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Mastering the Art of Networking

Posted by Cheryl on April 18, 2012 with 0 Comments

Build your business through whom you know and who knows you
“Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning.”
—Bill Gates, founder, Microsoft

Today, networking is much more than meeting and greeting at a luncheon or get-together. Technology has added new ways of connecting with others and has created new challenges for an old art. Despite high-tech advances, however, old-fashioned etiquette rules remain important. Here are some ideas for presenting yourself in a professional, compelling way both in person and online to earn new business and uncover opportunities.

Using Existing Clients to Expand Your Network
Your current clients and prospects are your best source for referrals to others who might need your services. Do not be shy about asking them to help you expand your business. Request contact information for anyone your client wishes to refer to you and reach out to contacts in person whenever possible. Also always leave your business cards with your current clients to hand out to others as you come up in conversation.

Joining Professional Organizations
Your local chamber of commerce and professional organizations associated with your business offer many ways to make yourself known in your industry and geographic area. Attend a breakfast or luncheon meeting and bring along your marketing brochures, business cards and a notebook to jot down information about the new contacts you meet.

Joining Online Business and Social Networks
The line between business and personal lives can easily blur in the online world. When you are networking online, use caution when revealing the details of your life to others. Pay careful attention to the networks you are considering joining and consider the implications to your privacy.

Services are available for helping business people navigate these waters gracefully and professionally.

Services such as www.facebook.com and www.linkedin.com gives you the opportunity to join professional groups appropriate for your type of business. Learn online networking protocol and adhere to community standards. Learn how to properly approach a business proposition lest you appear to others as a “spammer,” which is considered a serious breech of etiquette and trust on many social networks.

Presenting Your Business Card and Offering to Connect
Online social networks offer opportunities to introduce yourself, connect your profile to colleagues and prospects and show your work relationships to others. Some people find it intrusive to be offered a friendship if they have not met you in person; others enjoy having a large network. Carefully study each online network you join and consider with whom you want to connect before choosing a strategy.

You can find services to help you identify sites that make sense for your organization and develop a strategy for maximizing your networking results.

Introducing Yourself and Smiling Electronically
You make an impression online just as you do in person. Show enthusiasm in your introduction. Mention how you are connected to someone and make a special offer, such as an invitation to an upcoming business event, or mention a recent event at which you came into contact. This personalizes the contact and is a polite way to demonstrate you are not canvassing the entire community, but have a real interest in reaching out to that person individually.

Networking 24/7
You are always available online, and you can now network even in your sleep! Potential networking contacts can join your network or sign up for your newsletter, view your website and find your business via search engines. This can increase business and help grow your network. Put attention on your virtual image. How good you look online is as important as how good you look in person. Soon, your network will be wider and deeper than ever before as you create, come across and are offered many opportunities for growing your business exponentially.

Making High Tech, High Touch: Business Communication Has Changed

Posted by Cheryl on March 22, 2012 with 0 Comments

Electronic communication is cold; warming it up is good business

“Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain.”
—J.K. Rowling, British author

Technology has made business communication much easier and more complicated. Email communication is ice cold. No facial expressions, tone of voice or gestures accompany it and add to meaning. All people have are your words and how you use them. Always use them to your advantage.

A colleague told me she sent rejection letters for a recent job opening at her company to all the applicants whom she had interviewed. She intended to send blind copies and insert individual names, but she was distracted by a phone call and sent the letters out with all recipients listed in the “To” field. Several recipients worked at the same company, and two of them were boss and employee. This was a major mistake.

How do you prevent something like this from happening? Here are some primary etiquette tips to remember and pitfalls to avoid when using technology to communicate with your colleagues, clients and prospects.

Business is Business
Many a business contact has a tale or a joke sent to the wrong recipient, or an innocent email sent in jest but taken as a serious offense by the recipient. Save jokes and cartoons—however funny they may seem to you—for in-person delivery at get-together s with friends. A joke you share via interoffice email may end up making the rounds with your signature attached, and it may end up in the inbox of someone who fails to appreciate your type of humor.

