Michael Beale, a good friend of mine and an NLP trainer and coach, has written this article. Michael looks at Business strategy to answer:

1. What a credible Business Strategy is and, maybe more importantly, what it isn’t.
2. Why Business Strategy is important and why many firms don’t have one.
3. Some simple steps to help develop a strategy.
4. How the right business coach can help.

What is Business Strategy?

Business strategy is a framework helping you make key decisions and take actions to enable your firm to win. The result of a good strategy is a route map enabling you to communicate how you are going to achieve your goals, navigate challenges and monitor progress.

In order to develop a strategy you need to know where you want to end up, as well as an honest view of where you are now, and the current terrain.

A credible strategy is not:

• Your vision:  A vision on its own is not a strategy. A strategy connects your vision with the actions you’re proposing to take.
• A series of great sounding clichés: Clichés may be motivational, but they won’t help your team navigate difficult terrain.
• A one-time event: Strategy is a process that is continually reviewed, although you may or may not change your plan based on that review.

A business strategy is needed in both the good times and bad times. Even in good times a system that isn’t maintained tends to become inefficient – although it may take many years to do so. A strategy gives you a way of measuring progress.

A good plan is essential in bad times when resources are tight and it’s essential they are used effectively. In addition, in tough times a credible business strategy is a rallying call. It can be a real motivator.

Why do many firms not have a credible business strategy?

Many firms, small and large, don’t have a credible business strategy. There are many good reasons for this:

• Developing a strategy requires an investment of time. You will be focusing on something other than the day to day running of your firm. Many action-orientated professionals find this a genuine challenge.
• Consultants often make the process over complicated when it doesn’t need to be. However, business strategy development does require looking at opportunities and threats, and the implications of both.
• While the process can be simple, there are a large number of sometimes conflicting variables to consider. The realisation of this can be uncomfortable; the natural reaction is to accept the first suggestions that come to mind.  It is important to continue to explore and develop alternatives, even if at the end we stick with what we first thought.

Useful questions to help develop a business strategy

The following questions are useful in helping to develop business strategy. It’s not the questions themselves that are important; allow them to guide your thinking process.

The process is interactive, as answering one question may change the answers to previous questions. So the series of questions may need to be repeated until you’re comfortable that you have a plan, know the key milestones and at least the actions for the first milestone.

1. What is your vision or end goal for key aspects of your firm?
2. Where possible, split each vision into 2-5 milestones
3. Score each vision between 1 and 5 with regard to:
   • overall importance.
   • urgency.
   • whether you need others’ input.
4. Write down the first actions for your most important vision(s)
5. Consider your current situation. What are the key trends with your customers?
   • Legislation? Technology? The economy?
   • Your suppliers (or your costs)?
   • Your current competitors? Possible new competitors?
   • Are there any key trends you could ride?
6. Repeat enough times until you’re genuinely comfortable that you know your direction and the first key steps you need to take.

How can a good business coach help you develop your business strategy?

A business coach that you are happy to work with, can turn what initially appears a daunting and complex process into something that’s stimulating and enjoyable. They can help you create the space to explore how you and your firm can be more successful and help you create a plan to achieve it. If you think that you may be ready for some help developing your strategy, answer our “is this you” questions.

What’s your experience?

What is the best way you’ve found to improve or develop strategy for your firm?

Author Credit: Michael Beale is an NLP Trainer and Business Coach. He can contacted through his websites NLP Training and Business Coaching

Testimonials and their importance in signing up new clients

Do you use testimonials in a systematic way, randomly when you think of it, or not since you last had your website rewritten? Testimonials can be one of the most powerful weapons in your marketing armoury.

I was recently giving a keynote speech “The fundamentals of growing your firm”. There’s a story I tell about barbecues (which I won’t tell here), although the barbecue is very helpful in thinking about marketing your firm.

