Friday, December 31, 2010

Handling Rejections - 1

First off, there are no rejections.

I hear that we fear rejections; if you truly believe that rejections exist, then I invite you to reject rejections.

And just like that the problem goes away.

Of course, if you don’t believe in rejection, then you can’t reject your rejections and the rejections that you don’t believe in will continue to hurt you.

And you’ll be stuck with the problem forever.

I walk. If I accepted every upwards pressure from the earth as rejection, I’d not walk.

Think of it not as rejection, but as resistance to the current direction.

Here’s an example:

After bringing your e-mail to John’s attention, he discussed it with others at Conglobulations. We currently do have processes in place and employees who do manage all of this for Conglobulations. John thanks you for your interest in Conglobulations and understands the value you bring to the business community; at this time, it’s just not required at Conglobulations. Thanks again Chris and we wish you continue success in your business.

Now straight off, he can’t possibly understand the value I bring to the business community. He’s never spoken with me, we’ve never met. So it’s not a rejection, because he doesn’t have anything on which to hand a rejection. (He thinks he has, but he doesn’t really have).

Thanks Griselda. My only puzzle is that back in August Joe Bloggs had said "We are always resource-constrained", and one of the things I do for companies is to devise means of speeding up internal processes and freeing up resources. I would like to stay in touch.

Would John be averse to receiving a monthly single-item newsletter?

I decided to treat the initial response not as an outright “No” but as a failure to communicate.

Perhaps a failure on my part.

Here is the response:

Thanks. I think a monthly newsletter might be a good idea. Would you please copy me as well. Thanks again very much.

Waddya Know?

I had thought to drop $40 to $60 on a lunch to meet the guy and lead him into saying “Let’s stay in touch by email”.

I’ve just saved $40 to $60 PLUS four hours of my time AND been invited to send emails to the president’s personal executive assistant.

Don’t tell me SHE doesn’t know everything that’s going on in the organization!

Nowadays I think of a “rejection” as an invitation to change my direction.

And I keep moving forwards.

Talk to Me !

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Divide and Conquer

It’s the 22nd of the month.

You need $5,000 by the end of the month when all the bills are due.

$5,000 seems, or is, impossible to get.

Should you throw yourself off a bridge?

No. Never.

If you can’t raise $5,000 then do the next best thing – divide and conquer.

Try raising $1,000.

Call a colleague and say “I need a favor; I need to raise $5,000 and I wondered whether you might help me raise $1,000 of it”.

If the answer is yes, than your $5,000 problem has been reduced to a $4,000 problem, which is way better than a $5,000 problem.

In short, if five colleagues can help you to raise $1,000, your original problem is as good as solved.

Talk to Me !

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

I Have SEVEN Honest Serving Men …

You will recognize the title as a clone of Rudyard Kipling’s poem .

It was brought home to me this morning as listened to a pod cast while strolling around in Commerce Court waiting for my 9 a.m.

The pod cast was making the distinction (in parenting) between what you do (to raise your child’s intelligence) and how you do it.

I thought that that is so true of the life of a solo entrepreneur.

What I blog and How I blog are two different issues (as are When I blog, Why I blog, and so on).

But there is most times a vital ingredient, which I would describe as “THAT I blog” (or THAT I invite contacts out to lunch, or THAT I build a list of prospects …).

Kipling’s six honest serving men are important, but not as important as my seventh.

Talk to Me !

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Common Courtesy Isn't Common

Promod , Thanks for the title!

Promod’s comment follows on from my comment that someone hadn’t replied to a submission-by-email with a short note “Thanks!”. We both know the person, and the relationships are good, but it comes to my mind following two incidents from yesterday.

(1) I was feeling poorly, and “phoned in sick”, which in my case means I spent as much time as possible lying in bed, reading a book, dozing, and occasionally browsing for food and drink, to give my body a chance to recover. It seems to have worked.

(2) I had a not-too-nice response to an innocent email I had sent asking about payment of an invoice.

For both reasons above, I had not replied to my incoming emails that day.

Avoiding an instant reply to the second class is a Good Thing; it prevents me from dashing off a violently reactive response that I’d regret later.

This morning I am calmer and can compose a proper reply. But the remaining eight emails sat in my mailbox overnight.

I am thinking that, if nothing else, I could have a standard line that was pasted into a reply to each of the eight emails saying “I have been ill; I’ll reply to your email tomorrow”, so that each correspondent would know that their email had been received, that I did care about it, and them, and that they weren’t being ignored.

That’s the thing about Common Courtesy. I don’t practice it myself.

I should.

If Common Courtesy Isn't Common, then by practising Common Courtesy I can differentiate myself from all the other consultants out there …

Talk to Me !

Monday, December 27, 2010

The Flying-Fish Syndrome

Next time you find something hard to believe, consider the flying-fish. If you’ve not witnessed one in flight, you’ve almost certainly seen a movie with the flying fish.

The fish swims through the water then broaches the sea-surface and flies (although “coasts” is probably a better word) through the air until gravity wins, as it always does, and the fish re-enters the water.

The resistance of air being less than that of water, the fish will travel further in the air than it would in the water.

Now think of yourself as a sea-bound shark chasing the flying-fish. You are bopping along at, say, ten knots when, to your amazement, your prey disappears, only to re-appear seconds later significantly far ahead of you.

How can that be?

One minute you are both bopping along at ten knots, you are only five feet behind and gaining, then five seconds later you are both still bopping along at ten knots, but you prey has temporarily disappeared and then re-appeared forty feet in front of you.

If you asked a marine-based consultant – a brainy dolphin for example – you might be told that the flying-fish had mastered the art of time-travel by making use of another dimension. A worm-hole in space.

As a shark you find that hard to believe, because you have no concept of traveling through the air.

As a human, familiar with both the sea and the air, it all makes sense.

But as a human you are bound to have problems comprehending the fourth dimension. Or the fifth.

You may also have problems comprehending the slowness of the world’s fastest typist when compared to the slowest computer still in operation on the planet, or the way of life of executives on the golf course.

That doesn’t make them less real.

Talk to Me !

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Bah! Humbug!!

I had a meltdown of sorts this week. Monday afternoon my laptop – my main machine – died.

I made a trip to my favorite repair store in Toronto and learned that it wasn’t the power supply this time ($70) but could be the motherboard ($300).

I could buy a new laptop for under $400, so off I went.

Sadly I am being forced into Windows 7, whereas I’ve spent ten years fine-tuning my WinXP system to a (to you unbelievable) degree of perfection.

Suddenly my fingers fly across the keyboard and create mayhem instead of a new folder; I can’t type the drive and path together in the File saveAs box – need I go on?

What’s really cheesing me off is that I didn’t publish my blog for four days, and no-one commented!

Hence the title of this post.

Anyway, Merry Christmas to you all (both of you?), and guess how I’ll be spending the Christmas break?

Talk to Me !

Friday, December 24, 2010

3 Reasons for Numbered Lists

The Independent a week or so ago showed on its front page the Most Viewed articles.

Visit www.ChrisGreaves.com for this image! NumberedLists.PNG

Of the 15 Most Viewed articles, how many of them could be said to be numbered list?

(1) The top 3 are numbered lists.

(2) 5 out of the top 8 are numbered lists.

What sort of Headline or Subject grabs attention?

(3) If we include superlatives (“most”, “funniest”) then 7 of the top 8 are numbered lists.

From which we conclude?

Talk to Me !

Thursday, December 23, 2010

The Eccentric Mr. Greaves

Sit me and three other colleagues around a table, and one of the other three will turn to the other two and say “You know, Chris is really weird”, and they smile lovingly while they say it, and I lean back and smirk in self-adulation.

I don’t know what they say behind my back, because I’m not there, and they never tell me.

My guess is that I am described as “eccentric”, which word has a bad rap, but in my case is used correctly.

Think of eccentric as ex-centric or off-centre; think of a bell-curve, and place me off to one end, preferably the brilliant end.

I am off-centre; I think differently.

I think differently about Marketing, Sales, Computers.

What most people call “trash” or “garbage” or “rubbish” I call “a re-usable (not recyclable) resource”.

What most people call “dirt” I call soil, and what most people call “soil” I think of as worm castings.

