Slant Playmakers

Meet Slant Playmaker #1 - Blane Bachelor

Her background in newspapers has paved the way for a successful freelance career, during which she’s written for Marie Claire, FOXNews.com, USA Today, Modern Bride, Islands and many others. 

She also writes a weekly advice column entitled Ask a Bachelor, which appears in Atlanta’s The Sunday Paper. In addition, she writes for trade publications, news agencies and corporate clients, including American Express and Turner.

Don't let the smile fool you, she's all you can handle!

Strategy - Offensive Mindset

Before we can execute any plays from the “Offense” side of our Playbook we need to get in the right mindset. It’s tough to summarize all of the physical and mental attributes of the most successful entrepreneurs so let’s use a sports analogy and find a QB!

Easy Raider fans, I’m not going to use our QB. (even though Rich Gannon is still my favorite)

For this discussion, we’re going north... Indy.

Our subject... Peyton Manning. (Thanks Dot & Ed, I’m officially converted!)

Put aside all of his physical skills for a moment. I can argue that he is at best, “ upper mid-pack” for arm strength, agility and speed (dude is slow). Brother Eli probably wins the Manning family cookout throwing contests. Tom Brady does the best job of pocket agility since Joe Montanna. Mike Vick’s speed was measured with a stop watch, Peyton’s with a calendar.

That being said, give me one game with everything on the line and my choice is simple... Peyton Manning.

He embodies all of the attributes needed to win in business and football.

Student of the game

• Peyton puts in the time to study and watch film.
  
• He analyzes the competition’s strengths and weaknesses.
  
• He searches for patterns and flaws in their execution.
  
• He understands their tendencies and habits.

Strategist

• He serves as a coach on the field, understanding not only the play but how each player must execute it.
  
• He evaluates his strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to craft a game plan with the highest probability of success.
  
• He stays with the plan despite short term challenges and set backs.
  
• He is mechanically sound, practicing all of the components that are within his control. The result is a consistent level of performance.

Tactician

• He is mentally agile and can adapt the game plan in real-time.
  
• He has the ability to “read” (observe) defenses and “recognize” (interpret) situations.
  
• He has the confidence to call audibles or change the play. (watch him at the line of scrimmage, he reads the defense and changes anything from the formation to play itself)
  
• He goes though his “progression” of receivers quickly to select the best option. (the Sprint commercial with him in the hotel hallway, looking behind the doors of multiple rooms, while the defender bears down on him is brilliant!)

Execution

• He sticks with the plan, finding ways to learn as he executes scripted plays.
  
• He consistently uses his strengths to minimize his weaknesses, leaving little to ‘chance’ or competitive exploitation.
  
• He takes calculated risks.
  
• He quickly gets past interceptions and errors, seldom making the same mistake twice.
  
• He leads.
  

See how this mindset aligns with playing offense in your industry?

• Do your homework
  
• Have a game plan
  
• Have a Playbook
  
• Be mentally agile
  
• Be consistent
  
• Be a LEADER
  

Origin of Slant

Slant started out as the answer to the question...”Now what?”

A client who had just spent an enormous amount of money on a new Web site, asked a valid question. “How is this going to make me money?” (*Crickets*...I didn’t have an answer.)

Got one now.

The name comes from the football route. Regardless of the secondary coverages, some combination of the slant route will enable you to attack the defense. It’s not easy to execute. It’s based on precise timing and execution thus, the slant requires more practice time than any other individual route. The result is a play that is practically impossible to defend.

The goal of Slant Marketing?

Create strategy that is impossible to defend. Exploit your markets/competition, to attract and retain new clients. Develop your brand. Build brand equity. Dominate your market.

Evaluate: options, risk and gain.

Then...“make a play”.

When "less" is more...

First things first, I have a bias toward these guys. In the spirit of full disclosure, I know them pretty well. A couple of them are the kids of one of my good friends so, they’re pretty much family.

That being said, they are great guys and make fantastic music. They’re in full rotation in my car along side MB 20, Gin Blossoms, Collective Soul and Harry Connick. (Yeah, Harry Connick)

Here’s the “more” part.

Simple question, “What’s the deal with the name?”

