At a networking event this morning, an old business contact came up to me and said "that's really interesting. I was just thinking about HR advisors as I was driving here and now you've turned up so you should be flattered."
I assured him that I was very flattered, but that I didn't actually do HR! Whoops.
I then had to remind him that we did marketing for small businesses and he ended up feeling embarrassed; I ended up feeling embarrassed and he took me to one side afterwards and apologised. I bet that was a great start to his day at 7am this morning.
The moral of this story is that is you don't know who someone is or what someone does, don't guess. Either make polite noises and then look them up when you get back to the office or ask them. If you guess, I'm pretty willing to bed that your guess will be wrong and then you'll be embarrassed as both my contact and I were this morning.
This encounter was memorable for all the wrong reasons! Don't let it happen to you.
Wednesday 20 May 2009
Friday 15 May 2009
There's a new breed out there
Is it just me, or does there seem to be a new breed of people out there – I’m noticing them when I’m driving around. Several times over the last few months, I’ve had people crossing the road when my car is coming quickly towards them.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I certainly have no desire to knock these people over, but they don’t seem to have any regard of other people – only themselves. Have you seen them too?
So, why am I mentoring this new group of people?
Well, these reckless people who only seem to think about themselves seem to be spilling out into the business world too.
You see, over the last six months or so, a new breed of customers has been emerging – these are more demanding; want more for less; take advantage and more importantly they know how to play the game.
And if you don’t know how to deal with these new customers in your business, you’re in trouble. Here’s why.
In 2009, as a small business owner, chances are your instinct is to grab a new customer everytime one comes along. Nothing wrong with this you might think. But these days instead of taking on the right customers, we’re tending to take on everyone no matter who they are, what they want or what they want to pay.
We’re doing this because we have an underlying fear that we might not get customers in the future – “we’d better get them now” – we think. Even if they want loads from us and don’t want to pay for it, they’re still a customer and we should grab them with both hands.
The thing is this new breed of customers know that! They know that you want them no matter what – and they know that they can make unreasonable demands and you’ll say ok.
I was talking to a contact yesterday who told me he’d taken on a nightmare customer who he would have stayed well clear of if things in the economy were ok. And I have people recently who’ve received my free tips and then wanted us to do the actual service for free as well.
So what do you do?
Well, the solution to this one is confidence. Confidence that things in the economy are not as bad as the press are making out. Right now, you need to be strong and recognise that not everyone is a customer for you. If the economy was ok, would you take on this type of customer? Probably not.
Don’t let fear make you panic. There will be other customers.
But what do you do if you either have no choice but to take on this sort of customer or if you’ve taken them on already?
Well, even if you do take on these customers, be strong and don’t let yourself be pushed around. It’s the easiest thing in the world to think that you have to put up with difficult customers because you might lose them.
Not true!
Set some expectations for yourself – decide what is ok for your customers to do and what’s not. Don’t be afraid to push back – tell your customers for instance, that you would be happy to meet their demands…BUT…the price will be going up if they want you to do that.
Don’t worry – you won’t lose them, but I’m willing to bet, they won’t be so confident to demand as much in the future! Remember, we’re very good at being reasonable to our customers, but are you being reasonable to yourself and your business?
Exceptional Thinking provides help and support to small businesses on their marketing and to people starting up in business. For free marketing tips and ideas, please visit http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk and sign up to our newsletter.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I certainly have no desire to knock these people over, but they don’t seem to have any regard of other people – only themselves. Have you seen them too?
So, why am I mentoring this new group of people?
Well, these reckless people who only seem to think about themselves seem to be spilling out into the business world too.
You see, over the last six months or so, a new breed of customers has been emerging – these are more demanding; want more for less; take advantage and more importantly they know how to play the game.
And if you don’t know how to deal with these new customers in your business, you’re in trouble. Here’s why.
In 2009, as a small business owner, chances are your instinct is to grab a new customer everytime one comes along. Nothing wrong with this you might think. But these days instead of taking on the right customers, we’re tending to take on everyone no matter who they are, what they want or what they want to pay.
We’re doing this because we have an underlying fear that we might not get customers in the future – “we’d better get them now” – we think. Even if they want loads from us and don’t want to pay for it, they’re still a customer and we should grab them with both hands.
The thing is this new breed of customers know that! They know that you want them no matter what – and they know that they can make unreasonable demands and you’ll say ok.
I was talking to a contact yesterday who told me he’d taken on a nightmare customer who he would have stayed well clear of if things in the economy were ok. And I have people recently who’ve received my free tips and then wanted us to do the actual service for free as well.
So what do you do?
Well, the solution to this one is confidence. Confidence that things in the economy are not as bad as the press are making out. Right now, you need to be strong and recognise that not everyone is a customer for you. If the economy was ok, would you take on this type of customer? Probably not.
Don’t let fear make you panic. There will be other customers.
But what do you do if you either have no choice but to take on this sort of customer or if you’ve taken them on already?
Well, even if you do take on these customers, be strong and don’t let yourself be pushed around. It’s the easiest thing in the world to think that you have to put up with difficult customers because you might lose them.
Not true!
