Ideas, Leadership, and Vision

Lance Armstrong's War

Lance Armstrong's War

One Man's Battle Against Fate, Fame, Love, Death, Scandal, and a Few Other Rivals on the Road to the Tour de France

by Daniel Coyle

Just in time for Tour De France....  What looks to be an incredible book on one of Americas Greatest athletes.  This book will go on sale June 14th.   

Lance Armstrong's War is the extraordinary story of greatness pushed to its limits, a vivid, behind-the-scenes portrait of Armstrong -- perhaps the most accomplished athlete of our time -- as he faces his biggest test: a historic sixth straight victory in the Tour de France, the toughest sporting event on the planet.

Link:  book description l Lance l tour de france
Tags:lance armstrong l tour de france l

Great customer Service and Salesmanship

Hats off to the folks at Richardson Bikemart.  In my opinion these guys are the class of their industry.  RBM is a 3 location bike shop in and around the Dallas area.  They have been around for a long time and perhaps have become most well known in recent times for the place that Lance Armstrong got his start into cycling. 

However, I think they should be known for is their quality of service, before, during and after the sale.  In an industry that could easily take you for a lot of money if you did not know what you were doing the folks over at RBM take an incredible amount of time and effort to really talk to you about what your needs are.

In fact, I was set to buy a bike that I had been reading about in the magazines when the RBM sales rep started to ask me some questions about how I was planning to actually use the bike and after speaking to him for a while he had me in a better bike for my needs and saved me about 33%.  He didn't have to do that and you could even say that he made a poor decision in the eyes of his company but the fact is I have since refereed to people to get their bikes from RBM and in me they now have an advocate for life.  But the good service does not stop there.  These guy's get the big picture.  I was recently in the MS 150 and and had a little crash, needless to say it required my wheel to be fixed.  The men from RBM could not have been more helpful, in fact they offered me a free loaner wheel while they took the time to fix mine (free of charge). 

These guys "Get it".  They understand the idea of customer Service and because they do they get a lot of my business.  For all your cycling needs please check them out at www.bikemart.com

Links:  RBM l Lance

A May Lei for Lip-Sticking

When Rosa asked me to review Yvonne's lip-Sticking blog I did not realize what a treat I had in store for me.  If you have not yet had the opportunity to check out this website then you need to do so right away.

The lip-Sticking blog is a wonderful blog dedicated to showcasing how to market smartly to women on-line.  What makes this bolg interesting to read is the writing style of Yvonne.  Yvonne speaks through "Jane" who has her thoughts on how marketing should and should not be done when trying to appeal to women.  I found her writing style to be excellent and easy to read.  I look forward to reading more posts from "Jane in the future.

Recently Jane had a posting titled "Jane Presents Five Ways to Collaborate, Connect, and Court Women"  I think that this is an excellent representation of the quality writing that you will find over at the Lip-Sticking blog.

Links:  Yvonne l Lip-Sticking l Sample posting

A Killer "Brand"

How great a "Brand" is Star Wars?  It is hard to believe that the first Star Wars movie hit the screens way back in 1977 nearly 30 years ago and yet there is still a line to get in and see the newest film.  I can not think of any other movie or series of movies that has created this kind of loyal following.  To me, one of the true tests is that it is not just the 40 plusers out there that have been waiting for this newest episode but now there is a  whole new generation of fans.  The age range of fans is from 6 to 60.  The teen agers that are flocking to the theaters to see this movie, are watching something that started 10 to 15 years before they were even born.  Incredible!!!!!  As far as the merchandising of this movie goes they have done an amazing job of extending their Brand and this has in turn helped them to reach many different demographics.

Star Wars is the ultimate movie brand and from what I have been able to read George Lucas has done a master-full job of keeping his eye on the most important thing, the story!  The story is what has driven this series of movies from the very beginning.

May the Force be with you!!

Coming Up Next Week!

Stay tuned next week for a posts on the following topics:

• Brand Management,  featuring one of today's most successful brands...  Star Wars. 
• Another fantastic experience with great customer service and salesmanship.
  
• A final post on my MS 150 ride.   You won't believe what happened in the final 6 miles.

Have a great weekend!!!!

Matt

Tags: starwars l ms 150 l customer service

Great customer service and salesmanship will keep you coming back

I am going to start a regular feature in my blog where I give props to those out there that are doing a great job providing customer service or salesmanship.  So if you have a story you would like to share please email me and let me know.

I would like to take a moment and give credit where I feel credit is due.  It is my opinion that to often all we do is comment on what is not right and what could be changed and done better.  Sometimes we should look at what is being done right and study that.  I am in the market to buy a new car and as many of you know buying a new car can be a bit of a pain.  There is a dealership here in Dallas called Sewell Automotive and the owner is a man named Carl Sewell, perhaps you have read his book Customers for Life.  I should tell you that the people at his dealership truly practice what they preach.  There is no hard sale, there is no trickery, there is no "let me go check with my manager" it is all about the customer.  I think the sales rep said this.  "my job is to help you make the best decision that you can for your needs and if that involves you buying a car from us then fantastic"  you might think it is just a "line" but so far  he seems to be doing just that. 

Great job!!

