Dodo Loves Marketing

Traditional methods for building trust between managers and workers are to stress common objectives, build group spirit, and offer motivational rewards.

But this “shared fate” approach is flawed, contend Samuel Culbert and John J. McDonough, co-authors of Radical Management: Power Politics and the Pursuit of Trust .

“It is impossible to keep redefining every situation so that all employees feel they have the same goal, and it is unrealistic to expect people to continually subordinate their personal interests,” says McDonough, a professor of management at UCLA. He has found that real trust grows when employees are consistently shown that their needs are understood and respected. ..more

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“You’ve been uncooperative, lax and late for work three times in a row. Take tomorrow off—with pay.”

Has this supervisor gone dotty, rewarding poor performance with a day off? What’s going on?

It’s positive discipline at work. The technique, introduced more than 20 years ago by Canadian industrial psychologist John Huberman, has been used at organizations like General Electric, Union Carbide, AT&T, the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, and others. ..more

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Even in an era where mandatory retirement ages are .creeping higher and higher, corporate managers need to plan for their own transitions from the seat of power to new roles and other activities.

For some, a top consideration is perpetuating a philosophy of business that they feel they have helped their companies develop. They want to know that what they have contributed to the corporate culture and success will not be lost.

Others are more pragmatic. They accept that new management must set its own standards and tone. They put their energies into planning for their own futures elsewhere.

There are many managers who don’t care too deeply about what happens to their organizations after they leave. Such managers recognize that corporations are, by their nature, designed to survive the individual employee, and they, therefore, see little value in staying too emotionally involved. ..more

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“Cognitive divergence” describes the situation of a person whose thinking has become so different from the rest of the group that he or she doesn’t really fit in. This person is now considered ^-out of it,” an eccentric, a maverick. Some changes that can make you seem like this in your own organization:

• Your company may have changed since you joined it as a bright young newcomer. New people with a different management philosophy may have taken over, or the company may have expanded or changed direction as time passed.
• Times may have changed. New ideas, new technology may cause a company to change its outlook. Where once it valued those managers who ran production centers or developed new products, now it may save its smiles for its financial or marketing managers. Or, vice versa. ..more
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You have been aware of the situation for some time now. Bits and pieces of overheard conversations, some rather telling comments from your boss, cryptic glances from some employees. Putting it all together, it seems to add up to one thing: One or more of the people who report to you are going behind your back, taking ideas, complaints, whatever, directly to your boss while bypassing you.

But though you are aware of what is happening, you don’t know why it is. “And that’s something I’m going to have to find out,” you tell yourself. “I’m getting it from both sides—and I have to find a way to put an end to it.” Now you wonder, just what is the best approach to take in a situation of this kind? ..more

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You have a subordinate who you feel has the makings of greatness. If developed and encouraged, this person could climb to the very top. But with a department or division to run, plus your own responsibilities, it’s not always that easy to give your potential star the support and encouragement that’s needed. It’s a universal problem most managers have to contend with.

Some managers think that talent will win out in the end and that nothing need be done to help promising rookies along. With luck and initiative, they’ll make their talents known eventually.

There is some validity to this contention, yet many experts—like James Clawson, an associate professor at the Colgate Darden School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia—feel that managers ought to take an active role in helping subordinates make their mark. ..more

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Sometimes you elevate a staff member only to discover that the person is not up to snuff. In over his or her head, the newly promoted employee can slow the output of your department, unsettle customer relations, or call your judgment into question.

Letting the employee go may be a quick way of handling the problem and saving face, but it can hurt your standing with the rest of your staff, particularly if the person was a good performer in the past. Here are some alternate strategies:

• Be on the lookout for potential trouble. “During the initial honeymoon period, managers often overlook the person’s shortcomings, but doing so means mistakes can reach even greater proportions before they’re caught,” says Dr. Chester Schriesheim, distinguished professor of management and the Rosa R. and Carlos M. de la Cruz scholar in leadership at the University of Miami School of Business Administration. ..more
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The advantages and disadvantages of network marketing over conventional selling

Direct selling, network marketing, person-to-person, door-to-door, party-plan selling and other variants have certain advantages and disadvantages over conventional selling:

Advantages

• The customer is seen in the comfort of her home. No effort is required to get to a shop.
• The goods are often delivered directly by the distributor.
• Old and frail people who cannot get about are easily served.
• There is a considerable degree of personal attention.
• Direct selling is often made to friends, so it is a warm and enriching experience, not a sales experience. ..more
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Many network marketing companies steer clear of the word ‘selling‘. The reason? Some 95 per cent of the population actually dislike selling. For this reason you will often read in the classified section of the newspaper an advertisement which reads:

Representatives of these companies invite prospects to ’share opportunities’. They couch their presentation in a way which suggests the business opportunity they are offering is simply that of sharing wealth. Let’s get one thing straight: network marketing involves selling.

