How many presentations did you sit through in the last 12 months? Was it 10, 20, over 40 perhaps? We are exposed numerous presentations every year. At work, conferences, organizations you’re involved with. Yes, slide deck presentations are the go-to communication medium in most organizations today.

Yet, how many of you leave presentations inspired to take an action? How many presenters left you wanting more? My guess is that you can probably count them with the fingers on one hand and you’d have a tough time remembering any details from the slides discussed.

You likely, however, remember how the presenter made you feel. Maybe they told a great story that you relate to. Maybe research findings were presented in such a way that the visualization of the impact blew you away. Or, perhaps the person had so much energy that it was infectious.

Turn Your Computer Off.

Here’s the deal. Anyone can create a presentation. Simply open a software program and begin creating slides, right? My eight year old twins, who are in grade 3 handed in their first PowerPoint presentations for a class assignment this year!

However, just because you can click a button to open presentation software, doesn’t mean that’s how you should start. Especially if you want to create a story that moves your audience to take an important action. What I’ve learned over the years, is that you should begin creating a presentation as far away from your computer as possible.

The next time you need to create a presentation, I want to challenge you to think differently about it. How great would you feel knowing that you involved your audience in a way that they didn’t expect? How would you feel to knock the socks off your boss, peers, or even customers by connecting and engaging them in your presentation?

I would love to see more people become confident and inspiring presenters. I have committed myself over the last 10 years to improving this skill. I’ve read many books, delivered many presentations, and even screwed a few up during my transformative journey from a mediocre presenter to an inspiring presenter. I’m not there yet, but I feel I’m getting closer.

In this article, I’ve put together 10 easy to execute steps that have helped me create the best presentations I have ever delivered. I am certain that they will help you too!

1. Determine Your Goal.

It is that simple. What is your main purpose? Are you preparing this presentation to:

· Summarize findings from a research study

· Communicate strategic plans & priorities for the year ahead

· Inspire your team to take an action

· Teach something new

You get the picture. With a clear and concise goal, you will be better positioned to craft a focused message for your audience. One trick that I use is to be clear on where the audience is today and where you want them to be after your presentation.

2. Understand Your Audience.

How well do you understand your audience?

Try to envision yourself in their shoes. Develop deep empathy for what they are thinking or worrying about. We must understand the emotional state of the audience in order to connect with them. When you convey understanding for an audience through language or common beliefs/stories, you instantly earn their attention. They may think “Hey, how’d they know that? It’s exactly how I feel!” Powerful things happen when an audience feels that they have something in common with the presenter.

3. Identify Your Core Message.

You may assume that your core message is similar to your goal, but they are different. Your core message is the overarching theme. It’s what matters most to your audience. Think of it this way. What is the one thing people will remember when they walk out of the room?

If your goal is to “inspire your team”. You core message may be that “there are ordinary people all around us doing amazing things. Sometimes we just need to stop and notice our neighbours.” Delivering this core message throughout your presentation, with examples (stories, images, videos, etc.) will enable you to achieve your goal. Can you see how this core message will echo through a presentation?

4. Brainstorm Ideas

Don’t turn on your computer just yet! Now is the fun part. Get yourself some sticky notes and start brainstorming ideas about your topic and core message. These could be facts, charts, graphs, ideas, and so on. Anything goes at this point. You can do this alone, or with a team. Just remember to not filter or limit what comes to mind. You will edit later.

5. Consolidate

With your sticky notes ‘neatly’ displayed all over your desk, table, window, wall, whiteboard, or whatever your canvas may be, you will begin to see patterns. Now is the time to cluster your sticky notes. Look for similar ideas or themes and try to create three to four clear categories that support your core message. Ideally, your groups will begin to form a story line. Perhaps, a beginning (current state, problem identification), middle (ideal future state, possible solutions), and conclusion (path to resolve problem, clear call to action).

6. Create your visuals.

Now you can begin to turn some of your words or ideas into pictures, diagrams, charts or videos. Draw it out on paper first. What type of data would a graph need to show to enhance your idea? What response / reaction / emotion would an ideal image need to evoke? What is the best diagram to show the relationship between A, B, and C? If you know what you are trying to go after, then you can create the business requirements and begin to build it. At the end of this process you will be left with a storyboard.

Congratulations, your presentation is starting to come together on paper.

7. Build the presentation.

Now you can return to your keyboard. That’s right. You don’t begin using presentation software until you reach step seven! Power up whatever presentation creation software you choose and begin creating your slides.

You’ll want to create slides that convey the most important 1–2 main points only. It is too confusing to show your audience complex charts and graphs with multiple data points. That’s not a presentation. Densely packed slides are what Nancy Duarte calls a ‘Slidedoc’. Feel free to read up here. You want to rely less on slides and more on your key messages during your presentation. Use the KISS (Keep It Simple Silly) philosophy when you are at this stage.

8. Edit. Edit. Edit.

This phase will take some time, but it is a critical step. If you skip this step, you run the risk of delivering a presentation that does not connect with your audience. In other words, a presentation that fails to achieve its goal.

You need to be realistic and stay true to your core message. Each slide counts. Remember, you are trying to move your audience towards a new state of understanding. So don’t confuse them with too much detail per slide and fancy graphics.

Remember, YOU will move your audience to action, not your fancy slides.

Also, take a moment to review step two: your audience and step three: core message again and ensure that each slide aligns with your focus. If a slide does not ladder up to your goal and core message, then remove it or change it.

9. Rehearse. A LOT.

Many of us focus on the presentation creation process and don’t leave enough time to rehearse. I’ve been there. I can’t stress how important rehearsing your presentation is. Whether it’s a formal presentation with you at centre stage or a presentation around a table of internal clients, all your hard work will fall flat if you do not know your material. Run through your presentation at least six to ten times. It may feel weird at first to be speaking to yourself, but your confidence will quickly increase and you will work out all the kinks ahead of time.

Never turn your back to your audience; you must know the material without looking at your slides. As a presenter, it is your job to be the tour guide as you take the audience along with you on an adventure. Think about your presentation as a conversation with your audience. Engage them with questions and stories. You wouldn’t turn your back on a friend would you?

10. Deliver With Energy.

It’s almost show time. If you’re nervous, don’t worry. That’s normal and a good thing. It shows you care and want to do a good job. I’ve found that the best way to reduce nerves is to ensure you’re prepared. If you have put in the time and effort to prepare ahead of time, once you get going, instinct will take over and you will be fine.

Another tactic that I use is to arrive early, test out the equipment, and speak with your audience as they enter the room. Establishing some contact with audience members before I begin speaking, usually helps relax my nerves.

The audience wants you to succeed. You will see the smiles on their faces once you begin…you are no longer a stranger, you’re a friend.

No Presentation Is Too Small. Embrace Each Opportunity.

So there you have it. A simple 10 step formula to really crush it at your next presentation. I think you’ll agree that these steps are familiar, but often forgotten. If you follow them, then you will no longer be part of the dozens of boring presentations that so many of us are forced to suffer through. Be memorable, leave a mark on your audience. Inspire them!

I hope you’ve learned something new from my post about presentations. Is there anything I missed? If you have an opinion, then let’s keep the conversation going. Simply leave your feedback below or drop me a line at avi.mizrahi@hotmail.ca. I’d love to learn how you prepare engaging presentations. Also, if you are interested in learning more, please pick up Nancy Duarte and Garr Reynold’s books. They are excellent resources for creating and delivering engaging presentations!

Thanks so much for reading my article. If you liked it, hit the heart button below. This will allow more people to see it. Thanks!

This article was originally posted on LinkedIn.

Do you ever dream about how great it would feel like to run your very own business?

