A web search for the company or the president’s name will often enough turn up obscure news items or papers with the president’s extension number.
Asking for “extension 5301 please” is more likely to get you through than “Could I speak to Mister Greaves, please?”.
In the first case you come across as knowing who you want and that you deserve direct access.
In the second case you are asking the receptionist if they would deign to do you a favor, and why should they? They don’t know you!
Like many entrepreneurs I have trouble sleeping nights because I’ve allowed myself to be diverted.
You know you feel good when you go to bed at night and you’ve gotten that cheque of to the tax people, or finally paid down the phone bill, or any one of a number of administrative tasks that make you feel guilty.
You probably feel good too when you’ve spent time well establishing new contacts or maintaining old ones.
My main drive comes from The Prospector and all the data (leads) it generates for me. If I’m not careful the two to four leads a day build up into an avalanche of outstanding calls – 25 as I type.
The solution is really easy: Have a sheet of paper that you fill out at the very start of the day – before the coffee is poured. On the sheet you write the guilt that greeted you when you woke up.
Today for example my goal is “Reduce the backlog to five”; realistically there might be 5 contacts I just can’t reach in any shape or form. 25 is not acceptable, 5 is, and I don’t want to set a goal that might be impossible.
Below that I write Objectives, and these are not in a serial-project style, just a few just-for-today thoughts that will help me to reach today’s goal: “No personal emails”, “No game playing”, “No quick-fixes to your software” and so on. Yes, I play games, but for today ONLY I have promised myself no to, and to ignore personal chatter until after 5 p.m.
Just for Today
At the end of the day, when I start the daily backup procedures, I’ll take down the sheet of paper and examine myself. What went wrong? Let’s not do that again. What went right? Let’s keep on doing that!
Here you can see a blank sheet clipped to the laptop. I use a standalone monitor, so the laptop sits off to one side, but I’ll see the sheet whenever I
1) Reach for the phone
2) Turn to look out of the window to my left
3) Turn to look at my diary (out of view bottom left)
If you’d like a copy of the Microsoft Word document – comes with automatic date – you can download it here .
I have placed a shortcut link to this document as part of my first-boot-of-the-day sequence so that I’m prompted to print off and complete a copy first thing each morning.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Here is a link to an article that promotes the idea of written feedback.
Success is Not Always Measured By Dollars
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
This month I presented my talk "Proposals" to a group of young entrepreneurs at the Etobicoke City Centre. "Proposals" is one of a collection of talks in my series " Business Communications for the Mature Professional ".
I anticipated 8 attendees, but 27 booked and 19 showed up.
The reviews were good.
The reward? The number of people scribbling notes as I spoke.
I am not the world's most successful business man, but I am good at thinking and reasoning and nutting out top-class first principles by which one can live.
The session finished at 9:30 and two hours after that I left the site. I gave away two extra hours of information for free, but was re-assured that my thinking for people migrating across the workforce is on-target.
How’s business? Oh, You know .... the words trail off.
His business reacts very quickly to the consumer mood.
If a wave of fear (or exhilaration) sweeps the nation, people stop buying cute clothes, shoes and handbags with a reaction time measured in days.
Jim can pick up the paper on Monday and watch the sales figures drop on Thursday. It doesn’t take long.
Me?
I get calls from people I’ve been chatting with for 2, 5 or in one case 15 years. My business is “keeping-in-touch” against the day when a firm needs my special-niche skills.
Wavelength is usually associated with sound or light, where a short wavelength means high-pitched and very bright.
In terms of revenue, wavelength refers to a gestation time.
Yes please.
The seven $1.70 stamps are pushed across to me, then the clerk grabs one of my envelopes before I can protest and begins keying in from the return address portion.
What is going on?
Apparently so
I’m old enough to protest, so I ask why the envelope is needed. “To give you the tax exemption”.
It’s like drawing teeth etc. but I finally get an explanation that can be coalesced into “You don’t have to pay the 13% H.S.T. if you are buying more than five stamps AND you have the envelopes with you.
Sounds a bit like the old donut scam when the GST came in. A donut is taxable because it is for consumption, but 6 or more are NOT taxable because they are groceries. Or the other way around.
So who ever heard of this latest exemption? Not my off-site accountant’s secretary – she buys the stamps. Not my canoeing buddy Fred, and HE walks to the post office in his lunchtime to do postage stuff.
Last Friday I bought a roll of stamps. I assume that there are 100, which at 57 cents should have been $57.00. Add 13% and you get $64.41. I’m not sure why I was charged $67.52, since all I got was the debit card receipt.
