As entrepreneurs and business owners, you probably experience your fair share of meetings during the course of a working week; however, many of these meetings will end up being a complete waste of time – and you know what they say: Time is money!

Let’s at least help you ensure that the meetings you organise and run with your teams are as productive as possible.

So what’s the definition of a meeting? For the sake of this blog post, we will use the following definition:

“A meeting can be defined as a gathering of three or more people sharing common objectives, where communication is the primary means of achieving those objectives”.

In order to make your meetings effective, the objectives of the meeting must be achieved in the minimum time and to the satisfaction of the participants: this is no easy task.

There are actually two types of meeting: Information meetings – which are used to advise, update, sell or present – and decision making meetings, where you set goals, solve problems and collect ideas. Information meetings are probably the easier of the two as you’ll be relying on your presentation skills to get the most out of them. Decision making meetings are more difficult to conduct; it is these that we will be focusing on in the 7 stages outlined below.

So here goes, 7 steps to an effective meeting…

1)      Decide on your overall objectives for the meeting – What do you want to achieve from the meeting? Just make sure the objectives you set are measurable, achievable and realistic. For example, you may want to define a policy or procedure for dealing with customer complaints.

2)      Identify the decisions that will need to be made in order to achieve the objectives you’ve set for the meeting. Expanding on the example above, you would need to review existing procedures for complaints handling, agree different complaint categories, agree a training method for teaching the new procedures… you get the idea.

3)      Consider who should attend – I recommend you use the “Two Thirds Rule” i.e. each person invited to the meeting must have information relevant to a decision on 2 of 3 of the items on the meeting agenda. This helps to keep attendance to those who are actually necessary and useful to the meeting; it can also help reduce the length of the meeting. Consider the following when selecting meeting participants:

• Knowledge of the subject
• Commitment to solving the problem
• Time to participate
• Open mindedness
• Expressiveness
• Diversity to viewpoint

If you invite someone to the meeting who feels they should not be there, all they will do is disrupt the meeting causing it to lose its’ direction. As a result, you may fail to reach a decision and the meeting will have been pointless.

4)      Decide when the meeting should take place – You will need to consider the availability of those attending and you will also have to allow them time to prepare.

5)      Decide where the meeting is going to take place – Is the venue available? Is it easily accessible by all attendees? You’ll also want to avoid all interruptions and disturbances.

6)      Inform all involved – The participants will need to know the following:

• Date, time and venue
• Items to be dealt with in order of priority
• What preparation participants need to make
• Scheduled breaks (if you’re planning a day long meeting)
• Meeting finishing time

Make sure you inform anyone else that needs to know – secretaries, team members etc. You want to avoid all interruptions.

7)      Check the environment of the venue – It’s important that you and other participants will be comfortable and seated in positions that will aid and encourage participation. If you are going to use an overhead projector, make sure it works properly. Also ensure that the room seating, lighting and temperature are all conducive to a productive meeting.

Follow these simple key steps and you’ll be ready for a successful and productive meeting. Do you have any other good tips for planning and effective meeting? Please feel free to include them in the comments below.

Photo Credit: Office Now

1. Be Prepared for your Sales Presentation

• Appearance is important; you need to create the right impression for your prospects, so make sure you are dressed adequately and look the part.
• Prepare note cards that will help to guide you through the presentation, that way, you won’t forget any of the important points you want to get across.
• Prepare the room: Room layout is vital and can affect the whole atmosphere for your presentation. Sometimes, you may not have a say in how the room is set up, especially if you are presenting at a conference with other speakers; however, if you do have the option, take advantage of the fact that seating can have a big effect on your presentation. For example, a “U” shape – if you are presenting to a smaller group – is much better for interaction, eye contact and promoting discussion.
• Check your equipment at least 15 minutes before your sales presentation: Nothing could be worse than starting to speak and seeing that the microphone doesn’t work or the projector doesn’t display your slides. Make sure you also have a contingency plan…just in case!

2. Know Your Audience

It’s vital that your presentation suits the needs, interests and abilities of your audience; you don’t want them yawning or, even worse, falling asleep, do you?

Here are a few points to keep in mind about your audience?

