Mark McCarthy's Blog

I Hate You Ann Peterson

I don’t really.   Just in a few trying moments now and then.  

Anyway I wonder if what she said works elsewhere in life or at work.

Ann said something 5 minutes into our first running session that really hit me. 

“It’s not how far you run, its how much time you run”.  

Really?  Since when?  It’s all about distance when I was running back in the day (way way back in the day).  It was all about running 1 or 2 or 3 miles every time and if time got involved it was “can I run those 2 miles faster?”

But I did what we as a big group of us were told.  We had all joined the “Couch to 5K” running club a couple of weeks back.  Ann is the leader, the one with the whistle and the stopwatch.   And in that first session we ran for a few minutes each time, walked for 3 minutes, ran for 3 minutes.  Rinse and repeat.  Increase the time running each week she said.  Hard.  Brutal.  But I like it the concept.  Makes sense.   

Let the time you run each week grow, not necessarily caring about the overall distance.

While I can’t say I’ve enjoyed the running these last 2 weeks (I still cursed Ann out last night in fact while running in Stoll Park a thousand miles away on business here in KC)  The stopwatch can’t be right—these time intervals are the longest ever!  But I really like the premise of focusing on time. 

• Maybe I don’t need to get through my whole to-do list today but rather spend one hour solely focused on that to-do list every day.
• Maybe I don’t need to read those two books by next Friday, but rather focus an hour a day every day on just reading.  Period.
• Maybe if I am a sales rep, I don’t have to focus on making 45 calls out before lunch today but rather focus on 3 hours of just making calls as quickly and wonderfully as I can.
• Maybe it doesn’t matter what I do with the kids on Saturday but how long we just “do” something that matters.
• Maybe if I quit counting stuff (am I the only one who does that?) and focus on counting the time I spend doing stuff I should, maybe the results would better.

Let’s hope I’m right ( and I think I am)  – I don’t need any more reasons to be taking it out on Ann.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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Mother’s Day 1985

Warning: There’s nothing here today that will help you sell, train or market better.  So it’s fine if  you wander off and go do your thing.  I’ll not be offended – it’s rare detour here -come back soon.

It’s Mother’s Day Sunday and my brother just recently found a letter I had written to my mother that she had kept  for 26 years until she passed last June.

Seems it’s a letter I wrote to her for Mother’s day back when I was 20.

I have a vague memory of having written it and that it was important but I don’t remember thinking about it, writing it,  mailing it from college or even if I came home that weekend and gave it to her in person.  No idea.

I share it though because there is a message here.   The message though, has the gift of hindsight.  I didn’t know the letter would mean what presumably it did for her.   For all I remember,  I was probably so flat broke in college that all I could afford for a gift was to write her this letter.   I can assure you however, there’s no other Mother’s day gift or Hallmark card I ever gave her that she kept for all these years- we’ve looked.

But the message is this;   If you haven’t done so already, you 20 somethings ( or maybe even you 30 and 40 somethings)  should put on paper,  words for your mother like maybe you haven’t done before.   They may mean much more than you think it will.   For my mother it did.   And do it now before it doesn’t make sense to write her.

I’ve copied letter  below from the pictured yellow paper that it was written on.   Sure, it’s personal.   With the gift of looking back though, I’m happy I said these things.  Lucky probably.  But damn happy I wrote it.    You don’t have to be lucky; you can do this now.

Like I said,  I don’t remember writing this.   Heck, I don’t even remember now the “green sweater” I refer to.   But again, it’s not what I remember that matters; it’s what your Mom will.

Dear Ma,

Very often, kids take it upon themselves to either blame their parents for whatever goes wrong in their lives, or merely take them for granted.  I’ve never felt the need to feel the former, but while at school I have the tendency to commit the latter.  For that I apologize.  But today is a day for you to enjoy and for me to reflect on my mother.

All the thoughts that come to mind are pleasant ones:  You dressing me in my favorite spring green sweater when I was 5.  You, sharing in my enthusiasm the day I made the choir in the 6th grade.  Reading the letter that you sent me, and crying, in my senior year @ Xaverian in XLI.   Every single show I’ve ever been in, you don’t know how much it means to me to have you there. 

Anyways I don’t want to take you for granted, and in a large sense I don’t.  It’s more that a son of 20 is trying hard to do everything he wants to so fast that the people he’s closest to are the first to be forgotten.  My body is still moving, but my head is slowing down – Everyday, when I think of you, I smile and appreciate you more and more, not for what you’ve done for me, but for what you’ve done because of me. 

