The e-newsletter from Forrest Workshops
From the pine...
(Mt Burr oval. As a colt, spent my fair share collecting splinters on the pine...)
To your success beyond 2018! With ham spent and crackers away, that bridge of days between two years is a terrific reflection and recalibration period. Time to imagine and begin implementing the promising new, in parallel with thanking and discarding the redundant old.
You're getting this first note because we know each other. You can bail anytime (unsubscribe at the bottom) but I hope you don't. Love to earn a permission slip to your inboxes and noggins with a regular bit of content. I’ve audited the presents I reckon I can bring - things you won't get elsewhere and that might deliver value. This audience comprises successful professionals in successful organisations, well schooled in craft, with free easy access to umpteen knowledge resources (and a bazillion opinions about everything smooshed in your face). So you don’t need egg sucking sermons or stale rehash dumped in your driveway. So THIS beastie, if you're to love it, has to be different, and useful, and fresh, and desirable.
That in mind, these notes will blend for you;
... My work life tree rings – 25 years, concentric circles practicing sales, service and imagination-applied roles, 12 consulting, facilitating, educating, strategising and coaching. A cellulose mesh of experiences to mine, refine and put in your hands for confidence and safety.
... The forest of collaborators – my special plantation of 150+ client orgs, near a couple of thousand coachees and a ton of colleagues & teachers, wise in specific domains, all with stories, all valuable to stroll amongst.
... A treetop perch – gazing at clouds, out over markets innumerate, appreciating breezes, then imagining and launching eccentric(?) what-if ideas tied to free balloons for you to translate to your own atlas.
Once or twice a month, I’ll try sharpening your pencils with quick video interviews, short lists, the odd manifesto, some alternate beat thoughts that’ll make you go “huh?”, and otherwise work to bring fresh breeze and inspiring colour and occasionally uncomfortable rib pokes to positively impact your attitude and activities. Some stuff will drop and you won’t think much of it, or notice it, until maybe one day a seed takes, and grows, and fruits. Take what's useful and leave the rest.
If you want to propagate these pieces, for yourself and others, please share it with as many in your circle as you can – it's free for all. Thanks in advance, and
Welcome to Cone.
Troy Forrest, Forrest Workshops & Strategy Road.
Talking Workshops
90 shaky seconds with Troy Forrest, Forrest Workshops
Strategic play – tech-enabled remote service, or a human touch for all?
A FMCG client of mine reselling their product through partner outlets across the country adopts a different customer care strategy to their top competitors. Way back when, the competition did the sums on cost : benefit implications of sending a Sales Rep out to the Oodnawoopwoop Reseller Store (that only sells a handful of product each month), and seemingly concluded the better play for them was “expensive human reps for big proximate clients only; phone and e-support for remote smaller punters”. My client's leadership saw it differently. “If you invest with us and choose to resell our gear, we WILL come out and see you, in the flesh, wherever you are, no matter your scale.” Big metro customers certainly get more frequent visits (and proportionately better deals), but the strategy of “every client sees a brand-representing human face at least every …..” continues to earn them a different position in hearts and minds, certainly buffers them from competitor advances, and gives them market research eyeballs in corners of the country their competitors have to speculate about. It carries a financial cost. But it feeds innovation that only seems to come from thoughtful conversations over a warm brew or cold one in the client's unique atmosphere.
In your cost : benefit analysis of future client service and support options, have you considered that maybe the most scaleable thing of all is a human relationship?
From Jeffrey Immelt, former big cheese of GE, in HBR October 2017.
The Green Room
Good wood from smart guest contributors. This edition…. Jason Dunstone, Square Holes Market & Consumer Research, “To market to market to buy a fat pig”
8 comparators
In your first workshop of the year, you can compare your current state of affairs with;
- life driving your same vehicle a year ago
- the position you said you want to occupy at a future vision point
- the big dog in the industry
- the rising star
- the average of the pack
- fit with the prevailing market forces
- your customers ideal supply partner (existing or dreamed about), or
- the incrementally-better version of yourselves across key / strategic business functions
Are the Jones’ you’re most keen to keep up with past, present or future, and are they about a mirror, another model or imagined?
Workshop observation...
If you’re going to use a slide that looks like it has leprechauns at the end;
a. perhaps don’t stand in front of it (lest they think you’re a butterfly), or
b. have the street cred of CommSec’s Craig James to get away with it
Seeds
3 questions you could ask loyal customers at the start of each year…
1. Where did we add most value to you this past year, and where do I now need to pay more attention to be more valuable to you?
2. What’s the thing, the big thing, the biggest thing, you’re focused on achieving in your enterprise this coming year?
3. What’s the most confusing or stressful aspect of running your business today?
The Swarm Guide
Meet Strategy Road Associate Mel Blondell of Red Seed Productivity Strategists, guns in HR strategy, people and culture development, IR and onboarding the right folk for your purpose…
Blooming
A tip for flourishing…
Psychologists tell us we thrive when we’re armed with 3 things;
- Someone or something to love
- Something that challenges us / puts our talents to good use
- Something to look forward to
My girls, yoga in Kings Park, Perth... tough views
White label strategy (right for you?)
