Houston IT support: April 2011

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

11 Ways to Stand Out at a Trade Show

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Attending trade shows is an incredible way to gain exposure, get publicity and even find sales reps for your company and products. But let’s face it — hundreds or thousands of companies attend the same trade shows, so you’ll need a way to stand out. Here’s how.

Present a Pristine Product

Think Christmas morning. Shiny and new.

And don’t forget to bring more than one. Not only do you need enough to make a presentation in your booth, but also replacement product for any that may have broken in transit or gotten soiled. While customers may be sympathetic, you only have one shot to make an impression.

Pick a Card, Any Card

You’d be surprised how many trade show attendees forget to bring their business cards. Don’t be one of them.

Include on your business card all the ways people can contact you — phone, fax, email, website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. Most importantly, include your name.

Have an Office, Maxed

Your trade show space will be your office away from home, so bring all the office supplies you’d normally use to conduct business.

Suggestions:

2-part order forms, with a copy for the customer and a copy for you;
Sales brochures;
Credit card forms;
Stapler;
Calculator;
Pens;
Paper clips;
Push pins;
Straight pins;
Suction cup hooks;
Masking tape;
Gorilla tape (you can fix anything with that stuff!);
Packing tape for sealing your boxes at the end of the show;
Tide To Go;
A pressed table cloth in case the table does not come draped – this finishes your booth and gives you storage space under the table;
Extra light bulbs, extension cord and a power strip;
A sign for the booth with the company name on it.

Make Following Up Easy Peasy

Bring an expandable file for orders and business cards. You will have all of your post show work in one neat handy place.

Be sure to write any follow up info on the back of the customer’s business card. Things like, “took catalog”, “ordered”, “call in two weeks” — any information that will assist you in prompt follow up after the show.

Wear Comfortable Shoes

You can’t stand out if you can’t stand up and your face says, “Ouch”.

So get some shoes that are comfy and stylish – yes, they do exist. Gym shoes are a no-no unless you have a medical condition that requires them.

Be Ready with an Elevator Pitch

Have a story about your product, what inspired it and what it does. Be prepared to talk about its features and benefits.

If there is a similar product on the market, be able to clearly articulate the points of difference between yours and the competition’s, without “negative selling”. Instead, do your homework and point out the positive differences about your product without mentioning the negatives of your competitor’s. For instance, if you’ve heard that your competitor has backorder issues, let buyers know that your product is in stock and ready to ship.

Create Foreshadowing

Do an email blast and a postcard mailing about your product a few weeks before the show. Be sure to include a “Come see us at XYZ show” with the dates and your booth number below your signature.

Show Proof of Promo

Buyers love to see that you support your product with a strong PR and advertising program. Be sure to feature your editorial placements and upcoming advertisements prominently on your brochures and trade show display.

Lure Them In with a Sweet Treat

Chocolate will slow them down every time. Place some wrapped candy in a dish or a pretty basket.

They may not buy, but they have stopped and they have looked.

Mind Your Manners

Etiquette goes a long way, even at trade show.

Show up on time and don’t leave the booth early.
Keep your booth neat and clean.
Have brochures/catalogs on the table so that a buyer may just take the literature if they choose not to stop for the sales pitch.
Keep all banners and display materials within the booth proper.
Greet buyers when they stop at or enter your booth.
Thank buyers for stopping in or writing an order.
Work on your hand shake. There is nothing unladylike about a firm handshake. It exudes confidence and a business like impression.
Get a manicure. Along with your personality and enthusiasm, your hands are a sales tool!

Be Friendly and Have Fun!

Most importantly, be friendly and inviting. Say “hi” to everyone that comes your way. And… have fun!

by Heather Allard

5 Steps to a Landing Page That Converts Like Crazy

When you're an online seller, your landing page is "where it all begins."

Just so we're all on the same…page, a landing page is “any page on a website where traffic is sent specifically to prompt a certain action or result.”For our purposes, we’ll say that action or result is the sale of a product.

