Infographic: What a Go-To Does Differently

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted, and some things have evolved since then. As an updated summary of what a Go-To does differently (the series I last published), I have an Infographic to offer, with an eBook to soon follow.

Tip: For daily inspiration, print the infographic on legal-size (8-1/2×14″) paper as a poster for your office – and please do share.

(Click on infographic or here to zoom in or save via browser)

If shared online, please include a link back to this post, with attribution to www.apollomethod.com.

Part 7 of What a Go-To Does Differently: Adapts

This is the seventh installment of a multi-part series to talk about what a Go-To does differently from the me-too pack:

• Part 1 talked about how a Go-To focuses.
• Part 2 talked about the importance of establishing a beachhead.
• Part 3 talked about how a Go-To obsesses on behalf of its market.
• Part 4 talked about how a Go-To takes ownership for the market problem.
• Part 5 talked about how a Go-To evangelizes and builds a following
• Part 6 talked about how a Go-To promises results, not just products or services

Now what?

A Go-To Constantly Adjusts and Adapts

The world is continuously changing, and a Go-To keeps an eye on the horizon to constantly adapt to market conditions, evolving customer needs, and other factors that impact a company, like the economy, politics, regulatory policy, technology and so on. It even reinvents itself, when necessary.

A Go-To maintains humility and a healthy paranoia. I remember being in meetings with the senior leadership at Accenture when it was flying high with record growth and profits, and you’d have thought from the conversation that the company was on the verge of going out of business. The executives in the room understood that Accenture’s fortunes, like those of any company, could turn on a dime. The team took the same earnest attitude toward its strategic planning activity as a struggling startup does.

A Go-To also understands that, regardless of how unique its current offerings are, it will face competition. The market will invariably begin to fill up with me-toos going for a slice of that pie, so the Go-To must watch its back and work to stay ahead of the pack.

Technology companies, in particular, can’t stand still for three seconds before a competitor pops up or market conditions change. Oracle started as the only relational database company, but of course competitors came along, followed by new technologies. Though Oracle, by far, still maintains a solid leadership position in that space with nearly 50% market share, it is no longer the same company. It has built on its strengths to broaden into many technology and software solution areas, including numerous specialty niches, such as inventory management for communications service providers.

As of this writing, Apple, Google and Microsoft are the world’s three most valuable brands according to Forbes, but you’d never know it from the healthy paranoia pulsing throughout the headquarters of all three. None look the same as they did in the early days, and they all know that their offerings could become obsolete at any moment. They are always working intently on their next innovations.

A Go-To understands this: Companies that don’t change or don’t change fast enough often perish. As Andy Grove put it in his book, Only the Paranoid Survive:

…the person who is the star of a previous era is often the last one to adapt to change, the last one to yield to logic of a strategic inflection point and tends to fall harder than most.”

In recent years, some stalwarts within their markets, like IBM, have suffered for not embracing the trend toward cloud computing quickly enough. Over the next decade, it will be companies that don’t embrace the Internet of Things trend.

To really bring this point home, consider the S&P 500 Index. According to an Innosight 2012 study summarized in the briefing, “Creative Destruction Whips Through Corporate America,” an S&P company is replaced every other week; and whereas companies in 1958 stayed on the index an average of 61 years, today the average tenure is just 18 years. In the decade leading up to the study, over half of the companies had been replaced.

What This Means for You

Whether you are part of a large company or a startup, be sure you are constantly monitoring market changes and trends on the horizon and then analyzing how they might impact you. Look at what you need to do to adapt. The “Creative Destruction” paper I referenced above offers some pointed advice applicable to any company and talks about how P&G is doing it successfully, and I’ll be sharing additional tips in forthcoming posts.

Subscribe to the blog and stay tuned for some tactical how-to guidance.

Part 6 of What a Go-To Does Differently: Results

This is the sixth installment of a multi-part series to talk about what a Go-To does differently from the me-too pack. Remember that a Go-To is the market leader – the first name to come to mind when folks in the market think about a particular business problem and who can fix it.

• Part 1 talked about how a Go-To focuses.
• Part 2 talked about the importance of establishing a beachhead.
• Part 3 talked about how a Go-To obsesses on behalf of its market.
• Part 4 talked about how a Go-To takes ownership for the market problem.
• Part 5 talked about how a Go-To evangelizes and builds a following

The next thing a Go-To does differently profoundly affects customers.

A Go-To Sells and Delivers Results, Not Products or Services

When you are pitching your offerings, it’s not enough to talk about the problem and what should be done about it – a Go-To also actively solves the problem for customers and delivers a result.

• A Go-To provides, not just a product or a service, but the complete solution required to give the customer a business outcome.
• A Go-To leads the customer on a journey and measures success in terms of business results delivered.
• A Go-To’s sales activity is not transactional and “lead” oriented – it’s long-term relationship and account oriented.
• A Go-To seeks to be the customer’s trusted business partner and has the customer’s long-term interests at the center of what it does.
• A Go-To approaches the market with a set of targets it sees itself as best suited to serve and cultivates a presence among those targets – it builds a community of believers in its point of view and approach to solving the problem.

If you in need of a meal, Target will sell you the pieces – food, plates, utensils, etc. – and send you on your way.  A fine restaurant will sell you a complete, satisfying dining experience. Taking that several steps further, the Go-To local restaurant will do this and be a gathering place for birds of a feather, know your name, know your food sensitivities, make a custom dish at your request and send you special offers.

