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Best of thoughtLEADERS 2012: A 55 Gallon Drum of Awesomesauce

December 17, 2012/0 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Books, Business Toolkit, Career, Communications, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Leadership, Project Management, Sales, Social Media, Strategy, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

This year is almost over so it’s time for the year in review list of the BEST posts we’ve published in 2012. It’s time for the 2012 edition of The Figgies (here are the 2009, 2010 and 2011 editions).

This is an annual event here at the thoughtLEADERS Blog. Here’s how it goes: this list is comprised of our most viewed, most forwarded, quirkiest, most provocative work as judged by you the readers. There’s also a kicker bonus post on the list just for good measure.

Enjoy. Share. We’ve loved writing them. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading them. I don’t ask a lot of you folks so I have two small requests as your holiday gift to me (you are getting me something, right?):

1. Invite all your coworkers, friends, and family to come check out the blog and become readers. The only way we get better is by raising everyone’s game. I’m not asking a lot here. If you found this blog helpful at all this year, here’s your chance to return the favor for all our hard work. Just email folks and tell ’em to come take a look.

2. Pick up a copy of One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful Personal Leadership (especially if you’re looking for last-minute holiday gifts for bosses, team members, or your mom – she’ll love it). Yes – I know I talk a lot about the book but it’s not for the money (I would have made more money if I worked in a sweat shop in Asia making sneakers). I talk a lot about it because I’m evangelical about the topic. Buy it. Read it. In the words of Roland Smith (CEO of Wendy’s) “It could change your life.”

Thanks for your incredible support in ’12 and best wishes for ’13! We hope to be a part of your future success!

Enough preamble. Here’s the best stuff we’ve written all year:

The 6 Worst Online Content Mistakes Made by Marketers

December 12, 2012/0 Comments/in Communications, Guest Blogger, Sales, Social Media /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s post is by David Chapman, Director of Marketing at Webrageous. He’s contributed here on the blog before – CLICK HERE to read his prior work. Learn more about him at the end of the post. Here’s David…

It is pretty well understood by now that all online marketers dedicate part of their time and budget to paid search advertising and another part of their time to developing the power of their sites by writing great content, featuring higher on organic Google listings and attracting inbound links.

The problem is that many online marketers still don’t really know how to write effective content. Poor online content generated by marketers on a day to day basis can cripple a business and destroy its reputation, despite other online marketing work that might be done in paid search areas.

To avoid falling into this trap and becoming one of these online marketers who unwittingly cripples his or her own business, read up and learn from the mistakes of others. The following includes the 6 worst online content mistakes made by marketers when creating content to generate links every single day. Read and learn!

Solve Your Customer’s Problem if You Want the Sale

November 19, 2012/0 Comments/in Communications, Entrepreneur, Sales /by Mike Figliuolo

Everyone has goals these days. The one that causes more disconnects than any other is a sales goal. It’s a number to hit (either units or dollars or both – the better ones are actually measured in profit dollars rather than revenue dollars). They’re problematic because by their very nature they get a salesperson to focus on their needs (hitting their goal) versus the needs of the customer (finding a solution to a problem). The best salespeople truly use a consultative selling approach. The others? Well, they’re just annoying. They throw around phrases in their sales rooms like “Okay guys! It’s time to get your checkup from the neck up! It’s go time! Everyone start smilin’ and dialin’!” Excuse me. I just barfed in my mouth a little…

I’ve had offers posed by both types of salespeople and I too have sold (sometimes like a huckster in my misguided youth but more consultatively as I’ve learned better). Allow me to offer some scenarios.

I was in the market for a software solution. Nothing major – just some basic functionality that would help me grow my business. I needed cheap (not a lot of budget dollars available), fast (I was trying to grow quickly), and easy (our technology department did not have a bevy of available resources to throw at this). I spoke with a few providers. One of them had a very cool solution. It had bells. It had whistles. If you pushed the right combination of buttons it would make you a frappuccino. It was expensive. Very expensive but somewhat justifiably so given all the features. I explained our challenges to the salesman. Read more

How to Benefit from the Psychology Behind Facebook Brand Following

November 14, 2012/0 Comments/in Guest Blogger, Sales, Social Media /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s post is by Craig Robinson of Qwaya.com. Here’s Craig…

The odds are great that you have certain preferences when it comes to purchasing products. Let’s say that you’re walking through the grocery store aisle and you really have a hankering for some chips. Now, if you’re a Doritos fan, you’re probably going to choose a bag of Doritos over a bag of competitor’s tortilla chips. And it’s not that they might not taste as good, or that they’re more expensive, etc. It’s because, psychologically, you are more familiar with the Doritos.

Now relate this to Facebook and people following brands. Someone seeing you and your competitor is thinking the same thing you might think about those chips in the above hypothetical. If they feel comfortable with your competitor, they’re going to go with your competitor – unless, of course, you can entice them away.

A more colorful ad; a two-for-one special – you can think of different ways to break the psychology involved in brand following. However, you first have to understand the psychology behind it all.

