Business901 Book Specials from other authors on Amazon

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

10,000 hours

How true this is from Seth Godin: 

It's not surprising that Malcolm Gladwell's new book has made a splash. All his thought-provoking writing does and deserves to.

The argument of Outliers:

  • Where you're born and when you're born have an enormous amount to do with whether or not you're successful.
  • Becoming a superstar takes about 10,000 hours of hard work.
  • Both of the bullet points above are far more important than the magical talent myth.

Bill Gates, the Beatles, Beethoven, Bill Joy, Tiger Woods--do the math, 10,000 hours of work.

In some ways, this is a restatement of the Dip. Being the best in the world brings extraordinary benefits, but it's not easy to get there.

For me, though, some of the 10k analysis doesn't hold up. The Doors (or Devo or the Bee Gees) for example, didn't play together for 10,000 hours before they invented a new kind of rock*. If the Doors had encountered significantly more competition for their brand of music, it's not clear that they could have gotten away with succeeding as quickly as they did. Hey, Miley Cyrus wasn't even 10,000 hours awake before she became a hit.

Doc Searls and Scoble didn't blog for 10,000 hours before they became the best, most important bloggers in the world. Molly Katzen didn't work on her recipes for 10,000 hours before she wrote the Moosewood Cookbook either.

*(There were bar bands in Buffalo, where I grew up, that put in far more than 10,000 playing mediocre music... didn't help. Hard work maybe necessary, but not sufficient).

Here's my take on it:
You win when you become the best in the world, however 'best' and 'world' are defined by your market. In many mature markets, it takes 10,000 hours of preparation to win because most people give up after 5,000 hours. That's the only magic thing about 10k... it's a hard number to reach, so most people bail.

Yo Yo Ma isn't perfect... he's just better than everyone else. He pushed through the Dip that others chose not to. I'm guessing that there are endeavors (like being CEO of a Fortune 500 company or partner at a big law firm) where the rewards are so huge that the number is closer to 20,000 hours or more to get through the Dip.

But, ready for this? The Dip is much closer in niche areas, new areas, unexplored areas. You can get through the Dip in an online network or with a new kind of music because being seen as the best in that area is easier (at least for now). You can get through the Dip as a real estate broker in a new, growing town a lot quicker than someone in midtown Manhattan. The competition is thinner and probably less motivated.

Yes, it matters where and when you were born. It matters that you get lucky. And it matters most of all that you saw the Dip, realized how far away it was and chose to push through it.

Logic+Emotion - Twitter's 10 Commandments

"Logic+Emotion"

Twitter's 10 Commandments

Twitter_commandments

Logic+Emotion - 3 new articles

Great post on where Blogs may be headed:

My Blog Thinks It's A Website

More updates to the blog and as you can see, I've come full circle to the punchline of the previous cartoon. I've added a navigation bar to the top left of page (right under "START HERE"). So no we've got some permanent sections added to the experience here. I will most likely be editing the content in these sections but it's a start. Again, way overdue.

Please, please leave some comments about who you are, what you do and why you do it in the About You section. The page will be a part of the permanent architecture here and I would love to reference it from time to time. Is the blog looking more like a Website? Well that's by design. :-)

Blogging Is Dead.

Blogdead

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Free eBook- Using the Social Web to Find Work

Free eBook- Click to Download 2009 will be an unprecedented time for workers in the US, with many people losing their jobs through no fault of their own. This will ripple economically to other countries as well. No one’s really safe. I wanted to offer some ideas ahead of the mess.

I’vewritten Using the Social Web to Find Work as a free ebook for you to download and share with others. It includes ideas and information from [chrisbrogan.com], and takes you from the specifics of using LinkedIn to your benefit, into some ideas on how to grow and nurture your social networks ahead of a need for them.

It’snot much, but I wanted to help in one way that I know how - by providing ideas and actionable information.

Pleaseshare this liberally by pointing back to this original post.

Using the Social Web to Find Work (pdf)

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Lean Marketing Assessment Program launched by Business901

Fort Wayne, IN – Joe Dager, owner of Business901 will be introducing the “Lean Marketing Assessment” to the attendees of a webinar hosted on Wednesday, December31st . This program will allow participants to gain a clear snapshot of their present marketing conditions and practices. The participants can use the assessment to determine areas in need of improvement and develop a plan accordingly.

