Twit

I have now established myself in the world of Twitter: www.twitter.com/marklincoln

Yes that's right. The Primeminister of Australia is now following yours truly. 

I hope I can think of something clever to say ....

If the world could vote ...

Have you been to www.iftheworldcouldvote.com yet?

Quite an interesting insight into what would happen if the world was allowed to vote in the US elections. 

Let's face it, the US wants to control the world so maybe the world should vote on who controls the US?

Dispite the results on this site, I sill wonder what the actualy election outcome will be. After all, I would have put my money on Al Gore last time ... and wouldn't the world have been quite a different place? 

I saw a documentary on the current election race not long ago and I was sickened by some of the comments people were making. 

At one of McCain's rallys, a middle aged caucasion woman approached McCain on the stand and, right into a microphone in front of thousands of people, said that Obama was an Arab. 

1. No he isn't
   
2. Should it really be insulting to call someone an Arab?
   
3. Obama is being targeted for having had associations with "terrorists". Has the entire state of Texas forgotten about the Bush family's close association for many years with the Bin Laden family?
   

Rant over. For now. 

The Campaign for Honesty in Business!

The NZ Herald today reported that a real estate firm has been fined $7,500 for breaching the Fair Trading Act, following a case in December last year where an agent, let’s call him Tim because that’s his name, was sentenced for advertising a property as “buyer enquiry over $380,000″ when he knew the vendor would accept no less than $400,000.

This reminded me about a phone call I received last week from a popular cell-phone network. The salesman, let’s call him Bob, promptly ran into a speech offering me a free cell phone and all sorts of amazing bonuses in a call plan for my business and began the usual line of questioning resulting in “yes” answers to hook me into the conversation.

Something along the lines of …

“Would you like a top of the range cell-phone for free? Would you like 30 minutes of free call time?”

I was very busy at the time but I always feel for these telemarketers as we’ve all had to make cold calls at some point. Particularly as I once answered “No” to the first question and completely stumped the unfortunate caller.

Wanting to cut to the chase, I asked a number of times what would be involved for me to get this amazing deal and the answer each time took us back to the beginning of the conversation:

“Well … you get a free cell phone and 30 minutes of call time”

After much banging the receiver against my head, I finally extracted the keystone of the entire conversation: I would have to sign up to a call plan that would cost $45 a month.

Had Bob answered my obviously impatient “let me get back to work” flavoured question at the beginning of the conversation, he would have discovered I only have a pre-pay cell phone which I rarely use for calls, with a total bill of $5 per month. Mostly spent replying to my fiancé’s numerous texts.

Bob the cell-phone man and Tim the real estate guy both tried to hide the truth in order to gain interest and land a sale. The problem is, once the deception has been exposed, who’s going to trust the company enough to do business with them? Not me.

Two more topical examples of deception are the Telecom advertising series that uses actors to portray made-up Telecom clients, and the safety campaign for side air-bags that uses an actor rather than a genuine accident victim. Both of these examples have arguments for and against their deception.

However, I am a firm believer that honesty and business can still walk hand in hand down the happy path of success.

So here’s to the Campaign for Honesty in Business! Let’s treat people like the intelligent professionals they are and generate some genuine trust in our business dealings.

Take note. Carefully!

Ok, so we all know that first impressions count. What we aren’t all lucky enough to find out is the full extent of the impression we create.

I have always felt that I leave a good first impression; I dress well, I smile, I’m polite, I’m friendly without being over friendly and I listen carefully without making the speaker worry that I’m trying to control them with my mind. With the position I work in, for the company that I work for, first impressions are very important.

So, while our director was away, I had a meeting with a potential new client. Having worked in a similar industry, I instantly tuned into their wavelength and felt that I had a great understanding of their business. At the end of the meeting, we shook hands (I still haven’t got round to the Donald Trump over-sterile method of bowing), said our goodbyes and I skipped back to my desk to put together a proposal.

Now I don’t want to boast, but this proposal was a beauty! I tapped away at that keyboard like I was playing a piano in a symphony orchestra ... or something. I pressed the send button and sat back to await their response (actually that’s a lie. I then started attacking the pile of work on my desk but that’s not relevant to this story).

Yesterday, the client came round to the Hot PJ office to discuss their thoughts on the proposal. For the first few minutes, they waxed lyrical about how much they enjoyed reading the proposal and how relevant it was to their situation. Then, just before my head grew too big for the room, they told me that when they left the first meeting, they had turned to each other and said, “Well, that was a waste of time!”Slightly horrified, and with my boss raising her eyebrows, I nervously asked, “What do you mean?”

The client then went on to explain that they were dedicated note takers. During our first meeting, they were acutely aware of the lack of notes I had jotted down and so believed that I wasn’t really taking in what they were saying. On the contrary, I felt so tuned-in to what they were saying that I only needed the aid of a few buzz words to jog my memory in order to create a proposal.

