“Is Your Marketing Ready for the Customer of the Future?”

By: Jon Miller

A short history of marketing will show you one undeniable fact: You have to be ready for what’s coming. Are you?

The past 15 years have been a whirlwind for marketers. Many of the channels central to reaching consumers today–email, social, websites–either didn’t exist or played a small role back then. The most successful marketers evolved and adapted, and they learned to make the most of new tools.

To be successful in the future, marketers are going to have to evolve again. And the best way to know where we’re headed is to take a look at where we’ve been and where we are today.

The Past

Think back 15 years. Imagine a customer in the market to buy -; for example -; a car. Where does he start? Chances are, first thing he would do is drive through the dealership after-hours to look around without being approached by someone in sales. Once he gets more serious though, he’s going to have to go back to the dealership and talk with sales. After all, they have the answers. When was this model last updated? What’s its safety rating? Can you get it in blue?

In that story, the car could be substituted for nearly everything else consumers bought 15 years ago. How many tracks are on Radiohead’s OK Computer CD? Go to Sam Goody and look. When is Microsoft Office 2000 going to be released, and how much is a business license? Call a sales rep and find out.

If all of that seems anachronistic to you, that’s because it is.

The Present

We’ve seen the rise of the self-directed buyer. When they are in the market for a car, they know exactly what they want, from transmission and engine size, to color and the level of shine on the wheels. They know how much they should pay for it, and which lot has it in stock. You can see how many tracks are on a Radiohead album with a few taps on your mobile device, and chances are you’re not buying software with a license anymore. Today, you can buy a subscription to Office.

Now, marketers have to figure out how to communicate with the information-saturated consumer. Some take the route of frequently shouting impersonal messages into inboxes, but that’s the wrong way.

The Future

The huge shift in power from sales to consumers necessitates quick evolution from marketers, and that’s a good thing. This is our chance to shine. People used to think of the marketing department as the arts and crafts department, but today we can be partners in growth if we make the most of the opportunity.

So your customers are reading about products online before talking to your sales team? Great. Make sure your content is the best and most informative. Instead of calling sales, they’re preferring to download content and watch videos on your website? That’s good data, keep sending them helpful, informative information to nurture that relationship.

Today marketing departments are surrounded by data. Who is registering for events or stopping by your booth at a trade show? What is that person’s purchase history? If you have this information, you have to use it. Sure you could blast out an email to your entire list that says, “Here’s something new. Buy it.” But don’t you think it would be better to send a personalized email that takes into account what the prospect is looking at on your website and what she has said on social networks about your product? Of course it is.

Every day, customers are shouted at by marketers, and overcoming the multi-channel noise requires building individual relationships with your prospects and customers. Once you have those relationships, you can deliver the best leads to sales, and you can continue to give your customers the same kind of personal attention that made them your customer in the first place.

There’s never been a better time to be a marketer. Brand perceptions are formed and purchase decisions made before a customer ever talks with sales or sees a product in a retail setting. That’s a tremendous opportunity to get there first and forge long-lasting relationships at the onset. Is your marketing ready for this?

“How to Cope With Setbacks”

By: Geoffrey James

Setbacks are inevitable; it’s how you deal with them that determines your ultimate success.

It’s easy to stay motivated when you’re winning; what’s challenging is staying motivated when things are going badly. Ultimately, success depends upon your ability to handle inevitable setbacks, according to Jeff Keller, author of the Attitude is Everything. Here’s how:

1. Realize they’re temporary.

Every successful person has encountered setbacks, learning what doesn’t work is an essential part of learning what does! Setbacks are a sign that you’re making progress. Remember: God’s delays are not God’s denial.

2. Recommit to your goals.

If you truly want to succeed, banish all thoughts of giving up before you accomplish your objective. Be willing to do whatever it takes to succeed, within legal and ethical bounds. You will get there eventually.

3. Contact some positive colleagues.

Positive emotions are contagious, so this is a great time to reconnect with people who believe in themselves and believe in you. Give positive encouragement to others and they’ll return the favor. Get energized together!

