My fanciful 2010 predictions

It’s 2010 and time for reflections and predictions.  This January was really busy, so I didn’t get to wrap this up before the 2nd month of the year.  So here are my predictions for the rest of 2010 (or twenty-ten if you are so inclined).

1. Web 3.0 (it was quiet on the 2.0 front)
2. Enterprise Social Media.  The c-suite says, you can’t bring your Facebook in here, but we’ll build a better  Facebook.  With a walled garden, boardroom bingo, and sim-meetings.
3. Ubiquitous connectivity leads to better apps (and no breaks).  You’ll be working 18 hours per day, with a few hours to turn off and sleep.  Maybe.
4. Cheap cell phone jammers (there’s an app for that, because we’re annoyed with all of this public chatter).
5. “Principled” consumers: locavores, green buyers, fair trade, organic, vegans.  Everyone is going to pick one and all consumer behavior will be defined by these tribes.
6. TMI (too much information) all the time. From your friends, co-workers, the media and the world
7. Facebook family reunions
8. The end of free checks when you open a new bank account.  Why use a checkbook when you can initiate e-checks?  No word if this will be the nail in the coffin for cursive writing.
9. Cash as a budgeting tool.  Consumers are maxed out.  The best way to control your spending is to only use the cash in hand.  Literally.

And on a more serious note, here are a few business and marketing predictions for the coming year:

Do women need to be jerks to succeed?

This week I’m excited to be on TechnoGirlTalk’s podcast!  And the buzz of the week, Clay Shirky’s post, “A rant about women.”  We all know how many people spew off nonsense day after day on the internet, but this post stuck a cord all over the place.

Shirky’s idea?  Women need to be more ballsy to get what they want.  And act like an arrogant jerk.  All successful men do this. (Sure.  All arrogant ones is probably more accurate.)

This post reminded me of a life changing incident early in my career.  I have never had an especially loud voice.  I tend to speak quickly, and quietly.  Some people possibly mistake this for being shy and soft-spoken, but the only accurate adjective here is soft-spoken.  As you can imagine, sometimes people might miss my comments during a conversation.

Anyway back to the story, one day in a company meeting we were brainstorming where to go next with a client.  I chimed in with a great idea.  No one heard my idea, so i started to speak up to repeat it, and my so-called “friend” repeated my idea word for word REALLY loudly.  Suddenly everyone was praising his awesome idea.  Fast forward a couple of weeks.  Suddenly everyone thought he was a “strategic thinker” and he landed the best projects and a promotion.  Oddly, I never noticed any exceptional performance or anything else to differentiate him from the other people on our team.  Was it because he was a guy?  A better employee?  Something else?  I’ll never know, but I learned a couple of important lessons after that meeting.

1. Get to your meetings early and sit near the important people.  If you sit right next to them they’ll always hear your comments. 
2. The best way to get your idea implemented is to be the #1 cheerleader.  But this doesn’t mean you have to be a traditional cheerleader.  One of my favorite approaches is find other cheerleaders.  Talk to other influential people about the challenges and problems you notice, and potential avenues to solve them.  You want them to espouse your message without the full details.  Then when you present your idea, they’ll chime in with messaging consistent with your reasoning.
3. Confidence is your #1 ally in selling your idea.  If you believe in it wholeheartedly, everyone else will.
4. Don’t be afraid to interrupt people trying to talk over you. You can do this in a polite and effective way.  And still get your point across. I used to err on the side of letting people finish their spiel, but tactful interruptions are sometimes the best defense.

These days I am know as the “idea girl.”  My co-workers come to me to brainstorm or help them figure out if their plan makes sense.  A role I’ve always wanted to have.    And lots of my ideas get implemented, no megaphone required.

And how about that rant? Every time I think we have all seen the many types of “role models” for women in business, another sad story about a girl who spends too much time letting her self image be influenced by someone else’s crazy ideas.

The best path for women to success at work: be yourself, and ignore all of the jerks out there with their unsolicited advice.

Social Media invades Retail

Earlier this week, as I was headed home, I passed EA Active.  EA is rolling out a few pop-up store/demo stations to lure fitness-minded women into buying video games this holiday season.  I like the concept of the pop-up store, it reuses vacant space and offers retailers a low-risk way to try something new.  Pop-up streetfood malls anyone?

This store opened a few weeks ago, and is shiny an new the same way current retail stores are: clean lines, modern furniture, etc.

I hadn’t passed this location since it was completed, and I did a double take when I saw this sign in the front window:

Facebook, Twitter links critical to EA store signage

Twitter and other forms of social media have been critical to the success of new school food carts.  Local businesses use Yelp, respond to reviews, and place targeted local ads.  Big Business is using Twitter as a customer service channel.  And now, as witnessed above, brick and mortar retail is using social media to connect after hours.

Two questions:

• Who’s next?
• B2B marketers, what are you waiting for?

Hibernation Over!

OK, OK, I have been neglecting my blog for twitter.  I had to survive tradeshow season.  So after an extended hiatus, I plan to resume posting on a regular schedule again.  To celebrate, I have updated my Twitter and LinkedIn icons and updated the blog roll.  Stay tuned for more posts to recap 2009 and predict 2010.

Here’s to starting in January with more frequent posts.

Is this sales letter a help or hindrance?

I got this email in my inbox this week from a vendor I have worked with, or researched.  I paraphrased where necessary to keep the email anonymous [in brackets].