The most important dimension of this is that a Go-To doesn’t market a laundry list of generic services or talk in terms of “capabilities” the way most service providers do. It doesn’t sell functions and features the way most product companies do. Instead, it sells impact. The best ones offer a very specific, and sometimes even quantified, value proposition. It talks in terms of specific business outcomes – e.g., how much more quickly, less expensively or more profitably you’ll achieve your business goals and at what cost. A Go-To already understands your business problem and walks in with a prescription for solving it. A Go-To doesn’t answer your question of “What do you do?” with “What do you need?”

If customer dissatisfaction is a problem, would you rather buy software (or software as a service) that will track customer dissatisfaction, or would you rather buy an offering that says, “We’ll increase the net promoter score of your unhappiest customers by __% within six months”?

Would you rather buy from a public relations (PR) firm that charges a monthly retainer to execute a nebulous publicity program or one that says, “We’ll charge you $XX to achieve 100% aided awareness and 60% unaided awareness among your top __ prospects within the next year”?

If part of a large company, would you rather buy from a firm that says, “For a set fee of $__ thousand, we’ll review the bills you are receiving from your communications service provider and let you know if/when they are overcharging you,” OR would you rather buy from the company that says, “We are confident that your communications service provider is over billing you by at least __%, but don’t pay us a dime unless we find something. If we do, split the savings with us.”?

Side Benefit: Results Orientation Will Lower Your Costs

Because it is so focused, a Go-To is able to do all of this through efficient, behind-the-curtain operational excellence. It has a low cost of delivery relative to someone doing the same thing on a one-off basis through tools, processes and, technology. A Go-To hires and trains people focused on its area of expertise who can jump in and immediately add value. And it has a “trusted partner offering superior results” value system and culture.

Unlike retailers in the mid-1990s who jumped into the online channel as a side business, Amazon made the online channel its only business, initially focusing just on books. In fact, its operation was so efficient that, rather than create their own online channels, companies like Toys R Us, Target, Sears Canada, and Lacoste contracted with Amazon to run their retail websites. Another major key to Amazon’s success is its fulfillment operation, which reduces its shipping, inventory and other operating costs. Wired Magazine once called it, “the world’s most nimble infrastructure for the transfer of things….”

This fascinating video shows just how efficient their operation is, using robotics and analytics to fulfill an order with barely any human involvement.

 

What This Means for You

Use the above as a checklist. Where is your company currently falling short, and how can you redefine your offerings to be outcomes oriented rather than selling capabilities or mere products? Is there anything you can do to quantify your value proposition? Are you currently transactional, or do you take a longer-term view of your customers’ businesses and play a more ongoing, impactful role? And what can you do to create community among your customers – what can you do to build a following among them and between them?

If you’re struggling, there is more on this topic to come. Subscribe to the blog and stay tuned for some tactical how-to guidance.

Part 4 of What a Go-To Does Differently: Ownership

This is the fourth installment of a multi-part series to talk about what a Go-To does differently from the me-too pack.

• Part 1 talked about how a Go-To focuses.
• Part 2 talked about the importance of establishing a beachhead.
• Part 3 talked about how a Go-To obsesses on behalf of its market.

Now we’ll talk about a Go-To’s purpose in life.

A Go-To Has a Higher Purpose: It Takes Market Ownership of a Problem

A Go-To says, “I’ll take this one. I’ll own this problem.”  A Go-To fixates on a market problem (or opportunity) and declares intellectual ownership for that problem or opportunity, effectively becoming the ringleader, the primary thought leader, for related discussions and market activity.

Cisco doesn’t talk endlessly about sensors and routers, it talks endlessly about how the “Internet of Everthing” will save lives or reduce risk for companies. GE has taken intellectual ownership for the “Industrial Internet of Things.”

Kaiser Permanente, the large health maintenance organization (HMO), doesn’t just offer an integrated delivery system – where you and your family can get all of your health care in one place, with a single set of medical records and a  multi-disciplinary team devoted to your well being  – it believes this model is the way of the future. Kaiser has been running its “Thrive” campaign for over ten years, offering tips for healthy living.  Many of its ads don’t talk about Kaiser at all. They address Kaiser’s higher purpose. One print ad shows an image of a jump rope curled into the shape of a human brain, with the copy, “Exercise doesn’t just make you feel better, offering a good defense against depression and anxiety. It helps you stay more alert and focused. Something you can think clearly about as you knock out just one last set. To learn more go to kp.org/thrive.”

According to Kaiser’s Diane Gage Lofgren, senior vice president, brand strategy, communications and public relations, and Debbie Cantu, the company’s vice president, brand marketing and advertising, Kaiser wants to play the role of  health advocate “completely dedicated to health and well-being with the fact that, no matter what their stages of life, people want to be as healthy as they can be.”

Salesforce.com was founded to solve the problem of expensive enterprise software implementations, with an initial focus on the salesforce. Facebook’s goal is to connect everyone on the planet. Apple created iTunes to make it easy for iPod users to legally download songs vs. illegal options that were rampant at the time. Cybersecurity firm, RSA, is regarded as one of the most trusted brands in its space and, as a demonstration of its “ownership of the problem,” hosts the world’s largest and most respected annual information security conference.

So it’s not just about solving a market problem. It’s also about keeping the conversation alive and working with the market to make continuing, collective progress against the problem.

What problem do you or will you own?

Part 3 of What a Go-To Does Differently: Obsession

This is the third installment of a multi-part series to talk about what a Go-To does differently from the me-too pack. Part 1 talked about how a Go-To focuses.  Part 2 talked about the importance of establishing a beachhead. Next up: The importance of obsessing over what you do.