1)      Number of People

2)      Why is the audience assembled? (need for your information, interest in your topic, etc)

3)      What does the audience know about your company?

4)      What does your audience need from your presentation? (Ideas, information for making a decision – like buying your product or service J- entertainment)

5)      What is the audience’s likely attitude toward your presentation? (Will they be tolerant, sceptical, hostile?)

6)      Characteristics of the audience? (How many people will attend? Ratio of male/female attendants? Age?)

7)      Audience expectations? (What is the level of formality? What is the standard room set up? What is the typical format?)

3. Define Your Sales Presentation Objectives

What do you wish to achieve as a result of your sales presentation? There are two types of objectives: Primary – a commitment to do business – and secondary – follow up to next stage, information gathering (which leads to commitment) –

Define your objectives in terms which are:

• Specific (linked to the stage of your relationship with the client or prospect)
• Measurable
• Achievable (Make sure you can achieve your objectives with the people you are presenting to)
• Realistic (Reasonable within the time frame)
• Results oriented (Some concrete evidence of your success)
• Time bounded (By when this should be achieved)

4. Research the Subject of Your Sales Presentation

Your objectives allow you to decide how much of the subject you need to cover in your presentation; remember to keep this and your audience in mind when you prepare all the material for your sales presentation.

So where do you start? I would recommend using a mindmap (I personally use NovaMind Mind Mapping software) but a piece of paper and a pen will work fine. Brainstorm ideas on your presentation topic by placing the topic in the centre of the page and then write down the first element you think of that is related to it, connecting the two with a line. Keep on doing the same by adding sub-elements; don’t worry about the order the ideas are in, just get them on paper and you can organise and prioritise later. If you haven’t used mind mapping before, you’ll be amazed at how easily the ideas start to flow!

Once the ideas are all on paper, it’s time to prioritise and decide what must be included in your sales presentation.

1)      Select what you MUST cover in order to achieve the objectives you have set for yourself.

2)      Identify what you SHOULD cover to make a good case.

3)      Cross out all irrelevant items and you’ll be left with content you COULD add to the presentation if you have sufficient time and without going off topic.

Now that you have a list of relevant topics in order of importance, all you have to do is write them out in a sequence that will be easily digestible for your audience.

And that’s about it. If you follow these 4 steps, you’ll be in a great position to deliver a killer sales presentation; that’s exactly what we’ll cover in the next post about sales presentations: The structure and delivery of a great sales presentation.

Photos credit: jscreationzs 

What is Article Marketing?

Good question. In its most basic form – and the one we are going to be discussing in this post – Article Marketing consists in writing an article related to your business or specific niche market and then submitting it to – one of the many – article directories available for this purpose.

That’s a very simplified version but, to tell you the truth, it’s all you need to know at this point.

How can Article Marketing help you gain more traffic? 

• Article Directories get a lot of traffic from people searching for specific information; this information is archived under specific categories, for example: Sports, Business, Health & Fitness.
• Article directories like Ezinearticles.com tend to rank well in Google (They used to rank better before Google’s Panda update, but that’s the topic of another blog post) and other search engines. If you choose your keywords well, your article could get some good visibility and generate traffic due to its high ranking.
• Other website publishers and bloggers use articles from these directories as content for their sites. This is perfectly legit and also free! This results in possible increased exposure to your article which always includes a link back to your site.
• These links on your articles means more back links to your website, and as we all know, Google likes sites with relevant back links so this should help your SEO efforts and improve your site’s ranking.

Any article you submit to an Article Directory will contain a special resource box – usually at the end of the article – which contains links to your website. Most directories allow you to include two links in your article marketing efforts; if other publishers use your article on their site, they have to include your resource box and links. See how this can lead to more traffic?

If you write a really interesting and useful article, it has the potential to be published on many sites; depending on their popularity, you could see a nice increase in traffic to your site!

3 Things to Keep in Mind

1)      Make sure you choose the right keywords for your article. This is vital; if you choose keywords that have a lot of competition, your article marketing efforts are destined to fail as it’ll be very difficult to rank well in the search engines for these highly competitive words. Do some careful research and see if you can find some less competitive keywords, that way you’ll have a chance of getting your article ranked, found and ultimately read! For ideas of good keywords to target, you might like to try Market Samurai (This is the tool I use and highly recommend) or you can go with a perfectly acceptable free tool, Google’s Keyword Research Tool .

