So You Want a Fancy Web Page, Huh?

(they may have changed it by the time you read this but …) Check out http://www.intellipharmaceutics.com/contact.html
(You may want to kill your volume before clicking on that link)

It has to be seen to be believed.
Each bubble represents a web page.
As your mouse hovers over the menu, the bubbles agitate, move, shift, grow, think.
It is more like an arcade game than a help for navigation.
And this is a web site for a multi-million dollar pharmaceutical corporation!
If you look near the top of the image, the various menu items overlap as they jiggle around.
To their credit, the foot of the page reads:
THIS WEBSITE IS UNDERGOING RENOVATION TO REFLECT CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS PLEASE CHECK BACK LATER
I hope they get to it soon!

I'm Trying to Make Everyone Happy

That's a quote from Toronto's mayor David Miller in the Toronto Star.
Disclaimer (I think): This is NOT about politics.
It's about reality.
A search of the web for "all of the people all of the time" turns up more stuff than I care to read, but the quote "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time" is attributed to Abraham Lincoln, and he's not telling where he first heard it.
Someone else, more recently, could have been Gerald M. Weinberg in one of his books talked about a triangle, the apexes being Dollar Cost, Time, and Features of a project.
Both sides need to (not "ought" or "should", but Need To) agree that a project will contain such-and-such features, written down, quantified, spelled out to the best of all parties abilities and with the utmost sincerity.
Both sides need to (not "ought" or "should", but Need To) agree that a project will be completed for so-many dollars, with the contributing sums identified against specific features, written down, quantified, spelled out to the best of all parties abilities and with the utmost sincerity.
Both sides need to (not "ought" or "should", but Need To) agree that a project will be completed by such-and-such a date, with milestones, or objective dates, written down, quantified, spelled out to the best of all parties abilities and with the utmost sincerity.
An overview team meets once a month, or once a billing cycle to compare target dollars and target dates against those in the specifications. Any discrepancy raises red flags and can prompt a project meeting.
Chances are strong that we really did not recognize a problem (feature/dollar/day) when we sat down in good faith. If it really was good faith, we should correct our mutual misconceptions now, not tomorrow, not when the final bill comes in and swords are being drawn.
You can change the apexes on the triangle, one, two, or all three of them, but you can't do that without changing the area of the triangle, and hence the impact of the project.
Anyone who thinks a change in features, dollars or days doesn't really change the project is one of those being fooled this time around. And chances are strong that they are fooling themselves.

Should I Join?

Colleagues have pestered me to join LinkedIn.
I have resisted, with a sense of cynicism beyond belief.
Generally I find that when something is hyped to hysteric levels, it is a fad, and it pays me to wait until the breaking wave has crashed upon the shore to see if any survive.
I am one of those who stand back from "the bleeding edge of technology".
Last month, you guessed it, two very respected colleagues urged me to join. Coupled with a new prospecting challenge, I joined.
LinkedIn.
Not Facebook, not Twitter, not YouTube. (A nasty rumor circled the internet a month ago that those three were about to merge and become YouTwitFace.com, but I ignored that).
In the past week I've searched names that appear within my prospecting data, with no success; I've had invitations to join a Circle Of friends – I think that's its name – from two people with whom I am already doing business.
And then yesterday I received a reminder from Facebook, of all people, that three invitations from last December, January and July are outstanding.
How did Facebook get a wake-up call?
Is it too late to step back from the brink and quit LinkedIn, or is the damage done?
P.S. Another reason I don't like LinkedIn is that it pops up as a spelling error in my typo-checker; I am reluctant to add it to my dictionary because I will want to type linked in as two words from time to time, especially as I deal with hyper linked documents, training, applications and so on and can't afford to let linkedin slip through the net.

Better Prose

Help turns up in the most unlikely places!
Various marketing blogs provide advice on writing good prose, amongst them http://bly.com/blog/, http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/, http://www.actionplan.blogs.com/, http://www.canadianmarketingblog.com/ and http://www.actionplan.blogs.com/.
"Reduce blah words", "Trim" and so on are words of wisdom scattered about the blogs like discarded metaphors on the cutting-room floor.
Then there are the formal corporate financial statements available through Canada News Wire (http://www.newswire.ca).
Boring, badly-aligned columns of figures by the year, quarter, cash Flow, and sundry other accountant-like gibberish.
But there at the foot of most reports I find paragraphs like this:
· Any statements that express, or involve discussions as to, expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, through the use of words or phrases such as "will likely result", "are expected to", "will continue", "is anticipated", "estimated", "intend", "plan", "projection", "could", "may", "believes", "feel", "targeting", "look forward", "goals", "objective", "outlook" and similar expressions) are not historical facts and may be forward-looking and may involve estimates, assumptions and uncertainties which could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements.
What a great list of words and phrases with which I can populate my "blah-alert" macro.
A Big "Thank You" to the accountants and lawyers of Corporate Canada!

Email Underwhelm

We all hear about being overwhelmed with email, but nobody really comes up with a solution.
Here's a solution!

You are looking at the contacts list in my choice of email client (Mozilla Thunderbird, since you ask).
Short, isn't it?
30 names.
How many names in your contact list?
To the nearest hundred?
I thought so.
You don't write emails to more than 30 people.
You THINK you do, but you don't.
You REPLY to more than 30 people a day, more than a hundred people a week, but you issue unsolicited emails to less than 30 people each week.
I promise.
So trim your contact list down to 30 names.
You'll thank me every time you issue an unsolicited email and don't have to spend 30 seconds scrolling through your contacts list, hunting, wondering, …..

Ethics of the Coin Toss

When faced with an agonizing decision, the easiest way to resolve it is to toss a fair coin. Heads or Tails.
I can't decide whether to stay home and work for five hours on necessary administrative tasks or whether to spend two hours traveling and three hours networking.
Easy Solution:
Toss a coin. Heads I head downtown, tails I turn tail and stay at home.
The coin is tossed.
It comes down … it doesn't matter what it comes down.
You will know immediately what you ought to do by the way you feel about the outcome.
If you feel joyous, then that's what your subconscious is telling you and you are harmonious.
If you feel sad, then that's what your subconscious is telling you and you are wracked with guilt or remorse.
It always works!
Feeling good represents confirmation of deep-seated thoughts.
Feeling bad represents conflict.
Try it next time you are indecisive.

Ethics of the Gut

People ask me "What do you think [I should do]?" when confronted with questions of ethics.
I've done it.
You've done it.
I don't do it any more.
Here's why:
I have recognized that questions of this type are always seeking parental confirmation.
Example:
We are only going to be three minutes in the store/bank/florists/dry cleaners. Do you think it will be alright if we use the spot reserved for handicapped people?
You are asking because you KNOW it is not alright. You KNOW that you are able-bodied and can walk fifty yards from a regular spot.
You ask because you want ME to be the parent and condone the behavior. That is abdication of responsibility.
If anything goes wrong you can point to me and say, "Well, You thought it was OK".
Example:
I could travel downtown and attend a networking seminar this morning – one hour each way and a two hour seminar plus 30 minutes for chatting plus getting dressed etc. Five hours. Minimum.
But there is much else to be done in the office today, and I'm scheduled to meet Norma for a movie at 4:45 this afternoon.
Should I attend the networking event? (Loose translation: is today a good day to goof off for five hours?).
That I ask that question of myself indicates that I am uneasy about attending, and seek any rational excuse, any rational excuse will do, to avoid the meeting.
Deep down I know I must file my taxes, pay the rent, make those phone calls BEFORE I goof off with Norma at the movies.
What is Going on?
I'm not certain of the mechanics of the brain, but I recognize the situation; whenever I find myself asking for approval, I reason that something tells me it is NOT OK to take the action; I am looking for an excuse to take the action. Any excuse will do.
By the way, it's not always easy. Consider this:
Example:
I could spend five hours this morning filing my taxes, paying the rent, making seventeen phone calls BEFORE I goof off with Norma at the movies.
But there is a networking meeting downtown, 'Cold calls", something I need to know, and I am sure to make two or more useful contacts before or after the seminar.
The seminar is a one-time event, once it is gone it won't come again.
I can do my taxes etc late tonight – it's a mechanical process.
Should I stay home and work? (Loose translation: is it smart to lose an opportunity to make useful contacts?).

