CVS Blog

The Power of Asking; 7 Ways to Boost Your Business

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:26:43 +0000

The Power of Asking; 7 Ways to Boost Your Business
by Jack Canfield

The gift called “asking” has been around for a long, long time. One of life’s fundamental truths states, “Ask and you shall receive.” Kids are masters at using this gift, but we adults seem to have lost our ability to ask. We come up with all sorts of excuses and reasons to avoid any possibility of rejection.

Yet the world responds to those who ask! If you are not moving closer to what you want, you probably aren’t doing enough asking.

Here are seven asking strategies you can implement in your business (and in life) to boost your results and your bottom line:

Asking Strategy #1: Ask for Information

To win potential new clients, you first need to know what their current challenges are, what they want to accomplish and how they plan to do it. Only then can you proceed to demonstrate the advantages of your unique product or service.

Ask questions starting with the words who, why, what, where, when and how to obtain the information you need. Only when you truly understand and appreciate a prospect’s needs can you offer a solution. Once you know what’s important to them, stay on this topic and find solutions for them.

Asking Strategy #2: Ask for Business

Here’s an amazing statistic: after giving a complete presentation about the benefits of their product or service, more than 60 percent of the time salespeople never ask for the order! That’s a bad habit, and one that could ultimately put you out of business.

Always ask a closing question to secure the business. Don’t waffle or talk around it—or worse, wait for your prospect to ask you. No doubt you have heard of many good ways to ask the question, “Would you like to give it a try?” The point is, ask.

Asking Strategy #3: Ask for Written Endorsements

Well-written, results-oriented testimonials from highly respected people are powerful for future sales. They solidify the quality of your product or service and leverage you as a person who has integrity, is trustworthy and gets the job done on time.

When is the best time to ask? Right after you have provided excellent service, gone the extra mile to help out, or in any other way made your customer really happy.

Simply ask if your customer would be willing to give you a testimonial about the value of your product or service, plus any other helpful comments.

Asking Strategy #4: Ask for Top-Quality Referrals

Just about everyone in business knows the importance of referrals. It’s the easiest, least expensive way of ensuring your growth and success in the marketplace.

Your core clients will gladly give you referrals because you treat them so well. So why not ask all of them for referrals? It’s a habit that will dramatically increase your income. Like any other habit, the more you do it the easier it becomes.

Asking Strategy #5: Ask for More Business

Look for other products or services you can provide your customers. Devise a system that tells you when your clients will require more of your products. The simplest way is to ask your customers when you should contact them to reorder. It’s often easier to sell your existing clients more than to go looking for new ones.

Asking Strategy #6: Ask to Renegotiate

Regular business activities include negotiation. Many businesses get stuck because they lack skills in negotiation, yet this is simply another form of asking that can save a lot of time and money. Look at your vendors and suppliers and see if there are areas where you can be saving money. Just ask.

All sorts of contracts can be renegotiated in your personal life, too, such as changing your mortgage terms and rate, reviewing your cell phone plan and requesting a policy review with your insurance agent. As long as you negotiate ethically and in the spirit of win-win, you can enjoy a lot of flexibility. Nothing is ever cast in stone.

Asking Strategy #7: Ask for Feedback

This is a powerful way to fine-tune your business that is often overlooked. How do you really know if your product or service is meeting your customers’ needs? Ask them, “How are we doing? What can we do to improve our service to you? Please share what you like or don’t like about our products.” Set up regular customer surveys that ask good questions and tough questions.

HOW TO ASK

Some people don’t enjoy the fruits of asking because they don’t ask effectively. If you use vague language you will not be clearly understood. Here are five ways to ensure that your asking gets results.

Ask Clearly
Be precise. Think clearly about your request. Take time to prepare. Use a note pad to pick words that have the greatest impact. Words are powerful, so choose them carefully.

Ask with Confidence
People who ask confidently get more than those who are hesitant and uncertain. When you’ve figured out what you want to ask for, do it with certainty, boldness and confidence.

Ask Consistently
Some people fold after making one timid request. They quit too soon. Keep asking until you find the answers. In prospecting there are usually four or five “no’s” before you get a “yes.” Top producers understand this. When you find a way to ask that works, keep on asking it.

Ask Creatively
In this age of global competition, your asking may get lost in the crowd, unheard by the decision-makers you hope to reach. There is a way around this. If you want someone’s attention, don’t ask the ordinary way. Use your creativity to dream up a high-impact presentation.

