What do you do? (a game)

Pic credit: Flickr CC, Altemark


Right, first let's get something out the way. Linking to the same person twice in two days is not a bad thing. In fact I think it's a good thing. It shows consistency. Not a lack of imagination/slight obsession with that person's blog.

So bearing that in mind, Sonia Simone inspired the following post today. That's not fair on Naomi from IttyBiz though, because it was her original post that inspired Sonia's post, that inspired me.

Too complicated. Let's start again...

A couple of days ago I read a post by Naomi (click here for it). It was an idea for a game where you answer 5 questions about yourself and what you do, both for your own satisfaction and to inform any potential customers. I totally intended to do it and write something the other day, but got completely distracted and kind of forgot.

Then I read Sonia's answers on her blog (click here for them) and liked them so much that I decided to get my ass in gear and do it myself. Here (in convoluted fashion) is my part of the conversation:

What’s your game? What do you do?
I’m a freelance marketing guy (the non-evil type). I help small businesses get the best return from their marketing efforts as possible. The people I work with generally don’t have a marketing team and their budgets are on the small side so it’s about kicking ass by being innovative, rather than just splashing the cash on useless adverts.

Why do you do it? Do you love it, or do you just have one of those creepy knacks?
Little bit from column A and a little bit from column B. I used to do marketing for a recruitment company, which was cool if a little unfulfilling. I’ve got the knack for writing good copy etc and coming up with cool (and effective) marketing strategies, but often my stuff is pretty counter-intuitive. I wanted to get more hands-on, with more people, so I could teach them about my non-evil ways.

I’m oddly (for a marketer) passionate about people doing the ‘right thing’; not screwing customers, marketing ethically, engaging in conversations, working with competitors and so on.

Who are your customers? What kind of people would need or want what you offer?
All the boys and girls who want their small business to succeed but don’t know where to start with the marketing stuff.

What’s your marketing USP? Why should I buy from you instead of the other losers?
I’m really cool, so even just hanging around with me will make your business cool. Plus, although it might be scary at first, I guarantee what I come up with for you will be remarkable.

What’s next for you? What’s the big plan?
I want to fix marketing because it’s an industry that is undoubtedly broken. I’ve started with Manchester but I’ll be disappointed if my stuff hasn’t spread throughout the UK by the end of the year, even if it’s not me doing it. In fact I’d love the marketing that I bang on about all the time to be really prevalent in the not too distant.

I think my main goal is basically to change the world. Which after all is why everybody is in business really, isn’t it?

P.S. This isn't a meme, it's a conversation (according to Naomi, which is cool because I don't really like memes, which is a deeply un-blogger thing to say, but there we go). So whilst I don't want to 'tag' anybody to spread the virus etc, I would be really interested to hear other people's answers. Louise for example, Pete Gold, Matt Alder, Dan McGuire (Broadbean Dan) and so on. So if any of you fancy it, answer the questions on your blog and let me know!

I think advertising sucks (and I work in marketing)

Sonia Simone wrote a cracking guest post over at Copyblogger. Click here to read about the 'new media' way to find customers.

I'm going to blog about this in the next few days in the context of marketing for small businesses (which after all, is my business).

5 things you need to go freelance (plus the website is live)

It's been a while coming but finally my website is live! Click here for www.jamesparronline.com

Despite the stresses involved in getting it sorted (anyone who reads my Twitter feed has heard all about it! BTW, if you're not a Twitterer yet, click here to follow me), I'm really pleased with how it's turned out. I spent a lot of time worrying that it wouldn't look right but the guys have done a good job I reckon. Any comments or thoughts, as ever, much appreciated!

So now that's up and running (and the business cards are ordered) I figure I can officially call myself a freelance consultant (I have been doing a little work in this vein up until now, but the website going up was always going to be my proper start date).

This post therefore is for anyone interested in going freelance themselves, or just curious about what goes into the process. I'm talking from my own experience obviously, so other people's mileage could vary, but from what I've read and heard anecdotally I think my experience was pretty standard.

Here are the top 5 things you need to become a freelancer:

1. Patience

It’s number one for a lot of reasons but mainly because it's been two and a half months since I left my previous company and although that may not seem like a long time, I naively thought I’d be motoring along by now. I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for all manner of things to drop into place.

The website has been the main delay (and those guys worked quickly, believe me) but there's other stuff too. I had problems with my emails, my computer, the blog and my bank, all of which tested my ability not to completely lose my rag and run off to join the circus.

2. Belief

Nearly as important as patience, it’s belief in both yourself and what you're looking to achieve. Despite having thoroughly thought this decision through over and over, there have been days where I decided it was completely crazy. In a job you get a pay check every month, someone else worries about the little details and if it all goes wrong then the worst that can happen is you have to find something else. None of that’s true as a freelancer. Worst that can happen? It doesn't even bear thinking about.

I'm very fortunate though, in that I have an exceptionally supportive girlfriend and some very successful friends and associates, who've been in similar positions and believe in me even when I don't. It’s that sort of thing that keeps you going.

3. Cash.

It’s another biggy. You don't need to be Monty Burns, but you do need enough cash to get by for a while. I haven't made any proper money since I left my last job but I’ve spent plenty (a new laptop, the website, business cards, even new clothes so I look the part). I've been fairly frugal where possible but the bank balance has still been steadily decreasing. Without the redundancy package I simply couldn't have done this.

4. Inspiration.

It's massively important to keep a perspective on things and realise that there are a lot of people going through exactly what you're going through. This means sometimes looking for inspiration in the form of successful peers and approachable experts. I get my daily dose of inspiration from the blogosphere mainly but I also read books and magazine articles about my field.

Luckily there’s so much good free stuff out there you need never go short of inspiration. Click any of the following for sage advice, funny stories, tips on how (and how not) to do pretty much anything and all round inspiration: Naomi @ IttyBiz, Seth, Hugh, Penelope @ Brazen Careerist, Pam @ Escape from Cubicle Nation, Alex the Chief Happiness Officer, Sonia @ Remarkable Communication, Maki @ doshdosh and Rowan @ Fortify Your Oasis.

