bNet
By Tom Searcy | January 18, 2011
I spend a lot of time on the road with a number of sales teams and I have to tell you… the swagger factor out there in the marketplace is low. That’s right: SWAGGER. That quality of confidence that provides patience in the face of stupidity, no-blink nerve when looking into the eyes of challenge and the slight strut of knowing you’re the best.
As I’m talking to sales leaders in a variety of industries who are absolute best in class and working with top-shelf branded clients, they are still committing these party fouls when approaching new prospects:
They run test-proof cycles for the most basic products and services.
They waive engineering, design, drawing, setup and installation fees for first-time buyers on small orders.
They fulfill tiny initial orders as a way to “prove” themselves.
They agree to long “try, wait and see” cycles.
Now, at some point in your company’s history of performance, serving demanding clients and developing your reputation, your company became good enough to answer this question from a prospect: Are you qualified to do business with me?
“Qualified” means competent and market competitive — in pricing, features and benefits. Which further means that you should have the right to move past the first round (walking in the door). The issue is that prospects ask for samples, references, test-runs and little orders as a credentializing step in the process of doing business with you. After you have credentialized yourself, then you get to the real issues of a potential business relationship, which means relevance and value at a scale past credentialization.
Repeat after me: Brando don’t audition
Think of it this way: When you’re dealing with someone of Marlon Brando’s talent level, it would be ridiculous to ask him to audition; insulting, redundant to the body of work he has already produced. A director might ask himself, “Is Brando a good fit for this particular character? Does he provide the right chemistry for this project? Do we need to pay his salary to get this project off of the ground?” But you don’t ask whether or not Brando can act… that has already been proven.
With prospects who are asking for you to credentialize yourself, you have to get them to see you as competent and competitive so that you can get to the value and relevance of using your firm. One of the better ways to do this is to take the prospect back to your company’s body of work.
You say:
“Look, we work with X, Y and Z companies, solving problems like P, D and Q and with the scale of A, B and C. This tells you that we are capable of doing this type of work consistently and at a market competitive rate. Otherwise, these companies, with their rigorous qualification process and purchasing approach would never have hired us. If you agree that we can probably handle your work, let’s spend our time focusing on the specifics of this relationship so that I know whether or not we can be relevant and valuable on this particular program.”
People put you through the hoops of auditioning because:
1) They feel they have to. Some part of their process makes them feel like it’s required.
2) They want to put you in your place. Like keeping you in the lobby 15 minutes extra before meeting you — this is a power play.
3) They don’t know you’re Brando. This is the place you have the greatest amount of control. Through your initial conversation and presentation, the prospect needs to understand that putting you through the hoops is a waste of their time and yours. You are the Marlon Brando of your industry!
Somehow the competitive market place has caused companies to stop swaggering. You have to get that back, otherwise, walking through that audition door is going to destroy your confidence.
You should be going through the finalist door at the first knock.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Online Will Be Up 11% in '11, Mobile To Break Billion Mark
Media Buyers To Wall Street: Online Will Be Up 11% in '11, Mobile To Break Billion Mark
By Joe Mandese
MediaPost January, 18, 2011
Online media buyers expect their budgets to expand 11% during 2011, according to a survey conducted by the equities research team at Deutsche Bank. The survey, which was conducted recently among 31 media buyers representing more than $5 billion in annual online ad spending, indicated that budgets should continue to expand at "double digits over the foreseeable future" for both paid search and display ads, and that other emerging digital media platforms such as mobile, social and group buying communities should also "ramp nicely" supporting the overall growth of digital media advertising budgets
The Deutsche team, led by lead Internet analyst Jeetil Patel, said the outlook should hold at least through 2015, and that based on the outlook it is recommending four Internet stocks to investors: Google, InterActiveCorp, comScore and MediaMind.
"As has been the theme over the past few years, online advertising would continue to grow, gaining share from traditional media," the analysts said in the report sent to investors late Monday. Noting that traditional print media appears to be "most vulnerable" from the reallocation of advertising budgets to online and digital media, the Deutsche team projected that mobile advertising would likely become a "billion dollar segment" in 2011, more than doubling its 2010 base.
"Advertisers are increasingly dedicating separate budgets for mobile, indicating that mobile ad spend is slowly moving out of the 'experimentation' phase," the analysts said.
