Category Archives: Programs

Working with teams across the world?

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Today’s question came from a busy professional and business owner.

communicationHow do I work with team members located in different parts of the world?

I want to work effectively with team members located in different parts of the world. How do I ensure that location, time difference, culture and beliefs and personality will not affect my work with the team?

 

 

Whether you team members are across town or across the world, creating a Communication Plan fits the build.

Communication Plan

 

Your communication plan includes (but not limited to):

 

1) A directory of your significant members, preferred method of communication, telephone numbers, email addresses, Skype id, Time Zones, etc

2) How you plan to convey regular Status information (daily meetings, weekly meetings, emails, phone calls, etc)

3) How you plan to convey Critical or High Priority information (phone call? text?)

4) Your Service Agreement or Response time expectations (respond by EOD, within 1 business day, within 2 hours).

5) What is expected when someone misses a meeting.  Are you going to have the meetings recorded?

6) Where you are locating your shared meeting minutes, presentations, audios, or other materials.  Will you be recording your meetings and placing them on a shared location for people to refer to, etc.

7) Incorporate weekly or twice-a-month one-on-one meetings with each team member.  Regularly scheduled one-on-one meetings (via phone or in person) eliminate much confusion that email may cause.

8) Supply templates and checklists to assure the work gets completed the way you way, each time.  Consistency eliminates confusion and errors.  If people are getting your status in the same way each week (and vice-versa), they know what to expect and how to respond.

 

Vacation Considerations

 

You communication plans should also consider vacation schedules.  Regardless of your holiday hours, make sure you consider the following:

  • Make sure everyone has all their vacations identified early (by mid-year).
  • Make sure all your project schedules block out for their vacation time.
  • Make sure that all your procedures, outstanding items, and possible issues that may arise during the holiday season is clearly documented and shared with those responsible for handling these issues during the break. This includes creating, publicizing and updating your communication plans.  If you don’t have a communication plan, please setup an introductory consult to discuss that important tool.
  • Make sure the staff has been trained on the outstanding issue.
  • Make sure your clients have been informed about the holiday schedule far in advance.
  • Make sure your clients provide you with all their requirements far in advance so that you can accomplish their goals before the holidays.

 

 

For additional information on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally.  It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

Numbers Move People Toward a Decision

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Today’s take-away is that Numbers Move People.

If you need a way to move coworkers, clients, managers, family members or even yourself toward action, consider adding a number to your conversation.

Numbers help people move toward a decision and action.  Whether it’s a calendar date, a meeting time, a price for service or product, salary, or even that pesky number on the bathroom scale; numbers move people into action.

Consider the number ZERO – as in A Complimentary or Free eBook, White Paper, or other offer.  That Zero Cost item attracts many people to share their contact information with you.

Numbers are our friends:

Ways to influence others with number come in many forms.

  • You can assign time limits to performance issues, product deliverables, customer review/approval processes.
  • You can make a recurring calendar date with your manager for weekly one-on-ones.
  • You can devise quality metrics to verify your performance, your service, and your products.
  • You can improve company and product exposure by increasing your social media metrics and website click-through.
  • You can time yourself on certain tasks, to enable you to better estimate and schedule certain activities.
  • You can continually increase your work-out repetitions to improve your stamina.
  • You can chart your weight and measurements to show progress toward your health and fitness goals.
  • You can count your calories and glasses of water.
  • and more.

How to make the numbers to work for you

 

Whether you are in the corporate environment or starting your own business, you need to understand your numbers.

Business owners

If you are in business for yourself, you need to understand:

  • Your revenue goals (how much you want to make this year)
  • Your leads to sales ratio (how many people you need to meet/talk with – to make 1 sale)
  • How many sales you need to make your revenue goals
  • How many leads you need to create to make those sales…
  • And the list goes on

Staff or employee

If you are in the corporate world, you need to understand:

  • Performance Evaluation ratings
  • The performance rating you want to achieve
  • The items and quality metrics required to achieve that performance rating
  • What is required to achieve bonuses and additional compensation…
  • The dates and delivery schedules for your work assets
  • The raise/salary you want to achieve
  • The number of hours you want to devote to work, family, community and self

 

Making numbers work for clients

If you are working with clients, and they are on the fence on something; find a way to add a number to the conversation.

