Creativity and stress don’t mix.

The first insight to being effectively creative is to understand that real creativity and stress cannot occupy the same space at the same time.  Sure we’ve all seen someone blow out an idea or two under pressure but doing so always leaves lots to be desired.  We always come up with our best ideas when we are relaxed, which is why most people have their best ideas while on vacation.

So as we can see the idea of hurrying up and thinking of a good idea for a last minute sale would not go down on the overly smart list.  We may pull out the month but we’ll leave ourselves in the same spot for next month and from there we go into that whole definition of insanity thing.  When recovering from stress and overstimulation, you are in the perfect moment to be ultimately productive and profitable with your creative thoughts.

So then how would you motivate others within the business to be create or how would you monitor the manager that is in charge of the advertising to make sure that they are tapping into all their potential?  One thing you can do is to never be or ask anyone else to be creative after a sales meeting.  Sales meetings are motivational which implies stress. 

Side Note:

The reason motivational meetings typically induce stress and thus reduce creativity is because the individual is what we call at the lower levels of the success band.  The first success band is called “Determination” or “Positive 1”.  It’s where the mind tries to recover from a period of lesser success by forcing itself to succeed by putting itself into the stressful and eventually destructive state of determination.  Determination leads to “Positive 2”, which is the state of “Carelessness”.

Carelessness exists to try and recover the mind from being determined as its primary fuel for success.  While it’s a higher condition of existence than “Determination” it leads to failure if the person does not have the techniques for jumping past “Carelessness” and into “Positive 3”, which is “Conserving”.  This is done through a specific success action recall interview process that moves the individual into the higher bands and into stable, predictable in the future.  This ugly cycle of determination and carelessness can be seen every time a salesperson or business has good months followed by bad months or successful advertising followed unsuccessful campaigns. 

Ok back to advertising & creativity.

Now that we are in a creative mental space, let’s look at some philosophical shortcuts to a profitable advertising message.

1. Embrace the offensive.  If you want your message to be clear then be willing to mildly offend 15% of your audience.  Bold statements are some of the things that the mind does not expect and it is the unexpected that keeps the audience keyed-in to your message the necessary six seconds it takes to make a lasting impression.  I don’t mean be theatrical I mean be bold. Theatrics in automotive advertising are expected and it’s difficult to keep the minds attention when they’ve seen and heard it before.  

1. Take the leap of faith between business mathematics and creative advertising.  Decisions in marketing that are made purely from a calculator and a pencil is vulnerable at best.  The advertising industry presents itself as a science for the slide rule and pencil pushers.  Learn to separate fact from fiction.  Advertising is an art propelled by medium, which results in an audience. Defining the audience is the only place a calculator should be used.  Leave the painting to the canvas.

1. Trust your message over the medium of delivery.  In today’s marketplace we are constantly being dazzled with new innovative mediums to deliver our message.  Electronic billboards, online blogs and highly integrated sponsorships to name a few.  Remember the medium of delivery is not your message.  Your message is the message.  The medium is and always has been just the catalyst.

1. Avoid Risk and Perish.  In times of change the biggest risk is to take none at all.  They key of course is calculated risk.  Just don’t get stuck on the “calculated” part or it really becomes a sham to make yourself feel like a risk taker.  Risk is a shared thing in most organizations.  Learn to take risks that are calculated but still greater than your competition is willing to take and in the long run you will succeed.

1. Pick a rope and climb it.  Taking a list of every perceivable quality that a business thinks they should have then trying to be all things to everyone inevitably results in meaning little to anybody.  Most political candidates that fail at the polls, in the final analysis do so as the result of trying to be liked by everyone.  Deciding what you want your business’s brand to stand for must stem from real beliefs that you can stand behind at all times.  Most consumers don’t like you anyway so make the ones that do your friends for life by picking a rope and climbing it.

1. Pick a fight with other businesses.  To stand out from the scores of nasty advertising that exists in this industry, you need to position yourself against the competition.  Taking a stance is a good thing for any business’s own brand and image.  Pick something that is considered an alternative choice to your business’s message, values or selling proposition then pick up a club and start swinging.  Do it tastefully and with style and you’ll win the hearts and minds of the public.

1. Don’t ever think you can win by out spending the competition.  The only way businesses get to the point where they can out spend anyone is by first out thinking them.  Spending to much will temp you into making bad decisions.  As an example, in every market that our company is in we easily leverage a $20,000.00 advertising budget into what any other business in town would have to spend $80,000.00 to get.  Then based on ad placement and message, we leverage it 3X over again.  That’s a $240,000.00 budget on $20,000.00 in real money, which is all the result of outthinking not out spending.  Grow into your ad budget with certainty while still taking risks for real long-term success.

