Leo MacLeod’s Blog

Organic, powerful and free word-of-mouth marketing grows exponentially with each retelling. You can’t match it for return on investment. Effective word of mouth is customer-driven, not company-driven. Customers alone decide what’s worth talking about and buying, creating their own blogs and buying groups. The moment a marketer tries to join the party, the power of word of mouth withers. Is there a way to market word of mouth without destroying its integrity?

Read my full Daily Journal of Commerce column, http://djcoregon.com/news/2009/10/12/boost-business-by-marketing-word-of-mouth/

A tremendous amount is riding on the proposal: You’re either in or out. So, how do you produce a winning proposal that will get you to the next round?  Read my full DJC column at http://www.djcoregon.com/articleDetail.htm/2009/07/14/Tips-for-preparing-a-profitable-project-proposal-Companies-that-respect-the-RFP-process-are-on-the-r

There’s significant value in client surveys | May 12, 2009
Author: Leo MacLeod
Daily Journal of Commerce, “Building Business”

When you spend every day intimately involved in the intricacies of your craft, you can forget what it’s like not to know. It’s difficult to re-acquaint yourself with the “beginner’s mind.” The problem is your audience often doesn’t know what you are talking about. When you are marketing a project, you can lose that vital but tenuous connection with your prospective client by not closing that gap. Read the full column at Daily Journal of Commerce, http://www.djcoregon.com/articleDetail.htm/2009/04/14/Eliminate-the-knowledge-gap-Find-success-by-ensuring-that-connections-are-made-during-discussions-wi

“It’s time for firms to get choosy in their work”
POSTED: 04:00 AM PDT Tuesday, March 10, 2009, Daily Journal of Commerce
BY LEO MACLEOD

It may seem counterintuitive, but now is the time to be choosy about what work you pursue. When times were good, many firms chased work that may not have been the best fit for their capabilities, didn’t reflect a strategic focus or were just poor business deals. It’s tough to say no to any project, especially one that doesn’t take much effort to land. Read more at http://www.djcoregon.com/articleDetail.htm/2009/03/10/Its-time-for-firms-to-get-choosy-in-their-work-Businesses-that-become-more-focused-will-be-better-pr

Many firms try to make up for a lack of work by turning out more proposals. Focus instead on better proposals, tailored to the specific needs of the client and their environment. WIFM. Show you have done your homework and understand the project better than anyone. Don’t make them connect the dots between past projects you’ve done and their project. Critically look at how well your proposals answer their concerns, not just your story. Brush up on presentation training, conduct mock interviews. This is all great training that will make you stronger when the economy improves.

Regroup.
Many firms ramped up hiring in good times. Got into work that wasn’t their strength, profitable or sustainable. This is a time to re-evaluate your core business. What you can compete in, where you can make money and possibly accept downsizing as a way of re-focusing and tightening the business focus. Good strategy is as more about saying no than yes. These are the times that form your reputation.

If Sam Adams wants to reshape his image, he needs to keep a lower profile and not work so hard to get attention.  His manipulation of media backfired when he was caught spinning the truth more than once.  It gives PR a bad name as “lying” and “manipulation.”  Those of us in the profession understand that PR is not all obfuscation with evil intent.  It’s just trying to tell your side of the story, mostly through evidence and facts.  Most PR is fairly benign stuff.  Sam’s problem was that he misled us through PR.  If he wants to regain public confidence, he needs to back off using PR so much.  It only makes us suspect his motives.  Show us by your actions not by your words.  There’s a credibility gap for him to fill that more PR can only make worse.

Not At This Price
If you want something done, Adams is a go-to-guy. Under Vera Katz, Adams developed a reputation as an astute politician who loved the game and believed that winning was everything. Adams has mellowed with age and has learned to be a team player, but his drive to win at all costs is why he is now enormously respected and wholly untrustworthy.

It’s clear now that for the mayoral contest, winning meant everything to Adams. It meant orchestrating an elaborate public relations campaign, forcefully issuing statements, manipulating editors and reporters, feigning outrage, hanging Randy Leonard out to dry, attacking the character of Bob Ball, urging a young, impressionable man to lie and even having his political consultant scrub the story. The same qualities that fuel his ambitious 100-day agenda for Portland are now unraveling his legacy before it’s even begun. Potter may have been boring, but he was transparent and trustworthy. Adams appears more like the Wizard of Oz, a desperate man behind the curtain manipulating public opinion for his own gains.

The news about Adam’s scandal broke on the same day we were celebrating the inauguration of Barack Obama and a new era for accountability and trust in government. The Bush administration, which believed the ends justified the means, broke laws, distorted truth and violated human rights to push their own agenda. This is a time for us to uphold our public servants up to a higher standard, not lower. If we accept Adam’s deceptions as business as usual, we are perpetuating a cycle of mistrust and political expediency that we firmly rejected in the last election. Portland deserves no less than a clean slate and a new mayor.

I recently went to a high-powered sales conference where the speaker urged the audience to find opportunities to up-sell customers by showing three options of your service or product, loading more value as price inches up, e.g., I’ll throw in the steak knives free when you get the Cadillac. While that works in good times, consumers are looking at buying less not more. How can your firm sell them just what they need, not more than they really need? Businesses are consumed with how to get by, not get a good deal on things they can live without now. When selling to today’s customer, give them options that meet their austerity budget BUT don’t undervalue your services or products. Find ways of giving them smaller bites of what you can do, rather than discounting your regular services. This sets up a dangerous formula: they’ll expect to pay less even when the economy turns around. Find ways to work with customers to get both of you through these times, without eroding your position, value or revenues.