The 1-6-10 Rule – How Did it Work?

Just one month ago I wrote The 1-6-10 Rule .

This morning I had need to search my contact database for a special-purpose and to my delight discovered that the most-stale contact was dated the 8th October, 2009.

Just one calendar month ago!

What does this mean?

(1) Every one on my contacts list was "touched" by me sometime in the past month. In most cases we chatted by phone. In a very few cases, someone I've known for 20 years, I just shot off an email announcing Indxr.ca .

(2) Every one on my contact list is someone I'm not afraid to call; there are no people-I've never-spoken-with, people-I'm-ashamed-of-calling and so on.

(3) I won't feel at all bad come December when I do my annual Christmas letter mail out.

(4) Since I have eliminated the deadwood, my mailing costs are lower.

(5) Since I have eliminated the deadwood, my Christmas letter can be more intensely personal or time-relevant to the recipients; they have all heard about Indxr.ca and so a newsy update 2 months after launch should be of passing interest.

(6) I feel BETTER about myself, culling 8 names from the list this morning for a special call about a novel (to me) marketing campaign that will help THEM!

This is the bottom line:

• My daily worksheets have helped me get the job done.

So I Madly Got Changed And Dashed Off to Toronto for the Second Time Today

From a colleague:

"After running around all day, I got home a little after 5:00 PM. I made dinner, spent some time with my daughter then went downstairs to my humble office area to answer a few emails. About 10 mins. into it, I realized I had an event I was supposed to be at in Toronto. So I madly got changed and dashed off to Toronto for the second time today. I only got home about 20 mins. ago. Needless to say you did not receive a phone call."

From me back to my colleague:

About You: You worry me, but then I don't know you that well.

{If **I** had your opportunities}

Unless it was for a $1,000 paying client, I'd say "Sod the evening downtown" and spend time with my daughter.

Too much running around is not good for us Transitional Entrepreneurs.

But then, what do I know?

{/If **I** had your opportunities}

Here's the thing with my phone, just so as you know:

I'm the only one here.

I don't have call identification, call waiting, call screening, call showering or call-tub-wiping.

BELL voice-mail is all I've got and I'm getting rid of it at the end of this month.

If the phone rings, I pick it up; it might be business; or a friend asking me out to lunch.

I often wake at 3 am and go back to sleep. In which case I turn my phone up at or around 8 am

I as often wake at 3 am and am wide awake and DON'T got back to sleep.

In which case I turn my phone up at whatever time it is.

I aim to be in bed by 9:30 pm, at which time I turn my phone off.

If I'm going out for the day, I turn my phone off so as not to disturb Jupiter .

I don't have family, and all my friends have their own family, so I never get "family emergencies"

My clients don't have emergencies; it's my job to make sure that they don't!

These days I am on the phones from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. I have changed around completely from the man I used to be last March.

But if someone (hint!) calls and leaves a short message saying "call me right back", I do so as soon as I've finished the call; my caller has usually worked out that I'm hitting the phones, but knows that a quick let's-do-lunch call is ALWAYS welcome.

And if someone is dropping by to pick me up for lunch, I turn on my cell phone as the "alternate channel" until we are together.

Then I turn off the cell-phone.

(see "emergencies" above)

Now if all that sounds draconian, I would like you to consider that it works FOR ME, especially in my no-family no-emergency situation.

But I also want you to know that you CAN call me 24/7, and if I've gone to bed, it won't disturb me at all, at all, and I'll get your call as soon as I wake up and pick up my phone to turn it ON!

I hope that makes sense.

I'm Getting the Hang of it Now!

I have wanted Alex to send me the preliminary files for a possible project for two weeks now.

I am reluctant to call him again – it makes it seem as if I am desperate, which I am, but I don't want him to know that!

So I plod on my daily routine, phoning people, phoning people, phoning people, and stumble upon George who mentions the sphere in which Alex specializes.

I send George an email, and CC Alex, putting them in touch.

And waddayaknow!

Here is an email from Alex with the preliminary files.

I'll never know unless I ask, and I may never ask, but I have this feeling that "sending" George to Alex was enough to trigger benevolent thoughts about me in Alex's mind!

The most profitable part of networking is offering a continual stream of benefits to prospects and clients.

Getting Rid of Contacts

No, it's not meant to be an attention-grabbing headline; it's what I'm doing today.

My shift in marketing away from small businesses to large corporations (see The 1-6-10 Rule ) requires that I eliminate the really useless contacts from my list of about 300.

This morning around 6 a.m., way too early to start phoning, I printed off a daily work sheet , fired up my contacts list, noted that I had 223 records and started examining contacts in stalest-record-first sequence. That is, which record has not been modified for the longest time; which contact has NOT received my attention?

I quickly deleted 6 of the 8 stalest records, took me about 3 minutes.

Let's face it, here is someone (well, 6 someones actually), who I've never met, never done business with, have no real idea of who they are or what they do, or any adjustment of knowledge since they first got dropped into my contact list ten years ago.

For ten years I've sent them a Christmas card, but not bothered to find out anything about them.

I suspect strongly that if I picked up the phone today and said "Let's meet for coffee" the response ought to be "I don't know you; you presume to send me a card once a year, and expect me now to be all-friendly with you? I can't be bothered".

I feel that strongly, because that's how I feel about Norbert who sends me a chatty card once a year, but has never suggested we meet for coffee next time I'm downtown.

By deleting the names I'm reducing my waste of effort in sending a postcard or even interrupting their workday ("It's that brush salesman again …").

If ever I felt the urge to business with their firm, it would probably be because they had popped up as a "new prospect", in which case I'd be making a fresh approach to the CEO of the company, or else I'd be armed with some real benefits that surfaced as a result of my sleuthing.

