If a hotel can become famous for leading ducks across their lobby at 11:00 then certainly your business can become more well-known for some simple ritual that customers like to photograph and tell others about and reporters love to cover.

In fact it’s surprising that so few businesses and other organizations see the power of memory-making rituals that we keep talking about the few that do. And instead of creating a new ritual a sister hotel simply imitated the duck walk. You can do better.

1. Think quirky

As all actors know, a cute kid or animal almost always steals the show.  For example the annual ritual that raised $120,000 this year in a town of just 2,404 is the weiner dog race.  That’s right. Long, cute dogs. People and their pets came from all over the country for the chance to compete.

2. Create community around your ritual

The race is a great example of what the beneficiary of the race, the Lions Club calls a “core belief – community is what we make it.” It has been an annual tradition around which dog owners (and their families and friends) meet to compare notes and catch-up. Hint: the more fervent the community the more valuable your participation can be for your organization.

3. Offer the unexpected

Instead of “just” offering a loaner car like the one you are getting serviced a British Volvo dealership also offers bikes as loaners. The dealership enjoys two benefits  – deepening the loyalty of its eco-minded customers and attracting worldwide media coverage.

4. Reduce your cost of providing that ritual by partnering

Volvo’s ritual was then topped by Fiat in Spain. By partnering with electric bicycle maker Trek it could make the same offer yet without the cost of buying and maintaining the bikes. Trek benefits by getting a warmed-up introduction to possible customers.

The bonus benefits are that many of the people who saw the cyclists heard also saw the message on the bike and many of the cyclists told their friends about their experience.

5. Give a souvenir sample whenever people have to wait – or even pause

For a client years ago I set up an experiment in which those waiting in a movie theater line were greeted by smiling, good-looking college students and offered a free ice cream bon bon on a silver tray. One each. The students simply walked down the line, saying, “Like a tasty bon bon while you’re waiting? If you like it there are more inside.”

The results of that study were so positive the theater chain intermittently continued the practice. (Intermittent rewards create more happiness, perhaps because of the hedonic treadmill effect yet we crave the certainty of constancy – “the ducks will walk across at 11″). When bon bons are offered movie theatre snacks go up an average of 26 percent.

For the owner of seven upscale restaurants in London we did a similar experiment with wine.  Per customer sales went up as average of 23 percent.

Then we suggested that the restauranteur approach his wine distributers to offer them the opportunity to provide their wine, at cost.  Several agreed so he could rotate the kinds of wine he gave waiting guests.

For this sampling ritual, the wait staff, while offering the tray with the glasses of wine, showed the bottle and said the vinter’s name.   That was so successful that wine makers now vie for the opportunity to give their wine for such samplings. They also began offering samplings to delighted diners during their meal.

That way more customers get free wine and often wind up ordering more wine.

The participating vintners get their wines introduced in a relaxed, convivial atmosphere.

Cost-saving Hint: Make your ritual so popular that you can attract partners that want to participate in it.  That way you can offer your customers that ritual more often yet at a lower cost to you.

Conclusion

Most any consumer-serving place can create a small, simple-to-execute ritual that:

• Gives an unexpected experience to customers, one they can brag about – and others can see them enjoying.

• Increases sales.

• Attracts media coverage.

• Demonstrates the value of partners participating so the cost of offering that ritual go down.

See more ways to profitably partner and then create your own, unique, customer-attracting ritual – with the right partners.

After the Lakers’ stinging defeat to the Suns what stuck in my mind was the image of Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher staying behind in the locker room after teammates had left to hash over what happened. The intense conversation was their singular focus. That’s a sure sign of a strong partnership. How do they happen?

1. True partnership won’t happen without mutual respect and respect is rarely gained without earning it from each other:

“It started at a tournament in Long Beach over the summer,” Bryant said. “We were playing together over the summer, working long hours, and as the season went on, we didn’t play much, so we had to go in to work early and play a lot of one-on-one.”

“Fisher, a stumpy 6-foot-1 guard…would not back down to Bryant, who headed one of the gifted preps-to-pros classes of the 1990s. They clawed each other on court, commiserated off it and ultimately coalesced into an enduring tandem, the Lakers’ Lone Ranger and Tonto.”

2. Mutual trust rises sharply after partners experienced sticking together through a tough situation.  That trust is reinforced the more times partners demonstrate it for each other:

“ We’ve gone through different facets of life together,” Bryant said. “He’s always been a standup guy, a friend who is more like a brother.”

“When you’ve lived through fire together, the comfort level is there, before and after games, on the bus, text messages and whatever,” Derek Fisher said of Kobe Bryant.

