Asterisq just released Mentionmap, an exciting web app for exploring your Twitter network. Discover which people interact the most and what they’re talking about. It’s also a great way to find relevant people to follow.

The visualization runs right in your browser and displays data from the Twitter API.

Read more

Received this email from a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software company which we were “less than satisfied” client of last year!  You’d think they’d know that!  This is exactly why most people believe CRM doesn’t work!  How effectively are you leveraging technology to help manage your most valuable relationships?

Begin forwarded message:

Date: December 16, 2009 1:40:02 PM EST
To: David Nour
Subject: NetSuite For Your Services Business

Hello David,

I am a Senior Account Executive with NetSuite, the industry leading single database CRM/ERP/Ecommerce solution designed specifically for small and mid-sized businesses as well as divisions of large companies and multi-nationals.

Services firms have long had to manage their business and client relationships through fragmented project management, accounting, document management and sales software.  That’s inefficient for the firm and bruises the relationship with clients.
Billable Services Organizations seek to alleviate several increasingly pressing issues:

·         The ability to shrink the time between work performed and payment.
·         Need for real-time reporting to support strategic decision making and quick reactions to fast-changing market dynamics.
·         The need to capture and reuse business intelligence (reports, historical data, previous work) to bid new business, manage profits, and reduce costs.
·         Ongoing training in changing technologies and markets.
·         Increasingly complex project workflows and lifecycles.
·         Easier and accurate billing of time back to the appropriate clients’.
·         Revenue recognition management.
In addition to addressing those issues, NetSuite can help Billable Services Organizations rapidly improve their ROI, quickly deploy new tools, increase the utilization of their consultants, and improve access to detailed metrics for the in-depth analysis of their businesses.

When would be a good time to follow up with a brief call to discuss your business?

Although I’m finding myself tweeting more (@davidnour) often and blogging less, I remain amazed by how many organizations and senior leaders in particular have yet to see the value of a corporate blog as the central hub for their ideas, perspectives, and candid responses to market dynamics.  In short, a fundamental platform for their voice!

As such, here are some best practices from our work with a multitude of corporate clients and senior leadership teams:

1. Find Your Focus – the broader market is NOT your market.  Who are you trying to date, because you cannot date everyone!  Pick a focus or two and discuss both your unique perspective in a strategic approach, as well as a more practical, pragmatic, tactical manner.  Remember, most audiences love tips, techniques and proven best practices.

2. Share Your Corporate Perspective – As the corporate leader, I want to know what you think, read, how you tackle tough challenges, and find of interest and value.  What do you adamantly object to and what do you feel is unjust or inappropriate?  I want to hear your voice, unfiltered by the HR, legal, and the political correctness departments, without exposing yourself or your company to unnecessary risk.

3. Manufacture (not just distribute) Compelling Content – I already read FastCompany, Inc., Forbes, Newsweek, WSJ, The New York Times, and dozens of other blogs, e-newsletters and Twitter feeds; in short, I don’t need you to regurgitate other people’s content – I want you to be a freethinker and create fresh, compelling, content.

Excite or disturb me to change my perspective; I want you to stand for something with passion and conviction! You weren’t born in a suit, so take off your jacket, roll up your sleeves, loosen the tie and write like you believe in something!

4. Establish Your Thought Leadership – Consistently original, high quality content puts your stake in the ground as a formidable expert first and a sound pipe second.  Without the expertise, you’re an empty suit or a blow horn.  With the expertise and no platform, you’re unknown.  Ideally, you combine the two strategically and diplomatically to become unparalleled.

5. Know and Cater to Your Audience – Mine are “C- and V-level” execs and board members, many of whom don’t read blogs.  It is a challenge to reach them, but guess what?  Their lieutenants and trusted advisors do.  I love getting calls from them where they may even completely disagree with my point of view, but appreciate the independent perspective and unique insights to invite me to speak to their audience or customers.  Focus on becoming an expert with visible credibility – those who matter will find you!

6. Your On- and Off-line Presence Must be In-line – Said another way, the person and the organization your audience perceive you to be in the real world must be consistent with the perspective they will read on your blog and on various social networks.  Otherwise, you’ll confuse your market.  On- or off-line, the quality of the content is king, from a credible, dependable, independent source.

