Hopefully, we’ll be able to add more here and if you have any photos or stories you would like to share we would love to post them.

If there’s one thing photography has taught us it is that equipment does not define the photographer or the work that they will produce. If you’re a fan of photography you also understand that the seemingly subject of the photo is sometimes not the focal point at all. Sometimes photography is about inciting an emotion over idolizing the subject.

Photography caught my attention by the sheer ability to tell a story in a singular frame, it’s something that often can’t be attained through video. It was this aspect of photography that always excited me, even as a young child I would crank through rolls of film hoping to find that one perfect photo that would tell my story. It was more difficult than I had thought it would be. I knew that photography was about telling stories, that felt innate and pushed me towards understanding photography.

Understanding the balance of the settings on your camera is important but composition can separate the novice from the expert. Composition is how you set up your photo, choosing where the subject is in the frame, how close or far away they are, the visual weight of the frame, negative space, etc. Even if you don’t understand all of this simply know that this is where the story comes together.

As I began to look at all of this information more intently it’s easy to see that the story is the most important aspect of photography. Whether you have a $5 disposable camera or a $7500 professional camera a great story can be communicated through both. Obviously knowing how to use the tools you have is important but understanding great storytelling is more important.

This vein of thinking began prompting many other questions that I think we should all consider.

Are we telling stories at all?

People don’t need to hear product pitches, they need a story how your product will change their life.

Are we exploring new ways to tell our stories?

Like photographers we have to experiment and explore our world to avoid stagnation.

Should we find new subjects to tell the story?

The story of your business should be the same, help people solve their problems or make them happy but sometimes the subjects need to change. Maybe your current subject (person not topic) isn’t working or needs to update themselves.

What is our businesses primary story?

This is a tough one to tackle, if you sell software or widgets or a service how do you tell a story that excites people. I read this book by Debra Fine that simplifies why people buy, first, to solve a problem, second, to make themselves happy. I feel that even with these oversimplified options it makes it easier to figure out your story. If your product makes people happy then tell a story how someone was not happy without your product but then found your product and it changed them. Just like with any story we are addicted to transformation. When one experiences difficulties and can overcome them through an object or help from others that is something we want to know about. This may sound all too fundamental and elementary but if we all understood storytelling we wouldn’t need any more business because we would have all the business we need. If you look at every great leader, thinker, inventor, and innovator you’ll notice a strong common thread. They are addicted to the idea of change through the power of storytelling.

Want more business?

Tell better stories.

When email newsletters were new design didn’t matter, it was the novelty of the medium that gave function and created value. As time went on and people began to figure out the game and everyone became email marketing experts the system was flush with people who really knew nothing. Businesses began questioning the system and wanted answers to real problems bubbling to the surface. Problems that could not be solved by simply throwing in a picture or fancy text. Design now needed to be implemented. Design has always been late to the party but it is a guest you don’t want to snub or forget is coming. When the party starts everyone is excited that the party is going on but as everyone talks over one another it’s design who doesn’t have to say a word to stop you mid sentence.

This isn’t to say, like so many in the design industry will say, that design is everything. Design accounts for a very small aspect of everything you’ll ever do but just because it is one of the smallest aspects doesn’t mean you should ignore it.

As businesses realized they needed to incorporate design into their email newsletters there was a stroke of genius that ignited theory and implementation. I’m not sure what it was called but I call it designing the destination. I’m sure someone else’s called it that, I just haven’t heard it. The theory is simple; if it clicks (linking out of the email) it should look good. An elementary theory overall but when you think of what’s most important it is usually the least designed aspect of our efforts.

To borrow from the food adage that we first eat with our eyes, we make instant decisions first based on looks. We will decide a company’s affluence, ability, empathy, customer service, competence, trustworthiness, confidentiality, and security first by looks. Great design is always coupled with follow-up. It will matter not how amazing anything you do looks if you do not follow up with the call to action the design helped to create. Email newsletters learned this the hard way. Many businesses would experience amazing click-through rates with well-thought out design but would find abandonment rates surged as well. When no one follows up it creates insincerity and false hopes to your customers.

For our ultra-connectivity through social media, design and follow-up are severely lacking.

