Buzz on Biz

For success get the narrative.

August 3rd - One problem we have today is prospective entrepreneurs get caught in the hype of the success stories of Internet based companies like Facebook or FourSquare.  The inference being that the Internet holds the promise for your business’ success.  A silver bullet if you will. The Internet will not make your business a success ‘you’ have to do that at the most basic and fundamental level starting ‘offline’.  So before you go full steam ahead with an online social networking strategy where do you start?

I recall sitting with my new Internet business in a university incubator meeting some years ago.  I was in an advisory board meeting surrounded by an esteemed mix of business people from accounting, marketing to HR professionals.  All the questions they posed were valid that is ‘if’ I were an established business – i.e. solid sales revenue.  None of them, and this is one of the serious issues with Venture Capitalists, could give me the tutoring on the fundamental knowledge on doing business.  They were excellent on the technical operational side of ‘how to’ (e.g. hiring, costing, marketing, etc.) but what most entrepreneurs need is the ‘narrative’.  The narrative?

Entrepreneurs need to learn the grind reality.  This is the fundamental interpersonal level of contact that builds ‘relationships’.  You have found your unique selling proposition, the target market – the ‘gap’1. You have set your pricing so now you go and make contact.  It sounds easy until you pick-up that phone and make a cold call.  How about greeting that first customer coming through the door or even still dealing with your first customer issue in person?  It gets right down to the face-to-face. It is this rudimentary level knowledge of business people skill that academics do not teach.  The best learning resource I have come across is the narratives of successful business people be it in speaking or autobiographies.  This was a driving motivator to creating the program the ‘Direct Engagement Show’.  I wanted the anecdotes, the grind lessons of successful business people with the ability to engage them directly in an unscripted forum.  These are business life curriculum that will help you succeed because they are gut wrenching lessons and not technocratic theories.

Some of the most consistently successful entrepreneurs are those that mastered the grunt work of person-to-person sales.  Before the immediacy of the Internet the person-to-person social skills had to be honed. A case in point is Jim Pattison who has Canada’s third largest privately held company.  He was selling encyclopaedias’ door-to-door.  Aristotle Onassis went to door-to-door to retailers to sell his tobacco products in an already established market. Richard Branson had a music retail shop.  These gentleman and so many others started in entrenched markets but mastered the face-to-face selling and social networking skills offline.

It is once you have learned and cultivated your proficiency ‘offline’ can they be effectually complemented through online technologies.  We have all experienced the online customer interaction that was bad and perhaps even exaggerated more so through technology.  If you do not get it in the offline world you will not effectively communicate online.  Social marketing is not new.  The concept has been around and developed before the dawn of the Internet.  Even in today’s poor consumer market thriving companies are marketing successfully through tried and true offline social marketing techniques.2

I came across a new entrepreneur who created a pet accessory business called ‘Style Pawlicy’.3  She started with an idea of creating World Cup soccer bandanas for dogs of those ardent soccer fans.  She researched a few stores and cold called them.  She went to those shops and sold-out her stock even though the reception prior on the phone was at best standoffish.  In addition, her in person communication led to relationships with store owners who in turn provided her with new product ideas that were subsequently sold.  She was prepared because preceding her cold calling she listened to stories of other entrepreneurs on what they encountered and how they countered in their person-to-person experiences.  This helped her to be prepared for the raw reality and to proceed positively in the face of austere reactions.  This type of advice is immeasurable and is not in a text book.  It is exemplified by the fact why MBA’s in general are poor entrepreneurs.4

I was discussing with someone the other day how so many new companies are successfully formed in traditional industries even in today’s difficult economic times. Bakery, pet stores, restaurants, service industry, etc…Yes many failures but there are many too that win.  Why?  There service and service is encapsulated by their interpersonal face-to-face business skills.   The owners were comfortable and learned how to develop relationships with their customers on the most granular level. Where do you get that comfort level?  From experience and if you do not have it then it is garnered from others who do – their narratives.  A recent poll demonstrates this with 62% of respondents citing that customer service is important to deciding on whether or not to do business with a company. 5

A past mentor of mine told me to be the animal in front of you.  He meant that in anything you do see what you are doing through their eyes. 

1. Finding the 'gap', Direct Engagement Show with Dragons' Den judge Arlene Dickinson Video
2. Community Marketing Feeds Papa Murphy’s Success, Marketing Daily Article
3. Style Pawlicy Inc.: Website
4. 96.7% of the time you spend at B-School is completely wasted Article
5. Mark Dolliver, 'Are you being served', Adweek, August 1st, 2010 Article