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Written by Jim Logan
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Monday, 30 June 2008 11:51 |
When I was younger, I used to think getting 90% on a test was pretty good. After all, 90% is an A. It didn't matter to me if I got 90% or 100% - an A is an A.
Then I spent some time in the military and my way of thinking about grades, scores, and education changed.
The military's approach to grades was a bit different: first, failure was measured at 70%, not 59% and below; second, a level of emphasis was placed on what you didn't master, challenging the top of the class to improve as much as the bottom.
For example, I graduated with a 94.7% grade - the lowest score of four honor graduates. At a meeting of honor graduates and school leaders, I was reminded I hadn't mastered 5.3% of the material. I was told I should be proud of all I accomplished, but never forget the 5.3% I didn't get...and never stop chasing it.
I don't know what my fellow graduates thought of that idea, we never talked about it. But its stuck with me to this day. What it always meant to me is never stop learning - keep questioning, dig deeper, experiment, find a better way, challenge yourself and others around you to improve, never quit the search for excellence, and work hard to achieve greater levels of success. Enjoy everything you achieve along the way, but never stop achieving, even if you're winning and earning an A.
I'm still chasing that 5.3% in everything I do.
Reality is 90% is good. In fact, the longer and more involved the effort, 90% is better than good. But it still represents a full 10% that's somehow missed.
I once worked for a company that at one point presented a growth plan to employees and investors named One by One: $1B in revenue by 2001. The company would reach $1B in sales by moving into a $10B market and capturing 10% of the available business.
A success plan based on losing 90% of the market.
It's no great mystery we never got close to $1B in sales - the company peaked a year or two later, near $400M. We never achieved success beyond our historic markets and legacy products. A steady decline began from there.
Where I'm going with this is success is not an accident. Sure, people get lucky - occasionally start-ups with a half-ass product get bought for insane amounts of money and everyone once in awhile a business and individual can win big by being in the right place at the right time.
People can also win the lottery, find money hidden in the wall of an old house, and pull the lever on a winning slot machine. None are good plans for success.
No matter how good you are, how great you believe yourself to be, how many awards you've won, and how much your business has grown to date matters. What matters is how much you challenge yourself to grow beyond the success you've enjoyed and how well you've thought through success to follow.
The 5.3% is what's important.
If you have a success plan that's based on losing 90% of the market, you have a problem. And if you hold 90% of the market and aren't working hard to attract and capture the remaining 10% you have a problem.
The problem is complacency.
This is why you should test lead generation campaigns even when they earn a 75% response - 25% of the people receiving the message still aren't compelled to act. And you should never be satisfied with your sales close ratio, whatever it may be.
Take the time to enjoy every day, find joy in all you accomplish, and be proud of all you've achieved.
But never stop chasing your 5.3%. It's your greatest plan for continued success. |
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Written by Jim Logan
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Thursday, 26 June 2008 09:01 |
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I have a question for you: If a Mercedes cost half as much or less, would it still be a Mercedes? In other words, if a Mercedes S600 - currently priced around $145K - were suddenly priced the same as a Toyota Corolla XRS - currently priced around $25K - would your perception of the value and quality of a Mercedes fall? Why? |
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Written by Jim Logan
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Tuesday, 17 June 2008 08:14 |
 Some time ago I was sent an evaluation copy of SmartDraw - a business graphics program. I mention that upfront merely as a statement of fact. This is not a sponsored post and I have no stake in whether or not you look at, consider or purchase the software.
That said, if you produce charts or diagrams of any type in support of your business, you ought to give this software a serious investigation. It's that good.
SmartDraw includes a series of templates to make any type of business chart or graph you can image:
- Flowcharts
- Org charts
- Project timelines
- Gantt charts
- Marketing charts
- Bar graphs & pie charts
- Forms
- Floor plans
- Scheduling calenders
- And a lot more...
Here's a link to a number of examples.
There are three things I really like about this software: 1) It's idiot proof - the templates are spot-on and easy to personalize 2) It's almost impossible to not look professional - all you have to do to make great looking charts is know what information you want to present 3) All charts are exportable to business software (word processing, spreadsheets, presentation, etc.) and there's a built in PDF export.
Over the past few months, I've used this software a handful of times to communicate and present ideas to customers:
- Website design concept
- Decision matrix for lead generation campaign
- Project milestones
- Org chart for business reorganization
- Flow chart for sales support
- Mind map for information marketing
Again, if you're in the business of communicating ideas, this is a great application to consider. There is a free trial and a single user license currently costs $197. If you're even mildly interested, I suggest you take advantage of the trial.
