A Fake Snow Job

Now I don’t know about you, but I feel a bit ticked off at an email like this.

• It is personalized but not personal.
• It is timely but represents no time spent on it by the author.
• It is to me, but not about me.
• It touches me, but not at all in the way I like to be touched.

Indeed, I consider it to have wasted the time it took me to download it, open it, read it, and discard it.

In fact, I can delete the sender from my contact list in less time than that.

Nothing personal ...

Speaking Engagements

Every one is a speaker.

Every one speaks.

Some say they can’t do public speaking.

They are wrong.

When you sit across the table from your friend in a diner, you are speaking in public.

When four entrepreneurs share tales around a table in a diner, they are speaking in public.

When you deliver your 3-second elevator speech in an elevator, you are speaking in public.

I’ve been asked to prepare a list of topics on which I am prepared to address people.

Here it is . Although chances are strong that it will have grown by the time you read this.

What do you notice? That’s right, there’s an eclectic mix there. Stuff for you entrepreneurs; stuff for you domestic ecologists; stuff for those curious about turn-of-the-century engineering miracles in Australia, ...

Why?

Good as I am, I figure I need the practice, and if I can’t talk about how I’d like to make money, I can at least practice talking on some other subject.

So can you.

We are all expert on something.

Make a list.

Get out there!

How I Spend My Christmas

No, not Christmas Morning. (This year Christmas is being brought to me by the letter “C”: Camembert, Cookies, Chocolate, rollo iCe Cream, Cheese Croissants, a Carton of sugared Cereal; all those things I tend not to buy. In bed, with a good book)

Each year over the Christmas break I take the opportunity to rebuild my computers by reformatting the hard drive and re-installing the operating system and software.

It’s the only way I know to generate a pristine machine, free of all the residue of software I’ve tested over the past year.

Yes, I know about mirror images, but I don’t want a mirror-image of twelve months ago; I want a new machine loaded with the best of what I’ve evaluated and used over the latest 12 months learning cycle.

And yes, I backup my machines each night, and yes, my drives are partitioned into a program partition (15 gigabytes) and a data partition (85 gigabytes).

But what an opportunity to speed up my machines.

And what do I do while Windows XP is downloading the seemingly endless stream of updates?

I strip the deadwood from my paper filing system – folders for clients who didn’t materialize, notes from systems long abandoned – and I vacuum the balls of cat fur from behind the desk.

At the end of one day I’ve completed my annual housecleaning.

And sharpened all my pencils.

I sleep well that night.

This Technique Got Me Noticed!

The seasonal gap is upon us. Some businesses shut down over a week ago. Most are quiescent this week and next and part of the next.

What’s a sole entrepreneur to do, living alone, working out of a home offices. My peers agree that there isn’t much point in phoning contacts – their contacts are too busy prepping for their office party, and their client’s office parties.

While we poor foot-soldiers are left staring at the dust-bunnies.

Not this year

I harvested 52 names and email addresses from my contact list and issued a one-page html message to each one. You can read it here .

There is no agenda, no RSVP. It’s about as laid back as I ever get. David, Jim and Ken say they’ll be there; that’s enough for me. Four entrepreneurs around a table at the local diner for as long as we want.

Of course, if all 53 showed up I’d have some red-faced explaining to give the proprietors, but that’s unlikely to happen. Many people jet home to family, or just can’t be bothered.

But the residue will be the sticky ones, those of us who use this period for a massive cleanup and re-organization of ideas, and are looking for a place to share.

It’s the Tuesday, mid way between Christmas and New Year. We will all be glad for a chance to get out of the house, I know.

I have already been thanks for organizing this, but what’s to do? Twenty minutes grabbing email addresses, a one-off email.

I haven’t booked the diner; there’s nothing as bad as prepping them for 50 extra meals when only 4 show up. There’s no table to book, no cash outlay. No agenda, no speaker, nothing.

Just roll up

P.S. In case you are wondering about the East End get-together, I am just waiting for the first sucker to call me, and then TAG! They are IT! But Jim and David have already said they’d drive out there anyway, so that’d be at least another foursome around a table.

You just can’t lose in this game.

What the Gartner Group can Teach Us

I am reading a Gartner report - you've heard the name Gartner, even if you've never read a report.

It's OK. I'd not read a Gartner report until this afternoon.

I'm reading the report on QlikView , and if you aren't a registered subscriber (I'm not) you can't download it, but take my word for it, the report is structured roughly like this:
Strategy: We therefore rate the company’s strategy as a positive one.
Financial: We therefore rate the company’s financial viability as positive.
Marketing: etc.
Organization: etc.
Product/Service BI Platform: etc.
Technology/Methodology: etc.
Pricing Structure: etc.
Customer Service/Support: etc.

Here's what I learned by reading the report.

In each section, Gartner gives its reason for its rating, thus:

• The price point of QlikView licenses is considerably lower than the equivalent components of established BI platforms (around 50%). Uniquely, QlikTech remains the only BI vendor to offer a money-back guarantee. We therefore rate QlikTech's pricing structure as strong positive.

Now "Gartner, Inc. is the world's leading information technology research and advisory company. We deliver the technology-related insights necessary for our clients to make the right decisions, every day."

And they rate not only software (of deep interest to me), but also marketing, pricing and so on, which is of deep interest to all of us, no matter the size of our ship-of-entrepreneur.

If Gartner sees a money-back guarantee and a price at 50% of equivalent established platforms, it sounds to me like a good pricing tactic, if not strategy

If "QlikTech's central message of simpler analysis is compelling and clear" causes Gartner to "rate the company’s marketing as positive.", then that's good enough for me.

I could do worse than read a dozen Gartner reports to learn how the Real World views products and services, and what essential points make businesses feel good about purchasing from me, or, if you prefer, me making a sale to them.

When Things Get Me Down

... and they do, I trot off to Alan Taylor's Big Picture from the Boston Globe.

Image #9

Stunning factoids.

If you really believe that you don't have time to click on the link above, then read these words:-

Messier 104 (M104), the Sombrero galaxy. has a brilliant white, bulbous core encircled by the thick dust lanes comprising the spiral structure of the galaxy.
As seen from Earth, the galaxy is tilted nearly edge-on. We view it from just six degrees north of its equatorial plane.
At a relatively bright magnitude of +8, M104 is just beyond the limit of naked-eye visibility and is easily seen through small telescopes.
The Sombrero lies at the southern edge of the rich Virgo cluster of galaxies and is one of the most massive objects in that group, equivalent to 800 billion suns.
The galaxy is 50,000 light-years across and is located 28 million light-years from Earth.
X-ray emission suggests that there is material falling into the compact core, where a 1-billion-solar-mass black hole resides.
In the 19th century, some astronomers speculated that M104 was simply an edge-on disk of luminous gas surrounding a young star, which is prototypical of the genesis of our solar system. But in 1912, astronomer V. M. Slipher discovered that the hat-like object appeared to be rushing away from us at 700 miles per second. This enormous velocity offered some of the earliest clues that the Sombrero was really another galaxy, and that the universe was expanding in all directions.

Coping With the Needy

If you are with me you'll know that each morning I make contact with all the people whose Follow-up date is today or earlier, then I wade through contacts with the stalest last-modified day.

In other words, I deal with what I promised I'd do, then I make sure that I keep touching contacts ("in touch") without too much time elapsing; I want to stay in the front of their minds.

I keep track of how many follow-ups are scheduled at the start of each day, and how many remain at the end of the day to be carried forward to tomorrow.

Over the past three weeks I've seen follow-ups bloom from about 10 to 43 (this morning).

What is Going on?

I look closely and see that the bulk of the follow-ups arise from stale contacts in large corporate firms, members of the Deep Pocket Club, and I'm finding it difficult to reach them by phone, or have run out of things of benefit to them to spark a conversation.

So I Phoned Cheryl Scoffield

I had a goal in mind: I want to make a presentation to ten people in the boardroom of each of these 30+ large corporations. Once I've demonstrated my stuff for 20 minutes, the questions start to flow, and once that happens, they are hooked.

How to reach my goal of 30 presentations over the next two months?

I have the email addresses; the people know of me by name in most cases, by face in a few.

Cheryl's first idea: Write up a set of stories of what I've done for people and issue it as a newsletter with a call to action at the foot.

Out of all my (dozen?) stories, at least one will have to strike a chord, and then that contact will start to realize the advantage of having me in.

