Posts Tagged ‘business’
August 05th, 2014
Hi All!
For Sellers to more successfully engage, attract, and develop new customer relationships, it’s important to be aware of this interesting fact shared by J. Walker Smith, Ph.D. and Ann Clurman, Co-Authors of the book, Rocking the Ages: “Generationally determined lifestyles & social values exercise as much influence on buying and purchasing as more commonly understood demographic factors like income, education, and gender do – maybe even more.”
How Millennials (aka: Gen Y), Generation X, and Baby Boomers each prefer to be engaged with is different. And it’s critical that Sellers educate themselves on these preferences as it can greatly improve the results of their sales and marketing efforts.
However, for this article, the focus is on Millennials. Not only are they the newest generation of young, adult consumers, they are the most unique. Thus, they’re worth learning about. Why? For starters, they are the largest generation the U.S. history. Plus, by 2025, 75% of the U.S. workforce is going to be comprised of Millennials.
As a result, not only will Sellers and Employers be working with them more as colleagues, but they’re going to be heavily competing for them as customers.
There are many ways to attract, engage and build brand-loyalty with this unique generation. Here’s an example of three to be aware of:
- They Respect Giving Back: The Millennials are the first generation required to volunteer in their communities as a High School graduation requirement. Therefore, they are wired to “support causes”, and countless studies show they are attracted and loyal to brands who share that same philosophy.
- Peer Recommendations Mean Everything: They are an extremely close-knit generation and value peer recommendations more than flashy marketing campaigns. As a matter of fact, research reveals they rank “peers” as their most valued source of information. The key take away? Make sure to have Millennial testimonials and imagery in marketing materials, as well as include Millennial-created content in social media efforts, to attract them.
- They Require (and Demand) Guidance: Although they are confident and perceive themselves as “individuals”, Millennials tend to struggle with decision-making. Remember, this is the generation raised by Helicopter Parents, and those parents tend to continue “hovering” over their Millennial kids well into adulthood. So if Sellers focus on being “Trusted Advisors” versus “salespeople” (solely focused on closing the deal), they will fare much better with Millennial customers.
Smart companies are investing a lot of time, effort, and money into learning everything they can about the Millennial mindset; both as employees AND consumers. Furthermore, Sales Teams all over the globe are learning how to better engage with them as our next generation of key decision-makers in the workforce.
With $1.5 billion in annual spending power, and being a generation 85 million strong, it’s easy to see why companies ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 corporations care about them. The eldest Millennials are now around 30 years-old…so they’re not just “clueless kids” anymore.
Cheers & Happy Marketing!
Lisa
December 11th, 2013
Hi All!
As the third most popular social media network after Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest has over 48.7 million users, recording more than 25 million monthly visitors. And it has become a powerful social media platform for product-based businesses, bringing in more traffic than Yahoo and Bing.
Plus, statistics show that prospects are likely to spend 70% more money with you when they are driven to your website from Pinterest. That alone makes it all the more important to take this newer social media platform seriously!
That said, here are a few tips for using Pinterest effectively to grow your small business and increase your sales:
1. Increase Your Brand Awareness
Provide useful, educational information to your followers. Your purpose is to become a reliable source of the most accurate, valuable information; not just to promote your products and business. This will ensure that your followers see you as an authority in your industry and look to you as the go-to place for all relevant information about your niche. Done right, you’ll inspire interest and build trust online, and that can lead to increased customer loyalty, greater audience reach, and referrals from others.
2. Expand Your Reach
Other social media networks have given small businesses amazing tools to expand reach and grow business, and Pinterest does, too. Using the group board feature on Pinterest and collaborating with popular pinners, you can easily expose your brand to a greater audience and expand your reach. Make each board theme specific, with a catchy title and keyword-focused relevant content. As the audience follows the focused boards, your follower numbers will tend to spike.
3. Make Your Business Site Pinnable
The best way to spread the word about your business is to make your Pinterest site visual. You may use Flickr, Shutterstock, Photo Pin, iStockPhoto, or Fotolia to find unique, interesting, exciting, and pinnable photos on a regular basis. However, don’t forget to check the copyright of images. Be sure to give credit where it’s due. The most successful pins are a combination of valuable content and great images.
4. Add Pinterest Logo to Your Website
Adding a Pinterest logo to your business website will help increase your fan following and remind site visitors to pin your content. Also, to ensure a positive brand image, send messages that express the real identity (the voice) of your business. So plan out your boards accordingly, keep your content organized across different boards, and clearly outline the information you want to share with your fans.
