Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing podcast with John Mackey The title of this blog post is the gut wrenching, eye-opening question that every business must consider if they are to make a difference. I've found over the years that most business owners are motivated by the fact that they can make a difference with their business. It may not always start that way, but over time, and through conscious consideration, a higher purpose often evolves. But how do you bring that higher purpose to the entire organization? How do you make it the focus of why you do what you do? My guest for this week's episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is John Mackey, founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market and author of Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business In our interview Mackey shares his most important idea about purpose. "First off, business is not zero sum game – it creates values when everyone wins – all stakeholders – customers, employees, suppliers, investors,  and the community at large." So, how do you find purpose in your business? Do a purpose search. Bring some small group of all of your stakeholders together and let them tell you - Why the world needs your business or the difference you are currently making. This could be an incredibly powerful set of meetings and it just might inspire a totally new and motivating direction for your entire organization. In his book Mackey's cites dozens of examples of companies that are doing well by doing good and outlines a plan for finding purpose, developing conscious leadership, creating systems intelligence and building community based on mutual benefit. Purpose is, in my opinion, the most potent value proposition you can create. It's how you make a difference and differentiate in the same breath.

Marketing podcast with Ekaterina Walter With over a billion users, a place in the everyday life of over 60% of Internet users and a track record as one of the fastest growing companies in history, the title of this post may seem odd. But, like every white-hot phenomenon, Facebook must continue to evolve to remain relevant in the lives of those that built it. There are already signs that people are growing weary of the behavior the social network fostered. The Facebook generation is growing up and the next wave of high school and college age folks don't think it's all that cool. Vine and Instagram seem so much hipper right now. So, is the future of Facebook a sure one? My guest for today's episode of the Duct Tape Podcast thinks Facebook has something that other companies lack - a leader with a long-term vision. In Think Like Zuck: The Five Business Secrets of Facebook's Improbably Brilliant CEO Mark Zuckerberg, social media innovator at Intel, Ekaterina Walter outlines how 19-year-old Mark Zuckerberg revolutionized the Internet and why he may continue to do so. Walter contends that Zuckerberg possesses the traits that have driven other leaders such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Jeff Bezos, to create innovation and breakthroughs over and over again. Most notably she stresses Zuckerberg's uncanny long view. In the face of mounting pressures to produce profit for shareholders, a place on the world leadership stage and constant criticism for decisions on innovation and privacy, Zuckerberg has remained passionate about the long-term path for Facebook and that, Walters suggests, is why she would not bet against Facebook. Throughout Think Like Zuck Walters illustrates the nature of five traits that are shared by brilliant leaders and signal the healthy traits of any leader. The five traits or P's are: Passion — Keep your energy and commitment fully charged by pursuing something you believe in. Purpose — Don’t just create a great product, drive a meaningful movement. People — Build powerful teams that can execute your vision. Product — Create a product that is innovative, that breaks all the rules, that changes everything. Partnerships — Build powerful partnerships with people who fuel imagination and energize execution. It's funny how many recent works, including my last book, The Commitment Engine, have explored the relevancy of things like passion and purpose in business. There is little denying the impact these traits bring to the story and culture of a business and, love the idea or hate it, Mark Zuckerberg is a shining example of what it takes.