I chimed in at this point and realized that I can record a short video on each "story" showing my solution, store the video on my web site, and provide a link to a video for each story.

Why "Cheryl's First Idea"?

Because I'm going to call her back and ask for another idea.

And another ....

Time for Myself

As a result of the truncated meeting I had an extra half-hour to kill, over and above the buffer I'd built in to my schedule.

This is a freebie to me.

Half an hour when I'm out of the apartment with nothing to do, no telephone calls to deal with, no email, just me.

I wandered back into the subway station and took a 10-minute trip eastwards towards downtown, getting off at Bathurst station; there is a bakery right there in the station - no need to use an extra ticket - and they sell cheese croissants. I know, because I treated myself to one, got on the next westbound train, and read more of my book.

On the bus between the subway and my next appointment, I did what I hate other people doing - whipped out my cell phone - but only to collect voice mail messages.

One

From Andy Szego of Premiere System Solutions . I have known Andy for about 18 years, and once bought a portable computer from him. He saved my bacon.

Andy left a voice-mail "I might have a lead for some work for you", so the sour taste of my 'failed demonstration' was replaced by the sweet anticipation of learning about the new lead, once I got through the next appointment.

Sure enough, a good lead, with a warm and friendly prospect.

The emails have been exchanged, a draft specification is sent out. Today comes the discussion by phone and, I hope, issuance of another proposal which OUGHT to result in quick delivery of a cheque.

What a day!

Piggy-Backing

Here is the power of adding yourself to a roster of speakers, writers, bloggers and so on:

I approached Enterprise Toronto and said I’d like to speak.

They accepted me

Yesterday (16th December) Enterprise Toronto posted an announcement on their web site about my scheduled talk.

Today (Thursday, December 17, 2009) Google Web Alert notified me that I had been found, that is, that Google has indexed the page.

Enterprise Toronto has better SEO than I (or perhaps they pay Google), but by getting onto their site I am more visible to web browsers.

Of course, it is not that people go searching for “Chris Greaves Toronto”, but when they go searching for “simple and practical processes to take you from the initial telephone call all the way to receipt of a cheque. Using sample email conversations, participants will compose a structured proposal by following basic mechanical procedures”, the theory is they will find the announcement and come to hear me speak.

And yes, I have invested time and effort getting to this point, but by piggy-backing on Enterprise Toronto, ITWorld Canada and others, I get more recognition for free.

Today: Published by The Examiner.

Power-Less Over Presentations

As I walked to the prospect's office, I thought "What am I doing here?". I had set up a meeting to demonstrate my text-processing wizardry to a graphics consulting firm. They don't use Intel-Windows, they use Macs. Who knows if my Word 2000 templates would ever run successfully, even if I could convince the owner of my value.

"Hi!" and into the boardroom. Out of the bag comes my trusty Intel/Windows laptop, the mouse, and no power-block. The power-block is in my office five miles away.

Oops!

Hi. I'm a computer expert, and I left the power-block at home. And the battery has been unchargeable for over a year.

The good news is that I had brought with me two copies of a 1-sheet handout, a script for the demonstration I had planned, AND part of it was in colored characters to demonstrate my Color macros.

"If it ain't written down, it don't exist". So true!

Armed then with a 1-sheet handout, my dulcet tones, much hand-waving, and a brilliant and attentive (and very forgiving owner of a Graphics Design company) I delivered a truncated 20-minute version of my 15-minute hands-on demonstration.

She believed my figures, I think, but there's no substitute fro seeing an index appear before your eyes in 15 seconds (nominally a 2- to 3-hour manual task).

She did ask me about document conversion, and did show me some manuals they had prepared, and did mentions that they might need help with document cleansing and table manipulation (I do those!), so I can follow-up with some future benefits.

And best of all - I had a meeting with a prospect, someone I'd been referred to by a colleague I'd not met, and I did a demonstration, of sorts.

I should get out more.

I did, and it was a good step in the right direction.

The journey is long, but interesting.

Scamming for the FREE Lunch

I am indebted to Mike Fedryk for this flash of insight.

I've been running The Prospector service for two months now.

Very nicely, thank you!

The biggest problem with The prospector is obtaining feedback from the subscribers. I am essaying with a points-based system - snakes-and-ladders idea.

Everyone starts off with 100 points (think "Monopoly Money"), and loses 5 points if the constraints are too slack, and gains 30 points if they submit feedback that allows me to tweak their constraints to deliver a better fit.

Mike's email says in part "This one's a good hit..." and that comment arrives because Mike has been diligent in tweaking his constraints.

The biggest problem in building my business is setting up face-to-face meetings with prospects or contacts.

So my latest scam^H^H^H^H scheme says:-

P.S. When your account balance reaches 200 points you win a free lunch at The Montreal Deli, did I tell you that? (Dundas street 1/2 mile west of Highway 427).

The theory is that it will be next-to-impossible for most subscribers to fail to reach that goal, in which case whoop-de-do!, they have effectively offered to meet me for lunch!

Thanks Mike.

Resolutions

This time of year I get asked if I've made any New Year's Resolutions.

I answer "No!"

I figure that the word resolution means a re-solution, another look at the solution.

That means I already know the solution, but I haven't implemented it.

November is a good time to say "My New Year's Resolution is to eat more fruit (bran, greens, etc,)"; or exercise each day, whatever.

But if eating fruit is going to be good for me next January, why wouldn't it be good for me this November? Likewise a 30-minute walk three times a week? Or quitting smoking? Or talking with newcomers? Or getting to more networking meetings? Or taking my mentors' advice.

If today I know the solution, today is probably a good time to start putting it into effect. It's not too late in the day to write a business plan.

A resolution is a convenient way of putting off the action until tomorrow; that's procrastination.

My mentor tells me that's deadly.

What are your New Year's Resolutions, and would your life have been better if you'd implemented them last May?

The Delight of Deletion

About four months ago I embarked on a campaign to eliminate many/most of my existing contacts on my contact list. ("Getting Rid of Contacts").

After one month I found that most of them were gone. My target market is NOT the 2-man legal firm on The Danforth at Coxwell.

Yesterday I made a follow-up call to an email I'd sent two weeks ago.

Got the Gatekeeper; Brian is in a meeting, what's this about?

I've learned from gurus that I am NOT to sell to the Gatekeeper; my business with Brian is none of their business; my business with the Gatekeeper is to learn when might be a good time to call back.

Brian called back 15 minutes later, tore a strip off me for being rude to the gatekeeper (I wasn't rude, but her perception of my refusal to publicize my private business was that I was rude).

We got over that.

I cleared my throat and began with my lead sentence, but Brian interrupted me telling me we had spoken about that two weeks ago.

I learn from gurus how to "handle objections", so I agreed with Brian and explained that I was making a follow-up call on my email which, Brian interrupted to tell me, I'd promised to send but didn't send.

Off the phone I checked my records.

Management measures!

On Tuesday the 17th, just two weeks before, we chatted for less than 7 minutes and I issued an email to the address he had requested.

I am fairly sure I know what happened:

(1) Brian has someone vet all email that goes through the info@ address

(2) He treats with disdain any email that arrives at the info@ address

(3) He hires his wife as receptionist, and rises to her defense whenever she is upset.

I also know that

(4) I deleted him from my contact list.

I'm not looking to do business with prospects who can't communicate; after all, suppose I got a contract. What do you suppose it would be like trying to communicate specifications?

Tim Hortons

(An open letter to Tim Hortons)

At around 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 9, 2009, accompanied by a friend, I entered the Tim Hortons coffee shop on The West Mall, just south of Dundas Street.

Neither I nor my friend had been in the shop for the past 18 months.

The greeting I received shocked me to the extent that it has taken me two days to get around to write about it; I have been too busy telling my friends and colleagues of my experience.

The lady behind the counter greeted us both with "Long time no see"; we responded along the lines of "Well, yes".

Your representative then looked me in the eye and said "Mocha, medium, right?"

I could only nod, and was still silent (a rare event in my life) when your representative returned with the Mocha, medium, and said "No lid, right?".

Words fail me.

But perhaps you can convey to your staff the impact this greeting has had on me.

Is Vanity all that Bad?

I have felt for a long time that vanity plates on cars serve only to make it easy to remember the license plate of an idiot driver. I mean, if you insist on weaving in and out of traffic, don't use a car registered as "IAM-CRAZY" or similar. Use "374 SDF" or something similarly innocuous.

