Linda's Marketing Leverage Blog

New Podcasts: Marketing in the New Reality and the Key to Building Brand Advocates

Check out our two latest podcasts:

• Million Dollar Consultant Alan Weiss talks about Marketing in the New Reality: How Consultants Can Be Successful in the New Environment
• Brand guru Brandon Murphy of 22 Squared discusses brand advocacy--why it's important and how to build better brand advocates in The Key to Building Brand Advocates

Be sure to listen to the entire series at Marketing Thought Leadership

Linda Popky joins the Million Dollar Consultant® Hall of Fame

Right on the heels of this week's San Jose/Silicon Valley Business Journal's Top Women of Influence in Silicon Valley award,  I learned on Friday that I have been inducted into Alan Weiss's Million Dollar Consultant Hall of Fame.

According to Alan, the criteria for induction include:

• Serving as an exemplar to others in the profession.
• The highest levels of integrity, ethics, and accountability.
• Revenue and profit achievement and growth.
• Contributions of intellectual capital to the profession.
• Continual, challenging, personal and professional development.
• Risk taking and resilience.

This award is shared with only the top leaders in consulting worldwide. This year's seven inductees, Suzanne Bates, Seth Kahan, Pat Lynch, Katherine Radeka, Scott Simmonds, Phil Symchych and me, join 13 other existing members of the Hall of Fame. I am the only member with a focus on strategic marketing consulting.

It really is a privilege to be  recognized by Alan Weiss, the man who has written more books on consulting than anyone in the world and who has been called "one of the most highly regarded independent consultants in America." Furthermore, it is an honor to be associated with the 19 other top professionals who share this distinction.

Thanks to my family, friends, colleagues and clients who have helped me get to this level.

Linda

Silicon Valley Top Women of Influence Awards Ceremony

Today's Stem Cell Decision: A Victory for those who Value Saving Lives

As the parent of a child with type 1 diabetes, the daughter of a man who died of complications of type 2 diabetes, and the granddaughter of a woman who died of Alzheimer's disease, I was thrilled to see President Obama follow through on his promise to lift restrictions on embryonic stem cell research.

The restrictions on this research placed by the previous administration were meant to pacify religious special interests. Today's action was meant to help save lives.

Here's what happened over the last 8 years of the ban:

• Other countries continued to progress their own stem cell research, making this yet another area where US efforts were left behind.
• California voters passed their own initiative to fund stem cell research, creating the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).
• Millions of people continued to suffer and die from diseases like diabetes, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, spinal cord injuries, etc.--diseases that might be helped by the outcome of stem cell research. There are over 24 million people in the US suffering from diabetes alone and tens of millions more at risk for the disease.

Will this technology cure these horrible diseases? No one knows for sure. But we do know that there is incredible potential that cannot be found elsewhere. As a society, we have a responsibility to use the tools and technologies we have available to help improve living conditions for those amongst us who suffer from these diseases or injuries. We have a responsibility to allow scientific research to move forward unfettered. We have a responsibility to save lives.

The Talmud says, "He who saves one life is as if he has saved an entire world."  As of today, we're back on track to save millions of worlds.

We're Honored: Silicon Valley Top 100 Women of Influence Award

The Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal has named Linda Popky one of Silicon Valley's "Top 100 Women of Influence" for 2009.

This year's winners, nominated by their peers, were chosen by a panel of judges that included Shellye Archambeau, CEO of MetricStream; Connie Martinez, CEO of 1stAct Silicon Valley; Ysabel Duron, Latinas Contra Cancer Founder and Executive Director; and Wendy Beecham, CEO of Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives.

According to Business Journal Publisher James MacGregor, “The women listed exemplify many of the attributes that makes Silicon Valley a global leader in business, philanthropy and public policy. The experience and skills these women demonstrate have helped to innovate and shepherd the valley to success."

In addition to being the founder and president of L2M Associates, Linda is also the president of Women in Consulting, a San Francisco Bay Area-based community of over 400 consultants and small business owners working to build strong businesses. A consultant, speaker, author and educator, she is the program advisor for San Francisco State University's Integrated Marketing Program and on the advisory board for UC Santa Cruz Extension's Marketing Management Program.

Women of Influence award winners will be honored at an awards ceremony and dinner to be held at the San Jose Fairmont on March 18th. More information about the event.

