How familiar are you with your clients?

Do you remember their birthdays? Their children's names? Where they last vacationed?

There is such a thing as being too familiar - you know the type; when a person comes up to you and invades your personal space. However, in business, putting aside the touchy feely stuff, being familiar by remembering important details about your clients, their habits, and perhaps the way they take their coffee, can ensure that your client feels comfortable sharing things with you that perhaps they would not do to a "stranger".

First meetings are always key to ascertaining what level of playing field you will be on in the relationship going forward. That means, if they share important information like the fact that they are married and have three children or like to ski, then ensure you capture this data and use it in the future. In ski season, perhaps you send them a new pair of gloves or a scarf.  

Yesterday, I met with a company in Atlanta that was headed by an Australian man. Immediately, we had something in common and were able to conduct the rest of the meeting with a sense of familiarity. Going through the same issues of settling in a new country, gives a sense that we are both on the same page. This makes the whole process so much easier because there is a sense that we both know where we are coming from thus helping Marketing Eye win this piece of business.

Food for thought!

That age old battle - the ego vs the heart - is more relevant now than ever to us marketeers and anyone directly involved in business development. It dictates how you speak to the people you need to be speaking to; how you capture their attention and it applies to every communication you put out there – online, direct mail, posters, brochures, social media.

The thing is though, with everyone communicating to everyone else - shouting, pitching and bargaining for a share of the market - it can be hard, defeating and infuriating for those of us running ethical business operations to compete with ‘get rich quick’ and ‘lose 7kg in 7 days’.

As business owners and managers in an ever evolving world, our jobs become more challenging every day – every hour – to cut through clutter and make consumers notice our message.

How many times do we find ourselves repeating what we say to co-workers to get a message across?  For most of us, this isn’t a reflection of how we’re gauged as professionals or individuals but 95% attributable to the ‘151 rule’.

They say a person needs to hear new information at least three times before it registers into his/her mind for immediate recollection.  This has been taught over and over again to us and you can test it by saying aloud a new name you come across three times consciously.

When you target a market with a specific message the same rule applies, all except your target isn’t one person and those three times won’t cut it.  It’s all about repetition.  You have no control over which people are listening at what time of the day - so the logical bet is to be accessible and available 24/7/365.

When I started out in business, things were fairly simple. I had an old computer at home, a telephone, a cell phone, internet and a database of thousands of people I had met in business over the years. My enthusiasm was for the world to see and I couldn't take the smile off my face, even when I worked past midnight or woke up early in the morning to finalize a proposal.

Not once did I think I would fail. It wasn't possible. My needs were simple and I just needed to make enough money to cover my salary. My biggest expenditure was my new BMW and the endless coffees that I drank down at the local coffee shop.

Starting a company was an easy decision. I didn't want to travel to Brisbane from the Gold Coast each day anymore which was more than an hours driving each way and I was ready for something new.

Insert question marks here…  Sometimes even the odd exclamation mark for frustration’s sake.

You spend all your time on your business, client relationships, communications.  You’re investing a lot in your marketing to spread awareness and build a reputation.  Where’s the conversion?  Where’s the new business?  Where’s the Twitter following?  Where are the likes on Facebook?

Know.  Like.  Trust.

No matter how big and experienced you may be, a lot of people don’t know about the X-Factor of communication - that recent Chanel ad featuring Brad Pitt is a great example (making it to the ‘Business Insider’s 10 Worst Ads of 2012’ list).  Before you sell anything, you need to get known, you need to be liked and you need to be trusted.

How?

"If the pilot of the plane runs down the aisle holding a parachute - what do you do? You panic. If the leadership falls apart, what does everyone else in the organization do? They panic." Charlie from Florida.

In a business, when the entrepreneur captaining the ship panics, it causes everyone in the entire organization to do exactly the same. How often as an entrepreneur have you panicked or become stressed out, only to find your entire organization crumble, mistakes being made and people living in fear for their job or ability to fulfil your requirements? Unless subordinates have complete trust in leadership, it is impossible for a leader to be truly effective.

This is a common problem, particularly given the abundance of Type A personalities at the helm of businesses and in leadership in organizations of all sizes.

A good leader possesses a number of key features like a positive attitude, determination, honesty, integrity, fairness, humility, courage, creativity, discipline, vision and emotional intelligence to name a few. Combined, these features underpin a good leader - yet the after-effects of an anxious leader, or one suffering from stress, can undermined all the hard work that any leader may have put in to their business.

One of the key issues pertaining to leadership is their ability to effectively manage this anxiety at all levels not just from a entrepreneur but also manage how all managerial react to stressful situations. Being able to emerge from a situation of crisis or challenge, with a clear and concise communications strategy that is executed in a calm manner.

While content management is 'all the rage' right now, smart marketers are not forgetting that while content may drive sales, visitors to your website or generate leads - it's sales process automation that keeps the sales pipeline full to the brim.

All small business owners are thinking about how they can attract more sales in the most cost-effective way possible without sacrificing the integrity of their brand.

This blog has been spurred by the many challenges in growing an international business leveraging  economies of scale and opportunities that are simply too good to pass by.

In the past week, I have been thinking alot about Linkedin. It has been the topic of many conversations and all for the right reasons. Daily I am asked about what social media mediums are best for b2b organizations and of course, there is no one answer because it depends entirely on a companies specific demographic, time constraints, strategy and of course, budget.

I wrote a blog on the value of Linkedin for small businesses and have spent quite a bit of time on this social media platform over past couple of days. It's interesting to see how people interact and reach out to each other. It is equally fascinating to see some people's comments that are purely self-serving or a bit over the top negative for no apparent reason.

Happy people are more successful, just ask Shawn Achor, the author of The Happiness Advantage.

"People who cultivate a positive mind-set perform better in the face of a challenge and in every area of your business, you will show improvement if your brain is positive" said Achor at a recent speech to 800 global entrepreneurs.

In fact, sales people who were happy outsell their less positive colleagues by more than 37 per cent and positive people in organisations are not only happier, they perform better and live longer, healthier lives.