Archives for September 2014
How to Keep Your Clients Accountable
If you are in the business of mentoring or counseling other individuals or organizations, whether it’s for marketing, IT or otherwise, you might have occasional issues with keeping your clients accountable. It’s a common issue for professionals in these fields—it can be a challenge to keep clients engaged in between your sessions with them. It’s also a very understandable issue, as it’s extremely easy to get caught up in the busyness of everyday life and the routine of the work day.
However, if your clients aren’t staying engaged between sessions or following the steps you’ve laid out for them, they aren’t going to find success, which means they’ll wind up being unhappy with your services. Keeping them engaged and accountable is key to keeping your clients happy.
Here are some tips for how you can do exactly that:
- Stay available constantly. Your clients will appreciate being able to come to you with their needs whenever an issue arises. Make sure that you are responsive and focused on what their issue is when
 they do reach out. - Check in every now and then. Monitor the progress of your clients by reaching out every so often and checking in. Don’t feel like you need to do this too much, as you don’t want your clients to feel like you’re breathing down their shoulders. However, periodically giving them a call or shooting them an email to check their progress can help you to keep them from falling off track.
- Give as much encouragement as you can. Celebrate milestones or achievements and give positive reinforcement whenever possible. People appreciate being told they’re doing a good job, so celebrate the little milestones that come up and keep their morale high. That positive reinforcement will go a long way toward keeping them engaged.
- Make sure you’re not overtaxing your clients. Any completion or due dates you set for certain tasks should be reasonable and attainable with the understanding that your clients lead busy lives. You don’t want to give them too many “to-dos” or set completion dates at small, quick intervals.
- Keep them organized. Make sure your clients are keeping track of all of their various action items and that they’re recording everything they do.
Need more tips on keeping your clients accountable? Work with us today at Viral Solutions and we’ll be happy to provide you with more insight.
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.
Small Business Growth Strategy | 3 Tips to Lead the Way
Good Ol’ Benjamin Franklin stated “without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning,”. Take a moment and let that sentence sink in, ponder it, and think about how it applies to you.
Perhaps your organization is in a decline, stagnation, or growth phase within your business life cycle. Whatever the phase that you would classify your business, know that that phase can change. That you can move forward – if you choose to do so.
You require and deserve the best tools available to achieve your goals and find success for your business. You deserve to work with a company that will not compromise your professional or personal ethics and integrity. Simply put, you have a right to the best business advice available, and we have a duty to provide that to you.
Keith McFarland, an Entrepreneur and former Inc 500 CEO, and author of The Breakthrough Company, described breakthrough growth is like a ladder. Each step within the ladder is climbing to a different level of organization growth (i.e. startups and small business, promising ventures, and breakthrough companies). Whether you want to continue to be a small business, but with greater revenue and marketshare, or if you want to grow your small business into a breakthrough company (i.e. McFarland describes that as leader in market-share and hitting home revenues in excess of $250M) you need to start with a growth strategy.
Every BIG company started small, so don't limit your growth possibilities based on where you stand today. Getting from where you are today as an organization, and where you want to be requires purposefully planned effort.
The following tips will help stir up the creative juices to inspire creating and implementing your growth strategy:
- Market Development. Knowing your best customers and target opportunities are huge to shaping your growth strategy. Part of that growth strategy is market development. Here, you identify your primary, secondary, and adjacent markets. You create a sales and marketing strategy for those markets. Customize, customize, customize. The key here is to take care of your traditional and longstanding, revenue generating markets, but to get out of your comfort zone and explore, identify, and market to new ones that could be not only provide a meaningful value to these markets, but could serve as an additional revenue and market streams.
- Know Your Customers. Seriously? Yes, seriously. You need to research, evaluate, and truly understand the demographics and psychographics of your target customers. Likewise, you need to evaluate
Reality Based Conversations | We get real and we stay that way. We know that no amount of great marketing, sales techniques, software as a service (Saas) or operational consulting will fix a bad entrepreneur. We are prepared to deliver our best, to enable you to raise your anchor through the one set of activities that sets the best apart from the rest.
your market for missed target opportunities. Identifying those target opportunities could be a huge opportunity to capitalize on within your growth strategy. - Product Development. This is a classic growth strategy for a reason. It works. This requires you to not only truly know your markets, but also challenges you to learn about new markets. Likewise, your products or services need to fit with those markets. You may not need to reinvent the wheel of your product, but you may need to reinvent the positioning strategy that shifts the product to target market. This could include: revamping your product lines, adding value added services, providing customization, and providing options that are outside of the box. You know your business. Sit back and think about “what can make my products or services better?”, “what can I do to create a greater value for my customers?”, “where can I expand, customize, or change my product or service to fit multiple markets?”.
