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Who can Keep Up with Marketing Technology?

According to a recent study by Chief Outsiders, a national marketing strategy consulting firm, 88% of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) see the difficulty in staying ahead of Marketing Technology.

Why?

According to Forrester, technology has not just impacted business, it has disrupted it. So much so that CNBC reported that the average life span of an S&P 500 company is about 20 years. It was 60 years in the 1950s according to Credit Suisse. 1

The way technology is evolving, imagine what that figure might be in 20 years.

All you have to do is look at Moore’s law to understand why technology is moving so fast.

What is Moore’s Law & How Does It Impact Marketing Technology?

In 1965, Gordon E. Moore, the co-founder of Intel, made this observation that became Moore’s Law.

Moore’s Law refers to Moore’s perception that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles every two years, though the cost of computers is halved. In addition, Moore’s Law states that we can expect the speed and capability of our computers to increase every couple of years.  Plus, we will pay less for them too. Another tenet of Moore’s Law asserts that this growth is exponential.2

Marketing Technology is influenced by Moore's Law
Moore’s Law tenet is that the number of computer chips on a single board grows exponentially.

Source: Moore’s Law graph3

It is hard for a human to keep up with exponential growth. And marketers are human.  This is why marketers are having trouble keeping up with marketing technology.

Why specifically do CMOs think it will be hard to stay ahead of technology?

Because many CMOs haven’t kept up with marketing technology to-date.  And the exponential growth that is expected to continue will be mind-boggling.

The Marketing Menu Changed!

For example, as recently as the 1990s, marketers had a finite list of advertising and promotional tactics at their disposal.  The tactics to increase sales, improve brand awareness, and grow market share were low tech too.

  • Television (local, spot and cable)
  • Radio (Local & national)
  • Print (Direct mail, FSI’s, newspaper -remember those?)
  • Out of Home (Billboards, transit benches, and shelters, taxi’s, etc.)
  • Promotion (sports teams, schools, etc.)
  • Yellow pages if a local or multi-location business

Today, with the addition of  OTT (Over the Top) TV, banner ads, advertising on social media, and other digital options, the choices on where to place advertising dollars are staggering.

MARTech = Marketing Technology

The modern CMO is faced with options in Martech and Adtech.  Yes, those are real terms used within the marketing world. In 2011, we had about 150 MarTech choices.  By 2019, there were over 7,000 choices.

Marketing Technology growth since 2011
In 2011, there were about 150+ Martech vendors. By 2019, there were over 7000!

 

To put in perspective, RedHat published the following tech stack that is aligned with the customer journey. One brand using this technique would interact with over 30 Martech vendors.

Who can keep up with that, let alone stay ahead of it?

Marketing Technology used for customer journey
Illustrates 30 MarTech companies have to work with to manage the customer journey.

Source: 4

Technology has disrupted business in many ways.  According to Forrester, the primary reason technology has disrupted business is based on three issues:

  • Empowered consumers
  • Blurred lines between digital and physical
  • Disruptive business models powered by data and tech

In their reports titled “Winning In The Age Of The Customer,” and “The Customer-Obsessed Enterprise” Forrester suggests that companies that are not just customer-focused, but customer-obsessed, achieve higher revenue growth, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction.

Enter the COVID-19 pandemic

To put into perspective how important technology to business is, consider how different brands in food service were impacted by the pandemic.

 

As reported in QSR magazine for Domino’s “What’s happened in the first four weeks of Q2 (March 23 to April 19) has been more enlightening. Domino’s witnessed U.S. company comps jump 10.6 percent. Franchises are up 6.9 percent. Blended, it’s a 7.1 percent year-over-year same-store number.”

Chipotle’s digital sales grew 80.8% and accounted for 26.3% of sales for the quarter leading into the pandemic. Source:   https://ir.chipotle.com/2020-04-21-Chipotle-Announces-First-Quarter-2020-Results

The first 3 examples are from brands that were already focusing on their digital capabilities.  Wing Stop was one of the first restaurant brands to offer chatbot ordering on social media platforms. And Domino’s has become the de facto leader in the pizza segment when it comes to technology.

The key takeaway for restaurants is that the pandemic created a new set of consumer desires and demands and the brands (often chain with marketing teams) already knowledgeable and leading in technology won. This plays out in retail too.  If you’re a retailer and you didn’t have an eCommerce platform prior to March 13, you’re probably hurting bad, or closed.

The pandemic forced many brands to accelerate their use and adoption of technology to meet the new consumer needs.

Conclusion

The bottom line when it comes to brick & mortar businesses is that marketing technology is part of the customer experience and great technology can create a great frictionless user experience. Bad technology can do the opposite. The pandemic forced business owners to embrace eCommerce, digital ordering, and contactless payments and transactions faster than ever before. Consequently, brick & mortar brands must:

  1. Own all the consumer touchpoints
  2. Own customer data
  3. Connect offline to online for a true omnidirectional view of your customers

It’s not easy to keep up with technology. The effects of social distancing and working from home simply made every business pivot or adapt to less touch and more connection via technology.

If Forrester is right, the technology we marketers use to reach intended customers needs to pivot and more companies need to become customer-obsessed to succeed.

Staying ahead of that trend will be very difficult, very difficult indeed.

