When last we talked, we over-analyzed a poor coffee shop employee who fumbled a wonderful opportunity to create a “word-of-mouth-worthy” moment. Ah. These things happen (literally all the time, in every customer facing business, all day long. Not to belabor the point).
What makes it worth revisiting is that my colleague and I were in the same coffee shop a week later and watched it unfold again. This time, however, the plot took a novel turn. Thus, the post.
While debating the finer points of crafting Eigen Value proposals, we noticed our waitress preparing the same tray of cut up muffins and shot glass sized samples of tea. No PA address this time. Out she came, walked over to us, smiled, and offered us free samples. (Is she a reader? Maybe).
“Would you like to try our new (some sort of) berry muffin? How about our (some sort of) chai?”
“Sure, why not. Do you like them? Are they new?” If you’re in a customer facing business, approaching guys like us is a losing proposition. We’ll pepper you with questions and probably make you a little uncomfortable. But in a nice way.
Light chit chat, and off she went. “Too bad,” we agreed. “She almost had us.”
Where was the link back to the counter? Where was the lightly touched approach that would trigger the decision? “These are our new (some sort of) berry muffins [new means exclusive, rare, and unknown by "others" - all good things] - they’re really good [shows a bit of personality, which triggers liking, if not a touch of source similarity given that we're regulars]… and they’re fresh out of the oven… [sign me up: exclusive, time sensitive, and only over there by the oven. Where the cash register is].”
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Key Take-aways:
> Don’t leave customer interactions to chance. This means you, manager of customer service people, or store operations manager, or head of sales. There’s a world of difference between a touchdown and a fumble. This was a fumble - close, but no points scored.
> Every consumer touch point matters. Each time you face a customer - either B2C or B2B - you either pull them forwards or they drift away. Or you send them rushing to your competitors. With a careful and skillful application of the right social psychology, you close more business. It works. It matters. It always matters.
> Winning is what happens in the last inch. The last connection. The last nuance. The leaving nothing to chance. Finishing well. When you spend more time on the finish and less on the set-up, you win more often.
* * *
She’s not to blame. She’s never been trained to do this. Neither have most people. But think of the difference between handing out free things and creating a connection between acts, time, exclusivity and (some sort of) berry muffins.
I was sitting in a coffee shop yesterday with a colleague of mine - another influence strategist, as luck would have it - and we both watched an unfolding vignette that would go on to animate not only some of the best in social influence, but also how subtle nuances can fall flat.
It was about 11:00AM, too early for lunch and after the traditional “get a cup of coffee in the morning” times. The place had half a dozen people sitting in it, working on laptops and reading papers. A typical mid-morning scene. This particular coffee shop was attached to a bookstore that was similarly populated with browsers. The sidewalks and patios outside had reasonable foot traffic.
As we worked, I noticed that one of the two people working was preparing a tray of small, shot-glass sized drinks and bite-sized muffins. “Watch,” I said, “she’s going to walk over and offer us a sample…”
Wrong. She spent five minutes carefully preparing a tray. And then she got on what appeared to be an intercom. “Attention, shoppers. We’re offering free samples of [some sort of chai drink] and [some sort of muffin] here in the coffee shop…”
We looked at each other and both had the same reaction. “Wow. What a let down.”
In each and every scenario where we need something to happen, we’ll find that reciprocity matters. Usually, a lot. We give before we ask to receive. We feel social pressure to give back when we have received, often far out of the scope of the original gift. And the nature of the gift being unexpected uncovers the problem with what our waitress did.
She was smart to offer samples, particularly in a down-cycle of the day. She was smart to offer them to browsers in the bookstore, as well. By announcing it over a loud speaker, however, she turned a gift into a reward. The curtain was pulled back and we saw it for what it was. A bribe. “If you’ll come into the coffee shop, where you aren’t at the moment, I’ll give you something small - and in return, my expectation is that you’ll buy something larger.”
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KEY TAKEAWAYS:
A gift is more powerful than a reward. And often far smaller, too. We all see the bribe coming and often will take active countermeasures to avoid it. The guy at the counter offering free anything is someone we often avoid eye contact with, isn’t he? Why? We don’t want to be in debt so easily.
The difference between a gift and a reward often comes down to expectation. When the recipient isn’t expecting it, the gift can become a real “word of mouth-worthy” event.
