Let’s again acknowledge tonight’s winners of the platinum individual and team awards, Tony Lovell of Grede Holdings and The Priority Health Team as well as the MSED Trailblazer Award winner, Scott Monty from Ford. Congratulations to you all on your many successes.

It’s especially meaningful for me tonight to be recognized by MSED with the Executive Leadership Award and to join the ranks of past honorees; Christopher Ilitch, Paul W. Smith, Matt Cullen, Dick Blouse and Anne Stevens to name just a few.

All of these recipients are impressive leaders and business people who contribute not only to their company’s bottom line but also to the community as a whole. I am honored to be considered among leaders like this. I feel that it’s such an important part of being a good corporate citizen and business leader today.

I also applaud MSED for its commitment to the community. Through your efforts, you have provided more than $150,000 to support Junior Achievement and Focus: HOPE as well as support students pursuing careers in this field. I commend you for all of your efforts!

As marketing and sales executives, we communicate information about companies, brands, products, services and reputations. We serve as the channel for our customers to communicate to our company.

We use Facebook, Twitter, annual reports, manuals, brochures, websites and PowerPoint presentations to reach our audiences and connect with their needs and thoughts.

The impact of marketing and sales executives cannot be overestimated. Your presentations can inspire and drive technology and advancements; you drive the success of the bottom line.

However, tonight I’d like to share some other ideas about what is success and how it can contribute to our communities and companies.

We hear this often — do what you love. People with passion can change the world for the better. This means give yourself time to figure out what you are really passionate about. Once you are passionate, you will accomplish many great things. Passion is everything.

Make Connections – This is what MESD is all about — creating a place to exchange ideas, to be at the forefront of trends and techniques and to keep your skills sharp. Creativity is connecting things. People with a broad set of life experiences can often see things that others miss. Don’t live in a bubble. Connect ideas from different fields.

Say no to 1,000 things – we are all pulled in a million directions personally and professionally. It is not by saying yes to everything that we get to greatness; it is by putting our best into the most important things that we are able to make an impact.

Master the message – you can have the greatest idea or product in the world, but if you can’t communicate your ideas it doesn’t matter. Be the world’s greatest corporate storyteller. Instead of simply delivering a presentation like most people, inform, educate, inspire and entertain all in the same presentation.

Sell dreams, not products – understand your customer and capture his imagination. We’ve all heard of the KISS principle –– keep it simple – it works. Your customers don’t care about your product. They care about themselves, their hopes, their ambitions. If you help your customers reach their dreams, you’ll win them over.

If any of these ideas sound familiar – it’s because they came from one of the greatest marketing and sales executives that existed in our generation. Steve Jobs.

I don’t think the world would have ever been ready for his departure, but the gifts that he left us, his technology and ideas, have touched nearly every aspect of our lives – computers, movies, music and mobile technology.

Whether we are contributing from the board room or the mobile office, each of us has a role to play in strengthening our businesses, our economy and our communities.

Although now the president & CEO of Charter One in Michigan and the Midwest regional executive for Illinois, Michigan and Ohio, I started my career working as a teller at National Bank of Detroit while attending Wayne State University.

After graduating, I remained with NBD and started in Marketing. I studied consumer behavior and helped develop new products and services.

I saw that banking was more than just transactions in a free market – it was about making people’s dreams a reality – helping to grow jobs, buy and keep homes, starting new companies and growing businesses.

As a homegrown Detroiter and a banker with more than 30 years experience in the industry, I was well prepared for the role of president & CEO. But it was my desire to make a greater impact in MY hometown that brought me to Charter One.

Often I’m asked to speak about my commitment to the community – that of Charter One and our parent company, the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The bedrock of our beliefs is that Good Banking is Good Citizenship, which means having a foundation of integrity in everyday business and infusing those principles back into the community through contribution and participation.

It is our responsibility to support the community through investing in revitalizing neighborhoods, fighting hunger and empowering our nonprofits to continue to tackle the difficult issues we need to address. At Charter One we do this through many programs.

Our Champions in Action program in partnership with WXYZ Channel 7, provides marketing and volunteerism support as well as an unrestricted grant to nonprofits who are addressing critical issues.

This summer we convened several other corporate citizens in the Hunger Free Summer campaign and successfully raised $500,000 to provide 2 million meals to children who receive free meals during the school year, but would otherwise go hungry during the summer.

