tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58218542217449141832024-03-09T21:46:01.009-05:00Consulting for SwagAn adventure in learning how to apply MBA concepts to real life with Nathan WilliamsNathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.comBlogger75125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-72193558084695958222018-01-03T07:17:00.004-05:002018-01-03T07:17:37.725-05:007 Useful Tips for Developing Your Sales and Marketing Strategy<div class="ts-fab-header" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3a4154; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
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Hi everyone, today's guest post is by Matt Goldman</h4>
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Matt Goldman is a Content Marketer/Social Media Strategist for <a href="http://www.tenfold.com/" target="_blank">Tenfold</a>. His writing has focused on social selling, marketing, as well as gamification.</div>
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<span style="color: #3a4154; font-family: roboto, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">Original article available here: <a href="https://www.tenfold.com/strategy/7-useful-tips-developing-sales-marketing-strategy">https://www.tenfold.com/strategy/7-useful-tips-developing-sales-marketing-strategy</a></span></span></div>
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7 Useful Tips for Developing Your Sales and Marketing Strategy</h2>
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At best, sales and marketing teams are acquaintances. At worst, they’re enemies. At least, that’s the situation at most organizations. While a healthy bit of sibling rivalry typically doesn’t hurt, the sales and marketing relationship often suffers from miscommunication—or a complete lack of communication—as well as occasional animosity. This is remarkable, especially considering that the two teams typically have the same goal: increasing business revenue.</div>
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There is a point in the history of sales and marketing in which it may have made sense for these teams to display more competition than camaraderie. John Wanamaker—a marketer active in the 1800s who is often called the pioneer of advertising—is quoted as saying: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”</div>
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It is easy to understand why salespeople didn’t appreciate marketing efforts in that time. There was no accountability to business results, and salespeople could find themselves wondering whether the marketing team was contributing at all to their work, even while marketers took some of the credit for business success.</div>
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Those days are over, though. With the rise of digital marketing and the advent of marketing technology, marketing accountability is at an all-time high. Furthermore, these advances have allowed marketers to take more responsibility in not just catching the attention of ideal clients, but also in nurturing them down the <a href="https://www.tenfold.com/lead-generation/grow-sales-funnel" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; text-decoration-line: none;">sales funnel</a> to ensure a perfect hand off to sales.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Explaining The Definition of Sales and Marketing: Strategic Sales and Marketing and International Marketing </span></h2>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">What is Sales?</span></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">The sales team is responsible for moving products or services to customers. They are also responsible for upselling current customers and clients. While sales teams may practice some form of outreach through <a href="https://www.tenfold.com/call-list-management/what-is-cold-calling/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; text-decoration-line: none;">cold calling</a>, they typically deal with leads that are brought to them by the marketing team. Salespeople develop relationships with these individuals, determine what their needs are, and determine the proper products and services to fill those needs.</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">What is Marketing?</span></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">The marketing team is responsible for everything from increasing brand awareness to delivering high quality leads to the sales team. From a higher level, the marketing team identifies and defines ideal customers, communicates with them on relevant online and offline platforms, and primes them for a relationship with a salesperson.</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Strategic Sales and Marketing and International Sales and Marketing</span></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">While these two teams often operate on their own, strategic sales and marketing is the ideal state. Strategic sales and marketing requires two important elements:</span></div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Working together in a separate but equal capacity that relies on great communication.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Looking to the future by highlighting trends in consumer behavior and pipeline growth as well as keeping a foot in the present by addressing customer’s needs in the day-to-day.</li>
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When it comes to international sales and marketing efforts, these elements are doubly important, given the expanded range and larger customer database.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">7 Steps for Strategic Sales and Marketing</span></h2>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Create Personas in a Joint Sales & Marketing Effort </span></li>
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Personas are generally considered the responsibility of the marketing team, and they are sometimes ignored by the sales team. Considering that each of these teams is speaking to the same ideal customers, though, this is a huge missed opportunity and an effort that should be worked on together. In the end, this work will benefit both teams.</div>
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While the marketing team may still be tasked with the work of creating these influential strategy pieces, sales should be heavily involved in the effort. Getting the input of salespeople up front, interviewing them throughout, and seeking their approval at the end will help marketers create personas that serve both teams and result in vital buy-in from salespeople.</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Make an Effort to Document the Buyers’ Journey for Each Persona </span></li>
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The buyer’s journey should be the basis of all sales and marketing efforts. Unfortunately, this step is often skipped. Even more unfortunate is the fact that sales and marketing rarely collaborate on this vital piece of strategy, despite the fact that they each are responsible for significant parts of it.</div>
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Sales and marketing leaders should work through each persona in joint sales and marketing sessions, examining how each persona becomes aware of their company, how they become a lead, and how they eventually become a sale. As the teams work through these stages, leaders should keep a list of the various needs and questions each persona will have. This process will help with the next step, which should address what assets are already available to answer these questions and to move each persona through to the next step.</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Audit Sales and Marketing Assets and Document Gaps Along the Buyer’s Journey </span></li>
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Now that both sales and marketing know what each persona’s journey to purchase looks like, it’s time to examine whether or not they have assets to speak to audience needs along each step of the process.</div>
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In this stage, both sales and marketing need to spend some time collecting everything that both the <a href="https://www.tenfold.com/sales-reporting/meaning-sales-marketing-advantages/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; text-decoration-line: none;">sales and marketing teams</a> have created, including whitepapers, infographics, interactive quizzes, e-books, case studies, assessments, email streams, and more.</div>
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Once this is compiled, marketers and salespeople should organize these content pieces along each step of the funnel identifying where they have appropriate assets, and where they are lacking.</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Establish a Content Marketing Plan Across the Buyers’ Journey </span></li>
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Content marketing is often regarded as a brand awareness tactic, and one with questionable impact on revenue. While some sing the praises of content marketing, those who are focused on quantifiable business results may not be sold on the concept.</div>
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What many don’t know, though, is that content marketing is an ideal method for connecting sales and marketing as well as building a strong strategy that will move interested buyers through the sales process.</div>
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When creating a sales and marketing content strategy, make sure to get both sales and marketing leaders in the room to discuss what audience needs they’d like to address, and how content assets can support throughout the different stages of the funnel.</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Develop a Joint Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Strategy </span></li>
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While a content marketing strategy may seem to favor the marketing team, an account-based marketing strategy will focus on the needs of the sales team. Still, these efforts should be worked on together. Marketing and sales leaders can choose to create an organic ABM strategy or to adopt a more expensive—but very effective—ABM technology solution that will allow for sales and marketing automation.</div>
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While the sales team may be more in tune with the accounts they want to target, the marketing team should be brought in at every level. This is especially true when it comes to content creation for the ABM ads or for dynamic, account-focused content on websites.</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Implement Regular Sales and Marketing Communication Efforts</span></li>
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One of the simplest steps for ensuring a great sales and marketing strategy that creates and maintains alignment of the teams is creating a regular cadence for communication. This could be as simple as a weekly email or as complex as a quarterly offsite. It’s best practice, though, to ensure that both teams are completely on the same page in terms of regular sales and marketing efforts as well as long term business goals.</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Repeat Steps 1-6 on a Quarterly or Annual Basis</span></li>
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Finally, the last step for a successful sales and marketing strategy is revisiting and refining the steps above. The work of creating successful sales and marketing strategy is never finished. Instead, sales and marketing leaders should make it a priority to track progress, evolve their tactics, and stay abreast of both industry changes as well as client and consumer behavior changes.</div>
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Whether marketers are looking to bolster their international sales and marketing or simply start taking steps towards more strategic sales and marketing efforts, the 7 useful tips above will help to create a sales and marketing strategy that drives organizational success.</div>
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What’s most important is that marketing teams and sales teams are aggressively working together with an understanding of shared goals and responsibilities. Ultimately, as the roles of sales teams and marketing teams grow closer and the lines of accountability continue to blur, it is in everyone’s best interest to start working together.</div>
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The best part is, the more sales and marketing connect on personas, buyers’ processes, strategies, and results, the more refined the efforts will become and the better business results will be. In other words—everyone wins.</div>
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Nathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-55298650289407118122017-12-20T10:00:00.000-05:002017-12-20T10:00:00.254-05:00What is the Meaning of Sales & Marketing and Their Advantages?<div class="ts-fab-header" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3a4154; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
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Hey everyone, it's Wednesday and time for a guest post! Today's guest post is by Matt Goldman.</h4>
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Matt Goldman is a Content Marketer/Social Media Strategist for <a href="http://www.tenfold.com/" target="_blank">Tenfold</a>. His writing has focused on social selling, marketing, as well as gamification.<br />
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Original article available here: https://www.tenfold.com/sales-reporting/meaning-sales-marketing-advantages/<br />
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Is having a great product the only requirement to run a successful business? For most companies, the answer is no. Why? Because generating sales requires potential customers to understand that a product exists, what it does, and why it’s better than a competitor’s offering.</div>
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The responsibility to communicate that information rests on the shoulders of the marketing and sales teams. Typically, marketing has a predominant role at the beginning of a potential sale. For example, a marketing team may develop a new radio campaign to help spread awareness about a product launch. A sales team works to finalize a deal by communicating directly with leads and addressing their concerns.</div>
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Another advantage sales and marketing teams exploit, is collaboration. Rather than operating as independent units, strong information and idea sharing between the teams can help improve results and create a seamless experience for prospective buyers.</div>
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Here’s a comprehensive overview of the meaning, responsibilities, and techniques of each segment.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Defining Sales and Marketing</span></h2>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;"><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sale" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; text-decoration-line: none;">Sales</a> include “operations and activities involved in promoting and selling goods or services.”</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;"><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/marketing" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; text-decoration-line: none;">Marketing</a> includes “the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service.”</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">These statements highlight two aspects of the sales and marketing relationship:</span></div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">The responsibilities of each group are closely linked.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Marketing has a vital role in supporting sales.</li>
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In practice, the marketing department tends to bear responsibility for raising awareness about a product and generating high-quality leads for a sales team. A “<a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/definition-marketing-qualified-lead-mql-under-100-sr" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; text-decoration-line: none;">marketing-qualified lead</a>” is a lead that meets certain criteria set forth by a marketing department. A “<a href="http://searchsalesforce.techtarget.com/definition/sales-qualified-lead-SQL" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; text-decoration-line: none;">sales-qualified lead</a>” adds to the initial stipulations set forth by marketing to help find the highest value prospects.</div>
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At times, a sales department may complain that marketing leads do not meet the standard set forth by the sales team. However, the potential for conflict also represents an opportunity for collaboration. The more effectively the two teams can share ideas, the better aligned their definitions are likely to be.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Sales and Marketing Responsibilities</span></h2>
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While sometimes grouped separately, sales and marketing functions overlap. Those businesses that recognize the critical areas of overlap may get more value out of their teams by combining efforts. After all, both sales and marketing have the same end goal: increasing sales.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Sales Responsibilities</span></div>
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Follow up. A key sales function is following up with the leads generated by a marketing department. Successful businesses usually develop a structured handoff process so that each marketing-qualified lead receives appropriate and timely follow-up from a sales team member.</div>
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Relationship building. The era of the “hard sell” <a href="http://www.wilsonrebranding.com/2017/06/08/why-the-hard-sell-doesnt-work-for-millenials/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; text-decoration-line: none;">continues to fade</a>. Modern sales focus on relationship building to help create trust between a buyer and seller. Effective salespersons can understand the needs of the buyer and develop a persuasive—but not pushy—message to help differentiate the company’s product.</div>
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Closing. Most salespersons are judged by their ability to turn leads into customers. While some may envision a face-to-face meeting and handshake as the close of a sale, many businesses also close sales online or over the phone. This can broaden the responsibilities of closing a sale to more employees.</div>
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Retention. Sales and marketing have responsibility for improving client retention. By checking in with an existing client, a sales team member can help demonstrate an interest in long-term client success, not just a one-time sale. The ongoing effort to build strong relationships can help improve retention and lead to “upsells”—additional sales beyond the initial purchase.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Marketing Responsibilities</span></div>
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Awareness. An effort to build awareness of a product or service is the first step in the sales process. A successful awareness-building effort may help a prospect recognize a brand or product name or may ensure a company makes the shortlist for purchasing consideration.</div>
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Engagement. Engagement efforts build on an initial awareness campaign to deepen a consumer’s connection to a company or product. Marketing materials aimed at engagement may be longer (e.g. a whitepaper or video) compared to a more superficial awareness piece (e.g. direct mailer or radio advertisement).</div>
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Conversion. A conversion is the critical transition of a potential customer from an anonymous person to a known lead. For marketing teams, a conversion may be the completion of a web form, the instigation of a web chat, or a phone call to a customer service line.</div>
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Retention. Even after a purchase, a marketing team can help a business grow its repeat customers. The retention function of marketing helps maintain awareness and engagement after a sale. This may include email newsletters or invitations to webinars that help a consumer get more value from a product. The retention function of marketing is especially critical for <a href="https://www.newnorth.com/customer-retention-marketing-sass-subscription-services/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; text-decoration-line: none;">subscription services</a>.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">The Role of Technology</span></h2>
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Today’s technology has a key role in sales and marketing. It also has a role in facilitating collaboration between the two business units.</div>
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A prominent example of sales and marketing technology is the <a href="https://www.tenfold.com/what-is/what-is-crm" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; text-decoration-line: none;">customer relationship management (CRM) system</a>. A CRM serves as a single resource will all client information. This information can help sales teams better understand how a customer became a lead. For instance, a CRM may contain information about the source of a lead, such as a trade show or online ad.</div>
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From a marketing perspective, a CRM can help track leads throughout the sales cycle. This information can provide valuable feedback to marketing teams about which marketing channels generate the most sales-qualified leads, actual sales, or longest client retention.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Sales and Marketing Techniques</span></h2>
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How do sales and marketing teams achieve their goals? The tactics vary based on the industry and company culture. They have also changed over time.</div>
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These are some of the <a href="https://www.inc.com/david-finkel/the-5-most-powerful-sales-techniques.html" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; text-decoration-line: none;">common sales and marketing techniques</a> that form the core of each practice.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Sales Techniques</span></div>
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Limiting the opportunity. The idea of a “limited-time offer” is common in retail, but creating a sense of scarcity is a tactic used in many industries. A limited opportunity may be limited by time (e.g. an offer good for this month only) or availability (e.g. the last pickup on the lot).</div>
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Focusing on pain points. An effective salesperson can frame the benefits of a product or service regarding the needs of a client. This means understanding the day-to-day challenges a client faces and focusing on how a product can solve those issues. An emphasis on pain points can also help build a relationship by showing a salesperson’s interest in a customer’s problem.</div>
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Making the assumptive close. <a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/sales-closing-techniques-and-why-they-work" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; text-decoration-line: none;">The assumptive close</a> is a sales technique that changes a request for a “yes” into a “no.” For instance, rather than asking, “Do you want to try this service?”, a salesperson may instead ask, “When would you like us to schedule the installation?”</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Marketing Techniques</span></div>
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Outbound marketing. <a href="http://www.wordstream.com/outbound-marketing" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; text-decoration-line: none;">Outbound marketing</a> represents traditional “push” marketing. This includes television advertisements, direct mail flyers, and cold calling. Outbound marketing tactics often are effective at generating broad awareness among a demographic. However, some modern marketing strategies question the ability of outbound marketing to develop the persuasive, personal marketing messages that build lasting company–customer relationships.</div>
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Inbound marketing. <a href="https://www.hubspot.com/inbound-marketing" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; text-decoration-line: none;">Inbound marketing</a> shifts marketing efforts from “push” to “pull.” The core idea behind inbound marketing is to draw potential customers in by creating marketing materials that help consumers. For example, an investment firm may offer a free webinar on retirement planning. Inbound marketing tends to focus first on providing a consumer with something valuable, rather than maintaining an inward focus on delivering a company message.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Technology can help sales and marketing teams:</span></h2>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Identify the most successful tactics.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Make it easier for teams to align best practices.</li>
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The analytics provided by a CRM can help identify each touchpoint throughout the marketing and sales process that is critical to a sale. That information, in turn, can provide a data-backed rationale for adjusting the techniques employed in each process.</div>
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Further, the modern CRM and supporting technologies may make it easier for sales and marketing teams to implement the techniques that work best. This could include automating the distribution of marketing materials or streamlining the handoff process between teams.</div>
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Technology such as <a href="https://www.tenfold.com/integrations" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; text-decoration-line: none;">computer telephony integration (CTI)</a> can even help teams handle “unplanned” handoffs, like when a prospect calls a customer service line instead of their dedicated sales representative. CTI integration can help manage real-time access to customer data in a CRM and route calls efficiently to the most qualified representative.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">How to Improve a Sales and Marketing Department</span></h2>
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The effort to improve a sales and marketing department is ongoing. However, it begins with an understanding of the role of each service so that a business can establish clear and reasonable goals.</div>
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From there, the development of each department depends on the identification of the right tactics, which vary based on how a business prefers to interact with its customers.</div>
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Along the way, technology can help organize the process and make it more efficient. It can also play a role in improving information sharing between the two departments, which may help each reach their shared goals of more sales and a thriving business.</div>
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Nathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-48179766220050447852017-12-19T04:25:00.005-05:002017-12-19T04:25:53.526-05:00A dramatic reading of an AI AuthorHey, did you see in the news that a predictive keyboard wrote a new <a href="http://botnik.org/content/harry-potter.html" target="_blank">Harry Potter story</a>?<br />
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Botnik.org is a community of people using technology to create new forms of art. A group of these creators developed a predictive AI keyboard, and trained the AI with the text of the Harry Potter books. The system then produced an entirely new Harry Potter chapter.<br />
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What's amazing about this is that it captures the literary structure and tone of the original Harry Potter books, but because the keyboard has no concept of what the words mean, the story as a whole often takes ridiculous turns. For example, the theme of high school romance is explored, however the AI places the villainous Death Eaters as the main actors in this scene.<br />
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As AI has been gaining in use and scope, traditional occupations are being phased out, with people being replaced by the more efficient and accurate robots. You might think that the creative professions are the one safe haven, where a computer could never compete with human intelligence, but projects like this show that AI is knocking at the door of the arts. <br />
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Personally I am hopeful for the future, but we should be mindful that there is no field who should not be planning for AI to have a seat at the table in the future.<br />
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Anyway I loved it so much I did a dramatic reading:<br />
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<iframe frameborder="no" height="450" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/users/342296734&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true" width="100%"></iframe>Nathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-82652314746089625982017-12-13T10:00:00.000-05:002017-12-13T10:00:03.931-05:006 Sales and Marketing Tips & Ideas to Grow Your Business<div class="ts-fab-header" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3a4154; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Hey everyone. Today's guest post is from Matt Goldman.
