by Kirby Hasseman
It’s Monday (as I am writing this) and that means it’s time for the WIG meeting at Hasseman Marketing. You might be asking, “What’s a WIG meeting?” It stands for the “Wildly Important Goal” and the concept comes from the book 4 Disciplines of Execution. We have a weekly WIG meeting each Monday to keep each other accountable and to try and push the company forward.
Quickly, here are the 4 Disciplines…
1. Set a Wildly Important Goal: In each organization, there are constantly things that have to get done. These are the every day tasks that tend to take up your day. When you try to role out a new strategy or initiative, these every day tasks (the whirlwind) get in the way. By setting just one wildly important goal, it helps to focus the team.
2. Create Lead Measures: I love this part. I am a huge believer in goals, but by the time you can measure if you accomplished them, they are in the past. So 4 Disciplines tells you to set “lead measures” for your goals. These are the things that you have control over (no one can stop you) and will lead toward your goal (if done consistently). For example, if the WIG is to lose weight, the lead measures might be eating a healthy diet and exercising. These lead to where you want to go!
3. Keep a Scoreboard: If you come across a group of kids playing basketball, can you tell if they are keeping score. Yes…you can. The intensity picks up. They start playing defense. They start high-fiving after baskets. The same is true for your team. We have created a Google Doc that allows us to keep an eye on how we are doing…all of the time.
4. Accountability Meeting: Which leads nicely to our Monday WIG meeting. We get together on Monday (online) for a 10 minute check in meeting. We discuss what 1 thing we wanted to do last week (that moves us toward our goal), how we did on that goal, and what we are going to do this week.
I really like this system. If you have spent the time to set a Wildly Important Goal, focusing on Lead Measures is a more productive way to schedule my week. These are things I can accomplish…no one gets in my way. And if I don’t do it, it’s on me. From a leadership perspective, I like it because…
It’s helps me keep in touch with my team: At a glance I can look at the scoreboard and see how they are doing. Yes, the activity is tracked by the honor system. They could be padding their numbers, but most of the time I think the numbers are accurate. Either way, it gives me a sense.
Creates Competition: With the right team, your team starts to compete on their own.
Helps You Notice Patterns: When your team is busy, the pro-active measures take a back seat. You notice that with this system. And if you are paying attention, you can point it out. Better yet, your team will notice it on their own. Also, we all have patterns in activity…I noticed that my activity starts to trail off toward the end of the week. I had no idea…until I saw it on the scoreboard!
Re-Focus on the Goal: Each week we get together and re-focus on the goal. This reminder and accountability can have powerful benefits. If you want to dig in further, check out the book! But if you want to chat about how to implement this into your team, let me know. I will gladly do my best to help.
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by Kirby Hasseman
Social media can really be a wonderful thing. We get the opportunity to connect with people from around the globe and reconnect with people from our past. We get to share and communicate, and it gives each and every one of us a voice. But we all know that there are some things about social media that are not as good. People have a tendency to get themselves in trouble by making some pretty simple mistakes. So here are 7 things that you (or the people your organization) should STOP doing right away.
Stop Complaining About Work or Co-Workers: If you are complaining about your co-workers or your job, and you think they can’t see it, you are wrong. They will find out. It’s unprofessional. And if you don’t care that you lose your job, just keep in mind that your next employer will be checking social media on you too.
Stop Passive Aggressive Complaints: This is when someone is obviously complaining about something that happened but does not want to address it in person. “Some people should just stop…” or posts of the like. If you have a problem with someone, be a grown up and talk to them about it.
Stop Claiming Free Speech: The First Amendment was created so that we could speak out without fear of being imprisoned by the government…not for being a jerk on Facebook. You do have freedom of speech, but you don’t have freedom of consequences. Stop acting like you do.
Stop Looking for a Reason to be Mad: It seems like some people wake up each day searching for a reason to be outraged. If you look for reasons to be angry all the time, you will find them (this post for example). Stop seeking out reasons to be mad and you might actually get happier.
Stop Comparing Your Life to Others: The fact is, most people (myself included) sometimes put up our “highlight reel” on social media. We post the pictures that look great. We show our vacations, not the times we are crying in the corner. Just be better than you were yesterday…stop worrying if Frank is on vacation again.
Stop Saying “Woe is me:” We all have challenges, and social media can be a place to vent…sometimes. But if you are constantly complaining about your life, then stop it. Take that time and energy and go out and change it.