In my role, I have the privilege to help drive programs that connect private, public and nonprofit sectors. Working independently, these sectors can improve the economic climate in our region. But by working together, they can have a far more effective and lasting impact on our communities.

And it’s working together that has brought about the change we are feeling in Michigan.

There’s been a lot of debate about the future of our great state. We’ve been criticized, teased and taunted. But the winds are changing. Not just because of our great Lions and Tigers, but also because the Big Three are selling more cars, they are investing, our home prices are headed up. And this is not a secret anymore.

Just a couple of weeks ago, both the Wall Street Journal and USA Today reported on Detroit’s Rising – our ability to turn around from tough times. It’s important that others see how we are progressing. But we still have challenges ahead.

We need to help our students graduate from schools with competitive skills to fuel our economy. Neighborhoods are still in need of services, blight needs to be addressed and our Autos need to continue their success.

We need to feed our hungry neighbors, support struggling families and open doors for youth.

Eleanor Roosevelt said, “it is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.”

The fact is we live here. We have businesses here, family here, careers here. We’ve put down our roots here.

So the responsibility lies on all of us to think strategically and seriously about how we can continue to work together for positive change.

Consider the people, the companies, the causes that each of you in this room influence. Consider the community where you choose to live. The city where your business resides – the future of our state.

I challenge each of you to let your concern drive you to action.

Thank you!

Many companies are not thinking about how all these channels need to interact with each other. Here is a checklist to help you get started:

1. How does your website look?
All social media activities should point to your website and convert the leads to sales. Some things to consider: Do you provide interesting content? Do you have a remarkable offer(s) to be able to gather email addresses so you can continue marketing to them once they stop by and look around? For example, a white paper, ebook, or a guide/how to. Have you looked at your conversion funnel…is it working? Tweak and make sure your website is a well oiled machine so that when you send visitors to your site you are capitalizing and actually making money.

2. Who is going to be responsible in your organization for leading the social media effort?
One person needs to create the strategy and make sure the right tools/channels are being used and to help set standard rules of engagement. However, social media is not a one person job. Everyone in your office/team should be participating. Your team are your best sales people and they are all marketers for your organization. They are the great folks who know your business better than anyone else. Use your army of people to help spread the word.

3. Which social media tools are you going to use?
Start with one tool that reaches your target market the best. If your business is B2B than LinkedIn would be a great place. If you are more B2C focused, Facebook may be an ideal channel for you. Do the research on the social media tools to make sure that you are not just “spraying and praying” but using your time and resources to get the best results.

4. Work…Listen…participate…share
Yep…I said Work. Social media takes consistent participation. What is the magic formula? 33% listening to the conversation, reading and researching within the tool. 33% reading other content and sharing with your followers/community, 33% creating your own content based on your expertise (stay focused) and be interesting.

5. Integrate social media with your other marketing activities
Social media, will not be as successful if it lives in a silo. You and/or your designated social media lead should be looking at creative ways each of your marketing channels can work with each of your social media tools!

These are the top five things to consider, however, social media has become a very rich marketing strategy. What else do you think would be important to consider?

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Has traditional marketing to consumers changed forever with the new Social Media craze — or is there something new and old now working together to better connect to the consumer?

It is not hard to notice today that all of the focus in marketing, selling and reaching out to consumers in a new way is with something called Social Media.  There are new Social Media mechanisms that help you follow your favorite blog, experience your son’s new baby pictures or video, or just talk about yourself, network for a job opportunity, or even give your opinion on the value of a particular product that you use.  You’ve seen and heard of them as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and others –something new. 

Then there still exists the traditional mechanisms in marketing, selling and reaching out to consumers by using print advertisements, TV advertisements, internet, radio and others–something old. 

I have noticed that the old traditional advertising is changing, blending or taking on a “bridging effect” with these new and old marketing mechanisms.  One recent example I found was in a print advertisement in the USA Today newspaper.  At first glance it looks like a normal traditional print advertisement.  The product is shown in the newspaper with tag lines that are usually associated with this type of advertisement that originates from the manufacture of the product telling all of us how great this product is and why.

