phone call

Like this article? PLEASE +1 it!

phone call Tagged Articles

Lesson #1: Don’t Get Mad, Get Even
“When I see a barrier, I cry and I curse, and then I get a ladder and climb over it,” said Johnson.

Lesson #5: Use IT to Interact

Unlike the owners of most other sports teams, Cuban chooses to sit courtside along with the rest of the Mavericks’ fans instead of in luxury boxes. This is characteristic of Cuban, who, throughout all of his businesses has strived to maintain open channels of communication with the people that matter – whether they are the fans, staff or customers. And, because he is a self-professed technology geek, Cuban chooses to use the Internet as his means of keeping in touch.

Saying Thank You
Tami L. Conner, one of my senior trainers at Ferrazzi Greenlight who recently presented a course at ASTD called "Building Deeper Relationships" wanted to share this with you....

Follow-Up or Fall on Your Face

Guerrilla marketing preaches to the skies the importance of customer follow-up and prospect follow-up if you have even the vaguest notion of succeeding in business. Why do most businesses lose customers? Poor service? Nope. Poor quality? Nope. Well, then why? Apathy after the sale. Most businesses lose customers by ignoring them to death. A numbing 68% of all business lost in America is lost due to apathy after the sale.

Fear Is The Mindkiller
I had a long phone call with a CEO of a company on Friday. He’s had an intense few weeks and was clearly stressed out. His summary was “my stomach hurts.” My objective view of his business is that it’s fine – lots of things are going well – but there are plenty of issues he needs to address and they don’t necessarily have a short term time horizon for resolution.

How Not To Impress People
I answer my own phone. I always have. If I’m sitting at my desk working on something and my phone rings I’ll usually pick it up, even if I don’t recognize the phone number. I know this doesn’t fit the “be hyper-productive” method of life, but I like the randomness of it.

The Cycle of Completion: Making Way for Success
Do you live in a state of mental and physical clutter? Do you have a bunch of unfinished business lurking around every corner?

Guerrilla Competitive Advantages
Everybody offers benefits in their marketing, but guerrillas stress those benefits that only they offer. That's where to hang your marketing hat.

Making the Time
One time we were keeping Timmy, a young cat with a long, fluffy tail for our granddaughter, Sunshine. Somehow he went missing and we spent a considerable amount of time and energy looking for that cat before he was found. That’s typical. Most people pull out all stops to recover a pet or a treasured relationship. We would “do anything” to change some things or to have them back.

The Rhythms of My Life

I was in a board meeting yesterday with a company planning a major commercial release of their product “at the end of summer”. We managed to turn this into 8/31/09 at 11:59:59pm pacific time (since I don’t believe you can release something unless there is a time/date stamp associated with it.) As part of this discussion, we spent some time discussing the notion of a daily / weekly / monthly rhythm for both the CEO/CTO as well as the product team.

Top 5 Sales Recruiting Observations of 2010
Today, I'll make some observations about the sales recruiting activity taking place this summer that either reinforces some of the things I've said in the past, or modifies my original stance. In no particular order, but of equal importance:

Sales Prospecting - How to get a meeting now when they suggest call back
Very often when sales prospecting someone might tell you that they have a project planned in 6 months and you should call back then. What would you do to get a meeting now? Because you know that if you call in 6 months the project may well be gone....

How to Turn a Ho Hum Day into a Great Day
A client was sitting on the sofa in my office the other day and used a great expression to describe days that are rather blah. She called them “Ho Hum” days. A Ho Hum Day is when you have done everything that is expected of you, but nothing that really makes you feel, “Wow, that was a GREAT day,” and feel good about yourself.

A Life Of Success And Fulfillment Starts With Appreciation
There is a habit which all successful entrepreneurs use daily. It's a habit so powerful that without it, small success will never grow into larger ones. If the vision of your life includes becoming successful in a business of your own, then start practicing this habit today and learn to practice it every day from now on.

