djhaskins

[djhaskins]

SMARTwheel - check it out! #EndDistractedDriving

[djhaskins]

PowerPoint slides and worksheet from today's presentation at the UNH Sales Case Competition.

Download the PowerPoint

Download the Worksheet

[djhaskins]

Coffee is for Closers. One of my favorite movie scenes. Not sure how much coffee i would be drinking lately, but we keep battling forward.

[djhaskins]

Miiren is a great resource for Agency new business development and account management. I have watched almost all of their training videos and its really helped me. Check them out. www.mirren.org

[djhaskins]

Check out this great listen on Audible.com. In this astounding account, Wall Street's notorious bad boy - and original million-dollar-a-month stock chopper - leads us through a drama worthy of The Sopranos, from his early rise to power to the FBI raid on his estate to the endless indictments at h...

I listened to this book over the last week. Pretty amazing story. From a sales perspective, I'm always amazed by people that have "it". What I mean is the ability to sell anything, anywhere, anytime. His first day on the job, he writes a winning script and has the ability to sell it. He was able to zig when everyone was zagging (more like reeling) after the '87 stock market crash and build trust (turns out to be false trust). Listening to this book motivates me to be a better sales person - albeit an honest one! Check it out.

[djhaskins]

When I need a little motivation, I love to listen to Grant Cardone - either one of his videos or books I downloaded on Audible. He gets me fired up to pick myself back and up and keep going.  Check him out - http://www.grantcardone.com/

[djhaskins]

This is what I call the Amazon Affect. Too often people don't compare proposals for the actual "value" instead for the price. No two proposals, products or services are the same, yet we as consumers assume they are. We find a product cheaper on Amazon and think we are getting a deal but don't stop to consider the differences.

[djhaskins]

Where do you get your information from?

I like to compare the web to a grocery store - I read that there are 42,686 products carried in the average grocery store, yet we buy probably the same 30 to 40 each week. When we discover something new, its exciting and then gets added to our regular list. The web is the same - I typically look at the same sites, same social sites and the same people but am excited to find someone or something new.

I look at sites differently - getting news, sports, industry news at all the typical places. But what I really like is reading and listening (podcasts) to people that inspire and motivate me. Here are some of my favorites, but I'm always looking for more.

James Altucher - my new online "mentor"

Mitch Joel - my first online "mentor"

Marcus Sheridan - who I hope to be like when I grow up

The Ad Contrarian - keeps us all honest

Branding Strategy Insider - great branding insights

Jeffrey Gitomer - sales insights

Lewis Howes - inspring

Who are others that I should be following?

[djhaskins]

Random thoughts on rainy Tuesday night

Waiting for my 4 week old baby to wake up so I can feed her and go to bed and this is what I'm thinking about... 1. Boston.com comments - are absolutely buried. I think its how they prevent ignorant people from leaving comments?

2. 50% of NBA players are broke - how does this happen? How does the NBA not provide better education? Why not incentive players to defer a percentage of their payments until they are 30?

3. I never realized how annoying rain is... until I got a dog.

4. It never ceases to amaze me the decisions that businesses make, or put off until last minute when its too late. I honestly think this how "leaders" deflect criticism for their lack of decision making ability.

5. I hate when people get up from a table and don't push their chair in. I think it says a lot of a person's character.

6. The food network might have some of the better programming on TV. Restaurant Impossible - watch it.

7. The second I post it, I will think of something I should have added.

[djhaskins]

3 share worthy topics - week of 2/11/13

Like most weeks, I came across a lot of good information and had some experiences that made me stop, think and learn from them. Here are 3 that I wanted to share:

7 Incredible Web Design, Branding, Digital Marketing Experiences - this is a great article that I shared with a lot of our clients and our internal team. It's long, but a great read about how to create smart and effective online experiences. As a passionate inbound marketer, I especially like "Security Choice: The Power of Conversion Through Transparency" (about 3 quarters of the way down).

Under Armour Unveils Anthem to Kick Off Its Biggest Global Ad Push - as a branding agency, we keep a close eye on new brand campaigns (or anthem as Under Armour calls it). I'm anxious to see to the full campaign and how it extends from TV, to digital, to out-of-home.

5 Reasons Why Long Content and Blog Posts Are Once Again the Future of Content Marketing - I'm a very big fan of Marcus and a regularly reader. I love Inbound Marketing and am anxious read his blog posts each week. I think this article is a great example of how you can use content and inbound marketing to add value, build trust and get found. Keep up the good work Marcus.

Have any interesting articles? Please share!

[djhaskins]

This is a good article and very timely for me personally. We get a lot of RFPs and while on the surface, they present a good opportunity, typically the cards are stacked against you from the get go. For instance, a lot of companies use RFPs to get ideas or budget ranges (aka they are never actually going to do anything). Or other times, they have an agency already selected in their mind, but have to do the due diligence of getting 5 or more quotes. Or other times you are competing against low ballers who will do anything to win the business and end up doing a bait and switch. Most RFP responses are not apples to apples comparisons, but getting the in-person chance to explain that is hard.

I have been thinking of creating a standard RFP response - we would be happy to respond to this opportunity if you are willing to agree to the following:

1. One in-person discovery meeting with all stakeholders before we submit the response

2. One in-person presentation meeting with all stakeholders to present our response and answer any questions.

3. Filing out a worksheet that dives deeper in the company, its goals, challenges and what they really need vs. what they think they need.

The challenging part is not coming across as difficult to do business with and will those requirements create that perception?

What else would you add to that list or what has worked for you?

[djhaskins]

One of my favorite metaphors for client service - water the bamboo. While the results of our efforts won't be seen instantly, consistency and perseverance will return results. But we need to keep at it day in and day out.

[djhaskins]

Great video that I highly recommend watching.

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This might be the very extreme point of view (aka he might be devaluing the relevance of a like or interest), but it still makes you think. Amazon knows what I have bought, Facebook knows what I have liked. If most people are like me, they don't know half the things they have liked - they did it at some point a while ago and don't even remember it. But I do know what I have bought from Amazon.

[djhaskins]

Nike's new commercial to welcome Rory McIlroy to the Nike family. Pretty cool commercial

[djhaskins]

If you help enough people get what they want, they will in-turn help you get everything you want - Zig Ziglar

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2012/11/28/zig-ziglar-10-quotes-that-can-change-your-life/

[djhaskins]

I've listened to most of Mitch's podcast's over the last year or two, but this was my favorite. It's worth the time. Let me know what your thoughts on their conversation and Bill's thoughts. I think his "marketing is dead" is a catchy phrase - a less controversial but more honest title would have been "marketing has evolved'. But hey, you don't expect a marketing guy to say that, do you?