(Top Tip: Read those guys, then read the people they tell you to and you'll never be short of inspiration again)

5. An idea

Finally (or at least finally in this list, there's a lot more you need other than this to become a freelancer but I'm going for brevity over comprehensiveness) – it’s the strength of your idea. Whether you’e going to become a freelance IT guy or a self-employed plumber there's a very good chance that whatever you're offering is already out there in one form or another. In fact it's pretty likely that people right now are setting up in exactly the same space as you (this is definitiely true for me; the word 'marketing' in a Google Blog Search returns 98 million items!) Your idea therefore needs to be well thought out, easy enough to explain and something that you genuinely believe in (a good idea helps with point 2 in this list).

That's what I've tried to achieve with the concept of RED marketing™ (click here to find out what the heck that is). I knew what I wanted to achieve with my business, but it wasn't until I sat down and fleshed out an actual concept (a workable, defined one) that I felt I had an idea I could go to people with. People need that idea if they're going to buy from you, so make the best of it that you can.

Whether what you do is consultative or practical, service or product, you should be able to define your business in terms of your idea. Work on that and it’ll pay you back big time.

That in a nutshell is what it’s taken to get me to this point. I’ve purposefully not mentioned the various practicalities of setting up as a freelancer (taxes, legal status etc) because there are so many good books and articles out there that do a much better job of explaining that side than I could. If you’re considering it and want some more information then feel free to get in touch (either in the comments, or email me directly – james at jamesparronline dot com) and I’ll happily have a chat with you about the ins and outs. I can say that I highly recommend it and that’s even before my business has really taken off. Just the different perspective it gives you can be invaluable in my opinion. Even if I end up eventually going back to work for someone else, I think I’ll be a better employee for my time doing this.

P.S. Just one thing though, if you were thinking about becoming a freelance marketing consultant, maybe have a bit of a rethink; I hear there’s really not much room in that area anymore…

A review of Recruitment Juice - training for recruiters

About 3 weeks ago Louise introduced me to a chap called Matt Trott. Matt is Director of a very interesting outfit called Recruitment Juice, whose goal in the world seems to be making recruitment training more fun. I had a brief chat with Matt about the product he and business partner Roy Ripper offer and was intrigued. Matt described it as part ‘The Office’, part training DVD, which sounded to me like a bloody horrendous combination to be honest; fist-in-mouth, cringe-worthiness delivered by money-driven, robotic, recruitment-sales folk right?

Matt very kindly offered to send me a review copy with the proviso that if I had something interesting to say about the product (good or bad) I blog about it here for all to see. Never one to turn down a freebie, I agreed!

First up – here’s the website. Perhaps go check it out before you read my review of the DVD. I’m not going to go into tonnes of detail about what actually happens in the videos so it may help for you to be a little familiar with the material (plus the website is actually really good fun).

OK, back? Seen the site? Good.

First impressions

The DVDs come in a snazzy box along with some instructions, a workbook and a survey (conducted by the guys at Recruitment Juice) on ‘perceptions of the recruitment industry’. The survey is great; really detailed and well-thought out. It confirms pretty much all self-aware recruitment folk’s worst fears – 70% on average have a PSL in place, only 1% response rate to unsolicited mails, a laundry list of ‘annoying’ recruiter attributes and so on.

The workbook looks good too, although I didn’t go through it myself when watching the DVDs (the idea is to watch 1 DVD a week with a group of people and all complete a variety of complementary thought exercises after each session to aid learning)

The DVDs

There are 6 of them and they probably last slightly over 2 hours in total. I watched a couple of episodes each week and found the pace and volume of information to be more than manageable. Matt’s mention of ‘The Office’ was pretty spot on actually as the series is filmed in a very similar style.

The ‘action’ takes place in a fictional recruitment company, Sunshine Recruitment, and centres around 2 of the staff. Wayne is a useless, self-indulgent, arrogant pillock of a recruitment consultant (an exaggeration one would hope, although I fear Matt, Roy and the rest at Recruitment Juice probably based the character on a few individuals they know pretty well). Charlotte meanwhile is the lovely new girl; all innocence, honesty and enthusiasm.

As with ‘The Office’ a camera crew is following the fortunes of the business. The voiceover chap interacts with the staff (particularly the aforementioned Wayne and Charlotte) to discuss recruitment issues.

The experts

The learning element comes from a number of ‘talking heads’; industry experts whose advice is sought to help Charlotte on her journey from newbie to super-recruiter. The experts are all pretty good and their input is generally both interesting and succinct (rare for recruitment!) A couple of them particularly are great, Angela Ashwell and Helen Curry (Ashwell Forbes and The Spencer Group respectively) standing out. Occasionally some of them slip into full-on ‘recruitment consultant’ mode and remind you of the sorts you get stuck talking to at a networking do with no escape route in sight bar the nearest window, but overall they err on the side of charming, if a little money-obsessed.

The content

So, with a good format, good cast, good experts and good execution the onus is really on the content not to let the side down. Fortunately it does no such thing and delivers in spades. The focus is winning new business this time but I really hope the guys plan on developing this into a series for different areas of recruitment because it could really work. The level of detail is spot on; it would benefit both new starters and seasoned recruitment pros alike.

The pacing of the content is good too, meaning each point can be delivered and absorbed comfortably, even if you’re slightly distracted (I watched one whilst trying to wrap my girlfriend’s birthday presents and despite the intense concentration required to scrunch the paper into a ball, sellotape it to the floor by accident, then my leg, then finally stick it down only to realise I hadn’t cut enough paper off, I still managed to get the main points from the DVD).

The topics covered take you through your attitude to winning new business, the preparation required, how to open calls, questions and communication tips, objections and closing and strategies outside of cold calling. This is pretty much all you’ll need to know if you want to become proficient at winning new business. Delivering that level of information in just over 2 hours is no mean feat.

So is it worth it?

Cold calling has never been my idea of fun but it is a vital part of the successful recruiters armoury. Winning new business can be a nightmare, but it’s not rocket science and this training solution shows that nicely and adds some fun to the mix too. It borders on being cheesy at times but manages mostly to avoid the clichés and empty sales rhetoric that I’ve seen in other offerings.

At £700 it may sound expensive but to be honest it's not really. A half-day training course covering similar material would cost at least £500 per person whilst other DVD based offerings generally cost between £300 and £1500 depending on the calibre of the trainer associated with the product. This offering is totally different to any other production you'll see and the training seems to be easy enough to implement. I'd seriously consider it if I ran my own firm.

