How-Tos
How to Craft a Million Dollar Story
I joined Elaine Grant on her excellent Sound Judgement podcast to talk about how I created my former show - Standing Ovation - and dug deep into my pal David Horsager's signature on-stage story about kids riding sheep. Priceless.
How to Benefit From the Link Between Speed and Profit
Steve Gordon is a terrific host, and I joined his Unstoppable CEO podcast to talk about my Time to Win research and why speed is the most important aspect of customer experience.
How to Win at Customer Experience
My friends Chris Johnson and Jason Dorsey explore the idea of CX as the new competitive battlefield in their webinar on Tuesday, February 7th. Check out The State of Customer Experience in 2023.
Please Tell me!
I'm working on a full rebrand, to put greater emphasis on my work as a business growth expert (and maybe a little nod to my tequila skillz).
New logo. New website. New speaker trailer. It's all happening!
Would LOVE your thoughts on the first round of logo options. 1. is simple and clean 2. is simple and includes the "up" arrow, for growth 3. includes some tequila references
Reply and let me know? Thanks!
Attitude is everything
In the last issue, I told you about BSG - the brewery supply company that includes a Salted Nut Roll in each shipment, spurring conversation among customers.
It's an example of talkable generosity, which is just one of the five
styles of word of mouth strategy:
- Talkable Generosity
- Talkable Speed
- Talkable Usefulness
- Talkable Empathy
- Talkable Attitude
The last of these - talkable attitude - is the rarest because to deploy attitude as a talk trigger, your business has to bake some sass into every corner of the operation.
It's hard to be consistently sassy and achieve that same tonality in all locations.
It's also tricky to lay on the attitude enough to be memorable, but not so much that a lot of customers take offense.
But I just saw it work, with my own eyes.
I'm out in San Diego for awhile, escaping the 17 shades of grey that are Indiana skies (and faces) this time of year.
Near our rental home is one of the handful of SoCal locations of Breakfast Republic - a delicious (and deliciously irreverent) slinger of eggs and other morning-time faves.
At every turn, and on every surface, they lay on the cheek:
This is just a tiny sliver of their henhouse full of schtick.
Probably my favorite manifestation of their commitment to talkable attitude is the interactive Mood Indicator sleeve on the to-go coffee cups (lower right).
There are 4 different chickens to select, giving passers-by a clue as to what condition your condition is in.
I just love this brand - and how fun it must be to come up with new extensions of it.
Does this kind of word of mouth strategy work? Well, I've eaten at a LOT of breakfast places in my life, and never put one in a newsletter, blog post, or even a tweet.
Second, despite the fact that Breakfast Republic has darn good food - and couldn't succeed without it - the story I'm telling you is about the brand because I EXPECT a breakfast place to serve a good breakfast.
Remember, positive word of mouth is created when you give the customer something they do NOT expect, and some LOLs with your pancakes might just be the secret to turning customers into volunteer marketers.
The Books Report
Many of you are required to present your ideas. Some of you often. Others, just occasionally. Some of you to a big audience. Others, to just a few colleagues.
But regardless of where and when you need to present, you'll get a lot better at it if you grab a copy ofDeliver Unforgettable Presentationsby Patricia Fripp and Darren Lacroix.
These two pros have seen and done it all in the presentations world, and have worked with scores of executives to achieve mastery of the medium. Terrific book!
Jay's Faves
Vengeance is a dark comedy/thriller from B.J. Novak (you remember him from The Office).
It stars Novak, Ashton Kutcher, Issa Rae and some outstanding character actors.
It's a quirky plot about a magazine writer in NYC who goes to far west Texas to create a podcast about the murder of a woman he hooked up with.
It's a good yarn but also a sharp observation on America's division along class and geographical lines.
Streaming gratis for Amazon Prime members, and for a small fee on Vudu and Apple TV.
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