Your Networking Schedule

Your schedule may not be like mine.
I am bombarded with advice – "meet people" – urging me to climb out of my home office and hit the streets.
Or at least the convention centers.
Here's the good news: there are far too many free seminars and events where you can establish face-to-face serious-conversation contact with like-minded people.
A few of these contacts may result in sales down the road.
Most of them will result in friendships, relationships, and self-help assistance.
I know.
Because it happens to me.
If you haven't yet got a plan, feel free to borrow mine.
Once a month
I visit the web sites of the half-dozen or so organizations that schedule regular seminars and browse their offerings.
Calendar

For each interesting offering, I make an entry in my calendar – a Word-processing document table is all it takes. Each cell holds a date and none, one or more organization names and times:
The hyperlink takes me to the web page for that organization.
Email Signature

I paste the events into my email signature:
EVERY email that I issue contains information of value to the recipient.
Sometimes by reply I get '"See you there!", and can be prepared for more work.
Daily Sheets
For each event I plan to attend, I print a single sheet with the details – address, date, time, speaker etc. – and then clip these together and hang them from my bulletin board.
The top sheet shows the next scheduled event, and can be "torn off" as I swoop out the door.
I take the sheet of paper to remind me of the address and to show to a puzzled concierge.
The sheet also serves as a note-scribbler, recording name sof contacts, who and what they supply.
Diary
I live through my store-bought diary; "If it ain't written down it don't exist!".
Each event gets the time slot braced out, and an acronym that serves to remind me of the organization and location.
Weekly
In preparation for the week ahead, I scan my schedule for networking events, note the location, and contact someone in the vicinity.
Downtown is easy.
If I'm planning to be at City Hall on Thursday, September 03, 2009 between 10 a.m. and noon, I start asking contacts for a meeting for coffee before 10 a.m. or lunch after noon.
If I am persuasive enough, I'll meet a contact before the seminar, make two good contacts during the seminar, and meet a contact after the seminar.
That's four face-to-face contacts for the price of two subway tokens!
Fail-to-Show
Of course some days (September 16th is a good example), there are FOUR events. I might make one in the morning and one in the evening. Or I might go to none.
My schedule is not a contract to the outside world; it is not an appointment book between me and you.
My schedule is a commitment to myself.
By taking half an hour each month to map out a plan, by writing it down, and by printing it out in tangible tokens of duty, I encourage myself to get out of my home office and meet people.
Face-to-face.

Who is Responsible?

Then there's the time you just have to cold-call some organization and try to make your way through switchboard-hell to locate a real person who might understand your call.
You definitely don't want to speak to anyone in HR.
And the CEO isn't prepped to pay any attention to you.
You want to speak to Robert Millings who is in charge of - whatever it is you'd like to promote.
Here's where a few well-chosen "niche" phrases come in handy.
Let's suppose I fancy myself as a go-getter when it comes to getting out-of-control projects back on track.
"Could you please tell me who is responsible for making sure that projects are completed on time?'.
"Could you please tell me who is responsible for making sure that computing projects are completed on time?'.
"Could you please tell me who is responsible for making sure that word-processing documents are up to corporate standards?".
Whatever it is that you do well, whatever reason you have for thinking that this organization will benefit from your knowledge and skills, you want the name of the person most likely to maintain an intelligent conversation at your level.
You won't always get the meeting, sad to relate, but at least you'll have a good idea of why you didn't get the meeting.
And that's better than a brush off with a voice-maul (sic!) to HR.

Two Sorts of Web Pages

The talk today was about web pages for novices.
My web site has two types (or groups) of web pages, each of the two types serves a different purpose, a different audience.
Store Front
First off I have my "Store Front" or "CEO" pages. These are the pages you see when you type in my web domain www.Chrisgreaves.com
Called "Store Front" because they are nice to look at, traditional, and warmly inviting. I hope. There's not a shred of technical stuff there. Nothing that would overwhelm a CEO, a CFO, or even a CIO.
Just plain good stuff; I'm a nice guy, I wear clean clothes, I provide solutions to business problems.
When I hand my business card to a CEO, they will see a nice corporate entity, and will, I hope, be encouraged to hear from me over the next few months.
Technical Stuff
Secondly I have my Technical Stuff, also known as "everything else".
Pretty well everything I write now gets uploaded to my web site. Blogs, training material, white papers, eBooks, applications software, Videos. Everything.
My theory is that a technical person, unlike a CEO, will use a search engine to search the web for a specific topic. They will find one of my pages and see instantly that I know the answer to their question, and they will contact me (or grab the material and remember me, which is almost as good).
Technical people and mid-line managers looking for a solution TODAY want to know that there is a solution available right now. "I see you do document conversion; we have 200,000 Word Perfect documents and I was wondering if …."
Technical people are happy wandering around, exploring, and are not hesitant to email or phone and get right to the point. They find me by a web search.
CEOs move slowly and ponderously and have minions to evaluate the technical aspects.
CEOs need to know only that they can get someone else to contact me and bring me in.

Canada News Wire

I've known of this for a couple of years, but this morning everyone went ooh-ah, so I thought I'd share it here.
[ Disclaimer: I wrote a little program to automate all this stuff, so I'm promoting it as a freebie, if you are interested. It is called Weather-Vain].
Canada News Wire, http://www.newswire.ca, is the source of news for many of Canada's daily papers. That's probably why so many stories are duplicated in content.
Each morning I run a little job that searches through all 250+ stories from yesterday and downloads them as text files to a named folder.
For any news story that satisfied MY criteria, a copy is placed in a separate folder.
Those special copies are then automatically "cleaned up" and turned into word-processing documents.
Every day; at first reboot; automatic; un-attended.
My criteria are:
· Must have at least one of Mississauga/Toronto in the body of text
· Must have at least one of CEO/CFO/CIO in the body of text
· Must have at least one of bank/financial/investment/pharmaceutical in the body of text
· Must have at least one of millions/billions in the body of text
You can see where my interests lie!
Out of 250 to 300 stories each day, I harvest 2 to 4 prospective clients.
Here's the good part: Most stories are ended with a "For more information contact" text, and the name most often given is the CEO of the company.
And the telephone number given is the direct line!
No, I'm not suggesting you call at 10:15 a.m. and say "I'm right by your place; wanna graba coffee?", but you are getting past switchboards and HR departments.
After all, the CEO wants a journalist to get any questions of qualifications handled right on a short deadline, so please call me for the truth.
Right!
What a contact list I have!
Assembled rapidly from the panel of spokesmen at the foot of every critical news item.
Plus I have a good topic of conversation handed to me on a platter.
So Do I Ever Call a CEO?

Prospecting for a Team

I know that I'm supposed to be prospecting for clients, but I've learned that I also must prospect for a team.
I can't do this by myself; I just don't know enough.
But in some of the networking groups are people who have trodden this path just before me, and other people who will tread my path.
I don't need any $1,000/hour consultants, but I sure can use bits of advice for other people in the same boat.
Just when I think I've got a pretty good deal on training facilities, Cheryl tells me of a place at 1/3 the price!
Just when I think I've got a handle on web design, Jim shows me just how professional I could look.
Just when I thing my applications install and run perfectly, Julia comes along and demonstrates that they don't.
And all these people help me along the way to do a better job with my image, and with selling myself to prospects.
It is a team effort, and we all seem to take turns with knowledge and tips'n'tricks.
I must prospect for a team and surround myself with useful support.
And be prepared to support them.

24 Hours in a Day

Given that I have to prospect, that is, to identify potential clients, how do I go about it?
All the usual stuff: specify criteria, search for those organizations (on the web, in hard-copy directories, by networking and so on) and once I have identified them, establish contact to build a relationship (telephone, mail, email or whatever), and so it goes.
I was told today to spend 70% of my time prospecting, that from every 100 contacts, 10 might respond, and 1 might lead to a sale; quantities may vary.
But 70% of what time?
I need one day a week, really I do, to go canoeing or to clean the kitchen floor. Or take books back to the library. Also laundry.
At best that leaves six days.
I ought to read in bed or sleep for seven hours, and making breakfast etc occupies at least another three hours. I have to live!
At best I have six 14-hour days to hand, but let us not kid ourselves – there's always the phone call from Bill or Norma, or solving a simple problem drags out to 45 minutes because at the other end they still don't know their way around Office 2007.
Bottom line, when I nut it all out, even using my automated web tools to glean 2 or 3 contacts from 250+ news items on Canada News Wire, I'd be lucky right now to churn out ONE well-built letter per day. By the time I've chosen the candidate, searched the web for more information, created the contact record, decided my primary product for a point-of-entry, drafted the letter, revised it etc, I'll get one prospect a day.
Perhaps when I've been doing it for a couple of months I'll get two a day.
In the meantime I'd do well to remember that each day has but 24 hours, and some are needed for eating, sleeping, and a 30-minute walk.
"70% of my time" starts to sound more like "5 hours".

