This blog includes posts on lead generation, eMarketing, Web Marketing, SEO and other leading edge marketing techniques.
-Alan Blume
All posts with the tag 'Home Office Business'
Office Buildings Are Obsolete – Big Box Stores Too?
Posted on February 5th, 2011 by Alan Blume
Internet Marketing
Last year I wrote a blog stating that office buildings are obsolete, and this year I’m thinking the same conjecture might also apply to big box stores. I recently noticed a Yahoo post entitled, The Coming Collapse of Commercial Real Estate is Already Here, by Stacy Curtin. Stacy aptly notes that BestBuy and Target missed their expected earnings targets, and as of this writing, Wal-Mart has seen 6 consecutive quarters of negative same store sales. Further, this happened to BestBuy even though a key competitor, CircuitCity, had moved into bankruptcy. Though this has occurred in a tough economy, many of their online competitors have seen significantly better results.
Stacy’s article states that more people are buying, they are just buying online. This seems true globally and anecdotally. About a year ago, I tried to purchase a receiver from BestBuy, only a couple of miles from my home. Unfortunately the receiver was out of stock. In fact all the receivers that might have been of interest to me were out of stock. A couple of years ago, I would have driven across the street to the now defunct CircuitCity (speaking of brick and mortar retail challenges). Instead, I drove home, went online to Amazon and purchased a better receiver for less money, which was delivered a day later. Obviously, I’m not alone. Many of my friends and colleagues now make routine purchases from Amazon as progressively more consumers become comfortable with online searching and shopping.
My CPA buys all his books on his Kindle, as do I, a faster, easier and more cost effective alternative to the brick and mortar bookstore. The challenges for BestBuy, Target, Wal-Mart, Blockbuster and Barnes & Noble are obvious, perhaps most evident by the huge electronic book display in the premium retail location at the front of the Barnes & Noble stores. B&N appears to be working hard to transition to a Kindle type operation with their new Nook. Better late than never, or simply too late for the date? Only time will tell, though their extensive brick and mortar costs may result in too much ballast for them to successfully navigate from retail to e-tail.
But retail isn’t alone in the commercial real estate challenge. Traditional office buildings will face a virtual workforce shift, as progressive companies opt for less costly and more efficient work from home staffing. This is happening with small virtual companies like StartUpSelling, Inc. and giants like IBM. Working virtually has amazing advantages, from resolving the commute related issue with today’s snow storm in Boston, to using highly cost effective tools like Skype which allows multistate, multiparty video conferencing for pennies a day.
Do these changes spell the imminent destruction and removal of office buildings and big box retail? I think this is too strong a statement. There will likely be a need for many types of retail establishment, from groceries to lumber, from household items to convenience items. And there will be office based businesses that require some or perhaps many employees to congregate. That said, the changes to brick and mortar retail and offices are upon us, gaining speed every day, as the convenience and cost efficacy of virtual business and e-tail offers a more convenient path for the rapidly increasing, interconnected internet world.
An Inexpensive Sales & Marketing Approach for Startups and Emerging Companies
Posted on September 20th, 2010 by Alan Blume
How can an entrepreneur find competent, cheap and effective sales and marketing resources? This is a question that many startup companies and emerging companies must ask themselves every day. It is especially true for the bootstrapped, or simply cash strapped entrepreneur. In many cases the founders of these companies might have great development or operational skills, but lack the sales or closing genes necessary to bring in the business. Thus the dilemma, an entrepreneur has a great product, service or solution, but they don’t have the knowhow or sales and marketing team to build a pipeline and convert suspects to prospects, and then to new clients.
Of course, simply stated, the dilemma above actually represents two distinct issues, driving leads into the sales funnel (a marketing function) then qualifying and closing these leads (sales function). There does appear to be an answer to this question, with a new spin on an old methodology, the independent sales agent model. There are now opportunities for entrepreneurs to outsource the lead development and sales process using a virtual sales and marketing approach, thus conserving cash and mitigating startup risk. This model results in a true “reap what you sow” relationship, which emerging companies seem to like. In these cases, even a modest budget might be sufficient to pilot this model.
