I am so excited to have two new programs starting in July!! The first is one I have been pondering for months. It came up after reading several really good books on leadership and business. I just wanted to share them with everyone. I decided to do just that! You can join my new Leader's Book Club. It's starting in mid July and the first book is "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" by Patrick Lencioni. The club will meet twice per month and the goal is to put the ideas in the books, which are great, into action. How many books do you read where you think -- this would be great, and then life takes over and you don't ever get a chance to take action. Well, this club is about action. Learning and action. The tele-class calls will give everyone a chance to talk about the actions they have taken or their ideas for taking action.
And the cost -- well, it's minimal -- $15.00 per month for two club meetings. Yes, only $15 per month. Join me -- we are going to have fun!
http://www.compassroseconsulting.com/leaders-book-club.html
Join the Leader's Book Club Today!!
Ok, the other opportunity -- is my new Business and Marketing Mentorship. This program is incredible because it combines goal setting, strategic planning with marketing training and implementation. So, those are all the features --- what are the benefits-- well you will increase your business, work more efficiently, and balance your time between work, play and family better. This 4 month mentorship program combines training and mentoring/coaching. You will learn new ideas and new skills, have time to implement them and get feedback from the program leader as well as the other participants. We are offering this program to associations here in New Jersey for their members. People in similar businesses can teach and collaborate with each other on so many things. And, I am offering it via tele-class and discussion forum. Both are starting in July. Right now we have two groups forming here in New Jersey -- one for holistic health practitioners and one for artists. The tele-class will be open to all business owners.
For all of the details:
http://www.compassroseconsulting.com/business-marketing-mentorship.html
I am excited to be offering both programs and would love to have you join us!
Talk with you soon.
All the best,
Donna
Friday, June 22, 2007
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Growing the Seeds of Your Business, Nurturing the Blossoms
Growing the Seeds of Your Business: Nurturing the Blossoms
Donna L. Price
Compass Rose Consulting, LLC
Copyright © 2007, Donna Price
Growing a business takes time and commitment and for most it means new clients/customers. New clients or customers, means obtaining new contacts or new leads. There are many ways to develop new business leads. As you obtain a lead or prospect they need to be nurtured. Leads or prospects can come from your own networking, referrals from current clients/customers, advertising, workshops and presentations; Business Expo’s or trade shows, to name just a few sources.
One of the biggest mistakes that business owners make is to get leads and then drop them. Business cards are collected and then nothing is done with them. They go into a drawer or even worse -- the garbage. Valuable time is spent networking or doing a presentation or standing at your booth at a business expo and then if there is no follow-up it was almost a total waste. I have done this myself, but not anymore. It is not worth my time or money if I am not going to follow up. I have also witnessed and experienced the lack of follow up over and over again with other business owners. I have attended many networking meetings and Business Expo’s/trade shows and given my business card to each business there. I typically only receive one or two follow up notes or calls, tops! I remember making follow up calls to people after an event and receiving great feedback from them that I had called. One person said she was going to refer to me just because I had followed up with her and that I was the only person that had called from the event. Certainly there is still benefit to you in building relationships and getting exposure for your business but if you want to accelerate the response you want to do good follow-up.
There are many ways you can nurture the relationships that are just being formed. Like a seed planted, you need to water the seed, fertilize the seed. Send a personal note following your first meeting. A handwritten note with no sales pitch, just “nice to meet you” is memorable and will gain you recognition. Share an article, a tip sheet as a second follow-up. No matter what your business you can develop a tip sheet. The top ten tips for…. This can become invaluable to you as a tool for sharing with your prospects. It helps to build the relationship and build you as an expert in your field. For people to trust your service they need to see that you know your business. Articles, special reports, tip sheets can all help you to do this. Continue to follow up with additional articles and information sheets. Even a relevant article that you see in a magazine or newspaper is thoughtful and demonstrates your interest and knowledge of the prospect.
Follow up is a relationship building step it is not a sales call. You aren’t there yet with this new prospect. First you need to find out more about them and offer them value through your resources, articles, and reports.
Anther excellent tool for staying in touch with a potential client is through a newsletter. My preference is an E-Zine or email newsletter. The cost is minimal the work to get the newsletter out is also relatively easy. The choice of course is yours and could depend upon your
clientele. If your clients are a group that is not on the internet, using email, then an email newsletter is certainly not going to work. Print newsletters are more typically fee based and not free due to the high costs. A newsletter gives you a regular way of staying “in front” of your prospect. The newsletter continues to build your expertise, both essential keys in building your relationship.
