Respect my time!

I have spent the better part of my professional career reaching out to prospective customers so I like to think I have a pretty good feel for what works and what does not. Back in the day (this is a relatively recent expression that has become seemingly ubiquitous but I always wonder why?) when I was a young sales guy there were secretaries, assistants and other gatekeepers. Also when I started working there were no individual computers on people’s desks. The old-fashioned letter and the telephone were the primary ways to reach a new prospect.

I heard some of the great excuses about why a prospect could not speak to me. One of the best was when I asked to speak to Mr. Smith the assistant/secretary responded ‘He’s in his office but he’s out of the office.’ Apparently Mr. Smith was a really tricky guy. I knew I needed to refine my approach and did.

Today I am the guy on the other end of the phone when someone calls looking to sell me something or get me to do something. So I respect and respond to a professional and even creative approach. Sadly those approaches are too few and far between.
I don’t have an assistant or (gasp!) a secretary. I never have. I rarely screen my calls. So while I am difficult to reach because of my travel and schedule I do pick up the phone quite regularly having no idea who is on the other end. I have an idea that many people that call me, once they go into voice mail they bail out.

A short summary on the types of cold calls I receive:
1)The young stockbroker - either they call and ask me to hold for someone else(I
hang up), or my first name is uttered and the broker goes right into his pitch(I
hang up).

2)Someone claiming to know a buyer who is buying businesses similar to mine. I simply ask them what my company does. They never seem to know (I hang up).

3)Other ‘professionals’ try to sell me some product or service. If I am not
asked if this a good time or not I give them 10 seconds, then I hang up.

I am hardly averse to be contacted by phone, email or postal or other mail. But keep in mind I may have absolutely no need or desire for your product or service. Ask me if I have a moment to speak or not – more often I will say no but that is a ticket to calling me back at some future date.

Don’t expect me to call you back after you have left me a voice mail in which you did not identify your company or what you calling about. In that instance I NEVER WILL CALL YOU BACK. EVER.

Do – send me a letter suggesting that you will contact me to discuss something you know is relevant to our business.

It’s not that hard folks – just respect the other person’s time.

A great opportunity for Tiger Woods to re-brand himself as ‘Eldrick the Fearsome’

Of course the artist who formerly was named Prince tried this and yet is currently named Prince. So it doesn’t always work. But the spectacular and amazing golf career that Mr. Woods has produced to date is the stuff of which legends are made. Tiger is so much better than his peers that fellow U.S. top ten golfer Jim Furyk was heard to say to reporters recently – ‘I wish you'd all quit pissing him off,” he said jokingly of Woods, ... and make him come back and keep proving stuff. Tiger Woods is always Tiger Woods. But what if he wasn’t called Tiger Woods anymore?

Last week he hit two great shots on the last two holes, which enabled him to come back and win the tournament. I mentioned to my wife that there’s another one for the legend that is Eldrick which is actually Tiger’s true first name. She had never heard his real first name before and noted that Eldrick sounded like a Viking or Norse name. It struck me the same. So I got to thinking – maybe Tiger Woods should become ‘Eldrick the Fearsome’. Talk about a name that aptly describes his professional persona. And his fellow professionals would not admit it but they do fear him for good reason. He kicks their butts time and again. And talk about the merchandising opportunities. There’s a Saturday morning cartoon smash hit in ‘that there’ name. Not to mention a full slate of action figures. I contend that Tiger Woods is not an exciting action figure. But ‘Eldrick the Fearsome’ comes with shields, helmets and saves impoverished villagers from the tyrannical King and his court every time. He is respected and beloved by all.

Tiger Woods is a memorable name and an argument can be made that it is known nearly to the degree that Muhammad Ali once was renowned. But I think using the name ‘Eldrick the Fearsome’ has even more potential for lasting value and would only add to his legend. Professional athletes sometimes choose unusual names in order to differentiate themselves from their peers. It seems to happen more often when their talent is unremarkable. There was a football player who changed his name to ‘He Hate Me’ when in the short lived XFL several years ago. His real name was Rod Smart. Maybe he was smart or maybe not I will let others judge that one. But I (and others) remember it.

