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Posts from the ‘Firm of the Future’ Category

Mar 12

39 Comments

Till death do us part?

I have a friend who’s been married for over 20 years now. His wife is an amazing lady – beautiful, smart, dedicated – and has been a true friend and companion to him.

She has taken excellent care of him and their family.

She took on the responsibilities of being a homemaker – handling the finances, keeping up the house, cooking the meals, taking the kids to school, ensuring the kids grow up healthy and strong.

It’s a lot of work to make those tasks look easy.

If you ask her, she would say that she did it willingly – knowing that she fulfilled an essential role in the partnership. She took on these responsibilities and chores to ensure the overall well-being of the family.

She’s no saint though and wouldn’t suggest that she is. Just as he has benefitted from her taking on these tasks to free him to pursue other responsibilities for the family, she has benefitted as well.

He appreciated her playing this role and I can tell you without revealing any big secret that he wouldn’t be where he is today without her.

And man oh man … let me tell you – he has come a long way from his humble beginnings.

A lot of our mutual friends have commented for years on what a great relationship it is. A true partnership where they have built a wonderful life together.

Sounds perfect, right?

It was.

Read more

Mar 9

1 Comment

I’ve got some bad news for you, sunshine

For those not in the know, the title of this post was taken from “In the Flesh” – a song on Pink Floyd’s The Wall album. The Wall resonates heavily with themes of abandonment and isolation and relates the story of a protagonist who steadily builds up a wall to hide behind in response to the negative pressures in his life.

[Here's a link to the video for those interested: WARNING FOR LANGUAGE AND THEMES THAT MAY BE OFFENSIVE TO SOME. Please don't click if you are one of those folks that get offended at such things. In fact, no one should click on it. I'm asking you not to.]

I think the themes are appropriate as the next few articles are going to focus on the Sage Transformation journey.

What exactly is the “Sage Transformation” journey?

From what I can tell (and please understand that the following is just my opinion and is not endorsed, confirmed, approved or in any other way agreed upon by anyone at Sage), at its core, the Sage Transformation journey is a plan designed to help Sage respond to the rapidly changing landscape of software publishing.

It includes many different elements including re-branding, introduction of subscription pricing, re-organization efforts, direct sales, closer interaction with end user customers, improved cross-selling, connected services and many more. We’ll cover some of these topics in the coming days but for now, let’s keep our focus on the big picture.

Read more

Feb 7

Drowning in email? Try this simple trick

And every day the paperboy brings more ...

If you are like me, you probably get way too many emails each day.

Some of them – from co-workers, customers, prospects, your spouse – absolutely need to be reviewed. Ok … maybe “absolutely” is the wrong word for some co-workers, customers and prospects, but you get the idea.

A lot of them, again if you are like me, are digests, summaries, information from various sources. Personally, I’m subscribed to more than a few blogs, marketing lists, LinkedIn Digests, Facebook feeds, Google Alerts, etc.

And I shouldn’t forget about the three (more?) different feeds from Wayne Schulz’s different properties!

There is no problem with all these information sources … if you are actually reading them and getting value from them.

If there are certain feeds that you read religiously and rely on as great information sources to guide your actions (think of them as a new world version of reading the daily newspaper), then these are keepers.

But what about the rest of them?

You know … the ones that just seem to pile up in your inbox and give you that twinge of “man … I really need to make time to read those”.

I was recently given a great suggestion by the one and only Ed Kless.

It was so simple, so damn stupid simple that I almost blew it off.

Here it is: Unsubscribe.

Shocking, right?

Just unsubscribe from those sources that you don’t rely on and don’t regularly read. Most of them are available at the originating  source so … let go.

So you miss a post or two? So what? Life goes on.

Besides – you are probably missing them anyway as they stack up in your inbox.

Getting rid of them will do nothing but boost your productivity and will have a side benefit of eliminating the twinges of remorse of not finding the time to read them.

You no longer need to find a lazy Saturday to go through them. Reclaim your days and peace of mind!

Some might suggest that it’s no big deal to delete them. I would suggest that attitude is much like having a newspaper delivered that you never read. Sure – you can just take them out to the recycling bin every once in awhile but, in the meantime, they pile up and clutter up your space.

Unsubscribe – save yourself the hassle.

Part of the reason why this simple suggestion took a bit longer than necessary for me to act upon was the old view that unsubscribing from a list lets them know that you are a legit email address. The concern is that will bring more and more junk to your inbox.

I think that was true years ago but with new and improved spam guards and spam laws, it is no longer true.

So … take this simple advice and free yourself by unsubscribing from those distracting sources.

