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The Next #SOBCon Chat Is March 17th – Join Us!

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Hi all, join Heidi Thorne (@heidithorne) and her co-moderator Leslie Joy (@leslieajoy) for the next edition of the #SOBCon Twitter chat  on March 17th, at 1PM EST /Noon CST/11 AM MST/10AM PST.

All you need to do is follow the “#sobcon” hashtag.

The Topic for this month is “When Consultants Need Consultants”

SOBCon: Hey Heidi, why this topic?
Heidi: “Most of us in the #Sobcon community are consultants of some sort or another. We give advice for a living. Sometimes, though, we get stuck professionally. And sometimes it’s difficult for us to recognize when we, ourselves, need a consultant. We’re too close to our own situation. We slip into the proverbial “plumber with the leaky faucet” scenario. Or we become the personification of insanity by doing the same old thing and expecting different results. We’ll discuss hiring professionals to jumpstart your business back to where it needs to be or even to the next level.”

Here are the questions that Heidi and Leslie will be addressing during the chat:
  1. Have you ever hired a consultant or coach for your business? For what purpose?
  2. What triggered you to seek out a consultant for your business?
  3. How did you determine what consultant was right for you or your situation?
  4. Did you gain the results you wanted from a consultant? Any surprises?
  5. Any tips for finding a good consultant?

See you at the Twitter #SOBCon chat on March 17th, at 1PM EST!

The Riskiest Question We Ask When Introducing Our Business and a Much Better Approach

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People Ask It All of the Time

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We meet on Twitter or on my blog. Perhaps you came up to talk after I spoke at a conference or a mutual friend said that we should meet and talk. We have a lot in common and a lot of expertise that supports each other. We both think the other is smart. So we decide to sit down to talk more.

Things are going great. So we begin to introduce ourselves and our businesses to each other.

I ask about what you’re doing. You tell me more. We’re getting somewhere that looks like we could find a way to build something together that might move our businesses forward. Then one of us asks what appears to be a simple question that people ask often and the other one starts to buy out.

The question — one that people ask all of the time — might surprise you because on the surface it sounds smart, other-centered, and on target. But, it’s not because of how it shifts the burden of thinking and how it changes my perception of who the person who asks it.

The question?

How can I help you?

What’s wrong with that?

When we ask How can I help you? here’s what happens. We throw the burden of thinking (and the evaluation of our fit) to the other person. The person we’re talking to has to stop to consider within their entire realm of possible jobs, tasks, and future dreams,…

  • where he or she might be able to use some help.
  • who we are, what our skills are, how they might fit the culture and brand of what he or she has planned.
  • whether he or she might be able to manage putting those two together in the context of what’s already going on.

That’s a huge amount of thinking, considering, and evaluating to answer even to someone we know really well. The risk is huge that the answer will be wrong — that the person answering will misjudge our skills (too high, too low) or not think of the perfect fit for what we have to offer. Inside that situation is also the risk that the person will be uncomfortable at being unable to give a quick answer and the chance that he or she will wonder why we already don’t know.

Why take those risks at all?

A Much Better Approach

For almost a year now, I’ve reserved the How can I help? solely for situations in which people are outlining specific problems that fall into my area of expertise. And even then I try to avoid it, reaching instead for Would it help your situation if I offered a way to … ? I find that opens the discussion to more concrete exploration of where my skills fit the person’s business goals.

And when it’s a conversation that’s with a new business acquaintance rather than leading with How can I help? which is really about me. I turn the conversation to them by asking

What are your goals for the next two quarters? What are you hoping to achieve to move your business forward?

Then I listen and as I listen I ask more questions about vision of those positive outcomes.

So, would that look like a new product? a growth in awareness? a larger community? a more functional website?

And I listen more until I can clearly see their goal, their vision. Then I can also see how I might use my skills to help them achieve it, how we might align our goals to build something together that benefits us both.

A leader is someone who wants to build something he or she can’t build alone.

Do you see how a new approach to introducing your business can help your business and their business grow?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Customer Service or torture?

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by Patty Azzarello

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Be careful what you measure…

BMW serves as a good example of a company that measures service vs. providing it.   But many companies fall into this trap.  Does yours?

