Regarding Henry (Kissinger that is…)

June 30, 2008 by 1 Comment
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger delivers his remarks honoring former President Gerald Ford during the State Funeral service at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

Image via Wikipedia

Since this is my blog, I feel like I can divert from B2B sales and marketing for a moment to talk about two profound lessons from my old boss Stu Silverman that made me better and guide my management philosophies today. First thing is: I always talk about Stu.  When you have a real mentor,  that is what happens.  I regard him so highly because I not only enjoyed working for him: I left his organization a better leader, businessperson, and a better guy.

Anyway, I love sharing the things he used to always tell me which I took with me that guide how I run my life and my business and what I expect from my team.  One is what I call the “Henry Kissinger/is that your best work?” story.  First let me give you the context.  Stu worked in DC not for Henry Kissinger but near Henry Kissinger.  It felt like myth to me until I asked my best buddy who is a major hitter on the Beltway.  I said, ”You know my boss always tells this Henry Kissinger story.”  He said: “You mean the ‘is this your best work’ one?”  Bingo…it was real.  Then this little web application called Google came along and I found out that this is Washington DC legend not myth, not folklore but legend.  The simple story has guided tens of thousands more people than me.

If you look on the web for this story, people substitute “who” it was dealing with Kissinger (chief of staff, etc).  Also, the time in between “is this your best work” varies.  The story is set during Kissinger’s run as Secretary of State. This is how the story was told to me:

  • One of Kissinger’s young associates was asked to write a report on XXX.  He worked furiously to get it done.  He walks into Kissinger’s office to deliver the report.  Kissinger asks very simply:  “Is this your best work?”  The associate says “yes,” Kissinger says again, “Is this your best work?”.  The associate knows it’s not his best, just good enough and grabs it, announces “I can do better” and goes back to work on it.
  • After two all nighters, he brings rev 2 to Kissinger, who asks “Is this your best work?”  The associate realizing it is still not his best work,  grabs it back and goes back to work.
  • Finally, the associate walks into Kissinger’s office, hands him the report, and says: “Mr. Kissinger, here is my best work.”  Kissinger replies: “Great, now I will read your report.”

The job of The Funnelholic  is not to go Tony Robbins on people and is certainly not to preach.  But the role of The Funnelholic  blog is to share what is in my head every once in awhile…and add some value and have some fun every once in awhile.  All I have to say about this is that “good enough” is not “good enough” and never will be.  And when I am on the verge of getting in front of a client or presenting to my boss, I always ask myself “Is this my best work?”

Craig Rosenberg is the Funnelholic. He loves sales, marketing, and things that drive revenue. Follow him on Google+ or Twitter

Filed Under: Business Musings Tagged With: , ,

CRM Webinar coming: Must-have Checklist for CRM

June 25, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Disclaimer: InsideCRM is one of the core websites of my company, TIppit. Either way, our CRM webinars with Microsoft have been really good. If you are looking into a new CRM system or you are in charge of the CRM system at your organization, this should be a great watch. Live version means you get to ask question. Sign up here

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Craig Rosenberg is the Funnelholic. He loves sales, marketing, and things that drive revenue. Follow him on Google+ or Twitter

Filed Under: b2b Marketing, b2b Sales, CRM Tagged With: , ,

Yahoo’s continued descent — the Yahoo resignation tool

June 25, 2008 by Leave a Comment

OK, not everything in my life can be about B2B lead generation and sales and marketing. I also live and breathe on the internet so every once in awhile I get something that I think is fun to post on. I am pretty sure this link has gone viral, so you may have seen it…if not, enjoy. Click here to do it.

Craig Rosenberg is the Funnelholic. He loves sales, marketing, and things that drive revenue. Follow him on Google+ or Twitter

Filed Under: Business Musings, Random-ness Tagged With: ,

The Real “Best Practice” Is Test, Test, and Then Test Again.

June 24, 2008 by Leave a Comment

This Sunday, I got my usual email from Technology Evaluation Centers. That’s right, on a Sunday. These guys are really creative when it comes to email marketing. And I like it.

First of all, I think they emailed me on Christmas Eve. BTW, it was the only email I received that day, so I opened it. Secondly, these dudes hit me on Saturdays and Sundays, and I read them. So much for conventional wisdom.

email/day of the week

The Internet has given marketers “best practices” – which essentially means everyone is doing the same thing. I have blogged on this before. Given what we know, breaking best practices may mean that you will stand out. And how do you know what will work or not work? YOU DON’T. Thus the bottom-line best practice is TEST, TEST, TEST.

Clearly TEC has figured out that emails can convert on weekends. They certainly do not rely on best practice data. Most says to avoid the weekends. This eROI report says that the order of preference for email delivery is Wednesday, Monday, Thursday, Tuesday, Friday, Sunday, Saturday. So, everyone gets this report, herd mentality sets in, and your inbox is barraged during the week. How about the weekend when I got that one email I actually opened?

The moral of the story is best practices data is a way to create a baseline, but to put your marketing program over the top, think outside the box.

