photo credit: KM Photography..

For one, both are using various forms of social media to expand their business, find new customers and communicate with existing ones.

In some cases, they might never have communicated directly with the customer who way down the commerce chain actually consumes their product. Now, they can and do – even while settled into a tractor seat in their Nebraska croplands.

Meanwhile, a programmer acquaintance in Australia recently talked about how social media connected him and a global corporation, making him feel like more than just a number and engaging him to develop software using their payment systems.

What would reaching out would do for your business?

Like it? Bookmark it!

photo credit: Suresh BJ

Is customer service the “new” marketing? Nope.

What’s this??? Blaphemy at Business is Personal? Nope.

As today’s guest post from Rachel Hawley discusses, it isn’t the new marketing – it’s always been a foundation for strong (ie: effective) marketing.

Like it? Bookmark it!

Download audio file (BoatAnchorBadSharingGood.mp3)

photo credit: Robb North

Over the last month or so, I’ve been playing phone tag with someone at the local bank’s office.

I use this national bank primarily because they offer some electronic banking services that local banks don’t bother to offer (such as a real-time, seamless interface with QuickBooks), despite my repeated “encouragement” to do so.

Some have noted that the cost to provide this QuickBooks interface is substantial – yet I get interesting wrinkled brow looks when I remind them that I pay $15 a month to use this nifty QB service because it saves us hours per month. Until the fee got to the point where the time was more valuable, I’d pay it. But I digress…

Anyhow, we’ve been talking with someone there about a refi and a combination of my schedule / travel and her schedule /travel have made it difficult to get into the same room at the same time. Not their fault, just one of those things about a busy summer.

This last time I called, the person I’m working with was out of town for several days. I asked the person on the phone if they could put me on their appointment calendar for the week after they return.

My calendar! Mine, mine, mine!

Astoundingly, the answer was no.

Yes, the folks at this large national bank, the same ones who are advanced enough to have their accounts seamlessly talk to my QuickBooks, do not allow or cannot manage to let their employees see their appointment book or schedule an appointment for someone else.

Insane.

I have a feeling it might be related to worries that someone might raid someone else’s appointment calendar for plum prospects, but there are ways of showing only open dates. Even so, that shouldn’t be necessary.

If you can’t trust a *bank* employee to access a co-worker’s appointment calendar, tell me why you trust them to work at the bank in the first place – cuz I don’t see it. But that trust thing is a topic for another day.

Unseen Value

Now we get to the point where you see where this affects you and your business: Are there resources (like an appointment calendar) that your staff should be able to share so they can help each other serve your clientele?

Back in the photography software days, it was a huge deal for new users of our product to finally get off that paper calendar at the front desk. It allowed anyone to see which photographers / camera rooms / salespeople / presentation spaces were booked and make an appointment no matter where an employee was when they answered the phone.

Sounds completely obvious, but many businesses simply couldn’t do it because they were still tied to that boat anchor – the paper appointment book.

Big, heavy and “somewhere in the warehouse”

Another market I worked with manufactured expensive custom items that were big and heavy. They stored them in the warehouse once they were finished.

The information about the build status and storage location of these custom-ordered items was kept on a set of clipboards on a line of nails in the manufacturing area.

Sometimes the info on those clipboards was out of date or missing because someone forgot to write the build status or location down. An order might get lost / forgotten until a customer called for it – and then you might find out that it hadn’t been built yet.

Now imagine that you are a receptionist in the front office and you’re all alone over lunch hour or during a big sales meeting. When that big customer calls to ask about their 27 piece, $57000 order, you have to put them on hold (or tell them you’ll call back), run back to the clipboards, flip through the orders manually, find the order and run back to the phone.

If the clipboard is missing because someone has it at a manufacturing station, or it is on the manager’s desk (or car seat), you know nothing.

If the data on the clipboard wasn’t filled out, you get to run back to the warehouse and look on dozens of shelves from floor to ceiling for an item that has a little paper tag on it showing the customer name.

That’s a boat anchor.

The alternative? A system that integrates customer information, orders, build status and delivery information together. When the phone rings, you can look up all of a customer’s orders, find the status of any of them and tell them right then. The items are barcoded as part of the manufacturing process so most status and location info is automatically updated. Depending on your situation, “most” could be “all”.

What’s your boat anchor? What can you share to get rid of it, enabling your staff to be more helpful and more productive?

Like it? Bookmark it!

photo credit: volante

An essential element of doing business in a competitive marketplace (is there a market that isn’t?) is taking every step possible that will show a prospective client that your business is the only logical choice to provide what they want/need.