Ask Sincerely
When you really need help, people will respond. Sincerity means dropping the image facade and showing a willingness to be vulnerable. Tell it the way it is, lumps and all. Don’t worry if your presentation isn’t perfect; ask from your heart. Keep it simple and people will open up to you.

* * *

Are you ’stuck’ in this area?
Send me your most pressing question, then join me for our monthly
‘Ask Jack Canfield’ Tele-Clinic on Wednesday, July 2nd!
www.AskJackCanfield.com

Jack Canfield, America’s #1 Success Coach, is the founder and co-creator of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul and a leading authority on Peak Performance and Life Success. If you’re ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com

* * *

Terence Kierans CAVB (Certified Australian Virtual Business)
Principal, Cyberspace Virtual Services, Western Australia
www.virtualservices.com.au – Experience the Difference
http://vacertified.com/client-info/ – First in the World to be VA Certified (and you can benefit)
www.avbn.com.au – Australian Virtual Business Network—You Deserve the Best
2007 Thomas Leonard International VA of Distinction Award Nominee
Contented Member of ‘A Clayton’s Secretary’
Use our skills to help you succeed
Tel: 61 8 9304 6983 Fax: 61 8 9304 3202 Mobile: 61 414 25 1091 UK Residents: 07092391723

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Free Whitepaper: How Phishing can Impact your Business

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 01:48:24 +0000

Courtesy Tech Republic

Free Whitepaper: How Phishing can Impact your Business

With the festive season upon us, the last thing you want is for online fraud and phishing to turn a generous shopping spree sour. Download this complimentary whitepaper and learn about: The latest Phishing Schemes, how Phishing can impact your business, how to protect your business.
(Verisign)

24-Hour Twitter Expert

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:32:09 +0000

Samantha Milner has published a blueprint that everyone who’s serious about using Twitter should read.
Click on the picture for more details

And it’s based on the system that Samantha uses to generate a 60,000+ targeted following on Twitter and how you could do the same for little over an hour a day.

Best of all – It’s valued at $97 but for a VERY limited time I’ve managed
to persuade her to let you have it for…..

ZERO.

I strongly suggest that you download it now.

Regards

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“5 Signs It’s Time to Hire an Assistant”

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 01:49:16 +0000

While many business-owners have difficulty delegating work, at a certain point it becomes necessary to move the business forward. Hiring an assistant can help you run things more efficiently, letting you focus on the big picture as your assistant takes care of administrative tasks. Some companies hire admins to work on-site, but many others are using virtual assistants to take care of tasks like scheduling or invoicing remotely.
Here are five signs that you need an assistant.
1.    You forget to perform tasks like updating your website or confirming appointments. Sure, the world keeps turning even if your website hasn’t been updated or a few appointments get missed. But think how much better off your business could be if you didn’t have to think about these tasks or feel guilty for forgetting them! An assistant can easily be trained to help with marketing or scheduling so that these business functions always happen when they should.
2.    You waste time looking for lost documents or emails. In addition to your time spent performing menial tasks, losing an invoice or accidently deleting an email costs you even more time! If you’re so frazzled that this happens on a regular basis, then it’s time to hire help. An assistant will ensure that you stay on top of invoicing and filing so that you don’t miss payments or make costly administrative mistakes.
3.    You don’t have time to see family or friends. Every entrepreneur needs some downtime to relax and recharge. Spending time with family and friends is a great way to do this, so if you find yourself skipping out on brunches or birthday parties in favor of work, then it’s probably time to reprioritize. Hiring an assistant, even one who works just a few hours a week, frees you up to focus on what matters. And having time for yourself and the people you care about will also benefit your business, because you’ll be refreshed and ready to tackle new challenges.

4. Your billable rate is higher than an assistant. Hopefully this is the case for most business-owners. Let’s say that you bill client at $100/hour and an assistant bills you $20/hour. Rather than taking time away from your paying clients to send out invoices or book appointments, pay an assistant her $20/hour while you earn $100/hour from your clients. Even after you pay your assistant, you’ll still bring in $80/hour that you otherwise wouldn’t have time to earn. So when you think about it mathematically, hiring an assistant makes a lot of sense (and cents)!
5. You’ve been putting off tasks that you dislike. Most of us have tasks we dread doing, such as filing, following up on overdue invoices, or balancing the books. Imagine if *poof* all those ugly little tasks magically got done so you could spend time on more important tasks (because, let’s face it, many of us waste time procrastinating on these sorts of tasks anyway).

