Category Archives: Personal

Apr 25 2013
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Business, Personal

The Pitch

I often generalize business as the art of getting people to do what you want.  It’s probably an over-generalization of what is typically a complex operation, but really that’s what most of us in the business world do – work to get our (or our organization’s) way.  Working for a company that is undergoing a transformation, I spend a lot of time pitching ideas – to vendors, management, community leaders, or our board.  Throughout that time I’ve decided that there’s a distinct difference between perspective and opinion, and you should try to change only one.

When I start pitching an idea to someone, I always start out at a bird’s eye view of the project or idea, and sometimes even a tangent line away from the actual meat of the idea.  Everyone always has differing opinions and for me to come in and try to change an opinion that was obviously shaped by something other than thin air, just doesn’t make much sense.  Frankly, changing opinions is tough business and a relentless task – especially for the one who is usually the youngest in the room.

My theory is that opinions don’t matter in business.  What matters to me when I’m pitching something is their PERSPECTIVE.  Their perspective is what drew them to the opinions they have.  I try to start at the core level of the idea or even away from the idea and narrow it down – set the stage not only for the actual idea, but why the hell I got to that idea.  I sell my thought process, and assume the idea will sell itself (this also portrays confidence, which people subconsciously pick up).

Typically after I’ve laid the foundation as to why I have this idea in mind (what shaped my perspective on it) I try to get buy-in from the people in the room.  I’ve found people are usually more inclined to agree to broad based concepts rather than a narrow focused idea, for a variety reasons.  So if I can get some nods of agreement on high-level ideas, I go straight to the conclusion.

Instead of PowerPointing my way to the end, I typically jump from broad focus right to the “this is what will happen” part.  I do that because everything between the high level stuff and the end is really just a means to a conclusion.  I don’t want my audience to focus on the inside aspect of making the conclusion happen – that could make or break the deal.  The journey to the end is not always a pretty picture, what matters is that the conclusion is on par with corporate strategy.

I’ve often heard sales people use the personal selling tactic of “leading to a conclusion” – essentially guiding the client to the desired conclusion like they’re on a leash.  I disagree with that.  I’m there to bring a conclusion in the first place, and convincing the audience of my conclusion by reshaping their perspective on the idea is my strategy.

Throughout the last year I’ve had the pleasure of sitting through many pitches from vendors.  From buying air time flights to buying millions of dollars in IT equipment, I’ve been pitched at as much as I pitch.  Most of the time they immediately start out with the product/service benefits, and the conclusion is the price.  At no point do they give me a broad based concept to work with – it’s all detail.  When my organization is about to drop seven or eight figures in capital on something, it’s effecting more than just one function of the company, and the pitch should too.

Jan 08 2013
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Career, Marketing, Personal

We’re Going Gig

I’ve posted many times on here about my “day job” employer, Columbus Telephone Company.  As one of the few independent telecoms left the nation, we’ve been bucking the trend and pioneering technology for over 107 years now.  We had the first digital phone switch in 1986, were the first fiber-to-the-home provider in the state in 2005, and now we’re embarking on our next-generation network to bring our customer 1 Gbps ultra-broadband.

Most of you have probably heard about what Google Fiber is doing in the Kansas City market.  They had a national contest to select a city or region to roll-out the company’s first ever fiber-to-the-home operation.  Their operation did not start until 2012, however the headline that has come with it is the fact that they are already offering 1 Gbps Internet service, which is largely unheard of in the U.S.

Naturally, having a name like Google attached to their project has given them a vast amount of publicity, which I’d argue has paid off more for the Kansas City metro area than the actual fiber-to-the-home service.  KC now has Internet start-ups forming in dumpy neighborhoods – right in residential homes.  The proverbial “Silicon Prairie” is nothing new as Internet entrepreneurs seek out the low cost of living in the country’s mid-section and enjoy the (in many cases) much better broadband service than either coast can provide.  Kansas City, however, was not in on the action until Google trumpeted their horn and laid the foundation for ultra broadband, so we’re getting in on the action.

For us, we don’t need Google.  Back in 2003 when we announced our original fiber-to-the-home imitative, we were one of only a handful of companies nationwide embarking on a FTTH network, and we’re about 99% sure we were the only company in the nation to have a zero-copper network.  So by today’s standards, our eight year old network is better than what 99.8% of U.S. households currently have.  Unfortunately, that’s not good enough for us.

Today we formally announced our next-generation FTTH network.  For marketing purposes, we’re calling it Fiber 2.0.  Our new network is enabling us to offer the ultra broadband speeds that we feel are a necessity to keeping our area and customers ahead of the curve.  Once completed later this year, we’ll be able to offer the same 1 Gbps speeds that Google is trumpeting in KC, plus position us to continue expanding our broadband offerings for several years to come.

As the company’s marketing guy, I’m totally geeked to have the opportunity to tout our new services.  It is no stretch for us to say that, in a few months, you’ll be able to stack our company’s network up against any city in the world, and no shame will be felt on our end.  It truly is world-class, meaning it is a marketer’s dream.  I don’t have to spin this – it literally is the best and we have the brand and the plan to make everyone aware of that.

Our small company is proof of my theory in business: when passionate folks are running it, success comes naturally.  We don’t dwell on specific metrics of success.  We have a corporate strategy to provide the best product and best customer experience.  All decisions go back to that one metric and said decisions are made by people that really do care about the company.  There are no “silos” or disjointed “accounting has goal X, marketing has goal Y” mockery – we all rally around the same goal and I’m convinced more than every that is the key to our success.