Innovate or Die

There has been much said about this subject.  I've been in the room when chamber executives talk about how the sky is falling.

Let me be the first to tell you a little secret, the sky is not falling!

We have more opportunities today then we've ever had with the advances of technology and how that has only made our jobs easier, not harder.  We can communicate faster and cheaper with our members than ever before.

At the end of the day, we're in the relationship business.

Innovate really means deliver what your members want and that can and will change from time to time.  Are you doing an annual needs assessment survey?  If not you should.

More on that can be found HERE.

If you're like me, I've been around long enough to know that some new shiny item is really nothing more than what we did in the past under a different name.

Yes, technology has changed the way we do business.  But having said that, don't we all want to have personal relationships with the people we do business with?

I know I do!

Think about your day-to-day life.  We all like to do business with people we know/trust and that’s always been the Chamber industry's strong suit.  We are in the business of connecting people.

Again, don't buy into the "sky is falling" commentary from some in our industry.

Get out there and make a difference for your members!

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!