Are you taking these steps now? How do you assert (much less prove) that you are THE one they need to do the work?

The obvious one is testimonials. We’ve talked about that many times. I print them all out and include them in the package I give to prospective clients.

Another obvious one is to be Google-able. When they Google your name (and they will), what will they find?

Your reputation and your work’s reputation are huge as well. We talk about improvement here at BIP almost every day.

What else can you do?

Beyond the Obvious

Here’s one example of what I offer potential technology clients: I give them a ready-made interview form to help them interview and evaluate potential technology consultants.

First, the instructions and evaluation form I provide to prospective clients. I call the interview “The 17 Questions Your Computer Consultant Hopes You’ll Never Ask”.

Next, I provide them with customizable forms I provide to prospective clients for their own use (Word 2007 or Word XP/2003). Free.

Finally, I provide them with a copy of the interview form that I have filled out about my business.

What are you doing to make yourself the obvious choice and thus, the only logical choice?

Like it? Bookmark it!

photo credit: boyghost

Today is June 30.

Unless your business model is seasonal (which is common here in Montana), you should be at 50% of your annual goals as of the end of business today.

Whether you are or not, looking back over the last 6 months should provide some insight as you look forward and adjust your plans for the second half of 2009.

Over, Under, Worked, Didn’t

Where are you over and under budget?

In each case, are there *good* reasons for that?

If things are below budget, did you drop the ball, fail to market effectively (or at all), lose a competitive edge, have a drop in productivity or something else?

If you are at or over budget, did you follow your marketing and business plan for the first half of the year? Did productivity rise?

Are systems lightening the load of menial work, allowing you to get more productive, profit-generating work done? If you don’t have systems, perhaps you should. If you systems could do more, look at how they can – and prioritize their implementation.

What worked? Simple response: Do more of that.

What didn’t work? Again, common sense says you should assess how you can fix that thing or eliminate it.

You decide.

When I ask you to examine what is over and under budget, make sure you look at non-budget categories. Things like number of new leads, number of new customers, advertising performance by media/by ad, and so on.

One thing is almost certain. If you do for the next 6 months what you did for the last 6 months, chances are the 2nd half of 2009 will be little different from the first half.

You can decide whether that’s good or not.

Like it? Bookmark it!

photo credit: miss_rogue

Last week I was at summer camp with the Scout troop so things were a bit quiet here.

Normally I would have posted a series of posts written in advance, but I thought both of us needed a break. Break time is over, so let’s get back at it.

As always, there are lessons in business to bring home from camp, often from unexpected places.

Like a 17 year old in the dining hall.

Before I get to that, the story requires a few facts to get you into the proper context:

• Boy Scouts would eat bacon at every meal for a week if you’d let them. No, I am not kidding.
• Bacon is a sneaky way of getting the boys to learn that cooking sometimes requires patience and that a camp stove’s burners have settings other than “Off” and “Blast furnace”. When a boy sees a perfectly cooked strip of bacon, they can respect the care that was taken to prepare it (right before they inhale it, that is).
• At Scout camp, two things are essential: Good food and a great staff. If either one is bad, that camp will not be fondly remembered.

Now that you are properly educated, here’s the story.

Real Bacon? Are you nuts???

One morning at breakfast, the camp offered bacon to the 200+ campers and staff in attendance.

If you’ve been to Scout summer camp before, you know this is rare because of the expense and because it is difficult to cook bacon for 200+ people while having it anywhere close to hot when served and most importantly – in that situation, it is rarely cooked right.

Typically you find summer camp bacon limp and undercooked or charred and/or some combination of both – sometimes with all those conditions occurring on the same piece (again, not kidding – would I kid about bacon?).

Add to that, summer camp bacon is not normally what Mom and Dad would serve, instead it’s often some tiny strip of paper-thin re-cooked bacon. Pfft.

As folks head through the line on this fine morning, people are seen coming back to their seats with 3 strips of bacon – a rather unheard of serving size at summer camp.

Not only are they giving out 3 strips, but these strips are monstrous (OK, maybe they’re normal – but that’s shocking enough) *and* they are perfectly cooked.

Then the worst happens: They run out of bacon.

Folks, this is like running out of beer and pork products at an LSU home football game. Riots are possible.

The Great Bacon Fiasco

At our table, the event already has a name: “The Great Bacon Fiasco”. And you thought I wasn’t kidding about Scouts taking bacon seriously…

People are coming back to their seats with zero bacon and they are watching someone at the next table munch gleefully on 3 strips of porcine heaven.

