It’s time to discuss the one word that often is the differentiators between great plans and weak ones. I wanted to share a quick story about why I thought of writing this post (maybe it will bring up thoughts you can share as well in comments). After a trip to Miami for a pitch to a client on December 18th, I found myself airport bound for 12 hours, and a drive that was eventful to say the least. We had just been hammered with 18″ of snow a day before I was to come back home, and the roads were not yet paved.

Where I choose to live is on a quiet, 150 acre farm, that gives me the peace and quiet needed after so many miles of travel throughout the years. That night was different though, no roads were paved and the only path to getting back home and seeing my family was a 2.6 mile paved road with 2 tire tracks for guidance. I did try to make it in my 2 wheel drive vehicle but found out quickly that getting stuck was not an option, so I headed back to park my car at the local Market and proceed to the next phase of the journey.

As the clock clicked past 8pm, I knew that it would take me at least an hour to walk 2.6 miles, in 18″ of snow, with a briefcase (wasn’t about to leave my Mac PowerBook alone) and a strong mind to get home and see my family after 4 days of being away from them. I started out, down a very dark road, no cars, no noise, just the sound of snow under my feet, and my thoughts. So, nothing else to do but think.

All I could think about was getting home to my family, no matter the conditions. I would have walked 20 miles if I had to-this is what I am talking about here… Commitment. I committed to my family, to be home with them no matter what and I did just that. Through 2.6 miles of 18″ of snow, carrying a heavy briefcase, up hills of ice packed snow trails to get to my final destination. That’s what you have to do to make it in business today. You have to commit to a plan and then have the right people, resources and information to execute a plan. So let’s talk about what this really means.

Commitment. The very word sends varying thoughts and memories into peoples minds when they hear it, discuss it or are asked about it and really, Why Not? Just saying this is not nearly enough to run successful plans, in any area of your business. So lets look at what it actually means, in each area of our personal and business lives, per Wiki:

• Brand commitment refers to the strength of the relationship between consumers (or customers) and a particular brand (or service)

• Personal commitment, interaction dominated by obligations. These obligations may be mutual, or self-imposed, or explicitly stated, or may not. Distinction is often made between commitment as a member of an organization (such as a sporting team, a religion, or as an employee), and a personal commitment, which is often a pledge or promise to ones’ self for personal growth.

In each of these areas, commitment is clearly a “relationship” between something and someone, and fits well with our current efforts in Marketing today. Relationships take Commitment, pure and simple, its the sweat equity you put into it and receive from these efforts that make the difference between success and good enough Marketing Strategies. Companies today who ask me, in ways that dance around this term, hear our only answer: “you have to commit to this medium or it won’t work” period, end of story. Too many times leaders dance around this term of commitment in many areas within Marketing, Sales and Goal setting that result in blame and dissapointment from their employees and their managers when revenue and margin goals are missed.

Here’s the deal: Stop Blaming failures on the team and take the bull by the horns and commit to a strategy.

As the leader of your organization, how can you expect to have your team execute a successful plan when you clearly have one foot in the water and the other foot out? As with Plan, it has to be pushed from the top, no matter how big or small your organization is. If this belief comes from the leader it automatically has credibility, and your team wants to help you get it done and done right. When you half-ass it, guess what… you get half-ass results.

Here are some tips in formulating your Social and Online Strategy so you can commit to it:

• Research: Do it by the numbers not just what’s hot today

Have your Marketing Staff pull some easy research around conversations within your keywords, product sets, competition and industry to get a snap shot of what opportunities exist in your vertical and space.

Are there lots of conversations happening around your buzz words?

What networks, forums, or communities are discussing your Brand or Competition?

Are there specific Users that seem to be mentioning you or your Industry often that you can build relationships with?

• Review: Sit with your team and determine what this data tells you, what it may mean and what velocity looks like around these conversations.

Are the conversations happening very often?

Does the sentiment seem to be skewed to a positive or negative direction?

• Opportunities: Determine how involvement in a Social or Online Strategy would help achieve Financial Goals

Where are people discussing your Brand in Social Networks?

What are your Competitors doing in the space and what, if any success are they having?

In the Industry, who could you partner with, to build links to and from your site?

