Archive for the ‘blog’ Category

On the plane to Oklahoma City and the AIPAGIA Enterprise Social Technology Bootcamp….

On the leg to Detroit today, I sat next to a sales guy on his way to Orlando for a sales conference.  His company is based in Philly and makes a key ingredient in steel manufacturing, something about a Chemical compound fluid that mixes with the other raw materials that go into the steel production – very high-profile product, mission-critical to his clients, difficult to get prospects to switch, long sales cycle, expensive, regulated, etc. – tough sales environment.

I’d be interested in your take on the suggestions I made to him after listening to him talk about his background and the key to his success as a sales guy.

He’s more of an engineer than he is a sales guy.  He started in the business as a Chemical Engineer, they guy that would go in post-sale and service the clients.  He did that for 10 years.  So he would get the calls at 2am on a Saturday when the plant was shut down because of a problem with the fluid.  He would then go in, diagnose the problem, and get the plant up and running again.  Forget finger-pointing – fix it.

He would see sales guys come and go – lot of turnover.  Managers, too.  One day he was having lunch with a client who lamented, “Man, I hate training your sales reps all the time.” One thing led to another, and Troy took on the sales function for several of the key accounts, looking to not only service, but also looking for ways to grow the relationship.  Today, he’s doing more sales, but he’s still the technical guy, still the guy that everyone wants to talk to – which makes it tough to sell, even tougher to prospect.

I thought, that’s exactly what it means to become a “Recognized Expert in your Field”, one of aspects of SocialTech that I’ve been writing about.  I think Troy is exactly the kind of sales guy the world of business is looking for.  In fact, he specifically mentioned that his clients and prospects don’t want the ‘peddler’, a sales rep that really doesn’t understand the business, but ‘fakes it ‘til he makes it.”  I dare say that business model is DOA.  Clients and prospects can smell that guy coming.

But the issue in his business is that he can only spread himself so thin.  Everyone wants to talk to him.  All his clients call him when there is a problem.  The home office wants him to be a communication channel to the customer.  And of course, sales management wants him to prospect.  So we started talking about the concepts around using blogs and Linkedin as tools to solve some of those challenges, even in the blue-collar business of dealing with steel mill engineers, plant managers and operations executives.

The more we talked, they more it seemed like Social Technologies would be a perfect fit for his enterprise.  The company has about 40 sales people around the country.  Each sales person has a different geography and as such, different challenges, issues, kinds of prospects, customer base, etc.  Thinking about the essentials of blogging and Linkedin, as well as corporate communication, and applying that knowledge to a quick convo on an airplane, here’s what I came up with.

What do you think?  Does it make sense?

He mentioned a scenario where a key component of the compound came from a plant in Asia.  It was one of two plants of its kind in the world.  Something happened at the plant to interrupt the supply chain.  Sounded like it was potentially permanent.  So it’s not their fault, but nonetheless, it impacts their customers and needs to be urgently communicated.  But is has different impacts on different customers.  So while the event needs to be communicated generally, the issues need to be addressed locally.  (Oh, and remember, the competition is dealing with the same issue this time.)  My suggestion was to use several channels to communicate, both from an offensive and defensive position.

First, the company should immediately issue a press release including a link to the story about the plant found in mainstream media, the blogosphere, twitter, or some other external source.  An email notification should be sent to all clients suggesting they connect with their local sales person with any specific concerns.  Lastly, from corporate, a regular mail or overnight letter should be sent, depending on the severity.  Oh, and an internal only, communique to the field with perhaps some standard text for a blog or email so save the reps a little time.

Then, at the local level, the sales rep should write an immediate blog post commenting on the situation with links to the corporate PR as well as the original news item.  The sales rep’s comments should be short and too the point, addressing the time-sensitivity and the potential implications short and long term.  Once published, the rep should craft a quick email template giving his clients (and later his prospects) a heads-up as to the situation. “Please click to my blog for more information and to comment.”  Then a short voice mail drawing attention to the email and the blog post.  All this should be done in the voice of the sales rep, perhaps with some standard language from corporate.

Doing it this way seems to have several advantages. But what am I missing?

1. It’s fast.
2. It’s practically free.
3. Communication is clear.
4. Clients can interact with the rep and the content.
5. Other clients will then see the content, the earlier responses, respond themselves, and/or ask another question.  Possible for clients to solve problems for other clients?
6. The whole thing will be searchable in case someone stumbles on it later (vacation).
7. The communication is documented and timestamped by the blog.
8. Speed, clarity, interactivity, brainstorming, solution’ing, searchability – all good?
9. Defensively, clients cannot accuse you of not communicating well.
10. Certainly you’re not leaving room for the competition to use the situation against you.

