New Position Process

Wow, where have I been? Well starting a new position is time consuming. Maybe I should say it SHOULD be time consuming. If you expect to get up to speed in any new position by just putting in the “normal” amount of work hours, you are sadly mistaken. In the software sales industry, you have to expect to put in a lot of hours in a regular work week. When starting a new position in that industry, expect to add at least 25% more than the producers are putting in.

How Much Time?

I don’t know how this sounds to you, too much or too less, but it seems to be what works for me. Too many more hours than that and I start to lose my sharpness. Any fewer and I can’t do the daily load and learn the amount of information I need to to keep ramping up.

Again, I’m a technical sales resource, so I need to know all the nut’s and bolts. So how do I do it? Read, read a lot. It is amazing what you will learn if you read everything your company produces about your product. Marketing slicks, sales brochures, Web pages, technical manuals and release notes. Not just the most recent release notes, read them for at least a year back. This will help you find information that your competition uses against you based on old information, as well as helping existing customers know what they can gain if they upgrade.

You have to know what you need to know

While I’m reading, I’m watching. Watching others work. What do they say? What do they show? What do they make sure to point out? What are they sure to avoid? All of this is invaluable. Next, I talk to others about what I have read and seen. Coworkers, customers, prospects, anyone. Again, this will help refine what I know and how it is received and perceived.

The original "Like"

I have done technical demos for my Wife and Mom before. Why? If I can’t make them understand complex technical software, I need to simplify my presentation. I always start with simple demos when showing a new product. Tell a story, paint a picture where people can see themselves using the solution, get them to want more, and be ready to do that.

Good Decision or Good Reaction

I have always wanted the people around me to be the type of people I can trust to make good decisions. I’m changing my mind. I now want to put my trust in people who can best deal with the aftermath of bad situations. Why the change? Well, let me explain.

Decisions Decisions...

First, everyone likes a winner. Everyone likes supporting winners. People, who make good decisions all the time, will be winners. So we like to support people who make good decisions. However, no one makes good decisions all the time. So if you are supporting someone who makes a bad decision, how do they react? How do you react?

Don't Freak out, Figure it out

It is possible to overreact, or become paralyzed, when someone who normally makes good decisions, makes a bad one. When things aren’t going your team’s way after a bad decision, it is possible to start playing the blame game. If members of your team do this, why, and what does it mean? To me, it shows that you are not a team, you are a group following a strong leader. When the leader stumbles, the group falls apart.

Stick together, but don't Sink together...

A team sticks together. But to be fair, so did the crew of the Titanic. So you have to do more than not blame each other when a bad decision puts you in a bad spot. You have to have someone in charge that can make the most happen out of that situation.

It isn’t if a bad decision is made, it is when. It isn’t if you have to scramble to make the most of a situation, it is when. So while I want to support someone who makes great decisions, I really want to support someone who doesn’t fall apart when it hits the fan.

IPO No No

Subtitle, Does social media marketing pay?

I read about GM pulling their paid ads off of Facebook after marketing executives determined the ads had little impact on consumers. Here is a news flash GM, nether do your cars. OK, maybe that is harsh. But, it seems to me that a newly organized company who had a large (but not large enough) IPO would not release this information right before Facebook’s IPO.

GM is a company that needed a government bailout to stay afloat, and then has still not been able to raise their stock price to a point where the tax payers can break even. We need to be able to sell our stock at $43.67 and GM stock is at 21.42 today. So I don’t think I am going to listen too much to them talking down a profitable new media company like Facebook.

What does it mean? Well there are two points. Does the marketing work, and why go public.

Does social media marketing work? Yes and no. Remember Social Media marketing is still marketing, and some marketing is good, and some, not so good. Think Super Bowl ads. Some are catchy, well designed ads that actually talk about the product or service. Some are funny, with no connection to a product or service I can see, and some just suck. So some of these are good marketing decisions and some are not, but you can’t say placing an ad during the Super Bowl is just good, or just bad.

I believe Social Media marketing works when you can generate a buzz about a product or service. Getting spikes and having something go viral is key to social media. It is hard to get enough people to get so excited about a car that this process can happen. How many people that use facebook have an Apple product versus a GM product? I think that is the issue.