3. Agree on a single and singular goal that reflects the sweet spot of mutual benefit. (You don’t have to be on a sports team to become higher-performing by agreeing on – not a bunch of “wants” – but one top goal):

“We’re constantly thinking about what this team needs in order to win a championship,” says Derek Fisher.

4. Bring out the better side in your partner:

“Most teammates thought Bryant was arrogant, aloof, out of touch with reality. Fisher believed he was just young and misunderstood.”5. An affectionate nickname is a sign of a cemented partnership:

“In a league currently obsessed with mega free agents contemplating coexistence with another outsize ego, seldom has there been a pro basketball partnership like Bryant and Fisher’s — the highly credentialed and often contentious superstar and his special vocational friend, the man Bryant affectionately calls Fish.”

6. Never let up on growing and on proving your worth to your partners and for yourself:

• Fisher said of Bryant, “As we’ve both aged, I think he respected the things I had to do to stay at a high level.”

• Coach Phil Jackson “thought Bryant’s appreciation of Fisher grew exponentially in 2000-1, when Fisher missed 62 games but returned for the playoffs and made 51 percent of his 3-pointers while averaging 13.4 points.”

• ‘He’s been giving him the ball ever since,’ Jackson said, while noting that Fisher, as the quasi point guard in the triangle offense, had enough currency not to reciprocate when he thought the ball should go elsewhere.”

7. Good partners go out of their way to support each other in their enlightened self-interest. Great partners go out of their way to support each other:

• In their eight years together, Michael Jordan, so appreciated John Paxson as the Bulls’ spot-up jump shooter that “he made a personal appeal to ownership in 1991 when Paxson was in danger of being dropped.”

• “Two years later, Paxson repaid the debt, sealed the trust, when his 3-pointer from the left wing against the Suns nailed down the first of Jordan’s two three-peats. ‘The consummate pro,’ Jordan called him that night.”

8. After an important experience together, debrief first with your partner or team about what happened and how you’ll do better next time, then go out and face the larger world. The military and the FBI call such debriefings hot washs:

“Long after their Lakers teammates departed the locker room, Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher lingered in the adjacent trainer’s area, visible through a plate glass window and in no apparent hurry to explain a stinging playoff defeat to reporters before they had seethed over it with each other. Their post-game meeting, according to Fisher, was just getting started.”

See also:

Make Wiser Choices, Stronger Friendships

The Art of Being Business Partners and Friends

… and others’ ideas on some angle of Moving From Me to We.

“’There was this joke that when the women who worked in the lab were stressed, they came in, cleaned the lab, had coffee, and bonded,” Dr. Laura Cousin Klein told Gale Berkowitz.  ”When the men were stressed, they holed up somewhere on their own. I commented one day to fellow researcher Shelley Taylor that nearly 90% of the stress research is on males. I showed her the data from my lab, and the two of us knew instantly that we were onto something.”

It turns out that the oft-quoted “Flight or Flight” response to a stressful situation applies more to men than women. Also, women under stress are more able to read other’s facial expressions and men are less accurate in reading emotions in another’s face.

In threatening or otherwise stressful situations with others men and women also react differently, according to studies yet two of the findings cited seem to be somewhat contradictory:

1. Men initiate connection. Women accept offers to connect.

Men are more willing to expose themselves to the risk of making an overture; yet women are more likely to reciprocate an overture once it’s made.

2. Men Withdraw. Women reach out.

“Men get  antisocial under pressure, but women tend to react in the opposite way: they ‘tend and befriend.’” (The article has a link from “anti-social”, when describing men, to an article on the behavior of psychopaths. This seems sexist or at least not relevant).

The article seems to focus on the first responses to threats or other stress when around others rather than on what unfolds at first and over time – toward connecting and collaborating or not.

Without any research to back me up, I agree with Sahar: “Women instinctively tend to be more social perhaps due to the need for support; men like to be more independent.  Under pressure, we first follow those instincts.”  

Men are more likely – in general – to propose action and press for quick response and women – in general – are more likely to support the group in finding a path towards agreement on what to do together.

Men will focus on getting it done – and place a priority on being respected and productive. Women will spend more effort on helping people feeling comfortable with each other; they perform better when they feel liked and appreciated –and they worry more. Both sexes act worse when others do not appear to be acting fairly through this tense time.

What’s your experience in attempting to connect and collaborate in stressful situations where both women and men are involved?

By the way, in other studies, psychologist Mara Mather found that “acute stress increases sex differences in risk seeking.” Women become more moderate in their habits and avoid risks. Men are more likely to gamble, drink, have unsafe sex or take other risks.

