Outpourings of sympathy swept across the globe as state leaders, business leaders and fans paid respect to the man who touched the daily lives of countless millions through the Macintosh computer, iPod, iPhone and iPad and altered the world through technology.

Will Apple face challenges in the absence of the man who was its chief product designer, ultimate marketing guru and salesman nonpareil? Or Will they move ahead with all that learning keeping their customer centric focus? I am sure Time will tell and more likely they will continue this successful stride..

I was amazed over twenty five years ago working on Apple II with a mouse and graphic user interface which was the first personal computer to gain a wide following.  I remember managing a Computer lab while doing my Masters in Computer Science. That was my first job and I had a blast being the boss that had access to these 50 odd Mac’s in the lab. I used to marvel at their word processing and Graphic capabilities at that time. Then came a bevy of amazing customer centric products like the Macintosh, macbook, Ipod, Iphone and Ipad that revolutionized the way we live and communicate.

So, Now is the Billion dollar question: We all have to relate to why so many world over grieved when Steve Jobs died? How many of your Customers will Cry when you die? (Some of our customers might actually be glad we are Dead if we don’t buckle up and focus on our Customers and touch our customers hearts with superior products/service-:)

It is indeed time to retrospect :

Are you meeting your customer’s expectations or could you be falling short?

Do you know how your customer’s actually perceive you?

How many of yours Customers will Cry when you die?

The answers to these questions could be the key to creating fans for your enterprise along with increased revenue opportunities and improved customer advocacy and retention.

Go Create those Fans for life from your Customer base. Keep asking yourself every day “How many of my Customers will Cry when I die?”. Try Make your Customers Cry when you Die exceeding expectations with every product/service of your everyway..

It had been over couple of decades since I started my career right after graduating. So, I had been in the rat race since and I couldn’t recall having taken a day off for myself. Vacations as far as I remember have always been with family or staff in the last couple of decades. Out of town trips have been primarily for business. But, I decided to take that leap and took off for a day right after our strategy sessions just to get back to my school after a full 25 years.

Landed at the Airport and I directly headed to our Reunion at St Johns School which was barely 10 minutes from the airport. But, this was one of the longest 10 minutes of my life. Loads of fond memories from the school flashed back as I drove towards my school after a long 25 years. At the School Entrance on the Honor Board was the name of each years Top champion and it was a proud moment as I had a tough time walking past it with my name still there from 25 years after topping the school.

As I entered our School auditorium, there was an aura of enthusiasm and I almost ran directly to the stage. It was a bit odd trying to recognize many of my old buddies from my class on the stage as it had been over 25 years since we met. It was time for loads of hugs and I had a great time meeting childhood pals. The time spent on stage felicitating our teachers was a moment to cherish. Glad we had a razor sharp HR team who arranged personalized Champion Teacher Awards for all my teachers with just couple of hours notice delivering them in-time before I could fly. I realized my joy giving them was far higher as I could see the joy in the eyes of our teachers.. I guess this basic leadership skill that you experience more joy creating it for others than for yourself took 25 years to dawn on me.

One of the best moments was when we were felicitating our Physics teacher I talked about how I got inspired because of his motivation and praising me in public in the class. This moment happened when I answered the definition of Parallax from a college library book instead of our school physics book. I got praised for being the only innovative one in the class to do that and that was a defining moment that I could recall even after 25 years. I went on to top the class and college eventually but some of these inspiring moments happened because of the Praise in public I received.

I came back with loads of Positive Energy and lessons to implement back at work. My Management Leadership session involved sharing this story and resolving to bring up a bunch of energizing ideas like the Honor Board with names of the top champions that energizes them as they walk by it. Praising in Public and Grading a 11/10 was a lesson to take from my teachers and implement it back at work. I told my management team to give some of our top innovative rookie champions a 11/10 and charge them up. Praise delivered  in public goes a long way and can literally motivate your champions to outperform.

I was reenergized and completely charged up ready to implement our strategy session decisions of our group with the positive energy techniques learnt way back from school. This story shared with my management team was one of the best personal stories that motivated them.

Don’t miss that next school or college Reunion. Yes, your family and work won’t miss you for a day and you deserve that break. Indeed it is time to recharge and positively energize. Go to the next Reunion and come back with loads of old friends and tons of positive energy.

