The Agile Scaleup

Mind Stretching Stuff; Capitol Lighting Video; Tom Peters Interview

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Correction to Last Insight -- Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, sold his first company to Microsoft for $265 million, not $256! And Tony is also giving away one signed advanced copy per day from now until the book is launched on June 7th. Interested readers can sign up at www.deliveringhappinessbook.com.

Capitol Lighting Quarterly Theme Video -- it's that time of the year to be planning for your next quarterly theme (April 1 start for most companies). What are your top 3 - 5 priorities for the quarter and how are you going to communicate them? Capitol Lighting, with 9 retail lighting stores in New Jersey and Florida, produced a 3 minute video to highlight their "A New Dawn" theme, core values, and five priorities.

Navigating Choppy Waters -- notes Ken Lebersfeld, co-owner of this 4th generation business with his brother and two cousins, "we have been seriously impacted by the housing downturn and have navigated our way through some pretty choppy waters. We have made more changes in the last 10 months then in the prior 10 years." This is their first quarterly theme, unveiling the results of their One-Page Strategic Plan.

Keller Sports GbR Sets 90-Day Goals -- another newbie to Rockefeller Habits, Jakob Keller, Managing Partner of Munich-based Keller Sports, noted "after having heard you in Munich (Feb 9), we've implemented the first two 'tools" in our company. First we set up a meeting plan including daily, weekly, and monthly meetings. Second, we set up 90-day goals." Results since launching March 1:

1. We have had about 250 daily meetings since we started and it has only happened twice that someone showed up a couple of minutes late as they are eager to be able to let me know what's up and to share their "where I am stuck -- question."

2. A couple of our employees told us that they wanted to use their holidays, for the days they hadn't been to work due to illness, so they could keep on fighting for the 90 day goals.

3. Employees simply say that they feel much better with the new structures and they now know what they work for specifically.

Get More DONE -- continues Jakob "In terms of performance measurements it might be a little too early as we started on March 1st, but until now I can say that we get more DONE instead of trying to get done many things at the same time -- the feeling of getting something done is something each employee needs as a reward...and the employees are happier and much more motivated than they had been before."

Learn Fast -- Act Fast -- concludes Jakob "next we are going to implement a 'distinct customer feedback' process for every employee of the company (including myself). I am positive this is going to give us great value."

Tom Peters Interview -- and as a follow-up to my review of Tom's new book The Little Big Things, John Cousineau, President of sales-productivity software company Amacus pointed me to David Meerman Scott's 12 minute interview of Tom about the new book. Particularly watch the one minute segment starting at 3:25 (David provides the time coded segments) where he delineates what has and hasn't changed in business the last 30 years.

Interesting Mind-Stretching Stuff -- one of Tom's 163 ideas is to continue to stretch your mind with interesting stuff, so I'm going to add a section to my weekly insights that hopefully does just that for you. My first one is about a "Cheap Portable Wound Healing Device" an MIT grad student developed and is testing in Haiti.

CEO of Zappos Top Three Books; Heath Webcast Time Warning; Driving Top Line Revenue Growth

"...out-learning the competition"

HEADLINES:

Driving Top Line Revenue Growth and Market Share -- what could be more important than this in the coming decade...but first,

Daylight Savings Time Warning -- for those in Europe and Asia looking to view Stanford Professor Chip Heath's LIVE online seminar this Thursday March 25, the time will be an hour earlier for you since the U.S. switched over to Daylight Savings Time sooner than most of the rest of the world (which switches over this coming weekend). Please check your time conversions carefully. The Heath seminar is noon - 1:30pm Eastern Daylight Time. And the seminar will be archived within six hours after the finish so you can view it anytime after that.

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos -- just finished reading his new book Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose yesterday on my flight to London to visit the EO chapter (it's a book you can read in a couple hours). Though not published until June, 2010, Tony was kind enough to send me a galley copy to read in preparation for his keynote at the Sales & Marketing Summit in Vegas (April 20 - 22). After co-founding and selling LinkExchange to Microsoft for $256 while still in his mid-20s (and just 2.5 years in business), he invested in Zappos and 26 other start-ups, becoming CEO of Zappos shortly thereafter. 10 years later, in July 2009, Amazon purchased Zappos for $1.2 billion. If you do the math, Hsieh has averaged over $100 million per year in value creation!

