Who, and How Many are Your Suppliers?

In "What Porter Airlines chief learned pumping gas", Robert Deluce is quoted as saying "Never leave yourself with only one supplier; you must have choice and some tension to ensure value."

Now as soon as you read that you thought of stationery, computer accessories, and ground coffee, right?

Well, yes.

But as an entrepreneur, what do you value coming in more than stationery, computer accessories, and ground coffee?

That's right!

Cash!

Think of your clients as suppliers, your most important suppliers, for without your clients you don't get revenue, and without revenue you can't consider stationery, computer accessories, and ground coffee.

That's a fact.

Now Deluce said "Never leave yourself with only one supplier; you must have choice and some tension to ensure value", and if that is true of your suppliers, and if your clients are suppliers, then Deluce's statement translates into "Never leave yourself with only one client; you must have choice and some tension to ensure value", and how often have you heard that?

I am in touch with one entrepreneur who has one well-paying client, yet is unhappy with the relationship.

"So go get another client" I suggest, but Oh no, "better the devil you know".

Trouble is, once that client becomes unhappy with the relationship, my friend will be stranded high and dry.

As would you.

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How Often?

We all sat down and discussed "How often should I mail out my eLetter?".

Answers ranged from "It depends on your audience" through "26 times a year" to "3 times a year".

I think the best answer is to the question "How often?" will be found by following the path of thought that starts with "What is my goal?"

What is YOUR goal in issuing YOUR newsletter?

Write it down, write down the objectives (or sequence of steps you'll take to reach your goal), and you'll find the answer to your frequency question along the way.

Oh, sorry!

I forgot that you wrote all that down when you were planning your newsletter; just take it out an re-read it.

Again.

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Volunteers are Priceless

A recent tweet said " Volunteers are not paid; not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless." Hats off to those that share ...", but I disagree with volunteering in most cases.

Over my career I've found myself providing services for free to non-profit organizations who save a bundle through my suggestions, but run an office with a staff of ten, salaries, benefits and electricity bills.

A non-profit is not a non-revenue, and I fail to see why I should not take part in the revenue stream.

I quit all this 15 years ago when a non-profit asked me to drive 10 km north to stand by while they did their first mail-merge. Why stand-by? In case it didn't work and they used a few sheets of paper unwisely.

For a few sheets of paper I was to schedule 3 hours of my time, drive 10 km each way, ...

No. My time is worth more than that.

I am NOT priceless; I am worthy of my hire of any organization in the business world that has a revenue stream.

Especially if their revenue stream is greater than my revenue stream.

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Failure To Communicate

A great blog item from the Fast Company blog. In essence a list of 20 common faults.

And a list of 4 things to do to begin resolving them.

I took it a step further after reading item 6: “Telling the world how smart we are”. I do that all the time. And why not, I’m smarter than most people, I’m telling you!

I collected the 20 faults and pasted them into a table that fit nicely onto a letter-sized sheet, printed it off on white card stock, then guillotined it into 20 separate small cards that fit easily in my shirt pocket.

Then each time I sat down to lunch with a friend or close colleague I asked them to select the three (of twenty) cards which THEY thought best described me.

Interesting.

After six such polls I tallied the scores and ranked the cards.

That’s how I KNOW you all know how smart I am!

If you’d like a copy of the cards, send me an email.

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Why Aim for the President?

I am often asked why I am using The Prospector to contact Presidents and CEOs, CIOs, CFOs, COOs and the like.

The answer is given simply in a recent Harvard Business Review article stated in part:-

Your boss's boss has a broader perspective on your organization than you (or your boss), and can see more of what's coming down the pike — be it new products or possible new assignments.

The President has the best view of the most urgent strategic needs of the company. My project leader may well be two or even three levels down, but my best work is done for the good of the whole company.

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Observations

"I didn't apply measurement to our marketing efforts in any sort of disciplined way,"

I learned this a couple of weeks ago when I was assembling a series of web-pages urging people to experiment and measure their efforts at vermicomposting.

Suddenly realized that "experiment" means white lab-coats and Bunsen-burners to most folks in the domestic market. And who wants to invest in a set of gram-scales, count worms by hand etc?

"I just want to have the worms eat my food scraps".

The Answer?

Abandon the words "experiment" and "measure" and use the one word "observations".

Anyone can observe; I mean, that's just using my eyes, right?

And it's not a problem to write down, in my own words, what I have observed ...

Talk to Me!

Does Staying-In-Touch Work? – 3

Here’s another one:

I attended a free seminar sponsored by a major bank – definitely a member of the deep pockets Club, and in my target market.

Funnily enough the seminar was marketing-related – all about LinkedIn.

Next morning I resisted the impulse to ask the host for a LinkedIn connection, and instead dashed off a greeting card & flyer, popped it in the mail.

I figure that asking/getting a LinkedIn connection is just a matter of form once we have met or had a chat by phone.

I also figure that a hard-copy unsolicited essay lasts longer (“sits on my desk”) than Yet-Another-LinkedIn-Invitation.

Sure enough, yesterday the phone rang, and for 75 minutes the host and I chatted.