Stop Forgetting Social is Public: I am always a little amused when people are surprised that what they put on social gets seen by people. It’s a public forum. So when you post things, just understand that your co-workers, your boss, your customers and even your future employer can and will see it.
These are just seven things to stop, but it’s a good start. Let me know if we have forgotten any that we need to add to the list. Again, social media can be great. But be smart…and it can be even better.
Want to learn more about Hasseman Marketing, check out our About us page here. As always, you can shop online here. And if you want to become a VIP (and get one email per week with all of our content) you can sign up here.
by Kirby Hasseman
In nearly every sales force you have three kinds of team members. You have your Rock Stars, the average performers, and the Laggers. And your success as a business is dependent upon working with (or not working with) the right groups with the right amount of time to grow your sales.
1. Rock Stars: These are the folks that are self-starters. They are driven. This group takes very little of your time to motivate and (most of the time) they are actually pretty low maintenance. There is not a need or want of any hand-holding (for the most part) because they don’t have time for that. They are working to get the next sale.
Sometimes they are so easy to deal with you might ignore them. Don’t.
2. Laggers: As one sales manager once told me, “You can’t push a rope.” Many organizations make the mistake of spending a lot of time with the Laggers. They are often very nice guys and gals (that’s why they were hired). And the tendency is, we think that if we “coach them up” they can turn into Rock Stars. Most of the time, this is fantasy. Raise your hand if this has happened to you…everyone!
3. Average Performers: The fact is, most of your sales team falls into this category. These are good sales members that have moments of “rock star status.” They just don’t perform at this level consistently. They very well could be “rock stars” but they are not…yet. One of the jobs of an entrepreneur, sales manager, or sales guru, is to raise the level of these team members.
But how do you thank and appreciate the Rock Stars and incentivize the rest? That is, literally, the million-dollar question. Let’s take a look at a few options…
1. Status Award: When it comes to affecting sales members’ behavior, a great option is to create Status awards they “wear.” This allows them to be reminded of their accomplishment nearly every day. It also shows the Average Performers who to model their behavior after. When thinking of a status award, think of the Green Jacket that is given to the winner of the Masters. What are some other ideas for status awards? Think of doing a cool custom watch. The average person looks at their watch more than 10 times a day. Make it a fashion statement and you have something they are proud to wear. Not a fan of a watch? No problem. What about a custom ring or a special shirt. You get the idea.
Make it cool and it will get the attention you desire.
2. Fun Award: Sometimes you can really have fun with the celebration! If you create a contest or incentive around lifestyle and the fun that success can bring, you might create awards that celebrate that. What do I mean, think about toting around a very nice Coleman cooler to every event this summer with an award message. What a great way to remind your team of their success (and get people to ask about it!).
3. Public Awards: Another way to make sure your sales team knows how they are doing is to create an award program that is a very public display of accomplishment. Read more on how to really do this right here. But when you create a public display, you can really give your sales team a way to showcase their own accomplishments to everyone that walks in their office! The other cool effect of these awards is that it tells all future customers that they are dealing with a Rock Star…and we all want that. If you want to dig deeper on learning how to create a program to help grow sales, just contact us here and we will reach out to you. In addition, you can shop online for other ideas here.
If you are a Promo Pro, head here and download our Sales Playbook.
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by Kirby Hasseman
Graphic design is about the eye and the mind. It’s about finding a new and creative way to solve an old problem. A trained designer will understand how to answer these questions and solve these problems in the best way possible.
But sometimes, a quick job or budget constraints mean that you may have to create the artwork yourself. In this case, there are also plenty of measurable skills that almost anyone can use to improve how the final product of their design will come out.
Print is a physical medium, so there are many practical problems that need to be considered when making your artwork. Today, we’re going to cover three things to consider due to the process of cutting, or trimming, the paper. In general, any print job is run on a sheet of paper larger than the final size. For example, if you are making a flyer that is 8 1/2″ x 11″, or the size of a sheet of copier paper, it will most likely be printed on a sheet of paper that is 9 1/2″ x 12″, give or take, and then trimmed down the final size afterward. This physical process gives some speed bumps to consider when creating artwork.
Margins
An easy way to ruin your final job is to put your content, like text or important images, close to the edge of the sheet. When setting up a page, it’s easy to look at your white space and think you can fill all of it with your artwork. This isn’t the case. There needs to be a margin on the sides, top, and bottom to avoid anything important being cut off. If your headlines or text get too close to the edges, they run the risk of being trimmed off by accident. In this case, the printer is not to blame for it, and you are left with a job that is basically unusable. A safe distance to put anything important on your page is at least 1/4 inch from the edge of the sheet. This will give the printer enough room to work with the wiggle in the sheets as they trim them down, without worrying too much about cutting anything off.
