On Miscommunicating

We know what we want to communicate: it may be something we need to say to our customers to teach, engage, or convince them. it may be to our people, to coach and improve their ability to execute. it may be to our peers to drive a strategy or a change initiative. We know what…

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Doing More By Doing Less

It’s awfully crowded in the digital marketing/social selling world. Getting “heard” is increasingly difficult. Getting into see/talk to customers is one of the top challenges I hear from executives, marketing and sales people alike. To most, the solutions seem to be, “do more,” “be outrageous.” As a result our emails are filled with “provocative/attention grabbing…

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How to Encourage Open Internal Communication for a Successful Brand

Are your business or nonprofit organization employees or co-workers openly communicating? If not, it has a big problem. How can they ‘live the brand’ internally and externally if they’re afraid to rock the boat or feel that their feedback is pointless? They can’t. According to a recent Harvard Business Review article by James R. Detert and Ethan R.…

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10 Ways to Increase Workplace Efficiency

Being a small-business owner involves wearing many hats—and while being involved in all aspects of your company can be rewarding, it can also take its toll on your productivity. Here’s how to save time and get more out of your workday: Communication Show your inbox who’s boss A cluttered inbox makes it difficult to tell…

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Good Answer! Responding to Customer Compliments

If your front line customer service staff is doing everything right, then they will likely receive customer compliments. Woo HOO! What a customer service representative says in response to a compliment may be as important as what they did to receive the compliment. Just this week I was visiting a local restaurant for a quick…

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Tap Into the Power of Timely Sales Follow Ups

Recently in this space I shared two simple tips for increasing sales: Unless your prospect tells you directly to stop calling, keep calling, and See yourself as a doctor, not as a sales person. Today I want to suggest some more tools so you can do the first of those more easily. What we’re talking about…

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Mailing Lists, Email Marketing, Errors, Oh My!

Using old email lists for the first time is like eating really stale doughnuts. The taste is pretty bad, and the side effects could be disastrous. Email companies like Constant Contact, MailChimp and many others all have strict rules they follow to avoid being caught in spam hell, with their servers blacklisted and worse. Each…

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5 Reasons Your Employees Quit, and How to Stop Them

If you own a business, then you know that keeping your staff as excited about their jobs as you are can feel like an uphill battle. The fact is that most employees disengage from their work at some point. A recent Gallup poll revealed that just 32 percent of American workers feel connected with their jobs.…

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How to Keep Customers from Falling Through the Cracks

If you’ve put in the work to get a customer to commit to your business, the last thing you want to do is lose them because of poor communication. A customer falling through the cracks doesn’t just lose you that sale, it may end up costing you that customer’s friends, family and coworkers. Bad customer…

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