In one of my blogs not too far back, I suggested that if you have a diversified service mix you need to maintain the quality of each product to a similar high standard…maybe not. Last night some musician friends of mine were backing up a Japanese blues guy and invited me to come by. After viewing the performance it made me rethink my previous stance.

So here is a young blues man who has studied the traditional greats like Little Walter, Muddy Walters, Big Joe Williams and so on. His main thing is playing harp (harmonica) and he is extremely good at it, way above average and most definitely at a professional level. Born in Japan, he hasn’t quite mastered the English language and you can clearly hear a thick accent in his voice. If he had started off singing, you might have dismissed him totally as a bad karaoke performer, for at first it’s almost comical to hear his rendition of the traditional blues classics that make up his repertoire. But…

..but he started off with his strongest talent first. He was very credible as a blues harp player so you gave him a little more rope before judging his vocal abilities. And guess what? Although an acquired taste, he was very sincere in his performance and within a few songs you couldn’t help but accept him. And after a set of his brand of blues, with an awesome back up band (another immediate source of credibility) and confident performance…he was an undeniable hit.

It was a bit of an epiphany for me and maybe a lesson for us all. If we lead with our strength, are prepared and confident… maybe clients will let us sing the occasional number that is a little out of tune, providing we continue to impress them with our core service talents.

Lee’s quote for the day

“It’s probably true that you never get a second chance at a first impression… so let’s hone our talent and lead with our strength so that by association, the odd sour notes that come later aren’t quite as noticeable!”

In our business, the thing we try to avoid like the plague is letting a project slip to the bottom and stay there too long. It doesn’t happen very often as most projects have a deadline and deadlines are what keeps our world moving.

The bulk of our work stems from a pending need like; we are totally out of brochures, we need material for an ad placement today, we have a customer event next week and so on. Not so different from our transportation clients’ customers, an immediate need creates action. When there are no deadlines on the client side or ours, we usually try and make one up. Nothing keeps a project on track like a timeline that all parties have committed to.

Back to the topic at hand. When something has slipped through the cracks and is nestled comfortably at the bottom of the pile, everyday it stays in that position it grows like a nightmarish monster on steroids. Everyday it’s avoided it becomes an even bigger project to take on. Some tried and true remedies follow:

5 tips to stay on top

1. There is a reason why it slipped to the bottom. Figure it out. What is your associated fear with this project? You could be suffering from a case of BPP “Bottom of the Pile Paralysis”.
2. Create a hard deadline. Make an appointment to meet and present the project in question. Most times that will get you off the fence and get things rolling
3. Break the project down into smaller sections. If it’s a day’s work, book off an hour to make progress. Once you make progress of any kind the monster will shrink to a manageable size.
4. Approach it with confidence. You’ve done it before. Recall those victories and use that to start the ball rolling.
5. If all else fails declare defeat and delegate it in its entirety to someone else. You can’t afford to have baggage that negatively impacts your performance and service standards. Better this than further BPP behaviour.

Lee’s quote for the day

“It’s not that I work well under pressure…it’s more like I need pressure to work well!”

We recently had our niece move in with us to attend college in Toronto. Coming from small town Ontario, she seems more like 14 than 18. You forget how much wide eyed enthusiasm kids have, especially when you’ve been removed from it for a while.

Jumping sideways… we motorcycled out to Port Perry on the weekend to meet up with friends for a bite. We had lived out that way for a couple of years and like to go back on occasion. It’s a big bike town and they have a local bike night on Thursday’s during the summer.

Another step sideways…after our bike trip we went to a pub near our place in Toronto where for the last several months I have been jamming with the local band there. It’s a great release and I thoroughly enjoy it, as the level of musicianship is pretty good.

The revelation… As I spent a little time with our niece and followed it with activities that I engaged in when I was around her age, I came to the realization that as much as I have changed I am fundamentally the same guy today that I’ve always been. The package I present myself in has changed and I reveal and hide different characteristics now then when I was a kid.

The marketing application? Even if the essence of your company is similar to what it has always been, the packaging of that product has infinite possibilities. Of all the characteristics that make up your company you can choose to bring something to the forefront that has historically been in the background. If you have been quiet… you can be loud. If you have been all encompassing… you can be specific. It’s not changing the essence of your company so much as it is altering your perception to better suit current market conditions.

This type of repositioning can bring excitement to your brand and the people working there. You can effectively fill in the cracks and crevices that show with business maturity…a little botox for the bizz!

Lee’s quote for the day:

“If you find there is nothing to get excited about at your company haul out the “Marketing Shake and Bake”. Hey, if you can shake up a pack of dead chicken and make it palatable…
just think what you could accomplish by spicing up your company!”