Now let's make sure it converts like crazy.

1. Define your sales goal.

Step number one is easy. Decide what you want your visitors to buy once they've reached your landing page and then follow the next four steps to support that goal.

2. Keep it simple.

According to marketing experts, "A confused mind always says no."

What they mean is that confused customers won't buy. So save your customers from confusion by eliminating clutter and "off ramps" that will distract them from buying.

Remove external links and “Links” pages. The last thing you want to do is send your visitors to someone else’s site;
Say sayonara to social media links that act as an "off ramp." You want visitors to buy from you, not follow you on Twitter. Social media should be used to drive customers to your site, not away from it;
Ditch any polls, CPC ads, images and text that do not channel visitors to your sales goal. The fewer distractions, the better.

3. Put the blinders on.

Once visitors have "landed" on your site, start moving them towards a purchase by using compelling copy, graphics and video. That means:

Copy, images and video that clearly show the features and benefits of your product and entice visitors to your buy page;
Sales copy, images and video should be placed above the fold — this is the upper part of your site, before a visitor has to “mouse,” or scroll down;
Use your sidebars to link to pages that will help a visitor move quickly and confidently to a purchase. For example, a “Testimonials” page eases buyer anxiety, a “Press” page proves that your product is adored by the public, an “About” page shows that you, the product creator, identify with your visitor, and a “Buy Now” page drives them to, well…BUY NOW.

4. Help visitors buy easily.

Once you’ve convinced visitors that they absolutely cannot live without your product, don’t lose the sale because of a clumsy, risky or hard to find buying page.

Display your "Purchase" page prominently in the sales copy, in your navigation menu and even on the sidebar;
Help your buyers feel safe buying by using a secure shopping cart or payment processing service like Paypal;
Make your purchase information input form fast and easy, not frustrating. Ask for only the minimum information required to complete the sale, enable tabbing from field to field, and allow buyers to save their information for future purchases.

5. Put it under the Googlescope.

Now that you’ve created a killer landing page, measure its’ effectiveness with Google Analytics.

Here's what you should be looking at:

Monthly visitors – how many potential customers visit your site each month?
Traffic sources – where are your visitors coming from? What sites are sending them to yours? What keywords are they searching on to get to your landing page? What ads have you placed on other sites that are driving visitors effectively?
Bounce rate, or the percentage of single-page visits. Are your visitors clicking around and making their way to your Buy page or are they leaving immediately?
Exits – where are your visitors leaving from? Your landing page? Your Buy page? This will help you see potential cracks in your landing page;
Conversions – you can set up “goals” on Google Analytics, which is a chain of actions that leads to a conversion, otherwise known as a sale. Then, you can find out what percentage of your monthly visitors are buying.

by Heather Allard

Tablets Fight for a Seat at Restaurant Tables

$19.95/month, no gimmick, 100% USA-Based PC Support! Business Remedy is the leading Houston IT Support & Houston Managed Services provider here to help via the web (http://BusinessRemedy.net), email (info@BusinessRemedy.net), or phone -- Toll-Free (1-855-765-4444). We are standing by to help you with all of you Technology requirements.

As the mainstream tablet war rages, a similar device battle is heating up in the restaurant industry.

Tablets that take orders, entertain guests and accept check payments are coming to a table near you. One company that is selling those tablets, E la Carte, announced on Tuesday that it has raised more than $1 million in funding from prominent investors like Y Combinator, Dave McClure and SV Angel.

The company will soon be launching tablets in 20 restaurants on the West coast. It also has a partnership with a large restaurant chain in the pipeline that hasn’t been announced yet — but the fact that Applebee’s executives participated in the funding round might provide a hint.

Why the interest in providing every table with their own touch-screen tablet? For starters, people buy more food when they can do so instantly, without waiting for service. In the six restaurants that ran a pilot scheme, according to CEO Rajat Suri, customers at E la Carte tables spent 10% to 12% more than those at other tables.

