increase business Archives by Mark Murnahan

Confession of a Workaholic and Benefits of Unplugging

Have you ever been told that you work too much, or that your work seems to follow you everywhere? If so, I just want to offer up a thought that it may be because you are doing it wrong. Maybe I’m wrong, but what if I am actually right? Stick around and judge that for yourself.

I “unplugged” myself over the weekend, and it felt great. I spent very little time at a computer, and I only used my cell phone enough to be sure nothing was on fire in my professional life.

I remember times when I would feel guilty for taking a break like that, and I find that sometimes social media emphasizes the “rat race” feeling of having to be everywhere at once. Fortunately for myself and everybody around me, I learned how and why to let go of those guilty feelings.

I generally feel very proud of my work ethic. Doing my job well is important to me, and I know that a lot of other people must feel this way, too. I hope you do. A hazard that is easy to overlook is when you become so engrossed in work that you chase productivity right off a cliff. That is when the term “workaholic” generally applies. What workaholics often do not realize is when it is happening, or when to step back and take a fresh look. Allow me to share some thoughts and experience with you.

What if I Miss an Important Call?

Tell me if this sounds familiar. If you nod your head even once, I hope you have learned when and how to unplug. If not, maybe I can encourage you a bit.

I have been plugged into my job with the latest productivity tools that technology has to offer and remain that way year after year. I have carried smart phones since they first became available, and I have had mobile Internet at my side since its earliest availability. My job has always required it, and delegating the really important tasks to somebody else has often seemed impossible, or marginally possible but terrifying at best.

My example may be a bit extreme, but I know it will resonate with some micro-managers and other workaholics. You see, aside from being a marketing guy, I am also the CEO of a company that provides Internet services to service providers. Since 2000, I have been responsible for more servers operating in more data centers across America, and Internet connectivity to more end-consumers than all but very small number of people. When there are millions of dollars riding on things working perfectly 99.999 percent of the time, somebody has to hold ultimate accountability and make decisions in the event that thousands of websites or Internet connections are affected by a DOS attack or a router going bad. That is usually the guy with chest pains and a death grip on his cell phone.

Even long before that, I remember keeping a “bag phone” no more than a few feet away back in the 1980’s. You know, because a consulting client may have had some brilliant idea to run by me at any minute of the day. Yikes … it has actually been decades now. Time sure can slip by fast when you are running a business, and all that time, I have been just a bit uncomfortable that I may miss an important call.

My willingness to work harder and keep pushing my capabilities against all odds has served me well. I have grown some great companies, and I have had an exciting career. Like any career, it has had its ups and downs. Whenever it seems to become a bit lackluster, I start looking back into my career history to try and find patterns and to figure out what I am doing wrong … or what I am just not doing right.

A common reason I found for the productivity downturns is when I pushed a little too far beyond my optimal productivity and lost focus on the purpose of my career.

I think of it in terms of a Gaussian function … you know, like a bell curve. If you sit at the top of your productivity bell curve, you are doing it right. Pushing beyond that, you quickly enter a point of diminishing returns, and the productivity outcome is no longer worth the effort.

Yes, I am a math geek. Since I am a marketing guy, and a computer programmer on top of that, it should be expected. Don’t worry though, I will not drag you into a mathematical discussion of probability distribution.

Has Somebody Warned You About Workaholism?

Has anybody ever questioned how you keep on doing what you are doing? Maybe you have heard somebody ask “Do you ever sleep?” I have heard this a lot, but I always used to take it as a compliment. What I eventually realized is that it is sometimes better to take it as a caution.

I’ll give you an example. In about 2004, my wife told me that I was working too hard and that I needed to take more time for myself. She encouraged a hobby, so I began taking more time for an old passion of motorcycles. That carried on, and moved me on to my life-long passion for cars. Not just cars, but really fast cars, and racing them.

I took more time to unplug myself just enough to see why I worked so hard in the first place. When it came to the real purpose of my career, it had an emphasis in providing security for my family, and to enjoy some leisure. Realizing it enough to rejuvenate myself with the original passion required me to take a step back and see it as a part of the picture and not the whole picture.

Once I realized the important reasons I was working so hard, things went gangbusters. My business went crazy! Things were better at home, and we had more babies. As crazy as this may seem, each baby gave me a pay raise. It happened because I worked smarter instead of working harder, and I learned the value of balance. Don’t get me wrong, I was still carrying all the technology and productivity tools with me. I have still been on-call 24 hours per day since the 1990’s, but once I realized that my career was just a part of the bigger job of being happy … I got happier!

The power of a refreshed mind, and the power of happiness may seem mythical at times. The common wisdom is that you must keep your nose to the grindstone, walk on fire, and a whole lot of other uncomfortable things. If you really believe it when people tell you these things are the keys to having a successful career, I believe you are doing yourself a disservice. Endurance is extremely important, and unplugging can provide huge benefits. It is not all about how much pain and tragedy you can endure.