                                                            I love you!

                                                                           -Mark

If your reading this Mom ( and I bet you are),  you should know that nothing’s changed in how I feel all these so many years later.  No, nothing at all.

Happy Mother’s day.  We miss you.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

A box of Online Marketing for Dummies book showed in my office today.  Good little book. Going to hand them out to folks and some customers too. 

But it got me thinking.

I really need the books for dummies you see below.  (Something tells me I am not alone.)

Send me please!

Managing Email For Dummies:  I’ve been in “email jail” more than Lindsey Lohan lately.  (Email Jail is when you have wasted so much of your memory that you get locked up and can’t send messages).  Aside from that being kind of Lindsey Lohan’s problem too, I just can’t delete my emails.  What if I need them? And what’s wrong with 3,000 emails in my Inbox anyway?

How To Say “No” For Dummies:  It is just hard to say “No” – “No” to people, an opportunity or a need.   But if you say “Yes” to everything, nothing gets done well and it gets really customized and expensive and people are crazed putting out fires all day because not everything gets done well.  A vicious cycle.   But it’s hard to say “No” because people look at you funny and they don’t smile back. 

How To NOT Multi-Task For Dummies:   Of course we know the truth – True Multi tasking is a lie (and proven a lie by the way) as very, very, very few people can actually do it.  But how do you stop trying?  IM, the Twitter Feed, Email,  a Conference Call, a bird flying by the window etc.  Even in “flesh to flesh” meetings we all bring our gadgets and distract ourselves.  We meet but never “meet”.   I’m not the only one on a conference call who has ever said “Let me think about that” praying to all that is mighty that no one realizes I haven’t a clue what I was just asked about.

How To Go Green At Work For Dummies:   Not sure about this where you work but where I am, I’m afraid to throw something away.    There are  blue buckets and green buckets and tall brown buckets and huge grey buckets with like, locks on em’ everywhere.   There are buckets with holes, buckets with floppy tops and there are the unlabeled nondescript buckets just randomly lying askew in hallways staring at you, judging you as you walk by with nothing to give.  For coffee, should you use paper “tree killing” cups? Or the styrofoam “landfill forever” cups? Or do you use your own cup and waste the water to clean it?  It’s not easy being green, or is it?   

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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Sudden Death

I don’t like going to the Doctor much but he’s a smart and funny guy, so it’s kind of bearable. 

Bantering with him last week (cuz’ the longer I can keep him talking, the less prodding he ends up doing – which is fine with me),  I joked about how I read that recent studies suggested a daily aspirin regimen could cause some nasty side effects like stomach issues.  (I don’t have a problem with daily aspirin he recommended but like I said, the more I keep him talking….. )

Anyway, being funny but mostly smart he said, “Well then don’t take the aspirin then Einstein, it’s no big deal to me, the side effect though could be Sudden Death for you, so have fun with that.” 

Hilarious.

But it hit me as a bit more poignant as I walked out of his office thinking about how we do some horn blowing at work about the perceived awful side effects of doing this or that, but sometimes we forget the side effects of making a change to something we know works could be a lot worse.   

You can give up walking over to talk to someone or using the phone:  Heck, a stroll down the hall wastes time because you don’t know if someone is there.  A phone call or Skype doesn’t get recorded so you don’t have a record of what you talked about like email does.  But truth is, face to face and/or voice to voice carries a gazillion other intangibles that are still valuable.  And the “Sudden Death” impact of giving that up?  Sudden Forgetfulness of YOU.   Do people only know you by your emails?  If so, you matter little to them no matter how many you write.   

You can give up making quality cold calls:  Cold Calling has awful side effects at times that can be painful, depressing and darn near ruin your day or week.  So you can hire someone else to do it for you or fire off a gazillion emails and skip it altogether, hoping the darn phone rings.  Or you can suffer the Sudden Death side effects of not cold calling and not make any sales at all.  Good luck feeding the kids with that.
You can give up saying fervently “Thank you” or “I’m sorry” or “I appreciate you” or “Mr.”  or “Ms.” to customers:    After all, everyone has no time, everyone is busy and heck, there are a lot more important things I should be saying to customers.  But no, your getting in the words “today’s special promotion is…” or the “the confirmation number is…” or the “best number to reach you if we get disconnected is…” doesn’t trump the power of the smaller phrases or titles.   The Sudden Death impact of losing those little ones is the erasing the difference between you and someone that can be replaced by a computer.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

What Needs To Be Tougher.

We are all competing on a global stage today.  No joke.  Our prospective and existing clients have global options for highly intelligent, well trained partners, providers and suppliers that are literally seconds and clicks away.

 But if I’m going to compete, I like to win.  If you read this blog regularly, you do too.

 Some things then, need to be tougher for us to keep winning.

Training:   Tougher should begin at home.  (Training is where I lead today).   Training needs to be tougher.  Think Training Idol. Think harsher judgments, tougher role plays, more tests and certifications.  We’re not talking Gladiator camp here but learning what you need to learn has to stick and stick better.

 Coaching:  Not in the way you think.  A lot of us coach (me included) and a lot of us “wing it”.  That’s not fair to folks who need us to help them and frankly, it is not effective.  If you coach, get smarter about it.  Get a structure.  And most importantly- plan in advance; give it some hard thought and do it more often.

 Representing The Brand:  You are an extension of your brand.  Period.   You must wear it well especially when you are in front of clients and prospects.   It’s not enough to just fix the problem, enter an order, answer a question, blather an awful answer about “what you do” at a party or pull together some information well for a prospect.   You must proactively extend the brand’s promise.  How you help clients, how you differentiate, how you bring amazing to the marketplace.  Brand Matters.   This isn’t easy to do.  You have to do it in ways that don’t raise tension or confuse or annoy but you must do it.  The stage is bigger now and we all need to stand out.

Tougher isn’t a bad thing. 

On the other side of tougher is a better chance of winning.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark.

On Dislodging

You best be getting better at dislodging the competition.  It’s going to get harder out there.

Oh sure it’s fun to sell products/services to small businesses who have never had a website, or any online meeting software, or water/ coffee services, or insurance, or you fill in the blank.

And it’s not just fun, it is darn easier too.  Everyone knows that.

Every salesperson ormarketer knows it is a heck of a lot easier to get that small business into some product or service they never had before than to dislodge the competitor and stealmarket share. 

I remember us sales people back in the day ( I was one of them),  nearly careening into each other as we screeched out of the parking lot upon hearing a new construction site was opening up.  Oh to be the first one there to sell the contractors on stuff!  So much easier than kicking out the competition.

But you can’t bank on being first anymore – it’s just harder.  More competition from not just your local region but from around the world.  More competition because that small business prospect is not waiting for your knock or your call but is on the web looking at you and your competition making decisions and placing orders while you are snuggled in your bed unawares.

And soon,  very soon – every small business new or old,  is going to have things like a website package, online meeting services,POSsoftware, promotional products, outsourced legal support,  business cards and more often right at the time of their business launch and just as likely right at the time you decide to give them a ring or a knock on their door.     Now you may be lucky and all that business belongs to you, but I’m guessing you’ve got a bigger quota to hit than relying on that pipe dream.

All is not lost – Here are 5 Keys to Dislodging:

• Find The Trigger:  When you need to dislodge a competitor or another means in which the client is getting something done, search for that opening -be it a new sales leader or business partner that moves in, a new location that opens up or they just started putting a Twitter logo on their materials.  Whatever that trigger is – there is a chance that new blood, new ideas or new budget is involved and your chances of dislodging have just gotten better.
• Make is Easy & Fast & Painless to Come to You.   Get it all done inside 24 hours; be it the product, the demo or the proof that gets in the clients hands.    If you can, offer to cancel the competitor service for the client (like Geico does).  Pain to change and pain to switch is as big an enemy of dislodging as anything else.  
• Remove The Risk;  If there is no pain to “try you out” or “run side by side” or “guarantee you will be more satisfied”  then you have great shot.  Gutsy stuff for sure but what you do with that shot is what really matters.  And do the math, compare this CTA ( Cost to Acquire) versus CTA for new business and you’re often surprised it’s cheaper. 
• Say it/ Script it:  “I want you to come to us”, or “We can do better than what you are doing today” are great phrases.   I know one group of sales people today who are having success dislodging by saying right up front to customers -  ” This year we are committed to an aggressive approach towards competitive packages based on an annual volume.”  
• Be Incomparable or Comparable ( not anywhere in between) :  Sometimes the worst thing you can be is “kind of like the other guy “.  Nothing bores like a perceived commodity.   Be, and accentuate the difference(s) hard or go straight up head to head ( like Flo’s Progressive insurance company ads do.)  If you are decidedly different in one area – that is your lead story.  If you are similar across the board to the competition; share that, be an advocate for getting the right solution for the client and beat the competition more often than not on price,  service or quality.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Let’s start this post with Jeopardy like feel except that the answer to the following 6 questions is the same:

 What is, “You bet I would!”

• If you knew small business prospects are 3 times more likely to act when you give dollar discounts versus percentage (%) discounts, would you handle your offers or pitches differently?
• If you knew most small business prospects had already looked at your website before they called you inquiring about pricing, would you handle the call differently?
• If you knew most small business prospects initially dislike being interrupted over the phone by sales reps, would you handle your call opening differently?
• If you knew most small businesses think you are more credible if you give specific details (like “we are launching a 3 part welcome program to all new customers..”) vs. sharing a customer testimonial, then would you speak or market differently? 
• If you knew that 3 out 4 small business prospects in Manufacturing, Construction and Healthcare have their interest piqued when you share information specific to their industry ( vs. say just 1 out of 4 Retail prospects care about information specific to their industry), would you plan your contacts, visits and marketing with these types of verticals differently?
• If you knew that most small businesses don’t yet realize social media is the new and most sacred  “Word of Mouth”, would you talk about, advise, encourage and role model social media differently?

The above are true and just a smattering of real data about real small businesses I culled from the research done by firms like the Enterprise Council on Small Business (ECSB) and other reputable research orgs. 

Now you know.   Go forward differently.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Show Rooming Is Our Fault

Target got all a tither last week firing off letters to their suppliers demanding they either reduce their costs or focus on giving Target more unique and exclusive products to sell in their stores.

Problem is that folks go to Target, look at a product, touch it, hold it, feel it, ask questions about it and then turn around and go online and buy the same thing cheaper from some online company that doesn’t have the costs to bear for the brick and mortar, the labor and all the rest.

They call it Show Rooming and brick and mortar retailers like Target are getting sick of it. 

But Target is mad at the wrong people.  It’s not the supplier that’s the problem – it’s us. 

Maybe it was the way I was brought up or where I’ve worked but there’s something wrong about using one company to learn and see everything about a product and then going out and buying it online ( or anywhere else for that matter.)   And it happens a lot.

There’s something wrong with walking into the local hardware store, getting that advice on which paint to use to cover paneling, spending some time at the color wheel and then saying “Thanks man!” while jumping in the car to speed off to the superstore to get the exact same paint a little cheaper.

There’s something wrong when the Veterinarian examines your dog, hands you the product she needs to stay healthy and you put it down sheepishly saying “gee I can’t get that right now” only to go on line, look for the same product and order it there for 3 bucks cheaper.

There’s something wrong with going to a car dealer, working the sales rep for 2 days, getting all the answers, taking that test drive and getting all of it down on paper  to then neatly fold it, slip it into your back pocket and then shopping around with all this new knowledge to get better price from some other dealer who sells the same model car.

And it happens to you too.

It’s not real different in sales either when you spend 3 weeks educating a prospect about a solution, prepare a proposal and that prospect takes your proposal and their new education, then turns it over to a competitor and says “Beat that”.  That happens, that’s life but that’s Show Rooming a Sales Rep and that ain’t right.

It’s a lot like stealing I think.  For too many people it’s not a problem to take insight, or time, or commitment, or ideas only to use them against the very people and places that were so skilled or gracious in giving them to you in the first place by going somewhere else to buy.

That’s called Show Rooming and nope, even though its rampant and even a source of pride for some, I don’t like it one bit. 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

The DIFM Kid

I gave up.   January 1st was the day that I was done.

I gotta just focus on what I do well and maybe do that better.

Now I pay a 14 year old whiz kid (a friend of my son),  to just do technology stuff for me now.  “The DIFM Kid” (Do It For Me) is what I call him. (He is pictured here as rendered by my wife)  I don’t pay him a lot.  But the ROI is unbelievable.

Let him set up the Netflix on the Wii, let him set up my wife’s new Facebook Business Page, let him figure out how to connect the piano keyboard to the PC so we can record some of my son’s music.  Let him figure out why the wifi sync doesn’t work or why we need two Routers now because of all the stuff using whatever it is they use.

I’m not stupid.  Some people (and this is hilarious) think I might be a little on the  “techie” side of the ledger.   ( LOL- that’s called Acting man) but it is getting harder out there.  I don’t have the time,  but I have the need.

I just realized no matter how many manuals and instructions I read, or how many tutorials or videos I watch, I’m not going to get it.  Or I am not going to get it done fast enough.   Or sometimes I am going to make it even worse.   And maybe I need to focus on what I do well already and quit wasting time on stuff I don’t.

