[Ron Lindeboom]

[John Murphy] “The cloak-and-dagger stuff is really quite off-putting, but obviously something we will have to get used to if dealing with councils.”

Or not.

We never play with the cloak-and-dagger guys. (Though I will admit that it made for a dandy song on the 1984 CAMEL album “Stationary Traveler.”)

After enough years of filling out proposals and bids and watching most all of them be awarded to low-ballers whose bids were so ridiculous that we couldn’t even break-even at those kinds of rates, we gave up on trying to win that kind of business. It is so hit-and-miss as to be one of the most ineffective uses of our time when we measured it.

Ron Lindeboom

[Ron Lindeboom]

[Adrian Smith] “I guess you missed the Business 101 lesson that went over the first (or second rule) of business: “Location, location, oh and location!” You’ve gotta know how important ambient factors are in any business, i.e. good parking, pleasant environment, good neighborhood cafes, etc. This is especially true when dealing with corporate clients, celebrity interviewees, politicians, etc. Funky industrial parks don’t really cut it unless you’re catering to the hipster market.”

We once spent the better part of $100,000 building the nicest office digs that we knew of anywhere in central California. It was all color-coordinated, with wall carpeting (to help with both light and sound dampening), fine woods, great flooring, desks, etc. It was located in Cambria, in the West Village — the ultra hip and trendy part of town — and was minutes from Hearst Castle (one of the most popular tourist traps in the State), as well as walking distance to many great restaurants, the beach, parks, etc., etc.

…and guess what?

In a year, it added only one new customer that we didn’t already have and that single new customer didn’t make us anywhere near the cost to win them over.

All the rest of our customers came from word-of-mouth customer referrals and from repeat business with the existing clients we already had.

If you already have the clients that can carry your fancy digs, go for it, and serve them well. But if you think that “location” is as important for marketing a video-related business as you seem to, then I would have to respectfully disagree.

It’s a gamble I would never take again and I have had huge websites and marketing machines to draw on that most people do not have.

In the end, it all came down to our connections, not our offices.

PS: That Business 101 class that you refer to? That was for those in retail, not for those in the service trades and crafts. It has more to do with impulse buys and walk-by traffic. These are hardly the backbone of client marketing in service industries.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

[Ron Lindeboom]

[Tim Wilson] “For people who know us, the Cow’s success is an impediment to potential advertisers. As Ron points out, they already benefit, so getting them to pay is tough. And for people who don’t know us, ours can be a hard story to tell.”

Selling for the COW, if that is what DRW was alluding to and I am reading him correctly, has been the TOUGHEST set of closes that I have ever had to master.

Instead of being easy, as Tim points out, our numbers are an impediment to the majority of potential advertisers, as they seem almost comical when comparing how a small independent site can eclipse the combined footprint of every major trade publisher combined.

It is NOT a story that plays well…commercially.

BUT…

If we didn’t use it, we’d be right back where we started from, wherein there would be no need to buy the COW when they are enjoying the benefits of the growth seen from the milk served here.

We have to use some pretty hefty closes here and it’s given me a viewpoint on marketing/sales that has given me a whole new set of tools from which to draw upon.

Therein is the secret: as Tim points out, flexibility is its own advantage. There is no single answer, there are only answers — and the more of them that you can use and master, the better.

Ron Lindeboom

[Ron Lindeboom]

Me, I love the clients that have a clear idea of what they want, who come in telling you exactly where the target is, and what they want to pay for.

Me, I am way more of a perfectionist and will usually, in most cases, do far more than what they want. It helps me get things done far faster when they come in with their expectations, than if I try to hit mine.

I like both kinds of customers: the ones that want to collaborate and the ones that want to tell me exactly what they want.

Both, coincidentally, write checks that spend equally well.

:o)

Sometimes, one is more fun than the other and I would agree that sometimes the ones mired down in minutiae and detail can become almost as big a pain as a grinder.

But as an old salesman once told me: the sweetest revenge is cashing the check. (Though I will admit that there are times when even a check isn’t enough and we have walked a few over the years, but only a few.) 😉

Repeat after me: “Checks are good, better than no checks — and I like the big ones that come from others, best of all.”

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

[Ron Lindeboom]

[David Roth Weiss] “I never said that your job was easy. However, the fact that you have built a well-known entity that is certifiable and quantifiable does make cold calling somewhat easier.”

Yes, it has made it easier but I was the same dogged and relentless refuses-to-accept-contrary-conclusions kind of sales animal that can be this way because I know I care about my customers and I will prove that my work flies, or they can have their money back. When you have that kind of confidence, it shows and is quite regularly contagious — sorta like a cold for businesspeople.

In the end, the important thing is what I said about donuts: some see the hole. Me? I try hard to see the whole.

Oh, and David, I do video, audio, and many other kinds of projects. I just don’t put up my work anymore as Tim Wilson would tell you that even in the beginning many years ago, my critics tore me to shreds online trying to discredit me. As Tim mentions somewhere in one of his recent posts: some people never forgive you for being right. They don’t. Some of the “old guard” that used to be some of the big names many years ago, refuse to play here and whine and chide the COW for its commercialism — yet, they won’t offer a single thing for free and expect to get paid every time they open their mouths. Hypocrites. They deride me for moderating but they themselves have publicly lied and vilified people — and unlike me, who does apologize when I get out of line — I have yet to see them do so. (Even when they tarred and feathered a guy up in Toronto whose only crime was that he didn’t understand a process which he was mental blocking on and asked for repeated clarification.)