Here’s what’s strange: all my colleagues, fellow-entrepreneurs, are eccentric by definition; each one of them is off-centre. They have chosen, or been forced into a way of life that does NOT involve punching a figurative time-clock from 9 to 5.

Each one of my colleagues is finding a niche, an empty niche, which they can fill.

Each one of us is driven by the urge or need to determine what we do best that no one else is doing, and to establish ourselves in that small area before anyone else tumbles to it.

Sing the praise of The Eccentric Mr. Greaves, and if you’ve ever had breakfast, lunch or dinner with me at The Montreal Deli , pat yourself on the back.

You are one of my extra-ordinary crowd of fellows at the far end of the bell curve.

By definition.

Talk to Me !

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

The 96-Step Method to Cleaning Your Apartment

Yeah, my apartment and home office is spotless, just like yours.

This article serves only to demonstrate the power of writing-it-down and the power of goals-and-objectives.

I’m using a hypothetical 3-bedroom home-office apartment as an example.

Honest!

And it is an easy ninety-six step method.

We start with a few simple definitions:

“Cleaning”: by this we mean

(1) Clear everything off every flat-topped surface

(2) Mop/dust/wipe every flat-topped surface

(3) Clear everything off every floor

(4) Mop/dust/wipe every floor

“Clear”: by this we mean “dispose of”; there are three methods of disposition.

(1) Send to the storage locker in the basement

(2) Huge garbage bag destined for the dumpster

(3) Return to rightful owner

“Every”: by this we mean “each major room or area in the apartment”:

(1) Third bedroom

(2) Bathroom

(3) First bedroom (a.k.a. “Office”)

(4) Washroom

(5) Second bedroom

(6) Lounge area

(7) Dining Area

(8) Kitchen

If you count these you will think I have a 15-step procedure.

Think again:


Each of 8 well-defined areas suffers from each of 4 well-defined actions, making for 8x4=32 separate action-areas.

Multiply those 32 by the 3 disposal methods and you have 96.

This technique of defining terms and breaking a large job into discrete, measurable components is the solution to all problems like this.

It doesn’t matter whether the problem is “Clean the apartment” or “Write my 5-year business plan”.

The method to be applied is the same: identify discrete components (that is, parts that have well-defined quantifiable boundaries. In my example I have used geographic/spatial quantifiers to break my apartment into rooms) and identify discrete actions to be applied to each component

So what brought this on? In the case of the apartment, perhaps a friend has loaned you her new vacuum cleaner and you want to check it out with a view to purchasing a similar model. In the case of your downtown office perhaps a member of The Deep Pockets Club is coming to discuss a contract.

You won’t use this technique to clean up your hard drive, because a new hard drive is cheaper than spending time deleting files from the old, but you can use it to bring the 1,206 word-processing documents or the 81 ZIP compressed files in your T:\Greaves\Training subfolders into a standard format.

Note that some parts of the fictitious plan outlined above go without saying (after which we usually say it anyway, as in …) for example, it is assumed that in clearing off surfaces, you will be placing papers in their correct folders, folders in their correct hanging files, and hanging files in their correct cabinets.

Note too that I have given myself no time-limit on the job ahead. I may spend all of Saturday getting the apartment ship-shape – but if so I should set the oven-timer for 50 minutes to force myself to sit still every hour . I may set a limit of noon, and go for a bike-ride in the afternoon.

Estimating the time taken to “do” each area and then comparing actual with estimated time is always a good exercise for the measuring manager.

P.S. If you DO end up one Saturday wanting to clean up your home-office apartment, I’ve added some hints from a recent experience of mine here .

P.P.S. If working from a table such as the one shown above works for you, consider using a table as a permanent method of maintaining your project in immaculate condition:

Area

Day

Third bedroom

Monday

Bathroom

Tuesday

Office

Wednesday

Washroom

Thursday

Second bedroom

Friday

Lounge-Dining area

Saturday

Kitchen

Sunday

Talk to Me !

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Rethinking My Voice-Mail Approach

I am rethinking my approach to voice-mail.

I dial the direct line to a new prospect. If we haven’t ever spoken before, I’ll not leave a voice-mail. My tactic is to establish direct contact with a 60-second call, and then build up on that. But there is no way I’m going to leave an unsolicited voice-mail with someone who doesn’t know my name.

I just tried to reach Kelly. My notes tell me that we spoke before, and that I sent an email.

A month later I am calling back to ask her out to lunch.

But I get her voice-mail and decide to hang up, because I’ve not mentioned lunch before.

Why am I hanging up?

If my purpose is to establish and build a get-to-know-you relationship, what’s the harm of leaving a voice-mail that says “I was phoning to ask you out to lunch”?

I want to meet her for lunch; that is My Want.

That’s the purpose of my call.

If she doesn’t return my call, that’s OK too. Maybe she doesn’t want to lunch with me (although I can’t imagine why).

Fast-forward a month; I call her again, and again get voice-mail. This time maybe I’ll remind her that I’d like to do lunch, and wish her a Merry Christmas.

I can’t see what’s bad about that. It is surely better than studying the database record and dialing a number and then hanging up.

Where’s the advantage in that?

And more to the point: How is that keeping in touch with my prospects?

Talk to Me !

Monday, December 20, 2010

Take a Break!

A recent Staples Blog says in part:

Take a break. The average self-employed person in Canada works 59 hours a week, which may result in “small business burnout.” Discipline yourself to take a breather every few hours and do something unrelated to work. Walk through the park, have coffee with a friend or go to the gym. Believe it or not, the work will still be there when you return.

Get a hobby. Entrepreneurs typically have trouble “turning their minds off” when they leave work. Always thinking about your business will stress you out – and the people you love. Find joy in a new hobby, activity or charity that has nothing to do with your entrepreneurial ambitions.

Remember the corporate prison. Part of the fun of being one’s own boss is a chance to set your own schedule, take time off and get paid to do what you love. Bring a smile to your face by recalling those days when someone else called the shots. You’ll quickly remember how great it is to be an entrepreneur.

I read books

I preserve foods

I invent recipes

I go canoeing

I ride a bike

I grow plants

I find a Second Use For Everything (SUFE)

And whenever I can, I jump across the Allegheny River

What do you do when you step away from the desk.

Talk to Me !

P.S. Also I blog .

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Still Finding My Way Here …

I’m still groping, not in the dark, but in a well-lit room that reveals more light switches as I explore.

I phoned the CFO today. He is involved in a street-kids program, as am I (loosely, but it’s a hook …).

The receptionist said he’s not in, would I like to leave a message; I said no, but thanks. We hadn’t spoken and I didn’t want to suck him into a game of voice-mail tag.

I asked if I might speak to his Executive Assistant. He is, after all, the CFO.

“That’s me!” chirped my new-found friend, buddy and ally, The Gatekeeper.

I’m fast on my feet.

“Oh, that’s great, I’m so glad”.

You see, I really don’t want to waste his time having him call me back, but perhaps you could let him know I read the press releases and found a reference to the street-kids program. Perhaps if I call back tomorrow he might be in?

Yes, he might.

Thanks.

FWIW:

1: I didn’t speak to him directly, as I had hoped.

2: I have primed Ms Helpful who will remember me when I call tomorrow.

3: I have acknowledged the utility of her position; both she and I serve to reduce time conflicts in the busy CFO’s life

4: When I call tomorrow I have made a small step, and with a bit of luck she will present my message as a friend, not as an unknown caller.

So I am violating my only-talk-directly tactic, but in this case it seems as if there is only one small step between me and the CFO, and it looks like an easy step, so it’s worthwhile the trip with/around/through The Gatekeeper.

Talk to Me !

Friday, December 17, 2010

Staying in Touch 5

In Staying in Touch 4 I suggested a regular end-of-month printed newssheet as a way of touching un-touched contacts.

This morning I culled 47 contacts who are due for a follow-up; I have printed off 47 letters and envelopes, and I am going to send them.

But what do I do about a follow-up date?

If I mark all 47 records for follow-up “in 1 months time”, my backlog will drop from 146 to 99 in a flash. But exactly one month from now, to the day, there will be a huge leap in my backlog of 47 entries!