• Strategy: Creating a winning strategy utilizing this new medium

How would this integrate into your current Marketing Programs and Plans?

How can you leverage this medium to reduce costs while increasing marketing efficiencies?

What outside help do you need to put together a Strategy? (Be careful who you choose-I know some great folks who can help-as well as my company)

What are the Commitments needed company-wide to make this successful?

This is not meant (and please don’t write me to say that I have missed about 2,000 steps that we all in the space know) to be a plan or outline for a successful Social and Online Strategy by any stretch, however, its a brief list you need to review and know prior to jumping in the pool. The people I talk with on a daily and weekly basis know what’s involved to make a plan like this happen, and let me tell you, you won’t find this in an online book, e-book or some crafty Lead Magnet that you download.

There are so many things that go into a proven strategy like this, and you should at the least talk with someone who has proven their wares and has some scars (Mistakes) to show it before Committing to anything. Don’t be afraid to reach out to me or any you prefer, on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or the 1000′s  of other Social Networks you may see or be involved with. We are a very helpful, sharing group that knows how to help your Brand get the details and research needed to make solid decisions about your Commitment to a strategy in Social and Online.

What are you going to commit to in this new decade and make your business the best that it can be, not just financially, but from all aspects such as, employee satisfaction, customer referrals, industry influencer’s who talk well about your Brand and what you are doing? And… the group of Social thought leaders, who tell stories about your commitment of how you did it.

I will cover more of this in the coming weeks of how you can develop a strategy, so look for these posts. Good luck and Happy New Year-welcome to 2010.

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Still working on my ROI Social Media Video… just haven’t found the right algorithm yet

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Blue Collar Joes Become a Fan on Facebook (Tell ‘em Dean said hi)

Lets talk about competing in this space we call Social, don’t worry, you will love the details ahead…

Even if you are a small Brand, and most importantly, if you are competing against Big Box Retailers or organizations with bigger marketing budgets, you can still make an impact.

We take a look at the power of Reach (just for examples) but I will also mention ways to find audiences, on less than a few bucks for marketing budgets, at home in your pajamas, at night, after a long day of running your business. So let’s get started.

First, let’s run a few exercises to see who is talking about your brand today, within a localized area, to see what you may be up against.

Open Google Insights (http://google.com/insights/search) to see what you can find here as Insights are concerned. Here’s a look at a local business, that I am friends with (selfish plug for Daniel and Pru – love those guys):

1. Pick your location first – yes even my town has a search in Google: Here’s is an example of what we are looking for

2. Next, I searched for “Food & Drink” to get a flavor (yes I said it) for overall keyword terms

This chart reveals that some key searches have resulted in a lift in people looking for this term but a forecast shows a slow down, which means that either Google’s “rhythm’s” predict that Social is going to have an affect (my opinion not data driven) and you may want to look into increasing your online and social presence to make up for the lack of “Google” specific keys tapping away to find you.

3. Now let’s take a look now at “What” (Most Important here) people are really looking for inside this category:

Interesting you might be asking… Hummm…. Recipe, Recipes come up as a top search in the Food Category and may just hold the key to an online, Social play to garner some Fans, or some new trends to discuss. Say for instance, you have built a Facebook Fan Page. What if you offered your audience Free Recipe Downloads, if they sign up for your email list, all within Facebook, using the “FBML Static” Tab on your Fan Page with a Sign Up Feature that keeps them right in the Community they want to remain in, because they love it. Wallah, many ways to play the game here, just need to find the right mix.

4. Another look at a favorite of mine is this one that reveals a “Peek in the Box” of Google’s Search Forecasts

This may not be a shocker here, but does give insights into some interesting things. Is Rachel Ray coming to my town soon? (Rachel-hit me up if you are, have your people get in touch with my people, we’ll do lunch). I need to look at Events of upcoming possibles here, especially if I am in the Food Business. I would want to reach out to the Food Network, Rachel Ray and others to see if I could supply them with FREE food from my Restaurant, in this case a Doughnut from Blue Collar Joe’s (If you haven’t had one, they are the best I have ever had) and see if there may be a way to get a mention (there’s that magic word) on her Blog. (Free PR and big PR too).

