Angelika Coghla...'s profileCatwalk TalkBlogLists Tools Help

Blog


    December 21

    Proof That Santa Uses (and Loves) Technology

      
    Santa may be depicted as an old-fashioned, traditional character, but we think he's been on the cutting edge of technology for ages. Just think about it...
     
    • Santa never gets lost and never stops for directions. Clearly he was an early adopter of GPS.
    • Even with all those elves to help him, Santa can't possibly read "Dear Santa" letters from millions of hopeful children each year. The solution? He uses text-scanning software to pull out the important points.
    • And speaking of all those elves – that's a big payroll! Obviously Santa has some serious automated accounting software in place.
    • How does Santa manage to keep up with current toy trends in different parts of the world? Through dozens of electronic newsletter and listserv subscriptions.
    • And don't think for a minute that he doesn't shop online for special orders. Those elves aren't allowed to make brand name toys. (Copyright and patent infringement, you know.)
    • "He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake." Okay, so if it weren't Santa, it'd be creepy. But how does he do it? Through a sophisticated integration of "nanny cams" and satellites, of course.
    • It's not easy figuring out who's been bad or good. We'd like to get our hands on the software Santa uses to compute the complicated "naughty or nice" algorithm for all those kids.
    • How does Santa keep warm and power his workshop at the North Pole? Lots and lots of solar panels.
    • Flying reindeer? One word: robots.

     

    October 06

    PC or Mac?

    I have been intrigued with the television ads that compare a PC with a Mac computer. The PC is played by a nerdy, middle-aged man, while the Mac guy appears young and cool. PC-man is always afraid to do things and sort of seems stuck in his ways. But Mac-guy seems ready for anything at anytime. Obviously, the commercials promote Apple and Macintosh computers.

    Here's a side note of clarification: The term "PC" stands for personal computer. So in reality, both Macs and non-Macs are technically PCs. But the term PC is usually used to refer to an IBM-compatible computer, which very often runs the Windows operating system (OS). Macs are also now capable of running the Windows OS, as well. Just one more wrinkle in the comparison game!

    Personally, I’m a PC user. I know a lot of people who have been Mac users from the very beginning, as well as some who are thinking about switching or have switched to Mac. In my experience, Mac users have as many frustrations with their machines as PC users, despite what Apple's commercials assert. Machines, regardless of make or model, can and will break down. So how do you choose?

    It’s very important to look at your business and its processes, along with the software that you currently use and plan to use in the future. While some software is available for both Macs and PCs, not all is. You should also determine what information you need to share with others, such as customers, vendors, and suppliers. Make sure that if you need to share data with them, they will be able to handle it in the format that you are providing it.

    What about you? Are you a Mac-maniac or a PC-pundit? What do you see as the pros and cons of each for your business?

    September 20

    Blogging as Marketing and PR

    In this month’s Catwalk Talk newsletter, we look at some ways that technology can help you communicate with your customers. We cited an interesting study from Edelman and Technorati that explores how blogs are powerful PR tools. Then we invited readers to visit this blog and ask us their blogging questions. Feel free to jump down to the comments and do just that. What do you need to know about blogs? We’re learning how to use this communication medium, too, so let’s all jump in and learn together!

    You can also check out another study that finds that corporate blogs increase media attention for their companies. This study, Corporate Blog Learnings: The Discovery Age, was sponsored by Porter Novelli, a global public relations company, and Cymfony, a market influence analytics company.

    Here’s an overview of the study, taken from Porter Novelli’s website:

    The Discovery Age

    There has been a lot written about the benefits of corporate blogs and the importance of monitoring consumer-generated media, and we've all heard numerous examples of the benefits of doing a good job and the horror stories of when things go bad. But there hasn't been much practical information on how to do it. Who should blog and how often? What tools are being used to monitor blogs? What results are companies seeing? Porter Novelli and Cymfony, a market influence analytics company, fielded a survey with Russell Research to gather the answers to these and other questions.

