Good Day AllAre you an accidental project manager?We hope that no one get offended by this term since the use of this term in our view is not offensive at all, rather it reflects a common reality. However, in case anyone object to the term, we truly apologize in advance and humbly ask you to read on and you might find out that our intentions are good-hearted.DefinitionSo what is the accidental project manager? Is it someone who is clumsy and stumbles into too many accidents? Absolutely not!It is a term that somewhat common to use. It typically refers to a professional who is educated, experienced, and practicing in one function or domain, such as: engineering, programming, marketing, human resources, finance, general business, art, and healthcare, among many other fields. This professional, at one time or another, is tasked with managing a project related to their function or department, such as an engineering related project, learning and development project, a media project, or any other project. Now, the challenge is that more often than none, this professional might not have any experience or education or training in project management yet they are still asked to manage a project.In other words, the professional is accidentally, or by chance/coincidence, get to manage a project although that was not likely a preferred career choice. Managing the project can be on a part-time or full-time basis. Once the project is complete, the professional resume his or her normal functional duties and maybe never manage a project again.The OpportunityFor many professionals the above bring about a great opportunity. An opportunity to take on a new challenge, and acquire new and highly valuable skills; management skills. These skills are in demand in today’s economy and life and are transferable to many domains, including managing personal non-work initiatives.If the person does a good job in managing the first project, she/he might be given an opportunity to manage another, and another, and maybe shift totally into project management and become a career project manager. A career PM is someone who chose project management as a career choice and shifted from whatever career they were in before. The transition might not be easy but would be quite rewarding.The ThreatsThe threat to the professional and the organization is that the accidental PM might not be ready to manage a project and as a result they might not do well on the first project. If the project has a significant degree of complexity, then the project might even fail and we are likely to blame the project manager. Could this be the error of the accidental PM? Basically, the professional is given a new “challenge” as the boss might have said, yet this professional who is given the challenge might not have the characteristics that is necessary for a good career project manager. Further, this person might not have been given the necessary education or know how to manage the projects and would not be fair to blame her/him.Therefore, the threat in this case is double edge: on the personal aspects, the accidental project manager is likely to feel responsible for the failure and this situation might hurt them professionally and personally. In some cases the consequences could be severe and detrimental to the person’s career. The other aspect for this situation is the organizational aspect. Here we have a failed project with cost and schedule impact – at least. If the project is for a client, the damage could be significant.In short, all involved lose in this scenario.The SolutionOne solution is to have all project managers educated and trained in project management but we do not believe this is necessary for all type of projects. For major capital investment projects, and projects that are very important for an organization we need the necessary preparation before we should put a project manager in charge.However, many projects, especially those in our day-to-day life and business, can be managed effectively with accidental project managers with some preparation. But we should not throw the person into the ocean and expect them to reach the shores safely if they do not know how to swim. We need to teach them the necessary to survive, maybe in a large pool and not the ocean; for the ocean we need an expert swimmer.How can we do that? Have the professional works on projects to see what it is like. Provide some basic project management learning opportunities. Have the person work as an assistant project manager under the supervision of a more experienced professional. All of these actions will enhance the chance of success and minimize the chance of failure. This way, we would have effectively managed the risk of the accidental project manager and the professional gain new skills while the organization enjoys the benefits of a new service or product.For all professionals out in the world, welcome the opportunity to manage a project and it may change your life. If the organization gives you the task without getting you ready, prepare on your own – seek the new knowledge and best of all learn how to apply it. We wish you an enjoyable and exciting journey of learning and growth.By the way, the author started his career as an engineer and then moved to projects.
Automotive Advertising Agencies And Technology Vendors Consolidate Along With The Auto Industry
The consolidation of the auto industry has forced automotive advertising agencies to take on new areas of responsibility that include integrating sales processes on the virtual showrooms being built on the Internet Super Highway with real world brick and mortar facilities. The internet has sparked new vendor applications and technologies that have forever changed the role of automotive advertising agencies who are challenged to match the message on the street with the message on both the real and virtual showroom floor. Technology has always determined the media used to deliver a targeted marketing message with human nature shaping the messages and methods to deliver it. The Internet and the impact that online social media is having on the shopping and buying habits of consumers is being reflected in the emerging technologies and applications focused on providing efficiencies and short term R.O.I. analytics for advertisers.It is no longer enough for automotive advertising agencies to simply drive customers to their auto dealer client’s websites and/or showrooms. Until and unless their efforts can be sourced to specific vehicle sales and/or repair orders they have not earned their agency fees. Fortunately, new vendor applications have been developed to handle the warp speeds that customers are travelling on the Internet Super Highway. These integrated solutions are being consolidated into comprehensive platforms built on best in class applications that follow customers all the way to the showroom floor and/or the service drive — and beyond with after sales follow up to improve customer satisfaction and retention.Technology vendors that provide specialized applications for the auto industry have been consolidating their products and services to improve selling processes by linking new and pre-owned vehicle sales with fixed operations. Efficiencies in processing customer contacts through integrated ILM and CRM systems tied to in store desking applications and DMS platforms allow automotive advertising agencies to manage and monitor customer contacts with a verifiable R.O.I.. This kind of R.O.I. analysis was not possible when sales and service functions were handled by individual vendor solutions that did not communicate efficiently with each other.The consolidation in the automotive advertising technology sector has been evidenced by the increased market penetration by extensive product suites such as those offered by the ever expanding group of individual vendors that comprise Dominion. The recent acquisitions of Kelley Blue Book and vAuto by Auto Trader represent a recent consolidation of best in class vendor solutions to expand their iconic marketing platform. These complimentary products and services further differentiate Auto Trader from the competition and provide a more comprehensive product suite for the auto dealers that they serve. Similarly, individual vendors have extended their product suites to include applications that compliment their initial offerings such as the expanded marketing services being offered by Higher Gear to extend their CRM application and state of the art mobile applications recently added to eCarlist to compliment their inventory management/marketing platform.These examples of best in class products and services offered by auto industry focused vendors integrated into platform solutions link vehicles sales and fixed operations to improve efficiencies and provide more comprehensive R.O.I. analytics. Auto dealers and automotive advertising agencies that have survived the consolidation in the retail auto industry have turned to these technology providers to leverage their limited resources.The future for auto dealers and automotive advertising agencies clinging to old school business practices without embracing the internet, social media and technologies to maximize the efficiencies that they represent is bleak. Similarly, vendors serving the auto industry must expand their products and services beyond their initial core products to provide complimentary and integrated solutions or they will swept aside by platform solutions that address their auto dealer clients needs in a more comprehensive manner.