Business and Career Require Endurance, But Not a Grindstone!

Having peace in your career, and realizing that it is an endurance race and not a short sprint is a big step toward succeeding. Enjoying what you do, and looking closer at why you are doing it is far more valuable than grinding your nose and burning your feet. I am saying this from experience, and what I truly believe.

In a look-back, I find things I have known for years and told myself I would never forget, but I still seem to forget them somehow. One of them is the wisdom of knowing when to disconnect, and actually having the courage to do it. “Unplugging” can be a great chance to reboot and resume greater productivity, but easy to neglect until later.

I have been taking a closer look at myself and my career history recently. I look at some of the peaks in my own career, and I find that some of the most productive times have been when I realized when to push less. Sometimes the timing did not seem logical, because conventional wisdom says that when you are riding a huge wave, it is the time to surf with all you’ve got. Unconventional, but often more productive wisdom says that if you are not careful, burnout can set in even faster than expected.

My best times ever have come after remembering to relax just a little more and stop punishing myself. It has been a little while since I felt this way, but when I knew it and remembered it, I got happy. In fact, I got happy enough that I was earning more money every week or two than an average American family was per year … all while struggling less, working fewer hours, and enjoying everything a lot more than before.

Maybe you’ve heard the term “hindsight is 20/20”. Of course, that means you can see the past perfectly clearly. I don’t think it is quite that perfect, but it holds a lot of predictive data, along with all of that great stuff we call experience.

I pushed like crazy to build a company to pay me enough to feel satisfied. I kept pushing for as long as I saw continual progress, but then I learned when it was time to unplug, and even face my fears to delegate a few tasks when it was appropriate.

I think I’ll try that again. It was sure more fun than feeling guilty to take in a little leisure. It was more profitable, too!

I have just one more bug to put in your ear. If you know somebody needing to delegate their marketing more wisely, I will be delighted to hear from them. Oh, or a race team looking for a wining driver … I am well-qualified for that, too! 😉

Coming Soon: Maybe you’ll think it is completely nuts to unplug and take a step back. I will soon share something that gave me a good reminder to pull the plug. I think you’ll like it. I hope you’ll be sure to return.

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Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Impending Economic Apocalypse

Have you heard the latest message of doom? Did you listen to it and soak it all in? The recession we have all talked about is not over, and there are a lot of very bright people saying that it is about to get a whole lot worse. Of course, bad news travels a lot faster than good news. So we must ask, what is the good news?

If you own, manage, or work for a company with under 500 employees, please pay attention. If you want to avoid economic apocalypse, I welcome you, too.

I have some words for you that I believe you really need to hear. I may not tell it just right, but I believe very strongly in what I am going to share with you. If you are too busy to read this, my blog has a “play” button, so at least listen to the audio version.

The economy is what you make of it. I mean “you” as an individual, and I also mean “you” collectively. I know that it may seem awkward for me to call intelligent humans “pack animals”, but let’s face it … we live, work, and operate as a herd of sorts. We make good decisions in groups, and we make bad decisions in groups. Not so differently than a herd of gazelle, when we sense danger, we run. We run far, and we run fast.

The things we envision, whether it is greener pastures on the horizon, or a pride of lions sneaking up on us, each lead us to take actions as a group. Some of us lead, and some of us follow, but when the herd makes a move, it affects us all. When we adapt a defeatist mentality as a group, we quickly create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Today, we see the lions in a large scale in the stock market, and we see them on a smaller scale in our cities and small towns. It makes me question who is standing up for our herd, and to our herd, with a voice of reason, and possibility? I mean the possibility to stop running and resume peaceful grazing, even in our somewhat wilted and dangerous prairie.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Observed

Whether you like this example or you despise it, it is relevant to today’s market condition in America. An example of a self-fulfilling prophecy that recently occurred was in the ammunitions market. Americans heard a rumor that due to political unrest, potential legislative changes, and supply prices, that the cost of bullets would rise during the months of April and May 2011. What did gun owners do? We flocked to stores and bought up every bullet for every gun we own, and even guns we don’t own.

We heard the same things about gold and silver. The rush on silver has skyrocketed the price of silver to astronomical highs, while gold has become precious enough that if you have any gold fillings in your teeth, you had better sleep with your mouth closed.

These are not good signs. They are signs of people collectively fearing economic collapse, and chaos. Is this ridiculous or just nature? Actually it is a good mix of both. It is what happens when nature becomes ridiculous, but yet, it is nature, after all. So it is actually very “normal”. When it becomes completely ridiculous and out of control is when a big enough section of the human herd runs scared, and scares the whole bunch of us to run off a cliff.

Politics Schmolitics … Who Cares?

I don’t want to introduce formal political ideology here, because it is far beyond “who did this”, or “who said that”. If I talk politics, a whole lot of you will love what I have to say. A whole lot of you will hate what I have to say. Many of you will hate me just for the country I live in, or the style of my hair. Let’s face it, we each have a lot at stake, and we each have something to gain by working together.

