Demand Generation Consulting

The Hidden Dangers of Micro-Management

February 21, 2013September 8, 2018Matt2 Comments

I don’t think you’ll find too many management consultants espousing the benefits of micro-management. But, a lot has been made of Steve Jobs’ command-and-control-style management. Legend has it that Mr. Jobs was deeply involved in each project, including designing the Apple stores’ famous glass staircases.

We are all well aware of the success that Apple enjoyed under Jobs’ watchful eye. What we are yet to see, is whether he succeeded in passing on his passion for detail, design, and simplicity.

When we micro-manage everything, we may think we are relieving our co-workers of work. In the end though, we aren’t relieving them, we are depriving them.

Micro-management deprives co-workers of the lessons learned from first-hand experience. It stifles creativity, favors inactivity over pro-activity, breeds dependence, and creates workers that are robbed of the thrill of a victory or the agony of defeat (both are important).

One of the main rewards of the employer/employee relationship is that the employee gains experience that can be used to succeed in a more senior position within or without the company. By teaching workers to wait for someone else to give the answer, we rob them of that reward. When you teach someone to depend on you for everything – they depend on you for everything. That’s a great ego boost for you and that’s fine for folks that just want to keep their head down and float along. It’s a death trap for career-minded people. And what happens when you are gone?

As leaders, we need to build environments that thrive on creativity, managed conflict, independent thought, and responsibility. Set goals, provide vision, and give feedback, but try to steer away from becoming the micro-manager-in-chief.

Set Your Goals

January 10, 2013September 8, 2018MattLeave a Comment

With the new year in full swing, let’s talk about goal setting. Goal setting and tracking should be an essential part of your planning process. If you don’t have the Commander’s Intent in mind before starting, you are likely to end up somewhere nobody anticipated, with little idea of how you got there.

The article linked above is interesting because it states that the Commander’s Intent is not simply the end state, but also a description of the tasks, and sometimes, the purpose of the mission. This helps teams better understand the reasons for the mission and thus helps them think proactively about achieving the preferred end state.

Does this take more effort? Sure. Does it delay the work? In the short term. Is it worth it? Absolutely. The time and effort spent planning and tracking your goals will reap plenty of rewards in terms of a shared vision, results, and knowledge.

There are plenty of tools out there for goal planning, I’ll list some below. But the main point is to take the time to think about your goals BEFORE starting any project and to revisit them while you are chasing them. Otherwise, it’s very hard to know where you came from and even harder to control where you are going.

http://milestoneplanner.com/

http://www.goalsontrack.com/

http://weekplan.net/why/

Words, Words, Words

November 30, 2012September 8, 2018MattLeave a Comment

Here’s a quick hit for Friday thinking.

If people make these statements, it’s probably not good for your team or your business.

“It’s just one client.” – I just heard this the other day and it made me cringe. It’s most assuredly not one client. That client knows a ton more. And if this person is willing to write one client off now, it’s guaranteed they’ll do it to another, and another.

“No” (All the time) – I’m sure you know these folks. The ones that are resistant to change. The “We’ve always done it this way,” people. A healthy dose of pragmatism is warranted. A constant source of negativity is not.

“Yes” (All the time) – Your title probably dictates how many of the people are in your life. While we all like to hear it, it’s not a sign of a healthy dialogue. No one is right all the time and if someone is telling you that you are – you better check your wallet – they want something from you.

What are some words or phrases that you think lead to issues?

Words I love to hear:

“Thank You” – At times we all get swept up in our head-down daily grind. It’s important to remember to thank the people beside you that are working just as hard and maybe getting paid half as much. A good thank you is always a good idea!

“Figure it out” – This could be a double-edged sword, but in the right environment, you are fostering your team to think creatively and be proactive. Those two traits are highly desirable in anybody!

I bet there are a ton of key words that tip you off to someone’s true intentions. What are some phrases you hear that are inspirational to you and your team?

Between the Customer and the Bottom Line – Who Wins?

October 10, 2012September 8, 2018MattLeave a Comment

In the business of marketing it’s our job (among others) to drive new sales. Often, we get caught in the middle between a sales team that wants all-or-nothing, no holds barred tactics, and our own sense of ethical marketing. While gimmicks and tricks can help boost the pipeline in the short run, in the long run they can be a death sentence. Think about these facts from SCORE :

The High Cost of Losing A Customer

The lowest-ranking employee in a business can lose more customers than can be gained by the highest-ranking employee.
In the average business, for every customer who bothers to complain, there are 26 others who remain silent.
The average wronged customer will tell 8 to 16 people (about 10 percent will tell more than 20 people).
91 percent of unhappy customers will never purchase goods or services from you again.
If you make an effort to remedy customer’s complaints, 82 to 95 percent of them will stay with you.
It costs about 5 times as much to attract a new customer as it does to keep an existing one.

The fourth bullet really stands out to me. 91 percent of unhappy customers will NEVER purchase goods or services from you again. In tandem with the last bullet, it’s plain to see that we want to do everything we can to keep customers happy.

The temptation is always there when it comes to e-mail marketing. It is simply too easy, and too quick to push a button to see if you can move the needle. Keep customer interests, not your bottom line, as the number one priority. The beauty of it all? Find where those two intersect and you’ve got a winner!

If you are asked to choose between pulling tricks to pull in revenue and honest, effective marketing, remember these stats!

The End of Average

August 22, 2012August 22, 2012MattLeave a Comment

Today I happened to catch an interview with Thomas Friedman and he said something that made my ears perk up, “Average is Over.”

