Business901 » Marketing

Can you be Lucky by Design?

business901 — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 02:31:00 +0000

Beth Goldstein, Founder and CEO is an author, consultant, trainer and founder of Marketing Edge Consulting Group, she has empowered hundreds of entrepreneurs to successfully grow their companies. We discussed her newest book, Lucky By Design: Creating Real Opportunities that Empower Your Business coming out this fall.

Beth‘s special talents is helping companies gain an understanding of how their customers think, what they value and what influences their purchasing decisions. She then applies this knowledge to create targeted sales and marketing programs that drive revenue growth while increasing profitability and customer loyalty.

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Her first book, The Ultimate Small Business Marketing Toolkit: All the Tips, Forms, and Strategies You’ll Ever Need! is used in 30+ cities around the U.S. to teach business owners the critical skills they need to accelerate growth.

Are You Lucky In Business?

TAKE HER 5 MINUTE SURVEY &
RECEIVE OVER $75 IN VALUABLE BUSINESS TOOLS FOR SHARING YOUR OPINION
(You will be re-directed to Beth’s site.)

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Three more ways to Improve your Marketing!

business901 — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 02:32:00 +0000

This Ted video offers some great ideas about design in a a spectacular (and often quite funny) slide deck of surfer-turned-designer David Carson work and found images. He also exposes some surprising description of several prominent magazines handling of sensitive media.

Lean about Design, Discover and Humor and not in any particular order.

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Has Knowledge Management disguised itself as Lean Marketing?

business901 — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 03:45:00 +0000

It is not a disguise it is reality. Your marketing department should be investing many of their resources in capturing and building a structure for knowledge management. It is the core competence of your organization. If you look at the sole purpose of a Lean Marketing department it is disseminating pertinent information to the customer when he wants it and in the format of his choosing. That is Extreme Value. Most purchases are not made because you were cute and clever. They are made because you provided the knowledge the customer required and in doing so built a relationship with the customer of respect and trust.

As organizations have become flatter a constant flow of information is required not only throughout your organization but you must mimic the flow of information needed by your customer. This information flow cannot be funneled thru one person or even most of time who is saying what, when. The ultimate water cooler talk has now become a virtually oasis of knowledge. Not one person is an expert anymore. Not even one department can sell a job anymore. Your customer’s VP wants to talk to your VP, IT wants to talk to IT and Purchasing wants to talk to the Supply Chain Leader. The only person that no one wants to talk to is marketing (joke). Marketing must take the responsibility of making sure that the knowledge continuously flows and through the right channels – hence knowledge management. An excellent case study of this is Amazon. The information that flows as you click through their site is extraordinary.

Marketing must create systems that allow employees to collaborate, capture and share their knowledge without creating additional work or interruption of their job. It must become part of the process of work that they do. Of course, there will be times that this is not possible but it cannot be underestimated the importance creating an environment that a customer interaction is not an additional burden. Through the use of technology all types of information can be shared but great connections and relationships may be enhance through technology but seldom sustained. Live chats, personal connections, and community involvement must be emphasized.

Marketing must also take control of that knowledge transfer moment. Making that moment memorable is equivalent to those cute and clever sound bites. What differs about this type of marketing is this is when the person is most receptive to new ideas. They are the seekers and what they learn at this moment will be remembered and/or put to use.

In an economy where the only certainty is uncertainty, your one source of lasting competitive advantage is knowledge. Yet, few of us understand the true nature of the knowledge-creating company—let alone know how to manage it. According to a article by Japanese organizational theorist Ikujiro Nonaka, the problem is that most Western managers define knowledge—and what companies must do to exploit it—too narrowly. They believe that the only useful knowledge is “hard” (read “quantifiable”) data. And they see the company as a kind of machine for information processing

The challenges facing marketing and organizations in this climate are extraordinary. It is just not enough to start doing it. There must already be a shared vision, a set of guiding principles and culture within the organization that values this type of communication. Lean Companies have the necessary culture to succeed. However, I don’t believe that a company that is just starting a Lean journey is ready. They are still to tool orientated. Lean companies that are well on their way to developing a Lean Culture, 2^nd or 3^rd stage have the necessary ingredients to begin this journey.

