The YouBlog

The Rest Can Be A Total Mess

THE MIND IS AN INCREDIBLY POWERFUL THING. Check out today’s example:

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too. Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.
 
i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

So much for spell checkers . . .

And you know what this tells us about communications? That people get your point — quickly — if your core idea is clear and concise. In fact, they’ll jump through all kinds of mental hoops to fill in any gaps, as long as your message is clear.
        You know what else? They’ll ignore buckets full of mannerisms if what you have to say is really compelling. So rather than worry about how you say something, make sure that what you say is something important to them.

<note>
I’m not sure of the source of this, ah, quote. I got it from my wife, who got it from a friend of hers (sounds like a disease?). As for the picture, I found it here.

Great Headlines

THERE IS AN ART to really great headlines. You don’t necessarily see them every day, and you may not even dwell on them when you do encounter them. They’re not supposed to call attention to themselves. And yet, in a few short words, a really great headline can transform your understanding about a story.
        I’m on this track after viewing headlines in our local papers for stories about yesterday’s football playoffs. Two games were played, to pick the teams to go to the Super Bowl. Both games were played in wretchedly cold weather. Both games were reasonably close and, in their own ways, exciting.
        So, if you’re the headline writer, what do you do?
        One local paper featured only the Giants-Green Bay game, creating a clever riff based on the name of the Giants’s field goal kicker, Lawrence Tynes. His kick in overtime — his third try over the last part of the game — won it for the Giants. And so this local writer penned: “For Giants, third Tynes a charm”. Not bad, but . . .
        The other local paper gave both games the same weight and came up with this:

        “Super Bowl brrrths”

Wow. Three short words and you know a lot about what’s to come. In fact, that one made-up word says it all — these stories are about matches played in COLD weather, with everything on the line. It’s brilliant.

So why bring it up?

Here’s why this example is important, whether you’re working on a presentation, crafting an important email, or preparing a pitch to your board of directors:

Distilling your ideas into a few short words makes your message so much easier to digest and recall. Done well, it positions your ideas right at the start. And when your audience or the person reading your email has a strong, positive picture of what’s to come, they’ll be much more receptive.

Don’t even worry about being clever. Just be concise. It works wonders.

Making It Memorable

WHAT AN INTRIGUING IMAGE IS THIS. Bland, yes. Commonplace, yes. But in the hands of masters, like the people at Apple, it builds great anticipation. And when you see the hook — the MacBook Air — it really drives home the key message (i.e. how small the MacBook Air is). Kudos to whoever had that flash of brilliance. Here’s a link to the ad in which this is used.
        So what does this mean for us? Do we have to be exactly like Apple to be memorable and have an impact? No.
        At its heart, this image and the ad from which it comes (and Steve Jobs’s keynote address, which also used this idea) has one objective: to show you, rather than tell you, about how special is this new product.
        And that you can do. You can find alternate ways to explain what your product or service or idea is about — ways that help people think about your offering in a new fashion, or that help them create an image in their heads that will stick (and have far more power than all the descriptions you can say).
        As an exercise, get a big sheet of paper and write “It’s kind of like:” — then try to finish that sentence in as many ways as you can. (If it helps, instead of “It’s” in that string, write the name of your product or service or plan.) Then take the top three ideas you come up with and try to go deeper into each of them.
        You’re likely to come up with some great new sparks or framing for your offering. And whatever you use from those ideas will be far more memorable than just telling people about what you have or what you do.

Making a Difference

HERE’S A NEW WAY TO THINK ABOUT YOUR JOB. Rather than framing yourself as a sales person, a marketer, a presentations expert, a PR or HR exec, a teacher, or whatever your business card may say — instead, think of your job as making a difference.
        No matter what you do, you can (and should) be making a difference in the lives or experiences of those you interact with.
        Try looking with fresh eyes at each interaction or each new opportunity and ask, “How can I (or we) make a difference here?” Your answers will transcend all the typical approaches. And so will your effectiveness. And so will your results.

The title is a bit confusing . . .

. . . but you can find a new piece I've written in my added guise as an online columnist for Sales & Marketing Management. It’s about the power — and pitfalls — of passion as we try to persuade or influence others. You can find the article here.

Be Like Amazon, Not Wall Street

INTERESTING PIECE IN TODAY’S NY TIMES, entitled “Put Customers First? What a Concept.” That’s a song I’ve been singing for a long time, so I wasn’t going to post about this at first. But writer Joe Nocera hit some major points on the second page that are worth your attention.
        The article starts with a story about Amazon’s exceptional service and founder Jeff Bezos’s fanatical attention to customers. Where it grabbed me was when Nocera talked about Amazon’s refusal to follow Wall Street’s desires for short term profits — as Dell has done — and continued to focus on creating long-term value, for both customers and Amazon. Turns out Amazon’s adherence to a customer focus has been the winning play.
        What gets lost in Wall Street’s obsession with short-term results is the value of a long-term relationship with customers and clients. That makes selling easier, it makes marketing easier, it makes PR and product development and budget decisions easier — hell, it makes life easier for all parties (except short-sighted competitors).
        So think about this the next time you’re preparing to interact with a prospect or customer or client. Ask yourself if you’re being like Amazon or if you’re following the dictates of Wall Street. If you’re trotting out the same old pitches or the same old campaigns or the same old lists of Features & Benefits, chances are you’re limiting your results. If you want to be like Amazon, focus first on what will make your customer’s or prospect’s life better. In the long run, it will pay off for you, too.

BTW, just came across Amazon’s “Vision” (from their 2007 Shareholder’s presentation): “Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company — Start with the customer and work backwards”

Words to live by . . .