 

Some examples could be:

 

  • Additional discounts or promotional offers tend to help move clients down the buyers journey.
  • Putting a deadline on an offer adds a sense of urgency to the decision.
  • Requesting clients to review/approve by a certain date moves the project along and enables you to make your delivery dates.
  • Assuring that you will follow-up in 2 days in order to answer any additional questions – keeps your product and service on their radars.
  • Having a SLA of always responding to any support issue within 2 business days – sets the proper customer service expectations.

 

These are just a few ways numbers can influence us and keep us moving forward.

 

For additional information on how to use numbers to your advantage, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally.  It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

Is it better to terminate or reassign an employee?

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Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose – author of TimePeace: Making peace with time – and I am a business and efficiency coach that specializes in time management, project management and work-life balance strategies. I help busy professionals and entrepreneurs create effective systems so that they can comfortably delegate to others, be more profitable and have time to enjoy life even if they don’t have time to learn new technology or train their staff.  I have a knack for taking big ideas and converting them into smart, sound, and actionable ideas.

 

At the end of the day, I transform the way you run your business into a business you love to run.

Today’s comment came from a busy professional and an entrepreneur:

Is it better to terminate or reassign an employee that is not working out?

I have spent a lot of time training an employee. She is a great person, but I have to remind her several times to do something. I am not sure if she is just not in the right role or if she will always need too much oversight. I am curious how others have handled something like this.

You are not alone. Many new business owners struggle with this same question.

One thing to keep in mind (at all times) is that you are in the business to make money. You essentially hire staff to help you achieve your business goals.

You are not responsible for your employees’ happiness or success in their roles and responsibilities. You can encourage, support and train them – but you are not ultimately responsible for their success. They are.

Your Responsibilities:

What you are responsible is to provide clear goals and directives. You accomplish this by several methods:

  • Visible Mission, Vision and Purpose goals
    1. Do you have a company mission, vision purpose statements?
    2. Are they strategically visible where all your employees can see them?
  • Regular and frequent one-on-one meetings with your employees
    1. Are you conducting frequent one-on-one meetings with your employees?
    2. Have you validated that they not only understand the company mission but how it translate to their individual roles and responsibilities
  • Clear directives
    1. Do you have your business goals clearly documented in the form of SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals
    2. Does each of your employees understand how their tasks and business goals support and accomplish those business goals?
    3. Does each of your employees have a PBC (Personal Business Commitment) plan that documents their SMART goals to achieve the company goals?

Once you have clearly articulated and published your business goals and validated each employee’s roles and responsibilities in achieving those goals, you can start determining whether a specific employee is “right” for your company.

Have you provided proper training?

Before you hire staff, you need to verify that your training and orientation materials are in place. If you don’t want to be spending time reminding your employees about the tasks and procedures, make sure they are documented in such a way that they can easily reference.

 

Some examples are:

  • Provide Checklists and document your procedures
  • Conduct frequent status meetings to review their progress and checklist status
  • Institute the buddy system in which a more senior staff is buddies with a junior staff member.
  • Delegate team leaders such that they oversee team progress and staff reports
  • Automate the more tedious and error-prone items to reduce error and rework
  • Automate and optimize items that are done over and over again
  • Optimize the procedures to only items that are MUST DO to bring in revenue, reduce costs or increase client satisfaction
  • If you cannot associate a Business Reason (example: revenue generating reason) for the task, reconsider the need for that task

 

Once you have streamlined your processes and policies, you can be assured that you have provided your employees with the best possible road-map to success.

Is she right for the job?

Once you have done your homework regarding setting up SMART goals, it is easier to assess each employee’s fit. Since you have established your Success Criteria and how you are going to Measure against your Success Criteria, you can determine if your employees are meeting expectations.

Several things that might help further are:

  • Have you documented all the tasks and expectations in a Personal Business Commitment (PBC) document? In other words, have you outlined for each employee – how their role and responsibilities are achieving your business goals?
  • Have you documented their PBCs in the form of SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound)?
  • Do your employees understand the consequences of not meeting those PBC metrics? (for instance: being placed on a Performance Improvement Plan, on probation or fired)?
  • Have your employees signed their PBCs, acknowledging that they understand their commitments and consequences of their performance.

