Do you have testimonials on your website? Have you asked for recommendations on your LinkedIn page. Will you recommend me? These four words seem like they’d be easy to say, but many entrepreneurs find they can’t get them out. It’s not easy to ask someone to help you toot your own horn BUT you need to.
Chances are, none of your potential referral partners or those from whom you will ask for a recommendation will be someone you’re not sure about. Start asking for recommendations from people you know will be happy to do so. The more you ask, the easier it will get.
Will You Recommend Me?
Why do referrals matter? Because they show another potential client that you know your stuff, that you have clients and that they are happy with you. That carries a lot of weight.
How can you ask for a testimonial? Here are some ways:
Take a deep breath and ask. It’s that easy. If a potential referral partner or person you’re asking to recommend you asks for input on what you’re looking for, help them out. If you loved how I did XYZ would you mind writing a testimonial or recommendation for me?
Make it easy for them to do that. Remember, they may never have been asked before and might not know where to start, help them out.
When should you ask for one? Right after you’ve completed a job. Right after you’ve finished a project. Immediately.
Quid pro quo. Ask for a testimonial and return the favor. If you write one for a client, it may prompt them to say, “Hey, let me do that for you as well.”
Ask for testimonials. IfIf you’re not asking you won’t receive. When, and how, will you ask?
Do you find yourself scrolling through Facebook before your feet have even hit the floor in the morning? Do you check social media before you fall asleep at night? Does it wind you up? What is the emotional cost of social media? It may not be a question you’ve ever considered, but there are costs.
Social media is great if you want to find a recipe or check out the latest photos of a grandchild, but social media is also a place where people air their dirty laundry, shout at you if your beliefs don’t match up with theirs and is a great way for people to simply be obnoxious.
What Is The Emotional Cost Of Social Media?
Have you ever noticed any of these?
You feel emotionally drained once you stop looking at social media
Do you feel yourself getting tense when you start scrolling
Have you been involved in shouting matches with people who’s thoughts and values don’t align with yours?
Do you get angry or sad when you’re scrolling
Are most of your friends those you have on social media?
If you feel any, or all, of these, it is time for a social media break. I work with clients and tell them to do a social media detox. Do this by deciding that from 5 pm Friday until 8 am Monday or even a twenty-four hour boycott. You may even want to boycott the news for specific days and hours just to give your heart and emotions a break.
Social media is a great way to share information about your business and to perhaps connect with friends with whom you’ve lost touch, but if you find it is making you nervous, anxious or angry, it’s time for a detox. Have you ever stepped away from social media? How did it make you feel? Did you truly miss anything at all?
If you can find the time to blog for your business, it will pay off in the benefit of potentially finding new clients and showing your expertise. Also, if you have a website, it’s pretty easy to put a blog page up and write blog posts. You can also hire a content marketing professional to do your blog for you while you focus on your core competency. We have put together a list of 6 reasons to start a blog this year.
A blog is a great component in a your marketing toolkit.
6 Reasons To Start A Blog This year
Get found. With a blog you will have increased visibility with potential clients. When you make use of SEO keywords and key phrases in your blog posts, your customers will be able to find you in a Google search.
When you blog you can create your brand voice. The voice of your brand will show through in the style of blog posts you write.
Your blog is the best place to share your knowledge and show your expertise. When you blog you can share your industry trade knowledge. On a blog post you can answer FAQs from customers. A blog allows you to showcase new products and get feedback on current products.
You can build a community around your brand through your blog. Comment back to readers when they find your post and write to you.
It is a marketing tool that is inexpensive and will mainly cost you in time. However, you need to determine whether it’s the best use of your time to write blog posts or hire a content marketing individual to do it for you.
When you’ve written a blog post you can repurpose that content to share on your social media platforms. A blog post can be turned into an infographic or a video or even a podcast. The blog is the hub of all your other content.
Are you blogging? Have you blogged? Do you feel you need a better strategy? If so, contact Rex Richard today.
In a perfect world of business you could pick up the phone or attend a meeting and walk away with a folder full of closed sales. What is the life cycle of a sale? They all vary, but there are some standards and steps that many sales calls and prospecting meetings go through until they reach the “sign on the bottom line” portion of a meeting.
As a business owner you will wear many hats. Unless you have a sales force behind you, one of the hats you will don will be “sales person.” Every business owner is a salesperson, but the extent of the amount of selling you need to make will vary.
If you imagined you’d be only focusing on your core competency, you need to step back and realize in order to work our core competency — you need to have a client.
In business, you are always selling if you want to thrive.
What Is The Life Cycle Of A Sale?