About 15 seconds into Zac’s answer, he stopped being “Todd’s kid who plays music” and became my link to something way bigger than I thought. I know the values he’s been raised on so, his understanding of where he fits in the grand scheme of things didn’t surprise me.

What got my attention was his humility and resolve to make a difference. These guys “get it”. No ego. No bravado. Believe me folks, if anyone could have a big head it’s these guys. Good looking, talented and just old enough to be dangerous. Usually a toxic blend but not this time.

Kids and dogs. I’ve always thought that kids and dogs were the true test of character. They don’t have the filters and the biases that adults build into “character judging”. So far they have passed my two toughest tests; my son Jordan and my dog Bailey. Jordan and his friends love them! (Try being cool or relevant to a group of 14 year olds). Bailey likes them too. (I think someone was feeding her BBQ at the cookout.)

I say all that, to say this...charismatic leaders are hard to find. Charismatic people, a dime a dozen. These guys have the potential to lead young and old in a truly positive direction. Just in time if you ask me. A new weapon in the fight against an increasingly toxic society.

The less is not a band, it’s a movement. Keep an eye on these guys, they’ll be big.

http://www.myspace.com/theless

The Unthinkable...

Here's a thought that hit me this morning.

You may need to consider the "unthinkable" and create alliances with your competitors to make it through the current economic downturn. 

Let this one soak for a minute.

I'm the last person to lecture anyone about competitive "cease-fires" or "working relationships".  Slant is in the competitive disruption business so the concept of playing nice does not sit well with me. Competitors are to be analyzed, benchmarked, targeted and defeated. Simple plan. No hidden agendas. Put them on notice, rattle their cage and take their clients.

Here is the reality, every industry will see some sort of contraction.  Some of it will be internal and will include; restructuring, lay-offs and budget cuts.  Some will be external, driven by contraction in their client's world.  Most businesses are not set up to cash flow extended periods of declining revenue.  Dare I say, no company is set up to run with a declining revenue model. (See: GM, Chrysler and Ford)

So here's the thought.  Think about creating alliances of convenience and survival.  The higher priority is to protect the integrity of your industry or vertical.  This means you have to band together to serve the needs of your clients so that they don't shift their paradigm and cut you out totally.  Today's temporary cost cutting initiative can easily become tomorrow's best practice.  The service industry is extremely susceptible to these seismic changes in buying and usage patterns.

Some of you have already fostered some sort of competitive alliance.  Congrats on being ahead of the curve. 

For the rest, think through this one.  Your survival may depend on it.

Best quote ever...

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. 

Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

~ Sun Tzu

The Value of a Buyer Persona

Many of you have heard me say that step #1 is to work on your Positioning. Well there is a step #.5, "profiling" or creating Buyer Personas that help identify the ideal prospect for your product or services. 

Before we can figure out what problems we solve with our goods and services, we need to think through the key attributes of the person(s) who would be the buyer/user. The "Whom do we serve?" question gets answered here. The trick is that we need to consider demographic and psychographic information. I was not the one who came up with this philosophy, many good marketing thinkers and a ton of books reference "The Ideal Client" in some way. I like Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsch. He's smart and makes it sound simple. Read that book.

Consider the following areas when you are building your Buyer Personas:

Demographic:

• Age
  
• Gender
  
• Marital status
  
• Profession
  
• Income
  
• Location
  

Psychographic:

• Category (Entrepreneur, Manager or Technician)
  
• Needs
  
• Frustrations
  
• Desires
  
• Communication methods
  
• Decision making process (How do they search for info? Where do they search for info? Do they consult others?)

Something Rogue...

Looking for something a little "rogue"? 

Check out Slant Marketing's sister company, Rogue Industries. (www.thinkrogue.com)

It's actually my alter-ego and the parent company of Slant. 

Think of it this way, where Slant is polished and engages clients as an "embedded" resource, Rogue is gritty and provides situational strategy for business partners and non-retained engagements.

Translation:

Slant Marketing = "I need help positioning my brand and setting my Go to Market Strategy. Can you help us define it, create campaigns and execute them?"

Rogue = "I need help positioning my brand and setting my Go to Market Strategy. Can you help us draft a program that we can execute?"

Rogue = "We are a Marketing firm too but don't have the resources to engage in the strategy side. Can you join our team and help out our clients?"