My 79 year old mother wrote a blog about the time she was evacuated from London, as a child during World War 2. Reading it is a rich experience, not because of the writing but because its a first hand account – real life untainted by editors and publishers.

Have you seen the BBC Click programme? A TV version of Mashable, or NextWeb, without the insight, but its been running for years so there must be an audience.

This morning it included a beginners guide to blogging, and got most of it wrong – well not exactly wrong, but not appropriate.

The pitch was a) set up a Wordpress account b) create great content c) build a following and d) become a superstar. And that’s the theory, but reality is quite a lot different.

The technology is not simple.

Wordpress is the #1 blogging platform for sure, with an endless supply of plugins to help us do, and connect, with virtually anything. But therein lies the problem. Wordpress is definitely not for beginners. They’ll have enough trouble figuring what to write without the technology challenges.

To be fair the programme did mention Blogger, the Google version, which is easier to use than Wordpress, but still pretty intimidating.

Creating great content is meaningless.

What’s great content to one is rubbish to another. They should have said a)relevant b) informative c) entertaining. But even that’s meaningless. Relevant to whom? Informative about what? Entertaining in which way? Let me know when you’ve decided.

Building a following isn’t a walk in the park either

The world has lost count of how many millions of blogs there are out there. Getting a blog noticed is almost impossible now, no matter how good the content. Most of all, the general public spends its spare time watching TV, not reading blogs.

Getting to Superstar takes 10,000 hours.

Maybe more? This is the rule explained in Gladwell’s Outliers – reaching a professional level at anything takes 10,000 hours. Newbies starting out will be competing with any number of genuine professionals for time and attention.

But EVERYBODY should blog

because in doing so they’ll me making history. Blogging is the ultimate in self expression, and that makes it fun too. Elsewhere in this blog you’ll find rants about stuff we shouldn’t have to put up with, jokes about Cherie Blair, and some commentary on the North of Scotland. That’s mostly me having fun.

My 79 year old mother wrote a blog about the time she was evacuated from London, as a child during World War 2. Reading it is a rich experience, not because of the writing but because its a first hand account – real life untainted by editors and publishers.

We’ve written some stuff About Our Roots -for our grandchildren. One day they’ll be able to look at it and understand something of where they come from, and so will their grandchildren.

When we do this some strange, and enjoyable experiences occur. The post about walking around Wantage including pictures of King Alfred’s School attracted a comment from a guy in Los Angeles. We swapped some stories. Peter Brooks is the same age as my brother, lived across the street from us, and attended my school.

Does it make money? No. But then it doesn’t cost anything. Is it challenging. Yes. But that’s where the fun comes in.

Give it a try.

Get a Posterous account and blog from your email. Add photos and video creating a rich experience. Tell jokes, just because they amuse you. Have a rant about stuff, just because it annoys you. Pretty soon that TV is going to seem awful boring.

  This content has been Digiproved © 2010

 

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Best practice is broadly the same for any sales opportunity, although for smaller, simpler deals the milestones can all be part of the same conversation. For bigger deals planning and executing a process is imperative. The higher value will warrant more of an investment in cost of sale. More investment needs more confidence in a successful outcome. That confidence comes from the process.

There are nuances for specific business models, but that process should comprise the following phases:

1. Qualification – are we sure the customer will buy from somebody?
2. Bid Review – can we win this deal, and will it be worth the effort?
3. Proposal- ways the offer will satisfy the customer requirement, for how much.
4. Negotiation – refining the terms of the proposal.
5. Contract – terms of business.

We’ve looked at Qualification.

Next up is Bid Review – can we win this deal? And do we want to? Here are some sample questions for the Bid Review:

1 – Can we satisfy the customer?

Disappointed customers make poor business partners and worse references. Winning business we can’t deliver is an exercise is self destruction. Take a hard look at:

• Do we have reference customers for this requirement?
• Do we have the resources within the customers time frame?
• Will our solution achieve the customers objectives?

2 – How do we perform against the competition?

Are we being considered as a potential winner, or just cannon fodder? Buyers select short lists of three, knowing two aren’t going to win. One vendor’s preferred. The others are there to keep the other guy honest.

• Do we typically win, or lose, against these competitors?
• Do we have a strategy to win this time, when everybody expects us to lose?
• What is our edge, and how does the customer perceive it?

3 – Are there risks to our business?

Not every piece of business is good, even when its profitable, but especially when it isn’t profitable enough. These aren’t necessarily reasons to walk away, once we know how to manage the downside.

• Does the margin improve, or reduce total %age gross profit?
• Is cash flow negative at any point?
• Will service to existing customers be harmed?