• Sure! Send some stuff by email.
• Sure connect with LinkedIn!
• Sure!

Just what I wanted.

Lunch can’t be far away ...

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Après le Déluge, What?

The Avalanche is dissipated.

I am close to completing the mail-out of nearly 400 cards celebrating the Christmas season. It looks like that task will be accomplished by the end of November.

Then what?

My plan is to take a break from mailing out material and spend December on the phones.

I think I might phone every person on my list to wish them Merry Christmas.

It can be a short call.

For one thing it will establish voice contact with those I’ve not previously called.

For another it will allow me to determine which of all these new numbers are direct lines, and which are not.

It will help if I have something up my sleeves to offer to them. Such as a PDF file I can send by email.

Talk to Me!

Time Blocking

There’s an excellent little article on Time Blocking here, and I recommend you read it. Takes about 60 seconds.

There’s an excellent little time program here, and I recommend you download it.

Then start cheering as your backlog disappears!

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Thank You for Contacting

Thank you for contacting me at IHaveAWebSite. I will get back to you as soon as I can. Many thanks; I’m Me.

I don’t know about you, but I get a tad cheesed off when I am hooked up with an email address which uses an auto-responder to let me know “your call is important to us”.

I think it’s the height of insolence to use a robot to respond to my hand-crafted enquiry.

I think it’s ABOVE the height of insolence to use a robot to respond to my subsequent hand-crafted responses.

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What's Different this Christmas?

I can be a bit slow on the uptake sometimes.

It's just dawned on me that out of about 200 Christmas cards mailed out so far in the past month, not one has been returned.

Of course, now that I've typed THAT, there'll be a flood next week!

What's different between this year and past years?

(1) I have spent more time this year "touching" my contacts, either by phone, by email, or by letter; and issuing letters is one way to check on mobility of the addressee.

(2) My contacts are higher-echelon, the C-crowd, and CEOs, presidents and the like move around less than do middle-level managers and clerks.

There are probably more reasons, but it is comforting to know that this year my mailings are reaching their targets.

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When the Supply Chain Goes Bad

If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that I order postage stamps and they arrive by Canada Post.

That they arrive is a bit of a miracle. The short story is that I enquired of the supplier as to why the stamps arrived anywhere from 4 to 28 days after being ordered. Turns out Picture Postage is at the mercy of Canada Post, who stipulate “that we must allow 5-15 business for delivery once the order is shipped”.

Now 5 business days (BUSINESS days) to mail a letter from a major Canadian city to another major Canadian city seems a bit much to me.

15 days is downright lacking in responsibility.

My enquiry has resulted in the supplier advising Canada Post that the shipment has been “what they consider to be lost in the mail”, so now I’ll wait while another order is prepared and, perhaps, lost-in-the-mail or else takes 3 weeks (15 BUSINESS days!).

The clincher is this:

I have the option of using an overnight courier other than CPC, that is not looked at fondly around here as all parties would like to keep everything closely tied together from an overall business prospective.

The Overall Business Perspective seems to be that the supplier and CPC have to work together on this, but the supplier ships within 48 hours of receiving the order, so CPC is letting down the side.

And where, in the name of all that’s profitable, is the client (me) in all of this?

I don’t hear anything about “Gee we’d better make sure this gets tightened up”.

All the more incredible because I am, after all, ordering postage stamps that should be delivered by the very organization (CPC) that profits by my making use of postal services!

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The Proposal

My client’s client is having problems; I have a solution.

I submit a proposal for 10 hours work, and a few days later word comes back that “they like your proposal but think it should be only seven hours”.

My immediate reaction is to hit back, so I go to bed with a book, instead.

In the morning things seem much clearer.

I have 13 points now against the rejection, many of them knee-in-the-groin arguments, which never help in business relationships.

But I’m very proud of the first three, so I share them with you:-

• Client doesn’t know how to do it; that’s why they approached me. How can they know what work is involved?
• If Client doesn’t know what work is involved, how can they know how long it will take to do the work?
• If Client doesn’t know how long it will take to do the work, why do they think it can be done in 30% less time than I think?

My business, you see, is the application of logic to business problems, and this is just another business problem (mine this time) that can be resolved by the application of logic.

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“A Client is Bad-Mouthing Me!”

No, not me, but a colleague of mine.

Seems that the product was shipped and failed to meet expectations. In fact, the product was dead, due to an series of delays in the shipping service.

That Happens

What happened next is not normal, or abnormal, if you prefer.

My colleague’s client waited a year then sent an email reminding colleague that the shipment was (literally) dead-on-arrival.

Why wait a year?

Why bring the issue up again? Colleague said she was sorry, offered a refund, a fresh shipment etc.

No wait! There’s more!!

Colleague’s Client took care to point out the they are now letting everyone they know (church, friends, school etc) that colleague takes the money then ships dead products.

“Don’t worry” I tell my colleague.

“There’s one in every crowd”.

Every now and then you’ll run up against someone who is never happy unless they are both miserable and trying to make everyone around them (church, friends, school etc) miserable.

