Business Development

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18
Nov 11

Computerworld: iPhone 4S data speeds, Web browsing fastest on AT&T, test shows

A study measuring the performance of the iPhone 4S on the three major U.S. wireless carriers found AT&T to be superior in Web browsing and data downloads and uploads when compared to Apple’s latest smartphone on either the Verizon Wireless or Sprint network.

iPhone newcomer Sprint was found to be superior with its iPhone 4S for network voice quality on the uplink (when the user is speaking), but Sprint was also about five times slower in Web browsing and data downloads than AT&T, according to the study released Friday by Metrico Wireless, a mobile performance measurement company. Verizon finished in the middle on those data tests, but trailed the other two carriers in voice quality.

Metrico measured five performance factors shortly after the iPhone 4S was launched on all three carriers in October: whether calls could be connected and held; voice quality; data performance; Web browsing by page load speeds and video performance.

More of the Computerworld article from Matt Hamblen

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08
Nov 11

Paul McCord: Is Sales 2.0 Making the Buying Process More Difficult?

Sales 2.0 has been lauded as giving the customer control of the sales process since they can now research their options and make purchase decisions long before ever speaking to a salesperson—IF they ever speak to a salesperson.

Much has been written about how this new buyer controlled process will destroy the sales industry since more and more purchasing decisions will be made without ever consulting a salesperson; how buyers will continue to demand access to more and more free, objective information; and how all of this information will make the purchasing process quicker, easier, and more efficient for buyers.

I suspect that all of the predictions will prove to be absolutely, totally, unquestioningly incorrect.

I’m willing to bet that there will be a huge increase in the number of professional, highly specialized sellers as a result of the avalanche of information made available to buyers..

I’m also willing to bet that the sheer amount of information available at one’s fingertips will increase the complexity of the purchasing process for most goods—even relatively simple purchases.

Just two very quick examples:

My wife and I are in the process of a major home improvement project. We have ripped up perfectly good carpet from two rooms and perfectly good ceramic tile from three other rooms in order to put down a stone floor so we can cover it with more carpet in the form of rugs (what humans do sometimes makes no sense from a logical standpoint). In years past the selection of rugs for the foyer, den, dining room and kitchen would have been easy—we have a few stores in town that sell rugs and we’d make a selection from their inventory. In reality we’d select from maybe a few hundred rugs with a couple dozen being actual contenders.

More of the Sales and Management blog post from Paul McCord

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07
Nov 11

Dan Lappin: Rapport no more!

Okay, I just said it. You’re just not yet willing to accept it as true. Does this sound like you? Over the past several years, your sales efforts have increased whereas your sales returns haven’t exactly followed the same path. You are working harder for every win and the wins don’t come often or easy.

Here’s the reality – real decision makers (not the ones who put on the temporary mask and tell you that they’re the guy) are no longer interested in building another relationship or the social comforts of rapport. They’re interested in getting it right and surrounding themselves with companies and people who have their back.

I know what you’re thinking… “Dan, people buy from people.” True, but they don’t buy from people for the same reasons they did 10 plus years ago. Rapport is nothing more than a social weeding out tactic (process) that your prospects use to determine if they even want to invest in a conversation or two. It’s the same process we use when we meet people at a party or social event. It’s a matter of – how painful or enjoyable talking to this person will be.

Here are six truths about rapport:

1. It’s business value is overstated. In the recent past, rapport may have worked. The reality is decision makers have more on the line in today’s intensely scrutinized business environment — getting it right is critical, both personally and professionally.

More of the Monday Morning Sales Sauce post from Dan Lappin

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06
Nov 11

The most important apps on my iPhone

Apart from the standard smartphone apps: phone, contacts, text messaging, and email, here are the apps I use every day for business:

Week Cal – This is my killer app. It’s the best calendar add on for the iPhone I’ve seen. They brought the best block week view to the iPhone (iOS5 finally delivered a mediocre block view) along with six other views. You can attach contact info to calendar events. You can build templates, cut and copy events. Brilliant.

Google Search – You know what this does.

Tungle – Tungle lets me view other people’s calendars, and lets me share mine. I use this for checking my family’s schedule and a few key vendor partners. Saves lots of time.

SplashID – This is my password vault, I’ve been on it since the Palm Pilot days.

ToodleDo – Yet another to do list, with some nice online features and interfaces. Nice to see that with iOS5, Apple finally added the to do list functionality that the Palm Pilot had in 1997. I’d love to see ToodleDo’s iPhone client attach contact info to tasks, like Week Cal.

Road Trip – Car mileage and maintenance app. Simple and awesome.

Twitter – My primary communication method with certain people.

MobileRSS – News reader I use to keep up with industry news.

LinkedIn – On-the-fly lookup of people I meet.

WordPress – Lets me post on the go to four blogs I maintain.

Constant Contact – Dashboard for email marketing activity.

RingCentral – yes, I still get a few faxes.

For fun, here are my favorites:

Spotify – all the variety and music you could ever hope for! Artists don’t necessarily like it, listeners do. Premium is worth $10 a month.

HeyTell – this is a great walkie talkie app. My friend Doug Karr and I use it for a variety of fun things. Great way to leave a voice message that makes people smile.