 

Head shot of Doug Reifschneider
Doug Reifschneider

Doug Reifschneider is a 30+ year marketing veteran in the foodservice industry.  He currently works with Chief Outsiders as a fractional CMO.

https://www.itbpartners.com/doug-reifschneider/

Sources:

  1. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/24/technology-killing-off-corporations-average-lifespan-of-company-under-20-years.html
  2. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/mooreslaw.asp#nearly-60-years-old-still-strong
  3. https://hackernoon.com/moores-law-is-alive-and-well-adc010ea7a63?source=rss——-1
  4. https://cdn.chiefmartec.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/red-hat-martech-stackie.jpg
  5. Source: Winning In The Age Of The Customer Forrester report
  6. Source: The Customer-Obsessed Enterprise Forrester report

 

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Job Search – What’s Your Story?

How To Stand Out?

Now we know what it is like to shelter in place for the better part of two months.  But try to imagine being in the middle of a job search, making good progress, just to have the Covid-19 shelter-in-place recommendation induce a dead stop? What a bummer!  Well, a lot of people found themselves in this situation.  I talked with several and have taken on a few as clients.

I worked with one client who is in a job search for the first time in 15 years.  This client lost her job before the shelter in place began and was just getting traction when everything stopped.  She came to me seeking help with her resume and networking efforts.  She needed a skills tune-up.

A lot has changed since her last job search.  The proliferation of online job boards and electronic resume submissions is a major change.  She wanted to ensure that her resume featured the best keywords to optimize her results with automated resume reading programs.

Then again, job search has not changed that much, especially for senior managers.  85% of jobs are still secured via old fashioned networking.  10% of jobs are found through job boards, with the balance through Executive Recruiters.  Naturally, my advice to job seekers is to allocate their time in the same proportions.  It is not easy at first for those who are not confident networking.  It is easier to sit in front of a computer screen, applying for jobs.  Of course, they become frustrated by the lack of response.

I begin coaching a new client by seeking to understand their career.  This helps me determine how to present the client in a compelling way.  More importantly, I want the client to articulate their story effectively and concisely.  It is not easy at first for most, but eventually, they get it.  This is one of my towering strengths.

The resume is the best place to start.  A well-crafted resume will tell a story about patterns of success and career growth. These patterns reveal the candidate’s orientation toward measurable results, or not.  It also tells something about the type of work and environment where they are most effective.  Are their skills best suited to taking on new projects or assignments?  Are they better suited to turnarounds or troubleshooting?  Do they thrive in ambiguous situations that require rationalization, or making incremental improvements to established lines of business? Whatever the case, I help them identify their career patterns. They become the theme of the candidate’s story.   Make the theme of your career story stand out.

The first time a recruiter or hiring manager touches a resume it is likely to receive little more than 20 seconds of their time.  Obviously, the reader is scanning, not reading. They are absorbing impressions.  Their focus is on the first third of the first page. They are looking for a headline, keywords, phrases, and job titles.  If they are not captivated by what they see, that will be the end of one’s opportunity.  I make those key points jump off the page.

To tell an effective story you must know your audience.  Are you sending your resume to an internal or an external recruiter? Maybe it is going to the hiring manager.  Are you responding to an online Job Posting? Are you scheduled to attend a networking meeting or maybe a one-on-one?  Is your LinkedIn Profile current?   Each point of contact represents a different audience, requiring a different vehicle.  Your job search tools include your resume, Bio, Cover Letter, LinkedIn page, Key Results Summary, and business cards.  They are to be used in a coordinated manner, each for a specific purpose.  A detailed resume is your foundation document.

Make your resume an interesting read.  Make it read like a story.  Each sentence must draw the reader into your journey.  Make them want to read the next sentence, then the next.  When you review your resume, look to see if it tells a story.  Is it clear and compelling?  Is there a common theme woven throughout?    Does it make you look interesting?  Does it entice the reader to schedule a meeting?  If the answer to those questions is not in the affirmative, you have work to do.

Thank you for visiting our blog.

Jim Weber – Managing Partner, ITB Partners

I hope you enjoyed our point of view and would like to receive regular posts directly to your email inbox.  Toward this end, put your contact information on my mailing list.

Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read.  Your input is very important to me so; please leave a comment.

Jim Weber – Managing Partner, ITB Partners

 

 

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Plant a Pine Tree!

Do you know the best time to plant a pine tree?

TWENTY YEARS AGO!!

Do you know the best time to plan your exit strategy??

The first day you stick the key into the front door of your new office!

Franklin Covey said, “Start with the end in view!”

I know in the excitement of launching a new venture and all the chaos that ultimately ensues, an exit strategy is the LAST thing on an aspiring business tycoon wants to consider.  The problem is that once it is pushed to the back burner, it tends to stay there for the next 30-40 years!

So let’s compromise!  If you are 55 years old and own a business, it is time to start giving serious consideration regarding what your ultimate destination will be.  An “Exit Strategy” is about selling the business off and a “Succession Plan” is about passing it down to the next generation, but both demand serious consideration well before you are ready to step away.

Two realities must align at the same time to maximize the value of a business: The owner must be mentally and emotionally prepared to walk away from a business they birthed and nurtured for the last 30-40 years AND the business must be structured to operate without the daily oversight of the owner and generating the highest level of profitability possible. Invariably, the business owners get to the finish line before the business is ready to command its highest multiple!

Now a good M&A guy can recast your financials to take out the country club membership and the spouse’s Cadillac, but if profits have been leaking out of the business, there just isn’t enough lipstick to make that pig win the blue ribbon!

The reason a 10-year runway is advised is to be able to make any necessary corrections in the business and run at that higher level for at least 3 to 5 years prior to going to market to demonstrate sustainable profitability.