What Makes Me?

Niche Marketing.
What a funny phrase. Who markets for a niche?
Oh.
I see.
Find your NICHE and then market to/into that niche!
So how do You discover your niche?
Easy!
Look back over the past five years, ten years at most and then answer two simple questions:
· 1) What work made you happy?
· 2) In doing that work, what makes you unique?
Whether working as an independent or working for a company, over the past five years, of all the jobs/projects you were assigned or adopted, which (of the paying!) ones were fun?
Those are the sorts of tasks at which you will probably be happy for the next five years.
Given that others were doing the same sort of project as you (albeit in Tucson AZ or Bismarck ND), why are you different?
· You live alone and start work at 3 a.m.?
· You have a sense of humor?
· Tenacity?
· You are "good with words", a "fast thinker"?
Roughly speaking, your niche is doing what you enjoy doing (and hence do well) for those organizations or individuals who appreciate your unique qualities.
Of all the projects going in this city, those that satisfy me (I love challenging puzzles, solving impossible problems, and working with lively open-minded people) and can use my tenacity and long experience are the jobs I want to get.
I am not interested in mundane repetitive work. I am not interested in by-the-book staff.
I need to look for tasks with which I can mesh my gears.

So Do I Ever Call a CEO?

Yup!
From my point of view any excuse will do, as long as it is a rational excuse.
I am a prospector, trawling Canada News Wire for leads.
This morning my automated procedure Weather-Vain picked up on an announcement by a gold-mining firm; I read the announcement, trotted off to their web site (as listed in the press release) and received the following screen:

Maybe a real-live reporter got there first, but one of my roles is a technical support guy, so why not call his direct line and leave a short voice mail?
He hears my name at the start and at the end of the message. I bring him something of value, news. Bad news, to be sure, but better he learns about it sooner than later.
And someone should be calling me back Real Soon Now!
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
The CEO called me back. We had a nice chat and established contact.

Needs of Networking Nerds

We meet once a month; a group of like-minded individuals of various grades of aptitude, learning how to get out there and make business.
I'm trying to launch a series of six business training modules, she is trying to find her niche, he is struggling to determine …
And in our month away from the group, we amass acres and acres of information, most of which we won't use.
We arrive at the monthly meeting with a sack full of needs and desires, most of which we won't, or won't be able to communicate to our colleagues.
· A table with 3-inch by 5-inch cards on which we could write, five words or less, what we need RIGHT NOW would serve us well.
Pay your dues, Get your name badge, Wander over to the table and write "Training Facilities Oakville" and your name and phone number.
While you are there, scan the other cards; if nothing else it's a good introduction to another member who must, by definition, be present at the meeting.
· As part of the group's announcements, the secretary reads, quickly, the cards. Should not take more than 30 seconds.
As your card is read, you SAY NOTHING to interrupt the flow, but you DO raise your hand, HIGH, so that anyone who happens to know about "Training Facilities Oakville" can identify "Cheryl Scoffield" at a glance, and pass them a business card later in the meeting.

I *Hate* These Web Pages

I finally got around to joining LinkedIn, but got as far as their dreadfully awful web page and am considering instead re-heating leftovers from last night's supper at The Montreal Deli.
I *hate* web pages that provide a menu of items, but do NOT offer it in list form.

The image shows the entry screen.
One has to scroll down a humungous list of possibilities one at a time.
LinkedIn does NOT allow me to make use of my eye/brain tool to scan quickly. (Maximize Every Window)
LinkedIn reduces me to the level of a scrolling robot.
Why do firms do this?
It is
· (a) unnecessary
· (b) wasteful of my time
· (c) error-prone (I'm more likely to pick something, anything, just to get ON with the process of registering)
· (d) insulting (to thinkers).
Maybe I'm upset because I haven't eaten .....

Corporate Or Personal?

Filing some papers this morning I discovered something about myself; more correctly, I discovered something about my attitude towards my business relationships.
I am doing business with many firms, some of them one-man firms.
Jim Maybee of eBusiness Solutions and Julia Wooster of Prime Admin Solutions.
Out with the hanging folders, plastic tabs, slips of paper, and I find myself writing "Jim Maybee" and "Julia Wooster" on the slips, rather than "eBusiness Solutions" and "Prime Admin Solutions".
Why is that?
I know all names well; they are equally accessible to my brain.
I think it is because my view of the world is people-oriented. I think of Jim and Julia as people who are helping me to achieve my goals, rather than as representatives of corporate entities.
So what happens with the larger firms with which I do business?
I know that the name of the firm is ESBE Scientific, but I still think of myself as doing business with Ari Pires.
I am not sure if this is knowledge, and if it is, I am not sure what to do with it (report it!).
I suspect it tells me that my attitude is indeed a warm person-to-person style, and that I am being ME if I maintain slightly-personal relationships with business.
In the long run it is why I feel comfortable greeting and thanking the bus driver, rather than treating them as an employee of the TTC.

How to Bill Members of Your Networking Groups

I put this forward as a suggestion only.

If your start-up business is still weak and you are worried about next month's rent, PAY THE RENT, don't take action on this – but do make a note to consider following this path when business picks up.

If your business is humming along, then please consider the positive impact on YOUR business that the following strategy might achieve.

I am, often enough, approached by members of my networking groups to perform a bit of computer maintenance, or document recovery and the like. I am known for my technical skills. You might be asked by friends, family and colleagues to create a small graphic in a familiar theme, or to proof-read a resume or a web page.

Your contact honestly want to pay you for your services, and that is good; they recognize that you have a skill that they lack, and that your services are of good value.

You feel a little (but not totally!) uncomfortable about Making Money off someone who improves your marketing efforts, encourages you at networking meetings, invites you over for supper when the pace if frenetic, and so on.

Their value is recognized by you, but it is NOT the mercenary value of their business route.

What to do?

Your contact wants to keep this action professional, as do you, but neither one of you wants to take advantage of the other.

Here's the suggestion:

Agree on the dollar amount, and take 10% of that amount. That's a whopping 90% discount. Let's say that document recovery would take 7 hours and I bill at $110/hour, yielding $770. Ten percent of that is $77. If your contact refuses to quibble and round sit up to $80, let them do that. The ten-percent was an arbitrary ratio anyway.

Then your contact pays you the $80, and you pay that immediately into your networking groups coffers for a cash door-price, guest memberships, or whatever the executive committee decides to do with it. That's not you decision, your decision is to turn it over to the group.

(if your contact is a domestic contact, shoot the money to your favorite charity, animal shelter, etc.).

What happens?

You and your contact have reinforced the value of your services. You really ARE worth $110/hour for what you do, and your contact respects you for delivering $770 of value to them.

You respect your contact and keep their sense of worth intact. Nothing so cheapens a relationship by a patronizing donation. You haven't turned your contact into a begging pauper; you have recognized them as a willing client.

The networking organization, of course, loves you both, and can state that the donation was made by two members (no names are used, of course) thus reinforcing for the organization, and for you all, the value of belonging and taking part.

All in, I can't see a downside to this approach.

We all feel good about paying for and being paid for services without feeling that anyone is taking advantage of anyone.

Our business relationship is worth much more than $693, and we all know it and confirm it this way.

Why I Don't "Bounce" Spam Emails

Some spam processors, MailWasher is an example, allow one to "Bounce" spam email back to the source.

I think the idea is to make the originator think that the purchased email address is poorly constructed (somewhat akin to the drug user finding that 30% of the white powder is talcum powder), and remove the email address from the list.

Whether the laundering takes place or not is unknown to us, but let us suppose that it is done.

The spam operates in the millions of addresses, so anything that can be done to increase the effectiveness is a Good Thing for the spammer.

Reducing the proportion of fake email addresses would therefore be a profitable exercise (given the millions of email addresses being processed), and if *I* were spamming people, I'd write an automated task to remove bounced emails from my mailing list.

But I'm smart, smart enough to know about spam filters (such as MailWasher) that bounce spam, so *I* would write an extra piece of code that compares the date-time I receive the bounce to the date-time I issued the spam.

If the difference is a matter of a couple of minutes, then the bounce might be a real bounce, and the email address might be a real fake (I love typing that!).

But if the difference is greater than two minutes, then chances are strong that a Real Live Human Being caused the bounce (e.g. because *I* emitted the email at midnight, but the bounce didn't take place until you sat down at 8 a.m. with your coffee), and so I should NOT purge the address; instead I should mark it as a prime "live" candidate, who sees my email and responds with an action.

If laundering via bounce does NOT take place, then bouncing is a pointless exercise.

