Showing posts with label communications. Show all posts
Showing posts with label communications. Show all posts

Wednesday, 1 August 2012

Business Tips – Maximize Performance and Business Development Results


August 1, 2012

business tips Business Tips for the Entrepreneur

As you are midstream through harsh economic times, take the time to reflect on your current business operations.  Think about the small things that could be tweaked that can have the maximum positive impact on your business.  Here are some helpful business tips to maximum the output in your organization and in your business development.

Business Tips – Maximize the Use of Your Time

Time is definitely considered an asset when you are a busy, mult-taking entrepreneur. Delegate operational tasks to staff and area specialists as much as you possible can.  Free up your time for business management functions, business development, planning and implementation.  Institute shorter, more concise meetings and communications as much needed time savers for all.  Cut the slack time and concentrate efforts in a condensed shorter period.  Incorporate that into individual and team goals.

Establish Priorities

Clutter can occur in many ways from physical bunched up clutter to the mental clutter of massive workloads of relevant and non-relevant tasks.  Take the time to sort this out.  Getting organized on a daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly basis should be a standard part of your business and of the action plans across all employees.  Encourage organizing and priority setting as part of the valued added side of your corporate culture.

Business Tips – Create a Constructive Environment

Feedback is necessary on all aspects of your business.  Ensure that you develop a culture of encouraging and valuing input from all levels in the organization.  Constructiveness is essential … when everyone puts on their constructive gear and behavior, everyone is “building” towards a common goal.  Feedback can be critical nature, but as team members put on the constructive hats, criticism turns to positive alternative idea and solution generation.  Problems and issues are better solved when the collective can feed into the solution.

business tips - social Be Social

This business tip is not necessarily focused on spending massive amounts of time on social media.  Being social in business means networking, partnering, collaboration, team work.   Every business, every entrepreneur venture is vastly stronger when you and your team get out there and communicate and network with everyone.  Not all deals, partnerships and customers will automatically fall into your lap … you need to get aggressive and make the moves to communicate and network with others.  Remember that social media is only one form of communication and engagement with other businesses and customers.   Communications, marketing and business development occur in many ways outside of normal office functions and social media.

Business Tips – Be Helpful

As a leader, entrepreneur and community member be helpful to all and it will eventually return to you in spades.  Being a business leader is not a one-way street…. you need to not only receive but to give.  Your valued staff give their efforts and their time to helping you achieve your success.  You need to help your staff become successful through employee development, encouragement, recognition and in your acceptance of their needs professionally and in their personal lives.
When developing products and services for customers, remember this two-way street.  It’s not about just gaining revenue from clients.  You should be developing your business around how your products and services can first help the intended market, and meeting the needs of the consumer.   Revenue then potentially follows after successfully meeting the needs of the customer.
Plan well for maximum benefits and results!
Relevant personal and business development blogs and articles
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© 2012 Strategy Plan One
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Thursday, 12 July 2012

Marketing Tips for Better Customer Engagement and Results [infographic]


July 12, 2012

Marketing Tips

In business it is critical to interact and communicate with customers to get the sense of what customers want and if your business is meeting their needs.  The more frequent, valuable, and genuine your interactions and communications are, the more trust you will build with your potential and existing client base.
Some simple marketing, business tips produced in an infographic by Mindspress, highlight the small things you can do to build better rapport with clients.  By making small adjustments and improvements in activities, you can achieve greater exposure in the environment and communities, and better results with customers.
  • Communications – gather customer contact information such as email to give you an avenue to engage and offer to the customer frequently.
  • Asking for feedback – the ability for customers to provide a feedback and reviews will create buzz around your products and services.  It also helps in creating traffic and in spreading the word through multiple sources and Google searches.
  • Community involvement – according to this article, giving back to the community, such as volunteering, sponsoring, and donating creates greater exposure for your business.  It helps improve morale for those who feel good with their involvement in communities.  Customers will take note!
  • Revised Marketing & Business Planning – it is extremely important to review your marketing and operational activities, to measure and to analyze the results of anything you are doing.  The global, domestic and local markets and business conditions change frequently … so should your marketing activities, marketing plan and business plan.  Stay on top!
  • Continuous Learning Environment – you need to keep a pulse of customer feedback and to incorporate the constructive messaging back from the customer.  When the customer is telling your something after their purchase, they are informing you (as an added benefit to you) that they invested in you, and in order to keep them you need to improve the experience, product or service.  Listen well and incorporate changes based on feedback.
marketing tips
Source: Mindspress.com

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Monday, 11 June 2012

Positive Words – Business Communications in a Positive Way


June 11, 2012 
positive wordsPositive Words in your Communications
The use of terms and tone in the business can change the conversation.  Using negative tone and terminology will get you nowhere and most likely, you receive negativity back.



