Thursday, October 18, 2007
Strategic Marketing & Leadership
I just did a two-day workshop for an early-stage technology firm, founded in Silicon Valley and seeking it's day in the sun.
The subject was marketing, as in "what does the brand stand for," "who is the core customer to target," and "what is the unique promise of value?"
I don't market my marketing offers these days, but an executive with whom I had worked in the 1990s made the request. I had material to use, so workshop design was a breeze.
It helped that I knew the CEO so well, and I liked the fact that the group would be small and comprised of the top leaders in the company.
So with a couple of weeks notice, I said "yes." It was the first time I really integrated my marketing offer so intensively with my coaching offer.
One of the goals of the day was to move from "inside-out" to "outside-in" thinking (a la moving from "Personal" and "Material" to "Social" in the integral quadrants model).
"Inside-out" thinking is near epidemic in high tech. Understanding a technology and its myriad applications leads to trying to "push" the message out to the market, which ultimately is a very expensive proposition.
Instead, we spent time on customer segmentation (who was on the other side of the "conversation for relationship?").
We worked to convert messages into language that addressed customer needs and breakdowns and not just theoretical possibilities. We worked on telling the company story in more accessible and powerful ways, ways that their kids and their families could understand.
We also worked on how each of the leaders were showing up in their business conversations.
What declarations were they speaking into and were they believable? Were they generating the trust that would be required for a visionary early adopter to sign on the dotted line?
The team members had flown in from both coasts. They were incredibly bright, committed, and open. Together, and in just two days, they made a quantum leap in how they position their company.
The leadership team also walked away knowing themselves and each other better, saying "we got far more than we ever expected."
The best thing is that the work was really fun. It made me want to spend more time with high tech innovators again.
Interestingly, the competencies required for precision and focus in branding and strategic marketing are not so very different from those that leaders need when extending their vision and enrolling people in an uncertain and not so inevitable future.
The subject was marketing, as in "what does the brand stand for," "who is the core customer to target," and "what is the unique promise of value?"
I don't market my marketing offers these days, but an executive with whom I had worked in the 1990s made the request. I had material to use, so workshop design was a breeze.
It helped that I knew the CEO so well, and I liked the fact that the group would be small and comprised of the top leaders in the company.
So with a couple of weeks notice, I said "yes." It was the first time I really integrated my marketing offer so intensively with my coaching offer.
One of the goals of the day was to move from "inside-out" to "outside-in" thinking (a la moving from "Personal" and "Material" to "Social" in the integral quadrants model).
"Inside-out" thinking is near epidemic in high tech. Understanding a technology and its myriad applications leads to trying to "push" the message out to the market, which ultimately is a very expensive proposition.
Instead, we spent time on customer segmentation (who was on the other side of the "conversation for relationship?").
We worked to convert messages into language that addressed customer needs and breakdowns and not just theoretical possibilities. We worked on telling the company story in more accessible and powerful ways, ways that their kids and their families could understand.
We also worked on how each of the leaders were showing up in their business conversations.
What declarations were they speaking into and were they believable? Were they generating the trust that would be required for a visionary early adopter to sign on the dotted line?
The team members had flown in from both coasts. They were incredibly bright, committed, and open. Together, and in just two days, they made a quantum leap in how they position their company.
The leadership team also walked away knowing themselves and each other better, saying "we got far more than we ever expected."
The best thing is that the work was really fun. It made me want to spend more time with high tech innovators again.
Interestingly, the competencies required for precision and focus in branding and strategic marketing are not so very different from those that leaders need when extending their vision and enrolling people in an uncertain and not so inevitable future.
Labels: branding, early-stage technology firms, strategic marketing
# posted by Cindy Marteney @ 4:04 PM 
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