Grow Your Business Using Word of Mouth

As a business owner, you probably enjoy what you do, or you probably wouldn’t have been crazy enough to start your venture in the first place. Like me you probably don’t enjoy the constant chasing after the next customer, the time, effort and money you put into advertising and marketing with no guarantee that it will grow our sales is most likely one of the most frustrating thing you do. I heard somewhere once is half the money you spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is you don’t know which half. Wouldn’t it be great if new customers could see for themselves the value in what you do and find you, instead of you having to go find them?

What if your existing customers were so happy with your products or services that they went out of their way to tell the people how great you are and that they should call you right away? Then the only marketing investment you would need would be in getting referrals, making your existing customers your sales team.

A referral strategy shouldn’t be your only strategy for bringing in new customers, especially if you have high growth plans, but for some businesses it could be a far more effective strategy than it currently is. The great thing about a referral strategy is that it is a low-cost way of buying new customers.

Step one of your referrals strategy is to turn your customers into “Raving Fans”. Nobody is going to refer you if your service is just satisfactory – you only get raving fans when you go beyond satisfied customers. Think about what you can do that will make their experience with you memorable – perhaps a small gift, a card on their birthday, or perhaps just the fact that your staff are so friendly and helpful that they make the buying process a pleasure. Remember: Customer Satisfaction is Worthless while Customer Loyalty is Priceless.

Step two is finding out who your loyal customers are, so make sure you have a good record system for your customers’ contact details and then categorize them. Try the ABC system – Awesome, Basic, Can’t Deal with. Then spend more time with the A’s and B’s than you do with the C’s. In fact why not get rid of the C’s all-together?

If you are not really sure who your ABC clients are then one way to find out is to ask them. There are two simple ways to do this:

• Testimonials, ask them to write you a short testimonial to find out what they like about you.
• Customer surveys, ask them some questions and rate the responses. (you can do this with programs like Suurvey Monkey, or via snail mail.

Once you identify your raving fans, be sure to keep in contact with them on a regular basis. The average business spends five times as much on buying new customers as it does on keeping existing ones, that’s more crazy than starting your own business. Set aside a portion of your marketing budget towards keeping in contact and building loyalty with your existing clients, even when they are not buying. A simple method for this is to send out a newsletter, with details of special offers or new products. You can use Mad Mimi or My Emma, and there are probably a handful more that I’m not familiar with.

The next step is to physically ask for a referral, don’t back down on this one, there’s no need to start feeling awkward, you’re asking for something you deserve. Ways to make this easier are to put a referral card in with the purchase, and ask your customer to fill it in later, or get them to invite people to a free event so they can sample your product/service without risk, or give them an information pack to pass on to people they know who might be interested, or even a special offer voucher. There are many more ways to do this just get creative.

Always remember to thank the referrer in a way that will ensure that they like it so much they will do it again and again, and whatever you do, systematize it so that it happens automatically and can be easily delegated to somebody else.

The final step is to think about who you really want as your clients, be genuine and honest. Henry Ford once said “obstacles are those annoying little things that get in your way when you take your eyes off of your goal.”

Agile TV for Software Development & More

It’s been awhile since my last post, and it may be a little while again before I publish another post, so I figured that I ‘d highlight a great resource that I ran across in my online travels for new and better ways of applying lean, agile and critical path analysis to projects, software and business management.

Checkout tvagile.com

It’s a great directory of videos, interviews and tutorials focused on agile software development approaches and practices: Extreme Programming (XP), Scrum, Test Driven Development (TDD) , Lean Software Development, Feature Driven Development (FDD), Behavior Driven Development (BDD), Continuous Integration, Pair Programming, Re-factoring and several other techniques that can be applied to making your process simple yet effective.

They even ask for suggestions, and accept contributions from their readers. Just check out their contact page.

The 8 Rules of Lean Project Management

The eight rules of Lean Project Management (LPM), re-posted from the Project Times, Summarizing the Rules of Lean Project Management by Claude Emond. A great set of  rules for any PM to follow:

Rule # 1: the “Last Planner” Rule. The one who executes the work is the one who plans the work. This saves time, money and resources due to reduced waste.

Rule # 2: the “Tracking Percent Promises Complete (PPC)” Rule. Do not track time (effort) or cost; track small promises that you can see over time.

Rule # 3: the “Expanded Project Team” Rule. Expand the project team to include and integrate all significant stakeholders, as part of the team as early as possible.

Rule # 4: the “Humans, humans, humans” Rule. Humans execute projects, and project deliverables materialize through humans and for them. So be considerate to humans as, without them, no project can be a success.

Rule # 5: the “Rolling the Waves” Rule. Roll the waves. Make your choices and commitments (promises) at the last responsible moment. Make them in the form of work packages that will deliver the desired results anticipated with a high degree of certainty. Plan the work, execute the work, learn and adapt, plan the work, execute the work, learn and adapt, plan the work, execute the work…succeed!

