RSA daily post

Understanding The Main Factors that Makes a Translation "Good"

2014-04-25T12:36:00.000-07:00

Robin Ayoub

Understanding The Factors That Makes a Translation "Good"

It can be tricky to define whether a translation is ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Perhaps in a way it can be said that a translation may be deemed ‘good’ if it is done within the budget and fulfills its immediate purpose.

Purpose however may even be secondary when you consider the importance of text quality. This prevalent factor will make a high quality piece more favorable to clients and business partners should it be understandable as well as well written.

While dichotomous assertions of how ‘good’ or ‘bad’ a text is not acceptable, there are still some factors that may be used to ascertain the quality of a translated text. In this case we will be considering text that has been translated to English. In addition to these factors which may contribute to the quality of the text, one must also be on the lookout for problems that often arise within translations and result in mediocre content.

Exhaustive Use of Formal Language

While a word may be synonymous to another, the functionality of the term will depend upon the content contained within the text. When translating for comprehension and readability, one must understand which words will serve the purpose better. It is a simple choice between a word that may enhance the overall flow of perusal rather than one which will have a staccato effect. In some cases a plainer sounding word may actually prevail over the more complex one. You need to make the decision between the choice of ‘cardiac’ arrest or a ‘heart attack’. Since English itself is a by-product of various languages, this issue is usually found among those that it has borrowed from. French and Spanish speaking natives may find that the words they use within the norm would be considered complex within the English language and would cater to a niche audience. Sometimes derisive words may just be the key to translation.

Similar But Not Identical

There are many words within languages which may convey the essential meaning of what the author is trying to say but may fail to be an identical representation of the word itself. When translating, it is important to understand which word is naturally used within a context.

Descriptive Phrases

This is especially applicable to technological terms which may not have identical counterparts in another language. A Hand-held device may not be effectively translated to a ‘device held within the hand’. Not only would this be too tedious to implement but is a rather inaccurate and descriptive account of a singular object.

Similarly compounds are also in danger of being lost in the abyss when we consider terms similar to ‘marketing department’ turned into ‘department of marketing’ or ‘Sales Manager’ evolved into a ‘Manager of Sales’. When translating between languages it is important to understand the natural flow and traditional norms in written and conversational language in order to reach a more effective translation even if it isn't an absolutely accurate or literal one.

Use of Determiners

Excessive use of determiners may also take away from the natural flow of the language. While one may say that the use of ‘a’, ‘an’ and ‘the’ would be fairly accurate, it may be objected that the use is also redundant. If one should ‘see a decrease in the overall expenses’ they would also witness ‘decrease in overall expenses’ accurately. The ultimate goal would be to reach a result that translates better in idiomatic English. ‘The’ organizations and ‘The’ schools have now shed their connection with the determiner and are quite willing to function independently. This behavior is most common in French to English Translations as the language of origin allows a recurrence of ‘the’ within a sentence.

Contractions and Preposition Use

The narrative style may also find itself victim to the unnecessary avoidance of contractions. Will the content not read better if it features a ‘can’t’ rather than a ‘cannot’? Excessive implementation of rhetorical questions may also give away the ineffectiveness of translation. This occurrence is fairly common among Spanish to English translations.

While you may not be able to identically replicate the content within the original text into the translated one, your goal should be to deliver content according to the needs of the receiving audience in order to promote clarity and readability through the implementation of rhetoric and narrative style. The ultimate motive of the translated piece is to seem as if it were the original itself and that no steps were taken to borrow content from another language.

I hope you found this post helpful and if you like to discuss this further, please comment on this blog or contact me by sending me an email

Until next time....

Robin Ayoub

Customer Service: The Journey from Worst to First

2014-04-14T13:29:00.001-07:00

Back to Basics: Customer Service 101

No matter what service you’re in, it is a well-known fact that customers are important stakeholders, which influence the overall success of a business, especially one which is in the services industry. Since quality of service and customer satisfaction are both very important aspects of a business’s success, the following are some of the service dimensions by which a business can improve customer satisfaction.

The Customer is Always Right (Sometimes)

So, let’s get one thing straight, while at times, it is best to side with unreasonable and demanding customers just to keep them happy. It is important to know when a particular customer isn't right for your business. The phrase, “The customer is always right” was coined by Harry G. Selffridge in 1909, and it’s basically used for two purposes, one is to convince the customers that they are going to get the best service possible from your business. The second is to convince the employees that no matter how demanding the customer, their aim should be to provide the best service possible instead of brushing off the customer.

Customer service is basically an interaction between the customer and a business. The following are some of the tips for providing great customer service.

Understand the Problem

First and foremost, in order to solve a problem, you have to understand it. Many times the problem is not with the merchandise even the price, but rather with the employee's negative attitude while they’re dealing with the complainant.

Show Some Empathy

Constantly interrupting the customer is the most annoying thing a customer service operator can do and is enough to make the blood boil of the most patient customer. To play it safe, show some empathy, provide explanations for any delays. One way of doing that is by giving the customer an opportunity to explain their problem to you without those annoying interruptions. And don’t forget to apologize for any inconveniences it may have caused them.

Find a Solution

Once you have identified the problem, it’s time to offer them with a solution. It is important to track customer complaints so that you may identify possible problems which are created from within the company.

Offer Alternative Solutions

Offering solutions to remedy the problem that your customers have is well, what you are there for in the first place. As business which is based on customer service, you can include free services or discount offers, discounts for referrals or send them emails with links to special promotions to remedy a problem, depending on its severity of course.

Create, Implement and Manage an Account Management Plan

The best businesses in the services industry have a account management plan. Having an account management plan in place will hopefully limit the need for your customer support staff to deal with serious conflicts. In order to create a winning plan you will need to gain insights from your customer. Once you have analyzed your target market, review it with management and include it in your quarterly business review.

Making the Move from Reactive to Proactive

When it comes to customer service almost all businesses think that they are delivering, what they would call ‘superior customer service.’ Sadly, in reality, that couldn't be more farther from the truth. So, how does one get it right?

There are basically two ways of being proactive, while delivering the best customer service. One way is to provide preventive communication that encourages the customer support staff to address a possible issue by routinely calling up customers to see if they need any help.

The second way is by carrying out surveys and polls on social media outlets and letting your customers participate in them and voice their frustrations if any. Both ways are extremely effective in gaining customer insight and in making your product stronger.

Why Choose a reputable translation company

2014-04-04T07:19:00.002-07:00

Why Should You Choose a Reputable Translation Company

To maintain a global reach for your enterprise and express your message in the right words, it is imperative that you hire a professional and reputable translation service provider. Expert services by a renowned translation company can not only help you communicate globally, but also market in multilingual mediums with ease.

Here are some of the main advantages of hiring a trustworthy translation services provider for long term success in the industry. Take a look:

1. Professional and Experienced Translators

One of the main perks of choosing a reputable translation company is that you are assured of working with professionally experienced and qualified translators. Even a small mistake in translation can cost you more than a few hundred dollars.

When the reputation and brand identity of your organization is stake, you should go for nothing less than the very best in quality and expertise.

2. Proven QA Process

Quality assurance is another advantage of hiring a reputable translation service. Professional translation companies have a dedicated team of professional linguists who are native speakers of the target language and their thorough QA process means you get error free, accurate and specialized services every time .

Most trustworthy translation agencies offer a step by step translation service comprising of not just word to word translation but also editing and proof reading by experts. This not only adds to the quality and appeal of the content translated but also enhances accuracy and readability to a large extent.

3. Successful Track Record in the Market

Companies that already have a sound reputation established in the market are a more feasible choice as compared to startups. Before choosing a translation company, take a look at their client testimonials and reviews on the internet so you can have a better idea about the level of service they provide.

4. Coordination and Performance Monitoring

Most reputable translation companies work in teams and there is a strategized performance monitoring, evaluation and coordination structure present which ensures the quality of the final product delivered. For professional businesses in any industry, this is an added plus because the professionalism reflects upon their own brand’s reputation in the market.

5. Diversified Approach

The human element is perhaps the most important factor to consider when you are selecting a translation company. Professionally experienced translators possess the ability to deliver more than just marketing brochure fluff and can work on diversified projects for promotion and research with more accuracy and expertise.

Also, qualified translators are specialists when it comes to translation of technical, industry-specific content and ensure a consistency in style, proficiency and formatting for all the languages they offer translations services in.

6. Customer Service

It goes without saying that customer service is everything, especially in the competitive and fast paced world of today. When you choose a reputable and established translation service provider, you can be assured of quality service and immediate support that guarantees peace of mind and long term satisfaction.

Professional translation companies have a reputation to build and maintain in the market and thus they are more service oriented, they tend to value their clients more and also deliver within the set time constraints and specifications without compromising on the quality.

7. Choose CLS Lexi-tech, here is why

Ability to handle larger volumes with faster turn-around. Given our size and access to a large number of translators we can handle multiple disciplines.
Ability to handle a variety of file formats.
Liability Insurance.
Company that will always be there and not an individual who may not always be available.
Ability to invest in technology and technological solutions.
Access to terminologists as well as vast terminology resources.
Ability to have translation revised by someone other than individual who performed the original translation.
Access to translators who can translate into multiple languages.
Full-time project managers who handle the administrative burden for clients.

Thank you for reading my blog, if you have any comments or suggestions for future blogs please don't hesitate to let me know

Robin Ayoub

How can the Canadian Insurance Industry gain operational advantage

2013-01-19T10:46:00.003-08:00

Questionable methods of managing translation services

I wanted to first apologize for the delay in posting new blogs. It has been a hectic ending for 2012 and equally fast paced start for 2013. Now that we are done with the apology, let’s get to the subject at hand, and I hope I can address this fairly and with no bias of any sort.

I hesitated for long time to write this blog, I have wanted for long time to address the topic of the Canadian Insurance sector and some of what I consider business inefficiencies. Why? You might think…I was hesitant, it was out respect to many of my friends and colleagues who are currently working or have worked in the insurance industry (A) and although I have good intentions, I indeed didn't want to offend anyone, or be the cause of any negative feelings on the part of someone who might read this article and feel offended (Certainly not my intentions). So whether you agree or not of what just about to read, it’s my personal opinion.

The problem: in a world where the economy is flat at best, and every company in the world is trying to reduce expenses to reduce product and services cost and enhance their EBITDA the Canadian Insurance sector seems to live in a bubble protected from the economic turbulence and bad elements. This is how it goes: Admin Cost + Claims + Profit = Premium. I believe it's the only industry in the world who is allowed by legislation to pass on the cost of inefficiencies to you the policy holder. Some might say this is not true my insurance company care about cost savings: Yes in some cases this true, however this is not true if your company’s total sale 28.3 Billion and your net profit before income tax is 2.066 Billion. Why would even consider at 10 Million dollar project, and trust me for that size company you would have many 10 Million projects to look into changing the way business is conducted and save cost (Generally many inefficient small projects goes undetected and under the radar sort of speak). But here is even the biggest issue, cost savings in the general terms in any industry means the following: If I save 3 dollars it would be split in the following way: 1 dollar for the client (price reduction), 1- dollar for the shareholders, and 1 dollar for employees. We all saw price reduction in variety of consumable products and services over the past few years. The big questions, for all of us Canadian/US or globally for that matter, when was the last time we saw a premium drop in our insurance policy rates? I venture to say, none, or when we die.

Now that I described the problem, there are many insurance companies in Canada with

significant size translation departments still internally, the business question, is it core to their business the quick answer in my opinion should be no. Why you ask, in this world we live in, we come to quickly understand and believe that in order for a company to do well the said company will need to define what business they are in, and the insurance industry has that defined already: Insure people and property against the unknown. As a side note and as I type this statement I am reminded of my days when I was an Actuarial Analyst for one of the insurance companies here. If my memory serves me correctly only one Insurance company who decided to get out of the business of translation and pass that project on to a Canadian translation company, they indeed outsourced, the people, the process and the tools. So why many Canadian insurance companies are still hanging on to their internal translation team’s one would wonder? Every time this question comes up I immediately point to 2 areas, (A) a lack of attention at the C level and (B) Excellent propaganda approach by the manager of the translation department, here is common phrases you will hear at the water cooler in the hallways:

No one can do it better than us
If If we send this project to the outside we will lose our clients because the quality will be inadequate.
And the big one: Translation in house is cheaper than sending the project outside.

In this day and age I can’t believe I am still hearing this, I am sorry, but have we not had enough examples where this is being done today with maximum return on investment being realized? Yes we have, but why there is not enough argument at the C level of these prominent Canadian insurance institutions, to say, we are outsourcing translation departments “lock stock and barrel”? I think the cash fat, insulated from economic downturns industry is too fat to be nimble and move on these projects. I think with the right logical heads this issue will become priority and I'm hopeful that in 2013 the Canadian insurance industry will trust all their linguistic and translation needs to the Canadian Translation industry.

