Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

What Does It Even Mean?

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imagesMy client forwarded an email to me today and all he said was “I’m just forwarding this because it is one of the MOST RIDICULOUS SENTENCES I HAVE SEEN IN PRINT IN THE IT INDUSTRY.” And oh boy was it.

Here’s the deal folks, we get into our industry and our expertise and we forget that not everyone speaks the same lingo as we do. OR conversely, you are so nervous you’ll look like a novice that you use too much lingo and the expert doesn’t know what you’re talking about (too many times have I had to quickly google an acronym while sitting in a client meeting).

I know I’ve told you folks before, if you write something, step away from it for the night (or at least a few hours) and then read it again. If you can’t wait, have someone else read it for you (find a partner you can swap this with). But, good grief, no one knows what Optimize Your Physical Identity Management from Your Secure and Budget-Friendly Cloud means.

And that’s their fault, not mine.

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.

Fighting for the Sale

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imgresI had a great coaching call this morning with a client. He mentioned that he so often hears speakers talk about over coming objections and how to “handle” the objections. And as we talked, we’re both of the same mind on this one: DON’T.
Yeah, I said it. Don’t hound people for the sale. Sure for the price of 15 cups of coffee a week you can afford my service, but do you NEED my service? Are you willing to do the work? This is where my favorite sales tip comes into play: BLESS & RELEASE.
If someone isn’t ready to buy, and they understand what you do and that it has value but they aren’t ready, then bless and release them. Add them to your newsletter list, connect with them on social media so you stay in touch, but stop hounding them. They’ll only be resentful of giving you their money and they’ll leave as soon as they can.
Wouldn’t you prefer clients who WANT to work with you and aren’t stressed about working with you because they didn’t give up their coffee habit to afford you like you suggested?