Here is an example of what I mean:

My last car service:

  • I felt bullied by the sales and service people when they told me, as they do each time, that I “have to give them a 5 on everything” when the survey people call.
  • That is not service for me.  It’s gaming the measures for them, (and torturing me).
  • In my last car service, they failed to reset some system.  A warning light came on, and I was forced to go back.  It really screwed up my day.
  • When they realized it was their fault, I got only a cursory, “sorry about that”.
  • After telling them, “you know, when the survey people call, I am not going to give you a 5 this time” and giving them several opportunities to make it better – “Is there something you would like to do for me to improve my experience”? – there was no response.
  • I then gave the low scores on the phone survey – by the way, the survey taker/process is designed only to ask the questions, not to offer any service when someone is upset.
  • Later I got a call from my service guy. It was clear he was forced to call me to follow up on his low score. But the call was about him giving me a hard time because I got him in trouble. (more torture for me)
  • As much fun as that was for me, I decided to give them another opportunity.  I said to him – “actually I was going to call you because I need two other [small things], can you help me?”
  • Now here was a chance to provide actual service, when no one was watching or measuring.  He assured me he would call me back later that afternoon to let me know if he had the part so I could stop by on my way home.
  • I never heard from him again.

Do your measures and service processes serve your customers or torture them?
Example:

Do you measure the speed of closing problems?

This is a very typical measure.  But it’s important to understand that this measure can cause you to ignore customer problems, because your service staff is motivated to close out problems quickly, vs. take the time to actually fix them, because spending that time would result in a poor measured result.

So you end up with a backlog of problems that could have been fixed, unhappy customers, and sparkling measures for speed of closing problem reports.

Instead try:

  • Measuring the number of problems whose root cause has been resolved.
  • Or measure the number of customers who report their problem has been solved to their satisfaction.
  • Or look for customers who have multiple open issues, or issues open for long time periods and just call them!

Question:

Is your service staff trained in following service processes or in providing service?

In my example above, at every step, people were correctly following a process, resulting in my getting more and more tortured.

Customer service people who are trained in processes often delight in not-helping customers when they confident they are correctly following the process.

This is particularly infuriating to customers who want to be made to feel like someone at your company cares about the suffering you are inflicting.

Instead try:

  • Training people on the right triggers to throw out the process
  • Then have them ask “What do you think we should do to make this better for you?”
  • And give them the ability to act.

Another idea:

Involve your customer service people in creating great service.

In the BMW example I would have each dealership manage a contest for their service team to get together and come up with three new ideas for how to provide outstanding service.  You could pay $1000 each for the best 10 ideas.

Instead of putting $10k into a survey, where you have sales and service people training the customers to give the right answers, which are of no real use to you anyway, you could be motivating Actual Service!!

The existence of the contest alone would inspire thinking about service, and you get much better ideas when you involve the people who actually do the work in coming up with the best way to improve it.

Getting it Right

Look at what you measure and then look at the dark side of it.?If you were going to game the measures to come out looking good what would you do??What non-intended result would occur?  Because it will…

People like to make customers happy.  Let them.

At the very least, if you are not serious about providing actual service, don’t torture your customers with surveys and processes that only annoy them, and give you a false sense of your greatness.

What do you think?

How have you seen customers get service really right or really wrong? Share your stories in the comment box below!

—–
Patty Azzarello is an executive, author, speaker and CEO-advior. She works with executives where leadership and business challenges meet. Patty has held leadership roles in General Management, Marketing, Software Product Development and Sales, and has been successful in running large and small businesses. She writes at Patty Azzarello’s Business Leadership Blog. You’ll find her on Twitter as @PattyAzzarello

Negotiations: 3 Steps to a “YES” and a Great Relationship

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A Guest Post by
Zelko Kecman

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We’ve all heard this when buying a car – “let me check with the manager and see what I can do for you”. The interesting thing for me is this also happens a lot in business and almost the same type of conversations. Someone almost always has to go away and ask for approval either on price or a clause in a contract.

Here are some simple principles that have worked for me over the years that will get you to a mutual Yes and more importantly won’t harm your relationship for future business. Lastly this is a very high level view as what I’ve outlined is generic for both business or personal. There are some additional considerations when dealing with very large organizations and large values.

I see negotiations in 3 phases, Preparation, Discussions and Done Deal. The more time you spend on step 1, the less time you’ll spend in 2 and you will be more likely to get to a good deal.

1) Preparation (aka Do your homework)

– #1 item is listing specifically what is most important to you. What is absolutely not negotiable and what is and how far. WRITE it down and be specific with the details.
– Leverage your network of friends and colleagues (that’s what Facebook and LinkedIn are for)
– Google, Bing, your own internal databases: look for other similar cases, going prices, reviews, what are you worth, how the company is doing, etc
– What role does the person you are going to be talk with have? Think of this, someone in procurement is measured by how much they get from the other side financially in most cases. Also is it month/qtr/year end?

