Alberta Business Marketing

If you have not read this book yet, stop reading this blog and run down to your nearest Chapters, Indigo or Borders store and get it.

I need to thank my good friend and fan of Ulistic, Dr. Leslie Roberts from GoForth Institute for recommending this book to me.  Thanks Leslie, you haven’t seen how much it has impacted my life yet.

Over the next few days, I will be sharing some key takeaways from Seth Godin “Tribes”. I have a few pages marked and ready for commentary.

First, if you have it, turn to page 96 and about half way down the page you will find this paragraph.

“The last person to leave the current record business won’t be the smartest, and he won’t be the most successful either.  Getting out first and staking out the new territory almost always pays off.”

Wow, is all I have to say.

Seth was speaking about the music business when he shared that small bit of inspiration, but I took as my departure after 15 years in the Calgary Small Business Computer Support market.  I haven’t been the last person to depart from something comfortable that put food on the table.  I had a chance to catch up with my great friend Aaron Booker from Bellingham, Washington last night and discuss his new business varvid.com.  Aaron is now servicing the technology community by providing high quality video production for conferences, trade shows and case studies.  He does some pretty awesome work.

Thanks Seth for that message.  It was really something I needed to hear and reinforced my knowing that David and I are on the right track with Ulistic.

Tags: Aaron Booker, Borders store, food, GoForth Institute, Indigo, Leslie Roberts, Seth Godin, Stuart's ramblings, technology community, varvid.com, Washington
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Gab Goldenberg feels that Seth Is Wrong On Paid vs Free Journalism.  I am not clear on his reasons for saying that since I feel that Seth Godin would agree with much of what Gab has written.  For example Gab list the reason journalists used to get paid was that:

1. They didn’t mostly leverage the branding that broad distribution got you. Only syndicated columnists typically did well enough to have book deals and speaking gigs that made them any decent money. This was wasted branding, imho.
2. They covered stuff that most people would find it a chore to write up, like municipal politics (Oh no, they’re moving trash day to Sunday!) or that others were not vying to report and for which there was thus no competition (eg Watergate).

He goes on that nowadays, newspapers are mistakenly filling their pages with wire content. This commodifies them. As suggested previously, the path to saving newspapers is more journalism, not less! More research, less rehash!

It all sounds like the same hymn sheet to me.  Perhaps the title was to catch the eye just as that of Seth Godin’s was with Malcolm is wrong.  Seth Godin starts off as follows:

I’ve never written those three words before, but he’s never disagreed with Chris Anderson before, so there you go.  Free is the name of Chris’s new book, and it’s going to be wildly misunderstood and widely argued about.

The Malcolm referred to is Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink, and someone who is always worth listening to. Seth Godin too is a little wide ranging in his diatribe but his final paragraph is the real meat:

Neatness is for historians. For a long time, all the markets for attention-based goods are going to be messy, which means that there are going to be huge opportunities for people (like you?) able to get that most precious asset (our attention) for free. At least for a while.

Indeed I think messy will now describe the Information space for ever.  There is essentially zero cost and zero barriers for anyone who wishes to add to this Tower of Babel. Two factors will dictate whether anyone can make money out of this. 

1. Some (authors) will do it because they can stand out from the crowd and gain a following.
2. Others (search engines) will make money because they can highlight what others may wish to find. 

Unfortunately for so many others who cannot get anyone’s attention, they will waste their sweetness on the desert air.

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If you want to feel your tourism offering hits it’s mark with your ideal client, you might be interested in learning from Seth Godin, how Tribes are creating the most powerful relationships.

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Seth Godin, the famed marketing expert, titles a recent post, “It doesn’t hurt to ask”.

He then quickly back-pedals and announces that actually, it does hurt. It does hurt to ask the wrong way, to ask without preparation, to ask without permission. It hurts because you never get another chance to ask right.

He then offers the following sage advice: invest some time and earn the right to ask. Do your homework. Build connections. Make a reasonable request, something easy and mutually beneficial. Yes leads to yes which just maybe leads to the engagement you were actually seeking.

Of course any red-blooded sales person may feel that they must ask for the order. In some cases it is the only way. However if you have prepared the ground well, there is a better way.

In a way it is almost an outcome of the Internet. Now consumers are in the driving seat. They can search and find the possible choices and do research on the features and benefits. If your company can be visible on the Internet and stand out from the competition (that old Unique Selling Proposition), then it may well be that the prospect comes calling on your company.

In such cases, they are the ones doing the asking. That’s a very much better scenario. You avoid all those risks that Seth Godin was warning against. This situation is certainly something that is worth striving to create. It is exactly the same approach that was suggested for overcoming cold calling resistance.

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