January 2009

More than media training

A few years back, one senior executive summed up the power of media training nicely on his post-session evaluation form, "Videotape is ugly," he wrote, "but it works."

Yes, it does. And anyone who's sat in a conference room while a CEO goes through media training can attest to the extraordinary power of a video camera.

But in today's corporate climate, restricting videotaping to just the executives who will speak to the media is a huge missed opportunity.
I found this out some months ago at a small company in St. Louis when instead of videotaping just the CEO, I decided to train my camera on 12 of the 30 employees – everyone from the receptionist to the CFO. I even taped a business partner. I asked each of them a simple question, "What does this company do?"

Their answers were staggeringly inconsistent.
I followed up with some other questions like, "What makes you any different from your competitors?" And what I ended up with was a collection of video footage that made the CEO cringe - especially when I played it back to him and the other executives a day later.

I'd been hired to develop a message for the media. But it was clear from looking at the videotape that the company didn't have much of a message for anyone, and certainly couldn't summarize its capabilities in a clear, concise, compelling, and consistent fashion for customers, partners, prospects – or reporters. It wasn’t speaking with one voice; it was speaking with dozens. And all of them were different.

When it comes to communications strategy, there's a lot of talk about messaging. Lots of companies lay claim to methodologies that work and secret-sauce seminars that reveal the core essence of a company. Some of them are good. Some of them are nonsense. But the best way I know to quickly create the elevator pitch that will influence sales and win deals is to blend the traditional videotape coaching used by media trainers and with the consultative approach used by branding and messaging firms.

One of the most powerful things about using video to help define and refine your company's key message is that it quickly shows what sticks and what doesn’t. The quotable quotes reporters adore are close cousins to the memorable takeaway lines that an audience will remember long after a speech, a Webcast, or a product demonstration.

Developing such messages isn't rocket science. But it is remarkably rare.

One client of mine had recently gone through a "strategic messaging workshop" and came out the other side with a spiffy acronym. The acronym (allegedly) positioned the company well and trickled down through the organization thanks to numerous enthusiastic executive presentations.

A colleague of mine happened to run into one of the client's sales reps a few weeks later and asked him how the new strategic message was working in the real world. "I was just talking to one of my biggest accounts,” said the rep, “and after the presentation I asked him what he thought. He said, 'Yeah, that sounds about the same as your competitor who was in here yesterday.'"

Ouch.

Commodity language simply isn’t enough anymore. What sticks in peoples’ minds are clear, concise, simple stories that illustrate what your company does and how it’s different from the others. Acronyms usually don’t help. A video camera does.

Of course, many employees – CEOs included – would rather run 10 miles over broken glass than submit to an on-camera grilling about their organization's key messages. Fortunately, there are some tips you can give them before they start (see sidebar). But sure it will be awkward, yes it'll make people sweat, absolutely it will raise eyebrows, and of course it will threaten the owners of the messaging status quo.

But do it anyway. It's the right thing to do. If the message is good it will be good on camera, too. If the message stinks, better that it stinks internally before your reps or execs crash and burn in front of a customer. Better to get that choir of disconnected employee voices singing from the same sheet of music before they start performing in public.

And there’s no better way to make that happen than to use a camera. Videotape is ugly. But it works – both inside and outside of the media training session.

SIDEBAR
Five steps to developing your company's message using videotape.

1. Be clear - people freak out when they see you with a video camera. Assure them that the footage you're shooting isn't going to appear on YouTube; it's just for internal evaluation and critique.
2. Be quick - use digital video cameras like the Flip to capture the footage, then edit and produce the movie for review. It doesn't need to be pretty, well-lit or of broadcast quality; it just needs to show what people are saying.
3. Be kind - all those people skills you use in media training to assuage the subjects’ concerns and get the best language out of them are needed tenfold because you'll be working with employees at various levels within the organization.
4. Be brutal - once you've captured 12-15 answers to "What does this company do?" don't let the speakers off the hook. After you’re done editing, buy a few pizzas and have them watch the combined footage. Then ask the group if they're being clear, concise and consistent. Ask them if a prospect would buy based on the preceding few minutes of tape.
5. Be persistent - one client of mine insisted that all of its board members be able to effectively deliver the company's "elevator speech." At each quarterly board meeting two names were picked at random, forcing those two board members to stand and deliver the elevator speech. Awkward? Yes. Pavlov-ian? Absolutely. Effective? You bet.