Categories
People & Relationships

Motivating the Team as a Team

Legendary stories abound about locker room oratory as 21st Century coaches channel Knute Rockne to rally the players before heading out on the field for the Championship game.

Yet, if you ask many coaches and athletes what the pre-game speech is like prior to most big games you would learn that the talk was rather subdued and matter of fact.

The reason for this is athletes don’t need to get motivated for the championship game, they know what it means to get to that level of success, what the stakes are, and how unlikely it is they will have the opportunity to play at that level ever again.

Often, you find the real motivational talks take place at key moments along the journey to the big game.

The best coaches know when to pull out the motivational talk, when to let the team leaders speak, and when to trust the professionals they hired to motivate themselves.

In 10-years of coaching business leaders it seems that this is probably the number one area they struggle with most trying to maximize motivation from their team of employees.

This leadership communication challenge hovers around what I call the “3 T’s of Leadership Motivational Communication:”

. Texture (what to say)

. Timing (when to say it), and most importantly,

. Tone (how to say it)

Even when the 3 T’s are aligned properly, sometimes its still not enough to deliver the desired results. This is due to other factors in the work environment impacting motivation. Often, there are de-motivators sabotaging the best motivational sessions.

Human motivation is a dicey, sometimes confusing, and always a multi-faceted thing too, many organizational leaders ignore and just keep spewing forth the Rocknesque oratory, with little to show for it in terms of results.

There are six different motivational theories that are always at play in work environments that unless a business leader understands, the confusion and frustration will continue.

About Skip:

Skip Weisman is The Leadership & Workplace Communication Expert. He’s the author of the white paper report titled, “The 7 Deadliest Sins of Leadership & Workplace Communication: How Leaders and Their Employees Unknowingly Undermine Morale, Motivation and Trust in Work Environments.” The white paper is available as a free download for a limited time at www.HowToImproveLeadershipCommunication.com. If you’d like to learn how you can improve your work environment by improving communication contact him directly with any questions, or for a complimentary Strategy Session at 845-463-3838 or e-mail to Skip@WeismanSuccessResources.com

Categories
Sales & Marketing

Small Business Owners Must Also Be Telemarketers

Article Contributed by Adam Shore

Simply mentioning the words “telemarketing”, or “telemarketer” will evoke a negative reaction among most people. Nobody starts their day thinking, “I hope I hear from some telemarketers today”. But the truth is, outbound telemarketing continues to be a great way for companies to generate leads and increase sales. There are a number of myths that accompany the bad taste telemarketing leaves in consumers mouths. Hopefully, we can debunk them, and show how cold calling can help businesses of any size.

Typical goals of an outbound telemarketing campaign can be:

  • Close sales
  • Generate leads
  • Set Appointments
  • Establish strategic partnerships

B2B telemarketing is both fundamental and commonplace in the Corporate America. You shouldn’t think of the telemarketing process as simply placing calls to unexpecting prospects, but rather as a critical component of your company’s revenue growth aspirations. After all, the primary goal of most companies is to attract new customers and increase sales. Cold calling can help see this to fruition. Seek out decision makers and help their business.

Telemarketing Fact and Fiction

1. Not My Job

Sure it is. You may have started a business around personal skills totally unrelated to sales. Maybe it’s web design, baking cookies, or accounting. However, as sales are the most critical component of a business, you must now wear the cold calling hat as well. To sell more cookies, build more websites, or build a client base for your financial practice, you are going to have to generate leads, set appointments, and close new business. You must brush aside your preconceived notions and fear of failure, and perfect the ability to hammer out cold calls.

2. Telemarketing is Another Word for Interrupting Dinner

This couldn’t be further from the truth. Whether your customer base is businesses or consumers, cold calling can help your company seek and obtain strategic partnerships, and expand your company’s horizons at a minimal cost. Most entrepreneurs become successful because they perfect the ability to make the most with what they have and frugally use resources.

Implementation

Once you have begrudgingly decided to take the plunge, here are some tips to help you become successful.

1. Mindset

Think of telemarketing as a powerful way to attract clients. Enthusiasm, or lack thereof, immediately translates over the phone. Think of this as an opportunity to create a great first impression of your business.

2. Be prepared
Understand your target market, the pains they face, and exactly how your product or service can help them. Remember that elevator pitch you practiced in business school? This is the time to use it.

3. Questioning
Your preparation should help you craft questions that can draw prospects out of their shells. By coming across as an authority in your given field, customers will want to hear more from you. Avoid simple yes/no questions that will allow them to escape the call without divulging too much info. Instead, ask open-ended questions that force them to think.

4. Be Honest
Remember that your prospects are people too. Don’t try to put on a disingenuous phone voice, or try to come across as something other than what you are – a small business owner with a solution to your customers’ problems.