While there are countless qualities of a successful business, some apply to your business more than others. Here’s what is on our radar for 2010.

Sales

The biggest factor for increasing sales in 2010 will be seen in a business’s ability to limit “cross line communication”. Every time someone pulls another off task to communicate non productive data, down time is the result.  70% of the average person’s day consists of pulling or being pulled off task.  Hold a class on it, label it and have your employees sign an anti cross line communication policy.   Remember confronting out ethics is 80% of eradicating it from your environment.  Stay away from paying more to get more. 

Money is the least effective motivator of man kind.  Duty is the most effective.  Sounds crazy but it’s a fact.  Create a company culture and live by it. You’ll find that beyond a certain income level, your employees families won’t spend nearly as much time explaining their income as they do explaining what they actually do for a living.  Finally have patients. In 2010 businesses that pencil their lives on a 30 day plan are going to get slaughtered by businesses with longer term visions.

BDC vs. the Internet Department for 2010

This is becoming a real issue nationwide.  Either use a BDC (Business Development Center) business wide or skip it. If a little BDC is good then more is better.  The reason they work is because the best people on the phone are usually the worse in person.  If considering a BDC for 2010 look carefully before signing on with an outsourced operation wielding an auto dialer like a sword. You can’t auto dial greatness any more than you can obtain salvation through better golf equipment.   Internet departments by contrast are now jack of all trades often made up computer savvy hotel concierges turned salesman.  

Then there are the real pro’s who are worth their weight.  Internet managers manage a relationship from start to finish, while a BDC should be comprised of people so good at getting people on the phone and in the business that watching them makes you dizzy.  Internet departments make more sense when the way a sale is made is more important than how many are made and the reverse is true of a BDC.  

Both can produce equal customer satisfaction scores but one is a padded leather chair for the imaginary internet customer and the other is a sales weapon.  So if deciding on a BDC make sure not to blow your foot off.  You can manage Internet departments with great predictability, which is a major benefit.  BDC’s by contrast are more risky and chalked with incredibly out dated sales systems but can double a business’s volume in short order if set up correctly.

Management

In the final quarter of 2009 U.S. payrolls are increasing at a steady pace.  In 2010 businesses that know how to maximize existing employees will prosper.  While leaders rally others to a better future, managers know how to discover a person’s talent and exploit it by posting them on the best job for their talent. I call this the ability to “Discover, Develop and Direct”.  This skill will be essential in 2010.

Advertising

In 2010 I’m advising our businesses to get a grip and get out of print.  I know its co-op friendly for some but so what.  Buy a stable schedule and stick with it. Go gorilla!  Most ads are designed not to offend, design yours to win.   2010 is a political year and you’ll hear it from every ad rep in town.  Don’t listen to it.  Focus on investment per item sold and make your budget work.  Steer clear of local ad agencies.  They’re taking your best ideas to your competitors as you read this and they’re horrible at negotiating good buys. 

Yes that goes for your agency too.  Bottom line with local agencies is the media outlet means more to them than you do. 2010 will bring a crash in agency business and they’ll end up doing anything to sign up your competition for can of cat food. So if you need a friend, buy a dog, if you need help negotiating take a class and if you need help managing media hire a temp. In 2010 blitz one source followed by another but based on a brilliant plan.   Make your buys in Dec for 12 months in 2010 then have them guarantee no bumps.

There’s a way to do this that is incredibly effective.  Stay away from afternoon drive times because in 2010 everyone will be talking on their cell phones when they leave work due to new laws surrounding headsets.   Stay away from paid streaming media.  Every business’s ad budget I’ve ever looked at was paying 300% more than they needed to. Every one!  So sharpen you pencil, know what you want, know what you don’t need and know how to negotiate to get everything you ask for.  Don’t hit on your ad reps.

Recruiting

It always comes down to people and those of us that have the best one’s stand the best chance of success.  Company culture in 2009 was surveyed as the #1 deciding factor of prospected top talent.  Leverage your best employees to reach out for you.  Use emotional intelligence. Research indicates that one of the worst employment moves a business owner can make is disengaging from the hiring process.  Keep new hire’s eyes on long-term opportunity over short-term gain.  Never over leverage your pay plan.

Employee Motivation

Leverage your perks. Pay and commissions are expected, but perks are not. Perks are concrete confirmations the organization recognizes that an employee went the distance. Have your admin staff work with local vendors to trade for perks.  You give me a free dinner to give away and I’ll give you a free oil change etc.

