This morning I read a post by Bob Scott that Microsoft is supplementing some of it’s Business Solutions IT team located in Fargo ND to a Dynamics VAR.

I’ve no idea what Bob’s getting at here – and whether this is only IT resources or also development, support. In any instance it’s hard to believe that Microsoft is doubling down on ERP when this report of outsourcing appears.

Hasn’t the boogey man shifted anyway?

It used to be we feared Microsoft, Epicor, Macola/Exact.

Now the fear is the unknown, whether our product technology meets some ever changing definition of “true cloud” and the murkiness of the definition of true cloud.

Prediction: The definition of  ”True Cloud”  will become the greatest ERP holy war ever.

Discussions have been greatly enhanced and brought to the front with large author cons prominently displaying beside each post.

It appears that LinkedIn has moved away from highlighting links that members may share in favor of one row of rotating shared discussion links.

Members now have the ability to vote on links that they like (or dislike) which will in return feature those links more prominently on your group’s home screen.

There is now a Top Influencers section which points ou those who start discussions that gather many comments from fellow members.

Perhaps most importantly it looks as if LinkedIn FINALLY did away with the ill-conceived feature which allowed any member to move a discussion from the regular posting area to the jobs section (the cause of many internal problems when well meaning members either unintentionally or intentionally moved postings out of sight of other members). UPDATE: Nope – LinkedIN just changed terminology – they still unwisely appear to allow any member to instantly move a post out of discussion and into the less trafficked Jobs. This is likely because many of their discussion areas a mess and overgrown with job after job and little readable content.

The ability now exists to flag a post as a job offer/inquiry but doing so no longer seems to automatically move it to the jobs section of your discussions.

One of the best features of the discussion area has been the ability to promote important discussions to the top of the viewing area.  We use this all the time to make sure that important discussions aren’t missed by members who perhaps don’t login as frequently.

To promote a post a manager of the group (this option is only viewable by managers) only needs to click a link within the message. From then on that discussion is highlighted in the Manager’s Choice area for all members to review.

These important discussions are then “stuck” at the top so that other discussions won’t push them down and eventually off the screen.

Same affect as the prior functionality which also allowed posts to be featured –  but instead of being attached to the top of your discussion forum the chosen posts display on the right.

Wise use of this Manager’s Choice allows discussions of importance to avoid what’s referred to as scroll. Which occurs when a message is posted, gathers few (or no) replies and then is scrolled out of easy view. Most members don’t search for older messages so on heavily trafficked areas like the Sage group messages can scroll out of view of certain members who may only visit the site once every several days.

Manager’s Choice messages will now display in a box (see below) that is positioned on the right side of your group screen. These important messages contain links for members to view them without worry that the scroll rate of the forum pushes them out of site before their next login.

LinkedIn has a complete list of new features – as well as a brief video overview – available on their blog .

These new features should significantly increase discussion participation across groups. While many users visit LinkedIn only to look for jobs the real connection is when you share and participated in discussions with other users.

If you haven’t participated in a discussion on LinkedIn – what are you waiting for? The new layout makes it easier and more convenient than ever.

One of my pet peeves about conferences is that they’re so damn big that you can quickly lose people in the crowd. My favorite activity is to find friends and compare notes about sessions that we’ve attended and about ideas for the coming year.

None of this collaboration works well if you can’t find the people you want to compare notes with. Even entering the keynote sessions I’ve found it difficult to locate people in the sea of faces (over 2,000 people are expected at Insights).

This year I’ve started a test group to collaborate in real time using Google Wave to collaborate on Sage Insights sessions. So far we have 60 87 people who’ve joined our Insights Google Group.

Using Google Wave, anyone who is a member of the group can join, read, create and edit the notes that others take during the sessions. Have a question for another participant? Google Wave is a great place to ask other participants. Have an observation or question during the keynote? You’ll be able to share that with the group as everyone jointly creates notes and shares their thoughts on Wave.

This is strictly an unofficial group – Sage is not sponsoring it or endorsing it – though we invite them to steal the idea and improve upon it for next year’s conference.