2)      There are literally thousands of article directories many of poor quality with little traffic; you want to make sure you submit your articles to one of the “better” article directories. The following is a list of some of the larger and more recognised ones which should help you get started:

• Ezinearticles.com
• Goarticles.com
• Buzzle.com
• Articlesbase.com
• Articledashboard.com
• Amazines.com
• Isnare.com

Open accounts in each of the above directories and start submitting articles on a regular basis; try to aim for, at least, one a week. If you’ve done your homework and chosen good keywords, you’ll soon start to see and increase in traffic to your site – and if traffic is a little slow in coming, at least you’ve got all those great back links to your site helping with your SEO

3)      Make sure you prepare a resource box that will entice readers to click on your links; the success of your article marketing campaign depends on this!

You need to ensure you offer a compelling reason for readers to click on the   links in your resource box and head over to your site.  I would recommend you take a  look at how other authors have worded their resource boxes and see what works best for you; you’ll have to do a bit of testing here until you find the right formula. Just remember that there has to be something in it for them; what are they going to gain from clicking on your links? May be a special report or other relevant articles.

It’s not rocket science… article marketing is relatively simple but it does require some work and dedication. Give it a try and apply the above tips; with a little work – and patience – your efforts will soon reap their rewards.

Yes, it’s difficult to find clients and even harder to keep existing ones; you’re faced with competitors who slash their prices and desperate businesses who are willing to resort to all types of sleazy tactics to keep afloat. Sometimes, you have to look beyond this mayhem and go back to basics by reviewing the core essence of what your business is about. Let’s take a look at a couple of areas which may be to blame for the loss of clients and business:

Don’t Ignore Customer Complaints

When you’re bogged down in paperwork it’s easy to lose track of basic everyday issues such as dealing with customer complaints.

It’s possible that some clients who receive poor service will simply “defect” and go elsewhere; however, most will try to bring their issues to your attention in the form of a complaint. This is where things start to go wrong as these complaints are ignored or often badly handled; guess what? You’ve just lost a customer!

Use these “opportunities” to analyse your internal systems for handling customer complaints. You need to listen to complaints and determine whether they are justified or not; if it’s the former, you’ll have to analyse the situation and introduce changes to ensure that such complaints are avoided – or at least reduced – in the future.

Don’t forget that a big part of successful customer complaint handling is to make sure your employees are adequately trained in how to handle customer complaints. It’s not rocket science and if you follow 5 basic tips (see link), you and your team will be able to handle the most difficult of customer complaints.

Make Sure Service Levels Live Up to Customer Expectations

This relates closely to the above point on customer complaint handling; if you’ve set certain expectations – through marketing, branding, advertising, PR – but your customer experience is not aligned with these expectations, you’ve got a problem.

Before spending money on expensive marketing, make sure you understand your target market and you’re company’s limitations. It’s much better to offer less services or product features and be able to deliver excellent service than to promise the world and only deliver on part of that promise; all that will lead to is negative word of mouth, customer complaints and ultimately, loss of customers and business.

These two tips may seem simple and obvious to many; however, when was the last time you took a good look at the customer complaints you receive? Have you made sure your customer expectations are being met by aligning your products and services to these expectations?

I’d love to hear your thoughts…feel free to comment below

Photo Credit: Latente

Without proper preparation, any employee selection interview is pretty much doomed to failure. You owe it to yourself to spend some time preparing for an interview as it’s an integral function of the recruitment and selection process; believe me, the time spent on adequate preparation will safe you time and money in the future.

There are, of course, many people who are content with hiring the first person available – “They’re not exactly what we were looking for but we’re desperate to hire someone” How many times have you heard that excuse? This type of attitude – hiring the first semi respectable candidate that comes along – can be fatal. Don’t be complacent and lazy and don’t rush things; invest in proper preparation.

