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2009-02-12T09:33:00.000-05:00

http://www.fintechmarketing.com/

Thank you,
Scott

Observations and musings from producing 2009 Bankers As Buyers

2009-01-20T14:38:00.002-05:00

Bankers as Buyers(tm) is a collection of research, observations and articles about what technology, solutions and services bankers will buy in 2009 and the changing financial industry landscape.

The full 2009 Bankers As Buyers study can be downloaded at:
http://www.williammills.com/images/pdfs/bab%202009%20final.pdf

This blog entry is about 1,200 words...down from the full report's 40 pages.

According to Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (June 2008 data) and Credit Union National Association (November 2008 data), the depository institution landscape is as follows:

Commercial Banks 7,146
Savings Banks 1,238
Credit Unions 8,064
Total 16,448

For the FDIC bank profile, see: http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Overall, Financial Insights is predicting a reduction in IT spending for North American banking. This will mark the first time Financial Insights has forecast negative growth for the industry since before the company and its predecessor firm started forecasting IT spending in the mid-1990s, according to Jeanne Capachin, research vice president, global banking, for Financial Insights.

By segment, TowerGroup predicts technology spending in banking to stay flat in 2009, with insurance and capital market segments down 6.2 and 8.3 percent respectively.

Such predictions indicate that 2009 will be one of the most challenging years facing bankers and the companies that provide financial industry products and services. Yet, despite ongoing concerns in the industry, the survey indicated definite areas where technology spending is expected to grow this year.

Interest in mobile banking applications remains red hot
Mobile banking was consistently referenced by sources and in studies as a channel that will see significant growth in 2009 and beyond. We’ve seen how mobile phones can be used as a self-service device, say to check balances. In 2009 and beyond, we’ll see more mobile payments and mobile marketing.

TowerGroup estimates that every month through the first quarter of 2009, between 150 and 300 banks and credit unions in the U.S. will sign contracts for mobile banking solutions.

According to recent Aite Group research, almost half of current mobile financial service users (45 percent) are likely to subscribe to a mobile data plan by the end of 2009.

Richard Crone of Crone Consulting LLC, sees continued growth in spending on mobile applications because they can bring financial institutions new customers and new revenue streams, which are in high demand with net interest revenue expected to be tight until the economy starts to turn around. “By providing mobile-friendly applications and by communicating with customers via e-mails, text messaging and phone calls to mobile devices, financial institutions will grow a loyal customer base,” Crone added.

Security is a driver for spending
The Independent Community Bankers of America 2008 Technology Survey revealed that 81 percent of respondents listed personal information security as their top priority for long-term technology.

The full report can be found at: http://www.icba.org/files/ICBASites/PDFs/2008techsurvey.pdf

According to the McAfee Virtual Criminology Report for 2008, “Cybercriminals are cashing in on the fact that the economic downturn is causing people worldwide to increasingly turn to the Web to seek the best deals, jobs and to manage their finances. They are preying on fear and uncertainty and taking advantage of the fact that consumers are often more easily duped and distracted during difficult times. In fact, opportunities to attack are on the rise.”

Javelin Strategy & Research indicated that the average ID fraud currently costs $5,574 per victim and takes 26 hours to resolve. “Most of the focus will be on information management – fraud, Bank Secrecy Act, compliance and those types of systems,” said Terrence Roche of Cornerstone Advisors.

Bankers are more open to outsourcing
If bankers can save money by having other companies safely run applications or take over data centers, they will sit up and listen. “Banks are increasingly favoring outsourcing and the SaaS model as opposed to software licensing requiring capital expenditures,” said Aite Group analyst Gwenn Bezard.

According to Virginia Garcia, senior research director for TowerGroup, “We expect SaaS to grow through 2009 and 10. There is a marked shift from installed technology to using Software as a Service.”

Capachin said that financial institutions are increasingly seeking to remove non-essential staff, including much of the IT department. She added that SaaS investments started growing more quickly in the second half of 2008, a trend she expects to continue in 2009.

Consolidation will mean more money spent on system conversion and integration
Systems integration spending is another area of concern as a result of consolidations of larger financial institutions. Acquisitions and consolidation of platforms will take precedence over any other new technology spending, Garcia said.

According to an Aite Group survey, banks are already struggling to meet the compliance burden with their current technology.

Regulatory pressure, compliance and using analytical tools to improve reporting may drive an increase in spending
Regulatory spending is one area that is a “have to have” not a “nice to have” area of spending. We will surely see more regulation and compliance initiatives in the second half of 2009. According to Jimmy Sawyers, partner, Securas Consulting Group, LLC, banks have most of the technology already to address new demands, but will need help pulling the information together.

Terrence Roche, principal with Cornerstone Advisors, indicated that regulators will want quick and thorough access to detailed information to ensure that financial institutions are meeting transparency and other regulatory guidelines.

According to Christine Barry, research director for Aite Group, the largest banks need to have the right analytical tools in place to better evaluate creditworthiness and predictability. Now it is more important than ever for banks to lower their risk.

“Better analytical tools will help financial institutions increase their collections,” says Capachin. “Good analytics can help a financial institution determine which outstanding accounts will result in the best returns.”

Community banks and credit unions are seeing some growth
The survey highlighted resurgence among community banks because they did not participate in exotic loan products. An ICBA study reveals that 70 percent of community banks saw an uptick in deposits within the past 12 months and that 11.6 percent experienced a rise in new interest checking accounts in the third quarter of 2008.

According to an American Banker article, credit unions now have a 4.5 percent share of mortgages compared to two percent just five years ago.

Jimmy Sawyers said, “Community banks are a lot more nimble.” He added that as the cost of technology continues to come down, he expects smaller financial institutions to take advantage of customers’ renewed interest in community banks by installing systems that enable customers to access account information via telephony and online systems.

These institutions are focusing their technology spending on customer service and self-service technologies to take advantage of customers’ increased interest in doing business with local financial institutions.

In closing, while low projected technology spending in 2009 will make the environment much more competitive for vendors, the good news is that pricing will be better for financial institutions. This industry spends more on technology than most industries – billions and billions of dollars per year.

Selling to financial institutions in 2009 will require sales organizations to be very aggressive and show a quick return on investment; marketers will need to help create more leads and help companies uniquely position themselves against the competition; and companies will have to demonstrate a “Ritz-Carlton-” level of customer service to retain business.

END

Featured articles in the study include:

“Vendor Strategies in the Financial Services Sector” by Jeanne Capachin, Financial Insights, an IDC Company

“Credit Unions: Time to Optimize Your Delivery Strategy” by Richard Crone, Crone Consulting, LLC

“Top Ten Trends Impacting Bank Technology for 2009” by Jimmy Sawyers, Securas Consulting Group, LLC

“Redefining the Value Experience in Banking” by Dennis Roman, TCS Financial Solutions

Real Estate Technology News (RETN) folds

2009-01-13T08:27:00.003-05:00

If you market technology or related services to the mortgage or real estate market, you should note that there is one less news outlet. News from October Research --

Real Estate Technology News folded into Title Report and Valuation Review this month

As of Jan. 1, the online content for Real Estate Technology News is being integrated into several of our other premier publications. Building on the wealth of stories written over the past seven years, the October Research editorial staff will continue to provide critical technology news and analysis for each of our markets.

We encourage you to visit our other publication Web sites to access our First in Class coverage of the real estate and settlement services industries:

Valuation Review (www.valuationreview.com)

Title Report (www.thetitlereport.com)

Banker As Buyers 2009

2009-01-07T09:19:00.002-05:00

Available for download at:

http://www.williammills.com/images/pdfs/bab%202009%20final.pdf

Please feel free to share the information with your friends and business associates. This year's study runs 40 pages -- I will have a summary version in a few weeks for you as well.

Best regards,

Scott Mills, APR

Community financial institutions are growing (and spending money)

2008-12-22T13:38:00.001-05:00

There have been several articles within the last week that may focus vendors toward community banks and credit unions (community financial institutions – CFI’s for short). Articles cite larger banks as holding on to capital; tightening up lending standards, lowering credit card limits and closing unprofitable accounts. For the most part, CFI’s have avoided the more risky mortgages, are better capitalized (ratios), retain more servicing rights and generally treat customers better (because they know them).

If you are an American Banker reader, I suggest you look at:

1. Web and Branch Sign-Ups Give Small Banks Mortgage Lift, By Kate Berry, Friday, December 19, 2008

2. Small-Bank Tech Spending Up While Bigger Players Cut Back, By Will Wade, Friday, December 19, 2008

For a great article on CFI successes of late, read:

USA TODAY More bank customers think smaller institutions these days, By Pallavi Gogoi, December 21, 2008

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/2008-12-21-small-community-banks_N.htm

Well done holiday video from QuestSoft

2008-12-19T10:32:00.000-05:00

Tips from a banker on selling IT to a $2.8 billion bank

2008-11-25T16:29:00.000-05:00

Recently, I saw Barbara Perino, senior vice president of operations and technology for The Washington Trust Company address a room full of bank vendors. While other speakers painted a gloomy picture of the industry, she provided insights on how vendors should approach her and the bank’s spending priorities in technology and related services in 2009.

About Washington Trust:
· Founded in 1800
· Based in Westerly, Rhode Island
· 17 branches
· Four wealth management offices
· $2.8 billion in assets (as of September 30, 2008)
· Earnings before taxes = 40% from retail, 34% from business banking and 26% from wealth management
· Washington Trust Wealth Management (a division of the bank) has approximately $4 billion in assets under administration

Perino aligns technology spending with the bank’s strategic goals, only considering projects and/or vendors who can demonstrate either a positive ROI or show an ability to mitigate risks and threats to Washington Trust. She said that her 2009 spending priorities will be “highly-focused,” likely on electronic document management, mobile banking, business intelligence for client retention, wealth management systems and compliance/security.

