Instigator Blog

Crack heads. Bank robbers. Salespeople. Taxi drivers.

What do they all have in common?

They’re always gunning for the next big score.

A few days ago I was in a cab (in Montreal), and for those of you that don’t know what it’s like, try and picture a combination of a demolition derby and stock car race. With no rules. And faster.

The driver’s speeding along leaving pedestrians and pigeons in his wake, and I’m thinking, “Why IS he going so fast? What’s the hurry?”

My thinking went something like this:

• The cab driver can’t be that concerned with customer service, it’s unlikely I’ll ever see him again. Sure, becoming a customer shouldn’t be a one-night stand but in this case it really is. So it can’t be customer service.
• His reputation is at stake, but again, I won’t see him again, so what’s the difference? And I can’t believe he cares that much about the reputation of his cab company (I don’t even know which one it was) or the reputation of all cab drivers in Montreal.
• It could be pure boredom; so cab drivers race around like poodles on speed for entertainment purposes. That makes some sense to me.
• It could be that customers complain if the cab driver goes too slow; there’s an expectation for the entire industry — cab drivers must drive at blazing, reckless speeds — and so everyone works to achieve that, and surpass it. That also makes some sense.

Then I thought, “He’s driving like that so he can get to his next fare. And the next one after that. Always seeking out the next big score.”

Who knows how long he had to wait for my $15 fare, but he’s got to be hoping to get it over with quickly so he can find someone else who needs to go to the airport ($40+) or even farther.

Of course, that’s a silly way to think. The next person he picks up might want him to go two blocks.

It seems salespeople often think the same way. Land a deal, do it quick, with as little effort as possible, so they can get to the next one. The Big Kahuna. The Mother Of All Sales.

It’s a bad way to think. It alienates the people you’re currently working with and shows a lack of true interest in building a relationship. Plus, the next deal could be for less. The sale you just closed might not have been enough to buy that condo in Maui, but who knows how much repeat business could have been had with a bit more effort, thoughtfulness and authentic relationship building.

Gunning for the next big score is a bad way of doing business.

So there I am paying the cab driver his fare, and trying to calm my exploding heart, when he thanks me kindly and hands me my receipt and a candy. A little blue candy.

I’ve never been given a candy from a cab driver before. Cool. Talk about changing my impression in an instant. I’ll probably never see that cab driver again but he sure left me with a positive feeling. Maybe he wasn’t going for the next big score after all…

Photo by Skip the Budgie on Flickr.

Heading into my final week of the 3-Week Buzz Marketing Challenge and I’m doing OK, but not good enough. There’s more buzz to generate!

One of the most underrated ways of generating buzz is through doing interviews.

And they’re easy to do! Everyone wants to be interviewed - from A-listers to small business owners to people just starting out. You might not have access to the biggest CEOs in your industry or worldwide leaders, but you won’t know until you try. And you’d be surprised how willing people are to be interviewed (people you think are unreachable.)

Interviews work to generate buzz because:

1. The person you’re interviewing has a vested interest in getting the word out, so you’ve instantly created at least one big-time evangelist.
2. You’re presenting the views of someone who is hopefully of significant interest to others. Interviewing your cat might be fun, but it won’t generate buzz. Josh Hinds is a master at this. His blog Business Networking Advice is a collection of interviews he does with a range of bloggers, business people and entrepreneurs. His latest interview is with Anna Farmery, and he even interviewed me!
3. When you promote an interview to your audience, community and others, you’re not just promoting yourself. This makes it easier to promote and generate buzz.
4. The public likes interviews, particularly if you can ask some pointed and instigating questions. Get the interviewee to reveal something interesting, break some news, or debate a hot issue and people will flock to the interview.

The best thing about doing interviews is building relationships with the people after. It might not always work, but if you can develop relationships beyond the interviews you’ll be creating lifetime buzz agents and supporters.

Ron McDaniel smartly points out that you could do an interview per week and that would exponentially increase your contact list, networking capabilities and buzz marketing. He’s 100% correct.

On Startup Spark, my blog focused exclusively on entrepreneurship, I’ve been doing interviews since the beginning. Last week I interviewed Ian Landsman who runs his own software company, UserScape. Some previous interviewees include Paul English, CTO of Kayak.com and Jim Estill, CEO of SYNNEX, a billion-dollar computer company.

I use email to connect with people, and we exchange questions and answers back and forth. The process is easy and fun, and I’ve stayed in regular contact with most of the people I’ve interviewed.

Finding people to interview is easy too! Use your existing network to ask for suggestions, or to target specific interviewees. Or, just go to the person directly and ask. Do so politely, explain the reasoning for the interview, and do something creative with it (some people get interviewed a lot!) and you’ll get your chance.

Interviews are great for generating buzz. Give ‘Em a try.

