Make Yourself A Key Sustainable Competitive Advantage

The most successful entrepreneurs and business owners I know are humble, and they don’t have an inflated sense of self. When you have some success behind you as a manager, executive, founder, or CEO, it’s easy to become less open to the advice and signals around you, and believe you should just continue doing what you are doing to keep climbing. It’s a recipe for disaster.

The only “sustainable competitive advantage” in business is self-awareness. I was struck by this assertion in a new book, “The Messy Middle,” by Scott Belsky, who has spent more than a decade leading in the worlds of technology, design, and startups. I come from the same world, with an additional decade advising entrepreneurs, and I enthusiastically confirm his view.

We both have found that the “messy middle,” with its ups and downs, is the hardest and most crucial part of any bold venture, and that’s where you need to come to grips with your true self. Here are some key points for benchmarking your own sense of self, and the self-awareness of those around you, with a bit of guidance on how to get to the next level and capitalize on it:

1. At a peak or valley, you are not your greatest self. When things are going well, ego can get the best of you. When times are tough, insecurities normally run rampant. Maintaining a realistic perspective is your promise or peril. Effective advisors and boards are most helpful in these times, when the tough questions are less apparent but critical.

   Most successful business leaders, including Richard Branson and Bill Gates, regularly called on their mentors, Freddie Laker and Warren Buffett, to test their perception of the right questions to ask, and the right issues to tackle.

2. Understand your feelings to recognize what bothers you. Whatever triggers your frustration or irritates you is rooted in the core value you haves, something you strongly stand for or against. For example, one of my core values is timeliness for completed work and meetings, so I may judge people and results harshly when they violate my limits.

   But now that I have made myself aware of this tendency, I can mitigate my quick judgment to recognize valid delays, and look at results for their real value.

3. The less defensive you are, the more potential you have. Being open-minded while receiving constructive feedback is challenging. Do you immediately try to explain yourself, go on the offensive, or try to avoid conflict at all costs? Self-awareness helps you achieve balance between these tendencies, and be open to insights from others.

   For example, I once worked for a startup CEO who desperately needed money from a venture capitalist, but became totally defensive when the VC suggested that my CEO might be better in the chief marketing role, in favor of a more experienced CEO. The result was a broken deal, and ultimately a failed startup, instead of a win-win business.

4. Understand the sources of your own negative tendencies. The leaders I admire most have invested a great deal of time understanding their own psychology and learning from their past patterns and difficulties. They don’t hesitate to get help from executive coaches, Meyers Briggs training, or other peer groups, such as the EO Network.

   Understanding the sources of your own negative tendencies also helps you make sense of others’ behavior, and support them to maximize their contribution and loyalty. Discussing your flaws openly invites others to do the same.

5. Dispel your sense of superiority and primary contributor. With any success, we are liable to overestimate the role we played in it, and underestimate the role of other, and luck. This can alienate people around you who deserve credit, resulting in you becoming more isolated and paranoid, or starting to believe you are actually superior.

   The challenge is to integrate humility into your life. It could be a sense of greater good that keeps you humble, a partner who keeps you grounded, or an insatiable sense of curiosity that keeps you inquisitive. Always give credit for your wins to all those involved around you, and be the first to take responsibility for losses.

Ultimately, self-awareness is about being the best competitor and the best leader that you can be, always making sound judgments, and effectively engaging with your team, partners, and customers. In business, you are usually many decisions away from success, but always one decision away from failure. Make every one count.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 10/17/2018 ***

Effective Marketing Today Begins With A Conversation

As a long-time advisor to small businesses and startups, I still find many who think marketing is still primarily broadcasting your message to as many customers as possible, hitting them again and again, until it sticks. They don’t realize that customers today are looking for relationships, meaning two-way conversations with your business. They ignore all else as just plain noise.

Customer conversations are easy today, through responding to customers on social media, web live chats, and interactive applications on mobile devices. In fact, your marketing costs using this approach may be far less than the traditional television, newspaper, and email campaigns. Yet even conversation marketing has to be done right to get customer attention and have an impact.

