This morning, I decided to invest an hour or so to do some clickstream analysis of recent trial signups and sales conversions for our product launch software.  This is something I try to do on a weekly basis.

By “clickstream”, I’m talking about the sequence of steps a user takes when traversing your website(s).  In particular, I like to do what I will call a “backtrack analysis” – taking a particular conversion and seeing which web pages the user visited and the actions a buyer took prior to making a purchase (or opt-in, etc).

This kind of analysis is extremely important, because:

• It focuses in on the most important visitors to our website:  BUYERS
• It enables us to learn where these buyers are coming from; e.g., search engine, PPC ad, blog entries, etc.
• It illuminates the “path to revenue”; that is, the path that buyers are taking through your site and content, which is where most of your time and effort should be spent doing website optimization
• It highlights which content is triggering a prospect into becoming a buyer
• It provides other insights you cannot get any other way; e.g., what kinds of information buyers are looking at before they make a purchase decision
• It shows you what buyers do AFTER they’ve purchased your product

Unfortunately, the tools provided by Google Analytics are woefully inadequate for doing clickstream analysis properly.  I use a particular tool that does a decent job at clickstream analysis.  It’s called OpenTracker.

OpenTracker records every visit to my website, tracking users by IP address.  It even provides me with a real-time list of visitors.  Here’s what the visitor log looks like (click to enlarge):

In addition to showing recent visitors, which country they are from, how many pages they visited and how long they remained on the site, there’s also a place to enter a visitor’s IP address. This enables one to choose a particular visitor’s clickstream and drill into what took place prior to the sale.

In my case, our shopping cart system records a buyer’s IP address (as do most auto-responders, for example). By entering the customer’s IP address into OpenTracker, I can then see exactly what took place – from the time the customer first arrived at our site to the time they purchased.

So, here is an example of the kind of clickstream information that’s available – not from an actual buyer, but instead from a prospect who found our site via my blog (this site you’re on now) – and then downloaded our free Launch Report.

Note there is no private or personal information tracked here, just publicly available information based on the user’s IP address (this user’s IP address and company name have been blurred in this image for privacy reasons).

Let’s have a closer look at what we can learn from analyzing this prospect’s clickstream.

1. Starting at the bottom, we see the user found my blog and was reading a Product Launch Success Story post, where I interviewed a WinningWare QuickLaunch customer.

2. Next, the user clicked on the link in that post to the full customer case study and audio interview on our product site, WinningWare.com.  That was on June 15th.

3. On August 31st (today), the user returned to my blog with an interest in the product launch interview that Casey Stevens from Australia and I did recently (the post prior to this one)

4. Then the user took a quick look at the products we offer at WinningWare.com (products.php)

5. Then they went back to the home page and clicked on the offer for the Launch Report

6. On the Launch Report landing page, they registered and became a prospect (going onto our auto-responder).  This person is now a “lead” in our system.

7. The user then confirmed their email address (double opt-in), followed by downloading the Launch Report.

8. Five minutes later, the user returned to the WinningWare.com home page and had a look at our Professional Services

9. Next, the user explored our various product launch solutions.  The user spent almost 5 minutes on this page, then had a look at the WinningWare QuickLaunch product overview page.

So what did we learn?  Well, for one thing, we learned that my blog is bringing our business leads.  Our market is interested in the free Launch Report (by the way, I track conversions separately using a different tool – a post for another day).

We also learned that this user has a serious interest in product launches and our site, as they have visited twice during a six week period, and are apparently looking at their options for handling an upcoming product launch.

This user seemed to respond to audio interviews.  Hmmm.  Maybe I should be doing more interviews!

This user is now on our email auto-responder, so they will receive a sequence of emails providing additional useful tips and information – and offers that bring them back to our site periodically.  This clickstream will most likely grow longer over the coming weeks, as the user gets closer to their launch day.

So, I hope this glimpse into how we can use clickstream analysis is helpful.  In my experience, the insights one can gain from examining buyer and prospect behavior is invaluable to understanding what’s working – and what’s not.

Using some inexpensive “point products” like OpenTracker will get you in the ballpark and well on your way to understanding where your buyers are coming from, which obviously affects where you should concentrate your ad and demand-gen efforts.

It will also help you understand what buyers are doing on your site in response to your marketing and online sales process – and importantly, where you should focus to increase your sales conversion results most.

