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Talk about poor business communication; is this likely to make me a customer?

Jeannette Paladino — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:37:09 +0000

I received an email today that I found quite astounding from a financial advisor at a very well known global wealth management company. Here it is in its entirety:

“Dear Paladino,

Just a quick note to let you know that I have entered your e-mail address into my address book so that I can stay in touch with you on a frequent basis. As I periodically run across information that I feel you would be interested in, I will forward it on to you.

I hope everything is going well for you. Please feel free to contact me whenever I can be of assistance.

Sincerely,”

The name of the sender and her company shall remain nameless, not so much to protect the guilty, but because I don’t think everyone in this well respected company sends out emails like this. First, it would be nice to be called “Ms. Paladino.” Secondly, who gave her permission to enter my email address in her address book? I don’t want to hear from her on a frequent basis — or at all, thank you.

This email is not only rude, it is against the law. I guess she feels letting me know that I’m on her mailing list implies my opt-in. I quickly scrolled to the bottom of the email after all the mandatory compliance copy and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that I could opt out of receiving messages from her. Bingo. Gone.

Email is at the core of our business lives. It is a wonderful tool to reach busy people who don’t have time to return phone calls, or are enroute to someplace. It’s easy to shoot back a response when you’re on the road. And there is nothing better than email in scheduling a meeting of a group of people. I-calendars are wonderful.

But I’m also seeing more misuse of email. The message I received from the financial advisor was certainly an egregious example. But I’m also getting tons of emails from social media “experts” with offers of books, seminars and products. It’s too much selling and not enough good information.

Those of us who are bloggers should also examine our motives. Are we blogging to provide added value and information people can use? Or are we intruding on people with messages that are totally self-serving? Sure, we want the personal recognition. But let’s remember to mind our manners and remember that people have invited us into their lives when they subscribe to our blogs.

I Wuz Robbed! PGA Tournament Leader Gets Knocked Out on a Technicality

Jeannette Paladino — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 04:28:31 +0000

[tweetmeme]With a nod to the phrase attributed to the manager of boxer Max Schmeling who clearly out-boxed Jack Sharkey in 1932 but lost the heavyweight title, was golfer Dustin Johnson robbed of chance to win the PGA Championship on Sunday on a course studded with more than 1,000 bunkers?

Was Dustin Johnson robbed of a major title?

If you didn’t watch, Johnson was leading until the 18^th hole, when he lost a shot but gained a chance for a 3-way playoff for the championship. Not to be. Officials told him that he had grounded his club in a bunker, which is not allowed. As the stunned TV commentators stated, the area certainly didn’t look like a bunker – it was tiny piece of earth trampled for four days by spectators. Instead of a chance for glory, Johnson was assessed a two-stroke penalty and finished fifth.

The Rules of Play clearly state that areas designed as bunkers will be inside as well as outside the ropes (where his ball landed) and signs were posted in the locker room, so Johnson, as he admitted, should have been more careful. However, the commentators didn’t mention, nor have I seen anything in the press (it’s late Sunday night) about blue dots defining the margin of a bunker “where necessary,” according to the Rules. Well, this forlorn patch of ground seemed deserving of the dots.

Here is the thing: should a PGA official have communicated to the golfer that he was in a bunker and not just on a scrap of land with no clearly defined boundaries? What about the rules of fair play? This was the opportunity of a lifetime for a young, and upcoming golfer. On the very last hole of the tournament, would telling him be bending the rules?

What do you think?

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Stepping Into Your Power: The Six and a Half Steps

Gail Blanke — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:00:31 +0000

[tweetmeme]This is exactly the right time for you to step forward; it’s not a moment too soon or a moment too late. So what are you waiting for?

Gail Blanke

Waiting is a national pastime. We wait for the mood to strike us, we wait for the weather to change, we wait for someone to strike up the band and give us our cue to start singing.

Some of us are waiting for them to get about us. You know, about how good we are. They should recognize us and promote us and celebrate us. They should discover us. But that’s not how it works.

Here’s how it works: People don’t get it about us until we get it about ourselves. Until we step out of the stands and onto the field — even before we’re invited.

I know a woman named Jenny who should be ready to move forward in her career. All the signs point to this being the right time to take the step: She’s recognized as an expert in her field, her company is open to promoting her and, most importantly, she’s lost enthusiasm for her current job.

“C’mon, Jenny, let’s go for it,” I said, somewhat impatiently. We’d been having the conversation about moving forward for weeks. “I know, I know, I should make my move pretty soon. But I’m just waiting for my son to get a little older.”