Once you have clearly articulated the expectations for the position in this manner and streamlined the responsibly and procedures, more often than not – it is the employee that will decide if this position is right for them.

For example: A SMART goal would be:

  • If you have to remind her several times to do something – are those
    “things” explicitly documented in a checklist? (Being very specific)
  • Do you have a way to measure or tell if she has accomplished those items, on time and with the quality that you have previously defined? Does she have to report on the status or update a tracking system? (Measurable)
  • Is it reasonable that someone in that position can accomplish that task in the defined time frame? (Achievable) Or would some automation and optimization reduce the error-prone nature of the task?
  • Can you describe the How and Why this task is relevant to bringing in revenue? (Relevant to your business goals)
  • And does this have a time limit. Does she need to do this task every day? once a week? When should it be accomplished? (Time-bound).

If she needs to improve upon her performance – what specific things does she need to accomplish in a certain amount of time.  What are the consequences for not achieving those specific and measurable tasks within the deadline?  (This is what is known as a documented PIP or Performance Improvement Plan)

Conclusion:

If you are “wishy-washy” on your expectations, it’s easy for your employees to give you “wishy-washy” results.  Having your expectations and consequences well documented (and signed by your employee) will make the next steps of performance evaluation much easier.

If you need additional help on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

Or sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

5 Keys to sticking to your Business New Year Resolutions

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Today’s comment came from a busy professional and an entrepreneur:

How can I stick to my New Year’s resolution for my business?

Happy holidays!

My business is still very new, but I want to create some New Year resolutions to keep me on track. A couple I came up with so far is… 1. I want more face to face interaction with my customers and 2. I want to attend at least 2 major events in my industry. What are some tips to make sure I will stick to them?

In the business to make money

I am assuming that you are in the business to make money. Therefore, your business resolutions need to align with “making money”. Whether you are in business for yourself or a part of a corporation, here are some tips:
1) Align your Resolutions to increasing the business revenue, decreasing the business costs, and attracting new or returning customers.
2) Make your resolutions SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Bound)
3) Be Accountable with frequent status and progress reports to an accountability partner
4) Focus on the reason “why” you are doing these resolutions
5) Take responsibility for your results
Let’s discuss each one in more detail.

Align Your Resolutions with your Career and Business goals

You are going to be more successful if you have a strong reason for your resolutions. If you are in any kind of business, your ultimate goal is to make money. If you work for a corporation, they are in the business to make money. Therefore, these resolutions should support the ultimate goal to make you and your business more successful.

Create business resolutions that will increase revenue, reduce costs and increase client retention and referrals.

SMART Goals

SMARTERGoalsMy recommendation is to create some SMART New Year Resolutions that will increase your revenue. Make them Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Bound.
**For even greater advancement – see me about SMARTER goals.
In your example: 1. I want more face to face interaction with my customers
State actually how many Face to Face interactions with your clients per week or month. And how specifically will these increased interactions with clients actually increase sales or revenue? What specifically are you going to do in these face to face interactions that will increase client retention and referrals?

How specifically will having face to face interactions with your current clients increase your client base? What is your plan for interacting with new or potential new clients?
Updated Resolution: My resolution is to double my customer referral rate within 8 months. I will do this by adding monthly meetings with each client, specifically ask for referrals and testimonials, create fun contests for the clients which encourages them to include and invite friends, add free speaking engagements on topics that will interest my clients’ family and friends, create coupons and send appreciation gifts to loyal clients.

Be Accountable with frequent status and progress reports

In your example: 1. I want more face to face interaction with my customers

Create a spreadsheet or tracker that lists how many “face to face interactions” you need to make each week to match your monthly goals. And then log/track your actually meetings. By keeping track of your planned and actual counts, you can increase your efforts when you are falling behind.

