Here are my key take-aways from attending the Thought Leadership Symposium, hosted and facilitated by Alan Weiss with his guest presenter, David Maister:

• Thought leadership, for me, means being sought after by clients and the media to help improve my clients’ businesses and live. It also means high degree of self-worth.
• It’s not about credentials and education but how smart you leverage your applied intelligence.
• Stop worrying about what people think. Instead, lead them and tell them: “here is what you need!”
• When writing a book, the most important part of that book is the conclusion.
• Develop a vast amount of intellectual property that is manifested in a variety of formats such as: books, booklets, audio and video, workshops, seminars and such.
• You have to create the environment that others see you as a thought leader.
• A firm can be associated with the thought leadership of a concept such as: McKinsey in leadership.
• You may build the future credibility as part of your organization. For example: “Here are The Chad Barr Group strategic Internet growth ideas.”
• When examining my Internet Strategic Profile process visuals, I rank thought leaders between distinct and breakthrough.
• Create a library of great ideas. Move on some quickly while letting others age and ignore the rest.
• Help my clients establish their web dominance.

Summary of David Maister Presentation:

• Trade organizations are very powerful. Publish there.
• The regularity of your articles is the real power.
• The biggest issue with thought leadership is the discipline of it. Find someone you trust that will hold you accountable.
• We all know what we need to do and we just don’t do it!
• The key is to get your clients to rave about you and refer you to others. Otherwise, you have a quality problem and not a marketing problem!
• Take your articles and convert them to books and eBooks.
• Being a thought leader does not mean that you originated the idea but that they want to talk with you about it.
• Develop a powerful questionnaire (assessment) that helps diagnose your clients. In order to get the answers, they have to enter their name and email information.
• Consider doing a pro-bono speech if they give you the email list of the participants.
• Most of your business should be your existing clients. Everything else is gravy.
• Don’t make a promise for something you are not going to do, or scale back your goal.
• Turn down work you don’t need or should not do.

Final points:

• Meet your deadlines and hit the mark!
• Show up at the right time and the right place.
• Remove these items that hold you back or that are clogging your life.
• Take some prudent risk.
• Take action. Move!

In order to be a thought leader remember this:

• It’s all about resolve!
• Decipher what you are going to do and do it!
• You gotta want it!

A common question I am often asked by clients in my mentor program is how to start a conversation with a prospective client or what do I say after I say hello? Although there are probably questions that are better suited for different personality types, I find the following quite provocative in any situation and the kind of questions that stimulate great discussions. These are also the questions I often ask before reviewing the effectiveness of one’s web and Internet strategy:

• What is your key business focus and the value you deliver to your clients?
• How would you describe your target audience(s) and the profile(s) of your perfect client?
• What are your key product and service offerings?
• What great results have you seen from your web site and its strategy?
• What are some of the key issues / challenges you are facing?
• What would you want to be known for?
• if we were to work together, how would you describe the possible outcome from your site and its strategy that would absolutely delight you?

These questions are provocative and would typically start great conversations. I have to also admit that I am surprised at times how many entrepreneurs struggle answering such questions. So next time you meet a prospective client, ask them such questions but make sure you come across genuine and friendly and not interrogating. And also, how quickly can you reply to such questions when asked and what would be your answers?

© Chad Barr 2011. All rights reserved

Last Monday I spoke to the great people of the Connecticut National Speakers Association chapter. A common question was asked of me: “as a speaker, how does one significantly increase their success leveraging technologies and the web?” Here are my top 8 answers:

1. Become a prolific and constant publisher of great provocative content.

2. Publish in a variety of media formats such as: text, charts or process visuals, images, cartoons, audio and video.

3. Engage in many aspects of marketing to effectively attract your buyers.

4. Innovate, reinvent and repurpose your ideas and content.

5. Create strong relationships with buyers, colleagues, partners and journalists. Well, family helps as well

6. Position yourself as a thought leader.

7. Leverage technology and the web.

8. Evolve.

These points should give all of us a quick guideline and at this point you are probably asking, how to do this? So, stay tuned. More will be published by me here shortly.

P.s. Posting this from the Las Vegas airport while waiting for my return flight home after several amazing days of learning and speaking.

© Chad Barr 2011. All rights reserved

In my article Best Practices from My Best Clients I reveal my observations of what my most successful clients are doing. You may be surprised.

Checkout our most recent newsletter announcing the new site for Betsy Jordyn, President of Accelera Consulting Group.

Finally, it’s time to thank YOU and wish you and your family a healthy, peaceful and prosperous year.

All the best,

Chad

I find speaking critical from several perspectives. Here are some of the reasons I encourage others to speak often:

1. It is an effective vehicle that enables me to deliver my evolving intellectual property.
2. It sharpens my language, delivery and speaking skills.
3. It allows me to try and test new ideas and material.
4. It enables me to interact with my audience and receive immediate feedback as well as gauge what’s on their minds and what are their concerns, which allows me then to respond and also develop new intellectual property.
5. It “forces” me to innovate and reinvent new ideas, services and products.
6. It positions me as a credible expert, an object of interest and a thought leader.
7. It provides a powerful way to connect with qualified prospective clients and existing clients.

