One day I went to HSBC to interview my customers and their non-native English speaking colleagues. I wanted to understand their communication case better and get greater insight into Anglophone and non-Anglophone interactions.

During one interview, I was amazed at how eloquently one individual, Mr. Boyer, clearly expressed the essence of Sustainable English:

“An environment is friendly when everyone understands the stakes, objectives, and viewpoints of others.”

As I was preparing my program and notes, I had originally defined it as:

An environment that is friendly towards non-native speakers – it consists of clear English, collaboration, and focus on mutual understanding.

Mr. Boyer expressed exactly what the communication-friendly environment has to offer, when it is implemented and fully operational.

Every native English speaker has the potential and ability to create his/her own personalized environment to accommodate non-native speakers.

Less frustration. More success.

But only a handful of professionals can clearly pinpoint where their referrals come from and the exact process they use to turn them into paying clients.

Amazingly – when it comes to referral marketing – majority of entrepreneurs seem to rely on luck! Ouch – this is not exactly the best formula for business success!

When asked about how they turn referrals into clients, most professionals have a deer-caught-in-the-headlights, puzzled look on their faces and keep quiet.

The First Two Key Success Factors of Referral Marketing

Those who truly can sleep peacefully at night knowing their referral generating process is working with the predictable precision of a Swiss banking system understand the power of using FREQUENCY of EXPOSURE.

To best illustrate this, let’s look at how two consultants handle their referrals.

At first glance John and Steve have virtually identical Businesses:

But there is a difference…

How Is John Getting 5 Times More Referrals?

John gets almost five times as many referrals as Steve, and he turns an astounding 95% of them into new clients.

How, you ask? See if you can spot a difference…

Steve’s name occasionally pops up in conversations his clients have with their business associates. Since he does a good job people are often intrigued by the results he creates for his clients. They ask for his contact info and call him to inquire about his services.

Those calls typically lead to an appointment.

But in terms of frequency of exposure Steve’s potential clients might hear his marketing message only twice before the meeting: when they initially get his information from a colleague, and again during the initial phone conversation.

Here Is What John Does Differently:

At first glance, John’s situation isn’t much different. His name comes up in conversations where he’s praised for his great work. His contact information is passed on, and he too gets an inquiring phone call leading to an appointment with a prospective client.

But that’s pretty much where the similarity ends.

Immediately after the call, John sends out a hand-written card saying “thank you for interest in my services. I’m looking forward to our meeting.”

John makes an additional smart move – he sends another hand -written thank-you card and a small gift (like a Starbucks gift card) to the person who gave him the referral.

He does it because he understands the best way to develop a habit is to reward it in the first place (remember Pavlov’s dog experiment?) so he tries to make his referral sources feel good about mentioning his name. And it works – they talk about him more often!

The following day, John sends out a small package with POSITIONING MATERIALS: a welcome letter, an article relevant to prospect’s situation, his short self-published book, and an audio CD.

This allows the potential client to “sample” John’s expertise on the subject. It also builds trust, increases prospect’s appetite for his services, and position him as an authority. Now he’ll be treated as a trusted adviser and not just another salesman trying to close a deal.

Incidentally, John knows that many of his best prospects won’t have time to fully review those materials. He also knows it really doesn’t matter. All he wants is to see his stuff” sitting on prospect’s desk when he walks into their office.

But he’s still not done. A couple of days before the scheduled meeting he calls his potential client to briefly confirm the meeting objectives, time and place.

After the meeting, John immediately sends out another handwritten “pleasure meeting you/thank you” card.

Higher Frequency Leads to Greater Familiarity

Visibility equals credibility. And frequency translates into familiarity. Don’t believe me? Just ask yourself how many people you “feel like you know” because you see them or hear from (about) them frequently… Point made!

So let’s now review how many times John’s referrals are exposed to his marketing message:

1. When they first are referred to him in a conversation with a business colleague.

2. When they call him to inquire about his services.

3. When they get his handwritten “looking forward to meeting you” card.

4. When they get his Positioning Packet. (And again when they make time to look through the materials he sends out)

5. When he makes the reminder call two days before the meeting.

6. During the first meeting.

Notice, that at this point prospect has been exposed to John’s marketing message five times – comparing to only  two times in Steve’s process. That’s a 150% increase in frequency of exposure!

7. When they get the handwritten “thank you” card after the meeting.

Now, that they “know” John so well, they TUST him enough to start doing business with him. (Can you say KA-CHING!)

Plus, sending a thank-you card and a small gift to the referral source proves helpful as well. Motivated by his small gesture of appreciation, John’s referral sources now take a more active part in the process, inquire about how things are going, and frequently offer additional help.

Clear Expectations and Education Lead to More Referrals

There is one other thing that separates John from Steve.

