What's New in Music?

What’s New in Music?

What’s the hottest song in the country right now?

Shuttin’ Detroit Down (by John Rich) It seems to speak the sentiment of many...

Lyrics found at 6lyrics.com…or see John sing it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoIXxFSq7og

My daddy taught me in this country everyone’s the same.
You work hard for your dollar and you never pass the blame,
When it don’t go your way.
Now I see all these big shots whining on my evening news,
About how they’re losing billions and it’s up to me and you
To come running to the rescue.

Well pardon me if I don’t shed a tear.
They’re selling make believe and we don’t buy that here.

Because in the real world they’re shuttin’ Detroit down,
While the boss man takes his bonus paid jets on out of town.
DC’s bailing out them bankers as the farmers auction ground.
Yeah while they’re living it up on Wall Street in that New York City town,
Here in the real world they’re shuttin’ Detroit down.
Here in the real world they’re shuttin’ Detroit down.

Well that old man’s been working in that plant most all his life,
Now his pension plan’s been cut in half and he can’t afford to die
And it’s a crying shame, cuz he ain’t the one to Blame.
When I looked down to see his calloused hands,
Well let me tell you friend it gets me fightin’ mad.

Cause in the real world they’re shuttin’ Detroit down,
While the boss man takes his bonus paid jets on out of town.
DC’s bailing out them bankers as the farmers auction ground.
Yeah while they’re living it up on Wall Street in that New York City town,
Here in the real world they’re shuttin’ Detroit down.

Yeah while they’re living up on Wall Street in that New York City town,
Here in the real world they’re shuttin’ Detroit down.
Here in the real world they’re shuttin’ Detroit down,
In the real world they’re shuttin’ Detroit down.
They’re shuttin’ Detroit down.

Marketing Tip - showing our value to prospects

This summarizes nicely how we can highlight the values of our association - whether in technical services, out in the field, in our communications materials, in membership, meetings mgmt, or on the phone...

A friend that works at a car dealership was recently discussing a sales technique with me. "We're not allowed to let customers leave...until they take a test drive," he said. "If they take a test drive, the chances that they'll buy really improve."

What does this have to do with today's topic? The car dealership's policy clearly illustrates the difference between selling features and selling benefits.

So what's the difference?

Feature: The structure, physical description, or attributes of your product or service.

Benefit: The emotional reasons or connections your prospect makes with your product or service.

At a car dealership, putting the consumer in the driver's seat changes the way they view the vehicle. No longer are they looking at the "features" of the car, they are experiencing the benefits. (Hence the increase in sales.)

So what can you do to make sure your message is speaking to your prospect's heart and not their head? Ask yourself a series of questions:

How will their life be better, easier, or more fun with my product or service?
Why will they want to tell their friends about my company?
Without my product or service, what will the prospect be missing?
How will the prospect justify this purchase to themselves or their spouse?

By answering these questions, you will discover the benefits that will attract your prospects. No matter how tempted you may be to point out the incredible "features" of your product, sell with the prospect in mind.

When you constantly put the prospects emotions first, you will create marketing messages that drive sales like you've never seen before.

credit to Clate Mask, President, InfusionSoft

Even hockey is going green!

Zambonis benched in favor of electric IceCats


Growing up in Canada, every kid knows what the Zamboni is. But for the poor, deprived children of warmer climes, we'll fill you in. It's not a lunch meat or a pastry you'd find in Little Italy, but the ice resurfacing machine you see put-putting around the rink before, after and in the middle of hockey games. Created by Frank Zamboni in 1949, the company's pretty much had a monopoly on the market ever since. But the times, as Bob Dylan sang from the penalty box, they are a-changin'.

Toronto, Canada's largest city, is slowly phasing out their Zambonis in favor of Finnish-made IceCats (pictured above). So is the National Hockey League. And the reason is carbon monoxide: while the Zambonis run on propane or natural gas, the IceCats are all-electric. In an indoor arena, that can make all the difference: it's no big surprise to read that a study in the American Journal of Public Health determined that replacing carbon-emitting resurfacing machines with electric ones would reduce the concentration of nitrogen dioxide in indoor arenas by 87%, except to wonder where the other thirteen percent is coming from (flatulent spectators?). At a whopping $160,000 apiece – twice the price of a new Zamboni when many skating rinks already have their own – the IceCats aren't cheap (there are only four in all of Canada), but with carbon emissions on everybody's minds, Zamboni may get beaten to by the Finnish line.

found on autoblog.com by your favorite lipstick-wearing hockey mom :)

NTEA song from holiday party

Sung to the tune of The Brady Bunch theme song...

Here’s the story of NTEA
That was founded back in 1964
Some remote, some lifers and some new blood
Adding value to their members like ne’er before

Here’s the story of NTEA
And how a dedicated group could save the day
Their tech help, comm staff and great sales team
Soothed fears, filled booths to lead and pave the way

Until one day with Chicago as their venue
And their show bigger and better than before
Despite auto woes, a credit crunch and bad financials
The Work Truck Show had hope for what’s in store.


Very nice holiday party yesterday. Kudos to Sheree, Steve C, Jim and all those involved in the planning :)

What is a Blog and Why are we doing this?

Yesterday, I mentioned in a meeting that I had posted my first blog. Someone asked me what a blog was. To be honest, I, too, am new to all this – and I do not even pretend to know all the answers – but here’s what little I know…

Blogs are like little written monologues or journal entries. In our case, Payal has set this up as an opportunity for us to test, trial and learn. Each person on staff can create a running blog (post as often as interested) and we, the other NTEA staffers, can read each blog and, if interested, then post a comment to the blog. I happen to have a personal gmail account – and can attest, it was not hard (especially with Payal looking over my shoulders!) to start my blog. And, now, look at me, I am writing again!

Instead of broadcast emails, we can post once and everyone can view the original message and all the comments. This is the future, folks, and it is likely we will someday get to a point in helping our members to network in this way.

So, let’s take advantage of this great opportunity to test the waters and get more comfortable in this universe… and just think what we can learn from each other!

Social Media Meeting last week

I had the pleasure of attending a Steve Miller conference in Arlington, VA last week. Did you know there are more than 400 associations in Arlington? Walking down King Street, you see sign after sign.

Steve Miller's meeting was on Social Media. We met with two sharp guys from a Boston-based consulting firm, who provided a nice overview of the different platforms and available social networking opportunities - Facebook, Linked In, Twitter and more. What you can do, why people do it, etc.

Then our group of association execs shared what social media strategies they were implementing or considering. They are the early adopters in the association world and it was interesting to learn what they are doing and what value they see from it.

In short, while our membership may not be as technologically motivated as other association's memberships, we intend to assess social media strategies as part of our membership support, provide networking opportunities for those who seek it and pave the way for use of such tools for NTEA's future.

As a side note, as an association, we will need to proceed with caution because of ant-trust laws.