I find speaking to be essential in gaining new clients, growing my business as well as being able to stay in touch and increase the number of prospects who want to stay in touch by registering to our monthly newsletter.

I am often asked by my mentorees to articulate the skills and traits of what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur. Here is a list I compiled with the top 12 in no praticular order:

1. Enthusiasm.
2. Curiosity.
3. Marketing – This one is huge. Ability to market self, team, products and services.
4. Sales.
5. Smart risk taking.
6. Communication – Effectively building relationships, public speaking, writing and publishing.
7. Learn to recognize opportunities.
8. Creation of products and services.
9. Avoid being stagnant
10. Ability to innovate, invent and re-invent.
11. Focus on improving the client’s life and business.
12. Lead by example and be bold.

What would you add to this list?

My wife is exploring various fitness facilities in the area . She contacted one of the popular locations via their web site and requested a visit to review their place. Almost two weeks later, she finally received an email from one of their representatives. My wife wrote back saying that it’s been awhile since her inquiry and she has already joined another fitness facility.

Here was their reply:
“I am sorry to here that, we have been very busy for the past couple of months. The bad weather is giving us a chance to follow up and talk to the potential members that we have in our system. I would love to set up an appointment with you and give you a tour of our beautiful facility.”

When shared with me, not only was I surprised to see the grammatical mistake but I was also amazed of the poor excuses they used for their lack of follow-up action.

Here was my wife’s reply:
“Thank you for the offer but I am no longer interested.  I’m sure you have a wonderful facility but I am also interested in prompt customer service.  It’s not very comforting to know that you didn’t respond to my inquiry until the weather got bad enough for you to have the time to follow up on potential member inquiries.”

I was chatting with a client of mine the other day, not realizing that my browser’s facebook page was open. My attention was interrupted by the sound of my facebook instant message screen. Here is the brief online conversation that ensued with my face book friend Mark or so I thought:

Mark: Hey. are you there?
Chad: yes, on the phone. you good?

Mark: Not too good at the moment and need your urgent help
Chad: what’s going on?

Mark: We stranded in London,England. Got mugged at gun point last night all cash credit card and cell phone were stolen
Chad: so sorry to hear this. You will have to go to a place that has a phone so i can verify it is you!

Mark: all cash credit card and cell phone were stolen. Thank God we still have our lives and passport
Chad: Since you have your passport, get to the American Embassy and call me from there
and by the way, what is my granddaughter’s name?

9:28amMark is offline.

So called “Mark” disconnected our chat and also and immediately removed his facebook connection with me, which means that he defriended me (social networking term). That was all I needed to realize that my friend’s account was hacked. It was actually kind of eerie to realize that I actually just had a conversation with an impostor – a cyber thief.

I called my “real” friend Mark who was vacationing in Las Vegas and explained to him the situation. He apparently had idea of this and was shocked to hear it. I also explained to him that it is quite likely that this cyber crook may have already contacted others and possibly even engaged in other fraudulence activities. I suggested Mark logs back on, change his password, change his status message to notify his friends of the posisble fraud and then contact facebook to report this issue.

My suspicion is that my friend’s computer security was compromised by him surfing the net and accessing the wireless network in his hotel room.

Protect your passwords by changing them frequently, encrypting them, installing a firewall on your computer and making sure your data is not open to the world and especially when accessing a wireless network.

Safe surfing,

Chad

I’ve recently attended Alan Weiss’s Million Dollar Club gathering in beautiful St. Lucia. Surrounded by the gorgeous nature and an amazing group of people: My wife, Alan Weiss, seven other members of the Million Dollar Club and their spouses and partners. We met in the mornings, discussed business, best practices, intellectual properties and ideas to improve our lives and businesses. It was by far the most advanced learning experience I have ever experienced with honest and successful colleagues committed to help me grow. Below are my few takeaways and goals I have committed to. I am sharing this with you, with the hope that it is of help to some and a better way to hold me accountable.

