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Archive for the ‘podcast’ Category

Mini-podcast: Listrak’s Ross Kramer on not investing in sales and marketing

Monday, June 30th, 2008

When Ross Kramer started his first technology business, he focused on the technical side to the exclusion of sales and marketing. In retrospect, that was a mistake.

You can download the story here.

Biography:
Ross Kramer started his first company, a web hosting firm named Vertex Internet, in his Penn State dorm room in 1997. He quickly noticed the struggles his customers were having in communicating with their customers efficiently and effectively, so he started Listrak to help with their email marketing needs. Under Ross’ direction, both companies have grown into technologically-advanced companies that are leaders in their industries.

Listrak services clients such as Daimler Chrysler, Motorola, L’Oreal and the Islands of the Bahamas from its Lititz, PA headquarters. Listrak is a two-time winner of the Central Penn Business Journal’s Top Fifty Fastest Growing Companies and the 2005 Growth Company of the Year by the Technology Council of Central PA.

Tags:
learning, Mistake Bank, sales, marketing, technology, podcast, investment

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Shop Talk Podcast #12 – Listrak’s Ross Kramer on common mistakes made in email marketing

Thursday, June 26th, 2008

The latest edition of the podcast includes an interview with Listrak Founder and CEO Ross Kramer. Ross discusses the ins and outs of communicating customer via e-mail, including the definition of the term “house file.” (I didn’t know what it meant either.) It was a fun and frank discussion, and I learned a lot.

You can download the podcast here.

Disclosure: I use Listrak’s email marketing platform.

Fran Ten mini-podcast: the impact of filesharing on musicians

Friday, June 20th, 2008

The recent post on giving away digital creative works has gotten some attention, not least because of the link from the New York Times’ David Pogue on his blog. One of the inspirations for the post was my talk with Fran Ten of the great LA band West Indian Girl–specifically when he spoke eloquently and from the heart about the issue of filesharing and its impact on music and musicians.

I’ve extracted that piece of the podcast into a mini-podcast (5min30 seconds long). You can download it here.

creativity, compensation, music, movies, books, content, strategy, podcast

Posted in filesharing, music, podcast | Comments

Shop Talk Podcast #11 – (not) raising prices: a mistake

Tuesday, June 17th, 2008

From The Mistake Bank:
The following story discusses how something as well-meaning as holding off on price increases until there’s no other option often backfires.

Click here to access the podcast.

Tags:
Mistake Bank, narrative, podcast, sales, marketing, customer relationships, pricing

Posted in customer relationships, marketing, mistake bank, podcast, pricing, sales | Comments

Shop Talk Podcast #9 – Francis Ten of West Indian Girl on Today’s Music Business

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008

For the latest edition of the podcast, we’re talking the business of music. It’s changed dramatically since the boom days of the late 1990’s, when Napster hadn’t yet been born and CD sales were at their peak. Now, music is easier to download free than to purchase.

In spite of these obstacles, the music world is more open to new voices than it’s ever been. Making a living, though, has gotten harder.

Francis Ten is the bassist for West Indian Girl and also manages the group’s business operations. West Indian Girl is based in Los Angeles and its latest album 4th and Wall was released in late 2007.

In a wide-ranging, fun (and funny) discussion, we talk about “revenue streams,” MySpace, and why music is different from t-shirts.

And check out Fran’s very personal and human response to the question of acquiring music free via filesharing rather than purchasing it. (Some similarly nuanced sentiments can be found in this post from consumer-electronics columnist and author David Pogue.)

The podcast is here (right-click to download).

(Intro and Outro music: “Up the Coast,” from West Indian Girl’s latest album 4th and Wall.)

Tags:
entrepreneurism, music, marketing, filesharing, podcast

Posted in entrepreneurism, filesharing, marketing, music, podcast | Comments

Shop Talk Podcast #8 – Two mistake stories from Ford Harding

Friday, May 9th, 2008

Ford Harding, author of “Rain Making,” who was interviewed in Shop Talk Podcast #7, was kind enough to share a mistake story for inclusion in The Mistake Bank.

Actually, he shared two. In the first, he relates a story that taught him there can be pitfalls in sharing the good side and bad side of things with a reporter (right-click to download).

And, in the second, he tells us of the profound teachings he received from a prospect who simply wouldn’t call him back (right-click to download).

Tags:
podcast, sales, public relations, press relations, business development, narrative, storytelling

Posted in mistake bank, narrative, podcast, press relations, public relations, sales, storytelling | Comments

Shop Talk Podcast #4 – Tony Ulwick on Determining What Customers Really Want from New Products

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007

The podcast is back, this time featuring Tony Ulwick, author of the book “What Customers Want” and CEO of Strategyn, a consulting firm helping companies improve their innovation processes.

We’re talking about how to gather information from customers to drive innovation. Most companies have “voice of the customer” programs, but few know how to extract quality information from those programs. It takes asking the right questions, and removing ambiguity from the answers. In the podcast, Tony states that it’s wrong to assume that users can’t tell us what they want; instead, the problem is that “companies don’t know how to listen to customers.”

You can access the podcast here.

Here are links to companies, people, etc., mentioned in the podcast:

Clayton Christensen – “focus on the job the user wants to get done“
Theodore Levitt’s “Customers don’t want a 1/4″ drill“
Apple
Strategyn White Papers

podcast, innovation, management, marketing, product management

Posted in innovation, management, marketing, podcast, product management | Comments