Tips for selling to her:
· Know the bank’s budgeting cycle
· Convince them of the value – is there a direct impact on the bottom line?
· Does it fill a void for customers or improve the customer experience?
· Will it give the bank a competitive edge?
· Will it mitigate risk or eliminate a single point of failure?

Best practices:
· Incent for a longer contract (don’t wait until the contract is up, do it early)
· Explain what is included in the annual maintenance fee (note: she does not like to pay for the first year maintenance fee).
· Align your technology or service to the bank’s existing strategic partners
· Demonstrate or prove that the technology integrates with other systems
· Provide testimonials/case studies
· Provide referrals of similar-sized financial institutions
· Provide white papers

Thank you Barbara for your time and perspective.

YouTube experiment -- inserting code

2008-11-11T13:28:00.000-05:00

I'm testing out the code provided from YouTube for the above video. If you are interested, the video was made using the slideshow feature in iPhoto...then converting it to .mov file. If this works like I hope, I'll be sharing more information with my customers.

As background, the Innisbrook Group is a peer network of agency owners (PR and advertising), which meets twice a year. We discuss new business efforts, operational issues, client retention and more. As seen in the video, we also tend to eat well, drink wine and enjoy our time together.

If you have questions about the YouTube experiment or Innisbrook, don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Scott

When the question of writing style comes to a head…

2008-11-06T09:55:00.002-05:00

There have been a handful of times when clients and the agency have disagreed on writing style. For the record, our style for press releases is very lean and written for the media we are trying to reach.

WMA beliefs regarding release style --

* If you can say what you need to say in 150 words instead of 300, use 150;

* Avoid buzzwords that make the media wince, such as “revolutionary;”

* IF (I repeat, if) you must include “salesy” language, put it in the executive’s quote;

* If writing about something complex, do your best to present it in a way even your mom would understand; and

* Answer the “so what/who cares?” question in the first paragraph. Don’t make people search for why this news is important. (Hint: if it is not really important, consider not doing it.)

So your boss or client is asking you to write and distribute what you know in your gut is not the best material.

My rule on working with clients:

1. Recommend something to them
2. Do your best to persuade them to do what you recommend
3. Present & argue your case again, then let the client make the call.

Clients have the right to make mistakes, despite our best efforts to the contrary. Be practical, don’t lose your job or the client relationship over a disagreement in style.

Doing your best to keep employees happy...

2008-09-25T13:53:00.001-04:00

If you are in a position whereby you hire and manage employees, you might like to see this piece from Catalyst featuring yours truly.

http://www.catalystmag.com/Articles/2008/September/Happy_Employeesx_Better_Bottom_Line.html

Consider your contracts in light of future bank consolidation

2008-09-25T10:02:00.000-04:00

I had one client who was extremely confident in his contracts. When asked about the affect on his business when one bank client acquired another client, he responded, "It does not matter -- I'm going to be paid either way."

I've lost PR clients when they lost business due to acquisitions. While I have not surveyed clients on the subject, I know some companies are better prepared for bank acquisitions than others. I am certain that how well you craft your contracts today, will impact revenues down the road.

Consider how your contracts can be constructed to provide a little protection your company, in anticipation of bank mergers and acquisitions.

"You all know the paradox we find ourselves in,"

2008-07-03T08:42:00.002-04:00

Times Editor Russ Stanton said in a memo to the staff. "Thanks to the Internet, we have more readers for our great journalism than at any time in our history. But also thanks to the Internet, our advertisers have more choices, and we have less money."

In a recent article, the LA Tims reported they were cutting 150 jobs in the editorial department. Thant brings the editorial group to about 700 down from a high of 1,200 in 2001.

I'm sharing this because it really illustrates how dramatically the world of news and information has changed. We have more people reading more stuff from more sources,
e.g., blogs.

As a PR practitioner, I'm seeing more targets and looser editorial standards. Companies and individuals are far more likely to be confronted with a negative or down right nasty piece by a blogger, which gets shared via RSS. Additionally, the piece could have a very long shelf life on the Internet and Google.

I predict in the next 12 months, you will see a news story about how a blogger got it wrong and ruined a company or person's good name.

Crisis communications has changed for all of us.

Can we close a deal?

2008-06-05T07:18:00.000-04:00

Richard Bitner author of “Greed, Fraud & Ignorance: A Subprime Insider’s Look at the Mortgage Collapse” and co-founder of HousingWire stopped by the office yesterday. I must admit he was better than I expected – entertaining, informative – just a good representative for his organization.

Every company needs good ambassadors for the brand.

It seems as though I get asked a lot, “Do you know any good sales people?” I unfortunately see companies who tolerate people who either cannot sell, or worse, make a bad impression on the prospect. Sales people in the first camp are almost always the people who complain the loudest about needing more tools developed, such as interactive demo’s or brochures, that will make it easier for them to close deals.

So what is the impact of a subpar sales person on an otherwise very good public relations and marketing campaign? I have my theories, however, I am confident we all need to ensure consistency and superior performance at every touch point in the sales cycle.

Enjoy your summer.

What can I do with this article? A look at copyright

2008-04-25T12:47:00.000-04:00

We discovered the CEO of a company we serve emailed a PDF’s of an article we generated through the public relations program. While I am not an attorney, I prepared the following guidance regarding appropriate use of copyrighted materials.

Dear Customer:

You asked for an opinion about the use of copyrighted materials generated from the public relations program. As background, I have recently had some uncomfortable discussions with a publisher regarding our forwarding articles to clients and his insistence that he be paid for his company’s work product. (This is reasonable considering how they make money – subscriptions and reprint rights.)

The good news is there are several options that will not break the bank (or break the law).

The challenge: We cannot legally use the text of an article without permission. Typically, this requires a reprint rights payment (which can run several hundred dollars). On some rare occasions, a publication may give you rights if you ask them.

The risk: Your company could get sued for distributing or posting a magazine’s copyrighted materials. The media outlet could also decide to ban your company from appearing in the publication.

The solutions: Your company could pay for reprint rights or rely on “fair use.” In short, fair use is the legal use of portions of copyrighted materials. For example, we can quote a statistic or pull a sentence from an article, as long as we accurately quote and/or reference the source. Another condition is that we may not use so much information that we “lessen the marketability” of the materials – meaning, we cannot share large portions of an article or key findings, which would thereby make the original materials irrelevant. Think of it this way, if a company e-mailed the key findings of an analyst report that cost $2,400 – why would anyone pay for the original?

Here are a few examples of how we can use the fair use provision to share the good news about your company and illustrate how we are recognized by the leading industry publications:

1. Use the headline of the article, cite the publication and briefly describe the context of your company as seen in the article.

2. Write an abstract of article, usually one paragraph. MBA’s NewsLink e-mail newsletters use this technique often (see http://www.mbaa.org/NewsandMedia/MBANewsLink).

3. Link to an online version of the article on the publisher’s website.

There will be some articles that are so favorable that you will want to purchase reprint or PDF rights to share with prospects, investors and customers. Please don’t hesitate to call me about this or any other issue.

Best regards,

Scott Mills, APR
President
William Mills Agency

Online evolution continuing in mortgage publishing...

2008-02-20T07:53:00.000-05:00

In an email dated 2-19-08, Anthony Garritano, editor of Mortgage Technology Magazine, said of the print edition of Mortgage Technology magazine, "...there will be fewer of them and they'll be geared around prominent industry trade shows."

Citing printing costs, SourceMedia will make the monthly magazine available for download from their Web site.

http://www.mortgage-technology.com/

Commentary: I'm looking forward to more articles available online. Information can be shared faster and likely more subjects covered. With publishers favoring online at the expense of print, you will see fewer in depth, long-form articles addressing trends and strategy.

A few updates on online publishing for the financial industry...

2008-02-12T10:09:00.000-05:00

It seems everyone in financial publishing is looking to do more with their online products, which I find amazingly interesting (one publisher laughed when I told him I get excited about this stuff).

Here are a few developments of note (in no particular order):

* American Banker now offers ABTV for free, whereas the newspaper's online service has been for paid subscribers. Please visit http://www.americanbanker.com/pagedisplay.html?pagename=ABTV

* ABA Banking Journal has revamped their website and has made the magazine available in a digital format. There is a NEW PRODUCT section, which is actually a very rare feature in bank publishing (more magazines require end user testimonials before they will write about new products/services). Please visit http://www.ababj.com/index.php

* Our friends at Zackin Publications has an online blog/portal for real estate finance professionals called MortgageOrb. Please visit http://www.mortgageorb.com/

* Data and physical security seems to be getting more attention these days. To that end, BankinfoSecurity may be of interest. Please visit http://www.bankinfosecurity.com

Enjoy!

Bankers As Buyers 2008 is now available (free)

2008-01-15T16:04:00.000-05:00

For the full report, go to -- http://www.williammills.com/images/pdfs/bankers%20as%20buyers%202008%20final.pdf

Bankers As Buyers 2008

The focus of Bankers As Buyers is to help financial institutions (banks, credit unions and lenders) and those companies serving them, validate their strategic IT direction/ concerns and compare investments in technology by type and/or direct further research.