Here are 3 things you want to keep in mind when you are preparing to interview candidates for a job:

1)      Do You really need to hire a new employee? I know, I know, that seems pretty obvious; however, sometimes it’s just easier to go out and find a replacement when a job vacancy becomes available. You might just want to take a step back and assess whether can be an opportunity to distribute responsibilities to other positions without the need for a new hire.

Don’t forget that the business environment is constantly and rapidly changing and that there may actually be no need for that job anymore; maybe you can use technology to cover, at least partially, the vacant position. Think it through; you could save yourself a salary!

2)      Prepare a Job Description – Are you filling an existing position or are you creating a new one? Either way, you need to make sure you have a proper job description for the new position. If you already have one, make sure you check it in case you need to make any changes to it; you may need to add new requirements and responsibilities.

With the Job Description, you’ll have a tool that will help you determine exactly what you are looking for in a candidate and you will also be able to paint a realistic picture of what the new job will entail, that way the candidate will be able to determine whether or not the job is a suitable fit for them.

3)      Establish Job Relationships – You need to decide where your new employee will fit into the company hierarchy. Who will be their immediate boss? Will there be employees reporting to the new hire? Make sure this is clear and that the rest of the team are aware of their roles and responsibilities in relation to the new employee.

Be sure to remember the above points next time you have to do an interview; it’ll take you a little longer to prepare but it’ll be worth it. What about you? Do you have any tips to share?

So what is “motivation”?

The following quote sums it up nicely: “That which makes a person act in a particular way; an inner impulse”

Anyone who is in a managerial position and is responsible for the day to day management of a team plays a key role in influencing their employee’s level of motivation.

Here are 5 key points you want to consider when tackling the complex, but vital task of employee motivation:

1)      One size does not fit all – Individuals have specific needs and requirements. Some may be motivated by career growth and ambition and others are motivated when they are able to satisfy the most basic of needs; providing food and shelter for their families. You, as a manager and leader, need to pay attention to each individual’s specific needs. Yes, it’s more work, but imperative to ensure success of an employee motivation policy. Take time to listen to your team and try to understand what motivates them, both in and out of work.

2)      The Power of Appraisals – You need to ensure regular feedback. As a manager, you time is, literally, money; however, you must make time to sit down with subordinates to discuss performance. Some companies have formal performance appraisal policies and procedures which require managers to meet with each individual on their team on a regular basis; this is great if possible but even informal meeting and chats can serve the purpose of increasing motivation. These meetings are the perfect time to provide positive reinforcement for a job well done and also to discuss possible weaknesses.

3)      Invest in Training and Development – offering employees the opportunity to learn new skills that will help them to advance in their careers is a great way to motivate your employees. Whether it be onsite or offsite training initiatives, effective and focused training can lead to high returns for both company and employee. When a company has taken the time and effort to train their employee and has spent money in organising training courses, the employee feels valued.

4)      Empower your team – Empowerment is a key aspect of motivation. By encouraging contribution and input from your employees, you make them feel valued and important; if you then add to this by allowing them to make their own decisions, the results are even more powerful. Start off by delegating tasks you don’t need to accomplish yourself; let them take charge of easier tasks to begin with and as they gain confidence, hand over more important and sensitive tasks.

5)      Recognise their Achievement – It’s important to mention that this recognition does not have to be financial. Yes, money does motivate, but it tends to be a short term motivator. Try simpler – and cheaper – methods such as handwritten notes, verbal recognition in front of peers, or a simple thank you for a job well done; you’ll be amazed at how effective these techniques can be for achieving short and long term motivation.

I could go on for hours about the importance of employee motivation. There’s no doubt that a motivated workforce will always outperform one that isn’t; the above points barely scratch the surface of what you can achieve by applying motivational techniques to your management style; however, they will certainly help you on your way to increasing your team’s output.

What do you think? Do you have any specific techniques you use to motivate your employees?

How many times have you been faced with a situation when a customer is angry and upset with the service they have received and are demanding an explanation, an apology or, god forbid, some form of compensation! I’ve worked in hospitality for most of my working life and have had my fair share of customer complaints to deal with. Luckily for me, one of my first bosses was a great believer in staff training and introduced us to a very simple but effective 5 step process to deal with customer complaints.

