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Guest Bloggers, Uncategorized

Writing with rapport: Being Real

One of the the things I’m keen to do through this blog is explore how to write with rapport. Rapport is a key element of coaching and NLP and I’m looking forward to transferring some of the ideas, principles, practices and techniques from these spheres to the business of writing. (You can read more on rapport and other terms in the glossary on my Coaching Wizardry site.)

Rapport is closely connected to trust – indeed most definitions of rapport include some reference to trust. One of the main differences between them is that rapport can be created (and lost) quickly, whereas trust needs to be built up over time. It is a relationship that we need to keep on testing – putting our weight on if you like – to be sure it will hold.

There are things that we can do, say, and in this context write that will help to build that relationship of trust. All of those things flow however from a prior state of being. (And watch out: if you are writing ‘as if’ you are in that state without actually being there – your writing will sound insincere and you’ll break rapport.) Joseph O’Connor has a list of six ‘ways of being’ that are a concise way of describing how to build trust:

  • Be real
  • Be sincere
  • Be competent
  • Be honest
  • Be congruent
  • Be there

The first one on the list, being real, includes not pretending to be someone you’re not. It’s about being open and honest. Acknowledging that you are not perfect. That’s right – you’re human, just like your reader.

There’s a great example of how to create rapport and build trust by being real at my Business Blog Angel Claire’s site. There are other things going on too of course (sincerity, honesty) but for me this post is all about being real. Yes, she says, it’s a ‘bad idea’ to admit to any business weaknesses in public (and you don’t want to take being real too far – remember being competent is also a key element of trust) – but on a blog we’re amongst friends (the subtext goes). This isn’t the ‘generally speaking’ world, this is the environment of people with a shared set of values, busy people who don’t always keep 100% on top of everything they want to do – but will always go about fixing it, explaining it, communicating the reason, pointing to a long term solution. In so doing keeping us – the readers, the clients – on board, creating rapport and building trust for the longer term. Neat isn’t it? All that from an apology!

One other thing to add – this piece of writing fits within a broader ‘conversation’ on the blog. That provides the environment, the context for her to be real (safely) while the repetition of sincerity, reality, congruence and so on is what builds up trust over the long term. Although you can work to create rapport within one piece of writing (a letter, a web-page, an e-mail) the blog, like a weekly column in a newspaper or magazine, allows you to develop a different sort of relationship with your reader and them to ‘test’ your trustworthiness as a writer (and a person) over a period of time.

Anyway I’m not meaning to over-analyse this one piece – and Claire will be blushing and furious at the attention I’ve given it – it just struck me as a good example of how to create rapport and build trust at just the point I was planning to write about it.

Do let me know as and when you come across other good examples of writing that creates rapport and builds trust – this well help us to build up a picture of the impact you can generate and how to work this into your writing.

The author can be contacted at http://coachingwizardry.typepad.com/confident_writing/

Consultancy

Why Do Small Companies Avoid Strategy?

Companies without a strategic plan have one foot in the grave, whether they know it or not. Yet, very few small and mid-size companies (SMBs) emphasize strategic planning. Why are so many of these companies strategically challenged, strategically averse? 1. Fear of the past. Company leaders may have had nightmarish experiences with strategic planning. Maybe they remember consultants that were brought in and nearly ruined the firm. Maybe they spent weeks in meetings without accomplishing a single thing. Maybe they launched grandiose programs only to have them fizzle out within months. Understandably, they don’t want to repeat a disaster.1. Fear of the past. Company leaders may have had nightmarish experiences with strategic planning. Maybe they remember consultants that were brought in and nearly ruined the firm. Maybe they spent weeks in meetings without accomplishing a single thing. Maybe they launched grandiose programs only to have them fizzle out within months. Understandably, they don’t want to repeat a disaster.

2. Fear of the present. Many SMBs are understaffed and overtaxed. Leadership is simply too busy putting out fires and managing day-to-day activities to focus on long-term thinking. Deep down, they fear that if they divert time to planning, the business will fall apart in the meantime.

