Archives for June 2014
Creating a Voice for Your Social Media Sites
If you run a small business page on Facebook and other social media sites, your “voice” and brand messaging is likely fairly consistent since you’re the only one interacting with your followers. However, what happens as your business grows? You may find it helpful, if not necessary, to have other employees answer questions, post status updates, and tweet on behalf of the company. In order to ensure consistency, you will need to develop an official voice for your social media sites along with specific guidelines for your team to follow.
Voice Characteristics
Identify the characteristics of the company’s voice such as: friendly, quirky, formal, provocative, funny, edgy, authoritative, or informative. Choose several characteristics that define the voice. These characteristics will guide your social media representatives as they interact with your 
followers. For example, if your voice is professional, authoritative, and formal, status updates that start with “Yo, check this out” will not fit.
Voice Descriptions
Next, write out a brief but detailed description of the voice so that everyone is clear. Should the voice sound as if it is from a trusted best friend? From a fashionista who is on top of all the latest trends? Feel free to refer to well-known people or fictional characters in your voice descriptions as this will help your social media administrators relate to the voice. For example, do you want the voice to sound similar to Martha Stewart or Guy Fieri?
Voice Guidelines
Next, create a list of helpful voice guidelines. For example, you probably want to avoid derogatory comments, political rants, and sexual innuendos. Though that should go without saying, you may want to spell it out so that everyone is clear. In addition, you may want to include guidelines that cover sentence structure, punctuation, word choice, and tone.
Use examples to illustrate your guidelines. If one of your guidelines stresses the use of positive language rather than negative, include examples that show how you can turn negative statements into positive ones as shown below:
- We are not available on Saturday afternoons.
- We are available on Saturday mornings.
Similarly, if your guidelines suggest a problem/solution approach, give examples of what you mean.
Voice Vocabulary Lists
Are there specific words that define your brand? Any that you’d like to avoid? Start a word list, making it clear which words or types of words are encouraged and which should be avoided at all costs.
Monitor Your Social Media Profiles for Voice Consistency
Once everyone understands the voice you’ve developed, monitor your social media sites for voice consistency. Ideally, you should not be able to tell that multiple users are posting on your behalf. The voice should sound like it’s coming from the same individual regardless of who composed the actual message.
Finally, keep your team on track by highlighting excellent examples of your voice in action. Share examples of tweets, comments, and status updates that are true to the voice and offer constructive feedback on those that don’t. By defining a voice and working with your team to remain true to it, your social media interactions will become more consistent regardless of who’s interacting at any given time.
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.
Possible Reasons Why Your Sales Team Isn't Performing
You could have the greatest business model you've ever had, but if your sales team isn't performing well, then it's all for naught. There are certain qualities that great salespeople have, and if you don't see these qualities in your salespeople, then it's either time to make some staffing changes or time to make changes to your training processes.
Here are some of the biggest reasons why your sales team might not be performing:
- They lack curiosity. The best salespeople are able to naturally engage with the customers they talk to. Engaged customers are much more likely to make purchases, and come back to make further purchases. Your sales people should understand how to make personal and natural
conversation that doesn't seem forced or scripted. They should ask questions of their customers to learn more about them and how your products can help them in their lives. If your salespeople lack curiosity, they won't ask these important questions and are therefore less likely to create the engagement with your customers that your business needs to drive sales.
- They are unable to focus on the details. The stereotype of a salesperson is that he or she is loud, puts on a show and makes big promises that they may or may not be able to deliver on. However, these types of salespeople are extremely easy to see through and likely will wind up being more of a hindrance than a help to your business. Instead, your salespeople should be meticulous. They must focus on the reasons why the potential customer in question would need a product, and pay attention only to the customer's needs and what the customer asks for. They understand that they should only make promises that they can deliver on. Most of all, they take detailed notes on conversations they have with their customers so they understand how to continue to deliver on these expectations in the future.
- They do not have a generous spirit. The best salespeople are generous in their approach. They look to solve problems rather than sell products. If your salespeople are focused on sales and the bottom line instead of actually solving your customers' problems, they are much more likely to come off as pushy, which will scare away a potential customer. People who are generous in their approach to sales seem much more genuine, which is always appreciated by customers.
Do you see any of these faults in your sales team? If so, it's not too late to rectify the situation. Encourage generosity, curiosity and a detail-oriented approach to sales, and your team will become much more effective.
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.
Possible Reasons Why Your Sales Team Isn’t Performing
You could have the greatest business model you've ever had, but if your sales team isn't performing well, then it's all for naught. There are certain qualities that great salespeople have, and if you don't see these qualities in your salespeople, then it's either time to make some staffing changes or time to make changes to your training processes.
Here are some of the biggest reasons why your sales team might not be performing:
- They lack curiosity. The best salespeople are able to naturally engage with the customers they talk to. Engaged customers are much more likely to make purchases, and come back to make further purchases. Your sales people should understand how to make personal and natural conversation that doesn't seem forced or scripted. They should ask questions of their customers to learn more about them and how your products can help them in their lives. If your salespeople lack curiosity, they won't ask these important questions and are therefore less likely to create the engagement with your customers that your business needs to drive sales.
- They are unable to focus on the details. The stereotype of a salesperson is that he or she is loud, puts on a show and makes big promises that they may or may not be able to deliver on. However, these types of salespeople are extremely easy to see through and likely will wind up being more of a hindrance than a help to your business. Instead, your salespeople should be meticulous. They must focus on the reasons why the potential customer in question would need a product, and pay attention only to the customer's needs and what the customer asks for. They understand that they should only make promises that they can deliver on. Most of all, they take detailed notes on conversations they have with their customers so they understand how to continue to deliver on these expectations in the future.