You can take a quick peek at the main Insights 2010 Wave or join in the fun using these instructions to join the Sage Insights 2010 Google Wave. Or if you prefer you can follow the Twitter feeds (over 120 users) who will be at Insights and Twittering about the happenings by viewing our Sage Insights 2010 Twitter Feed Group.

Instead of always returning standard search results as indexed within Google – the search giant now displays a total of 9 additional places that a searcher (aka prospective client) can find your company.

Nine!

Just when you thought that SEO was a snap and all you had to do was throw a few hundred keywords up on your firm’s home page – the game is suddenly changed.

Actually the game has been changing for years. Blogs have emerged as relevant research tools. Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook have enabled our customers to reach out to their friends for recommendations as opposed to relying upon raw searches through Google or other easily gamed Internet search engines.

Is there a way for you to keep up with all these changes? I think so – and it’s been right in front of your nose all along.

Here’s The 10 Ways Your Customers Can Now Search Google

1. Traditional search
2. News
3. Blogs
4. Images
5. Videos
6. Maps
7. Shopping
8. Books
9. Updates (social media such as Twitter)
10. Discussions

Most of these different search venues have always been available to Google searchers. The re-design of Google’s search layout now emphasizes them making them more valuable than before.

Will customers use a news or blog search to research their purchase decisions?

Yes. And they’d already doing this now – just not in as great a number as they will in the future.

What does this mean to your company’s search engine optimization efforts?

Welcome To The Land of Quality Content = Good SEO

For companies who have always focussed on creating great useful content online across multiple types of media (organic keywords, blogs, images, social media)  - the changes won’t mean much of anything.

For those who’ve increased their web presence via deceptive links from unrelated but highly ranked sites this Google change means that they’ll have to focus much more on quality content and less (if at all) on spammy back links meant to artificially bolster their presence on the main Google engine.

Where To From Here?

You know all those social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube and Blogs that you’ve laughed at as “not really business oriented”.

Surprise.

Under the new Google search – which will likely focus more attention  on those services – you can expect future customers to increasingly research via what we once considered non-traditional sources.

That means blogs, social media, quality content and sharing ARE the new SEO.

Out are spammy back links from overseas server farms and link shares with unrelated but highly ranked web sites.

In are content rich helpful links, posts, and video. And this content now needs to be spread across multiple types of sites and not only our web site hosted on our domain.

The game has changed for search. It’s 9 times harder – but also 9 times more rewarding for those who play it smart and embrace the new SEO with content and sharing across multiple sites.

This version works with OS 4.3+ and requires either a Bold, Tour or Curve model (that’s right – no Storm support at the moment).

The application is  quite good. The main benefits over the iPhone version being deep integration to the native BlackBerry inbox (try that on the iPhone!).

LinkedIN for BlackBerry resembles the Facebook for BlackBerry program.

The design is not as pretty as that on the LinkedIn for iPhone interface — though the integration goes so much deeper that you’ll probably want to use the BlackBerry LinkedIN version.

In fact I’m going to declare the LinkedIn for BlackBerry application as a key reason (for those of us on LinkedIn)  to use a BlackBerry. I believe it’s going to be an essential business tool for almost any serious BlackBerry user.

Here’s why.

One of the coolest things about the BlackBerry LinkedIN application is how tightly it connects to your inbox.

Here’s what LinkedIn say’s about the integration:

Native features of LinkedIn for BlackBerry include:

• Contacts.  Integrate your LinkedIn connections with your BlackBerry address book, and view the profile of any contact directly on your BlackBerry.
• Messages.  LinkedIn invitations and messages will now appear in your BlackBerry Inbox, just like any other email.  You can also view the LinkedIn profile of the sender of any email you receive.
• Calendar.  You can now view the LinkedIn profile of any attendee of a meeting on your BlackBerry calendar.

Now, right from the convenience of your primary BlackBerry applications, you can easily select “View LinkedIn Profile”, and view the full LinkedIn public profile for anyone. Whether it’s a meeting invitation, an email, or an address book contact, you can get the information you need about someone, anytime, anywhere.