It feels good to rid the world of this wasted effort, and to focus on my prime prospects.

Long may they prosper!

The Cold-Calling Hook

This is just too amazingly easy!

I have spent an hour cold-calling companies, by first calling the CEO and in under one minute – as I promise them – get the name of someone else at the company. I call THAT person and say "I was just chatting with {your CEO's name here} and she suggested I get in touch with you. Do you have a minute?"

The phrase "shooting fish in a barrel" comes to mind.

Thus emboldened I embark on my 9 follow-up calls scheduled for today. One harried executive replies "It's our quarter-end, not a good time; try to reach me mid next week" and I thank him and hang up.

I record that text in the memo field and set the follow-up date for next week.

He has given me a hook when next I call: "You asked me to call you once your quarter-end was complete. Is this a good time?".

If he remembers saying that, he pretty well has to acknowledge my call.

If he does not remember that, his options are to acknowledge my call or call me a liar, and since he doesn't know me, he is unlikely to do the latter.

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Spot The Difference

Can you spot the difference?

• It is raining, so I'm not going anywhere. Give me a call when you have a minute. 416-621-9348

• It is raining, so I'm not going anywhere. Give me a call when you have a minute.

Which email is more likely to get you to pick up the phone and call me?

Strategy Vs. Tactics – Part 2

If you are still struggling with the difference between strategy and tactics, try this analogy:
Strategy is where I want to be, and when. My strategy is to be on top of THAT mountain at dawn tomorrow (to watch the sunrise).
Tactics are how I achieve my goal: I will swim across THIS river and drive THAT vehicle to the top of the mountain.
My Business Strategy is to have 200 new (major) prospects by the end of the year.
My Business Tactics include a disciplined approach to building relationships, and if I'm going to do the work required, I'll have to spend less time writing and more time researching firms and telephoning contacts!

The Hand-Written Note

I love installations where someone drags me off to their cubicle asking for help – in formatting a word-processing document that will ultimately be faxed to the recipient.
In the first place, faxing is graphic, so I never worry about using extra paragraph marks for vertical spacing (as I worry if I am emailing a document)
But the ultimate guffaw comes when I see the content: "Let's do lunch".
Here is a mid-level manager struggling for 60 minutes or more with a cranky word-processor for a lunch invitation.
· PICK UP THE PHONE!
Today my situation is reversed.
I've been telephoning an executive for three weeks, different times during the day, and just not getting through.
So I still draft the message (paper and pencil), but rather than compose an email, it's out with the expensive beige Magna Carter Parchment Paper (A million dollars for 100 sheets at your local stationery store) and a neat hand-written job.
Ditto the envelopes.
· Hand-written.
Hand-written return address in the top-left corner.
And one of my personal postage stamps.
Let's see if this message gets through!

Things Are Getting Out of Hand

In a quiet moment during last night's free seminar I realized that while my 1-6-10 method was generating prospects and leads, I was spiraling out of control with the data I had harvested.
In particular I had data in too many places.
I made a simple list:
(1) I have a database of client data; it currently holds 300 contacts. I am shedding deadwood (that's the "6" in 1-6-10) and adding prospects at the rate of one per day (that's the "1" in 1-6-10). The data base is a simple flat-file with Company, Name, Title, Address and so on. It contains date fields such as date-last-modified (I can detect stale records) and date-follow-up (I can use the table as a tickler file).
(2) I use a 1987 DOS program ToDo (written by Art Hill) which makes it easy to see what's to be done today, and permits easy roll-over of dates by day, week, month and so on.
(3) For each prospect or client I maintain a folder on my hard drive with a Diary.doc in which I record the journey to sales.
(4) I maintain notes on paper, for two reasons: I like to sit with a hard-copy dossier on a company and study it. (2) I make penciled notes during phone calls.
My problem is that data gets recorded in four separate places and no matter where I look, there's something missing.
· I have resolved that I will make a single efficiency each week.
That means that each week I have to come up with a new idea for trimming flab.
This week my "trim" is to use the little ToDo list solely for birthdays and other anniversaries. That's probably a personal type of use anyway.
When I have issued an email to Global Conglobulations saying I'll phone them next week, I must use my client database ((1) above) and set the follow-up day field to reflect the event.
Thus each day should see me work through the client database in ascending follow-up sequence until I have cleared all entries that require follow up.
Next week, who knows? Perhaps I'll add a field to the database form that allows me to establish a hyperlink to the Diary.doc, then from the form I can quickly pull up the diary. The diary is really a Microsoft Word document form of a memo field, held separately from the database table.

The 15-Second Method to Win Rapport

So there you are, face to face with a candidate for a sale, or at the very least, a short window of opportunity to win a prospect, and you need to get them with you.
· Establishing rapport can be easier than you think.
It's largely a matter of changing the face-to-face (literally!) view that occurs when you meet someone to a face-by-face view.
A Domestic Example
With a lady-friend in a diner, I often prefer to sit side-by-side on a bench seat so that we have the same view of the diner and get to chat about the things we see in common.
The face-to-face seating arrangement means that she sees the parking lot and I see the kitchen.
A Networking Event Example
For the first 15 seconds of your face-to-face at a networking event, work hard, intensely (but don't show it!) to match your voice tone and gestures to your new-found acquaintance.
· If they speak softly, speak softly.
· If they use their hands to talk, use your hands.
· If they hold the coffee cup in their left hand, do thou likewise.
Their eyes/brain will pick up on these subtle clues and accept you as a like-minded person.
· They sprinkle their conversation with a little Je Ne Sais Quoi?
Well! Toi Aussi!