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Matt Goldman is a Content Marketer/Social Media Strategist for Tenfold. His writing has focused on social selling, marketing, as well as gamification.<br />
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The original article is available here:<br />
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<a href="https://www.tenfold.com/sales-and-marketing/6-sales-marketing-tips-ideas-grow-business">https://www.tenfold.com/sales-and-marketing/6-sales-marketing-tips-ideas-grow-business</a></div>
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To grow a business these days, one needs to understand why traditional sales and marketing strategies are failing and how to develop a <a href="https://www.tenfold.com/sales-leadership/successful-sales-marketing-alignment" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; cursor: pointer !important; text-decoration-line: none;">sales marketing strategy</a> that works.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">What is Sales Marketing?</span></h2>
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A well-crafted combination of sales and marketing is necessary for successful business growth. Sales entail the direct one-on-one interactions, those interpersonal connections that directly add revenue to the bank accounts. Telephone calls, networking, and meetings are all part of the direct sales process.</div>
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Marketing, on the other hand, involves all those actions that a business takes to reach and recruit prospects. Examples include direct mail campaigns, advertising, public relations, and television or radio commercials.</div>
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Direct sales marketing embodies all of these strategies. The number of ‘touches’ a prospect requires to convert into a sale varies, though <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-many-contacts-does-it-take-before-someone-buys-your-product-2011-7" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; cursor: pointer !important; text-decoration-line: none;">research </a>suggests anywhere between three and twelve touch points. More important than quantity, then, is following and maximizing each contact so that the time, cost, and effort put into each sale decreases.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">What Isn’t Working?</span></h2>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Some of the most tried-and-true methods of marketing still work. People still love video advertising, for instance. In fact, video accounts for 69 percent of all consumer Internet traffic, according to <a href="http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/visual-networking-index-vni/complete-white-paper-c11-481360.html" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; cursor: pointer !important; text-decoration-line: none;">Cisco Visual Networking</a>. However, many other marketing strategies are falling flat. To be sure, Sirius Decisions reports the average sales cycle has increased by 22 percent over the past five years since more decision-makers are being involved in the buying process.</span></div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">According to the 2016 DMA Response Rate Report, direct mail is expected to experience a <a href="https://www.iwco.com/blog/2017/01/20/direct-mail-response-rates-and-2016-dma-report/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; cursor: pointer !important; text-decoration-line: none;">19% decline</a> over the next 12 months;</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;"><a href="https://www.slideshare.net/ELIV8/10-practical-marketing-tips-to-grow-your-business/3-R_E_C_O_N" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; cursor: pointer !important; text-decoration-line: none;">A mere 13%</a> of people who read print publications report ever looking at the ads;</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">44% of direct mail is never opened;</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">70% to 80% of online users don’t look at online ads, preferring to focus only on organic search results;</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">86% of people ignore television commercials.</li>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Effective Sales Marketing Ideas</span></span></h2>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">As buyers become increasingly over-saturated with advertising gimmicks, it becomes even more important for business owners and marketers to devise innovative ways to <a href="https://www.tenfold.com/sales-leadership/timeless-sales-strategies" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; cursor: pointer !important; text-decoration-line: none;">target potential customers</a>. It is the role of a business owner, then, to ensure that information is delivered to prospective customers at the right time, in the right format, and on the right platforms. This is where an inbound marketing strategy becomes crucial.</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Research</span></h2>
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There’s no need to spend copious amounts of time drudging up case studies. Instead, ‘research’ refers to time spent understanding the company and its goals, understanding the industry, and understanding the customers. This is where business owners focus on attracting customers rather than seeking leads and customers.</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Clarify what the business is and ask:</li>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">What does it mean to ‘grow the business?’</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">How will someone know if they’re successful?</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">What are the long and short-term goals?</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">What is the sales process?</li>
</ul>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Check out the industry</li>
</ol>
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Whether a person has been in the industry for two, ten, or twenty years, chances are pretty high that the industry will keep on changing. As innovations come up or new expectations are established, it’s important to stay ahead of the curve. This is where industry research comes in.</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">How do other businesses fare against meeting (or exceeding) the goals?</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">What marketing strategies are other businesses in that industry doing to attract clients or customers?</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">What current events and news is impacting that industry?</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Is there a business to business marketplace a business owner can access?</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Are there any leaders that a business owner can speak to within the industry?</li>
</ul>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Figure out your customer base</li>
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Speak to the people on the ground—those who directly communicate with customers—to better understand the customer base. These are the people who can provide the most insight into what customers want. When talking to them, here are some worthwhile questions to ask:</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Which marketing tactics are most effective?</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Are customers complaining about any current strategies, such as too many emails or obnoxious ads?</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">What are the customer demographics?</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">What questions are the sales teams answering most?</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">What pain point/s does the product or service help alleviate?</li>
</ul>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Create Effective Content</span></h2>
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No longer is it sufficient to leave a website dormant while expecting customers to magically discover its presence. Instead, business owners should update its content consistently. Over <a href="https://www.onthevergewriting.com/blog/2017/6/21/poor-writing-may-cost-your-business-millions" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; cursor: pointer !important; text-decoration-line: none;">70 percent</a> of marketers say relevant content is the most effective search engine optimization (SEO) tactic, while companies that blog 16 times or more per month enjoy four times more leads than those who publish blog content less than five times a month.</div>
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The most effective content is that which focuses on helping customers reach their goals and/or solve their problems. While content on the Internet often grows stale within weeks after publication, it’s best to make sure content is as evergreen as possible so that it can retain its value for years to come.</div>
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Recognizing the importance of having an efficient, skilled copywriter either on staff or <a href="https://www.onthevergewriting.com/blog/2017/6/28/importance-of-cwriting-in-a-digital-world" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; cursor: pointer !important; text-decoration-line: none;">freelance</a> is imperative. Doing so can increase the company’s revenue substantially, double its customer retention rate, and create brand recognition.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Pay attention to SEO</span></h2>
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In the world of marketing, SEO is the latest buzzphrase—and with good reason. SEO consists of all the factors that influence search engine ranking. It is like turning on a spotlight so that customers know where to find a business. After discovering what a company’s customers are looking for (see above), it’s important to weave those keywords onto every page of the website.</div>
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To optimize a website for SEO, <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/231235" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; cursor: pointer !important; text-decoration-line: none;">Entrepreneur magazine</a> suggests that business owners:</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Create a priority list of targeted search terms that pertain to the customer base and market segment;</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Review pertinent industry sources and competitive lists to determine what keywords should be used;</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">If users frequently misspell a word, include that in the webpages as well;</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Track the site’s rankings every 30 to 45 days to ensure the keywords remain effective;</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Determine goals ahead of time and make sure they are measurable so that it’s possible to note the return on investment regularly;</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Create page titles;</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Develop new sitemaps for <a href="https://www.tenfold.com/integrations/google-apps" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; cursor: pointer !important; text-decoration-line: none;">Google</a> and Bing;</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Place strategic words and phrases throughout the content on every page;</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Continually test and measure the business’s success using objective tools to do so.</li>
</ul>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Develop Podcasts</span></h2>
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People love to receive something for nothing. In the world of marketing, the most valuable asset is knowledge. Offer this to customers through an effective use of Podcasts. <a href="https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; cursor: pointer !important; text-decoration-line: none;">Podcast </a>listening increased by 23 percent between 2015 and 2016.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Become social media savvy</span></h2>
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The effectiveness of social media marketing is contentious. While some people say it’s a complete waste of time, the numbers suggest otherwise. After all, the breadth of audience participation is unparalleled.</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">72 percent of adult Internet users utilize <a href="https://www.tenfold.com/integrations/facebook" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; cursor: pointer !important; text-decoration-line: none;">Facebook</a>;</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">During the past two years, content consumption on Facebook has increased by 57 percent;</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Instagram has 500 million active monthly users;</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;"><a href="https://www.tenfold.com/integrations/linkedin" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; cursor: pointer !important; text-decoration-line: none;">LinkedIn</a> has 450 million members, with a reported 25 percent active on a monthly basis;</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Thirty percent of U.S. millennial internet users use Snapchat regularly.</li>
</ul>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Stay in contact</span></h2>
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Depending on the product or service offered, it may be that the company is on the customer’s mind daily, such as the case with a food product, or only occasionally, as is the case with expensive beauty treatments. Regardless, it’s critical to be in the customer’s thoughts as soon as they are ready to buy. The way to do that is to maintain constant and consistent communication.</div>
<ol style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3a4154; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 300; list-style-image: none; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px auto 40px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 23px;">
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Collect the customer’s information at every opportunity;</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Craft email or text campaigns to stay in contact with prospects and previous customers;</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Be sure the business is listed in local directories and search engines.</li>
</ol>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3a4154; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 300; margin: 40px auto;">
Effective marketing means more than relying on direct mail advertising or television commercials. It has evolved into a multi-dimensional, multi-sensory process. Keep up with industry trends, as well as the new technology available to assist marketing efforts using these suggestions.</div>
</span></div>
Nathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-20838464150535704932017-12-11T03:44:00.000-05:002017-12-11T03:44:36.506-05:00Nathan's blockchain projects and pilgrimage to LondonSo as some of you may know I've been heavily involved in the blockchain / crypto world this year. I started a company called <a href="http://www.minespider.com/" target="_blank">Minespider</a> that uses blockchain tokens to track responsibly sourced metals. I started a blockchain podcast called <a href="http://www.analysisinchainspodcast.com/" target="_blank">Analysis in Chains</a> that has grown to over 1500 regular listeners. <div>
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Well last week I was invited to London because Minespider was a finalist in the <a href="http://talentunleashedawards.com/2017-emea-finalists/" target="_blank">Talent Unleashed Awards</a>. It was a fancy ceremony and dinner at the Museum of London. The prize was an all expense paid trip to Silicon Valley in the spring to meet tech companies and hang out with Steve Wozniak. </div>
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The great news is that I won! Minespider won the global prize for the Best Idea - One to Watch category. I'm very excited!</div>
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What's more is that the Talent Unleashed team has amazing connections and marketing. They introduced me to CNBC and I appeared on Squawk Box the next morning to talk a little about Minespider and the current state of bitcoin. You can check out the segment here:</div>
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<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/video/2017/12/08/newcomers-in-bitcoin-space-causing-rally-pro.html" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">https://www.cnbc.com/video/2017/12/08/newcomers-in-bitcoin-space-causing-rally-pro.html</a></div>
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All in all London was good to me. Here's a little bit more about the projects I'm working on:</div>
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Minespider</h2>
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If I had to explain blockchain in just a few sentences, it's a way of arranging data that makes it very resistant to tampering. This allows us to create unique digital items called "tokens" that can hold value. Bitcoin is a great example of this, as it holds about $200b of value right now with each Bitcoin 'token' holding nearly $15000 each. </div>
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But there are other types of value you can store using blockchain. What about certification value? </div>
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Our project is to create digital certification "tokens" for an amount of metal produced at a responsible mine. These tokens can be sold as offsets or passed up the supply chain along with shipments of minerals to demonstrate that your supply chain is responsible. Effectively we want to turn due diligence from a service to be performed into a commodity that can be purchased.</div>
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As of this writing we have just completed a scoping study for the GIZ (German International Development Agency), and one of our team has just returned from Rwanda visiting mine sites looking at how we will collect data for the system with a large mining company and a large downstream user of metal.</div>
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Analysis in Chains</h2>
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When I started this project I needed to do a lot of research on Blockchain, what technologies are out there, how they work, who the major players are, and how the crypto economies work. I also needed a way to engage the people I was meeting so I could really connect in the industry. My friend Neal and I decided to start a podcast that would serve this function.</div>
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We started in July and have consistently put out an episode twice a week for the past few months. We have just passed 40 episodes and 40,000 downloads. Our most recent episodes average around 1500 listens each. Mondays we talk about news and developments in the crypto scene and Fridays we will post either an interview with a prominent figure in the blockchain space, or an in-depth look at a crypto project. We have had some pretty high profile and interesting people on our show already including:</div>
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<li><a href="http://www.analysisinchainspodcast.com/episode20" target="_blank">Sergey Nazarov, CEO of Smartcontract.com in episode 20</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.analysisinchainspodcast.com/episode22" target="_blank">Aggelos Kiayias, Chief Scientist of IOHK in episode 22</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.analysisinchainspodcast.com/episode28" target="_blank">Bharath Rao, CEO of Leverj.io in episode 28 </a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.analysisinchainspodcast.com/episode30" target="_blank">Josh McIver and Taulant Ramabaja, founders of ULedger in episode 30</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.analysisinchainspodcast.com/episode39" target="_blank">Scott Nelson, CEO of Sweetbridge in episode 39</a></li>
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Our target listeners are somewhat familiar with the blockchain world, but new, and want to learn more about the different projects out there, how they work, and the factors that are influencing development of technology as well as the price fluctuations in the Cryptoverse. Basically we started the show for people like us, and used it as a way of focusing our learning and research. </div>