Focus on the reason “why”

In your example: I want to attend at least 2 major events in my industry

What is the reason that you want to attend 2 major events in your industry? Do you want to attend the major events to “sharpen the saw” and stay current in your field? Do you want to speak at those events so that you are considered an authority in the industry? Do you want to purchase and man a booth so that you can attract new clients?

Focus on the results that you want to achieve instead of a specific activity.

Updated Resolution: My resolution is to triple my client list in 8 months. I will do this by speaking at 2 major events in my industry, setup monthly booths at local events, and giving monthly speaking events on topics relevant to my industry and business. I will also upgrade my website to automatically collect contact information from people downloading and interested in my free materials, articles and blog offers.

When you focus on the results that you want to achieve (instead of a specific action), additional opportunities will appear. You will actually have a plan to achieve a specific result instead of merely a checklist of tasks.

Take responsibility for your results

When you create SMARTER goals to achieve a specific result, it is easier to take responsibility.

Take the initial example I want more face to face interaction with my customers.

Who do you actually intend to give you more face to face interactions? Is someone else responsible for presenting you with these opportunities?

Take responsibility for making your business a success. To do this, you need to step up and use more powerful and empowering words. You have to be the one to make it happen.

Instead of saying “I want more face to face interactions”; “I want to attend at least 2 events”….

Commit to “I will double my customer referral rate within 8 months. “ and “I will triple my client list in 8 months”

“I want” is displacing the responsibility of accomplishing this goal somewhere else. It’s wishy-washy. And wishy-washy resolutions produce wishy-washy results.

“I will” is putting the responsibility directly on your own shoulders.

Conclusion

Putting some number goals and time frames around your goals will help you stick to them. When your goals become measurable (by placing numbers and time frames on them), they are easier to stick to them because you can tell if you are on target or need to focus more energy on them to make your numbers.
Wishy-Washy resolutions produce wishy-washy results.
Strong and empowered resolutions produces strong results.

If you need additional help on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally. It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

How can I show off my personality more through my work?

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Today’s comment came from a busy entrepreneur:

How can I show off my personality more through my work?

Whether you are a staff member in a corporate environment or a small business owner, you will need to make yourself visible to your employers, employees and potential customers.  One thing that is unique to you is your personality.  Therefore, that is one differential factor that everyone can make use of – but how? We will answer this question for both environments.

How can I show off my personality more through my work in the corporate environment?

In today’s global workplace, more and more of our employers and employees are working remotely. Given the fact that fewer of us are actually working physically side-by-side our co-workers and executives, it is critical to differentiate ourselves from our peers in a positive light. One thing that will continue to build a positive reputation is to take advantage of your unique personality, talents and strengths.  You can make these things more visible by doing the following:

1)Add more of the personal touch.  Pick up the phone instead of emailing or texting.  A personal phone call or visit brings your personality to the forefront.  Effective communication is conveyed by 7% words, 55% body language,  and 38% tone.  By limiting yourself to email and text (just words), you have eliminated 93% of your arsenal.

2) Be proactive in illustrating your strengths, talents and knowledge base.  Speaking engagements are great ways to illustrate your personality, while demonstrating your experience, knowledge, and talent.  You can also more easily interact and affect a larger audience of your peers, supervisors and clients.  You can also get immediate feedback.  Consider giving Lesson Learned presentations, Technical Tip Presentation, and Solution-based Proposals.

3) Promote other experts.  Much like the MC of a television program or interview, the host of the regularly scheduled program is seen every week.  Their intelligence and personality is regularly demonstrated while they intelligently and professionally interact with the expert.   You can do this by hosting presentations and Brown Bag Lunch sessions on high-profile topics in your company’s interest by various experts.  This releases your need to “be the expert on everything”, while at the same time providing your company with the much needed training on the next generation focus.

4) Think globally.  Not everyone that you work and correspond with has met you in person.  Add your professional photo to your email-signature; include your individual career mission and vision statement in your internal email correspondence.  Check with your company’s policy regarding external email signatures.  They may have a specific template that you need to follow. 5)Add video.  Consider adding a video status report from time to time.  This will add a face to your weekly status report, as well as your personality. A final recommendation is to think like the owner.  What would the owner of the company like to see from you?  How would he/she like you to be seen by the customer?