5. Engage with People
Engage with your audience to better understand what they want to generate better boards that they’ll like. Use the Repin option to stay current with what is trending on Pinterest by examining the pins of the most popular Pinterest users and keep your pins sharp, current, and targeted. Also, be sure to keep an eye on your competition to see what they are doing to attract traffic and create engagement.
These tips may seem like common sense to some of you, but they’re NOT common practice with many pinners! I constantly hear from people who ask me, “I’m on Pinterest (or Facebook, or YouTube, or LinkedIn, or Twitter)…but what should I be doing there?”
That’s more proof that opening an account on a social media platform doesn’t immediately make you a marketing expert. Learn the basics of Pinterest, get comfortable with using it, and then start experimenting with more tools and features they offer. It can work for you as long as you’re persistent and consistent!
Tags: business, online marketing, pinterest tips, products, sales, small business, social media marketing Posted in branding, Business Tips, marketing, sales, social media | No Comments »
February 20th, 2013
Hi All!
By now I’m sure most of you have heard about the recent Carnival Cruise debacle that occurred on their Triumph Ship in the Gulf of Mexico on February 10, 2013 due to a fuel line leak, and that left 4,200 passengers stranded on board without power or working toilets for five days. Not a fun way to spend a vacation! And also certainly not a “fun” time for Carnival either.
However, now that everyone is safely off the ship, this unfortunate situation made me think about what I could learn from Carnival’s recent public relations, business, legal, and Customer Service nightmare. I don’t plan to dissect “how” they handled everything on board during the fiasco, but rather wanted to focus on what they did during and after it from a Customer Service standpoint “off the ship”.
According to news reports, Carnival is not only refunding all passengers 100% BUT they are also providing travel vouchers for future cruises. And, according to cruise experts, this type of compensation is not “normal” in the cruise world; normally passengers are only given a partial refund when things go bad (or even really bad) on a cruise.
That said, all small business owners should adhere to the following: When you have a client or customer who is unhappy, go above and beyond what is expected of you to repair the situation! I know many business owners who look at customer complaints as an “annoyance” and complain the person(s) is simply whining…but that’s not always true and that’s NOT the right perspective.
Here’s a personal example: Recently someone purchased my e-book, Promote U Thru PR: How to Get Mass Media Coverage to Build Your Brand and Income, and for whatever reason there was a technical glitch in my shopping cart for THAT one order, that one day, that caused his credit card payment to process but it did NOT deliver the buyer a link to download the e-book.
I received a scathing email from the person saying they were ripped off. But, rather than just email them the e-book directly with an apology (for the sake of keeping the $17 bucks), I refunded their credit card, AND sent them the e-book, AND offered them a FREE 30-minute consultation. That was WAY more than I needed to offer for a $17 product ordering mishap, but the effort to maintain my brand integrity was worth it.
Why? Because the person ended up hiring me for on-going Marketing, Branding, PR, Publicity and Social Media consultation…which yielded way more revenue for me than losing a measly $17 bucks on the e-book sale. However, even if he hadn’t hired me, I could walk away from that situation knowing I did everything possible to make him happy.
My prediction is that MANY of the passengers who went on that awful Carnival Cruise WILL use their vouchers in the future with Carnival and have a great time…like a majority of people who cruise every year yet never experience any mishaps, large or small.
So learn from this recent news story, and learn from the personal example I provided, and when things (possibly) go awry with a client you may have, go above and beyond to fix the situation…it’s YOUR brand and it’s YOUR job to protect it!
Tags: business, Carnival Cruises, customer service, e-books, marketing, personal branding, sales, small business owners Posted in branding, Business Coaching, Business Tips, marketing, PR and Publicity | No Comments »
June 28th, 2011
Hi All!
Inc. Magazine (online version) published a great article entitled: Top 10 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make When Writing A Business Plan.
I’m going to keep this post short because you can click on the article link to read the details. But I will say that I am amazed at how many new clients come to me (small business owners, coaches, consultants, etc.) who are launching a new business, or currently have one, but never drafted even a basic Business Plan. It’s a step many people want to skip but it’s critical to the success of their company!
You wouldn’t sail around the world without a map as your guide…why would you invest your money, time and energy into starting or running a business without a road map to guide you?