Moral: next time I buy a roll of stamps, I’m taking a stack of 99 blank envelopes and an addressed envelope and getting nearly $8.00 lopped off the price.
I continue to process two, three or four press releases per day (when I get off my backside and actually DO it!), and I must tell you that it just gets easier.
“Dori”; what kind of a name is that?
I used to be hesitant to call not knowing the sex of my target, but now I realize that it all falls out.
I place the call, and reach a gatekeeper. “My name is Chris Greaves and I was wondering if I might speak with Dori Segal”.
“Just a minute and I’ll try that line” (although sometimes “Just a minute and I’ll try HIS line”). A pause and then . . .
“I’m sorry HE is in a meeting right now …”.
So there, I have learned something. It’s MISTER Dori Segal, and the usual follows “Do you know when he will be free? No? I’ll call back after lunch”.
The gatekeeper has written down my name, I’m sure, so after lunch I’ll be a known quantity.
Not surprisingly the bewildered traveler received a few freebies - round-trip airfare for two; two-night stay for two … including all meals; Swedish massage for two; dinner for two; $250 Gift Card; tickets to one of Toronto's major live theatre shows and so on.
Apart from the air-fare my guess is about $300 per item, say $1,500; add the airfare and call it $2,000.
OK, you think I’m low-balling? Then double it, $4,000 or even triple it to $6,000.
Now estimate the revenue from 20,000,000 guests, including trickle-on such as payments from service businesses lodged on the hotel premises (percentage from the coffee shop, percentage from the gift shop etc) and how does it all stack up?
I’m guessing $500 per visitor (not knowing the length-of-stay), so say $10,000,000,000.
Now go back and double my cost of the freebies to $1,200.
In fact, the freebies seem a bit cheap by comparison.
A two-week all-expenses paid stay in Paris (France!) at peak season would seem cheap alongside $10,000,000,000, whether it is $US or $CDN.
We are left with the question What is the value of the Press release?”.
Who (besides me) reads Canada News Wire? With this article, cub journalists looking for a space-filler? The editor of the North Bay NUGGET ?
When all is said and done, it seems like a drop-in-the-bucket for no visible return.
The loser seems to be the President & CEO of the chain, who had to set aside a half-day to chat with local managers while watching the taxis disgorge customers and drumming his fingers on the arms of the wing-chair.
Then yesterday Rick Shea’s inaugural newsletter arrived and put me to shame.
Rick’s newsletter is EXACTLY the style I’m aiming for, in terms of layout, content, color and so on, and to make it worse he talks about measurement and quantifiers, which is what I wanted to talk about.
To see what I mean you’ll have to send Rick an email and ask for the current issue. I promise you that you’ll enjoy the read.
And yes, I called Rick (416-469-9935) and scolded him for doing a better job than I could ever hope to do ...
I keep track with a Google search daily for the ranking of my Indxr.ca page.
I am still at number 9.
But now I appear “above the fold” (on my screen)
Either one of the top 8 has reduced their text or Google has abbreviated the text shown for one of the top 8.
I think this is the first time I’ve appeared on page one of search results, excepting for the trumped-up search which includes Chris Greaves, Vermicomposting, Beetroot and Etobicoke.
Twice now I’ve driven to Brantford with an eye to touring the Alexander Graham Bell home – a museum of the developer of the telephone. Twice I’ve struck out, both times, from memory, in mid-winter and, knowing me, during the Christmas New Year break.
Should’ve checked the schedule
This time (mid-summer) I checked the web site .
9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., it said. “unless otherwise posted”, but nothing can stop me now. They are open, so it’s Hey! For the open road.
We arrived at 2:30 p.m., two hours should be ample, right?
Nope. The dis-interested clerk told us as she took the $20 bill that they were closing at three today.
So the Brantford museum of Alexander Graham Bell is quite prepared to take our money, but truncate our visit to 30 minutes.
I snatched (it is the correct word) the bill out of her hand and we left.
Once again we walked around the grounds, me muttering. As usual.
Later it struck me as most odd that when an un-announced closure takes place – unannounced on their web site – that they aren’t public relations savvy enough on that one day to allow visitors in for free for that final hour.
In practical terms, anyone arriving after 2 p.m. would get up to 60 minutes viewing for free.
That ought to rank pretty high on any customer satisfaction survey.
$5.50 per customer, but then, they didn’t get our money anyway, so how can they lose what they didn’t have?
And if 60 minutes is not enough to see everything, surely we would return another time.
And at the very least, having seen the museum, we would be two more people who could tell other people about it.
Instead, I tell you, steer clear of Brantford. They don’t know how to welcome tourists, and while they want your tourist dollars, they don’t want you to be happy about it.