The thing about buzz challenges is that one leads to another, which leads to another still…

Last week I completed a buzz challenge by trying to organize a technology entrepreneurs Montreal breakfast meetup. The response was very positive, and so today I’m announcing that we will have our first-ever Technology Entrepreneurs Montreal Breakfast Meetup in a couple weeks.

Here are the details:

• Date: Tuesday, February 13th
• Location: Cafeteria, 3581 St. Laurent Blvd. (Google Map)
• Time: 8am (until 10am)

I hope we’ll run the breakfast monthly - either on the 2nd or 3rd Tuesday of every month. The location may change (we’ll see what people think.)

So how did my original buzz challenge of organizing a networking event lead to other buzz challenges?

In Ron McDaniel’s book Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing he suggests making mini announcements, which are well-suited for newspapers, bulletins, chamber publications, etc. They’re not typically about your organization, and they’re certainly not ads to sell your products or services. The goal with a mini announcement is to exemplify the image/brand of your organization, spread some goodwill, and some buzz.

What caught my eye about Ron’s buzz challenge was the mention of craigslist, which to most of us is known as an online classified ads system. Ron claims he’s heard of people getting great results from quick posts on craigslist.

OK, so I went to take a look.

I ended up posting an announcement about the Technology Entrepreneurs Breakfast Meetup on craigslist. It’s a bit short notice, but who knows who will come across it. I also included links to Instigator Blog.

On craigslist I found another event announcement site, and posted there too.

We’ll see what kind of buzz is generated from these postings.

And I hope to see lots of people at the breakfast on February 13th. It should be fun, and I know there will be many people there that I’ve never met, which I look forward to changing.

If you are planning to come, feel free to comment on this post and let us all know…

Update: The event is now available on Upcoming.org where you can sign-up, get reminders, etc.

One of Ron McDaniel’s 57 buzz challenges is to Join/Participate in an Online Group.

Like social networking sites there are plenty of online groups through Yahoo, Google, MSN, etc. that offer ways of connecting with peers and people who share your interests. Typically these groups are fairly small (a few hundred members), but if they’re active you can gain a lot from them - using them as a resource, feeding them news and success stories and answering other people’s questions and requests. Oftentimes people will be looking for contacts in other industries, etc. and playing matchmaker in online groups is a ticket to success.

The other day I came across Marketing Gorilla by Greg Hoffman thanks to blogtipping by Easton Ellsworth. Greg had a post about a Yahoo Group called Internet Marketing Super Group. They were looking for a few additional members.

So I decided to sign-up. It’s only been a couple of days - but looking through the archives of posts I can tell the group is quite active and discusses many topics I’m interested in — social networking, affiliate marketing, blogging, business blogging, etc.

The best way of finding groups is through others - getting referrals or reading other people’s blogs. If you search randomly you’ll find too much and it’ll take too long to judge quality. Better to have a close friend or contact recommend a group to you.

Entrepreneurs wear lots of hats. That’s a given. But there comes a time when an entrepreneur has to weigh the pros and cons of wearing all the hats versus outsourcing.

The pros and cons of outsourcing are simple.

PRO: You free your time to work on higher priority tasks.

CON: Outsourcing costs money.

So when is the best time to outsource?

As soon as possible.

Your business won’t survive, let alone thrive if you’re spending your time doing tasks that don’t really grow the business. Plus, there’s a very good chance that many of the tasks you’re undertaking are not your expertise, so they take longer, are more frustrating and subsequently cost you more.

1. First, outsource operational and business management tasks; namely bookkeeping and accounting. Very few people are experts in these things, they’re time consuming but very important. Your business needs a good foundation, and part of that is a smooth running machine - so outsource bookkeeping and accounting as quickly as possible.
2. Next, outsource website/blog design (unless that’s your business!) This will usually be a 1-time fee (unless you’re updating the site constantly), so bite the bullet and pay someone. Get it done right, and stand out from the crowd of standard looks and themes.
3. Simple tasks should be outsourced next, even if they’re core to your business. For example, you might run a small ad agency. Part of your job might be tracking the metrics of the ads you’ve placed for clients. You’re also doing all the work, including the most basic ad designs. If you can hire a college/university student to replace yourself, do it. They might even work for free in exchange for a nice bullet point on their resume.
4. Finally, outsource tasks that will take you eons to handle but will take an expert 5 minutes. Even if you’re a reasonable skilled plumber, your title is more valuable doing something else. Actually, that’s why plumbers can charge so much (but that’s another story…) The point is to avoid getting bogged down in tasks that will waste your time; bring in an expert, let ‘em do it quickly, build that relationship and pay them.

If you run a small business or you’re starting a new company there’s one thing you should be focused on: sales. Everything else is secondary.

Outsourcing costs money. So there’s risk associated with it. If you spend money you have to make money to pay those bills. But not outsourcing is a bigger risk. Find a way to do it. Spend the money. Barter. Beg. (Don’t steal, it’s bad.)

Outsource as quickly as you can. It’ll help your business succeed.