Think about it, when the economy (i.e., GDP) is off a couple of percentage points from prior year, or unemployment is near 10%, we’re quick to bemoan the terrible business environment. Yet, the fact is that 90+% of folks still have their jobs and spending is 98% of prior year levels overall. It’s clear, in spite of the bankruptcies, foreclosures, inventory adjustments, and reduced big-ticket purchases that many businesses are operating fairly normally. In fact, some niches are booming, and the necessary belt-tightening in many other sectors is fairly modest. Because we become complacent in good times, preferring to let things run comfortably on autopilot, the hands-on leadership required during recessionary times seems like a painful intrusion on our otherwise routine lives. In fact, we know from Scripture that such trials, discipline, and pruning is often used by the Lord to build perseverance, character, and hope, while drawing us closer to God to produce a harvest of righteousness (e.g., Jn 15:1-4, Ro 5:3-5, He 12:11). Think of the travails of Abraham, Job, Joseph, Daniel, and David… and how the Lord blessed and used them due to their faithful perseverance and obedience. Consider the powerful resulting testimonies that honor God and still inspire us today. We have that same opportunity, as these timeless principles are still in operation today in the arena of business. The problem, to paraphrase commentator George Will, is that we’re great creatures of habit, doing the same things over and over, while only occasionally interrupted by an original thought.

First, let’s stop to remind ourselves of a few provocative facts:

• What got you here won’t get you there. Things change, even when we resist, causing a compelling need for us to adjust our offerings, methods, and staff core competencies if we’re to continue to provide a compelling customer value proposition. Necessity is often the mother of invention!

• For the thinking business leader, there are no commodities! It’s easy, especially in a recession to think that lower prices are all that matter and our company’s offerings are indistinguishable from our competitors. Focusing solely on competitors brings sameness, bloody price wars, and a loss of focus on what it takes to thrill customers with truly differentiated goods and services. For example, some might view copper as a commodity, but think about the differing ways it might be used (e.g., Siemens power plants, Carrier air conditioners, U.S. Mint pennies, Ford auto radiators, etc.)… all leading to differentiated selling, packaging and logistical support.

• Now is a great time for fresh thinking and perseverance in relooking at how to best serve customer needs! 50+% of companies on the 2009 Fortune 500 list were launched during a recession or bear market. The prize for companies who do what it takes to survive major economic dips — keeping a highly motivated staff nucleus in place and remaining a visible presence — is being first in line to address expanding customer demand with a sharpened offering when the rebound happens.

• The fundamentals of successful business – identifying customer needs and filling them well – haven’t changed. For those who are feeling beaten down, tired and ‘last generation,’ take note that the age group with the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity over the past decade are 55-64 year-olds! Those who ‘get it’ and regularly engage customers regarding their needs and hopes in any technical or supply niche will routinely uncover breakthrough business ideas!

We must shake ourselves out of our self-justifying tendencies, seeing things through the fixed prism that we’re most comfortable with, if we’re to move ahead and not choke off the good forward-looking ideas of our customers and staff. We so easily become trapped by our own past successes, methods, reputation, and words. Consider stopping, today, to deeply reconsider some of the unquestioned ‘givens’ in your business. Deeply engage your staff, as well as thoughtful and aggressive customers in the process. Take in raw, objective, third-party input along the way as grist for the discussion.

It’s obvious that businesses must continually adapt and reinvent various aspects of themselves (e.g., methods, processes, product lines, key staff, bundling of goods and services to address target customer needs) in order to stay relevant and healthy in a changing marketplace. So what’s changed in your target markets?

Leaders lead, and leadership by example is the best technique as proven for thousands of years. No great leader has ever been a disciple of “Do as I say, not as I do.” Over and over again in the study of leadership, it comes out. The greatest leaders are those having volunteer followers. Inspiration through example moves people to follow more effectively and for longer duration than anything else.

Inspiring and influencing others to follow voluntarily is leadership in its purest form.
Of course, there are other forms of leadership such as totalitarian authority, positional, monarchical, or elected majority and so on, but in the operation of a highly effective and long term successful company, volunteer followers are what we need, not slaves, serfs, or robots.
Probably the antithesis of the type of leaders we are striving to illustrate would be the army which is based upon positional authoritarian leadership. There is no choice given to the followers, it’s either obey or be punished. The leaders are identified by their title and it alone qualifies them to direct, give orders and make decisions.