How can I show off my personality more through my work as an entrepreneur?

I am working on launching my own photography business on the side. I want my photos to be known for being fun and natural, and have my customers trust me to capture a great moment. How can I showcase all of this in my work? I know this will come with time as I build brand recognition, but where to start?

You can easily translate the above corporate 5 suggestions for the small business owner.
Some additional suggestions are:

1)Publish.  Having a regular blog about your business area tips, your favorite type of clients, your lessons learned how and why you got into your business, etc. If you start a blog or even a video blog (video yourself talking about these things), is a natural way to bring your personality through your work.

2)Teach.  Setup speaking engagement is a great way to show off your personality, your knowledge and your skill. Getting in front of your clients are good ways to elicit customer feedback.  Make use of inviting or regularly interviewing guest speakers (see above suggestions in the corporate section).

3)Ask Questions.  Ask for your client’s opinions and feedback.  Personal interaction with your clients is the best way to show off your personality.

Conclusion:

Keep the end in mind.  Whether you like it or not, you are on stage most of your professional day.  Make the best use of that time.

For more information or help on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

Or sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

How do I co-exist with other vendors?

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Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose – author of TimePeace: Making peace with time – and I am a business and efficiency coach that specializes in time management, project management and work-life balance strategies. Steve Wynkoop and I talk a lot about designing and managing our professional careers on a weekly interview on SSWUG TV.

At the end of the day, I transform the way you run your business into a business you love to run.

Today’s comment came from a busy entrepreneur:

How do I co-exist with other vendors?

Food-VendorsScenario; You are pitching to a potential customer about your service offerings, and potential customer says that he is already working with a vendor in the same space. How do I stay in the mind of this potential customer and remain an option?

 

Firstly, I would avoid saying anything negative about the other vendor. If you know something about the other vendor – take this opportunity to highlight some of the things that vendor does really well. Then talk about the differences between you and the other vendor. Highlight your differentials without saying anything negative about the other vendor. Sometimes you can create a special niche while you are talking to these potential customers.
For example: “Yes. I know that vendor. They are very professional and have great prices in larger, big package orders. What differentiates my services is that I focus on custom orders and sizes. Every client has an individual technical support person (a real person). Your assigned support person has the authority to solve your issue. They don’t need to wait for approval. So, whenever you need a more individualized service, please keep me in mind.”

 

Start networking with those same vendors

Stop regarding these vendors as competitors. Start networking and offering your help and services to them in a sub-contractor possibility. Find a way to collaborate by advertizing your niche or differentials to them. For instance, offer the vendor your services for customization to help them provide a fuller package to their clients.

How to you work with a vendor

 

Once you are in a working relationship with your “now collaborative” vendor, make sure you have a clear “understanding of work” between the companies. Some things you need to include:

  • Explicit description of the work and time line
  • Pricing or hourly rates – and how/when the payment will be made
  • Acceptance criteria (make sure you agree upon what “done” really means)
  • Consequences of note meeting the delivery timeline or quality requirements
  • Agreement of who is the project manager (decision maker) on the project.

Conclusion:

Clearly understanding the project, who is in charge, what the time lines are, and pricing/charges often greases the wheels to a smooth project.

 

For more information or help on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

 

Or sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

Tips for working with Contractors, Consultants and Remote Workers

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Today’s question came from a busy professional regarding working with contractors.

What are your best tips for collaborating with team members who are available only on a part-time basis or who work remotely? Please share concrete tactics instead of tools.

One of the best tips is to explicitly state your expectations with any contractor, consultant and remote workers. This can be in the form of a contract, an understanding of service, and even your employee Personal Business Commitment (PBC) in which your performance is evaluated against.

Simple Transparency

Understanding how your contractor or consultant works best will alleviate lots of problems and miscommunications.

Examples

  1. You have hired Kelley as a part-time contractor. You are frustrated with Kelley because he hasn’t responded to any of your Monday emails. Unbeknownst to you, Kelley has scheduled his hours on Tuesday and Thursday for your company; and Monday, Wednesday and Friday with his other contract.   If you had taken the time to understand which hours/days Kelley was devoting to your company, you would have avoided this problem.
  2.  On Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays, Kelley works from a different computer and with different email addresses. Kelley’s preferred method of communication is via mobile-text. This way he can easily communicate with you, even if he is on the other job. If you had known this upfront, you could have easily mobile-text Kelley that you just sent him some information via email.