Marketing podcast with Michael Port Most marketers are clear about targeting their marketing and advertising messages. but when it comes to referrals it seems that notion is no longer valid. The thing is, we all want referrals, but what we really want are referrals and introductions that fit, that match what we consider our ideal client profile. And here's the other thing, our referral sources often are equally enthusiastic about providing referrals, but when we don't help them understand how to do this in the best possible way, we make their job that much more difficult. You need to think in terms of an education process for referral sources, be they clients or strategic partners, just as you think in terms of educating prospective clients. On this week's episode of The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast I visit with Michael Port, author of Book Yourself Solid and upcoming Book Yourself Solid Illustrated, about this very thing. Michael has consistently advised an approach that mandates that you get very, very specific about who does and does not make an ideal client for your business and during this conversation we talk about how to bring your "red velvet rope policy" to the generation of referrals. Your referral sources need to know the following five things. 1) How would I spot your ideal client? Describe your ideal client in such detail that most would have a hard time not identifying at least a handful of people that fit perfectly. Or better still, identify several actual prospective individuals or companies to use as examples. The more detail, including the types of pain or challenge they might be facing, the better prepared your referral sources are to make the right introductions. 2) How would I best describe why they should hire you? Hopefully you have a very clear understanding of this first. I often refer to this as your value proposition or why us. Give your referral sources the actual words to use to describe how you are different from everyone else that says they do what you do. 3) What are some common trigger phrases I should listen for? Whether you sell siding or software people probably don't sit around with friends and discuss how they long for some siding or software. You've probably discovered that people talk about the problems in their lives and you've got to be good at translating that into the need for what you do. So, someone might say, "I sure hate painting my house every other year" or "my accountant is all over me because we can't ever produce accurate sales reports." These are what I call trigger phrases and you should produce a solid list of the actual things a hot prospect might say and provide this list to your sources. 4) What is your follow-up process? Go ahead and tell your sources exactly how you intend to follow up and exactly how you would like them to be involved. This helps turn a lead into an introduction and set their mind at ease that you have a professional and valuable follow-up process rather than a hunt and kill approach. 5) What's in in for me? This last one may take many forms and only in rare instances would I suggest some form of monetary incentive. It is a good idea however to reinforce two things - why this is a valuable thing for them to do and how much your appreciate it. Often times connecting referral generation with non profit support or allowing them win something related to your business makes a lot of sense and can add some fun to the process. You can create a one sheet document, web page or just informally address each in a meeting, but the key is to make it easy for your referral sources to do what they quite naturally want to do.

Marketing podcast with John Jantsch Get this 12 month blueprint as a free eBook here - Total Online Presence Blueprint Business owners often view marketing as something they must finish so they can get back to work. Marketing, as I've stated often, is never done, it's just another system that you must operate at the highest level possible at all times. With that in mind, you must view marketing as a habit. It must be something that invades your daily routine. You must identify and keep two or three high priority marketing activities at the top of your project list each month. One of the ways that I've been successful at pushing this "live by the calendar" mentality is to get business owners to create a monthly theme of focus and build their plans around this focus. You can practice this idea with a monthly content theme or a monthly action plan theme. Once you have your monthly focus you can develop projects, resources and partnerships related to your theme. You can create weekly staff meetings that keep your theme alive and measured. And, you can start to make daily marketing habit appointments with yourself and others to continue steady progress in this all important arena. When you take this month by month approach you'll find that progress happens, things get moved forward and the view of marketing looking back over six months of this practice looks pretty astonishing. For this week's episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast I present the audio version of a month by month action plan aimed at helping you build a Total Online Presence. I take you down a 12 month journey and prescribe a theme for each month along with six to eight action items. The idea is for you to choose no more than three items each month and attack them until finished. You may also find slides I prepared for this talk to be helpful.

Marketing podcast with Bill Cates Subscribe now via iTunes Everyone loves referrals, but let’s face it – the real point of a referral is a customer. If you’re getting plenty of referrals, but few are turning into new clients, it’s time to change a few things about your approach to referrals. The number one mistake people make in the business of referral generation is to ask for leads or referrals when they should be asking for introductions. So many people seek referrals by simply asking clients, or anyone that will listen, if they know anybody who needs what they do. If the referral source can come up with a few names we’re often tickled to have some new “leads” to go chase. But, what do we really have? Something less than cold call - maybe. Sure, we can name drop, “Bob said I should call you.” But, we’ve all been on the other end of that call and know how that usually ends up. If you want to make referral generation a significant part of your marketing success you need to start asking for introductions and not simply a list of names. You need to build the trust and leverage that would allow you to ask a client to introduce you to three others that could benefit from the value you bring. In this week’s episode of The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast I visit with Bill Cates, author of Get More Referrals Now and the upcoming Beyond Referrals. Bill has spent many years coaching financial professionals on the fine art of authentic referral generation and in this segment he shares some well tested tactics. The key to generating introductions is to make it as easy as possible for your referral source to do so. Offer a list of specific prospects you would like to meet and see if they know anyone on the list. Offer to host an informal educational workshop and allow your best customers to bring a friend or two. Take a handful of customers to lunch and ask them each to bring a guest. Cates mentions a former client that would ask his clients to introduce him to two colleagues who would take his call just because they asked them to. Getting your customers or contacts to rise to the level of engagement required to make introductions or bring a friend to lunch requires a level of value that few can muster. This is the key to making this idea work. You must bring value to every interaction, conversation and setting. When you can do this, people will gladly introduce you to others. When you change the context of a referral to that of an introduction you automatically raise the stakes for all parties and that’s the place where you can do your magic.

