Wifey sells Real Estate. Her breathren are on verbal AutoLoop, prefacing each dialog with "in this economy!". I tell her, for the love of all that is sacred, PLEASE STOP. Don't listen to them and NEVER internalize what the doom-n-gloomers say ad nauseum.
For those who can remember a couple decades back, many of the A-List musical acts got together to raise money for the world's least fortunate. Many of us remember them singing "We are the World" as part of their efforts. They didn't invent the concept that humanity and soceity are not just the sum of its parts. The world's greatest sages have been explaining this to us for centuries.
The idea that the individual also represents the whole sounds like some esoteric metaphysical gobbleygook....It's not. The world is you and vice versa. You are the economy you speak of.
Instead of whining about "what is" (the economy and/or other unpleasantries), save your lungs and take some form of action. Not only will there be a micro yet measurable effect, you'll feel a helluva lot better.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Barney
People do not like to be interrupted. People doing important or time-sensitive work are especially hostile to interruption.
Think about it. You’ve got the TV remote control in your hand, you’re watching your favorite TV show “Barney the Asinine Purple Dinosaur” and it’s interrupted by some insane man trying to get you to walk into his Chevy Dealership. What do you do? Zap…you change the channel, IMMEDIATELY. Tivo, Comcast’s DVR service and other such services and gadgets are wildly popular for a reason…nobody wants to be bothered by your marketing message. Pop-up/Pop Under windows on The Web…those are a big hit, huh? Can’t get rid of them fast enough. It’s the same with Radio, Print advertisements and all other media. You may find the commercials on Super Bowl Sunday amusing (more on that later), but you tune EVERYTHING else out. The telephone consumer DO NOT CALL list, on its first day of online registration years ago, had tens of millions of people register.
If your job is to find new customers, it has become exponentially harder than it was a generation ago. It’s just the way it is. There are still people out there who could sell insurance dialing from the White Pages but they are incredibly rare (and rich). Why? Because it requires an exceptional talent AND one needs to be BULLETPROOF from constant rejection and even verbal abuse. If you don’t have both and you plan on mindless smiling-and-dialing all day…good luck with that.
There is good news. There are several new ways of reaching people that didn’t exist a generation ago. Of course people seized on some of them in the worst possible fashion and turned what could have been an asset into a hideous liability. (Best example: SPAM). This lack of creative thinking continues in most of the iterations of new media.
(No, Iggy the IT Services Guy…I don’t want to be your friggin’ Facebook “friend”). Good grief.
If you’re one of those rare creative/entertaining types, you can use new AND old media to get a foot in the door. If you’re an expert on a subject important to your prospects, that can be weaved into your approach to the market. There are dozens of ways of combining what is uniquely “you” with all forms of media….and that very much includes the telephone.
Think, people. Think and then act. Think, act, consistently modify and act until enough people find what you do valuable. With persistence and just a sliver of ability, you’ll never worry about money again. And you’ll never again have to interrupt an overworked manager to tell them how INCREDIBLE your company’s stuff is.
Think about it. You’ve got the TV remote control in your hand, you’re watching your favorite TV show “Barney the Asinine Purple Dinosaur” and it’s interrupted by some insane man trying to get you to walk into his Chevy Dealership. What do you do? Zap…you change the channel, IMMEDIATELY. Tivo, Comcast’s DVR service and other such services and gadgets are wildly popular for a reason…nobody wants to be bothered by your marketing message. Pop-up/Pop Under windows on The Web…those are a big hit, huh? Can’t get rid of them fast enough. It’s the same with Radio, Print advertisements and all other media. You may find the commercials on Super Bowl Sunday amusing (more on that later), but you tune EVERYTHING else out. The telephone consumer DO NOT CALL list, on its first day of online registration years ago, had tens of millions of people register.
If your job is to find new customers, it has become exponentially harder than it was a generation ago. It’s just the way it is. There are still people out there who could sell insurance dialing from the White Pages but they are incredibly rare (and rich). Why? Because it requires an exceptional talent AND one needs to be BULLETPROOF from constant rejection and even verbal abuse. If you don’t have both and you plan on mindless smiling-and-dialing all day…good luck with that.
There is good news. There are several new ways of reaching people that didn’t exist a generation ago. Of course people seized on some of them in the worst possible fashion and turned what could have been an asset into a hideous liability. (Best example: SPAM). This lack of creative thinking continues in most of the iterations of new media.
(No, Iggy the IT Services Guy…I don’t want to be your friggin’ Facebook “friend”). Good grief.
If you’re one of those rare creative/entertaining types, you can use new AND old media to get a foot in the door. If you’re an expert on a subject important to your prospects, that can be weaved into your approach to the market. There are dozens of ways of combining what is uniquely “you” with all forms of media….and that very much includes the telephone.