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We also started a Slack group for people to discuss all the topics we bring up in the show and even made our own crypto token, the Nutshell, that we pass out to people for listening and participating. </div>
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Take a listen and join us at <a href="http://www.analysisinchainspodcast.com/">http://www.analysisinchainspodcast.com</a></div>
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Nathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-3098412479522844982017-12-04T11:18:00.002-05:002017-12-04T11:19:52.607-05:005 Steps to Social Selling<div>
Hello everyone. Today we have a guest article from Patrick Hogan, CEO and Cofounder of <a href="http://www.tenfold.com/" target="_blank">Tenfold</a>, from Austin Texas. The original article is available at:<br />
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<b><a href="https://www.tenfold.com/social-selling/sales-marketing-social-selling" target="_blank">https://www.tenfold.com/social-selling/sales-marketing-social-selling </a></b><br />
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<i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Imagine:</i> You’re going about your full day. Suddenly, someone wants to speak with you on the phone. You’ve set up your whole day so you’d have a couple of hours all to yourself–but someone decides to interrupt you with a call. Being the nice person that you are, you take it. And it’s a sales rep.</div>
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Nobody wants to be sold to. That’s the reality salespeople have to contend with.</div>
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During the prospecting period, sales professionals take pains to understand targets to make sure leads is warmed up before making a direct pitch.</div>
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Real talk: 57%—that’s how far along the average buyer is through the buying process before even engaging with a supplier.</div>
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So, aside from your prospecting tactics, you also have to make the utmost effort to make sure you are in your customer’s radar.</div>
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Phone calls are still an invaluable tool in sales, but with the advent of the internet permeating all aspects of industry, it’s foolish not to keep up! Phone calls close sales. Phone calls happen when they call you or you’ve warmed them up!</div>
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Social selling has been garnering buzz the last few years. It is what it sounds like. Selling on social. But it’s much more than just that.</div>
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Social selling is using social networks to research about customers’ buying preferences and behavior, connecting with them, and starting the conversation–and the ultimate goal is to drive revenue.</div>
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Social media has become such a personal space for a lot of people, and sales professionals can feel a bit of wariness when it comes to connecting with prospects on these sites. However, keep in mind is that <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">buying is personal. </span>Whether they’re making a personal B2C purchase or a B2B decision, people’s decisions are personal matters.</div>
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In this connected world, you snooze you loose. Failure to keep up with the times will cost you bigtime.</div>
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Now, you ask: <a href="https://www.tenfold.com/social-selling/social-selling-programs" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; cursor: pointer !important; text-decoration-line: none;">Social selling</a> seems to be straightforward, but how does my team really begin doing it? I suppose it’s not as simple as just adding everyone on social networks and chatting them up.</div>
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You’re right. It’s not that simple. Like all processes of sales, it’s a science. But since you’re still dealing with people here, there are a lot of nuances to take into account.</div>
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We put together this 5-step approach to jumpstart your team’s social selling, ASAP!</h3>
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Step 1: Optimize your social media profiles</h2>
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If you want to engage in online activities, you must work on how you represent your company and yourself online.</div>
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A lot of companies and sales professionals fail to do this correctly. We can’t stress this enough: you have to work on your social media profiles with the same meticulousness you do with your products and pitches.</div>
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Think of it like this: Your LinkedIn profile is your main representation on that social network. All prospects, visitors, and decision-makers will see you through your profile.</div>
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Even in the B2B space, known for being drab and formal, the new age of social buyers wants personal and authentic brands. While selling by putting your products in your customers’ faces worked before, you have to make it about them now!</div>
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Yes. Talk about your customer, not about yourself.</div>
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If you’re starting out on social selling, it’s best to concentrate your efforts on one or two channels before setting off to all social media channels. The principle behind it is simple. You want to monitor everything. You want to know how your efforts are paying off. You want to know what works where and what doesn’t. For B2B sales, <a href="https://www.tenfold.com/integrations/linkedin" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; cursor: pointer !important; text-decoration-line: none;">LinkedIn</a> is still the leading social network. So much so that LinkedIn itself is now providing in-network solutions for sales people.</div>
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According to LinkedIn’s data, social selling leaders create 45% more opportunities than traditional sales. Do you want to miss out on that?</div>
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It’s important to note that while you should work on your company’s profile, individual sales professionals’ profiles are equally important.</div>
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Like the company page, individual social media profiles need to be customer-centric. How? Talk about benefits.</div>
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Use a headline that speaks about what you bring and not what you’re called. Example, if you are a sales executive for Business Solutions Inc., you write, “I help businesses with their problems through solutions”.</div>
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Write up your summary like webpage copy. What do you bring to customers? What can your products do for the customers? Apply the same principles when talking about your past work. You need to emphasize that you are a trustworthy and competent person. This adds to your authority.</div>
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Remember: No authority, no listeners, no sales.</div>
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Step 2: Research your targets.</h2>
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One of the things that sets social selling apart from social marketing is that in social selling, you are adopting a laser-like approach, whereas social marketing is about reach and casting a wide net.</div>
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If you and your team have built a rock-solid buyer persona, identifying the particular people you’re selling to on social networks shouldn’t be hard.</div>
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Identify the companies you’re prospecting and get to know the patterns of people you want to connect to. Here’s some of the information you need:</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Who are the decision makers in the organization</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Who are the ‘front-end’ people who are connected to the decision makers</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">What are the activities their company engages in</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">How connected are they, how much importance do they put on social media</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">What is their company about</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">What is their product</li>
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Having this info in your arsenal will enable you to talk to them on their own terms. This information will be your <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">communication lubricant. </span>Now, that’s something that’s terribly missing from cold-calling.</div>
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Watch your target’s patterns without making it known to them. On <a href="https://www.tenfold.com/integrations/twitter" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; cursor: pointer !important; text-decoration-line: none;">Twitter</a>, keep track of their tweets: what’s for work and what’s personal. On LinkedIn, you can save their profiles without adding them as a connection.</div>
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Step 3: Listen</h2>
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You are very excited to reach out to your prospects because you just know that they are the right fit. They need you. They will be excited once they hear your pitch. You’re sure of it.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: underline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">Well, the reality is that people want to talk more than listen.</span></span> You need to take advantage of this by offering an audience to your targets. Find out what products they use. Get to know what they think of those products.</div>
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You might know the benefits from the product brochures–but what’s priceless is the actual use cases from these customers. Once you find out what matters to them when it comes to products, you’ll communicate better and be guided better.</div>
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Step 4: Make connections. Initiate conversations.</h2>
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Social selling is about connecting on an <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">individual level.</span>To initiate these connections, though, you have to be present and visible. Broadcast yourself in such a way that appeals to your prospects.</div>
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Be the helpful commenter. Be the non-salesy sales person.</div>
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Now, you might think that all of this is sounding manipulative and creepy. Well, it’s not.</div>
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You have a product that they need. However, with how intrusive sales practices have gotten in the last few decades, people are now very wary of being sold to.</div>
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This is why you <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">have </span>to make connections.</div>
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How? It starts with building trust. Staying Alive UK’s Michael Groot said, “People buy from people they know, like, and trust.”</div>
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We go back to the first few points. You make a credible, trustworthy profile. You engage with the community. You listen to your prospects and the larger set they belong to.</div>
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Social Selling Pro-tip: Share your targets’ content.</div>
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When you’ve entered their radar, it’s time to ask for that connection on LinkedIn, or that first DM on Twitter. Here is where you have to make your initial moves toward your sale. Be honest and direct. They will know you are a sales professional. They <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">should </span>know. But if you’ve done your homework and ticked off your checklist, you shouldn’t be seen as intrusive at this point.</div>
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Step 5: Be a source of excellent content.</h2>
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Social selling is similar to content marketing in that you build authority by only sharing posts that are worthwhile to read for your audience. For your very particular readers as a social seller, it is imperative that you share and promote only the best relevant content.</div>
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Some social sellers engage in content creation on a massive level–almost like marketers. However, coordinating with your marketing department and filling them in the personas you’ve gathered about your prospects will make sure that there is synergy in the content they create and the stuff that’s available for you to share.</div>
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Social selling is the here and now</h2>
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There is no escaping social selling. Sales experts are recognizing this pressing matter, going as far as some saying that <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;">cold calling is dead. </span>We will discuss that in a coming post. Do you think social selling is ethical? Should all sales professionals engage in social selling?</div>
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In coming posts, we will talk more about this topic, including how to measure your social selling efforts, how to incorporate other sales marketing techniques under the banner of social selling, and other cutting-edge approaches to the ever-changing world of sales.</div>
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Have you started selling on social?</div>
Nathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-43584843160423561322017-12-01T06:49:00.003-05:002017-12-01T06:49:53.047-05:00Who should you not disappoint?One of the challenges many startups face is knowing who to disappoint. You will never have enough time, organization, money, or energy to manage all the opportunities that come your way. Learning who you can say "no" to, and how to do it well is an important skill to have.<br />
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Who are your supporters?</h2>
Going from an idea to a company is a lot of work. It involves meeting an immense number of people, pitching, events, design meetings, fundraising, and on and on and on. Many people will be interested in your company if you have a good base. Some will want to know more. A small group may make introductions for you, or maybe they have resources and are interested enough to schedule a meeting or ask for a pitch deck. Very few will be supporters. Supporters keep you top of mind, reach out regularly, and actively help your business. Supporters are the ones you want to make sure are appreciated at all times.<br />
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One common mistake that I am guilty of having made a number of times is letting supporters fall through the cracks. I've lost supporters for a number of reasons:<br />
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<li>I was very busy and didn't respond to a supporter's email</li>
<li>I flaked out on a meeting a supporter helped set up </li>
<li>I was a no-show at an event where I was supposed to meet a supporter</li>
<li>I made an off-colour joke and lost a supporter's respect</li>
<li>I took advantage of a supporters help but failed to communicate appreciation</li>
<li>I forgot to invite a supporter to a celebration event</li>
<li>I did not use or give feedback on helpful advice a supporter offered</li>
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Supporters are more often than not business contacts, and not necessarily friends. There's not the same depth of relationship present as with friends and family, so all it takes is one disappointment and supporters could stop returning emails.</div>
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Becoming Less Self Absorbed</h3>
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Let's face it. Startup founders are at high risk for becoming self-absorbed. We are surrounded by problems constantly, and the stress of the situation often takes up the majority of the founder's thought space. It's easy to let supporters slip through the cracks when you're overwhelmed from a full work week and demands from every side.</div>
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More often than not, slighting supporters is unintentional. But in a way that doesn't matter, because a slight communicates the truth, that the supporter is giving more than they are receiving in the relationship.</div>
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Breaking out of this pattern usually involves deliberate action. Self absorption is a side effect of the chaos of starting up, and no matter our intentions we are vulnerable to it. A few actions we can take to help offset this are:</div>
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<li>Setting regular dates in our calendar for touching base with key supporters</li>
<li>Making a supporter list in our email filters and making sure that folder is read first</li>
<li>Flagging which events are key due to supporter presence</li>
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How to reward supporters</h2>
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Business relationships are more transactional than friendships. This doesn't mean that people will only help you if they get help in return, but rather that there are fewer external ties to maintaining a business relationship that isn't delivering. There are a number of ways you can deliberately deliver value to your supporters:</div>
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Acting on their advice or help</h3>
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If someone's advice is good advice, you need to act on it. If you have an advisor with experience and a network helping you, one of the best things you can do is take their advice, thank them, and follow up with the leads they give you in a prompt timeframe. This seems basic but is important to communicating that their help is valued.</div>
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Being publicly recognized for support</h3>
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Not everyone wants their support to be known publicly, but if you have supporters who put in extra effort, time, and resources to make projects happen, publicly acknowledging that goes a long way. None of us succeed on our own, and this should not be overlooked.</div>
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<br />Material rewards for supporters</h3>
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Celebration dinners for volunteers, little gifts for board members, discounts for early customers. Supporters should be rewarded. </div>
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One aspect that can be overlooked is if you have investors or key customers who have put money in your cause, offer to buy lunch. They may have given you funding, and may have an expense account on which they can charge everything, but offer anyway. I once fell into this dynamic with one of my financial supporters. He was the hand that feeds, and I wasn't at a stage where there was a return. But the amount of appreciation I got when one day I picked up coffee for both of us reminded me that the giver in a relationship can easily feel taken for granted. Don't let that happen.</div>
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<br />Supporting them back</h3>
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Keep a short list of supporters top of mind. Know what projects they are working on and what could help them, and actively look for ways to help them succeed. Be the first to buy their book, attend their event, pass them a job or sales lead, and give their new project a shoutout on twitter. </div>
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What prompted this</h2>