Most consumer-facing brands don’t get this. They rely on rewards. It isn’t their fault, either - they haven’t been trained to think in this way and they’re usually perfectly content with average results. That isn’t to say that you should be, though.
* * *
What could she have done? She could have had her colleague staff the counter and she could have walked through the bookstore - and even the coffee shop, and maybe even the sidewalk or patio - and offered free samples with a simple, “Can I offer you a milk chai? It’s new and it’s really good.” A gift. No strings. Unexpected. Very welcome. The likely result? Good feelings and the memory that you can get that new milk chai drink in the back of the bookstore. And they have muffins, too. I might go there now and I might go there later, but regardless I really like this bookstore and that girl that gave me the free drink.
On the other hand, she could announce it over a loud speaker and no one would bother listening. If a sampling program results in no samples being handed out, is it a program at all? Ponder this koan over a small cup of milk chai, why don’t you.
Gifts are powerful. They set up relationships, are genuinely appreciated, and put in motion chains of events that can positively conclude with our making a natural and welcome request. When someone says, “thank you,” you have a socially acceptable opportunity to ask for something in return.
Whether you choose to call this “crisis management” or “brand management” or “message management” or just plain good judgment is up to you. This isn’t a football post. It isn’t even about Michael Vick, the soon to be released inmate who may or may not return to a life of professional football. It’s about how messages get across with credibility.
As you may recall, I used the Texas Hold ‘Em poker analogy some posts ago to shed light on marketing. In Texas Hold ‘Em, you’ve got up cards - face up, public and obvious. Everybody can see them. And you’ve got down cards - your hole cards - that only you can see. While marketers often aim at the obvious surface issues, decisions are made based on hole card sensitivities. We may think it’s about “health,” but it’s really about “self-image.” We may think it’s about “cost,” when it’s really about “comfort.” We need to think hard about those levers that actually matter as opposed to stopping at the surface issues. With this in mind, let’s shoot Mr. Vick’s problem though the prizm of Texas Hold ‘Em and see what we get.
Background: He was convicted of organizing and funding a dog fighting ring and spent the better part of two years in prison for it. He was a Pro Bowl level football player before that. And now he’s bankrupt, disgraced, and about to be a free man again.
Up Card Thinking: the obvious thinking, as suggested or hinted at by many, is that he caps off his return with some sort of charity work related to animals to ostensibly assuage the offended animal lovers who will protest regardless of where he ends up.
Down Card Thinking: he screwed up in a fairly heinous way, so the gratuitous apologies are quickly given and ignored. No one will buy you as an animal activist. Forget PETA and the Humane Society. Your problem is one of smarts, of good decisions, of living an honorable life instead of treating spectacles of cruelty as entertainment. I could go on, but I think you get the basic idea. So let’s play to the remedies of a contrite man who has passed through these gates and seeks redemption.
The word dump: the ideas here include education, judgment, virtue, forgiveness and redemption.
Creative: we’ve gotten past the idea of PETA at this point, haven’t we? Good. We don’t casually forget what’s happened in the past and are under no delusions that our client will be on a Wheaties box any time soon. But we are a forgiving culture and we move on quickly. Vick should attach himself to a non-profit entity that combines education, athletics and spirituality. The Boys and Girls Clubs of America. After school programs. The YMCA/YWCA. Christian youth groups and ministries.
Education: teaching those who have yet to go astray the perils of doing so is an act we all fully support. Teaching them in a setting that stresses making good choices, having judgment, and living a virtuous life - given that the teacher has passed through the other side of these choices - is credible.
Athletics: he’s an athlete so it’s an expected and natural connection.
Spirituality: he’s seeking forgiveness for something hard to forget, let alone forgive. A non-profit with a spiritual mission touches upon the concept of forgiveness and blunts the public’s desire for more punishment.
Any opportunity he has to connect himself with redemption is a good position for him to take. It’s believable, credible and meaningful on a down card level. If Michael Vick wants to rehabilitate his image, he could do worse than this. Put your brand, your CEO, your company, or yourself in this spot for a moment. The up card is never the plausible answer. Playing to the down card begins the process of rehabilitation and redemption.
You already know that they help you close new customers because under conditions of uncertainty we always look to many similar others to help us figure things out. We “satisfice.” We go with the first acceptable answer and move on, because we’re really very busy.