This running of the human herd, not just in my country, but worldwide, has come to a point of complete turmoil. It is like an economic terrorism with every participant being a little bit of a terrorist in their own way.

The big question today is about how to calm the herd. How do we put things back in a comfortable place where we are not all scattering every time we hear another potential cause for alarm? This should matter above all others, because it ultimately relates to our survival, and the future of our society. That is not an alarmist speaking, but rather a number-analyzing businessman with a very good view of the business environment.

Sure, maybe some things are messed up. Maybe things will be different for a while. Should we really let speculation destroy us, or should we collectively change the speculation? I welcome your words, but don’t answer with words alone. Learn to embrace the control you have, and use it for action.

Maybe the Mayans, Hopi, I Ching, Nostradamus, and other predictions and promotions of the “2012 phenomenon” forecasting the end of humanity are spot on. If the end of the world is coming, wouldn’t it be be worse if it came and went, and the only result we saw was the loss of trust and friendship of every person around us, because we were the gazelle who didn’t stop the one beside us and say “Stop! Snap out of it! You’re scarier to the herd than the lions!”

Precautions Are Fine, but Paranoia Grows Exponentially

Go ahead and buy a few non-perishable foods, buy some more gold, silver, and ammunition. Heck, these are good things to have, anyway. I have enough guns and ammunition to start my own war, and I don’t have plans to stop eating anytime soon. Everybody has a certain level of security that makes things feel “right” for them. I have been just a touch on the extreme side of caution all of my life, so that is just “normal” for me.

When precautions become so extreme, and promoted widely, that it scares the herd, it is worse for each and every one of us! Sure, there are websites currently projecting a 4,000 point drop in the stock market by Summer 2011 when corporate reports come out. There are websites speculating that the U.S. Federal Reserve will collapse, USA will come under Martial Law, and banks, utilities, grocery stores, and all other businesses will cease operations while the U.S. dollar implodes. I would not even begin to start listing all of the doomsday projections I have seen lately promoting such a “flash point” in the world’s economy. Many of them are even quite persuasive and well-researched, but is that what you really want to believe, and hasten?

If you really want to start living under those conditions, just start believing it, acting like it, and then we can collectively make that happen, without fail.

How Can You Slow the Herd?

This is where you have a chance to stop your running and make a stand. If you own a company, work for a company, or buy from a company (and we all do), you have the power of choice.

Small business makes up the lion’s share of our economy. Small businesses, then, really do make up the herd (the masses), and the lions (the biggest segment of the economy) all at once. If you reach out to just one small business to make your purchases, and you spread the word to do the same, we can collectively stop the running. If you own or manage one of those small businesses, and you spread the word to other small business people and their employees to stand up and work together, we can make a monumental impact. When these things happen, we influence business and economy on all levels.

If we all stop spending, or keep spending fearfully, as if the economy is doomed to collapse, it really will. On the other hand, if we begin using our purchasing power wisely, and grow the strength of small businesses, we have the power to slow the herd before more of them run off the cliff.

Impending Economic Apocalypse in Summary

There is a whole lot of gloom and doom, but there are also websites and people who say that we can prevent complete chaos before it hits a flash point. Yes, I mean this website, and I mean this person, and I am not alone.

You can call me crazy, and you can keep stuffing your dollars into a coffee can buried in your back yard and see how well that will work for you. Maybe you will think that I am a radical on the side of positivity, and that you really don’t hold the power that I suggested above. The fact is that if you keep neglecting small business, and if small businesses keep rolling over and letting fear win, fears will come true.

You are right if you think that you, alone, do not have that power to slow the herd, and help small business stop operating from fear. I don’t either … no, I am just a small businessman who listens to small business people every day. I have over 20 years of marketing experience, and I know how to spread the word about growing a business, but this time, I am not just talking about a single company or a small handful of clients. I am talking about standing up as a complete herd to stop the stampede of failure.

I do not know it all, but what I know, without a doubt, is that if something important is promoted in a convincing way, to enough people, an exponential growth happens. That exponential growth can happen for our benefit, or for our demise. We are the ones, each of us, who choose to grow a more productive and peaceful herd.

Do You Want a More Peaceful Time in Business?

The way I see it is that we each must choose one of two outcomes, but when we chose, we should be committed to that decision. The overall choices as I view them are as follows:

A.)We can all be cautious, keep running like gazelle from the lion in the prairie, and fulfill the prophecy of an economic doomsday. This is what you can expect when small businesses continue to operate with fear, and stop making smart decisions about their future growth.

B.) We can form a pact to stop running scared and remind the others to “Stop! Snap out of it! You’re scarier to the herd than the lions!”

