When was the last time you updated yours? If it has been more than a month, time to get out there and add some timely (and valuable) content. I often call a website the mothership of internet marketing – all of the social media outlets are great and should be used, but they all point to and people go to the mothership.
How healthy is yours?
There are a million places you can recruit employees. Places like Craigslist or online job boards like Monster. Or you can do it the old fashioned way and ask people you trust if they know someone.
One of the common practices in all sizes of companies is hiring friends and family. You know, like, and trust them, right? So why would it be a bad idea? Because if it does not work out, both your friendship and your business relationship suffer – and that is why it is more often than not, a bad idea.
Think about the qualities you really want in an employee – how should they act, work with others, work with you. List them out and really think it through. Now make that the centerpiece of your recruiting strategy – find someone with those qualities. You can often teach them the technical skills to do the job you want, but you can’t teach someone how to be a team player.
There are three ways to turn clients into your best salespeople:
1. Do what you say you are going to do
2. Do it well
3. Ask for their referrals (after doing number 1 and 2)
You cannot ask for referrals until they experience your product or service and they are satisfied clients. Here is a video of what some of our clients say about us. Make believers out of yours.
Privacy is a relative term these days.
As a professional organizer, I am bound by ethics (as well as a confidentiality agreement) to keep client information private. I don’t share their financial, medical, educational or any other information with anyone else. People are very, um, private about that sort of thing. Hmmm.
Funny thing; have you seen social networking sites lately? There is more personal information on the profile pages than I could get my hands on in a client’s office in a week. Where is all the concern for privacy there?
Just seeing my own children’s Facebook pages is a wakeup call. Privacy? I don’t think so.
My husband Mark sent me a great article concerning social networking sites. Check it out – this kind of information shouldn’t be kept private!
Until next time,
Happy Organizing!
I know I promised to talk more about recruiting, but having just spent a week on a beach in Mexico, I thought it would be better to talk about vacations.
I am writing a book on what Corporate America can learn from the Small Business Owner and vice versa. Vacations are something you learn in Corporate America that hardly any small business owner I know does. Take time to rest your brain, reconnect with why you really do what you do, and take time to create a better vision for your business.
And the other great benefit – you get to reconnect with your loved ones. What more could you ask? I am back on that beach in my mind – how about yours?
So now you are prepared for your “commercial” each time your group meets. And you are meeting outside of the normal meetings to get to know, like, and trust the members. You are also preparing for those outside meetings and asking for referrals. All of a sudden – you get a referral! Now what?
A common mistake people make is to the let the paint dry on that referral. I make a practice of calling within 24 hours of getting the referral – at the absolute most! If the person does not return my call, I get the person who gave me the referral to intercede and get them to return my call. I have my first meeting for free. And then I really listen to what is happening in their business.
I then make sure the person who gave me the referrals gets updates on my progress and thank them, genuinely, for their faith in my business.
That is how you turn those referrals into clients.
Next week – how to turn your clients into your best salespeople. .
Have you ever sent an email, fully expecting a reponse to your request or some other information; but then you didn’t hear back from the recipient?
So you didn’t know if they ever received the email.
And then you forgot that you were waiting for a response.
And the opportunity passed you by…
Now, of course I believe that the sender bears the responsibility of follow up; still, how much effort does it take to offer a quick response to let someone know that their message has been received?
This simple courtesy can both assure the sender that his or her information has been shared and save the extra time it would take to call and verify that it had.
Even if you can’t give a detailed answer right away, you can send a quick reply saying so. That way, the sender knows their message was received and is being considered. So next time, be courteous and take a second to let the sender know that you did indeed receive their message. This one simple gesture goes a long way.
Until next time,
Happy Organizing!
Use your experience with other employees (or project what issues you could have) to recruit for skills you know they must have. Here is a section from one of my job postings for an assistant:
In a perfect world, the applicant:
- Is customer oriented
- Pays attention to details
- Is proficient in Microsoft Office
- Can take constructive criticism
- Possesses good communication skills
- Has proven multi-tasking abilities
- Owns reliable transportation (for errands)
What does this tell the applicant? Don’t even bother if you have thin skin or can only work on one thing at a time. That is exactly what you want to happen! Think it through and insure your postings have the perfect candidate defined. How else can you find them?
Stay tuned for more on recruiting employees and effective interviewing techniques.
I hear many people say “that networking group didn’t work for me” – sometimes that is true, but hardly ever. A networking group will work for almost anyone if you work it. Yep, YOU have to work it.
A couple of ways to make the best of these groups:
Be prepared: if you show you are committed to the group, the group will normally commit to you – and the comes in the way of referrals.
Show up: this seems simple, but you would not believe the people who just don’t show up for my networking groups. You need to be seen – otherwise they forget all about you. Trust me on this one.
Meet outside the meeting: since you are in a group, you need to establish one on one relationships with each of the members. This requires a commitment to meeting with them one on one outside of the normal meeting. Prepare for these meetings as well and do not be afraid to ask for their referrals. People need your help to find you referrals – really.
Next week – how to turn referrals from a networking group into clients.