Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

That’s A Great Line

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icon_510299I was listening to one of my new favorite Podcasts yesterday, Ask Me Another. They were interviewing Delia Ephron (Nora’s sister. And if you don’t know who that is, we can’t be friends). Delia was talking about how in her family everyone is a writer. Her dad’s go to phrase around the house was “That’s a Great Line, Write it Down.”
EXCELLENT advice. When moment’s of inspiration hit you, write it down. I often email notes to myself (which I did about this blog post). One of my friends keeps a notebook in his pocket to keep tabs on blog ideas. Whatever you need to do to work for you, keep a running tally of ideas. This can also be refresh content or messaging or a great new sales idea. I have a notebook in my purse at all times, I forever come home with notes from an event and a big circle or list of things “to do.”

The next time you have a great line, write it down!

5 Things I Want in Your Email Signature

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imageThe beauty of the email signature is that it’s versatile. And that’s great. It can show your personality (or lack there of), and it can have colors and font changes, whatever. But here’s the deal, it needs to have 5 things (besides your name/company/title)…

  1. Your Email Address – I know what you’re thinking “umm, I’m emailing you so you have it.” TRUE, but often times I will introduce folks via email and I copy and paste from the signature so they have all each others info up front. Another reason, if you are forwarding or adding someone into an email chain they can snag your email easily if needed.
  2. Phone Number – YES I need your number. Why? Because sometimes the response needs to be a phone call, and I don’t want to go hunting for it.
  3. Social Media– tell me how and where to follow you! Duh, this is an easy way to get more followers, and if I have an introduction to a new person, social media is a GREAT way for me to learn more about you (and vice versa).
  4. URL– I need a link to your website folks. Especially if I don’t know much about you, or you reference something on your site, I don’t want to go hunting for it.
  5. Mobile Signature – everyone has multiple ways of sending and receiving emails these days. If yours is short and to the point and maybe has a typo, let folks know that it came from your smart phone or tablet. And make it clever and personal to you. Your mobile signature really only needs to say “sent from my mobile device” it doesn’t need all the other stuff. Unless you’re traveling for a while and it’s best for folks to have your phone number too.

I know there are ton of other things you can add to your newsletter but most importantly make sure it’s clean and helpful for folks. I don’t need 5 ways to call you. I don’t need a fax number (I mean, really? Do I?) Your email signature is your digital business card, make sure I get what I need, so I can easily answer you every time.

So this quiet end of August work week, take a moment to review your email signature and make sure it’s representative of you, helpful to your potential clients, current clients and your network.

Properly Placing the Blame

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MjAxMy1iZTk3ZDZhOTMxMTVkZWNhI have a client who I am having a heck of a time with their Google+ page. Somehow two pages were setup, one is a page, one is a brand, and the client has no idea what the login is for one of them, and G+ isn’t helping me to identify it. I’m SUPER frustrated and trying my best to figure it out and not just blame “stupid google+” for the issue. And, I’m also hoping my client doesn’t blame me for this issue. It’s wasting a lot of time and money and mostly I just want to throw it out the window. SUPER Frustrating.

Yesterday I got a voicemail from a healthcare provider I recently visited. The appointment wasn’t great, and now I’m trying to submit the information to my insurance to get the claim paid to me, since this provider doesn’t bill directly. The voicemail I received was “I just spent a half hour trying to get through to them, and they want this private information I don’t want you to have, and I am so frustrated I might as well just pay you myself so this all goes away.”

So that was SUPER professional, mature and makes me want to hire this person again…Sure it’s not their fault my insurance wants what they want, and it’s OK by me if they don’t want to work directly with the insurance provider. but if you’re in the healthcare industry, you need to either deal with it, or figure out another solution.

It’s always going to be easier to blame someone else to keep up appearances and make yourself look good to your client. And sometimes it really isn’t your fault and making sure the client knows you did all you can is important. But, more often than not, you look like you’re making up excuses when you place the blame on someone else. I hired you to do a job, do it, or tell me you can’t do it up front and we’ll figure out someone who can do it.