Yahoo's New Management Structure: Why Critics Are Missing the Point

Ever since Carol Bartz was announced as the new CEO of Yahoo, I've been watching the reactions with amusement. The "pundits" or web gurus or whatever they call themselves have expressed their skepticism about how someone who comes from a hardware and software background can turn around a web company. Why Carol Bartz? Why not hire someone with direct web experience instead?

Last week's announcement that Elisa Steele will be joining Yahoo as CMO was met with the same response: another person w/a hardware/software background and no direct web experience.

Ladies and gentlemen: You're missing the point.

Yahoo has probably close to 12,000 employees, just about all of whom we can assume know the web inside and out. The place is crawling with web expertise--open a conference room and it probably falls right out at you. Yet all of those people with all of that expertise haven't helped Yahoo get out of the rut they're in. In fact, it may have helped them dig a deeper hole.

What Yahoo needs now is strong leadership, solid management expertise, and the ability to create a strategy and execute effectively. And that's exactly why the hiring of Carol and Elisa is *exactly* what Yahoo needs.

I've had the opportunity to see these two women in action--at Sun, at Autodesk, and at NetApp. Carol is a non-nonsense manager who knows her technology and has great business sense. She isn't afraid to ask tough questions or make hard decisions and she will absolutely tell you what she sees without any hesitation, sugar coating, or concern about being politically correct. What a breath of fresh air.

Elisa is both a seasoned, knowledgeable creative marketing executive and someone who can build and motivate a team with amazing effectiveness. She is one of the best I've ever seen when it comes to executing big, complex marketing initiatives--something that should benefit Yahoo tremendously as it navigates perilous waters and attempts to survive as a standalone company.

Both of these women bring the management skills necessary to harness Yahoo's existing pool of web talent and drive them in the right direction.

One more thing. Let's not forget that the CEO of Yahoo's biggest competitor had no more web experience when he was hired than either Carol or Elisa. But, interestingly, Eric Schmidt did have the same hardware/software background--coming from Sun and Novell. Looks like he hasn't done too badly at Google.

Hmm. Maybe there's a pattern here?

Have We Forgotten About Our Customers?

With all the turmoil and trauma of these economic times, it's easy to fixate on doom and gloom. This company is having another layoff, that one is cutting back production, another is going bankrupt.

You'd think the companies who are left would be falling all over themselves trying to impress their existing customers. Unfortunately, in many cases, that's not what's happening.

Oh sure, we see lots of sales and great "buy now" deals. That's great if you're buying toilet paper or groceries, but when you're making a large purchase or buying a complex product that has a significant after-sale service and support component, you need more than low prices today. You need to feel you're going to be taken care of and supported for the life of that product and beyond.

Furthermore, if you're already a customer, it would be nice for the organizations you've been loyally supporting to do something that tells you they appreciate your loyalty and are willing to reward you. (A recording saying "we appreciate your business" while you wait on hold doesn't do it.")

It's frustrating to see companies bend over backwards to offer deals to entice new customers, yet tell the old loyal standbys they can't get that deal because it's for new customers only. Huh? Perhaps someone should remind these companies how much more expensive it is to continually sign up new customers rather than keep the old ones. And that losing a customer means not only losing the current sale but all the potential future sales during the life of that customer (which is why the metric for customer lifetime value is so important).

As an example, I've been a customer of a local UPS Store since before it was a UPS Store. I see they are running yet another special for new customers. I know better than to ask about this because I've been told before these specials are for new customers only, not old customers like me. Furthermore, they've introduced some new services that they are quite happy to charge me extra for, but I'm willing to bet are bundled into the fees for today's new customers.

Sprint, which for the least several years has been the poster child for customer churn, is trying something different. They're now offering extra discounts and services to long-standing customers. These include discounts on calling plans, more flexibility in choosing plans, and the ability to upgrade to new phone equipment in less than the standard 2 year period.

It's definitely a step in the right direction. Whether it's a big enough leap to help Sprint, who has been struggling mightily, is still to be seen. But perhaps if they'd had programs like this in place there wouldn't have been as much churn to start with. This doesn't replace good quality products and services and top-notch customer support. Those are a given to compete effectively. But in this day and age when consumers are spending less and contemplating purchases more, it's even more important to let them know you haven't forgotten about the people who've been with you all along.