What's in a Style Sheet

When we start with a new client the first thing we do before we start writing anything is to create a list of words, acronyms, and style use that will help us be consistent in all documents and with all authors. It also helps us create a working standard for our clients when they take over the documents. Here is a list of items we put into an Excel spreadsheet.

Alphabetized Spelling and Word Use Tab
For Example:
We had a client that insisted on having the 'TM' symbol on every instance of their product name. So in this list under C for the product name we listed...

• Product Name^TM
  

This told the writer how this word would be used. We also listed industry words (after we have confirmed spelling with industry associations or resources)...

• electrocardiography
  

and writing standards for words...

• double-click
  
• log in (adj or n.)
• login (verb)
  

Acronym Tab
We list all the industry and proprietary acronyms with their full spelling

• ECG - electrocardiogram

Styles, Standards, and Marketing Tab
On a third tab we record all the clients current:

• font styles (Body text - Arial 10pt, left align)
  
• branded colours (RGB and HEX)
  
• unit short forms (e.g. msec (millisecond)
  
• Computer usage terms (describes how to write the name of application parts e.g. button names - bold)
• Numbered standards (describes how to write words with numbers like package size e.g. 50-Pack)
• Numbers (0.2V or I, II, V or 8^th)
• Writing standards (e.g. use serial commas)

"I don't know what I want to do when I grow up"

Have you ever had a friend say this to you? I have a couple, and I confess I have said this myself. This statement is not spoken because of a lack of ability, work, or passion it comes about because of other aspects of life. This morning I had an insight I am going to share:

This morning I was tweeting about a conference "call-for-speakers" in the information management side of what I do. I thought to myself - I don't have any clarity about the focus of my profile on Twitter. Am I an information management specialist, am I a business owner, am I an investor, or a mom and mentor, etc.? After deliberating for a bit I thought to myself, I am a CEO. I am the person that understands and oversees all the other aspects. I am the visionary that leads the way to the information and directs the purpose. This is what I am going to focus on.

When I sat back and looked at this statement I realized that when I put all my skills and interests under this one umbrella, clarity came to my 'understanding of me'. I finally know what I want to be when I grow up, it is an Entrepreneurial CEO and luckily I am already there.

This does not reduce the amount of work I have, but it does help me say 'Yes' or 'No' to certain activities when they do not meet this focus.

I share this for the benefit of all my friends and others that have a CEO mindset. Thinking like the person at the top makes focusing on one type of skill set quite difficult. You need to look higher up the chain to meet your abilities and to ensure you are using the gifts you have to their fullest.

Weird that Twitter helped add clarity to my 'understanding of me'.

Customer Loyalty Programs

As business owners we all struggle with ways to reward our best clients for their business. We all know that it is easier to get business from a returning client than it is to get a new client.

There are all types of customer loyalty programs, depending on the type of business or service being offered and the level of investment the client puts into the business. For instance, if you have ever spent time at a casino you may know that big spenders at the casino get all types of compensation, from dinners to accommodations and travel depending on how much they spend. When I shop at Zehrs using my Presidents Choice banking card I get free groceries. When I renew my mortgage with my bank, I get a better rate than I could at other banks. For my clients, I have offered loyalty discounts on projects and rewards for referrals.

The longer our clients have known our business, the easier it should be to deal with us. We do not want our clients to jump through hoops to renew our relationship every year yet that is what one of my service providers has just done. Let's look at this from both the business side and from the customer side.

First, I will not name this business because I have had a successful relationship with them for 15 years. This is not a letter of complaint (I did that through their corporate channels) this is an article about the perception of a reward from both the business and the customer's point of view. For the sake of clarity I will refer to the business as Smith's, which is not their real name.

The business view
Smith's is a successful Canadian company, with a long history of service. They started offering their products and services for the consumer market and diversified into several products, including Internet, Cable, and Wireless. They have implemented many promotions and discounts for their customers, giving them hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars of discounted products and services.

On top of these promotions and discounts Smith's started offering a bundle package, as many companies have done, to entice their current clients to purchase more from them. This offered their clients greater discounts for being loyal repeat customer, with more than one product. For each additional product purchased the client would receive a greater discount.

As a business marketing initiative, this is brilliant. In general I expect that most business owners would rather make 15% less on their products and services to get their best clients to purchase more and stay as a loyal customer. This makes sense. The "fear of loss" also sets in with this program because once signed up, removing any one product from their purchase would reduces their overall savings from 15% to 10% to 5%. This helps to ensure a commitment from their clients as their relationship matures.

The customer view
From the customer's prospective this is a great reward. If you are a customer of a company that has provided great a product or service in the past and they were to be offered additional discounts on your current product/service as well as other products or services with discounts you may feel privileged. At the very least you would feel you got more than you paid for as we all appreciate getting a reward for our loyalty. Customers are very savvy these days, and they are not blind to the marketing plan that is behind this type of offer. I would say that customers have come to expect some type of reward for exclusively patronizing a company. There are so many choices in today's market that customers expect extras if they are to remain loyal.

The balance
So the balance between the business and the customer is that the business needs the ongoing customer loyalty and client 'buy-in' for more of their products and services while the customer needs to be shown they are worth keeping because of their loyalty.

Very 'Marketing 101' you might note, as you read this, to which I would answer, "Yes!"

The imbalance
We always want our client's feedback. It is important to a company to know what we are and are not doing correctly. Often we set up programs so we can 'touch' our customers regularly to ensure they are getting what they need. What we do not want to do is ask our clients to work at being our customer. When we ask clients to review their relationship with us on a reoccurring term we ask them to also review their options. For instance, when my mortgage or insurance come to the end of the term I consider whether or not I will continue with my current provide. For the insurance, since I have to do nothing to continue on with my current provide, I may only look at whether or not I am satisfied with the service I have received in the past. I am likely to renew because I do nothing to continue with my current service and costs. Since I have to do more to renew my mortgage, including make decisions about what type of mortgage I want, signing visits, and the terms that I will need, I spend more time thinking about what is the most value for me (time, cost, commitment, etc.) I refer to this type of interaction a 'customer relationship renewal'. As a customer I have to renew my commitment to my relationship with my bank.

"So what does this have to do with Smith's", you might be asking. Well, their customer rewards like their bundles are now consider promotions that expire. If the customer does not take the time to call and review their products and services the loyalty discounts will be removed, even though they still may have the multiple products. For customers that do call they are expected to commit to a minimum 12 months and then they are considered a loyal customer, even if they have been with Smith's for 15 years.

Perspective
This is not wrong in a business sense but it is not perceived as a reward. Smith's clients must now remember to update their relations with the company each term. During that time they may take note of other companies that offer the same services for less work. Any time you give your clients the opportunity to compare your offering you had better be sure you have the best offering on the market or you will be losing clients.

If your client has to evaluate your product or service, costs, and their commitment to you, they will also evaluate others. The upside for Smith's is they now get to hear from their clients at the end of their commitment term and during that commitment term Smith's get regular, expected sales. The serious side affect of this program is they no longer actually have loyal clients. They only have term-to-term customers. Loyalty is now purchased for 12 months and this does not necessary get them referrals. Every customer is a returning client in 12 months. So it may be easier to get business from a returning clients but not as easy as keeping a current client.

I do know that Smith's is a very large corporation with hundreds of highly educated and knowledgeable people working on their marketing programs. I'm sure that my simplistic view does not address all the challenges and values that these promotions have been designed to deliver. As a long time customer, that had no intention on looking for another service provider, I will spend the next 12 months reviewing my exclusive relations with Smith's and all the alternatives. Who knows, I might sign up to be a loyal customer for another year.

Books - The Catalyst of Passion and Change

I have read several books on wealth, self improvement, business development, and sales as well as industry specific books on technical writing and content management. Recently I have found that I am not interested in being entertained by fiction when I read so I read business and industry magazines to relax. Honestly, I'm surprised I sleep as well as I do considering how much information is swirling through my thoughts at all times, but this is what keeps me sane I believe.

