forest gump was right

There are many memorable quotes from the Tom Hanks movie "Forest Gump". The most memorable quote is (all together) "life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are gonna get". Life and business is a lot like this, full of surprises. Surprises that should be embraced. So what does this have to do with business and eCommerce? PLENTY

Every day online is a new opportunity to attract customers and find new ways to improve your customer experience. At the end of the day this is what it is all about. As I continue to say; people come to a web site and do one of four things;

1. Learn
2. Buy
3. Self serve
   
4. Leave

While most of us want surfers to do number two or number three; buy, convert or self serve (more on this in a future post). Number one (learn) and three (leave) are inevitable. Surfers must learn before they buy; this can be done on or off property. In most cases you want this done on your website as if it is done off property, there is that much more of a chance for surfers to go somewhere else to buy. Your competitors are only one click away. Our job every day as eCommerce professionals is to ensure that we expect the unexpected and more importantly react quickly. How do we do this; measure measure, measure. There is an old saying that goes: "you can't manage what you don't measure!" If you don't have a sizable investment in metrics or what I like to call metrology; you are "missing the boat". At Cingualr and later at AT&T we had a Director of Metrology, this person was worth their weight and more in the value that they delivered to our business.

The web unlike other sales channels is highly measurable and highly configurable. Look at EVERY campaign. Make sure you test everything you do; don't have one campaign, have two and measure the conversion of each, then dump the under performing one and work to improve the successful one.

Expect the unexpected and embrace what you find; but in eCommerce remember to measure it. Life is like a box of chocolates!

Bob

I'm trying to figure out why kamikaze pilots wore helmets

I am not trying to be comical here. This is a real question that we should think about.

Kamikaze, which means "Divine Wind" in Japanese, was Japan's last attempt to balance the ever increasing technological and material advantage of the American forces advancing to Japan. Kamikaze pilots would attempt to intentionally crash their aircraft (usually laden with explosives, bombs, torpedoes and full fuel tanks) into Allied ships with a goal of causing greater damage than a conventional attack such as dropping bombs, torpedoing or using machine guns. It was consider a great honor to sacrifice yourself for your country.

So what does this have to do with business or eCommerce. I submit that a lot can be learned from the Kamikaze's. These were honorable men that believed it what they were doing was right and just, but in the end the overall theory is fundamentally flawed. The flaw is the belief that you should sacrifice yourself (translate in business; key assets) to attain your goal. Or the theory that you should win at all costs. In my mind some costs are too high.

The flaws are strategic in nature, there is no substitute for a sound strategy and execution. This is true in war and in business and specifically eCommerce. If your firm does not have a sound strategy with goals and metrics, you are wasting your eCommerce investments.

You might have a beautiful website (translates to helmets for kamikaze pilots) but if you aren't converting your visitors or have actionable plans to increase your conversion rates it is useless and wasteful.

I mean no disrespect to the memories of kamikaze pilots and their families, I do however condemn the leadership that engaged in this practice. There is a parallel here too, leaders who preside over their eCommerce organizations rather than run them as an active sales channels are guilty of waste.

The analogy in this post to some might be a stretch, but think about it. Think about what is important for your eCommerce site. When it is all said and done, it is about the fundamentals; attraction and conversion. Fix these first else there is no need for helmets.

Bob

interplanetary travel is overrated

Interplanetary travel is overrated - there I said it. I love space travel or in my case the idea of space travel, but unless we find a way to travel faster than the speed of light; I think we will be long limited to this solar system. So what does this have to do with me, eCommerce and business; plenty. The point here is one of vision and timing; while it is my firm belief that you have to have a vision and constantly work toward that vision, you must also be realistic and live in the now. Its a tough balance as no great breakthroughs have ever happened just by incremental improvement. As Tom Peter's says; "you have to fail forward fast". The key here is to recognize that you learn from every failure (duh), you have to realize this and move on.

eCommerce and failure; the web gives us a unique ability to measure, measure, measure everything we do; site visits, hits, conversion, etc. It is a living test bed for sales. If you aren't tweaking your commerce site daily or at least have some sort of A/B testing going on at any given time, you are leaving money on the table.

On a more practical note, the new firm is coming along well. I set up the website at www.steelhammergroup.com, I will have at least a front page done today. I am having business cards printed and I am working to close my first 3 month consulting deal in the next day or so.

To this point, no one has visited my blog yet, or at least has commented on on it. I guess it is like throwing a party and no one shows up. We will see...

Bob

the first post is always the hardest

To start a blog seems a bit risky. Writing your thoughts your dreams and feelings online and in one place while could be therapeutic, but could come back and bite you in the ass. So with this in mind, to borrow from one of my favorite media icons, David Letterman, here is my top ten things about blogs

1. what if I write and nobody reads (a bit vein don't you think?)
2. what if I don't have anything to say?
3. what would my mother say?
4. why should I spend the time?
5. who will read this?
6. what will they think?
7. where will this information end up?
8. what if I don't?
9. what if I can gain clarity?
10. what if I can make a difference?

OK a bit about me, Bob Steelhammer; 48 year old married eCommerce professional. Most recently I was the Vice President of att.com; yup used to run att.com; before that cingular.com, before that motorola.com/semiconductor, before that sgi.com and before that a large portion of ibm.com (sounds a little bit like the Bible with all of the begot).

I am just starting to launch my own firm; The Steelhammer Group. The goal is simple; help companies recognize their eCommerce potential. Most companies have huge investments in eCommerce and aren't getting the return they should. We can help companies get better return on investments through what I call web fundamentals. More on that later.

I did it my first post; will you respect me in the morning :-)

Bob