Take heed of these steps and work them into your daily routine. Marketing will be part of your business tasks until you can hire a sales team — even in that case though you still may be the one who jumps in and closes the deal.
Always be prospecting. Meet people– in person or on line. Pick up the phone and call former colleagues. Ask for referrals. Where are your ideal clients gathering? Go there. Build relationships.
Relationship building is the most important component of any sales cycle.
Who is your ideal client and how does what you do or sell address their pain point? Keep that in focus when you’re talking with prospective clients.
Listen. Listen. Listen. Don’t fall over yourself giving a pitch.
Take notes. Wrap up the conversation in an email after the meeting is over.
Tell the prospect you will be in touch — then follow through.
Once the contract has been signed, the real work begins — give the client what he believes he is getting and more!
Rex Richard is a business coach who works with his clients from idea to fruition and beyond. Reach out to him if you’re struggling with any aspect of your business operations.
If you want to have the best day at the office — whether you’re working from home or in your office — a great day starts the night before. Stick with me because once I get done you will understand what I mean and you will want to incorporate some of these routines.
Coronavirus has changed the routines of many of us, but one thing that remains the same is the way in which you end a day will have a profound impact on how you greet the new day
A Great Day Starts The Night Before
Move and stretch. If you’ve been sitting at your desk all day, your muscles are cramped and crimped. Get out of the chair and do some stretches. Touch your toes. Do jumping jacks. Twist. Look for an online yoga class. Meditate. Do what you need to do to rid yourself of the stressors of the workday. When you leave the office — no matter if it’s the home office — you want to face your off-hours feeling refreshed.
Before you fall asleep, count your blessings. Better yet, write them down. Jot down something you’re grateful for at work, in your family and life and your health or whatever strikes your fancy. Even in your worst days, you can usually find something to be grateful for. Read your journal and look at what you were grateful for yesterday; this is a great way to start a day on a positive note.
Plan and prep meals. If you find yourself in front of the camera all day in Zoom calls it’s difficult to find a way to sneak in a meal. This is especially true if you find yourself with thirty minutes between calls — what will you eat? How can you get something quick and nutritious? Pre-planning helps. Don’t waste precious minutes trying to decide what to eat. Plan what you want to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner and prep what you can the day before. If you’re planning to have tuna salad for lunch, make it the night before, then the next day you can easily put it on some bread with some sprouts and viola — lunch without any muss or fuss!
Go to bed when you’re tired. Don’t fall asleep on the couch then drag yourself to bed at some late hour. When you’re tired that is bedtime. Take a bath. Do as much pre-bed prep before you go to bed. If you’re tired, then have to go outdoors to walk your dogs, then come in and brush your teeth and lay your clothes out… you will wake yourself back up then toss and turn. There is nothing better to help you face a day than a good night’s sleep.
Monsoons, hurricanes, fires and the coronavirus storm really kicked a lot of business owners in the bank account. How did your business pivot during the coronavirus shut down? Did you have to shutter your doors? Did you manage to make the changes necessary to retain clients and keep your bank account healthy enough to keep the lights on? If so, congratulations! We do have tips for weathering the coronavirus storm (whether it continues or if you’re faced with other “storms.)
You need to have plans in place — if you didn’t — to weather both literal and figurative storms — as 2020 showed us. Unprepared business owners may never recover. Working with Rex Richard will help you be a prepared business owner. Reach out to him and talk about coaching and business survival skills.
Weathering The Coronavirus Storm
Do you have a physical location out of which you have to operate? What did you do when you couldn’t access it — whether because of Mother Nature or the coronavirus? Did you have another location from which you could work? Did you have to send employees home to work? Did they have the equipment they needed and did you have the infrastructure to help them work productively?
Entrepreneurs need to find ways to deal with entrepreneurial intangibles. Getting knocked off your path because of things beyond your control. Are there items your business plan didn’t address because you just couldn’t have ever imagined them? Hello, again COVID-19.
Here are steps to implement right now to help maintain an even keel and thrive in the midst of a storm:
What is the business vision? Can you still see it even during a storm?
Does the mission for the business and the way in which you deliver your products and services clear?
How much input does your team have to keep your mission and vision tangible in everything they do?
What are the individual roles and responsibilities your team has in the midst of a crisis?
Are you standing up front and center in the midst of the storm? Are you doing all you can to inspire and hold yourself as accountable as you hold your team? You need to lead by example.
If you didn’t come out the other side of the 2020 storm with your bank balance in the black, you need to take steps now to help you weather the next storm and you just know there is one brewing.