But think of the humble (or not so humble) testimonial in a different way. By having our happy customer extol your virtues on paper, we activate the principle of consistency, which reminds us that we feel social pressure to behave in a manner consistent with our previously stated positions.
Why is this important?
1.It’s easy to keep working with those that just told us how good we are. Testimonials work because they cement all the good things your client feels about you.
2.It’s easy to shore up areas where you feel you are at a disadvantage. If you feel you’re at risk to a competitor, to off-shoring, or to anything else, probe specifically in these areas. “Can you give me some background on why you chose to work with us instead of outsourcing the project to India?” People will build up the marketing scar tissue needed to protect the sensitive areas in your offering, as long as we ask. Once they’ve told you why you were a better idea than going to India, it’s harder for them to dump you in favor of a long distance relationship.
3.It’s easy to find more opportunities in organizations where you just got a good testimonial. When pitching the other department in Building 2, it’s an easier sell when you’ve got a testimonial in hand from your client in Building 1. Especially if your testimonial giver is in the room with you when you make the pitch. Your client will tell their co-worker that you invented the internet before they’ll back off of the glowing things they said, because that’s how we’re wired.
Asking people to talk about their successes isn’t hard. We all like to say what good decisions we’ve made, even if we choose to only remember the good parts. So let’s make sure we get everything we can out of these experiences and we don’t leave anything on the table.
I chased an idea through Google today, looking for a reference and ended up poring through cybernetics, Eigen-behaviors, the artwork of Boetti and the writings of Heinz Von Foerester. It was the idea of the Eigen function that hit a branding nerve and has brought me out of my work-induced flow state to post this before it disappears.
The best definition I can give of an Eigen function is that its expression is self-validating. The representation of the thing is the thing itself. “This sentence has five words.” “This sentence contains nine syllables.” Eigen functions. These are self-contained proof points of their own existence. And that’s the point.
How many of our actions are branding Eigen functions? We can’t say, “Our brand delivers a unique customer experience” and then deliver the same experience our customers can get from anyone else. Similarly, we can’t say, “Thank you for waiting… your call is important to us…” when clearly, the fact that we’re playing soft hits of the 80’s while we waste their time shows our caller, irrefutably, that their call is not important to us. We must be our brands, completely, in every possible way. Done right, our branding must be clearly animated in everything we do - and this is bloody hard work. But it’s necessary if we’re to elevate how our customers perceive us from the mundane to the sublime.
Some brands approach this level. Buying an iPod has an out of box experience like few other products I’ve ever bought. Particularly the earlier versions. My local Starbucks delivers on the idea of a “Third Place” with personal, eye contact service and a vibrant atmosphere. But these are two iconic companies known for their CEO’s taking the marketing reins. This may be why they are iconic.
How would taping an 8 1/2” by 11” sign that says, “EIGEN FUNCTION!” above your door, in plain sight, change how you do your job?
Industrial design: if I worked at a company that stressed “hands-free” or “telematic” or just plain “use it in your car,” I’d be ensuring that every aspect of material finish, tactile interface and audio output was designed to be used by someone who can’t see. Touch alone. When you’re driving, you shouldn’t have to look at the product to use it. Sony’s UX Turbo audio tape, back in the day, was a classic Eigen function product – side A was smooth and side B was rough to the touch, the label had adhesive that instantly adhered so as to not peel off in the cassette deck, and the shell withstood 140 degrees of heat without warping.
Customer service: if I worked at a company that ever, ever said, “your call is important to us…” I’d make sure that I treated customers with more than just respect – I’d give them something of such unique value that callers in the future would beg to be put on hold. Give them an hourly promotion that only they can access – either through voice activation or through a unique URL – so that you can show them that your call is, in fact, important to us and that we appreciate the inconvenience we’re putting you through.
Channel marketing: does your product say “high and to the right premium performance” while your channel marketing is based on rebates? Is your certification program an embodiment of your core branding? Does it teach your channel partners your language in a tone and manner that you’d write your ad copy in? Or do you cut corners?
Out of box experience: if you’re talking green and sustainability on your website, are you using re-grind plastic on your product? Are you minimizing packaging? Are you using compostable packing material? If your brand is a premium product, are you finishing well with an out of box experience that continues to promote a premium image, even after the sale? Did you make it easy on your newest customer or did you require them to find a heavy duty pair of scissors to hack it open?