I cannot slow a herd with a few words from just one guy at a computer in Topeka, Kansas, USA. For that, my fellow herdsmen, I rely on you. I hope that you will see the lions of economic failure as a real hazard, but that you will also see the value of not running from doom, and begin preventing it.

If you really want disaster, just for the drama, give yourself a moment of reflection about those who will be here, and who tried our best to benefit others. If you keep running and stop trying, we will no longer share in your misery, nor appreciate your words. We are the people who speak with our deeds, and listen to yours. Yes, we are the people

That is how I see it. My name is Mark Aaron Murnahan, and I am glad we had this chance to meet. I hope that you will share this with the herd beside you, and help stop the stampede. Please add your comments here and get to know me.

How many people are in your email address list? How many friends do you have on Facebook? How many people follow you on Twitter? Don’t you think that between the bunch of you, and their friends, that we could start fixing things for all our benefit?

You may share this with the short web address: http://wb.gy/fix or by using the sharing links below.

Photo Credits:
Thompson’s Gazelle by fwooper via Flickr
Thompson’s gazelles, Masai Mara, Kenya by Paul Mannix via Flickr
Serengeti 2007 by Tony Young via Flickr

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Business Tip: People Think Better When They Are Paid Well

Think about your worst times in your career. You were probably stressed by a lot of little things that seemed bigger than they really were, and perhaps some really big challenges, too. Deadlines, coworkers, health, family, finances, and other stressful issues can make it feel like everything is spiraling out of control. Some challenges can be used to build a company stronger, but it is far more common that they become destructive.

I am going to give you a bit of information that you can email to your boss with confidence, tweet on Twitter, “Like” on Facebook, and best of all … you can blame me for being the one who gave your boss this uncommon piece of common sense.

Is there a solution? I have found through more than two decades in business for myself, and from consulting with many businesses, the majority of business challenges can be improved with more money. That could mean hiring a better accountant, bringing in a strategist, improved inventory and purchasing capability, or having the right equipment to do the job at hand. The list of enhancements is long, but let’s just say that money can bring about a lot of improvements in a company.

One of the greatest improvements to a business comes from the quality of life of the people who make the business what it is. You cannot separate the people from the business, and if you try, you will fail!

Think of it like this for a moment: About half of all marriages in America end in a divorce. The two biggest causes that people claim are infidelity and finances. I suspect that much of that infidelity is because they don’t have enough money to have sex with their spouse! Come on, really, how sexy is an unproductive or frustrated spouse, after all?

Yes, sex and money break people down and make them less productive, even in their marriages. So how could it even be possible that this does not affect their business life, too? It is not possible, because businesses are made up of their people. Fragile or strong, focused or fragmented, those people are what make a company whatever it becomes. This is why, as a consultant, I have always suggested investing wisely in the people, and I have recommended as many pay raises as job terminations.

Money Can Help Most Business Challenges

Money does not fix everything, but in a business, it can facilitate a lot of things which are not otherwise possible. If more money can help a business, and I think this is very true for most if not all companies, then how do you make that happen? It generally requires doing more of the business that pays the company profits. That means marketing, and marketing well!

I have been in business long enough to know just about every conceivable cause of stress. Fortunately, I have been in business long enough to heal from a good number of those stresses, too. I am not spying on you and looking over your shoulder, but I really do know more about your challenges than you may give me credit. That is because I have been there, and I have consulted a squillion companies with troubles just like yours.

Most of the people around you have encountered some sort of stress in their business lives, too. If they say they have not, they are either lying, or their brain just blocked it out in order to preserve their sanity. The biggest challenge that most people in business shudder to discuss is money. In most business owners’ minds, a lack of money means they did not do their job as well as the next person. It gives them a feeling of shame. The truth is that it often just means they did not market their business as well.

If you don’t believe me about the importance of marketing, just consider all of those things like a Snuggie or a Slap Chop which had phenomenal success, against all odds. Without marketing, they would still be “stupid” ideas in some inventors mind. Instead, they were stupid ideas that turned into millions of dollars in somebody’s bank account.

If you are really not sure what these items are, check out this video about the Snuggie. It has received over 16 million views on YouTube, and it is just a parody of an actual Snuggie commercial.

Are you still not convinced about marketing? Consider the Slap Chop. This thing made millions of dollars! Are you kidding me? It is a cheap hunk of plastic with a spokesman who was arrested for beating up a hooker.

It is easy to criticize these and say they are not good marketing, but they achieved their goals. I prefer something less sleazy for my clients, but the important message here is that marketing makes the difference between success and failure in nearly any company of any size.

I realize that it is a tough cycle to break, because in order to do more business, it usually requires an investment. It may take a big and scary investment, but it should not be any more scary than being in business, itself. With the right mindset, and the right facts, it should be like a huge beam of sunshine breaking through the clouds.

Why Marketing Feels Expensive

There is a common perception that marketing is expensive, rather than the reality that not marketing is where the really huge cost comes from. Keeping the doors open on a business without reaching the right customers with the right message they will respond to … now that is expensive!

