Free Leadership: Q&A with Alex Goldfayn of Evangelist Marketing Institute

Alex is a thought leader in consumer marketing through his company (www.evangelistmktg.com) and his heralded new book, Evangelist Marketing: What Apple, Amazon and Netflix Understand about Their Customers That Your Company Probably Doesn’t.

Q:  What is “evangelist marketing?”

A: Creating powerful marketing through your most loyal, passionate customers – your evangelists.  These are the customers that will talk to others and do your marketing for you.

Q:  Why focus there in your marketing?

A: The biggest problem – the biggest barrier to success – for most companies is marketing.  Who is your customer?  How do they think?  How do they talk about you and your services or product?  What do they say about your competition?  By not fully considering these questions companies make a lot of “unforced errors.”

Q:  Like an “unforced error” in tennis?

A: Exactly.  Tennis pros track their unforced errors, but most businesses don’t even realize they are making them as they rush to Facebook with a technical response to a relationship issue. Social media is wonderful, but it is not a replacement for an honest customer relationship.

Q:  What is the “relationship issue” you discuss in your book?

A: Most market research is based on “guessing from a conference room.”  Rather than engaging customers in a private conversation and getting at the emotional reasons why people like (or dislike) a service or product, executives and marketing directors often rely on surveys and focus groups. Too much research is done from a distance and much of it is a waste of time and money.

Q:  What is your advice to business leaders irrespective of their marketplace?

A: Be willing to have a real conversation with your customers.  You will find that they will be thrilled and can become powerful evangelists, even given some imperfection in your product or service. Your willingness to create some intimacy with your customers will yield better services and products, if you listen.  Great marketing is not difficult, but it requires meaningful engagement with your customers.

We have a number of free copies of Alex’s book. If you are interested please email me at tom@salienceconsulting.com.

No

The most important utterance of your professional life may be “no.”  The significance of “no” is simple:  it means you’re willing to take a stand and clarify your intentions.

Many entrepreneurs hate to say “no.”  A friend recently told me that “I want to be open to whatever comes my way.”  I suggested that he might as well stand in the middle of the street and let himself be run over by a truck.  “What are you talking about?” “You are so talented that will be run over by a semi-truck full of undifferentiated opportunity if always say “yes.”

The possibilities for saying “no” are significant:

• If you say “no” to a new opportunity that you know is not part of your strategic plan, you will strengthen you resolve and reach your desired market position faster.
• If you say “no” you increase the likelihood that you will be respected and trusted.  Most of us have difficulty accepting someone who always says “yes,” even when it appears to lighten our work load.
• If you say “no” you are likely to be asked to do important things when there may be major obstacles to success.  Though it may seem counter intuitive, people that can say “no” at the right time are seen as leaders through business minefields.
• If you say “no” you will probably be more successful financially.  People that say “yes” to everything that comes along may not see or have enough time to get to bigger opportunities.

Saying “no” is not about nay saying.  It’s about demonstrating the courage to be yourself, to which most people in your life will say “yes.”

Free Leadership: Q&A with Tyler Burke of Provider Search

Tyler Burke, 31, is one of the new innovators in long-term healthcare. He’s created Provider Search (www.providersearch.com), a complete digital marketplace for people with disabilities, their families and service providers. Recently, we caught up with Tyler to learn how his company has evolved.

Q:  Why did you create Provider Search?

A:  I began in this field as a direct service provider to children with disabilities, and I remember how difficult it was for families to obtain services. When I started my first company, Independent Life Services, we were inundated with calls from families that were frustrated with the paperwork and processes that were barriers to service. We began with a blog application on my Mac that included basic provider information we shared with families, providers, and employees of the State of Arizona. They loved it, so in 2009 we started developing our website.

Q:  What has been the toughest decision you’ve made along the way?

A:  After investing $150,000 two years into the project, I realized we were headed down the wrong path with our code. I pulled the plug, we found another website developer, and then it worked. That was very hard, but it was critical to our success.

Q:  What are you most excited about moving forward?

A:  I intend to create a marketplace that is continually excellent. We’ve created a system in this country that makes it difficult for families to access essential services, and we waste a lot of taxpayer dollars in the process. It doesn’t make any sense, and I’m committed to addressing these issues.

Q:  How does the future look for Provider Search?

