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A Little Research Goes a Long Way

Fortunately, the call was brief. However, in the fifteen minutes that we chatted, the caller made the following mistakes:

Why? – During our email exchange before our call, I had to ask him what he wanted to talk about. Ideally, he would have made this clear without requiring me to inquire. It turned out that he was looking for companies he could work with as a consultant. If he had spent any time reading my blog, he would have understood that I am not a fan of consultants, especially at startups.

Research? – I do not expect everyone I speak with to be a fan of my humble blog. Thus, not knowing my position regarding consultants is understandable. However, I do expect someone who is looking for a favor to do at least three minutes of research on my professional background.

In addition to the inclusion of my bio on my blog, there is also an easily accessible description of my professional career on LinkedIn. Despite the ease at which someone can determine my investments and past operating roles, the caller asked me if I knew the CEO of RightScale. “Yes”, I replied, “I was a seed investor and an Advisor to the company.” I should have completed the sentence with, “as is clearly noted in my bio.” He then asked me if I knew the Co-Founder of Expertcity (creator of GoToMyPC and GoToMeeting, acquired by Citrix). “Yes”, I replied, “I worked with him for five years as a senior executive.”

The caller had apparently met both gentlemen recently, but had not connected the dots between them and me. An important aspect of effective networking is to understand how the person you are speaking with relates to other members of your network. Significant affinity can be created by drawing lines between yourself and friends of the person with whom you are networking. However, in order to draw such lines, you must first do a bit of homework.

Connection? – Salespeople understand that establishing affinity at the outset of a conversation is extremely important. However, rather than ask me how I knew the person who connected us, the caller launched into his consulting pitch. If he had asked, he would have learned that I had not spoken with our mutual acquaintance in over 10-years and I frankly was hoping the caller could shed some light as to why my long-lost acquaintance connected us.

Before contacting me, the consultant should have explored how well the referring party knew me. Once he realized that our relationship was tenuous, he might have considered leveraging the CEO of RightScale or the Co-Founder of Expertcity for an introduction to me. However, to do that, he would have had to know that I was already connected with these two gentlemen.

Self-aware? – At the end of the call, the consultant still went for the close, asking me if there were any companies whom I thought might be able to use his services. I think I surprised him by saying, “No, I don’t think so.”

The call might have ended differently if the caller had started our conversation by explaining how we were connected and demonstrating that he had an understanding of my background. A more effective approach would have been:

“John, I really appreciate your time. I was checking out your YouTube channel and I enjoyed your recent talk with Brad Feld. I have been a fan of TechStars from afar and it was fun to hear his thoughts firsthand.

I also noticed that you are an investor in RightScale and that you were a member of the senior team at Expertcity. I recently met the Founders of these startups and I was impressed with their entrepreneurial spirit and drive. They both insisted that I reach out to you as they felt my consulting skills might be well suited to some of your startup investments.”

One might think the caller was a young person who is still learning the networking game. If that were the case, I would not be writing this entry, as I realize young people are learning “on the job.” Sadly, the caller has been a consultant for over twenty years and should have known better.

Paraphrasing the modern-day philosopher Jack Black, “Those who can’t do, consult. Those who can’t consult, teach. Those who can’t teach, teach gym.” This consultant would make an awesome gym teacher.

Jeffrey Aaronson is a noted artist and photojournalist who befriended a young Mr. Jobs at the beginning of Steve’s amazing journey.

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In this article, Jeffrey’s wife Becky describes her husband’s friendship with Mr. Jobs, including the celebration of Steve’s 30th birthday, Steve’s meeting with Mick Jagger and frequent encounters when strangers who were dismissive of a young, disheveled Jobs, who, despite his celebrity within the business world, was many years away from becoming an American icon. 

The article opens with a touching scene:

FEBRUARY 1984: It’s a classic winter day in Aspen, and snow is falling like heavy cotton as Jeffrey sits hunched over his light table editing film. As he lowers his loupe for a moment and glances up from his slides, he suddenly notices a flash of brown amidst all the white outside his window. A UPS truck is pulling up in front of his studio. He isn’t expecting a package so curiosity tickles his frontal lobe.

In a matter of minutes Jeffrey finds himself staring at a large white box sitting on his studio floor. He can do little more than shake his head and smile when he sees the word Macintosh printed on its side, along with its signature design.

When Jeffrey opens the box, he finds a brand new Apple Macintosh 128K computer along with a keyboard and a new thing called a mouse. He also finds a hand-written note from Steve Jobs. It simply says, “Be a part of the future—Steve.”

Read It For The Photos

In addition to Becky’s excellent prose, the article includes a number of Jeffrey’s photos of Jobs, many of which are previously unpublished.

The article concludes with a first-hand description of Steve’s 30th birthday party, which Jeffrey attended. The video below was shown at the birthday celebration. The images, including the final one of Steve mocking the stereotype of an old-school business tycoon, are especially poignant with his passing.

Please take a moment out of your busy day to read Jeffrey Aaronson’s Improbable Journey with Steve Jobs, the Guy Who Changed His World (and Ours).

The ease with which Steve befriended Jeffrey (a member of the “The Media Establishment” no less), at a time when he was running a once-in-a-generation startup that demanded 150% of his energy and focus, will hopefully remind you that no one is ever too busy to be kind and slow down long enough to make a new friend.

Image source: ©Jeffrey Aaronson.

Seth Epstein, Founder and CEO of SocialStay and former Founder of FUEL, understands the power of changing the rules. Early in his career, he devised a clever strategy for making a splash at the Broadcast Design Association tradeshow, one of the most significant gatherings in the motion graphics industry.

While hundreds of BDCs each spent hundreds of thousands of dollars attempting to fool the market as to their relevance by investing in garish tradeshow booth monstrosities, Seth played by his own rules.

While he understood that some of his competitors’ booths were impressive, he also realized that most would not generate enough sales to recoup their booth’s cost. With an investment of less than $10,000, FUEL became the talk of the show and generated enough hype to land several new clients.

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Hyper Space

Tradeshow attendance is largely sold based upon Fear Of Loss. Entrepreneurs are encouraged to believe that they must pay top-dollar for the ideal booth location, compelling give-aways, and an imposing booth that will capture the imagination of its potential customers.

Despite what the most earnest marketing executive will tell you, tradeshows seldom make or break a company. Ignore your sales and marketing people when they tell you that your company will be “embarrassed” if you do not purchase an expansive $150,000 booth. Instead, by harnessing the heightened emotions which tradeshows provoke, you can devise guerilla marketing tactics which are far more effective than “booth babes,” gimmicky contests, and tradeshow booths the size of small towns.

Splash In The Revenue

If you are not closing sales at a tradeshow, the investment to place a booth on the show floor is likely unwarranted. Using a tradeshow to establish brand identity and make a splash is usually money poorly spent. Only Big Dumb Companies (BDCs) have enough money to waste in such a profoundly inane manner. As noted in Conventional Wisdom Isn’t, in many instances, bigger is not better.

Your customers will buy from you because your solution economically satisfies their needs. They will not remember what your tradeshow booth looked like by the time they get on the plane to sleep off their hangover on the flight home. Booth size does not matter to the average customer and it should not matter to your team either.

Assuming you are closing business on the show floor, you can enhance your close rate by making it as easy as possible for your prospects to become customers. One way to do so is to create a streamlined, “show-only” contract that is short, limits your prospects’ risk and can be signed right on the show floor without the prospect’s legal team’s involvement. Depending on the nature of your product, this might be best represented as a Paid Pilot or some other demonstration oriented sale. Pricing should be positioned as a show special and you should give your prospect an easy out if your solution does not satisfy their needs.

Booth Mates And Conference Rooms

One Frugal method to maximize the impact of a tradeshow is to cajole one of your partners into allocating you a small portion of their booth space. This will save you money while providing you presence on the show floor. This public affirmation of your relationship with the BDC also enhances your credibility.

You can also economically establish a presence at a show by booking a conference room or suite in a nearby hotel. Use such rooms for private meetings, to perform product demonstrations, and to entertain prospects in an intimate setting. This approach leverages the time-tested Scarcity principal of influence. By emphasizing the exclusive nature of a private invitation to your solution suite, busy prospects are more likely share a few minutes with you, especially if you have compelling technology that might help them further their respective missions.

As noted in Competing From The Fringe, tradeshows are ideal settings in which to gain competitive insights. The confidentiality afforded by a private forum will preclude your competitors from gaining firsthand competitive knowledge, which they might be able to use against you.

Nurses In T-shirts

Uninspired marketing executives often spend inordinate funds on items to be given to people who enter their tradeshow booth. Their justification is that such free items will incentivize people to learn more about their company’s products. Unfortunately, such tradeshow chachkies seldom generate legitimate purchasing intent. Most people like free beer and they will often provide you with their contact information in exchange for otherwise free beer.

At one tradeshow I attended early in my career, our company had one of the busiest booths on the show floor. We had a very novel product that was new to the market. We also were giving away really cool t-shirts. The Chairman of the company, who also attended the show, spent the next several weeks telling anyone who would listen that, “our booth was nearly knocked over by nurses.” In a vacuum, this was a true statement.

Unfortunately, the nurses were interested in snagging a free T-shirt and really could have cared less about our product. The minority who had a legitimate interest in our product had no influence on the buying process. As we eventually (and quite painfully) learned, our solution was purchased by surgeons and hospital administrators, not nurses. As such, we should have escorted the nurses out of our booth to make room for real customers, rather than giving away t-shirts purchased with investors’ money.