Imagine, for a moment, it’s a hot summer’s afternoon as you stand in the garden with friends. More food comes off of the sizzling hot barbecue, a gentle breeze wafts the smell of the food across the garden. You ask who would like more food, to be told:

You don’t want your tray of sublimely cooked fresh, hot food wasted. All your marketing attempts so far have failed, you tried to “sell the sizzle, not the steak”, you gave a free mini consultation (OK, they smelt the sublime mix of herbs and hickory), they’ve even looked at how good it was. But, their response was to tell you that the market is saturated and they don’t need anything new. What to do?

Then one person has a piece. They slide it into their mouth, there’s a taste explosion as this perfectly cooked food hits their tongue. They proclaim it’s virtues to all.

The person standing next to them says “Oh, alright then I’ll try a piece” and it spreads till you have none left.

Ever had anything like that, I certainly have. My barbecues always seem to have too much food, which suddenly all goes.

What made the difference?

Clients talking about their experience is the best form of marketing. They convince prospects more readily than your exhortations.

Most testimonials are rubbish.

Do you believe them? You read a flyer and at the bottom it says that “xya accounting were really good (Mrs S of Sunbury)”. What do you think?

Specificity makes better testimonials

Short pieces about specific parts of your client’s interaction and what it meant to them are much better than long gushing pieces – which effectively just say you’re good. Think about testimonials you’ve seen, which work best? How can you make your testimonials like that?

Providence makes testimonials even better

Instead of just a couple of words on a flyer, with initials (do you really get motivated to buy when you see those?). How about:

• LinkedIn: Testimonials on LinkedIn (they call them recommendations) must be from the author. Only the author can post them – much more powerful. You may also use the text elsewhere, but start getting them on LinkedIn. For other tips on getting more from LinkedIn, so more people see those testimonials, click here for our 8 page report on “How to profit from LinkedIn” (email address required)
• YouTube: The whole world can see your client and experience a greater depth of feeling if they see it on video. It’s also quicker and easier to do! How many times have clients said they’ll write and never done sot? Have a camera in the office (that’s your phone). Click here to read about how to get more comfortable using YouTube in your firm – better filming techniques, how to post your video, how to avoid sounding scripted.

Getting clients to actually write your testimonials

Ever asked, and not received? Think about two conversations:

“I need to get some testimonials for my marketing. Would you think about  writing something for me when you get some time?”

OR…

“That’s incredible George, I’m so pleased that you think that the prompt turnaround and motivation you got from working with us was key to your success.  Would you be willing to let me feature you on an article I’m writing as a client success story so that other people can be inspired by you?”

A final thought

Don’t leave your perfect testimonials on a testimonial page. It would be like putting that fabulously cooked, sizzling food all on a plate out of the way at one end of the garden. The testimonial page is one of the least visited, so spread them about wherever you meet and interact with clients (a bit like taking that food round the garden). If you don't really enjoy selling, or you want to be better at converting prospects into clients - why not ask for 6 steps to sales success. It's a grat free guide that we will send you Click here (email address required) for this report.

Anyway, I’m off to get some more testimonials – or should I have a barbecue instead? What have you found works well with testimonials?

Written by Jon Baker The 5-50 Coach. I help professionals grow their firms from 5 to 50 employees, sustainably, profitably and still have fun. Have you got your "next step kitbag yet"? It's stuffed with guides, reports & templates helping you grow from 5 to 50 employees. Click here for your copy.

Strategy implementation is key to your firm’s success. In your mind you know this, but are you like so many other professionals? Have you developed a strategy and never really completed strategy implementation?

Many firms drift: They have ideas of what they want to achieve and from time to time get differing levels of enthusiasm about doing things to get there. Having great ideas won’t help. Having great ideas and doing them sporadically may help, but it won’t help get what you want for your firm.

What’s in a good strategy?

A clearly set out goal(s) and emotional reasons for achieving them, together with commitments to put in place to get there. Read why-goals-strategies-visions-and-missions-drive-me-mad and business-success-and-long-term-planning

Long term planning, or “starting with the end in mind” is important to avoid only ever incrementally adapting (read about how a very young IBM approached business-success-and-long-term-planning). The trouble is if your view is that far on the future, it’s easy not to get things done!