If laundering via bounce DOES take place, then bouncing is a pointless exercise, because any spammer worth his/her/its salt is probably going to include a simple "lag time" test in the filtering code and ignore my bounce anyways.

(I am purposely ignoring the cost of bandwidth in bouncing emails)

Throughclock - Cool Tool for Prospectors

I rarely recommend software, but this has proved of value to me in my prospecting and contact phone calls so search the web for a copy of "ThroughClock", and install it if you want to experience what I feel.

The display can be customized, to an almost-transparent clock, positioned anywhere, and all the usual stuff.

Here's how it really helps me:

Voice-Mail

I dial a follow-up or a contact call and get their voice-mail.

I don't want to leave a voice-mail on this issue, so I tell ThroughClock to pop up a reminder every hour, and paste in as the message the contact name and phone number (with extension).

On the hour, the pop-up tells me in effect "Try again; they may be in!".

In a Meeting

Sometimes the person picks up the phone to say that they are in a meeting, call back tomorrow. Sure, What's a good time? Two o'clock.

ThroughClock is set for two-o'clock Friday, again with the name and number.

Batch Processing

If, like me, you have a contact list that displays names to be called ("follow-up") today, you can set one event on ThroughClock with the message "Follow-ups", which will remind you throughout the day to try all outstanding numbers again in an attempt to reach people between-meetings or between lunch breaks.

Cool Tool for prospectors.

Show Me the Money!

The proposal said "Prices in effect until August 21, 2009", and no cheque has arrived. I could use the money. What to do?

Three years ago I made the decision not to start work on a project until a cheque had been received, a deposit, at least. There is no future in agreeing to do a job for someone who doesn't have signing authority. That way madness lies, or at best, starvation.

So I phone Dan (not his real name) and am put through to Bill's extension (not his real name either). I call back and explain the mix-up and reception tells me it's no mistake, that "Dan has asked that all his calls be put through to Bill for the remainder of the week".

I thank her and hang up.

What to do?

It's a small firm and Dan is the owner. Chances are strong that something terrible has come up – death in the family – and I'd hate to be remembered as the guy who demanded his $550 cheque while Dan was at graveside.

On the other hand, Dan has already agreed that he has his heart set on this job; it's something he's been wanting for a long time.

I think I'll wait until Monday and call back. If I get to Dan, well and good.

If not, I can ask Bill to call me, and explain that Dan is not available (Bill knows that, so he'll agree) and that Dan told me to go ahead, but I am waiting on some things.

Like what?

The sample documents, the layout and – a deposit cheque.

What do I lose if Bill says he doesn't have the authority to go ahead? Nothing.

And in the meantime, I'm the guy who didn't let the ball drop. I have made the effort to help the business, even while the owner is away.

Breakfast Networking – a Stapled Diet

This is too good not to share:


What do you think?

Did I throw away the card, or did I keep it?

Head off to your local supermarket and see what non-perishable item you can get to staple to your business cards.

It better be appropriate!

What Do I Look Like to You?

So Ken is taking me out to lunch today, possibly as a "Thank You" for my making available to him, to use as he sees fit, a series of articles.

Ken will pick those articles which he feels improve the content of his email newsletter, and I will get some exposure.

I just KNOW that Ken will ask me "Can you give me a short bio or description of yourself?", and I, mouth full of Caesar salad, will shake my head; "No".

The best person to write the bio is Ken, because it is Ken's newsletter going out to Ken's clients, and surely no-one knows Ken's clients better than Ken.

Who speaks their language? Ken!

Who uses their vocabulary? Ken!

Who retains their interest? Ken!

I am arguably the worst person to write my Bio (of all the people Ken knows); my version would be pompous, arrogant, self-centered. and all the rest.

But Ken can describe me as he sees me, in words that his audience will understand.

That's the best portrayal I could hope for.

Procrastinating for Success

Yes, I know, "Do It Now!"

… but that isn't working!

I have 20 prospect folders lined up (The 1-6-10 Rule)

20 prospect folders in the pipeline.

The first one, ever, has resulted in a dialogue which ought to lead to a visit to head office – a good thing for me.

The second folder is bogged down – I just can't seem to get past the voice-mail obstacle.

I know that there are scripts and side-stepping techniques to overcome the voice-mail gateway, but I just haven't got around to developing those skills. Yet.

And yet, that second folder has been a barrier to me for two weeks now.

My solution?

Procrastinate.

I set the folder aside (or even shred its contents – is it that big a loss?) and move on to the third folder (now the second folder, of course), and get going again.

Apart from tournament play, it's no different from ignoring the golf ball and re-starting with a fresh golf ball. If your aim is to enjoy swinging the club and striding down the fairway chatting with friends, then get on and do that.

It's a golf ball.

Let it slowly rot in the swamp!

Reciprocal Marketing

If I have understood this right, I can do the manager of The Montreal Deli a favor by printing off a set of Gift Certificates that offer business people $250 off any of my training courses.

The Montreal Deli is a popular local diner that attracts local business people for breakfast and lunch on weekdays, traveling business people for supper on weekdays, and families and friends for breakfast, lunch and dinner throughout the week.

In this recession, business is dropping, although the regulars, like me, still use it as a convenient, cheap and quality place to meet. (And to mete out our dwindling cash reserves).

Armed with a set of Gift Certificates, which cost him nothing, the manager can present the bill to regular business clients with "We value your repeat business and we would like you to accept this certificate to the value of $250 with our compliments and thanks".

Santa Claus!

Total cost to me, cost of cards, ink, time to print them off on my laser printer.

If someone takes me up on the offer, they get me in front of a room full of staff for $750 instead of $1,000. Nice to save money in tough times.

And perhaps I'll get some new business.

Now suppose The Montreal Deli runs off a similar set of Gift certificates, for a five $20-off-your-next-meal at either of The Montreal Deli's two locations, and suppose I include one of those gift certificates with each invoice I mail out.

Total cost to The Montreal Deli , cost of cards, ink, time to print them off on my laser printer.

For each of us, no extra distribution costs; the manager is going to hand out the bill anyway; I'm going to use a postage stamp to mail out the invoiced anyway.

What's to lose?

Our markets are the same , and we are non-competing.

We both want to attract and retain the small and mid-size businesses that bring us in cash on a regular basis.

Time to Call it Quits?

I called the CEO and he said to call her. I did.

Over a period of a month I have made nine phone calls and sent two emails, all by request. The most recent phone call scheduled today at 2pm failed because of another emergency; I am re-scheduled for Monday 9:30, but am not optimistic.

This is an awful lot of time and effort being spent to arrange for me to deliver a free 15-minute demonstration at my expense.

What Are My Options?

(1) Abandon the effort to break into this firm. The CEO has sent me off to a dead-end contact who is not capable of making an agreement and sticking to it, who is rarely at the phone. My time would be better spent establishing prospects who are open to ideas.

(2) Call the CEO back and ask if there is another person I could deal with; offer to send him a link to the testimonials page; let him see that other people rave about it. If she is being recalcitrant, it's his job to get her moving, not mine.

(3) Call the CEO back and express regrets that I was not able to schedule a meeting with his staff. I get the satisfaction of shaking free, and he will never know what his company has missed.

(4) Stop offering free demos; prospects don't value them unless they have asked for them, in which case the onus is on them to schedule me, not me to chase them.

Now You can Have a Professional Email Address

· Is your email address Losing You Business? Probably.
· Does your business card spell "amateur" or "uncertain"? Probably.
· Are you taken seriously after your prospect glances at your business card? Probably NOT.
(10% reduction offer below)
A recent survey of my contact data base turned up 46 names with web-based email addresses using aol, gmail, yahoo, hotmail, rogers, bellnet or sympatico domains.
I took a closer look:
· I'm not Doing Business with any one of them!
Fifteen years ago, to have an email address was to be professional.
Today, to have an email address with a common-carrier is distinctly unprofessional. It shrieks of "I limped as far as my ISP and could go no further".
Would You Pay $9.95 to Build a Professional Image?
That's how much it costs to register your own domain (like www.ChrisGreaves.com) and start using a professional email address (like this):

See how easy it is? Even I can do it!
Get Rid of Your Transient Image Once And For all
When your business card offers a real domain name and a real email address, your prospect will immediately ask you "Can I learn more from your web site", and you will respond stating a specific page that you already know will intrigue your prospect, a page that you have created and you control.
What Everybody Ought to Know About Domains, Registration, Hosting And Email
Yes, scary stuff. Until five minutes ago.
We have put together a three-hour course that will take you from Blah to Wow!
In a single three-hour session you will choose and obtain your domain name and carry out every task essential to becoming a professional entrepreneur.
(10% reduction offer below)
What's in it for You?
We assume that you are intelligent, yet have no familiarity with the real world.
You are running your own business and have a limited budget.
You don't yet extend to a $5,000 web site solution from some high-paid consultant.
You CAN make some time to do-it-yourself.
And you'd like to be in control.
Just like me.
How Practical is it?
YOU will be expected to bring a credit card, because YOU are going to sit at a computer and key in all the details. YOU are going to choose YOUR own domain. YOU are going to submit YOUR credit card details. YOU are going to obtain a Web Hosting service. YOU are going to create YOUR first Home page, and YOU are going to upload that home page to YOUR web host.
At the end of the session, I am going to send YOU an email, to YOUR new professional address from YOUR new professional web page.
And at the end of three hours, on the way out the door YOU are going to shake my hand, look me in the eye, and say "Thank YOU".
· I promise.
10% Reduction Offer
If you would like to receive a coupon for 10% off your first course, please email us your mailing address and we'll pop a coupon in the mail to you straight away. It's that easy to SAVE!

