Twitter is the fastest-growing social networking site in the world.

“ Barack Obama used Twitter to generate publicity during his 2008 presidential campaign.”

In June 2009, following allegations of vote-rigging during the Iranian presidential election, protesters used Twitter to communicate with the outside world.

Harvard University found that 10 percent of users created over 90 percent of the content on Twitter. It also showed that many only used the service to follow others and did not post content of their own.

So much has been written and spoken about this modern day internet phenomenon.

On Thursday the 3^rd of Sept at 6pm GMT and 1pm eastern time, I will host a Top Sales Experts International Masterclass “Twitter for B2B, It’s About Friends Not Followers”

I invite you join me in learning how to utilize Twitter’s amazing potential to nurture relationships and create sales opportunities in B2B.

To register for this Masterclass, just click on the banner (Top Right) - remember it’s free if you become a VIP Member

Update 02/09 it has come to my attention that there was a bug in the system so I am offering this masterclass for free. Register below

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/233451570

Reading today’s Irish times, Michael O Regan’s piece about Mary Robinson’s speech at the annual commemoration of the death of Michael Collins really stood out for me.

“Mrs Robinson believes we need “a vision of ourselves” and “the lack of one lies at the heart of the crises we face. We need to listen to everyone who has something to contribute; yes the business sector and the financial experts, but also the social entrepreneurs and innovators, the teachers who educate our children, social workers and activists … and those who have been marginalised in the past. We should also listen to our creative artists”

It is well worth a read and got me thinking.

Mary Robinson is entirely right, crisis creates opportunity. This is applicable to us as individuals, as business owners and collectively as a society and a country.

It is our ability to take this opportunity that ultimately decides our effectiveness in dealing with a crisis.

It could easily be argued that a crisis actually creates even more opportunity, because it forces us to look at a problem in entirely new ways. We will hopefully endeavour to find new solutions to old problems.

So what if, we decided to look upon these same problems as a blessing rather than a curse?

What if we decided to focus on the opportunity rather than the problem?

What impact might that have on how we would go about solving these problems?

And would the solutions that we find be the same as the ones we are finding now?

Isn’t it a least worth some thought?

Btb Guest Author

Dave Brock

If your partners are not adding value and improving the total value proposition to the customers, they are adding cost — detracting from your value proposition and competitiveness.

There are many ways partners might add value: relationships with customers is one area. Skills and capabilities that complement yours–for example implementation, installation of your products, local support, the ability to integrate complementary products for a richer solution, and others all represent potential value they might provide.

When building a channel that complements and enhances the total value of your offerings, make sure you understand one other element of value. What is the value that you provide your partners? If you are not providing them value, it is very unlikely the relationship will produce results. A way to think about this is illustrated below.

The decision to use partners should be driven primarily by filling gaps in your value proposition. If your partners add value in reaching your customers, and you add value to them, you will probably have an effective, efficient and high performing channel–creating great results for your mutual customers as well as for each other.

Partners In EXCELLENCE is the recognized leader in helping organizations develop and communicate differentiated value propositions. We are also recognized for our expertise in developing and implementing high impact partnering and channel strategies.

If you need to sharpen your tools, processes, thinking, and skills in value propositions, look at our Value Proposition Solutions, follow the link. For a copy of our free Value Proposition eBook, follow the link.

For our eBook, Partnering for Profitability, follow the link.

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Dave Brock works with organizations to help them achieve the highest levels of performance excellence. He helps them identify and execute new business, sales, marketing and customer service strategies. His goal is to have a profound difference on the lives and results produced by his clients. Dave is the founder and CEO of Partners in EXCELLENCE, a leading business consulting company. He has held executive roles in IBM, Tektronix, and other large technology companies. He is an investor, advisor, and director of several high technology start-up companies.

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Over at TSE

Upcoming Masterclasses Include:

Hot Tips to Create a Sales Team that Soars – Even in a Recession

Why Do Salespeople Make Little Use of Marketing Assets?

What’s in your Pipeline?

The Incredible Value Of Sales Team Audits

Turn It Up! Selling in a Tough Economy

I am currently attempting (I stress “attempting”) to create a list of the most influential business twitter users in Ireland.

I am basing this on three factors and weighting them in this order

Num of Retweets and @Mentions
Num of Irish Followers
Total Num of Followers

The results so far have proving very surprising to say the least. Here is a taster of what I mean.

#People with 10,000s of followers and virtually no RTs or @mentions.

#Big Irish brands with lots of followers, but very few RTs or @mentions

#Irish State/Semi State bodies with lots of followers, but very few RTs or @mentions.