Bleeds
In print work, and color or background that is supposed to run to the edge of the page without white showing is called a “bleed”. In order to correctly get this effect, the image needs to “bleed” over the edge. This means that when the art is printed on the larger sheet, the background will be a little bigger than the trimmed size. This may sound like opposite advice from the margin section, but the difference is that the background shouldn’t have anything important, like pertinent information or images, it should be a simple color or an image that isn’t of absolute necessity.
Alignment
Another aspect to easily overlook is the alignment of the artwork. Are all the elements centered on the page, or are they a little farther left or right? This can wreak havoc on your design. Without properly centered artwork, the printer will cut it as sent, which will make your page look lopsided. Sometimes, printers will try to correct it for you and center the page, but this can lead to problems with bleed, or even frustration from the printer from dealing with troublesome artwork.
Simply following little guidelines like this will instantly make whatever you create begin to look more professional. But remember, whenever possible, you should hire a professional to make the most out of your project and show your company in the best light. When the need arises, remember we at Hasseman Marketing offer full-service design, start to finish. Give us an idea, and we will take it to new heights.
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by Kirby Hasseman
Video Marketing is one of the most effective and engaging ways that you can communicate with your audience. As technology has advanced, it has become more and more simple to create video content. However, there are many mistakes that you can make when deciding to pull out your camera to shoot a quick video. This post will only focus on 3 things that, in my opinion, can have a huge impact on the quality of your video. But, don’t fret, they are also some of the easiest to remedy.
1. Shaky Footage
No one wants to watch a video that looks like it was shot by a hyper dog that just heard the door bell ring. One super easy way to fix this one is to invest in a tripod and use it. It doesn’t have to be expensive. There are many options that you can find that will work great for under $25-30. If you plan on doing movements such as Panning and Tilting and you want them to be smooth, then look into getting one with a video head. (You will pay more for these but they are worth every penny when you are trying to get your shots to look as professional as possible.) If you are shooting hand-held. I.E. you have no tripod or you are doing something spur of the moment with your cell phone. Make sure that you are as steady as possible.**PRO TIP: Hold the phone with both hands, tuck your elbows into your ribs and stay locked into that position. Also remember, try to never be zoomed in when you are going hand held if you can help it. Nothing will make a video shaky more than zooming in and shooting hand held. This only accentuates the movements and makes everything look like you are shooting a Mad Max Fury Road chase scene.
2. Shooting in Portrait Mode
This is one of my biggest pet peeves. A simple turn of your phone onto it’s side will make a much better video.
You are holding your phone with both hands with your elbows tucked in after all right? (See Above.) So you should be using the example on the right. 
Black bars on the sides of your video are unacceptable and make you look amateur. It’s a simple fix. Turn your phone on it’s side before you click record.
3. Bad Sound
Another easy fix, but if you don’t think ahead about it can ruin your video. Be aware of your surroundings. Is it really windy outside where you are shooting? If so maybe go inside or go behind a building or something that can block that wind. Are you standing too far away so that the audio is not being picked up by your microphone? There are many things to consider when shooting. If you want to up your chances of getting better audio, invest in a microphone that is well suited for the type of shooting you plan to do. There are many options that I won’t go into, but in general if you are using an external microphone; it is probably better than the one built into your camera.
Of course, if you want our help, you can head here to find out how we can create professional video for your or your organization.
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by Kirby Hasseman
Any business owner will tell you, we get “hit up” for donations, sponsorships, and fundraisers on a daily basis.
It’s not a complaint…just a fact.
As a matter of fact, I take pride in the impact our company gets to make on our community. But I will say, sometimes it is easy to get overwhelmed. And when that happens, it is even easier to delete the emails, throw away the letters, or ignore the brochures.
The other day though, a friend of ours stopped by the office to discuss a school fundraiser with my wife. She brought the literature herself. She kindly explained it. She asked if we wanted to participate. So we did.
Who cares?
If you are in sales, you should. In this day and age of technology and speed, it is really easy to send an email to ask for the sale. You can send a letter to explain your USP. You can post your cause to Facebook and hope that people will come running. But if you really want to be effective, face to face is still a great way to sell.
As one of my early sales trainers told me…see the people!
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