My Top LinkedIn Peeves.

I am an open networker on LinkedIn.  This means that I am open to all network invitations and I agree to not DNK (Do not know) or Spam an invitation.  This also brings many interesting invitations and profiles into my inbox to review.  Tonight was one of those nights.  I had 600 invitations to review (and to be honest I still have 236).  I am a choosy person and I want a network that is not only beneficial to me but to others in my contact list.  I have compiled my least favorite profile attributes and just wanted to share:

A picture in worth a thousand words.
If you have no icon or picture how do I know who you are and why I should connect with you?  Even worse, if your picture shows you posing in your favorite evening gown or in that bikini or (yes I have seen this) speedo you just loved I will more than likely not accept your invitation.  Your picture should be somewhat professional.  This is not a yearbook – this is a professional networking site.

Your opening line is my first impression.
What is your title?  Is it something you thought about?  Does it ask something of your network or share something about your creativity or specific skills?  If I see a liquor store employee with a title of “wine and spirit expert” good chance I will accept that invitation.  My favorite this week was a Mom who put her position as CFO of the Thompson Group.  She is the Chief Family Officer of her family, the Thompsons.  She also blogs and works for children’s rights.  This is a person worth knowing.  If on the other hand you have no title or it is one I cannot understand (ABC/LMNOP adviser at XYZ Company) then I have no idea of who you are or what I can do for you.  Most likely I will pass.

Did you company just agree to cover a TopLinked membership?
In one day I received 27 invitations from one marketing company in Atlanta.  Either they all just decided at the exact same time the investment was worth it or one person in the company joined and shared the list and they all reached out.  Why do I need to know more than one of you?  If you do not tell me in your invitation – then the most interesting one gets my accept and the rest go to archive.

You are out to grow a number, not a network.
Many people have come to understand how social networking works.  If you have 1000 contacts on Facebook but you only talk to three – you really do not need 1000 contacts.  If you have 800 Twitter followers but you never retweet or carry on conversations, you do not need to be on Twitter – you just want to hear yourself tweet.  If you are in TopLinked to get 50K contacts , I know you are not talking to them or facilitating communications.  If in your name you have LION5000+, I will pass on your invitation.  You are more interested in a number than a network.

Your profile shares no information or has “private” on the company name.
I will not accept your invitation if you do not tell me what you do, where you have done this or what you are looking for.  If you cannot or will not share your company name why are you on LinkedIn?  Can you just say “secret government job that does not allow me to tell you” this may peak my interest.  How about letting me know what you want in a network connection.  If you cannot fill in your profile I have to wonder what you will have to contribute to my network. 

These are just my top 5 pet peeves.  IF you have more to share, pass them on.

Printing: The Untapped Service Opportunity

The printer vendors are reporting steep declines in product and consumables revenues. Is printing dead? Hardly. Printing and printing supplies are still a profitable venture when done in a services model.

Hewlett Packard announced its quarterly earnings this week and quickly analysts asked “what happened to the profit in printing?”

The decline in HP printer revenue—the former cash cow of the company—and the struggles of printer vendors such as Xerox, Ricoh and Lexmark—as many financial analysts and reporters believe the green (money) is gone when it comes to ink and toner.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Managed print services is the answer to putting the profit back into the printing business—especially for solution providers selling printers and managing/supporting end user printer fleets.

There are three key myths to managed print services:

• It is complicated and takes a long time to implement into your business
• It requires a large amount of money to get started
• No one cares about their printers and this is a hard sale

Adding a managed print service practice to your business is not only easy, it makes sense. If today you are selling printers or multi-function devices you are only seeing a profit on whatever margin you can squeak out on the hardware sale. If you sell supplies then you understand the nightmare of carrying inventory and that eats into your profits. And if you have the break/fix business, you are ahead of the game.

With a managed print service practice you can earn more than just hardware margins. You are earning consulting fees for the initial printing needs assessment, margins on either a hardware sale or equipment lease and you have the traditional margins associated with maintenance agreements or break/fix services.

You can also be earning profits on the supplies without carrying an inventory. In a MPS agreement you build in the cost per page and you drop ship the supplies. No need to worry about getting upside on a contract as it used to be with copier leases. Lexmark, Synnex, HP and Xerox all have programs that provide you the information you need to price your contracts accordingly.

