Get Out of the Office & Get More Work Done

I was in South Beach working really hard, Here I'm contemplating a response .

If you’re reading this Blog in your cubicle or office I have two words for you “GET OUT!” With all of the technology we have at our disposal why subject yourself to working in a windowless, cramped, recirculated oxygen environment. You can be just as productive working from any location like your backyard, the park, the beach, the waterfront etc. so get out of the office and work and I don’t mean hanging out at the local Starbucks, I mean get out and see the city or town you live in.

If you’re an employer consider the amount of time your employees spend getting to work fighting through crowded trains and buses sitting in traffic for more than an hour only to arrive to work in a bad mood caused by the trauma of commuting.  Let your employees work outside where they can get inspiration from nature and other surroundings reduce the commute time and the trauma associated with it and watch your staff become more productive.

Yes I’m making a bold statement but its possible and easy to transfer your work space to anywhere in the world. To make the transition from your office to the outdoors you will need a few items that are easy to get.

The first item is a Wi-Fi hotspot device.  These devices are carried by all of the major mobile providers and allow you to create a wi-fi hotspot so you can connect several Internet devices like laptops, tablets, netbbooks etc. This week I have been testing the Clear 4G Hotspot device. Clear claims that you can connect up to 8 devices which is 3 more than most of the mobile carriers however, I noticed that the Internet speed decreases when more than 4 devices are connected. When we connected 8 devices it felt like we entered the way back machine and arrived in the 1990s when 56K modems were a big hit. Clear provides downloads speeds of about 6Mbps and upload speeds of 1 Mbps which is excellent for connecting several devices to the Internet and there are no data usage fees which is unlike many of the mobile carriers. One additional note: Clear does not have full nationwide 4G service so be sure to check for your city on the coverage map.

Some smartphones can also create a wi-fi hotspot like the Samsung Galaxy S 4G that will allow you to connect several Internet devices.  The main drawback with using your smartphone as a hotspot is your phone’s battery life will decrease faster than normal.  I used the hotspot feature on my Galaxy S 4G and my battery was drained in less than 4 hours.  If you’re going to use a smartphone to create a hotspot, then invest in an additional battery.

The next item is your phone, the lifeblood of your business. I know you’re used to having someone physically answer the phone and direct calls through that clunky PBX system hosted in your hallway closet. Now there are better alternatives to the old PBX system like VOIP. VOIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol and several years ago VOIP was a mess. The hardware and software constantly crashed. But that was the past, today VOIP services have greatly improved and they provide cost savings  and some superior technology that you can’t get with your old PBX system.

We use RingCentral for our business phone service. We like the ring me anywhere feature where when a call comes into to my line and I don’t respond it rings my other lines like my home or cell phone allowing me to answer the call as if I was in the office. RingCentral also has an app for smartphones that let me make calls through my business line so it conserves my cell phone minutes and the call is perceived as coming from my office for that professional look.

I know you still have to access your work files and there’s a solution for that. Cloud hosting services like Dropbox, Huddle, Google Docs, and Box gives you the power to host your work content on the Internet making it accessible to you where ever you have Internet connection. We use Huddle because we’re able to set up different groups to share files, tasks, discuss ideas in a chatroom or plan processes on the whiteboard. Huddle also has an iPad app that allows me to manage my tasks and work files on my iPad.

The last umbilical cord that needs to be cut to free you to work outdoors is the work station, the desktop computer the old soon to be extinct dinosaur that occupies that large space in your cubicle. They’re money pits that need regular transfusions from IT departments to keep them going. The same tasks that are being done on those old dinosaurs are now being done on tablets like iPads and Xooms, and Galaxy Tablets.  The iPhone, iPad and Android app market feature some powerful apps for making you more productive on a tablet or smartphone than you were on those old dinosaur workstations.  I’ve been so productive using my iPad for daily work that I wrote a Blog post titled “I Finally Like My iPad ” where I discuss some of the apps that make my iPad a productive business tool.

You now have all the basic tools need to cut the office cord and work outside. There are other items like software and apps that will manage billable hours, invoicing etc. but you gave every tool and reason to get outdoors and become inspired by all that is around you.

Join me in a national week of Get Outdoors and Work. Lets fill the parks, promenades and public spaces with hard working employees making new contacts, feeling less stresses from commuting and having fun at work again.

See you outdoors

I Finally like My iPad :-)

It was a year ago when I finally decided to invest in an iPad. A long time client of ours asked us to recreate an application that we built for PDAs in 2005 for the iPad. As we were building the updated app for the iPad we invested in several iPads for the client to use in the field.

Once the event was over I had no real business use for the iPad so the iPads stayed in the closet. I pulled one out every now and then when I was traveling. In my opinion the iPad was best suited as a entertainment device for me to watch movies and play games during long flights. It was not a serious business application like my netbook.  My netbook was my business workhorse. It managed my emails, my presentations, and my business correspondence. Things the iPad did not do well.