Apparently some miscommunication occurred with the servers, who gave out 3 strips vs 2, thereby blowing the bacon budget.

The only thing stopping the second coming of the South Central Riots is that the head chef can be seen (through the service window) at the back of the kitchen where she has the entire griddle covered with cooking bacon.

Calmer heads prevail and eventually, 2 strip servings begin to go out to those who were previously left out.

Naturally, those in the Two Strip Club are grumbling – mostly because they know those other lucky dudes got 3 pieces.

Seconds

Not long after everyone is served, the crazy dude announcing the meal (trust me, gotta be there) announces that seconds will be served and he goes around table by table releasing folks to the seconds line so they can “get their pork on”.

Upon returning from the seconds line, my senior patrol leader (ie: the youth in charge of the troop) sits down with 1 strip of bacon. Perfectly cooked, but terribly lonesome. Everyone who went up for seconds got 1 more slice – which makes perfect sense so that the maximum number of people get seconds.

Problem is, a kid who would normally be happy to have received a 3rd, perfectly-cooked strip of bacon is instead mildly annoyed, or disappointed, or something along those lines.

His bacon-inspired wisdom: He remarks that everyone who only got 2 strips would be far less grumpy if they had given everyone 2 strips from the outset and then given out that same 1 strip second serving to anyone who wanted seconds.

Wiser than his years might reveal, the young man understands how setting expectations works – whether it’s with bacon, product delivery, service, follow up or what not.

What kind of expectations does your business set? Do they meet or exceed what is delivered?  Would altering one impact the reception of the other?

Pass the bacon.

PS: If the bacon thing doesn’t resonate with you, substitute latkes. Same fervor, different food.

Like it? Bookmark it!

photo credit: woodleywonderworks

Today’s guest post comes from Barry Moltz, who talks about those people (euphemism) who don’t return calls or emails.

While I’m sure none of us ever do that, all of us know someone who needs a little advice about this – or maybe just a reminder.

Check out “Feedback is a gift“.

Like it? Bookmark it!

photo credit: lastquest

Today’s guest post comes from Nicholas Basbanes, who comments on the interesting and creative choice of paper used to print a book.

Little things mean a lot – the article explains it well, but don’t be distracted by it.

Instead, allow it to fertilize thoughts like “How can I create a context like this for my products and services?”

If you just think a little, what makes “pretty good” into “amazing”?

What makes people beg to show you this cool thing they have?

Being amazing is what does that. Being inspiring is what does that.

Read about it here.

Like it? Bookmark it!

photo credit: TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³

Today’s guest post is from Bud Caddell, where he’s taking something that is so pervasive that it has become a cliche – and turned it into a visual that is far more meaningful.

While I might not insist upon doing what you love, I would say you’d better have an interest in it for sure, otherwise someone is likely to come along and spank you at your own game.

Regardless, I thought you might enjoy it.

See it here: http://whatconsumesme.com/2009/what-im-writing/how-to-be-happy-in-business-venn-diagram/

Like it? Bookmark it!

photo credit: René Ehrhardt

Many people have had their mom, a grandma or someone put their hand on your forehead to detect a fever.

Despite “Doctor Mom” having no digital measuring device in her hand, she can still tell if you’re running a fever.

Maybe she can’t say that the fever is 102.372 Fahrenheit, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t sick.

Measurement matters

Many times we’ve talked here about the importance of measuring results, whether they are marketing, operational, people or otherwise.  I’ve told you NOT to guess about the results of testing an ad’s (or a media’s) performance.

That’s all well and good when it works.

When the ad doesn’t work, no measurement is needed.

The phone doesn’t ring. The email doesn’t fill up. The website e-commerce store doesn’t jingle with new orders. In the case of mom and the feverish forehead, her hand never gets close enough the feel the heat.

Trouble is, you’re still sick.

Feedback works the same way

The same goes when you aren’t getting feedback from your customers. If you aren’t, or if it’s all the same – you really need to look hard at the reasons for that.

Have you ignored their feedback in the past?

If so, the lack of quality feedback (or *any* feedback) at this time might not be the good sign for your products and services. It might mean that they just don’t think there’s any reason to bother telling you anything.

Or it might mean they don’t care anymore.

Often it can mean that there is an operational or logical problem in your feedback gathering, response *and* (this is the critical one) follow-up processes.