The Business901 Lean Marketing Assessment is used to determine a company’s current position relative to the recognized practices of a Lean Enterprise. It begins with an outline of the Key Performance indicators and the scoring system that is used in the evaluation of each. The participants complete the assessment during the process and active participation is encouraged to reinforce the evaluation of each indicator. The final element is a review and explanation of the scatter diagram that is created. This will allow participants to see the areas of greatest concerns and strengths.

Exploring the data to identify a cause and effect relationship between variables is an important part of the webinar and in building a Lean marketing process. Knowing your current state is one of the most powerful tools but is the least understood. “Establishing a baseline and understanding your root marketing issues will result in a true reality check,” says Dager. He also added: “Without this, wishful thinking and superficial solutions creep into your marketing process."

An assessment will make it easier to create standards and once the standard is in place, it will then allow companies to continuously look for better ways to do the work because to be truly of lean fashion, it must be realized the work is never done, it is continuously improving. Without understanding this step in the process, people become confused with what planning and standards are meant to be. Standards are not control mechanisms. Having a process does not stunt creativity. A true standard is actually the direct opposite as it allows time to focus on the creative aspect as it is part of the plan. Standards and plans are dynamic. They let you know where the problem is quicker, where to begin a search for solutions, and prevent you from making the same mistake twice. Continuous improvement cannot happen without a standard. Continuous improvement in any part of the organization is the only true advantage that you have as a company.

About Business901: Joe Dager is president of Business901, a progressive company providing practical, information-rich services and product offerings designed as implementable systems that work in the real, not enough time, not enough people world we operate in. Business901 tools simplify the marketing process, not complicate it. Joe's experience includes manufacturing, retail, and professional services and has been through several start-ups and turnarounds. Affiliations include Duct Tape Marketing, The One Page Business Plan, Get Clients NOW and Ten Step Project Management. The Technorati rates the Business901blog in the top 1% of all blogs worldwide, and Hubspot grades the website in the top 3%. Joe has a bi-monthly local television program, Connecting Your Passion and is also a contributor to the American Express Open Forum and Business Week Forum.

Is John Jantsch a nice guy?



I think he is? Check out my Lean Marketing Assessment?

Friday, December 26, 2008

Duct Tape Marketing EXCELerator - Monthly marketing tele-classes

Attention:  Small Businesses, Professional Services, Salespeople and Organizations:

The Duct Tape Marketing® EXCELerator Program is specifically designed for entrepreneurs and business owners that want to take their revenues to the next level as soon as possible, but don’t have an in-house marketing department to help make that happen.The Duct Tape Marketing® EXCELerator Program is designed to fulfill all the needs you require from a part-time marketing department.

Monthly marketing tele-classes to fast-track your business

Phone con One of the biggest pitfalls business owners encounter is wearing blinders when it comes to their marketing.  The sector changes rapidly, and it should be the responsibility of your marketing department to ensure you stay on top of new, innovative approaches.  One-dimensional marketing approaches are high risk and usually ineffective.  You need to consistently take a multi-pronged approach to your marketing.

Once a month, your duct tape marketing coach will be leading a private training call on a variety of powerful marketing tools.  These detailed how-to calls will outline, step-by-step, proven strategies and action steps to help guarantee your marketing success!

Calls would be held and recorded every month so that you can:
train your partners and employees space-space.  You're welcome to invite your business partner, spouse or key employee by the call, or have them attended in your absence.  What better way to educate others on your team on various aspects of?

Create your own Bible resource Library space-space may be the initiative covered.  One month won't come in handy for another year.  No problem.  You will receive CDs of the training calls in the mail each month, at North surcharge so you can curry your own marketing resource Library.

Listen to them, what is most convenient time for you-we know you're busy and may not have time to make all of your move live marketing Excelerator calls are you.  That's why we record each call, and the audio is quickly posted online--usually within 24 hours.  You can download the MP3 file at your convenience, and listen at your leisure on your iPod, computer or any other MP3 player.