I am feeling less and less enthusiastic about vanity phone numbers.

A web site gives out its phone number as (area code) (exchange code) 2CLS.

I am expected to squint at the tiny letters on the telephone handset and do the mental brainwork to translate CLS into 257.

"Hate the Work; Love the Money", That's My Motto.

So I dial the number, and what do you know? Somewhere along the line I manage to transcribe a "2" and a "5", or it might have been a "7".

I get a wrong number, which causes confusion on the other end and leaves a bad taste in my mouth; I don't like disturbing people needlessly.

I will try again and with a bit of luck, make contact with my original goal.

But in the time it takes to type this article, I may lose interest.

My workshop on Business Cards leads off with "The primary purpose of the business card is to get the other person to phone you", and following from that, ANYTHING which distracts is working against you.

(I once delivered the workshop, waiting until the end until someone asked "So what does YOUR business card look like?", whereupon I pulled out a card that had "416-621-9458" in 48-pt, front and back, nothing else at all. Think about that).

The Same Rule Ought to Hold for Web Sites and Flyers.

Once they land on your web page, let them know your phone number.

Not your phone letters.

And certainly don't brag about having discovered how to erect another hurdle between you and the next sale.

Let Your Brand Trash Your Elevator Speech

Let Your Brand Trash Your Elevator Speech

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

So there I was waiting for my turn to give the elevator speech; my mind went blank. One by one people stood, delivered and sat down.

I didn't hear a word they said.

What IS my elevator speech?

As panic set in, I circled the many, many things I am capable of doing well, most of them unlinked to one another.

Excepting that I do them all very well.

I have read George Torok's article in the September 2009 edition of Enterprise magazine, and am rethinking my brand along the lines of "Cheerful, laughter, Positive, The answer is always YES, Let's do it", and so on. That, I think, is a client's gut feel about me.

My Turn to Stand up

I can't remember what I said.

I mentioned nothing about Indxr, Prospector, my technical wizardry.

I think I was a bubbling enthusiastic guy in a gray shirt and a pink tie and a gray jacket with pink flecks who had been mentioned by two other attendees, and who stood up cheerful and laughing and was quite obviously the guy having the most fun of everybody.

Worth Checking Out.

I made four super-strong contacts last night.

Go figure

Don't Just Sit There - S.I.T!

This came up at a recent lunch with two colleagues.

We discussed those days and times when we just didn't seem to feel like phoning; we got around to the types of phone calls, and all the usual stuff, when Jim announced "Don't just sit there - Stay In Touch";

I came back to the office and found a printed copy of ComputerWorld Canada sitting on my doorstep, with this excellent networking article by Mark Jeffries:

The 3 R’s of networking

What a co-incident!

Do You Need to Know this?

I have been reading emails and junk flyers.

Also I read Are Your Headlines Missing These Precise Psychological Triggers? .

The headline above is the culmination of my studies.

In the simplest form, a headline or subject should have a Question, a Problem, and Curiosity.

Over supper I took out a piece of paper and a pencil and drafted these headlines:

• Effort 1: What do you have to lose if you don't read this? (11 words!)
• Effort 2: What might you lose by not reading this? (8 words)
• Effort 3: What might you gain by reading this? (7 words)
• Effort 4: How did I know you would read this? (8 words)
• Effort 5: How well do I know you? (6 words)
• Effort 6: Do you need to know this? (6 words.)

I don't know how Effort 3 slipped in; it has no problem or pain; it implies a problem or pain in a negative sense, but that forces the reader to think, and I don't want the headline/subject reader to think; I want them to ACT.

Efforts 1 & 2 were truly top-of-my-head.

4, 5 and 6 dropped on to the paper as generalized questions, and I tried to reduce their lengths.

6 words is, I think, digestible.

This whole drafting exercise took less than 5 minutes.

So What?

I could go back over my earlier blogs and re-jig each subject into a question.

Really all I need do is super-glue a question-mark to the end of the subject, and then adjust the grammar so that it becomes a question.

That's 1 out of 3 fixes in place.

I need to re-phrase one part of the subject so that it becomes a problem or a source of pain.

That's 2 out of 3 fixes in place.

I need to include a word or phrase that induces curiosity. I am told that words like "this" and 'these" are good, because they specify SOMETHING is available without revealing what it is.

That's 3 out of 3 fixes in place.

"This" is therefore more powerful than "This Idea"; readers may decide that they don't want any more ideas, and the headline "This Idea" tells them that there's no need to read the email, whereas "This" tells them they need to open the email to see if they needed to open the email. Subtle, huh?

So When?

So from now on, every email I send out, every essay I write, I should spend AT LEAST 60 seconds making sure I have at least (1) a question (2) a problem (3) curiosity.

Otherwise I'm wasting my time.

And yours.

On the Buses

So, take a PrtScr snapshot of your InBox, print it, and take that sheet of paper with you on the bus, or to the next boring presentation.

I have found it to be a fun exercise.

So can you.

And we will all be better for it.

What's the Benefit of Having this Contact on My List?

The theory is that every contact on my list is someone with whom I can do business; specifically, I believe that at some near point in the future, I will be able to convince them to part with money in exchange for a benefit I offer.

I believe that for this to happen, the contact will need an previously-established belief that I can fulfill the promise to bring benefit to them.

It follows that if I have a good track-record of bringing benefits to them, they are more likely to have established belief that I can fulfill the promise to bring benefit to them.

How do I establish a good track-record of bringing benefits to them?

By bringing benefits to them over a period of time; this period is, I think, known as "Establishing the Relationship".

We see now that if I can contact the person six or twelve times a year with small gifts that benefit the contact, I will have established in them the belief that I can fulfill the promise to bring benefit to them.

(Getting there!)

So here I am, staring at a contact record in my database, wondering what the heck I can bring to them this week as a small gift to add to the gifts I have not yet been able to bring to them.

That's right.

Two years on my contact list and I haven't stumbled across anything in all my reading and browsing that could be of interest to them.

Perhaps we really have nothing in common at all.

Hard to believe, but compare that with my track-record with my fellow networking entrepreneurs: we phone each other at least once a week ( Have You Forgotten This? ). They and I swap articles, news, ideas, jokes, chat by phone; we brag, we cry. We have a great deal in common.

Truth is, if I have been unable to find any snippets of information that might benefit this contact, then I am unlikely to establish a good track-record of bringing benefits to them.

And that means that that at no time in the future am I likely to convince them to part with money in exchange for a benefit I offer.

I should remove them from my list and stop wasting BOTH our times.

A no-nym, us!

Or if you prefer, anonymous.

I am scanning web pages looking for independent trainers in Communications skills and am amazed at the number of sites for small firms that do not provide a name.

Too many of them provide a form, but no email address.

I find this odd.

If I am looking for a personal trainer, then I want to know a bit about them.

I find that I am most enthusiastic when

(1) There is a personal name (I can introduce myself on the first call)

(2) There is a personal photo (I can "see" who I am talking with

(3) There is a real-live telephone number

(4) There is a bricks-and-mortar street address

Good Examples abound:

http://www.oomphgroup.com/index.cfm?pagepath=About_Us/Who_We_Are&id=5622

http://www.forrestandco.com/forrest/contact1.asp

http://www.bluepointleadership.com/aboutus/team-bios.htm

http://www.theesource.com/esourcelanding/default.aspx?consultant=wmann

In most cases you have to jump about the web site to get the full details, but at least they are there.

Bad examples abound

But I'm not going to embarrass them here.

P.S.

I always get a warm reception when I make the first call by phone and ask for permission to send a one-time email.

• I am not fooling anyone, and no one is fooled by it.
• If the emailed-proposition is attractive, communication will follow naturally.
• If not, I must stick to my word and not send another email.

Unless something radically new crops up and then I should ask again.

Why Are You Struggling With Your Elevator Speech

I am indebted to Michelle Romanica for this flash of insight.

We were discussing Elevator Speeches when it dawned on me that I'd had about 20 of them in use over the past 20 years.

• People and Computers
• Changing the Way People Think
• Inspiring People to Perform At Their Best
• Applications that Work Right the First Time, On Time, Every Time.
• If I Can't Save Your Company the Cost of My Consultation on My First Visit, the Consultation is Free.
• Packaged Solutions
• Reliable, Sustainable Applications for You
• Better Documents Faster
• If You Have Enough Experience, You Don't Need Me; If You Don't, YOU DO!
• Learn, to Earn, And Learn to Earn
• If You're Having a Problem, That's MY Problem

My latest is roughly:

• I Squeeze Dollars Out of Your Existing Assets and Resources By the Application of Training and Programs

I said Rough; it needs work.

And that’s the point.

I have changed over the past 20 years.

• As has the market.
• As has my target market.
• As have my skills.

As soon as I perfect a speech, it steps aside for the next wave.

So What?

I used to think that the Elevator Speech was supposed to get me a job, or at least a contract.

Not so.

The Elevator Speech’s sole purpose is to get the other person interested enough to ask you a question.

Providing that the response isn’t ‘That’s nonsense’, almost any response is good:

• What do you mean by that?
• How do you do that?
• How would that affect me?
• What kind of Assets?
• What kind of Resources?
• What kind of Training?
• What kind of Programs?

At a networking meeting, if I do it right, I will engage another person in dialogue for five minutes, ten tops, collect a card, and a few days later come up with a good reason why we should do coffee.

And if that goes well, coffee a few weeks later.

Maybe after that, an idea for co-operative business, or a good lead or referral.

Or a chance for me to offer a small freebie to strengthen the relationship.

But no job.

Not directly from the elevator speech.

Some of my best jobs have come long after the initial Elevator Speech has ridden off into the sunset.

Thanks Michelle.

Supply and Demand

I was at a technical networking meeting last night. Towards the end the conversation turned towards a plaintive bleat from a Systems Programmer that IBM was undercutting hourly rates.

I can remember when a Systems Programmer was King-of-the-Heap and we computer programmers were mere underlings.

I can remember when programmers were thought to be more brilliant than mathematicians, because programmers could understand computers and make them “do” things, such as playing a tune on an IBM 1403 line printer.

I can remember getting paid about $250 per day to deliver training in desktop applications fifteen years ago.

I can remember ten years ago Nortel laying off staff in 40,000 chunks of people.

I can remember thinking that that meant 20,000 people saying “I’ve been using Microsoft Word for years; I could teach it”, and armed with a two-year severance package and by moving back in with Mum and Dad, they could afford to undercut my rates horribly.

I can remember deciding to get out and carve a little niche in Really Advanced desktop training, including Application Development, and making myself available as an independent instructor at $1,000/day regardless of class size.

Today’s systems – from micro through mini to mainframe – deliver more power with less maintenance and operation.

I’m not surprised that the demand for Systems programmers has shrunk.

I am surprised to hear supposedly-brilliant people complaining about it.

I remember shaking hands with a blacksmith last week. He’s the only blacksmith I know.

Works out at the Woodbine Racetrack shoeing racing horses for owners and trainers.

How to Price an “Inexpensive” Proposal for a Client

You’ve had this happen to you: A prospect phones with a request “Can you do this job?”; of course you can. The answer is always “Yes”.

You know that they are going to ask for your price right there on the phone, but you don’t even want to guess at a price until you’ve learned much more about the job.

Then Bingo! The prospect casually mentions that they are looking for an inexpensive solution.

Just as casually ask the prospect what kind of solutions they have already found, and you’ll hear “Oh, we found one form that would download the data for us at about $500 per shot”.

Especially if you are broke and need the rent money, you are going to grab this project. It is more work than $500, to be sure, but you can explain now or later that as a first-time client you have an introductory offer.

In my case I figured that the prospect wasn’t all that happy with the data source, since $500 seems like a pretty good deal to me, so that my selling point was me; the price had to be around $500, not $2,000, but as long as I kept my nose clean, I’d get the business.

We chatted a bit more, I made notes and said I would issue a questionnaire. Within an hour the questionnaire was back.

It was a piece of cake to put together a proposal for $550 based on the prospects hand-written answers to my questionnaire, print off a copy, and break for lunch.

Fifteen minutes later I proof-read the proposal and email it off.

Now I wait

I have been able to satisfy myself that I can do the job, and the $550 will be more welcome than the $0 that was in the pipeline first thing this morning.

I took Dean Rieck’s advice and sprinkled some candy on top of the proposal.

In this case pricing was easy. I pretty well matched the outside offer (that probably didn’t even get to the proposal stage) and added all my personal touches (lifetime support, extra runs for a small fee, and so on).

And I didn’t get asked what I would charge either.

I hate that kind of question

Marketing Metrics

My weight-loss method notwithstanding, I have hit on a revolutionary scheme to measure my marketing efforts.

One of my tactics is to ‘touch’ my contacts with a phone call.

Like many entrepreneurs, the thought of interrupting someone at their work scares me, but the prospect of going broke scares me even more.

Rick Shea of Optiv8 says that I need to know how each of my marketing tactics works.

Management Measures

I’ve tried making penciled tally-marks on a sheet of paper, but all too often I reach for the phone and forget to tally.

Here’s the scheme:

I place an empty glass jar to the left of telephone.

I place a tiny bowl of nickels to the right of the telephone.

When I reach for the telephone, I can’t help but see the jar and bowl.

I move a nickel from the easy-to-access bowl into the jar, and make the phone call.

If by the end of the day I have enough money for an ice-cream, I shall walk across the street to McDonalds .

Regardless of the outcome, at the start of the next day, all the nickels go back into the bowl.

Contact www.ChrisGreaves.com for this image! MarketingMetrics_GEDC0006.JPG

Here’s a photo of my setup; the phone sits IN the jar, which is an added reminder.


And yes, those are ½ inch washers in the bowl. You don’t expect me to use real nickels on the web, do you?

No accruals! That’s the rule.

P.S. If you have REAL trouble getting started with phone calls, start this scheme with two-dollar coins the first day, dollars the second, quarters the third, dimes the fourth, and settle down into nickels on the fifth day.

Be Nice to Yourself.

P.P.S. I suppose I could extend the scheme to a slab of Brie from Bruno ’s on those days when I email out a proposal.

P.P.P.S Let’s be clear about this: If your stumbling-block is picking up the phone to place a call, move the nickel AS you pick up the phone. It matters not that you got a recording and decided not to leave a message. What matters is that you PICKED UP THE PHONE and were willing to engage in conversation.

P.P.P.P.S You can measure several metrics at once by using, say, nickels for outgoing calls, dime for incoming calls – you get double-points if your outgoing calls result in a call back to you! Try a $5 note for every proposal you are invited to send out, $10 per invoice.

You get the idea ….

Why the Pressure from Scripts?

Another day, another script-set (a) If they pick up the phone (b) if I get voice-mail (c) if I get a receptionist (d) if I get put through to sales, and so on.

I still feel new enough that I edit a previous script, and type in the real name, the real phone number, “star” to use the directory and even the digits that correspond to the person’s name – I am not so good at locating the tiny letters on the phone.

I am suddenly aware that I am using solvent to wipe some erasable marker ink from my whiteboard.

Why Am I Doing this?

I am supposed to be phoning.

I suspect that I am putting myself under too much pressure.

This phone call isn’t going to make or break me – I’m already broke.

I suspect that I am treating this as the most important phone call of the year.

It is

And it isn’t.

It is vitally important that I make this call, but, the outcome of the call is unlikely to have an immediate impact on my business.

I Settle on a New Perspective

The outcome of this call is going to give me an immediate benefit; immediate feedback on how well my scripts are coming along.

With this in mind, I make a few changes to the script, print out a fresh copy, read it out aloud to see how comfortable I am with it, pencil in a couple of changes …

… And make the call.

It Went Quite Well; Thank You for Asking

Small Steps

Ever since before I can remember, small steps got me somewhere. I crawled, I toddled, I walked, I ran, I bicycled (long distances, for years), and each journey was a series of foot-steps – on the carpet, down the garden-path, on the bike pedals.

It took me fifty years to travel around the world (England to Australia in 1956, Australia to Canada in 1980, Canada to England in 2005) and each leg (sorry!) of the journey was memorable.

This morning I received an email from Jack with 3 attached PDF files; “Read the attached material and call me later in the week”.

This in response to an article I emailed to him about his company for publication in an online newspaper blog, to which I was invited to contribute.

The invitation to contribute coming after I’d posted a Letter-to-the-Editor.

Those three legs encompass about 20 small steps such as “Chat with Jack and learn that he has a distributed office”, “Sketch out the article”; “Call Jack back and ask for more details”, and so on.