Nonetheless This New York Times Article caught my eye.
This first group is self-evident.
1. Be on time.
2. Be quiet, be quick.
3. Know when to speak up and what to say.
6. Help others look for lost balls.
8. Maintain a good attitude regardless of how you’re playing.
9. Avoid giving unsolicited advice.
10. Be generous, be honest, be nice.
I couldn’t recommend “4. Mind the flagstick. “ as is; it’d have to be “Make a fresh pot of coffee” in my business.
“5. Watch the flight of everyone’s shots. “ would have to become “Stay in touch with the pace of other parts of the project”.
“7. Don’t make everyone look for your ball for 10 minutes” is a little trickier. I think it’d have to be something along the lines of “If you can’t come up with a coherent reason not to do it within 60 seconds, you just don’t know enough to object to the idea”!
Does this mean I’ve had only 34 clients in the past 20 years?
No.
And remember - I’m a pack-rat.
Here’s how it works: I added a new hanging folder each time I landed a new client. Now landing a client, to me, is just a little ways beyond that first series of emails.
About the time I submit a proposal, the contact is classified as a client; they get a hanging folder with their name.
Into their hanging folder go all my sheets of hand-written notes leading up to the proposal.
Ideally they will respond to the proposal with a 50% deposit.
Sometimes I get no response. The proposal, like the client, is “dead”.
I place the most recent addition at the front of the drawer; when the client calls, I can quickly grab the folder.
That means that the stalest folders are now at the back.
Take the stalest folder and empty the contents into the shredder. Gone!
Let’s face it, nothing ever came of it, and if they do contact me again, from my point of view, after all these years, they are a new client. We never got past the 50% deposit, remember?
Put the new client into the now empty hanging folder, place it in the front of the drawer.
I never have more than 34 hanging folders in there at one time.
I am working on three projects at the moment. I pull those hanging folders and put them in my bookcase next to my desk. To work on the project I pull the folder, work on the contents, and replace the folder in the bookcase at the end of the day.
When the project wraps up, that folder goes to the front of the drawer.
My stalest clients are always at the back, and are prime candidates for dropping.
Chances are strong that when I do drop them, the original person with who I had contact will be long gone from the firm anyway.
It happens often enough; a client calls or emails.
The hanging folder is pulled, updated, and replaced in the front of the drawer. That breathes new life into it.
It is called WhatFAQ .
A WhatFAQ document is assigned to every project under my control or on which I am working. For every end-user application I write, there is a WhatFAQ; for every developer utility I build, there is a WhatFAQ; for every client project, there is a WhatFAQ.
WhatFAQ grew from three separate documents. About fifteen years ago I built three documents for a project: “What’s New?”, “What’s a Problem?”, and “Frequently Asked Questions”.
That meant I maintained three extra documents on top of any user requirements (Specifications, User guide etc.)
My three documents existed as Microsoft Word documents WhatNew.doc, WhatProb.doc and WhatFAQ.doc, and it made sense to merge them into one document, nowadays known as WhatFAQ.doc
How Does it Work?
Quite simply, when I have a thought about a project, when an idea strikes me, when a client expresses an opinion or a suggestion, or finds a problem with my work, I make an entry in the WhatFAQ.
The idea will not be forgotten, but I don’t need to break off from what I’m doing and lose my focus. I’m not dancing with fifteen partners each day.
The process is semi-automatic. I can paste ideas from emails. Every item receives an identification number that is unique to my computer system.
The WhatFAQ can be sorted (again automatically) so that the most-recently-fixed items appear at the top of the document and the still-to-be-addressed appear at the bottom in date sequence.
Project members can sort and filter by their initials to see what I’ve done about their pet peeves.
The best part for me is that I learned back in the seventies “Never make a promise or a threat you’re not prepared to keep”, and my WhatFAQ helps me to remember every item that’s ever come up for discussion.
The second-best part is that, from time to time, the client asks “Is there anything else we need to do?”, and I have a list of potentially billable items to hand.
Here is a link to an article that captured my interest: Action Steps
You can download a copy of WhatFAQ right now!
I called the 19th at 10:25 and got voice-mail. I don’t like leaving voice-mails when we’ve not previously spoken.
I asked first off “Do you have two minutes?”. Yes he did, just two. It is, after all, just before lunchtime on a Friday.
I reminded him of my letter. He told me the focus of the paper was on “events and happenings”; I think that is an objection.
I acknowledged that my offering was not about events, nor about happenings, and maybe there was not a good fit.