#Irish Social Media/Tech Experts with very few RTs or @mentions.

#In fact if you take the top 100 Irish users with the most followers, a surprisingly large amount have very little no RTs or @mentions.

Now this was never going to be name and shame project. In fact my objective was rather to discover the people in Ireland I had most to learn from. That being said, I am very surprised with lack of effectiveness of so many Irish people and organisations with large numbers of followers.

To be clear, I am not questioning the tool here, I am questioning the people using the tool I think it raises an interesting question.

Why would people continue to put time and energy into a tool that appears to generate so little return for them?

Here are some possible causes in my opinion, please let me know if you can think of more.

#Many continue to be obsessed with numbers of followers. The fact that these same followers are paying no attention does not appear to resonate.

#Many continue to view and use Twitter as a broadcast tool only, they remain oblivious to its potential as a relationship builder.

#Many organisations start using Twitter because they feel it’s expected, rather than asking, what could Twitter add to this organisation?

#Twitter merely reflects a society where many are bad listeners or are only focused on the “what’s in it for me?”

#The wrong people within organisations are being entrusted with the responsibility to manage Twitter

#Much of the training/content spoken and written about Twitter is focused on the wrong places - It lacks the sophistication needed to teach people to get the most out of the tool.

The reality is that in most cases, it is probably a combination of above and more. The challenge as I see it is this. Twitter is an extremely easy tool to start to use, the amount of learning is minimal. Twitter is a difficult tool to use effectively, the amount of learning required is much more.

There lies the gap, most people can use Twitter but many struggle to use it in a sophisticated and worthwhile way. In many cases, followers aside, we are still struggling to get it.

Btb Guest Author

Donagh Kiernan

With Ireland being such a small market, many start-up software companies start with internationalisation in their plans. Many make moves internationally too soon or with too little knowledge and experience of making their business a success in their initial markets. I’m not referring to any lack of business knowledge or experience of the management team, but to the fact that it takes time for businesses to learn what really works for the business.

Many successful international Irish CEOs would give some variations on this advice about going international:

1. Understand what it is to sell and deliver your offering in your initial market first before considering going international.

The challenges in doing business in a new market are sufficient enough without having to learn the basic lessons in how to communicate, sell, deliver and support your offerings as well. You need to be building on the strong track record of your initial market to be credible in your first internationally market. You should really know your Value Proposition for your target market.

2. The business should understand its key business processes.

I’m not talking about becoming over corporate or bureaucratic but simply that everyone in the business has the same understanding of how things are done. When it gets busy, does your business operate efficiently through a series of processes or does it over depend on too few people?

3. Do you really know your target international market?

Is the buyer’s ‘Customer Journey’ the same as in your initial market? Do buyers value the same things? Does the competitive landscape in this market negate your current Value Proposition? Do a ‘Value Map’ with the market’s buying criteria comparing you against your competitors for your specific target market. Validate your assessment with prospective clients in your new market, as market research.

4. Leverage of your existing customers successes.

Can some or one of your existing customers bring you into your target international market? Do they have a sister or associate company that they could refer you into? Gaining a reference customer in the market is great start.

5. Focus on getting your beach-head customer so limit the number of target customers to get started.

Don’t go chasing 20 prospective target customers to get started. It takes time to understand the needs of 20 companies and build relationships with the decision makers. It’s better to really focus on the ones that you know you can deliver real value to and make it easy for them to buy. Get a little business from them and then build on it. Meanwhile don’t lose focus on continuing to build success in your initial market.

6. A local presence in the market is not always necessary but helps.

It depends on your product or service on whether you need a local team to sell, deliver or support your offering. This could be achieved with local support partners who are also gaining business from the sale. There are many different types of partners that might suit; it depends on your business. The selection of the right type and best-fit partners is a key component of what Maidsfield offer in its services to Irish software companies.

7. Should you Sell Direct or through Partners?

Selling direct is faster, more expensive and of greater risk. Going through Partners is slower, mush less expensive and much more cautious, as long as you pick the right partners to suit your business objectives. A hybrid model would be you sell direct with the support of a local support partner, thereby you get the local knowledge and maybe delivery and after sales support from the partner but you bring the domain expertise to close the sale. Maidsfield provide services in identifying and opening doors with the best-fit partners for your business.

There are many variations within the points above depending on your particular business but the principle are basically the same.

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Donagh Kiernan is the founder of Maidsfield Associates, a business development consulting company providing services to established internationally focussed technology companies. He has 20 years experience in working in, owning, driving and delivering results with international focussed Irish technology companies. In 2007/2008 Donagh was selected by Enterprise Ireland as one of 32 Irish business leaders to participate in a year long “Leadership for Growth Programme” for globally focused business leaders delivered by the prestigious Stanford University in California. He is an active contributor to Irish Technology industry development organisations through it@cork, NSC Campus, Irish Software Association, CIT Alumni and on Enterprise Ireland initiatives.