3 Ways to Do a Better Job

1. Work backwards; what does your client ultimately want from you? Design that.
2. Remove your ego; show competence and confidence in a different way.
3. Give a damn about your client; when you care about people, people care about you.

Image taken by Trey Ratcliff.

In the beginning of email marketing there was this influx of activity, books, seminars, and courses on the subject, all of them signifying how to avoid taking the tedious time of earning the sale. But then after many spam protections and laws went into place many people had to reconsider their humanity. How should we treat our customers or leads? This isn’t to say that there are people who haven’t received the message yet but they don’t believe maintaining their humanity at all in their business. I believe it isn’t just something we should ask ourselves but a bearing on where we decide to take our business when presented with multiple options. Do we take a high road and preserve our customers’ sensibility and trust or the low road and attempt to maximize profits? Is this to say that there isn’t a happy medium but only a lonely road of high moral and ethical ground? No. There is most definitely a middle-ground which can be attained. Marketing to people through social channels should look more organic and grow out of existing customers.

Email marketing is the older sibling to social media marketing, they left some important lessons to learn.

They want information on what you sell.

Ensure they know what it is you sell, very plainly and concisely.

They want to hear from you.

People click the Like or Follow button because their interested in what you have to say.

They don’t want to be sold on the company.

They know who you are, now tell them why they need you.

They want reasons to stay in love with you.

My father told me that falling in love is easy, it’s staying in love that’s difficult. Sound business advice in my opinion.

Reward dedication.

They don’t have to follow you, they have other things to do in their life.

Make it easy to connect.

If you wanted to respond, it was simple and natural.

Be authentic.

People can see through bullshit, just stop it.

Driven by stats.

Human behavior drives stats, if you don’t have the desired stats, change what they’re clicking on.

Give hope.

Deliver what they’d hoped for.

We must never forget our humanity.

It’s funny that even in our attempts to filter out what matters most to us we still find ourselves inundated with useless noise requiring us to separate the chaff from the valuable information. I began looking into what I do on a daily basis for listening services and general search alerts, even though I’ve been able to reduce a lot of the chatter I still find myself passing by or looking over the relentless data because it is no longer relevant. Then it dawned on me that even though I was effectively eliminating the noise I was neglecting to adjust for constant relevance. Relevance is much more difficult to monitor and adjust than signal-to-noise ratios. Just like hearing, we don’t listen to the same aspect of our surroundings all of the time, we are still looking for what is relevant for us. Sometimes that means widening our scope to hear it all and sometimes that means pin-pointing our focus to only hear one specific thing.

In the world of social web listening a big factor is being able to cut down the signal-to-noise ratio and while this is an ever important aspect to daily business life it isn’t where we should stop. Relevance changes for many businesses on a daily basis, you may be seeking one segment of a market but then your competitors make a shift and that changes things for your business, this makes new things relevant and others obsolete. How often are we adjusting what is relevant? Not just what is keyword is relevant.

Being able to focus what people are saying in your most obvious categories is great but is that relevant to your customers. Is the industry creating the buzz and traffic of keyword searching or is the customers? To give an example, for our industry of design, I could search for people wanting to change designs but the problem is I have to filter through the chatter of every other design company talking about how customers should be using design in their business. This almost eliminates the value I would receive by that type of keyword searching and filtering. If I adjust my relevance to find people who are seeking to set up their own website or who are commenting about industry news sites that cover design then I am instantly limiting the amount of noise and increasing my relevance factor. This allows me to find the exact type of potential customer rather than the hundreds of thousands of people who are simply talking about design and websites.

This is the difference between listening and finding relevance amongst your data.

For too long people have been chasing email newsletters hoping to see real movement for their sales. Many have now abandoned their newsletters because they feel they can see more action in social media. Too many people confuse endless chatter with actionable/meaningful conversations. I’m not saying to ignore social media but you need to focus on your email newsletter.

If you haven’t been seeing the action you’ve been hoping for on your email newsletters then you’re either doing something wrong or you need to change things up a bit. Change the layout, make it easy to navigate, think of how much extra time in a day you have to read email newsletters. Take that and apply it to how you layout your email. Update your design, if you’ve been using the same design for more than a year than it’s stale, you don’t like buying a car that has the same look from the 80’s, you’re customers need to be reminded that you’re still alive.

