Looking forward to 2012

January 3, 2012July 23, 2017 / Robert Pease / 2 Comments

Happy New Year everyone! Today is the day that most people are getting back to work, clearing out their inboxes, and getting cranked up for what lies ahead in 2012.

2011 was a great year for me in many ways with Gist being acquired by Research In Motion, me thankfully being deemed unnecessary in the new organization, connecting with a great team at marketing automation software company LoopFuse, and the launch of a venture of my own – Nearstream.

Several years ago, David Cohen who is the ringleader behind TechStars among other things wrote a post that stayed with me – Plenty of time for that later.

To paraphrase, if you want to start something look at the clock and write down the date and time. Post it somewhere you can see it and every minute, hour, or day that passes should remind you to get started.

That pretty much sums up my approach to 2012 as I embark upon a few new ventures and place responsibility for the outcomes primarily on my shoulders.

Predictions aren't my thing but I write this blog for many reasons including creating a record for my children and their children to read one day. So, looking forward to 2012 here's how I see things:

World

The world is constantly changing with new allies, new enemies and a media circus designed to scare us in every direction. The European Union is being tested by economic strain but I do not believe its end is near. The Middle East continues to be a flash point and I do hope that our hasty withdrawal from Iraq for political expediency does not sacrifice the steps towards a stable democratic government that 10 years of blood and treasure were invested to achieve. Afghanistan needs many more years of concentrated assistance to become a stable country. I don't believe this is an American problem, but I don't know who else is up for the challenge. We have been at war with Iran since 1979 and the only ones who don't seem to know this is us. Tensions will continue to rise and a strong hand on our side will be needed to keep calm and exercise our power where needed. Let's hope that person is in the Oval Office (see below).

Nation

We are sailing into a Presidential election year that will see ~$2 billion dollars spent to convince us one person is better than another (or more evil). I am concerned about the scorched earth policies to be used (by both sides) and what it will do to us as a country.

Barack Obama was elected on the promise of transformational leadership and he is a failure in that regard. I did not vote for him and will not be doing so this year so take that statement with a grain of salt. Even though he was not my choice, he is my President and I hold him accountable for the gap between words and actions that have been exhibited over and over. He appealed to Americans most cherished sense of hope and rode that marketing slogan to the White House. His administration's policies have been unsuccessful in creating the environment for economic growth and his rhetoric has grown increasingly negative and divisive. The candidate of hope generally wins so we'll see if we get four more years of Obama running on fear and anger this time around.

Financial Markets

Who knows? Things regress to the mean over time so after a few years of volatility and poor returns, most people are giving up on the stock market and pulling money out. I'm not sure if we have seen true capitulation but history tells us that the time to invest is when others are not. The election year dynamics will certainly spook it until there is some clarity on who will be leading us for the next four years.

Technology

All mobile, all the time. We are consuming, communicating, and increasingly ignoring each other with our smartphones. The penetration of these types of devices globally will continue to rise with prices coming down, processing power going up, and human connectivity increasing. What could possibly go wrong?

Social saturation. The giddiness of social networking is waning. Many are fatigued with status updates and the constant flow of information that you didn't use to have but now must have. Better filters, proactive privacy controls, and enabling off-line interactions are on the top of my list.

I watch my girls grow up a little more every day and am committed to being present as often as I can to be part of their lives. I am shooting to lose all frequent traveler status this year replacing it with Skype, GotoMeeting, chat, and well thought through trips. Let's see how I do.

I need to be more patient (always on my list) and take the time to reflect on the blessings I have been given. I will run many more miles this year including maybe a second attempt at a marathon (failed to even participate in Portland last year after signing up).

I am responsible for the outcome this year so time to get to work!

Happy 2012!

Seth Godin in Seattle

June 27, 2011July 23, 2017 / Robert Pease / Leave a comment

[cross posted from the Gist blog]

We were very fortunate to have Seth Godin visit Seattle on Friday and share his thinking with an intimate crowd downtown. The tickets went fast and, if you were lucky enough to get one, the gathering definitely did not disappoint. Starting with the song at the beginning (not Seth) to the quick and witty answers to questions from the crowd, Seth provided perspective and insight into how our connected world is changing how we work, think, and communicate.

