Adobe to the Rescue

So there is this app, which seems to be impossible to name. For some reason, no one can come up with a decent sounding name. The CEO at the client’s firm came up with a name “EarVault”. Not the best name in the word, but just about the only name that wasn’t trademarked and that as the least offending. With the big government presentation coming up in a few days, that had to be the name.

The first time those words went into the application, that wasn’t a pretty site. Thanks to the geek gods of Silicon Valley for Adobe’s Photoshop and Illustrator products. Ten minutes with the skillful hands of someone who ones what their are doing and we have something that looks respectable.

What do you think?

Not so bad right?

(Less the blues don't quite match, the color number was precise but the inner drop shadow skewed the color as there wasn't a lot of space. Reducing the spread of the drop only made the effect look, not so cool).

Mark

The Godawful Website

There is always one of those projects that remains undone. It gets to the point that it becomes a running joke. Even worse, is that the project is core to the foundation of our business. The darn website.

The original website went up way back when. Doing so much business centered around the internet, we thought we should have the coolest site around. So those much laughed at pages were something that was hacked together in a few hours, meant to be a place holder for the real thing that was coming out in a few more weeks. Well business picked up and soon that project was put on the back burner as there were more pressing projects with clients.

Weeks became months. Months became years. There were four major efforts to get something going, always it got stuck somewhere in the process. From design challenges (a lot goes in to the design of the site), to getting some technical glitches sorted out, getting content going, getting the marketing/sales team to come up with offers, hiring/firing multiple designers, the bottom falling out of the economy, and the list goes on and on.

All along, our firm was suffering from the lack of a true web presence. A valuable communication vehicle for our customers and prospects. Not only could we not showcase our achievements, but it took a lot more effort selling when new prospects landed on our long-term temporary solution. And everyone visits the website at least once.

And it can be extremely embarrassing. Here we are, selling a integrated marketing project to a Fortune 100 with all sorts of social marketing tie-ins and the works, and our company doesn’t have a twitter account of its own. How can one not be skeptical of a firm that claims to be a pro, that is not practicing what it preaches. Imagine how many videos Richard Simmons would sell if he had stuffed his face with Twinkies.

So what changed?

Well it started with our marketing guru, Patrik, who walks in one day mentions Squarespace CMS (Content Management System - the gears behind the website). Being techies, we sign-up for accounts and tear it apart in minutes. Lack of control, too many technical limitations, etc, etc, etc. After all, a few of our folks develop the first generation of CMS, two of these companies are publicly traded with a third one being sold, so weren’t jaded in the least bit.

About four weeks into the Nth attempt, things are starting to fade, yet again. The light bulb goes off, no matter what the so-called “flaws” are with Squarespace, it was still a million times better than what we had, which was practically nothing. Besides, who but other CMs and marketing weenies are going to notice anyways?

Let’s just say from that point on, it was a matter of hours/days before something decent came around. We learned to quit fighting our egos and get it done. Much like we do for our own clients. Let’s just say, we are now sold on Cloud CMS. It will help us get from here to there, which for 99% of the world is good enough to get the job done. Now we can focus our energies on our core business of making other companies more profitable.

Telecom Benchmark

Communications is critical for every company on earth. The company can not exist without communications. Communications enables the company to work with suppliers, customers, partners and everyone else in their ecosystm to create value. Yet few talk about communications in terms of pure dollars because the number is so buried within the internal complexities of the company.

Voice, Wireless, Network Connectivity, Server farms, Video conferencing, 3G/4G data cards, call centers, etc. All critical elements of communications to the outside world, some of these line items are managed closely, others are spread around different areas of the business. Some companies have the resources to consolidate and manage these expenses, others live in a world of unmanaged expenses. How much does this add up to?

Well let's look at this in terms of revenue versus communications spend. Say you are a $100M turn over company with a heavy online presence.When tallied up, most companies in this class spend around 10% of that amount on communications, so about $10M. I know the first reaction is, really?

Well email is not free. Niether was that SMS message. Everytime that Blackberry buzzes it costs money too. Every call costs money. Every time you check Facebook, it costs someone money as the internet is not free, despite what most people think. Every communications requires a lot of hardware, companies, people, government agencies and more to make it all work flawlessly. Something we don’t stop to think about because it is so darn good. Five 9s...that is 99.999% uptime. That means out of 525,600 minutes in the year, any little part of the network can be down for only 5 minutes.

So 10% is the average, what are the other extremes?

Surprisingly, many companies spend much more on communications. Up to 20% of revenue for a internet based companies and companies with heavy call center activity. On the opposite end, we a few clients that spend as little as 5% of revenue on telecom, even though they are heavy users of communications infrastructure. The secret?

Optimization. Heavy negotiation. Working the system. Taking known risks. Lots of hard work.

Doctor, Doctor...

The patient says, “It hurts when I do this.”
“Well don’t do it.” the doctor replies.

Or better yet.
The Doctor says “In order to heal this injury correctly, you need to do these very painful exercises 6 times a day, or else lose the ability to use that limb properly again. No questions, no excuses. period.”

Philosophically these are two very different examples. The first one is a typical response from management when an employee complains. The second is a prescription to a problem, which you want to take a wager on what happens there?

What is common, is that both are the polar opposite ends of the same problem. Something needing to change to improve the situation. Yet the results seemingly are always the same. Nothing changes. It gets lost somewhere in the middle between the two sides.

Either the doctor just ignores the patient’s problem. Or the patient ignores the doctor’s solution (intentionally or unintentionally). What we have here is a series of broken processes. Because when you distill everything down, it is a process.

In our experience, a company either has issues with process to identify and fix problems. Or they are really good at figure out the problem and answer, but struggle to implement change. In either case, there seems like there is always a valid excuse to support the reason why it is working.

In this day and age, it seems the vast majority have problems implementing change, the rest have simply given up. It is not worth the fight.

To an executive, a business owner, or a manager...something needs to change and it needs to change right now. The company has been hanging on by a thread for an unbearable amount of time, either sink, swim or fly. Thankfully, there are a whole lot of smart people that have figure out that there is a science called, change management.

It is what you need to learn in 2010. Or you might as well fold now and save yourself a lot of grief.


No Easy Answers

A regional home improvement center in California has a slogan, “The answers are out there, and we’ll help you find them.”  I find myself quoting this sound bite from time to time.  I just like how it fits into conversation when I feel like I’ve solved something.  The saying is true of hardware and fertilizer, but overly simplified when it comes to sales, business, or humanity. 

I feel like most “Sales Blogs” are a vending machine of advice. 

Motivation press button A5 and look in the drop slot.  Advice on Cold Calling press D2. How to Set Goals, now that’s a favorite, press C4.  

Those that think there are easy answers simplify the problem at their own risk.

I sure wish that reading a catchy blog title got me out of my sales slumps, my routine ruts, gave me a shot of motivation, or got me the presidents award.  If it were that easy then political blogs should have given us a unified country and world peace by now. 

Those that put in the time with a fresh perspective or outside help can make changes and get results.  Change is not easy.  It can however be very worthwhile.  When a general practitioner needs a specialist opinion we get referred.  It is the same in business.  There will be times when specialists need to be called in to evaluate and give outsider perspective. 

There are times when professionals make it look too easy. So easy that we feel like they are taking our money and running. But try your hand at it yourself, the countless hours we waste staring at the problem that seems impossible to actually solve. Sure the instruction say just plug the cable into the back of the BluRay player and then to the TV. We stare at it, afraid of breaking it. The professional on the other hand, just dives in and in seconds, problem solved.

That is the crux of it. Everyone one has opinions, but few are brave enough to jump in there, take a chance and fix the problem.