For some of our most strategic accounts over the years, we always took the time to develop a very robust and detailed account plan. One of the fun features of these account plans was the “wine glass” analysis. It was a great way to understand the level of relationship we had with certain critical stakeholders in the account.

If we placed a wine glass next to their name on the org chart, we could see at a glance the depth of the relationship. The wine glass, of course, meant that this is a person that would join us for a dinner or cocktails and with whom we have developed a personal relationship.

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We work with expert teams and affiliates to manage and deliver digital video. Video drives genuine and transparent interactions through a comfortable visual medium. You can engage your target audience with Documentary Branding, and Explainer Videos. We will work with you to craft a creative and distribution strategy for your target audience and help accelerate your messages across the social web.

Documentary Branding

Documentary Branding is defined as the space where credible ideas about corporations and their brands are likely to emerge in the future. Consumers and customers are increasingly mistrustful of the images, motives and representatives of large corporate entities. The idea of Documentary Branding is to offer a perspective on the brand that emanates from a broader population of employees and spokespeople and customers that are presented in real situations speaking candidly about the companies they work for.

The subjects of Documentary Branding in the hands of a skillful director can deliver a deliver a disproportionately significant influence on the way people perceive brands and situations.

Explainer Videos

The Explainer Video is powerful tool in the translation of otherwise complex ideas into a clear and memorable engagement for the viewer. Explainer videos are ideal treatments for new products and key moments in the evolution of an organization. The Explainer Video speaks to the reality of how we all have come to rely on visual presentation across all phases of professional and personal communications. The B2B customer requires both the specificity of traditional longer form business communications and the impact of content delivered across all the media they encounter in home, in office and in between.

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The traditional PR approach is focused on direct media relationships to drive exposure opportunities and influence brand/message awareness. Typically the approach targets known relationships within traditional media.  An effective traditional media program remains a critical engagement strategy  – particularly in highly regulated industries where compliance and regulatory constraints limit the full adoption of social media and internet outreach. However, the traditional approach is no longer fully adequate. 

With the advent of digital, we see a fundamental shift in media and news consumption. We are moving from information push to information pull. Information consumers use search engines and RSS readers to filter, manage and control the content they see.  To succeed, today’s PR leaders must engage both traditional media influencers and the new influencers across social networks. An effective PR strategy incorporates digital strategies and takes advantage of the viral nature of the web to expand visibility and message syndication. 

• Clarify goals and metrics for digital PR
• Align target audience, key words, channels and influencers
• Set up, selecting and supporting listening services to gain insight into activity and sentiment across the web
• Use PR and marketing to speaking directly to your customers and buyers with targeted messages
• Architect and select digital technologies – blogs, RSS, rich media, web 2.0, listening tools enhance the viral impact of news and information distribution
• Evaluate and recommending newswire services that deliver digitally
• Facilitate the operating model and governance across functions 
• Optimize press releases and distribution strategies for organic visibility, inbound links and visibility
• Support campaigns for new influencer outreach in the blog, community, wikisphere and broader mediasphere
• Produce creative content including Documentary Branding, Explainer Videos, Impact Creative
• Manage listening programs and campaign analytical services,  key word implementation, landing pages, and optimization
• Use native social media style and content to engage new audience and increase transparency
• Improve tactics around press release key words and links to enhance SEO

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Today, we communicate in multiple ways across media types – including emails, blogs, articles, reports, proposals and presentations. Too often we present a complex collection of individual ideas with little meaning or structure. Effective presentation style is critical, yet inadequate. Without a clear top-down structure, our arguments and key messages are lost or misunderstood. The audience is not persuaded to take action and teams are misaligned. The result is lost value.  Today’s leaders need to present ideas effectively across channels. They need the tools to develop a focused, logical, structured communication and the skills to deliver and present ideas persuasively.

We offer a unique approach for persuasive communications:

• Persuasive Communications Workshops:  This is the foundation course for effective persuasive communications. Equip yourself with tools and techniques to understand the client’s problems and get your point across clearly and succinctly.
• Document and Presentation Review: Review your presentation or written work for structure and sound argumentation
• Persuasive Presentation Workshop: Intensive workshop with video recording and personal feedback
• Executive Coaching in Communication Skills: Individual coaching and preparation workshop for executives who need to continuously excel and present to management and board members.
• Workshops to train and integrate selling techniques with SCQA Single Minded Messages for end-to-end consultative sales.

Single Minded Message: Structured Thinking and Delivery Workshop

Whether creating proposals, presenting, or just writing emails, our programs are highly relevant to anyone who needs to better structure,simplify and influence through all their communications.  The “Structured Thinking and Delivery” (ST&D) workshop is the foundation of our approach. It sets the framework and approach for more succinct and effective communications. The tools and techniques acquired truly change the way you think and communicate your thoughts – whatever the channel. From analyzing the audience to making the messages more compelling, the approach helps you think clearly through your arguments and convey them as simply as possible.

The approach draws on the core elements of logical rationale, as well as current best practices in structured thinking used in worlds leading businesses such as management consulting, advertising and technology companies.

• Consultative engagement that can build on your use of the popular SPIN® model from Huthwaite*
• Persuasive communication using the powerful SCQA model

What is Persuasive Argumentation?

This course delivers against the 3 core elements to drive effective communications and presentations:

• It starts from the core idea, not the delivery. While there are many ways to improve presentation skills (often hard to learn) this course addresses the more common issue which is the lack of a meaningful, single minded point to make.
• Focuses on results not on means. The focus is to help individuals figure out what they are trying to achieve, and how to most effectively and succinctly achieve this objective. This prioritization of information and recommendations, based on sound logic, is core in the digital age
• While the core concepts are “media neutral” the course translates the approach into ways of making presentations, pitches, emails, documents, web sites or other communications EASIER and more IMPACTFUL for the participants to develop, to ensure that the concepts go from “ideas” to “behaviors”.
• We provide a set of online tools to support the ongoing development and growth of people using the concepts and tools presented.

Note:  The SPIN framwork is a registered trademark of Huthwaite, Inc.

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