Seth Godin is a favorite marketing guru here and his latest book Linchpin is a great read.  This talk is based on a few topics therein. Check it out!

Seth Godin: Quieting the Lizard Brain from 99% on Vimeo

Why do you do what you do? Don’t think just ‘what’ or ‘how’ but WHY!! This is a great talk that discusses the importance of purpose in motive (and sorry, profit is not purpose but result). This is a great way to start the conversation about your business’ mission, vision, and values. I hesitate to even use those buzz words as they’ve been so prostituted out they’re nearly worthless (thanks in large to monotonous academia, sorry you crazy academics but its true). If these concepts can penetrate to the core of who you are and who your organization is, THEN they become powerful enough to overcome all odds, just as the Wright brothers example given in the vid. Ensure you check out the last post here to continue the conversation of “why”. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Malcolm Gladwell shares his thoughts on the importance of passion and attitude in regard to business success.  Do something you are passionate about!!!

Many businesses have goals to be “customer-centric” and follow the classic “customer comes first” mantra.  There is obvious value in such an approach, especially from a customer service approach.  One simple and often overlooked step is to simply setup specific and obvious visual triggers for both employees and customers.  Having a sign on the wall that says specifically what you are trying to do openly tells the customer and reminds the employee.  They will both seek out the mantra simply by being reminded of it. Customers will look for how the employee is doing this, noting it and appreciating it more consciously while the employee will subconsciously think whether they are holding to it as well.  Other obvious ones may include wearing a button or tag and the like.  Change it up from time to time as the trigger will be ignored as time goes on.

Other use of physical space to enhance or influence can be very powerful.  As in this study, voters are more likely to support tax increases for education if they cast their vote at a school!  Think about how your environment promotes what you want your customers to think, feel, desire.

This is just a simple tip to improve your results, buy-in of employees, and success rate of implementation of your mantra or goal, whatever it may be.

This is a great little video from bNet regarding an approach to innovation. Its a slick 3 step process that is pretty open. I dig it…

The experience around your business’ offer is a critical component to harbor sales and success.  We have been exploring the design of these experiences in previous posts here and here.  Check them out, if you have not, so you may be up to speed on the conversation.  We previously defined the key components that affect the experience one has with regards to your offer; now, we want to explore how these components interact and the different relationships within each.  All of this will amount to a much greater understanding of designing your offer and will simplify the process substantially as it is more fully understood.

Front Stage, Backstage & Component Interaction

Each component as revealed in the model must be well understood in relation to the value proposition and the intended experience.  Every business will exhibit a different relationship with the components.  One major factor with each component is the front stage/ backstage relationship.   Essentially, certain aspects of each component will be seen, touched, or handled by the customer while others will facilitate the experience without being seen.  The front stage aspects are those directly experienced by the customer. The backstage aspects include “behind-the-scenes” pieces that are critically necessary, however often not understood or recognized by the customer.  Many times, one does not even want their existence known to the customer as it may alter the experience in ways less desired such as over-complicating the experience or confusing a client.

Each component has this front stage/ backstage attribute, although in varying degrees depending on the experience design. In the service industries, for example, direct personal interaction may be more paramount, exhibiting a larger front stage than backstage.  That is, more people may directly interact with a customer than are behind the scenes in production and operations.  Individuals often fill a dual roll with certain front stage and backstage responsibilities.  With a product focus, you may have zero personal interaction before the sale, although you may have customer service afterwards.   In this case, nearly all teams are focused on backstage processes such as production, design, and administration.  We must be careful, however, to not overlook the intermediate experiences of the entire sales cycle including interaction with retailers and front stage interactions required to get your products on the shelf.

The other components also demonstrate a front stage/ back stage attribute.  Core processes will include the system or process a customer goes through to obtain the product or service on the front stage while production, creation and delivery processes all may be facilitated in the backstage.  Impact accelerators may include specific technology enhancements in the backstage or the packaging and look of the office on the front stage.

It is also important to understand how each component relates to and affects the other components.  What processes are involved with Teams or how do teams work within the processes?  How do impact accelerators enhance or detract from the performance of teams? This may include work environment and tools or production. How do these accelerators enhance the processes and how do the processes contribute to the delivery and production of the accelerators?  These are all important questions to ask as we continue developing the value proposition.

With your own offer, now that we have the components defined, answer the above stated questions regarding their interactions.  Feel free to share any insights…