eNOISE

Once upon a time I came across an article regarding the importance of context in sales scenarios, and positioning of salespeople as Trusted Advisors and its impact on the outcomes.  Context in the sense of Seller vs. Trusted Advisor is a huge point to make on its own, but I was thinking about how this notion applies to the work that I do day-in and day-out for clients as a B2B Marketing Services Bureau.  And there’s an interesting connection between context and the identification of business drivers and their relationship to more qualified opportunities (or what are perceived as “more qualified” opportunities).

Here’s a quick excerpt from the article I read: (If you’re interested, the rest of the article is here.

In a study conducted by the Washington Post, Joshua Bell, “one of the finest violinists alive” walked into a subway station dressed in jeans and a baseball cap—during rush hour—and played his $3.5 million Stradivarius violin for 43 minutes. The vast majority on the platform that day didn’t notice and he collected approximately $32 for his efforts. Just days before, tickets to one of his performances in Boston went for $100 per seat. Of the 1,097 people who passed him, only a few paid him any attention.

Why? According to the Pulitzer Prize winning Washington Post feature, Context: Their perception was not of a concert violinist, but of a street musician.

If people do not stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing some of the best music ever written, is it possible that overworked executives could hear the best product sales presentation and not care?

Similarly is it possible that our clients and their salespeople could be receiving outstanding sales opportunities and also not care?

In sales situations, as well in leads themselves, context is critical.  A fair portion of how lead generators, cold callers, appointment setters, or (dare I say it) telemarketers, are perceived and/or judged - on an individual or organizational level, relies on how clients’ salespeople perceive the leads, action them, and close business as a result.   How they receive and perceive leads is directly related to how they choose to work the leads, and ultimately how much return clients get out of their investment.

I speak to clients and prospects all the time, preaching the importance of 360-degree visibility, transparency, and buy-in from sales.  If they’re not in it as collaborators, co-conspirators, or at least willing participants - everyone loses.

But what does this have to do with context?

Context can change interpretation. Context can change meaning.  Most importantly for the lead generator, context can change outcomes.

In the terms of a lead, the context surrounding the flagged opportunity can influence the perception of the lead quality, the recipient’s level of engagement, and strategies for pursuit.

For example, a given lead may very well be for a rock-solid date and time to speak with a self-identified decision maker, with a budget of X, interested in obtaining Y-number of servers/switches/ads/licenses/widgets… but as rock-solid and/or qualified as it may be, without context it’s easy for that scenario to lose appeal, or to appear “less qualified” than it could.

Consider;

• Why are they interested?  Why us/you?
• Why do they feel they need it?  What problem does it solve?  What pain does it remove?  What value does it bring?  (Did an old one catch fire? Are there performance issues that they’re hoping to address?)
• How did they come to the decision that they needed it? (Is your contact the one who discovered the need and/or is feeling the pain/need?  Or is it other end-users (other departments, users of a particular, etc) that are feeling the pain, and your contact needs to make them happy?)
• Why do they need it now (or 6 months from now, or 12 months from now)?  (If it’s soon, why? What’s causing the urgency?  Is it spend the budget before it disappears, or is there pressure internally to get it done?  Or is the product/solution or problem/pain that critical that they need it ASAP?  If it’s a lead that’s in the future, why then?  Why is the project/purchase deferred?  Are they waiting to do it when budget’s available?  Are there other projects ahead of this one on the list of priorities? What are those other projects? Are they waiting for management approval to get it done?)

This type of contextual information can offer a lot of insight into what the business drivers in a scenario might be, and can offer the person on the receiving end more options in how they follow-up.  It can even lead to more opportunity to add-on services and/or other product depending on the scenario.

I’ve seen my fair share of “leads” where it amounts to not much more than information from a business card.  In other cases there are leads where’s it’s a simple “Mr. X is interested in purchasing # widgets in <timeframe> because <benefit/driver>.  Please follow-up with Mr. X on <Date/Time> at <Contact Details>. ”  … and while that scenario is more attractive than the “here’s a name, go get ‘em” option, it still leaves me wanting more.

While direct, and to-the-point… and seemingly self-explanatory… Where’s the situational info?  Where’s the context?  Where are the juicy nuggets that help me to better understand the sales scenario I’ve been presented with?

As a lead generator, context is key.  Context can change interpretation. Context can change meaning.

Context can change outcomes.

Food for thought.