Hi understands that his clients want to give him referrals but often don’t know how to do this. So he takes the time to educate them and makes it easy for them to “give him away as a gift”!

Say what?!

He hands each new client a sample of a great Attraction Tool (most likely an audio program or a book), and informs them that he’ll gladly send this Attraction Tool to any of his new client’s business associates at absolutely no cost and no obligation – all they have to do is ask for it.

He might even hand the new client a few postcards promoting the Attraction Tool and encourage him to send it to their associates.

Why bother? Because by sharing this information John’s new clients are actually helping their colleagues. And it’s easier and less awkward to send out a postcard and to share a resource, than to hand over names of business friends.

All this increases the chances of John’s name coming up in many casual conversations.

Here Is the Final Key Success Factor to Referral Success

I can already hear you whining, “but that’s too much work, I can’t do that in my business”, etc., etc. And you are right – but consider the upside: getting more clients!

And the key is to SYSTEMIZE, AUTOMATE, and DELEGATE.

Do you have to do this? Hey, it’s your business – you don’t have to do anything you don’t want!

But the fact is – frequency builds familiarity. Familiarity builds trust. And we all do business with people we know, like and trust.

So you decide if getting more referrals and turning them into paying clients is worth adding a few easy steps to your marketing system.

—————————————————-
The author, Adam Urbanski, teaches service professionals and business owners how to develop better marketing strategies to increase sales and profits. His http://www.themarketingmentors.com

Some entrepreneurs attempt to reduce risk by hiring family
or friends-which in most cases proves to be the worst
hiring mistake of all.  It is difficult for most people to
accept the relationship transition from family member to
employee.  Most often, those friendships will end in
resentment and disappointment.  When a veteran small
business owner tells you, “Never hire family!” you can bet
he’s learned the hard way.

With a little skill and guidance, small business owners can
learn much about potential candidates by understanding
resumes.  When reading resumes, there are three great
things to look for-and two traps to watch out for.

When reading a resume, the three things to look for are:

1.  Industry experience

You’ll make shortcuts in new employee training if your new
hire has previous experience in your industry.  You will
see a faster return on investment with your new employee
when he or she already understands what your customers
want.  Prior industry experience also means he or she may
have a business following that will result in added revenue
for your business.

2.  Transferable skills

Very often transferable skills are as critical as industry
experience.  Skills such as customer service, problem
solving, sales and/or crisis management are valuable in
almost every industry.  Before interviewing candidates,
make sure you understand the five most important
transferable skills needed for the position you are hiring.
Keep those skills in mind when reviewing resumes.
Candidates whose resumes showcase those skills should be
considered whether they have industry experience or not.
An industry can be learned, but great customer service or
superb selling skills can only be acquired with time and
experience.

3.  Accomplishments

When reading through resumes, look for applicants who write
about their accomplishments.  These are candidates who
understand the bottom-line initiatives of an organization.
A resume that mentions saving time, cutting costs, and
solving customer disputes represents someone who can handle
your problems as well.

On the flip side, when reading resumes watch out for these
two traps:

1.  Unstable work history

Pay attention to the dates on a resume.  While the life
expectancy of a job isn’t what it was a generation ago, a
string of short-term positions should be a concern.
Candidates with too many jobs in too short of a time
usually have excuses for all of them-sometimes even great
excuses.  But good excuses aren’t the same thing as good
reasons.  If you see a consistent pattern of instability,
beware!  This may be a candidate who (1) doesn’t get along
with authority; (2) loses interest in his job after time;
or (3) is just plain inept.  Beware also of unexplained
gaps in employment, which may indicate even more serious
problems.

2.  Unfocused career path

While it’s quite normal for one’s career path to shift,
candidates whose resumes show opposing career directions
may indicate uncertainty about their career path.  Look out
for candidates who have held contrasting positions like
“sales” and “accounting,” or “account manager” and
“librarian.”  This may be a candidate who doesn’t know what
he wants in his career.  After working for you as customer
service rep, he may decide he really wants to be a dog
groomer!

With practice you’ll gain expertise at reading between the
lines of a resume.  Remember the three great things to look
for and the two traps to avoid, and you’ll save yourself
valuable time, money and effort in hiring new employees.

—————————————————-
Deborah Walker, Small Business Coach helps entrepreneurs
navigate the hiring maze with tips and suggestions on how
to recruit, interview and hire the best employees.  Her
veteran experience as a former executive recruiter gives
her the unique perspective to help you avoid the pitfalls
of bad hiring decisions.  Learn how Deborah can help your
business at:
http://www.RevenueQueen.com

Achieving 2,000 percent solutions is a good example of this
tendency.  While hundreds of organizations routinely
develop and implement such solutions every day, the
majority of businesses, nonprofit organizations, and
governments continue to focus on how to make 4, 5, or 6
percent improvements.  With the same time, effort, and
resources, these people could be accomplishing hundreds of
times more!

