As Colleyville keeps an eye on the future in terms of the city’s potential growth, it has asked the Fort Worth Transportation Authority to include a proposed Colleyville light rail station as part of an upcoming environmental impact study. Existing rail service connects Fort Worth and Dallas, and is becoming an increasingly popular way to decrease traffic and pollution.

The addition of a light rail option for commuters could boost the values of Colleyville real estate, offering an attractive transportation option for those who wish to live in Colleyville but work in Dallas or Fort Worth.

Fort Worth Transit Helps Boost Home Sales

Fort Worth real estate has received a shot in the arm from The T, with a special program offering incentives for homebuyers who purchase property within one-quarter of a mile from a T transit route in southeast Fort Worth.

The program, called Smart Commute®, allows potential home buyers to add the estimated decreased commute expenses to their income, increasing the amount of qualifying income and opening up more purchasing options. Under the program, single income households can add $200 per month and dual income households can add $250 per month to qualifying income.

Loans under this program are available through participating program lenders and applicants must meet normal loan qualification requirements.

The use of light rail in metropolitan areas only makes sense. It offers a convenient commuting option that will reduce the amount of traffic and lower pollution levels. The addition of a light rail station to Colleyville could provide an easier transit from this community’s beautiful neighborhoods into the employment centers of Fort Worth, Dallas and the Metroplex.

It’s been said that money hides mistakes. Corporate earnings are down, the market drops and gains triple digits on multiple days, housing prices continue to fall and foreclosure rates are skyrocketing. It’s no question that we are in an un-stable economic environment. Are we in a recession right now, if not today will we slip into one next week, or perhaps next month? With economic uncertainty looming, many of our clients are asking: How should I position my firm in the months to come? We are fast approaching the end of the first quarter. Today, we cover a topic that just might contain the insight you need to uncover any hidden mistakes and help you surpass your 2008 goals.The “Balanced Scorecard” is a strategic management approach developed in the early 1990s by Dr Robert Kaplan of Harvard Business School, and Dr David Norton.Much like the “Balanced Scorecard” of the 1990s, that focused on linking business performance to department metrics, The CxO Group, LLC uses a “Sales and Marketing Metrics Scorecard” (http://www.sales-scorecard.com/) with a similar approach, but designed for today’s economy.Today’s scorecard creates interaction and links between five sales management pillars as a packaged team to help drive performance.– Sales– Marketing– Strategy– Operations/Development– Partners/AlliancesFirst, we create identifiable tactical measures for each of your sales team members and contributing departments. Then, we develop and help you implement the scorecard into a living, breathing business tool to proactively manage and link strategy, marketing and sales.This tool becomes a leading business driver that when used correctly, increases corporate cash flow, accelerates operational success, and allows companies to manage their business model by proactive metrics, not reactively by emotion.With this linkage, the scorecard provides clarity in strategic and tactical goals that can be readily monitored to understand where performance is coming from and where remedial attention is needed. As I mentioned, we are regularly asked about the best improvement initiatives to be made in this uncertain economy. We always suggest companies look towards sales metrics as the way to grow their business and uncover those “hidden” mistakes.Start with the foundation. If your sales and marketing organization doesn’t have clear objectives and metrics for accountability then you probably have a few mistakes hiding in your process that are costing you money. Clear sales objectives that are aligned with company strategy is one way you can be assured of hitting your goals in uncertain economic times.At The CxO Group, we believe the entire company, not just the sales department, is responsible for revenue capture! Visit us online at http://www.thecxogroup.com/ give us a call today at (972) 727-6880, or email info@thecxogroup.com to chat about how we can help you create a sales & marketing metrics scorecard that is custom fit so your firm’s business assets are centralized on revenue development and all departments are linked to the performance.

First instinct for me is vote for Hillary. I actually like her and I’m sure there are a lot of people disagreeing but I would like to see her be the president. Sad thing is, I actually don’t think she will win. I do think she lives her life to do what she does and I think she will do a good job at it. I think she will also do something about health care that would benefit more people. The latest news is that Hillary is mad at Obama for some campaign literature that said “her health care proposal would force everyone to buy health insurance, regardless of ability to pay, a charge Clinton vehemently denied.” (See the article on cnn) I just can’t imagine that she would do such a thing and force people to buy health insurance. I think she might make health care more available to people who might not be able to afford it, but to force people to buy it who can’t???