“Wait, how old is he now?” I asked.

“Well, he’ll be 30 on his next birthday. But I just want to be sure…” she trailed off.

Many of us are waiting.

We’re waiting for the signal, or for the invitation, or to be discovered, or for the planets to be aligned before we take that step to change our lives or our world. We put our power and our futures on hold and wait for the right moment to present itself. And while we’re waiting, our lives, our opportunities, our big moments, float on by. As I’ve learned, sometimes the hard way, moments don’t present themselves; you’ve got to go out and grab hold of them. And that takes courage. The Good news is — you’ve got it.

Go Out and Grab Hold of Your Opportunities

Here are six simple steps to help you move forward with velocity and create a life that’s as good as you can imagine it.

Tap into the incredible power of a vision. Walt Disney said, ”Build the castle first!” What’s your “castle, your vision for a terrific career and a fulfilling life? Ask yourself that all-important question: “How good could I make it?” Flesh out your vision, color it in. If you can feel the magic, you can go the distance – every time.
Let go. Let go of the negative assumptions, the doubts, the fear of failing, the times when you came up short – anything that would keep you from bringing your vision to life. To get yourself in the “letting go” mood, throw out fifty things! (“Throw Out Fifty Things” is the name of my newest book that was published in March.)
Make a list of the “Defining Moments” in your life and your work – those moments when you made the tough decision, pulled it out of the fire – or just plain got through. Own those moments. They form a pattern of courage – and prove that you have everything you need to step forward with a bold spirit – today.
Adopt an entrepreneurial spirit. Be a risk-taker, be passionate, resilient, unstoppable and above all, agile. Never think that what you already know is enough. Never become entrenched. You can’t grow if you don’t change – and you can’t change if you hang on to the past. As my father always told me, “Stay light on your feet and ready to dance. The world is spinning too fast for you to become flat-footed!”
Develop your own personal brand. Know who you are, who you aren’t and what you stand for. Don’t be afraid to be unique. The world belongs not to the one who fits in but to the one who stands out. Remember, if enough people love ya, the ones who don’t, don’t matter… Complete this sentence: “I’m ____________ and I’m the one who…”
Learn to distinguish between “fact and interpretation” in your life and your work. Einstein said, “Ultimately, there are very few facts.” Our lives are awash in interpretations and most of them are negative. Make up empowering interpretations for the things that occur in your life and your work that propel you forward. Remember, there’s no way it is….there’s only the way you say it is.

6½. Find your song and sing it. Identify your own “power song” — the one that intensifies your courage, reminds you of how good you are, of the fact that you are absolutely one-of-a-kind and thoroughly unforgettable.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Gail Blanke is the award winning, best-selling author of Throw Out Fifty Things; Clear the Cutter, Find Your Life.

Editor’s note: I was inspired by a talk that coach and motivator Gail Blanke gave describing how to unclutter our lives so that we see ourselves as uniquely ready to step forward into the challenges and opportunities of the moment, to let go of the “life plaque” that clogs the arteries of our lives – and find the energy and optimism to move into the next and greatest segment of our lives. As she also says, “Don’t disqualify yourself from the race before it even begins. You’re here to compete, not sit on the sidelines.”

Letter Writing is Not Dead

Jeannette Paladino — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:00:54 +0000

[tweetmeme]I’m constantly surprised that a post I wrote almost a year ago entitled: “Is Letter Writing Dead?” is consistently at the top of key words that bring people to my blog.

I received a letter today (OK, a direct mail piece) from L.L. Bean asking if I would like to register to receive emails from them with product information and special deals. Now I believe that the company has my email address because I’ve ordered from them online and received a receipt online.

Letter writing is alive and well

I think they sent a letter because it was more likely to catch my attention – which it obviously did because I opened it. Much as we complain about the junk mail we receive, there sure is a lot less of it than the barrage of emails that we get every day.

It’s surprising how many people are searching for variations on “letter.” For the fun it of, I went into Google AdWords to check out searches with that word. In the past month, the simple term “business letter” was searched 1 million times tied with “example letter” and “reference letter.” The “thank you letter” was close behind with 823,000. That warms my heart to think that people are still writing thank you letters as discussed by my good friend Andrea Nierenberg in a blog she wrote for me entitled “Thank You Notes Are Not Only a Courtesy, They Can Lead to New Business.”

