It's not that I don't like business...I can't stand boring businesses that have no intention of making a dent in the world...or improving it. They are just "getting in the way of the money" with the hope of being chosen. Usually, it's a dearth of creativity/courage, either one - it's ...

Many providers are still relying on their company's viewpoint for their marketing. Since buyers can instantly share information in the 21st century, it is best to adjust heavily toward helping the buyer reach their goals. Buyers want information in specific ways at ideal times to accel...

So, your firm has made the big decision to invest and implement a customer relationship management system. Good for you. Now, it's time to make sure the transition goes as smooth as possible. Communicate and educate. First things first, leadership must communicate this decision to the...

In today's business environment business owners need to be on the cutting edge to be competitive. The goal in this article is to show business owners how easy it is. You don't even have to have a business to benefit from this service. SBICS is showing work at home start ups how to get...

Especially in small business environments, there is a general feeling that if management does not keep it all in check, the business will fall apart. For a moment, let’s assume that this theory is true. By this definition, the more management controls, the better work gets done. Expan...

Social media remains the fastest-growing medium of communication, with Facebook and Twitter leading the charge at astonishing rates of growth. At over 500 million/100 million users, respectively, it is no longer plausible for businesses to ignore the influence of these powerful network...

In the course of building custom software to manage a business process, you’ll frequently find the need for functionality another company has produced and is impractical for you to build. You would never want to recreate a credit card processing gateway, a database of satellite imager...

At the center of each 20th century corporate sale was often the constant feeling that the buyer had to take immediate action. Their platform was burning and the buyer needed to make a decision. The provider would work hard to shove as much biased information down their throats as pos...

For a company to capitalize on that increased market space, they need to incorporate the right supply chain management solutions with cost effective IT business processes to take the greatest share of an increased marketplace. With the retail industry looking for a quick way to grip o...

It is the provider’s marketing leadership that is charged with helping buyers go through their steps. But the big cultural shift is when everyone in the provider’s company decides to be a marketer. Stories are as old as cave drawings it seems. It’s the opportunity to describe what...

A common sense approach to finding a job for the young person you know. Nothing is always true when it comes to people. Admittedly, the representation here of a Millennial candidate and Boomer takes a bit of a poetic license. It’s meant to help the Millennial keep their sense of humo...

Women now account for 50 percent of the U.S. workforce.[i] In 1969, they made up 33 percent of the workforce.[ii] Women have become important breadwinners in the U.S. and now account for 62 percent of college associates’s degrees, 57 percent of bachelor’s degrees, 60 percent of all mas...

Mark Twain was credited with saying, "I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead." People figured out long ago that a letter with fewer words, though more powerful, was more difficult to write. It seems technologists only now are beginning to learn that l...

However much to my chagrin, spillage did occur and gas soaked through the blanket so much that I was lucky not to have passed out from the fumes! Once I got close to the scene I was shocked to see a police car with flashing lights and a wrecked van in the grassy median and immediately...

A study run by online business networking service www.MeettheBoss.com shows that executives are spending an extra 11 hours a month online sharing their professional experiences and learning from their peers. The survey asked its executive users what direct value they gained from spendi...

Today, after a six month sales cycle that included extensive relationship building, expensive marketing strategies and a detailed return on investment analysis that revealed a monthly savings of $ 13,347 per month (net after the expense of my new proposal), the client shared that she w...

I have a client with a “twitic.” A customer who, on Twitter, will criticize and say absolutely vulgar things about the company and his dealings with it. A customer that refuses to consider limitations of contracts and instead resorts to blameshifting and voicing of unrealistic expectat...

Recently I had the pleasure of speaking with Peter Coffee, of eWeek fame. Peter, as industry veterans may be aware, was eWeek’s Technology Editor, and is now Director of Platform Research for Salesforce.com, a leader in cloud computing. Our conversation began with my blatant attempt a...

For some time now I have been tracking the change in popularity of the top open source platform and I noticed a curious trend. At the beginning of the year ADempiere ERP was the top open source project. Looking down the list you would have found PostBooks at 8, Openbravo ERP at 9, webE...

During a speaking engagement to a Fortune 500 company I told the story of a Sales Manager who I knew, that gained invaluable insight regarding the importance of a establishing a strong team - during a health challenge, he’d experienced years earlier. The health issue came about very s...