The why go public? Attention. Trying to create the viral effect I mentioned above, in and with the media they know, old media. Simple as that.

The real winners will be companies who understand how to add social media into their existing marketing strategy effectively. Not a company that can’t track an increase in sales to click ads in a social media platform.

InstaDamn!

Instagram was bought by Facebook for 1 Billion dollars. A 2 year old company with 12 employees. What is it that Facebook was buying? Users? Market? Technology? Whatever the reason, it cost about $37 dollars a user.

That number seems both a lot and a little at the same time to me.

It is a lot of money per user when Facebook is buying 27 million of them at the same time, especially when many of them are already Facebook users, so the cost per unique or new user may be much higher than the $37 dollar number.

It is a little amount when you look at a customer by customer basis. Would you pay $37 dollars to gain a new client? Most companies’ acquisition cost for a new lead or prospect are much higher than this. Do you know or track your cost to acquire new customers? You really should, but you knew that.

Facebook thinks it can sell more in advertising than the $37 dollars per user. I would say that is a fair bet. In addition, it isn’t like those billion dollars was generating a lot of interest sitting in the bank with this economy. It is an investment. A land grab advertising investment.

Am I shocked a 2 year old company can be worth a billion dollars? Absolutely. Do I think this is the end of the big deals? Absolutely not. But I do understand that the way to make money in this industry has changed and a everyone who wants to stay out front needs to understand this.

Hard and Soft Where?

I had an interesting day in New York City with Axcient, HP, and others at their roadshow. You can follow the link here to see what was going on. I highly recommend you go to one of their roadshows if the opportunity presents itself. 

One of the things I found most interesting was a thought that hit me while Meaghan Kelly with HP was speaking. Meaghan is the VP of Channel Development within the Solution Partner Organization (SPO) and yes, I did have to look that up.

The thought I had was, all hardware needs software and all software needs hardware, anyware, um… anywhere. I know, pass me the Nobel Prize now. So while it isn’t earth shattering, we rarely hear this message articulated by any vendor.  

Software vendors talk software and where you can run it, on premise, or cloud. Whether it was created as SaaS software, or Sassifyed as Justin Moore the CEO of Axcient stated in his keynote.  Hardware vendors talk speed, power, energy consumption, and other specs. Only one vendor really does both hardware and software and talks about the software and hardware as one thing, and that vendor is Apple. This is why I think Apple has done well in the consumer market. Apple can say, “here it is, buy it”, really works there in the consumer market.

Businesses and home users are going to the cloud. That is a given, like global warming. Now we can argue the reasons for both things, but while we are arguing, they are still happening. Hardware is needed to run the software anywhere. On their site, or in the cloud, or in Axcient’s case, both.

It was refreshing to hear two vendors articulate the symbiotic relationship they have and how important it is to their success.

The Freaky Line

What is the freaky line?  According to Robert Scoble, it is the line in the sand where when you tell people about them they freak out and say "that sounds dangerous." Robert wrote in a post on Google+ on meeting  the founders of Face.com. They do face detection based on your photos on Facebook. Aim your phone at someone and it'll tell you who they are. In his words, “I tried it out and it's freaky!... But I want it. “ At the end of the article Robert continued to say,”… I'm totally into this new world. I've crossed the freaky line… So, will you cross the freaky line?”

With full disclosure, I’ll tell you I screamed “Yes!!!!” at the top of my lungs into the computer monitor. So maybe I’m not the best person to moderate this discussion. I pole vaulted over the freaky line a while ago.

 I want technology that works for me, does what I want it to do, and I want it to be convenient for me. All of those things means that I need technology to read my mind. There are good things and bad things inside my head. There are good things and bad things with technology. So the good things in my head can get gooder, and the bad things could get badder. Not sure how much sense that last sentence made, even to me, but the point is, technology is not bad or good on its own.

Technology does stuff that we tell it to do, that is where the bad can happens, and people have been doing bad, long before technology. I want technology to be magic and magic = freaky. So if you want a rotary dial phone and broadcast TV, knock yourself out, there is a town in Wyoming for sale where you can do that. If you want to get on the freaky express, next stop Hogwarts, come with me.

iPad Patty Cake

Apple had an event today to reveal the new iPad, not an iPad 3, just the latest iPad. They didn’t invent fire, they didn’t create magic. I heard some good comments about the display, and 4G, and video speed, but where was the Wow?

