July 2008
Arbitrary Numbers
Who came up with the concept of how many hours are the right number of hours it 
takes to do something?
40 hours per work week.
8 hours of sleep.
1 hour for lunch.
Arbitrary numbers are all over the place.
Someone, somewhere decided that 40 hours of work per week is "full-time." However, if you are exempt, that number doesn't really apply (though you may think it does).
Someone, somewhere decided that adults need 8 hours of sleep. continue reading...
Matrix Laser Care Launches New Site and Brand
I am excited to launch another client website. Matrix Laser Care contracted our team to create a new logo and web presence for them. We are excited about what we came up with for them. Here is a small excerpt from their press release:
“Over the past few years we have made significant investments in our offerings,” said Joe Garske, President. “The fresh new brand combined with the new website is part of our effort to communicate these new offerings to our clients.” The company engaged ProspectBuilder.net to create a new logo and develop the new website. “With the rapid move to installing color printers, our goal was to come up with a fresh brand that communicated the company’s new color offerings,” said Darrell Amy, President of ProspectBuilder.net. The new logo brings in a bright color along with an artistic brush stroke through the company name.“Many of our clients are realizing the benefits of outsourcing the management of their printers,” said Garske. “Not only do they save money, it also frees up their IT department to focus on more critical issues.”
You can see the full release at OfficeProductNews.net. continue reading...
Yellow Book is the Search Engine of the Future… Yeah, Right.
In light of my post about the irrelevance of phone books (but especially in light of the passion surrounding some of the comments there), I thought about the new ad campaign from Yellow Book.
Have you seen it yet?
I am not sure, but I don't know that I see Yellow Book as a 1,000 Year Brand. In fact, I don't know that they will be around for another 10 years... or at least be anything of any real significance unless they change their business model. If yellow book doesn't have all the information now, how can we expect them to have all the information when there is 100 fold available by then. continue reading...
Why Not Lease Your Telephones?
In 1992 when I left high-school and needed a Job, I found that AT&T was hiring. They were hiring for their leased phone division. Since the breakup of MaBell in 1984, AT&T maintained the leased telephone division.
The primary aspect of my
job was to convince people that leasing telephones was a viable thing to do. (dumb, huh?) And I was very successful. I would lease cordless phones at $50 per month... and you could go and buy one at the time for $100.
I would very often get calls like, "I just noticed that I had a bill from you all for $4.95 for a Princess Phone. I don't have this phone, please cancel my bill"
Upon further discussion with the client, we had been billing them since 1984 for that phone at $4.95 per month because prices never changed. (Our records didn't go before the break-up) Nearly $500 over the 8 years. They often would not have seen the phone in 5 or 6 or more years... yet we were still billing them and they kept making the payment. continue reading...
A Story Like That Has Got To Be True
When I wrote my post on phone books, I didn't expect to get some passionate responses in the comments 
area. I didn't expect anyone to be so excited about phone books to argue passionately about the benefits of phone books.
One point really struck me as interesting by "kenc". He said, among other things, "The nearly $18 billion that companies spend on print and online YP speaks for itself."
His point, is that since people spend so much on advertising, it must be successful for them.
To that, I respond, "Huh?" continue reading...
Why is the phone book still printed?
On my door step today is the "current" edition of the Qwest phone book. I find it interesting that this is even printed anymore.
Oh, I know that people use it. I know that some people actually don't have the internet. Not those in the circle I roll with, mind you, but I know they exist.
But still, I question the relevance of a phone book. I especially question the relevance of a phone book from one company. continue reading...
RSS - A simple technology that eludes a lot of people.
I get questions all the time from clients about RSS... I am often asked to give them a newsroom area to posts current news and events, but then I am asked to simply turn off the RSS icon. I think that a lot of people must not understand the beauty of what RSS can do.
You can checkout my post titled What is RSS and Why Should I Care?
Don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feed at the right. continue reading...
We Buy Like We Sell
I was thinking a little bit last night about how so often we are disconnected from our clients when trying to sell them our products. It spawned a post about remembering our audience on my blog at CopierCatlaog.com. I wrote what I think are the top five things your website (and your language) should include when talking to your clients.
Ken posted a response titled, Are You Being "sold to" or "told to"?
Pretty good post. I recommend a read (plus, he makes me sound intelligible).
The fact is, if we understand how we buy, we'll be able to sell more effectively. More to the point, if we understand how people buy, we'll be able to sell more effectively.
The most important thing about buying is that we buy like we sell.
If are accustomed to selling fast and glossing over the details, we are likely to buy that way. If we focus on selling the commodity, we will want to buy the commodity. If we want to help our customer understand their business problem and want to help them solve it... even if our product is the best, we'll expect sales people to honor us the same way. continue reading...
Dogbert on Time Management
I couldn't resist when I saw this. In my opinion, this is one of the best Dilbert's ever.
Click through to see full size or to subscribe to their RSS feed. continue reading...
Wanna’ Chat? Live Chat Software
For CopierCatalog.com, I needed to get a good live chat software. I wanted to make sure that I was available to talk with clients that needed immediate assistance. Both from a sales perspective as well as a support perspective.
I started some research. 
I first thought about using Skype as my software because I am in Skype all the time. But the problem with that is that in order for someone to chat with me via Skype, they need to have Skype loaded with an account. I wanted this to be easy for them so I didn't want them to have to load anything. Skype should consider making an anonymous web client. continue reading...