What is a 2,000 percent solution?  It’s any way of
accomplishing 20 times more with the same time, effort, and
resources.  Why would you shoot for less?

Here’s an example:  A best selling business book will
usually be read in part by fewer than 10,000 people.  Chop
the book up instead into essays and provide those essays
for free over the Internet, and you will soon have over
500,000 readers.  The time, effort, and expense of putting
up those essays will be less than finding an agent for a
book.  Lead those essay readers to your Web site and you’ll
sell more books than a best selling business book, and
you’ll earn more profit because you won’t have to split the
revenues with a publisher.

Disbelief: Limited Imagination and Blind Spots

The disbelief stall (a bad habit that delays improvements)
is based on a valid experience, lack of relevant
experience, or a previously established circumstance that
no longer pertains. The bigger the new idea, the more
likely it will boggle the minds of those involved.

Consider this: Over a hundred years ago, Alexander Graham
Bell supposedly offered his fledgling telephone business to
Western Union for $100,000. Western Union reportedly turned
him down cold, perceiving the telephone as an electrical
toy with a limited future. Bell himself initially saw the
telephone as limited to use as a substitute for town
criers. Householders wondered, “Why get a telephone when I
can step outside and talk to my neighbor over the back
fence?” The airplane, radio, computers, and the photocopier
were greatly underestimated in similar ways before becoming
the foundations for major industries. Major breakthroughs
change the possibilities of how we can lead our lives, and
we are slow to see that undeveloped potential.

STALL ERASERS

Creative People with Different Viewpoints

In checking out new information, technology, and
techniques, seek the help of people who enjoy creating new
solutions. You may find these open-minded people among
suppliers, new employees, customers, and outside experts,
including academics. If you don’t have enough such people
to draw on, expand your circle of acquaintances.

In the same way that no two people have identical kinds of
curiosity and imagination, organizations likewise differ in
how they look at potential new solutions. You can easily
imagine that Intel, Microsoft, IBM, General Electric, and
Disney would take quite different approaches to addressing
the same opportunity. You should examine your
organization’s personality and orientation to consider how
your perspective can be expanded in useful ways, perhaps by
adding new partners and new competencies.

Positive Thinking Starts the Exponential Progress Engine

To overcome the disbelief stall, you need a positive
outlook. You have to believe that wonderful results are
just around the corner, if only you keep looking for
improvements.

Ask yourself a positive question about any possibility you
consider. For instance, imagine that you are being asked to
use a computer in a totally different and more difficult
way for the first time. Instead of fighting this new
assignment, ask yourself how the task could help you get
home sooner every night. A manager recently had a good
experience from opening himself up to this opportunity. An
IT expert noticed that the manager didn’t know how to do a
mail merge, a way to produce custom documents for many
people on a list. At first, the manager resented the few
minutes of unexpected training. But that attitude soon
changed after many monotonous tasks were accomplished 20
times faster.

At the same time, it’s even more helpful to adopt new
beliefs that open the doors to possibility. A good example
is that many people will never read this article because
they think it’s far-fetched to find even one 2,000 percent
solution. A better belief to hold is that untapped 2,000
percent solutions abound in your most important opportunity
areas.

Other helpful attitudes include:

• Seeing roadblocks as opportunities in disguise

• Feeling that all events occur to help you improve

• Believing that large changes can be made quickly to
create positive results

• Being convinced that new technology can easily remove old
limitations

• Believing that high goals are more fun to pursue

STALLBUSTERS

Locate Blind Spots

The more often you hear about something, the more likely
the new thing is to be relevant to your organization. It
helps to seek out the new to speed up the process of
appreciating what’s going on. To help identify your
organization’s blind spots, ask yourself the following
questions:

• What complaints are customers making that you’ve chosen
to downplay?

• What things are your competitors doing that you have
decided to ignore?

• What things are the communities you do business in
talking about that you have ignored so far?

• What negative feedback have you been receiving from
employees for at least two years?

• What perceptions about your organization and industry are
you not addressing?

Evaluate the Implications of the Blind Spots

Ask yourself these questions about your blind spots:

• Which blind spots are in areas where your organization’s
actions can improve or worsen your situation?

• What actions are needed to gain the most benefit or avoid
the most harm?

• When are actions needed to be most effective?

• What is the minimum evidence you need to know that
immediate action is      needed?

Copyright 2007 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved

—————————————————-
Donald Mitchell is chairman of Mitchell and Company, a
strategy and financial consulting firm in Weston, MA. He is
coauthor of six books including The 2,000 Percent Squared
Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, and The 2,000 Percent
Solution Workbook. Free advice on accomplishing 20 times
more is available to you by registering at
=====>  http://www.2000percentsolution.com .

Since I’ve been coaching other entrepreneurs on building
their own successful, sustainable businesses, I’ve seen
this same syndrome dozens if not hundreds of times.
Sometimes it’s a question of, “Will I really be able to
handle the success?” or “If I am so abundant and
successful, then I’m taking away from others.” Of course,
neither of these is true. First,  you are always set up to
put systems in place that will embrace your growth rather
than stunt it and second, the more successful you are, then
the more success there is for others.  There is nothing
spiritual, kind, or gracious about holding yourself back
because when you do, you are actually holding others back
as well. When you hold back your gifts, you rob the world.
Your gifts are not for you alone. When you truly use your
talents to serve others, then you are truly living your
purpose and when you profit from this-even better; you have
more to give and the success cycle fuels itself. See?

Now that we have that straight, let’s go to the deeper form
of sabotage I’ve seen in others and myself: waiting for
someone else to do it for you. That same question of, “Who
do I think I am?” can be pretty sly and sneaky by fooling
us into believing we aren’t capable, which shows itself as,
“I don’t know enough,” or “If I do this and succeed, then
people will see that I’m actually capable and no one will
take care of me. I’ll always have to do everything by
myself.” Yikes. This is also cutting off your purpose and,
I can pretty much bet on it, stunting your profit.

This is what I call the Lana Turner myth. Lana Turner was
an incredible, academy award-winning actress who passed
away in 1995. The story is she skipped one of her high
school classes at Hollywood High and was then discovered by
a talent agent at the local drugstore as she sat there
sipping her soda and the rest is history. Now parts of this
story are true, but what’s also true is  no one is going to
come along and produce you (just hand you all of your
business success)! Now really ask yourself, would you
actually want that to happen? Where’s your opportunity to
become authentically powerful? The part of the Lana Turner
story that isn’t talked about is the energy she put into
her career to sustain and take care of it. It’s time for
you to produce yourself.

So what do you do?

If you really want to set your business up to shine;
however, find yourself looking to others to do it for you,
the first step I highly recommend is stop doing what you’ve
always done. That’s right. This is the golden rule. Invest
your resources in getting some major accountability around
moving out of your comfort zone (or as someone just
recently said to me, “the soup that has you stuck”) and you
will begin to connect with your own code of greatness.
Whatever belief you’ve had up until now will begin to shift
to what your true code is: magnificence. I have met many
entrepreneurs who have what they want for themselves in
their businesses; however, I’ve met hundreds who believe
they can’t and will spend a lot of time telling me why.
(Hint: it usually has to do with blaming something or
someone external instead of looking at what they could do
differently.) Instead, they believe they must settle, pay a
price, or try to figure out what the market wants. Start
focusing on producing the magnificence in you and the rest
(marketing, getting clients, etc.) will start to take care
of itself.

Call-to-Action:

Get honest with yourself. Are you waiting for someone else
to take care of your success?

Ask yourself, “What is my current business code?”

Now, what needs to happen for you to embrace that your true
code is one of magnificence? What would that look like? How
can you invest in yourself to support this?

Begin to be in your business what you are truly meant to
be. (Remember, when you shine, others are given permission
to do the same.)

—————————————————-
Heather Dominick, Solo-Entrepreneur Expert, has over 10
years of teaching and coaching experience. Heather’s
primary focus is in coaching entrepreneurs to identify
sources for increasing business profit and making
successful business changes. To sign up to receive your
free business building e-course go here now
http://www.energyrichcoach.com

All potent enough motivators, for sure.

What’s interesting to notice is whether your motivation is going toward or going away energy. That’s because when we are motivated away from something, the results we get tend to be erratic; when we are motivated toward, we get consistent, escalating results. Let me explain with two examples:

Leandra Leandra doesn’t like marketing and self-promotion, but she has to bring in a certain amount of money each month from her private therapeutic practice for teens. So each month, she trudges off to networking meetings and puts up a new article on her website. Some months, she gets a lot of response; other months, nary a call.

This is an example of away-motivated marketing. Leandra markets only to stave off the financial wolf at the door.

What gets forgotten in her marketing equation is how much she LOVES counseling teens. She’s marketing because she needs the money. Imagine how different her results might be if Leandra’s marketing was going toward her passion for working with teens.

Frank Frank has an accounting background; he started his career in a large accounting firm and then worked for several large corporations. He’s now a coach who works with self-employed people who aren’t comfortable with finances. It was a no-brainer, he thought, to leverage his experience in accounting when defining his niche.

