Simplicity Sells

Think selling on line today is all about engagement? That's what the marketing gurus tell us. And certainly in some cases engagement is important. But according to this recent study, simplicity may be a bigger key to selling on line.

Tom

Simple Search and what it says

Don't look now, but that simplest of web activities, the search, is getting simpler. There have been a rash of articles like this one, pointing out how Bing and others are streamlining their search results pages, and pulling market share from Google.

This is part of a larger trend. As devices from computers to phones to TV's get so they can do more and more, Joe Average is more and more feeling overwhelmed by choices, and the guy who provides the most features, most simply, get's attention, and often, gets sales.

I have been experimenting lately, testing a theory I have had bouncing around in my head for some time. On one of my laptops, I dropped back to old versions of my most used software - which in my case would be Microsoft Office (where I dropped back to Office 2003), Mindjet mind mapping software (where I dropped to my 2002 version, ACDSee, Paint Shop Pro, and Chaos Software's Intellect (where I dropped back to the 1.1 version.).

What I found surprised me. I was able to do my work just fine. Oh, there was an odd feature here and there that I kind of missed, but my core work had not been enhanced at all by the updates since then. In almost a decade, nothing they had done had significantly upgraded my ability to do good work. The one exception was Chaos Software's Intellect, where they did the brilliant thing of keeping their original, powerfully simple interface intact, while adding significant workflow features. (Not an easy thing, that.)

But, I had bought the new versions, slowed down my computer with software bloat, taken the time to relearn workflow... and for what?

Interesting, the people who's software HAS changed how I work are companies that have developed a whole new way of working. Those investments have paid off for me in terms of increased efficiency or higher productivity.

I understand that companies feel a need to upgrade to keep up with the competition, but my gut tells me it's overkill, and as I asked others around me what they thought, they agreed.

I am not making the point that we should never upgrade, but I AM suggesting we think twice before we do. Look instead at the core ideas and workflow, and ask yourself, honestly, if the new upgrade really buys you more than what the new complexity costs you. My guess is that we'll be surprised at the answer.

Tom

PS - the graphic is a full sized wallpaper, if you happen to need a reminder. Click on it for the full sized version.

Creativity in 36 minutes

What if you could spend 36 minutes and learn everything you need to know about becoming more creative? What if you could laugh at the same time?

Watching this video, a speech by John Cleese really sums up everything you need to know to be more creative. Seriously. (but sprinkled with light bulb jokes.)

Tom

The power of simplicity

This is one of those rare occaisions when instead of writing three newsletters, I only have to write one, because what I want to focus on this month applies to all three of my client bases. That’s so rare, that when the chance came, I couldn’t resist.

This past week has been wilder than normal. Not only has there been the work to do, two software packages that I use to do much of my work have presented me with major upgrades. I am sure that in time, I’ll get my head around all the changes, but in the meanwhile, a lot has changed and I am stumbling through my work instead of running like a well oiled machine.

I don’t envy software manufacturers. They are under constant pressure to add features and make changes. And yet, adding all those features adds complexity. What they do is what all of us do, we add things and patch and tinker and tack stuff on until at a certain point, what they have is an unweildy mess.  

And at a certain point, they have to decide, do I continue my patchwork path, or rethink the whole thing?

That same point comes to each of us, whether we are upgrading our technology infrastructure, adding new marketing initiatives, or growing as individuals. We patch and pile, add and tweak until we HAVE to find a more efficient way to work, a way to make what is very complex….. simpler.

The Benefits

Simplifying has a lot of benefits.

• Simplicity provides focus. And that focus helps us be more productive in what really matters. This is true whether we are moving our TV facility to a file based work flow, integrating our marketing, or building a better life.
• Simplicity makes us more productive. Yes, us gadget hounds in the TV/AV/IT world love being able to do everything, and marketing seems to be becoming more and more fragmented, but when we make what we do 95% of the time more complex to meet that 5% that doesn’t fit so well, we are not as effective 95% of the time. Study after study shows that simplicity makes us more effective in every aspect of work and life.
• Simplicity helps us make better decisions. This is because inherent in doing simplicity well is that we’ve already pre-prioritized what’s most important, less important, and what has little value. This has been verfied in industries as diverse as health care, manufacturing and personal coaching.
• Simplicity requires less maintenance – again, this truism crosses into technology, marketing and life.  Less maintenance means we can do more with less, or a lot more with the same, and just as importantly…..
• Simplicity reduces stress – and that makes life, work, technology, marketing and everyone, more creative, productive and just plain happy.

 The payoffs are enormous. Companies like Apple and Bose have build their whole product lines on simple quality. Amazon succeded where others failed because they made it easy. Companies that have simplified processes have saved millions, giving them a competitive edge in the marketplace. People who have simplified life and work create, innovate and produce more, and more happily than those who just keep piling things on in a web of complexity.

The Problem is....

The problem is, while BEING simple has all these benefits, actually simplifying is not as easy as most people think. Simplicity is not natural. It has to be concious or we just go on piling stuff on until we break. It has to be by design.

Designing simplicity takes discipline, and it takes an investment in time and thought before you see any results. And we want results now. That is why so many of us fail.