• How To Give Yourself a Pay Raise Every Week (1)
• Free Email Marketing Campaign ROI Calculator (0)
• A PROVEN ONLINE SUCCESS FORMULA (3)

Casey Stevens, a product launch expert and blogger in Australia, recently interviewed me to discuss our product launch software tools.  In this interview, we discuss what led me to conclude that product launches needed to be automated, along with a number of facets of launches.

You can listen to the 22 minute interview here

• No related posts.

FADE IN:

INTERIOR/DAY: A crowded office

(Actually, there are only two people in the roomy space, but it feels “crowded” to them.)

They TYPE on their notebook keyboards.

Looking up from his task at hand, RICK (50ish) stares down JEFF (50ish-er, beard).

RICK
You know what? You should post something on the blog.

JEFF
(not looking up)
Sure. After the 32 things I have to do next…

RICK
No, really, you should post something on the blog – I’ve got a
thread going about “stories” in marketing. Right up your alley.

JEFF
(stops TYPING/looks at Rick)
C’mon, you know I’m super busy with -

RICK
Like I’m not – and I still blog… Go on, post something, will you?

JEFF
Fine.

RICK
Okay, fine.

JEFF
Fine.

They resume TYPING on their keyboards.

FADE OUT:

Hi, everyone – Jeff here.

I could have just begun this post by writing something like:
“…Rick asked me to post to the blog, so here I am.”

But, which method gave you more info?

Which held your interest more?

Chances are, even if you did not particularly enjoy the quick little scene above, you paid attention to it – if for no other reason than it was different from a typical, declarative statement.

The same holds true in marketing communications: a story-based communication method trumps standard announcement, declarative methods. Certainly I’m not advocating that you change your communications into screenplay format; but I do suggest that you start to work storytelling (in narrative form) into your marketing mix. Why?

Why you should try story marketing

Stories can help you reach more of your audience and motivate them to buy. A story-based communication or campaign sequence can increase email opens, click-through rates, opt-ins and conversions – and drive more leads into sales – by using stories that are truly interesting and useful to your readers, subscribers and customers – and turning those stories into powerful email marketing campaigns and site-based communications that produce above average results.

(BTW, If you missed Rick’s two recent posts/videos on using stories to effectively “break through the marketing noise” and get your message through to your audience, go here to catch up, or to review the videos again – it’s good stuff).

Why story marketing works

At any given time, a large percentage of the marketplace is in a “tuned out” state.

This explains why simply turning up the “marketing volume” typically provides diminishing returns; i.e., “yelling” louder in your communications and becoming more assertive only serves to cause people to tune out even further, increasing their “sales resistance”.

But, a story-based approach avoids triggering people’s resistance and self-defense mechanisms associated with more traditional email marketing, advertising and selling.

In fact, it leverages peoples’ natural interests and gains their attention and involvement, so it can enable you to reach that portion of the market that is tuning you out today.

Now, I’m not claiming that we are the only marketers to have figured out how powerful storytelling can be when properly applied – here’s an excerpt from Amazon.com regarding Seth Godin’s book “All Marketers Are Liars“, an interesting and entertaining work by one of today’s foremost thought leaders and authors in advanced marketing:

–
“After having fun with his opening salvo (“I have no intention of telling you the truth”) and beating the death out of his sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek point that marketers always lie, Godin makes a strong case that telling stories is your best bet to breaking through the clutter.” – Amazon.com
–

So, don’t just take my word for it. Why should you try mixing-in stories into your marketing motion? Because they work, that’s why.

And, for those of you interested in getting some specific, step-by-step, how-to info for constructing story-based campaigns, AND examples, templates and go-bys, too, check this out.

For those of you who would rather be doing (almost) anything rather than composing a story-based campaign, but still would like to experience increased sales conversions for your online business, go check out the Professional Services page on our site to learn the various ways we can do the work for you (if that’s not too much trouble)…

THE END

(Jeff Sulma is SVP Marketing for WinningWare.com. He likes a good story.)

• When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead: Useful Stories (4)
• ALL BUYERS ARE LIARS: Stories we tell ourselves to get what we want (2)
• Story: Struggling organic farmer saves the family farm (0)
• Psychology of Social Product Launches – Part 3, Storytelling (0)
• How To Create Stories That Sell, Part 2 (0)
• 14 Best-Kept Killer Hook Secrets That Grab Your Audience And Hook Them (2)
• The 7 Rules Bestselling Authors Use To Hook Their Readers (0)
• Storytelling Tweet goes viral overnight (3)
• How To Create Stories That Sell, Part 1 (2)
• 3 Psychology Secrets of Social Product Launches (1)

In part 1, we discussed the concepts on how NLP can be used to amplify the power of storytelling to sell virtually anything. Now it’s time to look at the different kinds of stories to use and how to design them so they produce the desired results.