E la Carte tablets allow customers to browse a full menu and communicate their orders directly to the kitchen. They come loaded with social games and a calculator for check splits and tips. They also allow customers to email themselves a receipt or instantly sign up for a loyalty club. In high-end restaurants, the tablet can suggest an appropriate wine pairing for a meal.

Eventually, E la Carte might offer restaurants the option to compile data about their customers’ preferences as they use the device.

Some restaurants have attempted similar functionality by loading their menus onto iPads or asking customers to download an app onto their own devices. The iPad’s problem in this situation: its minimum $499 price tag. Restaurants that can afford menus that expensive aren’t casual restaurants, like Applebee’s, where a digital ordering system seems more appropriate.

Asking users to download an app like Storific poses the problem that not everybody carries a smartphone. Even those who do might not want to pause and download an app as they sit down to lunch.

A dedicated device, which E la Carte plans to install for a price that is “significantly lower” than the iPad, seems to be a more promising way for the tech world to break into the $6 billion U.S. restaurant industry.

Other companies are already in this game. Tabletop Media makes a similar tabletop product that it began to deploy in 2008. The company has established customers with chains like Chili’s Uno’s Chicago Grill , and California Pizza Kitchen and will be in 250 stores by the end of the summer. Both E la Carte and Tabletop Media charge the restaurants a monthly fee to use a network of devices.

“It’s propelling the restaurant industry into the Internet age,” Suri says.

by Sarah Kessler

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

6 Ways To Visualize Your Taxes

If ignorance is bliss, then look away. Crafty data wizards have sculpted publicly accessible federal budget data into interactive visualizations, giving you — the tax payer — visual representations of your annual contributions.

In late February, Google, in partnership with non-profit art and technology center Eyebeam, started the Data Viz Challenge — a call to information architects, designers and developers to tap the WhatWePayFor.com API and create visualizations for how tax payers’ contributions are spent.

After receiving more than 40 submissions, Google has whittled down the competition to six finalists. A committee will select a single winner who will be awarded a $5,000 cash prize.

Each of the finalists, whose work can be seen below, has created a project that shows tax payers how their federal tax dollars are allocated in various machinations. The visualizations, which hinge around salaries, filing status and other data points, are quite illuminating — or horrifying, depending on how you feel about Uncle Sam’s take of your wages.

Take a look at the finalists, interact with the visualizations, rate your favorites and look for Google and Eyebeam to announce the winner on everyone’s favorite day: Tax Day, April 18.

Budget Climb

Budget Climb gives users an interactive data environment for 26 years of federal spending.

Developed by NYU students Zach Schwartz, Fred Truman and Frankie Cheung, Budget Climb displays budget data as a cityscape that the user can physically explore using Kinect.

What Do You Work For?

In this visualization, creator Jeffrey Baumes answers the question, "Where would your money go if you paid your federal taxes with your entire income starting January first?"

Here's a hint: If you file as a single worker and claim $50,000 in annual income, in the 13 working days from January 20 to February 7, your entire income would go toward Social Security. That's $2,507.52, or 5% of your annual salary.

Visualize Your Taxes

Mark Won, Salil Jain and Carl Ng have created a visualization that pits your tax spending priorities against budget realities.

You tell the app how you'd like your tax dollars to be spent by ranking priorities, and Visualize Your Taxes will show you if your preferences align with how the government spends your contributions and how this has changed over time.

Where Did My Tax Dollars Go

Where did my tax dollars go? It's a fair question that this web app seeks to answer with interactive charts.

Enter your income and filing status, and the app returns federal, social security and medicare tax contributions for 2009. A pie chart then visualizes how your money was spent, and you can click on each piece for a full departmental breakdown on where your dollars went.

Every Day Is Tax Day

With a name that gives us the warm-and-fuzzies (not really), Every Day is Tax Day, from creator Fred Chasen, reminds us that we are working for the government every day.