The health care issue is very close to me. My grandmother who just celebrated her 90th birthday today has to spend SO MUCH money per month on prescription drugs and some things are just not covered that well…meanwhile someone who just came to the country and/or has not worked if any can get the medicaid and get lots of coverage. She’s worked all her life and now still has to make sure she saves up just for her prescription drugs. I think it’s completely unfair. We also have a close friend with 3 kids who are trying to make ends meet since they were both laid off few years back. Now they do not even have insurance except catastrophic coverage for themselves…which is scary. The kids gets coverage from the state as long as they do not make too much but just low enough…which is like dumb since if they make just a little more they will have to pay for it themselves and they will not be able to at this time. There has to be a kind of health care available for families like them. Why should a family that does not try to work or try to earn money get the full help from the government while families that do, sometime can’t.

Whatever, I don’t even want to talk about it anymore since there isn’t much I can do. Anyhow, I think Obama might win since he’s got the young crowd. My husband said people are in a Obama high since they want something different so badly, but their high will come down…but might be too late when that happens. I don’t have too much against Obama (unless if the campaign literature is actually false…then it will be shame shame), but I think Hillary will be a better President since she knows how to nudge her way around to get things done since she’s been in the White House before and I agree where she stands on some of the issue. I do like Obama for some things and if I keep thinking too much, I will just need to toss a coin.

Still…vote for Hillary!!!

Does your website create website traffic and generate enough sales leads? If you are like most CEO’s, sales and marketing management I speak with on a daily basis, the answer is probably no.If you perform a Google search on “sales and marketing strategies” you’ll be pleased to find over 62 million web pages devoted to helping market a business and increase sales. Spend just five minutes looking at the search results and two items become very apparent . . .

1. You can’t expect to compete in business today without leveraging your reach with online digital marketing tools and having a Web Site Marketing Strategy.
2. If you’re not appealing directly to the person who is reading your ad, you risk them seeing it without realizing how it relates to them.

Considering there are over 65 million pages devoted to “sales and marketing strategies” validates the importance of creative writing and how to appeal directly to your customers’ need to increase traffic and conversions.Keep in mind that when people meet in a live in-person business meeting, we introduce ourselves with some statement about what we do, and why we should work with one another. In a live meeting it’s important to show very quickly that we understand their issues and needs, and that we have ideas and solutions to address these.Your website is a virtual meeting tool. It must accomplish the very same objectives of an in-person meeting. It must convey common points of interest, whether personal or professional. The virtual visitor must begin to feel that they can relate with you, and this helps to build the beginning of a business relationship. Studies show you have 8 seconds to build this relationship before they click to the next site listed in the search listings. If the visitor doesn’t feel they can relate to you, if they’re overwhelmed, confused, can’t easily navigate your site or simply not interested in your site, they’ll leave in very short order — 8 SECONDS!Keeping the above strategy at top of mind, here are the top seven smart ways to get your business noticed on the Internet.1. Keep it simple.Get rid of Flash and fancy intro pages! Studies today show you only have 8 seconds to convince a prospect how you can help. Does your website describe your product or service in a succinct, compelling and visual fashion in that timeframe?With thousands, perhaps millions of Google hits for a given search term, prospects are looking for exactly what they’ve typed in or they move on to the next search result.2. Value First, Brand SecondDon’t make the mistake of dragging your business value behind you by leading with the brand name of your product, service or company. Push your business value out in front of you and set yourself above the competition by using “Value Forward” methodology!3. Call to ActionOnce you’ve got their attention you must have calls to action like an offer of a free white paper, webinar, or newsletter to harvest prospect contact information.4. Easy NavigationYour website must be easy to navigate with less than 7 navigation buttons on the home page.5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)Make sure your site appears high on search engines’ results pages. By including the right keywords and phrases, your site will appear higher up on Google, Yahoo! and other search engines.The key to keywording is translating what your product or service does into appropriate “Value Forward” keywords and phrases that will turn your visitors into qualified sales leads.6. Pay Per Click (PPC)Your sponsored or PPC listing on a search engine results page (SERP) must call out to the person reading it. If you’re not appealing directly to the person who is reading your ad, you risk them seeing it without realizing how it relates to them.In many situations it may even be necessary to develop new landing pages to help increase site level conversion.7. Podcasting and YouTubePodcasting and YouTube are new and simple technologies that you may want to take a look at. All you need to get started is a decent microphone, a digital audio or video recorder and editing software.This is a great strategy for many small businesses for several reasons. A voice, or video reference or testimonial rather than words on a website can convey conviction, credibility and personality.8. Track Your Customer Conversation Ratio or C.C.R.It is not how many unique visitors come to your website that is important. It is how many you can identify as prospects. Most companies today spend large amounts of marketing dollars on tradeshows, advertising, email marketing, corporate branding and direct mail driving thousands of potential buyers to their website . . . yet they don’t know who is there and don’t have engagement devices to capture their name. To generate more leads, track your C.C.R. through your daily audit logs as well as the names of those who sign up for your free information.Are you interested in insuring your solutions, products and services are conveyed in a compelling fashion on your website? Yes, your web designer will provide the actual website design and artwork, BUT it’s up to you to know what the content should be. Most importantly, you need to supply content that will trigger search engine hits and drive qualified traffic to your website.When you’re not experienced or don’t have the budget to have web strategy, marketing, sales or systems people on staff, or simply don’t have the bandwidth, get help! Smart business owners surround themselves with consultants that are strong where they are weak. Please consider having us help with your sales, marketing, and website strategies improvement projects.