HR and Recruitment: if your brand talks about being customer-focused, do you acknowledge each and every resume you receive? Do you tell a candidate – or a complete stranger who lobs a hard copy resume into your CEO’s office mail box – where they stand in the process? Or do you just ignore them? Does your brand ever get to the HR department’s daily check list?
Our brands shouldbe Eigen functions. Everything we do should be shot through the prism of our branding, our values and our mission – from our letterhead to our hallway carpets to our recruitment practices to our office layout. And yes, even to our marketing and product development. Everything. This is how a culture is made. Not to mention how an icon is born.
Disruption has a way of throwing out old rules of convention. What is normal in times of good fortune doesn’t always apply when things are going down the drain. For those of us who have been around the block for more than one (or two) of these downturns, we can think back and remember some crazy ideas that stuck during crazy times like these. Call them “unreasonable requests.”
Here’s a good story of one. Once upon a time, when we were living through 20% price erosion in the video business, the market leader suddenly quit the game. Scotch had about 18% market share in a business where 18% was actually #1. A bloody, awful business to be in and one that made you appreciate anything with more than 6.5% gross profits. So when the biggest guy in the business drops out, there’s momentary chaos in the market and in the channel. Here’s where the “unreasonable request” comes in.
What does the average Joe in the industry say when the #1 guy bails out? “Forget it, kid, it’s Chinatown.” Everyone will pick up a few points and we’ll all get back to normal. You’ll never really notice that they’re gone. And I’m sure that everyone in the market clearly articulated these points over bad coffee in conference rooms across the country. But we didn’t. We sat down as a group and asked ourselves if an “unreasonable request” wasn’t in order. Why can’t we get more than our fair share? As a matter of fact, why don’t we go out and ask for all of it?
Plans like these make no sense. They’re unreasonable. No sane person would expect to take 100% of the available share from a vacating #1 player. This is why the idea was so powerful. It was beyond audacious. It was silly. We had a hard time keeping a straight face when we left the room. But it wasn’t because we were embarrassed to put it together: it was because we loved it. It was energizing, it was possible, and we knew that no one else would have the guts to even try.
Careful analysis of the channel map of our now deceased competitor, specific identification of those key three or four players where they sold the bulk of their products, and a conceptual financial presentation based on rock solid return on inventory investment (ROII) scenarios followed. We planned out our discussions and carefully introduced the idea to the key channel partners, followed up with top to top meetings, and delivered very powerful, persuasive and completely unreasonable requests to some of the biggest players in the US market. The end result was that we were, in fact, the only guys to even ask for the sale, let alone apply the choke-hold we put together for our partners. We cleaned up, nearly doubling our share and emerging as the clear #1, by a factor of two, over the next largest player in the industry.
Sometimes your customers and channel partners appreciate your playing by the rules. But not in times like these. In times like these, it pays to be completely unreasonable.
“For every pundit who proclaims that smart brands don’t cut marketing in bad economic times there are a thousand business owners who know differently.”
But when should you listen to these pundits and actually increase your marketing spend in bad economic times? Here are three cases to consider:
When our marketing puts us between the shrinking buying public and our competition. When what we offer and how we offer it is a much better deal for a scared and reluctant buying market than any other alternative, we become much more popular than we were when times were good. We may be in the enviable position of being a counter-cyclical business that prospers when times are bad. If not, we still have options. How can we make ourselves easier to buy when times get tough? Is this a product question, a program question or a communications question? Sometimes winning is about doing what they can’t, or won’t, or wouldn’t think of, or can’t believe we’d do.
When we create a reason for people sitting on the fence to buy from us right now instead of waiting for the other guys. Timing is another question we have to consider.
And most importantly, when we can test all of the above and quickly scale it up or down faster than the other guys can.Companies with fast decision-making cultures have a substantial advantage over everyone else. And they’re very uncommon in my experience.
If you can’t do one of these three things, be careful about increasing your marketing spend in a down economy. But if you can, you’re in for a very interesting recession.
For every pundit who proclaims that smart brands don’t cut marketing in bad economic times there are a thousand business owners who know differently.
Everything tightens up when demand is down and marketing is no exception. Why do we assume we shouldn’t cut marketing when everyone – including us! – is reducing what we buy? Regardless of your snappy creative, fewer people are buying. It isn’t that they no longer want what you have. It’s that the budget they had set aside to buy your stuff is now gone. Your customers are going through the same anxious times as you are. Nothing personal. This should tell you that what worked before won’t work right now. So when we hear this old chestnut of marketing punditry, politely nod and then do what must be done.
