Headed to CES 2010 in Las Vegas!!!

As I write this I am making final preparations to attend CES 2010 Jan 6-10! If I've not already scheduled a meeting with you, shoot me an email: beverly@ieee.org I have lots to talk about including Karmaback (my new social networking rewards company), Psyko Audio Labs (whom I'm helping to build a solid sales channel and many parterships), and Axelo (whom I'm also helping with their sales channel development).

Here is the top 8 things I love about CES in Las Vegas:
0.) It is in Las Vegas (need I say more?)
1.) Everyone who is anyone is there (at least for 1 day).
2.) Gear, gadgets, and stuff you only dream about.
3.) The Keynotes, are usually spectacular and spectacularly well done!
4.) It overlaps another major convention (not saying which!)
5.) The PARTIES!!! GO TigerDirect build a PC charity party!
6.) The Business! This is usually my most productive week of business. Lots of hard work and planning pay off for a chance to meet F2F!
7.) The Friends! I love catching up with old friends and making new ones.

If you are wondering where is #8, you are probably not an engineer-type. :)

Understanding Motivation

What motivates people? Specifically, what motivates a person to donate, buy, or participate? According to Business Week, 40%+ of rebates are never submitted. Shoppers pass by dozens of products they CAN afford to buy one they can't. People gladly share videos of Susan Boyle on Facebook, while refusing to "re-tweet" a cute video of a friends child. A friend of mine offered me $5,000 if I could find him a job... and it demotivated me. So what is behind these strange behaviors? What does this mean for business?

Engineers may wonder, why care about motivation. Simple answer, if you can't motivate people to 'action'.. you'll never sell a thing!

So, how do we motivate?
One answer may lie in games. Games provide some of the purest forms of motivation I've ever seen. "Get to the next level", "Get better virtual gear", "See the next video", "Save the virtual world", or "Win". So, how can you make your customers feel like 'they won' when they have bought your product...without making it feel like a scam? Karmaback is trying to solve this.

Another answer may lie in Youtube. Why are the 'funny' and 'ridiculous' so much more popular than the average? I believe it is because of 'shock value'. If something has 'shock value' then it is noteworthy... noteworthy to your friends = notoriety with your friends. I.e. if you are the one who found the noteworthy video, and you share it with your friends, you get 'cred.'.. or levels in friend-world. How can you make your product "noteworthy" and help your customers get 'cred. in friend-world? Karmaback is trying to solve this.

Finally, my last idea comes from buying behaviour itself. When someone recommends something that I need, I'm 90% more likely to try that brand/product. E.g. when NEED matches a FRIEND/family recommendation... I get REALLY motivated. Karmaback tries to encourage this every day!

What ideas or thoughts do you have on motivation? Understanding this psychology is the key to marketing!

photo by: ERCheck

What is Business?... in engineering terms.

Business is simple. Business is a process or function (for programmers) or a flow (for others). At its core it is the process where we invest resources (inputs: money, time, and effort). We use those inputs to produce intermediate stuff (inventory, product, or results). We then exchange intermediate stuff for (output: money). An incredible book called "The Goal" by Eliyahu M. Goldratt is a must-read for engineer-types because it introduces the concept of Flow or Critical Path analysis. This type of analysis is essential for business, because there IS always a weakest link, and it is usually NOT engineering.

Where is the weakest link? Usually it is in the exchange step. Lets take a deeper look at all 3 steps, engineering-like.

1.) Invest Resources (money, time, effort)
This part involves raising money, finding employees, motivating them, deciding what to build or do, and applying time and effort in its design.

2.) Produce Intermediate Stuff (inventory, product, or results)
This step of business involves actually making product (production) or inventory. It might be just buying stuff (inventory) low to later be sold high. It might be producing results for your client (if you are a service business).

3.) Exchange Intermediate Stuff (for money)
This step involves finding customers, selling, delivery, and collecting money for your hard work. Hopefully this step makes you enough money to cover the costs of #1 and #2!

So, where is the weakest link? Usually #3. Lets face it... building stuff isn't that hard. Designing stuff is hard, but not impossible (just takes time & effort). The real trick is finding customers and selling!

Just remember this axiom: buy low, sell high.

In other words, you better be doing #1 and #2 right so that people will WANT to buy, and that you will make enough profit to cover #1 and #2!

Good luck.

The GUTS for sales?

Do you have the guts to do sales? Most engineer-types would say "yes", but feel "HELL NO". They'd probably claim its not adding value, boring, or beneath their skills. They are dead wrong. An engineer with the guts to go into sales has the sky as his limit. However, here are the fears you have to somehow, overcome.

1. Rejection: this is a major one for engineers, and why so many of them propose so few truly new ideas. In sales, rejection is continuous until you get the check.
2. Slime: many people think sales is a slimy business... rife with kickbacks and bribes... they are "thank goodness" dead wrong. People who rely on this went out of style with "The Godfather" (great movie, but far from reality today).
3. Cold Calling: calling people is not fun, especially for engineer types or managers who constantly get cold called and hate it. Honestly, I'm stuck here.... I HATE cold calling, and flatly refuse to do it... I'm always wondering if it is hurting me: but in the world of Email, why can't we arrange a time to talk in advance????
4. Pitching: Many engineer-types think pitching a product and "selling" means lying or being deceitful... if so, you should STOP watching Godfather, and instead pick up a copy of the book: "SPIN Selling".. which actually is not about "spinning at all" but asking questions to help determine IF your product has value to the client... if it doesn't, MOVE ON!
5. Closing: funny, many engineer-types (myself included) probably think this means "getting to yes". I'm starting to learn though: closing is getting to "yes or no", then moving on when appropriate. In high-tech, getting a "no" is as hard as getting a "yes"... in both cases, the hard part is asking for it!

Here are a few that you'll worry about once you get here:

1. Feeling worthless: since you're not 'making anything', or 'desiging anything' ... and it feels like you're "closing" very little (unless you count the 'nos'... which you should)... you'll feel like a lot of work for very little result. Trick is to remember, every deal has a "life-time value", not just the current sale.
2. Lack of forward progress: similarly, since you're probably not counting 'nos' as successes (you should), you'll feel like your never getting anywhere. By the way, most clients will not say "yes" or "no"... which is even more frustrating!

Here's the solution.. READ A BOOK OR 2 on SALES!

Its funny, so few sales-people are reading sales-books... and so many are writing them!

Pick up a book!!!!

Here are a few I really enjoyed:
SPIN Selling
Sales Bible
Its Not Luck