I enjoy seeing new entrepreneurs succeed. It’s especially rewarding when I’m told that our product has contributed to their success. 

The part I enjoy most is hearing the excitement in their voice and seeing the twinkle in their eye when an entrepreneur finally sees their vision start to become a reality. 

One of our users is a new entrepreneur transitioning a traditional service business (where 95% of new leads are generated by telemarketing) into an internet business that generates inbound leads and productizes part of the previous service offering. 

While many of our users are seasoned consultants, our toolset can help even beginning marketers and entrepreneurs produce quality results. It’s tougher for beginners, though, mostly because they lack experience, and confidence in their results. It takes complete commitment and a lot of elbow grease to achieve success. 

This user is a first-time entrepreneur and marketer hatching a new business idea. Since last year he’s been designing the offering, shaping competitive strategy, designing a brand strategy, creating the messaging, and structuring the website while optimizing it for organic search. Last week he wrote the creative brief and hired the web designer. 

Yesterday his vision became tangible. 

I just viewed the web creative and was extremely impressed. I’ll discuss the results and details after it’s live, but I wanted to share a quote from the entrepreneur: 

“Jim, the planning was painful, but it was completely worth it. It all came together after seeing the design. It’s so rewarding to see all that tedious marketing planning work pay off! As I struggled through all the positioning and branding exercises that were completely new to me, I continually reminded myself to focus on the task at hand and the process will lead me to my ultimate destination-my new internet business. It was tough, but I’m just about there and now clearly see how everything fits together.” 

I think his site will stand toe-to-toe with the big guys in his space—one is upwards of $50MM in revenue—and our guy’s is a one-man show! 

I’m a firm believer that the best things usually happen after a lot of hard work. And in business, I believe it’s wise to use detailed planning at every step for a greater chance at success. 

I just love the old saying Measure twice; cut once, and enjoy seeing others gain that same appreciation.

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Check out Charlie Rose’s recent interview with Reid Hoffman. Reid is the founder and CEO of LinkedIn, and is one of the drivers of the social media/web 2.0 movement. His track record is impressive: senior executive at Paypal, angel investor in over 60 technology companies including Facebook, Digg, Friendster, Ning, Six Apart and Flickr.

If you don’t have time for the entire 30 minute interview, you can scan the text transcript (and the comments) on Techcrunch. 

Here’s what impacted me from the interview:

• Since the average job length is two to four years, everyone is the entrepreneur of their own small business, whether they realize it or not
• Now is a great time to be an entrepreneur, because of volume of high-quality, inexpensive tools for networking, sharing and working
• These tools allow anyone to be a creator, and the more people create, the faster we’ll get out of the recession

I’ve also read that historically, in hard economic times there’s an increase in the volume of high-quality art, music and literature produced. Since new “internet tools” of today allow almost anyone create or distribute new ideas and art, I’m looking forward to seeing what people create over the next few years.

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How many CMOs at big companies don’t know their customer retention rate, customer profitability and customer lifetime value? 

According to the CMO Council, almost 50%. 

Andy Beal over at Marketing Pilgrim provides a nice summary of the CMO Council’s findings, along with some great commentary (I chuckled at his incompetence references). 

Is it a surprise that most Chief Marketing Officers stay on the job for less than two years? It’s obvious that CMOs aren’t on equal footing in the Fortune 500 executive suite. Maybe a contributing factor is a lack of business and financial skill? 

I don’t mean to pick on CMOs. Clearly these metrics are more challenging to determine at a global consumer product company than at a $15,000,000 lumber distribution company. But then again, most CMOs are paid big bucks, have big budgets and access to an army of MBAs. What’s the problem? 

The takeaway for consultants serving midsize to small businesses is this: if almost half of Fortune 500 marketing leaders don’t know important metrics like customer lifetime value, customer retention and profitability, it’s a good bet that most of your clients don’t know them either.

You don’t have to be a math whiz to determine most of these figures. Even a ballpark figure is better than making decisions blind. If you understand these metrics when you’re planning marketing campaigns, you can:

• Better determine which customer segments to pursue;
• Determine your maximum acquisition cost to profitably acquire customers; and
• Intelligently determine how to allocate the marketing budget between new customer acquisition and customer retention programs. 

Ask your clients if they have these metrics. If not, show them why they’re important and how to calculate them. Use them for guidance during your next planning session. Don’t settle for the low bar your big company CMO colleagues have set. 

Your clients will thank you for it.  

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