As Dr. Ortego used to say, “The VALUE of a thing is the PRICE it will bring!”

Plan NOW to MAXimize Your Exit!!

 

Ralph Watson

Ralph Watson has a varied and extensive career spanning 45 years of increasingly responsible positions in both sales and operations in a very diverse mix of industry specialties, including food processing, textile and apparel, financial services, and professional management consulting.

Ralph served as a Senior Executive Analyst with a number of international consulting companies focused on the family-owned, privately held market where he distinguished himself as one of the top analysts in a highly competitive field.  In early 2014, he personally coached 10 businesses in Europe.

Ralph C. Watson, Jr.   404-520-1030

Thank you for visiting our blog.

I hope you enjoyed our point of view and would like to receive regular posts directly to your email inbox.  Toward this end, put your contact information on my mailing list.

Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read.  Your input is very important to me so; please leave a comment.

Jim Weber – Managing Partner, ITB Partners

 

 

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Employee Engagement – Why Is It So Critical Now?

Today’s employees are facing unprecedented levels of stress both personally and professionally.

Employee Engagement

In many companies, employees face uncertainty and perhaps a furlough, layoff, or pay reduction due to the economic impact of the pandemic. In other companies, where the demand for their service or product suddenly increased (PPE products, telemedicine software, or video conferencing) employees find themselves overwhelmed with excessive hours week after week, perhaps in addition to now having to home school their children. And then there are the essential employees that have been asked to risk their own health to meet the new societal demands brought on by the pandemic.

Every day, we are reminded of the toll the pandemic is playing on employees. You can hear it in employees’ conversations and see it play out live on Zoom conference meetings. The daily news is filled with employees’ reactions to their company’s actions in response to the pandemic. Some companies like Amazon and Google made national news as employees expressed concerns to the press.

How employers treat their employees and how employees perceive their company during this challenging time will have a long-term impact on employee engagement levels for years to come. We saw proof of this in the years that followed the 2009 financial crisis. During that crisis, many companies failed to demonstrate compassion and their actions did not facilitate trust. As companies focused on the economic downturn, they failed to take steps to keep their employees engaged. As a result, many companies experienced decreased productivity, reduced customer satisfaction, and higher levels of attrition for years after 2009. Similarly, their brand was impacted for years to come as potential new hires used social media and networking to uncover past employees’ perceptions of their employers.

Organizations that take steps now to prevent a long-term disengaged workforce will reap benefits not only in the short-term but for years to come after the pandemic is history. Even as companies work hard today to contain costs, there are a number of simple, low-cost actions all employers can take to keep their workforce engaged.

High Impact, Low-Cost Employee Engagement Actions

Ensure alignment of the leadership team. Senior leaders set the tone and are responsible for making sure all managers model the tone and deliver consistent messaging.

Constant, transparent communication with employees is key, especially in trying times. Companies can keep employees informed through various channels, including corporate-wide virtual meetings, manager 1:1 meetings, and electronic updates.

Develop a culture and expectation that all managers check-in with their employees on a regular basis. By checking in with employees and listening, managers will develop an understanding of each employee’s concerns, needs, and goals.

Establish and communicate the go-forward vision for the company so employees can understand and support the vision.

Create an informal or formal mechanism to take the pulse of employees. Then ensure senior management receives this important feedback and as needed, takes actions in response to the feedback.

Regardless of the specific impact the pandemic is having on your business, the key to successfully and rapidly getting back on track at the back end of the pandemic will in a large part depend upon your workforce. By focusing on these employee engagement best practices, employers will foster a culture where employees are motivated to help the company achieve its goals. An inspired workforce will work hard to achieve productivity and sales goals. A disengaged workforce will complain to customers and resign when the job market picks up. Given the strong link between an engaged, motivated workforce, and corporate success, there has never been a better time for companies to focus on employee engagement.

 

Anne Gildea-Olt

Anne Gildea-Olt is the managing member of Strategic HRM Solutions, LLC., an HR consulting firm committed to helping companies successfully navigate change, accelerate growth, and deliver proactive innovative human capital solutions.

Anne@gohrmsolutions.com https://strategichrmsolutionsllc.godaddysites.com

Thank you for visiting our blog.

I hope you enjoyed our point of view and would like to receive regular posts directly to your email inbox.  Toward this end, put your contact information on my mailing list.

Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read.  Your input is very important to me so; please leave a comment.

Jim Weber – Managing Partner, ITB Partners

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The Laws of Growth

Growing up on a small farm in South Georgia, I learned at an early age there were laws that governed the growth of crops and animals. Now as an adult I hear everyone talking about growing a business, growing a family, growing a political party, growing a church – it seems like everybody is trying to grow something!! It has occurred to me that the Laws of Growth I learned on the farm about growing an organism might also apply to grow an organization.

The First Law of Growth is that Growth is the NATURAL RESULT of a healthy organism.  We did not go out every morning and wake the cows up and encourage them to grow! We kept them fed and watered and they just grew!  For those of you who have children, you never had to go in the baby’s room and tell Junior it was time to start stretching so he would grow! You just had to keep him fed and watered and he grew!

May I be so bold as to suggest that if we have a healthy organization, it too will naturally grow?  If we build an organization where people want to work and contribute, they will not want to leave and will become a brand ambassador for other people looking for a healthy work environment. And our clients and customers will benefit from their loyalty and will want to purchase as many of our products and services as they can use, and they too will become brand ambassadors for others needing what you provide!

So how do you go about creating that healthy organization?

