Staying in Touch 2

In Staying in Touch I covered the log-jam when phoning contacts.

Here’s an easy email to send that will be perceived as a benefit to your contact.

Remember, you’re looking to “touch” each contact every two months, more or less; here is Rup, time for a “touch”, but if you have nothing to chat about on the phone, and he works too far away to join you for a coffee, …

So, ( http://www.meetup.com/members/2429199/ ) Rup Jolly is Interested in new groups about Adventurers, Men's Social, Small Business, Cashflow, Hypnosis,is he?

OK then. (grin!)

Here's a personal invitation from me to you!

Come and check out AIC Monday March 29th.

http://www.aiconsult.ca/en/aic_meeting.html

A bunch of us meet for a light supper at Boston Pizza at 6pm, doors to the meeting open at 7pm

(If you get to AIC before me, tell them you're my guest and get in for only $10).

Whether Rup goes or not, I’ve stayed in touch by sending an invitation to an event.

Note that there are THREE WINNERS here:

1. Rup gets an invitation and a discount offer.
2. One of my networking groups gets a potential new member walking in the door.
3. I get to look good to Rup AND to the AIC , since he will announce “I’m Chris’s Guest”.

The Sales Funnel

If you are creating a new data base or contact list, consider including a field that helps you to monitor what you are doing.

Each record on your contact list will hold a name, address, phone, email, postal code and so on – the regular stuff.

Now add a field called Sales_Status or similar, and let it be devoted solely to showing you how far along the process someone has progressed.

Each contact starts off as only-just-met-them-yesterday and in our wildest dreams soon ends up as made-the-sale-let’s-make-another-one.

It doesn’t really happen that way.

Some initial contacts develop quickly into a sale, and a repeat sale; some wither away and drop off, but they need not drop right off.

Let’s qualify a contact as they pass through our system;

(1) New Contact – we met them yesterday, literally

(2) First Communication – we have sent them and email, mail or telephoned them.

(3) Fact Finding – we have met them in conference to learn the nature of their specific problem.

(4) Solution Development – we determine by ourselves that we can develop and provide a solution. This is sometimes called proof-of-concept.

(5) Proposal – we issue a contractual document known as a Proposal. It will contain a deadline for acceptance, and a price that is valid until the deadline date.

(6) Discussion – we discuss with the prospect various aspects of the proposal; we put them at ease and convince them that we can implement this solution to their problem.

(7) Negotiation – we establish a final price, we agree on a schedule of dates for deliverable objectives.

(8) The Sales Order – we obtain the paperwork that leads to the monetary transaction – this may be as little as a Purchase Order or it may be a 50% deposit, or it may be payment in full in advance.

(9) Account Maintenance – what else can we do for this contact? We try to generate more business.

It will not escape your attention that we make no mention of working here; as a business owner our job is to get the business; we have a programmer/writer/facilitator who does the delivery. Our job is to keep those sales coming.

And yes, if we are a one-man form, we wear several hats.

To stay in business we need a steady stream of new contacts coming in the top, and sales flowing out of the bottom.

Some contacts will stop partway through. We don’t need to toss them out – they either stay “on hold” at their current level, or are cycled back into the top as “new contact” after a suitable delay; perhaps in 3 month’s time the situation will have changed and we’ll have another opportunity.

Each week, or each month, print off a summary of each level.

There ought to be a healthy volume at each level.

Any empty level is a dangerous sign that the pipeline is blocked.

Find the blockage and remove it.

Staying in Touch

I ran into another log-jam late last week. Wading through the contact list each day – first tackle the “follow-up calls”, folks I’d promised to call on a certain day – then the “stale calls” – folks who I hadn’t called for the longest time.

Then slam! Into the brick wall of staring at a contact with no idea what to say when I pick up the phone. Bump them forward to be a follow-up call tomorrow; let tomorrow worry about that one.

Likewise the next one.

And the next.

I was caught staring at a series of contacts with not a single reason for calling them – except that I hadn’t called them for a long time.

That night at a boring seminar it dawned on me – I had become too focused on phoning my contacts, and had forgotten that I was supposed to be “Keeping In Touch”, and Keeping In Touch is more than just a telephone call.

It is an email, a visit, a postal mail, and therein lay my solution.

If there is no benefit to my contact by my phoning them, I can find an article to cut and mail to them (another reason for keeping stacks of magazines from my University in Perth, Western Australia, and for hoarding back-issues of IT World Canada, and so on)

There HAS to be a suitable articles in that pile, somewhere.