His first year as a coach was quite successful. But thisyear, he’s been putting off his marketing tasks. Seems like everything is such a chore: organizing teleclasses, putting out a consistent newsletter, following up leads. Naturally, his business is not thriving; it’s not down the drain, but it pokes along rather than races, like it did his first year.

The problem is that Frank really wants to be coaching people considering leaving the corporate world to develop work they find more meaningful. His marketing got great results his first year out, because it was new and exciting to be out on his own. But marketing to his self-employed niche has become a “should”-one of the key signs of going away motivation.

Finding yourself engaging in a “should” or “must” or “have to” is a big clue that you may be engaging in the less reliable going away motivation. Think about it…is it any fun at all to do something because you “should?” Yuck!

A couple of other clues to going away motivation:

1. Using negations. I market my practice because I don’t want to lose clients. (What DO you want?)
2. Comparing. I market my practice because if I do, I’ll have more money and a better life. (This is a little trickier. Notice that by comparing, the focus is on what you don’t have right now, not on what you want.)

Going toward motivation is all about getting clear on what we want and then putting our marketing muscle behind that.

So…what do YOU want?

—————————————————-
Linda Puig is a newsletter marketing expert, a writer with nearly 30 years’ professional experience and president of Claire Communications, which provides high-quality, low-cost articles to busy professionals who don’t have the time or inclination to write articles. http://www.articlesforsale.net

How to define Brute Force management? It’s the “just keep
working harder, working longer, and working smarter and
everything will be OK.”

It’s the “just do what I tell you to do when I tell you to
do it.”

I had a Brute Force  boss whose standard answer to “What’s
the most important thing?” was “Everything’s the most
important thing.” We were in a crisis mode and there was a
lot to get done, but what that “Everything is important”
direction led to was a lot of counterproductive behavior
-.do what you’re told to do, and then ask “What’s next?”
After a year of that no leverage management style he was
fired – but not until some very good people had left the
organization.

Managers that take the “everything is Number 1″ approach
are often rewarded for being tough, no nonsense, aggressive
problem solvers. The fact that they created many of the
problems they then solved seems to go unnoticed. Instead of
leadership, they use the  brute force approach to getting
things done. That often works in a crisis situation, but
when everything becomes a crisis, those managers lose their
effectiveness and their people become cynical about how
they are treated. Brute force managers rarely have goals
they share with people, and even more rarely do they have
their people participate in any meaningful way in setting
goals and priorities. To many of them, sharing information
and open communication are threats to their control. Many
of them are quite happy with a compliance level workforce -
the “Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it” people. There
is no leverage in the Brute Force management style.

How do effective leaders create priorities that maximize
their own effectiveness and the effectiveness of their
organization?

They start with a clear understanding of what the three to
five most important things are, both personally and
professionally. This is tough – there are always many more
issues vying for attention than there are resources
available to address them. The leader makes the tough
decisions – the Brute Force manager doesn’t.

Then the leader enlists people in the areas of importance
to help arrive at ways to succeed in meeting the most
important requirements.

Then the leader creates and communicates and negotiates
goals that support the most important three to five issues,
or challenges, or opportunities.

The goals are used to create supporting goals, expectations
and understandings of importance in the universe of people
that can contribute to meeting the goal.

Then leaders act – and expect action from their people.

Leaders protect their own time, and the time of their
people, so that maximum focus can be kept on the critical
few, and not frittered away on the unimportant many.

And then leaders evaluate, change if change is necessary,
and continue to use the process as the basis for action
throughout their organization.

And they insist that this process be kept as simple as
possible – minimum bureaucracy here. Don’t wait for an
enterprise wide software system to capture all the data and
sign ups and goal statements. More good goal setting
systems have drowned of their own administrative weight
than for any other reason. Leaders fight that. Leaders know
the critical intersection in goal setting and prioritizing
is at the person to person level – not at the form
completion and submission point.

And the resulting action they get is so different from the
“Tell me what to do and I’ll do it” people. Lots of
leverage in a shared goal environment – on both a personal
and work level.

Leaders know most people want to help, want to contribute,
want to be involved in a worthy enterprise, want to be
recognized for their contribution. Leaders also know most
people work best and most effectively where they have
structure and an understanding of what needs to be done.
Once they have that, great things start to happen! The
people doing the work no longer have to say “Just tell me
what to do and I’ll do it” – they know the priorities and
what is most important. They can use the freedom that
knowledge provides to keep their eyes on the few big balls
- and not be distracted by all the little balls that will
always bounce around and take up all the time people will
let them take up.

Leaders also know there are times when brute force may be
the only appropriate tactic – a public safety health
product recall, a natural disaster, a systems failure, a
fire – all call for everybody pitching in to get things
done – whatever that means. But leaders know the brute
force tactic is the exception to the rule, and is only used
when absolutely necessary. And their people know it – and
rather than take it as just another in a long line of fire
drills, they pitch in and know their efforts will be part
of a worthy enterprise’s efforts to succeed. The result is
maximum leverage when needed.