PS. If you found this article of interest, please subscribe in the box on the right. :)

Feb 5

6 Comments

Are you guilty of killing your business without realizing it?

I'm the guy with the white t-shirt - do I stand out?

I recently read a great article by Jason Blumer on the importance of creative pricing and getting out of the time and materials business.

It was a tad overlong for my infant-like attention span (think: “and to summarize my position, I would like to say … oooh something shiny! Pretty! Uhm, what was I saying?”) but well worth the read and I encourage everyone to give it a shot.

Jason drives home some great points about the importance of aligning goals through strategic pricing (aka pricing on purpose, aka value pricing, aka goal-oriented pricing) and all of the surrounding issues.

With me, he’s preachin’ to the choir and, of course, the choir always loves the good preachin’. Lay it on me, Mr. Blumer!

It got me thinking along a tangent though.

All the folks out there in service firms that are still billing by the hour are killing their businesses. In fact, it’s even worse than that.

Billing by the hour is killing the service industry.

How can I make such an outrageous claim?

It’s somewhat a matter of perspective. I help businesses become more profitable through effective and efficient usage of CRM.

In that role, I work with a lot of small and medium sized businesses and get a first-hand view into what’s happening out there. And it ain’t pretty.

The internet has changed the game for all of us. I’ve written about this previously so I won’t re-cover it here except to add one sobering thought for all of us:

Even if you have a one in a million idea, there are at least a thousand other folks out there on the internet – just a click or two away.

There’s little to no differentiation out there.

Most service firms have visions, missions, values and messages that are completely interchangeable. You could swap corporate names in and out of their marketing literature like some kind of demented fill in the blank, Mad Libs exercise designed to point out how similar each firm is to their competitors.

Combining this lack of differentiation with pricing by the hour guarantees a slow and steady drive toward a competitive landscape filled with “me too” solutions at increasingly lower prices.

Oh, I can hear some of you saying “But damnit, we ARE the best service firm and we do truly partner with our customers! Those other guys are just saying that but we really do it!” or even “But damnit, we ARE the experts in this particular field!”

Ok, ok … I believe you.

But – you don’t need me believing you. You need the customers and prospects to believe you.

And just like driving by a block full of McDonalds, each one looking nearly the same, how can your customers and prospects tell which one is going to provide the best experience? The best value for their dollar?

Hint: they can’t.

Pricing projects based on value received and offering a money back guarantee is a good start to standing out from the “me too” crowd.

Again, it’s a good start. It’s not an end game solution.

When done correctly, pricing projects based on value will change your culture and change what drives you. It enables you to discover what you really love to do and are good at and can make money at.

*This* is the start of true differentiation and will serve you well in the coming years.

If you aren’t prepared to do it, don’t be surprised as customers steadily start going to the low cost provider over the next five to ten years as they can’t figure out any other reason to choose you over your competition.

I’ll leave you with this quote (first introduced to me by confidant and fellow game-changer, Ed Kless):

“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”  General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff, U. S. Army

Jan 30

4 Comments

A quick tip about interfacing with other people

Wait … what?

Recently I was in a phone call with a vendor representative who was talking about how he would need to “interface with his team to determine a resolution to the current matter”.

Wow.

The first thought that comes to mind when I hear people talk like this is … “no”.

“No” – as in … no – I didn’t actually hear you say that. And no – I can’t believe someone would actually say it.

Just using “interface with” when “talk to” works (and works better) makes my skin crawl.

I get how it happens.

Sometimes it’s a sign of an overly complex corporate culture run amok – where big words are a part of the landscape. Typically though, using big words is a sign of over-compensation and covering up of a perceived weakness.

Here’s the thing though: it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy because when we use big words to look smart or important, it kind of makes us look … dumb. Particularly if they are used incorrectly or bastardized from their normal definition (which often happens when people break out the ten cent words).

Maybe “dumb” is too strong of a word.

But, certainly, there are many times where being a sesquipedalian makes your language stand out like a clown attending a funeral.

Personally, I think it’s better to be useful than smart anyway. If I have a choice between working with someone that gets the job done with no muss, no fuss or someone that is too smart for their own good, I”m going with door number one every time.

To me, the worst part about this interaction was that the individual in question was in the marketing department and really should have known better. One of the fundamental rules of marketing is “communicate clearly and concisely”.

So if you find yourself over-syllabating in an oppulent manner, shift your paradigm and adjust your linguistic demeanor pronto.

The folks you are “interfacing with” will surely appreciate it.

(For a slightly different take on word usage, check out Ed Kless’ article here.)

