This blog doesn’t usually look so awful!
Some loser who probably lives in his parents’ basement hacked my site (and apparently a few hundred more) a couple of weeks ago. I’ve moved to a new host and am in the process of rebuilding. Alas this renovation project has been somewhat delayed as I am also rebuilding our basement which was damaged by a flood a few weeks ago. When it rains it pours!
Please check back in a week or so. Thanks.
]]>Recently my company posted a freelance project on Craig’s List. It’s not a very exciting opportunity – just basic data entry work 5-10 hours per week. The work is simple, repetitive and the pay isn’t great, but to compensate we are allowing a totally flexible work option. The person must be local because we need local geographic familiarity but he/she will be able to work from home (or a boat or a favorite ski slope or wherever). As long as an appropriate amount of good quality work is completed each week, we’re not going to micromanage the process.
The posting seemed pretty straightforward and admittedly not all that interesting for a lot of folks, but you would not believe the response we received – over 120 responses! Our little freelance gig attracted respondents ranging from eager college students to extremely experienced professionals with advanced degrees. For a crummy little data entry project! I am overwhelmed and grateful that so many people would consider helping us with our projects. Can you imagine what kind of response a really great opportunity must attract?
So how can a job applicant stand out amid so much competition?
In our case, I grew increasingly frustrated as I reviewed the submissions and sorted them into four groups: 1) consider for interview, 2) maybe interview, 3) no/not a good fit and 4) “oh, hell no.” I’m no human resources expert (just a very busy entrepreneur), but here are some tips for job seekers based on my experience as the schmoe on the other side of the job query emails. Hope some of you will find this helpful.
Your objective is to get to the next step in the selection process
As with any complex business to business sales process, your objective in the job search should be to get to the next step in the selection process. When you respond to a job listing, you want to make sure you jump two hurdles: a) avoid an immediate rejection and b) entice the hiring manager to review your resume and move you to the next level of consideration. You can’t necessarily predict what the next level will be. Perhaps it is having your resume reviewed by other people in the company, perhaps it is going directly to a phone interview.
The company will expect to have its own hurdles to jump in the selection process. Will you like the company and its culture better than competing companies? Will the pay range meet your requirements? Will the job description be challenging enough to keep you interested, but not so challenging that you’ll want to leave too soon? Will the scope of the job need to be changed based on the unique skills of the individual applicants? Don’t expect an immediate offer or issue a list of demands in the first email.
No blind resumes – include a query note
If you don’t care enough about a position to spend five minutes composing 4-7 sentences explaining how your skills match the work to be done, don’t waste either of our time by just emailing a resume file. With over 100 resumes to review I’m not going to download and open the file without any reason to believe it will be worth my while.
Oh yeah, and that lovely resume you simply pasted from Word into the body of the email instead of writing a query is an unintelligible piece of crap by the time it gets rendered in my email client.
Put your name on your resume file
Include your first and last name in your resume file name. Have you ever considered what a complete pain in the ass it is to sort through 25 saved attachments that are all named “my resume”?
What does your job query note say about you?
I am naturally going to immediately draw inferences about you from your query note. What do the following types of query notes say about you?
No query – lazy, doesn’t care, probably wouldn’t take the job if it were offered (see section above).
Long, boring traditional non-customized query letter about how you seek challenge and can add value for our organization – too lazy to target the message and just pasted in a pre-written cover letter, probably didn’t read the job listing thoroughly since this has little or no relevance to our company or our position. (Maybe HR weenies like these, but the person who can actually make the decision to hire you hates them.)
Spelling, punctuation, errors and or IM abbreviations – either has exceedingly poor communication skills, poor judgment, or is simply a slacker who takes no pride of workmanship in his/her professional life. You would not BELIEVE the HORRIBLE writing we received in many of the responses we got despite having mentioned in the posting that good grammar and some writing would be required. At least 5 of the responses had no capital letters and my preschooler can punctuate better than some of the college graduates!
I am completely baffled that so many people are comfortable presenting themselves professionally in such a slovenly manner. Do they show up at interviews and networking events in torn, dirty shorts and stinky tank tops too? As a hiring manager, I don’t want to hire these people because I don’t want to spend MY work time cleaning up their grammar. Plus, I don’t want to work with the kind of person who just doesn’t care about his/her work. Geez!