Marketing podcast with Bob Burg I suspect the title of this post will raise some eyebrows. I mean relationships aren’t about ROI right? They’re about something much deeper. Something you don’t measure in the same way you might, say, the performance of an ad. Well, maybe. Relationships in business are more important than ever and why not think about the return on the time and assets you invest in building real ones. Relationships can and do feed the soul and make businesses more human and they are quite often the key to great success. When we work to build relationships we invest our relevance, our influence and our network – all valuable assets. So, why not think in terms of investing these things wisely. But, if we were to take this ROI notion to heart, we must measure the right thing. I visited with Bob Burg, best selling author of Endless Referrals and The Go-Giver for this week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast and right off the bat Bob offered this, “All things being equal we do business with and refer those we know, like and trust.” I know you’ve probably heard me utter those same words many times and it is the ultimate game we engage in – building trust. In fact, I would argue that trust and respect are the definitive measures of a strong and healthy relationship. Today it’s so easy to talk about the relationship we invest in with our thousands of Twitter followers or our Google+ Circles, but can that scale in any manner that feeds the soul or the bank account? One of Burg’s greatest contributions to the art of relationship building comes from his relentless pursuit of the notion of giving before getting. Healthy relationships are almost always built on our ability to add value. Value can be something as simple as “you make me feel better” to something much more business like such as “you help us get more from our current assets,” but the equation remains the same – those that enter into relationships and potential relationships seeking to give value earn trust and respect and that’s how you produce a return on your investment. I believe you can start to measure the ROI of relationships based on how much you give. Think about that for a minute. You can measure the success of a relationship based on what you give rather than what you get. What if that was the standard by which you measured how you engaged your world? What if instead of just looking for ways to engage potential buyers you looked for more ways to do things like introduce others, make referrals, express appreciation, share other people’s content, promote someone else’s dream or understand what a person was lacking. Although it may at times seem counterintuitive, and it can’t be done with an eye on reciprocation, this is how you measure the ROI of relationships.