Mobile Banking on the Move
This past year saw real progress by large banks in offering mobile banking. This year’s report discusses what we can expect to see in 2008 and a few suggestions on how banks should approach roll out strategies. You might want to check out the article by Richard Crone, Crone Consulting, LLC and Debbie Wood, Jack Henry & Associates.

Credit Markets Reshape Industry
2007 was rocked by the slow down in the housing and mortgage markets. I expect lenders to look at improving fraud detection; property value analytics and any technology or process that will turn fixed costs into variable costs. We could also see additional spending in the coming years to address new compliance/disclosure rules that have yet to be defined.

U.S. Banks Now Thinking Green
We may be behind Europe in going “Green,” but we started to see announcements from banks about green programs. Were you aware that there is an Environmental Bankers Association (www.envirobank.org)? Some technologies, such as, Remote Deposit Capture, can be positioned as solutions which support financial institutions good works initiatives. Green programs are discussed in the “Other Spending” section of the report.

Security Continues to be Major Issue
Some themes continue to resonate, particularly, systems and data security. With more services shared over the Internet and email with customers; and customer data handled by bank vendors, we will continue to find weaknesses in systems and look to technology to help us solve those problems. Security, fraud and data integrity are discussed in several sections of the report and in our featured articles section.

Banks Use Technology to Aid Customer Growth
Are banks getting better with the “customer experience” than last year? While banks often look at customers in silos, our take is that most vendors are working on solutions to help banks better know their customers; analyze the opportunities/risks; present offers through multiples channel and close business faster. Bank employees will rely more on technology moving forward to grow business. For more on this topic, please see the “Mobile Banking” and “Customer Service” sections and the article by Terence Roche, Cornerstone Advisors.

Bankers As Buyers is created with the help of knowledgeable consultants and professionals in our industry. This year’s survey has been greatly enhanced by information provided by or originally published by:

ABI Research
Aite Group, LLC
Celent Communications
Cornerstone Advisors
Crone Consulting, LLC
Dove Consulting
Financial Deposit Insurance Corporation
Financial Insights
Independent Community Bankers of America
Javelin Strategy & Research
Securas Group, LLC
TowerGroup, Inc.

It is our pleasure to provide you with this 2008 edition of Bankers As Buyers. While the material is copyright protected, you have our blessing to share this document with your business associates, clients, prospects and friends within the industry.

Sincerely,

Scott Mills, APR
President
William Mills Agency

What I learned from the World’s Softest Robe and other observations of the decline of the U.S. banking tradeshow

2007-10-28T10:01:00.000-04:00

No more Beach Boys singing on Miami Beach or B.B. King at the New Orleans House of Blues. Gone are the lavious corporate parties with glowing ice cubes in the cocktails and endless hospitality.

Bad sign #1 – when vendors say, “What traffic I am getting is good…I just wish there was a lot more of it.”

The U.S. banking tradeshow industry has been on a downward decline since 2001. I have only attended one show since, whereby vendors have been excited to be there.

We are seeing fewer attendees (potential buyers), fewer exhibitors, increasingly modest sponsorships and smaller booths. More vendors are trading in their exhibitor applications for attendee badges.

As a vendor, the return on your tradeshow investment is how well you use your time. Are you using every breakfast, lunch, cocktail hour and dinner for achieving your objectives? Are you walking the halls for potential partnerships and garnering industry intelligence?

Can’t attend all the sessions? Get copies of presentations you cannot attend.

Often what pushes the ROI into positive territory is your ability to advance your mission with the sponsoring association, analysts and media. Generate good will with the association – learn how you and your company can have a more mutually beneficial relationship. Visit with media if you have something important to share (most reporters are extremely busy at shows, so they need to know you have something they can use). And finally, meet with analyst to who are influential within your area of financial services.

Bad sign #2 -- when vendors talk to other vendors to make the time go by faster.

I’m seeing a trend in the value of vendor user conferences, which in general, appear to provide more quality access buyers, enable you to have a bigger impact with your booth and better treatment from the host.

Recently, my friend and co-worker, Kelly Williams, and I had 30 minutes to decide on our booth giveaway – and we had to buy in within the cavernous Opryland Hotel in Nashville. While visiting the gift shop of the spa, we settled on a robe. The robe’s tag read, “World’s Softest Robe.” We picked a gender-neutral color and we were on our way. We made a sign that read, “Win the World’s Softest Robe,” and placed it on top of our display table. The hall doors flew open and we were mobbed. People had to touch the robe to see if it was in fact the world’s softest. Business cards were excitedly thrown into the card bowl -- it was amazing.

There were a couple of “takeaways” from the robe giveaway, but the most important one is that you need to give attendees a reason to stop by (a well-designed booth or large logo rarely does it alone). While the robe may have limited appeal based on the show, find out what your compelling reason is for the attendee to stop by.

Bad sign #3 -- when vendors swap Tsatske (sounds like chotch-keys) with each other for the kids.

Tradeshows offer a unique opportunity for the financial services community to gather. Using your time and planning ahead will make the difference between “waste of time” and “time well spent.”

Bank Technology Spending History and What We Can Expect Moving Forward

2007-09-20T10:36:00.000-04:00

I was asked recently to write an article for a client's newsletter. This may be helpful to people marketing technology solutions within financial services industry...

Crystal balls are, at best, cloudy, but the study of current trends and data to predict the future is still an important business exercise. This is especially true in the banking industry because technology is such an integral part of bank operations and also a major line item in budgets. As the editor of Bankers As Buyers ™ for the last five years, I have collected and shared research from some of the most respected sources in the banking industry. This study has always been written from a “looking forward” view—what would drive technology and related expenses in the coming year.

In preparing this article, I reviewed five years of information to see patterns and clues as to what we could expect in the coming years. Each year seemed to bring new priorities and concerns to the forefront, but budgets and expenditures followed similar patterns. Here are a few highlights and consistent themes from the past:

2002
As an industry, we expected to spend $28 billion—$34 billion in technology in the U.S., about 4 % more than the previous year.

What was the buzz? Internet banking and competition from “non-traditional” institutions. Spending on Internet banking was expected to lead all of technologies for the year.

2003
Most experts believed banks were going to cut IT budgets and look for cost savings. However, banks saw Customer Relations Management (CRM) and outsourcing as a factor that would lead to increasing revenue.

What was the buzz? Fraud, USA Patriot Act, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, OFAC and looking forward to Check21. Regulatory demands and fraud were the biggest concerns for bankers.

There was also an increased interest in self-service and “cross-discipline operational efficiency.”

TowerGroup noted one-third of technology spending was with third parties.

2004
Technology budget growth fell into the mid-single digits with predictions in the 3-5 percent range. An eye-opening 81 percent of the budgets were expected to maintain legacy/existing systems.

What was the buzz? Consumer banking technologies that helped banks competitively deliver financial services.

Experts said banks were becoming more efficient.

2005
Financial Insights saw an increasing importance in linking diversified, siloed applications as a means to provide flexible operational environments.

What was the buzz? Enterprise-wide systems security, fraud detection and prevention. It drove technology spending decisions and ranked as Community Banker’s number one concern according to a poll.

Jimmy Sawyers of Reynolds, Bone and Griesbeck PLC noted new technology budget items, such as IT audits, policy development, and risk assessments.

2006
Spending increases in technology were once again mid-single digits.

What was the buzz? Organic growth, online authentication, distributed check capture and privacy laws. Customer loyalty and integrating retail channels were seen as strong drivers for decisions. CEOs looked to technology to help with compliance and increase revenue.

Compromises in data such as lost laptops, were on the industry radar.

There was also more discussion of open systems technology standards to help facilitate integration efforts and connectivity to third-parties. Also, “workflow was in the air,” according to one source.

2007
Technology spending was predicted to be about three percent. Regulatory/compliance and market forces are driving technology spending.

What was/is the buzz? Customer-centric growth, Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), Service Oriented Architecture/Software as a Service (SAS) and technology spending on new projects, not just supporting legacy systems.

Banks are looking to achieve return on investment on technology within one to two years.

Seventy-three percent of banks report at least one application with a third party.

Banks are also interested in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), but not buying CRM systems.

Here are a few “takeaways” for me:

1) Technology budgets stay relatively flat from year to year. Therefore, you are more likely to get more from your investment by having strategic partner relationship with key vendors, thereby helping you build business cases, better allocate budgets and provide advisory services in their areas of expertise,

2) Business conditions and outside influences such as the regulatory environment are a drain on resources and technology budgets. You are expected to do more with what you have. Look for ways to leverage existing technologies, data and improving business processes as a means to help you better understand the customer,

3) The trend toward third parties/outside vendors will continue to grow as the complexity of systems increase and vendors can show superior operational prowess, and

4) Enterprise wide efforts trump siloed efforts in terms of strategic importance.

Bankers As Buyers has continued to grow in popularity over the years with vendors and bankers alike, as a tool in planning and positioning technology and having strategic value. If you have some ideas about 2008 or would like to contribute to the next Bankers As Buyers, please don’t hesitate to contact.
Scott Mills.(678-781-7201 or scott@williammills.com)

Searching for True ROI Measurement of Public Relations Programs (Business-to-Business)

2007-05-21T09:26:00.000-04:00

As a business owner myself, I fully understand that, when decisions on how best to allocate budgets are made, the preference is to base those decisions on the ability to easily, quantifiably measure the return on investment of the product or service. As a Public relations professional, I also fully understand that we, as a group, and our clients, have been thinking about and discussing effective ROI measurement in greater detail over the last few years because everyone (PR practitioners and clients alike) seems to be more accountable than ever before.