 

Quick Checklist

These are some of the things you need to discuss with your contractor, consultant or remote employees:

  • Hours they are working
  • How much work (and what type of work) will be completed in those time periods (i.e. their project schedule)
  • How best to reach them in an urgent situation; in a normal situation; or just for status
  • What staff/status meetings they will be attending
  • How they are going to report their status
  • What is going to be included in their status report
  • What their delivery deadlines and quality requirements upon delivery
  • How quickly do you expect them to respond to your requests
  • What happens when they do not meet these expectations

The bottom line is to outline everything that you feel is important to you, and understand (up front) how your team is going to accomplish those items.  Get it in writing AND include the consequences of not meeting the agreement.

For example – if they do not meet the agreed upon schedule:

  • Do you intend to dock their pay?
  • Do they complete the assignment without additional pay?
  • Are they placed on a PIP  (Performance Improvement Plan or probation period)?

I know your situation is different. Why don’t we schedule an appointment, where I get to know more about your unique situation? And then I will be happy to make recommendations on what your best steps are moving forward. To schedule an appointment, book it HERE.

How do you deal with the pains of customer service?

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Today’s question came from a busy entrepreneur about his customer service plan.

How do you deal with the pains of customer service?

I work in the hospitality industry, and I spend a lot of money on what I call “guest investments” where I give some sort of discount, free merchandise, etc. in order to win back customers when something goes wrong. I can’t tell if it’s working or if I’m throwing money away. How does your business deal with the challenges of customer service and keeping people happy?

This question came up at a very appropriate time. I had recently discovered that my bank offered a “Private Bank Level” for clients that have 1 million dollars invested with the bank. At that level, they receive premiere customer series and 24 hour concierge service.

Consider doing this with your own customer service strategy. In an earlier article (Should I have specific segmented brands or one brand that does all at different price levels?) we discussed the Product Funnel.

Product Funnel Strategy for Customer Service

Give low-interaction help instructions for clients that are taking advantage of your free products and services. Low-interaction help instructions can be in the form of (but not limited to):

  • FAQ articles and cheat sheets
  • Community Discussion Groups
  • Email response within 2 days

As the client invests more in your products and services, they get more access to support.

Structure your customer service as a product line of service. Give premium service to the people that are actually doing the most business with you. This will transform the “pain of customer service” into a product or business of customer service.

Customer Referral and Loyalty Programs

Also, don’t wait until there is a problem to implement your customer service program.   Be proactive with customer referral and loyalty programs. Visualize your product funnel in there area and incorporate rewards programs based on the amount of business your client is currently doing with you. Use your rewards program to entice your customers to do more business or move into the next price-point of programs and service.

Creating a great referral/loyalty/retention program not only elevates your customer service focus and energy – it automatically solves the “pains of customer service” as well. Take time to clarify what your Mission Statement and vision is regarding Premiere Client Service. Start dealing with clients instead of “customers”. Start building raving fans that will ultimately market your products/services for you – and simply release the customers that do not fit in your plan.

One Size Doesn’t Fit All

When you clearly identify your niche or target market, some people will not fit. When someone doesn’t fit, there is only one thing that will make them happy. That one thing is to release them and direct them elsewhere.   This is where affiliated partners and business referrals come in.

You are still providing customer satisfactory solution – it’s just not with YOU. You are still making the client happy.

Quick summary:

  • Clarify your Vision of your target or ideal client
  • Create affiliated partnerships with those clients that are not ideal
  • Design a referral partnership agreement with those partners
  • Design a referral/loyalty/retention program for your target/ideal clients

I know your situation is different. Why don’t we schedule an appointment, where I get to know more about your unique situation? And then I will be happy to make recommendations on what your best steps are moving forward. To schedule an appointment, book it HERE.

 

 

Should I have specific segmented brands or one brand that does all at different price levels?

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Today’s question came from a busy entrepreneur about his marketing plan.

