Can you only handle 150 true social relationships?

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

In a day and age of "friending", "being a fan", and even the emergence of LinkedIn LIONS (super networkers or connection collectors – your call), the question of how many true and stable social relationships one can maintain definitely comes up….at least in what I do.

Enter Dunbar's Number and the commonly cited approximation of 150.  These are: 

…relationships in which an individual knows who each person is, and how each person relates to every other person…

I suppose this number varies depending on what you do and what priority you place on maintaining or developing relationships.  I have an open "friending" and connecting policy where I rarely reject a connection…but, again, this is what I do and is consistent with my blogging efforts to connect with as many people as I can even though it is more of a one to many relationship.

What do you think?  If you look through your contacts in MS Outlook, Gmail, or contact management system, your LinkedIn connections, your Facebook friends, or even Twitter followers/following, how many do you have?  How often do you truly connect vs. comment on a post, read a status, or send an email to check in?

It takes effort to build relationships and they are best built when you don't need something.  I always try to ask folks I meet with how I can help them vs. putting myself first. Give it a try.  I promise it will be much more rewarding and appreciated than always wanting something for yourself when you get together with someone. 

Maybe it is possible to have more than 150 true social relationships.  I know I am going to keep trying.

Don’t forget about accounts receivable

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

Having run my own consulting company and been part of several start ups at this point in my life, I can't emphasize enough the need to focus on accounts receivable.  This is the life blood of your venture and your ticket to freedom (if you are venture backed) – inbound cash flow.

Yes, it is important to get that first customer or client but pay attention to payment terms and cash flow implications.  Big companies are big and don't always promptly pay an invoice…so be diligent and understand that your near term cash needs are not the most important thing for your customers.

Be creative, structure pre-pay agreements, and provide incentives for early or complete payment.  It will benefit you in the long run. 

Sales is support

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

This is one of my current favorite sayings especially since we have just released Gist in public beta.  Because on-demand software can be accessed, tried, and consumed with relatively little front-end involvement by the company or its staff, support has become the sales function.

Knowing when, where, and how to engage is critical as is doing so without being to "salesy" or self-promotional.  Answer people's questions, address their concerns, and let the product do the marketing for you.

Doing this requires not only a singular focus on users and user experience but having the infrastructure in place to hear what is being said (reference listening framework), a system to manage incidents/tickets, and the technical expertise available to quickly address questions, fix bugs, and even take ownership of a feature request and deliver it for that specific user.

If you nail it, word will spread about your attentiveness and laser focus on the end-user.  This isn't really an earth shattering concept as world-class companies have known for many years that you can truly differentiate from your competitors with outstanding customer service.  You make it an afterthought at your own peril.

Gist is open, come on in!

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

Gist_logo

Winding down a seriously busy week that included the public beta launch of Gist.  This project has been in the works for some time and Tuesday marked the public debut.  If you have not tried it out yet, please do. 

I have done many product and company launches with varying results over the years.  Launch something no one cares about and the sound of the crickets is deafening.  Launch something people want and the ride is exhilarating.  The Gist launch was the latter and here is a sampling of the coverage we generated:

Most amazing was watching Twitter come to life with people talking about what we built and their thoughts about it…in real time.  Trust me, Twitter has a purpose and is one of the more revolutionary sales/marketing/support platforms to come around in a long time.

There are still many things to figure out and no shortage of work to be done but we are off to a strong start and it only gets better from here.

Why Positioning Matters

/ Robert Pease / 1 Comment

Happy Labor Day everyone.  I thought a post on "positioning" was timely because not only is it something we are continuing to focus on and evolve at Gist but it also came up last week in one of my mentoring sessions as a NWEN Advisor.  Also, it is no small effort to get right so thought it appropriate to discuss on Labor Day.

What is positioning and why is it important (according to me)?

The positioning strategy is a competitively focused statement of what makes a company different and better than the competition.  It is a description of how prospective customers, partners, etc. should think of the company relative to the competition.  A fundamental of good positioning strategy is creating perceived differentiation in an area that is important and relevant to those audiences.  Since positions are “relative to the competition,” it is important to understand how competitors are currently perceived and how they are trying to position themselves.

How do I come up with it (not sure where I got this from originally, so apologies for no source reference)?

[Company Name] provides  [product or service category]
For [your beachhead target customer]
So they can  [product’s primary benefit].
Unlike [the product alternative]
We [key differentiator]

This is definitely an exercise about picking the right words but in order to pick the right ones you must understand the broader landscape and how companies operate within it.  In an early stage company this is not a one time effort that you complete and move on.  It is a constant and iterative process as you learn more about your customers and market and the difference between how you want to be perceived and are perceived becomes clear.

So, what is Gist?

/ Robert Pease / 1 Comment

Arguably, we have been perfectly vague publicly about what Gist is, what it is used for, and how it fits into your daily life.  This is due in large part to being in a limited release where we continue to add features, refine the product, and incorporate feedback from a phenomenal set of beta users. 

So the question remains, what is Gist?  Is it a contact manager, better contact management system, new way to think about CRM software, a new type of sales or business intelligence software?  I guess the answer is that it embraces a bit of all of these things focusing on blending how your contacts, connections, and all the associated content you share and they generate comes together for your use.  Kind of a whole new approach to personal relationship management that combines elements of all of the above.