Even though Valentine’s Day is over, you can still “Share the Love.” That is of course until the 31st of March. Local Dallas web design company lifeBLUE Media has released its very own flash game player where users can test their romance movie wits. The game features 60 different images all relating to a romance movie title where users must correctly guess the exact movie title. The game features a save option, email a friend, & loads of fun.There is also a contest involved where one can enter to win their shot at the $500 cash prize. All you have to do is sign up at www.lifeblue.com/romance/register and “Share the Love” by distributing your unique game link code throughout the Internet or write a blog about it to receive bonus points. The user with the most points in the end gets the grand prize.Play the game, win money, & “Share the Love” today!Web Design

So I know there is a national “do not call” list if you don’t want telemarketers to call you, but now they need to have something like a national “do not visit” list. We’ve been getting these calls already at random hours saying “this is an important message” and a number to call back, but it does not say who or what company it is. Then we now get visitors coming to the door. These visitors are from AT&T for today. They come at noon and they come again at dinner time. Really it’s irritating and there need to be a “do not visit” list or maybe I just need to put a big sign that says “no solicitation”…accept that if you are there customer already for other services, I guess they are allowed to bug you?

These visitors are also very good at nudging there way to get you to sign up with whatever they offer. They really will not take a no for answer. Last time they were trying to sell Uverse and at the end we really didn’t want it since it did not support our Tivo system, and the person basically said we’re almost done, so let’s just sign it and if you want to cancel you can call this number. I guess I could have signed my life away…I probably did. From now on, I guess it would be wise just not to answer the door at all (though I was expecting someone this evening and that’s why I open the door).

Irritating…it makes me want to switch companies since they are such bugs…

Will Your Sales Team Finish 2007 Strong? If not, perhaps it’s because the prospect’s perception of your business value, and the actual value delivered of your offering are mis-matched.

As Sales Training, Marketing Advisement and Strategy Specialists for growth-directed companies in Dallas, we have identified five steps of prospect value identification that take place during your sales cycle. Using these will help you close deals already on the table for 2007 and applying this to your 2008 forecast will help shorten those sales cycles.

Prospect value identification is an integrated process of perceived and actual value delivered based on your offering and your customer’s perception of that offering at various stages of your sales cycle. There are five steps of prospect value identification that take place during your sales cycle and they include:

1. The Vendor’s Perceived Value
   This is a vendor presented value and is based on how you see your value and how you communicate its status to your prospects or existing customers during the pre-sales cycle through your firm’s marketing communication and sales step process.
2. The Customer or Prospect Transitional Value
   This value happens in tandem during the discovery process where the prospect matches or rejects your perceived value (vendor’s perceived value) with their perception of your value. This is a value conversion step during the sales cycle.
3. The Prospect’s Perceived Value of Your Offering
   This value happens when your prospect or your customer finalizes their perception of your value relative to your competition and makes an assumption (correctly or incorrectly) of the value of your product or service relative to price, the business results it produces and the alternative options they have for purchase or non-purchase.
4. The Prospect’s Actual Value
   This is the alignment by the prospect or customer during their post-sale decision process to determine if the perceived value communicated by you in the pre-sale matches their perception of your actual value in the post-sale.
5. The Value Gap
   This is the measurement or gap between the vendor’s perceived value believed during the pre-sale steps and the prospect’s actual value calculated after the first sale.

Prospect value identification by its very nature is a layered, intricate process that must be aligned with your sales and marketing communication as an integrated approach. Prospect value observation starts at the beginning of your sales cycle and your position is often determined based on your entry point into the organization.