Found! By the Search Engines

So, how long does it take?

It varies.

This morning my narrow search for myself brought results:



When I set up a new series of web pages or a new URL, I place a Google Search in my Daily news set, so that each morning I monitor (or more correctly, "Mozilla Firefox monitor's for me") whether I am found or not.

This morning for the first time I was FOUND!.

I launched Indxr.CA on the 2nd of October and I am found on the 24th, say three weeks.

My shortest I can remember is ten days, but I can live with three weeks.

You will have noticed that my search terms are VERY narrow and that they include a series of key words which (series) is probably unique to my page.

Of course no one will go looking for "The Indxr Web page Aardvark …"; This search is designed with only one purpose: to let me know when I CAN be found.

It does not mean that I have invested the page with sufficient oomph TO be found by my target market.



When I remove my "Special keywords" I am relieved to find that I still show up as the ONLY match when my page title is enclosed in quotation marks, that is, is found as a string of words.



When I remove the quotation marks, I don't appear in the top page.

That tells me that I need to do SOMETHING to have Google (or other search engines) rank me higher.

Either pay Google money (yes!) or add keywords or get more folks linking to me. The theories are as numerous as my friends and colleagues.

I note with passing interest that over 22 MILLION results are available.

How humbling.




Down at the bottom of the first page some encouragement:

First, I'm the number one video!

Second, Google has given me some ideas for other keywords to place in my home page and other documents




Over at YouTube, a similar standing mechanism tells me that still, no-one there has looked at my video. Sigh!

YouTube like Google offers me some hints as to what may help me to be found.



Finally, a second standing search tells me that my YouTube video ranks higher than my home page!

Probably because my home page lacks the keywords of the video.

A quick fix would be to augment my home page with keywords from the video posting.

But note again the theories about which search engines use the meta-tag "keywords", and which don't!

Your Name {Here}!

A good day.
I have been invited to submit some articles on a regular basis to a technical paper. It's not the first time, but it has been a long time since ….
"Anything to do with enterprise IT" says The Editor, and I will comply.
My work rarely involves the latest buzz-words, so my first task was to research what people are talking about.
I have amassed a short list: Enterprise, Information Technology, Enterprise IT, Enterprise Architecture, Cloud Computing, Looking At the Bigger Picture, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Infrastructure, Crucial Data. The list is not endless, but it may as well be.
Crucial Data got to me.
What data is not crucial?
If you own data that is not crucial, why are you hanging on to it?
I liked the joke that circulated three weeks ago "According to recent reports, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are going to merge. The new network will be called YouTwitFace.com.", but I have doubts that The Editor would entertain that.
Everything else seems to be old hat with a new name.
Enterprise is, after all "Between-Take", if you look closely. An entre-preneur is an in-between-taker, a middleman; not very productive except as a link between two parties who would like to exchange assets. My friend Howard shuttles between clients who want printing done and print-shops that do it. Who needs Howard anyway?
Information Technology reminds me of Ian Sharpe, and his definitions: We Process Data to get Information. There was a nice diagram with "Data" on the left, "Information" on the right, and a big fat arrow pointing from left to right. Above the arrow was "Process". Made sense to a functioning mathematician like me. I don't use an IBM 407 any more. The technology has changed. New skills. So what? I don't program in FORTRAN II any more. Soon VBA will be passé, if it isn't already so.
Architecture sounds a lot like Design: what we didn't do forty years ago until we learned that we had to.
Cloud Computing is still a bit of a struggle. My Dad told me in 1959 that HIS dad, a headmaster, had the first crystal set on the street. Big deal! In Southern Cross 1959 I listened to the AM wireless (I never understood that because we had to plug it into the wall), and wanted one of those tinny little transistor radios that Ron Roccicielli had. Now the wireless comes by cable or DSL, I know, because Jazz FM 91.1 tells me to browse to their radio station. But I don't. I have 20+ gigabytes of music playing on an old Big Beige Box 24 hours a day. No announcers, no commercials. But with 20 gigabytes, lots of surprises!
Looking At the Bigger Picture is obvious once you start moving out of a cubicle. In a cubicle your job is to transfer ideas to punched-card coding-forms and compile the program. Outside of the cubicle but in the same room, your job is to make sure that all the cubicles talk to each other, and deliver a, well, a deliverable upstairs once a month. Upstairs, of course, the job is just to see who is behind schedule, aggravate them, and then go for lunch and/or a round of golf – the weather's lovely today.
Time for my bike-ride.

You Won't Be Hearing from Me Soon

While researching for my latest postcard print run I came across a cute page at Canada Post about personalized postage stamps.
No longer need Elizabeth Windsor smile at you – you could receive mail from me with my grinning face staring off to one side.
What the heck! For just $24.95 you can upload a picture of your choosing and get 20 domestic-rate stamps.
Domestic-rate stamps are on special at Cloverdale Mall. 10% off a book of ten stamps. Pay only $48.6 instead of $5.40.
Let me rephrase that – instead of paying regular price of 54c to mail your letter, you could pay $1.25, possibly plus tax plus tax, but at least your face gets recognition.
Why not!
Off to http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/personal/productsservices/atoz/picturepostage.jsf we go, read what's there, then to visit the Picture Postage website with its simple 3-step process.
Step 1: Upload your picture.
I click on "Get Started' and am presented with a window that says "You need Java to run the program that will help you design your stamp."
All Capitals.
Bright Red.
What is Grandma going to do when confronted with this? Call Grandpa in from the back porch?
I am puzzled that I, of all people, need to follow a 5-step procedure to install Java. I am on the web all-day every-day, and am twiddling all sorts of web pages, but perhaps Canada Post know more than I.
It is possible.
I decide to
1) Go to http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index_jdk5.jsp and download JDK 5.0 Update 13
2) Accept the licence agreement.
3) On the download page, click the red arrow adjacent to Windows Offline Installation, Multi-language (jdk-1_5_0_13-windows-i586-p.exe, 51.42 MB).
4) This will download the executable file to your machine. Once the download is complete, double-click this file to start the installation.
And 5) Continue to Step 1.
But sadly, the first step produces a page which bears little resemblance to my expectations in steps (2) and (3).
I call the toll-free number 1-866-742-7678 and speak with an excited young thing who seems to have no idea about the web page, the conflicting instructions, or to care about a customer who is confused.
Her advice: "Just mail the picture in to me and I'll send the stamps to you".
This blows the whole online scam^H^H^H^H scheme out of the water.
Whatever happened to Step 2 "Edit your picture to fit the frame of your choice."?
Whatever happened to impulse buying, and ordering a second or third set once I found out how easy it is?
I hung up the phone, closed my browser, and went back to work.

Waste Not, Want Not!

(Another use for "useless" prospects)

I get the prospect, a assemble the dossier, I work on my plan-of-approach, using the story of the press release to segue into my abilities.

Then I get the contact details – the address of the firm.

And discover it is just a TEENY bit of a way outside my target market area. But still a local phone call.

I was tempted to toss the paper into the shredder and start on the next prospect.

Then I thought: "Why not have a shot at getting a meeting with them anyway; the worst that can happen is that you'll get a call to visit them".

The best that can happen is that I won't get a call – but will have been able to sacrifice them on an experimental script.

These "useless" prospects may be just what I need as I get started; an arena to hone my skills.

Rethinking Prospecting

This morning I rethought my strategy for prospecting. (Please see Time to Call it Quits?).

My method of obtaining the identity of a prospective company is till valid and works well. (Please see The 1-6-10 Rule).

I am getting bogged down in the major objective of a face-to-face meeting with the prospect.