The fact that the company’s Chairman was at the tradeshow is indicative of some of the challenges we faced as a management team – see Founderitis for suggestions regarding how to deal with a rogue, misguided Chairman.

Tradeshows Are Not Vacations

Tradeshow organizers place marginal shows in resort destinations for obvious reasons. They know that BDC employees are more likely to attend a show if it is hosted in a desirable locale, even if it is a complete boondoggle.

Unfortunately, your adVenture does not have a travel budget equivalent to the typical BDC. As such, remind your team that they can take plenty of vacations once your adVenture is purchased by a BDC. Until then, tradeshows should be attended by employees who drive sales. Less is more – a small team focused on generating revenue in a private suite is ideal.

A Monk’s Whisper Is Louder Than A Marketing VP’s Yell

Seth’s approach to tradeshow guerilla marketing was inexpensive and simple. His motion graphics agency, FUEL, was based in Los Angeles. Thus, it was economical for him to hire eight out-of-work actors to pose as monks. He then purchased eight monk costumes and had eight custom medallions made.

Day One – the faux monks simply smiled and opened doors for people as they entered the convention floor. When anyone attempted to speak with them, they simply smiled, placed their hands together at their chest and bowed. Their traditional Tibetan outfits and lack of communication intrigued the show attendees.

Day Two – the monks continued to smile, bow and open doors for the show participants. However, on this day, they also wore large metal medallions around their neck that simply said “FUEL.” Again, when queried about FUEL, why they were at the show, etc., they politely disclosed nothing.

Day Three – the monks became mobile, appearing everywhere – outside of speaker sessions, riding escalators and solemnly walking in a line outside of the convention hall, all the while repeatedly chanting FUEL, FUEL, FUEL…

During the evening of the final day of the convention, the keynote speaker began his talk by asking the question that was on all the show attendees’ minds, “Who the heck are these FUEL monks? What’s up with that?” In a single moment, over 1,200 attendees, along with FUEL’s target customers all became acutely aware of FUEL.

Seth and his team were then able to harvest the hype they created for the next several months, closing significant new business in the process. Several years later, FUEL was acquired by Razorfish for an outsized fee that was atypical of a like-sized agency.

Don’t Believe The Hype…Create It

Your tradeshow decisions should be devoid of ego and emotion. As with any significant expenditure, deploy a rigorous and disciplined return-on-investment analysis to each show. Reject booth envy, focus on closing sales on the show floor and limit tradeshow attendance to people not seeking a company-paid vacation.

Tradeshows are highly emotional, ego-driven events – do not get sucked into the mania. Rather, become the pied piper of hype and make the tradeshow attendees dance to your tune, instead of trying to outspend and out scream better funded, more established competitors.

The tablet allowed Marco Polo and his fellow travelers to transverse nearly 7,500 miles unmolested during their three-year return trip to Italy. This golden reference effectively communicated the Emperor’s sentiments in absentia.

Although it may be a bit much to ask your Referencers to provide you with a golden tablet, you should strive to obtain similarly impactful references.

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Social Norming

Modern-day references are effective because they rely upon a powerful principle of influence, Social Norming. From the beginning of tribal cultures, mankind has valued non-biased, third-party opinions. Independent validations of what foods were safe to eat, where game migrated during the winter, and which people were to be trusted were basic tenets of survival. As noted in Net Profit Score, salespeople have used references as a means of establishing credibility with strangers for hundreds of years.

A Dozen Tactics To Make Your Recommendations And References More Impactful

Typically, serving as a verbal Referencer involves little work. A quick phone call or two is generally all that is required. The conversations are transitory and thus the Referencer does not need to be as thoughtful as comments that are codified in written form.

Although some of the tactics described below are also applicable to verbal recommendations, the focus of this entry is on obtaining impactful written recommendations and references (collectively referred to as “references” hereafter). The people from whom you generally want a written reference are busy and difficult to reach. Thus, in order to increase your chances of obtaining meaningful references from successful people, deploy the following dozen tactics.

Contemporaneous – Ask for references immediately following the completion of your interactions with the Referencer, even if you do not have an immediate need for a reference. This will result in personal and specific descriptions of your involvement. The longer you wait to ask for a reference, the more difficult it will be for your Referencer to recall how you specifically added value to her organization.

References from people with whom you have not interacted with in years are suspect. They cause the reader to wonder why you have not sought more timely references. I occasionally receive reference requests from people I have not spoken with in years. Such references tend to be generic and unimpactful.

Specificity – The more your reference specifies how you added value to your past organization, the more influential it will be. Thus, cite quantified results, such as percentage growth in revenue, number of new accounts closed, Net Promoter Scores achieved, etc. However, be sure that any statistics you quote are primarily attributable to your personal efforts. If they are the result of a team’s performance, be sure to state such and clarify your role on the team.

Avoid too much emphasis on your character traits. Such “character witness” references do little to influence the reader. Imagine a resume that only describes the person’s personality traits, likeability and strong character. You might be inclined to have a beer with the person, but it is unlikely you would be motivated to hire them, simply because they seem to be “pleasant, honest and easy to work with.” Just like a resume, your recommendations should state why you will be an effective addition to the organization you are attempting to join.

Fork Lift – As noted in Personal Pitch, you should always do the heavy lifting on behalf of your Referencer. Start by writing a draft of your reference. When sending the proposed text to your Referencer, make it clear that your intent is not to be presumptuous. Rather, let them know that you are attempting to make the reference as effortless as possible while giving them guidance regarding the key points you want conveyed in the reference. Also, encourage them to make any changes they deem appropriate. As noted in Thrill The Messenger, as long as the original text is reasonable and accurately depicts your accomplishments, most Referencers will make few changes.

Audience – Let your Referencer know with whom you intend to share the reference. For instance, is your reference for graduate school or a job at a startup? If you are looking for a job, denote your preferred: target industry, position(s) and the maturation stage of your target company (i.e., startup, capitalized growth stage, large, established company, etc.). This detailed information will help your Referencer identify specific anecdotes and accomplishments relevant to the prospective position you are seeking.

Peers – Seek Referencers who are peers of those whom you wish to influence. As noted in Cialdini et al.’s Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways To Be Persuasive, studies support that, “…the more similar the person giving the testimonial is to the new target audience, the more persuasive the message becomes.” For instance, if you intend to share your reference with a startup CEO, a reference from the CEO of a young, vibrant company will likely have a greater impact than a reference from a CEO of a large, slow growth company. Peers naturally relate to each other and thus they correspondingly tend to trust each other’s opinions.

Variety – Do not burden a handful of Referencers with requests for multiple references. Although you want to target each reference to a specific audience, do not ask a Referencer to create more than one written reference within a reasonable time period (e.g., six months). Pursue references from a variety of sources, including customers, suppliers, subordinates, etc. References from all the relevant aspects of your professional life will give the recipient a complete understanding of your capabilities. It will also demonstrate that you have the Whole Package and are not someone who impresses their bosses while mistreating everyone else they encounter.  

Non-reciprocal – Do not ask for a reference in exchange for giving one to the Referencer. Such reciprocal references are worthless, especially when they are published on a social networking platform. It is easy for a potential employer to identify such reciprocal references by clicking on the Referencer to learn more about their background. When they see the glowing reference from you, they will naturally question the veracity of all your references.

Protect – Ask the recipients of your references to notify you before they contact any of your Referencers. This will give you an opportunity to alert your Referencers regarding the specific opportunities you are currently pursuing (see “Heads-up” below). It will also reduce the number of errant phone calls and email exchanges your Referencers will have to administer on your behalf.

Heads-up – Keep your Referencers apprised of the recipients of your references in order to avoid anyone contacting one of your Referencers when they are unprepared. This is especially important if you received the reference a number of months previously. If your Referencer is caught off guard, they might not be as effusive as they otherwise would be, thereby compromising the reference’s impact.

Step-by-Step – If the reference involves completing an online form and uploading the reference document (as is the case with most graduate school applications), specify each step the Referencer must complete. If the document has to be submitted in the form of a PDF, convert the reference letter to the proper format so your Referencer does not have to spend their valuable time performing this trivial task.

Do not simply send the Referencer a link and ask them to “follow the onscreen instructions.” As noted in Fork Lift, the onus is on you to reduce the friction involved in getting an impactful reference from busy, otherwise deeply engaged people.

Rifle Shot – Although it is wise to gather a small library of references from a variety of sources, do not dump all of them on the person you are attempting to influence. Too many references may cause the reader to assume you are compensating to obfuscate your inadequacies. Instead of a shotgun approach, select two or three references that are the most relevant to the target opportunity and let the reference recipient know that you have additional references that you are happy to share, as appropriate.

Follow-up – As noted in Thank You, always close the loop with your Referencers and let them know the outcome of the reference they provided. For instance, if the recommendation helped you get into your target school, let them know where you were accepted and tell them how much you appreciate their assistance. Even if the reference does not result in the outcome you had hoped for, thank the Referencer and let them know you appreciate their support. By doing so, you are being polite and you are increasing the probability the Referencer will be willing to help you again in the future.

A Swimming Success

Marco Polo’s reference from Kublai Khan proved invaluable in his explorations. If you are able to secure likewise a library of impactful recommendations that act as envoys of your past achievements, your future success may rival that of Mr. Polo.

Who knows? If you are immensely successful, children 700 years from now may name a game after you. Now wouldn’t that be swimming?

______________________
John Greathouse has held a number of senior executive positions with successful startups during the past fifteen years, spearheading transactions which generated more than $350 million of shareholder value, including an IPO and a multi-hundred-million-dollar acquisition.