The Communications Model

The communications model plays a great deal in how users receive ad material and thus react to it. The communications model is broken down into five parts:

Why You Should Always Lead with a Story

October 3, 2012/5 Comments/in Books, Communications, Guest Blogger, Sales /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s post is by Paul Smith, author of Lead with a Story (CLICK HERE to get your copy). You can learn more about him at the end of the post. Here’s Paul…

A great sales story isn’t just helpful when talking to the buyer. They’re also helpful to you as the leader to turn your entire organization into a revenue-generating machine—whether they’re in the sales department or not. For example, here’s one that teaches a creative way to approach potential customers that relies on the old adage, “Two heads are better than one.”

It’s 10am on your first day off work in six months. You’re just about to watch the whole season of your favorite television program, when the phone rings. It’s a “financial advisor” at some bank, and he wants to know if you’re happy with your investments. The last thing you want right now is to get trapped in a sales call. But you have to admit you’re not happy with your returns. (Is anybody ever?) After two more questions and answers, it’s clear this guy is following his script to the letter. If he’d listened to your answer to the last question he’d already know the answer to this one. While he’s rattling off talking point #4, you’re looking for a way out. After ten minutes, you feel like you’ve been more than generous, and end the call as graciously as you can. He wasted ten minutes and didn’t make a sale. You’re ten minutes behind a 15-episode season.

An hour later, the phone rings again. It’s another financial advisor. (Can you believe it!) He also wants to know if you’re happy with your investments. But before you can explain that you just went through this with one of his competitors, you realize something is different. There isn’t just one voice on the other end of the line. There are two. You just got a phone call from two people! The last time you got a call from two people it was your mom and dad calling to wish you a happy anniversary. But you’ve never gotten a business phone call from two people before. At a minimum, you’re intrigued.

You get through the first two questions and something else is different. Read more

If You Want to Sell Better, Speak English

September 17, 2012/3 Comments/in Communications, Entrepreneur, Sales /by Mike Figliuolo

Don’t worry – this isn’t some rant about English being the official language of the U.S. It’s a rant about using plain, simple language to get people to want to learn more about your business and purchase your products or services.

I’m currently a judge for The Big Awards where companies compete to be named company, product, service of the year. It’s a pretty cool way to recognize companies for their accomplishments and give them exposure to broader audiences and prospective clients.

As I read one of the submissions, my head almost exploded. It was riddled with awesome $5 and $10 words and phrases. If you simply read it at face value, it sounds like this is the greatest company ever to walk the Earth. Allow me to illustrate with some selected portions of the submission:

“Our product is a game changer. It is shifting the paradigm on how an organization can better protect its assets.”

“But just like any quantum advance in technology, many are still waiting for the early adopters to validate how this paradigm changes the playing field.”

“But looking beyond the obvious cost benefits and immediate ROI, what makes our product uniquely worthy of Product of the Year is the scope of the solution. Its holistic approach to security is unlike anything on the market.”

What. The. Hell?

The Road to Value – Part 2

May 9, 2012/0 Comments/in Guest Blogger, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s post is by Thomas Butta, Founder and CEO of 21 Weeks. You can read more about him at the end of the post. Here’s Thomas:

In The Road to Value (Part 1) I revealed a powerful way to lead a changing or emerging industry by developing a roadmap that delineates the way to create and capture value in that industry. The post showcased market-based benefits to doing this leading work. It also referenced the internal value that could be gained inside the company architecting the roadmap. Internal value is the focus of this post.

Infographic by Dennis Michael Dimos

A value roadmap can provide a number of sustainable benefits inside the company that invests in the effort.

5 Marketing Strategies that Don’t Change

April 25, 2012/2 Comments/in Communications, Guest Blogger, Sales, Social Media /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s post is by David Chapman – Director of Marketing at Webrageous. Here’s David:

Musicals never go out of fashion, because the formula is well understood. It is tried and tested and everyone knows what to expect when they sit down to watch a good musical. The audience is given what they want. The marketing strategy is a classic strategy and doesn’t need to change because the audience and their desires are considered first.

Online marketing managers could learn a lot from this kind of simple approach. The old school marketing strategies should be at the top of our modern marketing plans, even though the marketing world has developed incredibly over the past ten years.

Why?

Because even though the marketing world has developed from a technological point of view, buyers are still the same. People are dinosaurs at heart. We don’t change. We approach a sale in the same way as we have always done and we will continue to approach our sales in the same way as the years sail by, because human beings don’t really change.

So… with this in mind… what are the 5 most important marketing strategies that a marketing manager must utilize when working on any campaign to ensure marketing success, even within our technologically advanced marketing world?

How Creating a Value Roadmap can Lead to Sustainable Success

March 14, 2012/3 Comments/in Books, Communications, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s post is by Thomas Butta, Founder and CEO of 21 Weeks. You can read more about him at the end of the post. Here’s Thomas:

Do you remember the popular book, Dress for Success? It sold millions of copies based on a simple concept: If you want to get ahead you need to look the part. And that starts with what you wear. Wardrobes were updated everywhere.

