Week 18: Kansas City Radio and WinHEC 2007 in LA

This weeks the highlights for me have been attending the WinHEC 2007 conference in Los Angeles and being on Kansas City radio with 2 other of the scholars: Simon Phelps and Devin Cheevers.

You can listen to a podcast of the talk here. The show was broadcast live on Hot Talk 1510 AM Kansas City Radio and hosted by Joe Liberman of Spidertel a local web entrepreneur. The talk was part of a weekly series of interviews with entrepreneurs (or in our case aspiring entrepreneurs) about the business and the internet. We spoke about our uses of the internet in marketing and promoting our businesses, our business ideas and plan and differences between the US and UK in terms of entrepreneurship. It was my first time on the radio and I found it fun and interesting to be a part of. Although a few attempts at British humor did not go down well.


I also attended WinHEC 2007 in Los Angeles. WinHEC is a 3 day yearly event held by Microsoft aimed at hardware developers. Throughout the conference there are multiple sessions on various subjects. The most notable sessions I attended, for me, were about Virtualization.

Definition of virtualization: "Decoupling of aspects of the computer which are normally very closely coupled". Think of an old fashioned PC, the hard drive, the Operating System and the Applications are all in the same box, on top of the box is a screen connected only to the box. Every part of the PC is in the same place, but why should it be?

With virtualization I can decouple the presentation layer - by accessing a computer remotely only the user interface of the computer is on the machine I am using. The rest is located else where across the network or the internet.

Application Virtualization - The application, for example Microsoft Word, from the users point of view appears to be on their computer. The user can interact with it in all the usual ways, they can open files on the application which are stored on their computer. However with a virtualized application the program can be stored elsewhere and only the parts of the program that the computer is using are streamed to the computer.

Server Virtualization - conventionally 1 server Operating System was located on 1 physical machine. A small businesses may typically have 4 servers each in a different box, each has a different use. This is very inefficient, at any given time 1 server may have a huge usage while an other has a very low usage. With virtualization I can combine all 4 servers onto one physical machine which may have multiple processors and other devices. A virtual server runs as if it is the only server on the operating system, however a layer below the OS controls which server is given which resources at any one time. This allows for much greater efficiencies. Also if a physical part of the machine breaks, with the right equipment the virtual servers will stay running on another part of the machine while the dysfunctional part is replaced. 0 down time.

Client PC Virtualization - An employee may have his/her own laptop which they use in work and home. This can lead to some conflicts. Space on the laptop is limited, the laptop will have both work and home information on it, which could lead to a compromise of work information on an unsecure home network. With Client PC virtualization the employee may use his laptop for home use, when he/she arrives in work he can 'tap into' (words like 'load' and 'install' don't seem to apply in this situation) their work virtual PC from their laptop. Information stays in the work environment and the employee has their own laptop environment too.
As an added bonus administration of such networks is much easier because admins just need to install new software on 1 virtual server template and then all employees can access new software.

Week 17: tools to improve work place productivity

This week I have been at Netchemia all week and noticed some tasks performed by the sales people which were tedious and required lots of copying an pasting between applications. In this post I will write about tools to increase workplace productivity. Also I want to share some other apps which Netchemia already use to improve productivity and

MACROs
To improve the processes in sales I created some Macros in Microsoft Excel and Publisher.

This is the approximate process in the sales department:

• call customer and agree to a product price proposal
• Enter data into SalesForce
• Enter some of the same data into Microsoft Excel
• Create new folders on company network
  
• Enter some of the same data into Microsoft Publisher
• Create a pdf of proposal to send to the customer through SalesForce

I created Macros in Excel with form validation and drop down boxes to prevent inaccurate data from being entered.
The macros also automatically set up the new folder structure and save the completed files into the folders. This reduced the processing time from about 45 minutes per customer proposal to 10 minutes.

RatchetSoft
Ideally I would also like the fields to auto complete across applications. So data entered into Salesforce automatically went into Excel and Publisher. And just the weekend I found a new product offering which enables this to happen without manual copying and pasting: the data only needs to be entered once by the Sales team. The product is by RatchetSoft (see www.ratchetsoft.com) . This product allows tedious tasks to be completed easily by software, without needing to learn to code or change anything about the products you are working with.

Google Notebook
Another good way to improve productivity when researching is to use google notebook, the notebooks can be shared between numerous other people and everyone can work on it at the same time. This is useful when the boss asks for some research.

EFAX
This service was being used by Netchemia when I arrived, it allows faxs to be sent to the company as email and pdf documents. This saves a great deal of paper and allows the right person to recieve the fax much more efficiently. See www.efax.com for more information.

Printing Documents
To save paper in the office you can change the default printing options for most printers to print on both sides. This halves the paper bill and saves the environment.

This is what i've found useful in the office so far.

Sales 101: what I've learnt so far

It is often hard to contact the decision maker at a company. (S)He is often shielded by a secretary and has 100+ emails a day to deal with as well as all the real work they have to do.

While working for Netchemia I have been involved with a few aspects of the sales process. Also in attending the 'MIT Sloan Sales Conference' I have gathered some more tips. Heres what I've found.

Use Surveys
The key with surveys is that this is not directly sales, there is less pressure on the target prospect.

By Phone
Doing some initial customer surveys I rang 100 people. I got about 25 responses and spent 2 days working to get them: 2 leads generated. Information given by the prospects helped better tailor the survey and if I got in touch with a talkative person I could learn a lot. Response rate 25%. Read my other post on getting past the Gatekeeper for more information.

By Email
I set up the same survey using www.surveymonkey.com and emailed 1500 targeted prospects. I recieved 120 responses and 10 leads were generated. Total time used 4 hours. Response Rate 8%.

Surveying over email is a great way to generate leads quickly if there is a large sample size. However the response rate is much lower. I would first test out the survey on a small sample size by phone and refine the questions. Reading up about survey on this website I found that Wednesday morning was the most likely time people would respond to this kind of marketing.

Use Email
From the conference and though reading up on this website here's what I found to be the most important points in writing emails to potential prospects:

• keep the title less than 50 characters
• keep the email short
• focus on 1 small piece of information which you want to communicate
  
• ask for something which is easy for the prospect to give you, such as a referral
  
• Don't include your title in the message, people discriminate based on title easily
• Don't put any images in the email, many email systems block images by default and mobile phones don't display many image types
• Don't use any marketing speak in the email, make the email sound tailored to the individual
• Always finish the email with a question, otherwise the prospect feels no obligation to reply
• Don't start the email with "I have been trying to get hold of you" or "I have left x messages for you" the prospect may think that if thats the case then (s)he doesn't want to speak to you
  

Use LinkedIn
I have had a linked in account for a while now and have never really figured out what to do with it. Until I heard Jeff Hoffman of Basho Strategies talk. He suggested the following:

1. Search for a person you want to speak to. This will usually be a decision maker at a company. So search in the Title Field for VP.
   
2. Look for a decision maker in the target company , it doesn't to be the desicion maker your looker for but a decision maker.
3. When you find someone who is connected to you through one other person, then you want an introduction. But how do you get the introduction? Approach the person with an easy offer and proposal.
4. “Hi x, I was searching linked in and noticed you are connected to Y. I would like a referral to that person. Is there anyone in my network who you would like to meet?"

Use Blogs and Podcasts
Again this tip is from Jeff Hoffman of Basho Strategies. Why do people write blogs? for recognition. How often do others comment on their blogs? hardly ever. Therefore commenting on someones blog through email is flattering to the recipient.

1. Search Google for a blog or podcast written by someone in the target organization who is in a decision making position.
2. Read the blog and look for some information you find interesting
3. Email the author with the title being "I have just read you blog..."
4. Ask the author for a referral to the decision maker you are looking to contact

Use Analytics
Add analytics to your website. (For example Google Analytics which is free). And track visitors to your website. If someone visits on a number of occasions then they are interested in your product/service. This is a great opportunity to contact them.

Week 16: Netchemia and MIT Sloan Sales Conference

This week I have been working in Netchemia, spoke with an IP attorney and attended the 'MIT Sloan Sales Conference' in Boston.

There is a lot to write about so I will split it up into 3 short posts

Thoughts on IP

My Sales 101 learning

Takeaways from the MIT Sloan Sales Conference

hope you find it as interesting as I have