Watch the rest of the videos and download a set of templates and step-by-step instructions for creating your story-based campaigns.

• When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead: Useful Stories (4)
• Story marketing: Why it works and why you should try it (0)
• ALL BUYERS ARE LIARS: Stories we tell ourselves to get what we want (2)
• 14 Best-Kept Killer Hook Secrets That Grab Your Audience And Hook Them (2)
• The 7 Rules Bestselling Authors Use To Hook Their Readers (0)
• Storytelling Tweet goes viral overnight (3)
• Story: Struggling organic farmer saves the family farm (0)
• Psychology of Social Product Launches – Part 3, Storytelling (0)
• How To Create Stories That Sell, Part 1 (2)
• 3 Psychology Secrets of Social Product Launches (1)

In the past, I have written about how powerful storytelling can be at breaking through the extreme market noise and clutter to get our marketing message through more effectively and generate more sales.  In this multi-part series, I am now going to share concepts on how NLP can be used to amplify the power of storytelling to sell virtually anything.

These techniques have, for example, been used in several launches that generated more than $23.8 million in sales – in less than the first 24 hours! (so this stuff works and is well worth your time to learn and apply)

The next installment will cover how to apply the concepts discussed here in the design of effective stories that sell.

The Precision Marketing System is a set of tools for creating story-based campaigns.

• When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead: Useful Stories (4)
• The Power of Story in Permission-based Marketing (1)
• The 7 Rules Bestselling Authors Use To Hook Their Readers (0)
• Storytelling Tweet goes viral overnight (3)
• Story: Struggling organic farmer saves the family farm (0)
• Story marketing: Why it works and why you should try it (0)
• Psychology of Social Product Launches – Part 3, Storytelling (0)
• How To Create Stories That Sell, Part 2 (0)
• Creative storytelling – A savvy marketer’s competitive edge (0)
• ALL BUYERS ARE LIARS: Stories we tell ourselves to get what we want (2)

I read a very interesting blog post today with a video that talks about how to manage large accounts from a sales management perspective.

I really liked the mind map, as well as the video.

What Information Should Major-Account Managers Track?

Below is a map that shows the challenges major-account managers face when creating business intelligence.

The top part of the map represents what account managers are looking for:

1. Know the customer’s business. In order to become the trusted advisor, account managers need to know the customer’s business strategy, business models, cost structure, profit sources, and all related financial changes.
2. Know the customer’s economic environment, which impacts business development.
3. Know the customer’s competition and the competition’s business model, and business strategy.
4. Know the customers’ customers. Account managers need to intimately understand how their customers attract and create customers.
5. Know the customer’s industry.
6. Know the customer’s legal challenges, partnership agreements, license deals, etc.
7. Know the customer’s key executives and their roles, and monitor all key executive changes.

The bottom of the map represents information challenges:

1. Know what to look for. Account managers need to establish an information grid and set filters to capture only the most essential information.
2. Know how to zoom to a granular level of information. Account managers don’t need to know every detail, but when special situations come up, minute details become vital to the sales effort.
3. Know how to create customer success.
4. Know how to align internal teams. The account manager needs to be able to quickly share all account details to get internal teams to deliver results.
5. Know how to create custom solutions.
6. Know how to leverage capabilities.

• Groundhog Day Website Marketing (0)
• A PROVEN ONLINE SUCCESS FORMULA (3)

Some exciting news I want to share with you…

We’ve just created a new, low-cost “monthly” option for WinningWare QuickLaunch™, our Web-based marketing campaign and launch solution:

1) Now you can get the same, full-featured marketing campaign power tools for just $49.95 per month!

2) PLUS, it now includes our “Launch Lifeline(TM) service – you can contact us (via phone or email) to get helpful advice and assistance – and it’s all included.

Click here for all the details

This means you can get help with virtually anything you may need, including:

* Bouncing campaign ideas off of the experts for independent, objective review and new ideas

* Review of your sales page, landing page, headline, offers, etc.

* Advice regarding pricing, packaging, positioning, messaging, U.S.P., …

* Suggestions for increasing sales and opt-in conversion rates

* ANYTHING you may need help with to succeed or improve your online marketing results.