If my clients had larger budgets to work with, I would welcome regular primary research to uncover perceptions and track awareness in their respective target markets. However, it is significantly more difficult (and expensive) to survey specific titles and departments within financial institutions, than to survey 18-22 year olds on their mobile phone preferences.

Therefore, we have to look for ways to effectively measure business-to-business public relations programs in ways that are both affordable and manageable.

Historically, the most common measurements have included: number of article placements; value of placements (based on advertising equivalents); number of impressions; and impact on website traffic.

Higher-level measurement can include effort or output (not all activities result in clips) and ranking the value of media placements based on a pre-determined objectives, e.g., publication A is more important than publication B.

Ranking placements by context becomes more important -- was the company mentioned in an article or were they the focus of the piece? Did the article position the company as a subject matter expert? Could the company use article reprints for direct mail or for the company website?

Advanced measurements can include factors such as: number of strategic introductions, like those with key media, analyst firms or other companies that are potential partners/acquirers. Another factor is how well the PR team prepares and trains executives for interviews, which can be done with a series of focused media training sessions.

A media audit at the beginning of a new relationship can be a valuable method to provide a benchmark for media relations efforts and to better quantify success.

A few additional, more difficult to measure things to consider when evaluating the PR team itself:

1. Does the PR team deliver both tactically and strategically? Are they someone I would call on for advice at a critical time?

2. Do they understand my value proposition, position in the market and does that translate in company communications?

3. Does the PR team work effectively with others within the organization? Are they responsive?

Public relations programs can have a profound impact for organizations. Deciding how to measure activities and results can help everyone know how well they are performing and foster a more beneficial professional partnership moving forward.

“Should I put a $1 in public relations or in to direct sales?” – a common investment decision

2007-05-20T11:20:00.000-04:00

I have had many conversations over the years whereby people have considered the fate of a communications program based on its impact to sales. The thought being, “At least with another salesperson, I know there will be someone calling on prospects who can buy or customers whom should be using more of what we have to offer.”

In a business-to-business environment, companies that sell a solution, professional service or information need people who can close deals. God knows we could all use a few more competent people like that. There is a link between public relations to sales, but it is more likely to be a part of the sales chain.

We do hear about a door that opened, a spike to the company’s website or request for a demo because of a well-placed article or finely written press release. Capturing these stories is akin to our industry’s “Cobbler’s children having no shoes.” It is important, but we are all too busy to track them down.

And if we do, there is usually someone else there to take the credit with us. A long time ago at a ceremonial contract signing, my friend Sandy Greer, said to me as I was taking his picture, “Scott, don’t you want to take credit for this deal too? Everyone else has.”

The question is one of scope: a new sales rep might touch 100 people in his or her territory, the vast majority of which are not active prospects. A well-executed PR campaign reaches 1000’s and educates them on your company, products and value proposition - driving qualified buyers toward your organization and making them more receptive when that salesperson does call. If you don't have marketing cultivating the market, hiring a new sales rep can prove to be an inefficient activity.

So why is the decision to stop a public relations pitted against hiring another sales person? They shouldn’t. If it is a matter of cutting expenses, maybe there are other parts of the budget that need to be reexamined first.

The Only Brand that Matters

2007-03-05T11:54:00.000-05:00

There is an old saying that goes something like, “I don’t care what they call me…as long as they call me.”

When you are selling products, services, information and or technology solutions to banks or other financial institutions, the point is to make it easy for someone to buy. That means they have to know who to call. Bankers buy from people and companies – they don’t buy products.

What? That’s right, bankers select vendors, not products. According to my friends at Financial Insights, most bankers see technology as a commodity. So the major difference between product A and product B are the companies behind them. Vendors have to show they are capable, well-run businesses with staying power.

From a practical standpoint that translates into focusing your money and effort in promoting the company and capabilities – the company brand, not products, is the only brand that matters.

The “Complex Sale” in Financial Services, Part 2

2007-02-09T10:32:00.000-05:00

Previously, I wrote about the “complex sale” as those sales to financial institutions, which are usually characterized by:
• A sales process that involves a committee or input from multiple people,
• Buyers who seek multiple options,
• Long sale cycles, and
• Decisions that address a strategic need or solves a mission-critical issue.

Getting to “safe” status means convincing your prospects that your company, even if small or new, is the right choice. The earlier post described the challenge and some insights on accomplishing the mission.

Now, let’s look at how to get to safe status through communications. As background, most everyone in our industry who manages or owns the marketing/communications area of a company did not arrive there via a straight line or career path. Most came from sales departments or did marketing in other industries. I don’t believe there is a “Marketing to Financial Institutions” degree available either. Therefore, most people have to learn on the job and through personal experiences.

Working at a public relations firm that specializes in this industry has afforded me a chance to see how a number of companies approach marketing communications. There are best practices and a few universal truths. The most important truth is that you need to establish your company and its executives as thought leaders.

Thought leadership means you are discussing issues facing the industry. It means you have an opinion or position. It means your company executives are well-read (READ THE TRADES!) and have a good clue as to where the industry is going – at least in the area in which you do business.

Thought leaders are recognized because they work at it and are consistent. It takes an investment in time.

Thought leadership campaigns are aligned with company goals and objectives.

Unfortunately, measuring the return on thought leadership is not as easy as counting the number of phones calls received, number of meetings or by the column inch of article placements.

So should we do it? Absolutely. Make it the centerpiece of your marketing efforts. Everything else you do should reflect on your reputation as that of an industry leader.

Bankers As Buyers 2007

2007-01-25T08:09:00.000-05:00

My first post of the year is appropriately enough, Bankers As Buyers. It is a look at how U.S. bankers are going to spend money on technology and related services in 2007.

If you would like to be considered for inclusion in the next edition, please shoot me an email at scott@williammills.com

To access the full report, please follow the link below, enjoy.

Scott

http://www.williammills.com/pdf/bab2007.pdf

Media training is not just for political candidates…

2006-11-20T11:04:00.000-05:00

One conversation can influence your career. I know that is a little dramatic, but an interview with a reporter on any given day can potentially help your company position itself against the competition, open doors for your sales organization, give the marketing department a great article reprint for collateral or content for the company website. That one conversation could also position someone as an authority figure on a particular subject.

On the downside, a bad interview can have an equally negative impact. On one such occasion, a former client and friend shared information with a reporter as “background information” – this information made its way into the article and was attributed to him. It made him look bad to his board of directors, and I believe it was the proverbial “straw” that led to his departure from the company. His story gets more interesting and this event may have been a door opening to a new career. That is, however, another story.

So from a practical standpoint, what does an executive or subject matter expert (SME) need to know heading into an interview? Here are five rules:

➢ Understand the desired outcome
➢ Speak to the reader or audience
➢ Prepare and practice
➢ Make it easy for the reporter
➢ Know the rules of engagement
➢ Recognize what is happening and respond appropriately

This blog entry is not a “how to,” but rather a call to action. An interview is not a casual conversation or opportunity to feed the ego. Done right, media training can yield significant returns for you and your company.

Good luck!

“Moving the needle” through articles that motivate, educate or inform

2006-08-08T14:35:00.000-04:00

Approaching financial industry editors and reporters requires thoughtful consideration. Before you pick up the phone or send an email pitch, consider the media’s mission is to deliver relevant content. In my experience, editors and reporters tend to respond better to story ideas if you can link the benefit or end result to common themes which are “near and dear” to their readers’ hearts.

By focusing on persuasive or high-impact stories, you can get the most from your public relations program investment. “Story silos” are a high-level way to look at how to mentally place the information into the best story. Story silos include:

I. Improve Operational Efficiency
Reduce costs (impacts profit)
New ways of doing something

II. Sell More/Gain Market Share
Impacts profit
Competitive advantage

III. Lower Risk
Fraud
Compliance (SOX, U.S. Patriot Act, regulators, etc.)

IV. Improve Customer Service
Reduces time
Cross selling
Protects customers
Saves customers money
Improves access to money/accounts

V. Trends/Information

VI. Best Practices

After the article appears, make sure your sales organization and key influencers have a copy -- you can get reprints from the publisher. For ideas on how to better market the articles/content, please see my posting, “33 ways you can leverage your PR/media relations program.”

Thinking of taking a break from media relations?

2006-07-26T10:17:00.000-04:00

There is one important constituency that will not buy from you, will not buy your stock, and will not take money for recommending your products/services – the editors and reporters in the financial services industry. But even though they do not do any of these things, they are extremely important because they represent the people who are in a position to buy, recommend or approve the decision to use your company (their readers).

The media inform, educate, influence and occasionally entertain us. If you have an on-going, proactive public relations program, you are doing better than most companies selling to banks, credit unions and lenders.

Understandably, you have to look hard at where you spend your money and time to get the best return on your marketing dollars. Sometimes you have to make tough decisions when cash flow is tight, profits are down or you don’t have all the right staff in place. So what are the consequences for taking a break from media relations?

1. Your absence speaks volumes to the market and your competitors.

2. The media change, and the goodwill you had with reporters goes with them when they leave. New people come on board, and you have to start building relationships again from scratch.

3. Editorial opportunities addressing your area of expertise come and go.

4. Other companies, including your competition, build awareness for themselves while you are on break.

5. Your prospects are making decisions while you take a break -- which companies to consider, recommend or to buy from.

There are other, less obvious consequences that can result from taking a break from the public relations program, such as recruiting can suffer. Your efforts to influence potential partner companies for strategic alliances or reseller agreements can fail as they seek to do business with other high-profile companies.

