Obviously Awesome: Using Context to Take your Product from What? to Wow!
Rob Meinhardt - Taking Advocacy From Good To Great
1. AMP TALKS: TRACK 1
SETTING A FOUNDATION THAT CAN
TAKE ADVOCACY FROM GOOD TO
GREAT
ROB MEINHARDT
Founder | DELL Kace
Partner | TOBA Capital
#ADVOCAMP
15. AMP TALKS: TRACK 1
SETTING A FOUNDATION THAT CAN
TAKE ADVOCACY FROM GOOD TO
GREAT
ROB MEINHARDT
Founder | DELL Kace
Partner | TOBA Capital
#ADVOCAMP
Editor's Notes
Hi, Rob M, bit of background…
I’m going to talk about potential energy…
The key ingredient in building pent up fuel for influitive.
Potential energy stored in this rock is huge… unlocking it for the good of your company can be very powerful
Baseball holds another important metaphor about the importance of setting up the potential as a foundational element to success. The bases loaded, grand slam scores 4 runs. The simple home run only scores 1. Both require the exact same skill on the part of the batter (metaphorically, a well executed Influitive strategy)… but the team that can load the bases in advance can deliver historic results. Let’s explore what you can and can’t do to load the bases in your favor and set the stage for advocacy success.
We’re marketers… we don’t own product… accept the things that you cannot change
But have courage to change the things you can…
Let’s focus on what we can do as marketers
How do you create rabid fans… these are Duke Fans… undoubtedly at a UNC game…
I would argue that if you create an ethos – A Formula – you can develop religious level fervor within your customer population
In building my own company, I actually spent a lot of time thinking about what sets the stage for rabid fans… Every time I’ve thought about it, I come back to Religion and Sports as two venues that regularly produce fans who will do all kinds of crazy things (sometimes good and sometimes bad) to support their cause. In my mind, at the end of the day, Religious organizations and Sports teams have exploited the notion of a club. There’s an exclusivity to them and there’s almost certainly an us vs them in many cases. At the core, these types of organizations have an Ethos… they have a characteristic spirit that is a deliberate formula that constituents believe in and follow and, more than that, these fans will do almost anything to advance their cause. How can you create rabid fans in your employee and customer base? If you can unlock that question, you can, undoubtedly unlock the full potential of tools like Influitive. I’m going to share with you a few techniques for doing this but there are many more than I can possibly cover here… what’s important is that you create your own, systematic ethos… in other words, adapt these and other techniques to drive your “religion”.
Setting an Idea and a supporting culture that people get behind is about vision and leadership… and declarative positioning
To some, Duke is Better than UNC
To some, the 13 colonies represented the perfect society
To some, Jesus is the son of God
To some, Slack is the future of intraoffice communication
Declaring turf, uniting a team or club, setting a PERSONALITY are all powerful and necessary.
WRITE YOUR PLAN, develop your ethos.
Let’s talk about 4 relatively tactical things you can do to drive fanatical alignment of your customers with your goals… to get them to sign up for your club….
Gear… simple. Seems arguably low value. It’s not. It’s a great way to boost a mere customer to fan status. Make it fun, make it cool, align it with the real customer psychology. Go the extra mile from DORK (standard) to ultra…
HAT design goal (cool) goal realized (people wearing it who didn’t even know who we were… customers asking for 10 more)
This stuff has impact, and drives loyalty and brotherhood/sisterhood.
Read an article recently that imagination is stronger emotionally than reality
Is the idea of owning a Porsche better than owning one … yes!
Is the idea of listening to an Ipod cooler than owning one, yes!
Is the idea of a Corona on a beach cooler than being on a beach… in many ways yes!
Find ways for your customer to believe they will be better with your product
Not only imagine, but personalize… a sizeable jump in our close rate when we went deep on customers talking about us.
Tell me why you love your KACE appliance… professionally photograph, get them talking, get them loyal and on your side
Especially in a challenger market, pick a villain…. Demonize, engage your customers…. “why do you like your KACE better than ___”… fuel for the competitive win and a CONTAGION that where customers are repeating what you’ve asked them to say to others…
Once you have ethos… what next?
Pick a hill, pick a value prop, pick you differentiation… get it right the first time through a process that is methodical.
Moon example, on point…. Change to being on point 5% vector = 20k miles
Build Ethos
Focus and be consistent
Keep the ethos and focus consistent and systematic in everything you do…
Do all of those, all the time, never relent… Influitive itself is a great example.
Do those things and unlock the potential energy… by the way, the house here is your competition !!! Ha.
Here’s a more positive image of potential energy unleashed
Ehtos,
Focus,
Systematic and relentless…
Do those things and add a platform like Influitive and it will unlock a wild and positive ride for you company.
