04.18.11 The Power of the Frisbee

Facebook, LinkedIN, iPads, video phone calls, virtual conferences, etc. all try to connect people.  Recently, I discovered the power of connection from another device:

The Frisbee.

I just completed a sales training program for a publishing client. The most memorable aspect of the program was when I asked each salesperson:

What’s your emotional connection to your brand?

One salesperson spoke of a trip she’d taken to the rural farming province of Shandong, China.
One afternoon a few villagers began tossing a Frisbee around.  Within minutes the group multiplied to include children, visitors, parents, youths and grandparents.  My client said that in that moment of frenetic Frisbee playing she realized that with the help of a simple toy, nothing separates us…not language, sex, ethnicity, education, ability or disability…they were just people connecting with each other with a common purpose.

The group and I were speechless and tearing up.

I relate it to the work I do with clients looking to create new ways to communicate their brand. Your customers want to know why your company matters and they want to know that YOU know why it matters.  If you share your personal connection to why you work where you do and what it really means to you, you actually communicate the value of your brand and where it fits into the world.  It’s an emotional connection you want customers to have with your brand.  And it has to start with your connection to it.

To act on this advice, do the following:
1) Write down what your emotional connection to your brand is.  Keep it simple because you’ll want to remember it.
2) Come back to it the next day and answer this question:  Are you moved by it?  If not, do it over again and come back again the next day.  Repeat as needed until you are really jazzed by the connection.
3) At your next customer/client meeting, find a way to communicate your connection to your company’s brand and see how they react.  If it seems they get it,  then you’ve done what many, many don’t…gotten your customers engaged in your brand.  If not, keep trying.  You’ll get there but you might need some help. Give me a call.