Next Level Executives

I finally picked up Seth Godin’s book “Meatball Sundae” yesterday after listening to Mitch Joel pimp it (albeit gently) on Six Pixels several times over the last few months. As of this morning I am about half-way through the book and I find myself compelled to get a conversation going on the book’s thesis.

Old Marketing (mass marketing) is dying or at least shrinking in relevance and New Marketing (permission based marketing) is the future.

The good news for business, small businesses in particular, is that new marketing is much more cost effective and has an exponentially higher response rate. One example Seth uses in the book is a comparison of response rates for direct mail versus permission based (opt in) email marketing. The typical direct mail campaign costs $1 per recipient and has an expected response rate of one percent. Compare this to a permission based email campaign where the recipients have asked to receive information about your products and services. The cost of crafting the email is most likely the same as the cost of designing the mailer in the direct mail scenario but there is virtually no cost of distribution. Sending an email to one person or one hundred thousand costs the same. Here’s the rub, according to Seth the response rate for email is often 20 to 30 times higher than snail mail.

The cost component in the above scenario, while significant, is not the point. The point is the response rate and what it means to your marketing strategy. In today’s world, people can choose to not be interrupted. Think about it:

• Radio - People have iPhones, podcasts of radio broadcasts and XM satellite radio.
• TV - TiVo, iTunes and other on-demand delivery systems make sitting through ads unnecessary.
• Telemarketing - The “do not call list” makes dinner interruptions a thing of the past.
• Spam - Unwanted email marketing (no permission given) is swept up via spam filters.

New Marketing, as Seth suggests, eschews yelling in the faces of people who would rather not hear what you have to say in favor of engaging people who have a problem you can solve. It’s the old “fish where the fish are” axiom taken to the next level.

Fish where the fish are but be sure to have the bait the fish like to eat.

My father and I took my son Jackson fishing for the first time recently. The first stop we made was the local bait shop where I asked the guy behind the counter for the best place to catch trout. Then we bought our worms and headed to the pond he suggested. We knew where the fish were.

When we got to the pond, set up and baited our hooks with several options. In addition to the worms we had brought other options such as PowerBait and salmon eggs. Sure enough the fish started biting but only the hooks baited with worms. Nothing else was drawing even the slightest nibble. But we had all that other bait. What to do?

We could have developed an aggressive marketing strategy to push the PowerBait as an attractive alternative to worms. And salmon eggs are so European and chic, they are like caviare. I mean come on, we had all that inventory. Certainly if we yelled loud enough the fish would try our other products.

But wait, there was a guy with his son fishing right near us and they were using worms. Just what the fish wanted. Hmm…maybe we should position ourselves as the best place for trout to fill their worm needs.

And this is the most important part of the “Meatball Sundae” message. New Marketing, is not about selling what you have or what you want sell to people through new marketing tools. It is about identifying what people want to buy, finding out where these people are and structuring your marketing and business strategy to maximize the engagement of these customers.

So, have you read “Meatball Sundae”? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Are you using all available brainpower to solve your business challenges? If you haven’t taken the hot seat in a mastermind session the answer is “NO”. And your business may be suffering for it.

Scientists and mathematicians long ago discovered that more brains are better than one brain when it comes to solving complex calculations. In recent decades more brains began to include more computers. And more computers has evolved into cloud computing which essentially represents a supercomputer comprised of thousands of individual machines working together in concert to solve virtually any calculation.

“But I’m a small business owner (or solo-preneur) and I don’t even like math. How is cloud computing going to help me?” Say you.

Well your small business is more like a complex math problem than you may realize. Think of the four main business processes that every business has, new product development, order acquisition, order fulfillment, and post sales service. Change what you do in one process and it impacts the result in another, which in the end creates a different value for your business.

Things get even more complex when we include the variables of business functions such as marketing, finance, HR and so on. Like the calculations facing scientists and mathematicians, some variables carry more weight than others. Identifying these weighty variables and engaging all available brainpower to solve your problem not only saves time but also tends to lead to results that your one brain would have overlooked.

So what do you say? Are you willing to take the hot seat?

To get a glimpse of the power of the mastermind session take a quick read of Heidi Brooks’s comments and my own personal experience this Wednesday.

Networking events are social but they are not birthday parties. You should have fun and enjoy the event but remember you are there for a reason.

Laura Fitton (aka Pistachio), of Pistachio Consulting, wrote a blog post this week titled “Make Conferences Rock More” that I think is a must read. She really got me thinking about how I approach my preparation for attending events.

While Pistachio’s post focuses on using social media tools to prepare for an event she more broadly hits on a challenge many people unwittingly face when they make a decision to attend an event for business.

The typical process goes a little something like this:

1. RSVP
2. Put the event on your calendar
3. Tell a couple of friends you are going. Ask if they are going?
4. Pick out an outfit
5. Do you have everything? Business Cards, cash for drinks at the bar, iPhone, breath mints….
6. Okay good to go!

With this kind of preparation, what are the chances of meaningful business resulting from the event?

Here are a few suggestions for making your next event a winner:

1. Decide why you are attending the event. Are you there to meet prospective clients or cement existing relationships? Maybe you are going to learn something new or take existing skills to the next level. It can’t hurt to remind yourself of the reason you are investing time in this event.
2. As Pistachio mentions early on in her post, take a look at the list of planned attendees. For each Next Level Executives event we post a list of who is coming on the registration page.
3. Make a note of who you want to meet.
4. See if you can let the person know of your desire to meet ahead of time. That way you can ensure you connect.
5. Promote the event to people who may benefit from attending. Note: this is not the same as asking your buddies if they are going. Take a look at your contacts with an eye out for people who should go either because they will make the event better or because they will get a lot out of the event. In short, do your part to raise the event’s profile.
6. Frank Damelio of Target Intellect says that most people frivolously waste their investment of time by not being prepared with a memorable introduction. Is there a chance that you will be asked to introduce yourself at this event? Do you know what you will say? Will people remember meeting you?
7. Have a post event plan. Rick Roberge of David Kurlan & Associates is a big fan of setting aside time after a networking event to follow up with the new contacts he met. If you have no plan to follow up with the people you meet then why bother to go in the first place?

Did I miss anything? How do you prepare for events? Feel free to leave a comment.