These tips come from Anita Zinsmeister at Dale Carnegie Training of Central & Southern New Jersey. These are outstanding and I am happy to promote Dale Carnegie and share them with you. [To comment: larry at larry litwin dot com]
Word count for this issue: 530
Approximate time to read: About 2.1 minutes
@ 250 words per minute
In today’s competitive business environment, it is important to focus on building stronger relationships with existing clients. To help you in your efforts, we have compiled 9 tips that will turn your existing clients into proactive advocates for your business.
9 Tips To Help Improve Your Organization’s Customer Retention Efforts:
1. Ask Top Clients To Serve On Your Board – Assigning your top or most creative clients to your board will give you access to top-level thinking. They may come up with ideas that you never thought of or did not think were important enough to implement.
2. Before You Offer A New Product Or Service, Invite Clients To Test It (At A Discounted Price) – Clients want to have an influence on your business. Exclusive “invitation only” programs are an excellent way to give them that ability. As a bonus, such programs will save you time by acting as beta tests. Client feedback will help you either fine-tune the deliverables or decide to dismiss them all together.
3. Connect Clients Who Share Similar Interests – If you know a client who can fill another client’s need, put the two in touch. You will look like a hero and foster a sense of friendship and trust in the process.
4. Give Your Clients Added Value – Reward your clients on occasion by giving them something special, like 2-for-1 deals, dollar or percentage discounts, free or discounted design services and so on.
5. Investigate Your Own Company – Test your customer service by hiring a third party to pose as a prospective buyer. Afterwards, ask them about their experience. Their answers will help you refine your strategies for dealing with new clients.
6. Know Your Competition – If you forget to watch your competitors, you risk falling disastrously behind. Google your competition, visit their website and call them up as if you were a prospective buyer. What you learn will provide you with valuable information for your business.
7. Pay Attention To Existing Clients – Make a point every day of calling a client and asking them, “How can we improve your experience with us?” Also, spend more time with your clients via seminar, marketing workshops or special affairs. The more connected you are with your customer base, the more they will advocate for you.
8. Remember The Customer Is Always Right – Practicing this philosophy can be tough, especially with difficult customers. No matter what, work on making a client happy.
9. Send Your Clients Articles That Will Interest Them – Your clients like to know you have their best interest in mind. Make an effort to send them articles that are relevant to their business or industry. This simple gesture will help create a much more loyal customer base.
Executive Summary: Word-of-mouth advertising is the most powerful advertising there is. However, it will not exist for your business unless your clients trust and believe in you. Make sure your clients hold you in high esteem and they will not only tell people about you, but also buy from you repeatedly.
This article originally ran in USA Today on September 18, 2015
As a small business owner you have a lot on your plate — creating your product or delivering your service, managing your money, motivating your employees, ensuring operations run smoothly.
Phew! How do you find time to actually attract customers? For an overwhelmed small business owner, how do you manage to take care of one of your most critical business tasks: marketing?
Each year, I talk to thousands of entrepreneurs around the country. The one question I get the most: “How do I attract more customers?” Marketing is always top of mind, but often the lowest task on the to-do list.
The truth is you will have to invest some time into marketing. But think of it as just that — an investment. But how can you increase the return-on-investment? How can you get the most marketing bang with the least amount of time?
There’s no magic bullet, of course. But if you’re thoughtful, these seven marketing tactics can save you time and bring in customers.
1. Put your marketing on auto-pilot.
Email is still an extremely effective method of keeping your name in front of prospects and customers. Whether it’s a newsletter, announcement of special discounts, free content, regular communication into an in-box works. Fortunately, you can set up and schedule a whole series of such communications using services like Constant Contact, Vertical Response, MailChimp or others. You can easily set up a series to automatically go to every new prospect or customer who registers to receive communication from you. To entice prospects to provide you with their names and email addresses, offer them something of value in exchange. Once you have the addresses, auto-responders trigger so your series begins to go to their in-boxes.