Should I have specific segmented brands or one brand that does all at different price levels?

All markets have different performance and cost needs. Should we have multiple product brands – i.e. low cost/low performance and mid/high or have one brand that can stretch across multiple performance levels and price according to options? It makes sense to economize the product manufacturing chain but, what is everyone’s experience when consolidating a full portfolio into a single brand lineup?

Your Brand should solve a specific problem for a specific niche or class of people. If you have multiple visions/missions you should have separate branding and marketing strategies. For example: Sarah has her Health Coach business and she also sells her own brand of peanut butter.   Sarah should have separate branding and marketing strategies for those very different product and businesses.

 

product funnel2Product Funnel Strategy

Within each separate brand – you should have a product funnel strategy that leads your target client up your product/service pricing structure. Normally people start off with free samples – to allow the target client to get to know you (like a first date). In Sarah’s example, she may offer a complimentary discovery health sessions, newsletters, articles, short audios/video for her coaching; and free samples of your peanut butter for her other brand.

 

Then you create some low, mid, high end offers for each separate brand. In Sarah’s example, she can create group workshops, subscriptions based programs, one-on-one coaching programs, and then high-end product bundles with personal trainers, personal chef, image consultant, and a high-end shopping spree when your health goals are met.
If you only want to sell your coaching and peanut butter to High-Profile, Affluent clients (that’s your target client) — then you advertize, market and visit only the places where the High-Profile, Affluent people are. Your price points are selected to match the budgets of your target niche/clients.

 

Do you have an umbrella Brand that covers all your products?

You will have an Umbrella Company that owns the Health Coach and Peanut Butter business. But the branding will be different. For instance, Kraft owns Kool-Aid, Velveeta, Miracle Whip and Maxwell House. But each of these products have their separate branding, target market and product Funnels.

 

I know your situation is different. Why don’t we schedule an appointment, where I get to know more about your unique situation? And then I will be happy to make recommendations on what your best steps are moving forward. To schedule an appointment, book it HERE.

 

 

Why Your Personal Brand Matters

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Why Your Personal Brand Matters

If you are an Olivia Pope or TV’s Scandal fan, then you already know why your personal brand matters.

Olivia Pope and Associates mission is clear and concise:

  • fixing problems and crises;
  • protecting and guarding public images and reputations
  • solving certain crimes in her clients’ interest

Her personal brand is wearing the white hat and suit. The white hat and suit is synonymous with “the good guy” and “saving the day”.   This personal brand is so aligned with her company missions that you know instinctively what she can do for you.

So the critical business lesson learned from this high-rating TV series is:

Have a crisp and simple brand message. And it doesn’t hurt if your personal brand carries over some additional subconscious messages.

 

Just like Olivia Pope, you have characteristics that define you; ways that you think of yourself and ways that others think of you. Effective personal branding isn’t about putting on a show or figuring out how to get the most financial reward. You have a brand just as much as you have a reputation.

How people see you matters.

“Personal branding is how we market ourselves to others,” says Donna DeBerry, a marketing and branding expert.

DeBerry’s has four tips to reach current and potential customers through personal branding:

  • Be seen online and off: Your customers have many choices, and you need to go to where they are. Whether that’s on Facebook or on a panel at a speaking engagement, it’s important you be seen and easily identified.
  • First and last impressions last 14 seconds: Condense and personalize your elevator pitch. How can you turn a greeting into communication that evangelizes your business to your customers?
  • Give people reasons to connect you with your company: Position yourself as a leader and your company as a pioneering endeavor. It could help you earn media attention and build your customer base.
  • Become known for something: What you say and do need to dovetail with what your company is known for.

 

Just like Olivia Pope, you want people to know exactly what you stand for, immediately upon seeing you.

I know your situation is different. Why don’t we schedule an appointment, where I get to know more about your unique situation? And then I will be happy to make recommendations on what your best steps are moving forward. To schedule an appointment, book it HERE.

With enough notice, it would be my honor to guest-speak at no cost to your group organization.

I have a presentation on “3 Keys to saying YES to everything but on your own terms”. To sign up for the complimentary course, go to www.lauraleerose.com/Say-Yes