Press Release: Global Product Management Talk Launches on twitter with author Steven Haines

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Global Product Management Talk Launches on twitter with author Steven Haines

Author of Product Manager’s Desk Reference uses social media to discuss best in class product management at first weekly Twitter talk

San Francisco, CA, USA  3, February, 2011 -- Steven Haines, founder and President of Sequent Learning Networks and author of the groundbreaking book, The Product Manager's Desk Reference, will be the guest at the first weekly global product management talk on Monday, February 7 at 3:00 - 4:00 PM Pacific Standard Time on twitter @prodmgmttalk #prodmgmttalk

Author of The Product Manager's Desk Reference launches event

Each week, ProdMgmtTalk features an expert guest speaker who raises questions to stimulate the twitter discussion.  Product management expert and practitioner, Steven Haines, author of The Product Manager's Desk Reference, is "speaking" to launch the weekly event on Monday, February 7, 2011 at 3:00 PM Pacific Standard Time.

"My mission is to improve capabilities of people who create, market, and manage products and services, and the companies in which these people work. At Sequent Learning, we created the Product Management Exchange (PMEX) to inspire product managers, marketers, and other practitioners to share their unique experiences. ProdMgmtTalk can be a valuable tool for extending hard earned lessons to an international community of people in companies with products."

Tweet traveled 7400 miles

The Global Product Management Talk was conceived by Cindy F. Solomon, a San Francisco Bay Area certified product manager and Adrienne Tan of brainmates, an Australian product management company, to bring international product managers together with experts in the field.

Solomon explains two things that prompted her to tweet a request to collaborate creation of a product management twitter talk, "Online, I attend #blogchat and #pr20chat twitter talks with hundreds of people. The conversation and connections continue beyond the event. Offline, I participate at Product Camps, where product management, product development and product marketing people come together for a day to share expertise and experience."

In Australia, Adrienne Tan founder of brainmates responded to Cindy's tweet request to collaborate and provide an avenue for Product Managers to converse and debate on a global scale. "brainmates is a team of passionate Product Managers that are looking for new ways to enrich the Australian Product Management community. ProdMgmtTalk on twitter gives the Australian product management community a weekly opportunity to interact with international colleagues."


How to Participate in ProdMgmtTalk

More information about the ProdMgmtTalk is available at the website, including the speaker schedule and how to use twitter and participate in twitter chats at http://bit.ly/ff0as2  To participate in ProdMgmtTalk, join twitter and follow @ProdMgmtTalk where the topic questions will be tweeted prior to the event and there is a steady stream of tweets relevant to managing products. During the event, add #ProdMgmtTalk to tweets. You can follow the twitter stream at http://twebevent.com/prodmgmttalk and review the transcript from the event at http://wthashtag.com/Prodmgmttalk

For More Information:
Contact:
Cindy F. Solomon
cfsolomon@gmail.com
510-779-0175

About ProdMgmtTalk:
Weekly twitter chat on all things Product Management related. Co-hosted by Cindy F. Solomon and Adrienne Tan. Each week we interview a Product Management evangelist who leads us in discussing a particular topic. The Product Management expert tweets answers to pre-posted questions during the hour, while everyone chimes in on the tweet stream.
Contact:
http://bit.ly/ff0as2
http://on.fb.me/fCZoLS
@ProdMgmtTalk

About Steven Haines:
Steven Haines is the founder and president of Sequent Learning Networks, a training and advisory services firm with an international clientele, based in New York City. He has over twenty-five years of corporate experience in finance, marketing, and product management. Haines honed his craft in industries as diverse as wholesale industrial products, intimate apparel, medical products, communications, and software & technology, holding leadership roles at AT&T and Oracle. Further, he spent twelve years as an adjunct professor at Rutgers University’s business school. He holds an undergraduate degree in Management Science with a minor in Organizational Behavior from Binghamton University and an MBA in Corporate Financial Management from the Lubin School of Business at Pace University.
Contact:
Sequent Learning Networks
222 E. 46th Street
Suite 501, New York, NY 10017
(212) 647-9100
http://www.sequentlearning.com/
@Steven_Haines

Product Management Exchange (PMEX)
http://www.sequentlearning.com/product-management-exchange.php

About brainmates:
Founded by Adrienne Tan and Nick Coster in 2004, the two devised a mission to help companies understand their customers’ needs and develop innovative products that their customers love. With over 20 years of Product Management experience, they lead a dedicated team of Product Managers who are committed to providing services to clients to do just that.
Contact:
brainmates - product management people
suite 906, level 9
84 Pitt street
sydney nsw 2000
61(2)9232-8147   
http://www.brainmates.com.au
@brainmates

