Make 1,000 Mistakes - Part 2

"I have not failed, I've just just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
- Thomas Edison, inventor of the electric light bulb and phonograph

In part 1 of this post, I suggested an alternative formula for success: If you want to achieve anything new and great, you must make 1,000 mistakes.

I say this based on my own experience, though I am certainly not the only one to observe this pattern. Thomas Edison believed it, as you can see from the quote above. And be glad he did, because everyone reading this post is probably sitting in a room illuminated by a light courtesy of his discovery.

I am also talking to myself as I write, but you are welcome to listen to the conversation.

If there is something you have never done before, or even better if no one has done it before, the process to achieve it is unknown. There will be discoveries you must make and skills you must learn along the way. Forces and events beyond control will play a role and, as a wise person once noted, time and chance happen to us all.

There is one thing we do know: Along the journey and especially before making discoveries and acquiring skills, we will make many mistakes. Maybe 10 or 100 or 1,000 or 10,000. This is just part of the process. Sometimes we can't know what to do until making the error and seeing the problem. Because real life is not as simple or deterministic as the magical success formulas imply.

This is why we must make 1,000 mistakes to achieve anything new or great. What matters is identifying mistakes, correcting them and moving on. The faster, the better. This is where a little humility and a lot of perseverance make all the difference.

They don't teach you this in school or in many business environments and social circles where mistakes are frowned upon. Consider the grade system. If you make zero or almost no mistakes, then you are wonderful and get an A. If you make just a few mistakes, you are pretty good and get a B. If you make several mistakes, you are so-so and get a C. If you make many mistakes, you are suspect and get a D. If you make too many mistakes, you fail and get an F. The focus is on minimizing mistakes. By this measure, Mr. Edison must have been a big failure!

But entrepreneurs, artists and visionaries know that mistakes are the pathway to learning and achievement!

So if you are trying to do something new and great - whether marketing a product or growing a business or building a life - and find yourself making many mistakes... Good for you! Smile and keep going and know you are in good company.

Make 1,000 Mistakes - Part 1

The front cover of the latest issue of Fortune Magazine states, "Retire Rich, 50 Great Stocks and Funds." On it is a picture of an older man with gray hair holding hands with a beautiful, young woman of about 30, standing on a sailboat in an exotic, warm location like the Caribbean.

The implied message is: Invest in these sure-fire stocks, and you too can have a 50-foot sailboat, a great tan, free time and a trophy wife half your age.

I don't know why, but the standard way to educate people or dispense advice now is by promising magical, guaranteed formulas for astronomical success. This Fortune cover is just one example. Walk down the business, self-help or magazine aisle at Barnes & Noble and you will see many more. Follow these 4 steps or buy these 50 stocks or do these 8 things and - like a genie popping out of a bottle - your wildest dreams will materialize. While there is insight and good advice in many of these materials, the packaging leads people to believe they are sure-fire, trouble-free programs, like a magical elixir or fountain of youth. They promise too much, on one hand, and oversimplify on the other.

So I would like to offer an alternative formula for success, whether in marketing, business or life: If you want to achieve anything new and great, you must make 1,000 mistakes. The faster you can make those 1,000 mistakes (and correct them), the faster and more likely your vision will materialize.

In part 2 of this post, I'll explain what I mean...

P.S. Tip of the hat to Brian Fretwell at Defining Victory for a conversation that inspired this post.

Solving Your Customer's Real Problem

Earlier this year I met with a man who had been president for 8 years of an innovative, fast-growing computer company in Silicon Valley. He was transitioning into the role of co-chairman, which would mean less involvement in day-to-day operations and more advising and coaching. For me it was a great opportunity to talk with an experienced, well-respected business leader and maybe learn something.

Heading to the meeting, I felt a little nervous. But I put on my game face and walked through the door. The man sat comfortably at a large conference table and an assistant, notepad in hand, was at the other end. After shaking hands and introducing myself, I sat down. He asked what I thought about their new products and marketing initiatives. In general I was enthusiastic and told him so. He asked if I saw the issue of green computing coming up frequently in the market. I said yes, though it seemed to be an economic issue, of wanting to save on electricity, equipment and space. "Hmm, I think so too," he replied.

