Tag Archives: marketing

Prepare Your Will

excerpted from Time To Lead: Steps To Transformation For Those and Those You Lead

timetoleadLeaders are able to reroute their path to meet core vision and objective.

Hezekiah was a God-Follower. It Changed His Life To Obedience

 II Kings 18: 5: He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.

Rest in this – it is His business to lead, command, impel, send, call or whatever you want to call it. It is your business to obey, follow, move, respond, or what have you. Jim Elliot

 Rule Well

Hopefully, we rule well. Our challenge is to address the issues of today that have been left unaddressed, too long. Our challenge is to set a powerful course that will reverse the manners in which we have become accustomed and find a course that will guide for decades. Our nation has lost moral compass and needs a strong thrust to establish a critical course for the future. It will be disastrous if we do not engage and adjust.

Principles Work

Leadership is leadership. Anyone can see results if they adhere to the principles. The more principles invoked, the greater the leadership. Yet, sometimes, it only takes one principle to fit with the timing of events and a great leader emerges. A leader empowered with the love and wisdom of God through Christ has a distinctive “accelerator” in results. God works with us doing miracles. (Mark 16)

Real Success

There are leaders entrenched in manipulation and avarice and greed. That is not where we need to look for example. Study them. Understand them. Avoid the fault lines. Men like Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin need to be studied. Understanding why people followed such leaders is important, but not wisdom to emulate. People will follow base leadership that touches their prurient side. That does not make a successful leader or leave a better world.

 Worthy Goals

Earl Nightingale identified success as the progressive realization of a worthy goal. I like that definition. So my first test of greatness in leadership is a worthy goal. Is the goal one that builds other people? Is the goal one that adds to productivity? One U.S. company has the goal of producing the best “sin product”. Cigarettes, beer, snuff; anything that is damaging and addictive but legal for consumption is on their agenda. The greatest influence leader in that organization would not be considered successful in my estimation. There is no worthy goal in contributing to the destruction of human bodies and relationships.

Check The Core

If the core philosophy or goal or vision or mission is off center, scrap that example. Study those leaders and goals to understand the ways and wiles of mankind. Look for your own leadership example elsewhere. If you find your goals and methods following a leader with an unworthy goal, find a good closet for repentance, change your mindset, and get corrected. Some of the greatest leaders in history started with an unworthy focus, shifted, and become powerful in building communities. The ability to correct direction when it has gone awry is a quality of a great leader.

Pray with Faith: In the intensity of change, Lord, I look to You for guidance.  Mold my mind, will, and emotion to be Yours.

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Risk It!

Winners take risks.  They are unafraid of loss.  The balance of gains over losses motivates.

Psalm 20:6: Now I know that the LORD saves (brings out of trouble, restores, and strengthens) His anointed; He will hear him (and respond to his rallying call for help) from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand (the hand of power and ability, the hand at which Jesus represents His). 7: Some trust in chariots, and some in horses (some trust in their riches and alliances and abilities and mental acuity): but we will remember the name of the LORD our God. 8: They (our enemies and all those who trust in their own strength) are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright.

Winners are not afraid of losing.training

They are willing to take risks necessary to succeed in life.

Life means risk.  Life means taking chances that cause loss.  Loss of friends, loss of co-workers, loss of status, loss of power, loss of control, loss of understanding of those important to you, loss of money.. all these are losses a winner decides at times must be risked.  “No pain, no gain.  Know gain, know pain.”, some would say.  Life means risk.  Risk means loss.  Risk also means winning.

Edison risked until he found the right element for light bulbs.  Once on a comment that it took fifty thousand tries before he got results, he explained, “Results? Why I have gotten a lot of results.  I know fifty thousand things that won’t work.”

Ray Kroc became an outstanding business leader.  Yet, for years he failed at every business attempt.  It was so bad his wife was ready to leave him on his last venture.  Seems he sold out everything to buy a few hamburger joints owned by some brothers named McDonald.  You guessed it.  That was the start of the McDonald’s chain of restaurants that made the Krocs multi-millionaires.  Winners keep trying. (By the way, his wife stuck it out.)

Those secure in Jesus are unafraid of risk because they know He will back them up.  They know they can make a mistake and be put back on track.

Psalm 37:23: The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delights in his way. 24: Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholds him with his hand. 25: I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. 26: He is ever merciful, and lends; and his seed is blessed.

Take Inventory

Pensive?

Trying to make a decision?