John is a CPA and holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School. He is a member of the University of California at Santa Barbara’s Faculty where he teaches several entrepreneurial courses.
______________________

<

Copyright © 2007-10 by J. Meredith Publishing. All rights reserved.

In an episode of the popular 1990’s TV sitcom Seinfeld

Although the plot was obviously devised for comic effect, it serves to illustrate that non-conventional methods of infiltrating Big Dumb Companies (BDCs) are often effective. The key is to avoid the adverse fate suffered by Kramer at the conclusion of this particular episode.

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Entrepreneurs constantly have to capture the attention of larger companies. This is usually a challenge, especially if conventional methods, such as approaching through a company’s front door, are deployed. Front doors are where sentinels are placed, in the form of security guards, receptionists and administrative assistants. These people are employed to keep entrepreneurs out, maintain order and reduce disruptions. Front doors are for ATM Operators who do not mind waiting their turns in long lines.

For instance, if you were trying to establish a partnership with a BDC, the front door would be a direct inquiry to the VP of Business Development. You might get lucky and be greeted with open arms. More likely, you will be ignored. Fortunately, every organization has multiple points of entry.

I do not endorse all of the following techniques. The more colorful approaches are listed here for completeness and in the hopes that they will inspire you to think of other, potentially less misleading methods. As noted in Time Wounds All Heels, it is preferable to maintain a strict policy of honesty in your personal and professional relationships. However, everyone has slightly different ethical boundaries. No doubt, some of these approaches will fall outside some readers’ ethical comfort zones.

Escort Services – Make a personal connection with someone willing to escort you through the front door and allow you to pass the corporate sentries unmolested. Such Escorts come in a number of forms, including:

• Partners - Establish a rapport with a startup that is an existing partner with the targeted BDC. A startup is far more likely to respond to an inquiry, especially if they are in your industry yet are not competitive.

  Your startup Bro may give you insights into the inner workings of the BDC (including the political pecking order), identify the effective champions, and help you avoid ineffectual blowhards. They might also make warm introductions to one or more BDC decision makers, thereby helping you bypass the corporate sentries.

• Value Added Resellers – Another alternative path of entry to a BDC is via a Value Added Reseller (VAR). Similar to like-minded startups that are partnered with the target BDC, most VARs are fairly accessible and willing to learn about new industry trends and product offerings. If you are able to convince the VAR that your partnership with the BDC is in their best interest, they may be willing to walk you into the BDC with a strong recommendation. For instance, if the BDC were to bundle your solution with one sold via its VARs, such a partnership might result in incremental VAR sales.

• Customers – Similar to VARs, BDC customers who believe that your solution will add value to a BDC’s offering also make effective Escorts. Even the most ineffective and dysfunctional BDCs tend to listen to their customers.

• Triangulate – As noted in Jedi Mind Tricks, similarity leads to liking and liking leads to a willingness to help. Thus, find a similarity with a potential Escort before approaching them for help. Review the person’s publicly available information from social media sites. For instance, you might learn that you have a hometown, alma mater or favorite team in common with your potential Escort. Pointing out such points of similarity will facilitate establishing a personal connection and ultimately obtaining “Escort services.”

Press Releases – You can often find the names of BDC contacts from quotes in the company’s press releases. Once you have these names, you can deploy either or both of the following techniques.

• Errant Dialing – Locate the BDC’s primary telephone number. Call the area code and the prefix number and then randomly dial the last two or three digits (depending on the syntax of the main number). For instance, if you know that the BDC’s main number is 805 966 6600, you might try 805 966 6650

Eventually, you will reach someone at the target company. When they answer, ask for the person mentioned in the press release. When they tell you that you have the wrong extension, apologize and ask them to give you the “correct” extension. Most employees will be only too happy to either transfer you directly or give you the extension for your would-be BDC contact.

• BCC Email – If a press release includes a company contact’s email address, use the same syntax to email your BDC contact. For instance, if the contact’s email is Sue.Who@acme.com, you can enter your contact’s name in the same format.

If no email address is cited in the release, you can attempt to contact your targeted BDC executive via trial and error, by repeatedly guessing the syntax in a series of emails. This process requires you to wait to see if an email bounces before attempting another iteration. To avoid this tedious process, send one email with several variations of the contact’s potential email address in the blind carbon copy (BCC) address line. For instance, you might enter firstname.lastname@acme.com in the “To” address, and firstinitial.lastname@acme.com, firstnamelastname@acme.com and firstname@acme.com as BCC recipients. This maximizes the chance you will identify the correct email address, without making it overly obvious that you are guessing.

Soft Referrals – Door-to-door salespeople have long understood the value of referrals. Whenever they are unable to close a sale, they maximize the impact of the interaction by asking for the name of another prospect.

You can use this same technique when attempting to cold contact someone. For instance, in the first line of your email, note something to the effect of: “I was speaking with John Greathouse, the Former SVP of Strategic Development at Citrix Online, and he thought it might make sense for us to connect regarding my company’s SaaS solution.” The key to obtaining such soft referrals is to ask for them. You may be surprised by the number of people who are willing to give you a fellow-executive’s name, or at the very least, the name of a company that might be able to use your solution.

Caution: do not overplay your hand, as it is generally easy for the BDC employee to check on the validity of such referrals. As such, never claim a referral that is not legitimate.

CIA Hiring Practices

Although some BDCs may be miffed by job candidates like Kramer, who attempt unconventional points of entry, startups should welcome such entrepreneurs. In fact, locking the front door is an effect way to assess how wily a startup candidate truly is.

Intelligence agencies have long used the hiring process to determine a candidate’s capabilities. For instance, a common technique is to reserve the candidate a hotel room and tell them that the following morning a car will pick them up at precisely 8:00. They are also told that they must be at the office by 9:00 for their first interview. They are given a phone number and the office address, in the event “anything comes up.”

At the appointed hour, no car arrives and the given phone number continually rolls into voicemail. Candidates who stand around and wait for the never-appearing car are approached by a clandestine observer and are told that the “interview” is over and asked to go home.  

Potential employees who grab a cab and attempt to proceed to the appointed address, soon realize that the address is not valid. The manner in which they then deal with the situation dictates whether or not they are deemed suitable to begin the formal interview process. If they leave a series of whiny voicemail messages to their recruitment contact, they are dismissed. Alternatively, if they remain calm and make clever attempts to arrive at their appointment on time, they pass the first test in the recruitment process.

The logic of this process is obvious. If a potential intelligence operative cannot improvise a suitable plan to arrive to their interview on time, it is unlikely they will be effective when dropped into a foreign country and forced to improvise on a daily basis in order to remain beyond the reach of the local judicial system. Startups should seek similarly wily employees.

When Kramer gets fired, the dialog confirms that his unconventional strategy would have been effective, if he had delivered value to Brandt-Leland. Even though he was totally incompetent, the company considered him to be a member of their team.

Executive: “Well I am sorry, there is just no way we can keep you on.”

Kramer: <after an awkward pause> “I don’t really even work here.”

Executive: “That’s what makes this so difficult.”

If a particular company is unwelcoming to your unconventional approach to job creation, then it is probably not an appropriate opportunity for a highly creative entrepreneur. For additional tips regarding how to create a position for yourself at a startup, see Joining An adVenture.

Kramer’s backdoor employment approach was absurdly executed. However, avoiding a BDC’s front door is anything but absurd in real life. As described in Turn Of The Screw, I began my career at an adVenture by offering to help and not asking for any compensation. Once I proved that I could add value to the team’s efforts, they were happy to pay me a modest salary supplemented by meaningful stock options. Unlike Kramer, I added value after I walked in through the out door. Be sure you do the same.

______________________
John Greathouse has held a number of senior executive positions with successful startups during the past fifteen years, spearheading transactions which generated more than $350 million of shareholder value, including an IPO and a multi-hundred-million-dollar acquisition.

John is a CPA and holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School. He is a member of the University of California at Santa Barbara’s Faculty where he teaches several entrepreneurial courses.
______________________

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Copyright © 2007-10 by J. Meredith Publishing. All rights reserved.

Several factors account for Americans’ generosity, including its citizens’ spirituality and their belief that individuals, not governments should assist those in need. Another significant, yet non-altruistic factor is America’s tax system, which incentivizes charitable giving.

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Give Your Donors Their Tax Deduction

As discussed in Personal Pitch, entrepreneurs must cultivate the help of Donors during the early days of their adVenture. Such Donors are willing to expend time and resources to assist the startup, often without monetary gain. In most instances, the Donor’s compensation comes from the satisfaction of helping a fellow entrepreneur who is on the front end of her career. However, much like the tax deduction given for charitable contributions, an explicit “Thank You” from the entrepreneur significantly sweetens the Donor’s psychic rewards.

I am continually surprised and disappointed by the number of entrepreneurs and startup companies that do not take the time to say “Thank You.” Not only does it make my donations less satisfying, I am less inclined to offer future assistance to those whom I only hear from when they are in need. As entrepreneurs can generally make use of all the help they can attract, especially free help, saying “Thank You” is not just polite, it is strategically savvy.

I am fortunate that I am at the point in my life where I can act as an effective Donor. I relish helping startups recruit executive talent and establish partnerships. I likewise enjoy recommending entrepreneurs and former students for positions at promising startups. I realize that I am privileged to have the time and professional network to provide meaningful favors.

