Each month, I tell a gathered group of new employees at HouseValues that they're the most important marketers at the company. And I mean it.

Most of these employees are actually joining very different groups across the organization - finance, technology, operations, etc. But I don't really care where they'll be working. They're all our most important marketers.
Why?

I've been with HouseValues now for almost five years. These newbies have typically been with HouseValues for just a couple days. While it's relatively difficult for me to see our company, our products, our processes and our industry in a new light, it's natural to do so for these new employees.

They bring to HouseValues a wide variety of experiences, perspectives and histories. They've done things and been a part of things I haven't yet seen or experienced, things that haven't yet become a part of my worldview.

These new employees are able to deliver incredibly important insights into our business that I, and company veterans like me, just can't see anymore.

So the trick with these new employees is two-fold:

1) Getting them to understand how important their perspectives are
2) Getting them to communicate and share their insights in the coming weeks and months

The first part is usually easy. The second part is hard. Hard because new employees typically assume that veteran employees know more, hard because they assume processes and perspectives are in place at the company for a reason, and hard because not every manager is open to feedback and criticism, sometimes in general and often especially from a newbie.

If you're reading this, I hope that you at least buy into the idea that your new employees are incredibly powerful marketers. If that's true, then your real challenge is to unlock the second "trick" listed above.

Need something to help yourself, your team, or your employees make the right decisions for the business, every single day?

Here's a simple exercise.

Imagine that every night, before they go to bed, every single customer had to choose whether they wanted to continue giving you their business the next day. Every night, your customers decide whether or not you've earned the right to continue doing business with them. Every night, your company goes through a vote of confidence.

How would you do? Better yet, how would this help you, your team, or your employees make decisions every day?

Clearly this level of daily affirmation is neither appropriate nor feasible. But I'm guessing it would drive far more customer-centric decisions for all of us.

Below are nine ten quick stories from the past three days in Arizona, where I attended three spring training games with my dad. For those of you who aren't baseball fans, I apologize in advance. For those who are, I thought these were worth sharing.

1. Friday in Mesa, the Cubs' wives had an auction and used equipment sale for charity. Part of the sale was a box of paper bags for $20 bucks each. Each bag held an autographed baseball inside. The guy in front of me in line got Billy Williams, a Cubs Hall of Famer. Guy behind me got Mark Prior, the Cubs' star young pitcher. I got Sean Marshall, who apparently is in the minor leagues somewhere.

2. But, alas, karma smiles on this blogger. Mere minutes later, down on the field, Cubs right-fielder Jacques Jones finished a particularly disappointing round of batting practice, and proceeded to break his bat over his knee. A member of the ground crew was going to throw the bat away until I intervened. Couldn't get it autographed, but the pine tar still smells (and feels) fantastic.

3. Saturday in Peoria, I followed a crowd down the first-base stands to a locked gate. Turns out this gate is right across from the visiting locker room. Two minutes later, Mike Sweeney (captain and star of the Kansas City Royals) walks out and spends 20 minute with a local Little League team that had come to see him. He signed autographs, took them on the field for a picture, made them feel very special. Mike's one of the nicest guys in the majors, and he proved it (yet again) this day.

4. A few minutes into his visit, Sweeney asked the team to wait a second, and disappeared back into the clubhouse. Two minutes later, he emerged with Hall of Famer and career Royal George Brett (who spends each spring with the Royals as a hitting instructor). Brett did an impromptu clinic for the kids, then led them in a quick team cheer before signing autographs for everyone. Classy guy.

5. He got a bit more classy when he came over to the fence I was at, and signed a few more balls for some kids. Somehow my ball ended up in the mix as well.

6. In the middle of the ensuing game between the Mariners and Royals, Jarrod Washburn is pitching for the M's. He's in the middle of a face-off with a particularly testy Royals batter. Man on first, one out. 2-2 count. From behind me somewhere, a fan yells, "Hey Washburn, throw him the heater." Washburn stands straight up, looks directly at the fan, and breaks an enormous grin. He takes that grin into his delivery, and pitches what became a 6-4-3 double-play to end the inning. He gave that fan another smile and wave as he walked off the field.

7. Sunday, again in Peoria for a match-up between the Padres and Giants, we arrive early to get a good parking spot, then walk over to a local sports bar to watch part of the early March Madness game before the first pitch. Halfway across the parking lot, a baseball almost hits us, as if it fell from the sky. Turns out, the Mariners minor league teams are taking batting practice across the fence at one of their practice fields. Half an hour later, we had collected nine home run balls that had made their way over that fence.

8. While fielding gopher balls, a tall skinny man walks up, on his way back from a workout. I stop to shake his hand and wish him luck this season. Bill Bavasi, general manager for the Seattle Mariners, thanks me and completes his post-run walk back to the Mariners office.

9. Spring Training is clearly about the kids. I've never seen so many balls thrown into the stands by players and coaches, and never seen the same players and coaches so meticulous about getting those balls to kids.

Update!
10. I typed this list-of-nine while waiting for my flight to leave Phoenix, only to learn later that Mariners legend Edgar Martinez was on our flight, flying back from a weekend of teaching Mariner prospects how to hit. He arrived at the gate 20 minutes before boarding, and was amazing with the kids. Answered every question, signed every autograph, posed for every picture. Classy guy. Especially when he signed two balls from story #7 above.

I don't like being wrong. I especially don't like being told that I'm wrong.

Yet, as marketers, we do this on a regular basis. We tell prospective customers that they're wrong. Sometimes, we even tell our current customers that they're wrong.

