Month: June 2010

Some people will term it “thinking outside the box” but that is not natural for most people, and it can certainly hold its dangers in office politics. Let’s face it, independent and creative thinking is not encouraged enough. Most people think the way they are told to think. After all, that is most of what proper schooling is about. I respect the way Albert Einstein observed it with his statement as follows:

It is hard to believe this occurs in a time with such great communication and collaboration tools, but it is quite common. Just consider how many times a creative person is suspected of gunning for the boss’ job and gets kneecapped for having great ideas. Even when this is not the case, it is often feared to be reality, or there are fears of not receiving proper recognition. Most companies hate to admit this, but a lot of great thoughts never make it up the flagpole because of a culture like I describe here, or somebody mediocre shot it down prematurely. Maybe it is because the decision makers do not understand the value, they are threatened, or otherwise just can’t get their head out of that box. Whatever the case, I know that it exists, because I see it all the time. Companies create their own misery, and the same thing happens in companies from one employee to thousands of employees. It is often a case of not knowing what they do not know, and it stunts their growth … often very badly.

The Tragedy of Projecting Your Own Beliefs

The fact that we do not know how much we do not know about our potential customers and their way of thinking can be tragic. It is so simple to think we have a good picture of them, but a very common fact is that we project our own lives and ideas onto them. When we think we know what they want, or what they should want, it gets in the way … badly! For example, I recall roughly 20 years ago selling cars to supplement three companies I was getting off the ground at the same time. I was pouring everything I could into those companies, and thank goodness. Two were pretty big hits for me.

At the time, I did not really relate to buying high dollar cars. Later, as life changed and I started buying nicer cars, I started seeing things differently. I realized signs of mistakes I had made back then by projecting my own thoughts or lifestyle. I have witnessed it from salespeople who were shy to ask for the sale or to ask for their reasonable profit, because they could not see themselves in my position, as the customer. I like buying nice things. I like cars and motorcycles … a lot. I have spent well over half a million on cars in a given year. I recall making a believer of a sales manager when I purchased three Corvettes, and a Cadillac Escalade from him. He learned to ask for the money when I came to buy cars that range from $60-80,000 each, and I admire him for it. I wanted those fine things, and even though it was not something that made a lot of sense in his life, he realized it made perfect sense in my life. You see, he stopped second-guessing the sale by projecting his life onto customers, and he did a lot more business for it.

You Know Your Market, But Could You Know More?

I am a marketing guy. I work with clients every day who think they know their market. To some degree, they do … they must, or they would not be in business at all. Would it surprise you to hear an opinion that the majority of businesses are really far off the mark where it comes to the most valuable resources for growing their business? This is not just something that struck me today. No, not at all. This is something that I have learned in over two decades of marketing experience and studies.

It is astonishingly true for many companies that a more refined look at their own marketplace is simply impossible from within. They need outside eyes, and new ideas. They do not have the means to reach beyond their microcosm … their little box where they are comfortable. I consider the locker scene from “Men in Black” or “Horton Hears a Who” by Dr. Seuss. These are good examples of not seeing beyond a small microcosm and realizing things from the other side.

Unless a company is enjoying a huge burst of market share increase, they can generally make big improvements. Come on, we can agree on this point, right? Even in instances of a dwindling market, if a business is not growing but yet somebody else in the industry getting bigger, there is some reason. Would you like to guess the most common reason? I hope you guessed marketing, because it is true that if a company reaches the right people, at the right time, with the right message, and there is a sufficient value proposition, their business will grow.

Marketing … really good marketing makes a difference, but that often requires an uncomfortable look beyond what a business thinks. It means thinking outside of themselves. It all sounds simple, but I have seen it a squillion times that a whole room of marketers will all turn pale and their mouths get dry when you show them how wrong they were. Although it often feels like lightning just cracked through the room, the reality is that it is often far more subtle differences that make the big difference.

It means taking the uncomfortable look outside of what you know. It means knowing that if you do not know it, you had better find somebody who does, and is willing to share it with you. It means finding that lightning and bottling it.

In the end, it often means getting a clean set of untarnished eyes to stand outside the box and help drag you out to see what you could not see before. It should not be a surprise to learn that one of the distinct advantages of a marketing consultant it that they are not already contaminated by what cannot be done, or what a client thinks cannot be done.

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