Taking a pulse

If I went down through your customer list, could you and your staff recall your last interaction with a reasonable number of them? Could they tell me which ones are difficult / challenging and which ones are lovely or fun to work with?

Could they relate with any accuracy the last communication they had with them?

Is there a pulse? You’d better know, without putting your fingers on your business’ carotid.

Like it? Bookmark it!

I thought I’d provide a few Twitter stories for you today – call it Twitter Thursday if you like.

First, a baker who uses Twitter to notify people what’s baking, what’s ready, etc. Customizable via the BakerTweet website, it takes a twist of a knob and a push of a button and you’re done.

Obviously you could use this to talk about your daily special, what beans you’re roasting and so on. Whatever the fanatic wants – tell them about it.

Only 3 million dollars

Dell has stated publicly that their @DellOutlet Twitter account has earned them about $2 million since they started issuing Twitter-only promo codes and other deals. Dell Outlet uses Twitter as a way to message out coupons, clearance events and new arrival information to those looking for Dell technology at a discounted price

But then, one of the folks responsible for the tweeting did a little more math, researching where those Twitter followers go after chasing a promo code for a refurb machine.

Some of them go to the regular “Buy a New Dell” part of the store. Another million in sales from “some of them”.

609,000+ people following the @DellOutlet account.

Wouldn’t you like to be able to send a special offer to 609,000+ people who might be in the market for whatever you sell?

That’s what @DellOutlet gets to do all day long.

Another story offers some ideas about using Twitter for business.

On a more serious note

While the mainstream news was largely useless (if not ignoring) the stories breaking during the early hours of the Iran election demonstrations and violence, Twitter was one of the few tools that people in Iran could use to tell their story.

Cell phone networks were being blocked, internet access was cutoff or filtered, all in an attempt to cut off Iranians from the outside world and vice versa.

But the internet finds a way. Soon after, people found a way to access the net, often through hidden proxy servers and dial up connections.

If you were on Twitter a few nights ago, you were able to witness what was going on through the eyes of those experiencing it.

Not a reporter, but students hiding in dorms and others trying to avoid being beaten or killed.

Via Twitter.

Over the next day, the mainstream media struggled to catch up. Photos eventually showed up on the Boston Globe site 24-36 hours later, but those watching for posts containing “iran” in them had been hearing the story in real-time from people experiencing the violence and uproar – for more than a day.

Real life in real time.

Twitter has turned out to be such an important communications tool for Iranians that Twitter moved a major network upgrade from the middle of the night U.S. time (when most upgrades like this are done to avoid impacting U.S. users). They shifted it to 1:30am Iran time, solely to try and mitigate the downtime’s impact on those who are using it to try and survive, much less report what’s going on there.

The same kind of thing happen during the Mumbai bombings.

If you still don’t get it, try this

Think of something that is really, really important to you.

Maybe it’s your market, industry or some such. Maybe you’re into Forex trading, Tiger Woods, the NFL or fantasy baseball. Maybe it’s your faith or your favorite breed of dog or one of a million other things. Might be serious as cancer, might be something silly like Britney.

Google it, but add site:twitter.com to the search. Or just go to twitter.com and do a search.

See anything there that interests you. I’ll warn you, not all of it will be high-quality stuff.

Here’s the secret: See if there are people there who do or know things that provoke you to join their conversation because they know the topic that interests you. You might find experts who you would never be able to reach otherwise.

Think back to my story about swapping messages with Robert Scoble as he toured Ansel Adams’ studio at Yosemite with Ansel’s son, answering my questions in real time.

Real time is prime-time

What’s real-time about your business? What do the fanatics in your market do when they need more info about what you sell – or just more of what you sell – RIGHT NOW?

They might just be on Twitter.

Like it? Bookmark it!

photo credit: striatic

Yes, me.  I am a slacker. I admit it.

A year ago, I was planning to release my first book, “Business is Personal”.

You probably don’t remember me doing a launch promotion on it. That’s cuz I didn’t launch it.

As you might suspect, stuff happened and pushed it out of my immediate view and soon enough, a year went by.

Bet that never happened to you.

It’s still sitting in my authoring software, laughing at me: “You can’t finish me today, bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaa” (yeah, that’s supposed to sound like an insane creepy laugh).

Enterrrrrr theeee excuuuuuuuuusee zoooooooonnnnnne (you can figure out how that is supposed to sound).

The Excuse Zone

See if any of this sounds familiar, even if you have to adjust the facts.