Jan 20

2 Comments

If you’re an average company, you’re going straight to the bottom

Stuck in neutral?

This article is an extension of an idea put out there by Seth Godin: if you’re an average worker, you’re going straight to the bottom. [If you don't know who Seth Godin is ... start here and carve out some time for reading.]

I agree whole-heartedly with his sentiments. In the last ten years (give or take a year), we have seen a seismic shift in the way business is done.

It’s no longer enough to do business as usual.

Customers have access to a host of choices on where they spend their hard-earned dollars. If your business can’t (or won’t) provide them with what they want, they will go to Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Yelp, you name it and ask their real-life friends for suggestions.

Heck, they will even ask advice of virtual friends who -for all intents and purposes – are not much more than strangers to them!

And … while they are asking for a recommendation for one of your competitors, your name will probably come up and your perceived deficiencies will be broadcasted far and wide.

Customer call the shots – now more than ever. They are demanding a consistent, high quality experience from your entire team.

How will you provide this?

For any one interested on my take on the “how”, you can check out some of my articles at Azamba Partners.

Putting aside my bias towards my personal musings for a second, there are a lot of resources available on the Internet that can help you. The real key is to identify and accept what’s happening.

Once you have done that, the fun begins.

Start looking around at what other businesses are doing. Competitors? Sure but don’t stop there.

Look at businesses that you relly upon – personally and at a company level. What do you like? What do you wish they did differently? What do their competitors do? Why aren’t you using their competitors?

Look at your customers. What are they doing that’s cool and engaging? What’s working for them?

The changes required to stay ahead of the pack in this brave new world are manifold and oftentimes overwhelming. If you approach it right, you may find it renews your excitement and passion that got you into business in the first place and helps you challenge yourself and your team to scale new heights.

Best of luck to us all!

[BTW - thanks to Paul Ziliak for bringing Seth's article to my attention. Paul's no stranger to shaking up the status quo and looking for better ways.]

Jan 19

What do women want?

“What do women want?” is a question raised by Don Draper in episode 2 of the acclaimed series “Mad Men”.

The question is a potential minefield as the mysteries of the female mind have stumped humankind for countless millenia.

I’m certainly not going to try to answer it.

And frankly I’m not sure our protagonist, Don Draper, truly answers the question. I believe he comes up with “any excuse to get closer” and the matter is dropped.

But the answer to the question isn’t really at issue here.

The interesting thing is the question itself and how it arose.

“Mad Men” is a television show set in the 1960s and explores the changing mores and values of America while focusing on the creative geniuses at a Madison Avenue advertising agency.

The episode in question begins as the creative team has been tasked with introducing the revolutionary new (to the folks in the 1960s) aerosol spray Right Guard deodorant that comes in a solid steel can.

Draper’s junior team comes up with several “manly” advertisements depicting astronauts and focusing on the futuristic elements of the space-age, metal can.

Draper, obviously sour on the approach, quickly gets to the heart of the matter: who’s buying this stuff?

It’s not the men – it’s their ladies that buy it on their behalf. Their wives, their mothers, etc.

So the heart of the matter becomes: what do *they* want? What do these women want? How do we appeal to them to buy this product?

Draper astutely realizes that the packaging is irrelevant and is, in fact, distracting from the core message to the buyers. And, furthermore, the perceived target market of men are not the actual buyers.

These are important lessons that we can all benefit from remembering when marketing:

  1. Figure out who your buyers are. You could have the best marketing materials in the world but if you direct it to the wrong audience – people that aren’t going to spend money with you or don’t have the authority to spend money with you – you are wasting your money.
  2. Figure out your core message. Customers don’t care about your packaging, your features or really anything about you. They care about themselves and they want to know how your stuff, your services are going to make their lives better, easier, whatever.

As the episode relayed, even very smart, creative people can get hung up on the wrong audience and the wrong message.

Spend a little time considering these two points before putting together your next marketing effort – whether it’s a brochure, a webinar, a customer letter – and you might be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Jan 18

6 Comments

Does size matter?

First, please get your mind out of the gutter. I’m talking about the size of a business. Specifically, is bigger better?

For a lot of business owners and managers, this is a fundamental question. Your answer shapes everything that you do and everything that you aspire to do.

From a cultural perspective, in the United States, there is a definite sense of expansion and growth = “a good thing”. Call it a carry over from the 19th century belief in manifest destiny or call it a natural response to the freedoms bestowed upon us in the good old US of A.

Either way, there is the pervasive, underlying feeling that bigger is better.