I think that my plan of a phone call leading to an email leading to a visit is wrong.

I should plan a phone call leading to a visit, and cut out the email, unless they specifically ask me for it.

This means that I will not be wasting time making follow-up calls on unlikely prospects, but can instead make my calls as rapidly as I make the calls to Communications people about my 1-click Indxr.

There still needs to be done the research and dossier to obtain data about the company, and I still need a script.

The difference is that for each prospect I will get a much better idea faster and sooner of whether or not it might lead to short-term business contact. There's nothing to stop me maintaining the prospect on a list for regular mailings; I just won't be spending time crafting a careful email if there's no need to do so.

So now my aim is to generate, for each prospect, a customized script that will, within 60 seconds or less, get the President, CEO, CFO or CIO to think positively about having me in for a chat. And I'll be convincing the President, nit a mid-level manager who has little interest in the profits of the company.

Ask not for whom the BELL tolls …

BELL tolls me.
Or taxes my patience.
They haven't actually got RID of Emily; they just told her to stop telling everyone her name
"Hi! I'm (chirpy) Emily and I'm here to help (chirpily) you (in my twit-like voice) ...."
This morning I uncovered a July 6 bill for ~$100
I look through the 5 pages (3 double-side sheets) looking for a real number (I have problems with the 416-301-GRAB and 416-301-PAIN convention) and dial 416-310-2355.
The real number is on the back of page 1 and could have fit quite easily onto the front of page 1.
I mean, using both sides of the sheet makes it look like they are serious about saving paper, right?
But putting everything on Page 1 wouldn't hurt, would save me flipping paper and really WOOD(sic) cut down on paper.
They would have fitted their 5 pages (3 sheets) onto 4 pages (2 sheets).
A 33% increase in trees across Ontario right there!
But I digress.
"To help us better please key in your ten-digit phone number."
I do so, KNOWING that they are going to ask for it again.
"Please choose one of the following four options"
Could they be anything BUT following? There's a 16% saving in that sentence alone.
But I pick nits.
I elect to cut the cackle (operative syllable "cack") and press zero.
That always works.
But not with BELL.
"Before I transfer you to a live representative (as distinct from a dead one?), please select one of the following options ..."
Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh!
If I wanted to press buttons I'd go to the new casino in Niagara Falls.
I just pressed zero to escape BELL hell.
I press zero again.
At last!
Polly (not her real name!) asks if she can help.
Yes, I just want to know my current balance so I can pay it.
"May I have your phone number?"
See!
She wants to know where I live (Fair enough; there's little to be gained in giving out an account balance unless you are sure that the criminal mind was smart enough to steal the sheet of paper with the victim's address, or use the 411-reverse lookup on the web ....)
She also performed a sobriety test, asking me to read back the long account number (printed near the top of the page) with no formatting or spacing to break it up. You know, the old 8367590274062728456 convention.
(there follows a bit more scripted conversation on her part until ...)
I cut her short.
I just want to know my current balance so I can pay it.
"Oh.
$100.15"
Thanks.
"Is there anything else I can do to help you today?"
I am nothing if not a fast thinker.
$100 is FIVE PAIRS of "Caesar salad with grilled chicken and a pot of tea" for two at The Montreal Deli.
That's lunch (or supper) for two, five times over!
I said "Yes there is", and once she had issued the mandatory anticipatory breath I said "Pay it for me".
She declined, so we both experienced hang-ups.

Another Good-News Story

How the World is NOT Supposed to Work

When you subscribe for services using a credit-card and find that you no longer want or need those services, your telephone requests are ignored, your email requests are ignored, and your written letters asking for a response are ignored.

Your credit card is "dinged" with a series of never-ending $10 charges, any one of which could be shrugged off as the cost of a Small Caesar salad with grilled chicken AND a pot of tea at The Montreal Deli, but taken all together, the amounts add up, and besides, it is not very nice being involved in a relationship with someone who just can't take NO for an answer.

I shan't mention the company's name, because that would only embarrass the folks at www.Netfirms.ca.

Or there again, it probably wouldn't embarrass them at all, given their track record.

How the World IS Supposed to Work

When you phone People's Trust (who will probably blush with embarrassment at this unbridled enthusiasm), you get to speak to a nice lady, "June" I think, who listens patiently until you run out of breath, asks a few questions, and then transfers you to Angela, who asks a few questions, solicits Netfirm's phone number, and starts a 3-way conversation.

Well, 2-way, actually, because by the time I get joined in Netfirms is already conceding defeat.

If I understand what happened, Netfirms has agreed to refund $60 to my account, has agreed to an immediate stop to any future transactions, and the Netfirm's clerk is sounding like a recalcitrant 10-year old.

Angela is starting to sound like a much more forceful mother than I ever had, and I start to tremble that once Angela has finished with Netfirms, Angela will turn to me and tell me to tidy my room.

Once Netfirms is off the line, Angela wraps up the conversation with me, and I realize that for the first time, I am leaning my back against the back of my chair.

I tell Angela this, that I am aware of my body-language going from tense-and-hunched-over to relaxed.

I wish that People's Trust did domain registrations and web hosting.

I really do!

Also furniture, meals, taxis - the lot!

LinkedIn; Is it Working Yet?

I continue to be bombarded by well-meaning well-wishers who claim that LinkedIn is the professional entrepreneur's best friend.

I continue to use LinkedIn to inspect profiles of the staff and executives of large corporations.

I continue to find that in so many cases (OK, perhaps 1 in 5) the person I'm seeking, listed as working for that company, is "no longer with us".

I continue to fail to believe that there are that many deaths in industry, especially since most senior executives now seem to be younger (and fitter!) than me.

What's going on?

I believe that the recession takes its toll, executives and managers are laid-off, and quite apart from having more important things to do, have it in their best interests to "forget" to update the LinkedIn profile.

Who is going to head-hunt for someone whose profile (like the resume!) says effectively 'Up until nine months ago I was VP in charge of global buying at Boodarockin Enterprises, but I haven't been able to sell my meager skills since then", especially when that gap grows larger by one month every month.

Remember This

The LinkedIn profile is there to serve the owner of the profile, not the user.

Beware!

Web-Mail Backlash

Another good reason for establishing a corporate email address as distinct from a GMail, AOL, Rogers, Sympatico Or Yahoo account):

Take a trip to http://www.varicent.com and try to download one or more of their white papers.

The submission form detects obvious web-mail domains such as gmail.com and asks instead for a corporate email address.

Fair enough. They are delivering to you the results of their hard work; you pay with a real email address.

Traps for young players: The form is reset with the "Yes, I want to receive periodic email updates from Varicent" box checked ON, so if you have a corporate email address, by default, if you are not careful, you are going to receive emails you may not want.

Of course, if your only emails are mailto:me@yahoo.com, you aren't going to be taken seriously by this firm, and that applies not only to your request for white papers, but also to any email communication you may engage in regarding your services.

Two for the Price of One

Have you ever worried about over-emailing your prospects?

Do you have a list of contacts who should be "touched' once a month, and yet you don't know what to say to them?

Consider getting the job done, and getting it done in half the time.

Many of the marketing gurus stress the need to establish connections with other people, "It's WHO you know", which is why we attend networking events and collect business cards.

I have heard that a great way to establish new relationships is to listen to a newcomer at an event, and then offer to introduce them to another member where there is a sound basis for a relationship.

"So you're in Graphic Design? I'd like you to meet a colleague of mine who is a Print Broker. I'm sure that you two have a lot in common".

The same must be true of emails.

If you feel that it is too soon after the most recent touch-you telephone call, consider hunting out someone else in your contact list who might benefit from the contact, and then put the two in touch with each other by email.

I mean, really, it's just another excuse for an email, right? "Ken meet David; David, meet Ken" (Thinks: "There! I've given TWO people value with ONE email" (lies back in contentment ...).

Give Us This Day Our Daily Blog

I dined (Boston Pizza) with two colleagues last night.

One told me that she started a blog years ago and made one posting. Blogs are not her thing; she is very good at getting her face, name and story into the media at least once a week; TV, radio and newsprint.

The other told me that she posted only once a month because she felt she had so little to say.

Here's my take

(1) A blog entry such as this should take not more than 5 minutes to write.

(2) Use spell-check and eyeball the content, then ship it out the door. It's a blog entry; it's not a $10,000,000 governemnt(*) contract. The people who read your blog will forgive the odd typo. Ignore the baiters

(3) The only people who are going to read your blog are those who feel they can learn something from you; they have therefore already defined themselves as someone who knows less than you; therefore by definition you know more than them. So write what you know. You readers, by definition, won't know what you know. Until you tell them.

