My wife and I traveled to Utah via Las Vegas this past week. Since I had some business calls to take care of, I asked my wife if she would not mind driving the beautiful route from Vegas to Utah while I make these calls. She of course agreed and with my Latte in one hand, I pulled out my iPhone, connected my Apple bluetooth headset and started to make my calls. No only was I able to be productive and take care of business but in one of the calls I needed to check an email with an attachment and an Internet web site we were working on. I pulled out my Laptop, connected my Verizon wireless card to it and within seconds I was connected to the Internet and my email. And all of this while my wife is driving.
What a great world we live in today. Especially as our electrical grid is improving almost daily.
Note: I was going to actually post this topic during that ride but decided it was time to enjoy the view and a conversation with a beautiful lady in the car.
I just returned for another absolutely outstanding event – The Million Dollar Consulting College™ Graduate School held at the gorgeous Ritz Carlton in Naples Florida.
“These people represent the finest talent in the profession,” noted Alan Weiss, Ph.D. who conducts this college. “They are the best of the best in terms of methodology, integrity, client satisfaction, and contributions to the profession. And they are highly innovative.”
As both a college presenter and a participant, I was fortunate to be among 12 of world-class consultants and got to spend three intense days working on challenging case studies, role-plays and group exercises. On day two, we were given a couple of real-life critical business challenges by the management of the Ritz Carlton. It was fascinating and a tremendous learning experience to witness how we applied our knowledge, problem solving abilities and experiences and worked as a strong team to solve these challenges while present the solution to the delight of the Ritz’s management.
My presentation, “Advanced Internet and Technologies Made Simple” focused on practical technologies to help consultants in their business. I started with a short video of one of our clients from Australia, Michael Harrison. Last year, prior to becoming a client, I received an email from Michael inquiring about our services. After a brief email exchange we started a Skype session which instantaneously allowed us to be connected between the US and Australia while clearly hearing and seeing each other. I demonstrated this technology to the group and asked Michael to record a brief introduction. Here it is:
I demonstrated the ease of using the Flip Video to record workshops and testimonials and immediately making them available on the web, such as in this demonstration. Thank you Libby Wagner, Dr. Guido Quelle, Kim Wilkerson, Phil Symchych and Katherine Radeka for the permission to use this.
Click here to download my presentation converted to pdf document (9.47MB)
Dr. Alan Weiss brilliantly shared with us many exciting concepts. Among them:
The importance of focusing on media pipeline just as we are on our prospect pipeline.
How to reduce labor intensiveness.
The need to constantly develop new intellectual property.
Why we need to get our of our comfort zone.
Importance of process over content.
On the last day, we had the honor and rare chance of seeing Walt Mossberg, the technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal. He delivered a fascinating 90 minutes presentation. Among the many topics he discussed was the analogy of the Internet to an Electrical grid. Similar to our electricity where you just plug in such devices while some are always connected, the same is with the Internet. Although we have made some tremendous progress, within a few years, EVERYTHING will be ON the Internet. Meaning, you will not have to say: “Are you online?” or “Let’s connect” since the Internet will always be on and for all the devices and gadget we will be using.
Finally, some awesome sunset pictures I took. Life is Good!
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:
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.
Management – the human factor of making the proper decision, leading the company and creating strong relationships with customers.
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.
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.
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.
Customer service – They ALL claimed that the key was customer service yet many complained about lack of customers ‘and vendors’ loyalty.
I just spent a couple of terrific days in Rhode Island where I delivered my speech on “Successfully leveraging the Internet to Drive Value to Your Customers” to the current class of Dr. Alan Weiss’s Million Dollar Consulting College. One of the items I covered during my speech was how to create instant credibility with your web site. More on that in a future article I will be writing. In the mean time, the key components as I see to create such credibility are: your intellectual property, your clients’ testimonials and description of the positive results your client receive from working with you. See chart below:
After my speech and before dinner, we all assembled in Alan’s suite and got to brainstorm and discuss some great topics, while hearing some great stories over red wine. I pulled out my flip video, shot some great ones and uploaded them to YouTube and Alan’s blog. Here is a great sample about asking for referrals:
To see the rest, check out the following links. You are sure to enjoy them, I promise:
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?
Let me share with you the type of voice mail messages that irritate me:
Today is Thursday, March 27. In the morning I will be out of the office visiting with a client and in the afternoon I am traveling to another client …
Please stop and listen carefully as these menu options may have changed …
This call may be monitored for quality control …
When I call and get a voice mail, I simply want to leave a brief message and in the fastest way possible. I know that since I got the voice mail this person is either out of the office, away from their desk or on another call. I do not need to be told the day it is – I have my own calendar, or what this person’s schedule is – I truly don’t care, or learn new menu options – I have other more interesting things to learn, or the fact that my voice may be recorded.