That said, here’s the short overview that sets-up the article:
Writing a business plan is often a crucial first step to getting your start-up off the ground. A good plan can help you raise money, recruit members of your management team, set your marketing strategy and, perhaps best of all, refine your thinking. A plan riddled with errors? That can sink you. Here are 10 mistakes that entrepreneurs frequently make when crafting their business plans, according to Akira Hirai, a consultant in California who advises start-up companies on elements of business-plan writing, including competitive analysis and financial forecasting.
Click here to read the Top 10 Mistakes now!
Cheers!
Lisa
P.S. Visit my Fan Page for more marketing, branding, PR, sales, social media and business building tips and resources!
June 03rd, 2011
 Teri Sjodin's New Book Now on Amazon!
Hi All!
When I was offered an advanced reading copy of Teri Sjodin’s, new book, “Small Message, Big Impact: How to Put the Power of the Elevator Speech Effect to Work for You”, I quickly accepted. Why? Because it’s a great topic and one that I see many people struggle with.
In a nutshell, I have to say that Teri’s new book rocks! And you can now pick a copy because it became available on all major online book retailers, like Amazon, this week.
Here’s the scoop on why I highly recommend reading her book, and why I felt compelled to tell you about it:
- For anyone who is responsible for selling ideas (to clients, co-workers or family members), or for anyone who sells products or services, or for anyone who conducts presentations, this book will improve your technique and effectiveness.
- It’s straightforward, with no fluff, and it’s also a fun read. She has a very entertaining style so it’s not a typical “dry” how-to guide.
Here’s a snapshot of what you’ll learn:
- How to incorporate new creative illustrations and bring your message to life.
- How to build a compelling and persuasive case using six of the most consistently effective arguments in today’s market.
- How to morph your elevator speech content and employ your best material in a variety of presentation opportunities, including the internet and social media platforms.
- How to speak in your own authentic voice-it’s not only what you say, it’s how you say it.
- This book includes outlines to help you craft your next talk, worksheets, a complete sample elevator speech, evaluation forms…and much more!
And it’s not just me giving the book great reviews. Business Guru, Harvey Mackay, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, “Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive”, as well as Selling Power Magazine and many others, have given it rave reviews, too.
Are you curious about Teri and why she is qualified to write a book on this topic? Here’s her brief bio: Terri L. Sjodin is the principal and founder of Sjodin Communications, a public speaking, sales training, and consulting firm. For over twenty years, Terri has served as a speaker and consultant to an impressive list of companies, industry associations, academic conferences, CEOs, and members of the United States Congress. She is also the author of “New Sales Speak: The 9 Biggest Sales Presentation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them” (Wiley).
Okay! Go get a copy! And thanks, again, to Kevin Small, an amazing Literary Agent, for offering me an advanced copy…also congrads to Teri on writing a great book!
Cheers & Happy Marketing,
Lisa
Tags: book sales, business, marketing, presentation training, public speaking, sales, sales training Posted in Business Coaching, Business Tips, marketing, sales, Speaking | No Comments »
April 23rd, 2011
Nowadays, most people seem to be solely focused on social networking online. And, yes, while I am a firm believer that social media communities, such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, are AMAZING tools for making connections and business building, I find that many clients I work with tend to forget about “the other” type of networking…attending industry mixers and professional association gatherings!
Quite honestly, I find that attending in-person networking events can typically yield me positive business results faster than online networking. Therefore, I make an effort to include in-person networking in my business-building mix. But, I also find that people are not that great at using their valuable in-person networking time wisely. So I often spend time coaching my clients on networking at events so that they are comfortable attending and get the most out of them.
That said, here are Ten Tips I recommend to make your in-person networking efforts a success:
- Show-up with your business cards! People often forget their cards, or only bring a few, and that’s embarrassing. Bring a good-sized stack with you so you don’t run out. Some people you meet may ask for several because they may know other people that need your product or services!
- Don’t be shy. Remember, everyone is there to meet new people, so you are all in the same boat. Find someone standing alone or a small group of people, walk up, extend your hand (for a FIRM shake), smile and introduce yourself. It’ll feel weird the first couple of times but people who network a lot are used to strangers approaching them. And if you say it’s your first time attending the mixer, they’ll normally want to help you meet other people.
- Practice your 30-second “personal infomercial” before you arrive. When someone asks what you do, be able to explain your business in 30 seconds or less. DO NOT bore people with a long sales pitch or a bumbling explanation about your small business.
- You should take an interest in the people you meet first. It’s common to blab on about yourself when you’re nervous, so make a conscious effort to ask people questions and LISTEN to what they share closely.