A Go-To is Obsessed with Its Area of Expertise

I used to have an old Mercedes diesel sedan and would take it to the San Francisco Go-To for these cars, Fred, at Silver Star Motor Services. Fred didn’t just work on old Mercedes diesels. He loved them. He was an aficionado. He was constantly thinking about them, reading about them, learning more about them. And he had strong opinions about them. He could bend your ear for hours talking about the ins and outs of these cars. He wasn’t showing off, he was waxing poetic about something he was passionate about. He would just light up at the thought of these cars. It wasn’t a business or job for him – it was his life.

A Go-To doesn’t just specialize. A Go-To is a passionate aficionado, a devotee. A Go-To obsesses. And a Go-To is very opinionated when it comes to a particular market issue.

Steve Jobs was obsessed with distinctive design. He insisted that Apple’s mantra be simplicity. In his mind, consumer technology was too complex, hard to use, and ugly. As a result, the company has always been obsessed with creating innovative, easy-to-use technology that people have an emotional connection with. When Apple started to work on the iPhone, Steve Jobs didn’t instruct the development team to create a device that would put a computer in your pocket. His directive was: “Create the first phone that people [will] fall in love with.” According to Former Apple product manager, Bob Brochers, “The idea was, he wanted to create something that was so instrumental and integrated in peoples’ lives that you’d rather leave your wallet at home than your iPhone.” Steve Jobs was clearly passionate, obsessive and strongly opinionated about how people should interact with technology, and these qualities have informed everything Apple has created, even after his passing.

When Marc Benioff founded Salesforce.com in 1999, he was absolutely passionate about the need for companies to move away from installed software and to adopt the software-as-a-service (SaaS or “cloud”) model. I saw him on stage at a conference in 2006, and he relentlessly and completely unapologetically pounded on his primary thesis that installed enterprise software was on its way to extinction. At the time, it was still an emerging idea, but Salesforce.com was so passionate about the idea that it put a “stamp” of the word “software” in a red circle with a slash through it on every ad, on its website and any other bit of material associated with the company. Benioff wore a trademark pin of the image everywhere he went, including on the stage that day. It is difficult to find an article or presentation by him that does not espouse his point of view on this topic.

I’m obsessed with the importance of companies becoming the Go-To in their markets. What are you obsessed with?

Infographic: Anatomy of Content Marketing

B2B marketers have always relied heavily on “content marketing” going back decades now, mostly in the form of thought leadership. Because the concept is relatively new to consumer marketers and is buoyed by social media, it gets a lot of hype these days and generates infographics like this one. Nonetheless, I like this infographic for the useful statistics. It may help as ammunition for B2B marketers who need to justify their thought leadership programs and budgets. This is focused on the online, but there are many offline opportunities as well (e.g., conference presentations).

In planning your programs, be sure to take a strategic approach to the thought leadership you put out into the market place – it should revolve around the unique positioning you are after as a Go-To in your target market. Keep the content focused. Make sure the messaging differentiates you.

I wrote recently about the McMahon Group and their Go-To status in the private club sector. Every bit of content McMahon puts out into the market is aimed at educating private clubs on strategic planning, operations and member experience. It never deviates. And all of the information McMahon provides is useful and actionable.

Do an audit of the content you’ve produced over the last 6 months. Lay it all out – does it hang together? Does it revolve around a singular theme? Does it support the positioning you’re after? Does it distinguish you? And what can you do to improve going forward?

 

Market Dominance Case Study: Owning a (Large) Consulting Niche

I’ve talked a lot recently about the advantages of being the Go-To in your chosen market and have offered up a couple of high-profile examples. But there are plenty of examples in specialty markets the average person isn’t exposed to. An example is McMahon Group in St. Louis, the Go-To for private club strategic planning and consulting, and I experienced the power of their Go-To status while playing the role of buyer.

I was once helping a premiere private club that was falling prey to the same tough trends impacting all private clubs across the U.S., if not the world – an aging membership, flat membership numbers that would decline if the club didn’t change, and less-than-optimal utilization of club facilities and programs – despite this being a club that was highly respected. I was on the long-term planning committee tasked with addressing this problem. One of our first steps was to seek out a firm that could help us conduct a member survey and determine a plan of action based on the results. In this situation, you can imagine how price sensitive the club was. However, results were more important. We could have sought out a generic market research firm. Afterall, how hard is it to put together a bunch of questions about how and why members use club facilities and what they felt was missing from the member experience? Heck, we could have done it with a free online survey tool.

We weren’t just after a survey, though. We were after a long-term plan that would improve the club’s future. We needed expertise. As it happens, there is an entire sub-specialty of private club market researchers and consultants we could turn to. Who knew? The club leadership agreed that it made perfect sense to hire a firm that understands the unique issues and trends impacting private clubs, even if it was going to cost a little more. We knew that member feedback and input was just one piece of what the club ultimately needed, and we wanted a firm that could help us ask the right questions, interpret the feedback appropriately and guide us toward best actions.

Then it became a matter of selecting the firm. The private club sector, like most industries, is a tight community at the upper leadership levels. Just like any industry, club managers all belong to one leading professional association, see each other at meetings, read the same publications, network with each other, and progress from club to club as they climb their career ladders. As a result, the general manager already knew of the top three consultants in the business, telling us that one, in particular, was the Go-To; so we interviewed all three. Two were impressive – they had great credentials, stellar reputations, and “trusted partner” status with their clients; had done many similar projects; obviously had deep expertise in this specific area; and offered strong teams. The cost of their services was also extremely reasonable and competitive. We knew they could each do a great job.