I am too busy making stuff, building things, to bother with my critics any longer. I don’t have to make demo reels anymore. I used to. Now, I just show them some of my completed projects and they get the idea.

When you set out to build something, many people cheer you on until it starts succeeding, and then they won’t forgive you for your success.

Ah, human nature.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

[Ron Lindeboom]

David,

I can’t do that when it comes to record business, video business, animation, magazines that I launched against the tide and against “expert commentary” as to the insanity of such a thing today, etc., etc., etc.

I am ALWAYS swimming against the tide in case you didn’t notice.

I have ALWAYS overcome the obstacles no matter if it’s that I want to make music videos for companies in England — when I live in California — or sell a website that the manufacturers know that they are getting the advantage of, for free.

I don’t know if you quite remember the old saying of: Why buy the COW, when you can get the milk for free — but there have been PLENTY of times when I have been up against the wall and have gotten the firing squad to turn the guns back on themselves by a well supported and convincing argument.

I wish it was as easy as you think it is — that by waving a flag of raw numbers, the people line up and pull out their wallets. But that is simply so simplistic and myopic that it is inherently untrue. Though I wish it were true, as I would then have a smooth road in front of me — not to mention a lot less work to do.

What you see as the COW, did NOT come from a bunch of companies volunteering to support it, for the most part. For every one that did, there were a dozen that fought tooth and nail to not be here. (Oh, and most of those that did sign on were NOT swayed by numbers. Few people are. In fact, most of them wondered if the numbers were true as they were so much bigger than everyone else’s numbers, and some outright called us liars because they couldn’t believe that we were bigger than all of our competitors, combined.)

It has NOT been an easy road to be bovinian.

I do the same thing when it comes to magazines that people say that there are enough of, record companies that people say are a thing of the past, training companies that are dying on the vine, and so on and so forth.

Some people look at the donut and all they see is the hole and what is missing. Me? I look at all them greasy, sugary, deep-fried calories and all that blood thickening goodness that is there…just sitting round the hole.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

[Ron Lindeboom]

[Steve Kownacki] “While getting new clients is nice, maintaining current clients is far more profitable. There’s a huge cost to gaining business. Keep your customers happy.”

This is a great point, Steve.

I once knew one of the board of directors of JCPenny Co. and used to talk with him regularly. He had all duaghters and no sons and the way I loved business, I sort of became his surrogate son. He taught me tons of great things over the years.

One of the greatest was that he told me that JCPCo had done a study in which they found that it takes SIX TIMES the amount of time, money and effort to woo and land a new customer, than it does to keep an existing one and get them to buy another product or service from you.

SIX TIMES.

That is an incredible bit of knowledge which every business owner or manager should tattoo onto the inside of their eyelids so that they don’t forget.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

[Ron Lindeboom]

Mark,

I never go into my research with a pre-conceived idea based on what I do and what I can bring to them. Each case is ABSOLUTELY unique to me and therefore I do not start with any preconceptions whatsoever. If I want to work with a company, I will watch them for a bit and see what kinds of things I notice. Then, based on that, I will dig deeper. Based on what I am learning about them, that tells me what I should be talking to them about.

Often, I have no idea what specific product I will pitch; I am looking for a “mental hinge,” a connection point where we discuss a need that clicks with them. As we chat about it, I will throw out everything from comprehensive multi-pronged attacks to very focused things that they may bite on. That way, we are killing two birds with one stone — I am getting to “soft pitch” them, while softly feeling out what kinds of budgets they may have.

The important thing that I remember is that I am in the Communication business, not the video business. Video is just ONE of the things that I do. My real business is to be a communicator and that may sometimes be best served by the web, by print, by video — or maybe a combination of two or more of them.

My goal is to serve the need of the client and in doing so, collect a check. My goal is not to sell video.

Others may disagree and have other strategies.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

[Ron Lindeboom]

As Matt alludes to, I know people that have coded their entire site to operate from a wiki or blog software base.

The advantage is that you are immediately able to update and see these updates, from customers, friends — and the negative side, you can get updates from nefarious types, too.

If you set the site to where all updates have to be approved and you do the approvals quickly enough, you can maintain the advantages while avoiding the disadvantages.

Ron Lindeboom

[Ron Lindeboom]

There is not ONE OUNCE of what you said that I would disagree with, Mark. You are spot-on, as always.

When I call someone “out of the blue” with an idea that I have based on some preliminary research that I have done on their company, I always ask first if I have caught them at a bad time and I tell them that I would like to discuss an idea that I have regarding a need that I think I see in your company for…insert the idea here.

If I am right and I have done my research correctly, they nearly always say that they have a few minutes.

If I am wrong, then they get defensive and I know that I needn’t call them back — ever. ;o)

While I DO cold call, I never call without what I believe to be a “well loaded gun” of true value based on what I see in their company.

Again, the call should be about them — never you. If it gets that way, you have almost always lost the battle.

Sure, I sell myself, but I always veil it with the concepts and structures of what I see as their story, amplified.

Calling someone to slam them for graphics services and clip art is a great example of exactly what NOT to do in a call, in my experience and opinion.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry