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Archives for October 2012

Is Networking Enough?

Business Building by Leave a Comment

This question recently came up during a conversation with a colleague who has embraced the power of networking for her business. While attending networking events and joining groups is a great first step it begs the question,

“Is networking enough or do I have to follow up?”

Follow up is critical, whether from a networking event, conference or with leads. But the answer really depends on your goal. If you’d just like to meet cool people by all means network and then go back to your daily life. But if you want to build relationships you can’t rely on one interaction.

You may be amazing and memorable but that doesn’t mean you can expect others to remember you without intentionally building a connection by following up.

Primarily because we’re all busy, it’s almost a bragging right now to share just how overbooked everyone is and how no on has enough time. Because there are dozens, hundreds of things pulling for our attention at any given moment, the truly urgent and important naturally rise to the top.

Consider for a moment that you’ve met three people at a new networking event: one is the editor of a trade magazine you want to be featured in, another is a blogger who writes about “everything” and the third is a college student looking for an internship next summer.  Who do you follow up with first? If you’re wise, you identify the most important relationship to build (with the magazine editor in this example) and reach out immediately.

Why is it important to reach out quickly after a meeting? Well, most people don’t so you’ll immediately stand out from your peers. Additionally, when it comes to follow up, embrace the term “strike while the iron is hot.” Reach out to that new contact when they’re most excited about meeting you, remember the most about your conversations.

The longer you wait, the less effective your message.

A few years back I was looking for volunteer opportunities and contacted a local organization. At the time I had lots of free time and could give part time hours a few days a week. Great, right? Well weeks and eventually months went by, I joined another organization, took on more hours at work and when the volunteer coordinator contacted me 8 months later I’d already moved on.

Especially when you’re asking for a favor or connection reach out when they’re most motivated to help you.

I do admit that for a lot of people it’s not as simple as “just follow up”, and the very idea of contacting someone with a request creates anxiety and fear. Sometimes it’s not knowing what to say – or how to say it – that stops us from reaching out for valuable connections and opportunities.

If emailing someone gives you trouble, here are two quick things to remember:

1) by receiving their card or email address you already have implicit permission to contact

2) even if you make a request the other person cannot say yes to, you’ve begun to understand how you can support each other

Being prepared creates confidence

One of my favorite assignments with private clients is to craft their templates for networking follow up, so they always have a starting point to reach out for what they need.

To get more networking tips, check out these systems for networking success and then refine your networking system to get even better results.

I’m willing to bet there’s at least one person who you’ve been meaning to follow up with in your life right now.

Best in Baseball: Ifs, Ands & Butts

Business Building by Leave a Comment

During the regular season I’m pretty ambivalent about baseball but come playoffs I like to track local teams. Unfortunately we barely missed out on a “Battle of the Bay” when the A’s lost in early October but thanks to the Giants conquering the Cardinals I’m excited for the World Series once again.

Now, it can be a little tricky to keep up since I hate talk radio and don’t have cable. But this year I’ve discovered an awesome new tool which is not just the best in baseball (for me at least) but a powerful lesson for entrepreneurs. Let me show you MLB.com Gameday (check out the picture on the right).

What do you notice first? It’s pretty right? From the screenshot you should be able to recognize the Giant’s park including the giant catcher’s mitt and Pepsi bottle in left field. It looks like a baseball diamond and the closest I’ve been to this view was 7 rows behind the pitcher at an A’s game a few years back. It’s not just pretty, this imagery puts you into the game. It’s addictive. It’s fun.

Is your website interactive, fun and pretty? I’ll be honest, I like good clean design. If your site appears to be the Midway of Fun Carnival or crammed with flashing ads and pop up boxes then I’m not going to be on the page very long. Did you notice the colors in the screen capture? Blue sky, green grass, black and orange? It makes sense! If you have two dozen colors and fonts and appear to be embracing “all the colors of the wind” then you most likely don’t look fun and creative, your website looks like a 3 year old who just discovered the Crayola 64 pack.

MLB Gameday is not a video game, you can’t spin around to see the play in action (that’s fine, it’s not live action) but they do make subtle changes. Like whether the batter is left or right handed. It may seem silly until you’re watching how the pitches come into the zone. Makes a big difference to the interactive user experience. What this tells me is that MLB knows what their audience knows. In this image from the Giant’s last whipping of the Cardinals you can see the batter is wearing the St. Louis uniform.Pay attention to the details that your audience expects to see.