The third firm, McMahon Group, was all of that and much more.  In addition to the above, it was the thought leader in the field. McMahon didn’t just serve the industry; it led the industry by proactively investing in, conducting and sharing private club trends research, not just on where the industry had been and where it currently was, but also on where it was going. When we had lunch to interview the company’s president, Frank Vain, he humored us by listening to our litany of the club’s challenges and problems; but he could have told them to us himself, because they were no different from what he saw at every club McMahon Group works with.  He was finishing our sentences. And further, he laid out the trajectory we were on. Most of all, he prescribed the solutions right then and there – told us exactly what we needed to do.

In talking to Frank, it was clear that McMahon Group lived, ate, and breathed private club trends and operational excellence best practices. This is all it does. It knows everything going on in the industry. It knows all of the key players.  At its own expense, it studies and watches the trends on everyone’s behalf and warns the industry of what’s coming on the horizon. McMahon has taken spiritual “ownership” for understanding and solving the industry’s most pressing problems. And when you hear it talk about the industry, you can tell this company cares.

In the end, we hired McMahon, even though it was about twice as expensive as the other options. The reason is that we felt the club would get great value and an accelerated
path to results – we knew McMahon would not just execute a survey to tell us what the members wanted but would help the club quickly take the optimal actions as a result. We weren’t buying market research services – we were buying a treasure trove of expertise, experience and wisdom. It would help the club solve the problem – and fast.

That’s exactly what happened. We did the survey. It told us precisely what Frank had told us it would at lunch that day (yes, we could have saved a lot of money by letting him just give us the answers…but we needed to hear it from the members). The action plan ended up being exactly what he had prescribed during that same conversation. As a result, membership growth and club utilization have soared. The Club has since been thriving and doing better than ever, even through the “Great Recession,” when many clubs suffered badly.

The private club sector might sound like a small, limited market for a company like McMahon Group to target, but it’s about a $26 billion market consisting of 14,000 clubs in the U.S. alone.  McMahon doesn’t have to capture much of that market to have a great business. And by capturing the top end of that market and charging a premium price for premium value, McMahon has built quite a profitable business with a reputation that precedes it. It is, indeed, the Go-To in its space.

Give some thought as to what your company can do to establish this kind of reputation and make this kind of contribution to individual customers and your industry as a whole.

More on the Advantages of Being the Go-To

I recently posted twelve reasons it’s better to be the Go-To than a me-too and then four examples of Go-To brands. Here’s just a bit more on they advantages of being the differentiated Go-To.

The greatest advantage is that you compete less on price, if at all.  In fact, you can usually command much higher prices than the competition, because you offer a unique approach and can promise stellar results. The buyer considers the benefits you offer to far outweigh your cost.

Another big advantage is that you are no longer part of the pack – you stand out. You are the first name that comes to mind when the buyer has a particular problem. And that buyer often will proactively seek you out, particularly when time is of the essence (as in the case of C. C. Myers when the freeway melted).

Often selling costs for a Go-To are much lower, because you’re not starting from ground zero in a sales situation. Your reputation precedes you, so you don’t have to work as hard as a lesser-known competitor to establish your credibility. You don’t have to prove yourself as much. You can cut right to the customer’s situation at hand and how you can help.

As the Go-To in a particular field, you wield great power and influence in the marketplace. You aren’t just part of the fabric of the industry, you sit at the top of the pyramid. You help set the direction of the industry. You have a vision others want to follow. As the Go-To, you are in a position to fundamentally alter the direction of the market.

Doesn’t all of this sound much better than scraping for business as a me-too and being pushed to cut your price?

Strategic Marketing Infographic: 12 Reasons It’s Better to Be the Go-To Than a Me-Too

Market dominance simply means becoming the Go-To brand for a particular market need and being so superior at solving that market problem that you are able to command premium prices, work with premium customers, and hire premium people. Any company, no matter its size, can pursue it.  Your goal is to get people to seek you out and have them so firmly believe in your ability to make a unique contribution that they will pay you whatever it takes.

The alternative is to be a me-too that has to scrape for business and compete on price.

There are at least twelve reasons it’s better to be the Go-To, and I’m sure you can think of even more. Enjoy the infographic and pass it along…

Is This a Book You Would Read?

I’ve written the introduction to my book and wonder if some of you could read it (see below) and let me know whether it makes you want to read the book. Please also share why or why not (assuming the topic is applicable to you, of course). Would love your feedback in the comments section. Thanks!

How In the World Is That Person Making $30,000 a Day?

This is the question that started it all.

About six years into my consulting business, one of my colleagues told me about her close friend who had less hands-on client experience than either of us and was commanding $30,000 a day to provide expertise to top executives. The consultant’s name was Martha Rogers of Peppers and Rogers, the firm famous for One-to-One Marketing, which revolutionized direct marketing and spawned digital marketing. I was at once terribly envious and incredibly inspired. (You’ll hear Martha explain it later in the book.)

This conversation occurred while I was in the midst of a reevaluation of my firm’s strategy, because we, on the other hand, were being forced to lower our prices. Somewhere along the way, our consulting services had come to be viewed as commodities, even by loyal clients who knew our capabilities well, understood how deep our expertise was and had been engaging us for years. They were starting to put pressure on us to lower our fees and talk about replacing us with less expensive, less experienced consultants as though we were interchangeable parts. We were also getting pushed further down into the organization, with less and less influence.

Meanwhile, and quite ironically, we were finding it increasingly difficult to convince our clients that they didn’t look, sound or act any different from the competition; that it wasn’t clear as to who they were trying to serve; and that they didn’t have a clear message that resonated with prospects. Even software companies were beginning to face the same challenges, as competitors started matching them on functions, features and price.