3. Fear of the Ivory Tower. SMBs have a practical outlook. Most of the employees are close to the customer, close to the action. This is healthy, but it can make leaders distrustful of theories, systems, generalizations and formulas. Leaders may feel that decisions cannot be trusted unless they are tied directly to personal customer contact. This type of leadership is locked in permanent reactive mode.

4. Fear of the facilitation. Effective strategic planning meetings require great skill to facilitate. Leaders may fear that their meetings, no matter how well intended, will end up as bitch sessions or hours of aimless wandering.

5. Fear of commitment. The problem with strategic planning is that it leads to decisive action. And yes, that can be a problem if leadership likes to hedge its bets, keep lots of balls in the air and keep all options open. It has been my experience that only a handful of companies belong to the “Ready, Aim, Fire!” school. Many more belong to the “Ready, Fire, Aim!” school. But for the vast majority, the mantra is “Ready, Aim, Aim, Aim, Aim…”

6. Fear of the future. Part of why SMBs fear commitment is because the cost of failure is high. Managers of Fortune 500 companies play with house money. For entrepreneurs, one’s livelihood is at stake. A winning strategic plan might help the family build a dream house, but a losing plan might result in no house at all.

All of these fears are legitimate to one extent or another. But it’s important to keep in mind that just about every successful company has a strategic mindset. Next time–how companies can overcome the difficulties and become strategic.

Visit Author Brad Shorr at http://in-sidemarketing.blogspot.com/

Consultancy, Guest Bloggers, Uncategorized, Work Connexions SMO

How to Business Blog Without Being Unprofessional

Writing on your blog is not gossip. While you could get plenty of traffic from your industry by spreading juicy titbits about your competitors and colleagues you will more likely grab yourself a bad reputation rather than more work or industry profile. Language can be an issue. I am not talking about swearing and such, most business people would know better than to drop bad language into a marketing tool. What I mean is tone and sophistication. You have to fit the voice to the audience. Of course I am pretty laid back here on this blog, while there are quite a few CEOs reading they tend to not be the stuffy stiff necked types (I know, I get emails from them!). You have to tune the language you use appropriately.

The best type of posts you can make, particularly in a service industry, is successful case studies.

  • What was their situation like before?
  • What were their goals or problem?
  • How did you work with them?
  • How did everything work out?
  • …

Most clients would be glad of the publicity, you just need to speak to them and get permission. Obviously some will not want specifics mentioning (particularly figures) or even to be named. That’s all fine. What matters is results and that you provide enough detail to be believable.

Talk to your clients about it and you won’t get into trouble. Going behind their backs is when you start getting into the sticky stuff.

The same is true when you want to write about exciting happenings in your own business. I imagine bloggers at Apple and Microsoft have a real hard time keeping mouths shut. There will be policies on what can and can not be talked about. If not, get some. Fast.

Many companies have footers on their emails

  • NOT to be repeated or reproduced
  • OK to email to company
  • OK to email outside company to specified individuals
  • Freely distribute

You can do the same and add a tick box for blogging if freely distribute doesn’t cover that.

Most business niches have news, tactics and events that are safe to blog about. This though is mostly filler. You can get that stuff anywhere. To make it more valuable you need to dig deep and find your hook or angle on it.

The best solution, if you haven’t already got a rich source of content to draw on, is to create some news. Could you run a competition? A survey? Interview some industry figures?

These don’t need to be massive ventures, scale to fit. While one past client of mine had a terrific success year on year with a global survey that was mentioned in television and newspapers around the world, another simply surveyed their own clients and as well as producing an excellent PR story also learned a great deal about what their customers look for and feel.

Bottom line you need to answer the question; “Could this have appeared on a competitors blog with no major changes?“. If the answer is yes you have a bland post and you need to work on it some more.

Just remember you can be interesting without being unprofessional. Focus on your reader. What is useful to them? How have you or your products helped people and businesses just like them?

