The Future of Business Development

Three important points about strategic vs tactical decision making: -

1. The Future vs the Past. In very much the same way that we cannot accurately predit the future it is important to realize that the past is disconnected in very much the same way. There is no way to step back into the past and be able to fully tap into the emotions and conflicting motivations that have lead to today. This is not to say that attempting to understand how one action triggered another is a complete waste of time. However it is appropriate to consider that the "lessons" of the past may not be particulalry useful for new challenges in the future.

2. Planning. From a business planning perspective understand that when an "expert" predicts the +/- range of swing in the DJIA for tomorrrow there is some high probability that he will be right. On the other hand anyone who provides a five year plan with fixed numerical outcomes is a complete gamble. From the perspective of business success there are often huge (lucky!) rewards when there is a balance between being able to manage day-to-day dynamic challenges while reserving some resources to actively prepare for low probability market changes and needs.

3. The Black Swan. This blog post is like a 30-sec summary of a really great book. If at all possible read a copy before the new global econmy starts in Jan.!

Amazon Link

Technology Marketing

Certainly the distribution of technology-oriented communities throughout the USA is uneven. A recent study from Milken can be found here Before I say much more, its important to be clear that I'm not suggesting that technology-orientation be the primary goal for all states. Ideally each community has opportunities to adopt portions of available technology that helps them improve their traditional positive patterns of living.

This reminds me of meeting an Amish family on the side of the road as I cycled through Iowa one time! More about that later...

Ultimately if we (you & I) are on the technology development side of the scales we have the naturally tendency to dive into a bunch of tech advantages we have compared to other suppliers. We offer better Security, Speed, Reliability, Services etc... when we should be able to speak to the needs of complex communities and the values we can produce.

It sounds so simple. And yet even the AMA (American Marketing Association) has estimated that Marketing collaterals are not used by Sales teams in approximately 90% of sales processes.

There are huge numbers of business opportunities for technologists in Tech States to produce dramatic results in non-Tech States. The challenge is to remember how to speak face-to-face!

Business Effectiveness of Video emails

On Tuesday I had an opportunity to meet with a client down in Visalia. As you may know Spring is in full swing here in California so I jumped at the chance. During the drive down I passed near the San Luis resevoir - it is just magnificent at this time!

But how can I most effectively communicate this to you? Clearly a well crafted narrative is one approach, perhaps with pictures, but better yet how about some video?!! I want to be able to reach out to you on every sensory channel. What it looked like, how it sounded, how the newly covered green hillsides smelled!

The same is true in Sales & Marketing communication. My goodness, how have we reached the point where I actually begin to appreciate the spam from a Kenyan banker because he included a picture of the chest of money he is attempting to get through customs! We send out tons of text-based blather and are elated if we get a 1% response.

One solution that is breaking new ground is here - video-embedded email. The raw technology to deliver this has been around for a while but it hasn't been offered as a well packaged service that I know of.

The guys at Point Marketing have done a nice job.