“How do I apply” query – Oh for crying out loud! If you have to ask, you’re clearly clueless and will require far, far too much micromanagement.
And you would know IF YOU HAD ACTUALLY READ THE FREAKING JOB POSTING. (Obviously this idiotic query mighty yield better results at a large, soul-sucking bureaucracy than a fast-moving startup.)
“What is the annual salary?” and “My salary requirements are…” queries – cares more about the pay than the work, cannot perform basic mathematics, and is completely clueless. This is not a good query focus because:
“I want/need a job” queries – The economy is very, very tough right now. Despite my tendency toward overworked bitchiness while reviewing the responses to our project posting, my heart breaks with the knowledge that so many good people are in need of work.
Unfortunately, indiscriminately applying for any job isn’t going to do either of us any good. If it isn’t a good fit, you won’t be happy and the work will suffer. And if the only content in the query is “I am interested in the position,” or “I need a job,” then the hiring manager really doesn’t have much reason to justify moving you to the next phase of the selection process.<
Concise, targeted queries focused on getting the work done – I LOVE these! How are you are most likely to move into my “to be interviewed” bucket? In 4-7 grammatically correct and appropriately punctuated sentences show me that a) you actually read the job posting – yes, all of it! b) understand the work needed, c) have some experience that would help you accomplish it, d) show some initiative and/or a temperament that makes me want to work with you.
What our successful applicants had in common
The people we decided to consider for interviews all sent in concise, professional queries that clearly indicated that they had a reasonable grasp of the work needed. They showed us that they can think independently and can apply their previous experiences to successfully accomplish the tasks we need to get done.
A few acknowledged that they did not have experience with some of the software we use, but took the time to Google it and get a feel for what it does. That initiative means as much – maybe even more – than actual experience with the tool.
I can teach someone to use a computer program in an hour or two – I can never teach someone to be the kind of person who is intellectually curious and/or enough of a self-starter to seek information and figure something out on his/her own.
What about the resumes?
We generally didn’t even use resumes to make the first cut in our search. Not very many people make a career of data entry, so a traditional resume would not likely tell us whether the person could do a good job or not. We’re basically just using them to finalize the list of people we want to interview and to prepare for the interviews. Honestly, I’d rather see a link to your LinkedIn profile, but a resume is convenient for printing to review before the interview.
So there you have it – job searching from the perspective of one overworked hiring manager at a small startup. I’m sure other managers and recruiters will have different perspectives and opinions. But perhaps some of you will find these tips helpful.
Good luck! I hope some of these suggestions will help you find interesting work and outstanding professional opportunities.
]]>If you want to double the value of your marketing data, there are four key processes you will want to optimize: 1) capturing leads and prospect data, 2) coding effectively, 3) cleaning and organizing your data, and 4) connecting with prospects regularly. Within this overall framework, your selling cycle, marketing strategy and marketing processes should guide every step in your marketing data management process.
<ul>
<li>What kinds of leads should you target?</li>
<li>What do you need to know about those leads?</li>
<li>What will you do with leads after you generate them? email newsletters? direct mail campaigns? telemarketing?</li>
<li>What systems and software will you be using to manage the data?</li>
</ul>
Each marketing decision significantly impacts the data fields you will need to successfully implement your marketing plan. If you take a little time to understand what information your sales and marketing team will need throughout the prospecting and selling cycles, the marketing data management system you develop will be much more effective.
I don’t usually get involved in politics. But this week, Christopher Dodd and Congress have targeted technology start-ups for annihilation by regulation so I’m asking you to join me in taking action to stop legislation that will be devastating for early stage tech companies like mine. Hidden in the big banking regulation & bail out bill that Congress is currently debating, Christopher Dodd has included major changes to regulations for private investors in early stage companies.
Major changes to angel investing hidden in the bill include:
1) the requirements threshold for being an “accredited investor” will be raised from a net worth of $1 million or income of $200,000 to a net worth of $2.3 million or income of $449,000. BusinessWeek estimates that this will make approximately 77% of potential angel investors ineligible.
2) once an investment deal is agreed upon, it forces companies to wait 120 days before they can receive the funds – four months is an eternity for an early stage company.