He came back then and asked for specifics. I gave him a 20-second overview, reminded him that my 2 minutes was up, and asked if I could send him an email with 6 short samples.
Sure!
That’s success.
It's been such a long time since I've written a newsletter I was half expecting a bunch of complaints (who are you, and why are you sending me emails?!?). I haven't had anyone burn my house down, though, so I count that as a win.
I have been saying for 12 months now that I'll put out a monthly eLetter for CEO/CFO/COO/CIO only of the large ("deep pocket") corporations I target.
I have a stack of ideas, a stack of articles, I have several formats I'm quite prepared to admire/steal.
I have the (programming) mechanism to distribute it.
What's holding me back?
I suspect (but can't prove) that the general feeling that we are "spamming" recipients arises because there is such an easy negative reaction to spam.
In the Real World(TM) I don't let annoying telemarketers dull my pleasure when a genuine friend or contact phones me; I move away from the computer to the green chair and enjoy a yak.
I see a monthly newsletter from anyone I do business with as a valid means of staying in touch with a valid contact.
You are not anonymous. We've done business, we've chatted. If you were in Toronto you'd have the spare room for as long as you needed it. Internet access, home cooking, two cats ...
The various entrepreneurs I've met in Toronto are not anonymous; we've said Hi! at 3 meetings, had a coffee, supper maybe. A monthly letter from them isn't an unwarranted intrusion. I might not take the time to read it right now, but it is not unwarranted.
I have blacklisted a few people who claim they spoke with me at a meeting 12 months ago, regret not establishing contact sooner, and hope I won't mind receiving a monthly letter from them. Blacklisted because (I'm not sorry), No; we've not done a single face-to-face meeting to learn about each other.
I hope this makes sense.
I'd rather you did a short eLetter each month; if nothing else it'd help jog my brain that I should spend more time selling software.
P.S. I find it OK that your letter comes in plain text, but then I'm interested in ideas, not fancy dress.
On thinking it over (and about to make another trip downtown) it seems to me worthwhile to print them, to give them some permanency.
Why not just use the business cards they give to me? Because nowadays business cards are not always handed out. Besides which I can print my own stored comments on the cards, update phone numbers and so on.
I’ll probably dash off a quick boiler-plate text document with a single-cell table where the data goes, and use adhesive tape to build a wallet on a sheet of paper.
Dump the text in the cell, load the wallet-paper into the printer, Click!
My previous clients still phone me, but if they aren’t taking me up on my proposals, it’s time to gently edge away from them.
09/16/2009 6:08:00 AM 0001.08 clients 4811: the descriptions (attached) do not have this extra line stating “Enhanced Warranty Coverage“
09/16/2009 10:09:00 AM 0000.15 clients 4811 examine code
09/16/2009 10:18:00 AM 0000.37 clients 4811 phone sandra
12/17/2009 8:11:00 PM 0001.02 clients v4 spec data file
12/17/2009 9:12:00 PM 0000.23 clients v4 spec draft
12/21/2009 10:02:00 AM 0000.85 clients proposal
05/11/2010 2:41:00 PM 0000.18 clients Phone AP re 5393: (Ref 3837) The attached document was opened
05/11/2010 2:52:00 PM 0002.00 clients 5393: (Ref 3837) The attached document was opened
07/16/2010 12:20:00 PM 0000.33 CLIENT call from AP re Word bug
CLIENT 6.22
Above is pasted a record of the time I have recorded on one particular client over the past 12 months.
Now 6.22 hours recorded is close to a day’s work. There are undoubtedly a few more phone calls in there that I didn’t record.
So how does “client” look to me now?
1: They have provided no revenue for the past 12 months.
2: They have soaked up a day of mine over the past 12 months; I’ve done a bit of research and provided some answers, all for free.
3: The chance of getting them to pay for a serious bit of testing and modification to their system is remote. They haven’t accepted my previous two proposals.
4: My goal for the next 12 months is to whittle them down to zero hours, allowing me either to focus on paying clients, or to take a day’s vacation and stroll along the Danforth.
P.S. If you are not keeping track of your time during the day, start doing it now.
There are many packages out there. My BillT is free, works, and is based on Windows Notepad!
It starts off with an innocuous email “I'm looking for Access VBA coding that will automatically populate business days of the week based on a start date and entry of number of days”.
I can do that!
But then I have no idea of the client’s abilities, so I suggest a face-to-face inspection of the database, and this seems expensive for the client who responds by pointing out that they are capable of inserting my code.
We carry on this way for two or three more exchanges, and then I give up.
The whole deal is too costly in terms of the time it is taking me to extract information from the client, and as soon as we clear up one misunderstanding, the client slyly reveals yet-another-card, more data that could have been volunteered up front.
