Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

I’d be a Terrible Investment Banker

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Open 24 7 red grunge stamp isolated on whiteOn Sunday my husband and I walked up to get coffee. It was a nice cold clear morning, and a good walk. While at the coffee shop I got a text from a colleague confirming I had received the 2 emails sent on Saturday. I responded “yup, I don’t work weekends, will get to them tomorrow!”

My husband then said “you’d make a terrible investment banker.” Besides all the OBVIOUS reasons – he’s right. Although investment bankers make a TON of money, they’re never home to enjoy their toys because they work 24/7. My husband mentioned how a colleague emailed an investment banker at midnight (Pacific) and got a response 5 minutes later (so, 3:05 AM in New York).

No, I will not be available 24/7 for you.

I don’t care how much you want to pay me. My evenings and weekends are MINE, you can’t have them.

Feel free to work whenever you want to work, that’s just fine. I don’t mind getting email responses at 2 am from someone, I keep my phone on do not disturb while I sleep, do what you need to do. But make sure you know not every one operates the way you do.

My clients all know that I’m not a morning person so we don’t schedule calls before 10 AM, it’s safer for everyone. I communicate with my clients – when I’ll be out of town or busy or unavailable – expectations are set up front. And the clients who want 24/7 access? I’m happy to make a referral to someone who’d do that for you.

What Systems Are You Missing?

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spiderman reward system - genius
Reward systems worked as a kid, and they can work now too!

I’ve had a lot of conversations lately about getting SYSTEMS into place. The hardest part about running a small business is being consistent because you’re doing all the things. I got an email this morning from a friend that they need a strategy and system for their newsletters. I had a conversation last week with a speaker who needs to put follow up systems in place so that those warm leads in the room get followed up with before they are on to the next speaker pitch.

I wrote about this in my newsletter this month too. You need systems in place to be successful. Why isn’t your business growing? Because you got busy and forgot to circle back. One quick follow up isn’t going to do the trick, it takes at least 4 interactions to get the sale and often time closer to 10-12.

What Systems are you Lacking? 

  • A monthly schedule for your newsletter so you know when it’s going out
  • A template for your follow up email so it’s ready to go before your big speech
  • A social media schedule so you aren’t wasting time online (unless you want to!)
  • Blog categories & schedules so you know what you’re going to write about each week (yes week!)
  • A professionally done video instead of doing demo webinars every week

What do you need to do to get these systems in place?

  • If you need to talk it through, that’s what I’m here for
  • If you have a virtual assistant who can manage it, add it to their list
  • Assign 1 blog post a month to 4 employees – BOOM
  • Outsource inside your team
  • Outsource outside your team
  • Leave the things you don’t like to those who do like it (God Bless Accountants!)

Stop talking about it. Get your systems in place.

No, You DON’T Understand

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no you don't understandI was listening to The Nerdist podcast this weekend, Chris Hardwick had Jen Kirkman on and they were talking about customer service. Evidently Jen Kirkman LOVES customer service as much as I love good follow up. They had a great conversation about customer service with some great points, take a listen if you’re in customer service. There were a few points worth repeating…

Here’s the deal – you don’t always know how someone feels, so don’t lie. Hardwick mentioned how he had a device malfunction and then break and he was being charged for it by his service provider. When he called to get it taken care of the customer service rep said “oh man, I totally understand, I’ve been there.” Really? Please don’t lie.

Good customer service is about being a real person. YES relate to the customer, but don’t make something up. “Wow, I’ve never heard that one before” is OK to say – “let’s find a manager and get this figured out because I know none of these questions I’m supposed to ask you are going to do anything and will only make you angrier.” WHY don’t companies empower their employees to do this?

No one says anything nice about Comcast, except my dad. He believes he’s found the secret – he goes to the store. He walks in, he gets helped faster than if he was on the phone, AND the real human in front of him is always competent and has the power to fix any issues he’s having. This has happened ZERO times for me on the phone with Comcast. WHY?

Your front desk admin, your call center, your help desk team: Give them the power to be a real person, to acknowledge and be honest when they don’t have the answer. Don’t put me on hold for 10 minutes while you Google the solution, I did that you idiot. Tell me you need to research it and when it’s figured out you’ll call me back. (And obviously then call me back!). Educate and train your team so that they do have the answer, and they can help and really think instead of just following a script that leads to angry customers.