Comments on: It’s people, not tools, dummy

By: Justine

Justine — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:11:01 +0000

Yes everybody talks about people - people are our greatest asset. It’s all about people. People make the brand.

But we don’t even call them people.

We call them
consumers
customers
employees

I understand the utility of words - but this is one of my pet peeves. I think the language marketers use can, and does, reinforce a transactional, marketing tools mindset.

By: Adam Landrum

Adam Landrum — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 23:13:54 +0000

Amen, Amen and Amen.

It’s extremely frustrating to see the prospect (I’m in the web site world) focus on the MEANS and not the END. Like Lewis says, no matter how often it’s brought up, I struggle to get the prospect’s focus off of the TOOL. “Ooh…shiny.” [dribble, drool]

One thing that we do go up against is that alot of our competition promotes the “tool.” They make it about the tool. The media (i.e. Inc., Fast Company and Wired) also mostly makes it about the tool–making it all the harder to communicate to our market that it’s NOT about the tool.

But instead of beating up the prospect, saying “Bad prospect! Bad prospect!” I’m going to take the blame–or at least part of it. I need to do a better job positioning our services so they understand it’s not about the tool, but about the customers the tool can serve. If I can communicate that better, then maybe–just maybe–this wouldn’t be such a problem.

By: Spike

Spike — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:00:12 +0000

Dick, I feel your pain, brother. Thanks for the comment and the heavy lifting you’re doing out there.

Mack, I’m a big Lionel fan ever since I met him face-to-face. That’s a great face to put on Dell. And a man I can believe in.

Cara, great points as always. Long term is where the vision comes into play and leads. You can’t have a long term that are made up of short terms. That’s a losing strategy.

Lewis, I hear ya, brother. That’s exactly what our own Cordell said back in February at the company meeting - “When it comes to creating powerful identities that become movements, it’s not about the ‘what,’ it’s about the ‘who.’”

By: Lewis Green

Lewis Green — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:08:55 +0000

Spike,

It’s always about the “who” not the “what” no matter the business. Many of us have been preaching that for decades. I bet I say it at least 100 times in my newest book, and 20 times in every presentation I make. Put people first and business will thrive (assuming we have good to great products and services and an appropriate marketing plan).

By: Cara Keithley

Cara Keithley — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:54:59 +0000

The reason many people run in the opposite direction is not necessarily because they don’t want to do the work, but because they can’t get their organization to go with it. It can be incredibly hard to actually convince the rest of the organization that things need to change. Whether it’s priorities, the way you relate to customers, etc. When you are the doer rather than the head honcho, how do you change the overall company?

Sometimes it is easier to turn to a tool and hope that as the results trickle in that people will buy in to what you honestly believe is the way to go. I know it’s not necessarily the best order, but sometimes change doesn’t start from the top down. It happens from the side door and the bottom up.

I guess the challenge for the person instigating the changes or using the tools is to make it more important than just doing something new or flashy. To focus on long term results, like building relationships with your customers. I know this seems elementary to many of you, but for others of us it’s still a day to day adventure.

By: Mack Collier

Mack Collier — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:43:35 +0000

What I also thought was very interesting (and powerful), was how well thought-of both Lionel and Mario were. One day I was walking through the halls of the Austin Convention Center with Lionel, and literally every other person was stopping and saying hi to Lionel, or yelling ‘There’s the rockstar!’ as they walked by. Then later that night I attended an event that Dell and the Social Media Club helped co-sponsor and everyone was wanting to know why Mario Sundar wasn’t there?

The point is, these real people working for big companies had made real impressions upon so many people. You can’t tell me that because Lionel and Mario are so good at connecting with their customers that it doesn’t transfer favorably to the companies they work for. It has to. And I wonder how much their competitors are spending on ‘market research’ that Dell and LinkedIn got for free because Lionel and Mario got to spend a couple of days actually talking to real live customers, face to face.

I’ll apologize for the near-tears, but share in the joy, I think there’s exciting days ahead.

By: Dick Carlson

Dick Carlson — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:43:31 +0000

Eggggg-zachtly. I was in Portland Oregon last week speaking to a bunch of Professional Meeting Planners. They were all excited about wikis, and wanted to have a “master class” after my keynote to learn about how to make it work.

We spent about ten minutes on setting up a wiki, and the remainder of the two hours on the hard work of getting your community to engage, build, write, share, update, contribute, argue, talk, comment, archive and generally play nice on a wiki.

At the conclusion, there were a few who were ready to dive in. And many who were ready to run the other direction.