I woke this morning shocked to see downpours on the 25th of January.  This is Canada is it not?  No less, Ottawa?  The same Ottawa that saw record amounts of snowfall last Feb/March?

6:56am ~ Rain? In February? Seriously?

6:56am ~ …Yes, I round my months too.

Insanity.

It’s our week sans-carpool, so on foot I head down to the bus stop with Braden (10), en route to school.   It was wet, but balmy for January.  Armed with an umbrella, I was content to kick off my week with a stroll, bus and a pile of to-do’s at the office.

About halfway to the bus stop, we’re waiting at a light to cross the road and a stream of vehicles rush by… I suppose a couple of them were hugging the curb, thrashing through puddles and proceeded to project buckets of dirty road water all over us.

Is it really that much to ask for folks to mind their surroundings a bit?  Are the morning commuters so caffeine-deprived that they’re not able to make notice of their periphery?   You don’t think for a moment that the possibility of nearby pedestrians warrants perhaps shifting more to the centre of one’s lane?   Is that too much to ask, or am I being totally unreasonable?

Anyhow, notwithstanding the wetness, I didn’t want to let these potentially-maliscious-maybe-inconsiderate-probably-oblivious motorists rain on my parade the way they so lovingly did on my khakis, so we soldiered on umbrellas in hand, without a care in the world.

…Until a gust of wind rushed at me, mistaking me for Marry Poppins or something. It was pretty fierce…or so it seemed. Well, fierce enouch to turn my impenetrable fortress of dryness into a synthetic bowl on a stick. Umbrella turned inside out, trying to fix it to no avail, I finally pitched it aside.

Now I’m really getting wet.  Wet-with-a-capital-(expletive deleted).

8:01am ~ Walking to the bus stop, splashed by oncoming motorist. Seconds later, gust of wind destroys my umbrella. Now soaked. Monday already, eh?

A day in the life of a pedestrian.

And still through it all, I thoroughly enjoy that life of a pedestrian. Make no mistake there are plenty of moments where I fantasize of being more mobile…but there’s this strange romantic attraction I have to public transportation.

I’ve always been a pedestrian.  Growing up, I was the youngest of my crew having the September birthday.   They all had their liscences and cars… they were my chauffeurs!  Yeah, I’m sure they secretly hated me for it.  But between that, and my house being the most common destination for events and gatherings, I really was in no rush to get driving for myself.   And as an aside - thanks Mom & Dad for that pool table. That single-handedly made me infinitely more “cool” than my personality ever would have let me be, making our place the place to gather

Once upon a time when I fancied myself a writer, I’d look around the bus/train/airplane and invent my own little backstories for randoms.   I’d be jotting down notes feverishly in my little notebook (back in my pre-bberry dark ages) and work on little scenes and dialogues with my little fictionalized transiteers.  I’d enjoy it so much, I found myself leaving the house ridiculously early to take the milk-run bus to work so I’d have more time to kill. Sometimes on quiet evening/weekends I’d hop on a bus with no particular destination… Just ’cause.

Maybe I’ve seen one too many-a-movie with little scenes in subway cars, stations, trolleys and the like… but for some odd reason, I enjoy public transportation.

Some days more than other days, of course.  And generally speaking, I tend to enjoy it more when I’m dry.  Which I certainly wasn’t this morning.

8:53am ~ Haven’t had a soaker this bad since grade school. Adding injury to insult, I slipped in a huge puddle coming out of the school. Going home

Allen Weiss (@allenweiss)- CEO and founder of MarketingProfs - wrote a great piece looking at online shopping and its surprisingly smaller-than-expected piece of the retail pie, in an internet age where we’re able to do exponentially more each day from the comfort of our PCs (or Macs).

While concerns over security and delayed gratification are sure to impact online shopping’s growth, for me an entirely different problem is curbing my adoption.

Tradition.

By no means am I a “shopper”. I tend to loathe malls and big box stores.  As much as retail outlets try optimize their layouts for traffic flow and relative ease-of-spending… I’ll never truly enjoy a shopping experience.  (now my wife on the other hand…)

But even still, I’m not flocking to online stores to bypass the madness.  There is an element of tradition in the retail shopping experience that even I cling to.

“New Music Tuesday” was always a staple for me.  I made a point to venture over to the local music store after class on Tuesdays like clockwork.  Most of the time I didn’t have any

inkling as to what new music and/or movies would be hitting the shelves that day, and it always turned out to be an adventure of sorts.

