Category: a slice of INSPIRATION

I heard a fascinating talk at a Ladies Who Launch event the other night that not only helps women business owners hear the secrets about what men think, but also provided some strong marketing and branding advice for any business owner.

Self-professed and reformed “Alpha Male” Chris Flett of GhostCEO was the speaker. GhostCEO helps mentor and coach women business owners by providing answers, not just asking questions like many other biz coaches. If you visit his personal vs. company website that promotes his best-selling book, What Men Don’t Tell Women About Business, you will surely get a taste for his candid, brutally honest, no-holds barred, opinionated style. He’s provocative, I’ll give him that.

OK, I admit I was a bit skeptical . My first thought was that this guy has treated women in business badly (self-admitted) in the past and now here he is trying to make money by acting like he’s on their side? I also hate when women play the “gender” card in business and act like that is why they can’t get ahead when I see so much self-sabotage out there. But I left thinking, “Yes, this guy has a giant ego but he’s honest, has a good heart and his points are extremely valid.” Plus, this is the guy that I want to listen to about business – someone who has created and sold successful businesses . I appreciate candidness in business, and this guy has it in spades. I don’t mind arrogance if the person is successful and has a reason to be arrogant.

Why did he write the book (besides making money)? He felt that if he was going to give advice to a sister, daughter or other woman he loved before she embarked on a business career, what would he want her to know? At least if she’s armed with the information, she can make good choices. This resonated with me (and then my skeptic said, “I’m sure that helps him sell more books!”) But you know what? Who cares, if he’s providing valuable info? That’s a win-win.

So what did we talk about? Here are some highlights. Keep in mind these are provocative generalizations, and you may or may not agree but I don’t doubt that these thoughts and behaviors are out there, as I’ve seen them myself – would love to get some comments going on this. As stated, some of this advice holds true to marketing and branding in general. Want more details and info? Buy the book.

1. Stop giving up your power: Women businesspeople give up their power all the time. With clients, vendors and colleagues. They don’t ask for exactly what they want and when they do, they sugarcoat it or don’t think big enough. Next time you discount for a client or let a vendor/employee railroad you, Chris says to think about what example you are setting for how women should be treated and would you treat a client/partner like that yourself? Taking poor treatment from others in business is not the message we want to send. And as far as brand goes, your personal conduct and reputation supports or negates your brand, so think about that.
2. Cycle each other up, not down: Men push each other to be greater. Women try to “out-miserable” each other. “Business is bad, I can’t do this that or the other.” “Oh, that’s nothing. MY business is suffering from….I can’t…..etc.” Men tend to cycle each other up since Alpha males especially do not want to engage in “loser behavior.” Women tend to cycle each other down. Listen to the language you use with each other and set a better example. Men tend to pick each other up along the way, even if the other guy sucks because you never know when you need favor. Chris adds this is why men love The Godfather so much: the honor code is huge.
3. Never bring up personal issues or family. Not sure I agree 100%, but his point is business is business and personal is personal. I worked with an Alpha Male that followed this philosophy and was seen as untrustworthy and secretive (turned out he was). Chris advises never bringing up family unless the guy brings it up first – and most Alphas will not. And personal issues at work? A no-no. Especially not the “If you had kids, you’d understand why I can’t make deadlines. You are not being fair,” comment a guy friend of mine got from a female colleague. Seriously.
4. Give information differently to men vs. women. Chris told a great story about a financial planner who gave him the bottom line and let him go, but spent 3 hours with his wife going through the process. Men need “what”; women need “how.” Alpha males are goal-driven and care about how much money they can make with the least amount of effort. Women often want to also hear about the process. This also applies to the language you use. Retailers are much more successful with Alpha males when they say, “Let me know how I can assist you” vs. “How can I help you?” Alpha males don’t need “help” – and it puts you in the weaker position of “helper.”
5. Ask for what you want, not what you think you can get. Strong men love strong women who ask for what they want. If you want to do business with an Alpha, be bold, be concise and think big. Don’t think “how”, think “why” and then find people who can show you. Confidence is key. Chris advises answering 3 questions nefore talking business with an Alpha Male (and this is true for your marketing messages as well): What do you do? Why does it matter? Why do I care? If you can’t answer that for an Alpha male (or a customer), you will lose them.
6. Excuses don’t matter, Outcomes do. Alphas care about results. So when you’re late, don’t bore them with all the reasons why; just sit down and promise it won’t happen again. Move on to your next course of action, not the “why” of what came before. Again, Alphas don’t care about process, they care about outcomes.
7. Keep secrets. The secret keeper is the most powerful person in business. And you will be tested by Alphas, Chris says, with half-truths from time to time so they can see if it comes back around.
8. Don’t engage in open war. Hold your cards close to the vest when being openly attacked and don’t engage on their level of reaction. Tell them to “go take a moment and pull themselves together” if you need to diffuse the situation. Women especially need to practice not getting emotional at times like these.
9. Business is not fair. But you can choose to do business with fair people. You have to have boundaries.
10. Ask for endorsements. Don’t be shy about asking for referrals, endorsements and references from those you work with. If you do a good job for them, they will be glad to offer it and this kind of word of mouth is key to growing your business.
11. Always have a Plan B. Pursue your business, but always have something cooking on the back burner. You need a backup plan.

