Why Small Business is Huge

As many of you know, my wife and I are new pet owners. We rescued a 7 week old puppy that is now nearly 5 months old. Through some of the trials and tribulations of being a parent to our furry family I have again seen why small business cannot be replaced.

Ben, our puppy, has developed a food allergy and we needed to change his food. (His blog is here: http://dog-ben-noel.blogspot.com/) We looked for food that his vet recommended and the trainer recommended at some of the large national pet stores. I must say, I love taking Ben there. He visits everyone and has a great time. Prices are good, I get email coupons, people are friendly, but…

We stopped by our local pet store that I had forgotten was even there. It had just been purchased by a local business woman who owns another pet store. The staff was more than helpful as we found exactly what we needed. In addition, the prices were the same or cheaper than I was used to at the chains on most items.

We purchased a bag of food and were assured that if we had any issue, to bring it back, no problem. Only after I left, I realized that I didn’t get the sale price that was a couple of dollars less. Not really a big deal, but money is money. It was clear after a couple feedings that this food was not helping. I headed back to the store to exchange it, waiting for a hassle. It never happened.

I grabbed another bag of food and a couple of cans of canned food, so I expected to pay for the cans and still not get the sale price on the bag of food. The clerk said, the owner over charged you when you bought that bag yesterday, so you total is $.50. Yup, I’m a customer for life. I would never expected her to know that or remember, or care, she did. Would the people at the nation chain? I think not.

Funny how we will buy an eight dollar coffee from a national chain on our drive to another national chain to save a buck on an item we could have bought right up the street next to the local coffee place where we could have purchased a coffee for less money…

Small business is the backbone of the free enterprise system and I am proud to support them as they support me.

If you are in the Albany NY area, visit the Health Pet Center at their Troy or their Delmar location.

237 N Greenbush Rd Troy, NY 12180

518-283-4027

https://www.facebook.com/HealthyPetCenter

2012 SMB 150

The SMB 150 is produced by SMB Technology Network (SMBTN) and SMB Nation and brought to you by BlackBerry. The SMB 150 honors individuals who have made a significant impact on the worldwide small and medium business (SMB) channel.  A three-part process determined this year's list of SMB 150 influencers. The competition began with an open nominating process, followed by the SMB IT community voting on the nominees at www.smb150.com. In addition to the community vote, a panel of industry experts judged each nominee based on a variety of relevant areas. The community vote accounted for 40% of each nominee's overall rating, with the expert panel's decision contributing the remaining 60%.

I am excited to tell you that I have been selected for this honor this year. You can find the entire list here. As you look through the list, you can see why I am so excited to be included on any list with these superstars, but really excited to be considered one of the 150 most influential people in the SMB channel worldwide with them.

What does this mean? To me it means my peers think I make a difference by helping people run their businesses in the SMB space. That is huge. Gaining the trust of vendors, partners, and users in an industry is humbling, and empowering. I hope I am able to reach and assist more people in adding to their business with my inclusion with this elite group.

A big Thank You to all who nominated and voted for me, as well as the panel for their endorsement. And no, I’m not moving to Hollywood now. I’ll still be here, writing my blog, helping the SMB community.

Words Mean Things

I must have said that phrase to the sales people working with me a thousand times. Words like “Synchronize”, “Cloud”, “Real-time”, and “Unlimited”. These words have a dictionary definition as well as common usage. It is important to define the techno babble words you use with your prospects and clients so they understand what you mean.

If you say to your clients, “you get unlimited data.” When you mean, you get a lot of data until you are in the top 5% of data users in your area, they may disagree with you. They may even feel you have violated your contract with them and they may even sue you. Just ask AT&T. Story here.

So the point of my blog today is not to slam AT&T. I am an AT&T customer and I’m generally happy with their service. My point is to show how words have meanings that can get you in trouble keeping a happy client. If you say you get unlimited data, but that isn’t “technically” what you mean, stop. Explain until they understand.

If your prospects can’t understand you, it is hard for them to buy from you, and even harder to not blame you if there is an issue.

Sales Engineer Hippocratic Oath

OK, I know Sales Engineering is not brain surgery, although I do feel I have earned a doctorate in it. I do have my version of the Hippocratic Oath for Sales Engineering. “First, lose no deal.” As a Sales Engineer, it is easy to cause a deal to go south. Too Much information, too little information, the wrong information, so many ways to break this oath.

I recently spoke to a group of sales people who all worked for the same company. I spoke to each of them one on one and was amazed with what I heard from each of them on their needs for a Sales Engineer. Everyone was different. Some wanted minimal help, some wanted maximum help, and some wanted a little help.

What did I learn? You can please everyone. As Sales Engineers our jobs are to support the sales team, the way they want to be supported. Some need a lot of help, some very little, and they are both right. It is the sales person’s deal. I am there to advise and support, AND do the demo the way they want, in a way that will not lose the deal. The advice needs to happen before you are in front of the customer, and if they refuse your advice, you have to deliver the demo their way.

