The Clean and Green Club

Another Recommended Book: The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey with Rebecca R. Merrill

It’s good to see an important and well-promoted book on business ethics coming out of a major New York house (in this case, Simon & Schuster’s Free Press imprint).

Coveys basic thesis, peppered with lots of examples from his own and his famous father’s life and career as well as the business world in general, is that when people trust you, business gets transacted a lot faster, more smoothly, and less expensively.

He notes that almost every action either increases trust–creating what he calls a “trust dividend”–or deceases it, imposing a “trust tax.”

Covey identifies a number of factors leading to increased trust, and they basically break down to two key principles embodied in “4 Cores”: character (subdivided into Integrity and Intent), and competence (Capabilities and Results. It’s not enough to offer just one of those two. If you are good at what you do but people have reason to mistrust your ethics, you pay a penalty. But also, you can be a model of integrity, and if you’re not good at doing what you commit to do, you’ll pay a trust penalty there as well.

Building from those four core attributes, he identifies 13 specific behaviors that build trust, and spends a chapter on each:

• Talk Straight
• Demonstrate Respect
• Create Transparency
• Right Wrongs
• Show Loyalty
• Deliver Results
• Get Better
• Confront Reality
• Clarify Expectations
• Practice Accountability
• Listen First
• Keep Commitments
• Extend Trust

When evaluating these behaviors, in yourself or in others, it’s important to fid the “sweet spot” where distrust is overcome but judgment comes into play so you don’t get burned. And in that process, it’s important to recognize that each of these 13 behaviors has “counterfeits” that look on the surface like they’re building trust, even as they actually undermine it. As an example, flattery is one of several counterfeits to straight talk.

Like my own book Principled Profit, Covey repeatedly demonstrates that high-trust environments, based in both character and competence, wildly outperform the traditional hierarchical micromanaged corporate environment. Trust, in other words, is very good for business. It’s why all the local McDonald’s were left untouched during the Los Angeles riots–because McDonald’s had shown itself as a concerned community partner, for years. It’s why Johnson & Johnson is one of the only pharmaceutical companies that has a reputation for genuinely caring about its customers. It’s why when an IBM executive who had lost the company $10 million expected to be asked for his resignation, founder Tom Watson Sr. responded, “You can’t be serious. We’ve just spent $10 million educating you!”

My favorite chapter is toward the end of this substantial book: “The Fifth Wave–Societal Trust: The Principle of Contribution.” Spiraling out from previous chapters about trust within an organization (built around the concept of alignment: the messages reinforce the desired behaviors) and within a market (where the key element is reputation)–these are the third and fourth waves–the fifth wave is about “conscious capitalism,” a/k/a social responsibility: the idea (and the statistics to back up the claim) that making a difference in the world is good for the soul, and also for the bottom line. And the key principle is contribution–doing things specifically to improve the lives of others.

This is one of the most important business books I’ve read in a long time, and a complete validation of the points of view I’ve been promoting for years. Strongly recommended.

I learned about this innovative and very customer-focused Irish supermarket chain in Stephen M.R. Covey’s book The Speed of Trust (reviewed elsewhere in this issue), where he’s quoted: “Genuine listening ability is one of the few true forms of competitive advantage…Listening is not an activity you can delegate.”

Founding CEO (now President after the family sold the company), Feargal Quinn has earned the sobriquet “Pope of Customer Service.” Apparently a rather colorful character, he’s also a long-serving member of the Irish Senate and author of Crowning the Customer.

In his own words,

If you look after getting repeat business, profit will largely take care of itself. When faced with any business decision, any call on your time or resources, you need to ask, What will this do to help bring the customer back?”

This philosophy has generated consistent innovation since the company’s founding in 1960. The firm has a strong environmental consciousness too, and was an early pioneer of reusable cloth shopping bags designed specifically for maximum customer convenience (and which make even more sense since a tax was instituted on plastic grocery bags in Ireland). The store was also a pioneer in loyalty reward programs and online shopping, among other areas.

Perhaps the coolest innovation is a hand-held scanner program that saves time by letting you check yourself out as you add items to your cloth totes in your shopping cart (note the trust factor there), and keep a running total for you. When you’re done shopping, your bags are all packed and you go to a cashier to run up any items you couldn’t scan and make your payment. This could easily shave 10 or 15 precious minutes off the typical shopping trip, and it sounds so much more pleasant than the horrible automated checkouts at my own local supermarket (which hardly anyone uses).