3) it eliminates Federal regulation preemption for companies who have only accredited investors – this means that small, cash-strapped companies will have to navigate the legal and accounting requirements of both Federal and state regulations – and for multiple states if the investment is syndicated across state borders. Very difficult and very costly.
4) all startups who plan to seek funding will have to register with the SEC, thus incurring significant legal and accounting fees before they even have a chance to attract investment.
Given that banks have virtually nothing to do with the funding of startup companies, it seems very odd that Christopher Dodd would insert such a regulation into a banking reform bill.
I’m asking everyone I know to please help stop this portion of the bill before Christopher Dodd and Congress kill angel investing and an entire generation of baby startups. Starting a company is hard enough – startups REALLY don’t need our own version of SOX!
SaveRegD – information site with online petition
Startups Get Hit By Shrapnel In The Banking Bill by Fred Wilson
Dodd’s Attack on Angel Financing from Seattle Tech Flash
Open letter from National Venture Capital Assn and Angel Capital Assn
Angels sing: ‘frankly ridiculous’ restrictions might ‘destroy Silicon Valley’
]]>Who are your target customers? Of course, you should already have this well defined in your strategic marketing plan, but it is good to review as you begin planning your data strategy.
Before you can make good decisions about your marketing data, you need to have a good idea of who your ideal customers are, how you plan to reach them, and what information your sales and marketing team needs to track about them.
For instance, you might ask questions such as:
All of these factors impact how you acquire leads and marketing lists and what you do with the prospect data once you have it. And after you have been collecting data for a while, you’ll want to analyze the data again to refine your data strategy.
]]>Suppose your job depended on filling a large bathtub with water using only a cup and water from the sink across the bathroom. Easy with some work, right? Well, maybe not. How easy would it be if you had to not only fill the tub, but also maintain the water level consistently every month and every quarter? What if you had to fill and maintain the water level, but had no stopper to block the drain and keep your tub filled? How frustrated would you be if each time you poured water into the tub, it just flowed down the drain?
Building and maintaining sales pipelines at companies that do not have a consistent, effective process for capturing and managing marketing data is as difficult and frustrating as trying to fill an endlessly draining bathtub. Effective data management provides the stopper that helps keep leads from flowing down the drain before your sales team has a chance to close deals with them.
In today’s tough economic environment it is more important than ever to squeeze every dollar of ROI from every marketing asset—including your existing marketing automation system, marketing database or customer relationship management (CRM) system.
Making the most of your marketing leads is crucial for maximum profitability. Too often, companies spend thousands—even millions—of dollars for lead generation programs with barely a thought to how they will capture, process, and follow up the leads once they are acquired or how they will nurture them over time.
Let’s be honest: Improving data quality is not a sexy or high-profile marketing project. It can be pretty boring and is usually ignored. But getting your marketing data into a clean, optimized state can have more impact on your company’s bottom line than almost any single lead generation program.
Studies show that most marketing leads are wasted. According to Marketing Operations Partners, analysts at Sirius Decisions report that only 20% of marketing leads are ever followed up by sales reps, but about 80% of ignored prospects will go on to purchase from someone within 24 months. If you have clean, well-organized, accurately coded data, marketing can nurture those ignored leads until they are ready to buy.
Good data has a measurable bottom line impact. Another recent report from SiriusDecisions estimates that companies can generate nearly 70% more revenue simply by improving the quality of their marketing data.2 There’s a quantifiable waterfall effect: More leads get qualified and faster, sales follow-up rates increase, and more deals close. Incremental improvements can add up fast—especially when they are compounded.
Bad data, on the other hand, keeps costing you money. According to Johnathan Block, SiriusDecisions senior director of research, “The longer incorrect records remain in a database, the greater the financial impact. This point is illustrated by the 1-10-100 rule: It takes $1 to verify a record as it’s entered, $10 to cleanse and de-dupe it and $100 if nothing is done, as the ramifications of the mistakes are felt over and over again.”
Good Marketing Data Management Isn’t Rocket Science
Sure, many companies spend millions of dollars and deploy teams of dedicated staff to manage their marketing data. However, there is no reason why small and mid-size companies should have to spend a fortune or hire a team of experts to significantly improve the value of their marketing data. Luckily, managing marketing data effectively is not terribly difficult—it just takes a little forethought to create good processes and a little consistent effort to keep the momentum going.