Upcoming marketing sessions:

  1. Develop your marketing hourglass.
  2. Great lead generating two-step advertising campaigns.
  3. Get in front of years prospect of powerful direct mail techniques.
  4. Buying strategic partners to sell for you.
  5. Build your credibility by attracting media attention.
  6. Develop an online moneymaking machine.
  7. Make it to the front page of Google.
  8. Generate $$$ through speaking engagements.
  9. Price for profits-increase the amount your customers spend export instantly
  10. Automate and optimize your marketing with technology

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Duct Tape Marketing EXCELerator Expert Series

Attention:  Small Businesses, Professional Services, Salespeople and Orgcrop anizations:

The Duct Tape Marketing® EXCELerator Program is specifically designed for entrepreneurs and business owners that want to take their revenues to the next level as soon as possible, but don’t have an in-house marketing department to help make that happen.The Duct Tape Marketing® EXCELerator Program is designed to fulfill all the needs you require from a part-time marketing department.

Personal access to leading North American small-business experts

Who has time to read every leading marketing book out there?  Now you don't have to.  As your part-time marketing department, we have access to leading experts and can give you an opportunity to hear what they have to say LIVE as well ask them questions.  You will be kept abreast of these additio nal sessions and just like your ongoing monthly program.

You can invite your employees, partners, or spouse to join in on the call.

Calls are recorded so that you can download and listen to them at your convenience.

Past, experts have included:

  • Michael Gerber
  • Guy Kowasaki
  • Stephen Covey
  • Tim Ferris
  • Michael Port
  • John Batelle
  • David Mearman Scott
  • David Allen

Learn more

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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Duct Tape Marketing EXCELerator - Retreat

Attention:  Small Businesses, Professional Services, Salespeople and Organizations:

The Duct Tape Marketing® EXCELerator Program is specifically designed for entrepreneurs and business owners that want to take their revenues to the next level as soon as possible, but don’t have an in-house marketing department to help make that happen.The Duct Tape Marketing® EXCELerator Program is designed to fulfill all the needs you require from a part-time marketing department. You will receive a mix of products and services to help you:

Part 4 of 5frontphoto

October 22 thru 24th, 2009.
Hotel Boulderado Boulder, Colorado.

This unique three-day retreat brings small businesses together in a group environment to expose them lie to someone North America's leading marketing experts, as well as two other small businesses for source of inspiration and motivation. While enjoying the beautiful mountain setting of Boulder Colorado, small business will learn and implement various tools and techniques available to grow their business.  Our team of experts(this will include some heavyweights) will work with you to create various marketing tools on the spot!

By the time you leave your three-day retreat, you will:

   be able to implement immediately at least part of your overall marketing system.
   Be more comfortable utilizing some very cost effective and powerful marketing tools.
   Still more confident in your marketing strategy and experience a much shorter timeline and executing these strategies now and in the future.
   Have met other small businesses to garner ongoing support and possibly a line with on future marketing endeavors

A sample of topics: PR- being an expert, harnessing the Internet, getting media attention, landing speaker engagements, optimizing your site for search engines, e-mail marketing, creating effective paper click campaigns, referral marketing

And what is really cool, is this package is included in your monthly fee. You are only responsible for a couple of meals, room rate of $130 and airfare.

Attend a Free Webinar

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Duct Tape Marketing EXCELerator Coaching

Attention:  Small Businesses, Professional Services, Salespeople and Organizations:

The Duct Tape Marketing® EXCELerator Program is specifically designed for entrepreneurs and business owners that want to take their revenues to the next level as soon as possible, but don’t have an in-house marketing department to help make that happen.The Duct Tape Marketing® EXCELerator Program is designed to fulfill all the needs you require from a part-time marketing department.

Part 3 of 5:dtmlogo web

Your own authorized Duct Tape Marketing Coach


The key to the success of the Duct Tape Marketing Excelerator program is the access you receive to a marketing professional, has received extensive training in the application of the duct tape marketing system.  Your part-time marketing professional will provide you with the advice you need, when you need it.

Unlimited e-mail support -you have a question or want to get input from a marketing professional?  Simply e-mail your marketing coach.  Now you can get the feedback you need, quickly and guilt free.