I do not engage in such favors with the desire or even the expectation of receiving a “Thank You.” However, when one does find its way into my email inbox, I admittedly am more energized to help the person or organization in the future. Such acknowledgment is akin to making a charitable financial donation and then subsequently offsetting my taxable income by the amount of the donation. I do not make charitable donations in order to receive a tax break. However, the lack of such a break for a particular charity would cast a pall on my overall proclivity to give to that entity in the future.

I do not resent the lack of acknowledgment that my favors generally garner. There are several reasons entrepreneurs shy away from offering thanks for favors done on their behalf. They are generally good people, so it is not an issue of moral torpidity. Entrepreneurs are action oriented and not highly contemplative. As such, they are less prone to pause and consider if any of their relationships might benefit from a sign of appreciation. In addition, they tend to be accomplished and have high self-esteem. Thus, they naturally attribute personal successes to their abilities. This tendency is understandable, but it can contribute to the reciprocity animosity described below. Lastly, entrepreneurs are busy and the hectic pace of their long days makes taking the time to say “Thank You” a relatively low priority.

Donor Alert – The Favor You Value So Highly May Already Be Forgotten

Cialdini, Goldstein and Martin describe a counter-intuitive phenomenon that occurs between Donors and the beneficiary of the favor (the Donee) in their book, Yes! 50-Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive.

Research has confirmed that a Donee usually places a higher value on the favor than the Donor immediately following the granting of the favor. However, something interesting happens as time passes. The relative value of the favor decreases in the mind of the Donee while it increases in the recollection of the Donor.

Such a disparity can strain the Donor / Donee relationship, especially if the Donor seeks reciprocity for a favor performed in the distant past. If the Donee attributes little value to the past favor, they may feel the request for reciprocity is unjustified. At the same time, the Donor may feel slighted by the Donee’s reaction, if they perceive the prior favor to be of significant value.

Who’s right?

Who cares?

Both parties are justified in their perceptions. If the Donor is an entrepreneur, they likely attribute most of the value derived from the favor to their own efforts. For instance, if the Donor forwarded the Donee’s resume to a startup for potential employment and they were subsequently hired, the Donee could rightly point out that they had to impress the company during the recruitment process and then deliver value once they were hired. Alternatively, the Donor will recall that the Donee likely never would have had an opportunity to prove themselves if not for the Donor’s initial recommendation.

Avoid Reciprocity Animosity

As shown in the above graph, the time for a Donor to seek reciprocity is before the lines intersect. After the intersection, the Donee will gradually value the favor less than the Donor and the magnitude of the discrepancy will continue to grow over time, until the respective value each party attributes to the favor differs dramatically.

If a Donor desires to seek reciprocity once significant time has passed since a favor was granted, she might consider first reminding the Donee of the favor. Obviously, such a reminder should be subtle in order to avoid overtly coupling the favor and the reciprocity request.  For instance, you might say, “I heard that your new job is going great. I knew when I recommended you that you would be great for that position. Thanks for making me look good.”

Saying “Thank You” Closes The Psychic Rewards Loop

When an entrepreneur does not take the time to acknowledge a Donor’s help, they are missing an opportunity to add symmetry to the Donor / Donee relationship. Since a primary motivator for many Donors is the psychic rewards, which arise from seeing the tangible benefits derived from their assistance, saying “Thank You” is more than expressing gratitude. It is an opportunity to allow the Donor to experience the warm psychological glow associated with their largess. For instance, if a Donor makes a potential partnership introduction on your behalf, you should inform the Donor when the deal is either consummated or abandoned. Even favors that do not net positive results should be acknowledged and verbally appreciated. In many cases, the Donor will be willing to offer additional favors in instances where the initial favor did not manifest a positive result for the Donee.

No Gifts, Please – Well, If You Insist

Saying “Thank You” is not only the right thing to do, but it is the smart thing to do. As described in Jedi Mind Tricks, modern societies are based upon a keen appreciation of reciprocity. Asymmetrical relationships, in which one party largely gives and the other party mostly receives, do not tend to endure.

In some cases, Donees should go beyond a verbal “Thank You” and present their Donor with a small token of their appreciation. As Cialdini et al. note, gifts that are most highly valued by recipients share the following characteristics:

Significant – Does not mean expensive. In fact, an overly expensive gift might strain a Donor / Donee relationship as it may be viewed by the Donor as the harbinger of future favor requests. Balance making your gift significant with keeping it modest.

Unexpected– Given the abysmal rate at which most entrepreneurs say “Thank You,” any gift will likely be highly unexpected.

Personalized – Think “thoughtful” not “monogrammed.” Gifts that reflect an intimate knowledge of the Donor’s interest and/or passions will have the greatest impact.

Unconditional – Gifts given by a Donee after receiving a favor from a Donor are clearly not conditional on future favors (see the argument against expensive gifts above). However, gifts given as an inventive to elicit a favor will generally not motivate a Donor to offer their assistance – Donors do not generally welcome explicit quid pro quo requests for assistance.

In writing this essay, I am not hoping for an avalanche of gifts from the many Donees I have helped in the past. Most of them are likely at the bottom of the favor value curve illustrated above and would not now consider the favor to be worthy of a “Thank You,” let alone a gift. However, for any Donee whose value curve is still on the left side of the graph: I do not care for cigars, wine or scotch, but my favorite beer is Telegraph. I will consider your gift and “Thank You” as a euphemistic tax

______________________
John Greathouse has held a number of senior executive positions with successful startups during the past fifteen years, spearheading transactions which generated more than $350 million of shareholder value, including an IPO and a multi-hundred-million-dollar acquisition.

John is a CPA and holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School. He is a member of the University of California at Santa Barbara’s Faculty where he teaches several entrepreneurial courses.
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Copyright © 2007-10 by J. Meredith Publishing. All rights reserved.

Each time the men crossed the hill and descended out of view, they changed clothing, mounted different horses and then paraded again before the pirates. This ruse caused the pirates to assume that each corps of horsemen was a different contingent of soldiers streaming into the Presidio. Believing he was outnumbered, Hippolyte aborted his plan to sack Santa Barbara and proceeded south where he subsequently pillaged San Juan Capistrano.

Entrepreneurs can emulate de la Guerra’s strategy and make their adVenture appear far larger than reality and thus increasing its influence and market reach while discouraging competitive threats by creating an industry alliance.

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Friends On The Playground

As a child, I moved frequently. At each new school, I had to quickly assess the playground politics and determine with whom to form alliances. I knew that having friends and allies on the playground that would back up “the new kid” was of paramount importance. The same phenomenon is true for startups. As noted in Corporate Venturing, startups should pursue allies who have a vested interest in their success. Such playground friends serve to ensure the startup’s ongoing viability by providing resources, access to customers and technology and market validation.

At Computer Motion, we created two alliances, comprised of a dozen companies with an aggregate market capitalization in excess of $28B.

At the time we established these Alliances, our annual sales were less than $20 million and our market value was approximately $60 million or one-fifth of one percent of total capitalization of our Alliance members.

Audacious? Exactly.

Creating an effective alliance requires a delicate balance between humbleness and hubris, as described more fully in Humble Pride. You must be highly presumptive when approaching potential members of your alliance. Big Dumb Companies (BDCs) are surprisingly compliant when they are presented with a “Program”. BDC employees are used to playing by the rules, so give them a rulebook. To this end, we created an Alliance Program which generated few objections from our alliance members.

By centering our alliances around our products and not our company, each group was comprised of complimentary partners. This enhanced the relevance and cohesion of the alliances. Members were also more comfortable aligning their brands with an emerging technology, as opposed to a fledgling company.

Our Hermes Alliance was based on the first voice recognition technology approved by the FDA for use in an operating room. A variety of medical device companies joined this alliance, in order to voice control their beds, electrocautery cutters, surgical lights and endoscopic equipment.

Our Zeus Alliance was based on our surgical robot which enabled a number of complex medical procedures to be performed minimally invasively, including cardiac surgery.

The Zeus Alliance members sold visualization equipment, surgical instruments and special sutures, all of which were incorporated into our robotic system.

Without these partners, neither Zeus nor Hermes would have been commercially viable. In addition to commercializing our technologies, our alliances afforded us a number of other competitive advantages, including:

Rule Maker – Creating an alliance is akin to defining what is cool when you are in High School and self-servingly including yourself in the definition. Our alliances helped establish Computer Motion as a thought leader within the emerging digital operating room.

Exclusivity – As noted in Excludesivity, startups should avoid entering into exclusive arrangements. Our alliances included arch rivals, each of which preferred to be the exclusive provider of their products within each alliance. Despite tremendous pressure, we avoided exclusive relationships, with one troublesome exception. We knew that if we had created alliances which included only one manufacturer for each type of medical device, we would have alienated potential partners and ultimately encouraged the creation of competitive alliances.

Ironically, our non-exclusive approach created a sense of exclusivity within each alliance. We certified each member’s devices as compliant with our standards and allowed each member to market their products using the Hermes and Zeus Alliance logos. Such certifications and  associated PR opportunities were highly valued by our members. The proliferation of the alliance logos, across a variety of leading products, also reinforced our Hermes and Zeus brands.

Validation – The reflected glory of our high-profile associations gave us significant visibility in the medical device community, which enhanced our sales, business development and fundraising efforts. Like de la Guerra’s small garrison, our creation of the Hermes and Zeus Alliances caused us to appear much larger, and thus more influential, than otherwise would have been possible.

Allies – On and off the playground, friends are preferable to enemies. By delivering value to our alliance members, each had a vested interest in our continued success. This manifested itself in a number of ways, including prospect lead sharing, joint marketing, sharing space at tradeshows and warm referrals to alliance members’ customers.

Revenue – We generated significant fees, over and above our product sales, from our members. Such revenue included membership fees, certification fees, non-recurring engineering charges (to integrate our technology with each member’s products) and User Conference fees. This last category proved to be especially lucrative.

We hosted an annual user conference in Santa Barbara, attended by a couple hundred of the world’s top surgeons. It was readily apparent that large medical device companies were willing to pay significant sums to gain access to these leading surgeons, especially in the intimate setting we provided. We naturally exploited this market reality by allowing alliance members to set up small booths at our conferences. Even though we charged substantial fees for this privilege, our rates were far below those of traditional tradeshows and thus the BDCs generally participated without complaint. As a result, we transformed our conferences from expense line items to profit centers.  

The conferences also served to enhance our stature and influence within the medical device industry, which drove sales and business development partnerships. By design, they were Computer Motion lovefests in which alliance members sang our praises to the world’s leading surgeons, many of whom were prospective customers. Our alliance compatriots were not acting altruistically. It was in their interest to promote the alliance, in order to sell their products as part of an integrated solution.

When Does An Alliance Make Sense?

Clearly, creating a formal alliance is not appropriate for all startups. They require significant energy and focus to ensure each member gains an adequate return on their out-of-pocket expenditures and implicit opportunity costs. At a minimum, your technology should meet the following criteria:

• Key component of larger system which delivers significant value to end users

• True differentiator to each member’s products

• Difficult for alliance members to replicate

• Sexy enough to garner public relations coverage and breathe new life into otherwise staid product categories

Road Rules

Given that some members of your alliance will likely be sworn enemies, you must actively maintain the peace. Although the analogy is distasteful, when you organize an alliance of rivals, you are akin to an arms dealer who sells weapons to all sides of a conflict.

Some methods to minimize discord and drama within your alliance include:

No Favorites – Just like rival siblings, alliance members are resentful of real and imagined preferential treatment of alliance peers. Thus, take care to be consistent and transparent in all your member interactions. This can be facilitated via formal communications sent to all members simultaneously, such as newsletters, podcasts, webinars or conference calls.

Share No Sensitive Information – You will gain tremendous industry insights by listening and learning from your members. However, never cross pollinate anything that could remotely be construed as confidential. If you share sensitive information learned from an alliance member, you risk losing your position as a trusted arms dealer, which could jeopardize the very existence of your alliance.

Safe Environment – Encourage members of your alliance to meet in person and interact on periodic webinars. Do not force them to communicate with each other, but provide them a safe and comfortable venue for them to do so. Positive personal interactions, especially those built around social events, will strengthen your alliance’s effectiveness and longevity.

Pirates Be Gone

As evidence by our experience at Computer Motion, creating one or more industry alliances can be an economical (and profitable) way for your startup to gain mindshare and visibility that would otherwise be impossible. Much like de la Guerra, we appeared far larger than our actual size which enabled us to exert an outsize level of influence within our industry.  

______________________
John Greathouse has held a number of senior executive positions with successful startups during the past fifteen years, spearheading transactions which generated more than $350 million of shareholder value, including an IPO and a multi-hundred-million-dollar acquisition.

John is a CPA and holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School. He is a member of the University of California at Santa Barbara’s Faculty where he teaches several entrepreneurial courses.
______________________

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Copyright © 2007-10 by J. Meredith Publishing. All rights reserved.

Unfortunately, non-fictional entrepreneurs cannot draw upon the Force. However, there are Jedi mind tricks that really do work – words, techniques and patterns of behavior that cause people to act in a highly predictable manner. Just like the Storm Troopers, victims of these mind tricks are usually unaware of the degree to which they have been manipulated.

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Many of the persuasion techniques which proved effective within primitive tribes have become ingrained modern societal norms. To understand why these techniques are so effective, one must explore the work of ethnologists who analyze and compare human cultures. Although these scientists are unconcerned with devising effective sales strategies, their hard work has become the basis for a number of highly effective sales and marketing techniques. Many veteran salespeople utilize these techniques without understanding why they work. However, understanding the underlying tribal forces which trigger automatic responses is especially valuable to entrepreneurs, as effective persuasion skills are crucial to an entrepreneur’s success.

Over the years, I have been asked to recommend a “good book on sales.” As I made clear in Why Most Business Books Suck, I have a low opinion of business books. However, I recently discovered a highly effective book that was not written for the purpose of educating salespeople. Robert Cialdini’s Influence – Science and Practice, was written as a textbook to be used in undergraduate communications classes. It is a nice compliment to The Art of Woo, which also addresses methods of persuasion, as further discussed in To Woo Or To War.

Due to this focus, there are aspects of Influence that some business readers will likely find somewhat superfluous, such as the “Study Questions” at the end of each chapter. Cialdini also tends to support each of his suppositions with two or three more studies than seem necessary. However, given his intended academic audience, this approach is understandable. To address these issues, Cialdini’s Publishers repackaged Influence with a slightly different title, while excising the academic aspect of the original text (Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion).

Even with these minor faults, I found Influence to be a rewarding and enlightening read. Although I encourage everyone to read the entire book, I extracted a few of the key points below, annotating them with suggestions as to how they might be applied to your startup. I only cover the first five chapters of Influence in this article, as they are the most relevant to startups. If you care to read a summarized version of Influence in Cialdini’s own words, download the Harvard Business Review article, Harnessing The Science Of Persuasion.

Because The World Is Round – It Turns Me On

“Because” is a very powerful word. It falls within the category of “judgmental heuristics” or mental shortcuts that generally served tribal humans (as well as their modern brethren) well. Such powerful words can be exploited by those attempting to persuade us. A number of judgmental heuristics are used to persuade consumers, such as “expensive = high quality,” “popular = good” and “expert = valued, unbiased opinion.”

Cialdini cites research that shows that the inclusion of “because” in a request greatly enhances compliance, even when the reason given for the request is nonsensical. Persuadees, the people who are the target of the persuasion, prefer to know the reason for their actions. Thus, persuadees are more comfortable conforming to a request if they are first told “why” they should do so. For instance, in one study, a woman attempted to cut to the front of a long line at a library copier by saying, “Excuse me, I have five pages, may I use the Xerox machine?” This request was granted 60% of the time. However, when the request was augmented with the word “because,” the compliance rate escalated to 93%, even though no real reason was given. In such cases, the request was modified to, “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make some copies?” Even though the “reason” was not informational, the word “because” triggered a much higher rate of persuasion.

The same phenomenon is evident in the enhanced panhandling techniques described in Personal Pitch. Donors are much more apt to assist an entrepreneur when they understand why their assistance is being solicited.

Lesson: When attempting to persuade, include the word “because” as a means of explaining why your request should be satisfied. “Because = valid reason to comply”

Perceptual Contrasts – “That One Looks A Lot Better”

Scientists have repeatedly proven that subjects assign extreme attributes to an item when it is preceded by a contrasting item. For instance, if you are asked to estimate the weight of a light object after holding a heavy one, you will tend to underestimate the weight of the light object. This principal has been effectively applied for thousands of years in primitive markets all over the world. Ancient rug merchants, potters and similar craftsmen would routinely show buyers several mediocre items before pulling out the more expensive (remember, “expensive = high quality”) item that they hoped to sell.

Contemporary real estate agents are trained to first show would-be buyers less appealing homes before taking them to a home that closely matches the buyer’s criteria. In this way, the “appropriate” home appears even more suitable, in contrast to the sub-optimal homes they just viewed. If you know anyone who has ever worked at an electronics store, ask them about the games the retail chains play with the various television displays. Amazingly, the TVs they are most motivated to sell look “much better” than the TVs surrounding them.

One of my favorite anecdotes in Influence brilliantly illustrates the power of contrasts. Cialdini cites Leo Rosten’s example of Sid and Harry Drubreck, who ran a tailoring shop in the 1930s. They developed a clever shtick to incentivize customers to accept their preferred price, while making the customers believe they were getting a bargain.

While Sid was helping a new customer, he would repeatedly ask the customer to repeat things in order to make it clear that his hearing was “impaired.” When the customer asked the price of a particular suit, Sid would call to Harry, who was working in the back room. Harry would shout an inflated reply, such as “forty-five dollars.” Sid would pretend to hear a lower amount, such as “twenty-five dollars,” which he would then repeat to the customer. Thinking they were getting a great deal, most customers quickly paid for the suit and exited the store, in the hopes that the “mistake” would not be caught before they could escape with their bargain. Although I do not agree with the Drubreck brother’s ethics, it does make for a great illustration of the power of contrasts (and human greed).

Lesson: Before making your “ultimate” request, precede it with one or more contrasts to enhance its appeal.

Reciprocity – Heads I Win, Tails You Lose

In tribal societies, the concept of quid pro quo was paramount. If every individual had to fend for itself at all times, the tribe’s overall chance of survival would be precarious. In addition, if a subset of the tribe were forced to consistently provide for the wellbeing of everyone, without reciprocity, the tribe’s ability to exist would be significantly compromised.

In order to ensure that assistance would be forthcoming in a time of need, tribal members fostered and rewarded quid pro quo behavior. This virtuous circle of “paybacks” created a strong societal bound and ensured the tribe’s collective survival.

