Will Rogers said, " It isn’t what you don’t know that hurts you. It’s what you know for sure . . . that just ain’t so." In this one statement, Will cautions against blind acceptance of what may well be myths, misinformation, or downright lies. He wants us to examine our beliefs for accuracy and appropriateness. We owe our futures our vigilance now.

Take for example the adage that a photograph never lies. Nowadays, with retouching and computer enhancements, a photograph may be created with no other purpose than to lie. We have to trust the person who presents the photo and believe the explanation that goes with it. Or not. Some of us are skeptical, if not jaded, about how much truth may be found in photographs now that everyone with a computer can lie with photographs.

Add to this scenario the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words and think it through. A picture may replace a thousand words in its effectiveness delivering a message; but, without words, a picture alone still does not have the impact it would if it were accompanied by an effective explanation as a caption or brief quotation to set the context.

What’s A Tripod?

Mechanically, a tripod forms the soundest foundation of any structure. For me, tripods are the foundation of good thinking; primarily three step thinking combinations which, when done in sequence, will get you a good result the first time you think through a concern. Here’s an example.

In my prior job as director of field training in a large insurance company known in the eighties for being in the vanguard of adopting and applying new technology, I was told three things emphatically by the home office computer gurus. (1) No self-respecting life insurance agent would ever succeed by sitting with a prospect at a computer terminal to sell. (2) The IBM DisplayWriter was the word processor to take us to the turn of the century. (3) The IBM PC was a born number cruncher and would never be used for word processing, graphics creation, or tele-communications. Oh, yes, I was also told that the Apple philosophy to develop easy-to-produce graphical user interface and graphical output was a silly philosophy for numbers-based business to adopt. Enter the first tripod Task – Software - Hardware.

Task – Software - Hardware means that you should first decide the real tasks that you want the computer to perform for you. Next, find the software that will do those tasks. Finally, select the hardware that will run the software correctly. We historically (and hysterically) do it in reverse order.

If the insurance companies had examined the sales process correctly and not become so preoccupied with the promises (often not met) of advancing technology, countless hours of wasted time would not have been spent by frustrated field people and home office technicians trying to get software to do what we wanted it to do on hardware that was supposedly ahead of the software yet often still behind its own ability to deliver. Sales people would have been trained better to deliver presentations that make sense to the prospects, and our business’ deplorable producer failure rate would have dropped some. Now we have Windows and a preoccupation to make our PCs do what Macs have done for years.

The staffing process is similar to the method of purchasing computer capabilities. The tripod is Task-Skills-Person.

First, identify the tasks you want to delegate to someone else and write up those tasks in a job description. Hint: use verbs that indicate the actions you want the person to perform, state when, and write them down in priority order. Next, identify the skills and interests required to do the job well, with the most important ones listed first. Finally, search for the best person who has the set of skills, talents, and interests to do that job (combination of tasks) at the price you are offering.

By applying the tripod Task-Skills-Person to your staffing, you will avoid problems such as developing a position requiring a set of skills not likely to be found in one person, or planning the wrong person in the position. This way, candidates also have the opportunity to assess the position and help decide if the fit is good. How many times has someone been offered and taken a position without a job description, only to have the situation fall apart a few weeks or months later? That’s my point. Tripod decision-making works to avoid these problems.

Marketing Tripods

There are a handful of marketing tripods that may help you be more profitable as you explore various campaigns, and make your important marketing decisions. The first three deal with how markets think about and judge you. The second three emphasize what you must think to achieve the best results campaigning to your markets.

The First-Best-Different tripod is a mainstay in my marketing thinking. When looking for the basic reasons that consumers react favorably to providers of professional services, it became clear to me that they like it best when the provider they choose is

(1) first or innovative, bringing to the table ideas that are offered as, or as if they were new. Enthusiasm, graphics, conceptual presentations, analogies, and communications enhancements help to get your prospect’s attention. They also want to (2) work with the best at what they do, and they are often quite willing to pay for it. Finally, it is stimulating to work with professional advisors who are different in appealing ways, so consumers seek out unique qualities in their professional providers.

The Appeals Checklist I use to test any marketing activity is simply this:

• Does this activity appear to be new to the target audience?
• Does this activity demonstrate this producer’s superiority?
• Does this activity provide something that is different in an appealing way?

We often use the term professional (even overuse it according to some consumers) to describe ourselves and our business actions, but do we really know what the consumer uses to judge our level of professionalism in their eyes? The tripod Process-Expertise-Engage can help because it says what buyers look for in us as professionals, even though this thinking may be subconscious. It breaks out like this.

First, people want to know you have (1) a process through which you will lead them to suitable conclusions. They test this in many ways, including the value, style, and timing of the questions you ask. Whether you describe the process you use, and how clearly you describe it. Whether they think you will let them participate in the process or merely be processed by you. Whether your respective roles are clear. It is critical that people understand what it is they are getting into, and the process it is.

Next, your potential buyers want to know if you have the ability and credibility to do that process with them. Ability means your credentials, such as how long you have been in business; how many satisfied clients you have; pertinent experience, professional designations and training; and finally, formal education. (Hint: Knowledge + Experience = Expertise.) Don’t make the mistake of thinking that people want to know what you know (education); they want to know what you have successfully dealt with (experience), and that it fits their situations. In this last regard, your credibility comes from testimonials by people who are similar to and respected by your prospects. Testimonials indicate that you have the knowledge and experience necessary to deal with people in your prospect’s situation.

