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How I Work : About The Bald Dog : Working Philosophy : Case Studies : Frequently Asked Questions |  |
Your bad luck has just caught up with you, and you're about to...
Brace Yourself For Meeting Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan
An engineer by training, B2B business developer by profession and educator at heart, Tom is one of the handful - and a pretty small hand that is - of technology business development strategists with over a decade of experience in various engineering and technology positions (Engineering consulting, team leadership, project management, system design and implementation, bench- and field service work) in various areas of engineering (Biomedical engineering, audiology, audio-visual systems, security systems, microprocessor based design, control, robotics, software and hardware design and development), which he calls the perfect preparation for his business development career. This weird blend of backgrounds and insights also enables him to help his clients to develop practical business solutions for their clients, as opposed to merely peddling the next latest and greatest, robust, state-of-the-art technical gadget or buzzword the world is sick and tired of. That is, using technology better to improve business results, not merely using more technology for technology's sake. Unlike most other business developers, besides marketing and selling technology, he is deeply knowledgeable about the processes and systems of running technology businesses, thus being able to bridge the gap between technology solutions his clients offer and business problems his clients' clients are seeking solutions to. In contrast with many sales experts who teach their clients how to sell, Tom helps his clients to understand how buyers buy, which is drastically different and more profitable from ugly, filthy, mind-numbing, bone-jarring, soul-sinking cold-prospecting grunt work and old fashioned sleazy sales tactics. So, Tom's clients are sought out by the cream of their target markets as recognised experts, so they never have to resort to chase, hunt, hound and pound their markets as dreaded peddlers. And over the years, Tom has helped his clients to amass some $403 million in new revenue with as high as 78% net margin. In his work, Tom uses his military[1] training and hands-on experience of working in and leading peak performance teams, and translates it into building low-headcount high-impact business development teams, modelled after the most effective and dependable team mankind has ever assembled. The smallest, yet the most feared group of cross-trained professionals: The military commando. What makes Tom's help and support unique is the highly diverse, and seemingly unrelated, perspectives he brings to his clients' tables through his past stints as a butcher, embalmer, gravedigger, hearse driver, coffin maker, bouncer, personal trainer, university lecturer, crematorium attendant, engineer, aerobics instructor (He's the inventor of Metalrobics, high-low aerobics to heavy metal music), farmer and even a rock singer. In the 1990s, with an amateur punk rock group in London, UK, he recorded a cover version of the Sex Pistols' Anarchy in the UK. Nevertheless, he has never been discovered as a rock singer, and his singing career hasn't taken off... yet. And while all these experiences may look innocent and irrelevant enough on the surface, we know from Gabriele Veneziano's theory of quantum physics... "Everything is connected with everything else." On the academic side, Tom studied English and adult education at Cambridge University, electronics and computer engineering at the University of Greenwich and leadership and business development at the London on Business School. On the street-smart side, he's studied under the tutelage of some of the top business experts, including but not limited to the marketing phenomenon Jay Abraham; the direct marketing and copywriting guru, Dan Kennedy; the father of guerrilla marketing, Jay Conrad Levinson; the author of The E-Myth Revisited, Michael Gerber; Internet marketing wizard, the late Corey Rudl; sales and leadership expert, Blair Singer; service marketing specialist, Robert Middleton; consulting legend, Dr. Alan Weiss; joint venture expert, Robin Elliott; and several other accomplished entrepreneurs. He's also studied under the guidance of such copywriting experts as Bob Bly, Clayton Makepeace, Gary Halbert, Michel Fortin, Ted Nicolas, Bob Serling, Joe Vitale. And of course he's studied the old classics, like P.T. Barnum, Clyde Bedell, Leo Burnett, John Caples, Robert Collier, Claude Hopkins, John E. Kennedy, David Ogilvy, Rosser Reeves, Victor Schwab and some others. When it comes to business development, many companies hire MBAs and other academically mass-produced[2] "experts" who have impressive resumes and were so shiningly alive within the small confines of a university campus and a sterility of classrooms, working on purely theoretical scenarios with no real-life relevance, while standing clueless, hopeless, hapless and helpless like a deer caught in a pair of headlights when real "trench-level" expertise is called for to solve real-life business development problems to generate real clients who pay real money. His past clients have hired Tom because of his oddball blend of theory, practice and human behaviour he's learnt during his military service and years of skydiving.
And beyond all that, Tom's spare time is dedicated to skydiving, enjoying the outdoors, studying military strategy and running a microscopic fitness and lifestyle advisory practice for female executives and business owners. Footnotes[1] A study by Korn/Ferry International and The Economist Intelligence Units has found that 59 companies on the S&P 500 headed by ex-military CEOs provide an average annual shareholder return of 21% over the three year period ending September 2005, versus 11% for the S&P 500 Index during the same time. Maybe this is why former Coca Cola CEO, John Hayes; former State Street Bank CEO, Marshall Carter; and AOL founder, Jim Kimsey refer to the military as the "World's finest business school". Continue where you've left off... [2] North America produces just shy of 100,000 MBAs and about 500,000 other business graduates every single year. Continue where you've left off... Publications Tom Has Contributed To...
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FREE Strategic Guide To Online Business Development...  |
When Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan says he understands technology selling from both the seller's and the buyer's sides of the negotiation table, he really means it.
As part of his community involvement, Tom is the instructor for the Small Business Programme at Vancouver Community College, where he holds regular "torture sessions" for innocent participants and aspiring business owners on the ins and outs of starting and running successful businesses.
He is also a volunteer (tor)mentor for the Canadian Youth Business Association, a pretty neat organisation helping young entrepreneurs to get their businesses off the ground. They provide both the education and the start-up financing for qualified candidates. It's a great group to work with. As Stephen Covey says in the Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People, teaching is the best learning.
Tom is also member of the Dollarmakers Joint Venture Club, the best business group in town. He's found most business associations, chambers of commerce and boards of trade far too political and socialistic for his taste. In this group like-minded members do joint ventures with each other by adhering to a Code of Ethics.© 1997-2008 Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan, Utility Sausage Provocation Station, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. All Rights Reserved.