7. Provide Options – Sometimes you’ll want to simply convey your point of view.  Other times, you’ll want to give the audience a chance to further explore a topic.  As such, I’m a big believer of providing options such as links to other sources, embedding video or audio, or asking guest bloggers I respect and trust to contribute to our newsletter or blog.  If you’re always the hero of your stories, your blog will get old in a hurry!

8. Moderate Commenting – The whole purpose of blogs is to create a conversation.  I don’t understand corporate blogs where commenting is not available.  Isn’t that the whole point?  And respectfully “too much SPAM” is a lame excuse since there are technologies out there to filter the filth and the useless.  You want comments from your audience as a channel for them to give you feedback, share their experiences, and add perspective.  Notice, I advocate “moderated commenting.”  You’re welcome to comment on any of my blog posts, but I reserve the right to approve or delete your comments based on my sole discretion.

9. “Build It and They’ll Come” is a Failed Strategy – You have to promote it, reference it, drive traffic and awareness to it.  Whether within the organization or external to it, “unless you toot your own horn, there is no music,” as one of my mentors likes to say.  Link your LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter profiles to your blog; drive the RSS feed to your profile on RENetworks (email me if you don’t know what this is), include a link to it in your email signature, put a link to it on your corporate bio page, use Twitterfeed to populate your Twitter account with your blog posts, create both in-bound and out-bound links to other blogs you like and respect.  Bottom line, package, market and sell it!

10. Aim for Quality vs. Quantity – I’d rather see you blog less often and blog with much greater quality of content.  Don’t take me wrong – you still need some consistency on the blog – ideally, once or twice a week.  But daily, a) gets annoying and b) the pressure to produce more often may dilute the quality of your ideas, perspectives, and overall content value.  Go back and read the writing of Andy Rooney or George Will and emulate their ability to convey a key point.

Bonus: Get an Independent Perspective – I often ask another set of eyes to read my posts; not only for grammatical corrections, but also, did it capture my point of view, perspective, voice.  Did I rave & rant too much, or did I passionately make a valid point?  Was an isolated incident that I’m upset about or a destructive behavior that’s disturbing me come through?  Make sure it’s someone your respect and not a “yes man.”

©MMIX The Nour Group, Inc.  All Right Reserved.

David Nour is a social networking strategist and one of the foremost thought leaders on the quantifiable value of business relationships. A native of Iran, David came to the U.S. with a suitcase, $100 cash, limited family ties and no fluency in English! Fast forward 25 years and he has built an impressive career of entrepreneurial success, both within large corporations and early stage ventures. David is the author of Relationship Economics (Wiley, 2008), a senior management advisor, and a featured speaker for corporate, association and academic forums, where he shares his knowledge and experience as a leading change agent and visionary for Relationship Economics® – the art and science of relationships. To learn more, please visit: www.relationshipeconomics.NET or call 1-888-339-1333.

P.S. – If you are planning your 2010 meetings now and want Corbin and David to present these solutions at your event, please call them directly for details.  You can reach Corbin Ball, CSP at 360-734-8756 or corbin@corbinball.com.  You can reach David Nour at 404-419-2115 or dnour@nourgroup.com.

I decided to attend The Sales 2.0 Conference in San Francisco this week. 

It kicked off this morning with a presentation by Gerhard Gschwantner, CEO of Selling Power. He set the stage by pointing to Sales 2.0 as a question vs. the answer – questioning the value of the information overload between various constitutents; questioning the processes, the people, and the technologies aimed at enhancing / enabling / empowering alignment, collaboration, and performance results from sales, marketing and business development.  Gerhard also talked about key trends facing sellers today:

• Movement to a “conversation economy”
• Co-creation of the sale with the customer
• Increased science and measurement in the sales field
• Customers will be creating the company

Some statistics shared include this:

• Companies are losing 10% of their sales due to lack of insight into their sales activity and their target market. ~ Gartner Group
• Sales cycles are 20 – 30 % longer. ~CSO Insights

David Thompson, CEO of Genius:

Sales 2.0 Defined: Sales 2.0 combines customer-focused processes with Web 2.0 productivity technologies to enhance the art and science of selling while creating customer value.  It’s about driving more revenue, more quickly, through the pipeline.  According to Thompson, it’s all about specific attributes between Marketing & Sales:

Scott Santucci, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research:

Santucci covered the entire lead generation & sales process – what’s broken & what needs to be done. His Sales 2.0 poster was a hit as it encapsulates the complex relationships between multiple constituents.  Key points include:

• The salesperson is your company to prospective relationships. Most companies are asking their sellers to learn too much!  What’s broken is the conversation between the buyer and seller.
• Both buyers and sellers are suffering from over-complexity. Customers are suffering from too much info, vendor fatigue, more stakeholders involved & longer decisions. Sellers also have complex portfolios of offerings, random acts of enablement and constant changes in their company.
• Need to flip the focus of Marketing/Sales: 1. Model it around customer problems/decision process; 2. Map it around the problem portfolio. Then, 3. Match the sales tools to support customer conversations.

Jim Dickie, CSO Insights:

• Lead generation #1 sales effectiveness initiative this year. Recent study: qualified leads that turn into discussion now at 39%; down from 55% .
• Need to recognize Buying 2.0. Customer now get all sorts of information about your products, services, capabilities – way before they talk to a seller.
• Recommended customer engagement objectives for 2009: 1) Optimize prospect intelligence; 2) Develop enhanced messaging; 3) Create enhanced sales/prospect engagement tools; 4) Nurture sales leads and 5) Integrate lead management/CR analytics.
• Companies must make existing lead follow-up more effective. They don’t have big enough marketing budgets to keep generating more leads.

Pelin Wood Thorogood of Aegean Group:

• Smart, savvy companies are adopting a culture of measurement
• How Marketing can significantly increase the number of qualified leads with the same marketing budget
• Critical to success is implementing a culture of measurement; recommends tracking key statistics in the Marketing Dashboard: 1. how campaigns were performing, 2. cost per impression, 3. cost per click, 4. cost per conversion and 5. lead scoring.
• The biggest challenge is related to accountability. People are afraid; want to hide what they’re doing. But it brings great value because it adds visibility & predictability.

Sales also is a lead generator. Statistics to measure include these:

• Pipeline velocity (size & shape)
• Stealth pipeline
• Days to win vs. days to use
• Pipeline at risk
• Future pipeline
• Pipeline bloat
• etc.

Alex Scalisi, Director of Business Development at Vertical Response:

• Presentation on how his company was using LucidEra’s to identify risks and opportunities in their pipeline

Barry Trailer from CSO Insights:

• A recession drives the need for the analytics
• Gerhard Gschwantner from Selling Power quoted Warren Buffet, “When the tide goes out, you can see who has been swimming naked!”

David Holmes, VP of Sales Ops from Informatica:

• Implemented a compensation management system. Results achieved include:
• Radical reduction in reconciliation drama
• Less stress at end of quarter
• Greater trust
• Increased management productivity
• Additionally it allowed them to expand the sales force by 25%, with a 50% reduction in admin support.

As a mentor of mine often says, “If you’re not tooting your own horn there is no music!” Those whose livelihoods depend on externally focused relationships such as business development professionals, all understand the power of reference selling.  In any economy there is an enormous level of comfort in a buyer’s journey when they get unsolicited recommendations from other satisfied buyers – it’s simply called “credibility by association.”

When I work with professional service providers, I often ask about their current or perspective client reference selling efforts. Recently, a consultant at a client complained that although she had extensive industry experience and subject matter expertise, she was seldom tapped into for possible client engagements. So naturally, I asked her “what are you doing to package, market, sale, and proactively reference her value add, within the firm?”  When she gave me a blank stare, I offered what I consider five best practices to reference selling and a way to effectively “toot your own horn.”

The Five Best Practices of How to Most Effectively Reference Sell Within Your Organization:

1. Document your STAR success:  What was the Scenario you found yourself in that was challenging, what Tactics did you apply, what Actions did you take, and what Results did you create? Keep it poignant and capture this information from the “buyer’s” perspective.
2. Make it visually appealing: Although the content is critical, turn raw text into an elegantly designed and visually appealing one-sheet presentation that connects your actions with your audience.
3. Target your distribution: Email the electronic version and physically mail professionally printed hard-copies to your most valuable relationships within the firm as well as external to the organization.
4. Mass appeal: After you discretely target, send your document out to a broader base for more widespread visibility. Be sure to use discretion with this dissemination, take caution with ensuring you have appropriate permissions. Everyone likes to hear success stories; send it to industry publications, and place in the organizational blog, speak at the local university, present a paper of your findings at a conference. Simply put, repurpose this success into multiple visibility avenues.
5. Specificity drives credibility: To the extent possible share how you accomplished the desired results, provide uncommon wisdom, and follow on access to resources. Give them web sites that support your findings or your contact information for them to learn more. Ideally, include a supporting quote from the customers which specifically addresses their experience and recognized results or outcomes from your efforts.