If you work or live in an “Everything is important”
situation, be careful of burning out. If you can take what
leaders do and apply it to your work and your personal
situation two things will happen – you’ll have more time
for the really important things, and your personal and
professional success will increase – I guarantee it.

And on those brute force days, or weeks, keep the leader’s
model of goals to priorities firmly in your sights – and
get back to it as soon as possible. Start today.

—————————————————-
Andy Cox founded Cox Consulting Group in 1995 after
extensive experience in leadership positions in Fortune 500
corporations. His focus is on helping clients select,
develop, retain and enhance the performance of leaders and
emerging leaders Click on http://www.coxconsultgroup.com
for more information on the selection of the right people
for the right jobs.

Beware of 100% pay for performance arrangements. Don’t give
in to the NO RISK temptation. When providers are
compensated for quantity instead of quality, you can
imagine what happens – the quality of each lead drops, as
quantities rise – and your in-house sales team has to work
twice as hard to weed out the “garbage leads”. These type
of arrangements fail the majority of the time due to
constant turnover, recruiting, poor management,
re-training, and re-ramping. No real momentum or business
continuity is ever established. Finally and most
importantly, your companies reputation will be adversely
effected due to the lack of professionalism.

Realistic Expectations. Many sub par providers of this
service will tell you just about anything you need to hear
to make the sale. They make a living turning over clients
with cheap rates and small tests. Why? Because they gain
more sales. Your provider should want to know your business
in detail and listen to your objectives. An honest provider
will tell you what is realistic within a certain amount of
hours. There are many variables, so its not feasible for
any provider to tell you exactly what to expect. However,
they should give you a realistic depiction of ramp times
and potential production. They should come up with a
customized strategy recommendation for success. A good
provider should be focused on how to maintain a long term
partnership.

Training prior to starting the program. – Good providers
will want you to be directly involved with the training.
After all it is your business and you know it best.
Preparation is key to success. A good provider should be
able to take your marketing collateral and create an
initial calling script for training and ramping. Talented
callers will not read a script word for word. The script
should be nothing more than a training tool and reference
until they have it down.

Caller Talent. – How do you want your company represented?
Avoid hiring providers that use high school, college,
inexperienced or off offshore callers. While young people
may be good for business to consumer programs, A good B2B
company will have mature, experienced professionals
representing your company.

Be aware of your service provider’s quality control system.
The last thing you want is for your existing customers -
your revenue generating customers – to have a bad
impression of your company because of relaxed quality
standards. Good providers have a professional management
staff with a solid infrastructure. Consistent feedback and
communication between management, callers, and client is
crucial for mutual success. What types of reporting and
database access does the provider offer? Is it online and
fully accessible to you?

Look for professional communication and management. A
business development company should be giving you regular
updates, and have data available to you on demand – not
having this could be a warning sign that the data isn’t
there at all. Consistent feedback and communication between
management, callers, and client is crucial for mutual
success. Does the provider offer you the ability to be
involved in the program and speak directly with the callers?

Beware of companies offering short tests (less than 50
hours). The profitability & success of a campaign cannot be
judged in such a short period of time. If you choose a
provider based on the results of such a short test, you may
end up getting “short changed” in the long run. This is
equivalent to you hiring an internal person for just over
one weeks worth of work. Pipelines take time develop.
Anything less than 50 hours and you are probably just
wasting your money.

Find out the exact location of the agents working for your
service provider. Offshore agents aren’t usually held to
the highest quality standards, and the communication
barriers they create can reduce the effectiveness of your
campaign – actually costing you money in the long run.
While costs may be appealing, quality will most likely lack
severely and cost you more money and the reputation of your
company.

Avoid companies who charge less than $25/hour for their
services. All companies have to profit somewhere, and if
they don’t charge enough for their services, you can be
sure they will cut back in other areas – such as employee
quality and training, equipment, and consultation time. You
can see how important it is to not only know what you’re
outsourcing, but exactly who you’re outsourcing it to.

Lists and dials per hour. Good providers will be educated
on the best list resources for your particular program.
They can typically provide you with or assist you in
procuring the nest list. Don’t make the mistake of thinking
the more dials per hour, the better. That is a big
misnomer! EX> Lets suppose you are selling a sophisticated
software application and need a company to properly qualify
the prospects for you. If a provider tells you they can
make 30 dials an hour on average, that’s 2 minutes per
call! How is it possible to effectively have a quality
conversation with a prospect in 2 minutes? Its not. These
are usually “telemarketing agencies” that use predictive
dialers. Essentially they are just burning through your
valuable lists of contacts and letting Quality slip by the
wayside. A professional organization is focused on the
quality of the lead or sale. Therefore they should be able
to give you a realistic idea of the average dials per hour
for your specific program.