Along with your design you need to address your font choice. I’m not saying you need to become a typographer or a designer becoming passionate about fonts. However, you need to either limit the amount of different fonts you use or consider expanding if you’re only using one. Remember, you want to guide the reader through your newsletter having them read what is most important at the right moment. Fonts can influence people, making them think more or less of certain topics almost solely due to font choice. Think about this the next time you do a product comparison, the lesser would have a font that devalues the product, while your product would have a commonly used font that is associated with higher-end brands.

A picture can say so a great deal about your company. So why use old clip art or out-of-date stock photography, what people see in a picture is often how they will associate the work you perform. With so many stock photography sites out there, consider dropping some cash on stock photography that makes your company look high-class.

I know that for most companies it’s difficult to switch to something new, that’s why we suggest doing A/B testing. A/B testing allows you to test both designs simultaneously within one delivery. This information will help guide you in what new changes are working and what is not. Measurement is one of the most important aspects of business, don’t forget to apply it here. Once you have the stats in hand, do something! Too many companies will take the numbers from one email and hope for better numbers next time. If you aren’t making changes based on the numbers than you are wasting not only opportunities but your time, leaving your competition one step closer to crushing you.

Email newsletters are just as important now as they once were, even more so now due to spam filtering. If your email is passing spam and getting opened then that means people actually want to hear from you. Give them something worth reading, stop hoping for sales from lazy email newsletters. Up your game, your competition has.

Image taken by Joey Rozier.

I then thought about these chefs and their cookbooks that they sell every twelve months and why people buy them. What gives them an edge? What defines them as special or the real thing? It can’t always rely on their celebrity, it can’t only rely on the ingredients required. So what is it that draws people to repeatedly buy cookbooks that are written by the same chef who only explores in detail one or two cuisines?

I broke down what I believe to be the key to successful chefs and successful cookbooks and why they become successful outside of celebrity. First, let’s break down the aspects of most cookbooks. They always have ingredients, measurements, awesome photography (food porn), a reason to make the book, and finally certain techniques and skills you’re going to need to accomplish the recipes successfully.

So I began to breakdown what makes a chef successful, which in turns helps a cookbook become successful. A chef has acquired skills, essentially the tools of their trade, they know how to use them with expert craftsmanship. Some are better than others in different areas but for the most part they are well equipped to handle the tools of the trade. Next, it is equally important for chefs to have an intimate relationship with the ingredients they use to make great culinary dishes. When they understand the building blocks of what makes great food and how to build on them they become more successful at their craft. To only know how to wield a knife or how to make great dough but lack knowing what tastes great is only half of the equation. Same if you know the ingredients to combine to make a great dish but lack the knowledge how to transform that raw product into a finished meal through timing, heat, prepping, mixing, and blending; you will inevitably fail. 

But when a chef can combine the tools, ingredients, and skills together that is when you begin to see what makes culinary art. I once heard that most chefs, whether they know it or not, are working from some modified version of recipes crafted from Larousse Gastronomique and Escoffier’s Le Guide Culinaire which are over 100 years old. So with thousands of ways to make the same dish all derived from roughly the same mother recipe how do chefs define themselves with new cookbooks. Partly, they continue their search to blend and manipulate skills, ingredients, and varying cuisines to make completely new, relevant dishes that make people excited.

This is quite the long way to make my point but here it is. Too many people focus on the technologies (skills, equipment, the knives and blenders) that they forget they need great content (ingredients, fresh and exciting). Also, many people only focus on great content but lack the technology to propel their ideas to the right people. It is truly the fine mix and constant reinvention of both worlds that help business succeed. How can you be an expert of one without understanding the other? Great communication artistry is never self-proclaimed and is always doing what they do because they are passionate about what the end result brings. Great results is the combination of great people who know how to help you connect to the right people at the right place at the right time. Don’t trust experts, trust passionate people who have the skills and ingredients. Like food, the best often comes from places you would never think of and are created by passionate people who commit their lives to giving you their very best.