- Depending on the length of the mixer, try not to spend more than 5-10 minutes with each person. You’re there to meet people! Now if you’re really enjoying yourself with someone, and/or you’re talking to what may be a potential client, maybe spend a bit more time. BUT, KEEP IN MIND, they may want to be moving on to meet more people, too, so don’t monopolize their time. They might be too shy to excuse themselves, so be mindful of time, and watch their eyes and body language!
- If alcohol is being served, don’t overdo it. I’ve seen quite a few people start the evening making a great impression and then, after a few drinks, it spirals downhill.
- Make a lot of eye contact with people and smile! It’s all about human contact, and smiling will draw people to you. Yet when most people get nervous they sit on the sidelines and hope people will come to them. A genuine, warm smile will relax people you meet and will make connecting with you more inviting.
- Practice being a good conversationalist. Rather than just talk about you and your company (or theirs), have a few interesting questions memorized, and ask about kids, travel, previous jobs, pets, sports, current events, etc. Also, by really listening to people (which many people aren’t great at!) questions will come up naturally that you can ask to keep the conversation going. And, personally, I avoid topics around religion and politics.
- If someone approaches a group you’re talking to…immediately extend your hand, smile, and make them feel welcome.
- Send a hand written follow-up note to all the people you meet (mail them within 1-2 days). The immediate thought is to send e-mail, but a good ‘ol fashioned “Nice meeting you” thank you card, sent via snail mail, makes a BIG impression on people…because people rarely send them nowadays!
Okay, now find some good association mixers and industry events in your area, and try to attend at least 1-2 per month. There is a very good chance you’ll reap the benefits of your networking efforts quickly, such as: See your connection database grow quickly; find new opportunities otherwise missed; and attract new clients to generate more income!
And, here’s a great quote I’ll leave you with on this topic (but I can’t remember who said it): Take your offline contacts online, and your online contacts offline…I think that’s great advice.
And if you have a helpful networking tip to share, please share it!
Cheers & Happy Marketing!
Lisa
March 07th, 2011
Hi All!
A very powerful strategy for building your topic expert brand positioning, and for driving traffic to your website, is to write articles and submit them to online article distribution services. Some small business owners also choose to do this for additional income (because there are some article services and media that will pay for your articles), but many experts don’t do it for pay; they write articles for the 2 other key reasons I mentioned.
In Part One of this 2-part series I’d like to outline 12 ways to make your articles compelling and how they can become significant traffic-drivers to your website.
I’ll then conclude this 2-part series next week by providing you with a list of some popular online article submission and distribution services that you can use to get your articles distributed to the masses.
12 Ways to Create Articles for Brand Building:
When you write interesting articles in your area of expertise, it immediately positions you as an expert in your field. It also gives you the opportunity to showcase your knowledge and this can attract clients to you, as well as attract media interviews for you. But, if you’re not a great writer, don’t panic! You can hire ghostwriters (inexpensively) who will write them for you, and you can simply provide them with the topics you think will benefit your target audience.
However, regardless of whether you write the articles or someone does it for you, here are 12 tips for making them compelling and a valuable marketing tool for you:
- Grab The Reader’s Attention Fast: Make sure to create an interesting title for your article, and you can even make it a thought-provoking question. Also, in your opening paragraph set-up the “pain point” you’re going to solve and why it’s important to them. Writing articles that will solve a problem for your target audience is a great strategy for the angles you develop.
- Keep the Articles Simple and Easy to Understand Quickly: People want to read quick-hit information that they can grasp fast and benefit from. So make sure the articles you write provide good, helpful information and are written in a succinct style. A good way to achieve this is to use bullet points or numbered points so that your key messages and tips are easy to reference and follow. Having your key points “buried” in paragraphs will make it frustrating for your readers.
- Add Keywords for Online Search: Your articles will be posted in numerous ways online and will often be found by people doing keyword searches on your topic matter. So you want to make sure that you use the Google keyword tool that I mentioned back in the chapter about writing an effective Press Release, and add those popular search terms in the body of your articles. I know many experts who rapidly increase their search rankings because of writing articles, and oftentimes their articles start ranking higher in search results than their main websites do. Therefore, you want to implement this strategy!
- Make Your Articles Short: You don’t need to write super long articles to make them good. This is about quality not quantity! Most articles that I, and other experts write, are around 400-700 words. Keeping them short not only makes it easier for your readers but makes it easier for you to write them on an on-going basis.
