybe it's not so bad. As Penelope Trunk points out, "Remember that people are asking to be kind.…
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The problem with a clean slate
When we’re struggling we often want to clear away all the stalled relationships and establish a clean slate. It’s certainly tempting to meet someone with no expectations. Wait, no expectations? They expect nothing, know no reason to trust you. As Seth has said before, you might as well ask a girl you just met to…
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Marketing by Doing
As a marketing communication expert, I spend way too much time on words, and way too little time on action. Our branding efforts will improve dramatically when we realize that people trust brands that do more than talk at them. So now I have my new year's resolution: every week I have to record some…
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Dialing up transparency with Andy Bond at Asda
A grocery store with glass brick walls? Now that's transparency. Asda CEO Andy Bond makes me smile. Check out his Wikipedia entry (if not squelched yet it describes him as James Bond's brother), and the Aisle Spy blog. I appreciate Bond trying to DO everything he can to communicate transperancy, not just talking about it.…
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