I don’t abandon the prospect of work, but I retract into my shell with a suggestion that I be emailed some procedure specifications, and that I will craft code to meet those written specifications.
The message is: If you’re good enough to specify what you want, then do so. If not, you need me to help you specify what you want.
“Brianna Smrke didn’t know she was perfect. But after a phenomenal final year of high school, logging hours of homework a night, there’s no doubt she is, earning 100 per cent in each of her eight courses. Grade 12 students usually take six courses.”
And:
“While Smrke spent about seven hours doing homework each night — working from 3 p.m. to about 11 p.m., with a break for dinner — she also found time to work on fundraising initiatives, help distribute food to the homeless, be a volunteer math tutor and a “best buddy” to a special needs student at her school.”
I was struck by the combination of long hours and varied diet.
Brianna worked on matters well outside the study arena.
Our parents were correct: “ All work and no play makes jack a dull boy ”.
Here is a quote from “ 5 ways to take a guilt-free vacation “:-
I never cease to be amazed by people who wouldn't dream of giving back part of their paycheck, yet who don't take the time off to which they are entitled.
All you need to know is that the two teams were tied 0-0 at the end of the first half, 0-0 at the end of the second half, 0-0 at the end of the FIRST 15 minutes of extra time, and that Spain scored a goal about 5 minutes into the second 15 minutes of extra time, and that they managed to hang onto that lead for ten more minutes.
A cliff-hanger, you might say (although I found it all a bit boring).
So did the Spanish team shower, don casual clothes and hop on a 1 a.m. flight home? I doubt it.
They probably went to bed at all different hours, and some poor manager had the job of locating each player for the flight home the next day.
But this I’ll guarantee: Each player, wherever and whenever and however they dropped off to sleep later that night/morning had one thought in mind: We got our goal!
At the end of the day I’ll often field a phone call from a close friend or two, “How did you day go?”.
If that day I’d met a CEO/CFO/COO face-to-face for the first time, my day has been successful.
If that day I’d managed to clear one of my desks of junk, my day has been successful.
If that day I’d tested and delivered a deliverable phase of a project, my day has been successful.
If that day I’d completed and dispatched my tax returns, my day has been successful.
If that day I’d {fill in your goal here} , my day has been successful.
At the start of each day I write on the back of an old business card a single goal. It’s usually something that’s been bugging me.
What will make me happy at the end of the day?
As I write this at 6:10 a.m. on a muggy summer morning, I know I’ll feel happy tonight if by then I have completed fixes to the Booster project and have issued a ZIPped file with my latest efforts.
No matter what else I get done, no matter who else I meet, no matter what new projects or cheques arrive, at the end of the day I will lean back, relaxed and happy, if I’ve emailed that ZIP file.
That’s why I have a stack on old business cards, blank face out, in a little holder right next to my monitor.
And a little holding-slot that takes just one card, atop my monitor.
That part is “telling computers what to do” – it is more than “programming” and certainly more than “programming in VBA”, it is a passion for getting the very best out of a computer.
(I once devised a means of using 81 columns of an 80-column punched-card!)
My passion started 6 months before the end of my schooling, 6 months before my first job.
My passion has outlasted two marriages, five countries, three nationalities and an uncountable number of setbacks, cancelled projects and failed business relationships.
I sometime get exhausted, or plain bored with a project that drags on.
But come the next one, and I’m awake at all hours devising clever algorithms …
I look around me at the very small group of people I’d love to work with.
Each one of them is truly passionate about what they do to bring in the money.
Passionate enough to laugh at themselves while they are doing it.
The business is one gigantic barrel of colored balls and we are wallowing around in them, making money while nagging in a giant game of whoop-de-doo!
Robert Townsend said it best:
“If you don’t do it excellently, don’t do it at all. Because if it’s not excellent, it won’t be profit or fun, and if you’re not in business for fun or profit, what the hell are you doing here?”
“I got your name from {your name here}. There is a spreadsheet that several people use to input data. The president wants to receive an email when the value in a cell is equal to a certain criteria.”