My favorite message would probably be: “I am out, leave a message now.” But since we all want to probably sound professional and polite, here is mine: “Hi, This is Chad at extension 112. Please leave your message and I will get back with you as soon as I can. Thank You.”
The only reason I record my extension is to make it easier for the caller to get a hold of me next time they call.
Since I am already on this topic, when leaving messages why not make them pithy and succinct?
Back on February 20, 2008, I reported the new and interesting www.alltop.com site released by author and innovator Guy Kawasaki. This site focuses on collecting stories from “all the top” sites on the web.
I am proud to announce that my blog made it into the social media category of this site. See screen capture below and click on image to enlarge:
I hear people complaining about the strength of the dollar weakening in comparison to other world currencies especially when the media is reaching for our attention with the stories and news of recession. So how do you leverage these economic challenges to benefit your company?
Expand your market – We get more inquiries and new business than ever before from place such as Canada, Europe, Australia, South Africa and Asia. I do not know if this is because of the exciting work we do and our marketing gravity, perhaps serendipity or the weak dollar. What is apparent to me is the fact that organizations and entrepreneurs outside the US are reaching out for help and expertise and a way to get better return from their own currency. Seize these opportunities, branch out and go global.
Help change your customers’ perception – In his blog entry Marketing in a recession, author Seth Godin writes about how in good times people buy because they feel they deserve it or just want it. Yet in tougher times they buy from a defensive position to avoid trouble or seize the opportunity. Change your marketing message to help your customers better understand why they need your products and services now.
Better use of technologies – Whether you are a large organization or a single entrepreneur, smartly using technologies enables you to deliver your expertise to your clients to help their business, build stronger relationships while allowing technologies to perform the work they should. So instead of receiving orders via phone, fax or a non-integrated web site and having to manually key them into your computer system, why not completely integrate them with your system through the Internet to automatically receive them in your warehouse or your receivable department? Instead of shipping hard copy books and CDs why not send them digitally as eBooks or an MP3 downloads. Instead of having to travel and visit your clients for meeting and training, why not use the Internet to conduct online live meetings and even archive them for future views?
Improve your web site – In his blog entry Progression in a recession, Dr. Alan Weiss talks about the importance of changing your web site to broadly describe your services and the importance of technology to reach out overseas prospects and partners.
Your web site and the Internet are both critical tools in helping you market your company, announce new products and services, deliver new offerings and reach global customers. So rather than listen to the negative news (how else would they get your attention) and act scared and indecisive, why not make a bold move, seize the great opportunities around you and make a positive difference for you and your customers’ success.
I was the guest speaker at Alan Weiss and Patricia Fripp marketing for speakers, consultants & coaches seminar- The Odd Couple, held in San Francisco on March 8, 2008. I spoke about “Leveraging your web site and the Internet to dramatically grow your business” to a terrific group of entrepreneurs. View some of the testimonials I recorded with my Flip Video and you are also welcome to view and download my presentation below:
I don’t get the thinking with web sites that incorporate the concept of “Under Construction” or “Coming Soon” pages. Some sites I visit incorporate these pages to attempt and let us know that these pages are going to be released soon. Some do that on their home page thus suggesting that the entire site will be launched soon. When I see such pages here is what crosses my mind:
You are wasting my time navigating your site, thus aggravating me.
You are telling me that you are unable to meet your own deadlines and finish your commitments.
Marketing your own company is not a priority for you.
The methods you and your Webmaster are using are amateurish.
There is a good chance these pages will never change.
Here are my recommendations:
Finish developing all the content necessary for all pages on your site and only then should you launch your site.
Eliminate all pages from your site that content is not ready yet.
If you can commit and guarantee that the pages or your entire site will be available on a certain date, it is ok to announce the following: “Thank you for visiting this page, please check back on xx/xx/xx when this page will be launched.”
The examples below not only illustrate my points above, but they also demonstrate business negligence. These pages have been there for over a year. I suggest they either take the page or site down or complete writing the content.
Aaron Wakling: I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just...
Richard Martin: You are right about adds. The Love Button? That’s a joke right. I have used some of Dan...
Chad Barr: Good point Richard and I think I somewhat suggested that in my third paragraph and your point about...
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The Bridge to Web Success
This resource guide contains a collection of articles that address today's ever changing and fast moving world of the web. The world will keep moving forward; it is our duty to keep one step ahead of the game.
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The Bridge to Web Success