Think, people. Think and then act. Think, act, consistently modify and act until enough people find what you do valuable. With persistence and just a sliver of ability, you’ll never worry about money again. And you’ll never again have to interrupt an overworked manager to tell them how INCREDIBLE your company’s stuff is.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
The 911
If you catch yourself saying anything even close to Someone Needs to do Something About That...I beg you- immediately sedate yourself, preferably in another room in a different area code. You are very much part of the problem.
I saw a great scene recently from television. On the work floor in a early-Sixties era advertising agency, a horrific and bloody accident befell an unsuspecting employee. Without a word, the office manager IMMEDIATELY comforted the victim. The office manager wasn't a physician or a nurse. She did know, however, the victim was terrified and bloodied so she took action. She comforted the victim, cleaned up copious amounts of blood and even applied direct pressure to the sizable wound.
What did her co-workers do? Either nothing or WORSE than nothing. What could possibly be worse than nothing? Standing there and telling nobody in particular to "Call 911". Hey Hawkeye Pierce...why don't YOU call 911?. Or better yet. Why don't YOU get on the floor with the office manger and help her and the victim in any way possible. IN ANY WAY.
That story is a perfect microcosm of both life AND work.
Let's put a slightly more positive spin on this to settle down Mr. Cranky Pants(me)down. We all know people like the office manager described above. They're not necessarily saintly people. Not all of them are wonderfully likable all the time. But without them, the entire world would fall apart. I couldn't be more serious. In life and in work, it's not hard to find them. Many of them employ others. Many of them are nurses or doctors. Some of them are cops or soldiers. Most of them are none of the above and answer primarily to the name of Mom, Dad or Friend. All of them are in positions of serious responsibility.
Perversely,many of them are under constant criticism and/or scrutiny from the type of people who, upon witnessing a gruesome injury, would blurt out Someone Call 911!
But that doesn't stop them no more than a doorway ablaze would stop them from entering a building or some other much less dramatic situation. If even 10% of the population was more like this, there never would have been The Great Depression or this current economic situation. The next time you see of these people, whether aloud or silently, thank them.
I saw a great scene recently from television. On the work floor in a early-Sixties era advertising agency, a horrific and bloody accident befell an unsuspecting employee. Without a word, the office manager IMMEDIATELY comforted the victim. The office manager wasn't a physician or a nurse. She did know, however, the victim was terrified and bloodied so she took action. She comforted the victim, cleaned up copious amounts of blood and even applied direct pressure to the sizable wound.
What did her co-workers do? Either nothing or WORSE than nothing. What could possibly be worse than nothing? Standing there and telling nobody in particular to "Call 911". Hey Hawkeye Pierce...why don't YOU call 911?. Or better yet. Why don't YOU get on the floor with the office manger and help her and the victim in any way possible. IN ANY WAY.
That story is a perfect microcosm of both life AND work.
Let's put a slightly more positive spin on this to settle down Mr. Cranky Pants(me)down. We all know people like the office manager described above. They're not necessarily saintly people. Not all of them are wonderfully likable all the time. But without them, the entire world would fall apart. I couldn't be more serious. In life and in work, it's not hard to find them. Many of them employ others. Many of them are nurses or doctors. Some of them are cops or soldiers. Most of them are none of the above and answer primarily to the name of Mom, Dad or Friend. All of them are in positions of serious responsibility.
Perversely,many of them are under constant criticism and/or scrutiny from the type of people who, upon witnessing a gruesome injury, would blurt out Someone Call 911!
But that doesn't stop them no more than a doorway ablaze would stop them from entering a building or some other much less dramatic situation. If even 10% of the population was more like this, there never would have been The Great Depression or this current economic situation. The next time you see of these people, whether aloud or silently, thank them.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Hit Man
You're not going to find a Chief Operating Officer position advertised on CraigsList, but you will see a virtual eighteen-wheeler full of Sales Rep jobs.
Close to all of them, according to the text descriptions, are "incredible opportunities". Thank goodness exclamation points are a renewable resource because they are consumed and used in these ads in numbers too large to count.
As a borderline Craigslist junkie (no...not THAT section, Uncle Pervy),I look at at the Sales/Biz Dev positions from time-to-time. There's a corporate apparel company on New Hampshire's Seacoast that IS ALWAYS looking for salespeople and not because they are growing. In the ad, they basically say they are looking to hire assassins. They are looking for people to HAMMER prospects into submission. I lost count at infinite but they say the word "aggressive" in this reoccurring Ad to where what they hope to find, I believe, is a headset-fitted wolverine with an understanding of hopefully 200 English words.
Inexplicably, everyone they hire doesn't seem to pan out.
I would get a sizable hoot if I could witness their best customers reading this ad.
Doesn't matter what line of work you're in, we're all consumers also. Raise your paw if you enjoy dealing with/buying from somebody who, flat-out, has been told NOT TO ACCEPT "no" for an answer. This company must make a mightly splendid golf shirt because they want to hire people who would tear it off your back.