I replied with eight questions:
“Hi Jason, thanks for the email. Some questions:; 1 Is the email to be emitted every time the cell switches to a certain value? (a.k.a. "drive the president crazy by changing the value every 5 minutes"); 2 Is the value explicit to 15 digits accuracy or is it to be within a tolerance?; 3 Is there only once cell to be monitored, or a set of cells?; 4 Is the cell defined with a range name, or will you maintain and re-distribute the worksheet whenever the cell address changes?; 5 Does every user have Outlook installed as the default mail client, or are some users using Mozilla Thunderbird, Eudora etc?; 6 Is the email to be issued the instant the user changes the cell value? How will you cope with people who turn OFF autosend in Outlook?; 7 Have you considered the option of logging the changes to disk and having the president (run a job on his schedule to) poll the saved log files?; The task will be written in Visual Basic for Applications(VBA). 8 Will every user have macros enabled?; I can probably dream up some more questions if you'd like.; There is no problem monitoring a cell and emitting an email; we would need tight specifications of when/how it is all to be triggered; I hope this helps.”
Nine Days Later
I have received no response, not even a “Thank you for taking the time to respond”.
Luckily for me I keep track of my time, and frequently examine time taken to perform simple tasks such as replying to an email like this like this.
Careful composition of a 260-word email as a first-time email to a potential client, spell-check and proof-read, takes fifteen minutes of my time.
Don’t pretend it doesn’t. You think it is 5 minutes, but it is much closer to 15 than 5. I know, because I’ve measured it.
I had BCC’d {your name here} on my reply, so’s they’d know that I had responded, and how I had responded and of course a few days later {your name here} emailed me back asking if I’d heard anything, so I responded to THAT email saying, in essence, “No”.
20 minutes sucked out of my life. For what? For someone I’ve never met who can’t even say ‘Thank You”.
If they can’t say Thank You what makes me think they’ll be happy forking over money?
Where else can you spend time fruitlessly on a potential customer?
Store Clerks do it all they time, but they are paid to stand behind a counter all day and smile as the customer approaches.
But I am not a store clerk. I do not stand behind a counter waiting for someone to swim into my view. I am a consultant with a business to run, and MY business is setting up meetings with CEO’s of large corporations.
The original email came from someone who thinks that I am a store-clerk. That is precisely the sort of person I can safely ignore.
And just in case you are thinking that times are tough (they are) and I’m strapped for cash (I am) and should leap at every opportunity – you’re wrong!
The path out of my hole lies in spending as much time as possible getting the word out to potential clients, not chatting with passers-by.
Ten years ago I was happily fixing computer systems – hardware and software – for my friends and small-business owners. Today I avoid that like the plague.
I have been burned too often fixing a system at night-time only to get a call a week later “My nephew installed some new software and now I can’t Print/Type/save/eat/Drink/Sleep”, or worse “… and now the changes you made don’t work; please come and fix them”.
Sometimes it is their spouse’s best friend’s gardeners mechanic’s son.
Corporate clients seem to expect to be billed at a daily rate starting around $1,000 and just going UP. Domestic clients want to know if twenty-dollar bills is alright.
Corporate clients speak in terms of P.O. numbers, proposals, contracts, and it is pretty easy to generate a water-tight proposal that spells out, in writing, what you’ll do for them, how much it will cost, and when it will be finished. (if you need help with this Talk to Me ),
So you’ve got your little domestic business model worked out, the colored crayons, the place mats, the bits and pieces, and people pay you for the small jobs, and it all adds up.
The catch is that the corporate clients can’t understand that. No corporate client worth their salt thinks in terms of $25/hour for a two-hour job.
So you need a second business model for the corporate clients.
Domestic clients get to pick and choose how much of everything they want, and they get charged per item, per hour.
Corporate clients are offered a rather large and very inclusive package; there is little choice. They get three of everything without being asked – no discussion no negotiations.
Two hours training is not an option. It’s a 2-day workshop. And it isn’t $150 per person per day; it is $1,500 per day for a group of eight. Whether they send eight or not.
Keep track of your hours the next time you start treating a large corporation like a domestic client. You’ll be amazed at how much time you spend trying to communicate on the wrong wavelength.
You do your Google Search, here are the links.
You click on a link (well, if you are a Firefox user you right/click and choose “Open In Tab”) and receive that dreaded “404” or “503” page error.
And it looked so promising and all …
Return to the page of found links.
Look Closely at the end of the link you sought.
If you see “cached”, click there.
You’ll receive a copy of the page from one of Google's millions of servers, a copy of the page as it was the last time Google saw it.
The page might have been moved or deleted by the owner.
But Google still has a copy!
Has a start and an end
Successful: A start and an end
Most unsuccessful projects
Wither and die
Starved of money
Bored to death over time
It is the start that defines the end
A successful project’s end point
Can be seen from its start point
At a successful project’s end
The start point is still visible
And where we are now
Looks better than where we were.
And we feel that the journey
Was well worth the price.
If you can’t see your end point
From where you are
Move the start point
Or the end point
By splitting the project
Into two parts.