The International Market Place

I learned last night that I am running an international business.
I didn't know that.
I thought my Toronto, Canada-based business was, well, a local business.
Turns out that all I need is a client just across the border in Buffalo, New York State, and I'm international.
Well!
I do have a client in New Jersey, of all places, and that's much further than Buffalo, so I can say "I have International clients".
That was easy.
A boost for my ego, and something to write on my web page!

Do Something Better Today

No matter where you stand right now, no matter how bleak the dawn, you can make one small step today towards bettering your situation.
Do SOMETHING better today, do it better than you did it yesterday.
It doesn't really matter what you choose to do better, you'll feel better (about your situation) and you'll BE better.
· Weight getting you down?
Today, climb a single flight of stairs. Make a point of including one flight in your daily schedule. Next week move to 2 flights.
· Lack of cash getting you down?
Today, forgo the donut, or the coffee. Or take a snack to eat mid-day instead of spending $10 in the food court.
· Skill-set poor?
Set off on a journey to mastery of the computer. My free Windows Tips correspondence course is a good start, but any self-help stepping course is better than sitting staring at the computer. Learn Alt-Tab today, Ctrl-A tomorrow …
· Need a business coach and can't afford one?
Start chatting to people your style at networking meetings. Arrange to buddy-up with one person with whom you seem to have rapport, and don't fret about equality in the relationship. One of you is going to give more than the other, I promise you. It's the way the world is. Live with it.
· But do something.
For the world spins on its axis every 24 hours, and the dawn brings a changed world.
Every day.

Your Problems Change. Why Not Change Your Skill-Set?

You are out there doing whatever-you-do to change the world.
· Every man-and-his-dog is out there too.
There are more of them than there are of you.
· So the world is changing faster than you are.
In particular, the nature of problems coming at you is changing. Technology changes. The rules change.
My accountant (who has been mentoring small business owners since about 1845!) has to keep abreast of each tiny bit of fiscal legislation that seeps out of Ottawa. If he ever lets down his guard, we will all end up paying taxes, and that's a no-no in his eyes.
If re-training is not a part of your monthly schedule, you WILL be left behind.
Now when I say "Training" your eyes roll back and you think of either (1) $250/day to go on a Microsoft Excel course downtown or (b) $1,500 a day for three days to go on one of those Paul Tobey workshops.
· Think instead "learning something".
At least book yourself into a free seminar once a month. Three hours in the evening. Once a month. Twice is better. (send me an email and in my reply you'll see a list of the next few freebies I'll be attending!)
Visit (better yet, JOIN!) a professional group that showcases a presentation each month.
Read half a dozen marketing blogs daily (send me an email) and implement ONE small suggestion each day.
· But do something.
For the world spins on its axis every 24 hours, and the dawn brings a changed world.
· Every day.

An Easy Way to Achieve Your Objectives

Write them down!
If you have a daily plan established (please see "The 1-6-10 Rule", print it out at the start of each day (or better yet, at the end of the previous day!).
If things are starting to get you down, make "Opening the Mail (bills, etc.) the only task you HAVE to get done today. Not because you owe them money (although that's a good reason) but because it is dragging you down and sapping your enthusiasm.
Write on a small card "Process Mail".
At the end of the day, take the card to bed and examine it.
Did you achieve your objective? Did you open all the mail, draft the letter, file the papers?
If so, sleep well.
If not, ask yourself WHY you didn't open the mail etc. determine the stumbling block, and make THAT your top-priority for tomorrow, and go to sleep feeling good about THAT!
The key here is to WRITE IT DOWN (yes, I'm shouting this at you!).
Write it down so that you have a solid tangible record of what you expected to achieve.
Measuring what happened is the vital link between saying you'll do something, and making sure that the next time it really gets done.
Try it and see!

A Plan for Business

My accountant taught me this several years ago:
Business: Is the exchange of two pieces of paper, one of which MUST be a cheque.
And, of course, by cheque he meant a cheque, a deposit on a project, or the final payment on completion of a project.
But the definition also applies to public transit (you receive a paper transfer), buying a tub of iced-cream at the supermarket (they give you a receipt) and so on.
When I am swapping paper with a prospect, I'm not doing business with them.
So if Business is the exchange of two pieces of paper, one of which MUST be a cheque, then a Business Plan must be …?
A plan to do business.
A roadmap marking out how to get from wherever you are to the point where the prospect gives you a cheque.
A documented series of steps that follow in a logical manner, one leading to the other, where the final step is "Thank the Client for the cheque".

Really? A Cold-Call Script that Works

(Please see also 10 Cold Call Scripts that Work for YOU)
Here is the background:
I have used my prospecting tools to obtain a prospect Medworxx.
The Canada News Wire story gives me many names, foremost the President and CEO and his direct line.
While I'd be happy to chat at length with him on this first and unsolicited call, it is unlikely that he has nothing better to do with his time.
I am using the "Canada News Wire" story about Medworxx to get his attention.
My script is 80 words long; 60 words are unique. The script is loaded with content:
Mr. Matlow?
My name is Chris Greaves
I read the Medworxx story on Canada News Wire in August, and I wonder if you could spare me literally one minute?
Thank You.
You might be able to help me out.
I'd like to find out who I might talk with at Medworxx to discuss the ideas I have implemented for the production of documents in the healthcare and pharmaceuticals industry?
I have recorded the script and it runs 22 seconds, including pauses.
You can see a pause before the "Thank You"; the script assumes that he will agree to one minute, and my goal is to be off the phone within 60 seconds.
That leaves 38 seconds to negotiate the name and phone number or email address of someone at Medworxx.
If I can get in-and-out in 60 seconds, I can place the second call, another cold-call, prefaced with the CEO's name:
Ms Somebody?
My name is Chris Greaves
I was just chatting with Dan Matlow and he suggested I give you a call to discuss the ideas I have implemented for the production of documents in the healthcare and pharmaceuticals industry?
At this point, I assume that "chatting with The President" will get his attention, and my goal on this call is to get him to ask about my services and to agree to a single follow-up email with information of value to Medworxx.
One of my chief assets on making unsolicited telephone calls is my accent, a mixture of Lancashire UK, Western Australian, and Canadian. You can hear the first script by clicking here.
Contact Me and let me know how you got on. I'd love to hear your side of the story.
In fact, why not put me on your list of people-to-call? I'd love to see how you make cold calls.