The Second Law of Growth is you must Plant the Seeds to Reap a Harvest. You can’t just lay the seeds on top of the ground and expect to reap anything on the farm, and you can’t just talk about what you’re going to do, you must actually DO something!

You have to break up the fallow ground, plow it up, loosen the soil, allow it to breathe and accept rainwater! When is the last time you took a long, hard look at how you do what it is that you do? How long have you been doing the same old thing the same old way? Are there parts of your organization that needs the refreshing of a good plowing?

Now, this is not the “just change something to be changing” mantra, but would any of your key people benefit from some additional training or a motivational seminar?  Are there processes that could be changed to produce better outcomes? Would it help to have a consultant or outside advisor come in and give your organization a complete evaluation top to bottom? What would happen in your organization if you pulled your salespeople into work in operations and sent your operations people out to make sales calls – even for a short period of time?

It has been said that a RUT is just a grave with the ends knocked out and ruts can be deadly in an organization if not plowed up!

The Third Law is you REAP what you SOW! This could be a book in itself!  You will reap the ATTITUDE you sow! You will reap the employees you hire! You will reap the character you develop! You will reap the policies you implement!

On the farm, it didn’t cost much more to purchase the BEST seeds, and, in the long run, they always gave the best yield. Might I propose that hiring the best people will, in the long run, be your best bargain? Hiring less than the best is a false economy – you will always get what you pay for!

The Fourth Law is that your Harvest is directly proportional to the care you provide your crops. You have to make sure your plants are receiving adequate water and fertilizer, and your employees must be receiving adequate compensation and training!  Your clients and customers must be receiving high-touch relationships and quality products and services! Start being stingy and your organization will react.

The Fifth Law is you must PULL the WEEDS! If there is someone in your organization that is not contributing, either motivate them, train them or fire them.  If there is anyone sowing discord, fire them immediately. Crops cannot compete with weeds for water and fertilizer and your employees are not going to thrive with negativity in their world.  And dare I say sometimes a client or customer can become a weed.  Don’t be afraid to fire one of them if they are creating more problems than they are worth.

The Sixth Law is you will always reap MORE than you sow!  For every seed of corn you plant, you will reap 2 to 4 EARS of corn come the harvest!  There should be a positive ROI on every employee and every customer, and that ROI is going to be influenced by how well the leader leads. Unfortunately, this law also works in the negative – reaping more grief than was sown.

The Seventh Law is you reap LATER than you sow! There is no magic wand to instantly create a healthy organization.  It takes time for the efforts you put in to produce the results you are wanting, but don’t let that discourage you from starting the process. Consider it motivation to start NOW!  Get a sense of urgency about creating a great organization.

So, in closing, I recall the words of Kevin Costner in The Field of Dreams, you build a healthy organization and they will come! Employees will come! Clients and customers will come! Profits will come!

Ralph Watson

Ralph Watson has a varied and extensive career spanning 45 years of increasingly responsible positions in both sales and operations in a very diverse mix of industry specialties, including food processing, textile and apparel, financial services, and professional management consulting.

Ralph served as a Senior Executive Analyst with a number of international consulting companies focused on the family-owned, privately held market where he distinguished himself as one of the top analysts in a highly competitive field.  In early 2014, he personally coached 10 businesses in Europe.

Ralph C. Watson, Jr.   404-520-1030

Thank you for visiting our blog.

I hope you enjoyed our point of view and would like to receive regular posts directly to your email inbox.  Toward this end, put your contact information on my mailing list.

Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read.  Your input is very important to me so; please leave a comment.

Jim Weber – Managing Partner, ITB Partners

 

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The 7-R’s of Resiliency

Doug Reifschneider

Building portco resiliency right now 

The current COVID-19 crisis is already changing the economy in extraordinary and unexpected ways. But there are steps private equity firms can help their portfolio companies make to help weather the storm, and recover when the clouds lift, according to Doug Reifschneider, a CMO with Chief Outsiders.

 The world’s best epidemiologists only have models to predict the full depth and breadth of the COVID-19 pandemic, but companies are already feeling the weight of the economic fallout. They’re scrambling to find the best way to respond, and in many cases, survive, all the while being rightly concerned for the health of their families and communities. It’s not easy, and this is no time to pretend otherwise.

Some enterprises might be dusting off contingency plans for downturns or large-scale threats, but this moment requires more than that. It demands a resiliency program, one that’s clear-eyed and proactive. If the outlook is too bleak or too rosy, the result can be the same dangerous inertia. But Doug Reifschneider, a CMO with Chief Outsiders, has a series of initiatives that can counter that.

Building off his extensive experience in the retail and restaurant industries, Reifschneider has devised what he calls the “7 Rs of Resiliency Programs.” It’s a checklist that can help frame and direct the efforts to respond to COVID-19. “It’s based on a mental framework from the US Marines that is centered on three steps in coping with a crisis: improvise, adapt and overcome,” says Reifschneider. “Plenty of people are improvising at this point, but it’s time to look at more constructive ways to adapt and plan for recovery.”

Private equity firms would do well to look within each company of their portfolio and help guide them in executing each one of these steps.

Review costs. “Most people are already doing this, as they’d have to be asleep at the wheel if they weren’t,” says Reifschneider. Still, beyond canceling recurring services that are simply irrelevant, like window washing, it can involve hard calls about labor and supplies. A lot of restaurants, retail brick & mortar and even brand HQ’s are furloughing employees and the current stimulus will help alleviate that pain, but those cuts need to be executed without crippling the resiliency program.