I do not know if business will arise from all of this; I hope it does.

But I do know that every day must be spent taking steps along the path, or paths, with each Contact, Client and Colleague.

Have You Forgotten This?

I had!

I’d got my contacts list all cleaned up, and the “follow-up” mechanism working just fine, thank you.

Each morning an on-screen list of who-I-should-touch-today, and at the end of the day a satisfying feeling that I was keeping in touch with my contacts on a monthly basis rather than just sending them a card at Christmas time.

Then it dawned on me – at least one of my small group of peer-to-peer net workers was NOT on my contacts list?

Why Not?

Probably because we had met, quickly corresponded by phone and email several times in the first week and in subsequent weeks had started to work together on boosting our visibility to our target markets.

Stop Reading - and Do this Now:

Paper-and-pencil time.

Write down the names of those you consider to be your pals in the world of the Transitional Entrepreneur.

Like this:

David
Jim
Julia
Cheryl
Rick
Michelle
Cathy
Ken

Who are these people? These people are the ones you call, and will continue to call, when you have a question about what you need to do next, when you question your sanity, when you need a shoulder to cry on, when you need to celebrate landing that $US6,872 contract and the cheque arrives.

I have eight entrepreneurs on my list; three of them are suppliers (I have paid them small sums of money in the past for goods and services); one of them is new to me, but has already proven himself as a valuable source of ideas for marketing; one is in a business so radically different from mine, and yet we share her passion for her work and have done for over seven years.

Don’t sweat the accuracy, but if you don’t have at least 5 names on your list, go find some more “family”, and if you have more than 10 names on your list, think carefully.

This is not a list of people I enjoy chatting with at, and in between networking events.

This is a list of people who are gradually getting to know me in quite a personal way; people who learn that I can’t afford to pay for lunch this week; people who I trust to read through my confidential pricing in the proposals.

What to Do Next?

Check that each of these precious people are on your contact list, and that the follow-up date is not more than two weeks away.

I am suggesting that this small group of familiar people represents your first circle of valuable contacts, and more than anyone else they are out there pounding, as we say in the trade, the pavement - keeping their ears open for opportunities for YOU.

You owe it to them to feed them snippets of useful information, useful to THEM.

At least once a fortnight.

And it need not be an extensive email dialogue. It’ll be enough that they get a truly useful link to an article or a gadget, or a possibility of a new contact for them.

It better be valuable; it better be free; and it better be directly useful to them.

They deserve it.

They are your family.

The Follow-up List

The Follow-up List is a generic device which is derived from my little Access table of contacts.

Each contact record has a date field “follow-up”, in which is recorded the date on which I must next contact an individual. Typically: a day later to check that they have received the email, a week later to discuss their feelings about the email, or the day after they return from vacation (the day they return is no good, they are too busy wading through voice-mail and email)

I usually process the list on the screen, based on a screen report that shows the few individuals on my follow-up list for today. This list may include left-overs from yesterday.

I record the number of individuals on the list at the start of the day and at the end of the day.

My objective is to empty the list each day. If several days pass without the list being emptied, then I’m doing something wrong. As Winston Churchill would note “Action This Day”.

An easy solution to this problem is to print out a report on paper, and use that as a solid, tangible work sheet. Having it on the desk, staring me in the face, and crossing items out with a pencil as they are covered, is a great way to stay focused.

Today I am heading downtown for two meetings. I will arrive early, and I will have some dead time between meetings.

My Access database allows me to print a hard-copy report which I will take with me.

The dead time before meetings can be occupied by making some follow-up calls on my cell phone.

What’s The Cost of Duplicate Emails?

You subscribe to, or you mail out an email newsletter.

It happens that from time to time a glitch in the procedure sends out two copies, either within five minutes or within a couple of days.

It is embarrassing (when I’m the sender!), and discovery of the flaw usually results in a few seconds with head-in-hands and uncontrollable-weeping. Heads may come close to rolling.

But they should not.

Here’s why:

Our email newsletters go out only to friends, not to enemies.

Recipients are on your mailing list because they have asked to be placed on your mailing list; you would take them off if they asked you.

Our friends don’t mind our petty foibles (try “feebles” or weaknesses).

My friends, I think, shake their heads and mutter “He ought not to let his cat play on the keyboard”, and then they get on with whatever is important in their lives.

The same holds true for blog entries; so you duplicated your thoughts of a month ago? That’s because whatever it is it is important enough to stay in the front of your mind and examples abound.

The same holds true for blog entries; so you duplicated your thoughts of a month ago? That’s because whatever it is it is important enough to stay in the front of your mind and examples abound.

See what I mean?

How important is that duplicated paragraph?

How Not To Swat a Gnat

If you’ve ever tried to swat one of those fruit-fly gnat-like creatures by clapping it between two hands, you’ll understand frustration.

The gnat dances right in front of your eyes, between you and the computer screen.

You raise your hands, palms inwards, at eye level, and bring them together sharply.

The gnat dances right in front of your eyes, between you and the computer screen.

You raise your hands, palms inwards, at eye level, and bring them together sharply.

The gnat dances right in front of your eyes, between you and the computer screen.

And so on.

What’s Happening?

The cushion of air that builds up between your palms as they approach each other flushes the air-like gnat out of the way.

I can hear my gnat screaming “Wheee!” as it discovers the joy of early-morning surfing.

What to do?

Slow down.

A slower bringing-together of the hands achieves the goal with less repetition, less energy, less noise, and probably less mess-on-the-hands.

The same might apply when approaching a prospect.

References: The Akond of Swat

Talk to Me !

Selling the Idea About Buying Ideas

I'm still taking Flak on this business of non-business as my friends see it: Giving Indxr away for FREE.

I am an ideas man; my friends and colleagues concede that.

I come up with great ideas, original thoughts, brilliant conceptions, amusing "takes" on a situation, all very entertaining, but sadly going no way towards paying the rent.

Out There are businesses who could help me pay the rent by purchasing something from me – my ideas, my ability to tackle problems and find elegant solutions.

My idea in giving away the Indxr for free is to communicate to total strangers (people who read the blogs and forums of my word-processing colleagues) the idea that I have come up with a brilliant idea – a tool that identifies all the Interesting Words in any document and hence can mark them as index entries ({XE}) and hence produce an index in an almost-unbelievable time. ("I remember spending three (long) evenings one summer to achieve the same result. And yet, this was more thorough in five seconds than the efforts of those three evenings.")

My idea is that for every 100 technical writers and court reporters and transcriptionists who download this free tool, one in a hundred will contact me and ask "What else do you do?", or better yet, “Can you do THIS for me?".

I am selling the idea about buying ideas

To Market, to Market, to Sell a Thin Pig

Any fool can sell a fat pig; it takes genius to sell a thin pig, with the promise of things to come.

Your fat pig is your service; mine is, let’s say, design and development of applications software.

Your problem is getting those first two endorsements, testimonials, recommendations.

Your first hurdle after leaving university was that every job advertisement carried the phrase “Min. 2 yrs exp. reqd”.

Now let’s see just how well you know your own business:

Dumb it Down!

Your service is, let’s say, a three-day training session, or a three-day review of existing procedures, or a 3-day derivation of marketing metrics. Or seven-day. It doesn’t matter.

There’s no way you are going to give away a seven-day sample any more than you would a three-day sample.

But stripped of all the exciting STUFF what is the exciting MESSAGE?

Scrape away the meat and get down to the bone (here comes the thin pig!) and you end up with a three-hour presentation that can convey the exciting essential ideas of your service to an enthusiastic but small crowd (6 maximum) of friends and peers. (*)

The Dry Runs

Book a hotel room for $60.

Invite your friends

Dump the news on them

Ask for testimonials.

Keep it honest.

Tell them what you are doing and why.

Let their testimonials be honest.

You didn’t give them the 3-day package, but you did send them away with valuable ideas that will change their business revenue.

They can therefore say that you sent them away with valuable ideas that will change their business revenue.

Everybody chips in with $10 for the room costs; you bring your own ground coffee and cream; homemade cookies.

Or have it at my place and I’ll serve a lunch of pasta and home-made bottled meat sauce; everybody bring a 1lb packet, frozen, of ground beef which will be available for lunch next time.

Will it Work?

You betcha!

Your friends will enjoy a networking session.

You will get feedback on your service presentation.