It has never been easier to launch a new business. A generation ago, you had to mortgage your house and take on huge amounts of debt to purchase plant, inventory, equipment, etc. A significant amount of risk!

These days, you can pretty much launch a business from your living room for under $2000.00, a laptop, and an Internet connection. If you’ve been dreaming of launching your own business or side hustle, then there are many things that you need to consider:

1. Does your ‘idea’ solve a real (painful) problem?
2. Who is your target market?
3. Does your ideal customer have the ABILITY to pay to solve this problem?
4. Are potential customers WILLING TO PAY YOU to solve this problem?
5. How fast can you build a prototype and find your first 3 paying customers? (friends & family don’t count)

I’m not suggesting that your quit your day job and launch something new. Unless you have a huge appetite for risk and deep pockets…then go ahead, knock your socks off.

I’ve been reflecting my experience as a solopreneur and early stage start-up employee. It has been an amazing couple of years. A rollercoaster ride full of new experiences and a chance to grow my skills in so many ways.

However, there was a lot that I just didn’t know when I started. You can read all the articles in the world, but until you launch, you just don’t know what it will really be like. I have documented some of my biggest lessons so that they may help you with setting some realistic expectations.

1. Get Used to Making Decisions Without Perfect Information.

As a solopreneur, you do everything from marketing, accounting, IT, and sales. As the cliché goes, you sweep the floors, make sales calls, and ship out the product all in the same day.

You must be comfortable with moving your business forward each and every day, even if you don’t know what the outcome will be.

Yes, this means you’re going to make mistakes. Yes, this sometimes means that things won’t be perfect. Get past that part quickly and see it as an opportunity to learn — FAST.

If you’re uncomfortable with making decisions without all the facts, then perhaps this path is not for you. You’ll have to get really good at managing your time and determining when your to-do list takes a back seat to chasing down a sales opportunity.

I recall many times when my weekly priority list just didn’t get done. I had made the decision to follow another priority because the outcome would help me achieve my overall goal: advancing sales.

2. Practice Continuous Improvement, or Kaizen, at Hyperspeed.

As a business owner, you must have a strong inclination for taking action. Planning is important, but results are critical and can mean the life or death of your idea.

This is not a place where you can spend months working on perfecting your product only to discover that your customers don’t want it.

Follow these steps to make sure you have or can create a product people are willing to pay for:

1. Get your minimum viable product, or MVP, out to your target market as soon as you can.
2. Let them use it and get familiar with it.
3. Ask them lots of questions to understand how it makes their life better.
4. Take that knowledge and make your changes and get your product out into the market again.
5. Then, try to find customers who will pay for it.

If you can’t find at least 3 people, that are not family or friends to pay for your product, then you don’t have a business…you have a hobby.

The point here is that it’s better to find this out as fast as possible vs. risking months trying to create a perfect product that nobody is willing to pay for. You will have plenty of time to perfect your product once you get the basics right and validated by finding people willing to pay for it.

3. Share Your Business Idea With Your Network, Don’t Keep it Inside

Now, this took me a while to get used to. It’s extremely common for new business owners to be afraid that if they tell people about their idea, someone will steal it. Yes, this is true in some instances; however, for the vast majority of us, it just doesn’t happen.

The amount of time and energy that will be required to copy your idea will prohibit this from occurring. So, talk to the people in your network about what you’re working on. Share what you’re up to at networking events.

If your experience is anything like mine, you’ll find that most people want to help you. An introduction to a customer or future business partner would help you advance your business, wouldn’t it? So, get comfortable with sharing and you never know who you’ll meet!

4. You are Unlimited in Your Ability to Learn!

Probably the most important lesson I learned is just how much you can learn on your own if you A) have the right attitude and B) take the steps to search out the help.

I learned how to code HTML and CSS on my very own Wordpress site. I even got deep into the world of digital marketing, social media advertising, and Google Analytics. Before this, I had never even tried to create a website.

There are an infinite amount of free resources on the web and ‘how to’ guides on Youtube. Knowledge may have been power in the past, but nowadays, you can find everything you need to learn for free.

When I launched, I rarely dabbled in social media. I did not even have a Twitter account. I had to learn fast and start right away. I relished the opportunity to broaden my skills in social media. When it’s done correctly, these platforms can provide you with a cost effective way to build connections with industry influencers and potential customers.

5. Take Time to Reflect and Connect With Loved Ones.

When you’re doing what you love, it’s easy to find yourself working or thinking about it all the time. For many on this path, work feels like play.

You must create the time to disconnect and re-energize yourself. Also, with the pace of running your own business, you sometimes forget to celebrate your success and to reflect on what you’d do differently next time.

I usually try to do this every 60–90 days. Ask yourself:

• What worked well?
• What did not work so well?
• What do I want to achieve in the next 90 days?
• How do I plan to get there?

I’d write out what worked well, what did not work so well, and what do I want to achieve in the next 90 days and how I planned to get there.

Also, making the time for family and loved ones helps to ground you…what you’re really put on this planet to do is to nurture those relationships and to empower your kids to believe that they too can do anything.

As I mentioned, there were countless lessons that I’ve learned in start-up land. These were some of the biggest ones and provide a flavour for what life is really like when you launch a start-up business. I hope that these tips help you on your journey. 

What’s the greatest lessons you’ve learned on your start-up journey? Please let me know by leaving some feedback below, or drop me a line at avi.mizrahi@hotmail.ca.

Thanks so much for reading my article. If you liked it, hit the heart button below. This will allow more people to see it. I appreciate your support!

This article was originally posted on the Digital Branding Institute. Please check them out.

Do you wish you could squeeze a bit more out of each and every day? It’s not always easy to stay productive in today’s fast paced always ‘on’ world. There are certainly many distractions that prevent us from getting more done. Twenty years ago, experts predicted that we’d be automating a lot of our work allowing for more leisure time. I have yet to see that reality come true. In fact, I think time management is harder today, than twenty years ago.

Luckily, there are many digital tools out there that can help us do things in a more productive manner. I’m not talking about robots and artificial intelligence here. This post is a practical look at some basic digital tools that have helped me save time and money producing digital products, social media campaigns, and keeping up with overflowing inboxes. Over the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to test many of them and, through some trial and error, I’ve come to count on certain ones more than others. Here we go!

1. Email Organization: Outlook Phone App

Like many people, I have business and personal email accounts and get anywhere from 50–80 emails a day.

Yes, I am guilty of using both Hotmail and Gmail. However, using the visually stunning Outlook App on my Android phone (also available on iOS) allows me to easily filter my emails in a way that the Gmail app does not. This saves me significant time because I can read the important notes first in my ‘Focused’ tab. I can then read less important emails in my ‘Other’ tab when I have the time, such as waiting in a line or on public transit. I can even ‘Schedule’ emails to be read at a later time.

An extremely useful feature in the Outlook App is the ‘Send Availability’ function. It is quite simply the easiest way to incorporate calendar availability into emails with people you are coordinating meetings with. I no longer have to wait until I am at my laptop to type the available times and days into my email. I can do this directly from my phone with a couple of easy selections and the dates are embedded in the email for me. Try it, I think you’ll love it too.

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Step 4:

2. Social Media: Content Curation

I once was a social media novice. I went on Facebook or LinkedIn from time to time, but did not grasp the true power of social until I launched my online business a couple years ago. From Facebook pixels and ‘Like Audiences’ to LinkedIn and Twitter advertising, the best way to get started is to just do it!

Once you get the hang of it, you’ll probably begin posting articles to share with others. The easiest way to curate content that you want to share is to save them to a central location. There are many tools that can help you collect and save content from a variety of digital sources. My favorite tool is Flipboard (Android and iOS). It has a beautiful interface and is so easy to use. It enables you to get the latest articles on the topics that you and your audiences care about. You can even create your own Flipboard magazines. Take it for a spin and let me know what you think. Checkout my magazine here and be sure to follow me!