A:  When I decided to take failure completely off the table our progress accelerated. So, I am very optimistic going forward. We now have major collaborators across the U.S., and we’ve been receiving inquiries from other countries, too. At some point I’ll have to step back and hand off some day-to-day responsibilities so we can grow even more. That’s exciting.

For more information you can contact Tyler directly at tyler@providersearch.com.

New Waves, New Look

Our new look and title reflect an evolving focus for our blog & newsletter: helping you and your company discover the courage, passion and will to innovate, seize opportunities and ride the waves of your marketplace. SalientWaves is created in the same independent spirit as Salient Thoughts. We’re just adding more hands-on advice and departments such as “Free Leadership,” which are interviews with CEOs and other leaders who embody inspired entrepreneurship.

We hope you’ll join the conversation and share your stories.

If you haven’t yet, sign up for the monthly SalientWaves (previously Salient Thoughts) newsletter at www.salienconsulting.com

Second Chances Make Sense

A fellow CEO recently told me of a situation in which his company had been swindled by a talented CFO.  He was understandably devastated when he received a call from one of the managing partners after the theft was exposed.  “Jim” the call began, “we hired you because we believed in you.  We still do, but if you hide in your office too long, we’ll have to let you go.”

However, tough business love in tone, the point was made.  Jim went forward, continued growing his business and is successful today, despite a recession that severely affected his marketplace.

The managing partner’s comment underscores why great leaders give people a second chance:

• We all know that each of us will fail at something in our professional lives.  The pressure of perfection-seeking can paralyze a workplace.
• Leader maturity is more powerfully experienced in the kind management of failure than in the achievement of many successes.  Such an event helps form the basis for enduring trust.
• Second chances lessen the likelihood of burnout.  You may “blow it” once, but you can come back with renewed energy.
• Failure is desired in innovation and is a sign of a vibrant, creative professional culture.  It’s tough to grow and adapt to the marketplace if you don’t innovate.
• Using second chances as an opportunity for learning sends an encouraging message about company values to the next generation of leadership.  If you don’t offer second chances, you may breed a “do as I say” culture, which hasn’t worked well for sometime.
• You will forfeit the opportunity to mature as a person and a leader.  And you will find it increasingly difficult to make mature decisions in the future.

There are some egregious situations in which a second chance makes no sense.  But they are very few.  Your willingness to use the opportunity to blend accountability with understanding demonstrates to others that you will listen and respect human imperfection, even if the person does not use the opportunity well.

Distraction is Disrespectful: 6 Ways to Regain Your Focus

On Thanksgiving evening, Ray Lewis, the infamous and injured middle linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens, was asked if he and his team were distracted by his rare absence from the field.  He confidently replied, “No, distraction on the field is disrespectful to your team – we need to know we can count on anyone at anytime.”

The concept of distraction usually focuses on how we adapt to what is happening in the environment – “hopefully it doesn’t distract us too much so everyone can get back to work,” “let’s try to keep distractions to a minimum,” or “he’s easily distracted.”  Mr. Lewis points the locus of control right where it should be for any leader – personal responsibility for straying from a task at hand and potentially disrupting an entire team’s performance.

Distraction is a choice, however difficult to ignore at the time, and here’s what you can do about it as a leader:

• Convey a philosophy to your team that each person, including you, is accountable for being distracted.  It is not a foreign force outside of you, it is your action to give up your focus and attention to a team effort.
• Because distraction can occur in any environment, predict the possibility and how you will respond as a team.  In one setting a team member said he was very concerned about his daughter’s health and created an interim leadership option if he was called back to the hospital for an extended time.  His focus improved as a result and the team increased their respect for him.
• Check your environment for distraction-enhancers and discuss this with your team.  Technology can be a culprit, but other times something as simple as ambient noise can be modified to aid attention to details.
• In a case of distraction it is worthwhile to consider issues of commitment by a team member to their role on the team.  Sometimes people are in the wrong role, other times they should not be on the bus.
• Often the issue is one of life balance or personal stress. While it is useful to reassess your life integration, you may consider a brief respite as a way for you or another team member to regain focus, especially during a short-term and demanding project.
• Lastly, do not overdo the analysis of distraction.  Yes, you look at any breakdown and understand what has happened, but you want to get back on track and not overvalue the power of distraction, if you believe your strategy makes sense in the first place.  If everyone appears distracted it’s probably not distraction, but something more profound within the strategy or plan itself.