Apple is in a tough spot with the iPad and the iPhone. Both of those products were new, unique, game changers when first released. When you are adding features to an existing product like the iPad, how much iWow can you get? No feature will make it a new product, without a new product you won’t get a Wow. Now what?

Without releasing the next big thing, Apple can only do what they can do, and that has three prongs. Power, style, and expectations.

Power

Faster is always better. Keep finding ways to make it faster. Download faster, run faster, display faster, present faster. Investing in the technology needed to keep making the iPad faster will always pay off.

Style

Apple has style. Even if you don’t like them, you have to give them that. Style, in the iPad case, the iOS User interface, packaging, everything. New style updates in the iPad will pay off huge. I think the simplicity of UI is huge, it should work like you think it should, and I think the iPad does that. That isn’t to say that Apple should get ilazy, there is always a way to make things better, they should do it.

Expectations

No one, not even Apple can get people excited if you don’t meet their expectations. If the consumer expects a 10 and you give them a 9 they will not give you a Wow. Apple has always been very closed lipped about their product releases, and this can be good, or bad. Good if you present a homerun, bad if it is less than expected. Apple should do a better job of setting expectations for their events.

Apple plays a game of patty cake with us every so many months. We know it is going to happen. We know how the game is played. We act surprised and get excited when it happens.

Media Rush

Rush Limbaugh, love him or hate him you know about him. He has been master of self-promotion and leveraging people and events to further, well, him. He is currently in hot water due to some comments I won’t repeat here, but you can read the story here. Self-promotion. It is a doubled edged sword. How much is too much? Is there too much?

I don’t know about too much, in the words of a friend of mine, “Always be pimpin’…” But this event does point out an important issue about how you promote yourself, and where you promote yourself, and what you do to promote yourself. Rush Limbaugh is a media guy, his job is talking and he screwed it up, how easy can it be for you?

So if we break down the issue, Rush Limbaugh’s problem was not so much what he said, but that Rush made it personal about someone. Most people who are convicted for stock and securities issues are actually convicted for lying. Rush Limbaugh is being convicted in the court of public opinion because he did not rectify the issue immediately and to the injured parties’ satisfaction. How often do we fail to do that, even with non-social media issues?

I’m a firm believer in sharing. I have one public identity on many different platforms.  Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, I even Blog ;-). I rarely post to a small group of people, I make my comments public. I guess I am who I am.  The world is changing and it will be harder and harder to do business without a social presence.  So my guidelines?

• Post. A lot, about everything you are interested in. People like to do business with people they like. The more they know about you, the more they can like you.
• Believe what you post and be ready to defend it.
• Create most of your own content.
• Treat a social media comment the same as you would deal with a customer face to face. Be respectful, apologize if you have done wrong, and ask what you can do to fix it.

Whether you do or not is a business decision, ask Rush Limbaugh how that is working out for him? 

It's Show Time!

IT Shows. They are like weeds. Cut one down, two more pop up. We have all been to so many shows. It makes you wonder, which ones are worth going to, which ones should you pass on? Well that all depends on what you are looking to get out of these shows.

Steve Banks' badges...

Are you a vendor, a provider, an end user? Are you looking for new products, services, customers or ideas? Depending on what you are looking to do or get out of a show, you will be able to fine one for you. Big vendor major shows like the Computer Electronics Show (CES) or the Microsoft World Wide Partner Conference, Midsize shows like IT nation or SMB Nation, or local events or roadshows. Multi-vendor, single company, or user group.

Want to know the truth? They all have something to offer. Why are there so many? They work. If they didn’t work, they wouldn’t exist. Now I guess I just have to define “Work”.

It is a good deal for the vendors. Vendors generally get a good opportunity to sell or market to an interested group of people, so the ROI can be very good. Even vendors have to make decisions about which shows match their needs. As a vendor I have been at many shows that didn’t make sense from a sales perspective, but from a marketing and a supporting the channel perspective, was a home run.

