7 gems 💎 re staying in touch using the phone

The golden rule of maintaining your existing clients and alliance partners  and turning them into advocates is by keeping in constant contact with them! 

What better way to do this than “calling them” and continually adding value to them says Odile Faludi - customer conversation starter specialist.

Ivan Misner - the guru of networking says that the value of your business is based on the strength of your network, and the golden rule of networking is staying in touch with your clients. 

Here are seven ways for staying in touch with your clients and strengthening your business relationships:

1. Plan your call - what’s your BAMFAM

Each phone call becomes an opportunity to strengthen the relationship and to enhance your credibility.

BAMFAM (book a meeting from a meeting) 

2. Schedule your phone calls - predictably. 

Stay in constant contact with your clients. Train them to expect to hear from you at certain times. 

If you usually contact certain customers during the first week of every quarter, they will come to expect it and will budget time for you.

3. One phone call leads to the next phone call.

Before concluding your telephone conversation, schedule the date of your next phone call. With this commitment, you are more likely to follow through. This practice establishes a chain of contacts, with each phone call leading to the next.

4. Assume responsibility for your phone calls.

“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” - Allen Pathmarajah 

Take the initiative and stay in touch with your customers. When clients do not feel cared for, they are more likely to leave. 

You are more likely to head off potential problems by showing that you care - stay in touch with them by picking up the telephone and calling them these days

5. Think of someone you can refer them to and Refer them On 

An easy effective  way to add value to your client is to Refer them on using Referron! Referron tracks and measures your referrals and is free to use! 

6. Invite them to your Forum 

One way of making sure to stay in contact with your customers is to invite them to join your forum as your guest - This is a great way to introduce your customers to other people that you know like and trust.

7. Make sure you stay in touch with your clients and alliance partners 

You will have a stronger business tomorrow by maintaining  a powerful personal network by telephoning your clients and alliance leaders partners. 

6 of my Tips for using Linked In as a lead source

Linkedin integral to the process - I have developed a following of over 30k linked 1st contacts - which has opened up a great source of ideal prospects for my business .

Get on LinkedIn and focus your opportunities there 

1. Complete your profile - it’s the window to your business - make it compelling - add value to your ideal customer- share stuff about you - share your story - who you are, what you do  and how you can help them , what’s drives you - it’s the first part of a journey 
2. Connect with everyone - this is your lead base - use it as a vessel to source ideal targets - the more you connex with interesting g people - people you don’t know - the more opportunities you are going to have 
3. Endorse and recommend others - the best way to receive and endorse is to give endorsements and recommendations . Go through close friends and colleagues - endorse and recommend them - leave messages on their profile so other people can see how good they are . 
4. Create your own targeted LinkedIn group - it’s effectively a bbg forum - I use Whatsapp - sports industry network - sports industry execs from around the world - Expands influence - enables me To send message to all members 
5. Optimise you’re profile for search rankings - 
6. Create content - optimise - tips and tricks . Make sure you have key words in your profile - People searching experts consultants thought leaders freelancers

https://bbg2020.blogspot.com/2020/05/some-best-practices-for-staying-on.html

Some best practices for staying on the LinkedIn newsfeed

Although my friend Rana doesn’t profess to be a LinkedIn guru - she really is!! 

Her sweet spot is to help non sales people sell - and she does it really well! 

Here are her tips on how to have your article stay in the newsfeed .......

 It’s not about the amount of people that see you or your content, but the amount of right people.

However, for the right people to see your content, (your targeted 1st level connections ) THE POST NEEDS TO STAY IN THE FEED 

So - be targeted - the more targeted you are, the more likely your target market will see your content if it does well in the first hour of posting.

Tip 1 

Be very clear who your Target Market is 

What you need to do 

If you can get at least 5 to 10 likes within the first hour, you may stay in the feed of your 1st level connections to see it for at least 24 hours or longer.

The aim is not about going viral, but more about how to stay in the feed, and convert the attention into business through taking the attention off-line - and using the attention to build social proof.

Tip 2

So your post needs to be distributed asap as soon as you post. 

4 ways to distribute

1. BBG groups or Closed networks 
2. #Tagspecificpeopleinthecomment
3. Sending the link to specific individuals through PM or InMail and asking them to support
4. Do an email campaign - sharing the feed !! 

Some people do all of the above.

Tip 3

Stay consistent your will get more reach.

Post in the  am between 8 am to 10 am and in the PM anywhere between 6 pm and 10 pm

Tip 4 

Types of Posts that do well

Here are some examples of the type of posts that do well.

• Long form text that is spaced out (with a few hashtags) 

• Native video. 60 to 90 seconds. Although if you must have a longer video, under 4 minutes is best. 

• A photo with some text 

NATIVE posts do best

Tip 5

What the LinkedIn algorithm does not like and posts that do not do well

• Sharing other people’s content - even if it’s from LinkedIn - (I do this :( ) but I do make a comment that expresses your point of view.  
• External links like YouTube, websites etc - 

Tip 6 

Get your Profile and Content Creation Right 

Your profile is your shop front - make it awesome, authentic and relevant 

Here is a great article by Karen Tisdell (understanding the LinkedIn algorithm) if you would like to learn more about how to create a great profile and LinkedIn content creation.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-loved-linkedin-algorithm-karen-tisdell

Why you shouldn’t look at your phone first thing on the morning and what to do instead

River dance - food for the Soul

Tony Surtees - Digital Marketing Guru - will share with us insights on whatMarketing will look like in the future ?

How do you get the right offer to right audience at right time - to take advantage of millions of small highly targeted markets?

How do you target specific markets of mass behaviour? If you can detect a trend using big data - how can you take advantage of this information and be ahead of your competition? 

The last decade has seen a massive empowerment of consumer - who has abundance of choice - there is a lot of noise - how do you make yourself heard above that noise?

A value proposition is key - how do you  make it resonate with your audience?  - How do you  make it emotionally appealing?

We look forward to hearing Tony’s insights at our innovation forum on the Thursday 21 May! 

 

Accept the situation, Adjust your response and Achieve success.

COVID-19 - LEADING TO TRANSFORM YOUR COMPANY

Great letter sent by my mentor and Bangalore a Singapore Alliance partner Mr Allen PathmArajah 

 

We have faced and successfully overcome many crises in our business and lives.  However, this is the worst crisis which will affect many of us.

 

As the leader, you must be Agile, Flexible person who can anticipate change and respond quickly.  You have to Accept the situation, Adjust your response and Achieve success.

 

I suggest you and your senior team reflect on your leadership experiences.  This will help you to develop your new leadership journey.  You should take immediate action with regard to the following:

 

Your Cash           -   Liquidity is the key for sustaining the success of your business.  Forecast your cashflow on a weekly basis for 1-3 months.  If the projection is negative, take immediate action to access funds through your bank or other institutions which have access to Government funding.  (Please contact us if you need help)

 

Your Staff            -   Your managers should communicate with your staff on a regular basis.  Keep them informed on what they should know.  This will help them to understand their role in being part of the solution.

 

Your Customers  -   With a few exceptions, sales is likely to decline.  Communicate regularly with them to identify any needs or services they require and respond to them quickly.

With my best wishes

 

Allen Pathmarajah

Executive Chairman