So, the net of the story is there are ways to do some fairly sophisticated marketing online, with limited budgets, and effectively.

Let me hear back from you on how you may have been able to use Social in ways not mentioned above (so we can all learn).

If you are looking for Blue Collar Joe’s (not a client):

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This one is for all Marketers:

FREE Event Register: http://bit.ly/Z5lOW

Listen as I interview one of the thought leaders in Marketing today. This will be a “can’t miss” hour so register and clear your calendar for a rare glimpse into how Marketing with Customer Valuation Mapping can change how you go to market.

Whether your marketing world is B2C or B2B, or if you’re a retailer or a not-for-profit; in this webinar learn how to:

- Create a comprehensive profile of your customer portfolio
- Identify best customers
- Model most profitable customers
- Identify most loyal customers
- Understand which customers have the greatest propensity to become your most loyal and profitable customers
- Pinpoint Apostles and enlist them for Social Influence Marketing

FREE Event Register: http://bit.ly/Z5lOW

In this lively session you will come away with a deep understanding how to utilize this powerful analytical approach to begin to develop loyal and profitable relationships not only for existing clients but also your markets.

About the speaker:
Bob Soljacich is an accomplished relationship marketing and database executive. He is also founder and principal of SynchronUs a strategic marketing firm specializing in Many 2 One marketing solutions. Over the span of his career he has assisted such Fortune 1000 brands as Harrahs, Sak’s Dept Store Group, The United States Postal Service, Whirlpool, Valvoline, Toyota and the State of Hawaii in building and managing loyal and profitable relationships.

So the crisis, per Wall Street, is coming to an end and Q3 looks promising – really think so?
So why is that that businesses are just beginning to feel the pinch of layoff pressure, pricing downturn and market share concerns?
I have a theory. One that many of the Senior Leadership of varying sized companies will say aha when they read this (It’s that 20/20 thing) and take note on ways to avoid the many problems facing their business models of late.
Here are the problems many are facing (please feel free to comment on and add to your specific issues – you know who you are)
- Marketing Programs aren’t working like before
- Sales Cycles have increased, dramatically, in some cases
- Online Marketing hasn’t returned on investment as planned
- Revenue, Profit and Costs have all been disappointing
- Market Share seems to be going to competitors (probably not)
Here is what you are doing
- Sitting around Board Rooms wondering how to fix the problems
- Looking to replace the entire Marketing Department
- Firing Salespeople (They aren’t able to sell anymore)
- Soul searching for answers to keep your job in tact
Now, I may not be dead on here, but probably close. (Again, feel free to hammer the reasons why in your comments below). These conditions are so dramatically different than you have ever dealt with, or have the experience to deal with, leaving you to many months of non-decision moves. This, for now, may not be a bad thing, but soon enough it will become a very bad thing in time. As companies take advantage of easy layoff decisions from a PR perspective, as everyone expects this tactic, many are not preparing themselves for opportunity when the time comes and markets turn around to beat the competition.
So, why am I writing this, when so many Senior Leaders of organizations, big and small, want to believe they have the answers? Because they know different. They know they need help in developing new highly creative ideas, solutions, products and ways to capture consumers and businesses attention. As I reminisce about the last 3 issues of the IBM CEO Studies over the last 6 years, whereas the many CEO’s interviewed knew and acted upon and engaged their key leadership groups to bring about change to their business models, both large and small organizations, are winning – even through these challenging (for most) times.
Here are a few (there are many more) ideas that you can do today, taking advantage of downtime in your business, to prepare your organization for positive outcomes and market-crushing profits in the coming years:

