Tritton USB Speakers— ‘Cause salespeople need to dance.
These Speakers Rock
If you are out on the road and a music lover like I am, you’d probably find that any speakers on any device in a hotel lack the sound quality you want. If you got your laptop along, then you should take a look at the TRITTON: Sound Bite, Portable USB Speakers. The get great sound, have a very small footprint, and plug right into your usb port. As added benefit is that they set up a separate music driver, so if you are using Skype or some other service, you can keep doing it while getting your groove on.
About the size of a hockey puck, the stereo tweeters sit fold up to look like Mikey Mouse with broken ears. I find that I’ve been using these more and more for business too, in conjuction with my Dell Mini and Dell MIni 109 Projector.
TRITTON Sound Bite, Portable USB Digital Speaker System
Review Influencer, the Power to Change Anything
I am a big fan of Vital Smarts books, training, and CD’s. Their first book, Crucial Conversations, contains essential skills needed for success working with other people. It was only later in my studies that I realized that Vital Smarts borrowed liberally from the world of non-violent communications studies.
I wasn’t as enthused about the second book, (Crucial Confrontations), but felt it was worthwhile nontheless. I view it as a supplement to Crucial Conversations, which focuses mostly on the having conversations when there is a confrontation at stake.
Well, I’m extremely happy to say that Vital Smarts new book, Influencer – The Power to Change Anything, is not an example of the law of diminishing returns. This book is arguably the best thing coming out of Vital Smarts.
This book is a study of what works in the field of Influence, and borrows from social and positive psychology, management, sociology, and non-violent communications. The folks from Vital Smarts borrow from everybody, but come up with something that is cohesive, unique, and effective.
Mixed in with the data, are numerous examples and case studies that serve not only clarify the content, but make the book an easy read as well.
This book is a must read, (or a must listen to), if you want to understand the tools to make change in your life, your company, and your world. Whether you’re trying to lose weight or reduce disease progression in an impoverished country, Influencer has something for you.
The 400 Hour Work Week.
Then I lost one. My first loss ever to this competitor in head to head competition. Damn, what a slap in the face, even though they came in $150K less than me.
It was time to change my game. I realized that I was partially distracted by a string of interviews with a Fortune 5 company. I wasn’t crazy about the job, but thought that the management was great, and the company fantastic. But I really think that the company I work at now is in the midst of an exciting and challenging time. That’s more important to me than the money, and I’m happy to say that the money has always come with me.
So, the first thing to change was the mindset. I may have a shitload of people over me, that have more power than me, and more access to resources than me, and it made sense to ask them for help. But that wasn’t enough; I had to respond to my competition in a way that was scalable, focused and fast.
First, I cancelled my interviews with the other company. I needed to focus on this mission and this mission solely.
Then I developed a philosophy. Many of you have read that book, “The Four Hour Work Week”. Sounds great to have your little businesses going “ca ching ca ching” all in chorus while you’re in Fiji contemplating your navel. Yeah, dream on.
What the book did teach was a philosophy. Get rid of worthless stuff. Set up processes, automate, and/or outsource the disagreeable or less profitable tasks to others. Do what makes money, and what I like to do.
So instead of a 4 hour workweek, I’m working a 400 hour work week. I’m leveraging a number of different resources to speed up my impact including:
- PHPList- an open source email tool.
- Jblast- Fax broadcast service.
- Callfire – automated dialing service.
- A Web developer and virtual assistant I picked up from getafreelancer.com
The Internet has made these power tools very inexpensive. PHPList is a free email tool that I use from a $6.95/month web site hosted at siteground.com. The program is literally installed with a mouse click.Jblast charges between 6 and 12 cents per page faxed, and Callfire charges 3.9 cents a minute.
I can play like the big guys, and still get it under the radar on my expense account. Stay tuned. Over the next few days, I’ll give you my experience with each of these products and services.
Review: What (Really) Works
What do great businesses in common? What do bad businesses forget to do? In their book, What Really Works- the 4+2 Formula for Sustained Business Success, the authors Joyce, Nohria, and Roberson analyzed data from hundreds of different companies. Using total return to shareholders as a results, the “Evergreen” project as it was called identified 8 factors of successful businesses.
In order for a business to have sustained success they needed to exhibit all of the first four, and two of the last four, hence the 4+2 formula in the subtitle.
The four mandatory factors are:
1) Strategy- Devise and maintain a clearly focused strategy
2) Execution- Develop and maintain flawless operational executution
3) Culture- Develop and maintain a performance-oriented culture
4) Structure- Build and maintain a fast, flexible, flat organization
The four optional (remember, you only need two) catagories are.
1) Talent: hold on to talented employees and find more
2) Leadership: keep leaders and directors committed to the business
3) Innovation: Make innovations tha tare industry transforming
4) Mergers and Partnerships: Make growth happen with mergers and partnerships.
One of the problems that I have with some of these management books is that they shoot their wad after the second chapter, the one that outlines the book. The value of this book after the second chapter is arguably less that the outline, but the case studies of both good and bad companies are interesting, well written, and reinforce the premise of the book.
I think one could argue about total value returned to shareholders being the paramount sign of a good company, especially when one looks short term. The authors had to pick something, and I think it was a good enough factor, that was easy to define.
I also know that this book isn’t a panacea. Like every other business book, this one will chaffe with age. I do think it reinforces some basics, and I think it merits reading.
If you’re in Columbia,MD, get a copy cheap. Daedalus Books in Columbia had it in stock for $4.98
Jesus is My Sales Manager- The Interview
Bob, thanks for coming in. Grab a seat. Sit down. Do you want a cup of water? Listen, I know you only have about 15 minutes, so if you don’t mind, I’m going to do most of the talking. If you like what you hear, then let’s set up another time to have a real two-way conversation.
Well, I took a look at your resume, and it’s great. You read and write Hebrew and Greek, we can really use that. The Founder wasn’t really into documentation, and we really need someone who could help us get some of his speeches down in writing. We’ve got one guy, Mark, whose just about ready to finish up something, and I hear another guy, Matthew is planning on doing some kind of revision.
I see you were referred by Paul? Did you know him when he was a cop? Yeah? I know he really has changed a lot since then. Seems a few years back, our Founder’s Son came down to recruit Paul into the organization. They had a brief talk, and Paul joined up. Changed his name and everything. We really had a lot of doubts about Paul at first, but he’s been one of our top performers, really working hard to penetrate new territiories and develop new markets for us. He’s started a number of User Groups, and he’s written some pretty good white papers for us too. We’re planning on adding Paul’s white papers to our user’s manual.
The first thing I want to tell you is that we are selling the perfect product. Everybody needs it, millions have been asking for it, and there are millions out there who need it, but don’t even know that they do. We really need to get out and push the messaging.
Let me tell you a little about ourselves. We’re an established start-up. We’ve been in business for about 5 years now. Our Founder’s Son started this territory, ran it for about three years, and then returned to Corporate. He’s still actively involved with us, in fact I recommend that you talk with him as much as you can. I’ve heard one of the things he’s working on now is a Sales Club for our top performers, and it’s going to be so incredible, that once you’re there, you’re never going to want to leave.
We had some independent agents do a little bit of publicity for us prior to starting the territory, but by in large, people weren’t getting the messaging. Corporate was getting very concerned about this. If we maintained the status quo, this territory would have just folded to the competition. So the Founder sent his Son down to see if we could change things for the better.
Immediately, the competition tried to do a friendly takeover, and was in discussions with the Founder’s Son. He turned them down, and went out and hired 12 inexperienced salespeople, and made them regional managers. We had some turnover, one of the regional managers later left after he leaked some priviledged information.
The regional managers did a pretty good job with the Founder’s Son’s help. The Son is a amazing public speaker, and he could do some amazing demos. He gave the ability to demo to the RM’s but to be honest with you, sometimes they just lacked the necessary confidence to to the demos as good as the Son. They are starting to get stronger with more experience and faith.
We brought on some more people, but now we are thinking about developing a multi-level marketing program. We’ve just found that our customers make the best salespeople.