Parts and Pieces

You’re building your network; it’s growing but now what? How do you manage it? Is your network balanced enough? I’ll tell you I’ve always had a problem maintaining an acceptable balance in my network. Mainly because I see my network in three categories: Information, Support, and Referral. It’s tough work maintaining all three categories at the same time but it is worth it.

Most people think that having a network is only gaining referrals however it is not the only network to work on. Obviously, the goal is to have a powerhouse referral network but that doesn’t happen without cultivating your other networks. To break it down quickly, there is a reason why you should categorize your network. First, it makes it easier to manage your network, if you need help on a project you immediately know who to access in your Information Network. Second, it provides balance to your professional life, giving you options when you need help from growing as a professional or getting a reference for a new vendor. Third, allows you to save time, you won’t have to search and call a bunch of people when you need something, you already know what everyone does and to what extent. Fourth, it allows you to assess strengths and weaknesses, enabling you to put people into situations that they will succeed in.  Fifth, it helps you remember everyone in your network, as you’ll constantly be referring to your network.

Definitions

So now you know why you should categorize your network, here are the definitions for each category. Information Network: your source of expertise and experience. Support Network: your source of help and encouragement. Referral Network: your source of business opportunities.

Information Network

What does your Information Network comprise of? Being a business samurai requires you to know certain important pieces of information. Whether it’s trends, issues, every changing technological and economic conditions; it keeps you on the cutting edge enabling you to always stay competitive. For instance, I am in the technology and design industry; I have contacts that specialize in technology and design, we share information helping each other when needed. I also have contacts that are not in my related field such as fashion who I speak with often to find inspiration and diversification. Having people at this high level of contrast enables you to refine who you are, where you are going, and how you can help your clients. Fortunately for me, my lack of knowledge is always one of my contacts specialties. It is one thing to have a large network; it is an entirely different thing to know whom your network is and how to tap into each other’s resources.

Support Network

What does your Support Network comprise of? In business we learn to rely on certain people, some who build us up and others who bring us down. Knowing the difference is an example of your business maturity. This part of your network should consist of people who respect, love, and think highly of you. These people like you for who you are not what value you bring them. Most often these people are not your ideal prospects nor are they your information powerhouse. They offer you emotional, practical, business, and/or financial support. They extend what many cannot and will not do for you; they give you their time. These people are the ones you’ll call on when you’re in need. They can also be your crutch when business is crushing you. It is important to remember that these people give a lot to you, never take it for granted, ensure they know how much you appreciate their time and advice.

Referral Network

What does your Referral Network comprise of? Sustaining a business through referrals is ideal but often never achieved because of the time and dedication required. A sale in referral marketing/networking is slightly more complicated as the prospect always comes from someone who tells them about you. That sale will depend on many variables; the quality of the referrer/prospect relationship, previous purchasing history, economic conditions, ease to purchase, and so on. Your Referral Network is the most profitable aspect of your network as a whole. It is important to know who your largest referral sources are, treat that relationship appropriately; don’t be a taker!

What To Do?

Remember to give back to your sources cultivating your network; don’t hunt it. Know that you may not fall into the same category that your source does. Such as you may be in an Information Network to one of your sources that is in your Referral Network. This path doesn’t create a large network quick but it does build a strong influential network that yields real results.

So what’s my call to action? Get off your ass, stop whining about the economy and cultivate the land you have and yield your own amazing results. You get what you put into it, everyone knows someone who can help somebody else.

Flashback

I’m sure everyone has been in customer service at one point in there life and I’m sure you have a small disregard for customers relating to those cherished moments.
 

Coming Back To Reality

For a software company, one of my clients, they despise the ringing of the phone. They think their customers are completely and utterly mentally deficit of creating educated, technically sound decisions. And after speaking with a few of them I would agree to an extent. However, their contempt seemed a little unfounded.

They spoke of how their customers called in aflame with rage that their humble software was not working as promised, hoped for, expected, or acceptable to general technological standards every other software company holds true to. I felt like I was put into quite the predicament, on one hand I was there to perform a specific service for my client, and on the other hand their customer service people were being relentless by only providing the bare minimum and urging customers to call back another day so that they would not have to deal with that exploding problem today.

