The New Advocate

Advocates alreay know where you “live”…

Written May 12, 2012 by Blaine Millet in Advocacy, Customer Loyalty, Market Differentiation, Relationships, Social Media, Strategic Planning, Word-of-Mouth

Let’s say you are the CEO or Business Owner of a company and are attending a business or social luncheon and strike up a conversation with someone at the table. You do the formalities of your name and company name and so forth and then start talking about either your business or why you are at the luncheon and what you both have in common with the group hosting it. Standard stuff we all do.

After 1 minute of this, if you like the person you probably decide to continue the conversation and learn more about what they do for a living and you can make an assessment of whether or not you feel they are successful at it or not. But during the discussion, as they open up more and more, they probably start talking about challenges or issues (in a broad sense) they are wrestling with and seek to confirm if you are facing the same situation. You may or may not confirm you have this issue but you at least can relate to it and support the way they are feeling.

Then comes the interesting part. By human nature we are built to want to “help others” whenever we can. And if you are a male, your natural instinct is to “solve the problem” so you are naturally looking for solutions or ideas to help this person. Regardless, we all want to offer some insights, our experiences, or connect them with someone we think could help them with their situation. This is where Advocates come into the picture. An Advocate is someone who “proactively tells someone else about you.” Using me for the sake of this example, in this situation, you tell the person, “I know just who you should talk to about this – they are not only an expert but a really good person and they know a lot about strategy and social media, I think they could help at least answer some of your questions. His name is Blaine Millet and his company is WOM10 – you can find him at www.WOM10.com or just Google his name and you can see a variety of ways to contact him. I will also send you his e-mail address when I get back to the office.”

Advocates know where you “live” – they don’t tell someone to go Google Social Media or Strategists or something else. Nope, they know exactly how to reach you and they can share this information with other people. In this situation, do you care about how good your SEO is on your website? Do you care that you have all the keywords in place? Do you care that you ranked top on the first page of a Google search? None of these matter because the person is directing them right to your FRONT DOOR – YOU! This automatically puts you ahead of anyone you compete with because they have just drawn a straight line from the prospect to you – and that’s absolutely, positively the best way to have someone connect to you.

Think about your customers, partners, vendors, and others – can (and will) they draw this straight line from a prospect to you? If not or you don’t have very many, I would recommend thinking about developing an “Advocate Strategy” and starting as soon as possible. It is the least cost, most effective way to attract new customers and build new relationships. “Arm” the people who know where you “Live” with great content and ways to find you – it will have a phenomenal ROI for you and your business…

0 Comments - Leave a comment! Tags: Advocacy, Advocates, Business Strategy, Market Differentiation, Relationships, ROI, strategy, Word-of-Mouth

“Minority” Rules…

Written April 16, 2012 by Blaine Millet in Advocacy, Customer Loyalty, Market Differentiation, Relationships, Social Media, Strategic Planning, Word-of-Mouth

The minority rules and can passionately spread the word through Word-of-Mouth

I was having a conversation the other day with the CEO of a well established company about business strategy for his company and how social media could play a role in helping them grow. There was a part of the conversation that really struck a chord with him and I think it will with other leaders. My question(s) were in regard to his audience, specifically his customers. What I asked was, “How many total customers do you currently have? Of those, how many represent approximately 80% of your annual revenues? (It was the usual 80/20 rule where about 20% of his customers generated 80% of his revenues)…of these 20%, how many would you say were “Advocates” (those who “proactively” talk about you to others)?” Then I stopped and listened for the next hour…

He shared they had only about 2% Advocates! Of all the great things they were doing for their customers and others, only 2% were proactively out there singing his praises. When I put it in this light, he wasn’t very happy about that number. But I explained this was not atypical, many businesses have a small number of advocates because the “normal” trend is to focus on “getting more” customers, not turning the ones you have into “advocates.” He agreed, this was their focus as well with their sales and marketing teams. I could tell he was rethinking this decision during our entire conversation.

What this told him is that “a very small minority of customers are out there talking about you to other potential customers – and this is your MOST POWERFUL group of “sales people” you could ever have – a customer telling a potential customer how great you are.” Now he was really depressed! But I assured him, there is light at the end of the tunnel (and it isn’t an oncoming train). Look at it this way, you have the opportunity to convert the other 98% into “advocates” – just think what that would do to your sales and business if this happened. Now he was totally excited and practically jumping up and down thinking about how BIG the opportunity was rather than where they were.