Nour Bonus Tip: Very few people will read reference letters; almost everyone will read reference snippets – short one or two sentences which extract the essence or the highlights of the reference letter. “Sam made the impossible possible.”

When done well, internal reference selling will create a stronger personal brand and also appropriately deserved recognition for meritocracy.  Most importantly, it will give others the ammunition to engage and invite you to other similar opportunities to deliver exceptional experiences and results for others.

How are you reference selling your core strengths?

Did you know in 2009, we’ll spend over 41% of our time managing emails? Corporate users send and receive an average of a 133 email messages a day.  There are over 701 million corporate mail boxes worldwide.  In the next 4 years, enterprises will spend close to $17 billion on just organizing email software, on cleaning up, on categorizing, on making email interaction useful. Enterprise email by the way cost an average of about $440 per user per year.  For many, email has become a daily “pruning” task.

Did you know that an average human brain can effectively manage between 100 and 150 relationships? As we go into this New Year, unless you become very succinct about the breath, the depths, the diversity, and the investment efforts you’re planning to make in the favor economy, how will you elevate yourself above the market noise?

E-mail, in essence, has become a way of life for many of us. It is become the way we interact and engage others. The fundamental challenge is that you cannot abdicate your relationships to email. Emails have zero personality; emails often lose their intent – the point in what you were trying to say is somehow lost in how you said it.

As such, here are ten simple points to consider as “digital etiquette”:

1. Use emails for facts not opinions.  We’re meeting on Thursday at 10 AM in conference room #12 and here is the agenda.  That’s factual information people need to know.  If your email starts with “I think”, “We should”, “Here is what I think”, think twice about sending it.

2. If I have to scroll your email, will you please pick up the phone and call me?  It will probably be a shorter conversation and we’ll get more done.  Have you seen the latest trend?  People who write a 15 page dissertation than put that politically correct message: “Please think of the environment before printing this email.”  Why don’t you think about my sanity before writing it?!?

3. Please stop cc’ing 15 people and then replying to all with “Thanks.”  “No, Thank You.”  “No, I insist, Thank You.”  35 email exchanges later and we’ve said zero!

4. Use the subject line – succinctly!  Nour Coffee, Tues 1/6, 1 PM, Disco Kroger SBUX.  It’s direct and to the point, easier to search and use on mobile devices (which many people oddly enough have and use these days).  Also, when you reply with a different point, modify the subject line to make it relevant to the new conversation thread.  Lastly, why not telegraph your intent by putting 411 in the subject line if you simply need information; 911 for drop what you’re doing and call or email me back

5. ** as the 1st line – ** No Reply Necessary – Respond to Sender Only if You Must.  I love that one because it works!

6. If I don’t need to know, don’t CC me!  I particularly don’t want BCC – why not be transparent with your communication.  We’re going for more candor and trust in 2009, right?

7. “No Email Fridays” are useless.  I get the intent – get people to actually pick up the phone or walk down the hallway to engage each other.  But guess what happens to email on Thursday nights, over the weekends or on Monday AM?  Aim to change their behaviors instead.

8. Send less and you’ll get less.  How many emails do you get a day?  How many do you send out?  That’s right – there is often a direct correlation between the two, so stop sending emails.  Try picking up the phone and committing your time to five (5) minute increments /modules.  Most people don’t want excuses, much less excuses about how you’ll be sending the document you promised last week, next Tues.  Use that time to finish the document and send it Monday instead!

9. Get to really know them.  Most of us have a communication preference.  We have a set of “digital pet peeves” that make us tick – positively in getting things done and negatively in what turns us off and disengaged.  Find out what those are about your post valuable relationships, capture them in the Outlook notes field and try to comply.  Kevin is BlackBerry addict and likes short “text-message like” emails.  Sandy is a talker – send her a specific list to review and call her on the commute home at the end of the day, etc.