What stops strategy implementation?

Normally the plan is overly long and gets forgotten. No measures are ever taken to measure progress (did you read KPIs are not just about finance). The result, no strategy implementation, nothing really changes, the firm continues to stagnate and you hit the strategy implementation graveyard.

A focused approach towards strategy implementation

1. Create a quarterly focus: Good plans have many exciting elements, so many that they can easily overwhelm. Step one of strategy implementation is to create a smaller focus that will last for only three months. One quarter cuts down the huge list of things on the plan, makes it manageable and allows you to focus your team on delivering it. Neither is it so long that it becomes part of the furniture, you’ll create a new quarterly focus in three months time.

• What key things need to be different at the end of the quarter, clearly stated and ideally broken down by month.
• What KPIs will help you track these objectives? This isn’t all about financials and can be far easier than many professionals think. Read KPIs are not all about finance.
• Goals to ensure objectives are hit (e.g. launch new Social Media campaign -did you read why social Media takes too long?)
• Deliverables for the goals to ensure they happen (Read measuring social ROI)
• What tasks are needed to get there? Once you have completed your quarterly focus, and written it down, think about each thing that needs to be delivered. Break them down into tasks, with assigned owners and deadlines. You may use project management software, or just a simple spreadsheet – but track how people are doing!

2. Delivery: Remember to allocate enough time to manage others, as well as yourself. Completing the tasks and keeping on-top of deadlines is crucial to delivering. Yes, there is no substitute for getting on with it! A traffic jam will only stop delivery, so keep on top of it.
3. Checkpoints: Once a week review what’s happened on all the “to-do” lists, update them with red/ green or amber. Ensure everybody can see what’s happening and what’s not. Also check the KPIs. You want to know NOW if you’re going off track and if something may stop you from hitting your quarterly goals. Have regular checkpoint meetings with all the relevant stakeholders (click here for tips on managing meetings), keep the meeting short and ensure that it’s a discussion on what’s worked/ not – rather than people just saying “yes I have” (you could do that by email).
4. Create the next quarterly focus: That may sound unrelenting, but you want to achieve your objectives? When planning the next quarter, consider what you’ve learnt that you can apply and revisit your strategy document.

Key to strategy implementation is keeping it clearly in the minds of all those involved. Regular reviews and breaking it into chunks like this helps. Even just having it on one piece of paper that everybody keeps looking at will help! If you would you like to download a range of free material that will help you improve your firm by working on your strategy for great success click here (email address required). Our resource library is stuffed with ideas that have helped our clients get more from their team and it's available to you now.

How do you ensure that you’re excellent at strategy implementation?

Written by Jon Baker The 5-50 Coach. I help professionals grow their firms from 5 to 50 employees, sustainably, profitably and still have fun. Have you got your "next step kitbag yet"? It's stuffed with guides, reports & templates helping you grow from 5 to 50 employees. Click here for your copy.

Marketing small accountancy firms is ever more important in the wake of changes to the economy, changes to the marketing landscape (more than just Social Media) and your growth ambitions.

Which changes do you find affect you the most? Maybe, if you’re lucky, it’s the ever growing number of self employed / small companies around on the landscape….

This article has three clear actions for you to take, to ensure your marketing is hot enough to fuel your growth.

We (the consumers of your services) are becoming fussier, there are new easy ways of getting our accounts done and we hear more and more from your competition.

Marketing small accountancy firms is getting harder, so what should you concentrate on?

Excellent client service is NOT enough.

Many professionals I talk to consider excellent client service to be the best marketing weapon in their arsenal. Traditionally they’ve thought good service is all they need when marketing the small accountancy firm. It is not enough.

It is an absolute prerequisite, but it isn’t enough to get you the continuous growth you seek.

An incredibly happy client is great news, well done. But they are not an asset to your marketing plan………unless you use them in it as a matter of course.

Give excellent client service and show it off by using well placed testimonials – have you tried YouTube yet? Do you have recommendations written by your clients on LinkedIn?

Your (YO)USP

OK, so maybe you’ve read about the importance of a USP? Every time I talk to professionals in small firms they say things like

When pushed they say things like “the only real difference is us”. That’s my point – the (YO)USP means you need to get that difference across to all your prospects. So start by understanding what your personality is, then consider how to get it out there.

Do you want Social Media Success? Social Media Success Strategies is a series of reports with 27 hints, tips and essential strategies for getting results from your social networking. We've taught hundreds of professionals to use social media in their firms and distilled the most successful strategies and tactics into "Social Success Strategies". Click here for your free copy.

Content Marketing is great for your (YO)USP

Content marketing (that’s mainly blogs and especially YouTube videos) gives you a great way to provide something interesting to your prospects that also shows your personality, how you think rather than focussing on what you offer.

The more you show your prospects valuable content the more you can engage those that are most likely to do business with you. Yes, more personality (within reason) is a good thing. It’s like the debate about having a niche, far better to be brilliantly known for something than an also run in the mass market.

Remember the video is about them getting to know you, so you need to be in the video – not an actor!

Social Networking

Everybody seems to be talking about Social Media, but thinking of it as social networking may help you focus on the important thing. It’s about engaging people, not thrusting adverts, or even useful content down their throats all the time.

So, is it time to think about how you can get the other partners and fee earners on board with Social Networking – one poorly fed Twitter account won’t do it.

Marketing small accountancy firms – 3 actions for you.

Consider carefully how you’re different to your competition and who you really want to do business with. Create your “personality” rules and clarify your niche. Your team could help with this and should certainly understand the outcome.

1. Think about the biggest questions you get asked by clients. How can you answer them in short (500 ish) words? Now you have the material for your first 10 blogs! Click if you’ve ever thought “what should I write in my blog and how do I get the ideas
2. Talk about each of those questions for about 1-2 minutes – but record yourself doing it (your iphone is good enough), now you have something for YouTube. Click for tips on using YouTube for marketing your practice.
3. Review your use of Twitter and LinkedIn. Think of them as networking, target specific people, engage in discussion and offer great content that may help them (yes, you just created it). Click here for more ideas about Social networking strategy.

Times are changing, are you?

Marketing small accountancy firms is changing, how are you adapting your marketing? What works well for you?

Written by Jon Baker The 5-50 Coach. I help professionals grow their firms from 5 to 50 employees, sustainably, profitably and still have fun. Have you got your "next step kitbag yet"? It's stuffed with guides, reports & templates helping you grow from 5 to 50 employees. Click here for your copy.

Staff misbehaviour and giving the cold shoulder

I heard on the radio yesterday that Nadine Dorries, the MP who was on reality TV has been readmitted to the Tory party. In a discussion a friend said she’d been given the cold shoulder. What would you have done, if it were your staff, in your firm?

OK, I’m not really talking about a member of staff disappearing on unrequested holiday  (if that’s even what happened in the case above,  that’s not what this article is about). I’m more interested in small issues that occur in firms. How often have you given staff “the cold shoulder”?

Giving the cold shoulder

I thought the discussion was interesting as it describes what seems to happen in many small firms when staff commit minor misdemeanours. What do you do for minor misdemeanours and how good are you at forgiving? How often have you see people become aware that they’re “in the sin bin” or “not flavour of the month”, because they’ve been “given the cold shoulder” by their boss and possibly the rest of the team.

I’m not sure that giving the cold shoulder is really effective, what do you think? To give somebody the cold shoulder is defined as:

The definition (http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/give+the+cold+shoulder) is interesting. There are two worrying parts:

1. “To behave towards someone in a way that is not at all friendly”. If a member of staff has done something wrong, they deserve to be told about it, professionally. But do you want to be unfriendly to them? I guess that depends on what you mean by friendly! I’ve often seen a response  separating the behaviour from the person as being more effective than becoming less friendly, let alone hostile.
2. “reasons that this person does not understand”. I suspect we’ve all seen, or heard of, staff that are being treated badly for something that they don’t really understand why. If you haven’t given a clear explanation of what they’ve done wrong, how can they improve/ not do it again?

Responding to minor misdemeanours

How would you respond if a member of staff has done something wrong, but not committed a large disciplinary offence? Giving somebody the cold shoulder won’t be effective, considering the points above. But then you might not want to ignore the problem and exterminating your staff might not work either (that’s another article).

A practical idea for dealing with minor staff issues

I recently discussed a case where the owner of the firm had a discussion with one of her staff member and the following points struck me as being very powerful:

1. As soon as practically possible, they had a private, informal, chat. In this particular case they went for a walk out of the office, which can really help, although isn’t necessary (did you read an-idea-to-get-more-from-your-staff?)
2. She made it clear what was good about the person’s work
3. She remained very calm in the discussion and used the phrase “I was personally disappointed that you….” It was powerful and separated the behaviour from the persons other attributes.
4. She made it clear what she didn’t want to see again
5. She finished on what they valued about the person.

The result: The person clearly knew what they’d done wrong and how to avoid it. The incident was over very quickly, rather than festering for some months like some I’ve seen. The person still felt like a valued member of the team.

So, was Nadine Dorries given the cold shoulder or not? Looking at the definition above I wouldn’t apply that description, but that’s not what this article is about.

It’s much more about considering the way you treat your staff, to retain their loyalty and productivity – rather than giving them the cold shoulder. You might also like to read “Do you beat, attract or ignore your team”

What have you seen work well with staff?

Written by Jon Baker The 5-50 Coach. I help professionals grow their firms from 5 to 50 employees, sustainably, profitably and still have fun. Have you got your "next step kitbag yet"? It's stuffed with guides, reports & templates helping you grow from 5 to 50 employees. Click here for your copy.

Crying lady photo shown under creative commons license, click for more

Can coaching solve all performance problems?

Coaching can improve performance at personal and at the firm level; many firms use it extensively for just that reason. I was recently asked “can coaching solve all performance problems” and “are all professionals coachable”.

Two great questions and my simple answer shocked the senior partner I was talking to. I said “No”.

We then went on to chat about “are all professionals coachable”. If you’ve ever wondered about the subject for yourself or key members of your team…

Are all professionals coachable?

Some professionals cannot be successfully coached. Typically they believe that they have no performance issues. If they were to admit there was a small problem they tend to believe everybody else is the cause. If that’s their view, forcing them to have coaching will not help (in fact forcing anybody to have coaching doesn’t help). Are all professionals coachable - I’d better answer by saying some professionals cannot be successfully coached, until they change something.

Coaching helps people to reflect on their own behaviour, to learn and grow from it. They’ll need a desire to change behaviour and be willing to take some personal responsibility. Forcing somebody into coaching is never the best solution for a firm.

5 questions – “Are they coachable”

If you are considering getting coaching for somebody or being coached yourself think about the following tests. The answers to these five questions indicate to me if somebody is going to successfully “own” their part of the coaching process.

1. Commitment to change: The person coached will need to step outside of their comfort zone and take responsibility for their interactions with others. Individuals who don’t think they’re perfect and want to improve tend to do well from coaching.
2. Open to feedback: Being willing (and able) to listen to constructive feedback without being defensive is important. Performance improves by blending feedback with personal reflections, and then acting on it. Understanding different perspectives and accepting them improves performance.
3. Open about themselves:  Coaching can require people to engage in topics that may be uncomfortable. These issues may be obstructing their professional development, or the growth of their firm. Successful coaching needs open, honest discussion about “what’s really going on“.
4. Self awareness: Good coaching candidates tend to already have some self awareness. Developing the ability to reflect on behaviour and how it affects others (clients, team or prospects), and then acting on it, improves performance.
5. Passion to grow: I coach professionals who are looking to grow their firm/ portfolio. If they’re not looking to grow and improve performance, coaching isn’t the relevant intervention. Coaching takes highly motivated, self aware individuals to new heights. The awareness and motivation are key, not their current performance. That’s how it can totally change the fortunes of a firm, where the owner is willing,

What if they’re not “coachable”?