- They do not have a generous spirit. The best salespeople are generous in their approach. They look to solve problems rather than sell products. If your salespeople are focused on sales and the bottom line instead of actually solving your customers' problems, they are much more likely to come off as pushy, which will scare away a potential customer. People who are generous in their approach to sales seem much more genuine, which is always appreciated by customers.
Do you see any of these faults in your sales team? If so, it's not too late to rectify the situation. Encourage generosity, curiosity and a detail-oriented approach to sales, and your team will become much more effective.
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.
Signs You Need to Get Rid of a Trouble-making Employee…….unless leadership triggers it
Nothing sucks the life out of a business quite like a trouble-making employee. The troubles he or she causes could fall into any number of categories, but sooner or later there comes a time where those troubles begin to have truly negative effects on the business as a whole. Nobody likes firing an employee; it can be a gut-wrenching moment for employer and employee alike. But occasionally it just needs to be done if you want to have any hope of moving forward and continuing to grow as a company. BUT is it always the employee that is the problem?
Here are some signs that may indicate it's time to toss that trouble-making employee…….unless leadership triggers it:
- The employee is engaging in bad behavior. These types of behaviors could include disengagement, negativity, inability to cooperate with others and more. The signs become increasingly more obvious that it's time to let the employee go when behavior that's already bad becomes even worse. You need to release them before the situation turns ugly. However, leadership could be the problem, although this does not justify the behavior. Here's an example. In today's work environment their are more unique generational differences working together than ever before. The differences in what motivates one over the other is stark in contrast. Knowing what motivates a person is key to leading them to meet performance needs.
- Productivity has begun to slip. It's an obvious decision to get rid of an employee who cannot fulfill the expectations of his or her position. However, you should also consider whether this person has also had an impact on the productivity of others. Is he or she constantly in need of
attention from management? Does he or she distract other employees from completing their work? Does his or her work often require extensive revisions? These are questions you should ask. However, your KPI's may be not be accurate, being correctly calculated, measured or even out of sync with the duties of your employee. Make sure that as your business model has changed with the times, that the way you measure productivity has also.
- The employee causes bad morale throughout the business. Attitude really is everything. An employee with a bad attitude who constantly complains or is rude to others can quickly sour the morale of other people that he or she works with. You need to deal with attitude problems as quickly as possible, whether that means rehabilitating or firing the employee. However, what if you have a budding Lech Wałęsa on your staff? You know, somebody who has been trying to make change happen from the bottom up since the top doesn't have the most open door policy.
- Customers and clients consistently complain about the employee. It's impossible to please everyone, sure, but when an employee is the subject of multiple complaints, you need to seriously consider whether they're worth keeping on staff. However, customers can also be unreasonable at times. Affiliate partners can also create havoc internally for your business. This is where your forms core values come into play. Make sure that all relationships; customers, employees and partners share your core values or you do not do business together.
- The employee has no motivation. A person who does only the bare minimum or who is reluctant to take on work that is passed to them has no business being a part of a high-functioning team. You want your employee to be a go-getter, not bumps on a log. However, what motivates one employee may not motivate another. Some may be motivated by money, some by freedom to away from home, some by awards and recognition and others just by doing a good job as hired. Great leadership can manage those motives and drive the employee.
While the decision to fire an employee is often a difficult one, you'll find that having a problem employee gone will allow you to breathe easily and get back to focusing on achieving your goals as a business. However, make sure you continually look at both sides of the coin and work to develop your leadership as much as your employees that person leads.
If you need further advice, feel free to contact us at Viral Solutions.
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.
How to Boost Creativity in Your Business World
The biggest successes in business often start as one small spark of creativity. But sometimes it's easy for us to get bogged down by the mundane, day-to-day details of our work, and we don't get the time to step back, brainstorm and take a look at the big picture. So how can you boost creativity in your business?
Here are a few tips:
- Know your customer. This doesn't just mean carefully researching demographics like gender, age, purchasing trends and other similar pieces of information. You need to actually get out there and talk to your customers as well. Find out what they're thinking, what they need and how you can help them. Getting some personal knowledge of your customers will focus your creativity on ideas that you know will benefit your customer.
- Take baby steps. While we often think of creative people as being the kinds of people who take huge leaps and big risks, the truth is often quite different. Many of the most successful, creative people appreciate
having as many boundaries as goals so that they can evaluate which ideas work and which don't. Once you've taken your time to evaluate your ideas, then it's time to take that big leap.
- Don't be afraid to think completely irrationally. Just because an idea seems ridiculous or irrational doesn't mean it's not worthy of consideration. Some of the best creative ideas are ones that would probably have been immediately dismissed by others. Not every idea you have is going to be a gem, but you need to be able to think outside the box if you expect to improve creativity in your business. And of course, if an idea winds up being truly ridiculous or unrealistic after you've brainstormed it in more detail, there's no need to act on it.
- Be sure to bounce ideas off others. The businesses that exude the most creativity are those that leave the door open for anyone within the company to submit creative ideas of their own. What's more, you should feel free to have large brainstorming sessions, or approach your employees or colleagues with any ideas that arise to get their opinions. The more minds you have on a given idea, the more potential creative directions you could take it.
Need more tips on boosting your creativity? Contact us today at Viral Solutions, and we'll be pleased to work with you to help give your company a creative kickstart!
Christine Kelly | Queen Bee | Viral Solutions LLC
Prior to joining Viral Solutions, Christine held executive leadership roles at some of the largest small business consulting firms in the USA. Her experience includes leading direct reports of over 130 remote sales agents who generated $38mm in annual revenue. She obtained her Marketing degree from British Columbia Institute of Technology. Bring her C-Suite experience to your small business. Although our company is virtual, and we can work with you wherever you are located, she is located in Denver, Colorado and owns a second home in Vancouver, BC Canada.