Book Review – ENCHANTMENT

My review of “Enchantment – The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions” By Guy Kawasaki

What I love most about Guy Kawasaki’s books is they are direct and to the point.  He says what he wants to say without a lot of fluff just to make the book longer.  You can whip through this book in a few hours, but like all his books, you will probably go back and read it again and spend hours pondering each thought and consider how it applies specifically to you.

Why do we need to enchant?

As Guy says, “If you need to enchant people, you’re doing something meaningful.  If you’re doing something meaningful, you need enchantment.”

But what does this have to do with trade shows and conferences?  Well, if your conference is not meaningful I imagine you would not be holding it year after year.  If you have no interest in enchanting people you probably are not interested in exhibiting at trade shows.

Bakers and Eaters

Guy defines people and organizations as either bakers or eaters.  “Eaters want a bigger slice of an existing pie; bakers want to make a bigger pie.” When I read about bakers I thought of conference producers.  They believe in something and want to spread the word to a larger community.  Bakers create the best conferences.  They work hard to include a diverse community to new ideas can be introduced and old ideas perfected and tested.

These are conferences that are truly driven by the community, not just a selected few.  They constantly want to make that pie bigger and bigger which would not only grow their community but also generate more ideas.

Conduct a “Pre-mortem”

So often conference producers are diligent in conducting post-mortems but rarely are we pro-active and do this before our events.  By conducting pre-mortems we are one step ahead and can imagine where things might go wrong and nip it in the bud before it happens.

As conference organizers and exhibitors there is no such thing as being too prepared.  What if a snowstorm leaves attendees stranded at the airport?  Have plans in place to have a team ready to assist with re-booking flights and finding hotel rooms if necessary.  What if a rogue forklift damages your booth graphics?  Knowing where the closes overnight printer is and a DVD backup of all your files will save you a lot of headaches.

You cannot guarantee nothing will go wrong but you can enchant your attendees and bosses by being prepared with a solution should you need it.

Immerse People

“The level beyond telling stories is immersing people in your cause”

Two things that really jumped out at me were the ideas of putting people as close to the real situation as possible and making great demos.

How do you put people into the situation in your conference?  By getting your attendees involved.  Crowd source your education content and even better yet, have your attendees create it.  Where your booth is concerned, what if we created environments that mimicked the visitors’ environment instead of your company’s?

A picture may be worth 1000 words but actually touching and experience your product is priceless.  People don’t care what your marketing department thinks of your product or service; they want to know what it will feel like once they purchase it.

Frame Thy Competition

“If you are doing something worthwhile, you will encounter competition.”

Guy breaks this down simply by suggesting we create three lists of features and capabilities.

• What we both can do
• What we can do they cannot do
• What we cannot do but they can do

This is what I love about Guy.  He makes things so simple and obvious that we wonder, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

As an exhibitor at a trade show, we cannot afford to not consider this and have all our staff armed with the information.  As a conference organizer, our attendees’ time and wallets are tightening.  If we can answer these questions for our attendees before they ask them we are more likely to win them over.

Build an Ecosystem

In this section Guy specifically mentions conferences but I believe all the ideas in this section apply.  We should not think of our conferences as an event that takes place over a specified period of time.  They are simply a gathering place for our ecosystem.

For more on this idea I recommend reading “Brains on Fire – Igniting Powerful, Sustainable, Word of Mouth Movements.”

Diversify the Team

Who is staffing your booth?  Is it just sales people?  Is your company made up of just sales people?  Do you customers interact with anyone else once a sale is made?

“A diverse team helps make enchantment last, because people with different backgrounds, perspectives, and skills keeps a cause fresh and relevant.”

When your booth staff includes the advocate, skeptic, visionary, adult, evangelist and rainmaker, your customers’ needs and desires will be better represented.

Too much to mention

The final sections in the book are on the different use of push and pull technologies, enchanting your employees and your boss and how to resist enchantment (when you need to).

Sometimes I think I would need more words than are in Guy’s books to do them justice.  As I said, you can get through the book quickly; but I intend to go back through it again and spend much more time and thought on each section.  For a book that has less than 200 pages, it is chock full of great information, insights and lessons.

Disclosure: I received a copy of Enchantment for free from publisher.  This in no way has influenced my review of this book.  As with all Guy Kawasaki’s books, I am more than happy to spend the money on them.  I consider them an investment as well as entertainment.