And if there isn’t, why not just print out one of my blog articles (one that is relevant) and mail that off.

It’s is keeping my name in the front of their mind.

And that’s what counts.

Getting Through it

Face the truth.

You are not going to be done by the day you die.

(My gravestone will read “I was hoping for a good long rest”).

There is just so much to do each day, that even were we to get at it ten hours a day seven days a week, we’d still not get it done. And we’d still be behind on our taxes.

On top of that there are the hours spent trying to get to sleep worrying about what didn’t happen today – a cheque didn’t arrive, we didn’t send the email we promised, we failed to …

Here’s a Thought

Plan on going to bed tonight with a sense of achievement.

Each day pick, as your day’s goal, one doable, measurable, rewardable task. Then treat yourself as an employee.

Pick one thing on your list that will take about one hour; certainly less than two hours, and then do it to the exclusion of everything else.

You are not going to waste the day doing it; you are going to do it and when it is done you’re going to frame it as a certificate of achievement, thank yourself as you would an employee, and reward yourself with something tangible.

I don’t care what the reward is; walk across the street and buy a slab of Brie for all I care.

I don’t care what the task is; clean the bathroom, bottle that pureed ginger, remove everything off the top of the second desk; make notes about the new course.

Find ONE THING that you know you can complete this morning, then put on the blinkers.

• Unplug the phone if you can (*).
• Turn off the monitor if you have to.

You will go to bed tonight with a feeling of well-being.

(*) I discovered late last year that the world rotates every 24 hours whether or not my phone is plugged in!

Rejection Projection

I suffered three rejections in the phone calls I made today. In the past these would have been crushing rejections, but today they are rich fodder for my digestion.

My goal is to arrange face-to-face meetings with people. I ask if we can meet for 15 minutes over coffee.

Remember that in the mind of the gatekeeper, the scripted response is correct, because it works for them. It keeps me away from the door.

They don't want me at the door because they see no value in having me there.

From that I reason that I am not presenting myself to them as valuable.

That means that I need to strew the ground with roses, or at least mail in some interesting press-clippings before I call.

As well I must have a value statement ready early on in the call.

And here's the catch: If I can't describe my value of myself to myself in the sanctity of my own office, how can I consider delivering it to a "stranger".

Every 3-in-a-row rejections tells me that I need to quite phoning and do a bit more work on my own script.

"The next time you see someone clicking with the mouse for over 60 seconds, think of me; I can automate that task".

No.

I can do better than that ...

Don't Let Google Stampede You Into a Panic

It can do that to you, I know.

Five months ago I put a little video up on YouTube showing off my free Indexer application.

To monitor it, I placed a Google Search in my daily-dose folder of bookmarks.

Each morning for four months I saw the results of the search - 37 hits, which was, I think, the number of times I'd watched it.

A month ago it jumped to 80 hits.

What happened, I have no idea (if you think you can help, Talk to Me !)

Yesterday it had climbed steadily to 157 views. Not viral, but satisfying.

This morning's daily dose?

It is GONE!

Has YouTube deleted it from all of its one-and-a-half million servers?

Has Google begun the process of black-listing me?

Panic sets in easily nowadays.

I decided to blog about this, and returned to the scene of the crime:

Yup! I'm back.

What happened?

I still don't know.

I suspect a timing glitch in Google's search engines right at the time my automated search was submitted.

Moral: Check, and re-check before taking action that could lead you by the nose down an expensive and wasteful path!

In a Month or Two, I Should Be Ready

No you shouldn't.

I should know, because I've tried that route, and so have you.

You had that good idea last October, and here it is, March, almost April, and six months have managed to slip by because of all the other things that sucked away your time.

DO IT TODAY!

Do it have-assed, half-baked, half-cooked, half-done, half-empty, ... (Notice how there is a "half-" term for every letter of the alphabet, and ask yourself if today is the day to find the other 21 phrases)

Nike got it right, God Bless 'Em, with the phrase "Just Do It", because a hundred years from now, it'll all be over, so who cares about the occasional typo, the small pear-juice stain on the shirt, the little ball of fur (but no more than three!) along the skirting board.

• Thinking of writing a blog? Do It Today!
• Thinking of becoming a freelancer? Do It Today!
• Thinking of stripping every material object off your desk? Do It Today!
• Thinking of picking up bike-riding? Do It Today!

But Oh! You have to commit to doing it.

And the best time, the ONLY time you can commit, is today.

Yesterday is gone, you can't do anything yesterday.

Tomorrow isn't here yet. You can't do anything tomorrow

Do it Today

Does this Job Interest You?

No, not the job itself.

It's all about staying-in-touch, "identifying" with your peers, and so on.

I'm always on the lookout for that little something - call it a stocking-stuffer - that I can use to touch my contacts.

Once you get into it, they pop up everywhere, articles in online newspaper stories, opportunities for business or pilot studies, jobs ...

A common incoming email, for me, is a job, forwarded by email from a colleague.

The job doesn't fit, because it states explicit requirements for a skill I don't have, and which is an essential requirement for the position.

But who do I know who is in transition, looking for work, contemplating freelance work?

I can send the email, personally address (so it's four emails leaving my desk, not one email with four BCCs), and presto! Four contacts have been touched today.

That was easy.

Hope vs. Will

• I will have some answers for you by Thursday.
• I hope to have some answers for you by Thursday.

If you were my client, which statement would you prefer?

If you were me, which statement would you use?

We Always Require Net 60 Days Payment

If you haven't met this yet, you will. The client who pays 60 days after receiving the invoice.

If you operate as I used to operate - do the work, send the invoice - you can wait up to 90 days to be paid while your client merrily makes use of the product or training at your expense.

Canadian banks used to take five WEEKS to clear a US cheque. Add five weeks to 90 days and you've got a banker.

I do not operate a bank

I do not lend money (except to friends).

But when a client hangs on to what is rightfully mine, they have turned me into a bank, against my wishes.

What's the answer?

Operate in several different manners:

(1) Insist on a 50% deposit up front. That 50% should cover all your expenses and a bit more. If you have to walk away from the second 50%, you've still come out ahead of the game. A bronze instead of a Gold, but a medal none the less.

(2) Raise your rates for those clients. Ask for their payment schedules BEFORE submitting the proposal. Prime lending rate seems to be about 4.5%, so let's say 5%. Raise your rates 5% and incorporate that into your proposal. Yes, I know it's only for ¼ of a year, not a whole year, but you have to factor in your time as a book-keeper doing these extra calculations etc.

(3) Tie your Lifetime-Technical-Support into the payment. For me the Lifetime-Technical-Support accompanies every service, product or training that comes from me, but it doesn't kick in until the final payment is made and the cheque has cleared. Now you're still perturbed about waiting 90 days, but you need not invest any more time until the $5,000 is safely in the vault. And let your client know that just as they have their business practices carved in stone, so too do you.

Cheryl Scoffield : "Get a bank draft if the client is US based. Depending on how I am billing, contract employee or consulting, I get paid in advance 2 weeks to 1 month until the contract end date. The Monday morning the bank draft fails to hit my account is the Monday I take the dog for a walk!

"Money paid through a bank draft can not be clawed back. Cheques can bounce or a stop payment can be issued after you deposit. That means, if it is a large cheque, your bank account will be FROZEN!! ... all cheques start bouncing! Like your mother said, play safe. Get paid in advance."

A Road-Block for Her Firm

I called Margo again today; she is, of course, too busy to schedule a 15-minute meeting, but not too busy to spend 20 minutes on the phone.

My initial referral, five years ago, told me "Getting around Margot could be a problem".

He was right

Today Margot managed to bring up an objection to every suggestion I made; she has a well-honed repertoire, and I understand she is but a legal secretary. I don't think I'm talking with the senior partner's VP here.

I'm sure that you have encountered Margo: "We don't have a need for your kind of training", but when I ask her, nicely, for her vision of what I deliver, she finally admits that she assumes I am identical to the contact of five years ago.

I can bet good money on being able to improve the productivity of any firm I enter.

How can I be so sure?

Firstly, I have years of experience reducing 60-minute jobs down to 60 seconds, and only last week, reducing a supposedly six-hour job down to 10 seconds.

Secondly, 90% of the firms are not automated; you only have to watch anyone clicking away madly - all user-intervention.

Thirdly, even for the 10% of firms which might be automated, I develop tools that automate the development process of - automation tools.

There is, perhaps, a 1 in 10,000 chances that I'll meet someone as advanced as I in automating tasks.

So the chance of meeting them in the 200 or so firms that I do contact is close to zero.

It's a sure bet

Margo is truly a road-block for her firm; I wonder if they know how many opportunities are being missed, opportunities from me, and from every other person who contacts the firm.

It is sad, truly sad

An Easy Way to Address Your Target Market

It doesn't matter whether you are engaged today in writing your email newsletter, building a web page, or sending an email.