Anyway, a concept I find that shows up in many books is the idea of diversification. We know it is possible to start a business with one product, but we also know if you are not growing your business and moving forward, you are dwindling and moving backwards. It is important that the growth of the business is based on implementing complementary products or services that help increase the offering or reach a different market. To diversify a product offering can help support the growth of a company.

On investments, wealth experts all talk about diversification. My grandmother had lived through the depression in the 30's. One thing she had learned and lived was that it is important that your money would not all be invested in the same place. When she passed away my mother had to close out several bank accounts as well as find all the stashes she had around her residence. This may not be the best way to become wealthy but we can probably say that it is a good way to insure you don't loose everything you have earned when a bank closes down because of sub-prime mortgages crash.

So here I am at the beginning of my diversification into investment. I am approaching this change like I do every other, I learn. For business I had attended many training classes, programs, online seminars, conferences, and I continue to read books, often several at a time. I have mentors, advisors, have received coaching, and I participate in a mastermind group to ensure I have support and feedback for all my questions. For my new life addition I have invested in education to help myself understand real estate the way an expert would, through The Trump Institute. I am attending investment groups, networking with experts and surrounding myself with like minded people.

I was enticed in this direction through the ideas I have learned in the books I have read over the years. And this is my beginning. Books are often the catalysts passions. I would like to share three of my favourite books on wealth.
.....

Books Worth Reading

• The Wealthy Barber by David Chilton - This book gives you the basics of the concept that anyone can be a millionaire if you are wise with your money. Found at Chapters and Amazon.
  
• Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker - If you read this book you need to go to the Millionaire's Mind Intensive Seminar. Buy the book and register for the weekend at this link. Use registration number 286519 so my friend Jackie, who gave me the opportunity to change my "wealth blueprint" can be rewarded.
  
• The One Minute Millionaire: the Enlightening Way to Wealth by Mark Victor Hansen - I've listened to this book several times. I like the idea that there is more than one way to make money, which helped change my mindset and start me on my path to diversification. Also found at Chapters and Amazon.
  

I hope you enjoy these books and your own transformation.

Twitter DDoS Attack Still Affecting Some

Yesterday Twitter was down for a couple of hours due to a malicious cyber attack.
Video: Cyber attack takes Twitter offline ITN NEWS

But for some there may still be issues. I found yesterday that even after the attack had been thwarted I was still having intermittent troubles with accessing twitter. This is understandable since this is not a single computer issue, so I opted not to tweet for the day. This morning I found I have had no access at all from either of my two computers on my home network. The last posting to the Twitter status page states that " some people may be unable to post or follow from the website".
http://status.twitter.com/

There is no new status posting today to state how long they feel some people will have issues so I don't know how long this will affect me, but if this is affecting you as well then at least you now know you are not alone.

Follow me on Twitter at barbstuhlemmer (as soon as I can tweet again).

Exploring a Business Idea (helping during transition)

This last month I have been filling in for a friend to deliver a day long program to executives forced into transition due to the tough economic times. I started with her presentation and customized it to cover some of the items I am passionate about in business. I also made changes after each delivery to include information and suggestions offered by the participants.

The program is part of the outplacement program offered by Right Management (www.right.com) to employees being laid off. Right Management offers a variety of programs, support, and seminars to help these people transition into a new career as well as gives them this opportunity to look at self employment, which is valuable since close to 85% of all businesses in Canada are small businesses.

At the beginning of the day we have a room full of people with a variety of reasons for attending the seminar from "I had free time" to "I've been working on a business for years on the side". Many have no idea if this is even possible for them and can't even fathom how they would start. By the end of the day everyone is able to imagine what type of business they would start (sole proprietorship, partnership, or incorporation) and how they might start a business, whether they start from scratch, buy a franchise, work as a consultant, etc.

The people that fill this room are extremely experienced in their past positions often in global corporate leading businesses. The interaction from the questions and ideas with these people always gives me something to think about and is filled with stimulating thought and innovation. It is exciting to be a part of the beginning of the entrepreneurial process.

I get to see and help with the process through networking with BNI. I am an assistant director with the Ontario Central North region of BNI Canada and I love the opportunity to help people generate more business through targeted word-of-mouth networking and relationship building.

The commonalities these two support systems have is they allow people to become better, independent business owners, even if they stay or return to employment in someone else's company.

Reading

• For those just in transition I like the quick read of Who Moved My Cheese, by Spencer Johnson.
• For those ready to make a change there is Jack Canfield's The Success Principles: How to get from where you are to where you want to be.
  
• For people that want to own their own business I usually recommend starting with Michael Gerber's The E-Myth Revisited.
• And, for those already in business I like Masters of Sales by Misner and Morgan as well as every other book that will support the growth of your business and you as a business owner.
  

Do you love hand bells

I want to use this blog post to honour one my living relatives, whom I love and cherish, by praising the release of her choir's new album Bellissima Ringers "Decade". The music is wonderful and soulful, but I am not an expert so listen to what Dave Harris, the director of Raleigh Ringers, arguably one of the best bell choirs in the WORLD, had to say...

"I find the dynamic contrast on the CD to be outstanding. Clearly, you have paid very close attention..."

"the energy isn't lost when you play soft, which is very, very important. I especially liked the rise and fall of your phrases in the Moonlight Sonata.

"An excellent mix of several very serious classical pieces, hymn tunes, holiday selections and original works. And THANK YOU for filling the CD! 74 minutes! unheard of!"

If you are moved by hand bells then you will want to own this CD by The Bellissima Ringers and you can order it online at:

www.bellissimaringers.ca

Fabulous work Aunt Cathie, I was moved to tears at the beauty of the sounds.

Why Did I Start Tweeting - A Business Argument

I was talking with a friend and fellow entrepreneur yesterday and when I mentioned I had decided to start using Twitter a few weeks ago she said, "Oh please tell me I don't have to start using that!" Today in a meeting with two investors we got speaking about different ways to market yourself and I got quit a bit of push back on the cost (in time) to learn and keep a twitter, LinkedIn, or other social networking account fresh enough to give it a reasonable ROI. Here is what I told them about why I believe it is important to start now and why they won't regret the small amount of time it takes to keep it fresh.

1. Twitter was one of the easiest social network profiles I have set up. As well, it is so very easy to use both from my browser and my phone. Really, this was the "no brainer" profile I was looking for. I hate spending hours or days to collect information or navigate complicated profile applications.
2. Twitter is a great way to follow some of the people I respect and look up to. The first thing I did was start following all my favourite authors. Then I added some mentors and business associates I have met over the years that I respect. What I found is that many of these people would follow me in return. Also, people that followed them would now follow me. Some were interesting and some were not. If they were interesting then I followed them. My point being it became easy to get a list of very interesting people to follow.
   

   Note - I could not necessarily find all the people I was interested in following and in some circumstances I could find too many with the same name. You have to add a picture or a very good profile detail so people can tell you from the others with the same name.



3. Tweeting was not like blogging, writing an article, or creating an RFP, it was simply a line of thought or an update. I gave an example that I could tweet right now that I was sitting with two investors, both with international investment portfolios, and if they had a Twitter account I could link to them, pushing their information out to the people that were listening to me.
4. I described the Twitter browser interface (technical description from my Tech-writing days) aka "the web screen" and how simple it was to update and receive tweets. You don't have to do anything to see the tweets from those following you and you don't have to read all the tweets that come to you. If you inadvertently follow someone that turns out to be too verbose (re"twitter"ative) then you can simply stop following them. I was following someone that tweeted 20 - 30 times a day (or more). I had to flip back pages past all her redundant updates just to see my favourites, so I stopped following her. Problem solved.
5. You get to find out about seminars, webinars, and calls which are often free events. I love being able to get a chance to hear about how others do business so I can make mine better. When I have time to listen I make time to learn and Twitter just gives me a new way to be 'in the know'.
6. You can create credibility and presence by tweeting, which you can turn into business. There are many businesses on the web that focus on helping companies do this. Two of them that I follow are @GinaBell and @ChristianMasson. I have met and trust Gina's husband @Coach_Bell and Christian at a conference in Montreal last April and have had the privalege of hearing Gina speak on two occasions. Now my tweet about this blog has just created credibility for all three of these people.