And now word has spread about “The DIFM Kid” and me using him.  Now everybody in the extended family is asking for him.  He disappears on Sundays 3 towns over at brother in-law’s house to go set up a new TV or to fix a slow laptop or to connect a transmitter to an outside thermometer.    There’s a darn waiting list for him and texts asking “When is “The DIFM Kid” gonna be around? “  Things are looking great for him.

There are a lot of us out there feeling that way, consumers and small businesses alike.

You don’t have to look that far to see that Do It For Me services are going to explode not just in my family but in the marketplace too.  I see them every day grow stronger and stronger where I work.    They’ve been around forever,  but now the speed in which new becomes old, or good becomes just OK or keeping up becomes “What the hell just happened?”  is accelerating at a pace where DIY ( Do It Yourself) might soon feel so yesterday. 

That smacks of opportunity.  Be ready- The next DIFM Kid could ( or maybe should) be you. 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

What I Learned Acting In Star Trek

This last weekend we again watched the recent J.J. Abrams Star Trek film from a couple years back.   Awesome movie.

I thought back to when I was an actor in Star Trek from the original series.   Working with the other actors on set was life changing for me.

But let’s talk about this latest movie version of the series for a minute.  It is a look back to the beginning of Star Trek – a “prequel” view at how the original characters, (i.e. the likes of Shatner, Nimoy and Deforest Kelly) all started out; how they formed their relationships and beliefs.  About why and how they go about “boldly going” so to speak. 

It made me think about my original days involved in Star Trek and what influence it had and has on my life today.  My experience acting in Star Trek was huge.  Those days on the “Trek” set shaped some very important things about me and how I act today. 

Maybe you could learn from it too.

Star Trek wasn’t much of a hit when it originally aired late in the 60’s, but in syndication all through the 1970’s, it rocked. 

I have 3 brothers and we were all growing up in the 70’s.  

William Shatner and his crew had nothing on us; truth was, we were Star Trek.

I was Capt James T. Kirk.  My first officer Spock (played by my older, sci-fi book loving, overtly logical brother Kevin), was incessantly harangued by Dr. “Bones” McCoy played by Brother Paul.   Paul and Kevin kind of had that relationship off set at times, so it was a good fit.  My littlest brother James played the role that offers the focal lesson for today.

James always played (he had no choice) …… “The Guard ….Who Went Bad”

You gotta have a bad guy sometimes.  It makes it more fun.   It gives you a purpose.  It gives you a “mission”; a mission to succeed, to win and sometimes, to save the world.

Baby brother James had a rough time of it when you think about it.  He always started out as part of the “crew” (which he liked) but only for a while (which he didn’t).   His role, being about 7 years old, was always to guard the ship and crew as he slowly moved from room to room.   (One bedroom was the “Bridge”, the other was “SickBay” and the rest of the little house was whatever dangerous planet we beamed down to).  

Suddenly James (aka “The Guard…Who Went Bad”) was forced to “snap” and turn on the crew, putting our mission at risk.  Racing through the house we would chase James, tackle him,  and even though we had only set our phasers to “stun”,  we somehow always killed him – his body blown to bits all over the living room ( somehow that was better than the “disappearing thing” that happened with the phasers on TV.)   Good Times.

Gotta have a bad guy sometimes.   That sticks with me.   I have to have a purpose occasionally, to defeat something.   My guess is you might too.

Maybe you work hard everyday to beat down this Guard Gone Bad sketchy economy thing.   Maybe you strategize, work weekends and nights to knock this thing out and grow the business despite what seems like an incredibly hard mission.

Maybe you work up a sweat by3 o’clock pounding out calls and working hard to have conversations with your customers  because you are fighting this Guard Gone Bad enemy that is someone’s false perception that you “can’t” do something.  Take that Guard Gone Bad; don’t tell me I can’t do something. 

Maybe the Guard Gone Bad for you is the competition.  You won’t let “these other guys” take your market share, take your sales or take your future away from you.  Nope; skip the phaser, give me the photon torpedo.

Maybe the Guard Gone Bad for you is a demon you are battling inside yourself.  And it would be so easy to give up and check into Sick Bay but ain’t no way that is going to happen.  

So maybe ( no assuredly),   there is something good to be said about finding a foil, about finding that enemy to defeat and about creating and/or finding that Guard Gone Bad.  

Thanks to my cast mates in the original series produced in Norwood, MA in late 70’s and especially to James.  Sorry you got killed so many times bro, but at least it wasn’t in vain. 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark