Communication Artistry

Good (sales)people make a difference.

Great salespeople still make a difference.

I'm writing this post via my new Blackberry and not via the iPhone, and among other reasons, it's due to a great experience with a terrific salesperson in the unlikliest of places (the Verizon retail store).

I thought I would be getting a new iPhone, but there were too many deal-breakers for me. First, the keyboard (or lack of same). I assume I need say no more. But here were the others:

1. Battery life (or lack of same) and no spare capability. My friend Jonathan, who like me is a messaging power user, needs to re-charge his iPhone by noon everyday. This is supposed to be a mobile device.

2. No cut-and-paste in text editing. For me, it's about making phone calls, but it's as much about mobile messaging. SMS and email are mission critical.

Don't get me wrong, I lusted after the iPhone and was amazed to still see lines with 40-50 people in them outside the Apple stores in San Francisco and Emeryville, three weeks after launch. But I'm in the market for a work tool first, and an entertainment tool second. I love my iPod, and don't go anywhere without it. But I'm not about to go jogging or working out with an iPhone.  I don't need to watch TV or videos on my phone, I need to communicate.

I've been a Palm user since the first Pilot. In fact, Palm was a client of mine back in the day, and my firm was helping them generate income by selling a software program they developed that allowed folks to sync their HPs with their PCs. How old school is that? One of my fondest memories is being taken in the back room and shown the secret project the geniuses at Palm were working on...I saw the first Pilot when it was still made out of clay! But by now, my Treo 750 was pretty tired and it was time to upgrade to a new phone. Sorry Palm, you guys need a breakthrough to stay relevant.

I hated the Blackberry experience when I tried it a year ago. In a matter of two days I had carpal tunnel on my right thumb from the damn scroll wheel. I hated the lack of flexibility in the calendar app, the inability to thread messages, and the fact that messages were all treated equally...voice mail, email, SMS, it all went into one bucket. No wonder you need a search feature!

But I held my breath and visited the Verizon store in Emeryville, and walked out the proud owner of a Blackberry Curve. The biggest impact on me wasn't the technology, but the salesperson, Juancarlos. I expected the typical Verizon floor salesperson...uninterested, uninformed, and usually unhelpful. But Juancarlos had the right answers, he knew how the device works, knew some great tips and tricks, and was a user himself. He was patient and listened to my questions and comments, and showed me how the device would meet my needs.

I'm a happy camper. I signed up for the GPS and am very impressed, and that was a bonus I wasn't looking for. The other big bonus? I am typing this post  (and I am a wicked fast thumb-typer... how can you do this without a keyboard? C'mon!) on the Curve with the downloadable software that links it right to this blog. How cool is that?

Your call to action

Mission statements were all the rage back in the day. Your organization just had to have one in order to be taken seriously or to get funded. But they had no real relevance to the actual work of the organization, and they were quickly left behind. So much so that they've fallen out of favor, and rightly so, people now say, don't worry about what your mission statement is, just do it.

Mission statements have definitely fallen out of favor in the for-profit world, and are being left behind in the non-profit world as well. But I think they are still relevant, and it's worth the time you invest in them. There's really nothing else that can inspire supporters or differentiate your offering as easily.

To help differentiate my consulting firm, our mission statement morphed from "The purpose of our company is to provide our clients and customers world-class bla bla bla..." to "We help you get the results you promised your investors."

The key to a mission statement that is inspiring or memorable, is to stay away from what you do, and make it about your results, or what you achieve. Here are some guidelines:

    * It should be emotional.
    * If it can have an unexpected element, all the better.

Think about "why you?" and "what is the world lacking if you don't exist?"

At Big Brothers Big Sisters, we were stuck with "Our mission is to help children reach their potential through professionally supported, one-to-one relationships with mentors that have a measurable impact on youth."  (It's so non-memorable I still have to look it up).

With the help of the folks at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, we came up with "Young people need a friend they can count on, learn from, and look up to. He gets it when his Big Brother shows him how to throw a baseball and be nice to girls.  She gets it when her Big Sister helps her become the first person in her family to go to college. Big Brothers Big Sisters creates and nurtures relationships that are precious, safe, and have the power to transform lives."

When my friend John Melia, who founded the Wounded Warrior Project, was working on a mission statement for his agency that helps returning veterans, I came up with "We gave so much of ourselves, we left a part behind. Wounded Warrior Project helps us get it back."

If either of those statements make you feel like supporting their work, here are links:

Big Brothers Big Sisters
Wounded Warrior Project

If you've got some great examples, I'd love it if you would share them here.