While you develop the text, start off as if you were writing a personal letter.

My target market is the large financial, health science and aerospace firms.

My target audience is the President and/or CEO.

My address therefore is:

"Dear President"

or

"Dear CEO".

If your target market is managers in corporations "Dear Manager".

Then build your text.

Proof-read it, spell check it, and let it mature overnight.

In the morning, re-read it, make any changes, and just before it goes out the door delete the salutation; it will have served its purpose by then.

Stay focused!

What Do all These Emails Newsletters Have in Common?

They are cluttered, everyone of them.

Which newsletters am I talking about?

The last six newsletters you received.

From your suppliers, your hosting service, the email marketing guy, the insurance colleague.

• Small images.
• Sidebars with links.
• Incredible offers.
• Tables.
• Fancy formatting.
• Clickable logos featuring the sponsors, the LinkedIn, FaceBook and twitter links-where-you-can-find me.

Now dare to be different.

How about an email newsletter with just three articles, original text developed by you.

Two fonts - one for the heading (and there will be only three headings) and one for the body text..

A link at the top and at the bottom to your home page.

How refreshing.

And attractive just because it says "I know that you're busy, so I won't take up much of your time. Thanks for reading"

“I’ve Run Out of Time”

If I had one hundred dollars for every time I’ve heard that, I’d have lots of dollars.

Nine times out of ten, they’ve not run out of time, not really; they’ve run out of space.

THEY’VE RUN IN TOO FAR.

A consultant works on a small project for a year and then “runs out of time”? I don’t believe it. The consultant has finally conceded that the design requirements are way over his head, and the project, if it is to progress, needs serious help.

Seven Product Managers hand over their Excel workbooks three weeks before the big conference because “they just don’t have the time to finish them off”? I don’t believe it. They are now in seven separate ways, up to their necks in adjustments and modifications that don’t fit in with their original concept of six months ago. Imperial and Metric. Who knew?

So I get the project, big or small.

And I am delighted.

But I’m not fooled.

Any consultant with too much work only has to jack up the prices a little bit to shave off the work they can’t handle.

And product managers (VPs, every one of them) are in the strata of folks who manage their own calendars.

Check it out next time someone tells you “I’ve run out of time”; I bet it’s not about the 24 hours we each receive each morning.

Harvest The Reaction

Michel Neray made a good point when he was discussing the dialogue between me and my client.

I really wow! Some clients; “How’d you do THAT?” they exclaim, and I replay nonchalantly “Oh, that just comes naturally”, and start in discussing some other, really difficult stage of the job.

“That was COOL!”, is met by me examining the tips of my fingernails and “ … not if you’re used to doing it”.

Michel’s point, as I understand it, is that it’s the really cool, WOW! reactions that tell us how we are different.

Those client reactions alert us to what it is we are expert at (lousy grammar, I know).

Harvest those reactions; those reactions tell us WHY others should buy from us; those reactions tell us what will appeal to other clients, what sets us out from the rest of the “I can save you money” crowd.

How to Win a Free-Lunch Bet

There was a Seinfeld episode about this years ago …

If one of your objectives is to meet face-to-face with a prospect and you are struggling to get them to agree, find a way to make a harmless bet, preferably related to something in your business conversation, and engineer it so you can’t possibly win.

A recent bet with a merchant banker arose out of a conversation “You should chat with so-and-so”.

“OK”, I responded, “I’ll take him out to lunch”.

“You’ll never get him to agree to go to lunch with you!”.

“Wanna bet?”.

I can’t lose this one.

Either I get to take so-and-so to lunch (a winning situation for me), or I fail to persuade so-and-so to lunch with me (in which case I lose the bet and get to take my merchant banker to lunch – a winning situation for me).

Bet your business relationships on the impossible, and win!

The Green-Chair Technique for Handling Phone Calls

My home office has a long desk of plywood; on it are the keyboard, monitor, mouse and telephone.

The phone rings. I pick it up, push my chair away from the desk, and sit eight feet away in a green chair, fabric covered, thin wooden arms.

Why?

When someone phones me, it is a substitute for a face-to-face visit, and I like to give them my full attention; I can't give them my full attention when my eyes are staring at the screen, wondering what's new in Google News or what the weather is like in Paragonicia.

Here is a chance for me NOT to sit, shoulders-hunched over a keyboard, a chance to move my two feet eight feet, a chance to stretch, and to enjoy whatever the conversation might bring.

Sometimes too I can't immediately place the caller, so I am more relaxed as I try to figure out who and why the call.