Quarterly one-on-one sessions-in person or over the phone-once per quarter , you can and should schedule a one-hour meeting to sit down with your coach to reviews those areas you're struggling with on your marketing.  These are great opportunities for you to not only get the ongoing input into your marketing that you need, but also to hold yourself accountable to your marketing commitments.

Special rate for additional one-on-one support -as is typical part-time help, there are times of the year when you may require additional assistance.  That is why all duct tape marketing Excelerator clients receive a special contract rate of additional hours.  You can receive the additional help, you need from your Duct Tape Marketing Coach, time permitting, at the special rate.

How to judge a website developer?

Hubspot has a cool tool to grade your website from a marketing effectiveness. Now my question to you, is who do you take advice from to improve your website? websiteSomeone who is doing it or someone who says they can?

HubSpot's Website Grader

Report for www.business901.com
December 19, 2008 at 12:15 PM

A website grade of 97.3/100 for www.business901.com means that of the hundreds of thousands of websites that have previously been evaluated, our algorithm has calculated that this site scores higher than 97.3% of them in terms of its marketing effectiveness. The algorithm uses a proprietary blend of over 50 different variables, including search engine data, website structure, approximate traffic, site performance, and others.

Alexa is an online service that measures traffic for millions of sites on the Internet in a similar way to Nielsen television show ratings. Your website has an Alexa rank of 1,029,589 which is in the top 3.35 % of all websites.

Technorati is a popular blog directory service. It measures the popularity of a given blog as compared to all other sites that have been submitted to its system.

This blog currently has a Technorati rank of 427,130, which puts it in the top 0.65% of blogs tracked by Technorati.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Duct Tape Marketing EXCELerator University

Attention:  Small Businesses, Professional Services, Salespeople and Organizations:

The Duct Tape Marketing® EXCELerator Program is specifically designed for entrepreneurs and business owners that want to take their revenues to the next level as soon as possible, but don’t have an in-house marketing department to help make that happen.The Duct Tape Marketing® EXCELerator Program is designed to fulfill all the needs you require from a part-time marketing department.

Annual enrollment in the Duct Tape University.

You want to get the step-by-step process to set up a referral program?
Perhaps you would like to learn more about online marketing?

The Duct Tape University is an online learning Center chart bowl of marketing classes and workbooks to help you build and execute the pPicture19erfect marketing system.

Think about it:
    No more searching all over the Internet for marketing how-to courses.
    No more purchasing marketing courses for additional fees.
    Now you can learn at your own speed, any time, space-space Day or night.

Sample courses in the Duct Tape University:
    Referral flood marketing -space how to create a flood of new business without spending one dime on advertising.
    Blog lightning space-space, how to create and promote your small business blog in a flash, a step-by-step blogging success to a role.

...  And much, much more!

Duct Tape Marketing EXCELerator Program #2

The Duct Tape Marketing® EXCELerator Program is specifically designed for entrepreneurs and business owners that want to take their revenues to the next level as soon as possible, but don’t have an in-house marketing department to help make that happen.Market Excel 2 The Duct Tape Marketing® EXCELerator Program is designed to fulfill all the needs you require from a part-time marketing department. You will receive a mix of products and services to help you:

  • PLAN your marketing strategy
  • CREATE your marketing material
  • BUILD your ongoing marketing system
  • IMPLEMENT your lead generation strategies
  • ...and not just with ONE individual, but with a whole TEAM of EXPERTS through special teleclasses
  • Amazing annual three day RETREAT where you will have first hand exposure to a suite of Marketing Experts from fields such as:
    • Small Business Marketing Strategy
    • Effective Writing Skills
    • Email Marketing
    • Do It Yourself Graphic Design
    • Search Engine Optimization
    • Pay Per Click Campaigns
    • Lead Conversion
    • Positioning Yourself As an Expert
    • Attracting the Media …and More!