"Online media buyers are keeping tabs on new themes within online advertising such as radio, social, mobile and group buying," they continued. "As these new business strategies flourish online, it does appear that online advertising growth would remain robust for the foreseeable future. While currently a limited number of players (ad networks and publishers) have the critical mass with these emerging ad formats, we do anticipate these categories to evolve into much bigger opportunities, likely expediting the share gains from offline ad spending. Just as important, online data analytics remains an important area of focus for media buyers in their daily online toolset
By Joe Mandese
MediaPost January, 18, 2011
Online media buyers expect their budgets to expand 11% during 2011, according to a survey conducted by the equities research team at Deutsche Bank. The survey, which was conducted recently among 31 media buyers representing more than $5 billion in annual online ad spending, indicated that budgets should continue to expand at "double digits over the foreseeable future" for both paid search and display ads, and that other emerging digital media platforms such as mobile, social and group buying communities should also "ramp nicely" supporting the overall growth of digital media advertising budgets
The Deutsche team, led by lead Internet analyst Jeetil Patel, said the outlook should hold at least through 2015, and that based on the outlook it is recommending four Internet stocks to investors: Google, InterActiveCorp, comScore and MediaMind.
"As has been the theme over the past few years, online advertising would continue to grow, gaining share from traditional media," the analysts said in the report sent to investors late Monday. Noting that traditional print media appears to be "most vulnerable" from the reallocation of advertising budgets to online and digital media, the Deutsche team projected that mobile advertising would likely become a "billion dollar segment" in 2011, more than doubling its 2010 base.
"Advertisers are increasingly dedicating separate budgets for mobile, indicating that mobile ad spend is slowly moving out of the 'experimentation' phase," the analysts said.
"Online media buyers are keeping tabs on new themes within online advertising such as radio, social, mobile and group buying," they continued. "As these new business strategies flourish online, it does appear that online advertising growth would remain robust for the foreseeable future. While currently a limited number of players (ad networks and publishers) have the critical mass with these emerging ad formats, we do anticipate these categories to evolve into much bigger opportunities, likely expediting the share gains from offline ad spending. Just as important, online data analytics remains an important area of focus for media buyers in their daily online toolset
Thursday, January 13, 2011
The Care and Feeding of Sales Managers
Sales Managers: An Improved Field Guide
By Geoffrey James | January 12, 2011
BNET
If you’re going to have a successful sales career, you’ll need to learn how to deal with various species of Sales Managers. To help you with this all important aspect of your job, I’ve collected a list of the most common varieties, along with sufficient information to identify which of the breed is currently managing your team. Here’s your field guide to the wild and wondrous world of sales management
The Engineer
• Characteristics: Started his own company and now wants some customers.
• Quote: “I built a better mousetrap, so I hired you to take the orders.”
• Pros: May offer you some founder’s stock.
• Cons: Stock will be worthless unless he gets wise about selling.
• Warning: He will never, ever, truly respect what you do.
• Care and Feeding: Expose him to some real-life customers so that he understands that selling the product isn’t all that easy.
The Volcano
• Characteristics: Explodes whenever things don’t go the way he thinks they should.
• Quote: “If you can’t make your &*$% numbers, get the *%&# out of here.”
• Pros: Might apologize later for acting like a jackass.
• Cons: Is actually a jackass.
• Warning: He will grind your ego into dust.
• Care and Feeding: Observe the inevitable signs (like a twitching eyelid) that he’s about to erupt, then excuse yourself to “make an important customer call.”
The Robot
• Characteristics: Believes that sales technology is more important than making sales.
• Quote: “If we don’t populate the database, we can’t get valid analytics!!”
• Pros: Makes beautiful slides for top management.
• Cons: Treats sales reps as faulty peripherals.
• Warning: He will constantly tinker with the compensation plan.
• Care and Feeding: Log your activity in your CRM system as briefly and quickly as possible. Turn off your cell phone and laptop if you’re taking the afternoon off.
The Addict
• Characteristics: Booze, drugs, gambling, sex… You name it, he’s doin’ it.
• Quote: “Why work hard if you’re not going to play hard?”
• Pros: Will be out of the office much of the time.
• Cons: Can get extremely cranky the morning after.
• Warning: He has his hand in the till and will need a scapegoat when it comes up short.
• Care and Feeding: Avoid as much as possible. Try to be somewhere else when then inevitable excrement hits the proverbial fan.
The Patsy
• Characteristics: Got assigned as sales manager because nobody else wanted the job.
• Quote: “I don’t know much about sales but I’ll do my best to help.”
• Pros: Won’t try to tell you how to sell.
• Cons: Has no clue whatsoever what’s going on.
• Warning: If everyone makes quota, you’ll be stuck with him forever.
• Care and Feeding: Try to convince him to take lots of sales training courses. It will keep him out of the office and - who knows? - he might actually learn something.