Now, for the devil that resides in the details. Cutting doesn’t mean eliminating, any more than saving on utilities means we’re going to live in the dark. I’ve consulted for bootstrapping start-ups and managed P&L’s for multi-million dollar divisions of some of the world’s most respected brands, and when bad economic times reared their ugly heads, we used several guiding principles to get us through.
Think tactics. Short term financial returns are more important right now than sweeping strategic pet projects. If it isn’t aimed at returning a positive ROI in the next 30 to 60 days, shelve it in favor of other things that will. Regardless of whether you’re a bootstrapper or a Fortune 500 VP, this means you need to focus on the last inch between you and your customer. Your channel, your sales floor, the tools your front line people need, your basket abandonment rate, or whatever defines that last inch between you and them.
Integrate. Nothing happens on its own. A direct mail piece is supported by your outbound telemarketing which drives you to the webinar which sets up your live event, followed by your newsletter and your next wave of outbound calling which drives them to something else. Everything supports something else and nothing stands on its own.
Re-purpose. Nothing is a disposable. A commercial is a print ad is a poster is a web page is a flyer is a banner is a co-op ad template for your channel partner is a shelf danger at your retailer. Nothing goes to waste.
Grasp what has changed. Bad economic times mean that things have changed, so if you trot out the old ideas relied on six months ago, don’t expect the same things to happen. Your audience wants to see that you understand what has changed and wants to know how you’re going to help them deal with it. How can you make it easier, cheaper, faster, more convenient, more flexible, less risky, less cumbersome than alternatives? Put yourself in their shoes and figure out how to offer your products and services so that your programs reflect the current reality of their lives.
Find partners. Misery loves company, after all. Find likeminded partners who share a common customer base and see if you can reduce your costs while offering something that looks bigger than the sum of its parts. This isn’t always easy because it requires other people who may be worried about their own situations, not to mention management that will assume the other side is getting the better of the deal. But when it works, it works beautifully. Look for the signs – use your partner’s speed as your barometer – speed in responding to you, speed in moving the project forward – and look for tangible signs that your partner has buy-in from above. If the signs aren’t there, find someone else – don’t waste your time.
Make it easier for them to say “yes.” Don’t look for the homerun on the first pitch. Consistency works because we all have a burning need to remain consistent with those stands we’ve publicly made in the past. In bad times, we’re all reluctant to spend too much or take too big a jump, but smaller commitments fly under the radar. Conversions are private and personal.So let’s build up that pattern of behavior step by step.
Do it really, really well. Whatever we do, we should employ the absolute best thinking in social psychology and execution to extract every last drop of financial return from what we choose to spend. How have we used “reciprocity” in our offer? How have we used “consistency”? Great thought should be given to execution and everything should end well with nothing left to chance. Nothing, regardless of how “busy” we are, is a check-the-box activity. Do fewer things better. The copy matters. The script matters. The image matters. Everything must employ the best practices or it’s a waste of very precious resources.
These are seven philosophies that I’ve relied on for many years and I can tell you from personal experience that they work well, even when the well itself looks like its running dry.
Regards.
PS: I can think of three important exceptions to my point about reducing marketing budgets during bad economic times. I’ll tell you what they are tomorrow. – SD
We’ve talked often about how reciprocity and liking play into the signal strength of your social media and branding message. One area we haven’t discussed at length is the role of scarcity and it’s been hiding in plain sight as one of the most powerful tools in your online arsenal.
Scarcity is buzz. It’s the definition of viral. Scarcity is learning something someone else doesn’t know and communicating that secret knowledge in a trusted environment. This simple act – giving someone the inside scoop on a band, a brand, a video or a blog – adds to the giver’s social capital, conveying all the rights and privileges associated with being “someone who knows stuff.”
Once we add social capital into this mix, we need to discern the credibility of the “buzzer.” We only listen to those we believe are telling us something worth listening to, after all. In areas of subjectivity – of taste – we typically turn to others “like us” to help us make up our minds. In areas of objectivity – of fact – we turn to those we view as authorities. Research at my old alma mater shows that this isn’t a typical “influencer” model of finding those who sport the most followers on Twitter or even those who pontificate from the podiums of the most conferences. Wharton’s Raghuram Iyengar and Christophe Van den Bulte suggest that commonly acknowledged opinion leaders – those their peers describe as being people they’d turn to for advice, as opposed to self-described “thought leaders” – are the ones who connect disparate social networks, have more credibility and actually spread word of mouth most effectively.