    An overview of this program will be presented through a webinar delivered by Business901. Reservations are required. Please send a request to info@business901.com . A special offer will be available to attendees. This is part 2 of 5.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Duct Tape Marketing® EXCELerator Program

The Duct Tape Marketing® EXCELerator Program is specifically designed for entrepreneurs and business owners that want to take their revenues to theMarket Excel 2 next level as soon as possible, but don’t have an in-house marketing department to help make that happen.

Is This You?

Chances are YOU ARE the marketing department and often find yourself achieving only small incremental improvements to your bottom line
each year. Where do you start and where can you turn to for help when you need it? Now you can get the help you need through your own “on call”
marketing department.

  • Figure out the right marketing approach for YOUR business within the
    confines of a limited marketing budget.

  • Get the marketing assistance you need WHEN you need it.

  • Have access to the right resources who can help you BUILD the marketing
    tools you need.

  • Have someone who cares about you and your business to guide and direct
    you as you implement your marketing initiatives.

On Thursday, November 13, at 10:00 AM, An overview of this program will be presented through a webinar delivered by Business901. Reservations are required.

Reader Question: Can you recommend an ebook software program?

This is from Small Business Growth Strategies, and written by Stephanie Chandler.

Question:
I have been researching ebook software and was wondering if you could give me some advice here. My understanding is that some of the software is easy to use and some is difficult. Are you familiar with deadeasy software? Also do you think my plan of finding marketers to market my e-book is a viable one?

Answer:

I’m not familiar with the ebook software program you mentioned, however, I’m not sure you need it. In most cases you can deliver your ebook as a PDF document. Just be sure to format it so that it is easy to read and set the security settings so that readers cannot copy and paste the text (this helps prevent copyright infringement).

Havingothers market your ebook for you is a great idea. If you set up your shopping card through a service like www.Payloadz.com, you can create an affiliate program and offer others a commission for sales generated. The same is true with the more robust shopping cart service like www.1shoppingcart.com. In fact, this service includes a proprietary ebook reader. Another place to list your book for affiliate sales is www.clickbank.com.

Ihope this helps!
Stephanie

Friday, December 19, 2008

Using Outposts in Your Media Strategy

From Chris Brogan, great stuff

 tree Social networks are great places to meet new people, to build new business relationships, and to learn about information from non-traditional sources. But another great way to use social networking sites is as an outpost. What do I mean by this? It turns out that people getting to know you on social networks might also find your content for the first time, and/or something you post to those networks might bring you an opportunity that wouldn’t immediately come to you in other ways.

Building Outposts

Before we go too deep, as I’m talking about RSS and some of you might not be fully aware, here’s a great video by Common Craft about RSS in Plain English:

Here’s what I’m talking about:

  1. Find your RSS feed URL for your blog.
  2. Add your RSS feed to FaceBook.
  3. Add your RSS feed to LinkedIn, but go further.
  4. Post the occasional tweet about a particularly good blog post to Twitter.
  5. Repeat this in any “very specific to your industry” social networks that matter to you, and/or on emails to your specific potential customer base.

Any other recommendations you want to add to the process? Any questions?

Photo credit, Jule Berlin

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

I Didn’t Know You Did That

 

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

I Didn’t Know You Did That

So, honestly now, have you ever heard the words in the title to this post from a long-time customer? We all have, I’m afraid, and shame on us.

Whena customer becomes a customer, it’s usually to purchase a specific product or solve a specific problem. When we solve that problem or ship that product the job is done, right? To build true marketing momentum the job has just begun.

Myadvice is to create a monthly process of introduction to some aspect of your business and offer this information in several forms. For example, a monthly mailing to your entire customer base, a lunch and learn with your referral sources, a telesession open to the public, an autoresponder series for newsletter subscribers, and post on the company blog.

Keeping all of your products and services featured and top of mind is one of the best ways to do more business with your existing customers and partners. Build this education system and put it on auto-pilot and you may start hearing, I’m glad you offer that!

28 Day Plans - Marketing & Business Plan

The 28 Day Plans are really kits that have been compiled from the best material that these products offer and establishes a basic understanding on how to apply the principles of each through an initial seminar and then 28 days of coaching. By participating in group coaching it is like being a part of a mastermind group for 28-days.GCN-Facilitator

More information on individual products:

The One Page Business Plan

Duct Tape Marketing

Get Clients NOW

Learn more about our  28 Day Plan

 

Monday, December 15, 2008

Selling 2.0 - Let The Customer Do The Communicating

 What does it really take to sell something online?

