Brave New Sales

Steve Jobs & Brand Religion

A year ago I made the leap of faith...

I bought an iPhone.

I got a pretty good deal from my mobile provider, but it required a significant long-term commitment. The customer service rep was passionate that I was doing the right thing.

I felt like I was joining a cult.

When I got the device in my hands and started using it, I knew I had done just that.

It was a beautiful experience, yet... there was so much to learn. How do I dial a contact? OK. Now how do I download apps?

The learning was intuitive and I'll let you in on a little secret. It was fulfilling. My learning experience was becoming a love affair complemented by the beautiful design.

I was connecting with a higher calling... the Apple brand.

Until this awakening, I had been more than a bit cynical when people would use their iPhones in public. Was cynicism really camouflaging my feeling of exclusion... from the cult?

Well, I was excluded no longer, and it wasn't long before I was proud of my device, too. (A freaking piece of hardware? Was I getting attached to my material possessions, Buddha?)

I'm not admitting (at least not openly) that I would commit the heinous act of flaunting.

But I had become a believer.

Before long, I found myself proselytizing.  That's right, I wanted non-users to convert to the iPhone, and to the religion called Apple. I was doing this for one simple but powerful reason, a firm belief: this product would make your life better!

 

The User Experience 

Last year, my entrepreneurial bible, Fast Company, published an interview with John Sculley, Apple's CEO in the 80's and early 90's, who took the company from $800 million in annual revenue to $8 billion.  Sculley gave several reason reasons as to why he should not have been Steve Jobs boss back then.

Mind you, Sculley didn't elbow his way through the political ranks of Apple to get the top. It was Jobs himself who lured Sculley away from Pepsi-Co, who asked Sculley to become his CEO. Jobs recognized that Sculley had the skills Jobs lacked.

Jobs reportedly sealed the deal by asking Sculley, "Would you rather sell sugar water for the rest of your life or come with me and change the world?"

Talk about brand evangelism and sacrifice for the greater good!

Sculley often said that Jobs was an obsessed missionary, that Jobs cared relatively little about product technology, that technology was just a means to an end.

Jobs was obsessed, however... by two things: design and the user experience.

Today, this probably surprises no one. But it does give me, at least, a sense of what it must have been like to work inside Apple. Were the Cupertino Headquarters a temple? I can almost smell the incense.

Brands can learn a lot from religions, with their rituals, icons and leaders of deep conviction... who also dress the part.

Think of Jobs and you probably see that dark turtle neck, blue jeans, no belt, sneakers, short hair, trimmed beard, granny glasses... and intense, authentic eyes.

In his book Corporate Religion - Building A Strong Company Through Personality and Corporate Soul, Jasper Kunde shows examples of great brands that not only create compelling messaging platforms externally, but also preach authentic corporate culture internally. This internal culture and external messaging are fully aligned.

Authentically living the brand from the top down is part of the magic.

Kunde overlooks Apple as a case study, probably due to the fact that Apple was in the early phases of its own resurrection at the time of writing. Kunde does, however, show how great companies have strong leaders... obsessed communicators who unite their entire organizations around a shared vision, a corporate religion.

This is vital for building a brand religion made up of passionate customers... evangelists promoting your brand for you, proselytizing future customers.

Sound silly?  Talk to almost any Mac user or iPhone flaunter today, and you will sense devotion. Their conviction is almost irrational.

If you're an Apple user, you feel it. You know it.

If you're not an Apple user, you might be skeptical, or even cynical.

This is human nature. Too many human beings are cynical toward other religions. Personally, I find that sad but true when applied to humanity. Professionally, I find that accurate and powerful when applied to branding.

Great brands have devoted followers as well as skeptics, and Apple has become one of the world's strongest brands.

 

I'm a Believer

Last week, I stepped further into the temple. I bought a MacBook Pro. I'd have to wait two weeks for delivery with an English keyboard here in Switzerland, but that didn't stop me. I plunked down my money on the spot. Why cause a further delay?

And wouldn't you know it? Steve Jobs goes and dies while I obediently await my... vehicle to Apple's ultimate brand experience!

Am I worried about the future of my user experience, now that I've made the leap of faith? Will the design of Apple products suffer like they did when Jobs exited the company the first time?

No. I don't believe so.

When Jobs left Apple in 1985, the company was in the midst of a schism.