I’m pleased I spoke to Matt as I think he and Roy are people to pay attention to in the future. I’d love to see what they come up with next; my suggestion – the candidate side of the procedure could always do with a spruce up and the characters you could create would be a hoot!

Matt also very kindly put me on their affiliate programme, so if you’re interested in buying the DVDs you can do so at a reduced cost by entering the code PARR when you order. (To be clear – as that’s affiliated as well as the discount for you, I get a fee if you sign up using my code.)

Anyway, I’m off to practice handling objections from potential clients, so I’ll leave you to have a proper snoop round the Recruitment Juice site. Any thoughts or feedback, as ever, welcome via email or in the comments.

Hugh MacLeod's gapingvoid lands a book deal

Pic credit: Probably my favourite gapingvoid cartoon










Worthy of note because Hugh's gapingvoid was the first blog I ever read. I've said before how I owe Seth Godin for the 'be remarkable' stuff; well I owe Hugh MacLeod for igniting the blogging spark in me at all.

Now I get to read him in a book. All good. Congrats Hugh.

10 Top Tips to get on the PSL - a post for recruiters

Pic credit: flickr CC from rachelvoorhees. Follow the link for more of her wonderful photos


A little while back Louise from uk:recruiter posted an introduction to Emma, an in-house recruiter for Sky. Mentioned in the post was a forum discussion about the merits and demerits of PSLs (Preferred Supplier Lists to the uninitiated). You can see the details here. Emma was surprised that so many people suggested PSLs were a waste of time and that HR were a hindrance to the recruitment process.

Although not surprised myself (I’ve encountered a fair amount of vitriol from recruiters about in-house teams, outsourcing companies, HR etc) it stuck with me and for a while I’ve been thinking about how best to address the subject on the blog. I’ve decided (wisely I think) not to open the can of worms again by presenting an opinion piece on the subject, but rather to answer the original question in the forum discussion – what should you do if you call a company and they tell you there’s a PSL in place and they’re not reviewing?

Here are my 10 top tips:

1. Don’t argue with them. The plan is to develop a relationship, so even if you’re frustrated and this is the 5^th time this has happened to you today, don’t piss them off.
2. Try and get a few details about the PSL. Ask how it works, how many agencies are on it, how they got there and what the likelihood of a review is. Again, remember point 1; don’t be stroppy, just ask polite, interested questions. Most HR or outsource folk won’t mind answering them.
3. Ask for their email address. Ensure them that you absolutely, positively will not spam them and that you won’t send over endless, unsolicited CVs. Explain that you’d like to put them on your mailing list for salary surveys, industry info, fun Friday contests etc (yes, you now have a mailing list to whom you send those types of things – trust me, it will pay back the minimal effort it takes to set up).
4. Leave the conversation on a positive note. Ideally get their permission to send them the above and possibly some standard, corporate company info (although bear in mind, that stuff always goes straight in the bin/deleted folder).
5. Do your homework. If you’ve got their details you need to start thinking about how best to use them. Think about what relevant, useful information you can send them to ingratiate yourself.
6. Be cool. It’s tempting to call them/email them the very next day (then every day after that until you get bored). This is what stalkers do. Nobody thinks they’re cool.
7. Send them the relevant, useful, informative things you thought of in point 5. Salary surveys are great for example (they’re easy to create for you, but exceptionally useful for potential clients). If that’s beyond you how about a newsletter covering recruiting topics for their industry? Still too much? Send interesting highlights from your blog, or something more informal (competitions and games on a Friday are popular).
8. Send content regularly, but not excessively. If it’s really juicy, relevant stuff then once a week is fine. Otherwise fortnightly. (Never daily; I guarantee you’re not that interesting.)
9. Gain their trust and ongoing permission. By agreeing for you to send them stuff they give you a level of permission. That will only go so far so don’t abuse it. After a while though, it’s ok to ask for more permission. Ask them about their business, their preferences, the people they hire and so on, maybe in a short survey. Make sure you have their explicit permission to do so though.
10. Finally, ask in one of your emails if there’s a good time to call and discuss the PSL. If they trust you, they won’t mind your asking. They may still say no, but it’s as good a chance as you’ll have. Also, if they agree, you’ll now have much more information about them so you’ll be in a better position to make your pitch.

I know the above sounds like hard work compared to just spamming as many people as you can with ‘fake’ CVs. I also know that some recruiters will think it’s all BS. The sales ‘experts’ particularly may see this as wishy-washy marketing crap that doesn’t fit with their mantra of ‘ABC’ (Always Be Closing). You know what that means though? All the more room for you enlightened folk to start doing this and reaping the rewards!

Working for a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) company I’ve been on both sides of the recruitment-sales fence, both pitching for business and taking pitches from potential suppliers. I’ve taken thousands of sales calls and rarely given away business on the strength of one. I’ve managed PSLs for a variety of organisations, from Blue Chip to small biz, and every agency on those PSLs got there because of performance, not because they managed to ‘get round’ HR and speak to the recruiting manager directly.

(Quick note to those who think that’s a good tactic – you think you can get onside with line managers by taking them to lunch etc? So does the rest of the industry! They’re not loyal to you, they just like going to restaurants! The number of managers I’ve heard say “I don’t like agency X, in fact they’re assholes, but they do know some good places to eat in North London!”...)

The best bet in this saturated market is to differentiate yourself from the dozen other agencies who are busy picking up the phone to your prospect that morning. (Be remarkable, remember?) People buy people, and the right types of relationships matter. PSLs are exceptionally easy to get on, if you do a few simple (honest, decent) things.

I’ll post on another occasion about how best to approach the pitch stage, particularly presentations to potential clients (I’ve seen tonnes of presentations by agencies but never a good one I’m sad to say). For now though, why not give this a try and see how you do?

Anyone with any experience of this subject, anecdotal or otherwise, in favour of or against my suggestions, please feel free to share with the group in the comments.

[Bonus link: I mentioned setting up a mailing list in point 3. Microsoft Outlook can essentially do this for you, or you web host might offer a service so ask IT. If you need something else though, I've just started using a service called YourMailingListProvider. It's cheap and user friendly, with plenty of features. I've no affiliation to the company, just one chaps opinion etc]


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Why praise is the most important skill a manager or leader can develop

Just a link post today, but it's a damn good one from Wally Bock:

In praise of praise

Devour it if there's even a possibility you'll manage people.