My Rebuttal

So I questioned a few people asking them if they had ever purchased software that was critical to their business or existence. They quipped quickly absolutely not. I then explained, feeling like the wise sage who has overstayed their welcome that if you ever pay for something that is completely intangible that it is expected that it will work as promised. I further interpreted that when I was with another company and paid $125,000 for a custom made piece of software it was EXPECTED that it would work as promised. They of course clamored with shocked saying it was different. But they relinquished their spasmodic response with a simple, short-lived empathetic moment. They thought I was accusing them of being horrible people, I told them that they are reacting normal for people who get badgered for eight hours a day.

Focusing

I clarified my reasoning; I was not saying that it is the customers’ fault, nor their fault, nor the programmers’ fault. The fact was is that there were many issues that needed to be addressed. First, the software, it needs run stable, really stable. Second, the sales staff needed to address the customers’ expectation level; the sales staff was overselling what the capabilities were. Third, their knowledge base lacked the immediate defense materials to diffuse irate customers who meddled with their software inappropriately. Fourth, their customer service needed to put themselves in their customers’ position and realize that these people paid for the software they are complaining about. Fifth, the customer service staff needed to maintain the knowledge base as they would deal with the same problem for days before someone would write up a document to email to customers.

The Fix

These suggestions are not the only things they need to do but they were the most obvious that could be fixed relatively quickly. The lesson to learn here is that sometimes we get so wrapped up in going through the motions that sometimes the answer is right in front of us. For my client they continued to handle tech support calls and had considered adding more people to help with the volume of calls. The answer for them was to address the levels of connection they had with their customers and fix problems at each stage, which in whole fixed a much larger problem.

Big Idiots

The larger problem wasn’t that their customers were idiots; it was that they began to treat their customers like a number, a cash register who shouldn’t call when they have problems. It’s easy to get there because when you get in the rhythm of business sometimes you disconnect purely from the rhythm. I suggested that they stop for a moment and genuinely ask their customer how they are doing and shut up and listen. If we listen, we’ll most likely find the root to the problem their having. And yes, sometimes it’s because the customer is dumb but that doesn’t make their concerns invalid. It means we haven’t thought through our processes enough to make it error-free. It’s a learning process and one that never ends because as old users phase out, we are welcomed with new ones. It’s the right time to be human.

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Photo Credit - cambiodefractal ]]> http://www.coffeehouseideas.com/rage-against-the-customer/feed/ 0 http://www.coffeehouseideas.com/rediscover-your-business-elevator-pitch/ http://www.coffeehouseideas.com/rediscover-your-business-elevator-pitch/#comments Wed, 10 Dec 2008 11:00:48 +0000 Justin Rasmussen http://www.coffeehouseideas.com/?p=154 What We’re Talking About

So if you don’t feel like reading the rest of this article, I’ll get right to the point, have the right elevator pitch.

Moving On

For the rest of you, there are plenty of articles floating around the internet that have bountiful amounts of information about creating a flawless elevator pitch. This isn’t about the mechanics but the quality of the content.

Break It Down

One of the central ideas to referral or relationship marketing is getting the right people to refer the right business to you. In order for them to give you the right referrals, they need to know exactly what you do.

What do you do? How and under what conditions you will provide your product and/or service? How well do you do it? How are you better than your competitors?

Know Thyself

Most people think they know their business, I mean after all it is your business. But you might be surprised how time can disconnect us from our own business. Or maybe you know everything about your business but are you communicating it effectively. If you can’t tell your potential sources what you do effectively then how are they going to be able to send you the perfect referrals?

Give The Pedigree Information

Why are you in business?

What do you sell?

Who are your customers?

How well do you compete?

This information is not only incredibly important to have answers to but you must be ready to dispense it at a moments notice. You don’t necessarily have to tell someone all of this information after you tell them your name but having an answer to a question is a lot more impressive than a blank stare or pregnant pause.

Real Life

Put it all together and practice saying it to someone, actually, practice telling multiple people. You should also practice your elevator pitch to an asshole. They’ll keep you on your toes, they’ll help you change and adapt at a moments notice.

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Photo Credit – Marco Wessel