Training

A certain percentage of your net should be earmarked for training.  The lower you’re closing percentages the more your training budget should be because you have the most to gain the fastest.  The better your performance the less you allocate because the goal is to maintain and discover.  When stats are down you are in a “Danger Condition” because you are the effect of your competition, which places your business at risk.  Get smart and get better trained but know how much to spend, when and with whom.  You want to approach your training budget with certainly not speculation.

With that said have a prepared 2010.

Remember that that when you invest in top level SEO, SES (Search Engine Saturation™) that a larger percentage of your customers will be Internet customer or e-customers.  It’s critical to know the difference between these and customers that originate from off-line sources.

Tip #1: Know what kind of e-customer you’re dealing with. 

When going for your next long term customer know who you’re dealing with.  Some e-customers are flexable while others are more resistant.  The difference between these two types of customers is what I call pubic “A” and public “B”. 

Tip#2: Position your self in the driver’s seat as the expert you are.

The strong-hold for e-customers is information.  Put your self back in the position of the expert.  You and your staff know more about the right way to buy your product or service than almost any customer could ever know.  Don’t become the “effect” of their knowledge or misinformation.  Be courteous but strong.

Tip #3: Open a can of websites: 

What websites have they visited?  E-prospects can emotionally lock-up. Usually when this happens, the customer is holding some information that they obtained online.  Ask about experiences they’ve had online.  Ask where they inquired and then survey their satisfaction with other sources.  When dealing with a research intensive shopper you will find this helps them more than you.

Tip #4: Get the prospect from online to phone line fast and to the appointment without delay.

Everyone knows, the faster the customer gets in front of you or you in front of them the better your chances of doing business are.

Tip # 5: Explain e-Tail vs. Retail.

Visually show the customer in person, the difference between a retail price and an Internet price, which is usually lower, side-by-side.

Tip #8: Decode their e-mail address.

For example an e-mail address like mudflaps@aol.com belonging to a female looking for a mini van, may very well be a home maker seeking to convince her husband to trade in the truck for a mini van.  Pay attention to .net, .org, .cc and corporate domain extensions.  Free e-mail may be used by people that lack sales confront or are at work usually on someone else’s time.

Tip #9: Use your cell phone to everyone’s advantage including the customer.

Giving your cell number demonstrates that you invest time and money in order to communicate.  Just find a good call plan.

Tip #10: Make the Internet appointment stick.

The relationship that starts healthy stays healthy.  Give your e-customer a reputation to live up to. Next make them verbalize their commitment.  Now get the duration of the appointment nailed down.  Next create a sense of obligation and then a sense of dependency.  Create a mental picture of a completed cycle of action.  Finally ask them specifically what would have to happen for them not to make it. 

If they respond quickly with “if something drastic comes up etc.”, then you’re fairly safe not to waste yours or their time.  If they hesitate and mutter around then re-trace your steps, build a stronger relationship then re-confirm again. Obviously there is a great deal more to this training but you get the idea.

11 Sensible Tips For Peak Sales Performance

Tip 1.  Separate the industry being slow from you being slow.  Only when times are slow in your specific business are you tempted to pay too much attention to the market.  Keep yourself from being sucked into the crowd as this inhibits your ability to hold you or your team accountable for much of anything. When that happens you are being the effect of your market.  You need to learn to be the cause not the effect if you’re going to flourish in down times.

Tip 2.  Own the reality that market share is market share.  In any given month more products and services are sold in the worst of markets than you have sold in your best month.  How much market share would it take for you to be successful in a down time?  You’ll find that if you do the math there is more hope than most would think.  As long as there is a market to have a bigger share of there is a path to success.

Tip 3.  Be comfortable taking market share.  No one wants to see their competitor’s kid go to a crappy college because you cleaned their clock.  Get comfortable with the idea and don’t just tell yourself you’re cool with it because most psychological evaluations of business owners show this to be a major issue.  In our business we pick only one business per market area, declare our loyalty and then I go to work on the competition.  Until I started asking about this hot button, I found that often businesses would actually feel bad about what I was doing to their buddies across and down the street.  Science isn’t going to start experimenting with the idea of giving artificial birth to Test Tube Car Buying Babies anytime soon so get used to taking the market share you need.