As a point of interest, I have summarized here the insurance companies in Canada:

· Allstate Insurance Company of Canada Canadian subsidiary of US parent company.

· Assumption Life based in Moncton, NB, Assumption Mutual Life Insurance Company, doing business under the name Assumption Life, offers: life insurance, critical illness insurance, financial services and investment solutions, commercial and individual mortgage loans, group benefit plans, individual pension plans and more. This mutual life insurance company have been in business since 1903 and is recognized as one of the top places to work for in Atlantic Canada.

· Aviva Canada Aviva Canada is the second largest Property & Casualty Insurer in Canada with a market share of 8.7% and Gross Written Premium (GWP) of $3.155B

· BMO Insurance Part of BMO Financial Group.

· The Co-operators: Largest Canadian-owned insurance business in Canada.

· National Bank Insurance National Bank General Insurance is a Property & Casualty insurance firm that provides automobile and home insurance services directly to Quebec residents under the National Bank Insurance banner.

· Desjardins Group Desjardins Financial Security Life Assurance Company is the life and health insurance arm of Desjardins Group.

· Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company, commonly shortened to The Dominion, has been in operation since 1887. It was founded by Canada's first Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald. Not only is it one of Canada's oldest insurance companies, it is also one of the largest. It is the only company legally licenced to use the Canadian coat of arms in its logo and affiliated material. The company has offices across Canada and is headquartered in Toronto.

· The Economical Insurance Group

· Empire Life The Empire Life Insurance Company (Empire Life) offers a full range of financial products and services - including personal life insurance, critical illness coverage, investment options, group life and health benefits and group RSP plans. Head Office is located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

· Equitable Life of Canada

· FaithLife Financial

· Federated Insurance Company of Canada Niche insurer specializing in property and casualty insurance for contractors, auto dealers, and equipment dealers.

· Great American Insurance Company Niche property casualty insurer specializing in Inland Marine, Property, Employment Practices Liability and other products.

· The Guarantee Company of North America Specializes in Government Procurement Insurance Products - Largest and Oldest Independent Canadian Owned Insurance Company been around since the 1800s with current ownership based in Montreal, Quebec. Controls the lion's share of insurance products procured through governmental business activities.

· The Great-West Life Assurance Company is a life and health insurance company and was founded in 1891 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Great-West Life is currently owned by Great-West Lifeco, which is itself a joint-stock corporation traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:GWO). Great-West Lifeco also owns the London Life Insurance Company, the Canada Life Assurance Company, and Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company and is the largest insurance provider in Canada. The majority owner of Great-West Lifeco is the Power Corporation of Canada who administer Great-West through the Power Financial Corporation.

· Independent Order of Foresters

· Industrial Alliance

· Insurance Corporation of British Columbia

· Intact Insurance Company of Canada is the largest Property and Casualty insurer in Canada. Purchased AXA's Canadian Business in June 2011

· Knights of Columbus

· belairdirect (Belair Insurance Company Inc.) providing complete car and home insurance solutions direct to the consumer in Quebec and Ontario.

· Manulife Financial (Manufacturers Life Insurance Company) is a major Canadian insurance company and financial services provider. Although its global head office is located in Toronto, Ontario, Manulife has worldwide operations, most notably in the United States (through its subsidiary, John Hancock Insurance) and in 19 unique Asian countries and territories. Manulife Financial is the largest insurance company in Canada, the second largest in North America and the world's fifth largest, based on market capitalization.

· Medipac Travel Insurance is the largest direct writer of Travel Insurance for Canadians that live the Snowbird (people) lifestyle. Medipac is partnered with Manulife Financial to provide insurance benefits and endorsed by the Canadian Snowbird Association and the Royal Canadian Legion.

· Blue Cross

· Missisquoi Insurance Company The Missisquoi Insurance Company is the oldest Canadian owned property and casualty insurance company, having been established in 1835 in the Eastern Townships region of Quebec. It is now part of The Economical Insurance Group.

· National Life

· RBC Insurance

· Red River Mutual - operates in Manitoba & Saskatchewan, headquartered in Altona Manitoba

· SSQ Financial Group

· Standard Life is a major employer in Edinburgh, with 8,500 UK employees and over 12,000 worldwide. Standard Life plc acts as a holding company for the areas within Standard Life. Since demutualisation, the company structure is quite complex. Standard Life has in excess of seven million customers worldwide, with five million in the UK. Of these, 2.6 million are with profits members of the mutual.

· State Farm

· Sun Life Financial is a leading financial services organization in Canada known primarily as a life insurance company. Today, the company manages assets in excess of $350 billion and has more than 13,000 people on its payroll plus thousands of independent agents worldwide.

· TD Meloche Monnex - part of TD Canada Trust

· The Personal Insurance Company (The Personal) is a property and casualty (P&C) group insurance company that specializes in home insurance and auto insurance (formerly CIBC Insurance).

· Transamerica Life Canada

· Unity Life - formerly Toronto Mutual

· Wawanesa Insurance

· The Mutual Fire Insurance Company of British Columbia

Until next time…I hope you enjoyed this article and the funny pictures

Attending a Conference? Growing your Business using face to face Networking

2012-05-27T12:26:00.003-07:00

Growing your business using face to face networking: Attending a Conference

I hope everyone is doing well on this Sunday afternoon…the weather here in Canada is turning up the heat finally we are out of the freezer although our winter this year was more like a fridge (Mild cold). Enough about the weather, I recently attended a conference which I thought it was very successful. Returning home, when I was chatting with the passenger beside me, I had time to digest the “why’s, do’s and don’ts” here is some thoughts for you to consider

Any time I thought about a conference, or any marketing effort for that matter, first thing comes to mind is cost associated of attending the event, and I always remember my boss’ words ringing in my ears: how much did we dollars did we generate from this event? Was it worth it (Meaning, did you come back with orders) etc… These for the novice can cause pressure, pressure which could result in acting frantically in these events. Relax, your boss is doing his job and watching his cost, he doesn’t want to see you going on a useless business trip (rightly so) and I think you agree with him/her as well.

Most people will go to conference with 2 states of minds:
1- Hyperactive
2- Passive

I want to make sure we all understand this idea: Going to a conference to pick up a purchase order and come back to the office to become a hero, (90% of the time) this is not true and you will disappoint yourself. I am sure we all agree to that. I go to conferences to build allies, to find friends and partners, I want to find people that we can get along and build a long lasting friendship. Wow some would say, where is the PO where is the sale. If you look to build allies, you will convey the message that you are a good person, and you are trust worthy and people want to connect with you therefore they would feel comfortable giving you business. And if you go attend a conference and you are frantically running / bouncing from conversation to another like a humming bird trying to find where the cash is, people will see through this and no one would want to talk to you (90% of the time) and if they did, this will not cause a long lasting relationship (90% of the time again). Obviously by now you are wondering why I am using the 90%...well in my world the 80/20 rule is more like 90/10 for now, of course this is subject to change :)

Here is what I recommend:
1-      Create a business development / sales plan
2-      Include more than one initiative in this sales plan:
       a.       Conferences
       b.      Phone
       c.       Email
       d.      Other types of networking

Yes that’s right, sales jobs are hard work, and if you think you will get a sales job and few months later with minimal efforts you will be behind the wheel of a shining Maserati (90% of the sales people will fail and that's not a prediction, this is reality).

Once you selected the Conferences you like to attend, make sure you repeatedly attend the same events. Why?
1-      Stay on the message
2-      Prove that you are here for the long term not just show-up once and move on
3-      Build supporters and allies (this is very important)
4-      Allow people to get to know you personally
5-      Allow the market to become familiar with the product and services you represent
6-      This will give time for you to train your contacts to become your advocates

Here is some ideas that you can prepare yourself give yourself objectives for every conference like this:

1- Number of conversation I want to have during the event, for me I use the number 100

2- Read the attendee list, get familiar with the names persons and companies

3- Train your memory to remember the names

At the end of the day it is a mathematical game, the more conversations you have the closer you get to your objecties.

Another message and recommendation I give you, remember this really well, I can’t emphasise this enough: Treat everyone you meet with respect, it doesn’t matter what they do who they work for, or what company they represent. And Please BE genuine

I had to use my pic LOL

Why do I state something that is so obvious as this: Because, I’ve seen many cases where the sales person thinks himself so high and mighty and before they speak to someone they make sure to glance at the conference badge of the person to pick-up the company and the title, then they make determination if this is worthy conversation or not. I consider this disrespectful and counter effort to the objective we have set for an event: build relationships, grow champions etc... Why some sales people do that, allow me to criticize for a second: Sales people (some) are lazy, they want to have one conversation (the obvious conversation) and close a deal, they want to excerpt a minimal effort to come home with a PO. Again this is indeed counter effort to the objective we set earlier and I am sure my readers are not like that.

I can tell you that is based on experience many times I have conversation with people which I thought there is no business connection there, but I am always surprised of the boomerang effect that a year or 2 later that conversation which created a friendship and personally connection have created a business connection. I truly believe, friends will help each other, if we process sales like thoughtlessly, without feelings or personal emotional investment, these are relationship that don’t last very long and the likelihood of producing results are very slim.

On the management side we need to recognize the long sales cycle that our product and services are characterized by, and we need to give our BD and sales team the runway to build the momentum in the marketplace. What’s in it for management/ownership?

Obviously Cash...

1-      Loyal clients
2-      Long lasting relationships
3-      Much high degree of positive reputation
4-      This ultimately generated better revenues and profitability

I close my blog this afternoon by saying, I am very excited for the future, and I hope everyone of my readers feels the same. I wish you a successful week ahead.

Happy hunting

Robin

Don't be afraid, pick up the phone and make the call...Gaining trust, building business/personal connections fast

2012-05-13T13:06:00.001-07:00

Building fast business and personal relationship

As some of us who’s been in doing business for a while and over the many years of experience, I learned a valuable lesson in building relationships and gaining trust and establishing what I describe as sustainable business relationship in many ways I can sum it up by saying, you need to present yourself as a decent a trust worthy human being. With that in mind we need to make absolutely certain that these characteristics takes the centre stage in any form of communication we conduct.

We need to open these communications channels (Email, phone, and face to face meetings) positively toward the intended recipient. People need to know you to trust you (that’s a given I know). So as it is obvious the easier form of communication (I call it least committal, in terms of personal emotional commitment) is the email, it is dry form of a communication, some of these emails now a days are not even written by human (Robo computer generated) how can intended recipient really connect with someone or build a relationship based on only using email? Trust me I’ve received some emails from real person you’d swear it was generated by a computer program…At the end of the day and as a minimum the intended recipient on the other side of our communication channel needs to know we really exist and we are a human (I stress the work Human) which I will explain further here.

My preferred method of quickly connecting with someone, the first time I reach out to someone, I make sure I follow my email with a phone call. That way the communication is now someone concrete and the email message gain a degree of legitimacy. However many people don’t like to talk on the phone and core of their job (any job now a days) requires them to talk on the phone for various reasons. In my today’s blog I want to address the issue of: Phone Phobia

Not being able to talk on the phone has many reasons:

1-      Not enough time
2-      I don’t feel like it
3-      Or a more serious issue: Social Anxiety Disorder

I am going to assume the first 2 reasons are easy to solve, and we don’t need to waist precious keystrokes to discuss them. I am going however, to focus on the Social Anxiety Disorder and try to she some light on this important subject.

Many people may not like talking on the phone, or may even have a 'phone fear.' But a fear of talking on the phone may actually be considered a phone phobia when your hesitance to make and receive calls causes you to experience symptoms such as severe anxiety, shortness of breath, or a racing heart.

Those who do not have social anxiety disorder may be afraid to use the phone; they may be more comfortable in direct social interactions, perhaps due to the fact that face-to-face settings allow them to be able to read non-verbal cues, like facial expressions. However, those with social anxiety disorder obviously suffer from the opposite. If you are dealing with this condition, a phone fear may reflect issues you are contending with regarding interaction with others at large.

Over the past few weeks I have been hearing (On several occasions) that some people don’t like to talk on the phone.

After doing some research on the topic, I found the following suggestions as treatment for the condition:

Treatment Options
Treatment for phone phobia can include: Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques, such as cognitive restructuring and exposure training. In addition, there are many self-help strategies that you can use to cope with anxiety about using the phone.

Cognitive restructuring involves challenging beliefs and replacing negative thoughts with more constructive alternatives. For example, if you constantly worry that you will bother the other person when making a phone call; cognitive restructuring might have you consider the evidence that this is actually true.

Why would the person answer the phone if he was too busy? Why would he have asked you to call if he didn't want to talk to you? Eventually, you would reach the conclusion that it is unlikely you are bothering the other person or that he doesn't want to speak with you.

Exposure traininginvolves the gradual practice of progressively more difficult behaviors. In the case of telephone phobia, a hierarchy of fears might look something like the one below (listed from easiest to most difficult). Each behavior is practiced until you are comfortable and can move on to the next most difficult one.

