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I’ve been slacking on posting to this blog, but not at work. Dumping my sales tasks and jumping to marketing has taken longer than I had hoped. I’ve really wanted to get a more in-depth review of the status of Thomas Publishing Company (TPC) now that we know the Green Books are dead.

First off, the Books aren’t dead yet. The announcement was that the 2006 edition (yet to be published) would be the last. TPC is promoting the longevity of this last edition, which I think is just an attempt to keep print advertisers from jumping ship. Yes, they will last longer, but will anyone look at them—As Linda Rigano of TPC admits, “All of our buyers are online.” Even still, they have about 6,000 print advertisers in the 2005 issue.

Published court documents regarding the ownership of TPC document the change in revenue sources between 1993 and 2002. Its surprising how their income continued to grow until 2001. What is most important for advertisers is that their subscription income (from businesses, colleges, etc.) dropped from 17M to 1M in a span of 5 years. Even at a low $50 a subscription, that would be just 20,000 sets of Green Books in 2002.

So, we can all agree that the print directory deserves the death it faces. But what about TPC? Can they survive selling their online directory? The gossipy types can listen to buzz and snipes, but it doesn’t really prove anything. Overall, I think that each online directory/service has its own major flaws, and Thomas has now escaped their biggest one—but they now have to sharply address how their other flaws before their business quickly shrinks. What other flaws: The god-awful number of product categories and their lack of direct control of listings, for a start.

I personally think that TPC’s greatest opportunity is to develop websites for their clients. A lot of these smaller industrial companies are still so clueless about running a website. But TPC isn’t geared for doing this, as far as I can tell. Ms. Rigano’s comments alludes to this need, too: “If a client doesn’t have a good Web site, it won’t do us any good to sell them a traffic-based program.”

Mike Boyink explains the root cause why church websites suck…because the church doesn’t have to pay for them. I think as web-geeks, we’ve all been asked (or volunteered) to do a pro-bono website, probably with poor results. Mike’s nailed it on the head.

“I’m seeing a pattern here, and it angers me. It angers me that, as the church, we can always find the time and motivation to re-implement a site on a different backend, or change the site architecture, or implement new navigational widgets.

But try…just try…to find someone to invest that same effort in writing interesting, valuable content. “

Read more: Church Webmasters – Stop Working for Free
And church website guru Mean Dean’s reaction

Every so often I wonder why I haven’t posted my two rules for fixing things. This is a theory that I’ve proven over and over to myself. If you are the go-to guy when something doesn’t work, these will make you look smart (or embarrass the requester, depending on your style).

1. Jiggle the wires.
2. Check for gas.

Probably this is as much as the typical tech-support guy knows how to do, but its surprising how often that is all you need.

Interesting reading if you sell to engineering types, but nothing particularly earth-shattering:
“A new Test & Measurement World reader survey shows how the Internet continues to transform the work lives of engineers”

The accompanying article How leading vendors lure website vistors is much more interesting to us marketers. This is a glimpse into the world of four top engineering websites. Their trend-setting will certainly raise the expectations of engineers from other websites, like this from Agilent: “The company also has significantly increased Web content for older products, including manuals and application notes, to help customers get more value out of existing assets.”

Thomas Register Print Edition Nixed

“It has been our strategy for the last 10 years to eventually eliminate the print properties. It was just a matter of how long it would take.”

Gee, what a surprise! Thanks Mike for getting this to me first.

Just when I need encouragement, I got it from the Big Picture Guy. True to his name, his comments to my post “Turn on the Juice” looked at the ‘big picture’ of what it means to be a marketing manager–what the expectations of upper management would be. I’ve read and re-read his comments, and I hope you do, to.

– Marketers are the champions of change. They spearhead change. They are thus, by definition, leaders. As leaders, they are called upon to demonstrate vision, drive, courage, persistence. There is no question of motivating themselves; the important thing is to motivate others, to build excitement in others, including sales reps and customers.

– Selling is tactical. Marketing is both strategic and tactical. Marketing sees the big picture and manages the small details.

Up to now, most of what I’ve done has been tactical marketing. Its an important job, which is why I started this blog–if you can’t take care of the details, your marketing efforts are useless. BPG shows me where the new part of my job is—leadership of strategy. It will be a task to prove myself, especially since this job hadn’t existed before. Thanks man!

Read more from the Big Picture Guy.

Sometimes I have to wonder what takes so long to get an order these days. About half of the items on my May forecast haven’t closed because the order is trapped in red-tape. You’d think technology would make getting an order easier these days.

Here’s an email from a Fortune-50 customer of ours that is just amazing, sharing what she has to go thru to buy a $15,000 test unit:

I finally completed the paperwork, meetings, signatures (it took a total of 14!), to get approval to buy this equipment, then sent it all to someone in India who will hopefully send an AR number to me tomorrow. Then I can write the order. Of course, if your company is a new vendor for XXX, then they have to have paperwork done in Mexico to add a vendor to our system, and that takes 2 to 10 days. I know it doesn’t seem it, but we really do want to get our equipment as soon as possible, particularly because the old junky one we were using broke down last week.