The start point
Is well-defined
In space
In dollars
In staff
In tangible resources
In faith that the end point is attainable
and that today is today.
The end point
Is well-defined
In space
In dollars
In staff
In tangible resources
In faith that the end point is attainable
and that tomorrow is not today.
These things are called quantifiers
And each is said to be one of
Numeric
Spatial
Boolean
Date/Time
Management Measures
If you aren’t measuring
Then you aren’t managing
A measurement
Is a quantified fact
Words are the building blocks of communications
Words are either spoken and then heard
Or written and then read.
Spoken words
Hover in the air
Float across the wind
And vanish in the haze
But written words
Are forever.
It it ain’t written down
It don’t exist.
I wrote that!
A goal
Is where I am not.
A goal
Is another place
At another time
With more money
Do you agree?
A goal is visible
And believable.
Because I know where I am
(facts, measurement)
And can prove it
(written down)
A project
Is just a means
To reach my goal
From where I am
In a series of steps
One step after another
Yet some people on my path
Call them “Objectives”.
If you are human
Then state your endeavor
And write it down!
Identify your goal, your end point.
Identify where you are right now, your start point.
With numbers
With dates and times
With locations
And with faith.
If your faith is lacking
Move your end point
By splitting your project
Into two parts.
Quantify, quantify, quantify.
And write it all down.
“I want to be home
with my two cats”.
My home is on the corner of Bloor and Mill.
I’d like to be home before the sun sets
Which tonight means eight of the clock.
I’ve done it before so
I can do it again.
Here I am
Standing at the bus stop
Corner of Warden and Bertrand.
The bus flew pat me
Before I could cross the busy road.
I think the buses here
Run every seven minutes or so.
I can do this.
I will enjoy standing in the sunshine
For seven minutes
After all
It is only twenty past five!
My objectives are to
Keep an eye out for the next bus
Flag it down
Board it and pay my fare
When it reaches Warden station
I must get off,
Walk up the stairs
To the island platform
Board the next westbound train
To Kipling station.
When the train reaches Kipling station
I must get off,
Walk up the stairs
To the bus platform
And board the Bloor street bus.
As we pass Mapledawn road
I must ring the bell.
At Mill road I must
Get off
Walk to the building
Open my door
And enjoy the welcome
As two cats twine them selves around my legs.
Jupiter, and Bumpous.
Some goals for tonight:
Make and eat my supper
Check and answer voice-mail
Check and answer email
Build and issue the next deliverable for
Gary
Brent
Shaun
Tony
And David
Write my blog
Enjoy some ice-cream
Treats (3 each) for the cats.
Print three documents for tomorrow’s meeting
Brush my teeth
Go to bed
Read some more Rudyard Kipling
Boy oh boy oh boy!
It’s been a good day.
I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
On the back are written the name, address and phone of each person I am scheduled to meet. Those cards are accessed from my shirt pocket with ease, it beats trying to unzip my port-feuille in a crowded elevator.
As well, since the address is written there, I have a second card up my sleeve when I call for a pop-in coffee at short notice.
It happened again today – I called his office and got voice-mail, no receptionist, nothing.
I was in the adjacent building, so I marched right up to suite 720 and introduced myself.
If he is in and can spare me 5 minutes, he will do so.
If he can’t spare me 5 minutes, at least he’ll know that I think of him when I’m downtown.
… “We already have several IT people and a team of researchers”
The message is clear.
It is not rejection, but it is an obstacle to be circumvented (in this hot weather hurdling is out of the question)
I learned from this that “I don’t replace, I augment”.
It is not a question of me replacing the existing IT staff, or replacing the current researchers, but of giving them better tools, more knowledge, and hence more power to do their jobs.
I need to switch my vocabulary away from “This is what I do” to “This is what I help people to do”.
In the end, if there IS no IT or research tem, I’m an obvious candidate!
It was not a job interview. It was an introductory meeting, and it ended well, because I was warmly received and warmly farewelled with an unsolicited invitation from the contact to stay in touch by email.
My host was gracious enough to deliver feedback to me after my opening spiel, and the feedback was spot on!
Even if I’d been shown the door, it was a most valuable learning experience.
I noted the feedback and will adjust my spiel accordingly (“try to stay away from using the word computer or IT”).
For that alone it was well worth the $5.00 in subway fares.
Just one.
But after the meeting with John ended at 11:06 I called Leon to see if he could do lunch; he couldn’t but suggested I come on the company boat trip in a few weeks time. I agreed. Then Leon said he was sitting with David who controls a $1.4B budget for the U.N. I chatted on the phon with David about mutual interests in history.