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In the News

Who does Jonathan Farrington consider to have been the greatest leader of them all?

Find out over at AllBusiness.

Thanks to my good friend Facundo from Channelship for bringing this video to my attention. It’s from Erik Qualman, author of Socialnomics

Some statistics from the video.

By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers….96% of them have joined a social network

Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web

Years to Reach 50 millions Users:  Radio (38 Years), TV (13 Years), Internet (4 Years), iPod (3 Years)…Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months…iPhone applications hit 1 billion in 9 months.

% of companies using LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees….80%

There are over 200,000,000 Blogs

Because of the speed in which social media enables communication, word of mouth now becomes world of mouth

Btb Guest Author

Miriam Ahern

SOLE-TRADERS and smaller businesses are the most vulnerable potential victims of the expected swine-flu pandemic.

There’s a lot of information about at the moment on how enterprises should prepare themselves to weather a global swine flu outbreak should the current situation worsen. Most of this is aimed at large organisations rather than the sole-trader who could suffer much more.

Among the challenges all businesses may face, in addition to high rates of absenteeism, are; disruption to supply chains and business travel; infection control amongst employees; sudden drops or increases in supply of and demand for goods and services; as well as strain on human resources, insurance and cash flow.

Here are key steps that sole-traders and micro-business leaders can take right now so they are not caught off their guard.

Be Cautious

Let’s face it –sole-traders just don’t have the resources that medium and larger companies have at their disposal if there’s a flu pandemic. If they catch swine-flu, the impact on their business will be significant and immediate. What they can do, however, is to take every precaution they can against catching flu in the first case. Here are some guidelines:

Do:

• Carry your own personal dispenser of hand sanitizer in your pocket. Use it frequently when you are out and about and immediately before entering and upon leaving clients’ premises.
• Bring your own pens or calculators with you for your personal use at appointments and meetings.
• Keep your own workspace, belongings and car hygienically clean (i.e. regularly disinfected). Keep a pack of antiseptic wipes in your car.
• Limit your personal appearances to when it’s mission-critical. Avoid any unnecessary business travel and meetings.
• Be subtle but maintain adequate personal space around you at public gatherings and at meetings.
• Talk to other sole-traders or small business owners who have already dealt with the effects of swine flu and learn from their experience.
• Organise to get swine and winter flu vaccinations from your GP as soon as they are available.

Don’t:

• Travel on public transport during rush hour when trains, busses and trams are packed.
• Handle objects, books, papers and brochures in public waiting areas.
• Panic or over-react. Keep yourself informed so that you can tell the difference between someone with seasonal hay-fever and someone with real flu-symptoms!
• Keep working if you think you have swine flu. You have a responsibility to those around you to act sensibly.

Be Prepared

What if your prevention efforts fail and you fall victim to the dreaded swine flu? First of all, let’s get this whole issue into context. The chances are that, unless you are extremely unlucky, you will only be unable to work for 1-2 weeks maximum. Once you get over your flu, that’s it for your business. You are unlikely to catch a second dose: unlike larger organizations, which will probably have to weather ‘waves’ of outbreaks throughout the winter.

The aims of your contingency planning should be that while you are tending to your own welfare, your business continues; your assets are secure; and your cash-flow is protected. The key is to identify your main vulnerabilities. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What are the core functions that are critical to your business continuity?
• What supplies or materials are essential to producing your goods or delivering your services?
• What can you do if there is a sudden increase or decrease in demand for your products or services during a pandemic?
• What are the fundamental roles or processes that you alone execute?
• What’s your economic exposure to swine flu?
• What will be the impact if you are out of action for a couple of weeks?
• How can you reduce the risk of critical business functions being interrupted?

Here are just some contingencies that you might consider:

Buddy-up with a few trusted business colleagues. Explore and plan ways in which you could keep each-others’ businesses ticking over in the event of a temporary incapacity. Each should keep a copy of the others’ contingency plans.

Set up an emergency file. Keep a list of key business contact details. Keep accurate process notes for any business-critical procedures or functions.

If you have a service or customer-facing business, explore the possibility of increasing the amount of online transactions as well as self-service options for customers.

Review your IT setup and if possible enhance it so that you can control your amount of face-to-face contact. Use video-links and tele-conferencing to maintain essential contact with your business community.