Firsthand example ROI

I got a tweet to download a recorded call from Jill Konrath (@jillkonrath ). I've heard her speak before and knew there would be value in listening to the interview. The interview was with David Wolf of Smallbiz America (@smallbizamerica ). After listening I found the radio link and listened for a while. I found the information so compelling that I decided that others needed to know about it so I put there syndicated radio link and logo on my website. No cost to them. The more syndicated buttons, the more listeners - The more listeners, the more advertisers. You've got to like a business model that gets your clients to push your business at no cost to you.

After I described this to my colleagues and then showed them some of the tweets I was following, they all said "This is now on my 'To Do' list." As it should be. I think business is hard enough. We have to take advantage of the small, easy things when we get an opportunity.

Note - "re"twitter"ative" means someone that twitters the same message in a different manner so often that it becomes irritating to their followers. I made that up :)

What do a Fisheries Biologist and medical device manufacturers have in common?

A Fisheries Biologist working with a government agency in Seattle contacted me a few days ago. She recognized that she is not in the medical device industry but felt that there must be some similarities in the way all industries handled large amounts of information and asked if I could give her some advice on a book that might get her started. After spending some time to compile some information and links I decided that this information may be valuable to many.

If after reading this you have additional information that could help others looking for advice on content management and version control then please feel free to leave a comment.

My Response
Managing large amounts of content has many of the same issues in every industry. There are not a lot of books written about this to date. Anne Rockley is considered the “Guru of Content Management”. Her book “Managing Enterprise Content” is the industry standard. You can get this at Amazon. She has a great blog and online webinars with lots of information. She has also just published a DITA book “DITA 101” found at www.lulu.com. JoAnn Hackos is another “Content Guru”. She has published several books and she delivers workshops and hosts conferences attended and presented by some of the world leaders in content management.

You may want to attend a conference like the Document and Training West (next year), Gilbane Boston or Intelligent Content. There are often very knowledgeable speakers at these events as well as the industry leaders as key note speakers. These are great people to get connected to when you have a large project in the works.

You may want to consider joining CM Pros (Content Management Professionals). Their membership is filled with amazing, knowledgeable people. They also have a conference (The Summit) that is worth attending to get a chance to meet these people.

Another place to go for training may be through AIIM. They are connected to the industry and I’ve heard them speak on webinars in affiliation with a lot of other leaders and speakers.

One Other Thing
One thing I did not mention was that some of the best resources are the vendors. CMS vendors have a lot of information on the reasons for implementation and often host webinars and seminars in affiliation with industry experts. Get on their mailing lists to stay on top of the industry trends.

Too Much and Not Enough

Wow it has been a long time since I have written anything for this blog. Like many people, I have good intentions and lots to say, but the drive to be consistent with the posts has been taken over by the ‘doing’ of my business. So what have I been ‘doing’ for the past year? Too much and not enough.

I had reasonable goals to meet in 2008. I did get asked to speak at two conferences and did make one of them. I did get to write articles that other people paid me to create. I did get clients through BNI that were my target clients. I also added strategic volunteer time that I have truly enjoyed being a part of and have added to my businesses credibility. But what I didn't do was meet my financial goals. So, was I working too hard at things that did not get me what I need for my business or was I not working hard enough at the things that were required? Neither!

"How can it be neither", you might be asking. Because after a three month respite from doing sales for ClearComm I have come to realize that I was working hard at planting the seeds to grow my business with the right people but targeting the wrong businesses. It is always easier to know your clients buying habits after you know your client. What I found was that what I wanted to do for my clients was not what they wanted to purchase. I have products and services for larger companies that require a lot more control over their information and need to produce for a very global offering.

So what did I do at the end of 2008 when I realized I was not meeting my target financial? I began to diversify my income. I know ClearComm, myself and the people that work with me have a great deal to offer our clients so I am not willing to just walk away, but, I also cannot expect my family to continue to shoulder the financial burden of a company. ClearComm does require more investment to market to the right client. With this realization I embarked on some very different ways to make money so that I could meet my personal requirements and continue to work with ClearComm.

Through The Trump Institute I have received training and mentoring to help kick-start my real estate investment portfolio. With a great investment team at my side I am well on my way to my first office building purchase using other people’s money [OPM]. This will give me a regular cash flow to help with my personal financials.

Unfortunately I had to withdrawal from BNI since I was not looking at doing any sales with my business, but to compensate for the lost networking I became a Director with BNI Canada to help other businesses make their goals. This also offers some compensation as well as keeping me connected to the business community.

I have created a team to take one of my ideas to patent and hopefully to market. This product may be the start of a manufacturing business for me and a client for ClearComm. With the completion of the draft design overview, we are now just waiting to find out if there is any room in the Patent IP for this product.

I have also spent time writing a strategic plan for a youth venture program a local charity wants to start. Connecting them with the information they needed to be able to make clear decisions was a wonderful challenge. This project also paid.

Because of my volunteer time on the advisory board of the International Business Program with Georgian College and the leadership team with the Business Retention and Expansion program through the City of Barrie I have come to the conclusion that I would like to be a part of the city's governing body. Starting in November of this year I will find ways to raise money for a campaign to run as City Councillor in November 2010.

Some people watch what I'm doing and say, "you are doing too much" and others look at the financial results and say, "maybe you are not doing enough", but I think I have found a great balance that will bring me to the place where I can create a business that will give people the position they want and the income we all need in a great place to work.

Content Management: When do we need it?

We all use content management to some degree. When we start out our companies we use what I like to call the "unknown folder system". This folder hierarchical system is set up by one person and as the company grows the location of content within the folders is passed on via written procedures or more likely through word-of-mouth.

It is cheap and easy to use when the amount of content is small. As the company starts taking on more projects, developing more products, and hiring more employees the amount of content increases and so does the amount of people needing access to that information.

Posted to an RFP by the District of Saanich, BC Canada (which closes March 18 if you are interested in tendering a bid District of Saanich: Bid Opportunity)

"Information is an important strategic asset for the Municipality of Saanich and like other corporate assets it must be managed in order to meet strategic goals and to deliver programs and services. Increasingly, local governments are fully recognizing the value of their information assets and looking at how standards and procedures can be developed to support decision-making, minimize costs, and maximize the value of information."

Here is a municipality that understands the value of the information they have and the costs involved in writing and maintaining it. But unlike most of us they have 100's of thousands if not millions of tax dollars to take on a large project like this.

So the real question is at what point does implementing a content management system become viable. Well, like I said, you probably already have one. What needs to be implemented is a document system that can be used throughout the evolution of the change in your information as the organization grows. Yes good practices and a core understanding of the purpose of your company and its direction will make that leap easier and cheaper when the time comes.

Questions like "how can we justify the costs of implementing a CMS application", will transform to "how can we not justify the cost of implementing a CMS", which will make the time to act more clear.

In an upcoming webinar hosted by Just Systems called "Transforming Manufacturing Processes through Dynamic Documents" the speakers will be describing how "The static nature [of documents] can result in design, development and maintenance delays, mistakes, rework costs and compliance issues that can rapidly erode profit margins, customer loyalty and time-to-market advantages."

