The Impact of Mobile Apps, Mobile Web, and QR Codes for Your Business, and What You Should Do About It

by Todd Schnick on January 15, 2012

A pleasure to welcome back Taja Dockendorf of Pulp + Wire to this special edition of IntrepidTV.

On this show, we talk about the importance of apps, the mobile web and QR codes to your overall marketing presentation.

Highlights from the show:

1. What’s the difference between an app, and a mobile web site? And do you need an app for your business? What questions you should ask yourself to determine if you need one…

2. As for your mobile presence, what are some questions to ask yourself about what your mobile web site should include…

3. What is a QR [quick response] code? Should you use them? And what are some clever ways to leverage them…

4. With all mobile tools, if all you do is use them to continue to drive one-way messaging, you will lose out in the end. Be sure to drive content that is helpful, interactive and engages the end user.

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[subscribe to my intrepid mailing list, which looks bitchin' on your smartphone!]

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WPTouch Is Critical For All You Mobile WordPress Bloggers!

by Todd Schnick on January 14, 2012

Who Is Calling You?

In 2010, 8% of the users visiting my website came via a mobile device.

In 2011, that increased to 11%. In the past six months, that number is 13%.

In the past month? That number jumps to 18%. Safe to say the era of mobile is here. And oh, of that final number, 47% of them visited me on an iPhone.

And tracking my podcasts, the numbers of people listening and downloading them via a smart phone are growing fast.

So…what to do?

Well, if your website is WordPress based, it is time to do something about it. (Well, even if you aren’t WordPress based, it is time to do something about it. You had better ask your webmaster about it).

As of last week, I have uploaded WPTouch to ALL my client’s WordPress blogs.

Said simply, WPTouch makes it easy for people to view your website on their smartphone. Gone are the days when a full-sized website appears in your little window, and you need Superman-ish vision to read the content.

WPTouch solves that problem. In fact, I waited too long to make this move. According to Google Analytics, the bounce rate is higher for iPhones than for iPads, because it was obviously hard to view my website on a small iPhone than a larger iPad.

WPTouch is a simple plug-in that you can install on your WordPress for FREE. Learn more about it here.

So, if you’ve ever gone to a website on your smartphone, and gave up because the text was too small, or you couldn’t find what you were looking for, WPTouch might be just for you…

Remember, please keep your customer in mind when deciding whether installing this plug-in is for you. Imagine, for a moment, the customer driving to find your retail location, and pulling off the side of the road to pull up your website to get a phone number or directions… Don’t you want them to easily find what they are looking for?

I thought so…

And if you have other tools, plug-ins and apps that enhance the mobile experience of your WordPress website, please share in the comments!

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[time get get intrepiddy with me!]

[photo from flickr]

[disclaimer: there is such a thing as WPTouch Pro, which is the next level tool. I have not used it, and cannot tell you anything about it.]

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Make Front Lines Sales More Effective in 2012

by Todd Schnick on January 13, 2012

How can companies make their frontline sales managers and their departments more effective in 2012?

Enjoy this recent episode of SalesChaosTV, originally published here on the The Customer Collective!

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I Am The Only Guy NOT On Pinterest; And Other Breaking News

by Todd Schnick on January 12, 2012

Yes, that is the smokin' hot Jake Ryan...

Yes. Tis true. I am not on Pinterest.

Based on what I am observing on my Twitter, Facebook and Google+ streams, I believe I am the only one who has NOT opened an account.

Funny thing is, the Sun still came up this morning.

The world is still turning.

Look, I am not dissing Pinterest. From everything I’ve heard, it sounds like a wicked cool tool.

But hey, I have a business to run. Clients to serve. A book to write. Radio shows to edit and produce. I am a busy guy.

I don’t have time to look at collections of baseball diamonds, glassware, wedding images, cute shmutzy animal pics. Man, I wish I did, but I just don’t.

I am not suggesting there isn’t a business application for Pinterest. If there is any marketing utility to sharing some sort of visual portfolio, then Pinterest might be a cool app for you. And you are an idiot to not check it out and explore it.

But not me.

At least yet.

Why do we act like teenagers succumbing to cliquey pure pressure to simply HAVE TO sign up for the newest thing?

And you know, my simple message here is to say this:

You aren’t a loser if you too aren’t on Pinterest yet. In fact, most of us still suck at effectively utilizing Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Facebook to grow our business, much less new shiny objects like Pinterest.

Why don’t you figure out first how to move the needle with Twitter before you rush to the front of the line and sign-up for the latest toy? Where you are very likely connecting with the same damn people you are connecting with on every other social network…

I remember a guy mocking me because I hadn’t signed up for Quora yet. Well, I did. And I admit, it was a cool space. Very helpful. And I haven’t been there since October.

Focus your time where it moves the needle. And serves clients.