Tip 4.  Don’t use money to manipulate the sales staff into performing better.  Believe it or not money is the least effective motivator in the world.  Duty by contrast is the highest.  Debate all you want and the facts are still the same.  Ask anyone who has a career that puts their life at risk if they do it for the money and you’ll learn quickly that it just doesn’t stir the motivational Koolaid.  When times are down and you’re trying to rally peak performance, you need to inspire a sense of duty, community and teamwork.  Money will follow.

Tip 5.  Leave the pay plan alone unless you’re positive it’s the right move.  One of the most successful businesses I’ve ever seen or heard about changed his pay plan in 2001 during a dismal season.  He changed a sales bonus level from 18 cars to 20.  Within 72 hours he lost 90% of his top performing sales people, which lead to the managers and so on.  6 years later they still have not had a single month at the volume of their average month prior to the holocaust.  Always remember the golden rule.  Never ever mess with the pay plan in poor times.

Tip 6. Tap into your archive deals and orphan owners database like a keg at a frat house.  Most businesses could live off this list for 2 years if they knew how to effectively work it. 

Tip 7.  Effectively handle your finance customers if you have them.  During down times this is an area that can make all the difference but you have to approach it the right way.  It’s not a quick fix and businesses that take the shot gun approach to financing can make a mess in a hurry.

Tip 8.  Join a dang business 20 group!  If your goal is to take yourself down any other road than the “business as our forefathers did it” path, then you need to be in a progressive business 20 group. I’m not talking about the factory groups.  I’m talking about the cool kind.  I’ve never met a business that was active in 20 groups that wasn’t successful and wise beyond their years.  It’s a happy hour investment and just a common sense requirement in down times or any other time for that matter.  A good 20 group defines the meaning of “I need you to help me to help you to help yourself.”

Tip 9.  Mystery shop the competition personally and make it a requirement for everyone else.  Remember that with low tides come low markets and low markets require more market share if your going to win.  The biggest common sense key to getting started down the “club the competition” path is to put your self in a position to know exactly which club to use.

Tip 10.  Know the truth about goal setting.  A goal is typically a number you’ve never hit before or hit during certain conditions or during certain months etc.  Most people look at goals as unattainable even if they’re not that lofty.  The more the goal is glamorized the less chance you have of hitting it.  It’s just one of those psychological things.  So how do you hit the goal?  Raise it. If you have a goal of hitting 200 units, raise it to 250 even if the store hasn’t come close.  Launch a couple of initiatives and announce that 200 is just no longer an acceptable Super Bowl ring.  Change all the internal promo and you’ll find that you hit your original goal much faster even in down times.

Tip 11.  Remember most businesses that comprise your competition will be dealing with down times by over stressing the sales staff, which leads to anxiety, which in turn leads to poor performance.  While they’re inside brow beating each other remember that the customers are outside and focus your efforts accordingly and you’ll win big.

The Secret of Knowing When To Return eMails & Phone Calls

Are you or is someone you know sluggish at returning phone calls and emails?  I think most of us could answer yes about others and ourselves at times.  Here’s a fresh perspective to add to you think tank. Developing it has made a massive difference in my relationships.

Active Waiting vs. Passive Waiting:

Active Waiting: To maintain a state of poised readiness in anticipation of an event.

Upon sending someone a communication of any type, you go into what we call “Active Waiting.”  You maintain a state of poised readiness in anticipation of a return email or phone call.  In business when communication comes from an individual that has the power to make you money, you never want to let them go pass the point of Active Waiting before firing off some sort of reply.  Even if the reply is a note that you will get back to them is a good start.  This keeps them in active waiting, which means that making you money is on the top of their priorities.

Passive Waiting:  Doing nothing except waiting for the event to arrive. 

Once a person goes beyond active waiting they fall into Passive Waiting.  This usually takes place between 6 and 24 hours depending on the level of intensity associated with the communication.  Passive Waiting is a position in which the individual doing the waiting becomes more the effect of the return communication rather than an active, profitable participant in it.  If you send someone a communication and move into passive waiting prior to getting a response it ends up being detrimental to the other party.

Stress and Timed Release:

I define stress as a force that distorts a things true shape or form.  When dealing with someone under stress you are not dealing with the individual while in their true shape or form.  Stress induced by time is the most common form of stress.  When a person is in Active Waiting after sending you a communication there is an internal building of stress that develops when the reply goes beyond an anticipated period of time.  Ever sit at a red light thinking it should have changed already.  Almost without thinking about it a person will lean forward in his seat, check both directions and check the rear-view mirror.  All of these are physical expressions of the internal stress that is building.  We have all sat and listened to an answer to a question that is taking too long.  We begin to sigh, tap our feet, and cut in.  Once again these are all expressions of the internal building of stress.   