So, how does it work in practice? Is it as good as they say?

In a word – yes.

When you receive an email, you’re able to read that mail as you always would. What LinkedIN for BlackBerry adds is a menu (accessible right from the BlackBerry inbox) where you can request to view the profile of the person who has just sent you an email.

How handy is that!?

Clicking on the view profile takes me right to Mark’s LinkedIn page. This is a very handy feature for those of us who do most of our work in the field and are not near a computer from which to look up someone’s LinkedIn profile.

For BlackBerry users who are also heavy LinkedIN users – this is a killer feature of the BlackBerry LinkedIN application.

There are even more cool features – you can comment on a contact’s status update:

View a list of all your contacts — including their REAL email addresses. Amazingly the LinkedIn application allows you to either use the native LinkedIn mail application for messaging or you can view the true email of your contacts and send a normal email through BlackBerry email.

Not sure if someone is a LinkedIn member? Search for them from your BlackBerry LinkedIn Application

The BlackBerry version of LinkedIn isn’t as sexy as the iPhone. However the deep integration to the inbox, ability to review the LinkedIn profile of anyone who sends you an email and the ease with which you can comment on status updates make it a keeper.

Limitations of LinkedIN for BlackBerry

There’s a lot to like about the LinkedIN for BlackBerry 1.0 application.

And a few things that I’d like to see.

First, there needs to be support for the BlackBerry Storm asap. The lack of a version that will run on the Storm is puzzling and here’s hoping that a version update will fix this is the very near future.

Second, I’d like to see the ability to participate in discussion areas via LinkedIn for BlackBerry. Starting and participating in discussions is one of the most high value uses of the LinkedIn service and I’d like the ability to start and reply to discussions from my BlackBerry. I’d also like to see new discussions appear in my main BlackBerry inbox.

How To Obtain LinkedIn for BlackBerry

If you’re in the United States, search the BlackBerry App World for LINKEDIN.

If you’re outside the United States you can visit BlackBerry LinkedIn Download.

For more screen shots of the LinkedIn for BlackBerry application – visit my Picasa web album.

via: LinkedIn Blog – LinkedIn for BlackBerry: Anytime, Anywhere

connect: Wayne Schulz on LinkedIn

You’ll see it used with new deals – and you can see it in the post-sale consulting world where upgrade, projects and other services are increasingly offered for one fixed price.

Consulting based upon a pre-set (fixed) fee has advantages for both the customer and the consultant. The biggest customer advantage is the lack of any surprise costs and the removal of any motivation for the consultant to drag out an engagement for the purpose of billing hourly.

For the consulting firm there’s an opportunity to make more money – but to do so you must enter the fixed fee world with a plan.

After having worked for a while on several fixed fee engagements with my clients – here are what I found to be the top 10 secrets of making money on a fixed fee ERP project.