2. Schedule a few hours for social media.
Your customers expect to see you on social media but that doesn’t mean you should be dealing with it all day long. Spend an hour every two weeks to plan what you will post for those weeks. Choose pics and write your brief posts. Use a tool like Hootsuite or TweetDeck to schedule your posts in advance. During the week, check in occasionally and respond to comments.
3. Focus your social media efforts.
Do you really need to be on absolutely every social media site? No. Stick to the social media sites that work best for you. If you have highly visual content — you run a restaurant or food company, a doggy day care or an art studio — Facebook and Instagram might work best for you. A company that sells creative items? Then Etsy or Pinterest might be the right choice. Are you running a B2B (business-to-business) company? LinkedIn might be your best bet.
4. Join a local organization and go regularly.
Nothing beats the effectiveness of face-to-face marketing. Yes, this takes time away from the office or shop. But it’s a great way to get new customers and generate referrals. If you schedule this, it becomes a regular part of your month.
5. Look for a strategic partnership.
You don’t have to do everything alone. A strategic partnership is a relationship with another company for promotion, distribution, product development, or add-on sales. A strong strategic partner that’s already serving your target market can give you a real edge in reaching that market. For example, if you run a yoga studio, you could work on a marketing campaign with a local spa.
6. List your company online.
This is a no-brainer. Make sure prospects can find you online when they’re looking for a business like yours. Spend a few minutes listing your company’s location, hours, photos and other business information on Google, Yahoo, Bing and Yelp.
7. Get help.
If you don’t have time to put some of these marketing strategies into place or to maintain them, hire someone who can.
Whatever you do, make sure you make marketing a priority. A bit of time now will reap rewards for months to come. The hardest part is just getting started.
Don’t be greedy.If you always try to profit from the first sale, you ignore the real value of the customer. This is a mistake. If you do not invest as much as you could to get customers – you will not get as many profitable customers as you might. Also, your competitor, who does know the value of a customer, can outspend or underprice you – or both.
Concentrate on customers more than prospects.Research by McGraw-Hill into why retailers lost customers showed that 68% went elsewhere because of indifference or the attitude of their salesforce. Only 14% went because they were dissatisfied with the product or service and only 9% went to the competition. Your customers will remain loyal if you pay them attention.
Go where the money is – all customers are not created equal.10% of cognac drinkers account for 50% of consumption. 39% of cognac drinkers account for 44% of consumption. The remaining 51% account for only 6% of consumption. So focus on the top 10%.
4. Never lose an opportunity to cross-sell.Research by banks into the number of accounts held by customers and their likelihood of switching showed those with four accounts or more were 100-1 against switching, those with only one account had a 50% chance of switching. Your existing customer is 3-8 times as likely to buy as an identical non-customer. Someone who has responded to a promotion is twice as likely to buy. Anyone with any relationship with you, however slight, is more likely to buy.
Never spend without testing. Look before you leap.
Test new products on customers first.They appreciate being treated as special – and to you they should be. The risk is lower: they are more likely to buy. Only if it sells well to them is it likely to sell outside.
Never lose a chance to communicate.Here are some golden opportunities: When you have anything to say of interest to customers or prospects new product, price, offer, news. When they are about to decide. When your competitors are cooking up something. When something big is happening in the market.
Those who communicate most do better than those who do it least. Do not worry about talking to customers too often. Worry about being a bore. Talk whenever you have something you think will be of interest. But do not mail or phone just for the sake of it. Think constantly what prospects and customers might be interested in.
Say “Thank you”.A retailer rang up a file of customers one month after a product had been bought to say “thank you; do you have any questions?” They didn’t ring a similar file, and researched the difference.
70 percent of those rung said they welcomed the call and would like more. 45 percent of those they did not ring said they would welcome such a call. Over the next 6 months 13% more of those called bought compared with the others. The average number of orders increased by 16% per customer called.
Do you offer after-sales service?Sell it.