3 basic steps to finding & developing top prospects
1. Prospect Generation: How to develop more good prospects 2. Prospect Qualification: How to identify more REAL prospects 3. Prospect Development: How to cultivate prospects so they'll choose to buy from you

The Phone Tools & Tips Used by the Top Income Earners

Everyone uses the phone, but few use it effectively or even think it's important to learn. The first few seconds of any phone call are crucial. The moment you say "Hello," the listener on the other end of the phone forms a subconscious opinion. When you talk with your prospect face-to-face, he base's his opinion about you on such factors as facial expression, body language, hand motions and voice. On the phone, he can only rely on his ears.

Systemize Your Success
A key ingredient to any successful business or successful person is systemization. Have you systemized your success?

ARE YOU READY TO BE A BUSINESS OWNER?

As never before in the history of our country there are tens of thousands of mid to upper level corporate executives whose world has crashed around them. They have been “downsized” out of their company…in some cases after years of loyal service. These former corporate executives find it almost impossible to find a job commensurate with what they had. Those employment opportunities are just not available.

The Six Systems Every Business Needs for Maximum Success

Running a business is a challenging endeavor. For most owner/operators the business of the business gets in the way of the running of the business. The successful owner learns early on that the secret to a successful business is in systems. By creating a system for handling each of the phases of running the business, employees can be trained and their effectiveness measured. Great systems free up the owner to spend time with her family and to focus on the future, which are the places an owner needs to be.

Let’s throw away $10,000 through fear
The fear of change can be so great that people will throw money away rather than make a small change. How do you deal with this and get them moving forward.

Stop Listening to Disorganised People
Isn't it frustrating when you have everything planned out and then some disorganised person puts a spanner in the works and what should have been a simple process to complete turns into chaos?

"Making an Ass out of U and Me"
Here is a salutary lesson in why good communications start with checking things out with others and not making assumptions. For when you do, you shouldn't be surprised if you end up looking like an ass.

The Greatest Tool in Business: Listening
Failure to listen can impact your success in more ways than one.

Celebrate Every Achievement

In her book My Stroke of Insight, the author and Harvard brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor documents her remarkable story. At the age of 37 years old, she suffered a stroke and then spent the next eight years making a full recovery. This involved learning to do the basics such as sit up in bed alone again, walk, talk, feed herself, drive, recall her memories, etc. The book is inspirational and also has some amazing pearls of wisdom. One of these pearls is how important it was for her to celebrate EVERY achievement no matter what the size. I found this attitude a wonderful one and would love all adults with ADHD to adopt too. She didn't say, "Oh, you can sit up on your own now, big deal, you could do that when you were one years old." That would have been discouraging after all her mental and physical effort it had taken. It would have als

Yoda needs to follow his own advice!
Decisions come from decision makers and salespeople have to get the conversations going with the top people. Oops, I didn't do that, what happened...

How to write a captivating press release
Does the thought of writing a press release make you cringe? Every small business owner will be required to write a press release at some point. Self-promotion plays a big part in the success of any business

An Entrepreneur's Frustration
Because we work from our homes, the rest of the world seems to have a sense that we are “not really working”!

Making the most of Up Selling & Cross Selling

Do you sell one thing and one thing only? Probably not. I suspect your business has a range of things it can offer. And I suspect that many of these things can be integrated together to make an end-to-end solution or various combinations that lead to much larger sales. If this is the case, then how well are you selling in the size and scope of your business offerings? Too many times sales people get fixated on the immediate sale in front of them not really seeing the potential of that sale now or into the future. If they would only ask the right questions and get a bigger perspective to work from they might get more and bigger sales for less effort.

The Power of Personal Notes

There are many things you can do to develop a great reputation, establish rapport with clients, colleagues and prospects, and get top-of-mind awareness in your target market--certainly too many things to list here. But few things are as effective (and inexpensive) in accomplishing all of those objectives as personal notes. As a devotee of personal notes, I've even been known to go so far as to call personal notes one of the three "magic bullets" of marketing.

How A Doubting Thomas Affects Your Ability to Increase Sales
With the sales process for many now involving more than one decision maker, this increases the odds for dealing with the “doubting Thomas.” Invariably one of those involved has not been totally convinced that you have earned the sale.

