Squirrels are interesting. They’re cute, have a lot of energy and are soft and cuddly. But chasing after squirrels is a waste of time. You never catch them and, even if you did, they’re not much use.
In short, squirrels are pointless. Just like most of the high-energy emergency things that will try to get your attention today.
Today, just for one day, ignore the squirrels. Focus. Be a hamster and win.
And so should you.
Most Internet startups probably have not heard of Bob Hacker. And the readers of this blog will either be disciples of his philosophy–perhaps without knowing the name–or have no idea what I’m talking about.
Let’s talk about the philosophy that many web startups have intuitively grasped. From the great man:
It’s the offer, Stupid! If you do not get the results you need or response is flagging, check the offer first.
Said in another way, by Denny Hatch:
The offer should be so clear and simple that an idiot can understand it.
Every direct response marketer knows that offer is 40% (at least) of your marketing.
It turns out that a lot of great startup companies understand this. A few examples:
The companies listed above are changing the way we use the Internet and how we work and play. And what’s their offer? FREE. You get to use a significant part of their product absolutely FREE and, if you like, pay for more.
I suspect their Marketing Cost per Offer (MCO) approaches zero dollars. After all, there’s no guarantee of backend revenue to support a higher marketing cost. And the brilliant part about the freemium model is that you can focus limited resources on addressing market problems and building great products to address those problems.
I also suspect these companies have sales forces with sizes in the neighborhood of, oh, zero people. More resources that can be channeled to software engineers to make yet better products and beat your–yes, your–company into the ground
What should you do? Test better offers, constantly. Start with FREE and make the offer even better, if you find the response flagging. Take the profit and hire more software engineers and smart developers. Channel Bob Hacker, use strong offers, win.
How many hours did you work last week? How many meetings did you go to? How many sales calls did you make yesterday?
It doesn’t matter.
As ROWE reminds us in a post, tracking time is insane. The only thing that matters is results. Not hours. Not Powerpoints shown in meetings. Not how many people you dialed.
A great week of results might only take you ten hours. Or it might take 80. In fact, a great week of results that only takes you ten hours is far better, because you have a lot more time to get smarter and better about other things.
The next time somebody tells you they’re working 16 hours a day or 80 hours a week, cut them off. Ask them what they’ve done.
Ten years ago today, almost 3,000 people were murdered. One was my friend and Utica College classmate Margaret Echtermann. She was likable, smart and a lot of fun. She was enjoying success in her career and personal life when it abruptly ended.
I won’t forget her, nor the other thousands who perished. I also won’t forget who did it.
We don’t follow titles. We don’t follow companies. We don’t even follow people. We follow ideas.
Nobody worth interacting with cares what your rank is, what box you occupy on the org chart, who you work for or what your personal attributes are. (I’m assuming that you are–of course–neatly attired, polite, an expert in something, and can communicate in the language of your audience.)
The doers of the world, those with expertise, those with the willingness to help others care about The Idea above all. They’ll ask themselves “Is this is a good idea?” “How can I test that assumption?” “What else can I do with that idea?” “Can I add this to another good idea?” “How can I help?” “Should I get involved?” “Who else might I recruit?”
When you ask these kinds of questions out loud or to yourself, you’re doing something very important. You’re paying attention.
And at that point, as Jason Fried points out, the investment is of the most precious commodity of them all. Attention.
Demonstrating Leadership Through Attention
Anybody with a title and an org chart can get anybody to comply with a request. Issue this report weekly by Tuesday, in ten point type, or else. They recipient of that message will surely do that work.
But they’ll comply, not internalize that task. And they won’t follow that title and org-chart driven tyrant off a cliff.
But when you can convince people to really, truly pay attention to that idea, you don’t have compliance. You have the beginnings of a movement.
And anybody can start a movement. All it takes is a leader, with some ideas that get people’s attention.
Takeaway: Not getting enough attention? It’s not your title or box on the org chart. Get some better ideas. Gain attention of doers. Form a movement and win.
Squier Guitar Collection, a set on Flickr.
My Labor Day off-topic post. Here’s a few pictures I took today of my mid-late 80’s collection of Squier Stratocasters, all made in Japan.
Why Squiers? Well these are the guitars I could afford to buy when I was in college. I purchased an ’87 Stratocaster and only got the Squier because the difference between that and a “real” Fender was about $150–all the money in the world at that time to me.
It turns out that those E-series Squiers are actually really good guitars. I’d wager they’re probably better made than some of the Fender Strats you’d see at $800-$1,000 at Guitar Center today.
And because they’re cheap, I can get a few and build a bit of a collection. Will I get rich? No, but I feel like a kid every time I take one out to play.
Simon Sinek does it again, reminding us that those looking for failings in ourselves or in our companies are looking in the wrong place. It’s too easy to criticize, too easy to Monday-morning quarterback.
Cheerleading our strengths and successes often gets its own criticism.
“Oh, what a Pollyanna.”
“That’s the job you were supposed to do.”
“So the press release got picked up by the main writer at the Times. Anybody can write that release”
Today, just for one day, don’t criticize. Play up the strength. Go home happy. Send others home happier.
Now is what you focus on when you don’t have the courage to make big decisions about the future.
Now is what makes managers scurry around in a panic , while leaders calmly think about next year.
Now is a shiny new object.
Now is about Wall Street.
Now is about being reactive.
Now is killing your business.
Startups beat large corporations primarily due to a lack of passion. Sure, the large company might have everything one thinks you might need to win in new product development:
But what’s missing is the thing that keeps startups going. Passion.
The belief that the thing you’re working on is going to change the world. The belief that the thing you’re developing is so critically important that sleep, food, socialization and money has to take a back seat to your art.
If you’re a product manager and are not passionate about what you’re working on, quit. I mean it, you’re not doing the company or yourself a favor. Do things that are powerful and will change the world. And if the company you currently work for doesn’t understand that, go someplace where they do.
Life’s too short. Thanks to Andy Swan and congratulations to GroupMe.
I’m a continuity direct response marketer. My 10,000 hours were spent testing hypotheses about lists, creative, offers, products and fulfillment methods by doing thousands of univariate and multivariate tests. Each test was, essentially, a small bet of $500 to $50,000.
I failed 99.8% of the time and am perfectly ok with that.
The reason is that those hypotheses ended up with winning ideas that ultimately generated millions of customers and billions in revenue.
I thought small bets was normal and right way to do things. “Go big, or go home” didn’t make sense to me except when it was time to roll out one of those proven winning hypotheses.
Lo and behold, Peter Sims recently wrote a great book, Little Bets, that validated everything I learned in the world of old school direct response marketing.
So what’s a great book got to do with coffee?
Mark Suster’s recent blog post Why You Need to Take 50 Coffee Meetings is essentially saying the same thing as Sims’ book. Make those little bets by talking with a bunch of new people. Get a diversity of ideas and experiences, which you can do without a lot of investment in time or money.
Then, when you got the chance, you’re ready to Go Big (and not have to Go Home).
Takeaway: Test a lot of hypotheses. Talk with a lot of people. Get out of the office. Get into the marketplace.
markpilip
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