I think this goes to the thought that your documents are not static pieces of paper but living, growing, and changing pieces of information that get used and reused whether or not a process to take care of your documents has been defined. By ensuring a document process is put in place and all people in your company know where to find information, how to request changes, update, and distribute new content, and who has the permission to manage the content you will be well on your way to having a viable content management system. Adding the software to automatically manage the content will only come when core principles of the organization require it.

Be the Elephant - Steve Kaplan

This book is a fabulous follow-up to Bag the Elephant, also by Steve Kaplan. In this elephant book Kaplan talks about becoming the elephant we were targeting. He discusses, "why growth is not only desirable, but necessary." We started a good business and we need to map its growth, in which Kaplan points out the three essential factors for sustainable, successful growth. When you answer the question "Think you're ready to grow?" you are in for some real work. This is not a sit-down book, this is a "do-something book" and like running a business, there are rewards for doing it right. After all, as Kaplan notes, "To last, you have to grow" and we all know that to grow you have to be willing to put in some effort.

I got to page 23 "The Guts of the Model" and had to stop to identify some core functions of my company before I read on. The information required is detailed and getting it is not a small task. Yet, I kept thinking to myself, "this is a book I can go back to later. I know this, but I will estimate that." It still took quite a bit of time and I got through it but I know I could have been more specific with my answers.

I had 6 pages of notes and details about my company when I finished. Next I moved on to the risk analysis. In the chapter "What's the downside?" I reviewed and reveled the risks of running my business. Again this required some time to complete but I had a reward at the end because directly after this chapter is the assessment of the health of your company in the form of the Business Success Quotient (BSQ).

So, one-and-a-half months later I am finally doing my BSQ. Often I just shrug off this type of assessment as being too superficial, like the surveys in Cosmo, but I am still driven to see the results. In this case the assessment is clearly based on data and other key elements (like assumptions, risk, values, my personality, passion, and experience) that made the outcome a much truer, revealing look at my core business. Just so you know I am fairly competitive and I like to do well on these assessments, which may mean that the outcome is as expected or better than expected.

Well, I got a rude awakening to the idea that I am running a healthy, sustainable business. I did not fall a little below the bottom level, I fell a lot below. In fact the exact working in Kaplan's book is "This is a very high-risk business and is not likely to work. You should seriously consider moving on to a different opportunity." All is not lost because it is possible change your scores by going back and putting in the 100% effort to complete the information as well as evaluating where the weaknesses are and shifting the business to make it stronger.

This was quite disheartening news and I will have to spend some time determining whether to evaluate and reassess or to move on. I have always been aware that something is not working right in my business and I have been struggling to find a way to identify it. This assessment just gave me the tools to see it more clearly. The very next day I am in the office of Mario Perek of Industry Canada. He has been in the medical device and biotech sector for well over two decades, which is the industry my company targets. In his own words he feels that "companies [in Canada] have to export. They cannot survive selling in Canada." It was definitely a different perspective than the rosy outlook painted by the industry. Although I do know that it is a difficult industry to flourish in I do believe there is a very healthy market for growth. So, should I spend time looking for that market or should I "move on" as Kaplan would say.

Well since this is a book report I will say that this is the end of Part 1. I am 65 pages into the book and I will read no further until I can make the first 64 pages valuable to my company, what ever that may be.

I do recommend reading this book and going through the exercises. I think it will help you determine where your strengths and weaknesses are and possibly change the direction of your business. By knowing this information you will give your company a strong base in which to support your elephant.

Steve Kaplan - The Difference Maker

Corporate Growth - What Happens? - Part I

Growing a company is painful. Even if you have done it before there are many hurdles that must be overcome. Hopefully if you have done it before you have a system that helps you meet the goals you have set for your company. If you have not done it before then talk to as many business owners that you can, read books, listen to seminars, take courses to benefit from the mistakes and successes others have made.
This article is going to cover some of the painful transitioning points I have been witness to in my own business and in my experience with other businesses. This is not a road map but more like a legend.

Giving up control
One of the first things you will feel when you get to the point that you can no longer do all the work required to keep the business providing great products and service is a loss of control. The depth of this loss will be determined by the length of time you spent doing everything yourself. If you have put your systems into place and you have structured you business so it can be operated by others then you will get over this feeling of loss very quickly. The freedom to continue to grow your business while it operates on its own is liberating.

Hiring the right person(s)
Have you ever hired someone and found that they cannot do the job as well as you do? There are several reasons this may happen, one of them being our intrinsic need to control our business. If we look at the abilities of the employee we may find that we hired them for the wrong reasons. It may be as simple as we hired the right person for the wrong position or that we hired the wrong person for compassionate reasons. There are many books out there that describe how to see the worth of the potential employee as well as assessments and companies that can help you make the right choice.
Jim Collins wrote in his book Good to Great, "Get the right people on the bus". This means your company will be much more successful if all the people involved in running your business are the "Right People". It also means that your corporate growth will be less painful if you have competent people able to do the work required.

Strained communications
Running a company should never be like the kids game "telephone", where one person tells the next and the message surges through the company hoping that the last person receives the same message that was sent. This is often how we handle our internal communications. We expect our upper management to inform the managers and they inform their team leads and they, in turn, inform their project team members. I believe that a successful corporation supports an environment that allows everyone in the system to know the status of the company, where it is going and growing, and how it plans to get there.
We don't see great football teams standing around the field hoping they will know what to do if the ball comes to them. We see them huddled together, getting their directives and planning their moves. When they break everyone knows what they are going to do this 'down' that is going to get them closer to the goal and ultimately the win.
It is the same in business, the larger the organization the more distorted the communications can become. Take time to make sure everyone on your team knows where you are going. Even if you are just one person with a team of contractors, they will get you to your goal if they know what is expected of them and where they are needed.
Also, make this a bilateral communication. Make sure that the information, feedback, innovations, problems, and successes can get back to you. Like any relationship, the more open the communications are the healthier it will be. A healthy corporate environment leads to happy associates and sustainable growth.

Documenting systems
One of the toughest things you will need to do almost from the first day you start you business is to document the process in which you do your business. Obviously if it is just you at the helm, you can choose where to go and when. You probably will not sail your company far by yourself but alone you can do what you want.
When we grow our businesses we need others to do most or sometimes all the jobs we had to initially fill ourselves. We can pass on our knowledge through training but it will be difficult as time passes to remember what parts of what we did was successful and what was not. Our predecessors will make changes based on their experience, some good, some not good and again we will have no way to compare the changes to the original process.
By documenting all the processes within the company we set a standard of operation that must be met by all associates. If someone has a better idea it can be implemented into the process and adopted by all associates in the company. This ensures a consistent business operation that will provide a consistent level of product or service.
Think about some of your favourite businesses to patronize. Do you go there because every once in a while you enjoy your experience or do you go there because you always enjoy your experience. I am personally not a fan of McDonald's food but I know if I arrive with my kids for a treat they will be thanking me for days. They will totally enjoy the experience, every time we go, without fail and hence I will enjoy the experience. This is the consistency we all need to give our customers.
The E-Myth series by Micheal Gerber is great reading. It helped me determine what systems I had in my company and what processes had to be documented. After I had been in business for a couple of years I could see what was working as well as what was not working. These will be living documents that will grow with your business.

Next - Part II
In part II of this article we will cover the increasing cost of growth, training, and information management.

CMS or Version Control - which one for documentation?

Version control has been and is being used by 1000's of companies to manage their software design. Software programmers check out files from a server to their local client. They can then, make changes and update or check the files back into the server at any time, as long as the connection between the client and the server is available. The version control software keeps the change history. Version control is often used by the documentation department of small companies to track the changes in documents. So why would anyone need a Content Management System (CMS) to look after their documentation? I believe now that CMS tools are becoming more available and cost effective this questions is being seriously asked but the habits of the past are making it hard for us to justify the cost of the change.

In the 60's and earlier technical writing was a very narrow field, comprised mostly of defense and aerospace documentation content writers. It wasn't until the age of the personal digital computer and the explosion of software applications that the technical writer became an invaluable person in the design, distribution, and marketing of these new products. Before this age documents were paper based, stored in boxes. Design history was a function of process and procedure, tracked by a paper-driven system. Even as late as eleven years ago I can remember clearly the physical effort involved in updating a procedure or manual. It required:

• many trips to the active and archived document filing system
• the walking around of drafts for sign-off
• walking around beta for testing
• filing drafts
• archiving current documents to a physically different filing cabinet located in a different room
• holding a release meeting to have the traveler signed off by all officials
• filling the final released document to the active document location.

The process itself is not unlike what is used today, but we did not even have internal email so every question, response, check, and issue had to be physically walked from person to person.

As computer memory increased and word processing applications became more accessible the ability to store documents electronically became more feasible, but the systems that were available to the average company where for tracking the history of code changes. Using version control to track document changes was really a stop-gap solution with no alternative.

I don't know the exact history of CMS applications but I do remember witnessing the increase in hype amongst the technical writing community with respect to XML and CMS about 9 years ago. With the responsibility of a technical writer changing quickly, the hype was more of a plea for a solution to be able to organize, share, and search the increasingly growing size of paperless content. Content writers where now often responsible for coding (HTML, XHTML, XML, JavaScript, CSS, XSL), designing (print, web, help, training, blogs, FAQ's, knowledge base), doc management, graphics, web marketing, regulatory, usability, user validation, applications expertise and evaluation (Word, FrameMaker, WebWorks, RoboHelp, Flare, CMS software, bug reporting, version, screen capture, publishing, e-mail) and finally publishing.

And again I ask, "what is the value of a CMS to a company?"

Content is not code. Software code is written for a specific function, used in a specific location, in response to a specific action or inaction of the hardware, user interface, or the software itself. Content is the description of a concept or procedure that can be used in multiple ways to define a product or company. The design of software code cannot be changed without a consequence to the quality of the product. The content can be written in multiple ways to mean the same thing or sometimes written exactly the same to mean something completely different. The consequence of changing content may or may not affect the quality of a product. At best it is merely inconsistent.

Kevin Ballard of L-3 Communications says, "CMS allows authors to maintain unique names" as well as "maintain the [relationship of] links" between document files. I believe he is right and here is why. As the volume of the content increases, the location of specific wording becomes impossible to track and remember. Content reuse is only possible if the relationship between the new document and the current content is known.

File Relationships
In a version control system files are checked in to a files system designed to store code. The file is checked out to any location on a clients computer. In a CMS system the relationship of file system is maintained when files are checked out. This means that when ditamaps are created for XML files or images used in marketing are imported into a user manual, the relationship is the same on the authors computer as it is when it is checked in. The knowledge of where a file is stored is related to the file it is linked to, not the absolute file location.

Unique Names
Files saved to a version control system use specialized naming structures to meet coding standards. This nomenclature often makes it difficult to determine the actual content or purpose of the document.

Metadata
Another very important functions of a CMS is the ability to search for and find information using metadate. The term "information mining" is become very prevalent in this age of information. The more products and models, the more content that is created and the harder it becomes to find pertinent information. Text files and some word processing files can be easily searched but binary files like jpg, cdr, and quark files cannot.

In a CMS environment files can be categorized using metadate so that the information can be quickly grouped and located. For example, lets say we are a moderate sized medical device company that has 80 products on the market. Within those 80 products there are three target markets (hospitals, government, and personal use). How would you search for all products that can be sold to both the hospital and government market? Well if it was a Word document and you happen to put the target market in the document content then you will find those with a simple search using Windows Explorer, but what about marketing documents designed in Quark or Indesign, or jpg images, FAQ responses in XML, and HTML help topics?

Result
As the amount of content in a company grows over the years, the ability to find specific information becomes more difficult. Without a way to search content across an enterprise, information is lost and then re-written causing similar products in current release to have different wording. If technical documentation is explained differently in different documents there is a potential for misinterpretation, incorrect product use, product failure, product damage or worse, injury. If updated in one document but not in all locations this content resides the problem can continue to haunt the company. The location of all content must be known to ensure consistent, reliable documentation and guaranty the reliability and trustworthiness of a company. Companies are built on brand, brand is built on trust and trust is not implied or expected, it is earned.

The CMS system is a tool required for this information age. Without this type of tool there is little hope of finding our way through the mountains of information we create every day.

Converting to XML - Some Point-form Pros and Cons

I have recently converted some user documents from MS Word to XML for a medical device company with the intent that they would be looking at authoring their future end-user documentation (printed, embedded, and online) in XML. I want to share with you some of the triumphs and challenges we had met along the way.

Pros

• Reuse becomes so much easier - The same 15 steps to 'prep' a patient were used in four different manuals and all we had to do was point to the content. When a change got made in the one manual, it was automatically updated in the other three.

• Editing process is shorter - Chapters or pieces of chapters that are shared between the different models are only edited once reducing the cost for editing.

• Updating for global changes are a snap - when content like product name, revisions, corporate names, logos, styles, etc. are saved as separate XML files that are referenced instead of embedded they can be updated in one place and changed in all documents that point to it.

  Imagine how valuable your company becomes as a salable entity when the purchasing company can re-brand all documentation in less than a few minutes and then republish everything with the new corporate image.
  

• Consistency is easier to enforce - If you are using an editor that validates DITA it becomes easier to uphold standard in authoring. Authors that must validate their content are more likely to follow the standards set by DITA and validated by the software. Note - Most authors know there are ways to work around validation error that do not fit a standard, but it is usually more difficult then following the standard in the first place.

• OASIS and DITA bring down the costs of using XML - A few years ago I wouldn't even consider suggesting to my clients to tackle XML unless they just happen to have an expert on staff with nothing better to do then write XSL and play with the DITA Open Toolkit or invest upwards of $100k for a great publisher and editor.

  With the advances in DITA, the general acceptance of the standard, the specializations that are constantly being improved on, and the new tools hitting the market that are priced for the SMEs the benefits of implementing XML can often outweigh the costs and time it takes to embrace the technology.

• Future cost saving - Once you have your XLST developed, your authoring standards in place, the process for authoring and editing understood, etc. there are so many cost savings that can be realized over MS Word authoring that it makes all the Cons worth the effort.

  When the client said they wanted one manual that had only common content in it, created from the four vertical market manuals, we returned to our publisher, set the conditions to remove all product specific conditions, added a short description to the introduction to describe the manual and then published. This took a total of 11 minutes and we had a reasonable manual. Try to do that with four 170 page manuals in MS Word.
  

Cons

• Painful - No matter how prepared you are there is going to be some pain. There are new processes, now tools, and new ways of thinking that must be embraced not only by the person looking after or authoring the documentation but also by all the people in the company that will touch the content as it moves to publication.

  Half way through the project the DITA standard for chapter books was released with DITA 1.1 and we had to go through a software upgrade for our editor and publisher as well as a second review of the manual styles, a second quote for style customization, and issues that were associated with any release of new software.
  

  DITA is by no means a mature standard and there will be many interations that will cause pain.

• Editing in PDF format was slower - If the content is published to PDF then edited it is very similar to editing each manual separately. There is benefit to having the content edited directly at the XML level in a content management system so that changes can be tracked and accepted or rejected. The problem with this is the person editing must have the ability to edit XML code or have the tools to view XML in a WYSIWYG environment.

• Tools add to costs - Yes there are loads of free products out there and many are feature rich and easy to use but if you were thinking you would publish using DITA open source easily you might be in for a programing ride. I had a software engineer look at the implementation for DITA Open Toolkit and claim he had "flashbacks to his Unix coding days", where only the people closest to the program could use the application.