Telephone Fear Hierarchy
1.Call a number that you know will only have a recorded message, like a customer service line.
2.Call a family member or friend that you know well.
3.Call a business and ask a straightforward question, such as when they close.
4.Call someone that you don't know well with a simple question.
5.Call someone that you don't know well about a complicated issue.
6.Make each of the previous types of calls in front of one person.
7.Make each of the previous types of calls in front of a group of people.

Your hierarchy might be different depending on whether you find friends or strangers more difficult to talk to, and whether it is more difficult for you to talk on the phone in front of someone else.

It may be difficult to create a hierarchy to deal with the fear of answering calls. If you typically avoid answering the phone, one strategy would be to use a caller ID unit to identify who is calling. You could then start by answering calls from people that you are most comfortable with and letting other calls go to voice mail. Eventually, you would progress to answering more difficult calls.

Ideally you should practice cognitive-behavioral techniques under the supervision of a trained therapist. If meeting with a CBT counselor isn't possible, or if you have already participated in CBT and are looking for additional ways to cope, the following strategies may come in handy.

Coping methods:

•Put a smile on your face before making and receiving calls. This may sound silly, but many say it helps them relax and even contributes to conveying a sense of pleasantness to the person you're speaking with.

•Reward yourself after making difficult calls by spending some time doing something that you enjoy.

•Visualize yourself successfully making or receiving calls. Imagine a positive conversation and feeling good afterward.

•If you are concerned about interrupting someone when you call, ask whether you are catching the person at a bad time. If the person is in the middle of something, this gives him the chance to offer to call you back.

•If someone says "no" or turns down a request, realize that it could be for many reasons that have nothing to do with you. Try not to read too much into the actions of someone else.

•Do a bit of preparation before making a call, but don't go overboard. Know generally what you are going to say, but try to anticipate that the conversation may not go exactly as you have planned. If there are important points that you need to bring up, make sure to write those down and keep them handy.

•Realize that you don't always have to answer the phone. If someone is calling you at a bad time, or if you are too anxious to talk, it is acceptable to let calls go to voice mail from time to time.

•Know that the phone may not always be the best method of communication. If you need to have a record of your conversation or if you want to give the other person time to reflect before responding, email may be the better choice. However, if the issue you need to discuss is complex, emotional, or involves a lot of back-and-forth, calling or meeting face-to-face are best.

I hope this helps…and until next time…keep reading my blog and have fun

Robin
Coping Strategies

How to buy translation services

2012-03-07T16:52:00.001-08:00

How to buy services? choosing the right supplier

I had some free time on a flight so I thought to write another blog. Although I try to address this to people who are using or considering using translation service provider, this could apply to services that your business could in the future or currently in the process of procuring from a trusted vendor or internally from a department.

As basic business practice sort of business 101, now a days the most common theme you hear everywhere is efficiency, owners and investors are looking for maximize output/profitability of their companies/investments. Generally speaking the way to get this can be achieved is by squeezing cost out of operation or by skyrocketing revenue generation. When it comes to buying any type service that your company needs, there are many considerations to keep in mind when selecting a service provider or maybe you are considering or in the process of reviewing your current vendor/s maybe you like to benchmark your existing suppliers against the market? Ultimately you like to be certain that you are receiving the best value for money spent on the so called service. Here are few thoughts you should keep in mind:

Price vs. quality: in procuring any service there is what I call a price threshold beyond of which you are now getting bad quality for the cheap service that you decided to buy. The logic:

A- Services are generally labor intensive meaning: people are the main element in producing the service, no machines, no assembly lines or spare parts etc…

B- Ideally and by definition/the nature some services they can’t be off-shored (Of course this would depend on the services) or outsourced to cheap labor country somewhere. Example: “electrician, plumber, ” This could easily extend to let’s say Translation services: if you need a German translation you can’t get good German translation in China (I’m sure some 1% of you will disagree with me on this one, but I beg to differ, if you are native German living in China, my prediction that it’s only a matter of time before your German starts to lose its touch with the real German, due to the distance between the individual and their native country. It is commonly agreed that the less frequently you use the mother tongue language the more difficult it would be to maintain a positive high standard translation output). Ultimately you would want to try to procure the German translation in Germany. If you are a business in China who wants to buy German translation, you want to make sure that your translation service provider in China is using Translators who are in Germany. For that you need to understand that the translation in Germany would be higher cost then let’s say Chinese translation done in China, why? Because, translation like any other service it depends on 2 factors: A) Cost of living where translation is being done, and B) supply and demand factor, how many “Qualified” Translators are available for this particular language. Another example if you need a translation agency for your office in New York, would you be sourcing this service from India? Maybe, but I recommend that you try to find a translation vendor in your community. Now we come to the price question: Let’s say you sourced the cheapest translation agency in New York to perform the task you intend to undertake. Predictions, you are most likely to be dissatisfied with the quality of the work, why? Generally speaking the 80/20 rules apply in this case, meaning 80% of the times the cheapest price means exactly that. Let me ask you something: Are you going to rely on 20% of the times that this practice might work and 80% of times you will end up with negative results? Can you or the company you work for afford this kind of risk? Maybe!

Beyond the marketing smoke and mirrors: If you are a unilingual speaking individual, meaning you have no means to judge the quality of the translation work or the service you are trying to procure (maybe it’s not your expertise) you are now relying on what the sales person is telling you, that’s the marketing fluff. How do you know what’s real? I have to say that in most cases you are going to believe what you are being presented and you will sign the contract and off you go a few weeks or maybe a months later problems starts to appear. Then you start asking yourself the question: where did I go wrong? I thought I made the right choice? If this is your current situation in any service you bought, you are not the only one, many people/procurement managers fall into the same problem/trap. In any service the following saying is so true: you are as good as of the last job you did (as a supplier) as client or procurement, you need to verify that your prospective supplier can consistently (and I emphasize consistently as opposed to sometimes or spotty) provide you with the quality service you deserve or chose. So how do you really verify that you are selecting a partner/supplier that you can rely on the quality of their service and fairness for years to come?

A- Test the service: Here I recommend that not only to do a 500 word free test, most companies will put their best and their brightest on the test only to receive poor quality after you made your decision to go forward with the selected supplier. I recommend a 3/6 months trial a probation period, similar to if you were to hire an employee you would put them on a probation period. You are not looking for +/- answer on a particular job, you are more likely to look for and positive average overtime in your selected supplier.

B- Do not have exclusive contract with suppliers, as a client you need to give yourself the freedom to move around and not shackle yourself with an unwanted relationship if the selected supplier didn’t work out.

C- Always leave a “termination for convenient clause” in your contract: This gives you also the option to terminate a relationship for poor performance on the part of the supplier.

D- Back translation: If you are currently using a supplier and you are not sure of what you’re getting in terms of quality/price etc…I encourage you to take a translated document and send it me for back translation. Basically we return the document to the original language that was written in. Or I can do a deep linguistic review of the translated document. This process allows you as a client to either validate or start questioning the current arrangement you have in place.

In all this, I want to stress the importance of fairness and being open with your existing supplier, you should allow them a chance to defend their work, and correct the problems if you discovered any. If the problems are not corrected to your satisfaction, then you should seek out another supplier.

Agency vs. Translation Company: As an advocate to my client, I encourage you to select a company that has in house professional translators. Why?

A- Translation agencies generally produce low quality work, because their focus is on the administration aspect of the project (the receiving, processing and delivery). Vs. translation Global companies like CLS Communication which focuses on the in house professional translators a business model that is governed by stringent quality process (ISO)

B- Translation agencies by history started generally from the usual business idea that says, I take the work from the client, send it to a freelancer, put my profit margins on top of my cost, and send the result work to the client. Vs. True translation companies which they started by history from a translation project by itself, example: CLS Communication started by a management buyout for the in-sourcing of the translation department of UBS. The CEO Doris Albisser was the head of this department. So how do you think the culture and the DNA of this fast growing global organization? It’s absolutely focused on quality and clients.

C- Client turnover: Generally speaking agencies with the project routing business model (i.e. receive the work from the client send to the freelancer, and deliver the outcome translation to the client) generally they would have high client turnover rate. As a client I encourage you to ask your current or potential supplier what is their client turnover rate. I heard some scary numbers out there, one of my main competitors has in the upward of 60% client turnover rate.

D- What is their marketing budget? Agencies focus heavily on marketing, like the old saying, if you need to advertise on the back of the taxis in New York your translation service, I personally would doubt the quality translation this company produces. Starting from the basic principal if it’s so good quality why do you need to advertise it so heavily? Now this type of marketing would perhaps appeal to certain client, or might in fact fool others into at least giving the service a try, however if you are serious about translation and serving your client with respect in their intended language, perhaps this is not for you.

At the end of this controversial (according to some) blog…I wanted to mention that I used translation services only as an example, but this article can really apply to any service: Roofing, Plumbing, consulting, accounting etc… Please I encourage you to keep an open mind when reading this blog, and give me a call or email me if you have a specific situation you like to discuss

Until next time…I encourage you to keep reading my blog and look me up on linkedin and let’s stay connected.

Have a lovely day

Robin

2012-02-25T08:17:00.001-08:00

A practical guide to handling objections in business

Always focus on creating value

Happy Saturday to everyone...I hope you are having a nice and relaxing weekend where ever you are. I was asked by one of my blog readers to write about Objections. As always I never refuse an opportunity to talk about business even on the weekend. so I thought to try to address the subject in this short blog. Knowing that Objection in Life in general or in sales/business can be traumatizing for many of us, but it is not hopeless situation, I look at objections as an opportunity. Let us dive into the subject of objection

How do you handle objections? Let's say you just talked with your client on a fairly large project and they suggest to you that you are not in the ballpark on the deal. What do you say and how did you get to this point in the first place? I also have difficulty when someone asks me about objections. I know it is important and each time this happens, I have to reach back into my memory and think about how I've handled objections in the past. I remember the sales training early in my career regarding objections. What do you do when you get an objection? Is there a certain set of questions you should ask as you work with the client to assist them? Then it hit me! I know why I don't get very may objections.

If you were to phone the most experienced and successful business people you know, how would they answer the question? Would they give you good advice? Chances are they would have the same problem we sometimes have with giving good advice on old issues. As strange as it may seem, most successful business people don't handle too many objections. Don't get me wrong, they used to, particularly in their early their career years. But after learning and working a business/sales process, they no longer encounter many opportunities with objections.

How Successful business people deals Objections?

The primary reason professional business people don't get objections is because they eliminated them along the way. It is almost as if a professional business person gets advance warning that the client may have an objection. Before the client has a chance to voice their concern, the business person identifies it, supports it with information and overcomes the objection. This happens before the client has a chance to fully think the issue through. They know the right questions to ask and they listen to the answers. Yes, they listen carefully to what the prospect has to say.

Always building your: Experience, Confidence and Knowledge

There is a difference that experience, confidence and knowledge brings. Often, it can't be quantified or qualified, but it does exist. And, it can exist only in the mind of the business person. One word to describe this is attitude. Confidence plays a big role in this too. Sometimes, the expectation that the call will be a success and the business is yours is all that is needed. Although we don't want you to lean on this alone, confidence and attitude play a role. Selling yourself is part of the whole process of selling your product and company.

Possible ways of handling an objection

If you find yourself getting objections, you must first realize that the objection is really a question. The basis of almost every objection is how you can justify what you are telling me. In many cases the prospect needs to believe what you are saying is true. They may offer an objection to test you. When you haven't provided enough support for your solution, an objection will develop. Objections occur more often with new and inexperienced business people.

An objection is often subtle and you must listen carefully to hear them. Sometimes the hint of an objection is only a facial expression. Look for it, identify it and eliminate it with a support statement. Honesty and openness are great sales tools and you should use them. Ask the client if they have a concern. Invite their issues to be placed on the table. After all, you are a professional and can support your proposal regarding all aspects of the sale. These might include quality, service and price. If you haven't eliminated all their issues, you aren't ready for the close.

Here are few tips that you should keep in mind:

1. Always try and ANTICIPATE objections in your presentation and COUNTER-OBJECT before the prospect gets the chance to use them. Too many business/sales people wait until objections come along. This makes more hard work that is often not necessary with efficient script planning.

2. Never rush your response to an objection. STOP and REFLECT. Show the customer you are listening! Sales people often respond too quickly in these situations. This will often create friction with the client which could also be avoided.

3. Repeat the objection back to the customer. This will buy you time and it will also show that you are interested in what they have to say. It's a good idea to say the same thing but with slightly different wording. It just sounds a bit more natural and less construed.

4. Remember that objections are often a "BUYING SIGNAL" because the customer is questioning your offer. If they had no interest, why would they still be talking to you? Watch out for an objection that is followed by another question! This is another sign that the customer is interested even though their "tone" may not make it that obvious.

