Mark asked me to share internal memos with all Daily readers from time to time. They’ll help our subscribers understand who we are, how we think, and what our plans are…

Here’s a memo Mark sent out before our Infinity conference in November:

ATTN: ALL EMPLOYEES

Memo on the Value of Conferences

Please try to attend all the events at our Infinity Conference, and especially the cocktail party this afternoon.

As a general rule, we want as many employees to be present at the conferences as possible. Of course, we also have to run the business, so we realize that it is not entirely possible for all of you to attend everything. But there are good reasons to have everyone there for at least some portion of the event.

Here are some of the reasons we would like a “show of force” at the conference:

  • It is helpful to demonstrate our size in terms of number of employees so that the attendees realize we are the serious business they have come to know us to be.
  • It is important that they realize that every Palm Beach Research Group employee is someone they can respect and someone who cares about them.

Therefore, everyone should dress well and actively engage in conversation. You cannot allow yourself to be shy in this kind of event. It is business. You must walk up to people, especially people who are by themselves, and introduce yourself. And then you should listen to what they say and be helpful, sometimes introducing them to others. While you are doing this, you should be actively learning about our business, in terms of what I call the prism: what sort of products and services our customers want, how they feel about the products and services that exist in the market today, and what they might actually need.

Many CEOs in our industry (direct response marketing) don’t like conferences. They point out, quite correctly, that they are challenging, distracting, time-consuming and generate little, if any, short-term income.

One CEO put it to me this way: “We make plenty of money communicating with our customers by email. Why should I spend all that time and money on an event that attracts only 2% of my readers?

I get it but I have a different view. I believe putting on one conference a year is extraordinarily important—and especially for businesses like ours that are ordinarily removed from our customers. Here is what I like about having annual conferences, despite the time. hard work, and cost:

  • They “force” our writers to think more deeply about the usefulness and marketability of their ideas because they have to display them in front of several hundred people.
  • They give our marketers and copywriters a chance to actually get to know our customers as human beings with hopes and fears and needs and desires—i.e., to know them as real, three-dimensional creatures. This will make any writer a much better writer, writing at a level above the “give them fear and give them greed” level of understanding.
  • They give our publishers an idea about the sort of responsibility we have as a business to fulfill the promises we make as an organization.
  • They give our employees the chance to understand that our business is not just about making ourselves money but providing value to others.
  • Most conferences I’ve been to (including most Agora conferences) demonstrate something less than that. I feel, when I’m there, that I’m in the midst of a professional business whose primary goal is to strip people of their extra savings. But with some conferences I feel very differently. It is clear to me that this is a company that is giving great value and cares deeply about its customers. That is easy to see and it makes me proud. It will also make every employee proud.

None of these benefits can be measured by short-term money. But I am certain that they are critical to the long-term success of our business. This was always true but it is especially true now that we work in a world of electronic transparency. It is very easy for prospects and customers to compare what we say we are going to do with what we actually do,and it is equally easy for them to communicate that to the rest of the world.

Building a business based on following the fast cash is like trying to build a skyscraper on marshy ground. The structure can hold a story or two, but if you try to go higher than that, the whole building begins to sink faster than you can raise it.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

All the best,

Mark