10. Five simple phrases that will save your life!  I wish my mentors had driven this into me years ago (maybe they tried and I just didn’t listen?!).  Say “Please, Thank You, I’m Sorry, Forgive Me, and I Love You” more often than you think you should – with your personal and professional relationships!  I know it’s assumed and understood but people that work with you, for you, and on your behalf all need to hear it, feel it, and believe it.  That’s when you become authentic; that’s when you’re felt to be real; that’s when you are appreciated as a human being!

Bonus – send handwritten, personal notes.  They’re much more impactful!

What have you found to work in building and nurturing relationships remotely?

The World Economic Forum has announced 34 visionary companies selected as Technology Pioneers 2009 for their accomplishments as innovators of the highest calibre, and whose technologies will have a deep impact on business and society.

Company Profiles

Biotech/Health

AC Immune S.A.
http://www.acimmune.com/
Prof. Andrea Pfeifer, Chief Executive Officer
AC Immune S.A. is a Swiss biopharmaceutical company developing innovative therapeutics for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) along three axes of AD therapies: vaccines, antibodies and small molecules.

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals
http://www.alnylam.com/
John Maraganore, Chief Executive Officer
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics based on a breakthrough in biology known as RNA interference, or RNAi, a discovery that enables the creation of a broad new class of human therapeutics.

BioMedica Diagnostics
http://www.biomedicadiagnostics.com/
Dr Abdullah Kirumira, Chief Executive Officer
The primary mission of BioMedica is the dissemination of affordable Medical Diagnostics in the developing world.

Intercell AG
http://www.intercell.com/
Gerd Zettlmeissl, Chief Executive Officer
Intercell is a biotechnology company developing novel vaccines against infectious diseases.

Mobile Healthcare Inc
http://www.lifewatcher.com/
James Hiroshi Nakagawa, Chief Executive Officer 
Mobile Healthcare Inc. (MHC) is a private, Tokyo-based integrated solutions provider of unique real-time mobile solutions for preventing and managing lifestyle-related chronic diseases.

MorphoSys AG
http://www.morphosys.com/
Dr. Simon E. Moroney, Chief Executive Officer

MorphoSys AG, located in Martinsried/Munich, is one of the world’s leading biotechnology companies focusing on fully human antibodies.

Phase Forward, Inc.
http://www.phaseforward.com/
Robert Weiler, Chairman, President and CEO
Phase Forward’s software helps biopharmaceutical and medical device companies bring better, safer therapies to market more efficiently and cost effectively.

Proteus Biomedical
http://www.proteusbiomed.com/
Andrew Thompson, Chief Executive Officer 
Proteus is a leader in Intelligent Medicine: personalizing proven therapies by embedding computers and sensors into drugs and devices and linking them to mobile computers. 
 

Energy/Environment
CURRENT Group, LLC
http://www.currentgroup.com/
Thomas J. Casey – Chief Executive Officer
CURRENT is the leader in enabling electric utilities worldwide to implement a Smart Grid benefiting utilities, consumers and the environment.

BrightSource Energy, Inc.
http://www.brightsourceenergy.com/
Arnold Goldman, Chairman and Founder 
BrightSource Energy, Inc. designs and builds large scale solar plants that deliver low-cost solar energy in the form of steam and/or electricity, at prices competitive with fossil fuels, to industrial and utility customers worldwide.

Cows to Kilowatts Partnership Limited
www.biotec.or.th/biotechnology-en/newsdetail.asp?id=732
Dr. Joseph Adelegan, Executive Director and Head of Partnership
The partnership is abating pollution, mitigating greenhouse gas emission and creates cheap source of domestic energy through the installation of sustainable bioreactor.

GreenPeak Technologies
http://www.greenpeak.com/
Mr. Cees Links,, Chief Executive Officer
GreenPeak is a semiconductor, module and software company offering wireless and green ultra low power network communication technology for sense and control applications.

Lemnis Lighting
http://www.lemnislighting.com/
Frans Alexander Otten, Chairman
Lemnis was established to provide the world with the most energy efficient lighting products.