These principles are ideal for training new staff members who have to deal with customers on a daily basis; however, it’s also useful for service veterans who are sometimes guilty of forgetting the basics of handling customer complaints effectively.

So without further a-do, here are the 5 steps to effectively handling customer complaints:

1) Listen

Yes, Listen; simple, but very important. You must remember that people who actually take the time to complain are feeling very emotional. Our first objective is to deal with these negative emotions before actually dealing with the complaint itself. Let the person say what they have to say and let off steam; don’t even think about interrupting them!

By taking the time to listen to the complaint you’re demonstrating that their problem is taken seriously and that you understand their frustration. If you listen to the whole story, you reduce the risk of misinterpreting the situation and making matters worse.

2) Sympathise

The customer’s complaint isn’t directed at you, even though it might seem like it. Make sure you don’t take things personally or you’ll just make matters worse.

Your customer isn’t interested in the how’s and why’s of a problem; they just want it fixed! Don’t make excuses. Be sympathetic and you’ll be diffusing the customer’s anger from the very beginning.

3) Ask the Right Questions

Once you’ve managed to calm down the customer, you need to find out the root of the problem. You’ve dealt with the emotions – often the hardest part – but now you have to ask questions and establish the facts of the complaint.

Be careful how you word your questions; asking open ended questions will help to get the customer talking more freely. Try starting questions with How? What? and When? Customers must see that they stand to benefit from answering your questions; the last thing you want is for them to think you’re trying to catch them out and blame them for the problem.

4) Agree a Course of Action

You’re customer is now calm and you’ve found out the route of the problem, now comes the difficult part: What to do about the problem!

First of all, make sure you offer your customer alternative solutions; this is pure psychology. By giving them at least two options, they feel more involved in the outcome. Often, your options will be restricted but if you use phrases like “What if…?” and “How about….?” you make it sound like you are offering them a customised solution.

One key point to remember: Never make a promise that you can’t keep. You’ll just make matters much worse.

5) Make Sure It’s Carried Out

Once you and the customer have agreed a course of action, you cannot leave it at that. You must take ownership of the situation and ensure that what you have agreed is actually carried out. In a larger organisation that might mean involving more team members; however, the ultimate responsibility must lie with you.

So there you have it, 5 simple but highly effective steps for diffusing even the most delicate of customer complaints. Try them out and see how easy it can be to turn a potentially negative experience for your customer into a positive one.

Photo Credit : angusf

Well, I’ve got good news. The other day I came across a very interesting tool that pretty much solves our printing problems. Apart from being extremely useful, this tool is also FREE, which is a welcome bonus! It’s a web based tool called “Print What You Like” and it makes printing web pages easy, cheaper and ecofriendly.

It’s really simple to use. You just go to the Print What You Like Website and enter the URL of the web page you want to print; this will open a control panel on the left side of your browser, which is where you choose the specific options you want for printing the page. Rather than confuse you by trying to explain the process, the best thing for you to do is head over to their website and either watch the video on the home page or click on the “Try the Demo” button for a complete run through of how the tool works.

Once you’ve mastered the tool, you even have the option to download their bookmarklet which adds the PrintWhatYouLike editor to your browser for easy access. I’ve done this and it makes it fantastically simple to print out exactly what I want from a web page; with less damage to the environment and a substantial saving in ink cartridges which my wallet appreciates!

Go on, give it a go, you’ve got nothing to lose as it’s totally free! www.printwhatyoulike.com

So how can modern technologies be used to help entrepreneurs and Small Businesses? Here’s a few suggestions to get you started:

Offer a More Personalised Service and Make it Easy for Customers and Clients to Contact You

Some might argue that the beauty of the internet is that you have access to customers and can actually carry out transactions with them without ever having to see or even speak to them; whilst this is true, we musn’t forget that talking to customers and offering a more personalised level of service can be an important factor in winning new customers and, perhaps more importantly, keeping hold of exixting ones!

