I’m a big fan of conferences and events. Not the touchy-feely, rah-rah ones, but the events where you convince your spouse that it’s going to be good and then you travel forever to get there… and within the first hour you think to yourself, “I could go home right now and it would have totally been worth it!”. During 2007, I experienced a number of these events including Michael Gerber’s “In The Dreaming Room“, Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle “SuperConference” and “InfoSummit”, and a handful of others.

Recently, I had the opportunity to exchange emails with Ramon Ray with Smallbiztechnology.com. He has a an event/summit he is putting on in February that appears to be one of those ‘killer conferences’ every small business should attend. The lineup of speakers is impressive (Brent Leary, Anita Campbell, and many others). Michael Gerber told me once, “we are leaving the information age and are now entering the age of the entrepreneur.” Events like this are helping facilitate this new age and helping entrepreneurs and small businesses become more successful.

For more info about the event: www.smallbiztechsummit.com.

Contributed by Tyler Garns, Director of Marketing

At a previous job, I received a $2,500 prepaid American Express awards card for being amongst the top performing sales people. Since the expiration date on that card is approaching, my wife and I decided to book our vacation to Mexico for this March. We’ve had it all planned out for a few weeks now. We’re going to an all-inclusive hotel in Zihuatanejo - she can hang in the sun all day, and I can surf at some great spots nearby.

This weekend I went online to book the vacation and was shocked at how difficult it was. Orbitz had the lowest price for the vacation we wanted (air, hotel, and car rental) - $2,604. When my prepaid American Express card was declined, I figured it was because I went over the $2,500 limit. So, I called Orbitz and asked if I could charge $2,500 to the Amex and the rest to my Visa. The rep informed me that they don’t accept prepaid cards at all. STRIKE ONE!

So, I found the same vacation on Priceline except they didn’t offer the car rental. Their price was still just over $2,500, so I had the same problem. I called Priceline to see if they would allow me to split the charges. No can do. But they kept talking about their “best price guarantee”. STRIKE TWO!

Thinking about the best price guarantee, I went back to Orbitz and searched for the same vacation without the car rental. It ended up at $2,378. I was stoked! I figured all I’d need to do was get that info over to Priceline (since Orbitz wouldn’t accept my prepaid card) and have them “match” the “best price”. The lady at Priceline told me that I would have to purchase the vacation first at Priceline (for the higher price) and then submit a request for the “best price guarantee”. I told her my situation and asked if I could buy it first on my Visa, then when they did the “best price match”, they could refund my Visa and charge my prepaid Amex. She told me they could not switch credit cards for a particular vacation once its been paid for. STRIKE THREE!

Doesn’t it only take 3 STRIKES and YOU’RE OUT? You shouldn’t be striking out when you’re trying to give people money. I was going nuts. All I wanted to do was give someone my money so I could take my wife to Mexico, and that was proving and impossible task!
Needless to say, I finally found a version of our dream vacation on Travelocity and they let me charge my prepaid card.

The moral of the story is - IF SOMEONE WANTS TO GIVE YOU MONEY for a service or product that you offer, FIGURE OUT A WAY TO ACCOMMODATE THEM. When I told the lady at Priceline that I was going to have to go somewhere else, her response was, “Well, thanks for calling”. Are you kidding me? I’m trying to give you $2,500 and that’s all you can say?

Crazy!

In a previous blog post, I mentioned how valuable it is to break the status quo to extract new or increased value. Well, my wife happened to clip a quote the other day that fits right in line:

“For every nine people who denounce innovation, only one will encourage it… For every nine people who do things the way they have always been done, only one will ever wonder if there is a better way. For every nine people who stand in line in front of a locked building, only one will ever come around and check the back door.”

“Our progress as a species rests squarely on the shoulders of that tenth person. The nine are satisfied with things they are told are valuable. Person 10 determines for himself what has value.” — Za Rinpoche and Ashley Nebelsieck, in The Backdoor to Enlightenment

Marketing is often the practice of looking around to see what everyone else is doing and then repeating. It’s tough to think of new marketing ideas… and even tougher to actually implement them (time, $, untested, etc.). But, when you do pull it off, the other ‘nine’ stand back in amazement at the value creation and wonder how you ever pulled it off.

What’s the latest ‘odd man out’ thing you’ve done… what were the results… and how did you make it happen?

