Vital Sales Follow-Up Tool: Your Calendar
Business advice for women entrepreneurs and small businesses
As I listened to our guest speaker at a recent event, the word she used over and over again when giving us advice about conducting follow-up sales calls was the word “calendar.” By the end of the program, I thought the presentation should have been called “All You Really Need to Succeed in Sales is Your Calendar.”
Sometimes repetition drives home an important thought or message. It’s no wonder a business repeats it’s TV commercials methodically throughout an advertising sales period. Repetition captures the attention of viewers, listeners and readers when promoting one’s business in the media. This fact made me appreciate the voracity at which the word calendar was used within this saleswoman’s speech to drive home its importance to motivate entrepreneurs to follow-up with prospects for new or repeat sales.
Since my calendar has been open and used more often since Amanda Funk of Funk and Jackson’s presentation, including this morning which prompted this post, I wanted to share with women entrepreneurs and our readers how they can use their calendars to aid them in making more sales calls to increase their sales revenue.
* An entrepreneur must schedule a time to call their prospects or people they recently met. By using their calendar they set dates so they don’t forget when to follow-up with someone. Many times busy business owners simply forget to contact prospects or customers back and lose the lead or sale.
* If you call a prospect or lead and they do not have time to talk to you, ask them specifically about a date to call back (For example, a week, two weeks, or specific day) and then write the date and time immediately in your calendar so you don’t forget and then make that call when the time arrives no matter what. Don’t be deterred that day from placing the call.
* The best days to place business calls are Tuesday and Wednesday. The best days for personal meetings are Wednesdays. Consider these facts when you set your weekly phone call or meeting schedule. By creating a set calendar of when you make calls and meetings every single week, you stay on track with your sales appointments, calls and goals.
Your business calendar might just be the most important sales tool you can use. Start using it correctly with serious sales intent and watch your revenue grow.
To view a few more sales tips from Amanda, click here to be taken to more detailed recap of her presentation on our website.
Moving Past Business Blocks
Business advice for women entrepreneurs and small businesses
It began as a lunch break and need for fresh air and turned into an enlightening experience. I found myself chipping away at a large ice and snow boulder blocking the path between my back porch and garage, I realized it had been months since this path was clear thanks to a harsh winter. This obstacle was going to deter our route unless someone cleared it. As I worked at moving the obstruction, my head cleared too about a problem I had been working on for weeks. Was there something therapeutic to clearing this blocked space? I think so.
There are often obstacles in our path; in both our personal life and business world. Roadblocks, barricades and detours catch us off guard and keep us from moving forward. Sometimes these situations tell us we can’t go in a particular direction and to find another way. Other times the blockages we face are simply showing us that the path we want to take is special and requires extra energy and time. If we want to travel further, we have to try harder, focus more intently and muster up enough energy to move past what is holding us back.
Facing obstacles no matter what they are or how they find us shows us how badly we want something. Last week after my first day of 5K race training, I simply couldn’t walk. I thought it wouldn’t be possible to run two days later to stay on my program; but my will overcame my body. Sometimes this happens in business too. We try something new, develop a new service, launch and new product and as soon as we do, it’s painful. We remember that trying anything new means stretching, growth and pain. When we face particular obstacles we need to chip away at them and clear the path to keep moving forward.
Today’s post is meant to bolster your spirit if you are trying something new and facing some obstacles. It could be frustration landing new business accounts, facing a dead end with developing a new website, or irritation with hitting new revenue goals. What are you trying to accomplish that makes you feel like there is an ice and snow boulder in your way? Can you chip away at the problem to get to other side? Do you need assistance to clear the problem? Do you need to stay focused until you complete the task?
Over time the frozen boulder was going to melt and clear our path but with focus, energy and determination I moved it so I could move on. What are you going to do with the business boulder standing in your way today?
Collecting Overdue Payments From Customers
Business advice for women entrepreneurs
“Learn to feel and show empathy for your client’s situation in a non-judgmental way,” is the quote on this morning’s business calendar. The quotation resonated with me this week after speaking with a few women entrepreneurs about their struggles to collect revenue from customers.