If somebody doesn’t meet the tests above, what should you do to improve their performance? That depends on the issues, but a range of interventions could include training on specific tasks, task management, giving specific assignments and closer management.

Maybe you need to look at specific elements of their behaviour, or give them some good feedback (here’s 7 tips to give better staff feedback). Maybe you should read how to hold somebody accountable. If you’d like more ideas on how to manage your team, click here for a range of free downloadable guides (email address required) .

What results have you seen from coaching professionals?

Using YouTube for marketing your small practice is becoming more relevant than ever. If you haven’t considered it yet – you should.

This article is the first in a series that others (far better than I) will be helping with using YouTube for marketing your practice. But here are some thoughts for you to consider regarding using YouTube for marketing.

Why should I be using YouTube for marketing my firm?

I sat with my son a few weeks ago, both looking for things on Google and our use of the web was very different. I’ll only watch video when I’ve gained some trust in the site, he’ll watch video in order to gain trust. But both of us were watching video! More and more people do, how about your prospects?

• Trends: More and more internet traffic is video based, but not many firms are harnessing the power of video to grow their practices.
• Your biggest marketing asset: If your potential client is going to sign up to you, get them to meet you earlier in the process. Get your personality out there, it’s what I’ve called your (YO)USP.
• Social Media: It’s great way to share, but more importantly show video. Consider Facebook or LinkedIn, you can have your showcase video on your profile, and give new tips to your potential clients
• People stay on your website longer: Video embedded into your page, means they stay longer on your website. Google likes this and it gives you longer in front of your prospects.
• SEO: Google owns YouTube and loves video, it features well in SEO and will help your website get found.
• Client retention: I sign up to a professional as I trust them, so I am likely to watch small, helpful, video clips from them. It deepens the trust and extends the relationship…

Ideas about recording your video

• Time: You’ve got ten seconds to grab attention and won’t hold it for more than one and a half minutes. You can talk about a simple tip in that time; you already do it when chatting to clients!
• Content: Simple tips that will help your prospect: your view on an element of taxation or law, things they could do to save themselves money.
• What camera: You don’t need a studio quality film. It’s a short clip and the cameras in modern phones (many of mine are on iPhone) are adequate. You could improve the quality by using a service like Vurnish – but get recording first!
• Don’t like yourself: Lots of people (including me) don’t like seeing themselves on video. Like it or not, that’s what your clients see, so get used to it! There are more articles to follow that will help here.

Do you want Social Media Success? Social Media Success Strategies is a series of reports with 27 hints, tips and essential strategies for getting results from your social networking. We've taught hundreds of professionals to use social media in their firms and distilled the most successful strategies and tactics into "Social Success Strategies". Click here for your free copy.

Considerations for using YouTube for marketing your practice

• The written details of your video: Complete Title, Descriptions & Tags. Do categorise your video, give it a descriptive title and an accurate description (remember keywords).  These content areas are your flag to search engines (and YouTube search). This is what they pick up and display in the search results. Don’t forget to add your web address in your description.
• Your profile: Complete the profile on your “YouTube channel”. A complete, professional and personalised profile helps add credibility to you and your videos.
• Embed and Share Your Videos: Put your videos on LinkedIn, Facebook, your website. Embed your videos on e-newsletters, and blogs.

There are more articles to follow about Using YouTube for marketing your practice, and I shall (of course) shortly add video on the subject. Come back for tips on:

• How to talk to the camera
• What to say on video
• How to post your video
• Using YouTube stats
• Should it be me, or an actor?
• How to avoid sounding scripted

You can watch a number of videos that I’ve recorded, all on the subject of improving your firm. Click here for the venture-Now YouTube channel.