Starting An Internet Marketing Business Online
Are you looking to start an internet marketing business online? If so, you need to know exactly what you’re getting yourself into. Don’t think you can just enter into this industry and expect to start making millions of dollars within the next 6 months. I get requests from people all the time telling me that they want to be making $5,000 per month within 3 months. And these are people who have never sold a thing online!One thing that you need to know is that when starting an internet marketing business online, you “kind of” have the world at your feet. There’s plenty of places to advertise, there’s plenty of ways to get free traffic to your site, there’s plenty of business owners looking to learn how to do effective marketing online, and etc. So you can be kind of spoiled once you get your hands on some training materials.But understand that you are operating in a HIGH competition arena. A smart thing that you could do is to offer internet marketing services to local small businesses in your area. Most offline small business owners don’t have a clue about how to market their business online. But in the online world, people have training thrown at them all the time.So I guess the best question to ask yourself is: “How am I different?” Right?? You don’t want to be a “me-too” person when marketing your products and services online. This applies if you choose to be a coach, consultant, or sell products such as books, CD’s, DVD’s, or even magazines. So how are you different? How will you separate yourself from the pack and differentiate yourself from everyone else online who are making the same claims as you?It’s something you need to think about when launching your own internet marketing business online. Where most people get tripped up at is when, they read someone’s free eBook about internet marketing, and then go and buy a large resell rights package that is ALL ABOUT internet marketing.Each product in the package contains something about internet marketing. More often than not, the resell rights bundle may contain products about:Email marketing
Forum marketing
YouTube marketing
General internet marketing
Consumer buying behavior
Copywriting
Etc (the list goes on and on)
And most of these people spend YEARS trying to figure out a way to sell these products – if not sell them as a bundle. OR if not resell the same offer that they bought to receive these items. After years of failure, they usually leave feeling depressed, broke, and convinced that making money online is impossible… if not a scam. And this is just not true.All of these kinds of products are supposed to teach people about niche marketing. Especially a general product about internet marketing. The real pros who sell internet marketing products successfully sell them primarily for a good reason: THEY SELL THEM FOR VERY HIGH PRICES.They sell one course about internet marketing at $200. Then they backend sell you for another similar course at $500. Then they sell you another similar course with huge bonuses for $1000. Then they sell their 3-day seminar and invite you to attend… for the price of $2000. THEN they convince you to sign up for their monthly newsletter or membership website, and charge you $50/month to join.How rich do you think you would be if you were to successfully get people to buy your products at these price ranges?Meanwhile, you’re being convinced that selling $19 eBooks will save you from your day job. This is just not the case. To make $100,000 by selling $19 eBooks, you would have to sell 5000 eBooks per year. That comes out to 416 eBooks per month. Which means you would have to sell 104 eBooks per week. Which thus means you would have to sell 14 eBooks per day.How are you going to sell 13 eBooks per day and you’re struggling to make even a dime of profit selling a $5 eBook on eBay? You have to learn a lot about internet marketing if you want to make a lot of money in this business. ESPECIALLY if you’re selling information about “internet marketing”. If you’re not a guru and have been selling other niche products successfully online, don’t enter into this broad arena.The gurus who are selling “internet marketing” products successfully have a plan that have worked well for them over the years. EVEN IF they lose money on the first sale of getting that first customer, they know how to recoup their lost, and then still profit on the next sale that they make from that customer.They know their numbers. They know their sales conversion rate, their cost per lead, cost per sale, and their average long term value of a customer. Let me ask you a question:If you knew that for every 1 customer you acquired, that you were going to make an average of $5000 over the lifetime of that customer spending money with you… would you care if you lost $5 just to acquire them in the first place? Of course you wouldn’t care.But I’m sure you would care if you were spending $5 to acquire them, and then not selling to them again to recoup your profits. That would mean that for every customer you get, you would be losing $5 per sale… forever. You have to market to these customers over and over again to recoup a frontend loss. This is called “backend marketing”.If you want to get started online in the internet marketing business, you have to bring your A-game and have a mathematical plan of how you’re going to make money. There’s a lot to learn, but once you gain an understanding of how marketing online works (and how marketing in general works)… you’ll be well on your way to success in your business.If you’re going to buy a resell rights bundle package, at least READ the information in the products you acquired so that you can know how to sell them successfully. Don’t be a hopeless cause.