Resolutions

Here we are again, at that point where many of us create a list of changes that we want to make in our lives this coming year. We have these great intentions of “cleaning up the mess” that we may have made during the past year. If we didn’t “make a mess”, we want to do better and correct some flaws in our lifestyles and improve what we do, say, or think. Do you really believe that it is this easy?

Then there are people who do not make any resolutions. Some do not believe that they need to change anything about themselves; some believe that they are incapable of making any changes, no matter how much those changes may be needed. Some people make resolutions, never believing that they will keep any of them; others make resolutions under the guise of humor, never planning to keep them or because their family members pressure them to at least try to make changes in their lives.

Of course, there are people who make the same resolutions every year, never accomplishing anything towards changing any part of their lives. They may be certain that they will fail to change their lives for the better when they make the resolutions, or they may have the best intentions, but they never take the steps necessary to fulfill these changes. Maybe they don’t have the support of their families, friends, or others in their lives, but the ultimate fault rests on their shoulders.

Where do you belong in this listing of people; who do you closely resemble? Maybe you agonize over this process each year, striving to improve your life, but knowing that you will default to your old ways of living, and finding the same results. The stress does no one any good, and the process is not worth that agony. Maybe you believe that you don’t need that anxiety and want to get on with things as normal. Whatever your belief or intention or actions of the past, this year why not try something new and different?

This year recognize your faults, including the non-ability to make and keep resolutions. However, this year try to make resolutions that resemble baby steps. The longest journey starts with a single step; make the resolution to take that single step. Then resolve to take another, and then another, until you have made the transition to where you want to be. Who says that resolutions have to be made at the first of the year? Make them anytime that you want. Then adjust them as you go along, making the next steps as new resolutions.

This sounds just like goal setting doesn’t it? It is goal setting under another name. When you make goals, whether in your personal or your business life, you need to adjust them as you accomplish stages, or small steps, always raising the bar so you have a new goal to which to strive. Resolutions are no different than goals. Make small resolutions, and then adjust them so that you are always growing. The stress is less than striving for some difficult or perhaps looming goal. The reward will be self fulfilling, and you will anticipate the next step.

Make your resolutions simple, attainable, and rewarding. Include Gratitude Marketing in your resolutions, making it your way of life, in both your business and personal lives, and you will benefit from all that great karma that you will be spreading to others. Please leave me your comments about your thoughts on this, or call me at 360-314-8691, or email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com. I challenge you to express your gratitude to others for everything that they do, for you or everyone else. It will make your new year that much better, and more profitable.

Holiday Season

Gratitude Marketing means many things. Sometimes it means that we need to pay attention to our friends and family and not chase our business opportunities. Remember the phrase, “Stop and smell the roses”? We need to follow that advice more and more to make us grateful for what we have, who we know, and what is possible.

During the holiday season we have opportunities to do different things. That may mean buying gifts for family, visiting with people that we don’t often see, going places which we don’t always visit, and attending holiday events which only occur during this portion of the year. We are reminded of friendship, the joys of sharing, and remembrances of past occasions and happy times, as well as some not so happy times.

This period can be a wonderful break from the hustle and bustle of the work week that we all normally experience. We spend every day running from meetings to other meetings, trying to sign customers to orders for our products or services, and looking for the next target to pursue.

Our current clients, who have been loyal and true to us, should be appreciated for their loyalty, and we should actually let them know that we appreciate them. We should show our friends and family our appreciation for their support, their advice, and even their business.

This is a marvelous time of the year. However, it is also the time when we strive to “make our numbers”, those targets that we need to achieve to be considered successful. We run from post to pillar trying to sign the next customer or make the next sale, which will put us over the top, whatever that level is.

Do we appreciate ourselves, rewarding ourselves with a moment of reflection on life and all that it means to us? Just calm down and stop for a moment and look around you. Take in the joy of this time of the year and let it engulf you, soothe you, and wash over you. Let the smells, the sounds, and the music play over you and then just smile.

This is a time of remembrance, sometimes remembering the good, sometimes the bad. Try to remember what was good, what was funny, and what made you happy. Don’t think of what should, or could have been, or what you may have lost; think of the good that you have, what you had, and the pleasant times that you have shared.

Remember those who made you happy, and let them know, if possible, that you are grateful for them. If they are not still present, honor them by letting someone else know their story and your caring thoughts.

Gratitude Marketing is a way of life, not just in business, but in your personal life also. Make it work for you both in your business life and in your personal life. Please leave me your comments, or call me at 360-314-8691, or email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com, if you wish.

Remember that one of the greatest gifts that you can give someone can be re-gifted or even returned. That gift is the gratitude expressed in a “Thank You”, perhaps accompanied by a hug. Until we speak, have a happy holiday season and consider yourself hugged.

Holiday Greetings

This is the holiday season. I know that there are other holidays and special occasions that we all celebrate. Many of my readers know and understand my feelings towards the celebration of all holidays, not just at the end of a year. It is time again to address the holiday greetings that we all give to others at this time of the year, and also at other special times.

As business people we should send holiday greetings to our prospects, customers, clients, and networking partners. We also should include those who are former customers, unless we have agreed to never contact them for some reason.

Those holiday greetings should be ones offering our warm feelings towards the recipient, thanks for their friendship, appreciation for their business, gratitude for their referrals, and/or wishes for their health and success in the New Year. This is Gratitude Marketing at its finest.

Your greetings should not include an offer to buy something, or anything, at a discount. It should never state that for the holidays you will provide a reduced price for a gift. A required purchase is not a gift. A gift is something that is given to another person without any strings attached. It does not require anything from the recipient but for them to accept it.

If you want to offer a holiday discount, offer it. Offer it in a marketing piece that is a marketing piece of communication, not a holiday greeting. If you want to add a short holiday wish for the recipient’s good health, do so, but only as a closure. A marketing piece of communication should never be disguised as a holiday greeting, no matter what the occasion.

We should recognize the special occasions of our partners, no matter the level of partnership. They may be close relationships or not. They may be friends or not. We may have actually met face to face, or not. We must stay in communications with them; we must express our gratitude for their association with us. We do not have to constantly have to try to sell to them.

Gratitude Marketing means that we express our appreciation and gratitude for the people and what they mean to us. It does not mean that we have to try to sell whatever we have to them at every occasion. The holidays are not the occasion to greet others with one hand and try to gain their money with the other.

Let me know what you believe and if you agree or disagree. Please email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com, or call me at 360-314-8691. Have a great holiday season and be safe and well. We can always chat about whatever you want or need at our mutual convenience.

Are You Too Small to Market?

