Posted in Technology by Jeffrey Barrie on the August 10th, 2006
CNN reported earlier that newspaper sales are generally down by 2% in the US, while online news viewing has increased by 8%. I definitely contribute to that increase. Living an ex-pat existence for most of the year, I appreciate, more than most, the ability to get news from my favorite dailies over the Internet. While the morning coffee is brewing, my T3 is syncing with AvantGo, and instead of six sections of the New York Times competing at the breakfast table for space with my cereal bowl, spoon in one hand and T3 in the other, I skim through their digital counterparts without the bother of advertising or clutter.
Following the Times, I skim through my collection of ten other news and technology sources, including the international edition of Time Magazine, where I can get a look at the week’s cover photo and a taste of the articles inside. I sate my information hunger with Quick News business and technical feeds, carry the dishes to the sink, and start my work day fully refreshed.
New York Times columnist Frank Rich confirmed, during his interview by Steven Colbert on May 9th, the seriousness of this trend when he said that PDAs spelled doom for the newsprint industry. I downloaded that episode of Comedy Central in Moscow, from iTunes to my PC (while I patiently wait for Apple to buy Palm and take the video iPod to its ultimate incarnation). I think PDAs (including “smart” phones) spell the same doom for book publishers, broadcast TV, music and video discs.
Before I became a voracious eBook reader, I ordered my bestsellers from Amazon, waited an average of three weeks for them to wind their way through the postal maze that stretches between California and Moscow, and paid a premium of 40% for the “pleasure.” Now, they are minutes away via eReader, Mobipocket and Fictionwise, at an average of 30% less than hardcover prices.
Most of you have broad consumer choices, as you are from cities full of shopping malls. For those of us living in the thousands of diasporas scattered around the planet, digital is our only choice. No matter what our native language or culture (or what language or culture we are studying), there are digital newspapers, libraries, music and video collections just a few keystrokes away. The Russians call it “mir tesen”—it’s a small world!
Personally, I don’t think that Sony will be any more successful with their new eBook reader than earlier failed platforms. I do think that the mobile device users of the world will increasingly read and watch on them simply because they can, but that those activities will always remain secondary. Primary will be real-time life management including phone calls, emails and instant messaging. Whatever will be, I’m smiling smugly now because I’m already there!
Posted in News by Keith Thompson on the July 5th, 2006
Jeffrey Barrie was instrumental in getting me to finish writing “Sales Automation Done Right.” He has also spearheaded the effort of getting the book, our software, and the SalesWays web site translated into Russian, where he is leading a major initiative to promote SalesWays methodology in that country. His story is fascinating, and I’m posting a blog entry that he recently penned for the Palm Addicts web site that tells of how he and I originally connected over five years ago.
I am a consultant with dozens of potential clients at any given time, only a few of which get converted into paying customers. I am not a salesman, and need all the help I can get to “close” my opportunities. Several years ago, I surfed the Internet looking for Palm software that could help me manage my consulting opportunities. I searched PalmGear and Handango for hits on “CRM” and “sales automation,” came up with nine listings, and began downloading and testing them all out. The prices were all affordable, between $20 and $40, and they all seemed to have similar features.
One, in particular, caught my attention because it not only offered to actually become my personal sales assistant, guide me through the important stages of each deal, and give me advice on what to do and when to do it along the way – but to thoroughly educate me on the whys and wherefores. There was an entire system in place: a sales methodology specially adapted to personal computers (and PDAs!), a 300 page book explaining it in language I could relate my needs to, and Palm software (with a Windows client) to use at first as a learning aid, and then to manage my own sales opportunities.
I’m pretty aggressive, and tend to come on too strong to perspective clients. The book calmed me down by instructing me to set the average time it took, from the time I met a client to the time he or she made a decision, into the system as the “length of the sales cycle.” It then broke that down into three parts: 50% of the time to “probe” the perspective client for information on his or her needs, 40% to “prove” that my solution was the most appropriate, and 10% to “close” the deal. Then it told me to assign high, medium or low marks to three questions: “will it happen” (is the customer really serious), “will I get it” (will he or she do it with me) and “when will it happen” (what’s the client’s decision deadline). With just these four factors, the software was able to prioritize my opportunities, advise me how to handle them, and in what order. There were other bells and whistles, but these were the basics.