Product Talks
http://www.brainmates.com.au/about-us/our-calendar/product-talks

About Cindy F. Solomon:
Cindy F. Solomon founded an automated broadcast advertising company in NYC before the age of 30 after selling microcomputers for Tandy Radio Shack and developing a newsletter about technology for Boardroom Reports. Cindy has held technology marketing management positions with Apple, Vadem, NetObjects and several start-ups. Cindy is a Certified Product Manager and Certified Product Marketing Manager who provides soup to nuts product marketing strategy and social media implementation.
Contact:
Cindy F. Solomon
510-779-0175      
http://www.cindyfsolomon.com
@cindyfsolomon

Product Camps
http://svpcamp.weebly.com/index.html

Launch of Global Product Management Talk on Twitter

For Product Managers that don’t get a chance to leave their desk and participate in Product Talks in person, we’ve brought Product Talks to you via Twitter.

Cindy F. Solomon and brainmates will be co-hosting a weekly twitter chat on all things Product Management related. Each week we will find a Product Management evangelist to lead us in a particular topic. The Product Management expert will tweet answers to pre-posted questions during the hour, while everyone chimes in on the tweet stream.

Who Should Join In?

• Professional Product Managers
• Those responsible for managing products from inception through launch
• People with the title and/or in the department of “Product Manager, Product Marketing Manager, Product Management”
• People who develop products, are responsible for products, are concerned with the success of products
• Companies that produce products!
• CEOs, founders, developers, investors, project managers, designers, etc.
• Anyone interested in Product Management issues

Why Join In?

• Because Product Management is a challenging, exciting profession with a rich foundation of methodologies that encompasses every industry requiring constant diligence and education to hone skills, master the art, learn the science, stay up with the trends, the market, the ecosystem, as well as the political skills necessary to succeed or fail, and keep going.
• Because Product Managers are in every company and every place in the world, whether they hold the title and authority, or not.
• Because the best Product Managers know how to find mentors and allies to accomplish their vision, fulfill their road map, and launch successful products in and out of their organizations.
• Because social media enables the creation and identification of a vibrant community of Product Management professionals.
• Because Product Management is sexy and vast, and twitter talks will connect PMs with each other, with knowledge, with potential to share expertise and opportunities by giving PM stars a platform to raise awareness, share best practices, mentor newbies

When?

We will be kicking off on the 7th of February 2011. Mondays 3 – 4.00 PM PST, Tuesdays 10 – 11.00 AM EDT
And then every week thereafter.

So What Do You Need To Do?

• Follow @ProdMgmtTalk
Review questions at http://bit.ly/eOFmB6
• During the event, join in with hashtag: #ProdMgmtTalk
• Use tweetchat,com or http://twebevent.com/prodmgmttalk
• On going stream at twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/prodmgmttalk
• After the event, find the transcript: http://wthashtag.com/Prodmgmttalk
• Like us at Facebook: http://on.fb.me/fCZoLS

See you all on Twitter!

Google Hotpot, Google Places, And A QR Codes Contest

Guest posting: 
Written by Matt Storms on January 17, 2011 

You might be asking to yourself why is this guy talking about three totally different things like Google 

Places, QR codes, and Google Hotpot. The reason I am talking about this is because I am excited about technology. I can go out with my wife with no destination for the day and if we, say, get hungry then I don’t have to go to the usual fast food joint. I can use Google Hotpot to find the restaurant and when I get there if they have a QR code I can use it to check out the menu without stepping inside and feeling pressured to eat there. As an individual and as a business this opens up marketing that is very easy to a whole new segment of the world.

Google just released a new iPhone app called Google Places that is great for finding businesses near your business and the ability to rate and review the business. If you have been on Google Hotpot on the web then you will like how seamless the iPhone app is. Android and other smart phone users have the app already installed or they can download it.

Lately I have been looking at QR (Quick Response) codes & Google Places with Google Hotpot for the iPhone. QR codes are starting to take off in the US after they were pioneered in Japan by Toyota subsidiary Denso-Wave in 1994. There is a lot of history, if you want to read the history and how they were invented you can read about Bar code to 2D Code.

50 Million Google Places

A recent YouTube video posted on the Google Hotpot channel by Mat Balezstated that “using our database of over 50 million places our algorithm takes your ratings and recommends places similar to the places you like. So that if you rate one pizza place 5 stars we’ll improve your search results by recommending other pizza places that are similar.”

So now you know a little about both platforms and as you download your QR reader for your smartphone let me tell you why having these things is important as a business. Google Hotpot is a great tool for people and business to rate companies and to see what people are thinking of different companies. As a company you can see what your customers are saying, in this digital world now a review on yelp, twitter, or Google Reviews can help or hurt you.

