Built to Sell

Tony clutched his latest draft of the direct mail piece for MNY Bank as if he were choking it. Alex knew the word REWRITE with a diagonal line through his work without further explanation would set Tony off.

Alex was at a loss for constructive criticism; he didn’t know where to start. It wasn’t the opening paragraph or the salutation or the P.S. or the offer or the tone or the grammar or the spelling. It was everything about the letter that he found unbearable. Quite simply, Alex was paralyzed by Tony’s incompetence.

“Look, Tony, I don’t have time for this right now. The bank is all over me for their branch posters and I haven’t seen Elijah yet this morning. Let’s talk about this later.”

Alex checked in with Sarah to see how she was progressing on what he hoped would be the final changes to John Stevens’s brochure project. As he approached Sarah from behind, he had a full view of what was on her twenty-one-inch monitor. Instead of the MNY Bank brochure, it seemed Sarah was engrossed in a lastminute travel site.

The mail came in and Alex hungrily opened the white number 10 envelopes. There were three invoices from suppliers and two checks. The checks were from small jobs totaling just over $23,000. Better than nothing, but Alex still needed another $24,000 to cover payroll and rent by month’s end. He was now down to twelve business days.

The meeting unfolded as Alex anticipated. Between his mother’s job at MNY Bank and Sarah’s resignation, Elijah squeezed Alex for a raise. Alex countered with Elijah’s age and relative inexperience. The result was a split decision with Elijah getting a $2,500 raise and Alex promising to review his salary again in six months.

Alex scanned his e-mails and saw the usual client fires. The bike shop wanted a discount on the search engine optimization project because the Stapleton Agency couldn’t deliver first or second ranking for their keywords of choice; Buddy’s BMW was getting criticism from a lawyer in Munich because their Web site didn’t adhere to BMW’s brand standards; and MNY’s retail banking group wanted another six branch posters printed by the end of the day. Ralph Stone also needed invoice number 12-673 resubmitted with the correct purchase order number listed.

There was an e-mail from Ziggy. She’d enjoyed the Natural Treats personification exercise and was keenly awaiting the sketches as part of step three in Alex’s system.

Ziggy’s note prompted Alex to put aside the fires in his inbox and turn his attention to developing a new list of prospects to whom he could pitch the Five-Step Logo Design Process.

“In addition to selling a logo to Spring Valley, I also had a good conversation with an old client who asked me for a proposal for a new ad campaign. It would be radio and newspaper ads and possibly a local TV spot.”

Alex pondered this for a moment. “I think the work will take six weeks to produce, and this client pays quickly, so I should get paid within thirty days.”

“So it’ll take you roughly seventy-five days from the day you win the project until the day you get paid?” Ted asked, pausing long enough for the ramifications to sink in.

Alex pondered this for a moment. Sarah would be gone by the time the work came in. Elijah was too junior, and Chris would be busy with the logos they were already committed to designing. Before Alex could come up with a response, Ted interrupted.

“Look, Alex, if you’re going to commit to creating a business that can be sold, you need to commit to offering one process. That means you need to stop accepting other projects.”

“Clients will test your resolve every day. They’re used to bossing their service providers around and, if given the choice, would always prefer you customize your solution just for them. If you want to sell your business, you can’t give in. You’ll be swimming upstream. Clients will never know you’re serious about specialization until you say no to other work. You can’t be ‘kind of’ a specialist. If you’re going to be the world’s best logo design shop, you can’t also sneak in a few ad campaigns. It’s why heart surgeons don’t set broken ankles.”

“An amazing thing will happen when you start turning down other projects in favor of promoting your specialized logo design process—you’ll instantly become more referable. If you offer a generic service like advertising or marketing, people will have trouble describing to their friends why you’re special because you are just like everyone else. If, however, you are the world’s best logo creators, you’ll be memorable and referable. For every advertising project you turn down, you will win a logo assignment.”

TED’S TIP # 6

Don’t be afraid to say no to projects. Prove that you’re serious about specialization by turning down work that falls outside your area of expertise. The more people you say no to, the more referrals you’ll get to people who need your product or service.

“Good, because the next step is important. As we’ve discussed, the only way to sell the Stapleton Agency is to make it run without you calling all the shots. That means you need to provide instructions to your employees so that they can implement the Five-Step Logo Design Process.”

“Exactly. Imagine your Five-Step Logo Design Process is an assembly line with five machines and you need to teach someone to operate each machine. Start with how to turn it on, how to make it go, and how to read all of the buttons and gauges as it runs.”