Rule # 6: the “Opening, Adapting and Closing Often” rule. Open-Adapt-Close, Open-Adapt-Close, Open-Adapt-Close… all the time. The IPECC (Initiate, Plan, Execute, Control, Close) cycle is a recurring process; this recurrence is the true key to successful projects, lean-influenced or not. In order to close a project, you have to open-adapt-close formally at the phase level, to open-adapt-close formally at the work package level, to open-adapt-close for each required deliverable (small concrete promises), to open-adapt-close each required activity undertaken.

Rule # 7: the “Executing Your Small Promises on Single-tasking Mode” Rule. Execute your small promises on single-tasking mode. Once your deliverables are cut into smaller pieces, deliver them one after the other, as much as possible. By cutting your project work in smaller pieces/promises, you will save on set-up time each time you are interrupted, thus accelerating delivery. This accelerating effect can be increased furthermore, if you also try to execute these promises, one after the other, this saving an additional amount of set-up time. In a multi-project/multi-tasking environment, the most productive strategy is to single-task, doing these multiple tasks in series, when possible.

Rule # 8: the “Using LPM Principles to Implement and Adopt LPM” Rule. Live and use what you preach to implement LPM; by “walking the talk”, you will succeed in increasing the speed and extend of LPM adoption and ensure a lasting and fruitful change.

The Myth of Multi-Tasking & the 80/20 Rule

Every Morning on my way back to the office from the gym I drive South on HWY 400 for approximately 5 min, sometimes 15 if there is a problem on the main roads. The one thing that I notice are the amount of people that use mobile devices, eat bowls of cereal or are smoking while trying to update their play-list on their i-Pod. This post isn’t about the obvious dangers of attempting to operate a motor vehicle at approx. 120km/hr on a busy road while focusing on other less critical tasks, nor is it meant to offend anyone who regularly practices this type of multi-tasking. What this post is about is the myth and dangers that go hand-in-hand with multi-tasking during your working hours. Here’s MSNBC’s take on The Myth of Multi-Tasking.

I believe that the less interruptions one has, the more focused they are, the more they’ll complete and the quality of what they complete will be higher. As a rule I only have one meeting at the beginning of the day with my team, and let them call others if required. Also just because one has several windows open on their screen doesn’t mean they are focused or getting the job done. As for multi-tasking I can only do one thing at a time, call me old fashioned.

There’s two parts to this equation though, the first part is focusing on one thing at a time with little to no interruptions and the second is actually doing only value added activities.

I once had a great manager that said to me: “Probably 80% of what you do during your work day is unnecessary, so if you can focus on that critical 20% you’ll have more time to get more done.” At the time I didn’t fully understand what he meant as all of the things I had on my To Do List were there for a reason. On closer inspection of my list I found that most of what I was doing was non-value added work that cost allot of time for little benefit, or in finance lingo these activities had a low ROI. So from then on I’ve reviewed my To Do List daily, sometime more, to ensure that only the priorities are on it. So what to do with the other less critical items, well you’ve got options:

• Don’t write them down, and if they’re important enough then they’ll come up again. (37 Signals does this and it seems to be working out for them so far)
• Create a separate “Parking Lot List”, just in case. (the Six Sigma Methodology uses this tool, I like it for when you’ve got a large group in a room and you don’t want to focus, and spend time, on non-priority issues)
• Prioritize the list (A, B, C or 1, 2, 3 or !, *, #) and focus on the most critical first.
• Create an ice berg line to distinguish what you’re going to focus on first (usually you move the most critical items to the top so they’re above the line).

You can also use a combination of these (this is my personal preference) but the key is to review the list and be objective. Remember focus on that 20% that will generate value for your team, project or whatever the case may be.

Another key is where possible, or required, get others involved in the process. You’ll gain a different perspective, most likely improve the quality of the list and build morale with out doing something like a company roast. Do this and your To Do list will quickly become a To Done List or even better a To Don’t List.

If you’re not sure of what I mean by company roast, reference this clip from The Office.

Leading Strategic Change

Here are a few resources that I found very useful when leading projects that involve a great deal of change management, of the people variety, which is about 80% of all the projects that I’ve ever worked on.

Leading-Strategic-Change is an excellent e-book that I was given during my Six Sigm Black Belt Training from one of my favourite mentors Norm Rudd, who in my opinion is the Six Sigma equivalent to a Rockstar. If you don’t get what I’m talking about check out this intel commercial.

The book takes the reader through the three “brain barriers” that teams must overcome to accomplish a task successfully, as well as the solutions to help teams break through the brain barriers. With out giving too muchaway, here are the three brain barriers that the book outlines:

• Failure to See
• Failure to Move
• Failure to Finish

Also, if you’re really interested in this kind of thing, check out the Change Management Blog. It’s an interesting read.

Less is More & Simplicity Rules.