In today’s world, delivery of music and film is wrought with options.  Services like iTunes are dead-simple, filled with little bonuses and user-experience enhancing options.  Unlike the physical stores, there’s no possiblity of understocking, or selling out before you get your copy.  The selection in iTunes is ridiculously vast, giving users access to product that would never see the light of day on a Future Shop shelf.  And of course, there’s the lovely value-add of being able to pick up your new tunage in the comfort of your favourite pair of boxers, briefs, towel, etc.

But again, the experience is not the same.  I’m emotionally attached to that tradition of being in store, getting my product in hand, and rushing home to enjoy.   It’s not the most convenient.  It certainly isn’t the simplest.  But it’s what I love doing (even if it means running around to 3 different stores to pick up that copy of Muse’s The Resistance on release day as the first two underestimated demand).

The traditional shopping experience can be a very tough habit to break away from.

Especially at this time of year.

There’s something magical about being in the herd of wallets going from store to store picking up gifts for the Mrs. and the little ones, struggling to find parking, waiting in line for charity gift wrapping, and (if I’m lucky) stealing away a moment of indulgenge at the Second Cup or Starbucks.

Xmas shopping is a beautiful chaos. And as much as I might dislike it in the moment, it’s one of those things that makes Xmas for me.  It’s like eggnog, mandarine oranges, and After Eight chocolates.   Its just not xmas without it.

That traditional experience essentially vanishes with shopping online.  And while I can certianly see the attraction to online shopping, for me, there are certain shopping experiences that can’t be duplicated online.

Now, give us a few years, and I’m sure when I put the ideal shopping experience question to my kids, the answer will be entirely different.

This past week had all the key components for an exciting and memorable week.  Then again, sometimes things don’t quite go as planned.  As with anything, you have your ups and owns, potential disasters…and disasters averted.  But most memorable is the case of the disappearing and re-appearing BlackBerry and the related trauma that goes with it.

Civic Holiday kicked things off, leaving us with a short 4-day week, coupled with a pair of vacation days Wednesday/Thursday, I was already excited to have two 1-day mini-weeks within the week.  Add to that a Tuesday night roadtrip to Kingston to see Tool in concert, followed by a one-man expedition to Toronto on Wednesday for their next show at the Molson Amphitheatre… needless to say, I was stoked.

Sometimes things don’t quite go as planned.

Believe me, I’m as big a fan of the random as anyone.  I tend to delight in most unexpected and strange happenings and occurrences, as they add so much spice to the most ordinary or extraordinary plans alike.

However, when en route to the airport Thursday morning, I reached into my pocket to grab my BlackBerry, when I came up with only pocket lint, delight was the furthest thing from my imagination.

Panic.

Outright panic.

I don’t know if the panic was wrought from the loss of what has become more of an appendage than a cell phone, or the thought of having to face my better half after having essentially “misplaced” $500… after only having splurged on the phone a very short two weeks ago.  I can only imagine how well it would go over having to shell out the $699.95 for the same device without the benefit of a hardware upgrade or 3-year contact rebates.  *groan*

I bolted back to the hotel.  By the time I was done with the room, it looked like crime scene from Law & Order (by no means is this an indictment on the state of the hotel and/or room itself… although it was by far one of the least “elegant”, “posh” or “clean” places I’ve had the fortune of staying).    I turned over everything, checking every last possible spot to no avail.  Called the taxi company frantically, who while being incredibly helpful and supportive, did not have my recently lost device.  Running out of time, I cut my losses and made my way to the airport.

The long walk to the airport seemed to clear my head.  But waiting in an airport lounge without a BlackBerry reminded me of why the smartphone has become an extension of my hand.

As an aside, Telus is doing a fantastic job in their recent campaigns playing to this angle, and branding accordingly.  With recent billboards squeezing words like “internet” and “email” into words like “queue” and “wait”, and the “Get a Jump on Life” campaign really hit home for me, as a huge personal fan of “web-to-go”.  Waiting for anything is a far less enjoyable and/or productive experience without it.  I don’t know how people survive without!

Anyhoo… back to the point, if you can call it that.

I resigned myself to the fact that I had lost my phone.  I wasn’t overly optimistic that the taxi company or Toronto Metro Police would come through in the short term.  I stopped at the Bell World store on my way home to share my tale of woe and to assess my options.

The tween in-store informed me that the extended warrantee that I had subscribed to when I purchased my phone two weeks ago, actually covers loss & theft.