5 Tips to Improve Your Follow-Up Sales Skills While Building Customer Loyalty
Are your following sales skills building customer loyalty or inadvertently turning off customers and reducing sales? These 5 tips may help you increase sales, improve customer relationships and demonstrate why you are the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits.

7 Key Simple Points to Turn Ineffective Sales Scripts to Effective Ones to Increase Sales
In the rush to increase sales, some organizations are returning to the old tried and true sales scripts. Yet, these well intended business owners to sales managers have forgotten several key points and one very critical key aspect when using a sales script.

The Secret To Building Customer Relationships
It's tempting to concentrate on making new sales or pursuing bigger accounts. But attention to your existing customers, no matter how small they are, is equally essential to keeping your business thriving. The secret to repeat business is following up in a way that has a positive effect on the customer.

How to Turn an Industry on Its Head: Become Masters at Delivering On Big Promises

Marketing and advertising work best when you speak to the customer’s biggest need or pain and show them how your products or services can give them what they want. In many cases, companies struggle with the effectiveness of their marketing because they talk about things that don’t get the attention of their potential customers. Some companies are marketing masters and have a different challenge: they are not able to live up to the expectations they set to lure the customers in the door in the first place. Often, those customer ends up disappointed of feel like they were oversold or misled. Mastery of marketing is not only promising to fulfill the core needs and desires of your potential customers, but having the whole business built to consistently deliver on those promises – every person and process in the company.

You Can’t Manage Time!
You can’t manage time. You can, however, manage what you choose to do with it and the best way to do that is to manage your priorities. Here are five simple ways to do that!

Legal Marketing: Is the phone call an outmoded communication tool?

A growing number of people consider phone calls to be interrupting and annoying. The phone call is rapidly fading as e-mailing, followed by an explosion in texting and social media, has pushed the telephone conversation into serious decline. The debate is raging. Is the phone call dead for law firms and their clients? Most attorneys keep in touch with their clients through phone calls, but is that out of date now? Should they be combining phone call with new technology? Read more and figure out where you fall in this debate.

Focus Your Sales Process on Your Sales Behaviors and Sales Skills, Not Your Prospect’s Behaviors
Would you agree that most sales processes be them 3 step, 5 step, 7 step or even 12 step focus on the prospect or what I prefer to call the potential customer? Given that everybody is focusing on the potential customer and that probably 50% to 80% of all sales targets and goals are not met, would that not suggest a different focus is required?

Is Your Business Still Heading Towards The Goals You Set At The Start?
Every business owner needs to step back a little every so often and critically look at their business; the way it performs; the service it offers; the prices charged and ensure it is still running directly towards the ultimate goals that were in your head when you first set it up. When did you last check yours?

7 “Bees” for Successful Networking
During an economic downturn, while people really want more business, they can also be far more cautious. So what can you see yourself doing today, using the very best techniques that cost you nothing, to survive and even prosper? If you don't have the time to spend 3 minutes reading this, you might find that your prospects or customers feel the same way about you!

Use Small Actions to Get Big Results
When it comes to creating relationships with other companies, take a long-term approach.

Start Your Own Stimulus Plan With Renewed Client Interaction
As anxiety levels rise with each new economic report, the quality of customer service seems to decline. The future will be here soon enough. Focus on the present. Your clients are the source of your income. They must be the focus of your efforts!

Imprinted Products Say ‘Thank You’ In A Special Way

Everyone enjoys being appreciated. That’s why it’s important to let your customers know that you are grateful for their business and would be happy to serve them again in the future. While a thankful email or phone call can convey your feelings, nothing says “thank you” better than a gift – especially if it’s an imprinted product that reminds the recipient that you’re available for future business.

Cold calling is part of any sales process
Lessons learned from many years of cold calling

Where Do You Look For YOUR Value?
An article of 1429 words explaining how to stop looking for value in all the wrong places and start embracing your innate, natural value.

Cancer Conqueror Speaks to Inspire

This inspiring story of Professional speaker and author Matt Jones. On September 11, 2002 Matt received a life changing call from his doctor telling him, "you have cancer." After going into remission the cancer came back twice and would spread to his brain. After slipping into a semi-coma doctors did not think Matt would live. Against all odds he recovered. From that experience Matt was inspired to share his story with others.