Then, and only then, can Toddy come out to play…

P.S. When I grabbed the screen shot of the Pinterest home page to share on this post, I saw the Jake Ryan image. So, honestly, I may reconsider and get on Pinterest right away. Jake is so damn cute…

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[isn't it time to join a cool family of intrepid marketers? i say yes]

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Greg Giesen on Intrepid Radio: Mondays At 3

by Todd Schnick on January 11, 2012

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Greg Giesen

A pleasure to be joined by Greg Giesen on Intrepid Radio. Greg is the author of Mondays At 3: A Story For Managers Learning To Lead, a novel about management and leadership.

Key takeaways and highlights from the show:

1. Explains why he wrote a “management” novel – and why that approach is important to your learning.

2. Most new managers (and old ones too) struggle because they do not have the best people skills.

3. And…most organizations aren’t set up appropriately to account for and mentor new and inexperienced managers.

4. We discuss the soft side of managing and the evil of organizational gaps.

5. The importance of, and how, and organization can encourage self-learning and professional development.

6. And how to stay motivated long-term. Greg mentions group dynamics, life coaching and appropriately-sized mastermind groups.

You can learn more about Greg Giesen here, and purchase the book here (affiliate link):

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There Aren’t CRM Fields For Mid-Course Corrections

by Todd Schnick on January 10, 2012

You've Got What You Need To Make It Work

Started working a new deal towards the end of 2011. With a very large prospect. Had some good exploratory meetings, dialog exchanges were positive, proposals were well received. Budgets were agreeable. A meeting was set at the beginning of this year to move the opportunity along.

Until…

One of the architects of the deal on the prospect end…retired.

Poof.

Was the deal lost? In this case, no.

Other principals involved in the deal want to move forward and execute on a variation of what we had been crafting. But obviously, and understandably so, things have changed. Things will be pushed back as the organization adjusts to the retirement of one of the deal’s architects. And the reconfigured team will want to do things a little differently, and put their own stamp on it.

This happens in business. And sales. All the time. And oftentimes the deals are lost from just such situations. It just so happens in my case, we were very lucky. The key is NOT to panic, and go with the flow.

Yeah, I know there really isn’t a field in your CRM that accounts for situations like this.

But human beings are very messy. And weird. And unpredictable. And open to pursuing new and exciting opportunities of their own. They aren’t thinking about you having to report to your sales manager about meeting your numbers. The bigger the deal, the larger the organization, and the more people involved will naturally lead to more situations like this.

And your sales manager will just have to resign themselves to the fact you will probably miss your original forecast on this one.

At the turn of the year, I was projecting that we would close this deal by the end of the month. Now we will more likely close the deal in late spring, early summer.

Funny thing is, based on conversations with the remaining crew still working the future opportunity, I think we will ultimately craft an even more exciting project on which to participate.

That is the key.

Don’t pout, whine, and try to stick to your guns on the original scope of work. Because you will lose. You will make it immediately clear that you only care about the cash, and not about serving the client.

In fact, I think a situation like this is a wonderful opportunity to recalibrate the deal. To get realigned with key personnel. To rethink your own parameters and assumptions. You can work a better deal.

Yeah, closing the deal sooner would be great. But there is NOTHING you can do about these things, so you might as well make the most of the opportunity. After all, you might craft a better deal in the long-term that will better serve the customer.

And you.

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[time to join my merry band of intrepid warriors!]

[photo from flickr]

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Karla Blalock on IntrepidTV: Analytics and Sales Lead Management

by Todd Schnick on January 9, 2012

A pleasure to welcome Karla Blalock, COO of PointClear, to IntrepidTV!

Karla was recently named the Analytics Marketer of the Year by TAG Marketing, and a two-time Top 50 Most Influential in Sales Lead Management, so it was apt that we had a conversation about the importance of analytics and sales lead management.

Highlights from the show include:

1. Her definition of sales lead management…

2. …and an explanation of how you layer analytics onto sales lead management, which results in knowing how to better target your prospects, and more effectively nurturing your prospects through the sales process.

3. Analytics enables you to determine how well your sales process is functioning, provides additional marketing intelligence, and provides data you can see that helps determine how to close deals more quickly.

4. Karla and I talk about how to collect the data, and what tools to use to analyze and study the numbers. But before that, she helps us understand the three basic classifications of data itself.

5. Understanding the importance of the CRM to the data collection and analysis process.

6. How to overcome the resistance from sales reps, and others in the sales organization, to keying in data and keeping up with the CRM.

7. And finally, can analytics – and sales lead management – help finally bridge the gap between the sales and marketing departments?

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[join my merry band of intrepid marketers here]

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Only So Many Hours In A Day. How Many Are You Using?

by Todd Schnick on January 8, 2012

Like sand through the hourglass...

Time management…

…it separates the men from the boys. For me and my two businesses, it is mission critical that I get a handle on mine.

