Hey gang!

Yeah, I know it’s Operations Month. I couldn’t help but share with you all a shining example of awesome Customer Service tied into my internal business Operations. Those Four Spheres of business sure are interconnected!

Two days ago, I received an email from a vendor of mine which said:

“Action Required: JotForm Forms on your website

 As part of an ongoing investigation, a US Government agency has temporarily suspended our jotform.com domain. We are fully cooperating with them, but it is not possible to say when the domain would be unblocked.”

My response – holy sh*t! 

In an effort to make my business run smoother, I use JotForm in the Operations side of my business. Actually, I use them Marketing and Sales and Operations. Their services are easy to set-up and seamlessly integrate to any process. 

This news was scary! What happens to my stuff?  Gratefully, in the same email they offered a solution:

“To make sure your forms continue operating, we have created new domains. Please change your form URLs on your website from…”

Awesome! They figured out how to keep me up and running – total points to them. Less freak out for me.

It gets better though!

Today I received a follow-up email from them sharing resolution.

“JotForm.com is Back Online

We’re happy to share a good news with you. The domain suspension at jotform.com has been lifted…. I wish we could provide more details about what happened, but we are also in the dark. We have not been given any information by Godaddy or the Secret Service, other than our domain being suspended “as part of an ongoing law enforcement investigation.” 

They went on to do even more for me by

1) acknowledging this action was scary for me and potentially trust breaking.

2) telling me what they learned from this thing that happened.

3) telling me what immediate and long term changes they are making as a result of this activity so they earn back my trust.

What this demonstrated to me

1) This vendor, whom I trusted, really values my business. Their honesty, integrity and rapidity in communication respects me and shows me they know their stuff impacts my stuff. They are solution providers not just guys selling stuff. Thy “get” customer service.

2) I really gotta know my internal operations so I can make changes when something totally out of my control impacts my business flow.  I knew where my forms were at, called my web guy, he made the changes, and no bumps in the road.

3) My web guy was on top of this too, before I was. When I told him about it, he said, “yup, I’m on it! Saw the email this morning.” So I totally picked the right service provider who is proactive.

Moral of the Story

Honesty and Integrity in communications builds trust, even when there is bad news happening.

Love you Jot Form. You guys are awesome. You guys always had my trust and to paraphrase a quote from Jerry Maguire, “You had me at “Action Required”.  Thanks for being on top of it so I can be on top of it in my business.

Jessica

The behind the scenes stuff of business is what makes Small Business owners stay up until 3am each night trying to keep up or be able to take a week off and go to Maui knowing business is running like clockwork. Call me for a 30 Minute Sesh. We’ll talk about your behind the scenes and how I can help you develop or tweak your systems so you can automate, duplicate and delegate.

Don’t fence me in! Seriously! I’m creative, I love the mind mapping splat my brain feels like when I work. I come up with magnificent ideas when I free associate! 

Don’t fence me in! (feel free to sing along here then pick me up again underneath)

Problem is for us creatives, lots of stuff falls through the cracks if we don’t have a checklist to make sure we’re delivering what we said we would. 

It’s easier for us to start from something than nothing and thank goodness for the interwebs where we find pre-made checklists to help us out. Here are two of my favorite things for us creative folk:

The Behance Action Book: Built for creative minsd with dots, not lines. Easy to us and very visual.

Mama Megolith Microsoft Office Pre-made lists: Yup, just go online at Office.Microsoft.com and click the templates tab. The world is your oyster.

Of course, nothing beats a piece of paper with TO-DO at the top with about 10 lines on it.  

Keep it easy and simple. Hang onto all your past to-do lists from about two weeks. Take 20 minutes one day and see if you find things you’re doing every day/week/month.  See all that stuff you do regularly? Can you delegate or automate any of it? Is it stuff you love to do? I’ll bet it’s not, otherwise why write it down!

Those old checklists are your building block to getting you more time to be creative in the day so you don’t have to be fenced in!