If, for example, you are sending out communication to a co-worker whom has the ability to generate income from your efforts but return communication is slow, stress will build.  You will find yourself not as motivated to assist this person even if it is a part of your job description as engaging with them equals stress.  This can cause a downfall for an entire team because when we talk about teamwork we’re talking about two subjects; Agreement and communication.

How we subconsciously gauge who’s calls & emails to return and when:

Typically, if we’re talking about communication that exists between people with an ongoing business or employer / employee relationship, our return phone call & email are based about 80% on the following factors.

1)      Convenience

2)      Priority of information received

3)      Respect for the sending party

4)      Perceived control over the sending party.  How much do they need you vs. you need them etc.

5)      Perceived internal consistency.  What you believe their opinion is of your ethical standards as a person.

Here is the number one reason used for not returning communication that is in actuality false by definition.

1)      Being Busy

If we’re going to implement a winning personal communication practice and be a true leader within our areas of influence, then this is one of those false datum’s that we want to shake.  Let’s think about it…  Busy doing what?  Communicating most likely, which means we should be saying, “I’m too busy communicating to communicate with you.” 

That doesn’t make any sense and what’s worse is that most of the people we’re saying that to automatically know that but they just don’t know how to verbalize or won’t.   Here’s a fun experiment.  Ignore your spouses for about three days and then tell them that you were just too slammed at the office to talk with them.  Let’s see how well that goes for you. 

The error in the thinking is the natural assumption that people automatically understand our challenges and priorities.  They don’t.  They just assume they’re not important and as a result stop making you the amount of money as would otherwise be possible.  If we’re clamoring for every ounce of profit we can get our hands on then this scenario would go down on the bad idea list.  I submit that if we can’t even go a short time without communicating with our family who understands our challenges better than anyone, without a detailed explanation, then why would we think the rest of our relationships are going to get it? 

“He who successfully handles the most communications in the shortest period of time typically realizes the most success financially and with their personal relationships. “

The biggest challenge most people have is with emails.  My advice is to take you Inbox at the end of every day and move all answered emails to an answered emails folder.  That way everything you see in your inbox is traffic that is un answered.  I like to keep voice mails as new until answered because once I feel the urge to save it and put it on the back burner I know that the individual who left me the message is about to go into Passive Waiting on me.

Right to Communicate:

Communicating is a privilege.  People don’t automatically have the right to communicate with us but often they think they do.  Call it entitlement issues.  What we’re talking about here is communication with existing relationships.  The idea of this concept is not to return every communication from everyone in the universe.  If you’re in charge of a large ship you should have levels set up and gate keepers to filter new opportunities with new people.  Once you allow someone in your inner circle, the idea is to continually integrate the relationship to the next level.  This doesn’t mean that you have to spend Christmas together or fly clear across the country 4 times a year. 

While everyone has their personal concept of good communication or of the ideal make-up of the best relationships, what’s really only needed is quite simple.  The key is to communicate frequently by any means necessary and to keep both parties in active waiting.  This is the only thing required to improve the profitability of any relationship from any distance on a daily basis.

Now do yourself a favor and go return some calls and emails.

Understanding the fine points of your Business.com

In an evolving dot.com world it’s important to understand the structure of domain names for Businesses and how to avoid common misunderstandings and pitfalls of the system.  A Business can go though justifiable melt down surrounding this issue.  It’s important to know how domains registrations, management and renewals work within the relationship of their service providers.  There are some simple guidelines that can provide you with valuable wisdom around this evolving subject. 

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions and their answers you can share with anyone in your organization that this responsibility falls on.

1)      What is a domain name?  www. (anything in between) .com .net or any other extension is considered and Internet domain name

2)      How can my web provider end up owning my pre-existing domain name?  There are a few ways this can happen.   New registrations.  Most service provider’s bulk registration accounts have pre-set registrant data that is listed on all new listings.  Renewal errors. This is common is when a web developer that manages the account uses the domain owners credit card to renew and the card is declined by the registrar.  When this happens some providers apply the charge to the managing company’s primary account, which can often switch registered ownership and contact information.  This can be a nightmare for all parties and as of 2008 that seems to be an issue of the past.  Renewal default settings. Frequently domain names can change hands by simply renewing a name with new payee information.  The best preventative maintenance is to check your domain names yearly and know the renewal date.  Most developers manage thousands of names and it can be nearly impossible to manually cross reference them all without hiring a full time staff.