I was so intrigued by all of this that I began writing to Keith Thompson, the inventor of the methodology and author of the book, and eventually met with him in Toronto. At that time the book was only about three quarters finished and a “beta” down load from his website. I kept bugging him to get the book finished, and to publish it in Palm readable format so that I could carry it with me as an easy reference. He said he’d get the book finished, but if I wanted a Palm version I’d have to do it myself. I took him up on that, found Scribe in Philadelphia to do the digital conversion I was amazed at how much more useful the result was than a paper book, with extensive hotlinks to chapters, subjects and illustrations, and the ability to bookmark and make page notes while working in parallel with the Palm software. I chose MobiPocket to publish the eBook in universaly PDA/Blackberry/smart phone format, and the whole package was really complete.
Reference books in digital format, when extensive linkages are included, become amazingly more productive than books on paper. This is especially true for dictionaries and thesauruses. Now, when I read eBooks on my Palm and find an unfamiliar word, it’s a matter of a stylus tap to find its definition or more about it. I rarely went to the trouble of doing that in my paper book days.
Posted in Sales by Keith Thompson on the February 20th, 2006
For the previous entry, I had to dig around in some dusty areas of my sales library. The oldest sales book was part of a series of twenty volumes called “Modern Business” dating from 1958. I bought them for $5 from our next door neighbor’s garage sale. His wife had made him toss them out, and my wife was mad at me for buying them (they require three feet of shelf space). Although I consider 1958 as almost yesterday, these books are nearly fifty years old. Most of the people I work with in SalesWays were not yet born then.
In 1958, I was living in the UK. Buddy Holly had recorded “That’ll Be The Day” in 1957. The Beatles were listening and they would do their own great thing five years later. I was not thinking at all about sales. But somebody was, because the volume called “Salesmanship” has a lot of good stuff in it. When I wrote Sales Automation Done Right, I had not read these books—they had been gathering dust, waiting for my wife’s next garage sale. There are some gems here, and now, there is no way that I will ever let them go.
Here are just a few of the ideas that will be just as appropriate in 2008, sixty years on from when they were written:
1958: “When one accepts the idea that selling is a process, he has started on the right path.” 1958: “While selling seems to be primarily an art, it still has certain aspects of a science. . . as a science, it requires the mastery of certain fundamentals which have evolved from success by others.” 1958: “In selling your product, a prospect needs conviction if you would close him.” 1958: “Analyzing a sales opportunity. If a sales opportunity arises, it is important that you carefully study it before reaching a conclusion as to whether you should make an effort to take an advantage of it.” 1958: “Value of planning. In the process of selling, planning plays a major role . . .”
Of course, the most influential factor in the progress of sales is not mentioned in “Salesmanship.” It would be another 35 years before personal computers would develop as the technology tool of choice for salespeople everywhere.
I am a consultant with dozens of potential clients at any given time, only a few of which get converted into paying customers. I am not a salesman, and need all the help I can get to “close” my opportunities. Several years ago, I surfed the Internet looking for Palm software that could help me manage my consulting opportunities. I searched PalmGear and Handango for hits on “CRM” and “sales automation,” came up with nine listings, and began downloading and testing them all out. The prices were all affordable, between $20 and $40, and they all seemed to have similar features.
One, in particular, caught my attention because it not only offered to actually become my personal sales assistant, guide me through the important stages of each deal, and give me advice on what to do and when to do it along the way – but to thoroughly educate me on the whys and wherefores. There was an entire system in place: a sales methodology specially adapted to personal computers (and PDAs!), a 300 page book explaining it in language I could relate my needs to, and Palm software (with a Windows client) to use at first as a learning aid, and then to manage my own sales opportunities.
Subscribe to SalesWays Blog