The five second writing test

One of the beauties of creative writing is that authors have the opportunity to deliberately reveal plot and subject matter at a pace that suits their writing style. Unfortunately, the business world doesn't provide the same luxury.

I heard once that Lee Iacocca gave any presentation (verbal or written) five seconds to pique his interest before he moved on to the item on his agenda. Think about that...someone's passion, countless hours of work, potential career-changing opportunities, all squeezed into a five-second litmus test.

Most people will give you (at least a little) more than five seconds to capture their attention, but you should approach business writing in the same fashion of immediately grabbing attention. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a beautifully written proposal, POV or brief be rejected for one simple reason - the writer failed to summarize the key points/recommendations in the first paragraph of the document, and the reader didn't have the time to comb through and get the pertinent details.

Good business writers should always provide a one-paragraph executive summary clearly stating the issue, recommendation (including cost) and anticipated result. Approach your writing to the highest common denominator in the sense that the most important person to read your memo likely has the least amount of time to give it undivided attention. If she or he were to only read the first paragraph, could they stop and provide a go-no go? If not, you need to revisit what you've written.

At the very least, your reader will have enough information to formulate an initial reaction. At the best, your client will be intrigued by your recommendation and will read through the rest of your document where you can explain issues in further detail.

Ironically, as different as the styles are, good writers (both creative and business) need a good hook to draw the reader. Instead of "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times," your memo may start with "this memo recommends." Not so romantic, but potentially as effective.

Work with people who enjoy the journey

So I'm not a big Lakers fan. At all. I was dismayed by seeing them raise yet another championship banner, their 15th. I do, however, have a great deal of respect for Phil Jackson. As a coach, he now holds 10 championship rings, more than any coach in NBA history.

When speaking to the press after the championship-clinching game, he could have easily first reflected on the accomplishments themselves. What they achieved, what was earned, the marks in history that had been made. While he eventually touched on that, his first comments were about the journeys his teams had made to get where they were, and how enjoyable it was. There's a critical lesson there for leaders in most any industry, and certainly in the ad business.

Most agencies remain great because they are hungry, and are only at their best when they are working on the next challenge. Their work-in-progress is their passion. They don't gloat much on what they've done in the past, and truly believe it has no bearing on the work they are doing today.

What might seem strange to some is that if they followed formulas of what was successfully done before, chances are the results would be good. But that's the easy way out, and it makes solving today's challenges less of an adventure. As stressful as tackling every client's challenge in an entirely new light can be, great agencies wouldn't have it any other way. The insights gained, the camaraderie established, and the work produced are what make their efforts more than worth the emotional, physical and financial investment.

That type of attitude and approach is infectious to those who are driven by continuous success, which is the barometer for any great agency. And it's a direct result of the type of leadership you have. Phil Jackson is already thinking (if he decides to return) about next year's journey and what will have to happen to make it back to the top. As leaders of your agencies, you should be doing the same for existing clients as well as new ones. Your team will take their queues from you.

Online conversation levels the playing field

I consider myself fortunate to have started my career before the online conversation really got going. While I would have been better equipped to operate in this environment had I been baptized in a digital fount, I think those of us a bit long in the tooth can better appreciate the perspective online social tools have brought.

Prior to Twitter, Facebook and the like, most clients (outside of P&G and a few select others) had no way of knowing what the public thought about their brand outside of sales and quant/qual research that was more often than not contrived to deliver a desired response. Beyond safe broad stroke assumptions, it was often difficult to ascertain what customers really cared about...what bothered them...what made them so loyal to a particular brand...or if they cared at all.

The challenge for many agencies was that their clients didn't have the resources to truly validate assumptions about customer insights and all were left to make educated guesses. More often than not, that led to the wrong answers, which subsequently got a lot of agencies fired.

Social media (more specifically online conversation and feedback) has truly leveled the playing field for so many smaller agencies and brands whose budgets still don't merit large research initiatives. Most importantly, it's brought into focus what customers truly care about...what kind of service, products, product features really matter in the customer's mind. No more guesswork.

With commitment and resourcefulness (not re$ource$), there's not much you can't discover online about any brand in any category. From there, it's a matter of how well agencies and brands filter insights, draw conclusions and create resulting strategies and executions. Equal footing where everyone has access to the same information and is judged by the quality of the resulting recommendations.

Everyone working in our business today should feel much more empowered to do his or her job, provided you know your way around the social media space. Any agency worth their salt has some level of competency in terms of social media's functionality. That's a given. What separates many though, are those (regardless of "official" discipline) with the desire and savvy to navigate and discover information that can lead to account-winning or saving insights.