10 Things You Must Do To Make Money On Fixed Fee Projects

1. Always generate (and receive approval for) a quote prior to arriving on-site. To call the item a quote is under-estimating greatly the work that goes into the process. Ideally you must fully understand the customers needs and draw up a detailed document to outline exactly what is going to be done, by who and by when. Anything that’s not on the document is an optional extra.
2. Budget time for quote generation and followup. This is the biggest change from hourly billing where engagements were accepted by clients quickly because the fee structure was “pay as you go”. Fixed fee requires advance planning and analysis (understanding) of the problem(s) to be solved. You should allow for this time and your quote should include whatever time you spent preparing and understanding the client systems.
3. Use Google Docs to create templates for quotes – these can quickly be edited from any computer and sent as a PDF attachment. (Note: John Shaver has a session on this Monday 2:30 to 3:30pm  at Insights 2010).
4. Always specify the start data as number of days/weeks from RECEIPT OF PAYMENT – many customers will verbally green light projects but have a change of heart (lost funding, lack of authority to officially authorize, no approval from funding source) a day before you’ve set aside time to visit.
5. Go on-site with a written agenda (task list) – anything not on the agenda is a change request – have a separate section where you can write down proposed changes for the client to consider. The first few times the client may resist this and consider all your services (no matter what the scope) as fixed. Resist the urge to “throw in a few extras” or you’ll be setting this (everything included) as the relationship for the future. Explain that the price for the services would have been higher if they were meant to include all tasks.
6. Send the client a list of what you’ll need for your first meeting – it’s especially important to request a computer workstation (if needed) so as to avoid wasted time while the client searches for a place for you to work (if a workspace is required be sure to note that in your quote) – or even worse can’t provide you with a workstation.
7. If possible generate a written list of recommendations to “officially” close out the project – there needs to be some end point where you can deem the project complete and the client approves. If you don’t have this you’ll have problems being paid.
8. Where possible work on-site – clients perceive a significantly higher value when they can see you – it also opens up many more opportunities for additional work. If most of your work is on-site then you’ve conditioned the client to expect that level of service – it also helps to knock out remote competitors who could significantly under-bid with overseas labor.
9. When you estimate the amount should usually be about ( xx% – pick your percent) higher than what you think a medium complex project would cost if billed hourly. This number also must account for project management and on upgrades at least some time for interacting with publishers on bugs. Remember this is fixed – the client doesn’t expect the fee to change unless they request added services.
10. Use options – conventional wisdom says to give 3. Make one a “do it yourself with a little of our assistance” and the remaining two can have varying levels of involvement. Clients like options and the varying fee level makes it easier for them to understand your fee.

Image: flickr

Many thanks to Ed Kless and John Shaver who provided most (if not all) of the guidance and ideas behind the above.

The best example that I’ve seen of someone using social media to promote their business is Scott Jordan.

He’s the owner of Scottevest which make jackets for geeks with lots of pockets to hold their cell phones and other gear.

http://www.scottevest.com

Take a look at Scott’s Facebook page to get an idea of the type and quantity of things that he posts that help him generate business (he claims much of his new sales increases have been driven by Twitter/Facebook).

Some things that I think are noteworthy.

One of the most important things you’ll notice about Scott Jordan is that the doesn’t only use one Social Media site. He uses nearly all of them.

If one site’s not working after a while he just stops. But he’s always providing a regular stream of content on the sites that work for him. Invariably I’m sure that Scott measures effectiveness by tracking incoming traffic to his site via a free tool like Google Analytics.

Scott doesn’t just broadcast information about his business all day long. It’s not one big sales pitch (though that’s a big part of it). He mixes in personal and interesting topics.

- He doesn’t use only one method – it’s not just Facebook or Twitter or YouTube — he uses them all. And most of them converge on his Facebook page as well as broadcasting out on Twitter. Click the image below to see all the places that Scott’s active.

- He talks about a wide variety of things – it’s not just business. How boring would it be if all he did was post pictures of jackets and asked you to buy. Here’s an interesting item from Scott Jordan’s Posterous site

- He has a mix of daily posts that may show him skiing or walking his dogs – as well as posting about new products that he’s thinking of introducing.

The mix of content that Scott produces keeps you following his updates. Along the way that invariably also keeps you updated on his products. In most cases Scott never has to ask you to buy anything – the thought will probgably naturally occur from exposure to his products in a non-sales type of format.

If you (or your company) have been wondering where Social Media should fit into your marketing mix — take a look at how Scott Jordan does it. Friend him on Facebook. Watch how he markets. Do the same thing (or modify the ideas) for your business. I think the concepts will be helpful — take the best ones and adapt them to your business.

Read more about Scott Jordan’s Social Media in this article from MSN dated 1/4/2010 .

http://www.facebook.com/scottevest

So then how did I manage to squeak out an invitation to  President’s Circle with Sage January 2010?

According to Paul Johnson of Sage I was selected from a pool of 140 partners who’d been nominated for the inaugural Sage Spirit Award.

This new category  was created by Sage to honor business partners that embody the five Sage principles of agility, innovation, simplicity, trust, and integrity. In other words it’s meant to recognize people who don’t sell millions in software but have other characteristics that Sage has determined justify them being honored.

