Keep it Simple

I’m not sure he was ready for the Lunch Bunch.

The avatars of a brand.

It has been many moons since I celebrated working with this crew. Each of them is based on a real-life expert. Most of them are physically close to the descriptions offered. Okay, a couple of them are way different. But all of them exhibit the mental acuity you would hope to have in this kind of gathering.

Rick, a swarthy Jewish outdoorsman comfortable in a kayak or on a Ducati who moved to Oregon to indulge those interests is our master of direct marketing. He is one of the few people I have ever met that is a natural at networking. He can meet someone in a rental car line and the next week be presenting to their Fortune 500 company.

Kate, our dusky mistress of sales earned her spurs the old-fashioned way—cold calling floor by floor in downtown business packed high rises. She has the chops to go on sales calls with newbies and tell a CEO when the Sales VP has been over promoted. Tough lady.

Bubba, Rob to some of us is a slow drawl southern saying older gentleman that at times claims to be “Dumber than a bag o’ rocks” BUT (there is always a BUT) he has a genius for the psychological alchemy known as brand.

Chris is third generation Chinese American now the proud father of a boy and a girl who is an entrepreneur that has made his way through the wild west of the internet doing web sites, SEO and you name it. He has just founded an on-line business that scales and now can give up the part-time consulting gigs.

Gail, is a woman who has told me she teaches people to think because they must before they can write. She is always a writer but has ridden that talent running an ad agency and as an on-air talent as well as a freelancer and consultant. Her quiet grandmotherly demeanor veils a strength built from dignity and laughter facing life without fear.

Me, the ringleader.

Cameos, from time to time another professional joins the group when our visitor/client has a problem that falls in the expert’s bailiwick: PR, Customer Service, Distribution, etc.

I introduced Brad and asked him to brief the group.

Brad said: ‘I have two web sites. One of them is a charity and the other my financial planning business. I have to keep them separate to keep my lawyers and the SEC happy. I want to offer a free service to people from either site that will gather data about the users so I can personalize drip marketing to them for my services. How should I integrate this into my CRM and on-going marketing plans?”

All eyes were on Chris but Kate landed the first punch.

“Brad,” she asked, “What are you doing now and what makes you think you need a lot of high falutin’ web stuff to build your business?”

“I need to build an automated process in order to expand and I want to do all I can now if I start to have a national instead of a local business,” he responded.

Gail quietly asked, “But what are you doing now? Is it not working? And why do you feel you need to automate?”

Brad took a drink of his iced tea, gathered his thoughts and said, “All the bigger firms have process in place so that when a client comes in everybody knows what to do. Me, I’ve been flying by the seat of my pants all these years and there are a number of things I do for just about every client but if I hire somebody I can’t tell them to fly by the seat of their pants so I need a process in place that works.”

“Right,” said Kate.

Brad began to look like he was watching a tennis match as he looked first at one and then the other.

“Hold it,” I said. "What I hear him saying is that he wants two things: an automated on-line way to get new prospects and a procedure in place that works with new clients so that if he has an employee, new or old, the prospect or client gets the same treatment. Is that right Brad?”

“Yes. I hadn’t thought about it that way.”

“Tha’s usually what gets folks wrapped around an axle,” drawled Bubba. Y’all need to step back and go to Fletch’s office and do a little work on that new-fangled white board he has. Keep it simple. Tryin’ to make decisions on two things as separate as office procedure and lead-generation at the same time gonna get you catywampus every time.’

Brad hung his head and said, “If I do that homework, can I come back?”

“Yes,” rang out from what can best be described as a completely out of tune chorus

To be continued.

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His consulting practice, founded in 1990, is known for Trust-based Brand development, Positioning and Business Development on and off-line.

Consulting: www.JerryFletcher.com
Speaking: www.NetworkingNinja.com 
Blog: www.JerryFletcher.net