It’s good that today I’m catching up on my backlog of follow-up, but I seem to be setting my self up for a fall in one months time.

Since I will want to append a comment to each of the 47 records (‘issued an interim mailing”), perhaps I should include a piece of code to bump up each follow-up date by 30 days, or 60 days; in that way the original spread of dates will be maintained and I won’t get a deluge in the near future.

The same logic must apply to a Christmas mailing; if everyone on my list gets a Christmas letter and card, haven’t I “touched” everyone of them? And if so I don’t need to touch them for another month.

But come January 25th comes the deluge!

Talk to Me !

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Why Your Email Might Not Get Read

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Hi Gretchen. We've yet to meet but Joe Bloggs suggested we get in contact regarding your new course offerings. After understanding what you're seeking, I might be able to help you directly and through my network. I'm a mechanic who has educated drivers (mainly Aussies) for years. Drivers say their brakes (especially in small motor cars) are useless for stopping quickly. Brake fidelity offers powerful but overlooked capabilities. However drivers generally have limited knowledge about what's possible. This limits the options they add to their cars. That's where I can help. I've spent my entire career in the world of brake mechanics and am committed to educating others via blogging (over 3500 posts since 2002), presentations, etc. Also, I have connections who can speak about other topics to help drivers decrease their stopping distance. If you'd like to explore, please let me know. We could meet over coffee or lunch. Next Wed and Thur (June 17 or 18) are currently clear from 10 AM onwards. For dates further out, my calendar is online to help with scheduling. Since you're on LinkedIn, I'll send you an invitation to connect. You can then review my profile, connections and testimonials.

I bet you didn’t read all of the previous paragraph.

I have no idea what the email looked like in the target’s InBox, just what it looked like in My Inbox when it was forwarded to me by the original sender. (Names and occupations have been changed to protect the innocent. Also the guilty).

229 words is a bit much to take for an introductory email, it seems to me, especially IF it arrives in a blob.

And here’s the point: We NEVER know how that first email will appear to the reader. We don’t know what program they use for reading email (Outlook, Thunderbird, Eudora, web-based email), We don’t know the platform (Windows, blackberry, 80-column punched cards …) . We don’t know that character set (ASCII, EBCDIC, ICL 24-bit etc.)

We don’t know whether they are sitting in a quiet place, or whether they are being shaken to bits in an old TTC bus crammed next to a bulky passenger whose headphones are leaking rap noise.

That first email has so many hurdles, one of which is “Who is this and do I want to be bothered with them right now?” that it seems to me a wonder that any of them get read.

A great many of them don’t.

My plan?

Trim my emails down to the absolute minimum required to get a meeting.

Everything else can be raised at the meeting.

After all, we have to have SOMEthing novel to discuss.

Talk to Me !

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

What are Your Plans for Christmas?

Apart from feasting (This year Christmas is being brought to me by the letter “D”).

I mean in terms of getting done all those things you ought to get done over the two-week activity gap that stretches in front of us.

We all have commitments to family and friends get-togethers, and we all want “down time”, but admit it – you’ve been waiting for a clear day before you

  • Migrate the contact database to its new form
  • Implement the super-fixes to your web compiler
  • Sort through all the cartons and move most to storage

And so on.

Do us all a favour.

Drag out your diary and set aside a complete day for each task you’d like to accomplish.

On that day, disconnect your phone, set your email to check for mail every ten hours (!) and get that day’s task done – migrate, implement, sort, whatever – so that partway through the day you are DONE with that task.

Use the rest of the day to goof off; you’ve earned it.

This I guarantee – if you don’t plan to do stuff, it won’t get done, and if you don’t plan by setting aside a day that you give to yourself for this task, it won’t get done.

And if it doesn’t get done, you’ll hate yourself come January 5th.

Again.

Talk to Me !

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

‘Tis the Seize-on to Be Folly

By which I mean you should throw all good reason to the winds and seize on a golden opportunity to flesh out your contact list.

Specifically that growing pile of names and businesses with which you have not yet established a contact.

More than any other time of year, the Christmas Season is the time when an unsolicited card has to be accepted at face value.

  • It’s the law!

Early in the new year when you phone to make that first contact, it won’t be quite so cold.

Your excuse for sending a mysterious card? You ran out of time to phone and didn’t want your contact to have to wait another year for their first Corporate Christmas Letter from you.

Be joyous!

I just helped you clear your backlog!

It’s also an OK time to leave a voice-mail with people you should talk to; “I called to wish you the best this Christmas Season and I hope to meet with you again in the New year”.

  • Does it work?

A very good afternoon to you. Sorry, I missed your call. I came in late today. Anyhow, thank you so much for your holiday greetings. I wish you too and your loved ones A Very Blessed Christm as and A Very Healthy & Prosperous New Year! FYI, I will be away from Dec 20 returning Jan 3 and will definitely be in touch in the new year.

If your goal in contact management is to stay in touch, to keep your name in people’s minds, then a short voice-mail with season’s greetings doesn’t hurt.

P.S. Indeed, wasn’t the whole point of that first telephone call so that you COULD call them unannounced to stay in touch? So any person on your contact list with whome you have ever met or cahtted is a fair candidate for a Christmas Greeting, whether direct or by voice-mail.

Talk to Me !

Saturday, December 11, 2010

The One-Off Custom Mail-Merge

It sounds like a contradiction, doesn’t it?

A mail-merge is a bulk-send facility. Spit out 250 identical letters, customized with the addressees name, 250 envelopes, 250 postage stamps, then sit back and wait.

Think Again!

I’ve just got off the phone with Marco, head of research in a large and prosperous financial institution. I invited him to lunch. He very politely declines, saying that he didn’t see the connection.

That’s OK. In deed, I’m getting quite used to acceptance, so that rejection is almost a relief.

Marco’s line was similar to “I don’t see the fit; we are financial analysts”, which I knew already; I wasn’t prepared for that and should have been.

I could have trotted out my “Weather-Vain into prospector” line.

Still, it’s not too late.

Suppose in 3 weeks time I sent a letter that appeared to be a mass-mail-merge newsletter, but touched on, and was couched in terms that had appeared in the original press release?

The recipient, Marco, would perceive it as a mass-mailing, but perhaps be surprised by the closeness of my business to his.

It’s worth a thought.

Of course, I will automate this; it will be a mass-mailing in the sense that at the end of the month I’ll do a mail-merge run to identify all rejections.

But the letter content can be a carefully hand-crafted as the one I wrote to win back my girlfriend, years ago.

Talk to Me !

Friday, December 10, 2010

Define Your Audience and Clarify Your Message

A recent post from Andie Lewandowski includes the little zinger I used as my subject line.

The minute I read it, I wrote it down on a scrap of paper to carry with me today.

Eighteen Months ago I was challenged to define my New Target Market; I thought that was easy.

Today I realize that I still have trouble focusing on the “who”, and for the who, presenting a core message that should make them sit up and want to meet with me.

It’s that simple.

I’m sure that by now I have the audience nailed down.

It’s that initial (and continuing message) that I want to refine, and refine, and refine, to the point where issuing the message, in spoken or written form, prompts the recipient to invite me to their office.

Talk to Me !

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Dumber Than Two Cats

A recent posting on Stikeman Elliot’s blog is the miserable prĂ©cis of a couple of idiots who were stupid enough to make Facebook postings on “the very same day the employer learned of the successful [union] certification”.

Stupid because the workers were staunch supporters of the union, and should have realized that their comments would be monitored.

Stupid because, regardless of the legality, I have two cats and remind them daily “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you”.

‘Twas ever thus.

Dumber than two cats, if you ask me.

Talk to Me !

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

(6/5) Resources

OK. So I lied about it being a 5-part series. After I’d started I realized that a small practical tip might be handy.

Start your research today and build lists of useful contacts in terms of Paid Speaking Engagements.

Trade papers should yield at least one high-level name per issue, and there you have a hook on which to hang a conversation.

Boards of Trade, Chambers of Commerce and similar groups require speakers. Attend a meeting and ask politely who is the speaker-seeker for the group.

Professional networking meetings of your peers which strongly promote awareness of members skills and offer contacts at a management, rather than a technical level. require speakers. Attend a meeting and ask politely who is the speaker-seeker for the group.