His argument, in the interview and in his column is that with our new “hyper-connected” (flat was before Facebook and Twitter) society, the average worker is too easily replaced. It’s too easy these days to find someone or some thing that will do it cheaper, faster, and/or better. In order to stay afloat in this new world, we need to overachieve.

Even if we put globalization aside (which we probably shouldn’t), the fact is that the chances of hiding behind mediocre work are rapidly slimming. It is simply too easy in a digital world to research and document a person’s work record. Hoping to land a dream job? A dream resume is not the prerequisite, you need to be able to prove that you can do exceptional work.

Say we buy Friedman’s argument and average is over. Now what? How do we stand out in a world where everybody is striving to stand out? There are two options: Be perfect or be different. If we are battling machines and six sigma percentages – the odds are better that we can deliver something different.

I often wonder what would happen if the business world was structured like the pro sports world. How many of us would be earning long-term deals, and how many would be journeymen going from team to team just hoping to stay for one more year? Think about which one you are, and which one you want to be.

Leadership Lessons From JoePa

January 28, 2012January 30, 2012MattLeave a Comment

I went to Penn State and though I’m not a huge college football fan, it was impossible to not feel the impact of Paterno’s passing in Penn State Land this week. So I wanted to pay tribute by sharing a few of my favorite JoePa quotes.

“You have to perform at a consistently higher level than others. That’s the mark of a true professional.”

I’ve been thinking about this idea a lot lately. What’s the difference between good and great? I believe it’s being able to perform at a higher level consistently. It’s easy to be better one day a year, or one day a month. To be something different, you have to be able to deliver beyond all others on a consistent basis. That means consistency – When it’s cold outside; When you don’t feel like it; When you didn’t get what you wanted; When you feel like nobody is watching. You can’t build a reputation for excellence on, “Yeah, sometimes she does a really good job, other times she just doesn’t put the effort in.”

“Believe deep down in your heart that you’re destined to do great things.”

This one should probably go before the first one because it’s what makes that consistency a little easier to deliver. If you believe in yourself (really, really, believe) you can perform when the chips are down, because that’s what you were put here to do. To do anything less would be to deny fate. Have the audacity to believe that you can do great things and push yourself to do them.

“The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.”

This one is classic. I’m reminded of the Saturday Night Live skit where Sarah Palin is telling Hillary Clinton that you just “have to want it.” Hillary laments that Palin is probably right, if there was one thing she could have done more it was “want it.” The point here is that everybody wants success. You have to be willing to put the work in (and here’s that word again) on a consistent basis. That means two of Coach Paterno’s favorite things; studying and practice. For those of us not privileged enough to walk between the white lines, that means analysis and testing.

The Bad Service Hangover

November 17, 2011November 17, 2011MattLeave a Comment

Radio Shack.

If you would have asked me what I thought of that store about a month ago, I would have cringed. Aside from commercials, I really hadn’t been exposed to the store in quite a few years. You see, I had a bad service experience a number of years ago and really never bothered to go back. The problem I had was that I just ran in for batteries in the middle of a road trip and they asked me for every piece of personal information under the Sun — name, address, zip code… etc. I also seem to remember them trying to sell me other things, when I clearly just wanted some batteries.

Being a marketing professional, I understand what they were after, but I was very put off. I just wanted some batteries. It felt like they were adding my name to the no-fly list instead of making me happy that I stopped in.

In the aftermath, it took me years and years to return to “The Shack”. And it was really because I needed a specific adapter (again a really low price item) and couldn’t get it anywhere else. Even knowing this, I still didn’t want to go back, but I did. And I’m glad I did. My experience there was actually really pleasant. Someone helped me immediately and there was no interrogation at the register.

So in the end, I’m glad to see that “The Shack” is (at least to my knowledge) not pestering every customer for personal information. However, it serves as an important lesson for marketers. It’s always wonderful to think of the great insights and targeted campaigns we can pull off with all of that information, but we must ALWAYS consider the customer’s experience above all else. It’s a lot easier to market to a happy customer.

What about you? Do you have any bad service hangovers? Are you willing to give that business another shot? Why or why not?

The “Price Is Right” and Market Positioning

October 5, 2011October 5, 2011MattLeave a Comment

*I’ll leave it to you to decide what inspired this!

Don’t treat your brand or product positioning like Contestant’s Row. Often instead of competing against the larger group, contestants decide simply to bid one higher than the person beside them. While this is a smart move if you are the last contestant (and that is the highest bid), people in the middle of the bidding get caught up in the excitement and fall back on what they thought they were supposed to do when they had followed along at home so many times before.

Instead of surveying the competitive landscape and offering a unique bid that might give them a better chance to win, they effectively cancel out a chance to win by worrying too much about the person before them.

The bottom line is that in marketing simply bidding “one higher” isn’t going to work. You need to OWN a space in the consumer’s mind that is uniquely yours. I’m going to go Inception on you right now and place a reference within a reference. The Price Is Right has done a very good job of owning the daytime game show space. Can you think of any others that come close? By offering a unique blend of entertainment that combines excitement, unpredictability, and ever-changing setups, the show gives consumers a product that is unlike most any other game show.

There are two lessons to be learned here:

Old tricks do not work in every situation – Be aware of changing environments and be prepared to act quickly.
You aren’t always competing with the people directly beside you – By focusing solely on direct competition we can lose sight of the game. In the meantime, some other competitor swoops in and takes all the prizes.

Be proactive and identify (or create) a differentiator that helps you own a unique position in the target market’s mind. This way you don’t always have to react to what others are doing. Instead, you can build the game around the rules that you set. Sure they can be the last bidder, but you can be the host.