Linda's Marketing Leverage Blog

How are Consultants Weathering the Recession?

Women in Consulting (WIC) recently conducted its 8th annual compensation survey, with nearly 300 respondents completing the questionnaire.

To learn more about how consultants are weathering the recession, their outlook for the coming year, and best practices of top grossing consultants, join us for a webinar on Wed. July 22nd at 11am PDT.

Jennifer Berkley of the Insight Advantage and I will be sharing the highlights of the survey as well as discussing the trends we see from this year's responses.

Register now.

The Sound of Silence: Knowing When to Stop Talking

It's now been a full week since Michael Jackson's demise and more than that since Mark Sanford's exploits were first revealed.

In the time since then, parties associated with both camps have filled much more than their reasonable share of airwaves (and bandwidth as well), giving us much more information about the details of these situations than we ever needed to know.

I don't need to know how many times Sanford met w/his mistress or how many other women he flirted with before, during and after. I also don't need to know every detail of Michael Jackson's will (somehow I doubt he left me anything), or whether or not his children were biologically his or someone else's (they're legally his and that's all that matters right now).

Just once it would be nice for someone involved in one of these situations to make a simple concise statement, say that's it, I'm done, and walk away. Too much detail doesn't do anyone any good. Hitchcock was the master of suspense, but how much gore and blood did he show on camera? What was captivating about his movies was that the important details were left to the imagination, rather than spelled out in high definition in excruciating detail.

This is true for all of us in business settings as well: Say what you have to say, then stop and wait. Listen to the silence. Give the other person a chance to absorb what you've said. Don't try to overcompensate by telling all the gory details. Let the other person use their imagination. Let them think for themselves. Appreciate the sound, and the power,  of silence.

What You Don't Know About Your Online Reputation CAN Hurt You

Learn about the importance of online reputation management, including how to monitor your current reputation, what you need to do to repair damage, and how to stay ahead of the curve in the future.

Listen to expert Celeste Bishop discuss this in the latest episode of Marketing Thought Leadership.

Cloudy Skies Ahead for Frequent Travelers: The Demise of Clear

It was a great concept: Pre-register frequent travelers by collecting information about them as well as unmistakable personal identification (fingerprints, retinal scans), and help speed them through the security lines in airports.

More than that, it actually worked pretty well in practice. Kiosks were set up in major airports both to enroll travelers and to screen them. Processes were set up with the airports, airlines and the TSA. Everyone I know who used the service *loved* it. It seemed to be close to the tipping point--the place where a concept catches on and becomes mainstream.

So what happened? We're not sure, but about a week ago with absolutely no warning, the company backing the Clear Lanes went out of business, literally overnight. The official statement said that there was no more funding for a program that it appears must have had a big upfront investment. Furthermore, because of the finances of the company, no refunds would be forthcoming.

Travelers were stunned, and almost universally have been mourning the death of a good idea. Not only that, but now there's the question of what to do with all that detailed personal identification Clear was collecting. We've been reassured that all the data will be double and triple wiped off computers and we'll all be safe.

That's really too bad, because what I'm sure most Clear members really want is someone else to come in, takeover the operation, and continue operating the service.

Certainly the economy must have been a factor--both because it must have impacted the number of travelers willing to pay for this right now, as well as the fact that the capital markets have gotten downright stingy in this post-bailout world.

But I'm sure there was a pony in the form of a viable business model in there somewhere. The heavy lifting's been done, the technologies and processes were in place, the idea was catching on--can't we find someone somewhere who can pick this up from here and run with it?

A small bit of solace: We had just signed up our daughter for a Clear card the week before they shut down, and the credit card payment was processed *the day before* Clear went out of business. Ouch.  A quick call to Visa explaining the situation and they took care of refunding our payment, so at least we weren't out for a year's worth of non-service from a defunct provider.

Also, SPG (the hotel company) came through with flying colors on the customer service side. I had enrolled in Clear as part of an SPG-backed promotion. They sent out an email last week apologizing to the customers who enrolled through their promotion and offering to credit our frequent traveler accounts with extra points for our trouble. Nice move, SPG!

Meanwhile, I have to believe there's got to be a way to fix this. Entrepreneurs, investors--where are you? Help us get back to clear skies soon.

Our Obsessions with Train Wrecks...Figurative as Much as Literal

It's been a busy week for news, between the exposure of a leading Republican's romantic escapades and the deaths of two pop icons.

It's interesting how the public grabs onto these events with a voyeuristic fervor that is hard to contain. All of today's technology is put to use to get to the bottom of these stories--whether it's publishing the back-and-forth passionate emails of Mark Sanford and his Argentinian mistress or broadcasting photographs of a comatose Michael Jackson intubated on his final trip to the hospital.

[Poor Farrah Fawcett had the bad luck to die in between these two stories, limiting the amount of attention on her passing.This is unfortunate, because during her valiant struggle with cancer she worked hard to educate people about a type of the disease with very low awareness. Of all these stories, this is the one that had the potential to help save others' lives.]

All of this far outpaced the REAL train wreck, which caused at least 9 deaths in a Maryland suburb when one commuter train plowed into another. And it's bumped the Iranian election protests, the event likely to impact the most people worldwide in profound ways, way off the front page.

What is it about our society that we are so taken with others' sexual acts and deviant behavior that we become obsessed with news like this, beyond any rational measure? We can blame the media, but in reality they are just delivering what they believe their audience wants to see and hear. The  audience of course validates this behavior by tuning in in droves. (Was the slowdown on the web yesterday afternoon right after Michael Jackson's demise a mere coincidence? Hmm.)