Chris also goes into some common slang terms used by Alpha Males and what they mean, such as “piker”, “kill it and bill it” and “boat anchor” but I siggest you pick up the book to learn more.

Overall, a fascinating talk that gave me lots to think about and react to. But you can’t deny that knowing the game is half the battle to winning the game.

More from Marty Neumeier’s great book The Brand Gap: Marketing appeals have shifted over time from the early part of the century. He walks through a timeline in the book:

1900 – Features – What it has?
1925 – Benefits – What it does?
1950 – Experience – What you’ll feel?
2000 – Identification – Who you are?

While many products and services still focus on their offerings and differentiators, there has been a shift to brand as personal identity. What does owning or being seen with this product or service say about me? This all goes back to the concept of customers as “tribe.” We as humans all want to belong to a tribe that meshes with our authentic self and also speaks to the person we want to be. You can call it a coolness factor, but it’s more than that. Marty talks about focusing on the UBS rather than the USP, as traditional marketing dictates. USP is the Unique Selling Proposition of the product itself; UBS refers to the Unique Buying State of your customers. This means tapping into their current and desired state of mind/being. You can see this is much more of a customer-centric view about what they are thinking and feeling than what you want to tell them about your product or service. This is also why you absolutely must flesh out your audience intimately (their likes, dislikes, pains, aspitations), and not just as a demographic.

I once proposed to a software company I worked for that we focus on making our customers (the buyers in the company’s IT department) “heroes.” While our product had lots of fancy features and capabilities, it was more about the basic human need people have to provide the right answer at the right time while at work.. They are in a tense meeting and they are asked by the higher-ups about specific stats or performance analytics. At that moment in time, they want to provide answers; they don’t want to look stupid. Our product helped them be “in the know.” I proposed building a whole campaign around “Do you know…?Yes, I know…” and tailor the example information to different audiences and industries. Fundamentally, that was the state of mind we should have been speaking to from a brand perspective. The company did indeed adapt a variation of this for their branding and advertising strategy,which really focused on how people FEEL in their jobs, vs. what the product could DO.

Yes, eventually you do need to talk about the actual product or service – you can’t get around that. But creating a higher level, aspirational brand message that speaks to the customer’s condition and state of mind will really help you differentiate from feature-filled product checklists. This is especially important in B2B marketing, as we often forget there are people – real, live human beings – making the buying decision, even if you are selling to a company and not consumers.

What companies – besides Apple, Virgin, etc – do you feel do this well? Any examples from local businesses or smaller companies?

I devoured The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier yesterday while on a long ferry ride. I had never heard of Marty and this book was recommended to me by a designer friend who told me my eBook echoed many of his concepts and philosophies. I highly suggest giving this digestible and practical primer a read if you can.

I’m going to break down some concepts from the book on the blog over the next week or so. But for today, let’s just focus on his principle of brand as competitive differentiator. To avoid commoditization, you need to build a strong brand to enable you to ask for premium pricing as well as to create a predictable expectation and experience among your target audience. This is not to say that branding means creating only luxury brands – it just means people will pay for the soul, the experience, the “promise” of something, vs. a cookie-cutter substitute that does not really stand for anything.

He also talks a lot about how to structure brand building within your organization. The best structures are ones that still retain internal brand stewards to constantly monitor and educate on the brand, and ensure all touchpoints carry forth the promise. You can’t “outsource” branding per se – you can only assemble a strong team to help you achieve branding success and execute on it. That would be like someone “outsourcing” their personality to a more likeable person. Your brand is what you are, so you have to walk the talk.

Many of you are struggling with the economic downturn and perhaps want to revisit your branding and marketing plans for extra sizzle – but can’t afford a consultant right now. If you want to get started on your own, I’ve put my brand strategy process into an entertaining little eBook foryou DIY’ers out there! It’s a great deal for the content provided and is full of tips and anecdotes to guide you through the 10-key questions you need to answer for your brand strategy. I’m so over dry, boring, unrealistic business books, so this simple eBook is easy to follow, snappy and sassy. Check it out here.