Marketing podcast with John Jantsch As content becomes increasingly important in the marketing mix, it must take on an elevated place in your strategy and planning. The use of high quality, education based content has become an essential ingredient in creating awareness, building trust, converting leads, serving customers and generating referrals. I’ve said this many times over the last few years, but marketers these days have a lot in common with publishers and it’s time to embrace this reality fully. Today I want to outline a complete systematic approach to creating and executing a content plan that borrows heavily from the editorial outlook of a publisher while acknowledging the marketing objectives facing most businesses. Content creation and production is perhaps the biggest challenge facing marketers today and you must take a very planned and practical approach to getting it all done. Waking up every morning and deciding what you are going to write on your blog does not scale. A Total Content SystemTM approach allows you to plan, delegate, curate, create, collaborate, repurpose and generally get far more out of every piece of content you produce. Once your system is in place it will build momentum with each passing month and begin to multiply in value to your organization. The Total Content System goes like this: Create a list of monthly Foundational Content Themes Develop your Content Delivery Platform Integrate your content with Core Business Objectives (You can also listen to a 13 minute audio overview of this topic above) Foundational Content Themes Either through your own knowledge or by using a keyword tool like Google Keyword Tool or Wordtracker, develop a list of core content topics and assign one to each month for the next 12 months. Each theme should be a substantial topic related to your business or industry and represent an important keyword search term. It might be helpful to think about it like a book. Each month might represent a chapter in what will ultimately make up an important body of work by the end of this year. You can also designate terms that you know you would like to rank higher for, but currently have little or no content that leads people online or off to you. I’ll use my organization as an example to help illustrate this point. My business and model may be significantly different than yours, but examples always seem to help fill in the blanks for people. My editorial themes for 2013: January – Referral Marketing February – Coaching and Consulting March – Sales and Lead Conversion April – Online Integration May – Writing June – Strategic Partners July – Customer Experience Aug – Content Marketing Sept – High Tech, High Touch Oct – Growth Strategies Nov – Analytics and Conversion Dec – Personal Growth These are all topics that I believe my community is interested in learning more about and that I personally have an interest in developing more content around. (I’m working on a sales book and will be heavy into daily writing on that project in March – all content has a purpose!) Develop your Content Delivery Platform Now that I have my list of foundational themes I can organize my Content Delivery Platform components accordingly. Again, this is my model, but many of these elements work for any kind of business and should be considered in your business. Newsletter – I put out a weekly email newsletter. I will add themed content to each issue either through some of my own writing or by finding other people’s content related to the theme and highlighting it. Blog posts – I write a daily blog post and may schedule a post related to the theme on a weekly basis. This still gives me lots of room on topics but helps me focus both from a content and SEO standpoint. Guest posts – We currently run one guest post a week and use our monthly theme to suggest topics to potential guests.

John Jantsch talks Fiscal Cliff on Wall Street Journal Radio There's plenty of talk and a fair amount of angst swirling around the made for reality TV Fiscal Cliff negotiations. I was asked several times last week about the impact these talks and falling over the cliff might have on small business. I appeared briefly on the Daily Wrap show on Wall Street Journal Radio and gave my two cents. (Listen to the 5 minute or so segment above.) As I shared in the interview I believe so much of the talk about the economy is rooted in a bygone era of the Industrial Age. I'm not saying that people won't be impacted by whatever legislation comes about, change often has to impact someone. I do find it funny that every time we have a political decision facing the economy we trot out small business owners and put them on display as the backbone of the economy only to run roughshod over this same group when the musical chairs game comes to an end. Small business owners are a breed that few understand. We are used to assessing the rules we are handed and making something out of nothing. If we fall over this cliff or don't there will be another hurdle and another. We just take it as it comes, adjust course and go make money. There's no need to use us as your argument for continuing the Industrial Age - we've moved on to the Information Age and will be just fine. All we ask is that we know what the rules are so we can go about winning the game!

Marketing podcast with Seth Godin Few people have captured the post industrial world of work like Seth Godin. Now, you may think of him as a marketer - and he is a brilliant one indeed. I believe, however, his greatest contribution to business is the very clear message about how work has evolved from one of factories and rules to one of making ideas and art. To be sure there are still many who play in the world of producing things by way of orderly process but, increasingly, people are trying things on the side of design and causing a good ruckus while they play. As the cost of making things, trying things, starting companies and practicing your art has come down, so too has the cost of failure. Trying your idea out and failing is not such a big deal any more, playing it safe and normal is. I spoke with Seth Godin for this week's episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast and he shared his thoughts on some of the myths and deceptions that hold people back. Godin recently set the publishing world abuzz, once again, by using a crowdfunding service to prove that people were interested in the notion of his next book before he ever sought a publisher to produce it. With a guaranteed large print run in hand he was able to dictate, to a large extent, the type of deal he wanted. In his now published work, The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly, Godin reveals the often mistold told story or Icarus. As most people will recall, Icarus famously flew too close to the sun against his fathers advice. This act of hubris led to his demise. The lesson of course, is don't try to soar too high, right? The part of the story that is rarely told is that his father also told him not to fly too low as the salt and mist of the sea was equally fatal. Godin's contention is that the current environments of work, school and even organized religion are often to blame for people aiming too low. The Icarus Deception is above all things a cry for a revolution of sorts. A cry to get more people to start sharing their ideas, designing their lives and telling people about their art. One of the best ways to embrace this idea may be to attend one of the more than 1,000 Icarus Sessions happening on Jan 2. You can find or organize an Icarus Session here and read all about how the sessions work here.

