Peggy Klaus (17 page)

1.
What’s your background? How did this product come to be
?

After graduating from UCLA with a degree in mechanical engineering, I worked for ten years designing high-end surgical devices that many hospitals are still using. I worked my way up and became director of new product development, responsible for overseeing more than fifteen product teams working on the design and development of twenty new devices annually. More and more as the company grew, the team designing a particular device was geographically dispersed. For example, one person would be in New York, another in Europe, and yet another in California. I was looking for a way for the teams to collaborate on our projects in real time over the Internet, so that we could work more efficiently, avoid miscommunication, and lessen travel time and costs for team meetings.

This became even more important after 9/11, given that many employees were fearful of flying and everyone wanted to stay closer to home. Having three young children myself, I could really understand their feelings. I researched the market, experimented with a few products and services, and found that there weren’t any reliable and cost-effective solutions that would allow me to collaborate on any type of data or documents, from simple Word documents and PowerPoint presentations to more complicated 3D models. So I decided to develop a powerful, fast, and easy-to-use software that could handle the job and be used by anyone in virtually any industry.

2.
How will your product benefit my business
?

As the founder and CEO of a small, growing company myself, I know how important it is to stretch your dollar as far as it can go and streamline operations as much as possible. When you are on your own and getting started, you wear many different hats, and time to get it all done is in short supply. So our software has been designed with you in mind. For example, Peggy, you were telling me earlier that you’re currently working with your graphic designer on a twenty-page workshop booklet while you’ve been on the road. With our software, instead of your designer in Berkeley e-mailing the specs to you, then you marking changes to e-mail back and trying to explain what you really meant by them, you and the designer would just get on the phone, click a button, and both be looking at the exact same design at the same time. When you annotate or mark up the design, she can see it instantly on her computer screen and vice versa. All the back-and-forth of e-mailing, faxing, sending overnight packages is eliminated, as well as the costs, time delays, frustration, and potential for miscommunication.

Say no more, Tim. I got it. Now I see the advantage. You sold me! Tim hadn’t made just a product sale, he had made a
personal
sale. Remember that effective self-promotion isn’t about going on and on about yourself for no reason. When it comes to selling your products and services, first get to know your customers, and then be prepared to brag about yourself and who you are in a storylike way that portrays your strong points, tying into the interests and unique needs of your customers.

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF OR NO ONE ELSE WILL

“It was a stretch even jot me.”

How do you stretch yourself from being a prize-winning landscape architect to a popular author and publisher?

“I needed a bragologue that was going to leap tall buildings in a single bound,” said Gail, reflecting on her road to success, adding, “and part of it was conveying pure passion and belief in what I was doing even though I knew nothing about publishing.”

Gail had spent thirteen years running her own landscape design firm, working on all sorts of private and public outdoor spaces, from homes and businesses to parks, golf courses, and country clubs. With the arrival of her first child, she was looking to transition into something that allowed her to stay closer to home and afforded more flexible hours.

One day at a gathering of her mothers’ group, one woman remarked, “You know, someone should write a book about places to get married around here. When I was planning my wedding, there wasn’t a single resource book out there to help me put it all together.”

It was a light-bulb moment for Gail. She recalled having had a similarly frustrating experience three years prior when she got married. Eureka! She would publish the first guidebook for brides about places available to hold weddings and parties in her sprawling metropolitan backyard and outlying areas. She was practically exploding with excitement by the time she left the meeting. Her fate was sealed; her new venture, a fait accompli.

The fact that she knew nothing about publishing or event planning did little to deter her. (Look up the word
determined
in the dictionary and you’ll see Gail’s picture right beside it!) Off she went, researching the bridal and event-planning industry from top to bottom, arming herself with statistics to later convince establishments to advertise in her guidebook. She set about writing a few sample chapters and designing a cover, which she would later need to showcase her concept to bookstores, distributors, gift and bridal shops, and office supply stores. She knew that advertisers would never commit their promotional dollars up front unless she could guarantee wide distribution.

When she went out on sales calls here is what she said:

I have been living in the Bay Area for over twenty years, and am a graduate of UC Berkeley with an undergraduate degree in environmental engineering and a master’s in business administration. For the last ten years, I have been a successful business owner. Until recently I was a landscape architect designing a variety of private and public spaces. It wasn’t a walk in the park that gave me this idea, however, but a walk down the aisle. When I planned for my wedding, there wasn’t a single resource guidebook out there to help me put it all together. Here I was with twenty thousand dollars ready to invest in my big day—the average cost of a wedding these days—but I didn’t know where to spend it! There were snippets of information here and there, but nothing that provided a single-source, comprehensive list of facilities available, costs, amenities, as well as all the other services, from catering to flowers. And you know, the same type of information was lacking for businesses planning parties. Not a single resource! Having designed the landscapes of everything from country clubs to restaurants, I can tell you that there is a wealth of facilities. My book will hit two birds with one stone.

Once Gail talked one bookstore chain into agreeing to carry the guide, the first facility signed an advertising contract, and from there the domino effect took over. (Of course, she always bragged to prospective clients about who had signed on, highlighting the bigwigs.) After the first edition came out, her phone started ringing off the hook and businesses were begging to become paid advertisers in her book. Looking back, Gail admits, “I was frightened at first, but I gathered my strength and simply acted as if the business was already up and running successfully.” Her can-do attitude, a bragologue that leaped tall buildings in a single bound, an enormous amount of enthusiasm, and the belief that she could do it served to make success a reality.

“But … isn’t bragging just showing off?”

If you weave your accomplishments artfully and entertainingly into the conversation, no one will think you’re a show-off. In fact, they’ll ask to hear more.

