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9 Lessons from Undercover Boss – Week 5

Dave Sabol — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 01:58:25 +0000

After a disappointing absence (err… unexpected repeat last week – presumably due to the Academy Awards) Undercover Boss resumed this week for the fifth episode. This week the series profiled Churchill Downs Inc. executive William (Bill) Carstanjen.

Churchill Downs Inc., headquartered in Louisville, Ky., is a $500 million dollar company that owns and operates world-renowned horse racing venues throughout the United States. The Company’s four racetracks in Florida, Illinois, Kentucky and Louisiana host many of North America’s most prestigious races, including the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks, Arlington Million, Princess Rooney Handicap and Louisiana Derby.

The 41 year old COO, has been with the parent company of North America’s premier race for Thoroughbreds since 2005, having served as Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer and General Counsel previously. Prior to joining Churchill Downs he worked for GE. Churchill Downs (the corporation) has experienced it’s fair share of ups-and-downs since incorporating in 1942, and it wasn’t until former President and CEO Thomas H. Meeker led it through a series of transformative steps that breathed new life into the struggling company.

A few quick facts:

The track is named for John and Henry Churchill, who leased 80 acres (320,000 m²) of land to their nephew, Colonel Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr. (grandson of explorer William Clark).

Churchill Downs was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986.

In April 2002, Churchill Downs Incorporated established the Green Pastures Program in partnership with the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, a leading American racehorse rescue and adoption organization.

On September 29, 2006, Churchill Downs became the first horse track to host a Rolling Stones concert.

On Friday, June 19, 2009, Churchill Downs hosted its first-ever night race.

Lessons Learned:

It’s hard to be an outsider, especially in a company steeped in tradition. If you are, you need to work hard to learn both the business and the culture; especially if you hope to affect meaningful and lasting change.
Word of mouth – especially from key employees – can be the greatest asset OR the greatest detrminent that a company has. You want, no you need, your employees to be your most passionate spokespeople.
Sometimes loving what you do and being passionate isn’t enough.
The most mundane or seemingly simple jobs (e.g. the bugler), aren’t necessarily so. Sometimes it takes years and years of practice/experience, other times people are just good at what they do. Regardless, don’t make an assumption simply based on appearance.
Being able to fail spectacularly can be liberating.
Always try to find all the people that make an operation go, not just the people that are visible. For every superstar in the spotlight, there are plenty more behind the scenes (or the back stretch) that will never get the recognition they deserve.
Need plenty of people that understand both sides of a business – the public facing side and the behind the scenes – those unique individuals are the heart and soul of your organization.
Don’t get blinded by what’s right in front of your eyes. Every now and again you need to pull back, even just a little, to see the whole picture.
Business is personal. Don’t be afraid of getting past spreadsheets and presentations and actually addressing situations head-on. The most important thing in life is personal interaction…take advantage of it.

As I was reminded by a few good friends the token displays of recognition and acts of contrition really don’t amount to anything meaningful. Too few individuals get their stories heard and in return get something meaningful for them personally. However, what I most like about the show is the personal transformation that each executive goes through. Just the willingness to put themselves on the line is commendable. However, if even a small change takes place, it’s a worthwhile exercise.

I learned about another executive, and for that matter another business, that I would have never looked into and learned a lot from it. I’d still like to see follow-up on the stories to track down the profiled employees and also see what has changed since their executives have gone undercover. That, not withstanding, I remain a fan of the show…

Posted via web from Dave Sabol

What Was She Thinking?

Cynthia D'Amour — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 14:05:49 +0000

Beats me.

I’m at a seminar this weekend.

Focused on framing sponsorships in new ways.
I’m excited about the content.
And look forward to trying it out.

The audience is interesting...

Lots of passionate people.
With big ideas.
Looking to make a difference.

And then there’s the book lady…

At first glance, she’s nice looking.
Until you notice she has her book covers hanging on her.
Like a billboard sign.

Would that approach make you want to buy her book?

The covers are laminated and bent.
Plus she’s quite pushy.
Literally.

I’m all for being creative.

But this seems too tacky for a professional event.
What was she thinking?
Didn’t she look in the mirror?

Of course, she may be rolling in the bucks by the end of the weekend - and I’ll be left just rolling my eyes.

Makes me think of chapter leaders…would you be willing to cause a few laughs if your promotions got the results you wanted?

The Number One Mistake in Membership Marketing

Tony Rossell — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:25:54 +0000

Perhaps the number one mistake in membership marketing is not conducting marketing tests in each promotion. By not testing, organizations sub-optimize the effectiveness of their marketing.

My colleague, Jeremy Griffin, and one of our clients presented a case for market testing at the just concluded ASAE Great Ideas Conference. The presentation highlights the power of incorporating marketing tests in membership marketing promotions and details high leverage testing opportunities.

Here it is. I hope you find it useful.

Improve Membership Marketing Results One Test at a Time

View more presentations from Marketing General, Inc. .

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Friday Top 5

Elizabeth Engel — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:55:00 +0000

Lots of travel in the past 8 days! The Top 5 Things That Are GREAT About Being Home:

Sleeping in my own bed (spouse included)
10+ types of bourbon to choose from (southern California is a bourbon WASTELAND, people)
Being able to change my mind about what to wear 7 times in the morning without running through all my available options...twice
My own coffee (nobody makes it better, yo)
Even though they make me sneeze, my kitties

addthis_pub = 'ewengel';

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Great Ideas 10 Recap: Innovation, Clarity, and Love

Jamie — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:34:26 +0000

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Unleash the Power of Market Testing in Your Membership Recruitment

Tony Rossell — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:59:59 +0000

Claude C. Hopkins is acknowledged as the great grandfather of direct marketing. In 1923, Hopkins wrote Scientific Advertising in which he declared that: “The time has come when advertising has in some hands reached the status of a science.” 1

His fundamental marketing thesis was: “We learn the principles and prove them by repeated tests. This is done through keyed advertising by traced returns . . . We compare one way with many others, backward and forward, and record the results. When one method invariably proves best, that method becomes a fixed principle.” 2

Today, his premise of testing is as true as ever. In fact, testing may even be more important now because the vast array of options available to marketers. A test can mean the difference between a stunning success for a product or an abject failure.

And because of the larger quantities and costs involved, testing is a particular necessity and an ideal opportunity when it comes to membership recruitment.

It is not uncommon to see a successful test change recruitment response rates by the following percentages:

• List tests – Can impact response by 500 percent.
• Offer tests – Can impact response by 200 percent.
• Creative tests – Can impact response by 100 percent.

These test outcomes highlight that by doing the same old thing over and over again, there is likelihood that a marketing program is substantially sub-optimizing the potential returns that could be achieved.

If testing is so important, then how should it be done?

There are two aspects of testing. Let’s call them the “art” and the “science” of testing.

The art of testing involves thinking outside the box and creating a new way to do things. In a market driven organization, each project should start up with a brainstorming session that asks: “What if?” or “How about?”

Bob Stone, in his landmark book, Successful Direct Marketing Methods, suggests creative helps like the following questions to get the thought process going. He recommends asking:

• Can we combine?
• Can we add?
• Can we eliminate?
• Can we make an association?
• Can we simplify?
• Can we substitute?
• Can we reverse? 3

Once a good set of test options has been developed, it is time to prioritize them. The key here is to test big things. Look for a breakthrough in testing. Too many testing dollars are spent on inconsequential testing – like who signs the letter. The fact is that testing small things will have such a small impact on the results that chances are good it will not have statistical validity.

In addition to brainstorming, there are some specific high leverage areas to consider testing. These high opportunity areas include the following:

• Lists – One of the easiest and most productive tests is trying new lists. For a full discussion on testing lists, take a look at my post, Five Strategies for Picking the Best Marketing Lists.
• Frequency – Try marketing more frequently to top prospects and customers.
• Pricing and offer – Psychological price points are for real. As a rule of thumb, a price ending in a “7” or “9” will generate more orders and dollars. You can test price points by offering a special acquisition dues discount to new members.
• Packaging – Test a bundled membership product instead of selling a one size fits all membership product.
• Media – Many media are available today and need to be tested. Try direct mail followed by an email linked to a microsite compared to a stand alone email or mailing.
• Messaging – Try new messages that emphasize a different value of membership. An easy and fast test of messages can be done with email subject lines. Send out a small portion of the list with a variety of subject lines. The group with the highest open rate wins and that subject line is used for the remainder of the list.

Equally important to the “art’ of testing is the “science” of testing. The science of testing starts with creating proper test structures. The key here is establishing a control package and testing against it. This is done by drawing a portion of names out of the control group of the marketing effort and using them for the test. Then structure the test by holding everything else constant except the variable that is to be tested. For example, if the test is for a special discount offer, then on the test segment use the same format as the control package and mail the test promotion to an equal ratio of the control lists in the mailing.

A test obviously does not always produce better returns than the existing control – that’s why to lower risks tests only go to small segments of a larger promotion. However, statisticians tell us that in each test cell we need a minimum of 40 paid responses to give us a statistically valid test. Therefore the number of anticipated responses will dictate the size of each test segment. If a 0.50 percent response rate is expected then the test cell should include a minimum of 8,000 names (40 / 0.005 = 8,000).