It doesn’t take a fairy godmother or a magic wand. All it takes is a little legwork to find someone you trust to get the job done.

Once you decide to hire an assistant, you can ask your colleagues for recommendations or log into websites such as IVAA.org (the International Virtual Assistants Association) to start your search.

Self-made multimillionaire entrepreneur and Inc. 500 CEO Ali Brown is devoted to creating financial freedom for women globally through the power of entrepreneurship. To learn how to create wealth and live an extraordinary life now, register for her free weekly articles at www.AliBrown.com

There are other sites especially ACS (A Clayton’s Secretary) www.asecretary.com.au/ .

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Something Entirely Different …

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:41:16 +0000

In the words of Monty Python – now for something entirely different.

This snippet is taken from a newspaper column written by David J. Pollay journalist and writer back in 2007.

“One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were
driving in the left lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a
parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his
brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches!

The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly. So I asked, ‘Why did you just do that? That idiot almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!’
This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, ‘The Law of the Garbage Truck.’

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around
full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment.
As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they’ll dump it on you. Don’t take it personally.
Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don’t take their garbage
and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.
The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take
over their day.
Life’s too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so:
Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don’t.
Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!”

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How Do Spammers Get E-mail Addresses?

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 02:51:36 +0000

Conventionally, spammers obtain e-mail addresses from public sources such as newsgroups; forums, or the “TO:” and “CC:” lines of e-mail messages with an extensive circulation.

It has been known for some unscrupulous Internet service providers to rent out their customer list to earn extra income, but it probably doesn’t happens much these days due to the increasingly restrictive “anti-spam” legislations.

However, would you believe that there is a way for spammers to get your e-mail address – even if you’ve never, ever, used it.

It is called a “dictionary harvest attack” where legitimate e-mail addresses are found by brute force; guessing valid e-mail addresses at a domain using different permutations of common usernames.

The most targeted technique is to create a list that combines common first name and surnames and initials. For example jdoe@example.com, johnd@example.com, or johndoe@example.com. For each message the example.com mail system will either accept the message, which means the address is valid, or decline it with an “invalid mailbox” message, which means that address is discarded.

If you have your own e-mail domain, and you have a “catch-all” account for unallocated addresses, then you’ve probably seen spam addressed to “webmaster@” or “manager@” for example.

The larger e-mail providers are aware of this and battle against these attacks. Computers that attempt to send out multiple messages with such a pattern should be blocked; but it is very difficult for computer systems to differentiate between a dictionary harvest attack and other, genuine, high-volume mailings such as e-mail newsletters.

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Multi-tasking

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:39:23 +0000

I thought that multi-tasking was specific to the female of our species – apparently not. So I could not resist this article to restart my blogging.

This great article by Mary McDonald, CEO/CTO of the McDonald Consulting Group http://www.mcdcg.com/10.html , an occasional client of mine, explains why multi-tasking can be detrimental to productivity.

Multi-tasking vs. Single Focus

People have different opinions on multi-tasking vs. one focus approach… so which is better?

“The Myth of Multitasking” by Christine Rosen details several reasons why multi-tasking is not the optimum approach:

a fall in IQ (more so than if the subject were smoking marijuana
decrease in learning
negative impact on productivity (affecting the economy?)
lost ‘brain time’ as the brain works to juggle several tasks
and many more.

I’ve seen first-hand how multi-tasking affects our decision making — while sitting at a light waiting to make a left, I watched a woman coming through the intersection from the other side, talking on a cell phone, and drive right into a telephone pole. She never braked until she actually impacted the pole; and she continue to chat as she got out of the SUV to inspect her damage! Unluckily for her, a patrol car was at the red light on the cross street; he simply flicked on his lights and pulled over to write her up.

When trying to get a project complete, divide the project into smaller tasks. This tip: do those smaller tasks in their entirety prior to moving on to the next step.

Good ways to accomplish this:

ignore the phone and email while working on a project
set aside time on your calendar to do research, gather materials, and write rough drafts
work from start to finish without pause, if possible
if you must break, take a break at a logical stopping point, and leave your materials in place for easy restart

WARNING: These simple ideas may cause you to become more focused, productive, and happy. PROCEED WITH CAUTION!

