Phil Lauterjung

Archive for September, 2009

A few years back I was head of sales for a $70 mil./yr. manufacturing company.  The Executive VP for the company and I had an ongoing debate over metrics to use in evaluating our leads.  His primary measurement was cost-per-lead.  While I felt it was good to know that number I also argued that it was rather meaningless unless we knew how much sales revenue, and over what period of time, we were getting from those leads.  Read more... (751 words, 2 images, estimated 3:00 mins reading time)

A number of years ago there was a very funny movie called City Slickers, and if you haven’t seen it go rent it.  You’ll be glad you did.  Briefly it’s about some New York ‘city slickers’ who get the bright idea to spend a couple of weeks at a working dude ranch out west.  Jack Palance plays Curly, a grizzled old cowboy who epitomizes what it means to be a cowboy.  In one scene he explains Curly’s Law:  Read more... (620 words, 2 images, estimated 2:29 mins reading time)

You’re a business owner sitting in your office pouring over the numbers from last month, trying to figure out how you can keep going without laying off anyone else.  The phone rings and the voice says, “Buddy, I’ve got THE answer to all of your business problems.”

You respond, “First off my name is Phil, and what in the world are you talking about.”  [I know, I know you probably would have hung up on the guy, but work with me on this scenario]

Caller:  “Listen Fred, I’m with XYZ Online Marketing and we can get your website on the FIRST PAGE of Google search results GUARANTEED!”  Read more... (489 words, 2 images, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)