Most Recent Articles
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Blog / News & Opinion
Author Pow Wow recap
By 800-CEO-READ
Some of us here at 800-CEO-READ just returned from this year's Author Pow Wow in Austin, TX. What's the Pow Wow? Every year since around 2005, we've gathered a room full of publishers, authors, marketers, speaking experts, designers, editors, agents, sales people, and a few people curious about becoming an author, to talk about what works, what doesn't, and how to make a more successful career as a business author.
Categories: news-opinion, publishing-industry, the-company
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Blog / News & Opinion
The Business Book Awards Translator Lab
By 800-CEO-READ
When I got in my car, the temperature gauge on the dashboard read negative four degrees. It was sunny out, but it was the kind of sunlight that seems reluctant—like a lone light in a walk-in freezer—struggling through the cold air to get to you. So when I backed out of the driveway yesterday morning, I thought to myself, "there is no way we get a good crowd this morning, on the coldest day of winter.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
Unconscious Branding
By Porchlight
Ask the customer what she wants; certainly this tactic is not unheard of. Companies do this constantly with focus groups, usability testing, et cetera. The general idea is that through a series of tests, we can better identify what our customer wants, and by extension what our customer will buy.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
Book Awards Lab
By 800-CEO-READ
Our friends at Translator have invited us back to discuss our annual Business Book Award winners. They claim it's their most popular lab, and what can we say, people love to hear about the biggest and best ideas published in the world today, so we're happy to take part. Join us Tuesday, January 22nd from 8:00-10:00am at Translator: 415 E Menomonee St.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
ChangeThis: Issue 101
By 800-CEO-READ
After our 100th issue in November, and spreading ideas and information in manifesto form each and every month for the past seven years, we took a (much needed) month off to reflect, refresh, and refocus. . .
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / ChangeThis
Why It Pays to Be Likeable
By Dave Kerpen
"40 years ago a brand such as Jolly Green Giant could sell a lot of mediocre corn with a great jingle and a huge television advertising budget. 20 years ago a company such as Circuit City could be a miserable, secretive place to work but it wouldn't matter much to shareholders or customers because they likely would never find out. Social media has changed all that, very quickly. The speed and ease with which information travels—the good, the bad and the ugly—is faster than ever before, and only accelerating. Today, the brands that succeed aren't the ones that spend the most money on disruptive advertising—they're the ones that spend the most money on creating valuable, meaningful products and customer service. Today, the businesses that succeed aren't the ones who keep costs down by not giving perks to employees—they're the ones who create an open, transparent, fun place to work where passionate people can exchange ideas. Today, more than ever before, for businesses, brands, and entrepreneurs, it pays to be likeable.
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Service Failure: Do You Really Care About Your Customer?
By Jeff Toister
"Executives may claim to care about their customers, but their actions frequently suggest just the opposite. How else could you explain hitting loyal customers with a sudden 60 percent price increase (Netflix, 2011). Would a company that cared about service really try to implement a $5 fee on debit card transactions and then defend the move as something that customers would appreciate (Bank of America, 2011). Can a company that cares about its customers really implement a procedure where pennies are literally stolen from its customers at the point of sale by rounding down the amount of change due when customers pay with cash (Chipotle, 2012). I know what you are thinking. You're different. You truly care about your customers and would never resort to price gouging or penny stealing. I hope so. And, the mere fact that you've read this far and may have even been a little indignant about a company skimping on toilet paper speaks volume about your character. Still, do you really care about customer service.
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Forget Today: Start at the End
By Dave Lavinsky
"Soon after entrepreneurs and business owners start businesses, we become trapped in the day-to-day, week-to-week, and month-to-month struggles and goals of generating more sales and profits, improving employee performance, and trying to reduce our hours and stress. At some point, virtually all of us become 101% focused on these short-term goals and lose sight of our long-term visions. As a result, we begin to wander, and never achieve our initial vision. How can we find success given the daily struggles of building a company? Forget Today; Start at the End [...] In business, as in everything else, you need to have a clear vision of where you want to go. Then, and only then, can you create a plan to follow to get you there. The key is to "start at the end." Figure out where you want to go. And then you can reverse engineer the path to get there."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
You—According to Them: Accelerating Career Success By Understanding—and Boosting—Your Reputation
By Sara Canaday
"'Reputation' is not a line item we can find on a corporate income statement. But honestly, it should be. Instead it's lurking in there, living pervasively below the surface of the carefully calculated revenues and expenses. And yet, the accountants can't assign a specific number to it. Think about that for a moment. Companies can leverage the incalculable perceptions of a great reputation (their brand) into bottom-line success and a very real corporate advantage. Sadly, there's also the flip side. Companies can totally crash and burn because of negative reputations, despite solid product offerings. Perceptions may be unquantifiable, but they are infinitely powerful."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Overemphasis on Profit Erodes Your Bottom Line Why Purpose-Driven Salespeople Wildly Outperform Their Quota-Driven Counterparts
By Lisa Earle McLeod
"Most people believe that money is the primary motivator for top salespeople and that doing good by the world runs a distant second. That belief is wrong. If your sales force isn't producing what it's capable of, it may well be that you're overemphasizing profit at the expense of purpose. This observation doesn't come just from personal experience but from hard data. Studies show that companies committed to improving their customer's lives outperform the market by a stunning 15:1 ratio. [...] A quota-driven mindset spirals into the lowest common denominator sales activities. You start competing on cost not value. You think short-term, fail to understand the customer's environment, and cannot grasp the link between your products and the client's need. It's a slow descent to commodity status."
Categories: changethis