The World Is Not Your Office
Inappropriate use of cellular phones is the subject of many woeful tales. A conversation overheard on a public Muni bus in San Francisco can quickly be text-messaged to an office in New York City, complete with a phone-captured videotape of the conversation. Save your business calls for the appropriate business environment and give your clients the privacy they expect and deserve.

Old-Fashioned Service Wins New Business
I was astounded when I called for pricing on a large catering job over the holidays and was instructed to “take a look at the website” and call back. I promptly hung up, surfed the Internet for other options and chose a company that was excited to hear from me and happy to discuss my needs immediately. Always take care of a prospect when they want to discuss doing business.

Respond to Customers Immediately
How does your phone system treat clients and prospects? Call yourself to find out. Do you hear loud beeps and pauses, or strange background noises in your introduction? Do you experience maddening wait times?

Your answering system should allow callers to quickly leave a message or reach their intended party with a minimum of wait time and without having to hear messages they have heard before. Simply state at the beginning of the message “To bypass this message, please press pound.” This way you will not irritate callers who are in a hurry.

Do Not Assume All Clients and Prospects Are Tech-Savvy
Many of your contacts may not have embraced new technology or may not want to do so. Before you start text-messaging clients, replace letters with emails or change in-person meetings for virtual ones, check in with your clients. Ask which methods of contact they prefer and honor their preferences whenever possible. Read More

Filed Under: Business and Professional Etiquette, Business etiquette, Business Protocol, International Protocol, Social Networking, Techno Etiquette

Polishing Your Professional Phone Etiquette

Posted by Cheryl on March 16, 2012 with 0 Comments

What you say and how you say it mean business

“Life is not so short but that there is always time for courtesy.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist and philosopher

Your phone manner is often the first—and may be the most important—impression a prospect or existing client has of you and your business or company. Phone communication can make as much of an impact as in-person contact. It contributes to the tone for the relationship you are building because it projects and builds upon the image others have of your organization. Every business phone call needs to be positive and professional and demonstrate courtesy, respect and organization.

Prepare for the Call Before You Dial
Before you begin dialing, get your paperwork in order and gather any information you may need, such as notes about previous contact with the client, product and service information, price lists and your calendar. Double-check and practice the correct pronunciation of your client’s name.

Decide upon a unique business proposal to present and make a list of points you want to cover during the call. Practice what you want to say and how to say it. You never want to make your prospect or client wonder who you are or why you are calling. Have a pen and paper handy to take notes, so you capture details and follow-up tasks you discuss in the course of the call.

Minimize Distractions

Cell phone calls can be less reliable than a landline, so always use a landline when making calls to clients, especially first-time calls.
Use a phone with a mute button, learn how to use it unobtrusively and use it liberally to minimize distractions and background noises, such as a barking dog or noisy co-workers.
Avoid using a speakerphone and do not multi-task while on the call. This is considered discourteous. The person you are speaking to is worthy of your full attention. A professional call should send a message that you value their time enough to give him or her your full attention.
Turn off caller identification and never ask someone you have called to hold because another “important” call is coming in. Read More

Filed Under: Business and Professional Etiquette, Business etiquette, General Protocol and Etiquette

Leaders Practice Good Business Etiquette

Posted by Cheryl on February 20, 2012 with 0 Comments

Lead so others want to follow, then get out of the way

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
—John Quincy Adams, U.S. President

It is important that leaders model the behavior they wish to cultivate in their employees. Leading an organization to success requires you to guide employees in the direction of civility and teamwork. You must be a master of business etiquette.

Treat Everyone with Courtesy
At a recent training meeting, a technology manager for a top American organization answered his cell phone several times and spoke with business colleagues with no word of apology to the class for the interruptions.

Always focus on the present moment and demonstrate courtesy and grace toward others. This requires you to turn off cell phones and PDAs during meetings. No texting, no tweeting. Give your audience your undivided attention.

