2ndHead's blog

When was the last time you heard someone ask for an explanation that’s ‘Long, complex and boring’? Probably never.

Which is strange, because most of us revert to long, involved sentences and lengthy documents, whenever we want to look clever. There’s something funny that kicks in that can make us sound pompous and long-winded, and worst of all, difficult to understand.

The problem is that in business, being easy-to-understand is critical to engaging an audience. Because when people can’t understand us they switch off, they look at something else, they ignore us, and gulp...they probably won’t buy from us! And that goes for customers and employees too.

Something I learnt a wee while ago, when reading Neil Taylor’s Brilliant Business Writing (worth a read, if I can add that), is the importance of the ‘About’ section on a website.

The budget is always controversial, regardless of who’s in government and the measures to be taken. And that makes it hard to truly stand back and not get caught up in the slippery slope of cynicism. Cynicism can be good – it helps you not take everything at face value. But it can also lead to unnecessary negativity, which is just as damaging and often equally as far from the truth as blind acceptance.

It sounds obvious really. You’re a consultancy, so you like consulting. Ergo you like working with other businesses.

The thing is that while I can tell you that the consultants at 2nd Head enjoy their job, it doesn’t explain why we enjoy it. So what exactly do we love about meddling about with other people’s affairs? And what’s in it for us? Apart from the money of course.

Otherwise known as the blatant plug!

By now you’ll probably be aware that at 2nd Head we like to moan a bit. Not a lot, not always, but now and then, when something really bothers us. So we were delighted to help set up Grumble, the new online petitioning forum.

Last week we appointed project management specialist, Eric McDonogh, to give us a helping hand with some of our meatier business growth projects.

Eric has been rolling out projects of varying size and complexity for almost 10 years now, so he’s a great source of inspiration when it comes to anything planning related – from software installations to multi-million pound office fit-outs.

As most business people have some project management responsibilities – whether launching a new brand, managing an investment or planning a website - I thought it might be a good idea to pick his brains on the dark art of project management. And more specifically, the areas he feels are integral to making projects a success.

Better do it now, before he gets too bogged down in growth horizons, SWOT analyses and Gantt charts...

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve worked with a lot of sales people. A lot of very professional, hard-working, lovely people. But I’ve also been on the receiving end of some sales shockers. The kind of people who make you want to wriggle out of your skin just so you can escape the conversation.

I’ve also been a sales person (albeit briefly). So I have some idea of the rude, ungrateful people that you’re selling to and how hard this job can be. And if I’m honest, I’ve probably had one or two conversations where I’ve been harder than I should be.

So if you don’t mind I’d like to give you some advice. I’m not aiming to give you tips straight from the sales manual – speak to your manager for that. I’m writing from a world-weary marketer’s perspective to give you some insights from the other end of the line. You might despise me for it, but I’m willing to take that risk...

Well, it’s not just about that. It’s also about the different things to look out for when choosing a CMS and why any marketer or small business manager needs to have one.

I’m not a techie, which I think puts me in a great position to extol the benefits of a good content management system. I’ve also used bad CMS’s in the past, so I have a fair idea of what to look out for when you’re choosing one.

And I’m not being bribed by, nor am I associated with, any CMS supplier who stands to benefit from what I’m about to say.

So if you want a few valuable (I hope) insights into choosing a CMS, read on.

Finding a B2B data provider that is value for money is one of the greater mysteries of marketing. This is both ironic and unfortunate, seeing as good data is absolutely integral to successful direct marketing.

Bad data is also one of those failures that cannot be hidden, as any marketing professional dealing with telemarketers will know. If the data isn’t good then they will tell you. And they won’t be pleased about it when they do.

While there may not be a golden secret to procuring excellent data, there are questions you can ask data providers to increase the likelihood of getting the information that you need and putting a smile on the faces of your eager telemarketing team.

New year, new you? It’s clichés like that which always get my heart racing. I’m usually afflicted by questions like: ‘What do I really want to change?’ and ‘How the hell am I going to do it?’

The problem with all the chat about new year’s resolutions is that it rarely leads to success. On the contrary, it often leads to disappointment and a re-hashing of all the same old noble goals, year in year out. Any why? Because resolutions are typically vague or unachievable and lack the full weight of conviction that they need.

When it comes to business, resolutions can be even harder to stick with, prey as they are to all the other pressures and challenges that come our way – often quite unexpectedly.

This got me thinking as to what our common stumbling blocks are and the steps we can take, so we don't find ourselves at square one when 2012 comes around. Here are my thoughts...