• Before first light today, I headed out to Melita Island to help teach the 2nd part of Boy Scout Wood Badge. WB is an adult leadership course for Scout leaders and I am part of the instructor team.
• The morning after I get back from Melita, I leave for Scout camp for a week.
• The next week is 4th of July week and I have to go to a swim meet that will be a lot about remembering a dear friend who in her last 18 months of life literally willed a small town into getting a new swimming pool suitable for swim meets – all while battling pancreatic cancer.
• Meanwhile I have client work, coaching sessions, blogging, writing my newspaper column, working on my own product development work, doing family stuff, visiting with that awfully cute granddaughter you see in that photo on the blog, a week in Missouri with the in-laws and such right after the 4th, out of town swim meets every weekend till August, then (not 100% sure on this one) 10 days in the backcountry on a wilderness pack trip.
• That gets me to August 16 and doesn’t count other troop activities, Rotary (yes, I’m still club president), a few other volunteer gigs here in town and again, more of that client work stuff.

All the while… it sits there and taunts me. The book, I mean. You can probably hear it giggling.

Choice

You probably think “Heck, no wonder you didn’t get it done, with all THAT stuff going on.”

And you would be completely missing the point.

It has nothing to do with how much other stuff I have to do. It has to do with making a choice about the stuff I AM doing.

Each day since the Spring of 2008 when I started “Business is Personal” (the book), I’ve made a choice – several times a day.

These choices were made to do something else other than chip away at the book, even if I chose to do something that might have seemed important at the time.

No one else made these choices. Just me.

A few of my favorite Jim Rohn quotes come to mind:

• “When you say ‘No’, you say ‘Yes’ to something more important.”
• “Learn to say ‘No’. Don’t let your mouth overload your back.”
• “We can no more afford to spend major time on minor things than we can to spend minor time on major things.”

What did you not get done today that you should have gotten done, if only it wasn’t for that “really important” thing you did instead?

Say “No” to the not-so-important so that you can say “Yes” to the really important.

PS: Stay tuned for the book. If you’d like to help with it, take one minute to slide on over to http://www.businessispersonalbook.com and enter a question (someone will win a pair of free consultations, may as well be you).

Like it? Bookmark it!

Rather than weigh this down with words, I’ll let it speak for itself.

Good business is simple. Boil it down.

“…so that I can sell with confidence.”

Like it? Bookmark it!

photo credit: jas kaur

Not long ago, I was having a conversation with a photographer friend about a photographer he knew that was in the middle of shooting a Sikh wedding.

I’ve never been to one, but it sounded like it lasts several days and ends up resulting in 6000-10000 photos. Quite an celebration.

I suggested that if one really studied their ceremony, their beliefs and learned more about these things than anyone else in their large community, this photographer would really standout and as a result, dominate that business.

The end result would be to become the #1 expert in photographing Sikh weddings in that area, perhaps nationwide.

My friend said “Standing out is the new normal.”, in effect saying that everyone stands out in that business and that standing out is no big deal these days.

Maybe he’s right, but I haven’t seen that yet.

I believe there is always room – in any market, to do what others wont do, to learn what others wont learn and to provide service that others can’t or won’t provide.

As I remarked to him, “even in a room full of billionaires, the 80/15/5 rule holds true.”

In other words, even in a room full of highly-successful people, 5% of them could kick the crap out of the others in business, tennis, mountain climbing or whatever they attempted.

Yet they’d all be billionaires.

To that end, Tom Peters’ site posted “Be irreplaceable” today – definitely worth a read.

Like it? Bookmark it!

photo credit: TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³

Today’s guest post is from former Pitney Bowes CEO Mike Critelli, who talks about why CEOs matter.

Not just CEOs of Fortune 100 corporations, but CEO of your business as well.

In particular, in fact.

Check it out.

Like it? Bookmark it!

If this video from Scofield Editorial wasn’t so annoyingly accurate regarding how some businesses operate, it’d be funny.

Ok, it’s funny anyhow – until it happens to you.

Try not to be on either side.

Some businesses operate this way as a matter of course. With some people and some businesses struggling these days, it’s easy to find someone trying this.

Just don’t do it.

If nothing else, keep in mind that you will meet them again, probably on your way back down.

Like it? Bookmark it!

Since January 2005, I’ve been spent a lot of time explaining how Business is Personal.

When I started this journey way back then, I named the blog “Pancake Bunny“.

I called it that as a result of a customer service interaction where a company’s CEO told a customer that their message made no sense and then included the pancake bunny in their reply (click here to see the original pancake bunny).

