Open For Business

We talk with Joe Zwiebel, President of New England Business Media., about: What is a flat business org chart? Why is flat better for selling? And we role play with Joe Zwiebel selling US on advertising with his online publications.

Issue: Your business model is about how you make money. Rules: Sell products - gross margins rule the day Sell personal services - hourly optimization is key Sell knowledge - licensing and distribution matter Solve a need - Uber has no cars; Alibaba has no inventory Actions: Answer the following questions: What problem do you solve? Is it worth solving? Is anyone else focusing on the problem? Are you better? Will people pay for the answer? Will they pay enough to make it worthwhile? Conclusion: A unique business model that solves a problem and makes money Dissent: Speed to market and resources

Social Media has become CLICK BAIT for business owners getting screwed by consultants. I observe people forgetting the basic tenant of social media, if they ever knew it at all, and that’s is SOCIAL! Engaging with other, sans sales pitch. For this episode I ask my friend Johnny Mac -- owner of Barbarino Nissan and Barbarino Mitsubishi, to visit with me to discuss social media and how he uses it.

At the age of five, Billy Nachman and Hobson Brown were forced into their first collared shirts to attend an all-boys school in New York City. Although initially squirmy and uncomfortable, the boys quickly began to notice the power of the polo: the approving nods from parents, the lingering glances from the ladies... These two lifelong friends have created a brand that is classic but not stuffy. They tell us how they did it.

CEO and Founder of iDevices, Chris Allen, iDevices - started with the invention of the iGrill - one of the first app-enabled devices to be featured in the Apple retail stores way back in 2010, This was the cutting / bleeding edge of the IoT era - the Internet of Things era. Today Chris’ company, iDevices, blends the art and science of app development and hardware infuse to create wondrous new products to make our lives more enjoyable.

Inbound marketing and accurate marketing ROI -- they are like two peas in a pod. Beer prices may go up if fracking messes up the water. Starting an online business? A few bases you need to cover. Customers leaving? A few questions to ask. Brian, Tommy and Ken go far and wide in this episode of Open for Business. Steve Hall from Hubspot was our guest this week (he also run AdRant.com). He wrote a HubSpot blog post about how inbound marketing aligns well with how people make buying decisions. The biggest AHA moment of the conversation -- the alignment really brings to the forefront the ability to get accurate ROI on your inbound marketing, and marketing ROI has been the elusive holy grail forever. http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34158/how-inbound-marketing-aligns-with-the-new-purchase-loop?source=Blog_Email_[How%20Inbound%20Marketin] Brewers in Philly are in a panic. Fracking is coming to PA and if it pollutes the water it pollutes the beer. Pizza in Philly will never taste the same. h

Super Bowl ads for $3.9M, social media hijackers, inbound marketing bubbles?, and a message of endearment from LinkedIn. All this and more to help you get and keep customers, on the latest edition of OFB. Brian, Tom and Ken explore the mania of advertising tied to the Super Bowl, specifically looking into some marketing stories tied to the game. http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34138/the-top-5-super-bowl-themed-marketing-stories-of-the-week?source=Blog_Email_[The%20Top%205%20Super%20Bowl] And did you know that you can dunk Oreo’s in the dark and radiologists can operate in the dark? These are just two of the brands that “newsjacked” the Super Bowl blackout through really fast and pretty creative use of Twitter. http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34141/10-innovative-social-media-newsjacks-of-the-super-bowl-power-outage?source=Blog_Email_[10%20Innovative%20Social] Want to go to a game? Be a good customer. Companies spent over $20 billion on sports tickets last year; a 25% increa

Ken, Brian and Tommy “fly off” on the airlines and airports and then segue into an enlightening conversation about the revolution going on in our universities. And speaking of revolutions, Facebook appears to be, at the very least, redefining the rules of the social media game leaving some “users: feeling that Facebook is being rather anti-social with some of their new restrictions . http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34108/facebook-puts-their-foot-down-and-other-marketing-stories-of-the-week?source=Blog_Email_[Facebook%20Puts%20Their%20] All three OFB hosts seem to agree that Seth Godin provides wonderful commentary on a wide variety of subjects. In one of his recent blogs, he reminds us why most ,if not all ,of us hate airports and air travel. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2013/01/ten-things-organizations-can-learn-from-airports-.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2Fsethsmainblog+%28Seth%27s+Blog%29 Speaking of OFB “favs” Tom Friedman’s