Technology has made it possible to have the convenience of an Internet business while still talking and being personal with your customers. Technologies like Skype or Messenger allow you to talk to your customers at the touch of the button; video conferencing software and services allow you to have business meetings or give a business talk; Forums or Message Boards allow customers to ask questions relating to your business. The great news is that you can get access much of this technology at affordable prices and in many cases, for free!

Advertising your business

There are all kinds of new and unique ways to advertise your business online. PPC Ads, online yellow pages, banners, are some of the more “well known” methods but there are more…..and many of them are free. You can submit press releases about new products and services, use Social networking sites like Facebook to reach new customers and potential business partners and you can also submit your websites or blogs to specialised directories making it easier for your target customers to find your business online.

If you are a Small Business Owner or Entrepreneur, you probably can’t afford to pay for an expensive TV commercial? The alternative? How about a small hand help video camera? Nowadays you can find mini pocket cameras with High Definition quality for as little as $150. You’ll find that they are easy to use and will allow you to produce videos and post them to You Tube or one of the many video distribution sites; you only have to invest a little time but the benefits can be substantial. Your videos can help you deliver your marketing message in a more personal way; customers like to put a face to the company they are dealing with. If you are really creative, you may just find your recently uploaded video going viral and allowing you access to whole new base of customers. An example: thousands of blenders have been sold simply because of the popularity of the “Will it Blend” video series – a simple but very clever idea which has given this company exposure that would have cost millions as a TV commercial!

Keeping customers up to date

Having a presence on the Internet will also allow a small business to keep their customers informed about their products and services. They can visit your blog, subscribe to your RSS feeds, or even sign up for your latest webinar or newsletter. With a little work to set these systems up, you can really offer customers a more personal and individual touch every time they log on.

The opportunities available are endless. As a Small Business Owner or Entrepreneur, you just have to keep your ear to the ground and invest a little time and effort in keeping up to date with new technologies and how you can apply them to your business. One of the aims of this blog is to provide you with a regular flow of information that you can easily use to keep at the forefront of your industry, so keep reading…..

Image Credit: cheetah100

Let me explain: I live in Spain – a country which is not known for excelling in Customer Care! – I decided to go to a well know store which specialises in electrical appliances; usually good value for money and OK service. I went straight to the computer department and decided to ask a young guy – who I thought was an attendant – where I could find the adaptors.  It turns out that he actually worked in the warehouse and was just replacing some items. Now, he could easily have told me that he couldn’t help me and that I should find a customer service representative; however, I was pleasantly surprised when he proceeded to escort me and find someone who could help me.

It didn’t take us long to find help (actually we just had to go into the next isle!). The guy from the warehouse explained to his colleague that I was looking for an adaptor – all fine up until then. Just when I thought that I was going to get my hands on the coveted adaptor, my experience went pear shaped. The “Customer” rep just pointed at a spot in the distance (more like the other side of the store) and told me that I could find what I was looking for there!

Please don’t get me wrong, I am not usually fussy about things like this and under normal circumstances I would have just accepted his, less than satisfactory, answer and got on with finding what I was looking for. Funny thing is that the guy from the warehouse actually took me over to where I could find the adaptors! (Brownie points for him!) The problem is that I was now faced with a large display with loads of adaptors for all types of laptops, netbooks, PC’s; you name it they had it!

Imagine this, it’s hot (36ºC) and I’ve just finished a long day at work; I don’t want to have to look at all the options, one by one, and try and decifer which adaptor is compatible with my laptop. Last thing I want is to choose the wrong one and blow up my computer! So what did I do? Quite simple, I walked out of the store and went to their competition (just around the corner) to buy the adaptor!

I know I could have gone back to the guy and asked for more information or even tried to get hold of someone else; the point is, I was upset at the guys attitude and thought that if he couldn’t be bothered to help me, then I would just take my business elsewhere.

What I am trying to get at here is that a simple attitude problem from a “customer Service” rep for this company cost them a client. Ok, so the adaptor was only 60 Euros; however, I like to spend my hard earned salary on precisely the king of merchandise they sell in that store! Will I shop there again? Probably, but not in the near future. I’ll have to wait until I forget about the incident or until the guy in the warehouse gets promoted to the storefront. After all, he offered a much better customer experience than his colleague.

Photo Credit: cdrummbks