Why would this new virtual marketing and sales agent model work for a startup, entrepreneurship or cash strapped company? Hiring a great sales person, let’s say his name was Tom, even on a highly leveraged commission plan, with benefits, training and management time would cost at least $5,000 per month for most industries, and this is before any commissions or marketing costs are added. Because of our virtual approach, we were able to provide both the sales capacity AND the marketing for half the cost of a “Tom”. We think it is only possible to do this using a virtual, no overhead, internet based tools approach.
Virtual Sales & Marketing Solutions
Though the sales agent is not typically full-time, the results are can be far superior because the management time, reporting, sales skills, marketing and lead generation are all incorporated into one streamlined, cost effective, outsourced solution. This concept may take a while to catch on with some emerging companies, but it is, in many ways, a better approach to the traditional path of securing large loans or a second mortgage, angel funding, or venture capital funding. And there is a hidden bonus, if the salesperson leaves, there is no need for a new hiring process, they are replaced under this model with another sales agent, trained and brought up to speed without cost to the entrepreneur.
This model eliminates the need to find the sales closer that can “do it all”, find and cultivate leads, follow-up on pipeline worthy accounts, provide marketing materials and presentation materials and finally close new business. It also reduces cash flow needs, venture capital or other funding requirements. All of these services can be provided together, at a lower cost than the traditional brick and mortar model. Perhaps it sounds too good to be true, but I think that is because this is a new approach to an old problem. This new approach, leveraging the virtual model, internet tools and an outsourced contractor methodology can deliver better results than the old-fashioned, hire a brand new internal sales and marketing team and hope it works, brick and mortar approach.
For more information, read Your Virtual Success (Career Press) or go to: http://www.startupselling.com. StartUpSelling provides outsourced marketing, sales and lead generation services focusing in the areas of eMarketing, telemarketing, SEO, insurance agency social media marketing and website development. StartUpSelling specializes in innovative entrepreneurial marketing and sales concepts.
The Prospect Scorecard – A Simple Way for Salespeople and Businesses to Improve Close Ratios, Forecasting and Communication
Posted on June 3rd, 2010 by Alan Blume
Great selling starts with great prospect identification and qualification. Salespeople and businesses need to quantify prospects in such a way that they can improve close ratios and pipeline forecasting accuracy. To accomplish this, you need to use something I call a “Prospect Scorecard”. This Prospect Scorecard, combined with a simple but accurate prospect identification method makes it much easier to quantify your current pipeline and thus improve close rates and forecasting accuracy. It can also be used to gauge the effectiveness of your marketing programs, because you can more readily judge (or score) the quality of incoming leads. This technique will work for essentially any company.
It’s easy to create a prospect scorecard (or virtual prospect scorecard if you’re a virtual company or self employed individual). First, start with your top ten criteria for an ideal, in profile client (if you don’t have ten, you can select 5 or 6). Criteria can include items like industry, revenues, growth, target buyer title, specific technology requirements, total employees, solution needs, and other attributes relevant to your ideal prospect. Once you have identified your top ten (or whatever number you select), you can rate them on your scorecard on a scale of 1 to 10, a 10 being your perfect prospect and a 1 not even worthy of discussion. We currently use a 5 point scale on our own scorecard, and our sales agents consider anyone less than a 3 as an unlikely prospect. If they aren’t a 3 or better, they don’t even make it to the pipeline. The scorecard helps salespeople match their prospect against specific and quantifiable criteria selected for your ideal prospect profile, turning the subjective into the objective. They can also compare their current prospects with prior opportunities which were won and lost, and match their current prospects against this historical information. Prospect scorecards are easy to create and useful for almost any type of company.
