Customers Archives - Steve Sammartino

Why aliens have never made contact with humans

Posted on October 31, 2015 by Steve Sammartino

The reason that aliens have never made contact with humans is that they don’t think we’re in charge.

I go jogging every other day, and I always see humans walking behind dogs. The dogs are leading the humans along a path, with a rope attached to the human. The humans are following the dog with a plastic bag. If the dog happens to do a poo, then the human stops, picks it up, and keeps on walking behind the dog while carrying the poo. If aliens ever happened to drop into our fair planet, I’m pretty sure they’ll think the dogs are running the show. Any conversation aliens have with a life form on earth would be directed at the dogs, not us.

So what would the aliens think of your startup based on what they see? Would the product tell the story you want? Our customers might as well be aliens, as they can only judge us based on what they see.

What we do, and others observe, is where reality lives. While we might talk a good game, the way we actually play it is far more important.

You should totally read my book – The Great Fragmentation.

Loving your customers – celebrity style

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Steve Sammartino

At Tomcar we seriously love our customers. It’s a highly personal interaction at this early stage in the business, so we both take it personally, and make it personal. We care about how our cars perform for them, and how they make their working lives better. We’ve recently been documenting the delivery of our vehicles and making some short films about it.

Yes, we know it doesn’t really scale as a business model.

Yes, we know that major car manufacturers would never do this.

Yes, we know that it makes us seem like small fry.

But here’s something else we know: Doing things which do not scale in the short term, is what gives startups a chance at scale later.

Here’s a little video of one such unscalable activity. Oh, and if you buy a Tomcar, you’ll get your personal movie made too.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQIrWHeU1UM]

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So a question you might want to ask is this – How can you treat your customers like micro celebrities of your brand?

Why geolocating is huge

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Steve Sammartino

Geo locating is getting big. Real big. Let’s take Four Square as an example; last year over 6 million people checked into over 380 million retail locations. Something is really happening here, yet the doubters are strong with their voices of incredulousness. They can’t understand why anyone cares where they are, or why they’d want to share such personal information publicly, or with their on-line friends. Rather than argue, I thought it was worth posing some of the human reasons why geolocating might be so appealing, an anthropological journey if you like.

The web wants to replicate life – Because it is a form of life. It loves to get physical, real and human… because it’s made by humans for humans.

The 3 ‘human’ reasons why geo-locating will only get bigger are:

1. Who’s here?

People want to see who else is where they are. Are their friends here to? it’s a great way for us to cross the virtual chasm into a physical reality.

2. My life is cool – I’m cool.

See how cool I am being at this particular place. it’s so cool you don’t even know where it is, and here I am…. proven via my smart phone GPS. I’m so cool, I’m teaching you the cool places to be. And I’m showing you how mobile I am and all the cool places to go to – like SXSW.

3. Reward me.

Heck, If I’m going to get a takeaway coffee everyday, I might as well go to the place that gives their Four Square mayor a free espresso on Friday or rewards you after X check ins. You want me to be loyal? You better reward me.

I feel like we are only just starting to see the potential of geo-locating in terms of startup and marketing. It really does feel like the missing link between the virtual and the physical. And for those who are concerned about privacy, like all technology, our choice is a simple one:

Embrace it, or miss out on the benefits.

Famous to the family

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Steve Sammartino

Seth Godin has an interesting idea of being Famous to the Family. Which is similar to my definition of cool: the stuff that matters, to the people who care.

This short interview is a 5 minute investment worth making.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe7YTuZhv88]

Next steps:

Decide who your family is.
Build them stuff they really care about.
Enjoy doing it enough, to be able to continue without riches.
Be patient.

How to win a debate

Posted on July 2, 2010 by Steve Sammartino

Winning a debate isn’t about proving the other party is wrong. It’s about proving you are right. In fact it’s about proving that you are more correct, even a little bit.

Then, by inference the other party must be wrong.

Although that’s a nice tip, debating is hardly the approach we need in any part of a startup business. The best advice we can give here is to never enter a debate, and let the other party believe they are right. Startups are about building relationships, not sabotaging them.

How hard you worked is irrelevant

Posted on June 21, 2010 by Steve Sammartino

It’s what we create for the people who care. The truth is we never know how hard it was to deliver the right product, at the right place at the right time. We only care that it was.

What we (the entrepreneurs, producers, marketers) had to go through is not part of the consideration set. It isn’t charity, it’s about them. So if we nail it and deliver the project quickly, we needn’t feel guilty or less deserving. Likewise, if it took us 5 years of hard working weekends and nights, that’s also no reason to feel a level of entitlement. We need to feel what they feel – underwhelmed or overwhelmed with what we deliver, how we got there is far less important.

Know what you’re selling

Posted on May 27, 2010 by Steve Sammartino

It was Friday night and I was having a drinks with colleagues who were discussing the relative taste profiles of various beers. I went on challenge the crowd that they wouldn’t know which beers was which in a blind taste test. None of them believed me.

Turns out it’s true. I once worked in a marketing role at Fosters, and 90% of beer drinkers cannot pick any brand within the same type (eg lager, pillsner, bitter ale). Beer is not bought on taste, it’s bought by brand. Sure, there are other factors which come into the decision like availability and price. But both trail and subsequent loyalty is never about taste.

So we have to know what we are selling. Not in the primary sense (the physical product) but in the secondary sense, the real motivation which makes us choose brand A over brand B. And in most categories it’s not what it seems

Beer = fashion

Electricity = company interactions

Coffee = socialisation

Cameras = memory library

For entrepreneurs the message is simple, we must know what we are selling. It’s most often how we market the secondary benefit which will drive our brand over the competitor.