We are at a juncture where Large Organizations,particularly Government Entities are starting to spend Billions in the years ahead Digitizing. eGovernance in this new decade ahead is going to be on with  full force world over.

My recent meeting with the CIO of a Local State Government that doled out tens of million of dollars for an Unique Identity (UID) project to us was an interesting one. The urgency and need of the hour  made them scout for corporates like ours with capabilities to execute these volumnous projects that need hundreds of resources deployed across the state. These projects obviously are not for small companies, The sheer volume of work ahead in going green dawned on me as I understood that over a Billion dollars was being spent by this state with under 20 million population. Investments to kick off Digitization and Unique Identity Projects involve deploying Hundreds of Computers and Resources with New age Biometric and Iris Recognition Equipment at Hundreds of centers. Digizitation sure seems to be the way ahead for Companies with Bandwidth to handle to Grow  Bigger. All of this, while enabling eGovernance and making the world a better place with Green momentum.

Organizations that have the resource bandwidth to handle the sheer volume of digitization work are now needing to buckle up and optimise their resource utilization to achieve economies of scale. The new year is here and Data Digization is going to be on Big time.. Are you ready to Expand your Business Multifold with Digitization capabilities – This new decade’s Mantra for Growth? You Better Buckle up, lest you will be left behind with your competition growing in leaps and bounds.

Organizations that adapt “GO GREEN” strategy are realizing significant cost savings via marketing expense reduction & better engagement of customers and prospects. It is a no brainer that you should move as much of your communication online to be effective and fast in 2010- Send your offers and promotions to clients and prospects online.  Today’s Personalization solutions, eCRM’s and Digital Video capabilities are really are pushing the limit as to how well you can engage clients online.

I was talking yesterday to a VP of a Fortune 100 software firm and realized how well they have moved most of their Enterprise software sales support Paraphernalia online. Flash Video content explaining software advantages, eZines and monthly eNewsletters along with Webinars are brining lot of these Tree Killing Direct Mail/Print operatives online. This evidently saved at least a couple of million in their Enterprise sales staff cost along with saving a ton of trees. This am sure is also helping them effectively personalize and send relevant communication via Bi-Weekly ezines/ nurturing messages.

If you can stay within the guidelines of law of the land like CAN-SPAM act, you can benefit using online medium to communicate. SpamCops and Spamhaus of the world have their hidden agenda to feed their own families by listing all email and online media promoters. They are sometimes ridiculous in listing legitimate email service providers and personalized B2B marketing communication as Spam.

Ensuring that you are abiding by the local eMarketing Laws via responsible personalized marketing works wonders. DMA cites every $ spent on email marketing yields $48 in return. As long as you are not bulk mailing to anyone and everyone in the world –Online communication opportunity is to be taken up pushing the “GO GREEN” envelope. Stop killing trees and Go Green today !!

SHRM noted in its Green Workplace survey that “Going Green” improved employee morale, Productivity and a strong positive image as a Environment Friendly Company. Companies the Go Green can reduce costs of Waste Disposal, paperless policies in offices can help save millions of pounds of paper and reduce release of greenhouse gases. All of this, while becoming Effective and Fast at Communication!!

Social Media like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc now provide opportunity to promote online via promotional offers and links. No need to cut Thousands of trees. Computer maker, DELL claims to have used Twitter to Generate Millions in revenue through offers to its followers instead of pushy directmail offers monthly that it used to send. Going Green seems to be the only sensible alternative to legitimate business. Let SpamCops focus on those selling Viagra online to consumers if they need to list someone. It’s time the rest of the Business world reduce Cutting Trees and improve relevant personalized email and online communication. It makes absolute business sense now and in the future!!.

GO GREEN !!.. It’s good for your Corporate Health & Wealth in 2010.

This enthusiast sales exec first offered one more Obituary in his competing Newspaper and to top it was actually upselling a Website with a neat Layout to Rest in Peace my Mom’s memories and Photos all for less than $60/year. This included the domain registration and hosting as well.  Heck, I couldn’t beat the deal despite having hundreds of staff and Tera bytes of Bandwidth in-house. He even guaranteed Lifetime uptime!! Not sure whose lifetime, but what the heck at $60/year including website design, hosting and maintenance, I didn’t want to bargain.