Younger people aren’t even reading email as they turn to Facebook to communicate with friends or pop them an instant message on their smart phones. Wouldn’t it be a hoot to learn that a vendor might have a better chance of getting their attention with an old-fashioned letter? I love the idea. Long live letter writing!

Word of Mouth (WOM) is Hot. Or, the More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same

Jeannette Paladino — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 22:52:58 +0000

[tweetmeme]Word of Mouth (WOM) marketing is the newest buzzword, so it seems. Michael Stelzner devoted a column to it in Social Media Examiner today when reviewing location-based social networks like Foursquare. And no less an authority than McKinsey, the consulting firm, has carried two articles about WOM in recent months.

Social networks are providing a natural platform for marketers to try out coupons, contests and giveaways to generate buzz and sales. You’d think that they had invented something brand new.

Word of Mouth (WOM) the new buzzword

I’d like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the woman who virtually invented WOM, or viral marketing, way before the Internet enabled legions of communities on Twitter and Facebook to spread news around the world at the speed of sound.

Viral Marketing

In the 1980s, Linda Pezzano got the assignment to promote an obscure board game, called Trivial Pursuit. Linda was a friend, and before her untimely death in 1999, she showed me a presentation that she gave at marketing forums about how she reinvented the way games are marketed through viral marketing. Selchow & Righter, which bought the rights from the Canadian inventor, couldn’t afford traditional advertising. On a PR budget of $40,000 (about $88,000 today), Linda developed a program that generated sales of 1 million sets in the first year – an astounding and unimaginable number – without a penny spent on advertising.

The Story of How She Did It

What she did then is commonplace now, so let me tell you the story of how she did it. Linda convinced the company to let her send the game to the 70+ Hollywood stars mentioned in the game, such as Gregory Peck, James Mason and Pat Boone who liked playing it so much they sent her letters of thanks, which she then proceeded to use in her promotions. She also sent teaser mailings to 1,800 top buyers who would be attending the industry’s major trade show, the 1983 New York Toy Fair. She also sent sets to radio talk show hosts and staged game-playing events at parks, bars, restaurants and ski clubs to get WOM going. The rest, as they say, is history, with Trivial Pursuit becoming one of the most successful board games ever launched.

I just want to point out that many of the marketing techniques in use today in social media aren’t new. We are standing on the shoulders of pioneers like Linda Pezzano, in viral marketing, John Caples in direct marketing, and Edward L. Bernays, long recognized as the “father of public relations.” They achieved great things without the Internet, proving that original ideas are still the currency of successful marketing campaigns.

Proven Sales Techniques are the Lifeblood of a Business

Michael Yublosky — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 15:00:22 +0000

[tweetmeme]The lifeblood of a business is sales. Proven sales and marketing techniques are as valid today for the small business owner as they were before the social media revolution. They will attract customers and fill your piggy bank. I learned this the hard way.

Proven sales techniques will attract customers and fill your piggy bank

I reluctantly became an outside salesperson some 30 years ago during the recession in the early 80′s. I was out of work, almost broke, new house and daughter, stay at home wife, etc. My resumes went unanswered. Eventually I secured a starting sales position with a top publicly held company. I went through a professional in-home sales training course, highlighted by a trip to New York City.

Instructors told attendees to ensure that both husband and wife were present and sitting around a comfortable table in their home. We would then make a carefully orchestrated presentation. They also emphasized handling every known objection. This would lead to a one-time sales close. Balderdash!

I already knew that selling is not a one-way street. One of the best ways to establish two-way communications with customers and potential clients is by asking open-ended questions that don’t allow a mere yes or no response. Let your prospect or customer do most of the talking. Listen, observe and learn. They will tell you what they are interested in.

In that entry-level sales job, I dealt with educated people in a higher income bracket. They could easily see through the high-pressure smoke screen. I analyzed the situation and applied the above methods. I asked questions and met with one or both spouses where they wished, applied low pressure consultative sales tactics, came back a second time, etc. In short, I did whatever I needed to make them feel comfortable with the product and this most often led to a sale. I diverged from the normal routine and had a successful sales career spanning almost three decades.

Nowadays, you can begin the conversation with prospects on the web by starting a blog, an e-mail campaign, newsletter service, series of videos or other suitable vehicles to communicate your company’s news and information. Become known as an expert in your field, the go-to person. In all these communications, request and promptly reply to feedback.

Combine these with innovative marketing techniques that separate you from your competition. Run contests or offer prizes. When I owned a retail store, we promoted a student discount for customers who achieved a specific grade point average during a grading period. This generated free publicity from all the high schools in our area!