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The event that prompted this post was that today I got a message from someone who has been incredibly supportive asking why I didn't respond to his emails. When I checked I saw that he had sent 3 emails over a month ago inviting me to pitch at an overseas event, offering to pay for my travel to make it easier. The subject line of the email was the name and date of the event, so I hadn't realized it was a personal email and had filed it in my "events" folder to look at later. With a friend, this type of incident is easily patched up, but with supporters, even a misunderstanding can signal that the supporter's help is not valued. </div>
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In the end</h2>
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You're going to disappoint people. There are too many people in your circles with too many demands and needs. Trying to make everyone happy is a fool's errand. Instead, take the time, make a list of key supporters, the people you can count on, and the people who actively look for ways to help you. Keep these people happy.</div>
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Nathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-53873058735988487972017-11-20T03:58:00.001-05:002017-11-20T03:58:26.112-05:00Getting the B2C Sales Process RightGood morning everyone! Today I am sharing a guest post by Dan Sincavage from <a href="http://www.tenfold.com/" target="_blank">Tenfold</a> in Austin, Texas.<br />
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<b>Dan is a Co-Founder of Tenfold and currently serves as the Chief Strategy Officer. Dan oversees the Tenfold sales organization, manages strategic partner relationships and works with key enterprise accounts to ensure their success with the Tenfold platform.</b><br />
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I have written a number of articles about the B2B sales process, but it's nice to hear from people who have experience in B2C, which is a completely different sales cycle. <br />
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The original article is available on the Tenfold website:<br />
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<a href="https://www.tenfold.com/sales-leadership/b2c-sales-process/">https://www.tenfold.com/sales-leadership/b2c-sales-process/</a><br />
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Getting the B2C Sales Process Right</h2>
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<span style="color: #3a4154; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">The business-to-customer or <a href="https://www.tenfold.com/what-is/what-is-b2c" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; cursor: pointer !important; text-decoration-line: none;">B2C sales cycle</a> has always been viewed by industry experts as something of a mystery. In fact, a search on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; cursor: pointer !important; text-decoration-line: none;">Amazon.com</a> or a stroll through the local bookstore will reveal volumes of material written about the process that consumers undergo before making a purchase.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3a4154; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">There seem to be two main schools of thought on the subject. While some advocates believe consumer purchases are driven by a specific need, others argue that sales are driven by psychology.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3a4154; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Understanding the fundamentals of these two theories can help businesses reap the rewards that come with B2C sales. Let’s start with need-driven sales.</span></div>
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Needs-Based B2C Retail Sales</h2>
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<span style="color: #3a4154; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">All consumers have needs, and all businesses cater to needs—<a href="https://www.tenfold.com/6-major-differences-between-b2c-vs-b2b-sales-strategies" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; cursor: pointer !important; text-decoration-line: none;">whether it’s B2B or B2C</a>. The needs-based sales cycle suggests that B2C retail sales begin with an issue the consumer needs to have addressed and then identifies a product that satisfies that need. From there, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buyer_decision_process" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; cursor: pointer !important; text-decoration-line: none;">the five stages of the buyer decision process</a> suggest that the consumer will research the product to make sure it will deliver. This stage involves reading reviews and gathering ‘social proof’ that purchasing that specific product is a ‘smart’ move. Once the consumer has gained confidence in the product, alternatives may be evaluated as reassurance that there isn’t a better alternative. In the fourth stage—once the evaluation process has been completed—the purchase decision is made. The final stage is known as ‘post-purchase behavior’, which includes possible regret or entertaining thoughts that an alternative might have been the better option.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3a4154; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Under this model, selling to consumers involves:</span></div>
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1) Positioning a product so that consumers can easily locate it when a need arises (e.g. windshield wipers at a service station, coffee house in an office building);</div>
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2) Feeding appropriate information to help with making a favorable purchase decision, and</div>
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3) Vigorous customer support to address post-purchase doubts.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600 !important;"><br /></span></div>
<h2>
<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Phychology-Based B2C Sales Cycle</span></h2>
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The other popular view relies on human nature as the reason consumers make any purchases at all. While psychology plays a role in the needs-based B2C sales process (validation and post-purchase stages), the fundamental belief is that <a href="http://www.hadeninteractive.com/sex-fear-greed/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; cursor: pointer !important; text-decoration-line: none;">three key emotions drive all purchase decisions</a>.</div>
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Those emotions are:</div>
<ul style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3a4154; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; list-style-image: none; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px auto 40px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 23px;">
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Ego – consumers make purchases to feel better about themselves, a long-held belief by lifestyle-product advertisers and marketers. Businesses selling on ego will appeal to a consumer’s sense of self, applauding the purchase decision as a smart and/or popular one;</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Fear – consumers make purchases to alleviate a real or, more often, perceived fear. Businesses selling on fear will appeal to a consumer’s doubts and uncertainties and highlight how their product will keep them safe and/or eliminate the fear altogether, and</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 5px;">Greed – consumers make purchases for selfish reasons that will advance their own interests. Businesses selling on greed will demonstrate how their product delivers more than other products the consumer’s neighbors, family, friends, and colleagues may have purchased.</li>
</ul>
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It’s important to understand that businesses cannot appeal to all three of these emotions at the same time. This underscores the importance of understanding the product being sold, and which emotion it homes in on.</div>
<h2>
Caveat About Selling to Individual Consumers</h2>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3a4154; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 40px auto;">
Well-respected and bestselling books like <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Buy-Science-Shopping-ebook/dp/B001QA4SY2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1492127852&sr=8-1&keywords=why+we+buy" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; cursor: pointer !important; text-decoration-line: none;">Why We Buy</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Decisive-Make-Better-Choices-Life-ebook/dp/B00A1N5XQC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1492122344&sr=8-1&keywords=decisive+how+to+make+better+choices+in+life+and+work" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; cursor: pointer !important; text-decoration-line: none;">Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work</a> demonstrate that no single theory can adequately dissect the B2C sales process. For businesses wanting to achieve success in the B2C arena, it’s vital to understand their product offering as well as their differentiating factor. In particular, what emotion does their product appeal to the most? How do the<a href="https://www.tenfold.com/integrations" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a1e0; cursor: pointer !important; text-decoration-line: none;"> business and its products</a> differentiate themselves from competitors?</div>
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Once the business understands both itself and its product line, it’s important to align the brand with the most effective stages of the purchase decision cycle while reinforcing the emotion-based rationale for making the right purchasing decision.</div>
</span>Nathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-8424322544131441082017-11-16T04:50:00.002-05:002017-11-16T04:50:48.030-05:00Do you have a budget?<h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 18pt;">
The issue</h2>
<div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 18pt;">
There are two mistakes young entrepreneurs make when being asked to speak at conferences, events, panel discussions, and company workshops: Asking for money, and not asking for money.</div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-b8dcc240-c43b-2040-b71f-8db123e9ff8a" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For a new entrepreneur, exposure is extremely important, and getting noticed by the startup community and the corporate bigwigs is encouraging. In startup hotspots, once you start speaking at events, other invitations quickly follow if you’re a decent speaker with a good story, and it can easily drain your time. In the early days of Subvise, my first startup, I would go to speaking events as an invited guest once a month or more, often travelling at my own expense, because I believed it would help me be noticed among potential customers. It did, but it was hard on the budget in the early days, and took a lot of time away from other work I could be doing.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eventually after friends commented on this, I started asking if there was any funds available to pay for the trip. Sometimes the answer was no, and I’d go anyway if I deemed the exposure worth it, but sometimes it was yes. A couple hundred Euros for a flight makes a big difference to a startup whereas it might not matter at all to the organization who invited me.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the other hand</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have known a number of entrepreneurs who have missed out on opportunities by only speaking when there was both a stipend and money for travel expenses available. Organizers of events who want to get new startups will not usually ask a founder a second time, if they refuse the first time because there was no budget.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That’s why it’s always important to know how to ask. When you’re speaking at a conference it is exposure to you, but you are also the product that is being sold to the people buying tickets. The question you need to answer is how well known are you? How many tickets can you sell? </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you are a very well known speaker, you can probably afford to only speak at events where there is a stipend. But if you’re reading this article, that’s probably not you. If you’re starting out, the reason they want you at the event is because you’re a member of a group. A young entrepreneur. An early stage founder. A founder who raised money. A female entrepreneur. A European entrepreneur. A refugee entrepreneur. A founder in a rather uncommon niche. Your name isn’t what draws interest, it’s your membership in that group.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some groups are much more in demand than others. If you’re part of an in-demand group, it makes it a lot easier to get funds for their speaking engagements, so don’t be shy to ask. However, until your name and company are well recognized on their own, you should still try to be flexible. The goal is to build reputation for your name and company, and speaking as a member of an in-demand niche group is a pathway to do that, not the other way around.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How to ask for money</span></h2>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I felt very awkward asking for money when invited to speak. It always felt like getting a gift and asking if there was anything else also. I didn’t want to look demanding, and if I asked then backed down I didn’t want to sound wishy-washy. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Certain phrases are more diplomatic:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Is there a budget for speakers? </span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Can you help me with travel expenses?</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are speakers responsible for their own costs?</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m very interested, but I’m going to lose a day of work. Are there any stipends available to help me offset that?</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Framing the issue as a problem they can help solve can help you feel comfortable with asking.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Travelling for companies</span></h2>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you’re meeting with companies who will be your customers, you might think you have to pay for everything. But it doesn’t hurt to ask. Perhaps your potential customers have a budget for a small workshop or training. If they think of you as a small business they probably wouldn’t give you money to travel to them and make a sales pitch, but if they see you as an innovative startup with a new technology, they might provide travel money to consult on their problem and see how your technology might help them. It’s the same situation, but framed slightly differently. It doesn’t hurt to ask.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The decision</span></h2>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lastly when making the final decision, think of your ROI. If you’re travelling overnight on a plane to speak an event for free, you might spend at minimum 500 EUR plus 2 days is 700 EUR. Do you have the potential to make that back with the contacts and exposure you get? If 200 EUR is covered by the host, then you need to make 500 EUR to even out. Your time and money are limited so don’t be afraid to turn down a gig if the return just isn’t going to be there.</span></div>
Nathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-41578369541971383032017-11-02T09:44:00.003-04:002017-11-02T09:44:24.091-04:00Guest Post - 5 Marketing Automation Trends to Watch Out For<div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Today we have a guest post from Brooke Harper, a sales consultant at <a href="http://www.tenfold.com/" target="_blank">Tenfold</a> in Austin, Texas</span><br />
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<br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<b>Brooke Harper is a seasoned writer and sales consultant, and has written hundreds of articles and white papers covering all aspects of B2B sales, phone marketing, and advanced sales strategy. Brooke is one of the top writers on Quora in B2B and her answers get over 100K views a month, and growing.</b><br />
<b><br /></b></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: underline;">https://www.quora.com/profile/</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; font-weight: bold;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: underline;">Brooke-Harper-8</span><hr />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<h2>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5 Marketing Automation Trends to Watch Out For</span></h2>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Once upon a time, the entire idea of automation was associated with manufacturing and other factory work. Machines were designed to carry out simple, repetitive tasks—typically one machine per each specialized part of the manufacturing process, such as attaching a particular fastener or filling a container. But as always, technology advanced, and algorithms were developed that could automate much more complex tasks, such as certain elements of the sales funnel. Marketing automation uses tools like predictive analysis, artificial intelligence, and good old-fashioned algorithms and “if/then” programming to create an efficient, powerful system that streamlines your marketing efforts. As marketing automation continues to grow, these are the trends to keep an eye on:</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<h3>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Increased Adoption and Integration</span></h3>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As the potential benefits to marketing automation continue to grow, you can expect to see more and more companies not only embracing the technology, but using more of its features to get the most out of it. This technology is still new and in the early adopter stage, but that won’t last for long. Soon automation could very well be the norm, and cross-platform integration will make it easier to implement than ever, unifying your CRM and other tools used in your marketing efforts to work in concert with each other.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<h3>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Smarter, More Realistic Chatbots</span></h3>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We’ve already seen a few of the big tech giants employ</span><a href="https://lab.getapp.com/artificial-intelligence-chat-bots-future-marketing/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">automated chatbots</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">—programs which use AI to interpret customer comments and questions and formulate responses intended not only to be helpful but to simulate how a real person would respond (while remaining professional and courteous, of course). The programming language that goes into these bots becomes increasingly complex and nuanced every day, making them more lifelike and more useful. Soon, they could become the norm in customer service.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<h3>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Automated Emails Will Become More Dynamic</span></h3>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Outbound email marketing is not a one-size-fits-all business strategy, but taking the time to personalize each email for the lead or customer reading it is incredibly time-consuming. That’s why email marketing has already been using automation for a while, even before other areas of automation caught on. Now, with predictive analytics, you can create highly-personalized emails that are delivered at strategic times to take advantage of promising opportunities, all via</span><a href="https://www.tenfold.com/integrations/infusionsoft" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">marketing automation</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