If you are involved with a retail business, a community agency or nonprofit, a home-based entrepreneurial venture, an Internet business, or any other venture where you try to find markets for your products, services, or ideas–listen up!

Here’s a special half-price offer on Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World, which was a Finalist for ForeWord magazine’s Book of the Year Award, has been endorsed by Jay Conrad Levinson (author of the Guerrilla Marketing books), and praised in the national press.
Read the rest of this entry »

Shel Horowitz’s Monthly Frugal Marketing Tip, April, 2008
Vol. 11, #11

In order to get much out of a networking site, you need to network. There are dozens of ways to do this, and here are a few.

1. Friending. Most social networks offer the option of sending a friend or business connection request–called “friending.” Start with friends, colleagues, relatives, people in nearby locations, and see where it leads. The cool thing is that when you “friend” someone, and they accept, you get to look over their friends and friend any that look interesting. Since I travel in marketing circles, I often find very good connections (industry leaders, gurus and such) within the friend networks of those who reach out to me. Almost as cool: every time you post something to your profile, all your connections get a notice about it. Note: You will get friend requests too. I say yes to most of mine if I can see some common interests–or if they respond appropriately to a note I send saying I don’t recognize them, how do we know each other or if we don’t, what led them to friend me?

2. Public messaging. One tip I picked up from Facebook guru Mari Smith: the social networks offer private and public message options. If you’re welcoming someone to the network or thanking that person for a friend invite, do it in the public comment space (like the profile or the wall) rather than in a private message. I usually include *one* link at the end of my post.

3. Interest groups. This is the 800-pound gorilla of successful social networking, and so far, relatively few people are taking advantage. Find groups that are relevant to your interests, your geography/history (e.g., your city, the schools you attended) and/or your business, and participate actively on a few of them (don’t forget that link at the end).

4. Requests for help. Ask questions about resources, tactics, suppliers. Answer questions in your field of interest. (LinkedIn is really nice for that).

P.S. If you’d like to friend me, here are my most active profiles.
Plaxo: https://pulse.plaxo.com/pulse/profile/show/128849525442/
Facebook shortcut: https://profile.to/shelhorowitz
LinkedIn: https://snipurl.com/1w1s3
CollectiveX: https://www.collectivex.com/network/show_profile/54661

If you include a message that you subscribe to my newsletter, I’ll accept your request.

Correction: The Facebook group for reporter queries got too big for Facebook’s 1200-member limit. It now has its own website, and you can sign up to receive queries at https://helpareporter.com/

Note: Do NOT abuse this list. Only respond appropriately, and only to appropriate queries, or you’ll spoil it for everyone. You don’t want to get journalists mad at you, and nor do you want to get on the bad side of either Peter or me.

Next month: Other Web 2.0 sites

Shel Horowitz’s Book Marketing Tip of the Month

With a book about traveling around Mexico in an old VW van, Rich Ligato’s choices of venues may be different from yours. But whatever kind of book you sell, there will be perfect places to sell it–places that have nothing to do with bookstores or websites. Use your creativity, and some of Rich’s techniques.

For lots more creative book marketing ideas, I recommend my own Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers–click here to learn about it.

–Shel Horowitz

Guest Tip By Rich Ligato

We have had the greatest success at unusual events. Our book is a
travel narrative about our three year journey in a VW campervan and
we’ve sold at…

Grape Stomp / Wine Tasting: One weekend, we set up at a the
Julian Grape Stomp and sold 20 books. Drunk people make great customers.

Art Nights: Here in San Diego we have two different “Art Walks” where
local galleries serve finger food and wine to attract buyers. We
simply set up a table next to our van and sold 25 books. The art was
so expensive yet everyone wanted to go home with something.

Farmers Markets: Our local farmers markets charge $20-25. We always
sell between 15-20 books. We secured local radio, tv, newspaper and
magazine interviews at our farmers market. The farmers markets
offer the perfect opportunity to practice sound bites. When the
interviewers asked questions we were practiced and ready with a short,
interesting, funny answer.

Car Shows: Our local car show allows anyone to set up and show off
their car for free. Nobody seemed to mind that we were selling books too.

Travel Club Meeting: We set up at the Discover Baja Travel Club and
sold a bunch of books.