I wrote about the Sage Inaugural Spirit Award on my main site so I won’t get into it in detail here. Suffice it to say that I was completely surprised and honored to receive the call from Paul Johnson.

Now on to Arizona  (assuming they accepted my reservation) where I’ll see if I can use my scary social media skills to  become the first Sage Business Partner ejected for live blogging about what goes on at President’s Circle. Full press release after the jump.

Dec 22, 2009 12:09 ET

Sage Announces 2009 Sage Spirit Business Partner Awards

IRVINE, CA–(Marketwire – December 22, 2009) - Sage North America announced today the Sage Spirit business partner awards for 2009, recognizing Sage Business Solutions (SBS) partners who are diverse, vibrant and strong contributors to the Sage partner community. The recipients of the inaugural Sage Spirit awards are Azamba Consulting Group, Chicago, IL and Schulz Consulting, LLC, Glastonbury, CT.

“At Sage, we believe that a successful business partnership is developed through embracing the fundamental principles of agility, innovation, simplicity, trust and integrity,” said Jodi Uecker-Rust, president, Sage Business Solutions division. “By recognizing these business partners, Sage is acknowledging the characteristics that we look for in order to build a successful business partner relationship.”

Azamba Consulting Group specializes in the sale, installation and support of SageCRM. Known for generosity in the Sage partner community, Azamba Consulting Group often provides no cost marketing, promotional and consulting services to other Sage business partners to help overall customer service. Responsive and professional, Azamba Consulting Group has the reputation as a company built to work with Sage business partners.

Schultz Consulting, LLC demonstrates that effort and persistence can drive success no matter what size the firm. The company is known for outstanding contributions to customers and to the Sage business partner community. Recognized as a leading voice for Sage MAS through innovative use of social media, Schulz Consulting, LLC embodies the spirit of the Sage principles.

The Sage Spirit award is part of the Sage Partner Advantage Award Series, which honors business partners for a variety of outstanding achievements. Spirit awards have been added to the program to honor business partners that embody the five Sage principles of agility, innovation, simplicity, trust, and integrity. Recipients have demonstrated that they value their relationship with Sage by embracing these principles in order to create a mutually beneficial partnership. Nominations were submitted by Sage business partners and Sage employees with selections being made by a Sage executive committee.

Distinction as a Sage Spirit award recipient includes an invitation to the exclusive President’s Circle. All Sage Partner Advantage Award Series recipients will be honored at an official awards ceremony at the luxurious Biltmore Resort and Spa in Phoenix, Arizona, January 25-27, 2010.

About Sage North America

Sage North America is part of The Sage Group plc, a leading global supplier of business management software and services. Sage North America employs more than 4,000 people and supports nearly 2.9 million small and medium-size business customers. The Sage Group plc, formed in 1981, was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and now employs 14,500 people and supports 5.8 million customers worldwide. For more information, please visit the Web site at www.sagenorthamerica.com or call 866-308-2378.

© 2009 Sage Software, Inc. All rights reserved. Sage, Sage Software, Sage logos and the Sage product and service names mentioned herein are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sage Software, Inc. or its affiliated entities. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Quick Preview Of What The Sage Presidents Circle Might Look Like This Year As Spirit Award Winners Join The Million Dollar Sellers and Sage Execs

The email is from a company that serves as a lead gathering source for ERP VARS ( and probably software publishers too ). They’re certainly not the only company offering this service but since I happen to be on their email distribution list I’ll use them as an example.

This lead  they’re offering is a person looking to be better trained for future job opportunities. A noble request – but not exactly the type of lead most VARS would be looking for.

Which started me thinking.  Are  “pay leads” something VARS should be chasing? Maybe there was a time in the past that they worked. Are they still a valid marketing tool?

Services like the one that sent the email work by having end users  submit contact information online – usually doing so in exchange for some type of free white paper or other assistance with finding an ERP solution.

These prospects are then matched with one of several consulting firms who’ve paid to receive the names of companies  looking for  help in their area of expertise.

At least that’s how it’s supposed to work.

