Up Front Communication

Helping people and businesses through the art of communication

Browsing posts in: Connecting

Making cold calls red hot

Feb 14, 2014 Posted by sergy@upfrontco.com Connecting Comments Off on Making cold calls red hot

The term ‘cold calling’ strikes fear into the hearts of many a professional.  Heaven’s knows it does to me.

Cold calling, though, has its place.  Actually, it can be a very useful activity for both the caller and the receiver. It can save time and energy, create new connections and opportunity, and grow your network.  These happy outcomes depend a fair bit on the preparation of the caller.

“Cold calling” is a bit of a misnomer; the person you are calling might be cold, but you as the caller are not.  Before calling, research your targets and know why it is you want to do business with them, why the two of you are a good match, and how your services or products can benefit them in particular.  Note: you must know how your officer is going to benefit that person.  Not the business down the street or the office three floors up.  You need to be specific and precise, tailoring each conversation and approach to the particular person on the other end of the line.

You also need to have your product/service description down pat.  In one short sentence – 20 words or less – describe what you do so that the listener doesn’t have to wonder how your business is relevant to them.  Follow up that brief sentence with another brief (BRIEF!) blurb on how you will either increase their profits or somehow make their life easier; understand how they specifically will benefit from you, and give them that info with absolute clarity.  Finally, tell them why you are the ideal person to do this for them.  Again, keep it short – this isn’t the time to trot out your resume or CV, or list the 37 influential people you do business with it.  One or two sentences.  You should be able to say it in a single breath without rushing or wheezing.

The above might sound straightforward, but it takes serious preparation work.  Get as much info on the company as you are able and craft each call individually.  This will take you from cold calling to smoking hot calling.  You’ll be listened to with greater attention and received with greater interest, because the person on the other end of the line will know that you know your stuff and won’t waste their time.  Don’t expect this call to land you a deal or get you new business.  In the case of cold calling, I define success as genuine requests for more information and scheduling follow-up conversations.  If you’ve gotten their attention and have made them willing to give you more time and attention, then you’ve done well.

Off the Introspective Cuff

Sep 27, 2013 Posted by sergy@upfrontco.com Connecting Comments Off on Off the Introspective Cuff

One of the keys to being able to ramble out a good, solid off-the-cuff or spontaneous speech is introspection – and lots of it.

The purpose behind this introspection isn’t to indulge in endless navel-gazing.  That’s what Facebook and Instagram are for.  This self-reflection is to develop an acute awareness of your values, your personal drivers, and your thoughts on life, the universe, and everything.*

When making spontaneous speeches, we need to rely on tidbits of information that we hold in our head.  There isn’t time to ponder and compose an answer, and we may be lacking data critical to making an informed argument.  We can, however, always give our opinion on matters.  This is where the introspection comes in: if we spend time thinking about how our own brain works, we can address subjects from a personal angle.  This may not result in a speech with heavy hitting evidence and data to back up your opinion, but it will result in something (relatively) thoughtful.  You can speak to how you think about the topic or situation, about what affects your views and opinions, about how it relates to your own context.  And – prize of prize – you can do so with sincerity because you are ultimately revealing a part of yourself to your audience, and you take the time to think about yourself and your context.

Speaking is about sharing. We don’t always have the luxury of being able to share facts, but we can always share a piece of ourselves.  But in order to share ourselves, we must understand ourselves first.

 

 

 

*42.

How-to: Writing Recommendations for LinkedIn Contacts

Aug 25, 2013 Posted by sergy@upfrontco.com Connecting Comments Off on How-to: Writing Recommendations for LinkedIn Contacts

Lately, I have been brushing up my LinkedIn profile.  If you don’t use LinkedIn, I strongly recommend that you create a profile.  It really is a great way to keep in touch with professional and business contacts and build your professional network.

LinkedIn has a couple of different tools you can use to vet the work, skills, and abilities of your contacts: Endorse and Recommend.  Endorsements allow you to either click on skills that already appear in your contact’s profile or enter in new skills. This “endorses” the skills that appear on your contact’s profile; other people will see your name and photo beside that skills. It effectively states that you agree that the contact possesses those particular abilities.

Recommend is an even stronger tool.  It lets you write a few sentences describing the work and abilities of your contact; you can describe what it is like to work with this person, how having them as a colleague or business associate has affected you, and how they will benefit other employers or clients. It is like a mini-referral. Recommendations appear under the relevant work title of the contact, which puts the recommendation into context. You can send messages through LinkedIn requesting recommendations from other people and post recommendations to anyone in your contacts list.

As you can tell, I’m a fan.  The only problem is that LinkedIn’s current interface makes it tricky to find the Recommend function. I’ve had several people ask me how to do this, so I’ve created the following tutorial to guide you through the process.  Enjoy!

Note: For best viewing quality, watch the tutorial on YouTube using the ‘Large Player’ setting.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikwCqS8SoXc&w=420&h=315]

Are you a LinkedIn user? If so, what are your favourite features?

 

Information is precious: give generously

May 31, 2013 Posted by sergy@upfrontco.com Connecting Comments Off on Information is precious: give generously

I interrupt your current series on Conference Terror to refer you to today’s blog post by Seth Godin:

Hoarding Information

 

Information – good information – is a precious thing.  If it is ours to give, we shouldn’t be afraid of giving generously.  Generosity tends to be reciprocated.  It doesn’t mean that you should happily do all your work for free – generosity does not go hand-in-hand with self-imposed poverty.  Actually, it means the opposite.  When you give, people give back.  It is unlikely someone is going to steal your material; it is much more probably that they’ll cite you, give you credit, and refer people back to your work.

Just like I’m doing here.*

So share your knowledge.  It feels great, and the returns are very much worth your while.

 

*It isn’t like Seth Godin needs my approbation or referrals – even I’m not that egotistical.  I like his work, and I like pointing people his way so that they can like his work too.

The wall

Mar 16, 2013 Posted by sergy@upfrontco.com Connecting Comments Off on The wall

When we feel under threat, misunderstood, ill-used, or otherwise hard done by, we tend to put up walls.  They are our mental defence mechanism, a way of deflecting conversations that might make us feel bad, or uncomfortable, or wrong.

When we say that someone “put a wall up between us,” we usually refer to someone becoming quiet and stony when the conversation gets heated.  Silence is definitely a type of wall.  But it isn’t the only type.

Some people build their walls out of words.  They fill the space between them and the person they’re speaking to with noise.  Maybe they don’t let the other person get a word in edgewise.  Maybe they turn the conversation into a strange sort of two-way monologue, saying only what is racing through their head and not taking time to address or even listen to the other person’s input.  Still others use words to re-direct and deflect uncomfortable conversations on a tangential topic.  This is as much a communication wall as the silent treatment, only it is masked with a flood of unhelpful verbosity.

What kind of wall do you build?  Do you choose to shut down or refuse to shut up?  What can you do differently to break your wall down?

Pages:12›