My mother taught me that “The Real Pride of a son being born for the Parents is not when he is born,but when people recognize his achievements in Public & Praise the parents”. I couldn’t get all that recognition in her lifetime nor the praise she deserved, but I did take this up to honor parents of our top champions since the last year as a tribute to her. I am glad each month when we have these Champion Parent Recognition awards ceremony, her Legacy is carried out with each Parent regonition. I can’t forget the beaming smile which doesn’t leave each Champion Parents face during the recognition event while they are being honoured for their kids achievement. This Parents pride is carried on later via Digital Photos and a Website citing recognition of their Champion Son/Daughter’s accomplishments.

I guess we can’t expect our Loved ones who parted to rest in peace at their grave with these Websites and Online Photo/Video memorials being created. But, Hey we know the future of digital online preservation is here and this a great way to cherish memories of loved ones for another life time. So, I am not complaining anymore with Digitization and Online momentum all around.

Socrates said “Be of good cheer about death and know this as a truth- that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death”.  As long as there are no mysterious Twitter Feeds from my Mom, I am ok with all of this. I believe this is the Digital Preservation package God has sent us to preserve the memories of our loved ones. Here’s a toast to all those Resting in Peace& their Kin who have deployed Websites to  keep their memories alive for another life time.

It’s time Funeral Homes & Cemeteries get ready with offering “LifeTime Digital Online Legacy Packages” to preserve memories and legacy of loved ones along with offering Caskets and a Place to Rest in Peace..

Event Marketing to Artist Positioning is all primarily Online now. For instance a search for Roger Shah on the Web first pulls his website, then his Myspace, WikiPedia and Facebook account links. Roger is Phenomenal on stage but so is he online as well and I am sure that is helping him become all the more popular. He has his music available online through his website. He has the detail of his tours and samples from his gigs available online for his fans. Talking to him about Online Marketing and expanding it, I realized He has a Online Marketing manager, He has a Professional team to position him worldwide and He is always looking for more local teams to help him position locally in each country.

On a similar note, a search for Claudia brings up at the top her Facebook, Myspace and Twitter account. Website or no Website – Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are here to stay and Marketers better learn these new tools to position themself. If Artists are doing a better job than most companies at positioning, it speaks for B2B marketers world over to get back to school and now before it is too late.

Your Competition is already Positioning itself online. They have taken their marketing Digital and 2010 will see you need to do the same.. Else, you are in for trouble or you will go under in 2010 – The choice is yours. Good Luck and God Speed with Digital and Social media marketing mix in 2010.

Real estate sector in particular is going to see a vast change in marketing strategies. Today, The primary focus of Reality Marketing is via newspapers and magazines, which is a terrible waste. Our Sunday paper has over a third of it full of unread classifieds. This terrible waste of marketing spend along with cutting of trees to print has to stop & Marketers need to Go Green to get their best returns.

The property you are trying to market has to start  showing up in local web searches and online with 360 degree web based  tours, sale/rent comparison and comprehensive details of the property. New Age Online Positioning of your real estate property or product is imperative to survive with video tours and 360 degree walk-throughs. Property Listings online, Recent sales comparables & sites like craigslist that let you publish your property details online for free are making the newspaper classifieds worthless.

Magazines and Newspapers with stale information from a week ago or month ago are a thing of the past. The omnipresent nature of social media with it’s ever accessible nature is going to make Property  and Reality Product Marketing sizzle online. An NAR survey sponsored by the Gooder Group found that 74% of people shopping for a real estate professional go with the first one they call. That means if you earn that first call from a prospect, you have a 74% chance of turning them into a client.

You’re not selling an inexpensive toaster. You’re selling mostly a six figure or seven figure product  that will have an impact on the finances and ultimate happiness (or unhappiness) of your clients. Words on paper can sell a toaster. Words on paper cannot sell your prospects real estate.

You know the importance of web visibility, because you’ve read the statistics about buyers and sellers using the Internet to find homes and real estate. Online Positioning, can get you prospects ready for the next step they might take (in this case, responding or emailing you proactively instead of you needing to hunt the world for leads). After that first contact, there’s plenty of time to show them your ability to deliver.

Give your real estate marketing a break and move online to see your marketing ROI expectations exceeded. Lot more response locally and some from across the globe is inevitable which will hopefully tickle you. Let online marketing and social media do what it’s best at. Let it move the prospect forward in your ultimate plan. Good Luck and God Speed!!

Companies are now using SMS often to contact both existing clients and prospects, indeed some reports state that it is now one of the preferred methods of communication for call centre’s – it is cost effective and fast and can hit large numbers very quickly.