4. Reset your timetable.

You may not be achieving success as quickly as you’d hoped, but success generally comes one small step at a time. This is a great time to “retrench” and think through what you might do differently to achieve your goals.

5. Take action today.

Pursuing success is like riding a horse; if you get thrown off, you’ve got to get right back on it. Rather than dwell on the setback, take some action–right now–that will continue your momentum.

“5 Negotiation Tips From Steve Jobs”

By: Erik Sherman

An old e-mail exchange between Steve Jobs and James Murdoch illustrates how savvy negotiation works.

A series of emails about ebook prices between Apple and HarperCollins, including ones written by Steve Jobs, were recently released as part of the Department of Justice price-fixing suit against Apple and a number of major publishers. As the site Quartz pointed out, these offer some great insight into how Jobs negotiated.

However, Zachary Seward at Quartz called it an example of “hard-nosed” negotiation at which Jobs excelled. I’d take a different view. This is not hard-nosed. The emails show how an excellent negotiator used a series of principles to create the best conditions for winning. Let’s look in greater detail at the exchange between Steve Jobs and James Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch and the ultimate decision maker, and see how Jobs ultimately got his way.

First, set the stage. Apple and HarperCollins had been discussing bringing the latter’s ebooks into the iTunes store for the launch of the iPad. Apple had presented its standard contract. HarperCollins wanted to address the following issues:
•flexibility to price on a title-by-title basis outside Apple’s pricing tiers
•no so-called most favored nation status, so Harper would not have to give Apple as good a deal as any other retailers in case the two companies disagreed on prices and HarperCollins wanted to make titles available through other outlets at higher prices and, potentially, higher income for those retailers
•a lower than 30 percent commission on new works
•six month windows on using an agency model (publisher sets the price and retailer gets a commission) instead of the 12-month window that Apple wanted
•concern that Apple wanted to set prices too high, meaning that competition with Amazon would be difficult

And yet, Jobs ultimately prevailed. Here is how.

1. Understand the importance of the negotiation.

According to one of the emails, Steve Jobs got on the phone with Murdoch right away. Jobs was a busy man, but he knew that some deals are critical. To have a credible showing of ebooks, he needed all the major publishers, including HarperCollins. However, there was another aspect of importance that didn’t pass him by. If he caved on what he thought he really needed with one publisher, others would eventually find out and push back. Not only was the deal important in and of itself, but also in terms of the effect it could have on other deals.

2. Show that you understand the context and why your proposition is better.

Jobs knew, as did everyone in the publishing industry, that Amazon was driving much of the ebook business. Murdoch verified that Amazon paid $13 wholesale for an ebook title and sold it for $9.99–a lost, but Amazon wanted market share. However, buying high and selling low wouldn’t last forever, as Jobs pointed out:

The current business model of companies like Amazon distributing ebooks below cost or without making a reasonable profit isn’t sustainable for long. As ebooks become a larger business, distributors will need to make at least a small profit, and you will want this too so that they invest in the future of the business with infrastructure, marketing, etc.

Furthermore, Jobs argued that the $9 HarperCollins would get per title was actually sustainable and that the only way to pay more, given that in retail a 30 percent margin is relatively modest, would be to raise prices, angering consumers.

3. Show both kinds of value.

Jobs showed two kinds of value in his email exchange. One was positive value–what HarperCollins would get by working with Apple–and the other was negative, or what HarperCollins would lose by not working with Apple. For example, Jobs wrote that “Apple is the only other company currently capable of making a serious impact, and we have four of the six big publishers signed up already.” On one hand, he offers HarperCollins a tool to oppose industry domination by Amazon. On the other, he offers a soft hint that if HarperCollins doesn’t play ball, it may get left behind by its major competitors.

4. Lay out the reality.

The Jobs coup de grâce relates to the first point. When Murdoch shows signs of compromise, while trying, as Jobs did, to show positive and negative benefits to Apple, Jobs lays out a stark reality:

As I see it, HC has the following choices:

1. Throw in with Apple and see if we can all make a go of this to create a real mainstream ebooks market at $12.99 and $14.99.