2) Discussions

First of all, before you even get into the hard discussions and start throwing contracts or wants around, try to understand who you are dealing with. If you meet someone who is good at what they do, it almost always starts with seemingly harmless questions and discussion. The reason for this is to get a better sense on who that person is or what is important to them. Also, have faith the other person is being honest, but do not trust. I know this sounds harsh, but being naive will not serve you well.

Here’s a simple checklist during the discussions:
– Keep a cool head all the time, be friendly and keep emotion out of it.
– Be open to heated debate. Just don’t make it personal, keep it factual.
– For each item being discussed, clarify your intent. I can’t stress this one enough. Especially in legal terms, legal is not as black and white as people believe.
– Take notes on actions and decisions and owners of each
– Don’t commit to something unless you are 100% sure. Take it away to verify. Again, with the car, “so if I were to drop $xxx off you would buy the car?” – you’re response should be “let’s take a look at the whole deal and decide then”
– At the end review all the actions and decisions

At this point, you’re either getting closure on the deal or steps 1 and 2 will need to be done a few more times as people take away action items or revisions. Remember this is negotiations and you should be able to give on items (look at your list you wrote down in #1 and push on others you want. Also, it is very important to know that if you truly have 1 item left that there is no mutually agreeable way forward you should be able to step away from the situation and wish the other person well. If you can not you better be ready to give on that item then.

3) Done Deal

Great job, both you and the other person have come to an agreement. Neither side should walk away from the situation feeling like they got taken advantage of, if it does happen, it’s almost guaranteed you’ll never to business again. Close the conversation like it started with a friendly conversation and a follow up once you’ve completed the transaction. You never know when you will be back at the table and having a supporter of you will be important.

Lastly, getting to a point where you are comfortable with negotiations is not something you get from a course or book alone. It really is something that you need to do regularly. It can be with simple negotiations with your kids, spouse, stores, banks, anyone, you just have to be conscious that you are practicing your skills or in participating with others who are seasoned at it.

There are hundreds of resources out there for learning negotiations, however one of the best that I have seen as a starting point is “Getting To Yes” .

I love debate, discussion and comments so please feel free to let me know what you think.

—–
This blog post began as a Twitter conversation with Zelko Kecman – @zelkoCA – You can find out more about him through his linked in profile.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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The January SOBCon Report: Chats, Webinars, Soda Pop Parties, and Chicago Beckons

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Hi all!  Starbucker here, filling you in on all the SOBCon goings-on.

The Main Event

First,  SOBCon Chicago on April 29 – May 1 is rapidly approaching – our lineup and program is stellar, with the theme of “Building the New Leadership and Loyalty Business”.   Liz and I love this program so much that we decided to lead two of the 6 “Model” sessions ourselves, so we’re really looking forward to that.  Ticket sales are well ahead of past years (thank you!),  so if you are thinking about coming, make your plans now – remember, last year sold out.

(Pssst…Here’s a secret for you – sign up for our newsletter and you’ll get a ticket discount code)

Also, we recently announced our host hotel and event partner, Hotel 71.   We have rooms available at the great price of $169, so get them while they last.

The FREE SOBCon Preview Webinar

On February 1oth, from Noon to 1PM EST, our great friend Chris Garrett will once again be hosting “The SOBCon Preview Webinar“.  There, you’ll meet 4 of the speakers that will be at SOBCon Chicago (Me, Liz Strauss, Michael Port, and Derek Halpern), get previews of their presentations, hear more about this year’s event, and get a chance to ask a few questions.  We’ll also have a couple of surprises for you.  If it’s anything like last year’s Webinar, it should be an interesting, informative, and entertaining hour.   This Webinar is FREE, but the only way to get the dial-in code is to be on our Newsletter list – so if you are not signed up, do it now!  We’ll be releasing the code a few days before the event.

The 2nd Annual SOBCon SXSW Party (and a Cool Road Trip)

On March 13th, Liz and I will be hosting our 2nd annual SXSW party in Austin, Texas, at the Key Bar on 6th Street  This year we’re pleased to announce a co-sponsor, Jones Soda Co.  They will have plenty of their product at the event, and, as was the case last year, there will be some fun activities to go along with the great conversations and networking.   If you are going to be at SXSW and are interested in attending,  sign up for our Newsletter and drop us a note at sobevents@gmail.com, because this is an invitation-only party, and you need to be a Newsletter subscriber to get one.

