18
Mar
10

If they’re not great…what are they?

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Categories: Marketing
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We completed day two of the Mastering Boardroom Presentations workshop in Raleigh.  One major observation everyone seemed to come away with – almost every corporate overview needs major re-engineering.  If your prospects aren’t “wowed” by the material you present in the corporate overview…what are they?  Are they recommending others see it?  Do you hear comments like, “I wish Joe were here to see this?”  If not, you might be spewing needless information in your executive briefings.  How many corporate overviews do you think these people see in an average year?  If yours looks like the rest, you’re in trouble.

So we spent the better part of the morning working on some exciting – a presentation that demands attention.  We took the core offerings, but added the concepts from day one that make speeches great.  I’m sure you’ve seen a professional speaker at some point – this has to be that good if you expect it to help you sell millions this year! In the end I think everyone agreed – in just 1 1/2 days, we covered months of developmental and training material.

Also – don’t forget, tomorrow is the first of this years teleseminar topics; 11:30 EDT – don’t miss it.

17
Mar
10

Leveraging the Power of the platform

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Categories: Opportunities
Tags: , , , , , ,

We completed day one of Mastering Boardroom Presentations, in Raleigh.  As I’ve said before, the presentation always seems to be the weak link in the sales call.  If you want to increase sales, perfect your message, and become the best at presenting in!  Some the key take aways from today’s participants were:

1. “Focus on assets, not products – this is what drives budgets”

2. “The most powerful objection handling technique is a customer success story.  Creating a great story takes some work and practice, but once mastered, will become one of the most valuable tools you have  to close business.  I don’t know why other sales courses don’t make more use of this.”

3. “I’ve never been through a sales training class that gives practical instruction on the mechanics of presenting to decision makers; how to present, where to stand, how to demonstrate confidence, etc.  This will change the way I sell and deliver proposals and recommendations.”

4. The most important thing I learned today was how to meet someone – how to leverage an introduction in a way that moves to a meeting.  I can see it takes practice, but I also see the tremendous potential in answering the question “What do you do?” with something other than, “I’m in sales”.

5. “I learned more in one day than I did in a week of Vendor sponsored training.”

16
Mar
10

The Most Effective Marketing!

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Categories: Marketing and video
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The most effective marketing programs leverage video and events….in this event we had over 75 attendees, many involved in key decision making roles with a common goal to keep their businesses running and profitable.  At the start of the event, just like in most sales calls, most of these people felt like they had their IT infrastructure under control. By using effective messaging, real world examples, and compelling customer attraction stories, this audience’s response was clear – they wanted to take another look!  Education around compelling events produces the opportunity to help people…by putting it in video form, the sponsoring solution provider can use this video to attract new prospects!  Sponsors included Sonicwall, Symantec, Microsoft, Cisco, and others.

© David Stelzl 2010

15
Mar
10

Irresistible Justification

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Categories: Opportunities
Tags: , , , , , ,

Don’t forget – this Friday is the first of the 2010 Teleseminar Series.  Assessments are one of the strongest motivators when considering budgets and what to buy.  Risk being the number one motivator when dealing with business decision makers.  Unfortunately this tool has been often misused and misunderstood.  I hear questions like; should we do this for free or charge?  How much do we charge? Who needs to be involved – what if we can’t get the economic buyer involved?

LEARN:

  • Three types of assessments – which one to sell if you want more business
  • Exactly what the buyer will want to see
  • How to justify the assessment – and how to justify the next step
  • How to price it and when to give it away
  • What to include in the deliverable and where the sales person must participate
  • What to include in the deliverable and what it should look like
  • How to turn it into an ongoing subscription service
  • How to present your findings to make sure they’re heard and to ensure you get budget to take the next step
  • How to move this to managed services

When complementary work is performed, the results are often wasted – delegated down to IT and operations people who may not take the time to read the report and will not have the ability to approve budgets.  All of these questions and more will be addressed in this weeks event!  Don’t miss it…this is the fastest way to build your pipeline for the coming quarter!

When:  this Friday at 11:30 am edt

Registration: http://www.stelzl.us/business_strategy_TeleS.asp

12
Mar
10

Word to the Wise

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Categories: The Bottom Line
Tags: , , , ,

Most people are hired for their outstanding representation of skills and experience (whether they are real or not)…most are fired for reasons of poor character.  Work hard and demonstrate outstanding character today!