What's really in a name?

Here's a bit of frivolous fun from the BBC that might help you find out:

Apparently, I'm Mr Successful...

My site

Things are moving at pace with my planned consulting website. The domain is all signed and sealed and the new site will definitely be living at jamesparronline.com (my preferred location, jamesparr.com, was already taken unfortunately - if you don't own 'yourname'.com then go buy it immediately before someone else does). Hosting is sorted too, I'm using LaughingSquid.

So things should be up and running within the next week and I'll post about it here when I launch officially. When it's all sorted it will also free up my time to blog a bit more hopefully.

If you're interested in blogging, read this...

There's a blog that I haven't flagged up before and that's bad form, because I devour every word written there. It's called Dosh Dosh and it's written by Maki (that link is to his Twitter profile).

His blog is so good because he really puts the hours in (seriously; hours and hours) to write damn good stuff. Thousands of subscribers, mucho respect in the blogosphere, tonnes of link love and general worship are the prizes that land at his feet pretty much daily. If that's what you aspire to, you should have a read. If not, it's still worth a look...

Click here for the wonderful Dosh Dosh

Delete everything and reboot your brain

Too much information can be really bad for you so delete it all and start again. A blank canvas to work on is worth the pain of giving up your precious information streams. In short, freedom rocks.

I’ve just got back online at home. As mentioned previously, having moved flats I had problems with a new ISP and the phone company. I went to my girlfriend’s to steal her wifi regularly. I went to the library and wifi enabled coffee shops too, but I couldn’t keep up. My email was overflowing, my feed reader was jammed and the blog went quiet. It was getting pretty stressful and I was relieved to get everything sorted today.

First thing I did? I opened 2 tabs for my email accounts and another for my blog feeds. 36 emails in one account. 42 emails in the other. 1500+ new items from the 100 or so feeds I follow. Gulp!

Had I read everything it would have taken me days to get through. All the time new items would have piled up too. I was even more stressed than when I didn’t have the internet! So I deleted it all. I declared email and feed bankruptcy and now I’m starting again with a blank canvas.

[Note: The emails were mostly subscriptions I have, not personal emails. Anyone who emailed me personally knew I was having web trouble and so spoke to me about important stuff directly]

It was a scary thing to do I’ll admit. I love information and feel down if I go a couple of days without learning something new or reading something interesting. I’m addicted to blogs for that reason; tonnes of content delivered to me fresh everyday. But it’s debilitating too. Sometimes I can’t get a new idea of my own going for all the good stuff out there. And I often give up on a half-formed idea because I read someone else’s work on a similar topic.

Now though, I’m free. I’m now thinking about ideas for my marketing consultancy business rather than reading the (doubtless interesting and entertaining) thoughts of Seth Godin. I’ve even got time to write this post.

I’m not worried about what I missed, because the blogosphere is such a damn wonderful place I reckon any interesting stuff will crop up again anyway. And I’m not worried about the conversations I missed either because I’m planning to be around for a while, so I’ll get the chance to join in another time.

If anyone reading this is in the same position I was, delete, reboot and start again. I know you won’t regret it.

How to keep quiet

I'm not usually good at being quiet. In fact some people (my girlfriend, friends, family etc) might go as far as to say I'm actually totally crap at keeping quiet. I'm one of those people who talks a lot, about a lot of things. I've got opinions on most topics and can fake an opinion on any topics I'm not familiar with. Verbosity is my friend.

And yet here I am, keeping quiet with no effort at all on the blog!

I feel like all I do at the moment is apologise for not posting regularly enough and you guys must be getting bored of it by now because I sure am. I still don't have the internet at home, although I do now have a fully operational phone line. I've been promised the internet should be up and running next weekend. I live in hope.

If that doesn't happen I'll have to think of a new excuse or just admit to myself that I'm incapable of doing many things at once (i.e. setting up the new business, visiting the library to use the internet, consuming blogs, writing posts, maintaining my sanity etc). It's kind of ok to admit that though, because of the common notion that men can't multi-task (how on earth did we convince women of that one guys? What a 'get out of jail free' card, eh?)

I hope to get noisy again as soon as possible everybody. You'll be thankful of this quiet period if I manage it...

Some thoughts about estate agents

(I found and saved this image a while back, but lost the credit info. If it's yours and you'd like credit, or want me to remove it, then just let me know. Thanks)

I've just moved house so got to thinking about estate agents and the housing market in general. I rent a flat in South Manchester (Didsbury) and have done for the last 3 years nearly. Prior to that I rented in the city centre. In that time I've encountered a heck of a lot of estate agents. I've viewed dozens of places, been to a variety of agencies and rented from several of them. This experience has led me to the following conclusion...

Estate agencies are broken.

This seems counter-intuitive because they've been doing really well in recent years obviously, but I think it's fair to put 90+% of this success down to the unrelenting growth of the housing market, not their ability. Harsh I know, but I can genuinely say that I have never encountered what I'd regard as a 'good' estate agent. In fact it's rare to find even a competent one. Anecdotal evidence seems to suggest I'm not alone in my thinking.

This poor showing by agencies is surprising given their long history and traditions. What baffles me more though, is that not one agency (that I’ve heard of) takes advantage of the situation by acting differently, thereby building a stronghold in the market.

Maybe all that's needed is a spark to light the creative fires though, so should an estate agent be reading this and be ready to make some changes, here’s my 7 tips for future success.

1. Now that the housing boom seems to be tapering off you need to get back to focusing on people, predominantly your clients (and to some degree your employees – see point 4). From tomorrow morning, 9am, every person that walks through the door or phones you up is seriously important, because as things get worse, it’s going to start happening less and less. Consider everything from first impressions (hint – tidy up), to how you answer the phone to the comfort level of the chairs.

2. You used to create a lot of stress (convincing people to move house, one of the most stressful life events alongside divorce and bereavement). Now you should seek to minimise it, by ensuring their sale or move is painless. People are worried about the market and worried about the deal they’re making/getting. Be useful, be reassuring and most of all be honest and you'll have calm clients, ready to work with you.

3. Smarten up your act. It’s not okay to have a property list or pictures in your window that are weeks out of date. It’s not okay to promise a certain number of viewings and fail to deliver. You need to show your business in the most professional light possible because the gold rush is over and the people that still want to move house want to do so with someone they trust, not just the first agency they come to on the high street.