Your initial investment often includes training and a look at your current sales resources. Selling services is different than selling hardware, but the benefits to the customer are so clearly defined that in many ways the service contract is an easier sell. You can reallocate a current resource as you are building up your practice and add more as needed to manage the demand.

There is not a purchasing manager, line of business manager or CEO who is not interested in finding ways to do more for less. The key benefits to your customers include savings on hardware, supplies and resources.

With you offering lease options and a full service contract including supplies, maintenance and a support desk your customer can reduce their employee’s loss of productivity due to printer errors and save money while paying a monthly cost versus a large hit every time supplies are ordered.

A fleet of multi-function products can pay for itself in less than six months. By networking the printers and standardizing the supplies there are no more last minute supply orders, delays on the network from randomly added machines and color can be controlled to reduce the garage sale fliers and birthday invitations.

Additionally, with today’s MFP products, you can reduce or eliminate the need for express mail and reduce printing. Many MFP’s offer print on demand, scan to fax, form storage and can route documents from desk to desk without every needing to be printed.

Offering end users time and money savings can set you apart, and provide your business with an all important recurring revenue stream based on solid-margin products and services.

Strive for Superior Service

Everyone talks about the services revolution, but the reality is that service is a journey, not a destination, and a tremendous differentiator in the eyes of customers. Solution provider success often rides on the quality and continued improvement in service delivery.

It’s all about service today: customer service, service contracts, service guarantees. If you believe your business has nowhere else to go to improve service, think again.

In a market where your products are a commodity or are not tied to your brand, your service sets you apart. There are three key rules to success when it comes to offering service:

Be the Best
The power of excellent customer service cannot be overstated. It is not just enough to have a live body answer the phone; your response time to customer concerns and technical issues must exceed expectations. Prompt, courteous and sincere responses can make the difference between a customer choosing to continue to grow business with you versus your competition.

Good customer service saves your business money. It can cost three times as much to develop a new customer compared with the expenses of maintaining your current customer base.

Keep It Simple
When it comes to service contracts, less is more. Keep your service offerings clear and concise. Do not overwhelm a customer with complicated offerings and sliding fee scales. A la carte service offerings are fine, but price them in a way that a customer can understand.

Consider three tiers to your service contracts: good, better and best. This allows customers to purchase the plan they can afford today and increase their coverage as their business with you grows and as their budget allows. As a customer hits a rough economic patch, it also allows them to downgrade their service contract with you opposed to canceling altogether.

Guarantee Success
Anyone can create a guarantee, but real peace of mind comes when a customer knows the person offering the services. People choose to do business with people they know and trust. Your company’s brand is tied to your service offerings. A guarantee on response times, customer satisfaction and extension of manufacturer warranties can clearly differentiate your business from your competitors’. Money is tight and getting to incremental spends is tough right now. Offering a guarantee on price savings, service offerings and business process improvements can free up some of those difficult-to-find IT dollars.

Your company’s service offerings are more than just monthly contracts and maintenance agreements; they are an extension of your brand. Loyal customers are built through relationships based on trust and success. View your service offerings as more important than the products you represent, and the loyalty will be to your company and your customer will grow vendor-neutral. The most successful solution providers are offering true business solutions that translate to service growth for their companies.

Lessons from Miss California’s PR Nightmare

Miss California Carrie Prejean escaped a complete public relations meltdown, but not without taking a few hits in the press. PR veteran Jerry Grasso offers solution providers advice on how to avoid catastrophe.

As the old saying goes, “There is no such thing as bad PR.” While that may be the case for embattled Miss California Carrie Prejean, it’s not the case for solution providers and small businesses.

In the case of Miss California, Prejean first started catching flak for stating her belief in the traditional definition of marriage. Controversy erupted when racy photos of the beauty queen surfaced, which could have cost her, her crown. Donald Trump, owner of the Miss USA pageant, said he believes in second chances and will allow Prejean to keep her title. While this is great news for Prejean, controversy and poor user experience don’t always bode well for solution providers. The slightest bit of bad publicity, especially in this age of instant public blogs and viral social networks, can be enough to cost a business its reputation and, consequently, its financial viability. Jerry Grasso, a long-time public relations executive and current vice president of communications at Lexmark International, offers solution providers these insights for dealing with negative public relations.