There's been a lot published and dissected over the value and methods for successful corporate blogging, and the intersections between corporate and employee use of social media. What's not been discussed much is the application of Systems Engineering Methodology, within the Informatio...

Over the weekend I went through this process to check out a prospective partner, and ran into some good news and bad news. The good news is that this company has clearly embraced the idea of expanding its footprint by using a variety of offline and online marketing tactics and propert...

Most companies pay a lot of attention to their homepage. But, with search results driving a majority of click through, what happens when your website visitors come in through the back door via an internal page? All of your web pages must establish context to keep your visitors from bou...

This clear energy focus can be the difference between a high performer and someone with a job at the individual level. At the company level, the difference can show up as profit.

In Q2’09, the total notebook PC market posted strong Q/Q and Y/Y growth as units surged past the 38 million mark, as reported in the DisplaySearch Q3’09 Quarterly Notebook PC Shipment and Forecast Report. The mini-note PC (netbook) market was particularly strong, growing 40% Q/Q, which...

It will take you twenty times to learn this move – New students come into class and see all of the Hapkido techniques on sheets on the wall. The list is intimidating to say the least. Korean terminology, foundational moves, nuanced techniques and sometimes small notes written in pen on...

This is Lesson No. 3 of a Continuing Series on How Martial Arts Skills can be Applied to Business. There are no short cuts – a Hapkido master told me this and thank goodness there are people in the world who still believe this. Stop trying to be clever and instead focus on earning real...

This is Lesson No. 4 of a Continuing Series on How Martial Arts Skills can be Applied to Business. A million lessons everyday – Everyone you meet, everything that happens to you is a lesson. In Hapkido, every class brings either someone who knows more than you or someone who has taught...

Despite a down economy, we continue to see investment in SFA. With shrinking sales resources and market opportunities, investing in technology to automate critical sales processes may be the only alternative to still meet sales targets. The economy has affected vendors in different way...

In this new era of marketing, communications must focus on creating a dialogue, not just keeping in touch. If your marketing programs are only focused on the top of the funnel, you're missing a lot of opportunities. That's because the funnel is now more like a cylinder. It takes contin...

Be Present – Woody Allen (will he ever again be mentioned in a martial arts article? Doubtful) once said that 80% of life is showing up. He was right. If you don’t show up to class, you can’t learn. Sure you can stay at home and practice the moves, but nothing replaces having a real pe...

Remember the "good old days" when we sat around and waited for the marketer to tell us where the value was? Even if we didn't believe them, they would throw money at it and pound on us until we decided that there must be something there. Now the marketers have to fight the joined voice...

If your B2B lead nurturing strategy consists of one-off sends focusing on the topic of the moment, you need to re-think your marketing approach. This article examines why the one-off approach doesn't work and gives you an exercise for planning a nurturing program for extended engagemen...

At times, do you think you're a Superman or Wonder Woman? Pitted in a daily struggle between the IT department and the business units? We all know that IT managers juggle a number of hats and scramble to put out dozens of fires, and truly can be a superhero to their organizations. B...

Bernie Borges' new book: Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap between Seller and Buyers through Social Media Marketing. Bernie's book aims to give a macro view of social media marketing with a focus on "what it is" and "how" small and medium size businesses (SMB) can develop a strategy, imp...

Developing your initial list of potential ERP vendors is a critical step in the ERP selection process. Your initial list of potential ERP suppliers will serve as the basis for which suppliers you will send Request for Information (RFI) documents. Suppliers’ responses to the RFI will in...

Gartner reported that the overall Customer Relationship Management software business had grown 12.5 percent in 2008. But the two clear winners for growth were Microsoft and Sa...

FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) has just published an article on Avoiding Investment Scams which is available below: FINRA Avoiding Investment Scams This article is six pages long, and depending upon your perspective, either teaches you how to run an investment sc...

Every single piece of marketing content needs to be designed to achieve a goal. That goal should include delivering on the promise your title or associated messaging sets in the mind of your audience. Otherwise it's just blowing hot air that diminishes prospect interest. Use these tips...

We've all experience "mosquito marketing." You know what I mean - those hit and run messages you ignore because they're more irritating than valuable. Becoming a trusted expert is now the prerequisite for catching your leads' attention. Email marketing takes more than hitting send. Fin...