    A Few Key Findings

    • A clear majority of respondents (63%) report that they started their corporate blogs because they felt the need to participate in the medium, rather than to satisfy a specific need; although more bloggers from larger companies indicated they started a blog to satisfy a specific need, still over 40% of larger companies started their blog because of a perceived need to be in the blogosphere.
    • The majority of companies surveyed (76%) indicated that they have noticed an increase in media attention and/or website traffic as a result of their blog(s) -- suggesting that corporate blogs may be attracting a new and somewhat untapped online audience.
    • The vast majority, or 75%, also felt that their initial goals for the blog(s) have been met.
    • Less than half of the companies surveyed (42%) indicated that through blog monitoring they have found at least one specific post that has affected the company or a brand and in the vast majority of cases it has had a positive affect.
    • Despite general success, 71% of respondents are not happy with the level of interaction on their blog(s).

     

    You can read more about the study and download it in its entirety at www.porternovelli.com/site/pressrelease.aspx?pressrelease_id=125&pgName=news.

    And if you’re looking for a practical guide on marketing and blogging, check out Buzz Marketing with Blogs for Dummies by Susannah Gardner.

    Are you using a blog for your business? Why or why not? If so, are you seeing the results you wanted? How do you measure those results?

    August 18

    Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – It's Not Just a Tool, It's a Philosophy

    Lately, it seems that everyone's biggest business issue is customer relationship management (CRM). In an earlier blog entry, I stated that the Aberdeen Group surveyed companies and found that increased sales are the number one way that companies grow. The sales process is critical for every organization. If you can't develop a good pipeline and then can't track and measure the pipeline, you won't be very successful in turning the prospects into customers. Once you have the customers, CRM becomes critical to maintaining them as customers.
     
    CRM is a strategy that focuses on the creation and maintenance of long lasting relationships with customers.  Many people feel that if they invest in a CRM technology solution they have achieved CRM. On the contrary, a technology solution is only one part of successful CRM. A good CRM strategy cannot be implemented by simply installing a software package, and it won't happen overnight. CRM is a philosophy that places emphasis on the customer.
     
    To be effective, the CRM process needs to be integrated from end-to-end across marketing, sales and customer service. A good CRM program needs to track all aspects of selling to customers and prospects, as well as provide good customer support.
     
    One of the important factors that leads to a successful CRM implementation is buy-in from the entire organization. A company's leadership needs to be supportive of this type of initiative and communicate this to all levels of the organization. It takes everyone in the company to create and maintain information that is critical to effectively serving the customer. 
     
    It may seem difficult and may take some time, but done correctly, CRM will help to maintain and grow your company's customer base. 
    July 27

    Business & Family

    It’s always a struggle to mix business and family and get the right balance.  My husband is not only my partner in life, but he is also my partner in the business.  Having our own business does provide flexibility, but sometimes it also demands both of our attention at that same time.   We have a 9 year old daughter, and trying to juggle family and business can be a challenge.

     

    What makes it work is that my husband and I are true partners in every sense of the word.  We share in the duties of home, business and child rearing.  But sometimes neither one of us is available. And then what?  To make matters more challenging, we don’t have any other family in the area.  But my daughter, having grown up with the business, understands when she can interrupt us and when she must politely wait.  Ever since she was 3 years old, she has helped out with filing and other tasks for the business.  When we couldn’t get a babysitter, she came to meetings with us and colored quietly in a corner. 

     

    Summers can sometimes be a challenge, even though she attends a public school that only has 6 weeks off for the summer.  And although there’s a day camp that covers those 6 weeks, it still takes some flexibility and creativity on everyone’s part. 

     

    In general, people understand that we all have a responsibility to our families.  And in my experience, if you have to bring your child to a meeting or two, it’s ok.  No one will think any less of you, and some people probably admire you for it.