Last week, I was holed up at the amazing Resort at Squaw Creek in Lake Tahoe for our annual strategy session. After checking in and making my way to my room, my bags were promptly delivered by the bellman. I was planning on tipping him a few bucks for the two bags he brought up, but the smallest bill I had on me was a $10. So, I asked him if he could break it for me. His response was:

“Sure, no problem. Is five okay?”

My response:

“Uhhhh, okay.”

So, he gave me the $5 and off he went. What else was I supposed to do? Tell him “No, give me two more measly bucks back because I’m such a tight wad — I was only planning on giving you $3. No!, I was stuck and he was able to increase his tip by 67% with a simple, firm, three-word close: “Is five okay”

Was I upset at having tipped more than planned? No way! The $5 was totally worth just experiencing his close technique. I should have paid another $5 to find out what other phrases and questions he uses to increase his tip amounts & close rates.

The experience made me think more than a few times about the words and questions I use when closing or negotiating a deal. I’d love to find the phrase, question, or words to increase my deal amounts by 67%!

If you’ve got a favorite close question or phrase, I’d love to hear it!

Just finished a book by Timothy Ferriss called The 4-Hour Workweek. It was recommended by some fellow marketers, so I decided to read it. I’ve got to admit, there were a lot of attitudes that bothered me. Here are a few:

1) Live “rich” on your cash flow (instead of building long-term value or wealth)
2) World travel and personal indulgence outweigh other pursuits
3) Obtain goals quickly and easily by cheating the system or exploiting loopholes

As much as the book & various themes didn’t sit ‘right’ with me, I still extracted a bunch of value. Tim has some excellent thoughts on:

• challenging the status quo
• reaching for effectiveness AND efficiency
• practical ways to automate your business, life, etc.
• using automation to drive ‘liberation’ (it’s up to you to decide what you’re going to do with your new-found liberation… travel, live rich, serve, build value, etc.)
• delegate and use virtual assistants to replicate yourself

Regardless of what I think, the guy can market. He’s been featured in the New York Times, National Geographic Traveler, Maxim, and other media. His book is a New York Times Bestseller.

In my opinion, it would be more valuable to study Tim and his marketing methods than the book itself.

If you read The 4-Hour Workweek, what are your thoughts?

Contributed by Tyler Garns, Director of Marketing, Infusion Software

The other day, while at the mall with my family, we stopped a the food court for lunch. Of course, all three kids wanted food from different resturants, I felt like some chow mein, and my wife goes for the plain turkey sandwich.

So we ended up dividing and conquering the ENTIRE food court.

While waiting in an extremely long line for my cheap chow mein, I began to notice that this little chinese joint was CRANKING customer through the line. The lady taking the orders was sending silently encrypted messages to those cooking and serving the food. As she took orders, she poked colored toothpicks in the edges of paper plates and passed them down the counter. Then she collected payment. By the time the customer was done paying, a cook had glanced at the paper plate and started preparing the ordered food. Shortly after, someone else glanced at the plate, scooped up the requested order and delivered the plate to the waiting customer. DONE!

This little restaurant had created a very low tech, but extremely sophisticated system for quickly communicating orders to everyone involved. The color and orientation of the toothpicks stabbed in each plate communicated the order that should be served on that plate.

This experience reminded me of the importance of systems in EVERY business, no matter what the business is, online or offline, low-tech or high-tech. Whatever your business is, take a moment to step back and systemetize and automate everything you possibly can from lead generation, to lead conversion, to fulfilling the order and collecting the cash. Your business will be more efficient, your customers will be more statisfied, and you’ll enjoy your business much more.

In a previous life when I sold web-based Human Resources software, my “marketing funnel” included a step to send a white paper to the prospect. I recall how much a pain the process was… checking e-mails, seeing which white paper was requested, responding to the e-mail, finding the PDF white paper & attaching it to the e-mail, sending, and then manually entering the prospect into a spreadsheet for documentation and tracking purposes, etc. After doing this a dozen or so times a day, every day… pretty soon my ears started to stick out and I lost use of my opposable thumbs. Any chimp could do this!

Back then, I was inexperienced enough to manually handle the process, but I DID recognize the value of offering white papers in exchange for the prospect’s information.

Something I didn’t know at the time was there are a bunch of secrets around white papers. I caught a solid blog post on white paper secrets by white paper expert Michael Stelzner. Michael claims that, “all you need is a good title and a great first page… the rest of the paper can suck.” My style is to provide value to prospects & clients throughout the relationship, so I don’t fully agree with Michael’s statement. However, he goes on to clarify and provide some really great insights. Stuff I’ll be using.

To read Michael’s post, click here.