I could’ve kissed him.

I’m usually not an extended-warrantee kind of guy.  For a lot of things I see it as a total cash-grab on the part of the retailers.  However, at the 13-15 month mark with my previous BlackBerry I started experiencing some issues with the trackball and charger that led me to enroll in Bell Mobility’s Smart/Phone Care Plan.  I half-expected it to be a complete wash, but as it turns out, the plan’s coverage for loss & theft turned my bout of carelessness and bad luck into a serious breath of fresh air.

Here are a few details from Bell on their Smart/Phone Care Plan

The Premium plan covers failure due to defects in parts and workmanship, normal wear and tear, accidental damage, power surge and loss or theft for $7 a month

The plan covers one phone or smartphone and allows for up to two out-of-warranty replacements.

A replacement fee of $50 for a mobile phone and $150 for a smartphone applies.  Our goal is to give you the same make and model that you purchased, but colour, features and accessory compatibility are not guaranteed.

These are month-to-month plans that can be cancelled at any time without penalty.

And so, after a very quick and painless call into customer service, my service was suspended and a claim filed to have a replacement device shipped to my office in 1-3 business days, with my account billed the $150 deductible.  Compared to the no-contract, no-loyalty credit $700 cost of replacing my Tour 9630 net-new, I was more than happy.

More to my surprise, the following day, after less than 24 hours, my replacement phone arrived on my desk.

Flabbergasted.

I’ve been so impressed with the quality and speed of service provided by Bell throughout what could have been a dramatically more painful experience.  At a point where the relatively little competition in the Canadian wireless space there’s much chagrin about the Big-Three Telco’s…. but this is one of those rare bright spots.  Thank you Bell.  Thank you thank you.

Now, back to my appendage.

I was shocked when I saw him. It had only been a few months since our last in-person meeting, but this time, he was a shadow of his former self. Wardrobe updated, energy to spare, and a solid 40-50 pounds went missing.

His secret? The Nintendo Wii.

I was floored.

"Wii Fit is simple to use, and simply the most fun way to keep you, your family and friends fit."

Since the Wii’s release I’ve heard and read stories about countless people dropping pounds and improving health by introducing a moderate amount of activity in the form of video games. With the inception of Wii Fit and EA Sports Active, video game workouts are becoming more formal…not to mention hugely popular.

I had always remained skeptic, thinking it more of a fad than anything else.

Seeing and meeting someone I know go through the motions and actually yield results is shifting my perspective a bit.

I suppose that it only makes sense that incrementally more activity could work over the long term. Replacing even a part of traditionally “couch potato” time spent gaming on other consoles can’t be a bad thing in terms of fitness.

It can’t be anywhere near as valuable as a significant shift in diet, routine, and more formal exercise regimes…but I suppose if you’re not willing to go the more tradional route, or have failed repeatedly that way, why not substitute “bad” gaming for some “good” gaming?

So I’m on a Wii kick. The first step is justifying the expense of the console and related accessories…and that’s becoming a challenge.

One of the biggest things holding me back right now from jumping on the WiiFit bandwagon is the aforementioned notion of “good” and “bad” games…but from more standard, non-fitnes-oriented terms.

From all I’ve seen there’s a bit of a shortage of solid Wii titles for a few key demographics I happen to be a part of. Namely I’m not really in the “under 12″ or “Nintendo FanBoy” groups. And while the console has been out for a couple years, the volume of titles isn’t where I’d hope it to be. It makes sense in that developpers need to custom code everything for the Wii and its unique controls…but it certainly limits available options…which may impact the longevity of the system itself — that is once the novelty wears off. This makes justifying the Wii a bit trickier for me - especially at a time when everyone needs to mind their dollars and cents with a bit more caution.

But on the flipside, there are a wealth of simple, child-oriented titles, with a focus on more activity than the standard couch-surfing fare, so it can’t be a bad platform to introduce to the kids to get accustomed to. (Again, ideally we could replace gaming outright - but in the context of making a moderate shift without introducing anarchy in the household, this might make the most sense). And if it actually gets me focused - even in part - on getting myself more fit (I won’t say altogether fit, but more than at present), it can’t be all that bad.

Epic Fail

And so, the Mutual Consolidated Savings Saga continues.

I received a call mid-meeting this afternoon on my cell phone, that had me revisit my less than pleasant initial experience with this questionable organization that supposedly strives to help customers save time and money through their debt reduction products and services.