The fact is, whichever way you look at it, a network marketing company only succeeds if its products or services are sold regularly month after month; in other words, through repeat purchases. ..more

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The 8″ x 10″ glossy, black-and-white photograph

If you are going to submit a photo with your news release, you can have a good professional photographer take it for you or you can put a roll of black-and-white film in your camera and do it yourself. Photograph only the images that support your news release and take many shots to ensure at least one good photo will result.

Try to adjust your major points of interest so they will appear everywhere except in the centre of the photo. Position these focal points about one-third in from the edges, approximately on the Golden Line.

Have small prints made and examine them for good impact, clarity, interest and relevance. Then the best of them should beblown up to form an 8″ x 10″ (postcard-sized) glossy. Get several copies made if you are sending your release to more than one news organisation. ..more

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‘Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.’

Have you ever tried to eat at a restaurant the day after it’s been well reviewed in the local newspaper? The lines can reach around the block; such is the power of free publicity.

In addition to increasing visibility in your community, press coverage can be copied and used as part of your mailing package to prospective clients. When your company appears in a magazine that is printed in four colours, have the front cover reprinted as well as the piece inside that is about you. The promotional effect of using a colour copy of the article is enormous compared to a dull black and white reprint. In this way the article about you becomes a permanent part of your promotional material and can be seen by people who missed it when it appeared in the media.

You can generate good publicity by taking the following steps:

1 Read through your local newspaper. Look at the length (number of words) of its articles and what subjects are seen to be of interest to its readers. If you live in a major metropolitan area, don’t limit yourself to the largest newspaper or the major radio or television stations. Study local suburban papers and smaller radio stations to determine if they are the right mediums for your news release. ..more

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Use this technique every time you have to write, be it a thank- you card, letter, brochure, flyer or a company’s ‘address to the nation’. By having a clear picture of that one person you most want to hear the message, you come across as a genuine person — which you are, as you are not trying to communicate with the whole world, just with that one important person.

Your style is your own; your message is for them and they feel it, hear it and see it as a real communication.

I was fortunate to attend a Saatchi & Saatchi ‘creative week’ where we asked one of the stars how he created a global campaign. Andy replied that he certainly did not try to put in a black cow, a white sheep or a brown dog. Or a redhead, a blonde and a brunette. Or even a man, a woman and a child. ..more

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‘The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get to the office.’

As was said earlier, always write to thank everyone who has helped you: the person who sent you the company’s annual report and promotional literature, the gatekeeper who helped you get the appointment, the person you met with and anyone else in the organisation who referred you.

Tell those who were not at the meeting how it went, thank them and, if another action has resulted, write to tell them how that turned out. Think how often you have helped other people and how sometimes (often?) the silence afterwards was deafening.

Vary your thanks. It is all too easy to send a typed note on a company letterhead. All that is required is a signature, an envelope and a stamp. There must be many millions of these going around the world daily, achieving little in the way of impact.

You can make sure your thank you will be remembered if you do it in a way that shows you really noticed the kindness and assistance received: you can send a handwritten note-card.

If you are not sure that your handwriting is easy to read, use a calligraphy pen instead. Practise the calligraphy strokes with the help of the instruction leaflet. The improvement will be extraordinary. The pens can be bought at any stationers. Be sure to get one with a refillable bladder, not just the small plastic cartridges that _run out quickly.

Buy good quality ink in a businesslike colour such as blue or blue-black. Pure black looks a little grim for thank-you notes. Do not use different colours such as brown or green, as they are not acceptable in business. Lately I have found felt-tipped calligraphy pens, and they are the best. But be sure to buy several at a time (they are under R10) because they suddenly run out.

Look around for memorable note-cards; the kind that are blank inside. You can find these at a bookstore, museum or art-gallery bookshop. Make sure they look so attractive that people will hesitate to throw them in the wastepaper basket. I found some Japanese lacquer screen cards in black and gold at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. They cost no more than other quite ordinary cards but looked much more special. Even a year later, these cards were still on display when I visited certain offices.

Keep a big box of your memorable cards close by. Try to choose cards that appeal to both men and women or have a box for each. Make sure the cards are congruent with the image of your company you want people to receive. A few minutes and a few cards later, you will have added considerably to the memories of your meeting.

The moment you feel a thank you is due, handwrite a card and send it off. It’s like paying your bills; you get a wonderful feeling of: ‘I’ve done it and it’s out of the way.’

And remember that you can use this technique with prospects and clients when you have been unable to reach them by phone, just to say, ‘Sorry I missed you, I’ll be in touch within three months.’

Consider sending postcards to clients and ‘warm’ prospects when you are away on business or on holiday. I send one to the client and one to the gatekeeper, with my contact details and the date of my return. I will already have given the details to both, but a bright card has more impact and is easier to find than the original note. To prospects the message is simpler: ‘I am away, but will be in contact when I get back.’

