Bob Young

I had the opportunity to hear Bob Young speak this morning. Bob is the former CEO of Red Hat and the current CEO of LuLu. He did a great job of mixing in his successful business experiences with a sense of humility and humor.

Bob's advice to everyone was simply stated as A - B - C.

Alignment - pick one thing and be good at it. He used the metaphor from the movie City Slickers to elaborate his point. In the movie when Mitch asked Curly what the meaning of life was and Curly said its "one" thing. Curly died before he could tell Mitch what it was but later on Mitch realizes it does not matter what the "one" thing is as long as it is your "one" thing.
Better - Be a little better each day - the compound interest concept. Every day teach yourself a little more about your industry and as time passes you will become competent or intermediate and eventually expert.
Customer - All about the customer - make them successful. If your focus is to make your customer successful they will stick with you. Be careful because the customer is not always right. When they are wrong our job is to help them realize the difference between "Needs vs Wants". Help them achieve their "Needs" and you will have a business partnership for life. If you get caught up in focusing on their "Wants", you fail more than succeed and may eventually be viewed as ineffective.

Connecting via LinkedIn

I have been using LinkedIn for a number of years as a tool to stay in touch with people. In the past few years I have been using it for business development. In my experience people do not always reply to an invitation to connect - I have found a way to change this. I recently started sending a thank you note to people I meet via a LinkedIn invitation. I write a personal note thanking them for meeting with me and at the end I include “If you use LinkedIn, I would like to connect with you”. I have seen my acceptance percentage increase as well as the time it takes someone to accept.

Thank You Notes

I have a long-standing personal rule about sending hand-written thank you notes to any prospects that agree to meet with me. I recently expanded my thank you note rule to include the speakers of any business events I attend. When the event concludes I make my way to the speaker and introduce myself and engage in conversation. I will also ask for their business card before leaving. I generally send out my thank you cards within a week of meeting someone.

I believe it is simply good manners to thank someone. However, it also can help you if you intend on following up with that person to pursue a business partnership. Your thank you card may help you stand out in that person’s mind and thereby they’ll be inclined to meet you again.

Technology

I recently changed carriers for my mobile service. I left Sprint after six years for AT&T and so far I am very happy. My final year with Sprint was less than excellent and I will be posting a blog later that delves into my unpleasant experiences. Some other technology tools I have been using that I recommend are Jott, Grand Central and Google Mobile.

Jott converts voicemail messages into text messages or email. You call a single number from your mobile phone and through voice recognition software you choose someone from your contacts and speak your message out loud. Jott then converts your message and sends it. You can also Jott appointments that will post to your Google Calendar.

Grand Central provides you a phone number where you can point all other phone numbers you have to the Grand Central number. The benefit is you can have just one phone number to give out to people versus providing your work, home and mobile numbers. How it works is once you have set up your account and someone calls your Grand Central number, all of your other phones will ring simultaneously. That way you can be reached regardless of where you are. Once you answer you will be provided the option to screen the call, send it to voicemail or take it live. If someone leaves you a voicemail you will be notified via email that you have a message waiting for you.

Google Mobile has several features of interest. The two I am using are Maps and Sync. Google Maps is just like their online version. Google Sync enables my BlackBerry phone to synchronize with my Google Calendar.

Nurturing Tips

1) When you come across an article that pertains to your customers business, seize the moment and send it to them. This lets your customer know you are thinking about them and engaged in their company.

2) When you are prospecting or networking and you encounter someone who could provide value to one of your customers, introduce them. Ideally the introduction you are making provides a potentially new customer for your client. Be careful you are not introducing a competitor to your service or product.