5. Ask the customer if they are interested if you think that their objection is just a SMOKESCREEN. Smokescreen objections can be a real time waster for sales people and unfortunately even the more seasoned professionals can fall into this trap. Some clients can feel overpowered by a confident sales person and there only escape is to create a "false objection" A simple way to eradicate this type of problem is by further probing in order to make sure that the objection is genuine.

6. Remember that statistically speaking 3 OBJECTIONS are needed before a person will buy. How many sales people give up after the first or second objection without realizing that this person would have bought if they had persisted a little more? This can be particularly the case when a sales person is experiencing a "Bad Patch"

7. Objections are part and parcel of the Sales Process. Don't let them stop you from reaching your goals. Yes it's true that objections can be a form of unwelcome distraction but the true professional doesn't let them ever get in the way of end goals.

8. LISTEN carefully to objections. They often hold valuable clues about the client's needs and PAIN. An objection can often reveal important information that is often worth noting because even if the customer doesn't buy on this occasion you may know what buttons to press the next time you speak to them.

9. The better you explain your offer, the less objections you will hear! It's important to articulate your presentation in a way that the prospect clearly understands what you're on about. This will help to avoid objections that arise from not clearly understanding what you have said.

10. Wouldn't selling be boring if people never objected? This may appear strange at first but I actually think some customers enjoy the "bartering element" of buying and business people should be fully aware of this. In my career I've often been congratulated for my persistence. I sometimes imagined that the client hated me by the time we were closing the deal. The reality was often very different in that they actually complimented my stamina and will to overcome all the obstacles that stood in the way.

Remember that attitude plays a huge part when handling objections. It's never about winning a battle of minds. "Think solution and use an agreeing tone rather than a contrasting one!"

I wish everyone happy selling, and may your fortune multiply successfully

Until next time

The secret to being successful in sales

2012-02-20T16:47:00.000-08:00

Being successful: What is the most important character trait

I have not been writing for a while, I have been on the road traveling between the US and Canada. Being alone on flights gives me time to think about various topics especially my next blog subjects, Sometime I write my blogs while in flight (if the idea is exciting enough and it can’t wait).

In today’s blog I thought to address the reason for success, what is the single most important character that defines and makes the sales person successful? In fact what is the single most important character trait that makes anyone successful in what they do, and it doesn’t matter what they do (personal life or professional one)

We are always at ah and envy when someone who is self-made successful story. Yes he/she didn’t get his fortune from a rich daddy or mommy. He/she worked hard for everything he/she is today and who he/she became. I heard many ask the following question: Why can’t that be me? In fact yes it can be you…don’t worry I will give you my perception of the answer…but I had to set the scene for you here in this pre-amble.

And for those who I heard many times saying: must be nice to have the bucks!!! This is in my opinion the most disgusting statement I ever heard, this is equivalent to wishing ill to someone. You say how can that be so negative? Having felt the effect of this statement many times, here is what it feels like to the recipient, you are wishing the individual to fail, to lose everything and drop to a living conditions that are equal or below to that of the person leveling the statement, this is absolute communism/defeatism which I totally dislike because I believe in individual achievements and continuous progress forward. Here is another way to express what we feel: supportive, helpful, admire, congratulate the individual on their achievement.

So what makes an individual and particularly a sales person successful?

Here it is: PASSION

Ok let’s assume we are talking about a sales person, a successful sales person needs extreme amount of passion in order for success to start to formulate. Contrary to common believes it is not a good commission plan, company, product or anything else. You absolutely need PASSION. You don’t have passion toward what you do; you should reconsider what you do.
So what is passion? Passion is that inner drive; passion that is hungry beast that lives inside you all the time, Passion is never satisfied and for ever seeking to fulfil a desire. Passion doesn’t know money, doesn’t recognize titles, jobs, or anything else that us earthlings seems to worry about in our personal and professional lives. Passion is so unstoppable that will take down the highest fortresses (Real or imaginary). Passion is so pure to a point of being indiscriminate between any being, object or idea that you are passionate about.

There are 3 types of people:

1-      People that makes things happen
2-      People that watches things happen
3-      People that says: What the heck just happened

Don't just do ok job, leave lasting impression

So which one of the 3 types I listed here do you think have PASSION? Obviously the people that make things happen. Why do you think these people makes things happen, why not be like the people who watches things happen or even the people that wonder “what just happened”? Some people would say it’s much less complicated to watch from the side line, to let others (the people with Passion) spend their effort while we enjoy the view of struggles, failures, successes from the comfort of our armchairs. Here is why, because when you have passion, you can’t keep it bottled in, you can’t hide this precious character. Passion has to manifest itself in good deeds, in extraordinary things to satisfy the ever hungry sole.

The Greeks didn’t write obituaries. They only asked one question after a man died: Did he have passion? Passion is our legacy; passion is the inheritance which we pass along to humans/generations after we were long gone.

I am sure you are anxious at this point to find out, what is passion in sales or business development?

Passion in sales is that never ending journey of being your customer 'sadvocate, to carry your client’s objectives in your heart, and always in your mind. To serve your client is your passion, which this character has to manifest in everything you do. Yes Passion in sales recognizes one being only: your client why? By having passion toward serving and finding your client’s best interest (and please don’t use this as a cliché) fakes are easily detected. It is that passion that will produce the successful legacy for the sales person, the client and the company they are working with.

Let me be clear on something, Passion it is something you are born with, you cannot buy passion from the market. Most importantly, you cannot fake passion. For instance, some people will say, sales jobs pays well, I want to be a sales person. I wish I had a big buzzer noise here to tell you this is wrong approach, this is recipe for failure. Why? In the case where you don’t have passion, I don’t care how good of an actor you think you are, you cannot look and feel sincere to anyone not even to yourself and that’s a recipe for disaster.

If you are currently in a sales position and you don’t have passion toward what you do, please do yourself a favor and go back to engineering, being translator, writer, or whatever you were doing before. How does passion demonstrate in sales behaviour? Here are some clues to look for:

1-      Complete disregard to working hours, their day is 24x7 always on
2-      Don’t accept failure (this is different from don’t take failure well)
3-      Don’t know the word “impossible” doesn’t exist in their vocabulary
4-      Always moving forward in their personal life and business life

Always searching solutions/always on

To put this in more tactical terms: A sales person with passion doesn’t care about the comp plan. Don’t get me wrong we all need to make money to live. But a sales person with passion will compensate what the comp plan will lack. As long as you have a formula to make money, passion will take care of the rest of the void in the comp plan. The main ingredient for success is not how much the employer is paying you to perform a job, or what product you are selling, or the market you are selling to. The main ingredient for success is within us as individual is that eternal fire that continue to light us up and like insects on summer nights it keeps on pushing us toward the fire. It’s our destiny not to take the easy road, not to sit on the sideline and watch. It’s our destiny to continue moving the world forward including the ones who choose to sit on the sidelines.

I am always asked if you can train a sales person to perform better, or what is the sales process you use to guarantee success? The simple answer is not Miller Heiman sales training, Power Base, or Star etc. The answer is inside us as individuals…indeed you need to know the process but I have seen people that can recite any sales process impeccably but since they have no passion to what they do they have not been able to move the world forward.

I encourage you to recognize your passion as an individual, and I implore you to find out what makes you feel free on top of the world sort of speak. And if you are in a place in your life whereby you are not feeling the passion and huge fire burning deep in your sole, consider change. I guess I will save the “Change” topic to another blog.

I will conclude by saying, I’d rather have lived with passion than die without having felt what passion is

Robin

Increase your sales using face to face networking

2012-02-02T18:11:00.000-08:00

Growing Your Sales using Networking

One of the many methods we can use to grow sales and promote the business we represent is face to face networking. This topic fits nicely in the series of topics that deals with growing sales and revenue in general which I have written about in previous blog postings and shared some of these ideas already; today my blog topic is using networking as a mean to growing your business
Every one of us is looking for ways to grow his or her sales, and respective business we seem to always hear mentioned around us that Networking is a great way to grow our book of business, generate leads, market and promote our ideas, services and products. It’s a great approach; so now let’s discuss what is networking and how can it help you grow sales/ business?

What is networking?

Networking is the face to face connection you establish with individuals whom you meet the first time or you already know from previous events. Also networking is a way of establishing and maintaining relationships for receiving information and resources to help your business grow. The focus of networking should be to build rapport and long term relationships. Networking gives you access to a variety of information and resources. A piece of advice, don’t walk into a networking event remembering your boss’s words (how much did you sell today???) this is a networking killer attitude. Remember networking is planting the seeds for future harvesting.

Some think negatively of networking thinking the emphasis is on, "What can you do for me?" (Remember my comment earlier about the boss) However, successful networking is about being genuine and authentic, building mutually beneficial relationships. It's not just about what others can do for you, but what you can do for others. Consider these questions: "How can I be of help to others? What can I contribute? What kinds of resources do I have access to that I can share? What type of support can I offer?" Choose a group that will help you achieve your goals and is supportive of one another.

Your task is to motivate and educate your network

I would always keep in mind when I attend a networking event the following statement: What am I doing to compel my network to refer you? Are you interested in what they do and do you refer them to your customers? The basic philosophy here is if you start by offering help, you will receive support, referral and business will grow trust me on this one. Try it sometime.

Make sure you always ask yourself and re-evaluate this question, what have you done to educate your network about what your business? Have you kept them informed of new products and services? Have you given them succinct information about your business, such as business cards, brochures, web-based information, so they can also educate others they know?

You should set a goal for yourself, to become known as a powerful resource for others; people will remember you and turn to you for suggestions, ideas, referrals, etc. Follow through quickly and efficiently on referrals you receive. When people give you referrals, your actions reflect on them. Respect that and your referrals will grow.

Authenticity and Networking

Following up with business contacts you meet at a networking group is great. However, be sure your follow-up is authentic.

Recently I attended a networking function and received a hand-written, hand-addressed piece of correspondence from a business owner who also attended. I was very impressed to have received a hand-written follow note from this business owner. It certainly left an impression on me to receive a hand -written note. A hand-written note often has greater value than a follow-up by email.

However, I found out later that this business owner outsources the job of sending out these notes because he meets too many people each month to be able to do it themselves. The personal note was not authentic. I felt let down and I wasn’t inclined to pursue a business relationship

Always you need to find time to be authentic with your response to a referral this is your reputation online, be genuine always.

Ethics in business is absolutely important that’s what should be your differentiator factor, not just your superior products and services, once you become know for your authenticity and your ethics you will have more referral…if you doubt this theory, let me run this by you, who do you think get more referral, a not so honest mechanic or the honest one? Think about that….

Until next time…please keep reading my blog

Lead Generation

2012-01-03T15:31:00.000-08:00

Lead Nurturing

Business Development: Lead Generation

I was asked by one of my dearest blog readers to write about lead generation as it pertained to business development:

Generating Leads is a very integral part of business development. It is the corner stone of developing your opportunity funnel; it is the holy grail of revenue generation. Without this absolutely important step, the entire Business Development Process would definitely collapse and disintegrate.

Since you're reading this blog, one would ascertain that you are interested in this topic and by now you would have established and recognized how important Generating Leads is. At this point you are anxious to find out how one would go about generating leads, and you are thinking just give me the "Coles notes" version. Not yet, don't skip reading the next few paragraphs, they are equally important and we need to get few important common understandings, and set few ground rules.

As individuals when promoting ideas, products or services, we need to become the product, the service, and the enterprise we are in the process or about to promote: Pretty broad statement but let me elaborate. I need you to believe at the core of your individuality/being that you are the product, the service and the company, I need you to believe at the core of your being that your company is called: www.firstname-lastname.com (or whatever name you want to come up with), the single most important thing is that you are the enterprise. You should treat your personal development the same way you would behave if you were the owner of the organization, the CEO the chairman of the board or whatever you decide to be. This is self confidence, this is determination, this is the absolute promise to yourself success in taking your enterprise to the peak of its performance.

Regardless of who you currently work for, first and foremost I want you to believe at the core of your sole, you work for yourself. Any success you achieve or failure you encounter it would be put on the shelves in YOUR enterprise to be marketed at a later date. Ideally you would want your enterprise to market an unblemished record of your successes and no room on your list of products/services for "Failures". Let me explain a bit, as I stated earlier your career is your own enterprise, and the success/Failures are the products and services that your enterprise will be marketing or broadcasting to the world. Repeat after me these phrases and print them on the walls of your short and long term memory for ever:

1-Failure is not an option: I will never fail
2-Hope is not a strategy: I don't wait for things to happen, I will make them happen
3-I am the best at what I do: (don't be arrogant with this one, always be humble)

Self confidence

Self Confidence: Once a certain level of self confident has been established combined with a slight tone of humility you now are ready to face the world and seek to create business connections. All business people want to create successful business connections no one wants to create wasteful connection in another word “dud ones” that don't produce value. Because you are a person full of self confidence, now you can reach out to anyone as an equal not because you need anyone. You are now in a different league of business; people want and need to seek you out, because you bring value, passion, and relentless will to make your connection's business or personal life a better one.

