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luni, 17 decembrie 2012

Leveraging Irrationality for Client and Stakeholder Buy-in

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 06:37 PM PST

There’s an interesting dynamic in the SEO world. On the agency side, B2B sales is the drive of our business engine. In-house, we’re often pitching up the chain, to the C-suite or just below, to get budget and buy-in. Yet, for the most part, we like to model our culture after scrappy startups. That means a fun, laid back atmosphere, a “ship it” mentality, and, most importantly, flannels.

You guys get a pass since it was Lumberjack Day (allegedly).

We talk in terms of minimum viable products (MVPs), failing fast and adjusting on the fly. In The Lean Startup, Eric Ries lays out the blueprint for this approach - a way to iterate your way to success, to launch early and cheap, observe how users engage and persevere, or pivot from there.

At Distilled, my brilliant colleagues used Launchrock and an email list to measure the interest in DistilledU before investing heavily in its development. Today, DistilledU supports two full time employees and is getting better all the time. This stuff works, and an agile approach almost always trumps a big, complicated marketing plan.

We're still in the pitch game

Distilled is a B2B service provider often working with big brands, and our average customer value is considerable. At some point, no matter how much existing trust or brand equity we have in our favor, it comes down to a small group of people making a judgment call on a sizable investment. One “no thanks” equates to tens of thousands in potential revenue, lost. If an ongoing client loses confidence in the value we're delivering, and if we fail to retain them, it has a significant negative impact on our business.

For in-house marketers, you might not be placed in a pressure cooker pitch situation, but you are constantly working to push your agendas up the chain and win budget from the C-suite who has no shortage of other agendas.

While we might like to think that the people across the table are weighing their options rationally (because business is a rational exercise, right?), science says otherwise.

Irrationality, spun

If psychological studies in decision making have given us one resounding fact to sum up the human condition, it is this: we like telling, and being told, stories.

We are so adept at crafting believable stories that we often create them on the fly and tell them to ourselves. We prefer to think we're in control of our emotions, not that they're in control of us.

Consider the Misattribution of Arousal, for example. In a 1974 study, two psychologists, Aron and Dutton, hired a woman to stand in the middle of a precarious suspension bridge and then another more secure one. She stopped men in the middle of crossing each bridge and asked them to complete a questionnaire. And upon completion, she jotted her phone number down and let the men know she’d be happy to talk later to discuss the study.

The hypothesis was that the men on the precarious bridge would be unable to separate the experience of their anxious fear from the interaction with the woman - that they would, in fact, associate their heightened senses with the context of a few minutes in her company. And it proved out. 50% of the men who crossed the suspension bridge contacted the assistant. Only 12% of the men on the safe bridge did likewise. A later experiment duplicated the results in an entirely different setting and setup.

It is this same ability to rationalize emotion-driven decisions (i.e. the ability to modify our own understanding of the context of our actions) that allows a manager to reject the ideas of a nervous SEO, or just one with an ugly haircut, and later conclude it was the content of the pitch or viability of the strategy that turned us off.

It's not just the content - superficialities matter

In The E-Myth: Revisited, author and renowned business expert Michael Gerber points to key studies that show how far the influence of superficialities goes. Among the findings:

Salesman wearing blue suits get more business than those wearing brown suits.
A circular logo sells better than a triangle logo, and a plaque-style logo sells best of all.
In a sales pitch scenario, the decision to buy/hire or reject is made in the first three minutes.

In Honest Signals: How They Shape Our World, Alex Pentland explores non-language signals of human communication and details how computers programmed to tune into signals such as pitch and rhythm in a verbal conversation, as well as visual queues such as body language and mimicry, completely ignorant of content, were able to predict:

From audio of pitches by entrepreneurs, which business plans would be judged by business school students as successful.
From audio of sales calls, which calls would be successful (with 80% accuracy).
From monitoring the female’s signals in speed dating conversations, the interactions in which couples exchanged their phone numbers.

We tell ourselves that these petty superficialities don't fool us, and that we won't judge the quality of content by the way its dressed up or the tone of voice in which it is delivered, but the science simply proves we're wrong. Appearance and delivery matters a great deal more than we'd like to think.

If you can count on one thing walking into a pitch environment, count on being evaluated on visual and superficial signals as much as the content of your presentation. The content, in fact, will never permeate the decision making process of potential clients and stakeholders if you don't build trust with the right verbal and visual queues.

A few guidelines to help leverage this in your favor:

1. Practice up

Rehearsing your pitch/presentation is a good way to get comfortable with the material.