Takeaways:

• Productize my business to complement the concept of the accelerant curve. (more on that soon)
• Commit to the things I must let go in order to reach the highest level of success.
• Be more directional instead of being opportunistic.
• Don’t tell people everything I know but what they need to know.
• To reduce my labor intensiveness: 1. streamline my work 2. transfer work to clients 3. delegate to staff and outsource 4. discard when unnecessary or turn down business you do not need.
• Determine what I want life to look like and then build the business to support it.
• Manage myself out of the business, increase my virtual team, clone myself as much as possible in sales & marketing, leverage my staff to the highest level possible and hold them accountable for outcomes and results. Delegate all that I should and could.
• Create more powerful alliances.
• When developing my marketing content, make sure it focuses on current times and my client challenges.
• Develop case studies that enable clients to relate to them.
• When promoting a book, offer an autograph option for extra charge.
• Create a list of journalists and send them press releases.
• I am a business strategist, who leverages technologies to help my clients accelerate their growth which fits beautifully with becoming one of Alan Weiss’s master mentors and developing a new coaching club for my best clients and push them to higher level successes.
• I am going to start promoting a new brand: “The king of all kings of social media.”
• Schedule systematic and better follow-ups with clients and develop an action plan which can be also delegated to one of my staff.
• I have great intellectual property (IP) which I will develop much more of and productize the heck out of.
• Print my goals and have them display prominently on my desk.
• When struggling with my long, 1st priority, to do list, I will pick out two and get started and then pick out two more. It does not matter which two I pick. Just do it.
• Find a quite place (often) and do all I can to finish my set priorities the quickest possible way and then enjoy the rest of the day. My colleague and client, Rob Nixon from Australia, uses this technique until his laptop battery runs out. With my new Macbook pro that is a problem. Battery lasts too darn long.
• Keep my schedule and calendar sacrosanct.
• Routinize my input and customize my output. Also, if it is worth doing again, systematize it.
• Send my ideas to my team and let them make it happen.
• Develop more diagnostic tools.
• On the last day, I asked each of the members of the group to take a couple of minutes, pull out our crystal ball and in our areas of expertise articulate the future as we see it. VERY POWERFUL STUFF. I then realized that we are our clients’ future and we represent their blueprint to success.
• All great things must come to an end to let in the WOW things.
• The Million Dollar Club is the most awesome think-tank / mastermind group I have ever attended. The relationships and friendships created are priceless. Thank you all and thank you Alan for making this an amazing reality.

My Goals:

• Purchase a focused and high quality database and market to it aggressively. Create web landing pages with videos and make special offers of value. Become a marketing machine. Better penetrate to my associated communities and help my clients reach higher level of successes. Leverage alliances and develop a new workshops with and without my alliances.
• Finish the book I am co-authoring with Alan Weiss and start thinking about my next book.
• Leverage NSA by speaking to local chapters and national conferences.
• Productize my business. Fill my accelerant curve with workshops, booklets, books, webinars alliances such as Alan & the Gang which will be launched 1st Qtr. 2010 and Million Dollar Web Sites and more.
• Push, re-invent and further develop my dream team.
• Promote by new brand of business strategist, master mentor and the coaching club.
• Launch the new amazing web site for The Chad Barr Group with podcasts and videos and …
• Fitness, spirituality and life balance upgrades with my wife, kids, grand kids, family, friends and colleagues. Help my wife pursue her passions.

In order to generate the highest successful results for your business, consider the following:

1. Determine the highest impact of what you do for your clients.
2. Who would be most receptive for your offerings.
3.  Who has the greatest capacity to pay.

How does one become successful and what does it have to do with blogging and online surfing? Well, let me share this brief story with you. I’ve been monitoring a bit of the online chatter on some of the social networking sites for an article I am working on. Although I find the bulk majority of posts to be utterly ridiculous, boring and a complete waste of time, the one that caught my attention the other day was from an Internet marketing consultant who claims to be quite successful. In his post on Twitter, he was looking for someone he could share a cab ride with and save $5. Well, give me a break!

This demonstrates that not only should you concern yourself with what others may be writing or saying about you but you ought to carefully watch what you may be saying about yourself and your own organization. Language is everything and if you claim to be successful, I suggest you pickup the tab for others to ride with you or even perhaps suggest you use a limo rather than a cab.

And since we are on the topic of success and how to become successful, here is an article I wrote that you may find to be of help: Key Elements to Success. How to Work Smarter not Harder.

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

Many writers I meet (self included) share with me that they often look for ideas for writing and especially when faced with writer’s block. Recently, I published this article: I think I’ll invent something new - What are the best ways of developing new ideas? where I explored the best ways and places to generate creative and innovative ideas.

It also occurred to me that one of the best sources for generating new ideas is actually during my conversations with my clients and prospects as well as colleagues and trusted advisers. As probably happens to you in your conversations, it is quite common for such individuals to share with me their challenges and ask for my opinion and advice. So some time ago, I’ve decided to keep a note book and digital file of such questions which help generate ideas for my next blog post (such as this one), or my next article or product.

The key for me obviously to generating creative ideas for writing or for creating new products and services is to listen carefully. What do you think?

Please click on the “Comment Now” link below and share your thoughts with us.

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

Where would we be without the innovations that have gradually and progressively evolved into the modern-day technological advancements we now enjoy?

While, at the time, many people considered each breakthrough unthinkable (in the unimaginable sense of the word), gradually these advancements evolved and became so widespread that they became unthinkable (in the commonplace sense of the word). With each breakthrough, social and interactive along with other types of shifts also occurred.

