We all have received a direct mail now and then. But how many times have you reacted on one? How many times have you taken your phone and called to make an order? How many times have you reacted on anything?

Reaction is a process where something will transform to another form. In case of direct mailing it should transform ignorance to interest for business transaction. With us humans there are few basic feelings that we people react on (excluding psychopaths). Such as feel of greed, guilt, hunger, thirst, reproduction and security. These all make us react and that is what we want when sending a direct mail. A reaction.

The basic motivation can of course be either psychological and physiological. It all depends on what we currently need (or think we need): security, hunger, thirst, love and even rage etc. Yes, these same motivations that one might think have nothing to do with buying in business. Unfortunately those are most often the reasons for buying anything. Did you know that people are most likely to buy the same car than their next door neighbourgh just bought? Have you noticed that you buy different items from the grocery shop when hungry? Because your mind tells you to do so and the marketing people know it.

So now you know how to set your words. For making it even simpler I use three rules for direct mailing:

1. Make me love my trenches

Always when I start writing a direct mail I start the first paragraph by telling you who you are. There is nothing more intriguing for you to read than a story about yourself. Thats how we are build. After I have told you how good you are the more eager you are to read further. And do not think that this is a trick of any kind. No its respect towards you. I have done my homework and there is no shame to tell you that. As you might have noticed the start of the letter consists of several feelings that create a motivation to read further: fear of how other people perceive you, a feel of existence when reading about yourself and a feel of desire that someone is interested in you. These are subconscious in all of us. No matter how educated we are.

2. Be open and straight forward

The next important thing is to never try to avoid the reason for the direct mail. People are not stupid. We all hate when other people treat us like we are idiots. So remember to tell straight away that you are sending this letter because you want me to buy something from you. If you have a good product or service there is no reason why telling it straight away would not work. For example: “I have a product that will suit your needs perfectly…”. Remember you already told the person how well you know him or her and their business.

Even if you are not as cheepish as the TV shop might be but you are still using the same basic techniques: pointing out that without having the product your life is not as perfect as it might be with it etc. Lets face it: There are very few products or services we really do need to survive.

3. Be a shepherd

Probably the worst thing you can end your letter is to ask a person to do something. Most likely he or she is going to do nothing. Youre the salesman! What I always pinpoint is that I will contact you in a certain time and in a certain manner. “I will contact you next Monday around two o´clock in the afternoon to book a meeting for us two.” As you might have noticed I also told why I am calling. To book a meeting of course to sell you my products. All you need to do is to pick up the phone when I call you. That´s it. The whole idea is based on our feelings and motivations.

There you go: Three simple steps to transform your future business. So next time you send me a direct mail remember: reaction is what matters.

P.S.TGM. Yes, I have had people getting angry to me, hanging up the phone, swearing and cursing from my direct mails. But I have also received greetings from people saying: “I have never received such a good letter”; “…my colleagues became jealous for me of having this letter”; “when can we meet”.

P.S2.TGM. For you Finns out there.

People’s ability to succeed in their life is determined by the breakfast they have. The start of your day is the way your life becomes reality later on that day.

Last week I was having a hotel breakfast in London. The breakfast buffet was again second to none. Anything you could desire. What I chose is irrelevant, but let’s name the items: Ham, fruits, scrambled eggs, black coffee and the morning paper.

I sat down in the far end corner and started reading current events. I had a sip of coffee and noticed that the sun rays were moving slowly towards my table. The city was about to wake up and I drifted into my dreams and enjoyed the morning momentum. I started thinking: breakfast is the best part of my day but is it the most important? What if everything starts to go wrong or right from the early beginning of the day just because of my breakfast?

I´ve done my fair share of martial arts in my life and I know that high amount of carbohydrates at breakfast is a sure way to get beaten in the first round. Listen to my stories or check my face and you know I haven´t understood the concept of breakfast for that long. But in the hotel I got enlightened: breakfast is not just about the food it’s a state of mind that lasts the whole day. Either you go with Mr Murphy or Gladstone Gander. Your choice.

I was sipping my coffee, reading my paper but most importantly I was going through the day ahead. Planned my days agenda in detail, went through the individual objectives for my meetings and mentally prepared myself for the days work. I also took time to concentrate in my feelings, emotions and tried to find the right rhythm for the day to fit the purpose.

Sometime ago I read of a meeting arranged by Premier Inn hotel chain in London where psychologist and sleep research people were gathered to talk about getting up with your left foot. According to Feng Shui getting up with your left foot is making your day go well. Funny enough the psychologists came into the same conclusion. While Feng Shui thinks left is connected to happiness, healthiness and wealth / power. The scientist backed up that view by saying that right side would make us connected to stress and fears.

Lets face it I will not be jumping on my left foot to have a breakfast, but either way small things early in the morning are important. When I left the hotel that day I was full of energy and confident about what I had ahead of me that day. The day went well and according to the mental plan I had gone through in my head.

