Aligned Marketing Blog

In early May I attended the 2010 Industrial Supply Association Conference and Tradeshow. It was a great event and much more upbeat than last year, as you can imagine.

Here are some highlights:

(If you like the video, give me a call and we'll make one for you! 800-707-9150)

I was at the Industrial Supply Association's annual Conference and Tradeshow the past few days. They've redone the format and it's much better.

The meetings were crisper, attendance was up 100% (100%!) from 2009, the guest speaker, Jason Jennings, was fantastic, only the manufacturers have booths this year, fees are down, and the energy was through the roof. What a difference a year makes!

This isn't all about a better economy either, the leadership, Philip Hanson, Kathleen Durbin, Michael Carr, Derek Yurgaitis and many others did a great job.

Here's what I'm doing different.

    1.   I brought my Flip HD camera and will shooting some videos of my meetings, some of the new products I see and the event.
    2.   I'm going to post the raw footage and, then
    3.   After a few quick edits, I'll post the edited video, maybe several, here on my blog.
    4.   Since one of my goals in life is to get hard core industrial companies to embrace cool marketing, I'm going to promote the heck out of the video to the ISA members while demonstrating my video editing capabilities.

New subject: Luck & Relationships
On my plane ride I just happened to be seated next to one of my old work-mates, who is now a Vice President of Marketing. By the time we landed, we were outlining a project he's going to have me do. That happened for two reasons, one he was thinking about it anyway so our "chance encounter" (luck!) simply accelerated his thinking. The other reason is we've both expended time and effort to keep our relationship solid. So when the time came to discuss business we were able to get "right to it." There's a lesson in that last sentence for those paying attention...okay, I'll spell it out. If you have a good relationship the sales cycle and ramp up to doing productive work is compressed. Work on your relationships.

Final thought: More Praise; Less Blame
It's really great to see everyone at ISA. As a lone wolf (Consultant) I don't get a lot of time with my industry friends. These are the wonderful people working behind the scenes that make this country work. From screwdrivers to drill bits, wrenches and expensive pieces of super-sophisticated equipment, these are the folks that make, sell and install the tools that make the US the world leader in advanced manufacturing. Here's an example: Whatever progress we make in minimizing the damage from the Gulf oil spill and the ultimate "solution," will in large part be the result of the good work done by these people. You'll only hear about who to blame on the news and that will be politicized. You won't hear about the people to thank, such as Derek Yurgaitis at Brady-SPC - see above, anywhere else but here.

Thanks, Derek, 3M, and all the other ISA members who make this country run. I'm proud to be a part of the team.

Steve
800-707-9150

I’m often asked how businesses can use social media. In separate conversations, the National Electrical Supply Association (NAED) and the Industrial Supply Association (ISA), think GE and 3M, respectively, are asking that very question. Collectively the two organizations represent approximately  $300B of our economy. Neither has an answer to the question, so I gave their representatives a glimpse of mine.

Social media is really nothing more than an online reflection of the offline world. The offline process that leads up to a sale; "know me, like me, trust me," also applies to the online world of social media. Sales happen at the end of that process in both worlds.

That sounds simple because it is. What’s striking is how many people get it terribly wrong. Instead of taking the time to get involved in an online community, much as any good business person would if they joined the local Chamber of Commerce, most people rush to the Close. They broadcast their sales pitch out randomly, hoping to hit a target. What a total waste of energy, not to mention the damage done to your brand.

When they don’t hit a target, they blame the medium, the technology. “I tried social media and it didn‘t work.” That’s a crock but it is easier than blaming themselves. It’s easier than doing the hard work involved and dedicating the time to do truly join a community and contribute real value. It’s easier than being a responsible citizen.

Responsibilities are serious business. Avoiding your responsibilities to build trust in the community, which is that you are doing if you just throw out your pitch randomly, means you are a spammer. Spammer is an ugly word in our wired-up world. So ugly that in it’s most literal sense, it’s illegal. Most of us have software installed on our computers to block these cretins.

Opening accounts on social sites such as LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, Twitter and the others for the single purpose of promoting yourself is a bad strategy. Get involved! Become an active member of the community. Provide value. Give good advice and engage with a servant’s heart. Keep the conversation going on the forum itself, don’t try to divert members to your site, your self-interest. Wait until you’re asked.

Take the time to comment and vote on other people’s content. Visit other people’s blogs and “RT” (retweet) good information, Friend those you know or who have similar interests as you and call-out the spammers. Finally, rather than quantity you should seek quality.

In other words focus your efforts on the social sites you are going to be involved in and sites that contain a group of people who can relate to your content and perspective. Don’t submit an article on postpartum depression to a social network convened around Fantasy Football.

As is always the case, to reap the rewards you must do the work. Everyone, as I taught my two boys, pays List Price for success.

Add value to the community and the community will reciprocate.

Steve

800-707-9150

In a string of emails about the ISA Conference one question became two until the trail led me to the real question on people’s minds: Which companies will win?

I don’t know but maybe this tongue-firmly-in-cheek blog-allegory – blogegory -- about business people will help you find your own answer.