Now, briefly I’ll describe what you don’t get with MLB Gameday:

commercials
game announcers
hot dogs and peanut vendors shouting
advertisements all over the infield wall
changing light conditions

I was a little surprised that the field didn’t “go dark” as we went into evening but when you think about it MLB has removed one of the most annoying aspects of live games: not being able to see the field. You don’t need to squint when you’re facing the sun or put on your glasses when the field gets dark. Which highlights an important lesson you don’t have to recreate every aspect of an experience, you can improve it.

Imagine if coaches who sold “virtual tickets” to their live events required the virtual attendee to spend five minutes finding their seats. Absurd, right? Live and virtual events are different and have to be thought through differently. There may be no popcorn when you watch MLB Gameday but you’re also less likely to be hit by a stray ball.

What elements does MLB include?

For one there’s these great recap sidebars that don’t interfere with the pitching info but give a great overview. Who’s pitching, hitting and how many throws so far? It’s great info and easy to compare to the game stats at the top of the page.

Why do I love this so much? You’ve got to give your audience a way to “catch up” easily, especially when you’re giving a ton of content.

See that blue box that says “scout” in the middle? It’s telling the viewer that the pitcher is favoring fastballs and the hitter is better against that pitch. Yes, I know this is just a game but don’t you love how they’re teaching, empowering and training the user with this info? You don’t need to memorize the line up or every single stat to be immediately in the know and up to date on the count.

Let’s take a closer look at the banner of the page. Here you see from l-to-r the game and score, inning, upcoming games with dates and times. Of course the series could be over by Oct 28th with 3 more SF wins. That’s the “if” from the title – if this, then that. If Tigers don’t come up with 7 runs in the top of the 9th then get two more outs then the Giants win.

Right below this banner is the recap of the innings, what happened, how many runs hits and errors. How can entrepreneurs create their own scoreboard?

Give your clients a map – we’re going to have 7 calls, each one is 90 minutes. Here’s what we’ll accomplish on each call. Here’s what happened in the last week. Creating this “scoreboard” will enable your audience to know what’s happened and what to look forward to.

Check out this sidebar video that popped up at the end of the game. Here they pan the crowd to highlight the support of Stand Up to Cancer, including the website to get more info. This brings you into the game, giving an opportunity for fans to feel like they’re at the stadium, in the community, belong to the cause. Below this another short video and a highlight clip of Sandoval becoming the 4th player ever to hit 3 home runs during a World Series (and it’s only game 1). This is the “and” from the title – give your audience more. And, check this out. And, did you know. And, here’s more great content. Because that’s how you find your fans, by giving them more and finding out who clicks on every link, watches every video and reads all the content.

What about the butts? Well, if you don’t make it realistic enough then some people are going to get turned off so be real, have fun and remember that great sites are engaging, entertaining, educational and give ifs, ands & butts!

 

 

Does the Perfect VA Exist?

Team & Support by 6 Comments

I get this question in various forms when working with clients and colleagues who are hiring their teams to support their businesses. And even when I hire for my business I struggle with this question – is there a “perfect” assistant out there? Can I find the perfect person who is affordable and affable and available?

Let’s demystify what most entrepreneurs mean by “perfect” and how that actually translates to working with your team.

Most people are looking for the ideal person who will complete every task just as you would, cares about the business as much as you do, is available 24/7, delivers every project on time, pleasant to work with, cheap, has unlimited skills, a wide ranging network of equally perfect people and anticipates every need before being asked. And while you may be able to develop this team over time, it’s naive and foolish to think you can create this in a week or even a month.

I’m not good at sugar coating the truth so let’s just be honest with each other:

There are no perfect VAs because there are no perfect people. (And that includes you.)

As we strive for excellency, we must remember that there is a lot of room for mistakes because we’re human. We get things wrong. We try and fail and try again. But setting up the expectation of perfection will only leave you disappointed. Most of the things you want in your perfect team are learned skills and must be communicated.

The perfect VA might write an email just like you would after months or years of learning your style. The ideal assistant may be able to anticipate you want a full day of rest after a week of business travel but only if you tell your assistant that is your preference. And sometimes our expectations are way out of line with reality.

Just a week after the New York Times article on life/work balance was released my own assistant was absent for several days. This was unusual and when we touched base again on Monday I discovered she’d experienced a death in the family and had been unable to email me with updated availability. 24/7 instant access is fine if you’re working with robots but people need to eat, take care of families, rest and serve other clients.

The most important aspect of knowing if your VA is the right person is their ability to grow and learn.