What is it?

Write it down.  Write down the good and bad about it.  Pray about it.  Listen to God.  Commit it to Him.  Decide.  Don’t let fear hold you down.

Make Application

Write what you are going to specifically do in the next 30 days about this.

 

Pray To Be Bold

Father, encourage me.  Strengthen me to take that step of faith in Your leading.  I am weak, Father.  I fail.  I am made of grass and wither in the noon sun, but You cause a shadow to cover me.  Let the cool breathe of Your Spirit blow over me and freshen my day.  Though I fall, I will get up and go again.  You will cause me to succeed.

Risk It! Stand Ground. Give Ground.

Pick your battles.  There is a time to stand and a time to give ground.  Use wisdom.  Move purposefully.

Phil:1:27: But whatever happens, make sure that your everyday life is worthy of the gospel of Christ.  So that whether I do come and see you, or merely hear about you from a distance, I may know that you are standing fast in a united spirit, battling with a single mind for the faith of the gospel and not caring two straws for your enemies. (J.B. Phillips translation).

A winner….. knows when to fight and when to compromise.

A loser ….. fights over the wrong things and compromises at the wrong time.

Hebrews 12:14  Let it be your ambition to live at peace with all men and to achieve holiness “without which no man shall see the Lord”  (J.B. Phillips translation)

Winners know when to fight to win and when to give.  In the song, “The Gambler”, the advice was given, “You got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em, know when to walk away, and know when to run.”  There is a fight worth fighting, and there are items in life not worth the effort.

Winston Churchill in the darkest hours of England’s battles with Germany had this sense.  When others wanted to lay down and give up he stood ground and challenged, “Never give up.  Never give up.  Never give up.”  The war was won over courage and tenacity and knowing the fight needed to be fought.

You have to know when to fight. After living in their new home for a year, the Newbies had a major problem.  Sewage came running over into the downstairs bath, living room, and entry foyer.  What a mess!  Massive cleanup, roto-rooter, and a few days of showering at the neighbors did not fix it.  The city claimed the problem was theirs, the plumber claimed the city needed to fix it.  Two great neighbors and a day of digging exposed a major city problem.  Out they came, and yes, they fixed it.  They dug 14 feet deep, repaired the sewer main, and replaced fences they had to tear down.  But, they didn’t take care of the carpet and house.  Forms, forms, and more forms, telephone calls, working with city attorneys, and a lot of prayer resulted in a surprise.  One night the local city councilman called to alert the Newbies that their reimbursement request was scheduled to get the hatchet the next day at the city council meeting.  P. Newbie showed up at the council meeting of this large metropolitan community.  Deep in the docket was a line item scratching the claim along with over 30 other homeowners.  What could he do?  Fight.  Fight for his wife to get carpet.  Fight for restoration.  Fight he did.  First in prayer, then in rhetoric.  “Mayor, my friends and I dug a 7 foot deep hole to show the city that the problem was theirs, I am willing to dig a 7 foot deep rhetorical hole to help the council see it needs to pay these costs.”  The council halted him right there and offered to pay a reasonable settlement.  No one else was awarded that day.  The clerk could not believe it when she issued the check.

You have to know when to give and compromise The budget battle was intense.  Hundreds of thousands of dollars in expansion monies were battled over by several departments.  Systems executives along with P. Newbie decided to withdraw and let the money go to retail remodels.  Eight months later accounting in an executive meeting moved $50,000.00 to systems and challenged them, “See what you can do with that.”  After 30 days of scramble and results, they gave them another $400,000.00 to spend moved from retail remodels. 

Take Inventory

Where do you need to fight?  Does someone need defending?

Where do you need to lay down your arms?  Is it better to give now and win a friend?

Make Application

Write what you are going to specifically do in the next 30 days about this.

Pray To Have Wisdom

Father, teach me.  Show me wisdom to count the costs of every battle and decide.  Help me to see when I need to simply serve by not fighting for my preferences.  Help me see when I need to rise and defend my family, pastor, employer, friends.  Enliven my heart to be a wise warrior with what is entrusted to me.

Renaissance Man – There is No Box

Danny DeVito starred in an acclaimed movie entitled, Renaissance Man.   He impacted others to believe outside the restrictions of present systems.  My junior year of university, Dean Musselman tagged me with that title.  As he reviewed my business, psychology, literature, religion, and sociology mix of courses, he both scratched his balding dome and complimented me for being broad in my quest for understanding.  Renaissance leads to revelation.  There is no box.

