No More Cold Calling

Book Reviews, Starting Out,

No More Cold CallingI recently read a book that made me rethink how I market myself to others and wanted to share it with you: “No More Cold Calling” by Joanne Black. The essence of the book is that the odds of selling something to people you don’t know (“cold leads”) (either by email, phone, ads, or US Mail) is extremely small and therefore expensive. Ms. Black recommends spending time working on your referral networks.

Identify your ideal customer. Ask people you know if they can give you a referral to one or two people that meets your ideal. You don’t just want the names of the people – you want them to contact your referral and have them tell about you themselves. If you’re thinking, “This seems like I’m asking a favor for my business” – you’re right. It’s a favor you’re asking because people really want to help and be helped. Another approach is to join one of a number of referral-based organizations.

By spending time pro-actively building your referral network it’ll result in a higher “close rate” and better clients as well. You can still do your “cold lead” development to keep your branding going, but referrals, she claims, is where it’s at.

Here’s who I’m looking for: a business owner who is ready to change their day-to-day business practice to leap in front of their competition.

Who are you looking for?

I’m Sorry

Creative Business Ideas, eMarketing,

Last month I got a personal lesson about making a public mistake. While emailing the September issue of this newsletter, I had a technology meltdown resulting in an email containing my address book being sent to everyone. I got a number of emails from people who were understandably angry/annoyed. A number of people requested to be opted-out from future emails. I responded to each email personally. It was a personal disaster for me, since I’m quite tech-savvy and such things should “never” happen to me.

When I realized the mistake, I had a couple of options: 1) ignore it and hope that if I didn’t bring someone’s attention to it then perhaps no one would notice or 2) email everyone and tell them what happened, why, and why it should never happen again. I chose #2 (but some part of me wanted to close my eyes and simply pretend it never happened) believing that if I honestly apologized people would realize that mistakes do happen and forgive me.

It seems that technology continues to be a double-edged sword in business. On one hand you can send one email to hundreds of people with a single button press, which is very efficient. However, with this power comes a responsibility to ensure care. Years ago I used an email program that allowed you to un-send emails (if they weren’t yet read) – it was a feature that allowed me to “save face” on occasion. It’s a feature sorely missing in “modern” email programs.

As a business owner, you’re very busy answering the phone, correspondence, email, etc. Your attention is split between the job at hand and the 10 more you need to do by days’ end. You’re trying to do it all, do it perfectly, and …. something slips. Perhaps it’s a small goof. Now what?

With the acceleration of modern life and prevalence of multi-tasking, the creep of imperfection increases. You can’t help it – there’s simply no way to do more in less time and still get perfect results (whatever that means).

What I’ve learned is I need to do less, not more. If you do less, you can focus better on the fewer things that need doing. But it comes at a trade-off, fewer clients, fewer phone calls, less time reading emails.

Life is about balance. So is work.

Talk Little, Ask Lots

Creative Business Ideas, Starting Out,


I recently attended a conference where Alfie Kohn (“Punished By Rewards”, “Unconditional Parenting”, etc.) spoke about parenting a child. As he described healthy ways of parenting, I was struck by the commonalities of a parent/child and a business/client relationship.

One of his speeches was summarized by “Talk Little, Ask Lots” – stop talking and be curious about the other person’s needs and feelings. As I mentioned in last month’s newsletter (“So, What Do You Do For a Living?”), as a business person you want to engage in a dialog to understand the potential client’s needs and build trust. After you’ve introduced yourself, shift the conversation back to the client. What’s their problem? When does it need to be solved? What have they tried? What’s their budget?

Only after you’ve asked these questions can you begin to figure out if you can help them. Are they are trying to solve a symptom or a problem? Is this problem a match for your business (sometimes the best service you can provide is a referral to an expert)?

Remember, the goal of the conversation/meeting is to develop a long-term relationship. If you can communicate with passion, honesty, and wisdom you’re well on your way to bridging the divide between prospect and client.

So, What Do You Do For A Living?

Creative Business Ideas, Starting Out

The first time you meet someone, what’s one of the first things that they ask (“What do you do for a living”)? Underneath the question they are really asking: Can you help me? Can I help you? Can we help each other? Are you someone I should look up to?

Most of us answer the question with a label (“I’m a realtor”). The conversation is most likely over; the other person’s life experience has assumed they know what you do and how you do it. After all, how different are realtors?

Your could describe what you do (“I represent buyers in real estate transactions”). You are more specific, but still the listener is waiting to get the answer to the question, “Can you help me?”. You haven’t engaged them at all.

You could answer the question with a description of what makes you unique (“I help new buyers find a home of their dreams”). The uniqueness helps set you apart, but again you haven’t engaged the listener.

Instead tell the listener what problem you solve (“I work with people who are looking for the house of their dreams and are afraid of the whole house-buying process and are afraid paying too much.”) The focus is now not on you or your process but what you can do to help them. People can relate to the problem you’re describing. And you’ve opened the door for the next question, “How do you do that?”

Marketing your business takes time. You want people to get to know you. To trust you. To be interested in seeing how you can help them. To buy something from you. We dream of the instant sale. The reality is that it takes work to build a customer relationship. Remember every time you talk to someone is a marketing opportunity.

Top 10 Rules: Corresponding With Clients

Creative Business Ideas, eMarketing, Starting Out,

Here are my rules for corresponding with clients (these rules work for either email or postal letters). If I choose to read a letter (from a company) I’ve made a decision how to spend my time. If I find that the letter wasn’t valuable, then I’ll gradually learn to ignore (or worse, distrust) other letters from that company. Once someone ignores (or distrusts) you it’s very hard to regain their trust. Think before you write!

  1. Make it obvious who it’s from – Do you read all your mail in your mailbox or do you automatically eliminate the junk mail? Let people know the letter is from you.
  2. Keep the letter to one page – When I see a multiple page letter, my first thought is how much time do I have to read it. If I’m busy, I might lose it in my “to-read” pile.
  3. Say the important thing in the first paragraph – When I’m busy, I’m not willing to invest a lot of time to find out what this letter is about.
  4. Make the letter personal – In all your correspondence, you need to build people’s trust in you. Tell a (true) anecdote to illustrate the point if possible. People remember stories.
  5. Make it sharp – Keep it easy to read, even without glasses on! Lots of white space helps. Check your spelling and grammar. Minimize words.
  6. Clarify what you are asking – My rule: one letter = one request.
  7. Specify the time frame – Those “you must respond by midnight to receive your free gift” letters work. If there’s no urgency, why should I read this letter now (if at all)?
  8. Motivate the reader – How does (what you’re writing about) affect them? Does it save them money? Save them time? If you’re unclear about it, so will they. If you don’t know what the reader needs, ask them!
  9. Gain their trust in you – Every communication from you builds on previous messages from you. It takes a while to build trust and a very short time to violate it.
  10. Respect the reader’s intelligence – Don’t repeat the same message many times. Start your letter with your message, give details, and wrap up highlighting the message.