And that’s just for the clients.  What about prospects?

1. Prospects can be handled with the same content, but more as an FYI.
2. Prospects might learn a few things from your clients by reading the blog.
3. You’re staying in front of prospects during a time of crisis – with almost no effort.
4. You’re adding value very simply and inexpensively.
5. And if the competition isn’t doing this, what does that mean?

Interesting.  What are the concerns that you see with this scenario?  Is there an issue with competition and revealing the secret sauce?  What else and how would you suggest a work-around?

We went on to talk about Linkedin.  Troy had no knowledge or experience with the tool.  So I explained the essentials and how it works to solve the problem of staying in front of prospects with very little effort.  He said his least favorite thing to hear are the words, “Gee, if only you had called me a couple months or weeks ago….”  Leveraging the Linkedin tool can definitely help with staying in front of prospects.  Of course, the key there is for you to use it correctly and for the prospect to use it as well.

The interesting thing about Linkedin relates to the concept of “Building a River of Knowledge” that I’ve also been writing about in this book.  I recently ran an informal poll in Linkedin asking people to pick what source of information they use the most for industry and professional information.  Linkedin came out as the clear #1.  What I’m finding is that there are several sources of great information on Linkedin (like the steel business).  There is also information available on the current state of your prospects, and some of the issues they are dealing with.  There is also information on your competition.

Lastly, it’s a phenomenal way of communicating and staying connected with a much larger audience with much less effort.

For a technical sales guy like Troy, did I give him good advice?  Would a Blog/Linkedin hybrid be a good club to carry in his bag?  Would it be good enough to replace another if he can only carry so many?  What are your thoughts, especially if you’re connected to manufacturing and blue-collar bizdev.

Why a Professional Blog?  Let me count the ways… But first, let me break TWO BIG MYTHS.

“No time…” We’re talking an hour a week (depending on how fast you organize your thoughts and type). And you can always dictate the post to an admin and have them load it into the editor.  ‘Time’ is not the issue.

“Who cares what I have to say?”  First of all, it’s not just about the human audience.  Search Engine Marketing is a big part of it.  Second, your network cares what you have to say.  Your customers.  Your prospects.  Your business partners.  Heck..  Your Mom!

What’s your other reason for not doing a professional blog?  Comment below and perhaps the crowd can give advise.

So Why Blog?  What the ROI?  Here’s my take… And this is by NO MEANS everything.  Just off the top…

1. Search Engine Leads – Gain new and/or previously off-the-radar sales opportunities
2. Reinforcement of existing sales processes started through other means
3. Social Media Optimization – Establish Social Relevancy within Social Media Marketing
4. Establish hooks, interest, and engagement with prospects for when the time is right
5. Viral marketing and referrals with all-of-the-above
6. Competitive advantage, or, at a minimum, keeping up with the competition
7. Application of the knowledge and understanding gained from using the tool to client projects
8. Improved self-awareness and awareness of market perceptions
9. Use for free market research
10. Improved Web-content writing skills
11. Enhanced potential to write a book based on the blog history and your new skills (whole nuther optnty)
12. Improved public speaking and presentation skills for sales and marketing presentations – yep… odd but true
13. Potential to gain speaking ops at industry or local biz-dev events
14. Improved marketplace visibility for the blogger/organization
15. Great chance to understand Web analytics
16. Better success leveraging Twitter and Linkedin

Are you blogging?  Post a link and share your ROI stories?  If you’re not, hope you get started.  You’ll be glad you did.  Caveat – gotta do it right.

Btw, I’m working on Part 2 of my last podcast.  Nibby and Chris share thoughts on their blogs.  Couple great case-in-points.

Oh yeah, awesome event listening to Ken Blanchard last week.  Phenomenal teaching.  Terrific stories.  He laughed, he cried… Unofficially recorded the talk on my ipod.  Pretty compelling stuff.

Qwik pics shot this morning.  Love Spring and Summer in Northeast Ohio.

Took 45 minutes on this post, btw – including the pictures.