Never About the Money -- though he was always trying to make money as a child (his money making schemes are fascinating, like his button manufacturing business that made him $200/month for many years as a teenager -- I'm reading them to my children when I get home tomorrow), in the end LinkExchange and Zappos were never about the money. In fact, Tony put his last penny into Zappos to keep it going in those early years, a company that almost closed several times. It was always about building a "tribe" and culture into which he could pour his passion and soul. And early lessons from LinkExchange helped shape how the culture at Zappos would be nurtured, what became the key to their success.

Always About the Learning -- an avid book reader himself, one of the three key emphases' at Zappos is learning. Early on in the company, they amassed a library of books. To encourage learning, they listed all the employee's names down the side of a white board and all the books across the top and then kept track of which employees read which books. Still today, at over $1 billion in revenue, learning is a huge key to their success -- seminars, workshops, training, reading, etc.

One of the Three Most Important Books all employees must read during new employee training is Chip Heath's book Made to Stick. The other two are Mark Sanborn's classic The Fred Factor and Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results.

My Favorite Zappos Story -- after reading the book (I can't say much more until it's published) I'm juiced about hearing Tony speak in Vegas. He's one of a handful of huge entrepreneurial success stories of our time. And he promises to be as specific in his keynote as he is in the book, on how Zappos has driven revenue, maintained and built a powerful culture, and built a strategy around delivering an outstanding customer experience -- including my favorite story from the book (p. 99) about his deus ex machina moment in Zappos that was THE do or die moment in the company's history -- when he and his partner Fred went for a drink to figure out a last ditch effort to save the company and ended up outlining a radical new direction that did just that. Some of you might be facing the same moment.

Driving Top Line Revenue Growth and Market Share -- we're a month away from the Sales & Marketing Summit. Registrations are running twice what they were last year this time, so it's obvious many of you understand how critically important it is to drive, hard, your top line revenue growth and grab market share. Eight of the top sales, marketing, pricing, and customer service thought leaders of our time will be in one place for 48 hours. Get someone there to glean the ideas (a leaders MOST important job -- generate ideas!) and stay ahead of the competition and your market.

Tom Peters Highlights; My Best Advice; Key to Happy Employees

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart
	Henry Clay (quoted in The Little BIG)

Tom Peters New Book -- you don't read Tom's book as much as scan it for ideas. And as he suggests himself, probably best scanned while sitting on the toilet! Entitled The Little BIG Things: 163 Ways to Pursue EXCELLENCE, it aligns in philosophy with Chip and Dan Heath's new book Switch -- it's the powerful LITTLE things that make the big difference, not necessarily big things -- there's definitely a common theme resonating as we start this new decade.

Just-Showing-Up -- Peters claims his inspiration for the new book came from reading Tom Stewart's book The Summer of 1787, a day-to-day account of the writing of the U.S. Constitution, the outcome of which was driven mostly by those who showed up (some states sent no delegates, teeny-weeny Delaware sent five who stayed the entire time); showed up with a draft document in tow; and then stuck around from the opening to the closing bell... "and bringing the right temperament to the party," notes Tom. This is an excellent formula for how to control the direction of your own industry -- "show up, control the ink, stick around, be nice."

Excellence -- if Peters owns a word, it's "Excellence" -- and as he declares "Excellence (always capitalized!) is a 'way of life,' a 'way of being' -- not a steady state to be 'achieved'" Or as Anon says, quoting from Peters' book:

	Excellence can be obtained if you:
	...care more than others think is wise;
	...risk more than others think is safe;
	...dream more than others think is practical;
	...expect more than others think is possible.

Print this out and post it everywhere! And always strive for Excellence in all you do.

Favorite Ideas (at this moment):

#3 -- Flower Power -- flowers everywhere in the offices -- unlimited flower budget -- and send flowers to four people that have helped you recently -- they set an important tone

# 16 -- Bottom Line in Bad Times: Obsess Over the Top Line -- that's why sales & marketing are so critical this decade -- suck up every tool you can to power the top line

#22 -- Job One: Amuse Yourself -- if you're not "alive" how can your company and customers be? The key is to take "Internal Vacations" -- stay fresh, stay engaged, learn! Take the day "off." Spend the day in the lab with engineers. Learn about new projects. Monthly devote at least two work days to "far-out stuff" aimed at personal battery recharging. Ray King, founder of AboutUs.org (largest wiki in the world by page count), is spending a month in Barcelona, stepping away from the day-to-day of his third company, recharging and reinvigorating himself and his creativity (happy to help any of you do the same here in Barcelona).

