Blog

Tag >> CMAEON

Bike Ride Fever

Posted by: cmaeon in coolCMAEONchallengebike on

Bike Ride Fever
Our CEO Tim is getting some time off this week – the CMAEON staff have taken over!
ost people know about Ride Your Bike to Work week. Typically it falls in May, and it’s a great way to get some exercise and to commute to work without building up an unhealthy amount of road rage.  CMAEON has a lot of avid bike riders on staff, and we’re looking to commute.  Many people never make the switch from driving to riding, so we’d like to give you a little encouragement.
Here are 4 reasons we think you should try riding your bike to work:
Exercise – riding a bike isn’t strenuous, but it’s certainly better for you than driving. If you live 10 km away, you can probably ride to work in around 30 minutes, and when you add up your commute, that’s an extra hour a day of exercise. Your doctor would be thrilled.
Money – barring running out to buy a brand new commuter bike, you probably only need to have your own bicycle tuned up before hitting the road. The cost of a tune up and a flat tire repair kit are far less than gas and maintenance on a car.
The Environment – riding a bike is the most environmentally friendly way to commute – if you’re looking to reduce your footprint a bit, cutting out your 5 day a week commute would be a huge start.
Speed – as a bit of a test, the CMAEON tweeter drove to work one day, and rode her bike the next. By the time red lights, parking and general road delays were factored in; driving the 10km to work took exactly the same amount of time as riding it. The bonus was that riding a bike along a tree lined urban trail is a LOT more relaxing than getting stuck behind three red lights in a row.
Don’t believe it? British motoring show Top Gear did a challenge – what was the fastest way to get across the busiest parts of London – bike, public transit, car or boat (up the Thames)?  The Bike was fastest by a good margin over the boat (yes, the boat), with public transit third and car a distant fourth.
So, now that we’ve pitched the benefits, we’d like to offer you a challenge. Try biking to work for the next couple of days. See how you like it. Victoria is one of the nicest places in Canada to ride a bike –so take advantage of it. Let us know how your commute went in the comments.
Just before you start, remember to wear a helmet, take a water bottle, have your bike tuned up, plan your route and most importantly, enjoy the scenery.
bike rideOur CEO Tim is getting some time off this week – the CMAEON staff have taken over!

Most people know about Ride Your Bike to Work week. Typically it falls in May, and it’s a great way to get some exercise and to commute to work without building up an unhealthy amount of road rage.  CMAEON has a lot of avid bike riders on staff, and we’re looking to commute.  Many people never make the switch from driving to riding, so we’d like to give you a little encouragement.

Here are 4 reasons we think you should try riding your bike to work:

Exercise – riding a bike isn’t strenuous, but it’s certainly better for you than driving. If you live 10 km away, you can probably ride to work in around 30 minutes, and when you add up your commute, that’s an extra hour a day of exercise. Your doctor would be thrilled.

Money – barring running out to buy a brand new commuter bike, you probably only need to have your own bicycle tuned up before hitting the road. The cost of a tune up and a flat tire repair kit are far less than gas and maintenance on a car.

The Environment – riding a bike is the most environmentally friendly way to commute – if you’re looking to reduce your footprint a bit, cutting out your 5 day a week commute would be a huge start.

Speed – as a bit of a test, the CMAEON tweeter drove to work one day, and rode her bike the next. By the time red lights, parking and general road delays were factored in; driving the 10km to work took exactly the same amount of time as riding it. The bonus was that riding a bike along a tree lined urban trail is a LOT more relaxing than getting stuck behind three red lights in a row.

Don’t believe it? British motoring show Top Gear did a challenge – what was the fastest way to get across the busiest parts of London – bike, public transit, car or boat (up the Thames)?  The Bike was fastest by a good margin over the boat (yes, the boat), with public transit third and car a distant fourth.

So, now that we’ve pitched the benefits, we’d like to offer you a challenge. Try biking to work for the next couple of days. See how you like it. Victoria is one of the nicest places in Canada to ride a bike –so take advantage of it. Let us know how your commute went in the comments.