     

    What are your stories about being both a good parent and a good business person? I’d love to hear them!

    June 15

    What is a Web Portal?

    Like a lot of people in any specialized field of business, I sometimes throw around phrases that I take for granted. But lately I've realized that what I may consider an everyday term may be unfamiliar to others. Several people have asked me to explain what a Web portal is and why it is important for their businesses.

    First, let's look at the definition of "portal" in the traditional sense. Merriam Webster online includes these definitions of portal:

    1 : DOOR, ENTRANCE; especially : a grand or imposing one
    2 : the whole architectural composition surrounding and including the doorways and porches of a church

    Now, let's look at the definition of "Web portal" from Wikipedia.com:

    Web portals are sites on the World Wide Web that typically provide personalized capabilities to their visitors. They are designed to use distributed applications, different numbers and types of middleware and hardware to provide services from a number of different sources. In addition, business portals are designed to share collaboration in workplaces. A further business-driven requirement of portals is that the content be able to work on multiple platforms such as personal computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and cell phones.

    Simply put, a Web portal gives you access to a set of applications and information. In that sense, it is both an online entry point and the architecture of a technology system.

    Portals are made up of portlets, which are reusable Web components that display relevant information to portal users. Common Web portals include AOL and Yahoo!. From those portals, you can access various kinds of portlets, including email, weather reports, search engine results, discussion forms, and news.

    In the business sense, a Web portal gives you access to a specific set of software applications and data. Instead of being tied to your office and your computer, you can access data and applications from any computer with an Internet connection. Web portals can also allow customers and suppliers to login and access relevant information. It's more than just a website where you log-in to something; it's also the whole architecture (or system) that links together the applications and data that you need. And as Wikipedia points out, portal systems work on multiple platforms.

    Portals are especially good at combining and aggregating information and applications from many different sources. They are just the ticket when you want to enable people to access their email, collaborate with others on their work team, and access document libraries, applications and databases all in a single user interface.

    The great thing about portals is that they connect different kinds of software and applications. In this case, the different kinds of software and applications are the portlets.

    Say, for example, that you have employees located in California, Texas, and New York. You need all of them to work together on a project. But this project requires new software applications that aren't installed in the Texas or New York offices. And you can't afford to fly the team together every time they need to meet. By using a Web portal system (such as IBM' WebSphere Portal, which is part of their Workplace strategy), you don't have install new software on every employee's computer. Instead, the team members can access everything that they need through the Web portal. Plus, the team can meet virtually via shared workspace.

    So how can Web portals help your business? They can simplify your processes, streamline your work, pull together your data, and deliver information to your employees, customers, suppliers and vendors in a timely manner with a single sign-on point on the Web.


    Interested in getting your own Web portal? As an IBM Business Partner, Catwalk Consulting offers Workplace Services Express (WSE), which includes a portal – and perhaps more important – a bunch of portlets. WSE jumpstarts your team and project, saving you the time and money of developing and maintaining all those portlets on your own. Plus, WSE has room to grow. So if you do eventually need your own portlets, you can do that – and Catwalk will help! Contact us for a free demo.

    June 02

    Technology – Can It Help To Grow Your Business?

    The answer is yes. In a survey by the Aberdeen Group, more than half of the people surveyed described their companies as sales-driven, with nothing being more important then the efforts and outcomes of sales. I don’t think that this information surprises anyone. Obviously, sales are at the core of most – if not all – for-profit organizations.

     

    What is surprising is that the same survey found that the primary focus of the companies involved was to rectify things such as:

     

    4    insufficient sales-supporting technology;

    4    lack of integrated technology (which results in unreliable planning information); and

    4    selecting a solution on best functionality and not best price.

     

    It’s all about easy access to information. Sales Force Automation (SFA) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software have long been recognized as enablers to radically redesigning your sales processes to achieve dramatic improvements in sales performance, management, and measurement.

