Testimonial? Yes, please! When Your Best Marketing Tool is Confidential
One of the best marketing tools of small businesses is the feedback from previous clients. Especially when providing services, your clients’ results are your greatest assets. When these assets are confidential it makes it difficult to promote your services based on success rates. But hey difficult does not mean impossible. There are a few things that you can do to get word out without breaching confidentiality. You can always aggregate numbers and provide percentages but that only goes so far. People like to hear from and about people; not numbers.
The first and easiest tool that I am certainly guilty of failing to use in getting testimonials. After you have provided services to your clients it’s ok to let them know that testimonials are valuable to your business. It’s ok to ask them, as long as it is not made to sound like an obligatory demand. One of the best entrées to the conversation is when they thank you for your service. Satisfied clients have a tendency to extend the invitation to reach out if they can assist you in the future; this is the perfect time to remind them that you would appreciate a testimonial or make a request that pass along your information to others that can use it. As you prepare to make your request remember the following:
Make it a serious request: When they are not comfortable making a request, people tend to use crutches, like asking jokingly. It’s not a joke and it’s not something that is done in passing where the client misses your request. You value your client’s feedback and the time they would take to provide you with a testimonial. That should be reflected in your request.
Avoid ambivalent requests: In order to avoid seeming pushy you may make your request in a way that leaves the client wondering if you were serious. You want the client to be clear that you meant to ask, and that they have a choice as to whether or not they fulfill your request.
Jump on offers for testimonials: You already know that’s the first one. Even a client who far beyond satisfied does not always offer a testimonial. On a rare occasion I’ve had clients who have seen others on my site offer to write one. When a client offers “Yes. Thanks” should be your first response. Make sure the client knows that you are both interested and appreciative of their offer.
Avoid Paying for testimonials: A testimonial that you pay for is a service that you are buying. Does not assure your potential clients of your skills. If you offer to pay a client for testimonials it devalues the other ones you have obtained. The client is thinking that if you pay him, you’ve paid others. [Maybe you’re not that great and they just lucked out.]
At the end of the day, your work matters and you are making a difference for your clients. The best way for potential clients to know, is to hear (read) it from previous clients. Don’t be afraid to ask, as long as your clients know that they can decline.
I’m just saying though…
Dream Big… Live Bigger…
DrJudiC
www.DrJudiC.com
Is it High Overhead or Low Accountability? Five (5) tips for reducing overhead costs.
Last week someone asked me what a person would say that triggers to him that the person may e able to use my services. I remembered a conversation I had the preceding weekend. Somehow in the midst of a conversation, someone mention having “high overhead”. It clicked for me instantly and I said “you should call me”. Of-course as we got into the discussion he asked me the question everyone, including that first person asked me- “are you gonna make my high rent go away?” After our talk I took it on as a challenge.
A few days later I got the information that I needed and started looking things over and performing a few cost benefit analyses. The most obvious observation was that he was operating in a very different market than he was serving. He has beautiful office suite with all the amenities that he wanted. The suite is in a great location that is also a nice distance from where he lives and where his clients are coming from. But the real zinger is that his wonderful suite is in a location where others in his field serve a clientele who pay a few times what he charges, and can therefore afford the expenses of that location. These five tips are sure to help ease the burden of too much overhear:
- Having nice things does not have to mean exorbitant costs. We were able to find locations that put him closer to home and slightly more accessible to clients that are a fraction of what he was paying. Location does matter, and the location has to make sense. I am in no way saying that people should go into rundown buildings to save money. If an office suite with all the amenities is what you desire then can have that, but sometimes you can see a big difference just by changing zip codes. If you start having to work many more extra hours to afford your location, you are probably in the wrong location for what you are charging.
- Don’t count on everyone paying on time. Too many people make that mistake. According to ideal calculations, if all the clients are paying and paying on time, thing will be much smoother. I agree with that 100%; however, I know that the reality is different. When planning for expenses, you need to take into account that some clients will be late, others may default and caseloads can get low. That is why expenses need to be low enough that you are not just getting by, but earning enough to build a cushion for those days. Your clients may not be paying but that will not stop your liabilities from demanding attention. I was in an office once when FPL cut them off– It was not cute.
- There is a difference between favors and work. Work is something we do to earn income. Favors are done in <i>addition<i> to work, not <i>instead<i> of work. As professionals we do want to help others and give back to friends, family and the community, but there has to be some limits. If you spend too much of your time doing favors, then there may not be enough time to do income earning work. Don’t get so busy doing favors that you have to outsource many things that you could be doing. Why would you pay others so that you can have more time to work for free. To survive in any business, there is something all business owners MUST remember- People will pay for the things they really want. Of-course, some people may not be able to pay the full cost of services, but they can afford something. People appreciate things more if they have to pay for them. In lieu of just giving free services to people, a sliding scale can at least help cover the expenses you incur in service delivery.