What do you think about using YouTube for marketing, what have you seen that’s good (and bad).

Written by Jon Baker The 5-50 Coach. I help professionals grow their firms from 5 to 50 employees, sustainably, profitably and still have fun. Have you got your "next step kitbag yet"? It's stuffed with guides, reports & templates helping you grow from 5 to 50 employees. Click here for your copy.

Have you seen, and maybe wondered about, the apparent increasing number of people that are corrupting their LinkedIn name field? Some people are adding extra information to it.  This article explores the pros and cons of it, and if there are better ways to increase your LinkedIn visibility and results.

Adding information to your LinkedIn name – what?

I’ve seen several corruptions of people’s names, such as adding:

• your phone number or contact details to your name, e.g. Jon Baker 01234 750 939
• stars around your name, e.g. *Heather Townsend*
• keywords to your name field, e.g. Jon Baker | The 5-50 Coachh
• your qualifications, e.g. Heather Townsend MCIPD

Why should I add information to my LinkedIn Name?

There are better ways of getting results from LinkedIn  (click to read more about how to make the most of your new profile). Maybe it’s like overdecorating a christmas tree, but lets look at the main reasons for people amending their name field.

• Greater visibility in profile searches: Some believe that by using keywords in their name they will turn up in more searches. I tried it, and saw no evidence support it. Actually after removing the ‘executive coach’ from my name, I saw an increase of 20% of the number of searches I turned up in, and a 100% increase in the amount of views of my profile.
  If you want people to find you, when they are looking for you don’t add extra characters to your first or second name field. Otherwise, your profile – the one they are trying to find – will end up at the bottom of the search results. (Seriously!)
• Makes you more memorable when you participate in discussions: Really? It may make you more memorable, but probably for the wrong reasons. Ask yourself if you, like those I’ve spoken to, think it looks gimmicky, potentially desperate and spammy. Is that the first impression you want to give? Would you not prefer to be memorable for the right reasons:
  • adding valuable and insightful comment to discussions
  • including some personality to your profile, rather than a bland corporate type of profile
  • starting interesting discussions
  • How to use LinkedIn groups to get invoiceable business from LinkedIn talks more about these subjects.
• Makes it easier for prospects and people to contact you: It’s true, if you add your contact details into your name then people on LinkedIn can contact your more easily. They don’t need to connect with you and can just contact you. Firstly, LinkedIn terms of service expressly forbid people from adding in anything in the ‘First and surname’ fields, other than your name.

LinkedIn Terms of Service

The terms of service actually says that you should not:

How to win business on LinkedIn

There isn’t a magic solution, short cut or easy way to sustainably win business on LinkedIn. Focus on letting your content and your conversation. Good content and good conversations are the best way for success on LinkedIn, ensure that you don’t commit the seven-deadly-social-sins of social media would be a good starting place. Did you also read:

1. How to use LinkedIn groups to get invoiceable business from LinkedIn

2. LinkedIn: How do I connect with people I don’t know?

3. How to get business from LinkedIn and spend less time on it

What do you think about amending your LinkedIn name?

The balance between process and creativity in a small firm can affect the results you get from your team and what your clients think.

Is “systemisation” good, or can it be overused? The problem isn’t how you think you’ve tasked your team –  it’s what they think!

Do you stop your staff from doing their job?

I was “gobsmacked” recently, when I read an article in the news…

My first reaction was “what’s wrong with these people” and “that’s why I pay so much tax“, what was your first thought?

Being over prescriptive

If you tell your team exactly what to do and they think they have no leeway at all, what will the results be?

• De-motivated staff? Possibly. Is that an issue, if one compares it to productivity gains?
• Poorly handled issues when they’re outside the norm? What flexibility do your team think they have when dealing with odd queries? Have you ever asked yourself “if-only-my-staff-used-their-initiative-more” (click to explore this)
• Instructions followed to the letter of the law, even though they’re blatantly wrong? Perhaps that’s what happened in Swindon?

