Steve Neiderhauser

14 Essential Links for Understanding the Business Model Canvas

For anyone who yearns to understand the Business Model Canvas, you may want to study these 14 essential links.

Here's one tip for creating a crystal clear canvas.

Use Precise Language

Is every Building Block in your Canvas precise enough? Make sure every building business model block is self explanatory. For example, writing “products” in revenue streams is unclear. More precise would be “product sales” or “margins on product sales”.

Six Learning Concepts that Trump Traditional Teaching

Learning guru Sharon Bowman gives us six ways to enhance learning.

Movement trumps sitting

Talking trumps listening

Images trumps words

Writing trumps reading

Shorter trumps longer

Different trumps same

So asking a student to pop up and answer a question is more powerful than a student sitting at their desk and answering a question.

Consider Sharon's slides about the six learning concepts.

Burberry Viral Marketing

Outside a London Burberry store, customers use smartphones to design and fly personalized scarfs on a gigantic interactive screen.

Why is Burberry going to the expense of interactive games? In this book review of the On Demand Brand, I highlight the importance of surprising and delighting your customers.

Create positive emotions and customers are likely to talk about and purchase your products.

Agile for Marketing Teams

I recently provided Agile training to a group of marketing people. They will use Agile to run their marketing programs.

What would the Marketing product backlog look like? See this article by Jim Ewel.

ShopLocket

ShopLocket lets you create your own pop-up store.

Opening and Closing Image

What's one way that screenwriters check the math of their movie? They make sure the closing image shows the growth of the hero. Typically the opening image is opposite of the closing image.

In this video, Jose Silerio explains the importance of the closing image. Between the opening and closing image of a movie, there's a transformation machine. A machine that transforms the hero. And change like this has the capacity to mesmerize an audience.

Tip: Want to create better business presentations? Select opening and closing images that show the benefits of your business solution.

 

Scrum Best Practices

In a series of video interviews, Jeff Sutherland shares his secrets of Scrum.

In one interview he talks about the definition of ready. "Ready" means the team can immediately act on the user stories in the sprint. The team is not discussing requirements or trying to figure out the architecture, instead they instantly start to implement the story.

Mr. Sutherland estimates that only one percent of Scrum teams have a definition of ready. And being in the ready state, increases velocity by 50%.

A couple years ago I coached a team that started sprints and completed few stories. They often called meetings and discussed requirements, thus they completed only a fraction of the stories. How did we smash this roadblock? 

We created a definition of ready. The team pulled stories into a sprint only when stories satisfied our definition of ready. The result? We increased velocity by 56%. 

An Opening is an Opportunity for Greatness

What kind of opening am I talking about? One where you allow your artistic skills to take flight.

The first ten pages of a novel, the first ten minutes of a movie, or the first couple slides of a presentation.

Because we're in a new age of media consumption, it's imperative to grab the audience's attention in your opening gambit. You may have purchased a streaming media service like Netflix. For eight bucks a month your eyeballs are free to swim in an endless supply of images.

When I choose a movie and the opening scenes fails to entice me, I simply sample another movie. Screenwriters have know about the importance of openings for ages. So when business people ask me how to improve a presentation, I suggest they take a trip outside the boundaries of business and see how the pros do it.

Check out Erik Bork's guidance for The first 10 pages of a script.

Want to sharpen your opening skills while watching a movie. Pay attention to the opening and final images. What changed?

In Save the Cat, Blake Snyder writes that good screenwriters check their movie math by comparing the opening and final images. Do the images show a change in the character? After all, stories are about change. Stories are about transformation.

Consider Miss Congeniality, starring Sandra Bullock.

Opening Image: Sandra is dressed in sweats, working out with male FBI agents.

Final Image: Sandra is dressed in a dazzling gown, surrounded by women and awarded the Miss Congeniality prize.

The movie math checks out.

High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service

When you sell a product you’re also selling a customer experience. Some people believe the experience is so important that it’s been given a name — The Experience Economy.

 

In a social media crazed world where people tweet and blog about anything, how do you create remarkable customer experiences? Micah Solomon gives you the keys to delight customers in his book, High-tech, High-touch Customer Service.

 

The author identifies six crucial trends related to the individual consumer.  While there may be overarching business trends, learning to treat customers as individuals is key to business success. Let’s look at two trends.

 

Customers expect anticipatory technology behavior — Instantly 

 

The art of anticipation helps create customer loyalty. Micah applauds Netflix and Apple for their ability to anticipate customer needs. Netflix, for example, provides viewers with a list of movies they may want to watch next.  And Apple stores are set up to anticipate customer needs.

 

The Apple Store app allows customers to schedule an appointment so staff receive you properly upon arrival. Instead of upselling, Apple employees are trained to listen and suggest products that satisfy your needs.  

 

The Desire for Self Service

 

Customers have become accustomed to a self-service option from other retailers. Updating account info, checking status of a purchase...

 

If your company has no self-service option, customers are going to wonder, “What gives?” Micah teaches the principles of winning self service.  Customers need a choice of channels. Kiosk, website, phone...

 

Customers should have freedom to choose. If they call, your response shouldn’t be, "Hey, that is handled on our website, brilliantcompany.com.  Dude, please surf to it."

 

Self service needs an escape hatch. Have you ever received an email that came with the warning, “Do not reply.” There should be a way for the customer to contact you. There should be a way for the customer to reciprocate. Correspondence sent via US Postal service provide a way to reply, even if it is as simple as "Return to Sender."

 

Also, avoid making customers a slave to your organization structure. Hold the business buzz words. Speak in plain English — the native language of customers.

 

Micah Solomon’s book holds a wealth of wisdom that will help you win loyal customers. He organizes the info so it’s easy for you to touch. The salient points of each chapter are highlighted in a section called, “and your point is?” Cliff notes for the modern marketing man.

 

Micah also provides his take on social media. So if your company has a Facebook page and it’s not all fun and games, you may want to pick up a copy of his book and learn how to respond to people who are bashing your products in 140 character rhymes.

 

Like a movie where the hero encounters a set back, you too can turn it around.

Career Advice from Seth

Seth Godin serves up three points for scoring a job at a small company. Small companies are the hiring engine for our economy.

What's my favorite tip?

"Learn to write…  There's more writing in business today than ever before, and if you can become a persuasive copywriter, you're practically a salesperson, and even better, your work scales."

Becoming a better writer and developing copywriting skills gives you an advantage over other candidates, or employees after you're hired. Consider the fellow who composes a two-page email reply while you accomplish more with two thoughtful sentences.

Stephen King tells us -- "Writing is refined thinking."

So whose emails, and ideas, will be read in the future?

Copywriting teaches us how to think about persuasion and suggests that we write like we talk.  Learning to write in a conversational style will help your writing in all areas -- memos, presentations, web copy.