(4) Be as specific as you like; a human village is about 200 souls; our brains have evolved to accommodate that many unique identities. There are 7,000,000,000 of us on the planet. Write for your villagaers(*) who love you, not for faceless strangers who don't care to know you.

(5) Write daily. The has to be something that happened to you today. (If not, then get out of bed, shower, dress neatly and face the crowds). No entrepreneur's day is boring. If you aren't meeting a new situation every day, do something about THAT (See? Even realizing that you did nothing novel yesterday is newsworthy!)

(*) Really; how bad is that?

Management Measures – Part 2

… and while we are at it …
Bob Bly (http://bly.com/blog/online-marketing/the-twuth-about-twitter/) came up with this today:
And by positive ROI, I DON’T mean “I now have 1,200 new Twitter followers” or “my latest tweet drove 878 new subscribers to my blog” or other soft metric nonsense. I mean “Twitter generated online sales of X dollars” or “Twitter got me a new account with a $3,500 monthly retainer.”
Bingo!
It isn't just about quantifiers.
It's about Quantifiers that matter.
Quantifiers that define an end-of-game goal.

Strategy vs. Tactics

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/08/when-tactics-drown-out-strategy.html
"Tactics are easy to outline, because we say, "I'm going to post this." If we post it, we succeed. Strategy is scary to outline, because we describe results, not actions, and that means opportunity for failure"
I am grateful to Seth Godin for this memorable quote.
It's the best differentiation between Strategy and Tactics I've read.
I hope it works for you too!

More Freebies than I can Shake a Phone at!

I have previously spent some time looking around for free items that I can use to issue to clients. Indxr is one such tool, Color another, ZoomP a third.

Today I realized that my clarified pool of contacts is a source of many freebies that I can use as an excuse to "touch" a contact yet again.

Jim's business is Policy and Procedures Manuals; I would like to call Harry, but I have nothing new of mine since my last call.

Harry is an administrative manager. I can call Harry and tell him that I have a new contact who may be of some benefit, and would it be alright if I put him in touch?

Sure!

Harry gets a potential supplier, and Jim is grateful to me for the contact.

Achieving The Goal

I don't want you to think that is difficult.



This is a carefully-posed picture of my desktop.

Paper and pencil.

I have taken the Ontario Pension Board as my Hot Prospect of the day.

In assembling the dossier I came across lengthy reports with no Indexes .

I also came across a news report that described the re-writing of an employer manual by Lisa Thompson of Information Mapping Canada .

I decide to phone Lisa for a 60-second chat to establish a time for a 15-minute meeting-by-phone (during which I hope to sell her on a meeting & demo). Lisa is a good referral to me, for I have the Carswell Business Publication available to me.

Lisa's voice mail recommends I call Chris MacMillan; I do and he suggest I email Jim Purdy and Chris agrees to be cc'd on the first email.

If at this stage you are thinking I must be fearless, you are right; but I was once fearful, just like you, and a month or so of making the calls has given me the confidence to know that strangers aren't enemies, and that most business people are reasonable, rational, and will tolerate a 6-second telephone enquiry when the purpose (to obtain an email) is stated up front.

The Information Mapping Canada web site provides me with Names and Job Titles . Now I know who I am dealing with.

Back to the sheet of paper and pencil. I have all the data I need to make my move.

Here is the text-version of my hand-scribbled notes:

Goal:

Get to meet & demo with Jim Purdy and Chris MacMillan.

(1) Demo the power of Indxr

(2) List & describe my other documentation tools.

Objectives:

(1) (dossier)

(2) Phone call to sell email

(3) Email to sell a 15-minute conference call

(4) Phone call to set up an on-site meeting

(5) Meet & Demo

Now of course my ultimate goal is take $000's off either OPB or IMC, that is, to do business with them, so the Goal stated above is a subsidiary goal, but it represents a milestone worth celebrating with an ice-cream cone.

I have completed steps 1 and 2.

Now I must compose a brief email based on (a) the facts in my dossier (b) the benefits I have to offer and (c) a statement that I will make a follow-up call to establish a conference call date and time.

That is a short email, and all it need do is prepare them for my follow-up call.

The meeting and demo is easy; I'm good at that.

Set up the laptop, open a document, click once, and smile.

When the Answer is NO

I have just got off the phone with a fellow-member of a networking group.

I have noticed him at meetings, sitting, smiling, talking to no-one when everyone else is chatting before the meeting and during the break.

My first clue was his business card, run off on an inkjet printer and the ink smudged.

I called him this morning as a follow-up chat, since we had sat at the same table.

His view of the networking group is myopic. He is, he states, there to find someone who will prospect and market and sell for him; he offers 20% commission.

Basically he wants to hire a sales & marketing staff, part time, at no risk to him.

Oddly enough, his view of the group is that they are all there to sell marketing.

That was the bell-ringing red-flag-waving signal.

If you are here to find someone to do the non-technical side of your business, and if you think everyone here is trying to do it for you, how come you haven't hooked up with someone after all this time?

To every suggestion, his answer is "No"; there are no maybes; there is no hint of "Well I'll give it a try".

There is no risk-taking at all from his side.

There is no hope that can be realized without risk.

It is true in Love, it is true in business.

I hung up the 'phone …..

Blogging Bonus

As you may know (if you are reading this contemporaneously) I am experimenting with parallel blogging – recording my diary in both web pages and a blogging vehicle.

To my delight this morning, the blogger engine told me about a superfluous "slash" character in some part of my HTML.

You don't need to know anything about HTML to know that there is a difference between "Comment on this article /a" and "Comment on this article \ /a"

Yes, that's right; for weeks now there has been a coding error in my "Contact Me" hyperlink at the foot of my web pages.

And how is anyone going to contact me if the hyperlink doesn't work because of that errant slash-character?

An unexpected second-opinion or proof-reading from a very popular tool!

How to Make Money Out of Networking

Think about this:

At your local peer networking events you meet with self-employed consultants just like yourself.

You each have marketable skills, and seek a way to improve your business position by finding ways to sell your skills to paying clients.

We have already established that you’ll not get rich from folks who grudgingly pay $10 to get a cup of coffee and a chance to chat with you. Again.

Here are two events from yesterday:

I met with Rick Shea and we spent three hours coming up with an idea that we hope will launch his business into a revenue-maker, and will involve me in the back-end of the scheme. Together we make a very powerful business model out of a good but unsupported business.

I am not denigrating Rick. If you like, “I can help Rick by producing computer stuff that makes Rick’s package do-able”.

I chatted with Alison Silbert on the phone. We appear to be on the brink of a scheme that will marry my computer talents to her marketing skills. She will generate revenue from a service to business clients, and I will make revenue from streaming to her the information she needs to tap each client on the shoulder.

In both cases I am meeting with a fellow networker, and rather than taking money from them, I am making money with them.

In Rick’s case, we are “in it together”; we present a single face to the world, the Rick-and-Chris team that help you measure your impact.

In Alison’s case we operate as a chain that starts with a vast source of data, passes through me to produce information of value to Alison, and then passes through Alison to be of value to her clients.

I’m not taking money off Rick; I am taking money of Alison, but only the money that she is getting from her clients as a result of my efforts,.

Do you see the difference?

How NOT to Make Money Out of Networking

Think about this:

At your local peer networking events you meet with self-employed consultants just like yourself.

Most of you are working out of the home office, eating rice, pasta, or whatever your situation is.

You are out there looking for business, and …

Business is the exchange of two pieces of paper, one of which must be a cheque.

Neither you nor I want to part with our money, we want to GET money, and since none of us wants to part with our money, spending time at, or after, a networking event trying to persuade a fellow consultant to part with money is a futile waste of time, and an insult to your joint intelligence.

Stop reading for a few seconds, and add up, roughly, how many thousands of dollars you have made from your peer networkers over the past year.

That was easy, wasn’t it?

And if you spent even one MINUTE trying to earn zero dollars, then by definition, that minute was a total waste of time.

Tomorrow: How to Make Money Out of Networking

Why I Don’t Read the Newspapers

It has been many years since I bought a printed daily newspaper.

I am in the habit of scanning five daily newspapers via the web and reading some stories.

But since I started my automated scan of Canada News Wire I find I am less and lest interested in the muggings and house fires , and more interested in what’s going on in business.

I think that this is a good thing.

For starters, I probably ought not be skimming the local and international press during business hours when I could be phoning or meeting with people.

I don’t need any other reason than that, do I?

I understand more now the people reading The Financial Times on the subway. They aren’t poseurs at all. I should be meeting with them.