It’s All In The Follow-up…
Create a mindset that follow-up contact is one of your most important jobs and you’ll grow your business faster.

The Hospitality Industry and Call Accounting
For the past 30 years, most hotel and resort chains have required some sort of call accounting system in their properties. They do this to recover phone costs, generate extra revenue, and plan for and manage telecom expenses.

I've Met Someone - Now What?
Once you've had a successful networking experience, it's time to think about how you will nurture the connection.

Building a Successful Firm One Employee at a Time: Attracting Quality Candidates
Methods to get better candidates applying for your job openings.

Email is the New Phone
But, expectations and how email is used have changed. Many customers now expect you to hold whole conversations via email, sometimes with emails flying within minutes of each other, just as if they were instant messages or a phone call. With these changes email is now as important as face-to-face meetings and phone calls.

The Best Way to Approach New Clients
As a business owner you know the kinds of clients you want. Why not go one step further and make a list of actual companies you would like to have as clients.

Have You Tried Being A Customer Of Your Business Lately?

This may sound odd - but have you looked at how you treat your customers recently? I was discussing this earlier today with a client whose business has stagnated after he moved into a new office last year and we were looking at possible reasons why that would be. We looked at the products he was offering, how he was conducting his marketing, what factors locally had changed, was the "credit crunch" likely to be an influence, and so on..

Why You Need Insurance For Professional Fees in a Tax-VAT Investigation!
Did you know you could get insurance cover for this? Do you know why you need insurance cover for this? Do you know that a poorly defended Tax investigation could bankrupt you? Do you think this could never happen to you?? OK. Enough questions, what about the answers?

Don't Hide Behind Your Blog! How To Stop Being Invisible and Really Connect With Your Readers.

How many times have you been to a blog or website and seen some interesting info and spent 10 minutes searching for the contact info for the web/blog owner to contact? Then when you get frustrated and give up you move on.... It shouldn't be this hard and if we were smart you'll find ways to be available (without being TOO available!) and then connecting and communicating with the readers and visitors in unique ways!

How Often Should You Contact Your Prospects?
A lot of salespeople struggle with this question. You want to contact them with enough frequency to make sure they don’t forget you. Yet you don’t want them to get annoyed with you and think you’re a pest.

Great Leadership Is Admitting What You Do Not Know and Thus Avoid Becoming A Victim
Great leadership or effective leadership is the ability to admit what you do not know. Justification and rationalization are not characteristics of great leadership. These individuals understand that life must be challenged and more importantly so must their own performance as they lead themselves and others forward.

Just By Answering Your Telephone Can Increase Sales
Next to driving by more business than you’ll ever had and just asking for business, returning phone calls may be an incredible opportunity to increase your sales.

Time Management Tip - Make an Appointment with Yourself
Are you losing minutes and hours? Learn a simple technique to enhance your time management.

Why Human Resourses Protect
HR departments are established to protect workers and companies.

The Fatal Mistake Most Entrepreneurs Make and How You Can Avoid Them

Lack of time is the most common complaint I hear from entrepreneurs and small business owners. So if that's the key challenge why is it so difficult for them to overcome it? Some time ago I used the services of a mortgage broker who in the first instance was very prompt and appeared very efficient. Although it took some time for the refinance to go through (that was caused by the bank and their legal people), all went smoothly.

Thats What Makes Media Magic
You never know who is going to see or read a particular story, and if you don't do the interviews and utilize your press, you never will.

Scheduling and Planning - Keeping on Track - Part 1
Keeping your day on track can often times be a challenge in today's schedule hectic environment. We have provided 7 tips for you to use to make your day go smoother.

Paper Control! 8 Questions to Ask Before You Throw any Paper Away

So, how many of you have experienced this: You walk into your office and you say to yourself, "Today is the day!" You are excited and you say, "I am going to get this place organized and I'm not leaving until it is done!" Then... you pick up the first piece of paper, look at it, say, "Hmm, well... I'll look at that later." and you put it down. You pick up the second piece of paper, look at it, say, "Oh geese!" and you put it down. The next thing you know, everything from the right side of your office has been moved to the left side of your office and you are tired and call it quits.