Here’s a great company with great products, 37 Signals. Why are they so great, well their style is no nonsense, they get straight to the point and simplicity rules their product design philosophy. Oh, and they extracted Ruby on Rails from one of their projects. I’m not a hardcore developer, coder or hacker (or at all really), but I’ve worked with RoR in the past and it’s presently being used with the current project that I’m managing, and it’s definitely one of those tools that makes the life of the people doing the work easier, therefore making them happier and producing a better product (80% of the time).

In a sentence, what it comes down to is “Less is More”. They do less than the competition on purpose, and it’s paid off for them in a positive way. I’ve had the pleasure of using Base Camp for a few of my projects and it great for Agile Software Development. You only get what you need, the rest of the usual gravy features one finds in software don’t exist so there’s little to no learning curve when adopting it as your PM tool.

I’m also a big fan of the Agile Software Manefesto and it’s 12 Principles. It may not apply to certain safety related projects where one would be required to document and follow a process and plan for regulated purposes, however it has it’s place as a way to lower development costs and bring better software to market sooner.

IT Efficiency + Your Business = Beat the Competition

To keep pace in an increasingly competitive world, a business needs to run as efficiently as possible. Efficiency is even more important for a small or medium-sized business, because their resources are limited. I say this from experience serving in both in a large, global, mining company and a small IT start-up.

Here are 10 tips that I’ve summarized from the IT Business Edge, sans the sales pitch from Cisco at the end, for using network technology to help a business work more efficiently, cut costs, improve customer satisfaction, and ultimately stay ahead of the competition.

Quoted from a free online White Paper by IT Business Edge titled 10 tips to make your business more efficient.

1. Give employees secure, consistent access to information. You have an advantage over larger competitors because you can react quickly to business changes. But you can quickly lose this edge if your company network is frequently down, sluggish, or unsecured. A secure, reliable network based on intelligent routers and switches lets your employees access the information and tools they need to keep ahead of competitors.
2. Deliver anytime, anywhere access to employees on the go. To stay productive on the move, your employees need to be able to reach the people and information they need—anywhere, anytime. With tools like virtual private networks (VPNs), your employees can work outside the office and still enjoy safe access to the business network.
3. Create effective business processes with partners. Some large companies make efficient, secure business processes a prerequisite for doing business with them. To meet the business needs of your partners, you need a secure, reliable network.
4. Make it easy to work together. Smooth collaboration between employees, partners, suppliers, and customers is a sure-fire way to boost efficiency while also reducing costs. An intelligent network lets your business take advantage of interactive calendaring, videoconferencing, unified communications, and other technologies for easy collaboration.
5. Enable employees to take their phone systems wherever they go. Missed calls create project delays, wasted opportunities, and lost revenues. With a networked voice and data solution, your employees can have one phone number that rings simultaneously on multiple devices, so customers reach the right person the first time. Your staff can access all their communications from anywhere, checking for e-mail, voicemail, and faxes from just one inbox.
6. Streamline customer communications. Delivering fast, knowledgeable service is the best way to keep customers satisfied. Linking your network phone system to a customer relationship management (CRM) solution is a great way to enhance customer communications. When a customer calls, a pop-up window with their records appears on an employee’s IP phone screen, computer screen, or both.
7. Reduce unproductive travel time. All too often, time spent on the road is time lost. A networked phone solution that offers video calls and Web conferencing can help reduce the time and expense of traveling to offsite meetings and training sessions. Instead of spending time traveling, you can use the time to get work done with technology.
8. Employ a managed service provider. Is managing a network the best use of your employees’ time? In some situations, it is advantageous to hire a managed service provider for network administration. Working with a managed service provider can free your IT staff to focus on other IT tasks and use their time more effectively.
9. Improve employee satisfaction. Aging phone systems and slow networks can frustrate your employees and annoy your customers. In some cases, an employee might become burned out and decide to move on. To help ensure that employees are productive and satisfied, your business needs a secure, reliable, and fast network.
10. Develop a long-term technology plan. The process of replacing obsolete hardware can interrupt your employees and bring the office to a standstill. You can minimize such disruptions by carefully determining short- and long-term business objectives and working with your network vendor to deploy technology that matches them.

I personally like this list as a starting point when planing how to improve things from an IT perspective. However, take it with a grain of salt and consider the source if and when planning your own solution as there are several paths one can take to arrive at the desired outcome.

Career Credentials

Two goals of mine this year are to obtain the final bit of electrical design experience required to obtain my P.Eng and write the PMI PMP exam to obtain my PMP designation.

I figure since my career has afforded me the opportunity to get this close to both of these “resume builders”, I may as well make an effort to add them to my portfolio of qualifications. Or more eloquently put “I should walk the walk if I’m going to talk the talk.”

Prediction: I see the next few months being dedicated to achieving these goals in my off hours.

Do Something, Learn Something, Share Something, Change Something = Meetup.com

I was just sent a link to this site Meetup.com. It’s a great way to connect with a group of your interest as well as a great way to tap into a niche market if you’re looking to connect with a specific audience.

Using the Web to bring people together offline.