It struck me that I had work to do.

Not solely because of the bunny remark, but because of a pervasive antagonistic attitude toward customers – especially by many in tech-related industries (remember, Ive been in the software biz since 1982).

Nine Hundred Eighty Five

Nine hundred and eighty four times I have posted here in order to teach this one important lesson. This one is number 985.

I’ve shared little anecdotes here and there, stories, admonitions, an occasional rant or two – whatever it takes to make you and your staff attract, sell, talk to, think about and work with your customers as if they are real people.

Like your grandma. Imagine that.

That lady you were snarky with on the phone this morning is probably someone’s grandma, or mom or something. Would you talk that way if she were in front of you? Hopefully you aren’t the snarky one in the first place and that was intended for someone else cuz you’d never do that.

Progress

I know that in many cases I am preaching to the choir, but I also know that many people have related personally to a story here and it has changed their business. They have finally seen how treating their clientele like a friend, a partner, a family member – changes their business.

Others have finally figured out that hiding from their customers, treating them poorly (if they treat them at all) and thinking “Damn, if those customers didn’t keep interrupting me I’d get some REAL work done” is not how business is done.

Instead, it’s how your “Dear Valued Customer” becomes someone else’s.

If you haven’t gotten that yet, today might be your lucky day.

Enter Mister Butts

Earlier today I got an email from a Twitter acquaintance named Rick Butts. He’s one of those internet marketer types (and he just winced when he read that – sorry Rick).

EXCEPT, he isn’t like many of them. He’s a regular guy who gets the Business is Personal thing.

If after reading Rick’s email, you don’t understand why you simply have to treat someone who is viewing your blog, your newsletter, walking into your store, calling you on the phone, or tweeting you *like your grandmother*, then I suggest going back to post #1 and read a few posts a day.

I can’t help but think it’ll help.

Here’s Rick’s email. Enjoy.

I Am Joe’s Email List – An Open Letter To Internet Marketers

Hi,

I am Joe’s email list.

Joe calls me his list, his peeps, and sometimes just “the list.”

But, I am not a list, really, I am not a crowd, or an audience. I am not “everyone out there” as they teach new broadcasters to say.

I am me.

One single person with hopes, dreams, stresses and fears.

In many ways I am just like you – the way you describe yourself in your hungry years before you went to that life changing event, read the book, and started making money online.

I get email from you Joe.

I can’t remember for sure, but I think I “joined” one day when you offered a free report or video and I had to put my email address in – and confirm – in order to see it.

In my inbox, Joe, your email looks just like the personal emails I get from my daughter or son, and sometimes, sadly, from my ex.

Now that you’ve been sending me email – as well as some of your “good friends” – I have begun to be able to see in a glance that they are just offers, sometimes disguised as important messages, sometimes blatantly, not.

Whenever I see the word “this” in your subject lines, like – “this won’t last long” – or “have you seen this?” I know it’s an offer.

Since the Product Launch Formula I and especially II – I’m amazed at how many times per month I am literally inundated with emails from so many people all about the same exciting product.

They arrive over multiple days, culminating in a bonus orgy that is just overwhelming.

I read a clever post in a forum once, that “the bonuses are so comprehensive, it makes me wonder what is covered in the course, that is not already covered in the bonuses!”

That made me laugh.

I’m writing you today, to share something important about myself – and I hope you’ll take the time to consider my feelings, ok?

I have to get off of some of these lists.

The volume of email and the distraction of chasing the offers is just crippling my time, my focus, and my ability to get things done.

When Rick Butts asked his readers to consider unsubscribing from the people who sent you Stompernet Launch offers IF they had not provided any useful content in the last month – he really got me thinking.

Then Ed Dale made a video saying, basically, that no one is holding a gun to your head and that if you wanted to stop getting offers – stop bitching – and just unsubscribe.

But here’s the deal. I’d LIKE to learn from you Joe – and to be able to know that being on “your list” is valuable to me, my business, and my future.

So, please don’t think me a big whiner, I’m a customer, and here’s what I respectfully request:

1. Slow down the frequency of mailing to me, Joe.

Do not email me every day – that’s just way too much now.

2. Don’t mail me offers all the time.

I’m reading a lot more RSS feeds from bloggers who are putting out great content. If you are using Feedburner or Feedblitz or Aweber’s blog notification service that mails me when you update your blog – then, cool. I’m good with that.