The Marketeer
• Characteristics: Has an MBA and therefore thinks he understands why customers buy things.
• Quote: “Marketing drives sales.”
• Pros: Knows how to secure a big budget.
• Cons: Wastes most of that budget on brochures.
• Warning: He thinks you are expendable.
• Care and Feeding: Nod your head up and down every time he talks. Throw the brochures in the trash (somewhere other than your office) and make your own sales materials that can actually help you sell something.
The Backseat Driver
• Characteristics: Used to be top rep but got promoted to manager.
• Quote: “Watch me close this deal for you.”
• Pros: Probably can close deals that you can’t.
• Cons: His arrogance quickly wears thin.
• Warning: May expect a percentage of your commission.
• Care and Feeding: Turn him into a role model. Watch carefully, then ask questions about how and why he handles customers that way. Then hide your calendar.
Our Hero
• Characteristics: Is committed to making the sales team successful, and knows how to train them to achieve this.
• Quote: “That was excellent. What do you think you could be doing better? (Listens.) Hmmm…. I think I can help you with that.”
• Pros: Rarer than diamonds in dog food.
• Cons: You’ll hate working for anyone else.
• Warning: If the hero’s manager isn’t a hero, too, she’ll probably get fired.
• Care and Feeding: Enjoy it while it lasts…
By Geoffrey James | January 12, 2011
BNET
If you’re going to have a successful sales career, you’ll need to learn how to deal with various species of Sales Managers. To help you with this all important aspect of your job, I’ve collected a list of the most common varieties, along with sufficient information to identify which of the breed is currently managing your team. Here’s your field guide to the wild and wondrous world of sales management
The Engineer
• Characteristics: Started his own company and now wants some customers.
• Quote: “I built a better mousetrap, so I hired you to take the orders.”
• Pros: May offer you some founder’s stock.
• Cons: Stock will be worthless unless he gets wise about selling.
• Warning: He will never, ever, truly respect what you do.
• Care and Feeding: Expose him to some real-life customers so that he understands that selling the product isn’t all that easy.
The Volcano
• Characteristics: Explodes whenever things don’t go the way he thinks they should.
• Quote: “If you can’t make your &*$% numbers, get the *%&# out of here.”
• Pros: Might apologize later for acting like a jackass.
• Cons: Is actually a jackass.
• Warning: He will grind your ego into dust.
• Care and Feeding: Observe the inevitable signs (like a twitching eyelid) that he’s about to erupt, then excuse yourself to “make an important customer call.”
The Robot
• Characteristics: Believes that sales technology is more important than making sales.
• Quote: “If we don’t populate the database, we can’t get valid analytics!!”
• Pros: Makes beautiful slides for top management.
• Cons: Treats sales reps as faulty peripherals.
• Warning: He will constantly tinker with the compensation plan.
• Care and Feeding: Log your activity in your CRM system as briefly and quickly as possible. Turn off your cell phone and laptop if you’re taking the afternoon off.
The Addict
• Characteristics: Booze, drugs, gambling, sex… You name it, he’s doin’ it.
• Quote: “Why work hard if you’re not going to play hard?”
• Pros: Will be out of the office much of the time.
• Cons: Can get extremely cranky the morning after.
• Warning: He has his hand in the till and will need a scapegoat when it comes up short.
• Care and Feeding: Avoid as much as possible. Try to be somewhere else when then inevitable excrement hits the proverbial fan.
The Patsy
• Characteristics: Got assigned as sales manager because nobody else wanted the job.
• Quote: “I don’t know much about sales but I’ll do my best to help.”
• Pros: Won’t try to tell you how to sell.
• Cons: Has no clue whatsoever what’s going on.
• Warning: If everyone makes quota, you’ll be stuck with him forever.
• Care and Feeding: Try to convince him to take lots of sales training courses. It will keep him out of the office and - who knows? - he might actually learn something.
The Marketeer
• Characteristics: Has an MBA and therefore thinks he understands why customers buy things.
• Quote: “Marketing drives sales.”
• Pros: Knows how to secure a big budget.
• Cons: Wastes most of that budget on brochures.
• Warning: He thinks you are expendable.
• Care and Feeding: Nod your head up and down every time he talks. Throw the brochures in the trash (somewhere other than your office) and make your own sales materials that can actually help you sell something.
The Backseat Driver
• Characteristics: Used to be top rep but got promoted to manager.
• Quote: “Watch me close this deal for you.”
• Pros: Probably can close deals that you can’t.