One woman in particular has been challenged the past year to collect payments from a long time client who produces 30% of her annual revenue. With a soft market, this entrepreneur doesn’t want to lose this vital income yet her impatience with her client is increasing. After calling me angry and in need of advice, I suggested she step away from her irritated thoughts, pick up the phone and set a date to take her client to lunch. I advised her to use the luncheon to discuss the issue in person displaying a non-judgmental attitude during the conversation. Sometimes there are unknown circumstances about clients we aren’t aware of until we embark on a discussion with them. An honest face-to-face talk is the best way to gather information and communicate our needs..
As easy as it is to send a text, email and voice mail message, those communication methods don’t repair short or long term tension that needs to be rectified. It takes a more assertive and personal approach. But a tough client meeting should always be handled with diplomacy for the sake of the relationship. Being empathic about a customer’s reasons for consistent late payments is the best approach if maintaining the relationship is of utmost importance to the entrepreneur.
Today’s blog post is to encourage you to set a personal appointment with vital customers when an important situation needs to be discussed. The meeting might be because you need to increase fees, address late payment issues, discuss miscommunication or hash out an ongoing problem. We owe it to ourselves and our clients to handle big problems in person. As tough as it can be, it’s the right way to resolve issues.
Being empathic means we have the ability to identify with and understand somebody else’s feelings or difficulties. Don’t forget the periods when others have been empathic with you and set up a time to deal with customer problems honestly and in person.
Staying Innovative in Business
Business advice for women entrepreneurs
As I sat across looking at the rosy cheeks of my new running partner, one of my members and a creative food blogger, she said, “We are suppose to always be trying new things aren’t we?” I know she was referring to our first night of running in a new 5K training program as we sat slightly breathless over a hot green tea. “Yes we are,” I said. Her question resurrected itself again when I opened my business doors this morning.
It’s a great question to ponder if you are a woman entrepreneur, “We are suppose to always be trying new things, aren’t we?” I believe we are. We should. We need to. I would also say, we should try new things as long as we are paying attention to what we are already committed to so we don’t become too scattered in our intentions and actions.
Entrepreneurship is about innovation. We wouldn’t have created our business if we didn’t have the innovative idea to start a company. The trick with running a growing business is making sure we have a core mission we remain focused on as well as a business plan we adhere to. The timing to know when to add something new that serves our clientele, our overall corporate goals and us is vital to success.
One of the best parts of being a business owner is the ability to dream big and wide. A better part of being an entrepreneur is to know when to say yes and when to say no when it comes to business development. If the time feels right to expand or add something new, do the due diligence needed to make sure it economically feasible, helps your current business grow and answers a need in the marketplace.
Today’s blog post is to encourage those new projects lingering in your heart and head as long as you make sure you do the research you need before you launch. Do a mini-business plan for your new division. Crunch the numbers. Create its own marketing plan. Seek advice from others. Add staff if you need support. Make sure now is the right time.
You can, should and must be innovative to stay and feel alive in business. Dream big and wide and do the work you must to make a new entrepreneurial vision a successful reality. Remember, “We are supposed to always be trying new things.”
Saving A Stalled Business
As I glanced out the barren window view where grey sky meets grey snow, through the kaleidoscope from yesterday’s Women TIES event, the colorless view turned to swirling pink, yellow and red as the crystals within the kaleidoscope changed position. All of a sudden I remembered the wisdom from yesterday’s speaker say “Sometimes when our businesses aren’t working well, we have to step back and get another view to move onward.”
Just like winter’s beautiful pristine look fades to grey, so can the excitement in running a company. It’s natural for a mundane feeling to overcome an entrepreneur especially if they’ve been in business awhile or when the business seems to be stalling or failing. Yesterday’s speaker Bonnie Phelps from Baked Euphoria shared what she did to add color, light and zest back into her company and her own entrepreneurial life which included creating two signature products a rainbow cake and swirled cookies. I wanted to share her wisdom with my readers today:
* Sometimes an entrepreneur simply has to take the time to step back and refocus on their mission, passion, purpose and start again. We need to remember who we are and where we want to go with our enterprises and rekindle the light.