Dress for Success was itself a resounding success because it nailed the fundamentals. Its basic premise made sense — appearances matter. And, it was easy to execute.

So, the individual had a playbook, albeit one book in the broader scheme of things, on how to increase their odds of success. Cool.

What about the organization? Is there an equivalent playbook for driving success for the organization as a whole? Is there something fundamental that can be executed across the organization that would also accelerate momentum, value and sustainable success? I would argue, yes, but it’s not what graces most reading lists.

Certainly, there is good thinking about the effectiveness of culture, the importance of community, and the benefits of branding. There are also new ideas about more efficient organizational structures and models. All are worth investigating and deploying.

But, none of this work gets to the root cause of why organizations are not as successful as they can be. Organizations are not achieving their full potential because organizations do not align for success. For all the talk of one corporate culture, one community, and one brand, we continue to see departments operating within their own agendas, goals and motivations.

While some success is being achieved as a result of innovative products, smart selling, and brilliant marketing, an organization will not be as successful as it can be without integrating all three of those fundamental behaviors.

So, how can organizations align for success?

Entrepreneurship – the Tech is the Easy Part

February 13, 2012/5 Comments/in Entrepreneur, Innovation, Leadership, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Tech is easy. Execution is what matters.

There. I said it.

Why is it that so many entrepreneurs believe the tech is the be-all, end-all? Where did the notion come from that if you have nothing more than a killer application, website, algorithm, or any other combo of 01001010101110110 that you can build a multibillion dollar company? (I probably just dropped an f-bomb with that combo of digits).

Wrong.

It’s about executing, people (note the comma in this sentence is *very* important).

Sure, you need good tech. It must solve a problem. But once it’s built, you have to execute. That’s a whole different skill set than writing code and drawing wiring diagrams. Think about how many awesome technologies went the way of the dodo because the company simply failed to execute. Lots of them.

So how can you get better at execution? Here are a few thoughts:

Best of thoughtLEADERS 2011: The Awesomest Posts Ever

December 12, 2011/0 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Books, Business Toolkit, Career, Communications, Customer Service, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Leadership, Project Management, Sales, Social Media, Strategy, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

This year is almost over so it’s time for the year in review list of the BEST posts we’ve published in 2011. It’s time for the 2011 edition of The Figgies (here are the 2010 and 2009 editions).

This is an annual event here at the thoughtLEADERS Blog. Here’s how it goes: this list is comprised of our most viewed, most forwarded, quirkiest, most provocative work as judged by you the readers. There’s also a kicker bonus post on the list just for good measure (it’s a “wayback” – and speaking of wayback, check out the photo on the trophy… yes… that’s me ’80’s style baby!).

Enjoy. Share. We’ve loved writing them. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading them. I don’t ask a lot of you folks so I have two small requests as your holiday gift to me (you are getting me something, right?):

1. Invite all your coworkers, friends, and family to come check out the blog and become readers. The only way we get better is by raising everyone’s game. I’m not asking a lot here. If you found this blog helpful at all this year, here’s your chance to return the favor for all our hard work. Just email folks and tell ’em to come take a look.

2. Pick up a copy of One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful Personal Leadership. Yes – I know I talk a lot about the book but it’s not for the money (I would have made more money if I worked in a sweat shop in Asia making sneakers). I talk a lot about it because I’m evangelical about the topic. Buy it. Read it. In the words of Roland Smith (CEO of Wendy’s) “It could change your life.”

Thanks for your incredible support in ’11 and best wishes for ’12! We hope to be a part of your future success!

Enough preamble. Here’s the best stuff we’ve written all year:

5 Reasons Your Idea Pitch Sucks

July 11, 2011/15 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Entrepreneur, Innovation, Sales /by Mike Figliuolo

I’m fortunate enough to see a lot of cool business ideas – both entrepreneurial and “big corporate” in nature. While the people pitching the idea are passionate, smart, and excited, more often than not, the pitch itself sucks.

I’m not being bombastic or hyperbolic here. The pitches really suck. Bad. Terribly.

I’m not saying I’m the best pitch man either. I’ve made all of the following mistakes at one point or another. The good news for you is I’ve both learned from those mistakes and I’m willing to share what they are. More important, I have a few suggestions on how you can avoid making the mistake in the first place.

It doesn’t matter if you’re pitching your idea to a bunch of angel investors, venture capitalists, business partners, corporate executives, or prospective employees. If you make any of the following five mistakes, you’ll likely not get the funding, the contract, the signature, or the support you’re looking for. Without those things, your idea is going nowhere.

So strap yourself in. I’m feeling saucy today and you folks know I get reaaalllly direct and candid when I’m saucy… Think of this post as a bit of me kicking up to all you smart folks out there (to learn what I mean about kicking up, CLICK HERE to read a post on the concept). So here are the five reasons your idea pitch sucks (and how you can fix it):

Read more