Posts Tagged ‘small business’

How to Use Conference Calls for Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service

Thursday, August 21st, 2008

At noon today, I’ll be part of a small business panel presentation titled “Sales, Marketing and Customer Service: Strategies for Profits, Growth and Results”. This event is being hosted by the Austin Chamber of Commerce and my role is to talk about using conference calls effectively when conducting sales, marketing, and customer service. Here are the tips and strategies I’ll discuss today.

As preparation, each of the three panelists came up with five tips and two questions. Here are five plus one bonus tips, three questions, and two of my favorite quotes by Peter Drucker.

Three questions:
1. What is the key to an effective conference call?
Answer: Connection

2. What is one secret all conference call leaders must know?
Answer: You are a unique leader.

3. If you could only give one tip for leading a great conference call, what would it be? Answer: Have everyone say their name first during the call.

Five plus one bonus action steps/tips:
1. Communicate/confirm/confirm/confirm: teleconference number, PIN #, date, time/time zone, and duration of the call.

2. W.A.I.T.? – Why Am I Talking? Place this on a Post-it note at eye level.

3. Arrive 3 minutes early for a conference call, 10 minutes early for a webinar.

4. Have everyone say his/her name first before speaking on every conference call and webinar you lead.

5. Always use a landline for conducting your call. Avoid speaker phones, cell phones, and VoIP like the plague!

Bonus: Completely clear your desk before each call!

Two quotes by Peter Drucker:

“The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.”

“Because its purpose is to create a customer, your business has two purposes and two purposes only: Marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation make you money, generate sales, produce profit. Everything else is an expense…”

Special thanks to my co-panelists: Casey Leaman, Partner at OneAccord (Sales), and Amy Stevens, Managing Partner at Marketing Edge Ventures (Marketing); our emcee Thom Singer, Business Development at vcfo, inc.; and the driving force behind the event, Dustin Woodhead, Small Business Manager at Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce.
Posted by Byron Van Arsdale
Author – 16 Secrets to a Great Conference Call
ConferenceCallTraining.com

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How the Digital World is Unraveling the First Impression Syndrome

Thursday, July 17th, 2008

As the new president for the Greater Austin International Coach Federation Chapter, I’m making a point to get to know the ICF chapters in San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas/Fort Worth. I decided to attend the June 12th meeting of the San Antonio Chapter in part because the topic was Social Networking and the speaker was Jennifer Navarette. It is what happened before the meeting that has me buzzing.

As I read the bio, that one pesky word that grates on me popped up: guru. The local San Antonio paper dubbed Jennifer the “New Media Guru”. My first impression went from positive to immediately negative as soon as I read those words. Now, at this point, I know relatively nothing about Jennifer (who is very cool) and have a negative impression based ONLY on what I’m reading on one web entry and my own personal dislike for “guru”.

I emailed Connie, a trusted friend, to ask about the “guru”. After all, this was a 7:30am meeting which meant leaving Austin by 5:30am-ish. I definitely had skin in the game here. Would it be worth my time?

I also sent out a notice of the meeting to the local Austin coaches to see if anyone was interested in attending. Within hours, I had confirmation Jennifer was worth the trip: “good peeps” and she knows what she is talking about.

Here’s the path: interested in the presentation, read the flyer, immediately turned negative based on the “guru” quote, send digital query to a friend, got back glowing reviews. In the matter of a few hours, my first impression of Jennifer before I’d ever met her went from negative to positive. I walked into the meeting looking forward to hearing her presentation.

How does this apply to you and your business? People are connecting with others in online groups like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Naymz, etc. You and your reputation are being established by what you do and do not do in the online world. For the solopreneurs and small businesses that rely upon the web and distance communication modes to deliver your services, your reputation PRECEDES you! Being proactive in establishing your credibility and trust through a wide range of contacts is more than important – it is essential for your success.

Question:
What do you do on a consistent basis to establish and maintain your online presence?

Posted by Byron Van Arsdale
Author – 16 Secrets to a Great Conference Call
ConferenceCallTraining.com

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