* Just like friends don’t stay forever, either do businesses. If you get to a point where you feel you can walk away from your business and not miss it, you need to carefully consider what your life will be like without it. If the future seems too bleak without it, then you must make necessary changes today to revitalize and save it.
* Sometimes what an entrepreneur needs most with a stalled business is an attitude adjustment. The business may be running exactly the way it was suppose to or has always run but the entrepreneur might not be happy anymore. Sometimes it’s up to the business owner to change her response to the business for it to have a better outcome.
* If you see someone else running a successful business, seek their advice on how they are making it successful. Most women business owners like giving advice to other women to help them.
At any point in time along the entrepreneurial journey, we can step back and obtain a new, fresh view of our business. If you find you need help, buy yourself a kaleidoscope and use it every day until a new, colorful image of your company comes into focus.
Your Customer’s Experience: What It Says About Your Company
Advice for Women Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
The room was completely full. Every desk attendant appeared busy. Snack and soda machines were along the wall and a public bathroom was apparent. I didn’t have my sharp Sherlock Holmes perception working the moment I observed the room, only a determined son who had to apply for a vital document at this New York State agency. Two hours later, after a five minute transaction, I wish I had the discernment of a detective to realize we should have retreated immediately after entering the doors of the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Anytime I enter another business, I walk in as if I’m a customer walking into Women TIES doors. I want to see, feel, and experience what my customers’ sense when they walk through my doors – a warm welcome, clear communication, and efficient service. In my mind, there’s no other experience a guest, client or visitor should be treated to other than stellar service and attention. I don’t care if that business is Burger King, a 5 star car dealership, a one person business or a government agency. How the customer is treated and feels is of upmost importance always.
So after a two hour wait for a five minute transaction, four direct questions to government agency staff trying to find out if there was any way to speed up the process, I realized there was an absolute absence of customer service in the establishment. All I could think sitting there for 120 minutes was how disrespectful this business was towards other people’s time – as if their own time was much more valuable.
I reiterate this experience not to harp on an incredibly poor customer service experience, but to remind women entrepreneurs if we value the business a customer provides to our company, than we must, beyond any shadow of a doubt, value their time. We live in a lightning fast world where everyone demands fast results and instant communication, so we must stay on pace with client’s expectations by delivering superior service making them feel like they are the most important part of our entity.
Today’s blog post is to ask you to stop and pose these questions: Do my customers experience superior service every time they work with my company? Are we respectful of our client’s time when we provide service to them? Do I have a stellar customer service policy my staff and I live by? When was the last time I thought about how well or poorly I treat my clients so I can improve their experience with my company?
A superior entrepreneur remembers their customers deserve respect, excellent communication and efficient systems during every experience. Their time is more valuable than ours if we want to keep them involved for years to come.
Celebrating Your Company’s Birthday Is a PR Must
Advice for Women Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses
Photos of green shoes, cowboy boots, scarlet pumps were flooding my Facebook page this morning – a sure sign that one of our members, Melissa O’Reilly, had a successful 3rd Anniversary Celebration for her shoe company. Wearing the shoes were other women entrepreneurs she does business with in Albany, New York. They came out in droves to support this unique, original and innovative direct marketing company she created called Shush Shoes. As social media turns away from copy content to more photo content, you can imagine what the photos of the shoes said to me that words couldn’t have expressed.
The anniversary fundraiser and fashion show not only displayed Melissa’s products well, it raised both awareness and funds for a non-profit organization. Producing an anniversary celebration, inviting favorite customers and new clients, and benefiting a wonderful cause is an excellent marketing idea! Bravo to Melissa for not only celebrating her successful business but helping others at the same time.