- Everyone should be held accountable for their duties. As the boss, you should not blow off your responsibilities and just pass them on to others just because. If you do this you are setting the wrong example. You have to hold your team accountable for their responsibilities and it’s great to be able to have yourself as the reference point. Quite often, working overtime or working late is the result of a lack of productivity during the regular workday. If you are coming in and your team is scrambling to look busy or in worse cases keep on with not being productive, there is a serious issue. You need to understand your duties as well as what is required of your team. If they have to work late too often, you are either understaffed or things are not getting done. If you are feeling pressure from high overhead, it’s more than likely the latter. Don’t just keep giving them more time to do what should have already been done. Get the office work done during the day and eliminate the cost of extended days.
- Set boundaries with everyone from the clients to staff, family and friends. If every time you turn around your friends are calling or your assistant’s children are calling, those are productivity minutes that are being misappropriated. Having a schedule of when you attend to personal matters is a very effective way of maximizing your time in the office. If you look at your call log and see a few personal calls lasting 5 to 10 minutes or more in the middle of your workday, it’s time for change. Over time people can become too comfortable and complacent. Your friends may be calling you when you should be working or you staff handling personal business when work needs to be done are all minor events that can be problematic over time. While you may want your office to be welcoming and pleasant, it’s important that employees know that they are there to work and for this demand to be enforced. From coming in on time to doing what you ask the first time, setting and enforcing boundaries can make a big difference.
While no one can make your rent disappear, there are numerous steps that can be taken to alleviate the pressure of overhead expenses… Even if that’s the way you’ve always done things.
I’m just saying though…
Dream Big… Live Bigger…
DrJudiC
<a href=”http://www.drjudic.com/”>www.DrJudiC.com</a></span>
Life & Success Lessons From The Golf Course 3: Reboot, Refresh, Resume
A few days ago I was out of the driving range and found myself wasting a bucket of ball. Some of them I hit so badly that I could just walk up a couple of steps to retrieve them, but the re-hits were not that much better. I had done much of what I needed to do from stretching, working on my stance and my grip. I must admit that it was getting frustrating, because just the other day I was doing so well after my lesson. With my driver, 7 or hybrid it was all either a complete miss or at best a few feet. The harder I tried the more comical the resulting misses. Eventually, it was decision time and I decided to move on to chipping which is the best part of my game, followed by a few minutes with the putter. I was getting great results.
What was happening was that I needed to break from what I was doing to regroup and start over. That is something we see often when working on certain projects or in some meetings. When you find that your actions are not yielding desired results, it’s time to step back to reassess and return for a fresher start. Many of us have had to sit through an overdrawn project meeting and came out wondering what happened to these last few hours. That was a result of the person leading the meeting not realizing that I was time for everyone to take a break from the issue at hand and come back later—often with fresh insights and new perspectives.
Taking a break does not necessarily mean hours or days, it could be as simple as 10 or 15 minutes just to step away. That brief moment allows you to shut down the current cycle of thoughts or behaviors and switch to a different mode. When you return, it’s like you are rebooting your mind and body to continue the work you had been doing. It’s almost like when your computer freezes up. In some cases you can continue to work with it, but it moves slowly, or sometimes not at all. After you take a moment to restart it, it starts to work again and faster than before. Yes, you lose the few minutes that it took you to go through the reset period, but in the end you make that up by not having to wait two minutes for every command to be executed as before.
By taking breaks, you give yourself the benefit of a fresh start, which also allows you to make the adjustments necessary to get you on the right track. If my swing is off I can most definitely stay there and try to fix it, but when my body is used to being in that off position it’s more difficult to change that than it would be if I was starting in neutral. We are pattern driven and once we settle into the rhythm it’s hard to transition out of it. A halt however gives you the opportunity for a new start and some rest in between to rejuvenate and give more energy.
So next time you find yourself stuck in a pattern that is not giving you the results you want, remember that it is ok to stop for a moment, because the break that you take to regroup and reorganize will more than likely be shorter than the time that you would lose trying to push on.
When you take a break you can do some of these things to make the break more productive:
- Just relax for a moment- Sometimes the body and mind need that.
- Find a distraction- Something that will force you to get your mind off the task at hand— My weaknesses are Tetris and Minesweeper. Whatever you choose, make sure you have what it takes to stop in five or ten minutes
- Meditate or do breathing exercises- This allows the recirculation of your energy which is great for fresh start. When you need to rebuild momentum getting oxygen into your body is one of the things you can do.
- Cat naps- Depending on the setting and time available this could be a great tool. Closing your eyes for a few minutes gives a great opportunity for introspective reflection- and if you dose off you feel refreshed when you awaken.
- Change course- If what you are trying to do is not working out, you can move on to something else that you need to do and return to the original task later. Just changing the schedule around a bit will not hurt much- just make sure that it is a change of pace that you need and not rest.