Embracing your team effort with a sense of personal accountability is the most powerful antidote for distraction.

Thanksgiving evening, Ray Lewis was on the sideline as someone else took the role of middle linebacker.  His attention was on his team, he deftly deflected questions about his feelings and drew everyone’s attention to the contest.  The Ravens played very well.

The Right Music

A few days ago I walked into my surgeon’s office to the sounds of Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing.” No Muzak. And the waiting room was filled with old and young. When I entered his pre-op office, we talked a lot about music and he effortlessly demonstrated for a resident how to physically assess for the presence of pain by approaching from the side and gently touching the area of likely concern. “There’s no need to overdo it, just help the patient reduce their anxiety while gaining their trust. It’s very simple.” It was a great visit punctuated by more Jimi and Stevie Ray.

There is a risk in how Dr. Robertson approaches his patients, including the music, but I think of it quite the opposite. He is totally aligned with his craft, he is confident with who he is and if someone walked out of his office because they were offended by the lyrics of “Foxy Lady,” I don’t think he would chase them down to apologize and put on the Ray Coniff Singers instead.
If you want to be remarkable you have to:

• Bring yourself and your passion to the helping professions marketplace without intentionally setting out to offend someone. There is a big difference between trying to make a point and letting customers make a choice.
• Most of us trust someone who is clearly themself, while demonstrating competence. The combination of an open environment (the resident said, “he is so good” and “I am learning so much”) with competence (“I’ve performed over 2000 of these surgeries with only one bleeding issue, but we knew about it ahead of time and kept him overnight’)
• Demonstrate your competence over time and create your own community of respect. When I mentioned his name several people told me, “he helped me several years ago” and “he’s the best.” They were almost evangelists for him.

Dr. Robertson’s practice of medicine reminds me of the message in Seth Godin’s We Are All Weird – offer people more choices that reflect their own unique values and you can successfully compete against the conformity of a mass-market-driven world.

As they wheeled me into surgery I was already partially sedated. Dr. Robertson promised “Little Wing” and more from his extensive Hendrix collection during surgery. As I was going under I realized that the people doing the work were going to be operating in the spirit I chose and that I would likely not remember the songs consciously. I really didn’t care, because the music was just right.

Selling Your Baby – Download Available!

The download of our new e-book, Selling Your Baby, is available for free at www.salienceconsulting.com.  The e-book provides a very personal and practical “trail guide” for exiting owners of middle market healthcare companies, with applicability to many other different types of businesses.  The following is an excerpt:

 

Making a Thoughtful Choice

By the time you’ve made the decision to sell your healthcare business, you already have one foot out the door. Still, you have likely raised your business “baby” from birth and have forged a deep emotional tie to it.  These conflicting feelings (the desire to sell and the deep personal attachment to your creation) can make the transition all the more difficult. It’s about so much more than dollars and cents.

One productive and predictable phase of your life is ending, and another, yet to be
defined, is about to begin.  You may be selling your business, but just as momentous, you are in transition, on the cusp of a big decision.  Think it
through. Observe it from all angles. By doing so, you will forge a better deal and feel much better about your new direction.

 

Questions to Ask Yourself

Any sound business decision is multi-faceted, taking in both past experiences and future expectations. It considers the aims and interests of not just the principals but of those on the periphery.

The prospect of selling my company roused a host of issues. Would this move benefit me? After 15 years in the same job, what would I do with the next phase of my life? And what about my employees? They needed to be treated well. After all, they had been the key to our success.

Top 10 Questions To Ask About People and
Profit

 

1. What are my
personal financial needs, including retirement?

2. How will this
transition affect the plans and lives of other family members?

3. Might my children
want to stay on in the business after the sale?

4. How important is
it to have the “right buyer”?

5. How critical is
it to find a good cultural fit and do well by my employees?

6. What will my life
look like when I leave?

7. What can I sell
it for?

8. How will our
customers and funders respond to the transition?

9. What is my
company worth? How much will I take home after taxes?

10.
How important is my legacy?

Bottom
line: Considering both profits and people in making your decision will
yield a more creative and complete

approach
to the sale and ensure a smoother transition for all.