Does it mean that we love mistakes? No, but it does change how we view them to take problems as a growth opportunity. When you understand there are no perfect VAs, then you are more willing to invest the time in training and clearly communicating what you need from your team. But is the VA able to learn? Understanding that there are several types of errors can help you determine if your VA is capable of learning such as:

error of omission – when a task hasn’t been completed then there are two things I look at first. Consider how clearly you asked for the task and the deadline given. If you didn’t give a deadline then it’s your error. Second, if you didn’t get confirmation that the deadline were feasible then address that communication breakdown first and reassess how many hours are hired or distributed throughout the week.

error of addition – when something has been done you didn’t ask for. Sometimes this is great, especially when you team begins to anticipate your needs. But if they’ve sent emails on your behalf or even scheduled meetings you don’t want to attend it can be a problem. Start by clarifying the scope of work, hours needed and job responsibilities.

simple mistakes – this is probably the most common problem when something hasn’t been done exactly the way we want. For the first few months of a new VA relationship I keep a very close eye on how things are done, stepping in to make adjustments frequently. Systems are created and refined, updated to reflect directions that were ambiguous or incomplete. It’s only if those instructions continue to be misinterpreted or ignored do I consider changing the relationship.

Communication is easy to overlook. 

It’s easy to get caught up in the flow of business, talking about projects and tasks and then hang up the phone without clarity on what’s happening next. Clearly assigning tasks with deadlines and resources will not only help you relax, knowing that tasks are being taken care of, but give your team clarity to move forward.

And at times we make mistakes, assigning someone who is otherwise very capable to a task outside of their capabilities or giving too much too quickly. Because I hire primarily for the learning and growth ability, carefully looking to find the right person who is teachable, if the tasks are not working out I’ll shift things around first before starting over with a new person and clean slate.

Developing relationships with your team takes time and patience, unless you hire mind readers and miracle workers then it’s up to you to give clear direction and expectations, follow up on tasks and provide feedback, and build the long term relationship that will serve your business for years to come.

If you haven’t yet hired a team you can get my free video training on this page and get started with 5 Days to Find Fabulous Help for Your Online Business including a video on what to do if your team screws up!

Launch Technology Plan

Launching by Leave a Comment

In this video I’m sharing my tips on how to plan what you need to consider technology wise when you’re planning a launch.

 

Want the Launch Class download? Just enter your name and email below to get instant access:

 

Simple Questions to Increase Sales

Customer Service by Leave a Comment

Last week I drove into Sacramento to pick up some printed materials and left the small, independent shop disappointed. The copies I picked up were beautiful but the interaction with the shop owner was cold and impersonal and he barely spoke two sentences while I was in the store.

While this was a personal order of just $100 (memorial folders for my cousin’s funeral) the owner of this business could have easily won my loyalty and much more business with a few simple questions.

Such as,

1. “I’m so sorry for your loss, is there anything else I can help you with today?”

Simply acknowledging why the copies were needed would have been huge and shown that they actually paid attention to what was coming off the printer. Also I did have more copies of another sheet to run and spare time so I could have done it right there boosting the sale just a bit. Instead I was confused at how cold and aloof the owner seemed, as if I’d interrupted much more important work.

Remember that when the client is in front of you, he or she is the most important person in the room. Always offer additional support (without being pushy) to exhibit that you care and have other services available.

2. “How did you hear about us?”

This was my first time in the print shop and I was certain I’d be asked this question. If I’d been asked the owner would learn that the window display (on a busy Sacramento street) with their pricing on color copies caught my attention. I’d additionally asked a client of mine who used them and loved their output and pricing before calling for a quote.

Understanding what marketing tools are working is essential to a small business. If no one in 5 years has ever found you through that bench ad, stop running it! More importantly, the answer to this question would have given the owner new insights into me, his new client.

3. “Are you a business owner? Do you often need printing for work related marketing materials?”

Okay so this is two questions, but by describing myself as a business person with clients the owner now has the opportunity to see if I’m open to business related printing in addition to this personal order. In a short period of time he may have learned that I run a business, often print business cards and marketing materials, and would be interested in a local supplier if the prices were competitive and turn around time shorter.

While I don’t know why I got the cold shoulder when picking up this order, I do know that it effectively squashed any business relationship that could have formed. I understand that sometimes we’re just not in the mood to talk, or having a bad day, even that we think this one off client is no one we need to woo. But just asking a few simple, leading questions may not only lead to more business but give the client a positive impression of your business. These are simple leading questions to find out if the person is an ideal client – don’t assume! Even if they’re not ideal they may be an ambassador for you to your ideal clients.

No one wants to get their bill at a restaurant and hear, “now pay and get out.” We appreciate the smiling hostess who says, “thank you for coming! Hope to see you soon!” with a genuine smile.

Even if you’re a regular grumpy pants, take the time to ask these questions to every client who comes to your business and build a relationship. And you’re not off the hook if you run an online business because these questions can absolutely be translated for you as well.