But, as I examine this print advertisement closer it depicts messages not from the manufacturer of the product but from consumers that have just experienced this new product.  The advertisement tag states “The people have Tweeted” for Trident Layers Gum.  It depicts real tweets (messages) from consumers that have just experienced this new gum.  MsCalcote tweeted, “Hey this Trident Layers gum is what’s up” and cameron_crazy tweeted, “I really like this Trident Layers gum.  It is delicious!”   As you read and absorb the advertising message it asks you to “follow the sweetness” and provides you a Twitter address to follow or join in with your own comments about your experience with this new gum.

This print advertisement has the “bridging effect” or blending of the new and old marketing mechanisms into what I call “Socialvertisement.”  The blending of the new Social Media mechanism – in this case Twitter – to traditional old print advertising ultimately getting a closer consumer connection versus just using the old traditional advertising mechanisms designed and seen as just a consumer testimonial.

Another example of Socialvertisement I noticed was used in both a TV advertisement and in its company’s own internet site.  The company is called Temper-pedic and their main product is called the Tempur-pedic Mattress.  They crafted a TV advertisement that was titled, “Ask Me.”  A few lines of this TV advertisement went like this:  “Ask Me!  Ask me about my Tempur-pedic.  Even if you think your mattress is just fine, Ask Me.  What is it like to get the best night sleep every night?  Why not talk to someone who is sleeping on the most highly recommended bed in America?  It is not Sealy, Simmons, or a Serta.  Ask Me about my Tempur-pedic.  Ask me about how fast I fall asleep, Ask Me about staying asleep.  These are actual Tempur-pedic owners.  Ask someone you know, check out Twitter or try your friends on Facebook.  You will hear it all unedited.  Ask Me is it a good value?  Ask Me how I take the first step.”

This TV advertisement was also added to Tempur-pedic’s web site section under the “Ask Me” and it included sources to join in and connect into – Talk with Tempur-pedic Facebook and YouTube.  Again the old advertising mechanism, TV and internet were blended in with the new to create a new Socialvertisement design to get closer to the consumer.

The last Socialvertisement example that I notice contained that same bridging effect of the new social media and the old advertisement messaging mechanisms.  It was contained in a print advertisement for Wheaties cereal brand.  In this advertisement there is a picture of a box of cereal with a message about a football star, Peyton Manning, receiving the NFL’s MVP award.  “Congratulations on another MVP – we’re proud to have you on the Wheaties Fuel Team – Prepare to win in stores now,” the old. Then in the corner of the advertisement design there is text that states, “Find us on Facebook”, the new.

Maybe some of you have noticed other Socialvertisement examples with the bridging effect of something new and old working together.  For me it is still too early to know if this type of Socialvertisement is going to create an even better connection to our consumers, but I cannot wait to notice more of something new and something old working together and to see if this method connects to the consumer, even better.

There are a wide variety of sponsorship options availabe for MSED events.  Below are listed just a few of the ways that you can use these sponsorships to promote your company, services, products, clients, etc.

Company Logo on MSED Web Event Page: $30

Pop-Up Banner Displayed During Cocktail Hour: $100

Table Top Display During Cocktail Hour: $250*

(*includes 1 ticket to event)

Name Badge Sponsor: $250

Power Point Slide Show During Dinner: $100

For additional information or to secure a sponsorship, please call (248) 643-6590.

As many MSED members know, Jeff brings a unique combination of insights into how companies are successful, the ability to express these ideas simply and skills to provide compelling examples.  His lessons apply to sales, marketing and corporate management.  His sessions at MSED were some of our most productive and best reviewed events.

In this, Jeff’s eleventh book, he focuses on how companies can not only survive but prosper in hard times.  In sixty short chapters, he provides insights that we each can use both in our careers and in our private lives.  Some of the chapter titles are:

• “I visit customers in stores” – management needs to meet customers and middlemen in their own settings to make correct decisions.  This is not delegatable.
• “Stay off magazine covers” – the leaders’ job is to lead, not to gather personal publicity.
• “People are not the most valuable asset, customers are” – They pay the bills.
• “Pay for performance, not activities” – the person who writes the best call reports is rarely the most productive salesman.
• “Never cancel batting practice” – In tough times, don’t drop training, R & D, marketing, and other revenue generating activities.
• “Fire the strategic customer” – Get rid of the customer who provides his business at a net loss when all costs are considered.

After a distinguished corporate career, Jeff has consulted for more than twenty years.  For more information, check out his website www.foxandcompany.com.