Sunday “hit” from TEC:

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Craig Rosenberg is the Funnelholic. He loves sales, marketing, and things that drive revenue. Follow him on Google+ or Twitter

Filed Under: b2b Marketing, DRIP and Lead Nurturing, Lead/Inquiry Generation Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The 7 Similarities between VPs of Sales and Professional Sports Coaches

June 21, 2008 by Leave a Comment

I’ve been thinking about this topic for years. I originally used to hold that VPs of Sales were specifically like NBA coaches because of the flash and Armani suits. But there are some additional parallels that made me want to stretch the comparison to include coaches of all sports. Even though football coaches have traded in their ties for mock-ts …

1. They both get paid a lot of money: Have you seen the amount of money pro coaches are pulling in these days? Unreal. Although Sales VPs do not get Phil Jackson money, they are typically the highest paid members of the management team. The Phoneworks VP of Sales compensation survey is a favorite of mine, but to net it out: Average VP of Sales pay is $327K (as kids these days like to IM: OMG). The range? $134K to $669K (hello $699K). Read more here.

2. They get fired first when things go bad: I used to coach sports, so I always have had a soft spot in my heart for the “unfair” way coaches are treated. Then my old boss Stu Silverman told me: “Don’t’ feel sorry for guys who are making millions of bucks.” He’s right. Coaches get hired to be fired. When you make that much money, you have to produce. End of story. The only variable is how long you have to get it done, and since only one team wins the Super Bowl, there’s often a fairly short-term metric for success. Sales managers make more than their bosses’ bottom line and are paid to produce. If they don’t produce, the writing’s on the spreadsheet. I grabbed this from one of my favorite blogs ­­– Jon Miller’s Modern B2B Marketing Blog.

Here is the average tenure for executives:
1. Mgr / VP of Sales: 19 months
2. CMO: 23 months
3. CIO: 36 months
4. CFOs: 39 months
5. CEOs: 44 months

3. Despite failures (and in some cases, numerous failures), they get another job: The key is to just get that first head coach job. It is typically the same for the VP of Sales, getting fired just means you will be working somewhere else in a couple months. And by the way, it’s not a bad thing. How many coaches bombed in one situation but thrived in another? (Bill Belichick in Cleveland = failure; Belicheck in New England = dynasty). VP of Sales roulette is played in Silicon Valley and across the country.

4. The “players” make a lot more money than the “coach.” It’s true. Early in my career, I was asking advice from one of the top sales reps at Rational Software. He said, “I have always made more than my boss.” My response — “What about the CEO?” The rep — “Who? Oh yeah, beating him is easy.” Phil Jackson makes $6 million. That guy Kobe Bryant who he needs to coach? 20 to 25 mill. That can’t be easy to swallow.

5. The ends justify the means. The New York Giants won the Super Bowl last year, despite their leader and star purposely skipping training camp for both more money and because, quite frankly, he just didn’t feel like going. Ever wonder why the VP of Sales can never get his guys to update Salesforce.com? Because their job is delivering the goods. If they miss inputting data or curse out everyone in the building, it goes with the territory.

6. The best ones are the biggest a**holes: Some of the best I have seen would make Bill Parcells and Bob Knight blush.

7. The best ones are worth the money: It’s true, but like sports franchises, you may go through three or four coaches before you find the right one, but when you get Bill Belichick, you pay him.

This was a fun topic…please add more, I’d like the 2009 version of this article to be 21 similarities.

Craig Rosenberg is the Funnelholic. He loves sales, marketing, and things that drive revenue. Follow him on Google+ or Twitter

Filed Under: b2b Marketing

The 360 view CRM-ERP dream

June 17, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Upcoming webinar on InsideCRM sponsored by Netsuite on leveraging your financial system, errr ERP, to gain visbility into and run your entire business. Getting everyone on the same page to generate a 360 degree view of the business can be a challenge, but I am not sure you can find anyone in the world who would disagree that it is the optimal result.

Check out this webinar, tell them I sent you.

Great webinar --check it


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Craig Rosenberg is the Funnelholic. He loves sales, marketing, and things that drive revenue. Follow him on Google+ or Twitter

Filed Under: CRM Tagged With: , , ,

Don’t call it a comeback, i’ve been here for years

June 15, 2008 by Leave a Comment


LL Cool J: "Don't call it a comeback"Ok, call it a comeback. One thing I will admit is that I have been very inconsistent in updating the funnelholic. That is not good. (considering I claim to be an expert in b2b marketing, )

The long of the short of it is that the funnelholic is making a comeback. The goal for the rest of 2008 will be to update the funnlholic 1-2x a week. As I gear up for some prolific blogging, I finally started to read all the posts and watched all the webcasts I had been putting in my queue over the last couple months. This Saturday, I looked at every blog on Jon Miller’s Big list of b2b marketing blogs. Check out his post, that was a big task///138 blogs. By the way, great linkbait by Jon there but nonetheless a great list of the B2B marketing blogosphere.

In sum, the funnelholic is back.

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Craig Rosenberg is the Funnelholic. He loves sales, marketing, and things that drive revenue. Follow him on Google+ or Twitter

Filed Under: b2b Marketing, Random-ness Tagged With: ,