atkinson advisor

New ideas are the lifeblood of any organization. Without them, companies perish.

No organization can have too many ideas. The issue is how many ideas you take on at one time.

A rocket uses 85 percent of its energy to break the gravitational pull of the Earth’s orbit. If you divided the available fuel among it and three other rockets of equal size, none of them would get off the ground. At the same time, smaller rockets could launch on less fuel.

YOUR TURN: How do you choose the right number of big and little projects to launch at any one time?

All buying decisions are selfish. They just are. Consumers buy the product that makes them feel better about themselves.

This applies to personal decisions – “I look good in this suit.” – and business products – “The boss is going to notice my good work.” Or it could be, “I’m not going to get in trouble for recommending XYZ Company.”

These decisions don’t involve the features that marketers so often turn to when selling products. “I look good in this suit” doesn’t make reference to the color, the cut, the craftsmanship, etc.

Transforming features to personal benefits is an enormous challenge. Fortunately, researchers have invented a tool to help.

The Benefit Ladder is a process for understanding the personal benefits of your products and services. Here’s how it works:

• Take a feature of your company’s product or service.
• Ask yourself, “What does this do for my customer?”
• And then, “Why does the customer care about that?”
• And then, “Why does the customer care about that?”
• Stay with the process until the answer is, “It makes my customer feel good about herself.”

The personal benefits will be clues to help you develop more relevant and personal messages that connect with customers.

Kudos to Sonia Simone from Copyblogger and Remarkable Communication for introducing us to the benefit ladder.

YOUR TURN: How do you help customers better understand benefits of working with you?

Next time you’re frustrated by someone who keeps changing the rules in the middle of the game, try using “I’m confused” to have a conversation about expectations. Here’s an example: “I’m confused, Sam. Last time we talked, we agreed the proposal was due on Friday. Now you’re saying it’s due on Wednesday.” This statement is naturally disarming because you seemingly accept responsibility. At the same time, you are taking control and focusing the conversation on the important fact that the deadline changed. Thanks to the Boyens Group for this tip.

The latest Corporate Reputation Rankings index isn’t good news for Corporate America.

Negativity abounds in the public mindset when it comes to large corporations, according to the findings from Vision Critical and its public affairs arm, Angus Reid Public Opinion.

Consumer goods companies, like Johnson & Johnson (No. 1) and Kraft Foods (No. 2), computing companies, and technology firms dominated the top 10. What separated these from the financial services and health insurance companies on the bottom of the list?

• They weren’t perceived as behaving like greedy “idiots” (their words, not ours). Respondents recognized that these companies generate good returns for shareholders, but they also admired them for being good corporate citizens.
• They managed to avoid any major recent scandals. It’s no surprise that almost half of Americans hold very negative opinions of BP, in large part to the oil spill in the Gulf.
• They are well-known brands. Not only do they have great name recognition, but they also are seen as valuable household guests. Consumers trust these brands and rank them high in quality.

One of the researchers who worked on the study predicted the trend toward negativity will continue if companies don’t start communicating better about why they should be respected.

YOUR TURN: How do you build trust with your core audiences?

We’ve said it before – we love information presented in unique ways. Nathan Yau collects compelling charts, tables, and other ways of visualizing data from across the web at FlowingData. The infographics range from the serious (a pie chart of Iraq rebuilding funds that are accounted for vs. unaccounted) to the entertaining (a recently popular entry is how to win at Rock Paper Scissors).

This flow chart is critical for anyone who has seen Inception and is still trying to figure it out.

Beyond the entertainment value, Yau’s blog does a good job of showing how some complex topics can be understood much more quickly by glancing at a chart than reading a page of copy.

YOUR TURN: What’s your favorite chart?

Creating Competitive Advantage by Jaynie L. Smith

Smith’s thesis is just as relevant today as when Creating Competitive Advantage was published in 2006. In fact, it may be even more critical in today’s increasingly competitive environment.

One of Smith’s most important points is that companies often confuse strengths for competitive advantages. They focus on strengths such as integrity and client trust, which are great and essential to business.  However, these strengths are not competitive advantages.  Some of your competitors likely have these strengths.

Her definition of competitive advantage is the “reason people do business with you.”  It’s what your competition doesn’t have, what allows you to close the sale.

A competitive advantage must be quantifiable, i.e. it must have supporting proof points. 

The following statement is not a competitive advantage:  “Our people are the best in the industry.”  However, it become a competitive advantage when you add:  “Our engineers have a minimum experience of 15 years in the business, twice that of our nearest competitor.” It gets even better when you can add the customer into the mix: “Our clients realize a 4x return on investment because our engineers average twice the experience of our nearest competitor.”

Smith cautions the reader, “Remember that competitive advantages are always moving targets.  You have to review your own, and your competitors’, at least quarterly.  Business is a chess game.  You need to think two or three moves ahead if you expect to win.”

YOUR TURN: What book helped you get a competitive edge in business?