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<h3>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Data Collection</span></h3>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Using predictive analytics and marketing automation</span><a href="https://www.smstudy.com/article/importance-of-data-collection-in-marketing-research" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is only as potent as the data you provide</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">—but soon, you likely won’t have to worry about that much. Data sets such as customer behavior, conversion rates, click-through rates, and other key performance indicators and data which can help fine-tune your automation can be collected by that very same automation system. The growth of AI, and machine learning in particular, could result in systems which learn and grow to meet needs based on the available data.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<h3>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Smarter Users</span></h3>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This goes hand-in-hand with seeing an increase in the adoption and integration of automated marketing solutions. There’s no getting around one basic truth: a tool is only as effective as the one who uses it. Automation can streamline your work, but it can’t make up for a human who doesn’t know how to properly implement it. Fortunately, as more companies begin to adopt this technology and make use of it, there will be a rise in overall user knowledge and in staff who specialize in being automation experts. By knowing the ins and outs of these systems, they’ll be able to leverage the features to produce real, tangible results and make the most out of this increasingly popular technology.</span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-4d954ec0-7cf3-f3ca-99ad-7754cafc6564"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One thing is for certain: marketing automation is here to stay, and with the potential benefits it offers, it will only continue to grow in popularity as time goes on. As both the users and the technology itself become smarter, that potential only grows more and more potent, creating new horizons and better, more efficient solutions to common problems that businesses face.</span></div>
Nathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-77552814471509743862016-07-05T06:07:00.000-04:002016-07-05T06:36:44.505-04:00<div class="md RESDialogContents">
<br />
I've seen a number of people talking online about what can be done to prevent young Muslims from radicalizing and joining ISIS. There are lots of calls for moderate Muslims to do something. I was thinking about this and wanted to throw my 2 cents in on the matter.<br />
<br />
In any religion, the moderates are not well equipped to do something about the extreme elements, because they are moderates. The name... moderate. Mediocre. To a radical, calling someone a moderate Muslim is like saying they are "sorta Muslim". It's hard for moderates to do anything to counter extremists if they are seen as bland, compromising, or sellouts.<br />
<br />
The young people who are
radicalizing are uninspired by the life they've been offered and want
something bigger. They want their life to play out like the adventure -
fight the bad guys, be part of a cause bigger than themselves, die for
the cause. It's the same basic reason people join radical christian
churches, or become radical social justice warriors, or any other extreme movement. <br />
<br />
Think about it this way - If you are a young pup looking to prove
yourself to the world, do you want to be a moderate or an extreme?<br />
<br />
Many young people, especially young men need to feel part of something
bigger than themselves. These guys will be dissatisfied with moderate religion, seeing it as lip-service that doesn't mean anything. They think, "Hey I'm just living a normal life but doesn't the book say something about an epic struggle?" Then someone comes along saying "you're right. The majority of the religion is just pretending. We're the real deal. Come be part of the epic struggle" and boom, they are hooked. It happens to Christians, and it happens to Muslims too.<br />
<br />
You might ask, why don't radical Christian groups kidnap and shoot civilians, at least not as frequently as Muslims, if they have the same basic mechanism to radicalize? The main answer is the values of the group. If the group values self-sacrifice, and evangelism, etc. then the extremists ring your doorbell and ask you awkwardly to come to a prayer meeting. If the group values fighting the world the extremists join ISIS.<br />
<br />
To tackle this, there needs to be a positive extremist movement. The cause needs to include a real personal struggle as well that not
everyone would sign up for so that you're reaching the right people. It has to do with instilling a value that supersedes
personal comfort. <br />
<br />
Here's what won't be enough:<br />
<ul>
<li>Muslim boy scouts. Hey it's a great initiative, the beginning of a longer-term solution, and it lays the foundation for belonging and helping. But it's aimed at kids, and not extreme.</li>
<li>Interfaith Dialogues. The people who attend these are not the target audience.</li>
<li>Muslim clubs promoting positive things. Again, the people who attend these are not the target audience. </li>
<li>More education, poverty reduction etc. Another longer-term solution that will help but doesn't fix the recruiting now.</li>
</ul>
We find most extremists intrusive and bothersome. We don't want to talk to the person who insists that we're murderers for eating a hamburger. We don't want to answer when the Jehovah's Witnesses knock on the door. It's intrusive, we just want to be left alone and not forced to care about someone else's fight. Truth be told, we don't want them to be extreme. <br />
Well, as uncomfortable as it is, if you want to stop people from joining ISIS, you need a different version of Islamic extremism to exist, to take away the recruiting power and appeal of the group. You need a group of Muslims doing something just as extreme but in a positive framework, seeing it as part of a bigger story. To be successful it should have the following qualities:<br />
<ul>
<li>it has to inspire people</li>
<li>it has to be difficult</li>
<li>it has to expect and strive toward a grand goal</li>
<li>it has to start from within the Muslim community. </li>
<li>it has to offer a legitimate interpretation of Muslim scripture that is both extreme, and has positive outcomes. This is probably the hardest part.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
No one is going to get rid of
this deep-seated need for radical action in the population, especially in the youth. But the point is that it can be channeled into positive avenues.<br />
<br /></div>
Nathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-79809823611576262282016-06-11T04:32:00.002-04:002016-06-11T04:33:39.643-04:00The process of making a commercial website<h2>
<b>Making a satire website</b></h2>
<b> </b>It's been a while. Hi everyone! I want to write a little bit about what I've been up to recently. A way of organizing my thoughts, and maybe you will enjoy sharing the journey and what I've learned.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Background </h3>
Last year I wanted to get back into some form of dev project, so I taught myself twitter bootstrap. I had a running gag with my parents that I was going to send them to the worst old folks home imaginable, so I made the website about that. It was called <a href="http://www.thornymeadows.com/">Thorny Meadows</a>. Check it out, yo!<br />
<br />
It was fun making content for the site, and I did it in my off hours, took about two weeks to get through, because I was learning as I went. What I used to make the site:<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://www.getbootstrap.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bootstrap</a></b><br />
For those of you who don't know, making a responsive page is hard. If it looks good on a PC it won't necessarily look good on a tablet or a mobile phone because the screens are different sizes. So you used to have to measure the screen, and lay it out and test for each<b> </b>different device you wanted to prep your site for, or risk your site looking like garbage.<br />
<br />
So Twitter comes along and says "let's make a framework to make it easier". Basically you lay your webpage out using a grid, and can specify the number of rows and columns that will appear on a small, medium, or large sized screen, and the framework makes the adjustments for you, so you only have to do the layout once. Saves a lot of time, which is why I wanted to learn it.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://www.pixabay.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pixabay</a>. </b><br />
<br />
I was doing a dev project, not a content project, so I didn't want to go out and take my own pictures. This site is good because most photos are under the CC0 license, which means you can use them for commercial purposes. Even though this was fun, I thought that maybe I'd throw t-shirts on there at some point and so I'd better make sure my licensing of photos was in order. As an aside, my first idea for a splash image at the top was this:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOEKSqU_7VYJa1rMl-Do0K2OedRC1zGs_9xgjFdbiu1mrLD_ZnnwCyX0UtkQgOQVd92icegB5OunDKWQW08uQZHhqIZaCn2fMcpNT7QRShnEs3id27gPnou91RNJccGARcxsJQvTHoEw7k/s1600/ThornyMeadowsHeader.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="104" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOEKSqU_7VYJa1rMl-Do0K2OedRC1zGs_9xgjFdbiu1mrLD_ZnnwCyX0UtkQgOQVd92icegB5OunDKWQW08uQZHhqIZaCn2fMcpNT7QRShnEs3id27gPnou91RNJccGARcxsJQvTHoEw7k/s320/ThornyMeadowsHeader.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<ul>
</ul>
It was a great photo to get the idea across of a dark and dangerous place, but then I didn't realize it was a stock photo of Auschwitz. Yeah, no. No no no.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.gimp.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gimp</a><br />
Photoshop is generally better but I'm cheap.<br />
<br />
PHP script to collect emails<br />
OK so I threw this together, made it funny, and then at the bottom did a mockup of a t-shirt and said "if you want one, leave your email and I'll let you know when they're available". If you don't do webpages yet, this is actually not a trivial thing to do. The way a webpage works is that the server sends instructions to your web browser, and your web browser then follows the instructions to lay out a webpage. If you want to collect emails on the server, you can't just put a form in a web page, because then any information the user enters stays on the web browser. There has to be a code that runs on the server itself. So I had to make that. Not too complicated, but another thing to learn.<br />
<h3>
The Traffic Spike</h3>
My page sat dormant for about a year, I didn't do much with it, and had other work to do. Then one day I was on Reddit and someone had made a comment that they were going to put their parents in the worst old folks home. So I just replied with the link to thorny meadows. From that I got 11000 site visits, and 20 people giving their email address to be notified when there would be t-shirts. I figured now was a good time for the next step - adding a store!<br />
<br />
<h3>
Ugh so many things</h3>
Adding a store is a bit like cutting the head off a hydra. You finish one thing and there are 5 more to do. It only took a few days, but there was a lot to learn. Here were the steps:<br />
<a href="http://www.shopify.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><br /></a>
<a href="http://www.shopify.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">1. Sign up to Shopify</a><br />
Easiest way to set up a web store I think. I had heard about it before and they had training videos. So I made an account, added my information.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.theprintful.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">2. Install Printful</a><br />
OK so I don't have any shirts to sell, I don't have a warehouse, my site's in English and I'm not even in the US, so when someone orders a shirt, how do I handle it? I needed a fulfilment service, so I went with Printful. It seems expensive, but it was available and I didn't want to hem and haw. Also it plugs in to Shopify. I selected shirts, upload your logos, select colours, and it does the mockups, pumps them into shopify for me, and that makes life a bit easier.<br />
<br />
3. Redo all my logos <br />
All my logos sucked. they were small for the web but that would not look good on a shirt. I don't have the traffic to justify a designer, I just wanted to get a couple of logos up there. Took a few hours to redo them and get the mockups and print files uploaded.<br />
<br />
4. Sign up for, and connect payment system. <br />
I used stripe because I know some people there. The good part is you can do it right in Shopify.<br />
<br />
5. Set up shipping options<br />
Frig. This was annoying. So shopify lets you charge shipping by amount ordered or by weight. Printful charges shipping by item, and it is different per item. First T-shirt is X, every additional is $1. Or whatever. So to get around this, there's a trick. You charge by weight and write in fake weights. So like you tell shopify each shirt is .5kg, and then you make rules that say shipments up to .5kg to the USA are X price. Up to 1kg are $ X+1. Up to 1.5 kg are $X+2, and so on. Then go edit the weights so that all the shirts weigh .5kg. I had 3 shirts * 7 colours * 5 sizes = 105 pages to edit plus all the rules to make for each country. Took a while. Also it only works if all the items on your store are the same shipping price and weight. So I had the idea of putting mugs also but if someone ordered 2 mugs I'd lose money. So I just gave up.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mailchimp.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">6. Mailing list</a><br />
Gotta write those people who wrote me. Also set up a system so they can unsubscribe, as well as have a page for new people to sign up. And while you're setting up mailchimp, styling your emails, making your signup page, and all that, you have to do social media<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><br /></a>
7. <a href="http://www.facebook.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Facebook </a>and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">twitter</a><br />
I want to include these links in the mailing, so best set up the accounts now.<br />
<br />
8. Lay out the shop.<br />
After spending all that time getting the other services ready, I go back to the shopify site, and select which items go where, upload a landing photo, write some text in the "about us" page and so on. <br />
<br />
9. Update the URL<br />
My web host for thornymeadows.com is 1and1. So I had to login and make a subdomain for the store, because the store is on shopify, it's a different server. So I chose store.thornymeadows.com. pointed it at the shopify site.<br />
<br />
10. Almost there. Everything's working and tested, time to connect the dots.<br />
This part was pretty easy. I had to edit the thornymeadows page and add a "store" button, and replace the email signup at the bottom with a link that says "take me to the store".<br />
<br />
<h2>
Conclusion</h2>
It was a lot of work but I learned a lot and it would probably go a lot faster in the future. In the end the traffic trailed off after the initial spike and nobody who signed up went to my store when I mailed them. Oh well.<br />
<br />
The next step I think will be seeing if I can even drive traffic to the store. I have some ideas for making new content, and if I update it regularly, maybe people will find it interesting. I'm still getting about 40-50 hits per day, so it might be just a matter of keeping the content fresh. I'll keep you posted!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Nathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-454015228718196352015-07-21T03:02:00.001-04:002015-07-24T05:30:47.024-04:00How to move to GermanyMoving overseas was one of the most difficult things I've ever done. I was in a new culture, speaking a new language, and had to find work, a home, get a visa, and start a whole new life. Best thing I ever did, but very hard.<br />
<br />
So if you are considering moving to Germany, here's a quickstart guide for you!<br />
<br />
<h3>
10 easy steps to move to Germany</h3>
<ol>
<li>
<b> Before leaving find place to stay that isn't a scam.</b> We found
someone who was going to australia for a month through craigslist. It
was probably the only place on craigslist that wasn't a scam and you
could tell because the rent was reasonable instead of insanely cheap.
Also they asked for money when we got there instead of via western union
or to their lawyer. Also they didn't call me sir and say they were
pastors in Uganda and end the email with God Bless.</li>
<li><b>Make your travel arrangements.</b> Try to arrive not in Februrary. I did, and it was grey for a month and I got a cold.</li>
<li><b>Anmeld</b>. Go to the town hall with a copy of your lease. If you are in a WG (what German's call living with a roommate) skip this step.</li>
<li><b>Get a bank account</b>. Most banks you need a job to get an account,
but the Berliner Sparkasse takes anyone. The catch was that they wanted
an appointment. Friggin' guy took 15 minutes to make an appointment
for me for next week... with himself... and then the following week took
15 minutes to set up the account. Oh germany. Take the form they give
you as proof of anmelding. (anmeldungsbestätigung). If you don't have
one because you're in a WG or temporary place, take a copy of your
lease. If you don't have one, take a copy of your friend's lease and
tell them that you're staying there. If they don't have one, take a
copy of the craigslist ad that you found the place on. But then, it's
the sparkasse they probably wont give you a hard time.</li>
<li><b>Get a Schufa.</b> It's a racket but you got no choice. I mean,
unless you're happy with a WG. If you want your own place you need a
credit check from SCHUFA and so you pay 20 bucks to get a membership for
them to look you up and say "Oh we have no data on you because you just
moved here". Then you get a print out of that statement and show it to
landlords when looking for your own permanent apartment. THen you
cancel the subscription because who wants a recurring subscription to a
credit checking service?</li>
<li><b><a class="imgScanned" data-embed="//www.youtube.com/embed/nbGthv-dJp4?enablejsapi=1&enablecastapi=1&start=0&autoplay=1" data-pause="{"event":"command","func":"pauseVideo","args":""}" data-play="{"event":"command","func":"playVideo","args":""}" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbGthv-dJp4" name="img3" rel="nofollow" type="IFRAME">Get a job (sha na na na)</a>.</b> Get your employer to write a letter saying that you have a job and it
pays you X moneys. Most landlords want 3 months of bank statements
showing your income, but getting a letter from your employer can
substitute for this. If you are a freelancer (journalist/english
teacher/web designer/whatever) what you have to do is get letters from
potential clients (the schools, businesses, or whatever you'd sell your
services to) saying "yes, Lachlansreddit is a dude providing this
freelancing service and if he gets his visa and we have work available, I
would consider paying him to do this service" Get three or four. Do
this by just walking into companies or going to meetups and making
friends with people at companies. Make sure they're on company
letterhead. Companies will do them if they're worded in a non-binding
way.</li>
<li><b>Bribe a landlord.</b> When you look for a permanent apartment you'll
be looking for ones that are provisionsfrei. Most apartments are sold
by agencies that charge like 2000 euros to give you a place. They call
it 'provision für mieter'. I call it extortion. So you have a checkbox
on immobilienscout and WG gesucht for only "provisionsfrei" apartments,
which are not rented by the big agencies or mafiosi. But these often
have huge waiting lists. Most apartments will want you to buy their
furniture so they don't have to move it. Some of the apartments want
you to buy their furniture even if they have none. We call that a
bribe. You gotta do what you gotta do.</li>
<li><b>Ummeld</b>. It's like Anmelding but for
moving. Or Anmeld. Doesn't matter, same thing. Go to the town hall
with your lease and fill out a form. Don't forget to put your name on
your post box so you can get mail.</li>
<li><b>Get internet.</b> I recommend going with either 1and1 or Deutsche
Telekom. Prepare to sit at home for the better part of the day on the
day they are supposed to arrive. Put a label by your front door bell
saying "DAS IST DER HAUS WO DU MUSST DIE INTERNET MACHEN" or somethign
to that effect. If they are crosseyed and don't read your name properly
they'll just leave and you have to wait another two weeks. DSL
internet comes with a phone line here.</li>
<li><b>Make an appointment with the Ausländerbehörde. </b> You can do it
online. The wait can be like 2 or 3 months, so book it sooner rather
than later. Go down with every piece of paper they might want to see.
We made the mistake of only taking what they asked for on the website.
