What Are You Projecting?

It always shocks me when I hear someone say that they were surprised a meeting went well.
Why wouldn’t it?
Nobody starts a meeting thinking ‘I’m going to be as difficult and objectionable as possible.’
The problem is, if you go into a meeting expecting it to be awkward.
Chances are it will be.
And you'll be on the end of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
If you’re there to add value
share your expertise
and offer support,
how can it be anything but good?
But as George Benson said, “Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all.”
If you drop to your knees and say “I’m not worthy”
chances are, you won’t be.

What Does Your Brand Sound Like?

What does sonic branding mean to you?
Most people think of Intel Inside and its four note signature.
But that’s a bit like thinking of a brand as little more than a logo.
Daniel Jackson (no relation) wrote a great book about sonic branding which I recommend you read.
Jingles used to provide a handy shortcut to unimaginative advertisers.
How things have changed.
Now a brand will have a bunch of writers composing aural motifs.
And a host of different musicians able to interpret them in a variety of styles.
The brand has an entire soundscape, rather than just a simple chime.
Jackson understands that music has the power to link you emotionally to the brands in your life.
I could say the same about experiences.
It’s all about the emotional journey, and celebrating the complexities of the world around us.

Low Hanging Fruit

Yesterday’s blog stirred up some interesting feedback.
It seems that some people are cynical about the effectiveness of developing new business through emails and phone calls.
I think it’s because they don’t understand the dynamic of clients and agencies.
Clients are busy people.
If someone can offer them something that can move their brand forward, drive sales or even make their lives easier, they’ll take that call.
Additionally, isn't part of their job buying agency services.
Which is easier – scouring the industry press to find out who’s doing what, and then tracking them down?
Or letting the great agencies come to you?
When I used to work in a CRM agency, we had a simple saying – “It’s only junk mail if you’re not interested.”

Missing A Trick?

In the sales and marketing team here, we have a pledge to call prospective clients every day.
It’s not about cold-calling – we lay the groundwork first.
Then we call.
I was speaking to one such client the other day, and he seemed genuinely surprised that I’d bothered to follow-up my email with "the" call.
Apparently, he gets countless emails every week from agencies wanting to work with his business.
They all end by saying
“We’ll be in touch soon.”
And then silence.
It made me wonder how many times we have great opportunities at our finger-tips,
but we neglect to follow through and miss out.
If you say you’re going to do something, make sure that you do it.
Your next big win is closer than you think.

What’s In It For Me?

Business planning is an inherently selfish business.
You’re looking at your strategy and figuring out how best to maximise your profitability.
But what happens when that single-minded focus starts to dictate what it is that your business does?
Sure you’re in it to make money – aren’t we all?
That’s not the issue.
The problem is that you start trying to find ways of selling your existing products and services to clients, rather than developing them to meet the needs of those clients.
If you plan your business around what’s right for you, you’ll never achieve your goals. Business should only ever have one goal in mind – delivering what their clients are crying out for.
Anything else is just an exercise in self-validation.
And it doesn’t make money.

Dragon’s Den – Surrender.

Everyone knows I’m a big fan of collaboration.

I’ve talked about the theory, the practice and the mindset needed to make it work.

The more I hear from clients, the more I’m convinced that I’m on the right track.

They’re looking for multi-platform, media-neutral solutions.

And whether you like it or not, that means more multi-agency projects.

They want big ideas, and they probably don’t care about whose name is stitched into the lining of it.

It isn’t a competition, and there’s no prize for saying “that was my idea”.

That’s because there’s only one immutable truth about collaborative projects – they lead to better solutions for the client.

Sure, you might lose a little revenue to one of the other teams, but the results you deliver for your client will be that much greater.

The audience doesn’t give a hoot about where the idea came from either.

So why does it matter so much to you?

Preparation Is Everything

A few weeks ago I was invited to speak in front of around 250 brand managers for a global brand owner.
Speaking to that kind of audience can be intimidating, but not if you’ve done your homework first.
There’s the research, the planning and then pulling the whole presentation together.
It was also a handy reminder that, in situations like this, it’s not so much about telling people something new.
It’s about giving them your perspective on it.
The there are the rehearsals.
Lots of rehearsals.
It feels like a lot of work in the run-up to it, but it’s worth it once you’re up there on stage.
That’s the power of face-to-face communication.
The reward comes once you’re done speaking – in the interactions you have with your audience after the fact.
That’s when you find out what they’ve taken from your speech.
And the ideas that you’ve helped to trigger.
You also get a sense for the contagious nature of energy – you pass it on and your audience will do the same.
If you’re someone who gets tongue-tied at the prospect of presenting to a large group, try to keep in mind how great it’s going to feel when you’re up there.
Thanks, you’ve been a great audience