Set some expectations for yourself – decide what is ok for your customers to do and what’s not. Don’t be afraid to push back – tell your customers for instance, that you would be happy to meet their demands…BUT…the price will be going up if they want you to do that.
Don’t worry – you won’t lose them, but I’m willing to bet, they won’t be so confident to demand as much in the future! Remember, we’re very good at being reasonable to our customers, but are you being reasonable to yourself and your business?
Exceptional Thinking provides help and support to small businesses on their marketing and to people starting up in business. For free marketing tips and ideas, please visit http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk and sign up to our newsletter.
Tuesday 12 May 2009
Why you have to repeat your message
Yesterday, I received an email from a contact of mine. He referred to a promotion I'd been running and asked why I was not keeping the promotion going if it was working so well.
From his email, he'd completely missed the fact that I'd actually been running the promotion for the last two weeks and had reached the deadline I had told everyone about. As such, I needed to end the promotion for that reason.
It made me realise that although we're always told people have to see a message 7-10 times before they register it, this is sooo true.
On hindsight, I should have referred to the promotion in the latest email and said that the deadline had passed and it was ending - because my contact had only noticed this email, it appeared out of context and didn't make sense to him.
So, yes you absolutely need to repeat your message and keep repeating it, but I also learnt a valuable lesson in that I need to refer to the relevant promotion in each communication. It may be the 5th message from me, but it may have only just caught someone's eye and they need to know what I'm talking about too.
From his email, he'd completely missed the fact that I'd actually been running the promotion for the last two weeks and had reached the deadline I had told everyone about. As such, I needed to end the promotion for that reason.
It made me realise that although we're always told people have to see a message 7-10 times before they register it, this is sooo true.
On hindsight, I should have referred to the promotion in the latest email and said that the deadline had passed and it was ending - because my contact had only noticed this email, it appeared out of context and didn't make sense to him.
So, yes you absolutely need to repeat your message and keep repeating it, but I also learnt a valuable lesson in that I need to refer to the relevant promotion in each communication. It may be the 5th message from me, but it may have only just caught someone's eye and they need to know what I'm talking about too.
Wednesday 6 May 2009
Should you accept feedback in your business?
This morning I received an email from a contact of mine. It went something along the lines of “Just listened to your new audio. I have some feedback if you are interested.”
Oh dear, I thought. That doesn’t sound good.
I’m pretty sure that if the feedback was positive, the email would have sounded like another email I got recently – “just listened to the audio. Fab by the way. Can’t wait for parts 2 and 3).”
So, I sat there this morning, having a really good think about whether I wanted to hear this feedback or not.
You see, as small business owners we’re taught that any feedback (good or bad) is a good thing. And bad feedback is actually brilliant news because it helps you to improve.
But, here’s my take on things. I don’t believe that receiving every bit of feedback is helpful or useful to your business.
The reason I say that is this.
I think there are three types of people who give feedback to businesses and that you should generally only be listening to one of them:
Type 1 are people who are genuinely angry and are making a complaint about you or your business. These are the people who you should listen to and go out of your way to sort out. This sort of feedback, while usually not good is definitely worth listening to and doing something about.
Now here are type 2 and 3 which you should be very careful about listening to.
Type 2 are people who want to sell you their own products and services. They will deliberately criticise what you’re doing and tell you that they can do it better for you. Listen to these people at your peril.
And type 3 – well they are just people that like a good moan. Nothing will ever please them and they delight in passing back their negative feedback to make themselves feel better. Of course, they’ll never admit that though!
Why shouldn’t you listen to these people?
Well, for starters if you start releasing things from your business i.e. sending out a newsletter, recording an audio podcast, sending out letters or even just having a website, there will inevitably be people who don’t like what you do.
They won’t like the look of it, think it could have been worded better or believe that it could be done in a different way. No matter how hard you try, it will be impossible to please everyone – all you can do is try your best.
I have one lady who insists on giving me her ‘feedback’ every time I release something new. I think she believes she’s being helpful – and yet, she’ll automatically subscribe to and download everything I do too so I can’t be that bad!
What you have to realise is firstly, you’re being brave enough to put yourself out there and send out newsletters etc. I’m willing to bet that the people who are criticising you haven’t done the same for their business. When they do, by all means pay a bit more attention to what they say, but until then ignore them.
The other thing to remember is this, if you do listen to these people it can very quickly zap your confidence and you begin to question if what you’re doing is right. The best way to avoid this is to ignore people in types two and three and concentrate on doing what you do best: running your business.
And that’s way, I won’t be contacting this person who sent me an email this morning asking if I would like feedback – I’m willing to bet that he’s either a type two or a type three person and I don’t need that kind of (un)helpful ‘feedback’ now or ever eating away at the confidence over what we do.
Positive comments though are always welcome!
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides advice and help to small businesses on their marketing and to people starting up in business.
Oh dear, I thought. That doesn’t sound good.
I’m pretty sure that if the feedback was positive, the email would have sounded like another email I got recently – “just listened to the audio. Fab by the way. Can’t wait for parts 2 and 3).”
So, I sat there this morning, having a really good think about whether I wanted to hear this feedback or not.