• Cons: His arrogance quickly wears thin.
• Warning: May expect a percentage of your commission.
• Care and Feeding: Turn him into a role model. Watch carefully, then ask questions about how and why he handles customers that way. Then hide your calendar.
Our Hero
• Characteristics: Is committed to making the sales team successful, and knows how to train them to achieve this.
• Quote: “That was excellent. What do you think you could be doing better? (Listens.) Hmmm…. I think I can help you with that.”
• Pros: Rarer than diamonds in dog food.
• Cons: You’ll hate working for anyone else.
• Warning: If the hero’s manager isn’t a hero, too, she’ll probably get fired.
• Care and Feeding: Enjoy it while it lasts…
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Top 10 Reasons Small Businesses Fail
By JAY GOLTZ
Thursday, January 6, 2011
The New York Times
One of the least understood aspects of entrepreneurship is why small businesses fail, and there’s a simple reason for the confusion: Most of the evidence comes from the entrepreneurs themselves.
I have had a close-up view of numerous business failures —
including a few start-ups of my own. And from my observation, the reasons for failure cited by the owners are frequently off point, which kind of makes sense when you think about it. If the owners really knew what they were doing wrong, they might have been able to fix the problem. Often, it’s simply a matter of denial or of not knowing what you don’t know.
In many cases, the customers — or, I should say, ex-customers — have a better understanding than the owners of what wasn’t working. The usual suspects that the owners tend to blame are the bank, the government or the idiot partner. Rarely does the owner’s finger point at the owner. Of course, there are cases where something out of the owner’s control has gone terribly wrong, but I have found those instances to be in the minority. What follows, based on my own experiences and observations, are the top 10 reasons small businesses fail.
One of the least understood aspects of entrepreneurship is why small businesses fail, and there’s a simple reason for the confusion: Most of the evidence comes from the entrepreneurs themselves.
1. The math just doesn’t work. There is not enough demand for the product or service at a price that will produce a profit for the company. This, for example, would include a start-up trying to compete against Best Buy and its economies of scale.
2. Owners who cannot get out of their own way. They may be stubborn, risk averse, conflict averse — meaning they need to be liked by everyone (even employees and vendors who can’t do their jobs). They may be perfectionist, greedy, self-righteous, paranoid, indignant or insecure. You get the idea. Sometimes, you can even tell these owners the problem, and they will recognize that you are right — but continue to make the same mistakes over and over.
3. Out-of-control growth. This one might be the saddest of all reasons for failure — a successful business that is ruined by over-expansion. This would include moving into markets that are not as profitable, experiencing growing pains that damage the business, or borrowing too much money in an attempt to keep growth at a particular rate. Sometimes less is more.
4. Poor accounting. You cannot be in control of a business if you don’t know what is going on. With bad numbers, or no numbers, a company is flying blind, and it happens all of the time. Why? For one thing, it is a common — and disastrous — misconception that an outside accounting firm hired primarily to do the taxes will keep watch over the business. In reality, that is the job of the chief financial officer, one of the many hats an entrepreneur has to wear until a real one is hired.
5. Lack of a cash cushion. If we have learned anything from this recession (I know it’s “over” but my customers don’t seem to have gotten the memo), it’s that business is cyclical and that bad things can and will happen over time — the loss of an important customer or critical employee, the arrival of a new competitor, the filing of a lawsuit. These things can all stress the finances of a company. If that company is already out of cash (and borrowing potential), it may not be able to recover.
6. Operational mediocrity. I have never met a business owner who described his or her operation as mediocre. But we can’t all be above average. Repeat and referral business is critical for most businesses, as is some degree of marketing (depending on the business).
7. Operational inefficiencies. Paying too much for rent, labor, and materials. Now more than ever, the lean companies are at an advantage. Not having the tenacity or stomach to negotiate terms that are reflective of today’s economy may leave a company uncompetitive.
8. Dysfunctional management. Lack of focus, vision, planning, standards and everything else that goes into good management. Throw fighting partners or unhappy relatives into the mix and you have a disaster.
9. The lack of a succession plan. We’re talking nepotism, power struggles, significant players being replaced by people who are in over their heads — all reasons many family businesses do not make it to the next generation.
10. A declining market. Book stores, music stores, printing businesses and many others are dealing with changes in technology, consumer demand, and competition from huge companies with more buying power and advertising dollars.
In life, you may have forgiving friends and relatives, but entrepreneurship is rarely forgiving. Eventually, everything shows up in the soup. If people don’t like the soup, employees stop working for you, and customers stop doing business with you. And that is why businesses fail.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
The New York Times
One of the least understood aspects of entrepreneurship is why small businesses fail, and there’s a simple reason for the confusion: Most of the evidence comes from the entrepreneurs themselves.