- Don’t Pitch Your Services and Products: When you write articles it’s only about providing helpful info to your target audience. It is not about making your articles big infomercials to pitch yourself and/or your products. If you write good articles that people truly learn from, they will typically want to learn more about you and they will visit your website. The fastest way to kill your credibility and lose a potential “fan” is by trying to sell them on something in your article content.
- Be Yourself in Your Writing Style: Conveying yourself as likeable is important! If you’re a fun person, be sure to bring out your personality in your articles. This is the same advice I give to clients who hire me as a coach and consultant to launch their speaking careers! Don’t be one person on the stage and another person off stage. People can see through that because you’re not being authentic. And when you write articles, it may be the FIRST contact anyone has with you; even before seeing your website. So you want to make sure who you really are comes through in your writing. A good example of this is my writing style. I write in a very conversational way, and write very close to how I speak. I’m not afraid to add in sarcastic comments, casual verbiage or silly phrases to anything I write because that’s “who” I am…and I want my readers to get to know “me”!
- Don’t Quote Other Experts: The purpose of your articles is to showcase you; not someone who could be a competitor. You normally only want to quote other people in your articles if their information really adds to your message and content quality. Sure, you can quote stats and research results from studies you find, but try to avoid quoting or mentioning other experts who are similar to you.
- Offer Your Articles on Your Website: When I submit articles online, I also add them to my website, in Word, so that people can download them to use as content on their blogs, ezines, websites and newsletters. And, on my article web page, I clearly state they can use my articles as long as they are shown in their entirety, and the short bio about me provided at the end of each article is included. I also ask that they send me a link to it when it’s used. Millions of people are constantly seeking for content and understand they have to source the author who wrote it. This is great for driving their traffic to you!
- Create an E-book: Once you have several articles done, you can also compile them into an e-book and either offer it as a free gift on your website (as long as people provide you with their contact info to download it), or you can sell it. Either way, this is a good strategy for creating simple products and for building your contact list.
- Write Them Consistently: If possible, try to write and submit at least one article per month online. I know experts who do one-per-week because they receive so much benefit from doing so, but that may be tough for many of you. Start by writing a few, and after you get the hang of it and start developing a “formula” for cranking them out (or hire a ghostwriter to do them for you), you can start to increase how many you publish monthly.
- Share Your Links: Many article distribution services will create a web page for your article that will be found through online searches. You’ll have a unique url for your article’s page and can share that link to drive traffic to your article on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and in emails to your contact database.
- Embed Links in Your Articles: When you write an article, make sure to have certain words or phrases that have hyperlinks to pages on your website, your blog posts, Twitter page, Facebook page, and/or to other articles you have written and that are posted online. Just make sure the links take them to info that is relevant to what you’re writing about and to points you are making.
Okay! Get started on creating a list of article topics that will interest your target audience and showcase your topic expert knowledge. And be sure to read Part Two of this series for services that can distribute them for you to obtain massive website traffic and readers!
Cheers & Happy Marketing!
Lisa
Tags: articles, business, business coach, career, generate income online, how to write articles, increase web traffic, personal branding, professional speaker, small business owners, writing articles Posted in authors, branding, Business Tips, marketing, PR and Publicity, social media | 5 Comments »
February 11th, 2011
Hi All!
Many of my clients are coaches or consultants, and they hire me because they are struggling with growing their practices and generating more income. And, some of them are also authors who have written a book to help increase their notoriety as an expert so they need my help with their branding and book marketing, too.
If you can relate to any of that, and you are a coach or consultant, I recommend checking out these (2) FREE tools, created by my colleague, Kathleen Gage. Kathleen is an online marketing expert and has helped many coaches and consultants increase their income by becoming more savvy about using the internet as a key marketing and sales tool for growing their practices.
Here are the 2 FREE Products she is offering:
1. SPECIAL REPORT: What You Need to Know to Start & Build Your Coaching or Consulting Business
Again, it’s free and NO OPT-IN is required! Simply click here to receive this info-packed pdf!
2. 3-PART VIDEO SERIES: Build a Successful Coaching and Consulting Business
This is ALSO FREE, and simply click here to access the videos!
And, if you’re really serious about ramping your practice, be sure to check out the New Horizon’s Telesummit! 12 Experts (one is me!) will be conducting sessions loaded with advice and strategies all about how to grow your coaching and consulting business. Here is a snapshot of what you’ll learn by attending this event:
– Attract higher-paying clients
– Develop multiple streams of revenue
– Have the choice to work face to face or virtually
– Gain massive visibility and credibility
– Become and expert at social media
– Be viewed as an industry expert
– Develop a sustainable business
– Convert prospects to paying clients
– Create money-making products to sell to clients
There are several different registration options, ranging in price, so you’re bound to find one that works with your budget! And the event is VIA PHONE, so you can attend from anywhere on your phone.