4 – Can we engage the customer in a Buy/Sell process?

The customer has to work with us through discovering requirements and defining how they’ll be met.

• Are conversations open or closed?
• Does the customer accept and deliver on tasks?
• Do we have access to the people we need to convince?

5 – Where’s the opportunity cost?

• What else could we be doing instead of trying to sell this?
• Would that be better for our business?

6 – Have we got a coach?

In any sales campaign the playing field changes, and keeps doing it. Competitors don’t sit quietly on the sidelines while we do our thing. We need an inside track, keeping us in touch with what changes.

• Who is our coach?
• How much influence does the coach have?
• Why does the coach want us to win?

and finally -

7 – Would WE buy it from US?

Stand in the customers shoes and answer the question. Be honest. This is the most vital of all the questions.

If this article has captured your interest, you might want to come back some time and look at some more ideas on sales strategy and process.

 

You Might Also Enjoy

• Questions to Qualify the Sale
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Have You Got Your Front Office Box? Register for a Personal Pipeline Management account at the top of the page. It’s Free!

January 29th, 2010 - Posted in Sales Coach  |  Add a Comment Sales Coach. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. -->

At some point every sales guy has to decide whether the deal can be won, and whether the winning will be worth the cost. This isn’t personal – it’s business. Expert sales guys don’t chase every deal. They’ll only go after sales they can win. They won’t waste time and expense on opportunities that can’t be won.

Professionals call this Qualification, meaning does it pass a set of tests. They know qualifying a sale involves some tough questions, and the easiest time to ask them is as early in the process as possible. If they’re going to walk away from the sale – qualify out – the sooner the better.

Here’s some questions they’ll try to get answered in the first call.

Why is the prospect buying?

Consultants call this the business imperative, by which they mean some influence justifying the cost. Three answers to look for are:

Business strategy – otherwise known as the boss wants it.

Competitive pressure – responding to external threat(s).

Competitive advantage – grabbing an opportunity in the market.

 

How will the decision get made?

Does the prospect have a process worked out and does it make sense? It should include:

Requirements definition.

Selection criteria.

Short list.

Presentation, Proposal, Terms of Business, Negotiation.

Selection decision.

Approval process.

Signing the paper.

 

Who will make the decision?

This will rarely be the buyer.

Who are the thought leaders?

Who can throw a wrench in the works?

Who has the authority to say yes and who will influence them.

 

What is the time frame?

If there’s no plan with dates, there probably isn’t a deal.

Is there a date for each step in the process?

is there a date for the decision?

Is there a start/delivery date planned?

 

Where’s the money?

A prospect serious about buying will know how the invoice will get paid.

Is there a budget committed?

How much is it?

Is there a business case defining return on the investment?

Is there cash available, or does it need financing?

 

Where’s the competition?

Look for incumbent suppliers, partners or relatives.

Who will be asked to bid?

Which competitors won’t be asked to bid, and why?

Is there competition for the budget?

Are there personal agendas?

 

This might seem counter intuitive. Most sales coaches recommended concentrating on why prospects SHOULD buy, as opposed to why they WON’T. That’s why they’re selling books and training courses and not products and services.

Qualification is focused on whether and how prospects will buy. It helps us avoid chasing deals we can’t win, and also tells us how to win.

Whether or not we should bid is the subject of another article, coming soon.

 

You Might Also Enjoy

• The Worst Kind of Sales Coaching
• Selling What the Customer is Buying
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January 28th, 2010 - Posted in Sales Coach  |  Add a Comment Sales Coach. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. -->

There’s more garbage talked about sales skills than there is about sex, or making money with your blog, or social media marketing. It’s all crap and winds me up because there are some unfortunates out there getting their heads filled with ideas which will make them poorer sales people, in more ways than one. This stuff is positively dangerous. Here’s a list of the headlines from a single email newsletter I received last week.

 

Buy a special training kit that’ll sharpen your sales skills in 30 minutes – get warmed up for that do or die call?

Learning the B.I.G Business Lesson.

6 Simple Steps to Increase Quality Leads and Increase Sales – Build Your Own Automatic Selling Machine.

3 Radical Changes in the Way People Buy Today

Sales Meetings That Engage – Please include me.

Pride of place goes to:-

The 800-Pound Gorilla of Sales: How to Dominate Your Market.

The people who write this drivel have one thing in common. They’re all morons. Stupid, because they think their customers are even more stupid. If there’s one thing worse than being the source of garbage, it’s being the one who decides to put all of this on one page.

Here’s one piece of advice that’s very simple to understand, and free.