     

    Typically, this type of technology can collect great amounts of data. But the challenge is entering and maintaining information so that it remains current. Unless your process or workflow is a key component of the solution, it is impossible to gain access to the real information that every sales manager wants – an accurate and clear view of the pipeline deals. Having this information gives them the ability to more accurately forecast sales, along with the appropriate knowledge to help close the deal.

     

    Salespeople find themselves in increasingly competitive situations. And managing a sale is more complicated then ever. Here are some benefits of implementing an automated process using technology.

     

    4    Reduce face-to-face time and cost of sale by automating administrative functions and eliminating unnecessary steps in a process.

    4    Provide suggestions to sales people to help them cope with different customer segments.

    4    Streamline the customer experience from sales to delivery.

    4    Make training new sales staff easier and quicker.

    4    Facilitate communication between all parties involved in a sale.

    4    Give sales people more time to sell!

     

     

    In their Harvard Business Review book Automation to Boost Sales and Marketing, authors Rowland T. Moriarty Jr. and Gordon Swartz state: “In cases we have reviewed, sales increases arising from advanced marketing and sales information technology have ranged from 10% to 30% and investment returns have often exceeded 100%”.  

     

    When used properly, technology can help you grow your business. Choosing the technology that works well with your business processes is also crucial.

     

    Have you had success in choosing the right technology? Share your stories here!

    May 17

    Building a Resilient Business

    Lately, it seems that every business owner I talk with has employee issues. But they’re not the typical issues you would expect to hear. I’m hearing that employees are doing their jobs, but that they require a lot of direction and management. Why is this happening?

     

    I recently attended the 2006 Women President’s Organization conference where Professor Gary Hamel, author of Leading the Revolution, was the keynote speaker. His message focused on resilience. He stated that organizations today are not built to be resilient, and talked about the challenges that companies face:

     

    1. How do you build a company that is as nimble as change itself?
    2. How do you build a company where innovation comes from everyone all the time?
    3. How do you build a company that gets the best from everyone everyday?

     

    His basic message was that we, as business owners, don’t encourage creativity. We have built business models that make it difficult to adapt to change. Too many companies must face a crisis for any change to happen. And even then, a crisis often creates a change in leadership instead of a change in the business itself.

     

    Professor Hamel challenged us to think about how we can make our businesses more like communities; to build businesses that are fit for human beings. He noted that we tend to reward obedience in workers instead of encouraging passion, creativity, and initiative. Therefore, it’s no surprise that employees are waiting for direction from the leadership of the company.

     

    In a time when most companies are figuring out how to do more with less, it’s critical for business owners to determine how to get employees to be more creative and passionate about the work that they do. Are we ready to treat them more like human beings and provide an environment that they can feel passionate about? If we don’t, how will that affect our companies?

     

     

     

    April 19

    Managed Services -- an option to technology staff?

    It seems like everyone that I talk to lately is experiencing computer problems. Some have suffered hard drive crashes; some have been attacked by viruses that then cause other issues with their hardware and software. And some forgot to backup crucial data, and then were unable to restore it after a crash. There’s a growing market for what is called managed services, and plenty of companies are offering it.

     

    What are managed services? According to www.searchcio.com, a managed service provider (MSP) provides delivery and management of network-based services, applications, and equipment to enterprises, residences, or other service providers. Managed service providers can be hosting companies or access providers. Their services can include fully outsourced network management arrangements, including advanced features like IP telephony, messaging and call centers, virtual private network (VPNs), managed firewalls, and monitoring/reporting of network servers.

     

    Most of these services can be performed from outside off a company's internal network, with a special emphasis placed on integration and certification of Internet security for applications and content. MSPs serve as outsourcing agents for companies, especially other service providers such as ISPs, that don't have the resources to constantly upgrade or maintain faster and faster computer networks.

     

    Many companies provide this type of service, and there are many different types of packages.  Costs vary with the each package. But the cost is significantly less then hiring a full-time network specialist.

