New Ways to Influence Your Audiences
Today’s newsletter issue focuses on using effective presentation design and persuasive story-telling to communicate compelling and convincing ideas to your colleagues, clients, customers, employers, personnel, and students.
Why is this topic important?
Do you need to inform your audience of the merits of a proposal, develop an influential case for a new training program or project extension, or provide facts and data that other people will need to interpret and act on?
If so, at stake are the project ideas and pipe dreams that may be incubating in your think tank, or decisions that need attention and concurrence from others.
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Powerful Ways to Resolve Customer Angst
Awhile back, I devoted a newsletter article to using suggestion boxes to increase customer satisfaction.
It subsequently generated an unexpected and welcome outcome: A personal note from Jeff Whitton, founder of a now-successful online service that had been much needed for a long time: SuggestionBox.com.
Since boosting customer satisfaction won’t ever go out of style, I’m shining a spotlight on SuggestionBox.com again in today’s issue, along with updated findings on how to use the power of apologies to help resolve major customer complaints.
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Build Your Expert Status — Online or Offline
Today’s social media-driven world is ablaze with strategies for helping people develop some sort of expert status in a domain of their choosing. Why is having “expert status” so important?
It’s because many people are losing their ability to focus their attention for any length of time. This is due in part to the explosion of marketing and advertising that seem to be constantly disrupting everyone’s concentration today. It’s also because there is far too much information for any one person to aggregate, absorb, and analyze.
We all frequently find ourselves scurrying for authoritative advice on what to think, do, or buy. We have so little time to do this for ourselves that we need to develop shortcuts. One such shortcut involves turning to know-it-all experts, known as “mavens,” who can direct our scarce attention and guide us along. That’s why mavens are so important — they merit our attention because they can save us time and energy.
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Imagine That Nothing Stands in Your Way…
If asked about their greatest obstacle to business or professional success, many people would probably say “funding.” Are you one of them?
Many folks refrain from contemplating ambitious possibilities because they can’t overcome their initial hurdle. This hurdle entails giving themselves permission to create a vision when they perceive financial challenges in their path.
Well, imagine what would happen if you had unlimited resources? What, if anything, would you do differently?
For a powerful mid-year exercise, take a few moments, hours, days, or weeks to consider what you could do if “money were no object.” Picture all of your hindrances removed, and let your imagination soar. What do you experience?
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The Delicate Art of Budget Discussions
Returning from a much-needed two-month break (my very first break in five years!), it’s time to look at an important issue that affects many of our freelance colleagues.
Today we’re exploring the potential funding challenges that independent contractors or consultants face when hired to create custom solutions, such as Web sites, software, videos, documentation, and training.
If you provide these kinds of services to your clients, you’ve probably noticed that one delicate dilemma is how to broach the subject of funding and budgets.
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Where Are Your Weeds Growing?
In recent months, I’ve been reflecting on setting goals and strategies for overcoming obstacles in our business projects. That’s all well and good for scenarios in which we can exert a fair amount of control over our circumstances. But what if we’re talking about a situation that is out of our hands? Sometimes we’re not the ones in charge, or if we are, we may have lost track of just how complicated a situation has become.
In these cases, we can easily lose sight of frustrating problems that are stopping us, our teams, or the entire organization from getting anything done. We might become so accustomed to our impediments that we take the situation for granted!
Only by systematically pulling the weeds out of our withering gardens — by getting rid of the hassles — can we set the conditions that will allow our positive intentions to flower.
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Are You Picking the Low-Hanging Fruit?
I’m always captivated by the way the seasons suggest various inspirations to ponder in the coming weeks and months. So, what exactly does the transition to spring suggest to me?
Our pear trees are in early bloom, and that evokes images of harvesting the fruit in the fall. When I think of gathering pears, it reminds me of why we should pick low-hanging fruit first. That’s because they’re the easiest to reach and give the greatest satisfaction for the least investment of time and energy.
In contrast, going for the topmost fruit initially is more complicated, takes far more effort, and also means competing with the birds!
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Start off This Year’s Meetings on the Right Foot
What are the consequences of holding ineffective meetings? Meetings held for the wrong reasons, that don’t involve the right participants, or that don’t use a disciplined meeting process can waste the time, resources, and funding of the business.
Not only do they have the potential to make the participants feel perpetually frustrated and totally unproductive, they’re also a financial drain. Just in the area of cost, have you ever tried to calculate the expense of even a single unproductive meeting?
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Coming Full Circle
Early in the year is the perfect time to reflect on everything that we have achieved in previous months, as well as what we aim to do in the days ahead.
It’s also a great chance to ask ourselves, “Have I learned from my creative experiences in the prior year? Are there any discoveries I should review to better predict my results for 2010? What would help me identify a more powerful plan of action?”
We can make an inspired effort to address these issues, even if it uses time and energy that we’d rather spend on something else. We will thereby position ourselves to launch future projects with greater clarity and far fewer concerns or doubts.
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It’s Time to Drill into the Details!
This week offered a defining moment in some challenging — even exasperating — experiences with a couple of business institutions with whom I have been dealing in recent months.
Interestingly enough, the one organization that produced the greatest frustration chose today to make a courtesy call. A nice, personable young man who seemingly wanted to “take my temperature” — in all likelihood to test my readiness for doing more business with the company — left the door wide open for a litany of polite but piercingly pointed comments.
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