Wednesday, July 6, 2011

What's One Good Idea Worth?

  
At a recent Chief Executive Boards International meeting, I shared my most recent experience of getting one good idea that, on its own, is worth tens of thousands of dollars to me.  Here's what happened.  

Here at CEBI, we do a lot of prospecting by email.  Awhile back, I saw an email promotion (someone else's), offering an email marketing webinar.  Now, good ideas don't just reach out and find you -- you have go places where they might be.  I wasn't able to participate at the scheduled time, so I asked Alison Pacewic, CEBI's Manager of Member Services, to check it out and see if they offered something we could use to improve our email marketing effectiveness.  

Sure enough, when I asked her about it the next day, she said, "They reinforced a lot of things we do, like putting the 'call to action' in the first paragraph, rather than at the end.  But they mentioned something we might try -- rather than the call to action asking the prospect to call us, why not just give them a date and time at which we'll call them -- also saying that if that time is inconvenient they can let us know by email or phone."   

Well, that's a novel idea, and one we'd likely never have stumbled upon by ourselves.  What happened?   It was absolutely amazing.  Would you believe that some people did, in fact, reply to the email, saying things like, "I'm busy at 2 on Tuesday -- could you call me Wednesday at 2?"   Those calls have resulted in new CEBI members and a more effective business process that's sure to continue working for years in the future. 

Considering that this single idea will get us in touch with people who would not have otherwise responded and that some of those will become CEBI members, an estimate of tens of thousands of dollars of income resulting from just one good idea is probably low. 

Speaking of going where good ideas might be -- that's the amazing outcome of CEBI meetings.  Members go away with ideas they might never have come upon any other way, and they become more successful and more prosperous as a result.  Here's another author's essay on "Where Good Ideas Come From". 

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Terry Weaver

CEO
Chief Executive Boards International
http://www.chiefexecutiveboards.com/

TerryWeaver@ChiefExecutiveBoards.com


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