Then I called a different David and suggested lunch. He could not; he was en route, but he asked I send my material and he’d look at it.
So I called Rae, and he said Sure! He’d be happy to do lunch, so at 12:30 Rae and I sat down to lunch and I picked his brains.
By 2 p.m. I was back in my office having chatted with five contacts in my target market area.
Quite a haul for a (long) morning’s work!
Of course I’ve done my homework before going; summarized the press releases, read the web pages, harvested all the Interesting Words from both sources and read through them to fix their vocabulary in my mind before entering the office.
I am wearing a suit and tie, for I am going to meet the COO of a rather large financial firm.
The shirt and tie are central to my image, especially the tie.
The web site is decked out in pale-blue and a pale-gray-blue.
What a co-incidence.
Not really!
I pick up neckties at rummage sales at anything from $0.50 each and upward, but I prefer the 50c ones.
Dozens of ties.
I match the tie to the web site on the grounds that I need all the help I can get during this first meeting, and a subliminal message that I am the same color as the web site can’t hurt.
Women: the rummage sale has scarves. Same deal.
Spin as in spin-doctor; skewing of facts etc.
There is an interesting discussion about “spin” vs. “pubic relations”, and what, after all, is the role of Public relations.
Turns out that although I say my business is meeting people (my money comes from doing what they then ask me to do), I am a one-man public relations firm.
This morning I head downtown again to meet a COO who I’ve not met before. I have asked for 15 minutes; I’ll consider myself fortunate if I get 30.
We will check each other out – if he has a problem I’ll ask for some detail, but mainly I suspect he will want me to describe myself, along the lines of “Why should I ever talk with you in the future”.
My job this morning is to present myself in a light that will cause the COO to accept me as a art of his arsenal in the fight against whatever-it-is.
I’m in Public Relations.
I got the name from a CNW press release , made the phone call, and within 2m35s was hanging up having secured an appointment.
I have nothing to sell, except my self, and there’s a potential contact like this every day, so why do I feel pressured?
My idea is to sit and chat about our respective businesses for 15 minutes, 30 if I’m lucky.
I have a set of about 5 conversational points that I can develop, but I rely on my attributes (fast-mind, vast experience) to parlay any enquiry into a discussion about me.
And I trust myself.
I maintain that I’m good at solving problems, making estimates, setting boundaries and so on. The computing is a small part of it (but it’s where people see the payoff).
If I’m not comfortable with being adaptable and confident, then I have no business there.
So off I go.
It’s a trip downtown, a great opportunity to expand my business down the road, and what’s the worst that can happen?
I can learn from a mistake!
The unsolicited ones are great, but perhaps rarer.
Lodge in your email signature a 1-line testimonial, including web address, to your most recent small-business supplier.
It could be a $50 graphic artist job, a $20 proof-reading – nothing major.
Find a way to let them know that you are praising them with every email you send out.
You’ll be surprised at the response.
EVERYONE loves an unsolicited testimonial!
You will too!
Applicable to the entrepreneur when the “cold call” failed. The message is “Don’t dive into the ‘fridge for a snack; pick up the phone and do it again …
But when did anyone advise you to stay on the horse when you didn’t fall off?
That time is now!
I just made a call, 2m 35s, and snagged a meeting downtown with the COO of a financial house. Just what I wanted.
The temptation is strong to do one of those crazy end-field football dances, but I must steel myself to move right on to the next call.
The best time to make a cold call is when I am flushed with success with the previous call.
My business is meeting people, not computer/accounting/massage/floral arrangements etc.
My business is meeting people; it’s what I do.
If you haven’t tried it, try it now. Email $10 to a friend and claim it back next time you meet (or else have them pay for breakfast)
A downside of the Interac system is that you cannot receive confirmation that the supplier has received the email (and cashed the cheque).
You can monitor your online bank statements, but who wants to type in their secure password every hour to inspect a bank statement.
Here’s the trick:
Massage the security question
All email money transfers include a security question.
Typical question: “Initials of the society where we met” ( AIC ).
Typical question: “Initials of the restaurant where we met” ( Boston Pizza ).
Here is an A-Typical question:
“What did I see outside my bedroom window in 1956”.
There is no way the recipient could know that SIX GRAPE VINES on trellises were outside my bedroom window in Southern Cross in 1956.
To access the money they are forced to phone me (or email me) for the answer. If they want the money, they’ll phone me.
Now of course, expecting someone to know something about an event in my life fifty years ago will be seen as nasty, so don’t go that far away in time and space.
But phrase an atypical question about something that has happened between you, and phrase the question do that they will need to phone you.
