Richard Tubb's Blog, page 85

Qaster – Search for Questions and Answers on Twitter

Photo by rodaniel

Every Friday I try to share one of my favourite finds of the week – a web-site, tool or app that has impressed me.

My Friday Favourite this week is Qaster – search for questions and answers on Twitter.

Search for Questions and Answers on Twitter

There are many questions being asked on Twitter — there are approximately 500 Million tweets posted every day and 5 Million of them are Q&A related posts — and Qaster is a web tool that makes it very simple for you to search and find information from Q’n’A conversations on Twitter.

You can start using Qaster by searching for any topic, question, phrase, etc and then browsing through the results. Click on a result to see more information. Share any conversation by using the icons at the top of each page.

Questions and Answers for Business

For businesses, there’s a clear opportunity in using Qaster to seek out discussions around topics you can add value to. If somebody is asking a question about Office 365, you can easily find the discussion with Qaster and offer advice.

I think Qaster is also very useful to help businesses understand the questions people are asking around a certain topic, and then provide content (blogs, Podcasts, videos) on that topic. If one person is asking the question, other’s will be too!

Using Qaster

Qaster requires no sign-up, is free to use and you don’t even need a Twitter account. Just visit www.qaster.com and get started!

You can find Qaster on Twitter and Qaster on Facebook.

Why do more IT outsourcers not outsource more?

For many IT Solution Providers and Managed Service Providers (MSP’s), the most prominent part of their sales message to business owners is typically “Let us look after your IT so you don’t have to”.

The logic is sound. Looking after a small businesses IT infrastructure requires skill and experience and can be time consuming. As the owner of a small business, why wouldn’t you outsource the management of your mission-critical IT, freeing up your time to concentrate on what you do best — run your business?

Business owners who defy this logic by attempting Do-It-Yourself IT for their business are a source of frustration for MSP’s. Surely they can see that wasting their time attempting to save money with DIY IT is a short-sighted move?

Despite this, the typical IT business I speak with often fails to heed this lesson when it comes to their own business, attempting to do everything themselves instead of bringing in outside experts. Despite the fact they preach a message of “focus on what you’re good at” they try to do everything themselves — often restricting the growth of the business.

Which begs the question, why do more IT outsourcers not outsource more?

IT Outsourcers Outsourced Web Sites

Photo by andré.luís

The first simple answer to why IT outsourcers don’t outsource more is that many IT companies believe that if a task has even vague elements of IT within it, they should be able to do this in-house.

The most obvious example I see of MSP’s keeping a task in house when they really should outsource it is with their business web site. Often basic at best and rarely a site with good quality, valuable content that will attract prospective new clients, some MSP’s labour under the belief that because a web site runs on a server and they as a business are good with servers, that they should do the work of looking after their web site themselves.

The reality is that a good web site is more about content and usability than it is about the platform it’s running on. I’ve seen basic one-page brochure web sites outperform in-house websites that IT business have laboured over for months and even years, all because the job was assigned to somebody internally who had other responsibilities to distract him and while he knew the web hosting platform and had an eye for design, didn’t have the experience to put together web pages that generate leads.

If your MSP web site isn’t bringing in business, do yourself a favour and ask the experts to step in. Derek Brown and his team at Pronto Marketing specialise in cost-effective, lead generating MSP web-sites. Feel free to tell Derek I sent you for special pricing.

IT Outsourcers Outsourced HR

Photo by spinster cardigan

The second example I see of why IT outsourcers don’t outsource more is that the feeling they should be able to do it themselves.

This most often manifests itself in business leaders who know they should spend more time with their staff — handling admin tasks such as holidays and sickness, mentoring and conducting regular appraisals — but because they’re too busy, and anyway, don’t understand why it’s important, so they procrastinate and don’t get around to doing it.

The results can be disastrous. I’ve seen large, successful MSP’s where the business owner manager has neglected to conduct regular appraisals with the result being great staff have felt they aren’t important and moved on. That procrastination by the business owner now explodes into an even bigger time consuming problem of recruiting a new employee.

Services such as RBS Mentor offer outsourced Payroll, Employment Law & HR, Health & Safety, Environmental and Tax services that relieve the pressure on the business owner to do these things. Tools such as Ciphr provide HR Software-as-a-Service. Either is preferable to letting your most valuable asset — your staff — wither because you’re “too busy” as a business owner.

Conclusion

I’ve given just two examples of services effective MSP’s outsource — their web site and their HR — but there are many others including Social Media, SEO, Administration, finances, credit control, even internal IT support.