- Understand the new shift from old school sales strategies (push strategy) to marketing strategies (pull strategy)
- Know your customers, inside and out, their industries, challenges at all levels within the organization (better than they do)
- Research is critical here, bringing senior leadership at a prospects organization, key trends, facts or competitive insights will pay off handsomely
- Create a culture between sales and marketing that is based on collaboration, not just stating it to your employees, but living it in practice everyday… this means opening yourself as Top Dog to ideas from your senior leaders, and employees to spawn fresh new ideas (they have great ideas but are afraid to bring them forward)
- Bring your Data and CRM systems up to speed to allow insights into what is working, where the gaps are, sales cycle times and close ratios so that you can measure the process along the way
- Start looking at automation within your process to help sales and marketing maintain key touch point communications with customers to maintain low churn ratios and high loyalty and satisfaction scores
- Take the time to allow sales and marketing teams to learn. Many sales and marketers are working in a vacuum, with only their experiences against what they currently are doing today – give them time to search out what others are doing in the industry and promote the notion that new ideas are rewarded not expected
- Social Commerce, Social Networking and Social Media: (Take Note here) Understand what this area is, what the opportunities are and how you can bring this new medium into your everyday work environment. LinkedIn for instance is not just a place for ego’s anymore, or a playground to see how many connections you have, but most importantly, a place for finding other look-alike prospects that match your current Profiles of Best Clients and to reduce sales cycles by 80% or more (Yes-I am able to do this, just ask me for help)

So… there are many more areas to cover here, but this will help reduce your risks and exposure to profit creep and competitive pressures during this downturn, which by the way, has not affected my business at all, it’s actually produced more opportunities than ever before.

What are your thoughts or comments?

This Plot Chart represents your customer segments of Value to your business and where they fall in the 4 quadrants. The ones to note are:
- High Risk – Low Reward (Quadrant 3): This is where you want to watch how much time you spend investing in customer business, shed the ones that may be slow pay (AR Creep Days past the Mean Peer Groups)
- Low Risk – High Reward (Quadrant 2): This segment is one to stay very focused on the customers you have, know what their Profile is, i.e.: Industry, Employee Size, etc… and find more customers for your salespeople to call on that fit this Profile
- High Risk – High Reward (Quadrant 4): Watch this segment for AR Creep, percentage of your business that is in this segment, the Industries that are in this segment and avoid adding too many prospects that are in this segment to balance the portfolio
- Low Risk – Low Reward (Quadrant 1): This is the “keep the lights on” segment, where risk is low and so is the rewards, but you need this group as a commodity type customer base.

The Process to take to Plot your Customers:
1. Profile your current and past customers (Don’t know how-contact me)
2. Overlay Demographics, Firmagraphics and Industry Intelligence
3. Add in the Future 2-5 Year Price to Earnings Growth of each Industry
4. Plot these companies to determine where the risks are inside your customer portfolio
5. Reduce the High Risk – Low Reward Customers
6. Find more of the Low Risk – High Reward Customers
I know… this isn’t normal everyday business practice, but that’s the point here. It’s not what most other companies are thinking about doing – which is what will put you in the front position now and when things do turn positive in economic conditions, you will propel growth at 2-3 times the speed of competitors.
So… to bring some closure to the strategy proposed here, let’s get to work in fixing the root of some businesses, begin to take charge of who you do business with and grow revenue with less risk.
Contact me to understand what Risks and Opportunities your company faces.

Innovation seems to be lacking during times of survival across many industries and management teams. As the drive for revenue and profits remain difficult from a year over year basis, sales and marketing becomes stagnant as focus can only be on survival.

Innovation may be easier than most realize, given human assets on both sides of the equation, creative and analytical teams can co-exist, in a collaborative environment to produce staggering results when these two worlds are given the structured environment in which great ideas are met with predictability.

Imagine Marketing with great brand and messaging, minus gut feel, plus predictive analysis based on research and behavioral, to determine the validity of a brand, social, targeted or any other marketing driven exercise before you spend any money launching this marketing rocket.

As I discuss the current state of business affairs at many organizations, it becomes very clear that the thought of a strategy to employ both brain teams does not exist in conversations. As Marketers and Sales Teams strive for answers to the new paradigm shift in buyer behaviors, using a both brain strategy could provide a roadmap to meet these new challenges.

I think the biggest questions for many organizations and management teams is:

- “Do we know why our customers buy from us” (behaviors, demographics, firmagraphics)

- “Do we understand who our customers are” (and of course where to find more)

- “Do we have the resources internally to leverage our customer information” (Analytics, Quant-Jocks and Technology Platforms)

Much of the information exists across your enterprise, company or databases – even Outlook is a start. Understanding what to do with this data is the key.

Contact me to discuss how to build a strategy at email .