In an open and humble recent blog post, Ross Hudgens explains how he got better at public speaking by rehearsing his presentations 4-5 times and recording himself on video. In his first speaking engagements, he felt nervous and embarrassed by his performance, and monitoring feedback made it clear the audience hadn't responded as well as he'd have liked. Now Ross is invited to speak at some of the biggest conferences in the game, and having seen him do so in person, I can vouch for the quality and confidence he brings to the stage.

It also helps if you actually believe in what you're saying. No joke here; as controlled and practiced as you may be, at some point a lack of confidence and passion in your topic shine through. People are remarkably fine-tuned BS-detectors.

2. Dress the part

No need for much elaboration on this one. Unless you're pitching to a start-up (and even then), chances are business casual or better is going to be in your favor.

Dust off your dress shoes. Hey, it can be fun to look sharp once in a while.

Right, Rand?

Maybe the world would be a better place if petty matters like the quality of one's attire didn't enter into our judgment, but we've evolved to incorporate visual queues into our thinking. Pragmatically, if dressing sharply tips the scales in our favor, why not use it?

3. Invest in design

Mike King's presentations have taken on legendary status.

At MozCon he rapped on stage with the backdrop of a slick kinetic typography video. Professionally designed.

At SearchLove Boston this November, his slide deck on getting iAcquire back into the index was beautiful. Every slide was designed with care. Again, Mike had a graphic designer working with him. During his talk, Mike mentioned that "it all matters" when it comes to visuals. Every little detail.

Rand has also stepped up his slide deck design by taking a similar approach - he's outsourcing to a Seattle design firm. His "head to head" presentation at SearchLove was gorgeous.

If it's worth walking into a room to pitch an idea, it's worth the preparation and investment to ensure your argument is well-packaged.

4. Focus on the "why"

The messages that resonate with us go deeper than the facts.

Apple's anti-establishment message. Cisco's "The Human Network." SEOmoz's TAGFEE values.

Business is never "just business." If you want to motivate, you need to get at the human values behind what you're pitching.

Ian Lurie's presentation at SearchLove this year, and a following webinar here at SEOmoz, are excellent starting points for framing your ideas around the "why," not just the "what" and "how."

This talk from Simon Sinek is also a phenomenal primer in how this principle helps businesses inspire their audiences:

A reading list on irrationality and how it influences our choices

If you're interested to learn more about the irrational ways we make decisions and rationalize them later (a topic I personally find limitlessly fascinating), these books are rich with deep insights:

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

A psychologist and professor at Duke University, Dan has written several books explaining our irrational behaviors and tendency to rationalize them. This is perhaps his best to date and the book that made him famous. Rand wrote up a nice summary of the book and 10 irrational behaviors that can be utilized for web marketing here.

Honest Signals: How They Shape Our World by Alex Pentland

As briefly described above, this book is about the complex network of non-language human communication that Pentland argues is at the core of our interactions. And the data backs him up. We pick up on these signals without even being aware of them, and they have a lot more to do with the outcomes of our interactions than we may think.

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

No list about the power of irrationality in our decision making is complete without this classic from Robert Cialdini. This book covers six secret weapons of influence and how they influence our decisions - all backed up with psychological studies. Dean Rieck over at Copyblogger wrote a nice post that summarizes all six methods.

You Are Not So Smart by David McRaney

This book is mainly comprised of posts from David's blog of the same name expanded-upon and revised for publication. I can't recommend this blog, or book, highly enough. The posts/chapters are in-depth (often as long as 4,000 words) and go into great detail around the studies that prove how our irrational behaviors work and how it is we're unaware of the machinery behind the scenes. David now hosts a podcast that's equally compelling.

There is no shortage of articles and resources out there that dive into this topic. I'm sure you have your own favorites. Share some in the comments!

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President Obama at Prayer Vigil for Connecticut Shooting Victims: "Newtown, You Are Not Alone"

Your Daily Snapshot for
Monday, December 17, 2012

President Obama at Prayer Vigil for Connecticut Shooting Victims: "Newtown, You Are Not Alone"

Yesterday, President Obama traveled to Newtown, CT to meet with the families of those who were lost in Friday's tragic shooting, and to thank first responders for their work.

In the evening, the President spoke at an interfaith vigil for families of the victims, and all families from Sandy Hook Elementary School. He offered the love and prayers of a nation grieving alongside Newtown.

Watch the video of the President at the prayer vigil for the Connecticut shooting victims.