Generating leads:
1- Be a thought leader, you are the expert, you teach and you bring knowledge to others. How do you do this? You are reading this blog aren't you? Hmmm...
      A- Write blog
      B- Speaking engagement
     C- LinkedIn connections and Twitter...I'm not big on Facebook for business (we can save this topic for another discussion)

2- Shake hands: Attend events always out and about.
A- Business events
B- Charity events
C- Sporting events

Caution: don't fall into or press “play” on the preprogrammed sales behavior right after you say "hello" to someone you just met. What do I mean? Extrovert=Business Dev. people generally are anxious when given the opportunity to start selling (again this is negative) as soon as they have ear open to the conversation. This is a killer for your credibility as a business connector. How I would handle a business intro? After the usual greeting, etc... Leave it for the other person to seek the info from you, and don't give the answer as you memorized from your marketing brochure, give small intriguing answers that leaves others thirsty from more. No one want to be “sold to”, your job is to promote your cause without your audience noticing what just happened. Sounds complicated doesn't it? Let me summarize it for you: Your sales process is hidden inside the Trojan horse of your business connector behavior (I hope this helps) if not, and you need to know more about this topic, email me.

Generating leads by being a thought leader/beacon/expert, I am convinced by using this technique you will be able to create lasting connections. Just remember this French saying: "Suit-la elle te fuit, fuit-la elle te suit" it means if you chase, she will run away, if you run away, she will chase you. This is very true in the business world. Once you established yourself as the source of knowledge in certain topic, then people will absolutely seek you out. Not just seek you out, they will become your advocates, your sales team, and you will notice they will enjoy talking about you to others.

Does this mean you do nothing and wait for someone to knock on your door? Absolutely NOT, your job is to build your personal credit in the market's reputation bank, by attending seminars, meetings, conferences, writing articles, newsletters etc... Your job is much bigger in size than the traditional sales job where you used techniques like cold calling. Your job now is to "blanket the airwaves" on every possible level.

Obviously this is a large topic, and each point can be discussed in length on its own. For now I close by wishing everyone Happy New Year in 2012, I hope it’s a year where you make great things, filled with extra ordinary successes.

Until next time

Successful sales person: Born or trained

2011-12-18T15:26:00.000-08:00

Successful Business Development: is it aquired skill or born with it

Generally when we think of a salesperson our mind brings up images of being locked in an office at the Mazda/Hyundai/Lada dealership or held captive at a timeshare presentation. But all sales jobs are not like this. It is true that it takes a certain type personality to succeed in sales. A career in sales can offer the opportunity to earn an above average income and unlimited potential for growth. I call these professional sales executives; these are the business people that move the world forward. For the longest time I wanted to change the title of “sales person” to something more expressive of the actual behaviour or tasks, example: Business Development or Business consultant, in another word, I truly believe that sales title applies only to those whom are selling Automobile, Life Insurance or aluminum siding or similar products. I do find the Title: “Sales Person” has become synonymous with the lowest acts of selling, and does not apply to the highly professional business executives. For the sake of this blog, a Sales Person is a Business Development Person

Everyone is selling someone something all the time. You can have the greatest product in the world but nothing happens until someone sells it. As people we are always selling ourselves to others and that’s the most important part of selling. I think one of the main things needed to succeed in sales is a love of people. A sales person is always out there, always meeting people, and always networking. So, just what does it take to succeed in sales?

A Business Development person must have a positive attitude. Business Development, probably more than any other occupation involves rejection. With most products you have to ask a certain number of people to buy before the sale actually made. You have to be able to ignore or deal positively with rejection. You most likely will ask about 10 people, in other words get 10 no's, before someone agreed to set an appointment with you. You must have a positive attitude to digest that much rejection day in and day out.

A business development person must have a strategic plan. There are some jobs you can do that do not require a lot of planning. But when you are asking someone to sign a large deal which could involve millions of dollars you need to have a formula. You need strategy to penetrate the complex layers of business management, you need to develop allies, you need to have the users on your side etc… Some companies provide leads or territories for sales people but typically most business development people are responsible for locating their own prospects.

A business development person must be committed to their success. It has long been argued if a salesperson is made or born. My opinion is that you are born with a certain personality type and certain types do better in sales. Typically the more outgoing person ends up in business development but it really depends upon the product or services or deal you are brokering. For the introvert can be very difficult to be more outgoing and can succeed in deal making but they will always feel that they are out of their normal behaviour which can be uncomfortable in the long run. To be successful in business development a person must be willing to A) learn everything about the organization that they are dealing with; B) negotiation techniques and C) how to manage multiple types of personalities. This can take time. It takes 10 years to become a doctor, 5 years to become a lawyer, and 1000 hours to become a barber. Many times those in business development give up after just a few weeks or months, before they have had time to learn what is needed to be successful.

A business development person must be willing to continue learning and growing. Business development people are typically expected to be knowledgeable about their products and their company. They have to stay on top of what is happening in the industry, and various economic and political influencing factors as products change and situations change. Because they have so much contact with people they need to be aware of what is happening around them. It has been said: The super-wise man learns from the experience of others. Top business people attend meetings, read books, and associate with business professionals.

A business development person must know how to set goals. Some jobs just happen whether you do anything or not. But business deals do not just happen. You have to make them happen. It is critical that a business development person know how many deals they need to make to meet their quota, how much money they need to propel their company forward, and what they need to do to make this happen. The best way to do this is to set daily, weekly or monthly goals, which should fit in the long term strategy

A business development person must be enthusiastic about their product. It is difficult to broker a deal on something you do not believe in. When you really believe in something, the other person can see and feel your passion. If you don't like the product or the company, the deal will be more difficult. It has been said that nothing great was every achieved without enthusiasm.

A business development person you must work relentlessly hard and smart. A deal maker’s job is not easy. Much hard work is required if one is to be successful. But working hard is not enough. One must also work smart by managing their time and resources well, being disciplined, and following the example of others who have been successful. I personally follow the principle of "and then some." I don’t just give it my best; I give it my best and then some. At the end of the day when I’m ready to go home I would make one or two more business calls. Often these calls would be the one that produced results. By giving just a little more time and effort you could propel yourself from an average salesperson to a super star business development person.

For the most part, success in business development (like in any other type of job) is determined by the individual, by their attitude. Anyone can succeed, if he or she wants it badly enough

"Value-added" A business cliché in need of desperate update

2011-12-13T04:44:00.000-08:00

I have to apologize to my blog readers…it has been so long since I posted a new article. I have been traveling a fair amount, and my schedule was really uncompromising. To restart my tradition, I thought to start by writing about a topic that I hear often: “Value-added” I believe I need to discuss this topic and hopefully I can give it a fair assessment.

"Value-added." The word is used so much it has become a cliché in business circles. There may not be a business in the world that doesn't claim to be a "value-added" seller. The problem is that once a word or phrase becomes a cliché, it often losses it's original meaning. This is true with "value-added." What exactly does that mean?

If you were to ask six business principles what it means when they say that they are a "value-added" seller, and you'll likely hear six different explanations. One claims that they fulfill orders quickly, and that short waiting period is "of value" to their customers. Others claim that their experienced people bring value to their customers. Their customers do business with them because of the quality of their people. Others claim some unique technical expertise, others their sophisticated IT systems, some the breath of their inventory, still others reflect on the brand name products they handle.

I'm always a bit skeptical of this. Almost every business I work with claims to have better people, better service, and more technical expertise than all their competitors. What is puzzling to me is that their competitors say the same thing. Someone has an inaccurate perception.

The definitions grow even more obtuse when you ask salespeople what they mean by "value added." Some will claim that their customers demand a regular visit by the salesperson. Their routine presence, therefore, is valuable to the customer. Others, like their bosses, claim expertise as valuable. Many point to the long term relationship as the factor that brings the most value to the customer. On and on it goes.

The truth that we often overlook is this: Value is defined by the customer, not the supplier. It doesn't matter what you think your value is, it only matters what your customer believes it to be. And customers don't always think alike, so that the operating definition of value-added varies from customer to customer.

As our economy has grown more complex and competitive, the demands of the customer and their subsequent definitions of value have grown more varied. What was more or less universally valued a few years ago, is not anymore. For example, local inventory may have been universally valued in the 1990s, but today some customers would rather buy direct and absorb a longer shipping time. Experienced people may have been valuable to everyone a few years ago, but some customers today would rather gather their information off the internet and pay lower prices. Technical expertise may have been universally valuable a few years ago, but some customers today would rather reduce their purchasing costs through an integrated supply contract administered by the home office 500 miles away.

It's not that some of the things you have built into your business as value-added are no longer important, it is that some of them are no longer viewed, by significant numbers of your customers, as worth paying more for. They may be necessary, but they are not sufficient.

If you are going to be a true value-added seller in the 21st century marketplace, you must be flexible and capable enough to offer different things to different customers, responding to the individual customer's definition of what is valuable to him or her.

That means that you must have some way of ascertaining what is valuable to each of your customers, and then some processes in place that allows you to package, present and implement those aspects of your offer that appeal to the customer's individual definition.

The primary means of doing that is a highly trained sales force that is adept at the strategies and tactics that result in a deeper and broader understanding of what the customer really wants, what the customer really values, and what the customer will really pay for.

Unfortunately, much of the business world of is populated with technically-oriented salespeople who view their job as providing technical solutions to technical problems. While that certainly is a significant part of the job, and an excellent foundation for value-added selling, it is not sufficient. Others see themselves as face-to-face customer service people, visiting the customers on a regular, route basis in order to pick up orders and take care of details. Still others have evolved into comfort zones: working with the same customers, on the same product lines, in the same ways.

More and more, value is determined by deeper and broader issues than just those addressed by these limited perspectives. How the solution fits into the customer's business systems, the philosophy of the customer relative to its vendors, the strategic plans of the customer, the potential integration of customer/vendor IT systems, etc. - all these and more are just as likely to be the issues that the customer values.

If salespeople are going to adequately uncover these deeper issues, they'll need to excel at certain sales behaviors that go above and beyond just the ability to solve a technical problem, or show up regularly.

As a Sales executive, what must I excel at?
Specifically, value-added salespeople will need to enhance their ability to create positive business relationships with anyone and everyone. They'll need to relate to a variety of positions and job titles, like CEO, CFO, Vice President, as well as production supervisor or engineer Additionally, they'll need to expand their abilities to deal positively with a wide variety of personality styles. The sales person who remains in the comfort zone of production supervisors, purchasing agents and maintenance supervisors will severely limit his/her value.
Not only will effective salespeople need to create positive business relationships with everyone, they also will need to fine tune their skills in asking questions, listening constructively and ferreting out the deeper needs of those customers.
Those salespeople who can understand what each customer considers to be valuable to them, and then can bring creative solutions to those customers, will be the valuable value-added sellers.

What is encouraging about this is that each of these value-added selling skills is a learnable behavior. No one is born with the ability to ask penetrating questions, create positive relationships, listen constructively, or develop creative proposal and solutions.

These behaviors of the most effective value-added salespeople can each be learned. Once a minimum level of expertise is attained, sales people can continually improve on these behaviors of the rest of their selling career.

This is a great opportunity for the business who intent on maintaining and expanding their position as a value-added seller. Those who develop systems that encourage the key sales behaviors, who train their sales people in those behaviors, and who stimulate them to continuously improve their implementation will be those who rise to the top as value-added sellers.

At the end, remember "Value-added" is not something defined or determined by the supplier it is however defined as viewed by the client. Each business/client view "Value-added" in a different way. The successful business is the one that quickly identify the specific client's interpretation of the perceived value and package a solution to meet their requirement.

Until next time...

Your Personal Online Presence and the Importance of Blogging

2011-09-19T19:05:00.000-07:00

The Importance of Blogging
Have you ever noticed that all the people who have a presence and success online all have one thing in common? Well, if you're paying close attention you know that one thing is a self-branded blog.

Here's a tip... watch and copy what successful people do! It's o.k. to be a copycat, as long as you copy the right cat!

I want to share with you the importance of blogging for your success online. You are online to brand yourself, not your company or your business. Remember that people join people; not businesses. So in order for people to join you, they must know you, like you and trust you. The quickest way to accomplish this is to have a self-branded blog, invite people to join your blog, and then build relationships with those people.

Blogging is a must if you intend on having any level of real success online today. Now, don't take my word for it, look around the internet; all of the successful people who are online today have their own self-branded blog. You may be saying, well I don't know where to start, or it's too hard or I can't do it. Well, you can do it, and it's not as hard as you think. Take the first step by getting a domain name, then take a second step by visiting blog hosting sites such as Blogger. It's the first step that is the hardest on any journey, but you must decide to get started. So get started blogging, and create your own audience of people who will know you, like you, trust you; and therefore will want to do business with you, and buy from you.