We talked about sales and his philosophy for connecting with potential customers. He related a story about a speech he had delivered in Israel. He said he did not talk at all about the company's products, but rather how his company had weathered the technology downturn after the dot com implosion. The company was selling primarily to dot coms, and when many of them failed, they were left with far fewer customers. A natural reaction would have been to cut back, hunker down and try to wait out the storm. Instead the company invested heavily in developing new products and selling into new customer segments. They went "all in" instead of playing conservatively.

The market eventually rebounded and the company was positioned to accelerate past its competitors, which it did. Major revenue growth followed. The gutsy, counter-intuitive strategy proved to be exactly right. Today it is the fastest-growing major company in its industry.

People were so impressed with the story that they came to talk to him afterward. Some even expressed interest in doing business with his company - without any sales pitch at all. At this point in our discussion, he leaned over, lowered his voice as if about to betray a secret and said to me, "You know, you can really make any technology fit... The important thing is to have credibility that you can solve the customer's business problem."

Technology did not matter!? Such a statement was heresy at a company full of engineers who prided themselves on creating breakthrough technologies. Perhaps he exaggerated slightly, but he was saying something important about sales: What matters is having credibility in the customer's eyes that you can solve their real problem. His story demonstrated to the business people in the audience that he knew how to make a business succeed in tough times. They could relate. Moreover, those people do not buy computer technology for its bells and whistles, but because it can solve a business problem like improving productivity and growing sales. So why not buy from someone who really knows how to do those things?

Your Message - Clear and Direct

Consider the following marketing slogans:

The California Milk Processor Board asks, "Got milk?" Wow, that is about as clear and direct as a marketing message can be.

The food company Mars says about its famous Dove Bar, "Silky quality chocolate wrapped round delicious ice cream. What could be better?" Mmm, that sounds clear, direct and tasty.

The business consulting firm Accentures states about what it takes to be successful: "High-performance businesses continually balance, align and renew the three building blocks of high performance, creating their competitive essence through a careful combination of insight and action." Hmm... That message is abstract and complicated. I'm not entirely sure what it means. Do you?

To be fair, it is much more difficult to write an effective message for a high-level consulting firm than an ice cream bar. But Accenture nevertheless violates the #1 rule of messaging: Be clear and direct, even to the point of obviousness.

The world is busy and frenzied and people have too much information coming at them all the time. We are lucky to get 3 seconds of someone's attention. Therefore a marketing message should get right to the point. It should jump off the page and say what it means. BOOM! There it is.

Emphasize only 1 or 2 primary benefits of your product and ignore the other dozen secondary benefits, at least in your initial impression. (If you have an interested client or a captive audience, perhaps you can elaborate.) Resist the temptation to say too much. The effectiveness of a message steadily declines with each additional benefit you include over 2 because the message becomes diluted and does not leave as strong an impression.

When it comes to writing an effective message, ambiguity and long-windedness are sins, while clarity and directness are virtues.

Your Message Is an Arrow

As noted in the previous post, the first priority in marketing is to develop an effective message explaining your benefits. I would also add selecting a target audience who is likely to respond. These two elements – message and target market – are your marketing foundation. They support and extend everything you do to reach out and win customers. In fact, having a solid message and well-defined target can literally double or triple your product’s chances of success! It makes a significant difference.

If your message is an arrow, think of it as having two parts. The tip of the arrow is your essential benefit, the main benefit your product or service delivers to customers. The shaft and feathers are reasons to believe or points that build credibility. A good message has both because an arrow without a tip does not stick, and a tip without shaft and feathers does not fly far or true.

In the next post we will look at the most important characteristic of an essential benefit – being clear and direct.

P.S. For a sneak preview of a roll-up-your-sleeves workshop for creating a message and target market (planned for fall 2008), click here.

Message in a Bottle (And Which Matters More)

The marketing process is like sending a message in a bottle. You write a note on a sheet of paper, slip it into a bottle and cork it. You walk up to the water's edge and throw it into the vast sea. What happens next is a mystery. Where will the tides and currents take it? Will someone find the bottle? Will they respond to the message? One can only hope.