While I know very little about their service offering and what they actually do for their customers – I have very little desire to find out. I may have a bit more respect for their organization if they conducted themselves in a manner deserving of respect in how they go about attracting and obtaining new business.

Much like my first exchange with Mutual Consolidated Savings, today the same (or an eerily similar) automated message was broadcast to me, claiming to be from the “cardholder services department” with the insinuation of representing my financial institution of choice.  The message presented me the opportunity to lower my interest rates if I were gullible interested enough to push the #1 on my Blackberry’s keypad – the whole while, the message never indicated which company it was that was calling, or that would ultimately speak to me upon pressing the magic button.

As a bit of seemingly divine intervention, when I pressed the ‘1′ my call was subsequently dropped (I assume a misfire between the call center taking calls and the system (or other firm) responsible for the automated broadcast).

While I was spared another opportunity to have another one of my phone numbers placed in the MCS DNC registry, the call reminded me of my previous ordeal, the status of my inquiry with the Better Business Bureau, and eventually led me to further research.

Here’s an excerpt of the response I received to my earlier complaint.

To Whom It May Concern:

Our response to this case is clear and final. The client, Scott Thornton, certainly has the full attention of our corporation. MCS has heard and understands the concerns related in this case.

Mr. Thornton’s phone number has been added to our internal Do Not Call list.

MCS has and will continue to be at the forefront of DNC compliance, and will continue in this compliance with all due diligence. This corporation has also taken further steps to increase the ease and ability by which any consumer can be added to our own internal DNC list. You may find this ability as www.mcsdnc.com.

We follow all National, State, Regional and Local laws regarding these Do Not Lists. Furthermore, it is our enforced corporate policy to “scrub” these lists against both our own, and our subcontractor’s lists, once weekly, although we are required to perform this action only every 30 days. We have and will continue to adhere to this policy in the future without exceptions.

MCS will continue to hold our current associates to nothing but the highest if standards of compliance with both new and existing policies.

[...]

Very Truly Yours
Penny L Fishbec
Administration
Mutual Consolidated Savings

While I don’t disagree with their assessment over being over-compliant on the DNC regulations (over-compliant may be an overstatement, as it was my feeling that they were flagrantly offering the DNC list as a means of avoiding speculation), I don’t quite have the warm and fuzzy feeling I was hoping to receive regarding not announcing the name of the caller’s organization.   In my initial filing, I had suggested it may be in violation of CRTC regulations in Canada.

On the subject of unsolicited telephone calls the CRTC states that:

among other things, the Telemarketing rules require all telemarketers to identify who they are and, upon request, provide customers with a fax or telephone number where they can speak to someone about the telemarketing call.”

They also stipulate that for solicitations driven by automated messaging systems or call announcing mechanisms, lovingly referred to as Automatic Dialing-Announcing Devices (ADADs);

A telemarketer shall not initiate, and a client of a telemarketer shall make all reasonable efforts to ensure that the telemarketer does not initiate, a telemarketing telecommunication via an ADAD unless express consent has been provided by the consumer to receive a telemarketing telecommunication via an ADAD from that telemarketer or the client of that telemarketer.  For greater certainty [...] this prohibition includes telemarketing telecommunications via an ADAD [...] for the purpose of requesting a consumer to hold until a telemarketer is available.

Additionally,

such telecommunications shall begin with a clear message identifying the person on whose behalf the telecommunication is made. This identification message shall include a mailing address and a local or toll-free telecommunications number at which a representative of the originator of the message can be reached. In the event that the actual message relayed exceeds sixty (60) seconds, the identification message shall be repeated at the end of the telecommunication;

And so, on my limited understanding of legalese, it appears there may be a violation of Canadian telecommunication legislation. To offer a benefit of a doubt, this may have been an oversight, considering that MCS is headquartered out of Tacoma, Washington. After all, they may have simply been unaware of the legislation and standards of business conduct that their Canadian prospective audience might expect.

For curiosity’s sake, let’s compare to the standards set forth by the FCC.

According to the FCC;

• The rules regarding automatically dialed and prerecorded calls apply whether or not you have registered your home phone number(s) on the national Do-Not-Call list.
• Calls using artificial or prerecorded voice messages - including those that do not use autodialers - may not be made to home phone numbers except for:
  - emergency calls needed to ensure the consumer’s health and safety;
  - calls for which you have given prior express consent;
  - non-commercial calls
  - calls that don’t include or introduce any unsolicited advertisements or constitute telephone solicitations
• All artificial or prerecorded calls must state, at the beginning, the identity of the business, individual, or other entity that is responsible for initiating the call.
• Except for emergency calls made with the prior express consent of the person being called, autodialers and any artificial or prerecorded voice messages may not be used to contact numbers assigned to any other service for which the person being called would be charged for the call.

By the FCC’s standards, today’s call was an Epic Fail on a couple counts.  Again, there’s no identification of the business responsible for initiating the call… and the call was even delivered to a service for which I’m charged for the call, charged by the minute, as well as for long distance charges.

It baffles my mind.

Know your audience;  a relatively simple concept.

I just received an email on my BlackBerry from the BlackBerry Owners Lounge about an interesting promotion presenting an opportunity to win “exciting trips and amazing prizes”, thematically modeled around a Bond-esque mission, requiring ready and willing recruits like myself to participate.  While the initial touch did its job handsomely in drawing my attention - and better yet my curiosity - there are a few critical gaps in BlackBerry’s follow-up processes that render the entire approach as wholly inconvenient to participate via BlackBerry handheld device.

Here’s an excerpt from the personalized email;

Time’s running out to win exciting trips and amazing prizes

Agent Thornton,

Time’s running out to enter the BlackBerry(R) Global Training Lounge Sweepstakes. Register today and upon receiving Secret Agent Status you’ll get an entry for the Grand Prize, a trip around the world compliments of the BlackBerry Lounge, Orbitz and Marriott.

As a Secret Agent, you’ll visit a new destination every weekday, and with each destination will come a new mission. Each week there will be a vacation getaway to be won. You will also have the chance to win great daily prizes including BlackBerry applications, BlackBerry(R) Authentic Accessories and other exciting travel prizes.

Hurry, your mission awaits.

For more information, feel free to visit www.WinWithBlackberry.com.

I’ll be the first to admit I actually like being referred to as Agent Thornton.  So much so, that I may request a reprint of all business cards, phone and utility bills, and maybe even my marriage liscence if I can somehow sneakily pull that one off.   But in all seriousess, opening the promo introduction “in character” instantly leaked thoughts of traveling the planet and saving the world from mass destruction subtly into my imagination.  Conceptually,  this appeared to be a very “cool” promotion, and brought a lot of personality and fun to the oft-stodgy “enterprise-centric” BlackBerry image.

In following the link, I’m taken to a registration page.  I’m already a tad irritated, as populating postal codes and addresses intermixed with text just isn’t the most entertaining use of the BlackBerry keyboard… but so far, the promotion seems worthwhile.  As I go through the form, it dawns on me that all the fields in the conversion form are all stock, tombstone information that I’m sure is already on file with BlackBerry for my current Owner’s Lounge account.

By the time I catch on, I’ve already spent the time to populate the fields, so let’s put that minor irritation behind us and  click submit… which takes me right back to the same registration page, not producing any confirmation of entry, etc.

And so, I go through the form once more, ever careful to every detail so not to “break it” again.  This time, I noticed at the very bottom of the form (clearly not visible at first glance when you land on the page via BlackBerry) there’s an option to log into my BlackBerry Owner’s Lounge account to speed up the enrollment process.  ..

Frustrated.

<rant>

Is it that much of a stretch of the imagination that a BlackBerry Owner’s Lounge subscriber might receive their promotional news on their BlackBerry itself?

Is it a stretch of the mind to think that BlackBerry users may not want to fill out forms requiring all sorts of numbers and letters from their tiny yet familiar keyboard?

Would it make sense to place the “make life easier for you” link atop the page content so BlackBerry users catch it immediately on their tiny screens before filling out all the form details?

Better yet, why not personalized URLs for members, to flag the account as having entered, rather than defaulting to a net-new registration form?

Know your audience.

Am I out to lunch in thinking these promos are geared to drive loyalty from BlackBerry users?   Or could it be that they’re targeting the lowest common denominator of mobile users (no offense intended) to prevent leaking market share with the more flighty demographic?

I wonder…   In any case, if the message was as meant for me as the personalized email made me feel, I’d think there’s room for improvement on a few fronts to optimize the experience for folks accessing these promotions and pages from their handheld devices.

My two cents.

</rant>

After just a few moments of playing with *chirp , the latest in a string of Twitter clients, I’m drooling.