Seth's Blog : Ridiculous is the new remarkable

Ridiculous is the new remarkable

Click for more silly pictures

Ten years ago, in Purple Cow, I argued that in a media-saturated marketplace, there was no room for average products for average people to gain the same foothold that they used to. Merely pushing an idea via relentless ad spend is no longer sufficient. The alternative: remarkable products and services, where 'remarkable' means something that someone is making a remark about.

When someone remarks on what you're doing, the word spreads, replacing the predictable and expensive Mad-Men strategy of advertising with the unpredictable but potentially magical effect of significant word of mouth--ideas that spread win.

But what makes something remarkable?

Last month, I self-published an 800-page, 19-pound book, a book big enough to kill a small mammal if misused. It's not for sale, but those that received a copy via Kickstarter have posted about it, talked about it and even made videos.

The nicest thing anyone told me was that it was, "ridiculous."

Of course it was. It weighs too much, it cost me too much to ship it to the recipients. It's too big to bring to the beach and will probably disintegrate under its own weight over time.

It's ridiculous to not sell a book this cool at retail after you've gone to the trouble of making it, and ridiculous to spend that much time making something at a loss.

It turns out that most of what we choose to talk about today is ridiculous. The dramatically overproduced music video. The business model that is so generous that we can't imagine it succeeding. The painter who produces a new painting every single day.

Hugh's cartoons are ridiculous, of course, as is his promiscuous non-business business model.

The audacity of caring too much, sharing too much and connecting too much.

If it's not ridiculous, it's hard to imagine it resonating with the people who will invest time and energy to spread the word. The magic irony is that the ridiculous plan is actually the most sensible...

We can view the term ridiculous as an insult from the keeper of normal, a put-down from the person who seeks to maintain the status quo and avoid even the contemplation of failure.

Or we embrace ridiculous as the sign that maybe, just maybe, we're being generous, daring, creative and silly. You know, remarkable.

Two more thoughts on this:

Ridiculous isn't safe. If you do something ridiculous and you fail, people get to say, "you idiot, of course you failed, what you were doing was ridiculous." Which is precisely why it's so rare. Not because we unable to imagine being ridiculous, but because we're afraid to be.

And second...

Don't be ridiculous because it's a clever marketing strategy. No, be ridiculous because while the effectiveness allows you to be, the real intent is to be generous or thrilling or to touch some stars. Because you can.

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duminică, 16 decembrie 2012

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

What Can be Automated, Will be Automated: Video of Automated Meat Processing Plant Without a Soul in Sight
Spotlight on Japan: Return of 'Abenomics', More Militarism, Tougher China Line; Outlook for Yen and Nikkei
Is Boehner Capitulating on Tax Hike Boost? Blame Game Posturing

What Can be Automated, Will be Automated: Video of Automated Meat Processing Plant Without a Soul in Sight

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 09:17 PM PST

The days of getting carpal tunnel syndrome from cutting meat are now over, at least as measured by a meat processing plant in Greece, shown in the video below.

The video starts out a bit slow, but is rather fascinating once it gets going. I played it until the end. Eventually a single person comes into view, but that person runs and monitors the machines.

Link if video does not play: Greek Meat Processing Plant

Automation Rules

What can be automated, will.
The number of things that can be automated increases every month

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Spotlight on Japan: Return of 'Abenomics', More Militarism, Tougher China Line; Outlook for Yen and Nikkei

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 02:36 PM PST

The Japanese election hands former prime minister Shinzo Abe a chance for redemption according to The Guardian.

Japan's voters appear to have short memories. Shinzo Abe, who is assured of becoming prime minister after his party's resounding victory in Sunday's election, last led the country in 2006, but stepped down after a troubled year in office.

The official reason given for his abrupt resignation was a chronic bowel ailment, which the leader, 58, says he now controls with a new drug. But his health condition may have been a cover. Abe's first administration was marred by scandals and gaffes. Months before he quit, his Liberal Democratic party [LDP] suffered a heavy defeat in upper house elections.

Sunday's resounding election victory has given him one last shot at redemption, as only the second Japanese politician to serve twice as prime minister since the war.

Behind Abe's soft-spoken manner and aristocratic background lurks a fervent nationalist, which led one liberal commentator to describe him as "the most dangerous politician in Japan".

Abe has often said he went into politics to help Japan "escape the postwar regime" and throw off the shackles of wartime guilt. In its place he has talked of creating a "beautiful Japan" defended by a strong military and guided by a new sense of national pride.

Abe's biggest ideological influence was his maternal grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, who was arrested, but never charged, for alleged war crimes. He went on to become prime minister in the late 1950s.