Do you have a guarantee people fill in?Use questionnaires and build a mailing list.
Do you offer account facilities or sell on credit and have to invoice people regularly? Sell them at the same time.
Do you have accessories or software to sell? Do it aggressively, not passively, often there is more margin in accessories.
If your sales force spends too much time canvassingand not enough selling. Get leads for them through advertising(and find out when prospects are interested).
Do retailers or wholesalers dictate to you? Go round them direct to customersand build a database.
Sell to your most recent customers first.They are usually your best respondents. The best time to sell is when they have just bought.
Offer a store-card to best customers and create special events for them.They are about five times as likely to buy as casual customers. A special preview sale for them may be as profitable as the entire sale that follows.
Watch for critical moments.In the prospect’s life e.g. marriage, new house, birthday. Before buying: sending for brochures, looking in stores, working out what they can afford. After buying – the “afterglow”; having a problem; time to buy again. These help determine your “contact strategy”. An example is: People often adjust their investments when they move house.
Bill Fryer is Creative Director of Bill Fryer Direct, a direct marketing agency in Warminster, Wiltshire. By talking to him you may get even more sales ideas. Send mail to bill@billfryer.com.
Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results, not attributes.” Peter Drucker
9 Ways To Create (And Sustain)
A Positive Work Culture
· Word count for this issue: 565
· Approximate time to read: About 2.3 minutes
@ 250 words per minute
Your staff is the engine that drives the success of your business. To make your operation all that it can be, you must encourage your staff to work to the best of their ability. Thus, developing and maintaining a positive work culture should always be a top priority. Employees immersed in ahealthy environment generate far better results than those who are not. That is why we put together a list of nine tips for creating the healthy environment employees need.
1. Advertise Openings In Trade Publications – When you are looking for a new hire, be sure to advertise through a trade publication. If you do, you will have a better chance of finding a candidate who is sincerely interested in their profession.
2. Contact References When Hiring – Never hesitate to contact a candidate’s previous employers, as they can be an extremely valuable resource. To ensure you reach them, contact them via phone as opposed to e-mail or letter.
3. Enforce Company Policies Consistently – The workplace should be a level playing field where everyone follows the same rules. State policies clearly in a staff handbook and make sure rules are enforced equally throughout the company.
4. Give An Exit Interview – When an employee leaves the company, make a point of giving an exit interview. Exit interviews are a smart way to learn more about your work culture and identify any problems you ought to address. They also help minimize negative word-of-mouth from ex-employees.
5. Make Communication A Priority – Strong team bonds result in more positive work attitudes. Furthermore, team communication is crucial for maintaining productivity. Keep everyone in the loop and keep in contact regularly via meetings, e-mails and even a bulletin board.
6. Offer Creative Incentives – Competitive positions such as sales need not be incentivized with monetary bonuses. Benefits like job-share and flextime can be just as appealing to employees since it allows them to have more control over their work life.
7. Use A Referral Program – When a position opens up, your employees may know people who would suit the role — and your company. Encourage them to speak up by creating a formal referral program and rewarding them for their participation.
8. Welcome New Hires – First impressions are always important, especially in the workplace. If a new hire feels unwelcome on their first day in the office, it will negatively affect their productivity. It usually takes 60 to 90 days for new hires to acclimate, so make sure you do everything you can to make them feel welcome during that period.
9. Write Accurate Job Descriptions – If you want the right person for the job, you have to describe who the right person is. When you advertise, give a detailed job description that includes level of skill needed, prior experience required and whether or not further training will be necessary.
Executive Summary: Every business should make sure its employees work in as healthy an environment as possible. Be selective with who you hire, maintain a positive culture at all times and make sure employees who leave the company do so on a good note. After all, your business is only as strong as its people.
Oklahoman columnist Charlotte Lankard writes about keys to communication.