Marketing podcast with Guy Kawasaki I asked the question contained in the title of this post in a community I moderate on Google+ (Consultant Exchange- join us if you are a coach or consultant) Somewhat predictably answers fell into two camps - those with a book said yes it was very helpful and meaningful to their business. Those without a book said no they didn't think it was necessary and that a well written blog might be more important. In my business having a book (and now three) made a significant difference in terms of creating more speaking, branding and consulting opportunities. Now, a key measure in the equation is that these books are well regarded and sold well enough to stand on their own - but there's no question my books have led to a bigger brand for Duct Tape Marketing. I posed the same question to my friend Guy Kawasaki and his take was a little more reserved - "Writing a book to open other opportunities is the wrong reason to write a book. You should write a book because you have something to say or are passionate about promoting a cause or idea." Kawasaki has written twelve books, including the just released APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur - How to Publish a Book. Kawasaki wrote the book to reveal everything he's learned along the way as an author and entrepreneur with the added lessons gained from publishing his last two books without the aid of the traditional publishing machine. APE is meant to introduce the concept of "artisinal publishing" as a powerful avenue for anyone wishing to get their message heard in the form of a book much like an artist practicing and promoting their craft might do. As someone that's written several books I can tell you that if you have a desire to write a book, but have no desire to publish on your own, the section on writing a book is worth the money. If you do plan to write and publish your own work the guidance on the very specific elements of editing, formatting and submitting digital books is a gold mine. I do believe that we have come to a point where honing and communicating a specific point of view is an essential practice in the worlds of coaching, consulting and marketing and a book is one format to do so. More importantly perhaps is that you practice your craft in a way that allows you to gain the experience and insight needed to construct a point of view worth sharing - do that and you're on your way to writing that book.

Marketing podcast with Dan Pink My father was a salesman in the classic Willy Loman kind of way, without the sad tragedy part. He got up each week, packed his bags and went on the road to exchange his time and information for the monetary reward of an order. However, one thing he knew and stated often was that everyone sells for a living he just happened to know that's what he did. While 1 in 9 people in the workforce seek sales in the classic sense, we all "seek resources other than money." When I write a blog post I am selling in today's world of marketing, when I speak at a conference I am selling, when I talk to a journalist, when I refer another business. All of these activities collectively make up the world of sales today just as surely as an appointment for the stated purpose of getting someone to buy my wares. Few people have addressed the changing manner in which the world works over the past decade better than my guest on today's episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, Dan Pink, author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others. Pink's earlier works Drive, Whole New Mind and Free Agent Nation defined working trends that have become accepted norms in the world of work today. His TED Talk - The Puzzle of Motivation has been viewed nearly 5 million times. Prior to becoming a free agent in his own right he wrote speeches for Vice-President Gore and helped sell a nation on ideas worth investing in. While the need to sell in any environment has perhaps become more important than ever, the role of the traditional salesperson has forever been altered in ways that require us to rethink what it even means to be a salesperson. Traditionally, the salesperson was the outgoing go getter who possessed the secret information. Today's successful salesperson is a cross between marketer, educator, information seeker and innovator. According to Pink this is not a change in degree, it's a fundamental change in kind. The days of transactional selling are over, the days of solution selling are coming to an end as today's sales skill is one of problem finding - correctly identifying and solving problems people didn't even realize they had. So the idea of selling now must be woven through everything that everyone in the organization is doing. In our interview Pink cites an example from his book of a company doing a quarter billion in sales that claims they have no sales force. Their view is that they have no salespeople because everyone is a salesperson. The implication of this idea is extremely important for both entrepreneurs and those that would call themselves salespeople in today's market. Is everyone simply a salesperson or has the role of the salesperson simply changed?