I suggested two simple concepts: 1) design a strategy to increase the number of advocates; and 2) create a social media strategy to “arm” this group with great content they could freely share to prospective audiences. If he committed to do these two things, he could completely leverage the “minority” of customers to capture a “majority” of market share. The Minority always rules because they are the ones who are most passionate, loyal, and love to spread great things about you via word-of-mouth (individually and through social channels). He got it and couldn’t wait to start focusing on the “minority” in his business…

0 Comments - Leave a comment! Tags: Advocacy, Advocates, Best Practices, Business Strategy, CEO Insights, Customer Loyalty, Market Differentiation, Relationships, Social Media, Word-of-Mouth

“Advocates” and “Satisfaction” don’t go together…

Written April 9, 2012 by Blaine Millet in Advocacy, Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty, Customer Service, Market Differentiation, Social Media, Word-of-Mouth

During my 8 years spent at Arthur Andersen (may they RIP) I lived in the world of “Customer Satisfaction” – both from providing it as a consulting service and as a measure of our own value to the clients. It was HOT. And it was needed at the time. People were clamoring to understand more about their customers and they wanted them to be “satisfied.”

Fast forward to today – customer satisfaction is dead. If you want to win customers from your competitors, and your competitors are all over the world today, you can forget about getting there thinking in terms of “satisfied customers.” When my brother and I wrote our book, “Creating and Delivering Totally Awesome Customer Experiences,” we coined a phrase that has stuck with many and is more amplified today than ever before. The phrase was, “A satisfied customer is simply looking for the next best deal – they just haven’t found it yet or they would be gone.”

Today, the competition is fierce and if you aren’t creating “memorable experiences” you most likely won’t be around very far into the future. Sad, but unfortunately the reality of today. Social media simply amplifies your situation – it allows your customers and others to share their “experiences” with the world fast and often. If you don’t have any memorable experiences, you aren’t “arming your audience” with anything great to talk about and are leaving it up to them to share what they will. So how do you win in this upside down game?

Simple – focus on your ADVOCATES! These are the people who are “proactively talking about you” to others. What have you “armed” them with that they can share with others? Or have you armed them with anything? Do you have some great stories that they can share about you and their experiences or have you just left them without any content to share? Social media, when used correctly, arms this powerful army of supporters with great content about who you are, your passion as a company or individual, the experiences you provide, the great people you have, your superior innovation of ideas, etc., etc.

Satisfied customers are NOT Advocates, they are merely satisfied, waiting for the next best deal. Advocates are chomping at the bit to tell someone else about you. These are your armies of supporters. Focus on them and leverage them with great content. If you don’t have any, get a strategy about how you are going to get some and put it in the hands of your most powerful audience. And the best part of an advocate is that they do it because they want to, not because they are incented. This makes them the most powerful army on the planet to a business…

0 Comments - Leave a comment! Tags: Advocates, Best Practices, Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty, Customer Satisfaction, Expectations, Market Differentiation, Social Media, Word-of-Mouth

It’s been a while…

Written April 3, 2012 by Blaine Millet in Advocacy, Customer Experience, Social Media, Word-of-Mouth

I know I know…it’s been a while since I blogged on this site. But there isn’t a day that goes by I don’t think about that and just run out of time working with clients. Clients are number one – they are not only my best Advocates but they have also committed to wanting to move forward in Strategy and Social Media and Customer Experiences. They deserve my time first and foremost. As you probably already know, I “eat my own dogfood” where I get all my clients from Word-of-Mouth and speaking gigs. So I commit my all to making sure they have exceptional experiences and are armed with things to talk about to their colleagues and friends. But no excuses…

I have also been “pinged” by many of you out there almost demanding more content on this blog about The New Advocate. While it is definitely flattering it is also very disturbing. Disturbing because I haven’t had the time to “feed” you with some of the great things I am seeing and experiencing out there every day – and for that I apologize. My plan is to do much better at this and to start blogging more on this site. If you haven’t checked out my other blogs that I write or contribute to on a regular basis, I would encourage you to do that as well. You can find them off to the right here under “My other blogs/sites”.

The world is advancing faster than I would have ever predicted in this area of Advocacy for companies and people. All of you are getting more and more comfortable having the microphone in your hand (computer screen and social media tools) and are speaking much more freely. This is good! Sharing your thoughts, insights, opinions, and recommendations is going to help everyone. We are maturing very rapidly from what people thought was the “bitch board” of the only people talking were those complaining. Just the opposite is true (more on that in a later post) – more people are actually saying great things about their experiences more than ever before! What great news for companies using social media the “right way” and providing the right platforms for their customers/clients to talk.

So lots of great experiences and stories over the past several months to share with you. Sorry for the darkness, time to move back into the light!!

0 Comments - Leave a comment! Tags: Advocacy, Advocates, Blogging, Business Strategy, Customer Experience, Market Differentiation, Social Media, WOM on Steroids, Word-of-Mouth

True Word-of-Mouth is not about “the deal”…

Written January 14, 2012 by Blaine Millet in Advocacy, Relationships, Trust, Word-of-Mouth

All Word-of-Mouth is not Word-of-Mouth – there are differences and it can make a world of difference as you think about how to build your business using this powerful process.