Enter into a prospect’s organizational chart below the title of Vice President at the beginning of your sales cycle and you are entering into the commodity zone of buying. Prospects below the title of VP generally make business decisions based on your offering’s features, functions or price.

When you sell management at the Vice President level and above, they buy based on their perceptions of your business offering’s value. This is a variable option that you can manipulate if you can sell correctly.

Often there is a gap between what firms believe in themselves and what their prospects actually experience.

It is not what you sell, but how your prospect positions the value of your offerings against the alternative buying options they have that must be managed.

To sell more, sell above the commodity line, manage the prospect’s perception of your business value, and control the value gap between their perception of your value and your perception.

Would you like to Evaluate Your Revenue Capture Success in more detail? Visit this link and request a copy of our Sales and Marketing Scorecard. It is a management business assessment tool designed to help you to evaluate your firm’s revenue capture success and compare your current operating model against industry best practices to help your company achieve its peak performance. The scorecard contains 100 questions on your sales and marketing methodology and supplies recommended best practices to increase your business success.

As the North Dallas suburb of Allen continues to expand and develop, so it does its need for new schools. Allen ISD is currently in the process of rezoning 4 of its elementary schools to help accommodate over crowding as plans are currently underway to build 3 new elementary schools over the next several years.

However, one such community does not intend to take the rezoning process lying down. Many parents of the planned community of Lost Creek Ranch, located between Stacy and Angel, intend to fight the current proposal that calls for the displacement of about 30% of the community’s current attendance at Marion Elementary at Lost Creek Ranch. Which located in the heart of the community also bears the name of the community and the land for the school was sold to Allen ISD for a token amount under the pretense that it would be intended for LCR residents. The displaced students would then be forced to attend the new school located in a newly developed business district surrounded by a mini-mall, several banks, and a Walmart.

Some of the key points argued by LCR residents are: safety for their children along a soon to be 20 lane intersection surrounded by businesses, increased distance from their current school, and the inability for many students who currently walk to school to be able to continue this socially healthy and physical practice to their new school. Another main component fueling their argument is that several other communities located outside of LCR, who are currently attending Marion Elementary and are receiving busing services, will remain at Marion.

However, due to safety considerations, Asst. Superintendent Dr. Vroonland has stated that if the current proposal remains the same, due to the traffic considerations to the new school, rezoned LCR residents will be receiving bus services also. Which begs the question, why would Allen ISD spend the money to bus two neighborhoods to two different schools within the same proximity to the new school, thus increasing costs to tax payers and dividing a tight-knit community in the process. Among several alternative proposals submitted by LCR residents one includes moving communities outside of LCR, that are currently being bused, to the new school. LCR residents state that these communities would be moving as a whole rather than displacing part of a community and it would not be any further for them to attend the new school than the portion of LCR that is to be rezoned.

LCR residents have certainly come together to stand against the current proposal. Even LCR residents not affected by the new proposal are involved. Under the leadership of a self-appointed committee, LCR residents have gathered a plethora of facts and statistics supporting their cause, handed out fliers, put up signs, and even created a website to support their cause. The web design was graciously donated by lifeBLUE Media, a full service Internet development firm located here in the Dallas area.

In the end LCR residents want the Allen ISD to create a proposal that is fair for all communities involved. They understand it is not fair for anyone to have to move schools, but to alienate a small part of community that will endanger the safety of children and increase tax payer costs is not a viable option for any parent.

I just received an email from our neighbor coordinator alerting us that someone had received a call from AT&T (or Telus) and that they are testing their phone line and to press #90. This “supposedly” will give access to the person to make long distances call but charged to your phone.

So I looked into this and seem like this is just another chain letter that’s been going around since 1998. You can see it yourself on about.com and is known as an urban legen that’s partly true. Partly true because:

‘What the warning letter floating around the Net doesn’t say is that this scam only works on telephones where you have to dial 9 to get an outside line. Unless you have to dial 9 to get an outside line at home, this scam does not affect residential telephone users. Dialing “nine-zero-pound” on a residential phone will only give you a busy signal. That’s it.”

I would just read the bottom comment on that page and also read it from the following sites. Regardless of what it does or doesn’t do, I’m sure you would know not to do anything that’s asked of you from anyone who calls out of the blue.

From FCC
Breakthechain.org

Looks like more people were against Proposition one. Which would have prevented the building of the tollway inside the Trinity River levees. It was pretty close. So this means they WILL put the tollway through. Oh well…