Thursday, December 31, 2009

A Fake Snow Job


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

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!

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

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.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

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.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

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.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

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.

Monday, December 21, 2009

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 ....

Saturday, December 19, 2009

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!

Friday, December 18, 2009

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.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

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.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

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?

Monday, December 14, 2009

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?

Saturday, December 12, 2009

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.

Friday, December 11, 2009

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.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

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

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

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!

Monday, December 7, 2009

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.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

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.

Friday, December 4, 2009

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.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

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.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

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.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

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