E-Learning Tactics For Pharmas
Library Provides Travel Companions
Corrections or additions?
These articles by Bart Jackson and others were prepared for the
June 6, 2001
edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
E-Commerce & the ‘Net: Still Useful Tools
If we pulled one harsh moral from the embers of last
year’s wild and ruinous market flux, it is that the computer is no
magic money machine. Operating a business takes more than tapping
keys, and orders scrolled across a screen do not instant profits make.
But before tossing out this infant with last year’s starkly chilling
bath water, we may want to take another look at this business tool
with more reasonable expectations.
For those ever on the prowl for cutting edge, yet realistic,
innovations
from any source, the Mercer Chapter of the New Jersey Association
of Women Business Owners (NJAWBO) offers its monthly marketing
roundtable.
Susan Guarneri, president of website development company E-Biz
Magic, speaks on “Using Technology to Market Your Business
Effectively”
on Monday, June 11, at 8 a.m. at the law offices of Schragger &
Schragger.
Cost: $10. Call 609-882-4586.
“You don’t even need a website to make the computer work as an
effective business tool,” Guarneri. “Basic E-mail can vastly
sharpen your marketing focus.” Thus was Guarneri herself lured
into high tech aids when she moved to New Jersey eight years ago and
set her John Hopkins master’s degree in career counseling to work
by starting up Resume Magic.
The Internet is an ideal place for what Guarneri terms field testing.
A bit of browsing will turn up a host of free classifieds with E-mail
links, which may target specific audiences or be totally random. She
suggests you take your current newspaper ads and try them out —
each with a different wording or style. Then study the feedback from
the links and adjust your other media ads appropriately. This is a
way to test market at no cost. In addition, E-mail provides an
excellent
path to customer satisfaction and understanding. Market surveys, which
entail just a few clicks, often glean a higher return rate than
snail-mail
surveys. Customer complaints can be handled within the day and
relationships
maintained via periodic, updated newsletters.
And of course sales orders can be taken using E-mail alone. “Many
people say `I will advertise with the computer, even with a fancy
website, but I don’t want to deal in E-commerce.’ That’s just slamming
a door in your face,” says Guarneri. “Why not maximize
profits?”
Unfortunately, too frequently, the business website stands as a
grudgingly
built adjunct whose necessity is taken strictly on faith and whose
potential remains shrouded in mystery. The president of Acme Widgets
marches into the resident techie’s office, “Johnson, we’ve got
to have a website. Build us one — by Tuesday.” Exit president,
and all corporate input.
Such are the scenes that make Guarneri tear her hair. “It is a
myth,” she says, “that if you build it, they will come.”
Management must envision its website as necessarily the collaborative
effort of marketing, sales, production, technology, and all aspects
of the company. And if it is to be more than a company brochure, it
must be well thought out. Guarneri lists several priorities.
Grab the customer’s attention. Display your product’sbenefits, not its features. “Your website,” says Guarneri,”exists to solve customer problems. You’ve got to connect withcustomers’ needs — their pain.” Don’t boast about your vacuumcleaner’s three nozzles. Instead, tell them how the special one willclean their drapes, saving them dry cleaning costs, reducingallergies,and making them look better to nosy visiting in-laws.Stay current. No shopkeeper sets up one display windowand leaves it unchanged until it gathers dust. So must a website beever ongoing. It should be a creative blend of constants, such asyour logo, and updates, such as graphics and photos. In addition,try to combine your updated website with a crisp newsletter and otherinformation for both new and potential customers. Use one medium toadvertise the other. Mention changes not just in price and product,but in services. (It may even spur you on to making some long-neededchanges.)Speak the customer’s language. “Too many websitescan be too easily mistaken for annual reports,” says Guarneri.Dense language and strings of statistics with photos of blandlysmilingcorporate officers mean naught to the guy examining your new vacuumor the lady seeking her best bet in a chain saw. A back page fullof fun factoids or a photo lay-out depicting how your product is mademay make nice additions to round out the presentation. But up front,give the customer a solution he needs.Focus on your target market. With a little thought andhelp from your technical supporters, your website can pre-qualifybuyers, and at the same time selectively test new markets. Yourwebsitecosts valuable staff time. What is its advertising clout for bothE-commerce and indirect sales? Are the time and technology worth it?Close information gaps. Does your site have directionsfrom all points to your office — with a nice little map? Thisis where total input, both from staff and from surveyed customers,becomes important.Finally, be patient. “Just whip up a website and inthree days — gush — the orders begin just flooding in.”Don’t believe it. Like every other aspect of your business,establishingthe sharp and careful website takes time. And while the message zingsinstantly across the globe, the response ambles back at the same paceas all your other publicity efforts. “You are planting seeds,”says Guarneri. “Some will sprout swiftly, others will take a longtime to harvest.”In the end, business takes what it has always taken: labor,patience, brains, and sweat. The old tools, and now the new high techones, have not replaced the basics. If anything, they will pile higheryour load. But they are designed to increase your profit, byincreasingyour horizon. And the better you can master them, the better they,and you, will do just that.