Entrepreneur Table host at i.c. stars iOpener event

Posted on | August 18, 2011 | No Comments

иконописикони богородицаI have been chosen as an Entrepenuer table host at the annual i.c. stars  iOpener event in Chicago, Il on August 26th.

Come out and join us, as this is a fantastic event that supports a great and very important organization here in Chicago.

Here is some info on the event below and some links:

The annual i.c. stars iOpener conference brings together CIO’s, entrepreneurs, students, alumni of i.c.stars and vendors to explore a technology-development topic of mutual interest.

The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce leads this conference with a presentation on the role of innovation in driving regional GDP. CIOs and Entrepreneurs participate as table facilitators to discuss how to nurture “cultures of innovation”. The discussions seek to answer how IT organizations will invest in innovation in the coming year.

This year’s iOpener considers what it takes to foster a “Culture of Innovation” within an IT organization specifically around mobility, cloud and social media. Participate in facilitated roundtable discussions where insights on these critical areas will be shared.

Learn what a wide range of companies are doing that’s innovative, what jobs are being created that didn’t exist before and how other companies of all sizes are recruiting staff with innovative DNA. Hear how the workforce is evolving and see how companies are training and, in some cases, retraining their employees to stay on the leading edge of their industries.

Don’t miss the opportunity to network with CIOs and entrepreneurs, to gather new ideas for your business and to learn about the emerging trends in workforce development.

Event Page - http://bit.ly/mYtFZ4

Registration Page - http://bit.ly/onO6cH

Keynote Panel to discuss "Selling to IT" Best Practices

Posted on | July 14, 2011 | No Comments

Православни икониI will be sitting on a Keynote Panel at the Technology Executives Club in Chicago on August 26th.  Here is some information for the event and a link to register below.

Link: http://bit.ly/p8l4QJ

Session VII

Keynote Panel: What’s Working Now?

Interviews with Sales and Marketing Pros who have learned how to grow their pipelines and HOW THEY DO IT! 

Join Senior Technology Field Marketing and Sales professionals who are constantly making their numbers. Learn what it really takes to succeed in today’s market.

	Kathie Topel, author of POWERSHIP and Vice President of Impact Insight, a part of SPR Companies, has worked with companies like Kraft Foods, Oscar Meyer and Entenmanns Bakery to achieve maximum operational efficiency. Her expertise in corporate organizational change allows her to develop strategies that provide financial balance, strategic growth and company-wide motivation within the IT, consulting, manufacturing, logistics and supply chain industries. Topel regularly speaks to industry groups on employee growth, leadership and motivation.
	Kim Geater, Field Marketing Manager at Motorola Solutions, marketing efforts for the Central and Canadian areas and works closely with the partner ecosystem, regional sales teams, alliances and distributors to develop and execute effective sales and marketing programs. She has over 20 years experience in marketing and sales in the technology industry, including management positions with IBM and Software Spectrum. Her expertise includes On-line Marketing, SEO, Consultative Sales, and Integrated Marketing.
	Coley Perry, Co-Founder and Vice President, Get Me The Right Job!  Coley is responsible for Product/Service Development, Sales and Marketing Strategy and overall execution of the strategy including people, process and technology. He is a 15 year sales and marketing veteran with experience in and around the intersection of sales, marketing, change management, technology and business process. He has built sales teams, go-to-market strategies, demand generation engines and sustainable revenue streams. Currently his passion is focused on the convergence of sales, marketing and technology. He holds a masters degree from Northwestern University but learned the most from The “Second City” Training Center in Chicago where he studied the Art of Improv.

Panning for Gold

Posted on | May 3, 2011 | No Comments

мека мебелI am working on an article with Paul Leonardi, a former professor of mine at Northwestern University.  We have been discussing ways to articulate a people, process and technology system that I have adopted into a business I have Co-Founded called Get Me The Right Job! (GMTRJ).  At GMTRJ we have developed a way to rapidly collect data, make some assumptions about it and execute a process against it with the help of technology, to learn, find insights and ultimately VALUE (Money, Key Learning, Insight).

Through this discussion Paul suggested that I was a “Panning for Gold”.  That is when the light bulb went off.  That is exactly what we do.  We do not build a town, set-up a giant mine and call in the big Caterpillar mining equipment.  We pound some wood handles together, get some wire mesh, grab a tin pan and start testing the creek!

We do this in our sales and marketing process for example.  As a company with less than $5m in revenue we enter new markets, test marketing messages and ACTUALLY ADD NEW CUSTOMERS by using this approach.

