“That’s Not a Real Puppy”

“That’s Not a Real Puppy”

“What? Thats not a real puppy. That’s too small to be a real puppy.”

I love this commercial on a lot of levels. And I love that line about the puppy. I quote it often when I see heads down staring into the great smartphone abyss (and my family thinks I’m crazy because I say it). Have a look at the commercial first and refresh your memory – I’m sure you’ve seen it. Then, let’s talk about it.

I get it’s about a car. And about how this car ( the Toyota Venza) actually gets you somewhere to interact with people.

And I get it’s about how “younger” people may not quite understand what “being social” really means and Mom and Dad do. OK cool. Great message.

But it says a lot more to me than that.

It says that sitting at a computer or with your smartphone all day with your fans, friends and followers probably isn’t a good thing all an all. And it is starting to show.

Last week in USA today, it was noted that driver’s license acquisitions across the US are way down over the last few years with many teenagers delaying the getting of a liscence till nearly 19. A key factor attributed is the rise of social media and requisite devices we all have; that the need to hope in the car and physically “get together” is not there.
One of the hottest Training trends is Companies creating courses for new employees teaching them how to speak effectively in meetings and on the phone. The courses also contain training about how to use proper eye contact. All this because “conversation isn’t something folks are that good at anymore”.
It’s no surprise that in the developing worlds you are far likelier to see investment in wireless networks than in roads development first. Makes sense on a competitive level but getting connected and getting around isn’t getting easier unless you have smart phone.

Are we destined to in 5 years time be holed up in our basements, bedrooms and boardrooms connecting online and online only?

Technology at its best, is disruptive and changes the status quo. But when part of the status quo was a round of handshakes and a smile, a face to face lunch in in the cafe with a colleague, attending a party or an outdoor cookout, or a backyard game of volleyball or going for a walk – what’s so wrong with that?

I’m as guilty as anyone taking too much time online connecting with my Blogging. Twitter and the like and I can see how easily it can keep you in your chair. I think we have to fight that and fight it hard. I think that soon – digital isolation is not going to just hurt you at home (“687” friends isn’t really possible) but at work too. If you have only an all-digital relationship, how long before your prospects or customers say.. “What? That’s not a real person. That’s too small to be a real person..”..

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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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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My Books For Dummies

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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Mark’s Blog

What Needs To Be Tougher

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.

Numbers Matter

Numbers Matter

“You’ve been a customer for many years…”

“We have a lot of customers where you are….”

“We build a ton of websites for small businesses….”.

Shoot me now.

Numbers matter.

No specific numbers can sound like you are lazy. No specific numbers can sound like you are reading from a script. No specific numbers sounds like you don’t care. No specific numbers says you are probably making it up anyway.

Trust is low in the marketplace. No specific numbers makes it worse. Customers and prospects are yearning for numbers – real numbers, real proof that you are credible or that you do care.

If you know how long a customer has been with you in the number of years or months, share it. If you don’t know- find out and share it every time you contact them.

If you know exactly how many customers you have that are just like the prospect you are talking to (i.e. exactly how many in their town/city or exactly how many just like them (their line of business) are already customers)), then share it. If you don’t know- find out and share it every chance you can.

If you know how many websites or widgets or thingamajigs you have that people use or buy or love then share that. If you don’t know- find out and then spit it out.

Numbers are credible. Numbers are proof. Numbers get attention. Numbers earn you a first look or even a second look. Numbers get you sales.

Numbers Matter.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Show Rooming Is Our Fault

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

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

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

Time Forward

Time Forward

Sales isn’t about moving the ball forward. Sales isn’t about getting to the next agreed upon step. Sales isn’t about pushing it through the pipeline.

That’s way too advanced.

Sales is about earning time forward.

Sales is about doing so well in the first 5 seconds that you earn 10 seconds more from the prospect or client. Sales is about doing so well in the those next 10 seconds that you get the big prize which is maybe 30 seconds more of that prospect or client’s attention.

And if you nail those 30 seconds really, really, really well you might just get the equivalent of what feels like a week’s worth of time in this rough and tumble world of Sales, and earn maybe 5 whole minutes more.

And then and only then, you may garner the right to purchase (yes, I do mean purchase) more of your prospect or client’s time.

You see, time is the most precious commodity there is today. Worth more than gold I’d say. And to earn this time at the beginning and to do so well that you get the chance to buy more of it later, that my friends, is what you ought to be obsessively focused on doing right now with all of your time.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Your Favorites & Mine

Your Favorites & Mine

Happy Friday and New Year,

Here’s a quick look back at 2011.

The votes are in (ok the views). Here are the top 5 (listed 1-5) most viewed blog posts at this site in 2011; presumably your favorites. Good taste I’d say and thank you for your readership. I’ve added 5 others I’d add as my favorites.

Look around a bit. What’s the worst that can happen? Steal something shamelessly and grow the business?

Top 5 Most Read Posts (2011)

You Had Me At Hello (and then, you just let me go)

The Most Powerful Phrase In Sales

Offline, Online & Flatline

My 25 Secrets Of Selling To Small Businesses

Help For Looooonnngg Sales Cycles

My 5 Favorite Posts of 2011 (aside from above!)

Customs Fail and Redemption

From Have To Believe

Crushed

A Training Veteran