Grow or Die

There is much to be said about the plethora of business models but rather than bore you with details of things that simply don’t work or concepts that have become outdated in the online world of today, I thought I’d present a viewpoint based on innovation and direction.

Each firm we deal with has two possible outcomes in addition to stagnation – to grow or to die. It all depends on the choices made by executive management and their board. Some have said innovate or die but the truth is that innovation in and of itself is not a viable business strategy that delivers profits and thus an opportunity for growth.

I refer to innovation in the sense that you are trying to do something new without reinventing the wheel. When I use the term direction, I am referring to the executive management’s intention decision to move the company toward a specific goal – in a given direction. A dear colleague has provided me with a few graphics so that I don’t have to type 1000 words to present this concept.

Let’s begin with a definition so that you know where I am coming from…
A business model describes the value an organization offers to various Customers and portrays the capabilities and partners required for creating, marketing and delivering this value in addition to relationship capital with the goal of generalizing profitable and sustainable revenue streams. Whew, that is a mouthful! Here is a more visual representation of that text…

So, given that you have your infrastructure in place, a compelling offer with a solid value proposition, a relationship with your Customers either directly or via a partner and a mechanism ready to capture orders and convert them to revenue… you are in business. But is your model optimized for what you want to achieve? Obviously, application infrastructure and IT systems need to support the model on the back end.

But, what about direction? What course was plotted by those in command? There are a few directions to choose from, and at least one will make sense to executives wanting to grow their business – but in what direction might they want to grow? Here is a simple graphic to help understanding the available options.

In each of the four quadrants below there is an opportunity for growth. Each has an unique way to move the company forward so that the business model supports rather than hinders growth. By being innovative in your approach and testing what works on a consistent and frequent basis, you will be able to optimize your model for your market more effectively than 95% of your competitors.

Take a moment and think about the variables that drive your business – for a car it would be the gas pedal. The more pressure you put on the gas pedal, the faster your car is going to travel. You use a speedometer to measure this in your car so how do you measure success in your business? Well, for starters you need to select a variable that drives your business and find a way to measure the performance delta so that you know if putting pressure on this variable delivers a positive outcome or not.

At BoxOnline we have extensive experience in improving online business models and can literally guarantee that your company will increase revenues after you improve your conversion rates.

Most business process consulting firms make promises that they simply can not keep and still manage to invoice their Clients each month for unfulfilled objectives. At BoxOnline, one of our value propositions for helping our Clients increase online revenues is a success driven fee. If you do not succeed – neither do we.

If you need to grow your revenues and agree that an increase in your conversion rate might deliver the results that your board is after, we may be able to provide you with some innovative input that has already delivered results to hundreds of successful online businesses in the past year. What have you got to lose? Contact us right now..

Do You Really Need A Coach?

Ever come across a successful football team without a coach / trainer / manager?

How about a top basketball or ice hockey team?

Each player has his/her specialty, each has a training program to improve skills, abilities and experience yet the coach ties it all together for each player and then again for the entire team.

Typically, the coach has been there before – they have played on a variety of fields and can leverage their experience to benefit the whole team. Ever notice that the coach does not put on a uniform and replace a non-performing player? The coach has a different sort of job that is oriented around managing people rather than executing on a given play.

Interesting that when comparing sports to businesses, only the most successful businesses have coaches. These coaches or mentors help guide executives by providing external input and expertise so that the business person can score a goal.

Why is it that only the most successful business people have a coach?

On the one hand, you could interpret this as “in order to be successful in business, you need a coach” or “When you have achieved a certain level of success, you can get even further with a coach”. We believe that the answer is something of a combination of the above scenarios in that, an external coach or mentor is a tremendous asset to any given business. Sadly, business people today typically come to the conclusion that they need help only after they encounter an obstacle crossing their path to success.

Why not hire a coach before you run into an obstacle?

If a coach can review your strategy, your plans, tactics and team profiles, do you think you could increase your probability for success?

Given what we have learned from coaching 25 companies during the past 10 years in addition to the learning we captured from our own coaches, the definitive answer is YES, coaching makes a positive difference. Here is how we came to this conclusion.

Many companies have learned that their employees can overcome self doubt, fears and concerns created by corporate restructuring or poor leadership by hiring a coach. Today, more and more firms are looking for support by bringing in a coach rather than sending employees out for additional education. Depending on the challenge at hand, a coach often is able to deliver results to a company faster and for less investment (time and money) than sending a team to an offsite for a few days.

For a coach, there is no secret recipe that can be applied to all Clients. The coach needs to explore the needs and objectives of each Client separately and then tap into a library of experiences, tools and resources to be able to deliver results that can make the difference between missing quarterly objectives and over-performing by 20%.

Several years ago an investor came to us to help get his bank get back on track. A few areas within the bank were delivering adequately yet not enough to offset the poor performance in one key division. This division of the bank had a ‘new’ manager who apparently lacked leadership experience and as a result, was losing many key employees. This particular manager was promoted one week after the former director passed away unexpectedly, more than 10 months ago. The manager may have been a good deputy director but was not prepared for the challenges faced by his boss and thus, the team wanted out.

The knee jerk reaction would usually be to remove the new manager and reform the team however, banks don’t necessarily work this way. They are very slow and resistant to change. Removing this manager was not an option but providing him with guidance in the form of a coach was in line with the bank’s culture and objectives.

The coach observed the manager in action, took notes on the methods he used to lead his team, plan for the future, inspire others and instill a sense of belonging in typical day to day situations. In the process the coach noticed that this manager allocated very little of his time dealing with employee’s needs or even listening to his people when they had feedback for the team. There was little doubt that this was one of the most probable reasons for the mass defections and the coach found a way to get the message across to this manager that a percentage of each day needs to be allocated to the bank’s most important asset.. its people. The coach provided a few models and some guidance on active listening techniques and then participated in a few sessions with employees while the manager put his newly acquired skills to work.

The first objective was to initiate a change in the way that this manager dealt with his staff so that each staff member felt as though they were able to communicate openly with their boss and that their voice was heard. The second objective was to ensure that the manager scheduled time to resolve the issues that each employee had raised and then to report back to the employee and close the circle. Mission accomplished: company board members happy, company execs happy, employees happy – a win-win-win result.

What exactly is coaching in today’s constantly changing business environment?

During a recent restructuring project there was a component of reorganization which created not only an uneasy emotional environment but outright confusion among staffers and management alike. Managers that go through a change process like this often have no one to turn to for advice or guidance. Access to a good coach is key to the manager’s well being and success. A coach’s role in situations like these is to create a sense of security so that all involved are able to see things clearer thus bringing a sense of calm into the organization. Also, as an external observer, the coach is often able to present a totally different perspective to the Client thus encouraging each member of a team to move toward something positive rather than away from something negative – but that is an entirely different topic that we will cover later this year.

If you believe that hiring a coach might help you to:

• see things more clearly
• introduce a sense of calm to your team
• leverage experience to provide you with guidance
• motivate yourself and inspire your team
• identify obstacles in your path to success
• better prepare for your business challenges
• achieve success

you are probably right on track and we’d be delighted to hear about your needs. Who knows, perhaps our coaches might be able to help you and your company achieve your mutual objectives this quarter.

There is a real difference between managing and leading, managing ends up being the allocation of resources against tasks and projects. Leadership focuses on people. My definition of a leader is someone who helps people succeed. Is there any way we can help you succeed?

Are you an Entrepreneur?

There is a lot of discussion these days about what defines a true entrepreneur and whether financial success is a pre-requisite of being an entrepreneur. Well, rather than argue moot points, let’s look at this from a practical, self evaluation perspective and see what is revealed. Below I compare and contrast being a freelancer with being an entrepreneur – I can’t wait to read your comments:

1. A freelancer is about the work. An entrepreneur is about the business…
2. A freelancer is a doer. A freelancer knows the tactics. An entrepreneur is a negotiator, a visionary and a thinker. An entrepreneur builds strategy and is constantly testing it.
3. A freelancer thinks the work is the business. An enterpreneur knows the business supports the work.
4. A freelancer is disinterested in ‘business controls and necessities’  – including thinking, budgets, invoices, business plans etc. which all get in the way of the ‘real’ work. An entrepreneur understands that without those ‘business controls and necessities’, it is simply not a business – it’s a job.
5. A freelancer might want to grow a Client base. An entrepreneur knows a business either grows or decays, and is constantly looking for ways to keep the growth managed and within reasonable risk parameters.
6. A freelancer lives in the now with an eye to long term Client relationships that might afford some security. An entreprenuer is looking to a vision of the business, now is a reflection of what the business will be.
7. A freelancer often doesn’t invest in his or her own equipment, training, or help. Many freelancers don’t delegate low-level skills or tasks that they don’t do well, because they think in terms of cost rather than investment and best use of time and resources. An entrepreneur knows that time is money, invests in future development and the business vision. An entrepreneur will pay for skills that he or she doesn’t have knowing that it is money well spent on quality and commitment.
8. A freelancer works from day to day. An entrepreneur has a business plan.

Corporate Energy

Yes, this topic is a bit on the esoteric side I admit… but hear me out, there is logic and reason behind the glass. Some colleagues of mine use the following model to judge a company’s investment worthiness. I found it fascinating and have now evaluated a few hundred firms using this technique. Situations at a few companies that I previously worked with made me feel uneasy about the company and its culture but I did not know why. Today, I have a good idea what triggered my feelings and I have come to the conclusion that unless I can change things for the better, I would rather not work with such firms again. These firms were suppliers of mine as well as a few Customers. Read on and assess the technique for yourselves – I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Energy zones
An organization’s energy can be perceived as either positive (driven by enthusiasm, pride, joy or satisfaction) or negative (guided by fear, uncertainty, frustration, doubt or sorrow). Most organizations fall into one of four categories:

1) Comfort 2) Resignation 3) Aggression and 4) Passion.

Companies in the comfort zone have a high level of satisfaction but a low level of action. Thus, its employees might be very content on the one hand but they lack the vitality, alertness, motivation and emotional tension necessary for initiating bold new strategic thrusts or significant change.

Organizations in the resignation area, on the other hand, show both low and negative energy. Therefore, they are not particularly active and their employees may not identify with the company goals at all.

Businesses in the aggression area are driven by a strong, negative energy, which often expresses in an
intense internal competitive spirit and portrays in high levels of activity and alertness. Hence, unlike organizations in the resignation area, they often direct all power towards achieving company goals. The analogy here is of a ping pong match where employees hit the ball back and forth across the net either to other team members or to Customers and partners and the net result is dissatisfaction since the ball keeps coming back and there is little forward momentum as a unit. Despite progress by a few successful individuals – it is not a team effort.

Lastly, firms in the passion zone flourish and excel on their great positive energy and large amount of varying activities. Their employees feel joy and pride working in the organisation and all enthusiasm and excitement appears to be set on reaching shared organisational priorities.

Organizations in the comfort or resignation zones live in the past and have basically given up. Consequently, they are less likely to be successful, as they prefer standardised, institutionalized ways of working. They shun innovation and risk as well as suffer from conflicting priorities and a lack of
employee commitment.

Companies in the aggression or passion zones show urgency for productivity as they strive for larger-than-life goals. Their energy moreover supports them in aligning and channelling their powers and in directing them towards common goals and activities.

In short, the model suggests that high achieving organisations are full of energy. Businesses that work from a basis of passion or with passionate people for that matter, are likely to have the highest energy levels. Their work is not only driven by very positive factors but they do a lot to develop themselves and their people, too. Simply put, their cultures appear to be based on cohesion. The analogy here is of a football team (soccer for you folks in the USA) where the team has a common goal and each member knows his role within the team so that as a unit they are able to move the ball forward and achieve their goals together.

Landing Pages

Landing Pages are the weapon of choice for many marketers.
Marketers who do not employ Landing Pages either do not understand the
concept, or they are just plain lazy.

A Landing Page is more than just a duplicate of your sales page renamed
for a PPC campaign. A Landing Page often strips out many elements of
“effective design” and focuses on selling the product or service.
The main purpose of your Landing Page is to give the visitor two
choices: Buy or Leave. Nothing else. Don’t distract them with other
options. That is why they are there – don’t make the mistake of giving
them too much to choose from. If you want to get them to subscribe for
more information, fine. Then create a “name squeeze” page, but don’t
confuse yourself. Landing Pages are for one reason and one reason only
… to make a sale.

Here is a short laundry list of what I do when I create a Landing Page:

Font Face, Color & Size:
There is one thing that most people hate, and that is 4-5 different
fonts that clutter up the landscape of the page. Different Fonts for
headlines is fine. Different fonts in your body text is not good, it is
distracting. Don’t do it. Keep to one font in your body text. Testing
shows that the best “off line” (print) font is Times New Roman. This is
why it is the default font on the internet. Big mistake. Testing shows
that Times New Roman is one of the worst fonts online. Why? It causes
rapid eye fatigue.

The best fonts? Verdana and Arial. Standardize on Verdana as it
consistently outperforms every font out there in terms of reducing eye
strain and increased readability. Use standard fonts in the body of the
page, if you want an usual font for a headline, create it as a graphic
so it will look the same on every computer. You want your message to
have the look you intended.

The text should be readable. The standard size is “2”. Text should
always be dark on a light background (black text on a white background
is preferred). Landing Pages aren’t designed to allow you to show off
how “cute” you can be. This is serious stuff, you are selling. Put on
your “best face”.

Make the Links Easy to Find:
Now, having a cool CSS file that makes the links change colors, add or
remove underlines is fine on your site. Knock yourself out. However,
they have no business on your Landing Pages. Why? Because confusing a
visitor is not your priority, getting them to buy is.
Use standard linking practices to avoid confusion. If a potential
customer can’t distinguish between text and a link you are going to
lose. That’s not good.

Standard colors are:

* Unvisited Link – Underline in Blue
* Active Link (when the mouse “hovers” over the link – Red
* Visited Link – Purple

I recommend not messing around with the visited link, just have the
standard unvisited and hover so the visitor has some interactivity and
the link will “catch” their eye. I have done a ton of testing and the
standard linking practices always have better conversion ratios.

Color Scheme:
The colors you choose should match the product or service you are
selling. Soothing yellows, greens and blues are best for skin care. Pick
your color carefully as they will either bring the visitor in deeper
into the sales process or turn them away. A site for men shouldn’t have
pink as the primary color … or secondary color for that matter.

Not sure the colors to use? Look at the competition, as it is a great
place to start. And if you still aren’t sure, test.

White Space:
White space has been referred to as “negative space” by many designers
and thus, avoided. All of those designers should lose their jobs. This
is not high school art class. You are selling here, remember? White
space is good. White space is your friend.
When I look at a Landing Page with effective use of white space, I see
perfection. Without white space, text becomes unreadable, and the
graphics and other important elements become “washed out” and the
message is lost.

White space is more than just a background “color” – it is a part of
your conversion design. This also leads into another area, page
backgrounds. Don’t use them. Over the years I have seen floral designs
on iPod sites, vacation pictures as backgrounds, and even a woman and
her cat as the background …. and these were ALL landing pages.

Page Width and Page Height:
Have you heard the term “above the fold”? I am sure you have. It comes
from the newspaper industry and referred to ads and information that was
above the folded area. Testing found that 86% of the people who picked
up a newspaper at an airport, train station, office waiting room, never
“flipped” the paper over … they just looked “above the fold” only. The
same is true online. Did you know that of the people who don’t scroll
down that 6% of them don’t because they don’t know how?
Yes, you read that right. They don’t know how.

If your landing pages scrolls vertically on a 1024×768 resolution you
need to redo it. And if you are forcing a visitor to scroll
HORIZONTALLY, you are guilty of one of the worst web design mistakes of
all time. The scroll bar is your enemy. All of your important
information, including your Call to Action must be above the fold. Period.

Page Theme:
A Landing Page is geared to sell a particular product or service. So, if
I am doing a search for left-handed golf clubs or a Hawaiian vacation, I
am expecting to see a page about those topics. Don’t be lazy. Deliver
what I want, and I will be more likely to buy. Don’t dump me on a cookie
tracked version of your home page either. The content needs to match my
search. If not, I will most likely leave.
Stress Benefits, Not Features – Very few people care about features,
most care about benefits. Stress the benefits of the product or service
and you will increase your conversions.

Call To Action:
A no brainer, right? Wrong. Too many sites fail to have an effective
Call to Action. This is typical of most new and non-experienced sales
people. They fail to ask for the order. They just assume that the
prospects understands. Newsflash: They don’t. Explain what you want them
to do in easy to understand language, or an effective graphic. A “Buy
Now” is a Call to Action, and often a very effective one.

That’s it – we know you’ll be able to put these simple, but tested and
proven landing page strategies to work in your own business, whether
you’re an affiliate or marketing your own products.

Perception

Each of us tends to see things from a different perspective. I recently discovered that I too can see things very differently from what I expected and thanks to the animation below – now, so can you.

If your eyes follow the movement of the rotating pink dot… the dot will remain pink.

If you scroll down and stare at the plus sign in the center of the circle, you may notice that the moving dot changes to another color – for many people it becomes a moving green dot.

If you really concentrate on the plus sign you will probably notice that all the pink dots will disappear.

I can guarantee you that the pink dots are still there and that there is no green dot at all! I only created pink dots for this graphic!

This is positive proof that not everything we see actually exists.

How About Some Fishing?

We offer our Clients both the opportunity to learn/implement new strategies and the ‘pair of hands’ type consulting services where we roll up our sleeves to get the job done. What we’ve learned during the past 20+ years can be summarized as follows:

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. (Approximate cost: $25.00)

Teach a man to fish and he will go out and buy expensive fishing equipment, stupid looking clothes, a sports utility vehicle, travel 1,000 or more miles to the “hottest” fishing spot, and stand waist deep in cold water for hours covered with mosquitoes and flies just so he can outsmart a fish. (Average cost per fish: $1,495.68 mileage may vary – depending upon time available, quantity of fish biting, ability to maintain a calm and quiet demeanor and the level of patience on tap)

Summary: We’re always glad to help you to reel in a big fish – even if it means getting wet.

Contact us today.

Success Manifesto

I’d like to take you through what I believe are the eight core principles to success.

These apply online, as well as offline, in all aspects of our lives and in every phase thereof. The 8 principles are the culmination of 20 years and $500,000 invested in all types of books, live seminars, videos, lectures, CDs, DVDs, tapes, courses e-books, magazine articles etc – I ate them all up like candy and distilled what I believe is the core essence to success.

Read through the following with an open mind, if some of them help you or match your lifestyle goals then, by all means – apply them to your life, if they don’t, then find a few that do, having principles and a code of ethics dictates who you are and who you turn out to be, and the sooner you find yours and live them, the sooner you’ll get what you seek.

Here are the 8 principles:
Principle #1 – Action
Principle #2 – Objectives
Principle #3 – Focus
Principle #4 – Discipline
Principle #5 – Time
Principle #6 – Just do it
Principle #7 – Communicate
Principle #8 – Leverage

Sowing seeds in a garden is only the first step in order to be able to harvest something later – all of the above steps need constant care and attention so that you will be able to reap the rewards of your efforts over time. Nothing in life worth having is instant – this is a process and will take some effort… but in my humble opinion, it’s worth the effort.

1) Act. That is essence is all I want to say about this particular principle. Ok, I want to add one or two more lines. “Act or ye shall be acted upon” Translation: get up off your lazy ass and do something today to help you move toward achieving one of your goals.

2) If you don’t set a specific and measurable goal as a destination, how would you know that you got there? Each of us needs to list goals and objectives for every area of our lives. Then, when we achieve one of our goals – we have something great to celebrate. There is a shortcut but you probably won’t believe me until it happens to you. One of my mentors told me years ago “Picture yourself already having achieved your goal. Make the picture as vivid and real as possible and remember to see yourself in the end result of having achieved your goal.” This sounds easy and can be a really fun way to spend a few meditative hours but the fascinating thing about this technique is that it works – and it works really well.

3) This is something that all successful people have mastered. It does not matter what their chosen field was, they focused on achieving their goals and no obstacle stood in their way for long. In an age where instant gratification is the rule rather than the exception, attention deficit disorder seems to have replaced focus as the chosen path. My suggestion: Drop the ADD and pick up your list of goals, select ONE then do nothing else for 2 hours except work on achieving that specific goal. As with most things you need to get used to doing this so expect to get into a groove after a few attempts but make the effort and get started today.

4) Discipline has to do with choices. It links your goals with achievement and is an essential element to accomplishing your objecives. You need to know what is the best possible choice available to you to help you achieve your goal. Once motivation has subsided, usually it is discipline that gets the job done. Every successful individual I have ever read about or known personally, had an over abundance of self discipline.

5) The only finite resource we have is time. Don’t waste a drop. Enjoy the road and journey as much as you enjoy the destination. Work on efficient and effective activities – those things that are going to be moving you toward your end result. Ignore the rest and be sure to prioritize how you spend your day / week so that you maximize your achievement including time with friends and family.

6) Take responsibility for action and follow through. There is no such thing as quitting or turning back. You simply need to move forward and get the job done – that’s it. Just do it and do it with compassion, honesty and integrity.

7) If you are going to look at your life with the end result in mind then do the same for communication too. If your intended message is received crystal clear by the person with whom you are communicating then mission accomplished. One way to accomplish this is to collect your thoughts on the person with whom you are communicating and put on their shoes… say things to them in a way that they will understand – speak their language – use words that they too would use. Then test this by asking them to explain what they just heard in their own words and compare it to your intent.

8) We can leverage time, money and knowledge in the pursuit of our goals. When you outsource grunt work to others you are leveraging your time. When you can use OPM to achieve an objective and score a win-win in the process you are leveraging your money. Knowledge on its own is without much value until it is applied. Know where to go to get help with achieving your specific goals by doing a bit of research. If you need help, hire a specialist and get the job done… when you do this, you are leveraging knowledge as well.

It all boils down to this:
Know what you want
Make a plan to get it
Focus on your dream
Have the discipline to work on the goal regularly
Reserve time for what is important not what is urgent
Just do it
Remember to communicate effectively so that the core message is received as intended
Leverage your time and apply the abundant knowledge of experts to get what you want

Good luck and enjoy the ride!

Marketing vs Sales

Ok, I admit it. I’ve wanted to tackle this one for years and now I’m going to do it. Ready?
Most entrepreneurs and many business people confuse and combine marketing and selling and this has got to stop because they are two very different types of activities. Please allow me to explain.

What exactly is Marketing? (most entrepreneurs get it wrong)
Marketing is bringing the market to desire your product or service. The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The biggest obstacle to marketing effectiveness is attention span. Human attention has become the scarce resource of the information age. When you add it all up, more information is being generated in the next 24hrs than you could absorb in the rest of your lifetime. Paying attention is rare because time is scarce. Your marketing needs to break through the ever present information smog so that it gets the attention you want from your target audience. In an attention deficit society, consumers are forced to look for shortcuts. One of the most popular shortcuts today is to find an expert or a specialist that can do the thinking for you and then, even make decisions for you. Dan Kennedy said “Most people are simply wandering around with their umbilical cord in hand looking for a place to plug it in” Give them something to plug into with your marketing message.

What is Sales?
Sales activities get people to take action. Selling is about converting a prospect into a paying Customer. You may achieve this verbally in person, over the phone or in a recording or you may get results by using a well written and compelling sales letter. Your focus with sales is to get the order. Your focus with marketing is to create desire. It is usually that simple.

A bit of comparision: Sales effectiveness can be easily measured. Marketing effectiveness is a bit softer and thus, I would suggest to use marketing systems, strategies and tactics whose performance can be measured with metrics relevant to your business. Spend money on a good sales person and measure his/her performance but never throw money at marketing campaigns that don’t allow you to track conversion rates easily.