Just before you start, remember to wear a helmet, take a water bottle, have your bike tuned up, plan your route and most importantly, enjoy the scenery.

Photo: Amsterdamize, Flickr

Imagine a business where a lead comes in, is entered into the CRM system and then… just sits there.
This lead, let’s call her Ms. Smith, didn’t come in through traditional channels, so she was routed through an employee who didn’t really know how to use the CRM system;  the wrong ranking was assigned to Ms. Smith, so nobody knew she was a hot lead, ready to buy, and worst yet, no salesperson was assigned. Long story short, Ms. Smith sat there, unattended until she phoned back again. Is this an unlikely nightmare situation? You may be thinking to yourself unattended leads… in my system? It’s more likely than you think.
iq3
For a successful marketing or sales enterprise the focus shouldn’t just be on getting leads and entering into the CRM system. If that’s all a company focuses on, it will end up with a lot of cases like Ms. Smith. Proper lead management should be iQ3:

Quantity: exposure, volume of leads, and then;

Quality: making sure you know what they want, so you can talk about a product or program that is of interest to them, and then;

Qualified: leads that can and want to write a check for the product, service, solution, etc, etc that they are looking for.

However, once a company gets iQ3 leads, they can’t just sit there like Ms. Smith. They need to be managed, and there must be a process in place. CMAEON developed the patented Biped® Process to help our clients not only acquire leads, but connect to them, engage with them in a targeted conversation, covert them, and then measure how effective the whole process was.

Marketing and sales can be hard, time consuming and confusing. Adding more layers of data entry and systems that only do half the job won’t help any company become successful. What does help  a business bring in revenue is the ability to streamline the process  - a checklist that automatically helps them complete the steps required to turn a great lead into an even better sale. The Biped® Process is that checklist and process.
Interested? Let’s talk.
Photo: Alan Cleaver, Flickr

For better or for worse, it has been proven over and over again in the last two years that everything and everyone in the world is connected.

Of course, we are all connected in the online ecosystem, plugged into each other with social networking sites, search engines and blogs. The unprecedented scale at which we freely share information about ourselves has given rise to a new concern – are we are too connected? Do we really want people to know all about everything we’re doing all the time? We are connected economically, as we all learned too well during the economic meltdown. Seemingly unimportant defaulting mortgages in the US began piling up, and all at once, people began to realize the bad debt had crept into the whole system like a cancer - weakening the entire global economy; causing job losses from Detroit to Denmark.  The environment connects us all – the volcano in Iceland reminded us of that too – one tiny place disrupted the whole world – stopping people, goods and money from making the journeys we’ve come to rely on for our survival.

Almost everyone now recognizes that the world is now, and forever Connected in an economic, environmental and social ecosystem.  Then again, many of the corporations, regulators and businesses of the world, small and large… but mostly large, already knew this.  Some of them abused the ecosystem for wealth and gain at the expense of everyone else. These companies and individuals – the Goldman Sachs, the Bernie Madoffs of the world - have been decidedly internally, individually motivated.  They used the forces of regulations, legal manipulations and governments to create their profits -while the rest of the world was the unaware participant – duped into helping, and then left to clean up the mess.

To be blunt, this stinks! Nobody likes to be tricked, but the recent chaos has a bright side – people now understand that we have to overcome a crisis.  We understand, at our roots, we have to build a solution.  We have to reclaim our connected ecosystem and make it our own. We have to use the interconnected nature of the world and turn it into a tool to help all of us, not just a select few.  We have shape the connected ecosystem into a Connected Market Space.

A business today, in any sector, exists for the purpose of rapid response – transmitting candid, accurate information to all sides - not just inside the organization.  This is more commonly known as the triple bottom line - people, planet, profit, or the "three pillars".  The triple bottom line is about being truly, a custodian of this planet - a business seeking to profit, should be finding positive connections and fulfilling a purpose.  If you are in any kind of business you will affect other people – so the responsible and smart thing to do is to connect to the world in a positive way.