If you and your partner are both working and you have childcare arrangements that could break down in a pandemic, work out a plan (in advance) with a few other parents whereby one parent stays home one day with all the children so each parent misses only a single day each week.

Let your customers and suppliers know that you are prepared and what your contingency arrangements are.

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Miriam Ahern is the founder and managing partner of Align Management Solutions – a consultancy specialising in organisational change and development. She also manages LINK! - Dublin City Enterprise Board’s Network for Start-up Businesses. Miriam is a regular contributor in the national media on issues relating to business management and human resources. She is a Certified Management Consultant and a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants and Advisers.

Mobile: + 353 86 234 2789

Office:  + 353 1 412 5890

Follow Miriam on Twitter

LinkedIn

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Today’s News:

I would like to add my voice to Jonathan’s and the rest of the TSE team in extending my very best wishes to TSE colleague, Steve Martinez. Steve is recovering after seven and half hours of “aorti dissection” surgery. Our thoughts are with Steve, his wife Sally, and his family, may he make a full and speeedy recovery.

The Internationalisation Partnership - Partners In EXCELLENCE, Beyond the Boardroom and Maidsfield Associates

August 7th 2009 – Beyond the Boardroom, an Ireland based Sales Leadership, Consulting and Training company has entered into a three-way partnership with Maidsfield Associates, a business development and sales-side partnering consulting company for the Irish technology sector and Partners In EXCELLENCE, a US based sales, partnering and globalisation consulting and service business.

The focus of the partnership is to help Irish Technology companies accelerate the results they achieve through their Internationalisation efforts.

The partnership brings together experience and track record in helping companies successfully expand globally. Leveraging the capabilities to access new regions, markets, develop new channels and alliances; this partnership will help Irish Technologies improve the results they achieve in competing in a global market.

Whether your organisation is seeking to go international or already trading abroad the internationalisation partnership can assist you to ensure you achieve the highest levels of performance and the best results possible.

Together, Maidsfield, Beyond the Boardroom and Partners In EXCELLENCE have helped Irish and other organizations achieve tremendous results in Internationalising. Organizations like Qumas, InnerWorkings, Decare Systems Ireland, Helix Health, Dolphin Software, IBM, HP, Canon, Motorola, Ericsson, Dassault Systemes, NCR, and others.

“I’m very excited about the impact this partnership can have on helping Irish Technology companies Internationalise. A key growth strategy for these companies, is globalisation. Together, we bring both a track record, experiences, and resources that can accelerate the results companies achieve, while significantly reducing risk in these programs.“

- David A Brock, President of Partners In EXCELLENCE

“The future of Irish business lies in our ability to deliver internationally. This unique initiative is about giving Irish Tech companies the tools to overcome the challenges and pitfalls of the International business landscape. Our aim will be to deliver results, quicker and more effectively than has previously been seen.”,

- Niall Devitt, Managing Partner of Beyond the Boardroom

“I’ve experienced first hand the challenges of internationalising Irish Technology companies. In expanding the capabilities and international reach of working with such good people as in David’s and Niall’s organisations, is about delivering faster and more effective results for the international success of Irish Technology Companies. ”,

- Donagh Kiernan, Managing Partner of Maidsfield Associates

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About Maidsfield Associates

Maidsfield Associates is a business development consulting company providing services to established internationally focussed technology companies. Maidsfield helps its clients meet its growth aspirations through delivering consulting services in Sales-side Corporate Partnerships and Strategic Business Development. Maidsfield clients include with internationally focused technology companies in Dublin, Limerick and Cork.

Maidsfield’s founder, Donagh Kiernan has 20 years experience in working in, owning, driving and delivering results with international focussed Irish technology companies. In 2007/2008 Donagh was selected by Enterprise Ireland as one of 32 Irish business leaders to participate in a year long “Leadership for Growth Programme” for globally focused business leaders delivered by the prestigious Stanford University in California. He is an active contributor to Irish Technology industry development organisations through it@cork, NSC Campus, Irish Software Association, CIT Alumni and on Enterprise Ireland initiatives.

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About Beyond the Boardroom

Beyond the Boardroom is a leading Irish business development consultancy, working in the areas of sales leadership, sales management consulting and sales excellence programs.

Niall Devitt is the founder. He is a member of Top Sales Experts International team and the founder of Sales Leadership Ireland. His blog on sales know how is one of the mostly widely read sales resources on the net.

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About Partners In EXCELLENCE

Partners In EXCELLENCE is a global consulting company, focused on helping its clients achieve the highest level of results and performance in Sales, Marketing, New Product Introduction, and Globalisation. The firm is known for its pragmatic approach to driving significant growth and profitability for its clients.