Companies looking to do an initial public offering are often mistaken when they come to The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s “quiet period.” Many are under the impression they must cease all public communications, which is not the case. According to the commission’s website (http://www.sec.gov/answers/quiet.htm):

“All reporting issuers are, at any time, permitted to continue to publish regularly released factual business information and forward-looking information.”

“Non-reporting issuers are, at any time, permitted to continue to publish factual business information that is regularly released and intended for use by persons other than in their capacity as investors or potential investors.”

Before you turn the lights out on your public relations program, consider taking a break from other areas of your marketing program. It is much more cost effective to keep media momentum going than to restart it.

Gut-wrenching conversations about sales (or lack there of)

2006-03-29T19:53:00.000-05:00

I have had some gut-wrenching conversations with business owners about revenue, or lack there of. People make operational decisions based on achieving a certain level of sales. When they don’t materialize, tough decisions lay ahead.

The first reaction is to cut expenses – not a bad choice if you know you are overspending in some areas or have under-performers on the staff. Unfortunately, companies rarely cut expenses enough to achieve prosperity. Good revenue has covered up a lot of mistakes.

The second reaction might be to redirect resources or even spend more. So if you are lucky enough to work for a company that decides to spend more to increase sales, what do you do?

Do you:
1. Implement a highly targeted direct marketing program?
2. Increase advertising (or start)?
3. Hire a new sales person?
4. Hire a public relations firm or add a staff PR person?
5. Refresh the company’s Web site?
6. Conduct market research?
7. Invest in product development?
8. Create a podcast series with the CEO?
9. Sponsor a user forum, often called a user group meeting?
10. Attend additional tradeshows?
11. Conduct webinars?

What do you do? Actually these have all worked for companies in the past (except #8). The trick is to know the right one, or combination, that will work best for you at this stage in your company’s development. How do you make the right choice? Only time will tell if you are a hero or a goat.

Self-assessment can help point you in the right direction:

• Are your sales people selling or are they providing excuses?

• Where are your sales leads coming from now? Have you picked all the “low hanging fruit?”

• Are your best prospects your existing customers?

• How well known is your company? Are you a trusted brand? Does the market have the wrong impression of your company?

• Is there something truly unique about what you are offering?

• Do prospects understand what you are offering or is there some education that needs to be done before a sale can be made?

• Is your product or service “mission critical” or “nice to have?”

• What does your average sales call cost?

• Do you have a product or service that squarely addresses spending priorities for financial institutions, such as compliance/security or reducing risk?

If you don’t have the resources in-house and don’t want to increase head count, you are going to have to select the people who can help you get where you want to be.

Give me a moment to share some mistakes I’ve made in the past. At one time, my company would do anything for a buck -- we were struggling to survive. We were an “integrated marketing” firm always looking for the next assignment. What we figured out over time was that we were “average,” to “above average,” at a lot of things. For us, narrowing our focus was key.

You cannot be great at everything. As with marketing, sometimes the best solution is to select a team of people (or best of breed) who are passionate about your business, who practice “integrated thinking” -- not someone who says they do it all.

“Balance” can tip the scales of perception in your favor

2006-02-17T08:07:00.000-05:00

-- Looking at the major areas of concentration for corporate communications in a complex selling environment --

Your market needs to see a sense of balance of information coming from your organization. The million-dollar question I hear is, “What should our communications program look like when we are done planning?”

The answer for each company is different because companies are in various stages of development, have their own internal assets from which to draw and unique stories to share with their markets.

Before we get into balance, what does it mean to be out of balance? If you study a company’s communications you will see it – too much of the same thing or a lack of information. Does the company flood the market with too many announcements, thereby diluting the really important news? Is there a lack of evidence that illustrates the company as that of an innovator or market leader?

In the banking community, you hear the term “silos,” which usually means a disconnect between areas of operation or the inability to use information across the enterprise.

The silos in corporate communication are: 1) Outbound Company News, 2) Executive Positioning & Issues Leadership and 3) Validation of “Good Works.”

1. The goal of outbound company news is to show the company as having forward or positive momentum.

2. The goal of executive positioning & issues leadership is to show the company as having the intellectual capital needed to solve problems and to lead through thought leadership.

3. The goal of validation of “good works” is proof your company can deliver on its promises and that customers are achieving benefits from doing business with you.

Delivering on all three areas in your company communications is a powerful combination in that goes a long way in securing the perception you want.

If you want to dive deeper into these areas, please call or email me.

2006 Bankers As Buyers now available (free)

2006-01-16T14:29:00.000-05:00

The full version, with graphs, charts and featured articles can be downloaded at:
www.williammills.com/pdf/bab2006.pdf

About Bankers As Buyers

Years ago, ABA Banking Journal used to publish a great piece of primary research, called "Bankers As Buyers." It was the best "leave behind" any magazine sales representative had ever given me. I missed it and believe there was a void to fill.

I started publishing "Bankers As Buyers," with ABA Banking Journal's permission, about five years ago. My version has evolved over the years, but in short, it is a collection of recent research and commentary about how we believe bankers will spend their IT budgets in 2006.

I would like to give special thanks to Jeanne Capachin, Research Director for Financial Insights; Jimmy Sawyers, Director of Consulting for Reynolds, Bone & Griesbeck PLC; Chris Gill, Senior Manager, Dove Consulting and Art Gillis who provided me with content for this issue.

If you like the issue, please forward the link or PDF to your friends and associates within the industry. If you don't like it or have suggestions for me, please email me at scott@williammills.com

The Abridged Version

Spending Outlook

Bank technology spending will continue at a moderate pace in 2006, growing in the mid-single digits, according to technology analysts.

They expect to see spending concentrated among large financial institutions, investing in compliance (including fraud prevention/security), cost reduction, defending current revenue sources and building new revenue.

“There will be a few major drivers of bank IT spending in 2006,” said Jeanne Capachin, Financial Insights, Needham, Mass., citing infrastructure, cost reduction and organic growth as the major areas where banks will invest their technology dollars. While those investments will center on improving the business, state and federal regulations, including a late 2005 edit from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, will cut into the discretionary IT spending.

Analyst firm Gartner, Inc., Stamford, Conn., agrees. In research published in late 2005, Gartner financial analysts said, beginning in 2006, banks must address operational risk management issues, integrate their retail delivery channels, consider service-oriented architectures to enhance their agility and retain their most-profitable customers via strategic loyalty programs.

The nation’s largest financial institutions grew largely through mergers and acquisitions over the last several years, often involving different hardware and software, often requiring re-keying of data to move information from one system to another. So a large portion of spending will be dedicated to middleware and other technologies that will help disparate systems of these banks communicate more effectively with one another. In a 2005 Financial Insights survey, CEOs cited improved revenues, compliance, and then customer service as the top concerns driving IT spending.

While the mergers and acquisitions mean that larger financial institutions need to boost some IT spending to resolve technology conflicts, it also means fewer total financial institutions, Financial Insights points out. Therefore, the research firm predicts that overall IT spending by financial institutions will shrink from a growth rate of 4.8 percent in 2004 and 4.6 percent in 2005 to only 4 percent in 2006. The numbers of banks, thrifts and credit unions are all shrinking. Only specialty finance firms are expected to grow, but the overall number will remain small.

Spending Breakdown

Entering 2006, banks continue to battle the increasing sophistication of hackers, as well as negative publicity from data breaches of financial institutions and credit information companies. Some of the data compromises were not from actual attacks, but from lost computer tapes. Whether the breaches led to actual compromises or not, they increase the pressure on financial institutions to have more comprehensive monitoring of data access.

Actual spending on fraud prevention is still largely driven by legal compliance, along with the requirements of business – namely, improved profits. So, even in making investments in fraud prevention technology, banks are looking for systems that will provide business benefits in addition to data protection.
Integrated monitoring for risk assessment purposes is part of financial institutions’ attempt to integrate the flow of information across different systems for more efficient processing, better pictures of customers and their accounts and better channel integration, as well as fraud prevention.

According to Financial Insights, technology vendors that help financial institutions reduce the complexity and dependency on the tight integrations of legacy systems will be the ones that succeed.

Fraud Prevention
One of the most important values that banks provide customers is that of a trusted entity, but that value quickly erodes if there is a security breach, even if no fraud was actually committed. Under the terms of California law and other state statutes that mirror it, customers must be notified of a breach, even if no actual theft of data occurs. Such breaches carry not only any financial penalties that regulators may assess, but also generate ongoing negative publicity.

Banks are investing in technology systems that help them monitor electronic and physical access to systems as well as hacker attack trends. The latter helps indicate where financial institutions need extra layers of protection. Some security experts are also calling for encryption of customer and bank data, which theoretically would protect it even if security systems were compromised.

Financial Insights predicts that risk management vendors will grow 15 percent annually for the next few years.

Regulatory/Compliance Spending
With financial institutions, one of the top targets of phishers, spammers and other hackers, compliance and fraud prevention are becoming intertwined in terms of technology spending. Much of the regulatory spending includes some component of fraud prevention or consumer protection.

The influence of regulatory compliance is expected to increase and is predicted to cut into discretionary IT budgets for all types of businesses through 2008, according to Gartner. Compliance spending is currently growing twice as fast as discretionary IT budgets.

Increasingly complex federal and state regulatory and compliance rules are forcing banks to rely on technology to automate as many of the processes as possible. This trend will undoubtedly grow in 2006 as privacy laws continue to evolve. Despite the push from bankers and businesses alike for comprehensive privacy legislation to help consolidate all of the different state laws, no such law had passed by the end of 2005.