Chasen's visualization shows you how your time is spent by government department.

An individual making $50,000 in 2010, for example, is working four minutes each workday for the Department of Agriculture. How noble of us all.

Taxmapper

Hermann Zschiegner and John Halloran have created TaxMapper, an interactive slideshow for visualizing -- by budget category -- government tax dollar spending over the years.

by Jennifer Van Grove

Scientists Develop Brain-Computer Interface for Cell Phones

Some of the most cutting-edge interfaces – technologies that even go beyond gestural interfaces like Microsoft’s Kinect – might be much closer to implementation than you think.

In fact, a group of researchers in San Diego have developed a system that allows users to dial a phone number on a cell phone using only their thoughts. The method is surprisingly accurate and would be a huge advantage for disabled people or anyone who needs a more hands-free experience or who regularly performs tasks that require a high degree of mental focus.

The technology, which was developed by University of California, San Diego neuroscience researcher Tzyy-Ping Jung and colleagues, tracks electrical activity in the brain using a headband of electrodes and a Bluetooth device. Users of the system were shown digits from zero to nine flashing at slightly different speeds on a computer screen; the frequency of each digit was detected by the electrodes, allowing the Bluetooth device to “know” which numbers to dial.

In various trials, subjects with varying degrees of training showed between 70% and 85% accuracy when attempting to dial a ten-digit phone number.

Computer-brain interfaces have been around for a while; this is the first instance we’ve seen of a brain interface being applied to a mobile phone. Being able to make brain interfaces smaller, faster and cheaper might go a long way toward these novel technologies becoming more practical for everyday use for a mass audience.

Still, brain interfaces have a long way to go. In the comments, let us know what you think of Jung’s work; can you imagine a use case or two for widespread use of a brain-cell phone interface?

More About: brain interface, interface, Mobile 2.0, UI

by Jolie O'Dell

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This is amazing!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Tired of Waiting On Hold? This Startup Will Do It For You

Automated operators, bad music and long wait times have never really screamed “excellent customer service,” but few companies have offered alternatives. Now a startup is offering one for them.
FastCustomer is a browser and iPhone app that allows customers to skip both the phone tree and the hold time when contacting customer service departments. Users simply choose who they would like to contact from a list of companies and tell FastCustomer where to reach them when a human is ready to chat.
The startup differs from its closest competitor, LucyPhone, in that it deals with phone tree options on its own. LucyPhone asks customers to select the appropriate options before freeing them from the phone while the service waits on hold in their places. With FastCustomer, the first time the customer picks up the phone it is to speak with a human.
To accomplish this, FastCustomer co-founder Aaron Dragushan personally spent days on hold with about 1,000 different companies. He learned the optimal path to a human operator on each customer service line, and programed FastCustomer to choose those options.
The downside to this strategy is that if a company changes its system, Dragushan needs to change his system. The upside is that FastCustomer can often navigate more quickly than a customer.
“We may get to an operator faster than if you press the buttons yourself, or try to figure it out, or try to wait on hold, Dragushan says. “Because we optimize how fast we can get to an operator.”
When the operator does pick up, the computer asks the operator to dial 1 to be connected to the customer. At that point, the FastCustomer’s phone rings. The company’s computers have waited on hold for 44,447 minutes since it launched about a month ago.
Dragushan is currently routing customer service calls for free, aside from a one-time $.99 cost for the iPhone app. Eventually, he hopes to be compensated by advertisers looking to target ads at people on hold with specific companies or by companies who purchase white-label versions of the service.
“People spend a lot of time on hold every year. Hours and hours,” he says. “If we can give them that time back, it could be worth a lot to them.”

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what a thought..............

7 Ways To Limit Profits In Service Business Or Consulting Practices

I witness service business and consulting practices all over the world handicapping their success and limiting their profits by making the same avoidable mistakes. It’s not hard to understand really as so many business people have been trained to think in terms of selling their time as service or expertise rather than selling what they really provide—value.

