101 Dumbest Moments in Business

Lets take a few minutes and be thankful we didn't work for these people or companies:

Business 2.0 - 101 Dumbest Moments in Business

Selling other company's stuff

I've been helping someone source a material that we use. He isn't a customer, but the material was hard to find. I found out who our vendor was and passed it along. What a nice guy I am.

So this engineer calls me back and asks if I have the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) for this material. Turns out the supplier of this material 'only gives MSDS sheets to customers.'

How can he evaluate the material's suitability if he can't get an MSDS? How will he become a customer? So I'm the one who ends up making the sale for them. They don't deserve it. Maybe I should find him a different vendor, too!

The Google Dance plays an oldie I like

When I went to the Google Dance in the last few months, it was like I was sitting on the side, watching all the nerds dance with the pretty girls. The music was 'Florida-update', and I didn't know how to dance with it, anyway.

As of this morning, I am standing about where I was before the Florida-update. Yipee! Apparently this update is called Austin. Its got a familiar beat. Thank god, after a big AdWords bill for January.

Taking a quick look at the SERPs (search engine results pages), I see that this dance either isn't over, or has other surprises that aren't affecting me. I do notice that plural search terms are less likely to affect results. We'll see how things stand when the dance is over.

Creating an email newsletter

Someone asked me this morning about what email newsletter software to use. Here is my reply:

Check to see if your web-host includes 'mailman' software. I haven't used it, but I here it is a good tool. My host has 'majordomo' which is older and much harder to use.

There are a lot of web services out there, but most cost money or have advertising. For a small, infrequent list, they aren't worth it.

Most important is to have a plan and schedule for your newsletter. Also a consistent format.

Off topic post

I could make some tenuous connection between Martin Luther King Jr. and marketing, but, it isn't necessary. He really was a great salesperson, though.

Humor me and take a look at pictures of MLK and others in the Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March in 1965. Be sure to click on 'more photos' at the bottom. I really enjoyed these seeing these photos when I visited Montgomery last year. The exhibit at the Alabama Archives tells the complete story so well.

"Injustice anywhere hurts justice everywhere." - MLK Jr.

CRM selection--do the right thing

Today I will talk to a sales rep from Saleforce.com. But before I do, I read the article: Hosted CRM: A Great Debate or Much Ado About Nothing? (thanks to CRM Mastery.) At the very least, it will help temper my excitement for the benefits of an online CRM package.

However, much of what the article warns about ASP software doesn't apply to me, which is probably why I felt I could look at Salesforce. The one lingering argument about cost over time should be worth discussing. Yes, over the years an ASP software will cost more, at $70 a month per user, versus $30 a year for maintenance for Goldmine.

But I should also factor in the savings in IT support and my time in supporting in-house software. This is especially true if we deploy to all our sales reps. Some of them have a hard time cutting-and-pasting. I don't want to have to walk them thru a software upgrade or other fix.

Save some time in your life

Tired of waiting for Outlook to open? I was surprised how long it took to open on my new 2.8G XP box.

Turns out that the "Enable Instant Messaging" function in Outlook was the slow down. Go to: Tools/Options/Other to turn it off.

[Insert Microsoft rant here.] Ahh, that feels better.

Upcoming posts from B2Blog

Here are the news stories I am working on:

1. I am reopening evaluation of CRM software we’re really going to do it this year!). I am adding one potential vendor to my list...salesforce.com. I filled out a form at their website yesterday and haven’t heard anything yet. I am very interested in going to ‘ASP’ instead of client-server software.


2. I’ve been given the book Meaningful Marketing to read. It is a good book worth discussing. The lead author, Doug Hall, is from Brain Brew Radio, an NPR show that my local station doesn’t carry.


3. I’ve enlisted SEO blogger Serge Thibodeau from Rank for $ales to do a review of a site that is ranking high despite the devastating ravages of Google’s hilltop/florida algorithm change.
   
4. Over the years, business.com sales reps have been good at touching base with me, since I am using the PPC advertising. I recently sent them some detailed questions about how their listings are done. I have my concerns that I am paying for clicks that others are not.

How to tell when you are doing your job...

I just got off the phone with a new potential client who was on our website. I promised him an email with a price quote 'shortly'. And he asked what my name was. Not just because he wanted to hold me accountable for a promise to send a quote, but because we had started a relationship.

I always feel flattered when new prospects ask for my name or extension number. Of course, now that I am flattered, I am willing to help him in any way I can. Turns the tables on the conventional wisdom about salespeople and customers, doesn't it? How do people react to your staff when the call your company? Are they starting or building on a relationship?

Is anybody out there? (like me)

Some digging turned up the entire article about blogging and b2blog.com at the Grand Rapids Press. The title in the paper was different than is on the web: Confessions of a blogger.

"The purpose is to let me express myself," said Jung, 36. "I feel comfortable expressing myself in writing. I have this thought, and the only way I can make it concrete is by putting it into writing, having that invisible person to talk to. It becomes your soap box.

"At the very least, it allows me to express my thoughts and observations, whether anybody's listening or not."

Hey, I'm a famous blogger now!

The local Grand Rapids Press did an article about blogging which featured me and Mike Boyink. They don't post 'Flair' articles to the web, but you can see my picture and the start of the article here for a week.

The latest on web search

A new year, and new news on web search:

Thomas Register is now combining their multitude of Search-EZ sites into one comprehensive site called thomasregisterdirectory.com. They might be reacting to the changes in Google, which buried the EZ sites. The new site still has a PageRank of 0, so they aren't ahead yet, but give it a little time.

Speaking of Google, someone forwarded a great article on the latest changes in their algorithm. The change brings two new terms to learn:

1. Hilltop--the patented tool that Google is now using to optimize its results.
2. LocalRankings--I've been ignoring discussions about this, but this is actually the new tool that Hilltop uses to weed out irrelevant PageRank weighting.

The article says that only about 20% of a page's ranking is attributable to actual search-optimization, the rest is weighted by Hilltop and the more familiar PageRank. The ranking does, however, of course, depend on the right words still being there. Its just that your power to improve your ranking is limited to 20%.

Action item: Time to go looking for more incoming links from 'authoritative' sources.

Top ten posts of 2003

History is always a good teacher. So, before I get too involved in planning what I am going to do in 2004, I re-read all my posts of 2003 and came up with this list. Its also a good way for a new visitor to get to know what this blog is about quickly:

1. You are a marketer...your client is not a marketer--so read this:
   Six things you should know about marketing to engineers


2. I suggest a "Daily Sucker" (and the website still isn't fixed):
   My submission makes it to Father Flanders


3. Thomas Register put on an interesting seminar. Here is some of what I learned:
   More about the seminar


4. B2B telemarketer that called me repeatedly gets caught!
   Its a Scam busted!


5. Watchword for 2004, if you haven't already blown it in 2003:
   Is your product development broken?


6. We all feel trapped by red tape--do you know how much it costs a salesperson?
   Administrative Hassles Hurt Effectiveness


7. Read the PDF file I put together about using email effectively:
   Making the most of email


8. Be sure to follow the link to another post from this one:
   Another reader question about Globalspec


9. In B2B, sex doesn't sell, trust does:
   A Revolutionary Marketing Strategy ...Trust Me


10. Its always good to laugh at someone else's ineptitude:
    Marketing nitwits
    
    

More about some of my ideas for 2004 are coming up next, thanks to a good book.