© David Stelzl 2010

11
Mar
10

SMB Sound bites

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Categories: Sound Bites
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While working with the Kaspersky Marketing today in Boston I came across this list of sound bites.  You can read the entire article in USA Today …. this may help move some of the business owners you are working with to a realization that their small companies actually are targets – it’s not just the big banks who are at risk.  These may also work for those of you who are calling on regional banks – notice the impact on business (last bullet)…apparently the banks are not as secure as they lead us to believe.  (these come straight from the USA Today article posted in today’s paper)

  • 55% of businesses reported experiencing fraud in the last 12 months, with 58% enabled by online banking activities.
  • 80% of banks failed to catch fraud before funds were transferred out of their institution.
  • In 87% of fraud attacks, the bank was unable to fully recover assets.
  • 57% of the respondents that experienced a fraud attack were not fully compensated by their banks.
  • 26% were not compensated for any part of their losses.
  • 40% of defrauded businesses moved their banking activities elsewhere.

Note: when the paper says SMB – it is often referring to what many resellers consider mid-size, on down to the very small S-Corp type company.

© David Stelzl 2010

10
Mar
10

Cyber Suicide – are you killing your brand?

By profitprogram Leave a Comment
Categories: Marketing and The Bottom Line
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Yesterday on my flight to Boston I was talking to a gentleman about marketing through social networks.  We were discussing how the Internet has completely changed the way we reach customers and prospects, as well as what prospects and clients are attracted to.  Some considerations for your online brand…

1. Is your Cyber-Slip showing?  This comes from the Title of a recent article published in the National Speakers Association monthly publication.  The writer rightly points out that users of Facebook and other social networking sites tend to disregard security settings, thus “over-sharing” personal preferences, and perhaps adding to the damage by linking with others who speak too freely.  We’re talking here about life-style, political views, hobbies, etc.  Much of this can be harmless, however, you never know what people who you “sort of” know, and are linked to, are going to post.  Be careful – social sites are one of the first places prospects are going to learn about you as you work through the sale process.

2. Freedom of speech…yes, we supposedly have some level of freedom of speech, however your comments on blogs and Facebook walls are searchable by everyone.  Once you post it or send it, it’s forever posted.  You can’t recall it!  If you change your mind, or you mature over the years and realize you were being over zealous, your comments are not going to be updated.  The Internet is here to stay, so post only things  you want posted forever.  Never post or email when angry about something.

3. Sterile sites – check out your website.  This is your online image.  Is it you, or is it boring?  I’ve recently transitioned my primary site to my blog.  Why?  My website is informational, but static.  Many companies are putting their blog on their website – this is okay, but I think a mistake.  The first thing your prospects want to know is who you are.  Remember the overused phrase, “Trusted Advisor”?  It’s overused, yet it still means something.  The idea of building trust is still essential, and the person building trust is you.  People get to know you through your online presence.  Make it trustworthy, and give people a personality to trust.  Your character must somehow shine through your web presence, and the blog is the best place to do it. Take them to your blog, then as people get to know you, take them to your website to learn about products and services.

4. Outdated data…So you’re on LinkedIn…this is a great start, but have you provided the details.  There is nothing worse than searching for John Smith and having a thousand LinkedIn profiles show up without pictures.  If you are going to join, keep it updated.  LinkedIn is a great way to stay in touch with people as they transition from one job to the next.  While email addresses are changing, people connected through LinkedIn can stay in contact.

5. Pictures…pictures are worth a thousand words, right?  Check out your photos online…Most people who take the time to put a picture on Linkedin use a head shot.  Not bad – but make sure it’s current.  Your 70’s hair-doo might need to be updated.  Why do so many people use a weird picture on Facebook?  Casual is great for social networking, but if you’re in business, don’t put something sensual (if you’re a woman) or just plain freaky online…this is your trusted brand.

Are you doing any of these things?  It’s time to clean up and create the right image.  Start by Googling yourself – do this often and see what’s out there.  Then take inventory of what you have online and start fixing it.  If you don’t have anything online – you are missing a great opportunity to build a brand that will help you over the coming years.

