November 12, 2013 · 11:18 am

Tell Me A Story

This TunesDay, I’m not really going to focus on any one song but on a number of them that make a great business point. If I were to ask you about “The River” (Bruce), “Cats In The Cradle” (Harry Chapin), “The Edmund Fitzgerald” (Gordon Lightfoot) or “Tangled Up In Blue” (Dylan), assuming you were familiar with them, you’d answer with two points. First, don’t I know any music from this century (I do!) and second, each of those songs tells a great story.  The list could go on and on and I’m sure you can add 5 or 6 of your favorite musical stories to the list.

The best of this genre actually give the listener a double benefit.  First, great music.  It may be an unexpected chord twist or an unusual arrangement but they’re out of the ordinary and immediately recognizable.  Second, the story.  Imagine if the obsessed fan in Eminem‘s “Stan” was the fan in the movie “Misery”.  The latter took an hour and a half to say what Slim does in 6 minutes yet the story is just as compelling.

That’s what we need to do as business people.  We need to tell stories that compel people to listen and do so in such a way that they leave us singing them again in their heads.  Listen to Dylan:

I’ve taken the most stripped-down version of this I could find and yet the love song sung by a troubled man is clear.  That’s how our messages need to stand out.  Connecting with people on an emotional level is far more effective than a bunch of statistics.  Take a good look at some Powerpoint you’re currently using.  Does it tell a memorable, coherent story or does it lay out a bunch of statistics?  Does it sing about solving problems or is it just more blah-blah-blah?

Figure out the story you want to tell then write a memorable tune to carry it forth.  Got it?

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November 11, 2013 · 10:11 am

Veteran’s Day And Business

Often when a national holiday approaches I’ll go back over my posts to see what I’ve written about the day in the past.  I’ve written about Veteran’s Day, which we celebrate today, here, here, and here.

Joseph Ambrose, an 86-year-old World War I vet...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Feel free to go back and read them but I noticed a common theme that I want to repeat and  pretty big omission that I want to correct.

In each of those posts I thank our men and women who served to protect and defend this country.  I do again.  “My war” would have been Vietnam just as my Dad’s was WWII.  He served when his time came because he was needed; I didn’t since the war was winding down and the draft was ending.  Putting the politics aside is almost impossible when discussing the differences between those two conflicts but the service given by those who went is indistinguishable.

I also draw an inelegant analogy between those folks selfless service to us and how businesses ought to be dedicated to serving their customers.  I also touch upon the teamwork needed to succeed.  A long time ago Fast Company published an article which cited an interesting study:

After World War II, the US military commissioned S.L.A. Marshall, a Harvard historian, to do a remarkable study. The question he was asked to research was, literally, why are men willing to die in war? Marshall was allowed to advance and test a variety of explanations. Patriotism – people would die for their country. Or family – men would fight and die to protect their wives and children. The answer that finally emerged was small-group integrity. In a group of people where each is truly committed to the others, no one will be the first to run. So they all stand and fight together.

You know I’m a big proponent of teamwork and believe it’s critical to business success.  The article goes on to talk about managerial courage and how it’s tested and that brings up the omission I want to correct.  Too many of us talk about business as war from time to time, just as we do comparing sports to combat.  We need to stop that.  I used to say that the best part of what I did was that when I screwed up nobody died.  Protecting one’s country for a lousy salary and risking a life can in no way be compared to playing a game for a lot of money or running a business for an obscene amount.

So to my Dad, my other family members, schoolmates, and the millions who stepped forward when their time came to serve I say thank you.  We voted last week – you made that possible.  Think about that as you conduct your business the rest of this week and you serve customers. clients, and commercial causes, hopefully as well as the Vets served us.

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November 8, 2013 · 9:07 am

Executing The Staff

Foodie Friday, and although the title of today’s rant sounds as if it involves improving the bottom line by drastically reducing overhead, nothing could be further from the truth.  Since we’re food-related today, the topic is how restaurants that do daily deals manage to do them well.  If you’re like me you’ve probably had the experience of buying a deal from GroupOn, Living Social, or even Amazon and having a so-so experience.  That might be due to the fact that a great number of restaurants that do these deals regret having done so (about half of them, depending on whose research you believe).  So why do they seem so popular?

Image representing LivingSocial as depicted in...

via CrunchBase

The ability of daily deals to generate new customers remains the primary reason for featuring a daily deal for a majority (53%) of restaurateurs that use them.  Bringing in new customers is one thing; getting them to return is another.  In addition, if all the deal does is bring in existing customers who dine at a discount, the promotion has done very little to grow the business.

So what makes some restaurant deals work while others fail?  GroupOn commissioned a study on that and found:

unsuccessful daily deals promoters struggle with many of these same goals – especially the goal of getting customers to return. The key to using daily deals effectively seems to lie in implementing the right steps before, during, and after to better assure success. To be successful with daily deals, companies need to first-and-foremost prepare their staff for the promotion. This one factor, alone, is the strongest differentiator between successful and unsuccessful daily deals users.

In other words, the staff needs to execute, and what that means is instructive for any type of business.  After all, many of the places using these deals are not busy enough. What business ever thinks it is?  But that leads to chronic understaffing.  For these restaurants making sure that they have enough staff to serve the new customers during the deal is critical.   I mean, would you go back to a crowded place where you couldn’t get a server’s attention?

It’s important as well to have a staff meeting to explain the promotion and set objectives for the deal campaign.  Again, better communication with the team means everyone is aware of the goals.  In addition, it’s a chance to remind them that many of the customers will be visiting the restaurant for the first time and to make a great first impression to keep customers coming back.  They also need training on the mechanics of the deal – how to enter codes, how to track spending, etc.  For the deals to work well, the customer needs to spend beyond what they get in the deal – buying wine that’s not included or maybe a dessert.  Training the staff to upsell those thing s can make a big difference in the margin these deals provide.

All of those things remind us that being successful is a team effort and that an informed team that understands what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and how success can be determined increases the likelihood that they will execute well.  Deal?

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