There are exceptions of course.

To reduce your stress and savor your work more cultivate a satisfying work relationship with a partner – female or male.

Emulate a valuable partner by adopting the traits that the Gallup organization found to be most helpful, described in The Power of 2: “If you want to have great partnerships, be a great partner.

Get beyond yourself. Give up the notion that you are well-rounded, and stop expecting your colleagues to be universally proficient. Incorporate someone else’s motivations into your view of the accomplishment. Loosen up. Put aside your competitive nature, your prepackaged view of how the thing should be done, and your desire not to be inconvenienced with the imperfections of a fellow human being.

Focus more on what you do for the partnership than what you get from it. Demonstrate trust in more people, and see if they don’t surprise you with their trustworthiness. Be slower to anger and quicker to forgive. And along the way, communicate continuously.”

“You know your work partnership is truly unselfish if you feel genuine satisfaction at each other’s success, if you and your partner will risk a lot for each other, and if your collaborator is like a brother or sister’ to you.” ~ Rodd Wagner and Gale Muller

Job hunting is dispiriting – often lonely and isolating. 

That’s why it was so comforting for job seekers to be in a room full of knowledgeable people who were ready to meet with them, one-on-one, to answer their specific questions. 

From job hunt web sites to career counseling coaches could personalize their advice to each person’s need. Hundreds of unemployed people flocked to this free speed-coaching event in New York. My colleague, transitionist coach Terrence Seamon was one of many coaches who volunteered to sit in “twenty minute sessions, to review their job search campaign strategies as well as their resumes, making sure that they are accomplishments-focused.” The event was the co-created service of The New York Library, Vault and volunteer coaches. 

In this bad economy what top-of-mind topic most concerns your kind of client? 

Recruit a cadre of non-competing and credible experts to coach them in a fast-paced, speed coaching event where participants get hundreds of dollars worth of the specific advice they most seek – and coaches demonstrate their expertise to “pull” prospects towards hiring them.  More than a free for all, “here’s my card” networking event people actually get to meet the individuals they’d most like to know at that time.

You, too, could leverage your value with a custom speed coaching event that serves a hot need or avid interest felt by your kind of clients. Here’s a quick checklist of jumpstart your first popular, speed coaching event:

• What other credible, complementary (non-competing) experts and organizations serve your “mutual market?”

• What preoccupies your clients?  

• When would it be easiest for them to meet?

• What is a convenient and attractive meeting location for them?

• What if you created a helpful meeting momento – an eBook of three tips from each coach plus their bio and s brief description of all partnering organizations, with links to all resources cited in the eBook?

• How long should your event be?  Some are as short as two hours and as long as a day.  One-on-one coaching sessions in different events range from five-minutes to 20-minutes. Collectively choose the length that works best for your kind of attendee and speed coaching theme.

• Consider combining 20-minutes “expert roundtable” sessions for five to eight attendees to ask an expert questions – concurrent with the one-on-one speed coaching sessions. 

Put the coaching sessions on one side of a ballroom or other large meeting place and the roundtables on the other.

• Place large signs behind each coach with their name and/or topic and on roundtables with the table topic.

The more partnering coaches and organizations you involve the lower the per-partner cost and the higher the benefit to them for participating – and the higher the number of people you can reach and serve.

Here is one kind of speed coaching event I co-designed with the astute head of the S.F. chapter of Savor the Success, Ayesha Mathews-Wadhwa. 

Attract more sales by adapting this success story to your situation.  Image theft online is the hot button for photographers. It’s the main reason they are loath to post their images on the net.  Yet that’s the most efficient way to sell images.

As of this week, through their membership in the National Press Photographers Association, for a reduced fee they can track their images online and thus secure more licensing revenue.  That’s thanks to the association’s partnership with ImageSpan, based in my village.  ImageSpan to gets introduced to their prime market of customers without paying for advertising. 

Even though the firm’s reduced pricing for members means a smaller profit margin it also generates more sales. That’s good news, in a bad economy where cash is king. Now ImageScan has enlarged its opportunity to reach its target market by forging a partnership with an even larger group of its kind of customers, The Worldwide Community of Imaging Associations. 

You, too, could generate more sales without advertising by offering a special deal

 through the associations that serve your kind of customers. To keep members in difficult financial times, associations must offer extra value – perhaps your custom offering. Two ways to find the right membership-based groups for your business are by:

1.   Asking your customers, “What’s the most important professional group to which you belong?” 

2.   Perusing the list of associations at ASAE.

This SmartPartnering method is especially apt for professional service providers, from accountants to travel agents.   In fact, as a variation of this method I forged an association/association partnership.  Accountants, through their national association, could locate a participating travel agent (who offers a special vacation packages via their association) for their much-needed, post –tax season getaway.