Close to all of them, according to the text descriptions, are "incredible opportunities". Thank goodness exclamation points are a renewable resource because they are consumed and used in these ads in numbers too large to count.
As a borderline Craigslist junkie (no...not THAT section, Uncle Pervy),I look at at the Sales/Biz Dev positions from time-to-time. There's a corporate apparel company on New Hampshire's Seacoast that IS ALWAYS looking for salespeople and not because they are growing. In the ad, they basically say they are looking to hire assassins. They are looking for people to HAMMER prospects into submission. I lost count at infinite but they say the word "aggressive" in this reoccurring Ad to where what they hope to find, I believe, is a headset-fitted wolverine with an understanding of hopefully 200 English words.
Inexplicably, everyone they hire doesn't seem to pan out.
I would get a sizable hoot if I could witness their best customers reading this ad.
Doesn't matter what line of work you're in, we're all consumers also. Raise your paw if you enjoy dealing with/buying from somebody who, flat-out, has been told NOT TO ACCEPT "no" for an answer. This company must make a mightly splendid golf shirt because they want to hire people who would tear it off your back.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Prices starting at $595
Two unequivocal certainties in this life: 1.} Your mortality 2.) $595 is NOT what you will pay.
I thought Mark Twain was very clever in his observations about many things including The Eternal Dirt Nap and taxes but he was dead-wrong about the latter. Lots of weasels NEVER pay taxes. And they don't pay $595, either.
Back to the "Prices starting at" practice of marketers. Marketers are fortunate in that your average consumer has the business IQ of laundry lint. The average consumer may very well be physically drawn into that retail location because, after all, they can purchase that exquisite sofa made from mohair and extinct Woolly Mammoth fur for $595 if they hurry, hurry, HURRY! (it is a limited time offer, of course).
Supply and Demand-with a little time and room to breathe- will get you to $595 or less. The consumer still holds the cards in this setting but the dynamics of commerce differs a bit when it's one business selling to another.
For example:
I worked for a gigantic software company that sold its wares only to other business. They are a publicly traded company so there is tremendous financial performance pressure four times a year. Unlike almost all their competitors, they publish the List Price of all their products on their website. That List Price, when printed to paper, made for excellent bird cage lining or for training your new puppy.
Why?
Because the OVERWHELMING majority of their customers and even first-time customers knew that List Price was about as real to them as The Easter Bunny. They knew that when the end of the fiscal quarter came down to the last two days, they could pay pretty much whatever the hell they wanted to pay. (I wanted to add "within reason" but the whole process was so ridiculous- I won't).
The only thing more comical than the validity of that vendor's List Price was management's and even Senior Management's attempts to get customers to pay closer to Full Price earlier in the quarter.
If a dog knows they can get hamburger EVERY TIME by behaving in a certain manner, what is their incentive to eschew eating hamburger when they know it is available?
Step right up, my friends!!Four processors worth of our FINEST software....prices STARTING at $160,000!!! Oh really???. Four "Procs" for 160K, eh?? I'll give ya half that much and I want the Maintenance Agreement extended a year at no charge.
You're too kind...where do I sign?
I thought Mark Twain was very clever in his observations about many things including The Eternal Dirt Nap and taxes but he was dead-wrong about the latter. Lots of weasels NEVER pay taxes. And they don't pay $595, either.
Back to the "Prices starting at" practice of marketers. Marketers are fortunate in that your average consumer has the business IQ of laundry lint. The average consumer may very well be physically drawn into that retail location because, after all, they can purchase that exquisite sofa made from mohair and extinct Woolly Mammoth fur for $595 if they hurry, hurry, HURRY! (it is a limited time offer, of course).
Supply and Demand-with a little time and room to breathe- will get you to $595 or less. The consumer still holds the cards in this setting but the dynamics of commerce differs a bit when it's one business selling to another.
For example:
I worked for a gigantic software company that sold its wares only to other business. They are a publicly traded company so there is tremendous financial performance pressure four times a year. Unlike almost all their competitors, they publish the List Price of all their products on their website. That List Price, when printed to paper, made for excellent bird cage lining or for training your new puppy.
Why?
Because the OVERWHELMING majority of their customers and even first-time customers knew that List Price was about as real to them as The Easter Bunny. They knew that when the end of the fiscal quarter came down to the last two days, they could pay pretty much whatever the hell they wanted to pay. (I wanted to add "within reason" but the whole process was so ridiculous- I won't).
The only thing more comical than the validity of that vendor's List Price was management's and even Senior Management's attempts to get customers to pay closer to Full Price earlier in the quarter.
If a dog knows they can get hamburger EVERY TIME by behaving in a certain manner, what is their incentive to eschew eating hamburger when they know it is available?