Jessica

I love to unleash my creative brain and find busy small business creatives ways to get more from their business. Set up a 30 minute sesh. We’ll talk about what you want and how I take you over the bridge to get there.

Ever ordered a piece of pie at a restaurant? 

The baker has a recipe to make that pie. The recipe includes the ingredients and the tools needed to make the pie and to deliver it to you.

Ever had a piece of pie when something was a little ‘off’? Means the baker probably didn’t follow the recipe. You expected yummy goodness and got “meh” or even “yuck”. Chances are, after getting “meh/yuck” you are now reluctant to order that pie again. Maybe even reluctant to go back to the restaurant.

Every small business serves pie.

Don’t have or follow the recipe = Meh/Yuck.

The recipe for your pie (services and products) has to include two things:

1) the ingredients you put in: your time, data, physical goods

2) the tools to create the end result: a computer, file folders, reference documents, email, delivery van, flour, salt, etc.

I hear all you service providers out there mumbling: “I can’t have/don’t need a recipe because every client is different.”  Bullcrap.  

Underlying every transaction is the “how” we do what we do to achieve the desired result. If it’s consulting, it’s the way you write your document, the computer you use, the way you set up your office for a meeting, how often you schedule meetings, if you use skype, what notepad you have ready to take notes… See what I mean? You have a recipe. Your customers expect it.

When you don’t follow your recipe, your clients and customers get “meh/yuck”. Your service is hit and miss. People don’t return or refer you because they don’t know what they or their friends will get the next time.

Write down your recipe. Follow it.

Every. Single. Time. 

Some of you need help getting your recipe out of your head or writing some new recipes because the old ones aren’t working anymore. How fortunate you are! That’s exactly what I do!  Book a 30 Minute Sesh. We’ll talk it out and I’ll tell you how I can help.

When you sign up for my mailing list at RoomToBreathe.biz, I promise you Rainbows and Unicorns. I’m delivering on my promise (with help from Archie McPhee and the Cult of Unicorn)

Remember to take a make some space in your day for levity, there, my brave small business owner. You got into this to have fun, right?

Jessica

p.s. if you’re getting full on firehose pressure of business coming in your door ’cause the Universe is delivering and you can’t keep up, set up a 30 minute sesh with me. I have behind the scenes magic wands to help you keep up. Okay, it’s not really magic, they are functional systems we design and develop together so they work for your unique small business and suit your authentic personal management style. Magic just sounds so sexy though.

I hear you now – “Jessica, what the hell does Operations mean? I mean isn’t everything behind the scenes in my business ‘operations’ ? “

Uh, no. 

It’s February. My post and content changes now from Marketing and Sales to Operations. To start us all off on the right foot, here’s a little video about operations and where it fits in your small business.  Enjoy!

Operations_Sphere_Feb_2012.mov Watch on Posterous

Jessica

I’m a geeky behind the scenes stuff savant with a fire extinguisher. When you’re runnin’ around with your pants on fire because you can’t keep up with all you need to in your business, go here and book a 30 minute sesh. It’s free and you’ll get some insight on how to put out the fire.

That’s right, I said it. 

Again, today, I bumped up yet another brick wall, uh, I mean, landing page of:

• Watch the 2 minute video.
• “Count me in!” yellow button circled in red with big arrows
• “Free Special Report to make your life better!” with matching branded image
• Form to fill in name and email address

It sucked. I wanted to find out more about this person and their company: how do they do business? what do they stand for?  I run up against what seems to be an ever present funnel for email list building. It’s transparent that I don’t get anything from them unless I’m in their list and, well, I think that’s crap.

Listen, I get it. I totally understand and agree with the premise which says:

The more people in your list, the more marketing spread you have, the more conversions to sale are possible.

Except what’s the turn and burn ratio (people signing up for the free stuff then walking away)? Did they really build a relationship with me in a 3-7-10 day marketing drip? Am I really even their prospect? Or am I just one of many suspects in the pond?

I have a few squeeze or landing pages which are specifically designed for you to call me, connect with me, book an appointment with me and that’s what the button says at the bottom. There is always a call to action and a result requested (that’s just marketing systems 101.)