Brick and Mortar or Remote provider.

Cost – Brick and Mortar companies have a much higher
overhead. In order to be competitive, they have to reduce
costs internally. Often this means paying a smaller wage to
their callers. Talent level is impacted. Remote model
providers are usually more price competitive over Brick and
Mortar companies.

Labor pool – Brick and Mortar companies are limited by an
average of a 30 mile radius of their location. Once that
pool is tapped out, the company has limited expansion
ability.

Calling Talent – Ability to attract top talented
professionals is crucial for success. Most experienced
professionals between 30-60 years old does not have any
interest in commuting to a call center and sitting a
cubicle all day.

Flexibility – Ability to market in specific geographical
regions of the country where the accent/dialect may be
different. Remote model providers have the ability to
designate talented calling agents who reside in the regions
where you need to have call on, thereby allowing calling
agents to build rapport more effectively.

Scalability – Fixed brick and mortar providers have limited
real estate for expansion. A remote model allows for
efficient scalability in the event you need callers added
quickly to ramp up your program.

Focus – Brick and Mortar call centers utilize close quarter
cubicles. Employees talk to each other and can be very
distracted between calls resulting in less focus on the
task at hand. Remote callers work in a quiet professional
home office by themselves and are very focused on results
without distractions.

Noise levels – Call centers are very loud. This is very
distracting to the prospect on the other end of the phone.
Additionally it sounds unprofessional, especially in the
B2B marketplace. Remote agents engage in dialogue with
prospects without the background noise.

Labor turnover – Brick and Mortar call centers experience
very high levels of employee turnover. Remote agents have a
high level of job satisfaction due the lack of commute and
peaceful environment. This equates to higher energy levels
and results for our clients.

Green and environmentally friendly – Remote model providers
keep cars off the roads.

—————————————————-
Brian Augustus Parnell has extensive Sales, Sales
Management, and Marketing experience. He is considered an
expert in the area of Business Development. Brian founded
Grindstone Inc. in 2003. see http://www.grindstone.com .

In conducting team building training and management skills
training all over the world since 1995, I’ve discovered
there are nine essential ingredients that consistently crop
up in creating high performance teams. Listed below are the
top nine beginning with communication.

High Performance Teams: 9 Things a Leader Can Do To
Energize and Motivate Employees To Extraordinary
Performance:

1) Communication: Open, honest communication between team
members and the team leader about an organization’s vision
and clearly defined goals. Not to mention a team leader
needs training in people skills and how to manage people
effectively. Most team leaders are promoted based on their
“hard skills” or technical skills, but it doesn’t mean they
can create high performance teams. They must become
effective at communicating, listening and resolving
conflict. And everyone on the team needs training in
conflict resolution and how to be an effective
communicator. Each team member has been raised differently
from childhood in terms of what’s acceptable communication.
So training helps to keep the team leader and team members
on the same page. The key is in becoming tactfully direct.

2) High performance teams possess purpose and direction.
They have clearly defined goals, objectives and
responsibilities. When I go into an organization and
conduct team building training, team leaders tell me all
the time how important it is for teams to understand their
roles, expectations, and responsibilities. Team members
want to know what specific goals and objectives they’re
being evaluated on. Make sure the performance objectives
are measurable, quantifiable, and in writing for
accountability. Have goals and objectives for the team as a
whole as well as for each team member and include everyone
on these goals. For example, if team members are in sales,
a goal states in writing that each of them are to develop
ten new accounts representing gross sales of at least
$20,000 by December 31 of this year.

3) A key component to high performance teams is active
participation, accountability and sense of ownership on the
team leader’s end as well as from the team members. Being a
more powerful leader means being an involved leader.
Participation and ownership also sets a precedent for
what’s expected of each team player – teamwork. One
contributor to low team morale is when one or two team
members hide out in the success of the rest of the team.
Everyone else is doing the work. I guarantee you this is
not going unnoticed. Hold everyone to the same high
standards. Start taking progressive disciplinary action if
a team member is not doing his or her job. If you don’t
take progressive disciplinary action you’ll lose
credibility as a team leader who enables poor performance.

Effective Team Leaders Are Listeners

4) Trust between team members and the team leader.
Effective team leaders are listeners. They solicit feedback
truly be productive if there isn’t trust between the team
members and the team leader. Always do and listen to
employees’ suggestions and concerns. It’s difficult for a
team to be productive if there isn’t trust between the team
members and team leader. Always do what you say you are
going to do. That one thing you promise your team that you
can’t deliver on will be the one thing they remember.  Many
employees don’t quit their jobs. They quit their team
leaders and managers.