Disclaimer: Various regions of the country  have different types of lead results. If, for example, you’re in a remote area with no competition then a lead generation service probably works great because you just might be the only VAR chasing that lead.

However if you are in New York City or San Diego then I bet your experiences will be a lot different.

From what I’ve seen the leads fall into one of these overly broad categories:

1. Consultants looking for free help finding a program for a client (The consultant usually has been paid to conduct a search. You however won’t see a nickle of that. In the unlikely chance you win the bid expect to bill everything through this third party consultant at the same rate you were using in 1986. The consultant invariably doesn’t pay you and second guesses everything despite having zero experience with ERP turns out to be a thorn in your side for the entire engagement),
2. End users who already have a quote and are looking for second, third, fourth and fifth bids. They’ll always say  they’re looking to close very quickly – and they are – just not with you,
3. Dreamers with low budgets that don’t cover the cost of a single on-site visit (Tip: If the budget range provided is $500 to $25,000 guess which number the prospect’s thinking of),
4. People who enjoy filling out online lead request forms and have no authority/budget/motivation to buy. Recognize them when they hang up on you or repeatedly ask “why are you calling?” or “where did you get my name”,
5. A seemingly never ending pool of companies that will “buy immediately if it can do what we need” , the problem being they don’t know what they need and/or their needs are so hopelessly unique and complex that even $100,000 of the world’s best programming won’t solve a problem that they’ve budgeted $2,500 for. These companies are easily identified because they’re still using the same computer they purchased on August 12, 1981 when the IBM PC was released.

VARS  subscribe to these services (I never have). The amount charged varies depending upon the number of leads the VAR wants to receive.

Is there a return on investment for these services? Certainly. Is it worth the hassle and overhead? I guess if you love chasing  the same lead that’s probably been distributed to multiple competitors. I’ve sometimes heard this described as a “race to the bottom line” . The winner’s often the one with the biggest discount.

Anyone like chasing that type of lead?

Based on informal non-scientific discussions with people who’ve bought leads from various sources it seems most do so because of the “I only need one big sale to make it worthwhile”.

Problem is that these big sales seem elusive yet perpetually just within arms reach.  VARS use paid leads as the lazy man’s way to marketing. It’s a “feel good” marketing because the VAR is “at least doing something” with a side order of “I’m doing it because my competitor is”.

My opinion is chasing these leads are poor uses of time, resources and  marketing money. When you close one of these leads they often produce  disloyal and price sensitive customers that never become profitable long term clients.

When the initial sale is heavily discounted the  way to make money is by keeping the client happy and loyal for several years so you’ll have a chance to earn back the initial discount. This is the cell phone carrier model where the phone is given away but the customer agrees to stay for two years so the company can earn back the phone discount.

My experience is that most  (but not all) clients arriving via lead services won’t stay. So you never have a chance to make back in year two through five all that money you discounted in year one. See the problem?

Cattle call lead generation  sucks as a reliable way of producing loyal profitable clients

Everyone’s familiar with Google Adwords.

It’s the simplest form of advertising and you can get started quickly with almost no effort or planning (which is how 98% of VARS do it).

Create a three line ad that displays when a Google search is performed on your select keyword(s). Set a monthly budget and sit back while your competitors and tire kickers Internet searchers click away at your link and are delivered right to your web doorstep.

Right?

The theory of Adwords is great –  for  businesses that sell commodity type goods  based predominantly on  price.

Accounting ERP software is fortunately not one of those types of businesses. Most ERP software must be sold bundled with some consulting, setup and training time as well as an often lengthy initial discovery process to ensure that the expensive software is a good fit for the business.

Google Adwords for ERP Software in my experience is a crap shoot

What I’ve found is that you quickly blow through $200 (or whatever your monthly budget is) with few leads. I’ve always been suspicious about exactly who was clicking my name. Is it mainly competitors?

I’ve never been a  believer that it’s a great idea for me to invest in a service that essentially provides my company name along with (pick a number — 1, 2,3 or more) competitors to those searching the web.

Am I wrong here in believing that I’d then be chasing the weakest form of client?