I want to be straight with you. There are some bad things about this opportunity. . We have some major competition in our marketplace. We don’t hold marketshare right now. The market leader is a company called Darkside, Inc. They have some real slick marketing materials, and they are extremely aggressive in the market. They will say anything to make a sale. They don’t require a lot of committment, but once a customer has signed up, it can be very difficult to leave, even though Darkside has a very poor product satisfaction rating. The salespeople at Darkside just keep promising and promising, and their customers hope they deliver. Unfortunately, Darkside never delivers.
We did start a competitive trade-in program against Darkside about 20 years ago, and while we are not getting the response we’d like, we are extremely delighted even when we can get just one person to make the transistion. And I’ve never seen a customer who’s used our product correctly feel disappointed after coming from Darkside.
The converse is also true. Nothing makes us more upset than losing a customer to Darkside. Darkside promises everything to the customer, but when they sign up, they will find that the most important things are missing.
Also, there will be a lot of travel. The size of the territory is tremendous. You’ll be living on the road much of the time. We don’t have any cars or planes available at this time; you’ll be limited to foot travel and the occassional donkey ride. You can expense your sandels though, within reason.
We don’t have a lot in the way of technology either. No cell phones, no powerpoints, no laptops, no TV or radio marketing. We are expecting these things in future budgets, but right now, you’re going to have to rely on word of mouth, getting out in the field and pressing the flesh. The one technology that we do have is instant messaging with the Son and the Founder. If you need Him, He’s always available.
Ok, I’ve been beating around the bush. We’ve got a problem with regulations in some of the territories in which we operate. I’m sorry to say this, but our product has been determined to be illegal by the authorities in those territories. In some places, allthough we aren’t illegal, we’ve met such a hostile reaction from the locals, that we might as well be illicit. Some of reps and customers have been arrested, jailed, and even killed. You really need to consider the possibility of this happening to you and your people before you accept the position.
We’re not backing away. We feel that our product is so important, that we have to bring it out to the field, even if local governments feel differently. If we can penetrate some of the markets in these areas, we could overturn these laws barring our service.
You won’t be alone managing. After He left, the Son sent down one of His assistants to work in the field. You really should take advantage of this resource if you take the position. I’ve been told that working with the Assistant is like working with the Son himself. This assistant is very efficient, He seems to be working everywhere at the same time.
I know I’ve given you a lot to think about. Go home, talk it over with your wife, and get back to me. Here’s some of the Founder’s speeches to look at while your making the decision. We are going to add these to the User’s Manual. My personal favorite is the one he did at the Mountain some time back.
Review:SugarCRM How Sweet is Is
I’ve been interested in CRM since my days as a Police Officer/Student at the University of Pennsylvania Police Department. While in school, I worked in development of a members database for the Musician’s Union Local in Phila, and for my independent study at school, developed a client management system for the Victim Support Unit at the Police Department.
My career in sales furthered this interest. I became an avid Act! user, and was such a good beta tester for the company, that I usually didn’t have to pay for the software.
Act had a substantial change in 2005, moving to a relational database structure. What I thought would be a great change turned out to actually make the program unusable. Using the .NET framework made the new Act! slower than ever before.
I felt like an orphan, and didn’t know what to do. The lack of a good CRM really was hurting my productivity.
I tried a number of different options, including Prophet (too slow with a large number of users), and Microsoft Business Contact Manager 1.0 (pretty much the same quality as any 1.0 MS product). I was still at a loss to find something that worked for me.
A friend of mine, Haroon Khalid, told me about an opensource product called SugarCRM. I took a look at it, and it showed promise. It was a blatant Salesforce.com rip, which I considered a plus, having worked with the product in the past.
In order to install SugarCRM, I figured that I had to install MySQL, PHP, Apache, and the Sugar code on my laptop myself. Ok, it would take a couple of hours, but I have experience, and I knew I could do it. WRONG! It was much, much easier. There is a project called SugarSPIKE which installs Sugar and all the additional programs in less that 10 minutes. I was up and running.
The product is fantastic, very, very, stable, and bugs are minimal after the first patch. (Warning about point releases, wait until the first patch comes out.) There is an additional software product, available for a fee, that connects with MS Outlook.
The OpenSource version of the product lacks the reporting and quoting functions that I would need to give this a full OK. They are available in the full version, some third party products, or you can do as I did, and hook the database up to access with an ODBC driver. I’d gladly shell out the money for the full version of the product, but the folks at Sugar will only take a 5 license purchase.
What a Company Can Do to Keep Me as a Customer
I started writing this article shortly after being locked in an airplane on a runway for 2 hours. The first draft was noticeably more negative than I normally am. So, here is the much calmer second draft.
I’m a salesperson. I love it. But I’m also a customer too. And sometimes, I’m a very difficult customer.
Sometimes I don’t live up to my own high standards. I try to achieve perfection in my profession, but it’s an unreachable goal. I’m human, but that doesn’t stop me from everyday trying to do my best.
Ocassionaly, when I write an article like this, I’ll get an anonymous message from someone who has some complaint about my past service. Please, don’t be anonymous. Let me know what I’ve done, and we’ll see if together, we can make it right.
OK, so here are 10 things that any salesperson, or any company can do to raise your chances of keeping me as a customer.
1) If I call you, Ms. Salesperson, and you are not at your office, don’t leave a voicemail telling me to call you on your cell phone. Please forward your calls. (The technology is only 10 years old or so, so pick it up).Anytime a customer wants to talk to me, it’s important. Important enough that I forward my calls. If I don’t answer your call, just leave voicemail. I’m with another customer, if it’s during business hours. One number to call: 877-VPNDude (876-3833). It’s simple to remember too.
2) If, Big Company, you have me on hold, please refrain from having a taped recording that tells me how great your company is, and don’t use that message to try to sell me anything. Each minute I’m on hold is a minute that I’m thinking about taking my business elsewhere. If your company was really great, someone would answer my call. I know that sometimes you are slammed, so at the very least, play music. I can then put you on speakerphone, and get some work done while you finish up with the other customers.
3) Please know what makes you different from the competition, Mr. Salesperson.
A lot of my competition doesn’t read my website. Don’t worry, I’m reading theirs. I know all about what they’re doing. I know where I’m better than them, and I know where they’re gaining on me. I know their financial picture and what the analysts are saying about them. If you want to know about my competitors, call me. I’d be happy to give you a brain dump.
4) Read my website. Google my company. Don’t ask me what I do.
I do my homework. It is a privilege to have the opportunity to spend time with you, and I like being prepared. I check your website, Google your company, and Google your name.
5) Please don’t leave me a voicemail without your phone number, Mr. Salesperson. I don’t have my phone book handy all the time, but I will have your message.
If number my competitor does that to you, remember that my phone number is easy to remember- 877-VPNDude. If they send you an email, and it doesn’t have their number, again call me, the number is 877-VPNDude.
6) Please don’t arrive consistently late for meetings, Ms. Salesperson Most of us live and commute in DC traffic, and we know that even the best of us will, sometimes, hit a snag. Many of us have kids, and they get bloody noses or fall just when we’re just getting ready to leave for the call. It happens, but not every time.
I give myself one hour before my first appointment in DC in the morning. If I’m running late, 95% of the time, it’s because my earlier appointment is running late. I’ll call you if that happens.
7) If you want to sell me something by conference call or Webex, please don’t be late. If I have a team of people on a call, and I’m waiting for a salesperson, it’s costing my company a lot of money.
I am on a conference call 5 minutes before it begins, and 10 minutes before a Webex begins. If I’m not on time, it means that my last customer call has run late. I’ll do anything in my power to let you know that.
If you don’t love your product, or your job, please don’t bother to call me, Ms. Salesperson.
I have never taken a job with a company whose products I did not love. Here’s why. Because I’d know I’d stink at it, and I’d waste my time and your time, and maybe do irreparable damage to my relationship with you. I’ve worked with products that were difficult to sell, that I couldn’t sell, but I believed in them, and still do.
And sales… I love it. I love getting on the phone, calling you, educating you, having you educate me, writing emails, doing my newsletter and website. I work a whole lot, but have unbelievable freedom at the same time. My job uses all my creativity, I never run out of things to learn, and I get to talk to my true bosses, YOU, everyday.
9) Fight like a madmen internally for me, when I have a problem. That’ll keep me as a customer.