Often I hear at least one person who believes that their company is too small to market who they are and what they do. They say: “I don’t have enough customers.” “We aren’t big enough.” “Marketing is for big companies.” Marketing is for companies with more money.”

Have you used these excuses? Perhaps your best friend is hiding behind these excuses. If you do not have a marketing plan, you are committing business suicide. Practicing some Gratitude Marketing should fit into your business plan and budget.

If you do not let people know who you are, what your product or service is, how to get in touch with you, or how to order from you, you will never get the business that you should. I do not care what your website looks like, how your telephone number spells out your name, or what color your business card is. If people do not know that your business exists, they will not be your customers. We all must market our businesses and keep marketing every day.

Assuming that you were intelligent in the forming of your business, with a business plan, picking a name, having a logo designed, and even having a website designed, next comes your marketing. Otherwise you will sit in your chair and wait for customers to magically find you and for business to fall out the sky. That does not work.

You must get out into the world and market your business. It may begin with telling your neighbors and family that you have started a business and what it is. (If you don’t want those two groups to know what you do, why are you ashamed of your business?)

The next step is to tell more people and expand the ring of persons who know about you. The more people who know you, the more people exist who will tell others about you. Maybe you don’t have any customers yet, but you do have prospects, some that you have not even met.

The cheapest, or most frugal, form of marketing is networking. Get out of your initial sphere and tell others who you are and what you do. People do business with people that they know, like, and trust. More important, they will refer customers to those same people. Therefore, go to networking groups and let others get to know you.

Meet them afterwards one-on-one and get to know each other better. Get comfortable and establish a networking relationship and try to mutually help each other grow your businesses. Just be yourself and treat each other as human beings, not prospects or potential sources of business. Practice Gratitude Marketing.

As you build your network of relationships, you will gain customers and referrals as people get to know you, what you offer, and how you do business. Remember the principles of karma. You will receive back whatever karma you put forth, not directly but you will receive it back. Let your karma be positive and supportive of others, and what you receive back will be the same. As a result, your business will grow and prosper.

Do you still believe that you are too small to market your business? Still believe that you cannot afford or should not try to market your business? Let me know what you believe and if you agree or disagree. Email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com, or call me at 360-314-8691.

We can always discuss means of marketing that will help grow your business. We can also discuss how to work smarter, not harder, to keep your customers as you gain them.

Employees

When you think of the most valuable assets of your business, do you think of your employees? If you do, great; if you don’t, shame on you. Your employees are vital to the success of your business. Doesn’t it make sense to make them feel as appreciated as much as all your customers do? Gratitude Marketing principles should be applied to them as well as to customers.

Employees may be the first contact that a prospect has with your business and can either make or break a successful transition from prospect to customer. Your employees must “buy into” the vision that you have for your business, and they must believe that their part in the operation of your business is important to its continued success. They must know that they are appreciated for their efforts.

Employees should believe that their contributions are welcome, valued, and respected by their superiors. If you are the direct manager of your staff, you must show your appreciation directly to your employees for their work. If there are levels of management between you and your staff, you must still show your appreciation, but you must be sure that your subordinate managers do the same.

Words are very important in this appreciation effort, but they must be matched by actions. You should look for occasions to show appreciation and respect, immediately taking advantage of each occasion. Your subordinate managers should also be rewarded for their efforts in addition to showing that they appreciate their staff also.

The fact that everyone likes to be noticed and thanked for what they do provides opportunity to promote better employee-employer morale and a happier environment for all involved. Environments where everyone is happier and feeling appreciated are where new ideas are born and businesses thrive. Appreciate your employees, and they will go the extra step in being worthwhile assets in your business.

Of course, appreciation for your employees must include the business owner. You must appreciate yourself for what you do and accomplish. Rewarding yourself for your efforts should not take a backseat to the daily workings of your business. You must take a moment and “smell the roses” once in a while, celebrating what you have accomplished.

A business includes a team of personnel, either employees or contractors or associates. No matter what the titles, we do not operate alone. That knowledge allows all of us to continue in the face of adversity and enjoy the benefits of success. Remember that no one operates alone, even the sole proprietor. We all have help from somewhere; sometimes it comes from our customers, but often it is from our networking partners.

Gratitude Marketing applies equally to customers and employees. It is a corporate culture that brings success if practiced throughout the structure of any business. It must be practiced by all levels of management and staff, and rewards all levels with continued success. Remember all your employees as well as your clients. Then, do not forget to appreciate the efforts of yourself and enjoy that appreciation.

Please leave me your comments, or email me at Jim@JimTeasley.com, or call me at 360-314-8691. Gratitude Marketing is a culture that impacts businesses of all sizes and levels of management to achieve success. Employee appreciation, like customer appreciation, can make your business operate like you wanted it to do so. Make it your mantra and your culture. It will pay off for everyone with continued success.

Starting a Conversation with a Stranger

After a recent blog posting, I was asked to explain how to start a conversation with a stranger. For this purpose, a stranger would be anyone whom we meet in the course of our day’s activities but not in the arena of networking events. These strangers would not be anyone whom we meet at an event where this type of conversations would be expected.

If you don’t know where to go to meet people, where do you go each and every day? Do you go shopping, do you buy gas, do you go to the mechanic, and do you go to coffee shops? These are public places where people are. When asked why they rob banks, bank robbers say because that’s where the money is. Go where the people are.

These strangers would be those people whom we meet in coffee shops, on the sidewalk, at a grocery store, across the island at a gasoline station, in line at the office supply store, or anywhere else where we may not be looking for anyone with whom to chat. They are right in front of us, everyday and everywhere.

So how do you use Gratitude Marketing to start a conversation with these strangers, without being considered pushy or infringing upon their space or time? Look for the signs; look for something that you can compliment; look for the signs that the other person may welcome conversation. Also, look for the signs that they may not welcome interruption.

Are they speaking with someone else, perhaps on the phone (look for the Bluetooth headset on the person who is talking to themselves)? Are they listening to headphones or writing or working on their laptop? Is there something that you would like to ask them about: their laptop brand, their dog, their coat, their hat, whatever they might consider special?

I once had a 20 minute conversation on a sidewalk with a man walking 2 dogs. I have had 2 other conversations with him on subsequent occasions, and I know that his dogs like to be scratched on their heads and spoken to in soft terms. We never exchanged names, but this is great practice for other conversations. I have had many chats that are similar.

Do not look upon every stranger as a potential prospect or client. Just chat with people and get to know them. Try a smile and a simple hello. Ask about something that appears to interest them or something that they have. Maybe you have similar taste in clothes; maybe you own different laptops; maybe you both were stood up by an appointment in the same coffee shop. Instead of yelling at someone who bumps into your grocery cart, say hello and laugh about it.