4. Get your people to smarten up their act too and give them the incentives to do so. I‘ve never been shown round by an agent who knew what council tax band a property was in. I’ve met some agents who didn’t even know what the rent was or when the place was likely to be available. From now on, this is unacceptable.

Make it worth their while to change their attitudes and habits. Bonuses could be paid on good feedback (see point six), or other benefits given (e.g. days off) if cash isn’t an option. Houses have sold themselves for the last few years, now your people need to learn to sell houses. Make up a ‘cheat sheet’ for each property on your books, with obvious information like rent and council tax and not so obvious stuff like good local bars, restaurants, schools etc. Encourage your people to learn this stuff but if they have to take the sheets everywhere and read them verbatim it’s still better than the standard blank stare they usually deliver when someone asks a question.

5. Change your tone of voice. Take a look at your sales and marketing copy. If it’s aggressive, outdated, or contains any jargon, then change it (or pay someone to change it). From now on you’re all about trust, transparency and expertise. Your copy should say “We know times are tough but we’re all in this together”. Reassuring clients is a priority.

6. If you don't know what it is that will reassure your clients, because you don't know what they want, then start asking them! Get permission to survey your clients before, during and after their move (particularly after; it baffles me that estate agents don’t contact people a couple of weeks after the move to see how things are going). Importantly, if you decide to ask for information from people and the feedback says changes are needed, then you’ve got to make those changes, even if they seem scary.

7. Be remarkable. This one is a winner no matter what business you’re in, but I think estate agents particularly could benefit from some good word of mouth. If you’re the only agency in town that focuses on people (because the rest of them are focused on what people carry in their wallets) then trust me, people will talk about you. Those people, the talkative ones, will be your salvation. Watch as they drive their friends, family and colleagues (all potential buyers and sellers) to your agency and then start the whole process again, recruiting these new folks to your word of mouth army with more fantastic performance.

If the market folds then it will be a scary time for estate agents, no doubt. I picture bands of them, roaming the streets, desperate for a house to sell, going feral due to lack of business. But remember, it’s an even scarier time for buyers and sellers too, which means it’s an exciting time for estate agents.

People still need estate agents (everyone I know who doesn’t own a place still wants to buy, despite the predicted problems), they’re just going to be far more picky about who they do business with. The opportunities are there for agents going forward, but only those agents who embrace the changes in the market. If you're one those agents with a worried eye on the future and the above helps get your thinking on the right track, then I’m a happy camper renter.

[UPDATE: A few hours after posting this I was going through my feed reader (not done that for way too long, 1400+ new items, ouch!) and found this from Seth, with his advice for the US real estate market. Good advice and well worth a read.]

What am I doing?

What am I doing? is a question I ask myself with some frequency (virtually every day in fact). Usually that's because I've got a terrible attention span and find it's a good idea to remind myself exactly what should be getting my limited attention-allowance.

I'm finding recently though, that other people have started to ask me what I'm doing too. And they don't mean specifically at that moment in time. No, they mean what am I doing with my life.

This is a perfectly reasonable question really, given recent developments and although I've promised repeatedly to give everyone I know a heads up, I still haven't got round to it. So I decided to answer the question on the blog, ergo saving myself some time. Now when someone asks, I'll just send them here (although when my mum asks for the umpteenth time I'll have to first explain to her what a blog is, meaning time savings for that particular interaction will be negligible at best).

As I've hinted previously, I intend to pursue a new direction now that my time at Omni has come to a close. To be more specific, I'm currently setting up as a freelance consultant and will soon (as of next week, when my period of gardening leave finishes) be able to offer my services to interested parties.

The work won't be a complete departure from what I did previously as I'll be operating essentially as a marketing consultant. My focus will be on new marketing, branding and communications (fortuitously things that are both my passions and my areas of expertise).

I won't go into too much more detail than that on the blog, save to say that if you read some of my previous posts you'll get the gist of the direction I'll be taking with my consultative advice (communities, transparency, honesty, happiness etc all watchwords).

I intend to have a website dedicated to my new venture up shortly (details of which I'll post here). The blog, although obviously inextricably linked to my adventures, will hopefully remain somewhat separate. In essence, I'd like to talk about all the things that interest me here, have conversations with people and generally rant and vent as appropriate, whilst saving the more business-type stuff for the website.

I'm sure there will be some crossover, but basically what I'm saying is that I don't intend to start pimping myself out on the blog! I'll still be talking about things that are completely unrelated to my new business (or at least may seem it to people) and I'll still be looking to poke my nose into various conversations with my usual limited grasp of the facts and unlimited enthusiasm for a good ding dong. I think it's important therefore to have some demarcation of territory, if only so I don't get confused and start calling out my clients for a ruck and fawning obsequiously over my blog readers. (This is a joke, I will ruck and fawn in equal measure with my clients and my readers).

Right now, things are moving along, albeit a little slower than I would like. Pace should pick up soon I hope though. I need an accountant, a finished website and some other bits and bobs (including a bloody internet connection, which is proving problematic in the new place). Once I have those things the rest should fall into place fairly easily (or at the least I'll feel better about things so the other stuff won't matter as much).

I'm excited about this new venture because it's allowing me the freedom to focus on the things that are most important to me. I'm under no illusions about the amount of hard work that will be involved, but I'm sure someone famous once said something about the work you love being no work at all.

Thanks again for all your patience with things guys. I'll be back with another post as soon as I can get online again. Although if the internet people don't sort it out in the next couple of days you may see me on the 24 hour news channel before you see me back here, accompanied by the scrolling announcement 'Manchester man reeks bloody revenge on ISP'...

I'm still here...

...honestly!

I've been incommunicado for a while because I went on holiday (my wonderful girlfriend organised a surprise trip to Prague) and now I'm moving house. I'm currently without a landline in the new place therefore I'm sans internet. Plus my PC is in bits in a box.

So apologies for the continued slow running at the blog and for anyone who follows me on Twitter. I'm not going to speculate when normal service will be resumed, because I don't know really. I'll try my best to get things up and running quickly though.

What's in a name? (Or why 'Be Remarkable James')?