Jimmy ‘the Greek’ Snyder had a great nickname. ‘Erik the Red’ has offered thousands of years of lasting value. A thousand years from now which name do you think has greater lasting value, Tiger Woods, or ‘Eldrick the Fearsome’? It’s no contest in my view.

What do you think?

A great opportunity

A great opportunity for Tiger Woods to re-brand himself as ‘Eldrick the Fearsome’ www.markkolier.wordpress.com

Clients and prospect

Clients and prospects are now talking about customer acquisition. Are you digging a new mine? http://htxt.it/8p7t

Advertisers are Mobile phones at last begin to give customers some value – but they still could do more

Unilever announced that they are beginning a trial run this weekend of mobile couponing for specific products like Breyers Ice Cream, Dove soap, Hellman’s Mayonnaise, and Lipton Tea. (You can read more about it at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124354778510364127.html). The test is being conducted at a ShopRite store in Hillsborough, NJ. From today’s WSJ article - ‘To get the coupons, customers must visit the Web site Samplesaint.com, from which they can transmit the Unilever discount offers to an Internet-enabled cellphone. At checkout, the cashier scans the bar code on the phone's screen, redeeming the coupon and deleting it from the phone’

Good idea on being able to get the coupon on your phone. In fact in 2009 (this exists in other countries already) your airline boarding pass will also be downloadable to your mobile device and you will have the TSA and gate agent scan the barcode displayed on your phone – good-bye paper.

But why is Unilever limiting coupon download to a non-Unilever website? Looking at how people use the internet I searched Breyers, Dove Soap, Hellman’s Mayonnaise, and Lipton Tea and a couple of the sites had an area for coupons but they were not intuitive to download (check it out for yourself). This is a test promotion so while having the portal to get the coupon on the home page is not possible I believe the test will not be representative since who will remember Samplesaint.com? This simply is not how people use the internet to get what they want and it almost seems like a branding opportunity for Samplesaint.com and not one of the noted Unilever
products.

CGSM advises our clients that one or two clicks work best when trying to create an action or response. Downloadable coupons will be the standard very soon – I suspect the Unilever test will be inconclusive mainly due to asking the consumer to work a little harder.

Do you agree?

LinkedIn is a great business search engine

By now those of you who have read some of my posts know that I have no real use for Plaxo (although I am a ‘member’) but am a regular user of LinkedIn. I have yet to become what I see a number of people are which is what I call a ‘serial networker’. Those with more than 500 contacts fit this moniker. I have over 300 and personally know and have met almost every single person in my network. This is unlike Twitter on which I have nearly 600 followers but have met under 30. More on following large groups of people on Twitter in a subsequent post.

But I really think LinkedIn provides are great tool and service for business people. Since the information is self-provided it is generally accurate if not a bit embellished. (Save for the prevaricators that are no doubt members as well but hopefully not in my network).

Whenever I am given a new contact via referral the first thing I do is type their name into the search function of LinkedIn. It does not work every time since there are still many folks who are not on LinkedIn or there are times when there are too many John Smiths to figure even if you know the geographic location. Since the information is what people provide on their own and when you do get a proper profile you get a snapshot of their location, career path, education and even a few interests. This is BEFORE you have even LinkedIn with them. And answering questions in specific areas does build your standing and reputation as a resource which has helped me and our company gain business.

But it gets better than that. Search by company can provide position locations for job searches. Industries can be investigated by category. And people with whom you have lost touch can be found (yes this is done on Facebook and other social networks as well). Of course you can get great information via Google and Yahoo but I have found LinkedIn to be faster and quite reliable.

Did I mention that Linkedin is free? They do have a revenue model for enhanced access and the ability to send messages to people with whom you would like to be in touch but have no contact. More importantly introductions via people you are connected to work out really well as there is a level of inherent trust built in.

I don’t understand why anyone would not want to be listed on LinkedIn. The days of reveling in ones anonymity are over. People can find out things about you in many other places. Just ask and read about Justice Scalia this past week. Wouldn’t want them to find out things about you from your own perspective?
Have a great holiday weekend.

Dominating Twitter -

Dominating Twitter - new blog post - http://htxt.it/yAh4