As a company you set your QR code to take your customers to certain webpages that contain coupons, reviews, specials, anything you set your mind to. This is the twist, that you can actually help your customers that are technology savvy. Many companies are using QR codes to give out discounts and such. Verizon, Entertainment Weekly, Ford and many other companies are using them to drive customers to their website. Some of the movie posters for Iron Man 2 had QR codes that that took people to a mobile site with photos, trailers, and information about the film.

Reaching Out With QR Codes

Businesses that use QR codes can reach out to a more affluent and more spontaneous group of customers. People with more money than sense sometimes but it can be used by all walks of life to build a relationship with the customer that is using this technology. Business is personal and this is another way of reaching out. There are many free QR code generators in the world that you can go to, enter your info and print the code off. You can post it on your front window and go from there.

There are many non-profits and organizations that are using both QR codes and have a Google Places verified account to bring people into their offices. Charities are taking advantage of the tech savvy crowd by adding in the QR code for their website. Cindy Solomon uses a QR code as her avatar on Twitter, she stated “I have been using a qr code for my social media avatar for several months.  Its efficient in directing people to my website by  demonstrating I’m involved w/ mobile technology.  Also, like my interaction with you, it has become a conversation opener for deeper exchanges on twitter, Linkedin and Facebook.”

As you read this you know that we at Boostability are a SEO company but we also do work for small businesses Google places pages to improve their ranking in their local area. We do suggest that marketing to each segment is a great way of getting traffic to your site and to you business place.

Contest

Below you find a few QR codes what we will give to the first person who correctly responds to all 8 QR codes will get a Boostability t-shirt. Now is this nerdy? Yes, but dang it is cool.

YOU HAVE TO LEAVE THE ANSWERS IN THE COMMENT BOX BELOW

*You cannot be a current employee or related to anyone working at Boostability.com.

Principles of Highly Persuasive Messaging

At the November 2010 meeting of the Silicon Valley Product Management Association, Michael Cannon, CEO of Silver Bullet Group presented the Top Ten Principles of Highly Persuasive Messaging.  Michael Cannon is an internationally renowned sales and marketing effectiveness expert, dynamic speaker and best-selling author of several business marketing books. An expert in enabling B2B companies to increase competitive differentiation, win rates, and market share, Michael has assisted hundreds of companies, such as Agilent Technologies and Oracle, to increase revenues. He has over 20 years of sales and marketing, management and founder’s experience in the enterprise software, telecommunications, wireless, training, and professional services industries holding positions ranging from Account Executive to VP of Sales to CEO.

Michael is Founder of the Silver Bullet Group and creator of the hugely successful Silver Bullet Sales Messaging® System, a proven, proprietary methodology for dramatically improving the quality of B2B messaging. His presentation was subtitled, Objective Criteria Equips Marketing to Accelerate Revenue Growth (by doubling the effectiveness of the messaging and the tools that persuade people to buy).

Michael immediately engaged the audience of product focused professionals by questioning what roles and business objectives were represented in the audience.  Although his examples involved primarily the sales organization’s perspective within B2B enterprises, the approach he suggested applies to every product messaging situation charged with accelerating revenue growth by creating greater competitive differentiation and advantage, increasing Marketing ROI, and providing better channel (Direct, Indirect) engagement and support. 

Cannon defined messaging as “the words you use, both written and verbal, along with the supporting visuals, to persuade a person to do business with your company.” Naming the root cause of ineffective customer messaging as the “Customer Messaging Gap”, the bottom line is that companies do not provide persuasive answers to key customer questions, such as

•  “Why should I change out my current solution for a new solution?” and
•  “Why should I buy this solution from your company rather than from the competition?”

Cannon picked apart a typical Customer Messaging Map (that could have been pulled straight from a Marketing Requirements Document), identifying targeted messaging to key stakeholders with distinct message categories, distance to customer, message types, questions to answer and message goals.  The further distance from the sales conversation, i.e. corporate messaging, market messaging, and product messaging, the less influential the messaging is to the customer buying decision.  The gap is at the critical sales messaging area just prior to the sales conversation where opportunity creation, the question of competitive offerings and request for a meeting occurs.

Statistics reinforce the problem with sales messaging:

• “58% of a vendor’s marketing content is not relevant to potential buyers”
• “80 to 90% of marketing collateral is considered useless by sales.”

Further aggravating the problem, in an attempt to resolve the gap, Sales representatives take it upon themselves to create sales messaging ad hoc, or Field Marketing is tasked with creating the messaging out of sync, and/or customers are forced to figure out the answers for themselves to justify their purchase decisions. This wastes cycles, risks revenue loss, and frustrates sales and customers alike.

