Did the Microsoft Virtual Sales Presentation Yesterday

Was a unique experience. I think it went well and when they publish it for replay I will post the link.

As usual, Jonathan from Marco was great and we work well together. We has around 50 attendees. We posted a few questions to get a feel for our audience and only about 10 or so would vote. Why if you are going to attend such an event would you not vote?

I will have to do this again in the future. It is definitely an expanding experience!

The quickest way to repel a customer.

Is not to return their call. I have heard some say that they let people wait so that they "Look Busy" or they just do not return calls till the second or third attempt.

It is my opinion that those "People" have their ego in place of good decision making. Not returning calls is rude, inconsiderate and stupid. Really no matter who the person is.

If you have left me a message recently you would hear my 24 hour guarantee. That is to call anyone back within 24 hours of when they leave me a message. To be honest it has caused me some trouble. I forget to change the message when I go on vacation and have to call some people back when I am on vacation. That is ok. Those people really respect that.

Not returning customers calls specifically lets them know that they are not important enough for you to return the call. They will find someone who does find them important enough...

Going to have to figure out the Plaxo thing?

So I actively keep up Linked in, A little Facebook and have an Plaxo account. I recently logged in (And actually remembered the Password) to accept quite a few people as contacts. The thing is I do not understand the difference between that and Linked in. Do I really want to use both? Not really.

It has been my view that Linked in is the leader in business connections. However I do not want left in the dark. Decisions, Decisions. For now I will continue to accept invites and other wise pretty much ignore the rest.

Shark Tank!

I have been watching the Shark Tank (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_Tank_(TV_series) and am continually amazed what people believe their companies are worth. One example was a company that does $200k in revenue with $75k in profit (I assume that the "Sharks" have access to the real financials of the deal because there is so many ways to cut this such as is the owners salary in there, cost of goods, advertising and such? What is the EBITA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBITA))

Anyway the above example was wanting $350k for 15% of their company. If you calculate that out they value their company at over $2million. However they have only sold $200k (TOTAL). Even the best valuation (If that revenue was recurring) would be $1million and that would be extremely (Extremely) high.

I understand that people have high emotions tied to companies they start. However, reality is I would sell a business selling $200k with $75k in margin (if that is real) for over $2 million IN A HEARTBEAT.

Work home separation?

Does it exist anymore? In the world of technology I would say no. With email now on the cell phone and people sending calendar invites on the weekend, responding 24X7 and business now going world wide it is almost impossible to not plug in when you can just to keep up.

I believe that the good in this is that we no longer have to go to the office to make this happen. To keep up in the past meant you had to get your physical mail, messages left on post it notes and messages in the same way. Now it is all digital so it can be virtual.

It is getting faster not slower. If your not picking up the pace you will be passed by and you will be the last one to know it.

PEER III

So we are on PEER III now. This one is based in Great Bend Kansas. This Peer thing is getting a bit easier. There is lots of things we can replicate and not have to start new. This time I am going to try a little something different. Mark is going to participate in the meeting with the goal of facilitating the next group. We have interest in Peer IV and V so I am sure the groups will get going soon.

It is amazing how much time it takes to communicate with these groups, setting up the facilities and just getting organized. The reward of seeing people realize that they have the same struggles in IT and life is reward enough. Then to see them help each other become "Stronger better faster and smarter to quote Kanya West" is great!

I have had several folks ask what the direction of the groups will ultimately be. To be honest I am still developing this. We will see. I do foresee getting all the groups together once a year for a great learning opportunity, to leverage the power of the groups to get presentations that would not usually come to Western Kansas and who knows, maybe we will take this statewide? I cannot think of anything that would help IT directors more than their own community.

Are you allowing people to help you?

It seems lately that I have had some opportunities to help others. Nothing big, just little things. However most of these people cannot seem to get their minds around the fact that someone would simply want to help them. They want to know your motive. When I tell them it is to help them it only makes them more worried about the motive. It is too bad that our society has made people that paranoid about help.

I suppose there has to be a balance between making sure you have your guard up against people wanting to take advantage of you and allowing people to help.

Next time you have some one extend their hand to help. Give them a chance to help?