The strategy of white labeling – supplying a product or service to resellers unbranded, that they overlay their own branding on - is a topic of discussion in almost every industry sector I facilitate strat planning processes. For manufacturers, the biggest potential upside is being able to focus on delivering the product or service, and leaving the expensive consumer interface and branding work to the reseller (and in the process, deepening the resellers commitment to the success of the product – because it’s now got their name on it). The potential downside is essentially the same – now they’ve got their name on it, it’s THEIR brand the customer engages with, not yours (and if they can source the same product or service somewhere else, cheaper, more reliably anytime in the future, boom, you’re dead.)
For the reseller, the big pro is your name on a product that you haven’t or couldn't afford to develop yourself (and maybe you negotiated exclusivity too). The con? Risk. Your name is now tied to something you can’t control the manufacture or supply of (and is your brand really more powerful, more attractive than the manufacturers brand?)
The consideration of white labeling forces a business to reflect on what its most powerful value proposition is – brand, or product, or sales channel, or scale? A key watchout is around timelines (can you make hay before competition bumps you, or real friction kicks in?) and success is likely correlated with the depth of trust in the partnership (you’re now more beholden to one another than if you were just supplying or reselling a branded product). At either end, it's worth time on due diligence around the alignment of values between your businesses.
Worth a Bo Peep...
Gary Vaynerchuck is a frequent f-bombing force of nature, and while his high volume, faster-than-Road-Runner style is intense, his finger is firmly on the pulse when it comes to impactful content-driven marketing, brand development and living the "pace and patience" dichotomy. Check out some of his thesis here (BYO swear jar) - https://medium.com/@garyvee/my-content-is-a-mindset-94e06d8487ef
Luft balloons* (imagine...)
(Gonna go right brain here...) I’m a big fan of paint. Remarkable stuff. It freshens, it transforms, it creates mood, it hides and exposes, it’s permanent enough to leave alone awhile (but not so permanent it can’t be overlaid quickly).
Imagine painting every doorhandle in your business bright red. Or every ceiling in the joint sky blue. Imaging painting lightening bolts or grassy plains or egg timers on your conference room wall. Painting your top 10 client logos, or their quizzical faces, or their 5 year goals, on the walls of your warehouse.
Imagine every wait staff member painting a purple thank-you stencil on the palm of their hands each day. Imagine blackboard paint on the back of the loo door (replace the chalk frequently). Imagine painting the teams’ silhouettes onto their vehicles. Imagine repainting your entranceway a new colour, with a new mantra, each quarter, each month.
Imagine painting the words that you want to hear, or that you have heard, or that you want to remember, on your desktops. Imagine a business that delivers tailored inspirational painting services to your clients. Imagine supplying paint (the refresher, the camouflage, the customiser), or something bespoke painted, as a little special treat extra with whatever you deliver to customers.
Imagine the idea of “fresh paint” in your world, somehow, differentiating you, in 2018…
Slide deck specials
One for leaders - what it takes to be valuable...
Workshop crowd dynamics
I've found it really impactful to walk around the room at the start of any workshop (no matter how big), make eye contact with every person, say good morning, introduce yourself, shake their hand (if practical) and welcome them (even if it's being held in their space). If you kick the workshop off, and you're in flow, and someone walks in 10 minutes late, I still try and pause a moment, walk over to them, welcome them, introduce myself, then keep going. I think this applies even if it's your team that you've known for 20 years, and I think it does three things;
- gets them engaged and feeling an active part of this conversation (rather than onlookers that can drift) right from the get go
- puts you (ever so marginally) into "positive feelings territory" - they'll start the session wanting to like you / what you're doing / the process
- makes them sh*t scared to come in late from morning tea or lunch ('cause they know you'll call them on it)
The trees for the woods…
Maybe cutting through means not taking yourself too seriously all the time…
Wanna sign up?
If a mate has forwarded this free e-share to you and you’d like it once or twice a month, click here and type "sign me up, Scotty!" – thanks!
Thank you for reading!
Forrest Workshops custom-builds and facilitates team workshops on topics ranging from strategic planning, leadership and sales practice development, to innovation, customer experience creation and collaborating with your supply chain in an evolving market. Based in Adelaide, serving clients nationally and internationally, from SMEs to Fortune 500s. Committed to facilitating purposeful teamwork. Contact Troy Forrest from Forrest Workshops on 0430 308963 or troy@forrestworkshops.com.au for a discussion.
( * "99 Luft Balloons" - weird song, perfect title fit for this segment - odd thought balloons to take your imagination to different places...)
(Big thanks to Deb Trebilcock for creating the Cone logo and e-newsletter framework)
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Contact Troy Forrest, troy@forrestworkshops.com.au