The Secrets of a TOP GUN Xerox Sales Professional
Have you ever wondered why some Sales Professionals do so well while others are failing in the same marketplace? In this article I'll share with you the"Top 10 Customer Service Commandments". Follow these guidelines to become a TOP GUN in Sales.

What to Do When a Prospective Client Doesn't Respond
It happens to everyone. You reach out to a prospective client, and then... nothing. What should you do when a prospective client doesn't respond? This article gives you some tips.

Pay Attention: Sales 101
Sales Attention Deficit Disorder (SADD) is a growing problem among professional salespeople. Although we pride ourselves on the ability to multi-task, we often multi-task ourselves right out of relationships and sales. Here are useful tips on decreasing SADD and increasing revenues.

Money DOES Grow on Trees
Money grows on trees?! Yes, it does. Well, this is just a metaphor. But the point is that money is as abundant as fruit on trees. Some of you may be thinking, "Yeah, right!" If you are, then you better listen up. ;-)

Simple Success Secrets
Learn how to increase your income and be savvy with managing money!

8 Simple Ways To Start Writing
Having trouble focusing? Try setting a reward for yourself like "When I finish the first draft, I'll go out to lunch (or buy new shoes)." Or, "I'll edit this one more time, then go for a walk."

Selling from Good to Great
Here’s what you can do to take your selling from good to great!

5 More Keys to Feel Abundant-and Attract Wealth
Looking at outside circumstances and solutions is one aspect of creating wealth. But don't overlook working from the inside-out. Without that, wealth can be fleeting, superficial, and unfulfilling. Find out how to achieve lasting prosperity now.

“New” Social Media Options Aren’t New, They’re Sequels

The excitement is almost unbearable. A new web-based social media service is unveiled. Will it be the next (fill in your own current fave)? Will it die? Nope social media can't be killed. For every mind-numbing IPO a sequel emerges from the lake. The only thing the sequel will give you is another chance to place your mark on the Internet forever...another way for you to waste your time telling the boss -- or yourself -- you're "working hard to protect the company, the product from the beasts." Life in the virtual world is fun, exciting, different from real work.

Is Your Website Written For An International Audience?
Put yourself in your visitor’s shoes and think about just how much ‘local’ knowledge they might have if they live outside your country. And then adjust your website or web page to accommodate them.

What Can a Client Expect in a Virtual Working Relationship?
Looking at how working virtually can be done in various ways.

Book Review: Fundraising For Social Change
If you work for (or with) a non-profit, this book is a must-read. Kim Klein (the editor) focuses on key problem all non-profits face: acquiring, retaining, and upgrading donors.

How Poor Systems Lose You Business

Some time ago I used the services of a mortgage broker who in the first instance was very prompt and appeared very efficient. Although it took some time for the refinance to go through (that was caused by the bank and their legal people), all went smoothly. However, going back a second time to this broker, the cracks in his lack of systems are showing. I've had to chase him up to get things moving. It appears he now has a lot more business than when I first used his services.

Preparing for Successful Process Improvement
An integral and often overlooked step in improvement work is the preparation work: defining the project and gathering the facts that are essential to gaining a good understanding of the existing process. Too often this initial phase of a project is given cursory attention or ignored altogether. This is the first in a series of papers dealing with the up-front work in process improvement projects.

The Top 10 Cold Calling Mistakes
1. Not understanding the goal of the call When you hang up the phone, where do you want to be? What action do you want your prospect to take? What commitment do you want your prospect to make?

Get On The Phone to Get More Business
It is a marketing flaw of many small businesses that when they are busy with business the marketing efforts get cast aside until it is a slow period. Recognize that if you are consistent in your marketing efforts and simple phone connections there will be no slow periods.

How to Create Great Word of Mouth
Today, word of mouth is drown out by radio, TV, newsprint, mail, billboards and email advertising and publicity. You can use technology and traditional marketing channels to get the word out in a different way-a way where you are sure that everything said about you is true.