3)      Can I manage my own registration account?  Yes.   Within just the last 6 months we have been able to create sub accounts with individual passwords for separate clients making management and yearly renewal payments less hassle.  Migrating old accounts to new platforms has proven to be a hassle but is expected to become manageable as domain registrar providers advance their technologies.

4)      Are there disadvantages of self managed domains?  Yes several.  First, most people forget to renew them.  One day they wake up and their website is down.  This is usually followed by less than friendly calls to the developer.  72 hours later the web-developer calls after discovering the domain name wasn’t renewed and as a result the name has to be redeemed, which usually costs $150.00 and brings the site down for as much as a week.  The key is a failsafe alarm clock or just register domains for several years at a time.  The second biggest issue is server pointing.  Developers often re-point websites to upgraded and new equipment.  Without access to the domain, this responsibility falls on the owner.  Usually it becomes a hassle resulting in sufficient down time.  Developers manage I.P. addresses in clusters so domains outside the group can be very difficult to track.  Also domains have both web records and e-mail records.  In the event of an outage the developer must be able to trouble shoot the issue, which requires either access to domain name records or instant collaboration from the technical contact listed on the record.  The easiest solution for these two challenges, if domains are self controlled, is to hire a full time I.T. person who has experience in the field.  Even so your guaranteed triple the down time but while it’s a costly solution it may be worth the investment if you have enough records to manage or a large enough email user base.  Finally when your domain name is managed by the provider you won’t get scammed by all those fake renewal notices that we’ve all received in the mail.

5)      Can a provider hold up the transfer of a domain name due to non-payment of services?  Yes.   Once service is interrupted due to non payment, it of course must be restored again to complete the transfer, which is a part of the service most of us are paying for in the first place.  It would be like not paying a cell bill and then trying to move the delinquent phone number to another cell company to get out of paying charges due. 

6)      What is the relationship between email and domain names?  While in the physical world we can’t be in two places at one time, in the internet world that’s not the case.  You see each single domain name actually is in two places at once.  One part of the domain points to the web or www address of the website itself and the other part points to the email server hosting the domain’s email.  So in essence domains must be dually managed.  The key is to have both web and mail managed in the same place.  Especially for the auto industry where the primary purpose of the website is to generate leads.  The primary advantage of this method is the fact that a developer can test the leads from the website all the way to the mail server, which keeps finger pointing down to a minimum.

7)      What is the relationship between administrative, billing and technical contacts on my domain record?  In essence each record will be in receipt of different notices as the occasion arises.  Technical aspects of the site can be managed by a qualified technical person, while other aspects such as billing notices can go to say the accounting department.

8)      How much should I pay for domain registrations and renewals?  Depending on volume and service provider between 5.95 and 12.95 per year.  Some providers will give discounts or multiple year registrations.

9)      How valuable is my domain name?  That all depends.  If it is the name of your Businesses then its value is clearly high on the food chain.  If it is a lead generating name then it is as valuable as your current month’s ad budget.  Advertising can be decreased as the result of continued marketing, creating an exciting suspended value but pull the plug all together and you’re looking at a short shelf life.  Finally a name is as valuable as the conversion rate it can produce in terms of visitors to leads.  This is more a measure of your developer than a name.

10)   Who in my organization should be in charge of domain names? Either a qualified I.T. employee whom is governed under a similar agreement as a standard service provider or the business principal or all of the above.  Many times when management moves from one store to another, small details such as domain names can be completely forgotten about until the need arises.  I.T. employees by contrast don’t overlook these kinds of details as it is a standard part of their job description and is a piece of their employee agreement.

11)   What do I do if one of my managers is listed on my domain who as left the company and is now unreachable?  A simple notarized change request letter to the domain provider on company letter head will usually suffice and typically takes less than two weeks.

12)   What are some examples of problematic domain issues that can be avoided through best practices?  The list is almost endless.  Just in the past year we have seen several circumstances surrounding some easily avoidable issues.  In one case a dealer from the northeast coast left their domain name on our registrar for nearly two years after the service expired.  With all the names we register we never even noticed and subsequently and unknowingly paid all the costs associated with the name free of charge.  That was mildly humorous.  What was not funny was when their current provider dropped their email record bringing down the whole Business’s email system, resulting in a rightfully upset friend angry at completely the wrong person.  These situations can be difficult to explain when someone is panicking over their much needed email and are easily avoidable.  Providers have witnessed attempts to try to abscond with services, back-date notices, have ex-employees try and get money they didn’t earn and so on. 

