The Page 23 Meme

Posted on by under Etc.

I thought this was fun one to join in on.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

The government, so overwhelmed by the scale of the movement, decided to let Christiania stand as a social experiement – Lonely Planet, Denmark

More on Christiania…

[via Crossroads Dispatches]

Selling Chopper Style

Posted on by under Sales

Last night, I was watching TLC’s Faking It. Here is the show’s premise from the website:

Ever wonder what it would be like to have another profession? Well, you’re certainly not alone. Our Faking It participants, for one reason or another, have decided to turn their worlds upside down. With much guidance from professional mentors, our fakers attempt to prove that they’re the real deal. Can they fool the real pros? Or will they be called out as imposters?

In this episode Clark, an associate Episcopal minister from Maine, is transported to Las Vegas and in four weeks, Clark is transformed from preacher man to car salesman. The senior minister at Clark’s church wanted him to feel more comfortable talking to people and thought this would be a good way of doing it. His mentors are Chopper (owner of Towbin Dodge, the #1 used car dealership in Nevada) and Chilly Willy, the sales manager.

I thought it was a good lesson in selling. So let me present Chopper’s Rules for Selling:

  1. Excitement is infectious – Chopper is always creating an environment were people are having a good time. On the weekend, there are cookouts and clowns. Every person that buys a car gets to strike a gong and is cheered by the entire staff. Happy people are more willing to buy.

  2. Know your stuff – You have to know what you are selling. Chopper was giving Clark binders of stuff to read about cars. What how much horsepower does this have? How big are the wheels on this? I think it is what Scoble was talking about this weekend. Being an authority helps you sell.

  3. Provide incentives – Saturday is the big day the dealership. 60% of sales happen on Saturday. Chopper offers a diamond watch to the top salesman of the day. He has cash sitting on the table and tells everyone you will go home with cash in their pocket if they sell cars. He is providing rewards that people can associate directly with their actions. Chopper even goes to church with Clark after the minister wins a challenge of landing three test drives in a single day. That also shows the importance of knowing how to motivate different people.

  4. Track progress – On a typical Saturday, 150 prospects will sit down to talk about buying a car. Each prospect is tracked by name, what they are buying and how they found out about the dealership. Each salesman (and they are all men) is tracked on his ability to close dealings. Their continued employment depends on it. The close rate is about 30%.

  5. Final words – The night before the final challenge, Chopper invites Clark over to the house for dinner. Clark is very anxious about the next day and Chopper says “I just want you to remember these three things – Relax, listen, and be yourself.”

There is a 25 minute video on Chopper’s website that is taken from A&E “It’s a Living”. Chopper and the dealership were featured on an episode focused on selling.

P.S. Clark was able to fake out two of the three judges and the third couldn’t believe he had only be selling cars for four weeks. I think he had good teachers.

NYT covers BloggerCon II

Posted on by under Business Blogs

Juile Faherty writes an article in today’s New York Times about BloggerCon II. The article focuses on the business potential of blogs and advertising again rises to the number one position for revenue generation.

There is too much emphasis on advertising and blogs. I realize that Adwords and BlogAds have created the possibility of instant micropublishing. I realize that when mainstream media reports on our corner of the world that they are going to report from their perspective – newspapers and magazines create content and then sell advertising. I also realize that people are finding success and that makes a good story.

Let me offer another perspective.

  • My blog gives me credibility. It has allowed me to pursue projects that would not have been possible without it.
  • My project with KaosPilots has been moderately successful. We have sold a dozen $42 books in about the same number of days. Here we built off the PR from Fast Company, bought a couple of Adwords, and took advantage of the fact that Google likes weblogs.
  • I have landed a gig where I am developing and providing content for a company’s external weblog. I’ll post more on that soon. Bottom line: I am getting paid to blog!

There are lots of way to make money blogging. I would not say any of my methods are particularly novel, but I just wanted to show some alternatives.

Carnival of the Consumers

Posted on by under Business Blogs

Jeff Doolittle has put together the Carnival of the Consumers. In his own words:

The purpose of this new Carnival is to share your experiences with the products you interact with each day. Whether it is a car, computer, guitar, or cleaning product, this is your chance to tell the world what you love/hate about something you’ve purchased in the past 3 months. What did you pay for the item? Where did you purchase it? Would you recommend the product to others? How does it compare to competing products? Tell us all about it.

There are some further guidelines on the index page.

I think it is a cool idea. With the growing mistrust of online reviews at places like Amazon, blogs become a source of information from known identity. Companies would be smart to pull these reviews together on each of their own sites. I like this Carnival because you get a smorgasbord in each edition.

[via Branding Blog]

BlogRunner

Posted on by under Business Blogs

I was following some links through the Amazon’s new A9 search engine. I found some references on to a site called BlogRunner. I followed the link and found everything from my blog was basically available from their site. Check it out.

It looks like the site is tracking lots of blogs and trying to keep track of conversations going on.

Wayne, we need your insight.

Is anybody else familiar with this site and what they are trying to do?

Failure from KaosPilot A-Z

Posted on by under Small Business

This passage from KaosPilot A-Z reinforces what I and others have said about entrepreneurship outside the US.

In the US it’s no catastrophe if your company goes bust. On the contrary. If you have the right enterprising approach to life it’s almost expected that you’ve been through a bankruptcy or two – if you really want to make something of yourself. In Scandinavia the exact opposite is true. If an entrepreneur’s company goes bust the entrepreneur in question is branded as risky business by their bank, friends, partners and maybe even their family. And you need more than good persuasive talents if you want a second chance.

The entry goes on to talk about how the school is trying to create an environment where students can succeed and fail.