Reassign tasks. Sometimes the best thing a company can do is focus on what it can give back. In the short term, that can be repurposing the business for strictly philanthropic purposes. He cites one restaurant that used its parking lot for a Red Cross Blood Drive. “It doesn’t address the bottom line, but it establishes the business as a partner in the community,” says Reifschneider.

Rethink offerings. For restaurants that never considered takeout or delivery options, this is the time to launch those. For retailers, this can involve more online ordering and curbside pick-up. But creativity is key here. Brazilian steakhouse chain Fogo de Chao was centered around its all-you-can-eat in-house dining experience. “So they became a butcher shop, offering their unique cuts of meat so folks could cook them at home,” says Reifschneider. “It’s a savvy way to redeploy inventory and keep sales from cratering completely.”

Another example is the company Wow Bao, that created a special licensing deal to allow other restaurants to produce and sell its dumplings by selling the ingredients and a few pieces of equipment to do so.

Reconsider sacred cows.  As businesses rethink their offerings, they can run smack into certain “sacred cows” that seem to be integral to their identity. That high-end eatery may balk at delivery options since that fish dish might be ruined in the thirty or forty-five minutes it takes to deliver it. “This is no time for those kinds of pretensions,” warns Reifschneider. “Find a way to make a meal pack, which are popular now, or focus on offerings that can be delivered successfully.” Several restaurants have created pop-up drive-throughs, with no more than a tent and a landlord’s blessing. And the likes of Home Depot have shifted to curbside pick-ups even as it prided itself on counseling customers in the store.

Reschedule Initiatives. Retailers and restaurants that had planned remodeling projects could move those up, but only if they have the resources to do so. “It would take only the best-capitalized businesses to embark on such remodeling projects, but if they can, it’s worth doing,” says Reifschneider. “Instead of closing for that week in August to remodel, do that now.” Of course, such initiatives can still be hindered by government directives that limit non-essential work.

Reconnect. Communication matters more than ever. “We may be keeping our distance physically, but we’ve never been more social,” says Reifschneider. “We have regular Zoom happy hours and contact clients regularly.” B2B companies will have closer relationships since they sell directly to their clients, but B2C companies shouldn’t go quiet either. They need to reach out every few days, so long as they are mindful of tone and content.

Reifschneider cites a recent study by Edelman that surveyed over 12,000 people across 12 countries on brand trust in the wake of COVID-19, which finds that 71% of respondents would lose trust in a company forever if that company is seen as putting profits before people right now.

 

“Every enterprise should take that 71% seriously, and make sure their communications are exclusively about how they’re helping their communities, their customers and their employees cope with the situation,” says Reifschneider. “Striking a tone of generosity and support is crucial.”

Ready the relaunch. There is no reliable guidance for when any company will return to normalcy. However, Reifschneider notes this shouldn’t prevent companies from planning the steps for a reopening. Employees will need to be retrained with new procedures for interacting with customers, and in the restaurant business, there are likely to be new protocols for food prep and increased sanitation. Dining rooms and showroom floors will get dusty during the shutdown, so time needs to be allocated for a deep clean. “This also might be a great time to retrain employees in customer service, stocking shelves, or getting CPUs in line,” says Reifschneider.

However, no one should take any of these steps in a vacuum. Each needs to be tailored to the market reality facing a given enterprise. “At Chief Outsiders, we vet all assumptions, with hands-on research initiatives that capture how customers and peers are thinking and acting,” says Reifschneider. “And we do this even when the market is stable and growing, let alone during a crisis that can change everything overnight.”

So perhaps the first step in any resiliency plan is for a business to get its bearings, and understand exactly where it stands at the moment. It might be all the more important to listen before speaking, to ask, and use that feedback to gauge what to do next. The best private equity firms will already have open channels with their portfolio companies and that level of candor and sense of collaboration should be extended to all stakeholders.

In times like this, humility might be a secret weapon, provided it doesn’t stop a company from acting. Fortune may still favor the bold in times like these, but only if the bold is informed and willing to help.

Doug Reifschneider
Doug Reifschneider

https://www.itbpartners.com/doug-reifschneider/

Thank you for visiting our blog.

I hope you enjoyed our point of view and would like to receive regular posts directly to your email inbox.  Toward this end, put your contact information on my mailing list.

Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read.  Your input is very important to me so; please leave a comment.

Jim Weber – Managing Partner, ITB Partners

 

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The Isolation of Ownership

Bottomline First: Owners don’t really have anyone to talk to about their problems. Reach out to those in your care.

Outside of a preacher in a small church, I don’t know of a more lonely calling than a small business owner.

I will often ask them, “Do you know what your friends think of you?”

They look at me with stunned incredulity since I had only met them a couple of hours earlier and know none of their friends.

I proceed to tell them, “Your friends think they have it made, they think you come and go as you please, hire people to do what you don’t want to do and write it all off on your taxes!!  They think you have the Life of Riley!”

Then they say, “You know, you are absolutely right!”

And I assure them if they try to convince their friends just how hard it is owning a business, they think you are pulling their leg!

And THIS is during the GOOD times!  The loneliness is only getting worse in the economic environment of the day!

Many times business owners will become overly friendly with their employees to cope with their isolation knowing they get the day-to-day stresses with which the owner is dealing. But that becomes a management problem within the business and makes it almost unthinkable to furlough them when times get tough.