Wherever possible obtain two or three consecutive issues of a publication and attend two or three meetings to determine the tone, especially whether you would suit the level of expertise. (There’s little point in pushing programming techniques to the local gardening society, and little point in expounding domestic vermicomposting to the Toronto Board of Trade).

For each of the bulleted points above you should be able to obtain at least five contacts in your area.

Use each contact to locate further contacts; for example, in chatting with a member of a professional group, you might ask “What other groups do you attend that you find beneficial to your development” or similar. In this way you will branch out, like a tree growing shoots, and find other similar target markets for your Paid Speaking Engagements.

Talk to Me !

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

(5/5) How do I present the solution so that they see the value and are willing to pay?

Present the solution the same way you present your proposals and quotations. This is, after all, a proposal that you visit the organization and speak for an hour.

(1) : Establish that there is a need.

(2) : Establish your credentials.

(3) : Specify your service.

(4) : Calculate the value to the organization.

(5) : Propose the Paid Speaking Engagement.

Remember, the organization already feels that it will benefit from your time that you spend to disseminate your knowledge to them.

The only question is “What is the value to them of your time and knowledge?”.

The answer is a well-established $110 per hour.

For some organizations (e.g. Royal Bank) they won’t blink. For other organizations (e.g. the AIC) they will go into a huddle at the next board meeting.

(Actually, The Royal Bank will probably turn you down; they will reason that anyone who charges $110 to address senior management can’t be all that good. And let’s face it, you may not be in that league, yet, so a contract with them might well be an embarrassment if your resources are stretched).

You already have a boilerplate proposal on your hard drive. Save it with a new name, convert it to a Paid Speaking Engagements proposal, and then all you need to do in future is plug in the organization name and address, the proposed date and time, and you are done.

No sense in spending more than ten minutes on something that MIGHT net you $110 over 3 hours.

Talk to Me !

Monday, December 6, 2010

(4/5) What should I be charging for speaking engagements

(4/5) What should I be charging for speaking engagements and charging non-profits for my online marketing services at this stage in my career?

You set a standard fee and you stick to it. Your fee is about you, not about your client.

You may have a small range of fees that looks like this:

Item Rate
On-site visit $1,000 per day or part thereof; travel time included.
Hourly work on-site $110 per hour or part thereof; travel time billed at one hour each way.
Hourly work off-site $55 per hour or part thereof.
Training $1,000 per day regardless of class size.

Set your rates and stick to them.

Winnow out the clients who can’t afford you – you want only well-heeled clients.

I follow a similar principal with my calendar, which is a $9 eight-inch by five-inch spiral bound item from the store. I open it up to reveal one week per page.

When I make an appointment, I write it in my diary and it is fixed for all time, regardless of what else comes up. If I am meeting my buddy Fred for lunch on Wednesday, the time from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. is blocked out with “FRED” written in it. If a client wishes to meet with me, I tell them ‘I’m sorry I am booked from 11 until 2 that day”. I don’t have to explain that it’s my canoeing buddy. I’m not available.

And as much as I love Fred, when he suggested lunch on Thursday, I told him I was meeting a complete stranger that day, sorry.

I have no favorites in my diary; it is first-come, first-served, and it lifts the stress of relationships off my shoulders.

I run the same deal with clients; no favorites. These are my rates, my terms. Fifty percent up front if you want me to start work on the project. And as much as I like the project, I don’t lift a finger until the cheque arrives. (And if the cheque doesn’t arrive within two weeks, the hanging folder goes into the cabinet and makes its way to the rear of the set ).

So add one row to your table:

Item Rate
On-site visit $1,000 per day or part thereof; travel time included.
Hourly work on-site $110 per hour or part thereof; travel time billed at one hour each way.
Hourly work off-site $55 per hour or part thereof.
Training $1,000 per day regardless of class size.
Speaking $110 per one-hour speaking engagement; travel time included.

You recognize that to some extent this is a sales call, so you give the client a break – you don’t charge for travel time.

And regardless of who asks you to speak, it’s $110 per hour.

The Royal Bank? It’s $110 per hour. They have money, we know that.

Amnesty International? It’s $110 per hour. They have a donation scheme, we know that.

Toronto Cat Rescue? It’s $110 per hour. They pay rent, we know that.

Association of Independent Consultants? It’s $110 per hour. They have membership fees, we know that.

Talk to Me !

Saturday, December 4, 2010

(3/5) Likewise with the non-profits that are asking for my help.

Nevil Shute Norway was an astute businessman. Under the pseudonym “Nevil Shute“ he wrote 24 novels and an autobiography. In “A Town Like Alice”, chapter 1, he has the following dialogue between the executor of a will and the sole beneficiary:

I knew of several charitable appeals who would have found a first-class typist, unpaid, a perfect god-send and I told her so. She was inclined to be critical about those. “Surely if a thing is really worthwhile it’ll pay” she said. “I shouldn’t have thought that organizations that haven’t enough margin to pay a secretary can possibly do very much good”.

I am of the same mind as the heroine.

After all, a Non-Profit Organization is, by definition, an organization that makes no profits. Profit is defined as Revenue Minus Expenses, so a Non-Profit Organization is an organization whose revenue matches expenses. That is, they have expenses, and you could and should be part of the expenses.

The Non-Profit Organization you speak at will pay rent, electricity, office supplies, some paid or partly-paid staff members, and so on. It is no part of YOUR business to delve into THEIR finances. Your business is to deal solely with your finances, and that means you get paid each time you leave the office to speak or to engage with a client.

Talk to Me !

Friday, December 3, 2010

(2/5) What should I say to these college reps who are asking me to speak for their students so that I can generate $$ from helping students?

Tell them that you’ll be glad to fit them into your schedule and that your fee is $100 for a one-hour presentation broken down into a 40-minute talk and a 15-minute question-and-answer session.

The college may have a different schedule, say 45 minutes between each class rather than the 60 minutes I have supposed above. I’d be inclined to stick to 60 minutes and let the school adjust its schedule.

If your talk is 40 minutes, you won’t be presenting OR GETTING the full value by eliminating some of your material or by eliminating the feedback of questions-and-answers.

It is the Q&A dialogue that informs YOU of the client’s pain, problems, needs and wants. If you don’t get the Q&A you don’t get the client. You are a disposable source of knowledge.

Why would a college rep want you to address the students? To impart knowledge to the students. Doesn’t the college have someone to do that?

Obviously not.

You are getting the college off the hook by becoming a walk-on-walk-off instructor, with no overhead for the college. What a bargain!

Talk to Me !

Thursday, December 2, 2010

(1/5) How do you position yourself to get paid speaking engagements?

You are not a Professional Speaker.

Your business plan states your target market for your specialized product or service, and it isn’t Paid Speaking Engagements.

Paid Speaking Engagements are for you grocery money, so you don’t need to position yourself as shown in http://www.prospeakers.com/ or http://www.speakers.ca/

You can let each lead, prospect, contact or client know that if they want to learn more you’ll be happy to deliver a one-hour paid presentation to inform the management and executives of the organization.

Let’s face it: You are in the business of selling knowledge; your knowledge is generally embodied in your product or service. You should not be giving it away.

If Business is “the exchange of two pieces of paper, one of which must be a cheque”, then every time you speak and someone makes notes, you are giving them a piece of paper, but if they are not giving you a cheque, then it’s not business, it’s just a pastime. And who has the time or money to spend on a pastime nowadays.

Over twenty years ago I met a consultant who shocked me at the time; he explained that he never left his office unless he was being paid. “What about sales calls?”, I asked. No such thing in his books, unless it was over the phone. If a phone conversation convinced the prospect that it would be worth some time spent face-to-face with the consultant, then, on the basis that time is money, this consultant reasoned that an exchange of time for money was appropriate.

“But won’t you miss out on some work this way?” I harried. ”Yes”, he replied, and then showed me that a prospect who didn’t value his time was not going to be a good client. He was interested only in clients who valued the time he would spend disseminating knowledge.

It’s a mistake I have often made with prospective clients; sitting in their office listening to their problems, and then excitedly letting them know what the solution was. How many of your prospects have listened to you for free, and then bought a book or found the answer on the web?