You will often meet someone who doesn’t want to chat. That’s fine; perhaps apologize and move on with a smile. If you meet them again sometime, be pleasant and see what happens. Compliment them on something and see if they open up. Maybe they won’t now, but maybe they will at another time. Some people don’t warm up to strangers easily; do you?

You will receive the same treatment that you project. If you are warm, welcoming, and open to strangers’ conversations, you will receive the same treatment in return. This is karma; you get back what you project, good or bad. If you are not getting warm receptions to your overtures to converse, look at what you are projecting. You might not be practicing Gratitude Marketing.

Please leave your comments or your thoughts, or email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com, or call me at 360-314-8691. Let’s just have a conversation.

Using Gratitude Marketing, you can gain more referrals for your business, even making it based mostly on those referrals. You can stop cold calling people who do not know who you are or what you do or why they should speak with you. You can add clients from the referrals of your known clients, prospects, friends, and family. You can base your client search on the referrals of known and “happy” clients.

Based on what you know about yourself, you should ask the question: “Would you refer business to you?” First, let’s examine how you do business. Do you place the needs of the prospect before what you want to sell to them? Do you ask them about themselves and their business, and do you listen to what they say to you? Do you watch what they do and how they act towards others? Do you examine their habits and their actions?

Second, do you apply the same questions and examination to yourself and what you do? Have you listened to the greeting on your voicemail lately? Does it identify you, and your business, clearly and concisely? Is it even up to date? Does it sound positive and welcoming? Would you leave a message if you were greeted by it? Perhaps have someone listen who has never heard it and tell you how they react to it.

If you are busy with an appointment or meeting, let your voicemail answer callers. That is why it is there. Show your appointment that you value their time by turning off your cell phone and letting all your calls go to voicemail. Then after your meeting, return those calls promptly. One of the better tag lines that I have heard is: “I answer my phone or return all voice messages or emails as soon as possible.” This is simple and very powerful.

Do you return voicemails promptly and intelligently; do you listen to voicemails before you return the call? There are people who never return calls, even when you have been referred to them and you leave a voicemail message letting them know why you are calling. These are not people that refer to others since I do not believe that they value referrals. Don’t hide behind your voicemail; use it to answer your calls when you are busy with others and then return those calls, armed with the information from the message that was left.

We all need to look at ourselves and examine what we find in ourselves. We need to “see” how we appear to others. If they have the wrong impression of us, maybe that is our fault; maybe it is how we “show” ourselves to others. We just need to examine ourselves, and how we live our business and personal lives, and see how we appear to others. Think outside the box in which you live and work. Maybe you will like what you see; maybe you won’t.

If you don’t believe that you can be objective about your life, how you live it, and how you do business, perhaps you should regularly ask your networking partners for their thoughts. None of us is perfect, and all of us have something that should improve. Our partners have a vested interest in helping us be to better; they should be willing to be honest with us and help us improve. The first step is to ask for their help.

So what do you think about this? Do you believe that your business actions are perfect and can’t be improved? Have you taken a good look at yourself and how you treat the others in your life? Please let me have your comments, or email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com, or call me at 360-314-8691 so we can share with others. Karma should rule our lives, and we should strive to be professional, passionate, and personal in our dealings with others.

Starting a Conversation at a Networking Event

Bob Burg’s book, “Endless Referrals” outlines the basics of networking. I consider this to be a great book for anybody who wants to increase their sphere of clients, prospects, friends, and relationships. From start to finish he covers all manner of networking. Building relationships is the route to success, and Bob Burg details how to do it.

You should attend networking events, whether they are meetings specifically for networking or are general meetings for business people to attend (luncheons, seminars, whatever). Every business meeting is a networking opportunity, and all attendees should understand that these are opportunities for networking and building relationships.

At a meeting specifically promoted as a networking meeting, starting conversations should be easy. After all, everyone should expect that networking is one of the reasons that they are there. Starting a conversation with people at different type of meetings might be more difficult, but you can do so at all meetings if you approach them in a non-threatening manner. It is just that simple.

If you see friends at a meeting, say hello to them and ask how they are. However, you are there to network with people that you do not know, strangers who are not already your networking partners. You may be targeting someone who is in attendance, but the main objectives of your efforts should not be people that you already know. Get out of your comfort zone, and look for people who are new to you.

Some of these people may not be veterans of networking as you are and might be nervous. Greet and comfort them; make them feel welcome. Ask their name and what they do. Exchange business cards and comment on something after looking at their card. Maybe they don’t know anyone else; after you get acquainted, you can introduce them to someone that you know.

If you learn that they are interested in meeting specific people, you might be able to introduce them to those attendees, or you might be able to refer them to some partners of yours later. If you cannot refer them to specific people, perhaps you know someone who might be able to help them meet the people for whom they are searching.

Just be yourself, do not try to sell; just establish a beginning to a relationship. You may be able to start the conversation from their name tag, or they may do so from yours. Ask them where they are located, or their accent may lead to a discussion. Maybe you know someone in a similar industry or in another group that they may mention.

No matter what you do, do not start selling your product or company, or even yourself. Ask them if they would like to get together and get better acquainted at another time, promising to contact them later. If they offer to set a meeting right away, do so, but don’t push for one; that is what follow up is for. If you suggest a future meeting, your call will not be a cold call, but a genuine follow up call.

Gratitude Marketing techniques are very applicable in this start to relationships. Cultivate relationships first, and your will cultivate business partners, clients, and referrals for more prospects. Meet others, cultivate relationships, always be grateful for others, and you will prosper, both in business and personally.

Please leave me your comments and ideas, or call me at 360-314-8691, or email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com. Share some of your experiences with me; we all learn from each other.

Tapping Into Your Network Partners

Once I needed a plumber, and I was amazed that I did not have a plumber in my network. I have dozens of contacts of almost every type of profession, but I did not have a plumber. So I called one of my network partners in hopes that she could give me a referral.

She gave me the name of someone with her strong recommendation, and I talked with the plumber’s wife on the phone who was very professional and efficient. We scheduled the appointment for a mutually appropriate time and date, and I waited for when my problem would be solved.

During the appointment, he fixed one problem without the need for extended work, and he installed a new faucet for me with care and speed. In addition, he told me what he was doing and why. In short, I received excellent service, gained information, and was not charged an excessive amount of money.

Before he left my house, I told him to use me as a reference and gave him permission to provide my name and contact information to anyone who wanted assurance of his work. I told him that he did not have to contact me before sharing my contact information for the reference.