I use it daily because a) I work there and b) because it fits with what I do – contact people, respond to people, follow up with people, look for a reason to reach out, etc.  Ultimately, Gist takes the broad set of people that you communicate with or desire to communicate with, aggregates information about them, and serves it up to you in rank order with you having to do pretty much nothing. Oh, and it really shines when you use it inside MS Outlook or Salesforce.com (supported in our most recent beta release).

Sound cool?  Watch this video for a more detailed product tour by yours truly and drop a comment or email to me – robertcpease at gmail dot com if you want to try the beta.

Declaring my Frequent Flyer free agency

/ Robert Pease / 1 Comment

After one of the worst flying experiences I have ever had on Delta Air Lines, I have decided to declare my frequent flyer free agency.  I won't bore you with the details but the experience which included my entire family demonstrates the indifference and what seemed like outright disdain for its passengers by this airline giant.  I use to live in Atlanta, my wife use to work in Delta's flight operations group, and my brand loyalty was always to Delta above all others.  That has now changed and the only reason I will even think about flying them again is due to the efforts of a single flight attendant on our flight back to Seattle from Atlanta.

So, I am up for grabs and interested in looking at new teams to join.  Here are my stats:

  • Well over 1 million miles logged with 80+% of those on Delta Air Lines over the years.
  • Extensive travel in North America, a concentrated period to the UK a few years back, and a few flights to Asia over the years
  • Cheap but not real cheap – I'll buy the discount ticket but have been
    known to pay for wifi, club room access, and the occasional upgrade
    (when it is reasonable)

  • Pretty low maintenance as long as there is a spot for my highly
    optimized and very small carry on bag and the frequency of center seat
    assignments is kept at a minimum. 
  • I do not expect or feel entitled to
    an upgrade but rarely turn it down when offered    .
  • I am very experienced and efficient at getting on and off the plane quickly without disrupting other passengers or delaying departure.

I have spent trial periods with United, Alaska Airlines, US Airways, and American but have never signed on due to bad experience, lack of status, or routing.  Current favorite is Virgin America but they do not meet all my destination criteria.  I have also spent some time with ANA, British Airways, Southwest and Frontier (although the latter two may be the same team here shortly) over the years and have had generally good experiences.

Interested in having me try out for your team?  Leave a comment or shoot me an email.

Marketing Mayhem

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

Over the past year plus, I have been working with a whole new set of tools to understand and reach customers/prospects/users.  This includes Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, blogs, blog comments and the associated technology to access and analyze what is being said and who is saying it.

Unlike mainstream marketing thinking, what I have been doing has cost very little money and utilizes new tools to reach people in the new places they are spending their time.  More importantly, the leverage in selling resides disproportionately with the buyer these days.  They have instant access to information about you, your competitors, and even the ability to connect with your current and former customers all without your help or involvement.  Understand this is reality and embrace it.

So, what should you do if you are trying to sell something, launch something new, or just expand market share within existing target market?  Set up and make use of a Listening & Engagement Framework.  Check out my previous posts on it to understand what the heck I am talking about.

I have been making extensive use of this type of framework at Gist and put together the presentation embedded here to highlight both what we have been doing as well as the thinking and assumptions behind it all.  Check it out and let me know thoughts and feedback.  One thing I have learned is that the rules are still being written and best practices emerge daily on the best way to use all this stuff as a business.

Marketing Mayhem – Can You Hear Me Now?http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=marketingmayhemnewrulesv1-090822185333-phpapp02&stripped_title=marketing-mayhem-can-you-hear-me-now

View more presentations from robertcpease.

Are corporate IT departments obstacles to innovation?

/ Robert Pease / 2 Comments

As I look back at the various start ups I have been a part of, none of them has had an easy time getting their first big enterprise customer.  The minefield of meetings, requirements, obstacles, outright "no" & "no way" responses is enough to kill the spirit of even the most optimistic and entrepreneurial among us.

Now on-demand software that can be accessed via a browser without consultation or authorization by corporate IT departments often meets a similar fate once unauthorized downloads are detected or the volume of data exchange with an unauthorized website appears on the radar screen.  This sometimes occurs regardless of the passion, need, or protest of the business end-user.

So, why is this?  Are corporate CIOs and their teams enemies of innovation?

Not at all.  They are, however, risk managers and anything new, untried, and early stage is met with suspicion and concern. 

If you are building something for the enterprise, you will at some point meet the risk mitigation wave…even if all the business folks are using what you sell and loving it dearly.  It must meet certain requirements related to management, oversight, audit, compliance, and governance.  You don't have to have it nailed out of the gate, but be aware that it will come…with your success.

So, companies like Gist that are innovating in areas like contact management, sales software, CRM software, etc. and experiencing success in the marketplace will soon come face to face with the risk mitigation wave.  We know this, are prepared for it, and can't wait to have that discussion.

Just remember, your IT department doesn't want to deprive you of the best tools and newest technologies.  They just want to make sure the shop runs smoothly and that those new tools, programs, and technologies don't compromise the network, raid the financial system, or otherwise wreak havoc on the company.