The New Horizons Telesummit is February 23rd and 24th, so CLICK HERE for details!
Cheers & Happy Marketing!
Lisa
Tags: authors, book marketing, branding, business, coaching, consultant, generate income online, online strategy, social media marketing Posted in Business Coaching, Business Tips, marketing, sales, social media | 2 Comments »
October 24th, 2010
Hi All!
Over the past 20+ years, I have presented to, met with, mentored, coached and observed hundreds (probably thousands) of businesspeople. And I am still always amazed at the lack of professionalism many of them display.
Highly successful small business owners strive to be perceived in the highest regard by prospects, clients, colleagues, vendors and employees. And as a certified Success Coach, I see many of my clients struggle because they neglect these tips. Sure, some of these may come naturally to you, but there may be one or two that will benefit your business building efforts. I hope so!
7 Business coaching TIPS You Can’t Afford to Neglect:
1. Be prepared and do your homework. If you tell a client or prospect you’ll have info to them (e.g. a proposal) by a certain day/time, do it. And prior to meeting, have all of your information organized and review it carefully so that you can easily explain it to them.
Note: I have personally had people pitch me (for things like insurance plans, printing services, etc.), and they were a mess. Things like: Their information was incomplete, they were late to the meeting, they spelled my name wrong on the proposal, they didn’t present the info I asked for, typos in the doc, etc.
Why would I invest my money in someone like that?
2. Each morning start by determining the most difficult task facing you, and do it first. Is it making follow-up calls to prospects? Asking clients for referrals? Putting together a complex proposal for a prospect? Whatever it is, do it FIRST! It gives you an edge over the competition…chances are they are avoiding the task! And if it’s a task that will benefit a hot prospect (or client) you will impress them with your initiative and speediness.
3. Don’t be late for phone or in-person appointments. It tells the prospect or client you do not value or respect their time. Successful business owners arrive to in-person meetings 10-15 minutes early and use the time to “get grounded” for the meeting. Also, this time cushion comes in handy if you get lost trying to reach your destination. It always sounds really unprofessional when you’re late and you say, “I’m sorry. I got lost.” The time cushion (normally) gives you enough time to find your way and still arrive on time. Being 15 minutes early for an in-person meeting is WAY better than being 15 minutes late!
4. Never pull a “no show”. If you cannot make an in-person or phone appointment, call the person BEFORE (not after the time) and reschedule. A good friend of mine works for a loan leads company. They screen people looking for a loan, determine the “hot leads”, and then schedule a meeting/phone appointment WITH A LOAN AGENT (the loan agents pays for these pre-screened leads).
She told me that loan agents blow-off these prescheduled meetings all the time! Can you even believe that??? Here are qualified leads that the loan agent is paying the lead service for, and he/she basically throws the hot lead away by pulling a no-show! This flaky behavior costs these loan agents thousands of dollars in commission… money that could have been theirs (not to mention all the referral business they lost)!
5. Successful business owners act confident (NOT cocky!). Here’s a simple concept that I see many business owners neglect: BEING NICE! You don’t need to be a tyrant to succeed. Be genuine, be kind and be caring.
Note: When I owned my ad agency for 20 years, I sometimes had client contacts that were junior-level marketing coordinators and they went on to become VP’s of Marketing. If I had been rude to them when they were “junior”, they wouldn’t have kept hiring my firm as they climbed the ladder.
By being nice and sincere, I not only received millions of dollars in business (and referrals) from them over the years, but they also grew to become great friends of mine.
6. Successful business owners greet people with a firm handshake. There is nothing worse than a weak, limp handshake. It irritates me to no end. When you greet someone, immediately extend your hand, offer a firm (not crushing!) handshake, smile and make eye contact. Successful business owners make people feel comfortable and build trust right away through their confident, friendly greetings!
Note: I have actually made my clients practice this. If they had a wimpy handshake, I fixed it!
7. Being organized is BIG amongst successful business owners. You must be able to keep your client/prospect files organized and your schedule organized. Successful business owners use a schedule book or electronic device (e.g. PDA) to keep track of appointments, phone calls, follow-up, to-do lists, etc. If you are scattered and disorganized, you will be less effective and sell less. And you are more apt to make mistakes. Good luck getting repeat business or referrals from a client if you miss a critical deadline or constantly have to apologize because YOU keep losing or forgetting things!