How we go about finding the root meaning of the words “stagnant” or “evolve” today versus how we would have done so twenty years ago or even hundreds of years ago, demonstrates how things have dramatically changed.

Before Gutenberg’s Moveable Type around 1450, we would not have had access to words in print the way the moveable type made possible. To find out what the word “evolve” meant, we would have probably had to ask someone else who may or may not have known how to best state it. Hopefully, someone we knew would have told us that “stagnant” means to stay the same, slow-moving, sluggish or declining and “evolve” means to progress, advance or transform.

With the advancement of moveable type, multiple copies of text could be created and distributed to many more people than were able to read the handwritten books and materials that were limited in number and availability. After moveable type, ideas progressively became more accessible through the printed word in newspapers and books—including the dictionary where we could then look up the meaning scholars had previously discussed and debated and decided to put into print.

Not only were ideas beginning to advance, but so were people. With the advent of automobiles, trains and airplanes, it became easier to ship goods and send out people around the world progressively faster, cheaper and safer. The exchange of ideas and new experiences opened up new worlds to those who were privy to travel and returned to share what they learned.

When it may have seemed that modern technologies had almost evolved to their pinnacle, the landmark technology of The Internet (circa 1990’s) marked a new domain that soon exploded into multiple domains across the world, allowing people to communicate and interact via the digital typed word and now through audio/video faster than ever before imagined! Yesterday’s fast seems slow to us today as we move towards new and improved versions of technologies that become faster, cheaper and better.

The internet (and all the interrelated technologies connected to it in this era) has opened up a whole new world like never before in regard to accessibility and reach. Some of the latest technologies and amazing innovation are increasingly being combined in powerful ways that enable people to enjoy the benefits of multiple ways of connecting with ideas and with others, including: cell phones, text messaging, Twitter and other social networking platforms, blogging, internet sites and strategies that enable you to effectively market your business and allow you to gain information, knowledge and wisdom and all within minutes or seconds.

While some people may be hesitant to utilize the full force of the internet, others are continually upgrading their technology and technological know-how to maximize their businesses. Those who choose to be stagnant are being and will be surpassed by the many advantages offered by those who choose to evolve along with technology, which offers increasingly improved speed, interactive capabilities, spreading of ideas, more focused searches, exploring new buyers and opening new markets and opportunities globally.

There are people today who still see technology as being somewhere on a spectrum between a necessary evil they tolerate to a complex world they fear. What’s important is how do you see it, think about it, use it and most importantly, how you leverage it. The option is up to you to decide how to reach your customers who are increasingly seeking the best of minds to help their businesses. Are you constantly evolving yourself and positioning yourself as a world-class thought leader who delivers great content, products and services to your customers?

Many times I enjoy reading a hard copy book while other times, I enjoy listening to books on my iPhone or even reading them on this great technology. I love reading the Wall Street Journal print edition yet at times I enjoy reading it online. There are always choices in our lives for us to make, but remaining stagnant in business or stagnant with your web presence is unimaginably unthinkable.

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

I initiated a conference call this morning using GotoWebinar – a product I use to conduct such calls and webinars, which I have done many times before. The call connected attendees from two continents and allowed us to use our computer speakers and microphones to join the call or simply use a regular phone. I’ve elected to use my (USB) headset with the built-in microphone. As soon as the attendees joined the call I noticed that they all sounded like Minnie Mouse. Not knowing if this issue was due to me not having enough coffee yet or perhaps some software setting I inadvertently changed, I immediately changed my mindset to that of Mickey to the rescue, switched to my regular phone and all was well.

Shortly after the call was over I inquired with GoToWebinar technical support: “Oh yes, that is a problem we are working on which only happens with the latest software version of the Mac and only if you use the USB headset.”

“That’s all folks”

(oops sorry, wrong character)

I travel the world quite often and here is a powerful lesson I would like to share with you that I witnessed on one of my business trip to the Bahamas. Being in a new environment, especially one as beautiful as the Bahamas, heightens my senses of natural, everyday occurrences. My colleagues and I were engaged in great discussions outdoors as we were also enjoying the fabulous cocktail party and the various assortments of food. I couldn’t help but notice some uninvited guests: The birds.

Discovering the opportunity to join the party and be fed, it did not take the birds long before one would wait the perfect opportunity to dive in, grab the treat, and leave. Quickly to be followed by another and another.

As I observed their behavior, I was thinking how remarkably they have mastered and adjusted their survival habits. They combined their need to feed themselves with an unbelievable desire to succeed, a fierce focus and a natural sense of timing. Yet they were doing it elegantly and with what seemed to be a sense of playfulness and enjoyment.