When selling always assume prospects are smarter that you. Treat them like smart people and they’ll look for your guidance – after all they’re smart but you are the expert in your field. On the other hand if you treat them like morons, they’ll know they’re talking to one.

Don’t believe me? Ask yourself how you like to be treated when its you doing the buying. Afterall – you are the one with the check book in your pocket.

 

You Might Also Enjoy

• Selling What the Customer is Buying
• When Do You Use the Conditional Close
• Why Sales Forecasts Are Never Right
• Managing Difficult Prospects

Have You Got Your Front Office Box? Register for a Personal Pipeline Management account at the top of the page. It’s Free!

• 

January 27th, 2010 - Posted in Sales Coach  |  Add a Comment Sales Coach. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. -->

I'm an 800lb gorilla using a special training kit before sales calls to learn the B.I.G lesson so I can use the 6 simple steps to increase quality leads and understand the 3 radical changes in the way people buy today. Once I've done that I'll hold a sales meeting that engages people.

Watch out I'm on a roll!

(But actually I'm a 120lb social misfit hiding in his bedroom transposing other peoples delusional pontification into articles some drunken sailor might read when mistaking my blog for an escort site.)

By the way read my blog to find out how at the age of 8 months I became a millionaire while touring the world in my Ferrari.

State of the Union at Red Hat

January 26th, 2010

by Jim Whitehurst, President and CEO

 

I’m kicking off my third year at Red Hat this month and would like to take a step back as we move into 2010 to reflect on the past year. In keeping with the U.S. presidential tradition of delivering a “State of the Union” address each January, I’d like to maintain a similar tradition at Red Hat and highlight some of our milestones from 2009.

We’ve had an exciting past 12 months and here are just a few of the many things that kept Red Hat busy in 2009:

• Taking on the global recession
  Looking at Red Hat’s growth over the past several quarters, many have wondered if we were even aware that the world was in the midst of the worst recession in modern history. Red Hat has grown at double-digit rates in both revenue and headcount throughout the course of the recession. Open source appears to be thriving in a down economy and reduced IT budgets drew many CIOs to take a closer look at open source as a cost-effective solution. Customers continue to turn to Red Hat as we differentiate ourselves from the competition with high value, low cost solutions. This combination is important to customers in not only challenging times, but also robust economic environments.
• Washington embraces open source
  When Obama was sworn in last January as President of the United States, he brought the promise of an unprecedented level of openness and transparency in government. Just one day after taking office, Obama issued a transparency memo to all department heads. This memo was followed by several announcements surrounding open source and government. In October, Whitehouse.gov announced its move to Drupal for content management. A few days later, the deputy CIO for the Department of Defense issued a memo clarifying guidance on the use of open source software and its advantages. Finally, we closed out 2009 with the White House issuing its Open Government Directive in December. This move to transparency and openness in government is encouraging for open source software.
• Up in the clouds
  The use of cloud computing is growing rapidly as enterprises look to reduce costs and increase their operational flexibility. Red Hat greatly expanded its cloud initiatives in 2009 as open source emerged as a foundational element for both public and private clouds. In June, we announced the Premier Cloud Provider Certification and Partner Program, designed to simplify and expand enterprise customers’ adoption of cloud computing by allowing industry leaders to certify on Red Hat solutions. With the news, we announced that Amazon Web Services had become our first Red Hat Premier Cloud Provider, building on the relationship we formed with Amazon in 2007 to offer Red Hat solutions on Amazon EC2. Soon after, we announced a cloud computing collaboration with Verizon Business as Red Hat Enterprise Linux was offered as one of the first two operating platforms available for Verizon’s new Computing as a Service (CaaS) solution.

   

  In July, Red Hat held its first Open Source Cloud Computing Forum to foster discussion around and advance the development of open source cloud computing technologies. The interest that the forum drew from across the industry has prompted us to continue the conversations started in July through a second Open Source Cloud Computing Forum, taking place on Wednesday, February 10, 2010.

  Also in 2009, we announced a new open source project named Deltacloud. The project aims to enable an ecosystem of developers, tools, scripts and applications that can interoperate across public and private clouds. We expect that open source technologies, and specifically Red Hat solutions, will continue to provide the foundation for enterprise cloud deployments into the future.

