There’s the World Renewable Energy Forum here in Denver. That’s easy enough. And the Cleantech Open Conference and NREL Industry Growth Forum are musts for us. But there’s also the Cleantech Group’s annual conference, Cleantech 2012, CleanEdge and Greentech Media events, the Global New Energy Summit and many others. Expos for the green building industry, for smart grid technologies, vehicle electrification, energy storage and efficiency, solar and wind. All in addition to the many terrific university programs and government labs that sponsor annual events showcasing research projects with commercialization potential. And, of course, the countless investor summits around the country and around the world.

The invitations roll in all year, and the number of conferences seems to be proliferating despite worries that funding for cleantech startups is shrinking. Industry events can be money-makers and marketing bonanzas for conference organizers, and we’re certainly not opposed to that. But they can also be a drain on our collective time, attention and financial resources.

It’s time for consolidation.

Several industries dear to our hearts have seen a wave of expansion and exploration followed by a period of mergers, acquisitions, reorganizations and shutdowns. (This year it’s solar’s turn.) The process, while painful, is often described as a sign of market maturation. A step on the path to progress. Perhaps the same can be said of us—if not now, soon.

Look at it this way: it’s an energy efficiency move. Let’s be more efficient with our time, with our money, and with our intellectual energies. Especially during this time of shifting sands in the federal funding arenas, let’s band together to create fewer events, and let’s make sure they provide everything we need. After all, wouldn’t you rather be spending more time, money, and mental energy on perfecting your technology and growing your business?

With more money, more people and more history behind them, midsize and large enterprises tend to have a clear idea of what they need when, and a clear understanding of the business value of a sound positioning and messaging strategy. Startups, on the other hand, typically don’t have a positioning and messaging strategy, don’t know why they need one, or don’t know what one is. Instead, they go straight from a laser-like focus on perfecting their technology to an equally intense focus on promoting it (once they get the requisite funds). In other words, they go straight from IP to PR. One day they’re submitting grant applications, and the next they’re looking for a website developer and a PR agency. Often, this is when they talk to us. And it’s when we start asking questions they may not have answers to.

If you’re a cleantech entrepreneur, ask yourself:

• Do you have a segmentation and targeting strategy?
• Do you have an effective positioning strategy?
• Do you have a rational messaging hierarchy?
• Do you have a distinctive brand voice?

If you do, you’re in better shape than 80% of the cleantech startups we talk to in any given year. You’ve got the strategy horse in front of the tactics cart. Go ahead and write that press release, publish that website, produce that video and design that sales presentation. But if you don’t, if you can’t answer these questions in the affirmative—or don’t know why they’re the right questions to ask in the first place—it’s time to do some homework. Give us a call. We can help.

Whether a company is a well-established large enterprise or a first-round startup, creating new positioning can be an exciting opportunity to define or redefine what a company hopes to be as it grows (up). But a word of caution: There can be a thin line between aspirational statements and misleading statements, no matter how well-intentioned they may be. And your clients and prospects will be able to detect which is which.

If you’re standing in one place, and talking from another, it’s the marketing equivalent of ventriloquism. Which rings false, every time. So what should you do when your vision for your company doesn’t match the current reality? Act.

Once you determine what you’d like to say about yourselves, make sure you can make it true. Create an action plan to do so, execute on that plan, and document your progress. Get buy-in and support from across the company, so that every employee can articulate your new aspirations as well as explain how you’ll make them a reality. When possible, assign concrete tasks to every individual so that they’ll feel ownership. Communicate your progress at regular intervals. And then check your work. Ask yourself:

• Do we have a brand message based on assertions? (If not, you’re failing the differentiation test.)
• Are the assertions we make true? (If not, you’re failing the authenticity test.)
• If so, can we prove it? (If not, you’re failing the credibility test.)

When you take a good look at some hard questions, and then do what it takes to answer them to your own satisfaction, you’ll live up to the position that you so thoughtfully created. Your customers, prospects, and employees will believe you. And what’s more – and more important – they’ll believe in you.

Why do you do what you do?

I work in the field of biomimicry because I believe biomimicry is one of the most hopeful and inspiring solutions we have for sustainability. For a long time I worked on chemicals policy, in the advocacy arena, and I spent my time trying to get change via legislation and regulation, but it was always 10 steps forward and 8 steps backward. We were always having to drag people along. With biomimicry, it’s the opposite; it’s so inspiring that people want to get engaged and are excited to use it as a tool to create change.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of your job?

Two things:

1. Biomimicry creates such a sense of hope. When people hear about biomimicry, the first thing so many people say is “it’s so inspiring and hopeful.” People feel overwhelmed by our sustainability challenges and by issues like climate change. They feel a sense of hopelessness about how we’ll ever tackle these challenges. Then they get introduced to biomimicry and have a sense of hope. It’s refreshing and new for a lot of people.

