1. Check and test the technology first. There is a facility on Skype to test both the image and the sound.
2. Check that the background in view of the camera is consistent with the impression you want to create.
3. Avoid distractions – interruptions – both visual and noise, e.g, turn your phone off
4. Be on time and allow time for Skype to open and for you to find the contact (remember that you will need to invite the person to connect with you via Skype in advance of the meeting).
5. Remember that your appearance and first impressions are important – possibly even more in important when you are being seen on a computer screen than in person.
6. In the absence of a physical handshake, plan your verbal handshake – perhaps a welcoming smile and greeting.
7. Rapport and small talk are just as important on a video call and there is a danger that you may be tempted to get down to business too quickly without the physical side of a meeting.
8. Follow the normal stages of a meeting with a formal or informal agenda.
9. End the meeting with clear next steps and a positive verbal handshake.
10. Ensure that you have ended the call – you don’t want them to see or hear what happens afterwards!

While I don’t think this type of meeting can really replace a face-to-face meeting, it can certainly help to reduce travel costs, carbon footprints and help to connect you when your diary commitments mean that there would be a long delay in finding a time when you can both meet.

Have you got any tips to add?

1. You have to sow many seeds to grow a few plants
2. Plants need feeding and watering in order to flourish
3. Some new seeds need thinning out to create room for others to grow
4. Timing is everything – try and grow roses in winter or daffodils in summer and you won’t be successful
5. Vegetable seeds need to be sown regularly to achieve a constant harvest over several months
6. Different plants want to be treated differently
7. Seeds are sown and small plants planted weeks and months before reaching their peak
8. By gathering seeds or taking cuttings you can multiply the plants you grow
9. Create the right environment for the particular plants you want in your garden
10. Control weeds regularly to prevent them from taking over

Can you think of any other ways in which selling is like gardening? Do you need to improve your gardening skills? – let me know if I can help.

You have become a magnet drawing new clients and customers towards you. This is the nirvana of business development and doesn’t need to be just a fantasy.

I meet many business people who talk about referrers and referrals and when I ask them how many introductions they get from specific contacts the answer often is “very few” or “I had one once”. These are sometimes people that they have met once and sometimes people that they have known for many years.

There are several ingredients in the recipe for a successful referral relationship and one of these is the fears and benefits conversation.

Sometimes I meet with potential referrers who have a greater potential to refer business to me than I to them. By helping their contacts and clients I can help to enhance the relationship that my referrer has with his/her client and by helping them to grow they will become an even more valuable client for the referrer.

What goes through my mind though sometimes is this “What if they are expecting the same number of referrals back? I only rarely come across a potential client for them. What are they expecting in return?”

These are my fears about the referral relationship and if I hold on to them rather than expressing them, they will always get in the way of the relationship. If that is true for me, how might it be true for the other party too?

So you can see how it is important to have a discussion and to lay all your cards on the table. You can then develop a productive referral relationship based on mutual trust and honesty and you will attract business to each other.

In our house we like to take them down before then and usually before we start work again after New Year. This enhances the feeling of a fresh start for the year a bit like a mid-winter spring clean.

I always have mixed feelings when we pack up the fairy lights, tinsel and baubles because it means that the holiday season is over and at the same time I know that I would not appreciate the festivities if they were to last the whole year. Having cleared the house of all the glitter on Monday I looked around at the empty space and bare walls, just like the trees outside stripped of their leaves for the winter.

This is the time to take a good look because it only takes a few days before I get used to the house as it is again. I look at the lounge and notice the ornaments, the furniture, the paintings and photographs as if I am seeing them for the first time. I appreciate treasures that I have taken for granted and discard items that are tired or no longer seem to suit us or the house. This is the time when we often talk about decorating and other house projects for the year.

I wonder what the equivalent of taking down the decorations is for our lives and our businesses. What if we were to take away the embellishments, peel away the layers and take ourselves and our businesses back to the core?

On a personal level this has happened to me a couple of times in my life. Going ‘back to basics’ really makes you realise what is important.

In business I like to take a step back, remove the greenery and tinsel and study what structures remain.

• What is working well, what do I appreciate and what is really important to us and to our clients?
• What is it about how we work, what we do and what we offer that no longer suits us or our clients?

This will include business strategy, target market, products and services, communication systems and processes and how we spend our time and energy.

What are the Christmas decorations in your life and in your business and when is your Twelfth Night?

In our personal lives we are writing cards buying, wrapping and distributing presents, attending school performances and Christmas parties. We attempt to see a multitude of friends and family in our “we must catch up before Christmas” mode. And that is all before the big day itself.

Then along comes the snow or a bout of illness and we suddenly can’t do everything. So how do we choose what is really important? How much do we do because we have always done it or we feel we “ought to” rather than we “want to”? There is a danger that we slip into task focus rather than people focus.