After the work was done, I sent a card to my network partner thanking her for the referral and telling her how pleased I was. I told her that I would be glad to refer him to anyone else that needed his service. I also sent a card to him thanking him for the service and telling him again how I would be glad to refer him to others.

A few days later, my new plumber called me to thank me for the card, stating that a customer had never sent him a card thanking him for his service. He said that he was touched by my gesture, and wanted to tell me how much it meant to him. I told him how much his call touched me also.

Gratitude Marketing means that we thank a person for their business, their gestures, their advice, or whatever they do that impacts our lives. It doesn’t matter how great or how small, they have done something that made our day better. Perhaps it was good service or a good product for a fair price, perhaps it was a gesture that wasn’t expected, or perhaps it was just a smile.

Your thank you gesture can be a card, a telephone call, or a polite thank you when you see them. Nike’s slogan implores us to take action, “Just Do It”!!! You never know whose day you can make better, or how their reaction may make yours better also. You never know who might need some Gratitude Marketing.

So let’s all start doing the right thing. Thank others for their service, products, and gestures. Their response may also make your day better. Make someone else’s day better; just do the right thing. Then share your comments here, or call me at 360-314-8691, or email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com. We could start a whole new movement, or restart an old one.

Be a Product of Your Product

We should always endeavor to be professional in our business, passionate about our business, and personable with our clients and prospects. One of the ways that we can exhibit professionalism is to be a product of our product, use our service to represent the service, and share our knowledge with others.

Have you ever met a person who represents a company and does not use the products or services of the company? Have you ever met someone who is not a shining example of what they tell others? We meet these people each and every day, and they pepper us with wonderful stories about how their product or service is the one we should use, but they don’t.

A professional business person is one who has a valid product or service for a valid price, and they do not present their company’s product or service in a way that evades explanation. They are direct and straight forward in their presentations and in answering questions. They also present pricing information in the same manner, without misrepresentation.

A professional business person is also someone who uses the product or service of their company in their business and/or personal life. If they sell trucks, they use trucks in their business; if they are a realtor, they do not live in an apartment. If they are a financial planner, their life is financially stable; if they are a personal trainer, they are physically fit.

How can anyone present themselves as an example of their company’s product or service but not be a product of the product and still have credibility? I realize that there may be some situations where your product or service might be combined with some other product or service for a valid reason, but your main emphasis should be on your example to others.

It has been said that a cobbler’s children will go shoeless. What type of example is that? If you are a seamstress, your clothes cannot be in need of repair. If you are a house painter, your home should not need painting. You are your own best advertisement, and you work for a reasonable price. You need to represent yourself and your company in the best light.

Business coaches who cannot give professional presentations, accountants who do not keep accurate financial records, doctors who smoke, dentists with bad teeth, and police officers who have a disregard for the law are all people who are not products of their product. They have very little credibility, if any, with their clients and prospects.

To be professional in your business or personal life you must practice what you preach to others, you must have credibility in your dealings with others. People do business with, and refer business to, those who they know, like, and trust. If you have no credibility, others will not like or trust you. Therefore, they will not do business with, or refer others to, you.

If you want to be successful in your business and get, and keep, clients and receive referrals from others, be a product of your product or service. You must be an example of what you want others to use that your company has for sale. Have some thoughts on the subject? Leave me a comment, or call me at 360-314-8691, or email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com so we can share.

The Holiday Police

Attention: Holiday greetings can only be sent at the end of the year.

Signed: The Holiday Police

So, just who are these Holiday Police who dictate when we can send holiday greetings and when not to send them? Who appointed them to rule over our holiday spirits? No one, that’s who, and just what does this have to do with Gratitude Marketing?

So open up your holiday spirit and send greetings to anyone at any time during the year. After all, there are holidays all during the year that you can celebrate with your family, friends, prospects, customers, clients, and even your staff. You can bring the joy and fun of holidays to others all year long, and you can stand out from the crowd who just celebrate the holidays at the end of the year.

You will stand out from the crowd and be noticed when you don’t follow a crowd. You will create some fun for everyone and maybe have some fun yourself at the same time. Why should you get lost in the holiday creating crush at the end of the year? Why should your greetings get lost among the hundreds of thousands that everyone receives? Be different and celebrate other holidays and help your intended recipients do the same.

There are hundreds of other holidays during the year. Who wouldn’t want to celebrate the birthdays of each of the US Presidents; what about Thanksgiving? How about celebrating Halloween? There is always April Fools’ Day. Of course we can be more serious and celebrate the Fourth of July, Veterans’ Day, or Flag Day. You can pick from dozens of others: Arbor Day, National Sandwich Day, or Labor Day. You can even be imaginative and invent your own holidays. I know a store owner in Portland who started National Underwear Day because he operated an underwear store.

For every well-known holiday, there are many others which are forgotten, just begging to be celebrated. You might be the only business who sends greetings to customers on Houseplant Appreciation Day, or Leap Day, or National Teacher’s Day, or Hammock Day, or Festivus. I’ll bet none of your competitors will do so, and your greetings will stand out, providing some humor to the world.

So stop doing what everyone else does. Stop following the Holiday Police. Use your imagination and march to a different drummer. Send someone a National Hot Dog Day greeting; I dare you. They will realize that you cared enough to think of them without any intent to sell them anything or upgrade their order. You just wanted to bring some cheer and light into their lives at a time other than the end of the year. You practiced some Gratitude Marketing and sparked some fun for them and for you.

If you believe that this use of Gratitude Marketing is too bizarre for business or “just isn’t done”, that is nothing new to me. I have heard it all. “That won’t work. That isn’t how we do business. That’s not serious enough. We have always done this the same way. Everyone else does it this way.” Those are the words of the people who cannot think outside the box, who have no imagination. Maybe we should fill Gratitude Marketing with Imagination Marketing and shock the world.

Call me at 360-314-8691, or email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com, or leave your comments here. I would love to hear what you think of this “different” approach to Gratitude Marketing. Tell the Holiday Police that you are trying something new and their rules don’t apply to your business anymore.

Marketing Return on Investment

Deceasing, or increasing, your marketing budget may not be the best solution for problem times. Maybe you should use your current budget better rather than throwing more money into your efforts. Work smarter not harder. This is a rule that should apply to everything that you do in business, including your marketing. Using the correct tools is working smarter, especially when it may be easier, faster, and make you look better to your clients.

We all need to take an intelligent look at our marketing budgets and how we are applying those budgets to maximize our return on investment (ROI). Just as we should maximize the return on investment on all our expenses, hardware, software, furniture, equipment, every expense that we have, we need to do the same with our marketing budgets.