Jobs had not prepared his succession because he was... a bit distracted. The sacrificial blood was running on the streets of Cupertino, and it was his.

This time, it's very, very different. Jobs' death was a surprise to no one, not even him. Pancreatic cancer and related complications have been plaguing him for years. Meanwhile, he was leading Apple from one miracle to the next.

Jobs was not an easy man to work for. But then, what spiritual leader is?

While the Dalai Lama is seen as warm and cuddly here in the West, he's reportedly a tough and disciplined monk around the temple in Dharamsala. Jesus is seen as the savior by many, but let's not forget that he was an outspoken rabbi committed to changing his religion's politics of the time.

"Without a vision, the people perish."

As unique and fiery as Jobs himself was, surely he wasn't oblivious to his own vision of Apple's future without him.

Silicon Valley is loaded with talent, like Tim Cook, who Jobs also groomed and hand-picked. Beyond Cook, qualified and devoted disciples are surely in the wings to keep spreading the faith.

The devotion will only become more passionate in Jobs' passing.

And I can't wait for my MacBook Pro to arrive.

CRM Tools: Beyond Tracking

Many salespeople hate CRM tools

And many sales managers do not fight the noble fight and insist that the salespeople use their CRM religiously.

To the brave new entrepreneur who may have a brilliant product or solution but who also may be going deep in the discipline of sales for the first time, CRM means "Customer Relationship Management" generally.

Specifically, CRM also refers to a company's IT program where sales people track activities on each account and maintain in-depth customer profiles -- from recent client proposals to a prospect's anniversary and children's birthdays.

It's not hard to imagine why some salespeople hate the CRM.

"All that reporting and typing. That's a drag on my time out in the marketplace."

There is some truth to that. So any sales manager who puts processes over face-time with clients should take a big step back and assess.

On the other hand, if neither sales manager nor sales person qualifies and tracks each account, follow-up can be ineffective and opportunities can be lost. To any enterprise, start-up or existing corporation, this is your lifeblood... and sales management is the heart that pumps it.

Managed well, a CRM puts a wealth of information right at your fingertips.

But there's an even bigger benefit

A CRM tool helps you plan... creatively.

I recently met a Business Unit Manager who improved her team's sales performance by asking them the following question: "When you come back from your next sales visit, what do you hope you'll type into the CRM with regards to meeting outcome?"

The team gave her a dozen different answers for two dozen different accounts.

"OK," she said.  "Now when you plan ahead for each respective meeting, make that your meeting objective... in advance. Have a descending order of desired outcomes for each visit, printed on your call plan, most desirable at the top, knowing what you know when you plan.

"To the extent that you achieve these during your sales visit, we can call the visit a success, and we can measure how much closer we are to the sale."

The B.U.M. told me later that it now helps the team develop creative applications and solutions for prospects and existing customers.

This is golden!

While a choreographer might not call something like a CRM tool "creative," a sales manager should.  A good way to "sell" the CRM discipline to a sales team is to show them -- as opposed to tell them -- how the CRM can help them find creative sales solutions to prospects' challenges, provided they do the disciplined stuff every day.

 

The gist 

A CRM tool should be seen as much more than just a tracking tool for salespeople and a control tool for sales managers.

Once the disciplined work is done, we can draw "business pictures" that help sales people and start-up entrepreneurs alike develop creative solutions for their prospects and, thus, close more deals earlier.

Photo by www.lifesip.com 

Toastmasters: Re-Branded & Cool

Annual Convention Meets (New) Brand Expectation

I'm just back from the Toastmasters 2011 International Convention in Vegas, my first. And I had a blast!

I've video-blogged about the Toastmasters re-branding, some of the workshops I attended, the International Speech Contest and everyone's darling and my good friend, Olivia Schofield.

 

Olivia, District 59/Continental European champ made us Euro-based Toastmasters proud by nailing two great speeches in the Regional Semi-Final and the Final, but "timing-out" in the Final. The way she handled it was graceful and... cool.

Special mention to fellow Euro Toastmaster Bob Mohl, who coached Olivia leading up to the conference and whom I failed to mention in the video, along with others in the movement who played a big role in making it a great conference.

Oh, yeah. I didn't mention this in the video, either. The convention ended with a bang. Much like we're accustomed to doing on Saturday nights at the District 59 Euro Conference, the International Conference ends with a Gala Dinner. It got funky.