3. Social Media: Content Curation Buffer and Hootsuite

You’re probably already familiar with posting to Social Media. However, what if you’d like to begin taking the next step in creating your personal or business brand by offering value to your industry peers and potential clients. If that is the case, you are likely wanting to schedule a selection of articles over a period of time. The two scheduling tools I prefer most are Buffer and Hootsuite. Buffer is a great place to start playing. They have a simple interface with many useful free resources. For most individuals, scheduling posts on Buffer is more than enough.

However, I’ve become somewhat of a social media nerd and quickly found myself wanting to do more. If you are approaching that stage, look no further than Hootsuite. This tool rocked my world when I was running my business. I used the free version. It was more than enough power for me. In a few hours, you can be up and running with a dashboard, listening for keywords and engaging in conversations with people who care about the same things you do. You can also monitor and engage directly with industry influencers and quickly schedule content across all of my social media accounts. Be sure to check out the Hootsuite tutorials to get more familiar with the functions.

Remember, not all social channels should be automated with your content. It’s called social media for a reason. For instance, say you automated your twitter feed with an article and a major disaster has just taken place. It would reflect pretty poorly on you and your brand to continue sending out your content while the twitterverse is consumed with tweets related to the event. Determine your social media strategy, play with the tools, experiment with the content and study your results over time. Check out this get started guide: Social Media Checklist.

4. Content Creation: Canva — desktop publishing for the rest of us!

When it comes to content creation, Canva has been my go to tool for a couple of years. I absolutely love how simple it is to use and produce professional results. Those who know me have probably heard me rave about how much I ‘heart’ Canva. I truly believe that it is a game changer and have used it to create social media profile banners, event posters, Facebook Ads, even slides for presentations.

Simply select a design option from their list of optimized templates, insert a Canva image (as cheap as $1) or upload your own and you are off to the races. You can edit the image any way you want, add text, icons, the possibilities are endless. Be sure to check out their Design School tutorials for easy to implement tips.

5. Productivity across Devices: Get Off Of My Cloud

Are you on the cloud yet? What’s holding you back? You no longer have to be tied to a single location to be productive. Being able to save a file to a central storage repository in the cloud, then continuing to work on it from your tablet at the local coffee shop or rehearsing an upcoming presentation on your smart phone while waiting for your kids at swimming lessons. It’s also a great tool to share documents with team members across global locations. Note: this tool may be commonplace for many, but I really started leveraging it in in 2015, so for me, it opened up where I could create and edit documents.

Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive (which comes with Windows) are all great tools. I mostly use OneDrive and work on documents across all my devices (Laptop, Tablet, and Smartphone). When I was working for a local tech start-up, we used Google Drive and Google Docs. Team members were often updating the same document (different parts) at the same time…often from different continents! You don’t even need to have an Internet connection when making changes. The programs syncs for you once you’re back online.

Digital Tools Can Help Improve Your Productivity

So, there you have it. Five digital tools that will help you save time and money, while producing professional results. I have tested out many products in these categories, but have come to rely on these five for their ease of use, time savings, and results. What are your thoughts on these digital tools? Are there any amazing apps that help you that should be on this list? If so, please let me know by leaving some feedback below, or drop me a line at avi.mizrahi@hotmail.ca.

Thanks so much for reading my article. If you liked it, hit the heart button below. This will allow more people to see it. Thanks!

This article was originally posted on the Digital Branding Institute.

Are you ready to get real about your strategy execution process? Picture this: You’ve just wrapped up your new strategy outlining the areas of growth and focus for your business unit. You spent the last several months researching the opportunities and mapping out the critical steps that will enable a transformation for your business. The big presentation to your boss is in two days and you can’t wait to share the plan with her.

However, you’ve been here before. In fact, you created a strategy and execution plan during last year’s strategic planning process. How many elements from last year’s plan did you successfully implement? What’s going to be different this year?

The issue is not strategy, my friends. The issue is strategy execution.

Strategy is SEXY.

I know that strategic work is sexy. According to LinkedIn, “strategic” is one of the most over used words in profiles. Execution, on the other hand, is REALLY HARD. Interestingly, execution did not make the LinkedIn buzzword list EVER. Yet, execution is what defines the winners and losers in business. It’s an execution game.

So, Why is The Execution of Strategy So Hard?

One major reason is that organizations are dynamic and constantly evolving. There are many moving parts on any given day. Doing something new within an ever-changing environment with multiple other priorities is no easy task.

Another reason why strategy execution is so difficult is that new strategies often require change, which is not easy for most people. When given a choice, the majority of us prefer safety to the unknown. That is why change can be hard for many people to accept.

William Bridges’ Managing Transitions does a great job describing the change management process. Check it out, if you are interested in learning more.

5 Step Process for Strategy Execution Success

There is good news, despite the challenges. Transitioning from strategy to execution does not have to be difficult. With the right process, you can create a culture focused on action, innovation, and accountability — all without spending money on expensive consultants. In this post, we’ll walk through a process I have used in my previous roles to get $@#% done in both small and large organizations. Perhaps these tips will work for you too.

Let’s take a look at 5 steps that will significantly improve your chances for successful strategy execution.

1. Create a Strategy with an Execution Mindset

Perhaps you’ve experienced the common top down approach to strategy development. It can be secretive, may involve external consultants, and when complete is pushed down through the organization. In contrast, creating a strategy with an execution mindset includes transparency, collaboration across teams, and bottom up activities. In my experience, there is a time and place for each approach. However, the latter approach wins over the hearts and minds of your team, and yields the best results over the long term.

Soliciting feedback from teams of people on the front lines is a valuable bottom up technique that has been extremely powerful for me. These employees often know the customers and products best. Also, having them as part of the strategy development process, with a seat at the table, builds buy-in and commitment to strategy execution.

The next time you are in the planning phase of a new strategy, try some of the following activities to expand your bottom up approach:

• Conduct feedback sessions with multiple areas and levels of the organization.
• Spend full days on the front lines to experience what employees are describing.
• Organize cross functional teams to spend time in the field together: visit competitors, study competitor actions, or set up meetings with leaders from other industries.
• Test ‘role-play’ activities with your products or services from customer, employee, competitor, and supplier points of view.
• Ask a lot of open ended questions and LISTEN.

2. Clarify and Focus on a Small Set of Goals

I believe we overcomplicate strategy development. In its purist form, a strategy is a plan to get from your current state to a future one. However, a strategy doesn’t need to include 10+ goals and a multi-year implementation plan in order to be great.

“Sometimes the more you try to do, the less you will accomplish.”

My experience has taught me that sticking to 1 to 3 big goals is usually a good number for a 12 month time period.

It is critical to ensure that the goals you want to achieve will give you the biggest impact. Don’t use vague language when creating your goals; be as clear and concise as possible. To this end, create SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time Sensitive) goals. Framing goals in this way will significantly improve understanding and commitment. For more details about SMART goals click Here.

Another technique that has worked for me, is to ensure that lower level objectives all ‘ladder’ up to the highest level objectives. This technique illustrates the link between current goals and the top goals for the organization. It helps keep everyone working together in order to achieve strategy execution excellence.

3. Focus on LEAD Measures During Strategy Execution

Some of you may be scratching your head at the term ‘LEAD’ measures. I know I did when I came across it in The 4 Disciplines of Execution by McChesney, Covey, and Huling. It is not something that is talked about that often. After all, how do you measure something that has not happened yet?

Usually, you take an action and see a result after a period of time. The result is what most people are interested in measuring: quarterly sales, order values, conversion rates, defects and so on. However, these are all lag measures. They have already happened and are fairly easy to report.