I see it all the time where a company will send out a flurry of requests for proposals from companies like mine. Companies who think like a Fortune 500 company will focus on the value proposition, and what the cost represents. Smaller or less secure companies will often try to focus on the price, instead of hiring it out to the right people with the right plan. This is why my engagement letter will often include something similar to the statement as follows:

Creative marketing based on solid research is what makes the difference between Pepsi Cola and the one you never heard of. This is the area where the majority of efforts should be focused.

The most effective marketing strategies involve more than price comparisons between a handful of off the cuff proposals, and we know this to be true. This is why I am confident in saying that the best marketing decisions you will make do not center on ill-considered boilerplate proposals designed to wow you.

Instead, those decisions should be based on solid data and confidence that your marketing dollars are spent with somebody who can effectively build your brand and build your profits. That means a lot more than the person with a fast pitch and a price sheet in hand. This engagement is not based on hours worked, but rather on experience and know-how. It will include my focused attention on building your brand and producing long-term equity in your market.

Breaking a Cycle of Destruction

If you want to learn how to break a cycle of destruction in your business and have more money, you must address your marketing. It is what builds your business and provides the additional money that can help most business problems. If any of this rings a bell to you, and if you want more business, I sincerely recommend reading the articles listed below.

In conclusion: None of us are immune to the benefits of peace of mind, nor the frustration of being underpaid. No different from you, your marketing people do the best thinking when they are paid well for it. Fortunately, when marketing is done well, everybody gets paid better!

Here are some articles that I have written regarding the cost of marketing and the mistake of placing cost above value. This is your reading assignment, and I hope you will enjoy them.

Photo Credit: Einstein photo courtesy of hetemeel.com.

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Business Evolution and Crash Test Dummies

Take just a moment and reflect on how your job evolved. Whether you are a business owner, manager, or just working your way up the totem pole, look at your career in a snapshot. It is uncommon for a career to move smoothly along its initial planned path, from start to finish. A business entity is no different in this respect.

Companies change a lot over time, and if the business evolution is just right, people are happy. The world is perfect, and you can look out your window to see pink unicorns kissing adorable puppies on the forehead. Business evolution should always be so perfect, but then the human resources department would have the additional job of giving out hugs instead of layoff notices; accounts payable would cheerfully add a bonus for the utility company; and the accounts receivable department would send chocolates with every delinquency notice.

Since career and business are usually not perfect, many disheartened people will give up managing the evolution of their company and the direction of its travel. They end up going for a ride like a crash test dummy waiting for the impact.

Hop in and Ride With Me

I am a huge fan of analogies, and I also love cars and driving, so I am inserting my loves here. Hop in and let me take you for a drive through the typical evolution of a business as it navigates between “point A” and “point B”. Don’t worry, I am a trained driver.

I hear from a lot of businesses struggling to define the path between where they are and where they hope to be. I gather a lot of observations as I listen to these companies, and I uncover many commonalities between them. This helps me to build better strategies. Most of the people I talk with feel like they landed themselves in an industry and with a job title that was at least a few miles away from where they began, or where they expected. This goes for people in every level of a business, from the very bottom to the very top.

It all seems to “woosh” by in such a rush for a lot of business people. Whether you own your company or not, whomever it is who signs your paycheck has probably experienced that same “woosh” effect. So, let’s examine some factors which significantly put on the brakes during the evolution of a business.

In this business evolution, I want you to think about where you find yourself today. I suspect you will find yourself cruising somewhere on this road, either as a driver, navigator, or passenger. Many businesses begin as somebody who found a passion for something, or a perfectly timed opportunity, and grew an idea from a spark into an ember, and eventually into a flame. Now we have the combustion engine … an engine to help move us down the road to where we want to go.

Will the Driver Keep Their Head on the Crash Course?

Fatigued Business Drivers Fall Asleep at the Wheel

Along the road, a business founder usually ends up doing a lot of driving. A small company, and most are small at first, will often begin with somebody acting as the sales, billing, accounts payable, reception, public relations, marketing, and “something else” person. The “something else” is the part that the business is about, whatever it may be … accountant, electrician, car dealer, home builder, surgical supply company, real estate brokerage, cigar shop, or whatever it is. The “something else” is that cargo in the back that we are driving to deliver.

At the start, the company is fueled based on the skills, passion, opportunity, and funding of that same “something else” person at the wheel, and not based on all those many tedious jobs to fill. As the business gains a little momentum from all of that exhaustive work given by a person or small group of people, many of those jobs are delegated properly to others who are fit for the position. They each get their seat in the vehicle that moves the business.

If all goes well, navigators will be reading the road signs and updating the business plan, the business budget, the marketing strategy, and keeping the business driving in a good direction of growth. Much of the navigation lands in the driver’s seat with a tireless owner or manager who has great navigation and driving skills. They drink a lot of coffee to remain alert, and they seldom take their eyes off the road.