I have not put a squeeze page up for the specific purpose of building a list.

List building like that just doesn’t fit my business model or work for me.

If you want to be on my Rainbows and Unicorns* email list then great! Go sign up for it on my home page. I will gladly have you as a part of the gang.

I know when you sign up on your own without being forced or bribed to sign up to a list just to get my “Top 5 Things which will…..” ebook/audio/program, it means you genuinely connected with my stuff, what I sell, and/or who I am as a business owner and service provider.

Know what that means? You’ve self selected as someone who is a prospect. Yay! You moved from suspect to prospect! Which means when I do write to you and give you stuff, and I will, you are already more open to working with me at a deeper level.

So, at the risk of swimming upstream from some website marketing pundits, I say screw building a list for the sake of building a list. Stop blocking people from genuinely connecting with you. Stop bribing people to be on your email list. Start rewarding people for joining your list on their own by not advertising all the stuff they get when they give over their email address – just give them valuable content and stuff after they do! You’ll end up with a louder, more loyal, and more consistent group of fans.

Jessica

*I don’t send out actual Rainbows and Unicorns. I haven’t figured out how to get the unicorn to stand still so I can scan him in.

You can join my list at Room To Breathe and learn all about me and my joyfully geeky attitude towards systems and processes that work for you in your small business.

Clearly this month’s theme is all about Marketing and Sales. I mean really, we’re all back from the squishy, mooshy, eat-lots-of-food-networky December goodness, so how could my theme for January be anything other than Marketing and Sales.

In the last two weeks, I’ve been talking (a lot) with clients and prospects about setting up sales scripts. One prospect recently asked: “I need to get my past clients to sign up for my new programs. How do I make calls to my past clients and tell them about what I’m doing since I’ve already reached out to them so much in the past?”

BAckground: This gal is changing her business model to expand and she needed to re-enroll her past clients into the new program/process.

Here’s my response: Be direct. Be honest. 

How many of us have received calls where we know there is a pitch coming, and it is a painful minute waiting for it to show up. I’ve even got to a point with some callers where I interrupt the script and ask them, “how much?”  ”what do you want me to do?”  ”Do I need to re sign-up to the list?” because I just can’t wait to get to the end of the very slow build. It’s painful and also makes me feel like the caller is just not proud of what they have to offer to get right to the point.

You know me, I love building relationships with clients. These calls are about sales and closing a “sale”. Calling past clients, you’ve already got a relationship (I hope). This call is not a 20 minute chat. There is a time and place for that, this ain’t it.

Sales calls are to get an action to happen like an introduction to a new product, service or something else you have. Even when I already know you, it’s a call where you ask me to take action, ask for permission to send me something, or put me on a list so you eventually take action.

Which means you need to know what you want to have happen!

To respect the people you’re calling, and your own time and energy, being direct and clear about your ask is the only way to go. One of the best ways to be that clear is to draw up a very very VERY simple script with your ask built in.  Make a short one for when you get someone live and one when you get voice mail. Make your ask very simple and clear. This is a 1-2 minute conversation at the most.

• “please call me back.”
• “please check your email for something I sent you and call me.”
• “please may I add you to my new mailing list?”

When you get to the point, everyone appreciates it.

As an added bonus, the people who choose to not be a part of your new program/services have just made your life easier because you can now spend you time on people who really do value your new stuff.  If you just can’t let them go, you can ask them for referrals to  people who may be a better fit. I don’t recommend this though. Call me and I’ll tell you why.

So there you go – please be direct not slimy. Thus endeth the lesson.

Jessica

Wanna know more about me and what I do? I’m over at Room To Breathe, working with small businesses sos they can take over the world (or at least their part of it!)

Pithy. Piquant. Brief. Direct. To the point. 

Is there anything wrong with getting to the point quickly? I’m busy, you’re busy, we all have a billion things going on in our lives. We also have a whole pile of visual and audio items assaulting our senses. I believe that I have plenty of other compatriots in this wild world of small business with me* who’d appreciate a “get to it” attitude.