06
Mar
10

Facebook; Make sure you connect the dots

By profitprogram Leave a Comment
Categories: Sound Bites
Tags: , , , , ,

When I see Facebook access reported in assessment reports I yawn.  The asset owner is not going to conclude they’re in trouble when this is reported.  However, if you take time to show them why this is problematic, you might have something.  Here’s a clear statement, using an attraction story (if you’ve read previous posts on great marketing tips), explaining the issue with a live example.  USA Today reports a recent attack brought on by hackers who gained access to one Facebook account, and used the friends list to entice others into clicking on infected links.  One problem with this story – it assumes that only work computers are used for work, so extrapulate this to home PCs used by those who take their work home at night.

Key Points:

1. Hackers gained access to an account – Facebook was not well protected.

2. An infected link was sent to the Facebook account friends list

3. Some of those who received the link clicked on it – why not?  The average user is going to have no way of telling the difference.

4. Infections resulted, adding these computers to the glowing list of zombies tied to botnets.

04
Mar
10

Mariposa – One of the world’s largest botnets disabled

By profitprogram Leave a Comment
Categories: Asset Focused and Sound Bites
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

“It turned out that the botnet runners had infected computers by instant-messaging malicious links to contacts on infected computers. They also got viruses onto removable thumb drives and through peer-to-peer networks. The program used to create the botnet was known as Mariposa, from the Spanish word for “butterfly.” – From Today’s USA Today….

A few notes on this

  • These were business guys, not geeks, running a for-profit business.  Mistakes made by senior management allowed authorities to track down the people in charge.  According to the article, this is rarely the case – generally the people at the top don’t get caught.
  • The goal is profit, the tool is the botnet – this botnet has been around for years, stealing millions of credit card numbers along with other sensitive data.  Over 13Million computers are involved, and I assume the owners of these systems have no idea who they are.  Likely, some of them are our clients.
  • Instant messaging, P2P networking, and thumb drives – this is typical.  Instant messaging means people were receiving links and clicking on them to infect their computers, P2P is on more computers  than you might imagine – used by many to exchange free music among other things.  Look for people using home computers for work purposes, or taking work computers home and allowing their kids to use them.  This is a sure sign that data is at risk.
  • Thumb drives – this is the oldest trick in the book…yet hackers still win with it.

Assessments are still the number one way to create immediate justification for project work and managed services.  The question is, are you finding urgent issues?  Make sure your team is trained the find the things that lead to justification – this is not always the focus for high end security consultants.  I find companies continue to lead with policy projects, architectural issues, and highly technical rhetoric which generally lands the sales person back with (unqualified) IT people that want to fix it themselves.

One final note – this is not just about finding security project work…whatever you sell can start with risk issues.  Whether you sell storage, servers, UC, applications…it doesn’t really matter. The issue sales people are facing right now is budget constraints, and this type of risk opens the door to assess risk, upgrade core systems, modify architecture, and implement managed services over every aspect of the IT architecture – if data is present, data is at risk.  THIS is the topic of my March Teleseminar…

We

26
Feb
10

Unexpected Shutdown!

By profitprogram Leave a Comment
Categories: Sound Bites
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Imagine your website or Internet access being unexpectedly shut down as a result of a court order!  This morning’s Wall Street Journal has such a report.  The victim here is Stephen Paluck who’s address was apparently discovered by Microsoft in a search for botnet-type activities.  Of course Paluck claims he is not involved in illegal computer dealings, and this is likely the truth.  So what is happening?

Here is the scoop and the article reference:

  • Pg A3 of the Wall Street Journal - Microsoft Battles Cyber Criminals
  • What they’re up to: The court order was issued to Microsoft to, without notice, “take down a global network of PCs suspected of spreading spam and harmful computer code.”
  • Possible issues:  Cybercrime is a problem, however these botnet nodes are people’s systems, and are used to conduct business.  So if they are also compromised and operating as Zombies, there needs to be remediation…however, just cutting them off might be rash.
  • Your clients:  This has already happened – meaning it will likely happen again.  If your clients are infected and part of one of these networks, they may be next.  Imagine just being cut off from the network – the impact is big!  This calls for regular assessments and a cleaning up of the network so your client is not part of the bot problem.  Paluck was shut down because his system was compromised (at least that is the most likely case), so if it had been clean, he wouldn’t be writing letters by hand today.
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