What shocked me was how we had left that first meeting in such a contrast of thoughts. Me thinking everything went great and them thinking they’d wasted their time. In the worst-case scenario, they may not have bothered to open the proposal and we would never have had the second meeting.

This really made me think. In this case, the client was open enough to let me know their initial thoughts, but how many meetings had I been in where people had a genuine belief that my lack of note taking was indicative of my lack of paying attention.

Are any of us fully aware of the first impression we give? And I’m talking about the whole package here; from the way you dress to the notes you take! The happy ending is that they are now our latest client and this is the start of a wonderful relationship we will have together.

Definitely food for thought though.

The benefits of other people's shoes

This morning at around 8:30am you may have felt a sudden change in atmospheric pressure. This is likely to have been due to the almighty sigh of relief I gave when our director, Wendy, returned from two weeks annual leave.

During this time, I metaphorically slipped into Wendy’s creative shoes and learnt a few things about the role of others in my workplace.

I’ll admit that the first few days were quite hectic, but by the end of the two weeks, I’m happy to report that I had everything running like clockwork. I felt like I had survived an avalanche, dug my way out and carried on to the summit.

The whole experience has been a truly valuable insight into the inner workings of our design team. As a BDM, there is no better way to understand every step of the service or product that you deliver than to actually deliver that service or product from the job confirmation to the “thanks and come back soon”.

Now, when I’m discussing projects with clients and creating proposals, I can do so with an acute understanding of the work that will go into that project. This is stupendously beneficial from three different people’s shoes:

1. The client’s – I can confidently discuss the realities of timeframes and the limitations of print, resulting in a project that meets or exceeds everyone’s expectations.

2. The team’s – Don’t oversell. When putting the cheese in the trap, always leave enough room for the mouse. Now when I hand a proposal over to the production team, the team can be confident that I haven’t sold the impossible at a budget that can’t be met. This will make me an all round more likeable guy in the office!

3. My own – Confucious said: “What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand.” I understand! Far more than if I simply listened to team members telling me what their job involves. This will really help to develop my career at Hot Pyjama Productions.

So if you really want to make yourself an invaluable asset to your company, dedicate some time to finding out what everyone else gets up to and, even if only for an hour, walk a while in their shoes!

Measure twice. Cut once.

Last weekend, the weather was beautiful and the hills that I can see from my living-room window were crying out for the attention of a man and his backpack. However, my fiancé had other plans! This was the weekend we had put aside to get our gift registry sorted.

Being from the UK and South Africa, we needed a store that provided online access for overseas family members. As we’re getting married in Gisborne, we also wanted a store that had a branch in Gisborne for NZ-based family and friends without internet access. Gisborne being Gisborne, we were quite limited, so in the end we decided to have two gift registries; one at Ballantynes, a Christchurch department store with online access, and one at a nationwide homewares store with a branch in Gisborne.

Gift registries are amazing inventions. Let’s say we invite 100 people to our wedding. Now, those people are under no obligation to buy us a gift but, should they choose to do so, we are almost guaranteeing one store an extra 100 customers – possibly people who have never been in that store before. With that in mind, you’d think stores that had a registry facility would be really pushing the marketing to maximise their return. Especially with the current (so-called) recession that is affecting the retail industry.

At the nationwide store, my fiancé and I were handed a clipboard and a sheet of paper and left to wander the store. Ok, fine. Job done. Thanks very much.

However, at Ballantynes we were given the personal assistance of a dedicated staff member. This staff member, Emma, was at our service for the next two hours. Emma explained the process, gave us a tour of the store, introduced us to the helpful staff of each department, put up with our lack of decision making and even laughed at our jokes! Emma also put aside each item we pointed out, thus guaranteeing the stock would be there for our guests at the price that was displayed at the time of our visit. Knowing those products were the actual items that would appear on our list really helped us to take ownership and encourage us to keep on shopping!

The items were put online that afternoon and a thank-you e-mail was waiting for us when we got home. When we returned to the first store the next day, our list was still on the clipboard sitting under the check-out counter! Not very confidence inspiring.

On paper, both stores provided a service to meet the same goal. One store has taken that service, put it into place, clicked the “done” box on their electronic to-do list then moved onto something else. The other store has taken the same service and strategically analysed the best way to implement it to guarantee satisfaction and maximise the ROI from the whole gift-registry venture.

With the “recession”, the trap can be getting caught up in the panic and rushing headlong into marketing ventures simply because everyone else is. Generally this is based on a fear of being left behind. Companies start firing out one-off adverts left, right and centre and then wait nervously for the phone to ring.

Our speciality at Hot Pyjama Productions is actually caring about and taking pride in your marketing. Sometimes, even more than you do! If we think that an advert or other marketing tool that you would like us to create doesn’t fit your marketing strategy, even if it's just a set of business cards, we’ll actually discuss it with you first to make sure you’re receiving the most from your investment. You may find that the money you have budgeted for one project would achieve far more if spent on an alternative project.