When we tell people their current toothpaste isn't very good, and that they should be using ours, we're telling them that they're wrong. And they don't like that.

When a new Internet service provider tries to get me to switch, they're trying to get me to admit I'm wrong about my current choice. And I don't like that.

If my strategy as a marketer is to try and "yell louder" to get someone to change brand choices, I'm counting on people to admit being wrong.

But if I market my product as a new choice, as something that empowers consumers to make a new, educated choice, that's good.

If you're just offering something that everyone else has, you'll always be yelling, and always be telling people they're wrong.

But if you offer something new, something remarkable, something that changes the game, you empower people to choose something new.

I don't want to be wrong. I want to choose something right.

How important is sound to your brand?: Fast Company takes a look at seven examples. Turn your speakers up!

Easy online fundraising: Check out FirstGiving. Perfect for any nonprofit seeking an easy way to accept online payments.

All your music, available online, from anywhere: That's what MediaMaster is promising, anyway. How long until the record labels chime in?

Is the dawn of Web 3.0 upon us? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Office Optional: First Best Buy, now Netflix. More and more companies are changing their rules about office and vacation time. Do your employees need structure to stay productive?

Networking for People Who Hate Networking: The name says it all. Worth a read. This is too.

Kudos to the folks at Red5 for this unbelievably creative recruiting effort. It cost a little money, but was incredibly remarkable and buzzworthy. I'm sure they counted not only on an extremely high response rate from primary recipients, but also significant word-of-mouth by those recipients telling their friends, then others (like me, and now you) reading about this elsewhere.

More links worth checking out in today's MoM links:

We're living in a Snack Culture: Great story set by Wired Magazine. What is your company doing to take advantage of this shift in information consumption?

Where in the world is Matt? I am apparently the last person to find out, but if you haven't seen this video yet, take two minutes to watch. It's amazing.

Want to be an influencer? The world is your oyster. Just work hard.

How to sell: Let your customers do the talking...

Great new marketing voice: New to me, anyway, is Jennifer McLean and her Credibility Branding blog. Great insights on an increasingly lost art.

Among all of the blogs, newsletters, magazines etc. that I read on a regular basis, my favorite feature is consistently some form of bullet-list that quickly introduces me to a new concept, a new voice on the Web, a new product, a new opinion, or other piece of information I previously didn't have. These bullet lists are light on description and commentary, making it quick and easy to scan what something is about, and decide for myself if I want to click and learn more.

I can't commit to delivering a list like this every day, as some successful bloggers do, but I will start collecting "cool stuff" that I don't have time to fully blog about into lists, and when I get 4-5 onto a list I'll go ahead and publish.

So here's the first set of MoM links (short for Matt on Marketing, not my mother - thought she is also a faithful reader - thanks mom!):

Improve Your Webinars: Whether you already do Webinars in your business, or are just thinking about it, this free White Paper from GoToMeeting and Osterman Research is worth checking out. Some good nuggets of information to test!

SketchSwap!: OK, this is a time-waster, but for creative types who can draw (that does not include me), it's fun.

Personas vs. Profiles: What's the difference between them? This well-written article puts it into perspective very cleanly.

Turn out the lights!: Among the growing ranks of socially-conscious new companies, one of my favorites is Seattle's own Verdiem. Save your company money and reduce CO2 emissions at the same time!

World's Best Presentation Contest: Do you have something worthwhile to enter? There are some bad, bad PowerPoint presentations out there. Will be interesting to see some examples of great ones!

I'm excited to see more and more focus on socially-aware businesses. The magazine Fast Company, for example, just published a cover package on Sensible Investing, and the venture-capital community is showing more and more interest in funding socially-conscious enterprises.

But in the midst of the big ideas and new emerging companies, there are also simple things we can all do to give back. One great example of this is GoodSearch.com.

You don't work for your boss. Sure, she might sign your paychecks. Or recommend your promotion. Or review your performance.

But your boss is actually third on the list of who you work for.

As I see it, you have three bosses (in this order):

1. Your customers
2. Your employees
3. Your boss

Let me briefly explain each.

1. Your customers.
There is no more important audience in your business. Without customers, there is no business. No paycheck. No promotion. So if your customers are that important, how can they NOT be the boss? This prioritization is relatively easy for those who are front-line staff, or get to interact with customers on a regular basis. But for managers who don't interact with customers regularly, keeping sight of what your customers want can be more difficult. Sometimes that means listening to how your boss interprets what customers want, but make no mistake - your customers are calling the shots.

2. Your employees.
If you are in any leadership position, you work for your employees. Your job is to make them as successful as possible, and to clear obstacles to their success. Three reasons for this. First, it's your job as a manager to help your employees succeed, to thrive in their jobs, and to grow in their careers. Second, by helping your employees grow, you're enabling your own growth (since you're preparing some of your employees to take your place). And third, your employees are likely closer to the customer. This means they hear things from your "first boss" often more directly and more frequently than you do.

3. Your boss.
At the end of the day, your boss is still your boss. He or she still has authority to to direct the work you do, and help set priorities for both you and your team. But, your boss works for you (you are her #2 boss), and you're likely closer to the customers (your and her #1 boss).

I think if more of us thought of our customers as calling the shots in our organization (whether you're in a huge corporation, or a business of one), we'd make a number of decisions very differently (or not make some decisions at all).

And if more managers considered their employees a close-second priority, employee satisfaction and productivity would rise.

Will your boss be upset if they find out they're third-fiddle? No way. You're putting your customers first, and empowering your employees to be better employees. What more could a good boss ask for?