Hint: Laser printers and special laser paper or brochure stock allow you to have more than one version of any brochure you might use, varying the testimonials and other text according to the needs of each market segment you are pursuing.

Finally, the engage segment of the Process - Expertise - Engage tripod should remind you that prospects and clients also judge you by your ability to involve them in your process. They are looking for a connection to you, by which they will be able to work with you. They often make this decision subconsciously or quickly ("on the fly" so to speak) because they are already involved at the very moment they make this decision.

Hint: Today’s consumers increasingly want to collaborate with their advisors, participating side by side with them in the decision-making process, rather than negotiating price and program at the end of the professional’s rendering a judgement. This judgement often arrives in a hopefully conclusive presentation of recommendations that are, in the professional’s terms, "the best solutions to your problems." More people think about goals now rather than problems, so they want to collaborate on how best to achieve them.

The Values + Behavior = Integrity tripod points out that integrity comes from action. It does not mean honesty, as many people try to define it. Rather, your integrity is perceived as the consistency of your actions, over time and in relation to your stated values and standards. This is also something buyers scrutinize with agonizing accuracy. Do you set expectations that you don’t fulfill?

Hint: A bimonthly newsletter sent for a year or more sets an expectation. When one is not received, your clients don’t think, "Gee, I didn’t get John’s newsletter this month." Rather, they think, "John’s business must be in trouble." Setting and fulfilling expectations is a critical part of the marketing game, and it has as much to do demonstrating your integrity as anything else you might do in your business.

Now that we’ve covered how prospects tend to judge you and your marketing efforts, let’s explore a few more tripods that will help you think through how to put together winning marketing campaigns.

Market-Message(s)-Media is my all-time favorite tripod. It reminds you of the critical sequence of effective marketing activities. First, identify the market (or segment) you are targeting, as precisely as possible.

Hint: The more general your target, the less specific your message will tend to be, often making it unable to be heard above the noise in the marketplace. If your market cannot hear you above the din, your market will pass you by.
Second, identify and devise the message(s) you want the market to hear, and whether they should come from you or be delivered by someone else about you. For example, you may want to show that you sympathize with doctors against doctor bashing, an activity indulged in by the public as well as by some parts of the government, and a topic of great concern to doctors.

Third, identify the media for delivering each message. Hint: a letter to the editor may be a suitable media for showing your sympathy with a market’s concern, but the delivery mechanism should be the mail. Your intended readers may not read the publication that prints it, or your letter may be discarded by the editor. Regardless, your intended audience can read it if you mail a copy to them.

Recognition-Desire-Action is the desired audience reaction to your delivered marketing messages. It is almost self-explanatory, so I won’t belabor the point here. Keep in mind, however, when you are putting together your marketing messages and mix, that your desired outcome is to evoke the audience’s recognition of your idea and your ability, creating the desire to act now to obtain the benefits of what you offer.

The Trouble with Tripods

Tripods can be like acronyms for some people. They often don’t linger in one’s memory, and we spend more time trying to remember the words that form the acronym than we do thinking about how to apply it correctly. How many times have you tried to remember what the acronyms PESOS, KISS and FACTS mean? Learn the words, not the acronyms, and remember what they mean and why the sequence if important.

Another problem with tripods is that they don’t always cover everything that’s important in just three words or actions. Adding a fourth aspect often solves a problem, but then, would it still be a tripod? Technically, no. Take the Situation-Problem(s)-Solutions tripod, for example. It is clear enough that a good decision-making process is to:

1. Understand the situation as completely and accurately as possible, which requires good questions and good questioning skills.
2. Identify the real problem(s) that need to be solved. Problems, by definition, are those issues, which if resolved, will get you to your goals.
3. Itemize the steps to be taken to solve those problems.

This assumes you have a clear idea what the objectives are at the outset, and this may not be the case at all. Now my tripod has four parts (a four-legged tripod!): Objective(s)- Situation - Problem(s)- Solutions. It is no longer a tripod per se because it remains the most fundamental approach to decision-making I have ever employed and it has held up perfectly well for me for over 20 years now.

Another useful four-legged tripod I use helps explain what separates the really great producers from the marginal ones. It is Focus-Organization-Discipline-Practice. First, the best producers focus clearly on what they want. They have a very clear vision of their targets and/or activities. Second, they organize their operations towards that focus, keeping lean and purposeful. Third, they discipline themselves and others not to violate the focus or the organization that they know will get them to their objectives. Finally, they practice what they are going to say and do. This way they know exactly what they are going to say, just not when they are going to say it. They know that ad libs are for amateurs.

So Why Tripods?

What’s so great about tripods is that they provide thought process checklists for intense decision-making. They help keep you on track. They serve as a communications method for delivering important reasoning to support your ideas and decisions. They also keep things simple when they should remain so, allowing you to add more details to whatever degree or depth you want, simply by adding layers underneath each leg of the tripod.

You don’t have to be sick to get better.

Questions? Email jhmco@melchinger.com

Marketing TIPS Index

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This newsletter is designed and distributed by Kirk Lowe of Freedomarketing. Content by John H. Melchinger – The Marketing Coach™