.:RIMproInsider:.

Here is a question I pose in every disaster recovery process I do for my clients.

What is the secret? The deep dark secret you don’t want your customers to know? What is the risk that you are very aware of?

That is where you begin your disaster recovery planning. Funny thing, that everyone I ask that question to initially says “nothing… no secrets” Often a few days later they respond with the answer. It is there if you look for it. Why this question… because it is often the place where the greatest potential for disaster lies.

Think about it. Then do something about it. Make the secret public to yourself first, then create a solution. Fast.

It is evident that web visitors to your site are willing and wanting to be engaged by you. They have questions and clarifications that they are looking for. If they leave your site without making an engagement, they might never come back. So we are now providing a new tool that you can use on your site that will increase the odds that they can connect with you when they want that engagement.

A Client2Call link is starting to make it’s way onto e-commerce and lead conversion type sites. A Client2Call button helps you bridge the gap between your online presence and your sales process. A Client2Call button or link is placed on your site that when clicked opens simple form in the visitors browser. Once they fill it out and submit, the Client2Call service initiates a call between you and the site visitor.

The Client2Call service…
* Provides personalized service creating an immediate personal connection with the client
* Inspires buyer confidence so you can move immediately into a sales qualification or closing process
* Eliminates the need for costly toll-free numbers
* Sets up easily and works with any phone

The benefits of using this service are multiple. Each call that comes to you is recorded in your Client2Call control panel providing a log of who called, and from what specific link they used. Thus you can measure calls from a page providing a metric for response to your website, based on which link they used to make the call. As the call is happening you are recieving an instant email alerting you to who is calling and potentially what their call relates to. During your call you have the ability to log details of the call into the call log which you can link to directly from the email. If you are directing calls to your cell phone you can also recive an SMS message as the call comes in. If you are anything like me though I have to try it to belive it… so…

Click the link here to try it… Call Tom now. If I am not at my phone, the form will let you know and then you will have the opportunity to send me a follow-up message. I wil return your call as soon as I am able.

We are about to officially launch the new product in the next few weeks but would like to let my readers be the first in line to investigate and buy the new service. Call me to talk about it.

I am working with some companies on their web presence, or more officially, their lack of presence. When traffic doesn’t occur, despite the $10,000 website investment these issues almost always are obvious.

1. Web site owners don’t target their message to specific audiences. In essence they build sites for what they want to see. It is backwards! If you don’t build it for what your customers are looking for, how will they ever find you?
2. The site’s design doesn’t incorporate meta tags for search engines to score. It amazes me how many web design company sites I visit that do not do this either. Proves to me that they are in the business of creating pages not getting traffic.
3. Each web page’s title doesn’t reflect the individual page’s content. Big mistake.
4. Each page doesn’t provide detailed descriptions of the page’s theme. Another meta tag issue. The user never sees it but search engines eat this stuff up.
5. The site isn’t built with keyword and key phrase search relevancy in mind. If you want people to search for you under “secure destruction Dallas” that keyword phrase must come up in you page body copy. Otherwise the search engine can’t index it at all.
6. Statistics aren’t captured to learn why searchers come to the site. I suspect that very few of you actually ever look at your web logs. The data that your hosting company captures for you that tells you who every visitor is. They are a goldmine. I check mine every day.
7. The site isn’t submitted to the top 21 search engines and directories that produce over 88% of all internet searches. You can’t get the traffic if you don’t tell them where to look. This process has become much harder over the last 6 months even as a significant group of the search engines now demand a payment to get listed.
8. You haven’t changed your content in two years. Your site is perceived as dead.
9. You paid for a bells and whistles site, not a simple, content rich site. You architected based on how cool it could be, not on how well it would bring search engine traffic to your site.

I am beginning to think I rant too much about this. Seriously though, I can help you with this stuff. Call me. I will begin a process to get your website back into the realm of gaining traffic.

Another shot at the Manifesto. Today the focus is on marketshare.

Quality is the key route to increasing market share. Market leaders tend to share several key characteristics: They tend to have higher quality than their competitors. They compete on quality not price. They tend to benefit from unique proprietary rights such as copyrights, distinctive trademarks, patents, and trade secrets. These proprietary rights provide them with unique sources of quality. “Quality” amounts to no more than delivering those products and services customers most want. This type of quality is NOT the conformance to the specifications type of quality that most engineers focus on, but is instead conformance to customer wants of the type most marketers focus on. They needn’t be of particularly high quality just superior to that of your competitors. Don’t buy market share with low prices. This is self-defeating and capital intensive. The value of what you gain is eaten up by its cost of acquisition.

It is interesting to me that more and more we compete on low cost alone. We try to increase our box counts or our pounds of destruction by working the low end of the competitive issue called price. The winners in our business will continue to be those who “out-quality” the competition.

I like what the Guru Red Manifesto says about transactions.

Avoid engaging in a strategic (i.e. unprofitable) transaction in the expectation that they will lead to future profitable transactions. If you do otherwise, you are likely setting yourself for a fall. All businesses have a finite capacity for unprofitable transactions. Don’t waste it on transactions that you know will be unprofitable. There is nothing more shameful than watching a healthy company wasting large quantities of resources over periods of time reaching out for strategic business that stays just a little ahead of its grasp. Follow and adapt to the world, but don’t fool yourself into believing you can out think it or impose your will on it. Don’t be reluctant to explore and experiment with strategic initiatives, just do it with other people’s money

I like it. Good advice to follow. One of the things I quickly discovered in my own business was the cost of doing transactions. In the London Ontario market with a population of 300,ooo, there were four record centers, and seven destruction companies fighting it out for marketshare. So the effect became ongoing price decreases to obtain clients. It became apparent to me that in the quest for volume with the reduced pricing, or short term reward, we had given up on long term profitability. The transaction value in some accounts started to run a deficit. Not a great place to be. So in changing focus from large account view to small account view we began to see some significant changes. Small accounts produce significant profitability. I went after boutique markets such as engineering drawings. So instead of competing head to head for box count I started addressing profitable accounts. Seems to be a market trend for many.

Contracts are such an important part of our business. In many cases they form a core component of our business valuation. From the Guru Red Manifesto here is Item 21, Contracts: There is no Win-Win contract.

Focus on your needs in the contract. The other party should be capable of focusing on their own needs. Worry about your profitability. Not the other parties profitability. You won’t sign a contract unless you both get what you need. The winner is not the one who obtains the most hostile provisions. It is the one looking a few steps ahead of the other. If your agreements don’t reflect your long term strategy and short-term tactics you are walking into a win/lose situation with one or both arms tied behind your back. Don’t do that. Your contracts are not only legal documents. They are the terrain on which you work to assure that you will maximize your fair share of the value generated by the relationship both during and after the contract. They don’t have to be long, detailed or hostile to accomplish that goal - in fact those attributes can interfere with that goal.

It is a great way to think about our contracts. Before you sign the next one, ensure you read this again.

It is before a day of parading, turkey and family but wanted to say a brief word to all my readers on Canada’s Thanksgiving Day. I am grateful for the opportunity to write to all of you on a regular basis. I am excited to be part of a great industry with amazing people. I am having fun in my work every day.

Yesterday was also my anniversary and I am grateful for the opportuinity to love and be loved. 17 years and growing. I have a very incredible wife.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian readers and to all of the rest who read today… make it a great day!

Tom