Why Most Ads, Sale Letters, and Websites Don’t Turn A Profit?

Most ads don’t work because they are like the enlarged version of the company’s business card. If you want to make money with your advertising, you got to structure your ad exactly how you would conduct a sale presentation face to face with a potential buyer. Remember that those who buy a four inch drill are really buying four inch holes. People aren’t interested in what you have for sale; they are mainly interested in solving a problem. Before starting your sale pitch in print, you got to be successful at “selling” the problem first. Think it this way…what is one reason most of your customers are buying from you?

SUCCEED WITHOUT TONS OF EXPERIENCE!
More inspirational examples of businesses started by people young and old

Why Overcoming Objections Can Lose The Sale
How ironic it is that the more we try and overcome resistance, the more we actually create it.

7 Ways To Get To The Truth: When The Sale Disappears
You're close, really close, to making a sale. Your potential client is in the market for your product or service and you've had a couple of good meetings.

Conversions, Part One
How to get a conversion or sales lead from your Website.

Landing That First Franchisee
For businesses wanting to get into franchising, finding the right first franchisee can feel like getting married. You've got to make sure your goals are compatible and that you like and respect each other. There are several other things that you should look for as well to make sure that you're in a long-term relationship

More Questions Concerning Severance & Separation Agreements
A reader asks me more questions based on my prior article regarding severance and separation agreements.

A FiveStep Plan to Overcome Procrastination

Dear Jane, Why can't I ever finish anything? Why do I procrastinate so much? Most of us think we are simply lazy when we procrastinate. But the truth is that the cause of most procrastination isn’t laziness; it’s fear. We may be afraid that the task at hand is overwhelming or we may be afraid of failing at it. These are the two biggest fears that tend to keep us in approach/avoidance mode. Here are five key ways to get past your resistance and get “it” done, whatever the “it” is:

Uganda Success Stories
Women building better lives with Village Phone

Anger Solutions at Work - The Psychology of Procrastination

How often do we look at the things we must accomplish today, but we put them off for tomorrow? It is typically the difficult, the challenging, the unsavoury things that we tend to avoid, but they are often necessary to complete if we want to achieve success in our daily lives. One phone call. Sending one email. Finishing that report. Whatever it is that you are avoiding - you can face head on and accomplish in no time, just by making a few simple shifts in your thinking.

Managing a Telecommuter Successfully
If you are the kind of leader who likes to keep a close eye on your direct reports, managing a telecommuter may be a real stretch. It is doable though, and there are great rewards to be had for providing a family-friendly environment. And, the changes you make will make you a BETTER manager overall!

Joint Venture Leverage
If you could either make a phone call or drive to a meeting, a phone call would save you time. This is simple, common sense. Yet as entrepreneurs you tend to forget this in business.

12 STEPS TO SELLING MORE ON THE PHONE.... How to Overcome Foot in Mouth Disease and Close More Sales and Make More Appointments
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I stuff up on the telephone. Sometimes I put the phone down at the end of a call and say to myself.. ‘ that call just cost you $2000....That call was a classic case of foot in mouth disease..’ Do you ever say those types of things to yourself or is it just me? Here is how to beat it... overcome it... and make more sales and more money

Jajah Announces Free Calls
Jajah announced free long-distance calls yesterday. This offer is for landline and cell phone calls from and to the countries listed below. Just a reminder: Jajah is the Internet phone service that enables you to use any phone to call any phone without installing any software or being connected to the computer once the call is initiated.

WHAT IS YOUR TIME WORTH TO YOU?
Excerpt: The following is a true story. For starters, I like to answer my own phone for the purpose of studying the phone and sales skills of the person who is calling me. About three weeks ago, I received two calls from the same, large financial newspaper and both people were trying to sell me subscriptions over the phone. We'll call this paper the DUM Daily Paper.

Review of Toktumi Phone Service
Toktumi is a PBX service that works on your broadband connection. What that means is that you can use your computer to make phone calls. The phone itself is the same as a typical land line and the call quality is just as good if not better.

phone call Tagged Articles

Other phone call Related Articles