Birds adapt to their environment, where their strategy may be similar but different when it is an entirely natural setting versus a combination of a natural setting and human-made setting. In either type of setting, birds demonstrate patience in waiting for the perfect opportunity, yet they also use prowess in knowing when to change locations to seek other opportunities. My amusement centered on what seemed to be their natural instincts vs. perhaps their learned, internalized and mastered skills. Here is the process they were following:

•    Holistic view of the environment.
•    Quick analysis of the situation.
•    Tremendous focus on the objectives and goals.
•    Wait for the perfect timing.
•    Take action.
•    Reap the reward.
•    Life balance enjoyment.
•    Repeat the cycle

Their careful watch regarding proximity of people to the food helped the birds time when to act and when to withdraw to safety. When they observed momentary distance between people and some food, they would zoom in and zoom away quickly. They repeatedly grabbed their food in this manner over the course of an hour and a half. Their repeated success demonstrated sustainability of success when given the right opportunity and desire. It’s important to note that they had no fear in taking this constant risk and also if they waited too long to act, their opportunity may have disappeared.

So let’s pause here and think about it. What I am suggesting through my analogy is that reaching life and business success and getting the results we want is easier than we sometimes make it to be. We overcomplicate things at times, which are possibly due to fear, lack of knowledge and not following a successful process. By being able to narrow our own path to the success we desire, we first have to define what it is we are trying to accomplish, then seek the right conditions that will increase our ability to be successful and then take strong, focused and concise action. The birds have an innate sense of what their needs and wants are; whereas ours are sometimes clouded by the disconnect between what we want and what we truly need. Aligning this disconnect between want and need is quite important.

So with the power of illustrating through an acronym and the playfulness spirit of the birds, here’s a quick way to summarize the simple, but important survival strategy lesson I learned in The Bahamas:
B – Be
A – Aware
H – How
A – Action
M – May
A – Affect
S – Success

BAHAMAS reminds me to “Be Aware How Action May Affect Success.” Just like with the birds, there are many factors that go into knowing when to act (and when not to), which are essential to getting the results we seek. Being prepared with a strategy can help us know how to get to the right place at the right time—when the opportunity knocks, take action! It’s not just for the birds!

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

Here are ways to develop interest in your organization and have your target customers contact you:

1. Start speaking professionally, deliver your expertise and talk about how to improve your clients business with web strategies.
2. Add testimonials and clients list to your web site.
3. Start a monthly electronic newsletter and deliver genuine value to your target audience.
4. Write and publish your intellectual property in print and on the web
5. Network and discuss how you help your clients
6. Comment on others’ powerful blogs with useful tips
7. Write a book or start with a booklet
8. Get interviewed on radio and TV
9. Work your referrals aggressively
10. Create a breakfast club and invite your target audience to attend a breakfast and learn.
11. Purchase a database list of your target customers and send them powerful valuable content to entice to opt-in to your newsletter list. Once they do, keep offering them value.

1. Funeral Homes
2. Security
3. Nursing homes and elderly care
4. Baby food
5. Weight loss
6. Wealth creation
7. Do it yourself
8. Home based business
9. Any business that would generate a minimum of 10 to 1 ROI for their clients

Any others that come to mind?

1. Become an entrepreneur
2. Live on less than 85% of your income and invest the rest
3. Invest in your health and life balance
4. Create proper business and personal insurance for you and your family
5. Invest in your continued learning and education
6. Hire the best (staff, advisers and consultants)
7. Re-invent yourself often
8. Find a successful mentor with a proven track record
9. Constantly look for ways to help your clients improve their business and life
10. Give a lot
11. Laugh a lot

Your turn please.

1. Strong entrepreneurship spirit which means not being afraid to fail

2. Willingness to take risk knowing that the potential outcome and success can be enormous.

3. Strong desire to work for myself and exit the “employee” mentality

4. Have complete control of decisions and my own future and destiny

5. Ability to enjoy discretionary time and life balance

What do you think?

I just returned from my trip to Rhode Island followed immediately with a trip to Austin, Texas, where I attended a conference attracting the owners and top management of independent wholesale paper, sanitary maintenance, and restaurant equipment distributors. While meeting with about 80 of these organizations, I asked them to comment on what they see as the key reasons for their success. Here are the top six answers:

1. Diversity – being able to quickly decide which products and services to embrace and release to market and which to discard while offering the right range of their customers’ needs.
2. Management – the human factor of making the proper decision, leading the company and creating strong relationships with customers.
3. Technology – The best and most successful distributors where using advance technologies while constantly looking for the next best solutions to embrace. I found the opposite to be true. The ones complaining about the economy, suppliers and their customers’ loyalty were the ones to use antiquated technologies and way of thinking.
4. Serendipity – Or what many referred to as luck and being at the right place at the right time. It was interesting that the majority or all of the most successful companies did not talk much about luck but their ability to take control and influence their future.
5. Locality – For many, being local helped them focus and develop strong relationships with their customers. I found the majority who held such belief to be smaller organization size as well as revenues and profits.
6. Customer service – They ALL claimed that the key was customer service yet many complained about lack of customers ‘and vendors’ loyalty.