There in the not-totally-comfortable green chair, I indulge in the to-and-fro, but then after a while, my back gets sore.

It's time to end the conversation and get back to work.

Well, not quite sore, but while the break from the computer was welcome, it still calls to me, and the call becomes more insistent as time passes, so there is a steadily-growing urge to bring the conversation to an end and get "back to work".

If you don't have a Green Chair, I suggest you pick one up at a second-hand store this weekend. It doesn't have to be fancy, and it ought not to be too comfortable, or too large.

You may be surprised at how well your phone conversations go, after you get your Green Chair.

Knowledge and Experience

Knowledge can be picked up in a day, a half-hour, or sometimes in a flash of a few seconds at a seminar. "Wow! I didn't know that!".

Knowledge can be picked up from Books, the Web, in a Classroom or at Desk side .

Knowledge of a specific technique is what most employers look for, and some clients.

If you don't know VBA you're going to be hopelessly mired in the desktop automation job.

Experience takes a lifetime, but relax, you don't have to wait another day.

You already possess the experience of a lifetime - your lifetime.

No matter how old you are, today, you hold the sum of ALL your experience - the 2½ years in France, the 6 months in Singapore, the Data Warehousing course you took for $3,500.

You can BUY knowledge, but you can only GAIN experience by doing something.

And your experience is what separates you from every other entrepreneur, and that, we are told, is your selling point.

I can teach anyone the language of VBA in two days or less. Ditto the controls of a motor-car in two hours or less.

But true driving experience comes from many many hours on the road, regrettably some collisions, different weather conditions, getting around a strange city, at night, in fog, after a snowstorm.

The knowledgeable driver knows how to press the brake pedal.

The experienced driver knows how to drive so as not to need the brake pedal.

See the difference?

The knowledgeable VBA programmer can fix your messy code in your workbooks (and bill you for doing it).

The experienced VBA programmer knows when to call a halt, and rebuild the suite from scratch.

• What is your experience?
• Make a list.
• The list had better not contain the name of a book.
• Unless you co-authored it!

Educate to Make a Decision

My goal is to have The Prospect make a decision to buy.

The Prospect doesn't know whether to buy or not. Seems like a lot of money! Have I enough in the bank? How risky is this? Will it work? Does Chris have what it takes to get the job done? Who else has gone this route? What is the worst-case scenario?

If The prospect knew the answers to these questions, the decision would be obvious: either "buy" or "walk away".

But The Prospect doesn't know.

My task is to provide answers that will help The Prospect make a decision.

My task is to educate The prospect to make an informed decision.

In order to do that I must (on my web page) identify the questions The Prospect will ask, and provide answers to them. Either in a Q & A form, or else sugar-coated in small but true stories.

Unhinging the Gatekeepers

I suffered three rejections in the phone calls I made today. In the past these would have been crushing rejections, but today they are rich fodder for my digestion.

My goal is to arrange face-to-face meetings with people. I ask if we can meet for 15 minutes over coffee.

One spent 20 minutes with me on the phone explaining that she couldn't set aside 15 minutes to actually meet someone face to face.

Draw your own conclusions.

One came up with a few excuses for not meeting me before she got around to asking what I do.

Draw your own conclusions.

One told me flat out that they had their own in-house trainer. I OK'ed that, then asked her what sort of training I offered. I enjoyed the five seconds of silence while she tried to dream up an answer that complemented her previous statement.

Draw your own conclusions.

Bit of a let-down, because I know I can help firms - because the firms that ask me in say that they are greatly helped, and they ask me in because they have met me; so if only I can arrange a meeting, they'll ask me in, then I can help them.

Out of all of this I learned that many gatekeepers have set scripts in their heads - how to straight-arm the caller, and since now I can recognize some of the scripts, I can brace myself for them.

This afternoon we were both surprised by the 5-second silence

Next time, the gatekeeper will still be surprised, but I'll be prepared.

About that Bootleg Software ...

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=1817&tag=col1;post-1817

I truly have lost count of the number of times over the past 25 years that friends and colleagues have begged for help with their systems, only to find that they are out of luck - "screwed" is not too strong a word - because they have purchased a copy of an operating system or application software from a shady source.

It runs fine until something happens, and then it can't be re-installed.

Or the "original disks" are no longer available because "I bought the computer cheap from a friend who no longer needed it".

This blog post of mine serves notice on you all.

A QUARTER OF A CENTURY OF DISAPPOINTMENT IS ENOUGH

More than enough.

The blog posting at the head of this article is a must-read for all of you.