Once you have created your scorecard criteria, you can simply add ideal buyer attributes, or to simplify the process, a prospect identification acronym. The acronym we use is “BUD”, which stands for Budget, Urgency and Decision maker. If we are speaking with a principal or CEO, and they understand the pricing paradigm, we have a capital “B” and know that the budget will not be an issue. If we are speaking with a marketing manager and they are uncertain, we have a lower case “b”, and they are a less qualified prospect. The same holds true with urgency and decision maker. If we have all three, and the prospect score is a 3 or better, we know they are very likely to become a client.
BUD can be modified for your company. For example, perhaps your prospect identification acronym will be BUNT (Budget, Urgency, Need, and Timing). What’s an example for “Timing”; a new person or organizational change is causing your prospect to rethink their needs and their service provider, thus the timing is a capital “T”. The prospect identification acronym needs to be short and simple, and should include critical qualification elements of your sales cycle. I remember using the scorecard and BUD at a high tech, high growth company about 10 years ago, as we rapidly ramped up our pipeline and sales volume. Salespeople would frequently walk into my office and say, “I have a BUD-qualified prospect.” Or they might ask for help, “can you come to XYZ Company on Thursday, they are a 9 on the scorecard and BUD qualified.” We were all speaking the same language, having turned subjective terms like “good prospect”, “hot prospect” and “well qualified prospect” into quantifiable terms like “a 9” which is “BUD qualified”. Make this part of your everyday language and weave it into the fabric of your sales culture.
This is a win for both the salespeople and for management, as this simple process makes it easier to communicate, forecast and close. More information is available on The Prospect Scorecard in Your Virtual Success (Career Press): Available at all major bookstores and Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Your-Virtual-Success-Finding-Profitability/dp/1601631014/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275487494&sr=8-1
Small Business Judo – Turning Your Competitor’s Greatest Strengths Into Clearly Defined Weaknesses
Posted on April 26th, 2010 by Alan Blume
Judo is a method of turning an opponent’s strength into a weakness and overcoming their physical advantage by skill rather than sheer strength. You can use something I call Small Business Judo (I sometimes refer to this as Virtual Business Judo) to compete against large and established companies by turning their greatest strengths into clearly defined weaknesses. Don’t try to show greater depth of resources or feign an ability which is not at your command. Don’t try to convince someone that you have a broader product line than an established billion dollar competitor if you only employ five people. But you can easily convince someone that you have great expertise in a focused area or that you’ll be much more responsive than a multibillion dollar corporation.
If you were to take a 40 foot cabin cruiser and place it in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, nobody would notice it, and even if you were searching for it, it is unlikely to be found. Yet if we were to take the same 40 foot boat and place it in the middle of a small two acre pond, it would be almost impossible to overlook. Small companies should consider this perspective when seeking market share for their emerging business. Some years ago, while leading the sales and marketing efforts of a small software startup, I decided to focus our sales and marketing efforts on a very small and specific target market, small medical offices with one to four physicians, in New England. We touted our local presence, ease of use and superior support, jabbed at competitors’ large, lumbering size, and critiqued their large scale platforms.
We then practiced Small Business Judo to help convey our competitive advantages. Don’t try to be what you are not. If you’re a small software company, don’t try to look like SAP. If you’re a niche integration firm, don’t try to act like IBM. Instead of fighting an uphill battle attempting to show you are superior in every way to an established competitor, take a boutique approach, leveraging their perceived strengths against them, and turning their superior size and marketing muscle into a weakness. Convey a responsive, flexible, expertise-oriented image by saying for example:
• We’re a much more responsive company because of our size
• Because we are a boutique, everyone who works here is an expert
• Your account will be working with our most senior people; there are no junior people at our firm.