They are trying to answer the question of "can this guy survive here
without social assistance?" So with your intermediate german, letter
from employer, bank statement from a german bank that says you have
enough euros for a little while, anmeldungsbestatigung saying you have
an apartment, and any certifications you have ever had stating you're
qualified to do your job, you should get a visa. Bring money. If
you're applying for a freelance visa bring your letters you got in step
six. Also bring your portfolio and anything else relevant.</li>
</ol>
Congratulations, you are now German!<br />
<br />
<br />
<h4>
<span style="color: red;">Important Edit</span></h4>
<div>
I've been informed that a law has passed making 7 redundant. They can no longer charge 2 months rent as a commission for you signing up to rent a place, so you don't need to look specifically for Provisionsfrei apartments. Huzzah for sanity!</div>
Nathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-32635394397512993382015-07-15T05:11:00.000-04:002015-07-15T05:11:12.634-04:00<h2>
Reboot</h2>
Hi Everyone,<br />
<br />
It's been a few years since I've posted to this blog. I had started this blog when I was in my MBA program, as a way of thinking through business strategy things that I saw. Since graduating I moved to Europe to become part of the Berlin startup scene.<br />
<br />
It was a big change, and overwhelming at times, and many people have suggested I blog about my experiences. I think the time has come, so expect more posts, both about the experiences I've had as an entrepreneur so far, and other organizational strategy thoughts, like I used to blog about before.<br />
<br />
I'll see you all here.<br />
<br />
-Nathan Nathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-24894960607900880602013-01-25T10:24:00.001-05:002013-01-25T10:24:05.663-05:00Do you really want passionate employees?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
One of the most common themes in job postings is that companies are looking for passionate people. The trend, at least among newer companies in North America is to have an ubiquitous corporate culture where employees' strongest desires is to be at work. The idea is to get employees to take ownership of their work because someone who is personally invested in the project will often spend more hours working unpaid overtime, do a better job, and produce higher quality output, theoretically for similar or even less pay than a non-passionate employee in a non-passionate environment. What company wouldn't want that?<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
The most obvious sector that requires passionate employees is non-profit. With fewer resources to pay their employees, no stock options and sometimes no benefits, non-profit organizations rely on the employees and volunteers being passionate about the cause and their work. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://apklausa.lt/pictures/871311g" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://apklausa.lt/pictures/871311g" /></a></div>
The demand for passionate employees is not limited to non-profits. The for-profit marketplace, especially in North America, has become hungrier for passionate employees. Google has become iconic in this regard. They make a point to hire and retain the most passionate people by fostering a fun corporate culture offering employees 20% time to work on their own side projects, games and gyms on-site, free meals, and subsidized day care. This type of culture has had the effect of employees voluntarily working longer hours, having more of their life centered around the company, and creating many innovative projects. Attracting and fostering passionate employees has worked very well for Google and has inspired many companies to follow suit, especially internet startups in Silicon Valley.<br />
<br />
<h2>
The Downsides</h2>
It isn't all wine and roses; there are a few trade-offs to having a set of passionate employees, and depending on what your company or organization is about, you may want to consider hiring dispassionate employees.<br />
<br />
<h3>
1. Who owns the project?</h3>
<div>
Although we use the word '<b>Passion</b>' to mean devotion, the word used to mean suffering. People are passionate because they are willing to suffer for their work. The passionate employee takes ownership of a project because they are emotionally invested in it. This is fine, and some projects require this. However if the passionate employee feels he owns the project, they will resist if management attempts to make changes. If they lose control of their project they could become resentful or disheartened. This may be true in any organization, but the more passionate the employee, the more strongly they will feel they own the project.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
A manager of a project headed by passionate employees must realize the project is largely theirs, and in addition to making strategic decisions, must also be careful to include the employees and help them to feel that they are the ones coming up with the solutions. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Example: </b>Research has shown that the project should be scaled down because a few aspects are not profitable.</div>
<div>
<b>Authoritarian approach:</b> "Team, we're scaling down the project because it's not profitable" Team stops working on the aspects scaled down and feels like their work is valueless.</div>
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<b>Better approach:</b> "Team, the research has shown a few aspects of the project aren't going to be profitable. We're thinking we might have to scale down the project, but wanted to hear from you, because maybe there's a solution we haven't thought of". Team looks at project, identifies what are the best parts to scale down, may still feel a sense of loss, but not disenfranchisement.</div>
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2. Burnout</h3>
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People are on a constant quest for meaning in their lives. Passionate employees find meaning in their work more than dispassionate ones. They love what they do, and can do it all day. They will work long hours, overtime, weekends, and come up with amazing results because their life's meaning is there. Organizations reap a lot of benefit from this type of employee and will try to get the most out of them, challenging them with increasingly difficult goals to accomplish greater and greater tasks. </div>
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The danger here, of course is burning the employees out. It is hard for people to know their limits, especially if they are passionate about their work. If your people are spending 7 days a week working, that is time not spent with family. It's time not spent on hobbies. It's time not spent recuperating from a hard day at work, and over the long term, the employee's health and family can suffer, and ultimately the quality of their work will degrade.</div>
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Start-ups are especially susceptible to burning employees out because so much needs to be done to get the company off the ground. Once the company is rolling, the intense schedule has been established as the norm, and it's difficult to change.</div>
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3. Culture Clash</h3>
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Imagine a passionate young project manager comes in on his first day, hired because of his passion, eager to make a ding in the universe. He starts at the office, sits down, and is eager to get rolling. He gets called to a meeting where he is assigned a small project to whet his whistle. He sits down with his team and comes up with amazing features and improvements that will make the project amazing, and cool and save millions of dollars. What's not to love? Then he goes to get started and his boss says "hold on. These changes need approval from a committee". He submits the changes and doesn't hear back for a few days. Finally he gets the response. None of the changes are approved, no explanation. He calls up one of the committee members, and goes straight to voicemail. He leaves a message and doesn't get a call back. Over lunch one day he pours out his frustration to a co-worker saying "but... I thought this was a passionate, dynamic workplace where we could do amazing things!" The co-worker chuckles and responds "This place? Dynamic? No way."</div>
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If you have a structure with a lot of hierarchy and bureaucracy where people have to play politics to get things done, you may not want to hire passionate people just because it worked for Google. For established companies, it's important to be honest about what your company culture is like. Hiring passionate employees into a dispassionate culture will frustrate them. They may leave, or they may become disillusioned, but either way, it's counter-productive. </div>
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Conclusion</h2>
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Passionate employees can offer a lot of benefit to a company or organization, but they require a lot of tact to manage. They thrive in flat structures and creative environments. They needed to be included in decisions, and reminded to take vacations and balance their lives. Management needs to look out for their best interests, because even more than dispassionate employees, they will be giving the company their best. Before making the decision to attract the most passionate talent out there, a manager needs to assess what their culture is really like, and whether passionate employees would be a good fit with their organizational culture.</div>
Nathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-1486840124084581262012-10-03T09:06:00.001-04:002012-10-03T09:06:07.165-04:00Keeping motivatedA number of people have remarked to me that they are impressed at how I keep up my motivation and energy during the job search. Job searches are difficult and discouraging, and yet every day I have potential leads, new applications sent out, interviews scheduled, and news of some kind. At the same time I am sharpening my skills. I exercise every day and am learning German at lightning speed.<br />
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The secret to my endurance is routine.<br />
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Routine</h2>
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I used to consider routine to be a dirty word. I was proud of flying by the seat of my pants, and was convinced that talent alone was enough to get me through any rough patches of life. I saw routine as dry and meaningless. Routine for me was another word for 'wasted life'.<br />
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Well "to everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven." Yes, you can waste your life by falling into a routine when things are easy. However, when times are difficult, having an established routine can keep you going.<br />
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I treat looking for work like a full time job. I get up in the morning and check emails over coffee. I usually make phone calls at this time because many of the jobs I've been applying to are in Europe and I need to account for time-zone differences. After this I exercise, running or weight training on alternate days. In the afternoon I try to apply to one or two new jobs every day. After this I do online German lessons until it's time to make dinner.<br />
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Avoiding Discouragement</h2>
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Usually a job search is discouraging because it is an attempt to change our life situation - to find employment. Our goal is to find work, and that is something we have little control over.<br />
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This job search has been different for me. My goal is to stick to the routine - Do my exercise, improve my German, send out 1 or 2 well done job applications every day. Success in that sense is completely under my control, and having a sense of control is what keeps me from getting too discouraged.Nathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-87091900400439092142012-09-10T16:42:00.000-04:002012-09-10T16:42:45.900-04:00Three small tips to improve a partyRecently I was at my cousin's wedding, easily the most stylish wedding I've ever been to. The venue was the 6th floor of an old department store in downtown Toronto that had been renovated as an events hall. The contrasts of textures and colours made it feel like a ritzy art gallery in New York.<br />
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They had a lot of little touches that contributed to the evening. Small gourmet foods being served on trays instead of a sit-down meal. An email address where people could send photos throughout the evening and they would appear in a continuous photo slideshow. Glowing light cubes that pulsed in time to the music on the dance floor. And of course, being able to share in the joy of the happy couple.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/528161_10152072728560203_242447366_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/528161_10152072728560203_242447366_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My favourite photo of the day</td></tr>
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A group of us got to talking that evening about how to throw a good party, and what contributes to a party's success. Although it's the details that give a party it's style and feel, the structure and layout actually matter a great deal to how people interact and enjoy the event. Here are 3 simple structural elements that will really change the feel of your next social gathering. Both promote circulation and encourage meeting new people, simply due to the layout.</div>
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1. Food and Drinks in separate locations</h2>
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By putting the drinks on one side of the room and the food on the other, you ensure that people move around. Circulation is important to a party because it increases the number of opportunities for conversation especially for newcomers. It makes people feel like they are experiencing the whole room rather than standing in one corner.</div>
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People will spend less time waiting in any one line, because the lines will be shorter. If the food line is long, a person will likely get a drink first, or vice versa. This also avoids congestion at one end of a room. Nobody likes elbowing their way through a crowd or standing in line. The simple adjustment of food and drinks in separate locations helps keep the party enjoyable.</div>
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2. Seating for half your guests</h2>
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You don't want people to have to stand all night, but if you have too much seating, people will find a spot and stay. Having seating for half of the guests encourages guest circulation around the room. Groups will be less likely to dominate a set of seats if they feel there is interesting conversation going on elsewhere in the room that they want to be part of. People will have to get up to get food or drink, and this will leave the seats free for the next people who are ready to sit, so long as people haven't claimed the seats with a coat.</div>
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3. Designated Coat Area</h2>
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Most parties have something to this effect, but it's important. People don't want to carry a coat or umbrella all evening, and will look for a place to set them down. Setting down personal items claims territory, and restricts the circulation of people at the party. Moreover, the guests who don't stay with their belongings will be wondering if they are safe rather than enjoying the party. Keeping an area free for coats and bags, be it a bed, a coat check, or hall closet solves these issues.</div>
Nathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-8507722830105851132012-08-27T12:52:00.002-04:002012-08-27T12:52:32.828-04:00The value of a niche<div style="text-align: center;">
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So last week my friend Tim Blais posted a music video he created on YouTube that combined two of his main interests - particle physics and music. It is so technical that I didn't understand half of the lyrics. All I knew was that it was brilliant.</div>
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In less than a week this video has garnered 65,000 views with no sign of slowing. It has had articles written about it in multiple languages and has been featured on the Scientific American blog. In addition, appealing to a small core of musical physics aficionados had the effect of attracting the attention of people from outside of this group who wanted to see what the fuss was about - physicists who aren't necessarily musical, and A Capella music lovers who aren't into physics.<br />
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This is an excellent demonstration of the power of appealing to a small market segment, or niche. Tim is the first person I know personally to have a video go viral to this extent, surpassing the number of views on my most popular video by a factor of 8. <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?index=4&list=PL326F98C746541A07&hl=en_US" width="560"></iframe>
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Sorry Jewel, you're not that popular</div>
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Lack of focus kills</h2>
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I was taught from a young age that you are supposed to keep your options open. This is good advice, however nobody ever taught me the corollary - at some point you have to make a choice. This is a hard lesson to learn by trial and error, but the consequences are easy to see.</div>
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I remember a long time ago I was part of a group that had finished an amazingly large and successful spiritual arts event that had toured in 5 different cities. The group was all volunteer and had put together an event that required thousands of hours of work in just a few short months, and it had looked professional. The group was on a high and trying to decide what to do next.<br />
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We scheduled a full day to brainstorm and plan out the future. At the time, none of us was experienced in the actual management of an organization. Everyone had different ideas, all of them seemingly important and valid. We put them all on a big sheet of paper with a spaghetti of lines connecting the different nodes. We were trying to answer the question "what comes next?" The answer to our question was clearly "Everything". </div>
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Needless to say, this left the group without a clear direction. The group faltered for a bit and eventually almost everyone who was part of the original group left. What had been an enormous success fell flat on its face from lack of focus.</div>
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<h2>
People like boxes</h2>
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Most of us have been conditioned to appeal to everyone. People want to be popular, and we want to make everyone happy. We are biased to assume everyone should think like we do because we feel we are rational and logical. We look around us and see large successful organizations offering an enormous range of products that appeal to a broad market, and we want to be like that.<br />
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What we forget is that we are also biased to reject things we don't understand. We like labeling things, putting them in little boxes, and summing them up with a couple of points. When we see something that's broadly defined we tend to shy away from it. That's why you don't see many restaurants with sushi, chicken vindaloo, hamburgers, duck a l'orange, and southwest nachos all on the same menu. We can't easily describe it, so how can we trust it?<br />
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We like to see success and tend to forget that the giant companies became giant by earning people's trust through doing something focused very well. Walmart stuck to small towns and rural areas. Costco started by supplying restaurants with food. Disney started with cartoons before expanding to theme parks, movies and cruises.<br />
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Places this crops up</h2>
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We have already seen how not having a niche can cause problems for an organization's mission, and how it can help with viral marketing and most aspects of business. Here are a few other areas that are affected by having or not having a niche that might not be as obvious:</div>
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<ol>
<li><b>The job search:</b> This is especially easy to fall into if you graduate with a generalist degree like an MBA. I know a lot of people who are looking for a job, and when asked what they want to do, reply "anything, I just need to start somewhere". It may seem limiting at first, but saying "I'm looking for a job as a product manager in an Internet start up in Europe" gives people a framework from which they can help you, and will likely lead to better results.</li>
<li><b>Blogs:</b> This blog took a long time to find its niche, which is "applying business school concepts to real world situations". In the beginning it was merely "What Nathan thinks". the blog really didn't have any traction for a long time because of this. In contrast, a friend of mine started a blog about business plans for comic book supervillains called <a href="http://fundingthekryptonite.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank">Funding the Kryptonite</a>. In only a few months his readership took off and he was offered a syndication contract.</li>
<li><b><b>Churches: </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">I can't tell you the number of churches I've seen who try to appeal to everyone. This may have worked in the olden days, but the only churches I've seen growing today are focused on a specific age demographic.</span>
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<li><b>Charity work: </b>I've seen a lot of small non-profits have minimal impact because they wanted to help too wide a group or meet every need that came their way. Helping the homeless is good, but helping local homeless get medical care is better, because you can measure success. </li>
<li><b>Social Gatherings:</b> As a general rule, when I invite all my Facebook friends over to my house I get more people to come when I make the invitation more specific. Hanging out gets less people than "movie night", which gets less people than "Classic 50's and 60's Movie Night" which gets less people than "Nathan's birthday party". </li>
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<h2>
Conclusion</h2>
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You can't please everyone, there are just too many people. Having a clear idea of who you want your project, business or initiative to appeal to will help immensely in its success. </div>
Nathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-27947610511202655252012-08-22T11:14:00.003-04:002012-08-22T11:23:00.147-04:00Cover Letters and Resumes: The Good, The Bad, and The UglyIt has been quite a while since my last update and I know you guys have missed me. The reason for this hiatus was partly due to a few trips I have taken over the summer, but also largely due to an increased focus on looking for work. I have been trying hard to find work, and it isn't easy. This is because there is generally very little feedback for an application so it is difficult to tell if it your approach that is not working, or just that you are not the right fit for a job.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>My wife, Sherri, however has recently seen the other side of a job search, as she has been handling CVs and application pre-screening at her workplace. This has given me a valuable insight into my own job search.<br />
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From the inside</h2>
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First of all, Sherri's organization posted 5 jobs on various job boards. From those jobs they received well over 500 applications, many of which were bad, most of which were generic and looked exactly the same. When an application really stood out, she made a note of it, because she needed some sort of criteria by which to grade the applications. When an application was particularly horrible she immediately rejected it.</div>
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The good</h2>
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Some applications stood out, and it was often little flourishes that helped with this. I would often get a phone call in the middle of the day saying "I saw someone do something on their resume that looked really good. You should do this" Examples include:</div>
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<ul>
<li><b>The subject line of the email.</b> Most people just put down "application for X position". Generic. One person wrote "Interesting application for X position, take a look!" and it really stood out. It felt like someone she trusted was recommending someone. Top of the pile.</li>
<li><b>The school's logo.</b> Most people list their education on their CV. One person, however, put a small image of their school's logo beside their education. It really stood out. Top of the pile.</li>
<li><b>Talking about the company. </b>Everyone talks about themselves in the cover letter. A few talked about the company. "X position caught my eye because of Y. I really like how Z company has accomplished *specific thing*, and feel that with my experience in blah blah, I could contribute to next year's *specific thing*. " Shows the applicant did research and is interested in the company. Top of the pile.</li>
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The bad</h2>
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<ul>
<li><b>Addressing a cover letter 'to whom it may concern'. </b>In this particular case, the hiring manager's name was included in the job posting. Usually if it isn't you can find it. Bottom of the pile.</li>
<li><b>Generic cover letter.</b> Clearly copied and pasted from the last 5 applications. Highlights skills that weren't asked for, doesn't make mention of the company in any way. In a different job market it wouldn't be so bad, but with 500 competing applications? Bottom of the pile.</li>
<li><b>Not including a cover letter.</b> I thought everyone included a cover letter. Apparently the minority of applications do. Seriously. Having only a resume made it very difficult for her to identify the candidate's skills. She could see a candidate worked in a place, but it wasn't obvious what the candidate was good at. Bottom of the pile.</li>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaZFJ578ky-dLPRroI2u3Tw22GcHVsXGMvFL6gKISATYm2sZu-6wh0YN9KS-LdQyU1MY94dXU64fUFQE62LlRmHByLpnj0gGfGLTLMwnoS4OIxhF-M2WtSqnX5BSjL6DmV2yJTwSye92v9/s1600/IMG_20120619_144121.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Don't write a cover letter like this" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaZFJ578ky-dLPRroI2u3Tw22GcHVsXGMvFL6gKISATYm2sZu-6wh0YN9KS-LdQyU1MY94dXU64fUFQE62LlRmHByLpnj0gGfGLTLMwnoS4OIxhF-M2WtSqnX5BSjL6DmV2yJTwSye92v9/s200/IMG_20120619_144121.jpg" title="" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dear company. My name is New Graduate and I am applying for the position of CEO. I was student council predisent and my mom says I'm a hard worker and handsome. Love, New Graduate.</td></tr>
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<li><b>Not following up. </b>Sherri only received 4 phone calls about the jobs. One was about information before the candidate applied, and one asked to speak to the director, but when the director wasn't in she just hung up. <b>Only two people actually followed up on their application</b> asking if the resume was received, and when the interviews would be scheduled. Those applications were placed at the top of the pile.</li>
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<b>The Ugly</b></h2>
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<li><b>Giving your life story in the application.</b> "At my last job I didn't talk around the water cooler very much because it's unprofessional. Jimmy and Earl used to chide me about it but I felt it was more important to get my work done quickly. Then one day Jimmy and Earl pranked me by covering my desk in tinfoil. What a day! But I still managed to have the highest sales in my division that quarter"</li>
<li><b>Admitting to not caring about the job in the application. </b>"I don't particularly want to work in accounting, however given that my mom is kicking me out of the basement, this is the best I can do, so if you're interested in giving me an interview..."</li>
<li><b>Misspelling the name of the position in the application.</b> Wait... you're applying to the position of Coptroller? Sounds like it will get you arrested.</li>
<li><b>Misspelling the name of the organization in your application. </b>You're either lazy or illiterate. Either way the resume's getting shredded.</li>
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And the big winner:</div>
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<li><b>Not including a resume. </b>This is for real. Some applications did not even include a resume. The candidate just sent an email saying they'd like to apply for the job. Seriously? What were you expecting? The hiring manager is supposed to contact you to find out what you're good at? The sad part is that there were multiple applications like this. </li>
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Conclusion</h2>
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You know how every career counselor everywhere has told you to write a personalized cover letter for every application and follow up by phone the next day? I have heard a lot of people say "Why bother? It won't help. Everyone does it." But now I see that this is not true. </div>
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Yes there is a ton of competition, but there's also a lot of BAD competition. It gives me hope as I spend another 4 hours researching the culture and hiring manager of the next company I'm applying to. I don't have to be the best at everything, I just have to be better than the riff-raff.</div>
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Nathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-82424994800890100392012-06-21T12:24:00.003-04:002012-06-26T22:58:04.142-04:00Roles: BullyingI have done a lot of thinking about the nature of bullying over the years, mainly because I was bullied as a child. Bullying is the sort of abuse that can <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/10/08/bullying.health.effects/index.html">affect you your entire life</a>, and I'm not sure I ever fully recovered from my childhood experiences. <br />
<a name='more'></a>Bullying in schools is a complex problem, one that has many factors contributing to it, however I believe one of the most important and most overlooked factors is the organization of the school environment. I believe that as humans we are much more sensitive to our environment and the structures we are a part of than we realize, and our behaviour is influenced largely by the <a href="http://nathanwilliamsmbablog.blogspot.com/2012/06/roles.html">roles </a>we are in. It may be that the very structure of the school system itself fosters bullying, and that changing this structure would reduce bullying significantly.<br />
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Tribes and anarchy</h2>
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Everyone needs to fit in. Knowing your role in society and the groups you are part of is of paramount importance to people. Roles help us know what is expected of us and the way we should act in order to be approved of by our peers and superiors. <span style="background-color: white;">People need a role to play to feel important, and as </span><a href="http://nathanwilliamsmbablog.blogspot.ca/2012/02/midweek-update-tcp4-ash-wednesday.html" style="background-color: white;">Dale Carnegie illustrated,</a><span style="background-color: white;"> the need to feel important is a universal need. </span></div>
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Most public schools have a very loose organizational structure when it comes to the students. Children are grouped by age category, however, that is about it when it comes to structure. In high school in particular teachers have very little control over structuring the students into any sort of hierarchy because the students are moved to different teachers to learn different subjects. <span style="background-color: white;">High school, therefore, is often a very tribal environment. The lack of imposed structure, compounded with the fact that students' lives revolve around the school leaves students to form their own, rather crude, hierarchical structures. Often bullying dissipates in university as school then becomes part of their lives instead of the focus.</span><br />
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The students, without a clear idea of who is first in the pecking order, are vulnerable to having the most influential students rally a small clique. The clique then sticks together using an us-vs-them competitive approach. Certain students who stand out to the group are easily seen as "them" and bullying these students bonds the bullies together, with each incident feeling like a win for their team. <br />
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This dynamic has the added effect of pushing the bullied student into a victim role. They will stand out more, and will be unlikely to receive help or friendship from others who do not want to be associated with the role of the bullied.<br />
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Having a king</h2>
<span style="background-color: white;">Bullying is much less common in organizations that have a clear pecking order and established channels for individuals to gain influence and power. This is because everyone in the organization is considered to be part of the organization, and it is hard for one lone student to get a following and assert dominance if the formula for dominance already exists in the society. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">A simple solution for establishing hierarchy is a mentorship program. Every new student to a school would be placed with a student one grade higher than him. That student will already have a mentor who also has a mentor, which effectively groups students into 4s with one student at each level. Each group is given a name and small responsibilities. The most senior person is responsible for passing on the values of the group, which should include values common to all groups including mutual support and camaraderie. Students then progress into responsibility and authority gradually.</span><br />
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Taking the model a step further, these mentor/mentee relationships can be grouped into larger groups or houses. These tribes can have counsels, each with a representative that would make up the overall student council representing the needs of student to the faculty. <br />
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Potential problems</h2>
<span style="background-color: white;">This type of structure is not without its problems, including the fact that it gives the students much more power and autonomy. To ensure that the structure doesn't degenerate into a mob rule, the values transmitted through this structure to the groups would need to be reinforced with appropriate incentives. Rewards and recognition for living out the values, for example. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;">There is also the possibility that the administration would be seen as an enemy in this scenario rather than part of the structure. Effort would be required to ensure the teachers were seen as a helpful and integral part of this structure rather than an opposing force.</span><br />
<br />
This division of students can also lead to unwanted competition between groups or houses. This can result in escalating pranks, or in the worst case, gang warfare.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6jJxGiLHs0RQmaP0OQBvLra-2YJsMICphjhNDvvjo7ShNlXNuxd0_qlqBW4HC8tz4a3Kesu2n-xWxy1dsmzH6Lk8yRCRXFMPCTze3LHDqzchj8xvnC5_hI_bMtjZxoyPOdv_odCKzFKU9/s1600/Draco-vs-Harry-draco-malfoy-vs-harry-potter-7684972-1023-584.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6jJxGiLHs0RQmaP0OQBvLra-2YJsMICphjhNDvvjo7ShNlXNuxd0_qlqBW4HC8tz4a3Kesu2n-xWxy1dsmzH6Lk8yRCRXFMPCTze3LHDqzchj8xvnC5_hI_bMtjZxoyPOdv_odCKzFKU9/s400/Draco-vs-Harry-draco-malfoy-vs-harry-potter-7684972-1023-584.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sound Familiar?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In spite of these potential pitfalls, this structure is much easier to control than the unstructured model. Even in the worst case, enmity between houses in a school is infinitely less damaging to people than individual bullying, because there are always people to back you up. I recommend any school that is serious about ending bullying adopt a similar model.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
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<br />Nathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-54236930519060889182012-06-08T12:25:00.003-04:002012-06-08T12:25:43.219-04:00RolesGreetings one and everyone,<br />
<br />
Today's thoughts are not especially business related, but it's been something I've been thinking a lot about, and felt I should try to develop my thoughts in writing a bit. I haven't done a literature review nor even taken courses in this... I just think a lot.<br />
<a name='more'></a><h2>
Masks</h2>
<br />
For many years when I talked to people about self improvement, there seemed to be a certain model of the self they were working with. They saw themselves with many layers, like an onion. On the outside were masks, barriers, and layers that we put up to deal with the outside world and protect us from various hurts that came our way. Underneath these masks was the true self, and we needed to look at the pain we had gone through in order to take down these layers and reveal the true self. Different people had variations on this idea, but it was quite a common concept.<br />
<br />
I've always been big on self-improvement, and have spent a lot of my life using this model, soul-searching, journalling, trying to get at the root causes of whatever is holding me back, with a certain degree of success. Recently, however, I've had a thought that won't go away: What if this approach to self-improvement is a bad approach?<br />
<br />
<b>What if soul searching doesn't unearth the true self, but rather entrenches you in negative feelings and dwelling on the past? </b><br />
<br />
If that's the case then self-improvement based on this model would be ineffective for becoming the person you want to be.<br />
<br />
<div>
What if the true self is more like a lake than an onion? You can siphon off water to get deeper but the deeper parts aren't any more the "true lake" than the surface. If this view of the self is more accurate than the "masks" model, then soul searching to peel off layers would not be effective. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h2>
The self in a role</h2>
<div>
The alternative model of "the self" that I propose consists of two overlapping components: Core and Role. Internally you have your predispositions, thought patterns, natural ways of responding to stimuli, as well as values, skills, talents, traits and abilities. This internal core interacts with the world through various roles, which is a set of beliefs about yourself, how you should be, how you should interact with the world, and who you should identify with.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The role helps us fit into society and understand who we are. It is the answer to the question "Who are you?" There is comfort in the fact that we know what to expect and what is expected of us. It can be the cause of our success and our failure. Some of the most traumatic events that people can experience in life involve the loss of a role:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><b>Losing your job</b>: Most people self-identify with their job. It's "I'm an engineer" or "I'm a hairstylist" more often than "I do engineering work" or "I am employed as a hairstylist". Losing your job is partly equated in people's minds as losing their role in the world. </li>
<li><b>Death of a close relation:</b> Added to the gravity of the loss of someone you care about is the loss of your relationship to them. You had a role as a friend, as a lover, as a parent, a child or a spouse. Now who are you and how do you fit in the world?</li>
<li><b>Divorce/breakup:</b> Even if the relationship was bad or abusive there is pain in the loss because you lose your role. </li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
The role can help us understand why we get trapped in negative patterns. Why is it hard for a homeless person to get a job and leave the streets, even in cases where severe mental illness is not involved? It is their role, and to change means leaving a known role for an uncertain future. Why is so hard for many parents to relate to their teenagers? Because the parent's role with a teenager is so different from with a younger child.<br />
<br />
There is research whose findings support this model. The famous <a href="http://www.prisonexp.org/">Stanford Prison Experiment</a> took normal college students and put them in roles of prisoners and guards in a simulated prison. The students fell into their roles so completely that the situation became abusive, and had to be terminated just 6 days into what was supposed to be a 2-week experiment. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h2>
Changing roles</h2>
<div>
Any role change is unsettling, but it's easier to gain a new role than to lose a role. Getting a new job, getting married and having a child are easier than losing a job, getting divorced or losing a child.<br />
<br />
This fact can be useful for helping people make difficult changes. A good example of this is Alcoholics Anonymous, one of the better known support groups for alcohol addiction. They recognize that people have to be ready to self-identify as an alcoholic in order to be able to overcome their addiction. They assign that person a new role as a recovering alcoholic, give them a community and responsibilities that go with this new role, and as a result many people have turned away from a destructive habit.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h2>
Summary</h2>
<div>
I'm sure there's a lot more to be said on this subject than I have written. But going back to the subject of self-improvement, I believe that this information can be very useful for breaking out of old patterns. Patterns of negative behaviour, for example, may not be because a person has a bad core, but are rather in a role that has been shaped by their own expectations and the expectations of the people around them. Changing your role may be as simple as deciding on a new role, and surrounding one's self with people who will reinforce this role.<br />
<br />
I suppose it lends credence to the old adage: You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>Nathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-17227084576523597902012-05-17T13:50:00.001-04:002012-05-17T13:50:00.698-04:00Open Letter to Student Strike Leaders<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />My name is Nathan Williams. I believe that it is still possible to achieve a win-win agreement between striking <st1:state w:st="on">Quebec</st1:state> student groups and the <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Quebec</st1:place></st1:state> government, but that there must be swift action to make it happen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">As a Montrealer, an MBA student who has just completed his studies, and a representative on the board of the Concordia University Graduate Student Association, I am submitting the following proposal for consideration by the leaders of the student associations. At the end of this post is a proposed motion, which I sincerely hope will be presented at upcoming strike meetings. Read on for a summary of why I believe that this is the best path forward.</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p><br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #500050; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
<h2>
<span style="color: #222222;">To get results</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">Although student resolve is strengthening, our bargaining position is steadily being weakened because of a few key factors:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -6.75pt;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -6.75pt;">protesters are turning on other student groups, and denouncing them (incorrectly) as scabs. This fractures the movement's support base, both now and into the future;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; text-indent: -6.75pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span dir="LTR" style="text-indent: -6.75pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">student leaders have not rushed to condemn illegal activity. This costs us dearly in public support.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">To get what we want from the government, we absolutely need the support of the public. Protestors who are disrupting bridge traffic, the metro system, and public events, and violating court injunctions, are causing the movement to lose public support. As time goes on, the government looks better and better for opposing the movement wholeheartedly. This will decrease the chances of our obtaining what we want.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">All student protesters (and their representative groups) must immediately adopt the following actions to rally support, express respect for non-striking students and garner public favour if there is any hope of the protests having any positive outcome.</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h2>
<span style="color: #222222;">Be willing to negotiate</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">The tuition freeze has become a token issue that neither side is willing to concede on. Giving in on the question of tuition increase would cost the government severely in terms of public opinion, and in terms of support from businesses who have lost huge amounts of money as a result of the protests. Rightly or wrongly, striking students are starting to be viewed as terrorists in the mind of the public, and giving in would not be a good move on the part of the government, and so they will avoid it at all costs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">For students, however, giving in on the end of the tuition freeze would mean losing everything that they've sacrificed thus far, and is also not a realistic option.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">What's needed is a resolution that acknowledges the reasons why the tuition freeze is so crucial, but allows both sides to avoid coming out looking defeated. I propose the following: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h4>