Favorite Myth/Cliche about Social that I heard this week:

“I don’t get twitter!  What would I want to know what someone had for breakfast?!?!”  Is that something you heard this week?  Is that something you said this week?  What’s your favorite?  Just so you know, as I crafted this post, I checked twitter.  Here’s a link to a story tweeted by someone I’m following that was right there on my tweetdeck timeline.  Is this helpful or is this ‘what someone had for breakfast’?  And this is just a little snippet I learned in about 60 seconds…

Change of Subject: Curious on your thoughts… What concepts does the phrase ‘Socially Facilitated Selling‘ bring to mind?  I’m writing a chapter in a crowdsourced book on Social Technology.  The chapter speaks to this concept of Socially Facilitated Selling.  It also will discuss Socially Directed Buying, more applicable to B2C sales and marketing.  Curious what your thoughts are on these concepts.  Might even be able to give you a mention in the book.  That’d be neat… Post your insight in the Comments below.  Join the conversation!

Speaking of books, I’m about 75% done with the book I’ve been working on through the Fall and Winter.  Hopefully I’ll finish this summer, then crowdsource the design of the book.  Those of you who’ve agreed to read the manuscript, really appreciate it!  Anyone else that wants to comment, here’s the topic of the book: How is e-Business like exercise?  Share a thought in the Comments.  If I use your Comment in the book, believe me, you’ll know!

Wanna see something really interesting?  Check out this article by the World Future Society that I saw in their email blast.  This is a great organization, fun to listen to, and always inspiring to contemplate.  One of these years I’m going to a WFS Summer Conference.  Join me?

105 MILLION TWITTER USERS.  Did you know that Twitter was the first Social Network that was adopted by middle-aged people First?  Interesting.

Last thought for today.  I keep hearing people use the excuse of ‘no time’ for not getting in the game of Social Tech.  What if I told you I could save you at least 30 minutes a day by optimizing your basic Web-browsing behaviors and practices?  Would you shift that time to writing a blog or just listening across your network of peers, associates, colleagues, and visionaries all around you?  Interesting thought that might get you started.

Thoughts on all this?  Please comment.  Remember – Lurking is Lame.  Join the conversation.  (This post took 45 minutes.  Good use of time?)

As I shared on Facebook this morning, it’s days like this that make me glad I live in Northeast Ohio.

ICMG 2010 Annual Meeting (see my pic’s here)

Opening Keynote: Byrd B Baggett III – Byrd the Terd in High School!

When you were born, you cried and people celebrated.  When you die, people will cry and you’ll celebrate.

If you don’t love people, you’ll never lead them.

“Will to win is everything.” Vince Lombardi – most often mis-quoted quote “Winning is everything.”

Success at the expense of faith and family isn’t really success.

Secret of success of SW Airlines – most unionized carrier in the business

I asked him, “We hire attitude and train skills.”  Don’t hire people that brighten the room when they leave it.

TC+PC=LC

TC – technical competence

PC – people competence

LC – Leadership competence

Every morning, count five blessings before you earn the right to say a word.

SMILE – Special Magic in Living Everyday – this isn’t a dress rehearsal

When the pain of remaining the same exceeds the pain of change – when true growth starts.

NO P.G.A. – Power Greed Arrogance

EGO – Edging Growth Out

You know things are bad when “whose idea wins” means more than “the best idea.”

Hearing but not listening – ‘silent’ and ‘listen’ have the same letters.

How the Mighty Fall – the 5 Stages of Decline of an Organization

Why are you always happy!  I believe God put us here to serve other people.

The pain of discipline or the pain of regret – which one do you want?

The truth may sometime hurt but it will always help.

We’re killing people because of religions – I’m about relationships.

Life’s not about me, faith journey begins.

2/24/90 – 2 bad behaviors – identify in the next 24 hours and work on them the next 90 days.

“Values are the root that determine your fruit.”

Technology is killing relationships.  Email complaint… 10, 2, 4 – only check email every so often

The Saints got rid of the ‘Me’ players and brought in the ‘We’ players.

What people are looking for in leaders

1. Trust
2. Compassion
3. Stability (no emotional spikes)
4. Hope

Great leaders keep hope alive.

S.A.L.T

• Stop
• Ask the right questions from the right people
• Listen objectively with an open mind.
• Think about the consequences of your choices.

Keep you from Fire Ready Aim…

Bought things I didn’t need with money I didn’t have to impress people I didn’t like!

The most powerful word?  We

Only 5% percent of people read a book on personal improvement every year.

Read 10 pages a day in a self-improvement .  Try The Noticer by Andy Andrews

Most fulfilling purpose:  Being a part of something greater than self.

Forgiveness liberates the soul.