Did You Just Lose Me?

Was it you who sent me an email a day or two after the networking meeting/seminar?
I know that I exchanged cards with the guy sitting to my left after chatting with him for five minutes. I gave him my card and he gave me his.
I noticed that he wasn't taking notes, so I emailed him a copy of my notes (After the Networking Meeting) and he was kind enough to reply by email and thank me. He is, to me, a valuable contact into a major bank.
Two other people asked me for a card. We didn't exchange names. You might have been one of them.
If you were you sent me an email with a one-page PDF brochure telling me what you do and suggesting I purchase your services.
But I don't know you.
So I deleted the email.
Sorry.
No I'm not.
I'm trying to eliminate from my current contact list all those businesses to whom I send a Christmas card but who never call me. I know to be patient, but seven years?
My new contact list is based solely on people, not businesses, with whom I have engaged in a real conversation – not a soulless cold-call. I've met them at meetings and chatted for five or ten. They call me occasionally, or respond thankfully when I send them an email.
We stay in touch.
But I'm through trying to bond with a PDF file.

Who Ya Gonna Call?

You need to make a pitch to the guy who REALLY counts.
Let's call him "Rick". You have his number, email address, title, and a 4-page dossier gleaned from the company web site.
A call that starts "Rick, you don't know me but …." is going to be dead in the water before you inhale your first breath.
Don't even bother.
Look again.

Somewhere amongst that mass of names is a close-fit. Someone in a similar role, at a similar level and you don't know, but perhaps they meet in the dining-room each day, or have to attend the same bi-weekly meetings.
Look for a good fit.
Let's call him Gerry.
Then call THEM instead.
I promise you, Gerry will tell you "You should speak to Rick", and give you the same name, number, email that you ferreted out an hour ago.
Now call Rick.
A call that starts "Rick, I was chatting with Gerry and he said to call you about … " is going to skim across the water like Donald Campbell.
Contact Me and let me know that you got the business, OK?

Look Again!

My theory is that I should be able to run some of these articles, or other essays, in a local newspaper.
So having picked up a copy of the Mississauga News, I flipped through it and to my dismay found that they already had THREE columnists.
There is no way that I can displace a stable of three experienced columnists, so I re-folded the newspaper and (I am ashamed to report) have been using it as a mat for my coffee pot for a week. A Second Use For Everything.
This morning I picked it up and for reasons unknown to me (but I pass this on to you and suggest you make it a part of your conscious behavior), I skimmed through it again.
My eye was caught by the words "SPECIAL SECTION" on the top corner of about two-thirds of the paper.
That's right! Those three "columnists" represented only three one-off articles.
Next week's paper probably won't have a SPECIAL SECTION, so the market may well be wide open for me.
I'll phone as soon as I've finished typing this up.
I am reminded of Winston Churchill's "never" admonition:
· "Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense".
Funnily enough, it's what one of my mentors says, too (Cheryl Scoffield of Executive Sales Support).
But see also "Who Ya Gonna Call?".

10 Cold Call Scripts that Work for YOU

You can search the web for scripts, print them out, edit them, use them, and you'll still feel awkward and robotic.
I know. I've been there myself.
But I gradually lifted myself out of the pit of despair by a simple mechanical device, and I'm going to share that with you now.
Step 1
Search the web and locate a half-a-dozen pages of script.
This link will get you started.
http://www.google.ca/search?q=cold+call+script&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
Step 2
Read the pages (there's good advice on them) and paste the scripts into a word-processing document.
Number each script, just as I have numbered the steps on this page.
Step 3

Build a table with one more column than you have scripts. Ten scripts? Eleven columns!
Step 4
Into the left hand column paste the 40 or so contacts you want to cold-call today.
Across the top of the remaining columns paste the script numbers; one through ten in this example.
Step 5
Just before you pick up the phone to make the first call, choose a script based on whatever knowledge you have – how you feel right now, the type of company you think you're calling, whether you'll be speaking with a male or female, and so on.
Mark with an "X" the cell to the right of the contact name and below the selected script. This identifies what you are about to do.
Step 6
Pull out that script sheet and make the call.
Sure it will be mechanical; these first few calls will be awkward, but it will get better, I promise.
Step 7
At the end of the call, when the phone is re-cradled, ask yourself how you feel about that call.
If you feel it went well, if you achieved your objective and received permission to send an email (or "set up a meeting" or …..), then CIRCLE that "X" to show that, in that particular case, the script worked for YOU.
Step 8
Carry on with the remaining calls, "X" for the selected script, CIRCLE for the successful selected scripts.
Step 9
When the calls are made, which scripts had the most success?
Which scripts did you not even bother to try? Try them tomorrow. Don't eliminate them until you've tried them
Step 10
Discard the scripts that were tried at last THREE times and failed to achieve your objective. Those scripts are not suited to you and your business.
Replace the discarded scripts with new scripts from your web search.
Step 11
In no time at all you'll have a battery of scripts that work for YOU.
Contact Me and let me know how you got on. I'd love to hear your side of the story.
In fact, why not put me on your list of people-to-call? I'd love to see how you make cold calls.