Think about this for two seconds: You go to your favorite e-commerce site that sells books to check out the latest marketing book. You're about to buy it, but before you click the "add to cart" button, you peruse what other people thought of the book.

Even though the publisher describes it as the "feel-good marketing business book of the year," Sally from Pembroke, Ontario, lets you know that it's nothing more than regurgitated marketing pap that you've read a million times before. There is a handful of additional peer reviews on the same page that spell out a similar story. According to random strangers you have never met the book scores about a two out of a possible five stars.

Do you still buy the book?

Why do we trust random people over the publisher of the book? Shouldn't the publisher have a lot more skill and aptitude in discerning whether or not a book is good? More importantly, has the book seller completely lost its mind? Why would they run negative reviews of a product they are trying to sell?

From:

- Vancouver Sun - Selling 2.0: Let the customer do the communicating.

Benjamin Zander at Pop!Tech 2008: How Fascinating!

This is from Presentation Zen, and written by Garr. Go sign up for his blog. If you have Nancy and Garr how could you go wrong in a presentation.

I've talked about Benjamin Zander and his inspiring presentations before (such as here and here), but I stumbled on another one today on the Pop!Tech website. (Pop!Tech is a wonderful resource for short presentations by some very smart and interesting people doing some amazing things; you can even see a nice talk by our buddy Daniel Pink at Pop!Tech.) This talk below has some similarities to Zander's TED talk (and the content is found ">in his book too), but there is a bit of a twist in this talk as he brings a very bright young musician on the stage to help illustrate his point about transformation, being in the moment, contribution, etc. If you have never seen Zander present before, then you owe yourself 20 minutes to take this in; the lessons are applicable to your work no matter what your field.

Above: Watch Benjamin Zander present at Pop!Tech 2008

The Zander method
Below are a few shots of Zander in action.

Benjamin Zander may start his presentation on stage, even using a visual or two.

But he does not stay on stage very long. Zander likes to get down and mix it up with the audience.

Back on stage: One minute he may be making a point at the piano about playing "on one buttock" and the next moment...

Zander returns closer to the audience and works the room again, engaged, passionate.

Working with a young student on stage: Make a mistake? "How fascinating!"

Zander brings his student down so that he may make a better connection with an audience member to show that music (and many other things) is not about technique only but about connection, and contribution, and full engagement with the moment.

The conclusion: Zander returns to the stage and the same visuals to make his case again.
Benjamin Zander is the Zen master of presentation. See more presentations on the Pop!Tech "Pop!Cast" site. This is a great resources, especially for classroom instructors. Fascinating!

This is syndicated from Presentation Zen, and written by Garr.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Interview with Legendary Illustrator Christoph Niemann

Just great stuff that Nancy puts out. Go subscribe to her blog.

This is from slide:ology, and written by Nancy Duarte.

Last week I had a handful of people all send me the same link to a charming story in the New York Times by Christoph Niemann. He illustrated his opinion piece on napkins using coffee as his ink. It’s clearly popular because (as of right now,) it has 614 comments!

The thing I love about Christoph’s work is that he’s a thinking illustrator. His work is lovely but it all has a clever or informative bent to it. His new children’s book The Pet Dragon introduces children to Chinese characters in a playful, informative way.

Ihad the privilege of interviewing him recently:

ND: I LOVED your coffee piece in the NYTimes, what inspired you to do this piece and to use a napkin?

CN:I have always tried to explore new styles, but since I started this blog, I have deliberately tried to focus on handmade art (to counter the fact that it only appears digitally). For each post I want to come up with a new distinct look. First I wanted to draw on the bottom of a coffee cup and then photograph inside the cup from above. I realized very quickly that that was not a smart idea. Drawing on Napkins was the next best idea.

ND:Projects that incorporate tactile elements are more endearing to me. What process did you use to make these illustrations? Is it real coffee?