What we do…

1.  Define our data – Who is the customer profile?  Where can we get it?  How fast can we load it…

2.  Create our content – What do we want to communicate?  How will we support that communication?  e-mail, website, video, etc…

3.  EXECUTE – send an e-mail campaign and measure the response

4.  Manage – Clean the data, add new data that comes from the process, address exceptions, elevate required response, etc…

5.  Learn – Decide if we have found a place to build a mine!  Is this market segment responding well?  Did we convert customers?  Is there an opportunity here?

This is a process that many companies struggle with due to size, culture, broken sales and marketing process, poor leadership, lack of the right people, process or technology, etc, etc…

It looks like we may be “prospecting” for real.  Miner 49′er!

How Job Hunting MUST Change

Posted on | April 28, 2011 | No Comments

Are you looking for a job?

Are you thinking about changing your job?

Are you an employer getting ready to hire in this market?

If the answer is YES to any of these questions you should keep reading.  If not, press the Google “I’m Feeling Lucky” button and move on to the next dazzling piece of content in the blogosphere.  As a job seeker, you need to understand how good employers will adjust the way they hire.  If you are an employer you better start thinking about adjusting the way you hire.

It all became clear over the last couple of years after completing Grad School at Northwestern, starting my own business and getting paid by other people to help them build their business…  This is a quick tidbit of what I have seen in the real world!

Most people have no idea “who” to hire for “what”!

Take some simple steps to insure you begin to understand how to hire and how develop a profile and a job description.

1.  Do you REALLY understand the output of the work that is being done and the responsibility of the role? (You may have to hire and fire a couple of times to figure it out)

2.  Do you understand the characteristics of the person that will indicate the highest likelihood of success in your organization? (Caliper, DISC, Briggs, etc…)

3.  Can you narrow a job description down to the top 5 of each of these things?  Key Responsibilities, Competencies, Skills, Other (Certs, Degree, etc…)

4.  How will you measure success of the person in this job?  (Not subjective!  Find objective measures)

5.  Do you have any idea how to translate this into a meaningful job description, let alone an interviewing process that will actually evaluate against this?

Stop and think before the next time you hire.   Just because the HR department says it is so, does not mean it is.  In the next 5-10 years the competition for the best talent will be more fierce than ever before.  By the way the talent pool knows how to evaluate a potential employer in this way.  At least the good ones do.  ;-)

You better “Stay Ready” as an Employer or the world will pass you buy.

It’s Been a long time since I Rock N’ Roll…

Posted on | April 26, 2011 | No Comments

I love Robert Plant and Led Zeppelin.  I also love writing, but being an Entrepreneur, a new Dad (again) and trying to be a good husband have gotten in the way for the last 6 months.

No excuse.  Bad excuse.  Unacceptable…  All good responses.  This is a case of me not eating my own dog food.

When I work with my clients, customers and business partners, I preach “Consistent Execution”, “Agile Approach”, “Shampoo, Rinse, Repeat”, etc…

The reason I do this is because it is critical in today’s rapidly changing business environment if you want to stay on top, let alone stay in business.

I am going to make a public commitment to being consistent in my writing.  There I said it.

“It’s been a long, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely……. Time”

i.c. stars iOpener Event

Posted on | August 18, 2010 | No Comments

детско обзавежданеRolling Meadows, IL – August 18, 2010 / GetMeTheRightJob, Inc., a cloud-based, IT-recruiting and staffing service, announced today that its Vice President Coley Perry will participate in i.c.stars’ fourth annual iOpener event on August 27.

i.c.stars is a Chicago-based, non-profit organization that helps adults with a high school diploma or GED become future business and technology leaders. i.c.stars’ iOpener event will examine what jobs are being created that didn’t exist three years ago and how companies are using innovation to recruit.

The iOpener event is facilitated by IDEA BLENDER™ – a social solution development company that connects companies, academic institutions, public sector and non-profit organizations with a global network of some of the brightest thinkers solving some of the toughest business challenges.

Perry, a human capital innovation expert, will explore the concept of “innovative DNA” and what it means for organizations seeking to attract and retain employees for the future workforce.

“The workforce of tomorrow is rapidly changing. That means how we create job descriptions, define roles and hire folks is also changing,” said Perry. “Those who understand this and adopt new approaches and processes will have a distinct, competitive advantage.  i.c.stars’ iOpener event is a great example of the kind of dialogue that needs to happen across business, education, non-profit and government.”

