It’s a little bit weird to be sitting on a plane, reading a rant about the airline that is, at that moment, scooting you home. I quite enjoyed my Air Canada experience that night. Scott Stratten, not so much. He is mad at Air Canada. He is also mad at the following: Zellers (RIP), Best Buy, Dennis and Chelsea Crowley, Google, the Econo Lodge in Jersey City (you could kind of see that one coming), Black’s photo shops (RIP), Upworthy, realtors who attempt to leverage dead neighbours for profit, Brendan Eich, Ubisoft, Golf Channel, open plan offices, all the stupid people on Twitter, Chip Wilson, Geoffrey Miller (the NYU Prof), and many more.
As we wade through UnSelling, we learn that Stratten is UnMad at the following: Ritz Carlton, WestJet, Samsung, T-Mobile, Disney, Delta, York Regional Police, Shatto, all the cool people on Twitter, AutoTrader, his publisher.
We have spent a lot of time in this space discussing how every little thing we do is branding, and this book, which has nothing to do with selling, offers up dozens of examples of what happens when we forget that.
If you are a current follower of Scott Stratten and Alison Kramer, very little in this book will feel new; Joshi the Giraffe, yodeling at Best Buy and Disney-flavoured doses of magic have all turned up in the UnMarketing blog, the UnPodcast or Stratten’s ubiquitous presence at North American conferences.
The good news is, this book is in bite-sized chapters (perfect for reading during the Air Canada safety video) and there’s no need for those tedious chapter-end summaries, key take-aways, book club questions or connect-the-dots that other business writers seem to think are helpful. Indeed, that’s a bit of my difficulty with the whole thing. The theme is clear enough — be human. Be nice. Be honest. Do the right things. Apologize when you screw it up anyway. Be calm in the face of crazy people. Treat your employees well and they’ll treat your customers better. But the book feels like it needs a bit more structure, a bit more of a journey to go on.
If you are in a hurry and want to get all the key points in this book without actually reading it, Chapter 24 about Big Ass Fans is worth the ten minutes it will take to read it in the book store. Big Ass is the poster child for putting on your big-boy pants and just doing the right things. Like paying your employees well above the going rate in your area, not laying them off, being nice to suppliers, customers and the community and generally running a respectful company that makes a first-rate product.
More of these sorts of profiles would have been a nice addition to the book, which is about half personal anecdote and 
half summaries of horrifying public failures.
A particularly favourite bit of the book for me, and it should be required reading for those of us in B2B Land, is the Funnel Vision stuff. In B2B we live and die by our funnels and Stratten and Kramer absolutely nail the issue with our focus on the fictitious funnel where all leads go and are nurtured and wooed and worked until, just like a vending machine, out pops a sale. Their view is that we need to focus on the sales cloud:
“It’s made up of all the ways customers hear about your brand: blogs, online reviews, trusted referrals, social media sites, your website. These are where your market may or may not be hearing about you – for better or for worse. This is where most of the purchasing decisions are made. In fact, once someone is in your traditionally viewed funnel, the goal is more about not messing it up…”
Amen, brother Scott.
Another worthwhile section picks up on one of my favourite themes: how our best efforts to serve our customers actually turn them into Porcupines. Stratten and Kramer call them “Insubordinate Customers”. I like my term better but they make the very valid point that whether we have driven the customers over the edge or they have found their malicious way all on their own: “Sometimes in business you have to manage the crazy; there’s just no way around it.”
I struggle a bit with the last third of the book. This is where a little curation or more diligent editing might have helped. It feels like we wander a little, looking at how companies respond (or don’t) to fundamental shifts in their industries, followed by a vaguely interesting chapter about successful entrepreneurs who built companies or products out of a frustration with the status quo or a terrible product. Informative, but not really new. We bounce then from detailed social media tips and how-tos to tradeshows to podcasting.
It’s a fun, easy read but pretty much all of the stories are old news, and it would have been nice to see more material that hadn’t made the rounds before. The Jedi story is touching, but ignorant experiences at retailers or airlines are less illustrative than they could be. The bit on publishing is fun and I would have loved a deeper exploration of the notion that not all industries that appear to be doomed by technology will be.
Bottom Line: If you don’t know Stratten and Kramer, this is a great place to start. If you do know them, you’ll be reminded why you keep coming back for more, and when you’re done, you can quietly hand your copy of UnSelling to the flight attendant on your way out. I’m hoping he passed mine along to someone in charge.
UnSelling is so good I’ve almost forgiven Scott for his Kittens book. Not quite, but I’m getting there.
Related Posts:
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Interesting Things I Found This Week
There must be a thousand blogs about blogs about blogs about making money with blogs. But BlogTyrant is different and refreshing. If you’re thinking about a blog and need a kick in the arse, or like me, trying to figure out what to do with the mess you’ve made of the blog you have, start here. It’s very well written and does not make you feel like the last person in the hot tub. Plus there’s a free ebook.
If you don’t subscribe to Chief Marketer magazine, now is the time. It’s free, it’s online and it’s rather well done. The Fall issue has a great piece on loyalty programs by Patricia Odell.
BizMarketer is Elizabeth Williams
You can reach me at escwilliams@gmail.com
or follow me on Twitter @bizmkter
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