Financial Insights predicts that compliance vendors will enjoy a 13 percent compounded annual growth rate for the next few years.

The number one compliance concern of community banks and credit unions that responded to a survey conducted by Bankers Systems, a part of Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, is meeting the requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).

Many of the other significant compliance issues identified were related to BSA requirements:

· Anti-money laundering requirements (62 percent)
· Data security (50 percent)
· Compliance examinations (50 percent)
· PATRIOT Act compliance (43 percent)
· Customer Identification Program requirements (42 percent)

Community Bank Perspective
In a recently released survey of its membership, Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) found that those with more than $100 million in assets were facing these following long-term technology decisions:

Systems security 64%
Keeping technology affordable 62%
Data security 61%
Staying updated on existing technology upgrades 58%
Imaging-related technologies 54%
Regulatory compliance solutions 53%

One of the ways these institutions are trying to keep technology affordable is to outsource it, with nearly half (46 percent) of institutions with more than $100 million in assets using third-party resources, and nearly the same (45 percent) with less than $100 million in assets also going the outsourcing route. Even so, 53 percent said they would spend more on technology than in the previous year.

Customer Service
Though the number of banks is shrinking and financial institutions are trying to encourage customers to use low-cost electronic delivery channels, the number of branches continues to rise. Additionally, as mergers and acquisitions continue, de novo institutions with smaller branch networks will add locations to serve former customers of the larger combined institutions.

New branches are installing new technologies to improve their efficiency, says Chris Gill, senior manager for Dove Consulting, Boston, Mass., a division of Hitachi Consulting. Gill foresees increasing investment in technologies to enable branches to efficiently serve customers, including cash dispensing machines for tellers and branch image capture devices.

Payment Systems
As the number of checks decline, the cost of processing continues to rise; therefore spending in the payment system arena is expected to focus around electronic bill payment, imaging and other electronic resources.

Forrester Research, Cambridge, Mass., predicts that online bill payment will grow 75 percent by 2010. While non-bank financial institutions had taken much of that market earlier in the decade, banks were recapturing it in 2005. By the end of the decade, 52 percent of households with Internet access will pay their bills online. Forrester reiterated that annual Electronic Bill Payment & Presentment (EBPP) growth rates are eroding and will continue to decline through 2010.

Forrester sees the growth of electronic bill payment will be concentrated among Generation Y customers, representing a 219 percent growth rate. Growth among Baby Boomers will be only 32 percent.

Integration
Providing better integration among systems is the best way to provide quicker customer service and more complete straight through processing, even if complete end-to-end processing isn’t achievable yet. Efficient integration helps control costs, an important factor as banks face thin margins and fierce competition.

“Workflow is in the air. Workflow and imaging systems will be the rage as banks finally get serious about process improvement and squeezing more cost out of the operations,” says Steve Williams, analyst with Cornerstone Advisors, Scottsdale, Ariz. “Expect big capital expenditures on these initiatives over the next 12 months, especially in loan and deposit back offices.”

A survey of bank executives by Financial Insights points to service-oriented architecture (SOA) with real time connectivity, Internet Protocol (IP) connections, alerts, batch processing and message-based processing as the most important factors in providing a flexible framework for better integration.

Other Technology Spending
Banks are quickly adding remote capture devices for both large and small corporate clients. This enables banks to take advantage of many of the efficiencies afforded by Check 21 legislation, which went into effect at the end of October of 2004. The law permits the use of check images rather than of physical checks in the clearing process. The images are less costly to handle and transmit than paper checks, and also require much less storage space.

In terms of controlling expenses, expect to see many banks moving more of their communications to Voice over Internet Protocol and away from traditional telephone service. De novo banks are opting for this technology from the outset, while large, established banks are replacing legacy phone systems entirely or partially with VoIP connections.

Other areas where Financial Insights expects to see outlay of financial IT dollars in 2006 include selective sourcing, core banking systems and intelligent interaction management.

The “Complex Sale” in Financial Services

2005-11-18T15:59:00.000-05:00

The “Complex Sale” in Financial Services
By Scott Mills, APR

For most companies that sell technology, solutions and related services to the financial industry the selling process is dramatically more complex and require a longer sales cycle than most business segments. Financial institutions are regulated and buying decisions are typically based on what is perceived as “safe.”

So what is a “complex sale?” It is usually one that:
• Impacts multiple departments, divisions or business units,
• Involves a committee or input from multiple people,
• Buyers seek multiple options,
• Once sold, will be used for more than one year, and
• Addresses a strategic need or solves a mission-critical issue.

According to Jeanne Capachin, Research Director, Corporate Banking at Financial Insights, “Vendors don’t have to be large to be influential in the financial industry. They do, however, have be credible and show a good balance sheet.”

Getting to “Safe” Status
Making a complex sale in financial services requires selling on multiple levels. You have to know who will have to be “sold” and how the sale will be approved and funded. Do you have a champion who is: in the C-suite, a vice president, line of business head or in a technology capacity? Achieving safe status means you are in a position to validate that you can deliver the results you are proposing. This can be accomplished through the implementation of a customer reference program, association with other well-established partners and or through significant endorsements.

Safe status also means that you have to demonstrate that your company will be a contender in the industry for years to come. As vendors take on mission-critical processes, financial institutions and sometimes regulators, need to be assured that vendors are fiscally sound (or well funded) and have contingency plans in place.

Companies that excel at the complex sale can demonstrate both a return on investment (ROI) and the compelling benefits of the investment. The “Benefit of Investment” model of evaluating decisions addresses a strategic need or outcome, such as improving customer service, reducing operational risk or consolidating technologies.

Conclusion
People can’t buy from your company unless they know about you. Companies that invest in building the reputation of the business and the intellectual capital of its leadership are more likely to influence people to take action. While word of mouth advertising and referrals are the most important channels for leads, reaching the masses requires a concentrated, well-orchestrated marketing effort that includes a public relations function.

Scott Mills is president of William Mills Agency www.williammills.com

HOW TO MAXIMIZE TRADE SHOW PARTICIPATION

2005-09-28T17:20:00.000-04:00

Special post from my father and founder of William Mills Agency

HOW TO MAXIMIZE TRADE SHOW PARTICIPATION
By Bill Mills, Jr., Chairman, William Mills Agency

WHERE THERE IS TRADE, THERE IS A TRADE SHOW!
Every day of the year, thousands of trade shows are being conducted in Holiday Inns, giant exposition halls, fancy resorts and just about anywhere with a meeting hall. The cost of exhibiting often represents as much as 25% to 100% of a company’s “marketing budget.” It also represents a significant hidden expense in time and effort preparing for the convention and follow up.

Is participation a good investment? Can you quantify the results? Could the investment have been better spent in additional business advertising or the hiring of one or more sales persons?

There is no pat answer, because each industry is different and each vendor of products or services has unique marketing problems. Generally speaking, however, there is an obvious conclusion that can be reached...If trade show participation were not economically beneficial to exhibitors, there would be no exhibitors. Most businesses don’t continue an activity that does not contribute to profit.

Furthermore, many businesses depend on trade shows to provide a significant number of leads that will be worked during the following year.

WHAT BENEFITS MIGHT YOUR COMPANY RECEIVE FROM PARTICIPATION IN A TRADE SHOW?
There are several potential benefits from participating in trade shows. The most obvious one is the identification of new prospects. Others include:
1. Visibility with existing customers. It is very important that present customers feel their selection of vendors is a good one. By seeing you at conventions, they will feel better about your selection and be more likely to continue working with you and recommending you to others.
2. Gain recognition as a major supplier to the industry. The leading vendors of an industry are almost always prominent at these events. Potential customers unconsciously weigh attendance and booth space, and equate this with dominance (and quality of service) in the industry.
3. Additional sales opportunity for prospects. It usually takes multiple sales calls on each prospect in the financial industry to make a major sale (and costs several hundred dollars for each call). Based on these costs, your company can justify a significant part of the trade show cost by following up with prospects who are attending the conventions.

HOW YOUR COMPANY CAN TAKE MAXIMUM ADVANTAGE OF TRADE SHOW PARTICIPATION
MAKE A PLAN
The most important single thing your company can do to maximize its benefits from participation is to go with a plan. If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there!
The first step is to be convinced that your participation has genuine value. (It does.) Don’t think of it as a reward trip or a company paid vacation. Your work at the conventions can be some of the most valuable work you will do for the company.

SET YOUR OBJECTIVES
You will be exposed to several audiences including present customers, prospects who have received proposals and/or demonstrations, prospects who have responded to trade ads, persons who will become prospects after learning more about your company at the conventions, persons who are not now prospects but may become prospects later, and persons who are not now and will not ever be prospects but who might be helpful to you anyway (think consultants and other influencers).
You will have a slightly different objective for each audience. Here are some suggestions for your consideration:

Audience: Present customer
Objective: Good customer relations. Discuss how you are serving them.
Strategy: Determine if you have any opportunities or problems. Ask each if they know of anyone else who might need your services. (Referral prospecting.)
Audience: Prospect who has had a major proposal and/or demonstration
Objective: Sell a demonstration
Strategy: If prospect has had proposal but not demonstration, sell a demonstration. If they have had both, sell for a major presentation to the board of directors or others with authority. Attempt a trial close. (Try to offer something to entice an early signing.)
Sell a demo at your location, if possible. If not, get a commitment for a major proposal at their place.
Audience: Prospects from trade ads, and other sources.
Objective: Same as above. Do as much “closing” as possible on site.
Audience: Others (consultants, influencers, investors, etc.)
Objective: Inform and impress.
Strategy: Not everyone is an immediate prospect, but everyone is important. Get as much favorable notice as possible.