So how does Gratitude Marketing apply to marketing budgets and maximizing our return on investment? Sometimes the simpler methods are the most reasonably priced and the easier ones to implement and use. Tom Hopkins, the author of How to Master the Art of Selling, advocates the art of the thank you. Simply, he encourages everyone to thank everyone for whatever they may do.

Everyone includes anyone that you do business with, your customers, your suppliers, your contacts, businesses that you patronize each and every day, people that you meet, whether on purpose or by chance. How does this help improve your customer base? Maybe these people become customers; maybe they know others that can become customers; maybe they just become your networking partners.

The list of people to thank can be long. It includes your daily contacts, no matter the subject of any conversation. It also includes contacts after a marketing call on your or their part. It includes customers after their initial purchase, and after a repurchase. Perhaps a customer sends you a referral who might become your new customer; perhaps they introduce you to a new supplier who saves you money on their product or service. Maybe the recipient of your thank you is just someone who has touched you, or someone you know, in a special way.

Don’t forget to include people who you have not connected with in some time, and don’t forget to include the contacts that fail to become customers. They will appreciate your efforts and remember you when someone else needs your service or product. Have we left anyone out of this list? Everyone includes everyone that you know or that you meet or you remember in a moment of reflection.

Isn’t this expensive; doesn’t this cost money, time, and effort? Yes and no. It might replace a marketing effort that costs a lot more and brings you nothing in return. It might take less time and effort than you believe. Look at everything in your marketing plans with the return on investment question in your mind. Then look at the public perception of you and your business. What people believe you to be will shape their future business with you.

People do business with those that they know, trust, and perhaps like. Maybe you need to use that philosophy in building your client base, retaining the clients that you have, and obtaining referrals from those people that you know. It will make a difference in your business life. In addition it will make a difference in your personal life; the two are more connected than you think.

Do you want to chat with someone about your marketing budget and how it can be improved? Give me a call at 360-314-8691 so we can connect and help each other. Email me with your ideas and thoughts at Jim@SOC4Now.com, or leave your comments here for others. I am always looking to expand my networking partnerships. Then we will be discussing Gratitude Marketing.

Call Systems

In my efforts to teach others to bring a better experience to customers in the buying experience, I often discuss the greetings and messages that we have on our voice mails and call waiting systems. It doesn’t matter what system we use, there is no replacement for person to person contact and the ability of a customer to interact with a real, live customer service representative.

There is a need for customers to be able to call businesses to discuss problems, ordering, and any other interface question. Businesses must understand that customers have such needs from time to time, and it is more frequent if the business doesn’t practice great customer service in everyday situations. If I spend money to purchase a product or service from anyone, I expect that business to have the ability for me to call them on the telephone and discuss any problems that I may have.

If you practice Gratitude Marketing you will have the means for customers with problems to contact you. You will staff your call answering facility with enough trained and polite representatives to answer customer questions, resolve problems, and assist callers with solutions to their problems. Reading from marketing scripts does not help the customer who wants to cancel their order or service. Making it difficult for customers to do, or stop doing, business with you will bring you a bad reputation and will lose you business.

Let’s discuss the “automated” systems that most businesses have now. First, they must be user friendly. They must allow the caller to press a button and access a real, live representative without going through multi levels of questions, most of which may not apply. By the way, no business that I know that has tried voice recognition systems in lieu of allowing a customer to press their phone’s buttons has continued to do so solely as a manner of interface.

Second, there must be a choice for all the other problems that a customer may experience. Just a given set of choices that may not address the situation at hand is not enough. Always have a choice for the customer to access a live representative. Automated messages such as “Your call is very important to us” are an insult to the person who is on hold for over 5 minutes. If my call was important, you would have answered by now.

The announcement that “We are experiencing an unusually large call volume” is a lie if it is always heard every time anyone calls your business. Again, this is an insulting message that tells me that you don’t care about your customers. The same is true when anyone on hold is bombarded by messages asking them to upgrade the service when they just want a problem solved.

Trained customer service representatives who have the power to solve problems are so much better than the ones who only can follow a script. If they cannot resolve a problem, access to a supervisor or manager must be available. Gratitude Marketing means that if you accept my payment your business has the ability to resolve problems in a manner that is easy for me, the customer. If you cannot, you should get out of business now for you will be unsuccessful in the future because your reputation will be your downfall.

As always let me have your comments about Gratitude Marketing, karma in business, or even customer service in general, or call me at 360-314-8691, or email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com. Take my challenge to join me in a revolution in kindness towards everyone.

Do & Don’t (Part 2)

As a result of the influx of calls and emails that I received this past week regarding last week’s posting, I believe that I should share some of the items that your fellow readers have brought to my attention. I know that we have discussed some of these previously, but it would seem that a refresher posting may be in order.

We have discussed multiple times the importance of making it easy for someone to do business with you. Starting with your website or your initial contact with anyone and continuing throughout the process, make dealing with you a pleasure for everyone. If your customer actually buys from you but believes that the process was similar to a death march, they probably will not return for a second painful experience. Neither will they advise anyone else to do business with you. You want great referrals that bring people to you, not warnings that you are toxic.

When you follow-up with anyone after their initial purchase, or even a first meeting, keep it about them. Don’t try to immediately upgrade a first order customer to the next level, and don’t mix general greetings (happy birthday or anniversary wishes) with an offer to sell them anything. Since my birthday is next week, I have received a deluge of offers this weekend to purchase items at a savings. This type of offer is not my type of birthday wish.

We have touched often on the importance of contacting a lost customer and discovering what went wrong. Don’t try to woo them back; just find out why they walked away. Did you not do what you promised; did they misunderstand what they were purchasing; did someone in your staff fail to perform; did the customer not really want what you offered? You must discover what the reason was and take any steps necessary to correct any problems on your part. Remember knowledge is power even when it tells us we make a mistake.

Remember to listen to your prospects and discover what they need. If they don’t need whatever you offer, that’s fine. Try to help them to discover a source of their objectives, or help them understand what they really require if you believe that they are searching for the incorrect items. Networking partners must give advice as well as help us locate referrals for our businesses.

If you make a mistake, admit it, apologize, and move on. It is not the business that never makes mistakes that I want to buy from, but the one that handles mistakes well and makes the customer as “whole” as possible. If your customers never tell you that you made an error, but just go away, you do not have a great relationship with them.

Gratitude Marketing means that we treat others well, perhaps better that we might want to be treated. The only way to discover how you are treating others is to ask them. A good relationship would mean that they will tell you before you ask, but sometimes people are shy, or just don’t want to face conflict. Make them understand that you want and need their opinions. After all it might be better for you to hear how your partners feel before other prospects do.