Obviously that blanket statement is not true in all cases. Does an orchestra benefit from getting bigger? Would a school benefit from expanding and taking on more students, more teachers, expanding hours? Do magazines become better if they double or triple their page counts? Are meetings better if they last longer?

Of course, none of these cases support the “bigger is better” idea.

But when it comes to growing a business, that belief is often rationalized with justifications such as:

  • We can serve the same market easily with new services and products.
  • We can serve new markets easily with existing services and products (or slight variations of them).
  • Our general and administrative costs (human resources, IT, marketing) will shrink as a percentage as we grow.
  • Our services will be better as we have more people to provide coverage.
  • Diversification will help us minimize risk.

And there is a huge appeal to these ideas … in theory.

Instead of addressing these individually, let’s look at the big picture.

The reality that people usually face as their companies grow organically or via mergers and acquisitions is much different from the theory of easy expansion. Growth typically leads to a new set of problems including additional beauracracy, analysis paralysis, brand dilution, loss of internal focus, etc.

In my opinion, the biggest challenge faced is a dramatic increase in administrative cost with little or no improvement in customer satisfaction – either with offerings or service levels.

Why is that?

Years of sociological study have pointed to the conclusion that humans work best in groups of ten to twelve. Anything larger and communication becomes more difficult, more challenging, and aligning goals and strategies for the company as a whole goes out the window.

Try this simple exercise, find six people who want to go grab lunch and time how long it takes to pick a destination. Try that same exercise with twelve people. Then again with 24 people.

Now don’t get me wrong here. I’m not saying that a company can’t succeed with more than twelve people. My point today is that bigger is *not necessarily* better.

I think the underlying takeaway point is that it is important for each of us to evaluate whether the bigger is better mentality is truly a good fit for our goals or if we are guilty of paying blind allegiance to an ideal.

I’m going to leave off here but I intend on re-visiting this concept in future articles. If you have differening views that justify a bigger is better mentality, please share them below. I would love to hear them.

Jan 16

1 Comment

The dirty little secret of benchmarking

Call me a heretic or a cynic if you must. I’m ok with that.

But don’t call me anything at all if you are looking to run comparisons of my firm against “industry standards” in some sort of pseudo-scientific process commonly known as “benchmarking”.

What’s with my bad attitude towards benchmarking?

Thanks for asking.

It’s really quite straight-forward but, first, bear with me as we take a brief detour to discuss Flea Circuses.

If you aren’t familiar with a Flea Circus, there is usually one spectacle involved where a bunch of fleas are in a ring, hopping around like mad – never straying from the ring. (There are other elements to a flea circus, but we’re going to focus on this single element for our purposes.)

Step right up and see the circus! Up and down. Up and down. Up and down.

Mildly entertaining for an adult. Somewhat more so for kids.

Apart from the entertainment value, what’s the big deal with a bunch of fleas hopping around?

Here’s the catch: left to their own devices, fleas can jump to the moon (ok … slight exaggeration but let’s agree that they can jump pretty dang high). Knowing this, the fact that they have been trained to jump only so high and stay within a ring becomes a bit more impressive.

So – how’d they do it?

It’s surprisingly simple and you can try this at home if you’d like. Get a jar – one with a sealable lid (like a pickle jar) – and drop some fleas in.

You will hear them pop-, pop-, popping as they continue to smack up against that lid – trying as hard as they can to do as nature intended and jump as high as they can to find a suitable environment to survive and thrive.

Over time, that pop-, pop-, popping will slow down and eventually stop. The fleas will still be jumping around like crazy but they have been trained to stay within the limits of the jar.

It will be a rare pop from that point on – and soon no pops at all.

Those fleas will be performing like champs. Take away the jar … they’re ready for that Flea Circus.

Pretty cool. Pretty simple.

And that’s all I have to say about benchmarking for now.

Bonus! If you made it this far, click here for an accompanying video that underscores the above message.

Dec 20

11 Comments

Does blogging pay?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/olivander/3328550233/sizes/z/in/photostream/At the end of November, I addressed some concerns that more than a few people expressed about my high level of blogging output and whether or not I still had a “real job”.

[If you don't want to read the entire original post, I summarize in the next blurb.]

I set a goal in November to blog once per business day in order to:

  1. Share valuable information.
  2. Start some conversations.
  3. Build my self-discipline.
  4. Improve my writing skills.
  5. Improving my writing speed.

So, November is long gone with December soon to follow. What, if anything, did I learn that you can use? What were the results of this grand experiment?

Overall, I’m happy to say that I met most of my goals successfully.

I produced 22 articles [full list at the bottom of the article if you care] in 22 weekdays during November which, considering Thanksgiving fell in there, means I accomplished the primary goal with room to spare.

