2010: New Learnings at the End of the Year

2010 has been an interesting and fruitful year for yours truly, as it involved a lot of changes, personally & professionally speaking.

We started redesigning TheNewlead website which we're aiming to launch by the first quarter of the next year. I got to dabble in user interface & web design in general which was quite a challenge because we had to think like our  users and to generally think of three kinds of users:

1. our active, registered members

2. frequent visitors who are mostly doing   

    research and

3. the lurkers who are new visitors who either 

   are just curious or have accidentally landed on 

   our page

Hopefully, the newly revamped TheNewLead website would be a delight to use as we aimed it to be more user-friendly, easily understandable and pleasing to the eye. We also changed the logo and the layout of our website, so even though we retained some functions from the old, current site, everything will come off as new, highly improved and a whole lot better with the new website.

Of course, the same services apply to the new website:

1. Find B2B Leads

2. CRM Data Cleaning

3. Custom Data Request

Plus a new feature which we hope would encourage other TheNewLead members to become more active in the website. It involves getting a whole lot of fresh, new contacts.

This has also been a starting year for us in social media marketing. It might seem easy for constant users of Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and other social media sites but using it for marketing can be quite tricky, compared to just using it casually. Social media marketing is forever changing and there's always a new thing to discover everyday. I've started getting active in  Linked in  and it's such a continuous, enlightening experience as not only do you get to connect with people all around the globe, you also get to discuss with them your professional issues, the topics you're interested in, as well as learn from so many people of different races, culture and designations. But most importantly, you get to find prospects, interact and learn more about your existing clients.

This past year has been a tremendously educational year for me and I hope to discover and learn new things from all sorts of people. Hopefully, 2011 would bring more challenging and fruitful endeavors that would lead to more genuine connections, more awesome clients and most importantly, more success to our professional and personal lives.

I hope everyone had a joyous holiday and lets welcome the New Year with a confident , optimistic stance, an honest smile on our faces and a light, happy heart. And everyone who knows Black Eyed Peas, sing with me! "I got a feeling, that tonight's gonna be a good night!"

Happy New Year Everyone! Lets all have a great year ahead!

TheNewLead Year End Party

It was the day before Christmas and everyone was pretending to be busy

Thinking of their work and the holidays was making them dizzy

The work ended and the gathering finally started

To the bowling lanes of the East Coast, everyone headed

The bashful, semi-shy team that landed

 Turned out to be a loud and playful crowd that easily bonded

Some were decent with bowling, that we have to admit,

others kept throwing the balls like a basketball

which we believe the clueless management won't permit.

Others had grace and style on the lane,

while some still kept pretending it was still a basketball game.

Then we headed for a restaurant and took a break

That's where things got more interesting

I can't tell all for someone's sake

Lets just say we played a game of "Truth or Dare"

 

 

where shame & dignity, were of little care.

The night ended with just a few drunks

 

No one seemed shy and no one was in a funk.

It was a night of bonding, where friendships were encouraged

and work was set aside.

 

And everyone was happy and left all in smiles

Malcolm Gladwell: What we can learn from spaghetti sauce

The author of  "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference," (2000) , "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking" (2005), and "Outliers: The Story of Success" (2008) in the TED Conference, talking about choices and happiness. How does spaghetti sauce figure out in this, watch & find out.

The Presentation Secrets Of Steve Jobs

A person can have the greatest idea in the world. But if that person can’t convince enough other people, it doesn’t matter.
–Gregory Berns

Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

Stay hungry, stay foolish.

Research first, Sell Later

Having the most innovative, most beneficial, most cost-reducing product in the market doesn't necessarily translate to immediately closing a sale, especially after a major presentation. It takes more than great features or a reasonable price for a product to sell; you have to know those customers who's really keen on your product.

That's where the the importance of research comes in.Your research must be able to provide you with the following:

1. Recent mentions

The internet is readily available to provide you with the basic information you would need to relate to a client. You don't have to know every personal detail about them, just gather those that would seem appropriate for a small talk, eg. article mentioning client, similar professional connections or interest, general news on client's company so as to make them comfortable about you personally.

2. Relevance

How exactly does your product fit into their business? Have they used something similar before and what were the feedbacks? This is a must, otherwise, they won't see the need to acquire your services or products.