Jesus might be the greatest example of a true leader. He had no title or position, no real power other than truth and example. He led by example and the power of His vision.
Ghandi is another example of a basically powerless man who is acknowledged to have been a great leader who influenced by example.

In our companies, we are the leaders. We have a title which demands respect and we can utilize the army model of chain-of-command leadership and management if we choose to do so. Most companies do but most of the best companies do not.
In today’s world, and, seemingly even more so, tomorrow’s’ high performing companies use a different style. Modern leaders will be more like Jesus than Patton.
Influence will be more effective than positional power and developing the ability to be an effective influencer is key.

To close our time today, let’s hear the famous poet Edgar Guest as he says:

I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day,
   I’d rather one should walk with me than merely show the way.
The eye’s a better pupil and more willing than the ear;
   Fine counsel is confusing, but examples always clear;
And the best of all the preachers are the men who live their creeds,
   For to see the good in action is what everybody needs.
I can soon learn how to do it if you’ll let me see it done.
   I can watch your hands in action but your tongue too fast may run.
And the lectures you deliver may be very wise and true;
    But I’d rather get my lesson by observing what you do.                              

For I may misunderstand you and the high advice you give,
   But there’s no misunderstanding how you act and how you live.

Taking Stock
What we do in the midst of a recession greatly influences our long-term prospects for being a high-performing company with an uncommon sense of purpose and teamwork. For leaders, this is an ideal time to take a fresh look at the fundamentals of the business and ensure a solid foundation for the future..

The following 7-Point Gut Check gives each of us an opportunity to “take stock” by self-evaluating our real-time leadership in seven vital areas.
■Get Off the Ledge First things first! If you’re still operating in the red or running ‘close to the edge’ on cash, what (or who) are you waiting for? If your sources of funds don’t provide enough cash each month to meet your uses of funds, you’re playing a losing game or putting your head in the sand. If you haven’t done it already, it’s time to reset your resource/capacity levels to match your activity so that you can continue operating indefinitely and profitably at this level
■Build a Winning Team This is a great time to clearly communicate and then regularly reinforce alignment on your firm’s core principles (i.e., vision, purpose, and core values).
Deep engagement is necessary to ensure clear buy-in and to help employees coalesce into a solid team.
■‘Lean’ Sales and Marketing Are your marketing efforts disjointed and based on historical habits and generic sounding appeals? Or, are they unified and based on a very focused and distinctive core message delivered through the most productive communication channels, beginning with your name, tagline, signage, website, literature, stationary, email and targeted ad spending?
■Clean-up Historical Operating Problems and Compromises Now’s the time to get serious about eliminating repetitive waste (e.g., poor project plans and costly quality problems), unnecessary capacity, underperforming suppliers, and organizational ‘ankle weights’ (e.g., naysayers, upward delegators, untrustworthy teammates, and accountability avoiders).
■Refocus around Planning and Execution Discipline Allowing multiple agendas in the same company is crippling. Involve key employees and staff leaders in the planning process and hold them responsible for delivering their piece of the Plan (e.g., revenue growth, cost, asset turns, etc.). Engage them in building the business ‘on paper’ with a fresh plan.
■Establish a Culture that Integrates Learning, Accountability, and Performance Pay A team that’s seriously engaged in making its Plan will constantly confront ‘off-Plan’ areas, hold each other accountable, and celebrate successes together. Share the pain and the gain, while cultivating a culture of ‘owners’ and committed ‘professionals.’
■Unwavering Personal Witness It’s incumbent on us to communicate clearly and lead with grace when making changes that negatively impact others. As a steward, servant leader, and Christ follower, we’re to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit in all seasons. Do we exhibit His peace in the midst of the storm?

Reflect on each of these seven areas. Any low score is worthy of personal reflection and prayer, discussion, and staff brainstorming to probe ways to remedy and elevate your company’s performance.
How can your leadership help your team to use this recession as a foundation strengthening time that provides a fine launching pad for the future?

