Who's your best salesperson?

I had an overall pleasant purchase experience over the weekend. Our clothes washer wasn't doing the high speed spin, an indication of a transmission repair. Just like a car, this can be expensive, so my wife and I decided to invest in a new washer.

I headed out to shop around solo--a great strategy because I can always tell the salesperson that I'll need my wife to take a look before deciding. First Home Depot, then Best Buy, and last at Lowes. The guys at HD and Lowes were polite and helpful.

I was nervous walking into Best Buy, expecting a sales shark, despite their 'no commission' pledge. I actually walked around the store once so I could spy out the sales people and tactics. I had gotten by the clutch of staff at the front of the appliance area un-noticed, but was soon approached by a cheerful saleswoman. She told me that her service guy recommends Whirlpool...then she walked over and pulled him over (turns out he was one of the people in that clutch).

So I talked to Ron for a few minutes. Says he sees a dozen Maytags to repair a week, compared with one or two Whirlpool. Then said he told his kids to buy Whirlpool, as well as the salesperson I was talking to. Then he said that Whirlpool has only ever had two mechanical systems for their washers, while the other companies have had several, and "they still can't get it right". He also helped confirmed my suspicions about my existing washer.

I headed out to Lowe's after that, where the salesperson recommended a Maytag as a good basic choice. While he was trying to help me, I had to feel he was not well informed.

Best Buy did everything right as far as pricing, model selection, and sales. But, by far it was the service person who made the decision easy. The fact that the sales and service people communicating and acted as a team certainly was a competitive advantage. I wonder if Home Depot or Lowe's even has a serviceperson on staff!

More on Thomas/FindWhat deal

Here is some analysis from InfoCommerce Report on the deal, from their weekly newsletter:

ICR wondered why Thomas has set up a joint venture instead of just licensing FindWhat's technology, and after further research, it became clear that this announcement is much bigger than it might seem. What Thomas and FindWhat are planning to do, in effect, is create a specialized version of FindWhat for the global industrial market. The new venture plans to set up a network of distribution partner sites in the same way that FindWhat has built a network of mass market consumer sites.

What we've got here is two huge developments rolled up in one: a major directory publisher moving to the pay per click model, and the launch of a specialized business-to-business pay-per-click network This is an innovative and aggressive response by a directory publisher to the pay-per-click phenomenon, which has adversely impacted most advertising-based directory publishers.

True students of database marketing will find the link at the end of this article useful in understanding the (pdf) different business models for selling database info.

Thomas tries is another way...

Thomas Global (international division, not USA's Register) is going to try a new portal approach using PPC advertising technology from FindWhat.

Aren't portals an idea whose idea has come and gone? Thomas should have enough experience to know that. There are some good ideas here, but what will drive users to use it?

FindWhat, Thomas To Create B2B Portal: "Also, "a good proportion of advertisers sign up on their own with FindWhat," said Savage. Thomas Publishing has 600 to 700 representatives selling ads in the U.S, but hot overseas market China, for example, isn't covered. With this system, any company with a valid credit card can buy advertising, Savage said."

Marketing: Its a puzzle

Here's a great, easy-to-read article by Nadji Tehrani (Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine) about how lead generation is connected to sales and marketing and CRM. It tells it like it is and how it should be. It justifies my feelings that marketing is getting more complex.

Why Lead Generation?: "As vital as lead generation is, it is mind-boggling that so many companies ignore this phenomenally important part of business and simply give it casual attention, if any at all."

Geek Week III--Creating community

Geeks aren't prone to community, unless it is online. With that thought in mind, I recently installed a discussion board on my church's website. It was surprisingly easy to do.

Here are the instructions I found for non-code-geek like me to get the FREE phpbb board installed.

It was cool just to be able to upload something like this. While some pundits (i.e. cluetrain types) talk about conversations with and between customers, the practical application for most industrial marketing is less compelling right now. It is useful, however, for us to know what tools there are out there and how to implement them.

They have just posted a new version, so I guess I'll learn how to upgrade online php packages next.

Geek Week Part II--Firefox Browser

If you read the instructions I posted yesterday for using iCal, you will see I recommended using the Firefox Browser. Firefox used to be called Firebird, and is a mozilla derivation, which means its roots are in Netscape.

With Internet Explorer development stalled by Microsoft, except in conjunction with new OS (is the Dept. of Justice on this?), I was thrilled as I found much new functionality in Firefox. It's nothing fantastic, but there is an obvious effort to think about the user. Less header space, for example, lets you see more of a page at one time. Password storage is also more robust.

When you install, it automatically imports the IE6 Favorites. And I've found very little trouble viewing web pages that probably were only optimized for IE6. The only trouble I've had was getting the Java plug-in to install correctly.

Go for it! And don't be afraid to make it your default browser.

Geek Week Part I--iCal Calendars

I've gotten to play with some different software recently and wanted to dedicate this week sharing it with you.

Last month I posted that I had started playing with the iCal standard for Calenders. I still remain enthusiastic for what this can do for people and organizations. If people embrace the standard, it can be very powerful. From last post:

What's facinating is that you can run several calendars on your PC, and subscribe to others from the internet. I could have one integrated calendar that shows me my wife's schedule, my personal one, my church's, and my co-workers'. You can update and syncronize from any location, if it's posted to the web. There is even a great open source tool that displays the calendar on a website.