Pic credit: gapingvoid.com

Well things are moving at pace in my post-Omni career. At the moment I'm still doing the nitty gritty, detail-heavy stuff. Plus I'm still on gardening leave until March. When things are sorted though my plan is to be in business for myself, offering my services (which I'll tell you all about soon) to individuals and small companies. Exciting times ahead!

In the meantime though, I'd promised to highlight where the new name for the blog came from. So here goes...

First off I must state what is an ongoing debt I have to Seth Godin. It was his his work on Purple Cows, Permission Marketing and Free Prizes that led me to address my genuine interest in marketing (new marketing, branding and communications in particular). If I had never found Seth's work my current direction would likely be very different now. Sometimes you just need to read something wonderful to push you in the right direction.

'Be Remarkable' is essentially my way of turning the material that I began to learn about (via Seth and others) into as simple a premise as possible. These ideas about remarkability (the qualities that some people, companies and products have that simply 'make people remark upon them') led me to my own thoughts on the vary nature of business. 'Be Remarkable' became my mantra essentially (and something I would preach it to all who would listen). I first mentioned it on the blog a good while back and I will doubtless mention it again many times over!

So 'Be Remarkable James' was really my only choice as a title. This blog is somewhere for me to share my thoughts and make connections with people. It is somewhere discussions will start and grow. It allows me to externalise my thought processes, my beliefs and my passions, and even better it allows other people to pass comment on them. Therefore it's also the ideal place to remind myself everyday to practice what I preach and to 'Be Remarkable'.

As well as thanks to Seth and the countless others who have inspired me (and who will deserve even more credit if the endeavours I have planned lead me to any kind of success) I'd also like to ask people a favour...

Whether you read this blog regularly or are reading it for the first time, whether you love it or hate it or just plain don't care, if I'm not being remarkable I want you to call me on it! If I write a 'me-too' post, if I'm slcaking off excessivley, if I talk rubbish or get things wrong - tell me! And if you think what I'm writing, doing or saying is remarkable, then hopefully you'll be inclined to remark upon it!

Ongoing changes...

As the more keen eyed amongst you will have noticed there's been a few little changes around here recently. Ok, ok, there's been some damn big changes!

I'm in the process of updating things, learning a little HTML, pulling together ideas and generally getting myself organised. Some things will stay, other stuff I'll doubtless change over and over! Patience with my progress would be much appreciated as I tend to like to tweak and chop until I get things how I like them.

You'll notice that I've renamed already though. I thought that was important to do straight away. I'll let you all into the thought process that went into choosing the new name very soon.

I'll post updates about the state of play here in the coming days. I also hope to have an exciting announcement about my plans for the future, so don't change that dial folks!

Changes

Okay, here's an important post - sorry it's been nearly a week in coming...

The reason I've been quiet the past few days is because I've been trying to get myself sorted to some degree following some fairly major changes, or at least one in particular.

I'm leaving Omni.

This is something that has been a potential for some time. I (and the people I worked with) wasn't sure exactly how things would pan out but I have known for a while that some of the stuff I do (and want to do going forwards) doesn't fit in the Omni set up. No hard feelings, nothing bad. Just doesn't fit at the moment. So the question became how to manage the change.

Rob (the MD) and I sat down on Friday. Between us we came up with a plan that sees me take redundancy with the potential to continue to do some work for Omni (freelance etc) in the future. I'll then sort my stuff out and see where I go from there. I've got some ideas but nothing concrete. It needs some serious thinking.

I hope therefore that people will bear with me for the time being. There's going to be some changes coming. The layout and look of the blog will change for starters (I'll be taking off the Omni-related) stuff. Depending on how easy it is I may change the address (although I do worry about losing the subscribers etc I have. My readership isn't enormous but there's a few loyal fans out there. I don't want to blow what I've put up here the last few months, so I'll see what I can do).

I'll also rename the blog. I've got some ideas, but more on that later.

I'm genuinely excited about this opportunity that's now sitting in front of me. Pretty shit scared too. But more excited than terrified.

I'm trying to think of all the people I need to email about this stuff too, I've made some great contacts/friends the last 3 and a half years and really don't want to lose touch. If you think I might have missed you though then drop me an email. I've 2 addresses I check regularly jparr81 at gmail dot com and jparr81 at hotmail dot com.

Like I say, exciting times! I'll have my head more sorted in the next few days and will be back up to full speed here (with all kinds of crazy plans no doubt) by next week at the latest I reckon. Before that I'll try and update and stuff, but apologies in advance if I'm a bit sporadic or rambling.

Thanks to anyone who's been with me through my time at Omni, I've loved all of it (the ups and the downs equally) and hope I can go on and meet many more cool and interesting people here and in my career going forwards.

Take it easy all you good, good people.

It's a medal place for Omniblog!

At the tail end of last year I posted this, about the UK Recruiting Blog awards organised by the lovely and wonderful Louise Triance of uk:recruiter. Louise emailed me yesterday to let me know that the votes were in and counted and that the winner had been named.

Much to my great surprise I didn't receive nil points. In fact to my even greater surprise I came second! It's even on her blog, so I've got proof I'm not fibbing!

Therefore I just wanted to say thanks so much to all those who voted for little old me, it really is appreciated. One of the difficulties with blogging (or one of the difficulties I find at any rate, maybe it doesn't bother anyone else) is that quite often you can feel like you're just jabbering away to yourself. This, even with my massive ego and general love of the sound of my own voice, can be a bit disconcerting. It's why I appreciate the emails I receive and the comments on the blog and it's why I'm probably more pleased than I should be with the result. It's good enough just to know that a few people read my ramblings, it's spectacularly fantastic to think that some people actually enjoy what I write!

So thanks to all who voted, to all who've ever commented, to all who email me and to all who've read one post or read 'em all - you guys rock! I love blogging because it's let me start lots of new, cool and interesting conversations with new, cool and interesting (and seriously smart) people who I'd have likely never had the pleasure of engaging with any other way.

Things might be changing a little round here in the not-too-distant, so I'll keep you updated about all of that (it's a bit of a secret at the mo, sorry). I just really hope though that I can keep doing this for a good long while.

Cheers everybody!

P.S. If you're interested in recruitment particularly, the blog that beat Omniblog into the silver medal spot was most deserving: Pete Gold writes consistently relevant stuff for the savvy recruitment professional, so if you get chance have a read.