I know that it must seem almost impossible, but what happens if their vision gets blurred? What if they get a bit too distracted, or just too familiar with their day to day commute and they relax at the wheel? I’ll tell you what happens, because I am frequently like the dismayed highway patrol officer who arrives on the scene when the vehicle is already out of control. Of course, nobody appreciates me for writing them a citation, but they expect me to be very compassionate when I pull their kids out of the wreckage.

The initial passion, funding, and opportunity of the drivers with the “something else” is usually not enough to safely navigate the business through the winding road and beyond the inherent roadblocks. Even with their eyes fixed on the road, if they let go of the wheel for a split second, the whole trip becomes a big wreck. Many businesses crash with no more than a driver and a passenger or two, but if they made it beyond the earliest road blocks, they may have a bus full of dead crash test dummies.

Fear of the crash is why most people will never own or manage a company.

Killing the Crash Test Dummies

Screeeeeeeech! Slam on the brakes! The business is all of the sudden sliding out of control, and going in unpredictable directions.

The business plan, which was once the road map, is frequently forgotten while the company is still driving down the same road and on the same mission as it was yesteryear. Somebody forgot to budget, so the bills are just being paid as they come in the mail. Marketing strategy? Well, the marketing strategy is to sell as much of this “something else” stuff as possible to put enough money in the bank to cover all of those checks that keep going out.

Many drivers will loosen their seatbelt, ignore the squeaking brakes, and let the fuel gauge needle dip a little too close to the “E” before checking the map for a gas station. They forget to take good advice from employees and other influencers, and begin to treat them like crash test dummies, instead of as the great assets they represent.

It sounds like a pretty nervous way to do business, right? Would you be totally shocked if you found similarities to this in your company? If you are nervously looking in your mirrors like a single occupant in the carpool lane, or grabbing your safety belt like a bus driver with bad brakes, you are not alone. Many companies of all sizes operate this way, and they overlook important steps to better business evolution. Careless driving is one of the biggest killers among businesses.

The most common factor is that the people with that special “something else” let the map fly right out the window. This happens periodically throughout the lifespan of nearly any company. In fact, it may surprise you to ask other business people around you when the last time they thoroughly reviewed and updated their business plan, their budget, or their marketing strategy. This may not apply to Fortune 500 companies, but they often don’t have it just right, either.

Arriving at the Crash Scene

How this came to me today was in a very common exchange with a company manager trying to navigate for his company. He wants his company owner / driver to stop at a gas station to get some racing fuel, instead of just driving along with a dirty windshield. The driver has not crashed in ages, but that is never a good excuse to let the insurance lapse, or to stop using a seatbelt. It not only goes against the laws of business, it can cause a mess for all of the passengers (employees) and bystanders (customers).

The managing navigator flagged me down as the highway patrol because he wants to report his boss for careless driving. In this case, the owner opened the business with that same passion and timely opportunity as others. He has been lucky to navigate well without a map, and with bald tires for years. Since the time he settled into his driver’s seat, his risk of a crash is increased exponentially. His windshield is dirty, his road is filled with potholes, and the other drivers are speeding by him and pointing at his seatbelt dragging on the ground outside his door. Worse yet, he fails to let his backup driver take the wheel when his eyes feel tired.

I am here to check the driver’s license and insurance of this owner / driver, or otherwise to help his top navigator to get in his own car and drive away. The manager is so dismayed by the owner that he is hesitant to continue presenting good ideas. The owner is so accustomed to just going along for the unplanned ride that the manager feels like he is in a crash test, too. It has forced him to decide whether to buy into the company, or to start his own.

Running a business well means maintaining the vehicle, keeping the drivers and navigators on the right road, and so many other things. The hazardous but common truth is that many business drivers will take better care of their car than their business plan, budget, and marketing direction. Instead, they have just stumbled upon a road by chance and circumstance and driven the best they know how with the vehicle they landed in.

Most business people are not good at every aspect of running a company. Even fewer of them properly address the value of efficiently delegating tasks to professionals, especially with marketing strategy. They mostly just know the things they picked up along the road during the journey with their unique “something else” that their business is about.

If you know somebody like this, pass this along as a reminder that other “dummies” are counting on them for a good trip. I am not telling you the perfect navigation for every journey on the highway. I just want to remind other drivers to look up from the steering wheel enough to read the road signs.

What do I have to do with this? My job is to isolate the squeaky parts, find the right mechanics, train the driver, buckle in the passengers, supply the road map, change the tires, and pour racing fuel in the tank. I guess you could call me the marketing crew chief.

I will leave you with this compelling crash test video. Give it a play and consider your driving safety while you prepare your comment to tell me what you think.