These experiences were in stark contrast to my earlier experience in helping to launch and grow what was then called the Telecom Industry Group (TIG) at Accenture. Starting from ground zero and operating much like a venture-backed start-up, we had lots of market forces working against us and still managed organic growth to over $250 million in five years…in the midst of a recession. This despite the fact that, at the time, if you weren’t a telephone company, you had no credibility in that industry; no one knew who we were or what we did; there was no existing market for what we were selling; the industry was already dominated by a few gigantic, well-entrenched providers; and in many ways, we didn’t know what we were doing. Nonetheless, we managed huge and very profitable year-over-year revenue growth, became the dominant player in our target markets, and laid the groundwork for what is today a multi-billion dollar business unit.

What did Martha Rogers and TIG do right? What did my firm and most business services and software companies need to do to achieve this kind of sustainable differentiation in order to ensure ongoing margin and revenue growth? Somehow, certain companies were each succeeding at becoming the dominant Go-To player, actively sought out by customers and able to command huge prices relative to the competition, while everyone else languished as Me-Too providers competing on price. I became obsessed with figuring out the recipe, embarking on an intensive research and analysis effort.

One day, on a plane to Chicago to meet with clients, I sketched out a strategy for my company. With so many years of Accenture’s methodology and project management training ingrained in me, naturally it was a step-by-step framework in the form of a flow diagram. I looked at it for a few minutes and said to myself, “This is what all of our clients need to be doing! This is how companies dominate a market space and become the Go-To.” It was the basis for what has become known as the Apollo Method for Market Dominance.™

That was 1998. Since then I have been seeking out the method’s weaknesses. I’ve gone inside companies as a full-time strategy and marketing executive to find out what’s hard about implementing it in practice. I’ve looked for better alternatives. I’ve continued to research it. I’ve lived through the “dot-com bust” of the 1990s and the Great Recession circa 2008-11. And I’ve watched hundreds of companies go out of business, because they didn’t implement one or more of the key elements.

Through all this, it became clear that the approach works, especially now that enterprise customers are starting to demand solutions to their problems and not just generic products or services, a key underpinning of the Apollo Method.

My research and experiences have resulted in some fascinating stories, examples and analogies, which I share in this book. You will learn market dominance strategy and marketing lessons from the Apollo Space Program, which declared its “Moonshot” goal and set out to dominate outer space against all odds. You’ll learn how to build momentum in the market place around your point of view and solutions the way successful companies have done it; the way campaigns build awareness and support for their candidates; the way Al Gore raised awareness of Global Warming; and the way rock bands build a following. You’ll also learn why clients with specific problems will be just as likely to seek you out over me-too alternatives as heart patients are to seek out cardiac surgeons over general practitioners. You will read inspirational stories about how companies like Google, Oracle, Cisco, and many others each became the Go-To in a relatively specific area of focus and then built from there. And you will find out about spectacular failures and lessons learned, including some of my own.

Who This Book Is For

This book is for you if your company operates in a highly competitive market full of me-toos. It’s for you, if your company is having trouble differentiating from the competition and is competing on price. It’s especially for you, if your company sells some kind of intangible product or service to businesses – the kind of product or service that is difficult for customers to hold in their hands, evaluate or compare to others until they have bought and are using it. This includes IT services and technology service providers, software and software-as-a-service (cloud) companies, some product companies, computing and telecommunications providers, management consulting firms and other service providers. It also includes industries with similar business fundamentals and competitive challenges include architecture and engineering, law, environmental consulting, and other professional and business services. Regardless of the sector, you will find that many, if not all, of these principles apply and can improve your margins and prospects for growth.

What role do you play in your company? This book is for you if your work has a direct or indirect bearing on revenue and/or margins. This includes direct or support roles in business unit operations and management; sales, business development, and partner relationships; marketing; product, service, and/or solution development and maintenance; client delivery and support activity; human resources and training; infrastructure and information systems; and financial management.

What You’ll Get From This Book

One of my frustrations as a practitioner is that I’ve yet to find a book or even a piece of paper that lays out a step-by-step rationale and approach for executing a particular strategy or marketing program. I myself have written or created generic strategic planning and marketing methodologies, but they are templates – they don’t explain how to achieve a particular business outcome. There are plenty of methodologies for systems development, project management, process improvement, and even generic marketing plan development. But the weakness with most marketing plans is that there is a terrific analysis of the situation, the market, the competition, the strategy, etc. and then one big giant bucket of tactics you may as well call “Stuff.”

I’ve never found anything that tells you, step by step, how to win in your market. Neither have I seen anything that shows a methodology for deciding which strategy or marketing tactics to choose and how to best implement them. Shockingly, no leadership executive or board member I’ve ever worked with has asked for one. In presenting a plan, I’ve always expected questions like, “Of the thousands of options to choose from, how did you decide on those specific tactics? How do the pieces fit together and build on one another? How are these going to develop the market? How will they lead us to market dominance and attract clients? What’s the long-term roadmap – how do these build on each other over the next few years to build our brand and entrench us? How do these investments tie to business outcomes and how are you going to measure them?”

This book will give you answers. Chapter 1 talks about your commoditization challenge and why that is a serious a problem for your business. Chapter 2 makes the case for aiming to become the Go-To, as opposed to a Me-Too commodity competing on price and scratching for business. Chapters 3-7 take you through the Apollo Method for Market Dominance, step by step. In addition to a conceptual overview, you’ll get practical advice on how to execute key components. You’ll also see examples of how other companies have successfully implemented them. Chapter 8 gets you started by helping you develop a simple but profoundly powerful one-page plan to get you started. You’ll walk away with a game plan that you can start implementing immediately and refine as you go.