NovaTorque
http://www.novatorque.com/
John Petro – Founder and CTO
NovaTorque has invented highly efficient electric motors that achieve half to a quarter of the losses of conventional motors and 50-100% higher power densities.

RECYCLA Chile
http://www.recycla.cl/
Fernando Nilo, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
RECYCLA offers a sustainable final destination for electronic equipment that frequently contains hazardous materials.

RecycleBank, LLC
http://www.recyclebank.com/
Ron Gonen – Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder
RecycleBank is a rewards program that motivates people to recycle.

SemiLEDs Corporation
http://www.semileds.com/
Mr. Trung Tri Doan, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
SemiLEDs Corporation is one of the world’s leading providers of high-performance light-emitting diodes (HPLED) suitable for general lighting applications.

Virent Energy Systems, Inc
http://www.virent.com/
Dr. Randy Cortright, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Virent’s BioForming(TM) process cost-effectively and renewably generates conventional hydrocarbon fuels such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel from plant sugars.

ZPower, Inc.
http://www.zpowerbattery.com/
Ross E. Dueber, President and Chief Executive Officer
ZPower is dedicated to innovating change in the field of battery technology. 

IT

Advanced Track & Trace
http://www.advancedtrackandtrace.com/
Jean-Pierre Massicot, Chief Executive Officer
Advanced Track & Trace is a pioneer in digital security solutions applied to Brand Protection.

Brightcove Inc.
http://www.brightcove.com/
Jeremy Allaire, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Brightcove is an online video platform that empowers video producers and programmers to build broadband businesses while giving viewers more choices and control over their use of video and television.

Etsy Inc.
http://www.etsy.com/
Robert Kalin, Founder
Etsy’s mission is to enable people to make their living making things.

GameForge
http://www.gameforge.de/
Klaas Kersting, Chief Executive Officer
Gameforge is the largest independent supplier of browser- and client-based MMOGs (massively multiplayer online games) worldwide.

JiGrahak Mobility Solution Pvt. Ltd.
http://www.ngpay.com/
Sourabh Jain, Chief Executive Officer
JiGrahak provides “ngpay”, India’s first end-to-end, mass market mobile commerce service.

Mint.com
http://www.mint.com/
Aaron Patzer, Chief Executive Officer
Mint.com applies breakthrough technology to make it easier to make smarter financial decisions.

Mojix, Inc.
http://www.mojix.com/
Dr.Ramin Sadr, Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Mojix, Inc. was founded in 2004 by a team of former JPL/NASA scientists and engineers with the vision of applying breakthroughs in deep space communications to exponentially refine the precision, reach and scope of RFID technology.

MPedigree
http://www.mpedigree.org/
Bright B. Simons, Chief Strategist
mPedigree manages the 1393 service, which has been deployed in Ghana since January of this year, and is the first system anywhere in the world by means of which consumers and patients can instantly verify the source of a purchased pharmaceutical at no cost, at the point of purchase, using standard mobile phones.

Nivio
http://www.nivio.com/
Sachin Duggal, Chief Executive Officer
Nivio is the first online Windows desktop.

Qifang Inc
http://www.qifang.cn/
Calvin Chin, Chief Executive Officer

Qifang is a company built on the simple premise that everyone should be able to get an education, no matter their financial means.

Slide, Inc.
http://www.slide.com/
Max Levchin, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Slide’s current sources of revenue include product sponsorships, product-placement within applications, display advertising, and direct-to-consumer products.

SpinVox Ltd
http://www.spinvox.com/
Ms Christina Domecq, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
SpinVox is the creator and global leader in an entirely new category of communications which it has called Voice-to-Screen.

Tideway Systems
http://www.tideway.com/
Richard M. Muirhead, Chief Executive Officer
Tideway provides data center search software that continuously consumes and transforms IT data into intelligence, including identifying application software components and inter-relationships and mapping them to physical and virtual infrastructure.

Ubiquisys Ltd
http://www.ubiquisys.com/
Chris Gilbert, Chief Executive Officer
Ubiquisys launched the femto industry in 2004 to improve and reduce the cost of mobile coverage, capacity and services in homes and offices.

TraceTracker Innovation ASA
http://www.tracetracker.com/
Ole-Henning Fredriksen, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer
TraceTracker is the global information exchange for the food industry.

