The Thing about Expectations

I’ve written before about expectations, especially managing them. But there is another side. For the greatest success, you must exceed whatever expectations exist.

Here’s the thing, once you meet, then exceed those expectations, you have now raised the bar. Created a new set of expectations. That you must now exceed.

It’s not very fair is it? But the point is to continuously improve. Because once you do it that one time, that’s it. You have to do it again. And again. And again. It is never-ending. As it should be.

Set the expectation. Manage it. Exceed it. Then start the process again. Keep moving up and improving.

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Making Something Different

I’m watching a repeat of the season premiere of Project Runway (yes, I am a fan). The challenge for the first week was to take grocery items and repurpose them into something fashionable. Many succeeded, while a few fell flat on their faces.

The most common error was taking an existing fabric—like a tablecloth or shower curtain—and converting it into a dress. Sadly, my young daughters do something similar without much thought.

The ones that proved better used unique materials to get to the same place. A few others added an artistic flair, bringing things up another notch.

Managing a brand is not much different. As Seth Godin likes to say, you have to do something remarkable, something akin to a purple cow. I recently had someone tell me that their “green gorilla” was their version of Godin’s cow. Yawn. It’s just another colored animal. That’s not creative. That’s lazy.

Do something no one else is doing in a way that no one else will. Be unique. And do it well.

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Walk the Talk

We’ve been interviewing a number of local PR agencies lately, and I have to say, for the most part, it has been a disappointing exercise. They talk and talk without truly understanding that this is the equivalent of a job interview, and we expect them to be at the top of their game. If someone is looking for a top-notch agency, have your act together and prove it. Let me give you some examples of what we’ve experienced:

• “Our owners are heavily involved with all of our clients”—Really? They why aren’t they here? If you are going to talk about how involved the owners are, make sure they are there. And if that’s the case, they can tell us themselves.
• “If you’re just looking for someone to write press releases, I can recommend some other people to do that”—Great! Who are they? Oh, you’re not going to actually tell me. Then don’t say it in the first place.
• “We can throw somebody at [your project]“—I hope they don’t get hurt in the process. We are looking to hire an agency to support us, not writer’s pool looking to be hurled at the project du jour.
• “We call you weekly or bi-weekly to give you updates and send you a monthly activity report, because we’ll get in trouble with the owners if we don’t”—Oh, I see. Not because it’s the right thing to do.
• “We do media relations training”—Then why are you incapable of answering a basic question without stumbling through it and looking to someone else for help. If you train in media relations, pretend you are on the podium and in front of a camera.
• “PRSA says you can measure ROI by taking the column inches in the publication (or the number of minutes on television), applying the equivalent ad value, and multiplying by three”—Um, no. That is your return on investment not mine. PRSA is an admirable association, but that is not a measurement of a client’s ROI. I measure my ROI by the actual benefit I receive from the PR activity—sales, number of new clients, registrations. If your activity cannot be associated with something truly measurable for the client, you cannot claim ROI. In other words, if their business doesn’t grow, you didn’t offer them a return. And that is OK, if growing the business isn’t an objective.
• “Other agencies do…(whatever)”—I don’t care what other agencies do. I want to know what you do. I’m talking to other agencies, so I’ll judge for myself what they do. I don’t want to know what you have to say about other agencies unless you are speaking specifically about what a competitor does well that you admire or you are giving me a reason that you left that particular agency that is significantly different at your new one. Even then, be careful what you say.
• “We told our client to do [this particular newsworthy event]“—We heard this from two different agencies. About the exact same thing. Yep, one was taking credit for the other’s work. I don’t know who was who. At that point, it didn’t matter, since both had several of the problems already mentioned.

Again, when you are pitching potential clients, it is a job interview. You have to be spot on your game. If your heart isn’t in it, if this isn’t the most important thing you are doing at that moment, don’t even bother to show up. It will be less embarrassing that way.

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Execution Matters

I was speaking recently with my CEO, and the conversation took a rather predictable turn. For the last several years, I have held firm to the belief that ideas, in and of themselves hold no value. The real value of an idea lies within your ability and willingness to execute.

And how you execute on an idea defines the success. In other words, excellent execution of a terrible idea can produce far superior outcomes than poor execution of a fantastic idea.

Sometimes, being able to guess how well you can execute proves elusive. The idea itself may be absolutely brilliant, so brilliant that you lose sight of how to execute. You get caught up in the rapture of the concept that you focus too little attention of really making it work.

At other times, people really just “phone in” the idea simply because it is easy to execute, and they don’t want to have to work that hard.

If we were talking in theatrical terms, these most likely would be considered comedies. The real tragedy, then, is having a terrific, game-changing idea and having no way of being able to execute on it. Maybe because you don’t have the expertise or the bandwidth or the basic ability to navigate regulatory waters. Whatever the reason, it is a great idea lost because you couldn’t make it work.

When you find yourself in that situation, and at some point you will, look around at who could help. Look for friends, family, associates, similar businesses that could partner with you to make your idea the revolutionary product it is capable of becoming.

Don’t just let it be another breakthrough that dies with that next round of drinks at the bar.

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Leave Me Alone

Since purchasing our new house, we have received an obscene number of mailings, all looking alike but from different vendors (I think) telling us that we have to enroll in bi-weekly mortgage payments. Others inform us that we must take out mortgage insurance.

None of these notices are from our mortgage company, mind you.

The notifications themselves are terribly misleading on the outside, with nothing more than a sales pitch on the inside. And all of them read the same with nearly the exact same layout, verbiage and references. And they are all from different companies.