Optimum nutrition and Omni

Chances are if you made New Years resolutions about your diet you've lapsed a couple of times by now at least. I never make NY resolutions to be honest (food related or otherwise) because I'm so spectacularly bad at keeping them (although this year I like the idea of having a NY theme, which you try and incorporate into your regular habits).

However the diet one is probably one of the most frustrating for people. Good nutrition is a minefield of information (and misinformation) that would be nigh on impossible to follow to the letter at any rate. Here at Omni people felt exactly the same before Christmas.

So, last year we arranged for a nutritionist to come into the office and give a talk on good nutrition to the entire office. The nutritionist, Alison Irving, also offered one-on-one follow up sessions to those with particular worries or questions.

The whole thing was a resounding success. I'll admit that I went in sceptical (after all, it seems pretty much everyday something new turns out to be 'bad' for you). I was very pleasantly surprised though. Alison was realistic about the whole thing and didn't preach any ultra diet nonsense. Rather she focused on a few practical, simple things that people could do (particularly people who work in an office most of the time), like drinking more water and snacking on the right type of things.

None of it was rocket science and that's the beauty really. Nobody needs to be blinded by science with these things, they just want some honest advice about what they can do to improve their diet and nutrition.

We liked it so much in fact, that we've started working with Alison, offering her service to current and prospective clients of ours. Alison will go into organisations and deliver her talk to groups of employees, followed, if required, by one-on-ones with people. The idea is that by providing good advice to their staff about optimum nutrition, companies can improve performance and productivity (for example by eliminating that lethargic, post lunch period that everybody seems to suffer from).

I'd also say that if this is something that you'd be interested at all, Alison has said to me that she'd be happy to extend her client list a bit further. If you'd like the chance to talk to or meet Alison, then just let me know in the comments or via email and I'll happily arrange that. She's based in the North West, but if you're not and would still like to have her talk to your team that's something we could arrange.

Post 101

I can't believe I missed my hundredth post, which was the last one I posted! Oops.

Well this is post 101 and I'm still happy I've reached triple figures, even though I missed the milestone!

I'll pay more attention when I'm getting towards the next big milestone... (I wonder, should that be 200, 250, 500? Maybe the next milestone is quadruple figures, that's when I'll really know I'm addicted to this blogging stuff!)

New UK job board

Louise announced the exciting news a couple of days ago that uk:recruiter have entered the job board market for the first time. You can find the details here.

I think this is a really good idea and the right direction for them to be going. Previously the site had only listed other job boards (it still does that by the way) but never tapped into the potential pool of loyal visitors directly. The site gets a lot of eyeballs and Louise's blog is popular and well-ranked on Google, so I'd thought for sometime that a job board of some kind was the logical next step.

They've gone the whole hog with it too. Rather than make a small niche board they've created what looks to be a broad and useful resource. Time will tell obviously, as a job board is only as strong as the recruiters and candidates who use it. I think it should have a good shot though.

I've not tried it out myself, just had a look around briefly, so if anyone has any practical experience with the site, or just first impressions, then do shout up.

Omni Finalists for onrec.com

Some good news for me to come back to from my couple of days off: Omni have been named finalists in the OnRec awards for 2008, for the category Best Use of Online Recruitment. Here's the details.

Well done everybody, you all rock! Fingers crossed for us in the finals in March!

Man flu takes hold

Well having avoided all the germs and nasties going round over Christmas I finally succumbed to something unpleasant today. I feel rotten, I'm bunged up and my head's in bits, but I'm sure despite all this it's probably only man flu.

Sunnier climes required I think, I wonder if Rob would consider moving the business to the Cayman Islands?

Wrap up warm everybody, and you'll hear from me again after my convalescence.

('Cough, cough' - in the style of Tiny Tim)

Social Objects or How to embrace the future of business

Pic credit: gapingvoid


I mentioned briefly in a post a couple of weeks ago about the concept of Social Objects, that Hugh turned me on to. He picked the term up from this chap, (who’s an anthropologist and founder of the online service Jaiku), but in true Hugh-style he took the ball and ran with it (all the way off the field, out through the car park and into the building across the street).

He’s posted about it repeatedly – see here, here and here for a taste.

He’s also got a lot of other people excited about the idea, not least Mark Earls (here and here for example), John Dodds (who turns sprouts into the social object here), Seth Godin (who references it in this interview here and Dennis Howlett (who points us to Sonia’s Biker Jim story to illustrate the social object-ness here).

Others have mentioned it too, the idea is simple, effective and interesting, so it’s plenty sticky enough to get some real ‘ink’ in the blogosphere. It’s of real interest to me too.

From a marketing perspective creating a product that’s a social object could be the Grail. What’s easier to ‘sell’ than something that people naturally want to interact around and talk about? Even the least savvy of marketers would have to go some to kill this golden goose if it fell in their lap.

The problem is how do you cotton on to the social object idea in your organisation and what if the product you’re making isn’t a social object (or you can’t see it’s utility as such)?

Hugh gives a few examples in his social objects for beginners post, and goes on to say that there could be literally thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) more examples. He’s right too.

Humans interact around all kinds of weird and wonderful things, from broad churches to the cranniest little nook or niche. Hugh suggests Star Wars and sexy phones, he could just as easily posit 17^th Century soil samples or single cell organisms. In one post on the subject he answers my question above too – anything can be a social object, even if you only produce ‘Brand X’.

Yes, wine is perhaps a more logical social object than the boxes that your factory produces. But that’s not to say your box can’t be one too. Here’s a quick story about something that may have passed me by, had I not been at the time thinking about the whole social object thing...

Just before Christmas one of the major sweet manufacturers in the UK produced a new plastic package to run alongside the traditional Christmas tins of chocolates that everyone seems to buy only predominantly at that time of year. The new, plastic tubs were lighter than the metal tins and funky looking. They could also be used to store food and leftovers in the freezer, once all the chocolates were gone. (This isn't something you could do with the metal tins and this neat, new trick was advertised on the package itself.)

When someone brought one of the new tubs into work and left it in the kitchen for people to help themselves, I was a little surprised to see that the new packaging was what got people talking most, not the chocolatey contents. This plastic box became (you guessed it) a social object, in our office at least.