See more ways to profitably partner here and in my ebook, SmartPartnering – and send me your partnering success story.

Wary of partnering? Collaborated with someone who didn’t do their part? Yet in a sinking economy more people are exploring ways to attract more customers without spending more. Partnering – with the right allies and methods – seems to be the most efficient way. Want to hear what’s worked and the pitfalls to avoid? Hear Anita Campbell’s bluntly titled interview of me earlier this week, “Business Partnering: Earn Money Without Wasting Time.”

In case you may want to hear it, here’s her list of questions we covered:

(3:27) Can you tell us a bit more about yourself and your background?

(5:14) Why do you think partnering is becoming such a popular way to attract customers during this economy?

(6:42) What is a profitable partnership?

(7:20) What would be an example of a profitable partnership?

(10:30) What are the benefits of this type of an approach?

(10:40) What are some additional ways to partner with other businesses? (20:40) Can small businesses partner with big ones?

(23:00) As small business owners we often get asked to donate to causes. Is there a way we can leverage our support to attract customers?

(26:20) Do you have a “what if” dream partnership you think would be successful?

(28:29) Where can people find out more on the web?

Here’s more ways to successfully partner or otherwise collaborate.

Want to attract more customers while spending less?  Hear Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends Radio interview me on February 17^th.  As an avid fan of Anita’s writing and thought leadership I am honored to be on her show.  Other interviews I recommend are of Birthing the Elephant author Karin Abarbanel, Toilet Paper Entrepreneur author Michael Michalowicz and Laurel Delaney of The Global Small Business blog. Find more ways to partner here.

Your customers are tempted to include your business in their cost-cutting efforts. Act now to offer extra value, adopting a method that won’t cost you more.  In fact, it often reduces overhead. Two rival businesses are using it. The Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post will offer their readers stories from both papers. The Sun will “tap the Post’s federal government coverage” and The Washington Post will carry the Sun’s regional coverage. Consequently, the newspapers can cut overhead and “benefit from each others expertise.”  And readers have a new reason to remain subscribers.

Evoke this Value Multiplier Effect by forging partnerships with others who serve your kind of customer. You can deepen customer loyalty and become the top-of-mind choice for more customers and media coverage.

Helpful Tips Always Trump Advertising

Keep customers by sharing content in other ways. Collectively you gain more credibility and visibility and usually reduce costs for attracting customers. The locally-owned Michigan businesses and non-profits in this story, for example, could become more well-known than their competitors by co-creating a Hot Tips sheet, perhaps called “How to Live Well at Home as You Age.”  The company that acts first in recruiting partners, ensures that it gets included: Bissell Homecare, Williams Kitchen and Bath, The Right Place and Disability Advocates.

Plus partners could invite national groups like Whirlpool, GE, Lowes, home remodelers   and others to share this tip sheet, thus creating a fresh news hook for more local and national media, blogging and other coverage.

How to Co-create and Distribute Popular Hot Tips

Recruit other reputable business owners that serve the same kind of customer that you serve. As in the Michigan story, include non-profits such as civic, cause or other membership groups or even government agencies.  Variety in kinds of partners builds credibility and interest.

Pick a hot topic that reflects a strong interest or need or familiar situation faced by your mutual market of customers – and that includes tips that highlight the benefits of all partners’ organizations.  Get a professional writer to interview you to cull tips and write a draft for your collective review.  Or one of the partners could write a draft that a professional editor hones for final agreement by all partners. At the end of the tips, include a very brief description (not advertisement) of each partner and contact information.

Reach more customers more often by offering the tips in more formats. Video each other and happy customers, demonstrating and discussing the tips at various locations including at your business. Post the text, audio and video versions of your tips on all partners’ web sites or blogs and post online. At your physical locations display and give away the print versions, show the video on a wall screen. 

In this way you:

• Gain a warmed-up introduction to each other’s customers.

• May offer more value than your competitors.

• Inspire more customers to refer their friends.

• Become a top-of-mind expert for future media stories that cover your kind of work.

For more ideas on profitable ways to partner read proven methods offered by Jeff Slutsky and Ed Rigsbee and in my book, Walk Your Talk, and past posts. 

That question sparked the start of an image-based, international social network that millions use yet, unlike Facebook, few people know about.  The peculiarly-named name PerfSpot started by co-hosting small events with photographers who took pictures of the partygoers.  Attendees get cards at the gatherings, inviting them to visit the site.  There they can see photos of themselves and of others at any of the parties covered by PerfSpot. That’s proved to be a simple yet profitable idea. (In a moment, I’ll suggest how clubs and associations could offer a fun member benefit and get a new profit center, adapting this approach.)

Observes Jemima Kiss, “brands including Coke and Sony are keen to advertise on the cards handed out to all those party goers.”  Today the company has over 800 photographers who cover these parties called PerfNights. Plus it has around 220 million videos, 400 different video partners and millions of member-uploaded pictures. Around 20 million people have joined Perfspot. The site gets a whopping 46 million unique views a month.  It site serves people in 200 countries and 50 languages and is adding new services via partners. Yet some describe it as a “mySpace clone.”

While the site is free to members, it was profitable within three months through advertising revenue. This Scottsdale-based firm just launched in March, 2007. For a social network, Perfspot pledges to take unusual care of its members.  The staff reviews images to remove pornography (if not risque images) and has a free number to call to answer members’ questions – yet some have complaints. It’s a site for youngish, casual users.  Not my demographic. I couldn’t find anything captivating but that doesn’t matter to PerfSpot.  In March it overtook Facebook as the fastest growing social-networking site in the UK. Thanks, Mark Brooks, for the tip.

Here’s a what-if scenario for membership-based groups:

While the PerfNights’ service is popular for the masses, the overall brand image and extra “make friends and share” options of PerfSpot may not appeal to many associations. What if a respected association expert and a social media expert co-founded a firm to set up and manage stand-alone social media sites for associations  –just offering their custom version of the PerfNights service?

The firm could forge agreements with associations to photograph and video their gatherings.  Those might include the annual conference’s award banquets, social mixers and perhaps some educational sessions. It could recruit local professional photographers and videographers to be hired under contract for such events.

As well, this firm could hire experienced vloggers and podcasters to interview people “live” at the conference – generating popular content that would draw members to the site.  This firm might provide a list of suggested questions for these roving reporters to ask.  They could include “What’s your favorite part of the conference so far?”, “Who’s someone you admire here and why?”, “What new insight have you gained here?” or “What advice would you give our members?”

As well, as at IABC’s international conference this year, key figures might be invited, in advance for a scheduled interview at a media station near registration.

Each association would have its own social media site, hosted and managed by this start-up.  Only members of that association could join, provide a profile with tag words, contribute related videos and photos – also tagged for easy searching by other members – and leave comments connected to each others’ images.  To assist in members’ image search, this firm might partner with Pixsy.

As at PerfSpot, the startup would allow advertising – seeking firms that want contact with that member demographic yet that are not the industry-specific sponsors, exhibitors and advertisers that are already involved with the association.
To attract association participation, this start-up could offer a split in the advertising revenue that would grow over time with increased members participation. The start-up could have photo and video contests – with prizes from advertisers – to motivate members to make and contribute photos and videos throughout the year – and thus stay active on the site.
Bottom line:

In this way, the association can offer a new member service while gaining a new profit center that doesn’t cannibalize its current sources of revenue – and does not require an additional staffer to manage. In time, this firm might offer client associations the opportunity to allow non-members to view the images on other members associations’ sites yet not comment nor contribute.

Nike invites us to join a million runners around the world, “for a worldwide 10K like no other.”  And they invited celebrities to join them. There’s a small catch.  “You need a Nike+ SportBand or Nike+iPod and Sport Kit” to run with them. You can’t fault them.  They want you to buy their products of course.  But if their underlying brand is Just Do It, why require the gear?  Yes, it would be way cool to have the iPod sensor track when I start and stop and provide music. Yet why run alone?   Set a weekly time to run (or walk) with a friend or three and just enjoy the experience together – without the tech toys.

Also, Nike, to encourage even more people to check out your outdoor gear and to build goodwill, why not partner with local communities, at least in the U.S.? And encourage people to, not only get out and run, but to walk and to bike?  Nike has gear for both, after all. And you want to be more inclusive. After all, most everybody want to get out and play with others.

In my small town of Sausalito and in other U.S. communities the feds are giving grants to for public education campaigns to encourage people to get out and walk, bike or run. That seems like the Way to Go to make this already viral campaign involve more people.  Plus, by partnering on local community campaigns, Nike encourages neighbors to find someone nearby for that exercise. Somehow the government concocted title for their project (a Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program) could use some naming sizzle from Nike. Thanks, Buzz Canuck.  On my wish list is a go4awalk for the U.S. Nike, interested in underwriting it?

In this slow economy, cities are strapped for cash.  Many would be open to companies underwriting imaginative public outreach campaigns tied to their events and other activities on everything from public safety to attracting visitors.