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| Volume 9, Issue 5 |
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In This Issue:
 Raising Bill Gates
 Want better performance? Say you're sorry
 Everybody's business: The sales profession: Attention must still be paid
 Chronicles of a sales leader: Tough times call for solid leadership
Are Web-savvy competitors redirecting your customers?
Smart presentations: Trash the title slide
Responding but not clicking
12 workplace phrases you probably don't know…but should
 Online ads not so bulletproof after all: Forecast
Domino's and the nose-cheese dilemma
 The Zappos way of managing
 How Facebook mucks up office life
 Best of WES 2009: The top 10 BlackBerry products and services
 Suiting up for customer loyalty: Email that fits
Reading your buyers' digital body language: A how-to guide
 The grape divide
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Raising Bill Gates
Spend time with the family of Bill Gates, and eventually someone will mention the water incident.
The future software mogul was a headstrong 12-year-old and was having a particularly nasty argument with his mother at the dinner table. Fed up, his father threw a glass of cold water in the boy's face. "Thanks for the shower," the young Mr. Gates snapped. The incident lives in Gates family lore not just for its drama but also
because it was a rare time that Bill Gates Sr., father of his famous namesake, lost his cool. The argument presaged a turning point in the life of a tempestuous boy that would set him on course to become the Bill Gates whom the public knows as co-founder of Microsoft Corp. and the world's richest man. Behind the Bill Gates
success story is the other William Gates. The senior Mr. Gates balanced a family thrown off kilter by a boy who appeared to gain the intellect of an adult almost overnight. He served as...
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Want better performance? Say you're sorry
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Apology is not a get-out-ofjail- free card, but it’s less costly than the alternatives.
In today’s unforgiving business climate, what exactly should CEOs say when they make a mistake or suffer a setback of their own making? There are really only two options. Plan A is to hunker down and hope that no one notices, disclose nothing, admit less, be stingy with facts and, when pinned down, delay and blame forces
beyond your control. The business, under Plan A, is a fortress. The only protection is to keep the moats filled and the gates lowered. Besides, apologizing shows weakness and indecision. Leaders can’t allow their followers to get rattled at this perilous time. Isn’t an apology akin to an admission of liability that will be
turned against you when the lawsuits start flying? The lawyers, God bless them, will always give you cover when you go with Plan A. Plan B is to recognize that business is now conducted in a hyperconnected world where transparency rules, secrets are impossible, information cannot be controlled and accountability is assigned
regardless of how a CEO ducks and weaves. The business, under Plan B, is akin to a college campus where the unfettered flow of information lets everyone see deeply into who they are, what they stand for and how much integrity they have. This accountability allows you to turn the conditions of transparency to your advantage.
Plan B means acknowledging the facts, accepting responsibility and offering not just an apology, but an effective one. (See sidebar “The Five Rs of Effective Apology.”)...
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Everybody's business: The sales profession: Attention must still be paid
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ASIDE from some gardening and baby-sitting in my neighborhood when I was a child, my first summer job was in the summer of 1962, just before my first year of college. It was at Shoe Giant, a large discount shoe store in Langley Park, in Prince
George’s County of Maryland, and I got the job thanks to a high school pal who also worked there.
The job entailed selling shoes. The shoes were tossed about in giant bins and some were stored in boxes. Once the customers had picked out the kind of shoes they wanted, my task was to find the right size, close the sale, write up a receipt with my sales clerk number on it and escort the customer to the cashier. (A pair of shoes
there was rarely more than $10 — and was often less.) I made not much more than a dollar an hour, as well as a small commission. I recall that my first week’s paycheck was about $70. I did not stay at that job for long. [Even after all these years, and after many other jobs, my mind often returns to my brief stint as a shoe
salesman. It was then, amid that tangle of sandals, sneakers, oxfords, high heels and brogans, that I discovered the ballet that is sales. Forever after, I have had a deep respect for selling and for salesmen and saleswomen. Sales — when done right — is more than a job. It is an art...]
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Chronicles of a sales leader: Tough times call for solid leadership
Downward revenue and earnings reports dominate business headlines, and it seems impossible to avoid a conversation about the economy with friends and co-workers. Yet despite the economy, sales leaders are likely to see no adjustment to their quota.
Throughout the years I've felt the effects of challenging external circumstances more times than I can count. But I've yet to receive a voicemail or e-mail informing me my number will be softened to accommodate difficult times. Instead, these situations prompt more frequent forecast calls and increased pressure to drive to
the number. Whether uncertain times are specific to the region you lead, your company, your industry or a broader scenario like today, all sales leaders will need to lead their team through a difficult and challenging economic environment at some point in their careers. And when it's here, you can count on increased pressure to
produce top-line results. So regardless of how things are looking for you today, here are some common pitfalls and insights that you’d do well to be aware of...