2. Biomimicry reconnects people with nature. We are nature; we humans are part of nature. Through our industrial world we’ve created an artificial sense of separation from the natural environment. Biomimicry reconnects people at a very deep level. It brings people back to a very fundamental space.

In your experience, what’s the one thing that most often gets in the way of great marketing?

Well, biomimicry is a complex idea and it’s hard to communicate it in a sound bite. It also gets back to this lack of a connection to nature. Many people don’t even know where their food comes from. Some kids don’t know where milk comes from. We’ve become so disconnected that it’s hard for people to imagine how nature would provide the kinds of answers we need. When you tell people nature has already solved many of the problems we humans have, they have a hard time imaging how nature could solve technological challenges, for example. So you have to use case studies. Look at locusts, for example. How can millions of insects fly together and not crash into each other? They have “anti-collision technology” in their brains that car companies are now using. Others are looking at swarm technology for computer science. In our minds we have simplified nature; we don’t understand or appreciate the complexities of nature. Yet every organism out there has so many brilliant strategies that can be useful to us.

What’s the most important lesson that you’ve learned as a marketer/advocate?

To meet people where they are. Everybody comes to an issue from a different perspective and you have to understand where your audience is in order to be able to communicate with them at a heart level. You can’t use the same voice for everybody. You have to understand what it is that most connects with them at an emotional level, and that’s where you have to communicate with them.

If you could wave your wand and make any product or service in the world a smashing overnight success, what would it be?

I have two answers.

One is a product: the PaxFan, designed by Jay Harman, a marine biologist, entrepreneur and engineer. He looked at the ubiquitous spiral shape you see in nature and he has designed fans and propellers based on this logarithmic spiral that, depending upon their application, reduce energy consumption from 30% to 70%. One-third of the world’s energy is used to drive fans and propellers. They’re in computers, cars, refrigerators, ships – they’re used everywhere. So this design, if implemented, could save a lot of energy.

The second thing I’d like to see succeed overnight is not a product, but a process. I wish every time a designer sat down to design, the first question they’d ask is “How does nature do it?”

That would be a shame. This is a period when the stars of next year decide to be stars, and the rest miss the boat.

It starts with a big step back and a shake of the mental Etch A Sketch. We find there’s no time like December to take stock. Whether the last half of the month finds you winding down or frantically pushing through, when the holiday break finally arrives, you can pause to consider the big picture. And the big picture is more important to your business now than it ever has been.

The global economy, national politics, the maturation of relatively new cleantech industries and markets, the obliteration of traditional media by a proliferation of new interaction and communication avenues… all these things are working to change the very rules under which marketing organizations everywhere operate. What are you going to do about it?

New year, new… what?

Whether you’re a startup entrepreneur or a veteran CMO, there’s more opportunity here than might meet the eye. You’ll find it in the facts. Not just the ROI on your marketing spend or your customer sat metrics, but also the answers to questions you may not yet be asking.

Customer conversations

Who left you this year? Before a customer leaves you officially, they leave you psychologically. Who’s gone quiet on you? It’s the ones you never hear from who can most surprise you. They may not initiate a conversation to express their concerns, but if you do, you’ll likely learn more than you expect.

Sales tools

When was the last time you had a meeting of the minds with your new business lead(s)? Not a meeting where Sales and Marketing were both in the room, but a significant chunk of time set aside to vent a little spleen and hear the brutal truth about what’s working — and what’s not, and why — out in the field.

Strategic vision

What will leadership in your field look like in three years? What will you do to move your organization in that direction this year? How will you refine your in-house skill set, your offerings, or your business model? Will you be better off on 12/31/12 than you are on 12/31/11?

Take a minute to close your eyes and step into that future vision. What do your customer conversations sound like? What do your sellers experience in the field? What does your team look like? What are your products and services, and how do you talk about them? What does the day-to-day operation of your business look and feel like?

Now open your eyes and look around you at the ways those things are today. If there’s not much of a difference, dream bigger. If, on the other hand, they seem like entirely different worlds, you’ve got your work cut out for you. And that’s not a bad thing! It’s what the New Year’s calendar-flip is for. Planning. Pivoting. Regenerating the endlessly renewable human energy that drives innovation of all kinds. It comes around just once a year. And 2012 will come around just once in our lifetimes. Let’s make it great.

We’ve blogged about this before, but it bears repeating — especially if you’re a cleantech startup.

Game changing technologies and business models can be difficult to market simply because they are often difficult to explain. Technologists and scientists find it very difficult to talk about their innovation without going straight to the “gorp” — the technical language that makes a layperson knit his or her brow in confusion, or even exasperation.

Here are two suggestions that can help.