As always let me have your comments about Gratitude Marketing, karma in business, or even customer service in general, or call me at 360-314-8691, or email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com. Let’s see if Gratitude Marketing can result in some great business success and fun times.

Do & Don’t

In our quest for business success, business owners must do certain things and not do other certain things. While some of each of these may seem to be common sense, maybe we should review some of each and the details behind the common sense. Of course, Gratitude Marketing should provide many of the reasons for these lists, but maybe we need to discuss them anyway.

Never, ever, ever ignore the importance of anyone’s name. If you do not know how to spell anyone’s name, find out, and do not guess. Never assume that it is like everyone else’s; find out how it is spelled. Nothing is more embarrassing than to misspell someone’s name, especially if they are a prospect, customer, client, family member, or friend. Guess that means everyone.

That said; always use their name in a greeting, email, card, or other communication. It makes them feel great, calls attention to their importance, and is common courtesy. We all like to be addressed by our name, not called customer, resident, new resident, or other such vague term. Nothing is worse than to receive a marketing pitch directed to “The Business Owner”. If you want to do business with me, discover who I am.

Always meet one-on-one with new acquaintances and get to know them. Never “write off” anyone as not for us. The person who you ignore might want to be your customer, but may also be your greatest referral source. First impressions are not always correct, and you might be amazed by the details that you discover about anyone. They may even have something that will benefit you.

When you sit down with anyone new for the first time, never start off pitching whatever you have to market. Find out about the other person first, discover what they do, what they need, and what makes them do whatever they do. That way you can intelligently refer them to others that they may need to meet, either because they need whatever the other person offers or because the other person may be a great prospect for them. You cannot do this if you don’t know them.

If the new person that you meet isn’t a prospect for you, don’t dismiss them. They may be a great referral partner; they may know just who you need to meet. They may know the perfect business partner for you. Look for networking partners first, not prospects. If you enlarge our networking partnerships, you will gain more customers. Some of them will become customers or clients, while some of them will refer us to more prospects.

If you lose a customer, you must find out why. You must attempt to never lose touch with them. Depending on why they moved on from our customer relationship, you may gain them back in the future. You may receive referrals from them that may help us grow our business success. You may even learn something about why you lost them that will help us improve our performance with others.

In the coming weeks you will discover more details that make up Gratitude Marketing and you may learn what you are doing right or even wrong. You might not always agree, but you can learn. Sometimes you may even learn what you don’t know, or what you thought you knew about business, Gratitude Marketing, and karma. Again let me have your comments, or call me at 360-314-8691, or email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com. Let’s help each other practice Gratitude Marketing.

Back On Schedule

For regular readers, thanks for tolerating the absence for the last few weeks. Our move to Sacramento is complete and we now need to dig our way out of the mountain of boxes and other stuff that is not put away as of yet.

That said; let’s move forward with applying Gratitude Marketing to our business and personal lives, reaping the benefits of the great karma that results from making customers, clients, prospects, friends, and family understand that we actually care about them and treating them well.

Exactly what is Gratitude Marketing? It is marketing our businesses in a way that makes our customers know without a doubt that we believe in customer service, performing in an ethical, honest manner, and “doing the right thing” whenever we interface with anyone. Does this mean that we “give away the store” when the customer complains? We should evaluate any communication from a customer in a fair manner, standing behind any promises or guarantees made, but making decisions based on common sense and the relationship between the customer and our business.

Obviously any business can stand behind their fine print without any deviation, but that may not be the best adherence to Gratitude Marketing. The first rule for any business is to stay in business. Selling products or services at a loss cannot be made up in volume. A fair profit is necessary for any business to succeed and stay in business. Any customer or client that wants to continue to have a relationship with any business should understand and agree with this philosophy. However, common sense also means that a rule may be adjusted for the right situation.

Can a business continue to succeed without a relationship based on Gratitude Marketing? If a business wants to be constantly searching for the next new customer, ignoring the current ones that it has, it may be possible to maintain a business operation. However, the stress of that constant search, always replacing customers with new ones, is stressful and not a stable basis for any business. Why not treat your customers in such a manner that they become your unpaid marketing advocates, telling everyone that you are the business with which they should explore a relationship.

Notice the use of the term “relationship”. We all establish relationships with others, either in business or our personal lives. What is the basis for those relationships and what is the result of maintaining them? Is there mutual benefit from the relationship, and can we say that the relationship is one of which we are proud? We can if the relationship is based on Gratitude Marketing.

So let’s restart our journey together, exploring this philosophy of Gratitude Marketing. Let’s learn how to base our lives on treating everyone as we would want to be treated. Let’s turn prospects into customers, customers into clients, and family, friends, and business relationships into networking partners who practice karma, benefiting everyone. Let me have your comments, or call me at 360-314-8691, or email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com. Maybe we have some of the same ideas, but maybe we have new ideas that can help each other. Let us practice Gratitude Marketing.

Blog Schedule

Several followers of this blog know that my wife and I are planning to move to Sacramento in California, from where we moved to Vancouver, Washington twelve years ago. We are very much going back home.

My contact information will not change from 360-314-8691 and Jim@SOC4Now.com. However, as a result of this move, which is taking place at the end of August, I have decided to place my blog postings on hold until the move is completed. I just do not have time to prepared meaningful blog content, pay attention to my clients, customers, prospects, and family and friends, and handle the details of the move at the same time. What can I say; I am getting older and have no patience with myself if I cannot accomplish 100% of everything that I attempt.

Please bear with me during this absence, and I will return by the end of September with the same, if not better, blog postings. Until then do not forget Gratitude Marketing or the great karma that it produces and treat everyone as well as you would want to be treated. Be safe and well, and enjoy the fun of doing business with great networking partners.

Finding Networking Partners

We have discussed networking partnerships and how to treat these partners in our lives. Where do we find these networking partners who mean so much to our mutual success? How do these networking partners first appear in our lives from nowhere and from everywhere?

Each and every day you meet various people in everything that you do and everywhere that you go. You meet other people in your business life and in your personal life. Remember what we have discussed many times: you cannot separate your business and personal lives. Your contacts will appear in both your business life and your personal life.

Networking partners are no different. You will find your networking partners in both your personal and your business lives. Don’t even try to separate them. You will not be able to do so, and the best networking partners will not want you to be able to do so. The best ones will be proud to be part of your life, totally and completely.