I have had a close-up view of numerous business failures —
including a few start-ups of my own. And from my observation, the reasons for failure cited by the owners are frequently off point, which kind of makes sense when you think about it. If the owners really knew what they were doing wrong, they might have been able to fix the problem. Often, it’s simply a matter of denial or of not knowing what you don’t know.
In many cases, the customers — or, I should say, ex-customers — have a better understanding than the owners of what wasn’t working. The usual suspects that the owners tend to blame are the bank, the government or the idiot partner. Rarely does the owner’s finger point at the owner. Of course, there are cases where something out of the owner’s control has gone terribly wrong, but I have found those instances to be in the minority. What follows, based on my own experiences and observations, are the top 10 reasons small businesses fail.
One of the least understood aspects of entrepreneurship is why small businesses fail, and there’s a simple reason for the confusion: Most of the evidence comes from the entrepreneurs themselves.
1. The math just doesn’t work. There is not enough demand for the product or service at a price that will produce a profit for the company. This, for example, would include a start-up trying to compete against Best Buy and its economies of scale.
2. Owners who cannot get out of their own way. They may be stubborn, risk averse, conflict averse — meaning they need to be liked by everyone (even employees and vendors who can’t do their jobs). They may be perfectionist, greedy, self-righteous, paranoid, indignant or insecure. You get the idea. Sometimes, you can even tell these owners the problem, and they will recognize that you are right — but continue to make the same mistakes over and over.
3. Out-of-control growth. This one might be the saddest of all reasons for failure — a successful business that is ruined by over-expansion. This would include moving into markets that are not as profitable, experiencing growing pains that damage the business, or borrowing too much money in an attempt to keep growth at a particular rate. Sometimes less is more.
4. Poor accounting. You cannot be in control of a business if you don’t know what is going on. With bad numbers, or no numbers, a company is flying blind, and it happens all of the time. Why? For one thing, it is a common — and disastrous — misconception that an outside accounting firm hired primarily to do the taxes will keep watch over the business. In reality, that is the job of the chief financial officer, one of the many hats an entrepreneur has to wear until a real one is hired.
5. Lack of a cash cushion. If we have learned anything from this recession (I know it’s “over” but my customers don’t seem to have gotten the memo), it’s that business is cyclical and that bad things can and will happen over time — the loss of an important customer or critical employee, the arrival of a new competitor, the filing of a lawsuit. These things can all stress the finances of a company. If that company is already out of cash (and borrowing potential), it may not be able to recover.
6. Operational mediocrity. I have never met a business owner who described his or her operation as mediocre. But we can’t all be above average. Repeat and referral business is critical for most businesses, as is some degree of marketing (depending on the business).
7. Operational inefficiencies. Paying too much for rent, labor, and materials. Now more than ever, the lean companies are at an advantage. Not having the tenacity or stomach to negotiate terms that are reflective of today’s economy may leave a company uncompetitive.
8. Dysfunctional management. Lack of focus, vision, planning, standards and everything else that goes into good management. Throw fighting partners or unhappy relatives into the mix and you have a disaster.
9. The lack of a succession plan. We’re talking nepotism, power struggles, significant players being replaced by people who are in over their heads — all reasons many family businesses do not make it to the next generation.
10. A declining market. Book stores, music stores, printing businesses and many others are dealing with changes in technology, consumer demand, and competition from huge companies with more buying power and advertising dollars.
In life, you may have forgiving friends and relatives, but entrepreneurship is rarely forgiving. Eventually, everything shows up in the soup. If people don’t like the soup, employees stop working for you, and customers stop doing business with you. And that is why businesses fail.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Getting Back into the Scheme of Things
Hi all: A big and remarkable Happy New Year. I apologize that when you all jumped on this blog from around Dec 6th til now...you didn't find anything new or exciting to read. That's because I was working with my physiotherapist in early December and making great progress repairing the nasty spine surgery which resulted in two terrible bouts of staph I got as a gift from Rose Medical Center here in Denver back in February 2010....annnd as I was walking up hill with the PT I felt a pain in between my shoulders that radiated into the front of my chest that was similar to the pain I had back in 1997 which resulted in an angioplasty. This time following a trip to the cardiologist to check on the pain I had walking up the hill he immediately scheduled an angiogram. The results was a bit shocking when the cardiologist sent me to the hospital on Dec 21 and, the next day....the 22nd, the cardiac surgeon delivered a quadruple bi-pass surgery to fix the 90% blockage I had in four of the big arteries in the heart. Sooo....now I am getting back to the blog and you'll find a coupla new things I just posted.