Recently, we deployed a Project Delivery Application which sends SMS to appropriate Business Development Managers and Project delivery managers about  project delivery milestones/alerts. We also deployed a Personalized Text Campaign solution to mobiles targeting voters by constituency for a Political party wanting to reach out one on one to all the voters in the region. Both projects had absolutely great acceptance and I can relate to numerous applications to this SMS/Text messaging channel going ahead given that it is inexpensive and delivery rates are exceptional always in the 90+% range.

IV avoids the need for lengthy conversation and can get “straight to the point” within 1 minute however, the option for a prospective customer (depending upon the criteria set) to request a call-back, thereby offering the person to have the human interaction, but allowing the company to know that the call is now both expected and welcomed. Obama Campaign used all the traits of new age marketing but missed out on this superior channel which is already adopted by politicians in countries world over.

Linking Business data to SMS and Voice systems is a very effective method of managing a direct campaign: for example. If your data contains information that a Equipment Service contract expires on a certain date then a simple SMS message to the equipment owner advising and offering a service appointment may be seen as a godsend by the recipient AND has generated business for the sender when done at the right time.

Email has seen a reducing delivery graph for the last couple of years to the point where delivery rates world over are under 70%. Yet,Personalized email marketing, correctly conducted, is still a very powerful tool, which helps to build strong one-to-one relationships with customers, and for many successful companies it is now regarded as an essential marketing tool forming a fundamental part of the overall strategy.

I guess the silver bullets for the new marketing era ahead will be in IVB, SMS and EMAIL.. If you aren’t using some or all these channels -it’s time to shake up and wake up to the new age communication channels.

I would say it is time for Marketers world over to start looking at India or low cost countries and start using some real inexpensive yet effective “SlumDog Marketing Solutions” in the years ahead.

“Slumdog Millionaire” is a movie centered around a poor kid (just like 2009 marketing budgets) that goes on to become a millionaire by winning in a show on similar lines of “Who wants to be a Millionaire”. I guess, Every marketer wants to be Millionaire now and win all the way –but only sure way to do this is execute Marketing campaigns from Outsourcing capitals that can do these at less than half the cost and possibly better than your internal team.

Deriving Growth out of a “dwindled slumdog 2009 marketing budget” can push Marketers to move more budget online while getting projects executed seven seas across. Innovation in Marketing Outsourcing with capabilities to video conference and analyze performance on the other end easily make Marketing Outsourcing a long term solution..

Obama’s Push to create a sizzle in the economy and by other world leaders across the globe might take another couple of quarters to kick into action..

Sales & Marketing Key Decision makers today have a choice to be Millionaires and make our Companies billions by answering the slumdog marketer quiz without breaking the bank. Get ready for the “Three ways SlumDog Marketers ensure millions of revenues from new clients” .. Stay Tuned..

Studies consistently have proven that companies that have the intelligence and guts to maintain or increase their overall marketing and advertising efforts in times of business downturns will get the market share from their timid competition.

Understand the value in marketing consistently
Marketing is an essential function to any business it is also lifeline to surviving a recession. Through marketing, your business can reach new customers and gain sales from previous customers. Therefore, marketing is an investment (not an expense).

Have the guts to be more aggressive on marketing front
Being aggressive does not mean throwing money at every marketing facet available. It is important to take a strategic approach and spend more but spend wisely. It does take guts to spend more when the outlook is gloomy but it has been proven to pay off.

Consider Marketing Outsourcing
If you are inexperienced in marketing or if you are looking to reduce fixed expenses it is best to outsource marketing to someone who is strategic, creative, and has proven results and can do it at a lower investment. These days you can outsource to countries seven seas across which can do a much effective job.

Closely Measure Results
Measure results as they are key components during hard times. Sorry magazines and print, but if you don’t offer reporting and tracking you are down in the dumps in 2009 and going forward.

Diversify Marketing Spend
It is also important to take a strategic approach when you diversify your marketing budget. For example, if you are currently investing the majority of your marketing efforts in a Pay-per-Click Campaign, You might want to segment part of it for email campaigns.

Focus on Improving Conversions
Increasing conversions is one step closer to increasing sales. Typically, increasing conversion rates from 4% to say 8% is much easier than doubling your traffic.

Good Luck and God Speed..