It is a good deal for an attendee. The ability to meet with many potential new vendors, if you are looking for that, is huge. The ability to learn. Most IT conferences provide some level of education. Peer panels, experts, certification classes, can often be attended. Hanging out and having a good time with your friends. HUGE! Truth be told this is the reason that many attendees go to shows. Beer. While that is mostly true, the real attraction to hanging out is the face to face social interaction with peers. We live, sell, breath, work with technology, but we want to party with people.

Overall, there are many OK events, several good events, and a few great events. If you ask 100 different IT people, the numbers are the same, the events they think that are OK, good, and great would change. So what this means to you is, if you are looking to attend a show and wonder if it would be a good show for you, ask your like peers what events they have been too that they liked.  Now ask them why they liked it and what they got out of the event. Make sure they were looking to get the same things out of a conference that you are.

Windows 8 Buzz

Buzz or buzzen’t or ah doesn’t? I love being a geek and maybe I’m a little post geek now as my job doesn’t require I be hands on months before anything get released, but what is Microsoft doing with Windows 8?

I think what they are doing is brilliant. We all know computing is changing. Most of us use a laptop and a tablet and a phone. Most of us use devices with different operating systems, no common applications or functions. Windows 8 seems to be the Operating System that can bridge all of those devices. Now do I feel it is perfect for all of them? No, I don’t. But it is early. Who remembers Windows 3.1 or the first version of Office?

Concept first. Perfect later. I like that process. Good often works for 80-90 percent of people. If I had a common platform for every device that was 90% of what I wanted, I would be so sold. Right now the vendors, Apple and Google have 2/3rds of it down. Apple with iOS on the iPhone and iPad. Google, kind of with Android, but all the flavors makes it had to be cohesive. Both of these have forgotten the desktop, and I know Apple has OS X and Google has a netbook, but this is not the same.

Microsoft is the first to be on all three platforms in a real way and I expect this to be the trend. Will they win? Not sure, but they are damn sure leading the way...

Late Snow

Here it is March Eve. Leap March Eve even, and now it snows. I know I live in Upstate NY. I know it can snow till 4^th of July, but still. Thanksgiving? No snow. Christmas? No snow. New Years? No snow. Valentine’s Day? No snow.  Leap Day? Yup.

Some will say better late than never. Some will say it could have skipped us this year. I say there is a sales lesson here, in fact a life lesson. Stuff doesn’t always happen when you expect it to, or need it to. Big shocker, but one we forget until it snows and ruins our Leap Day celebration. So Steve, what is the big lesson here? I can hear you saying it, you know I can.

Big lesson. Plan like there is no plan. Some say plan for the unexpected. If it is unexpected, how can I plan for it, but I can plan like I don’t have one. I expect to hear back from my contact about setting a meeting by X, and when I don’t I’m going to do Y. I expect to be named VOC next week, so when I haven’t heard from them on Thursday I’m going to do this.

Don’t expect stuff to work. Hope it does. Try and make sure it does, but don’t plan on it.

Puppy Sales

After years of talking about it, my Wife and I got a puppy. We knew we would really like one, but we just didn’t have the time to spend with one. Both of us working outside of the house, it just wouldn’t be fair, for any of us. Now that I am working at home and my wife has some work at home flexibility, it seemed the perfect time.

We had been Puppy sitting for a friend and the experience was all we needed to get pushed over the edge. We both have had dogs before so we had our likes and dislikes. We knew more what we didn’t want than what we did want.

I saw some pictures of some puppies on a rescue site that seemed like good candidates for us. We went to take a look with the expectation that we wouldn’t find one that we could agree on, we were wrong. You can see Ben’s Blog here.

As I was trying to get Ben to sleep last night my thoughts turned to new sales people. How many of you treat a salesperson like a new puppy?

Do you make time for him?

Do you set firm boundaries?

Do you set a schedule?

Do you have checkups?

My guess is you don’t. You hire your new “puppy” based on pedigree alone, looking at their resume. You show them where the old used toys are, (software, hardware, etc.) your last dog used. You have no time to spend with them and get upset when they whine to get attention. You give them the run of the house and can’t believe they aren’t housebroken and makes messes you have to cleanup.