The fruit of service is peace. Mother Theresa

Book: “The Power of Full Engagement”

Expert – ex is a has been, spurt is a drip under pressure

Gary Jacobs on Skype due to the snow storm in Washington (lot of people missed flights)

Problems of HC Spending

2.5 trillion in overall HC spend, 17% of the economy, expected to about double by 2019

Two issues – cover more people, if get sick, will get services

2. control costs and reduce overall spend – in alignment with other countries

Political reform -

Blue-dog coalition – Fiscal conservatives, no new taxes, if new program, gotta cut some others

Also about 40 congressmen dealing w abortion

Merrill Matthews – public policy analyst, author, council for affordable health insurance

We believe markets work in Washington – a minority view

Election in Mass. changed everything.

Everything is back on the table

The coverage mandate became the real stumbling block

Auto insurance – national statistic is that the percentage of people without auto insurance is about the same as people without health insurance.  So mandates don’t really work.

Penalty and jail if they don’t get it???

Democrats believe Guaranteed Issue and community rating should be the standard.

Tried exchanges in the past – MASS. 2006 legislation, pushing it, starting to work

Taxing benefits – 17 new taxes in the House Bill

Senate wants to back off on the large group.

Administrative waste (commissions, marketing, etc. would put all of us out of business)

Higher minimum loss ratio – insurers talked them down a bit (debate on HAS inclusion)

My guess – HC Reform is dead this year – R have no real political interest, D would rather not vote – if they vote Y they’ll get in trouble with voters, if vote N trouble with party leadership

Some funding in there to get funding for high-risk pools (people w HC issues).

Increase competition across state lines

Democrats hate consumer-driven health insurance to control costs

Real problem for the states is the budget – so tight not a lot of room to move.

Healthcare Freedom Act – State of AZ started it.  VA Senate just passed it.  Pushing back on the Feds

Because so many people in DC thought we were going to have Reform – it’s all off the table now.  No telling whether we might see individual laws for the Class Act, Reinsurance Provision, etc.

It’s a good time to be talking to people who are running for office about what makes sense for healthcare reform, then in the next election cycle we can get some good reform.

Gary Jacobs

Brown: More of a story about all the frustration that so many Americans are feeling about Jobs, the economy and the HC Reform process.

See the slide about the National Debt gorilla in the room

Kennedy – liberal man with a conservative bent.  His death left a void.  He might have gotten a deal done for reform.

Death knell was the deal-making and lack of transparency.  Nebraska and Landreau deal were bad.

Quality of the work that is done does not impact the payments.  So if a doc leaves a sponge in the patient, the work to go in and make the fix also gets paid for.

Politics trumped the policy.

Private insurance is a cornerstone of our economy?

Question:

Does the insurance industry have some proposals that can slow this trend down?  $40 trillion Medicare in unfunded liabilities?  They’ve been running Medicare about 40 years.  The fraud in Medicare and Medicaid is unbelievable!!! 12-15% of claims. In private health care, it’s about 1%.  It would be a disaster to run private insurance like they do public.

$800 billion a year in waste in the system – medical malpractice, defensive medicine

Search on Thomson Reuters and $800 billion waste.  17% in fraud

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My Take: (What’s yours??)

Great content, great networking, a little too much good-ole boy stuff.  But there’s a lot of new talent appearing in the crowd.  Hope they stick with it and keep coming.  Hope I keep coming!  Need to do some business with some of the folks.  To be candid, I’ve done a few good deals over the past 6 years.  And I know the group is not generally there to talk tech – they’re there to talk product and alliances.  But hopeful that with persistent follow-up in the next few weeks, a few more folks will get savvy to a tremendous offer I’m bringing to the group:

Many of the folks on the distribution side have a certain block of agents with either no Web site or a bad Web site – both of which could be undermining their sales efforts.  I’ve got a unique solution to that simple yet complex problem. http://www.myagencycenter.com -low price points, great potential to help agents drive untapped production, great tech.  Definitely want to encourage a look or pass this information along to the right folks in the organization.

Recent events

December started out in a whirlwind followed by an almost complete 2-week vacation from work, something I desperately needed.  Thus the quiet period relative to blogging.

On the Agent-driven side of the house (versus association and affinity)… MyAgencyCenter focus…

Based on my travels and discussions in the early part of December, I remain convinced that local insurance agents can create a self-generating lead system – cheaply and sustainable.  Those seem to be the two keys in this market.  The solution needs to be an affordable, pay-as-you-go subscription model and easy to support with a simple weekly schedule of agent activity.  However, the tricky part is the agent Web site.  With the compliance requirements of insurance companies and regulators, and the complexities of insurance quote engines, agent Web sites that are meaningful lead engines for the agents are a real conundrum.  They have to be professional, up to date, useful for the prospect, and thus able to move the visitor from the cloud to the funnel.  At a bare minimum, the site needs to reinforce the agent’s reputation in the marketplace as a committed insurance professional.  MyAgencyCenter, in combination with social media strategies, seems to be the solution.  For now, my focus is on MGA’s, IMO’s, career and captive agencies, insurance companies with W-2 agents, and other similar large organizations.  (Sorry, MyAgencyCenter is not quite ready to serve individual agents or small agencies.)

