Spring is Here

May102008

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” Anne Dudley Bradstreet It is that exciting time of year again. The trees are changing, there is an amazing fragrance in the air, the birds are back and their vocal chords are louder then ever, my convertible top is already down, my dog is in a better mood and so are my wife, neighbors...

Productivity On The Road

Apr272008

My wife and I traveled to Utah via Las Vegas this past week. Since I had some business calls to take care of, I asked my wife if she would not mind driving the beautiful route from Vegas to Utah while I make these calls. She of course agreed and with my Latte in one hand, I pulled out my iPhone, connected my Apple bluetooth headset and started to make my calls. No only was I able to be productive...

The Internet – Our Electrical Grid

Apr192008

I just returned for another absolutely outstanding event – The Million Dollar Consulting College™ Graduate School held at the gorgeous Ritz Carlton in Naples Florida. “These people represent the finest talent in the profession,” noted Alan Weiss, Ph.D. who conducts this college. “They are the best of the best in terms of methodology, integrity, client satisfaction, and contributions to the profession. And they are highly innovative.” As both a college presenter and a participant, I was fortunate to be among...

Keys to Success for Wholesale Distributors

Apr62008

I just returned from my trip to Rhode Island followed immediately with a trip to Austin, Texas, where I attended a conference attracting the owners and top management of independent wholesale paper, sanitary maintenance, and restaurant equipment distributors. While meeting with about 80 of these organizations, I asked them to comment on what they see as the key reasons for their success. Here are the top six answers: Diversity – being able to quickly decide which products and services to...

Ineffective Phone Conversations

Apr22008

In my previous post I was talking about having to listen to absurd and ineffective voicemails when calling others. I recently played several voicemail (VM) messages that I retrieved from my own voicemail system The first VM was a garbled message from a prospective client interested in talking with me about our solutions. The message was probably recorded using his cell phone making it almost impossible to recognize the complete phone number. Luckily I was able to make sense of...

Ineffective Voice Mails

Mar272008

Let me share with you the type of voice mail messages that irritate me: Today is Thursday, March 27. In the morning I will be out of the office visiting with a client and in the afternoon I am traveling to another client … Please stop and listen carefully as these menu options may have changed … This call may be monitored for quality control … When I call and get a voice mail, I simply want to leave a...

Chad’s Blog Made It Into Alltop.com

Mar162008

Back on February 20, 2008, I reported the new and interesting www.alltop.com site released by author and innovator Guy Kawasaki. This site focuses on collecting stories from “all the top” sites on the web. I am proud to announce that my blog made it into the social media category of this site. See screen capture below and click on image to enlarge:

How To Market In Tough Times

Mar142008

Charge or retreat, it’s a matter of choice. I hear people complaining about the strength of the dollar weakening in comparison to other world currencies especially when the media is reaching for our attention with the stories and news of recession. So how do you leverage these economic challenges to benefit your company? Expand your market – We get more inquiries and new business than ever before from place such as Canada, Europe, Australia, South Africa and Asia. I...

Advanced Internet Presence Presentation

Mar112008

I was the guest speaker at Alan Weiss and Patricia Fripp marketing for speakers, consultants & coaches seminar- The Odd Couple, held in San Francisco on March 8, 2008. I spoke about “Leveraging your web site and the Internet to dramatically grow your business” to a terrific group of entrepreneurs. View some of the testimonials I recorded with my Flip Video and you are also welcome to view and download my presentation below: Testimonial from Terry Schmidt of www.ManagementPro.com: Testimonial...

Under Construction / Coming Soon – Who Are You Kidding?

Mar52008

I don’t get the thinking with web sites that incorporate the concept of “Under Construction” or “Coming Soon” pages. Some sites I visit incorporate these pages to attempt and let us know that these pages are going to be released soon. Some do that on their home page thus suggesting that the entire site will be launched soon. When I see such pages here is what crosses my mind: You are wasting my time navigating your site, thus aggravating me....