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The Future of Marketing is Lean

business901 — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 04:50:00 +0000

The sales and marketing structure has drastically changed. The typical structure still used by many is when competition was not as great and technology was not the force that it is today. Most of the time sales and marketing sold solutions without every defining the customers problem. The typical sales forecast was derived on increasing sales a certain percentage. That’s changed. In today’s business setting many companies are fighting for survival. Competition has never been so keen and the elements of the past are simply not working.

The new wave of marketing has seen an entire new set of tools being used with the components of social media leading the way. No longer do we trust print media, radio, television and other forms of traditional media. The tools have all become a commodity. Some organizations have even questioned the need for a sales force. To make effective marketing decisions, you need a clear understanding of what the customer values and what your company strategy is to support them.

Companies have found that they must listen at higher level than ever before to their customers, focusing on improving processes, and using teams. Companies have to build a culture that supports agility, relevancy and speed. To accomplish this there has to become an open sharing of information that will accelerate creativity and innovation. Value has to be understood that it is delivered at the point of consumption, not when it leaves your hands.

Lean Marketing is about installing a continuous improvement methodology to your sales and marketing process. It’s about constantly improving ever step up the way. In the smaller scheme of things it is about improving a launch, an advertising campaign and even a sales call. However, in the bigger scheme of things it is about building a structure that creates a learning organization based on an ever increasing knowledge of what the customer values.

The Lean practice of PDCA is ideal for learning and creating knowledge activities. Following this process it allows individuals and teams to recognize and take advantage of opportunities, make decisions faster, and be more responsive to customers. As part of the PDCA cycle you get feedback on the action from listening to customers and the companies’ measurement systems. Having information, taking informed action and getting feedback is part of the natural PDCA cycle. Effectiveness comes from when you use and take advantage of all your resources.

This is why I believe the Future of Marketing is Lean!

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Lean, Six Sigma, Agile Consultants become a Recognized Expert

business901 — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 03:30:00 +0000

For the next Marketing your Black Belt Program, I am offering a special opportunity. The program is actually designed for Professional Service Consultants that work in a technical field such as Lean, Agile or Six Sigma. It is well suited for the one-person or small consulting company of less than 10 people. This 28-day program consist of six sessions. During the first three sessions you will receive all the tools and training needed to design your individual 28-day(it is Agile) marketing action plan. It will start on the 1st Friday of the month, Feb. 4th and for the following 28 days.

Session 1: 60 minutes(Friday@ 11:00AM)
Session 2: 60 minutes(Monday@ 11:00AM)
Session 3: 60 minutes(Tuesday@ 11:00AM)
Session 4, 5, 6: 45 minutes(Friday@ 11:00AM)

In addition to the six live webinars and coaching sessions, the program includes:

White papers and resources
Weekly email support between class sessions
Review of individual marketing action plans with feedback
All class sessions are recorded so participants who miss a session, or wish to review, may listen and review at their convenience.

In addition to the above and for the next 7 days or until the class is full, I am offering the following bonuses:

Lean Marketing House eBook
Marketing with A3 eBook
5Cs of Driving Market Share Audio Program
Best in Market eBook
Podcast interview and published on the Business901 Website*
(2) Generated News releases.
20 to 30 page eBook(Transcribed from Podcast)**

This webinar will be taped and published as part of future training programs so your participation will require a release to be signed. However, your participation and expertise will be further enhanced from the future marketing efforts of the program.

Registration Page: Marketing Your Black Belt

*Podcast will be published within 120 days of completion of program.
**eBook will be created within 21 days of completion of podcast recording.

This program will provide you with the tools and the knowledge to enhance your position as an expert in your field. The last three sessions will cover specific strategies and tactics geared toward Customer Acquisition/Retention and Pricing of Services.

Registration Page: Marketing Your Black Belt

There are a limited number of seats.