Short exploratory to marketing hell courtesy of HubSpot, wonder why Facebook needs a search engine, and discuss intrapreneurs vs. entrepreneurs. References to Dante aside, HubSpot says there are nine circles of marketing hell. From ugly content to bad automation to interrupting way too much, we take a look at all nine circles and how they hurt your marketing efforts. http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34055/the-9-circles-of-marketing-hell-where-will-you-spend-eternity?source=Blog_Email_[The%209%20Circles%20of%20Mar] Facebook is about to introduce a new search engine called Facebook Graph Search. The foundation of any search will be what matters to someone in the context of their social life -- people, pictures, places, interests. It depends on the data entered in Facebook, and is limited to the data entered in Facebook. The jury is skeptical but still out on this one. http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34058/facebook-announces-new-social-search-feature-called-graph-search?source=Blog

http:/www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/ofb.s3.amazonaws.com/OFB63_TheTalkingStick.mp3 On this edition of OFB Brian, Tommy and Ken take a crowd sourced funded trip to Vegas, visit another innovative online retailer, and explore how collaboration works in Silicon Valley, but doesn’t work in Washington. HOT POTATO NEWS: Crowd sourced funding is still wide open because the SEC has not acted yet. But they will. CrowdTilt (another Kickstarter funding site) tapped their crowd while the getting was good. They got $62,000 in crowd funding for a killer private jet, limo laden New Year’s Eve trip and party in Vegas. Cynical, smart, or just too drunk to care. You decide. http://www.businessinsider.com/crowdtilt-new-years-eve-party-2013-1 Hall and Madden make custom clothing for men. They saw in today’s Mad Men dress up era $1,000+ suits teamed up with off-the-rack ill fitting shirts. Another innovative online retailer is born. Order a custom fitted shirt online for $50. Over 1,000 paid subscribers in just t

Smart marketing is smart marketing, regardless of the venue. On this edition of OFB Brian, Tommy and Ken, along with our guest Chris Reimer explored some applications of smart marketing, and some not so smart marketing moves as well. Our first Hot Potato was ReferralKey.com. Describing itself as an online community of connected people sending lots of referrals to each other, we all concluded that what they really do is SPAM people and offer little in the way of new business opportunities. Our guest Chris Reimer wrote an especially insightful and funny blog entry on the topic -- @RizzoTees Chris Reimer Blog about Referral Key Our next Hot Potato stop was WalMart who is going somewhere no retailer or channel partner has gone before -- they are discounting iPhones and iPads. We initially thought this demonstrated the power of WalMart as a discount retailer. But maybe not. There’s real value in hearing Brian’s astute insight about channel conflicts and this being a somewhat desperate strategic move by W

-Which do you like better ALL INCLUDED pricing, or ALA CARTE pricing? -What company lost millions in dollars and customers, then gave their CEO a 100% pay increase? -And How to raise prices for your products or services and not lose business Guest Host: Lon Seidman - Host of Behind the Video and Lead Writer of CTTechJunkie.com, but also a partner in the Safety Zone, his family’s glove and safety equipment business, SafetyZone.com. *******HOT POTATO NEWS 1. Is Ala Carte ruining the Airline Industry? Add on fees initially kept the cost of the air ticket down. They have creeped up, along with increased fees. Is air travel a unique industry for pricing? http://www.telegram.com/article/20121230/NEWS/112309994/1002/business Lon: No fees on Southwest Everyone else subsidzes elite flyers on major airlines. They pay no fees. 2. Double you’re prices and see the CEO double his pay. NetFlix CEO Reed Hastings gets $4million now. $10-$20 monthly subs or $8/mo. We can complain, but only cable TV providers might li

In 2012 we saw wonderful marketing from clever producers and agencies. Here's a rundown of the top campaigns in 2012. What can we steal from their great ideas? Happy New Year! Tommy and Ken

When it comes to content everyone wants a virus, or better said, wants their content to go viral. We’ll explore how to do that. Plus, warm your heart this holiday season with a feel good story out of rural Minnesota. Give holiday cheers at the signs of the resurgence of American Manufacturing. Give holiday jeers to the hyped language overused on LinkedIn. Joe Leuken is a retiring grocer in Bemidji, MN. After 46 years Joe is giving up his multi-location grocery business and plans to travel the world with his wife. What makes this story great is the disposition of the stores. Joe gave them to his 400 person employee family. Listen in to the whole story; it will make you feel good. http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/49984095/ns/today-good_news/#.UMH19Kz4KSo Apple is evolving into a good American Corporate Citizen. They are opening an iMac production plant in the U.S. sometime in 2013. New jobs and further evidence of the resurgence of American Manufacturing. http://www.nbcnews.com/business/macs-made-usa-

An interesting mix of items this week -- A 30 year fan offers surprising suggestion to HP; Burn your business plan before it burns you; Thumbs up / thumbs down on the best business books of 2012. Plus, some insights and homage to Zig Ziglar, a man who inspired generations of successful salespeople. We begin with some Hot Potato News items …. We talked last time about another multi-billion dollar write off HP endured with the purchase of Autonomy. Bill George, the former CEO of Medtronic and a 30 year fan of HP offers a stark and surprising suggestion on what HP’s next strategy should be (hint -- breaking up is hard to do). http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/11/28/to-save-hewlett-packard-break-it-in-two/ Write a business plan. It’s the roadmap for where you are going and how to get there. Alexander Osterwalder in his Wall Street Journal Accelerator Blog has a different suggestion -- Burn your business plan. “No business plan survives first contact with customers.” There is an alternate path worth exp