The other challenging yet critical component of the science of testing is tracking. Despite the difficulty in tracking, the bottom line is that the potential returns of testing are so great that one way or another an organization needs to build some kind of mechanism to track returns. Each organization will have to work with its computer staff and order processing staff to find the best way to track returns from a test. However, there are some methods of tracking used by other organizations that have performed well. These include:

• Laser Personalizing, ink jetting, or labeling the reply form with a keycode and requiring the form to be returned to receive a special offer.
• Performing a computer match between the returns from a given period of time and the keycoded mailing lists that were used in a mailing.
• Programming in a “special order code” in order forms on web sites that are required for special pricing or offers.

Once returns come back in, compare the responses in the control group against the test cell. Look to see which cell generated a higher return on investment and make the best performing test your new control.

Testing is an ongoing process. Over time, it becomes part of the culture of an organization. A focus on testing ensures the flow of new ideas and new members that an organization needs to keep growing. And it also provides a methodology for validating each of these new ideas.

To quote Claude Hopkins again, in the past: “Advertising was then a gamble – a speculation of the rashest sort. One man’s guess on the proper course was as likely to be as good as another’s . . . That condition has been corrected . . . Advertising has flourished under these new conditions. The results have increased many fold just because the gamble has become a science.” 4

Testing in membership recruitment allows your organization to market more efficiently. And if Claude Hopkins could do tests back in 1923, I am sure that there is a way to build testing into your membership marketing efforts.

1 Claude C. Hopkins, Scientific Advertising, NTC Business Books, 1991, page 213
2 Ibid, page 215.
3 Bob Stone's landmark book, Successful Direct Marketing Methods, 1997, NTC Business Books
4 Claude C. Hopkins, Scientific Advertising, NTC Business Books, 1991, page 217-218

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When Cutting the Budget is No Longer the Answer

Tony Rossell — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:50:15 +0000

What a difference a year can make. On March 5, 2009 the Dow Jones hit a low of 6,594.44 and gloom abounded. Today the economy is still struggling, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

If the number of calls and inquiries that I am getting are any indication, then I think many membership organizations have realized that they have cut all of the expenses that they can. The only option now for fiscal health is to grow revenue.

A recent article in Industry Week by Cory VanBuskirk echoes this perspective.

“Here's the good news:” he writes, “So far, you've been able to survive one of the worst economic downturns in American history. Before you congratulate yourself, you need to face the bad news. The very things that have enabled you to survive will cause your downfall if you don't shift into growth mode now.”1

VanBuskirk goes on to say, “If you're going to make a successful shift back into growth mode, you have to retool the organization for driving revenue vs. saving money. It's time to realign people from efficiency to customer-driven effectiveness. Don't underestimate the differences between these two approaches. Resources, talent and priorities must flow toward revenue drivers.”2

Have you and your organization made the shift from cost cutting to growth? If you are ready to start growing, here are some tips on where to start.

• Do not judge the health of membership by your renewal rates. Renewals are a lagging indicator for membership in this economy. Judge your economic situation based on new member input.

• Get the jump on adding new members. Just like you, prospective members are looking for a resource to leverage their own growth. Almost everyone I speak with is seeing improvement in membership acquisition right now. In fact, acquisition is actually producing comparatively better results than renewals for most membership organizations.

• Reach out to the members who left your organization during the recession and see if they are ready to come back. They need to grow just as much as you do.

• Grab talent now while it is available. Whether this means adding key staff or bringing on consultants, now is a great time to leverage top people resources to get momentum going in the right direction.

Please feel free to add any tips you might have in the comments section.

1. How to Survive Your Survival: The keys to successfully shifting into growth mode, Cory VanBuskirk, CVB Consulting Group, Industry Week March 10, 2010.

2. Ibid.

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Quotable Clips and Better SEO for YouTube Videos

Rebecca Leaman — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:30:00 +0000

Video is hot with online audiences, but there’s one big problem for video producers: search engines just can’t deal with the "talkies": Images and audio are behind a glass wall when it comes to indexing for search results. And if your nonprofit is going to take the initiative to produce and post a video, obviously you’d like it to help being visitors to your blog or website from the search engines. Better SEO for YouTube Videos Until recently, search engines had to rely on title text and tags to...(read more) Related posts:

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Evoking Excellence in Others

Ann Oliveri — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:19:56 +0000

Highly collaborative, ad hoc teams are transforming the way we work. So it's not too surprising that command-and-control managers are being replaced by leaders who function more like coaches, running practices, tuning up performance.

Rather than looking to industrial-era management cookbooks, we are better served looking to the growing literature on executive coaching.

One of my favorite coaches' coach is James Flaherty, whose approach is rooted in pragmatist philosophy: what is true is what works. When you name it, you know it. When you see it, you can change it.

His approach to working with individuals is not unlike my work as a marketing coach to organizations that mobilize individuals with a shared purpose, enable personal and professional growth, and advance economic ends through responsible means.

Rather than merely fix behaviors, Flaherty makes the case for working toward true satisfaction and effectiveness. In Coaching: Evoking Excellence in Others, Flaherty sees commitment to a larger purpose as the engine of a life well lived.