I found the rules and expectations nicely illustrated in a new book, “Conversation Marketing: How to Be Relevant and Engage Your Customer by Speaking Human,” by one of the experts in the new digital marketing strategies, Kevin Lund. He offers a wealth of examples that I second from my experience on how to get started and do it right, as well as real guidance on what NOT to do:

1. Don’t pay attention to customer input. In great marketing, as in real life, starting the conversation is just the beginning. You have to focus and listen to what the potential customer is saying during the conversation to fully understand their message and needs. We all know people who don’t listen while we are talking. Don’t let your business be one.

   For example, it’s easy to get so focused on selling the product you have, that you miss the customer desire for free shipping, or personalization, or colors you don’t have. Instant empathy and positive responses will make new customers your best advocate, bringing customer friends and repeat business you can’t get with traditional marketing.

2. Talk about your products, not your customer. Nobody wants to listen to someone drone on about how great they are. Yet, throughout the decades, common advertising copy has been a description of product features and benefits, with a nod to what it will do to enrich the customer’s life. Don’t let your conversation marketing do the same thing.

   A successful content marketing strategy turns traditional advertising on its head by first asking customers to tell you what they need, only then bringing up what your business offers to meet those exact needs. Pull in customers with questions, rather than pushing answers.

3. Try to close on a sale transaction too early. As with all relationships that you want to last, preparing for a close must be done with patience and two-way conversations. Old-fashioned marketers feel the pressure to produce an immediate return on investment (ROI), and prefer the billboard approach to closing. Do less pitching and more teaching.

4. Offend or talk down to your potential customers. The best content marketing is tuned carefully to the desired customer set or demographic. That means than one size probably doesn’t fit all – if your audience is millennials, the questions you ask and the language is different from what boomers expect. Be sensitive to geographic and cultural implications.

   What constitutes a ‘basic assumption’ depends on your audience. If, for example, you’re writing a blog post aimed at professional investors, you don’t need to stop and explain what an entrepreneur is to them. Don’t offend customers by getting too personal for certain cultures in your attempts to understand what it takes to be memorable.

5. Don’t have credible data to support factual content. We have all had conversations with a know-it-all who makes questionable statements, causing us to lose trust now, and for the long term. Make sure your content can withstand even the most critical scrutiny, and doesn’t come across like marketing hype or unsubstantiated claims.

   For example, we have all seen weight loss and exercise products that claim to evaporate some number of pounds and inches in the first week, without any reference to a real study supporting these assertions. Credibility is key in relationships, so pick your influencers well. The safer way is to let your advocates and their friends share their facts.

Conversation marketing will help you connect your business to the hearts of your customers for the long term, not just to their minds for a single transaction. They want a sense of personal value and a relationship before they act. You can’t deliver that with a one-way monologue.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 10/15/2018 ***

7 Strategies To Create Your Own Market And Win Bigger

New technology markets and paradigm shifts have traditionally been bad bets when seeking investors, since these were known to take decades to develop, and cost lots of money. For example, consider how many years it took for the market to move from radio to television, or fully accept personal computers on every desktop. The leading edge was too often the bleeding edge.

Yet now I believe the evidence is clear that the world has changed. Many customers now actively seek out new technologies, rather than wait for many others to try it first. Technology is changing faster than ever, and new things usually work when they are released. Steve Jobs proved it with the iPhone, and Elon Musk can’t produce his electric cars fast enough to keep up with demand.

Bold entrepreneurs now can credibly talk about entirely new markets, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), genetic modifications, and privatized space travel. However, such changes don’t yet happen automatically, so it still takes proactive strategies and key actions to create new demand where none exists. Here are the specifics that I recommend to improve your odds of success:

1. Sell the market concept before building a product. Today, with instant and pervasive Internet communication, you can sell your vision via blogging, crowdfunding, and videos before you spend big money building prototypes and pivoting as you learn. This will prep and size the market, and greatly increase your chances of getting it right the first time.

2. Highlight positive social and environmental impacts. For example, if your new product reduces pollution or world hunger, this adds immediate value and confirms a positive long-term strategy for customers today. Too many founders still focus their product design and selling efforts only on direct paybacks to the customer.

