Rainmaking Secrets

Every industry I work with is relentlessly under attack from commoditizers.

When Bronco Wine Company, now the fourth largest wine producer in the U.S. produced an under $2 bottle of wine, industry insiders treated the offering with contempt.

The quality had to be CRAP, and I don’t mean CReative Accounting Practice.

Critics and fans have named the product “Two-Buck Chuck.” So imagine the surprise, at the 2004 Eastern Wine Competition, Bronco’s 202 Shiraz won the coveted double gold medal from a field of 2,300 entries.

It will be interesting to watch the reaction to the high-end $3.99 Merlots and Chardonnays, nick-named “Four-Buck Fred.”

You may hate the Two-Buck Chucks of this world, but unless you come with a superior value proposition that sets you apart your business is history.

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What is a brand?

Since businesses are in the promise keeping business, your brand is the promise you make to your customers.

So imagine the shock when it was revealed that the venerable BBC got caught lying to its Blue Peter audience of children.

The Blue Peter staff ignored the results of an online poll to name a new kitten. They rejected the winning name the kids chose of “Cookie” and called it “Socks” instead.

When customers found out the BBC had lied to its Blue Peter audience, they began to question the very integrity of the BBC.

The BBC has been one of the world’s most credible sources of trustworthy news. Think back to World War II when it transmitted news into Nazi dominated Europe.

How the mighty have stumbled.

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Most of us are familiar with the power of goal setting. Setting SMART goals must be one of the most common acronyms used by trainers and coaches.

SMART stands for:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time-driven

Graham Jones and Adrian Moorehouse in their book Developing Mental Toughness, have coined a new acronym INSPIRED which I think works even better. Why? Because it adds the emotional element to goal setting which is lacking in the SMART formula.

The INSPIRED Formula is:

Internalized
Nurturing
Specific
Planned
In your control
Reviewed regularly
Energizing
Documented

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Assumptions are the mother of all stuff ups.

All companies continue to pay for making the wrong assumptions about customers.

Proctor and Gamble (P&G), one of the world’s largest and most profitable consumer companies, recently launched its highly successful Swiffer Wet Mop in Italy.

P&G researched the Italian market. Italians spend an average of 21 hours a week on household chores. Americans spend just four hours on similar chores. Italians wash their kitchen floors and bathroom four times a week or more, compared to American’s who wash their floor just once a week.

So how come the Swiffer flopped? P&G sold Swiffer as a labor saving convenience which turned out to be a big turnoff for Italians.

Italian women prefer products that are tough cleaners, not timesavers.

Italian women didn’t believe the Swiffer was tough enough for mopping, so they used the Swiffer for polishing, rather than mopping.

P&G learned from their mistake. They launched the Swiffer Duster which did a light job well with timesaving convenience. Sales took off. Italy is now the biggest European market for Swiffer.

This story taken from Robert H. Bloom’s book The Inside Advantage underscores two vitally important lessons about customers.

“First and most obvious, what works in one market or with one customer does not work with others. One size does not fit all…Second and even more important, it’s not enough to define your customer as a market statistic.”

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In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Polonius advises his son Laertes

“This above all, — to thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

In one insightful quote, Shakespeare tells us what it is to be real — to be authentic.
Shakespeare tells us there are two tests for authenticity

1. You have to be true to yourself
2. You must be what you say to others

James Gilmore and Joseph Pine, authors of Authenticity remind us there are only two tests for authenticity. Are you authentic? Are you true to yourself? Do your customers see you as real?

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The new economy has transformed customer desires.

David Lewis and Darren Bridges, authors of The Soul of the New Customer - What We Buy and Why in the New Economy describe how the world has moved from “scarcity to abundance - from abundance to authenticity.”

So how do your customers see you or your brand? Do they see you as real or fake?

If you aren’t really what you pretend to be, you had better start addressing the issues that cause your customers to doubt your authenticity.

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In what has to be one of the business books of the year, Phil Rosenzweig unmasks the delusions that are commonly found in the corporate world.

These potent delusions affect the business press and academic research, as well as many bestselling books that promise to reveal the secrets of success or the path to greatness. Such books claim to be based on rigorous thinking, but operate mainly at the level of storytelling. They provide comfort and inspiration, but deceive managers about the true nature of business success.

The most persuasive delusion Rosenzweig argues is the Halo Effect. When a company’s sales and profits are up, people often conclude that it has a brilliant strategy, a visionary leader, capable employees, and a superb corporate culture.

When performance falters, they conclude that the strategy was wrong, the leader became arrogant, the people were complacent, and the culture was stagnant.

In fact, little may have changed - company performance creates a Halo that shapes the way we perceive strategy, leadership, people, culture, and more.

Rosenzweig shows how the Halo Effect is widespread. He shows how business bestsellers, In Search of Excellence, Built to Last and Good to Great use flawed data which has been corrupted by the Halo Effect.

Read the book. It will make you rethink how you look at business performance.

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Most of use recognize how hard it is to change old habits and behaviors.

Change experts, J. Stewart Black and Hal B. Gregerson remind us;

“Its not that ‘an old dog can’t learn new tricks.’ Rather, it is an old dog has a devil of a time unlearning old tricks.”

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Changing behaviors, cultures and systems is never easy.

In a remarkably practical and insightful book, Leading Strategic Change, J. Stewart Black and Hal B. Gregerson spell out their CBAs of change.

The CBA acronym stands for Conceive, Believe, and Achieve.

These three stages correspond with and overcome the three gravitational forces or barriers to change.

Conceive. First people must conceive or see the old way is wrong and visualize the new right way.

Believe. Second, people must believe in the path to the new promise land.

Achieve. Finally, people must achieve and know they have achieved the desired result.

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Sydney Finkelstein, author of best-selling books Why Smart Executives Fail and Breakout Strategy, tells the story of a construction company that had completed a project for a private school, which was the first part of a multi-million dollar master plan that had not yet been awarded.

The project had been completed without a hitch and the client was “ecstatic”, which boded well for the construction company getting the major part of the construction project as well.

However, the school was having problems with a doorknob and workmen came a couple of times to fix it. But they never replaced it.

One day, it came off in somebody’s hand and locked him in the office.

The trapped man happened to be the person who would award the master plan contract.

The CEO of the construction company now has that doorknob on a plaque in his office, labeled “The $10 million doorknob”.

No need to explain why.

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