Preperation and pay off

For the past 6 weeks I have been preparing for the MS 150.  The MS 150 is a 150 mile bike ride that starts in Frisco, TX and ends in Ardmore, OK.  There are MS 150 events all over the country but this is the one that I have chosen to ride.  The significance of the MS 150 is that it is a ride dedicated to raising money to help fight Multiple Sclerosis. 

I have learned a lot over the last 6 weeks.  I have trained for athletic events before (marathon and triathlons) but never before have I had to prepare for something like this.  While this is an athletic event it is much more.  There are the logistics of an overnight (it's a 2 day ride),  there is the team dynamic as you do not ride alone you ride with a team and of course there is the fund-raising aspect of the ride, which takes time, persistence and organization.  With all of that preparation completed tomorrow is the big day and I am 100% confident that the ride will be great.  Regardless of weather (predicted to rain) or anything else that might happen the preparation for this race  has been the most amazing experience my preparation will allow me to take on any obstacle, challenge or road block that I may encounter...  you might even say because of my preparation it will allow me to be more flexible with this ride.

How does this relate to the real world.  It's my opinion that this relates in many ways.  I  think that good solid preparation is often the key to better experiences.  Those people that try to make a living winging it are going to get caught.  Those that take the time to prepare will ultimately be more successful and will be ready to adapt to situations more quickly and have greater success.

Donate Here:  If you would like to support me on my ride please click on the link.  I can accept donations through June 17Th.  Every dollar counts.  Thanks for your support.

Stay focused and don't forget to ask for the business

It is so easy to get distracted.  So easy to get caught up in the day.  So easy to forget what it is that we started out to do.

I was working with a top sales person the other day who is going through a bit of a sales slump.  So I started to ask some questions and before I knew it she started to tell me everything that she is doing and how it is unfair that she is not doing better in sales right now.  I listened closely to all that she said and In fact I took notes so that I could be certain that I did not miss any critical information.  After about 45 minutes I stopped her and told her that from what she has said I think that she is doing it all perfect.  In fact I told her she should share her stories with others because she really is quite good at finding out what her clients challenges are and figuring out good ways to solve them.

She then asked me "why am I not closing more business?"  I had to think because from what I had heard she was doing it all right.  So I asked her if there was anything else she could share with me about her process, and then I heard it.  Or, in this case it was more what I did not hear that made me smile.  I told her that we could solve her problem and that I could help her to pull herself out of this slump.

I asked her to show me all of the written proposals that she had presented in the last month...  she had just a few.  Not nearly enough.  I said to her, you have become so focused on just a few parts of the sales process that you have forgotten the part where we actually give the customer a proposal.

She had worked so hard on becoming great at finding out their needs and solving their problem that she had neglected that detail.  She thought that her client and her were on the same page and that doing the deal would just be automatic even with out all the details spelled out in writing.  So we came up with a plan that has really worked.  She now asks this question to ll of her clients.  "how would you like me to put together a proposal so that you can sign off on it and we can get started?  What elements do you need to see in the proposal so that you will feel comfortable with what it is that we are moving forward on?".  We have seen sales increase and she feels much better about the process.

She is a talented sales professional and was so focused on some parts of the process that she just forgot to ask for the business

Steve Dahl Cancels his Podcasts... You gotta read this.

Rather then even attempt to paraphrase this I thought I would just cut and past this directly from Steve Dahl's website.  In case you do not know, Steve is a legendary radio DJ in Chicago.  He recently announced that he would begin a daily podcast but it seems as though that has come to a stop, at least for now.

A Message from Steve...

                                 

As usual, I discover all of the things that you can’t do after doing them first. Turns out that podcasting the re-broadcast of a successful radio show is a little more complicated than I originally thought.

                                 

Although it seems like it would be simply time-shifted streaming, podcasting is not currently considered "streaming" and is not covered under Infinity ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC licenses or under the statutory streaming license. As a performer who enjoys getting royalties himself, I can’t really argue with that, as it turns out.

                                 

So for now, I am suspending the daily podcasts and also the downloads of the show, since they seem to fall under the same heading as the podcasts, and now everyone at Infinity is aware of the fact that I’m also doing them.

                                 

I do have some good news, though: We will begin streaming The Steve Dahl Show and WCKG live sometime next month, and I am working on a daily “Best Of” podcast, or maybe even a little quick 5 minute exclusive podcast for our podcast subscribers.

                                 

The digital copyright laws are ever changing and ever expanding, and quite lucrative. I recommend that area of law to you youngsters out there thinking about going to law school. In the meantime, please forgive me for this little interruption in bringing you the future.

                                 

I have every assurance from the powers that be at Infinity Radio, that they are trying to get this podcasting thing figured out and that the streaming is a reality. So, I’m going to let them do what they need to do, and I look forward to looking forward.

And remember: The pioneers get the arrows and the settlers get the land. You’d think I’d get that right after all of these years.

Podcasting is catching on.

Podcasting is really starting to catch on.  As I had noted a few weeks back   KLIF - AM in Dallas is now podacasting.  Now it looks like a major TV Station in a Major market is starting to Podacast as well.

Here is a copy of the post from podcasting news.com:

Chicago NBC Station Podcasting

May 04, 2005

Chicago's NBC5 has announced that it is now podcasting. NBC5 calls itself the "first major market TV station in the country to offer daily podcasts".

NBC5 is offering three podcasts: the NBC5 News Podcast, the NBC5 HealthWatch Podcast and the NBC5 Entertainment Podcast.