Your positioning is therefore that of creating an image of a person who has great wisdom and experience that will be of value to a client organization.

How much value? That is reflected in your price, and if the prospect does not agree, then what makes you think you’ll be getting any future business from them? Or that you’ll be happy with a penny-pinching client?

Talk to Me !

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Paid Speaking Engagements

A typical set of questions from a service-area entrepreneur:

(1) How do you position yourself to get paid speaking engagements?

(2) What should I say to these college reps who are asking me to speak for their students so that I can generate $$ from helping students?

(3) Likewise with the non-profits that are asking for my help.

(4) What should I be charging for speaking engagements and charging non-profits for my online marketing services at this stage in my career?

(5) How do I present the solution so that they see the value and are willing to pay?

With your permission(1), I’d like to answer these questions one by one in an uninterrupted sequence.

You may not be interested in Paid Speaking Engagements, but much of what I have to say concerns payment for services in general, so it might be worth your while to join in.

I am answering these personal questions from my own experience; I provide training and I develop applications.

I am NOT a professional speaker; that is, I don’t make my living out of Paid Speaking Engagements - apart from scheduled training classes.

If you like, for me Paid Speaking Engagements are grocery money, or a contribution to the vacation I never seem to take.

Talk to Me !

(1) Please!

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Are You Feeling Guilty or Depressed?

What kind of a year have you had?

Better Than Ever?

In which case you are possibly feeling guilty that you have so much and others have so little.

Worse Than You Ever Could Have Imagined?

In that case you need a little thought-tonic to perk you up.

And I Have Just the Thing for You

Yes, this is a one-of-my-favorite-projects item.

If you feel inclined, visit Youth Without Shelter and scroll down to the bottom; the heading reads “What is for dinner on December 25th?”.

You may not feel up to catering a full meal for lots of folks, but a small financial or other (“Our greatest needs this holiday season…”) contribution will be appreciated.

And you will feel all the better for it!

I promise.

Talk to Me !

P.S. Judy Leroux, YWS's Development Manager, hasn’t yet been to The Montreal Deli ; I’ve offered to take her there within the month!

P.P.S. You already tip the waitress, right? from now until December 20th, Put $5 aside each meal to send to your favorite charity

Monday, November 29, 2010

Can a Stealth Salesman Be that Far Away?

This was published Saturday, November 27, 2010 on an ITWorld blog at http://www.itworldcanada.com/blogs/insights/2010/11/27/can-a-stealth-salesman-be-that-far-away/55934/

The Fox news story Mystery Surrounds Cyber Missile That Crippled Iran's Nuclear Weapons Ambitions ( http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/26/secret-agent-crippled-irans-nuclear-ambitions/?test=latestnews ) makes for good reading. I am not qualified to determine how much of it is factual and how much of it is Fox news hyperbole.

Cliff Stoll’s book “The Cuckoo’s Egg” (Pocket Books 1989, 1990) makes for good reading, as does every John Grisham story, but especially “The Broker” (2005)

Myself I prefer to read Richard Dawkins and his account of why anti-malware producers should launch a benign yet subtle worm/trojan/virus to “infect” the machines of those who don’t know or don’t care about security, to wit, all my friends and about 50% of my colleagues.

For my part I am fed up with Rogers Internet Speed test page telling me that my copy of Internet Explorer (version 6) ought to be replaced, as if that would raise my internet speed above 0.055 kbps when I’m paying for 3 Mbps, and FireFox is a better product anyway.

And then ComputerWorld Canada (November 16 2010 page 12) comes out with a story about an Internet Explorer zero-day attack.

I cogitate.

Consider if you will products with a limited lifespan (anything purchased from a retail store) and foods stamped with a Best Use date which prompts the population to add perfectly edible food to the garbage crisis.

And I conclude that the day has probably arrived, if not passed, when a major software supplier will happily hand out a few thousand dollars with pizza and coke secretly and via an “air gap” to have written and launched a plague that will corrupt out-of-date (from the suppliers point of view) software so effectively that consumers will be forced to ante up for version 7 or version 8 or …

One major supplier of operating system and desktop software does that quite openly. We all fork out about $500 per annum per staff member to purchase, install, train and familiarize ourselves with the latest fins mounted above the rear wheels.

But suppose that you wanted to really boost sales, and not leave it to the doubts of the consumer.

Can a stealth salesman be that far away?

Talk to Me !

Saturday, November 27, 2010

I Love Binary!

A binary (two-way) choice is a yes/no, on/off, above/below choice.

I have 226 records in my contact database.

  • Of these 226 some are people I’ve met face-to-face, the rest are not.
  • Of these 226 some are people I’ve chatted with by telephone, the rest are not.
  • Of these 226 some are people for whom I’ve delivered a service and been paid for it, the rest are not.
  • Of these 226 some are people I’ve trained in something or other, the rest are not.

And so on.

Of these 226, one hundred and fifty three of them, as of today are due for a follow-up call. I am WAY behind in my schedule.

It follows that the 153 dues for a follow-up can also be split into “I have met” and “I have NOT met”; “I have spoken with”, and “I have NOT spoken with”. And so on.

And from THIS it follows that I might be able to work through my backlog of 153 entries by separating them into those who can receive a mailed postal letter, those who can receive an email, and those I really must contact by telephone to arrange a face-to-face meeting.

The concept of binary can reduce my overwhelming backlog quite quickly.

I love Binary!

Talk to Me !

Friday, November 26, 2010

How My Service Affects My Service

I am a little Boy Scout doing Good Deeds. Last Saturday I helped an older man lift a crate of fruit from the pavement to waist-high. A foreigner, he thanked me with his eyes. Yesterday I picked up a fallen pen for a younger rider on the subway. He thanked me with his eyes, and thanked me again seven stops later when he rose to get off the train.

I felt good.

I felt in harmony with the world of people around me.

Neither act was a ostentatious as standing and giving my seat to a little old lady. Neither act required more than a flash of the eyes in acknowledgement, both directions.

Neither act changed the world or the course we are on.

In both cases my day improved beyond measure. You’d need Steven Pinker or Richard Dawkins to explain why, but I suspect that small acts of kindness elevate my image of myself, so that by the time I meet the CFO for the first time some thirty minutes later, I have a feeling of confidence that might have been missing. An attitude not far removed from “This planet belongs to ME!”, or at the least “I belong on this planet; I have as much right as you to be here”..

It’s not about whether my revenue comes from Service or from Application Development. It’s not about Sales or Marketing.

It seems to be about using a little bit of social lubricant to make my own path smoother.

I daresay if I practice it often enough that from one of these events business might flow, but I doubt it.

I think that the small acts of kindness are me being kind to myself.

Talk to Me !

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Consistency

I have been carrying on a running battle with Rogers over Internet Speeds. I am signed up for 3 Mbps, and over the past 12 days have recorded speeds as low as 0.066 Mbps and as high as 8.53 Mbps. (The average of my readings is a meaningless figure, but since you are curious: 2.66 Mbps over 43 tests).

Varying the browser (iexplore/FireFox), the router configuration and the test site (Rogers/Speakeasy) shows no change in status.

That is, it doesn’t matter whether I use Rogers preferred method (Microsoft iexplore.exe, the Rogers speedtest site, no router in the line, no programs loaded) or (from their point of view) the worst possible configuration (Mozilla FireFox, Speakeasy.com, DLink router in the line and half a dozen applications loaded (bit not running).

The day of the week and the time of the day seems to make no difference.

Now paying for 3 Mbps and getting 8 Mbps is a Good Thing, and I’d like to tell you that Rogers is great. (The nice waitress at Zellers brought me an extra coffee yesterday; I’ll eat there again, I know).

The real problem is inconsistency: When I decide to download an update to an application, or if a client sends me an attachment by email, I can’t be sure that I’ll be able to receive it in conversational time. My daily job that ought to run (used to run) in 3 minutes takes up to 2½ hours – some days. If I wake at 2 a.m. I am not sure whether to reboot the system to start that run, and then go back to bed, or just to stay in bed.

It seems to me that the same thing applies in the services I provide.

I ought to be consistent in the levels available to my clients. I ought always to perform above average, of course, but I ought to be consistent in delivering above-average results.