So why then, in this “go-go” world are people still putting up these hugely long sales landing/squeeze webpages? 

Yes, I understand every ad needs to have AIDA in it, and it’s gonna take as long as it’s gonna take. You can still hire a copywriter to get there faster.

All of you wonderful “trail on forever landing/squeeze page” proponents, I understand (kinda) why you’d want to put all of those bullet points addressing my pains, fears and desires on there and then keep on going. You’re still trying to convince me.

Except…

Hey! I’m at your freakin’ site! You already got me through the melee of messaging to click on your link! I’m already piqued! So get to the point and stop attempting to convince me. Call me to action, tell me the price, give me a button that leads me to something other than more sales bullsh*t.

Who’s with me? Let’s start a “get to the point” revolution and eliminate the disgustingly long squeeze page.

Jessica

*Fair disclosure, I am still perfecting the art of writing marekting copy to get you to call me and/or hiring the best fitting copywriter who can write in my tone. It’s a skill. I write my stuff short and to the point because I figure that’s how I’d like to be treated.

Connect with me at Room To Breathe where I show small businesses how to improve their systems so they can get to the next level.

Aloha folks,

This morning I was thinking about how January is full of all kinds of new systems being launched in the world, vying for our attention, to help us get more sales and do our marketing better.

I’m a big fan of trying new things! I love there are so many different ways to attract customers and I love learning about them all.

What’s important as I (and you) see these new systems and start to use them is that we imitate or emulate what we see instead of copying what we see.

Yes, there are best practices in marketing and sales. And yes, if someone is doing the sales and marketing thing better than you, learning from then is entirely appropriate.  remember, though that they have imbued their sales with themselves. Their stuff is working because 1) they know their market, and 2) they are being authentic in their ask.

So while you could copy their stuff (which dances in the plain of legal badness and just plain wrongness);  taking lessons, changing the content to fit you and your style and how you do business, authentically, is a much better way to go.  Afterall, the only difference between you and your competition is YOU!

Examples of some great systems I’m seeing in the world this month: 

Brendon Buchard – 10 Essentials:  Watch my new video “10 Essentials”:

Carolyn Herfurth – Find Your Perfect Peeps:  http://thebiztruth.com/freecall 

Love you, Love your Show!

[[posterous-content:pid___0]]Jessica Clark specializes in creating and improving systems and processes for small business owners so they can automate, duplicate and delegate all the stuff they don’t love to do and get the time, energy, freedom and money they always wanted. Find her at RoomToBreathe.biz (or galavanting all over creation!)

Happy New year all you crazy kids!

Wanted to remind you that it’s January (as if you missed that fact) and I’ll be spending all my bloggy and Enchilada-y time focused on Marketing and Sales!

While M&S are around every month of the year for a small business, it seems that there is some magic fairy dust that gets sprinkled on the midnight moon between December 31 and January 1. We all inhale that dust and presto change-o we have new inspiration, new verve and new ideas to make our businesses go and grow.

So while you’re all pumped up, it’s my job to remind you about the basics and foundation systems that underly all the new sexy stuff everyone has to offer.

This month in the Enchilada, I’m breaking open the AIDA principle. This principle is taught in all marketing classes and is used by all successful firms, big and small. Once you know this, you’ll be able to hold your marketing company, admin assistant, and webguy accountable because you’ll know the four things EVERY piece of advertising must have.

BTW, The Enchilada series is all about giving you immediately applicable skills and tactics so you can more effectively delegate, automate and duplicate the stuff you hate to do in your business so you can go back to doing what you love.

You’ll also see blog posts about other folk in the world doing some rad things with marketing and sales, some classes, some sexy new tools. You know me, I’m giving it all to you!

Are you gonna stick with the Same Old Shit? or go for the Crazy New Shit?

(Photo Courtesy of Melissa Veneer and Empty and Meaningless)

Come on and Join me this month!

Love you, love your show,

Jessica

Room To Breathe.biz