1. Speak conversational English. Yes, we know “ferromagnetism” and “superlattice” are real words. They might even be in your dictionary. But we’re willing to bet they’re rarely said out loud. At least not in public. Leave the geek speak in the spec sheets and white papers, and talk about what you do as if you were addressing a smart friend or acquaintance who has no idea what you do for a living. And if a familiar metaphor will help someone “get it,” don’t be afraid to use it. It’s not about your knowledge; it’s about their understanding.
2. Don’t confuse complexity with sophistication. Simplicity in communication is essential to understanding, and yet it’s anything but simple to achieve. At Posit, we love to allude to this quote, attributed to everyone from Abe Lincoln to Mark Twain: “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” Good one, isn’t it? It’s not at all easy to explain your technology in one minute, or ten. But it’s essential. And the only way to do it is to keep your story simple. What do you do? Why does it matter? Why will the person in front of you care?

Those are the principles. Here are some specific examples.

Don’t say: “…involves the reversal of flow through a membrane from a high salinity, or concentrated, solution to the high purity, or ‘permeate,’ stream on the opposite side of the membrane.”

When you can say: “…uses semi-permeable membranes to remove impurities from water.”

Don’t say: “…modernizing of the electricity delivery network using the latest digital and information technologies to meet key defining functions.”

When you can say: “…the Internet of energy.”

Be more straightforward with your explanations, and you’ll find you’re more successful in your interactions.

And if you don’t have the personal capability — or the internal capacity — to translate the former into the latter, or aren’t even sure how to tell the difference, consider adding a “tech translator” to your team. It’s okay to focus on “time to market” or “time to money.” Just remember they both hinge on “time to Oh!”

Why do you do what you do?

I love the commitment to renewable energy and cleantech – where that’s going to take us, our kids and our grandkids. I would love to be able to see what the world will look like in 20 years versus today. I’m also passionate about startups and entrepreneurs; I myself lived in that world for a long time. I like to be in a role where I can support their evolution, and see their growth and success.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of your job?

It’s seeing the evolution of startups, watching nascent companies grow, thrive and prosper. And seeing the upside of that: the whole ecosystem that grows with it, so we’re left with a culture that’s devoted to cleantech and renewable energy. When it permeates the culture, it becomes part of the fabric of what we do and why we do it, as opposed to isolated pockets of success that may not interrelate or interconnect.

In your experience, what’s the one thing that most often gets in the way of great marketing?

Lack of execution. I see lots of great ideas, great plans. Most of those fail due to a lack of execution. It runs the gamut: marketing, sales, biz planning, strategic planning… Why do we have so many good ideas nobody’s heard of? I think partly because [inventors] are telling the wrong people. If you’re not telling people who can execute on the idea, nobody’s going to hear about it. Whether the potential market is huge or you think it’ll solve world hunger, I say “That’s great, but where do you start? You can only eat an elephant one bite at a time.” It’s less about how you’re telling the story and more about who you’re telling.

What’s the most important lesson that you’ve learned as a marketer/advocate?

You still have to execute. Many cleantech startups either have no plan and are flying by the seat of their pants, or have a plan but are not following it. They’re grabbing at the nearest thing that looks like the next tangible benefit, whether that’s money, a customer, a sale, or a product or solution that’s just not ready.

If you could wave your wand and make any product or service in the world a smashing overnight success, what would it be?

A highly efficient battery that works at any scale. A grid-scale battery.

We all know that funding is tight these days; VCs are extremely careful with their money, and competition for those dollars is fierce. It’s easy to think that the best way to capture investor attention is by positioning your offering as simply the newest-best-most-innovative thing to come along, with no competitors and an enormous addressable market.

But you wouldn’t be doing yourself, or your company, any favors.

Innovation is exciting. Invention is exciting. But more exciting to an investor? A solid business model, clear intellectual property, a differentiated offering, an experienced team, and a market that’s primed to buy. The business model, IP, team, and market components of your story are fairly objective data. It’s the differentiation piece that can be tough to uncover and articulate. We’ve talked about the four ways to differentiate. Now, let’s take a look at how to articulate your differentiators to best appeal to investors.

1. Recognize your competitors. If you think you don’t have any, you’re probably wrong. If you’re not wrong, ask yourself why you’re alone in the field. It could be that your idea isn’t as marketable as you thought. What makes for a great invention doesn’t always make for great business.

2. Identify your differentiators. List the aspects of your product or business model that make it different from your competitors’ – both the positive and the negative. You’re not going for spin here; you’re going for truth.

3. Decide which differentiators you will emphasize. We suggest, if you’re pitching to investors, that you choose those that will best support clear return on investment dollars.

4. Now, the chart. Many companies steer clear of a slide that outlines competitors. We say: don’t. Make sure you include one in your pitch. Magic quadrants are well understood. Another, simple, approach is a table that lists your competitors by name. In one column, highlight what makes you better than them (your differentiators). In another, highlight where you might fall short.