Subject: [Vendor] offers end of the quarter discount

If recent news reports are any indication, our country is no longer in a recession, and business should start increasing.  In fact, for many of our customers, sales are already picking up.  As a result, this is a perfect time to implement [Vendor products] or purchase additional product to help streamline your business process.

[summary of product information]

But perhaps you’re thinking about adding a [competing category of solutions] and can’t see the value to adding [vendor solution].  Prior to purchasing [competing solution type] which will have features you might never know about or use, let us show you how you can use just [vendor]’s tools in conjunction with your existing environments and save money vs. [competing solution category].

[save money by buying vendor product].  Contact us.

The total email was about 1 page of text.  I don’t know about you, but I didn’t think this email was very effective.  It seemed to pitch-y and cliche. It definitely didn’t encourage me to buy more product before the end of the quarter.  In fact I thought it was pretty disappointing: long, not very specific, and didn’t really get to the point.

My letter would have been more like:

Subject: Use [vendor] to save [XXX] on [business process] tools

Are you looking for [competing solution category]?  Did you know you can improve [insert business process] with [vendor name]’s tools, and save [xxx]%.  I’d like to schedule a chat with you to give you more details, and we are running a promo through [xx/xx/xxxx] for [$XXX] off our products and services.

Check out this [insert content link] on how to use our tools to solve [business challenge].

What’s your opinion? How would you have rewritten this sales email?

Marketing Automation Roundup

Check out the Reachforce blog for marketing automation vendor profiles.  Each profile, provided by the vendors, gives a great overview on what they do, and how their system works.  Check it out!

Here are links to a few of the posts:

• What is Eloqua?
• What is Genius.com?
• What is Marketbright?
• What is Marketo?
• What is Manticore?
• What is Loopfuse?
• What is Pardot?
• What is Market2Lead?
• What is Silverpop Engage B2B?

Source:  Reachforce’s marketing automation posts

Falling in love with the deal and other sales tips

My first job after college was a really strange opportunity that was a little too much like the “Boiler Room.”  Although the job was the wrong fit for me, I received some excellent advice from the president:

“Don’t fall in love with the deal.”

Any of you sales people, marketers or job seekers know the feeling.  Let me recap a few examples for you.

Job seeker: you finish an interview and you aced it.  The people were great, the pay was great.  You were imagining all of the great lunch spots.  The fun business trips.  And you even picked out the outfit for your first day.  Then a week goes by.  Then 2.   And finally after 3 or 4 weeks you give them a call and they have selected another candidate or the job is unavailable.  You finish the call disappointed because you had spent the last few weeks imagining yourself there.

Senior executive: you just finished meeting with a potential strategic partner.  You begin to imagine all of the ways you can work together, tap into their customer base and impress your shareholders.  The only thing left is to work out the paperwork.  In the home stretch they begin to ask for concessions. And they rewrite the legal agreement.  Suddenly what used to be a 50/50 partnership is looking more like 30/70 in their favor.  You are willing to go by their terms, because this organization is extremely influential and you’d rather work with them even if it isn’t on your terms or in your best interest.  The initial euphoria has turned into delusions.

Sales rep: you meet the ultimate propsect.  The one who will cover your quota for 2 quarters, and they are ready to buy next week.  Your product is ideal for their needs and you only need to work out the price.  Unfortunately at the last moment your biggest competitor drops their price significantly to sweep in and seal the deal.  And you were already making travel arrangements for your celebratory trip.

The point of this post isn’t to depress, but here are my tips to protect yourself in case you are falling in love.

• Step back and really evaluate the opportunity you are euphoric about
• Look at the potential risks and challenges involved in the deal
• Note the maximum you are willing to give to make it work.  And what you will do if it doesn’t work.

I’ve seen too many cases where the deal someone falls in live with is the beginning of the end.  In sales and business.

How to lose a customer (or a few) in 3 easy steps

OK, I have been neglecting my blog a bit.  It has been a busy summer.  Transitioning into a new position and a lot of fun over the summer.  Look for more regular posts from me, and I hope to return to 1X/week posts.

I wanted to recount my coworkers experience, over the past week, with Dell.  This was so egregious, I felt is was appropriate to name names.

My coworker has a Dell notebook that is a couple years old.  It has been super slow and flaky lately.  We aren’t really sure why it is misbehaving, but the battery is completely dead right now, and it could be causing a few of the issues.

He decided to contact Dell to order a replacement battery.  He calls Dell support, sits on hold (typical) and eventually places an order for a replacement battery.  His computer was no longer under warranty, so he had to pay for the battery with his credit card.  The customer service representative said “we’ll ship this overnight, so you should have it tomorrow.”  My coworker was happy, because it looked like the resolution was on the way.  This was last Thursday.

On Monday he comes into the office, no battery arrived on Friday or over the weekend.  He calls the Dell team to check on his battery. This time around customer service wasn’t so friendly:

• My coworker: Hi, I called last week and ordered a battery, the service rep told me to expect it in 24 hours.  It has been three days and it is not here.
• Dell customer “care”:  Please check with UPS, here is the tracking number.  [End Call]

My coworker calls UPS to find out where his package is:

• UPS customer service:  Dell did not use overnight shipping.  The package is currently in IL, and there is nothing we can do to expedite this, it will arrive on Thursday.

Going Social with your marketing efforts

Good article with a few ideas on how to incorporate social media in your marketing efforts.

 

Posted via web from Jame is posturing

Free dance classes in Oakland

My coworker sent me a link to these free Ballroom classes: http://www.lindendance.com/calendar.html

Posted via web from Jame is posturing