Communication In Business, Are You Asking The Right Questions

The 7 Keys to Asking Clients the Right Questions

The secret to successful communication in business and in everyday life is asking the right questions. Understanding the value of effective questioning is probably the single most dominant factor in achieving business success. The way to learn about what people need is to ask a question and then listen carefully to the answer.

What do Oprah Winfrey, Larry King, and Barbara Walters all have in common? They are all great interviewers. They have the uncanny ability to make people feel comfortable and talk by asking the right questions. The bottom line is that customer and prospects will gladly volunteer information about what they think they want in pricing, products and services if you ask the right questions.

The more questions you ask, the more the customer or prospect will talk, which allows you to uncover their “hot buttons”. Remember, approximately 90 percent of customers and prospects think about themselves first.

To start, you should always remember the 7 keys to good questioning. It’s a matter of being clever, and being direct. How better to accomplish this than to utilize these 7 keys:

1. Why?
For example: Why would you choose software A over software B for your small business expenses?

2. Who?
For example: Who would you recommend this product to and why?

3. Where?
For example: Where did you first hear about my small business?

4. When?
When were you hoping to have project A completed?

5. What?
What troubleshooting issues have you discovered while using this program?

6. How?
How do you feel about our new shipping policy?

7. Is it?
Is it alright if I contact you in the future if I need more information?

You’ve probably already noticed that number 7, “is it” isn’t one of the standard questions that you consider when you think of posing questions, but “is it” allows you to verify what you have learned by listening carefully to the answers to keys number 1-6.

Confirming and verifying what customers are saying demonstrates to them that you are listening carefully to what is being said, and reassures them that their input matters. It also allows you to better absorb and synthesize what is being stated so that you can put it into its best application.

There is an art to asking the questions. While using the 7 keys to good questions does get you off to a good start, you have to remember to keep things well focused, so that the responses that you receive will be tailored to what you are seeking to discover.

Most people have a natural tendency to pose very general questions. However, while conducting business, you need to aim to ask questions that are as detailed as possible, so that you will receive a better response, and so that the person with whom you are speaking will know you are a good listener.

Keep in mind, also, that just because a question is detailed, doesn’t mean that it has to be verbose in any way. Rather, it must simply be worded in a way so that the right information is provided within the response.

For example, if someone were to ask you “how do you start a small business?” that would leave you in a bit of a lurch with regards to what to say and where to start. Additionally, it will necessarily lead to a number of other questions that negate the purpose of asking the original question in the first place: more detailed questions.

Don’t waste the time of the person to whom you are asking questions, don’t waste your own time, and keep confusion to a minimum. A better question with which to begin may have been something more detailed such as: “How do you start a small mail order business in Richmond, Virginia, that deals in laptop computers?” Notice the difference?

The foundation to asking good questions and achieving a wealth of practical answers is to apply the 7 keys in a direct and detailed manner. They allow you to get to the root of your question, so that you will gain the information and direction that you need to take specific action.

Copyright © 2005 Robert Moment
Sell Integrity http://www.sellintegrity.com

Robert Moment is a successful business and success strategist and author of “It Only Takes a Moment to Score”, which is available at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. Robert shows entrepreneurs how to avoid becoming a statistic and turn their ideas into wealth and have FUN ! Grab a copy of his Free Special Report, “17 Profitable Ways to Turn Your Content into Money”. Visit: http://www.sellintegrity.com/

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Are Your Business Files Organized According To How You Personally Work?

Following up on the last post about productivity in your home business, here is an article about organization and how each individual is quite different in how their mind organizes information.

It's Only Organized if It Works for You

Being organized means different things to different people. For some it means dozens of filing cabinets with carefully organized drawers and folders with lots of subsections.

For others, it means knowing which pile of papers to begin looking in when they need something.

What's organized to one person may be a horrible mess to someone else. But no matter what your organizational style, the bottom line is making sure that what you're doing works for you.

You could have the most state-of-the-art organizing system around, but if it takes you hours of sorting through subcategories to find what you need, it's not doing its job.

It Doesn't Have to Be Fancy, But It Should Be Functional

When getting started in business, many people run out and buy filing cabinets, in and out baskets, and desks with lots of compartments. These things provide lots of organizing options, but unless you are dealing with lots of files and paperwork, chances are it's overkill.

Systems that can expand as a business grows are a more economical option. Stackable file drawers are a great example. There are even plastic storage units that might suit your purposes just fine.

If you are dealing with confidential information, you might want to go with something sturdy and lockable. Otherwise, anything that holds your paperwork in a way that can be organized will do.

When it comes to desks, some like open shelving while others like lots of drawers and compartments. As long as you can keep things that you need within easy reach, it is simply a matter of preference.

There's a Lot to Be Said for Trial and Error

If you are new to business, it's hard to know just what will work. Even those who are extremely organized when it comes to personal papers and items may not know where to begin when it comes to organization for business purposes.

Perhaps the best thing you can do is just jump in and try something, and if that doesn't work adjust until you find what works for you.

Fellow business owners may be able to provide some guidance and share things that work for them. And there are lots of organizing gurus out there who are more than willing to help.

But the fact is that they may not work the same way as you do, and what is perfect for them could be a disaster for you. It doesn't hurt to get suggestions, but it's how well a system works for the person who is using it that counts.

Organization systems are as unique as the people that use them. One person might find things better when their location is determined by a specific and logical formula, and another might prefer to have frequently accessed items within easy reach and file away the rest.

Neither way is better than the other. It's what works for the individual that matters.

Be More Productive In Your Home Business

Run Your Business From Home? Here's 10 Ways to Be More Productive

Ah, working at home sweet home... Visions of leisurely days, conference calls in comfy sweatpants, increased productivity with fewer interruptions. But the distinctions between work life and home life soon blur. You really should throw some laundry in the wash before you write that proposal. You have an hour before a meeting: Should you balance your books or clean the kitchen? And remember to call that client back right after you empty the cat box.

Welcome to the real world of the home office: unforeseen distractions, a lack of structured time, and sometimes a perceived loss of identity. But don't give up the dream just yet! By putting into place a few simple ideas, you can reap more of the rewards of staying home-bound. Based on my experiences and those of my clients, here are 10 simple ways to help you stay on track.

1. Separate Your Space.

Keep a separate, distinct work area in your home. Very important. (This is especially difficult if you're living and working in a shoebox apartment, like I was when I started my business in New York City!) If you don't have a separate room, at least define an area, and know that when you're in it, you're in "work mode."

2. Structure Your Time.

As your business and personal time mesh, it's more important than ever to structure your day. For example, if you regularly take a walk or go to the gym, try to do it every day at the same time. Value that personal appointment with yourself -- even when you're very busy. It will actually help you keep your business on track! I like to get up early and work until 1 pm, then I take a few hours off to enjoy lunch and go to the gym or jog on the beach. Then I'm back at my desk at 5:00 until who knows when!

3. Outsource All You Can.

When I began my business, I made the mistake of doing all my own administrative work. Whenever you start thinking, "Well I can just do that myself," STOP. Streamline your business, making everything as automatic as possible. Use outside services to stay focused on your *real work*. Get accounts with an overnight delivery service, messenger service, errand service, bookkeeper, etc. Save your time and energy for your brilliant ideas! (Learn more about hiring a virtual assistant (VA) at www.ezinequeen.com/assistanttele.htm)

4. Use Technology to Your Advantage.

In-person meetings are very valuable when appropriate, but schedule them sparingly. Try to do most of your business via phone, fax, and e-mail using the best equipment you can afford. For most of us, when we're out of the office, we're not bringing in the bacon! So it's important that you can communicate flawlessly from where you are. PLEASE do us all a favor and get separate lines/services for your phone, fax, and Internet! No one likes getting a busy signal or having to call first before faxing.

Get separate lines for home and business, or ask your phone company about getting "distinctive ring". Also, voicemail is better than an answering machine, because if you're on an important call and don't want to be disturbed, other callers can still leave you a message.

5. Group Your Errands.

Try to group your meetings and errands together to minimize your out-of-office time. Make a list in the morning of all the outside tasks you need done for the day, and attempt to complete them in one fell swoop. Even better, do what I used to do and designate just one day a week as your "blitz" day for errands and meetings. Plus, then you only need to get dressed up one day a week! : ) (Nowadays I use an errand service to run around for me.)

6. Stay Focused.

Make your workspace off-limits to other roommates or family members when you're working. For you animal lovers, this may go for pets as well. (My cat Francine gets extremely jealous when I'm not giving her complete attention!) Keep all personal paperwork such as bills, magazines, and to-do lists out of sight, so they won't distract you from your work projects.

7. Beware of Yappers.

Many of your friends and family will be immediately delighted when they learn that you're now home-officing. They picture you lounging on the couch, eating potato chips, and waiting for their calls. When they call you simply to chat, politely remind them that you're working, and ask them if you can call them back after your day is over. It may take them a while, but they'll eventually get the idea.

8. Work With Your Moods.

Keep track of your moods and productivity compared with the time of day. For example, if you find you're more alert in the morning, use this time to make important calls and do your creative work. Take advantage of your natural cycles. If you feel better after an afternoon nap, go for it! (I'm a BIG proponent of the catnap. In fact, I may start a support group.)

9. Suit Yourself.

To bring out your best work, make your environment perfect for YOU. How do you work best? With plenty of breaks, or with no interruptions? In silence, or with some light music in the background? On a cushy couch and coffee table, or at a business desk in an ergonomic chair? (My friends thought I was nuts when I spent $750 on my Herman Miller Aeron chair, but they quickly understood why I did once they sat in it! It will last forever and my spine thanks me every day.)

Also, find some places you can do work when you need a change of scenery. How about the library, the park, or your neighborhood coffee shop? When I need to do serious reading, thinking, or editing, I take my work outside to the beach. The sea air, sunshine, and soothing waves help me think much more clearly.

10. Break for People.

Feeling sluggish, lonely, or moody? Arrange for at least one social break during the week. Schedule breakfast, lunch, dinner, or even just coffee with a client, vendor, or friend. Join a business networking group, or sign-up for social activities such as dance class or recreational sports league. Don't go into hermit mode -- it can be self-destructive!

© 1999-2006 Alexandria K. Brown

WANT TO SEE MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS ONE?
See Alexandria's Small Business Marketing Blog.

Online entrepreneur Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-zine Queen," publishes the award-winning 'Straight Shooter Marketing' weekly ezine with 20,000+ subscribers. If you're ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and have more fun in your small business, get your FREE tips now at http://www.EzineQueen.com

Pareto's Law Applied To Business

The 80/20 Rule

The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule), states that, for many things, 80% of the consequences come from 20% of the causes. For instance, you wear 20% of the clothes in your closet 80% of the time. This equation also affects your business, as in 80% of your business will come from 20% of your clients.

Unfortunately, most people will spend 80% of their time dealing with the 80% of clients who are not bringing in business. You can use this theory to argue that only 20% of the tasks you work on will bring in the majority of your business.

Here are some tips to help you streamline your schedule and spend time where it really counts.

Have you ever noticed that the people who ask the most questions or are the most difficult are the people who place the smallest orders? While it is certainly important to provide great customer service, you can place a limit on your time.

For example, let’s say you sell cosmetics and a potential customer wanted to know if the product was tested on animals. Once you researched the answer and got back to them, they wanted to know if only organic materials were used, so then you research that answer and when you get back to them they have another question and then another question and so forth.

This exchange could go on for several days, and at the end of it, the potential customer may not become your customer at all. If a potential customer is “on the fence” about a sale, it is okay to ask them for the sale, and if they hesitate, to let them know you are available to help them place their order, once they are ready.

It definitely feels good to get a sale and gain a new customer, but the time you spend chasing down small sales could be spent on the “big clients” who are willing to place large orders.

Another smart thing to do is create a thorough FAQ and standard answers that could be cut and pasted into a support email. Always direct your customers to your FAQ first, then support.

Email can be another big time waster. Setting aside a half hour in the morning and a half hour in the evening to respond to your email can save you time during the day. Another option is to hire a virtual assistant to answer general business email. There may be some things you need to respond to yourself, but the vast majority can probably be handled by someone else.

Start a time log where you document time spent and results achieved. Experiment a little by tracking the time you spend on various tasks to determine which ones are actually making you money. It only stands to reason that devoting more time to those activities will greatly increase your productivity and profits.

Try it and notice how much more you accomplish. See you next time.

Al

Discipline Is A Key To Business Success

It's All About Discipline
By Susan Carroll

Having your own internet marketing business means being able to enforce some self discipline.

While many people think that time management is the only form of discipline you must enforce on yourself when you have your own home business, it isn't. There are at least 7 aspects in your life you must learn to adjust and today we're going to look at them.

1. Time Management - Learn to use your time effectively.
You must identify "weak spots" - the things in your business that suck a lot of your time and energy but produce very small results. For most, email and the amount of time spent reading and responding eats up their most valuable time. For others, proof reading their site and making sure they catch every typo is their downfall.

If you are spending some of your most creative and productive time on "weak spots", you need to redo your schedule and give your most creative and productive time to the areas of your business that earn you the most. Continued On The RGG Site

Productivity In Your Online Business

Great article post over at Zen Habits today. In this post the author writes about time management and productivity.

He runs a full time online business from home, or wherever he happens to be as long as he has access to a computer.

12 Organizational Pointers for anyone working an internet based business include the following:

Focus on the essential.
It’s important to take some time to think about what’s essential to your tech work (and play). What do you really need? What gives you the most benefit for your time? What’s not so essential? What takes up a lot of time without making much of an impact? What gives you the most enjoyment?

If you can identify the activities, sites and software that is most essential to you, you can eliminate or at least reduce the non-essential. And from then on, focus almost exclusively on what’s essential. This applies to your work tasks as well - what tasks are extremely essential? Focus on doing those each day.

Do one thing at a time.
I know. This is super hard when it comes to tech. Browser’s on, a dozen tabs open at once, switching between reading and email and work and IM and Twitter … we live in a multitasking world. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

While there’s nothing wrong with having multiple tabs open, it can be very helpful to focus on one task at a time. Have 10 tabs open, but do one tab until you’re done, then close it and move on to the next, and so on. If you’re going to do IM, just do IM.

If you’re going to do email, just do email. Sure, you can do more than that at once, but it adds to the stress of your day and decreases your effectiveness because of all the switching. Practice doing one thing at a time and you’ll find your work to be much more peaceful.

Have periods of disconnectedness.
While I do most of my work online, I find it extremely useful (and calming) to close my browser and just work offline for awhile. This post, for example, is being written in a text program, and when I’m done writing I’ll go and post it in WordPress. This really allows you to get much more done, because there’s no temptation to go check something just for a sec.

Don’t live in your inbox.
I’ve done this, and if you do it you know who you are. Email is everything to many people. It’s communication, it’s a task list, . . .

Read more about 12 Powerful Ways to Keep Your Online Life Simple and Peaceful

Stop Reading, Start Your Business . . .

There is no better time. Start your new business now.

Often people look for advice on the Net for all the problems that plague them; and the Net rarely fails them, there is so much information available.

It is very rare that you do not get what you are looking for on the Internet, especially when you make the effort to look seriously.

This is applicable for all those who are seeking insights on starting an affiliate marketing business as well.

When you do a search for affiliate marketing strategies, you will find information, advice, tips, and ideas at the click of a button – most of it excellent material waiting to be read and absorbed.

That is fine, as long as you find what you want, and then start applying that same knowledge right away. Very often people get caught up with just reading this information, building their base knowledge and they forget the action part.

As one saying so correctly emphasizes, ‘The longest journey begins but with one step’ - and you will need to make that one step to have the affiliate marketing start working for you.

If you will wait until you gather sufficient information before you do so, let me assure you that you probably will never start. There are too many exceptional things to read out there and you will find it difficult to say ‘stop – enough of reading; let me start the action’.

It is good to read and collect all the relevant information you need, as this would indeed be beneficial; but you cannot afford to wait until you feel you know it all because such a time might never come.

Hence, thorough gathering of intelligence is a good idea, but the best would be to take the plunge and side-by-side learn the how-to-dos and the rest of the stuff that would optimize your efforts into the best possible results.

Most of the successful people, when asked on their secret to success, reply with a very consistent answer, i.e. their success is not a through a conscious thought about a thing, rather they just do what they think they should do and the rest just happens – success included, fame included, etc.

This is why the best advice you would ever get would be to start your affiliate marketing today and adjust your sails according to whatever is given on the Internet as information/ tips/ advice.

If you want to be highly successful in life – do not be too concerned about details and overall picture. Just get into one-step-at-a-time syndrome and plunge ahead.

You will never be able to feel how it is to swim in deep waters if you never venture out there. However descriptive any book is about the deep water, there is still only one way to find out – by diving into the water and testing it for yourself.

Similarly, if you want to know what affiliate marketing is, how it works and how to grow your business – then start today and find out. Whenever you are stuck - seek help and then move ahead again.

You have started, you will move ahead, and you can keep abreast with the latest developments in the market as you proceed to grow your business.

Be Proactive and Creative In Your Problem Solving

Think Outside The Cup and Saucer
Larry Galler

There were four of us at dinner. Three ordered “regular” coffee, the fourth requested “decaf.” Every so often a server, carrying two pitchers, refilled the coffee cups and knowingly poured three cups from one pitcher and one from the other. He never asked who wanted which type of coffee.

As we were leaving, one of us asked the server how he knew which of us preferred “decaf.” “Simple, the three of you drinking “regular” coffee have black cups with white saucers, we serve “decaf” in white cups with black saucers.” Instead of thinking outside the box these people have been thinking outside the cup and saucer.

What an elegant, easy solution. The server doesn’t have to interrupt conversation to find who is having which coffee, there is no mix-up or confusion, and everyone gets what they want. More importantly, it demonstrates how deeply the “customer satisfaction” thought process has gone in that particular establishment and it is a lesson for everyone who manages a business.

Imagine how many opportunities for little confusions that exist in delivering any product or service, from not greeting a customer properly to forgetting to return a credit card, and everything in-between.

Management that really wants to deliver a superior customer service experience systematically looks at every possible opportunity for confusion or error and attempts to eliminate them as they are identified. In the case of the cup and saucer solution there was no cost expended to solve the problem, just a little time and creativity.

An owners or managers challenge is to identify a little confusion or opportunity for error in your business that can be overcome by thinking through the process and developing a low cost / no cost solution. Instead of thinking outside the box, let’s call it “thinking outside the cup.”

Larry Galler coaches and consults with high-performance executives, professionals, and small businesses since 1993. He is the writer of the business column, "Front Lines with Larry Galler" Sign up for his newsletter at http://www.larrygaller.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

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