This tribal instinct still permeates modern society, as evidenced by the Starbucks, “pay it forward” phenomenon, which began when a man at a Starbucks drive-through was harassed by the car behind him, for taking his time placing his order. Rather than becoming angry, he paid for the coffee of the person who honked at him. This random act of kindness between two strangers resulted in a chain reaction in which dozens of coffee buyers paid for the orders of total strangers just because someone else had paid for their coffee. The “pay it forward cheer chain” (as dubbed by the media) continued for nearly an entire day. This incident was subsequently repeated with similar results at several geographically disparate Starbucks across the U.S. The indebtedness associated with a gift, even an unsolicited one from a stranger, is a powerful reflex that can be readily exploited to encourage persuadees to act in a desired fashion.

Companies attempt to exploit the concept of reciprocity with declarations such as “Our gift to you.” Non-profits often include an unwanted and often nearly worthless “gift” in their solicitations, such as address labels, holiday cards or pocket calendars. Why? Because it works. As Cialdini points out, 35% of such solicitations that include a gift result in a donation, compared to a donation rate of 18% arising from solicitations that do not include a gift.

Ever wondered why some restaurant waitstaff include a mint or candy with your check? They know from experience that the inclusion of this small “gift” results in larger tips.

Lesson: As noted in Personal Pitch, entrepreneurs need Donors. When reaching out to Donors, consider what you can “gift” them in order to invoke the Reciprocity Principle. For instance, you might send them a link to an article that they might find of interest or introduce them to someone they may want to meet. Even if your “gift” is small (think address labels), the likelihood that they will reciprocate in some manner is relatively high, especially if you have effectively developed a healthy rapport with the Donor before invoking the Reciprocity Principle.

Commitment and Consistency – I Am A Man Of My Word

In a tribal community, clear communication of each member’s commitment to a collective action was of vital importance. Equivocation is not something most tribes could indulge in. Once fundamental survival decisions were made, such as when to migrate or where to camp for the winter, there was little time to debate and second-guess the decision.

Cialdini does an excellent job of explaining how the Chinese “brainwashed” U.S. soldiers captured during the Korean War. Rather than deploying sophisticated cadre of psychological weapons, the Chinese simply encouraged the U.S. soldiers to write down their thoughts and sign them. The soldiers were initially rewarded for stating minor criticisms of the U.S. (e.g., “I agree that no country is perfect”), which eventually escalated to damning indictments of the U.S., its policies and capitalism in general. The secret of the Chinese approach was to incrementally increase the level of commitment associated with each statement. The tribal desire to act consistently with written, signed affirmations did the rest.

Such techniques are also used by marketers to strengthen consumers’ brand commitments. Crowd-sourced ads, such as the Converse “Gallery,” are similar to the contest of a bygone era when marketers would ask consumers to write a short essay describing why they “love product XYZ,” The purpose behind such crowd-sourced ads and essay contests is to enhance the persuadees’ brand loyalty. “Hey, I just spent ten hours creating a video that proclaims that this product is great, of course I am going to continue buying it.”

Once commitment is established, most people strive to act consistently with their commitment, even when such actions are not in their best interest. Cialdini references a study which showed that people overwhelmingly agreed to install a large, unattractive sign in their front yard which read “Drive Safely” after they had previously responded to a phone survey asking them if they felt “safe driving was an important issue.” Even when such subjects were not reminded of the survey, which took place two weeks before the request to install the sign, they still accepted the eyesore sign at a much higher rate than subjects who were not first asked to verbalize their “commitment” to safe driving.

It is important for entrepreneurs to understand the various levels of commitment, in order to secure it from customers, employees and Donors.

Levels of Commitment

Presumptive

If the commitment is not explicit, it is much easier for the persuadee to act inconsistently. Your presumption that a customer agreed to something is usually not adequate commitment to trigger a desire for the customer to appear consistent.

Non-verbal

Head nods and other forms on non-verbal communication are more powerful than presumptive commitment. However, because such non-verbal actions are open to interpretation, it is relatively easy for the persuadee to act inconsistently.

Spoken

A verbal response confirming the persuadee’s commitment is significantly more effective at establishing commitment than a non-verbal or presumptive exchange. Cialdini cites a restaurant that asked people calling to request a reservation to, “Please call us if you have a change of plans.” This presumptive approach resulted in 30% of the persuadees not notifying the restaurant of their intent to cancel their reservation. By simply turning the statement into the following question, “Will you call us if you have a change of plans?” and waiting for the persuadee to reply, decreased the unnotified cancellation rate to 10%.

Written

Salesmen have long known that requiring customers to fill out a portion of the sales agreement greatly reduces the degree of buyer’s remorse following a sale. As the Chinese prison guards understood, the very act of completing the name, address and other trivial aspects of a sales contract solidifies the buyer’s commitment to the purchase.

Signed

I often asked Big Dumb Company (BDC) partners to sign “non-binding” term sheets. Since they were not legally binding, I was usually successful, even when such documents included terms that were not advantageous to the BDC. I often referred to these non-binding terms when a partner attempted to deviate from them and I was seldom reminded that the term sheet was not binding. Although I was not always successful, more often than not, our final binding agreement was usually highly aligned with the non-binding terms.

Do not underestimate the power of such “social contracts.” The fact that you “reach agreement” and validate it with your respective signature is a powerful means of establishing commitment.

Signed, Public Commitment

Tribes understood the importance of public commitments. Across a variety of societies, weddings are ritualized, community affairs in which the bride and groom publicly pronounce their commitment to each other. In many western societies, the nuptials also include a Marriage License that is signed by the bride, groom and the presiding authority.

Press releases, as described more fully in Pulp Facts, and negotiating space in a partner’s tradeshow booth (see Best Of Show) are two ways to publicize a BDC’s commitment to your adVenture. Such public pronouncements will increase the likelihood the BDC will act consistently and attempt to foster an ongoing, mutually beneficial partnership.

As noted in Excludesivity, I seldom agreed to exclusive terms. However, in the few instances in which I did, I always required the BDC negotiator to “sell” me as to why exclusivity would be good for my company. This inevitably led to the Bro Foe indicating that her company could generate tremendous revenue for my company.

I would take copious notes during such discussions and then email the forecasted sales figures to my BDC counterpart, asking them to “confirm in a return email that these figures properly capture the spirit of our conversation.” I purposely did not ask them to “commit” to the numbers. However, the simple act of replying to such an email served the purpose of closing the social contract regarding the proposed sales figures.

After I received the confirming email, I would later ask my Bro Foe to propose a minimum sales threshold, as a means of offsetting the opportunity costs associated with exclusivity. The sales figures that they had previously communicated while trying to sell me on the value of exclusivity served as the basis for our exclusivity threshold. The social contract established in the prior email exchange made it difficult for them to act inconsistently by proposing lower sales figures.

Lesson: Obtain written, signed commitments, even when they are not legally binding, as a means of ensuring the persuadee’s consistency. If possible, publicize such commitment to further strengthen the degree to which the persuadee will act consistently with the initial agreement.

Social Norming – 50,000,0000 Fans Cannot Be Wrong, Can They?

This is the most difficult persuasion technique for startups to utilize. At its outset, your adVenture will have minimal customers and partners that you rely upon for third-party validation. However, if you properly manage your Messengers, your company will appear much larger than reality.

Tribal members look to the actions of others for validation of their decisions. The reaction of the other members of the tribe is another form of mental shorthand. In the business, this heuristic translates to “popular = good.” Authors are described as “best-selling,” musicians as “hit-makers” and products as “award-winning.” We want to know that other members of the tribe have validated a purchase we are contemplating.

Ironically, as shown in the accompanying photo, the cover of Influence includes the marketing burst, “Over One Million Copies Sold.”

Lesson: Leverage third-party validation from customers, partners and industry experts to elicit social norming signals that will drive additional Stakeholders into your sphere of influence, thereby increasing your gravitas, as described more fully in Old Gray Advice.

Liking – Me Like, Me Buy

We buy from people we like and we like people we perceive to be similar to ourselves. Just like a tribe was naturally suspicious of anyone whose appearance was “different,” modern humans also value familiarity. Unlike the tribe’s focus on appearance, in contemporary society, such similarities include a variety of characteristics, including opinions, background, socioeconomic standing and interests. As noted in Bro Factor, every successful salesperson knows that they will discover some level of commonality with a prospect if they ask the right questions and actively Listen.

Cialdini cites a number of studies that support the “Liking” principle. For instance, in one study conducted in the early 1970s, experimenters dressed as “hippies” and “straights” and asked for money for a phone call. When the experimenter was dressed similar to the persuadee, money was given over 67% of the time. When the experimenter was dressed differently from the persuadee, less than 50% of the requests were granted.

Although the principle of Liking is real, be careful of the manner in which you attempt to leverage its power. In the early 1980s my wife and I, who are both Caucasian, entered a furniture store in the Washington, DC, area. The store was located in a predominantly African American neighborhood, so we thought nothing of the fact that nearly all of the salespeople were black. We struck up an engaging conversation with one of these salespersons, which was abruptly interrupted by one of the few available white salespersons. We thought this was odd, but we assumed that the African American salesperson probably had another prospect they wanted to speak with. We thought it was even stranger when our first salesperson approached a few other idle salespeople and starting a casual conversation.

We did not buy anything on our initial trip to the furniture store. However, we returned a couple weeks later with a firm idea of what we wanted to purchase. To our dismay, the same series of events took place. We initially spoke with an African American salesperson and asked him a few questions. We then told him we knew what we wanted and we were ready to place our order (this was pre-Ikea, when you ordered furniture and waited weeks for it to be delivered). Rather than take our order, he handed us off to another white salesperson. The African American salesmen then went over and introduced himself to an African American couple who were clearly browsing and had no rapport with the salesperson.