• XSLT coding required - The XML authoring is the easy part and if you have determined how you will publish your content, the publishing is quite painless as well, but the styling can be very complex and somewhat expensive if you decide that the DITA standard for style does not suit your branded corporate image.

• DITA standards don't apply to all - If you are like most good companies you have a brand and image to uphold. Until just recently (August 2007) DITA did not provide chapter numbering as a standard in book publications. There are other features that your company may require for publishing a book or help file that are not part of the DITA standards.

Good to Great - Jim Collins

I have decided that I am not cheating when I listen to a book instead of reading it and that's what I have done with Good to Great. I consider this book a great 'listen' for the insight it gives into the core reasons why a business makes the transition from being 'Good' to becoming 'Great'.

Jim Collins starts by defining his 5 years of research, how they determined what good was, what great is and what factors were used to identify the companies that were in the study. This is not a book based on assumptions, this is the result of 5 years of research and the support and input from a group of associates and business leaders. It also is not based on a sampling of the great companies, it uses the entire set of businesses that fulfill the requirements of 15 years as a good company and 15 years consistently surpassing the market. Because of this long time frame there are surely other companies that are great, but they had to be clear on their requirements. It lends credibility to the assumptions they make about the findings on these companies.

Everything in this book and about these great companies revolves around the three circles. Knowing where your competencies, goals, and passions lay will take a company through to greatness. The basics of these three circles are:

1. What you can be the best in the world at and what you cannot be the best in the world at?
2. What drives your economic engine?
3. What you are passionate about?

Collins refers to these three circles throughout the book. I had to go back and listen to several chapters to find the definition of the three circles when I realized that I was going to need it to understand the concepts later on. This is one downfall of listening to a book, it is not easy or quick to scan for a specific word or concept.

Leadership
Although the team originally felt that leadership was not going to be a factor and set out their research to overlook this aspect of business, it turned out the response to their inquiries often lead to great leadership. This book defines a type of leader that is always (100% of the time) found in great companies. They defined this leader as possessing "Level 5 Leadership" skills. If you are a business owner or key leader in a good business (like the CEO) you should check out the attributes of the "Level 5" leader. If you were hoping to take your company to the next tier you will need to have these leadership skills in the leader that will be driving the company forward.

First Who, Then What
This chapter is about the people in your company. In every case the right person in the right position is a key factor in the quality and quantity of output for the company. Collins states that "if you feel the requirement to manage someone then you probably need a change. Get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off." I think this clearly sums up the idea of having great associates working for your company.

Confront the Brutal Facts
The brutal facts of business are the truths that we sometimes find hard to look at like: the failures we must diagnose, the market changes that could kill our company, the leadership roles that take us in the wrong direction, and the industry shifts that make us less competitive. The brutal fact is we need to take a good hard look at what it is that affects our company, confront the change, and accept it. Only by accepting that we can no longer sell without specific registrations, keep employees to work on products that are obsolete, accept that studies show our product is not well accepted, tolerated or useful can we move on to doing what will be good for the company.

Collins goes on to spell out that we need leader that accept that they do not know everything and they should admit it. Asking for help and embracing the entrepreneurial spirit of the company will make it stronger and more resilient. The alternative is to force ideas of change creating a "recipe for mediocrity". The best three practices he describes to overcome this trap is to admit "I don't know", look for the best answers and "conduct an autopsy without blame". These three practices scream "Great Company" to me.

The Hedgehog Concept
Collins starts with a tale of the constant struggle between the fox and the hedgehog. It is like a fairy tale but it clearly demonstrates that you must have a deep understanding of your three circles to be able to live the truth of them. Collins shares numerous examples of good companies that missed the mark and never make it to great. He also gives examples of great companies loosing their focus and dropping from their pedestal. He describes how the absence of this concept within those companies was the core reason why they failed to excel or maintain their greatness.

A Culture of Discipline
Collins describes the lack of discipline to stick to the three circles as "the cancer of mediocrity". Bureaucracy being a symptom of incompetence, which drives away the right people forcing a company to attract and keep only the wrong people. As stated in the "First Who then What" chapter you have to "Get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off" if you want to create an environment where the company and the people can grow. To ensure superior performance create a culture of discipline that everyone will aspire to and nourish the "ethic of entrepreneurship".

Technology Accelerators
In this chapter the research is used to show over and over that technology is not the core reason a company succeeds to greatness. When CEO's were asked about technology use they would confess that it was often not even in the top three reasons why they felt they got to where they are. That said, all the great companies are technologically advanced, which showed that it is important but not a key reason.

When determining if technology was right for their companies the great companies would assess if it fit their hedgehog concept. If it did then they would find the most suitable product and way to implement, not necessarily the biggest and newest. If it did not match their hedgehog concept then they didn't implement the technology. They used technology as an accelerator of business not a key component, even when the technology was a key tool in parts of their products.

The Flywheel and The Doom Loop
In this chapter Collins gives us some great examples of a company that strayed way from the three circles and then came back. It is the dedication to the hedgehog concept and the three circles in everything the company does that allows the greatness to shine through. "The more an organization has the discipline to stay within its 3 circles the more it will attract opportunities for growth and contribution." It is just as important to know when to say "no" to an opportunity as it is to say "yes" to the right opportunity. Always focusing on the right opportunities will continue to bring the right opportunities in abundance.

Why be Great?
Finally Collins answers some questions about good to great posed to him. One of these questions asks "Why do I want to be great when I already have a good business". The question seems reasonable but the answer is revealing. What would you think if I were to tell you that Collins and his research group have proven that more effort is required to stay 'good' then to become 'great'? Why would you want to be 'good' when 'great' is easier. You'll have to read this one to understand why.

The One Minute Millionaire, The Enlightened Way to Wealth - Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen

OK, I cheated a bit with this book. I picked it up on CD and listened to it on my way to client sites, but I can still tell you that this book is worth reading (or listening to).
The One Minute Millionaire by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen is a great way to think about your worth and your wealth, differently than you were brought up to think about it. The book is presented in three parts on three disks. Each disk has one part of the book and is delivered like two books, a Non-fiction audio book (for the engineer type learner) and a novel (to engage artists). The non-fiction part of this book is the "How To" with tips on everything from self-enlightenment to property investment. The other is a story about Michelle. Michelle's Story is so compelling, filled with emotion and empathy that I had to stop listening to it when going to my client's sites because I did not want to arrive with tears in my eyes. The authors take turns reading the two styles.
Hansen and Allen talk about the two key requirements to build wealth:

1. A commitment driven by desire and faith
   
2. The ability to take action.

They call this the Millionaire Map. They state that there are only four ways to create wealth.

• Investments - stocks, bonds, funds, etc.
  
• Real estate
• Business - marketing product or service
• Internet

Part One
In Part One the authors talk about the 24 -principles of wealth (or Aha's as they refer to them). These are all inspirational, enlightening views of ourselves and our environment. Some of the Aha's covered are things like "Words Transform". Remember your mother telling you "if you don't have something nice to say don't say anything at all". Well this elaborates on the notion that negative thought and words produce negative results. Another Aha "Clarity is Power" describes how to use your goals to get you to where you want to go. They attribute a success philosopher named Neville for this thought:

• "Don’t think of your goals, think from you goals"

For the entire list of the 24 principles visit:

• www.oneminutemillionaire.com/downloads/misc/24AhaPrintouts.pdf

At the end of Part One they open the story of Michelle and how she looses everything: her husband, her house, her job and her kids all because of a car accident. It takes us through her emotions of disbelief and frustration and into a world of powerlessness. We are left contemplating the parallel between the 24 principles and Michelle's situation. Her situation and her negative reaction to her circumstances really emphasize the power of the 24 principles in a inverse way. We see what happens when we don't apply the principles.