The key point is, as a business owner and as a business as a whole, when you need to do something you should be asking yourself “Is this the best use of my time?”. Often the answer is “no” and the only thing preventing you outsourcing the job is your own ego.

If a job can be outsourced to somebody more experienced, who can deliver the work to a higher quality than you, in a faster time frame than you, or in many cases faster and better, what’s stopping you?

How To Create a Great Mini Marketing Message – TubbTalk07

Podcast: Right Click and Download | Play in a new window

Tweet this! “Listening to @tubblog speak to @AlanMatthews11 about How To Create a Great Mini-Marketing Message! #Podcast”

We’re all familiar with attending business networking events and being given 30 or 60 seconds to talk about your business — often referred to as an elevator pitch — as well as regularly being asked by others “What do you do?”. Are you confident with the response you typically give in these situations? Just as importantly, are you sure your response accurately conveys what you do without people switching off?

How To Create a Great Mini Marketing Message

In episode 7 of TubbTalk I speak with public speaking coach and trainer Alan Matthews on how to create a great mini marketing message. In our discussion Alan and I talk about:-

the BIG mistake nearly all business owners make when they talk about their businesses
the key elements of a successful marketing message and a 60 second elevator pitch
why using labels switches people off
how to use questions to grab attention
how to differentiate yourself from the competition
the importance of choosing, and addressing, a niche
how to use your marketing message to get more referrals

Mentioned in this episode:-

Alan Matthews Training
Free eBook - The Sixty Second Pitch. How To Attract Clients By Talking About Your Business.
Alan Matthews on Twitter


Connect with me

Subscribe to TubbTalk RSS feed
Subscribe, rate and review TubbTalk in iTunes
Subscribe, rate and review TubbTalk on Stitcher Radio
Follow @tubblog

Watch the video Podcast

You can also watch the video of my interview with Alan Matthews.

Transcription

Richard: Hi there everyone Richard Tubb here with another interview. I’m joined today by Alan Matthews. Alan is a professional speaker who works with trainers and presenters to help them communicate better. How are you doing today?

Alan: I’m fine, thanks Richard. Thanks for asking me to do this.

Richard: Thank you for taking the time to join me today! So, I just explained a little bit about what you do. Perhaps for anybody who has not come across you before, could you talk about the type of work you do on a day to day basis?

Alan: Yes. I help people communicate more effectively, really. I’m a presentation skills and public speaking coach. I work with organizations. I work one to one with people who want to speak more confidently and have more impact.

So I work a lot with trainers in organisations who want their training workshops to be more effective. I work with people who deliver presentations as a part of their work. Particularly professional people, subject experts, technical people who need to try and transfer their knowledge to other people in a way that they can understand and remember. I also work with business owners who want have more impact particularly when they go out networking and talking about their business.

Richard: It’s networking we’re actually going to cover today. So, a lot of people are going to be watching this video and hear us talk about the importance of networking and saying you can be the best IT company in the world but if nobody knows about you then what use is that? Networking is a great way to get out there and meet people.

But of course, there’s a common theme or a common fear when people go alone to networking event is how do I describe what I do effectively? Now, I hear people refer to this as an elevator pitch. BNI might refer to it as a 30 second commercial. Basically, an introduction. How do people craft a strong introduction and what does that look like?

Alan: Well, personally I don’t like the term elevator pitch. It’s a very common one. But I think it gives people a wrong impression about what they’re trying to do at networking events. I’ve been to a lot of those. I’ve done that myself. I listened to those 30 second and 60 second pitches if you like.

I think one of the mistakes is thinking of it as a pitch. The idea of an elevator the pitch. It was supposed to have originated back in the old Hollywood days and the idea is like a screenwriter somebody would be in a lift with a producer and they’ll take the opportunity to picture an idea for a film in 30 seconds or 60 seconds however long it took before the producer left the lift.

I think that’s a mistake in view of what you’re trying to do at networking events. That leads to some of the awful 60 seconds talks I’ve heard. Because it’s not really a pitch. It’s a mistake to think that it’s something like your dragon’s den where you’ve got 60 seconds to stand up and if you just get the wording absolutely right somebody will invest. Like they’ll come and offer you money and say, “Oh yes come and work with this.”

As you know networking really is more of a long term thing building relationships with people. So you should think about this. I think of it as like a mini marketing message. It’s a short way of talking about who you work with and how you help people. But the focus should always be much more on the client, the customer that you’re looking to work with and what their problems are and how you will help them feel better. It shouldn’t all be talking about yourself which is the main problem that I find within all these pitches.

So it’s not so much a pitch. It’s more just getting to know people and letting them find out more about how you help them.