Our friends at Jones have a cool opportunity surrounding SXSW that we’d like to share – they are looking for a blogger to accompany them on a RV “road” trip from Phoenix to Austin
Here’s what they are covering:
– Airfare from your hometown to Phoenix, AZ
– RV Road Trip from Phoenix, AZ to Austin, TX
– One night accommodations in Phoenix, AZ
– One night accommodations in El Paso, TX
– All meals on the RV Road Trip
– All the WhoopAss and Jones Soda you can drink on the RV Road Trip
– Airfare from Austin back to your hometown

If you are interested, contact Todd Martini at Jones at tmartini@jonessoda.com It sounds like a fun trip!!

The #SOBCon Chats are Growing!

Every month we’ve seen a growing number of folks participating in our #sobcon Twitter chats – just today we had a Twitter chat hosted by Heidi Thorne and Lisa Petrilli on blog inspiration, and it was a great conversation, with over 600 Tweets.

Mark your calendar for the next one – February 17th, at 12 Noon CST.   We’ll be Tweeting out the topic as the event approaches.

That’s it for this month!  Don’t forget, if you haven’t already, sign up for our Newsletter, so you are eligible for our Webinar, the SXSW party, and the special Newsletter SOBCon Chicago discount.

Social Media Book List: Pink & Grow Rich and Putting the Public Back in Public Relations

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A Weekly Series by Teresa Morrow of Key Business Partners, LLC

I’m Teresa Morrow, Founder of Key Business Partners, LLC and I work with authors & writers to help them with their online book promotion and social media marketing. As part of my job I read a lot of books (I enjoy reading anyway!).

This week I will be highlighting two business books; ‘Pink and Grow Rich’ by Deepika Bajaj and ‘Putting the Public back in Public Relations’ by by Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge.

The books I cover in the Social Media Book List Series will cover a range of topics such as social media, marketing, blogging, business, organization, career building, finance, networking, writing, self development, and inspiration.

‘Pink and Grow Rich’

by Deepika Bajaj

Here is Deepika’s promise:

Deepika, with this e-book can make one promise that if you had one reason for NOT living your DREAM – you will find that with the UNREASONABLE Rule Book – 11 UNREASONABLE RULES of success that will help you OWN your dreams. You will know how to live your life, use your own mind, go toward your dreams that you want to make REAL and SOLID.

Wonder if this ebook is for you?
* Are you looking to unleash your leadership potential?
* Have you been giving yourself perfectly valid reasons for why you cannot be the person you always wanted to be?
* Are you wondering what does it take to grow as a leader?

If your answer to ANY of the questions above is “Yes“, then Then this book is for you.

Think about it, for all the possibilities that exist in the world, if you give yourself one reason for why you cannot take responsibility to be that person – it makes you REASONABLE.

About Deepika*:

Deepika Bajaj is an entrepreneur, author and speaker based in Silicon Valley.  

Deepika Bajaj is the founder and president of Invincibelle, a company empowering diverse, multi generational workforce and women to thrive in a multicultural world. Prior to starting her company, Deepika has more than eight years of experience in telecommunications consulting nand corporate marketing.
Bajaj is also co-founder of ActiveGarage, a company that is recently launched 99tribes.com which is a premier site to increase your Twitter tribe and discover people who share similar concerns.

She has served on the board of various professional organizations including the National Society of Hispanic MBAs and Women in Intel.

Deepika is working on her second book which (yet to be named) speaks to her experiences of being a global citizen and what is shaping the new voice of diversity. She is the author of the book “DiversityTweet: Embracing Diversity in the world.” This new ebook “PINK and Grow RICH” speaks of 11 UNREASONABLE RULES for success for women leaders who live and work in a multicultural world.  She speaks and consults on diversity, blogs at www.deepikabajaj.com and writes a column on social media for ActiveGarage. She is the winner of 2010 IWE Entrepreneurship Achievement Award. You can follow her on http://twitter.com/invincibelle.

You can purchase a copy of ‘Pink and Grow Rich’ online from the author site, Active Garage. *I did receive a digital copy of this book from the author to help in the promotion of the book.

Next, I would like to introduce you to a book on my reading list – ‘Putting the Public Back in Public Relations’.