And to think I had got myself into a wonderful pattern of the functionality of TweetDeck , bringing order to what can very often be chaotic streams of information… and then on the flipside, the void of functionality (and lack of other viable options) with TweetBerry on my Curve.

And now here comes *chirp, leveraging Vista’s WPF (Windows Presentation Framework) platform - flashing colour, animation, some very slick shading… bringing a whole lot of fun back to the world of Twitter clients. Right from the moment you fire it up for the first time, it draws you in like none other.  It’s immersive… which is a stretch I’d never imagine for a client of this nature.

There have been a lot of attempts at a great Twitter desktop client, but most have have resulted in glorified readers— not a great experience.

Say hello to *chirp. Now you can experience Twitter in a whole new way.

Tweets are displayed in an unlimited stream of updates.  You can scroll until your mouse dies… or supposedly the dawn of Twitter (I scrolled through about a day’s worth to test and decided that was enough scrolling for tonight).  But if you’re not into the scrolling, you can click and whip the list as you see fit a-la-iPhone.  Finally!  I can enjoy the one iPhone feature I’m most jealous of, without needing to justify another phone.

The layout is crisp, and each tweet is nicely boxed for solid readability.  Very sharply designed to say the least.  Seeing the remaining characters backdropped in your reply/update is just pure sexy.  Sexy, sexy, sexy.  (Is it wrong that I’m this impressed with a piece of software?)

While *chirp is still in its infancy, there’s a significant upside.  I’m looking forward to seeing if it stands the test of time.  I can foresee some powerusers struggling with multiple streams or many simultaneous conversations.  Also, it looks like we’re missing the searching functionality TweetDeck provides, so if you’re hoping to scour the Twittersphere for keyword-specific updates, you may be out of luck.  With this in mind, it may not be the ideal way to stay on top of your professional Twitter feeds.

Either way, *chirp just found a permanent spot on my desktop at home.  I’m looking forward to seeing it grow and develop.  In following @chirpapp through the day, it seems they’ve been reacting to user feedback and will be pushing new updates as early as tomorrow based on feedback from the early adopters.  If this is the kind of support and development we can expect moving forward, *chirp will be out of this world.

I suppose it’s only natural to have at least some reservation going into a workshop promising a blisteringly clear and highly actionable sales and marketing plan in just three days.

After prepping, I was optimistic about the content, and looking forward to what may come of the experience… but deep down, I’m looking for validation.  Validation of the content and methodologies that I know in my gut are right…

I don’t want to speak too soon, but I may have got more than I bargained for.

Beyond validation; inspiration.

Now we’re getting somewhere!

The second reading block provides us with a wonderful summary of the business case around reinventing the Sales and Marketing philosophies to a funnel-oriented model that better moves prospects through the standard sales cycles (or rather, moving to a customer centric model where we reorganize the sales and marketing cycles to synch with the buying cycles).

The early parts of the book are fairly superficial where we’re being introduced to the characters, relationships and scenarios that ultimately become the whiteboard of ideas.

The second block begins to bring more value as we’re taken through a board meeting where our champion is presenting the all to common challenges (referred to as the “Four Anchors”), exploring their implications, and ultimately what payoffs may be realized by making what are considered “minor changes”.

The aforementioned anchors are:

- Sales and Marketing are on different planets (the all too common disparity)

- Buying process is ignored (as is common with most traditional outbound marketing)

- Indicators tell us nothing (how well metrics line up with business/sales/buyer cycles)

- Tactics are arbitrary (marketing for the sake of marketing?)

The metafore of the “Four Anchors” works very well here, suggesting that while nearly every organization has anchors of sorts - aspects of their operation that is restricting overall growth…and while they’re resticting, they don’t prevent the ship from staying afloat. Which is I’m sure part of the reason so many anchors exist - often perceived as just part of the business, or the way thing are done.

It’s almost comforting to hear the characters suggesting that these same Four Anchors exist within their competitors and the majority of businesses. That notion adds credibility to the context…but it would be interesting to see some sort of research material backing this assumption to add real-world context. While I can relate to it from my experience, I’m still craving raw data… I guess I may still be struggling to adjust to the “business allegory” style.

While it’s not my usual fare, one very cool part of the narrative style is the inclusion of memos, emails and the PowerPoint slides and whiteboard sketches from the Board meeting in this chapter. I don’t know why the slides really grabbed me, but they certainly did. Again, that might be my wanting for a more business oriented approach in delivering the content… But different strokes for different folks. Content is King, after all.