Let’s begin our implementation focus by looking at the leadership practices which Reichheld’s research determined to be common among companies enjoying the greatest loyalty from customers and employees. Loyalty Rules highlights business practices that read like a C12 playbook, including the Golden Rule, pursuing excellence, simplicity, honesty, fairness, respect, personal accountability, and performance pay. These traits were distilled into six ‘loyalty principles’ to help to shape metrics, compensation systems, organizational development, strategy, and operations. As we review each element, make a mental note as to how your company fares.

Six Pillars of Loyalty

 Play to win/win: Profiting at the expense of partners is a shortcut to a ‘dead end’! Focus solely on opportunities/niches where you can become the best. Align partners around overarching objectives to upgrade the customer experience, and insist on win/win solutions. Shed distractions, sharpen plans and processes, and teach win/win behavior. Paul also taught this, saying, “Let each of you ‘look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.’” (Php 2:4).

 Be picky: Membership is a privilege! Loyalty requires making choices. Cultivate business relationships only when both sides can provide special value or you’ll soon dilute your value and be special to no one. Choose employees, customers, and suppliers carefully, through a win/win lens. Invest in their success and stick with them for the long-term… if they earn the privilege through performance. Loyalty is a two-way street!

 Keep it simple: Complexity is the enemy of speed and flexibility! Clarify the values and rules that govern all decisions. Use small teams to maximize responsiveness, flexibility and accountability. Maintain simple, stable, visual scorekeeping. Reduce overhead ‘interference’ by growing your business without growing HQ staff. Focus on continuous improvement and ‘the future.’ Remember, whatever doesn’t add customer value is waste!

 Reward the right results: Worthy partners deserve worthy goals! Align performance targets so that all partners stretch, together, for worthy goals. Share the benefits while strengthening the company. Don’t confuse long-term value with short-term profits, or loyalty with tenure. Measure the right things and fix ‘misalignments.’ Reward loyalty among employees, suppliers and customers with win/win growth and development opportunities.

 Listen hard, talk straight: Long-term relationships require honest, two-way communication and learning! Loyalty is based on trust, and trust requires reliable and accurate information. Deepen working relationships using feedback tools and joint forums to drive improvement. Listen to input, prioritize issues, and act on what you hear. Shared learning and understanding yields clearer priorities, coordinated actions, and superior results. Nothing magnifies the ‘loyalty effect’ like trust rooted in an open exchange of information and ideas. Confront ‘brutal facts’ in a way that exemplifies the truth being spoken in love (e.g., regular report cards, real-time metrics)!

 Preach what you practice: Actions often speak louder than words, but together they’re unbeatable! Clarify your principles and communicate them with passion. They’re the gravitational center for organization focus and loyalty, enabling your partners to understand, buy in, and become truly loyal. Put it in writing, talk the walk, continually teach and reinforce these practices. Celebrate internal heroes, share edifying stories and illustrative case studies. Continually cast the vision of where we’re going and how we’ll get there, based on mutually earned loyalty.

 “If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying “Circus coming to the Fairground Saturday,” that’s advertising. If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into town, that’s promotion. If the elephant walks through the mayor’s flower bed, that’s publicity. And if you get the mayor to laugh about it, that’s public relations. If the town’s citizens go the circus, you show them the many entertainment booths, explain how much fun they’ll have spending money at the booths, answer their questions and ultimately, they spend a lot at the circus, that’s sales.”

  While humorous, the above quote captures the reality for many of us with respect to marketing… so many words, but so little understanding, focus and disciplined application. Although few business owners and CEOs imagine themselves to be topnotch ‘marketers,’ marketing is merely a broad banner flying over several fairly straight-forward business responsibilities. Getting a handle on a few key aspects of marketing – out of the continuing barrage of supposedly indispensable ‘new’ ideas pushed by consultants and business writers – will serve us well in building a growing enterprise.

So, What is Marketing?

 Marketing is the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit. It (1) identifies unfulfilled needs and desires, (2) defines, measures, and quantifies the size of the identified market and its profit potential, and (3) pinpoints the market segments that the company is capable of serving best, and it designs and promotes the appropriate products and services.