Do you find it difficult to say thank you in a way that shows genuine appreciation? It can be as difficult to say thank you in a sincere way as it is to leave a message on an answering machine. Those of us who are usually competent with business language sometimes disintegrate when we have to write a card or leave a clear message on a machine.

Nevertheless, it is important to personalise your thank you and this is not difficult to do if you use this simple technique: set up a mental picture of the person you’re going to contact and prepare a message as though they were standing in front of you.

Now it will be easier for you to say or write, ‘You were very kind and I appreciated your time and patience. Thank you for your help.’ Or even, ‘Thanks, you were great. Much appreciated.’

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‘Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little.’

Promoting the sale

You have provided dynamic, written material, you have had a successful appointment and the potential client seems pleased by what you have to offer. However, he or she is wavering about giving you the business project and, as always, you realise that you have hungry competitors wanting the business, too. In this case, a special offer on your part can make the difference. It says, ‘I really want your business.’

The essence of sales promotion is that it must be easily understood and relevant to your product. It will seem ludicrous to consumers to receive a free embroidery kit if they are buying a puppy! With this principle in mind, let’s look at some examples.

Promotional techniques

In hairdressing you can promote your business using hairdressing products. In fashion, you can use accessories or perfumes. With books you can offer membership to a book club. Your offer must always sound right and be related in some way to your product or service. Here are a few types of special offers you can consider; they represent some of the best promotional vehicles I’ve seen in the past few years, with the exception of competitions, which I have included for discussion only. ..more

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Mailing and phoning around 200 people over a three-month period (60 working days) means you only have to make a few mailings and follow-up phone calls per day.

Never mail a huge amount all at once as you will get so far behind in trying to contact people for an appointment that you will be overwhelmed and stop trying. Instead, mail three or four each night and, after an interval of about a week, phone those three or four people. If you don’t reach them on the first try, try once more that day.

If you reach them, terrific! If you don’t, send a note-card saying, ‘Sorry I missed you.’ Just keep moving. Do not get bogged down by worrying about the 200 people as a whole. Simply see them as small lots of three or four mailings and a few phone calls per day. ..more

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‘I like life. It’s something to do.’

There is another very important step in this quest for winning new business, that of persistence. Almost anyone can put these steps into place but not many people will keep on for days, weeks, months and years afterwards. Nothing replaces persistence. Persistence is what makes the other steps so powerful.

Perhaps it seems a formidable task to put the new-business system into place and it may be so at the beginning. However, the advantage of persistently pushing those barges down the canal is that you incorporate into your daily operations a system for bringing you continual new-business opportunities. ..more

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‘Come quickly, I’m tasting stars.’

In neuro-linguistics, persuasive writing is yours for the doing. By incorporating visual, auditory, feeling and some gustatory words into your copy, you can involve all your readers, just as easily as you can when speaking — more easily, perhaps, because you are able to rewrite words for a printed page, whereas it is difficult to take back the spoken word.

‘Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance or a stranger.’

As a useful beginning to using these three or four languages, go to your files and pull out letters, reports, brochures, flyers and even invitations that have been sent out in the past few months. Rewrite them, slipping in the three or four languages that you have learned from the past few pages. See if the copy now leaps off the page. ..more

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The left-hand side of the brain is the analytical side of the brain that deals with detail, facts and figures. The right-hand side is the creative, sensitive, feeling side of the brain. It follows that where you place an item is important so that the viewers will react in the way you want them to. For instance, a contract should be placed on the right-hand side in order to transfer the logic, facts and detail to the left-hand side of the brain, thereby preparing the person to read and understand.

Creative work, such as a new advertising campaign or colour schemes for decorating an office or home should be placed to the left-hand side, so that the information goes through to the right- hand side of the brain, thus getting the viewer in a state of readiness for the creative decisions to be made. ..more

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How many people really succeed?

There are no precise answers to this question and certainly not everyone becomes successful. Some drop-out must be expected from any downline. It would be a miracle if everyone who joined stayed. This would defy human nature!

Anyone starting in network marketing should realise that a large percentage of their downline will do little or nothing. Many will become inactive distributors (product users only). Many active distributors do not make much of an attempt at making a profit or making their business grow, and some drop out altogether.

However, by understanding what causes new distributors to drop out, you can minimise it in your network and ensure that your network becomes a success. Remember that not everyone in your network needs to become a superstar to make you successful. Even if most members of your network merely buy products for themselves and a few friends, you can have a hugely successful business. ..more

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No matter what their background, education, financial standing and career opportunities, a characteristic all successful network marketers have in common is a positive ‘go-getter’ attitude; the kind of attitude that says: ‘Let’s give it a try.’

Entrepreneurs are people who make things happen. They are the people who refuse to sit back and wait for the good times to roll in. They make their own good times now, through their own actions.

What other characteristics do they share? They are tryers. They regard any experience as a learning experience of value. They recognize that small setbacks are part of the learning process, just as one falls when learning to ride a bicycle for the first time, but that success must come from trying. ..more

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