Business owners are seen as “having it all together” not only by their friends and the public at large but also by their families.  I can’t tell you how many times I have interviewed a business owner during an analytical survey of their company who was showing a loss on their P&L only to discover he (or she) had not told their spouse. And let’s be honest, men, we are more guilty of this than our sisters-in-business. That stinkin’ EGO of ours gets us in trouble and then cuts off the support we so desperately need!

So to you advisors of these stalwart but hurting heroes of our economy, reach out to them! They need to know there are people and places that can be safe for them to unmask their pain.

Bankers, attorneys, wealth advisors, CPAs, insurance agents, consultants, accounting firms, HR firms – any trusted advisor in their life can just BE THERE for them and let them know it is OK for them to share anything that is bothering them.

If you are in a role they might not feel comfortable due to the business relationship (like their banker), try suggesting they might want to talk to a friend of yours.

As Charles Dickens wrote in the Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of time…”  We have been brutally snatched out of “the best of times” and forced into what is arguably “the worst of times.”

As a man of faith, I would that all men and women would seek guidance from the Creator of us all to lean into Him and His wisdom for our individual and corporate deliverance.

Let’s all be there for each other as we walk through the valley of shadows.

Ralph Watson

Ralph Watson has a varied and extensive career spanning 45 years of increasingly responsible positions in both sales and operations in a very diverse mix of industry specialties, including food processing, textile and apparel, financial services, and professional management consulting.

 

 

Ralph served as a Senior Executive Analyst with a number of international consulting companies focused on the family-owned, privately held market where he distinguished himself as one of the top analysts in a highly competitive field.  In early 2014, he personally coached 10 businesses in Europe.

Ralph C. Watson, Jr.    404.520.1030

Ralph.Watson@BeGreaterFaster.com

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Are You Loyal to Your Customers?

Doug Reifschneider

We love our customers

Loyalty, not such a long time ago, was a fairly easy thing to cultivate. You give a punch card or green stamps (or even wooden “round-tuits,” some of you may recall) to your customers, and they reward you with frequent visits or purchases so they can earn the points or badges to pocket free stuff.

Even today, as businesses like restaurants, retail stores, airlines, and hotels work to digitize and mobilize loyalty programs, customers still find it exciting and compelling to rack up the rewards.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the bank—loyalty, it seems, can be a fairly fickle concept—and even with the ease of participating in today’s e-programs, they don’t seem to be creating the brand affinity and “stickiness” that companies crave.

In fact, a third of customers will vote with their feet after a single instance of poor customer service, according to one survey. Keep ‘em happy, however – with outstanding personal service, great products, and minimal gimmickry—and you have an 80 percent chance of cementing that loyalty.

The message here: Being loyal to your customers, in today’s uber-competitive landscape, is as critical—if not more so—as customers being loyal to you.

If it seems like the script has been flipped, you’re right. In the days of Loyalty 1.0, those green stamps paved a one-way street of loyalty, from consumer to company. But now, in the world of Loyalty 1.5, with the ability to gain insights through apps, clicks, interactions, and views, it’s easier than ever to open a reverse lane of loyalty traffic from the company, right back to the customer.

So, let’s step back for a moment and think about what we really want to do. How do we tool our loyalty programs to demonstrate our love of, and affinity for, our consuming public? And, in particular, how do we replicate this online, without the benefit of the human interaction that comes with bricks-and-mortar businesses?

How to be loyal to your guests

Here’s an example using a counter service fast-casual restaurant concept.

Imagine if you will, striding into a local fast-casual restaurant near your office.  You’ve been in about once per week for the last two months because it is close, and you like the food.  You decide you’re in the mood for their grub again for lunch, so you cross the street, walk in the door, and take your place in line.

As you wait, you look at the menu and think about the meeting you just departed. Now, you approach your cashier, Susan (you know because of her name tag) and she looks up and says, “Hi, Mr. Smith! Great to see you. Would you like the usual today?”  You are shocked she knows your name and are impressed she knows your usual order. You reply, “Yes, please,” and add a drink. Susan goes on to say, “Mr. Smith, you’ve been in a lot recently and we love serving you.  Lunch is on us today!”

In this scenario, it’s easy to see why you would be floored. Susan not only knew your name, but she comped your meal too. The rest of the experience is equally as stellar (clean restrooms, a spotless restaurant, a follow-up visit from the manager) and you return to the office and tell six of your co-workers. The restaurant was loyal to you — which created an emotional bond, and the intensification of your love for that restaurant brand.

Loyalty 1.0 and 1.5 promised the ability to scale loyalty, and in most cases it did. But to add personalized messaging – like that offered by the restaurant chain — and to attempt to be loyal to your guests on this type of grand scale, takes time and a mastery of technology. Is your company up to the challenge?

If you’ve been around for awhile, perhaps you felt a little déjà vu when you heard loyalty platforms would save your team time?

Many years ago in a galaxy far, far away, a similar promise was made…

The Machine of The Year – 1982

Promise to save time

At the dawn of personal computing, and before PCs and laptops became ubiquitous, we were promised that these gizmos were going to make our lives easier and give us more time to enjoy life.

The impact of the Apple II and the IBM PC was fully demonstrated when Time magazine named the home computer the “Person” of the Year for 1982. It was the first time in the history of the venerable publication that an inanimate object was bestowed with this award.

An excerpt from an accompanying article, “A New World of Dreams,” painted a rosy picture of a promised future:

“…Point is, it will save you time. Time time time. And we need all the time we can save. Can’t kill time without injuring eternity. Thoreau said that. Great American, Thoreau.