<span style="color: #222222;">A. Students agree to the tuition increase so long as the percentage of government funding of higher education does not fall below the current level.</span></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">If the government is currently paying, say, 90% of the true cost of higher education, and costs go up by $100, they would not be able to raise tuition more than $10. If the government wanted to increase tuition by $100, they would have to kick $900 more into the system.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">This allows the government to: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 47.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span dir="LTR"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">not reduce its commitment to public education, and prevents them from doing so in the future, but not from increasing their commitment to public education in the future <b>(clear win for students)</b>; and<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 47.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span dir="LTR"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">come out looking good because they will still be able to increase tuition, subject to the constraints outlined above <b>(clear win for the government)</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 47.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span dir="LTR"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">Given the escalating level of enmity between the government and the students at the present time, the tuition increase should be structured in a manner that builds trust, to wit:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h4>
<span style="color: #222222;">B. The tuition increase would be staggered over seven years as proposed. However, it would be tied to the government cutting education costs through streamlining. </span></h4>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">In other words, the government would need to implement new management techniques with clear<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>cost-cutting goals. Every year they would need to provide proof that they are streamlining the system and meeting cost-cutting milestones. Failure to do so would mean that any planned tuition increases would be put on hold until the milestone is met; and if three consecutive milestones were missed, tuition fees would be rolled back to 2011 levels.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The reason for this is that it:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 47.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #222222;">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span dir="LTR"><span style="color: #222222;">would provide students the reassurance that the government is not just passing the costs of system inefficiencies on to them;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 47.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #222222;">2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span dir="LTR"><span style="color: #222222;">would shift public opinion to the student's side if the government did not keep up its end of the bargain, because the dispute would clearly become about mismanagement at that point; and<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 47.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #222222;">3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span dir="LTR"><span style="color: #222222;">would allow the government to have control over the proposed tuition increase, and to claim success and garner public favour as they met the milestones.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span dir="LTR"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></div>
<h4>
C. Implement activity-based costing at all schools</h4>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">This is an accounting method which would standardize the way the schools are run (using best-practises) and would provide the appropriate information about how and where to save money. It would also:</span></h4>
<ol start="1" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">be a win for the students because there would be a concrete way to measure if the schools were being well-managed (or not);<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">be a win for the government because they would have the information necessary to cut costs, and would show that they were managing the schools well; and<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">likely take a several years to implement, and so could be tied to the tuition increases.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ol>
<h2>
Don't erode the support base</h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">It has been said before and it bears repeating:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #500050; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">Protesting in classrooms and vandalizing schools erodes support from other students and the general public, weakening the movement both now and in the future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">Dropping bricks and smoke bombs in the metro erodes public support and puts the government into a mode where they aren't focussed on negotiating, but are having to treat the movement as a threat to public security, which it is. Even when those responsible are not affiliated with the strike, it is imperative that the student organizations make that crystal clear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2>
<span style="color: #222222;">Don't bring in other stakeholders<o:p></o:p></span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">In official negotiations, avoid the following in order to increase the chances of striking an agreement:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;"><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">Don't demand that banks be taxed more - that will just mean that bankers will have one more thing to lobby the government about, and they have been doing that longer (and are much better at it) than students are or ever will be.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">Don't make demands to curtail research funding, because that will lead to other rabbit trail discussions and take focus away from reaching an agreement.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">Don't tell the government where else they could get money from to pay for education - it will just irritate other groups and take support away from our cause. </span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<h2>
<span style="color: #222222;">It's all about support<o:p></o:p></span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">If the situation continues to escalate the government is going to start treating it as an insurrection (and we all know where that can lead). The whole strike will have been for nothing. So rally support, condemn illegal activity, and get back to the negotiating table willing to give a little to reach a compromise.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">In that spirit I would like to propose...<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<h2>
<span style="color: #222222;">Two formal motions for the next meeting:<o:p></o:p></span></h2>
<div>
<span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">I. Be it resolved that the Graduate Student Association of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Concordia</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place> considers the following terms to be an acceptable resolution to the current strike conflict:</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 47.25pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span dir="LTR"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">Students agree to the tuition increase as long as the percentage of government funding towards higher education never falls below the current percentage.</span></b></span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h4 style="margin-left: 47.25pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span></span><span dir="LTR"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The tuition increase will be staggered over seven (7) years as proposed by the government with the following provisions:<span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 83.25pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span dir="LTR"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">the government will be required to implement an Activity-Based Costing system in all schools under its jurisdiction;</span></b></span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 83.25pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span dir="LTR"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">milestones for its implementation and use in cost savings will be established, corresponding to the seven years over which tuition will be increased;</span></b></span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 83.25pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span dir="LTR"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">for any missed milestone, tuition will be frozen at then-current levels until such time as the milestone is met; and</span></b></span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 83.25pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">4.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span dir="LTR"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">should three (3) consecutive milestones be missed, tuition would be rolled back to 2011 levels.</span></b></span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11pt;">II. Be it resolved that the Graduate Student Association condemns all illegal activity surrounding the student protests, be it instigated by protesters, police, or other parties, and urges all other parties (including student groups) to do the same. The GSA affirms the right to peaceful protest and expression in a democratic society.</span></b></div>Nathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-35185439002474777122012-05-01T11:50:00.001-04:002012-05-01T11:50:32.640-04:00Information relevanceShort post today, but it's about decision making. Often people get bogged down in too much information, making it very difficult to figure out what the best choice is in a given situation. In order to have clarity to make the right decisions it is important to weed out confusing information that should not affect the outcome and focus on the important information. There are two main criteria for determining what information should be considered.<br />
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Different under competing alternatives</h2>
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Costs or benefits of a decision only matter if they are different between your choices. This helps prevent confusion. Imagine you're travelling a lot and considering whether to rent an apartment in another city, or to just stay in a hotel. When adding up the costs, you wouldn't include the cost of the plane tickets, your house in your home city, or how much your wife will spend on movies and popcorn for the days you're away. All of these costs will be the same, whether you rent an apartment or stay in a hotel.</div>
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Seems obvious, right? But it's easy to forget. Imagine you're deciding whether or not to buy a new bike so you can save the environment and not drive to work, and you add up the costs of the car you're saving vs. the cost of the bike. How would you do it? You might start by adding up the costs of owning the car, dividing it by the number of days in the year, and multiplying the result by the number of days you'll be biking in order to figure out how much money you save. </div>
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The problem with this approach is that you would be including a lot of irrelevant information. You need to subtract costs that are the same between alternatives. Information like monthly car payments, insurance and changing summer tires for winter ones are the same whether you buy the bike or not. Relevant information would be the gasoline you would save, wear and tear on the vehicle in the form of repairs and oil changes, as well as the cost of the coffee you'd buy at the gas station that instead you'll get for free at the office because you're biking.</div>
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Has a bearing on the future</h2>
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From a management decision-making perspective, information is only pertinent if it has a bearing on the future. </div>
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We as human beings get stuck in the past. We want to rectify our mistakes, atone for our sins, and redeem what went wrong. This zeal to fix history can lead us around and around in circles of bad decisions. We look at ten thousand dollars spent on outdated inventory that nobody wants to buy and we keep it around, not wanting to purchase new inventory because of the money we already lost. We avoid going back to school for a degree in the field we want to be in because we just finished an unrelated degree that we don't really want to use. We avoid having a second child because the first one started dealing drugs to his kindergarten class.</div>
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This thinking will always lead to bad decisions, because to set the future, the only relevant information is information that pertains to the future. </div>
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The example</h2>
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The biggest example of irrelevant information is a<b> sunk cost</b>. A sunk cost is always irrelevant because it does not meet the two criteria above. You've paid for a machine, but a better machine comes out next year that makes more money. Should you replace your machine? The money you've already paid is a sunk cost. You've paid it whether you replace the machine or not, and that money has no bearing on the future. The right decision can only be made by looking at the cost and value of the new machine, not the money you spent on the old one.</div>
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Here's an example to help you remember. I'm very proud of this example. I woke up this morning and thought about it. I think I may have dreamed it last night. This example is actually the reason for this blog post. </div>
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Imagine you are a zoo keeper and you purchased a large African elephant last year for $200,000. It was a deal because he was a damaged floor model - he was missing his left ear. You expect the elephant to live 30 years and drawing in $1000/day on average and cost $200 in food and upkeep. Things are going well, but a year later you hear about a man selling a healthy elephant. He costs $250,000 but would bring in $2000/day instead of $1000. Sadly there's not enough room in your zoo for two elephants, so your first elephant would have to be sold off and you could only get $100,000 for it.</div>
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It's tempting to say "I just spent $200,000 on the one-eared elephant last year. I want to get another year out of it before buying the new elephant so I don't waste it." That would be wrong though. You've already spent the money so it's the same among alternatives and has no bearing on the future. The one-eared elephant is a sunk cost.<b> <span style="font-size: large;">And sunk costs are always ear-elephant.</span></b></div>
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<br /></h2>Nathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-13901568043864306432012-04-23T12:41:00.001-04:002012-04-23T12:41:16.959-04:00MBA FinishedGreetings everyone!<br />
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I'm sorry about the lack of updates over the past two weeks. I've been up to my eyeballs with finishing my MBA. But I have completed my last exam, and handed in the final paper. I have completed the requirements for my MBA. Convocation is in June, but if you want to start calling me Master now, that's perfectly ok.<br />
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Now is a time of transition and I'm going to be re-evaluating my blog and what I'm writing about. This is a new era and it may call for a shift in subject. I'll keep you informed.<br />
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NathanNathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821854221744914183.post-26753822421214106562012-04-05T16:47:00.002-04:002012-04-05T16:47:58.766-04:00Midweek Update: No I haven't forgotten the blogHello all my faithful readers,<br />
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I haven't forgotten my blog, I've just been doing final projects, and the blogging has taken a back seat.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj9dz-aWf5g3LVKjsOO_aIuFnYq_r1zzWD9GMj0vy5LzUcyLVGbj1z-mfaTuViopb4WKqu_M3vK27DuSUzYlpy2IZ4JhgsmX95B6mwOT-RrCi18R9luCUcbQ4mJNrJwpXnAR9ganOljgwA/s1600/Snapshot_20120405_2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj9dz-aWf5g3LVKjsOO_aIuFnYq_r1zzWD9GMj0vy5LzUcyLVGbj1z-mfaTuViopb4WKqu_M3vK27DuSUzYlpy2IZ4JhgsmX95B6mwOT-RrCi18R9luCUcbQ4mJNrJwpXnAR9ganOljgwA/s400/Snapshot_20120405_2.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I got this</td></tr>
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I will return to telling you of my adventures before too long, don't worry. For now I'll just give you a hint.<br />
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I learned about win-win negotiations last weekend. I'll tell you more about that soon. For now, just know that the key takeaway was to focus on people's interests instead of their positions.<br />
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Today I learned to read <a href="http://www.ryanestrada.com/ebooks/Learn%20to%20Read%20Korean%20in%2015%20Minutes.pdf">Korean </a>because I was procrastinating. <br />
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The Carnegie Project update</h2>
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As many of you know, I'm reading through Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People, one chapter per week, and writing my reflections on it. Thanks for <a href="http://pathologydocs.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people.pdf">following along</a>.</div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">One thing I really appreciate about this book, is that the chapters are simply stories from people's lives, short anecdotes about how the principle applies. It's a light read.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Previous Principles</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Part A: Fundamental techniques in handling people</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://nathanwilliamsmbablog.blogspot.com/2012/02/midweek-update-how-to-win-friends-and.html">1. Don't criticize, condemn or complain</a></span><span style="font-size: small;"></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://nathanwilliamsmbablog.blogspot.com/2012/02/midweek-update-tcp-part-2-business.html">2. Give honest and sincere appreciation</a></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://nathanwilliamsmbablog.blogspot.com/2012/02/midweek-update-tcp-3-negotiation.html">3. Frame things in terms of what other people want</a></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Part B: Six ways to make people like you</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://nathanwilliamsmbablog.blogspot.com/2012/02/midweek-update-tcp4-ash-wednesday.html">4. Become genuinely interested in other people</a></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://nathanwilliamsmbablog.blogspot.com/2012/03/this-morning-i-had-great-idea.html">5. Smile</a></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://nathanwilliamsmbablog.blogspot.com/2012/03/midweek-update-kony-2012.html">6. Remember people's names</a></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://nathanwilliamsmbablog.blogspot.com/2012/03/midweek-update-how-to-repair-laptop-how.html">7. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves</a></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://nathanwilliamsmbablog.blogspot.com/2012/03/midweek-update-funding-kryptonite.html">8. - Talk in terms of the other person's interests.</a></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://nathanwilliamsmbablog.blogspot.com/2012/03/as-you-may-have-noticed-from-cop-out.html">9. - Make the other person feel important and do it sincerely</a></span></h3>
So like I said we had a negotiation seminar last week and I was one of the organizers. The speaker had amazing material and was practically donating his time and his exceptionally valuable knowledge, and we were really grateful. We had also learned from running these events in the past that it's important to make the speaker feel really valued, because he was really valuable and important.<br />
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So we took him to lunch with the organizing team, paid for it, got him a bottle of wine as a thank you... it's the little things. He wasn't expecting all that and I think he really appreciated it. I think and hope that making him feel like he was important to us paved the way for him coming back next year.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This week's principle</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: small;">On to part C - How to win people to your way of thinking</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: small;">10. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it</span></h3>
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General idea: </div>
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<li>A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still </li>
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<li>If you lose an argument, you lose... But if you win an argument, you still lose</li>
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<li> It's generally not worth arguing with someone.</li>
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This one runs counter to the way I've grown up. Now, I'm sure there is a time and place and purpose for arguments, however, this is just one instance in an increasing body of literature I've encountered that suggests that arguing is not effective for convincing people of something.<br />
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I suppose that if you're in an argument with person X, and the argument is public, the argument may be good for convincing the crowd around you that you are right, but it will only entrench person X in his position. Hence politics.<br />
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It reminds me of an article I read recently that said similarly, that facts do not convince people of truth, and that psychologically, people don't present facts, argument, or anything like that to others for the purpose of revealing truth. They do it to establish dominance over the other person. Since reading that I've found myself taking a whole different view on how I approach disagreements.<br />
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It's also related to the negotiation seminar I took. People state positions in arguments. I'm for this or against that. But really, what are their interests? Pride? Dominance in the conversation? Getting approval from you? Learning to see discourse this way takes some getting used to.</div>
</div>Nathan Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16194546828198375842noreply@blogger.com0