But what about all the actions that are needed to be taken in order to yield a measurable result? How many sales calls did you have to make to earn an order? These actions are not usually measured as part of the execution process, but are tremendously important to getting a result. Your team’s direct actions on lead measures are in your control and influence the lag measure. I started paying more attention to lead measures and noticed a significant change in how people performed on the execution of their tasks.

Here’s an example to help you visualize Lead measures:

4. Use Simple Metrics to Measure Progress

I firmly believe that what gets measured gets done. However, during strategy execution, metrics or progress scores are often not broadly communicated or understood across inter-related departments. This creates disengagement and will likely doom your strategy to failure.

If you are committing to tracking lag and lead measures, keeping things easy to understand and visualized is extremely important. In one of my roles, my team created a scorecard that summarized the quarterly lead and lag measures for the senior executive team. We needed to quickly convey the status of the overall strategy, number of tasks completed or in-progress, and risks.

To do this, we used an automotive theme. The red, yellow, green of a traffic light indicated overall status. The speedometer needle indicated percentage of tasks complete. A simple bar chart indicated number of tasks that were completed, in-progress, or not started. We also included a few brief bullets highlighting the successes, challenges, and risks. These scorecards were completed and distributed quarterly and were great visual markers for all levels of the organization.

5. Make an Accountability Process Part of Your Company DNA

A culture of accountability is not something that is achieved overnight. It is something that must be worked on each and every day. Every leader who wants strategy execution success must commit to the discipline of this process. In fact, everything we have been discussing above contributes to creating a performance culture. It’s a virtuous cycle that leads to strategy execution success!

The most effective tip, however, is implementing a routine of open communication and measurement review with all key team members, as well as posting results and updates publicly. I know leaders often get busy with other business priorities. Strategy execution and measurement are the first things to fall off the to-do list when you don’t have a dedicated execution team. It’s natural to divert attention when your weekly or monthly numbers are a top priority.

However, strategy execution is a leader’s responsibility. If you are unable to carve out the time to focus on the important lead measures that are critical to strategy execution success, then I can guarantee that by year’s end, you’ll be in the same place you were last year. A half executed strategy, competition eating your lunch, customers complaining, and employees rolling their eyes at another opportunity lost.

Ready to Improve Your Strategy Execution?

So, there you have it. Five steps to strategy execution success. Will this be the year that you take some new steps towards making your strategic plans a reality? Make no mistake, strategy development is easy compared to the discipline and commitment necessary to execute it. Deploy the industry proven techniques above and change your execution results.

What are your thoughts on these tips? Are there other techniques that have helped you with the strategy execution process? If so, please let me know by leaving some feedback below, or dropping me a line at avi.mizrahi@hotmail.ca.

If you liked this article, please give it a thumbs up and share it with your network on LinkedIn, Twitter, Medium, G+ or Facebook!

Thanks so much for reading my article. If you liked it, hit the heart button below. This will allow more people to see it. Thanks!

This article was originally posted on LinkedIn.

There’s a lot of hype in the world of Big Data Marketing solutions. Many claim to be using Big Data, very few have been able to quantifiably tie revenue generating results to it. Don’t get me wrong, there is a business case and application for these tools in organizations that have LOTS of data points. Retail and Financial Services are very good examples.

For most critical business decisions, however, throwing expensive Big Data solutions into the mix before understanding the strategic marketing or growth problem you are trying to solve is like swatting a fly with a sledgehammer.

Some typical growth problems I encounter in conversations with business leaders include:

1. How do we increase sales and margin next quarter / year?
2. How will demographic shifts and preferences impact our future growth?
3. In what ways can we change our business model?
4. Which products should we introduce next year? Which products should we discontinue?
5. What features must we include in our new / existing products?

If you don’t understand the small data answers to these strategic questions, BIG DATA will not be of any help. In my experience, once you understand the small data, you are better informed to make decisions about your next steps in the strategic marketing process. Sometimes that may be exploring a Big Data solution, other times it may be to design a few marketing experiments to validate your hypothesis. Either way, you are in a better place.

It’s easy to jump to solutions, but it’s far more effective to understand your problem from all the angles.

The following 6 data driven techniques are a practical launching pad to build the products, services, and experiences that will fuel your business growth in any economic environment. I have been using these techniques on my strategic marketing, innovation and growth projects with great results since 2006. I’m certain they can help you too.

6 Small Data Techniques to Drive New Business Growth

1. Understand the Macro Trends In Your Industry

Are you in tune with the big global trends that are expected to impact your industry? Are you reading the views of thought leaders in your industry? If not, you better start. There is no shortage of information out there. You can check out sites like: Trendhunter, FastCompany, or Inc. to get started.

But, the small data angle here is to create a chart and document your findings. You can organize your observations around several themes. I like to use the PESTe model.

• Political: What are the governmental regulations and legislation currently being considered at home and abroad that could impact revenue growth?
• Economic: What impact will changes to inflation, interest rates, economic growth, unemployment rates, and the business cycle have on your company?
• Social: How might socio-economic trends, such as demographics, lifestyle attitudes, and education affect your sales, services, and customer experiences?
• Technological: What are the positive and negative consequences of technological advancements in your industry?
• Environmental: How are you managing your environmental footprint? Will new environmental innovations, regulations, and customer expectations impact future sales?

Remember to qualify these trends by indicating the expected impact (positive, neutral, negative) and time-frame for your industry / business. Next, print this chart and update it every 6–8 months. It’s a living document that will show you how fast things are changing. Here’s a couple sample charts you can use:

2. Collect and Mine Consumer Data Sources for Insights

How well do you understand the consumers in your market? Are you in tune with their emotional states? What were their spending habits on products in your category in the last 12 to 24 months? How do consumers plan to spend their money in the future? What are the main consumer segments in your market? What are their tastes? Is your business in the consumer’s consideration set? These are all important ‘small data’ points that provide valuable feedback into your market. They will also become the foundation of your marketing strategy before you get into the ‘how’ techniques used by digital, advertising, and communication channels.

Depending on your budget, researching consumer behaviour can be a complex and lengthy process. I’ve been involved in designing custom consumer research (qualitative & quantitative) with boutique research firms and purchasing consumer research from agencies. I’ve attended focus groups from behind one way glass, watched how consumers interacted with products on video recordings, and even spent countless days in the field speaking with consumers. All these techniques have their pros and cons. The key is to be clear on your goals and ensure that you are able to quantify the data you are capturing, regardless of how informal the technique may seem.

If you are on a tight budget, you can poll your social media followers, or use Google Consumer Surveys. Pricing is as low as 10 cents per completed survey to $2000+ for custom surveys. However, in my experience, always supplement your research by speaking directly with consumers. One of the best projects I was involved with required me to spend time at local leash-free dog parks speaking with dog parents and capturing their needs and pain points on video camera. We gained valuable insights that helped us design a product directly related to their most relevant needs. When we shared the prototype with them on a return visit, we received important feedback that further enhanced and validated the product idea.

Here’s an example of how you can summarize your consumer research findings:

3. Know the Key Industry Metrics, Trends and Forecasts

Industry developments are more than just the latest and greatest product innovations on display at conferences. They are a focused look at the technical and competitive landscape. Industry data often reveals valuable information about an industry’s health. For example:

• What is the market’s dollar size? What is the historical trend? Where is it expected to go in the future?
• What is the market share of the competitors in the industry? How is that expected to change? Who is growing? Who is shrinking? Why?
• What are the main drivers of success in this industry?

Industry reports are a good source for consumer insights. They may reveal key purchase drivers or changing tastes and preferences for products and substitutions. You can buy these reports from a number of research agencies such as IBIS World, Euromonitor, or MarketResearch.