#42/43 -- Work on Your First and Last Impressions -- notes Peters "I feel quite sure that we need constant reminding not just of the Power of First Impressions, but that there is a full-blown Science and Art of the Construction and Execution and Maintenance of Fantastic Beginnings.

Blinding Flashes of the Obvious -- OK, that's about a fourth of the way through the book. It's all "blinding flashes of the obvious" but that's the point. Business and life is about doing a 100 little things right -- and Peters has 163. Order the book, set it next to the porcelain throne, and pick up one good/great idea a day. Excellent work Tom!!

The Secret to Happy Employees -- Scott Nash, founder of MOM's Organic Market, pointed me to this March 9 NY Times blog written by a dear friend Jay Goltz. What is one of Goltz's keys to having happy employees? "I fire the unhappy employees!" (#39 on Peters List!). Take three minutes and enjoy this article.

Fortune "Venture" column -- here is a link to my new column in Fortune magazine (p. 70, March 22 edition) -- I share the six best pieces of advice I've ever given companies to drive their growth. Checkout the unique layout of the column in the paper magazine.

New Gazelles Logo -- using 12designer.com , one of the incubator firms within Grupo Intercom (leading Spanish internet incubator), Gazelles has a new, cleaner, logo with our own new "swish" -- which represents our willingness to bend-over backwards and push you forward in growing your business. Go to www.gazelles.com to take a look! And while there, book an "internal vacation" -- the Fortune Sales and Marketing Summit in Vegas.

Sales Era 3.0; Tripled Top Performers Results; Dana Brown; Hotel Room Update -- Sales Summit

"...out-learning the competition"

HEADLINES:

If people knew how hard I worked to gain my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful.

- Michelangelo

MUST READ the Foreword -- I can't remember a time when I felt the Foreword to a book was so well written and so perfectly summarized a book that I recommended a reader start there...I'll explain below, but first...

Sales per TOP Salesperson Tripled -- it's one thing to improve the sales performance of your average sales person; it's quite another to triple the results of your top performers (from $7 million to over $25 million). This is what Shell Global Solutions achieved between 2004 and 2009 using Jeff Thull's "Diagnostic Business Development" sales approach from his bestselling book Mastering the Complex Sale: How to Compete and Win When the Stakes are High. The 2^nd edition was just released last week (250 of you will be getting copies this week). I'm so impressed by his Sales Era 3.0 approach that I asked him to lead the opening four-hour keynote at the  Fortune Sales and Marketing Summit in Vegas, April 20 -- 22 - the same slot Geoffrey Moore, Neil Rackham, and Victoria Medvec filled at past Summits.

Does Complex Mean Big -- endorsed by almost every sales master in the field, I knew Jeff's sales insights were important, and his body of work, I've discovered, is legendary (two other bestsellers to his credit). My concern was if his sales approach would translate to our world - mid-market growth firms. So I dug into his work. First, complex does not imply big. Maybe Jeff would think I'm oversimplifying, but "complex" is any sale that's not a pure commodity transaction -- and that's most of us! It's where the onus is on us to demonstrate to the customer that our product/service is worth slightly (or a lot) more than our competitors, given our quality, service, benefits, approach, etc. More importantly, it's demonstrating to potential customers that don't even think they need our product/service that it's critical to their business.

Sales Era 1 & 2 -- the Sales Era 1 approach focused on cold calling, presenting, closing, and a strong dose of overcoming objections. Thull likes to describe it as the age of "show and tell," "spray and pray," "cram and jam," and my favorite "grab 'em by the tie and choke 'em 'til they buy" -- tactics I continue to use today! The Sales Era 2 approach is typified by the consultative sale. It starts with the sales person asking questions to learn the customer's view of their problem and what the customer thinks the solution should be. Then salespeople tailor their products/services to match the picture. Needs analysis, listening training, and relationships skill building are part of the training, turning persuaders into credible and trustworthy consultants.