Other participants in the iOpener event include:

• Anthony Abbattista, VP, Technology Solutions, Allstate
• Ellen Barry, Former CIO, MPEA
• David Baruch, CIO, Hewitt
• Hardik Bhatt, CIO, City of Chicago
• Marcus Cobb, President, Mark Wayne Intimates
• Timothy Deane Mather, CIO, PMA Consultants LLC,
• Kevin Denney, BettrAt
• Ed Earl, CIO, LittelFuse
• Steven Elliot, Principal, Technology & Operations, Bank of America
• Dan Fallon, CTO, Navistar
• Jim Fehr, Vice President, StartSampling Inc
• Jolanta Gal, CIO, Feeding America
• Stephen Galvan, Principle, Galvan & Associates
• Mark Griesbaum, President, TCS Online System
• Beth Hall, CAO, Abelson Taylor
• Richard Komakio, Co-Founder, The Lawyer Market
• Robert E. Kress , Sr. Director of IT Business Operations,Accenture
• Michael Kritzman, School Town
• Ron Markham, CIO, SPSS
• Patrick Moroney, President, The Barnier Group
• Peter Nagle, CIO, Information Technology, Mesirow Financial
• Tiger Nigamatzyanov, Siegel Construction Inc.
• Mike O’Connell, Manager, IT Business Planning, Integrys
• Michael Ouska, CIO, Lutheran Social Services of Illinois
• Dan Paganelis, Sr. Manager, Technical Strategy & Analysis,Redbox
• Coley Perry, VP, Get Me the Right Job!
• Lance Pressl, Foundation President, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce
• Allison Radecki, SVP & CIO, GS1 US
• Girish Rao, VP of IT, Career Education Corporation
• Dan Roberts, Sidetax
• Kevin Rooney , CIO/CSO, American Access Casualty
• Avelo Roy, Co-Founder, eMotion
• Victor Sanchez, Urki.me
• Kevin Sapp, Senior Vice President, Mesirow
• Bruce Schinelli, VP IT and CIO, TTX
• Stephen Speidel Global CIO, Insight
• James Stoynoff, President, Synthesis Solutions, LLC
• Ed Suda, Co-Founder, eMotion
• Guy Thier, CIO, Bally Total Fitness
• Patricia Todus, Associate VP & Deputy CIO, Northwestern University
• Kathie Topel, VP, IMPACTinsights, Part of SPR Companies
• Lac Van Tran, CIO, Rush University Medical Center
• James Vanek, CTO, Alternative and Quantitative Investments, UBS Global Asset Management
• Barbara Zeller, Assistant VP, IT, Nicor Inc
• Jason Zielke, Associate, Invention Bridge

ABOUT ICSTARS

Formed in 1999, i.c.stars is a non-profit organization in Chicago for adults with a high school diploma or GED. Using project-based learning and full-immersion teaching, i.c.stars provides opportunities to develop skills in business and technology. i.c.stars’ goal is to develop 1,000 Community Leaders by 2020. i.c.stars places 100 percent of its qualified graduates in jobs with average annual earnings of $35,700. Before completing the program, participants typically earn around $16,600. In 2006, i.c.stars partnered with DePaul University to ensure that i.c.stars alumni are admitted to the CDM and SNL Bachelors of Science program. Learn more on the web at i.c.stars.org.

ABOUT GETMETHERIGHTJOB

Getmetherightjob.com offers employers an inexpensive and revolutionary way to reduce the cost and the pain of finding, qualifying, interviewing and hiring great IT talent and contractors. As an employee advocate, the Company helps candidates successfully interview employer profiles, in depth information about the hiring manager, competency testing, links to the employer’s blog/news and a complete background on the hiring organization. GetMeTheRightJob also guarantees candidate satisfaction with an industry leading SLA http://getmetherightjob.com/docs/sla/.

The “Art” of doing nothing…

Posted on | June 25, 2010 | 1 Comment

As I have been helping a client build a business a very important  ”skill set” has come to my attention.  It is the “Art” of doing nothing.  It is the feeling you get when your toddler is about to fall down after you told them ten times about the crack in the side walk and you think…  ”Maybe this time I won’t say anything and they will learn”.

At this client we are working very hard in an entrepreneurial environment.  We are creating a new business model, we are aggressively in the marketplace, we are on-boarding customers, having success & failure and everyone is working very hard to meet our targets and goals.   We have thrown a global team of people together with loosely defined roles and asked them to do things that they might not be able to do, don’t want to do or simply can’t do, but everyone is giving it  their best shot.

This brings me to the point…  It is my responsibility to build the organization out as one of the founders and a key contributor to strategy and the overall business model.   Everyone involved has great passion for the company, the industry and making an impact.   So the other day as I listened in on our team trying to solve a very complex challenge around how to figure out what to do when and who should do what, I got my normal urge to walk in and try to start persuading them to do it “my way”.  I stopped myself and sat back down in my chair.

Even though we are at a critical stage in the business and we are building toward specific revenue goals and solving this problem will help us accelerate progress quickly,  I chose to do nothing!  Why?  Because we can not build a scalable business on the backs of a couple of people dictating what everyone should be doing and when.  If  we have the right people doing the right things they should be able to figure it out or get pretty close on their own.

