photo credit: barto

We all communicate with several people everyday, all day long, on a regular basis. But how do we know if we’re communicating in a proper and understandable way? There are 3 main types of communication, stated on Sales Management 2.0, to which all communication falls into one of those 3 categories. Which communication type do you think you are?

1. Presenting. This is where the person pitches, presents their case, does a little bit of show and tell in order to “sell” you on a product or service or their idea. This person goes around in life “presenting” everything they talk about whether it be small simple day to day ideas or something huge that they really need your support on. They are basically nothing more than a salesperson in disguise.
2. Debate. Now this one tends to have a little more effect than the above, however, it does also tend to be more annoying. This is the person who has to turn everything into a debate with you by answering with something like “maybe, but”, “yes, but”. This person may win from time to time, but they are still only interested in you always seeing their point of view.

The third, but the most effective form of communication, is “Dialogue” or “Socratic Dialogue” as I position in my e-book. This form of communication is a pathway for arriving at the “Truth” yielding ultimately a collaborative approach (with consensus) to move things forward. When implementing this form of communication, one helps the other to define and realize the real consequences of given situational factors or scenarios.

Obviously the 3rd form of communication is the more preferred way of communicating and also the most effective. This is where all parties involved have a chance to equally speak and discuss the topic.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

photo credit: Torley

I came across an article located on Open Forum that talks about how your communication skills give power to your performance. Depending on how you communicate with your staff, team, boss and more, will depend on the performance outcome.

Have you ever had a business situation where someone is describing something like finances to you and it sounds almost as if they are speaking in a foreign language? That’s because often times people will communicate using “big” words that are not necessary just so they sound smart. Try communicating in simpler terms almost as if your talking to a 6 year old.

When sending out emails always make sure that the subject line is clear. Make sure your subject line basically states in very short form what the email is going to be about otherwise there is a good chance that it will be deleted before it’s even opened.

Your defense of “sometimes things take a lot of explaining” isn’t going to fly. If you’re drafting documents, that’s not writing for communications value. That means, you’re delivering information. It’s something different—which is okay, but be clear of your goal. Keep things visually simple, crisp, and broken up.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

photo credit: Svadilfari

I recently read an article by Tim Berry that I found to be very interesting. It talks about lessons learned over the years by employer to employee relations. When employers are working with employees, it is no surprise that there will always be some bumping of the heads and even some bad decisions made (also known as “duh moments”). Below are some of the tips found in the above mentioned article.

• People will always be very unpredictable, which makes it difficult to ensure that you have hired the absolute right person for the correct position in your company. It’s basically a guessing game, once you have completely reviewed their resume, references and more, there’s nothing left to do but bite the bullet and hope you have made the right choice.
• Often times you end up hiring the right person for the wrong job. This is not catastrophic, simply find the correct job for that person and all is well and solved!
• People have minds of their own and can change in mysterious ways sometimes. You can always change the job or change aspects about the job, but unfortunately you can not change the person on that job, change is up to them entirely.

“Fit” as in employee fit, is vital but also overrated, and too often used as a rationalization. You want people unlike you, not people like you. But you like people like you.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

photo credit: StephenMitchell

Some business owners, as well as their employees, see customer calls as a hassle, a potential for disaster. However, Small Biz Technology had an interesting point of view on customer calls. It was stated that there is a way for you to turn these calls into more sales for your company.

FonGenie provides an “interactive response” system for incoming callers. What’s neat about it is that it’s all web based and you can program the system by typing. No need to record the voice prompts. FonGenie reads what you type, so you don’t have to record it with your voice.

By avoiding customer calls this creates a potential for loss of sales within your company. Just imagine if you had an automated system such as FonGenie, you could better direct your callers and in the end, not only to keep their business but possibly sell them an upgrade or a whole other product to make their life easier. And this can be done just by having this automated system to better service them and direct them in the first place.

FonGenie also keeps track of what prompts are the most popular by your customers, this means that you can plan ahead and put those more popular prompts first in line. You can also add prompts such as your monthly specials and sales towards the front of the list. This feature in the long run could prove to be very effective in ensuring your customers future business as well as new business by word of mouth from your happy clients.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

photo credit: ArtemFinland

Many businesses today have quite a few great employees that they want to keep on their staff, but they can not necessarily offer them more money. Many think that if they can’t offer more money, those employees will walk. Some might if more money is a need of theirs, but some will still stay on your staff if you follow the tips that were posted on Nytimes.com.

• The general rule of thumb is that if you have proved your loyalty to your employees over time, they will in turn do the same for you by providing their loyalty to you as well.
• While you may not be able to give them a raise right now, you may know that you can give them a raise in 6 months or a year. If you explain the financial situation and let them know that there is a raise in their near future, then that often times is incentive enough for them to stay.

“Let workers follow their interests, and help them to develop their skills,” said Julie Stich, senior information and research specialist for the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans in an interview with The San Francisco Business Times. “Also, consider allowing employees to work in different areas of the organization. This will help to keep them challenged.”

• When all else fails, always be honest with your employees. Explain every situation that is related to them and their job, and explain why raises are not being offered at this particular moment. Most likely they will understand the situation and appreciate your honesty.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

photo credit: hellfroze

We always talk about all of the right moves you should make in your business, but I feel it is equally important to talk about what to stay away from and what not to do in your business. If you have a Twitter account for your company or you are thinking about getting one, look below for the most common mistakes you may want to avoid on Twitter as found on Open Forum:

• Don’t forget you are always on. Meaning, that the tone of what you post is one of the biggest keys in your success with Twitter. Always re-read your posts out loud to yourself before the final post is created.
• Don’t Tweet as a shock value asset. Yes, you may get higher traffic for a short period of time and more business due to your shocking posts, but it will die off eventually. Your better off Tweeting for those who are faithful members of Twitter.
• Don’t just partially fill out your profile. Many make the mistake of choosing what to fill out and what not to fill out, expecting that people won’t read certain parts anyways. What about those who particularly look for the parts that you don’t fill out? You will most likely loose their business if they can’t find the information they want.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

photo credit: Pardesi*

Being an employee, whether it is for a small company or a large one, can be stressful at times, especially in today’s economy with record high lay offs and unemployment. An employee often feels uncomfortable at work around their higher up co-workers and boss, wondering what they can say and not say, what they can do and not do. As the boss, it is your responsibility to break up this silence and tension between employees to make for a better work environment. Try these ideas to help break up your work silence, posted recently on Entrepreneur.com.

• Always start with reviewing the problem and whether it is just with a few employees or if it is a cultural problem. If there are several employees who’s income is the only income in their household, then it may just be a cultural problem. Knowing the severity of it will make it easier for you to address.
• Encourage your employees to give input on new ideas, office politics, equipment, customers and more. Reward the employees somehow with something small to show you appreciate their great input and welcome it.
• Make sure your company has a feeling of community amongst it’s employees. People will feel better and work better when they have the feeling that EVERYONE is in it together.

Finally, don’t lose confidence in employees who seem to be holding back lately. They’re still very smart, talented employees–the economy just has them running scared. Let your team know that it’s okay to stop running, sit down and put their thoughts on the table.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Kate Washburn didn’t know what to make of the email a friend sent to her office with the abbreviation “NSFW” written at the bottom.

Then she clicked through the attached sideshow, titled “Awkward Family Photos.” It included shots of a family in furry “nude” suits and of another family alongside a male walrus in a revealing pose.

After looking up NSFW on NetLingo.com—a Web site that provides definitions of Internet and texting terms—she discovered what it stood for: “Not safe for work.”

As text-messaging shorthand becomes increasingly widespread in emails, text messages and Tweets, people like Washburn are scrambling to decode it. In many offices, a working knowledge of text-speak is becoming de rigueur.

One reason for the surge in texting abbreviations—more than 2,000 and counting, according to NetLingo—is the boom in social-media sites like Twitter, where messages are limited to 140 characters.

Text messages, too, are limited in length, so users have developed an alphabet soup of shorthand abbreviations to save time, and their thumbs.

Taking time to learn the jargon may seem like a WOMBAT (“Waste of money, brains and time”). But with over one trillion text messages sent and received in the U.S. last year, according to CTIA-The Wireless Association, an industry trade group, you run the risk of feeling out of it if you don’t.

Oh yeah, KUTGW? Keep Up The Good Work.

Photo by digi.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

photo credit: kretyen

I recently came across an article posted on Fast Company regarding cutting out the waiting in line at fast food chains. Wow. Now i do agree that sometimes fast food chains are not always exactly FAST but still, cutting out the waiting period at McDonald’s just seems silly to me.

This method is pretty much the same as no more waiting in line for your movie tickets. The restaurant signs up to provide this service and it costs them $150 dollars, while it is free for the customers to take advantage of. You sign online, pick out the food you want, pay online and then drive to the chain and pick it up and go home, that’s it, your done. But what does this say for the people in our economy? Are we way too impatient, are we way too lazy or are we slowly turning into hermits as we evolve?

Pretty soon the more interaction we cut out between customer and employee, there will be no more communicating with the outside world other then maybe a simple “hello, thank you and goodbye” as your walking out the door. Communication is the basis of life and how we relate to others around us and in our personal lives. I don’t think there is anything wrong with waiting your turn in line for a few minutes, we are adults, i think it’s healthy and perfectly normal and expected to wait our turn.

“The restaurant industry has been moving more and more towards the idea of self-service ordering,” Glass said. “I think we see what we’re doing in the mobile space as the final evolutionary stage of self-service ordering.”

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

The Swiss postal service has started redirecting some mail from the letter box to the in-box.

A program introduced by the Swiss Post in June allows subscribers to receive scans of their unopened envelopes by e-mail message and then decide which ones they want opened and scanned in their entirety, to be read online.

Subscribers can also ask to have the contents archived, send unopened letters to another address or have them shredded and recycled.

The success of the program, called Swiss Post Box, will depend on how widely digital mail is accepted, said Mark Levitt, a former analyst at the International Data Corporation in Washington, a research firm.

“Even people who warmly embraced digital tools stopped short of giving up on paper,” he said. “In fact, the electronic age has generated even greater demand for printers, paper and ink because people have even more information that they feel the need to print out on paper to read.”

The program uses technology provided by Earth Class Mail, a company based in Seattle that has tens of thousands of individual subscribers worldwide, mostly in Britain, the United States, Canada and Mexico. Clients in those countries have mail sent to one of more than two dozen designated addresses for processing.

Earth Class Mail says its users recycle 90 percent of their mail. By comparison, the United States Postal Service reported that 40 percent of the mail it processed was recycled.

Photo by scol22.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.