“Take each step in the process and write a detailed instruction manual for completing that step. Give the instructions to one of your team members and see if they can follow the directions. Edit it until someone can follow the instructions without you hovering over them. This week, I’d like you to write an instruction manual for the Five-Step Logo Design Process. Bring it with you next time we meet and we can talk about how it is working.”

The mail was perched precariously on the corner of Alex’s desk. He carefully gathered the pile, cradling it close to his chest so as not to lose anything. One by one, he placed the envelopes into two piles. The first pile was for junk mail. The second pile contained white number 10 envelopes. The first pile began to grow: a computer flyer, a conference brochure. The second pile started to grow too.

Once he finished sorting the mail, Alex carefully organized the second pile. He took his letter opener, inserted it into the crack at the top of an envelope, and sliced it open. It revealed an invoice from a photographer they had used for the MNY brochure. The next one contained a $3,400 check, and the next, another invoice. The fourth envelope had MNY Bank’s familiar blue-and-gold logo in the top left-hand corner. Alex’s pulse quickened. This could only mean one of two things: Either he had received a statement of his accounts from Mary Pradham, or the check had arrived. He inserted the letter opener and made a clean incision. With the envelope fully opened he could see inside. It was a check for $52,000.

With the check deposited, Alex felt like he could finally breathe again. He sat down with his cup of Grande Bold and wrote down the instructions he wanted followed for each of the five steps in his logo design process.

For step one, he wrote the exact questions he wanted to ask clients. For step two, he outlined the personification examples to use in such painstaking detail that his eighty-three-year-old mother could administer the questionnaire. For step three, he specified how many sketches to render and what elements of a client’s business to use as inspiration for the imagery in a logo. The fourth step included strict instructions on how to present each black-and-white version, including the paper stock to use for printing. The fifth step outlined the detailed color combinations to use and what to include in the style guide given to each client.

By 6:00 p.m., Alex had created a first draft of his instruction manual. It was a complete summary of his vision and directions for creating a logo. Now if he could get his staff to follow the instructions, he could extricate himself from personally overseeing each new logo project.

Alex was slightly nervous as all seven of his employees found a seat at the boardroom table. He looked around and sized up his audience. His account directors were sitting next to each other, Rhina attentively with a notepad and sharpened pencil placed neatly in front of her, and Dean beside her, fiddling with his BlackBerry and pretending he had important clients to get back to. The designers were clustered together on one side of the table, with Sarah looking uninterested, Chris thumbing his mobile, and Elijah chatting with Tony. Even Alex’s office manager, Olga Retzich, had been asked to attend this important meeting.

Alex started the meeting by setting the stage for the changes he was about to implement. He talked about examples of companies that specialize in one thing. He explained why Southwest Airlines only uses the Boeing 737 model of airplane so that their crew can learn one piece of equipment and maintenance teams can quickly spot problems with one set of diagnostic routines to follow. Alex was proud of his example and used it as a springboard into revealing the changes that were afoot at the Stapleton Agency.

He read a thank-you letter from a client who had used the firm to create a product logo. He also talked about how much more satisfied their logo design clients were when compared to clients overall and how often logo clients returned for multiple product logos over time. Alex admitted where they had gotten in over their heads in taking on advertising projects that went beyond their capabilities.

He used a PowerPoint flowchart to reveal the Five-Step Logo Design Process and talked about the work they were doing with Ziggy at Natural Foods. He passed around a copy of the instruction manual that detailed the procedure for each step.

Elijah wasn’t so enthusiastic. “Specialization sounds great, but I thought advertising was supposed to be creative. What you’re talking about sounds like working in a factory.”

Dean chimed in. “I think we should be the trusted marketing adviser for all of our clients. How am I supposed to build a trusting relationship with my clients if all I am doing is flogging one service?”

Elijah had triggered a mutiny. Alex felt his temper rising. He inhaled deeply, counted to five, and said, “Our new process still allows plenty of latitude for creativity.”

Alex stared as Elijah fumbled to collect his things, refusing to make eye contact with his boss. Anticipating a confrontation, the other employees left the boardroom quickly. Alex walked across the room to close the door.

Elijah might well have gotten high marks in art class, but as far as Alex had seen, his talents didn’t translate well to marketing. “Being creative is a great asset,” he said, “but the Stapleton Agency is a business. And as a business, our first priority is to make money. If you want to be an artist and have free rein, I suggest you go find somewhere else to work.”

Alex felt good to have exercised his power as the owner of his own company. After all, his name was on the door and he would not stand for such blatant contempt—especially from his most junior employee. But then the broader implications of what he had just done started to wash over him. He’d be down to one designer. Elijah’s mother would find out, and that could jeopardize his relationship with MNY Bank.