3. Incent your team to continually think “outside-the-box.” You set the limits and the culture for your team, based on how you reward creative thinking, or penalize people for failed experiments. It starts with hiring the right people, and building relationships with the right experts, analysts, and investors. Then you really listen to what they have to say.

4. Work to build a compelling story around your new idea. Customers need to see personal and social benefits around a new solution, not just a new technology. The change must also include long-term benefits, as well as short-term. A compelling story can make or break your ability to differentiate your solution from dozens of others.

5. Use social media and the media to build demand for change. New markets don’t just happen, or create themselves. People need to be influenced and educated to change consumption habits, expectations, and buying patterns. Product messaging and branding need to follow later, after the initial demand has been built. Concept marketing is critical.

6. Build momentum with an integrated marketing campaign. All the elements of change required for the new market must be addressed consistently, not just the product elements. A successful campaign must not only capture people’s imagination but must have the right integration to move people to a new frame of reference and new thinking.

7. Acknowledge and position competitors around you. It may sound counterintuitive, but when you are creating a new market, competition helps legitimize it and increases the size of the pie. Position competitors positively around you, and continue to find ways to keep yourself ahead of the crowd, with both product offerings and thought leadership.

Elon Musk, for example, opened all his battery patents to competitors, with the expectation that this would expand the market as well as build the support infrastructure for his Tesla electric car market. He highlighted the positive environmental aspects, as well as the high performance remote maintenance elements of his new technology. New markets don’t have to be disruptive.

Thus new entrepreneurs have a new alternative to the tried and true approach of linear thinking, cost reduction, and more new features. Maybe it’s time for you to step out of your comfort zone, think more broadly, and pursue a new market legacy for maximum fun and profit.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on CayenneConsulting on 10/10/2018 ***

Even the Best Startup Solutions Need Modern Marketing

As a long-time advisor to aspiring entrepreneurs, and a technology fan myself, I still meet dozens of techies with great solutions who assume they don’t need marketing to change the world. They subscribe to the myth that “if we build it, they will come.” In fact, with today’s information overload, modern marketing is the key to raising even the most innovative solution above the crowd.

Let me be clear – I’m not talking about the old-fashioned “push” marketing, where you broadcast your message louder and more incessantly than others to get above the din. I’m talking about using the new digital channels of blogging, social media, and influencers more creatively to “pull” people to your solution, and make them advocates. This is the new art and science of marketing.

In fact, you need to understand that marketing itself has changed, as much as all the other elements of business. I see these changes summarized well in a new book, “Marketing Flexology: How to Outsmart Change and Future-proof Your Career,” by Engelina Jaspers. She points out changes and new approaches, based on her thirty-year career in technology advertising.

She clarifies, for example, that one of the things that hasn’t changed in marketing is the need for a compelling call-to-action (CTA), but implementation alternatives can now be more creative. As an entrepreneur, your technology and your solution may be very impressive, but customers and partners won’t get your message unless they are presented with the following key elements:

1. Documented tangible personal benefits from your solution. In my experience, the goals communicated by most change initiatives are either overly lofty, uninspiring, or nebulous. Don’t forget to add a call to action, such as buying the product or accepting a proposal, and emphasize the personal benefits acquired for taking the requested action.

   For example, the Square credit-card-reader technology business for smart phones touts the ability for almost anyone to accept credit cards transactions anywhere – something that was previously out of reach before Square came along. This can be easily quantified to show how any taxis and other vendors can increase their customer base and revenue.

2. Clear direction and priority on how to achieve results. Talking about abstract issues, or listing dozens of new features is not effective today. On the contrary, limiting the number of options marketed and using direct, simple, and actionable language will make your message stand out, and increase the probability of real visibility and success.

   Take a look at the Vanguard investment management site, and you immediately see language like “See why Vanguard is right for you” and “See how a Vanguard advisor can help” to quickly prioritize customer needs. Another approach is a specific actionable statement, such as stop doing X, and start doing Y and Z. Be specific.

