Heavy!

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Dec 022011
 

Yesterday as I was about to leave Basepoint Business Centre in Bromsgrove I was given a branded keyring that includes a disc that will operate the lock on supermarket trolleys. I am struck by how heavy it is. It has a quality feel about it. It started me thinking about heavy. A heavy pen feels much nicer to use than something that is light and plasticy. It has a quality feel. What is it about heavy that communicates quality? Possibly because heavy is often allied with solid and therefore feels well made. You don’t usually feel the weight of a car door  but the sound it makes when it closes shouts solid (and heavy), or not, as the case may be.

OK, so heavy is good. Well, not necessarily. The maker of that car will have worked hard to reduce weight to improve performance and fuel economy. Makers of very expensive performance cars may well use exotic materials such as carbon-fibre to reduce weight. Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner makes extensive use of carbon composites to reduce weight.

So light or heavy is good, depending on the application in question. But solid is always good. Except when you want something flexible!

There is a saying amongst engineers that if it looks right it probably is right. I think the same can be said about feel. Our brains have a way of working out what looks and feels right. What looks ‘quality’. Although this doesn’t always work. Try walking on a glass floor and see whether it feels right! Glass floors aside, the image portrayed by our business and our products can be influenced by feel. Hand over a business card that feels solid and we will immediately be perceived as being a higher quality business that if we use cheap and flimsy cards. They just don’t feel right. They’re not heavy.

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Passionate Presentations

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Nov 092011
 

I’ve ranted about PowerPoint presentations before. A good few other folk bang on about them as well. But the message still isn’t getting through to many presenters. PowerPoint is the most effective tool ever invented to kill a performance stone dead. Note the use of the word ‘performance’. I have seen communication defined as ‘the transfer of emotion’. So just think about your next presentation. How will you transfer the emotion, the passion you have for your subject, to the audience? By the way, if you aren’t passionate about your subject, why are you going to talk about it? Get someone else to do it. Or just don’t bother.

What are you trying to achieve? Are you selling something? A product, service or an idea? Perhaps you are trying to recruit people to your cause. Or trying to persuade the Dragons in their den to invest in your business. Or perhaps you want to tell people about your solo voyage around the world. Whatever it is, surely you want to excite them not send them to sleep? Of course, if you are trying to sell something or are seeking investment or permission to do something, it is likely that you’ll want to present some facts. But these should be to help the audience to rationalize their decision. Facts alone won’t be sufficient. Or if they are, why do you need to make the presentation?

OK, so we need to put on a passionate performance that arouses the emotions of the listeners so that they are persuaded to our point of view in their hearts and we are going to appeal to their heads with a few powerfully presented facts. That is, the really, really important facts; the ones that will make them sit up and take notice.

There are five times more bacteria on the average desk than on the average toilet seat.

There, I bet that got your attention … especially if you happened to be eating your sandwiches off your desk at the time!

The reason for this startling fact is that we tend to clean our toilets rather more frequently than our desks. So it would be a great one-liner for someone pitching for an office cleaning contract. Just imagine two companies pitching for the business. One has dozens of PowerPoint slides and goes on for ages about how they started in a garden shed and now have a multi-branch operation in half a dozen towns around the West Midlands … and on and on. Are you asleep yet? The other business says nothing but puts up one slide with that single sentence. And then waits for the questions to start. Which do you think is more likely to get the business, all other aspects being equal?

I hope you noted that the presenter said nothing when the slide went up. It is a reasonable bet the audience will be able to read it, so let them do so. Never, ever read what is on a slide. If you want to talk, put up images that are relevant to what you are saying, that add to the impact or the understanding of your point.

You are trying to make an impact, to communicate your passion for what you do. Keep it simple and allow the emotion to come through.

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The New Industrial Revolution

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May 162011
 

Recently I visited a couple of the industrial museums that form part of the Ironbridge Gorge complex. Ironbridge is often considered to be the cradle of the Industrial Revolution. When you visit the various sites scattered along the leafy Severn valley it is difficult to imagine why the diverse industries grew up there. Of course, the answer is the availability of natural resources.

In the UK resources are now often intellectual rather than physical. But the same concept can apply whereby people with complementary skills can come together to develop projects. There is often a reluctance to share ideas in case they are hijacked. Or, if the other person is in a broadly similar business, there is a fear that they will steal your customers. However, if you take the time to develop a personal relationship, this is unlikely to happen. I would suggest that the benefits outweigh the risk.

Over the past few months I have seen several instances of coming together to provide a more comprehensive service than could be achieved individually. In fact, now I think about it, that is exactly what I’m doing with Successful Speaking!

So don’t be afraid to share your ideas or to suggest ways that you could work together with someone else in your sector. Take the plunge and participate in the New Collaborative Industrial Revolution. When I said take the plunge, I didn’t mean into the Severn or any other river! In fact, you don’t have to be located by a river at all - you don’t even need to be located close to each other. But it does help if you are both rowing in the same direction!

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Waiter, There’s A Computer In My Soup!

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Apr 272011
 

A couple of weeks ago we stayed in a very decent hotel up north. After the day out and about, dinner should have been a relaxing conclusion to the day. But somehow it wasn’t. There was technology in abundance – computer terminals at the restaurant reception desk, at a couple of strategic points in the large room and, presumably, in the kitchen. Staff seemed to spend an inordinate time peering into screens and tapping at keyboards. Despite, or maybe because of, this there was a feeling that they were teetering on the brink of out of control. Oh, and there was a disconnect between the hotel main reception and the restaurant. Reception believed they were booking specific tables e.g. a window table, whereas the restaurant perceived it as any old table and moved people around to suit themselves. Hopefully an encounter with Wike has cured them of this unsatisfactory practice!

Last night we were eating in a local restaurant. We placed our order and sat back. And waited. And waited. An equiry and investigation brought a very apologetic waitress to say that the order printer in the kitchen had broken at the moment our order was being processes and it had fallen through the slats (my words). A re-order was expedited whilst we were soothed with complementary drinks and more apologies from this smiling young woman.

Learning points?

  1. Don’t rely exclusively on technology.
  2. Make sure that everyone understands the technology and its limitations.
  3. Be generous with your apologies but back them up with action.
  4. A problem dealt with effectively and with good grace has the opportunity to provide a better customer experience than no problem at all.
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Not The BBC

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Nov 222010
 

On Saturday I made my radio debut representing Stourbridge Speakers Club on the Stourbridge/Black Country local radio station The Bridge. I’m sure that the folks at The Bridge won’t mind me saying that it isn’t quite like the BBC. Their studio is in the back of a church and this morning’s presenter, Alex Jackson, was doing everything himself, including making me a cup of tea. I was mightily impressed with how he juggled everything that was going on. But perhaps I should have warned him about the anti-technology spirit that inhabits my office and occasionally travels with me. Today was one of those days as Alex found to his cost. Firstly the adverts cut in during a piece of music, then the news intervened ten minutes too soon. I’m sure all was restored to normality once I left.

Among the many subjects we covered was different types of communication. In my view, one of the reasons that our speakers club is thriving despite the economic gloom is that we employ multiple strands in communicating our existence and what we do. Website, Twitter, local magazine & press articles, business network events and word of mouth, oh, and local radio, all contribute to our success. Of course, we have a great product, but that on its own would not be good enough. We are no different from any small business. Are you exploiting all potential channels to communicate your products or services?

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