Communicating With Etiquette
In a constantly changing world of business, the mediums for communications have become wide and varied. As a business professional, it is important to not only be cognizant of the affect a certain medium has, but it is also important to lead by using them effectively. The following helps to focus and capture how and when to use the different options available today.
Tools For Connecting
“Communication is not what is said, but what is heard.” – Stephen Covey
The following tools inherently have benefits and limitations in their use. Master them accordingly:
Highly efficient to communicate quickly. Writing to get action from others makes this an ideal medium.
Assume anything you write lives forever in the digital domain. This can carry legal consequences. Furthermore, a lack of discipline in grammar because of the convenience can damage your personal brand.
Letter
This communicates formality. Paper still dominates t
he legal world. Transact using letters as a legal, formal or professional approach. A well- designed letter makes a perfect formal introduction to a new person with a well-designed sales approach.
Grammar needs to be attended to. Use www.whitesmoke.com as an aide to perfect grammar and spelling.
Fax
Fast letter delivery. Contractual and legal comm
unications honor this medium.
Quality is poor when received. At the least use a digital online fax service to send faxes.
Handwritten Note
This communicates a more personal tone and conn
ection. Like art, this medium has assumed more value because of its scarcity.
Cheap paper or cards can detract from the intent and damage a personal brand.
Pinger
This is a highly convenient method to drive on
e-way communications to people.
Leave short and focused voicemails. Too much detail is not appropriate for this medium.
Text Messaging (SMS)
This is no longer a hobby of teens. SMS do
es not interrupt the recipient like other mediums. Use text messaging to get an answer or make a decision quickly. The recipient can remain discreet and correspond with you.
Do not assume everyone knows teen shorthand. Remain professional, yet concise. You may not get an immediate response. If this is required, call.
Joopz
Having quick, short access to everyone without distu
rbing them is an advantage. You can do this from a browser or your Outlook to communicate to their cell phone. You can text an entire group quickly.
Some conversations need a phone call rather than incessant texting. Be aware of the difference.
Instant Messaging
Allows multi-tasking. A conversation drives forward increment
ally between the parties. The quick access to needed people resources is strategic.
You are interruptible and giving permission to your network to engage you. Use etiquette in starting a conversation and use the online controls to communicate your availability.
AudioGenerator
A highly strategic method for delivering both dire
ct and third-party endorsement and messaging. This elevates your positioning through a templated format.
Ensure this is presented with an easy way to hyperlink. The recipient needs to merely click and listen. Extra steps are cumbersome.
HelloWorld
Cutting edge video email which helps to
deliver expression and intonation by the sender.
Know what delivery you are sending – formal or casual. Both require different presentation.
Best Practices
- Own your communications
- Be aware of the consequence of each medium
- Ask, “How do I best connect?”
Your Next Customer Is Not Being Told
Most businesses miss the opportunity under their nose. They look past their customer rather than at their customer. Your current customer has your future customers. They just are not telling you.
Nothing Memorable
What is a referral? It is trust. When you give a referral, you feel that you are risking something, namely your reputation. Your customer feels the same way. So why would they risk telling anyone about your business if there was nothing memorable. Here are three reasons your customers do not bring you more business:
- You merely TRANSACTED. There was not an experience. You exchanged money for goods or services. There is nothing to talk about. “Yes, they can show you a car to buy.” Or “They get your clothes clean with their dry cleaning.” Customer service is expected. It is not something to tell others about.
- You did not CONNECT. People want to feel an experience, not consume a commodity. When you show at a restaurant, have you ever been greeted by your name? It is completely different than being given a buzzer and told to sit in a corner or being ignored. You want the owner to come out and check in on your life and family. How do you connect in the flow of the customer’s experience? Is it orchestrated?
- You do not POSITION. Whatever you do, you are a commodity. You play a script that the customer has seen and they know the routine. Do you elevate how you are perceived? Do you use the customer experience as an orchestrated method for raising that perception? If not, you are seen as the stereotype, not the remarkable type they are craving.
Making Memories
You are a consumer and you have 
forgotten a myriad of advertisements. You have not told your friends about a lot of businesses with good service that you have used. You resist buying when you feel you are being sold. You are a consumer and do what your customers do. To win in the new economy, you must deliver the following:
- Something REMARKable. Give people something to remark about.