I learned this one the hard way, and it won’t ever happen again. I had a customer, the World Bank, who I absolutely loved to work with, but who was having some problems with the product I was working with. My customer at the World Bank knows more about Linux and Unix than probably 95% of us, and he probably knew more about my products than most of my first tier engineers at the time. He had a problem that I escalated to the head of support, who just sat on it, and sat on it, even though I called a couple of times to follow up. By the time I was able to get an engineer to help him, it was too late. I lost the customer
World Bank, I can’t tell you how bad I felt losing you, but I can tell you that I’ll never lay down for anyone when I’m representing a customer.
That being said, I’ve been extremely excited about the responsiveness I’ve seen from Product Management, and Technical Support since I’ve joined Websense. They all know me, I think I’ve only had to shout once.10) Please don’t waste my time, Mr. Salesperson, trying to sell products that don’t work for my organization.Guess what? I am always trying to find a reason that I can’t sell to you. I’ll let my product managers know that reason, and if they can’t or don’t want to fix it, I’ll be the first one in the conference room who says good-bye. And if I’m in that conference room, you better believe that I’ve done everything before my first call to you to see if I can’t sell to you.and the bonus…11) Put yourself in my shoes once in a while, Ms. Salesperson. Download your demos, try your own products, and take notes. Let your inside team know the problems, and try to get them fixed.
Monitoring Emails Using Readnotify.com
This is Part Three in my series on monitoring and tagging emails and web visits.
In yesterday’s post, I wrote about a fantastic, low cost product for monitoring email, called MSGTAG. I really enjoyed working with MSGTAG, but unfortunately it is not compatible with MS Exchange, a big drawback for most of us corporate email users. So I needed another solution.
I came across a Website called www.readnotify.com. Unlike MSGTAG, readnotify operates as a service, instead of an application. The tagging for Readnotify is done from a centralized email server, not at the client PC. This has the advantage of being email server, or client PC agnostic.
Instead of sending an email to joe.smith@abc.com you now send the message to joe.smith@abc.com.readnotify.com. Instead of going directly to Joe Smith’s email server, the message makes a pit stop at readnotify.com, where it gets tagged and logged and forwarded to the correct address.
If it sounds like a pain to add the .readnotify suffix, there are some options available to you. Readnotify has plugins that operate with Outlook and many Webmail programs like Yahoo and Hotmail. Myself, I loaded the client, but because of the selective way I personally use the product, have reverted back to using the suffix. (If I’m not too lazy, I might just set up a hot key.)
Readnotify has a web based interface that controls setup preferences and also provides an ongoing status log of mails recieved and forwarded. It even provides a Mapquest map of the probable site receiving the email.
Readnotify also provides a way to certify and timestamp messages, so that you have proof that a certain email was sent at a certain time. It also provides a way to provide encrypted email.
Finally, one of the neat features of Readnotify is the ability to send self-destructing messages. A recipient is sent to a website to view a message that destructs after a set period of time. No record is kept.
Because it is a service, readnotify.com does cost a bit more than MSGTag. If I didn’t have the problem with Exchange, I probably would haven’t purchased readnotify.com, but now that I have, I find value that the value I get from the timestamps exceeds the difference in the cost of the service.
Note: One of my readers, Idan, sent me some info on another program, MailInfo. I haven’t used it, but it does look worth evaluating, if this type of tagging interests you.
One Page is All it Takes- The One Page Proposal Reviewed
There’s a book I want you to pick up, especially if you sell to C-Level People. It’s called The One Page Proposal, and it’s by Patrick Riley (BTW, I linked this to the Amazon page because Patrick Riley isn’t Shawn Pringle when it comes to Web Marketing.
I started making money with this book before I finished reading it. (I ended up skipping to the back, and looking at the examples.)
The book teaches how to write a conscise summary to present to a C-Level Executive. The basic concept is that a CEO has 30 seconds to review your proposal. If it is too technical, or too long, or too complicated, it probably will never get read by the C.
Comments I get on the one page proposal are, “This is what I needed to bring to the team”, or “This is what I need to start this project”.
I’ve used this type of proposal to get things running internally with my VP as well.