What are the keys to your success?

In my previous post I was talking about having to listen to absurd and ineffective voicemails when calling others. I recently played several voicemail (VM) messages that I retrieved from my own voicemail system

The first VM was a garbled message from a prospective client interested in talking with me about our solutions. The message was probably recorded using his cell phone making it almost impossible to recognize the complete phone number. Luckily I was able to make sense of the company name and after a quick Google search, I found them on the web as I was able to match the web phone number with the incomplete phone number left on the voicemail. Since I return all calls within 24 hours (unless they are clearly telemarketer calls) I called his company. Their main message stated that they are closed for the holidays. I left a brief message, letting them know who I am and explaining that I am returning their call. I left my phone number and email address twice, and suggested my availability to connect. Finally, I made the recommendations that they check the calendar, as I believe the holidays are over by now. I figured if they don’t have a sense of humor, it would not be a good match anyways.

The second VM was from a company specializing in training and documentation. I was not sure if this was a sales call or an interested prospect so I called her back, got her on the phone yet she barely remembered who I was, This sure made me feel really special. She then immediately jumped into her sales pitch telling me how long they’ve been in business, the type of products they sell, the awards they won and more blah, blah, blah. I was waiting for a question or two but quickly lost my patience when she started her third paragraph. I stopped her and said: “Not Interested.” Meekly she replied: “oh ok” and hung up the phone.

The third VM was from a sales trainer who luckily left a clear phone number and company name. I found his company on the web (where would I be without my Google?) and I quickly realized what his main focus was. Unfortunately I was unable to find any clients’ testimonials on his site or whom he had a chance to work with. When returning his call he immediately gave me his value proposition (good but a bit too long) and told me that he works with technology companies JUST like mine although would not name any of them. And I was born yesterday, I thought to myself. He asked me if I read all the marketing material he sent me. I told him that I have no idea what he is talking about as they all end up in the garbage. He then suggested he would stop by my office to introduce himself so we can talk about my business and what projects I may have in the works. I quickly and politely explained to him that I have no need for his services and do not meet with people who cold call me. He realized that I was getting ready to hang up the phone when he said: “look for me, I will be famous one day.” I hung up the phone and thought to myself, dreams are one thing but illusion and desperation are another.

My favorite was a call I received today in my office. It went like this:
Him: Mr. Barr?
Me: Yes
Him: This is not a sales call.
Me: (silence, although thinking … yeah right)
Him: We are in your neighborhood tomorrow morning and would like to stop by and introduce ourselves.
Me: Not interested (click)

How many of such calls or voice mails do you get and is it possible that you or your staff are making such calls and leaving similar voice mails?

I believe that we have more control of impacting our destiny and creating success than chance or luck has to do with it.

Here are three ideas that have been instrumental in impacting mine:

1. Opportunities are all around us, we just have to learn to pay better attention to them.
2. If you don’t ask the answer is always NO.
3. When serendipity takes place, I seize the opportunity to create additional serendipity.

I am a frequent Continental flyer and enjoy flying with them and the service I receive. Last night, I booked a round trip flight for my son using their online service, which I use quite often. I find www.continental.com to be an easy site to navigate to quickly book my flights.

When logging on to their site this evening, I noticed the price for the identical flight was much cheaper. I called the elite desk line and got Buzz Savage, their pleasant helpdesk manager, on the phone. He explained that the rule states that in order to rebook the flight at the different rate I must make the change exactly within 24 hours of booking the original fair. Although I had passed the 24-hour mark, he will make the necessary adjustment and take care of me.

It was a great pleasure to talk with Buzz and hear his story. He retired quite a few years ago and decided to go back to work. Sitting in his family room where he now works daily, all customers’ calls are directed right to his home phone. He said he loves his job, and Continental takes great care of him. I asked him what is one of the greatest attributes about the company that most people do not know. He said, the focus of everyone in the company to service the customers and make it a great place. He then proceeded to tell me that even though he is already working remotely from home, they are working on the technology to soon allow him to work remotely from anywhere in the world.

These four most recent blog posts illustrate four different companies with four different mindsets of servicing their customers. Which company would you want to do business with and which company most resembles your organization?

While at the mall, my wife and I left Nordstrom and had some time to kill before our dinner reservation at a nearby restaurant. We walked into Dillard’s women shoe department when my wife noticed the boots she got several weeks ago were significantly discounted and on sale now. The sales person explained that even if the boots are still brand new in the box, since they were purchased three weeks ago she couldn’t credit my wife the price difference. Her option would be to return them for full credit, which will put them back into stock and then attempt to repurchase them assuming the proper size is available in stock.

I shared with her the great service experience we just had at Nordstrom and the no-questions-asked and friendly price adjustment policy they had. “We are not Nordstrom” She said. “I noticed” I replied.