You are what you eat. Breakfast of Champions is now redefined and not just bacon and eggs. (Note: still for some it might be) It’s something where you make sure you load yourself full of positive energy and make sure you will be in control of your day. Next breakfast will take you closer to your goals. I guess that even Kurt Vonnegut would want you to make sure that at least you are an individual with free will in our universe because of your breakfast.

As a young boy I did a bit of work to my Dad in exchange for some pocket money.  After what then felt like a hard day’s work I headed to the kiosk with a big smile and rewarded myself with a vanilla cone. Like little boys do, I crabbed the ice cream and jumped back on my bike. And like little boys do, I ran into a bump. I can still see the ice cream falling down in slow motion.

To make the downfall increasingly bitter, there was a group of older guys witnessing the entire episode. By the time I had swallowed my tears and gotten up, one of the kids had lifted up the remains of my ice cream cone. They were all calling me to come and get it. My legs were shaking and I could feel the day was just going to get worse. I decided to pedal home as quickly as my wounded ego would allow me. This decision has only started to feel right in the recent years.

My Dad passed away years ago and I never got the chance to tell him this story. I don’t feel guilty about lying about the destiny of the ice cream cone, but it has bugged me for years not having had guts to face the bullies and overcome my fear. Even if it had meant being beaten up.

That day I gave myself a promise. I would never give up to my fears. I would never give up for anything for that matter. A promise that would later prove to be not only worthless but indeed harmful. I am still struggling with the boy in me influencing my decisions, but nowadays I often sit down and listen carefully to who’s talking.

I have talked to Zarahustra, read my Sun Tzu and listened to the advices of many wise men. And have still held on to my promise. And as you might have guessed, it hasn’t made my life any easier. From the evolutionary point of view it is important to stand up to protect oneself. After I gained a lot more experience I learned something important: sometimes the best defense is letting go and backing off.

No one loves losing, but there is more to losing than just the bitter taste of it. If you are manically trying to avoid it, you are not even doing your best  (Try and fail). The philosophy behind it all is fascinating:  By losing, you sometimes win. Sun Tzu knew it that to win a war you need to lose a battle.

So next time you feel you just have to win this battle, think twice.

]]> http://www.thegroenforsmethod.com/2009/12/learning-to-lose/feed/ 0 http://www.thegroenforsmethod.com/2009/11/blinded-by-the-ligh/ http://www.thegroenforsmethod.com/2009/11/blinded-by-the-ligh/#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:53:07 +0000 Tomi Grönfors http://www.thegroenforsmethod.com/?p=189

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. When Desiderius Erasmus wrote these words he really nailed the fact that your capabilities are always reflected towards your competition. To say it with other words: the best is always only as good as the next one following.

Never could he have imagined that Volvo was only “few centuries” later going to make an interesting viral ad  playing with the idea of having a blind man designing a car. In this world of highly capable designers with their creme de la creme tools of the trade one could never have pictured this one coming. Right?

Actually Volvo has understood (or I want to think so) very well that to master something you need one quality more than anything else: deep intuition. Intuition that has been built through years and years of hard work, failures and successful learning. And all of this spiced up with love and passion towards what you do.

Albeit I love the ad it also describes very well the passionate approach of the blind man who has accepted his condition but still will never ask for any special conditions in any competition he is in.  To really master marketing (or any other area) you need deep intuition with which you judge opportunities, ideas, people or anything for that matter. An intuition that will guide you between right and wrong always.

How to build such deep intuition? Unfortunately to most of us it is unobtainable, but those of you who are passionately interested in things you do, it is out there. So just start listening to the Boss and wish to be “blinded by the light”.

My family got harassed by our next door neighbour this summer. I couldn’t believe it at first, but after several reports to the police and even getting the “Lady next door” a restrictive order in court, we finally had to leave home. Sad but true.

When I was delivering the news in the neighbourhood, one of the receivers got angry at me saying he didn’t believe a word. It made no difference that he was holding a signed verdict in his hand. Astonished about his visionary views on right and wrong, I knew I had just witnessed “the modern Stockholm syndrome” at its purest. It is surprisingly easy to show signs of loyalty to the bad guy if it means maintaining the equilibrium – being able to go on living life the same way things have always been. No matter if change equals improvement.

Fear makes us easily deny even the clearest facts we see. And what does this have to do with marketing? A lot actually. First of all, if there is a business field where decision making is based mostly on gut feelings and hunches, it is marketing. It doesn’t get any more emotion fueled than that.

In most cases one understands the benefits of investing into a marketing campaign or business opportunity. However, no matter how  efficiently you’d be able to estimate the success of a complete-out-of-the-box-approach, people you’ll find it toughest to close the deal with are very often those in your own team. Talking about the power of emotion. If the campaign possesses a threat to your team members looking silly, naive, socially unacceptable or simply not posh enough, they will do all in their power to oppose the new approach.