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Blog Consulting

So I finally got my first paid consulting gig helping another insurance marketing organization get started with a blog strategy!  I’m pretty excited about it.  Of course, it’s a covert op at this point, but I’m hoping it will become overt later in the year as the blogs mature and the client becomes more comfortable with the environment. Let me know if you feel motivated to start your own.  I can’t recommend it highly enough…

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Sidebar – Priceline.com rocks.  Might be ‘old news’, but I’ve developed an affinity for it with all the budget cuts.  Just gotta say that I’ve saved a ton on air and car rentals – without much adverse impact on convenience, I must say.  Let me know if you’d like some tips.  What about you?  How do you save money with travel expenses?  Any neat ideas?  Please comment.

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PIMA 2010 Annual Meeting in three weeks in the Florida Keys

In collaboration with Bill Tyson and Sherri Lagana, as well as pointers from Rick Jones, conference tri-chair and Mona Buckley, PIMA CEO, I’m working hard on the panel discussion “Demystifying Social Media”.  It’s a tall order for a 45-minute session, but I’m working with some really smart and savvy people.  The interesting thing that we’re netting out to is that, once you get into the social media game, it’s really not that mysterious. I’d be interested in your comments.

And the other really neat thing is that each Social Media program within each organization will likely be, by very nature, unique and different based on the people and products of the organization.  And lastly, unlike Web sites and the tendency for CIO’s and IT departments to hijack what should be primarily simple marketing projects, Social Media strategies and the execution there-of are clearly destined to be managed by sales and marketing (of course, in collaboration with IT and Compliance as appropriate).

Look for a Social Media survey in the next week or so.  And yes, I’ll be taking interesting pictures.  Smile… but don’t look at the camera if you don’t have to!

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While I’m on the Social Media topic, here’s a very useful aside.  Do you have a Social Media ‘Policy’ for your organization?  A couple months ago, I collaborated with a very savvy group of insurance marketers on the P&C side of the business.  Let by Jeff Yates and the IIABA ACT subgroup, we developed a helpful guide for establishing a Social Media Policy for an organization.  Again, Social Media Strategies will vary by organization (let me know if you need help with that), so it’s not a cookie-cutter thing.  SM Policies will vary.  But the guide will help you cover most if not all of the must-haves for an effective policy.  Also find it HERE, another great blog.  I’d be interested in any feedback as it’s by nature a ‘living’ document.

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ICMG 2010 Annual Meeting in Tucson

Looking a little further out, ICMG is coming up on the heels of PIMA.  (Btw, I’m glad Mona and Audrey make the effort to collaborate on the scheduling of these two very important events as there is significant overlap, especially on the vendor side of the equation.)  Last year’s meeting was a record-breaker.  It will be interesting to see if this year will surpass.  I know I’ve seen a lot of new members signing up over the course of 2009.  But 2009 was a rough year as well, so we’ll see.  I’m looking forward to connecting with folks about MyAgencyCenter as well as about Web sites, insurance technologies like quote engines, e-applications, agent portals, and single or multi-carrier agent contracting solutions.  As always, there will be ample things to talk about and great opportunities to connect needs and solutions, whether they are mine or not.  And oh yeah, I’ll be taking cool pictures.  Might even do a vid-cast.

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Next: Final Reflections on 2009 and Forecasts for 2010 – A podcast with the legendary Mark M. Hill

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A few final pictures from 2009

I had a pro-shooter take a picture of me at the NCAA College Cup, the Men’s Division 1 soccer equivalent of the basketball Final Four.  Thought it came out well.  My team lost a heart-breaker though.  Very long trip back to CLE, lemme tell ya.

A picture of a pricelsss gift I made for my buddy Dave Recchion that moved to North Carolina in 2008.

A picture of Kelle with her favorite Christmas present.

And a pic of me and Zach at the Hudson Chapel Saturday morning Men’s Bible Study.  (Btw, speaking of technology, check out what my church is doing with a .TV site… simple and creative, and very cool use of Social Media.  And it’s a great church group if you’re looking for one.)  I also made a short and sweet music vid over the holidays trying to capture my year in the study…