CN:I wanted to draw them with 100% coffee. I cooked up a special, near toxic brew (5 spoons espresso powder, 5 ounces boiling water). But this was still not dark enough. So I added water color (three shades of brown, to get the right tone). I would say it is 40 % coffee now. You can still see a good number of powder grains on some of them.

Iwent through a LOT of versions, but I am not sure I kept the messed up ones. Napkins are a terrible surface for wet colors. If you just add a tiny drop too much fluid, you have a three inch blot. Of course this only happens when the damn thing is 90% finished.

Andto make things worse, you just cannot sketch on these napkins. So each drawing was made entirely freehand, without any thin sketch lines to guide me.

ND:Your website is full of wonderful high-concept graphics with varying illustration styles. What is your creative process from ideation to final execution?

CN:There is unfortunately no secret to the way I work. I sit in front of a stack of letter size paper, and think until my head hurts. I do not produce sketches of even the slightest artistic value. Attached you’ll find a sketch from a couple of months back. I have no idea what it is, but I know that it was the sketch to an idea that eventually got published.

Everyonce in a while I have an idea while walking or taking a shower. But usually it is a pretty grueling process (but great fun once its done!) When it comes to the execution of the idea I think more like an art director and not an illustrator.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Succeeding in an Economic Downturn

"ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom dedicated to Marketing, Advertising and the Creative Process" -

Succeeding in an Economic Downturn by Jim Kasper To succeed in a down economy, you’ll need to step up your sales game. Here are eight adjustments you need to make to keep selling during these tough times.

The affects of the 2008 economic stimulus package presented by the President and Congress are long gone and there's talk of another one. The news about the $700 billion dollar "bailout" and global recessionary trends are dominating the headlines. Add to that the distress caused by election year politics and we, as professional salespeople, have been challenged to remain focused and productive in a slowing economy. Economists are predicting a tough calendar 2008 fourth quarter and a sluggish 2009, but our role in sales dictates that we need to attack rather than react. Selling in a tough economy requires extra effort, better planning, more control of your sales cycle and tenacity. Remember one thing: The top 2% of all salespeople automatically turn up their activity a couple more notches when things get tough. By doing so, they're the ones who'll be standing tall when the economy turns around. The top 2% do this because:

  • They are true competitors and hate to lose.
  • They have been in this position before and learned what it takes to win in an economic turndown.
  • They refuse loss of income.

Below are eight ideas to help you sell like a "top 2 percenter" in a tough economy:

Double and triple your call activity Honestly, your competitors do not have the stuff to compete under these circumstances. Average salespeople buy into the "woe is me" philosophy and decrease sales activity. The top 2% know that an economic slowdown is an opportunity to edge out competitors.

Re-allocate your field time Work more with your "A" accounts and in lieu of your "B" and "C" ones. Your purpose should be two-fold: 1) Your top producing accounts have the capacity to buy more from you; that's what makes them "A" accounts; and, 2) You'll be securing your position with these accounts from potential attempts by the competition to wrest them away. Don't allow that to happen! Remember, this business cycle is affecting your competition too and they'll be aggressively looking at your "A" accounts as a source of new business.

Examine prospecting efficiency Both rookie and veteran sales professionals tend to let their prospecting slide when times are good. As a result, their prospecting skills and prospect targeting abilities get rusty. This is a good time for you to hammer out your prospective customer dimensions. In other words, delineate what your ideal prospect looks like. Then, identify key prospects in your area and proceed to develop your capture and execution plans.

Fire stalled prospects and move on Your income and success depend upon calling on true prospects and current customers who can (and will) do more business with you. Assess the prospects you are calling on and don't be afraid to "fire" them, particularly if your extra effort is not showing any results. Remember that you have a business objective for every call you make. If you don't, your call will be reduced to a social nature and you don't get paid for those.

Go the extra mile for customers and increase value-added activities You need to be creative in low or no-cost ways to help your accounts cut costs or stimulate new business. Go out of your way for your top accounts. Now is the time to establish yourself as a source for best practices. Share ideas on how your other accounts have benefited.