So WinningWare QuickLaunch is now a full-service marketing solution - software and services – and we are available to help you. Just call the toll-free number, open a support ticket or contact us via email, and we’re there with you, helping you with whatever you need to be successful.

More details about this new, full-service marketing solution, now affordable for any entrepreneur or business, can be found here:

Click here for all the details

(there’s also a 10 min video where I personally explain everything in detail)

Don’t delay though. We may have to limit the number of customers we can accept to ensure we can provide top-quality service.

So I encourage you to give this new service a try – we truly are committed to our customers’ success!

All the best,
Rick

• No related posts.

To reach any kind of scale in a brief period of time, a launch needs a way to spread. It spreads through replication.  To replicate broadly, a launch requires:

• Access to a broad, influential network
• A receptive audience, and
• A simple message that’s easy to repeat with high fidelity.

There are many kinds of networks available to us.  In fact, Wikipedia tells us this about an emerging discipline known as network science:

Network science is a relatively new and emerging scientific discipline that examines the interconnections among diverse physical or engineered networks, information networks, biological networks, cognitive and semantic networks, and social networks.

The Internet is an information network, capable of creating millions of connections between people located anywhere in the world.  But just because we have the potential to connect worldwide to an enormous audience, doesn’t mean that those connections will actually take place.

To scale up a launch, we must tap into both online and offline social networks – the networks of people who have both influence over and connections to other people (and other networks) who also have influence, so our “launch virus” spreads.

There are many kinds of social networks available to leverage in our launches, including:

• Bloggers
• Customers
• Partners, Alliances, Affiliates and Resellers
• Press
• Analysts
• Subscribers
• Employees
• Associations
• Friends
• Facebook friends
• Twitter followers

Effective launch campaigns deliberately and effectively target which networks are used. The messages are carefully crafted so they are easy to convey and repeat and resonate with the buyer personas in the target market.  For best results, specific buyers are targeted using buyer language instead of product language.

The level of success achieved with a launch campaign is proportional to:

1. The size of the buyer network you can reach

2. How receptive your audience is to the message

3. How easy your message is to convey and repeat, and

4. How much influence you can continue to exert throughout the launch.

This last point is critically important – the ability to sustain your influence, especially with your “Launch List” (the community of potential buyers who are most likely to buy during the launch).

Buyer language usually resonates better and is more likely to be passed on than product language, so it is important to stay on target with your messaging to the audience and steer clear of “product language” and instead focus on buyer interests and needs.

A case in point, during a Harry Potter theme park launch, seven (7) carefully chosen bloggers reached and influenced more than 350 million people – quickly and inexpensively.  The important take away from this example isn’t just the enormous leverage involved – it’s the fact that choosing the right influencers who have the right network connections and influence is the key to getting your message out.  It also helps to have Harry Potter, or some other celebrity or authority figure, on your team!

You probably don’t need to reach 350 million people to have a successful launch.  You may only need to reach 10,000.  The key is figuring out who has the influence that you need to reach those 10,000, and what message will resonate with everyone throughout that network.  Having the proper network strategy will make the difference between your launch being a huge success… or just another morsel for Googlebot to file and forget.

The most important networks of all are the social networks that connect people together; not just anyone, but the people who want to buy your products or whatever you’re launching.   These networks make it possible for an idea or news to spread quickly from one person to another in a variety of ways.

Email and word of mouth used to be primary ways word of something new would spread.  They are still extremely important, but today there are many more available networking avenues.

Of course, word of mouth spreads anywhere people meet and talk; e.g., on the golf course, at lunch and dinner, in meetings, on the phone, via instant messages and text messaging, at church, at a bar, on an airplane, etc.

Today, there are numerous well-organized, Internet-based social networking avenues used on a daily basis by people, including the familiar ones like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, forums, along with other less well-known, niche social networking places.

There are millions of bloggers covering every imaginable niche, market and topic, who can reach large, targeted audiences quickly.  And unlike many of the other venues, bloggers often serve as authorities with their readerships – and are looked upon as “trusted advisors”, who are expected to provide the latest news, best practices and tips for their audience.

Choosing the best messages and then seeding the appropriate social networks can provide your launch with the scale and reach to catapult you into rapid success – assuming you actually have something worthy of a given social network audience’s attention in the first place.

The level of network influence you are able to exert and sustain for your launch is key to how successful it will be and how many sales you will make as a result.  If you do everything else right but fail to push the right network influence buttons, your launch will suffer. So pay close attention to your network influence strategy and have a great launch!

• The New Rules of Launch (1)
• It’s good to be King (0)
• The all-important Launch Blog – Some tips for your success (2)
• The 3C’s of Product Launch (0)
• Social Media for Business Is CRAP. Really? (0)
• Psychology of Social Product Launches – Part 1, Social Proof (1)
• Product Launch Manager Interview with Jeffrey Pezzella (0)
• Product Launch 3.0 Sales Process (0)
• New product launch process and methodology (2)
• New Product Launch Email Campaigns Now Available (1)

RECOMMENDED READING

I awoke early yesterday morning to re-runs of Larry King Live and the Glenn Beck show at 4 a.m.  Sometimes fate steers us in the right direction (esp. when we say our prayers the night before – something I try to remember to do).

These days, I can only seem to take about 30 to 60 seconds of Glenn Beck and his erratic, “political historian” stammering and posturing, so I very quickly ended up on CNN – while my brain rebooted after Tex-Mex and margaritas the night before…

Larry King was interviewing Jerry Weintraub, a famous Hollywood producer and serial entrepreneur.  I was soon absorbed and mesmerized by the short stories of Jerry’s amazing success promoting stars like Elvis, Frank Sinatra, George Clooney, John Denver and many rock bands including Led Zeppelin – among so many others.

I could quickly tell from this interview that what I was seeing was merely the tip of an iceberg – one that went much deeper beneath the surface – someone I simply had to know more about…

In the interview with Larry King, Jerry talked about how he learned from his father how to take seemingly regular things and “repackage” them into something special, then promote them effectively to the masses as an “event.  Well, as a product launch guy, this repackaging and event marketing stuff hooked me right away. I definitely had to know more – a lot more…

Jerry talked briefly about how he came back from the brink of death one day, and decided it was time for him to share his life story while he was still able, so he recently published his autobiography.  I was hoping Amazon.com had the Kindle e-book version available for download, so I could check it out while it was still fresh on my mind.

Fortunately, they did.  So I bought the e-book for $12 and downloaded it to my PC moments later (I don’t have an actual Kindle, just the free Kindle for PC and iPhone readers, which I like just fine).  I grabbed another cup of coffee and before I knew it, I looked up and it was almost 9 a.m.

I had already spent 3 and a half hours reading one of the most fascinating success stories around – a kid who went from the Bronx to the top of the world, creating movies like Oceans 11 through 13, Oh God!, The Karate Kid, Vegas Vacation and many others – and who discovered and made stars like John Denver and many others what they became (among hundreds of other success stories).

One of the most important lessons in business and in life Jerry sums up toward the end that is absolutely true:

“Most important, I was never afraid to fail, which meant I was never afraid to try.  I was never afraid to look silly, which meant I was never threatened by a new idea.”

Jerry exemplifies these statements when he describes how he managed to go from being a relative “nobody” to taking Elvis on his first cross-country national tour – and after that six-week tour, became a self-made multi-millionaire and launched his career as a world-class producer.  After being told No, in no uncertain terms, for 364 days straight – every single day by Colonel Tom Parker – he finally got a call back saying Yes – and the rest is history…

I wonder how many of us could believe in ourselves and our vision of what is possible enough to be told no that many days in a row, and wake up the next day, looking forward to being that much closer to getting the Yes we know we need.

I highly recommend you take a moment to download and get your own copy of Jerry’s latest autobiography and learn from his experience, persistence and ability to forge lasting, profitable relationships and sell almost anything.

Believe me, it’s the best $12 investment I have made in a very long time.  I finished my first reading in just two sittings – probably a record for me lately.

One of the things I like most about Jerry is his fearlessness, his belief in himself and an impeccable tenacity for success – traits that are absolutely essential for anyone to succeed in today’s hyper-competitive world.  His life is filled with a series of tremendous successes, along with some failures, that were all predicated on his ability to establish new relationships, and then leverage and monetize those relationships to the maximum extent possible, while at the same time forging real, lasting friendships.