Honesty Always
It is easier to start off honest and just admit your mistake. You posed for pictures before you knew it was bad. You took drugs before they were illegal. Whatever the case may be, just fess up and let the audience know you are honest and have remorse. They most likely will not let you off the hook, but this is the best place to start.

You Cannot Turn Lead into Gold
If you have done something that causes you to lose your tiara or a chance in the baseball hall of fame, you cannot spin the story from lead into gold. You must accept that some actions cannot be undone and you must accept the consequences. If you continue to sell a story that is not true (see Rule 1), you will continue to lose credibility with your audience.

Remember Your Audience
When we are in crisis mode, it is easy to forget who our target audience is. You may be interviewing with your local paper and not love the reporter. This reporter though will be responsible for the tone of your message as presented in their publication. Consider whom you are talking with and whom you want to reach with your message.

Grasso has a laminated sheet with his 12 golden rules of PR, lessons he learned from his first 10 years in public relations and communications.

Always keep a communications plan prepared and outline your plans for crisis communications. When the heat is on, cooler heads prevail. It’s very important for your small business to have an expert on your side.

Contracting a communications professional can assist you in getting out your message without looking defensive or one sided in the presentation.

It was a good week for Miss California and the Miss USA pageant. They have taken an event that normally loses steam 24 hours later and dragged it out to two solid weeks of keeping their names in front of the press. While they had teams of professionals ready to assist, your business can do the same with planning and careful execution.

Working Today’s Network

Whether you are experimenting with social networking sites like Facebook or LinkedIn, or sprucing up your business’s Website, here are some quick tips to keep you on the path to networking success.

The power of networking is more important than ever in today’s fast-paced business environment. Plenty of people will tell you that networking is important and why, but few offer help with the basics of how to get started using networking to grow your profits and revenues. And as the solution provider business changes from one that focuses on products to one that focuses on services, how you present your company is more important than ever.

Start by looking at your Website. Are you driving leads or increasing your network traffic? Do your contacts on Facebook or LinkedIn know where to find out more about your company? A Website must be more than a placeholder. With more than 1 billion Websites already out there and more domains being registered daily, you need to use the latest tools to set yourself apart from the crowd. If creating such a site is not your forte, there are many marketing service companies that can assist you in driving customers to your site. A great Website does very little for your bottom line if no one knows where to find you. Harness the power of keywords and Web analytics into your Web presence to help you make the top of search engine listings.

Next, remember that the power of people is still No. 1.  I am often amazed at how often I may meet someone on Twitter or Facebook and they want my contact number to reach out in person. Web cameras and easy-to-use video software have made connecting anywhere in the world easy and affordable. You can add the personal touch by allowing a face and voice to be added to your online personality. Do not underestimate the power of a “how to” or demonstration video with your audience.  

Facebook and LinkedIn are still key tools you can use in reaching thousands of like-minded business people. A common mistake many make is using Facebook to stay in touch with family and friends only. Facebook offers pages for individuals as well as for their businesses. If you want to expand your presence on Facebook for business, you have two options. Option 1 allows you to create your own business page and invite people to join you there. You can restrict your personal page to friends and family. Option 2 is to join groups and actively participate in the conversations with other members. This allows you to be viewed as a thought leader in your area.

Are you making the most of LinkedIn? Lots of people connect and build LinkedIn networks, but very few use them. When was the last time you shared one contact’s information with another? Lots of discussion boards on LinkedIn are stuffed with personal sales messages, but very few members use the service proactively. Consider proactive ways to unite and communicate with your network. You may opt for a newsletter, a forum, a blog or even a weekly posting of what’s new in your network, but do not expect any business activity to take place unless you actively initiate it.

Don’t have time to network? Still not attending your local BNI (Business Networkers International) or Chamber meetings? Choosing to not actively network today on any of the sites above or in your local community is the same as placing your name in the phone book and hoping someone chooses you. People will always choose to do business with people they know versus companies they don’t.