Hot Potato News -- iPad owned 88% of Black Friday deals LINK Arrests made at Walmart on Friday for snooty strikers LINK IPOs in a deep freeze for now LINK HOSTS: Brian Parker: Chief HORN at OnTheHORN.com Jeffery Powers: Jeffrey Powers - Owner and podcaster at Geekazine.com - Started 5 years ago this month. 3 podcasts - Geek Smack!, iPad app show iPad365 and Day in Tech History - Daily rundown of technology history 365 days a year. Also just started a new website - How to Record Podcasts - where he help people with their shows. Salvatore Presutti: Sal Presutti immigrant entrepreneur, real estate developer, history and economics teacher and all around problem solver. SalPresutti@yahoo.com Big Story -- Apple’s next Big Thing! Rumors and wants from the blogosphere! Apple and AI Apple TV Redux iPhone 5s – Do we care about that – Samsung hugeness vs the iPhone Thumb gauge – does anyone use there phone with just one hand – impact on driving and texting? 23x More likely to get in

[audio http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/ofb.s3.amazonaws.com/OFB56_SayThankyouToCustomers.mp3] OFB 56 | Saying thank you should not be reserved just for Thanksgiving, HP has no thanks for Autonomy, WalMart survived “no thanks” from workers, SAC Capital are just thankless bastards. On this edition of OFB Tom, Ken and Brian get in the spirit of the season and discuss saying thanks. First, some Hot Potato News items …. HP took another black eye in their strategy with a writeoff of $8B of the $11B acquisition of Autonomy, alleging accounting irregularities and fraud. Can you find a more dysfunctional Board and Management team in what was a great technology success? http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomgroenfeldt/2012/11/20/hp-and-autonomy-buyers-remorse-or-worse/ OUR WalMart (Organization United for Respect at WalMart) staged demonstrations at WalMarts throughout the country. The impact -- not that much. Maybe WalMart needs to learn more about saying thank you. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/22/wa

An American icon rises, Branson is audacious, and landmines and cliffs. On this edition of OFB Tom, Ken and Brian revisit a favorite from our childhood with the Radio Flyer wagon. Sir Richard Branson discusses the need for audacity. Ken rants on the dismal NFC East. And we look at the post election forecasts, fiscal cliffs and all. First, some Hot Potato News items …. The iconic Radio Flyer Wagon -- A Different Kind of “American Radio” success story http://www.inc.com/magazine/201211/reshma-memon-yaqub/backstory-radio-flyer.html Sir Richard Branson talks about how entrepreneurs need to be audacious http://www.inc.com/leigh-buchanan-and-andrew-maclean/richard-branson-virgin.html?nav=special Ken rants on the NFC East where the Super Bowl Champ Giants, America’s team Dallas, Philadelphia the next great dynasty, and wunderkind RGIII and the Redskins are all underperforming. Discussion Item -- Post election forecasts and predictions The election is over and the government is relatively the same as it

Connecting – when you first meet do you elevator pitch, sell, connect, ask, tell …? How good are your first-impression-making skills? We explore The Art of Making a Connection on this edition of Open For Business. But first, some Hot Potato News items …. Oh Sandy!! The storm was devastating, disrupting lives and destroying billions in property. The aftermath in terms of long term economic impact could be worse. Read more … http://www.marketplace.org/topics/generic/weather-economy/hurricane-sandy-could-cost-billions-damages Stories from the Storm -- Read how one CEO, in order to ensure service to their clients, carried diesel fuel up 17 flights of stairs so their generator kept running. http://betabeat.com/2012/11/squarespace-diesel-peer1-wall-street-hurricane-sandy-data-center/ Happy Feet at Penguin House -- In response to a rapidly changing publishing industry Penguin Publishing and Random House have merged. They now control 25% of all English speaking published books on the planet. http://qz.com/2

There is a thin line between confidence and hubris. This is true is what ever we do, be especially in selling professional services. The top eleven business writers (Seth Godin, Alan Weiss, Keith Ferrazzi and others), have teamed up for a focused look at this most delicate endeavor: How to Sell Professional Services. Is it true that products are easier to sell than services? A product itself is has no ego to contend with in the selling cycle. This avoidance-of-arrogance makes the process concentrated on the features and benefits of the product. Might it be said it is easier to sell someone else, than yourself? By selling someone else we can at least remove one degree away from egoism. Tips from Top Thinkers: Seth Godin - It's All About Trust Jill Konrath - Stop Selling and Start Making a Difference Alan Weiss - If You're Talking About Price, You've Lost Control of the Discussion Paige Arnof-Fenn - The "Real Thing" | Why Authenticity Rules Michael W. McLaughlin - Mastring the Art the Client Interview Paul