Your networking partners are the people that you meet at networking meetings; they are the people that you meet through the Chamber of Commerce; they are the people that you meet at a business event, at the grocery store, at the bank, at the coffee shop, or at the car repair shop. You can even meet them on the sidewalk or at the theater.

A partner of mine taught me that anytime people were somewhere then I should also be in that room. Every gathering of any type is a networking opportunity. Each and every time that you go anywhere, look for opportunities to meet someone new. Every time that I attend an event or meet someone for a coffee chat, I learn something new.

We just said that every gathering of any type is a networking opportunity. How about the next time you are in a coffee shop before the person that you are there to meet has arrived? How about after that person has left? How about the person behind the counter who serves coffee? How about the person who delivers supplies to the shop?

Networking partners may arrive in your life anywhere that you are; they may be anyone that you meet. Just start a conversation with other people and get to know them. Do not try to sell them anything when you first meet them. Just get comfortable with them and get to know who they are. Establish a relationship and go from there.

Once you know who they are, find out what they do, and then see if you may assist each other in being successful in your business and your personal lives. If you find that you can do business together, great. If you cannot, can you pass referrals to each other? Can you recommend events that will help the other person succeed? Can you offer advice?

Look for networking partners everywhere that you go. Then, look for ways that you can assist your networking partners to succeed. Until you try to help someone else, you never know how someone else may benefit from what you know, from whom you know, or from what you might recommend. The best gift that anyone can give to someone else is something from the heart.

Where do you find your networking partners? What starts the conversations that result in new networking partnerships? Let me have your comments, or call me at 360-314-8691, or email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com. Maybe we have some of the same ideas, but maybe we have new ideas that can help each other. Let us practice Gratitude Marketing.

Pride

Pride, what does it mean to you? It should mean that you take pride in yourself, what you do, and how you do it. It means that you have pride in how you live your life. You do the “right thing”, each and every time you relate to anyone, at work or otherwise.

It has been said that pride is the downfall of a person, that pride will prevent someone from doing what they should because that action might be demeaning or embarrassing. Who says? We should all do what is right, no matter the consequences to us. Pride should not prevent us from making things “right” for our clients, prospects, friends, family, or anyone else.

One definition of pride is “pleasure or satisfaction taken in something done by or belonging to oneself or believed to reflect credit upon oneself”. We can easily take this definition and use it to reflect the satisfaction of doing the “right thing” for those that we meet each day. Therefore pride would not prevent, but would encourage, us to be better people. Just concentrate on the “giving” and not on the credit for the act of giving.

If you need to ask what pride has to do with Gratitude Marketing, you have not been listening for the past many years. We just said that pride would result in you doing what you should for others. Practicing Gratitude Marketing means that we treat everyone as we would want to be treated. Therefore, pride and Gratitude Marketing go hand in hand for better relations with others.

One should be very careful not to allow pride to prevent us from completing the 5^th law of success as detailed by Bob Burg and John David Mann in “The Go-Giver”. The 5^th and final law is: Give, get, repeat. In other words, give to others, get from others, and then repeat the process.

None of us should let our pride get in the way of enjoying the gifts of others. For every giver who gives to us without asking anything in return, there must be a taker, or receiver, to complete the process. If there is no one to receive a compliment, the giver is without anyone whose day will be better, and the giver is left with a vacant spot in their life.

If we let our pride get in the way of accepting something that is given to us by someone else, we have violated the 5^th law of success, and we have prevented someone else from being able to give to us. We have just broken the equation of giving. For every giver there must be a taker, or receiver, and we can be that person.

Therefore, we find that pride can be the trait that encourages us to “do the right thing”. That means everyone that we meet, with whom we do business, or with whom we interrelate in any manner. Also we know that pride will allow, not prevent, us from enabling the 5^th law of success: give, get, repeat, by not preventing us from accepting the giving efforts of others.

Don’t let your pride get in your way; let your pride enable you to be a giver, and a receiver, enabling the betterment of others as well as the well-being of yourself. Look at each opportunity as it arises and see if you can practice Gratitude Marketing every day. Remember that everything that we do will return to us in some way, some day; that’s karma.

Have a comment or question? Please leave them here, or email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com, or call me at 360-314-8691. I always appreciate your input and will attempt to answer you in an appropriate, grateful manner.

Ask, Then Give

Let’s say that you have this great marketing plan to achieve success in your business. You have followed this plan for a long time, but it just doesn’t seem to be working as you envisioned. You have gained some market share, but not to the level that you expected. If you have followed the plan exactly as you planned it, without success, maybe it is time for you to try something else.

Perhaps you should tweak your plan and efforts somewhat. Maybe you should junk the plan completely and try a different plan all together. First, try talking to your networking partners, in an honest conversation, and ask for their advice. Your true networking partners will share their ideas, and their failures and successes, with you. You do have networking partners, don’t you?

What is wrong with learning from others? If someone else is successful in a comparable business, what is wrong with learning from their plan for success? Do you keep trying to reinvent the wheel (which works very well in the shape that it is), and keep floundering in your ups and downs of business, or should you follow a successful plan, and share that success?

Do you work as a franchisee in a business that has a proven path for success? Then follow that path. Hundreds, if not thousands, of others probably have followed that plan. Why are you convinced that you have a better way of operation, especially if you have never worked in that industry before? Learn, imitate, and prosper. That’s what the previous successful people did, or did you not listen to that part of their training?

Pride in business is great when it pertains to having pride in your ethics and honesty. However, it can get into your way, especially when you will not ask for help from others. Your networking partners will not laugh at you, and they will share information and help you succeed. Most likely they were the recipients of that same help from someone that helped them, someone who was helped by someone else.

If you need help, don’t let your pride get into the way of getting help from others. Then, don’t let your pride get into the way of telling your story to someone who may need your help and information in the same way. Share your success, and failures, with others and tell them to pass the information along to someone else. If you share your needs, and your assets, you will be a better person and success will come to you and follow you through life.

Karma is sharing with others; it is giving to others. If we pass good things to others and share good information with others, then good will return to us from somewhere. If we pass out negative thoughts and actions, then negative things will return to us. What we put forth will return to us. That is Gratitude Marketing.

How about sharing your stories with others? Add your comments, or email me them, or your questions, at Jim@SOC4Now.com, or call me at 360-314-8691. If we all share with others, we will learn more ourselves. What goes around will return to us all.

Who Are You?

When you meet someone new do you classify them as to whether or not they will become your customer or not? Do you just look at them as a prospect or not? What happens when they don’t meet your possible prospect rating? Do you cast them aside as no one whom you can gain from, or do you try to build a relationship with them with the aim to try to help them find whatever they need?