• Our product is newer, taking advantage of current tools and technologies
• We don’t outsource your support calls offshore, when you call for support you deal directly with us
• We’re better because we specialize in this one specific area
• You’ll have direct access to our senior most executives
• It is much easier for us to accommodate your suggestions because we’re not trying to service 5,000 clients
• We’ll make you feel like our number one client
These types of statements attack your competitor’s strengths by turning them into weaknesses. You can leverage your modest size and resources as an advantage. Words like flexible, responsive, important, expert, focus, boutique, current and leading edge can make your startup sound like a winner. Imagine the small, swift ship that can change course at the slightest touch of the rudder, while the competitor’s battleship sails on another mile before beginning her turn. Think about the maneuverability of a Ferrari when compared to an eighteen-wheeler, or a jet ski compared to a yacht. Another great example of Small Business Judo can be used when you are competing with a firm that has a large account base and has been around a long time. Let’s say their solution has 1,000 customers installed and yours only has ten, and their solution has been in use for over a decade, whereas yours has only been in use for two years. You could say:
• Our system was written from the ground up two years ago and takes advantage of all the newer technologies
• Because our system is more recently developed it is more compatible than the older systems
• Our code is newer and more efficient than the competition
• We’re more focused than the older traditional companies because of our size and expertise in your specific market
• We’re more responsive because we’re not trying to service 5,000 clients
• We’ll make you feel like you’re our number one client (say it twice!)
With some practice and a good understanding of both your competitive advantages and your competitor’s weaknesses, you can leverage Small Business Judo to outmaneuver, out position and outsell much larger and more established companies. Today, the size of the company is not the most important factor; it’s the stability, viability and capability of delivering quality results at a great value. If someone is trying to leverage their size against your small or virtual business, just remember to mention Enron, General Motors, Washington Mutual, WorldCom, Conseco and Lehman Brothers, all monster size organizations that filed for bankruptcy. Today, small is good, and virtual is even better.
For more information read Your Virtual Success, Finding Profitability in an Online World: http://www.yourvirtualsuccess.net/
The Golden Rules of Virtual Business
Posted on April 5th, 2010 by Alan Blume
There are four Golden Rules to follow when creating a virtual business:
1. A short path to the money (limited ramp-up or development time)
2. No upfront capital
3. Customer deposits in advance of delivery
4. Contractor based assistance for delivery
Of course, you might be thinking of an investment intensive business that does not adhere to these rules. My advice, think again. The rules above allow you to create your own plan, to operate in a way that is conducive to your lifestyle, or at a minimum, provide you with excellent upside while mitigating downside risk.
Then again, you might be thinking that you can alleviate the risk by attracting venture capital, thereby investing a lot of your time as opposed to a lot of your money. My advice, once again, is to think about another path, preferably one revolving around the golden rules above. Yes, there are a select few who can beat the VC odds, maintain control over their startup, go IPO and make millions. In other words, they beat the 5,000 to 1 odds of having this happen. How extreme are these cases? You have the same likelihood of getting struck by lightning. Though 5,000 to 1 odds are good if you’re worried about getting electrocuted, they stink if you want to go IPO with your VC of choice.
Bootstrapping your virtual business should be much easier than funding a traditional brick and mortar business. For example, let’s say you have a great recipe for clam chowder (that’s chowdah if you come from my neighborhood) and you’re thinking of opening a restaurant, thereby breaking all of the golden rules. Hold on – let’s come up with some alternatives. Have you considered taking your recipe and partnering with an existing company or restaurant? How about partnering with a catering company? What about offering it over the internet? Can you offer it via takeout or delivered to your door? Sell it to restaurants? Sell it through a food distributor? Are there any alternatives to investing a million dollars and waiting a year to see if your business will be viable? Perhaps none of these ideas will work for your business idea. Regardless, when thinking about your next venture, think about the Golden Rules and if possible, find a virtual business that will follow some or all of them!
For more information read Your Virtual Success, Finding Profitability in an Online World: http://www.yourvirtualsuccess.net/
The Venture Capital Trap
Posted on March 23rd, 2010 by Alan Blume
Which is more likely to happen? You come up with a great business concept, secure Venture Capital funding and your startup goes IPO, making you millions – or you get struck by lightning? Unfortunately the answer is that you’re more likely to get struck by lightning which, according to the National Weather Service has odds of 5,000 to 1. Should you ever consider venture capital? Companies requiring a significant infusion of cash to get started may require this type of funding, and could thus consider it as long as the founders are aware of the long shot odds. If you’re starting up a truly capital intensive company, perhaps a biotech, medical device, or energy related company, you might be forced to consider Venture Capital. But if you plan on creating a small startup service company, a new accounting firm, consulting practice, training firm, video production company, cleaning services firm, boutique software company, or any of the thousands of opportunities that aren’t truly capital intensive, I’d suggest you stay as far away from the vulture capitalists as possible. There are far better financing alternatives which offer greater control over your destiny.