Part Two
In Part Two the authors talk about the team. This team is part of the lever required to create wealth. A team should consist of 2 or more people with a common purpose and they state that, "Attitude is critical and can make or break your success." Use their H.O.T.S. Survey when building a team to discover your strengths and those of your team members.

• www.oneminutemillionaire.com/tools/hots.asp

H.O.T.S. defines people as four different categories of workers: people that look for solutions, strategies, problems, or results, known as the Hares, the Owls, the Tortoise, and the Squirrels. The four types of workers are needed to have a well rounded team. A tortoise as an example brings attributes like the ability to "make sure a concept is thought through and how it can be improved and implemented". I am a Tortus according to the H.O.T.S. survey and when I read the full description it pretty much describes the qualities I would bring to a team.
Part Two of Michelle's Story continues on in her life, if you can call it that. She is a broken women, spending most of her time blaming her situation on everyone and everything else. She is of course not responsible for the accident that precipitated her current situation, but she was responsible for letting her insurance laps. When she meets Sam, a woman that takes on a mentoring role in Michelle's life, she starts to change. With her desire to reclaim her children and her faith in her abilities Sam helps propel Michelle forward into action. Michelle's first task was to build a team of people as dedicated and driven to getting to a goal as she was, and she succeeds.

Part Three
In part three of the book the authors describe the details for many different models of creating wealth including how to purchase real estate using OPM (Other Peoples Money). Some of the models are quite complex and I found I had to listen to it a couple of times to understand how they arrived at the final values, but the ideas are simply brilliant.
On this CD they conclude Michelle's story with the final tally of her wealth and where her money comes from. It is unbelievable to think that someone could make $600 000 with no money for a down payment or $250 000 in a few minutes giving away a free book, but this is the concept that lead to the creation of The One Minute Millionaire.

I love this book, both for the engineer in me and for the artist. There are plenty of reasons (at least a million) to read or listen to this book and lots of resources on their website to take advantage of.
Enjoy

• www.oneminutemillionaire.com/

Talking to Sarah - A Darwinian Lexicon

As I have said before, I have a very wonderful, fortunate life and in that life I have a fantastic family and many close friends. One friendship that I cherish dearly is with my neighbour Sarah. We are companions in the treacherous sojourn through motherhood, where we motivate each other to exercise, participate in girls-night-out regularly and enjoy a coffee or beer on many occasions.

Sarah is another one of those women. A mother of two and college instructor, she is also getting her degree, as well as working on potential business opportunities.

I love talking to Sarah. We have lots in common: our status in life, our education levels, our family life growing up and our sense of self. I also love her "Darwinian lexicon". I mean that she, although being highly educated and very intelligent, chooses to develop her own words, evolving the English language all by herself.

We know we have a living language when the dictionary gets revised yearly to include new words. These new words come from people like us. We develop these words to describe new products and situations brought about by our quickly changing society and then incorporate them into our technical jargon, marketing, and product description and finally back to the consumer and into common use.

I want to share a couple of Sarah's words with you and I really want you to share with us the words you hear and see being created. If you send me words with a description I will add it to this post.

Word	Meaning or Use
Noon-thirty	Half past noon or 12:30pm
Midnight-thirty	Half past midnight or 12:30am
Side-by-each	Beside each other
Ginormous	When I started drafting this article this word was not in the dictionary. Since the spring of 2007 Merriam-Webster has published their list of new words and ginormous is one of them. Good on you Sarah for being so trend setting. (Note - Websters New Millennium Dictionary shows the etymology of this word dating back to 1948-53 and describes it as a composition of giant + enormous)
re-donkulous	Meaning incredibly ridiculous - Contribution from Amanda
RetroTech	outdated or ephemeral technology which still may elicit a level of fondness. Fads and trends may witness some RetroTech being re-manufactured for consumer sale such as rotary phones, or other modern electronics made to look vintage / classy. - Copy Kowal Portable Typewriters 56K Modem Sound Emulator This one brings back memories - aah!

Send in your words

High Trust Selling, Make More Money in Less Time with Less Stress - Todd Duncan

Overview

Mr. Duncan writes a great "how to" book on becoming a better sales person by becoming a better relationship person. The lessons, tips, ideas, suggestions, and advice are all valid and resonate with the truth of how strong trusting relationships impact how and who we will deal with. Mr. Duncan promises that by applying the fourteen 'Laws' described in the book "your sales business will do more than merely improve-it will explode."

It is definitely a mental shift away from cold calling and into a relationship building process that will increase your income while decreasing the time you spend earning it. The more valuable benefit is the increase in quality of life which is what brought Mr. Duncan to pursue this avenue in the first place.

The Laws

Each 'Law' is a chapter that defines sales in a way that helps us grow and change the way we view sales, our clients, our products, our approach, and ourselves.

Personal Growth

In the first chapter “The Law of the Iceberg", Mr. Duncan describes how a good foundation gives us stability in our relationships. To determine our foundation he walks us through a short exercise to define our purpose at work by answering the questions "What's important to me about being successful".

He builds an excellent understanding of why this foundation is so important in the second chapter "The Law of the Summit", when he talks about our perception of failure and success. He decants the thought that, "You need more than a capacity for psyching yourself up. You need to be inspired at your core." This is so true and he makes you feel it with the stories of personal and professional failure that he faced in his own life.

"The Law of the Shareholder" defines the characteristics of an owner or CEO. As a high trust sales person you must take responsibility for your relationship with your clients and this means that you are alone in charge of your client's experience, not your assistant or your boss. To take on this type of responsibility, especially if you work for someone else, is difficult, but once past the "it’s not my company" mentality into a "these are my clients" we start to see the value of investing in our position. This kind of investment will not necessarily require more time, but most likely dollars and definitely passion. Mr. Duncan lists 10 key investments you can make in our future:

1. Invest in your relationships with those you love
2. Invest in a long-term personal-development program
3. Invest in a sales coach
4. Invest in a competent right-hand assistant
5. Invest in your personal image
6. Invest in a personal financial plan
7. Invest time in an exercise program
8. Invest in a client-retention program
9. Invest in a library
10. Invest in technology
    

When I read these it was like getting permission to do the things I knew should be done but was afraid to pursue because it was not work that was "in my business". It is very true the more we invest in ourselves the more we will get out of ourselves and we may all fundamentally understand this but still we ignore our health, pass on the contact management software, stop learning, and thus stop growing.

The Business Foundation

The next four chapters ("The Law of the Ladder", "The law of Leverage, "The Law of the Hourglass", and "The Law of the Broom") talk about how to establish a strong business foundation. He lays the groundwork for defining our High Trust Plan by having us thoroughly investigate "The Core Four", which consist of a life plan, a business plan, a time plan, and a client plan.

An effective sales strategy uses "The Core Four" and applies a three-level leverage approach to reach these goals (personal leverage, associate leverage, and professional leverage).

The Law of the Hourglass and the Broom both deal with the effective way to manage time. If you have ever had a sales coach, or any coach at all, you will have no doubt run into many of these ideas and exercises in the past, (like time blocking). These exercises are so valuable, that it is worth the time to revisit them regularly to ensure we have not forgotten.

Sales Processes

In these next five chapters (“The Law of the Dress Rehearsal”, “The Law of the Bull’s-Eye”, “The Law of the Scale”, “The Law of Courtship”, and “The Law of the Hook”) Mr. Duncan compares the sales relationship to a marriage and the process of getting there as a great performance. It takes a great deal of practice and dedication to put on a world-class performance. Our best performances should not go wasted on prospects that are not our core target. He helps us define our target or bull’s-eye so that we are performing to the people that want to watch. Mr. Duncan says, “It doesn’t matter how many prospects you see. It matters how you see the right prospects.” It’s easier to sell when we are talking to the right person from the start. Follow his advice to reduce the number of prospects and focus solely on the ones that will bring us the exact match to our core service or product offering.