There is no reason why any business should have to languish as a thin-margin, Me-Too player when there is the option to become a Go-To. The key is figuring out how to deliver such superior business impact that your clients will not fixate on price but rather on the value you deliver. This book will show you how to do that.

Branding = Substance + Style

Branding. One simple word. So many meanings.

I’ve written before about how frustrating it is to try to have a discussion about branding without creating all kinds of confusion. (See “Who’s on First?” about “brand” vs. “identity.”)

I recently had an epiphany about this and thought I’d share…Perhaps this will clear it up for others of you as well.

Many people claim to do branding or brand building, but like the adage, “To a hammer, every problem is a nail,” you’ll get an interpretation based on the branding expert’s specialty. Graphic designers tend to talk about branding in terms of visual identity (logo, look and feel, etc.). Strategists think of it in terms of the market positioning, the offering portfolio, etc. Publicists associate it with reputation building. And so on.

Meanwhile, clients without marketing backgrounds throw the term around with vague intention but without really knowing what it means.

Even though my company, Lina Group, has done an enormous amount of “branding” work over the last 20+ years, we don’t like to use that word to describe our work, because of this very confusion. Nonetheless, we have been working with several companies lately on what they call “rebranding” efforts. In trying to communicate the scope of these initiatives to executives, it became clear that we needed a way to distinguish between “branding” as what you do and stand for vs. “branding” as what you look like.

In other words, substance vs. style.

Some brands are all about substance. Some are all about style. And the most powerful brands are a strong combination of both.

Let’s break it down.

Substance

This is the meat of your company – your raison d’être – why you exist. When thinking about  branding, you need to start here. Substance should be grounded in genuine competence.

Apple makes innovative technology products that are easy to use. Lexus vehicles are of premium quality and exceptionally reliable. UPS gets your packages from point A to point B on time at a reasonable price and without damage.

Brand substance is a big part of what the Apollo Method for Market Dominance “Launch” phase addresses – What is your market focus? What do you want to mean in the market place? What do you stand for? What market problem do you want to “own” and be associated with? What is your unique solution to that problem?

All of the things we look at in the initial vision and strategy work is focused on defining this. Your value proposition, product strategy, pricing strategy, distribution strategy, sales models, etc. all come into play here as well – everything that goes into what you’re going to deliver to customers.

In developing your vision and strategy, there are a lot of decisions you will make that will utlimately lead to brand meaning in the market place for your company, but many organizations make these decisions without thinking of them as part of a branding exercise. It’s useful to do so, however, because they ultimately impact your image and, when done well, lead to valuable brand equity.

Substance is a necessity. Without it, you get nowhere. And you can get by on substance alone, if you choose. It’s better, however, if you add a little style to the mix.

Style

Style is the way you go about delivering your substance. It’s your personality, the way you package yourself. It’s the flair (or lack thereof) that you bring to what you do. This is what many people typically associate with “branding.” There is usually a heavy emphasis on the visual aspects, but there are many non-visual aspects as well, like tone, values and behaviors that define your brand.

Apple places a high value on simple elegance, which extends not just to the visual elements of its brand and products but also to the verbal and written elements. Lexus dealers treat their customers like royalty. The UPS style is no-frills – efficient, friendly drivers and brown trucks.

Style must be completely authentic. You aren’t going to fool anyone. It won’t work to package your company as hip and edgy if, in reality, it’s fairly conservative. The market will see right through that and dismiss you as a fraud. Define a style that fits the company and culture. Or build a company and culture that fits the brand you’ve defined. Either way, make sure they are in sync.

Style is a nice to have. You can develop a strong brand with little or no style. Companies do it all the time. However, distinctive style really makes a brand sing and differentiates you that much more. Microsoft is an example of a company without much style. Apple has both substance and style, and look at what a difference it makes in terms of brand equity.

Let’s Take George Clooney, for Example…

Celebrities provide a great illustration of this concept of Substance+Style. Someone like George Clooney represents a very clear, strong brand. He clearly has a lot of substance – he’s a talented actor and director. He delivers the goods. If all he offered was his performance as an actor and director, he’d be a successful brand. If you never read about him in the press, he’d still have a strong brand just on the basis of the results he delivers on screen. However, he takes it a step further by also having fabulous, distinctive style. He’s intelligent, grounded, urbane, passionate about human rights issues, and politically involved. He has a great sense of humor and is down to earth but also sophisticated and debonair. Together, his substance and style define his brand.

Substance Adapts, Style Endures

Many people change careers (substance), but their basic tone and personality (style) – who they are deep down – remains basically consistent over time.  It’s the same with a company. The substance of what the company provides to the market place must constantly adapt. But the fundamental brand personality – the deep-seated, core values and how they’re expressed in the company culture and behavior – should be enduring. Yes, the company might update its logo and visual identity the way a person updates his or her wardrobe. But when you’re defining your brand, don’t think merely in terms of logo – think in terms of overall image.

The offerings of Apple, Oracle, Salesforce.com, Accenture, etc. change and adapt every year. But each of these companies also has a strong personality and image that hasn’t changed much over time.

Substance Over Style

It’s great to have a well-defined style, but make sure you put most of your emphasis on substance – this is what will ultimately make or break your company. Many of the names on this Forbes list of the world’s most powerful brands made it on the basis of substance.  Great style doesn’t help long term if you don’t have substance to back it up. Many a sexy, attention-getting technology startup with cool offices and abundant buzz have flamed out, because they didn’t have the substance piece of their branding worked out first, with differentiated products that met urgent market needs and commanded healthy margins.

Ideally, the two are so tightly integrated that you can’t tease them apart. Apple style, a passion for elegant simplicity, is infused throughout its substance (products). Lexus’ “relentless pursuit of perfection” is woven throughout both its substance and style.

Whatever you decide, just make sure you can deliver on the brand promise.

The Book for your input…in pieces…

Being a marketer through and through, I’m always interested in market feedback and input. So I’m going to start publishing pieces of my book on the blog for your comments and input. Below are a draft synopsis and table of contents. The bullseye audience for the book is executives responsible for the profitable growth of certain types of companies – those that are prone to commoditization, because customers can’t easily see, touch or experience the offering’s points of differentiation prior to the sale. These include B2B professional or technology services, technology-based products, innovative offerings, or intangible offerings rooted in expertise (e.g., professional services, educational services). Technology entrepreneurs will find it very useful. There are lots of other audience categories the book applies to – if you aren’t the prime target but are trying to stand out in a crowded field and avoid competing on price, read on in case you can relate and benefit from the insights.

Draft Synopsis

Why are seemingly excellent products or services forced to compete on price as me-too commodities, while other offerings have strong brand equity, command premium prices, and stand out as the Go-To in their markets – the first name that comes to mind for customers as the superior option? They leverage the four pillars of differentiation to uniquely brand themselves and delivery superior value. Through extensive research and 25 years of personal experience working with both Go-Tos and Me-Toos as a practitioner and consultant, the author has noticed a pattern of what the Go-Tos do differently, particularly when a company’s offerings are rooted in technology, innovation, or intellectual expertise. She lays out these four pillars as a step-by-step strategic marketing framework called the Apollo Method for Market Dominance™, named for the Apollo Space Program, the ultimate against-all-odds success story under circumstances paralleling those of competitive markets.  Sharing numerous examples and practical how-to tips, the author says that nearly every company can use the four pillars of differentiation to call its own “moon shot” and dominate its chosen markets for huge profits and sustainable growth.

Did it grab you at all? Did it make you want to read more? Why? Why not? What would make it better?

Table of Contents

Part I: Why You Have a Problem

Introduction: How In the World is that Person Making $30,000 a Day?

        Chapter 1: Commoditization is Enemy #1

Part II: What to Do About It

Chapter 2: Be the Go-To for the Solution to a Business Problem

Part III: How to Do It: The Apollo Method for Market Dominance

Chapter 3: Overview

Chapter 4: Launch Phase

Chapter 5: Ignite Phase

Chapter 6: Navigate Phase

Chapter 7: Accelerate Phase

Part IV: Getting Started

Chapter 8: Your One-Page Plan

I realize it’s hard to comment without seeing more, but at a glance, does the table of contents look enticing and logical? (Note: Yes, Ignite comes after Launch. You’ll see why when we get to that.)

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

Who’s On First?

I’m about to recommend an article. Marketers and designers: Print it and bring it to your meetings with each other.

The other day I was interviewing a creative director and, once again, felt like I was part of an Abbott and Costello “Who’s on First” comedy routine.

It seems that whenever marketers, designers and even operations executives and VCs start throwing buzzwords around, like “branding” and “identity,” we get each other completely twisted up. Our lexicons contain the same words, but we use them to mean very different things. One of my biggest peeves is the way “brand” as a term gets abused and confused. We think we’re in sync when we aren’t. And we think we aren’t in sync when we are. That’s why I was excited to run across this fabulous article on the Creative Market blog, “Designing a Brand Identity.” It offers a very simple, clear explanation of the distinctions between “brand” and “identity,” for example. From now on, I’m going to distribute this before meetings to make sure we’re all on the same page and speaking the same language. Check it out. You may find it useful.

 

What a Book in Gestation Looks Like

This is what a book in gestation looks like. 🙂

All the walls of my writing studio look like this. What you don’t see is the massive expanse of tabletop space covered in research files and a stack of reference books.

After having to put it down for five years to tend to my kids, I’ve recently resumed work on my book. Thank goodness. Because every other day, I find myself wishing I could hand it to the person I’m speaking with and say, “Just read the book, and then come back if you still want help fixing your problem.”

Here’s the working title with a preliminary cover design:

 

Would love your feedback. Does this sound like a book you’d want to read? Why? Why not? Add your comments.

It is a how-to book that will explain the Apollo Method for Market Dominance, a strategic marketing framework for how you go about differentiating yourself as the sought-after leader in your field. A key piece is selling full-on solutions to problems, not just piecemeal products or services. But that’s only the beginning.

It’s mostly for B2B companies that have trouble differentiating, esp. if they sell intangibles, software as a service, professional services, technology solutions, etc. It can apply in a consumer setting as well.

I think I’ll start posting chapter material here at some point for comments and suggestions, so subscribe to the blog for alerts, if you’d like to get first dibs.

Having Trouble Telling Your Story?

I encourage you to take ‘this free, online crash course on pitching. Spend as little or much time with it as you want. Get the basics in 10-15 minutes or spend a few days honing your story. It’s available through Stanford’s new, online crash course platform.

http://ecorner.stanford.edu/modules/16/pitching_101_how_to_make_your_story_compelling

From CNN: How TED Got Famous

Source: cnn.com

Anyone involved in spreading ideas can learn a lesson from this terrific cnn.com article, “How TED Got Famous.” It talks about how the TED Conference exploded its influence and brand awareness by essentially giving away its intellectual property. Or perhaps I should say, “sharing it freely.” It started offering free, online access to videos of talks given at its conferences and then doubled the price of its conferences, only to sell out a year in advance.