“Researchers… identified a group of… “self-reported opinion leaders,” doctors who reported themselves to be well-connected, influential members of the community. The researchers also asked all physicians to name up to eight other doctors with whom they felt comfortable discussing the clinical management and treatment of the disease, and up to eight doctors to whom they typically referred patients. These nominations from fellow physicians produced a second group, whom researchers called “sociometric leaders” — the most influential and well-respected physicians in the community based on how often they were mentioned by their peers.
“Our study shows that these two measures of opinion leadership do not overlap very well,” said Iyengar. “Asking people how important they are is not the best measure of how important they really are. Just because people think they’re important doesn’t mean it’s true. And some people are actually more important than marketers believe, or even they themselves believe.”
(The most effective sociometric leader) didn’t fit the description of an individual who marketers thought would be the most effective promoter of their product — an outgoing, high-profile doctor whose name often pops up on research papers or on conference speaker lists. “(He) was self-effacing. He did not want to stand on a soap box,” said Van den Bulte. “He was respected, but not in a flashy fashion. He was the opposite of a rock star.”
The shorthand here suggests that buzz equals scarcity to the power of authority. Information that is new, not commonly known or exclusive is deemed to be more valuable - and the source of that information, when viewed as credible and sporting the right trappings of authority, exponentially increases the value of what’s being conveyed.
Regards.
PS: The original article quoted here is via the Knowledge @Wharton newsletter, which is very much worth subscribing to.
You invest thousands of dollars in training for your team and their habits don’t change. You read countless books on business, marketing, influence, psychology, ethnography, neuro-marketing, etc., ad nauseum, and for some reason, things never seem to change. “But these are great insights!” you’ll tell me. “I think this is something I can use!” Of course you can use these brilliant insights. But you can only use them if you consciously bring them to the surface when you need them the most - and that isn’t while you and I are talking.
Here’s an interesting exchange from my last post on “Strategic Shifting” that illustrates this point:
Comment: It would be curious to see just what percentage of CMO’s (either globally or in North America) is actually closely aware of the ‘writings on the wall’ when it comes to making a strategic shift as you so described. Good read.
Reply: If you asked them that question directly, you’d get an emphatic 100% response in the affirmative. If you ask their CEO’s or direct reports, you’d get an emphatic response 180 degrees in the other direction. We think we’re “keeping to the plan,” or “being persistent,” when in fact we’re waiting for something to happen that won’t.
This is why reminding yourself as a decision maker - or being reminded by ‘other eyes’ from the outside - is so critical to this problem. It isn’t the complexity of the task, even though this is plenty complex; it’s the need to consciously do it - to bring the idea of strategic shifting back up even after you’ve slapped the blinders back on.
Much of influence training follows this same path. Hearing that it’s smarter to give before you ask to receive is common sense. And yet, it’s so seldom done. Our sales incentives rely on a rewards system - do this and I’ll give you that - which is backwards. Our channel incentives rely on bribes, in so many words - I’ll do this but only because it commits you to doing that. Again, backwards. We need to constantly surface such ideas like touchstones and keep them visible so we catch ourselves when we fall back into our bad habits. We must also bring others into our confidence and teach this sort of common vocabulary so we can all “Be the Fool” for each other, reminding ourselves to do the right thing as opposed to the “satisficing” option at hand.
Have you ever taken a negotiation course? You’re taught to manage objections, listen and then respond in a generative way. This all works great until you leave the room and fall back into your old habits. Role playing can begin to address a substantial change in behavior, but there’s real mental terraforming to be done in order to get you to think differently over the long term.
This is why it is so important to teach such skills broadly - have your whole team read Dr. Robert Cialdini’s “Influence: Science & Practice” or Dr. Steven Feinberg’s “Advantage Makers,” and then talk about what you learned. Extract the learnings from examples like these and bring them up in conversations and staff meetings so that you can work with team members on “how could we use reciprocity here?” instead of the standard, “do you think you could sign off on this today?”
Building a common language is the first step to building a common culture.
Dear CMO:
