Click To Hit

This is a continuation of my very first post to this blog that was basically a bit of a rant with no clear direction. I found this amazing article on 7 ways to to stop “selling” and start building relationships by Ari Galper that describes solutions to address the need to focus not so much on how to alleviate old-school preconceptions of sales stigma, but more so how to avoid leaving customers with the impression they were forced into a buy decision against their will that creates this stigma in the first place.

I have always subscribed to the philosophy that if the service or product does not fit a client, don't sell it to them. You only damage the relationship and eventually lose the customer. One of my biggest qualifying questions when I was in discussions with a prospect for domain registrations was …

 ”Is price your biggest concern? Or does reliability and service level have any weight in your decision?”

If the answer was yes to the former and no to the latter I would explain my opinion on why I believe the opposite, then offer to conclude my discussion and provide my contact information for when / if they change their mind. I plant the seed, but I know I will never be successfull until they feel direct “pain” from their beliefs.

Price is not how Tucows competes. Dedication to wholesale, a 5 star platform, and one of the most experienced sales and support staff in our industry is how we compete. We sell solutions, not just domains and ancillary services. We only make money if our resellers are successfull, not if they fail since they purchase from us on a transactional level at the time of purchse from their customers. That is the trust we provide in the solutions we suggest to our clients.

Here is a great teaser for you to go and take a look at the article itself which is an amazing read:

New Thinking = New Results

Maybe it's time to take a different approach. Maybe we need to seriously analyze our sales thinking so we can identify why we're not making more sales. Take a look at the table below and thinkabout your current selling mindset. How would your selling behaviors change if you changed your sales thinking?

Wow, they finally did it, HP has entered the Blogging game. It's about time they joined both Sun and Microsoft. Better late than never I always say.

If you want to dig a little further here is a great article from PC World on it.

You know that Blogging has graduated to the mainstream when you see offers like this that extend the ability to earn revenue from using the tool show up in press releases on EMediaWire.

Interesting Snippet that caught my eye:

Blogging is growing at a phenomenal rate with a new blog being registered every 7.8seconds. Blogs are being established by a wide range of people from individuals who simply want to express their thoughts through to corporate communication executives who want to influence their market place. Blogs enable information to be disseminated almost instantaneously. They are easy to set up, easy to use and they are easy on your audience.

Bill Gates states that Blogs are better than “old” technologies such as email or Websites for businesses, which was posted in a recent article on the BBC.

He mentions advantages they have for business applications and touts the 700+ current Microsoft Employees that have blogs that track their work and projects with even a few being more personal which results in a more personal impression of the Brand.

He feels that static websites are a pain due to the fact they require that visitors come back to check to see if anything has been updated, but feels Blogs and RSS solve these issues.

“What blogging and these notifications are about is that you make it very easy to communicate,” he said.

“The ultimate idea is that you should get the information you want when you want it.”

What does this mean for Blogware? It's the right tool to facilitate all of these needs and more for your customers.

Share what you want, when you want, with whom you want.

I personally know people afflicted with Multiple Sclerosis, and I was pointed in the direction of this encouraging announcement which is very exciting and offers allot of hope to those that are suffering.

“RPI-78M reduced the clinical symptoms by more than 80%,” remarked neurologist Mitchell S. Felder, MD “There was also more than an 87% reduction in the number of EAE histopathologic lesions. If these results are duplicated in the human trials it could possibly revolutionize the treatment of MS. The results from an EAE model indicate that this drug may also have therapeutic potential for a great number of other neurologic conditions such as Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis, Transverse Myelitis, Krabbe's Leukodystrophy, Alexander Disease, Canavan Disease and Adrenoleukodystrophy,” he concluded.

More treatments like this need to be developed and more awareness needs to be created so please support your local MS Society Chapter since the more help they get the more they can help those afflicted.

Ok, so we had some issues with the Mortgage where they wanted a bit too high of a DP than we wanted to put down. As we were trying to fenagle an in-between I had to revoke my offer and someone else matched us. The girlfriend and I thought about this long and hard, although we loved the place we do expect a dip in the market in the coming year and this is really an investment more than a vanity purchase, so we decided to hold off which IMHO was the smartest thing for us to do.

So, we will continue to keep our costs down, save up even more for the DP, and pay off someone else's mortgage for another year or so . Depressing I know, but that's life and you have to look at the bright side of it… which is a better place with a bigger DP and lower price next time

So I did it, I finally jumped in. The girlfriend and I bought some property.

It's a condo on the west side of Toronto, nice location and overlooking a golf course. My game can finally receive the much needed attention it's been screaming for . That's a pic from the balcony of the unit.

It's a nice decent sized two bedroom with a pretty big balcony. I don't close till February 1st and the Mortgage and paperwork is a headache, but it's much simpler than purchasing a house so I definitely feel for all of you actual landowners. The deal for me was the condo fees, I get all of my bills included in one nice little amount except for telephone. Personally I don't care about the phone due to my dependance on my FIDO, but otherwise it's really nice and there is NO yardwork (I curently rent a house and as you all know it's Fall now and Winter is coming).

More pics to come later today, I already have some from the MLS listing, but just so everyone knows it's not my furniture in them and NO, my place is not an IKEA magazine ad

I had to blog this story, especially considering it involves one of our most prominent bloggers here at Tucows, Joey Devilla.

Please read the following important announcement concerning Tucows' Blogware service. 

1. Blogware v1.21 Released 

Based on Service Provider feedback, Tucows has fixed a number of bugs and added new features.

A brief explanation of each feature will be added to the Publisher Control Panel Manual and made available 12 November 2004. Complete documentation will be added in December 2004. Exact date will be announced shortly.

Changes to Blogware include:

- RSS Headline Component

A new type of component has been added to Blogware for displaying RSS Headlines. Once RSS Headline is selected in the layout, Blogware will display the contents of the feed as a component in the sidebar of the weblog.

- Enhanced Search Component

A new enhanced search component has been added. When implemented in a weblog, visitors to the site can choose to search the current weblog, or all weblogs. 

- Cosmos link

Blog owners can now see all links to their weblog, regardless of the source by enabling “Cosmos” in the advanced section of posting defaults.

- Pings Streamlined

“Sites to notify” in the control panel has been replaced with a single checkbox labeled, “Publicize new posts”. If selected, Blogware will automatically inform all sites of new posts made by the end user.

- Blogware User Account Profile Page

Various additions have been made to the Account Profile page allowing end users to sign up for a new Reader account and add another user to their social network from any Blogware User Account Profile page.

Additionally, a number of bug fixes have been corrected for Blogware v1.21. A complete list can be found in the release notes.

Take a look at how one of our resellers has decided to represent Blogware to their customers. They have labeled it “TALKWARE” which i think is an amazingly creative approach at trying to communicate the value proposition to their customers in one word.

Great PDF on Business Blogging. It isn't very advanced but is packed with alot of Info that will help a SME  / Corp get started with their blogging strategies.

I found this on the official Blog Business Summit blog. A great event being held in Seattle WA on January 24th and 25th 2005 and a must attend for all those businesses and resellers that are in the SME sector that want to learn more about how these tools can increase your productivity and enhance online marketing efforts.