BY CHARLOTTE LANKARD For The Oklahoman • Modified: June 15, 2015 at 10:16 pm • Published: June 16, 2015
“We need to learn how to communicate” is typically a couple’s request when seeking counseling. It soon becomes clear what they really need is not more talking, but more listening. The communication has broken down because partners have been arguing about what the other is saying and not listening to understand.
Everyone’s communication skills can be improved, but if couple’s counseling is not on your to-do list, take a look at a gem of a little booklet by mediator Doyle Barnett titled “20 Communication Tips for Couples: a 30-Minute Guide to a Better Relationship” (New World Library). He lists 20 tips and makes brief comments about each one.
To give you a glimpse of how he thinks: He believes friendship should come first before a love relationship. He admonishes couples to not bring up important issues during rushed or stressful times of the day, and don’t use arguments and drama as a means to connect or get attention.
Barnett says if you really want to communicate it is important to use your mate as a sounding board, not a dart board, and to say precisely what you mean. I have discovered often what a person wants is simply to know he or she has been heard or understood. Whether or not you agree is not the point.
“Defensiveness arises from insecurity and distracts us from the real issue, and no one but yourself is responsible for how you feel. When you react to your mate and he or she reacts to your reaction, you both lose touch with your initial intentions,” Barnett said.
Barnett believes it helps to make requests, not demands, and to be 100 percent honest 100 percent of the time — even when you know it is something your partner probably will not like nor agree with — because it maintains trust.
If you are intrigued, this little booklet may be the best $8.95 you’ve ever spent.
Charlotte Lankard is a licensed marriage and family therapist in private practice. Contact her at clankard@opubco.com.
As a small business owner, managing your time and expectations are extremely important if you want to maintain the proper focus. I struggle with this issue and can be easily distracted by a phone call or a tendency to check my emails more often than is probably needed.
Time management is one of those skills no one teaches you in school but you have to learn. It doesn’t matter how smart you are if you can’t organize information well enough to take it in. And it doesn’t matter how skilled you are if procrastination keeps you from getting your work done..
I’m going to share some of my favorite time management skills in this post. I hope they will help you.
My personal favorite – cut the clutter. Keep a clean desk and desktop, clutter can be very distracting.
Use your peak productivity time well and make sure you get sufficient rest. Coffee will not assist you forever. It’s OK to take breaks throughout the day. Some of us are ‘morning people’ others are ‘night owls.’ You know what your strengths and weaknesses are better than me.
It’s most important to know how you structure your day and manage your time that makes the difference. Know the best days and times to target your prospective clients or targeted companies – which may be different than you first think.
Set daily goals for yourself and making sure you don’t work past your burn out time. This might include networking in person, making follow-up calls, writing a business proposal or putting a budget together – each day complete one specific goal – you’ll feel much better being able to check something off your ‘to do’ list.
It’s absolutely OK to block out some non-planned activities. Life happens and there will also be some unexpected event or emergencies to deal with. Or maybe you’re under the weather.
Plan for some specific time away from the computer and phone, 30 minutes a day. By that, I don’t mean a coffee break or to eat a meal. Talk a walk, run some errands, anything to take your mind off your business. Meet a friend for a cup of coffee.
Start your day by prioritizing what you need to get done (To-do list!). Block time out on your calendar each day to ensure you get work done.
When you are on a deadline and you need to finish something – Close your door (if you have one), put your phone on “send to voicemail”, close your email, and turn off the instant messenger. It is liberating! Not everything is urgent; yes, some things can wait until the next day.
Minimizing distractions – distractions are a big time waster. A lot of us have this constant urge to check our email every 15 minutes. There are many other common distractions and it is important to limit them.
Make sure social networks serve your purpose. Do you really need to be on all of them? Pick one or two that are really important and discard the rest. Be careful not to check your social sites while at work. It is a big time waster even if big brother is not watching.
Decide the time or times when you will check mail and stick to those times. There will always be some distracting message in your in box. Keep your emails short. That is how they are meant to be. Use the phone in preference to email where feasible.
Know your target company or companies whether it will be for job search or to find business partners. Starting out, that’s one of the most important things to consider. If you’re not sure what you want to do, it’ll be hard for you to communicate that to another client or company
Yes weekends are a time to take a break, but not entirely. Use weekends to review the previous week’s successes (and failures) which will give you the opportunity to prepare your upcoming week. The goal is to hit the ground running on Monday morning.‘
Can you think of more time management tips? Please let me know in the comments!
It takes more than one person to run a successful business. Even when we work on a team, attempting to carry our entire workload alone can lead to overload. At some point, we must all engage in that time-honored practice among associates: delegation.
Striking a balance between an existing workload and new tasks can be tricky. With that in mind, we have assembled four tips for delegating your work more effectively.
Here are four Tips For Delegating More Successfully
1. Be Proactive In Following Up – No matter how well a project seems to be going, you still need to consistently and proactively follow up on its progress. Your efforts will keep the project on the forefront of everyone’s minds and help maintain unity during the project period. Conversely, if you fail to follow up, your employees are far more likely to fall out of sync with you.
2. Choose People You Trust – Not all members of your team will be suited for the project you want to assign. Be familiar with your team members’ strengths and weaknesses and assign projects to the people you are confident can handle them. Also, choose people who can work without constant supervision. That way you can focus on other tasks that require your attention.
3. Communicate – As a project progresses, if one step does not transition smoothly to the next, it is usually the result of poor communication. Whenever a project is delegated to multiple employees, make constant communication a priority. Whoever is heading the project has the responsibility to not only keep the channels open, but also lead by example. Furthermore, they must maintain this level of communication until the project is completed.
4. Develop A Plan Of Action – On average, most people do not work on just one project at a time. That’s why it is important to have a plan of action ahead of time to ensure everyone knows the project’s priority and where it fits in their workload. If you do not have a plan of action, you run the risk of your employees placing different priorities on their work, resulting in a breakdown in unity. Consider all the steps and resources that the project requires, then draw up an outline to act as a road map.
Executive Summary: There is more to delegating work than simply dumping part of your workload on someone else’s desk. At the end of the day, no matter how you share your work with other employees, responsibility for its completion still falls on your shoulders. Because of this, it is critical that you handle delegation effectively. By handling delegation in the manner we presented above, you can see your projects to completion with little to no complications.
Visiting Philadelphia, New York and D.C. last month, Pope Francis showed us a leadership style we can all learn from. (For more on leadership, check out The Public Relations Practioner’s Playbook for (all) Strategic Communicators via www.larrylitwin.com. It is loaded with excellent strategies and tactics for today’s “leaders.”)
By William Vanderbloemen
“Many things have to change course, but it is we human beings above all who need to change.” Those were the words shared—on Twitter—by Pope Francis, Time‘s “Person of The Year” in 2013, who assumed the pontificate that year and has since projected a transformational leadership style.
Those who aren’t spiritual leaders should also rethink what their most important responsibilities are—people over processes, names over numbers.
That approach has earned him titles like “Holy Reformer” and “The People’s Pope.” In New York City today on a visit to the United States, Pope Francis reflects not just the changing tenor of the Catholic Church but evolving ideas about leadership itself. That makes his trip this week a perfect time for entrepreneurs, CEOs, politicians, and other leaders of all stripes to reflect on their own leadership styles. Here are five lessons all of them can learn from the Pope’s.
Be Accessible
Pope Francis is arguably best known for availability and openness to the public. On his first day as Pope, he reversed the tradition of blessing the people by inviting them to bless him instead. He’s since decided to ride in a bus with his team rather than in a bulletproof limousine. Pope Francis has also been seen getting around Rome in a Ford Focus and a Fiat during his U.S. visit.
Personal, handwritten thank-you notes and birthday lunch invitations to the homeless of Rome take priority in his schedule and exemplify his leadership vision.