     

    One of the most common uses of managed services is data backup, which eliminates the need to remember to put a tape in at the end of the day. Providers can also help with virus and firewall protection.

     

    Although most services can be provided remotely, packages can also include on-site visits when needed. Managed services are worth a look to help you maintain your computer networks and data.

     

    Got a computer crash or virus horror story? Share it with us and we can commiserate! We’d also like to hear your experiences with managed service packages.

     

    March 22

    Time to Take Another Look at Web Conferencing

    In past blog entries I talked about the advantages of web conferencing and how it can help shorten your sales cycle. I also wrote about a customer who saved – and made – much money by truly embracing this technology. Recently, I've seen a lot of articles about the benefits of using web conferencing, and I'd like to share one of these with you: Lower Your Cost Per Lead with Web Conferencing (from SellingPower.com).
     
    Web conferencing gives you the ability to get your message out to anyone, anywhere in the world, at a very affordable price. I'd love to show you a free demonstration of CatwalkConference.com and teach you how web conferencing can shorten your sales cycle and save you money. Call me at 1-888-989-0196 or email me at acoghlan@catwalkconsulting.com.
     
    Or, if you have questions and comments, feel free to leave them on this blog. I'd love to hear from you! 

     
    February 26

    eCommerce – More Then Just a Shopping Cart

    More and more of us are using the Internet to do our shopping. It's convenient, it's fast, and it's safe. Finding things is easy. Just do a Google search on something and you will most likely find it somewhere. What a great opportunity for businesses and consumers! People can literally buy things 24/7. This means that if you do it right, your business can make money while you sleep.

    Unfortunately, many people think that merely having a shopping cart on their website equals eCommerce. Shopping carts are really just the beginning. To build an effective eCommerce program, it's important to look at your entire business process, determine how the web fits into that process, and make sure that everything links together.

    Many company websites have pictures and descriptions of their products and a simple shopping cart to accept payment. What people don't realize is the work involved once that order has been placed and the payment has been accepted. If your eCommerce website is not connected to your backend systems there is so much more work to be done.

    For example, say that your eCommerce site does nothing more then show that a product has been ordered and that payment has been accepted. Your order entry person now takes that order and enters it into an order processing system (if one exists). Information needs to be updated in the accounting system, the inventory system, and finally the distribution system. If these systems don't exist, there is a manual process involved. But if all of these systems are integrated with the eCommerce site, you will save significant time and money to process and fulfill an order.

    In addition, you can now buy eCommerce software that will track your customers' buying habits so that you can up-sell and cross-sell products. It also allows you to build marketing campaigns targeted to your customers. You can gear specials towards the buying habits of your customers. You can also set up targeted specials that appear when a customer returns to your site.

    eCommerce is so much more then just a shopping cart. You want the experience on your website to be a good one so that customers return to purchase more. And you want the experience on the back end to be streamlined and integrated, so your business processes work for you.

    January 31

    Internet Service Providers – New Trends

    In my last post I talked about the problems that we encountered with our email and how we ultimately had to switch Internet Service Providers (ISPs). In researching providers I discovered a new trend in the types of services that many companies are providing.

    ISPs now offer things such as:

      • Site Promotion
      • Polls/Surveys
      • Web Calendars
      • Web File Managers
      • Web Auction capabilities
      • eCommerce Features
      • Free Domain Name Registration
      • File management

    Many also provide the tools to help you develop your websites at no extra cost. There are also products to help you manage spam.

    Some other features that are now being provided are chat rooms for online discussions and even technology to set up a blog. If you are shopping around for an ISP, pick one that offers all the features and functions that your website currently needs AND that it might need for the future.

    Remember that your website often makes your company’s first impression to potential customers. It’s important that visitors have a good online experience.

    For more information on the top technology trends for small businesses in 2006, see this article on Small Business Trends.