And, if purpose is the engine, the transmission that shifts commitment into performance are five competencies: intellect; emotion; will; context; and, soul. (His definition of context is also mine--the array of meanings, relationships, actions, and possibilities that arise once a purpose is declared.)

For associations, the ultimate member experience builds those five competencies, simultaneously, merging membership with identity, and making your association truly indispensable. So, maybe Flaherty's book is also the ultimate membership manual, too. First published in 1988, a new third edition of Flaherty's classic is due out next week.

She Was Standing In the Way of Progress

Cynthia D'Amour — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:52:22 +0000

Literally.

Yesterday I had to walk through a revolving door to get into the airport.

It was a big revolving door.
Only two sections.
Each could hold several people at one time.

I rolled into my section.

As a team we moved forward.
All focused on making our flights.
And the door stopped.

We shuffled our feet.

There was an UGH or two.
And then it started moving.
Until it stopped again!

After the third stop, I started to look around.

It was getting old.
Tempers were rising.
What was going on?

Discovered a lady who did not travel often.

(It was obvious.)
Who did not move with the door.
The door stopped when it hit her bag.

With a little coaching, she started to move.

The door finally swung around enough so we could pour out.
I’m not sure if she was just clueless.
Or liked the power?

Either way, she definitely held up progress yesterday morning!

Makes me think of chapter leaders…when the world is moving forward, do you keep up so doors will open? Or refuse to move and stop your chapter’s progress?

WWIF #5: Convening and Conversing

Jeffrey Cufaude — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:41:00 +0000

Rework

Ann Oliveri — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:54:08 +0000

A "minimalist manifesto," Rework reveals the operating principles of 37Signals, the wildly successful perpetrators of Basecamp, Campfire, and other truly useful distributed work tools for the Fortune 5,000,000. You can download an excerpt at 37signals.com/rework/ that include some of my favorite essays, such as Underdo Your Competition and Workaholism.

Here's a taste:

Workaholics "create crises. The don't look for ways to be more efficient because they actually like working overtime. They enjoy feeling like heroes. They create problems (often unwittingly) just so they can get off on working more."

"If all you do is work, you're unlikely to have sound judgments. Your values and decision-making wind up skewed. You stop being able to decide what's worth extra effort and what's not. Any you wind up just plain tired. No one makes sharp decisions when tired."

"Workaholics aren't heroes. They don't save the day, they just use it up. The real hero is already home because she figured out a faster way to get things done."

Do less. Be more. Rework.

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#Ideas10 chat for virtual attendees today

Lindy Dreyer — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:00:17 +0000

Come experiment with us! A bunch of bloggers/trouble makers in the association community who could not attend ASAE’s Great Ideas Conference are meeting up by Tinychat today to talk about all the learning we’re missing out on. Here are the details:

#Ideas10 Chat for Virtual Attendees
TODAY! at 1:15 ET (11:15 MT)
Here’s what we’re planning to talk about:

our experience as virtual attendees (or remote attendees, as @jeffhurt likes to say)
great tweets, resources, and content we’ve seen come out of the conference
how well TinyChat works as a tool for virtual attendees (yeah…it’ll come up.)

So far, we’ve confirmed that Leslie White (@ltwhite), KiKi L’Italien (@kikilitalien), Elizabeth Baranik (@elizabethb), and I will all be on video. There’s also a text chat feature, so you can still participate even if you’re having a bad hair day. We also hope to have a report from some of our pals who will be on-site at #ideas10. Pretty sure Maddie’s in.

Part of the reason for this experiment is an ongoing discussion that’s been filtering through our community about extending face-t0-face learning experiences to online audiences–using good eLearning fundamentals, of course. It came up in last Tuesday’s #AssnChat on Twitter and it’s a big theme in the Engage365 community. There were also some important lessons that came out of #Untech10–turns out extending the learning doesn’t have to take so long to plan, or be so expensive to implement. Heck–Tony Veroeven Ustreamed an #Untech10 breakout session from his iPhone. Other than needing to charge his phone afterward, it worked pretty well.

So come join us. This is experiential learning at its best (or worst…don’t want to over-promise here. Haha!)

How to Get Your Nonprofit into Local Newspapers

Rebecca Leaman — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:32:00 +0000

With all the buzz about social media, it’s easy to forget that offline media attention can be equally valuable, especially for community-based nonprofits who want to get attention to local projects or recruit local members and volunteers. Offline media attention is good. Getting it can be hard, however, in the digital information age. Challenged by online alternative news sources, print newspapers are slimming down, cutting pages to cut their costs. To save on staff, newspapers increasingly bypass...(read more) Related posts:

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Leaving Well Enough Alone

Jeffrey Cufaude — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:27:00 +0000

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