You say: Why should I want to save time? I hear you, friend. I hear you. You wonder where it gets you, saving all that time when you think about old Henry Ford’s gizmo that was supposed to save a peck of time. Only instead of conquering the open road, we wound up living on it. You’ve got a point. You a college boy? But this is the country of the A-bomb and the zipper. We always save time, good and bad. Tempus fugit. Time is money. Most of all, time is dreams. And computers give you time for dreams.”

Loyalty 2.0

So, how do we upgrade to Loyalty 2.0? How do we blend all that we have learned to produce a loyalty relationship with our clients that is as strong as the one we wish them to have with us? A good starting point is to replicate the 1-to-1 experience – with as much richness as we can – in the digital universe.

For a Loyalty 2.0 program to succeed, it needs to have a few of the following features:

  • Social media integration
  • Detailed analytics
  • Targeted email marketing
  • Targeted text message marketing
  • Smartphone integration and an app
  • Software that’s integrated with POS
  • Segmentation tools
  • Campaign tools
  • Customer recognition
  • Loyalty automation

The last four points are the most important. Most Loyalty 1.5 platforms lacked automated campaign and segmentation tools. Or, took too much time and effort from your teams to create the kind of personal connections we are advocating for now.

To get your company on track quickly, you might consider a provider like Punchh, LevelUp, Paytronix, and others that live in the Loyalty 2.0 space.

All of these are vendors that are purely focused on the B2C experience. They are dedicated to providing clients with a mobile-first strategy. It makes it easy to analyze customer behavior, generate insights, and develop sophisticated marketing automation. And it makes customized campaigns and promotions possible. Most offer deep integrations with leading eCommerce/online ordering, POS, and payment providers. All that provides marketers with a single view of the customer for omnichannel engagement across physical retail and digital channels.

Are you ready to take a leap forward into the world of two-way loyalty? By adopting a Loyalty 2.0 mindset, you will find it easier to be loyal to your customers. However, you’ll still need to commit corporate resources to execute with success if your customers are to feel the love.

 

Doug Reifschneider
Doug Reifschneider

Doug Reifschneider is a dynamic results-oriented, data-driven professional, Douglas drives nationwide growth through the creation and delivery of unique, creative brand strategies enhancing customer affinity and market position. With 25+ years of executive marketing experience, he strengthens brand equity with resonating positioning strategies. He uses successful marketing programs and innovative marketing campaigns that boost revenues. An innovative leader with strong team-building and collaboration skills, his strategic initiatives generate substantial shareholder and franchisee value and open new revenue opportunities.

Thank you for visiting our blog.

I hope you enjoyed our point of view and would like to receive regular posts directly to your email inbox.  Toward this end, put your contact information on my mailing list.

Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read.  Your input is very important to me so; please leave a comment.

Jim Weber – Managing Partner, ITB Partners

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Buying Local: How Multi-Unit CEOs Can Win at Marketing in Anytown, U.S.A.

There was a time, generations ago, when buyers didn’t venture too far from their home to satisfy their basic needs. Today, most consumers don’t think twice about using a few keystrokes to get the necessities shipped from some distant warehouse to their front door.

Despite this phase shift, “buying local” remains a relevant concept and even a source of pride for communities that rally around the brick-and-mortar businesses that still dot the landscape.

So, in the face of Amazonian-sized efforts to get consumers to do otherwise, how can you, as a multi-unit CEO, provide the necessary marketing support to your local units to keep the lifeblood flowing?

Local store marketing, or LSM, though not easy, isn’t really that hard. Once you commit to a strategy, the actual motions can be exceedingly easy. Nonetheless, LSM requires patience, commitment and resources; and execution can be time-consuming and tedious. And unlike online marketing, where data flows in both directions, many LSM efforts are still measured by feet (the human kind), and not 0s and 1s.

So, how do we define LSM, and what are some key considerations to foster success?

LSM – A Definition

First, let’s consider the following examples:
• A local restaurant drops off a catering menu to your office.
• You notice that a little league baseball team is sponsored by the local hardware store.
• You encounter three dry cleaners within a mile of where you live, each with a sign that promotes their price or extra benefits.

Of these, which would you consider to be LSM? If you answered “all,” you would be correct. Whether you know it as guerilla marketing, shoe-leather marketing, neighborhood marketing or even just plain old “local marketing,” all of these fit the definition of LSM – marketing and advertising for a small business location to augment other national or regional marketing, IF the small business is part of a larger brick-and-mortar chain.

Lather, Rinse and Repeat

To be effective, LSM has to be executed every week, all the time. Sponsoring a little league team once, or replying to online reviews twice per year, or buying an ad in the local shopper twice is what we at Chief Outsiders call “Random Acts of Marketing” – those sporadic and non-strategic one-offs that do little to move the needle.

To be truly successful, LSM needs to be a fixture of every local store’s marketing plan – in the words of Vince Lombardi, “it is not a sometime thing, it is an all the time thing.” The best way to make this happen is to commit resources to it as part of your overall marketing mix. Since it typically comprises but a small percentage of your chain’s overall marketing budget, it is built for endurance – not speed – so you need to be patient with the outcome.

