A Pretty Flower or, The Devil's Shoestring

Every day we are bombarded by messages designed to entice us to open our wallets to some product, service, or cause.  Some are worthy, some are needed and some are like the Pied Piper.  The Trumpet Creeper Vine (Campsis radicans) is a common vine found in the forests of the Southeastern U.S.  The photo is of one on our place.  It's showy flowers attract hummingbirds.  It will grow and cover trees until, eventually, it kills the tree.  Have you made the connection with marketing yet?

We each have limited resources within our care.  For some it is the weekly paycheck.  For others, the available capital may include legacies acquired from family.  Sometimes, good stewards will actually save money until they accumulate a sizable sum that is available for investment, or for spending on luxury items.  They key, though, is limited resources.

When we allow enticements to continuously draw us to spend on things that are unnecessary or, frivolous, we have less to invest and grow -- no matter our income level.  The marketing messages which constantly assail us include subtleties inferring that if we don't have the newest, latest, greatest, then we aren't acceptable to society.

Often, when I pass through a neighborhood, I see garage sales.  In every garage sale I see versions of the same cheap "junk" that was once treasured by the purchaser.  Piles and piles of it end up in our landfills every day.  Yet, we continue to spend and purchase items because the message we allow our mind to receive is that we need it.  Once we have it the luster quickly fades and we find it didn't fulfill us at all, but instead, prevented us from something that would perhaps be much more worthy of our hard-earned money.

Don't be enticed by the pretty flowers.  They just might be the Devil's Shoestring. 

Facing the Wrong Direction

Messaging is important.  I've been perusing a large amount of material produced by corporate marketing offices and it is sometimes a chore to figure out exactly what the company does.  They create wordy paragraphs referencing their culture and sometimes their mission, but the core of what they do has to be ferreted out by digging deeply.

I've written before about Trade Shows and how some booth displays clearly indicate what they are about, but the majority mask their mission in phrases and words that require deciphering.  Their message needs to be concise and on point, but often is not.  Large companies with recognizable names will usually go ahead and draw visitors simply through brand familiarity, but the small ones see the traffic pass them by because they don't realize the value hidden behind the vague and confusing messaging.

Companies need to re-learn how to be clear about what they do.  Their images need to convey the same message.  A good example might be a seed company supplying hybrid seed to farmers.  A simple message would state something along the lines of, "Hybrid Seeds Are Our Specialty!"  In the background there should be fields of growing plants from those seeds.  They could inset some smaller photos of a laboratory, a DNA strand, a happy farmer and maybe even a consumer.  The images should support the core message clearly and concisely.

Instead, what you are likely to see is a technology focused photographic mosaic with happy employees doing things which are not clearly related to the message which is all about their culture.  Wait!  Maybe that is the key.  The messaging is focused inward, not outward.  It is all about me rather than what I can do for you.  Could it be that the same disease which has infected individuals is corrupting the ability of companies to articulate why they exist?

We need to reexamine company messaging.  It shouldn't be inward focused; it should be all about the customer and how we serve them.  It should clearly state, "THIS is what we can do for you!"

Editing Video Clips

This afternoon was spent doing something that was new to me.  I was editing video clips.  Or, rather, I was directing the process of editing video clips.

Some time back (I think I posted about it) I was involved in the recording of about 2 1/2 hours of testimonial video from one of our customers.  The recording, etc. was funded by one of our suppliers who then used that video to create promotional DVD's about what we do.  They recently gave us access to the raw footage so that we could use it for our own purposes.

I am trying to do a couple of things with the video.  The first is to make a brief testimonial video that we can hand out to prospective customers.  Secondly, I want to cut a number of very brief -- 10 to 30 second -- sound bites from it to use in presentations or on our website.

It was a very interesting exercise in listening.  I would listen to the video and then stop the technician when there was a sound bite that I wanted to keep.  There are plenty that are great illustrations of points that I use in presentations.  The problem was more in discarding rather than in keeping.  The DVD needs to be brief.  When our supplier made their original DVD, they reduced the 2 1/2 hours of material to about 22 minutes.  I wanted something in the neighborhood of 3 to 6 minutes.  I got it down to a little over 9 minutes.  I don't know what else to cut!

It was an interesting process watching Rick (the technician) clip the video snippets that I wanted to keep.  He even took out a single word that didn't belong at one point.  I was impressed.  It went much more quickly than I anticipated.

Now, Rick will send me a link to the file that I can further evaluate.  I probably will change the order of some of what was said and think about how we will insert voice-over transitions in a few spots.  All-in-all, it was a much better afternoon than I expected.  I honestly dreaded it.  Sometimes it's good to be wrong....

Chris

An MBA Mentality

As I dive into this topic, please don’t mistake my attitude toward education. I believe an educated society is crucial to the proper operation of our government, to the advance of society, and to a civil public discourse. However, through my years in business I have found that often, there are attitudes which come with a formal education that are counterproductive to business productivity.

A large portion of my career has been spent in sales or sales related activities. My formal title has never been salesman – it has been manager. Managers should be fully engaged in the sales activities of a business or it is likely the business will fail – whether it is retail, wholesale or a service business.