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Are Web-savvy competitors redirecting your customers?
The Internet can be a phenomenal marketing tool for your business. But it's also a tool for competitors who may—unbeknownst to you—be using your trademarks to draw customers to their own Web sites.
Most Internet users are happy to enter a word into a search engine such as Yahoo or Google to access information, but few understand how the Internet really works. Yet for companies trying to protect their trademarks and intellectual property online—and for those who want to avoid being sued for trademark
infringement—understanding how search engines work is an important first step. Most search engines, including Google, use "crawler" software that "visits" a Web site and reads the site's actual content, as well as its "meta tags." A meta tag is very much part of the Web site, although it is not visible on the site itself. Meta tags
include words that represent the site's content, plus information about the site's creator as well as how frequently the site is updated. [Being what they are—creative—marketers are now using meta tags and other strategies to direct
consumers surfing the Web to their company's Web pages. As the following fictional account shows, such methods are not appreciated by the competition...]
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Smart presentations: Trash the title slide
If you were in the audience, which would you rather experience: a boring recitation or a compelling conversation?
No contest, right? So why do so many people lean toward "boring recitation" in their presentations? Habit? Fear of screwing up (and thus the crutch of text-heavy slides)? Maybe they don't know better? Or they do know better, but have to give an "approved" (and deadly) presentation. No matter the reason, there's no reason why
you have to be part of that group. You know when the tone is set for a presentation? With the very first slide—even before you open your mouth, if that slide happens to be displayed before you begin. Imagine that: You're on the way to engaging your
audience or turning them off before you say a single word. Sorry to be the voice of doom, but that's really the way it is. Why? ...
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Responding but not clicking
Clicking on an online display ad isn't the only way of responding to it, emphasizes a new iProspect report on a survey of Internet users.
While 31 percent of respondents to the survey (conducted online in January by Forrester Consulting) said they'd responded to such ads in the past six months by
clicking on them, nearly as many—27 percent—said their initial response was to do a search for the product, brand or company. (iProspect is itself in the search-engine-marketing business.) Another 21 percent of respondents said they...
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12 workplace phrases you probably don’t know…but should
Getting along with people sometimes requires speaking their language, especially in the workplace. One of the ways employees try to emphasize their smartness is with specialized vocabulary.
Due to the nature of a lot of people’s work, technical language and terminology often is necessary, but buzzwords tend to make you sound pretentious. On the other hand, if you are working on a team full of buzzword-addicted co-workers, you’ll need to fit in. Here are some explanations for not-so-common workplace lingo, so next
time you are at the water cooler or in a meeting, you’ll understand what’s going on:...
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Online ads not so bulletproof after all: Forecast
It’s become almost a truism that marketers are running to measurable media in this tough economy, to ensure that their ad spending is working to full potential. And most observers say that means a strong shift in favor of online channels.
But that trend doesn’t mean online ad spending will thrive in this period of slashed overall marketing budgets. And sure enough, a new forecast from media analysts Screen Digest revises the agency’s 2009 predictions for U.S. online ad spending downward. The forecast now says that spending on Web marketing in America will
decline by almost 5% this year, mostly because of cutbacks related to the down economy. Screen Digest researchers are keying into the recent study produced by the Interactive Advertising Bureau of U.S. Web ad activity in 2008. That IAB study found...
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Domino's and the nose-cheese dilemma
How do you keep control of your brand image when employees, with cameras in hand and content-sharing social sites at the ready, start horsing around and putting the results up on the Internet? And just as importantly, how do you respond when the Web takes those videos viral?
Those are two problems currently facing pizza maker Domino’s, on the heels of a YouTube video that shows a pair of knuckleheaded employees, in logo’ed uniforms and caps, sticking sandwich makings up their noses (and worse) before inserting them into menu items. [They’re now not only fired but have reportedly been arrested and
charged with food contamination. The video has been pulled from YouTube “due to a copyright claim” by the filmer, and the account she used to upload the clip has been closed. But you can see them here. (You’re gonna want a light lunch after this.)
What does a brand do when this happens? In Domino’s case, the best they could, apparently...]
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The Zappos way of managing
How Tony Hsieh uses relentless innovation, stellar customer service, and a staff of believers to make Zappos.com an e-commerce juggernaut -- and one of the most blissed-out businesses in America.