What remarkable pioneers are you seeing out there?

Typically between Thanksgiving and the 1st week in January, most People (buyers, clients) mentally check out, or generally are not interested in any new discussions, initiatives, campaigns, etc.  So, as a professional services provider, unless you’re trying to wrap up existing opportunities, here are some ideas for productivity:

1. Update your marketing – start with your stale website, archive the old press releases, newsletters, blogs, etc.  Enhance your online press kit with new reference letters, updated PDF downloads, engage in article marketing best practices, and for the love of GOD, please get some new professional headshots!

2. Update your writing – finish that book proposal that’s been in your head for the past six months, the white papers you’ve been meaning to write or the articles for your article marketing strategy.  BTW – find someway to keep investing in yourself with a new training course, new coaching or mentoring.  Raise the bar on your intellectual horsepower, command of the English language or your sense of personal and professional etiquette.

3. Update your contacts – not via some half-baked automated and often annoying email system that makes me do the work, but rather personal phone calls to touch base, send highly personalized holiday greetings, and express your appreciation of their friendship and business from the heart!

4. Update your portfolio of relationships – given the festive nature of the holidays, what better time to reconnect, reengage, remember, and reward key members in your most valuable asset – your portfolio of relationships.  This is also a great time to deprioritize those you’ve invested in who candidly don’t get that reciprocity is a built-in law of relationships!  Amazing how many people keep calling me to support their job search efforts, whom I haven’t heard from in 3 years!

5. Update your quality of life – spend quality, uninterrupted time with your loved ones, reconnect with old friends, meet friends often for a “mint mocha half decaf not so hot with a twist,” turn off the Blackberry and the iPhone and listen to Mannheim Steamroller Christmas.  Instead of buying a Christmas tree this year, go out with the kids and cut one, go see The Nutcracker, or throw a cookie party!
 
Bonus – Plan to get “scrappy” in January.  Given the current economic conditions, most people will get heads down and butt up a lot faster (I’m thinking January 2nd vs. say after the MLK holiday in years past).  Use this slow time to really plan your goals, key strategies to obtain them, objectives to executing each strategy and the tactics you’ll take on a daily basis (GSOT).

What are you doing during the holiday slowdown?

We recently enhanced our email newsletter distribution system in an attempt to further focus the value we provide to our broad base of constituents based on their individual and often unique preferences. 

Many Fortune 500 companies can’t get this right, so I was amazed at some of our findings:

1. On the positive side, many of the 40,000+ recipients not only opened our newsletter, but read the content, found it of interest and value, and even forwarded a number of items to others – see article on the value of social networking at work
2. Why do I need to know you’re out of the office and won’t be back until next Tuesday at 12:28 AM?!?  We all get way too many emails, and I’m convinced this is one we can do without.
3. The referral to others while you’re out was interesting, if not amusing – “here are 28 different names and numbers for you to contact if you want any of these 117 items on the menu of what I do each day.  By the way, I’ve stepped away for a bio break for 00:02 minutes.”

Joking aside, the most disappointing aspect of our campaign was:

• Some really nasty responses!  When did we become this unprofessional over an unwanted email?  Simply hit the delete button or click the unsubscribe link – why the hostility?  And while we’re on this topic, what does my mother have anything to do with it?!?
• Corporate Relationship Deficit Disorder – confirmed!  People who specifically came up to me and have asked for copies of my presentation and have sent me emails, suddenly have no idea who I am?  I actually researched and found one person’s business card and emailed the back of the card (where they wrote a kind note) to them to remind them.  It reiterated that we have a very short attention span, and our interest, and what we perceive to be of value changes daily!

Bottom line – two lessons / reminders:

1. Stay in consistent contact with value-add; over several months, while we cleaned up and consolidated our list of contacts, we didn’t do a very good job in staying in touch and as such, people are not likely to remember you when you do re-engage them.
2. I’m reminded of advice from Bruce Kasanoff, a former CEO of mine: “Remember information FOR people and not ABOUT them; when it’s for them, it is for their benefit – when it’s about them, it’s for yours!”

At Relationship Economics, we’re trying to remember information for you and provide value-add with every interaction in the quantifiable and strategic value of business relationships.  I hope you’ll join us on what I can promise will be an interesting journey in 2009 and beyond… 

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