While he didn’t come right out and say it, much of what he was talking about fit the new workstyle theme that we believe is defining the future of work. From thinking about the difference between a job and work to knowing that whatever it is you are working on will get “blown up” due to innovation and ease of connection. Jobs come and go but work combining both skills and passion transfers from project to project as you go through life.

I definitely recommend adding Seth’s blog to your daily reading (if it is not already there). Also, he posted pictures from the event here. Be sure to check them out!

I am not a sales lead

June 6, 2011July 23, 2017 / Robert Pease / Leave a comment

I have been doing considerable thinking about the current state of B2B sales and marketing and what is possible given new levels of social interaction, widespread publishing (blogs, Twitter, etc.), and connectedness. One thing I continue to come back to deals with "demand signaling." I have seen this referred to as a "personal RFP" or "broadcast shopping" as I have done more reading on the the topic but see very little being done to capture or consider it in any company's day to day operations. I even wrote a post a while ago about how "we" are the missing piece of social selling.

B2B lead generation is all about getting contact information of prospective buyers that signal some kind of intent then dropping them into a process of nurture and follow up with an eye on converting them to a paying customer at some point. The problem with this approach is that the "intent" is usually related to downloading a whitepaper, attending a webinar, or merely visiting a website – all of which demonstrate some type of interest but only in rare situations someone ready to make a purchase (see "leads are weak" clip from Glengarry GlenRoss). People that want to buy from you contact you directly.

So why are millions of dollars, countless hours, and a significant chunk of a marketing team's energy devoted to putting up huge numbers of "leads" that salespeople often struggle with to move through the sales process because they weren't really qualified in the first place? Good question.

Here's a two step framework to begin to put this into practice for all of us that sell (we all sell something):

Qualify yourself in (or out) – just do a little bit of research before you send that next email and see if the person on the other end is really in need of your product or service. The bar is not high here and I am continually amazed at how most people will not even do a simple web search on me or my company before sending a pitch. That is one of the key values of a product like Gist. It does this for you, just use it! At a minimum, visit the company's home page and read the most recent news.

Qualify me in (or out) – Am I asking for what you sell? Did I blog about it, tweet about it, etc.? These are really easy indicators to see for anyone who has a public social profile and will make the timing and appeal of your pitch so much better.

I even decided to set up a Facebook Page to rally around this topic and share examples of doing this poorly. Check out the "I Am Not A Sales Lead" page, post your stories, and help me spread the word!

Funnel Dynamics – Towards the $1 Cost of Acquisition [Slides]

June 2, 2011 / Robert Pease / Leave a comment

I have been working to summarize and consolidate the experiences I had building the user acquisition funnel at Gist with a specific focus on programs, tactics, and actual costs. My goal (not reached) was to drive the cost of acquisition down to $1 per user – something unheard of in traditional lead/demand generation circles and aggressive even in a web-application world.

The deck below is sort of a version one and not necessarily optimized for visual appeal so apologies for being a bit text heavy. It is pretty meaty and I have shared it with a few folks in one-on-one sessions so wanted to share this version broadly. Enjoy!

Funnel Dynamics – Towards the $1 Cost of Acquisition

View more presentations from Robert Pease

4 Reasons Why the New Workstyle is Mobile

May 24, 2011 / Robert Pease / Leave a comment

I just posted this on the Gist blog and thought I'd share here as well:

We put forth the concept of the New Workstyle at the beginning of the year and theten characteristics we described created quite a bit of debate and discussion. We fundamentally believe that the way we work is transforming and that high performance organizations will embrace these changes to further empower employees, realize the benefits of new innovation, and outpace their competition.

The first characteristic we included was being “mobile” and that this meant “always on and aware.” This does not mean being a workaholic and failing at balance in your life as some of the comments reflected. It’s quite the contrary actually. Being mobile and being enabled with tools to share, communicate, and collaborate regardless of location unlocks new approaches to work and life.

