GrayMatter

Daily Drucker

Peter Drucker is an author and management GURU I have been interested to learn about. This past weekend I picked up a book at the local library called The Daily Drucker. This compilation of Drucker writings is filled with "365 days of Insight and Motivation, for Getting the Right Things Done".

I opened to a random page today and was struck how timeless his writing and teachings were, and still inspire today.

"THE CHANGE LEADER: The most effective way to manage change successfully is to create it. One cannot manage change. One can only be ahead of it. In a period of upheavals, such as the one we are living in, change is the norm....In a period of rapid structural change, the only ones who survive are the change leaders. A change leader sees change as an opportunity. A change leader looks for change, knows how to find the right changes, and knows how to make them effective both outside the organization and inside it. To make the future is highly risky. It is less risky, however, than not to try to make it. Anticipate the future and be a change leader." - Peter F. Drucker

How about YOU, are you a change leader or happy with your current situation, present station in life. There are a lot of change leaders out there. Whether you believe in Obama or McCain, change is coming. Henry Paulson championed BIG change last week and the financial world we live in continues to evolve. How are you adapting to change?

I'll be continuing my daily Drucker diet and plan to evolve my thinking. Change is good.

Succeed By Helping Others

I just finished  a great book that will hopefully become a movement in business and how people live their lives. The Go-Giver by authors Bob Burg and John David Mann is a fictional tale about a man trying to navigate the river of business/career success. The lead character named Joe comes in contact with "the chairman" who introduces him to five very influential people that share the the Laws of Stratospheric Success.

This is a short read and one that I not only enjoyed reading but knew I'd have to pay forward the lessons learned. It is also filled with a number of solid teachings that we should develop in our careers and personal lives. Giving things away and helping others really is the on-ramp to opening many doors. Much of this thinking also reminds me of the "Compassion Philosophy" learned in Tim Saunders' Love is the Killer App.

Go-Give yourself this book.....and copies to your friends, I plan on doing just that.

Do you Web 2.0 With Your Customers?

I wrote about the importance of drinking your own “kool-aid” or more fondly, eating your own dog-food. The message was and still is to leverage the technology you have at your disposal to promote, sell and communicate your ideas. Help your customers, much like I try to with this newsletter, give away ideas, make it easy to offer feedback and keep it going, never stop.

Print companies send promotional mailers once in a while but don’t’ do it consistently, staying in the font of the customer’s eye. Hey it’s expensive to put paper through the mailstream and generates low ROI. One way to differentiate is to combine this “traditional” effort with all the cool web technologies. Promote your business like you’ve never done before. Now you are a real MSP: Marketing Services Provider….not just a printer. It’s also a great way to showcase how you help your customers market beyond print; email + PURLS + variable data + direct mail.

You’re in the graphic communication business, right? You have the design, creativity, print technology and sales know how to communicate in a very effective manner. The good news is you have real expertise in print marketing. The better news is you can combine this with e-marketing to extend your brand and reach. The bad news is your probably not doing it.

Web 2.0 is all about sharing, collaboration, looking for feedback and diversity. There are so many ways to promote your company: print mail, email newsletters, blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, etc. I saw a great example of this recently by a printer in North Carolina who setup their own company profile on FaceBook, of all places. Check out Keiger Direct’s page.

Does your company have a FaceBook page? Do you have a blog? The real question is….why not?

I welcome your comments and encourage that you adopt Web 2.0 ASAP.

Napkin Math

So a salesman walks into a bar and meets his prospect for a beer after work to extend their dialog about getting into digital. His prospect is a traditional offset printer who outsources all their digital work and is thinking of bringing this in house to make more money + have better control of their workflow. This printer is not convinced that he can make a real profit through digital. Instead of talking about technology advantages the salesman takes the printer through some numbers using a bar napkin.

Print Profit – Napkin Math

view presentation

Great Sales Questions

Most professional sales people know that the key to a strong relationship is being a good listener but what about asking great questions?

Not an easy skill. Sales people that are prepared, well rehearsed, and armed with good information before the call are in much better positions to establish higher credibility and respect from the start.

I've come across a number of great sales questions through the blog-world recently from sales gure Barry Rhein from California and want to share with you.

What has been your past experience with solutions like ours?

What are some of your priorities around _________?

What if we could show you how our solutions would actually save money?

What are your ideas (opinions, thoughts) on __________?

What's your definition of _________?

What if I can show you how we can help you generate profits vs. saving money?

What if we really could generate measurable business value?

Do you have a great sales question or best practice with questioning? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Send me an email at david.gray6@xerox.com

Beyond Blogs - What Business Needs to Know

The June 2nd cover story in Business Week caught my eye and should interest you too.  This is an updated report to the cover story Stephen Baker and Heather Green covered three years ago. We've come a long way and the need for businesses to be involved with blogging is more important to differentiation than ever.

What I liked most about this article is how blogs are being used to gather professionals together and collaborate on projects, share information and communicate ideas. Blogs can be incredibly useful tools with good content and timely posts.

Another idea and quote that stood out comes from technology director at BT, JP Rangaswami. 

"There's a lot to look at. "We've spent years talking about the value of the water-cooler conversations," he   says. "Now we have the ability to actually understand what these relationships are, how information and     decision-making migrate. We see how people really work." Why does this matter? The company can spot  teams that form organically, and then can place them on targeted projects. It can pinpoint the people who    transmit ideas. These folks are golden. "A new class of supercommunicators has emerged," he says.

Read the full article or watch the video (lots more business videos these days!...cool)

Green Xerox

Happy Earth Day fellow humans! 

Are you feeling kind of "green" these days?  Getting bombarded by all the FSC regulations, 2 sided office print settings, customers demanding 50% recycled paper, global warming PR...and your neighbor giving you the guilt trip to conserve energy?

Hey green is good and it's here to stay. If you didn't know how much Xerox is doing with environmental efforts these days here are a few bullet points to bring you up to speed, a lot more than I even realized.

• Xerox's solid ink technology used in printers and multifunction devices use cartridge-free ink sticks that generate 90 percent less waste than laser devices.
• Intuitive "power down" capabilities in Xerox's solid ink printers learn the printing patterns of an office and automatically shift into a low-power mode when it knows the printer will be in low use, like during the lunch hour.
• Emulsion Aggregation toner is a major breakthrough in laser-based printing - requiring less toner to be placed on a printed page while using 25 percent less energy to print and manufacture than previous types of toner.
• High Yield Business Paper™ uses 90 percent of a tree versus standard white office paper that typically uses 45 percent of a tree.
• Forest Stewardship Council and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certifications branded paper products are manufactured using raw materials harvested from certified sources that can be tracked from harvest through distribution.
• Research and development projects underway inside of Xerox labs include the development of erasable paper that can be reused multiple times.

The moral of this post is Every Day Is Earth Day At Xerox. We're in a business that consumes a ton of paper, generates a lot of waste BUT are a company taking a lead by showing that we can create less waste and develop more innovate ways of manufacturing equipment or supplies.

BTW, if you're wondering about the product I sell (iGen3)....it's a lot more "green" than HP's Indigo. Want to know more? I'll be happy to fill you in, 212-716-4727.

3-D Browser From AT&T?!

This sounds cool.  AT&T just announced a pretty cutting edge internet browser based on Firefox. Currently in beta for PC users (of course Mac users have to wait), Pogo does not look like an ordinary web browser but one that is multi dimensional. Yes 3-D without the need for goggles!

David Krantz (AT&T's VP for Business Development) is quoted in saying, "If we can give them something better it gives us a deeper connection with our customers". That's the kind of forward thinking and attitude companies must have in today's super competitive tech market, especially during this "recession" we're weathering.

Pogo will be a BIG thing for the web.  It uniquely organizes information way beyond simply drop down bookmarks.  There are some advanced features such as web pages displayed in "cells" like a deck of cards, similar to Apple's CoverFlow technology for iTunes. Wow my old employer is not the slow to move, adapt and grow the mothership it used to be. 

The coolest thing about this announcement (for me, and the inspiration for the post) is how they are developing the chance to build "another relationship with the customer". Very Web 2.0 of them, outside the cyber-box. Developing additional touchpoints builds stronger brand affinity, trust and relationship with the end user, not to mention the likely hood of staying with that vendor.

Check out a demo here, it'll wet your appetite.

Leader vs. The Boss

Thanks to Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist for reminding me the importance of leadership in this month's FastCompany.  There's a quote in the Obama Brand article where Craig sees Obama "as a leader rather than a boss.  A leader gets people to do things on their own, through inspiration, respect and trust.  A boss (on the other hand) can order you to do things, sure, but you do them because it's part of the contract."

I've worked in sales for 14 years and have had a lot of managers, most of them took the role of Boss.  Not very motivating or fun to work with.  Leaders truly inspire and help you unlock your own inner strengths, skills and value.  My current manager is a natural leader.  I learn from him constantly working to emulate his style and technique.  He treats everyone on his team and the company with total respect, with consistency and a level head.  George is a leader.

I also found this great ode to the subject online, author unknown.

The "Boss"

The Boss drives his men,
The Leader inspires them..

The Boss depends on authority,
The Leader depends on goodwill..

The Boss evokes fear,
The Leader radiates love..

The Boss says "I",
The Leader says "We"..

The Boss shows who is wrong,
The Leader shows what is wrong..

The Boss knows how it is done,
The Leader knows how to do it..

The Boss demands respect,
Leader commands respect

Visual Thinking

I came across an article in the April issue of Fast Company called The Napkin Sketch.  Author and innovator Dan Roam helps companies sell and present their philosophy, direction and strategies through simple and  smart drawings.  This is not business cartooning but a pretty cool approach to explaining complex things in an easy to understand way.  Creative and in some ways even more descriptive, this kind of presentation can help people understand things "beyond bullet" points.   way that helps reduce clutter that so many are used to in a PowerPoint dominated approach. 

Dan says, "Between information overload, globalization, and the sheer complexity of modern business, we've got to be more visual and less language dependent in communicating ideas,"

Dan has been at this for a while and just published a book called The Back of The Napkin - Solving Problems and Selling Ideas With Pictures.  He's got a great website (and URL name) at www.digitalroam.com.  On his site he sums up his philosophy, "Visual thinking is how we use our eyes (and our mind's eye) to look at a problem, see patterns and opportunities, imagine ways to manipulate those patterns to our advantage, and show those insights to others."