off to mexico...

the family and i are off to mexico, specifically puerto vallarta for two weeks of relaxation and fun...this will be our daugther's first big trip and we're looking forward to all the other "first's" that will transpire...

as a result fusedlogic will be closed for the holiday season....

here's wishing everyone a fabulous holiday season with lot's of fun, happiness and relaxation with friends and family...

be safe, drive responsibly and look for the odd entry during our stay down south....

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

i live in seth godin's world...

taking names and kicking butt...then taking even more names...that's seth godin's world...and i'm all for it. you'll appreciate his no holds barred approach to holding businesses and business people accountable to you and i the consumer...

way to go seth...

die...sears...die...

so my wife and I are shopping for a new bed...not something one does all that often so we as prudent consumers decide to educate ourselves and do some research...

my wife was leading the charge on this, phoning around, surfing the net and finally went out to take a look at a couple of models at different places. one of the places she ventures to is sears...

a long story short...one lady at the south edmonton common store tells my wife over the phone twice at home and then again while when dialed from the sherwood park store...that the model she's looking for is on for what was basically half the price of everywhere else she was looking and this was confirmed by the sears representative standing right beside her when she made the phone call from a competing location.

both my wife and the rep standing by her couldn't understand why the south edmonton common sears dork on the phone wouldn't provide a model number...model name or any specific information other than to say this is the one and it's half price, so the only way for my wife to get any further along was to get my daughter back in the truck along with my mom and drive the 20 minutes over to that location and physically talk to this person...

when my wife get's there...none of the staff at the south edmonton common sears location own up to saying anything of the sort...apparently my wife, my mom and the lady at the sherwood park sears location were completely mistaken and their was no mention of that model bed and certainly not at half price...

first of all not knowing me or my family one should consider this...two women with a child walk into a store claiming they were just told about a special sale price, and completely expect to get it...only to be told that the model isn't on sale at all and that the conversation on the phone didn't include any mention of any sale price...my wife must have been on glue...

dig a bit deeper and we find out that there have several complaints about the south edmonton common location and sears refuses to do anything about that particular manager and his store...

in fact, ruth from sears head office calls our house today to tell my wife that after an investigation, what the south ed common staff are saying isn't what my wife is saying and there's nothing that can be done...meanwhile, my mom has recieved an apology letter and gift cert for how poor experience at that location...my wife nothing but attitude on the phone and made to feel as if she completely fabricated the entire episode...

we don't care that we didn't get a gift cert, actually we're thankful...we'll never step into another sears location of any kind and our lives will be far richer for it...

sears is still the dinosaur i said it was months ago and they continue to prove it every day...

die sears...just lay down and die......get bought out, be DISMANTLED and cut up for scrap...

bob stumpel...

using a new social networking site called openbc i've been familiarizing myself with the system and protocols. one of the folks i came across was bob stumpel and he has his own blog which i think sums up nicely the reason for considering why one should join....

1 million lives changed by mandate. amazing.

there it is in black and white. the new mandate. amazing. for fusedlogic.

fusedlogic is now offering a brand new business acceleration framework or "performance architecture" called mandate. amazing.

this is our primary service offering and the above statement communicates what we intend to do with it. i would like to accomplish that in under (3) years and so that's our timeline.

in order to get the job done we need to employ several different tactics. our primary approaches will involve alliance building and effective partnering...

we've been working on this for some time now and so many alliances have been already identified and when we're successful in structuring those deals they'll provide more than the 1 million lives target i believe...we just have to be persistent and diligent.

this is incredibly exciting for me personally as this is the culmination of a couple years of work and now that's its finally ready for client consumption i feel like i've already won...

stay tuned...

change the rules...

many business owners are so busy working "in" their businesses everyday that they can't stop to take a breath...let alone work "on" the business.

take time out of every day to work on changing the rules...being the best at what you do is great...being the only one who does what you do is the pinnacle when you execute...

think about changing the rules...there are real gems in those thoughts, take a risk....the next big thing in convenience stores, coffee shops, print shops, restaurants, car washes, dry cleaners, retail stores, is just around the corner if you stop to look.

follow-up...

i always find it interesting when people who should follow-up don't...

i've seen so called top firms lose huge business simply because they didn't go out of their way to follow-up a first contact effectively...

for example, the next time you're at a networking event of any sort, always ask if you can follow-up with each individual you meet and then....actually do it.

the way to build up an impressive network or rolodex is to follow-up and continue to build relationships.

is this a new concept? of course not...so why is it still a lost art???

many business owners have the attitude that they'll only follow-up if they sniff an immediate deal...wrong. in a five minute conversation it's a rare occasion when one is able to truly pre-qualify someone and determine whether their widget or widget service is perfect for the prospect...anyone who is involved in large complex sales cycles will immediately agree with me on this point.

in addition, it's also impossible to assess who the prospect knows and the circles they travel in, this is the real gold. everyone is a potential sales person for you, if you properly cultivate that relationship...

prejudging and not following up is a mucho bad habit...so break it and start doing the little things better, like returning phone calls, emails and try using a pen and paper to write thank-you notes...it's so odd these days that it may even set you apart...

you'll be amazed at the difference it will make in your business opportunity traffic and deal flow.