The end is nigh, for me at least!

Pundits have commented for some time now that Search Engine Optimization and Paid Search is an advertising strategy which benefits only Google and marketing experts.  For novices it’s a black hole to pore their future down.

Forget voice mail and email - the new solution for internal communication is (don’t laugh) Twitter http://twitter.com/

A couple of months ago somebody dragged me in to another one of these new Internet based services.  To be honest I couldn’t see any “real world” as opposed to “social time wasting” use for it.  The main page talks about microblogging and “what are you doing?” type applications and I was already swamped by email and fed up with being invited to a host of networking platforms.

The other day Marc, of http://www.redlinesoftware.com/ , who tends to be my coach in things like this, suggested Twitter might be an interesting tool for publishing information to Front Office Box users.

Taking another look really didn’t change my opinion, but having exchanged a couple of “tweets” with Marc and Ian at http://www.wecando.biz/ something started to dawn.

Watching a video presentation on social media marketing I listened to a business leader explaining the best way to contact him was via Twitter.  He never answered the phone to blank caller IDs and rarely read his email. All communication with his network was through Twitter.

Maybe there is something there, after all.

Digging deeper into the help files and settings several interesting functions reveal themselves.

• The standard format for Twitter is the user makes micro (max 140 character) posts - tweets - to his/her page.  Other Twitter users have the option to “follow” people of their choice, in this way they get to display other people’s posts on their own page.
• A typical tweet is published to the entire world, with followers picking them up in the usual publish/subscribe model, but there are variations with the possibility to reply to a tweet and also to send direct messages to individuals.
• All of this is web page based but the app really comes into its own when phones are enabled.  Now the tweets, replies and messages are all sent via SMS to and from authorized devices.  This gives us publish/subscribe using SMS, anywhere there’s a cell phone connection, plus reply and direct message.
• Apple iPhone users also have the option to instal Twitterific, a downloadable app that simplifies the view, post, answer and message functions.
• The option that transforms this “social time wasting” tool into a genuine business application is the ability for broadcasters to restrict followers to people they want to receive the messages.
• For added value Twitterific also uses GPS and Google maps to publish the location of the device.

So it transpires Twitter really can be used as an internal communication’s tool for businesses, projects, teams, or networks - from anywhere to anywhere.

It’s as easy to use as SMS, it broadcasts to authorized subscribers, there’s an audit trail of messages.

Of course best of all it’s free, although if you use the SMS device updates there’s the per message charge from the carrier.  My plan includes 500 messages per month that I never use, so I don’t care

If you want to give it a try register for an account and “follow” or message me at user name frontofficebox

A particularly bombastic branch manager, new to the job, smugly walked around the sales floor asking “OK, who’s sold something today?”.  The business was enterprise software, and proposals didn’t close every day.  The floor was so quiet we could have heard the pin drop.

A few weeks ago a sales manager was kind enough to share with us his biggest screw up.  He most ably illustrated how sales managers can take over at the wrong time, and make everybody feel bad about it.

The post reminded me of an experience that shaped my attitude toward anybody wanting to “help” with my deals.

CEO’s, VP’s and Sales Managers need to stay out of my way until I decide how they can help, and then do it my way.

Here’s a true story, told in the 3rd. person to avoid the “I” word.

In our consulting business we help people sell software for millions of dollars but when it comes to our own business we don’t pay a dime for software.

One of the ways the smaller businesses can increase their cost advantage over the bigger guys is the way they use information technology.

There are two really interesting sites I came across in the last couple of days, both very tightly associated with selling. Salesconx brings together people who know of guys who want to buy with people who want to know guys who want to buy. It’s like a market place for sales leads and an awesome way for both lead sellers and lead buyers to make money while all the old fart, who aren’t watching Web 2.0 explode into the business field, go bust

Closely related is the best business content forum I’ve come across. The people posting at Salesgravy are real players with interesting things to say about just anything - well worth a visit (and the joining fee).

When selling something we try to build empathy with the customer - see things from his perspective and use our experience to help him, or her, buy whats best. This type of “consultative” selling is usually the best way of matching a buyers perceived need with our offer.