Mr Duncan details how to create the scripts we need and how to practice these scripts to ensure we earn our prospects trust. By rehearsing a well scripted interview, which includes knowing how to address objections we captivate our audience so that they will continue to listen, ask questions, and then buy from us.

This process will save us money, time, and anxiety as we build our businesses.

The High Trust Relationship

In these last two chapters (“The Law of Incubation”, and “The Law of the Encore”) Mr. Duncan encourages us to give back to our clients. Like any good relationship, trust is won and keep because there is value, even when there is no request to purchase. Incubate the trust that was earned by implementing a genuine customer service process to continue to see the relationship grow. The cost of a good customer service program will result in more purchasing and more referrals from our clients to other prospects. Mr. Duncan quotes some statistics on the indirect cost of poor service, which I think we have all seen, and it can be devastating to a company. If we are genuine about wanting to give good service and we make a mistake then Mr. Duncan advises to apologize in a meaningful way and he demonstrates this through several stories of good and bad service.

Conclusion

This book is a MUST read and not just for the sales person in a company. It covers everything about sales that is important to the sales professional that wants to excel in their business and live a quality life. I honestly believe that if a company wants to give the best service, have the best clients, provide the best product, and operate as a world-class corporation that every person in a management, sales, and customer support position should read and understand this book . Todd Duncan really defines everything required to build the most successful sales relationship possible.

Count me in.

What they're saying about CMS and XML

The geeks saw it coming years ago. XML is the next wave in documentation yet we have been waiting for ten years for the tools to catch up. What is the Content Management System (CMS) our corporate leaders want and does it come with easy to use structured authoring tools. After
attending the DocTrain UX conference I may have some answers.

I am a technical communicator that has moved to the corporate side of business. I am not a CM or XML expert so this perspective is from the point of view of a technically intelligent person with a business vision that includes CMS and XML. Ever since I took up HTML, XHTML coding 7 years ago for help design and accessibility for web functionality I have been interested in single sourcing. I've heard Anne Rockley speak numerous times on live webinars, and each time after hearing her and others speak I would return to my desk to attempt to write a proposal that would win the support of the lords that ruled over the purses. Content management and XML made so much sense but I never worked for a company that could justify owning the tools to implement it.

In the past XML tools have been hard to use and required coding knowledge. The cost for the tools to do XML is much less that the CMS and range from free, in the form of open source or Notepad, up to the price of good publishing software. The CM systems had a price point that only appealed to larger enterprise companies. The price for the software or system is just the tip of the iceberg there where all kinds of additional costs like training, implementation, legacy documentation transition, as well as the costs involved in implementing a corporate shift to structured authoring. Although the price point to enter the CMS world has changed the cost of the additional processes still exists today.

What Tools are Now Available?
Well obviously I have not seen or worked with many of the tools that are available, and there are plenty. I am going to talk about a select few that I have either worked with or have interest in working with.

XML Authoring Tools
Sometimes the path to complete enlightenment (or structured authoring) must be taken in small steps and sometimes its "all in" or nothing. I am organizing these authoring tools from least to most functional in the sense of true structured authoring. This way you will be able to see where you are on the path and how far you need to go, because not all of us need to go the whole way. (How to determine where you need to be is another article).

Microsoft Word
Word can produce XML files but the problem with the code it creates is that the formatting elements are all embedded in the XML making the final product not truly structured (and huge). Remember, structured authoring separates the content from the format. This provides little if any savings when it comes to reuse and translation.

Adobe FrameMaker (unstructured)
"Ok, this is not structured writing, where am I going with this?" you might ask. FrameMaker has always been much better than Word at keeping the formatting elements separate from the content. Although the elements are embedded, they are not visible to the translators, ensuring that they do not change the way a document looks just by changing the content in the document. Imagine the time you would save if you didn't have to fix section breaks, footers, pagination, and reference links because they are broken when someone added content to the wrong place. FrameMaker is just a better product for producing larger technical documents.

Adobe FrameMaker (structured authoring)
Although Adobe uses their own DTD-type file called an EDD, you are not tied to it. Your content embedded tags for the EDD rules but can be saved as pure XML. You can even convert the EDD to a DTD. This means that you can have the best of both worlds, structured XML authoring and FrameMaker's powerful formatting abilities. This product is an addon to FrameMaker, but is included in the price. Their next version 8.0 promises to have a lot more features.

JustSystems XMetal (XML authoring tool)
This is a great front end for a solid CMS. It follows the DITA structure which ensures that your content is going to be valid (assuming you follow the DITA rules when authoring).

As an extra note, for all you Word folks (which includes me, although reluctantly) there is a plug-in from In.Vision called Xpress Author for Microsoft Word. This intrigued me when I was at the DocTrain UX conference last week but unfortunately they had two computers 'keg' on them leaving us without a presentation and them without a demo.

CMS Tools
Again there are a lot of tools to look at. Two companies that I found interesting both host the CMS system so the business does not have to implement the network architecture to do this.

Inmedius has a whole suite of product for different industries.
Bluestream XDoc is a smaller very function CMS at a price point most small and medium sized business (SMB) could afford.

Anne Rockley the premier expert on content management and president 2005 of the international content management community of practice is the person you want to learn from. She has some wise advice about moving to structured authoring and content management. One article she wrote gives some prudent advice to not start with the tools (Don't start with the technology).

So where is the value?
Assuming the tools are now within the range of an average SMB and all the other costs associated with implementation are still there, what incentive is there for a business to want to change?

My clients are medical device manufacturers. They are required by law in almost every country they distribute in to conform to some type of regulation. In Canada it is ISO 13485 and Health Canada, in the USA it is the FDA, in Japan it is PAL, and so on. If you have ever written for any ISO standard for any industry you are familiar with the intricacies of the required documentation process. Every work procedure in every department, from admin to shipping, must be documented. The spin off is that the procedure defines weather or not there are other documents required to ensure the quality of the product: For example, the ISO regulation does not state they have to have a specification, but when my clients write their design and development procedures they state they will design and build based on the specifications they have defined for the product, which requires a specification document. They may also need marketing requirements, service requirements, validation procedures, etc.

All this information is a gold mine when it comes to preparing the end user material. With my current client I have received 15 of these types of documents of which I have used pieces of each to write the operator's guide. Can you imagine the time that would have been saved if I could just reuse the chucks of information I needed?

Next, they will have to send the manual for translation. Max Hoffman of Enlaso (www.translate.com) has a presentation that talks about the ROI of using structured authoring and estimates that making a small change like using FrameMaker (unstructured) over MS Word alone can save about $1000 per language to translate a 350 page manual. If you implement structured XML the savings go way up.

After that they want to use some of the information as part of the GUI, displaying relevant tips depending where you are in the interface. Then they want a service manual, installation instructions, help files, etc. Each time this gets rewritten from scratch in MS Word is a loss of profit for them. Although I do make more money this way, I am not doing my clients any justice by providing them with a system that costs them more than they need to spend.

As a bonus (insert sarcasm here) there is a decrease in consistency and accuracy when not using structured authoring. When the auditor comes and reviews their systems and finds inconsistencies, they can be flagged or written up with a non-compliance. When they are in the middle of a project and they have limited time to get their product to market, the last thing they want to be doing is checking all the documentation they have already signed off. Worst case scenario is that they lose their license to sell their product in a particular country. If ISO registration is lost the opportunity to sell in many countries is also lost. It is definitely more costly not to use structured authoring than to purchase some software, set up a structure authoring environment, and do it right from the beginning.

Another potential bonus is your company becomes more appealing to venture capitalists. With content that can be ported into any other company, the value of your documentation system goes up.

Conclusion
Start by implementing the structured authoring attitude. Ann Rockley's advises companies to "understand their business needs, information life cycle and content" before investing in technology. Then add pieces as you need them or can afford them and you will always be more efficient and more effective than just writing and saving.