Safety Consulting Corner

Inside the Wall

If you are like me, you take a lot of notes when attending meetings and conferences and often, record a lot of good information that you intend to act on later. The key word here is "intend." I have notebooks filled with seminar information that I usually forget about when I get back to the office. I recently found an old set of notes scribbled during a full day seminar I attended on marketing a few years ago. The "scribbles" that caught my attention the most were about "Inside the Wall Marketing."

The idea behind inside the wall marketing is that intrigue adds impact. When you watch a television commercial or see an advertisement in a magazine, how long does it take for you to figure out who the advertisement is about? The longer it takes for you to figure this out, the longer you are giving your attention to the advertisement and this is exactly what the advertisers want. Once the advertiser has your attention, they have got you - they are "inside the wall." They can never sell you anything if they don't get inside the wall. Do you get junk mail that you immediately throw out without even opening? These companies are failing to get inside the wall. Without any intrigue, we are more likely to ignore the person or thing trying to get our attention. 

Describing is not connecting and to create some type of intrigue, you need to connect with your prospects and one way to do that is to make your prospect feel something. You will still have to convince people how good your services are but by making them feel something, you are at least getting over the wall.

During this December, one commercial that frequently catches my eye  - even though I have seen it half a dozen times - is of something that looks like a home movie. It shows a little boy, and his sister - very, VERY, excited about a gift they just unwrapped. The little boy is screaming with excitement. I don't watch this commercial because I like the company, but I love to watch the little boy so excited opening his present (the emotional connection). In this commercial, you don't even know who the company is until the very end of the 30 seconds. This company definitely knows how to get inside the wall.

Do you do any type of marketing or advertising in an effort to get new customers? Does your message create any type of intrigue?  How are you getting "inside the wall?"

UPS - Not the mail delivery service

This past Friday, I tripped the circuit in my living room. I went to the panel, threw the switch and went to check on the area. Unfortunately, my computer was currently running in that room. I had mistakenly believed that the surge protector I use would protect me from any unusual electrical events but when my computer came back on, I saw the  consultants worse nightmare - the blue screen of death! I am quite computer literate and have been able to fix this type of problem before but no matter what I tried, I couldn't fix this one. With several end of year deadlines looming, I had to call in an expert. It was the first time I tried one of the "rent a geek" services (in my area, the company is called "De-Bug It" and they come to your location in a little yellow VW Bug). Within 2 hours, I had a bona fide "geek" at my doorstep. The company charges by the hour so while the "geek" was running a repair program on my damaged hard drive, I also had him look at some minor issues on the other computers in my home. Overall, I was thrilled with this service, partly because one of the things I miss most (maybe the only thing) about the corporate world is not having an IT department or help desk when I need it most, but the intention of this post is not to tell you that. My intention is to share the lesson learned - the importance of an UPS. UPS stands for uninterruptible power supply. As my new geek friend explained, the surge protector protects from surges in energy when the power comes back on but not when the power suddenly goes out as in a black out or a tripped circuit. To avoid a similar situation in the future, my "geek" said I would need an UPS. The UPS is a battery back up that gives anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour or so of power. In the event that the power goes out, the  user has the ability to get to the computer and shut it down properly. When the circuit tripped in my living room, apparently Windows was busy "writing" something and when the process was cut short, it lost/damaged part of the system files forever. If I had had an UPS, Windows could have kept going and I could have shut down the computer properly. I just came from Staples and there are a lot of options to pick from. Find someone who knows what they are talking about to help you choose your UPS and hook one up asap. It could save you a big headache. That's all for now.... Happy Consulting (and Happy Holidays!)