Photo Credits:
IIHS Crash Test Dummy via Wikipedia
Dummy Heads by Greg Westfall via Flickr
Dummies in a Cage by Brad K via Flickr
Ford Crash Test by Rian Castillo via Flickr
Sierra Sam (hanging dummy) via Wikipedia

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The Best Marketing Strategy Ever!

In business, we all want the best marketing strategy ever. What often gets in the way are the tactics, and response to failed tactics, which cloud our strategy. Many companies will go through the motions of tactics such as social media sharing, SEO (search engine optimization), ad buys, and etcetera, and waste a lot of precious resources. Too often, the strategy is just out of reach, yet right under their nose. Going through the motions of tactics will not make it a strategy, regardless of how well you do it.

There are many pieces to a great marketing strategy, and bringing them all together can be tricky. I hope these ideas will inspire you, and help you in a good direction. Before you dismiss any of the points I will make, I want to explain that, although I am a marketer, I am not here to take a single dollar from your pocket. I will also share why I feel qualified to offer this assessment of the best marketing strategy ever. This really is for your benefit, so make no mistake about that.

I have been a marketing guy for my entire adult life. I started my first company just after I left school early at 15, and that was over 22 years ago. Even as a kid, I knew how important marketing would be in my business. I am pretty sure that you know this about your business as well, even when it is hard to implement. It is what puts the butts in the seats for your big show. Since my time as a zit-faced teenager, I have worked on marketing projects ranging from the tiny little spark when a company is at its inception, to the raging inferno that burns it down. I have started and stoked some big fires with my marketing. It took a lot of burning for me to uncover the biggest of all challenges, but here it is … I am going to help you put some fuel on your best marketing strategy.

I will break this down into some digestible segments for you, but be ready to spend some time and effort to discover how this applies to your business. It will be worth it.

Marketing Strategy Begins With Focused Desire

I remember a relatively early time in my business career (at age 15) when my stepfather gave me a book titled “How to Sell Anything to Anybody”. It was written by a Guinness World Record holding salesman named Joe Girard. Joe learned how to sell more cars than any retail car salesman, ever. He did not do this just as a car guy, but rather as a marketing guy. He figured out what people wanted, but before he could do that, he had to know what he wanted. In that book, there is a chapter titled “It All Begins With Want”, and in Joe’s case, it started as a bag of groceries for his family. I still clearly remember his message decades later. How do you like that example of marketing longevity? I still remembered it, even without double-checking it on Google.

This is a critical piece of your best marketing strategy: You must want it! The trouble for many people is how to define “it”. After all, if somebody asks you what you want the most from your work, don’t you stammer for just a moment and have a hard time coming up with something other than the typical cliches like financial security, world peace, happy family, good health, or whatever other first-glance wish that you can come up with?

I think the answer to what you really want is a huge challenge for many people, and many businesses. You are not alone in this dilemma, but in order to get it, you will need to develop a clearly defined answer to this question. It will require confidence, persistence, and moving beyond your comfort zone. It means putting complacence in the past, and pushing your marketing “go” button.

Wanting something and being able to define it is imperative. You must be passionate about it … whatever “it” is for you. You must love what you do, or uncover enough love for it to inspire the important work and sacrifices that will otherwise be neglected.

This brings up a point about professional marketers. An important task of marketing is to look at a company and find their passion. What is it that makes them worthy of their market share? What have they neglected that could make them better? What is missing that will reflect their passion and pass that passion along to the people they hope to gain as customers? What is their best value proposition? The questions relating to market growth are numerous, but they are hard to address without knowing the “want” of an organization and defining an overall purpose.

Marketing Beyond Visibility … Matching the Need

Visibility is the easiest and most common crutch to lean on for most companies in their marketing. In fact, it often surprises me to hear people express a sense of satisfaction in simply being visible. It is important, but when that visibility is not placed well, and with the right message, the visibility alone is not enough to drive responses. You can try to sell me knitting needles all day long, and it will not work.

If you want to develop a fanatical response to your marketing, be sure to make it useful. A great lesson can be taken from the character “Big Weld” from the animated movie “Robots”. Big Weld’s mantra was “Find a need, fill a need.”

Even if your product or service proves to meet all the logic which your research and development has come to embrace, it is not truly useful until the marketing matches the need, and solves the need. You must match your offering to the desires and needs of your purchasers.

You certainly need to make your marketing visible, but visibility is easier than making it useful in a way which resonates with buyers and helps them understand how it will benefit them.

There are a lot of ways to make things visible, and a unique slant on your market can be just the trick. Whether it is presented with humor, tragedy, assistance, or otherwise, making something visible is really not all that hard. It just takes a good look at what people in your market will receive favorably, and what they will have a propensity to act upon.