For example when our dealer in Houston acquired a new Dodge Dealership we learned that the domain was owned by a scalper.  Every time we sent him a notice to relinquish the domain he would transfer ownership to another fictitious company making it nearly impossible to pin him down.  In the end we were able to find his primary hosting provider and after holding them accountable through some well crafted letters, the domain name was magically released saving our client tens of thousands in legal fees.  The ideal situation would have been to secure the name before the Business was purchased.  Luckily I enjoyed the hunt.  Sort of.

Conclusion:

Most domain related challenges are the result of simple confusions, which when understood are not so seemingly scary.  Through a crash course in domainology, businesses can install best-practices and sleep better at night.  Providers are typically more motivated for clients to have a grasp on the inner workings of their domains than the clients themselves.  This is due to the fact that in nearly 100% of the time fingers are pointed at the provider in the event of a misfire, which only reflects unjustly on the provider.  As a result providers are always eager to provide a helpful and free course on domain name CPR.

Depending on who you are and how technologically up to speed you are there are some solid research tools that you may find helpful along the way.   The more you know about the world of search engine optimization the more you will understand the difference between what SEO and Sale Accelerator.

Knock yourself out, write all your questions down then prepare yourself for answers you never thought possible.

Useful SEO Resources:

SEO Tools

Developer Tools 

I use the term “randomity” to describe how an individual can switch gears between one task and another fluidly without hesitation.  Randomity is most often and easily witnessed in small children.  If you have ever had a child sitting in the backseat of an automobile on a long trip you might have noticed the child seemingly getting out of hand, causing the adults to become extremely aggravated.  This does not mean the child was doing anything wrong, but rather was most likely moving rapidly from one task to another. 

For example, a child might be playing with a hand-held game while talking out loud one second, kicking the back of your seat the next second, then crumpling up some paper the very next second.  Usually, adults perceive this as rambunctious behavior and an inability to focus.  Eventually, the parent winds up instructing the child to sit still and settle down, and to choose and stick with one activity or another.  This is a very good example of a child displaying their ability to handle randomity.  Randomity is typically suppressed out of children as they grow older.  The degree to which it is suppressed will greatly depend on the parents’ ability to handle randomity as adults. 

As a result you wind up with adults that fit dramatically into two completely different emotional categories.  I call these groups public “A” and public “B”.  As a child grows up, their ability to handle randomity equips them with the capacity to excel in certain subjects while having a difficult time in other subjects.  The opposite is true for an individual who has had randomity suppressed out of them throughout their childhood.  These differences form the opposing characters of public “A” and public “B”. 

With this framework now laid, we can move forward, mapping out the basic differences between a prospective  buyer that fits into one category as opposed to another.

Public “A”

Public “A” is representative of the adults who never had the randomity suppressed out of them during their childhood.  Usually, this is because the parents themselves were able to handle a higher degree of randomity.  In essence, the resulting behavior simply does not bother the parents like it would most people.  Now public “A” comprises the smallest portion of the general population as compared to public “B”.  Over the years I have reviewed numerous studies on the subject of human behavior, some conflicting and some not.  My research has led me to conclude that Public “A” makes up approximately 3% of the population.  In other words approximately three out of every one hundred adults have the ability to handle high levels of randomity.  This would leave approximately 97% of the population in the category of public “B”.

Now let’s take a look at personality.  It has been my observation that an individual who can handle a high level of randomity can tend to have underdeveloped social skills but rank highly in their natural ability to comprehend technical knowledge.  A person with these qualities might fit the standard profile of a large majority of computer programmers.  Often times you will see movies and television shows portraying a computer programmer or someone in the computer industry as being a “techy”.  These people are often times depicted as nerdy people who are rather reclusive, emotionally distrusting and lacking in certain social skills.  While I wouldn’t place much stock in how Hollywood attempts to categorize people, when it comes to individuals who have high randomity skills and low social skills you will often find that some of these stereotypical characteristics are present.

When it comes to purchasing an automobile, this type of public displays consistent behavioral patterns.  They might feel the need to extensively research before they buy, and are able to handle more and intensely detailed technical information on a vehicle than even the salesmen themselves.  I have found that as a rule, people who fit into public “A” have little desire to confront a salesman face-to-face when there is an alternative option. 

This type of public may also, at times, appear to be extremely distrusting and suspicious of information that is relayed to them in a verbal manner as opposed to data obtained through research.  I could write a separate book on the psychological traits of public “A” but I think for our purpose here I will cut it short.  Also please keep in mind that the description given here of public “A” is intended to be a theatrical description for the sake of giving you a point of reference.  There are many people who will embark on  buying missions as members of public “A” but may not display the characteristics described above.