The meetings got heated, the tension was building as I listened and the urge to jump in and provide a “solution” was insatiable.  I let it go and spoke to some team members afterward and they looked like they had just completed the climb to the summit of Mt. Everest.  I advised and mentored them and suggested that they re-group the next day and that we meet to discuss their solution the following day in detail.

The solution that was proposed was very close to what I was thinking might be the best approach to try.  The difference is they came up with it on their own in the heat of battle.  They are bought-in to the solution and dedicated to making sure that the execution of the solution is on target.  It cost us one day of time in progress but we gained an invaluable amount of learning in the area of Teamwork and Communication.

It remains to be seen if the solution will work but I know that this team will continue to fight, think, create and execute with passion because they are empowered to do so in our environment and the rewards come back in customer satisfaction and progress toward our goals.  This was a great light bulb moment for me.

The next time you think you have the answer… Stop! and do nothing.

Call Poison Control

Posted on | April 30, 2010 | No Comments

Here is a guest blog at Zoominfo by Ben Bradley from MaconRaine (http://maconraine.com).  These are some more findings from our recent work. 

If you have a bad sales process you better call poison control.

Excerpt -

“According to the 2010 Miller Heiman Sales Best Practices Study, less than 20% of respondents said they use a prospecting plan. Yet, roughly 75% of top-performing sales organizations said they are consistent in this activity. Where’s the disconnect?”…

Read the post here – http://bit.ly/9Hyrcj

Do Lawyers cut grass now?

Posted on | April 26, 2010 | No Comments

I have been doing a lot of collaboration and work with Ben Bradley at MaconRaine (http://maconraine.com) over the last few years.  We are getting close to finding the right mix of solutions to fix the broken sales, marketing and lead generation processes in B2B organizations.  Here is Ben’s take on some of our work.

Excerpt-

“When did the job of selling get lumped in with everything else? Asking a great sales person to clean CRM data, lick envelopes and turn over rocks looking for prospects is about the same as asking your attorney to cut the grass – it could be fun but overall, it is not a good use of skills, time or money”…

Read the article here http://bit.ly/adpHax

Uh Oh… Thinking of hiring a salesperson?

Posted on | April 22, 2010 | No Comments

If you are thinking about adding to your team, hiring your first one or just trying to figure out how to find “more customers” and “more revenue” this is something you should read.  If you do not come from a sales background and you are now responsible for sales, starting your own business or have changed roles during these tough times then it is no surprise that you might default to hiring more sales people to get more sales.  The old adage of spend money to make money comes to mind.  Except for most people it goes more like this… “Spend money, hope to make more money, fire the new person and start all over”.

This ties-in to the last discussion about “design thinking”.  When you approach your selling effort as a product development process you can learn much more about what is happening.  If you elicit feedback from your market & employees and understand your competition there is a much higher succes rate in building something that is sustainable and repeatable other than a continuous cycle of hiring and firing salespeople.  If you were to step back from the day-to-day and really examine what you are doing, you might find things are very different than they seem. 

Here are a list of things to look for:

1.  Do you know who you are selling too?  Do you have clean data for them?  Do you have a process to manage data collection, cleaning and communication?  Do you have a collaborative technology platform for the data?  

2.  Do you know how to be “useful” in the selling process?  Do you know what “job” you do for your clients?

3.  Do you have a big idea?  (For instance if you sell services you probably say something like this… “We have a methodology, we hire the best people, we have lots of customer references, etc…)  WHO CARES?  Everybody says this.  Come up with a big idea!

4.  Does everyone on your sales team operate at 100% of quota or more?

5.  Have you tried to buy “appointments” or “leads” with little or no success?

6.  Do you print a lot of “brochures” and create lots of PPT’s?

7.  Do you ask your sales team members to do too many jobs?   Prospect, Help Marketing, Find Data, Cold Call, Trade-Shows, Write Proposals, Manage Partnerships, Close Deals, Support Delivery, Account Manage, Grow the Account, Pick-Up Donuts for the office, etc…

8.  Do you execute “something” every month or better yet every week as part of your demand generation process?

9.  Do you use the web as part of your demand generation process?  Not just a request form but strategically using your site, social media, SEO, useful content, video and other things to drive the demand generation engine.

10.  Is finding more customers and more revenue really important to you?  What if you stayed flat?  What would happen then?  What if you hire and fire in a six month cycle again?

IF you can ask and begin to answer these questions you can start designing an efficient, scalable and repeatable sales process.  You can also begin to understand the roles of the people in the process and start hiring the right people for the right job with the highest likelihood of success.

Don’t hire this guy if you can help it!  Even if he is family…

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