This year will be a great year...and good bye and good riddance to 2010!! I am getting back into the scheme of things and am quite excited to get back to healthy living...'cause i ain't finished with me yet and I have a lot to do. So take good care of yourselves this year...and enjoy life. It's worth living.
Philip Jay LeNoble, Ph.D.
This year will be a great year...and good bye and good riddance to 2010!! I am getting back into the scheme of things and am quite excited to get back to healthy living...'cause i ain't finished with me yet and I have a lot to do. So take good care of yourselves this year...and enjoy life. It's worth living.
Philip Jay LeNoble, Ph.D.
The Biggest Trends We'll be Watching this Year
by Steve Strauss for USA TODAY
January 4, 2011
OK, here we are at the start of 2011, and based on the Top 5 Trends this year, it is a year that looks to be substantially better for small business than the past two.
The Top 5
5. The rise of the mob discount: No, it is not just Groupon that I am talking about, but Groupon is a good place to start. Groupon (or Group Coupon) offers incredible deals if a certain number of people sign up for the offer. If so, they can expect to get "50 to 90% off." For the small business owner who participates, it is a double-edged sword: Yes, you can get a lot of traffic, but at what price?
Does it work? Someone is using it. Groupon recently turned down Google's $6 billion buyout offer.
But the new mob discounts go well beyond Groupon. Wal-Mart (WMT) is using Facebook to try something similar called the "CrowdSaver." On Facebook, Wal-Mart posts some potential great deal. If enough people "like" it, the deal then goes live and everyone gets the discount.
Or consider the "flash sale." By making limited-time offers available on Twitter and Facebook, businesses like Dell Outlet (DELL) and the ice cream shop down the street create immediate sales.
4. Mobile marketing creates opportunity: How do people find out that the ice cream shop is having a sale if those folks are not already Twitter followers of that business? Mobile search. The proliferation of smartphones, iPads, netbooks, and tablets means that consumers are increasingly searching for businesses on the go as much as they are while sitting at a desk.
So your small business needs to be present on mobile local search results, and you might also consider creating geographic-specific mobile search ad campaigns. The next frontier in sales is going to be mobile searches and ads that result in on-the-go purchases.
3. The New Normal: Yes, I did say that the economy was not going to dominate my list this year, and it doesn't, but I never said it wouldn't make an appearance, and here it is: The long-term fallout from the Great Recession is that work has changed, forever. Businesses are looking to do more with less, at less cost, and will continue to do so. Working smarter and cheaper is one aspect of the New Normal.
Another is that the days of full-time jobs with full-time benefits are ending. If you have one of those, count yourself lucky. Businesses will continue to cut costs by creating more part-time and independent contractor work.
The good news for small business is that more contract work will be available.
2. It's a Facebook world and we are just living in it: Evidence of the total and utter dominance of Facebook is all around us: Mark Zuckerberg is Time's Man of the Year. The Social Network is one of the top movies of the year. Facebook topped 500 million users.
It is the very ubiquity of Facebook that has changed the business game.
At a recent webinar I gave, someone asked, "Does my business have to be on Facebook?" Of course the answer is no. But Facebook is where the action is right now, so it would be dumb not to have a presence there. Whether it is having your own Fan page, or learning how to advertise on the site, or using it to grow your reach and brand, tapping the popularity of Facebook is the way to go right now.
And the top trend in small business for 2011 is.. .
1. It's Apptastic! The only thing more ubiquitous, more buzz-worthy, than Facebook is the popularity and ubiquity of smartphone apps. People are using apps every day, all day long, not only to have some fun and kill some time (death to pigs by Angry Birds I tell you, death!) but to run their businesses as well.
The smart small business will tap into this trend by both finding and using those apps that make running their business simpler and more profitable, while also offering their own apps that make buying from them faster and easier.
So what do you think? Am I on the mark with my list this year or did I miss it? Post your comment below.
And a happy 2011 all!
January 4, 2011
OK, here we are at the start of 2011, and based on the Top 5 Trends this year, it is a year that looks to be substantially better for small business than the past two.
The Top 5
5. The rise of the mob discount: No, it is not just Groupon that I am talking about, but Groupon is a good place to start. Groupon (or Group Coupon) offers incredible deals if a certain number of people sign up for the offer. If so, they can expect to get "50 to 90% off." For the small business owner who participates, it is a double-edged sword: Yes, you can get a lot of traffic, but at what price?