  Based on this definition, marketing clearly isn’t solely the responsibility of a specific department or key supplier, but rather an integrated subject requiring top management leadership and company-wide team effort. Marketing involves thoughtful strategic planning based on an accurate understanding of current capabilities and marketplace opportunities, on-going customer feedback and analysis of market trends, and a variety of ways to communicate to and stimulate target markets to spur profitable sales growth.

   Is improved marketing on the mind of the typical Christian business owner? In a recent nationwide survey of C12 members, improved strategic planning ranked as the single most pressing identified need (with 98% expressing current interest) from among a list of 19 specific business skills!

  In classic marketing lingo, once we’ve identified and analyzed the various market segments, strategically selected our target market segments, and considered how to best position ourselves to that target, we establish the optimum ‘marketing mix’ for each of our offerings by selecting the ideal set of choices from among ‘the four Ps’:

Product: the good or service that is designed, produced, and offered for sale

Price: the cost or exchange required for the customer to obtain our product

Place: marketing/distribution channels where our product is available

Promotion: encompasses all sales communication aimed at creating awareness and attraction, including advertising, selling, sales promotion, merchandising, and public relations

 Marketing Consistent with Our Purpose and Values

 Before we leave the subject of marketing, let’s talk briefly about shaping our marketing messages consistent with our stated purpose and core principles as Christians. It’s so easy to fall into the typical advertising appeals and positioning statements of our times which appeal to human vanity and idolatry. As ambassadors of Christ, our focus should be on excellence in our service to others, while avoiding manipulation, exaggerated claims, fleshly appeals and deceptive offers that would do damage to our testimony and harm those we are privileged to serve. Marketing messages that are excessively self-congratulatory or feed ungodly desires, behavior, or thinking should be avoided. We should aim to point others to God’s best and highest purposes with trustworthy, best-in-class service of their legitimate needs in a manner that honors God, is family friendly, and encourages the eternal perspective. As Jesus said, “How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?” (Jn 5:44).

 At the end of the day, excellent marketing is an expression of stewardship of the company He has given us to run for Him!

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What does Christian integrity mean when applied to our vocations? Since Jesus doesn’t have two sets of values, there isn’t one set of values to be used in church or sacred venues and another to be applied in the marketplace. Christian integrity recognizes only one set and source for its values – Jesus’ teachings. A person said to have Christian integrity is one who lives an integrated life, made morally and spiritually whole in both belief and action, in-line with Jesus’ clear teaching.

Obviously, the world employs very different goals and tactics. The teachings of Christ stand in vivid contrast to the conventional ‘wisdom,’ instruction, and practices of our society where situational ethics prevail. His ways are scorned and rejected by unbelievers (and, to our shame, by many who label themselves Christians). Jesus’ teachings are said to be impractical, old fashioned, exclusionary, idealistic, and so on.

The world barely concedes a place for our faith on Sundays, let alone anywhere else. Contemporary western culture mockingly considers our Sunday worship, embrace of Biblical principles and desire to finish strong in this life as misguided and costly. The world would have us, instead, pragmatically pursue the American dream by consuming and pursuing riches to fund a lifetime of golf, fishing, cruising and ‘perpetually young’ golden years. There is no peace between Jesus and the world. None. He loves the world, but the world hates Him.

Do you want to change the world for Christ through the marketplace? Our character and conduct are prerequisites to enabling fruitful ministry. What we do (i.e., how we make a living) is not as important as who we are (i.e., how we make a life) expressed through our integrity in Christ. By extension, the character of our company results from translating shared values into action in a way that others can see. This requires that we have the guts to do what’s right, even when others wouldn’t blame us for compromising. Let’s be counted among the few that aren’t “posers” by leading others with genuine transparency and trust. May our Lord enable us to have the guts to stand firm, speaking the truth in love, in a society that expects hypocrisy!