3. A sense of urgency instilled to take action now. Deadlines and time limits make people act quickly rather than think too much, wait too long, or simply not respond. Scarcity also works to convey a sense of urgency. Another powerful motivation is the fear of missing out (or FOMO). Create a sense that you may be missing something exciting.

   A good example of this would be something like “call before December 1^st to get a free 30-day trial!” Not only have you stated the action you want the user to take (call deadline), but you have also provided them with a reason why they should take that action (a free trial). Obviously this applies to technology and non-technology solutions.

4. Creativity in making the communication memorable. Something could look great on paper, or may sound great, but the only way you’ll absolutely know for sure if something will work for your solution is if you test it out. I recommend trying different experiments, but being creative with them. Try to think outside the box on every marketing message.

   For example, Warby Parker eyeglasses cleverly uses an interactive quiz and gamification to guide people down the purchase funnel. The Missguided e-commerce site in the UK often uses hip language to appeal to a young, digitally-savvy and pop-culture-loving audience, to make their visit memorable and suggest a need to return again.

Every entrepreneur needs to realize that marketing is now key to success on every new venture, no matter how compelling the technology. In addition, you need to understand that modern marketing practices have changed, now requiring more creativity and agility, no matter what background and training you come from. Keeping up with this change is critical to your survival.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 10/10/2018 ***

8 Tips For Quantifying Traction In Your New Venture

What is the definition of traction for a business startup today? According to most investors I know, traction is some clear evidence that the “dogs are eating the dog food” – usually meaning that you have at least one customer paying full price for your solution. If your phone app or service is free, then the number of users or downloads better be impressive and growing exponentially.

Another term often mentioned is “momentum,” or growing visibility and advocacy within your customer set. This can happen through early marketing, independent of whether you have yet delivered a single product, proven your business model, or have any real customers. Most great crowdfunding campaigns, for example, are the result of momentum built through social media.

Unfortunately, your personal assessment that you have traction probably won’t be convincing to potential investors and partners, so it’s important that you create and track your progress against some metrics. Here are some of the key specifics for credibility and acceptance as you create and use these metrics:

1. Itemize investment levels from you, insiders, and family. Professional investors expect traction discussions to begin with the size of your own investment, in money and time, plus support received from friends and family. Next would be the level of support from key insiders who would clearly benefit from the success of your solution.

2. Define metrics on customer feedback and user counts. Early examples of traction for any solution, especially free ones, would include website traffic, number of blog comments, likes, downloads, and active user rates. Investors are wary of initial surges due to friends, family, and early adopters, so sustainable growth rates over time are key.

3. Count connections with experts, media, and influencers. You need outside advocates who will back your assertions of traction and valid metrics. Relationships with recognized and influential bloggers, relevant media, and industry analysts are priceless. Traction with these people usually is indicative of later traction to come with customers.

4. Assemble a credible inside advisory board and partners. Investors and potential partners measure your credibility by the quality of your advisors and peer partners. If Elon Musk is an advisor to your transportation startup, that is major traction, even without a product or revenue. Who you know is still often more important than what you know.

5. Build an experienced technical and executive team. A sure sign of no traction is a lone inexperienced entrepreneur looking for an investor. You need a well-rounded team, including technical, financial, marketing, and operational experience, and your ability to attract the right people is a strong indication of fundability and traction.

6. Demonstrate key customer prospect evidence of interest. If you don’t have revenue, it definitely is valuable to have orders, letter of intents, value testimonials, or even calls returned and email responses. While these may not be advertised publicly, they should be celebrated internally and highlighted informally to potential investors and partners.

7. Show validation data for business model key elements. One important measure of traction would be a metric on how many of the key business model elements have been proven, with actual data or multiple experiments. These would include cost of customer acquisition, cost of leads, sales channel, cost of goods, and pricing strategy.

8. Quantify progress against generic growth constraints. In every industry there are known barriers to traction, including regulatory approvals, safety standards, and clinical trials. These need to be listed as a metric, with breakthroughs counted and resolution times projected. Investors need to see your accomplishments, and the barriers ahead.

Without measures like these, you will likely hear the most common rejection from investors – “Come back when you have more traction.” Be aware that there is no magic threshold of user signups or customer revenue that will assure success. It all depends on the overall level of perceived risk, your credibility, and the size of the potential opportunity.