Have you considered planning an anniversary celebration for your company? Do you acknowledge its birthday or major milestone every year or do you let it pass by. If you let it arrive every year without using it as a PR opportunity, you are missing out on a great way to promote your company.
Here are some tips for celebrating the birthday of your company:
* Plan on launching a new service or product each year on your anniversary and then create a PR plan around it to share with your customers, media and business partners.
* Update your website every year to make it fresh. This is something I have done every year for 9 years. It might not be big changes but I always add something new to my website to help my members every year around March and April.
* Create an anniversary event – a breakfast, a lunch, a cocktail party, a golf outing, a shoe party or something else related to the products or services you offer – at least on your 5th, 10th and 25th anniversary dates if not every year.
* Send a press release to your local news stations and print media explaining how your company has helped the marketplace over the years, new initiatives you have planned and new developments within your company like adding staff, a new division or opening a new office in another location.
Remember your company’s birthday is as important as your own birthday and those you love. Make sure you plan every year to acknowledge it and use it as a PR tool to help your clients, public and yourself.
Doing What it Takes To Thrive in Business
Business advice for women entrepreneursand small business owners
I remember sitting at a table with ten women in 1997 sharing our latest business highlights when one woman named Peggy Pointowski of Sassy Scrubs said, “I just sent a sample of my designer scrub suits to the new TV show ER to see if they’d have their staff – especially George Clooney – wear my products on their show. I have nothing to lose by trying.” At every monthly meeting afterward, we eagerly waited for Peggy’s update on her Hollywood news! It was much more exciting than anything else anyone was doing….and it was George Clooney we were talking about.
Sure enough within the year, Peggy was heading to Los Angeles to meet George Clooney and visit the ER set where her innovative idea of designer scrubs was being shown nationally. Her sales exploded after ER began using her product. She was awarded the Small Business Person of the Year in 1998.
After years of knowing Peggy, I came to respect her most not because of her grand Hollywood idea but when she admitted 5 years later that her company was going bankrupt because she got too caught up in her success, trusted her financials to the wrong advisors, opened up a store front that sapped her income and grew without having a plan. Peggy shared the hard lessons she learned at an event for 400 women. I was so proud of her grace, honesty and humility.
Women entrepreneurs are amazing when they share business heartaches with others to stop someone from making the same error. Next week when Bonni Phelps of Baked Euphoria speaks in Binghamton about how she reached out to the nationally syndicated show “Bakery Boss” to help her save her struggling business, I’ll witness the same resolve and humility Peggy displayed. Bonni was willing to admit she was struggling and it resulted in “The Bakery Boss” visiting her, airing her corporate hardships, renovating her bakery and lending vital advice. She reminds me so much of Peggy and how I wished Peggy would have had the chance to do the same.
What I learned from these two women is sometimes we need an outside perspective on our business. We can’t see what’s going wrong by ourselves. We need to seek the guidance of others to give us that 360 degree view of our business so we can fix it. That’s exactly what Buddy did for Bonni’s store which produced a 1000% profit and a revitalized business when they were done. Bonni is also a new woman with new hope and rainbow goals.
Today’s blog post is meant for you to ask yourself if having someone else take a look at the workings of your business – both the positive and negative – could help you turn around a period of loss, help you increase your profits substantially or propel you in a new profitable direction. Do you need a 360 degree view of your business to improve it or stop it from failing? Who do you trust to give you that opinion? Are you willing to make the changes they suggest? Maybe come listen to Bonni next week if you need personal motivation – click here for the event details.
As I end today’s post, I am grateful I shared part of my entrepreneurial journey with Peggy. She passed away from cancer 7 years ago after moving to Florida. Her grace and humility dealing with a life threatening disease right up until the moment she passed away was indicative of the grace she had as an entrepreneur. Her humor, honesty and zest for life is something I carry with me always. Thank you Peggy for all the lessons – especially the ones about the moon boots.