Within the industry analysis, be sure to take a close look at the competition. What are the best of the best doing differently? What does it take to be successful in the industry? Where have they invested and are now reaping the rewards? Where are they making their next investments?

In one retail marketing strategy project, I analysed the strengths and weaknesses of a competitor’s sales strategy. I looked at multiple years of flyers and promotions for the categories under review. Mapping out space and pricing data for over two years of promotional data revealed some interesting insights into the competition’s strategies. We could see what tactics were cancelled and which ones were repeated. We understood how they devoted valuable space to specific products and where they were trying to grow. We even understood the pricing strategies being used. Who would have guessed that applying an analytical process to something as simple as a promotional flyer could yield such rich competitive insights? Sometimes small data exists right under your nose!

There are many free and paid sources for industry information. You can check out industry associations, StatsCan or Census data, Hoovers, online, or get creative, like I did in the example above. I’ve found useful data through my local research library for free! It’s worth the trip.

Below is an example of a chart that can be created with industry competitor information:

4. Analyze, Prioritize and Segment Your Customer Insights

How do your customers like to make their purchases? What do they buy from you and why? How frequently do they buy? Are they loyal to your products only? What is your share of their wallet / total spend? What is the lifetime value of the different customers you serve? Which customer segment(s) would provide you with the largest return on your marketing dollars?

I could go on and on with questions…this area has been an interest of mine. I think it’s because this is where the rubber hits the road in the world of marketing execution, so to speak. Customer insights is where customers take their hard earned money out of their wallets to pay for your goods. They have clearly made a statement about what they value. Customers are not ‘telling’ you, they are ‘showing’ you what they value. What would that kind of data be worth to you?

Below is a sample customer loyalty segmentation chart that can help you with your marketing strategy:

I’m betting the answers to the questions above, and many more like them, would help you tremendously. This data could help you understand your customer’s preferences, purchase patterns and frequencies, affinities for brands in a category, and so forth. You just need to organize the rich data that you are already collecting from your sales and customer relationship management or loyalty systems.

Alternatively, you can now directly poll your customers for their thoughts and ideas without long lag times. Check out Vision Critical’s platform to find out how engaged online communities of your very own customers can help you design your next marketing initiative or product offering. For more ideas on how to strategically use your data to grow sales and loyalty, check out my previous post: here.

Please note, that this is where many companies would jump to Big Data marketing solutions. I believe this is a mistake. First, I suggest you understand the small data and where the gaps may be as they relate to the questions you want answered. Then, determine how critical the answer would be and if Big Data solutions would be able to help you get there.

5. What Are Your Internal Capabilities and How Can They Help You?

Up to this point, the techniques we’ve been discussing have been focused on the external environment. Another great source of data is your company’s internal capabilities. What are the key measures of success at your firm, and how have these changed over time? For example, has your revenue growth been driven by increased volume of discounted items? Are you relying too heavily on a customer segment or product for financial results? What would happen if 10% of your customers buy from your competitors? How much time and effort does it take to make a decision? If you have internal capabilities that set you apart from your competitors, can they be used in new ways or verticals? If you have internal weaknesses that expose you to risks, can they be mitigated?

This is also known as value chain analysis and can be leveraged to profit from the insights you’ve uncovered in the above steps. They are important to your ability to execute the future growth you’re seeking.

6. Create Customer Stories to Envision Future Growth

Once your team have all this internal and external data, you can create customer stories. By this point, you have a tremendous amount of data to work with. You can make some very educated forecasts about where the opportunities and threats are to your industry. You also have a clearer picture of what it will take to win in the eyes of the consumer. Finally, you know the strengths and weaknesses at your firm.

Now is the time to visualize the future of your organization from the customer’s perspective. What would your customers say once your best insights have been implemented? What impact would you have in their life? That’s the power of creating customer stories. You can easily define what success looks like, based on what you have learned during the small data analysis.

I recommend that you organize a group session in an off-site location. First, break people into teams to create these stories or assign it as pre-work. Either way, sharing these perspectives in a group setting is a great way to inspire conversation, idea generation, and a glimpse into what the future could be like for your company.

Data Is All Around You!

So, there you have it. Six proven techniques that use small-data and strategic marketing tools to help you design your next product, service or customer experience. I have used these techniques in large corporations and small start-ups. They helped me to innovate new products, create marketing campaigns, develop retail concepts, identify profitable product promotions, and much more. In some cases, a Big Data solution could have been applied (e.g. predicting future sales of products) in a follow up phase. In most cases, however, for the key strategic problems facing businesses today, the small data is the best place to start.

What are your thoughts on these techniques? Are there other tools that have helped you? If so, please let me know by leaving some feedback below, or dropping me a line at avi.mizrahi@hotmail.ca. If you liked this article, please give it a thumbs up and share it with your network on LinkedIn, Twitter, G+, Medium, or Facebook!

Thanks so much for reading my article. If you liked it, hit the heart button below. This will allow more people to see it. Thanks!

This article was originally posted on LinkedIn.

What comes to mind when you think of the word SALES? If you’re like most people, sales is probably a dirty word. It conjures up images of a used car salesman or a dinnertime phone call from a duct cleaning company.

In this article, I’d like to challenge this common negative, and often inaccurate, view of the sales profession.

Every one of us sells something each and every day. Yes, you read that correctly. Even if you don’t have a direct selling role, you still sell on a weekly or even daily basis.

We don’t have to be in ‘sales’ to be selling.

Don’t believe me? Then think about this:

When you look for a job, are you not selling your skills and expertise to the HR or hiring manager? When you present your idea for a new marketing campaign or your solution to a work problem, are you not selling your concept to your boss or colleagues? If they don’t buy your idea, do you not feel disappointed and look for new ways to gain acceptance or ‘close the deal’?

Essentially, we all must communicate in a specific way (a solution focused-value first way) to influence someone to say “Yes” to our products, services, skills or ideas. If that’s not sales, I don’t know what is. Although the end result may not always be a financial transaction, the strategy and tactics used to win approval of your solution or product are essentially the same. Daniel Pink’s book To Sell Is Human does a great job expanding on non-sales selling. If you haven’t read it, highly recommend you do.

Like It or Not, We’re All In Sales Now.

Traditional sales approaches have changed dramatically over the last 20 years, thanks in part to the Internet, Social Media, and the transparency of the sharing economy. Information about products and services are ubiquitous and easily accessible. Consumers can easily learn anything about your product, including how customers feel about it.

In this paradigm, your ability to influence will be predicated on adopting a ‘give value first’ mindset. To do this, it’s imperative that we become better communicators. That means better listeners, not talkers! Better at asking questions, not answers. And better at using stories to maximize understanding. In my opinion, we are ALL in sales now and the following list are a few ideas to help you in your new roles.

5 Sales Skills to Master In Your Corporate Job:

1. Plan Your (Sales) Goals

Before that important call, meeting or presentation, take the time to truly understand your goal and ask yourself:

• Why am I making this presentation?
• What do I want to get out of this meeting?
• What would make this a successful call?
• When I walk out of here, what do I want to have achieved?

Be as specific as possible when deciding on your goal(s). These details will help you understand what you need to do in order to get the answer you are seeking.

Beyond merely establishing your objectives, you must also gage if they are realistic. If you have not created the environment for ‘YES’ prior to your sales pitch, then it doesn’t matter what your goals are. They will likely not be achieved. Thus, in a low likelihood scenario, you need to understand why these goals will not be met and look for ways to close the gap before you make your proposal. Step 2 will help you close this gap.

2. Understand Your Audience’s Needs

Once you determine your objectives, it is crucial to understand the other person’s goals. In other words, practice empathy.