5) Strong, effective leadership filtering down is essential
to effective team building and creating high performance
teams. A team leader must possess the ability to coach.
Having a “coach mentality” and helping team members to
grow, develop and mature is a necessary skill. It’s part of
your job!  Don’t do everything for your team members
otherwise they never learn to do things themselves. Even if
you’re thinking, “Well, if I want it done right I might as
well do it myself.” Look at the word “team leader.” You are
there to lead.

6) Proper resources, funding and training necessary to get
the job done. Do you have the right people for the job?
Your people are your most important resource. Have they
been properly trained? Do they have the right equipment to
do the job effectively? Training is an important part of
team building and leadership. Employees tell me all the
time they want additional training to sharpen their skills.
They want to be given essential tools that will develop
their skill set. It makes them feel valued and important.
As if their organization is willing to invest in them for
the long term.

7) High performance teams believe in equality and a shared
vision, shared sense of purpose. Everyone has a sense of
inclusion. Everyone treats each other equally, fairly and
objectively. The whole team is included in goals and even
social events.
Respect. The team leader has respect for the team. This
boosts the confidence of the team members. They have
respect for each other which leads to increased morale,
productivity and a high performing team.

9) Willingness to share job knowledge, skills, and ideas.
The team leader is the role model. If you’re willing to
share knowledge and ideas, you’re training your team to do
the same. Better yet, include “willingness to share job
knowledge, skills and ideas” in team members’ performance
reviews. If they know they’re being evaluated on these
factors, they’re more likely to perform.

Another ingredient central to creating high performance
teams: it’s imperative that both the team leader and the
team have a positive attitude. As one group of team leaders
told me, “A key element of any successful team is no bad
attitudes allowed!”

—————————————————-
Colleen Kettenhofen is a professional speaker and author
who has presented in 47 states and six countries. She is
co-author of “The Masters of Success,” featured on NBC’s
Today Show. Popular topics: leadership, management skills,
difficult people, public speaking. For free articles and
e-newsletter visit http://www.ColleenSpeaks.com Colleen is
available for keynotes, breakout sessions and seminars.
(800)323-0683 http://www.ColleenSpeaks.com

#1  No resume focus.

The most effective resumes leave no doubt as to the job
seeker’s career objective.  A one-size-fits-all resume
gives the impression that the job seeker is uncertain of
his career goal.  An employer once told me that if a
candidate is interested in two completely different
positions, he must not be very good at either.  If you have
more than one career objective, you need more than one
resume.

#2  Lack of marketing strategy.

Job seekers rarely see their search for what it is-a sales
campaign.  Think of your resume as marketing material
designed to create a powerful first impression and win a
multitude of job interviews.  A resume coach can help you
translate your career history into an effective marketing
piece by selling toward the reader’s buying motives:
solving problems, saving money, or increasing profits.

#3  No accomplishment statements.

95% of all resumes lack accomplishment statements.  These
statements allow employers to visualize your contribution
to their company.  A resume coach can help you move from a
job description type resume to a resume with quantifiable
statements that motivate employers to call you before their
competition does.  These statements can dollarize your
worth and increase your bargaining power.

#4  Lack of resume keywords.

These days, resumes are screened by both humans and
computers.  A resume lacking in keywords runs the risk of
being read by neither.  An average screening of a resume is
15 seconds or less, so more attention is paid to resumes
using the same words found in the job description.
Candidate-tracking software retrieves resumes by keywords.
A keyword-focused resume will put you front and center.

#5  Incorrect resume format.

Basically, there are three resume formats: chronological,
functional and hybrid.

Chronological:  The chronological is best known and easiest
to write, a timeline style resume. This format works well
if your objective is to remain in the same industry or
occupation.

Functional:  The functional resume places transferable
skills and accomplishments at the beginning of your resume.
However, a poorly crafted functional resume can be
confusing, causing the reader to believe the candidate has
something to hide.

Hybrid:  The hybrid resume combines the best features of
other resumes.   It showcases skills and accomplishments
while maintaining ease of reading.  This is the best format
for job seekers of all level, but it is also the most
difficult to write, requiring thoughtful planning to
identify the most critical transferable skills that will
attract potential employer attention.

Once your resume is designed to avoid the top five resume
mistakes, you will be well on your way to winning
interviews and reaching your career objective.  How much is
you old resume costing you in lost opportunities?

—————————————————-
Deborah Walker, Resume Coach, has spent years studying the
art of fine resume crafting.  Her career-long focus on all
phases of the employment process provides a solid base of
knowledge for resume advice and coaching. Learn more about
resume coaching at
http://www.AlphaAdvantage.com