It’s up to you to define what traction means in your new venture, and then show your progress against these measures. Your level of passion is no substitute for some real data and analysis. In reality, all traction metrics are for you as the business owner, to measure your progress and growth in your new venture. Don’t be fooled by your own hype.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on CayenneConsulting on 10/04/2018 ***

7 Strategies To Avoid the Curse of Business-As-Usual

As a long-time advisor to entrepreneurs and business owners, I rarely find someone who doesn’t proclaim that the business world is changing rapidly, with new technology, new customer expectations, and new cultures. Yet, I’m still frustrated by the number of business owners that haven’t updated their business-as-usual practices. In my mind, these are killing their businesses.

For example, I still find businesses asking you to print, sign, and return documents by mail in lieu of digital signatures or email. Others still routinely have phone hold queues for customer contact that can last up to an hour, with no alternative options. Yet in my talks with these executives, they are unaware of the issues, or have no idea how to change processes at the rate of change today.

If you are one of these owners who wants to do the right thing to survive and delight your customers, but doesn’t know where to start, I am here to recommend some best practices that I see successful companies, and many startups, who have focused on this issue. Here is my prioritized list of best practices that I recommend to get you back on track:

1. Focus on building an engaged and empowered team. It takes a well-rounded and motivated team to run a competitive business today. These are your eyes and ears, in daily contact with customers, who are as committed to delighting customers as you are. They have to be energized and able to adapt as the market and competitors demand.

2. Define stretch goals and challenge your team to deliver. Traditional mission statements are not enough. You need to communicate quantified and updates goals quarterly, including the metrics to assess progress and success. For buy-in and commitment, make sure the team has an integral role in setting goals and rewards.

3. Optimize your customer feedback and listening channels. These days, customers expect to be able to build a relationship with a business through two-way communication. Make sure your channels are open and responsive, through social media, websites, and easy access to executives. Use experiments with them to evaluate potential changes.

4. Track competitors and influencers for trends and ideas. Even if your performance has improved dramatically, other businesses may be moving faster or tracking closer to cultural changes and market trends. One of the biggest justifications for business-as-usual is ignoring competitors and not comparing your processes to industry best-of-breed.

5. Foster a learning and change culture in employees. The best companies have found that it’s important to constantly prepare team members for moving to the next level, through mentoring and training, rather than trying to keep them in their current role. The alternative is that the best leave, and your average skill level and motivation go down.

6. Plan to upgrade all processes without waiting for a crisis. Waiting for a crisis, like a revenue shortfall, or customer dissatisfaction, is a sure way to disaster. Competitors are looking for a soft spot to step in, and customers have instant access to better alternatives through friends and reviews on the Internet. Once gone, customers won’t be back.

7. Disrupt your own solutions before someone else does. Too many businesses have their “cash cows,” which they refuse to touch with pricing or new features until it is too late to recover. Intel’s Andy Grove famously argued that chip technology doubled every 18 months, so he planned on replacing his products on that schedule, despite sales.

Business as usual is an easy habit to fall into, and a hard one to change once it is entrenched. If you establish these recommended best practices early, and apply the necessary discipline to keep them going, your chances of success are good. You will also find your business to be a lot more satisfying and self-sufficient. That’s a win-win for both you and your customers.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 09/25/2018 ***

6 Powerful Drivers Shared By Successful Entrepreneurs

In my experience mentoring new entrepreneurs and aspiring business leaders, I see far too many who seem to be driven by all the wrong reasons. Everyone seems to espouse extrinsic motivations, such as getting rich, having power, and fulfilling parent dreams, when in fact a focus on satisfying internal interests and desires will likely lead to more success, as well as satisfaction.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with a couple of the best-known entrepreneurs of our time, and read about many more in the updated version of the classic book, “Discover Your True North,” by Harvard leadership expert and best-selling author Bill George. He makes a convincing argument that the best leaders and entrepreneurs follow their intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivations.