Keeping in touch is like watering the garden. The relationship starts to grow. But how do you get to the bloom? Or how do you convert the prospect into a client? First, you want to have many seeds in your garden, but the right kinds of seeds. Having a prospect list of people that don’t need or use your service is like planting the wrong seeds. They aren’t going to grow because they needed a different type of soil. Having many of the right seeds means that you can have different plants blooming at different times. Just like any garden some plants are ready to harvest in the late summer, some in the late fall.
Getting to the bloom is by continuing to offer them good service and good information that is relevant to their needs and their business. You are able to do this because as you have gotten to know them you have focused on learning about their business, their needs and challenges. This gives you the ability to provide them with resources that fulfill that need or challenge. As you build the relationship you can then offer a special discount, a new client discount, some enticing offer to bring the prospect in your door. You know that once you are serving a client that your service is good and they will continue to be clients.
The other gardening you need to do is to nurture your current client relationships. One very effective strategy is using a discount card similar to the cards that many other businesses use. Discount cards give the customer a discount or free service after they buy a certain number of times or items. I have a couple for coffee houses, buy 10 cups of coffee and receive one free and one for a book store. They work for big companies like Starbucks and Borders Books and they also work for small companies. The reason we see these programs all over the place is that they work.
A second important nurturing approach for current clients is to offer a referral program. This type of program asks clients for referrals and rewards them when they give a referral. You can design the program however you like. One colleague that I know creates referral maps so that she knows where each of her clients came from, who referred them, who they referred, etc. One client could result in many clients. That’s why customer service is so important. The referral program concept is a thank you for clients sharing your service with friends and colleagues. One strategy is a thank you card and gift certificate for dinner. The “thank you” depends upon the amount of profit. For some businesses a referral could result in large amounts of income, thousands of dollars. In this case, the “thank you” is bigger. For other businesses the profit is smaller and the “thank you” is smaller: perhaps a gift certificate for a café or coffee house. It can also be a discount on your services. Refer a friend and receive $10 off your next visit. Refer 10 friends and receive a free service. Be creative, but remember to say thank you.
These are two strategies for growing your business: nurturing your relationships both the existing relationships and the new ones. Build your business with your excellence in service through referrals and incentives. Establish a database or tracking system, to know where your clients are coming from and what is working and what is not. Spend time and energy in places where it is working. Focus on it and build upon it. Try new strategies, evaluate them and keep the ones that work and that are fun. Even if you dislike marketing and business building make it a game
Donna Price, M.S.; M.Ed. President of Compass Rose Consulting, LLC, provides business coaching to business owners/leaders, including holistic health practitioners, using her experience as a senior level manager for 18+ years and extensive background working with people to achieve their goals, training in business and marketing. Donna offers individual and group coaching and business development programs. Donna’s new program the Business and Marketing Mentorship is comprehensive business building program. Sign up today for a complimentary initial strategy session: dprice@compassroseconsulting.com or call 973-948-7673. http://www.compassroseconsulting.com; Sign up for Donna’s periodic e-zine “Build Your Business Success, NOW! At: www.BuildYourBusinessSuccessNow.com
Donna L. Price
Compass Rose Consulting, LLC
Copyright © 2007, Donna Price
Growing a business takes time and commitment and for most it means new clients/customers. New clients or customers, means obtaining new contacts or new leads. There are many ways to develop new business leads. As you obtain a lead or prospect they need to be nurtured. Leads or prospects can come from your own networking, referrals from current clients/customers, advertising, workshops and presentations; Business Expo’s or trade shows, to name just a few sources.
One of the biggest mistakes that business owners make is to get leads and then drop them. Business cards are collected and then nothing is done with them. They go into a drawer or even worse -- the garbage. Valuable time is spent networking or doing a presentation or standing at your booth at a business expo and then if there is no follow-up it was almost a total waste. I have done this myself, but not anymore. It is not worth my time or money if I am not going to follow up. I have also witnessed and experienced the lack of follow up over and over again with other business owners. I have attended many networking meetings and Business Expo’s/trade shows and given my business card to each business there. I typically only receive one or two follow up notes or calls, tops! I remember making follow up calls to people after an event and receiving great feedback from them that I had called. One person said she was going to refer to me just because I had followed up with her and that I was the only person that had called from the event. Certainly there is still benefit to you in building relationships and getting exposure for your business but if you want to accelerate the response you want to do good follow-up.