As you get started with blogging and eventually become a success story...You should keep in mind that your blog serves as your central hub that houses all of your content to be disseminated to various outlets on the internet like social media, video hosting sites, article directories and more. The content hitting those outlets then directs that traffic back to your blog. Once you understand the flow of the system, you will have created the life you desire.

Blogging has become a very important part of running an internet business. It is very important to constantly update your blog and to ping the relevant sites that you have infact updated your blog.

you also need to try and regularly update my blog with articles and helpful hints and tips and if applicable free giveaways to increase traffic to your website. You should try and update your blog at least once a day, if you can it is great to update at 3 different times ie morning afternoon and night.

Your blog is another way of generating traffic to your website, when you blog it is important to make it count. You should have a signature file with a link back to your site with your chosen keyword. An example is if your chosen keyword was say Make Money Online then you would hyperlink that word with your website address.

Everyone wants more traffic right so the best way to get it is to go out and update your blog regularly. There is no point in updating your blog if no one knows about it right? This is where pingoat.com and pingomatic come into it they are there to let everyone know you have updated so use them as they are free.

Don't put it off another day; let's get started blogging now, because your life depends upon it. Your dream life that is!

Best of luck to everyone

Cheap Translation: you get what you pay for

2011-09-18T23:45:00.000-07:00

Translation: Cheap vs Quality

Have you ever seen one of those advertisements stating that you could get a website translated for $120.00, or some company will translate your content for some outlandishly low sum of money? The adage "you get what you pay for" is very true, especially when it comes to Translation Services! A cheap translation is just that - a cheap content. Tranlsation Services is exceedingly vital, particularly when you are advocating your company, association or product/services in another language. Your translated documents and content will introduce your company or association to the world and I don't believe a cheap 4.00 Dollars per 1000 words effort would be a wonderful and effective testimony. Your translated documents will have great exposure in any media, electronic (Websites etc...) and print alike, this is a great opportunity for your company and I doubt you would get far with that little sum of money spent on producing content in another language! Translation is a work of art, the art of adapting content to another laguage and making sure the nuances, accurate meanings, and in many cases is the finess of assembling words that insure cultural esepect and integrity. A well translated document is a well conveyed message and is a is a lot less pricey than having to deal with sending the wrong message to the world resulting cheap translation. In the end, it is the most gainful way to promote your association in the long run.

Translation is a skill, an Art and a science that is gained over time. Not just anyone can do it and do it correctly; so it is critical that you approach your Translation Comapny and become acquainted with them, process, people, skills and most of all ligitamacy (here I mean you need to break the marketing fluff and get to the core of who this Translation company really is) Small amount of Translation companies are excellent at what they do example: CLS Communication and their North American CLS Lexi-tech are great companies to trust them with your translation assignments. Fewer Translation Companies are competent at each and every one of the many types of content that could be subject to high quality Translation. Only 1 company that I am aware of who has the receipe for high quality translation services which is based on developing internal teams that over time these individuals will gain the expertise in variety of fields, and combined with strict internal processes such as ISO and specific internal quality control.Most of the translation agencies with no internal translators on staff and they rely heavily on freelancers example: Transperfect, which is obvious by the low cost low quality reputation in the marketplace.

Certainly, common sense implies that the more people that the higher the translation cost the better the quality, this is not true is some cases. Now, just because Translation costs more than another doesn't automatically suggest that the Translation is better. This is where you want to talk to the actual Linguage specialists at CLS Lexi-tech who will be translating your documents and get to know them. Trusting your own wisdom and your own intuition goes a long way! You must like and have faith in your Translation Compnay especially since you may be working with them for a long time. Translation is not a "fire and forget" business and it shouldn't be; although quite a few Translation Agencies these days are likely to function in that fashion unfortunately. For the majority of businesses the perfect scenario is when you have Translation company that can be close at hand anytime you need to make adjustments to your content.

The days of low quality cheap priced translations are over. In the ever-changing world of constant content change and increased complexity, a high quality translation is where the focus should be. Translation is very sensitive an for a content that is ever-changing and continually updated, the challenge is greater to get it right example: Annual Reports, User Manuals Websites, MArketing documents, news, blogs etc...

I would encourge you to seek out a poffessional translation company and work with them on translating your documents. Make certain to go beyond their marketing messages...don't be drawn to what the website says, talk to them get to know them and then decide.

If you like to discuss this further please contact me

Cheap Translation: 5 Consequences

2011-09-11T13:58:00.000-07:00

5 negative consequences for selecting cheap translation services

As economy continue its negative state, companies and businesses in general will continue looking for ways to cut cost and squeeze cash out of a flat (at best) revenues. And as good as that tactic might sound and agree with this as a good business practice and appropriate to do, however when it comes to translation services, squeezing cost will ultimately cost the organization more than the saving that you are trying to realize.

Translation and communication in general do represent the image of your organization and a badly translated document would have major consequences on your business, here are few points to consider.

1- Drop in revenue: let's say you need to translate a user manual for a device you are selling abroad. The user manual deals with specific operational, maintenance and troubleshooting information related to the said product. As early adopters consumers begin buying the product, a badly translated user manual will result in users not taking full advantage of the product features and functionalities, and A) they will return the purchased product B) tell others about the negative experience and hence preventing further sales, therefore revenues associated with the product will drop or disappear in some cases.

2- Lawsuit and Legal Liabilities: a badly translated document could result in bodily harm or injuries resulting of what could be considered "Misinformation" that could be a very costly error for your business, and I highly doubt that any business would want venture into a legal battle if they can avoid it by using something as simple as a professional translation company. Here where it get tricky, a procurement manager's answer to this issue is a tight contract with favorable "liability clause", a contract is good idea however cheap translation generally produced by small companies/individuals, therefore if there is a law suit the only thing you can take from them is their laptop computers in some cases, as these companies or individuals has no assets significant enough to outweigh the mistakes in a sensitve hi exposure translation of a document.

3- Negative image: Low quality translation is instrumental in creating negative marketing for your company, here is how, a wrongly translated brochure, website etc...from English into Spanish (as an example) can send the intended marketing message in the opposite direction. Here is a good one, GM made a car to be marketed in Latin America they called it Nova get it? NoVa, I don't think this product/car sales volume is going anywhere similar to car name.

4- Drop in profitability: Some people might not believe this, but picture this, you sold a machine to France with no translation or badly translated document, the country where you sold the equipment (let's say it's an MRI Machine). The Manual accompanied the machine deliver misinformation re the exact operation of this complex medical instrument, someone looses their life resulting your cheap translation. You business is liable, and the dollar spent to fix legal cost, penalties, and other associated cost is coming out of your business profitability directly. Some people might say this is not that significant, well that's not true GE paid 750K per month penalties per month to correct a translation issue associated with a batch of MRI machines sold to France. Compare this with the cost of good translation (makes you think, no?)

5- Loss of opportunities: Most business they lack the ability to really calculate this important factor in an accurate manner. Let's run through a scenario whereby the procurement officer select the cheapest translation provider, and you ended up in one of the following: Legal battle, Misuse of product, or misinformation re product or company! It's obvious that your sales will dip and those individuals who were thinking about buying your product or services will automatically get cold feet and back off on the buying decision this is your loss opportunity. Your sales team in country will end up not realizing revenue objective and you will have to replace them and that's another cost all together (hiring, training etc..)

Conclusion, if you had to go to court would you hire the cheapest Lawyer to defend you? Or you would hire the best? If you needed a surgery would you select the cheapest doctor? Why would you want to select cheapest translation service provider when in some cases millions of dollars are at stake? Something to think about

For all your professional translation services needs please visit, http://www.cls-lexitech.ca/ http://www.cls-communication.com/

If you need more info or if you like to discuss this further let me know

Translation industry: 7 obstacles preventing your business growth

2011-09-03T07:45:00.000-07:00

Running A Translation Company: 7 obstacles preventing your business growth

I had the opportunity over the past few years to talk to many colleagues, friends and business owners in the translation industry, and I concluded that there is are common problems is facing most translation companies in terms of growing the business. And what I thought to address in this blog is to define the issues, because I believe "a problem well defined is a problem half solved" and to all my readers I have to apologize in advance if some points I raise here you don't agree with. It's just my personal opinion only.

For an example of a well run company I personally recommend http://www.cls-communication.com/ if you are looking for translation service provider that you can trust and has what it takes to meet your current and future demands as your business changes, you should check out http://www.cls-lexitech.ca/

Identifying business growth problems:
1- Sales and Marketing: finding translation opportunities can be a problem for companies with no sales and BD staff or have the wrong sales and marketing approach to their target market. To elaborate a bit on this, since the DNA of Translation Company is the translator and the project manager, many translation companies lack the basic understanding of sales and marketing in general. For example, in one of my discussions with translation executives they draw direct comparison between a used car salesman and an executive sales person promoting translation services. This underscore the behavioral differences between a growth company which value and promote executive sales teams and a company that sees business as a status quo which leads to an almost conflicting behavior between growth strategy and status quo of the company, resulting in flat revenue and in some case degradation of revenue. Transforming your organization into a sales organization is the answer, this need to happen to face the revenue challenges ahead.

2- Lack of sales and Marketing: Some translation CEO's, operation managers, and translation professional in general are under the misunderstanding that sales growth can happen from "thin air" without any effort on their part, or investment. Many of the same executives still living in the Dot.com days where the idea was: "build it and they will come" unfortunately this didn't work for the IT sector in the late 90’s and it will not work for the Translation sector now. Unfortunately these CEO's and translation professional earned the nick name (and I am not revealing any secrets here because many of you already heard it before: "Pre Madonna’s") for a good reason. There ought to be a serious and genuine effort by the owners of Translation Companies to understand the shift in market demand and redesign their internal processes and offer services that will meet client demands. This change absoultely need to take place in a proactive manner not wait to the market forces you to do so, you will loose the element of being ahead of the curve/ competitions. Let’s get something straight: You should always operate with the mindset that there will be no situation under which the client/market will shift their requirement to meet company’s capabilities anyone who thinks otherwise, in my humble opinion they shouldn’t be managing companies they should subcontract that job to an experts (and I am not talking here about what file type your client send you the translation work). Look and develop detailed understanding of your current and future client base requirements and deliver on these requirements: Price, service process etc…

3- Lack of growth decision: Some of you might say, are you crazy? who doesn't like more revenue? for some, revenue is a good thing on the other hand for some others, revenue is a nightmare, why? because they lack the fundementals of managing a business. Some translation professional decided that the size of their business is sufficient and they are not comfortable growing beyound the current size. While I respect these decisions, we also should be aware that: if you are not growing, you are on your way out...sorry business 101

4- Brick Wall Syndrome: Most translation companies were not built to sustain the strain of growth that usually accompanies business growth. There is a defined and sometime predicted limit to how much one of those organizations can grow before cracks starts to show in the fabric and the DNA of the business. And that limit I call it: “The Brick Wall”, because it would be near impossible to grow beyond what this business is design to handle.

5- Wrong Operation team for the growth job: This is a very common, let's face it we all know or have met some of these individuals who manage and run day to day aspect of the service, in some cases they are the owner of translation companies. These individuals have done well in the past, but they are not suited for the next phase of the business progress and plans. Let's pretend company A is sitting comfortably operating at the edge of the "brick wall" The management team served well for years during the first growth sprint before the company arrived to the "brick wall" I talked about in point 4. And now that same management team is being asked to run another marathon and achieve another growth target. This is less likely to happen as you can imagine. They are tired, exhausted, and generally coasting to retirement. I personally recommend re-designing the management team to match the current phase of the business plan. This step will ensure the right skills are used to achieve the right and current business goals. Just think of Bill Gate, great idea person but he realized that he is not the best in running Microsoft so he hired Steve Ballmer to run the company, it makes sense in my opinion!

6- Lack of flexibility when designing and implementing client solutions: Some translation companies/ professional's idea of doing business is to design a box with well defined dimensions and if the client / opportunity don't fit the mold then they lose the opportunity, remember: the nature of Translation business is a “service” not a “product” services should offer a higher degree of flexibility in customization. This is problematic for Services Company in the translation industry, which absolutely needs to be flexible and to large extend needs to offer much highly customizable solutions.

7- Lack of knowledge of macro economics and general economic state: here I call this "Stick your head in the sand" and hope for the economic storm will blow by! These types of companies with this similar strategy could end up being a bargain basement acquisition targets. Here is why, I believe these companies will lose substantial revenue and profitability similarly and what's left of them by the end of the storm will not be able to survive and invest to re establish their market presence. Hence they will become the acquisition vulture’s snacks!!! (Sorry harsh but real)

For an example of a well run company I personally recommend http://www.cls-communication.com/ if you are looking for translation service provider which you can trust and has what it takes to meet your current and future demands as your business changes, you should check out http://www.cls-lexitech.ca/

The Translation Business Growth is an extensive topic which will take more than my humble blog here to cover... As you can note, I didn’t get into issues like staff salaries, price of services rendered, client and staff issues etc… because I fundamentally believe that if you have the right management team in place they will take care of these issues, and I also believe that “Revenue cure all illnesses”. However for now this should give you an idea, as to what to watch for and how to get organized to face and achieve growth! And if you like to discuss solutions or ideas please don't hesitate to email me.