The good news is that everyone around them (church, friends, school etc) already knows that Griselda is a whiner, 100% negative, unforgiving, resentful, spiteful.

Griselda’s Grizzles will be shed like water off the proverbial duck’s back.

P.S.

Come to think of it, Griselda is probably doing my colleague a favor by spreading the word; 50% of the people she tells will think “Griselda is always so wrong and negative; this supplier might just be good! I’ll go take a look at the web site …”.

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Cell Phone for Freebie

Rick needs help with his system, and he phoned me.

He will buy himself an external drive and download RoboCopy and install that then run it to mass-copy everything from his failing hard drive to his new 2.3TB external.

I’m glad, because too many people leave the backup until “After I’ve tidied up the hard drive a bit”, and the hard drive fails terminally while they are tidying up.

I’m SO pleased that I’ve told him I’ll have my cell phone with me tonight when I go up the street to fix Betty’s TV.

Why am I on call for a freebie?

Why not?

It defines my level of service, plus chances are Rick won’t call anyway.

But it will make an impression on him, and he’ll remember that, and talk about it.

P.S.

Rick did call me around 9:30 p.m. while I was adjusting Betty’s TV, and over the phone we wrote a little batch file and he saw it start to run, and learned how to adapt it, so life just got better!

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Shift Desk Sideways

My second 10-foot length of plywood, a.k.a. "The Other Desk", shows no surface area. It has become a storage depot for stuff.

Office Rule:

• Tables and desks are for working on or at, not for storage.

So starting this morning I’m going to be shifting stuff leftwards towards the other end.

Some item has to be taken OFF the desk and stored where it ought to be stored; even if that dumpster gets emptied twice a week.

The space it leaves will be occupied by something else, and the right-hand side of my desk will become clear.

By the end of the week, or even by the end of the hour, the desk should be a beautifully long and wide working area.

Talk to Me!

Finger-Numbing, Wrist-Aching Grunt Work

From a longtime friend and dear colleague:

I know you are a huge macro fan, as am I. Many, many years ago (2001?) I bought this program that has saved me thousands of hours. There's nothing more satisfying than sitting back and watching the computer go to work doing finger-numbing, wrist-aching grunt work. Macro Express - Macros for your Windows Automation Needs www.macros.com/

I haven’t used MacroExpress and am not endorsing it, but my colleague’s statement is just so RIGHT:

There's nothing more satisfying than sitting back and watching the computer go to work doing finger-numbing, wrist-aching grunt work.

If you aren’t using macros (in your word-processor, spreadsheet etc) or batch files (in your boot sequence), why aren’t you?

I Guarantee that Your Wrists are Aching

Either that or you are postponing tasks that ought to be completed by now.

Talk to Me!

P.S.

Do yourself a favor and check out Macros in Minutes

Does Staying-In-Touch Work? - 2

2011/06/03 11:18 Mailed Goddamn.pdf //

2011/08/10 11:14 mailed Lawyers.pdf //

2011/10/12 08:09 mailed Excel.pdf //

2011/10/13 15:39 I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn. //

Does Staying-In-Touch Work?

You Betcha!

The four entries above are taken from the memo/comments field of a single contacts-database record.

In June I mailed a one-sheet 2-page flyer with an article I’ve written (about Goals, Objectives and so on)

Two months later I mailed another flyer, this one about using The Prospector to generate more revenue from existing clients.

While a third flyer was winging its way out, my contact sent me an unsolicited invitation to join his network.

Is it possible that two flyers (the third crossed in the mail) made contact?

Does Staying-In-Touch Work?

You Betcha!

There is a bonus here: If my objective was to “touch” this contact once every two months, I can now send an eMail and advance the follow-up date by two months; that is, my response to his LinkedIn invitation surely counts as “Keeping my name in front of him”.

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Paying Double At the Door

“We have an event tomorrow, and 26 people have registered online but only handful have paid $10 online. When these unpaid who turn up at the door, will be charged $20. Can some one explain to me, why are they prepared to pay double at the door, while they can get away paying only $10.’

It's Simple.

I may get a better offer elsewhere before your event.

• When registration (online) is free, people will register.
• When it comes to parting with money, we all think twice.

And hedge our bets!

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Who is this Guy Chris Greaves? -2

Two months ago in Who is this Guy Chris Greaves? I issued some crude statistics on what a CEO would see if he received a mailing from me and decided to check me out by using the Google search engine.

I have re-issued the search with these results:

Quantities may vary if you repeat the search, depending on the date, and on the size of your monitor screen.

The results can be summarized as follows

Name Only	& Toronto	& Mississauga
4 out 7 or 57%	10 out of 10 or 100%	Top 6 out of 10 or 60%

The only change is in the Mississauga rankings (I live in Toronto, but right on the border of Mississauga), so this is an improvement, but not by much.

The good news is that “Arguments with the 407-ETR” has dropped off the radar; that sort of thing isn’t likely to impress a CEO at first glance.

Over the past two weeks I’ve been working diligently at tweeting my blogs, products and services, but I know I need to get more out there.

It’s a process, not an act!

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