There are many ways you can nurture the relationships that are just being formed. Like a seed planted, you need to water the seed, fertilize the seed. Send a personal note following your first meeting. A handwritten note with no sales pitch, just “nice to meet you” is memorable and will gain you recognition. Share an article, a tip sheet as a second follow-up. No matter what your business you can develop a tip sheet. The top ten tips for…. This can become invaluable to you as a tool for sharing with your prospects. It helps to build the relationship and build you as an expert in your field. For people to trust your service they need to see that you know your business. Articles, special reports, tip sheets can all help you to do this. Continue to follow up with additional articles and information sheets. Even a relevant article that you see in a magazine or newspaper is thoughtful and demonstrates your interest and knowledge of the prospect.
Follow up is a relationship building step it is not a sales call. You aren’t there yet with this new prospect. First you need to find out more about them and offer them value through your resources, articles, and reports.
Anther excellent tool for staying in touch with a potential client is through a newsletter. My preference is an E-Zine or email newsletter. The cost is minimal the work to get the newsletter out is also relatively easy. The choice of course is yours and could depend upon your
clientele. If your clients are a group that is not on the internet, using email, then an email newsletter is certainly not going to work. Print newsletters are more typically fee based and not free due to the high costs. A newsletter gives you a regular way of staying “in front” of your prospect. The newsletter continues to build your expertise, both essential keys in building your relationship.
Keeping in touch is like watering the garden. The relationship starts to grow. But how do you get to the bloom? Or how do you convert the prospect into a client? First, you want to have many seeds in your garden, but the right kinds of seeds. Having a prospect list of people that don’t need or use your service is like planting the wrong seeds. They aren’t going to grow because they needed a different type of soil. Having many of the right seeds means that you can have different plants blooming at different times. Just like any garden some plants are ready to harvest in the late summer, some in the late fall.
Getting to the bloom is by continuing to offer them good service and good information that is relevant to their needs and their business. You are able to do this because as you have gotten to know them you have focused on learning about their business, their needs and challenges. This gives you the ability to provide them with resources that fulfill that need or challenge. As you build the relationship you can then offer a special discount, a new client discount, some enticing offer to bring the prospect in your door. You know that once you are serving a client that your service is good and they will continue to be clients.
The other gardening you need to do is to nurture your current client relationships. One very effective strategy is using a discount card similar to the cards that many other businesses use. Discount cards give the customer a discount or free service after they buy a certain number of times or items. I have a couple for coffee houses, buy 10 cups of coffee and receive one free and one for a book store. They work for big companies like Starbucks and Borders Books and they also work for small companies. The reason we see these programs all over the place is that they work.
A second important nurturing approach for current clients is to offer a referral program. This type of program asks clients for referrals and rewards them when they give a referral. You can design the program however you like. One colleague that I know creates referral maps so that she knows where each of her clients came from, who referred them, who they referred, etc. One client could result in many clients. That’s why customer service is so important. The referral program concept is a thank you for clients sharing your service with friends and colleagues. One strategy is a thank you card and gift certificate for dinner. The “thank you” depends upon the amount of profit. For some businesses a referral could result in large amounts of income, thousands of dollars. In this case, the “thank you” is bigger. For other businesses the profit is smaller and the “thank you” is smaller: perhaps a gift certificate for a café or coffee house. It can also be a discount on your services. Refer a friend and receive $10 off your next visit. Refer 10 friends and receive a free service. Be creative, but remember to say thank you.
These are two strategies for growing your business: nurturing your relationships both the existing relationships and the new ones. Build your business with your excellence in service through referrals and incentives. Establish a database or tracking system, to know where your clients are coming from and what is working and what is not. Spend time and energy in places where it is working. Focus on it and build upon it. Try new strategies, evaluate them and keep the ones that work and that are fun. Even if you dislike marketing and business building make it a game
Donna Price, M.S.; M.Ed. President of Compass Rose Consulting, LLC, provides business coaching to business owners/leaders, including holistic health practitioners, using her experience as a senior level manager for 18+ years and extensive background working with people to achieve their goals, training in business and marketing. Donna offers individual and group coaching and business development programs. Donna’s new program the Business and Marketing Mentorship is comprehensive business building program. Sign up today for a complimentary initial strategy session: dprice@compassroseconsulting.com or call 973-948-7673. http://www.compassroseconsulting.com; Sign up for Donna’s periodic e-zine “Build Your Business Success, NOW! At: www.BuildYourBusinessSuccessNow.com
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Exciting things are happening....
Can you believe that summer is just about here! We are having beautiful days here in New Jersey. Gardens are blooming and flowers are fragrant.
