September 2007, Volume: 10, Issue: e/6, ISBN 1527-5175

~~~ Core question... Want to increase your success rate? Then, find out how the prospect will measure success for the project you are working. Most economic developers assume the obvious - to get a new facility up and producing. This is the operational measure. Wrong thinking. Think strategic! To increase your success, you must move the conversation to a strategic plane. Find out how the client will measure success. Most prospects will not be able to give you an answer immediately. They probably have not thought it through either. They are probably working at an operational level. Probe, probe, probe. If you can't get an answer, find out who you can talk to and learn about their success measures for this project. Staying in an operational framework forces you to compete on cost, making it much harder to sell value. Source: Selling in An Economic Development Environment, Blane, Canada Ltd. workshop manual

~~~ Would your economic development team pass the test... We needed a commercial real estate company in a certain city quickly. We had several contacts in different economic development organizations in the community. Here is what what happened:

Contact 1)	Main number, no answer.
Contact 2)	Out for the week; referred to alternate party; got voice mail. 2a) Called the alternate; got voice mail.
Contact 3)	Voice mail for an unknown person (No title or department referenced to signal I was in the right place.)
Contact 4)	"I think I can get that. I will call you back." Called back with partial info in 7 minutes. Sent more info and details that evening by e-mail.

Results of 5 calls: Contact 1, no answer. Contact 2, e-mail response next day. Contact 2, alt never responded to the voice mail. Contact 3, no response to voice mail. Contact 4, successful response to my question - and my sincere appreciation for helping me out when I needed it. Is disfunctionality costing you opportunities? Marketing is worthless if there isn't someone to answer the phone or respond to the e-mail. Sometimes, tomorrow isn't soon enough.

~~~ On behalf of the Board... thanks very much for the presentation. I found your data compelling. Clearly the ability to benchmark is quite important. Your split of information between Portfolio and Product is brilliant." We take pride... in our primary research. We back our newsletter, articles, seminars, books, software, speeches and webinars with research. From our origin back to the early '80s our goal has been to share what we learn to broaden the profession's knowledge and understanding. We are humbled by your many positive comments. Thank you for your support. Quote: Chairman of the Board, International Association.

~~~ 7th Annual Synchronist Users Forum... October 3 - 5, Chicago. More than 60 Synchronist System Users (Internet based business retention software) from across North America gather will gather to share best practices and lessons learned. Some of the items on their agenda...

• Managing Service Delivery Requests
• Influencing Partners & Decision-Makers
• The Art of Analysis
• Portfolio Cluster Identification and Strategies
• Maximizing Return on Investment
• Synchronist CRTS - Synchronist Tools designed specifically for the Convention, Retail, Trade, Service side of the economy.
• Portfolio Scatter Plot Analysis

Info? Contact Nancy 630-362-9222 or nblane@blanecanada.com

~~~ Getting your newsletter every month... is like having a professional coach who reminds me of what's important, and it teaches me subtle nuances so that I can sharpen my game. And I'm damn good at what I do! But never so good that I don't want to learn something new every day." Terry Cusack, STELLAR Fundraising Executives, Inc.

~~~ Rural communities have two strikes against them... when it comes to competing in the 21st century economy according to Mark Drabenstott, Ph.D., an economist and director of the National Center for the Study of Rural America. "One is that they are typically in a commodity rather than product, business. The other is that they operate on too small a scale." Drabenstott's conclusion, "The only way to achieve critical mass is by partnering with other communities." Source: New England Developments, Summer 2007.

~~~ An expression of selflessness... Greg Last of Southlake, TX has developed a 2nd edition of the "Summary of Economic Development Terms" which is now available on the Internet. The 92-page summary includes over 740 terms intended as a reference and educational tool for professionals and Board members. Descriptive processes, typical requirements, recommended procedures and insights into its use in the economic development field are included. And Greg is not charging any fee for this contribution to the profession. To obtain your copy, the link is: http://www.cityofsouthlake.com/repository/unmanaged_content/Departments/EconomicDevelopment/Terms.pdf

~~~ Synchronist Users... Nominate your program or a partner for a Synchronist Award. Get the recognition you deserve. Many Synchronist Users have gone on to be recognized by Business Retention Expansion International and other regional and national organizations, as well. Call Sarah for details - 630-462-9222 or sgroninger@blanecanada.com.

~~~ File too large to send by e-mail... There are options other than breaking your document into multiple little files. Try http://www.sendthisfile.com, http://www.yousendit.com, or a service we previously recommended in ED Marketing Letter, http://www.xdrive.com. All are free services that will make easy work of sharing that very large file.

~~~ Is e-mail dead... Speaking of e-mail, are you tiring of the never ending pressure of too much e-mail? We get the personal e-mails of course, the cc, bcc and fw because someone on our team wants us to know "what's going on." Then, of course, there is the always increasing flow of junk mail. Personal effectiveness is increasingly difficult, but here are a few tips from some of America's biggest corporations who struggle with the same loss of productivity you wrestle with. A) Make the "subject line" stronger. Add detail to help the recipient recognize and find your important messages. B) Use bullets in the body of the e-mail to delineate the different elements being communicated. C) Use bold or underlining to draw attention to specific key works or phrases. D) "If you use e-mail to conduct business transactions in a conversational way, you'll end up with a full in-box." Brevity is essential. However, it is important not to be so brief as to appear as insensitive. E) Inside the organization, consider switching to Instant Messaging to handle some of what you are using e-mails for. It is quicker and easier to confirm a meeting with IM than a long series of e-mails. Source: Fast Company, July-August 2007.

~~~ Learn to think outside the box... "No problemo. The secret is to stay out of the box to begin with. You crawl into the box when you think about your problem and wrap its known obstacles around you. So quit. Focus instead on an interesting saying, quote, or phrase unrelated to your problem. Crawl inside that bit of wisdom and look at your problem from this cozy new perspective." This will take more than one saying or quote. This will take some practice. Persist. With practice this is an excellent method for stimulating new ideas. If you are tactically oriented as I am, use found objects. They can be equally valuable for stimulating your thinking. Quote: Roy H. Williams, The Wizard of Ads, http://www.mondaymorningmemo.com,
P.S. This is an excellent newsletter. It is on my personal must read list. Eric

Blane, Canada Ltd.
1506 Cadet, Suite 100
Wheaton, IL 60187-7380
ph 630.462.9222
fax 630.462.9210

info@blanecanada.com