We see four things driving this mobile workstyle:

1. App marketplaces – where people can search, download, and run applications on their own without the need for IT support or training. The applications available span work related tasks like time reporting, sales pipelines, and project management to non-work ones like games and photo sharing. The line between these two categories continues to blur as apps thought of for fun translate into new and innovative ways to market, sell and support. Most importantly, the technical aptitude of anyone who uses a smartphone and makes app choices goes up with each new app and each new experience.

2. ”Screening” – interacting with information through various devices be that a phone, tablet, or laptop connected to a wireless network and accessing a multitude of cloud-based applications and content regardless of location or device. You can easily create a document with Google Apps on one device, share it with others, and then access and edit it on any device connected to the Internet all with proper versioning and access controls built in.

3. Multiple communication channels – seamlessly switching between an email, a phone call, a text message, and a Facebook wall post creates a new dynamic in communication and the ability to share and reach people in your network. The choice between both synchronous and asynchronous channels depending on the need and urgency opens up a new and more efficient approach to communication.

4. A true on/off switch – while it may seem counter-intuitive and requires an explicit choice on the part of the individual, being mobile and fully enabled creates more freedom to work when and where you need to most. News, information, updates, and content are always there and available so having the discipline to structure when and how you use them is essential.

What do you think? Are there other drivers of the mobile workstyle? How has your work evolved as you have become more mobile?

[Cross posted from the Gist blog]

Get outside your bubble

May 16, 2011July 23, 2017 / Robert Pease / Leave a comment

I was (mostly) off line for the past week while visiting my Dad and brother in Franklin, TN (just south of Nashville where I grew up). I did not totally unplug as I kept an eye on personal email and the news feed that comes to me via my varied updates from those who I follow on Twitter. However, I did stop on-line engagement and focused on my family, people around me, and real experiences.

I took several long runs through historic downtown Franklin, ate a bit of BBQ, had a great startup brainstorming breakfast at Noshville with friend Darren Crawford, cooked, laughed, and even played a suprisingly good round of golf with my Dad and brother (last round was 3 years ago).

I was originally going to title this post "Offline and in the Real World" but I think that is too harsh. We can (and must) balance the deluge of information, ease of access via mobile devices, and what appear to be pressing needs to engage on-line with off-line and real life engagement and interactions.

I have created a vast network of people that I am truly grateful to have through various on-line connections but I find it increasingly diluted based on its size. The race to accumulate friends, fans, followers, and influence that I have been part of over the past few years seems a bit ridiculous when you spend time with extremely successful business owners who simply make their customers their priority and run their businesses with integrity.

These on-line and off-line worlds are not incompatible and can definitely benefit each other. I firmly believe that successfully integrating the two can lead to a more successful business and more personal impact on the world.

So, please take a moment to look around (not at your phone), get together in person for coffee or a beer with a friend, and remember that technology can enable your pursuits in amazing and innovative ways but is no substitute for real life.

Product = Experience

March 28, 2011July 23, 2017 / Robert Pease / Leave a comment

This is a follow up to my Sales = Support post about how the delivery and consumption of web-based products is changing the way we need to think about aligning around the end-user.

Like many of my blog posts, this was inspired by a conversation (an email exchange in this case) about whether to focus on adding features or focus on the user experience given limited resources.

I had been meaning to write this for some time so decided to post here what I shared with a friend:

Do one thing and make it really simple (to start). There are always features to add and complexity to consider but people use products and unless they have to use it (do x to get paid/keep your job, etc.) they choose to use products based on value delivered.

I definitely believe that product = experience in an on-demand world. You want people to find, try, use and love your thing with limited to no involvement on your part. This makes it all about experience. You get involved when they have a question or observation: sales = support. The product = experience blog post is coming soon:)

That said, if you are not quite to the point where the one thing you are doing really well doesn't solve someone's problem yet, then focus on that.

Consider a product like Dropbox. They get a lot of buzz but one of the things that stands out to me is not their fame but how dead simple the product is to use and works itself into my existing knowledge. I didn't have to learn how to use it, it works like a file finder/manager – looks the same, even integrated into that view.

They are not the first (or last) company to do cloud-based file backup but they made it work for me with limited brain cycles to learn it. Most people are not curious enough to figure it out so the focus has to be on quick time to value.