- A world-class SHOW. Is how you do business as a process giving your customer or an experience? What is the flow, the show, the props, the script?
- CARE. Does your customer feel your business method is personal to them?
- SYSTEMS. Does your customer experience have a framework that is consistent? Or is it different for every new customer. Make it repeatable and systematic.
How you do business is the best selling tool for your future business. Your customers have more customers. If they are not telling you who they are, examine your business.
Are You LinkedIn?
Are You LinkedIn?
If you are not LinkedIn, you are left out. The youthful generation of 20-somethings who have bid and sold their companies for billions of dollars understand how to leverage today’s technologies to connect. Technology is not an end in itself, it is a means for social networking. Business is relationships. It is not who you know, but who knows you. Are you known? LinkedIn is the premier online business networking tool to help you play in the new economy.
Why LinkedIn?
There are three reasons to use LinkedIn:
- To be discovered
- To be branded
- To increase influence
Your network is your net worth. If you know less people, you will:
- Have less knowledge
- Have less opportunity
- Be invisible
LinkedIn is a system for managing and measuring your network. The people you know brand you. They are transparent to viewers of your profile. The experience you have and the people you know tell the story of who you are.
The Technology
LinkedIn is a simple tool to use. Take a look at my LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin/in/dondalrymple
Note these items about my profile:
- My experience
- The people I know
- The testimonials I have received
What story does this tell you about me? What story will your profile tell others about you if they never met you? Tell your story in a way that a stranger becomes a friend before you meet. This is your brand.
Connecting
The goal of LinkedIn is to connect with people you will do business with. It is as much of a tool to give as to receive. Here are ways to add value first – a key success principle:
- Write recommendations for your network. Don’t flatter. Be precise.
- Get out of the way. Connect others using LinkedIn as the medium. Simply say, “I have a person in my LinkedIn network that would be of value to you. I will send you their link and would be happy to connect you.”
- Meet a stranger a week. Look for new contacts that could be strategic partners to your business. Learn how to add strategic partners by asking for the Strategic Partner Referrals tool from AscendWorks. Email us at info@ascendworks.com.
Best Practices
- Research various people and their profiles. Note their branding
- Ask for feedback from others to see what they think of you after reading your LinkedIn.
- Use LinkedIn daily to help others connect. Make it the medium.
- Only have people in your network you are confident referring.
- Make LinkedIn part of your workflow. If you do not, it will not serve you.
- Continue weeding and strengthening your list of contacts. Make it select and rich.
Getting Started
The key to using technology effectively is to dive in and use it. It is an iterative process. Your first draft will not be your last. In less than one hour, you should be able to promote yourself in an effective way and build your business network online. Here are the steps:
- Go to www.linkedin.com and sign up for a profile.
- Create your profile. This is essentially your resume. It is not meant to be exhaustive. It is meant to be promotional. Do not write boring stuff here. People will not read it. That is what your resume is for.
- Invite your network. A simple way to do this is to download the Microsoft Outlook toolbar and use the wizard to mass invite your chose contacts.
- Write testimonials for people who join your network that you value. Request one in turn.
- Ensure your LinkedIn site, http://www.linkedin.com/in/{yourname}, points to other parts of your branding breadcrumb trail. If you want to learn to be more strategic about your brand, contact AscendWorks at info@ascendworks.com.
- As you meet new people, add them to your network.
- Prune, grow and manage your network regularly.
Your network is your net worth. Just because you have a networking tool will not mean your business will grow. It must be strategic. As I have said to many clients, technology is a terrible master. Make technology your slave. Learn to strategically integrate this powerful tool into your business workflow to grow your business.
Fear Or Belief
What guides your life? Fear or belief in yourself and what you want?
Fear vs. Belief
Henry Thoreau made the observation, “Most men live lives of quiet desperation.” Is this true? Look around and observe the people who live their life. Are they doing what they truly want? If not, then what are they doing?
Now look inside yourself. What are you afraid of? Are you doing what you truly want? Why not? Do you make choices based on who you want to become or what is the safest? These choices define you. Below is a chart of differences between a fear-based mentality and a belief-based mentality:
|
Fear |
Belief |
| Scarcity thinking | Abundance thinking |
| What can I get? How do I sell? | What can I give? How do I add value? |
| What are my needs? |
What does this person really need? What are their problems? |
| “I might get taken advantage of.” |
“I might be able to make a difference.” |
|
“I need to get something in return.” |
“I don’t keep track of what I get in return.” |
|
I always win, regardless |
I am willing to lose for the other person |
|
What is it going to cost me? |
How will I be able to add value? |
| No Trust | Trust |
| Betrayal under pressure | Loyalty under pressure |
| Victim | Conqueror |
Challenge:
- Write a blog article or email to your mentor or coach describing how you could add value to your coaching relationship. What would doing business out of fear look like? What would doing business out of belief look like?
- Give something of great value to a prospect without expecting anything in return.
Communicating With Images
Communicating With Style
We live in a visual culture. Our ability to not only deliver knowledge and content of value, but also how we package the information is important for creating attraction to our message.
Using Images in Outlook
If you use Microsoft Outlook as an email client and have set it using Microsoft Word as an email client, then the following are key steps to create an image rich layout for your email. To set Word as the editor, on the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Mail Format tab.
- Insert a picture by selecting the Insert>Picture>From File… button
- Next right-click and select Format Picture…
This will allow you to format the layout of the picture.
- From the dialog box that emerges, select the Layout tab.
This choice enables the way the text will align with the image. Selecting “Tight” and to the “Left” will allow the image to remain positioned to the left of any text typed next to it.
This is a quick way to bring illustration to your communications. Use it to emphasize your content in a document or email.
Strategic Email Signatures
BWe communicate with hundreds of emails a week. Each of these are touchpoints for our branding. Your signature can be wasted real estate or strategic in promoting your brand.
Does Your Email Brand You?
First what kind of email do you use for business? Is it a Yahoo! Or AOL Address? What do you risk in your branding by using such an address? What opportunities have you lost? A simple thing like your domain name advertises you. The people you communicate with will investigate that domain name you communicate with.
I use don@ascendworks.com often. The result is that people will come to my web site and see my brand. Then they go to my blog and see my advice. Then they go to my LinkedIn and see my network. Then they ask for information like you are reading. Then there are more next steps based on the breadcrumb trail that has been carefully been laid. This is apparent from the tracking that can be done today:
Web Analytics Software
What Signature to Use?
A powerful signature tool to use that is free is from LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a networking software tool. If you want to release the full extent of this tool, simply contact AscendWorks for a coaching session on the tool and how to expand your own business through it.
- After setting up an account in LinkedIn, be sure to fill out the complete profile:
- Next select the Email Signatures tool.
- Ensure the information is correct and filled out. This will populate the signature block of your choice. Also pick the layout from the various selections in the gallery.
- After you have your final selection, Select “Click here for instructions…”
- Follow the instructions for installing the provided html code into your respective email client. Your output should look like the following:
Note the various links which the recipient can now click in a visually appealing signature. Happy Branding!
Solutions Selling
There are two steps to a solutions sale – discovering the need and delivering a solution. The first requires good questions and the goal is to understand. The latter is focused on communicating and connecting your solution to the problem you understood. Where there is no trust, there is no sale.
High Trust Interview
This is an interview focused on one goal with the decision maker: Understanding the need. If you can confidently walk away from the meeting understanding the need and all the issues, then this is successful. Good questions are required to discover the need:
- What’s important to you about the consistency of your code?
- What’s important to you about the partners you do business with?
- If you could change how your programmers’ code works today, what would it look like?
- What are your current coding standards?
- What frustrations do you deal with outside source code and internal source code? Do subsequent developers find it challenging to understand it?
Some questions for you:
- Do you want to do business with them?
- Do you really understand their pain and problem?
- Is there a fit between your solution and their problem?
- Is your solution more than just your product(s)?
You may be asked about your product. You are not there to talk features. You want to talk at a high level. Tell them you have a lot of solutions to offer, but your goal is to truly understand their need and you would like to make sure you have a full understanding and set up a second meeting with what you heard in writing.
“I really appreciate you sharing your challenges with me. I want to ensure I have captured what I heard. Would you mind if I brought something to you in writing and we meet next week at __________?”
High Trust Solution
You will want to have prepared a proposal speaking to their needs and what is important to them with your solution – product, services, relationship, along with quantity, etc. – and how you are a fit. This shows your care and understanding for their needs and builds the trust to become partners.
Document what you have heard and how you will meet their needs. Review this in detail then say, “Based on what I see, I believe there is a basis to move forward. Would you like to do this?”
