Gotta Have the Want-to

Eighty-four-year-old cowboy Delmar Smith was asked on National Public Radio what it took, above all else, to succeed in the rodeo business.

He answered in three syllables: "The want-to."

The trouble with so many organizations today is easy to figure out. 

Most employees have no want-to. 

As hapless customers, we witness the results more than once every single day.

I'm not just playing the curmudgeon (although I enjoy the role immensely).  There's hard proof that most US employees have no want-to.

The vast majority of US employees, according to a survey by Gallup of 42,000 randomly selected adults, are want-to deficient.

To be precise, 49 percent of US employees are "disengaged" from their jobs and 18 percent are "actively disengaged" from their jobs, according to Gallup.

In case the difference eludes you, employees who are "disengaged" sleepwalk through the workday; employees who are "actively disengaged" labor hard to demonstrate discontent.

How can the majority of our workers recover their want-to?  I'd start by indexing all corporate officers' weekly compensation to measures of their subordinates' want-to.

How to Boost Tradeshow Attendance

Lord willing and the creek don't rise, I'll speak next month at a terrific little conference in downtown Washington, DMAW's Association Marketing Day.

My topic will be tradeshow attendance promotion.

I'll share this year’s best practices for building attendance.  The guidance comes from new research among 40 of the nation’s largest event organizers, provided to me by the producer of the Large Show Roundtable.

But the reason you should be there is to learn from the three other panelists joining the one-hour session, Innovations in Increasing Your Meeting and Convention Attendance.

They're truly impressive.

Direct marketing agency authority Craig Blake, Senior Vice President, Nexus Direct, will explain how to counteract the macro-trends that are putting downward pressure on attendance.

And master marketers Margaret Core, Managing Director, Sales & Marketing, Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), and Christine Maple, Marketing Manager, Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI), will provide dozens of strategies and tactics designed to drive attendance.

Check out the conference Website, okay?

Grave News

Unless you're part of the Addams Family, obituaries aren't typically funny. 

But Washington, DC humorist Gene Weingarten managed to pen a cute one last Sunday in The Washington Post, "Goodbye, cruel words: English. It's dead to me."

English, "which arose from humble Anglo-Saxon roots to become the lingua franca of 600 million people," passed away on August 21st, according to Weingarten.  "Signs of its failing health had been evident for some time on the pages of America's daily newspapers."

The chief causes of death are listed as greed and indifference.

"It was not immediately clear to what degree the English language will be mourned, or if it will be mourned at all," notes Weingarten. 

"In the United States, English has become increasingly irrelevant, particularly among young adults. Once the most popular major at the nation's leading colleges and universities, it now often trails more pragmatic disciplines, such as economics, politics, government, and, ironically, "communications," which increasingly involves learning to write mobile-device-friendly ads for products like Cheez Doodles."

Road to Rio

In her fetching blog, Musings on Marketing and Other Morsels, "Madman" Marjorie Clayman 
consoles social media marketing newbies who might be disappointed they're not yet famous that "there is a reason to keep on trying."

She describes the grisly feeling of being a digital Jonny-come-lately ("No matter how long I work on this, there will always be a crowd of people who have been working on it longer") and how the "pioneers" of social media marketing seem remote and awesome ("I am not in the crowd of people who are up in the highest room of the tallest tower").

Clayman then guesses the future road to fame for herself and others lies in some place other than the worlds of blogs and Twitter.  "I'm not sure folks coming up with me, now, can ever achieve the kind of pull and influence that the leaders in this space have now.  Or if we do, it will be through a very different pathway."

I understand well the feelings of futility social media marketers are prey to.  But I'm not sure the old road to fame is overcrowded, blocked or worn out.

In fact, I'm not sure there is an old road, except for the one to Rio. 

I like the advice of the Spanish poet Antonio Machado:

"Travelers, there is no path, paths are made by walking."

Three Rules for Building Trust

I've written a special report, Path of Persuasion: Winning Customers in the Age of Suspicion.  

It sets out three cardinal rules for
communicating effectively:

1. Harmonize your messages with your customers’ notions of “truth.”
2. Speak only in the manner of an authentic organization.
3. Achieve artless clarity in everything you publish.

By following these rules, you'll create a "comfort zone" in which customer engagement and conversation can occur.

Download your free copy now.