Now I don’t suppose that the company intended it as such. I would imagine there were a variety of reasons they chose to experiment with a new type of packaging, some of which were likely primarily economic. The tins weren’t withdrawn or replaced and the plastic tubs may not have even sold that well (I tried looking on the groups site for information, but the new packaging doesn’t even get a mention, suggesting it’s not part of a coordinated strategy or anything).

In reality therefore, it wasn’t the best social object in the world, or at least not a particularly long lasting one. However, I believe it could have been; they might have missed a trick.

If I was responsible for designing packaging somewhere, turning it into a social object would be one of the first things I’d try to do. Packaging is utilitarian, generally plain, fairly standard. There’s plenty of reasons for this I bet, functionality being a primary one. You don’t want your packaging to look wonderfully interesting but fail to keep your free range chicken fresh for example. A cool new tub for sweets is great, but only if it does the same (or a better) job as the old one of keeping the sweets in. Cost likely comes into it too. However I’d say that cost should be less of a consideration – a little extra money on packaging could create the social object that everyone loves to interact around. This in turn leads to greater sales of your packaging as everyone wants a piece of you!

Innocent Drinks provide a great example of this in my opinion. Having recently managed to become the first company to offer their drinks in 100% recyclable bottles, they have created a social object. (Even better, their drinks themselves are definitely social objects – social objects within social objects; how cool!)

OK, with that point sufficiently highlighted (/laboured) I want to address the area of business that ostensibly this blog is about – recruitment.

Recruitment is a service, not a product as such. ‘Brand X’ in Hugh’s example may well be boring and fairly unremarkable, but at least it’s something that people take home from the supermarket with them. How does recruitment become a social object when there’s nothing for people to ‘take home’, plonk on the surface and then incidentally talk about over coffee at the kitchen table?

For me the point here is the (Seth inspired) remarkability factor. If your service is remarkable (i.e. people will remark on it) then it will get a heck of a lot of traction. Amongst some people (HR or recruitment managers for example) recruitment is definitely a social object that they’d talk about.

So HR Manager Jo, from company A, goes out for lunch with HR Director Peter, from company B, at a moderately priced restaurant in town. The lunch is a catch-up; they’ve been pals since a CIPD conference they both attended some years back and get together fairly regularly to chew the fat over HR legislation, incentive schemes and funny hiring and firing stories. Their companies are in a similar market, but not what you’d call natural competitors.

Over a couple of glasses of sparkling water (/house white, depending on the industry) they get to talking about recent hires:

Jo tells a story about a recent nightmare vacancy “I couldn’t find a good project manager for love nor money. Everyone I saw from the agency just didn’t know the industry well enough, I need someone who can hit the ground running and at the minute they’re like hens teeth”

“Funny” Peter says, “I was just hiring for a project manager a couple of weeks back. I needed someone with a little experience so it wasn’t too hard to find – we offered on Monday. We saw plenty of people with more experience than we needed though…”

“Oh really” says Jo, intrigued/desperate

“Yeah, they were great. I got them all through (insert recruitment agency name here). We had to explain what we wanted in a bit of detail, but once we got them a good job spec it was smooth sailing”.

“Really?” says Jo, “I had a cold call from them last week, but didn’t follow it up as I wasn’t sure about the sales person”

“Me too, but once you get past the sales stuff, they’re actually pretty decent. They might still have some of the guys they sent me too, there were some real crackers in there”

In my experience, if an agency cold calls me I’ll almost never give them business based on that alone. Why would I? I have a tonne of agencies that I know plenty about to work with, why risk working with someone else? Even if they call and tell me they’ve just registered three great project managers and I’m recruiting for project managers, it’s unlikely they’ll get a positive response.

Maybe I’m missing a trick by not working with them, but if so I’d bet I’m not the only one. A cold call is a terrible way to try and win business (although the many reasons I hate them are for a different blog post entirely) and even if someone promises me a solution to my 'big problem' it’s unlikely to make me work with them. A conversation about your agency over lunch with a friend or trusted colleague though, will change all of that in an instant. As in Hugh’s example, once your agency becomes a social object it gains credibility and traction, the 2 things that will make me take a second look.

There’s no tricks or shortcuts unfortunately though, it’s just good old fashioned hard work. I respect my colleagues and peers because they’re good at what they do, so I know they won’t recommend me a dud agency.

You can’t ‘trick’ my colleagues or game the system with free schwag, meals out, trips to the football and the like. Plenty of agencies give that stuff out, but no one I know says “That agencies great! Sure they send me lousy CVs, no one ever turns up for interview and the lead consultant won’t stop looking at my chest…but they sent me this cool calendar with funny pictures and a box of Krispy Kremes!”

Talent and skill and expertise will take you a long way. Professionalism, dependability and generosity will never stop being good business. Free stuff is fun and I’m not saying it should be dropped (if you’re clever you can make your schwag a social object…) but results and attitude are what matter. Turn the performance of your recruitment company into a social object and you’ll turn a lot more people on to your service.

Hugh calls social objects the future of marketing. I think he’s right and I think he could even go further too. I think social objects are the future of business in a sense.

If you’re in business then you’re trying to sell something. If you’re trying to sell something you’re trying to change people’s behaviour. Any programme trying change people’s behaviour is a marketing programme (I’ve been saying this for a while and was delighted to see Paul Hebert agreeing with me on this today). The future of marketing is social objects, ergo the future of business is social objects.

OK, these are my thoughts on what is clearly a complex topic, and to be honest I could write a heck of a lot more on it (I may do in the future but won’t in this post you’ll be pleased to hear).

I think though, that anybody in the recruitment field who reads the social objects spiel from Hugh, but passes it off as something they couldn’t/shouldn’t get involved in is missing a trick. In fact I think in the future if you don’t try and turn your service (i.e. your performance) into a social object it’s tantamount to nothing more than sheer laziness. The rewards for joining in here are real and abundant.

Why wouldn’t you want to get onboard ahead of the curve?

(Like this post and want to read more? All the cool kids are subscribing to my feed, so they don't have to keep coming back and checking the site like a total square! Plus, if you subscribe, then you'll automatically become more attractive to the opposite sex, more decisive, have success in your career and win the lottery. In fact even better, you'll actually become a social object yourself*. So what are you waiting for?)

*All benefits are not guaranteed. Nor are they typical, likely or even, in actual fact, possible. But subscribe anyways, because you never know...