Wikipedia defines the Renaissance Man as “A polymath (Greek: πολυμαθής, polymathēs, “having learned much”), is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas; such a person is known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems”

renaissanceman

My personal form comes in taking a few keen skills honed over many iterations in business, community, and congregation and offer them to you.  Most of us in our journeys do not discover who we really can be until later in life.  Some find the path early.  Finding and early path to late discovery is a joy.

Excellence in operations and communications really shouts what I want to say to you.  Business, community, and home are fields of prosperity.  Leadership in community (business, government, education, non-profit), leadership in the people services (non-profit, congregation) and leadership in the home (fathers and families) build the environment in which healthy, dedicated, morally and emotionally and socially competent individuals and groups develop in balance and holistic health.

Contact me to assist in improving your business results.

Contact me to assist in improving your non-profit or congregation results:

Contact me to assist in your family results:

Contact me to GET RESULTS.. 405.388.8037 cell/text

 

Exec/Direct In-Plant Thrive – Online Optimized

ImageOnline support and pdf workflow stabilization:

The fallacy still exists in the print services industry that you can get by without big feature online services.  You can’t.  Any executive or manager that is looking to improve performance must attend to this item.

A good online and pdf workflow system with right features for customers and production and administrative can drive significant costs out of reworks, job loss to competitors, and lag times on projects.  It also can bring in a constant flow of repeat business and give you a competitive advantage.  You can establish a clear differentiation from competition and integrate your production workflow with the customer workflow.  When they order, you can be the only option on their mind.

Inside the shop, there is an amazing turnaround improvement as wasted hours of looking for information are reduced and the status of every job is known at every moment.

For the administrative team invoice and chargeback information accuracy improves and historical analysis of product mix performance by customer and product type becomes available.

Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt

Why would you not move into this world?  Confusion over what you need leads the biggest fear factor.  Fear of a long project implementation that fails is another uncertainty area.  Doubt that your team can pull off the project correctly is another block to productive adaptation.

What online support is not.

Online support is not an ftp site with a little file information.  That is primitive and is what most print providers call online ordering.  If that is all you have, you need to move forward rapidly to find a more featured solution.

Online support is not job costing with file attachment.  Again, some have moved a step up the chain and adapted to at least give customers some added information.  However, most of those serving and most of those ordering are fully aware, the price at the delivery rarely matches in these type systems.  Customers need accuracy.

Online support is not an order system that resists integration with the other major processes of a production shop.  This can be frustrating.

What is going on in most shops?

In many shops those three represent the extent of online ordering support for the customer and the staff running the shop.  Every executive and manager can improve services for the organization and for the customers by going into a big feature online ordering support.

What does real online ordering and pdf workflow look like?

Okay, get your pencil out and begin to go over the checklist.  In the next ten years, you will be converted to this way of thinking or you might just not be in the business anymore.  It amazes me how much we resist the power of good ideas.  You need to demand your online software vendor support what you are getting ready to read and you need to demand your in-plant find a cost effective implementation for you.

  1. Online ordering requires acceptance of file upload of supported standard file types.
  2. A good system will archive prior files ordered and allow reorder without reupload.
  3. Catalogue collection and customization by client group.
  4. Variable customization of certain orders for dynamic build of post, brochure, business cards.
  5. Look and feel by client group ordering.  Make it personal for the client.
  6. Tight security and separation of file storage.
  7. Dynamic status of order reflecting whether the order has been moved to press, finishing, or shipped.
  8. Content lockdown with marketing, legal, compliance, and any other customer required approvals.
  9. Great systems have fulfillment for non-print items and high demand print items.
  10. Great systems are integrated into automatic invoicing.
  11. Great systems are integrated into shippers like Fedex and UPS for single reference from order point to receipt by the customer.
  12. Great systems have production integration for the shop so internal service can monitor all orders from a single console.

So, what is keeping the industry from running forward?  Automation leaders like VistaPrint and Shutterfly have proven value of powerful online systems.  Of course, an in-plant is not purposed to serve the world with such product, but they can certainly improve the purpose they serve.  There are some tremendous in-plants that have brought incredible value to their customers and owners through adopting online.

Get with it.  Find a way to implement and milk the value out of online and interactive custom ordering services.

FUD Removers

Yes, you do need to deal with the fear, uncertainty and doubt.