Take a moment to think – what is really important to me? Then what is really, really important?

The same is often the case in business particularly if you are closing off one year and planning and budgeting for the next. With just a few days before the Christmas break, or until the start of the New Year if you are working during the Christmas break, what is really important?

By remembering what is really important you will be guided in how to prioritise what you are doing.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas doing and being what is really important to you.

I am talking here about social media for business. When I first dabbled in Ecademy, was invited to join Plaxo and then discovered LinkedIn I was dubious and curious at the same time. How could something like this be of value when it initially looks like another place to record my database of contacts and to communicate with them? I was already sending out a regular e-newsletter to keep in touch with my contacts so why did I need to communicate here too?

On hearing that LinkedIn was the preferred online network for businesses I ditched the others and began to build my LinkedIn network.

There are many people offering advice on how to use LinkedIn as a marketing tool, that is something that will attract new potential customers to you but what I am interested in is how to use it as a sales tool and, more specifically, as a networking tool.

For me the real potential in LinkedIn is how to tap into the networks of people I know to gain introductions – as we know a warm introduction is far better than a cold call. I am happy to provide my network to others too within the parameters of certain networking etiquette (more of this in a future blog).

Here are my top three tips for using LinkedIn as a sales and networking tool:

1. Firstly build your network of connections by inviting people you know, like and trust to connect with you.
2. Secondly as part of your preparation for a telephone conversation or meeting with one of your contacts have a look at their connections. You will then be able to identify any of their connections that you would like to meet and this can form part of your conversation.
3. Thirdly the most exciting for me is using the search facility (top right of the screen) to search for a specific name, a company, a job title or an industry sector. This will bring up a list of people and identify who is connected to someone else in your network or a member of a group that you belong to. Now you can ask for an introduction (again some best practice suggestions for this in a future blog).

So for me for the quality of conversation that I can now have about referrals and introductions, just like marmite, I love it rather than hate it. How about connecting with me at http://uk.linkedin.com/in/breathoffreshair?

These will appear to delight me again next year and the work that I have done in pruning and tidying now will ensure a great display next year.

For now I have been planting marigolds, salvia and asters which I have been nurturing from seed since March. I am also growing edible delights such as lettuce, strawberries and tomatoes.

On reviewing my handiwork I see the comparisons between this gardening activity and business growth and sales:

• Removing prospects from our pipeline Every so often we need to clear out potential clients (dead growth) that are not going anywhere to allow space for developing relationships with new potential clients.
• Managing client relationships We need to pay attention to existing clients so that they will continue to work with us either immediately or when a need arises.
• Regular sales activity We need to regularly bring in new potential clients to nurture just like the seeds that I have been sowing a few at a time since March.
• Sales activity when we are busy with clients We need to start developing and attracting new clients while we are still working with others (our garden is full) because it will take a while for them to grow into clients and by then we will have space for them.

Pay attention to all of these and your garden will be abundant all of the time. If you want some help in implementing these ideas contact me to see how we can help you.

Looking forward to an abundance of flowers

Successful networkers set clear objectives so decide:

• What do you want to achieve?
• What and who would make a good contact for you?
• What type of person would help you to achieve your objectives?
• Who do you know?
• What could you offer in return?

If you would like some help in planning your networking activity, then please contact me for an exploratory discussion….

Contact – 01189690783 and j.harris@auricresults.co.uk

Now I am not necessarily suggesting you contact any clients or customers who left because they were unhappy with your service but there may have been some who lapsed for other reasons. Potential clients may not have become clients for a variety of reasons such as they decided not to go ahead with the project, they chose another supplier, your product or service was not quite the right match for them, they did not have the budget or the time was just not right.

By contacting these businesses or individuals you will be surprised at how receptive they are and if they are not in need of your services right now they may be able to introduce you to someone who is.

Here is your four-step action plan:

1. Write a list of your lapsed clients and prospects from the last 3 – 5 years
2. Do a little research – your records, their website, look them up on LinkedIn, etc.
3. Call them (preferably), email them or write to them
4. Rebuild rapport and find out how their circumstances and needs have changed

Good luck and let me know how you get on. If you need a bit of a helping hand, advice or training please just ask.

Here are the key messages that came out of the conversation on my table:

• As businesses we need to spend our money and time wisely to analyse what we are doing and to focus our actions.
• Maximise the potential in your existing database of customers and cross-sell and up-sell to those.
• A mix of sales and marketing activities is important with consistency and continuity.
• In organisations where there are marketing and sales functions there needs to be a clear hand over from marketing to sales.
• The customer is always right when it comes to providing them with service and courtesy.
• The customer is not always right when it comes to knowing what they need. We have a responsibility to help them to buy what they need rather than what they want.
• Consultative selling is important – communicating, questioning, listening and learning about them and their business.

What are you doing to make the most of the customers and clients you already have, to value them and to grow them?