BEFORE THE TRADE SHOW
What you do before the trade show is just as important as what you do at it.
Your plans should include efforts to “market” your participation. Consider sending one or a series of pre-convention mailings to registered attendees. Write a personal note to those whom you are especially interested in seeing. Make sure your display features a unique theme. Carry out this theme on the display, in the mailers, with stickers, and any giveaways. A theme will help set you apart, and dramatize a major benefit of using your company. It should also help tie in your convention exhibit with the advertising schedule you are running.
Other items which should be included in the plan are:
1. Schedule of persons to work booth
2. Plan of how persons to be greeted, offered information, etc.
3. Take a schedule book for listing any appointments made for demos, etc.
4. List of prospects to be in attendance and how you plan to approach them. (Call them? Watch for them at the booth? Take them to dinner?)

TIPS FOR WORKING THE BOOTH
It is helpful to understand the psychological situation. Almost everyone will visit the exhibits at least once, and usually over several days. There is tremendous competition for attention. Much of this competition will be from very large equipment vendors with expensive exhibits, many personnel and very deep pockets.
Because attendees are assaulted by so many exhibitors competing for attention, many of them walk through the exhibits in somewhat of a “glazed” condition. They are often reluctant to walk into an exhibit, because it is a commitment to take a “sales pitch.” For these reasons, it is best to be as visible as possible but non- threatening. This can be accomplished by standing near the aisle, but waiting for some sign of interest by the visitor.

PERSONAL DRESS AND GROOMING
Your dress and grooming is as much a part of the overall appearance of the exhibit as the backdrop. The appropriate dress is business-like, whether formal or casual. Many exhibitors coordinate dress to extend impact and take advantage of synergy. This might be in the form of color-coordinated blazers with or without corporate logos or matching knit logo shirts.
Occasionally, dress can be used to extend a theme. For example, safari clothing for a jungle theme booth or tuxedos for a “formal” theme that features silver serving dishes, etc.

OTHER TIPS INCLUDE:
Always smile and appear to be willing to talk to visitors.
Limit conversations within the booth. Extended conversations between persons working the booth is a “no no.” This removes two or more persons from their basic job of greeting visitors, and it also discourages visitors.
Stay on your feet any time visitors are in the area. There will likely be times when there are few or no visitors, but resting should be done away from the booth in a break area or in the hotel room.
Schedules should be made so that ample rest is available. If you aren’t used to working exhibit booths, you will get surprisingly fatigued. This is primarily caused by the natural stress of being “on” all the time. It is also fatiguing to stand in one area for extended periods.
Remember that you only have a limited period of time to gain the attention and interest of visitors. This indicates that you forego chitchat about the weather, the city, etc. and get directly to the subject. Consider using an opening statement or a question such as “May I show you how our system can save you money?” or “Would you like to see how our system takes care of (mention a major problem)?”

ASK FOR ACTION
Depending on which audience is before you, pre-plan the action you would like to see taken and ask for it. This might include asking for a demonstration visit to your offices (or theirs), a major proposal, the mailing of some specific material, etc.

DOCUMENT YOUR RESULTS
Each booth worker should make a record of what has transpired during the convention. After several days, names and conventions blend together. One way to do this is with 3 x 5 cards on each significant event, such as identifying a new prospect, etc. You can list to whom you spoke, their organization and the action or information discussed. If they give a business card, this can be stapled to the 3 x 5 or noted on the back of the card. (A log book can be used in place of the cards.)
Speaking of business cards, distribute them generously.

DEVELOP PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS WHENEVER POSSIBLE
People like to do business with persons they know and like. Over the course of several conventions, it will often be possible to develop good personal relations with others by going to lunch together, coffee breaks, etc. These contacts can be very valuable. Good contacts do not limit themselves to prospects. Sometimes non-competing vendors can also be helpful.

USE THE TRADE SHOW FOR GAINING INFORMATION
Conventions are a marvelous place to learn more about the industry that you are serving and those who do business with the industry. You can pick up valuable ideas and information on what works for others.

AFTER CONVENTION FOLLOW-UP
This is a very important facet of your attendance at the convention. You have spent valuable dollars and effort to develop leads and to follow-up on existing leads. You should be as conscientious and as aggressive in follow-up as you were in exhibiting. This means getting out letters and information to those who indicated an interest, telephone follow-up, etc.

AUDITING RESULTS
The final step is to make a thorough audit and evaluation of the conventions. This should be done in at least two steps. The first step would be to analyze the results, impressions and information while it is fresh. This includes critiques by each of the persons who participated, audit of new prospects, and other helpful information. It should include any problems and things that should be done differently or better in future conventions.
Since you will likely receive residual benefits long after the trade show, it would wise to “re-audit” later. It is especially important to know what follow-up was made and what sales resulted.

CONCLUSION
If a trade show is important enough to merit your participation, then it is important enough to execute with skill and dedication. It just makes good business sense to optimize the participation.

33 ways you can leverage your PR/media relations program

2005-08-17T15:35:00.000-04:00

Some companies do a great job in using materials and results garnered from their public relations programs for other marketing purposes. Since the William Mills Agency works with more than 65 companies across North America, we are in a position to see how our clients “repurpose” the work we do for them to enhance their marketing efforts.

PR professionals provide ideas on how their work can be used to improve communications with constituents, such as customers, prospects, employees and investors. This article provides 33 ideas for how you can leverage your investment in a public relations program to improve your tradeshow marketing, direct marketing, company website, executive/company positioning, employee communications, customer communications, investor relations and sales materials.

Trade Show
• Use press releases for “room drops” – attendee outreach on important days of a trade show;
• Place enlargements of articles to augment booth signage – on easels or on the booth walls;
• Distribute press releases as “breaking news” to share at events; and
• Use article reprints to enhance your collateral.

Company Website
• Develop a pressroom on the company website which includes announcements and e-press kit;
• Post headlines or abstracts of recent media coverage on the entry page with links to the full text:
Links can be to the company news section or direct to publications’ websites; and
• Supplement the “About The Company” section of your website to include reference to bylined articles or significant placement within an industry magazine.

Customer Communications
• Repackage press releases as articles for newsletters;
• Create e-newletters and broadcast via email;
• Write a letter from the president and send along with recent articles to show customers how your company is growing in relevance;
• When customers are quoted in an article or help in any way, send the article along with a gift (bottle of wine for example) and letter saying “Congratulations and thank you for your support!”; and
• Package article and company news in binders given to customers at company meetings, for user’s groups or as a part of a “kick off” presentation.

Direct Marketing
• Distribute press releases as direct mail or e-mail campaigns;
• Highlight your product or service benefits in an article and mail to prospects with a brief note, “Thought this might be of interest to you”;
• Email a PDF (electronic) version of a recent article – emails are easier to forward than reprints;
• Send article reprints with invoices or other routine correspondence to reinforce customers’ good feelings about their purchase; and
• Create a multimedia CD or DVD featuring company successes and send to prospects

Employee Communications
• Email successes in the media to employees (employees want to work with winning companies);
• Frame articles and line hallways or conference rooms to highlight company achievements;
• Post articles in the employee break room – highlight important passages or reference to employees;
• Nicely bind articles into a book for the lobby or reception desk; and
• Hand out article reprints at company meetings.

Sales Materials
• Enhance sales presentations with images of important articles;
• Boost the credibility of information kits with articles or new announcements;
• Using case studies, illustrate how your company solved problems for other companies;
• Produce a brochure that shows the company’s extensive media coverage with a caption, “Looks Who is in the News”; and
• Sales training – competitive clips to help sales team overcome objections or misconceptions.

Investor Relations
• Recap media successes and share with investors or board members as evidence of improving the company brand; and
• Use “call outs” or highlight sections of a great article for the investor presentation.

Executive/Company Positioning
• Draw attention to key executives for speaker submissions for important industry conferences;
• Play up company successes in the media to enhance award submissions; and
• Include an executive bio their status as a published, industry-acknowledged expert, referencing specific publications where they have been featured.

More ideas
• Forward “media success” package to local civic organizations, chambers of commerce or other business associations in pursuit of speaking opportunities or newsletter mention.

Businesses that make an investment in public relations demonstrate a more sophisticated understanding of business promotion and development than those that dismiss its value. Why not allow your successes in the media to ripple throughout your organization to attract prospects, deepen customer loyalty and inspire employees? Sharing your company’s commitment to your industry and expert status is smart business.

Bankers As Buyers 2005

2005-04-12T11:42:00.000-04:00

The following is a summary from the 2005 Bankers As Buyers study, prepared by Scott Mills, APR and President of William Mills Agency. The piece is a collection of research, opinions and articles about what bankers will buy in 2005. To view the entire study visit www.williammills.com.

Spending Outlook
Financial institutions will increase their technology spending in 2005, most analysts agree, though the amount of growth is somewhat in dispute. While no one predicts a large jump in expenditures like the eight percent annual growth of the late 1990s, increases from a couple of percentage points to the mid-single digits over 2004’s numbers will likely be necessary for financial institutions to continue to battle the increasing fraud issue, meet growing compliance needs, maximize efficiencies across the enterprise and meet the demands of the changing payments system.