I’m just saying though…
Dream Big… Live Bigger…
DrJudiC
www.DrJudiC.com
Are Meetings Killing Efficiency- 5 Steps Efficient Operation
What is a meeting? Too often it is an event where one person at a time gets up and speaks about something that many of the supposed-to-be- listeners have little or no interest. People attend this event because they been told they have to attend because their attendance was “MANDATORY” or they just wanted to justify their time at work while not doing real work.
Business in our society is no doubt meeting-driven. We have meetings about everything; especially in larger organizations. But does every announcement really require a meeting? We’re getting to the point where we’re having meetings about having meetings. Many of us have been subjected to the weekly waste of time some companies call staff meetings where you leave wishing you could have brought some work in with you.
Let’s monetize the cost of a meeting- Imagine you have 20 people coming to a meeting and 10 of them have to travel 30 minutes from a different site. Let’s say these meeting participants produce at a rate of $150 per hour. Just from the 10 people who have traveled a total of an hour to and from the meeting you lost $1500. If the meeting lasts 3 hours (the average is 2-2.5 hours), that’s another $9000 (or on average 6000 – $7500). The big questing is, are all these meetings being held worth more than $10,000 to the organization? Most meetings are not really worth the $7500 to $9000 they cost the company, so why are they still happening? There are many reasons, including:
- The monetary value is usually not calculated
- That’s the way they are used to doing things
- Lack of awareness that alternatives exist
So what can be done to help this issue?
- 1. Complete a cost/benefits analysis
Before a meeting is scheduled, it’s important to know if it’s worth disrupting everyone’s productivity. You need to know how much that meeting really costs, not just the obvious costs, but also the ones included in day to day operations.
- 2. Explore alternative to meetings
As you consider ways to share and gain information, you should explore alternatives. Are there ways to get the massage to your team without disrupting the flow of productivity? Could this information be relayed in and email? The 4-Sentence Email To Replace Meetings shows how efficiently an email can accomplish what we use meetings for.
- 3. Create an agenda
Once you schedule a meeting, decide exactly what you want to address and the succession of things from the introduction to the end. When you don’t know this information you are more prone to deviating into things unrelated to the meeting and transitioning from one point to the next takes longer. And don’t forget time for questions and discussion are a part of the agenda if they will be allowed in the meeting
- 4. Strategically invite participants
The more people you have in a meeting the longer it will last. One way to avoid too many people is to only invite people who need to be at the meeting. If the meeting is not relevant to some members of your team it’s a waste of their time to have them attend. It will also be a waste of everyone else’s time because they are likely to be less aware of some of the details the others already know and ask more questions.
- 5. Stick to the agenda
One of the main reasons that meetings run on longer than anticipated is deviation from the agenda. The purpose of the agenda is to guide the meeting. If you take the time to create an agenda and distribute it to invitees and give them the opportunity to submit input, then there is no reasons things should be coming up at the meeting. This includes the general input time. If you have 20 minutes set aside for input or discussion, that segment of the meeting should not last a whole hour.
Meetings do have a rightful place in the operation of every organization, but we need to be careful of over-using them. When you start having meetings too frequently, you diminish their effectiveness. You don’t want your team to just attend meetings because they were ordered. Meetings must be something that people attend because it was the most efficient method for the organization to communicate the particular agenda and they gain something from participating. If those two things are not present it may be more efficient to let your staff stay on task and earn money for the company.
I’m just saying though…
Dream Big… Live Bigger…
DrJudiC
www.DrJudiC.com
The 4-Sentence Email To Replace Meetings
While some companies opt to have a meeting for every announcement, there are ways to communicate the message effectively and not completely disrupt the productivity of an entire staff to give them information they are likely not even paying attention to. An email is one way of making this happen that could eliminate constant meetings.
Quite often organizations call meetings to announce news and changes. The truth is, the people who listen for 20 minutes of the hour-long meeting will take the time to read a quick email. Those who don’t bother reading the email more than likely don’t care enough to listen at the meeting either. New processes and procedures announced in meetings often require and get individually addressed in one on ones or supervision, so that would not change in email announcements.
When announcing changes there are 4 things that matter to the people who will have to implement these changes
- What
- How
- Why
- Where
People want to know what is being asked of them. They want to know how to do what is being asked. Most importantly, they want to know why they are being asked to do something. Once they have this information they need to know where to turn if they need assistance with implementation. All of that can fit nicely in a 4-sentence short email.
Good Morning Team LTD…
At the last directors workshops we discovered a new clients intake system that has been very effective for one of our departments and are looking to have it implemented companywide.
All new intakes will be prescreened by the department coordinator and you will receive a copy of the screening form for al new clients you are assigned.
This new method will help reduce the number of intakes completed on clients who doe not qualify for our services, which will save you and the company some time and money.
A copy of the new screening for is attached, but do please speak with your direct supervisor or the client coordinator in your department if you have any concerns or questions.
Have a great day!
Judi
An email like this takes a few minutes to write and even less time to read and your staff can spend their time producing the value your clients seek, which of-course brings your company more money.
I’m just saying though…
Dream Big… Live Bigger…
DrJudiC
www.DrJudiC.com
