It’s not always easy to reach your target audience and this is true regardless of what market you are in.  Sometimes you have to go through several channels before you can reach the decision maker and the process can be time consuming and tedious.  Even when you finally reach the decision maker, they can be unenthusiastic with your product or service and may simply turn you away.  However, it’s not always necessary to go directly after the decision maker, instead you can go after the sphere of influence.  Going after the sphere of influence accomplishes two main things.  First of all it provides you with a warm introduction to the decision maker from an internal source.  Second, it allows the decision maker to lean on his/her sphere for support or advice.  This means that if you can get the sphere of influence on your side, you have a much better shot at getting the decision maker on your side as well.

A sphere of influence is comprised of the people that surround you and give you advice or ideas on various topics.  Think of your friends, family, and co-workers as great examples of spheres of influence.  If you want to find a good restaurant around town, you may ask your friends what they recommend.  If you are looking to transition jobs or move to a new company you may ask your co-workers for advice.  If you want advise on areas to relocate to or advice on how to budget finances you may ask a family member.  All of these people make up your sphere of influence and these people are crucial because they shape you who are, what you consume, and how you live your life.

Similarly, in a corporate environment, decision makers have their own spheres of influence, usually co-workers.  If you find that it is difficult to get directly to the decision maker then begin buiding relationships with the “sphere.”  Notice I said building relationships, this doesn’t mean spamming someone or trying to pitch a product to everyone in the “sphere.”  This means building relationships with them.  For example, why not take out the receptionist to coffee or take the adminstrative assistant out to lunch?  Usually there are co-decision makers that readily influence the ultimate decision.  Build a relationships with them and then THEY will introduce you to the proper decision makers.  Not only that, but if you can get can someone other than the decision maker to get excited about a product or a service, then you have a much better shot at getting the decision maker excited about your product or service as well.

How are you tapping into the “sphere of inluence?”

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We have all heard the term “beta” and I’m not talking about the dreadful beta used in statistics or in stock risk calculations.  I’m talking about the “beta” we see before virtually every new tech company that emerges.  Just take a look at the web 2.0 directory and you will see that a fairly large portion of the companies have “beta” written just after (or before) their company name.  But what does the beta mean?  Well beta is supposed to mean that the company has a product that they wanted to test out on a few people, then, when testing is complete, the company will move out of beta and will officially launch to the public.  OR Beta can mean “we’re covering our ass in case something goes bad, that way, we can just tell people we’re in beta and problems are expected.”

There are a few things to know about “beta”

• Until you fully launch and open your doors to everyone (unless it’s a restricted service) you’re in beta
• If you are still testing anything, you are in beta
• If you just launched your product but you haven’t tested it yet, guess what, you’re still in beta
• Beta is not meant to justify problems, it’s more of a “be patient and work with us” notification
• If you don’t know if your company is in beta, then it’s most likely in beta
• If you are scared to announce yourself because of competition, you’re in beta
• You probably should not be in beta for more than 1 year max, otherwise you probably have some problems
• If you are in beta then you should be constantly rolling out new features and fixing bugs, beta is not a stage during which you sit around, beta = product development at a rapid pace
• Beta is all about taking the feedback you get from your beta users and turning it into something tangible, like a new feature or design element

Beta has become almost cliche, it’s a term that virtually every new startup attached to itself.  Some beta companies do not even know they are in beta.  Other companies are in beta but tell users that they are not because they want to appear more established.  Either way, let’s start using the term “beta” for what it really is.  Beta means:

“The initial development and testing stages of a product or a company that relies heavily on feedback from beta testers.  During the beta stage a company should make observable and measurable changes and improvements based on beta tester feedback.  Beta also means developing the business side of a company from pr to marketing and go to market strategy.  Post beta means opening up the flood gates and being able to handle it.”

How else would you define beta?

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Is giving your customers too much choice really a bad thing?  Barry Schwartz a renowned psychologist explores the paradox of choice in this interesting video from the TED conference.  How much choice are you giving your customers?

I would love to hear your feeback/thoughts on the video, what did you think?

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Let’s say you form a company with a few of your friends.  You guys are easy going but get your work done.  You’re not formal, in fact your almost the exact opposite of corporate.  You guys love to have fun and people can tell you enjoy what you do.  Your personalities make you guys hip, cool, and cutting edge.  People love your company and they love the people behind it.  Now let’s say your company begins to grow from 3 people to 15 people then to 25 people, 45, 75, etc.  How do you scale your personality within the company?

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I get into the elevator in my apartment building and see a sign that says “refer a friend to live in the building and make $150,” in order to qualify for the cash, the person you refer must sign a 6 or a 12 month lease.  At the very top of this little flier it says “the easiest money you will ever make.”  Someone in my apartment complex must be completely clueless or ignorant.  First of all, if getting someone to sign a 6 or 12 month lease to live in my building is that easy, then the people running the building should have no trouble doing it right?  Why give away money for something that is “so easy” to do.

Not only that but offering $150? are you kidding me?  The person signing the 6 or 12 month lease is going to be forking over thousands of dollars to live in the building and you want to offer me $150?  That hardly covers grocery costs for a week.

The point is, if you are going to market and promote a rewards program you need to make sure that:

• the reward program is feasible (It’s not easy to get someone to move into a building for 6-12 months)
• the reward is worth it ($150?….seriously?)
• the marketing collateral does not insult people (”easiest money I will ever make?”…don’t think so)

Otherwise, don’t bother trying to introduce a rewards program, it will fail.

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