“TowerGroup sees fundamental shifts in the way financial institutions will manage their estimated $362 billion in IT investments in 2005, as technology affects the productivity of over $2 trillion in global operational expense,” said Guillermo Kopp, vice president of the TowerGroup Cross-Industry research practice. “Financial institutions will implement process and technology changes in more manageable chunks, and employ business process management and networked services as pivotal elements for strategic transformation.”

TowerGroup estimates that overall IT spending in the global financial services industry will rise from $360.9 billion in 2005 to $408.6 billion in 2008, for a compound annual growth rate of 4.2 percent.

In 2005, TowerGroup expects the predominant theme in financial services IT spending to be investments at the architectural level in data, content and business process management, as well as in integration technologies.

Datamonitor predicts that global financial spending will increase only slightly. Forty percent of the respondents to a Datamonitor survey said they are planning no change in their IT budgets. Financial institutions are cautiously positioning themselves for a slight upturn, but remain largely in a defensive position, Datamonitor said.

According to the December CFO Outlook Survey, conducted by Financial Executives International and Baruch College's Zicklin School of Business, participating CFOs expect capital spending at their companies to increase by 14 percent in the next 12 months. These projections were made despite more than half (56 percent) saying their companies have felt the impact of rising producer prices in the last quarter.

Terrence Roach, principal for Cornerstone Advisors, Scottsdale, Ariz., expects technology spending to remain constant at 25 to 30 basis points of a bank’s asset size. So a $100 million bank would spend $2.5 million. That percentage has remained relatively constant for the last six years, according to Roach. So a bank’s spending will grow largely based on its asset growth.

Gartner, Stamford, Conn., expects investment firms, banks, healthcare payer organizations and insurers to exploit new technologies and strategies to successfully manage their demanding and changing market environments in 2005 and beyond.

Fraud Prevention
Only the nation’s largest banks (roughly the top 20) have systems integrated enough that they are approaching identity theft/fraud prevention on an enterprise-wide basis, adds Sophie Louvel, Financial Insights analyst.

Phishers are getting better at what they do, Roach said. Phishers, hackers and other fraudsters continue to use more powerful technology. So financial institutions have no choice than to upgrade their own fraud-fighting technology, by adding firewalls, neural networks and other fraud-fighting hardware and/or software.

Some of the nation’s largest banks (below the top 20) will make $5-million plus investments to rectify this problem in 2005, according to Capachin. These projects will be larger than any single fraud prevention/detection expenditure, though there will be many more projects in the security arena.

Community Bank Perspective
In a recently released survey of its membership, Independent Community Bankers of America found that those with more than $100 million in assets were facing the following long-term technology decisions:

· Systems security 65 percent
· Telephone banking issues 60 percent
· Staying up to date on existing technologies 57 percent
· Keeping technology affordable 56 percent

Additionally, the survey said that 59 percent of banks with more than $100 million in assets expected to increase their technology spending in 2004. That trend is likely to continue in 2005. Just over half (55 percent) said their technology is on target. Twenty-three percent said their technology is behind where they want it to be. One percent said their technology is far behind where they want it.

Regulatory/Compliance Spending
Despite continued efforts – particularly by community banks – to get some regulatory relief, the fact is that financial institutions have an increasing regulatory burden to contend with every year. There was actually a recent benefit of sorts from these regulations in the last year – many experts agree that banks were better prepared than many other industries for the Sarbanes-Oxley rules, though they still add to the regulatory/compliance burden.

One of the major ways for banks to meet the growing list of regulatory requirements is through technology. Systems that automate some of the compliance requirements will continue to be in demand.

Customer Service
While the term CRM still brings images of some failed early projects, there’s no question that customer service becomes more of an issue as banks’ products become more commoditized.

Sawyers expects financial institutions to use more customer satisfaction surveys – both online and offline – to provide better customer service.

One way will be to upgrade Web-related services. As more customers obtain broadband communications and more powerful computers, they will be more likely to go online for bill payment, account information and other financial services needs, Sawyer said. While most banks already have an online presence, even some $1 billion-plus banks have very static sites. According to the ICBA survey, 18 percent of members still don’t have an Internet site. 13 percent of consumers with Internet access have a broadband connection.

Payment Systems
Between 2004 and 2007, the number of bill payments made via a bank’s Web site is expected to grow 37 percent annually, according to Celent Communications. Celent adds that rising processing expenses could force banks to consider alternatives to the legacy payment infrastructure.

Celent noted that the check’s share of total consumer bill payments is crumbling. By 2007, there will be as many bill payments made over the Internet as by check, and as little as 29 percent of consumer bill payments will be settled by check - down from 53 percent in 2004.

Check processing is a mature process, with no more efficiency to be squeezed out of the paper environment, many experts agree. To gain further efficiencies, banks need to convert paper checks to an electronic form as early as possible in the process, saving the cost of transporting the paper and eliminating the need for expensive check processing hardware such as reader/sorters.

By 2010, 90 percent of non-local transit items will be processed electronically, the study adds, predicting that spending on electronic check technology will be in the range of $1.6 to $2 billion in 2005 (with spending dropping to less than $1 billion in 2006. By 2006, much of the spending then centered on extending image capability out to branches, ATMs and large corporate sites.

So, though growth in bank technology spending will continue in 2005, much of the expenditure will be related to what financial institutions feel they “have to” do, namely, compliance and security, and replacing systems that just don’t meet their needs any more, as with Check 21-related changes. But proactive spending to take technological giant steps in systems and productivity will occur on a much more sporadic basis.

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The mission of the William Mills Agency is to help companies market to financial institutions and in 2002, the agency decided to publish Bankers As Buyers as a service to clients and others who might be interested. This year’s Bankers As Buyers offers research statistics, observations and predictions from some of the most knowledgeable consultants and professionals currently involved in the financial industry. To view the entire study visit www.williammills.com.

“Volume” and “Clarity” Drive Online Success in Business-to-Business Marketing

2005-04-02T14:38:00.000-05:00

Why Total Online Presence (TOP) Influences Opinion

by Scott Mills, APR

Sophisticated prospective buyers, the kind of customers you want, research and gather information before making major decisions. In a business-to-business environment, prospects are likely to get information from trade magazines and newspapers; industry conferences, meetings and teleconferences; associations; business associates; sales presentations and the Web. A poll released in December by Harris Interactive shows that 38 percent of adults use the Web to get information about products and services and 23 percent search for the name of a business associate or colleague prior to meeting them.

Logically, companies strive to create a great website that is easy to find. Ideally, prospects can find you easily by using Google, get what they need to assist their decision process, and leave with the impression that your firm can deliver on the need they are seeking to fill. Unless you work for IBM or the major TV networks, companies that use acronyms, such as ABC Inc., are at a disadvantage on the Internet as just finding you takes a little effort from the prospect.

But what if people learned about your company, not from your website, but rather the sum total of all available information on the Internet? What exactly do they see when they research or Google your company online?

Having worked with a large number of companies on business communications programs, I can assure you that the new Web-savvy public is using the Internet to learn more about you than what appears on your Website.

Here are a few examples:
* Prospects are looking for companies to consider,
* Reporters visit websites to get background material and prepare for interviews,
* Existing customers are continually searching for new solutions or helpful information,
* Prospective business partners are looking for a fit (or a reason not to do business),
* Prospective employees are deciding whether, or not, to contact a company,
* Competitors are tracking your new products and services, and
* There may even be persons or organizations that believe they should invest in or acquire your firm.

Recently, the president of a fast growing, enterprising company told me that he did an Internet search on his company before he started his public relations program. He found five results, mostly links to his own website. After six months, he searched again and found more than 20 pages of search results. He spent 2 ½ hours exploring the links because he wanted to know who was writing about him and his company. He read online news stories that were generated from issuing press releases on Business Wire; he read articles from trade magazine Web sites; he read stories from local Toronto media outlets; he read about his company exhibiting at conferences and more. Without expecting it, he significantly raised the “volume” on his company brand on the Internet.

Andrew Dietz, president of the Creative Growth Group, said, “Social proof is the concept of influence by association. People think differently about you once they know with whom you associate.” Social proof for your company is made up of both what you say and what others say on relative or influential websites. We call this Total Online Presence (TOP) – influencing opinion through the online company you keep.

For those of us involved with marketing complex technology or information, we know that sales are not likely to be closed from Web traffic or by the sheer number of results in a Web search. This volume is, however, a great boost to company credibility. If your company experiences similar results as my Toronto-based friend, you may be well on your way to convincing the market that you ARE the 800-pound gorilla, even if you are a distant second (or third in your market). Knowing that there is a great deal of interest about your company can be reassuring to those whose career may rest on their recommendation to use your services.

Total Online Presence is a blend of advertising and public relations programs. You can buy a better position in search engines and sponsor influential media websites. In these efforts, you control 100 percent of the message within your site and the online ads you place. Public relations can greatly feed the Internet with information about your company. So the end result is highly influenced by the things you do.

The story that someone gets from the Internet should ideally be expressed with clarity -- consistent messages about the company and demonstrable proof you can be trusted. This can be done with company news, client successes, new service offerings, and thought leadership.

There is a huge impression made when people search your company name on the Internet. Even if they do not find much, or worse yet, have trouble finding your company website, that unfortunately makes an impression too. Make sure the volume is turned up. Your brand is defined by what others say about you. The value and momentum of your company’s Total Online Presence (TOP) is built largely through the ongoing positive communications that you control.

Copyright 2005 Scott Mills (scott@williammills.com)

Welcome

2005-04-02T13:57:00.000-05:00