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Trainers sought for Six Sigma Marketing Program

business901 — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 12:46:00 +0000

Discovery Call to be held on October 20th for interested parties

The Six Sigma Marketing Institute is hosting a discovery call for interested parties that are looking to join their network. Founder of the Six Sigma Marketing Institute and creator of the 5Cs of Driving Market Share, Dr. Eric Reidenbach will outline the Licensing program and the Certification process. The first discovery call will be held on Wednesday, October 20th at 3:00 PM EST.

Six Sigma Marketing is a fact-based, disciplined approach for growing market share in targeted product/markets by providing superior value. The Six Sigma Marketing Institute is dedicated to the advancement and deployment of Six Sigma Marketing. At the heart of SSM is a modified DMAIC process that provides the architecture for growing top line revenues and market share.

For more information, please go to http://DrivingMarketShare.com or to the registration page: Six Sigma Marketing Certification.

Dr Reidenbach says, “Turning the power of Six Sigma outward and focusing on growing market share will provide infinite number of value laden projects for the Six Sigma Black belts and it will help Chief Marketing Officers reject agenda-based programs that have no accountability and instead allow them to adopt a systematic disciplined approach to growing market share based on the voice of the market.”

If you are a Consulting Organization or a Six Sigma Black Belt within an organization you may want to join this discovery call to discuss this new opportunity.

A Licensed Six Sigma Marketer will receive:

Right to sell and conduct the 5 Cs of Driving Market Share
Right to engage in Six Sigma Marketing Value Programs
Comprehensive Packet of Marketing Materials for lead generation
4 hours of training on the 5Cs of Driving Market Share
8 hours of Statistical Training
8 hours of training on the Value tools utilized in the 5Cs of Driving Market Share.
Directory Listing on the Driving Market Share Website.

Advance Training will be offered after completion of above:

2 day intensive on the 5Cs of Driving Market Share.
Certification as a Master Six Sigma Marketer
Web page on the Driving Market Share
Participation in the Lead Generation Program

Dr. Eric Reidenbach is the Director of the Six Sigma Marketing Institute, the leading organizations and authority of Six Sigma Marketing. His consulting services are absolutely unique. They are filled with proprietary measurement and management techniques designed to help you grow market share and top line revenues.

Disclamer: Business901 assists in the management of the program and will be the host of the Discovery Call.

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The Bridge Between Six Sigma and Marketing

business901 — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 14:01:00 +0000

In my journey over the past few years to bring a Continuous Improvement philosophy to marketing, I have primarily focused on Lean and identifying the individual Value Streams though segmentation. Lean was a much easier methodology to implement and utilize. As I continued with a customer, I found the Six Sigma toolbox provided me a stronger set of analytical tools that was needed in handling the vast amount of data. In any case, I practice a mixture of Lean and Six Sigma. Transferring this philosophy to other marketers and Lean/Six Sigma Practitioners has been very difficult with each side very skeptical of the other.

Working the past several months with Dr. Eric Reidenbach of Six Sigma Marketing Institute to develop the program the 5Csof Driving Market Share has provided a much clearer path or the bridge between the two methodologies. In the program, we challenge the way both the Six Sigma community and the marketing area think about business and the way they currently do business. It does so by providing a detailed and structured approach one that is entirely data driven to unleash the power of Six Sigma on the crucial need of Customer Value for revenue growth. An outline of that bridge between Marketing and Six Sigma is provided in the table below.

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Rodney Dangerfield’s interpretation of the Lean Startup!

business901 — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 04:42:25 +0000

I happened upon this video the other day and could not help but think about the popular Lean Startup and Eric Ries. Eric is ever mindful of getting your product/service into the real world as quickly as possible. He laughs at the notion of creating this full fledge business model and structure that are institutions teach. Listen to Rodney discuss real world economics in this class… I think he has about 4 Pivots during the video.

If you would like to learn more about the Lean Startup watch this short video from an earlier blog post, Dealing with uncertainty in the Lean Startup.

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Using the Theory of Constraints in Services

business901 — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 03:00:00 +0000

The Business901 Podcast featured John Arthur Ricketts, a distinguished engineer at IBM Corporate Headquarters. As a consulting partner and technical executive, he has dealt with many services management issues, including those faced by clients in their own services businesses. His work in applied analytics led him to become a focal point on Theory of Constraints (TOC), and then to delve deeply into its potential for services management.