2. Keep going with Amazon at $9.99. You will make a bit more money in the short term, but in the medium term Amazon will tell you they will be paying you 70% of $9.99. They have shareholders too.

3. Hold back your books from Amazon. Without a way for customers to buy your ebooks, they will steal them. This will be the start of piracy and once started there will be no stopping it. Trust me, I’ve seen this happen with my own eyes.

Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see any other alternatives. Do you?

At that point, the gloves are off and Jobs shows that HarperCollins, and the wider industry, face a stark choice, and that he, Jobs, knows it and recognizes that giving in to Murdoch would actually mean putting HarperCollins in a medium-term bind.

5. Play the emotion

One of the biggest mistakes that businesspeople make is to assume that the process is a rational and logical one. But negotiation is almost always an emotional play. People make decisions because of ego, fear, greed, a need to please, and so on. Notice that Jobs shows the benefit and the risks by painting pictures and not enumerating lists. For instance, he mentions the 120 million customer credit card numbers on file. He deliberately left the image of all that potential money in Murdoch’s mind.

“The No. 1 Way to Kill Productivity”

By: Ilya Pozin

You don’t mean to do it, but in most offices it’s hard to avoid. Bosses, don’t give in to this time-suck.

Here’s my nightmare scenario: I pull out my phone to call up my calendar for the next day, only to find that the entire day–we’re talking 8 a.m. to 6p.m. (or later)–is booked solid with meetings. What happened to, um, actual work?

It’s safe to say most people are addicted to meetings. It doesn’t quite make sense, especially from a boss’s perspective. Meetings are expensive. The hours your employees spend in meetings are hours when they’re not working.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research reported that office workers spend an average of four hours per week in meetings. These same workers reported feeling like half of that time is wasted. Additionally, a Salary.com survey reported 47 percent of workers say meetings are the No. 1 time-waster at the office.

Obviously, not all meetings are unnecessary and unproductive. I spoke with project management and productivity expert Tony Wong to find out how to transform meetings and increase productivity. Here are his tips:

1. Timing matters.

Before you schedule your next meeting, ask yourself this: Do you really need 60 minutes to address the topic at hand? If you allot an entire hour for a meeting, your attendees will likely lengthen the meeting just for the sake of it.

Try reducing the length of your meetings to 30 minutes or less–10- and 15-minute meetings may even be all you need. To stay on schedule, always begin at the stated time, regardless of whether everyone has arrived, and end the meeting on time, even if you haven’t completed your agenda.

2. Keep an eye on the size.

Inviting 10 people is similar to copying 10 people on an email. It’s a sign of laziness. The more people you invite to your meeting, the more you sap productivity. Consider meetings VIP events–limit your invitations only to those whom are vital to the topic. As a rule, try for five people or less.

3. Choose a direction and stick with it.

There’s nothing more annoying than meeting just to meet. Business meetings aren’t effective when a decision needs to be made or for informational purposes. You can take care of that with a simple phone call or a company-wide email with a plea for no reply.

Unless it’s a brainstorming session, a meeting should be called only to support and convey a previously made decision. A productive business meeting produces a committed plan of action. To stay on track, curb any irrelevant discussions, interruptions, and repeated points.

4. Define whether you’re having a meeting or a work session.

The definition of a traditional business meeting has gotten lost over the years. This is likely how the long-winded meeting with unnecessary tasks came about. People easily confuse business meetings with group work sessions and brainstorming sessions. These two types of work settings require far more time than a standard meeting.

5. Ask attendees to come prepared.

This goes beyond putting together a brief agenda. Be sure all people are prepared in advance to work toward a concise plan of action–and have their materials and questions ready prior to entering the door.

6. Break bad habits.

Your bad habits are likely getting in the way of a quick and effective meeting. Be militant about accomplishing more at your meetings–break notoriously unproductive habits like long introductions and repetitive rambling. Even more challenging: Come to terms with the idea of turning down meetings that aren’t vital to you or interrupt your deadlines. If you can’t avoid the meeting altogether, set a time limit and leave accordingly.

The traditional business meeting just isn’t working. Keep it short, concise, and when possible, eliminate it altogether.