Get this book! A small investment in reading, a small financial investment, and a lot of research will get be worth it.
Combine this approach with my 15 Minute C-Level Meetings, and you’ll have a solid foot in the door.
Here’s a redacted copy of the memo I wrote for tomorrow’s blog topic.
VIRTUALIZATION OF XXX TEST LAB ENVIRONMENT
An initiative to improve the quality of external testing and benchmarking for XXXTARGET: Create an easier, better, faster way for customers to benchmark and test XXX. Exchange this testing tool in exchange for knowledge of who is testing.
” Customize an existing virtual machine server environment as a server to test XXX and competitive products.
” Develop documentation to facilitate an easy install.
” Develop a set of tests that can be used to evaluate XXX against other products, using the test server.
” Create a marketing campaign that says that we have this available, and in exchange for customer information, we will allow a download.
” Create a set of tutorial videos that shows how to set this server up.
” Create a set of promotional disks that can be sent out to CIOs and the analyst/reviewer community.XXX has been seeing an amazing increase in the number of customers wishing to evaluate and test XXX in the lab. I’ve witnessed a great deal of variance in lab testing, which for the most part has been abysmal. Lab testing is generally shorter in time, limited in focus, and misses important features. It is proving to be very costly for us to participate in lab testing, setup time takes up much of the day, and results are not optimal, because of the disparities in testing, and the limited amount of knowledge the evaluators have.
If XXX would develop a virtual server testing environment that contains all the tools necessary to do a complete demo of us against the competition, we gain the following advantages.
” Reduced Configuration Time
” More Complete and Faster Evaluation Process
” Goodwill from the Customer Community
” Knowledge of prospects evaluating this project.I would recommend that we do not use internal XXX resources to develop the actual Virtual Machine. It would reduce our costs, keep focus, and maintain impartiality if we have a third party do the actual development of this server environment. We could use open source tools to set up a Linux distribution that has a mail server, DNS, DHCP, Microsoft networking, a database, and file shares, with sample sets of data.
RESOURCES:Since we are using standard open source tools, we could outsource this project for a very low cost. We would require a minimum amount of internal engineering help to outline the initial configuration.
We can also use external resources to document the install, and even record the training videos. This of course can also be done with internal resources.
XXX marketing would need to develop the appropriate collateral and web resources to facilitate distribution. We’d also need to provide distribution resources for physical media, if we choose to distribute this.
ACTION: XXX will assign a team containing a member of marketing and XXX engineering. A project and financial plan will be drawn up, and upon approval, the project will be executed.
This example differs slightly from the examples in the book, primarily because it was aimed at an internal executive. It is in the spirit of the OPP.
Thank You to a Friend Who Made Me A Better Salesperson
Here’s some background for all those tuning in. Umar Hameed is a Master Practitioner in Neurolingistic Programming, or NLP. Umar is my best friend.
In October 2006, I wrote a yearly plan for 2007. My number one fear, the thing that I needed to overcome, was the fear of making cold calls. My mom died in 2007, and the resulting grief just made things worse. Umar gave me a session to work with me on the issues revolving around cold calling, and it worked beyond my wildest imagination, despite the fact that I was sceptical that these results could be achieved.
If you’re a salesperson who knows the job inside and out, and who has studied the profession, but for some reason is taking a dive, Umar could be the key to change things for you. Give him a call, at 410-949-7067, or send an email to Umar@productivitycubed.com.
Umar, This may sound corny, so if it is, I apologize. I am sincere. I’m up here working on my 2008 plan, and pulled up the 2006 plan. (no 2007 plan is why I’m here this year). In reviewing it, I found what my number one issue was that I wanted to address was in 2006. Instead of deleting it, I’m giving it to you as a trophy.
In 2006, I was paralyzed making calls. With my mom dying, it just got worse. Thanks to my session with you, my fear of making calls has not only disappeared; Making calls is the part of the job that I enjoy the most now, and I’ve enjoyed tremendous success because of it.
Thank you for being a friend and changing my life.
Paul
Here’s the “trophy” that I gave Umar. It’s a picture of the section of my mindmap that dealt with my fears, from 2006.