Decades later, confronted with an aggressive China and nuclear-armed North Korea, Abe is eager to fulfil his grandfather's dream of giving Japan's military the teeth he believes it has been denied by the country's postwar pacifism.

More Militarism, Preposterous Denial

The BBC reports Shinzo Abe vows tough China line

The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes says that as many predicted, Japan has taken a sharp turn to the right.

Mr Noda lost over his move to double sales tax, something he said was necessary to tackle Japan's massive debt.

By contrast, Mr Abe has promised more public spending, looser monetary policy, and to allow nuclear energy a role to play in resource-poor Japan's future despite last year's nuclear disaster at Fukushima.

But economists say there is little new in Mr Abe's policies, or 'Abenomics' as they have been called. They have been adopted by previous LDP governments without successfully renewing the Japanese economy.

In a recent interview, Mr Abe told me [Rupert Wingfield-Hayes] it was time for Japan to change its pacifist constitution so it can have a proper military and defend its own territory. He also vowed to protect every inch of Japan's sacred land and sea - including the disputed Senkaku or Diaoyu Islands.

That by itself is not particularly controversial. But Mr Abe belongs to that part of Japanese society that does not really believe Japan's wartime aggression against China and South East Asia was a crime.

He favours the teaching of a more patriotic, uncritical version of Japanese history. Most controversially, he has openly said he does not believe that Japanese troops forced Chinese, Korean, and women from other Asian countries into sexual slavery during the Second World War.

China will now be watching very closely. Will Mr Abe, as prime minister, visit the extremely controversial Yasakuni Shrine in Tokyo to pay homage to Japan's war dead? Will he move to revoke a 1993 Japanese government apology on the "comfort women" issue? And what will he do to about Chinese ships and aircraft challenging Japan's control of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands?

Turn to the Right?

More fiscal stimulus coupled with pressure on the central bank for looser monetary policies cannot be associated with "right-wing" politics.

However, his request to change the constitution to allow Japan to "have a proper military and defend its own territory, including every inch of Japan's sacred land and sea - including the disputed Senkaku or Diaoyu Islands" is certainly right-wing.

Abe's denial regarding "comfort women" in World War II is as preposterous as neo-Nazi claims that Hitler did not kill Jews.

On these three issues, his monetary policy is a scary turn to the left, his militarism is a scary turn to the right, and his denial regarding "comfort women" is a dive straight into the loony bin.

Yen, Nikkei

The politics of Abe seem favorable for a continued decline in the Yen and a rise in Japanese equities.

$XJY Yen Daily

$NIKK Nikkei Daily

Since Mid-November the Nikkei has been on an upward tear. The Yen has been in decline since the start of October.

Both trends have favorable fundamentals, and both are worth watching.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Is Boehner Capitulating on Tax Hike Boost? Blame Game Posturing

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 10:11 AM PST

House speaker John Boehner made an incremental move in Obama's direction in regards to tax hikes.

Specifically, Boehner offered to raise income tax rates on households earning more than $1 million a year in exchange for containing the cost of federal entitlement programs.

Discussion are private, and president Obama rejected the offer. Specifically, the president wants hikes on those making more than $250,000. Obama also wants to avoid making significant reductions in entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

Blame Game Posturing

On the surface, this appears to be a major change in attitude by Boehner. Previously, Boehner wanted to avoid all tax hikes, instead offering the closing of loopholes to raise revenue.

Is this move a sign of capitulation or blame game posturing?

I suggest the latter. Public opinion polls show a majority of people behind some tax hikes on the wealthy. Boehner now has an offer on the table.

There may be one more move in Obama's direction to something like tax hikes on those making $500,000 or more. However, each move Boehner makes in the president's direction will likely require (and should require), a move by Obama in Boehner's direction.

It would be easy enough for Boehner to demand so much reduction in entitlement programs that the president will not go along.

Indeed, if Boehner makes incremental steps from no tax hikes to tax hikes on $1,000,000 or more, to tax hikes on $750,000 or more to tax hikes on $500,000 or more ... then if Obama rejects the offer, Republicans can rightfully pin this on the president.

That is the game in play at the moment. If Boehner plays the game properly, Republicans can either get a reasonable deal, or avoid the blame if the whole thing collapses.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Seth's Blog : The short head, the long tail and buying expensive scaffolding

The short head, the long tail and buying expensive scaffolding

Hits are more valuable than ever, mostly because they're more rare than ever.

The Zipf Distribution, also described in Chris Anderson's Long Tail, helps us understand just how valuable hits can be.

