Image via Wikipedia Whether we are in a manufacturing, retail or service industry, we need to follow up our clients or customers to make sure they are happy. This is nothing new. Traditional sales people have always been taught this and been given responsibility for client accounts. Often the following up involved regular visits to…
Monthly Archives: January 2011
Uncomfortable market positioning
I believe we in business all need to know where our place is in the market, and indeed to work at our positioning.
Southern Comfort is what I’m selling
Image via Wikipedia We are constantly assailed in the TV ad breaks by supermarkets essentially arguing and bickering with each other. “We are the cheapest on 500 products”, “we have these special deals on essential products”, “we will beat any other supermarket’s price” and so on. It’s hard to know what to make of this….
Verbal contracts and honour
Image via Wikipedia In terms of gathering in new clients, I cannot call myself a hard-nosed salesman, but I do sell on the value of my business offerings. Generally my approach is soft-selling, letting the prospect lead herself to make the decision. I generally think of my “close” rate at better than 90%, but of…
Measuring web influence?
Image via Wikipedia When some people talk about their personal relationships, we want to cry out “Too much information” but when on-line that’s what we get. It is so difficult to filter out the noise. We are constantly being urged by various web pundits and bloggers to follow certain paths. Many of these opinions may…
How can we hang on to a dream?
To have dreams in the sense of hopes and plans is something we all have and especially in business. We have objectives and targets and aspirations as to where we want to be in a year’s time, or five years or ten years.
Don’t make promises that you can’t keep
We must be careful not to over-promise. We all want to do our best but sometimes time scales cannot be met.
Professional arrogance
Having recently been on the wrong end of a less-than-helpful experience dealing with a professional in another field, it made me think about the traps we can all fall into when dealing with our clients and customers. Keeping our eyes on the ball We all have our particular areas of expertise. We have worked hard…
Time wasting and fog
Image via Wikipedia I believe we should always be at least fine-tuning our business models and especially our marketing of course. Whether the New Year is the time for a good clear-out or the business should have a good spring-clean it is necessary sometimes to think about what we are doing and especially what works…
Guarding our precious reputations
When we speak in a public arena we must guard our words carefully. We must be careful what we say to our fellow networkers. We must be careful what we say to our colleagues. We must be careful what we say on-line.
Monthly Archives: January 2011
Are you a follower? I am!
Image via Wikipedia Whether we are in a manufacturing, retail or service industry, we need to follow up our clients or customers to make sure they are happy. This is nothing new. Traditional sales people have always been taught this and been given responsibility for client accounts. Often the following up involved regular visits to…
Uncomfortable market positioning
I believe we in business all need to know where our place is in the market, and indeed to work at our positioning.
Southern Comfort is what I’m selling
Image via Wikipedia We are constantly assailed in the TV ad breaks by supermarkets essentially arguing and bickering with each other. “We are the cheapest on 500 products”, “we have these special deals on essential products”, “we will beat any other supermarket’s price” and so on. It’s hard to know what to make of this….
Verbal contracts and honour
Image via Wikipedia In terms of gathering in new clients, I cannot call myself a hard-nosed salesman, but I do sell on the value of my business offerings. Generally my approach is soft-selling, letting the prospect lead herself to make the decision. I generally think of my “close” rate at better than 90%, but of…
Measuring web influence?
Image via Wikipedia When some people talk about their personal relationships, we want to cry out “Too much information” but when on-line that’s what we get. It is so difficult to filter out the noise. We are constantly being urged by various web pundits and bloggers to follow certain paths. Many of these opinions may…
How can we hang on to a dream?
To have dreams in the sense of hopes and plans is something we all have and especially in business. We have objectives and targets and aspirations as to where we want to be in a year’s time, or five years or ten years.
Don’t make promises that you can’t keep
We must be careful not to over-promise. We all want to do our best but sometimes time scales cannot be met.
Professional arrogance
Having recently been on the wrong end of a less-than-helpful experience dealing with a professional in another field, it made me think about the traps we can all fall into when dealing with our clients and customers. Keeping our eyes on the ball We all have our particular areas of expertise. We have worked hard…
Time wasting and fog
Image via Wikipedia I believe we should always be at least fine-tuning our business models and especially our marketing of course. Whether the New Year is the time for a good clear-out or the business should have a good spring-clean it is necessary sometimes to think about what we are doing and especially what works…
Guarding our precious reputations
When we speak in a public arena we must guard our words carefully. We must be careful what we say to our fellow networkers. We must be careful what we say to our colleagues. We must be careful what we say on-line.
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Jon Stow Consulting Tax Blog
- HMRC targets property rentals
- Business tax and snake oil schemes
- Income tax issues with ownership of rental properties
- Capital tax issues with ownership of rental properties
- Urgent – Important changes to tax treatment of Furnished Holiday Lettings losses
- A brief tax guide to buying and selling family and owner-managed companies
- Furnished Holiday Lettings – the latest news
- Jon Stow’s Ezine Articles
- Why Customer Service is Important Even to Those Who Are Not Customers Yet
- Why Quality is Important - Lessons From BMW
- Why We Need to Take an Outside View in Business
- Avoid False Economies in Business - Seeing Value Over Cost
- Why a Business Plan is Not Just For the Bank
- Why We Need Need to Respect the Feelings of Our Prospects and Clients
- Responsibility and Leading From the Front
- Networking - The Folly of Hunting Rather Than Farming
- Networking is a Long Game
- How to Avoid Giving Free Advice
- Twitter is currently flying the fail whale
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- Jon Stow Consulting Tax Blog
- HMRC targets property rentals
- Business tax and snake oil schemes
- Income tax issues with ownership of rental properties
- Capital tax issues with ownership of rental properties
- Urgent – Important changes to tax treatment of Furnished Holiday Lettings losses
- A brief tax guide to buying and selling family and owner-managed companies
- Furnished Holiday Lettings – the latest news
- Jon Stow’s Ezine Articles
- Why Customer Service is Important Even to Those Who Are Not Customers Yet
- Why Quality is Important - Lessons From BMW
- Why We Need to Take an Outside View in Business
- Avoid False Economies in Business - Seeing Value Over Cost
- Why a Business Plan is Not Just For the Bank
- Why We Need Need to Respect the Feelings of Our Prospects and Clients
- Responsibility and Leading From the Front
- Networking - The Folly of Hunting Rather Than Farming
- Networking is a Long Game
- How to Avoid Giving Free Advice
-
- Twitter is currently flying the fail whale