Lois Kelly
Beeline Labs
Oct. 24, 2008

The world is a giant web of conversations.
Customers
with
customers Sales reps
People with
with
people online
customers
PR with the Conversations Employees
media with customers
Executives
People with
with opinion Your partners friends
leaders and vendors
with customers

With more channels than ever before
Conferences
Sales
Podcasts
meetings
Webinars Conversations Blogs
Social
You Tube
Online networks
communities

A DS
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ON EB
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Trus
t
The
• Builds understanding
importance of • Emotional connections
conversations • Develops relationships
isn’t new…

5 things make it more important
1. Trust
2. Overwhelmed
3. Being heard, having a say
4. Emotional connections
5. Web 2.0

The 5 biggest obstacles
1. Misperception: tag lines & mission/vision ‘r it
2. Company/product focus vs.. customer focus
3. Committee “mush” and fraidy cats
4. Command and control mindset
5. Nothing to talk about

“Remember when technology ad the ability
to amaze you? Believe again.”

It’s time to fly.®

1. Listening
2. Point of view
3. Conversational culture

Listening

Value of being heard
82%
59% 52%
Communispace study: members of 20 online communities

What truly makes us different is that we listen to
you, our users…Kayak employees (from our CEO
to accounting to our geeky engineers) personally
answer each and every email.
Anyone can listen, but we also react.

Value:
Responding to negative
My first - and what I'd planned on being my LAST - visit to Cowboys
and Angels was a total nightmare.
What I didn't anticipate was getting a phone call from the owner of
the salon. I went back in last night to give them another go —- this
time it was on the house... I have never been more pleased with a
haircut. It looks AMAZING.

Want more interest?
Be more interesting
A point of view
“That’s kind of interesting.
Tell me more.”

How a POV differs
POINT OF VIEW Beliefs and ideas that provoke
conversation, build understanding;
something a person would say
VISION Why the organization exists, provides
direction to what company does
VALUE Value customers get from doing business
PROPOSITION with company
MESSAGING Most important points to convey about
company, product, service
ELEVATOR SPEECH Simple sentence describing business, how it
differs

Most marketing
has no point of
view….
And nothing to
talk about.

Vs.

Real beauty has
wrinkles, bumps,
curves.
“Will our society
ever accept old
can be
beautiful?”

Vs.

“Three out of four people on the earth
aren’t connected to the Internet.
Our mission is to provide the infrastructure…
But our cause is to eliminate the digital divide.”
Scott McNealy, chairman, Sun Microsystems

Princess
The cruise line that brought you the Love Boat

Vs.

“Like being on a friend’s private yacht.”
American Canadian Caribbean Cruise Line

9 themes that get people talking
David vs. Avalanche
Aspirations
And Beliefs Goliath about to roll
Contrarian
Anxieties Personal
Counterintuitive stories
“How to” Glitz & Glam Seasonal,
Event related

Aspirations & beliefs

Avalanche about to roll
Free ad-supported software
You won’t need a Web site in 2 years…..

Anxieties

Contrarian/Counterintuitive

Personal stories

“How to”

Glitz & glam

Event, seasonal related

David vs. Goliath

Ask new questions
• What do we passionately believe?
• Customers love when we…
• What’s the one best piece of advice
to give to our customers?
• If we had a crystal ball, what
changes would we see in our
industry?
25 questions, p. 206, Beyond Buzz

3. Conversational culture

Be friendly vs.. formal
Friendly dealer table earned 13% more revenue.
J.D. Power/American Casino study

Blogs: friendlier style of communicating

“Weʼre going to rock out to Philip Glass all night
long and gab to somebody we just met about
how much Expressionism inspires us.”

Conversations
Customers:
Marketing/sales:
Trust & love
Point of view be trusted & loved
Listening
“Talking”

Lkelly@beelinelabs.com
Blog:
www.foghound.com