The best thing about these venues is that we get to keep the entire
purchase price. At bookstores signings you generally have to give
them 40-50%. The most important thing is that you put yourself out
there. At first it is uncomfortable. Before you know it…it will be
fun.

Oh, and we always ask the buyer if they would like us to sign their
copy. It’s amazing how the simple act of signing a book causes others
to think “I’ve got to get one too.” We will go for an hour without
selling a book then suddenly someone will purchase one, we’ll make a
big deal of signing it, and the frenzy is on. We’ll sell a pile in 10
minutes.

Rich Ligato
www.vwvagabonds.com

Something very special: Jay Conrad Levinson, the man who gave us both the Guerrilla Marketing series and the Marlboro Man, is doing a seminar on the French Riviera, May 24 & 25, 2008, and there are only 79 seats, total.

“Jay Conrad Levinson had coffee with me in 1983 and it changed my life forever. Jay has forgotten
more about effective marketing techniques than most of us will ever know. He’s the man.”
— Seth Godin, best-selling author of Permission Marketing and Unleashing the Ideavirus.

Jay is sharing the program with a couple of other marketing legends, among them Mitch Meyerson, Monroe Mann and Alexandru Israil (who is apparently an Internet marketing legend in Europe), plus there are $847 worth of goodies for attenders.Organizer Christophe Poizat, whom I’ve been networking with since December, has allowed me to offer some special pricing, on a limited basis:

• Code Savings Number available
• xgmcp999 —> 50.00% discount –> 1 Ticket
• xgmcp998 —> 30.00% discount –> 5 Tickets
• xgmcp997 —> 20.00% discount –> 10 Tickets
• xgmcp996 —> 10.00% discount –> 20 Tickets

Use whichever discount code gives you the best price still available.

To register, or to learn more about the speakers, etc., please click here. (Yes, it’s an affiliate link)

By Shel Horowitz

How many companies did their first environmental impact report in 1953?

That’s when the well-known office furniture company Herman Miller began reporting its environmental progress. The 100-year-old company came to my attention through an article by CEO Brian C. Walker in Harvard Business Review, on Greening the Supply Chain. And this is remarkable in itself; while most companies are just beginning to grapple with sustainable measures within their own confines, Herman Miller has not only made a huge effort to get its vendors –both domestic and international–in line, but is teaching other companies.

Going to the company’s website, I see good links on the home page:
What we believe (with eight subsections, some of which have another layer as well)
The environment (11 subsections, including Green buildings, cradle-to-cradle and LEED certification, and even a recommended reading list!), and diversity, among others.

The environmental section notes,

Our values are the basis for Herman Miller’s corporate community. One of the nine things that matter most to us is called “A Better World.” For us, contributing to a better world takes many forms–environmental advocacy, volunteering time and contributing to nonprofit groups, acting as a good corporate citizen.

It also lists nine separate corporate teams involved in Herman Miller’s environmental responsibility activities.

In his follow-up comments (same URL), Walker points out that he and several competitors have joined forces with the Michigan Department of Corrections to train inmates in a furniture component recycling pilot program, and is looking at technology to better monitor chemical content, and to replace more toxic materials like PVC with more environmentally friendly alternatives.

For more business ethics and sustainability success stories, please see Shels award-winning book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First

Growing Local Value: How to Build Business Partnerships that Strengthen Your Community, by Laury Hammel and Gun Denhart
Reviewed by Shel Horowitz (Berrett-Koehler, 2007)

Another wonderful title in Berrett-Koehler’s Social Venture Network series, Growing Local Value profiles a number of successful companies who see themselves as partners witht heir communities–and shows how these businesses can market successfully by distinguishing themselves from faceless corporate competition. Examples: An independent bookseller in Utah who says, “the real pleasure in bookselling comes in pairing the right book with the right person”…a San Francisco chain of boutique hotels, restaurants and day spas where each unit provides a completely different experience, and where a “hotel matchmaker” channels guests into the facility that best matches their tastes: concerning itself with “creating wonderful dreams” rather than providing a mere place to sleep…a large bakery that provides jobs to people formerly seen as unemployable (and got the contract to supply Ben & Jerry’s, probably as a direct result of this social commitment), and does so in such a way that the company is protected, and the employees can get away from the poverty, prison, and drug problems of their pasts…a garden supply company that helped revitalize the blighted neighborhood it called home.

All of these, and most of the other numerous examples in the book, were good for the community AND highly profitable.