 

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Servers hits the marketplace
We first announced our virtualization strategy for 2009 in February, outlining plans to introduce a new virtualization portfolio based on Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) virtualization technology with Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization. Following a global private beta program that started in June, Red Hat announced the general availability of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Servers in November. The portfolio is designed to enable pervasive adoption of virtualization with a comprehensive end-to-end solution combining a standalone hypervisor and powerful virtualization management. As an alternative to expensive proprietary solutions in the marketplace, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization offers a cost-effective solution that can help address customers’ performance, security and scalability challenges. It also brings with it a robust ecosystem of over 3,000 certified applications that can be virtualized on Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization. After just a few months in the marketplace, we are seeing strong interest in our server virtualization solution. Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops remains in private beta today, but stay tuned as it is expected to be made generally available in 2010.

Middleware momentum
Our middleware business continues to grow at a faster pace than Red Hat’s platform business, making it a growth engine for the company. Middleware momentum accelerated in 2009 with several announcements including the JBoss Open Choice application platform strategy. Announced in June, it aims to provide a single environment for deploying a variety of programming models with a common platform, making it easier to develop and deploy applications with JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 5, JBoss Enterprise Web Platform or JBoss Enterprise Web Server. The JBoss Open Choice strategy is intended to enable customers to embrace the latest innovations of the Java community today and represents an investment in the future as it will seek to accommodate the next wave of changes to Java for the enterprise.

Java Leadership
Late last year the Java Community Process (JCP) reached a significant milestone when they approved the specification for the next generation of Enterprise Java; JavaTM Platform, Enterprise Edition 6 (Java EE 6). We believe that the approval of this specification starts a new chapter in the story of Java and we are proud to have contributed and acted in a leadership role in the formation of this standard which aims to make enterprise Java easier to use and more appealing to more developers, while still maintaining the benefits of open standards. Specifically, we support the new Web Profile and have led in the creation of two key features that are included in the Java EE 6 platform. Going forward we intend to continue our contributions to the Java development process as we strive to make this important technology platform more broadly appealing, allowing developers and our customers to benefit from a simple and standardized enterprise programming model.

Red Hat Summit and JBoss World…the best of both worlds
New in 2009 was the co-location of Red Hat Summit and JBoss World held last September in Chicago. The events brought together Red Hat’s full product line and we saw record attendance levels. We’re headed back to Boston for the second time this year with the 2010 Red Hat Summit and JBoss World to be held June 22-26 at the Seaport World Trade Center.

S&P 500
Red Hat was selected by Standard and Poor’s for including in the S&P 500 stock index in July. This is an important recognition for the global momentum of open source as Red Hat is the first pure-play open source company to join the S&P 500.

Bilski goes Supreme
Red Hat has long worked to address the problem that software patents pose for innovation. In October, we filed an amicus brief with the US Supreme Court. In the brief, Red Hat explains the practical problems of software patents to software developers. The brief, filed in the Bilski case, asks the Supreme Court to adopt the lower court’s “machine-or-transformation” test and to make clear that it excludes software from patentability.

Channel growth
In Red Hat’s third quarter ending Nov. 30, 2009, the channel generated 62 percent of indirect bookings, versus 59 percent in the prior quarter. The percentage of indirect bookings continues to reflect the growth of our partner ecosystem that are attracted to Red Hat’s broad portfolio of solutions to meets the varied needs of their customers. Additionally, we launched the Red Hat Catalyst Program at the Red Hat Summit which is designed to connect a community of Red Hat partners, offer marketing resources and fuel innovative solutions for customers. Through a growing partner ecosystem, continued investment in the channel and organic growth of our existing partners we plan to continue to actively work through channel routes to market in 2010 in order to drive the value of open source solutions further into the enterprise.

I don’t have a magic crystal ball to tell me what 2010 holds in store for the technology industry and Red Hat, but I look forward to the coming months and continuing to deliver for our customers as the trusted open source leader.

And as if by magic, I've barely finished the previous post explaining you can stuff strategy, today everything is about tactics here's a blog from a consultant saying the same thing. I wonder if Gartner clients are as confused as me?

A very interesting article in today’s Wall St. Journal quoted several sources that clearly support many of the underlying assumptions, imperatives and actions we have been talking about for the last half year in our Pattern-Based Strategy research.

Sources cited by the Journal include Office Depot, Accenture, Spartan Motors, Boston Consulting Group, Whirlpool and McKinsey. Let’s be clear. These firms may not have heard of our Pattern-Based Strategy work. But what they’re doing — actively seeking early indicators of change, dynamically adjusting their plans and seeking far greater business agility fits right into the bigger picture that we’ve been painting.

If you haven’t heard of what we’re saying about "Pattern-Based Strategy", start here — this piece is free to all. Gartner clients can drill in further. Two of the earliest pieces we wrote (of nearly 100) are "Introducing Pattern-Based Strategy" and "Five Eras of IT Business Value Add: From Automation to Pattern-Based Strategy".