Everybody will be pumped with new insights, new ideas.

You’ll get invited to six free seminars within the next two months, (You saw THAT coming, didn’t you?)

Bring cookies and a 1lb slab of frozen ground meat.

Prove It!

Let’s take my 4-day workshop on Application Development in VBA.

If I can’t compress that into a 3-hour session on recording macros in Word, building a mini-application by ganging macros, and give you confidence in using the vocabulary of application developers (“VBA”, “Macros”, “Libraries”, “Procedures”, “Functions” etc.) then I’m in the wrong business.

Let’s take your 3-day workshop on Customer Experience in Humungous Global Conglomerates.

If you can’t compress that into a 3-hour session of tips’n’tricks for retaining clients in the Application Development business, then you don’t know much about keeping your friends happy.

Marketing Metrics to Manage Monies?

Get real! Not one of your friends is going to be spending $$$ on marketing any time soon now, but they do have some time. And time is money. Transcribe your methods to a cheat-sheet using time or events as metrics, and get feedback from THAT.

Policies Procedures and Manuals?

What budding entrepreneur doesn’t need some sort of written plan for dealing with the regular and irregular events in their marketing and sales and promotions and prospecting and contacting departments.

Oink!

Get richer and fatter quicker
(*) If you don’t have 6 friends and peers, I’m available!

P.S.

Once you’ve done the dumbing-down exercise and got a 3-hour workshop, DUMB IT DOWN SOME MORE, say to 60 minutes.

Now you are a speaker at Networking Meetings!

There! That was easy, wasn’t it?

Why Do These Misconceptions Prevent an Entrepreneur from Blogging?

There are two types of entrepreneur: those who blog, and those who don’t.

In most cases, those who blog would occasionally love to not-have-to-blog-today for any one of a number of reasons. (I’m not one of them; give me two minutes, a scrap of paper and a pencil, and I’m blogging in the elevator, on the train, in the meeting, …)

Those who don’t blog always have a good reason for not blogging, and it is usually one of these (but see below):

(1) I don’t have the time
(2) It takes too much effort to set up a blog
(3) Who would read it?
(4) I’ve never done it before (if that were a good reason the human race would have died out millions of years before)
(5) I can’t think of anything to say
(6) I don’t know what to write about

Below: If you have a reason that doesn’t appear here Talk to Me and I’ll add it to the list with a link to your web site.

None of the reasons above apply to me. Those of you with eagle-eyes (I know who you are!) will have observed a flurry of activity the past two weeks when I plugged in many gaps in the early days from a vast stockpile of articles that were threatening to block my arteries of communication.

So Here we Are

You and I.

I

… have a surplus of ideas I’d like to write about. You blog but are short of time and/or material?

I’ll write a guest post for YOUR BLOG, based on your theme.

I will, of course, write a link to your blog to drive traffic to it.

You

… have never blogged before but wonder what it’s like to have your name in print.

You’ll write a single article for my blog based on my theme (which is, let’s admit, pretty broad).

I will, of course, write a link to your blog to drive traffic to it.

No excuses

Get cracking

Tips

Share something that went right this week.
(It could be a new client, accolades from a client, a tough deadline that was met, …)
Recap what’s on the horizon for YOU next week.
Recap what’s on the horizon for YOU next month.
State a problem to big to solve in a short time
State a process that is broken and needs repair.
Who was your best client/boss and why?

Every Cloud Brings Life-Giving Rain

In “Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining” I outlined what I considered to be a disastrous meeting with bureaucracy. Honestly, I walked out of there fuming, determined to shake the dust from my feet, and headed straight to a rewarding meeting with a fellow entrepreneur.

In the late afternoon I received an email from bureaucracy telling me I am penciled in to deliver a talk in January.

Calm now, I realize that yesterday morning I had achieved my penultimate objective – a sit-down FTF meeting with the organizers, and I did well, because by the end of the day I had achieved my goal – an opportunity to present myself for evaluation as a speaker to transitional entrepreneurs.

Despite the roadblocks of attitude thrown in my path, I have succeeded.

I was away most of the day in meetings, and missed two phone calls I had been working for over two weeks.

My disappointment at not being here to take the calls is mollified by the fact that BOTH parties did try to get in touch with me.

The first party wants to talk with me – so I feel sure that we will make contact.

The second party has misinterpreted my voice-mail; or perhaps it was a poorly-worded voice-mail.

Today I will re-read my voice-mail script, re-listen to the voice-mail left for me, and work out what went wrong.

By a calm deliberate study of facts, I can probably salvage a FTF meeting from the second party.

But let’s not lose sight of the fact that BOTH parties called me back. That’s a Good Thing, and is a far better result than not having my called returned.

My voice-mail scripts are getting the action I want; all I have to do is tweak them a little.

(Sorry: “a little bit more, again”)

Wake up! You Don’t Need Your Beauty Sleep.

From the University of Western Australia’s “Science Matters” Vol 4. no 2. October 2009.

“I find that if you don’t sleep, you get an awful lot done”, says Robyn Williams, ABC science broadcaster, with a smile.

I know that to be true.

I often am awake by 3 a.m. with an idea pulsing through my head.

Wide awake.

No hope of sleep.

I rise and start writing, developing, or whatever it is.

Sometimes I go back to bed at 5:00; sometimes I just carry on and watch the dawn.

It is not the life of the 9-to-5er, with a bus ride at each end.

But I can do a lot of creative or maintenance work that requires no personal communication in those few hours, freeing up my day for the phone calls and meetings.

And on a day like yesterday, when a one-hour coffee meeting with a fellow consultant stretches into a fun-filled spiral-out-of-control three-hour two-coffee two-cake marathon, I can relax, knowing that I have earlier earned the hours to spend in real conversation.

I arrived back in my home office at 4 p.m. and spent thirty minutes on the phone chatting with another consultant about a potentially lucrative money-making scheme.

Again, I felt no constraint to chivvy the conversation along; I’ve earned the right to spend time that I have earned.

Cold-Storage for Prospects

I continue to prune my contact list as I add a better-quality type of contact.

This morning I was scheduled to contact Susan; I have been trying to reach her for three weeks. I get to her voice-mail each time I call, and since leaving an original voice-mail or two, I don’t feel like leaving any more.

She is not a high-profile contact for me; someone who took a day’s training ten year’s ago, and while she makes occasional noises about work, we never do do business.

It’s time to say goodbye.

As I reached for the Delete button a thought crossed my mind: maybe she just doesn’t feel like having me as a supplier but can’t bring herself to tell me.

I know another consultant, closer to her line of work, who might be able to winkle something out of her.

Before I delete her I should pass her details on to David. He can mention my name, if he thinks it will do any good, and for all that I have no plans to establish any business with her, if David senses some business for me he will be sure to pass it back to me.

I’m going to make David love me by passing him a contact, and Susan won’t really go out of my life. Chances are strong that if I have anything to offer her, I’ll stand a better chance of reaching her through David than I do directly.

It’s worth a try.

Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining

A Disastrous Start to the Day

I met with an organization for whom I hoped to make several presentations – to get my name known.

I arrived on time, they weren’t ready; they started 15 minutes late with no apologies and didn’t offer me a coffee. Worse – they had not prepared by reading the material I had sent at their request.

I have spent two hours phoning, four ½ days attending current presentations (to get a good idea of their target market), a ½ day attending their downtown workshop – for what?

I couldn’t wait to get out of there and head to my next meeting, but I grabbed a copy of “Enterprise” on the way out. The Vol 11. No.4 September 2009 issue, as it happens.

In there I found SIX articles of compelling interest to ME, and I am who/what counts in this story.

I have written off the first meeting a signaling a dead-end down that avenue, but the magazine was worth the trip.

And yes, my second meeting was with a private-enterprise entrepreneur, and it was the best time of the past month, for me.

On the way home I reflected that if I can’t pull something good out of a bad situation, how can I claim to be truly valuable to any prospect?

A Social Experiment

I am now involved with a marketing guru, at no expense to me (except a cup of coffee) and from the initial meeting has evolved a mousepad!

No kidding!



Each day of the week I will track, with a pencil mark, events as they occur.

At the end of the week I will tally the marks and enter them into a simple spreadsheet.

The spreadsheet will show me that after a lag of several weeks, things start happening (“IN”) perhaps as a result of what I’ve done in the past (“OUT”).