Changing the conversation to use positive, constructive words will keep parties engaged in conversation, and the creative feedback will continue to roll out.
From reviewing a cross-section of personal development and positive thinking views, here are some positive terms forming the following Positive Words Cloud.
champion intelligent brilliant creative motivator
passionate encourage empower balance dedicated
organized responsible accountable calm controlled empathetic
sympathetic worthwhile valued valuable synergy synergistic energetic
caring unbiased informed inclusive team diverse abstract colorful
dynamic persuasive determined ambitious professional clear concise
meaningful upbeat willing able share passion constructive
 forward-thinking kind lead volunteer carry mobilize
developing building leader strategist

Coincidentally, some of these terms match up with traits and characteristics of successful entrepreneurs and business leaders.  Can you think of terms to add?
Pull down a word out of this cloud and insert into your discussions with staff, colleagues, partners, investors, and clients.  Think more on the positive, constructive side when discussions are going off track.  For instance, you may want to respond to a team member that provided an off-base suggestion with, “thanks for your creative suggestions that may inform our decisions moving forward” or “thank you for your valued input”.
Remember to use respectful dialogue, use manners, and just be all-around nice in communications.  There are strategies to handle communications, whether those communications are constructive or just difficult.
The recommendation to use positive, constructive words would build into the notion of supporting and encouraging open communication in your organization, and that all feedback is encouraged.  If open, the ideas, suggestions and recommendations will continue to be cranked out by all, and some of those off-base suggestions may soon turn into dynamic game-changer recommendations.
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Friday, 25 May 2012

Communication Strategies, Policies and Processes to Control Messages


May 25, 2012 

communication strategiesCommunication Strategies

Businesses come across difficult scenarios which require careful external and internal communications.  Depending on the severity of the situation, communication strategies, plans, policies and procedures need to be developed for staff and leaders to respond appropriately.

Communication Strategies Plan

Like business and marketing planning, you need to develop a communications plan.  Ensure you have a communication strategies plan which may include:
  • Communication policies
  • Education and development opportunities in communications
  • Process for gathering information from area experts
  • Procedures for approved external communication lines
  • Designation of approved spokespersons within your organization
  • Development of action plans following communications

Communication Policies

Communication policies in your organization will set the rules and help staff get organized around communications needed internally and externally.  These guidelines and rules will illustrate how staff should discuss issues and who can handle communications in the organization.  It will help organize staff in the event that a serious situation arises that requires carefully controlled communications.
If your organization is large enough, your may have policy specialists who may undertake a formal policy development process.  Drafting clear and concise policies will assist in establishing solid guidance and help with a thorough understanding of company policies.

communication strategiesEducation and Learning Opportunities in Communications

It would be advantageous for you as the leader in your organization or your designated communications lead to hold sessions for your staff.  Staff need to be aware of the policies and procedures around communications to ensure situations are handled appropriately.  Learning sessions will keep everyone informed on the proper protocol for communications and staff will be well informed on the “what ifs” that pop up from time to time.
Internal capacity building should include opportunities for staff to build skills in communications, whether those skills are centered on oral or written communications.  Building individual capacities will build organizational capacities – worthy investments.

Gathering Information for your Communication Strategies

As a leader, you should have procedures to delegate some of the responsibility around information gathering to area leads, area experts.  As an executive you may not be the professional at all operational levels… that’s why you hire area experts to inform your decisions.  Have a procedure for circulation of communications to area experts to fill in the appropriate level of detail.  Following through the track of approvers, you and your communication specialists will craft the communications for the audience.
Approved Communication Lines
As part of the policies and procedures, you communications person along with management will approve of the appropriate communication lines that either a spokesperson or communications lead will use.
Approved Spokesperson
Appropriate communications is an art and a professional career.  The organization should have procedures around who in the organization should be talking to the public, external parties or the press.  A dedicated, trained spokesperson would be approved by the organization and would know the appropriate tactics to use to adequately handle the situation with press, ensuring the organization does not get into hot water.  They would be able to temper the press or stakeholders appropriately, taking an inflamed scenario and turning it into a positive one.
Action Plan
Internally your team should be developing an action plan following the release of information.  Depending on what type of message it is and how severe, you can gear up your team to be pro-active.  This preparedness will lessen the blow externally or internally.
Example
An organization has been rumored to lay off several hundred people at one location which would have severe economic impacts for a small town.  This information may have been stretched and fabricated.  The press has been notified and is looking interview the company for more information for their news story.  This could gain the wrong attention for the national corporation and could have a wide-reaching negative impact for the public company.
Communication unit and all management would develop a communications plan around this scenario and ensure that approved communications lines have the corrected information in it.  The organization would then move forward with having the approved communication person who has been trained to handle external pressures, be interviewed by the press and provide the correct information about correct job training programs in place, with no negative employment effects.

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