3. Problems

Again, a vital part of your research for you to relate your product as a solution. Remember though to state their difficulties in a positive way, as that works better than telling them what they already know. Point out also, in a positive way, the methods they've done that were not as successful, then lead them to your product as a solution.

4. Competitors

Have they done or offered something similar? Is your product really better than theirs? You don't have to just focus on comparing your product with your competitors, you can also compare them to their own competitors, eg, current, similar issues, how did they handle it and such.

5. Benefits

What could they gain from the product a few months from now? Specify and relate it to their goals. Will it increase sales revenue by what percent? Will it lower down the cost to what degree? Will it gain them more leads and by how much in a term?

Of course, researching the latest trends about your industry is a must, as well as knowing by heart the latest features or updates regarding your product but what is most essential is doing some research on your client. No matter how exceptionally useful your product might be, at the end of the day, customers buy from those who understands what they really need and not from those who think they know what customers really need. Research from their point of view, not from a salesman's point of view.

TheNewLead Improvements

As I've mentioned in other articles, we're still working on revamping and redesigning the website, making sure that not only the design would be better, the user interface and added/tweaked functions would be greatly superior to what we have now in the current website.

If you do have more suggestions on how we can make it better and easier to use, please post your comments here, we'd be glad to hear them out.

For more info, please visit the following:

Website: www.thenewlead.com

Forum: www.thenewlead.activeboard.com

Blog: www.newsfromthenewlead.blogspot.com

B2B Leads from Southeast Asia and Others

Just an FYI post.

We're initially offering contacts from Southeast Asia but that doesn't necessarily mean that we don't have leads in other locations. Before dwelling on lead locations, our contact information includes the ff:

1. Full name of the contact

2. Job title

3. Business email address

4. Direct phone no.

5. Full name of company

6. Company address

Our leads are mostly from Southeast Asia, specifically from the following:

• Singapore
• Malaysia
• Indonesia
• Vietnam
• Philippines
• Thailand
• Brunei

The other locations of our leads includes the following countries:

• India
• Australia
• Hongkong

You just have to visit our website then select and download your chosen contacts. We can also customize a list of contacts for you if you'd prefer a more specific, targeted data. Just give us the necessary information, such as the following:
1. Country
2. Company Size
3. Industry
4. Level
5. Department
6. No.of expected contacts
7. Your timeframe for the needed leads, your deadline

And any other information which will narrow down the search and we'd readily do look for those leads for you.

For more information, please visit the following:

Website: www.thenewlead.com

Forum: www.thenewlead.activeboard.com

Blog: www.newsfromthenewlead.blogspot.com

My Contact Shop & Search Options

Good day folks!

It has been a tiring vacation leave for yours truly so forgive and forget if I haven't updated you on well, anything lately. Who knew taking a vacation could be this tiring, I feel like I was on a marathon the whole week.

But nevertheless, we are still getting some interesting queries from our ever relentless yet well-intentioned users. Let me just post a few of their questions regarding our website, www.thenewlead.com:

1. Where do I look for my submitted and verified contacts in my account?

You can just go to Contact Library >> My Contact Shop

and from there you'd be able to view & even export your submitted and validated contacts. Think of  TheNewLead as a database management for accurate, verified contacts.

2. Is there any other selection criteria when I'm searching for contacts?

Yes there is, we do have the Quick Search, that's available in the homepage

in which you can quickly type or copy/paste the company name and select its industry and the location.

We also have the general search function in the Search & Buy >> Search Contacts

 which has the search options such as name/email, company, department group and the job title.

The Search Company has a simpler search option, you only have to type in the company name or website.

But aside from the general search options, we do have the Advanced Search option, located underneath the basic search criteria.

For the Search Contact >> Advanced Search, you have the following search options:
1. Country - City (State if applicable)
2. Industry & sub-industry
3. Postal code
4. No. of employees
5. And the option to filter out contacts that were submittedupdated by this user at a given date

The Search Company >> Advanced Search is similar, just the SIC code is added.

Keep in mind that we're currently redesigning the whole website so if you do have any suggestion on how to make the searching of contacts faster, more efficient or if you want to add any ideas, please just post them on the comments section or you can head over to our forum, www.thenewlead.activeboard.com and just post your feedback there.