This is a preamble to a more accurate scheme developed by Rick Shea , “… a promotion industry veteran with a deep knowledge of promotional marketing dynamics gleaned from 18 years with leading organizations Nielsen Promotion Services, NCH Promotional Services, Herbert A. Watts and Resolve Corporation.”.

Whether I take the dollar-oriented package remains to be seen, but a simplified yes-no scheme, on which I spend no money, is something I can afford, and will, at the very least, let me see whether I need help.

(I do!)

Talk to Me !

Cell Phones

Nasty creatures. The interrupt my conversation with you; their ringing distracts me during meetings and movies.

They are as bad as desk-top telephones, when a ring brings out the gambling instinct in everyone – the bet that the incoming call is more important than the current conversation.

I am in the habit of turning my phone ringers off during a meeting, on the grounds that nothing is as important to me as your presence right now in my office. Call me old-fashioned …

I bought a cell phone two years ago when I felt it would have been valuable in helping a contact who was lost find me at the restaurant.

I rarely carry it, and turn it off as soon as I have reached the client site or the coffee-shop.

Cell phones do have their uses, I don’t deny that, but all too often we allow them to control our life.

Like the time you spent struggling for one hour over the layout of a fax asking to meet for lunch. Pick Up The Phone!

I have just had a most unpleasant run-in with my cell-phone service. I shan’t name the supplier because I don’t want to embarrass Telus.

But I do want to mention Andrew Cook of Compare Cellular.

No matter how happy or disgruntled you are with your current supplier and device, trot across to Compare Cellular and check out how what you’ve got stacks up against the other players.

It's FREE!

Then phone the other players and make a deal.

Lost the little user guide that came with your phone? Compare Cellular has the user guide available for download.

Not sure of your coverage? Compare Cellular has it all mapped out for you; go ahead, take a run up to the cottage!

Want the dealer nearest you? Use the dealer’s page at Compare Cellular.

Go ahead!

Marketing vs. Sales

Yup! Another definition.

This one makes the most sense to me, and I am indebted, as are you, to Rick Shea of Optiv8 for the insight.

It’s all about people, and it’s true for your business and mine, the local diner, the large department store, the churches, the banks and the telephone companies.

Marketing

Marketing is what you do, generally, to people you don’t yet know.

Writing a blog, or a newspaper article, public speaking, handing out business cards or mailing out flyers.

In each case your are sending out, broadcasting, a message about you and your services, hopefully to recipients in your target market area.

There’s not much point in the local Etobicoke (Toronto) church taking out an advertisement in the Montana Standard about next Sunday’s services.

There’s little point in The Montreal Deli getting door-to-door flyers pushed through letter-boxes in San Diego.

Marketing is to people or contacts who are not yet looking towards you, who are not yet facing you, who are not yet asking you questions by phone or email.

Sales

Sales is what you do, generally, to people you know.

Sales is to people or contacts who are looking towards you, who facing you, who are asking you questions by phone or email.

Sales is the process of moving people you know towards a cheque.

The Funnel

Or if you prefer, the pipeline, but a funnel looks better on paper because (quantitative may vary) for every 100 people who express interest in your services, only 20% might ever get to the Proposal stage, and of them, only 60% might get to the cheque stage.

Nonetheless, you do the marketing and with the responses you get, some of that vast number of (un-)identified of targets respond and by doing so they become the objects of your sales efforts.

Traditionally marketing was a one (you) to many (them) exercise, while sales was a one (me) to one (you) exercise.

This Blog

I never thought you’d ask!

This blog is a part of my marketing.

It is read by who-knows-who. Everyone of them unknown to me.

If and when you send me a comment or if you subscribe to the blog you become available to me as an individual and, strictly speaking, a sales prospect.

Of course I have other marketing efforts, and of course, if you send me a comment I won’t deluge you with flyers, postcards, emails etc.

But we may well start a relationship that may well blossom into a sale (”cheque”) for one or both of us!

Thanks Rick!

Reciprocal Marketing – New Heights

I took my first baby step this morning. Cycled down to The Montreal Deli for exercise and chatted with George.

They've never done promotion, never advertised (they don't need to) but he warmed to the idea of a reward for valued business customers.



My kit included the news that, as far as I was concerned, the $250 coupons were transferable. It's no skin off my nose if the President of Rugs'N'Carpets passes his coupon on to the VB Finance of Computers'R'Us.

I still get a new client and The Montreal Deli gets the kudos.

On the way back I realized I could do better than that.

In the memo being prepared (in my head as I cycled) for today's Hot Prospect I realized that I can offer a $250 coupon to first-time clients, but rather than hand it out to them – I could tell them to pick it up at The Montreal Deli.

That way The Montreal Deli gets another visitor who may well return!

They should love me.

What did I learn?

Quite apart from the novel experience, I learned from George that I should describe the training.

The Gift Certificate merely says "$250.00 worth of on-site TRAINING from …" without telling anyone what training is available.

I should use the back of the card to list the broad areas in which I offer training.

Co-Operative Effort

I am reluctant to title this "Co-Operative Marketing" for while it leads to a form of marketing, it's really about building a team of volunteers to do a lot of work for free with benefits for every single member of the team, especially ME!

My 1-click Indxr has taken off, and I have decided to send Under, Trail, MRUse and ZoomP down the same path.

Under is a collection of over 640 macros, many of which I have documented, but most of which I haven't.

Over the years I've made an effort, so the documentation is scattered across my hard drive.

Simple Macros that I use on a daily basis take me about five minutes to write up. Macros that I've not used for seven years require that I examine the program code itself, test it, and perhaps fix a couple of problems; could be 30 minutes.

A crude estimate is then 640 x 15 minutes, or about 160 hours.

I should not and can not and will not donate 160 hours (that's one week solid, 24 hours a day!) to document something that I know how to use for a bunch of people who will obtain the product for free.

What to do?

Get someone else (plural!) to help out.

Who?

People who are good writers and who use Microsoft Word on a daily basis and hence will understand the need for each macro.

The obvious choice is the crowd who download my 1-click Indxr . If some of them are grateful that I reduced one job of 5 hours down to 5 minutes, perhaps they would like to show their thanks by writing up one or two of the 640 macros in Under.

Pick a macro whose name suggests utility to YOU and I'll cobble together an overview and turn it over to you. You test the macro and decide what it does for you in your own words, the words of an end-user, and send it back to me.

I'll incorporate your efforts into my web site with an acknowledgement in the form of a link back to YOUR web site.

A product like MRUse or Indxr that requires a serious amount of effort might be tackled by a VA who would like a larger acknowledgement and an opportunity to showcase their work as a technical writer.

For that VA, a potential client could be sent to my web site to inspect the User Guide, and might even download the package to see how the guide stacked up against the program.

The Result?

Good for me.

Good for the VA.

Reducing Volume Of Email

No, your are not supposed to worry about reading the fine print.

I am fortunate in having attracted a small but extremely competent team of beta-testers and evaluators. It is possible that only an isolated programmer can appreciate this. It's a cliché but true: It's lonely here with no human to whom I can turn and ask "What do you think of this?", or "Please check this for me".

I have much to ask and tell of this team, but they each have their own lives, jobs, families, not necessarily in that order.

I hit on the idea of issuing ONE email early each morning to the group. My five precious colleagues will get one email from me with general information about new releases, updates, bug fixes etc., and with a bit of luck any further emails will be from and to individuals.

If Lily is bored and wants to bat emails back and forth, that is OK with me; and if Jaime Lee is frantically trying to finish a project and remains silent, that's OK with me too.

Instead of sending 6 separate emails on six separate issues, as the gurus recommend, I'll send just one, anticipated daily digest and be done with it.

Today is Saturday. This day's email went out at 6 a.m., and since then, at intervals during the day, I've been accumulating snippets of news in an email whose subject line reads "Chris Greaves - Sunday 11th October 2009".

By 6 a.m. tomorrow, I will have read and re-read it through, and perhaps something that was relevant at 6:30 this morning will no longer be relevant at ten p.m. tonight, in which case it can be deleted from the draft without ever having bothered five busy people.

Lest it be all work and no play, I try to pose a work-relevant riddle as the last item on each email, thus:

Flak

I'm getting a lot of flak from well-meaning friends and professional colleagues.

My 1-click indexer is getting rave reviews across the country from Court Reporters, Technical Writers, Virtual Assistants and the like.

My friends are all of one voice: "Why aren't you SELLING this?!!???"