Step right up, my friends!!Four processors worth of our FINEST software....prices STARTING at $160,000!!! Oh really???. Four "Procs" for 160K, eh?? I'll give ya half that much and I want the Maintenance Agreement extended a year at no charge.
You're too kind...where do I sign?
Monday, May 24, 2010
Free Set of Steak Knives
I'd footnote who I'm stealing this from but the author's name lives on one of my deceased brain cells.
The author noted- contained in the word "Closer" or "Close"- is the word Lose. If your client- who agonized over a very, VERY important decision- saw you fist-bumping and chest thumping your way through the sales floor, how would that play with them? Feel good about that decision now, Customer X?
Just ritual and harmless celebration for a job well done, you say? Bullcrap. It's a pervading and all-encompassing mindset.
This is one of the many, legit reasons businesspeople don't like salespeople. I exerted my will over you! I win, you lose! CLOSED the SOB!
At least a dozen times in my life a senior manager has brought an important customer or a prospective client through the sales floor as part of a facility tour. Before that guided tour commenced, down came ALL the stuff associated with clients being targeted and tracked. Whiteboards/scoreboards, Sales Bells, Buzzers and Whistles, Contests etc...all down. Why are you hiding what is true? It will make the customer feel a certain way? Yeah...you're right, it will.
And you still run your sales operation that way. I wonder why the turnover in sales is unlike any other line of work?
Competition is healthy, guided ambition is good. Winning business is freakin' great...it feels GREAT. It feels great for your customer, too. That centuries old mindset about how to do business in respect to "closing" customers is greasy and mega unprofessional.
The author noted- contained in the word "Closer" or "Close"- is the word Lose. If your client- who agonized over a very, VERY important decision- saw you fist-bumping and chest thumping your way through the sales floor, how would that play with them? Feel good about that decision now, Customer X?
Just ritual and harmless celebration for a job well done, you say? Bullcrap. It's a pervading and all-encompassing mindset.
This is one of the many, legit reasons businesspeople don't like salespeople. I exerted my will over you! I win, you lose! CLOSED the SOB!
At least a dozen times in my life a senior manager has brought an important customer or a prospective client through the sales floor as part of a facility tour. Before that guided tour commenced, down came ALL the stuff associated with clients being targeted and tracked. Whiteboards/scoreboards, Sales Bells, Buzzers and Whistles, Contests etc...all down. Why are you hiding what is true? It will make the customer feel a certain way? Yeah...you're right, it will.
And you still run your sales operation that way. I wonder why the turnover in sales is unlike any other line of work?
Competition is healthy, guided ambition is good. Winning business is freakin' great...it feels GREAT. It feels great for your customer, too. That centuries old mindset about how to do business in respect to "closing" customers is greasy and mega unprofessional.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Another Inconvenient Truth
Neither Al Gore nor Gore Vidal would recognize the New Green Movement.
The mantra of the New Green Movement is "Uh...how much GREEN is this going to set me back?"
For the vast majority of people, it's only when we feel completely safe and secure that we take action and help others or, in GoreSpeak, save the planet. That's sounds like a slightly dark view of human nature. Unfortunately, it's an inconvenient truth.
The majority of Americans aren't feeling so ducky about tomorrow, educating Junior or Madison/Emma* or the 10 day forecast on what their retirement is looking like. So when the "Green" alternative costs more green, Jane Q. Public tends to stomp her Carbon Footprint.
(* Federal Law requires all female babies born after 1999 to be named Madison or Emma).
Some might think it's different when the buyer is a corporate purchasing agent or a manager considering buying some capital equipment. Hardly. If you need your job and part of your job is to buy stuff, the margin for error for screw-ups of any sort has been reduced exponentially.
You know that old sales maxim you used to hear from mostly senior salesreps...the one that sounded like: "I don't work hard, I work smart". You might want to do both there, Chucky.
The mantra of the New Green Movement is "Uh...how much GREEN is this going to set me back?"
For the vast majority of people, it's only when we feel completely safe and secure that we take action and help others or, in GoreSpeak, save the planet. That's sounds like a slightly dark view of human nature. Unfortunately, it's an inconvenient truth.
The majority of Americans aren't feeling so ducky about tomorrow, educating Junior or Madison/Emma* or the 10 day forecast on what their retirement is looking like. So when the "Green" alternative costs more green, Jane Q. Public tends to stomp her Carbon Footprint.
(* Federal Law requires all female babies born after 1999 to be named Madison or Emma).
Some might think it's different when the buyer is a corporate purchasing agent or a manager considering buying some capital equipment. Hardly. If you need your job and part of your job is to buy stuff, the margin for error for screw-ups of any sort has been reduced exponentially.
You know that old sales maxim you used to hear from mostly senior salesreps...the one that sounded like: "I don't work hard, I work smart". You might want to do both there, Chucky.
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