Just check out this pic. Cool.

I'm going back next year.

 

Sell The House, Not The Thermostat

He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother!

My brother Tom is a successful entrepreneur and a quintessential salesman, at that. One of the things I've most admired about his sales talents is his focus on keeping things simple in the minds of buyers.

His first successes were in residential real estate in our home region of the Catskill Mountains, NY.

As business expanded, he hired sales agents. One of them, let's call him Roger, had a lot of hope. The guy was bright, personable and articulate. Perhaps "articulate" was what held him back at first. Roger just couldn't get prospective homebuyers to the second stage of a sale.

So Tom went out with Roger and prospective buyers on a home visit, and it didn't take long for Tom to identify Roger's biggest flaw. As they stood in the front yard and the prospects drove away, Tom told Roger straight.

 

Straight Talk For Salespeople

"You know why you're not selling, Roger? You're too intellectual."

Roger shrugged incredulously.

"You scare buyers with too much, complex information," Tom said. "They may come away saying you're a bright guy, but they don't come away saying, 'I wanna' buy!' That couple?"

Roger nodded. Tom continued.

"Well, when the wife asked how the electronic thermostat worked, you gave her a seven-minute dissertation on how it was designed, with a full appendix on how the entire heating system worked, from the thermostat, to the fuel oil, to the hot water, to the pipes, to the convection in each room.

"She thought she was buying a Lear Jet. She wasn't engaged for the rest of the visit. You scared her, man!"

 

What Does The Buyer Really Want To Know?

Roger resisted. "Well, she wanted to know about the heating and air-conditioning. What would you have done, ignored the question?"

"She didn't ask how the entire system was designed," Tom retorted. "She asked how these new electronic thermostats worked. If you were selling a thousand electronic thermostats to a building supply chain, maybe the first part of your answer would've been appropriate. But not to a home buyer. Sell the house, not the thermostat. Sell the lifestyle!"

"So? How would you have answered?" Roger had taken the big step from resistance to curiosity.

"Like this: 'I bought a similar thermostat for my house last year, and I love it. It's really easy and it'll save you time and money. In the winter, for example, you can set the timer like this, so that it automatically warms the house up a half-hour before the family wakes up. And then, like this, so that the heat goes down about the time you typically go to bed. I really love mine.'

"Then," Tom continued, "they would've felt they were buying something easy and modern... instead of some mysterious, complicated system that will require a lifetime of electronic and hydraulic maintenance!"

Roger acknowledged the point... and it was probably his biggest learning event in sales.

Over the next few months, he brought home buyers successfully through the buying/sales cycle -- not just by selling customer benefits instead of product features, but by keeping things simple.

Are you keeping things simple in your prospects' minds?

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Post Script: Brother Tom is going in for open-heart surgery today in Albany NY. The good news is that he identified it early, before any attack, which improves the outlook dramatically. If all goes as expected, he'll actually be back on his feet and more fit by the end of the summer. We love ya', brother!

Photo by http://radiateur-ars.com 

Leaders & Ladders - One Size Does Not Fit All

I learned a ton about leadership...

... while heading up the 1999 Pan American Games Marketing Project in Canada.  I had to.  Almost overnight, I found myself at the head of this challenging project.

But like so many things, just when I thought I had learned it all, I realized how much more there was to learn.

In leadership, one size does not fit all.

 

The Pan Am Marathon

The Pan Am Project had a four-year business and operational plan.  It was a marathon, not a sprint.

I would be more successful if I let other people take the lead in areas where they were either better than I was or investing more time than I was... which was in just about every area of the project.

Did that render me useless?

 

No way!

Intuitively, I also came to realize that it was my job to keep my eyes on the big prize, while helping each individual to self-actualize, to grow and feel appreciated, within that big picture.

This drove a virtuous cycle: everyone generally stayed motivated, myself included.  I found my zone, and everyone found theirs.

So I thought I knew everything there was to know about leadership.

 

Then in the course of two days...

Two things happened, one related to work and one not.  Taken together, I realized I didn't know nearly as much as I'd thought about leadership.

Both events had happy endings, but that was more the result of just knowing the goal and putting it all on the line, than it was the result of any knowledge or leadership experience.