At this point, it was clear that the store’s policy was to match white people with white people and (presumably) black people with black people. My wife and I found this blatantly racist approach offensive and we departed without making a purchase. Someone within the furniture corporation (which has long since gone out of business) was clearly an advocate of the Liking principal. However, the transparent, heavy-handed manner in which they attempted to implement this approach backfired. Twenty-five years later, I still recall how offended we were with the assumption that we would be more likely to purchase something from a white person.

Lesson: Establish commonality with the persuadee in order to enhance your likeability. Make them feel you are part of the same tribe.

Force Fit

According to Obi Wan Kenobi, “The Force is what gives a Jedi his power.” A similar power is granted to those who understand the why behind the tribal ties that bind. Knowing why something works provides insights as to when to deploy that tactic. If you appreciate the underlying principles of persuasion techniques, you will also fall victim to them less often, as you will more readily recognize them, irrespective of the form in which you encounter them. As Robert Walker notes in his excellent book, Buying In, 61% of the respondents to one statistically valid survey indicated that their knowledge of persuasion was “above average.” Clearly, a significant portion of these individuals are deluding themselves regarding their knowledge of persuasion.

Just as Obi Wan was able to convince the Storm Troopers to let him pass, your use of tribal persuasion techniques will allow you to effectively align customers’, partners’, employees’ and other Stakeholders’ competing interests with those of your adVenture. May the Force be with you and your adVenture.

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Copyright © 2007-9 by J. Meredith Publishing. All rights reserved.

With slight modification, Cicero’s astute quote aptly applies to the entrepreneurial world:
“Startup advice should be judged by results, not by intentions.”

One way to accomplish this goal is to compensate your addVisors with equity and clearly specify the tasks that they must perform in order to earn their remuneration. If their advice proves sage and the company’s value increases, then they will be duly rewarded. If the company fails, their advice is free, as it should be.

The key covenants to consider when crafting your addVisory agreements include:

• Equity Only – ensures the addVisor’s and Company’s interests are aligned
• Specificity – clearly state the tasks to be performed and the minimum time requirement
• Restricted Stock – ideal form of equity, with no detrimental impact on your adVenture
• Cashless Loan – allows the addVisor to have beneficial ownership of stock, with no cash outlay
• Vesting – reduces your risk of parting with equity and not receiving requisite value
• Out Clause – motivates both parties to keep each other happy and allows either party to quickly terminate an ill-fated relationship
• Short Term – reflects the relatively brief duration of most addVisor relationships

Each of these issues is discussed in greater depth in the following section.

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AddVisor Agreements

“A lean agreement is better than a fat judgment.”
Proverb

Your addVisor agreements with should be brief, as addVisory relationships are not based upon, nor are they bound by, contractual terms. However, a verbal understanding is not adequate. Honest peoples’ memories change over time. Thus, in order to avoid a misunderstanding with a valued addVisor, codify your relationship in a simple, straightforward agreement, which incorporates the following characteristics.

• Specificity – Include an Exhibit to your addVisor agreements that articulates the precise tasks the addVisor will accomplish, the minimum hours per week or per month to be worked and the minimum frequency and manner of communications (e.g., weekly calls, monthly meetings, etc.). Your addVisors should track their time and report it to you monthly. If they balk at this request, you may be working with someone who has the wrong motives, as discussed later in this entry.The greater the specificity of quantified goals, the less likely a conflict will arise with your addVisor. As noted in Great Expectations, you can avoid misunderstandings by ensuring that both parties share the same expectations at the outset of their relationship. Documenting such shared intentions guarantees an unequivocal meeting of the minds.

• Restricted Stock – Equity should be granted as restricted stock. This form of equity is similar to an option, but the IRS recognizes “beneficial ownership” at the grant date, which allows the addVisor to enjoy preferential tax treatment. This approach also has advantages for your company, because you do not have to track and recognize an ongoing expense, as is the case with non-qualified options.

• Cashless Loan – Your company should loan the addVisor an amount equal to the purchase price of the restricted stock. No money changes hands in this transaction, but it allows your addVisor to purchase the restricted stock without a cash outlay. If your adVenture fails, the loan will be irrelevant. If your adVenture is successful, the addVisor will repay the loan when he or she liquidates their shares.

• Vesting – The addVisor’s restricted stock should vest over the term of the addVisory agreement. For instance, if you establish a six-month term, the addVisor would vest one-sixth of the total grant monthly. This approach minimizes the company’s dilution, in the event that the addVisor either becomes unwilling or unable to deliver value to the company, as vesting can be terminated.

• Out Clause – Include a no-cause, non-recourse termination covenant that allows either party to cancel the agreement, for any reason, upon 30-days written notice. This protects you, as you can effectively end the addVisor’s vesting, in the event you do not feel the company is deriving adequate value from the relationship.

• Short Term – The duration of your addVisor agreements should be relatively short-term, with one year as the maximum. If the relationship continues to be fruitful after the initial term, you can always extend it and grant the addVisor additional options via a simple addendum. However, such subsequent grants will likely be smaller, as all grants tend to decrease over time, as the company’s risk profile decreases. Such smaller grants translate into less dilution for you, your fellow employees and your investors.

Although tracking the amount of time your addVisors apply to your adVenture helps make certain you obtain an adequate amount of your addVisors’ mindshare, keep in mind that addVisors can often add tremendous value by exerting relatively little effort.  For instance, a timely endorsement or a warm introduction might lead to a meaningful, long-term relationship. Just because such actions are relatively easy, you should not discount or otherwise under-appreciate the value of such help. If you focus on the value delivered and not the effort expended, you will be able to avoid the “buyer’s remorse” that sometimes occurs after an addVisor’s involvement is concluded.

Equitable Equity

Assuming you incorporate all of the above contractual terms into your addVisor agreements, the most significant remaining issue is the size of each addVisor’s equity grant. As with any stock issuance, the number of shares is irrelevant. The important issue is the percentage of the total capitalization represented by the grant. Total capitalization comprises the following elements:

• Founders Stock– in the form of Common Stock
• Other Common Stock – issued to unsophisticated investors (Ex: friends and family) and early employees
• Qualified Options – granted to employees
• Restricted Stock & Non-qualified Options – granted to addVisors and other third-parties
• Preferred Stock – purchased by sophisticated investors (Ex: VCs)
• Warrants – usually granted in association with debt financing

For instance, a grant of 10,000 restricted shares represents 1% if the total capitalization equals 1,000,000 shares. However, the same size grant translates into only equals 0.1% if the total capitalization equals 10,000,000 shares. As such, all stock grants should be evaluated in terms of the percent of total capitalization and not with regard to the “whole” number of shares granted.

Even at the early stages of an adVenture’s life, addVisors should be granted a relatively modest percentage of the company’s total equity, in the range of 0.25% -1.5%. Although these percentages may seem small, a grant within this range represents a significant allocation of equity, roughly equivalent to a Vice President’s initial grant.

The exact size of each addVisor grant will depend on the company’s relative maturation and the degree of the addVisor’s involvement. Be stingy with your equity. You must conserve your equity to ensure you can adequately reward current and future employees who will put their heart and soul into your adVenture’s success, without overly diluting your investors.

AddVisor Profiling

As noted in Old Gray Advice, there are a number of characteristics which distinguish potential high-impact addVisors. Individuals with the proper motivation, passion and relevant experiences can generate tangible, incremental value to your adVenture.

Motives

“All actions are judged by the motive prompting them.”
Muhammad, Prophet of Islam

Motives matter, especially when assessing a potential addVisor relationship. As noted in Frugal Is As Frugal Does, you cannot afford to purchase advice. Even if you have adequate cash, such interactions are likely to be of marginal and relatively short-term value. Once you pay for such advice, the pay-to-play advisor has no further incentive to help your adVenture succeed.

AddVisors with motives conducive to startups generally have achieved enough past financial success that cash compensation, which is taxed at the addVisor’s personal tax rate, is not motivational. Rather, addVisors with the proper intentions prefer equity grants, which have significant upside potential and are taxed at much more advantageous, long-term capital gain rates. Any potential addVisor who demands cash compensation, has the wrong motives and should be eliminated from further consideration. If they want cash, they should get a job. It may even be appropriate to consider them for an employee position, but you should not pay them to think about your adVenture part-time.

Potential addVisors should not expect to get rich helping your adVenture. Certainly, you want them to be well-compensated, as the more money they make, the more successful your adVenture. However, seasoned addVisors realize that the real work is done by the operational team and thus the lion’s share of the rewards should be accrued by them and the investors, not the addVisors.

One way to help align the addVisor’s motives with your company’s interests, in addition to rewarding them with equity, is to allow them to invest in your adVenture. Allowing addVisors to purchase equity strengthens their attachment to your company and may result in you gaining more of their mindshare. If you are not in the process of raising money, the addVisor’s investment could be in the form of a bridge note, which will eventually be converted into equity upon the completion of the next funding round. If you are raising institutional funds, carve out a portion for your key addVisor(s). If you have no near-term fundraising plans, consider selling particularly valued addVisors a small portion of your Founder’s stock.

Passion

“There is a boundary to men’s passions when they act from feelings; but none when they are under the influence of imagination.”
Edmund Burke, British Statesman and Philosopher, 1729-1797

Spark the imagination of your addVisors. As noted in PR Passion, passion is an emotion that cannot be outsourced, as it is vital to a startup’s success. It is also an essential component of your addVisor relationships. Your addVisor must be passionate about your adVenture.

