“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.” ~ Charles Darwin

There are 22 Selling Days in August and 43 remaining in the Quarter!!!

The pace of change on the web has always been fast. Even frenetic. In fact change is one of the few constants these days in marketing, media and PR. If things didn’t change that would actually be more shocking than if they continue to.

When I talk to communications and media professionals lately, there are really just two reactions to this: excitement, which leads to inspiration or fear, which leads to a head in the sand approach. Because no one is ambivalent to change.

So if you’re in any facet of communications (on the media or marketing side) you have either already come to love the evolving, improvisational nature of how we connect or you haven’t. And if you haven’t it is past time you did, because if not you are going to be forever fighting the future. But how to embrace change, stay at the edge and enjoy doing it?

1. Fear nothing: test, tinker and try new platforms, networks and tools
2. Plan for change: develop a digital strategy that is platform agnostic
3. Don’t be static: foster a culture of experimentation and iteration
4. Get data-driven: don’t guess, use analytics to really understand – thank you Steve

If you’re not the one pushing and trying to make things better, then you’re likely just trying to keep pace with those who are. It’s actually a lot easier if you make the decision to create a culture which thrives on experiments and iteration. Now you’re the one pushing what’s next instead of always playing catch-up. If you are within a culture that can’t just do this, it’s even okay to create a structure behind how experimentation should be done so it’s tried in the first place. Then you can remove the boundaries when people get comfortable.

Are the current waves of change on the web affecting your business? To what extent? Do you even know? Everyone on your marketing team should at this point using some data to make decisions. Further, by keeping your finger on the pulse of your marketing analytics you can clearly see how valuable, conversion-oriented traffic sources are performing. Now you know what to adjust and why and can make confident choices about where to shift focus.

I know what some of you are thinking: yeah, we get it: embrace change. But is it really so obvious to everyone?

It still appears to me that the default for most is to cling to the days of old. It’s part of the lizard brain Seth Godin loves to describe. So while the intrepid of you are out there embracing a world in flux, most are not. I fought the entire Twitter – Facebook -Blogging thing long enough hoping that it would fizzle out – but there is some value even though I scoffed at the entire concept because I did not want embrace change.

But what could anyone possibly gain at this point through fear? I think it is a always a better mindset to embrace what’s new and view it as  infinitely compelling rather than to fear it. Why would anyone logically not take this approach?

Go out and have a Great Selling Day and make a difference in at least one person’s life today.

Communication is the lifeline of every small business as we all know.

Gone are the days when you would have to fly down to another city if you had a client meeting. Modern technology makes it possible to communicate using email, fax, video conferencing, instant messaging and other such electronic media, besides the phone. However, a majority of the communication still takes place in writing, and has to be captured and stored in the form of documents. As documents carry crucial business related information, keeping them safe should be your top priority. This article gives you some small business advice on how to keep business records and store documents safely.

In spite of technological advances, most businesses still depend on paper to record, store and manage information. As a small business grows, it tends to accumulate tens of thousands of documents of various kinds over the years; e.g. books of accounts, invoices, copies of checks, statements, agreements, letters etc. For many of the documents, multiple copies are made and filed away only to be forgotten about. The documents are stored in a document archive or at an off site location like The File Room in Saint Louis, MO. In fact, storing documents in paper form could be dangerous in certain situations, some of which are discussed below. So then, how to keep business records secure? Switch to electronic document management – there are compelling reasons to do so. 

• Immune from wear and tear: Paper is vulnerable to adverse climate conditions as well as wear and tear caused by frequent handling. It can get moist, soiled and even get destroyed in case of exposure to rain or snow. When you stored documents offsite, you have even lesser control, as the conditions might not be as favorable as in your own office. As digitally stored documents are not vulnerable to wear and tear, it is far better to store documents like customer data, contracts, and accounts etc. in electronic form.
• Easy backup and retrieval: You may ask,”In the event of a natural disaster, even computers can malfunction or be destroyed completely. How would my documents stay secure in such a situation?” It is very easy to back up documents online. Most Windows-based document management software allows you to do this. In case of a disaster, as soon as your computers are back up, you can retrieve your documents in just a few clicks. There are several online backup services with inexpensive plans you can choose from. It works out far cheaper – and more secure – than having to build your document archive all over again. In fact, you can easily create multiple copies/backups of all your electronic documents – something which would be very expensive or almost impossible to do with paper documents.
• Maintaining business continuity: As it is very easy to back up documents stored electronically and retrieve them quickly, in the event of a disaster your small office can get back to work with hardly any time lag. This creates a favorable impression of your business in the eyes of customers, vendors and other parties you deal with. They feel confident doing business with you because they know that even if a disaster strikes, their records are safe with you.

In fact, if you store documents in electronic form it almost makes them permanent and indestructible (unless you choose to destroy them or have not backed them up). Switching to an electronic Document Management System (DMS) is possibly the best small business advice you could ever receive on how to keep business records safe other than storing the items in an off site record management facility.

Differentiating through effective conversation  in any business but especially for record management is one of the most important components of a successful sales career and process management and that is to be able to differentiate yourself via effective conversations with clients and prospects. This is much more than having the gift of gab. It is about creating an environment that ensures an effective dialogue. This is something that one must be cognizant of from their very first interaction.

Many salespeople have patted themselves on the back after what they thought was an effective sales call only to never be able to get access to that Buying Influence again. Executives meet with potential suppliers all the time and in the vast majority of cases they maintain a very polite demeanor, even if the meeting is bust. So while the salesperson is feeling positive about this new opportunity he may have uncovered, the executive may be telling his or her assistant to never schedule another meeting with the salesperson. Top sales experts know when a meeting has taken a wrong turn and they are equipped with the skills and craftsmanship to get the meeting back on track. Preparation, active listening and balancing the how you get and give information are key tenants to effective conversations.

From the very outset, if there is not a clear Valid Business Reason for the business meeting that the client understands and agrees to, then you can quickly get off course. Also, if the salesperson does not acknowledge and build on the information the client is providing for better record management, shredding, data back up then there will be major opportunities missed and the client will feel like the sales rep is just going through the questioning motions before they put on their sales charm. Worse yet, clichés such as “tell me about your business” or “what keeps you up at night” don’t typically reflect a good balance between getting and giving information so this kind of approach would be risky unless the client feels like you have adequately shared enough information with them. Make every client conversation effective to enable the sales process to continue to move forward so that your client stays compliant with the new and ever changing laws and that very necessary record retention, management and destruction are strictly monitored by experts.