Put yourself into your decision maker or influencer’s shoes. Understand their worries, risks, responsibilities, and goals. Your messages must be phrased in a way that will appeal to their needs. For example, if numbers are very important to the decision maker, then you MUST show how your idea will impact the numbers that matter most to them.

If you cannot connect with the decision maker prior to your important meeting, find people that have had access and ask them about their experience. Treat them to a coffee and ask them lots of questions. A few other ways to become informed include:

• Articles written about the company and industry (the library is a great resource)
• Social media profiles of the company and their employees to get a feel for priorities. (Read the comments for positive & negative feedback and company responses.)
• Annual reports for public companies help you understand the numbers and future goals.

There are many ways to get this type of information; but, are you willing to do the work required to walk a mile in your customer’s shoes?

3. Master the Art and Science of Storytelling

It’s a noisy world out there and attention spans have shrunk to that of a goldfish: all of 8 seconds! I get it. We all lead busy lives with many demands on our time. Since the financial meltdown of 2008, corporate employees have had to do more with less resources. Time is the real commodity in a 2016+ world and people will filter social media messages, mobile ads, emails, voice mails and meeting requests with much more rigor.

However, as humans, we are drawn to a good story. One that grabs us emotionally (fear, sadness, happiness, etc.), resonates with our perspective, captures our imagination, and entertains us. That is why it pays to hone your storytelling skills. There are many resources available to help you. But the key to storytelling success is simple: the more you practice, the better you’ll become. Try some of these techniques the next time you are structuring the main points for a presentation:

• Share common experiences: childhood, trips, visits to the doctor and much more — there is lots of good material in the most ordinary of human experiences.
• Explain opposite points of view: contrast two opposing extremes of an argument or problem to emphasize dramatic differences. This sometimes helps generate alternative options for solutions.
• Use the power of 3s: build understanding for main ideas with three proof points. It’s is a good way to show relationships, steps, or key facts.

These are but a few ‘techniques’ that have helped me craft my stories. You will mix and match and develop your own ways to create your unique stories. Just remember, keep your stories simple (one protagonist), visual (images, videos, drawings), and provoking (emotions, ideas, frustrations). As we all fight for attention in a noisy world, you must work to enchant your audience with your ideas. Creating a good story is a great way to attract and hold attention.

4. Be Interested and Be Interesting

Be genuinely interested in whomever you are meeting with. The worst thing that you can do is to approach it as a transaction. Ask appropriate questions to advance the conversation, then listen actively.

A few powerful questions you can try include:

• That’s interesting, tell me more?
• Help me understand what influenced you to make that decision?
• When you say ‘Y’, do you mean ‘A’ or do you really mean ‘B’?
• Wow, that must have been a challenge. Why was that important to you?
• How would you do it differently next time?
• I’m facing a similar situation. Do you have any advice for me?

Asking questions is the only way to uncover what’s important to your client AND indirectly helps you to build deeper relationships. But, it will require you to listen more than talk. This is not easy for most of people. I take this skill for granted because I’ve always been naturally curious about the world around me. I’m fascinated by people and genuinely enjoy meeting and learning from others. It’s what fuels a lot of my energy and optimism.

Therefore, your interest in others has to come from a good place. A place of genuine curiosity. People can and will spot a ‘fake’ right away. Just be yourself and be as curious as a five year old.

5. Adopt a Learning Mindset

We stop growing as humans, when we stop learning. Whenever things are not going your way in the moment, it’s natural to allow negative self-talk to take over. We become frustrated and paralyzed with fear and frustration. We’ve all faced this at some point.

Instead, when faced with an ‘in the moment’ situation that is not going your way, take a step back and some deep breadths. Shut your inner critic voice down. Be aware of any assumptions that you may be making and seek to get a better understanding of what the other person is thinking. The best way I know of doing this is to acknowledge the situation and to seek more information out.

You must try to get all the facts and uncover any assumptions that you or your client has. This requires a learning mindset. Perhaps there was a misinterpretation, or a lack of understanding.

Take ownership for the conversation in the moment and find out why he or she has a specific concern. “That’s an interesting observation. Let’s explore that a bit further. Can you tell me more?” Or, ask the group if they see a different way of looking at the situation. Turn the situation into a learning opportunity where you can collaborate for mutual benefits.

Give More Than You Take: The Key to Success

Notice that all the skills on this list require you to focus on the other person and NOT yourself. This is a key skill that the best sales people and organizational leaders have mastered. As the legendary sales trainer Jeffrey Gitomer states in his book, The Little Red Book of Selling, “Give value first, don’t add it.” By the way, this book is not about how to sell. It’s about why people buy. The focus is on the customer!

The best sales people and organizational leaders are often those who truly want to help people solve their problems. They are not focused on pushing their agenda down or up the corporate chain. When you adopt this approach in your leadership style amazing things will happen!

So, there you have it. I hope you agree that we are all in sales, even though our job titles may not say it. If you believe in this thesis as strongly as I do, then I’d like to hear about it. What are your thoughts on these tips? Are there other techniques that have helped you inside or outside of a sales role? If so, please leave some feedback below, or drop me a line at avi.mizrahi@hotmail.ca. If you liked this article and my Slideshare, please give it a thumbs up and share it with your network on LinkedIn, Twitter, G+, Medium, or Facebook!

Thanks so much for reading my article. If you liked it, hit the heart button below. This will allow more people to see it. Thanks!

This article was originally posted on LinkedIn.

I was recently shopping at a medium sized retailer and couldn’t help but observe how far behind they were in their consumer marketing programs.

1. Their e-commerce site hasn’t been updated since 2001. They could update its look and feel 10X by going with Shopify.
2. Social Media consisted of pumping out discount announcements every day. I’m not suggesting they stop the discounts, but a little variety would help them build some engagement. A simple social media strategy, posting calendar, collection of curated and self-published content (e.g. 10 features you need in your next blender), and a few contests would help keep this retailer top of mind and drive footsteps to the store.
3. Their in-store Pont of Sale (POS) system had no way of identifying or rewarding me as a customer. I’m a paying customer and have at least six other retailers I could have chosen to shop at! There’s really no excuse for not knowing your customers. Make them feel appreciated in some way.

I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

It got me thinking about the challenge facing many mid-tier retailers over the next few years. Since 2014, we’ve been witnessing a consolidation in the Canadian Retail Industry which will likely continue for the next year (or two).

Could Big Data be part of the answer? Maybe. Data itself is no silver bullet; it doesn’t drive sales on its own. However, assuming that pricing strategies and supply chains are functioning properly, would knowing more about customers and their preferences help a retailer survive in turbulent times? I think so. This is exactly where data can provide immense value. If data insights are acted upon in a customer-centric way, it sure beats the status quo approach I mentioned above. In fact, I’m fairly certain the country’s large retailers also feel that way and are investing heavily in data, social media, e-commerce and digital marketing.

So, how can a smaller retailer use data ‘smartly’ to compete against the big players? Let’s look at what you need to get started and then explore how to use the data to make better marketing decisions.

First, start collecting data.

The most important place to start is to invest in a flexible POS system. An ideal system will not only facilitate quick and easy transactions, but also leverage data analytics and dashboards for inventory management, sales performance, loyalty, and customer spend. The good news is that there are many companies offering integrated POS systems that run on iPads.

These systems integrate seamlessly with e-commerce platforms too, enabling retailers to affordably extend their offerings online to a global customer base. We are seeing remarkably user friendly POS platforms being introduced by companies such as Shopify, Vend, ShopKeep, and Lightspeed, to name but a few.

Second, start using data.

The real challenge, regardless of retailer size, is how to use all this data. Below are four retail-proven ways to use data to improve sales across all channels.