Sales Era 3 -- Thull is quick to point out that Era 2 selling might still be quite effective for many -- so don't mess up a good thing. But if it's not working as effectively as you would like, then your customer might be in Era 3. "The hidden assumption of Era 2 is that customers clearly understand the problems they need to solve and the solutions that are required to solve them," notes Thull. "But it is a deadly assumption for a vast majority of today's complex sales. If your customers have difficulty understanding and quantifying the impact of the problems you solve, and they have difficulty sorting through and understanding the competing solutions, they are squarely in Era 3."

Mini-Case Study -- which brings me back to the Foreword of Thull's book. Order Thull's book and read the nine-page mini-case study of how Shell specifically applied Thull's approach and the results that included reducing their sales force by 60% -- from 110 to 42 -- while increasing their average contract size by 800 percent and tripling revenues -- all between 2004 and 2009. And the diagnostic approach and communication tools were particularly effective with Shell's engineers who often interact with customers in explaining/selling solutions. For many of us, its people other than sales professionals that are key to making a sale and Thull's tools are critical.

Dana Brown -- co-founder of MetaSolv Software, which grew from 2 people to over 1000, $150 million in revenue, $4 billion market cap (IPO), and then acquired by Oracle, Brown was the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) that drove these impressive numbers. Since then she's been CEO or CMO of several successful technology ventures and most recently General Partner for RiverRock Holdings LLC, a boutique private equity firm focused on mid-cap businesses. Brown will be keynoting the Fortune Sales & Marketing Summit in Vegas and her topic will be "The CEO as #1 Marketing Executive." She'll focus on the role of a head of marketing in this situation and share a CMO scorecard to help measure what she's found to be the most overlooked, undervalued, and misunderstood metrics by mid-market CMOs.

Hotel Room Update -- OK, so we've exceeded our room block by over 100% and the really cheap rooms are gone; however, their normal rate is still less than our regular rates at Summits -- and rooms are still available. Optional hotels nearby include the Southpoint Hotel 4 miles away between the M Resort and the airport (good taxi service) and the Hampton Inn & Suites in Henderson, NV which is 2 miles away, but further south from the airport and you'll have to order a taxi. But it's all worth it given the impact on top line revenue you'll garner from the Fortune Sales & Marketing Summit

Richard Branson Lessons; Tom Peters Book; Carlos Slim #1; Vinod Khosla Coral Miracle

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Tom Peters New Book -- released Tuesday and entitled The Little Big Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence -- I'll get it read over the weekend and report the best pages next week.

Bill Gates not #1 -- at least for now, Mexican Carlos Slim is Forbes "World's Richest" worth $53.5 billion. But Forbes noted that without Gates extensive philanthropy, Gates would be worth $80 billion. And a mere dollar rise in Microsoft stock will catapult him ahead of Slim as well. Mark Zuckerburg, founder of Facebook, was again the youngest (25) on the list worth $4 billion. Notable was the significant jump in billionaires in Turkey from 13 to 28 (Istanbul is a hotbed of activity) and the overall jump in Asia. And half the world's self-made women billionaires are from China! Here's a great summary article so you're informed for the weekend cocktail party circuit.

Outstanding Management Talent -- the battle-hardened young leaders that came out of WWII helped lead the greatest economic expansion in U.S. history. One significant positive coming out of the latest wars is the equally battle-hardened and savvy young leaders coming back to the states. And these young leaders have had to fight a quite different war, learning to negotiate and work with diverse cultures among other skills honed in the trenches. It behooves all of us to recruit this talent, which is not going to be scared of a challenging global economy given what they've faced in the theatre of war. One company focused on hiring JMOs (junior military officers) is Wal-Mart, which is hungry for leaders. Take five minutes and read this important Fortune article.

Finding JMOs for Your Firm -- Orion International is one of the leading firms that recruit exclusively military personnel to staff your company. Co-founded by a dear friend and Rockefeller Habits "student" Randy Nelson, he sold the firm to a private equity company in 2007. Today he's now running a fast growth IT staffing firm called NSTAR Global Services.

Hire a Hero -- One of the other outstanding leaders in the field of military hiring is another dear friend and "student" Dan Caulfield. He is currently Chairman of the Board of the Hire a Hero® program operated by the Armed Forces Support Foundation. He was also Managing Director for Helmets to Hardhats. He's also an active angel investor after selling an earlier military recruiting firm to Ross Perot. BTW, Dan and Randy, as JMOs themselves, ran some of the most disciplined companies I?ve ever had the opportunity to know.

Bring Back the Robber Barons -- this article title caught my attention in the Wall Street Journal, but it was the subtitle that spoke volumes "There's a big difference between entrepreneurs who make a fortune in the market, and those who do so by gaming the government" -- what Daniel Henninger calls the Political Entrepreneur. Included in this government-gaming clan are the vast number of financial firms which have simply redistributed wealth vs. create wealth. They are sucking the world dry!

Dreaming the Possible Dream -- it is two Indian-American entrepreneurs -- Vinod Khosla and K.R. Sridhar -- that Thomas Friedman highlights in his inspiring March 6 NY Times column. Vinod, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, is funding Calera, launched by a Stanford professor who's studied coral to learn how to create truly clean energy from coal and gas. Sridhar is founder of Bloom Energy, creator of Bloom Boxes, mini-power plants the size of a small shipping container. Google, Wal-Mart, and other companies are using these to generate cheap power. Take five minutes and become inspired -- and read this article to your children.

What I Learned From Richard Branson -- Rick Sapio, who has spent a total of five weeks with Richard Branson on his island, was probing me yesterday on what I learned from hearing Richard speak at the YPO Global Summit in Barcelona a couple weeks ago. Two things:

1. Virgin is 250 companies run by 250 independent leaders. This structure has allowed Branson to work from home all these years so he could be around his two children -- a point he emphasized twice. It's quantity of time more than quality that matters, if I read the research correctly -- and his comments ended my search for offices in Barcelona -- I'll keep working from home!

2. He said it's time to be bold while others are fearful -- and assets right now are half-price. I've been hoarding cash and it pushed me over the edge to make an income-producing asset purchase I had been delaying.

Most Important Book; Sticky Ideas; Clay Gilbert; Chip Heath Webcast March 25

"...out-learning the competition"

HEADLINES:

Critical Room Situation -- we've already exceeded our room block for the Sales & Marketing Summit, Las Vegas, April 20 -- 22 (the great news). The M Resort is guaranteeing further reservations for the $125 rate through next Tuesday. This doesn't mean rooms at this rate won't be available later, but the hotel is already at 75% occupancy and they tell us the rate jumps to $145 and then higher. The nearest hotels on the strip are 9 miles away and the closest other hotel is 4 miles (we're at a hotel in Henderson, NV because of our activities with Zappos)

Most Important Business Book -- I've already shared my enthusiasm for Chip and Dan Heath's new book Switch (we sent 750 of you copies) -- still the #2 NY Times Business Bestseller and still #3 of all business books on Amazon. Though reviewed in Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Business Week, and hundreds of other places, the San Jose Mercury News had the best review.

Sticky Ideas -- And my favorite paragraph in the review: "The Heaths are 'keen observers of human nature and are gifted at translating observations into -- well, into sticky ideas, ideas that are memorable and actionable,' says Judith Samuelson, executive director of the Aspen Institute's Business and Society Program." The Heath's are truly gifted at teaching business leaders and others how to communicate our ideas and drive the change we want.

New Price -- Chip Heath March 25 Online Seminar -- to encourage as many executives as we can to learn from Chip Heath, award-winning Stanford Professor, we've priced his upcoming March 25 noon - 1:30pm ET online seminar at $99 for individual executives ($495 for an entire company license) -- and this is for access for a year, so watch it over and over. Heath will discuss both of his bestselling books, Switch and Made to Stick. Why not free seminars? See below.

Chip Heath's Impact on Thornton Brothers -- Clay Gilbert, President of Athens, Georgia-based Thornton Brothers, a premier distributor of janitorial, packaging, and safety supplies, sent a kind note on how Heath's book "Switch" has impacted his management of a 70-year old business. Noted Gilbert "Thank you for your kind gift of books over the last few years. I have gained a tremendous amount of knowledge and in some cases awakening. Your newest technique of mentioning a specific chapter to read has accelerated my focus and drawn me into reading books I never would have opened! For instance, chapter 4 in The Business of Happiness has helped me to refocus on what makes me happy. I didn't open the Switch that you sent me last Fall until you mentioned it in a recent 'Insights' with specific chapters to read. I can't tell you how much that book has helped me understand leading and managing change (which our 70 year old company really needs.) There are plenty of other examples - too numerous to mention them all; but I will share one more..."

Additional Impact from Reality Marketing Revolution -- "...your specific direction to read two chapters of Reality Marketing Revolution made me want to buy it. I read it quickly and then hired a marketing assistant on an hourly basis and gave her the book to read. She had helped write the copy for our website and had just been laid off. Since then she has been re-invigorated and started her own communications company. She also continues to write blogs and articles for our website; AND we are finally having a Monthly Marketing meeting as you have suggested for years! Thanks for the gentle nudges!" And thank you, Clay, for being a great student.

Why Not Free -- these online seminars cost us $15k to produce -- and we've chosen to work with the top business authors. We've also chosen to stream video and offer a longer format so you get the depth of their ideas. Others might stream audio and PowerPoints (though we don't know of anyone offering a Chip Heath webcast -- just Googled), but I find it difficult to focus for 90 minutes without a direct view of the presenter -- we think the much higher costs are worth it. And if you participated in all nine online seminars, it will cost you less than $1000/year and keep you ahead of your competition and customers in terms of the latest ideas. We choose to serve those that believe in executive education and want access to the best.

Buffett's Annual Letter Highlights; Jim Collin's Latest Article; Most Admired Company List

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

"Leadership and power are very different ideas. Leadership only exists when people have the freedom NOT to follow."
	Jim Collins, Success Magazine

Warren Buffett's Annual Letter -- published last week, here's a link to this must read annual musing of the wealthiest guy on the planet -- my highlights follow.

"What we don't do" -- after looking at the impressive returns Berkshire Hathaway continues to chalk up -- over 20% compounded for the last 45 years -- turn to page 4 (page 3 on the pdf) of the letter and read through the next few paragraphs based on Charlie Munger's strongest ambition "All I want to know is where I'm going to die, so I'll never go there." Warren outlines how they apply this to their investment decisions.

Warren's $50 million mistake -- then jump to page 8 and read about how Warren, though many claim is old and wise, noted that he's just old! He had a brilliant idea about offering a credit card to GEICO customers, over the objections of GEICO management, and ended up losing $50 million on the idea.

Warren's Use of Company Stock for Acquisitions -- for lessons in acquisitions, skip to page 16 for a lesson on using company stock for acquisitions in the section entitled "An Inconvenient Truth." In essence, it doesn't make sense for them to use stock, which is why they paid cash for Burlington Northern Railroad, since they expect their stock to increase in price and it doesn't reflect true market value. He finishes the section on page 17 with a short story (I love the way Warren tells stories).

Warren's PS -- at age 89, Warren is thankful for the life he's led -- read his final paragraph and then his little PS following his signature! He's always selling, which you have to admire -- and every successful entrepreneur I've ever met is always selling -- if not, then they don't really believe in their product/service.

Apple #1 "World's Most Admired Company" -- Fortune's list just came out and Apple, for a third year in a row, is #1. Google, Berkshire Hathaway (Buffett), Johnson & Johnson, and Amazon round out the top five. Here's a link to the top 50.

Re-Design of Fortune -- today marks the redesign of Fortune magazine, still my favorite business magazine (long before they became our partners) after all these years because of their long-style in-depth articles that give you the "how to" behind the business headlines. Here's a quick overview of the new magazine -- and I'm excited to be one of their handful of columnists, featured in their new Venture section -- something I've dreamed of doing for 30 years. I'll point to my first column when it publishes in the March 22 edition.

Jim Collins on Cover of Success -- and I continue to admire dear friend Stuart Johnson's success with Success magazine, one of my favorite motivational magazine -- I just need some regular "juice" to keep positive and focused. The latest issue features Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and How the Mighty Fall. Check out the short sub-section in the article entitled "Making it Through the Storm." The latest issue also features Pat Lencioni, author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. And then sign-up for the magazine -- just because of the title, your children and staff should see it sitting around the house and in your office.

Marketing is Fun Again; Brian Halligan; Inbound Marketing Chapter 2; Best Video

"...out-learn the competition"

HEADLINES:

London, Dubai, Shanghai -- these are my next stops -- April 8 is a full day "Four Decisions" workshop (updated Rockefeller Habits) in Shanghai; March 23 London and April 6 Dubai finish out my ASEA tour for EO.

"Either write something worth reading about or do something worth writing about."
	Ben Franklin

Inbound Marketing -- above is one of my favorite quotes from Brian Halligan's 2009 bestselling book Inbound Marketing (#1 right now in its space). As David Meerman Scott says "you are what you publish" -- did any of you run out and hire a journalist for your marketing department as suggested last Thursday?

Chapter 2, Table 2.1 -- enthusiastically endorsed by Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, and other marketing thought leaders, go right to chapter 2 of Inbound Marketing entitled "Is Your Web Site a Marketing Hub?" In essence, you need to think of your website as a hub instead of a megaphone. To quote Halligan "what we want you to do is to change the mode of your web site from a one-way sales message to a collaborative, living, breathing hub for your marketplace." This is a critical shift in mindset and design of your website. BTW, he makes the case for not spending a lot of money making the web site look nice. Get the book and particularly focus on Table 2.1 -- and give it to your web designer to read -- we're taking one chapter at a time and applying its ideas to our website, blogs, and social media strategy.

Brian Halligan -- CEO & Founder of HubSpot and Fortune Sales & Marketing Summit keynoter, Brian coined the term "inbound marketing." To again quote Halligan "technology is making traditional (outbound) marketing such as cold-calling, print advertising, T.V. advertising, junk mail, non-solicited email and trade shows less effective and more expensive. On the other hand Inbound Marketing is marketing focused on getting found by customers. Learn how to attract highly qualified customers to your business like a magnet instead of interrupting people with various forms of outbound marketing."

Key Concepts -- I have so many pages of the book electronically dog-eared and noted in my Kindle, but here are some key tidbits (just a sample):

1. Measure the number of links back to your website from other websites and the number of organic keywords that are producing traffic to your site on Google. You can get this information from Web analytics software and online tools.

2. Make your blog a subdomain of your main website ie. blog.wholefoodsmarket.com rather than use the url (like wordpress.com) that comes with your blogging tool. And put a call-to-action at the bottom of every blog post inviting comments. We're making these changes to my blog.

3. To get content for your own blog and build relationships with other bloggers, go to Google's blog search engine and type in the phrase or acronym that best describes your industry. Start clicking on the ones that sound interesting and subscribe.

4. All important images on your web page should include what is known as an "alt" attribute. This is a special code that allows you to describe an image with text in a way that Google can see it.

5. If you want to get more value out of the money you're spending on AdWords, then you should send AdWords traffic to a specific landing page on the topic of the ad, rather than sending them to your generic home page.

6. A good landing page can convert 50 percent of its visitors into qualified leads while a poor one will convert less than 1 percent.

Best Inbound Marketing Video -- Halligan's website has lots of complimentary videos and an eBook. Particularly watch the video entitled "How to Combine SEO, Blogging, and Social Media for Marketing Results" if you're not into reading books. Start at the four minute mark to save you time, skipping the intro stuff.

Marketing is Fun Again! -- in conclusion, Halligan notes "when was the last time you got excited about buying yet another contact list of people you could interrupt? Never, right? Inbound marketing is fun, and with it comes a more rewarding way to live."

Meet Halligan -- he'll keynote the Las Vegas Sales & Marketing Summit April 20 -- 22 -- and remember, those that pre-register earliest with the biggest teams get the best seats (just $250 deposit/seat).

Brian Halligan -- more background

Prior to starting HubSpot, Brian worked as a venture partner at Longworth Ventures where he worked with many small businesses helping them build scalable sales and marketing machines. Brian spent 4 years at Groove Networks where he joined pre-revenue as VP of Sales and grew the business to a $20m annual rate until being acquired by Microsoft. Prior to Groove Networks, Brian worked at Parametric Technology Corporation where he worked in a variety of sales, marketing, and channels functions for over a decade. Brian's most interesting role at PTC was in starting the Pacific Rim organization while living in Hong Kong in 1993. Five years later, Brian was SVP of the Pacific Rim for PTC where he built an $80 million business and had 200 employees. Brian holds a BSEE from the UVM and an MBA from MIT's Sloan School of Management. Brian is an EIR at MIT's Entrepreneurship Center and serves on the board of directors of HOPe and MITX. In his spare time, Brian follows the Boston Red Sox, is learning to play guitar, plays squash, and takes classes at St. John's Seminary.