How does one sustain the energy to do your job sometimes? For all my years of being a salesperson, I’ve found that the surprise of the next incoming call can drive my energy. Even if in a slump, a phone call causes me to automatically ‘turn on’…its a reactionary type of energy.

Now I will be a self-directed marketing manager, and my biggest fear is a loss of energy and excitement. If I start looking for external sources, I’m going to end up annoying co-workers and managers. I have a ‘to do’ list started to help keep me focused, but is it enoug?

Here are some posts I’ve run across lately that help me realize how to not only suvive, but thrive.

Where I’ve been: The lazy salesperson as described by Jim Logan
“Some sales people are afraid to ask for an order. I understand many of their reasons; none are acceptable.”
Reaction: More call-to-actions in all my marketing materials. Help get to the important questions that Jim says need to be asked. They are important questions, regardless of the answers.

Where I am afraid I’ll go: The Curse of the Yawn as warned by Sean Woodruff
“Curse the yawn with something different, imaginative, outstanding in the eyes of your prospect.”
Reaction: We can’t settle for ‘good enough’ customer service or marketing. Turn on the juice and show you care about your customers.

Here’s the full monty with ideas to thrive: Are you fully engaged? from Michael McLaughlin at the new Revenue Roundtable blog:
“3. To achieve full engagement, you have to train yourself in the same deliberate way that elite athletes do.
4. Full engagement is not achieved by conscious will and discipline, but by the use of positive rituals.”
Reaction: Deliberate? Train myself? Wow, can I do that consistantly? Create positive rituals? Yea, I guess I will have to learn how do to this, just like a pro athlete.

Actually, the advice at the Revenue Roundtable sounds a lot like cognitive behavior therapy…you can’t directly control your emotions, but you can control your behavior…then the emotions will adjust.

Do you have behaviors or rituals that help keep you juiced up?

Salespeople love winning ‘sole source’ business because they don’t have to compete. For their company, and even their customer, it may not be the best thing.

Here’s an outtake from a buyer’s perspective at ThomasNet’s Industrial Market Trends blog/newsletter (bold highlights are mine, as well as the collective ‘vendor’ reaction):

Single Sourcing: Pros & Cons:
Buyer’s Pros:
1. Having a single source means less work to qualify the source and probably less administrative effort in dealing with only one supplier. This is a real advantage in a highly technical product where significant engineering effort is required to qualify or use a product.
Vendor: Yay, less work for the salesperson, but with a risk of complacency.

2. Since all of your volume is given to one source, the buyer has maximized his leverage based on total quantity. The buyer should make sure that this point is emphasized during the negotiations concerning price, delivery, etc.
Vendor: Be prepared for repeated requests for discounts because the buyer has no alternative way to save money.

3. The supplier should feel a special obligation to help the buyer in terms of availability, etc. Again, in the process of awarding this business to the supplier, the fact that the buyerÂ?s company is relying on the supplier for material availability should be made clear.
Vendor: Are you willing to accept this special obligation? In sickness and in health?

Cons:
1. It is more difficult for the buyer to be sure that he is keeping his company competitive if there is only one source.
Vendor: We once had a long-distance salesperson who kept our business by repeatedly visiting to see how she could save us money. You should plan to do something similar.

2. In periods of tight supply, the buyer may be at a disadvantage in being able to ask other suppliers to accept orders.
Vendor: Can you prove your company’s flexibility, so the buyer is confident you can handle their orders?

3. Other suppliers may lose interest in trying to compete for the business if they see that a sole source situation is likely to persist.
Vendor: Yay for us.

4. There is a real risk if the single source has a catastrophic event, gets bought by your competitor, has financial problems, etc.
Vendor: What if something happens to the buyer’s company? Can we afford to lose the business?

While I’ve had some recent run-ins with whiney leads who don’t want to be contacted, they are the exceptions. MarketingVox confirms that assumption with this post this morning: Study: Same-Day Lead Follow Up Boosts Satisfaction:

“88 percent of those contacted on the same day said they were happy, where only 70 percent said the same when contacted more than four days after initially indicating interest.”

The post leads to BtoBonline, which apparently has a vague press release from KnowledgeStorm. Still its good news that most leads are happy to hear from a company promptly, and that personal response only increases the satisfaction.

I still remember filling out a ‘contact us’ form at a website five or six years ago, then getting a phone call from a salesperson within 15 minutes. He answered my questions and took me back to their website to show me some more product details. I was amazed at how effective it was for him to be that prompt to respond.

UPDATE: Brian Carroll has more to say about this report and the ‘need for speed’ when it comes to lead follow-up. Listen-up to the lead guru!