Just as this is unreasonable with a new puppy, it is unreasonable with a new salesperson. Just like the checklist you use to make sure you do everything for your new puppy, you need a checklist for what you need to do with your new salesperson.

If you want them to grow up happy and healthy, you have to start them out right as a pup.

What Caused the Collapse of Mayan Civilization?

Subtitled, why your business should dig a well.

I just read an article about what caused the Mayan civilization to collapse. While there may have been many additional reasons, the main one discussed in this article was climate change and lack of water.  

Due to the lack of rivers in the Yucatan, the Mayan relied on the seasonal rainfall to refill their fresh water storage. While these reductions amounted to only 25 to 40 percent in annual rainfall, they were large enough for evaporation to become dominant over rainfall.

Let’s just replace the words water and rainfall with money and cash flow. Are you too dependent on cash flow from one particular segment of your business? Would that 25 to 40 percent cut cause your extinction?

The rain of money that comes from cloud bursts are great, however you have to have a drought proof source as well. Grandma might have said don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

How does this fit with your business philosophy? Do you approach your market in a narrow focused vertical, gaining deep penetration, or a broad based approach doing a little of everything? There are ways to create different revenue streams in both of these models. Find recurring revenue, one time sales, and services revenue across all your business divisions.

So while the rain is falling, you may want to dig a well.

Happy Anniversary to Me

 It has been one year today since I posted my first blog post. This was a journey I started with only one goal. I had to post on a regular basis. I was not going to start a blog where I posted once a week, then once a month, then once a year. I have averaged a post every other day.

Mission accomplished. All of the other benefits I have gained were really only bonuses. I have found writing to be a great form of therapy. It could be even more helpful in its therapeutic value if I were writing a different type of blog. My blog content has evolved, and will continue to evolve as I write because I evolve.

I want to thank you who are reading this right now. I would still write my blog if no one were reading, it is part of me now. But to know there are people who feel my writing is worth taking some part of their day is humbling.

Stay tuned for more excitement as I start writing some blogs that are a little different for me, like my guest blog for Looks Cloudy. I’m also sure that when I land with a new company, I will have a lot of new material for my blog.

So I’m off to celebrate 365 days and 186 blogs seen in over 10 countries,  by writing a new blog post..

Managing for Success 2012

I hope my blog helps people. I write my blog with the hope that my words will make people think, and help them in their business. So while this isn't a typical blob post for me to make, it does what I want my blog to do, help you. I can think of no better way to do this than to tell you about a good friend of mine and an even he is holding. 

Karl is an author, speaker, and trainer who focuses on helping computer consultants and I.T. Professionals improve their business practices. He is widely regarded as someone who provides click-by-click instructions on how to be a successful technology consultant. He is the author of nine books (available at SMBBooks.com). His blog - SmallBizThoughts.com - has more than 40,000 visitors a month and is considered a training resource for many I.T. consultants. The blog has experienced an audience growth rate of almost 600% over the last year.

Karl is hosting a 3-day online conference for computer consultants in June 2012. The conference will focus on building successful business processes and will feature some of the best business and technology speakers in the U.S.

Have you ever wanted to attend an IT conference on running your business? Have you ever wanted to go to a conference without the travel? Now you can.

Speakers include . . .

Karl W. Palachuk - Author, Blogger, Managed Service Provider

Patrick Schwerdtfeger - International Speaker, Author, Social Media Expert

Stephanie Chandler - Author, Online Marketing Expert

Bob Godgart - Industry Pioneer, Entrepreneur

Arlin Sorensen - Community Leader, Super-Successful MSP

Matt Makowicz - Author, Coach, Trainer

Ken Thoreson - Sales Trainer, Sales Management Expert

Josh Peterson - Professional Coach and Business Consultant

Stuart Selbst - Professional Coach

Bob Nitrio - Managed Service Provider, I.T. Pro Leader

Dave Sobel - Author, Trainer, Virtualization MVP

George Sierchio - Author, Coach, M&A Specialist

. . . and others we can't name yet. Stay Tuned

Go here for more information.

http://www.smbonlineconference.com/

I hope you get the chance to meet and know Karl as well as I know him. As well as these other speakers that I am proud to call Partners, vendors, and friends. 

