Since then they have started referring me into some of their clients, so it’s a ‘win-win-win’ all round. They’re happy, I’m happy and so will their clients be!

Chris Bourke
Auditel Cost Management
‘Lowering the cost of doing business’

“I can quite honestly say that within 2 hours of initially meeting Lisette I had problem solved more challenges within my business than I had over the previous 6 months.
Since undertaking Sandler training with her my business income tripled within the first month and my pipeline began to stabilise. The great results just keep on coming.” February 8, 2011

Top qualities: Great Results, Good Value, Creative

________

 “We chose the Sandler System for its logical and highly effective approach to client centred selling. Lisette Howlett, Sandler London Central is fearless and inspirational in her delivery. Her approach and support to our business, using the Sandler techniques, has had a fundamental and positive impact on our success. Just last week I closed three pieces of business in the same day – something I might only have dreamed about in the past.” February 9, 2011

Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, Good Value

________

 “Money, sales and negotiation have always made me really uncomfortable – which meant that in the past I was very good at ‘unselling’ myself to prospective clients, discounting my rates as soon as someone raised an eyebrow, and giving lengthy free reviews and consultations, never to hear from the person again once they had all the free advice. Lisette excels at giving people more control and confidence in the sales process, so you come across as less needy and desperate, both parties’ expectations are clearer, and you can interact with a prospective client on an equal level. Lisette herself is very gentle and supportive but won’t hold back from explaining exactly how and where you are losing potential clients and business. The Sandler approach – practiced properly, as Lisette does – is very natural, conversational, un-salesy, and very much about understanding a prospective client and ultimately helping them. In the first instance I highly recommend trying out one of Lisette’s short workshops and seeing if it’s right for you.” March 12, 2012

Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Expert

________

“I recently attended Lisette’s Sales Training. What a force of nature she is! Her approach to selling is direct, effective, credible yet persuasive in a non pushy manner. We were given practical examples of selling techniques, not just theory. Lisette’s delivery is highly professional but also very entertaining. Strongly recommended!” March 14, 2012

Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, Creative

“If a man or wo does not make new acquaintance as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, Sir, should keep his friendship in constant repair.”

- Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784) 

Love what you do and be passionate when talking about it.  Clients will spread the word for you, helping to build the network you need to grow your business.

… Nigel Cutts, The Little Book of Love at Work

There are two ways to extend a business.  Take inventory of what you’re good at and extend out from your skills.  Or determine what your customers need and work backward, even if it requires learning new skillls.  Kindle is an example of working backward…

Jeff Bezos

People often feel daunted by the thought of writing about themselves or their businesses, whether for a newsletter, article, blog post or mailshot. If writing is not your forte it is much better to write something short and simple than to get too ambitious and end up lost in a tangle of convoluted sentences and subordinate clauses. In addition, while the latter may win literary prizes, the former is generally much more effective for business and marketing communications.

You may find the following five tips/guidelines useful if you freeze when presented with a blank page or lack confidence in your writing skills. (Like any rules or guidelines, if you are a master of your craft feel free to break them.)

1. Keep ‘talking’

Try to write more or less the way you talk. Writing does need to be more structured and polished, and sometimes you may need some dramatic effect, but try to think of it as a well-organised, heightened form of speech. By doing so your writing will sound more natural and more personal, and your personality will come through – making what you write immediately more interesting and readable. Where people often come unstuck is that when they write they start to communicate in a way they would never do if they were talking to someone; they become long-winded, overly formal, use too much jargon and focus entirely on themselves rather than the people they are communicating with.

2. Keep it short

• Use lots of short sentences (10 words or less) and short paragraphs (3 or 4 sentences). Firstly, you are less likely to lose track of subjects/objects/verbs etc and get tied up in the grammar. Secondly, your reader will find your writing easier to read, and is, therefore, more likely to keep on reading. Thirdly, this style of writing is web friendly (people skim read online so screen text should be about half the length of its paper-based equivalent).
• If you can say something in fewer words, do so. Be sparing in your use of descriptive words – too many can sound flowery or overblown. Use less ‘padding’ at the start of sentences, for example, ‘in addition’ or ‘of course’.  Phrases can often be replaced by a single word, such as ‘to’ instead of ‘in order to’ or ‘cut’ rather than ‘make an incision’.
• When you have finished writing, always read through your copy. There will invariably be words, phrases or even entire paragraphs, you can remove. Also read your finished copy aloud (or, even better, get someone else to). If you find yourself stumbling or running out of breath, you probably need to shorten your sentences. This will also naturally highlight where your punctuation needs attention. If you need to add a pause for the copy to make sense, you may need to insert a comma or semicolon.
• However, there is a caveat when considering the overall length of a piece. While it’s always good to cut out waffle and empty words, if you have persuasive, interesting content, a longer piece can be more effective. For example, research has shown that longer direct mail letters get higher response rates than shorter ones. To make long copy easier to read, if appropriate for the piece, use devices like bullet points and sub-headings to chunk the text into shorter, more digestible sections.

3. Keep it simple

• Abba’s staggering success is a great example of the power of simple language: look at the song titles listed on ‘Abba Gold – Greatest Hits) and you will notice the only words with more than two syllables are proper names. Rather than proving an obstacle, their Swedish roots which meant they used a simple English vocabulary, resulted in lyrics that were very emotional and engaging – eg ‘Knowing me, knowing you’, ‘I have a dream’ or ‘Money, money, money’ (the latter incidentally, also being a good example of a tricolon – the power of saying things in threes). Short, simple words tend to be of Anglo Saxon origin rather than Latinate and give a writer two key advantages. They are easier to read, take in and understand, and secondly have more emotional impact – which is important, as, especially when it comes to buying, people are swayed more by their hearts than their heads. For example, compare ‘buy’/'purchase’, ‘talk’/'discussion’, ‘near’/'adjacent’, ‘dog’/'canine’, ‘drink’/'beverage’ and ‘get’/'acquire’. Do balance this with consideration of your reader; for some target audiences greater use of elegant, formal Latinate words may be  appropriate.
• Again this depends on your audience, but generally it’s a good idea to limit your use of technical terms, business jargon and acronyms. For example, rather than ‘granular’ why not just say ‘detailed’? If you think your target audience may not understand a term, avoid it altogether and use an everyday equivalent instead.
• The most effective copy is single minded (think about how much easier it is to catch a ball when just one is thrown at you rather than several all at once). Before you start writing, work out the one key message or benefit you wish to convey – sometimes referred to as a USP /Unique Selling Proposition. It could be ‘we’re an HR company with expertise in construction’ or ‘accountancy recruitment by ex-accountants’, but whatever it is make sure it comes through your copy, particularly at the start and finish. Do weave in other facts and secondary benefits to support this key message, but have one clear thread of thought running through your writing.

4. Keep it interesting

• Make your content interesting. Tell your audience something they don’t know. Entertain them. Tell them a story. Amuse them. Provoke them. Challenge them. Tease them. Whatever you do, don’t bore them.
• Make your style interesting. Vary your wording and your sentence structure. Short words, short sentences and an active voice are generally recommended for business and marketing writing and getting people to act, but do mix things up – otherwise things get very dull, like someone talking in a monotone. So try to sprinkle some elegant,  multi-syllable Latinate words in amongst your short, sharp, driving Anglo Saxon words.
• Avoid repetition – whether it’s using the same word twice in a sentence or in consecutive sentences (if stuck get a thesaurus), or simply repeating the same points.
• Grab your reader’s attention and leave them on a high. Make sure your first and last paragraph are as interesting and engaging as possible.

5. Keep 100% focused on your reader

• Most important of all is knowing and focusing on your target audience. Find out who they are, what they do and what they enjoy. Then shape your content, your language and your tone of voice around them, so your writing is highly targeted and, therefore, more effective. A good tip is to visualise your primary target audience embodied as one ‘real’ person and to imagine you are talking to this person when you write. You would probably talk in a very different way to a 50 year-old corporate lawyer than to a teenager, so do the same when you write.
• Features vs benefits vs problem solving. Instead of focusing on your features (eg ‘a mid-size accountancy firm with many staff having previously worked at top City firms ’), spend more time explaining how they actually benefit your reader (eg ‘we offer the same level of expertise but more affordable rates than large City firms and a more personal service’). Taking this a step further, in particular, focus on any problems or concerns you can solve for the reader, because ‘pain’ (rather than pleasure) is the strongest buying motivator. So, for example, our accountancy firm should explain how they can help the reader if they are ‘anxious they are paying too much tax, worried about cashflow and stock control or frustrated by staff spending too much time on accountancy procedures’.
• Use ‘you’. Direct marketing guru Drayton Bird quotes research that showed using ‘you’ and ‘your’ 2 or 3 times as often as ‘we’, ‘I’ or ‘our’, makes copy much more effective. Once again, you are focusing on your reader.
• What would you like the reader to do? Do remember to put in a ‘call to action’ if you need one; whether it’s to contact you via phone or email, visit your stall at a trade show or act by a certain date to take advantage of a special offer.

Caroline Hampstead is an award-winning, London-based advertising and marketing copywriter. Phone: 07947883048. Email: info(at)carolinehampstead(dot)com Website: www.carolinehampstead.com

TO BOOK:

Email Lisette at lisettehowlett(at)sandler(dot)com or complete the booking form online at http://www.londoncentral.sandler.com/forms/show/1737  (where you can also find out more about the workshop & other 2012 dates). To get the workshop free BRX members should contact Lisette for the password to put in the Promotional code box or mention you are a BRX member when emailing Lisette.

60 seconds is plenty of time if you are well prepared but can pass very quickly – and unproductively – if you just start to chat.

This brief guide aims to give a suggested approach to your 60 seconds:

60 Second Presentation

The presentation should be planned and varied each week to help generate referrals.

You might consider including the following:

• My name is _______ first name, last name
• My company/business is _______ I run/I work with abcCo
• I am located at _______ [Only if geography is relevant]
• What we do is _______ We are a xxx business, and work with [job title] in [industry type, size and sector]
• Who do you know who _________ I am looking to be introduced to (name if you have one, or job title) in company (name or type)
• Why we would like to meet them is _________ The reason is that we recently worked with (job tilte and name) and achieved (what did you do and what value did you bring) and would really love to do the same for someone else.
• Close _______ name/company name
• Tag Line/memory hook
• Sit down

One of the things to remember is that with a regular networking group, many people will know what you do you unless you have a lot of guests or new members that week you could better utilise the time by talking about new areas of your business, specific people or companies that you want to be introduced to, or sharing a case study.  This helps trigger thoughts by other members as to who they know and can introduce you to.  You can also use it to weave a bit of a story – so create a series of say six 60 second presentations which you can take people through each week.  If it happens to be a meeting with a lot of people who do not know you, just revert to your more standard presentation for that week.

To illustrate

Option One – this one focuses on Owners of small businesses

My name is Lisette Howlett and I run Sandler Training London Central.  At its simplest we do sales or business development training, mentoring and consulting; focusing on client acquisition and business growth. We work with a range of companies from very small to very large.  This week I want to talk about small companies.   We are invited in by business owners who are primarily responsible for the majority if not all of their new business generation.. They may have 1-4 sales or business development people but they  typically tell us that they are

• frustrated with how hard it has become to get in front of decision makers
• worried that previous methods of getting new customers are not proving as effective in today’s market
• fed up with how much time they waste following up and chasing people who seem to be really enthusiastic at the meeting, as for information and a proposal but then go into hiding

If you know of any business owners who are telling you the same or similar things it would be great if you could introduce me to them.

Option Two – this one focuses on Professional Practices – lawyers, accountants, architects etc

My name is Lisette Howlett and I run Sandler Training London Central.  At its simplest we do sales or business development training, mentoring and consulting; focusing on client acquisition and business growth. We work with a range of companies from very small to very large and a range of people. busines owners, senior professionals, MDs and Sales Directors.  One group of people I particuarly enjoy working with are what I call, reluctant sales people.   People who are really good at what they do but hate selling.  This can often apply to business owners and professionals.  Today I want to talk about professional practices.  We are invited in by senior professionals and Managing Partners in law, accounting, finance and architect practices.  They  typically tell us that they are

• frustrated with how much time and money they spend networking and also entertaining prospective clients
• anxious that their staff are really good at what they professionally do not like client acquisition and hate the idea of being seen as having responsibility for sales
• fed up with how much time they waste on free consulting and proposal writing.

If you know of any senior professionals who are telling you similar things it would be great if you could introduce me to them.  I am particularly looking for an introduction to XyxFirm.

Option Three – large companies

My name is Lisette Howlett and I run Sandler Training London Central.  At its simplest we do sales or business development sales, mentoring and consulting; focusing on client acquisition and business growth. We work with a range of companies from very small to very large.  This week I want to talk about working with large companies.   We are invited in by Sales Directors who have large sales teams frequenly located at more than one location or geography.  They typically tell us that they are

• worried about the lack of consistency in their people’s approach to sales or account management
• fed up with how different their sales forecast is from reality each month with sales timeframes frequently being pushed out and margins eroded by last minute discounting
• frustrated with how hard it is to find top quality sales staff

If you know of any business owners who are telling you similar things it would be great if you could introduce me to them.  If anyone knows the UK Sales Director for ABCo this would be great.

]]> http://www.brxbondstreet.co.uk/2012/04/05/60-second-pitch-a-guide/feed/ 0 http://www.brxbondstreet.co.uk/2012/04/03/promote-your-business-with-one-of-the-uks-few-google-authorised-photographers/ http://www.brxbondstreet.co.uk/2012/04/03/promote-your-business-with-one-of-the-uks-few-google-authorised-photographers/#comments Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:05:11 +0000 Caroline Hampstead, London Copywriter http://www.brxbondstreet.co.uk/?p=2224 As well as working on portrait and fashion shoots and with corporates and creative agencies, our photographer Mark Weeks has now (via a BRX introduction) also been talent spotted by Google. He’s been chosen as one of a handful of Google Trusted Photographers in London, and is authorised to shoot the images for Google Business Photos – 360º indoor virtual tours that form part of a venue’s Google Place Page. Mark’s Google Business Photos service is available from www.weeks360.com and  is a great marketing tool for any business in the capital open to the public, such as cafes, hotels and gyms.

The ‘indoor Google Street View’ – get potential customers exploring your venue from the comfort of home

Part of Google Maps, Place Pages have resulted from Google’s mission to create a dedicated webpage for every place in the world. Businesses can register FREE for their own Google Place Page (Google Places for Business) which appears in Google searches and has info like a map, transport details, review and photos. (To find out more about Place Pages or to register your business see: Place Page Tour and Getting started ). Obviously a Place Page can be a great additional way for businesses to promote themselves online.

In particular, in December Google launched a new service in the UK, called Google Business Photos, that enables businesses open to the public to have a panoramic 360º virtual walkthrough (the indoor equivalent of Google Street View) as part of their Place Page. This service allows a viewer to virtually walk around a venue from the comfort of their own home, and is an incredibly powerful tool for showing off the venue and attracting extra customers. Google Business Photos has already proved hugely successful in the US, where it was launched a couple of years ago, with businesses using the service noticing a dramatic increase in customer traffic and sales. Mark, as one of a very few Google Trusted Photographers in London, is authorised to take shots for the walkthrough for any London business within the M25 open to the public – this could include businesses like cafe, restaurants, hotels, bars, theatres, pubs, shops, event spaces, cinemas, gyms, designer boutiques, spas, art galleries etc. The Google Business Photos service is not designed for offices and government buildings.

How it works

London-based venues interested in having their location photographed can contact Mark through www.weeks360.com to commission the project. Mark is already receiving a lot of interest from businesses such as pubs, restaurants and hotels. He charges £250 per venue for an all inclusive Google Business Photos package which includes uploading the virtual tour onto each venue’s Google Place Page. The turn-around time from  the location shoot to having the tour on the Place Page is 1 week. Mark has been specially trained, vetted and authorised by Google. He follows a set procedure that involves using specialist equipment to take photos at regular 10 foot intervals along the venue ‘walkthrough’ route. This produces a series of panoramic images  that are then ‘stitched together’ to create a seamless 360-degree walkthrough of the venue. This is then posted on the venue’s Google Place Page where people can then  “walk around” the venues virtually from the comfort of their computer.  The result is that people looking up a venue can now see (nearly) first-hand what the venue is like by using Google’s easy-to-use navigation tools. Prior to the images going live, Google’s team of professionals ensures that the quality of each of these interactive panoramic shots meets their stringent quality controls. If there are people in the shots, their faces will be blurred to protect their identity.

See  examples – a virtual walk around Hakkasan Mayfair and a San Francisco bakery

A good example of Google Business Photos  is the London restaurant Hakkasan (Mayfair). If you click on this link http://bit.ly/HGGMWn you will come to the search results for Hakkasan (Mayfair). Click on the photo of the restaurant interior to the left of the Google map or, on the map, click on the  little red pin showing the restaurant’s location, then click on the box that comes up which will take you to Hakkasan Mayfair’s Google Place Page, and then click on the photo showing the inside of Hakkasan with a “click to view” label on it (directly below the map).  This will launch an interactive image that allows users to walk through the restaurant.  For an example of an inside walkthrough showing people do a Google search for ‘Tartine Bakery’ or click here http://bit.ly/HfQ4GR

An all inclusive service for £250

Mark, as a London Google Trusted Photographer, offers a straightforward package for capturing venues.  This Google Business Photos service available from www.weeks360.com comprises:

• Panoramic photography of the interior of a venue (up to 30 panoramic shots)
• Stitching the panoramic photos together so that the user can follow the little arrows on the screen, and navigate through each of the venues
• Uploading the panoramic photos to each of your venue’s Google Place Pages
• In addition, Mark will also take a series of static point of interest photos that will also be posted to each of the venue’s Place Pages, all of which will help promote your venue.
• All final images are then your property. There is no ongoing royalty or licensing fee.
• If  any changes, corrections or additions to these photos are required, Mark acts as your primary point of contact.
• The turn-around time is one week from when the venue is photographed to when it is uploaded to the Google Place Page.
• Total cost for the service: £250 per venue

Note: The £250 offer applies only to the Google Business Photos service available through www.weeks360.com which is a set package and as a result has a set price. Other photography projects  are done on a project basis and are quoted accordingly – for examples and details of these please visit www.markweeks.com

Contact Mark for your London Google Business Photos

If your business has a venue in London that is open to the public and you would like it photographed for a virtual walkthrough for its Google Place Page, please contact Mark by calling 07890 987 860 or emailing mark(at)markweeks(dot)com

www.weeks360.com

www.markweeks.com

Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your intentions.  You may have a heart of gold – but so does a hard boiled egg.

…Credited to Annonymous

…Another thought of the week from George Metcalfe, BRX Bond Street, London Business Networking at its best.