If You're Creating a Start-up: Find Your Three Words

On a recent plane ride I read an article (title of this blog post) by Elaine Wherry, co-founder, Meebo, acquired by Google in 2012, and published in the June 12^th, 2014 Edition of the Wall Street Journal.

The article is about how a start-up should act and stay focused.

She goes on to say that if you can get your founders to agree on three words that describe your company, your marketing staff will love you forever.

Everyone in our industry is talking about reinventing your chamber for the future.  What better way to start that process by taking the advice of Elaine Wherry and put it to work for your organization, community or industry sector.

What are your three words for your chamber?  Can you get your Board to agree on those three words?

She gave the two following examples and stated that these three words should allow you to answer "1) who you are; 2) what you do; and 3) how you do it."

• Facebook - "fast, bold, open"
• Google - "data, big, visionary"

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation's Institute for Organization Management program uses, "Learn, Grow, Connect."  We've been using those three words in our marketing materials for 10 plus years.

It's also the theme I use in my graduation remarks.

Learn - you just completed 96 ours of non-profit management, if you've not already done so, I challenge each of you to obtain your professional certification, CCE for the Chamber exec and the CAE for the association exec.  Institute has prepared you well.

Grow - go back to your communities and your industry sectors and raise the bar from what you've learned at Institute from your peers and the faculty.

Connect - stay connected to your classmates, and stay connected to Institute.  Consider coming back as a class advisor, faculty member of a Board of Regent.

As chamber leaders it's important to remember that you are professionals - you work in the profession of nonprofit management.

I'm sure you've heard the bricklayer story (it's not mine, but tells a story worth repeating):

A community leader happens upon a construction site and she asks each bricklayer the same question - may I ask what you are doing?

• The first says I'm laying a brick;
• The second says I'm building a wall; and
• The third states I'm creating a cathedral.

Again, as professionals, build those cathedrals in your communities and industry sectors and start by identifying your three words with your board!

The 4 Moments of Truth

I was recently reading What's The Future of Business? by Brian Solis who also wrote The End of Business as Usual.

He talks about many things but I wanted to highlight his thoughts on The Ultimate Moment of Truth.

The following four definitions are pulled directly from his book on page 75:

First Moment of Truth (FMOT) - It's what people search and find after encountering the stimulus that directs their next steps.

Second Moment of Truth (SMOT) - It's what people think when they see your product and it's the impressions they form when they read the words describing your product.

Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) - It's what people feel, think, see, hear, touch, smell, and (sometimes) taste as they experience your product over time.  It's also how your company supports them in their efforts throughout the relationship.

Ultimate Moment of Truth (UMOT) - It's that shared moment at every step of the experience that becomes the next person's Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT).

Earlier in the book he references A.G. Lafley, in 2005, Proctor & Gamble's CEO, spoke about the FMOT and SMOT.  A.G. states that the FMOT is a 3-7 second period of time when the customer see's your product on the store shelf and decides whether or not to make a purchase.

He further states that the SMOT is when the customer takes that product home and uses it and what that experience feels like.

What's interesting is the fact that now we have technology and Brian talks about the role technology has had on the ZMOT.   Now we have our first view of a product on our mobile device or laptop/desktop not in the store.  So by the time you get to the store your mind is pretty much already made up.

You know, it's funny!

I remember reading the Experiential Economy by B. Joseph Pine, II & James H. Gilmore back in 1999 and they talked about the experience and how people will share that information and come back to your product if they had a great experience.

And this was all before social media hit the scene.

In another twist, what was Malcolm Gladwell talking about in his book Blink back in 2005?  The basic premise of his book states that within two seconds people make decisions/assumptions or the term he uses, "rapid cognition."

That's fascinating!

What I find interesting in the many years I've spent reading the latest from the academic world or business guru's is that we are in the right business, the relationship business!

And make no mistake about it, chambers have always been in the relationship business.  For a previous post on that subject go HERE.

I'll end with a quote from Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder, "your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room."

That's really the crux of it, in today's world, they're saying it on social media, which by the way, is just another way of saying you're not in the room, but you can respond after the fact.

After all is said and done, all we're talking about here is relationships. And Chamber's have always been in the relationship business.

The more things change, the more they stay the same!