Maybe there’s an issue with the balance between process and creativity?

Systemisation

I strongly believe in the power of setting systems in place that allow your team to know what to do and how to do what you want. It’s the only way to get consistent client results every time. But one has to be aware of the balance between process and creativity Do you have laid down (written, told to staff and monitored) systems for things like:

• New client set up (include a welcome letter, all information stored and really making the client feel welcome)?
• Client complaints
• Social media posting
• Ways of handling each element of client work
• I could go on…..

In doing so you can create a great experience for clients, each time and every time. Process mapping is a good place to start here.

Having standard processes in place means that clients get the same service level from you each time, every time – no matter who deals with them. That sounds good; it also allows you to focus on running the firm, rather than having to deal with all clients, all the time.

Creativity is an asset in your team?

On the other hand is creativity a bonus in your team? Perhaps when they’re dealing with complicated tasks or clients?

“Computer says no” was a phrase made popular in a comedy series, and I’m sure we’ve all seen variations of this in our lives.  Maybe allowing your team some space makes sense?

The balance between process and creativity in a small firm

Some people say that excellence and creativity in your team is inspired by allowing them free rein. Others suggest that it’s about creating clear standards. I don’t know what you think, but I do know that your staff need to believe they have the freedom that you think they have!

What do you think was happening in Swindon when the double lines were painted?

Are you over prescriptive?

You would never create anything as stupid as that council example, but have a good hard look at your systems and how you get your staff to implement them!

It doesn’t matter if you think you’re flexible

You can say to yourself that you’re intelligent, caring and wouldn’t mind if your team varied a small degree from your laid down process.

It only matters what they think!

How will you go about ensuring your staff know that they are allowed to think, before you (yes its you, if its done in your firm) have painted yellow lines all over your clients?

What’s the best example of such silliness that you’ve ever seen?

Client service is important. Is the way you answer the phone an indicator of that?

In a recent discussion I was talking about phone answering with a group of professionals. Some were saying the number of rings is critical, others saying it’s irrelevant. What do you think?

The context for the discussion was twofold:

1. how many times have you rung a number and waited…..and waited… Does it leave you with a chilly feeling for their client service? But is it worth setting your team a target, as that might prevent them from achieving other things you need?
2. The other item in the discussion was a BBC news item about HMRC and their phone answering targets.

What do you think about client service and answering the phone quickly?

HMRC and phone answering

The UK tax authority’s new target for answering calls from taxpayers is “unambitious and woefully inadequate”, according to a committee of MPs. Their report said

That, of course, suggests keeping more than half of their callers waiting for five minutes is acceptable! How does that make you feel?

Client Service: Is answering the phone quickly relevant?

Consider for a moment something many marketers say is important (my favourite misdirection). How many “hits” has your website had this month? I know several firms that use a huge amount of resource getting more “hits” to their website. How many people view your website? It doesn’t matter! No seriously, I’d rather have one web visitor that does what I want them to, than 100 visitors that don’t.

Should you put a vast effort into answering the phone quickly, or answering it well, resolving the query as professionally and rapidly as possible?

Answering the phone within 4 rings?

I’ve spoken to many phone answering agencies and read research suggesting good service is about answering your call with 4 rings. Jet Shah, who runs Impressio, a company that specialises in answering calls for professional services firms said:

Improving Client Service in your firm

Phone answering is only one aspect of client service, but one that can get people very emotive. Do you set a target, or do you focus on call quality? Does the way you answer your phone reflect client service standards throughout the rest of your firm?

Written by Jon Baker The 5-50 Coach. I help professionals grow their firms from 5 to 50 employees, sustainably, profitably and still have fun. Have you got your "next step kitbag yet"? It's stuffed with guides, reports & templates helping you grow from 5 to 50 employees. Click here for your copy.