Leading Results Rambling & Rants

Can you clearly articulate the value of your company/product and move people to action in 7 minutes?  Sure you say.. its not that hard.  After all, you’ve developed an “elevator pitch” and a mission statement.. But wait.  I am not talking about a 7 minute conversation where someone can ask you for clarification or futher description.  I mean a 7 minute lecture (demonstration if needed) from a stage, with a timer counting down and a room full of people that may or may not be paying attention.   Sound a little harder?  It is.

I just had the opportunity to watch 15 companies do this in a “shoot-out”.  Some were entertaining; some were educational; some were boring as all get-out.   I thought I would quickly share my “rules” for do and don’ts for you, if you every have the opportunity (challenge?) to do this…

Rule # 1 - 7 minutes is MUCH shorter than you think it is (especially when the timer starts)

Rule # 2 - Energy counts as much as content.  In a theater production, directors often talk about pushing your (the actors) energy off the stage into the audience.  A great 7 minute presentation starts with high energy from the presenters and GOES HIGHER.  Many of the presentations I watched started off with a bang and got the audience attention - then they fizzled

Rule # 3 - If you decide to use a theme (costumes, approach, game show, etc) - stick with it throughout the entire presentation..

Rule # 4 - Powerpoint DOES NOT work in this environment.  Period.  People will not have time to read or digest what you put on a slide and it just distracts from what you are saying.  If you are using Powerpoint as a script or prompt for what you are saying, you need to reherse more.  Show products, use video, use props.  Make it memorable and have a hook the the audience will remember.

Rule # 5 - practice, reherse, refine… I know people that prepared 10 hours for every minute on stage.  Yes, it is that hard to do this well.  You can get 1 or maximum of 2 key messages across in 7 minutes… that’s it.  What is the message going to be?

A great presentation can have lasting effect - I have a friend who did one of these in a green spandex costume and 15 years later, still gets comments about people remembering him and his company.  If you get the opportunity to a shoot out or showdown, grab it!  And then use the opportunity for everything it is worth.

One of the best descriptions I have ever heard for a good public relations program is that it should be like rolling thunder off in the distance. You should always hear it in the background, and it should make itself known - all the time, not just when there is an event.

A strong public relations program takes a lot of work - and if don’t have the time or ability - it takes a hired hand. By way of example, I had the opportunity to take part in a community event this weekend. It was called the fresh air fest, and this was the second annual event. It was a great community opportunity to come out and participate and learn about reusing and recycling. The Girl Scouts were there. Habitat for Humanity. The local Toyota dealer showing off the Hybrid cars and so on. But there weren’t many people coming by.

Now, I know the organizer personally. She pours her heart and soul into making this, and other events, interesting, entertaining and educational. But she was left without a lot of help to get the word out. They have a great web site - http://www.freshairfest.com - which was done by a volunteer who knew what he was doing - but that and some local signage on a busy street and a brief blurb in the suburban newspaper was not enough to drive traffic on a busy day before Mother’s day. When it was over, we talked about all the things that could be done if there was enough time (or bodies) to do it.

To make the festival an ongoing success, we talked about what we could do to position and communicate for it all year long. One of the displays is a trashy art contest – art made from trash. How great would it be to have the art teachers in the public schools get students doing something for this? But that has to get onto the teachers calendar in September as they plan the year – not May. Our local schools have a requirement of 20 hours of community service for 9th grade – those students could have coordinated a project around this event. Intel – a local employer – sponsors a hazardous waste pickup – old computers, CRTs, etc – on earth day, but wouldn’t it have been great to have also done something here as well. I could go on and on… the point is that PR and community outreach (whether local or industry community) is not a one-time thing. I has to be part of a sustained effort – always in the background.

So in your business don’t just think about PR as the press release you send to announce a new product or a new customer… Plan out your year. Think about the newsworthy items, activities and events. Develop a relationship with the bloggers, reporters, etc that cover your local town or your industry and make it a real relationship – call them with tips as well as when you have news. And if you can’t do this all yourself, hire someone – a freelancer, an agency or a business student (communications student) to help. Firecrackers pop – Thunder makes itself known over a long distance.

What do you think? Do you have an experience to share?

I’ve been to lots of trade shows, and having just returned from a really large B2B show, focused on technology, I thought the Star Wars Cantina an apt metaphor for the area of the show floor where the smaller booths were concentrated.

Like the creatures in the cantina in the first (or 4th) movie, the trade shows booth all looked very foreign and unusual. Many spoke languages I did not understand (tech talk) and I wasn’t sure if they were something I should approach with caution or not.

I wish I had a camera with me so that I could visually show what I am talking about. Every booth had lots of words (that said nothing of value) or very few words that had little meaning. And the giveaways - I know there are a lot of specialty advertising logo type items out there - I just wish the exhibitors had saved their money for something worthwhile.

My point in all this is that B2B tradeshows are really valuable for small business in their marketing mix. The more the show applies to the market you serve, the better it is. BUT, you have got to invest in the messaging for your booth that will work for you. Can people read your signage and understand what you do / offer in less that 5 seconds? If not, then you need to say less and say it better and more prominently.

Are you giving something away at your booth? If so, what is the goal of the giveaway? Is it a) to attract people to come to the booth to start with or b) something for them to take home and remember you by. If the answer is a) - then use something valuable and collect cards with useful information for a hourly or daily drawing. You don’t want the names of the people that just want the trinkets and trash anyway. If the answer is b) - giveaway something that will stick with the person you gave it to, and not become a child or pet toy.

More to come on this topic. Your comments are always welcomed and encouraged.

I’ve been writing a lot about marketing lead generation, but I have been doing it with the assumption that the business owner knows what they want to be marketing.  Now, if you are selling a product - yours or someone else’s - knowing what you are trying to do lead generation for is relatively easy.  Products have features and benefits and solve problems.   If you are selling a service, it gets much more complicated.  If a potential customer asked you what your business does well, how many things would you tell them you do well or are expert in?  3 ?   5 ?  14 ?

You may be an expert in 14 different services that you provide, but you can’t market yourself that way - your sales staff can’t remember them all and your customers won’t believe you are that good in that many things.  So pick the top 3 things you want to focus on saying you are expert in - and market those.  If you can’t pick just 3, you get the +1 as tie breaker, so there are 4.  But stop there.  Hone your message; your value proposition; your profitability around the 3 or 4.  The other 10 services - well those are the upsell to the existing customers.

What do you think?  Talk Back.

Most small business owners realize they have to do some marketing to drive business. In the business-to-business world, this is especially true, since you generally don’t have a consumer looking for a product you are selling due to a manufacturer creating demand. If you sell business services, technology or business consumables, you have competitors - sometimes many of them - who all offer something similar to what you have.

I think the mistake that many owners make is that they believe they can effectively impact results when they write a check for a marketing program - be it direct mail, email or advertising campaign. “okay” they say, “we got our name out there”. Reality is, it is the time intensive (Principle/Owner/Executive -POE Time) that gets the best results. It is the networking you do at the rotary club. It is the influencers you meet with. It is the clients you take to lunch, just to see how things are going. These are the impact events that will drive business for you - business that you will likely have little price competition for.

Think about not just how much money; but also how much POE time you are spending on marketing the next time you sit down to do a quarterly review or annual plan.

Leave me a comment - tell me your experiences or if you disagree.