1. Understand Your Seasonality Curves:

Most products have a natural purchase trend. Some, especially in technology space, have a life cycle. When you view your sales data plotted over time, you can easily see and understand the importance of seasonal trends. Of course, there are one-time events (e.g. an extra-long winter) that cause spikes, but over a 3+ year period, a normalized curve will appear.

So, how do you use this seasonal information? One way would be to promote the items to your customers just before a key selling season starts. For example, you can send an email to your customers advertising Snow Throwers in early September or BBQs in late March. Another example of getting in front of the season is Back to School product displays in-stores at the beginning of July. I noticed such a display at my local Walmart last year…my kids were not too happy about that!

Knowing when your product is purchased by your customers provides you with valuable insights into how to merchandise, promote, and market across the year in your various channels. It can also help you with your content creation schedule for your digital marketing initiatives.

2. Leverage Complementary Purchase Behaviours:

Complementary items are products that are used together. For example, you may purchase a dress with a matching purse or blouse. Likewise, your single serve coffee machine, is not very useful without the coffee pods.

One way to use insights from complementary product purchases is to design product adjacencies in-store or online. In an interesting test case, while at a major Canadian retailer, I completed a detailed basket analysis. I discovered that just over 34% of customers who purchased a particular product category, also purchased up to 4 other items from a complementary product family that was stocked in a different area of the store. Clearly, customers purchased these products together one third of the time. What’s more fascinating, is that customers often purchased the complementary items at regular price…that’s full margin!

With this knowledge, why make customers work hard to find these complementary products? Complementary items can be merchandised closer together at the store level or clip strips can be used to remind customers of the additional purchase. Furthermore, suggestions can also be made online whenever the anchor item is viewed or promoted in email marketing. Knowing your customers’ purchase behaviours is extremely powerful and can be a profitable driver for your business.

3. Know Your Promotional Uplift:

You’re likely familiar with discounts (dollar or percentage) and bonus card offers (buy 3 items, get a $20 bonus card). It’s a very common promotional tactic to encourage store traffic. However, as a small retailer, you may be wondering about the uplift you can expect from a planned promotion. You may have questions such as:

• Can I drive greater margin sales by providing a bonus card or a dollar/percentage discount?
• What is the optimal discount or bonus offer that will maximize profitability?

Understanding bonus card sales impact was an interesting question that my clients had. Surprisingly, we found that a bonus card, in this particular product category, drove more sales in additional higher margin goods than a straight dollar or percentage discount. But the results were totally different for another product category we analyzed. It’s not a one size fits all solution. However, without the data and a couple A/B tests, one would never know!

Understanding how your customers respond to different types of promotional activity helps you to create the ideal marketing offers and product combinations to grow sales and maximize customer value. I’m curious to see if data tools developed by companies such as Rubikloud, Askuity, Aislelabs, and Cozumo can help retailers with predictive analytics and marketing insights. I wished I had tools such as these when I was completing similar analyses for my clients!

4. Get Personal, Make Suggestions:

In my opinion, personalization is the future of retail. The more merchants know about customers, the better positioned they’ll be to build meaningful long term relationships with them. The glue that holds all this together, however, is the willingness on the part of both retailers and customers to engage in a two way dialogue. The results are increased customer value, loyalty, and lifetime profitability. A mutually beneficial relationship.

Personalization goes much further than simply layering loyalty programs on top of POS data. Purchase, reward, repeat is just the data capturing mechanism. Personalization means transforming real time customer information from all channels into relevant deals before arrival at checkout, in-store or online.

For example, if you know a customer purchased a 12” kids’ bike, then it’s fairly certain that the child will outgrow it within the next 16–24 months. Retailers can use their data analytics to tailor new product offers for a larger bike for this customer via various digital or direct channels. Now that’s getting personal!

I don’t know about you, but I’d love to receive gentle reminders or suggested shopping lists when the time is right. I would be very grateful to the retailer for providing me with a time saving solution and personalized offers. Come to think of it, Loblaws’ PC Plus program is getting very close to doing this. Every week I get a list of some of my most purchased products along with bonus points I can earn when I buy them.

Data Is Nothing Without Your Curiosity.

So there you have it, four ways smaller retailers can use data to drive marketing decisions and increase sales. The big retailers are already on the path to harnessing this data. My hope is that the smaller niche players are nimble enough to align their assets to do the same. But, data is nothing without curious human minds. As marketers, it is our job to ask interesting questions, craft and test hypotheses, and validate our assumptions with the data. Here’s to your growth!

What are your thoughts on using data to create marketing growth strategies that achieve business goals? Let me know by leaving some feedback below.

Thanks so much for reading my article. If you liked it, hit the heart button below. This will allow more people to see it. Thanks!

This article was originally posted on LinkedIn.

I entered the world of retail in the early 1990s and have worked my way up from the sales floor to the head office. Throughout that time, technological advancements have changed retail significantly. Interestingly enough, the following 5 principles have remained constant and don’t show any signs of changing.

5 Things That Have Not Changed In Retail

1. Customers Are Number one:

Twenty-five years ago retailers were in the driver’s seat, controlling interactions with their customers and dictating their customer’s demands. Sure, retailers valued what their customers said. After all, the customer is always right! However, communication was one way, often driven by the retailer, and took the form of a weekly flyer, direct mailer, or newspaper advert. The adage: “Stack ’em high and watch ’em fly” was a popular tactic deployed in store aisles across North America.

Today, with the advent of mobile and social media, the tables have dramatically turned. Customers hold a lot more clout. Through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, e-commerce and a bevy of other channels, they are able to communicate with retailers and other consumers. Customers frequently use a variety of digital channels to share their product and retail experiences. Are you a retailer who is able to quickly and effectively make sense of this entirely new retail environment?

It can be quite complex to manage. The never-ending list of new data and communication points require a new set of tools and skills. Current Analytics and Business Intelligence systems can integrate online and offline data to provide a deeper understanding into how consumers are shopping. Are you curious to learn more about such systems?

2. Merchandising Teams Power Retail:

The merchandising teams within retail organizations have always had the difficult job of sourcing products, negotiating with vendors, planning assortments, designing promotions and staying innovative. This is no easy task. Category Managers, Buyers, and Brand Managers are the merchandising professionals at the heart and soul of a retail organization.

Historically, these roles leveraged sales data from “pre-canned” reports to provide information about what was happening in their businesses. However, completing any custom analysis that answered key strategic questions was no easy feat. As insight rarely comes from a single source of data, analytics required time and savvy negotiation skills to access data that lived in organizational silos. While at one of Canada’s largest general merchandise retailers, it took me over six weeks to gain access to data held in the credit card division to perform a key piece of research.

Luckily, we are now beginning to see some relief. Aggregation tools that consolidate data from POS, CRM, Credit Card and Loyalty Programs among others, help simplify retail consumer insights. Some of these tools also enable the data to be modeled more efficiently to provide visual understanding and trend analysis.

Unfortunately, Category Managers rarely have time to learn how to use these tools. The experts able to navigate the data landscape often sit outside of core merchandising teams. Retailers must be mindful of who the internal users of data insights are and how to best enable their merchandising teams. Often, expensive technology is not the best solution and an option, such as automated analytics, would yield larger gains.

3. Price Matters. Value Matters More:

Price is a retail fundamental. If you don’t get pricing right, you will end a retail casualty. Why? Comparative Pricing information is widely available today. In fact, more and more consumers are using their smartphones to compare your prices when they are in YOUR store aisles! Pricing perceptions were a thorn in the side of Target Canada. Even when they fixed their price issue, consumer perceptions about price persisted. Large retailers dedicate whole teams to price competitiveness. How much time are you spending to ensure your products are priced right?