Let’s not confuse “consistency” with “average”. They are different and we need both.

If Rogers was consistent at 2.66 Mbps I’d probably just mail in a cheque with a snide remark and put them on notice. But the inconsistency has me going public. For example here .

Talk to Me !

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

How to Stay Sane

I know, I know, …

Part of my early-morning sequence is to scan the newspapers and then scan the blogs. To this end I have sub-menus in FireFox labeled “Daily Dose” (of newspapers and ‘Daily Blogs”. On click and ten newspapers open up for my perusal.

Amongst the ten is Alex Cartoon , and here is the issue which prompted this blog entry .

Here’s my take (apart from Alex being a very smart guy). Cartoons are based in reality. You already know that. Most jokes are funny because they take a real situation and then put a wicked (as in “wise”) twist at the end.

Alex’s cartoons do just that for me. They remind me that the joke is based in a true situation, and yes, there really are business people out there who think like Alex’s characters.

So you might not be in Finance or Big Banking.

Read Alex for one week then tell me that you don’t have clients like his.

Talk to Me !

P.S. My “other cartoonist” is Matt , but you might find him funny only if you follow the U.K. news and/or have roots in the U.K. When Matt (or Alex( go on holiday, my mood changes.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Marketing and Sales for Techies Who Hate Marketing and Sales

This article was originally published in my “Clear thinking” blog on Friday, May 29, 2009. It popped up today and seems (to me) to be too good to ignore.

"Marketing and Sales ? I don’t have time for that."

But I do. Here’s how.

My skills can be sold at $1,000 per day. I’m good at what I do best, and I know I’m worth $1,000 per day in the right contract.

The trick lies in getting the right contract; getting the right fit between clients who can make best use of my abilities and myself.

If I could get five days work per month at $1,000 per day, I’d have money left over for my savings and retirement.

There are twenty working days in each month (four weeks of five days each, with a day off for medical maintenance).

That leaves fifteen days for Marketing and Sales.

I have fifteen days EACH MONTH to read up, study, and begin practicing what I need to do to make those $1,000/day sales.

Right.

Get to it!

Talk to Me !

Monday, November 22, 2010

Call Screening

The bane of our lives.

Until about 18 months ago I had a no-show number, dating back from 1990, the days of dial-up modems. I had a little scam whereby I would track down the phone number of telemarketers and load those numbers into a little DOS-batch job that would attack the list of numbers whenever I felt malicious, usually after a telemarketing call. It got to be so good/bad that I would issue 20 annoying calls for each one I received.

Times Change

Gone is the dial-up modem and with it the ability to attack-dial my enemies.

So about 18 months ago I removed the blocking.

Which meant my name began to appear on my prospect’s/clients phones instead of “Private Caller” or “Unknown Name”.

Four months ago I switched providers and the call-display arrived with the bundle.

I find myself looking at the name, and if I don’t recognize it (or the displayed number) I don’t pick up the phone.

I figure if it is someone I know, they’ll leave a message, and if it is someone trolling for a live voice they won’t.

Which Raises My Question to You

Do you know how you appear to the people you are trying to call?

Could your low-response to telephoning prospects be because you show up as “Private caller” or similar?

How Could You Find Out?

There’s no 100% guarantee, since every organization has a different carrier and/or a different system.

But you could try calling me and ask me how you appear on my phone.

It’s a start.

Talk to Me !

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Lunch vs. a Sales Call

I stress (to ANYONE who asks) that I’m asking for a chance to eat lunch together. I stress that it is NOT a sales call. It is a get-to-know-you, a put-a-face-to-a-name and just have great conversation.

If anything I shy away from talking about What I Do at the first meeting, because I am afraid that my words will pigeon-hole me and from that point on any problem that doesn’t fit the pigeon-hole will not be passed my way.

“I write macros in Excel VBA” is a sure-fire way to be branded as an Excel-macro guru (Note: not an Excel guru, not a macro guru, but a very specialized guru who we’ll probably never need).

So I was pleased to read in The 59 Commandments of Business Networking “Somewhere down the road sales people were given the idea that business networking meant pitching and selling. Eek! Nothing could be further from the truth.”

If you are thinking of trying my approach, and treating the cost of a $40 meal for two as the equivalent of a finders-fee (or your weekly entertainment if, like me, you aren’t into the movies/clubs scene), then read the article.

It might give you courage.

P.S. For free.

Talk to Me !

Friday, November 19, 2010

Bad Prospect!

On the surface it looked good. A phone call came in asking if I “knew of any software”. I wrote my own application to solve a similar problem.

We had a meeting downtown and a demonstration. I sent an email.

There followed two short emails and two long (up to 5 minute) voice-mails, which I dutifully transcribed to a document so that I had a permanent text record of what was said.

Then this morning a 70-minute phone call from the prospect dithering about whether they should do it themselves, and whether the project warranted one, possibly two meetings to establish a few facts and lay out some specifications.

To date I have spent 8.20 hours on this project, with no sign of any revenue being promised.

I quoted a low rate for the two meetings, and assuming they go ahead and I spend two hours writing up both meetings, my billing rate drops to $30 per hour.

This for a project that will reduce their estimated costs from about $80,000 p.a. to about $8,000 p.a. (I will reduce a 60-minute job to a 1-minute job).

I am glad that I track my time, phone calls, travel, writing, because it lets me see this prospect as a not-very-serious about values prospect.

If they feel OK about burning my time thus far, they aren’t going to care about my time in the future, and they certainly don’t value it at this stage.

Talk to Me !

Thursday, November 18, 2010

A Lunch Offer No-One can Refuse

In Coffee or Lunch? I suggest that a lunch date is a sure-bet, but a coffee date is tricky to arrange.

Here is how to secure a lunch date:

  • “Let’s meet for lunch”.

And yes, it’s that simple.

In Business Communications I stress the value of Quantifiers, and that Management Measures , but in this case that’s not going to work.

Consider these alternatives:

  • Alternative 1: “Let’s meet for lunch on Thursday”.
  • Alternative 2: “Let’s meet for lunch at 11:50 on Thursday”.
  • Alternative 3: “Let’s meet for lunch at Grisanti’s on Bloor Street at 11:50 on Thursday”.

Each of the alternatives gives your prospect a hook on which to hang an objection. (Not free that day, at that time; Can’t stand the service at Grisanti’s …)

But “Lunch”? Who doesn’t need to eat.

And since there is no place, date or time specified, what could be the objection?

It’d have to be something pretty personal (You are bald; you are over 60; you have a Western Australian accent) in which case you don’t want to meet with that kind of person anyway, and certainly not if you’re paying for lunch.

Valid objections are:

  • “I’m busy all this month”. OK. Pick a day next month.
  • “I organize the lunch’n’learn for my company”. Great! I’d like to sit in on one.
  • “I don’t drive”. That’s OK, I don’t have a car, but I’ll get the TTC to your neck of the woods.

Try it.

“Let’s meet for lunch”.

You’ll find that it works.

(Thanks, Promod!)

Talk to Me !

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

He Didn’t Bite My Head Off!

One of the most common reactions when I’ve pushed a reluctant entrepreneur into phoning someone is the amazed phrase “He Didn’t Bite My Head Off!”.

I know.

I felt that way too.

I feel that way too.

I’ve just called the Presdent and said “I read yesterday’s press release on CNW and I’m calling you to invite you out to lunch”.

I don’t get my head bitten off.

Of course I don’t.

The President doesn’t have a clue who I am.

“Are you an investor?” they sometimes ask. No, I say, I’m not.

Sometimes they say “ It’s Not a Good Time ”, and that’s OK too. I ask if next month might be better, or even ask them to suggest a time. After all “It’s Not a Good Time” means that It’s a Good Idea, but that It’s Not a Good Time, so if it’s a good idea, let’s do it at another time. You pick a time.

I was going to let you pick a time anyway.

By the time The President has asked me who I am, what I do (I read the CNW press releases, that’s what I do, and that’s why I’m inviting him out to lunch) we have begun to be curious about each other.

What kind of a consultant just calls and ask for a lunch date, just for the sake of meeting, anyway/

Someone kind of special.

Sure! Let’s do lunch.

Sounds like fun.