Conquering Public Speaking Fear

2011-08-30T08:30:00.000-07:00

Public Speaking - 10 Tips For Success

As many of my friends know, I am big fan of Jerry Seinfeld, in fact (I hate to admit) but I own most of the DVD's of his famous TV comedy show. A great public speaking statistic was once made on national TV by Jerry Seinfeld, from the TV show Seinfeld, who found a poll that said that the number one fear for Americans was public speaking. Death was at number five. With this he joked that "...at a funeral, people are five times more likely to want to be in the casket than giving the eulogy."

Now forgiving the statistical error Jerry made, public speaking is actually ranked at the top fear of many people, Americans included. From my own personal history, as well as some of the many tips I was able to find online, here are 10 tips for eliminating public speaking fears.

1. Practice right before you go to bed. My best tip to myself by far. Trying to memorize and practice what I have to say right before I go to bed really helps. On a scientific level, your brain works at night and whatever you process last (right before bedtime) sub-consciously becomes more familiar to you the next day! This tip has helped me tremendously, especially for presentations.

2. Be prepared. I envy people who can go up and stir the crowd up without any practice beforehand. But until I get there, knowing the material and speaking with authority on that particular subjects projects confidence, which in turn makes you less nervous while your up on center stage.

3. Use bullet points and do not memorize word for word. If you try to memorize your entire speech or presentation, that will make you more nervous! Instead focusing on memorizing bullet points has helped me since I can be a little more spontaneous, but at the same time, give me direction whenever I feel lost. Trying to memorize what you have to say word for word just makes you think more about what you have to say, which puts more pressure on yourself.

4. As I saw on a shampoo commercial where a guy tells his nervous professor to just imagine him naked to take away his fear of speaking, realize this: whoever your audience is, they want you to succeed. Even if you are very nervous, if you just stand tall you will look 90% confident. The fast heart beat, butterflies, and sweaty palms can't be seen by the audience. In fact, they want to hear a good presentation, and most times, they will like you no matter what.

5. Smile. Smiling makes you happier and makes you more confident. Smile and try to gaze for familiar faces. This allows you to make a positive connection with your audience and takes your mind of of the "I can't do this" thoughts.

6. Be enthusiastic. Even if its a boring business meeting or a boring school presentation, saying your part with fake enthusiasm will rub off...to yourself! Its like smiling except it you can do it for the entire duration.

7. Eat a lot of yogurt and nuts. Some natural chemical inside yogurts and nuts helps to calm you down. I find this works better than a glass of water, and just the fact of me eating it makes me psychologically more confident in myself.

8. Breathe. But don't just breathe, breathe until your lungs are full. Make sure to get enough oxygen inside of you just in case you run into the good old shortness of breath. Rapid breathing is one of my main problems when I am in a public speaking setting, so I always make sure to take a couple big breaths right before I start talking.

9. Project a success image into your head right before you begin talking. I usually like to project myself confidently presenting to my audience, and when the time comes for me to begin, I will follow my projections to a T.

10. As the famous A.I. once said, "Practice? Practice? You wanna talk about Practice?" Yes, practice by yourself talking into an imaginary audience, practice to your roommates, your parents, siblings, friends, or even your dog. Practice puts the motion inside your brain, and when the actual time for your speech comes, your brain will already know what to say.

Of course, the best way to overcome your fear of public speaking is through public speaking classes. It is pretty much practice, just in a real setting. There are also many different self-help programs that aim to give you confidence and help you develop techniques to overcome anxiety and panic.

Thought Leadership: Differentiating yourself in a crowded commodity field

2011-08-15T11:54:00.000-07:00

How to Differentiate Your Business Using Thought Leadership

In today's cluttered information environment, it's not enough to just produce content and provide average products and services.
To stand out and differentiate yourself requires that you be a thought leader in your field.

This means vision, innovation, credibility, a depth of knowledge, at times going against popular opinion, being a person and company that people - particularly those within your industry - look to for answers and direction.

It means understanding and predicting trends, and knowing how to capitalize on them. It means recognizing patterns and connecting dots that others don't see.

Differentiation is usually viewed horizontally, as simply doing things differently than your competitors, such that you are compared side to side.

But thought leadership is vertical, meaning you rise above peers and competitors.

Standard differentiation keeps you trapped in the commodity world, meaning you'll constantly compete on price.

Thought leadership helps you transcend the commodity trap; people want more than your product or services - they want your depth of knowledge and unique insights. And because they trust your recommendations, you'll sell more of your commodity.

How to Become & Be Viewed as a Thought Leader

1. Learn
Coasting or resting on your laurels doesn't cut it. You've got to constantly be reading, studying, researching, attending seminars - in short, learning.

And this doesn't just mean in your narrow field; true thought leaders are well-versed in a broad range of fields in order to see patterns and connect dots.

2. Align With Passion
Passion drives learning. If you're not profoundly passionate about your business, you'll never make it as a thought leader.
Through passion, wine aficionado Gary Vaynerchuck became a thought leader not just for his industry, but for the world at large with his book Crush It: Why NOW is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion.

3. Content, Content, Content
Thought leaders are content-producing machines. They use books, e-books, blogs, podcasts, videos public speaking -- anything and everything to promote their passion and spread their message.
Seth Godin's blog helps him sell books and secure speaking gigs. Roy H. William's Monday Morning Memo establishes him as an expert and drives his advertising business.

4. Speaking, Training, Coaching, Consulting
Garrett Gunderson teaches clients innovative whole life insurance strategies, but his Freedom Fasttrack program is really what sets him apart.
As an established thought leader, you can command speaking and consulting fees. More than selling your commodity, you can sell your knowledge.

HOWEVER: DO NOT MOVE AWAY FROM YOUR COMMODITY.

We encounter this problem constantly - people want to escape the commodity trap, so they their business model shifts to information.

This is a mistake; your commodity is your primary economic engine. Go after the speaking and consulting gigs, but use them to drive business to your commodity. Take your fees as icing on the cake, but never confuse them with your primary economic engine.

For example, mortgage broker Kenton Brown offers training every Saturday at his office, but he understands that mortgages are his economic engine.

Very few people can have thought leadership as their primary economic engine. It's a gamble and it takes massive amounts of time and effort. It's largely dependent on personality and charisma. It's particularly risky in tough economic environments.

But as a recognized thought leader you can charge more and you're all but guaranteed to have a steady stream of clients.

"Escaping the commodity trap" doesn't mean to stop selling commodities; it means building an effective platform to sell your commodity.

Ready to make your mark on the world and differentiate yourself in a crowded marketplace? Become a thought leader.

Searching for a professional translation services providers: A worth while excercise

2011-08-08T05:50:00.000-07:00

Professional Translation Services Providers Are Worth Seeking Out

Because translation isn't a hard science, and because it doesn't belong to a field that produces objectively measureable deliverables, you will always take a risk when hiring a translation provider. While from the outside translation might seem like a hard science (the simple exchange of one word for another within different grammatical structures) the truth is anything but that. Translation requires a deep intimacy with both languages involved and is more about understanding and navigating the countless cultural assumptions of each language. Translation is about feeling your way through text and speech as much as simply exchanging one word for its counterpart. Add on the fact that you won't be able to tell whether or not the translation you requisition is accurate and sensitive or not on your own, and it becomes apparent that you will need to seek out as many credibility indicators as possible from the providers you're looking to hire.

One of the best and most accurate credibility indicators out there is the length of time that your potential translator or translation services company has been working in the business. The longer they've been providing translations for clients the better. There are plenty of new companies that have sprung up with the advent of the internet and hiring one of these new companies is going to be a hit or miss affair. You'll have a hard time knowing whether this is a legitimate company or if it's simply taking advantage of this new trend. Hiring a company that's been around before the recent boom in interest in translation is a great idea.

If you're looking to hire a company for translation services it's also a good idea to hire a company that offers a wide variety of translation services. This variety should manifest itself both in a variety of different languages they work in and a number of different types of translations they provide- such as technical, legal, and general translations. If you are working regularly with people who speak other languages there's a good chance that over the course of your career you'll utilize this range of translation services.

Finally, it's a good idea to find a company or individual who provides translation services for a wide range of clients; everyone from Fortune 500 companies to individuals. If you haven't noticed by now, the number one thing you're looking for from a translation service provider is flexibility. You want a provider you can develop a lifelong relationship with, who will be able to meet all of your translation needs- even those you don't know you have just yet.

If you are seeking a professional translation agency, email me for further discussions

Translation services needed? what's next!!!

2011-08-02T14:12:00.000-07:00

I Need a Language Translation, What Do I Do?

I found this article to be very representative of cases that I have been involved with during discussion with clients and business colleagues:

Most probably you identify with the above statement, that's what bought you to this page where you can read this article. I was in your position a couple of years back when I was in the process of expanding my business to some foreign countries and my targeted consumers were non-English speakers. I needed to translate my website and other advertising materials to the language of my targeted consumers.

To start with, I was clueless and after I managed to catch up with some local translators and translation agencies, I became desperate. There were several reasons for this. Before going on to them, I would like to give some information about language translation itself. Language translation is a complex process and not everybody's cup of tea. Just being able to read and write comfortably in two or more languages does not automatically give anyone the ability to do high quality translation work in those languages. It takes substantial practice, experience and expertise in the involved languages.

Now my initial dealings were with the local language translators operating in my city. I was not satisfied with them because I could not get all the three things that I was looking for, from any of them. These three things were:

In most cases, I would have to be satisfied with having one or two of the above factors to my satisfaction. For example, a high quality translation would invariably be more expensive or take a long time to get completed. All this made me want to explore other avenues so I tried software translations and online services.

Software translations were a disappointment and dangerous for the health of my business. Because a software generally translates any document literally, or word for word. Now this results in hilarious mistakes a lot of times. Because all languages have a unique grammar and vocabulary, word for word translations become ineffective most of the times.

Which brings me to online language translation, in my opinion, the best avenue for language translations. This is because online you can get the best rates and quality, along with speedy delivery. The chief reason behind this is that when working with an online translation agency, you have the liberty to work with translators anywhere in the world. You can easily get high quality, combined with reasonable cost if you work with native speakers of the targeted language.

There are other benefits as well which you will come to know as you research a few reputed or recommended online agencies. One of my favorites among them is CLS Lexi-tech which has a very innovative system of working. You can request them for an instant language translation quote to get an idea of the services and rates.

To discuss your specific translation needs please click here

Keep your sales skills sharp

2011-07-28T12:27:00.000-07:00

Monitor & Improve Your Sales Skills

Every single sales encounter will be different to one degree or another based on the following facts.

Different product, customer, and sales technique combinations.

There is no single blue print that will work on every combination. Period. Anyone who tells you that they have a "one cap fits all" sales technique is not leaving room to evolve with the market and its trends. Eventually that technique will start to wane and eventually become weak compared to newer, more evolved techniques.

As a sales person you should always be seeking to improve your sales skills. Areas of focus should include, but not limited to,

•Product knowledge.
•Customer knowledge.
•Greeting techniques.
•Presentation style.
•Closing techniques.

Product knowledge.
Be on top of your "game". Know as many features and benefits of your products as is possible. Know how to combine them in your presentation to create customer desire. Be aware of upcoming releases and upgrades as soon as they are announced.

Customer knowledge.
Be aware of your product and businesses target consumer. Research how you can target this consumer by using your client portfolio. Learn what your customers do and do not like about your product from online forums and product reviews.

Greeting techniques.
One of your most important sales skills is your greeting. Learn how to greet a customer and get past the pre programmed "just looking" response. Learn how to read your customers demeanor and judge who is a "looker" and who is a potential "buyer".

Presentation style.
Experiment with which features and benefits produce the most interest from customers. Tailor your style to each customer. Some people like an informal presentation, others like a formal conversation. Learn both. Be sure to get your customer involved with the product. Let them handle it and experience the features and benefits.

Closing techniques.
Learn when to attempt the close. Timing is key. Experiment with both "hard" and "soft" closes. Accept that your first refusal, is just that, your FIRST not your last.

If you take the time to develop your sales skills you will be sowing seeds that will result in sales. But your skills must evolve with the market in order to compete. In sales it really is, survival of the fittest.

If you find this topic of interest to your organization...I will be happy to discuss further

Until next time....

How to Close a sale

2011-07-18T18:19:00.000-07:00

How to Close the Sale - Tips and Techniques

This blog applies to anyone who is selling, service, product or any other type of idea sale...