Having the lowest prices is a good way to combat competition, but it is not the only way or even the best way. To last in this information rich world, you must also offer value. Value exists when the benefits received is perceived to be greater than the price paid. However, the problem for many retail marketers is that benefits are defined differently for different customer segments. What matters to one, does not rank as high for another. What has always been consistent, however, is the necessity of offering value to your customers in every way possible. Even outstanding customer service can be considered a value-add, and value will always remain most important for differentiation.

So, how do you differentiate on value? You’ll need to get into the data. With so many internal and external data points, technology tools can help you determine what your customers value. Some may love a certain brand and would value an exclusive in-store event with reps or celebrities. Others value socializing with people who share their passion for an activity. Performing data based customer segmentation is a great place to start understanding customer interests based on purchasing patterns.

4. Supply Chain & Store Operations Are As Important As Ever:

Procurement, supply chain, logistics, and store operations: These are the unsung heroes of retail and always will be. Without these processes working seamlessly, retailers would grind to a halt. In an omni-channel world, these processes are key for success.

Imagine how you would feel showing up to your local grocery store on a busy Saturday, only to find gaps on the shelves or products on promotion selling out with 6 days left of the week’s sales? Pretty frustrated, I’m sure.

There is a lot more that goes on behind the scenes than consumers are aware of. With so many retail options today, it is absolutely critical that retailers have “the right product available at the right place at the right time”. With the newer “Pickup in store option” which allows in-store pick up of online orders, supply chain and store operations are being given a run for their money in terms of accurate inventory replenishment. Systems and people need to be linked to real time information in order to meet omni-channel demands. Bringing data together from across the organization and breaking down organizational silos with weekly routines will be a key for success in this new environment.

5. Location, Location, Location!

It’s a seemingly straightforward concept — a good location is a must! But all too often, retail stores fail due to lack of foot or car traffic. What’s worse, stores have become so large and crammed with product, it is sometimes difficult for customers to find the product they want once inside.

Despite the rapid growth of e-commerce 80–90% of sales are still recorded in brick and mortar stores. Retailers must continue to make it easy for customers to find their stores and the products they are looking for within those stores. Improved store layouts, touch screen displays, and beacon technology, together can help achieve and enhance the in-store experience. Imagine a world where you type in the product you’re looking for as you enter a store and you get an exact aisle and location for that product. Or, you also get informative videos about how to use or install the product. This blend of digital and physical retail makes for a greatly enhanced experience.

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

So there you have it, five things in retail that have not changed. Despite ever-evolving technology, core retail fundamentals remain constant. It’s extremely rewarding to be helping develop the very tools that enable retailers achieve their goals within this new digital reality.

Did you find yourself nodding in agreement as you read the observations above? If so, I’d love to hear your stories or other retail fundamentals that have not changed in the digital era. Let me know by leaving some feedback below.

Thanks so much for reading my article. If you liked it, hit the heart button below. This will allow more people to see it. Thanks!

This article was originally posted on LinkedIn.

Have you ever set a personal goal for yourself and after a while have those goals just…slip away? Of course you have. We all have. Take New Year’s resolutions, for example. Every year, we set some goals for ourselves such as quitting smoking, exercising more, preparing healthy meals, etc.

Unfortunately, for many of us, by the fourth week of January, we find ourselves off course and eventually our goals are abandoned. We’ll try again next year, we assure ourselves. And the cycle repeats…

The Time is NOW!

We all know that hours quickly become weeks, and weeks turn into months. Before we know it, a year or two have passed and we’re left wondering: “where did all the time go?” Did I make the best use of it? What will I do better in the next 10 years?

TIME is a non-renewable resource. Once today is gone, it is GONE forever and we must now focus on the new day ahead.

Taking Action Can Be Difficult.

Turning plans into reality is hard work. I see it in the work that I do. Without the benefits of a set routine, proper planning, and periodic assessments, it is not uncommon to go off course.

You may have heard the saying that “a goal without a plan is just a wish.” Well, I think that is true. But, I’d like to take it one step further:

A plan without action is just a shame.

So, let’s assume you have a plan to accomplish something that is important to you at work or in your personal life. How do you translate that plan into action so that you don’t a) waste all that hard work, and b) look back a year from now and wonder where all the time went and become discouraged.

For those who want some sure fire ways to make your plans (any plans!) a reality, pay close attention. In this article you will learn five techniques that you can easily use (starting tomorrow!) to help you achieve any goal.

Five Tips to Help You Achieve Your Goal:

1. Focus on a small set of goals.

The more you try to do, the less you will likely accomplish. Stick to 3–4 goals and make sure they are SMART. What does SMART mean?

Specific: Ensure that your goals are very specific so that you know what they will look or feel like when you are done.

Measurable: If you don’t know what success looks like, then how will you know that you have achieved it? Pick a measure (quantitative or qualitative) that will let you know you have hit your goal. For example, if you want to start a freelance part-time career, is success having 50 clients in a year or enough work for 15 hours/week? Pick the measure that makes the most sense for you.

Achievable: We all like to have lofty goals, but try to break the big ones down into manageable chunks that you can complete.

Realistic: Be honest with yourself, and keep your goals realistic, otherwise you risk falling short and feeling constant disappointed.

Time sensitive: Set time expectations around your goals so that you don’t get stuck in the same place and are always moving the ball up the field.

2. Act on lead measures.

What are lead measures? Simply put, the specific actions that will help you to achieve a goal are your lead measures.

For example, let’s say your goal is to improve your zoom lens photography to an advanced level. Well, a lead measure to influence this goal might be to increase the number of shots taken with your zoom lens (more practice & experimentation). So start measuring how many zoom shots (action) you are taking. For example, set a goal to take 100 zoom shots/week. As you take more pictures, your skills will improve, and as your skills improve so will your zoom lens photography. As you can see, lead measures are actions you can influence. They play a key role in predicting the achievement of your goal.

The saying “today’s actions are tomorrow’s results” really resonates with lead measures. You will be surprised by how focusing on actions that you can influence will help you achieve your goals.

3. Review your progress often and adjust when needed.

Let’s face it, our progress on achieving our goals will not always be steady. Life is complicated, and sometimes we have to take breaks or detours. Making the time to regularly review your progress is an important step towards success. Through this process, we may discover that we should change our goals. Or, we may set new goals to keep the momentum going.

Scheduling this review time in my calendar, well in advance, has really helped me stay true to this tip. I schedule a one hour meeting with my teams, typically after a major project milestone, to reflect and measure progress on project and performance goals.

In my experience, team members generally appreciate the opportunity to reflect on their achievements, key learnings, and ways to improve for next time. I believe this action will help people perform better individually and as a team to achieve the results they are looking for.

That is the point of this tip. Many people get discouraged and give up when they get off course, but you don’t have to. There are always ways around road blocks. You just have to look for them. So, take your plan, decide what you can scale down or change up, to enable you to keep moving forward.

4. Make commitments publicly.

When we document and share our goals publicly, we are more likely to achieve them. As you focus on steps 1–3 above, talk to your spouse, friends, family members, or work colleagues and team members about your goals and your progress. This public commitment, along with the act of writing your goals down, will help you stay on track and provide you with insight and support from the people who matter most to you. So, go ahead and share. You just might find that it adds a new level of energy to your daily actions.

5. Celebrate your successes!

It’s time to enjoy the fruits of your labour. I always encourage people to celebrate successes, even the small ones. It’s a great achievement when you complete or learn something from your plan.

Turning Plans Into Actions is a Process.

Well, there you have it: some sure fire ways to transition your plans into actions and set yourself up for success. These tips can be used in many areas of your life. They can help your projects and teams. What are your thoughts on using planning strategies that achieve business or life goals? Let me know.

Thanks so much for reading my article. If you liked it, hit the heart button below. This will allow more people to see it. Thanks!

This article was originally posted on LinkedIn.