3. If you do mail me an offer PLEASE don’t cut and paste the pre-written one from the creator of the product.

Do you know how stupid that makes you look to me? And, how insulting it is to get them from multiple people?

4. Try giving me some TRUTHINESS in your communiques to me.

If you are really making money in the non-marketing-to-Internet-marketers, then tell me some useful tips that are working for you. No, you don’t need to tell me your market niche but hey, every once in a while how about your show me how valuable I am to you buy sharing one of those SECRETS?

5. Show me some stuff that made less than $1,000,000.00.

I’d be immensely interested in real world examples of success I can get my head around. I’m never going to build a big list of “biz-op” peeps and hammer them with a big JV launch. Show me how I can make $500 a week – then be able to replace my income and quit my skank job.

6. Stop bragging about your zero-gravity dives and how you are spending my money in outrageous ways.

Trust me, this is a lot more fun for you, then it is for me to read about it. You may excuse it as “inspirational” but I dont’ even think that works in MLM anymore. It just annoys me. A little “high life” goes a long way and I’m more impressed by how Internet marketing lets you enjoy your family.

7. Please, please, please, for the love of God, stop participating in these dreadful launches!

Let me believe you are successful enough without having to bend over and schlup me and the rest of my list mates through your embarrassing attempt to get me to “buy from you” and help you win a contest.

The reason Rick Butts wrote about the 12 Biggest Whores, without naming anyone, is that we have all watched the emergence of about that many well known marketers who cross-promote each others stuff so regularly it is hard to imagine that they do anything else.

I think that gives you a pretty good idea of the kind of things that would make getting email from you valuable again – and persuade me not to unsubscribe from you forever.

Final thought…

The blowback from the “unsubscribe” and “launch fatigue” has been to accuse me and my list mates, the little people, of being whiners.

And while there is no shortage of whiners in the world, I want you to know that from the bottom of my heart – I am pleading with you to not dismiss me so easily.

What most of us really want is for you to provide us with value, treat us like a long term relationship, and we will, certainly reward you for helping us get to the next level.

Now back to check my email, I think there’s a Traffic Secrets 2.0 launch today?

Sincerely,

Joe’s List

Like it? Bookmark it!

photo credit: Sukanto Debnath

A couple days ago, the Lakers appeared a little vulnerable against the Magic after a game 3 loss.

It appeared that the Magic focused a little more and worked a little harder on fundamentals than the Lakers did, as a result, their shooting improved and nothing the Lakers and Kobe could do would stop them.

It doesn’t matter if you have a 46 inch vertical leap if you can’t make a layup or a free throw, much less play defense or make your way across the court without someone stealing the ball from you.

Small businesses have the same issues to deal with: Focus. Attention to fundamentals.

As I see businesses struggle with sales, customer retention, customer service and effective marketing, more often than not, ignoring lessons in fundamentals from old gray haired white guys are at the root of the problem.

No, it isn’t just white guys, but there just aren’t many business icons in their 70s and 80s who aren’t white, simply because of the way things were in the US 40-50-60 years ago. Naturally, there are exceptions, but this post isn’t about race relations so let’s get back to the topic at hand.

Experience is cheaper if you can learn its lessons from someone who already paid the price for it.

When I say old, of course I mean “much older than me” ( just like you do).

I’m speaking of guys like Zig Ziglar (born 1926), JimRohn (born 1930), John Earl Shoaff (born 1916, died 1965)  and Earl Nightingale (born 1921, died 1989).

Yeah, I know. Those dudes are either really old or long gone. That’s just a short list of folks, but rather than go on, I have something else to deal with that’s far more important.

Your mind. See, I know what you’re thinking.

You’re 23 (or 33, 43, 53, take your pick), an entrepreneur and there’s nothing some crusty old white dude can teach you about business. This is the iPhone age, the internet age and those guys would freak out if they had access to what you have.

It’s a big mistake to think that way. Keep in mind that those generations didn’t have some of those things – so they invented them…

One of the simple things Zig teaches is to get everything you want, help someone else get everything *they* want.

Simple but powerful – and easy to implement in your business. If you put some thought into it, you can easily find a way to leverage that idea so that it creates revenue opportunities for your business.

I’ll leave it to you to discover the other things these men taught but I can’t make a better suggestion to you than to discard your prejudices and just listen.

Then take action.

PS: Yeah, I realize the photo is of a woman. There are smart, old, white-haired women that you can learn from as well.

Like it? Bookmark it!

photo credit: kevindooley

I have this vendor who makes me a little bit nuts.