Recently my wife and I have been searching for a new home. We want to return to Sacramento where we formerly lived and have tried to locate a home there through various means. We have researched houses through the internet, worked with a realtor, attended open houses, and driven by possible homes just to check the neighborhood.

So far we have yet to find the home that we want, the one that “calls our names”, the one that is the one we want. For various reasons we have had several possibilities fail to succeed, but we will know it when we find “the home”. Our realtor in California has been very patient with us, and we appreciate their assistance and patience.

During our search we have met other realtors who are very different. Obviously they are not representing us as the buyers, but they do have a vested interest in helping us. Building relationships with others, even total strangers, will pay off in the end and will bring success to everyone involved. This is a basis of Gratitude Marketing and should be practiced by all of us.

We spoke with one realtor who represented a builder of homes, and we understand that her first responsibility is marketing the homes of her employer. However, we spend some time discussing her offerings with her, discovering that she did not have any possible homes in her current inventory and would not for several months. We asked her if she knew anyone who might have anything that would interest us, and she could not have cared less about our inquiry. She could not recommend anyone who might be able to assist us in any way.

As we practice Gratitude Marketing we meet many people who will never become our customers. However, we should attempt to build relationships with them and discover what they need. If we can help them realize the solution to their need, so much the better. If we must refer them to anyone else who might assist them, we have helped multiple parties. If we cannot directly assist them resolve their need, maybe some advice might be the solution. Whatever we can do is better than no help at all.

It does not matter how short lived a relationship may appear, Gratitude Marketing may have a lasting effect on us. The person who you show gratitude and assistance to on one day may be the one who calls you months or years later with information that may bring you great success. The more that you help others who are not your immediate prospects, the more that their assistance in the future may impact you. Make every contact count in some manner.

Please leave me your comments, and let me know your experiences with referrals, or email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com, or call me at 360-314-8691. Your attitude towards your networking partners is one of the main aspects of Gratitude Marketing.

The Prospect Who You Never Met

Do you have a prospect who you never met? How is that possible? How could you have a prospect who you never met, never discussed their needs, never spoke to about your product or service, or never knew existed? How can anyone decide to do business with anyone who they never met, never listened to their sales pitch, or never decided that they trusted them?

We know that people do business with, and refer business to, people that they know, like, and trust. So, how do you gain a prospect who you have never met, who doesn’t know you, who doesn’t know if they like you, or who doesn’t know if they trust you? Remember the second portion of that mantra, and refer business to. If people know you, like you, and trust you, then you should have established networking relationships with them. They have become your networking partners.

Networking partners, what does that mean? Perhaps you do not understand, or believe in, building relationships with those who you meet in the course of your business. Your networking partners are those business people who may, or may not, be your prospects, but are your partners in networking. They will believe that they have a vested interested in building mutual success for both of you.

Mutual success means success for both of you, both partners, without hesitation or qualification. Therefore, you will do what you should do, what you need to do, for your networking partners. Your networking partners will give you advice before you ask for it. In other words, they will try to help you before you know that you need help, when they see you doing something that you shouldn’t do.

Your networking partners will be aware when they meet someone who should know about your business or needs your product or service, who can benefit from knowing you and from networking with you. Your prospects should become your networking partners, and they should know that being your networking partner is above and beyond being your prospect. Your prospects put money into your bottom line; your networking partners put prospects into your business. Turn those prospects into networking partners, and you will have more of both.

Your networking partners are your unpaid marketing advocates. They bring you additional prospects through referrals, telling others about you, your product or service, and how great it is to know you and do business with you. From your networking partners, you may gain new prospects that you never meet until they are ready to become your prospects. Just think, no cold call, no research, and no marketing pitch; just meet the prospect, don’t mess up, and sign them up for your business. Then, thank your networking partner and give back as soon as you can do so.

So, how do you thank these people who add prospects to your bottom line? Thank them for their confidence in you, their belief that they know that their referral will be treated with all the grace and professionalism that you treat everyone, including them. Make sure that they know how much you appreciate them, their referrals, and their faith in you. Make sure that they know that they are as special as they really are.

Please leave me your comments, and let me know your experiences with referrals, or email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com, or call me at 360-314-8691. Your gratitude towards your networking partners is one of the main aspects of Gratitude Marketing.

Communications Hazards

Communications can be with clients, prospects, family, or friends. They can take various forms, including actual personal conversations, telephone calls, emails, greeting cards, letters, notes, and texts. There are different guidelines for each of these methods, and each has its own hazards that can sink us and our business. We will be known for what we say and how we say it.

These methods of communication may not all be suitable for our business or appropriate for all our clients or prospects. What we say to our family or friends may not be suitable to say to a client or prospect. No matter what we have to communicate, how we say it can have a greater impact. A formal presentation should not be sent as an email, and questions and answers relating to the terms of a major agreement should not be left only in a telephone call. Meeting arrangements should be confirmed by email or a personal telephone call.

Two of the most popular methods of communication are emails and texts. Emails are sent each and every day for a variety of communication needs. From scheduling meetings to confirming information to thanking someone for their assistance, emails support many businesses that need a quick, printable, and archiveable form of communication. Emails have been used in positive and negative ways to define the grounds for business. They should not be written with excessive abbreviations that some people may not understand.

There is an increasing use of texting in communications. Texting should be used for personal, not detailed business, communications. Texting does not provide a trail supporting business communications. The abbreviations in texts are often confusing and sometimes impossible to decipher by some recipients, and there is a formalness in normal business communications that texting does not support. Some people do not have texts activated on their smartphones. When we send those people texts, they never receive them, have no idea that we tried to text them, and we do not receive any notification that our text was not received by them.

Communications should be undertaken with our intent in mind. Telephone calls can be confirmed by written messages; texts should never be used for business communication due to problems with keeping records; abbreviations should be kept out of business communication; business agreements should be finalized and documented in written form. Decide what we want to say, how we want to say it, and then say it appropriately.

No matter what the form of communication that we use or the intended recipient, our content must be truthful, must be complete in every detail, and must be free of all typographical, spelling, and grammatical errors. It is mandatory to proofread our communications with others. We must respect our recipients by spell, grammar, and typo checking our communications and not mixing various types of communication in the same chain of a conversation. A professional business leader should be able to communicate with professional means and professional words.

We must determine what is our preferred method of communication with our clients or prospects, with family, and with friends? Please leave me any comments, or email them at Jim@SOC4Now.com, or call 360-314-8691 with any ideas. Gratitude Marketing should be foremost in not only the content of our communications, but should determine the format and form of our communications. Communicate with good karma in mind, and good karma will touch us and our business.