In this analogy, the message is how you express the essential benefit your product offers. The bottle is the communication channel through which you send the message, such as print advertising, radio, Internet and even direct sales.

Here is the million dollar question: Which is more important, the message or the bottle? The truth is that as long as the bottle is watertight and floats, the message will travel. It can be a milk bottle, wine bottle, empty bottle of Snapple or whatever.

The message determines whether the recipient will respond. If the note said, "Hello, my name is Joe and I live in Seattle and I hope you are well," then the recipient might be amused but would not think much of it. If the note contained the number and password for a bank account containing $10,000, the recipient would be interested and probably check it out.

The message is 10 times more important than the bottle.

I say this because there is a tendency to think marketing is about where and how often to run ads - this publication or that Web site. Yes, this is a part of marketing, and it matters, but the message comes first. A clear, relevant, well-defined message can double or triple your chances of success. In business. Period.

The message reigns supreme. Stay tuned. In future posts I will discuss what makes a message great.

In Marketing, First Develop the Fundamentals

A person who wants to play basketball starts by learning the fundamentals - dribbling the ball, passing and shooting. Everything else in the game builds upon these skills. To form a team, run plays and win games, the players must first know these fundamentals. Great players excel at them, and are usually tall and fast!

Like basketball, the game of marketing involves a set of fundamentals:

• Target market – the specific group to which you sell
• Positioning – the unique value your business offers
• Messaging – the words used to express your unique value

Taking the time to thoughtfully define these elements will accelerate your sales and business growth. It will make a huge difference in how well you play the game!

To learn more, download this tutorial:

http://www.aproposmarket.com/MarketingFoundation.pdf

Sell the Experience

While skiing this winter, I stood at the top of a snowy ridge and took in the panorama. In the distance stretched the deep blue Lake Tahoe. The peaks, ridges and forests of the Sierra Nevada Mountains surrounded it as far as the eye could see. The day was bright and sunny, warm enough that I did not need a hat or thick coat, like spring in February.

My ski partner dropped over the edge and cut back and forth down a steep slope. He maneuvered between two rock outcroppings and into an open area below. I looked down over my skis and felt a shot of adrenaline and fear in my gut. It was my turn.

That is the beauty and the thrill of alpine skiing. When I purchased a lift ticket that day for $57, I was not thinking of chair lifts, cables, electric motors and ski patrollers on the mountain. All of those are necessary to run a ski resort; they are the "product" so to speak. But I was thinking of the beauty and the thrill - the essential ski experience. That is what I paid $57 for, and it was worth it!

When marketing a product or service, remember to emphasize the finer points of the experience it delivers, which may be different from the technical features of the product itself. For instance, when selling a computer system, focus on the ease of management and how it enables workers to be more productive, as opposed to the number of megahertz and gigabytes it has. When selling a tree at a nursery, emphasize the cool shade it will provide during summer and the elegance it will add to a property, as opposed to whether the tree is 3 or 4 feet tall.

There is a time and place for selling features, but people ultimately are buying the experience.

May the Little Guys Prosper!

During the run-up to the recent Super Bowl, I heard football fans express sentiments like, "The Patriots are too good. Too dominant. I'm rooting for the Giants!" These fans were rooting for the underdog.

People, especially Americans, like to root for the underdog. Something in our nature wants to see the couragous, spirited Little Guy triumph over the swaggering, domineering Big Guy. It warms our hearts and makes us feel like there is justice in the universe. Maybe this notion traces back to when the downtrodden American colonies decided to throw off the tyranny of King George III. "No taxation without representation!" The Americans declared independence and fought a long, hard war to earn it. At that time, England was the superpower and America was the underdog. The idea that David can - and sometimes should - bring down Goliath is now embedded in our national culture and mythology.

So if your business is the underdog in a market, don't hide it. Play it up and tell people how you are the spirited upstart bringing much-needed change and a better way to meet customers' needs. Tell them how you are taking on the Big Guy who has become lazy and indifferent. The people will root for you because you are the underdog.

Here's to the Little Guys. May you prosper!