When communicating with them, I feel like I’m trying to get my golf clubs from an ex-wife who hates me.

You know how it goes… If I ask her the wrong way, she’ll wrap them around a tree in the front yard and say “Here ya go, honey!”

Result: I ask very delicately.

I can’t imagine why anyone would purposely position their clients like that, so I have little choice but to believe they are unaware of this situation. I have no idea how that could be, but you knew that already.

Trouble is, when you’re in that sort of position, you really can’t even suggest to them that they might address the issue. Back to the golf clubs.

So what do I do? Mostly, I’m forced to ignore it because I can’t do anything about it.

What about you?

Do you have a critical path vendor that makes you feel that way?

If so, did you find a new critical path (not just a vendor, a whole path) or do you just put up with it because you can’t get that one thing anywhere else?

In my digging around, I hear the latter most of the time and I just don’t get it.

Like it? Bookmark it!

photo credit: foxtwo

Earlier this week, I was watching the Apple keynotes from Macworld 2009 and the iPhone 3.0 SDK announcement, mostly to prepare for the keynote from the Apple WWDC (their developer conference).

These keynotes are where Apple traditionally reveals their Next Big Thing as well as their accomplishments over the last year. It isn’t Wall Street conference call yawner sort of stuff. Instead, they do it at their customers’ level of interest.

A few things stuck out of these conversations:

In 2008, 3.4MM customers visited Apple stores every week (on average).

2008 was the biggest year in the history of Apple, as far as sales of Macintosh computers are concerned: they sold 9.7MM macs.

Apple currently dominates the smartphone app market.

For example, the number of applications available for the leading smartphones:

• iPhone 50000+
• Android 4900
• Nokia 1088
• BlackBerry 1030
• Palm 18.

No, I’m not sure why Windows Mobile apps were not in that count, but I think it’s safe to say that the Windows Mobile platform can’t claim 1 billion app downloads between April 2008 and June 2009.

Apple sold 13.7 MM (million) iPhones in the first year.  When you include the iPod Touch in that number, it leaps to over 40MM.

62% of programmers in the iPhone application developer program are NEW to Apple platform. Having been in the technology biz for 25+ years, I can tell you that this is an insanely successful number.

By now, you might think that I’m an Apple fanboy. Nope. Maybe a fan, but I try to remain pragmatic. I don’t yet own a mac or an iPhone, but I find Apple’s ability to compete pretty impressive – particularly HOW they compete.

It’s 100% cultural.

We’ve talked previously before being able to do something right in your competition’s face, having them observe your success and then do nothing about it – particularly nothing similar.

The Apple way

Apple has long talked about making things easy (and yeah, I know that not everything is), but it really is the focus of everything they do.

Let’s compare how an iTouch deals with wireless connectivity vs that of a Windows laptop.

Windows will ask if you want to diagnose or repair and tell you about the DNS it can’t find and so on. Seems to me that if your wireless is on and there is a network in reach, it’s a little silly to ask if you want to try again to connect after the first failure. My laptop drives me bonkers with this sort of stuff as I travel and deal with disparate networks across the country.

Meanwhile, an iTouch either connects or it doesn’t. On the same network that will provoke a laptop to ask about repair and diagnosis, the iTouch just does whatever needs to be done to try and heal the connection.

But it’s far deeper than that.

When Apple Marketing Chief Phil Schiller introduced a new version of the Apple spreadsheet software, he simply said “It works the Apple way.”

Everyone with a mac knows what that means, especially if they have MS Office for the mac.

At the core of all of this is a clear desire to stand out by doing things for the customer that they shouldn’t have to do themselves. Former Clarion Software CEO Bruce Barrington is said to have uttered a similar comment. It goes something along the lines of: “Anything the user has to do every time shouldn’t have to be done at all.”

I try to do these things in the software I write. It’s a profound approach, despite being so common sense. It makes you rethink design, which (surprise) is what Apple is so identified with: great design.

Self-cleaning ovens

Now…think about your products, services and customer interactions.

What are your customers forced to do every time and how can you eliminate those tasks?

That’s the kind of competitive strategy that gets customers to gobble up your products, but there’s more to it than that. If your products do more, automatically, then your staff and your customers will spend less time on customer support – because they won’t need it.

Your products will stand out even more, and the competition will simply stand there and watch as you eat their lunch.

Here’s a simple example to close things out today: Most self-cleaning ovens aren’t self-cleaning.

They still have to be told to clean themselves.

Like it? Bookmark it!