Now we have Groupon, Living Social, Amazon, and a host of other “super deal sites” popping up on our landscape and people often ask me if this is what we mean by “Word-of-Mouth” communications. NO. Next question…OK, let’s elaborate a bit more…

It is very important for business leaders to understand there is a difference. If your friend sees a hot deal on Groupon and forwards it to you, is this considered word-of-mouth? The answer is YES because someone took the time to share it with you and you took advantage of it and thanked them. But let’s look below the covers of this a bit further.

When this happens, who is benefiting the most in this transaction? Is it Groupon because you shared their deal or is it the person that shared the deal with you? The answer is actually both. But there are different things happening here that might not be obvious. For Groupon, for example, they get their name out because they had the hot deal of the day. But tomorrow, it might be Living Social, and no one is interested in Groupon that day. No word-of-mouth for them today. Tomorrow it is Amazon and they are the hot deal of the day – no word-of-mouth for Groupon or Living Social today. And the cycle continues…

However, for your friend who shared this valuable information with you, your relationship and their word-of-mouth got just a little bit stronger. Why? Because they took time to share one of these deals they felt would benefit you – and it did. When they share something (anything of value) tomorrow and the next day and the next day, your relationship and trust with them gets a little bit stronger each time. To the point to where YOU become “their Advocate” and YOU tell others about them – true word-of-mouth. This is the “long tail” or true value of word-of-mouth and building advocates. Your reward comes from this process working on your behalf because you provided “passionate value”. More on this term in another post.

So when you look at how to incorporate a “Word-of-Mouth Strategy” in your business, it is important to build it with the “long tail” approach and build advocates. Everything else is just a fleeting “deal of the day” and no one remembers this, or you, tomorrow…

1 Comment - Leave a comment! Tags: Advocacy, Advocates, Amazon, Building advocates, Groupon, Living Social, Sharing, Word-of-Mouth

Have you “THANKED” your ADVOCATES today???

Written December 5, 2011 by Blaine Millet in Advocacy, Relationships, Word-of-Mouth

This is the time of year we think more about “giving” than most any other time of the year. It is when we are most generous with both our time and our wallets to friends, family , colleagues, and customers. Our natural tendency seems to be answering the question, “What can I get them this year that will stand out and be memorable?” Am I right?

I have a simple solution that will keep you from battling for a parking space at the malls or spending time online looking for just the right thing at the right price. And it will be more memorable…

Sit down and apply the “Santa Rule” – make a list and check it twice. But rather than finding those who are naughty or nice, look for those you would consider to be your “ADVOCATES”. Remember, an Advocate is someone who is out there “proactively telling people about you and how great you are as a person or to work with”. They are not people you can ask for a reference, they are people who give you a reference without being asked. Those are your advocates!

Now that you have a list of these put together, here is what you do. It’s simple and actually one of the most enjoyable things you will do this holiday season. I will put it in bold so you won’t miss it:

CALL them and THANK THEM for being your ADVOCATE. That’s it. Tell them how much you appreciate them “singing your praises” and freely “telling others” about you. Let them know that if it wasn’t for them you wouldn’t be as successful or where you are today. Ask them if there is anything you can personally do for them because as far as you are concerned, they are the gold in your world. Do it and you will both receive a very valuable gift this holiday season…and it won’t be in the mall or cost you a dime.

0 Comments - Leave a comment! Tags: Advocacy, Advocates, Best Practices, Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty, Market Differentiation, Relationships, Word-of-Mouth

Advocate…one key word must be included

Written August 27, 2011 by Blaine Millet in Advocacy, Best Practices, Relationships, Trust

If you went a month without being able to talk to anyone, would anyone be talking about you? There is a key word that is at the heart of being and advocate for someone or someone being an advocate for you. PROACTIVE. If someone isn’t “proactively” talking about you, they aren’t your advocate. They might…

2 Comments - Leave a comment! Tags: Advocate, Proactive, Promise Architecture, Promises, Relationships, Trust, Trusted Relationships

Is “Advocacy” part of your Strategic Plan?

Written April 8, 2011 by Blaine Millet in Advocacy, Market Differentiation, Strategic Planning

I have been helping companies develop their corporate and customer strategic plans for the past 15 years in one capacity or another. This is a MUST HAVE for any business, regardless of size. And when I talk about a “Strategic Plan” I am not referring to the type that is built by a consultant to…

1 Comment - Leave a comment! Tags: Advocacy, Advocates, Best Practices, Business Strategy, Market Differentiation, strategy