Today, twelve years later, Gail has a highly successful hybrid business in publishing, advertising, and marketing consulting. Her book is now in its ninth printing, with versions for Los Angeles and Hawaii, and last year she started an events trade magazine.

MAKE YOUR BRAG BITES STICK

“Even after six months, I remembered what she said when we met.”

When I started my company seven years ago, like many aspiring entrepreneurs I attended my share of local networking events. More often than not, they turned out to be a feeding frenzy of professionals pitching me all sorts of products and services as a new small-business owner. While at first I loved the attention, after a few of these events the flattery began to wear thin. Everyone was beginning to look and sound the same. If you had heard one, you had heard them all, until I met Fran. She was an easy-going and likeable thirty-something business development specialist going solo with her own consulting company. At first, I braced myself for the typical “As a business development specialist, I offer a variety of experience and skills in administration, finance, information services, marketing, sales, training, and operations.” Instead, Fran surprised me with this clever little brag bite: “You know how people think puppies are so cute and they can’t resist taking care of them? Well, that’s how I feel about baby businesses. I love helping them grow and watching them prosper.” She went on to tell me about several businesses she had gotten off the ground, all the while asking me about mine. Fran not only had a gracious and genuine ease to her, she had a catchy way of summing up what she did. Six months later, when my business was bursting at the seams, I went searching for her card.

When I stress the importance of saying something interesting about yourself and your accomplishments, many people make the mistake of thinking that means I want them to come up with a clever advertising slogan. But the problem with slogans is that they often sound like a clichè or come off as too cutesy. When I say Become a walking billboard, I mean that you always need to be out there promoting yourself. But brag catchy, not corny. Think of ways to tell your story that are humorous or even metaphorical, and make sure to be original and authentic.

BACK UP STYLE WITH SUBSTANCE

“He was all flash.”

Recently, I had the pleasure of coaching Roland, the CEO and founder of a multimillion-dollar property management conglomerate, for an upcoming presentation. When I told Roland about the book I was writing on bragging, he remarked, “Boy, do I have some stories for you.” One in particular concerned a young man in his mid-twenties named Dru, who had recently paid him a visit trying to drum up interest and capital for a new business he was starting. Roland agreed to meet with Dru as a favor to the young man’s father, whom Roland had worked with for years. As Roland said, “His son was considering starting a company in the construction trade. He wanted me to meet with him to give him some feedback since I had spent my life in the industry. Of course, in a veiled kind of way, he was dangling a carrot and looking for early investors.”

The day of the meeting at Roland’s home, Dru showed up impeccably groomed, dressed to the hilt in a fine Armani suit, with a bronzed glow on his face in the dead of winter. He was the total image of success. As the two walked to the meeting room, Dru asked Roland excitedly, “Is that your black Mercedes in the driveway?” Upon hearing that it was, Dru mentioned that he owned the same car, pointing out the window to his brand-new shiny red Mercedes SLK-500, mentioning how he preferred it to the Lexus he had previously owned. He then asked Roland if he was a golfer, mentioning how he had passed a club a few miles down the road. Roland replied that he was, and Dru stated that he too belonged to a certain golf club, well known for its outrageous membership fees. Roland was slightly put off, noting, “He kind of went out of his way to make these points. I felt like all he could brag about was expensive material stuff.”

The two sat down in Roland’s study, and Dru immediately launched into his business concept. Roland thought the concept, while interesting, would take a lot of muscle and business savvy to get off the ground. Wondering whether Dru was up to the task, he inquired about his history, naturally expecting to hear about the business success that had landed him that shiny Mercedes.

Dru described his past with brag bites right and left that unfortunately missed the mark and had little to do with developing a business. After attending a prestigious New England prep school, he had attended a small and exclusive liberal arts college in Ohio and graduated with a degree in art history. For the next two years he had worked for his father’s company in the back office, structuring some vague financial deals. He had also tried his hand at project management for a large construction company in Texas, but left after a year, admitting sheepishly that he didn’t like the weather. He eventually decided to get his MBA, and had graduated from an Ivy League school, his father’s alma mater. Dru had plenty of business smarts as the son of a successful business owner in the oil and gas industry. Graduate school had also prepared him well. His senior thesis had been a case history of one of the largest construction companies in the world, which is really how he came up with his new-business idea in the first place. He also had a strong background in financial management. Trying to impress Roland, he threw out some newfangled investment ideas he had learned in class, and that he had been successfully applying to his trust fund.

As Roland said to me later, laughing, “Remember that famous Wendy’s commercial with the little old lady asking, ‘Where’s the beef?’ That’s exactly what I wanted to say.” It was clear to Roland that Dru had never really gotten his hands dirty and had yet to experience material worry of any sort. “Imagine,” said Roland, “investing in some slick Willie who might spend your money like it’s going out of style?”

If Dru had done his homework and read up on Roland, he might have taken a different approach. Roland had come from a lower-middle-class family and had built his company from scratch. In fact, his is the classic story: Boy starts in the mailroom of a Fortune 500 company and ends up saving enough money to start his own company at thirty, now worth $100 million. Oh, and the Mercedes parked in the driveway? It was a gift from his wife for his sixtieth birthday that still made him feel a little uncomfortable every time he drove it.

“But … I’ve tried bragging and I’m not getting anywhere.”

If you feel like your bragging campaign is falling on deaf ears, is turning people off, or is not getting you where you want to go, trust your intuition—you’re probably right. Stop and evaluate your last attempt: (1) Was what you said meaningful and valuable to the other person? (2) Was it within the scope of the conversation? (3) Did your delivery have both style and substance? (4) Was it the right time to be tooting your own horn?