GlideHair vending and business opportunities are genuine low cost, low risk investments providing you with the ability to grow a large network of units with limited capital thereby creating real passive income.

For those who can’t “get” sarcasm, please re-think what you might ask in the comments.

Since we’re now actively seeking sales pros right now (please forward to others), I figured I would post a few things I consider as non-negotiables.  (Hint: If those who are applying are smart, they’re search my name and find this blog, read this post and reference it in the interview.  Just sayin’.)

1. Attitude – In a small any organization, attitude will affect others negatively.  Pessimism can’t be tolerated and let’s be honest, we prefer to spend time with happy people.  Getting excited about working with good people is infectious and I’m thrilled we have that in spades today.
2. Resourceful – I may value this trait over all others.  To be able to “MacGyver” something with limited resources is critical for our business.  We have to solve problems that can’t just be searched on Google and sometimes with no budget for a customer.  It’s a tough thing, but keeping to look Learn to do things on your own and not wait on your co-worker to complete a task.
3. Customer love – I’m not talking about being cordial or pleasant (that’s a given).  My friends, Deryl and Rusty share this sentiment with their company, DormBuys.  Both of our companies are committed to a level of customer service unmatched by others.  We both MUST have people who love serving others.  Not everyone wants to do this and I truly get that, but don’t apply with me.  For us, I’ve seen the challenge of some geeks love the tech toys, yet hate the users.  I’m happy to let those types stay in the ivory towers of corporate tech because small, nimble companies need and WANT the customer to be first.

I found even just this small list helpful as we filtered through too many resumes.  I recognize I haven’t covered things like integrity, morals or honesty, but I’d hope those are a given for any candidate.  So what are your top traits you seek out?  How do you stay true to those even when someone looks great on paper.  Please, please share your thoughts in the comments below.

There’s no question during this economic downturn business can be very serious.  Just recently, I’ve heard work compared to war, a long slog, a roller coaster and a daily grind.  These arduous cliches and somber overtones quite frankly are unnecessary.

It’s my contention work doesn’t have to be so negative.  It CAN be fun and productive.  We add to this pessimistic view by stereotyping job roles such as HR, Legal, IT and Accounting as rigid and yes, sadly some people encourage that view.  However, there are some that refuse to fit that mold despite their discipline.  Which is one reason, I love Christy, the Accounts Payable (AP) person from a client’s company.  Not only do they pay regularly (which is HUGE), but she (an accountant by trade) does her job with flair and humor.  Christy’s entire department was recognized yesterday in a meeting for being a pleasure to work with.  Yes, you read that correctly… an Accounting department is dare I say, FUN!

We each have to make a living, but we have to also live.  Seriousness at work is just overrated and I believe it won’t get you ahead.  Don’t confuse dedication or professionalism with being rigid and hiding your personality at work.  I’ve saved a few of Christy’s emails and pasted them below to remind us all to lighten up at work and enjoy the people.

Quarter til 5:00, with plans to go to the TRC Bash,
Wouldn’t you know, my computer decides to crash!
Void the checks, re-start the process,
Such is the life of an AP goddess!

Three nearly-deaf old men sat on a bench. The first one said “It’s windy” to which the second replied, “No, it’s Thursday” causing the last one to say “Me too, let’s go get a beer”.  If any of you are “Thursday”, come get your check and go get a drink.  Have a great night!

Sorry I fell behind
but want to keep it “above the line”
No excuses, blame or gripe
I’ll just bid you a quick “Good Night”

Waiting on your check . . . well wait no longer! Your ship has come in, your egg has hatched, your gift has arrived . . . your check is now awaiting you on the sunny 5th floor! Now aren’t you glad you worked late!!!!

Personally, I struggle on how to teach my customers or inform my prospects without inundating them with content. I attempt to use screencasts, image mockups (screenshots) and searchable FAQs, but it’s still tough to keep things simple. If you look around the web, it seems I’m not the only one facing this debacle. How do you teach your customers or prospects to best use your offering? I’d love to hear your ideas and experiences (good or bad) below.