Another manager at a Fortune 500 company brings two cell phones to meetings, one to receive messages from work and one for receiving messages from home. During staff meetings, she text-messages to her family underneath the table while admonishing her sales team for making personal calls. Her staff is wise to her cell phone games and finds it distasteful that she sets a different standard for herself than she does for her employees. Is this manager a leader?

You must respect and abide by the same rules as your staff to earn their respect and loyalty. Modeling the behavior you expect from your organization is the easiest and fastest way to lead your business to success.

Respect Commitments
Most of us have been guilty of stealing someone else’s time by being late for a meeting or tardy with an assignment. We must also do our best to honor deadlines and provide advance notice if we find we are going to fall short on a promise. Everyone in an organization must demonstrate consideration and courtesy for other people’s time, and respect and honor commitments.

Praise in Public, Instruct in Private
Your position as a leader requires you to coach and develop staff, and sometimes reprimand employees. Treat your staff with discretion when providing instruction or critical feedback. Never deliver a reprimand or embarrass an employee in public.

Be objective and rely on facts and behaviors, not personalities or generalizations. Give the employee the opportunity to explain reasons for behavior, but do not excuse poor behavior. Explain clearly your expectations and the consequences of noncompliance. Encourage and reward appropriate behavior and focus on what you want, not what you don’t want. Read More

Filed Under: Business and Professional Etiquette, Business etiquette, Business Protocol, Etiquette, General Protocol and Etiquette

The Etiquette of the Deal

Posted by Cheryl on January 31, 2012 with 1 Comments

Closing the deal is the last step in the dance of business

“He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had failed.” —William James, American psychologist and philosopher

Closing business with a client should be smooth, graceful and performed with ease. In most cases, following the steps leading to the sale, listening carefully to your prospect and presenting a compelling, clear, unique business opportunity will result in your coming to a natural place to make a closing bid. Sometimes, your customer may send you a buying signal when you least expect one. Be prepared to skip some of your planned steps if your prospect lets you know he or she has heard enough and is ready to buy.

Some people feel stress when they reach the point in a presentation when it is time to close the sale, even if they have a direct signal from the client. Here are some tips to help you close the deal with charm and grace.

The Art of the Deal
Clients often buy from and stay with a vendor or provider because of the level of service they get, they like the company, or they want to work with a specific person in the company. Find out why your existing clients do business with you and what they like about your products and services. Use this information to create unique selling points and leverage your position with both existing and prospective clients.

Pay attention to what your prospective client tells you about his needs and consider what your product can offer him.
Ask questions.
Listen carefully to what the client says—and does not say—and take notes.
Understand how you can help fulfill your client’s needs and wants.
Address concerns, allay fears and ask for any additional information you need.

Give the Client Time to Make a Decision
Whether you are face-to-face in a social situation like dinner with your prospective client, meeting in one of your offices by appointment or speaking by phone, it is important to follow your prospect’s lead as you move toward closing the sale.

Respect your prospects and clients and do not try to rush them to sign before they are ready. If your prospect has reservations or needs more information, promise to get the needed information to the client as soon as possible and request a follow-up appointment to continue the discussion. This shows your willingness to meet the client’s need for information and your desire to find the right answer.

Some clients need to read and study a proposal before making a decision. Some need to talk and hammer out the details in person with you. Some must become comfortable with a decision before committing. You must respect your client’s decision-making process and accommodate it.

Watch for the Closing Clues
Present the information the client has requested and allow time to process it. Watch for an opportunity to close if your prospect asks something like, “If I sign now, is there a discount?” or “Can I pay with a credit card?”

If the client does not make the move, ask for the business. Make your closing fast and to the point. Use a statement like, “Would you like to sign the contracts now?” or “It seems like [your product or service] would be a good solution for you. Shall I count you in?”

Be ready with contracts and a pen easily accessible, but never pull out a contract in the middle of dinner. Wait until dessert is served. Read More

Filed Under: Business and Professional Etiquette, Business etiquette, Business Protocol, Etiquette