5. Have Thick Skin
Not every person you call will be happy to hear from you. Nor will they all see value in the product or service you provide. Understand that everyone is different, and that cold calling truly is a numbers game.

About the Author
Adam Shore works with companies around the world to implement successful outbound telemarketing services. His specialties are lead generation, appointment setting, and inbound order taking.

Categories
Operations

Corporate Relocation

Article Contributed by Danielle

Working for a corporation has introduced me to a culture I didn’t experience while employed with a smaller company, from team building efforts like volunteering for community projects to spirit days that draw upon employees’ creativity. When it came time for our office to change locations, I was happy to assist with necessary research, such as figuring out which moving companies would best suit our needs. Here are some tips that I gleaned during the process, advice that will ideally help you in your move.

I can easily say that our move could have been better organized. While everything arrived in our new offices in a timely fashion, we discovered that all of our chairs ended up in the break room because they hadn’t been labeled with anything besides our suite number. While it wasn’t a huge issue to rally our workforce and roll chairs to their proper locations, it also took time that we could have spent addressing our customers’ needs.

While it would be easy to place blame on the people who were responsible for labeling the chairs, the better plan is to be proactive and offer direction for future moves. It may seem overly detailed to label 50 or 500 chairs with something like “second floor, suite 100, blue conference room next to the women’s bathroom,” the movers will appreciate specificity and it won’t add much, if any, time to the job they’re already doing.

The other problem we experienced when moving was not giving ourselves enough time to get things set up after the move was completed. Luckily, the minor oversight did not affect our business with customers, who knew we were changing locations, but it made for some late evenings when we were already a little stressed from the change to our daily operations. Where we had been able to pack up our old offices at our own pace – some departments were able to start weeks before moving day – we did not have that sort of time in our new space. Tasks that were done and ready for the moving company upon their arrival, such as unhooking computers and labeling cords, were waiting for us when we arrived on Monday. Hooking up our computer system and making sure our network was connected was a production-delaying task that could’ve been lessened with a better system of organization, such as having the IT department work on a weekend when few employees were around.

Our best move – no pun intended – was hosting an open house in our new offices for our customer base. We served light refreshments, happily gave tours of our bigger location and its amenities, and generally aimed to ease any hesitation our clients may have had about our ability to handle their needs so soon after our relocation. The party was also a great chance to pass out our new business cards and introduce personnel who had come on board since our last gathering with clients. Though a few aspects of our move could have gone smoother, we learned from our mistakes and know better what to do next time we change offices.

Categories
Home-Based Business

Is A Virtual Assistant Right for Your Home-Based Business?

Article Contributed by Melanie Cartwell

I’ve had a few friends ask me whether I thought their home-based businesses would benefit from a virtual assistant or live answering service, so I thought it would be worthwhile to write a post that covers my rationale for saying yes or no.

A virtual assistant or answering service can provide the professional phone presence that some small businesses lack, giving them the customer service capabilities that are normally reserved for larger competitors. On the flip side, integrating a service like this into your operation could prove redundant or unnecessary, bogging you down with organizational problems that small businesses should be able to escape.

You have to remember that the goal is to improve your business, not to embarrass the business owner down the street who uses his cell phone as a business line and answers with “Jim speaking.” I know it’s tempting, but business decisions need made with business in mind.

Okay, so how to decide? I would say a virtual assistant is a good fit if:

1. You’re too busy to answer all of your calls, or if talking on the phone eats up a lot of your time

If you’re going through the same processes over and over again, such as scheduling appointments or gathering contact information, these are things that virtual assistants are perfect for. Having someone field your calls will free you up to focus on other aspects of your business.

2. You currently don’t provide a business telephone number or, if you do, all callers automatically reach voicemail

The web enables a lot of businesses to operate without ever talking on the phone, which is nice to an extent, but a lot of people still want to speak with the people they’re doing business with. Furthermore, having a business line and having a real person answer it speaks to the legitimacy of your operation. So if you haven’t set up a business line yet or avoid talking to everyone by sending them to voicemail, a virtual assistant can help you out.

3. If your competitors provide exceptionally good or exceptionally poor customer service experiences

If it’s impossible to reach your direct competitor by phone, having your line answered professionally every time will help you stand out. Conversely, if they have an awesome customer service team that’s available by phone 24-7, then you need to step your game up.

There are certainly other things that could be considered before deciding to go with a virtual receptionist, but these three items are a good starting point. If nothing applies, then you may not find a service beneficial. If you’re questioning whether or not the way you’re doing things is the best, then it may need further exploration.

Do you have something that needs added to this list? A good or bad experience with a virtual assistant? Please share.

About the author:

Melanie Cartwell is an online entrepreneur and blogger. For more information about virtual answering services, check out http://www.continentalmessage.com.

Categories
Newsletter

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