 

One winter Sunday in 1997

I was skiing at Hunter Mountain in my beloved Catskill Mountains of New York State.  I was in a lift line, about to get on the chair, when the lift stopped.  At first, I didn't even notice the drama unfolding 100 yards ahead.

Hanging from a chair by the hood of his coat, about 10 meters (30 feet) above the ground was a ten-year-old boy.

His sister was was holding on to his hood.  She was crying, unsure how long she could hold on, unsure what else she could do.

I don't even remember stepping out of my ski bindings, but I do remember running toward the chair, pleading at the top of my lungs for the girl to hold on.

"Just keep holding!  You can do it!  Hold on!"

But it quickly dawned on me that I had no immediate solution.  My heart sank.

Just then, a woman appeared from behind the lift engine, carrying a long ladder with two hooks at the top.  In one heave, she launched the ladder up, but only secured one of the hooks to the safety bar.  On the ground, only one of the ladder's feet was firm in the snow.  That didn't stop her from climbing up the ladder without haste.

A few more steps, and the ladder would have twisted; she would have flown right off of it.

 

All I could do was shout at her.

"Come down!  You're going to fall!  Down!  Now!"

"We don't have time!" she called back.

The young sister started crying louder, her grip weakening from her brother's coat.

"No!" I commanded.  "GET DOWN!  NOW!"

The woman didn't think a third time.  She hurried down the ladder.  As soon as her feet hit the ground, I secured the base of the ladder firmly in the snow and re-attached both hooks on to the safety bar.

"Go!" I shouted.

No interpretation needed.  She hurried back up the ladder.  When the woman got level with the boy, she reached her arms through the top rung of the ladder and grabbed him securely under the shoulders.

The sister let go and erupted in tears, overwhelmed in emotion.  She had done her job, well.

 

But the job wasn't finished

The woman was now holding the boy at the same dangerous height, but she could not get her arms out from inside the rungs of the ladder.  She and the boy were stuck.

"Hold on!" I yellled, and I bolted up the ladder.

I stood one rung below her, and now reached around the outside of her and the ladder and grabbed the boy.

(What a sight this must've been, I thought later: Me, hugging this strange woman from behind, 10 meters above the ground, looking over her shoulder, right into the eyes of the boy who seemed indifferent about the whole thing.)

The woman freed her arms from inside the ladder, and yelled back at me.  "Let me get a second grip!"  She grabbed the boy again from around the outside of the ladder.  Both of us now held the boy firmly.

Now she yelled, "Go down!  One step at a time!  Ready?"

"Yeah!"  I was the one who was now a little unsure of myself, in this crazy position, and on a ladder with ski boots.  I started getting a bit unsure for the first time.

"First step!" she commanded.  "Slow and steady."

Step by orchestrated step, we made our way down the ladder to safety.  After each step, the woman repeated, "Next step, ready?  Step!"

 

But that's not the real world?

The next day, back in my office, a similar emergency broke loose on the Pan Am Games Marketing Project -- no, not physically life threatening, but project threatening and livelihood threatening.

We had, perhaps, two hours to solve a huge problem, lest the commercial health of the Games collapse on the spot.  The firefighting had begun, with calls around the hemisphere... New York, Winnipeg, Toronto, Vancouver and Mexico City.

My Number 2 went into command and control mode with Canada, and I went into diplomacy mode with Mexico City.  Most of the team was activated for urgent tasks of finding contracts and putting together argumentation on bullet-pointed one-pagers.  We never took the time to deliberate; we just went to our strengths, and survived.  And I knew that I was way outside of my comfort zone.

 

The More I Learn, The More I Have To Learn

The two indicents of Sunday and Monday, taken together, taught me something about leadership that I hadn't previously even thought about.

1. One size does not fit all.  Consensus-building and commanding both have their time and place.
2. Leadership can be shared.  Even in the most stressfull moments that require a command approach, leadership can be shared -- providing the right people are in place.  Even then, such power can not extend througout the team, and a clear division of command should be agreed or intuited, but clearly understood.
   

Ever since then, whenever I hear someone say, "He or she is a great leader," I think to myself, "... in what type of situation?"

In leadership styles and situations, one size does not fit all.

 

- Do you believe that there are some who can lead in any situation?
- When it comes to the business world, do you think the right leader for a highly specialized startup can also lead a major corporation?