The Jesters: That characterization implies these people are clowns -- silly and frivolous. In some cases that may be true but that’s not my point. The original jester’s job was serious. Their task was to entertain nobility. If they failed their task they risked death. Still sound frivolous? The Jesters of today also serve nobility, the new nobility – senior management. Jesters are easily identifiable by the wide-eyed, feed-me look in their eyes. A condition created by a mixture of fear and expectation. The fear comes from knowing their economic destiny is tied to their ability to complete one seemingly impossible (or ridiculous) task after another. The expectation is a byproduct of their addiction to the next task. The Jester cannot live without the very thing they know may destroy them. Whoa.

The Kings: They take on many shapes and have many names. CEO, President, VP, and Chief-of-something-or-other are a few of the most common. Kings travel from village to village recounting the evils of the Status Quo. Yet they are the bedrock of the Status Quo doctrine. Nary a candle is lit without their blessing. To them the Status Quo represents stability and predictability -- King-food. They must be fed daily and reward those who feed them because they buttress their Kingships and Kingdoms. Kings are also easy to identify. Like a mother duck they have a trail of ducklings sashaying close behind them. Together they travel (some actually do waddle) down hallways and through airports. One quack from the CEO-King scatters the brood. Then, just as quickly, they tumble back into formation. Being out of formation is risky because Kings know the CEO-King must burn-the-sinners to preserve-the-faith and restore the Status Quo. Kings have astonishing power.

Neither Jesters nor Kings are bad people. They provide comfort for the masses. Human beings want to fit in, enjoy being secure, and seek calm in a chaotic world. Most people have learned to ignore new trends, not engage big ideas, and use routine as an ointment/embalming fluid, but not all.

Human beings are also unique with vast individual differences. Some are ill suited to be Jesters and Kings. Let’s call them Leaders.

Leaders have trouble staying in formation. Leaders challenge industry convention, they're rebels, borderline anarchists. That doesn’t mean they wear togas around the office, or that the female species cleans and paints her tootsies at staff meetings. On the contrary, a good leader learns to contain competing doctrines until the time is right, like now.


I wrote this to illustrate the distinction between those seeking change and those seeking Change. Stated another way, between those collecting a paycheck and those pursuing a belief. Hugh MacLeod said, “The market for something to believe in is infinite.”

People tire of Kings and Jesters. They understand that activity sold as progress is just packaged-activity. They yearn for a Leader with a belief they can follow with their heads and their hearts.

It can be tricky, but separate the companies by their teams. Ignore the paycheck-teams and support the belief-teams, they are more likely to be the winners.

Steve
 

Aligned Marketing had a fantastic ISA Conference in San Antonio last week. Our technology partner Doug Schust and I scheduled 16 booth appointments. Incredibly, we ended up meeting with 28 companies and approximately 70 people! Here’s what we learned:

With sales declines ranging from 20% to 40% (and more), ISA members are truly open to new ideas and straight-talk. Conservatism is out and traditional fixes, such as loading distributor shelves with products or running sales spiffs, are considered ineffective. That was an important lesson for some excellent companies to learn.

Our sales strategy to confront ISA members was driven by our belief that (1) communication to external and internal customers is average at best and (2) websites that don’t generate new business, that are just an expense, need immediate attention. I admit, we’re biased on this issue since communication and technology is what we do.

Many of the people we met with have built good websites but virtually none of them have done much with search engine optimization (SEO). In our view, it doesn’t do a company much good to have a super website if their customers and potential customers can’t find it. Many people were surprised when we showed them our small company was listed #1 on page-1 of Google.

Similarly, everyone expressed a need for new customers but only a few knew that 70% of all new product and services searches begin online and that 65%+ of those searches begin on Google. Further, 91% of searches are abandoned if the person doesn’t find what they’re looking for on page one or two of their search results. Everyone needs a Page-1 Google Strategy.

Most members said SEO and video technology is expensive, it’s not. If you’re NASCAR you can spend $50,000 (whatever you want) on a 60 second video starring Jimmie Johnson. We’ve created high quality videos for under 5% of that number. In today’s market, technology is affordable for any size company.

Best of all, it is always a wonderful experience to re-connect with old friends and make new ones. It was a great conference for Aligned Marketing and me personally. I truly feel blessed.

Steve

I leave for the Industrial Supply Association Conference in San Antonio on Monday. My technology partner, Doug Schust, a leading expert in Search Engine Optimization, is joining me in the Aligned Marketing booth (#1060). We'll be meeting with key executives from 3M, Columbus-McKinnon, Kennametal, Saint-Gobain (formerly Norton Abrasives), Snap-on, Stanley Tools, and several other leading companies.

Some of these companies may not be household names to my readers. However, in the industrial segment of our economy, these are big-dogs.

We plan on making a splash. Here’s what we’re doing:

• We’ve produced a new video for our website that will be viewable Monday morning, just as people begin to arrive at the conference.
• We’ll have Phase 1 of our SEO completed, which will place us on page one of Google for selected (secret) keywords.
• We’ll have our evaluations of every ISA distributor’s website and evaluations of selected manufacturer sites available for discussion.
• We’ll be passing out our new capabilities brochure that was updated in February 2009.
• We’ll have 60 copies of my book, Communication Wins, that I’ll be autographing and giving away during our booth appointments.
• We’ll have our new touch-screen HP computer with several vignettes promoting our communication, technology and video capabilities.
• We’ll be showing nine additional one-minute videos describing our capabilities and services.

I’m very excited about the opportunity to share our full capabilities with my fellow ISA members.

See you in San Antonio!

Steve