Articles

Confab Speaker Press Release: Mel DePaoli

The Institute of Management Consultants announced Mel DePaoli, President of Omicle has been selected to present at their 34th annual Confab Conference.

Elizabeth Andreini and Mel DePaoli, two talented and successful marketing experts, helped our attendees gain a fresh look at past clients and engagements to better understand the value they actually provide through services, skills and abilities. They taught us how to examine current offerings and learn skills to create niche offerings for key mar…

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You Realized that You’re a B2Comm Biz, Now What?

As you saw in another post I wrote, B2Comm stands for Business to Community. B2Comm businesses leverage and utilize both B2B and B2C businesses, but they target an entire community instead of only individuals or other businesses.

Also, in that post I mentioned that commercial contractors are an example of B2Comm companies, which surprised many readers. Let’s take a look at why and cover how your marketing will change because of it at the same time.

Generally speaking, commercial contractors have f…

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The New Kid on the Block: Meet the New B2Comm Business

For years there have been two primary types of businesses: B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Consumer). With the launch and success of social media, a third primary has been created that very few people or businesses are recognizing: B2Comm or Business to Community.

In B2B, businesses focus on selling products and services to other businesses and have very little or no interaction with an individual consumer. In most cases, a consumer is almost an irrelevant concept to a B2B busines…

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The Profit Button

I was cleaning out some of my notes from a meeting I was at and found a great comment that someone had said—though unfortunately I can’t give them credit, as I didn’t write down who said it.

The Profit Button

When you only push the Profit Button, nothing happens, but when you fix, change, and improve everything involved in creating profit magically the profit button works!

So what buttons are you pushing?

 

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Clients or Customers: Who Cares!?!

http://d34wpjv4rf3nwa.cloudfront.net/www1/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/customer-satisfaction-survey.jpgThe other day, a friend of mine on Facebook posted about a discussion she had with someone about “Clients” or “Customers.” They were discussing the differences between the two and which word you should be using to address them.

Here is my question for you: Does it matter?

Yes I know there are die-hards out there who “know” the difference between the two, and perhaps one word invokes a different state of mind within your company. But in the end, seriously does it matter?

Do you want to know my answe…

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Women in Construction: Purple Construction Series

Women in the construction industry face unique challenges on top of the ones that the industry as whole faces. I am looking to interview women who are willing to share their story. They will be featured in a series of articles that will be posted initially at www.ContractorsDoingItRight.com

Can I participate?

  • YES! If you have worked in the construction industry for a minimum of 8 years.
  • YES! If you hold a mid-to-upper level management position.
  • YES! If your company has a minimum of $1 millio…

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Politics & Business: The Best of Friends, the Worst of Foes

At first glance, it would seem logical for business to be involved in politics. After all, laws and regulations can adversely affect operations and profits. It would be foolish not to at least try and be heard. However, there is a difference between being involved in politics and mixing politics and work.

For the longest time it was simply understood-work was work-you should leave your political beliefs at home. The first Obama presidential election changed that drastically. It may have been in t…

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Getting Employees Engaged: When They Really Don’t Care

Dustin Walling is a very good friend of mine who works with the construction and technology industries on the gap between management and experts within a company, or "performance management" as he calls it. Anyway, he wrote a great post about team building at a Caterpillar dealership that I want to share with you. Enjoy!

When Doug Fabick became the 4th generation owner of Fenton, MO-based Fabick CAT, a Caterpillar Tractor dealership, his father left him with one key piece of advice, “Build your …

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The American Dream No More?

Some interesting trends are developing in the housing market. One particularly interesting and perhaps disturbing trend is the age of homebuyers. Currently, young adults are more hesitant to buy a home today than at any time in the past quarter century.

Moving forward, let’s say the next 2-20 years, instead of seeing the home buying market level out; I suspect drastic changes never before seen in the housing market will continue. Many kids and teens are seeing their parents with upside-down mortg…

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Author Etiquette: Writing Testimonials

It’s interesting, once you become an author it’s like you automatically become a part of some secret society: The Author Society. Having been there, done that, gone through this, other authors can relate to how you feel about your book and the value that feedback or a purchase holds. Prior to releasing my first book, CONTRACTORS: Doing it Right Not Just Getting it Done, I didn’t know about this society or the support that it can provide—it blew me away and taught me many valuable lessons. Since …

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