He emphasizes the value of finding a way to align your strengths with your intrinsic motivations, which he calls the sweet spot. Some of the most effective sweet spots and intrinsic motivations for today’s entrepreneurs would include the following:

1. Making a difference in the world. When Bill Gates acted on his dream of putting a computer in every home and on every desk, he had no idea of the fortune it would bring to him, since he wanted only to make a difference. Extrinsic motivations often work against entrepreneurs by leading them to set unrealistic and overwhelming goals.

2. Find personal meaning from building a business. In his book, “The Art of The Start 2.0,” Guy Kawasaki exhorts entrepreneurs to focus on making meaning, not money. He has said many times that if your vision for your company is to grow it just to flip it to a large company or to take it public and cash out, "you're doomed.” Do it for meaning.

3. Satisfaction of doing something great. Steve Jobs summarized his intrinsic motivation in 2005 at Stanford in a talk titled “How to Live Before You Die.” He said, “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”

4. Personal growth and accomplishment. To be a successful entrepreneur, one can never stand still. The best entrepreneurs enjoy the journey as much as the destination. They have a thirst for knowledge that helps them in their business, as well in their own personal growth. That synergy creates a sweet spot that maximizes their impact.

5. Seeing the real value of one’s beliefs. When asked why he created Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg replied “It's not because of the amount of money. For me and my colleagues, the most important thing is that we create an open information flow for people. Having media corporations owned by conglomerates is just not an attractive idea to me."

6. Helping others achieve their goals. If you want to achieve your goals, help others achieve theirs. Great entrepreneurs keep your eyes open for other businesses in a related space that can complement theirs. Elon Musk has opened up Tesla car battery patents for use by anyone, which obviously will benefit his business as well as theirs.

Most entrepreneurs will tell you that once they discovered the real purpose for their efforts, they found a new sense of commitment and leadership which allowed them to really inspire and empower others, as well as direct their own actions. At this point they can make the strategic decisions they need to really make a difference, enjoy satisfaction, and leave a lasting legacy.

Many have found that initial failure is one of the best teachers in this regard. I counsel new entrepreneurs to expect failure, and wear it as a badge of pride, rather than trying to hide it. In fact, most investors are wary of anyone who claims to have never failed, reading that claim as an indication of too much caution, or not able to face their own reality.

The primary message here is not to hide your real motivation from yourself, your team, or your investors. You can’t fool them all for very long, and you won’t be happy trying. If you can’t find any intrinsic motivations for what you are doing now, it’s probably time to take a hard look at your lifestyle and your future. Life is too short to be unhappy and unfulfilled for any part of it.

Marty Zwilling

How to Have a Winning Career, Despite Constant Change

Most young people who are completing their educational degree today think they will have learned all they need for their career ahead. Unfortunately, based on my own extensive experience in business, I have to tell them in my talks that most of what they know now will be obsolete in a few years. The most important thing you can learn in college today is how to learn.

The rules of business and technology are changing rapidly, and the pace of change is only accelerating. The facts, as well as what motivates your peers, customers, and business leaders are changing daily. For example, no one learned a couple of decades ago that the biggest opportunities ahead would include social media, ecommerce, and computers on our wrists.

Only those of us who learn to practice continuous learning will survive and flourish as we move forward into an unknown business world where more and more intelligent machines and software will do most of the work we know in business today. The question is how we develop our future role and potential, while satisfying all the business and personal demands on our time today.

I saw some good insights on this challenge in a new book, “The Expertise Economy,” by Kelly Palmer and David Blake. Their focus is on how the smartest companies today already create and use learning to engage, compete, and succeed. I believe these insights can and must be extended to you and your career, in line with the following guiding principles:

1. Make your interest in learning your competitive advantage. Keeping your priority on learning is a mindset that we all need to build. It’s obvious to peers and employers when you have it, from your questions, proactive actions, and interests in new challenges. Smart employers look for these as they contemplate your competitiveness for new roles.

2. Define personalized learning goals with a timetable. For example, an aggressive career-minded professional today likely needs to set a goal of advancing to a new role or new job every two years, rather than traditionally staying in the same role for a lifetime. You need a plan on how to train yourself, or be mentored, for each step along the way.

3. Proactively prepare for your desired future roles. None of us can keep up on every new thing in this knowledge abundant world. Don’t wait for someone else to send you back to class, or push you to change. Only you know your strengths and learning preferences, from jobs, conferences, books, websites, and videos. Make the investment.

4. Learn from peer relationships, examples, and feedback. Most people learn best from other people, yet we don’t always focus on how we can learn from our peers and tap into the knowledge and experience of those who have already mastered a skill we need. The key is active listening to others, asking questions, and acting on constructive feedback.

5. Explore new technologies and innovative new approaches. Technology is making new things possible in learning and skill building. I understand that change can be difficult, because not everything works, but you never get anywhere unless you take a chance. Adopt the mindset of your children who have their most fun learning new things.

6. Evaluate your skills regularly and update your inventory. Keep your skills inventory visible to yourself and everyone around you through modern online profiles, including LinkedIn and Facebook. If you haven’t updated your online profiles and resume for a year, you are definitely falling behind your peers and your future career aspirations.

7. Constantly market your skills and expertise to employers. It’s always positive to document your expertise and accomplishments, in the context of needs that you see in your current company and position. Build a relationship with a career advisor or recruiter to check your fit for other alternatives. Don’t hide or wait to be found and appreciated.

If you are the employer, you need to realize that there are more tools, content, and technologies today than ever before to help your team members become the experts you need. You also need to change your company mindset, from always looking outside for change, to developing a culture of learning and career development for current employees. It’s a win-win situation for success.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 09/20/2018 ***

7 Steps To A Memorable New Venture Marketing Rollout

Even with instant two-way communication via the Internet and mobile phones, your greatest new solution or service won’t found or properly recognized without marketing. The challenge is to rise above the clutter, and stand out in the rush of over 500,000 other new businesses that get started in the U.S. every month. I find that digital marketing is the most visible and effective place to start.

Even within the digital marketing arena, there are a thousand alternatives, vying for your limited budget. Should you be buying key words from search engines, building fabulous web content, blasting out e-mail campaigns, or putting all your efforts into viral videos or social media? In fact, the first challenge is to build a strategy, put together a budget, and define measurement metrics.

As an advisor to many entrepreneurs and small businesses, I often get asked where to start, and how to proceed. In that context I offer the following practical steps and priorities:

1. Focus on a unique selling point (USP) for your offering. Digital marketing is all about establishing a voice and sending a message that customers can relate too, and makes you stand out. My advice is to keep it simple but memorable, and pick something you can highlight with pictures and videos. Put your customer at the top, rather than technology.

2. Research the top digital channels for your business today. There is no one best channel for all businesses. For young consumers today, it may be Instagram or Snapchat, while B2B offerings should take a hard look at LinkedIn and other business forums. Prioritize the list by customer reach, effort required by you, as well as cost.

3. Select no more than three that match your needs initially. You can’t do everything that you would like, even if you had the money. Resist the urge to try the latest “hot new channel,” just because all your friends are talking about it. Set specific objectives, budgets, and metrics for each one. Pick a theme and a team for each and get started.

4. Start creating content to get visibility and build a following. Here is where you may need outside expert help to be effective. Traditional marketing hype won’t get you the attention you need. Today’s audience is looking for something more creative, more visual, engaging, and interactive. Here is where you have to think outside the box.

5. Concentrate on building your brand image and message. Now is the time to integrate and solidify your brand across all the channels and platforms you have selected. You need to hone your design and tone, taking a strategic approach to establish brand recognition in your marketplace, all while keeping your target audience on top of mind.

6. Expand marketing in channels that work and add others. Based on metrics, revenue growth, and customer feedback, it’s now time to prune digital channels that don’t work for you, experiment with new ones, and expand your efforts where you see success. Content that works should be relentlessly repurposed, from web site to social media, events, etc.

7. Add elements of traditional marketing to maximize visibility. While non-digital marketing typically costs more money, it may be required to reach all elements of your audience. There are still customers who won’t give your brand total credibility until it appears on television ads, in newspapers, direct marketing, and at trade shows.

