What are you reading?

Seriously. What are you reading? If you want to grow professionally, you need to read books. Yes, blogs can be great and articles can be good, but nothing helps the mind consider new things like books.

I was not huge fan of reading for fun or growth after college until a friend of my wife introduced me to  Nelson DeMille. Then, I re-learned to love reading - like I did when I was a child.

Then, after I started my company, I started to read a lot of business related books - until it became a habit. The audio books were my addiction for a time - starting with tapes, then CDs and finally on my iPod. Hard cover books are still great, but my new favorite way to read is on my iPad.

DeMille and John Grisham are two fiction writers I go to for vacation reads, but there are many others too. As for business writers, I like Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin, and Patrick Lencioni.

Read The Tipping Point, Outliers or David & Goliath by Gladwell. Or, read Permission Marketing by Godin…or any of his other stuff. Start with 5 Temptations of a CEO by Lencioni - and you don't have to be a CEO to learn a ton from it.

My current favorite book is by Jay Baer, and it's called YoUtility. If you are in marketing, own a business or want to sell anything from today on - it is MUST read.

So, I'll ask again. What are you reading right now?

Truth, Lies and Stories

I don't know about you, but I really don't like it when someone tells me something that is factually true, but is untrue when the full context of the situation is known. This is not a political article, although political ads provide plenty of examples of trying to persuade by withholding the complete truth. From my point of view this is worse than a straight out lie - because the communicator is attempting to manipulate you by telling part of the story.

Politics certainly does not have a corner in the lying market. Plenty of companies stretch the truth a little or a lot.

Nothing will damage your reputation or brand more quickly than lying. People will find out and when they do they will not be happy. Chances are they will tell A LOT of people about the falsehood and your brand.

Be straight forward and honest in all of your dealings and you will be rewarded. Own mistakes, tell the truth, and have a great product or service. Customers will flock to you.

Now, it is important to remember that you don't have to make buying decisions for customers with your honesty. I've seen companies attempt to be so transparent that they nearly talk customers out of buying something even though the customer would benefit from the product.

Present the product fairly. Be straight forward, but the role of marketing is to entice interest and inform. If you have a concern you want to be discussed when a customer calls - make sure it is on the campaign summary you provide to sales people, so they discuss it with customers (or at least make sure the issue is understood) before the sale is finalized.

A veteran sales person shared this with me long ago and I have not forgotten it: always tell the truth, it's easier than trying to remember who you lied to!

What is your story?

Many have written about storytelling as a way to have an impact with your marketing message. Seth Godin has. So has Drew McLellan, and I am sure many others have. Please share others in the comment section, as I love to learn more.

I think they are correct and so do others with which I speak. Therefore, I wonder, why don’t more of us market by storytelling?

Of course I can only speak from the experiences and discussions I have had. What those two things tell me is that getting to the core of what your own story is can be difficult. Time to think and the ability to articulate your ideas are real barriers for some.

Beyond that, finding an effective way to tell your story is also a barrier. Although communications options abound, so do the filters people use to shield themselves from messages, however well intentioned.

What it comes down to then is getting others to participate in your story or maybe to retell it – or in today’s terms ReTweet your story. They need to connect to your story in a real way…to feel it. Your story has to be compelling enough for them to relate to it or, even better, to feel like it is happening to them.

So, how do you distill your story down so you can figure out how to tell it in a compelling way? That will certainly be different for different companies and people.  A starting point however is knowing what you (or your company) are passionate about AND what you are NOT passionate about. It is hard to tell a good story without passion.