— Bart JacksonTop Of PageE-Learning Tactics For PharmasLeveraging the Internet for Executive Learning” willbe the topic for a workshop led by Steven Peskin, presidentof Lenox Drive-based Nelson Managed Solutions. Peskin speaks at anE-learning conference staged by the Institute for InternationalResearchon Monday and Tuesday, June 11 and 12, at the Princeton Marriott.Cost: $1,695 for the conference starting at noon on Monday, or $1,995with the workshop set for 8 a.m. Monday. Steep discounts for federalgovernment employees are available. Call 800-345-8016, extension 3705.Debra Newton of Newton Interactive, a digital media firm onPennington Road that serves the healthcare and pharmaceuticalindustries,will be among the exhibitors at the conference. The conference isfor those who must implement and execute E-learning programs inpharmaceuticaland biotechnology companies. E-learning programs are needed forthese departments: human resources, organizational development, R&D,sales, regulatory affairs, and project management, among others. Theworkshops would also be useful for consultants, software vendors,and contract research organizations (CROs) who serve the E-learningindustry.Rebecca Fuller Hyde, a content consultant for EduNeering Inc.on Campus Drive, will be among the speakers. Also presenting willbe Vida Roshan, director of E-learning at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals’worldwide E-business division. Tracy Tinker of DupontPharmaceuticalswill talk about lessons learned at Dupont’s distance educationprogram.Chand Sishta, quality assurance manager at Bristol-Myers Squibb,will discuss how to implement E-learning.Top Of PageCourtesy Still CountsBusiness etiquette is a form of communication, saysconsultant Maureen Saunders. “No matter how technicallybrilliant you are, if your etiquette skills are lacking, you can killa sale, destroy a relationship, and never enjoy professional success.If you don’t think that rude behavior doesn’t affect morale,productivity,customer service, or profitability, think again.”Saunders will give a workshop on “Etiquette: the overlookedbusinesstool” for Meeting Professionals International on Wednesday, June13, at 5:30 p.m. at the Renaissance Meadowlands. Cost: $50. CallMarcieHorowitz at 732-536-5135. The group has also scheduled a golfoutingat Forsgate on Monday, June 18, at 11:30 a.m. Cost: $150.Protocol is paramount in the military, so it makes sense to learnprotocol and etiquette from someone who has been a military wife.Saunders, a 1977 graduate of Cedar Crest College in Allentown, marrieda West Pointer and has had plenty of opportunities to learn etiquetteon Army posts around the world. She has also earned certificates fromthe Protocol School of Washington and the Josephson Institute ofEthicsin California, worked for the federal government as an English asa Second Language instructor, and has been a corporate trainer forfive years. Her Martinsville-based firm, Standard Bearers Consulting,focuses on business ethics, professional etiquette, and customerservicetraining (732-537-9550, www.standardbearersconsulting.com).Among her clients have been Marriott International, Prudential,Nordstrom’s,AT&T, Rutgers, Seton Hall, and NeighborCare Institutional Pharmacy.”Everything we do and say (and don’t do and don’t say) sends amessage,” says Saunders. “Your conduct influences others’perceptions of your ability, integrity, values, dependability, andmore. And because most people don’t distinguish between an individualand the company she works for, business etiquette skills often affecta particular company’s sales and reputation.””Many times American executives are offensive, and they don’teven know it. Unless Americans re-learn some of the `kinder, gentler’behaviors of previous generations, we will be handicapping ourselvesin an increasingly global economy. Civility is often an overlookedbusiness tool.”Incivility can actually affect a company’s finances, according toresearchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill andSt. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. Collaborating on a five-yearresearch project, they found that unmannerly behavior in the workplacecan contribute to stress-related illness such as depression or highblood pressure, Saunders says.”Beyond the financial bottom line is the recognition that, inevery organization, norms for mutual respect are absolutelynecessary,”she says. In today’s workforce, representing all colors, genders,religions, and political persuasions, “it is essential toacknowledgea code of polite conduct.Some of her client firms are offering crash courses in decorum totheir key employees. Among the worst offenses:profanityverbal tics (hmmmm, like, ya know, thing-ies in thevocabularly)inhospitalityhostile body languagebad attitudesbad table mannersFor instance, Saunders quotes a Business Week article tellingof a consulting company that lost a $30 million contract after anexecutive, when lunching with the client, licked his knife.What to do if someone energetically insists on giving you theirbusinesscard, even when you don’t want it? “They are being rude, if theydon’t wait for some sign or body language, that would encourage themto give their card,” Saunders says. “If they insist onhoistingit on to you, just drop it in a pocket and throw it away later.”Her worst example of business card etiquette, a true story:”A well-groomed, middle-aged man shook a woman’s handenthusiasticallyand requested one of her business cards. Flattered, she opened hercard case and slid a crisp sliver of paper (Crane’s best, watermarked,highest rag content, beautifully engraved), into his waiting palm.Without hesitation this debonair gent puts the professional card intohis mouth and loosens some food particles that had become wedgedbetweenhis teeth. He nodded at her endearingly and walked off into thecrowd.”Top Of PageLibrary Provides Travel CompanionsFor business and pleasure travelers the Princeton PublicLibrary offers a “Book a Trip” service. Begun in the youthservices department, this service has been expanded to all ages andrequires a minimum of week’s notice. Call 609-924-8211 or go towww.princetonlibrary.org.Just fill out a Book a Trip form — providing information not onlyabout the destination, but also about your interests, favoriteauthors,and the type of materials you would like to bring. Seven days later,pick up the special “Book a Trip” bag with a custom-pickedselection. The books might be anything from off-beat or specializedtravel books to historical novels or detective stories about aparticularlocation.”We want to point out that in addition to Fodor’s and Frommer’s,we also feature more unusual titles, everything from guides forvegetariansto tours of Jewish history in Venice,” says Terez Lernerof the technical services department. Some of her recommendationsare “Haunted Inns of the Southeast” by Sheila Turnage;”BluesTraveling: The Holy Sites of Delta Blues,” by Steve Cheseborough;and “Earth-Friendly Inns and Environmental Travel Northeast”by Dennis Dahlin.Top Of PageCorporate AngelsA Capital Health System nurse Susan Bell will spend aweek’s vacation this summer providing medical support for her husband,Pemberton School District athletic director Fran Bell, and over 150other cyclists as they pedal 500 miles from Trenton (Ontario) toTrenton(New Jersey) to raise money and awareness for Anchor House, theTrentonhome for runaway and troubled teens.As one of three nurses serving on the support team for the ride, Bell,of Capital Health System’s Education Resource Center, will monitorthe health of riders at one of three scheduled stops set at 25-mileintervals along each day’s 80 mile route.This year’s ride, which begins July 7 and ends Saturday, July 14,with a ceremony at Quakerbridge Mall, marks Anchor House’s 23rdanniversary.The many-faceted safe haven provides temporary shelter and assistsin solving problems faced by runaways and their families. Servicesinclude group counseling, medical attention, and education about druguse prevention. Anchor House also operates an outreach program forarea students, as well as the Anchorage, a transitional program forhomeless youths ages 16 to 21. For information on the ride orsponsoringa cyclist call 609-278-9495.The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the NewJersey Race for the Cure have awarded Cancer Care of New Jerseya grant to support its Breast Cancer Education and Support Programfor 2001. This award will enable Cancer Care to provide breast canceroutreach and education to under-served individuals at particular riskfor delayed diagnosis of breast cancer. It will also provide educationand support services to those with a breast cancer diagnosis, andtheir families. The services provided by this grant will focus onthe greater Trenton area.William M. Mercer employees recently spent a dayvolunteeringat the Mercer County Wildlife Center as part of the company’sCommunityConnections program. They repaired cages and animal perches, andworkedon painting floors and constructing paths. Last year Mercer volunteersbuilt a flight cage for three rehabilitated birds that are in thecenter’s educational programs.The Mercer County Wildlife Center, located in Titusville, has beentreating, rehabilitating, and providing surrogate parenting for smallmammals and birds since the 1980s.New Jersey Children’s Trust Fund has awarded $729,403in grants to a number of child abuse prevention and family supportgroups. The Children’s Trust Fund is based in the Department of HumanServices and co-sponsored by the Child Life Protection Commissionand the New Jersey Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect.Area grant recipients include HomeFront of Lawrenceville, which willreceive $41,900; Isles of Trenton, which will receive $46,080; Family& Children’s Services of Central New Jersey, which will receive$44,000;and the Princeton Center for Leadership Training, which will receive$26, 453.Previous StoryNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