Site Awareness is as Important as Brand Awareness

I’ll share a true story about an experience I had when I was at Firehouse Subs. The story takes place several years ago, when online reviews weren’t yet a big thing, and mobile didn’t have the pervasive influence that it does today.
It was at a time when Firehouse Subs had about 300-400 restaurants, and we determined that, without the air cover of regional or national advertising, we had to do something to jump-start sales and get franchisees engaged.
One way we did this was by conducting “Founder’s Tours.” The co-founders, COO and many of the rest of the HQ staff went on bi-weekly road trips, known as Founder’s Tours. On one trip, we pulled up to a restaurant in central Florida and clamored out of the bus. There were 12 of us on the bus that day and when we arrived at the restaurant at around 9:30 a.m., we were given a map of neighborhoods and businesses to visit and bags filled with catering menus, courtesy cards, cookies, and chips. Of course, one person had to remain behind to be the sign waver.

That’s right – the sign waver. That’s because the two primary LRM tactics we were modeling for the franchisee were:
1. Neighborhood canvassing to get to know your neighbors
2. Sign waving to draw attention to the location

Shows example of sign waving
Sign waving in the rain

While I waved a large sign with a Firehouse Subs logo on it, six teams of two people each went into the trade area and visited as many other local businesses as they could in about two hours. When everyone returned to the restaurant, we debriefed.

Here’s what we learned:
• Each team covered a distance of about ¾ – 1 mile from the restaurant
• Most businesses were happy to receive the “free” goodie bag
• About 75 percent had heard of Firehouse Subs (Brand awareness, yes!)
• Over half of those visited did not know of the specific location of this restaurant

I’ll let that last bullet point sink in for a moment. Over 50 percent of the people we talked to within a mile of the restaurant had no idea they were less than a mile from the restaurant. Had this been a new location, site awareness would have been expected to be low. Unfortunately, the business had been open and operating for more than 4 years at the time of the Founder’s Tour visit.

That’s when we realized that brand awareness is one thing, and site awareness is another. Having brand awareness without site awareness is worthless.
How can a small business let potential customers in their trade area know where it is located?

Be active in the community, get to know your neighbors — and be visible.

In other words, commit to local marketing for your locations, and be found.

About the Author

Doug Reifschneider is a dynamic marketing leader with 30+ years of experience in the restaurant industry and a demonstrated history of driving growth through the creation and delivery of unique, creative brand strategies enhancing customer affinity and market position.

Contact Doug at:   reif78@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting our blog.

I hope you enjoyed our point of view and would like to receive regular posts directly to your email inbox.  Toward this end, put your contact information on my mailing list.

Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read.  Your input is very important to me so; please leave a comment.

Jim Weber – Managing Partner, ITB Partners

 

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The BEST Consultant!

 

Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors, there is safety.  Proverbs 11:14

I have a lot of professional friends who are consultants in a variety of fields of discipline, as am I. So this blog post is not intended to slam any of them or any other consultant or advisor.

I’ve worked with hundreds of business owners over the years and I came to the realization over time that businesses try to talk to their owners!

A business will try to tell their owner if someone is stealing from them, or if their scrap or rework is too high if their marketing isn’t working, which employees are most valuable, which customers are making the most of their profits if their productivity is slipping, and on and on – – –

The question I then ask these business owners is: “Do you have the ‘ears’ to hear what your business has been trying to tell you for the last 20  years?”

It’s humorous when they non-verbally shake their head side-to-side, acknowledging that in fact, they can’t!  Their business IS their VERY Best consultant, but they can’t understand what it is trying to tell them because they do not have it structured to provide its wisdom in an understandable “language.”

It’s like a radio station broadcasting EVERYTHING about the business 24/7, but the business owner doesn’t have their “receiver” set to the proper frequency!

You may have seen the NetSuite commercial where the founder says, “If you don’t know your numbers, you don’t know your business!”  And he is absolutely right!

Most business owners understand the fundamentals of a P&L – income and expenses over time. They can look down the expense sheet, see “Telephone” “$350!” “Got it!”

But put a Balance Sheet in front of them and the fog starts rolling in!  And most have never even heard of a Statement of Cash Flows!

But this “Three-legged Stool” is designed by CPAs to primarily do their taxes, and they are by design and utility, historical records – a ‘backward’ look at the business. In a sense, it is like driving down the road with the windshield of their truck painted black trying to steer by looking in the rearview mirror!

Business owners need FORWARD-looking management reports that can tell them on a daily, or even minute-to-minute, basis, where they are going.

One critical report is an Exception or Variance Report! But the business owner MUST have a BUDGET before they can have an “exception!”

I always ask the business owner if they have a budget, and if they say “No,” I assure them that they DO in fact have a budget, the only question is: “Who wrote it?”  Because if the business OWNER did not write the budget, the BUSINESS is writing it for them!  And it is an UNCONTROLLED Budget!!  Not one that drives increased profitability!

The other essential forward-looking management report is a KPI or Flash Report or a Dashboard report that captures all the data most relevant to the performance of the business. These must be custom designed from an in-depth analysis of the business and its processes.

In closing, many small to mid-market, privately held companies need help with their basic accounting package to get their Chart of Accounts cleaned up and a budget added to their system. Another sign that this has to be a priority is if there are maverick spreadsheets or other rogue financial reports being utilized in the operation OUTSIDE of the main accounting system.

So, take heart, my fellow consultants!!  Just get comfortable being the SECOND BEST consultant your client has AFTER you help them get their financial reporting house in order!!

Ralph C. Watson, Jr.  404.520.1030

Ralph.Watson@BeGreaterFaster.com

Thank you for visiting our blog.

Jim Weber – Managing Partner, ITB Partners

I hope you enjoyed our point of view and would like to receive regular posts directly to your email inbox.  Toward this end, put your contact information on my mailing list.

Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read.  Your input is very important to me so; please leave a comment.

Jim Weber – Managing Partner, ITB Partners