Does it work? Someone is using it. Groupon recently turned down Google's $6 billion buyout offer.
But the new mob discounts go well beyond Groupon. Wal-Mart (WMT) is using Facebook to try something similar called the "CrowdSaver." On Facebook, Wal-Mart posts some potential great deal. If enough people "like" it, the deal then goes live and everyone gets the discount.
Or consider the "flash sale." By making limited-time offers available on Twitter and Facebook, businesses like Dell Outlet (DELL) and the ice cream shop down the street create immediate sales.
4. Mobile marketing creates opportunity: How do people find out that the ice cream shop is having a sale if those folks are not already Twitter followers of that business? Mobile search. The proliferation of smartphones, iPads, netbooks, and tablets means that consumers are increasingly searching for businesses on the go as much as they are while sitting at a desk.
So your small business needs to be present on mobile local search results, and you might also consider creating geographic-specific mobile search ad campaigns. The next frontier in sales is going to be mobile searches and ads that result in on-the-go purchases.
3. The New Normal: Yes, I did say that the economy was not going to dominate my list this year, and it doesn't, but I never said it wouldn't make an appearance, and here it is: The long-term fallout from the Great Recession is that work has changed, forever. Businesses are looking to do more with less, at less cost, and will continue to do so. Working smarter and cheaper is one aspect of the New Normal.
Another is that the days of full-time jobs with full-time benefits are ending. If you have one of those, count yourself lucky. Businesses will continue to cut costs by creating more part-time and independent contractor work.
The good news for small business is that more contract work will be available.
2. It's a Facebook world and we are just living in it: Evidence of the total and utter dominance of Facebook is all around us: Mark Zuckerberg is Time's Man of the Year. The Social Network is one of the top movies of the year. Facebook topped 500 million users.
It is the very ubiquity of Facebook that has changed the business game.
At a recent webinar I gave, someone asked, "Does my business have to be on Facebook?" Of course the answer is no. But Facebook is where the action is right now, so it would be dumb not to have a presence there. Whether it is having your own Fan page, or learning how to advertise on the site, or using it to grow your reach and brand, tapping the popularity of Facebook is the way to go right now.
And the top trend in small business for 2011 is.. .
1. It's Apptastic! The only thing more ubiquitous, more buzz-worthy, than Facebook is the popularity and ubiquity of smartphone apps. People are using apps every day, all day long, not only to have some fun and kill some time (death to pigs by Angry Birds I tell you, death!) but to run their businesses as well.
The smart small business will tap into this trend by both finding and using those apps that make running their business simpler and more profitable, while also offering their own apps that make buying from them faster and easier.
So what do you think? Am I on the mark with my list this year or did I miss it? Post your comment below.
And a happy 2011 all!
Goodbye Empty Black Box, Hello Smart TV
by Mark Lieberman
TV Board January 3, 2011
Goodbye, black box, and thank you. You've served us well these past 25 years. But we're done playing the couch potato and watching just another pretty picture. We're ready to lean forward and define our own programming experience on a bigger, now connected, screen. Hello, Smart TV.
Earlier this year Intel introduced its new Atom-based CE 4100 System on a Chip (SoC) for PCs and TVs. Now, a few television manufacturers -- Sony, for one -- are marketing an Intel-enabled Smart TV, which will let you find and watch content and applications from any TV platform. Soon you'll be using apps on your Smart TV, so -- as Google TV has said -- the coolest thing about it is that we don't even know what the coolest thing will be yet.
But with apologies to Google, I think the coolest thing about it is this: Smart TV is shaking up the sprawling television landscape, and making manufacturers relevant again for the first time since 1986. That's when GE bought and broke up RCA, the last company to both manufacture TVs and own a network (NBC), and -- not coincidentally -- the single most innovative company in television history. (I spent some of my career working with RCA's central research center, now called the Sarnoff Corporation.)
The inventions that came out of RCA (and then Sarnoff) included television itself (although Philo Farnsworth might disagree), color television, video-on-demand, and satellite TV. The Center even helped lay the groundwork for the HDTV mounted on your living room wall right now. At the time of GE's acquisition, the dissolution of RCA made sense: Programming was in its ascendancy, and the TVs themselves had become, for the most part, dumb black boxes.