Slowly things began to change and I started finding serious uses for my iPad. The 1st useful app that I used was a telePrompter  application called Prompster that I used when I had to video tape some remarks from a client. The iPad app was easy to use and was less expensive than the larger bulky teleprompters I’ve used in the past.

Afterwards I began researching and I discovered other useful apps to assist me with managing my day-to-day business. The Huddle app is useful app as we have been using Huddle workspaces to collaborate with our clients. Having the app on my iPad allows me to access my files, manage to do tasks and contribute to discussions away from my desktop.

Soon after I was using additional apps like Seesmic and Hootsuite to mange social media campaigns and the WordPress app to mange my Blog.  This Blog post was written on my iPad using the WordPress app.

However, I was still carrying my netbook  and iPad most of the time because when it came to making presentations and working with Microsoft Office documents there weren’t any good apps for that until I came across Quickoffice.

Quickoffice is the by far the best app that I’ve used for editing and creating documents in MS Office especially PowerPoint presentations.  I have a  bunch of PowerPoint templates that I’ve gotten from Slideshop.com hosted on Huddle and now by using Quickoffice I can edit and create a custom presentation wherever I’m at.

There are still two apps that I’m waiting for to get better and they are GoToWebinar and InstantPresenter.  I regularly host webinars and I like using GoToWebinar and InstantPresenter but I can’t use either with my iPad because InstantPresenter does not have an app and is Flash based so it will not work on iPads and the GoToWebinar app only allow you to attend GoToMeetings does not work with GoToWebinars.

Despite not being able to host webinars away from the office I have started going weeks just carrying my iPad and I realized that I don’t have a real use for my netbook. So anyone want a used netbook? I’m willing to entertain any reasonable offer.

One last note I like my iPad so much that I was inspired to create this short video that profiles our company.  Take a look and tell me what you think.

Don’t Let LCS “Lousy Communication Style” Destroy Your Business?

What a week its been. I know it’s only Tuesday but I have been through some highs and lows with how companies communicate.  First one of the hosting companies we use had a cloud server node go down on Saturday morning and as of this post the service is still not up.  Then I had a vendor overstep their boundaries and displayed one of the worst communication style I ever witnessed. However, some of my intelligent clients have been sending me birthday greetings which have been cheering me up.

What’s interesting about each of these scenarios is how the individuals at these companies communicated with me. The hosting company provided very little information on their Blog post about what the real problem is and more importantly when will we have service. Their Blog post last mentioned that we can expect service shortly.  That was 19 hours ago. I wonder what their definition of shortly is. The sales rep at a local radio station only calls me asking if my clients are looking to buy time on the station.  This person has never learned what exactly my clients do or what we do. Their focus is on one thing get a check. This salesperson called me and left a message asking would one of my union clients purchase ads because some other unions are purchasing ads about Bloomberg’s budget.  When I didn’t respond to her fast enough she took it upon herself to call the president of the union.  The union president informed her that his union would not be purchasing any ads until the summer.  She then went and scheduled a meeting with the union president with the sole purpose of  getting that summer check and then called me again to ask if I would be able to attend the meeting. After my conversation with her she begged for forgiveness and canceled the meeting.

So I have been exposed to two scenarios of LCS (Lousy Communication Style). Both of these outbursts of LCS has driven me away from using their business. But the sad part is that they think their style of communication and customer service is the correct approach. When your product/service delivery is breaking down and you’re unable to deliver, clients and consumers want to know more about what is going on, not kept in the dark. This is where social media can assist your business with communicating what has gone wrong how it will affect you and when will it be resolved.

Southwest Airlines which is having problems keeping the roofs of their planes intact took that approach.  Southwest is using their Twitter account, Facebook and Blog to update their passengers on what is going on. More importantly they are not using vague terms like shortly or soon, they are providing real time frames on their expectations to return to full service.

The woman who works for the radio station is making the mistake that too many salespeople make.  You can’t sell me anything if you have not taken the time to understand my needs.  I called you once because my client knew what they wanted. So instead of using the opportunity to create a relationship of consultative selling or Selling 2.0. you stuck to the old dinosaur way of selling yourself out of future sales.

Public Service Announcement for all sales professionals.  The profession of sales has shifted, the consumers are in power and unless you spend more time listening instead of telling them what you think they should hear, you’re going to end up like the dinosaurs.

Despite the advances in our abilities to communicate, LCS is approaching epidemic stages. Experts are suggesting that the advances in communication platforms is the culprit, I however think its the laziness and stress of incompetent people who do not take pride in their craft and profession.

You can avoid LCS by taking a personal approach in your communications with clients and prospects.  Spend time talking with your clients to learn of their concerns and what outcomes they are focused on.  I call this approach farming because you use it to grow opportunities to upsell existing clients on either increased service with you or an opportunity to introduce new products/services that your clients desire.

If you find yourself in a situation where you can’t deliver your product/service DO NOT HIDE IN THE SAND. This is the time to be proactive, provide as much correct information as possible across all of your media platforms. You’re going to take some harsh words but you will also get kudos for being upfront and informative.

Responding to what’s important to your prospects and clients will keep your business top of mind. Kudos to those vendors who have sent me birthday cards, I really enjoyed them and yes I’m pleased that I do business with you. Top sales people and companies that have excellent communication programs know about the important milestones in their clients and vendors lives and they make certain that they recognize every milestone with a written acknowledgement. Its not difficult for anyone to keep track and send a card to a client for those special occasions and there are several websites that can assist you with sending out communications on time.

LCS is not a hard disease to beat or to even avoid, just keep applying the personal touch with your market and you can stay LCS free.

Overkill From Using Too Much Technology Can Kill Your Sales

I had an unusual phone conversation with a gentleman last week.  He called me asking how can he get paid.  He mentioned that he filled out the application on my website and he wanted to know how do I pay him. Do I send him a check or can his money be deposited in his account.  After I asked him a couple of questions I realized that he was inquiring about Square a company that I wrote about in an earlier Blog post. You can read about Square HERE.

I was curious as to why he called me and not the people at Square so as I talked with him I pulled up Square’s website and notice that while they have an excellent social media tech support system and I can reach almost their entire company on Twitter they did  not have a telephone number listed anywhere on their website.

The caller found it easier to get my phone number because I learned my lesson earlier on and I wrote about it HERE.  Now this gentleman was not technology illiterate, he has a PayPal account but he knew that the ability to swipe credit cards on the spot would mean more sales for him and he thought that Square offers a solution that can make his business more money.

Our society is changing fast as we spend more money in online purchases however, that should not be an excuse for not providing customers and potential customers the ability to contact the merchant in a way that is convenient for them.  Sometimes when it comes to purchasing or getting paid we want to speak with a real live person.

Fortunately for this gentleman I took the role of customer service seriously as I not only answered his questions about Square which he was grateful for. I also suggested a couple of other options that may assist him in getting more sales.  I wonder if I should charge Square for the customer support call.  What do you think?

It’s the Year of Mobile Marketing- Unleash the Power

Happy New Year! For us marketeers this is the year of Mobile not the Rabbit. In the fourth quarter of 2010 major brands ramped up their mobile efforts to unprecedented levels. By most estimates, U.S. mobile advertising will be more than a billion dollars business in 2011.

For those involved in social media marketing, mobile marketing is another set of tools to add to your marketing toolkit. Why? Because an online community of Twitter or Facebook users can make or break your business with their Smartphones. Your company or service may be getting hundreds or thousands of good or bad reviews on mobile sites like Gowalla or Foursquare, either building up your reputation or tearing it down without you even knowing it. Also cell phones are the most popular electronic gadget among American adults, according to a new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, with 85% of all adults owning mobile handsets.

Your marketing strategy should take into consideration how people are connecting to your social media platforms.  You will likely find that the majority of your traffic is coming from iPhones, Blackberries and other smartphones.

If that is enough to get you thinking about adding mobile marketing to your campaign then you should know about QR Codes. QR is short for Quick Response (they can be read quickly by a cell phone). They are used to take a piece of information from a transitory media and put it in to your cell phone. QR Codes are already appearing in magazine ads, on billboards, web pages and even t-shirts.

Once the QR code is read by your cell phone, the QR code may give you details about that business (allowing users to search for nearby locations), or details about the person wearing the t-shirt, show you a URL which you can click to see a trailer for a movie, or it may give you a coupon which you can use in a local outlet. The reason why they are more useful than a standard barcode is that they can store (and digitally present) much more data, including url links, geo coordinates, and text. The other key feature of QR Codes is that instead of requiring a chunky hand-held scanner to scan them, many modern cell phones can scan them.

How should you use QR codes?

Adding QR codes to your existing marketing materials allow anyone with a QR cod reader on their cellphone to retrieve additional information about your business and the recipient can retrieve all of your content information right into their phone making it easier for them to contact you. You could add one to your business card containing your contact details so its easy for someone to add you to their contacts on their cell phone.

Add them to any print advertising, flyers, posters, invites, TV ads etc containing:

• Product details
• Contact details
• Offer details
• Event details
• Competition details
• A coupon
• Twitter, Facebook, MySpace IDs
• A link to your YouTube video

Adding QR codes to the regular staple of mobile advertising SMS messaging and you can develop  a powerful one-two marketing punch.

Have a happy and productive Year of the Mobile.