Marketing Wisdom

I have to discuss this again – I am seeing it mentioned on tv drama, sit-com, news, etc. They almost treat it as if anyone can be a mentor, and anyone who wants a mentor, just needs to find someone who knows more then them, and whallah, you have a mentor.

There are a few things that, in my opinion, make a mentor:

• They say “i don’t know”, when they don’t know
• They are available for advice almost anytime
• They go the extra mile to help you with an answer/situation
• They give more then they receive
• They find others who can help you (or suggest others)
• They want to see you succeed as much as you do

Pretty basic, but, the key components that make a mentor. Of course, the mentor has to be in the same field/profession as you if they truly can “mentor” you to your success (I had to say it, for those of you that don’t quite understand what a mentor is).

Mentors can give you “sayings” and “quotes” that you will remember for the rest of your life. One mentor (who I am sure picked it up from someone else), said to me “No one, on their deathbed, ever said ‘I should have worked more’”. It was said to me when I was spending 20 hour days and countless of those hours fighting with the president of the company to get more funds to make the brand what she wanted. With the words that he said, I realized that I needed to give up and move on to other, less important things (but, of course, come back to it when the situation warranted).

I don’t know, it’s just that I don’t want everyone thinking that a mentor can be found on the street corner. A mentor, to me, is like your friends – true friends can be counted on one hand and the same goes for mentors.

Who are we and how can we grow?

Saw another story on how a young author is traveling the country talking to people and telling them to pursue their strengths; and that corporate America is looking at this as “WOW, this is something new!!!.

It amazes me, and I have to write this, that this is something new to the corporate markets out there.  Truly amazing.

Maybe it was because I was trained with the Japanese mentality (my first few companies were Japanese owned) - or I had incredible mentors out there.

I don’t know, but, it amazes me that you, a manager, aren’t surrounding yourself with people who can “shore” up your weaknesses – or, in a positive spin, “compliment your strengths”.

I know my weaknesses.  That accounting is not something I am great at – so, have an outstanding bookkeeper that knows more then me around. That I am creative, but, not the greatest in the world – so, have other creative people around me to “fine tune” my creative side.

I am discovering, and maybe this is why the other gentleman is so successful, that companies don’t want to hear about your weaknesses (like, right!!! I tell everyone my weaknesses – but, I DO hire to shore them up), that they only want to hear that you can “do the job and get it done”. Their job descriptions are above and beyond any individual in the world.

For example, looking through the want ads at a web site the other day, the position was for a VP of Marketing – and the description wanted someone that had 10 years in advertising (agency), 10 years in advertising (corporate), five years in sales, 10 years in web design, 10 years in traditional advertising, 10 years in web advertising, click thru knowledge and expertise, AND, in conclusion, will only accept resumes from people who are currently working (or worked) at Yahoo or Google – starting salary $120K.

I bet that they are getting 100′s of qualified candidates on that one. Not.

I have always been realistic, as well as been realistic with the companies and clients that I worked with/for. If they ask me to do something that I am not the best at, I tell them that I will bring on another person, at no additional charge, that can help us with that. If they want someone that knows the ins and outs of data-mining, then, I can’t help them, but, I do know people who can and can provide that info to me for our general marketing strategy.

The point is – as a consultant or working in a company – KNOW your strengths, hire people who can fill the weaknesses you have, and for g*ds sake, don’t play politics with this (meaning that if you hire someone who has a strength that you don’t have, they aren’t out to get your job), accept it. Because, you know what? You will do a better job for the company and will get promoted that much sooner.  See my earlier posts about training someone to take over you job.

Held an offsite meeting with a client over this past weekend, primarily to media train four of their employers (CEO, CFO, VP Markting, and Director Marketing).

After the first hour of training, we started the typical role playing that you do. It quickly became apparant that much work was going to be needed with two of the trainee’s, and one was NOT the CEO.

After another hour of this, we took a break.

The CEO and I spoke about this during that break. Yes, they were rough, yes, they couldn’t think so quickly on their feet, and yes, that is what we were there for, for the CEO to refine and keep the edge, but, to bring the others up to speed so they could help him do media tours, etc (and free up his valuable time).

But, I stated that all of this was irrelevant – knowing what to say when, knowing how to take control of the discussion, how to segui, how to lead, etc. if they didn’t have the passion.

Passion? Yes, passion.  Passion for the job, for the product, and for speaking publicly.

It is true that a lot of people can’t speak, let alone speak publicly.  You can lead a horse, but…

It is also true that alot of people love their jobs, or love the product or service that their company provides (and yes, sometimes it is NOT both).

And, finally, it is true that you can teach someone to speak publicly (maybe not perfect, but, “good enough”). That you can get someone to love their job, through financial incentives, 100 vacation days a year, etc. And you can get someone to love their companies product/service (like by giving them the latest new flat panel TV every time they come out with one, minimum of three a year and they can give away the previous TV’s (wow, wouldn’t that be a cool job)).