That post points at some possible resources I was checking out. Since then, I've set the calendar application for our church office. Next, I'm going to use it to keep a family calendar. I wrote instructions on using iCal (Word), both for the end-user to use, and the 'webservant' to set-up. Everything to do this is FREE.

Next, part II is about Firefox.

Trade show rant...

I was at the Pittcon show in Chicago earlier this week. A big show with a lot of 10 and 20 foot booths. Very few feebies to be had. But an amazing amount of candy bowls.

If you are going to put a candy bowl out at a show, fill it with something other than Starlight mints or a Brach's assortment!! I saw one guy who had jelly beans in a bowl...loose jelly beans...eww!

You spent $3,000 to get the booth space, why go cheap on the candy???

Statistical quality for marketing?

I'm not a direct mail/email campaigner (yet), but here is a neat sounding tool. A software program that allows you to test response to different variables in a message. Testing your program is nothing new, but the software makes sure you test the variables in a way that can be statistically analyzed to create the most effective program.

I found an article about this technique in Quality Magazine. Seems the quality people think that marketers 'wing it' and look for glitzy campaigns by ad agencies who don't understand the customer.

The software is a good idea for simple campaigns, but the company also does consulting for more complex programs. For $499, the software has to be a bargain if you can crank up the results of your campaign.

Small biz doesn't even know about PPC advertising

Found an article about small businesses awareness and use of PPC (pay-per-click) advertising: Small businesses not on the pay-per-click bandwagon yet, says new research

While the survey shows only 11% of SME (small-medium-enterprises) surveyed are even aware of PPC, "of those who use pay-per-click, the average business allocates 23% of its advertising to pay-per-click."

Wow, 23%! But to make this data useful, it would be helpful to have the demographics of the companies. If these are B2B or B2C, local or national makes a hellava difference. PPC makes sense for my business, for others it doesn't.

Easier file preparation for printing is possible!

Last month I complained about the hassle in sending out a file for printing. Well, I've found that things are improving.

This week I produced a flyer for a tradeshow we will be at next week. I used our local Allegra Printing office to produce 200 pieces on their Indigo digital printer. The process was much smoother--here's how to do it:

1. Go to their website, create an account and download their printing software. The software is a variation of Acrobat, I think.


2. Print your document using the 'Allegra printer' in your print dialog box.


3. Go back to their website, log on, and create a new job. When you click on a button to upload, it automatically pulls the file from your PC (no browsing).


4. Then you need to wait for the server to process the document and send you a link to proof it. This took a while the first time I did this. The link took me to a page where I could pull up a PDF file to view. This PDF isn't high-rez, which made me a little more critical of one of my images, so I clicked 'reject' and tried again. When you accept, it notifies the printer and they can roll with the job.

Now with all that said, I can't say it was perfect. The printers got concerned when I rejected my proof twice. Turns out they are new to this software and weren't sure if I was having trouble with it, so they called me (nice service, though). They also asked me to stop by for a view of an actual proof. This step is probably a legacy from the older style of handling print jobs. As they and their clients get comfortable, I'm sure this step will be dropped.

I'm happy that I got to use whatever file types and software I wanted to generate my print job. Overall, very cool!

Another marketing nitwit

This nitwit has a one-two punch. It is from trade magazine T&MW's email newsletter. The nitwit had purchased the top advertising slot on this newsletter.

1. Marketing speak Here is their text ad:
The Future of Test - Available Today

Product life cycles and manufacturing costs keep shrinking, but testing costs aren't. Higher throughput and more complex products are putting greater demands on test equipment. And then there's the issue of test asset obsolescence, especially where there are long product life cycles. Here's the solution: www.aeroflex.com.

So are they a leasing company or a consulting service perhaps? I clicked on the URL to find out... (I knew this would be good!)

2. Bad landing page
The URL links to a thirteen page Word document. A Word document???? It is a white paper that apparently describes their product and its benefits. My eyes quickly glaze over as a I scroll thru the document looking for an answer, which isn't readily apparent. They expect engineers to read this paper to see if it is relevant to them? Geez.

Yahoo's new SiteMatch

If you are like me, you got a vague email from Yahoo/Overture about their new SiteMatch service.

While it was clear that this was a pay-per-click service, it didn't say much more about its value. Apparently you are guaranteeing that URLs in the program will be crawled and ranked in their new search engine which 'serves 75% of internet users'. But will those pages rank any higher than sites listed for free? What do I really get for my money?

I turned to the ihelpyou forums for answers. Webmasters and SEOs there likened it to LookSmarts paid inclusion model, which MSN recently dropped. Informative thread, angry thread

The informative thread led to this post by a Yahoo staffer, which helps explains things. SiteMatch allows sites with dynamic URLs and frequently changing content to be indexed on a regular basis. No other real benefit is described. One would imagine that it would also allow URLs that aren't being indexed to be included, but because SiteMatch has a quality review of submissions, you would think that a URL not worthy of the free index wouldn't be worthy of a manual approval.

With a static, unchanging website and good rankings on the new Yahoo, I see no reason to join this program.