One way to evaluate your addVisor’s passion level is the degree to which they are accessible and responsive. As with any Donor, your addVisors must want to help you. You cannot afford to spend time and energy repeatedly attempting to convince a potential addVisor that your adVenture is worthy of their involvement. Hoping you can drag an unwilling addVisor to your aid in a time of need is not a viable strategy.

John Lusk and Kyle Harrison, authors of The Mouse Driver Chronicles learned this lesson the hard way. After multiple attempts to communicate with Ken Hakuta, whose most notable accomplishment was the commercialization of the “Whacky Wall Walker,” they finally scheduled a meeting to discuss his fit as a potential advisor.

After flying across the country and meeting with Ken, Kyle was disappointed. Despite Ken’s feedback that the Mouse Driver was “a good product but not a great one,” he still expressed an interest in joining Mouse Driver’s Board. It was also apparent from this meeting that their respective styles were out of sync. According to Kyle, Ken “told a lot of stories and laughed a lot for no apparent reason.” It was also clear that Ken’s retail connections were “a little dated” and thus the relevancy of his insights was questionable.

Even so, John and Kyle decided to continue their discussions with Ken. After pulling together a variety of materials and forwarding them to Mr. Hakuta, they received no reply. Repeated emails, voicemails and even calls to Mr. Hakuta’s friends, asking them to contact Mr. Hakuta on their behalf, failed.

John and Kyle eventually realized that Ken’s motivations were not aligned with those of their startup. Rather than being driven by a passion for the Mouse Driver product, Mr. Hakuta was apparently motivated by the potential financial return he believed he might derive by attaching his name, but not his energy, to John and Kyle’s adVenture.

AddVisors who intend to simply attach their name to your adVenture seldom generate significant value. If an addVisor is not willing to passionately and knowledgeably endorse your adVenture, his or her involvement will be of little value. To be effective, an addVisor must be willing to risk sullying their personal brand by closely associating it with your adVenture.

Heavy Lifters Will Not Apply

The Latin translation of “advisor” is “no heavy lifting.” OK, not really, but it would be fitting. An advisor’s role is to provide guidance, make introductions and help you troubleshoot specific challenges, but they should not be expected to get dirt under their fingernails.

If they wanted to work hard, they would join an adVenture as an operating executive. As such, do not stress your addVisor relationships by making unreasonable demands or establishing unrealistic expectations. Your addVisor might agree to perform certain unrealistic tasks because of their desire to help, but later realize they cannot deliver on their well-intentioned commitments.

One way to ensure that you never leave your company exposed to the whims of a well-meaning but overburdened addVisor is to establish a relationship codified in specific terms and compensated via equity that is earned over time. If you are able to establish such relationships, you will never have to worry about paying too much for your addVisor’s addVice.

Email us at unclesaul@revupnet.com if you would like a free copy of an addVisor Agreement which includes the characteristics described in this entry.

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Copyright © 2007-9 by J. Meredith Publishing. All rights reserved.

Ultimately, this simple marketing litmus test became known by the derisive term, the “Old Gray Whistle Test” (OGWT), as many of the doormen and other pro bono musical advisors used by Tin Pan Alley musicians had gray hair.

The OGWT is an interesting historical anecdote, but what can modern-day entrepreneurs learn from elderly doormen and hackneyed musicians from nearly one hundred years ago?

Additive Addvice

“Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.”

– Erica Jong

Sadly, Ms. Jong is describing the type of guidance proffered by most business advisors, as described more fully in Beware The Consultant. In many instances, Big Dumb Company executives solicit the input of consultants in order to justify their actions, rather than to guide them. Entrepreneurs have neither the time nor the money to show an advisor their watch just so the advisor can tell them what time it is. Seek advice only when the answers are unclear.

As discussed in Free Advice – Worth Twice The Price, strive to turn your advisors into addVisors, whose interests are aligned with your company via equity ownership that vests over time, as their input adds tangible value to your adVenture’s efforts.

Why Doormen?

It was no accident that doormen were the primary source of immediate feedback regarding the potential marketability of new Tin Pan Alley songs. The dynamics that led to Tin Pan Alley musicians soliciting feedback from doormen can provide insight to any entrepreneur interested in seducing addVisors to join his or her adVenture.

Some of the key factors that led to doormen’s prominent role as musical opinion leaders include:

• Accessible and Responsive – Doormen provided their advice while performing their primary duties and the musicians received instant feedback. No time was wasted coordinating meetings, clarifying feedback, etc.

• Price – Doormen participated in the OGWT pro bono, in exchange for the previously described psychic rewards associated with their Tin Pan Alley Bro relationships.

• Relevant Expertise – Doormen’s historical knowledge of popular music enabled them to provide valuable, actionable advice.

• Motives – Doormen’s motives were pure. If they thought a song sucked, they would say so. They had no ulterior agenda to skew their input.

• Passion – Doormen were passionate and knowledgeable about popular music, which motivated them to accommodate the musicians’ ad hoc solicitations for assistance.

• Historical Perspective – Much has been made of the doormen’s ability to assess a tune’s memorability. However, an equally valuable aspect of their feedback was identifying songs derived (intentionally or otherwise) from those previously published. This historical insight helped musicians avoid plagiarism and ensured that each new song was relatively distinctive.

• Focus – Doormen were not asked to opine upon distribution, finance or other operational issues. The OGWT focused the doormen on the area in which they were able to add the most value to the musicians’ efforts.

• Gravitas – In keeping with Merriam-Webster’s definition of the term, doormen brought a “seriousness in a person’s bearing or in the treatment” of the evaluation of a new song’s merit. Their unbiased, informed opinion was weighed heavily when determining a new song’s fate.

The Latin root of the word gravitas translates to “weight.” In order to succeed, Entrepreneurs must attract the necessary Stakeholders, resources and Donors to ensure their success. One way to increase your adVenture’s gravitational pull and attract additional, precious resources is to recruit an addVisor who brings gravitas to your team. The greater your adVenture’s center of gravity, the more attractive your company will be to potential employees, investors, Donors and other Stakeholders.

Many of the factors that made doormen effective Tin Pan Alley advisors are applicable to the characteristics you should seek when adding an addVisor to your adVenture team. Your passionate, readily available and responsive addVisors should have substantial, relevant experiences. If your addVisors have the proper motives, you will have no problem crafting compensation structures that are aligned with your adVenture’s path to success, as further described in Free Advice – Worth Twice The Price.

What Did The Doormen Get?

Why would doormen agree to provide their opinions without compensation? At first blush, it may seem that they got very little out of their interactions with the musicians. However, as in any healthy, long-term Bro relationship, both parties extracted value from the OGWT. The musicians’ gain is obvious. The various benefits derived by the doormen are worth highlighting, as it is likely that your addVisor will be enticed by similar, non-cash, psychic rewards.

• Purpose – According to Carolyn Wells, “Advice is one of those things it is far more blessed to give than to receive.” This was certainly true for the doormen, who enjoyed sharing their thoughts and were flattered that their opinions were valued.

• Cool Factor – Doormen had an opportunity to preview new music and be associated with the leading edge of a wildly popular segment of the entertainment industry.

• Impact – Doormen knew that their feedback made a difference; they gained satisfaction from hearing hit songs on the radio that they had previously endorsed.

• Mental Exercise – Doormen enjoyed the entertaining break in their otherwise monotonous day.

• Imminently Doable – Doormen could listen to musicians’ songs during slow moments of the day, without shirking their primary duties.

Manage your addVisory relationships to ensure that these non-cash rewards are reaped by your addVisors.

One Man’s Opinion

The OGWT was extremely effective because it was cheap, practical, and the data, which did not require debate or interpretation, was focused on the end-user. As is typical with most advice, the doormen’s counsel was also highly subjective. As such, Tin Pan Alley musicians relied on a cadre of doormen’s input, which they aggregated and considered in totality.

You should emulate this approach by developing a small group of addVisors, with whom you can conduct your own version of the OGWT. You undoubtedly will obtain divergent opinions from your addVisors. However, as long as you understand the basis for each recommendation, you can make an informed decision.

Commandos Need Not Apply

Doormen were effective addVisors for many reasons, including the fact that they did not leave their posts and burst into a musician’s studio to provide unsolicited input. Even the most well-intentioned addVisors can be guilty of such commando activities.

These rouge advisors parachute into a situation unannounced and, without fully understanding the facts, toss a few grenades and then retreat to the Officer’s Club, not to be heard from again until their next impromptu paratrooper drop.

I once worked with a Chairman of the Board who operated in this dysfunctional manner. He would engage an employee in the hall in small talk and before the conversation was over, the employee would have an entirely new set of priorities and tasks, often unbeknownst to the employee’s boss. Some of this Chairman’s more egregious antics are discussed in Founderitis.

Door Opener

Entrepreneurs who understand the dynamics of the relationship between the doormen and the Tin Pan Alley musicians are well-positioned to maximize the value derived from their addVisors. Just like the Tin Pan Alley doormen, your addVisors should offer thoughtful, timely, succinct and focused advice while adding to your adVenture’s overall credibility and ability to attract resources. Who knows? If you properly cultivate these relationships, your addVisors might also open a few doors for you.

Confusion has recently arisen regarding the origin of “Gray” in the OGWT, due to an erroneous quote by a BBC executive associated with the “Old Gray Whistle Test” TV show. The executive incorrectly stated that “Gray” originated from the color of the doormen’s uniforms. In fact, a number of older advisors were utilized by Tin Pan Alley, many of whom wore no uniforms and others (e.g., Porters) who generally wore red uniforms.

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Copyright © 2008 by J. Meredith Publishing. All rights reserved.