It’s not always easy, but we’ve found that being honest about what does (or does not) make you different can actually make all the difference to your perceived credibility. And when you’re asking for a check – no matter how large or small – that’s crucial.

Why do you do what you do?

This is a nonprofit (my first) and it requires different disciplines and different skills than running a conventional startup or a corporation. It’s a great challenge. You’ve got to do a lot with a little. But it’s an organization with a big profile and a terrific group of highly energetic people. One of my theses is that the cleantech space is driven by a moonshot mentality. But while going to the moon was a nice-to-have, cleantech is a must-have. So the people involved tend to be driven, passionate and—very important to me—good people. Cleantech entrepreneurship is at the intersection of economics, driving successful businesses, and the environment. It’s living in a better way on a better planet.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of your job?

The people—working with this very, very special group of people. And not feeling that I’m leading them so much as being inspired by them. I clearly need to be a leader and a source of inspiration, but I derive a huge amount of inspiration here. When I walk into a Cleantech Open  room, the energy! It’s not me, it’s a movement.

In your experience, what’s the one thing that most often gets in the way of great marketing?

In terms of cleantech entrepreneurs, it comes right back down to the basics. Can you clearly, crisply, concisely and compellingly paint a picture of what you do, why someone might buy it and how it’s better than the alternative. If you can do that in a way that reflects genuine passion and employs concrete visual vocabulary rather than abstract terms and technical terms, then you’re already way ahead. People often don’t understand the importance of the USP [unique selling proposition]. It needs to stand out in all communications: why you uniquely solve their pain point and the benefits to them. Marcomm is very often about us and the product, not the customer. Another obstacle? People who have already made up their minds. In this space, it’s “Are you preaching to the choir or appealing to people who are in some way philosophically opposed?” As soon as you mention “clean energy,” you’re tarred with the “treehugger” brush. It’s tough, especially here in the U.S.

What’s the most important lesson that you’ve learned as a marketer/advocate?

You create your own good luck. Timing is a huge piece of this. There are macro factors, and there are micro factors. You can have the right product in the wrong market, or hit the right market at the wrong time. You cannot boil the ocean or try to be all things to all people. It’s the importance of choosing and owning and dominating market segments—or creating your segment or category. Keep going until you find the people who cannot live without your thing.

If you could wave your wand and make any product or service in the world a smashing overnight success, what would it be?

Something as close as possible to cold fusion. Maybe the ecatalyzer? Things that look really “out there” tend not to get very far at first. I’m very excited about some of the technologies I’m seeing here [at the Cleantech Open] this year. It seems there are a lot of big-picture ideas coming out of these companies. There are companies here who could take a lot of plastic out of the waste stream. If someone cleaned up the Pacific gyre, that would be great!

Cool stuff. If you’re ever in northern Colorado, and you’re the type who enjoys those reality TV shows about how things work, get in touch with the RamTracks office at CSU and have them arrange for you to spend an hour at this place. Housed in what was once the coal-burning power plant for the City of Fort Collins, the Lab is a testament to the fact that cleantech can be fun. Grad students, faculty and entrepreneurs can be found monitoring the performance of turbochargers being pushed to their limits, measuring the efficiency of biochar-burning stoves, analyzing batches of homegrown super-algae, and testing the effects of various fuels, gadgets and processes on engines the size of guest cottages. The whole building smells like solvents and sounds like you’re standing under a jet. If you like looking “under the hood,” your blood will quicken when you step into this place.

Upbeat environment. This is a special place in the world of cleantech innovation. While CSU is an academic launching pad for the scientists and engineers behind some of the most interesting generation, storage and efficiency technologies you’ll ever see, Fort Collins is the chosen home of dozens of early-stage companies founded by those same people. It’s an environment that rewards community loyalty with work-life balance. Which creates community loyalty … and around it goes. Trying methodically to improve something, often over the course of years, is hard work. And yet the positive vibe at the Lab is palpable.

Hands-on approach. We didn’t see a single laptop or iPhone. Not that we don’t love those things. (We do, a lot.) But these guys obviously spend a lot more time doing things than talking about them or writing about them. This is also not a place where the primary focus is on funding or marketing (yet). And frankly, it was nice to be in a deal-free zone for the afternoon.

Global outlook. One of first things you notice when you walk into the building (besides the sights, sounds and smells of all the experiments going on) is a giant wall covered with photos and the logos of companies that have spun out of (or into) the Lab. And it’s immediately clear that this is not a local enterprise, or a Colorado enterprise, or even a national enterprise. Products are designed and used worldwide. Talent comes here from all around the globe. And the companies commercializing the innovations born and nurtured at the Lab are operating in dozens of countries. It’s a state-school organization with a planetary perspective: think global, act global, live and play local. By the looks of it, it’s a recipe for success.