Your Web Site (HERE)

Print this page out on paper.
Pick up a pencil.
Complete the following sentences.
· The goal of my site is to
· This time next week my site will
· The people who will reach my site are
· When they reach my site I want them to
· If they send me an email I will
· If they call me by telephone I will
· I will have to update my site every
· My test for my site showing up in search engines is
· My dollar budget is not more than
· My time budget, in hours per week, is
· I fully understand that I can not have everything at
You and I both are indebted to Seth Godin.

Aiming for Viral

Wednesday, September 16, 2009
I made the decision this morning.

I feel that the fastest way to get my name on people's lips is to "go viral" in the vernacular.
Of all the things I do, of all the things I teach, of all the things I own, of all the things I know, what ONE THING satisfies

1. General appeal
2. Universal appeal
3. Be targeted towards a small professional segment business.

The answer is "Indxr".

Now you don't have a clue what Indxr is, so here is the one-sentence profile:
Indxr is a one-click index-creation tool for Microsoft Word documents.
You can read more here and here.

• I have my 3,000+ emails and phone numbers gleaned from 13,000 press releases.
• I have a simple database table with organization, name, title, phone, email, web page, to which I have added a FLAG field and a Date Last Issued field.
• I have a little macro that will flag the first 20 candidates with a "Q"uery flag.
• I have a little macro that will test the flags and email an html email for those records flagged with a "Y"es flag.
• I have the html message ready to go.

All I need now is permission.

I'll filter out the communication companies in batches of 10, call the representative and seek permission to send a one-time email describing the Indxr.

No wait! There's more!
Julia Wooster of http://www.primeadminsolutions.com/ came up with the names of a few groups to which she belongs, groups who would leap at the chance.

I told Julia that since my web page www.ChrisGreaves.com was on every GUI form as a clickable link, she could host the package on her web pages and drive traffic to her web pages or to her networking group's pages as a return favor.

What do I care?

As long as people download it, share the link or even email the ZIP file to their colleagues, ultimately the question on everyone's lips will be "What else does this guy do?'
I should record a training video and post it on YouTube.
I should mention it in interviews, on my blogs, on my business card, in my email signature.
I need a short snappy script for the telephone call.
What is holding me back, apart from that?

Saturday, October 10, 2009

And the rest, as they say, is herstory!
www.Indxr.ca
http://indxr.ca/testimonials.htm
http://www.virtualassistantforums.com/software/great-tool-authors-writers-who-create-indexes-13666
http://www.primeadminsolutions.com/Blog/tabid/123/Default.aspx
etc. etc. etc.

How Cheeky Do You Want Me to Be?

Brainwave!
My name is Chris Greaves.
Well, Christopher Greaves if you want to be fancy, but "Chris" works for me.
My web site is ChrisGreaves.com.
Well, http://www.chrisgreaves.com/ if you want to be fancy, but I only speak with people who know to put www in front.
Or who know that you can just type "ChrisGreaves.com" directly into the browsers box.
I am registered with a great many web sites, forums, blogs, newspapers, and until this morning I always used my name as a user name, thus "cgreaves", "chrisgreaves", or "cprgreaves" and so on.
· This morning I thought "Why not use my web site as my name?".
Better visibility; you still know my name, and I'm probably the same Chris Greaves as pops up elsewhere.
But now you also can figure out how to visit my web site!
http://empoweryou.ca/2009/09/16/backing-up-your-data/#comments
Expect to see a great many more comments on blogs as of today…..

The 1-6-10 Rule

Here's my method for knuckling down and making sure those calls get made (They are not Cold Calls, they are Introductory Calls).
My objectives are to make 1 new prospect per day, retain 6 contacts, issue 10 emails.
1 Prospect
· (1) I locate the prime candidate in the one to four news releases harvested by Weather Vain from Canada News Wire.
· (2) I build a dossier on that company
· (3) I telephone them to obtain 2 emails
· (4) I build the letter
· (5) I send the letter
· (6) I make a follow-up telephone call
· (7) I record the result.
Now I don't do all that in one day.
On Monday I'll do steps (1) and (2).
On Tuesday I'll do step (3) for the company I located last Friday.
On Wednesday I'll be doing step (5) for the company I located last Thursday
And so on. With each prospect there is a time to work on that prospect, and a time to let it lie. For another example, I ALWAYS leave the draft letter overnight and re-read it the next day.
It is important to introduce a new prospect into the pipeline EACH DAY and to keep the pipeline moving.
6 Contacts
· (1) I locate the "stalest" contact in my Contacts database.
· (2) I phone and chat or leave a voice-mail asking them to call me back.
· (3) I record the result
Each day I'll perform that sequence for the 6 stalest contacts, where THE stalest contact is the one whose record has the lowest date-last-modified value. That is, it's been the longest time since I spoke with them.
I am asking them to call me back because I am in a process of removing dead-wood contacts from my list – prospects with who I've had no significant conversation – to make room for better prospects.
If they don't call me back within 2 weeks, I delete them from the database.
10 eMails
· (1) I locate 10 potential email contacts from my MASS database culled from Canada News Wire.
· (2) I locate their web page
· (3) I load their web page to the email database
· (4) I phone them with an offer
· (5) I send them an email
· (6) I record the result.
Each day I'll touch 10 potential users of Indxr and try to get them to try it.
A positive result means they are added to my list as new contacts, of better quality than those I have identified as dead wood.
A positive result also means they are candidates for a future emailing about other products and services.
The Daily Quota
This won't work unless I apply myself rigorously to the process.