There’s a danger though. In building the personal relationship based on trust we open ourselves to counter-attack. The buyer feels he can use the relationship to push for a better deal. Here we need a “bad guy in back”.

If we refuse the buyers requests (probably during negotiation and certainly thru implementation) we put all our credibility at risk. Now we’re worse off than ever. We’ve “conned” the customer into thinking we care, when actually we don’t. He’s been taken for a ride, because, when it comes down to it, we prefer our interests to his.

The guy who wrote “hell hath no fury like a women scorned” obviously wasn’t a salesman. Disillusioned customers are far worse

When the customer starts to ask for concessions, our “bad guy in back” is the one who has the ultimate say, and customers aren’t at the top of his list. We’re not allowed to make concessions and he doesn’t understand the synergies for both parties.

Now we get to be the “arbiter” - the deal maker who can make things happen despite the commercial tensions.

The “trial balloon” now becomes our secret weapon. “if I can persuade my “bad guy in back” to go along with this, will you do the same?

Now, provided our “bad guy” goes along, we’ve achieved two VERY important objectives:

1. We close the deal and
2. Our customer “knows” we’re on his team.

Provided we can keep delivering, we’ll have a lasting, and mutually supportive relationship and best of all we’ll have Account Control.

Sales people need “Bad Guys in Back” who’ll go along, because they understand.

CEO’s, VP’s and Sales Managers need to understand the biggest contribution they can make is being the “Bad Guy in Back” and staying out of the way until called upon.

Both sides of the business software market struggle with the same issue - trying to build, or buy, standard package software offering economies of scale whilst perfectly fitting the business requirements. Anybody who stops to think will quickly see this is an issue that can never be resolved.

Sounds easy enough! All realtors work the same way don’t they, for example. No they don’t, actually. They all have their own competitive advantage built in to the way they operate. They all have their own relationships with clients and partners.

What happens when they use the same software as everybody else? They just operate like everybody else. Goodbye competitive advantage.

So how can anybody build software for realtors. They can’t. They can just build software for 80% of realtors’ needs and let the users figure out the rest for themselves.

They could build their own “business solution”.

How much more efficient would it be if realtors could get software which let them figure it all out for themselves. If the software provided only “business” best practice in generic processes and data management. Then they could use it in ways that make sense to them. And they could benefit from economies of scale, by sharing the development cost with all the other businesses who have clients, partners, processes and plans. They could minimize the cost and complexity of implementation, they could get much faster payback on their investment and they could evolve their business model in response to opportunities or competitive pressures.

We might call this “something for everybody” software.

Software like this would be difficult to build. The business process guys would have to really understand the generic, best way to stuff. The user experience guys would have to work even harder, making sure everything would be exactly where the user expected to find it.

It might be even harder to sell. Users have been taught, by the industry, to expect to choose between alternative packages, selecting the one most closely fitting the way they manage their business. This software would expect them to understand they can be free to make their own decisions, and change their minds as often as they need.

I recently came across such a software product. It’s being quietly “leaked” out as the company feels it’s way through a marketing model based most on social networking.

For the moment “free” accounts are still available for early adopters who want to contribute to the social networking model.

Anybody wanting to get a preview of the future of business software can get one at Front Office Box

Generally people seem to do everything they can to avoid sales people, until they get to know them at least. The answer “I sell things” in response to the question “what do you do?” can be a real conversation stopper at social events. The most successful life insurance salesman ever was a disaster until he understood. Whenever he met people at events he would say ‘I sell….” And before he could get the life bit out he was talking to fresh air. Broke and desperate, he decided on a small change to his pitch, and this turned out to make him a very wealthy fellow. Instead of saying “I sell” he changed to “I buy life insurance, would you like me to buy some for you? But that’s a divergence from the main theme of this section.

Why is it that people selling things like to deal with the doorman? Ok so, that’s an outrageous exaggeration, but it grabs the attention and illustrates an interesting point – when we’re selling something we tend to feel subservient, as if not worthy of serious consideration. We don’t want to upset anybody by being too pushy. So, we try to sell the doorman, the receptionist, middle managers – anybody but the boss. Obviously this doesn’t apply to people selling to individuals or professionals. They can only talk to the boss, but they still adopt this subservience, and waste time and money.