Note: There are VERY successful people who are totally disorganized, but they have a personal assistant that keeps them on-track. However if you can’t afford an assistant, then it’s UP TO YOU to create a system! You can even hire an expert to create a process for you. Someone I highly recommend is Stacey Vulakh, a Time Management Expert & Coach. She helps her clients create a time management system, customized for their needs, so that they are more effective and productive – personally and professionally.
Yes, hiring someone like Stacey will cost you money, but it will cost you more money in the long run without an organized system!
Okay! There are your 7 tips…please don’t neglect ANY of them!
Cheers & Happy Marketing!
Lisa
September 21st, 2010
Hi All!
Stever Robbins has just released his new book, Get-It-Done Guy’s 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More. It is a playful, yet serious guide to working less and doing more. In other words, creating a more productive life. Yes, it’s about getting more done at work. It’s also about getting more done in life. It lays out nine skills that apply anywhere you want to get greater results with less work. Sounds good to me!!
And here is an interview with Stever loaded with tips and insights you’re sure to benefit from:
1. Why do we procrastinate?
What are some simple tips for beating procrastination? Thinking causes procrastination. No, really. We build up tasks in our mind, thinking they’ll be huge, unachievable,or unpleasant. The remedy is to stop thinking and just start acting. Your brain will still get in your way, however. While you’re filling out your procrastinated expense reports, your brain will distract you with worries that you’re making no progress on the novel you’ve been procrastinating.
As I mention in my book, you can make your brain happy by speed-dating your tasks. List what you’re procrastinating. Start at the top and work on each task for exactly five minutes, then move to the next task. Use a timer to be precise. When you’re done, take a 5-10 minute break and do it again. Five minutes is short; your brain will let you do it. Since you’re hitting several of your procrastinated tasks, your brain knows you’ll get to your other tasks just five minutes from now. It frees you to focus completely on the task in front of you, yet guarantees you’ll go on to make progress on everything that’s important.
2. Your career background includes a lot of technology companies, but Step 3 of your 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More is called “Conquer Technology”. Why doesn’t technology automatically make us more productive? How can we use it to become more productive?
Don’t get me wrong; some technology really delivers on its promise. But often, technology saves effort in one place while adding effort in others. For example, each new gadget packs more capability into each device. What makes it attractive and fun also makes it distracting and kills our productivity.
Technology is a tool, nothing more, and nothing less. When a carpenter uses a screwdriver, she picks it up, uses it, and puts it down again. That’s how you use tools. Treat your technology the same way. Instead of being married to it everywhere you go, divorce your technology. Have it around, just not in front of you. Do your thinking on paper. Decide what you need to do. Then get out the tools to do it. If you need to do something on computer—like send email—get up, walk over to your computer, open the email program, send the email, close the program, and walk back to your main work area. By keeping each task distinct, you’ll learn to use your computer as a tool. Instead of being a distraction, it becomes a superb way of amplifying your focus. In that Step 3 of the book, I explained how I evaluate all of my gadgets to make sure they are delivering on their work-less-do-more promise; I suggest everyone do the as me.
3. Does being organized automatically mean you’re getting more done?
Being organized means you have a place for everything and everything goes in its place. When you’re disorganized, everything you do has the added burden of your having to search for the tools need to do it. For example, when you’re disorganized, writing a Thank You card is an adventure. You have to brave your Supply Pile. You hunt for 5 minutes to find the crumpled paper bag where you stuffed those Thank You cards. You start writing … only to find you’re out of stamps. A 10-minute trip to the Post Office, later your cards are ready to go. If you’re organized, you get out your Thank You cards and stamps. You write the Thank You card, stamp the envelope, and toss it in mailbox. Elapsed time: 30 seconds, instead of 15 minutes and 30 seconds.
If you use the 15 minutes you saved to get more done, then being organized helps you get more done in the same amount of time. Otherwise, you’re getting the same done in less time, freeing up the extra time to do something awesome. Like eat Oreo Ice Cream Cake. That’s one way being physically organized can help you be more productive. I also offer advice on how to organize your days and brain better in the book too.
4. In your book, you recommend people not consider all their options. How can this help someone get more done?
We love choice! We believe more choice means more happiness and more movement towards our goals! The research on choice refutes this, however. Give us more than two or three choices and we become less likely to act and more likely to regret any choice we take.