Here is the one-page form I print out and maintain in my 3-ring binder marketing diary.
By the end of the day, the 2nd and 3rd tables should be filled in completely.
By the end of a fortnight, the top table should be filled in completely.
Stragglers (more recent than a fortnight) will see the top table in various stages of completion.
Logging the Time
If like me you use a time-logging device (BillT is my choice) then assign a generic code for prospecting and a specific code for each of Prospect, Contact and Emails, thus "PROSPECTP", "PROSPECTC" AND "PROSPECTE".
Now you can keep track of the hours you spend prospecting 'PROSPECT" and the time on each separate task.
You have budgeted your time, so you can see how well you are going.
When to Call?
Obviously you can research the web name and so on out-of-hours.
Many telephone calls can be made outside of regular business hours if you feel that a voice-mail will suffice, but CAUTION: Small businesses run out of a home office will NOT appreciate a call when you can't sleep at 3 a.m., and some corporate types will forward their office number to their mobile phone so that they can annoy the rest of us while we are reading on the bus. They won't appreciate a 3 a.m. call either!
Voice-Mail Script
A standard script, with optional variations, will help you to leave a professional message when your contact can not or does not pick up their phone.
Don't spend more than five minutes on a script.
Build it like any business letter, with a Goal. Name and phone as the first two and last two words. Speak slowly and crisply – don't make them rewind!
Monitor your voice with a digital recording device; my voice tends to creep to a higher octave with anxiety, so I work to tone it down.
Make notes on your script "("I wish I'd [not] said that"!) and refine it as you go.
· Pay especial attention to every voice mail you receive.
Which ones fire YOU up? Since you are looking for contacts who (are) like you, the same style will probably fire them up too!
Steal ruthlessly!
For the results, please read The 1-6-10 Rule – How Did it Work?

Budgeting Time

I attended a seminar this morning on The Business Plan; a segment included the regular sales Forecast and Financial Statements (Income Statement, Balance Sheet etc) suitable for a restaurant or flower-shop. I'm a consultant, so I don't do that sort of thing.
.... so in my late-afternoon tea-break I decided to do what I'd decided not to do:
Play around with a spreadsheet.
Bit of a waste of time for me to do the forecast sheets on page 5 and the statements on page 7 & 8. I certainly don't need the practice in Excel (grin!). And besides, I don't do "sales" like a restaurant or flower shop.
But they say that "Time Is Money", and if that is so, I ought to be able to do a fair facsimile with my time.
Time is all I have.
I have three objectives for each day in my marketing efforts:
· () Phone 6 contacts from my contacts data base ("Just keeping in touch")
· () Identify and research 1 new prospect (via Canada News Wire and my Prospecting Tools all the way to the initial emailed letter of introduction)
· () Identify 20 qualified targets for a mass email letter, no recipient more frequently than once per two months)
The rest of each day is my own.
I know how many working days there are in each month
Phone Calls
I figure that I can make one phone call every 5 minutes initially.
Starting today I'll be whittling down my contact list, discovering business that no loner exist ("Delete"!). Some calls will take one minute; some might become a 15-minute chat, but 5 minutes seems a good starting point.
As the days/months go by, the calls will become longer, because I'll have got rid of the dead wood and will have more currency in my contacts.
The accompanying spreadsheet shows me spending 5 minutes per call initially, rising to not more than 15 minutes as the months go by.
Please see row 9.
New Prospects
Each day I cull (automatically!) one new prospect from Canada News Wire.
Today it will take me an hour to trawl through the web, LinkedIn and other sources to amass a dossier, an hour to assemble novel pages describing my ideas, an hour to draft the letter and an hour to revise and proof-read it with my mentor.
Say 4 hours in all.
As the months go by I should get better at this and the time per prospect should drop to two hours tops. Besides which, much of my basic documentation will be re-usable.
Please see row 10.
Mass eMails
My same automated task gleans email contacts from Canada News Wire and I can issue targeted emails to qualified recipients.
I figure that initially, including development of the package that updates and uses my database, I'll spend an hour a day on this, but down the road it will drop to fifteen minutes.
Please see row 11.
Monthly Forecast
The monthly totals are found in rows 13 through 16.
Annual Forecast
I develop my annual forecast by taking the twenty-fourth month, multiplying it by 12 (months), and then loading it by 10% each successive year.
Why 10%?
The seminar leader used that figure.
Besides, as I move into a higher fee spectrum, my prospects will be larger companies and I'll need to spend more time, perhaps running out to buy glossy paper.
Income Statement
I am granted 24 hours per day is all; I sleep, eat, play with the cat …
My most optimistic work day is 10 hours, for all that I get up at 4:00 a.m. and go to bed at 9:30 p.m, I travel to meetings, wash the dishes, meet Bill for coffee, and so on.
I have therefore (see row 28) 200 hours available to me each month.
And so (see row 30) I have 90 hours a month left over for travel to and attend seminars, purchase supplies, meet contacts for coffee, and so on.
As the months go by and I get better at the daily grind, I have more time available for activities other than phone, prospect and emails, and after a year, things settle down to a steady and predictable pace.
My annual statements (rows 33-35) are based on the same fixed number of working hours available to me (12 months of 200 hours each month); a 10% loading (as my clients require more service time for bigger contracts), and a consequent reduction in time available for other activities.
Will It Compute?
How accurate will this be?
I have a little billing tool based on a Notepad file with a .LOG header that records my start and stop time for each task.
I ought to be able to compare my actual time spent phone/prospect and email against my scheduled and predicted loads.