Essentially I’d be dealing with predominately companies searching based on price. Then when those companies found ME – they would also have a handy list of several of my competitors.

Anyone enjoy completing an RFP (request for proposal)?

That’s what online leads essentially are. The online lead is the Y2K version of an RFP.

And you know what – RPP’s suck because it’s a crap shoot (sound familiar) where you are at a cattle call (familiar?) with several competitors (ding ding – are bells going off yet?).

Notice that I said predominately because I’m sure there are some companies that will find you online that in turn become valued long term clients.

There are also homeless people who walk into the casino, insert their last quarter and walk out a millionaire.

But not many do. And there’s a reason that Casino’s can afford to give you $5 buffet steak dinners and free drinks. Hint: It’s because the house has the advantage EVERY time.

It’s the same theory with online leads.

The customer or the person selling the lead has the advantage EVERY time.

I’m sure there are companies that spend the money on daily lead reports and who win business from those services.

Average out the cost of chasing the duds from the lead sheets and Google ads. Are you making money after factoring in the cost of obtaining the lead. Assuming that leads found this way are less loyal — leaving after a they buy their bundle of discounted software and services — then you probably aren’t making  recurring revenues from them.

Which is why I question the wisdom of buying these leads in the first place.

And it’s not just the examples that I’ve used. There are plenty of other sites that have been around offering similar services.

I sometimes receive email solicitations to buy their lead updates – which are good for a  laugh.

• “Nigerian companies looking for software”
• “Budget range $100 to $20,000″ (Two guesses which number the prospects thinking of)
• “Using Great Plains Dynamics but seeking a General Ledger replacement – not open to switching from GP”
• “Consultant looking for a client” (My all time favorite because 95% of these are pleas for some free consulting help)
• “Company located in XXX where physical geography of the consultant is unimportant” (It’s only unimportant until the consultant tries to sell or bill them for anything – then watch how the story changes!)

I see far too many Sage VARS “investing” in marketing programs that they seem to rely on to do all the work for them (listings, paid links) when in fact there’s no better marketing than keeping clients happy.

In my experience  companies searching the web for accounting software and clicking paid links are the weakest form of customer. They’re invariably looking for cheap price and instant gratification. Of the customers that I’ve found this way – I cannot remember a single one that has stayed with me. I can’t remember a single one that bought on anything other than price.

Thankfully I stopped using paid lead sources years and years ago. I’ve found no substitute for good old fashioned hard work.

What do we use instead?

• A monthly newsletter sent to 2,000+ customers, vars, prospects, CPA firms
• Timely updated information on ERP software and specifically our specialty – MAS90
• Referrals from happy customers
• Prepaid unlimited support that benefits the client by allowing them to know their annual support costs
• Retaining existing customers – if we’re not constantly churning disloyal customers that we’ve acquired from paid sources then we have more time to nurture (and earn fees from) our existing loyal customer base who return year after year after year.
• Internet marketing – but only for those who come to us after having been on our newsletter list or read an online article we wrote

What don’t we use?

Tired sales tactics that over-emphasize price and promotions over consulting.

Are we winning sales awards this way?

Hell No!

Are we more profitable than most? That’s hard to say.

Most of our clients return to us year after year for advice and support on their accounting systems (specifically MAS90). We don’t churn clients at a rate that forces us to take on the more expensive lead generation sources. I suggest that focusing more on client service and retention. might be a good goal for 2010.

Have you ever run into someone at a conference and they introduce themselves – and you have absolutely no idea who they are or if you’ve even met them before.

One tip that Michael Arrington makes in a great post over on Techcrunch is to always introduce yourself with your name and company — “Hi – Wayne Schulz from Schulz Consulting”. This relieves the person you’re speaking with from the awkward “who is this” feeling that can accompany a hectic conference introduction.

Check out the rest of Michaels tips. Some are common sense (never call a cell phone number on the business card you’ve just collected) to the less obvious (A mutual friend who introduces you by email or in person is far more effective than a cold self-introduction at a crowded event). Read the full post here