As I wrote in my blog earlier this year “Superior Customer Service,” reducing customer stress as well as promoting customer service will succeed over cutting price and high-pressure tactics every day of the week.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Michael Yublosky, MBA, is a successful self taught do-it-yourself Web master and E-Marketer. He combines 30+ years of professional consultative sales experience with sales and marketing management, training, coaching/mentoring. Michael shares his knowledge with similarly minded small business owners and managers as well as self-employed entrepreneurs through classes and seminars. His free tips and down loadable PDF files can be viewed at DIY Web E-Marketing.

A Resource: Social Media Marketing Links

Jeannette Paladino — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:45:10 +0000

[tweetmeme]If you’re into social media, you will probably find this list of social media links to be helpful. Thanks to Silicon Beach Training for compiling it. There are no doubt other popular sites that are missing, but it’s pretty comprehensive. Feel free to add your own favorites.

Why is the Business News Media So Far Behind on Social Networks?

Jeannette Paladino — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 02:40:04 +0000

[tweetmeme]Steve Forbes, CEO of Forbes Magazine, is asking his employees to promote his account on Twitter so he gets more followers. I’m all for companies enlisting their employees as brand ambassadors. And Forbes is certainly one of the best-known brands in reporting business news – Steve Forbes having been a presidential candidate and scion of one of the most famous media families in the business.

Steve Forbes

But Forbes and other business media (I just looked) are far behind companies in other industries in leveraging social media. That’s strange because Forbes, Business Week and Fortune, to name just three media giants, are in the business of communications, n’est pas?

According to a report in Media Bistro, a memo was circulated to staffers that reads, in part, “If you are on Twitter, it would be great if you could mention Steve’s account @SteveForbesCEO, and let your own followers know he is now tweeting. If you aren’t on Twitter, now is a great time to start getting involved!” (not to be catty, but isn’t using CEO in his moniker just a little pompous?)

As of today, Steve Forbes had 1,1718 followers. Pretty puny compared to non-communications companies like Zappos, best known for selling shoes. Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh has 1,697,254 followers, and the company boasts of having 501 employees with Twitter accounts who are focused on customer service. Many companies have embraced social media and are leveraging Twitter, among other networks. Comcast, IBM, and the airlines (they use Twitter for updates on price deals) are just three examples.

Other Laggards

Forbes isn’t the only laggard. I decided to check out other business editors on Twitter – have you tried to locate the masthead online of Forbes, Business Week and Fortune? I did and couldn’t find them. So I Googled “Business Week editor” and up popped Josh Tyrangiel. Hope he’s still there. In any event he isn’t on Twitter although @bw is the company account, with a modest 7,782 followers. Of interest, Zappo’s was named a Business Week 2009 Customer Service Champ.

Fortune does better with 98,744 followers. While online, I found a story in All Things Digital from March about Fortune’s redesign as a print magazine. They’re just getting around to updating their website.

I find it surprising and a little disappointing that the media giants in the business of communication are not leaders but followers. Their advertisers are way out ahead of them. Soon they may not need the media giants at all to reach their customers.

BP CEO Tony Hayward: “I’d Like My Life Back” – What??

Jeannette Paladino — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:00:37 +0000

[tweetmeme]As the Gulf oil disaster continues to escalate and BP is faced with another failure to stop the gushing “black gold,” BP CEO Tony Hayward has been spending his time sticking his foot in his mouth. For any company, the CEO is the chief communications officer. Where are his PR advisors with the crisis communications plan? Just two weeks ago in this video he was predicting a “very modest impact” of the spill. Now an underwater oil plume some 22 miles wide is threatening the food chain and is predicted to reach the Florida Panhandle’s famous sugar-white beaches by Friday. Even as Hayward spoke, wildlife was washing up on beaches coated in oil and fishermen sat by their empty boats as the disaster unfolded before their eyes.

Then, just this week, Hayward acknowledged that the spill is a “catastrophe” but also claimed that he “wanted his life back.” Is he kidding? His company’s alleged shortcuts may have caused the worst oil spill in this country’s history, disrupting millions of lives, wrecking the environment and causing billions in cleanup costs and lost productivity. The people living on the coastline want their lives back, too, but they can’t fly to the U.K. to escape the disaster. I can hardly think of another CEO being so tone deaf. Instead, he should be saying, “I’ll be on top of this until we solve the problem so people can get their lives back.” Theirs, not his.