We’ll take a look at how to improve your marketing data management processes in later posts.
]]>Data cleaning sucks. But taking the time to clean your marketing data and update your marketing segmentation codes a couple of times a year really pays off.
I just finished a new video with a 10-minute introduction to my marketing data cleaning process. Since I hate cleaning data, I developed the process for using Microsoft Excel to semi-automate the process. So I enjoy the benefits of clean marketing data without spending too much time on tedious data cleaning.
Instructions are included in a new ebook from ChickBiz publishing called Double the Value of Your Marketing Data. In addition to detailed instructions for the cleaning process, the ebook offers tips for marketing data management, recommendations for capturing marketing data from a variety of sources, and coding techniques for effective lead nurturing and segmentation.
Here’s the free video.
]]>This week I applied for <a href=”http://www.founderinstitute.com/”>The Funded’s Founder Institute</a>, a really exciting, structured four-month training program for new entrepreneurs. One of the questions on the application is “Why do you want to be an entrepreneur?” Wow! Hmmmmm.
In the frenzy of getting a company started, it’s easy to overlook that basic question. Why would anyone want to leave the seemingly safe environment of a corporate job to embark on the crazy adventure of building a company – especially now in such uncertain economic times? It’s a good question.
In my own case, startup addiction, faulty genetics, and a driving obsession are the only excuses I can offer to explain my compulsion to leave a nice, cushy job at a Gartner Cool Vendor to start a new company from scratch in the worst economic downturn of our generation.
After 15 years of working with technology companies – a large chunk of it in tornado-stage startups – I’m obviously addicted to the excitement of building new products at fast-growing companies in emerging industries. Perversely, instead of enjoying the predictable routine of a well-defined job description at a stable, established company, I prefer to spend my days scrambling to solve a variety of challenges using a wide set of skills (some of which might have to be developed on the fly). Life gets crazy in such an environment, but the satisfaction of wringing order and creating value from the chaos is irresistible.
The affliction runs in my family. Four generations of women in the family have started businesses, my father has been building international divisions at tech companies for the past 30 years, my grandfather founded a company in his off hours and sold it to a Fortune 500, and even my little brother has become an entrepreneur.
Given these professional tendencies and familial influences, it was probably inevitable that I would become obsessed when the idea hit me for a new way to use technology to solve problems I passionately want to solve. After filling a notebook for three years with feature ideas, sketches, integration options and data requirements, the obsession to build my apps for real people to use has become overwhelming.
I simply have to do it. That’s why I want to be an entrepreneur. How about you?
]]>The first day of my new life as an entrepreneur is here. I’m at my desk wearing my favorite comfy shorts. Jean-Jacques Goldman is playing on iTunes. This video for inspiration A very good day.
Last week at my day job I was awarded the company’s first Golden Hedgehog award for outstanding excellence in sales and marketing. It came with a cool foot-high lucite trophy and a gift certificate to yummy Morton’s. OK, I know it sounds pretty silly, but I was really touched. (A second Golden Hedgehog was awarded to the highest grossing sales rep of the year.)
In most companies the sales team gets all the glory and marketing’s contribution is generally overlooked, but this time my boss the VP of Marketing and the VPs of Sales decided to highlight my work. Even I was surprised to realize that a significant portion of our sales pipeline originated with lead generation programs I developed and implemented and that more than half of our deals this year were influenced by one of my marketing campaigns (either before or after the reps engaged with them).
I really enjoy my work. Our product is amazing. The people are wonderful – excellence is valued, teamwork is rewarded, and the no asshole policy is consistently applied at all levels. After seeing so many crummy, drama-filled startups, it feels wonderful to help build a winner.
I try to do a good job every day, but this year was really tough. Not only did we grow the company rapidly, but I also had to learn how to juggle taking care of a baby with working full time and endured an endless series of flu, colds, and stomach virus that the boy brought home from daycare. And surprise – got pregnant with baby number two!
This new year is already a roller coaster. I’m trying to get twice the usual number of programs organized this quarter so half of them can generate leads while I’m on maternity leave next quarter. It’s really, really hard and really, really fun.
P.S. If you’re wondering why our mascot is a hedgehog, it’s a Good to Great thing:
http://goodtogreat.com/lab/hedgehog/index.html