Make every call count Be prepared to make the most of every call. What value are you deriving from each customer visit? Who is controlling the call – you or the customer? Experience and research have demonstrated that formal pre-call planning generates more successful outcomes for all sales activities. You should never take sales call effectiveness for granted – especially in tough economic times. The days of "blowing through" a call are over. The simple fact is that you are paid to move the customer to the next stage in your sales cycle. In today's economic climate, you've got too much at risk not to plan for success. Now, more than ever, craft a strategy to overcome such objections as:

"Until things improve, we're not undertaking new projects." "Now is not the time to change. We need to stay with our current supplier." "With economic conditions as they are, we're looking for low-price suppliers."

Write a long list of discovery questions that will uncover hidden opportunities.

Plan to succeed You will not survive an economic slowdown by simply hoping that you sell more or your current customer base buys more. Account planning, territory planning, and pre-call planning are the keys to efficient selling in a down economy. It's time to review account plans or develop them, if you haven't already. Account plans are your road map to selling more to your "A" accounts. It may be time to reassess pricing or bundling in order to pick off some of your competitors' offerings. In addition, you should ask yourself the following questions:

  • How efficiently are you managing your territory?
  • How much time do you spend traveling? Are you touching all of the accounts you need to?
  • How many of your prospect calls are interspersed within current account visits within your territory?
  • What accounts are at risk and what actions have you taken to reduce that risk?
  • What value added activities are you planning for your key accounts?

Reassess your priorities This is not the time to perfect your golf swing or take extended take extended time off. This is the time to dig in and take charge of your sales activities. By doing so, you'll be able to survive the current tough times and will be positioned to reap the benefits when the economy bounces back because you'll be ahead of your competitors who didn't!

From: Jim Kasper is the founder and president of Interactive Resource Group. Mr. Kasper has over 26 years of practical experience in direct sales, sales management, sales training, and marketing. Contact him at www.salestrainers.com or call 800-891-7355.

via "ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom dedicated to Marketing, Advertising and the Creative Process" -

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Half of CMOs Remain Uninterested in Social Networks

More than Half of CMOs Remain Uninterested in Social Networks

Despite the cultural phenomenon that Facebook and MySpace have become in the past few years, 55% of top-brand CMOs said they’re not too interested (22%), or not interested at all (33%), in incorporating these and similar social-networking sites into their marketing strategies, according to a...

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Impress your customers with a custom domain

If you are looking for an inexpensive website, this may be an option for you.

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Monday, November 24, 2008

The Making Of Personality Not Included

Learn for the best names in presentations : Rohit, Duarte, Reynolds

I recently release two things that I have never before put online and wanted to share them with all of you who read my blog on this Friday post. The first is a presentation on Slideshare that takes you inside the story of how I sold and wrote my book in a visual presentation inspired by some of the work by folks like Garr Reynolds and Nancy Duarte. The second is an exclusive link to download the entire Chapter 6 from Personality Not Included, which also has never before been available online. Hopefully Chapter 6 gives you some nice train reading for your commute home this Friday evening in case you haven't already picked up a copy of PNI, and I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts/feedback on the presentation below.

*Based on a comment I already have, I'm planning to release another version of this presentation solely focused on what the book is about instead of the "making of" and will likely share that on Sunday before getting back to my regular blogging schedule (which is thankfully unrelated to pushing the book) on Monday.

This is from Influential Marketing Blog, and written by Rohit.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Business Slogans to Live By

 

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Business Slogans to Live By

I received word from a company called Wallblank, that is doing a pretty cool thing. It’s a form of fine art crowdsourcing. Wallblank curates limited prints from selected artists and then offers them each day until they are sold out. I love this model for all involved and find many of the prints very suitable for office settings.

EachFriday they have a no profit day (another very cool strategy) and offer all proceeds for the day to an organization in need. This week’s no profit print offers advice in the form of a saying I’ve long struggled to live in my entrepreneurial aspirations.

Thisweek’s print says - Starting is Easy, Finishing is Hard and all the profits go to one of favorite organizations - Kiva.org

Idecided to add some of my favorite sayings and apply them to the core elements of a business. I’m seeing a nifty line of business slogans to live by t-shirts here!

So, got any you want to share?

Friday, November 21, 2008

Attract more holiday business–get online today!

 

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From the editor...

From the editor …
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