I am moving into new ventures! My last newsletter announced my new "Leader's Book Club" and it is starting up soon, but I have decided to make it a part of a bigger project that I will be launching over the next month. I want to tell you about it, BUT, I want to make sure all the pieces are in place before I send you to the new site! I am starting to build it today. Yes, I build websites, mostly my own, but occasionally for other colleagues. My favorite way to build a site for someone is to set it up and get all of their initial content there and then teach them how to update and maintain it themselves. Did you know you could build your own site? Well you can. Right now, my favorite site host with a site building tool is Site Sell: http://www.sitesell.com/Compassrose.html
It has great tutorials, optimizing tools, blog, autoresponder, newsletter feature and more. Check them out.
Anyway, a bit off topic-- my new project---it's going to have something for everyone. Marketing, leadership, strategy, business building...and more.
I will keep you in the "loop" as I prepare for the launch. Be sure to look for preview teleseminars and webcasts, info in my newsletters, and lots of goodies.....
I have a great article this month for you on Cold Calling. If you are like me then you hesitate or procrastinate to make cold calls, maybe even warm calls.... so read on for some great tips.
*****************************************************************
Cold Calling: The Most Unpopular Sales Subject
By
Leslie Buterin
www.ColdCallingExecutives.com
A recent Wall Street Journal article, lead with, “The cold call won't die.” Couldn’t help but wonder, why anyone would want the cold call to die in the first place.
Sellers of professional services look for 20-25 new clients a year. What faster way to reach them than by telephone? With the right attitude and delivery on the part of the seller, those …
90-seconds of phone time you have with prospects are pure gold.
We’re not talking about the “burn and churn tactics” of call centers that count on 300% + turnover of telemarketers each year; pay low wages, give the new hire a “script to read from” and call it “training.” We’re talking about sales professionals who cold call people they haven’t met yet to let prospects know about the value gleaned by those who take advantage of the sellers’ products and services.
Here’s a radical action step for you.
For one week do a minimum of 5 calls a week or a maximum of 5 calls a day. No, that’s not heresy, it’s educational, and your short cut to success.
Ask yourself, how human do you feel after non-stop dialing-for-dollars all morning? If you feel wrung out, spent, and down on cold calling how do you think the people on the other end of the line feel listening to you?
Remember when broker’s used to call with hot stock tips and sell financial products for quick commissions?
Savvy financial services professionals don’t and never did operate that way.
They work toward building relationships with clients for lifelong financial planning and service. They “connect” with the prospects as people with real needs that these professionals are in a unique position to serve.
“Burn and churn” tactics have contributed to giving “cold calling” a bad name. If you are want to leverage cold calls for great profit and benefit for all, you’re better off making fewer calls and positioning yourself as the expert in your field that you are; who has important, valuable services to offer prospects.
Forward this article to friends—they’ll thank you for it!
For your mini-course “Jealously Guarded Secrets to Cold Calling Company Presidents” visit www.ColdCallingExecutives.com ! Or call Cold Calling Expert, Lead New Business Development Coach, Leslie Buterin (like butterin’ bread) at (816) 554-3674 9-3 CST (that’s Kansas City/Chicago Time)
****************************************************************
Do you read magazines? Well if you do, you can help a stellar program that serves homeless individuals and families, here in the community I live in. They have a great deal for you to save money on your magazine subscriptions AND at the same time give to a great organization. Visit: http://samaritaninn.org
Right in the center of the page! Click on the fundraiser and save money on your magazines. You can even use it to extend your current subscription!!
Thanks for helping.
Have a great day!
Thanks for being a part of my growing community -- over 5800! And growing each day......
All the best,
Donna
Donna Price
Compass Rose Consulting, LLC
PO Box 615
Branchville, NJ 07826
973-948-7673
Everyday is a great day to move your vision forward with clarity, action and commitment.....
*****************************************************************
I am moving into new ventures! My last newsletter announced my new "Leader's Book Club" and it is starting up soon, but I have decided to make it a part of a bigger project that I will be launching over the next month. I want to tell you about it, BUT, I want to make sure all the pieces are in place before I send you to the new site! I am starting to build it today. Yes, I build websites, mostly my own, but occasionally for other colleagues. My favorite way to build a site for someone is to set it up and get all of their initial content there and then teach them how to update and maintain it themselves. Did you know you could build your own site? Well you can. Right now, my favorite site host with a site building tool is Site Sell: http://www.sitesell.com/Compassrose.html
It has great tutorials, optimizing tools, blog, autoresponder, newsletter feature and more. Check them out.
Anyway, a bit off topic-- my new project---it's going to have something for everyone. Marketing, leadership, strategy, business building...and more.
I will keep you in the "loop" as I prepare for the launch. Be sure to look for preview teleseminars and webcasts, info in my newsletters, and lots of goodies.....
I have a great article this month for you on Cold Calling. If you are like me then you hesitate or procrastinate to make cold calls, maybe even warm calls.... so read on for some great tips.
*****************************************************************
Cold Calling: The Most Unpopular Sales Subject
By
Leslie Buterin
www.ColdCallingExecutives.com
A recent Wall Street Journal article, lead with, “The cold call won't die.” Couldn’t help but wonder, why anyone would want the cold call to die in the first place.
Sellers of professional services look for 20-25 new clients a year. What faster way to reach them than by telephone? With the right attitude and delivery on the part of the seller, those …
90-seconds of phone time you have with prospects are pure gold.
We’re not talking about the “burn and churn tactics” of call centers that count on 300% + turnover of telemarketers each year; pay low wages, give the new hire a “script to read from” and call it “training.” We’re talking about sales professionals who cold call people they haven’t met yet to let prospects know about the value gleaned by those who take advantage of the sellers’ products and services.
Here’s a radical action step for you.
For one week do a minimum of 5 calls a week or a maximum of 5 calls a day. No, that’s not heresy, it’s educational, and your short cut to success.
Ask yourself, how human do you feel after non-stop dialing-for-dollars all morning? If you feel wrung out, spent, and down on cold calling how do you think the people on the other end of the line feel listening to you?
Remember when broker’s used to call with hot stock tips and sell financial products for quick commissions?
Savvy financial services professionals don’t and never did operate that way.
They work toward building relationships with clients for lifelong financial planning and service. They “connect” with the prospects as people with real needs that these professionals are in a unique position to serve.
“Burn and churn” tactics have contributed to giving “cold calling” a bad name. If you are want to leverage cold calls for great profit and benefit for all, you’re better off making fewer calls and positioning yourself as the expert in your field that you are; who has important, valuable services to offer prospects.
Forward this article to friends—they’ll thank you for it!
For your mini-course “Jealously Guarded Secrets to Cold Calling Company Presidents” visit www.ColdCallingExecutives.com ! Or call Cold Calling Expert, Lead New Business Development Coach, Leslie Buterin (like butterin’ bread) at (816) 554-3674 9-3 CST (that’s Kansas City/Chicago Time)
****************************************************************
Do you read magazines? Well if you do, you can help a stellar program that serves homeless individuals and families, here in the community I live in. They have a great deal for you to save money on your magazine subscriptions AND at the same time give to a great organization. Visit: http://samaritaninn.org
Right in the center of the page! Click on the fundraiser and save money on your magazines. You can even use it to extend your current subscription!!
Thanks for helping.
Have a great day!
Thanks for being a part of my growing community -- over 5800! And growing each day......
All the best,
Donna
Donna Price
Compass Rose Consulting, LLC
PO Box 615
Branchville, NJ 07826
973-948-7673
Everyday is a great day to move your vision forward with clarity, action and commitment.....
*****************************************************************
The neglected blog
WOW, has this blog been neglected!! I know I have thought of many things to write to put here over the past few weeks but just haven't done it. One was a story I heard on the news about desk rage. Have you heard of it? Yes, desk rage, similar to road rage. I guess people are just losing it at their desks. It made me think about how that happens. What is going on in the environment that results in "desk rage". Is it all the person's responsibility, well yes it is, but--- are other people contributing factors to the rage. My guess is that many parties are involved and that at the root of the rage is communication. Miscommunication, lack of communication, poor communication.
Is your workplace one in which the communication works well? Where people can have real, and honest conversations? Where ideas are heard and valued? Where staff are coached and encouraged? All of these factors result in work places that work. Good communication is essential in creating a highly productive work environment, and one that people WANT to be a part of.
Desk Rage, a totally new concept for me. I'm going to continue pondering it. But I do know that leaders that work to faciliatate work environments that have good communication are on the right path to preventing desk rage.
Welcome back to the blog! I have some exciting new things in the work and I will being posting info here!!
Donna
Is your workplace one in which the communication works well? Where people can have real, and honest conversations? Where ideas are heard and valued? Where staff are coached and encouraged? All of these factors result in work places that work. Good communication is essential in creating a highly productive work environment, and one that people WANT to be a part of.
Desk Rage, a totally new concept for me. I'm going to continue pondering it. But I do know that leaders that work to faciliatate work environments that have good communication are on the right path to preventing desk rage.
Welcome back to the blog! I have some exciting new things in the work and I will being posting info here!!
Donna
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