Below are seven ways that service providers hold their businesses back from climbing out of the ranks of also-ran commodity to brand and value leader.

1. No product methodology

Services can be hard to sell because there’s often nothing tangible for the prospect to hold and witness. You can make promises of returns, but often they’re the same ones that your competition claims. Lack of consistent methodology is one of the biggest profit and brand drains going for the service business.

It’s essential for service providers and consultants to package their service offerings in ways that resemble products. By creating a very definable brand name, methodology, deliverable, path and even price, you can paint the picture of exactly what the customer will receive and that turns the job of lead conversion into a simple affair.

2. No time lock key

Most consultants still offer their services on an hourly basis. The same is true of accountants and attorneys. This type of arrangement doesn’t really work well for the service provider or the service recipient.

How many attorneys have been fired over the years for offering to provide a solution only to turn in a bill that was shockingly high in the eyes of the customer. On the other side, how many consultants are locked into a fix amount of income because they simply can’t make any more time to sell?

Want to read more about making a profit? Check these out:

Packaged deliverables, with associated pricing, are the answer: A will of this type costs X, a tax return of this type costs X, a marketing plan of this type costs X. In the end both parties win in this type of arrangement.

The service provider gets much more profitable selling a result and the buyer knows exactly what they are getting and how much it will cost.

3. No teaching platform

A reputation for expertise is garnered by doing work on behalf clients and in public forums that benefit potential clients and the industry as a whole.

Service firms must commit to creating incredibly valuable content—the kind that tells people exactly how to do what they need done—and making that content available to the market in as many forms as possible.

This includes teaching customers and strategic partners how to do things to be more successful, even if those things are seemingly unrelated to their core business.

4. No value mirror

Because service providers and consultants oftentimes make recommendations that they are not around to implement fully, the focus on end results can get a bit hazy.

If you want to raise your firm out the ranks of competitive commodity then get serious about turning the mirror on value. Measure results and get very serious about helping your clients understand the actual results you played a part in delivering.

When you do this you put your firm in position to gather tangible proof of results and this is absolutely your best weapon for warding off price shopping. When you package your methodology as a product and back it up with documented results, you’ll have no competitors and price will actually become a function of value.

5. No revenue multiplier

Most every business strives for some method of deriving multiple streams of revenue. The most profitable service businesses understand the correlation between revenue streams and tap the confluence of these streams to multiply profits.

A book drives profits, but also increases speaking fees and frequency. Speaking drives profit, but also increases exposure and elevates fees. A membership program drives revenue, but also offers opportunity for exclusive product offerings.

All of the elements above are strategically crafted to support and amplify each other and create a revenue multiplier.

6. No RFP repellant

RFPs should be banned from your vocabulary if you want to take your business to a much higher level. Simply addressing most of the elements stated previously will take most businesses out of the RFP game.

The problem with the RFP process in most cases is that it takes businesses that are substantially different and effectively attempts to make them the same. Entering this type of game limits what makes your firm unique and certainly crushes the ability to provide your work based on value.

The surest way repel RFPs is to address them with your completely unique methodology and proof of value. In some cases, your prospective client may have no recourse other than the RPF process, that’s that point where you want to ask if that’s the kind of client you want to attract. In many cases, you can attract prospective clients by teaching them a better way.

7. No collaboration network

Your practice can gain tremendous momentum when you understand how to attract and ignite a select team of providers that you can bring to your clients to help them get even greater results.

By building a network around you, you make your firm much more valuable to its clients and open the door for reciprocal collaboration and introductions to potentially thousands of new clients.

Once you take the time to teach your strategic partners about value and your unique approach, and then further teach them how to bring this approach to their business strategy, you can grow the most profitable lead generation pipeline possible.

by our friends at DTM

Image credit: red11group via Flickr