John is very informative with a practical approach to applying TOC to services. I believe anyone involved in continuous improvement field will benefit from this podcast.

John is a practitioner and innovator in the field of Theory of Constraints. His book, Reaching The Goal: How Managers Improve a Services Business Using Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints , was published in 2008 by IBM Press. Reviewers on Amazon.com soon gave it a five-star rating. And Dr. Eli Goldratt, founder of the Theory of Constraints, said it’s one of the best books ever written on TOC. John is also the author of “Theory of Constraints in Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (Chapter 29 of Theory of Constraints Handbook) ,” a chapter in the Theory of Constraints Handbook published in 2010.

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Does your customer know why you do it?

business901 — Sun, 23 May 2010 12:37:00 +0000

Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership all starting with a golden circle and the question “Why?” His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers — and as a counterpoint Tivo, which (until a recent court victory that tripled its stock price) appeared to be struggling.

In 2009, Simon Sinek released the book, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action -a synopsis of the theory he has begun using to teach others how to become effective leaders and inspire change.

Do you know why we do what we do?
(Do you know why you do what you do?)

Even if you do –

Do you communicate it to others?

Related Posts: Mirror Marketing

Are you a RECOGNIZED EXPERT in your field?

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Why should 50% of your marketing fail?

business901 — Sat, 22 May 2010 14:21:13 +0000

The need for a high failure rate is in direct contradiction to many of my conversations. It is also against most people’s approach of trying to do everything right the first time. I was reviewing one of Donald Reinertsen older books, Managing the Design Factory. Reinertsen is simply a great author that takes what I call Geek information and converts to a level of understanding that I even get. I used material from the aforementioned book re-writing it for the purpose of marketing versus software development.

Why should 50% of your marketing fail?

Using the Information Theory: the more probable the event, the less information that is needed. Why is that true? If you receive information that you expect, it contains little information. For example, if you have a targeted message to one person, that information will have a better chance to succeed. If you send the same message to 2 people, you have introduced more risk and less chance to succeed. So rather than try to drive failures out of the process or become more efficient we must introduce large amounts of information and as a result more risk. In fact, that magic number for efficiency is 50%.

To generate that 50% number lets define the 2 extremes. If we want 100%, the information theory states the lower amount of information needed. That means if we “do it right” the first time we have driven all the information out of the process except for a very select audience. If we look at 0% that means that we provide all the information to a very large audience. An analogy that I use for 0% may be a Super Bowl Ad. I am pretty sure at this point that anyone reading this is not contemplating a super bowl ad next year. My failure rate at this point may be high but it is not at either extreme. At least it is at a starting point.

How do we generate this information efficiently (50%)?

Distinguish between failures to generate useful information, which are new failures and those that generate information that we already have, which are the old failures.
Providing tracking information or checklists especially from past experiences. Good accounting of your failures is really more valuable than the description of the most successful work.
The early you test the better.
Use the smallest batch size possible.

In our discussions with small batch size strategies we can think of the process is producing potential errors at a certain rate. If we can test early, we choose to receive these errors when the costs of reacting to them are low. The striking advantages of the small batch size are that information arrived early and our total population of errors remains small because it arrives in more manageable chucks. Of course, the more batch sizes you have the more you waste design resource each iteration incurs extra costs and of course extra cost or path.

These two areas are always in direct conflict and one of the things that need to be weighed is the costs of the trials tested. When the cost of the trial is high fewer iterations will be performed and vice versa. However, frequent iterations can actually be much more valuable than people suspect.

I think this is a very interesting concept and deserves further study. I use this theory in developing Facebook and Google Ads on a regular basis. Seldom are my ads stagnant. They are constantly evolving and change as success rates change. For an example, if you have a campaign that has three or four ads in it, you can constantly evolve these ads to increase hit rates or conversions…but only try to be 50% successful!

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Agile, Scrum, Kanban, or is it just a Marketing Funnel?

business901 — Wed, 19 May 2010 17:30:48 +0000

Do you think it is Scrum? Do you think it is Kanban? Do you think it is a Marketing Funnel? …or is it all three? Or maybe Agile? This is an empirical view of Value Stream Marketing.