In daily life, this means too many options stalls us, and we end up less happy with our choices. We make and re-make our decisions until we’ve spent more time and money making the decision than the decision is actually worth.
By limiting our options, we limit the research needed for the choice, and we’re more likely to keep moving forward. My example is buying a digital camera. I’ve needed one for three years now, but there are too many to choose from. If I simply limit my options to the first ten cameras that appear on the Consumer Reports web site, the decision becomes much easier. Will I get the best camera possible? Probably not. But I will get a camera and start doing the photography I need to get done. Without limiting my choices, I stay paralyzed and stressed.
5. Leverage is usually a term applied to finance? The final step of your 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More is called “Leverage”. What do you mean when you use the term?
Leverage is a physics term. A lever is a simple machine. You put in a small force on the long end of a lever and get a strong force out. In finance, leverage means using a small amount of your own money to borrow a much greater amount, so you get huge financial effects using only a small amount of money.
In Get-it-Done Guy’s 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More, I use leverage to mean doing a small amount of work and getting a huge result. Choose ways of working where you work less and get outsized results. For example, most of us scribble down a to-do list as a way of keeping track of what we have to do today. You can get leverage by jotting down that list in a format that someone else can understand. Then you can hire an assistant, give them your old to-do lists, and they can hit the ground running. You are doing a little more work by writing neater and maybe elaborating each item a bit. Your return is immense, though, because your to-do list enables you to free up time by delegating.
6. What is an action day? Shouldn’t every day be an action day?
An action day is one of my favorite tips in the book and a great way to get things done while bonding with a friend. Call a friend who wants to have a super-productive day. Get together in person or by phone, each bringing a list of things you want to get done. Commit to making progress and start working. Check in at the top of each hour, report your last hour’s progress, and declare your next hour’s plan. Your promise to each other gets you started, and the hourly check-ins keep you on track. I find in-person or phone works best for action days.
Every day can be an action day if you have people willing to play. I wrote the final draft of my book by holding five action days a week. The action days kept me going through the rough patches, and a couple of the regular attendees became friends! An action day is pretty intense, though, and I found that two each week was a good number.
I hold regular action days. If you’d like to be on the announcement list, visit http://www.SteverRobbins.com/actiondays. I send out announcements of new action days once or twice a month.
7. What is the biggest hindrance to your personal productivity? How do you deal with it?
The internet. The web and email are a large part of my job, and they’re both distraction machines. The moment I open an email or visit a web site to do research, I risk hours of distraction. Its siren song is extremely seductive and hard to resist…
My solution is to divorce my technology as I described earlier. Rather than thinking of my computer as “my computer,” I think of it as a different tools, depending on my task. Sometimes it’s my typewriter, sometimes it’s my reference book, and sometimes it’s my newspaper. When I think of it in terms of the tool I need at the moment, it helps me stay focused on the current task.
… and when that fails, I use a freeware program called Freedom on my Mac to shut down my internet connection for a couple of hours.
8. If a person can make just one change to make themselves more productive, what would you recommend they change?
Definitely Step 1, which is Live on Purpose. Regularly stop and ask yourself why you’re doing what you’re doing. Then make sure what you’re doing is really the best way to reach that goal. I do this a dozen times a day. “Why am I surfing Facebook?” “I dunno. Habit.” “Ok, self, get back to work!”
Living on Purpose goes far beyond your moment-to-moment tasks, however. I used to go to four or five business conferences each year. Why? “I’m doing important business development,” was my answer. Year, right. When reviewing my client list, I realized not a single clienthad come from attending a conference. My clients had only come from my public speaking at conferences. Now, I only attend conferences where I’m speaking, or if there’s some other compelling reason to be there.
9. You recommend that people schedule interruptions. How is this possible?
You schedule interruptions by setting aside a time block each day for dealing with interruptions. If you’re interrupted, quickly decide if it’s a show-stopping emergency. If not, jot it down on your “Interruptions” list. Wait until your scheduled interruption time and work on it then. If Bernice drops by, asking you to review a memo she’s written, just say, “I would be happy to. I’m busy right now. How about if I get back to you a little after 4 p.m.?” When your interruption time arrives, her memo will be on your list and you can handle it then. Often if the interruption is someone with a problem, they’ll solve it themselves when you make yourself their convenient rescue service.
Interruptions will take your time one way or another. If you schedule them, at least you can get work done in the meantime.
Thanks, Stever! Great information and a truly terrific book.
Cheers & Happy Marketing!
Lisa
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