A bestselling book/record/movie/consultant/tech startup might make a thousand times more profit than one that's only seventy or eighty rungs lower on the bestseller list.

Simple example: In 2010, Toy Story 3 took in more than $400,000,000 at the US box office, turning a profit of more than a quarter of a billion dollars, while just about every one of the thousand movies below #80 on the list lost money.

While this makes it clear that there's a huge reward to being seen as the one, the best in your field, the current sensation, it also gives us a chance to wonder about how important it is to invest in dressing up your work with the trappings of the inevitable winner. Not for nothing did Toy Story 3 sell more tickets in the first 48 hours than just about any other movie did over its entire run... that's the result of expectation, distribution and marketing, not just in being good.

Shawn Coyne shows us how some of this math works in book publishing. Having the biggest book of the year translated into enough profits for Random House to not only pay for bonuses for everyone, but to bank millions more. We can all agree (I hope) that 50 Shades isn't the best book published this decade, but it's certainly one of the biggest.

The question (sorry it took so long to get here) is this: how much should the author have invested in creating an environment where this was more likely to happen? Shawn argues that she gave up a fortune by selling the ebook rights cheap in order to get a big bookstore push. Which is true. But, and it's a huge but, did the imprimatur of a huge publishing house help her avoid the chasm of being merely popular? Did the bookstore distribution and hype and media attention provide the magic that made her book tip?

Every industry is filled with agents, marketers, promoters, retailers and associations that promise just that--the little bit of magic, the last bit of straw, the finger on the scale that will turn a good product into the biggest hit ever. That celebrity endorsement or joint marketing venture might just work... This scaffolding is expensive, but worth every penny when it works.

Here's the error and the challenge:

The error is in thinking that once you figure out how to pay for the scaffolding, you're sure to cross the chasm to hitsville. This is easily disproven by glancing at just how many non-wins were published by Random House, represented by CAA or given shelf space at Walmart. There may be some causation, but there's also a lot of credit-grabbing correlation going on as well. (And yes, credit to publishers who take chances and pay money and support authors when they need it most...)

The challenge is in investing enough in the scaffolding of expectation and distribution that you don't damage your chances at the same time you keep overhead low enough to profit even when you don't make the top 100. Which, given the odds, is more likely than not.

Today, it's easier than ever to put your work into the world. Easier to have a blog, to share your technology, to sing your songs, to connect, with no middlemen. So, the question is: how much should you give away/pay for the scaffolding that promises to take you over the hump to the other side of the tail?

The magic of the long tail is that it's open to everyone. The danger in overinvesting in the hype machine and the turboboost of outbound marketing is that it may just distract you from what actually creates viral videos, hit books and freelancers in high demand: genuine excitement from a core group that won't rest until they tell their friends.

My take is that the benefit for winner-take-most markets is that anything you can do that realistically increases your chances of being the winner is a smart move--unless (double emphasis intended) the cost decreases your opportunity to do it again soon, or the compromises you're required to make undermine the very excitement you're trying to create.

No obvious answer, no map. Asking the question is the essential first step in finding a path.

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luni, 17 decembrie 2012

Leveraging Irrationality for Client and Stakeholder Buy-in

Leveraging Irrationality for Client and Stakeholder Buy-in

We're still in the pitch game

Irrationality, spun

It's not just the content - superficialities matter

1. Practice up

2. Dress the part

3. Invest in design

4. Focus on the "why"

A reading list on irrationality and how it influences our choices

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

Honest Signals: How They Shape Our World by Alex Pentland

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

You Are Not So Smart by David McRaney

President Obama at Prayer Vigil for Connecticut Shooting Victims: "Newtown, You Are Not Alone"

Seth's Blog : Ridiculous is the new remarkable

Ridiculous is the new remarkable

More Recent Articles

duminică, 16 decembrie 2012

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Seth's Blog : The short head, the long tail and buying expensive scaffolding

The short head, the long tail and buying expensive scaffolding

More Recent Articles

Pagini

Persoane interesate

Arhivă blog

luni, 17 decembrie 2012

We're still in the pitch game

Irrationality, spun

It's not just the content - superficialities matter

1. Practice up

2. Dress the part

3. Invest in design

4. Focus on the "why"

A reading list on irrationality and how it influences our choices

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

Honest Signals: How They Shape Our World by Alex Pentland

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

You Are Not So Smart by David McRaney

More Recent Articles

duminică, 16 decembrie 2012

More Recent Articles

Pagini

Persoane interesate

Arhivă blog

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