Here is a video in which he makes his infamous claim:

It’s difficult to believe that a major oil company like BP doesn’t have a crisis communications plan in place, not only for managing the cleanup, but with the key messages the CEO should be communicating to the public. I’m sure that Mr. Hayward is a decent man and is sincerely sorry for this mess. But he needs to stay on message about what the company is doing to solve the crisis and be sensitive to the horrible disruption it is causing to people and the environment. Words do count. And people are listening.

What Happened to Business Email Etiquette?

Jeannette Paladino — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 14:00:21 +0000

Please answer my email

[tweetmeme]Have you noticed lately that more and more people are not replying to your emails? I have. I don’t think it’s personal. I’m not talking about the email people ignore that is obviously spam. But an email to someone you know. It could be a business colleague or client, or a prospect that you have been in correspondence with.

I tend to be pretty prompt when answering email. I almost always reply the same day. There would have to be a good reason I didn’t — and right now I can’t think of one, unless I was sick and not at my computer. There are the obvious reasons why people don’t respond, I guess: too busy, too many messages clogging my email box, I’ll stow it in a mail folder for emails I’ll respond to later (but don’t), I forgot, etc. But these have always been possible reasons.

So why are fewer people responding to email? I decided to poll a few friends about their email experiences.

Here is a summary of what I learned

As you might expect everyone mentioned the sheer volume of emails. But several offered some interesting solutions/comments and I’ve highlighted them.

“Volume is a problem. I have received an email, wanted to think about it for whatever reason, and then failed to respond. In fact, this just happened to me last week. To improve the likelihood of a response I try to put my question in the subject line or at least a reference that will prompt the person to read my email. For example, I regularly send emails to people who don’t know me to schedule interviews for a newsletter. My subject line is “Interview for OIC Advisor Quarterly” knowing the recipient will recognize OIC and why they are receiving the email. (OIC is the Options Industry Council, my client.) Alternatively, if it is someone who knows me I write “Note from (her name)” and I usually get a response.”

“I think there is an increasing situation where business people in general do not follow interpersonal etiquette. I am blown away when I continue to hear that people who have interviewed at a company several times never hear any response. I also know that I am at fault. I am curious about so many topics that I am flooded with emails from various websites. So curiosity causes some of the overwhelm. When an email is hidden in a list of 150 per day — it can be lost/forgotten. Interestingly, I started writing a response (to you) several days ago. Saved it as draft. And then had to scroll down hundreds of emails to go back to it today after my trip. Maybe paper letters were easier to spot!”

“I find that my emails that are time/date sensitive and pose a question get a response. When an email does not get a response, I forward the original email with a “Did you get this?” in the subject line and that usually works. If I really need to reach someone, I do it the old fashioned way, I simply call them.”

“Actually I have not noticed a lack of response but I try to use email as little as possible. I still feel that telephone and person to person contact are better. I know that sometimes I respond slowly since I get so many emails that are newsletters, junk, etc., that real emails that require answers get lost in between.”

“For me, one difference is switching from using Outlook to Gmail. Because there are no separate folders — I used to have an @Action folder for things I needed to handle, for example — things get lost in my inbox if I don’t answer them right away. Gmail also sort of telescopes related responses so sometimes I don’t realize that I’ve missed something. Other reasons include: I don’t want to handle this; I forgot; I really have nothing to say/am not sure I need to respond.”

“A simple reply is only common courtesy (not that common). I find that often people don’t reply because they don’t have an answer, status on a project or they may be waiting for someone else to reply to them before they can get back to you. If anyone has a solution for this — I’m all ears!”

The following reply from a friend seemed remarkably prescient (see Addendum to this blog). “We are getting so many emails these days (they seem to have doubled in the last 6 months due to all increased connections) that people are overwhelmed and forgetting about previous emails. Typically this is the more in the business area – potential clients etc. If the answer is really important I follow up with phone call or letter.

Addendum

As I was putting this blog to bed, my daily email arrived from Seth Godin. He touched on the subject with his blog post “Redoubling to system failure.” In its entirety it reads:

“Every 18 months for the last decade, the world has doubled the data it pushes to you.

Twice as much email, twice as many friend requests, twice as many sites to check, twice as many devices.

When does your mind lose the ability to keep up? Then what happens? Is it already happening?”

So, if the social media guru Seth Godin says we’re being buried with data, including email, then I’ll accept that as an excuse when I don’t hear from you.