Why I Put Everything on My Web Site

I decided six months ago to put everything I write on my web site.
Why?
Because to me it made no sense to write something of value and have it spinning at 7200 rpm on the hard drive on my computer.
If it is of value to me, (and why else would I write it up?) it is probably of value to someone else.
Heck, it MUST be of value to at least one of the 7 billion other people on the planet.
So what do I write?
Obviously I record diaries of my daily business experience (you are reading one now!) .
I don't write a personal diary ("Met Bill for ice-cream").
I write technical papers on any new task I perform. If I am asked to look into "List Numbering in Microsoft Word", I record my findings because I'll probably be asked to report for another client, or at least, I'll stumble across a prospect with that problem and can capitalize on my previous work.
Resurrecting "lost data" from Fred's hard drive likewise was an exercise in which I developed a step-by-step procedure for copying files across NOT using Windows Explorer, which proved to be useless.
I live an active life; I am curious about everything, from the mechanisms of Mitochondrial DNA to the photons that arrive from thousands of light years away. From a scale model of our planetary system set up in the gymnasium of the local church to the Red Wrigglers that eat my garbage.
If you are interested in Mitochondrial DNA, or the photons that arrive from thousands of light years away, or a scale model of our planetary system, or Red Wrigglers that eat garbage, I want to chat with you.
My web pages are the outpouring of my mind. One of those pages will serve as a note to someone:
Talk to Me!

It's Not About More Money

(I am aware that this is possibly the 300th blog entry of this title.)
I spoke today with a successful consultant who isn't particularly interested in Getting More Business.
"I have enough", he says; "I'm semi-retired". And I'm glad for him.
I still feel that a bit of effort can make him feel even better.
That little extra effort in Prospecting, Marketing, Sales or what-ever can give you more than money; it can give you a choice.
I may be making enough money to pay the rent, buy the groceries, and set aside a sum for retirement.
I make that money from specific clients who buy my services.
Of all my clients, by definition one must be "the worst". And by definition one must be "the best".
With a bit more effort I could swap the worst client for a different client, one who would be significantly better than the second-worst client.
Of course, now that I've got rid of the worst client and replaced them with a client significantly better (and hence more fun), my second-worst client has slipped to the bottom and is now "the worst".
I'll always have a "worst" client, (and I'll always have a "best" client.
But with a little bit of extra effort I can improve the quality of my clients, and hence can improve the fun in my life, without having to feel I'm busting my gut to Make More Money.

10% is Missing!

I'm convinced it must be true for every one of us.
Speaking with Jim White of JSW & Associates this afternoon, I casually dropped a question "What is your biggest problem?". I am a problem solver, so it is a natural question to ask.
Jim's answer set me to thinking. He paused then said "Getting Started" (or words to that effect.
I have the same problem, but I'd call it "a gap".
Cheryl is good at what she does, but she could use a bit of help in automating the work. The prospect (sorry!) of an automated prospecting services would fill a gap in her business.
We all, every one of us, seem to be good at almost all of the process from prospecting, cold-calling through the sales call, closing the sale, starting the project and delivering the acceptance test.
But somewhere along the chain of events will be a link which we would describe as "our weakest link" or "my gap" or 'my biggest problem".
Think about it. By definition it must be so.
Our real problem, then, is making a positive identification of that link, and setting about strengthening it.
P.S. There's a nice end to the story – Jim and I both need to do more networking, so he's taking me as a guest to one of his networking meeting tomorrow morning, and I'm taking him as a guest to one of my networking meetings later in the month!

The Two Levels of Networking

If you are looking to expand your business by number-of-contacts, you have two distinct sets of networking groups.
The first you know – the Association of Like-Minded Consultants, the Society of Trainers Looking for Opportunities, and the Guild of Under-Employed Technical Writers.
The second is new to you; was new to me until a short while ago:
The Bankers Association of Toronto; The Tight-Knit-Group of Investment Counselors, and the Clique of Pharmaceutical VPs.
To join the first set
… you merely show up at the monthly event, tell them that you are a visitor at the first meeting, and you get in for free.
Next month you pay a $25 one-time fee.
If you decide to join, it is $125 a year and $10 per night.
Bring lots of business cards and be prepared to stand up and make a 60-second elevator speech.
To join the second set
… you need a really well-cut suit, you need to play golf or have a boat (or at least know someone who has a boat), and you need to be invited.
Bring only a few business cards because it’s not a shotgun approach to business, it's really about basking in the safety and security of The Club.

Putting a Human Face on LinkedIn

I am gradually gaining an understanding of LinkedIn. I joined but two weeks ago and am somewhat leery of becoming a member of a vast amorphous group with little in common with most of them.
This morning I received my third "Invitation to Join My Group", this time from another close friend and associate. I called her and expressed my fears, while confirming our friendship and association.
I now think that joining Cathy Nesbitt's LinkedIn group is the equivalent of giving her one of my business cards and asking her to pin it on the front of her shirt, along with the 31 other business cards.
When Cathy meets someone (for coffee, for work, at church, on the subway etc), my business card is visible, so if that person happens to need a Grey water system , or jam made, or a computer programmed, they have an opportunity to point to my business card and ask Cathy about me, or even just to note my name and phone and call me later.
I still live in a village of about 200 people – about the maximum that any human brain can accommodate.
I still have 200 names I could call up as acquaintances, or better, but one of those better-or-better names is now carrying around my business card on display.

Does Google Think Your Web Site is Malicious?

During my regular prospecting work this morning I cam across a web site for which Google Search offered an informative that the web site had hosted malicious software.

