Link: Scott Heiferman’s Notes: 50 Reasons Why People Aren’t Using Your Website.
1. Because they don’t want to generate content, they want better life
2. Because it solves a problem they don’t have
3. Because it won’t help them with their problem
4. Because oprah didn’t mention it
5. Because everyone they know isn’t using it
6. Because it doesn’t let them spy on people they care about
7. Because they just don’t care about what they see
8. Because nobody at work said they should use it (and 42 more!)
March 31, 2006
As in defeat?
I was talking to my good friend Mike today, and spelling bees came up. I still remember losing my third-grade spelling bee (Elisa Silverberg beat me… I didn’t know that there was a ‘d’ in ‘handkerchief.’)
Well, Mike made it to the nationals (no surprise). He still remembers the word he missed as well. He was nine.
And that’s one reason it’s so hard to do remarkable work. Because we’re sure that we’ll remember the screwups forever. It’s just easier to play it safe and not have to worry about the highlights reel with the wipeout on it.
Of course, there are new rules now. Without wipeouts, you can’t grow.
I was giving a speech at a hotel in Philly this week and found myself completely engulfed in a sea of black suits. Literally hundreds of eager beaver college kids, all milling about preparing themselves for a competition. Sife.org runs a nationwide tournament, where students compete with business and community projects.
The thing is: there’s no rule that says you have to wear a black suit when you present.
Everyone is so focused on not messing up, on not blowing it, on not standing out that they all blend together instead. I talked to a few of the competitors. Amazing kids. Focused, smart, dedicated. I wish, though, that they could realize (before it’s too late) that standing out is better than being invisible.
A lot of people get paid to go to meetings.
Not to haul lumber or polish steel or clean sewers. Nope, we get paid to go to meetings. Sales calls, presentations, and strategy sessions.
There’s been an awful lot written about how to be a better salesperson, or how to give a presentation worthy of your audience’s attention.
I want to take a few paragraphs to talk about your obligations at being in the audience.
When a sales rep shows up for a scheduled meeting, it seems to me that you’re not doing her a favor. You agreed to the meeting. You’re getting paid to be there. You might as well get as much out of it as you can, right?
I mean, if you were a volunteer, or if you’re at home, it’s a little different. But here you are at work, not pounding bricks with a sledgehammer… you’ve got the Evian and the air conditioning and hey, it’s your job to go to this meeting.
So go!
Make it work.
Same thing with that 30 minute Powerpoint that the head of the division is showing to twenty of you. Or that seminar you’re scheduled to go to tomorrow.
Here are a few tips, tips that are based on one assumption: if you do a better job in the audience, the person speaking will do a better job. You’ll learn more, get more, accomplish more, today and the next time she comes back as well.
So, here goes:
When you meet the sales rep in the lobby, have a few interesting questions ready. Offer her a glass of water. Be on time. Act like you’re glad she’s there. Even if you’re not, acting that way will get her to do a better job, and that’s your job, right?
When you go to the presentation in the auditorium, don’t sit in the back row. It doesn’t matter if you don’t feel like sitting in the front row, you should. The presenter will do a better job. And if you’re tired, work hard at smiling and making contact. The presenter will do better, especially if he’s particularly boring and nervous.
Don’t bring a bag of Fritos. Don’t sit back. Don’t close your eyes.
Do bring snacks for your guest. Do lean forward. Do smile at attempts at humor. Laugh, even.
When the sales rep is giving you the specs on the steel pipes or the consulting services, challenge him. Ask hard questions. Figure out what he knows. If it’s worth you having him come over, it’s worth discovering what he knows.
When the sales call is over, tell the truth. Don’t say, "we’ll get back to you," unless you intend to. If you’re going to meet with your boss on Friday, tell him. If it’s not your decision, tell him.
Why?
Well, first of all, it’s your job. Second, it’s more likely he’ll try hard for you the next time you need him to.
If someone flies across the country to see you, offer to call her a cab to get back to the airport. If you can, put it on your account. It makes a huge difference.
When you treat your vendors the way you’d like your vendors treated, it comes back to you. It pays off. It gets you better information, better attention, better prices. You’re a professional at your desk. You should be a professional at a meeting, too.
March 29, 2006
The airport in Las Vegas is at maximum capacity. It’s jammed. There is a line for everything, even the men’s room.
What amazed me, though, was the line ten or twelve deep at the food concessions. People were waiting ten minutes or longer to buy a bottle of water for $2.59 or a yogurt for a few dollars.
All day, every day. A line.
On the way home from the airport I called an organization that sells $500 training programs to businesses. Even though I was trying to reach someone that worked there, I was calling in on the orders line (the only number I had). I waited 15 minutes to talk to a real person.
Think about that.
In both cases, this is the last step of a very expensive chain. It’s expensive to rent that space in the airport. Expensive to outfit it. Expensive to bring in all the supplies. It’s expensive to build a training business, expensive to have the outbound marketing, the brochures, the events worth talking about.
The last step, though, that’s cheap. The last step, the step where someone actually takes your money–it’s not just cheap, it’s nothing but incremental profit.
It amazed me that no one had bothered to look a the concessions at the airport. To do simple things, like change the pricing so that with tax, everything came out evenly–no need to make change. Or to change the product line up, eliminating the items that take five times as long to prepare. Never mind the more creative things, like having an employee working the line, taking orders in advance and bringing back change so that the person at the counter could work three or four times faster…
And what about the training company? This is classic business-to-business order taking, and I’m unable to think of one reason that you don’t get a human being on the first ring. No auto attendant, no queue. Just a person, ready to answer the phone. Even one non-lost order a day pays for an entire person’s salary.
It’s difficult to cost-reduce yourself to growth.
A new favorite, a new all-time low. This is in Mexico, so drop a zero to translate to dollars. Who knew your skin needed an Oxygen spray?
Do a google search on Tea and you’ll find 196 million matches. The first match is the Texas Education Agency.
Check out del.icio.us and you’ll find this list.
Go to squidoo and look for tea and you’ll find this lens.
Do one on flickr and you’ll find these pictures.
Am I missing something? Handbuilt search just seems to work better, unless you’re really good at boolean searches or looking for something really specific. Is more always better?
March 28, 2006