1. Defining your Dominant Selling Idea (DSI) Our DSI is a unifying, energizing, focusing, trust-building, clutter-removing, lean-value-creating notion – a motivating difference at the moment of the purchase decision – that communicates our #1 position in a ‘desirable specialty’ that’s important to our target customers. That’s a mouthful, but unless we’re able to define our DSI, we won’t be able to ‘attach it’ to our name… a requirement for branding. Our DSI fuses our name to a #1 specialty in the customer’s mind. Remember, our customers must ‘cut through the fog’ of competing suppliers in an instant, hopefully as follows: Industry  Category  Specialty  #1 in Specialty  Our Brand Name

  First, we must articulate our clear ownable specialty. To view us as #1 at something, customers must first relate us to a specialty category, even if we have to invent it! When internal combustion engines became commonplace, Evinrude coined the term ‘outboard motor’ and dominated its growing niche. After airplanes became pervasive, proliferating specialty categories enabled leadership positions to be carved out in jets (vs. propeller-driven), fighter jets (vs. passenger/freight/corporate), supersonic (vs. subsonic), and stealth (vs. radar detectable). Boeing became #1 in the ‘jumbo jet’ category, just as many automakers now hope to be #1 in ‘hybrid cars.’ Within the global auto industry, little Subaru has become #1 in the “SUV Wagon” category and Volvo is branded as “the world’s safest car.”

After defining our clear ownable specialty, we can now develop our DSI. Imagination helps. For example, Rolaids invented the term “Acid Indigestion,’ Hall’s coined “Vapor Action,” and Metamucil renamed flea seed fiber as “100% Natural Psyllium.” To be powerful and memorable, our DSI should be as concise as possible (e.g., M&Ms–Melts in Your Mouth not in Your Hands; Allstate–The Good Hands People).

Ideally, our DSI will possess five ‘selling attributes’:

◊ Superlative – we’re best-in-class at something

◊ Important – that ‘something’ really matters

◊ Believable – there are logical reasons why this is the case

◊ Memorable – an emotional, easy-to-remember, ‘hook’ related to needs and wants

◊ Tangible – real and trusted based on our actual performance

 Once we have a DSI, we can use four vital supporting elements to bring it to life.

2. Your Company or Product Line’s Name When our name accentuates our DSI, we’ve got a powerful one-two punch! A descriptive and memorable name is best. Initials, family surnames, and innocuous labels can, of course, become familiar and meaningful in time (e.g., Toyota, Sears, IBM, etc.), but it’s far better to have a name that’s:

◊ Directly supportive of our DSI

◊ Descriptive, memorable, or evocative

◊ Ownable and protectable

◊ Easy and pleasing to say

Consider these communicative names that seem to have a built-in DSI: DieHard Batteries, Invisible Fence, Home ATM Software, Egg Beaters, Ball Park Franks, Super Bowl. Compare their marketing power to generic names such as Acme, Universal, Smith, etc.

3. Your Tagline This valuable selling tool supports your DSI by clearly ‘promising a difference’ that customers want to buy. Like your name, it will ideally be concise, colorful, evocative and memorable. Here are a few famous ones:

◊ Timex – Takes a Licking and keeps on Ticking

◊ Bounty – The Quicker-Picker-Upper

◊ Prudential – Get a Piece of the Rock

◊ Black Flag Roach Motel – Roaches Check In, but They Don’t Check Out.

◊ Visa – It’s Everywhere You Want to Be

4. Key Visuals While graphic design gives a brand consistency, key visuals demonstrate the performance and proof of your DSI at a glance, demonstrating that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Many are, in effect, instantaneous selling demos. A few examples:

◊ Masterlock – rifle bullet blasting through

◊ Tropicana – an orange with a straw in it

◊ Milk Industry – white milk mustache

◊ Crazy Glue – helmeted guy stuck to football goal crossbar

◊ Michelin Tire – secure smiling baby sitting in tire

5. Making it Real We either perform in such a way to make our DSI real or we don’t. Nothing kills a great brand message faster than poor follow-through.

Strong marketing creates great anticipation that can quickly turn into anger, a sense of betrayal, and a dead brand! Team unity and alignment, consistent with our company’s purpose and values, is essential to success. Assess how customers experience your DSI and evaluate your performance at each ‘touch point’ to ensure each element of the customer experience resonates with your promise.

What have we learned? Brands really matter! They’re accessible to all types and sizes of companies who consistently communicate their Dominant Selling Idea using readily available tools. Finally, they involve leadership focus and teamwork more than money to implement.