What are your killer apps?

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05
Nov 11

InformationWeek: Why Apple’s Siri Will Change Everything

My wife feels like I’ve shacked up with another woman–I’m that in love with Siri. But my wife isn’t too upset, because Apple’s iOS personal digital assistant has given me more time to spend with my family. I’ve been able to get work done during times when I normally could not. And that’s the part that tickles my CIO spider sense, which tells me: Feldman, this is going to change the way that IT delivers service.
I had upgraded to an iPhone 4S mainly because my 3G had run out of steam. I wasn’t too excited by the prospect of Siri. Many of us have used Dragon Dictation and voice dialing. So what, right?

That’s like saying AltaVista was all the Web ever needed with search. That’s how big I think Siri is–Google search big.

Siri, unlike segmented voice recognition, integrates lots of services. In other words, instead of having to mess around with buttons to take a note with Dragon Dictate, and then copy it, then paste it into my notebook, I can just say: “Siri, write a note.” Response: “OK, boss, what do you want it to say?” Then it pops it into my notebook. Done.

More of the InformationWeek article by Jonathan Feldman

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04
Nov 11

Scott Eblin: Three Leadership Lessons from the Netflix Slide

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings must be feeling a little bit like a team that ended up on the cover of Sports Illustrated and then started losing games. Last year, Hastings was on the cover of Fortune as its Business Person of the Year. This year, he’s getting slammed for what he acknowledges are a series of poor decisions and mishandled customer communications. It’s kind of like the dreaded SI cover jinx.

After raising the price for the Netflix DVD and movie streaming package over the summer, Hastings publicly apologized but didn’t change the terms of the deal. Then a few months later, he announced that Netflix was going to be just for streaming movies and a spin off company, Qwikster, would handle DVD rentals. Customers would no longer have a master movie queue online at one site. They’d have to go back and forth between the sites if they wanted both streaming movies and DVD rentals. Customers hated that idea and Netflix killed Qwikster a few weeks later. A lot of customers decided to just bail out. Netflix announced a few days ago that they lost 800,000 customers in the last quarter. The company’s stock has declined by around 35% in each of the past two days.

More of the Next Level blog post from Scott Eblin

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03
May 11

Suddenly, LinkedIn Is A Traffic Firehose

Out of nowhere, Business Insider started seeing real referral traffic from LinkedIn last month.The chart below illustrates the spike.

LinkedIn product manager Liz Walker tells us the traffic is coming from a bunch of sources – mostly new products like LinkedIn.com/Today, newsletters, and LinkedIn News.

All of these sources are programmed by LinkedIn populated “inShares,” which are kind of like Facebook “likes” or Twitter “re-tweets.”

LinkedIn Blog post

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12
Apr 11

Information Week: AT&T’s iPhone Drops More Calls Than Verizon’s

Research firm ChangeWave set out to compare how iPhone 4 users feel about their devices and the network the use with their iPhones. It polled more than 4,000 consumers in hopes of spotting some differences between how AT&T and Verizon Wireless customers rate their experiences.

The results showed that, overall, AT&T and Verizon Wireless iPhone users are about equally satisfied when it comes to their device. Verizon users claiming to be “very satisfied” reached 82%, while 16% said they were somewhat satisfied. AT&T users claiming to be “very satisfied” reached 80%, while 18% said they were somewhat satisfied. That’s a dead heat, statistically, and makes sense given the phone is more or less identical on both networks.

More of the Information Week article from Eric Zeman

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06
Apr 11

The War of Art: Break Through Your Blocks

I first heard about the book The War of Art by Steven Pressfield during a David Allen interview. David is the author of Getting Things Done. The interviewer was talking about the “doing” part of GTD, and how so many people fight some unseen force when it comes to doing. The War of Art is about the unseen force. Steven Pressfield calls this force The Resistance.

The book is divided into two sections: Resistance, and Combating Resistance. It’s written in short chapters so it’s easy to read all-at-once or in a number of sittings. The book really spoke to me. My own personal problems with procrastination and completion seem to be shared by Steven and by other people as well.

How does The Resistance show itself in your life? What do you do to fight it?

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05
Apr 11

Scott Eblin: A List of Things It Took Me Fifty Years to Learn

Today is my 50th birthday. It’s a little strange to write that down. When I think of 50th birthdays, I think of those films you see sometimes about the 50th birthday of Disneyland. You know the ones with all the ecstatic little kids with crew cuts and pig tails and how quaint Tomorrowland looked fifty years ago? I’m not that old, am I? Apparently, the good folks at AARP think so as they sent me an introductory membership card last week. Sorry guys, not happening.

Since it’s been fifty years, I thought I’d share a short list of things I’ve learned about life and leadership. Most of them I’ve had to relearn more than once. That said, they seem to have worked for me. Your mileage may vary, but here’s my list of things it’s taken me fifty years to learn.

Most good things require the help of other people. I can track pretty much every good thing that’s ever happened to me or I’ve gotten to do to the help and support of someone else. There’s no such thing as a self-made person.
You get what you give. That’s the title of a great song by The New Radicals. It also happens to be true.