Well, say no more! A great opportunity to call the CEO and bring him bad news. (You can't Shoot The Messenger when the news arrives by telephone!)
Of course, he doesn't want me to email a screenshot to him; he is suspicious of an unsolicited telephone warning about malicious stuff, ("Sounds like a scam to me"), and that's GOOD NEWS because he is conscious of security.
He'd better look into that …..
I advise him to Google Search his company name and see; he can call me back if he wants to know more.
Then I wondered if my site was found to have anything out of the ordinary, so I replaced my prospect's url with my own:
http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=http://www.chrisgreaves.com/&hl=en

The Good news is NOT that I have no malicious stuff on my web site.
The Good News is that I have found another way to determine how often Google checks my web pages.
Frankly, I think that 90 days is too long between visits.
I'd better look into that …..

Click ENTER to CONTINUE

I think I will submit this for the dumbest item of web-fare on this planet; I don't know about Jupiter.
What on earth (to make use of an appropriate phrase) is the point of making a prospective client/customer jump another hurdle on the way to satisfaction.?
Are the ISPs of this world so strapped for bandwidth that we have to employ neurons, synapses and muscles to give them a fighting chance?
Lord knows, my web site(s) are nothing to brag about.
But I can't see that introducing a "Click HERE if you are serious about actually learning something" would improve them one whit.

The World's Slowest-Learning Networker

It is slowly dawning on me that my regular daily work is NOT writing programs, NOT writing essays, NOT delivering training, NOT telephoning people to find work.
NOT!
My regular daily work is establishing and building relationships.
Nothing else.
The programs, essays, speaking engagements, training delivery etc. etc. gets me money, which is nice.
But I'm a person, and my main activity has to be establishing and maintaining contact with other people.
I must establish myself as a part of the business community.
Here's what happened today: I picked up the phone to call someone, and found myself thinking "Oh! They won't have any work for me today".
WRONG. Utterly Wrong!
Believably (now) short-sighted.
I must pick up the phone and say "Hello, how are you doing? What are you working on?" and show an interest in that. I must bring up something which happened on a previous conversation (it's what the MEMO field is for in the contact database!).
Then they will ask me what I'm doing and I'll tell them.
And they may not want it.
But they will think of me next time they want something.
Or mention me to someone else over lunch.

When the Presentation Fails

It will happen.
You travel downtown to a 3-hours seminar, five of those precious twenty-four hours (24 Hours in a Day) assigned to a presentation that turns out not to be what you had thought it would be.
Faint not nor fear not.
· (1) You got there way ahead of time with your business cards and made a point of having a five-minute serious chat with at least one other early-arrival ("serious net worker")
· (2) You got at least one useful point out of the three hours. Be honest now – if you can't harvest one new thing out of three hours, you are on the wrong planet. We would all like to gain a hundred ideas; be happy with one, just for tonight.
· (3) Use the boring times when know-it-alls interrupt to demonstrate their erudition (so how come they aren't the guy up in front, huh?) to jot down those ten things you'd rather be doing in your home-office than sitting here. That's the list that will get you going first thing tomorrow morning, an incentive to rise at 5 a.m. instead of 6 a.m.
· (4) You are, or are soon going to be speaking in front of such a group Real Soon Now, or you are going to make a presentation to ten senior executives of Global Conglobulations in three weeks time. Use tonight to build a list of what not to do: speak too quickly; end each sentence with "right?"; start each sentence with "So, .."; rattle coins in your pocket; interrupt the questioner before they have finished answering the question; wear a peach colored-shirt with part of a Quizno's sandwich on the left-hand panel.
· (5) In short, make good use of Your Time, for it is Your Time, not theirs, that is being burned up.
Grab it while it's hot.
P.S. I run a course on Time Management as part of my "Business Communications for the Mature Professional" series.

Google Analytics

http://www.google.com/analytics/
Now that you have your own domain and a web site, learn from Google how you stack up.
The Google Analytics web site is simplicity itself. In under five minutes I had
· (1) Signed in using my FREE gMail account
· (2) Keyed in my name and telephone number
· (3) Keyed in my domain name (www.chrisGreaves.com)
· (4) Pasted a snippet of code into a Notepad text file and saved it on my hard drive
· (5) Pasted the same snippet into the Footer.doc whose contents appear on every page of my web site
My theory is that a week from now I can obtain text and graphic reports from Google telling what pages are being visited, how much time people are spending there, ….
I'll post an update to this page once I have a report.

Why I Joined

So I joined LinkedIn.
I received two invitations from two colleagues with whom I am working, but since I was meeting one for lunch today, I held off responding until I'd asked her about it.
Despite all the hype that surrounds LinkedIn, here is how I see it affecting my business.
I am struggling to work out what to do with 300 contacts, 200 of whom could be considered "weak", and I'm struggling to establish new contacts, better prospects, of whom I know nothing.
· LinkedIn is a catalyst mechanism that gets the conversation started.
Example 1: Gillian is one of my 200 "weak" contacts; she receives a card from me each Christmas, and I try to phone her once a year, but the bottom line is we have never gotten around to getting any business done, and I feel that either we should meet, or I should just politely drop her from my list.
For all I know my annual mailing is just more junk mail from her point of view.
But if she is on LinkedIn and if I send her an invitation to join, one of two things will happen.
(1) She says "No thanks" or ignores me; bye-bye Gillian.
(2) She says "Hi! What are you up to?" or similar, which gets the conversation started.
Example 2: Heather, John and Angus (not their real names) work for Global Conglobulations, a firm with apparently very deep pockets who have been spraying contracts and cash around like ….
If any of them are on LinkedIn and if I send them an invitation to join, one of two things will happen.
(1) They say "No thanks" or ignore me; maybe I should try direct mail, or a cold call.
(2) They say "Hi! What do you do?" or similar, which gets the conversation started.
It's worth a try.
(Cheryl Scoffield is on LinkedIn)

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.