The accidents have happened, the crisis has passed. It's all up to the cleanup crews now. Let's leave the carnage behind and go on.

Take Control of Your Career...with our new workbook and other programs

 Trying to differentiate themselves in this crowded job market? Know someone else who is?

Our new workbook on Marketing Your Career is hot off the press. This is the companion to the popular handbook of the same name, designed to help professionals more effectively market and position themselves for success in the marketplace. The workbook is available as either a printed book or an ebook.

We're offering a special promotional discount through the end of July on the combination of the book with either the printed or ebook versions of the workbook.

The book is normally $19.95 and the new workbook is $9.95 printed, $6.95 for the ebook. From now through the end of July, you can get the book/printed workbook combo for $25, or the book/ebook workbook combo for $20.

More information.


p.s. The books are also available on Amazon.com

Doing Good Shouldn't Be So Hard

File this under the heading "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished".....

We had quite a bit of catered, untouched food left from a graduation/birthday/anniversary party yesterday (Lesson: Don't believe the estimates you see about how many servings each platter holds. Multiply that number by two at least!). Rather than throw all this food away, we wanted to donate this to people who could use it.

One wouldn't think this would be so difficult--I mean there is a recession going on, right? There are a lot of people out of work, homeless, down on their luck. How hard can it be to help them out? Harder than you would think, as it turns out.

First I called the one name brand I know in this area, Second Harvest Food Bank. Turns out they only deal with nonperishable food, not prepared-and-ready-to-eat-with-a-shelf-life items. (They also take nonperishable cash, but not prepared food.)

They recommended going to a soup kitchen and after a little prodding gave me a couple of recommendations. The first place I called only serves food on Sundays, so our timing was bad. The second was a wrong number. I found a similarly named church online and called them, but the phone rang off the hook. My next phone call reached a soup kitchen but the person who answered wasn't sure how to help me, who to send me to, or what exactly I was looking for anyway.

I did a Google search and found a place that said they'd be thrilled to have this. They gave me directions and off I went. Unfortunately, I missed a turn somewhere and didn't have their phone number handy. So I called Sprint 411. Three times. And all three times I got people who could not figure out the word "Ecumenical"  (as in Ecumenical Hunger Program) to save their life. They asked me to spell it, told me the program didn't exist, asked me to respell the name of the street, and told me they couldn't understand what I was saying because the connection was bad (Hmmm...you're with Sprint--whose fault do you think that might be?).

Finally with no help whatsoever from Sprint's Directory Assistance, I found the address, delivered the food, was thanked heartily and went away with a feeling of accomplishment.

But, ladies and gentlemen, this should not be that hard. It's graduation/wedding/prom season. There must be plenty of people who have leftover food that could feed hungry people. How much of that food goes to waste because it's just too difficult to get it to the people who need it?

For that matter, regardless of the business you're in, how many of your customers give up on you because it's too much work to locate you,  find your contact information, navigate your website, or something similar.

Life is already hard enough. Here's to making things easy.

New Podcast: Lead Generation--we've got to be able to do better than this

Lead generation and sales force automation expert Dave Taber talks about what's wrong with many of today's lead generation systems in the latest episode of our Marketing Thought Leadership podcast series.

Dave is the author of a new book entitled  SalesForce.Com Secrets of Success: Best Practices for Growth and Profitability

Listen now.

Need to Kick Start Your Job Search? Here's a great opportunity...

Know someone who's looking for a job in this tough economy?  Frustrated by how to stand out from the crowds when it comes to a job search? Want to find out how to turbo charge your career?

We're offering a one-day seminar in conjunction with San Francisco State's College of Extended Learning on Saturday, June 27th that will help you use proven marketing techniques to jump start your career development.

Whether you want to grow within your existing organization, land a new job opportunity, or become a consultant, your success depends on how well you package and promote yourself. This one-day course will teach you how to identify your target audience, discover their wants and needs, and understand your market position vs. your competition. You'll develop and articulate your unique value proposition, and learn how to package and promote your “solution” to meet the needs of the people who can impact your career success.

This seminar uses material from our Marketing Your Career book and new companion about to be launched workbook--both of which are included in the course fee.

Best of all, you don't have to be a marketer to take advantage of these techniques. Anyone can benefit from looking at themselves from this new perspective.

Register now.

Trading Down Has Companies Looking Up

An article in yesterday's San Jose Mercury News entitled "In Recession consumers turn to small indulgences," reinforces what I've been telling clients and students for months:

First, there are companies who are doing well in this gloomy economy, such as Hershey's, Kraft Food, Wal-Mart, Dollar Tree, as well as some that would not necessarily have come to mind, like running shoe and bicycle helmet manufacturers, coin dealers and gardening tools.

Second, a key behavior is for people to trade down from their prior behavior. So people who used to eat out at high end restaurants now move to mid-range eateries; those who used to frequent mid-range eateries go down a notch to lower end restaurants; those who used to go to the lower end restaurants now head to McDonalds or Taco Bell. Or folks who might have eaten out previously are now enjoying a nice dinner at home--a trend that not only helps the grocery chains, but stores like Target as well who are positioning themselves as the key player to help people dress up their "at-home" experience.

This trend is true across many industries--such as hotel and travel, automobile sales and leasing, or clothing. It's not that people are no longer spending; it's that they're spending their dollars much more selectively.

As marketers we need to help our clients focus on reaching the new consumers--those that have traded down to where we are today--rather than those who used to aspire to move up and associate with our brands. The market's out there--it's just dressed differently, with a different set of faces, goals, and challenges than we're used to.

But the opportunity is there for companies to move up by capitalizing on the movement to trade down.