In every case, I have found that marketing is more important than ever for the growth and visibility of a new brand, and digital marketing is the most effective and the least expensive way to start. Yet it shouldn’t be done without careful planning and effort. Entrepreneurs who strike out randomly on every digital channel they know, using family and interns, are wasting their efforts.

Even less effective are those who still believe that “if we build it, they will come.” It’s time to be proactive in finding customers, engaging them in two-way conversations, and listening carefully to their message, as well as projecting yours. It’s not the size of your budget that makes you memorable – it’s the size of your connection with real customers who can multiply your efforts.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on CayenneConsulting on 09/18/2018 ***

5 Steps To Strategy Tuning Through Machine Learning

Conventional thinking in business has long been that strategy decisions are made by humans, while the focus of automation and machine learning should be on execution. With the speed of change and volume of market feedback today, as well as the advances in machine learning, Amazon, Alibaba, and others have proven the value of software driven strategy decisions.

For example, most e-commerce platforms today offer millions of products, with a changing mix daily and a changing market, such that it’s virtually impossible to manually predict a strategy for mapping customer demographics to products displayed online. Only smart software can plow through the volume of live data, recognizing trends, customers, and match offerings to reality.

Alibaba, today the counterpart in China to Amazon, Ebay, and Google here, has demonstrated leadership in this area, and provides guidance for all of us to learn from in a new book, “Smart Business,” by Ming Zeng. Ming is the former chief of staff and strategy advisor to co-founder Jack Ma for over a decade, and outlines five key steps for automating decisions today as follows:

1. Log and use consumer behavior and product transaction data. In my work with small businesses and startups, I routinely find owners who rely on guessing at key customer drivers, and let their passion drive product focus, rather than data. They think they are saving costs by not using the latest technology to capture data, and minimizing storage.

   In China, even tiny bike sharing companies now have to digitally track every bike through GPS, and every mobile interaction between a bike and a rider to compete. No human or paper tracking systems are a competitive alternative. The days of manual reservations and receipts are behind us, whether it be with rides, clothing, meals, or entertainment.

2. Configure every decision step into real-time software. Businesses must capture every business decision activity, including customer relations, in digital software so that decisions affecting the activities can be automated and optimized through machine learning. This is a new class of software that can adapt in real time to market changes.

   In the bike rental business, all operations and rental decisions are made completely by software, with no human intervention. The efficiency gain is tremendous. The software directs humans and trucks to balance the tide of idle bicycles to other areas of a city where the demand is higher at the moment, rather than humans directing software.

3. Get data flowing, and machines talking to each other. With today’s technology, data flow and coordination are readily achieved through common Internet protocols and application programming interfaces (APIs). These allow applications to communicate automatically and almost instantly, even over long distances, to mobile and IoT devices.

   Way back in 2002, Jeff Bezos at Amazon issued an ultimatum to completely institute internal APIs within the company, and later to their millions of suppliers. Through this focus, Amazon has become one of the first trillion dollar companies, and continues to expand its reach beyond books, e-commerce, and now into groceries with Whole Foods.

4. Record live data in full for all internal business elements. The opposite of live data is static data that is sampled or profiled for analysis at a later date. Live data also requires metrics and infrastructure that can interpret and evaluate the data, and smart businesses must develop these in the algorithms they use in their data-intelligence engines.

5. Apply machine-learning for real-time software decisions. Intelligent real-time software decisions are quickly replacing after-the-fact analytics. Only with full live data, built-in metrics, and artificial intelligence to iteratively improve the decision process, can your business keep up with the pace of change, and unique markets around the world.

Uber’s algorithms match car and driver, minimizing wait times and making mapping calculations in ways that no human dispatcher could match. Google search rankings are updated many times a second, based on new info and your profile changes. If your business is not powered by an algorithm, you don’t have a competitive business today.

These steps lead to what Zeng defines as a customer-to-business (C2B) model, where every direct interaction with customers sets into motion a striking reorientation of all business activities, and builds a feedback loop from customers. This allows businesses to automate all decisions productively, to scale and compete effectively, in tune with trends and new marketplaces.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 09/17/2018 ***