Are you thinking of creating a software company which expects to hit $10 Million in sales in three years – don’t bother. Either you’ll miss your targets and get booted and diluted or the resulting flip will yield you a fraction of what you would receive on your own. That’s why Venture Capital is a ludicrous bet for most entrepreneurs. But worse than that, it’s also a pressure cooker and you’re almost guaranteed that you will lose control. Not only will you have the dubious honor of giving away a huge portion of your company, you’ll also have a VC backed board breathing down your neck. They will be watching where and how you spend your money while they fly first class and wine and dine in four star establishments at your expense. When they visit you, chances are they will be flying first class and staying at a top notch hotel. Don’t be surprised if your VC backers drop $10,000 or $15,000 of your money to attend one of your board meetings. Then again, is it your money or their money? And pragmatically which scenario would be better for the VC’s – exceeding the proposed massive sales targets or having you miss your early targets and then taking control of your company – dirt cheap – then exceeding the sales targets?
Here is some great advice from Peter Ireland from his Smart Startup Guide (www.antiventurecapital.com):
• First, chasing outside capital is by far the most unpleasant and drawn-out ordeal experienced by entrepreneurs. It always seems to take “forever”. (For this reason, veteran entrepreneurs try to avoid raising outside capital at all costs.)
• Second, based on the fact that your typical early stage Venture Capital firm invests in only one company out of every 500 business plans it reviews, your odds of succeeding are only 1:500.
• Third, in about 50% of instances where an early stage company actually succeeds in raising Venture Capital, the founder is fired within the first year and kisses his or her stock good-bye.
Perhaps this is merely a buyer beware blog entry. I can’t say that every VC has an agenda, other than massive financial returns, just that their money is extremely expensive and comes with great risk. Bootstrapping is a far better alternative for most startup companies, and perhaps, if you’re thinking of a startup that requires a large capital infusion and must then consider venture capital, you should think of a different business venture or a better funding alternative. Are there any circumstances when venture capital is clearly a better alternative? Certainly – they are clearly better than a loan shark and possibly better than a pawn shop which might charge 10% interest per month!
You’re Too Old – or is it just your copyright
Posted on January 22nd, 2010 by Alan Blume
If you were a main street retailer, your window display might look a tad tired and dusty, it might seem overly familiar. The colors on your merchandise slightly faded from the afternoon sun. This would be an obvious sign of neglect, not caring very much about your clients or prospective clients. Your web site should be thought of in much the same way. Of course there is no afternoon sun and faded colors to contend with, but there is the problem of internet dust in the form of your copyright notice. Most web sites have a copyright notice on the bottom of their site, or somewhere else on their site. How old is yours? I’ve seen sites with copyrights that are 3, 5 and even 10 years old. When clients and prospects see this, they realize you’re not paying much attention to your internet front window. Perhaps they are wondering what else you are missing. It’s a small but important detail. Then again, if your copyright is three years old, when did you last update and refine your web site?