Marketing podcast with Dave Kerpen Dave Kerpen had the foresight a few years ago to lock up the term Likeable. It's the name of his business, Likeable Media, the name of his mega selling book Likeable Social Media and it's been applied to his latest work, Likeable Business. But as Kerpen quickly points out, being likeable in business isn't about social media or even the marketing department, it's about a profitable way of doing business. Applied to the business globally it extends to behaviors as much as tactics. It applies to how you listen and respond, how you tell stories, how authentic and transparent every aspect of your business is, how you change and adapt, how surprise and delight, how you partner, how you do business in general and even how you say thank you. In many ways we no longer have a choice about being transparent and authentic - we either are or we aren't and it's pretty much on view for the world to see, consider, write about and share. In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, Kerpen talks about businesses that are getting this right and how any business can naturally become more likeable. It's time to understand that this isn't something nice to consider when you've got a moment or two, this is a highly practical way of doing business that is fast becoming an expectation in every market segment.

Marketing podcast with Robert Greene It's funny how pretty much everything is instructional in one way of another. When Robert Greene published the now cult classic The 48 Laws of Power people were a bit polarized. According to LA Times the book, "turned Greene into a cult hero with the hip-hop set, Hollywood elite and prison inmates alike." But for some, a thorough explanation of laws such as - Never outshine the master. Never put too much trust in friends; learn how to use enemies. Conceal your intentions. Always say less than necessary, seemed almost evil. For Greene, the book simply explained the world as it is and in doing so offered instruction for those that wanted power and those that wanted to be aware of how people might abuse power. I recall reading the book when it came out and it's funny how the book impacts me much differently today than it did fifteen years ago. In his latest work, Mastery, Greene returns to the subject of power, but a form of power and intelligence that he suggests represents the high point of human potential and the source of the greatest achievements and discoveries in history. According to Greene, Mastery is the compilation of twelve years of going deep into the stories of high achievers and piecing together a systematic pathway to power that is universal. In Mastery, Greene reveals a path that he believes anyone can follow. There are elements that are intuitive and some that are not. The path is relatively simple, but hurdles exist in many places. Green's five point path presented in Mastery is this: Discover your calling - a deep interest in a topic or at least remaining open to that interest is pretty much the key to starting the process. Apprentice with intensity - Learning everything you can from mentors and those that have come before you is how you gather a deep knowledge of your subject Gain social intelligence - This is the point where many stall as it involves gaining both a knowledge of human nature and of yourself. This is the place where society butts heads mastery. Awaken creative energy - The people that I call master possess the ability to recognize patterns and trends and see very clearly how things could fit together. Develop high-level intuition - This is basically the ability to make unconscious observations about what's going on around you and see into the future. It's that point where something is so vivid to you with just a glance while others have no idea what you're seeing. I believe that the pursuit of mastery is perhaps what we're all meant to do and certainly it's a calling that entrepreneurs feel strongly, even if they don't know why. Mastery is an inspiring read and a book that I intend to revisit.

Marketing podcast with Harley Manning (Click to play or right click and "Save As" to download - Subscribe now via iTunes or subscribe via other RSS device (Google Listen) I think most of us would agree that the reason our businesses exist is to exchange value with a customer for payment. Now, that's not the same as why we are in business, but it plays a part. I wonder how often, however, we really think about putting the customer first. I know it's very popular to say that's the case and, if you really get down to it, there is no business without a customer, but are we putting the strategic emphasis there? I know for a fact that when I stay locked up in my office hatching all my evil plans in a vacuum it's easy to make decisions on what seems best for me. But, when I get out there and meet face to face with the real people I'm doing all of this for, my perspective changes dramatically. In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast I visit with Forrester's head enterprise-level customer experience research and author Outside In: The Power of Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business - Harley Manning. Sure, putting customers at the center of your business sounds logical enough, but are we doing it? Manning suggests a number of disciplines that are required to do this and while he often writes in the language of enterprise, every business can learn from these findings. In my mind a customer centric business is first and foremost an employee centric business and an employee centric business starts with an overall strategy that puts that forces the customer to the center. To complicate matters more, I believe that the only way this happens is when the owner of the business truly believes this at the core and lives it in every word and action. And even when that exists, it takes constant reexamination and process to make it so publicly. Have you reexamined why you're in business lately?

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