Different chapters look at

• Putting the customer and community first
• Financing without compromising values
• Making employees into partners
• Partnering with other local businesses, government entities, and nonprofits (separate chapters)
• My favorite chapter, on turning sustainable principles into competitive advantages (which I also talk about in my own award-winning book, Principled Profit: Marketing that Puts People First)

Shel Horowitz’s Monthly Frugal Marketing Tip, March, 2008
Vol. 11, #10

It’s kind of funny, but it took me quite a while to begin actually marketing on social networking sites. I’ve been on LinkedIn for probably five years, MySpace for maybe a year, and several others (Ning, Ryze, Eons, probably more I’m forgetting). But it was only when I joined Facebook in October, and then shortly thereafter found my way to Plaxo and CollectiveX that I finally started using them to really do some business.

It’s kind of odd that it took me so long because I’ve been marketing very effectively on their predecessors–email discussion groups or web-based forums and bulletin boards–for over a decade, and I first wrote about the idea of marketing online via many-to-many groups way back in 1991, when I wrote Marketing Without Megabucks.

And I freely admit there are bugs to be worked out. Some of the interfaces are confusing. I find that I see a screen and find two or three things I want to follow, and then after I’ve followed one I can’t always get back easily to the next one. The e-mail notifications seem to be very erratic; sometimes I’ll sign on and find a dozen posts I should have been notified about.

Yet in the few months that I’ve been participating actively, I’ve found that there’s a lot of good to be had. A few examples:
* I get notices from a Facebook group called “If I can help out a reporter, I will”–Peter Shankman, a well-known NYC PR, guy posts notices from journalists looking for sources. There’s a lot less competition from other responders compared to some of the other media services, and the price is right (zero). Very few of the leads are relevant to me, but if I get covered in even one major publication, that’s well worth participating.
* The owner of a large marketing agency on the West Coast had a long talk with me about the possibility of opening up an East Coast division for him. This is in the formative stages, but should it materialize, it would be a major step forward in my business. I met him on Plaxo.
* This same person connected me with a like-minded gentleman only an hour away from me. I’m scheduled to meet him in person later this month when he attends my speech. And all three of us have a number of ways we can co-market.
* Facebook allows me to post my blog into my profile, potentially exposing it to many, many more readers.
* When I post something to my blog that I think will be relevant to some of my social networking communities, I can post the link and a comment. I can also do this for links I didn’t write, but which others will find useful, and this boosts my standing in these communities.
* The France-based founder of two of the communities I participate on through CollectiveX had a long phone call with me, and will be looking for chances to bring me to Europe to speak at his conferences. And if that happens, I can finally bill myself as an international speaker (a goal of mine for several years).
* Industry experts who no longer respond to e-mail can often be reached through social network sites.

Next month: Specific strategies to use on social network sites

Mark Joyner’s Best-Seller Contest

Coming to you early this month so you have time to enter Mark Joyner of Simpleology’s be-the-next-bestselling author contest. (He’s been a #1 best selling author at least three times, including not only Amazon but the New York Times and Wall Street Journal lists.) All you have to do is submit a quick little video, by February 26. He’s got quite a package for the person who wins. First, go and read Mark’s new (no-cost) e-book, “The Rise of the Author”–any trend-watcher will benefit from reading this, as it puts a context around many of the changes in publishing over the last couple of decades. Then submit your video (click on :”contest”). If you’re serious about reaching the next level, attend Joyner’s Bestseller Prep School telephone call on February 26.

On to this month’s tip: a no-lose way to get your book to everyone attending your speech

We all know that speaking is a great way to sell books–but that means you’ve got two sales to make: on to the meeting planner, and then again to the members of your audience.

I’ve experimented with some different options on the second sale. I’ve had a meeting planner buy enough copies to give a book to everyone, and another who bought a few cases to use as early-registration bonuses.

But speaker James Malinchak has an even better idea, if you can get into the planning early enough (before the attendance fee is set). This is so cool–he tells meeting planners, “how’d you like to provide every attender with a copy of my book, without paying anything extra?” Of course, the meeting planner is going to say yes–it’s a no-brainer, after all. Then Malinchak tells the planner to simply add the buy-in-bulk discounted cost of the book (including shipping) to the seminar fee! The event planner can even offer autographed copies.

Brilliant. It’s no big deal to go from, say, $79 to $85, considerable extra money in the author’s pocket, considerable added value for the meeting planner and attenders.