Going Postal
Posted on September 14th, 2009 by Alan Blume
It seems pretty strange that the U.S. government still delivers mail six days a week. After all, the postal service has been running at a deficit for years, in some cases, multibillion dollar deficits. At the moment, it does seem reasonable to have mail delivery services a few days a week. After all, we still get some bills and checks in the mail, though the trend is clearly moving to on-line banking and direct deposit. You may receive the occasional important letter or notification, and a favorite catalog from time to time. To accomplish this, according the United States Postal Service Web site (www.usps.com), these items are delivered by, “685,000 career employees and 101,000 non-career staff, making it the second-largest employer in the United States (behind Wal-Mart). The Postal Service employs more workers on U.S. soil than General Motors, Ford and Chrysler combined.” The site goes on further to say, “The USPS operates the largest fleet of commercial vehicles in the country—some 212,000 vans and trucks.” That’s a lot of vehicles, a lot of gas and a huge expense! Imagine the energy savings if we stopped sending junk mail, encouraged opt in email, cut down on the USPS delivery days, and encouraged electronic signatures for legal documents. Imagine the post office needing 100,000 or even 150,000 fewer vehicles! But even this logic is faulty. It won’t be long before most traditional catalogs are replaced by cheaper, faster, better on-line versions. It won’t be long before people stop writing hand written letters and notes. When was the last time your twelve year old wrote a letter and mailed it to a friend? The last time my 20-year-old daughter wrote a letter was six years ago when she was in summer camp and didn’t have access to a computer. My 33 year old nephew receives all his bills on-line, and is still using the same book of traditional bank checks received in his first order. It won’t be long before traditional mail is almost completely supplanted by email, eBilling, Instant Messaging and digital documents. And all of these events will move us into a progressively more pervasive on-line existence and a more environmentally friendly communication and distribution system. Don’t go postal, go virtual.
Leveraging Brick & Mortar Unemployable
Posted on April 9th, 2009 by Alan Blume
We were looking for someone with the following qualifications and attributes:
Seasoned sales professional, articulate and intelligent, strong sales track record, enjoys prospecting and working remotely with prospects, good written communication skills, superior verbal communication skills, strong closing skills, Bachelors degree, Microsoft Office literate, work from home venue, self motivated, independent – AND – and that they would be willing to work with no initial compensation on a commission only basis (or nominal draw against commission).
Impossible to fill this position you might say. But in the virtual world, this position is not difficult to fill. We can tap into stay at home moms, stay at home dads, retired or semi-retired professionals, and those who just cannot leave their homes for a myriad of reasons. So we posted a free ad on Craigslist, received a couple of dozen responses, closely reviewed four and have now hired a superbly experienced individual to work with us. This individual sought a stay at home professional position, extreme flexibility, and compelling income opportunity through a commission only program. We offer – flexibility, opportunity and income potential. They can meet their children when they get off the school bus without concern about punching the clock or reporting there whereabouts. We have used this model successfully for five years. We enjoy a competitive advantage by working with superior, highly qualified people that traditional brick and mortar businesses cannot employ.
This makes us flexible, profitable, and able to easily expand or contract when necessary. We don’t invest in offices, furniture, heat or lights – just people and technology. And nobody gets paid until they produce something – if someone is earning – they are producing. It’s a better model and a better lifestyle for everyone we work with. www.alanblume.com
Virtual means competitive advantage – hiring the best & brightest
Posted on March 17th, 2009 by Alan Blume
Our virtual business is expanding while other, more traditional businesses are in the midst of a major contraction. This spells o-p-p-o-r-t-u-n-i-t-y for those companies which can take advantage of the talented labor pool that is now available. It’s always challenging to hire the best and brightest. But in a virtual model, we can deliver greater value because all of our investments are in people and technology. Thus our prices are often 30% or 40% less for comparable services than our “traditional” competitors. We can deliver better results because we are investing in better talent and current SaaS (Software as a Solution) web based technologies like GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar and SalesForce.com. For our lead generation telesales operation, we are finding amazingly talented people across the country who have been laid off after years of efforts for competing firms. The same holds true for our marketing contractors, web designers, graphics team, writers and editors, all of whom work virtually. And of course, we can target recession resistant industries because our model is highly elastic. Thus, we are enjoying what we hope will be a continued expansion. But if we do ever experience a softening, the virtual model makes it much easier to contract quickly, gracefully and without the typical adverse impact to the bottom line. And everyone who works with us – understands this model. That’s one of the reasons our teams are motivated without the usual “motivation and team building techniques” required in a tradition brick and mortar environment. www.alanblume.com