Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

A Good Speaker Intro

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WOW meLast week I attended a networking event and one of the sponsors (as usual) introduced the speaker. Now-I know that not everyone enjoys a microphone and speaking in front of people. However, lets stop reading the bio already provided to me and tell me something interesting.

I’ve been known to make up stuff just to see if the audience is listening (your 2012 Sprint Nextel Cup Champion ladies and gentlemen). While this may not always be the right solution, make sure to put something interesting in there. Spend 30 seconds with the person you’re introducing and ask them for something interesting that’s not in their bio. Family, hobbies, recent travels, weird party trick, etc.

If I can read the bio myself what do I need you for? And what do I want to listen to this speaker for if there’s nothing else interesting about them? The introducer is the “hey this person deserves you putting your iPad away and listening for the next 20 minutes or hour.”

Please, tell me why I need to pay attention.

Did Your Super Bowl Ad Fail?

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This years Super Bowl ads gave us a lot to talk, laugh and be disgusted about. From Clydesdale’s to Farmers to Amy Poehler, I was a happy camper on Sunday. But the ad that made me go to their web site and BUY the product was the Duluth Trading Company.

Yes, Buck Naked Underwear was my favorite ad of the day. The one that made me laugh, and go to their web site to find out just how much these no pinch, no stink, no sweat underwear would cost. So with my iPad in hand, I went to their web site. And waited, and waited. The thing is, if you’re going to spend $3.7 million dollars on a TV ad, you may want to make sure your website has the bandwidth to support the increased traffic.

During the power outage, I searched for their Twitter account. Which doesn’t exist. HOWEVER, a couple of their executives have  twitter accounts so I was able to back track into the web site, and placed my order. I know I’m among the few that would go to such length, so the real question is: how much money did they LOSE by not thinking through all the logistics? And when the web site asked if I had a discount code to use, I realized their ad SHOULD have included that. (use code SUPERBOWL for free shipping, valid until the end of the game).

The next time you place an ad or speak at an event or have an opportunity to drive people to make a purchase on your web site, make sure you’ve thought through all the logistics. No one wants to wait.

Am I Saying Yes too Much?

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This week I had to make a last minute trip and cancel 2 days of meetings. Sure that sounds like a big inconvenience, but as I was rescheduling and contacting my scheduled appointments I realized only ONE was actual paid client work of the seven appointments I had scheduled. What am I doing?

I haven’t figured out the solution to this problem still. I tend to say yes (and if you’ve known me a long time, you’ll find that surprising) to meeting with people. None of the appointments were bad things. Meeting up with some friends for drinks, helping a friend who’s job hunting, meeting with someone who just moved to town and is looking for a job, starting work on a new client, lunch with a friend, drinks with some friends who we do work for the same client. Great folks, and I’ve rescheduled most of the appointments already. And will get them all rescheduled.

So far what I have figured out is this:

More phone appointments. If I don’t know the people and am not 100% sure they’re going to be worth my time, let’s start with 15-30 minutes on the phone. This can work with some people (especially email introductions for someone I don’t know who could be a good “referral source” but might not be), but sometimes you need to meet in person.

And for that I try to make sure that I schedule meetings on the same day, so that I’m not leaving my house every day for one appointment. So of the 3 days I’m away from my office (and obviously mobile) I only had a day and a half of appointments to reschedule. It could be worse.

How do you manage your time to work with clients and not get it filled up because you said yes and are just “helping out”?