Thank You Notes Are Not Only a Courtesy, They Can Lead to New Business

November 30, 2009

Today’s guest columnist, Andrea Nierenberg, discusses the importance of the personal note in business. This often-overlooked practice can make you stand out from the competition and nurture important business relationships at a time when electronic communication has become ubiquitous. The article is adapted from her monthly newsletter.

One of the easiest and most effective ways to stay in touch is with the power of the personal note with a “thank you” to a business associate. In research I’ve conducted, I ask the question, “How many of you send out personal notes?” I also ask, “How many of you receive personal notes or cards from clients or business associates?” The response indicates that few people take this practice seriously. As a follow up, I ask, “Has anyone received notes of appreciation, and how does that make you feel?” I trust you know the answer to this last question.

Here are eight opportunities to send a “thank you,” and when and how to do it effectively: Read more

Sherrie’s Blue Emails: What I Learned From My Bridge Director’s Consistent Email Communication

November 24, 2009

Just like clockwork, I received my twice-weekly email from Sherry, one of the bridge directors and instructors from my local duplicate club where I play.  For more than six months, since I returned to playing duplicate bridge, I have been receiving these reminders about the Tuesday and Thursday morning games.  “Are you playing tomorrow morning?” she’ll ask. Read on and you’ll understand what I’ve learned about business communication from Sherry. Read more

A Company Divided: Bridging the Generation Gap at Work Through the Power of Communication

November 16, 2009

By: Bea Fields

For those of you who do not know me, my name is Bea Fields , and I coach, consult and train executive level and senior manager level leaders for a living. There is one truth that I have discovered (not THE truth but one truth that I see every day in the work that I do as a leader.)

At the end of the day, your company will either sink or swim based on how well you communicate.

I am sure you have heard this 1,000 times…”Great communication is necessary for great leadership” or “We must communicate better if we want to be successful” , womp, womp, womp. The topic of communication has been beaten to death, so we have become numb to its importance. We go about our day not returning phone calls to customers, sending out curt, hurtful e-mails, turning a deaf ear to our employees and just basically shutting people out or cutting them off at the knees. Read more

What CEOs Can Learn About Employee Communications From the U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own”

November 14, 2009

I just returned from a joyous concert by the U.S. Army’s “Pershing” Band, as it is known, that was in town for its annual concert at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall.   As I sat there with friends tapping my feet and applauding every brassy patriotic song, I thought what a great lesson I was learning about communications.  And that’s this:  when you communicate with joy, you turn an audience into your biggest fans. Read more

Winning Media Interviews, Part IV: The Fine Art of “Bridging”

November 9, 2009

Reporters are more experienced than you are in an interview.  They should be.  They do it for a living.  They know the questions that are likely to make you squirm.

For example, a reporter will often lead you into areas that you would rather not talk about for any number of reasons.  Read more

Why is Coke, the #1 Brand in Economic Value, Only #12 in Mentions Online?

November 2, 2009

You’d think that Coca-Cola, long #1 on Interbrand’s “Best Global Brands List,” would achieve the same prominence on the Internet.  But, no, Coke only ranks 12^th based on number of mentions online in 2009, according to an analysis by Sysmos , a company that provides business intelligence on social media. Read more

• Try Different — Seth Godin

  The usual mantra is to 'try harder'. Trying harder is impossible when you're already trying as hard as you can.

  But you can always try different.

  Years ago, I was creating trivia questions for a product we built for Prodigy. We had a 99% accuracy rate in doing the questions. Which was great, except there were 1800 questions in a batch, which meant 18 wrong each time, which was totally and completely unacceptable. These were honest mistakes, made by smart people working as hard as they could.

  No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't do better than 99%. So we switched our system completely and did it in a totally different way. Same number of people, same number of hours, 100% accuracy.

  If it's not working, harder might not be the answer.

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