The drawing is reflective of a Scrum sprint. Scrum is an iterative, incremental framework for project management and agile software development. The sprint is typical a two to four week process with the large loop representing the overall process and the smaller (top) loop representing a twenty-four period and the daily scrum meeting. In the Value Stream Marketing Process, I use the loops to demonstrate a higher level of intimacy with a prospect. The top loop is for existing customers to nurture an even stronger relationship.

The three separate areas of the diagram will have their own Kanban board, if there are separate teams working on them, or you could visualize each as a separate swim lane. Separating these three processes apart allow you to better identify the process steps and the tools needed to facilitate the value stream flow. And, of course, using a Kanban board for this process will help you identify where the process is not working or where the bottleneck is occurring.

The Kanban board is where the actual work gets done. We want to limit unnecessary work in process to be no higher than it needs to be to match the control point or pacemaker of the process (bottleneck). We will use these boards to limit Work in Process into each stage and as a result create a smoother work flow(Heijunka) with a goal of eliminating what Lean refer to as the 3 M’s, Muda (Waste), Mura (Unevenness or Inconsistent) and Muri (unreasonable). This way we maximize your marketing efforts to the fullest extent.

Scratching your head a bit? We will develop our Kanban Boards in later posts which will clarify things a bit. Don’t get hung up on process. All you really need to do is break down your present marketing systems onto a Kanban board and start.

Related Posts:
Pull: The Pull in Lean Marketing
Value Stream = Involve-Influence-Interaction- Intimacy-Commit: Value Stream Marketing and the Indirect Marketing Concept
Marketing Kanban: Marketing Kanban

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eBook on Using Introvert Tendencies as a Marketing Advantage

business901 — Mon, 10 May 2010 13:13:52 +0000

Joan Friedlander, owner of Lifework Business Partners was my guest on the Business901 Podcast and this is a transcription of the podcast. We had the opportunity to discuss creating realistic and executable marketing plans for self-employed service business owners and key members of a business team. One of Joan’s specialties is working with Introverts and our conversation extended into using those introvert tendencies as an advantage in today’s business climate. For a limited time, she has offered to make available the 5- Steps to effective Follow-up article.

Can Introvert Tendencies be a Marketing Advantage

Joan was my facilitator when I became a Get Clients NOW™ Facilitator and still offers the program and has a program starting on May 11th. She is an outstanding instructor and I have never met anyone that facilitates a tele-seminar better.

If you would prefer to listen to the podcast it can be found here. Related Podcast:

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Can Introvert Tendencies be a Marketing Advantage? Find out from an Expert Get Clients NOW™ Facilitator

business901 — Fri, 07 May 2010 13:56:00 +0000

Joan Friedlander, owner of Lifework Business Partners was my guest on the Business901 Podcast and we had the opportunity to discuss creating realistic and executable marketing plans for self-employed service business owners and key members of a business team. One of Joan’s specialties is working with Introverts and our conversation extended into using those introvert tendencies as an advantage in today’s business climate.

Lifework business Partners works with solo-entrepreneurs and small business teams that are stretched to their limits. She works with them to improve effectiveness through a 3-pronged “workstyle approach:” focusing on high-priority outcomes, tapping into the key talents of each member of the team, and working in harmony with an individual’s unique “energy signature.”

Joan is a lifelong student of human potential and behavior. She enjoys playing in the game of business and, as she’ll readily tell you, finds that’s it’s an excellent playground for personal growth, self-expression and learning. At the heart of her work is a purpose that she first articulated in her teen years, that all human beings have a right to pursue and engage in work that they enjoy, is satisfying & fun.

Before graduating with a degree in psychology from the University of California at Berkeley, Joan started studying alternative models for understanding and maximizing one’s full potential. She brings her diverse business background – she held 21 jobs before launching her coaching business in late 2000 – and various studies to her work with her clients. Joan focuses on personal productivity and work-life balance issues.

Technorati Tags: productivity,work smart,time management,marketing,introvert,self-employment

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