These are simply 3 essential tips to aid you in stirring up your creative growth strategy juices. Combining these tips with additional analysis to your primary growth objectives, revenue streams (today and where you want to be), strategic relationships, and development of your key performance indicators will aid you in creating your growth strategy. Calvin Coolidge stated “all growth depends on activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.” So, get ready, get excited, and go to work making your growth vision a strategy, and your strategy action.
Additional Great Reads About Growth Strategies…
 Dahl, D. (2010). How to develop a growth strategy. Entrepreneur.
McFarland, K. (n.d.). The breakthrough company.
Moran, G. (2013). How to take your business to the next level in 2013. Entrepreneur.
Copyright Viral Solutions llc © 2014. All Rights Reserved
by Katie Doseck, Ph.D.
Chief Visionary and Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve | Viral Solutions LLC
Katie Doseck, PhD | Chief Visionary & Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve. I catapulted my experience with extensive education, trainings, and personal coaching; earning a PhD in Organizational Management with a specialization in Human Resource Management, MBA in Organizational Leadership, and BA in Law & Liberal Arts. Subject Matter Expert (SME) areas: Human Resource Management, Employment Law, Organizational Change, Change Management, Resource Planning, Strategic Planning, Talent Management, Selling & Sales Management, Training & Development, Decision Making Models, Project Management, Customer Relationship Management, and Motivation. Dr. Doseck is based out of Logan, Utah.
Small Business Growth Strategy | 3 Tips to Lead the Way
Good Ol’ Benjamin Franklin stated “without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning,”. Take a moment and let that sentence sink in, ponder it, and think about how it applies to you.
Perhaps your organization is in a decline, stagnation, or growth phase within your business life cycle. Whatever the phase that you would classify your business, know that that phase can change. That you can move forward – if you choose to do so.
You require and deserve the best tools available to achieve your goals and find success for your business. You deserve to work with a company that will not compromise your professional or personal ethics and integrity. Simply put, you have a right to the best business advice available, and we have a duty to provide that to you.
Keith McFarland, an Entrepreneur and former Inc 500 CEO, and author of The Breakthrough Company, described breakthrough growth is like a ladder. Each step within the ladder is climbing to a different level of organization growth (i.e. startups and small business, promising ventures, and breakthrough companies). Whether you want to continue to be a small business, but with greater revenue and marketshare, or if you want to grow your small business into a breakthrough company (i.e. McFarland describes that as leader in market-share and hitting home revenues in excess of $250M) you need to start with a growth strategy.
Every BIG company started small, so don't limit your growth possibilities based on where you stand today. Getting from where you are today as an organization, and where you want to be requires purposefully planned effort.
The following tips will help stir up the creative juices to inspire creating and implementing your growth strategy:
- Market Development. Knowing your best customers and target opportunities are huge to shaping your growth strategy. Part of that growth strategy is market development. Here, you identify your primary, secondary, and adjacent markets. You create a sales and marketing strategy for those markets. Customize, customize, customize. The key here is to take care of your traditional and longstanding, revenue generating markets, but to get out of your comfort zone and explore, identify, and market to new ones that could be not only provide a meaningful value to these markets, but could serve as an additional revenue and market streams.
- Know Your Customers. Seriously? Yes, seriously. You need to research, evaluate, and truly understand the demographics and psychographics of your target customers. Likewise, you need to evaluate
Reality Based Conversations | We get real and we stay that way. We know that no amount of great marketing, sales techniques, software as a service (Saas) or operational consulting will fix a bad entrepreneur. We are prepared to deliver our best, to enable you to raise your anchor through the one set of activities that sets the best apart from the rest.
your market for missed target opportunities. Identifying those target opportunities could be a huge opportunity to capitalize on within your growth strategy.
- Product Development. This is a classic growth strategy for a reason. It works. This requires you to not only truly know your markets, but also challenges you to learn about new markets. Likewise, your products or services need to fit with those markets. You may not need to reinvent the wheel of your product, but you may need to reinvent the positioning strategy that shifts the product to target market. This could include: revamping your product lines, adding value added services, providing customization, and providing options that are outside of the box. You know your business. Sit back and think about “what can make my products or services better?”, “what can I do to create a greater value for my customers?”, “where can I expand, customize, or change my product or service to fit multiple markets?”.
These are simply 3 essential tips to aid you in stirring up your creative growth strategy juices. Combining these tips with additional analysis to your primary growth objectives, revenue streams (today and where you want to be), strategic relationships, and development of your key performance indicators will aid you in creating your growth strategy. Calvin Coolidge stated “all growth depends on activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.” So, get ready, get excited, and go to work making your growth vision a strategy, and your strategy action.
Additional Great Reads About Growth Strategies…
 Dahl, D. (2010). How to develop a growth strategy. Entrepreneur.
McFarland, K. (n.d.). The breakthrough company.
Moran, G. (2013). How to take your business to the next level in 2013. Entrepreneur.
