Whitewater Rafting Season for Business.

Is your offer up to the challenge?

A few years ago, it was extremely popular for corporate teams in Mexico to do whitewater rafting as an exercise to develop trust and collaboration skills amongst its members.

Whitewater is a form of river water that is characterized by fast, shallow stretches of water.

These shallow stretches are also known as ‘rapids’ and come in different levels of difficulty of passage.

Whitewater rafting is more exciting when the rain season is in its late stage as that usually means more water, which means faster rides.

What makes whitewater rafting a cool teambuilding exercise is that everybody in a raft must know what to do, when to do it, follow basic instructions and work as a team to avoid the many obstacles and finish the journey successfully.

Whitewater rafting is similar to running a business in the sense that there are a few things you can control and many others you cannot.

People in other rafts are like business units, each one taking care of their own tasks: avoiding obstacles and trying to complete the journey.

However, if a problem rises, everybody is expected to lend a hand to help a person or raft to be safe and get back on track.

It is not a speed contest; it is a large team comprised by smaller teams and all must make it alive an well to the finish line.

Back in 2008 I was the Presales and Marketing manager for a Data Center services company named Diveo, the most fun place I have ever worked at, I must say.

That year the company decided that it would be a good teambuilding activity for the whole organization to navigate the rapids in Veracruz, since there had been several changes in the organization, recently.

I was thrilled about the adventure, I had never done it before, but I had heard some stories about people’s experiences doing it and it sure sounded like a lot of fun.

The date was set for September, almost at the end of the rain season and it would be a three-day trip departing Mexico City on a Friday and coming back on Sunday.

The actual rafting would happen on Saturday morning.

The date came and on that Friday the company provided a few vans as means of transportation and the way to Veracruz was a lot of fun: Jokes, music, laughing.

It reminded me some of the field trips I took when I was younger.

We arrived in Veracruz in the evening without any incidents, we checked in at the hotel and a few of us went out for a bite.

We dined at La Parroquia on Malecon a traditional restaurant that started operations in 1923, famous for its café con leche (coffee and milk).

The weather was nice: humid but not too hot and a cool breeze was blowing in from the sea.

Everybody was in goods spirits and looking forward to the next day.

We had an early start on Saturday, we were ready on time and we took time to take some photos before getting on the bus that would take us to the part of the river where the trail starts.

I remember everybody was full of energy, you could feel the excitement and the nervousness in the air. The unknown lied just 30 minutes away.

We got to the spot, geared up and heard the instructions. The great thing about hearing instructions while on land is that I usually hear them in the background.

Like when your manager tries to explain to you what the job is about.

You think you understand what it is about, but it is until you get in the water when you really begin to understand what it entails.

We climbed into the rafts, seven people into a cumbersome, wobbly, yellow raft, so bright you could see it from space.

We pushed off and things got real.

I do not remember much I only remember that if I heard a particular word, I had to do something, putting the oar in the water and try to paddle.

Not an easy thing to do, I felt the oar barely got in the water and I could not be sure if I was getting anything done but at least we were still moving forward.

Then we heard it, “watch out for the rocks ahead” most of the rafts made it out, but one hit them right in the center and a couple people fell into the water.

If you fall into the water, you must become an active instrument of your own salvation.

In other words, you need to try to stay around, try to get back to your raft or, if you can’t look for an oar to hold onto or get to another raft so people can bring you in.

The rafts, on the other hand, need to slow down and fish people out and get them to their rafts as soon as possible.

So, we did that, fortunately the water was not moving too fast so at that point it was not that hard to do it.

The water gained speed and so did the rafts, more obstacles came and for some reason one particular raft kept hitting them, and one or two would fall out.

You could tell they were frustrated.

Almost at the end of the trail there was a major obstacle and the raft that had been struggling hit it, the raft flipped, people got underwater, some swam out and found other rafts.

A couple of the guys stayed underneath it and found a way to flip it back so they could get back on it.