"What would make you happier in your life?" Tony Hsieh asks me this question as we sit at a booth with half a dozen young people in one of those absurdly lavish lounges that can be found only in Las Vegas... [Hsieh helped start Zappos in 1999 as an online shoe store, and the company has since expanded to all manner of goods.
Zappos booked $1 billion in gross sales in 2008, 20 percent better than the year before. It has been profitable since 2006. At a time when most business leaders are retrenching, Hsieh is thinking big. In late 2006, he launched an outsourcing program to handle selling, customer service, and shipping for other companies, and last
December, he started an educational website for small businesses that charges them $39.95 a month to tap Zappos executives for advice. Hsieh has said Zappos will eventually move beyond retail to businesses such as hotels and banking -- anything where customer service is paramount. "I wouldn't rule out a Zappos airline that's
just about the best customer service," he announced at the Web 2.0 conference last fall. But Hsieh, 35, isn't interested in talking about any of this right now... What he really cares about is making Zappos's employees and customers feel really, really good. This is not because Hsieh is a nice guy (though he is a very nice guy),
but because he has decided that his entire business revolves around one thing: happiness. Everything at Zappos serves that single end. Other business innovators work with software code or circuit boards or molecular formulas. Hsieh prefers to
work with something altogether more complex and volatile: human beings themselves...]
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How Facebook mucks up office life
The [Friend List] tools are not that easy to find."
Michael Argast, Sophos Plc.
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Managing a workforce is already a challenging job; now Facebook and other social networks raise a host of sticky new situations.
Imagine walking into a meeting and encountering not just your current co-workers, but all your colleagues and managers from jobs past, along with your spouse, your college drinking buddies, your Senior Prom date, and, off in a corner, your adolescent son, busy telling your boss how many hours he logs in every day playing
Grand Theft Auto. It's not a nightmare, it's Facebook. If you're anything like the 200 million users on the burgeoning social network, you probably didn't give enough thought when you first signed on to which friend requests you accepted, or whom you invited via the Friend Finder. Now you've got a dangerously random group of friends
and friends-of-friends sharing -- and over-sharing -- information, sometimes without your even being aware of it. The "he told two friends, and they told two friends" syndrome can be embarrassing in your personal life, but potentially much more serious in the world of work. [In short, the more ubiquitous Facebook becomes, the
greater its potential to muck up office life -- and make your job as a manager just that much more treacherous. And these are just the accidents. The sea of information on Facebook is also starting to attract information pirates, identify thieves and malware distributors. The best defense against these threats is...
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Suiting up for customer loyalty: Email that fits
Loyalty must be earned over time. So perhaps it's not surprising that Men's Wearhouse (www.menswearhouse.com) took a multiyear approach to testing how to move from a pure promotional email stream to a loyalty-building newsletter program.
That discipline and stick-to-itiveness is admirable on its face, but even more so because so few retailers do it. Men's Wearhouse sells suits. To men. Yes, it also sells casual clothing, and shirts and ties, and some of its customers are female, but the core business is great-fitting, affordable men's suits. Its sweet spot is
the "makeover," as a customer overhauls his entire wardrobe. The buying pattern is an intense onetime buy, with a few infrequent follow-ups, rather than the typical retail stream of smaller purchases made frequently over time. Yet, in 2007, the company was sending...
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Reading your buyers' digital body language: A how-to guide
Marketing has undergone a fundamental change over the last decade. More buyers have moved online to educate themselves on the market and available products, and our ability to guide them through a "sales process" has diminished.
Today's buyer is in control, has access to numerous high-quality sources of information, and goes through a "buying process" at his or her own pace. This transition means that our sales teams are no longer required as a conduit of information. Industry websites, vendor sites, blogs, social media, and search all
make the required information readily available and, by doing so, leave the sales representative out of the room. As a result, it's impossible for the sales rep to read a buyer's physical body language to understand what aspects of a message are of interest and determine whether the prospect wants to move forward. Marketing teams
must therefore instead read a buyer's digital body language—his or her Web activities, email responses, search activities, and engagements in events and demos—to understand what messages are working and where each buyer is in his or her
buying process. To understanding a buyer's digital body language, marketers should focus their actions on four main areas:...
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The grape divide
A handful of American wineries believe they should use pinot meunier as nature intended-- not as the French dictate.
When Dena Drews, cofounder of the small Amalie Robert winery in Dallas, Ore., looks out over her sloped vineyard 60 miles southwest of Portland, one small portion of it appears silver rather than lush green. What she is looking at is not a crop infection or morning dew; it's little hairs on the leaves of the vines. That's the
trademark of the pinot meunier variety. Meunier (moon-yay) is French for "miller," an allusion to the flourlike appearance on the leaves. Never heard of it? Not surprising...
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