French is all Greek to Me

I never learned a foreign language. I wasn’t required to in high school or college. I did learn quite a bit of American sign language one summer with a girlfriend who had a deaf cousin. I have decided that I’m going to learn some French before a trip to Europe this spring.

I know I don’t really need to. Everyone speaks English, even the English..well sort of. I know I can download a hundred iPhone apps that will say phrases for me in any language. I’ll tell you why I really want to learn some conversational French.

On trips to Montreal I can almost understand, if not the words, the meaning of the conversations. It is like listening to the radio with the volume just low enough that you can’t quite make out the words. I can tell if the speakers are happy or sad, excited or reserved, serious or playful, speaking to me or about me, almost.

Almost understand, almost know, almost good enough.

So what is the foreign language in your business? What do you almost know? Almost understand? Almost grasp, and is it enough, or do you need to get the Rosetta Stone for your “language”?

Learn the language, get a translator, or don’t complain when they bring you snails for breakfast.

Phil’s Shadow

Groundhog Day. It is a perfect holiday. Made up and everyone knows it, knows it doesn’t matter, but needs to know anyway. Do you have any Groundhog days in your business?

You know those things that you worry about, think about, obsess about, but really mean nothing? Maybe you have a “thing” about employee time off, or personal internet use, or whatever, is this really what makes your business special or unique?

In your mind right now, list the top 5 things that take you to the next level. Is your Groundhog Day on that list? I bet not. Top 10 or 20 list even? I would say no. So maybe if you took the effort you spent looking for shadows and applied it to items 1 through 5 you would be better off.

Don’t let Phil’s shadow distract you from heading to the light.

There Is Still Time…Brother

I just re-watched the 1959 adaptation of the book, “On the Beach”. You can follow the hyperlink to more about the story. Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, end of the world, how can you go wrong? What really struck me was how different people deal with the end.

The end of the day, the end of work, the end of a job, relationship, friendship, life. Whatever is ending, everyone deals with it differently. So how do you deal with endings?

There are several “groups” of reactions. Denial, just act like everything is fine. Overreaction, the sky is falling the sky is falling. Adult, deal with the issues and move on. I’m sure I could make smaller sub-groups, but these will do.

The key part is, there is still time. If you see an end and you are proactive, there is still time. Time to plan. Don’t deny what you see and know, use that information. Don’t overreact, all things end. Do be an adult and develop a separation plan.

No one wants to start a partnership with an exit plan, but when will you be more reasonable or fair. Once emotion kicks in? No, make sure you have thought about the end, it is thinking about you.

All things do end, but there is still time…brother.

Big Extended Dysfunctional Family

Or I could have called this blog, connectors in your life. Or don't F people, karma works. Because I have seen an overwhelming response from the channel.

Most of you who read my blog know I lost my latest gig recently. I did what I do, I talked about it, in my blog, on Facebook, on Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, email, text, hell I may have even spoken to someone about it. And the response from everyone has been amazing.

As most of you know I am a positive person. I believe things happen for reasons and you are more likely to see your next greatest thing with your chin up. I have talked to people who told me they heard from multiple people that they should speak to me. This type of story is helping carry me through.

Where did all these great people come from? While I’m not sure I deserve them, I think I earned them by being their friend when they needed one. Connecting someone here, an idea there, passing a lead, taking a call, showing someone how, telling what I know, and generally just being one of the big extended dysfunctional family that is the SMB community.

Thank you all and keep it coming, by the way, Mom loves me best.

Training Trust

Or is it trust training? What I’m asking is how do you train people in your business? It the training forced on them? Required? Offered? Not offered? What type of training is it? On-site? Live? Web based? Who delivers it? Internal person? Unknown company? Nationally known person? Computer?

Is there a trust between you and your employees that there is training provided that is worthwhile? Additionally, is the training beneficial to them and the company?

It is very hard to mandate training that is only helpful to the company and to get full participation by your staff. However if you combine quality training that will build the employees personal skill level with company specific training your get attention and trust.

If the employees can trust their training, you can train their trust.