Essentially, we're here to eliminate the nervousness that everyone experiences when starting a new marketing project.

It sounds simple but it’s what our clients love about us the most and what puts us ahead of our competition.

Please rain in the recepticals provided

Has anyone else in New Zealand noticed that North Canterbury is under water and yet the South Island lakes are at an all time low and only have a few days of power left in them?

Perhaps the answer would be to build a humongous funnel and position it above Lake Hawea? Similar to Mr. Burn's giant cover that he placed over the sun in Springfield.

Maybe I'll suggest that.

Koru Care Gala Dinner & Charity Auction

I had a fantastic time at the Koru Care Gala Dinner and Charity Auction last night. It was an experience to be surrounded by so many people who had so much money!! There was a lot of wealth in that room last night and a large portion of it was used to bid for items such as a helmet signed by Michael Schumacher and a Fender guitar signed by Paul Mcartney and Ringo Starr.

Congratulations to the organisers for raising $170,000 to send children with terminal illnesses and permanent disabilities on holidays around the world.

Thanks also to Gary Endacott for your inspirational speech. Gary was the first person with Cerebral Palsy, on the planet, to compete in the New York marathon and has since successfully returned to New York to run on a further 3 occasions. He has also held the New Zealand and World Disabled Tennis championship but one of his greatest achievements came in 2001 when Gary became the first physically disabled person to climb Mt Kilamanjaro.

Big Brother is Reading You

In my previous blog entry, I highlighted the importance of being aware of the conversations that are taking place on the internet about your company.

This week, I take a more personal angle; what does the internet say about you?

The danger of so called “personal” online social content is that if you’re not clued up with the site’s particular security settings, you may have just told the1,463,632,361 internet users in the world that last night you had a big night on the town and danced on a table!

Long before I joined Hot Pyjama Productions, I was at a job interview where the interviewer admitted they had tried to find my Facebook page as a reference of my character.

Due to my security settings, they hadn’t managed to find me but were quite surprised that I, the interviewee, had already googled them, the interviewer, and found out which high school they went to, what they had studied and also the last two places they had worked. I hope this showed my ability to use my initiative!

Even without an internet profile, you might be surprised what you can find online.
“Google” yourself now using quotation marks either side of your name, e.g. “Mark Lincoln” and make sure you click “pages from New Zealand”. You should find that more recently updated activity will appear higher up the search rankings. Useful information for those of us who manage a website! If you have a more common name, try adding the city you live in to your search query.

For me, this would tell you that I have written in a blog (this one!), I have worked at Rock & Ice and Wattyl, I have an interest in photography and I have written a book on World War II. All true except for the last one and, perhaps more importantly, all information I’m happy for the world to know.

So be warned, even an out-of-character answer you might leave to an annoying TradeMe question could be used by others to judge your character! The basic rule of thumb is if you wouldn’t say it to your boss/client/mother/local reporter then don’t post it on the internet!

PS. Appearances in magazine articles apply here also!

Joe Bloggs? Joe Blogger!

Beware! Your average Jo(e) Bloggs has found their voice!

As Simon from iJump told me, “Caveat emptor (buyer beware) is dead”.

As you sip your coffee and read this, thanks to social networking sites like Facebook, Twigger, Digg, myspace and a million blog entries, a magnitude of potential buyers could be discussing your product or service without you knowing it. Technically, people discussing your products should be nothing new. What is new is the opportunity to find those conversations, discover what people are saying and, most importantly, react.

We all know the saying along the lines of “Someone happy with your product will tell 2 people. Someone unhappy with your product will tell 20”. The danger now is that potentially, that conversation becomes a review for the world to see and is even at risk of appearing above your own website when someone searches for your company! Oh no! That’s horrific!

Or is it? Isn’t this an incredible opportunity to fix issues that you may otherwise have never been aware of? We now have this awesome opportunity to join in on the conversation, find out the cause of the complaint and do our best to put it right. As we know, how we deal with the problem, i.e. our customer service, is often more important than the problem itself.

The key issue is finding the time to trawl through the millions of blog entries and comments out there until you find those relevant to your business. For that very reason, Google has created Google Alerts. In a matter of seconds you can enter your company name and e-mail address and start receiving notifications each time your company name is used in a blog.

This does of course have its limitations. I entered “Mark Lincoln” and you wouldn’t believe how many times people mention my name in reference to American vehicles and presidents!

However, if you have a unique company name, (cough-Hot Pyjama Productions-cough) it’s perfect.

So remember, social networking isn’t just for our kids to discuss their favourite Simpsons character. As part of your marketing strategy, get out there and take part in the conversation!

Posted on the Hot Pyjama Productions blog, August 8th, 2008 by Mark Lincoln