One potential drawback...according to the published system requirements, this software is only supported by Windows. |
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Written by Jim Logan
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Monday, 16 June 2008 15:52 |
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 While watching late-night television this past weekend I fell prey to a barrage of ab machine type commercials, each showing an overly happy and well built spokesmodel extolling the gut flattening benefits of one machine, pill and potion after another.
Each ad displayed small print low-lighting two critical points: 1) results in the ad were not typical 2) a sensible diet and exercise program was required to get results.
Marketing and lead generation programs are essentially the same.
As business people, we like the idea of revenue success being as simple as one sales training, copywriting, web design, brochure or print ad project away. We like the idea there is a secret to attracting new business, but it just doesn't exist. There is no magical format, training program or tactic that's a surefire success.
Please don't get me wrong, things like sales training, signage, well designed websites, and good ole' branding activities are valuable. In many cases, retooling your business, sharping your staff, and getting greater exposure is the wise thing to do. Just be aware these are the ab machine programs of business growth - they create untypical results and need the business equivalent of diet and exercise to be effective on a consistent basis.
While there is no secret to sales success, there is a formula that's guaranteed to grow revenue every time. The formula is simply telling the right story to the right person at the right time. If you do that, you're guaranteed sales success. It's the diet and exercise of predictable and consistent revenue growth:
Right Story - The right story is the story the recipient recognizes as compelling - something they value as a benefit they're willing to invest in, both time and money.
The right story has two main elements: format and content. Format is the order, style, and skill in which the story is told. Content is the story itself - the benefit, difference, reason to believe, guarantee, and offer.
When marketers speak of testing within a lead generation campaign, they most often mean testing the story, tweaking the format and content for best response.
Right Person - The right person is the recipient of your story who can act on the call to action you offer. Depending on your market and complexity of selling environment, this may be the person to request, vote, direct, or organize a response to advance an opportunity.
Given your sales process and target market, the right person can be several different people over time - each requiring a matching offer and call to action that differs from the other.
Right Time - The right time is presenting your story within your prospective customer's window of opportunity to act. If your offer arrives too late or too early your prospect will ignore your story. This can be the case whereby you have a great meeting and a lot of agreement, but no action.
At different points of a purchase cycle, different calls to action and offers will be met with different levels of success.
As mentioned above, most testing of lead generation and marketing campaigns occurs around the story. More testing should take place with the right person and right time. The more we understand about our prospective customers, their interests, and their process - as it presents a window of opportunity and greater openness to specific offers - the greater our success in engaging with them in a meaningful way.
If you misfire on any three of these elements - right story, right person, right time - you're sure to under perform. And all the sales training, web design, copywriting, and branding in the world won't make a difference. It's like working yourself to death on the ab machine and then eating pizza and drinking beer every night. Those six pact abs will look more like a keg.
What do you think? |
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Written by Jim Logan
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Friday, 13 June 2008 06:07 |
After one month, my Twitter experiment is closed. I deleted my account a few minutes ago.
Some would say I didn't give it enough time and should have interacted more. I just couldn't take it anymore. And couldn't get in to it.
Without insult to anyone I followed or browsed, I simply don't care if you had a great breakfast, just finished a good book, watched a movie, walked the dog, picked your kids up at school, visited a loved one, post to your blog, finished a proposal, thought of a new business to start, found a prospective business partner or any of the other countless trivia you shared.
And I seriously doubt any of you cared about the mind-numbing trivia I shared.
I'm sure Twitter works for some people, it just doesn't for me. And I don't see it helping me attract corporate executives - my primary sales target.
Thanks to everyone who shared in the experiment, as brief as it was. |
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Written by Jim Logan
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Tuesday, 27 May 2008 12:01 |
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A friend asked me a good question last week, it came up again in conversation with a client earlier today: What is the difference between direct response and direct marketing?
Direct response marketing is when you engage in some type of advertising or marketing effort which targets a market with an offer. The offer is such that response can be measured. Direct contact is made from the prospective customer to the marketer. Many B2B lead generation activities fall into the direct response category.
Direct marketing is when you target a named company, title, or individual with an offer. Contact is made from the marketer directly to the prospective customer. As with direct response, the offer can be a variety of things including attendance, discussion, communication, inquiry, etc. And response can be measured. In complex sales environments, direct marketing is closest aligned to sales and sales activities.
I specialize in direct marketing. Here is an example of a direct marketing campaign. |
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M. Homman
Business Talk