Branding is massively important, and you should never dismiss the value of high-visibility within your market. Let’s be clear, though, that visibility alone is not the whole strategy. Getting closer to home and looking at yourself can emphasize points about marketing visibility. In this case, I want to point out that I have still not purchased a single Old Spice product even after watching the many humorous videos they have produced. Although they have over 167 million YouTube video views, their website traffic still only ranks a relatively few small notches above the one you are reading right now. Sure, you are more likely to buy deodorant from them than you are from me, but the point is that visibility is not everything. Their visibility alone was not able to put the fire in my veins and make me brand-loyal. The call to action failed. Perhaps they just didn’t reach me at the right time, which further emphasizes that exposure is only one part of a strategy.

Timing and Placing Your Marketing

If I saw the funny Old Spice videos while walking through the deodorant isle in the grocery store, I would probably have a quick sniff to see if I like their product. Actually, I kind of do like their product, and I remember my dad smelling like it. As a kid, I would splash it on just to smell like him. He was my hero, after all.

My wife does all of our shopping. I am really bad at shopping, because I buy into all of the marketing. In fact, my wife dreads sending me to the grocery store, because I always come home with stuff that, according to her, only I would buy. It is ironic, yes? The point is that timing and placement is important. If you want to reach my wife while she is making her shopping list, you need to know where she is, what she is putting on her list, and you need to catch her at the right time, to be sure that she lists your brand name. It must seem wildly complicated, right? Don’t worry, it is not as hard as it sounds.

Success in producing “the best marketing strategy ever” will require some careful market research, but this is an area which is likely a very weak spot for many of your competitors. Research is a significantly underestimated and underutilized area of marketing for many companies. The good news is that if you have your “want” in place, you will find this research much easier to handle. Market research is one of those areas where the sacrifices I mentioned earlier will come into play, because it can take a lot of effort to get it right.

Build in Consistency

An unsustainable marketing strategy can be worse than no strategy at all. A brand message without consistency can create business volume in unpredictable waves, and can also show the competition your weakness.

A consistent and sustainable marketing strategy will create a much steadier upward curve in your business. It will also become far more measurable, giving you the data you need to further grow your market.

Make Your Marketing Actionable

I addressed some requisite factors to the best marketing strategy, but much is lost without measurable action that provides a positive return on your investment. Reflecting back on the earlier topics, let’s consider this: If your “want” is well-defined, it will be easier to uncover the creativity to make your marketing useful and visible, and the fortitude to make it consistent. If you do not shortcut the research, you should really understand how to place your marketing with the right people. The next piece is the action.

What is the action you want? Oh, there I go again with the “want” notion, but I did express that it all starts with want, and it is the basis for all these other things.

You must have an actionable purpose to your marketing strategy. Otherwise, you will have a lot of lost efforts to account for.

Do you want somebody to make a purchase right now, or do you want them to help spread your brand because they think you are great enough to recommend to their friends? Whatever the case, this part should only come after all of the other pieces I have listed are in place. If the rest of the pieces are well-formed and in place, the action should be a natural conclusion. Since you have already given them confidence and reason to take action, be sure that you point out the action you want them to take.

Summary of The Best Marketing Strategy

I have had a lot of recent reflection on what my career in marketing boils down to, and what it has always really been about. I think I have a good answer to the burning question of “the best marketing strategy ever”, and it truly does all begin with what you want. Without focused desire, there is a lot of waste in marketing.

The best marketing strategies will come with a lot of passion. Caring, or lack of caring, is a huge determining factor to business success. I have witnessed it for over two decades, and I am not the only person who has expressed this notion. I would like to share what Gary Vaynerchuck said in his book, “Crush it!” He tells it well in this short video, and I recommend it!

If you do not have the passion, it is best to discover the people who do. That may mean asking people around you, and social media is great for this. It also may mean hiring a marketing professional to help you uncover the passion and guide you through all the other many elements for your best marketing strategy.

Here is another video worth a moment to consider.

Calling the Action

I said that I am not going to take a dollar from your pocket, and I meant it. I recently made a pact with myself to stop providing marketing consulting for clients by mid-2011. This is because I am far more fulfilled by long-term projects which often only come from working with the exclusivity of one company at a time. I simply do not get the same enjoyment by working on the ever-increasing number short-sighted projects thrown at me. I am following my “want” by moving into greater exclusivity and focus in my work. That is what I want, and I am passionate about it.

My only actionable request is that you share this with people who will appreciate it, and let them know that a guy named Murnahan is “for hire” and seeking that one company to feel passionate about enough to create the elements addressed here. I know what I want, and that is to enjoy my work marketing for a company with courage to grow. My passion slants toward the automotive and other gearhead-oriented industries where the people have motor oil in their veins and gasoline in their coffee, like me. I could market feminine hygiene products just fine, but I know what I want, and I know that I will find it.

I hope you will help me to create my best marketing strategy. In return, I am delighted to answer your questions, comments, and your telephone calls. I am always open to your brainstorms. Ring me up any time at *REDACTED DUE TO AGING WEBSITE* (*REDACTED DUE TO AGING WEBSITE*).

I have added very simple links below to help you with my call to action. Please share.

Thank you!

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