Most of all, what makes you different to all the other businesses they could go to?

Visit Chris at http://www.chrisg.com/

Guest Bloggers

Branding – An Ongoing Process

Branding is one of the most important issues for any business if it wants to succeed in this field of fierce competition. Branding is a very basic part of the whole marketing strategy of any business.What is a Brand?

A brand can be defined as just a set of associations that are linked to a particular company or an organization or a business group. A brand can definitely mark the corporate identity of any business. It signifies the values of the organization and its leaders. It tells about the quality of the services that are offered by the company to its customers. It tells how the company or the group differs from its competitors. Hence building a good brand image means achieving success in the business.

Fundamentals of Branding:

The branding process starts from the logo design of the organization. Logo, company name and its tag line combines to form a logo design. It is with this combination people identify your business. Hence good amount of money and time should be spent in deciding this combination. This combination should signify the mission, vision, growth plan and the values of the company. It should say how well you are going to serve your customers with your products and services. Good professionals should be used in getting some ideas on this combination. However, the top level management should take the final decision as they know the business better than any body else.

Branding Strategies:
Most of the companies start branding process even before the company starts and this process continues until the company survives in the market place. Normally all the branding campaigns will be decided by the advertising and management departments with a bit of top level management involvement. You should use the budget that has been allocated to the branding campaigns in a very intelligent manner. Never start with a huge budget campaigns unless yours is already a big brand. Spend amount sparingly in all the available advertising mediums and analyze the results from all the different mediums carefully. Have an in depth marketing mix analysis. This will show you what advertising mediums are giving you a better brand image. Then try to spend more amount on those mediums and try to analyze the possible steps you can take to better the brand visibility from the weaker mediums.
Never stop the branding process. It should go on until your business exists in the market place. If not there is a great chance of another company taking over your market share. If you follow these basic steps, it is definite that the brand image of your business will be quite healthy and it in turn brings in the required business for your company’s success.
Visit Graphic Design

About the author:
Vincent Platania
We have a professional team of graphic designers that possess artistic ability and creative thinking for designing eye catching graphic design. Visit Graphic Design

Guest Bloggers

So when was the last time you said ‘Wow!” about the quality of customer service you received?

My guess is you are thinking the exact opposite, especially during the holiday break when UK civilization seems to grind to a complete halt. Perhaps you were fuming at the state of the rail network; perhaps, like me, you are waiting for your dentist to amble back to work; you might even be still be waiting for some ‘internet-enabled’ Christmas presents to be delivered.

You have two alternatives in the face of these broken promises. One is to slump into a Victor Meldrew-like state of resigned desperation and look for an alternative supplier, if you can even be bothered. The other is to consider the glass to be half full, and regard your short-term misery as a new business opportunity.

This is the natural behaviour of the serial entrepreneur. If you solve the problem, as Del Boy Trotter in Only Fools and Horses famously put it, “this time next year we’ll be millionaires”. Of course few of us are going to rush off and buy a rail franchise or become a dentist, but perhaps you might now be considering your own an internet-based business, with reliable delivery. The barrier to entry for this last kind of enterprise is relatively small, and there are plenty of people already doing very successfully in their own niche markets; you might even know one, who can give you some pointers.

What you can definitely all do in 2008 is put the ‘Wow!’ back into your existing businesses, even if you are just an employee. This is the manifesto of the inimitable Paul Dunn, a serially successful entrepreneur based in Australia. Paul has tried to retire several times but cannot seem to stop himself getting involved in new and interesting things. He is much in demand as a speaker, and focuses on getting people and organisations to improve their products and services, so that, at the end of the experience, the customer says “Wow!”

This is far too important to leave just in the hands of your marketing department. However big your company, people do buy from people, and customer service problems typically revolve around poorly trained members of staff, not your carefully thought out business processes. The upside is that all the best ideas for improving your ‘Wow!’ factor will actually come from the same pool of talent.