Not anymore. Now, manufacturers -- the Sonys, Samsungs, and LGs of the world -- are back in the picture, about to join the ranks of TiVo, Netflix, Hulu, Apple, and XBox in disrupting the TV programming world. After all, they've got the technology from Intel and a platform for creative application development -- with business models to follow -- to give consumers the experience they want when they want it. Consumers don't care where content comes from; they just "want their TV." With this shift comes a new opportunity to define how content is delivered, consumed, and paid for -- with advertisers yearning to know if there's an ROI for this new medium. This means that the other key players will be -- I believe -- those companies leveraging data to support the new ecosystem (and yes, I count among them my company TRA, which, it should be noted, Intel has invested in). Advertising will continue to foot most of the bill for programming, as it has for the last 50 years, and for advertisers to understand where to put their dollars in a digitally driven world -- Old TV? New TV? Other media? -- they'll need sound data. As Jack Myers wrote in a recent industry report, it's not consumers who are king, but the data about them.
So if you want to know where TV is going, follow the money -- er, I mean data. Data will drive the allocation of advertising across the platforms and devices that have overwhelmed consumers and emptied their pockets in recent years. It will define new roles for players long entrenched in the old TV game. (As Google is learning the hard way, the primary challenge is no longer posed by technology but by securing the right partnerships across the industry.) And it will raise questions about security and privacy that only certain companies -- those who understand where the marketplace is headed -- will be positioned to address.
These are some of the issues I'll explore in future posts. But if there's one thing I know, as I sign off from this first entry, it's that a new Golden Age of Television has arrived, offering consumers with the ability to interact with programming and applications in new ways, on new screens and new places. Hope you'll be here to see how it plays out.
TV Board January 3, 2011
Goodbye, black box, and thank you. You've served us well these past 25 years. But we're done playing the couch potato and watching just another pretty picture. We're ready to lean forward and define our own programming experience on a bigger, now connected, screen. Hello, Smart TV.
Earlier this year Intel introduced its new Atom-based CE 4100 System on a Chip (SoC) for PCs and TVs. Now, a few television manufacturers -- Sony, for one -- are marketing an Intel-enabled Smart TV, which will let you find and watch content and applications from any TV platform. Soon you'll be using apps on your Smart TV, so -- as Google TV has said -- the coolest thing about it is that we don't even know what the coolest thing will be yet.
But with apologies to Google, I think the coolest thing about it is this: Smart TV is shaking up the sprawling television landscape, and making manufacturers relevant again for the first time since 1986. That's when GE bought and broke up RCA, the last company to both manufacture TVs and own a network (NBC), and -- not coincidentally -- the single most innovative company in television history. (I spent some of my career working with RCA's central research center, now called the Sarnoff Corporation.)
The inventions that came out of RCA (and then Sarnoff) included television itself (although Philo Farnsworth might disagree), color television, video-on-demand, and satellite TV. The Center even helped lay the groundwork for the HDTV mounted on your living room wall right now. At the time of GE's acquisition, the dissolution of RCA made sense: Programming was in its ascendancy, and the TVs themselves had become, for the most part, dumb black boxes.
Not anymore. Now, manufacturers -- the Sonys, Samsungs, and LGs of the world -- are back in the picture, about to join the ranks of TiVo, Netflix, Hulu, Apple, and XBox in disrupting the TV programming world. After all, they've got the technology from Intel and a platform for creative application development -- with business models to follow -- to give consumers the experience they want when they want it. Consumers don't care where content comes from; they just "want their TV." With this shift comes a new opportunity to define how content is delivered, consumed, and paid for -- with advertisers yearning to know if there's an ROI for this new medium. This means that the other key players will be -- I believe -- those companies leveraging data to support the new ecosystem (and yes, I count among them my company TRA, which, it should be noted, Intel has invested in). Advertising will continue to foot most of the bill for programming, as it has for the last 50 years, and for advertisers to understand where to put their dollars in a digitally driven world -- Old TV? New TV? Other media? -- they'll need sound data. As Jack Myers wrote in a recent industry report, it's not consumers who are king, but the data about them.
So if you want to know where TV is going, follow the money -- er, I mean data. Data will drive the allocation of advertising across the platforms and devices that have overwhelmed consumers and emptied their pockets in recent years. It will define new roles for players long entrenched in the old TV game. (As Google is learning the hard way, the primary challenge is no longer posed by technology but by securing the right partnerships across the industry.) And it will raise questions about security and privacy that only certain companies -- those who understand where the marketplace is headed -- will be positioned to address.
These are some of the issues I'll explore in future posts. But if there's one thing I know, as I sign off from this first entry, it's that a new Golden Age of Television has arrived, offering consumers with the ability to interact with programming and applications in new ways, on new screens and new places. Hope you'll be here to see how it plays out.
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