I spend a lot of time in all three of my main types of work simplifying. That’s not what people hire me for. They hire me to design TV systems, or to develop marketing campaigns, or to build better companies, ministries or lives. Each of these have a lot of particular skills involved to do them well, but the most important skill, and by far the most important thing I do, is simplify.

Hire me for my other skills and you will get results. I am a good consultant with a long list of world class projects in my resume. I produce quality marketing materials and have helped companies market well. I do good work. You get good value. But, hire me to go further and analyze what you do with an eye towards simplifying – be it a workflow study for TV/AV/IT or your entire marketing process, or your life and work, and the power of those individual skills is magnified several times.

Want more?

That is the power of simplicity more than it is the power of Quarry House - it gives you more and mutliplies your effectiveness on so many fronts. Whether you use me, or someone else, simplifying will make a profound difference in your effectiveness, in the quality and quantity of what you do, in your sales, in everything. I promise. 30 years of doing this has shown this to me again and again. 

Tom

PS – My whole business philosophy is that “Business is about promises made and promises kept. Everything else is fluff.” Just thought you should know

3 tips for those who want to simplify their business and marketing

 E-Commerce shopping cart abandonment rates remain shockingly high with 62% of all potential purchasers abandoning their shopping carts. What’s behind the continued high attrition? Most experts agree that it’s customer confusion and lack of information exacerbated by poor online customer service options. The same is true of web site visitors who give up looking through sites. This is a particular issue for those in our industry who have complex product and service offerings. Making things simple and engaging is the challenge.


Simple does not just happen. With so many options in front of us, everything we do on the web potentially grows more and more complex. That's what makes simple stand out. 


But even being simple is not enough. To be EFFECTIVE and simple requires a lot of thought, a lot of looking and talking and learning. If you want to introduce simplicity into your marketing and business, here's some advice.....

• Understand that simplicity is hard. It takes time to develop and discipline to keep in place. 
• Understand that just simple is not enough. You must be simple and effective. You have to know what is important and what isn't. 
• If you have been doing things for a long time in the same way, you may need someone new, either on your staff, or as a consultant, to help you see things with a new eye. Otherwise, you probably won't make it. 

Simplicity pays off in this complex world. Ask Apple. Ask Google. 


Tom

Logos as Symbols

Fuel Your Creativity is one of the best blogs on design that I read and I read it regularly. It's written by a team of designers and inevitably, the thoughts are clear, well thought out, and simple to grasp and put to work.

They recently did a post on logos as symbols. I find that most clients don't spend much time thinking about logos, but they have the potential to be a powerful tool, a real symbol that evokes your brand value every time they are recognized. This article makes that case graphically, and well.

Tom

Life Lesson #1: Beliefs

Visitors to our Facebook page know that I have been re-reading many of the books that have influenced me over the past couple of decades, books that weren't just interesting, but actually caused a change in the way I see the world and the way I live in it.


I was telling a friend about my re-reading project, and some of the lessons they have in common and some of the things that were unique to each book and he asked me a valuable question: "What," he asked "do you think the first thing we need to learn to become who we want to be?"

The first thing. That's important. Because like anything, if the foundation is tended to, then you can build on it. But if the foundation is missing, eventually everything you build on it washes away.

I thought a minute, over the books I had re-read up to that point. Then I realized what the real basis is, what the one thing that all the self help books I have ever read had in common. "Our belief controls who we are." "I said. "And we can change that belief."

Belief is any habit or thought that controls or influences our actions. They start piling up in our heads and hearts when we are kids and they control who we are and what we do until we are old. Belief has the power to propel us to amazing things, or hold us back from them.

For many of us, perhaps all of us, belief is intially instilled in us by someone on the outside - family, friends, schools, co-workers. They all see things, decide things about us that may or may not be true, and convince us that they ARE true.

At times their convincing of us may have good motives, at times they may have self serving motives, and at times they may be thoughtlessly done. The truth is, however, that they are borrowed beliefs, but with time and repetition, the habit of thought makes them become ours. And then our own minds take over and we repeat the belief over and over and over again until it becomes, in our own minds, THE TRUTH. It's not the truth of course. It's just a belief. A habit of thinking.

And habits can be changed. Any habit.

And that is the first and most fundamental life lesson, that belief controls our actions, and we can control our beliefs.

I am not kidding myself and I would never try to kid you, that it is easy.  But, if we really want change in our lives, to become more  (You fill in what you want to become more of.), or to become less (Fill this one in for yourself too.), then the very first thing we must realize is that we can do it. It's not some mysterious process. It's not some Goliath. It's a habit.

And how long does it take habits to change? 21 days, the experts tell us. Three weeks.

My suspicion, both from my own life and from listening to many, many others, is that many people who profess to want change and growth don't really believe that they can do it. They would like to believe. They know it's worked for others, But somehow, we think that our case is different.

Nope. It's not. Sure, your case is unique. The beliefs you need to change are different than the ones I need to change. But the fundamental concept, that we CAN change a belief, does not vary from person to person. So, life lesson number 1: Beliefs guide who we are and what be become, and we can control those beliefs.

Scary huh? The gig's up. It's up to us.

Tom