There are only two things I will not do while supporting the salesperson, lie, or let them lie, even if it isn’t on purpose. Otherwise I am there to serve at their pleasure.

Give a little, or give a lot, it really doesn’t matter, so long as we are closing business.

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.

Siri, File a Lawsuit

Have you heard a New Jersey man is filing a class action lawsuit against Apple based on his claim of false advertising? You can read the story here. He contends that Siri does not preform as advertised, and without Siri, the iPhone 4S is just a more expensive iPhone 4. So what is going on here?

First, I think he is wrong. There were many enhancements in the iPhone 4S, dual core processer, additional storage, redesigned antenna, as well as a dual transmit ability on AT&T that made the 3G phone nearly 4G fast. What did he focus on? What was sold to him. The advertisements were done something like this. Siri, remind me to get milk, and a reminder was set, not look at our cool new antenna.

So when you are doing a demo, do you show the antenna, or do you let Siri talk? My point is, do you make the cool stuff look cooler than it is? Sometimes cool is cool enough, and you don’t need to make it Buck Rogers. We have all heard under promises and over deliver, but does this work on a demo?

Well what I do know that works is real life workflows shown smoothly. You don’t have to stack the decks, you don’t have to bottom deal. You have to show what’s real, really good. You never want a new customer not to be able to use the product as shown, it will bite you and might even end up in court.

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? 

Primary Sales

Do you sell like a politician? How about someone running for the job? I have been watching the Republican Presidential candidates fight for the chance to run for the office and I wondered what would happen if you tried to sell that way?

If we were instructing the candidates to sell themselves, we would never allow them to do what they do while campaigning, and isn’t it the same? I prefer to sell using a consultative sales process. I don’t think there is any way you could call what they do, consultative.

They bluster, they exaggerate, they hide, they obscure, they misrepresent, they lie, then they start talking about their opponents. OK, maybe I’m exaggerating a little, and this is not a party politics thing either, all of them do it.

So there are obvious differences between a sale and an election, but there is a lot the same.

You need people to:

• Like you
• Agree with you
• Understand you
• Want you
• Believe you
• Trust you
• Vote for you

So you should be selling like you are campaigning, just without the mudslinging.

Miner 49er…

Two really interesting stories that are more connected that you might think.

The first was Google admitting to circumventing the security of the Safari browser when it was set to prohibit websites from using tracking cookies. You can find that story here.

The second was in Forbes talking about how retailer Target was able to identify that a teenage girl was pregnant before her father was able to know. That story is here.

Both stories have one common theme. Data Mining. Whether it is mining the data from store purchases and using that data to generate more sales, or mining the data from internet searches to generate better searches and ad revenue, it is still data mining.

So this data mining doesn’t have to be evil or even a breach of privacy. If you want to see who Google thinks you are, go here. This is some of the data they use to provide suggestions and ads to you. I can tell you I think this is much more helpful that the old way ads used to be put on search portals or in the results.

We all want great customer support. We all want our computers and websites to read our minds. We all want this to happen without sharing any data. We are all dreaming, and Google can tell us about what with about an 80% accuracy…

Three Simple Words

In the spirit of the day, please let me talk about romance and getting the special someone to respond to the three little words you want to say to them. Oh, it isn’t those three words...

The words you really want to say to the prospects you are romancing is, “Please Be Mine”. Getting them to respond with I Love you is great, but you want them to be yours.

A sales process is very much a romance. We meet, exchange pleasantries. If we discover we have something in common, we spend more time to get to know each other better. One party generally gives gifts or pays for diner. Then that magic moment arrives when we pop the question, and what we are asking is, pick me, be mine.

You can never feel a customer’s love, until they are a customer. So you need to close the deal, but without closing their heart, kind of like dating.

Distort Reality

Isn’t that what we do in a really good demo? Take reality and compress it, turn it, make it fit our solution in a logical way. I just read a news story (Here) about the FBI file on Steve Jobs. One of the things that was said about him is the following:

“Several individuals questioned Mr. Jobs’s honesty stating that Mr. Jobs will twist the truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals,” according to the FBI file.

I always felt there was a difference between out right lying and distorting or twisting the facts, especially in a demo where the “facts” are often weak at best. And aren’t we also trying to achieve our mutual goal with the prospect?

If you want to see how slippery truth is, just ask 3 different people the same question about something they all just watched. Truth is so easily warped in our own mind, it might get closer or further away from the “facts” we were just shown.

For me, using my ethics to stay true to the needs of the prospect, override the strict interpretation of the “truth”. This is because my job is to present a new more functional reality to the prospect by distorting their current less functional reality by showing how twisting my solution around their requirements works.

If I wanted to be in the fact business I would have been a librarian. I’m in the solution business.

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.