  1. Develop a list of criteria.
  2. Talk to key stakeholders in the customer areas.
  3. Build a shortlist of acceptable vendors with an RFI (request for information).
  4. Produce a product list that would be supported with expected sales growth by product.
  5. Calculate waste reductions with a LEAN DOWNTIME approach.  That is another article.
  6. Go for it and make your customers happy.

Profitable cost reduction in print and communication services.

pyramid

Every executive is tasked with reducing costs and increasing profit.  We can forget.   The press of managing the budget can get tied into just meeting the plan instead of achieving the underlying goals.  An officer has a fiduciary responsibility to increase shareholder equity.  You can’t just “manage the budget”.  It needs to improve impact on the bottom line.

Print services is one of those areas that just seems to take money and not give a return.  That is a shame.  Print services can be such a profit booster, when rightly implemented and attached to corporate initiatives.

Last week my partner and I reviewed two university in-plants.  They were ivy league and state.  In just a few hours we were able to isolate incredible opportunity to both reduce costs and expand profitable services.  You just have to know where to look.

I’ve written quite a lot lately about business plans and new product development.  Those were the subjects taught at GraphExpo and are being reviewed by hundreds of folks daily.  Some of the feedback I get is a need to be able to assess a print services operation and come up with a viable action plan to improve impact on the bottom line.  Too often managers and consultants are looking to survive.  You need to thrive.  There is no reason not to thrive.  The opportunities are amazing.  Over the next few weeks, we’ll explore how to thrive.

There is no reason to just get along.  There is no reason to roll over to conventional strategy of limiting the benefit of your overall communications engine through bad sourcing decisions and coagulation of IT, marketing, and print services.  Where you source your print and communication services is a growth decision not a cost cutting decision.  You can throttle your progress engine by making this decision incorrectly.  Done correctly, you will cut costs, improve service, increase access to effective communications and be a hero.  Done incorrectly, you will cut short term costs and produce blockages in your growth and communications engine and frustrations for marketing and sales and the data miners.  You cannot grow using yesterday’s wisdom in a thriving world of interactive print, direct, indirect, social, online, mobile, and mass virile and viral communications.

Related:

Responsibility and Sustainability

Removing Workflow Constraints

Pain Points

Starting Fresh – Get an innovative pop to your great insurance marketing idea.

Every marketing initiative starts with a fresh idea.   Somewhere either a brainstorm erupted in a private time or meeting or a customer voiced a need and you awakened.

What do you do with that fresh idea?

Do you run rampaging through your team and ask them to “get on it!”?

Do you get tied up in a single sale and miss big movement?

Do you thoughtfully consider your options and begin analysis never to come to a conclusion?

Do you gather a group of agents and brainstorm?

Do you pay an exorbitant fee to an advertising agency to develop it for you?

Do you throw the idea out on the internet to one of a thousand groups on linkedin or g+ or a blog?

How can you get this thought blurb from being  just an idea to something that will potentially produce income and generate qualified leads for you as a marketer of your services?

Okay here is a new and quick tool to help.  It doesn’t do it all, but pretty close.

Blog | Big Dog Innovations | Your Marketing Department’s Secret Weapon http://bgdg.co/SuccessfulMarketingCampaigns

Hopeful Statistics Analysis Is Not A Plan For Profitable Sales In Insurance.

http://bigdoginnovations.com/insurance-marketing-blog

While spanning through infographics on customer engagement, social media, best times of day to send emails and get them , content strategies, and why facebook from key executives is a good idea, I laughed.

All of this is meaningless without a marketing 3.0 blueprint.

These are averages across multiple industries and contrived mostly from interviews and some real experiences.

What counts is results for you in your space and with your customers.

The ingenuity of your team of insurance professionals in sales and marketing mixed with customer preferences means the most.

Getting a system in place that allows you to interact and listen to the voice of your customer in real time with real people is what is meaningful.

Get it?

Get  it.

Call me.   405-388-8037

Read more …..  http://www.bigdoginnovations.com

Just make the connection and start the conversation.

Multichannel Closed Loop Marketing | Capgemini Consulting Global

http://Www.BigDogInnovations.com works to bring powerful strategies out of the closet for clients. When I read a class act performance by someone else in the industry, it challenges my creativity for clients. This is great thought proker. Be provoked. Call us for conversation on how you can make sparkle happen in your results. http://www.capgemini-consulting.com/multichannel-closed-loop-marketing/