‘Putting the Public Back in Public Relations’

by Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge

“Putting the Public Back in Public Relations is a passionate and persuasive case for rewriting the rules of public relations. Authors Solis and Breakenridge expertly combine third-party perspective with case studies and examples to paint a picture of a profession on the brink of reinvention.”
Paul Gillin, Author, The New Influencers and Secrets of Social Media Marketing

“I am thrilled that there is finally a book about the right way to approach PR in today’s world, where hyper-connected conversations trump the old school broadcast mentality. Everyone who wants to build a career in PR or marketing should read this book.”
Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos.com

About the Book*

Breakthrough Web PR 2.0 Strategies and Tactics That Work
Forget the pitch: Yesterday’s PR techniques just don’t work anymore. That’s the bad news. Here’s the great news: Social Media and Web 2.0 offer you an unprecedented opportunity to make PR succeed more powerfully than ever before. This book shows how to reinvent PR around two-way conversations with traditional and new influencers, bring the “public” back into public relations—and earn a new level of results that just wasn’t possible before now.

Drawing on their unparalleled experience making Social Media work for business, PR 2.0 blogger Brian Solis and industry leader Deirdre Breakenridge show how to transform the way you think, plan, prioritize, and deliver PR services. You’ll learn new ways to build the relationships that matter, and reach a new generation of influencers…leverage platforms ranging from Twitter to Facebook…truly embed yourself in the communities that are shaping the future.

Along the way, you’ll learn how to stop being a “publicist” or mere “communicator” and become what your clients or company really need: a genuine enthusiast for whom and what you represent.

What’s wrong with PR—and how to fix it
Leverage Social Media and Web 2.0 to reinvent PR, build meaningful and valuable relationships, and supercharge its effectiveness

Social Media PR—a complete primer
Build blogger relationships, reinvent the press release, and make social networks the hub of your online brands

Why it’s about sociology and anthropology—not technology
Master the art of listening and leverage today’s powerful, emerging micromedia

Real PR metrics for the Web 2.0 world
Measure the results that really matter–and demonstrate your value as never before

About Brian*:
Brian Solis is globally recognized as one of most prominent thought leaders and published authors in new media. A digital analyst, sociologist, and futurist, Solis has influenced the effects of emerging media on the convergence of marketing, communications, and publishing. He is principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning New Media agency in Silicon Valley, and has led interactive and social programs for Fortune 500 companies, notable celebrities, and Web 2.0 startups. BrianSolis.com is ranked among the top of world’s leading business and marketing online resources.

Books:

Brian Solis along with co-author Deirdre Breakenridge released “Putting the Public back in Public Relations” in 2009. Published by Financial Times Press, the book has become a best seller and is highly regarded a must read by anyone in marketing, communications, and also journalism.

In concert with Geoff Livingston, Solis released “Now is Gone” in 2007, an early, award-winning book that helps businesses learn how to engage in Social Media. He has also written several ebooks on the subjects of Social Media, New Business, Customer Service, and Influencer Engagement.

His forewords are also featured in PR 2.0 by Deirdre Breakenridge, published by FT Press and MySpace Marketing by Sean Percival, published by Que, and Twittfaced: Your Tookit for Understanding and Maximizing Social Media by Jacob Morgan.

About Deirdre*:
Deirdre Breakenridge is President and Executive Director of Communications at PFS Marketwyse, a marketing ommunications agency in New Jersey. A veteran in the PR industry, Deirdre leads a creative team of PR and marketing executives strategizing to gain brand awareness for their clients through creative and strategic PR campaigns. She counsels senior level executives at companies including ASCO, Hersheys, JVC, KRAFT, and Michael C. Fina.

Deirdre is an adjunct professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University in
Madison, New Jersey, where she teaches courses on Public Relations and Interactive Marketing for the Global Business Management program. She is the author of four Financial Times/Prentice Hall business books: Putting the Public Back in Public Relations, PR 2.0 New Media, New Tools, New Audiences, The New PR Toolkit and Cyberbranding: Brand Building in the Digital Economy.

Deirdre has spoken publicly on the topics of PR, social media communications, digital marketing, and brand building for the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA), The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), Strategic ResearchInstitute (SRI), Women’s Presidents Organization (WPO), Tier1Research, and at a number of colleges and universities. Deirdre is a member of the PRSA and has served on the Board of NJ/PRSA and the New Jersey Advertising Club.

Deirdre’s blog is PR 2.0 Strategies at www.deirdrebreakenridge.com.

You can purchase a copy of ‘Putting the Public Back in Public Relations’ on Amazon.

I truly hope you will check out these books and please comment and let me know your thoughts on them.