Many organizations – especially large ones – believe that the best managers have MBA’s (Master of Business Administration). From a logical perspective it makes sense. Find someone who has been formally educated in how to run a business and let them run your business. The problem comes when the MBA manager has no practical experience in the day-to-day function of the business itself. They have the head knowledge, but lack the heart knowledge. They know the tools but they don’t know the business – at least not from the hands-on level. Generally their understanding is conceptual in nature – not practical.

Why do I bring this up? Because it seems that I often spend an inordinate amount of time educating my suppliers on the realities of agriculture.

The MBA manager mentality is often one that is focused on the numbers or benchmarks. It is focused on “objective” measurement of factors which indicate progress in the business. This can be things such as the number of sales calls made, the number of contacts at a Trade Show, the percentage of gross margin -- both average and per sales, and similar easily measurable statistical indicators. They have been taught techniques for handling particular situations that regularly occur in business – like competitive pricing issues – and respond according to the “book” answer. The problem is that they have never walked in the shoes of their sales force or of their customer.

The last item is the key. The most successful people that I know understand their customer. They have either been involved in a business similar to what their customer does, or have spent enough time with their customer to understand their business or situation. They look at their own business through the eyes of their customer. They take time to see what their customer sees and adjust their business accordingly.

Do we do this in agriculture? Do we see ourselves from our customer’s point-of-view? When was the last time you spent time examining your operation from the outside? When was the last time you walked through the grocery store and took a hard look at your product – whether it is beef or cotton or wheat – from the consumer’s perspective? How does the quality of your product compare to competing products? What about price?

We are seeing a number of fundamental shifts in our economy. Fuel prices will soon drive dramatic changes of behavior in how we conduct business and in how consumers allocate their dollars. Transportation costs will force many things to be produced locally that have historically been shipped long distances – such as produce. Are we in agriculture merely riding the tide of the ethanol boom or are we preparing for the inevitable changes that the energy economy will drive?

We are good at managing the numbers. In today’s business environment, if a farmer or rancher can’t manage the numbers he’d better have a second job to support his habit. But, are we good at seeing our industry from the perspective of non-farmers and ranchers? If we educated the public to our business and educated ourselves to what the public truly wants, could we do a better job at providing for their wants and needs? When we can do that, there will be plenty of rewards for the effort. Don’t just focus on the numbers of your business; understand your customer and adjust accordingly.

Also published on Common Sense Agriculture, Conservation and Energy.

I Love Sales

I enjoy my job most of the time. I manage a small company with multiple locations. We utilize a very lean business model with many of the "overhead" functions being outsourced. Not only am I responsible for general management, I also am the primary sales force for our company. Each week I allocate my time between the various functions that I must perform for our business to operate effectively and continue to grow. I have been fortunate in being able to hire good people who for the most part do not require close supervision. This allows for a tremendous amount of flexibility in my scheduling. Today was fully devoted to business development/sales.

Many companies -- especially small ones -- have difficulty differentiating between the sales function and the marketing function. The best way that I know to look at the difference is that marketing sets the stage, or creates the environment for sales. Sales is the actual transaction which includes the offer, the negotiation, overcoming objections, and closing the deal. A successful sales call is any customer contact in which there is progress made in any of these areas. In other words, if in my first contact with a prospective customer I am able to introduce myself, my company and my product or service and schedule a next contact with that prospect, then I have had a successful sales call. Successful marketing on the other hand is more difficult to measure. Essentially, a marketing campaign is successful if it raises awareness of your product or service to the point that the prospect knows what you are about before you ever walk in their door as a salesperson. Marketing also is the function of providing support material and research for sales. In many ways the two functions are inseparable, but they are two different functions.

Today was a successful sales day. I have to admit that no deals were closed, but out of six calls on prospects, there were three that produced significant movement toward a close. In addition, at lunch I was able to visit briefly with two additional prospects. Now, prospect is another term that needs some definition. To me, a prospect is a qualified potential buyer. Until you know that someone is definitely in the market for what you wish to sell, they are only suspects.

Our business is one in which a sale typically creates a long-term customer relationship. It is not a single transaction. It is establishing a non-contractual agreement to provide an ongoing service. The volume of business that relationship creates is a direct function of the size of business that I am working with. In the three successful calls today, the potential volume is extremely large. One of the prospects would be similar to getting the contract to supply all plastic bags to every Walmart in the Dallas-Ft Worth metroplex. That is a lot of plastic bags. No, I don't sell plastic bags. What we provide is a service.

I love sales call days. One of my greatest joys in business is meeting and visiting with my customers, prospects, and suspects. In fact, the thing that typical salespeople fear the most is the thing that I most enjoy -- the "cold" call. A cold call is showing up at a potential customer's place of business without an appointment, introducing yourself and your product, and attempting to establish a relationship that will ultimately lead to a sale, or will help you to determine whether that individual is truly a potential customer. It is extremely intimidating to new salesmen because of their fear of rejection. Across most industries, it takes approximately 9 customer contacts before a transaction occurs. Most young salesmen never get to contact number 2. They become discouraged if the potential customer doesn't immediately purchase from them. They typically see it as a personal rejection instead of a step in the right direction.

I may decide to post more on this in the future, I don't know. I don't normally go on about what I do for a living in this blog. I guess that I'm still a little pumped up from the success of the day. I hope it didn't bore you too much! Tomorrow will be another sales day. Let's hope I'm still as fired up tomorrow night as I am tonight.