Public “B”

The textbook description of public “B” would naturally be the polar opposite of public “A”.  An individual fitting the profile of public “B” could be described as the customer that strolls into the business on a Saturday, has more fun telling stories to the business’s employees than learning about the vehicle he just took a test drive in, pays the business a $3000 front-end profit, bites off on just about every product pitched by the F&I department, refers everyone he knows to the business, and then winds up purchasing his next vehicle from the business as well!

An individual who has had the majority of randomity suppressed out of their behavior will we be less likely to be a natural computer programmer and will tend to become a better communicator.  This comes from a learned ability to “slow down”.  Most exceptional sales people, managers and Business Principals in the  business reside in the public “B” group to one varying degree or another.

Emotional types and e-business website design

Many businesses express frustrations with Internet buyers.  An Internet buyer is often times described as an individual who will research a vehicle to the point of insanity, refuses to pay the business more than $200 profit, requires a great deal of effort to acquire as a customer, is a poor fixed operations customer, refers few if any people at all to the business, gives the credit for his exceptional bargain to the Internet as apposed to the business that accepted his offer, and then finally ends up buying somewhere else at the end of his lease.  The question is, why do many businesses have this horrific opinion of Internet customers?  I believe the answer to this question is fairly obvious.
 
Look at which public the average web developer most likely fits into!  I don’t believe it will take you much time at all to realize that the average web developer fits nicely into the categorical profile of public “A”.  Now, without getting too deep into the psychological aspects of this whole scenario, let’s take a look at how this reality affects the average  business’s web site. 

First of all, it’s important understand that when an individual creates something from nothing, the end product must make sense to them mentally.  In other words, the structure, flow, content and design of the website must make conceptual sense for the individual who has been placed in charge of creating it. This is common in any design field whether it be computer programming or structural engineering.  This becomes a problem in the field of  web development because there is a specific psychology necessary when creating a web site that will disseminate to the market that we are after.

When a group of individuals that fit the profile of public “A” are assigned the task of designing and developing a website for the purpose of convincing thousands of people to take the next step towards making an extremely emotional and expensive decision, you wind up with what potentially can be a 52 car pile up on the Santa Monica Freeway.  In the end, the common sense aspects of this concept are relatively simple.  If an individual that fits the profile of public “A” is commissioned to build a public website, it only stands to reason that the public that will most likely respond will have a similar psychological make-up as the individual or group of individuals that were responsible for its creation.  This is the primary reason why websites consistently produces what I believe are unacceptable conversion percentages. 

It is also the interconnecting recipe for improving a business’s online state of existence.

One of the most meaningful discoveries we have noted since we coined the concept of conversion rate as it pertains to web design is the considerable contrast in  buying habits from one geographical area to another.  Of particular interest is that his is true even while staying within the context of one kind or type of buyer.

For example, let’s say you have two groups of customers.  One group is in Dallas, Texas and the other group resides in Phoenix, Arizona.  Both of these groups are comprised of individuals who are sub-prime lending candidates in the $10,000 price, $250 per month payment range. 

Now, let’s say these two groups have similar shopping habits, are all the same gender and all fall within the same age group.  To take it one step further, all of these individuals work in a similar occupational field and all listen to the same kind of music.  Wouldn’t you think that a bruised credit website that is effective in creating reach from one of these groups would be effective in reaching the other group?  There was a time when I certainly would have believed that!  The reality is that nothing could be farther from the truth.

If we bench marked this website using the typical visitors to sales lead conversion rates that we see today from most dealership websites and  lead generation services, we might very well see a consistent level of performance in each area without taking into consideration that the bar can be set much higher. 

If, however, you have created an online campaign that disseminates to one of these groups in a specific area such as Dallas, Texas, and your campaign is based on specific psychological research pertaining to Dallas’s specific marketplace and demography and then you launch the same website in the same manner, with the same advertising campaign plus or minus a couple of tweaks in Phoenix, Arizona, you will undoubtedly witness a massive disparity in success rates between the two geographic areas.

My point here is that it is astonishing how a similar group of consumers respond differently to colors, shapes, line movement, eye trail, and advertising in general based on their geographic location.  In addition, when e-dealer marketing research is conducted with a focus on the dealer’s local marketplace, a remarkable and massive increase in website originated sales leads can result without an increase in the dealer’s website traffic. 

If you’re a business that owns multiple locations in multiple geographic areas, this information should equip you with an extra (and powerful) tool when strategizing and planning the incorporation of your website with the marketing scheme of your individual stores.