     

    January 18

    Email Woes

    We recently had some issues with our hosting company. They completely shut down our email server and we were unable to receive or send email for what seemed like an eternity. Not having email felt like my arms were chopped off. It's amazing how much we depend on email to be our number one communications vehicle.

    I decided to write about this experience because I wanted to provide information on what it takes to get email up and running. We are a technology consulting company and it's quite embarrassing to have our email down for any period of time. What was even more shocking was the amount of time it took to get a resolution to the problem.

    Without going into the details of why our email was shut down, it became clear that we needed to change hosting companies very quickly. The first challenge was deciding if we would just host it ourselves or if we would find another service. We quickly decided that it would be better to find another hosting service. We decided we didn't want to deal with the headaches of spam, viruses and spyware.

    I found several sites that rank hosting companies and their services (www.webhostinginspector.com or www.hosting-report.com). I chose the company I wanted to work with and then began the process of moving the email and website over to them. What most people don't realize is that making a change like this is not immediate. It can take 24 to 48 hours for a website to propagate through the Internet. Propagation is the process whereby the name servers throughout the world update their records for a specific domain. For example, if you move your domain from one host to another, it will take around 24 hours for the new address to broadcast everywhere. During that 24-hour period, the traffic decreases at the old location and increases at the new location. The problem for us was that the old location was completely shut down.

    Another piece of information that is important to have when making this type of a change is the name of the company or person that owns and manages the registration of the domain name. We registered our domain name and built our website 9 years ago. We had hired someone to help us with this process and are no longer in touch with him. So who had the domain name registration? One way to find out is through www.whois.com. You provide the domain name and this free service gives you all the information about the domain registration.

    When you want to switch hosting companies, you must contact the company that has the domain name and ask them to "unlock" the domain and switch the DNS (Domain Name System) from one hosting company to another. The DNS manages the IP addresses, which is the location of the domain.

    Our email went down on a Monday at noon and was not fully functional until Thursday morning. Keep this unavoidable wait time in mind when you plan to move your website or email to a new hosting company. (And if you have to change due to unexpected circumstances, be forewarned and be patient!)

    8 Reasons to Use IBM Workplace Services Express

    1. Get flexible access to documents and business applications.
    2. Lower your costs through increased productivity.
    3. Gain immediate value.
    4. Deliver a better user experience.
    5. Work the way you want to work.
    6. Rapidly deploy new applications.
    7. Adapt quickly to organizational changes.
    8. Respond faster to new opportunities.

    Learn more at www.catwalkconsulting.com/WPEFlyer.pdf.

    January 11

    Business in 2006

    It's hard to believe that it is 2006. Last year went by so fast it was a blur. We at Catwalk Consulting spoke to several business owners to find out what types of challenges they are facing and learned that many companies now have mobile workforces and some have a virtual staff.

    Some challenges occur when the staff is not in the office. These include the difficulty of scheduling meetings and enabling employees to access the information necessary for them to do their jobs. As we all know, business is changing. Our customers, vendors and suppliers want us to be available 24/7. They want us to provide quick responses to questions.

    In order to help with some of these challenges, Catwalk Consulting is providing some new offerings in 2006. We will continue to offer CatwalkConference.com, a hosted web conferencing solution. We are pleased to add IBM's Workplace, Portal and Ecommerce packages to our list of offerings.

    The Workplace product allows companies to provide access to email, calendars, applications, documents and data in one place via the web. This product also manages documents through things such as version control and provides a project management tool. This is a great way to give employees, customers, vendors and suppliers access to important applications and documents. And, this access can be easily managed. You don’t need any additional special software. Basically, any PC with access to the Internet can get at this crucial information. There will no longer be the need to make sure that everyone has the necessary software on their computer. Workplace is fast, reliable and secure. For more information, go to www.catwalkconsulting.com/WPEFlyer.pdf.

    We would love to hear what challenges your company is encountering. Send us an email and let us know if we are on the right track.

     

    December 22

    Strategic Planning

    I recently was involved in a meeting to develop a strategic plan for a not-for-profit. Interestingly, everyone had a different idea of what a strategic plan should be and how to develop one.

    Strategic planning is never easy. You can take many different approaches when trying to develop a strategic plan. Also, depending upon experience, everyone can have a different viewpoint in terms of what a strategic plan really is. This was extremely evident in my meeting. Small business owners tend to develop strategy around sales. Those who work for corporations will develop strategy around functional area. It takes a unique person to look at the big picture and come up with a long-term strategy. Most of us have a tendency to want to develop tactical plans.

    One of the first steps to developing a strategic plan is making sure that everyone involved in the approval process understands the definition of the type of plan that is being created. Everyone needs to be on the same page, working off the same template.

    The Alliance for Nonprofit Management has an excellent article that answers the questions, "What is a strategy and how do we develop one?"

    December 04

    Whiteboarding vs. Screen Sharing

    It's been a while since we covered some web conferencing tips. Since web conferencing is what I do, I thought I'd get back to my technical roots for a bit. Here we go.
     
     
    When presenting a web meeting, consider whether you’ll use whiteboarding, screen sharing, or a combination of both.
     
     
    The whiteboard is a static facility. Presenting using the whiteboard is very much like printing slides and showing them using an overhead projector. You can draw arrows or boxes on the whiteboard "slide" in order to focus the attention of attendees, just as you can with a marker pen on a real slide. It is important to realize that the whiteboard is showing an image of your original presentation file. You cannot edit that file from the whiteboard.
     
    On the other hand, screen sharing is a dynamic facility that broadcasts any changes made by the person controlling the screen to all participants. It is much like watching over someone's shoulder as they use a computer program.
     
    Here's a general rule of thumb on when to use which: Use the whiteboard to make "slide presentations" to your audience. Use screen sharing to demonstrate a program or to do "group tasks" such as cooperatively editing a document.
     
     
    Strengths of the whiteboard
    If the purpose of your e-meeting is to present a set of slides, try the whiteboard.
     
     
    In addition to presenting prepared material, the whiteboard also provides annotation most commonly used by the presenter to highlight certain points as material is being presented. Momentary highlighting of an item on a slide (via an arrow or a box) is an effective substitute for the "in-person highlighting" done by pointing at an item on a slide.
     
     
    Avoid using the whiteboard for the creation or editing of material. There are better approaches.
     
    A set of slides will refresh more quickly when shown on the whiteboard compared to being shown via screen sharing. This is because the whiteboard "caches" slide number two while you are showing slide number one. This enables the second slide to come up very quickly.
     
     
    Strengths of screen sharing
    Screen sharing is a dynamic, real-time facility. In other words, screen sharing allows the "sharer" to show anything on his computer to the "sharees." It's much like watching over my shoulder as I use my computer; you can see my cursor move, dialogue boxes and menus open, windows change, and so on. It's all live.
     
    This is ideal for doing a demo of a new application, for teaching people how to use an application, or for working with a group to cooperatively create or edit a document.

     
    If you can imagine calling someone into your office (or your cubicle or cubbyhole or whatever) to "have a look at this," then try screen sharing.
    November 17

    The Holidays – A Perfect Time to Sell

    For as busy as the holidays can be, business isn't always booming this time of year. Sure, if you're in retail, you're probably busy. But what about technology and service companies? You often hear that these companies wind down for the holidays because not much business happens during this time. But the last few months of the year can be a great time to look at your current customer base and determine which of your other products and services could benefit them.

    Customers don't always realize the full range of products and services that a company offers. Sometimes that's because they're just focused on what they think they need. Other times it's because you added a new offering that they don't know about yet.

    People are usually busy during the holidays. But their minds often go on vacation before their actual work schedule does. Maybe this brain downtime is the perfect time to update them on your company's products and services.

    Think of it this way. Invite your customers to a free webinar that provides informative content about your company and your offerings. Maybe even throw in a little incentive and offer attendees a holiday gift or a prize drawing.

    Why would the holidays be the perfect time for a webinar?

    What would you rather do when you're ready for a vacation: Boring administrative tasks or attend an online meeting that doesn't require you to prepare anything?

    Having the meeting on the web makes it easy for people to attend. There's no travel involved. It's a cost-effective way to market to your current customers. And you just might catch them in a good mood – the perfect time to inform and sell!

     

     

    November 10

    If You Build It, Will They Come?

    I was at a conference recently, showcasing our web conferencing product. What really surprised me was the number of people who expect our company to market what they want to sell. I never thought of our organization as a marketing firm, and I was rather surprised at how many people don’t want to make the effort to market their companies or their products and services. So many people brought this up that I realized it may be a larger issue.

    OK – you built or developed something. Now what? Of course you have to get the word out. So many businesses just don’t embrace simple and sometimes low-cost marketing and PR techniques. You can do several easy things to let others know about your company and what it does.

    First of all, if you have a website, make sure that the website address is on all of your stuff. It should be on your business cards and any other collateral that you give out. Also, if you have your own website with your own domain name, there is no reason in the world to use an email address that does not contain that domain name. I have met so many business owners with an AOL email address. And I have talked to many corporations that say that business cards with an AOL or Hotmail or Yahoo! email address go on the bottom of the pile.

    Having an eNewsletter is another great way to start getting the word out about what you are doing and what’s new about your organization. It helps you to develop a following. Make sure that you provide helpful information that is useful to the readers. If you only try to sell something to your readers, they will quickly get tired of reading. Make sure that you provide value.

    A blog is a great way for prospects, customers and anyone else interested in your company to learn more. Again, have entries that provide information about your products and services, as well as helpful, useful information. Give your readers a sense of the culture of your company. It’s a great way for current and potential customers to get to know what you and your company are all about.

    Your email signature is another great way to get information out to people. Have a link to your website or your demo or whatever else you want to promote. I recently added a link for a recorded product demo to my signature. Several people have already called me about it after seeing this no-cost marketing piece.

    Google AdWords can be another great tool to get more people to your website. These pay-per-click systems don’t have to cost a lot and can help to make you more visible in search engine results.

    The point is, if you build it you have to market it. There is no way around it. If you don’t spread the word or find ways to spread the word, you and your company won’t get noticed.


     

    November 03

    It’s All About the Process!

    I have been to several meetings lately in which my peers discussed different problems that all seem to have the same root cause. I heard about how difficult it is to get people to sell. Others talked about spending a lot of money on technology, and instead of the technology helping them, they felt frustrated. When we dig deeper into these issues, the common problem becomes clear: There is no process!


    One of the hardest things for an entrepreneur to do is to step back from the business and look at it from an outsider's perspective. Can the business run without the owner? Does everyone in the organization understand what they are doing and why? It's not easy to take the time to really think about how things should operate and how to use tools to improve processes.


    I am just as guilty. For years, I've said that my biggest mistake is that we do not have a defined sales process. We make attempts, but we never seem to define it and then put it in place. We always have something else to do, or another deadline pressing down upon us. But the reality is that if you don’t have defined processes, it's difficult to measure things and keep people accountable.


    The same is true with technology. If you don't figure out how to use it in your process, it will not help you. Instead, it could actually hinder what you are doing. It's interesting to see which of my customers have truly embraced web conferencing and made it part of their process. We have one customer that uses it when he cold calls prospects to try and land appointments to show his product. When the prospects say they don’t have time, he asks if they have a few minutes to view a quick online demo. This change in his process has shortened his sales cycle and helped him to close more sales.


    It really is all about the process. Those companies that have well defined processes and can measure progress are the most successful. Take the time and develop your process – you won't regret it.