They see 60,000 to 100,000 people downloading this FREE UTILITY and multiply that by $7.00 to come up with … a lot of dollars.

Their mathematics is correct, and with the Indxr on, perhaps 20 desktops right now, there's no stopping it. It will "Go Viral" in the vernacular.

I could slap a $7 sticker on and sell maybe not 60,000 copies, but enough to pay next month's rent.

• Here's My View

Every man and his dog is walking around with a baseball cap they didn't pay for, a ball-point pen they didn't pay for, drinking coffee out of a cup they didn't pay for.

The baseball cap reads "MCI Industries".

The ball-point pen has " Michael Belfry And Associates " on it.

The coffee cup? "Laidlaw Waste Industries".

• All free.

The really smart marketing/sales guys all say the same thing:

People love getting something for nothing, and once you have trained them to accept something from you, they'll accept anything from you".

• They are correct.

That's why your mail box is stuffed with $5-off Pizza flyers.

• It works.

I have no idea what the flyer costs per household. At a guess, two cents; materials, handling, delivery.

And tired people have it in their hot sweaty little hands as they trudge up the path to the front door wondering what's for supper tonight.

• Back to Indxr.CA

The professionals who word-process have a copy of Indxr on their desktop when they produce a document.

"Click". There's the index. I love this little tool. Ten seconds just saved me six hours.

1. I wonder what else he has written?
2. I wonder if he converts documents?
3. I wonder if he could do this for me.

And just as it does at the Pizza House, the phone will ring at my place once for every hundred flyers mailed out.

• What's one percent of 60,000?

And wouldn't you like your phone to ring that many times with people asking for help.

And not just people, but people who already trust you and know that you have (not "can") saved them time.

• And time is money.

The 1-6-10 Rule – How Did it Work?

Just one month ago I wrote The 1-6-10 Rule .

This morning I had need to search my contact database for a special-purpose and to my delight discovered that the most-stale contact was dated the 8th October, 2009.

Just one calendar month ago!

What does this mean?

(1) Every one on my contacts list was "touched" by me sometime in the past month. In most cases we chatted by phone. In a very few cases, someone I've known for 20 years, I just shot off an email announcing Indxr.ca .

(2) Every one on my contact list is someone I'm not afraid to call; there are no people-I've never-spoken-with, people-I'm-ashamed-of-calling and so on.

(3) I won't feel at all bad come December when I do my annual Christmas letter mail out.

(4) Since I have eliminated the deadwood, my mailing costs are lower.

(5) Since I have eliminated the deadwood, my Christmas letter can be more intensely personal or time-relevant to the recipients; they have all heard about Indxr.ca and so a newsy update 2 months after launch should be of passing interest.

(6) I feel BETTER about myself, culling 8 names from the list this morning for a special call about a novel (to me) marketing campaign that will help THEM!

This is the bottom line:

• My daily worksheets have helped me get the job done.

So I Madly Got Changed And Dashed Off to Toronto for the Second Time Today

From a colleague:

"After running around all day, I got home a little after 5:00 PM. I made dinner, spent some time with my daughter then went downstairs to my humble office area to answer a few emails. About 10 mins. into it, I realized I had an event I was supposed to be at in Toronto. So I madly got changed and dashed off to Toronto for the second time today. I only got home about 20 mins. ago. Needless to say you did not receive a phone call."

From me back to my colleague:

About You: You worry me, but then I don't know you that well.

{If **I** had your opportunities}

Unless it was for a $1,000 paying client, I'd say "Sod the evening downtown" and spend time with my daughter.

Too much running around is not good for us Transitional Entrepreneurs.

But then, what do I know?

{/If **I** had your opportunities}

Here's the thing with my phone, just so as you know:

I'm the only one here.

I don't have call identification, call waiting, call screening, call showering or call-tub-wiping.

BELL voice-mail is all I've got and I'm getting rid of it at the end of this month.

If the phone rings, I pick it up; it might be business; or a friend asking me out to lunch.

I often wake at 3 am and go back to sleep. In which case I turn my phone up at or around 8 am

I as often wake at 3 am and am wide awake and DON'T got back to sleep.

In which case I turn my phone up at whatever time it is.

I aim to be in bed by 9:30 pm, at which time I turn my phone off.

If I'm going out for the day, I turn my phone off so as not to disturb Jupiter .

I don't have family, and all my friends have their own family, so I never get "family emergencies"

My clients don't have emergencies; it's my job to make sure that they don't!

These days I am on the phones from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. I have changed around completely from the man I used to be last March.

But if someone (hint!) calls and leaves a short message saying "call me right back", I do so as soon as I've finished the call; my caller has usually worked out that I'm hitting the phones, but knows that a quick let's-do-lunch call is ALWAYS welcome.

And if someone is dropping by to pick me up for lunch, I turn on my cell phone as the "alternate channel" until we are together.

Then I turn off the cell-phone.

(see "emergencies" above)

Now if all that sounds draconian, I would like you to consider that it works FOR ME, especially in my no-family no-emergency situation.

But I also want you to know that you CAN call me 24/7, and if I've gone to bed, it won't disturb me at all, at all, and I'll get your call as soon as I wake up and pick up my phone to turn it ON!

I hope that makes sense.

I'm Getting the Hang of it Now!

I have wanted Alex to send me the preliminary files for a possible project for two weeks now.

I am reluctant to call him again – it makes it seem as if I am desperate, which I am, but I don't want him to know that!

So I plod on my daily routine, phoning people, phoning people, phoning people, and stumble upon George who mentions the sphere in which Alex specializes.

I send George an email, and CC Alex, putting them in touch.

And waddayaknow!

Here is an email from Alex with the preliminary files.

I'll never know unless I ask, and I may never ask, but I have this feeling that "sending" George to Alex was enough to trigger benevolent thoughts about me in Alex's mind!

The most profitable part of networking is offering a continual stream of benefits to prospects and clients.

Getting Rid of Contacts

No, it's not meant to be an attention-grabbing headline; it's what I'm doing today.

My shift in marketing away from small businesses to large corporations (see The 1-6-10 Rule ) requires that I eliminate the really useless contacts from my list of about 300.

This morning around 6 a.m., way too early to start phoning, I printed off a daily work sheet , fired up my contacts list, noted that I had 223 records and started examining contacts in stalest-record-first sequence. That is, which record has not been modified for the longest time; which contact has NOT received my attention?

I quickly deleted 6 of the 8 stalest records, took me about 3 minutes.

Let's face it, here is someone (well, 6 someones actually), who I've never met, never done business with, have no real idea of who they are or what they do, or any adjustment of knowledge since they first got dropped into my contact list ten years ago.

For ten years I've sent them a Christmas card, but not bothered to find out anything about them.

I suspect strongly that if I picked up the phone today and said "Let's meet for coffee" the response ought to be "I don't know you; you presume to send me a card once a year, and expect me now to be all-friendly with you? I can't be bothered".

I feel that strongly, because that's how I feel about Norbert who sends me a chatty card once a year, but has never suggested we meet for coffee next time I'm downtown.

By deleting the names I'm reducing my waste of effort in sending a postcard or even interrupting their workday ("It's that brush salesman again …").

If ever I felt the urge to business with their firm, it would probably be because they had popped up as a "new prospect", in which case I'd be making a fresh approach to the CEO of the company, or else I'd be armed with some real benefits that surfaced as a result of my sleuthing.

It feels good to rid the world of this wasted effort, and to focus on my prime prospects.

Long may they prosper!

The Cold-Calling Hook

This is just too amazingly easy!

I have spent an hour cold-calling companies, by first calling the CEO and in under one minute – as I promise them – get the name of someone else at the company. I call THAT person and say "I was just chatting with {your CEO's name here} and she suggested I get in touch with you. Do you have a minute?"

The phrase "shooting fish in a barrel" comes to mind.

Thus emboldened I embark on my 9 follow-up calls scheduled for today. One harried executive replies "It's our quarter-end, not a good time; try to reach me mid next week" and I thank him and hang up.

I record that text in the memo field and set the follow-up date for next week.

He has given me a hook when next I call: "You asked me to call you once your quarter-end was complete. Is this a good time?".

If he remembers saying that, he pretty well has to acknowledge my call.

If he does not remember that, his options are to acknowledge my call or call me a liar, and since he doesn't know me, he is unlikely to do the latter.

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