Terence Kierans CAVB (Certified Australian Virtual Business)
Principal, Cyberspace Virtual Services, Western Australia
www.virtualservices.com.au – Experience the Difference
www.virtualservices.com.au/CVS_blog – My contribution to business owners
www.avbn.com.au – Australian Virtual Business Network—You Deserve the Best
2007 Thomas Leonard International VA of Distinction Award Nominee
Contented Member of ‘A Clayton’s Secretary’
Use our skills to help you succeed
Tel: 61 8 9304 6983 Fax: 61 8 9304 3202 Mobile: 61 414 25 1091 UK Residents: 07092391723

Having problems coping with all that paperwork?
Turn those piles into files and find any document
in 10 seconds or less!
http://tinyurl.com/64ag2

Fast Addressing

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 04:01:32 +0000

Picking up, at long last, from the theme in an earlier post here is another tip regarding email.

If you want to send an email while surfing the web, there is no need to open your email program.

Just type in mailto:, without the quotes and don’t forget the colon, in the browser location box, where a Web site URL normally goes. Then, without spacing, type the email address of your recipient. Press “Enter” and your email application message window will open with the email already addressed for you.

A Parable for Today’s World

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 23:12:41 +0000

I can’t believe so much time has passed simcve I last posted to this blog – and even Christmas has come and gone.

A break in the thread.

I don’t know the origin of this, but feel it very applicable to the current world economic situation.

So, with grateful thanks to the author —

The Man Who Sold Hot Dogs

There was a man who lived by the side of the road and sold hot dogs.

He was hard of hearing so he had no radio.

He had trouble with his eyes so he read no newspapers.

But he sold good hot dogs.

He put up signs on the highway telling how good they were.

He stood on the side of the road and cried; “Buy a hot dog, mister?

And people bought.

He increased his meat and bun orders.

He bought a bigger stove to take care of his trade.

He finally got his son home from college to help him out.

But then something happened.

His son said, “Father, haven’t you been listening to the radio?

Haven’t you been reading the newspapers?

There’s a big depression.

The European situation is terrible.

The domestic situation is worse.”

Where upon the father thought, “Well, my son’s been to college, he reads the papers and he listens to the radio, and he ought to know.”

So the father cut down on his meat and bun orders, took down his advertising signs, and no longer bothered to stand out on the highway to sell his hot dogs.

And his hot dog sales fell almost overnight.

“You’re right, son” the father said to the boy.

“We certainly are in the middle of a great depression.”

Terence Kierans CAVB (Certified Australian Virtual Business)
Principal, Cyberspace Virtual Services, Western Australia
www.virtualservices.com.au – Experience the Difference
www.virtualservices.com.au/CVS_blog – My contribution to business owners
www.avbn.com.au – Australian Virtual Business Network—You Deserve the Best
2007 Thomas Leonard International VA of Distinction Award Nominee
Contented Member of ‘A Clayton’s Secretary’
Use our skills to help you succeed
Tel: 61 8 9304 6983 Fax: 61 8 9304 3202 Mobile: 61 414 25 1091 UK Residents: 07092391723

Having problems coping with all that paperwork?
Turn those piles into files and find any document
in 10 seconds or less!
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Allow Your Email Messages to Accumulate

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 03:19:40 +0000

Email has become a necessary evil. Let those messages accumulate a little before interrupting what you are doing to respond

Even if your business structure requires prompt response to email messages try only responding once every half-hour or even hourly. Doing it this way will decrease the number of interruptions to your workflow. It may not be possible for you to make use of this strategy, but if you can, then there is a number of benefits.

Very often, relevant information supplied in email messages tends to arrive bit by bit. So, by responding to your email messages only periodically, you can collect those threads all at once, reducing the amount of time spent on each issue. Using this approach will also minimise indulging in trivial email discussions.

Terence Kierans CAVB (Certified Australian Virtual Business)
Principal, Cyberspace Virtual Services, Western Australia
www.virtualservices.com.au – Experience the Difference
www.virtualservices.com.au/CVS_blog – My contribution to business owners
www.avbn.com.au – Australian Virtual Business Network—You Deserve the Best
2007 Thomas Leonard International VA of Distinction Award Nominee
Contented Member of ‘A Clayton’s Secretary’
Use our skills to help you succeed
Tel: 61 8 9304 6983 Fax: 61 8 9304 3202 Mobile: 61 414 25 1091 UK Residents: 07092391723

Having problems coping with all that paperwork?
Turn those piles into files and find any document
in 10 seconds or less!
http://tinyurl.com/64ag2