Talk to Me !

Monday, November 15, 2010

Money or People?

Another day, another list.

I’m sitting in a train heading up-country, and it is a great pastime to start a new page and make a list of all the things I must do on my return.

Some of the tasks are directly related to revenue – start work on the hospital data base project; get the specifications and proposal out to the new client.

If I don’t do those tomorrow, the cash stream may dry up.

Some of the tasks are related to my role as marketing and sales manager – write some thank-you notes and advance the CEO newsletter.

Then there are the other tasks.

Categorizing my tasks as “dollar”, “people”, and “other” helps me to focus on staying afloat while paddling to the shore.

Talk to Me !

Saturday, November 13, 2010

The Acid Test

A couple of months ago I ran a mail-merge and mailed out to 150 contacts a hand-signed letter and a glossy brochure. All up my costs were about $200 plus ten hours.

Coaches tell us to offload our non-creative work; coaches like Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach tell us to offload a task to someone who is passionate about that specific task.

How do you find the person who is passionate about, say, mail-merge?

I had to examine my fears, and my fear with mail-merge is offsetting the customized hand-signed letters by one or more spots. Absent-mindedly stuffing envelopes and reaching the end with a letter (or an envelope) left over means that somewhere in the set you have double-stuffed or zero-stuffed an envelope.

If I do it, I know that I’ve done it, and take steps to fix it.

How do I know that my mail-stuffer hasn’t done it?

I posed the question to a dozen colleagues before I came up with the answer.

Chatting to Kim Leitch at the East Gwilliambury Chamber of Commerce gala, I posed the question, and her response was along the lines of “I’d go back and fix it”.

But what if you have already licked and sealed the envelopes as you went along?

“I haven’t”, she smiled. “That’s the LAST step”.

Now maybe the previous eleven colleagues all work that way too, but Kim was the one who heard my fear and managed to convey to me that such a mistake was, indeed fixable by the Virtual Assistant.

Talk to Me !

Friday, November 12, 2010

Marketing 101 – Again

Another Staples Blog reads in part:

Marketing 101 clearly sets out:

• The purpose of marketing is to develop a product or service; identify and qualify markets and customers; map the road to market; and define and create effective communications.

• The purpose of sales is to develop customer relations; deliver the force behind “closing sales”; provide important market feedback; and directly impact the top-line (and middle-line) gross margins.

Many solo entrepreneurs fall into the trap of thinking that you need a special person to “do” marketing, a special person to “do” sales.

I fell into that trap.

Until I realized that I didn’t need a special person to “do” software installation, and I didn’t need a special person to “do” book-keeping.

In Expected Values I wrote that in my organization we have Chris Greaves the Prospector and Chris Greaves the Salesman. (We also have Chris Greaves the Trainer and Chris Greaves the Programmer).

I have training skills

I have programming skills

I have sales skills

I have marketing skills.

Each skill-set might be qualified to a different degree (novice, expert) but there’s no escaping the fact that I have those skills.

The Staples article goes on to say “The key is in the integrated thinking that connects sales and marketing.”

And here’s where we get lucky: Our sales, marketing, training and programming staff are EXCELLENT COMMUNICATORS.

Because they live in the same head.

That’s why when we (Sales) are sitting with a prospect it is so easy for us to determine what’s on-the-shelf and can be installed quickly, and what might take a bit more time.

Talk to Me !

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Leadership vs. Managament

From the November 8, 2010 issue of Canadian Business :
  • Leadership is having the vision to build a railway; Management is making the trains run on time.

Another confusion of roles cleared up.

For solo-entrepreneurs, we are both leaders and managers.

The trick, then, is identifying the task and making sure that we set aside the time to be a leader (might be sitting on a park bench thinking deeply) and staying on top of things (might be recording phone calls and meetings set up).

They ALSO say, elsewhere on their web site “Send me 22 issues of Canadian Business - Canada's Best Selling Business magazine for just $19.95!”.

Sounds like good value to me.

Question: Who makes the decision to subscribe, The Leader or The Manager?

If you’d like to preview a copy before subscribing, pray that your local doctor is late for your appointment; there’s a copy in his waiting room.

Talk to Me !

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

How to Write a Daily Blog - Effortlessly

Thinking of cranking your blog frequency from Monthly to daily?

Here’s an easy way:

Don’t do it.

Huh?

You know I blog daily, some of it rubbish (to your eyes) but enough of it good to warrant you eye-balling each issue.

How did I get here?

Well, after 18 months daily blogging comes easy – a conversation with a colleague yesterday yielded FIVE topics, and once I got off the phone I clickety-clacked nearly a week’s worth of material into the pipeline.

Ah! The Pipeline.

Try this:

Maintain a word processing document with a table of hyperlinks to articles you have written.

When the urge comes on you, fire up the document, add an article, and get back to what you were doing.

Each WEEK pick what you think is the best of your pipeline and publish it.

You have upped your frequency from monthly to weekly AND you are building a lovely stockpile of articles.

As time goes by you’ll find that the mood comes on you more and more frequently; you’ll start spotting topics where you didn’t before. That’s because your mind is now thinking of topics, whereas before it was wondering which flavor of ice-cream to pick up on the way home.

Once you find you are adding to your stockpile about once a day, crank up the frequency to twice-a-week, or just leap right into daily.

It’s that easy.

And unless someone is paying you to publish an article every day, don’t sweat it if you run dry.

Talk to Me !

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Coffee or Lunch?

I am often tackled about my tactics of picking up the phone and asking a President out to lunch.

“But you don’t even know the guy!”.

All the more reason to meet.

I don’t believe I’m that special. A little extraordinary, maybe, but think this through:

How often does a President get a straight-forward call "Let’s do lunch, just for the sake of meeting each other”.

I don’t know what your pain/problem is so I can’t be selling you a solution; it can’t be a sales call.

That’s not true; I AM selling something – the idea that we might meet for lunch and just chat. When the Pres says yes, I pump my fist in the air, occasionally dropping the mobile phone, and do a few spiral Trudeau-like pirouettes.

But why not ask someone out for coffee?

Answer: Meeting someone for coffee between 9am and noon, or between 2pm and 5pm represents a half-hour slice out of their busy working day.

But everyone takes an hour off in the middle of the day to go to lunch.

Lunch does not represent a drain on the working day schedule.

Coffee does.

Talk to Me !

Monday, November 8, 2010

Double-Dating

If there’s one thing better than taking a CFO out to lunch, it’s taking a CFO AND the Vice- President, Investor Relations & Corporate Governance out to lunch.

Why not?

Lunch typically costs me $40 for two.

For three it would be $60.

For the extra 50% I get to impress (we hope!) twice as many people.

My travel costs are the same.

My dry-cleaning and laundry costs are the same.

Plus, my theory is, the two of them will feel more relaxed when dealing with me.

It is, after all, a two-to-one issue; not that anyone is fighting.

Let’s see how it works.

Talk to Me !

Saturday, November 6, 2010

When to Quote?

I know that I’ll be asked to quote a financial figure at the first meeting; this will be at a time when I haven’t had time to think about the full scope of the project and the divisions into scheduled phases.

The client is being reasonable in asking for a ballpark figure; you and I do that within three minutes of walking into a store. Even less if the prices tags are pinned to the coat sleeves.

There are only two kinds of questions at these “First Meetings”: (a) Financial and (b) Non-financial.

There!

Wasn’t that easy!

Unless the client broaches the subject by asking a question loaded with dollars, I don’t need to mention anything at all financial, especially likely-costs.

But when the client draws a breath, leans back and says “And how much is the likely to cost – Give me a ball-park figure”, I can either make a guess about the resale value of the stadium used by the New York Mets, or I can counter with a question or two of my own, in no particular order:

(1) Do you want the work done off-site, on-site, or a combination of the two?

(2) Do you want a figure for me doing the work by myself or getting an outside programmer to do the coding?

(3) Do you want me to include cost of delivering training to your staff?

(4) Should I include the cost of preparing user documentation?

(5) Should I include the cost of preparing system documentation?

(6) Shall we assume a two-weekly billing cycle?

(7) What length is your payment cycle (I am not a bank)

(8) What level and duration of technical support might you require.

And so on.