The Questions You Ask
Noticing More
Knowledge helps you take notice. The more you know, the more atuned you are. When you are in a conversation, do you see the opportunities? Can you capitalize on them? Do you know how to take a conversation to the next step?
Tips
- Challenge yourself to be the one who asks more questions
- Wonder about how things work
- Assume there is always something to learn
Questions
Einstein’s mom asked him each day, “What questions did you ask today?”
He later states, “To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.”
The power of questions helps to get new information and broaden your perspective. When in a new situation, learn to ask yourself:
What questions should I ask of this person?
If you come as a learner, you will learn something and see something you did not before. If you come as one of the learned, you will only have the same answers you knew were already there.
Killer Questions
The questions you ask will be the route towards more perspective on a problem or opportunity. Here are some questions that help to expand perspective:
- How do you do what you do?
- What are some of the challenges you face?
- What are the opportunities you see?
- What questions should I ask you that I have not?
Learn to write down good questions and rehearse them. Use them often. Use this skill to help you grow your own business as well. Remember this quote:
“Telling is selling. Asking is buying.”
This requires genuineness. Being authentic in your curiosity feeds the desire to learn and allows you to truly see more in a situation than is apparent. Be known as a listener and a person who asks great questions and watch your opportunities expand.
You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions. – Mahfouz Naguib
Give a Free Prize
Your network loves to get something of value. This motivates them to strongly refer you to their friends. In an economy where attention is hard to capture, a strong incentive will allow you to become not only noticeable, but also create a network of people selling your services or product on your behalf.
Big Idea
Here is an idea that captures the concept of a free prize inside. Most people love free items that they would not normally spend on themselves. A dinner at a fine restaurant that a person may hesitate to spend their own money on is a great incentive. It is a luxury item that appeals to their desire.
In your newsletters or brochures, you can create an ongoing incentive program which appeals to this desire. Three Forks Restaurant in Dallas offers a unique type of gift certificate – gold coins. The presentation along with their renowned cookbook is a way to incent your network to refer leads. Be sure to be consistent and repetitive with your message. It is the attention of your network you are seeking.
Notes
- The presentation, not only the gift, is important
- Be clear about how your program works. Use numbers to outline the steps
- Remind people often
The Steps
- Capture the images and information for the Three Forks gift coins
- Place your message in your brochure or newsletter
- Specify these will be given when a sale is made with a person’s referral
- Create a way to get leads to you easily:
- Web site
- Web form
Enjoy and watch your business grow.
Increasing Your Agility
Agile is defined as “marked by an ability to think quickly; mentally acute or aware.” In an age of rapid change, the ability to be agile is becoming the secret to adding value in the new economy.
You are Your Habits
The truth is we are creatures of inertia. Sir Isaac Newton described this term in his observation of reality:
“The tendency of a body to resist acceleration;
the tendency of a body at rest to remain at rest or of a body in straight line motion to stay in motion in a straight line unless acted on by an outside force.”
Inertia is nothing more than habits. Habits are what define a person. There is a likely pattern of behavior in a person each day. Multiply that over a lifetime and there exists inertia. The inertia is disrupted when “acted on by an outside force.” It could be a crisis of sorts such as heart disease or financial ruin which would motivate a prompt and decisive change. Often, though, it is hard for a person to change. The inertia in life is too strong. Each day of habits either propels a person towards growth or atrophy.
Dynamic or Static?
Which kind of inertia do you have in your life? Agility is the ability to respond quickly to change. Have you had a habit of this? One of the characteristics of winners in the new economy is their insatiable desire to grow and learn. Because our business reality is one of constant change today, those that do not take on the character of agility become irrelevant and increasingly less valuable. The only recourse is to pretend. Pretenders protect their obvious lack of agility and knowledge.
The good news is that those who desire to be agile can. Those that desire to learn and grow can. It is a choice every day. Here are two simple areas of focus to help you have inertia that is dynamic:
- Go to www.43things.com and place your goals answering the question, “Who do you want to become in a year?” This tool will remind you what you want.
- Master one new technology. Teach someone everything there is to learn about it. Think how to apply it to your business situation now in creative ways. Become a learner and a teacher. Repeat this often.
One thing is guaranteed in the new economy. All the rules will change in a year. Are you agile? Which kind of inertia is in your life?