Read it before you call.

When you drop by, be prepared to sit and read a printed copy of it.

And remember this: I develop applications for a living.

I hate pirates and those who try to steal software without paying full price for it.

I'm with Microsoft on this one.

When Not to Present the $1,000 Invoice

I have been agonizing over next Thursday's appointment.

I saw it as a sales call; sit down, ask questions, get facts, then come back to the office and write a proposal and send it off.

If the prospect agrees to the proposal, they send a cheque and I start work; otherwise, nothing else need be done.

But now The Prospect wants me to start work the minute I arrive at 9:00 a.m.

The Prospect wants the job done and complete by close of business Thursday, or 2pm, or 11 am, it doesn't matter. And The Prospect has stated that they will pay me for a full day, even if it is only two hours.

It sounds like a dream job, but I worry that the task might be insoluble - something I usually determine after extracting some facts.

The solution?

Take the invoice with me, $1,000 plus tax, but don't even think of presenting it unless the job is complete.

That way I don't leave feeling that I've taken money from the client under false pretences, and as well, I have an option to walk away at any stage.

Of course, we all hope I'll be able to pull bunny out of hat, but if I don't, I don't have to make things worse for us all by taking money that I feel I've not earned.

What is My Marketing Goal?

Simply put, my reason for marketing is to increase my stream of prospects.

My prospects are those people who, I believe, offer a good chance for a sale within a specific period, and that period is dependent on my business.

My prospects have to be reminded of me from time to time - perhaps every two months - and that means time and effort on my part to telephone or email them on a regular basis.

A prospect is not someone who has expressed no interest, or has expressed a very low interest in my product or services.

There's no profit to be made investing three hours a year making follow-up calls when we both know that the two-man legal firm's chances of wanting training in Application Development in VBA is close to zero.

If I have a service (monthly financial data summaries) and a product (a really cool application) and some training courses, then I'll have three marketing streams, each of which should be delivering its own stream of prospects.

And each stream should have a measured quota, and a measured result.

Management Measures !

One Easy Way to Make a List

Always leave a vacant item!

At the bottom.

You start out without a list.

The vacant item at the bottom is, by definition, (a).

Alongside (a) you write your first idea, task, promise.

Then on the next line you write (b).

Got a second idea? Write it alongside the (b).

Keep going until you run out of ideas, probably round about (g).

On the next line, write (h).

Then wait.

Your brain will work to complete that vacant line.

Pop! I told you so!

Write it down.

On the next line, write (i).

Then wait.

Your brain will work to complete that vacant line.

Pop! I told you so!

Write it down.

Continue like this until it's time to go home.

On the way home, your brain will find yet another idea to complete that vacant line.

I promise

Beware of Wolf Questions in Sheepskin

The question asked at the end of the seminar seemed innocent enough: "Do I believe in the potential of Internet Marketing?".

But I paused long enough to ponder whether the question refers to my business, or to the-world-in-general.

If the latter, then for sure, Internet marketing is here, it works. Look at what you have spent in terms of time and money over the past year buying products and services over the internet, reading online newspapers, searching written papers for information and so on.

But the model that works for you (selling downloadable software) has to be different from her model (selling accessories by mail order) and the model that works for me (have brain, will train).

In once case it is eminently possible to set up a web site, have the money sent via PayPal to your credit card account, and spend the rest of your life at Eddy's bar on Grand Cayman knowing that the web hosting service will take the annual payment automatically.

In another case you'd need a shipping-and-handling staff to stay behind.

In my case, it's really all about standing in front of people.

So the question boils down to how much time and money you need to put into your web site and email marketing campaign to get the money your business deserves.

The Montreal Deli does very well solely by word-of-mouth and its regular customers.

I Don't Want to Know About You

I attended an afternoon networking event today, 90 attendees.

I managed to speak with seven of them.

Two of them (first time we met!) informed me about their divorce, and their recent bankruptcy.

One told me about the roof of his convertible being ripped open and his briefcase and laptop stolen.

I'm sorry, but I don't want to know that right now and I don't need to know that right now.

The First Meeting is Too Soon to Learn that You Just Got Divorced

In this blog I can acknowledge that I will feel your pain once we get to know one another, but at a business networking event, the first order of business is BUSINESS.

Tell me about your business dreams, your business problems, not your ex-husband.

Your business problem is not "My wife just took off and cleaned out our bank account".

Your business problem is "Cash flow".

Same impact, and it's going to be the same solution, but without the blood and gore stinking up the place.