The Bootlegger

… is still with us.
I have formatted and encrypted Margaret’s new external drive; I have backed up her existing drive C: installation to a folder in the external drive; I have formatted drive C: and used the non-Microsoft Windows CD which she obtained by pestering the computer salesman.
But where is Microsoft Office?
Not on her laptop; because there is no CD in her kit; because the salesman didn’t supply one.
He dropped a mirror of an installation on her new laptop a year ago; she obtained the Windows XP CD by pestering him a fortnight ago, at my suggestion.
Now she faces a trip back to the store to pester him for the office CD.
Assuming he believes her when she says she paid for it.
Assuming she still has the invoice and it specifies that she purchased Office XP.
Otherwise Margaret is yet another victim of a scam whereby a store sells a laptop computer “With Windows and Microsoft Office installed”, but is not prepared to package the original or certified copies of the CDs.
I believe that the store bets that only 1 in 100 customers will ask for the masters; most customers will trash the laptop after three years and purchase a new one because “this laptop is too slow for today’s work” (rough translation: “I don’t believe in regular maintenance”).
Of those customers that return to the store to pay to have the computer fixed, most will be happy to get their computer back with the mirror reinstalled, their data gone, and their wallet $250 lighter.
Here comes the bottom line:
At 4 p.m. on Friday afternoon, there is no way Margaret can reach the store before it closes. The store is closed weekends. Monday morning is the earliest she can confront the guy, and even then he may weasel out of the deal.
Margaret has lost her weekend, that’s for sure!

The Daisy Chain

More thoughts on networking: I attended another networking meeting this morning - a breakfast meeting, about 20 members and 20 visitors.
20 visitors is a captive audience.
I listened as each member stood up and gave their elevator speech (after which the visitors did likewise), and realized that one could put on quite a show if one daisy-chained the businesses.
For example, when buying/selling a house, finance is involved, also moving, then decorating, and so on.
The real estate guy could give the elevator speech, and then pass to the finance gal, who gives her elevator speech and passes to the house-moving and storage guy who hands off to the landscape gardener who hands off to the interior decorator who passes the baton to the housewarming party caterer, who … well, at this point you get the idea.
I pass it on to you.

Strike that Meeting?

· Yes, the strike is still on.
· Yes the networking group announced closures at three locations, but not the fourth.
· Yes, I went to the meeting at the fourth location.
· Yes it was closed.
· Yes I spent an hour traveling for nothing.
Whether you are for or against the strike, you are FOR the networking meeting.
Just because someone is on strike, we don’t let our business relationships slide into the pit.
I continue to be puzzled that the organizers of today’s (and tomorrow’s, and tomorrow’s …) meeting don’t post a contingency plan on the web site: “The meeting presentation will not take place, but you can still build relationships by making your way to Druxy’s Deli on the North side of the street”.
· Druxy’s will love the extra business.
· Networkers cherish a chance to build new business relationships.
· And the organization maintains momentum.
But sadly, today, they have not demonstrated “Improvise, Adapt and Overcome”.
Business have to if they are to survive.

The Mountain and Mohammed

Two issues here
Issue One
I delivered two days training last week, and at the end of the course confirmed the spelling of the names of all attendees, printed the certificates and mailed them off.
Two days later an email from my client “You forgot to sign the certificates”.
She is right, I did.
I don’t feel like asking the client to expend resources on my mistake, so I have rented a car for Friday to drive 45 minutes west, sign 12 certificates with a regular ball-point pen, and that’s it.
An Eighty-Dollar mistake, and one I had better learn.
All is not lost.
I emailed a client on the OTHER side of town and set up a lunch date; they agreed. So I’ll get a bit more use out of the car rental - a face-to-face meeting with a client I would not otherwise meet.
Issue Two
I attended a seminar this week and exchanged business cards with about six attendees. One telephoned me today, “Let’s meet to let me show you what I have to offer. How is your schedule?”.
My schedule is free, but I don’t own a car (see “Issue One” above), and I don’t feel like spending an hour each way on Public Transit to have someone try to sell me something.
Since my potential supplier lives downtown and drives to work alongside a major highway, I suggested that she drive to me and I’d buy breakfast, lunch or an early supper. We could discuss business over a casual meal.
No go.
She doesn’t do business that way; it is “sit down with paper and pencil”, which is, coincidentally, how I like to do business.
After some cajoling I wheedled a concession from the person who’d like to take my money, that we might arrange a meal at some unspecified date in the future, when, if she is in the vicinity on other business, she could kill two birds with one stone.
And I’m paying for the meal. No problems there.
Conclusion
Whether they request it or not, it seems to me that is the seller’s responsibility to adapt to the buyer’s requirements.
If adaptation can not be achieved, then the two parties are probably too far apart to do business.

The World’s Best Support Line

Now this you HAVE to do:
Dial the free line to Hostgator.com (1-866-96-42867) during peak business hours and get put on hold!

Learn how to handle support calls.

I dialed at 11:28 a.m. this morning, chose Tech Support, and was rewarded with a recording that said “There are 16 callers ahead of you.”. Now normally that’s enough to make me postpone the call until, say, 3 a.m., but the music that clicked in was soft classical music, soothing to the worried brow.
And what a tension-wracked time this is - I need to transfer eight domains from scattered (and scatter-brained) servers across the face of the earth to one site. Not a task I perform regularly, and so a task in which I fear making any kind of mistake.
Less than a minute later the pleasant voice came on again this time to say “There are 14 callers ahead of you. Your estimated wait time is 10 minutes”.

Think about that!

I can leave the ‘phone on the desk and go pour myself a cup of coffee.
Less than a minute later the pleasant voice came on again this time to say “There are 12 callers ahead of you. Your estimated wait time is 10 minutes”.

Think about that!

If their previous experience is correct, I can leave the ‘phone on the desk and go pour myself a cup of coffee AND water the rhubarb on the balcony.
Less than a minute later the pleasant voice came on again this time to say “There are 12 callers ahead of you. Your estimated wait time is 9 minutes”.

Think about that!

HostGator is working WITH me to help me to get the most out of my day.
Time In line Wait (minutes)
11:28 16
11:29 14 10
11:30 12 10
11:31 12 9
11:32 11 9
11:33 10 9
11:33 9 8
11:33 8 8
11:34 7 7
11:34 6 7
11:35 5 6
11:35 4 5
11:36 3 4
11:36 2 4
11:37 1 NEXT
The table above logs the story.
I must tell you that around 11:35 when I was 5th in line, a frisson of excitement shot through me; I felt much as I did in high school at examination time when the examining teacher would announce “In two minutes time you may turn your papers over and start work”.
I was not under test, of course, but “the moment of truth” was drawing close.
If anyone from HostGator reads this, I’d appreciate it if you could track down the extremely patient and helpful “Barbara” who listened to me, and gave me the information I needed.

I was tempted to offer her a job in my office.

After the Networking Meeting

It was a good meeting; I learned something from the speaker and exchanged a few business cards, had one inquiry about something I do. I came home, typed up my notes and now stare at a small stack of cards.
I will enter them into my contact list but then what?
The speaker talked about “getting people on your list”, and emailing them something of value.
What on earth do I have of value to these few people?
What do I have in common with them?
Well, we were all at the same meeting, so why don’t I email to them a copy of my notes?
They might appreciate some recorded ideas that they missed, or they might just appreciate getting something over and above the generic “It was good to meet you” text.

No Fixed Address

Do you do business with people who do not have a brick-and-mortar address?
I was about to add a recent contact to my contacts data base, name, phone, email, address - you know the drill - when I discovered that I could not locate their address.
I don’t mind that there is no address on the business card - after all, The Primary Purpose of a Business Card is to Get the Other Person to Phone You!
My contact has two major web sites, neither one of which offered an address, not even a post office box number.
I am aware that some of my contacts use a fake-office - the downtown address where calls can be taken, meeting space booked, and mail forwarded, but I figure even there, there is some sort of hard link to the real person, if only through the rental contract.
I’ve ignored contacts with flimsy cards, a cell phone number only, and a postal code that Google Maps says is a downtown hotel. I figure that’s a room rental for a few weeks to see if the business has potential before moving on to the next city.
My business is personal. I’m a very flexible hard-working one-man show.
My business relationships are based on me and another person, usually a representative of another company with an office site, warehouse, industrial facility or similarly visible structure.
Some of my contacts are just like me - one man shows operating electronically out of a home office. That’s OK too. I understand that. I live it!
I don’t need your home address; my business is not that personal, but somehow I feel I need to know that there is something to touch.
How about you?
Do you do business with people who do not have a brick-and-mortar address?