The consistency among the guts of the mailings indicates that these must be regulated in some way. But if that is the case, why doesn’t the regulation stop them from saying things like “notification of change in payment schedule”. That is downright fraudulent, since they have nothing to do with my payment schedule.

Here’s a hint: if you are trying to get customers by duping them, you’re not going to make it very far. And if you do happen to get some customers out of it, ask yourself how long you think they’ll stick around. Think about it. If they fell for your shenanigans, what else are they likely to do.

And how fun is it to brag that you have the most gullible customers around?

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Ensure Your Customers Are Successful

Here’s a quick question for you. When you sell to your customers, what are you doing to ensure their success? This most likely is targeted to you B2B folks, but it could go to just about anyone selling anything.

Because to the best companies, selling isn’t just about the sale. Or even the repeat sale. It’s about making sure your customers truly are successful in using your product. It’s about building a long-lasting relationship focused on mutual growth.

In other words, when your customers are successful, so are you. When they aren’t, neither are you.

So I go back to my original question: what are you doing to ensure your customers’ success? Train them on how to most effectively use the product. Show them how to price it for resale. Offer them assistance on managing their business. Learn about the results they are getting with your product and why.

Invest in them and their success. It’s what will lead to your own.

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Managing Expectations

On Friday, I wrote about closing loops on everything—questions, requests, complaints, whatever. One thing that will make closing those loops much easier is by properly managing expectations.

This concept is one of the most important business lessons I have learned. It truly is a 360˚ method of management, because it goes up, down and sideways. And managing expectations works because it keeps people on the same page, it gives everyone a basis for assessment and it gets things done.

Here’s what I mean. Your boss tasks you with a project. Keeping him informed of where you are, what obstacles you face and why you will or will not meet the deadline is the only way to ensure you’ll get through it. Without managing his expectations, the first hiccup you hit looks like incompetence.

Look at it from the other side. Suppose you task one of your employees with a project. If you are telling them what your expectations are of them, there is no telling what you will get or when it will be done. Manage it from the beginning and you’ll get a better outcome.

It also works with colleagues. If your working on a project together, keeping your team informed about your particular piece allows them to manage their portion better. And there are far fewer surprises.

Of course, managing someone’s expectations is useless if you aren’t delivering.

What about your customers? How well are you managing their expectations of what you say you are going to deliver? How well are you meeting those expectations?

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Closing Loops

Quality service is the key to business success. That means meeting or exceeding the needs external as well as internal customers. And to do that, you have to close the loop.

Closing the loop is how you follow up. It’s how you answer the question or resolve the complaint or respond to a request. Your ability and willingness to close loops is a direct reflection on your level of service.

That implies, of course, that you actually answer the question, resolve the complaint and respond to the request. It may not be to their complete satisfaction, for any number of reasons. But if you are making a sincere effort, and you are open and honest about why you cannot meet the specific need, then you’ll score some points.

Say anything you want about how good you are. If you don’t close the loop, what you say won’t matter. At that point, it’s just talk.

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Managing Staff

Whenever you enter a management position that includes managing a staff, there are two types of people you will manage: the people you hire and the people you inherit.

When it comes to hiring, you should have a pretty good idea of what you are looking for. That can create anxiety, especially if you’re new at it. Hiring the right people is its own reward, reflected in your success. Hiring the wrong person…well, that can be a nightmare. And the best way to handle it is to end it as quickly as possible. Letting them linger will just make it worse.

On the other hand are the people you inherit. Typically, they will fall into one of three categories:

• People who are or have the potential to be stars. You are fortunate to have them.
• Average workers that aren’t rocking the world but also are doing decent work. You may or may not have hired them yourself, but they’re OK.
• The ones that should have been fired before you got there, but no one wanted to deal with the problem.

For anyone in one of these categories, the first thing you need to do is assess the individual ability and fit with the rest of the organization. The one thing you are trying to figure out is whether the person is in the best position to succeed. If she is, then the decision is simple—doing well keeps her around; failing to execute means she needs to go.

If, instead, she is not in the best position to succeed, find a better way to match her talent with your needs. Then see how well she executes.

At the end of the day, you are building the best possible team for your brand.

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Ads 2.0

I set up some Google Alerts for certain keywords I want to track. One of the neat things about the alerts is that they can include blog posts and new web pages. Some of what I am finding is a bit perverse. Fortunately, the limited execution should mean a short life.

It happens a different ways. One involves a blog post (I’m guessing someone pays to put their post on the blog) with the author’s description at the bottom encouraging readers to learn more at some other website that is little more than a link farm and covered with ads.

Another includes ad links within the body of the post, written in the form of a parenthetical statement. These are easy to spot because they have nothing to do with the context of the piece, and the statements appear in random parts of the sentence.

The final method uses sham “objective third-party” endorsements. One in particular that I found started as a general press release. At the end of the release, there is a non-branded link encouraging people to learn more about the topic. Clicking on the link brings the viewer to a branded site pushing a particular product. To give credibility to the product, the web page refers to a national institute recommending it. The problem is that the institute doesn’t really exist. The product company set it up themselves.

There could be any number of reasons for setting up one of these goofy web 2.0 promotion gimmicks. My guess, though, is that the brand owners either haven’t tried using it themselves—because if they had they would see how ridiculous and in effective at brand building the effort is—or they are modern-day spammers hoping for the most gullible of web users, which also is utterly ineffective at building a brand.

A bit of advice, before subjecting your current and prospective customers to one of these versions of advertising, or any other promotion strategy for that matter, try it out yourself. If it doesn’t quite feel right or fails to reinforce the brand promise, don’t do it.

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