But, you can’t teach passion. It is more then love. It is something that comes from the soul.

You can see, when the person is speaking, or doing their job, or whatever, that they throw their heart, their soul, their conscience, into it – trying to make perfection.

Let me put it even easier – you can tell when someone has passion for their work when they beat themselves up before anyone else has a chance because of a mistake they made. 

They added the numbers wrong, they said the wrong thing in an interview, they missed the typo in the 10,000 word presentation. You would think they were suicidal about it.

That is passion. The pride, the love, the desire to do it right, not only the first time, but EVERY TIME.

So, what am I trying to say? From speaking with the media to answer the phone on your desk - do so with passion. Do it with love. Do it with the desire and knowledge that what you are doing is making you (and your company) a more professional organization – AND – a company that many outsiders will be jealous of.

So, the CEO and I decided to remove one of the people from media training – because they would never have the passion for doing it, and work with the other so that their passion would grow and they would become an outstanding professional for the company.

(By the way, when you do this – being passionate – don’t be surprised if your personal life becomes more passionate and opportunities will start to come your way.)

How do your stop your employee’s from becoming the competition?

You can’t.

But, you can do some things that may help retain them and keep their loyalty to you during the interim (because there is nothing you can do if they have decided to leave).

1) Put yourself in their shoes – think like them and see if you can come up with something that would keep you there. Seriously, THINK like them – meaning, put yourself in their shoes, with three kids, with a car payment and mortage, with medical bills – or whatever; you may be surprised with what you come up with.

2) Give them a bonus – unlike large corporations where you can give employee’s stock options to keep them around for 3 plus years, you don’t have that option (unless you want to give them a piece of the business, and that’s not gonna happen). So, give them a bonus at the end of the year, that:

a) Is a percentage of their gross pay for the year;

b) is based on job performance (of course, you must have a performance review system in place);

c) or is based on job accomplishment.

What is c? It is something that a couple of my clients now use to retain talent, keep people around, and keep them working hard (by the way, some of my clients have 40 year old in-home moms, others have 15 year old high school students).  Sit down with your employee at the beginning of the year and say “every event you do this year, if we receive no complaints, then you will receive $25; at the end of the year, I will give you a lump sum for the hard work you have done”.

The $25 can be any amount – another client gives $250 for every time she accomplishes an event with no complaints or issues, of course being paid at the end of the year.

Be creative – so many times I continue to see companies train and educate their competition, with very little thought being given to the long term consequences.

How not to be a boss

A few months ago, I was called into a small company to help them get out of tremendous debt, increase sales, and maintain customer relations.

After the first month, working 16 hours days, seven days a week, and numerous meetings and calls, I came into the office one morning and received a call from one of the two partners.  

Understand something, one partner worked in the office with me, the other (who the call came from) worked 1000 miles away and gave, maybe, two hours a day of time to the company.  The partner who worked a thousand miles away was the legal president of the company, the partner I worked with in the office was the secretary - but, both were equal partners in the company – but, he was the president, so buyers and outside people/contacts spoke with him first.

So, I received a call from the president, who maybe, during the past month, gave me four hours of his time for the whole month, while the partner in the office gave me at least eight hours a day.

This is how NOT to be a boss or even someone appreciative of someone else’s efforts:

The president says “Thank you Blaine, for all of your hard work, it will not go unnoticed”.

What???!!! There are only five people in the company; two partners, two sales reps, and a secretary.  The two partners have seen my work, my reports, my recommendations, etc. on a daily basis – and now the president says that it hasn’t gone unnoticed? This is as funny as it is sad. First, I was a consultant and not an employee – I was being paid no matter what they noticed or didn’t notice. Second, was I going to get a raise or a bonus because of my work? We already agreed to the payment. Third, everyone had told me that they hated the president, that he was condescending, not to be trusted, etc., and here I got an idea of what they were talking about. And so on and so on. 

I guess the question had to be asked – what did he expect to accomplish by making this statement?  That I would work harder? That I would make their debt disappear?

Even months later, I think of this statement and have to start laughing.  No wonder the company was in the situation it was in – someone was president of this company and no idea how to talk to a consultant, let alone an employee. 

Don’t become like this individual.  Realize that your employee’s are smarter then you think and that platitudes are just that, wasteful breaths of air that don’t help anyone, especially if your the boss.

It’s been awhile since I last spoke about this and I believe that it is time to again bring it up.

Was recently filling out a survey for the U.S. government and they asked me about management and what I thought.  You know me, I can’t not have a “thought” about something, so, I listed a few items of what I thought was important, what wasn’t important, what was a must and what to look for in poor manager.