Not Quite at Redemption’s Door

This week I visited my old CFO in the Maricopa County Jail. She stole money from our company, we caught her and she plea bargained her way to a two and a half year term. The visit was my way of expressing some compassion for her circumstances, while hoping to make some sense of her behavior.

As I entered her unit, poverty and tears were everywhere, with a picture of Sheriff Joe Arpaio smiling down on us and the room filled with the ranting of Judge Joe Brown on the TV. “You’re trying to convince me you are the victim,” he said and “you’re not. You must pay the fine.” ESPN SportsCenter would have been preferable.

In the visitation area the overseer told me sit down at table #21 and wait for my ex-CFO to arrive. Our table was a cheap fast food booth divided by an old 2 x 8 as a barrier. Then she arrived and she was surprised, but she sat down across from me as she was handcuffed to her side of the table and told “no touching or the visit will end.”

After a simple and uncomfortable “hi” she began by apologizing for everyone she had “hurt.” She cried softly and then less softly. But ultimately she seemed more relaxed than I had ever seen her, especially in her last year of employment. My comment was “I’m not here to judge you as everyone has already done so” but “why did you steal the money?” From there I heard a story of what she described as “suicide” – she was overwhelmed with her responsibility for her family, she was a terrible mother, and she had let everyone down. She even volunteered that “it wasn’t the money, because I had other resources.” While I continued to converse, I realized that I didn’t entirely believe her as an old professional feeling came back to me.

Many years ago I spent considerable time in jails and prisons as a Psychologist. There were incredible stories of tragedy and loss, some hope and a
fair amount of sociopathy. Many of us know the feeling of sociopathy, which is defined as “a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood and early adolescence and continues into adulthood.” Most experience it as the charming con that they “knew” was occurring, but participated in nonetheless.

The lessons:

• As I often tell clients, each of us have different Franklin Covey planners. We have our own lives, but a leader’s task is to have some insight about fellow executives and managers in trouble that may place them at risk for a bad decision. It’s something that you have to be attentive to and risk some embarrassment when you ask a simple compassionate question: Are you really OK?

• In key operational roles make sure to reduce the risk and temptation of threat by incorporating extensive security. Trust is built over time and is a shared accountability.

• Keep the door as open as possible for key leaders in your organization, because they are often the most likely to be at risk given the demands of their work.

Was the visit worth it? Yes, I went to the jail with the intention of support, despite her betrayal. I left split between my concern for her well-being and wondering if she was truly concerned for mine. So be it.

Red’s Devils

In the mid-1960s I was fortunate to have a local youth center where I spent most of my adolescent years learning about sports and teamwork.  We were even luckier to have a youth leader named Bill “Red” Gagnier.  He was a big guy in his late teens, with a wonderful sense of humor and he was also a natural leader.  One day we were engaged in some group athletics and one of the team members was lagging behind.  Red stopped us and said, “You can only move forward as fast as the slowest person.”  We didn’t get it and actually complained, but when he kept looking at us silently without a smile, we slowed down and waited. All together.

The truth of his words was never more important than it is today.  The implications for business leaders are profound:

• To progress in business you have to know where the “slow” part of your organization is, and support or address it.   This ranges from encouraging people to be in the best position within a team to leaving and finding a better position elsewhere.

• Your team members need to be attentive to and support Red’s dictum.  By doing so, they can help each other as issues emerge, and they will for everyone, at some point in time.  This is a day-to-day recalibration, not an annual performance appraisal process.

• When a team member leaves for a period of time or permanently, the role they have lived must be clearly assessed in terms of the team perspective, not simply a typical job description.  How will your team progress (or not) with the new person on board?

• Teams should relentlessly focus on accountability within the team to assure that the level of honesty and purpose is always respectful, even in the case where someone leaves.  Classy departures can be as positive an experience as new team members joining the effort.

I lost touch with Red when I entered high school in 1966 and he joined the Army.  His unit, the Red Devils, was sent to Quong Tri in Vietnam’s DMZ, where he lost his life on September 11, 1968.  Soon afterward, Red was awarded the Bronze Star for valor in action. As you might have guessed, he was killed when he left his position to help a fellow wounded soldier who had fallen behind. At 16 years of age I remember reading his obituary and not believing it could be true.

Forty-three years later I still think of him. He was funny and generous, and he never lost sight of the importance of living and working in integrity with other people.