thinking: relating- celebrating :-)

A few weeks back Microsoft paid a large sum for a very small slice of Facebook. There has been a lot of commentary but this post makes the most sense and includes some very good underlying reasons for that deal.

For some earlier discussion see Microsoft & Facebook on Rods blog. And over here on the valuation implications More on the MS/Facebook deal which quoted Nicholas Carr.

My comment at the time was: (It seems like the deal is much more about the advertising rights than anything else. This paragraph below is a direct quote from one of the news.com reports.)

“In a conference call on Wednesday afternoon with press and analysts, Van Natta and Kevin Johnson, Microsoft’s president of platform and services, emphasized that this deal is all about the existing advertising partnership between the two companies, which has been going on for over a year now. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, it should be noted, was not present on the call.”

However Marc Lehmann* has absolutely nailed it in his excellent post on the topic -Facetime with Facebook Bought Cheap. You should read his whole post - it is so good I wish that I wrote it.

(Marc is Founder of Saasu.com - and previously a Debt/Equity Trader at Deutsche Bank.)

Marc notes about 10 of benefits this deal achieves for Microsoft.

• Buys probably the equivalent of 10’s or possibly close to 100 million dollars worth of PR. Online, paper and TV. Screen real estate for 3 months as people speculate. So their Facebook spend isn’t 260mio already it’s a lot less.
• Wash Facebook brand onto Microsoft’s brand.
• Makes it easier for Microsoft to buy a blocking stake later. They already have a start now.

These are just the first 4 -read the rest of his list. And even better -this paragraph near the end.

And the best M&A trick of all is…
Microsoft pays up for the first chunk, then the seller/victim re-benchmarks price in their mind and any suitors that come along look cheap and nasty.

As a result new suitors say no to Facebooks attempts to get some price tension. The new suitors don’t even try. Then all of a sudden Facebook is left with their initial investor who has only bought a small percentage.

Time passes, more time passes and Facebooks business model of low cash and high cost is starting to show particularly as the US economic slowdown hits. What do you know Microsoft does not want to pay the same price any more.

There is a much bigger story on the Microsoft / FaceBook deal as Marc highlights extremely well.

Blog Note: If you spotted that my post frequency has been down lately - here is what happened. WordPress completed not 1 but 2 version upgrades (now at 2.3.1) recently and I thought my upgrade processes were at fault. Consequently have rebuilt the entire blog not once but 3 times!

After hours of testing on mirror sites and the live version finally concluded that at least one of my plugins was at fault. Today I found out which one that is - have now fixed the problem and there will be some catch-up posts including one on WP plugins and how you can maybe save some time if you have WordPress and run into similar issues.

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Sales research is a regular part of my role in helping to develop better results for my customers and their projects. Increasingly the first contact most of us have with a new business contact is via their website and that may be all the contact we have.

The question is- are we making it easy for strangers and prospects to do business with us. From a recent project where I looked at some 300 sites in NZ (+ Australia & elsewhere) - the answer is not very.

In fact there were still quite a number of companies without websites at all which makes it much harder to guess how they might be useful. There just isn’t enough time to call everyone any more and chances they’ll answer the call are also slim.

Usually I’m looking for a clear indication of what is most important to that business and some reason to explore further and maybe call them. Like many prospects I want to save time and get a clearer idea of specific areas where that company might be able to assist.

As I work on multiple projects in NZ and Australia there is a very wide range of sites and industries. Your future customers may be offshore and they too will likely check your website first.

Here are three of the better examples of sales positioning from the U.S, Australia and NZ.

Customer advocacy works!
This summary from a real estate agent got my attention. Hat tip to Andy who mentioned her in passing. There is almost too much information there including a video intro which I think we’ll be seeing more of. (Scroll to the bottom of the linked Mary Pope-Handy page. )

The style of the overall site is not to my taste but the real key in this is to make a meaningful connection with prospective customers.

Conveying credibility, honesty, respect and trust in a few paragraphs is not always easy but here is a paragraph that would have convinced me if I was I was looking for this particular service.

“Folks who are buying and selling homes in Silicon Valley are highly sophisticated. They don’t need a “sales job” but an advocate who provides them with good data and a way to make sense of it so they can make intelligent decisions that will have long-term benefits.

I work to help them, every step of the way, to analyze all the facts and stay current on everything affecting the buying and selling of homes: new laws, contractual changes and implications, trends, environmental issues and, or course, market conditions.

I use a lot of high-tech tools but keep an equally high-touch approach and am excellent at staying in constant communication. I am fortunate to always work with clients who are nice, honest, and committed to buying and selling - but also clients who refer me enthusiastically.

They tell me that they appreciate my knowledge, skills, dedication and determination, but above all else they recognize that I put their best interests first.”

Recognising that your customers are smart and that you need to add real value to the engagement process is critical. Understanding how to be professional and personal at the same time can win first chance at a new sale.

Law and legal services is a complex area and many prospects are wary of the expense and time commitments. Here is a great example of sharp positioning from Dilanchian who are intellectual property and innovation specialists based in Sydney. The site has almost too much information which is exactly opposite many of the larger law firms. One post in particular caught my eye - as sales positioning it has street appeal.

10 conversations about business models

“Listed in this post are 10 topics for telephone conversations we would happily have free-of-charge. If you want to discuss the topics call us whether you are a client, collaborator or a stranger. We’re proposing an open conversation to exchange thoughts, play cards and see where that might lead.”

1. What is affordable for you to do to increase the value of your business or go to the next stage?
2. How can you improve and secure revenues from intellectual property and fee for services?
3. Which branding and trade mark registration strategies help in an age of product proliferation?

Go there to check the other seven reasons and let me know what you think?

Collaboration Excellence
Also in the complex services space is the business of Michael Sampson who is focused on effective collaboration strategies and practice for a range of local and international clients.

“Michael Sampson helps people, teams and organizations improve performance through effective collaboration practices and technology.”

This site is is also information rich and engaging and but right there on the front page there is a single positioning sentence and a eye catching which cuts to the chase quite nicely. See speech graphic below.

So - does your website generate sales leads and support your business well? If so let us know what your top examples are. If not perhaps we can help. Ironically my services page needs an update now.