One does become blind sighted to the most obvious things when there are emotional factors involved. This is why doctors aren’t encouraged to treat their own family members. Creating an open environment that will encourage your team to participate and share their views is the best way of avoiding the syndrome from spreading in your business.

To make sure your money shot campaign will get its daylight, remember to concentrate in nurturing your team’s “emotional roller coaster ride” by securing the work environment. Next time your team meeting is turning into a hostage situation, do the McDaddy and gently paint the approach warm and cozy. With signs of something they are used to.

Have you ever thought of boosting your brand equity by encouraging your marketing team to do expensive mistakes?

While justifying our need to control every little detail and minimizing mistakes, we Finns have created a well spread dogma: “Well planned is half way done”. If we are being completely honest with ourselves, it only means that the task is somehow planned. Written or verbally. In worst case scenarios your marketing manager probably copies the same plan every time even if its never worked. Don’t get me wrong, planning surely is important. But when its about brand building should we cut the crap and concentrate in doing?

While we comfort ourselves in the epic lie of masterplans, we show our worst weakness: the fear of making mistakes. A day won’t go by without someone being manically lynched by a simple mistake they’ve managed to make. No matter how big or small, it is a mistake after all. I personally think that a brand is also build from the mistakes we didn’t do or the comments we never gave.

Thanks to my extrovert personality and enthusiastic way of working I have been the facade of these claims and public humiliations more than the doctor ever ordered. One day I decided I would get determined to change the way people in our organization should face mistakes. From that on making mistakes was cool (at least for the first time)! While concentrating in planning you never know wether something will work out or not. At least in marketing you know rapidly by trying if it is going to work or not. If you are still planning when the competitor is making it happen you are out of the game.

What if you would start encouraging your marketing team to skip heavy planning and go straight into trying even if it means failing? Say what they have to say and do what they want to do! I don’t think your team would start avoiding the craziest ideas they were earlier on afraid to tell you about? Would they start doing bad marketing because they now have the opportunity to openly claim to have tried and made a mistake? No. They will start doing more with bolder new ideas with bigger enthusiasm and what’s best they will deliver results. Of course after several sometimes very expensive mistakes, but in the end they will get more done, become more experienced and your brand will flourish in the end.

So next time you require a ridiculously long and detailed marketing plan remember: Try and fail to tell the tale!

]]> http://www.thegroenforsmethod.com/2009/10/try-and-error/feed/ 5 http://www.thegroenforsmethod.com/2009/10/brand-building-for-dummies/ http://www.thegroenforsmethod.com/2009/10/brand-building-for-dummies/#comments Sun, 25 Oct 2009 09:20:06 +0000 Tomi Grönfors http://www.thegroenforsmethod.com/?p=142

Brand building for dummies

While you might be the best of the best in your core business, how are you coping with your brand building? Are you considering to sponsor the local AD agency to boost your brand equity? If you are already shocked by the prices, read a bit further. I have nothing against AD agencies (I use to own one), but for small entrepreneurs there is a more practical approach:

DIY brand building

Brand is something that develops in our minds. It’s a story that starts to live a life of its own. An interesting life, I may suggest.

When we started with VEEN Waters we didn’t have any money for marketing what so ever. We decided to invite media from local newspapers to customer magazines with even the slightest and vaguest connection to our brand to our launch and possibly write about us. We did have a chat with a PR agency who let us know that this “water product” would possibly be of interest to up to four people and a dog. We had a feeling we’d try it ourselves.

Sending a press invitation might not have created the biggest pull, so I chose to write a small book about the upcoming event. We binded it ourselves, sealed it with a kiss and made sure it was received by the right people. We ended up hosting close to 120 people and a good range of very attractive media, who spread the gospel about our new baby. This baby would slowly build up into a real brand.

The approach may not have been any more original than that of the PR agency’s next door, however we did possess something extraordirary: we were ridiculously passionate about our brand and water. And we still are. This should be the first principle in brand building. Passion is something you will never be able to outsource. If passion could be measured like volume, you’d always need to play it one louder. Ours was up at 11.

We focused all our excitement in describing the meaning behind our brand. This is crucial, since the next most important thing after passion is creating meaning behind your brand. You might have the best product in the world, but if you are the first one who fails to understand its meaning, you will never be able to call it a brand.

People talk about brand building as if it were the best kept secret in the field of marketing only accessible in return for big investments. Not true. Everything you do or don’t do, is building your brand. Just start doing it and believe in your own style. Remember to be passionate, consistent and to create meaning to your product and you will have a brand at your hand.

So, if you’re thinking about accepting the offer of your local AD agency, ask yourself: Is their volume up at 11 and do they have the best content money can buy?