Business Advice: Springing Forward
Business Advice for Women Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses
The brilliant blue sky today and slightly warmer temperatures is a sign that change is coming and I think I speak for all women entrepreneurs when I say bring on Spring. Recently everyone I’ve spoken with has mentioned a downturn in sales, lower participation in programs and a lack of customer communication the past two months. The cost of a harsh winter season can affect everyone’s business.
Even larger companies with million dollars in sales have seen some stagnation during January and February in the Northeast and East Coast as the “Polar Vortex” and specially named Snowstorms hit the region. When the weather is all anyone talks about on the news and the cold grips the region, it affects the mindset of consumers everywhere. In an economy where we co-exist with a multitude of business conditions, it’s easy to see that winter might just be a difficult time of year to succeed unless one’s business is focused on selling snow shovels, ice fishing gear or running a ski resort.
As the weather starts to break this week, it’s time for you and your company to break out too. Let’s join the tulips by rearing our own brightly colored works for all to see. Let’s join the geese by flying back to a more sales focused agenda. Let’s melt like the snow and wash away a season’s worth of lackluster business. If you are feeling like you are ready to break out of how you have been doing business the past two months, now is the time to do it!
Today’s business blog post is to inspire you to make a list of five major projects you have been waiting to launch when business picks up and setting definite release dates for each project. Create a timeline of project launch dates, start a communications plan for the launch, create events to announce new programs or services, and discover social media marketing sites to reach out to even more people about your new ideas. Plan, plan, plan and then launch, launch, launch.
Let’s prepare today to feel really good in two weeks when everything starts “springing forward.” We most certainly have the creativity, talents and time to make the last few harsh winter weeks the most productive of the season so we can bask in a warmer entrepreneurial season this spring.
Vital Customer Service Policies
Business advice for women entrepreneurs and small business owners
Blanketing the news this morning were a few stories with a common thread. The first was a local radio station offering $500 to two Duke fans kicked out of the Carrier Dome at last week’s Duke vs. Syracuse University basketball game. The second one was about Chevrolet admitting mechanical errors in six cars that caused numerous deaths and a promise to help the families. The final one was about Arizona legislation that passed a bill last week to deny service to gay people based on religious beliefs of the business owner. The common thread that stood out to me in these three stories was the significance of customer policies and the public relations that surrounds a major customer service situation.
In the first case, Syracuse University offered to refund the ousted Duke couple the face value of the tickets but the fans were unhappy with SU’s response because the face value wasn’t close to the $500 they paid for the tickets. Whether or not the Duke Couple takes Radio Station TK99 up on the $500 offer which also includes them never coming back to the Dome is still undecided. What do all these 2 public outreaches say to these two people? You are welcomed back or you aren’t welcomed here?
When Chevrolet publically admitted to the grievous errors in their car’s key system and offered to assist the families who suffered death at the hands of their automobile, what did the corporate response say to these customers? We care about you or it’s too bad this happened figure it out on your own?
When the Arizona legislation passed a law giving business owners the right to deny service to gay individuals, what did that message say? We can’t stand who you are and refuse to accept your money or we are all one community?
It’s obvious these three entities had a choice to put their customers first or last on their priority list. Although most women entrepreneurs don’t manage multi-million dollar operations and have less of a chance for major customer situation to arise, we need to contemplate our own customer policies and public relations procedures periodically. How will we treat a customer if they raise a major issue about our company? Are we prepared from a customer service, communications and public relations perspective?
Today’s blog post is to motivate you to think about your customer service policies. Do you have any? Have you ever had to handle a tough customer complaint? How did you handle it? Were you proud of how you handled it? What did your reaction send as a message to those clients? Did you then list that new policy on your website or literature to prevent future issues? Does your customer service policies say, “You are welcomed back or you aren’t welcomed here anymore,” after a situation arises?
The best time to plan for how you’ll treat clients, who you accept as clients and your public message in the marketplace, is before something unfortunate happens. You owe it to yourself and your clients to create and then maintain a strong, positive customer service policy since customers are the lifeblood of your enterprise.
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