The questions that many sales professionals ask are, "When to close a sale? How to close? How not to be pushy?" I still remember my first customers - a particular client who needed a business service solution. I was so enthusiastic and spent a lot of time presenting the solution i was selling which the client liked, telling an inspirational and success stories related to the service on how it benefited others who already purchased it. The client loved it, I could tell from the reaction. The client asked a lot of questions. He talked to his clolleagues which were in the meeting about the applicatbility and the usefullness of the service. Did the client buy the services at the end? No, he did not. Why? Because I didn't close the sale. I presented the service/product and stopped. I didn't lead them to buy it and didn't finish the sale. I just dropped them in the middle of the sale.

What would I do now in this situation? I would ask the simple question "Would you like to have an effective, high quality, reasonable cost service that is the only one currently on the market that is suited for your business?" I could also add, "Imagine that after 2 or 3 years you will be looking at this deal being the successful one that you were instrumental in establishing, proven by the large amount of savinngs that you will bring to your company, and the effective service that you will be able to use anytime 24x7, this service will be your business' competitive advantage in the future"

Does it sound like closing and pushing to buy? No way. I see myself more as a friend who gives helpful recommendation or good advise. I really care about my customers and show it to them. Yes, I am using one of my closing strategies, but they would never know it.

Closing techniques:
1. Close from the beginning.
No, it doesn't mean you should ask, "Would you like to buy it?" from the first moment you meet the person. It means that you have to earn customer's trust, build relationship, find out their needs, ask questions, listen to him (her).

2. Learn to recognize when a customer is ready to buy. A customer might indicate they're ready by asking questions about the product, your service or about the buying process, or they may show their willingness to buy non-verbally.

3. Do not push or rush your customer.
Nobody likes to be pushed or hurried, especially in a situation when they are spending their own money.

4. Respect their decision not to buy.
Not every customer buys and it is OK. Do not show that you are upset or angry. "I spent so much time with you, why don't you want to buy it?" I know one sales professional who was not only calculating her commission in her mind but also what she is going to buy with it while she was selling! Every time she didn't make a sale she was so unhappy because she felt like she lost real money.

5. Offer free trials, specific terms, discount, and freebees.
People like to feel that they get a special treat and everyone loves free stuff. Find out from your manager what you can offer with each item/product to your customer. This has an amazing impact.

6. Ask the manager
This popular closing technique works very well in cases of discussing discounts or special offers. You could say, "I would like to give you this discount, but I need to ask my manager about it (get a special permission)." Then go and talk to your manager. Some sales professionals pretend they have this conversation. They go to the back room and come back in couple minutes with good news. If you are natural in playing it and it is working, use it. In a case of very big purchases I would recommend to bring a manger and ask him (her) about the discount in the front of a client.

Check this out...How does this technique work? You show your customer that you really want him (her) to have the desired item/service or product you are making an extra effort, you are helping and supporting them, you are "fighting" with the system to get a better deal. You will see that they respect you for it.

7. Give a customer time and space to think and talk about purchasing the product,
Especially if you are dealing with a couple. They do need private time to discuss financial aspects of the purchase.

8. Give them an opportunity to come back
This technique will work only if you already know the customer and built a good relationship with them. For example, you may see and feel that after spending considerable amount of time the customer is still not convinced to buy. In this case you can say, "I understand that this is important decision for you to make and you need some time to think about it. When would you like to come back to discuss it further?"

Offer them specific date and time, "Would like to come Tuesday or Friday? What time is the best for you?" You can also add, "The reason I am asking it because I am off on Thursday and Saturday, but I really want to help you." Again you are offering service here and it is totally normal to discuss all possible options. If you have their phone number and have their permission to call - call and talk more on the phone. But please do not call every day. It is very irritating.

9. Let them know that now is the best time to buy
"We have this incredible 50 % off discount because of an extra stock"
"We have this deal only one time a year"
"It is a great buy because of a Christmas sale"
"The sale will only last for 1 week"
"It is the best time to buy because the prices are going up"
"Summer is coming. Would you like to get a fan (or patio furniture) now because it could be out of stock during the peak of the season"

10. Summarize the product description in just three words:
"It is better, cheaper, cleaner than... old model/competition offers/what you have"
"Faster, more modern, more reliable"
"Better build, more convenient, improved"
"Healthier, enhanced, organic"

This could be a good exercise for you. Write down 3 main words describing the product/service you are selling. They should be really meaningful and great words about this specific product. Does it remind you of the situation when an HR person asks you about your three main characteristics during a job interview? Well, it is the same process but instead of product you are "selling yourself".

11. Act like your customer already bought the product you are selling

This technique is based on the principle of ownership. If people start thinking that they already have it, it is harder not to buy. Most of us like to be owners. It also opens an opportunity for future discussion.

Lets say you are selling furniture..."Where will you put the table?" you can ask. "I was thinking of putting it in the dinning room," your customer may answer. He (she) is drawing a picture in their mind thinking how it will fit to the room.

"Who will use the computer - you or your children?"

There are dozens of other closing sales techniques. How and when to use them? Every situation and each customer are different. Most importantly, practice, practice, practice. Use different approaches, experiment. The more you apply techniques the more skilled sales professional you will become, the more natural the process of closing will be.

If you liked this blog, you may want to check my other blogs on the same topic

Until next time

How to deal with upset clients

2011-07-14T05:36:00.000-07:00

Customer Service Problems - How to Handle Angry Or Irate Customers

The 10 Steps and 1 to Grow On

1. Prepare yourself
2. Let them vent their anger
3. Listen
4. Verify for understanding
5. Empathize with these customers
6. Ask what they would like done to solve the problem
7. Get agreement
8. Apologize
9. Conclude the call
10. Follow up
11. Take care of yourself

1. The Call - Prepare Yourself
The first step to take when dealing with an angry or irate customer is to prepare your self. Sit up straight, make sure your posture is good, put a smile on your face, and take a deep breath. In many cases, you'll have to prepare yourself while the customer is on the line. Of course, don't take that deep breath directly into the phone, but do take a deep breath, and do prepare yourself. In some cases, you'll know you're about to work with an irate customer momentarily. Your office mate may field the call and toss you "that look" as he or she transfers the call to you. (You know "that look"; it communicates, "Boy, do I have a customer for you!") Before answering the call, take one or two seconds to prepare yourself. Then pick up the line and begin the call flow process we describe below.

2. Let Them Vent Their Anger
The second step is letting angry and irate customers vent their anger. You need to allow these customers to vent from beginning to end. And don't interrupt. Unlike the typical call flow process we discussed earlier, don't use short messages with irate customers. The odd thing about these customers is that they have a "tape recorder" in their heads. When they call, they've already prepared their speeches. They've been practicing, and you're going to hear it-all of it. If you interrupt their speeches with short messages such as "I see" or "I understand," angry or irate customers push stop on their "tape recorder," hit rewind, go back to the beginning, and play the whole tape again. So you need to allow these customers to vent without any interruptions.

3. Listen
The third step in dealing with angry or irate customers is listening. In addition, we recommend you take notes. Taking notes forces you to actively listen. Plus, you'll be able to refer back to your notes later in your conversation.

4. Verify for Understanding
The fourth step in handling angry or irate customers is verifying what they have communicated to you to ensure you understand the situation. Repeat their central messages to them-word for word. Do not paraphrase. What can happen if we paraphrase an angry or irate customer's message, but we get it wrong?

The customer just gets madder. He or she might pound a fist on the desk and declare, "That's not what I said! You weren't listening!" By repeating the problem word for word, the angry customer will agree with your statement, and you will be able to verify the problem for your understanding.

There are two advantages to verifying for understanding. The first is that you have a better opportunity to correctly identify the problem. Second, repeating the problem or situation in their own words means they will agree with your description, and they will agree with you because you will be correct. One of the keys to handling angry and irate customers is getting them to agree to anything as quickly as possible. This step is your first opportunity to get these customers to agree with you.

5. Empathize with Them
Providing an empathy statement is a critical step in the call flow process when dealing with angry and irate customers. Remember, each of these steps is designed to defuse these difficult customers, and we're guiding these customers to a point where we can provide them with both service and solutions.

6. Ask What They Would Like Done to Solve the Problem
Next in the call flow process for working with angry or irate customers, you'll want to determine what these customers need, respond to their needs, and get their input on the action plan. Determine customers' needs by asking open-ended and close-ended questions. Ask enough questions to get all the information you need. And be sure not to paraphrase their responses-repeat the information word for word.

Next, respond to their needs by developing a plan of action to resolve their problem. If they don't agree with the plan you propose, find out what they would like to see as a solution. At this point, you can determine if they are unrealistic as well as angry. However, most customers are defused by this time in the conversation, and they'll be calm and realistic.

So ask these customers what they'd like to see for a solution. If they're still angry, their response might be, "Just fix it." Or their response could be unrealistic. But it's possible they have some suggestions you haven't thought of. In fact, you might come up with more than one plausible plan for resolution. Keep in mind that customers love alternatives, and giving them options (if you can) is a real treat for them.

Getting your customers involved in the resolution process means they'll be part owners of the solutions. When they help you determine the action plan, they're more apt to buy into the solution. In addition, it's difficult for them to come back to the help desk and claim you didn't do your job if they helped arrive at the solution. So ask these customers what they would like to see as a solution, and, together, determine a plan for resolution.

7. Get Agreement
Next, you want to get agreement with angry or irate customers. You'll want to follow the same strategy for getting agreement. Getting agreement is the step in which you and your customers jointly finalize the action plans you'll take to solve the problem. Remember; don't impose an action plan on customers. To achieve customer satisfaction, you need to give them the opportunity to verbally accept the action plan you propose. This step can be as brief and informal as asking, "Does this direction sound like the way to go?" And their reply: "Sounds good to me."

8. Apologize
The next step in our call flow process for handling angry or irate customers is to apologize. Now, some customer support professionals may argue that there's no need to apologize if you didn't cause the problem. In addition, you may not feel comfortable making apologies to customers.

However, from a customer service standpoint, you have nothing to lose by apologizing and everything to gain-if you are sincere. Customers usually respond positively when you apologize. In fact, they may apologize to you for their behavior. This step in the call flow process can make a big difference when dealing with difficult customers-again, if you are sincere.

If you are unable to apologize using a sincere tone of voice, don't apologize. The wrong tone of voice will come across negatively, and your customer will know your apology is not sincere. A misstep here can completely destroy everything you've gained up to this point.

9. Conclude the Call
The next step is to conclude the call. When dealing with angry or irate customers, in particular, be sure they are completely finished before you hang up.

10. Follow Up
You may want to follow up with angry and irate customers. Even though you have defused the situation, solved the problem, and provided good customer service, you might consider making a follow-up call to these customers. You want them to remember their positive contacts with your help desk or support center, and a follow-up call can help achieve that.

11. Finally, take care of yourself
This is an extremely important step. Handling angry and irate customers can be very stressful, and you need to be sure you have a calm, positive attitude before taking your next call or handling your next ticket. This may mean taking a few minutes away from your desk for a quick break. Just be sure to take care of yourself, so you can provide solutions and service to your next customer.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post...be sure to check my other posts as well...maybe you'll find something as helpful as this post.

Social Media: Building Your Brand

2011-07-13T10:17:00.000-07:00

Social Media, Building Your Brand - Doing It the Right Way
Just imagine for a moment, thousands of folks all over the world commending your business and your offerings and recommending you to everyone around them - their friends, connections, followers as well as fans. This can be a dream come true, if only you can invest time to connect with consumers online and communicate with them.

Using Social Media to Build Your Brand
Every business needs to operate on social media platform; so hurry to create as many social media accounts as you can - for your business. The top social media platforms are Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. The important information you must not forget to include in your profile on these social networks are your company's logo, your real image, the name of your business as well as the tag line, your business info such as its mission statement and year established. Don't forget to also include your blog or website link.

As soon as you get your profile completed on the social platforms, the next step is to let others be aware of your presence on those platforms and invite them to connect with you. Various ways you can achieve this include: placing the link on your social media profiles, on your marketing tools such as your business card, newsletter, blog/website. This way you start growing your list of followers, fans or connections.

Successful Brand Building Involves Effective Communication
Effective communication also means doing things the right way while on social media platform. For instance, do not reflect your personal life when posting status messages; also, avoid spamming. Thus, it would only be sensible and rewarding to post only valuable information. Doing otherwise would only work to dent your brand.

What status messages would be more appropriate?
•Tips that are related to your offerings or business niche.
•URLs to informative articles that you've written about your offerings; also, you can include links to valuable articles and news that others have written.
•Giveaways and Special Offers; occasionally, you can offer exclusive discount to followers or give something away for free. It is a great idea to accompany the freebies or discounts with a contest.
•In a situation where your product has worked for your customer, obtain permission from such a customer to share the testimony with your followers, fans or connections at social media platforms. Don't forget to spell out the product that the customer purchased, and the specific benefit derived from the use of the product.
•Event publicity; it is also great to create awareness of your webinars, workshops, speaking events and others, whether online or conventional.

Keep on building your brand by replying to people's comment on your status. If the comment is in the form of a complaint, do not respond harshly, handle it tactfully in order to win back the concerned user