Effective Management Techniques for Any Business Owner

Within any business, having a great management team can mean the difference between success or failure. When workplace management is good, employees are satisfied and highly productive. However, when management is less than stellar, many aspects of the day-to-day activities on the job fall by the wayside. Whether it’s employees feeling as if they are…

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5 Ways to Increase the Response Rate to Your Emails

Email marketing continues to be a highly effective method of increasing sales and enhancing customer retention and loyalty rates. Yet with the average business owner receiving 122 emails per day, your emails have to truly stand out from the crowd in order to grab their attention. If you’re disappointed by your current email response rates,…

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Video Conferencing: Do’s and Don’ts

Three decades after it first emerged on the scene, video conferencing has quickly turned into an everyday part of business operations. And because of recent innovations like the NEC VoIP phone system, many companies now see it as a viable method of increasing collaboration and reducing travel expenses. In addition, these companies are eager to…

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Is Management by Walking Around an Outmoded Fad?

One of the CEOs I coach starts his day by walking the floor of his extended facility and checking in with managers and employees of the various departments, especially the call center. He tries to feel the pulse of the company by the intensity of motion, the metrics of backlog, and the stated problems brought…

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A Riddle: Why Explain Why?

In my early journalism classes, I was taught the five “W’s” of good news stories, and that most should be in the first paragraph at that. Who, what, when, where and why are the five, with sometimes a “how” thrown in for those followers of the macabre. But of the five, “why” is by far the most important for business…

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The Power of NO!

Over the years I have counseled entrepreneurs to think of a “no” response in terms of “yes, but…” There is always another way to say “no” that leaves the door open for creative thinking. Well, almost always. Sometimes, you just have to suck it up and say “NO” with strong conviction. It usually happens after several…

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What’s Your Ask/Tell Ratio?

Whether you are a manager or a sales person, your Ask/Tell ratio is critical to your effectiveness. The Ask/Tell ratio is a simple concept; few people think about it. It’s simply the ratio of questions you ask, compared to the statements you make. Ideally, your Ask/Tell ratio is significantly over 1. That means you spend…

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Is It Time to Ditch the Term “Social”?

Is social media social? What at first blush might seem like a highly ironic and utterly absurd question has a surprisingly firm grounding in reality, at least in today’s existing digital marketing reality. When you take a moment to stop and think about it, much of the largely two-way interplay on the ubiquitous digital communications…

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5 Ways to Boost Your Business with Easy Technology

Lately there’s been a great deal of research into the ways that technology is shaping the lives of young people. The jury is still out on whether or not it’s for better or for worse, but everyone agrees that having constant electronic contact will undoubtedly have a tremendous effect on so-called Gen Zers. Technology isn’t…

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Listening: Now That’s a Thought

Received a telephone call from a company doing a survey: Me: Hi, this is Bob. Caller: Is Bob there? Me: Th…this is Bob. Good morning. Caller: I’m doing a survey regarding children and television. Do you have any children or grandchildren under the age of 13? Me: No, I have no children. Caller: I see. Do you have any children or…

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