In small companies (which we define in our Beermat model to be less than thirty employees) there is rarely a problem. The tribal nature of the organisation lends itself to regular social gatherings, where all sorts of crazy ideas are kicked around. The skill is in filtering all these ideas and deciding on the ones that will really make a difference.

In larger companies there is a paradox. A structured organisation requires processes and rules, and these are the natural enemies of innovation. I have run many workshops in large companies instilling ‘the entrepreneurial mindset’, and it is sometimes an uphill struggle. Common complaints from the delegates are “nobody actually listens to us” and “we can’t make a difference”, so the first part of the session involves getting everyone motivated and explaining that good ideas come from anybody and everybody, not just the extroverts, the noisy ones.

We are all creative in different ways; in fact, the best new business ideas often come from the quiet ones in the room, who observe, reflect and consider before making their contribution. The skill in running such a workshop is making sure these people get heard.

When people do come up with plausible ideas, I suggest that they try them first in ‘stealth mode’, backed up by an internal sponsor, a senior person in their company who can cover their back, if necessary. The mantra for entrepreneurship in large companies is “never ask for permission, only ask for forgiveness afterwards”.

Alternatively, you can always take that great idea and run with it yourself; maybe 2008 will indeed be your big year, after all. If you have identified a problem out there, all you need to get started is the passion to solve it, your own ‘Wow!’

I asked Paul Dunn about his own personal “Wow!” It’s ‘Buy One, GIVE One Free’, a simple concept. What if every time a Plasma TV was sold, a blind person got the gift of sight? What if every time a book was sold, a tree was planted? What if every time someone dined out, a hungry kid was fed?

Buy1GIVE1Free – now better known as B1G1 – is actually transforming our world. And you can see precisely how it works by taking a look at http://www.youtube.com/buy1give1free . It’s very inspiring. Or to put it more simply: Wow!

You can find 'Buy One Give One Free' here: http://www.B1G1.com

Uncategorized

Blogs That Sell – 5 Great Business Blogs

In this business and indirect monetization blogging series I have been talking about how you can use blogs to gain attention and generate sales leads. Now we should really take a look at some examples. Here are five great blogs that sell.

english cut: bespoke savile row tailors

Just take a look at this quote.

Because the diary was so full we didn’t get to meet as many new customers as normal. I did think that we wouldn’t take as many orders because of this. However my existing clients kept re-ordering. Thankfully in the end I was busy as ever. I’m very fortunate to now have brilliant people working for me, which makes my average part in the process seem highly skilled. As I’ve said before, you can cut the best suit in the world but if your tailors are poor, then you’ve got no chance.

Read it over again and just be aware of your thoughts as you process what he has written there. In one paragraph he has informed you that

  • His service is in demand
  • But he is humble and real
  • There is scarcity of availability so you had better get your order placed
  • Customers are so happy they come back and back
  • He has some excellent people working with him

That’s just one snippet from one post. Imagine if you had subscribed and read 7 articles, 20, or more.Would you feel nervous ordering a bespoke suit from this guy? If I ever need to wear a suit again I know what suit I would like it to be!

The Dip by Seth Godin

No “great blogs” list is complete without an appearance from The Godin himself so let’s get his entry out of the way early on. Again, see how you can say so much without any hard sell at all …

It’s a Catch-22 of course (you can’t be a hit until you’re a hit). If you’re in an industry with no bestseller list, do your best to create one. The Dip just hit #1 on the CEO READ daily bestseller list, by the way

Let me translate; “Here’s a useful tip and, oh, by the way buy my book cuz it’s dashizzle”.

Jeffrey Zeldman

Most web designers will have heard of Jeffrey Zeldman, or at least “A List Apart”. In terms of designing with web standards this man is a hero. Therefore while he doesn’t explicitly sell, all that authority has got to work wonders for his design outfit, Happy Cog …

Jeffrey is the founder and executive creative director of Happy Cog™, a web design agency with offices in New York City and Philadelphia. Clients include Advertising Age, AIGA, and Amnesty International USA. Happy Cog publishes A List Apart for people who make websites; a book series is in the works.