1. Create scarcity - There is an element of supply and demand in every transaction. Even though I put a deadline on the proposal, the client knew I could offer this service next month or quarter. Just like the photo at right shows, people make decisions when supplies start to run out.
2. Calculate the benefits – My pitch was laden with qualitative benefits, but I hadn’t shown the client the qualitative reasons to say yes. I could’ve created a ROI calculator or shown a side-by-side comparison with my solution compared to the current process. Either way, I failed at showing numbers that documented my claims.
3. Don’t be soft – Saving time and resources can resonate, but for many decisions the impact on real dollars grabs the most attention. Just like an investor pitch, people want to know the monetary impact of the decision. This specific person wasn’t freely offering the numbers I really needed to show specifics, but I could have used industry data. Dollars and cents almost always matter and I knew better.

How do you create urgency? Do you have tricks that get a decision made? I’d love to hear your input.

Today when you walk inside you can’t find any visible signs of the previous damage, but the owner, Bill says there is one problem he hasn’t totally fixed. With such a long layoff , a large group of customers have never come back to VIP. Although Bill has never asked me why I returned to VIP, the answer is simple… they know my name. This morning when I stopped by, Bill’s wife, Linda yelled “Hello Todd” from the back office. And just like a restaurant you patronize often, I’m not required to tell them how I like my “order” (light starch).

Bill has tried all the normal retail tricks, (outdoor signage, direct mail, coupons), but none of that drew me back to VIP. Bill’s staff knows me and my preferences, so I’m content even though he doesn’t have a web site or delivery. I believe the old cliche of the most popular word is true… we all love to hear our own name and it may be Bill’s best secret.

I couldn’t help but notice the differences between online and offline companies. Here are a few observations and takeaways that make me think us web geeks/startup junkies sometimtes live in a bubble.

• Salespeople don’t mess around – I know some people think I’m a “sales guy”, although I’ve never been trained (most that are great have been). I brought my portfolio and plenty of cards, but the real salespeople had tri-fold brochures, client lists and a few even had custom name tags with a scrolling digital message. Before you laugh, it was memorable and again their motive was clear. Takeaway – Customer acquisition is so different for offline businesses.
  
• Social what? – Most attendees referenced the web in some way and a couple even talked about their Facebook group or *gasp* Twitter page (their words not mine). I was floored to hear business owners and employees talk about using social tools. Granted some butchered the vernacular and I assume the execution, but there was obvious curiousity and interest. I suspect these steps are much like company blogs were a few years ago and 99% still haven’t heard of RSS. Takeaway – Social tools are still shiny new toys for most offline businesses and some may sadly be looking for the magic bullet.
  
• You are what you wear – As we rotated groups you had to choose your next table in less than one minute. Needless to say, we were all forced to make judgments on where to sit by who you knew or what the table looked like. Some folks wore their company logo (helpful for this event) a few were business casual and most were professionally dressed. I chose the sportcoat with no tie and it was obvious a few suits wondered if I accidentally left my tie at home. Takeaway – I know some people hate to hear this, but just as online companies are judged by the look of their site, offline folks are judged by their attire.
• Face to face matters – In addition to physical appearance, those who were quick witted or well spoken ruled the event’s roost. Most of my online friends can write great copy for a web page or type funny statements in under 140 characters, but human interaction is just so different. I found it refreshing and realized many people (of all ages) still want the face to face interaction for making decisions. Takeaway – While our crowd may use Paypal, email and Google docs there is a massive customer base for companies who will meet you in person.

I’m not ready to ditch my web conferencing, twitter addiction or LinkedIn account, but it was a nice change of pace. I really enjoyed the event’s framework as people weren’t there to meet and greet, they came to generate business. It felt almost more relaxed knowing everyone’s intentions (i.e. – buy my wares or help me find someone who will). Online we criticize those who try to sell, sell, sell, but this was the purpose of virtually every attendee.

There are many things I appreciate about the web like scaling, speed and visibility (Google the term earwood). But, just like the show “Lost” there are “others” out there and they’re not going away.

Two quick stories that reminded me the importance of pushing when appropriate with different methods.

First, my friend who owns a growing business and I were discussing how some employees easily accept “No” for answer. He referenced his struggles with a specific employee who either gave up too easily or was just getting pushed around (by vendors). After trying to coach this person over and over, he finally said, “Don’t come back to me until your nose or your knuckles are bloody.” He didn’t mean this literally, but he claims the mandate has started to work when he overheard this employee’s phone conversation. The gist was the persistent message of “that’s not acceptable” (with a stern tone).

Fast forward a few hours that same day… I was getting some things printed with a local company and they gave me an end of day deadline. When one of our guys stopped by to pick up our prints, they told him it wouldn’t be ready until the next day. I was out running an errand so I stopped by to see what happened. I politely explained what we needed done and why we needed to reach the agreed upon deadline. He checked out their work load, then came back saying they’d move some things around and it would be done in 30 minutes. My guy was flustered they didn’t do the same for him (I didn’t have to say I was the boss), but I did politely push him.

I do not support or propose you beat up your vendors. I’ve been on the receiving end and it’s terrible. However, there are times when stern words or even sweet talking are necessary. Two drastically different methods and virtually the same result. It’s just up to you to figure out when to use which and gauge is it worth it if this goes bad. What’s your preferred method? How do you successfully mitigate hearing a “no” when you know a “yes” is possible?

Flickr credit: Roman-photo

In my haste to leave town I stuffed the two items to be returned into the Zappos box and somehow threw in a client’s copy of Adobe Creative Suite software. When I got back from Austin, I was puzzled to find a Zappos box on my front porch (the previous items were already picked up). After sorting through my mail, I opened the Zappos box to find the software and all its cd’s returned.

Although they’re due for an upgrade, I was shocked that a massive operation like Zappos not only found my software, but tracked down my name and address to ship back (also for free). While Zappos isn’t always cheapest, I only see a MAJOR upside as their customer service stories continue to spread. I’ve gotten to know a few Zappos employees (their distribution center is 15 miles from me) and they say the tales of their dedication to customer service and culture are true.

I don’t order much clothing or shoes online, but it’s worth the few extra dollars a Zappos item may cost just to know you they’ll get it right, even if YOU screw up.

What’s your best Zappos story?

Here are five companies that were out pimping their ideas to the SXSW crowd.

1 – WebbChange.com – They dressed this guy up as Elvis and handed out Webbchange t-shirts. Not super creative, but humorous and the t-shirt’s quality was pretty good. Sadly, I never learned what they did.

Update: I received an email a few hours after publishing this post from Bill Clanton, CEO of WebbChange offering me a personal demo of their site. That personal touch far outweighs any promotion I saw.

2 – JungleDisk.com- This group easily stood out with their two costumes and I heard a few people chattering about their shtick, so it must have had some level of success.

3 – Other Inbox- The creative folks at OIB had a large booth in the Expo and dressed this guy up as Mr. Spam. I took this picture right before he pitched their concept to Kevin and I. The best part was Mr. Spam offered to take off his mask after I obviously couldn’t stop laughing at a guy talking about MX records with his mask. You can also see his cape here.

4 – Smule.com- By far the most memorable as “The Mule” (his card said it) wore an all-white outfit with the company flag on his back. He also demonstrated their product (see video here and here). There’s no question he will not be forgotten, but it takes a special person to wear that outfit.

5 – LostZombies.com- These guys weren’t the best at promoting their product (mainly b/c I couldn’t remember what their site was), but their stickers seemed to be strategically placed at parties. The warning message definitely caught my attention and the last line “DO NOT REMOVE THIS STICKER” made me laugh.