Steve Neiderhauser

WIll you be able to run after the economic rebound

Tom Peters writes about how to survive and thrive during these times of change. The hasty and foolish will mindlessly cut R&D, training, and sales. This amputation of assets assures that these companies will only be able to crawl the ball up the court after the economic rebound, while their wiser more agile competition will fast break.

In the last downturn, I watched companies like Amazon and Google build infrastructure or platforms, and then score tons of points when the economy sprang to life.

Three levels of proof

Can you ever learn too much about proof and converting customers to your way of thinking? I don't think so. So even though I've described proof as marketing's rocket fuel, I wanted to point to Sean D'Souza's latest post about proof.

He describes three levels of proof. I can see how the three levels would be compelling and powerful in a presentation. For those people who are agents of change, you may be keenly interested in "Instant Proof." Here's how Sean describes instant proof:

"If you can demonstrate the product or service, by showing an instant change, then that's instant proof." Here's two of his four examples:

* Show a client a headline without a curiosity-factor, and with a curiosity factor.
* Or a PC vs. a Mac.

A demo story is another form of Instant Proof. For example, you tell a story that shows how frustrated the customer was before using your product, and then show how delighted and happy the customer was after using your product. In many ways, the Get a Mac ads are a demo story.

How to captivate an Audience

Guy Kawasaki interviews Nancy Duarte about her new book, slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations.

I like these two points for creating a presentation:

Find inspiration from non-digital sources - found objects, nature and hand sketches, for example.

Make slides that are easy for the audience to recall, not slides that help you to remember what to say.

Avoid these common IT mistakes

InfoWorld lists 20 IT mistakes to void. In light of the Terry Childs' soap opera in San Francisco, mistake 6 (creating indispensable employees) may spark a debate in your office.

After the debate, it might be a good idea to review mistake 7 -- Raising issues instead of offering solutions.

Tip: If you're going to bring a problem to the boss, make sure you pair it with a solution.

Positive surprises for customers

How do you create surprises for your customers? Sean DSouza provides an example at his blog. When he sells a certain training program, he includes a $3 Kiwi Fruit Chocolate bar. And what do customers buzz about? The gourmet chocolate bar, of course.

This example brings up a fundamental point about the experience economy. You have to absolutely make sure that the underlying product you provide is rock solid. For as Sean points out, you can't sugar coat poor service or sloppy products.