May Meeting Recap:

"Who is Tim Sanders?"

On May 21 the APALA was fortunate to have Tim Sanders, Chief Solutions Officer @ Yahoo and author of the book "Love is the Killer App" speak to our organization. Eileen Burke, of 3M Corporation, provided the introduction of Tim to the group.

Tim joined Yahoo as part of the acquisition of broadcast.com in July of 1999. At broadcast.com, Tim served as an integral part of the company's Business Services Division and developed audio and video broadcast ventures for a variety of clients including The Limited Inc. (The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show webcast), Harvard University, Hasting's Entertainment, Intel and Ford Motors.

Tim began the presentation with his philosophy that the most important thing you can do in business is to take care of people. Because people need you more than ever before. Today in the business world love is really important.

Innovation being effective is a function of ESP...Not what you think, but Experience, Simplicity and People. If you focus your business around the customer experience ? creating simplicity in taking out the complication out of the consumer's lives and remembering that people are the Next Big Thing in technology ? Tim feels that you have a fighting chance to add value over the course of the next few years.

Experience: The consumer purchases an experience. We now live in an "Experience" economy. Now, people spend more on entertainment than they put into savings by 3-1. All marketing efforts need to be measured on its ability to create a memorable experience. That's what it takes to gain
market share and produce results. Tim provided many examples of successful experience marketing: Virgin Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks and Saturn to name a few.

Simplicity: Choice has become bad in marketing. Choice reduction is key. Every day you experience at least 3000 marketing messages of one sort or the other. And rising. Overchoice has become the new evil. Think about
selling relaxation, simplicity and less complication as the benefit of the product. Make the complex clear. He is an advocate of the CLEAR system:
This is a letter Tim sends out to repeat offenders who send emails, to, cc, forward or otherwise... Please be able to answer the following 5 questions:

1) Be clear, compliant and specific ? Is the information connected to my job?
2) Give me a list of things you want me to do about this
information
3) Tell me what you expect out of me 4) What are my avenues? How can I delegate this?
5) What is the return on my or the company's time investment for all of this? Within 2 weeks, Tim's internal email went down over
40%. It will create a simpler life for you. Practice this, and if it works for you personally, it can apply to the marketing message to your clients---Clear, Compliant and Specific.

People: The next big thing. The intangible of talent will differentiate companies wildly over time. Love is the killer application. The motto "Greed is good", "The fast eat the slow" And "Effiiciency outweighs charachter". Outdated. Gordon Gecko lived before the Internet. The email "pen" is mightier than the sword. Good news gets around, as well as bad. In the future, when the economy turns back around, the two most important business metrics will be happy customers and happy employees. Tim explained the "Love Cat" way. Our business relationships are built on a foundation and they are built on a path. The foundation is built on knowlege sharing. Read books. He reads books for his client's benefit. If you help people become successful, they will care about you and respect and not take advantage of you. Networking: Is crucial to your business. Share personal relationships because you should, not because you expect something in return. Networking is a charity. It is social goodwill. Your network is your net worth.

Love Cats: You can be a shrewd effective business person and be kind and generous. Nice, smart people can make it in the business world ? if they figure out the right way to do it.

We appreciate Tim Sanders speaking to us with such an enthusiastic, positive message for the future. For more on his theory of experience marketing, see his book "Love is the Killer App" and visit his website, www.timsanders.com.

Many thanks to Eileen Burke for coordinating this presentation and winding up the 2002 program's season with this insightful message.