I mentioned to her why this is illogical and does not make any business sense. Forcing the customer to return the boots for full credit while waiting for the salesperson to put them back in stock and then allowing the customer to repurchase them seemed absurd.

She thought about it and then said: “Bring your boots tomorrow and I will process the credit on one register. You will then have to wait 20 minutes so I can then process the sale on another register so I don’t get in trouble.”

It’s amazing for me to see how two different organizations (Nordstrom and Dillard’s) empower their employees to make the proper decisions to serve their customers.

My wife and I went to the mall the other day to stop at Nordstrom in order to get my new mail-ordered coat altered. While waiting for the tailor tp arrive, the friendly salesman started to process the alteration order request on his computer. “I have good news for you Mr. Barr”, he said. “I just processed a credit for over $100 on your account to reflect the price adjustment on your coat since it is now on sale.” I thanked him for this special gesture and it was then that the tailor arrived. He took my measurements and asked if I have a special occasion and whether I need my coat ready right away?

It was back in December and a couple of days before my trip to Las Vegas to visit my son in Utah when I realized that I forgot to rent a car for the trip. In a great hurry and armed with the power of the Internet, a couple of minutes later I rented the SUV from Dollar Rent A Car. A couple of days later I landed at the Las Vegas airport and within a short time found myself standing at the long line of the previously mentioned car rental office. And that’s where my dreadful experience started.

It was taking forever for the service reps to take care of each of the irritated customers. Even my attempt to get more help fell on deaf ears. Almost an hour later and finally it was my turn to be served. The condescending representative seemed to be a natural extension of the poor mindset already shared by the other company’s representatives and she also seemed to enjoy her acquired power. I then realized that the faster I get served, the faster I will be on the road for the 4 hour drive to Utah. It took a tremendous amount of self-control for me to not comment on the attitude I was noticing coming from her and the others in that office.

Almost relieved and with the paperwork finally in my hands, I rushed downstairs to their car lot to get my rented car. To my amazement the car was not there. When I questioned the service rep he said that he does not know when my car will be ready although he hopes it will be soon. I told him that hopes won’t get me far and I need the car NOW! He then told me that I may select any car I want from the lot. Glancing over, I noticed they were all small cars and I told him that I reserved a 4-wheel drive SUV to safely drive in the mountains of Utah. He did not seem to care while telling all the customers coming down with their paperwork that they also may select any car they want from the lot. There was an almost frenzy like feeling in the air.

With my pulse beating faster, my self-control gone and my voice increasing in volume I told him he has three options: 1. Go down to his competitor’s lot and get me an equivalent car to the one I rented. 2. Get me into the Cadillac Escalade I just noticed on his lot. 3. Call his manager to immediately resolve this problem. He explained that the keys to the Escalade are locked inside and he cannot leave his post since there are customers to serve. Demandingly I reminded him that I am one of these customers and he better get me the car now while I can direct the rest of his customers.

Perhaps it was my demeanor, my loud voice, the face twitch I started to develop, the fact that he started to get tired of me or perhaps his realization of the customer service responsibilities when he suddenly left. Several minutes later he came back with a brand new SUV handing me the keys while I am still in the midst of directing the customers’ traffic to select any car they see on the lot. What can I tell you? I had to have some sense of humor about this dreadful situation.

As I climbed into the car, almost two and a half hours after my landing, I realized the senior moment I had when booking my car reservation and forgetting to use my gold membership with Hertz, which would have prevented this from happening.

Our latest December newsletter for 2007 contains a couple of articles that you may find to be of interest. Blogging in the New Year is an article I recently wrote after attending the Blog World Expo last month in Las Vegas and after getting tremendous amount of questions about leveraging blogs in ones business. I also decided to publish Additional Lessons Leaned From Running My Business article after releasing the first Lessons Learned article and getting many emails requesting I share more such idea.
To also see how successfully some of our clients use their blogs, please visit www.AvivShahar.com and www.ContrarianConsulting.com for such examples.

I would like to wish you a fabulous and safe New Year and may this coming year be an amazing one for you, your family and your business.

Best Regards,

Chad

What a brilliant move by FaceBook to improve their software and with no investment!

They’ve attracted 70,000 developers to build free plug-ins interfaces to their web site. Once approved by FaceBook, these plug-ins provide utilities for users to improve their online experience. They may play games, share reviews of books, movies, vacations, dress up their profiles and much more.  Software developers who contribute may sell advertising, promote products and services and gain tremendous exposure.

Sounds like a win – win great opportunity to all involved.

I’ve been following Starbucks expansion in the US and am quite impressed with their expansion now into Russia. What impressed me more is a statement from Martin Coles, President of Starbucks International saying: “We do not spend a great deal of time focusing on our competition. The growth of other coffee chains can actually help Starbucks by increasing the overall coffee market. We are at our best when we have some competition.”

