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5 Ways to Improve Your Voice Mail

April 27, 2012 By 8 Comments

The other day I called a client and the receptionist told me he wasn’t in, so I asked her to transfer me to voice mail. She told me the company didn’t have voice mail because the owner thought it was too impersonal. I wanted to ask her if she used an IBM Selectric instead of a computer, or carbon paper instead of a copier, but I kept my thoughts to myself.

Voice mail is invaluable to most companies, but is only as effective as the person using it. Consider these 5 ways to make voice mail more effective.

1. Help callers save time

When you record your voice mail message, let the caller know within the first few seconds whether or not he or she can bypass it. Long, boring messages are annoying, and most of the time callers don’t listen to them anyway. Instead of wasting callers’ time by making them listen to a long message, give each person the option to go straight to the tone. [Read more...]

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How to Get Past Gatekeepers

April 16, 2012 By 10 Comments

When I worked in a corporate office — I’ve tried to block out that part of my life — a vendor called my office and thought I was the receptionist. He was rude, condescending and had no trouble showing his true colors.

He never knew why, but I did business with his competitor instead of with him.

No matter how talented you are, or how great your business reputation is, at some point you’re going to have to get past business gatekeepers. Consider these three gate-crashing tips.

Don’t push harder

When you can’t get through to someone, your first thought may be to push harder. Instead of making progress, you’ll aggravate the person on the other end of the line. At that point you essentially squelch any chance you may have had of seeing or talking with the person they’re protecting. And by the way, yelling, “Don’t you know who I am?” rarely works. [Read more...]

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6 Ways to Make Your E-Mails More Effective

February 20, 2012 By 12 Comments

working from home One of my clients had to do damage control when her marketing department kept dropping the ball on large projects. She figured out that the marketing manager’s staff had stopped reading his e-mails.  He was a frustrated writer who couldn’t resist sending long e-mails to his staff, instead of sending clear, easy-to-read messages.

E-mail is an effective and time-saving way to communicate with others, especially when it takes the place of meetings and calls, but writing clearly is important. There are a six ways to make your e-mail messages more effective.

1. Educate instead of impress [Read more...]

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5 Ways to Show Your Clients You Care

February 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

source: schipulites

My friend’s grandma used to say, “Don’t do special for me.” She didn’t want anyone to make a fuss over her because she knew her family cared and they didn’t need to prove it to her.

What about your clients? Do they know you care? Meeting your clients’ needs, completing their projects on time, and helping their business grow is part of your commitment to your clients. It’s also one way to show them indirectly that you truly take an interest in them.

Consider these five easy, inexpensive, yet more direct ways to show your clients that you care.

#1 Congratulate your clients on milestone events

When a client is celebrating a birthday, anniversary or a promotion, you can send an e-card, but a card you send via snail mail can mean even more. Don’t just sign the card…include a short, personal note. Although you’ll want to acknowledge happy occasions, don’t forget the sad ones. One of my clients recently lost her husband to cancer, so I sent her a card and made a donation to the charity included in her husband’s obituary. It was a small gesture but I wanted her to know that I was thinking of her during a difficult time for her and her family.

To read the rest of my guest post on Success Your Way, click here.

 

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How to Keep the Promises You Make

January 19, 2012 By 22 Comments

source: discoodoni

A friend of mine keeps as many promises as she breaks. Why are we still friends? The main reason is that the promises she makes to me aren’t important.

When she promises to meet me for coffee, I enter the time in my iPhone and then before I leave my house, I send her a text to confirm. Sometimes she remembers and sometimes she doesn’t.

While those broken promises aren’t earth-shattering and haven’t affected our friendship, if she did the same thing to her clients, her client list were dry up. To a client, any broken promise is important, so you need to do what you can to keep every promise you make.

Start with these tips.

Don’t promise what you can’t deliver

A huge corporate client with a large budget may tempt you to make promises you can’t keep, and add more to your plate than you can handle. Before you say yes to a request from a big client, take a close look at your current schedule and decide whether or not you have time to complete the job. Don’t forget to consider if you’re even the right person to handle the project. If not, recommend someone else who can help your client. [Read more...]

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SCORE Some Free Small Business Advice

January 9, 2012 By 9 Comments

My sweet, adorable, perfect niece — I’m not at all biased — is at the “I’ll do it myself” stage. She doesn’t want her parents to help her do anything. My niece reminds me of the typical entrepreneur (myself included) who thinks he or she can do everything alone and do it better.

The truth is there’s no way we entrepreneurs can know everything and do everything well, but we don’t have to. There are experts nearby (virtually and in person) who are willing to share their business experience with other small business owners like us. Best of all, you can get their advice from one source: SCORE. [Read more...]

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Take Back Your Time By Saying No More Often Than Yes

December 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

source: Horia Varlan

When my sons were younger, I was at the top of the volunteer list (translation: sucker). Whenever someone called me to help with an event, class project or anything else to do with school, I said yes. I did the same thing with two professional associations I was in.

One day I had a revelation. I was spending more time volunteering my time than growing my business. I’m all for helping others but eventually you have to say no more often than you say yes.

How many times have you said yes when you meant no? There are only so many hours in a day and if at some point you don’t say no, you’ll never get ahead (or get any sleep!).

Before you say yes to everything, consider a few questions.

To read the rest of my guest post on Success Your Way, click here.

 

Filed Under: Balancing home/office Life, Working with clients

The Advantages of Hiring Help

December 13, 2011 By 8 Comments

A business owner I’ve known for over ten years has owned several businesses. He sold two of his businesses within two years of starting them.

His last (and current) business was almost a failure. Although he had a strong business idea and product, he grew his business too quickly. Each month he added a few employees and by the end of his first year in business, he wasn’t making enough money to cover his overhead.

At the beginning of the new year he cut his staff in half and reorganized his business. By making a few staffing changes, he has converted his company from pathetic to profitable.

As your business grows, and you have less time to spend on sales and marketing, filing, and accounting, you may need to add additional staff or hire freelancers. There are a few things to consider when hiring others full-time, part-time, or on a project-by-project basis. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Time mgmt./Productivity, Working with clients Tagged With:

When is it Time to Break Up With a Client?

December 8, 2011 By 6 Comments

I think we’re better off as friends.

It’s not you, it’s me.

The timing isn’t right.

We’ve all either heard or used those excuses during a breakup in our personal life.

Breaking up is hard to do, especially when it comes to clients. But when a client has been with you from the start and your services are worth more than you’re charging, what do you do? Consider the following three options. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Making money from home, Time mgmt./Productivity, Working at home, Working with clients Tagged With:

Drawing the Line Between Your Business and Personal Relationships

November 28, 2011 By 2 Comments

In my first job out of college, I sold commercial time for an AM talk radio station. Our station owned a suite at the football stadium, and during one of the games one of my co-workers was a little nervous. His biggest client was going to be there so several bottles of beer and a few too many shots of Tequila later, he needed to make a quick exit. He didn’t embarrass himself, but he could have.

He blamed it on the chicken nachos.

While it’s important to build rapport with a client, you need to make sure you keep your business relationship in line, starting with these tips.

Remember that you always represent your business

If you’re out with a friend and you do something reckless, a friend may laugh it off. But if you’re with a client, he or she may wonder whether you’re handling his or her account the same way. They may even lose faith in your ability to make good decisions on their behalf. There’s nothing wrong with having fun. Being out of control is beyond wrong. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Balancing home/office Life, Working at home, Working with clients Tagged With: ,
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