Cannon discussed an infographic from CSO Insights, 2008 Sales Performance Optimization Report that displayed the “Effort vs. Impact on Sales Effectiveness” of marketing programs.  In order of impact from highest effort to lowest cost:

• ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)
• CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
• SKM (Sales Knowledge Management), Sales Training Event, Blitz Campaigns & SPIFs (Sales Promotion Incentive Fund), Sales Collaboration, Sales Process Mapping
• Sales Messaging mapped as the most impact for least effort and cost 

Sales messaging must provide a persuasive answer to the buyer’s primary buying questions. Buyer’s questions can be answered at three different levels: feature, benefit and customer business value.  Customer business value centric messaging is the most effective in creating the business value from the customer’s perspective, by identifying the lowest total cost of ownership and implementing the least risky option.  Since most buyers consider your sales messaging to be claims, it’s important to provide proof points with customer testimonials and 3^rd party organizations to prove the truth of each key claim. The more clearly you contrast the difference between you and your competitors, the more business you win.  Messaging should succinctly clarify the contrast between offerings using quantification and sharply contrasting adjectives.

Sales messaging must be aligned to the buy/sell process, with key messaging relevant to each step of the customer’s decision making experience as well as buying identity in the technology adoption life cycle.

A summary of the top ten principles of highly effective messaging:

1. Target the buyer by audience type and buyer role
2. Indentify and persuasively answer the audience’s primary buying questions
3. Enable the sales cycle and the Technology Adoption Life Cycle (TALC)
4. Make the right comparison
5. Use strong comparative language
6. Define clear capability advantages
7. Communicate value in the customer’s context
8. Incorporate lots of proof points
9. Make the customer the hero
10. Pass the sales and customer validation test

Additional information is available from Michael Cannon's Silver Bullet Group at http://www.silverbulletgroup.com/resources

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Cindy F. Solomon, CPM/CPMM blogs & tweets about software, startups, innovation and product management issues 

8 Great Reasons to Shop At Locally Owned Businesses!

Mobile Applications, such as SCVNGR, may be the key to invigorating local economies by encouraging foot traffic in the door of local establishments. 

Mobile Apps enable constant conversation across all digital connections, but the real opportunity is in the potential they have to inspire face-to-face community between shoppers and local, independently owned business locations.

Why shop locally?

1. Significantly more money re-circulates in your community when purchases are made at locally owned, rather than nationally owned, businesses: More money is kept in the community because locally owned businesses purchase from other local businesses, service providers, and farms.  Purchasing locally helps grow other businesses, as well as your community’s tax base.

2. Most new jobs are provided by local businesses: Small local businesses are the largest employer nationally.

3. Local business owners invest in community: Local businesses are owned by people who live in this community, are less likely to leave, and are more invested in the community’s future.

4. Customer service is better: Local businesses often hire people with more specific product expertise for better customer service.

5. Reduced environmental impact: Locally owned businesses can make more local purchases requiring less transportation and generally set up shop in town or city centers, as opposed to developing on the fringe.  This generally means contributing less to sprawl, congestion, habitat loss and pollution.

6. Public benefits far outweigh public costs: Local businesses in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure investment and make more efficient use of public services, as compared to nationally owned stores entering the community.

7. Encourages investment in your community: A growing body of economic  research shows that in an increasingly homogenized world, entrepreneurs and skilled workers are more likely to invest and settle in communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character.

8. Non-profits receive greater support:  Non-profit organizations receive an average 350% greater support from local business owners than they do from non-locally owned businesses. 

Disclaimer:  This is my holiday greetings card to (and from) my local merchants! 

Why shop at local, independent businesses this holiday season?

Because Community Matters!

Build Community!

The casual encounters you enjoy at neighborhood-scale business and the public spaces around them build relationships and community cohesiveness.  They’re the ultimate social networking sites!

Strengthen Your Local Economy!

Each dollar you spend at independent businesses returns 3 times more money to our local economy than one spent at a chain – a benefit we all can bank on.

Shape our Character!

Why did you choose to live here?  What keeps you?  Independent businesses help give our community its one-of-a-kind personality.

Create a Healthier Environment!

Independent, community-serving businesses are people-sized.  They consume less land, carry more locally-made products, locate closer to residents and create less traffic and air pollution.

Lower Taxes!

Local businesses put less demand on our roads, sewers, and safety services and generate more tax revenue per sales dollar, helping keep your taxes lower.

Enhance Choices!

A wide variety of independent business, each serving their customers’ tastes, creates greater overall choice for all of us.

Create Jobs and Opportunities!

Locally-owned businesses also are the customers of local printers, accountants, wholesalers, farms, attorneys, etc., expanding opportunities for local entrepreneurs.

Give Back to Your Community!

Indies donate more than twice as much per sales dollar to local non-profits, events, and teams as chains do.

Invitation:

Join me on SCVNGR at http://scvngr.com/cindyfsolomon

Relevant links:

4 Reasons to Invest in Location Based Services http://bit.ly/dbDV2B

Rewards on SCVNGR Spread Holiday Cheer to Businesses http://bit.ly/cfRspj