Hopefully, the articles provided some valuable content and were of interest. Conversations were definitely started – both here and in the various LinkedIn groups, on Facebook and via Twitter where I posted links. As should be expected, some articles were of more interest than others.

I feel that I made strides in improving my self-discipline but I also know that I need to stay vigilant in this area.

Regarding my writing skills and speed, I think the excercise was a great success. I have effectively started the process of writing on auto-pilot – without needlessly editing every line as it is written.

Most of the great writers and copywriters talk about getting in this zone to produce their work effectively.

When putting words down, it’s easy to hear your internal editor over-riding your thoughts and telling you to worry about this rule or that. It’s a crappy way to write and can really kill your output.

Of course, that doesn’t mean editing is not necessary.

After I write an article, I read it once through (usually out loud) and make tweaks and word changes. Sometimes moving paragraphs around. A lot of times, I will schedule the post to publish at a  later date and then, when it publishes (I know because I subscribed to the blog by putting my email address in in the right-hand bar [ahem... hint]), I will read through it again.

And … yes … I catch errors at that time too. Sometimes it’s spellings or, much worse, I can’t understand what I meant when I wrote it. I will clean it up after I publish.

I’m ok with that.

In today’s world of widely adopted beta software and inflated need for immediacy, perfect isn’t necessarily critical.

And maybe it’s always been that way. As Voltaire famously stated a loooong time ago

The better is the enemy of the good.

Meaning: get over yourself and your need for perfection and get moving. [I struggle with this.]

One of the concerns going into the experiment was that I would run out of ideas but, surprisingly, the more I wrote, the more ideas I had of topics to cover. In fact, right now I’m sitting on a backlog of articles and content that I want to finalize and publish.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffbelmonte/8228640/sizes/z/in/photostream/But I need to balance that desire with paying my bills. ;)

Which leads to this important realization: looking back on my original goals, none of them overtly lead to making money. So, the question raised in the post title is “does blogging pay?”.

That’s a great question … can I address it?

You bet.

The interesting thing about this experiment is that – although I had no direct goals of making money from blogging – it has led to five different Sage partners contacting me and asking if I can help them with implementing Sage CRM at their clients or internally or help them put together a proposal for a large Sage CRM customization opportunity.

While it is a great side-effect, this was a real puzzler to me as hardly any of my articles had anything to do with my company or Sage CRM. So why did they call?

Asking the partners about this, I received answers that I will sum up as follows “seeing your name on those posts reminded me that you do Sage CRM and I thought you could help us.”

So, in my case, the blogging didn’t actually “pay” directly but it did act in concert with other activities to remind people that I’m out here and might be able to help them.

That works for me.

Bottom-line: I would encourage anyone with even a passing interest to try a similar experiment. You can go my route – general purpose articles covering a few different topics – or you can go a product specific route or a vertical industry route or … really *anything* that appeals to *you*.

The key is to set your goal and stick with it. You might be surprised at the results.

If people are interested in more statistical information like traffic results, let me know and I will do a follow up article.

What’s next for me? More blogging and a new goal: buckle down and finish my book on CRM 101 [more to come on that soon].

**********************************************************************

Here is a list of articles published during the experiment sorted first by source and then chronologically.

Azamba Partners - My blog dedicated to helping other Sage resellers understand and introduce Sage CRM to their prospects and clients.

It’s not you – it’s me! (or is it?)
What is CRM?
What’s at the heart of CRM?
Find customers easily with Sage CRM marketing

Summit Diary – the blog you are currently on – your #1 source for Sage Information, Technology Tips and Random Odd Stuff (including two of my favorite topics – firm of the future and marketing).

Interested in getting more from your Sage MAS installation?
What do the new Sage pricing options mean for you?
Is your company stuck in a comfortable (maybe profitable) rut?
What exactly is cloud washing?
6 degrees of separation? Don’t make me laugh
Two good reasons why time-tracking and billing for time is stupid
What exactly is Klout?
Behind the scenes with Doug Ash and the Accpac TPAC
How Plato and Aristotle and time keeping ended in disaster
100% true story: Plato and Aristotle advocated killing the timesheet!
Twitter’s dirty little secret
I’m an experienced professional – why should I attend Sage Consulting Academy?
What exactly is Hoot Suite?
Sage Summit 2012 Save the Date announcement
Two simple rules for a better world
Does anyone really think Facebook gives a damn about their privacy?
What’s the deal with all your blogging lately? Do you have a job?
Breaking News! Decades long struggle ends with Hollywood actors winning right to hourly pay!

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