Those who aren’t spiritual leaders should also rethink what their most important responsibilities are—people over processes, names over numbers. Accessibility sows trust and loyalty among colleagues and customers, making other transformations possible.
Don’t Ignore Social Media
The Pope is a tweeting aficionado. His primary Twitter handle (@Pontifex) is the English-language equivalent of eight others—in Latin, Arabic, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Italian, French, and German. And the English account alone has 7.3 million followers. In other words, communication matters, especially digitally.
Social media has proved one of the most effective—and democratic—mediums for influencing current generations. Its 140-character interface is clear, concise, and relatable, whether you’re a Starbucks barista, a Fortune 500 CEO, or anyone in between. For any business leader who has an idea to offer or a message to convey, social media is the main avenue for doing so. But bear in mind that the social sphere is about sparking conversation, not dictating from on high. The Pope’s tweets are popular not just because he’s the Pope, but because they’re humble, inviting, and pluralistic.
Flatten Your Organization
Pope Francis bypassed bureaucracy and reevaluated his organizational structure. He started with his own title, changing it from the “Supreme Pontiff” to the “Bishop of Rome.” Upon adjusting and delegating some of the papacy’s traditional responsibilities, he took a radical approach to age-old customs and rearranged his management team, reducing its sense of hierarchy.
As a result of Pope Francis’s innovative methods, the organization of the papacy got flatter. As a result, the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work referred to him as an “intrepreneur”—someone who generates genuine, sustainable change in an organization that’s resistant to it.
In the first few months of his papacy, Pope Francis took risks.
Flattening an organization can be one of the best ways business leaders can institute their vision without relying on the prevailing means. Restructure, revamp, and realign so that the top leadership drives the vision, and the subsequent layers can execute and sustain it.
Take Risks
In the first few months of his papacy, Pope Francis took risks. He made unprecedented claims and unconventional decisions. “To listen and to follow your conscience means that you understand the difference,” he wrote, reaching out to atheists and agnostics. He also proclaimed a year of jubilee for women who’ve had abortions but have since chosen to reflect on the Church’s teachings on the issue. It’s worth nothing that in both cases, Pope Francis didn’t revise Catholic doctrine, but his leadership style offered a refreshing new perspective to many who might have previously felt shut out.
In the business world today, many leaders are blinded by the fear of failure. Big changes are hard to make—they take time, and often many people, to institute—but messages are easy to change. Still, risk is vital to your business’s growth and your own development as a leader. Risk can help you rise, even though it sometimes leads to failure. But it will always prove a worthy teacher.
Value Input From Subordinates
Risk can help you rise, even though it sometimes leads to failure. But it will always prove a worthy teacher.
Pope Francis has shown he recognizes the intrinsic value of every person. First, he decided to transform the Synod of Bishops under his leadership into a decision-making body rather than a ceremonial group. And within his first 10 months at the Vatican, Pope Francis washed the feet of laity prisoners, women, and Muslims, rather than performing the ritual only on priests. He also refocused the role of bishops toward more pastoral activities, premised on the notion that human relationships should be esteemed above all else.
Leaders should approach the people in their organizations much the same. There’s real value in your lower subordinates—what they think and believe and the skills they offer—to achieve real progress. But it’s up to leaders to go out and seek that value, then develop it in everyone they lead.
In just two years, Pope Francis has taught us another lesson as well: It’s important to act. Start cultivating the right leadership style now, and you’ll begin writing your legacy today, rather than waiting for it to catch up with you later.
(Portions taken from John Rossheim’s Philadelphia Inquirer “Monster” article.
1. Explore prospective employer’s websites
2. Use search engines to read the latest news about the organization.
3. Visit trade journals.
4. Use networking sources to contact current employees to help determine if prospective employer would be a good fit.
5. Since you have already Googled the prospective employer, be certain to Google yourself. Your prospective is Googling you so you had better know what’s online about YOU.
delegating your work more effectively.
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