Jerry’s Lifelong Success Formula: (my interpretation)

1. Clarity of Vision - Having clarity of vision around what can and needs to be accomplished (that others often cannot see themselves as clearly)
2. Identifying the Path - Figuring out who holds the keys to the stepping stones for fulfilling that vision
3. Leveraging Relationships – Breaking through all obstacles to establish the relationships with key decision makers and influencers, which provides the necessary leverage to cause and sustain profitable change
4. Communicating a Shared Vision – Making clear, bold statements about what can be done to help the other party accomplish and achieve a shared vision (once in front of the decision maker)
5. Telling Persuasive Stories - Using master storytelling as an effective persuasion tool to sell the vision
6. Packaging – Effective “packaging” – positioning and naming things so they have extremely high perceived value (even when the intrinsic value may be very low)
7. Launching – Turning opportunities into “events” and then promoting those events effectively as a launch
8. Delivering – Doing whatever it takes to actually deliver the promised results as expected
9. Disruptive Innovation – where appropriate, changing the way things are traditionally done by replacing the “old way” with a new, improved approach that better serves customers (business models, distribution models, pricing models, etc.)

It’s easy enough to understand, but a formula that takes courage, relentless persistence and a healthy dose of creativity and a willingness to “do whatever it takes” to succeed and win – that should be every entrepreneur’s credo.

Finally, and perhaps most important, Jerry is a master storyteller.  Stories provide the carrier wave for our messages that people will actually listen to, absorb and internalize – then make decisions upon.

Packaging the story up and then selling it as an “event” is the vehicle for actually delivering the end sales and generating millions in sales.

Much of what Jerry is actually a master at doing is what we now commonly refer to as “launches”.  Instead of launching products or websites, he launches and builds the careers of stars, movies and performers like bands and musicians.

Boy – just when you think you know a lot about something like launches, you find out just how much more there is to learn…  I’d sure like the opportunity to meet Jerry and learn even more about his fascinating journey someday.  I wonder if I can break his record of 364 days?

• Story marketing: Why it works and why you should try it (0)
• ALL BUYERS ARE LIARS: Stories we tell ourselves to get what we want (2)
• Your Relationship Development System – Profiting or Costing You? (1)
• Story: Struggling organic farmer saves the family farm (0)
• Psychology of Social Product Launches – Part 3, Storytelling (0)
• It’s good to be King (0)
• How To Create Stories That Sell, Part 2 (0)
• 14 Best-Kept Killer Hook Secrets That Grab Your Audience And Hook Them (2)
• The 7 Rules Bestselling Authors Use To Hook Their Readers (0)
• Storytelling Tweet goes viral overnight (3)

A colleague and good friend of mine and his staff members watched my latest video announcement today in apparent disbelief.  Here’s what he wrote:

The video seemed really untypical for you.  I’m used to seeing you focus on a business professional market – ie suit and tie.  The video was definitely the opposite.  Was this intentional?  It seems like you have veered a lot from your original vision.

In the past, like many in the business professional market, I have worried a lot (too much) about what everyone might think about this or react like about that – it’s something you had better be tuned into when you operate in the corporate world, or you certainly won’t last long…

I suppose I recently had an epiphany of sorts, after a brief visit with the executives at HostGator week before last and it taught me a few things about being successful in a small to medium sized company.

How we appear matters when we’re someone’s employee…because the others are watching – perhaps even the boss, and our behavior can and will be held against us.

But when you’re a small business owner, the only thing that really matters is being true to your customers – and your own values and integrity – because you are the boss and the buck stops with you.

I also realized something else.  Who am I kidding?  I’m no longer an executive with a Fortune 100 software company, so I don’t need to act like it anymore – nobody cares that I used to lead a billion dollar plus whatever – it’s irrelevant.

Finally, I’m FREE!

Free to do whatever I please, so long as it pleases my customers.  Free to do videos in my t-shirt, a Hawaiian shirt and shorts, if that’s appropriate for my target audience.  Today, our target audience is primarily other software companies and entrepreneurs, small business owners and Internet marketers – not the Fortune 100.

So from this point forward, I’m a “barefoot executive”, one who rolls up his sleeves and focuses on customers and their needs first and foremost.  Beyond that, let the chips fall where they may…

Being real and transparent is clearly important in today’s Internet-centric world.  What we wear to work doesn’t really matter, so long as the work we do is of high-quality and congruent with our customers’ needs.  This reminds me of a story…

Some years ago before a big keynote speech in front of thousands of people in a huge auditorium at a major casino conference center in Las Vegas, needless to say, I was a bit nervous.  Back stage, our CEO noticed I was nervous, and said something that made as much sense then as it does now:

In order to be successful with any audience:

• First you have to be comfortable with yourself
• Second you have to be comfortable with your material
• Then you can be comfortable with your audience.

Finally, Rick – the Barefoot Executive – is comfortable with his audience.

How about you?  Are you comfortable with yours?

• No related posts.