Copyright Viral Solutions llc © 2014. All Rights Reserved
by Katie Doseck, Ph.D.
Chief Visionary and Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve | Viral Solutions LLC
Katie Doseck, PhD | Chief Visionary & Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve. I catapulted my experience with extensive education, trainings, and personal coaching; earning a PhD in Organizational Management with a specialization in Human Resource Management, MBA in Organizational Leadership, and BA in Law & Liberal Arts. Subject Matter Expert (SME) areas: Human Resource Management, Employment Law, Organizational Change, Change Management, Resource Planning, Strategic Planning, Talent Management, Selling & Sales Management, Training & Development, Decision Making Models, Project Management, Customer Relationship Management, and Motivation. Dr. Doseck is based out of Logan, Utah.
4 Social Media Strategies that Will Wow Your Followers
Entire books have been written on social media strategies, and social media classes are abundant. Indeed, social media is a complicated marketing method with much to master. While you’re learning the ins and outs of social media, put four simple strategies to work. Your followers will be impressed!
1. Add Personality to Your Social Posts – You’ve heard it said a million times: social media is social. In most cases, this isn’t the place for corporate speak. Of course, you’ll still need to be professional but this doesn’t mean you can’t add a little personality to your posts. The goal is to be seen as approachable, credible, and knowledgeable, but also as a person. This means interacting with your followers. Your followers will add comments and ask questions, so make sure to respond much as you would respond in person. Your responses shouldn’t sound scripted or canned; they need to be authentic. A little humor, in good taste, goes a long way in adding a spark of personality to your social media posts.
2. Make Social Media Pretty – There’s a reason that Facebook and Twitter keep updating their sites to allow for larger visuals: images generate interest. For example, posts containing inspirational quotes 
have always been popular on social media sites. They will get shared and liked, even if you simply post the text. If you really want them to shine, consider pairing your quotes with an image. Some Twitter users, for example, have reported that their tweets with images receive 150 percent more retweets than those without images. They also get more clicks and favorites. Your timeline will look much prettier, and you may find that your followers like them even better.
3. Make Your Social Media Sites a Hub of Value – Do your followers know that any time they visit your social media page or see one of your posts in their feeds they’ll receive something of value? They should! Help them to understand your expertise by continually adding value. If they look to you for expert dog training advice, then stay true to your mission and offer expert dog training advice! Your followers don’t want your opinion on the latest crisis in the Middle East or tips for brewing coffee. However, because adding a little personality to your social posts is a welcome relief, your followers might enjoy a photo of you training your dog to sit and wait patiently while you finish drinking a cup of coffee. Again, think how you can add value and deliver on your mission with each post, including the occasional humorous photo. In this example, you might include a quick training tip on how to use the “wait” command to teach your dog to wait patiently while you get your caffeine fix.
4. Diversify Your Social Content – Have you ever followed someone who only tweets inspirational quotes or who only shares links back to their blog posts? How boring is that? How automated is that? While the occasional inspirational quote or link to your blog is okay, and endless stream of nothing but the same old, same old won’t wow your followers. In fact, that may prompt them to unfollow you. A better approach is to diversify. Try to get a nice mix between thought-provoking questions, links to interesting articles, special reports, photos, infographics, videos, social media promotions and contests, thought leadership pieces, and fun, but relevant to your audience, content such as cartoons and quotes. When posting a link, add context to it by sharing your thoughts or asking a question. When sharing an infographic, mention one of the more interesting stats and ask followers which stats surprised them the most.
No doubt, there’s a lot to learn about social media. Keep these four strategies in mind, and you’ll be off to a fantastic start.
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.
Show Your Employees That You Care About Them
Here are some tips for how you can show your appreciation:
- Make your workplace a pleasant environment. Your office should be a kind, welcoming place where people feel like they fit in and are appreciated. Reward outstanding performance with gifts, surprise days off, dinner and more.
- Give a big welcome to new employees. Whenever you bring in someone new, bust out the welcome mat. Have an existing employee act as the mentor to the new one, and host a small welcoming party with food and beverages to help welcome the new hire into the fold.
- Be approachable. Emphasize to all of your employees that they are more than welcome to come to you with any questions or concerns. The more comfortable they feel with you as your boss, the better of a relationship you’ll create with your employees and the more likely they’ll feel that you appreciate their work.
- Have their backs. The customer isn’t always right. If an employee deals with a particularly vicious or unruly customer, let your employee know that you have their back and that you’re willing to defend them when appropriate. Keeping your employees’ morale up is much more important than keeping a troublesome customer.
- Be considerate. While it’s important to have high standards for your employees, make sure that the standards you set are attainable. Giving them too much work within a short time frame or being impossible to satisfy with your quality expectations will frustrate your employees and damage your relationship with them.
Copyright Viral Solutions llc © 2014. All Rights Reserved
by Christine Kelly
CEO and 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.