If your boss wanted some kick ass standards based design, and you were one goof away from being fired, I think you would be very confident recommending this agency.

Guy Kawasaki

Guys blog is an example of what to do when your product is you.

If you read more of my blog, you’ll discover that I love mantras (as opposed to mission statements). My mantra is: Empower entrepreneurs I try to do this three or four times a week with my blog, one hundred times a year with my speeches, two to three times a year with Garage’s checkbook, and once every three years or so by writing a book.

His wisdom, experience and expertise oozes out of every bit and byte. He sells just by, well, being. There is a saying; “Lions don’t need to roar”.

Woot

It’s all well and good showing you blogs that sell intangibles, what about someone who makes money selling real stuff? Ever heard of Woot?

Woot.com is an online store and community that focuses on selling cool stuff cheap. It started as an employee-store slash market-testing type of place for an electronics distributor, but it’s taken on a life of its own. We anticipate profitability by 2043 – by then we should be retired; someone smarter might take over and jack up the prices. Until then, we’re still the lovable scamps we’ve always been.

People sign up to the RSS, they see interesting product, they stampede to buy before the offer goes away. Every day. The copy is irreverent, casual and chatty not aggressive, the design is elegant and fun, the community is buzzing, and the products are interesting. Woot was launched July 12, 2004 and sold its 1,000,000th item, a 4GB micro hard drive, on February 5, 2007.

Over to you

That’s the end of this series for now, though of course I will still be covering these topics every day in one way or another. I want to hear from you. Do you have comments, suggestions, questions, example blogs I have missed, do you disagree, agree, like, dislike, or… well, just let me know in the comments ok?

chrisgarret

Uncategorized

The Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs

Guy Kawasaki writes: “Since I’ve antagonized the venture capital community with last week’s blog, I thought I would complete the picture and “out” entrepreneurs to begin this week. The hard part about writing this blog was narrowing down these lies to ten.” “I get pitched dozens of times every year, and every pitch contains at least three or four of these lies. I provide them not because I believe I can increase the level of honesty of entrepreneurs as much as to help entrepreneurs come up with new lies. At least new lies indicate a modicum of creativity!”

  1. “Our projections are conservative.” An entrepreneur’s projections are never conservative. If they were, they would be $0. I have never seen an entrepreneur achieve even her most conservative projections. Generally, an entrepreneur has no idea what sales will be, so she guesses: “Too little will make my deal uninteresting; too big, and I’ll look hallucinogenic.” The result is that everyone’s projections are $50 million in year four. As a rule of thumb, when I see a projection, I add one year to delivery time and multiply by .1.
  2. “(Big name research firm) says our market will be $50 billion in 2010.” Every entrepreneur has a few slides about how the market potential for his segment is tens of billions. It doesn’t matter if the product is bar mitzah planning software or 802.11 chip sets. Venture capitalists don’t believe this type of forecast because it’s the fifth one of this magnitude that they’ve heard that day. Entrepreneurs would do themselves a favor by simply removing any reference to market size estimates from consulting firms.
  3. “(Big name company) is going to sign our purchase order next week.” This is the “I heard I have to show traction at a conference” lie of entrepreneurs. The funny thing is that next week, the purchase order still isn’t signed. Nor the week after. The decision maker gets laid off, the CEO gets fired, there’s a natural disaster, whatever. The only way to play this card if AFTER the purchase order is signed because no investor whose money you’d want will fall for this one.
  4. “Key employees are set to join us as soon as we get funded.” More often than not when a venture capitalist calls these key employees who are VPs are Microsoft, Oracle, and Sun, he gets the following response, “Who said that? I recall meeting him at a Churchill Club meeting, but I certainly didn’t say I would leave my cush $250,000/year job at Adobe to join his startup.” If it’s true that key employees are ready to rock and roll, have them call the venture capitalist after the meeting and testify to this effect.
  5. “No one is doing what we’re doing.” This is a bummer of a lie because there are only two logical conclusions. First, no one else is doing this because there is no market for it. Second, the entrepreneur is so clueless that he can’t even use Google to figure out he has competition. Suffice it to say that the lack of a market and cluelessness is not conducive to securing an investment. As a rule of thumb, if you have a good idea, five companies are going the same thing. If you have a great idea, fifteen companies are doing the same thing.
  6. “No one can do what we’re doing.” If there’s anything worse than the lack of a market and cluelessness, it’s arrogance. No one else can do this until the first company does it, and ten others spring up in the next ninety days. Let’s see, no one else ran a sub four-minute mile after Roger Bannister. (It took only a month before John Landy did). The world is a big place. There are lots of smart people in it. Entrepreneurs are kidding themselves if they think they have any kind of monopoly on knowledge. And, sure as I’m a Macintosh user, on the same day that an entrepreneur tells this lie, the venture capitalist will have met with another company that’s doing the same thing.
  7. “Hurry because several other venture capital firms are interested.” The good news: There are maybe one hundred entrepreneurs in the world who can make this claim. The bad news: The fact that you are reading a blog about venture capital means you’re not one of them. As my mother used to say, “Never play Russian roulette with an Uzi.” For the absolute cream of the crop, there is competition for a deal, and an entrepreneur can scare other investors to make a decision. For the rest of us, don’t think one can create a sense of scarcity when it’s not true. Re-read the previous blog about the lies of venture capitalists, to learn how entrepreneurs are hearing “maybe” when venture capitalists are saying “no.”
  8. “Oracle is too big/dumb/slow to be a threat.” Larry Ellison has his own jet. He can keep the San Jose Airport open for his late night landings. His boat is so big that it can barely get under the Golden Gate Bridge. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs are flying on Southwest out of Oakland and stealing the free peanuts. There’s a reason why Larry is where he is, and entrepreneurs are where they are, and it’s not that he’s big, dumb, and slow. Competing with Oracle, Microsoft, and other large companies is a very difficult task. Entrepreneurs who utter this lie look at best naive. You think it’s bravado, but venture capitalists think it’s stupidity.
  9. “We have a proven management team.” Says who? Because the founder worked at Morgan Stanley for a summer? Or McKinsey for two years? Or he made sure that John Sculley’s Macintosh could power on? Truly “proven” in a venture capitalist’s eyes is founder of a company that returned billions to its investors. But if the entrepreneur were that proven, that he (a) probably wouldn’t have to ask for money; (b) wouldn’t be claiming that he’s proven. (Do you think Wayne Gretzky went around saying, “I am a good hockey player”?) A better strategy is for the entrepreneur to state that (a) she has relevant industry experience; (b) she is going to do whatever it takes to succeed; (c) she is going to surround herself with directors and advisors who are proven; and (d) she’ll step aside whenever it becomes necessary. This is good enough for a venture capitalist that believes in what the entrepreneur is doing.
  10. “Patents make our product defensible.” The optimal number of times to use the P word in a presentation is one. Just once, say, “We have filed patents for what we are doing.” Done. The second time you say it, venture capitalists begin to suspect that you are depending too much on patents for defensibility. The third time you say it, you are holding a sign above your head that says, “I am clueless.” Sure, you should patent what you’re doing–if for no other reason than to say it once in your presentation. But at the end of the patents are mostly good for impressing your parents. You won’t have the time or money to sue anyone with a pocket deep enough to be worth suing.
  11. “All we have to do is get 1% of the market.” (Here’s a bonus since I still have battery power.) This lie is the flip side of “the market will be $50 billion.” There are two problems with this lie. First, no venture capitalist is interested in a company that is looking to get 1% or so of a market. Frankly, we want our companies to face the wrath of the anti-trust division of the Department of Justice. Second, it’s also not that easy to get 1% of any market, so you look silly pretending that it is. Generally, it’s much better for entrepreneurs to show a realistic appreciation of the difficulty of building a successful company.

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