But, I digress – what I really wanted to talk about is if you are a manager in your company, meaning, you manage more then one person, then, you must take it seriously.  Reading magazine, the web, etc., so many small company owners say “I don’t have time for my employee’s”, and they don’t understand why they are not as successful as they should be. 

The same is with a manager of a large business or company – that they again say “I have so many employee’s, I can’t find the time to manage them”, and then don’t understand why they don’t accomplish the goals and tasks that they were assigned.

Management of an employee doesn’t mean that you have to spend 10 hours a week with an employee. 

I have come to realize that spending five minutes a day with each staff member not only makes them feel good, but it keeps them focused and on track and, of course, it keeps you informed on where and what is happening with your staff and their projects.

You can spend an hour a day or five minutes a day, it is up to you.  But, I must advise you, that it is the questions that are the most important. Asking how the kids are vs. where the project stands is the difference of 10 minutes vs. 2 minutes.

A suggestion, and you can ask any previous staff of mine about this, and they will ALL agree – tell your staff, when you first hire them or inherit them, that “I am concerned about your welfare and personal health.  I am busy, like you, and I will NOT ask you every day how your family is, how your health is, and so on.  I will come across rude and in haste, and let me assure you that that is not the case - I will ask you some quick questions so I know where we all stand and move on, so you can get back to doing your work – and so can I.”

Simple and effective.  It even comes back to a previous post that I have done, where I talk about my staff working whatever hours they want, as long as they get the job done in the time required. Please see that post.

It is up to you to manage your staff and manage YOUR time.  You don’t have to be a friend to everyone, and you don’t have to be an a**hole. Be yourself, and if you can’t believe that, speak up, tell your staff how you manage, and manage everyones expectations.

Good Luck.

Consulting Threat – is it or not?

Sorry that I have not written in a while, been a bit busy – and I know how you guys all look forward to my next posting.

Let’s get to it – you are a manager, and your boss says “let’s get another set of eyes on this, let’s bring in a consultant, okay?”, and what happens? Your heart skips a beat, your mind starts running with the thoughts of “am I not good enough?”, or “oh man, they’re going to replace me!”.

Well, if you have been following my exploits over the years, you know me – don’t fear the unknown, there is nothing that you can do about it. If your boss wants to replace you and doesn’t have the guts to tell you and this is how he (or she) is going to do it, then, so be it. Move on.

But, most likely, your boss (as I have done many times and currently get hired to do) just wants to get another set of “eyes” on the project or product or presentation or brand or brochure or website or whatever. Come on – be realistic, how many times have you looked at something that someone else did and you said “I would have done it this way” or “why put the logo there, no one notices it?”.

A consultant does (or should) do the same thing. Having a fresh set of eyes on anything could bring an epiphany or a breakthrough, or, in my case when I consult, a complete rethinking on what is trying to be accomplished (again, if you know me, I make people look at the whole picture).

Welcome the consultant with open arms (not a cold shoulder).

Give them everything they can use/have that will let them understand what you are trying to do.

Allow them to give all the feedback they want – don’t limit them (no matter what, they are getting paid, so, get your moneys worth).

And lastly, make them your friend (if they are good, lol).

Don’t fear a consultant, they aren’t a threat unless you a) make them a threat or b) aren’t good at your job.

Fired or laying off, its still devastating

Have to share this. Friend of mine called me and told me that he had been fired. On Saturday. At 10:00pm at night. By a company that he worked for for 9 years. Not by his boss, but by his bosses assistant. And then was told that he needed to call some of his staff and fire them.

Yes, true. Yes, sad. No, not in America, in Israel (which makes it very believable).

The world economy is in a panic (no thanks to America). Everyone is cutting employee’s, not only for salary but also the benefits and additional costs that can be saved. They need money in the bank to weather this storm. Instead of dropping/stopping bad products or getting out of bad business’, employee’s are the first to go. It has happend before and will happen again.

But, I don’t want to talk about the economy. I want to talk about letting people go. If you are in a socialist state, then, you don’t need to read anymore. But, if you are in a capitalist state, then, continue to read.

First, read all the information on the web, in books, etc. about how to help a future employee transistion out of their job (lol – isn’t that a good way to say “your fired”). Next, don’t call them and lay them off, do it in person. If you can’t do it in person, then, you, yes YOU, shouldn’t be in the position that you are currently in.

Second, put yourself in their position. Yes, you may be laying this person off to protect your own job, but, still, take the moment and put yourself in their shoes and make it as comfortable as possible for them.

And third, remember, they believed in you, as their boss, that YOU knew what you were doing and that you were going to help them become rich/make money/etc. You were their mentor, or, at least, their boss, and they looked up to you for direction and leadership. Even in this moment, when you are laying them off, you are a leader – act like one.

So many generals in history kept their honor and respect when they surrendered or lost a battle. Because they did it with class and with their soldiers in mind. Business is war, don’t ever forget it.

Be a leader and think before you talk.