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Cloud ecosystems for small businesses

January 26th, 2010 · No Comments

As I’ve been predicting for a while, Microsoft and Intuit have joined forces around Quickbooks and Azure: Microsoft and Intuit announced that Intuit would name Microsoft’s Windows Azure as the preferred platform for cloud app development on its Intuit Partner Platform. This is an eminently logical partnership. MSDN developers, are a critical channel for reaching the small business with applications, Azure is evolving to be well-suited to that community, and Intuit’s Quickbooks is a key anchor application for the small business. Think of this partnership as the equivalent of Force.com for the small business; arguably, Quickbooks is an even more compelling anchor application for a PaaS ecosystem than CRM is.

A lot of non-IT companies are thinking about cloud strategies these days. I get a great deal of inquiry from companies seeking to target the small business with cloud offerings, and the question that I keep having to ask is, “What natural value does your existing business bring when extended to the cloud?” An astounding number of strategy people at miscellaneous companies seem to believe that they ought to be cloud IaaS providers, or resellers of other people’s SaaS solutions for small businesses — without being natural places for small businesses to turn for either infrastructure or software.

Whatever your business is, if you want to create a cloud ecosystem, you need an anchor service. Take something that you do today, and leverage cloud precepts. Consider doing something like creating a data service around it, opening up an API, and the like. (Gartner clients: My colleague Eric Knipp has written a useful research note on this topic entitled Open RESTful APIs are Big Business.) Use that as the centerpiece for an ecosystem of related services from partners, and the community of users.

 

Email is a pain in the rear! Thanks to Gmail’s excellent SPAM management my inbox is only full of junk, but it’s still junk, just like yours I guess. By junk I don’t mean completely useless – it just feels like junk because I’m trying to get things done and that stuff keeps interrupting me.

Happily we’ve developed a solution to that particular problem – a way of incorporating email as part of our workflow, without it getting in the way.

We forward stuff needing some type of action to our planning system where we can handle it as an integral part of managing the business.

Now email is less of a nuisance, and more of a tool that drives our planning, scheduling, task management and CRM.

Spend a couple of minutes seeing how we do it in Front Office Box.

architects and designers include highland capital in nominations for 2010 carbuncle awards

Inverness in the running to become UK’s ugliest city

By Iain Ramage

Published: 25/01/2010

The Highland capital is a contender to be named the UK’s ugliest city. A panel of architects and designers included Inverness in the nominations for the UK-wide Carbuncle Awards.

It makes the list for the “monstrous” design of the city centre and “mushrooming suburban sprawl”.

Cumbernauld, Glenrothes and Coatbridge are among past recipients of the award, which used to be restricted to Scotland.

People in Inverness greeted the nomination with a mixture of anger and acceptance last night.

An awards spokesman said the Highland capital had been dubbed “Tulloch town” by some critics due to the local developer’s dominance and highlighted earlier “box-like monstrosities” in the city centre.

There was a degree of acceptance of the criticism yesterday – but optimism that things would change.

City provost Jimmy Gray said: “The 1960s Bridge Street buildings are probably not the most attractive, but to say Inverness is anywhere near the ugliest in the UK is utter nonsense. Most people who visit think it’s an extremely attractive place.”

His deputy, Alex Graham, agreed, insisting Inverness was an attractive city with tremendous charm.

Local SNP councillor John Finnie was equally surprised.

He offered to escort panel members around the city to show them “the many wonderful historic sites” Inverness has to offer.

Labour councillor John Holden said the council had inherited a lot of poorly designed buildings but had attempted to redress that.

Barrie Haycock, of local pressure group Planning Watch, said it was only a matter of time before Inverness was singled out for such an award. He said: “Unfortunately, Highland Council seems to have adopted a policy of chasing planning gain monies rather than developing integrated communities for the benefit of those who choose to live in the area.”

He added that millions of pounds were spent on the Inverness Streetscape project while surrounding streets remained pockmarked with decaying buildings.

Inverness South community council member Liz Gilchrist added: “In the haste to make Inverness a city, it has been developed into a sprawling mass, losing its identity.”

Thomas Prag, another Lib Dem city councillor, disputed the carbuncle tag but urged planners and colleagues to be more imaginative.

He said: “A lot of estates were built in a hurry because the demand was there. But we’re beginning to put that right and the Housing Expo is a hugely positive sign that we now know better.”

Urban Realm, the architectural magazine behind the awards, promotes the event as “a force for good and a real motivator” to transform cities. The winner will be decided by public vote.