It’s not hard create a Connected Market Space and use the ecosystem for good. The Connected Market Space is, at its meaning, the connection of any enterprise, to any market, with accurate, open and honest information.  How do you know you’re really connected? It’s not just about advertising and using Twitter – it’s about making meaningful connections that make the world a better, more useful place. When is a business using its power for good? A business in the Connected Market Space demonstrates that: Clients and business know more about each other
  1. Clients and business can trust  each other
  2. Each party has accurate information
  3. Everyone can  carry on a conversation
  4. Everyone can complete a transaction safely
When you’re connected responsibly, positively and fulfill a purpose, no matter what you do, you’re using the power of the Connected Market Space.

CMAEON's CEO Tim Vasko was recently invited to speak at the REMarTech Conference in New York City. The goal of the conference was to connect the real estate world to the technology and tools that are shaping its future.

On that matter, Tim delivered a keynote presentation entitled 'Web Portal Magic'. The basis was this:

“Don't just build a website – build a web portal that utilizes SEO, social media and interconnectivity to take your web presence to the next level. What is that next level? A web portal that comes out more highly ranked on Google, keeps content fresh and alive with minimal time each week, and engages buyers with interesting content.”


It makes no sense, for any business, to invest in technology based on a comparison of features.  Today, the basic features of CRM are well-defined - any CRM will provide the basics of contact relationship management.

CRM has been around for more than a decade. It was originally designed as a tool to enable businesses to share information between sales and other various departments that dealt with customers. Those features are clear.

The next iterations of CRM were designed to better track, manage and empower the sales force - hence the brand of a CRM by that name. Again, no real "dream" here.


Through travel, I’ve had the rare opportunity to view businesses, entrepreneurs and work forces from many different industries to watch how things are shaping up and changing. From E-Health in Pharmacies, to RealEstate, Mortgage Banking and Wealth Management -every industry is shifting to become more closely connected. As our world continues to connect, pushing the envelope for change and challenges; there is little question that we continue to push the boundaries of how we become connected. Each of us is driving this change every day when we set up or manage our Linked-In or Facebook pages. Or when we create a membership on the Realestock.com portal or run searches for the tools for the businesses we run, represent, or are thinking of starting.

This begs the questions, How connected are you really? How do you get and stay connected 4 real?


We are thrilled to announce that Tim Vasko will be the keynote speaker for the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Business Banquet for students, faculty and the business community on November 26th, 2009.

His speech, “Let’s Face It: Tough Markets, Broken Models, You Can Make a Difference” will focus on how changes affect us and our perspectives and how it gives us the opportunity to reach for new horizons.

“Let’s face it - it is a fact of life that the world changes; business changes and the economy changes. But rarely do we see an impact on society like we’re experiencing today. Not in an entire generation has the world been so impacted. And it has never been due to such a ubiquitous, interconnected event as the recent financial meltdown.”


img_0106

I met with a good friend of mine who deals in the financial sector in the UK today.  It was great to see Andre - haven't seen him since last August when the markets went to hell!

The last time we met, I was just discovering that our largest health client had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy - it was a distraction during our regular board meeting in Toronto.


In the last few posts I've been talking about "Smarter Marketing" - which is why we call "Smart Marketing" in The Connected Market Space iQ3. I talk about it here on my Video.

 


Do you still pay $3.00, $5.00, $10.00 per minute for international phone calls?  Ever hear of Skype?

Of course if you were a business person who was paying $5.00/ minute for a phone call (if you still use the phone at all with email, SMS and your Blackberry in hand) you'd be working for the Government and have an unlimited budget.  Oh wait, Governments are cutting back and getting smarter too...


<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 Next > End >>
RSS

Blog Authors

Tim Vasko (47)
0 (5)
Kathleen Devere (4)
CMAEON (5)
0 (2)

Common Tags

CRM Presentation