These questions are effective, for just as I need to consider what options I might take in preparing the system, so too does the client need time to think about the various methods of working.

Now is the time for the client to state whether or not they want documentation (in this phase). Now is the time for the client to decide how tight a rein they want to keep on me. Now is the time for the client to state whether or not they use me as a bank (“We pay invoices in 60 days” means that I am lending them the money).

Note that the client will find it difficult to specify a “level and duration of technical support” if the specifications of the process are not yet formalized; for the same reason I find it difficult to quote costs, so perhaps “The first step is to get the specifications written”!

In short, any discussion of finance is a two-way discussion.

Make it so.

But be gentle.

Talk to Me !


Friday, November 5, 2010

So, Don’t Go - and Say So

It’s the old sage advice about dealing with a piece of paper the minute it lands on your desk.

This morning’s email run produced an email inviting me to a function a week from now. The email is from someone I met at a function last night. THAT function I attended because the presenter is a friend and colleague of mine, but the audience is not my type of entrepreneur.

So the invitation seminar is not likely to appeal to me.

At 4 a.m. I read the email and moved on to the next one.

At 8:30 a.m. I read it again and pushed it to the back; I really hate saying “No”!

At 9:45 a.m. I plucked up the courage/strength to reply “Sorry, I can’t”.

But look you. At 4 a.m. I knew I wasn’t going to go. I could have replied then and we would have been done.

Instead I have re-read the email twice, and had an agonizing nag on my shoulder for five hours.

To what gain?

None at all for me, and none for my correspondent.

At the first reading and should have said so straight away.

Talk to Me !

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Why Social Networking Fails

I’m not on LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter etc and you are.

You think LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter are the best thing since sliced bread. I think “toast”.

My informal survey reveals that everyone who things SN is great is wrapped up and immersed in it.

And everyone who thinks SN isn’t great isn’t using it.

Because they/I don’t use it because it doesn’t work for them/me.

You use it because it works for you.

Or you believe it does, which amounts to the same thing.

In yesterday’s Toronto Star there is a story of a (regular) breakdown of the subway system. Thousands of commuters inconvenienced.

The TTC says it is mostly happy with the way it warned commuters about the major disruption to subway service along the Bloor-Danforth line during Wednesday’s morning rush. “Everything we did was as we planned for,” said TTC spokesman Brad Ross. “The technology fell nicely into place.”

Note that the TTC is happy. Everything worked the way they planned, especially in terms of getting the emails and tweets out on time.

Here’s the problem: Very few TTC commuters are on Twitter, or read their twitter before they are in gear, and being in gear means out of bed, showered, dressed, and running to catch the bus with a coffee in one hand.

We don’t have time to tweet when we are racing to catch the 6:56 a.m. bus.

There are 700,000 subway riders daily but only 30,000 people subscribe to the alerts which provide immediate status updates. The alerts are also posted to the TTC website. The TTC also sent out Twitter alerts, but the account (“TTCnotices”) has only 7,000 followers.

Let’s be generous and assume that the 30,000 alert subscribers are different from the 7,000 twits. That means 37,000 out of 700,000 commuters, or about 5% have a HOPE of learning about it. And that’s assuming that they are so keen to twit that they do it before they get out of bed, shower etc.

Which they don’t.

The TTC of course thinks that the solution is to get everyone to be on Twitter.

A service provider would recognize that currently only 5% (and I’m being generous here) have a chance of hearing about it in time, and would address the solid 95% who are out there.

Grabbing some 5-second air time might be a good idea, on radio and TV.

However, the face-to-face component wasn’t as strong as it could be, Ross admitted.

Let me translate that for you: The TTC doesn’t have signs that can be propped up outside the subway stations saying “CLOSED” or similar. That would take the booth collector all of twenty seconds to place, and would save some commuters from paying their fare and only then discovering that there’s no subway. And, of course, hubby has by now driven off to HIS job.

The bottom line is this: Social networking only works when the bulk, think 95% of your target market, is engaged in it at the time you emit your message.

Which is why people like me ignore SN without a qualm.

Talk to Me!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Add an Adjective!

I was struck tonight by an adjective.

Sitting at a seminar, “Who needs a pen?”.

From behind me I hear “I have a pen” (implicitly “That I can lend to someone”).

No takers.

A pause.

From behind me I hear “I have a PINK pen”.

Suddenly the pen sounds more attractive.

Why should adding an adjective make it more attractive?

Because it is now more rare.

A pen is a pen is a pen.

But a PINK pen is a special pen, to be coveted.

Add an Adjective!

Talk to Me !

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

The Inverse Square Law of Attraction

My marketing efforts are geared towards one-on-one face-to-face meetings.

Not for me the mass-marketing appeal through social networking, FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn. My corporate contacts don’t do email, almost; they hide behind their executive assistants.

So I call them (the presidents) up and invite them to lunch.

That’s a bond.

The Inverse Square Law says that the (gravitational) attraction is inversely proportional to the SQUARE of the distance between the objects, and I think that way about my contacts.

Close up and personal, one-on-one, face-to-face is a real impact.

Hiding behind a printed monthly newsletter is ineffective.

Relying on a social networking tool is totally meaningless.

Talk to Me !

Monday, November 1, 2010

Strong on Goals

I am Strong on measurable Goals. I urge every project member to retain a sheet of paper on which is headed the GOAL of the project, and under that the six to ten OBJECTIVES that are the steps to reaching that goal.

I look back, and every failed project I can remember did not have a measurable goal. Or those that did did not have the goal broken down into a amanageble number of objectives.

So I read this recent Small Biz blog entry with interest.

The blog’s summary reads:

So here are my lessons learned:

1. Make sure both you and your clients understand and agree on what 100% is. It is so important to set expectations properly

2. If you make a mistake admit it, be humble and ask the client how you can remedy the situation

3. Do not let an unhappy client walk away, it will only end up costing you business in the future

To heighten my interest, a friend recently moved into a condominium and had the floors stained.

Same outcome!

Talk to Me !

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Brevity

I tend to talk too much, I know. And I tend to write too much and too long, I know.

But I love words and ideas.

I write applications that analyze text, that précis text, that indicate the progression in comprehension of text.

Amongst my favorite authors is Steven Pinker.

From his book “The Language Instinct, page 227, comes this little gem:

Woman: I’m leaving you.

Man: Who is he?

Pinker offers this as an example of the difficulty in developing a mechanical parser.

I am struck by this as a six-word drama - romantic, tragic, stark, fully comprehensible, real,

Talk to Me !

Friday, October 29, 2010

5 Easy Problems

Friday, October 29, 2010

A Staples blog reads in part “During a July 2010 survey, Staples Canada got a glimpse of what’s keeping many small business owners up at night. Here’s a look at some of these key issues and what business experts have to say about them“.

I’ll make it easy for you. Instead of asking you to work, I’ll just list (in alphabetic sequence) the five problems they address:

  1. Attracting business
  2. Money
  3. Staffing
  4. Taxes
  5. Tight deadlines and lack of work-life balance

All you have to do now is circle JUST ONE of the five that YOU feel is your major, major problem.

Then tackle it today.

It really is as easy as that.

And make no mistake. Just chip away at that biggest problem TODAY.

Rinse and repeat.

Talk to Me !

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Too Good a Contact?

Frankly I’m not sure that that’s the right heading, but here goes …

Working my way through my CRM, up pops the senior partner of (we’ll call them) Bloggs and Co.

I’ve not spoken with him.

I did chat up Griselda (no, not her real name) ten months ago. We met a month later for coffee, and it was off-site, and she was somewhat cool in reception. In the end, thanks but no thanks, she wasn’t interested in what I had offered.

Today, here comes Joe Bloggs. Now I don’t want to contact Griselda; she is too negative for my liking, but how did I get in touch with her in the first place?

Through a CNW press release.

Let’s search all the press releases for Bloggs and Co.

Odd!

She no longer appears in them.

Has she been let go?

My mass mailing to her six weeks ago was not returned, but maybe someone opened it, saw the flyer and mail-merge letter and just shredded it.

I find myself in the unfortunate position of having a contact that I don’t want, and I don’t know how to find out that she’s NOT there!

Talk to Me !