Both BMW and Mercedes Benz are known for their terrific high-end performance cars. I know that since I own one of them. They have not been recognized for their emphasis on fuel consumption technology. But that’s about to change soon when both companies are about to reveal new car models offering better fuel consumption. So what do you think? Is this an attempt to enter emerging new markets such as India and China and compete against other brands and/or possibly show their concern for the environment? If they are successful, would this move dilute their brand for their high-end driving machines?

The WSJ has just reported a reduction in software piracy in China. Of all estimated software used in China in 2006, 82% was pirated vs. 86% the year before.

Running my software development firm for the past 20 years, this is a huge ethical and economical issue which I hope is resolved expeditiously.

The Wall Street Journal published yesterday a terrific interview with George David, The CEO of United Technologies. Below are several quotes made by him that I found fascinating:

“What goes on in a big sailboat is a combination of preparation, organization, design, strategy, tactics, rules, teamwork, individual performance and group performance … When you drop a new crew person in, every now and then you may get an elbow in the face. It’s because you and that person don’t know how you’re going to move relative to one another. That’s the same thing in the business; you don’t want an elbow in the face.”

“You can’t walk through life with a trained eye and not see the opportunities for productivity (sitting in traffic, forms at the doctor, waiting for things) … Just look at the difference in personal productivity between people, educated versus not educated. Or people in good, really productive labor environments, versus people who are kind of struggling because they’re in disorganized or ineffective companies … There’s a part of the world that doesn’t believe in the rights of women. Why on earth would you live in a society where half the people are deemed to be nonproductive?”

“Education is definitely the most powerful force in life. Educated people are more thoughtful. They’re more widely read. They’re more alert to change. They’re more confident.”

My good friend and colleague, Dan Coughlin, has just published his new book, Accelerate: “20 Practical Lessons to Boost Business Momentum”, which is now available in all major book stores. Dan has also been our featured guest contributor for our April Newsletter:

Milton Friedman, possibly the greatest economist of the 20th century, died on November 16, 2006, at the age of 94. With a list of remarkable accomplishments such as: winning the Nobel prize 30 years ago, writing several profound books, advisor to governments and presidents, his most important one is that of the popularization of the free-market principles – the separation between government and business.

He claimed that the Great Depression was not, as was once commonly presumed, a “market failure,” but a failure of government policy.

What I find most fascinating about this leader is his brilliant wisdom, provocative style, yet his basic common sense for the noble concepts he stood for:

“We do not influence the course of events by persuading people that we are right when we make what they regard as radical proposals. Rather, we exert influence by keeping options available when something has to be done at a time of crisis.”

I am a firm believer in the power of a mastermind group and its ability to improve your business. Read my December 2006 article “1 + 1 = 86 or the collective brainpower of a mastermind group” and find out how to create one and get the most out of your group.

Seth Godin, author of several great marketing books, talks about why small is the new big. He illustrates several examples as to how companies strive to become big and fast but many lose their market share to smaller companies who are often more profitable. So what are some of the benefits of being small according to Seth?

Small means the founder makes a far greater percentage of the customer interactions.

Small means the founder is close to the decisions that matter and can make them, quickly.

Small is the new big because small gives you the flexibility to change the business model when your competition changes theirs.

Small means you can tell the truth on your blog.

Small means that you can answer email from your customers.

Small means that you will outsource the boring, low-impact stuff like manufacturing and shipping and billing and packing to others, while you keep the power because you invent the remarkable and tell stories to people who want to hear them.

A small law firm or accounting firm or ad agency is succeeding because they’re good, not because they’re big. So smart small companies are happy to hire them.

A small restaurant has an owner who greets you by name.

A small venture fund doesn’t have to fund big bad ideas in order to get capital doing work. They can make small investments in tiny companies with good (big) ideas.

A small church has a minister with the time to visit you in the hospital when you’re sick.

Diversity in most organizations is no longer a matter of counting statistics and attempting to do the right thing, it is now vital to business success. In order for companies to sell locally and globally they need to better understand their target audience mix and include a diverse perspective of their employees. Top executives will also need to better understand cultures in countries around the world.

In the article “The New Diversity”, published this month in The Wall Street Journal, several examples were cited to substantiate this importance:

PepsiCo – Increased minorities in management positions and new products such as guacamole-flavored Doritos chips, Gatorade Xtreme aimed at Hispanics while Montain Dew Code Red targeted towards African Americans and wasabi-flavored snack aimed towards Asians.

IBM – Increased minority management, especially women, more than tripled since 1995 and now stands at 52% of the organization.

Harley Davidson – Increased women and people of color in management positions.

The brilliant thinker Peter Drucker who invented management as a field of study and research, died today at the age 95. As noted in the Wall Street Journal and in Drucker’s book, The Essential Drucker:

In mid-2002, President Bush awarded Mr. Drucker the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award the government can bestow. Also:
Business Week Magazine – “The most enduring management thinker of our time”
Forbes Magazine – “Still the Youngest Mind”
Wired Magazine – “arch-guru of capitalism.”