The raft I was in fished out one of the people who had swum out. We got her out and sat her down. I’ll never forget her blank expression, she was livid.

When we finished, we were exhausted, some people laughed, some people cried, some yelled. It had been intense.

The team that had been knocked down over and over got together and embraced each other for the longest time.

They had escaped hell and they had done it together.

The bonds of love, caring and friendship we built on that day will last for a lifetime.

Whitewater 2020.

2020 started like many other years and then the stream became a raging whitewater river.

Many of us were on our own rafts we were healthy, had job or maybe a local business, maybe some had some savings put aside for a rainy day.

Suddenly the rocks appeared, a few rafts made it out ok but most hit those rocks hard and flipped.

Some people lost their health, some their lives, many family members, and friends, many more lost their savings and income streams.

Some of us are still underwater, trying to come out from under the raft, but the raft we knew is gone. It was destroyed on those rocks.

But even if the raft is gone, instruction still remains:

Now it is the time to become an active instrument of our own salvation and the good thing about hard times is that more people are willing to help and more open to collaborate.

Crisis blurs the competition lines and fosters an environment of innovation and creativity.

No wonder some of the greatest organizations we see today were created during times of hardship.

Finding a Raft to Climb on.

It has come the time to use all the learned skills in the past as well as develop a few more on the fly to find another raft, get on it and help the rest of the team make it to safety.

The current business model is now based on empathy, caring and being helpful, which means that from a business standpoint we need to look at our offering and ask:

How do my products and services help people fast?

If the answer is unclear then the offering needs to be revised, don’t you think?

SellNow and Whitewater Rafting.

Last week I started calling some of my friends in leadership roles to tell them about SellNow’s value proposition and offering.

The idea was not to sell to them but rather get their input on the perceived value and more importantly, find out what it was missing to make it appealing.

You know I am passionate about digital marketing as I have seen it work for a few people very well.

Some of the greatest marketers have been working on their models for over a decade and 2020 was a great year to them because they had systems in place to take advantage of the situation.

I also understand that is not the case for most people and I do believe I can help in this area.

Most of the comments I heard during my calls last week had to do with organizations not meeting their sales numbers thus needing to move their inventory quickly and find a way to sell more.

Armed with this information we have begun crafting a simple offer for these times aimed at helping organizations improve their sales while also providing onramps to start creating the customer experience your clients want.

In general terms there are three alternatives:

1)     Improve Retention and Sales:

As you know selling more to your existing customers is often easier than trying to get new clients so if you have clients and you have an offer but are struggling communicating it we can help you out.

We will look at your sales materials, make recommendations and even craft new ones for you to deliver them to your installed base.

We can also create email sequences so you keep in touch with your clients and let them know what you are working on and how you will help them get through this rough patch.

2)     Channel Extension:

Maybe you had a local business that had to shut down due to the health restrictions, now you are opening again but foot traffic is low.

Let’s get you on a new digital sales channel such as a virtual store or maybe get you started on social selling.

We can also build you a professional profile on Google My Business and manage your reviews which will indicate prospects you are still open for business and what others think about you.

Remember, now more than ever people and organizations want to feel they are making the best use of their resources and looking at customer reviews is a key step in that.

3)     Quick concept test:

Building a lead generation campaign is time consuming and involves creating assets such as reports, landing pages, ads, databases, email sequences.

On top of that you need to be able to run your ads on social platforms and search engines, which means managing the ads platforms and navigating the ever-increasing restrictions in place.

During the past months we have built an infrastructure that reduces the time to create all this and instead of looking at 12 weeks to get insights we can test the whole thing in three to four weeks.

We will even recommend the sales journey funnel for your offer.

We are still defining the final deliverables, timelines, and price points but if you are interested in any of these just send me an email at [email protected] and I will personally get back to you to discuss your needs and address your concerns.

Thank you.

P.S. By the way, an incredibly special thanks to those of you who have taken the time to talk to me, heard me out and provided feedback.

It has been extremely helpful and insightful.