You see, as small business owners we’re taught that any feedback (good or bad) is a good thing. And bad feedback is actually brilliant news because it helps you to improve.
But, here’s my take on things. I don’t believe that receiving every bit of feedback is helpful or useful to your business.
The reason I say that is this.
I think there are three types of people who give feedback to businesses and that you should generally only be listening to one of them:
Type 1 are people who are genuinely angry and are making a complaint about you or your business. These are the people who you should listen to and go out of your way to sort out. This sort of feedback, while usually not good is definitely worth listening to and doing something about.
Now here are type 2 and 3 which you should be very careful about listening to.
Type 2 are people who want to sell you their own products and services. They will deliberately criticise what you’re doing and tell you that they can do it better for you. Listen to these people at your peril.
And type 3 – well they are just people that like a good moan. Nothing will ever please them and they delight in passing back their negative feedback to make themselves feel better. Of course, they’ll never admit that though!
Why shouldn’t you listen to these people?
Well, for starters if you start releasing things from your business i.e. sending out a newsletter, recording an audio podcast, sending out letters or even just having a website, there will inevitably be people who don’t like what you do.
They won’t like the look of it, think it could have been worded better or believe that it could be done in a different way. No matter how hard you try, it will be impossible to please everyone – all you can do is try your best.
I have one lady who insists on giving me her ‘feedback’ every time I release something new. I think she believes she’s being helpful – and yet, she’ll automatically subscribe to and download everything I do too so I can’t be that bad!
What you have to realise is firstly, you’re being brave enough to put yourself out there and send out newsletters etc. I’m willing to bet that the people who are criticising you haven’t done the same for their business. When they do, by all means pay a bit more attention to what they say, but until then ignore them.
The other thing to remember is this, if you do listen to these people it can very quickly zap your confidence and you begin to question if what you’re doing is right. The best way to avoid this is to ignore people in types two and three and concentrate on doing what you do best: running your business.
And that’s way, I won’t be contacting this person who sent me an email this morning asking if I would like feedback – I’m willing to bet that he’s either a type two or a type three person and I don’t need that kind of (un)helpful ‘feedback’ now or ever eating away at the confidence over what we do.
Positive comments though are always welcome!
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides advice and help to small businesses on their marketing and to people starting up in business.
Tuesday 5 May 2009
Why being pushy doesn't work for me
Last week I missed a phone call from a company and they left a message asking me to call them back. When I did, the guy on the other end of the phone said to me that they were following up a flyer that they'd sent via email.
I apologised and said I hadn't seen the flyer and could he tell me what it was about. He said that they did PC support and that for a monthly fee they could provide a comprehensive service for me looking after all of our computers. I thanked him for his time, but explained that someone else already offered this service for us and that we were not interested on this occasion.
At that point, he got pushy. He asked how much we were charged - I told him and he said they charged less than that. Again I said that we were very happy with our current supplier. He said did we put customer service over the amount we paid and I said absolutely.
To cut a long story short, this guy absolutely would not give up - to the point where I had to put the phone down on him just to get him to stop.
I'm very sorry but being pushy doesn't work for me. People can hassle all they like, but it actually means that I'm less likely to use that person as a result. I'm happy for people to ask once, but if the answer is no, I feel they should respect this.
I also have another situation going on with a personal trainer too. I used his services a couple of weeks ago but ended up injuring myself and have been advised to rest for two weeks. So, I have cancelled my sessions with him until I have recovered. But, he has been on the phone every day at the moment or emailing me - I know he's trying to be helpful, but there is a fine line between following up with someone and hassling them.
The golden rule seems to be three follow-ups with people. If you're hearing no all of the time, send them a gentle email 6 months down the line to see how they're getting on. That way, you'll get a good reputation as someone who follow-ups up, rather than a bad reputation of someone who hassles!
I apologised and said I hadn't seen the flyer and could he tell me what it was about. He said that they did PC support and that for a monthly fee they could provide a comprehensive service for me looking after all of our computers. I thanked him for his time, but explained that someone else already offered this service for us and that we were not interested on this occasion.
At that point, he got pushy. He asked how much we were charged - I told him and he said they charged less than that. Again I said that we were very happy with our current supplier. He said did we put customer service over the amount we paid and I said absolutely.
To cut a long story short, this guy absolutely would not give up - to the point where I had to put the phone down on him just to get him to stop.
I'm very sorry but being pushy doesn't work for me. People can hassle all they like, but it actually means that I'm less likely to use that person as a result. I'm happy for people to ask once, but if the answer is no, I feel they should respect this.
I also have another situation going on with a personal trainer too. I used his services a couple of weeks ago but ended up injuring myself and have been advised to rest for two weeks. So, I have cancelled my sessions with him until I have recovered. But, he has been on the phone every day at the moment or emailing me - I know he's trying to be helpful, but there is a fine line between following up with someone and hassling them.
The golden rule seems to be three follow-ups with people. If you're hearing no all of the time, send them a gentle email 6 months down the line to see how they're getting on. That way, you'll get a good reputation as someone who follow-ups up, rather than a bad reputation of someone who hassles!
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