If that sounds completely counterintuitive to you, read the article. Notice the statistics. Ask yourself how many people knew what a “TED talk” was 10 years ago vs. now.

TED has become the GO-TO in its space.

A natural inclination with thought leadership and content marketing efforts is to hold back, particularly for organizations that market intangibles and/or expertise. They fear that if they give away their ideas, talk freely about their methodologies, or teach people how to fish, then they won’t be needed. Why would anyone buy what I’m giving away for free? Well, you’d be surprised. Think of your thought leadership efforts as free samples. For the people who need what you’re selling, they are going to read/watch your material and want to know more. And guess what? Even if you teach them to fish, you’d be surprised at how few people have the time to fish and would just as soon hire someone to fish for them. When they read about your unique style of fishing and why it’s more effective, and when that resonates with them, they’ll call you in.

Yes, some people will read your book and white papers or watch your online videos and never call you in. But they were probably never buyer candidates for your services anyway. However, they could become evangelists for you or send your material to someone who is. Yes, competitors could get their hands on your material, but if what you do is unique enough, they won’t be able to duplicate you on the basis of what you’ve published. They won’t be able to execute like you do.

Who can learn from this? How about content marketers, technology entrepreneurs, enterprise solution marketers, anyone selling to the C-suite, universities grappling with the perceived threat of online learning, other educators, and professional services organizations, for a start?

Reco: Steve Blank’s Customer Development Methodology

Many people in the tech entrepreneurship community, particularly in Silicon Valley, already know about and follow Steve Blank. But many in the enterprise solutions arena may not, even though you have likely heard of one of his home runs as a serial entrepreneur, Epiphany, Inc. This was an enterprise software company that saw its heyday during the dot com boom. Its success ensured that Steve will never have to worry about paying the mortgage. I’ve come to know Steve through our mutual involvement in the Stanford Technology Ventures Program.

Over the years, Steve developed some observations about the differences between product development and sales at a startup vs. an established company. He developed a methodology around this called Customer Development and began to teach it as a class at UC Berkeley. He eventually wrote his class notes up as a book in The Four Steps to the Epiphany. Most recently, he has teamed with Eric Ries, a former student, to promote the Lean Startup movement, which incorporates much of Steve’s customer development methodology. In fact, here is a quick overview of the methodology in Eric’s blog. A key component of the methodology in developing a new offering is to iterate in conjunction with conversations with prospective customers. Also, think of the development stage as a search. And know that it’s going to be a little sloppy and seemingly inefficient.

What does this have to do with enterprise solutions sales and marketing, you ask? Lots. Working with a large solution provider and trying to package and take to market an innovative, complex offering a few years ago, I realized that the same, seemingly sloppy and iterative process we were going through mirrored what Steve advocates in his methodology. There were people in the company who were uncomfortable with what they perceived as inefficiency, but only because they were unfamiliar with the Customer Development methodology.

At the high end – with complex business solutions aimed at senior executives – often you are offering something quite new to the market. You are trying to lead companies into new ways of doing things that address not only their immediate business issues but prepare them for the future. These solutions are often quite innovative and new, even within your own company. In other words, the conditions, both internally and externally, are similar to those of many startups. So we have a lot to learn from what makes startups sink or swim.

Here is an 8-minute snippet of Steve talking about why he saw a need for the Customer Development methodology and providing an overview.

 

To go deeper, here is a 20-minute mini-lecture.

If you are in sales management, solution or product development, or marketing, I do recommend that you learn about his methodology and subscribe to his blog. You may also want to read the book.

Take Free Stanford Course ONLINE – “Creativity: Music to My Ears”

Stanford, Warner music, some of your favorite recording artists, and creativity – what’s not not love about this upcoming, free online course – “Creativity: Music to My Ears”? My colleague and dear friend, Tina Seelig, will be teaching it, and she’s amazing (as validated by her winning the prestigious Gordon Prize in engineering for her innovations in teaching and education). You’ll have a blast.

It starts on April 2. To learn more, read this course description, where you’ll find information on how to sign up.

Here’s an excerpt from a brief article about the course:

Musical talent is not required to participate in the course – just an interest in exploring factors that influence creativity, such as reframing problems, challenging assumptions and working on creative teams. Music provides a universal context to put these skills into practice, which is where the legendary experience of Warner Music Group comes in.

“The music industry is in a state of constant evolution, and everyone involved – from artists to executives to technologists – must have the skills to both adapt to a rapidly shifting landscape and to forge exciting new creative paths,” Strang said. “Warner Music Group is honored to be collaborating with Stanford and Professor Seelig in this unique online course, which we hope will give students creative skills and real insight into how our business spearheads innovative commercial models and develops the next generation of extraordinary talent.”

Watch them talk about it here.

Want to User Test Stanford Material and Improve Your Pitching?

Want to try out a new Stanford crash course on pitching? I’ve created a multi-media crash course of my Stanford pitching workshop for a new online platform we’re creating there. Fill out and send the form below if you’d like to participate in user testing of the material and give feedback – I’ll forward to the person coordinating it. Free eBooklet to the first 10 people who conduct testing. Takes 20 min to a couple of hours (your choice). You’ll learn: “Pitching 101: How to Make Your Story Compelling.” Improve your pitch for any audience, duration, situation. Student testers are ideal, but others are ok too!

[If you’ve been wondering why the radio silence lately with my blog, this is the reason. I’ve been knee deep in helping to develop a bunch of these online crash courses. They’re called JOLTs – Just-in-time online learning tools. More details to come soon when we roll out the platform in a month or two. Very exciting stuff!)

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