Here are my three issues:

1. I have to cut down on some things I enjoy, but don’t have the time for.
2. I have to select carefully some NEW things I want to play with, but don’t have the time for.
3. I need to get MUCH more disciplined on blocking off concentrated chunks of creative work time.

I suck at all three. What about you?

So, for me, here is what I am eliminating (for now).

I have a minimalist blog that I’ve maintained on Tumblr for some time. I could spend hours messin’ around with Tumblr each day, if I had the time.

I also have started an Intrepid business page on Facebook, but don’t have enough time over the course of the day to do what I want to do there, so I am going to set it aside for now.

[editor's note: I am not suggesting Facebook isn't important. In fact, I get a lot of mileage from my personal account, much more so than my business account. So that is where I will focus.]

I hate to pull away from these, but they aren’t the most effective uses of my time, and they aren’t driving revenue to my businesses. So, we’ll see where things are in six months.

Here are three new toys that I want to play with, but will only allow myself small bits of time (if at all) to mess around and experiment with.

I’d love to spend more time playing around with Oink, Kevin Rose’s latest creation. Path looks to be a really fascinating way to build a tight community. And heck, Pinterest is all the rage these days, but I haven’t even opened an account, don’t want to get sucked in. Just. Not. Enough. Time.

And here’s the difficult thing: there will be something newer, shinier, and cooler to play with next month. We ALL have to do a better job managing our time spent on the latest shiny objects, and be sure that lost time isn’t taking away from our creative work. And yet, maintain the difficult balance because we also have to be cognizant that a new tool or app might have a direct benefit to our business growth. It is a tough call on where to draw the line. Problem is, most people haven’t drawn ANY line…

I can lose time playing around online with the best of ‘em. So here is what I am doing to better devote meaningful chunks of valuable time to doing creative customer work, and more intense focus on marketing my business.

I’ve talked about this before, and this is hardly a new concept, but I am going to get REALLY disciplined in blocking off chunks of concentrated work time to focus on client and marketing creative work.

Set a timer, remove ALL distractions, and focus on nothing else until that timer goes off. When I practice this discipline, it works wonders. I just don’t do it enough.

I will use an egg timer. No, not a real egg timer. This egg timer.

So, we’ll see how it goes.

Oh, and I have to say “NO” more often. I disengaged from a project I really wanted to participate on this quarter, but simply don’t have the time for. Any time invested there would take away from my clients and my own marketing creative work. And you have to fiercely guard your time. No one else will.

What hard choices will you make? Please share other time management strategies in the comments below.

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[join our community of intrepid marketers here]

[photo from flickr]

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My Book-A-Week Plans For 2012

by Todd Schnick on January 7, 2012

Read. Or get left behind.

I have one resolution for 2012: to kick ass.

One of the ways I plan to achieve this is to meet a personal goal of reading one book per week.

Yes, that’s fifty-two books over the course of 2012.

I am off to a strong start, already a little ahead of schedule. I fell way short in 2011, only completing 36 books. Yeah, yeah, I am well aware that most Americans haven’t read 36 books in their lifetime, let alone in one calendar year. But that’s why I kick ass, and why far too many people suffer in miserable jobs they hate and spend half their day in rush hour traffic cursing their stuck and missionless life.

But my goal is one book per week, as inspired by this dude.

You see, reading a lot helps me kick ass. How exactly? Well, reading all that content feeds me all kinds of ideas, in all the various walks of my life.

I write a lot too, and I am always striving for new writing ideas. A lot of my friends ask how I come up with all this content. Easy answer: reading.

Thinking about the material I am reading helps to clarify my thinking on various subjects. Or better yet, opens my eyes to realize my original position was way the heck off.

When I am having a bad day, or suffered some sort of setback, or just feeling uninspired…reading lifts me up. I won’t read just a handful of pages before ideas start flowing again. Reading rejuvenates me.

Reading all these books allows me to get to know some real cool people, many of which I get to interview here.

This is my continuing education. If you stopped learning when you got out of school, you’ve likely been stuck in life neutral ever since.

Most of the books this year will be read on the Kindle app on my iPad2. But PR reps send me hard copies often, so I will read some of those too (when I am done with those, I bring them to my studio, where you are welcome to take one and enjoy it too!).

Again, you can keep tabs on my progress by checking here, and I would love for you to comment there with additional book suggestions. Drop me a note and let me know if you will join me in the challenge, either by email or in the comments…

Good reading, and wish me well!

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[kick ass with me by joining intrepid marketers]

[photo from flickr]

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Your 7-Step Marketing Plan for 2012

by Todd Schnick on January 6, 2012

From SalesChaosTV, originally published here:

Run a small business? Are you an entrepreneur? Launching a startup? Then you will enjoy this chat with Dan Waldschmidt and myself as we discuss the seven critical – and often overlooked steps – in generating your marketing plan for 2012…

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