Richard: So let’s touch upon bad elevator pitches or bad 30 second commercial or bad introductions. So the majority of IT companies that I speak to when I say, “Nice to meet you. What is it you do?” And they say we do IT support for whatever is in that local area. Why is that not an ideal elevator pitch?

Alan: Well, in a way it tells you everything and nothing. A lot of people use their label. If somebody says, “What do you do,” they’ll say, “Oh I’m in IT support. I’m an accountant. I’m an agent, solicitor” or whatever. It tells me everything and nothing.

In a sense it tells me everything because you think, “Oh IT support. I probably know what you do.” And they don’t need to ask you anymore. Actually it tells you nothing about what you do. It doesn’t tell them anything that’s going to really hook them and make them say, “Oh, tell me a bit more about that,” which is your aim, really. Your aim is to get people’s curiosity so they think, “Oh, I want to find out a bit more about what that is.”

And also this is the thing, the trouble with most business owners if you give them let’s say

60 seconds to talk about their businesses they would spend 60 seconds talking about their business and not talking about their customers and the clients. So they’ll say, “We run an IT support service. We’ve been in service for ten years and it’s called IT Support Limited. My name’s Richard and we’re based just down the road in Birmingham and they spend 30 seconds of the 60 seconds saying things that nobody is a bit interested in.

Richard: Almost turned off by it.

Alan: Yeah, because they would say, “I don’t care. I could read the business cards. What do you do? How do you help me?” Because if you’re doing one of these 30 second, 60 second talks at networking events you’re talking to one of two groups of people. You’re either talking to directly potential clients who might want to hire you or more likely you are talking to people who could refer business to you.

But to do that they need to be clear who do you work with, what problems do you solve so that if they know somebody who’s got that problem they can think, “Ahh. Richard’s the man for that.” But if they just say, “Richard he’s with IT support”, they don’t really know exactly who you help for or what you help with. They just vaguely know you have something to do with IT, which could be a whole range of different things.

Richard: Yeah. And it’s really interesting. I’ve been in a situation when I’ve been in a room quite often full of IT business owners. People who know me know that it makes my blood boil. Sometimes I’ve spoken up in the room because when we do the round the table introduction, they’d go “I’m so and so from Manchester and I do IT support.” The next person has gone, “I’m Simon from Birmingham and we do the same as what they do.”

Alan: What was the point of that?

Richard: Yeah. There’s actually no point to it. So why is it so important to differentiate yourself in that way to make yourself standout? What effect does that have on the people that are listening?

Richard: I’ve been to meetings where there have been 20, 30 people. You’re the twelfth person or the fifteenth person. Everybody else is switched off by anything because you know half the group are just sitting there waiting for their turn anyway and they’re just trying to think what are they going to say.

The other half who’ve had their turn and they’re just thinking, “Oh thank goodness that’s over.” Noboby’s actually paying attention to you. You’ll feel like the elephant in the room about networking events is that nobody goes to listen to you talking about your business. They got to talk about their business. It’s the same reason you’re there.

So you’ve got to come up with something that gets people’s attention and it isn’t what they expect. As you’re talking about problems, the pain that your clients might have helps to get people’s attention and also differentiates you from the twenty other people who aren’t going to do that. They’re going to give you their name, the name of their business and where they are and how many offices they got, and all the other stuff everybody does. You need to find something different.

There’s a lot of different ways you can do that but the main thing is to focus on the pain. What do you help people do? Essentially people will give you money if they’re in pain and you say I can make you feel better that’s why people pay money across. So IT consultants, or people in IT support whatever it is they do need to work out what’s the pain that they help people with. I know from speaking to several of them, they find it very hard to actually even understand what that is.

Richard: Yes, indeed. And this is much more fundamental isn’t it? And I’m not talking about elevator pitches here or however we want to refer to them as. But it’s much more fundamental isn’t it?

Alan: It is.

Richard: Because it applies to things like IT companies web sites when I look at their About Us page.

Alan: Oh, absolutely yes.

Richard: It actually shouldn’t be about you. It should be about whoever’s reading.

Alan: It’s the essence of your marketing basically. I’ve worked once along with some people to help them develop a clear marketing message and it’s very basic questions. Who’s your target market? Who do you help? What problems have they got? What pain are they suffering at the moment? What’s happening on a day to day basis that are thought as symptoms that they need your help?

So for example with IT it might be that people who are somebody who switched their computer on and then they go and make a cup of tea and a sandwich or

something while the computer is booting up because it’s so overloaded it takes forever. Or they’re on the phone to a client and they’re having to apologize and say, “I’m sorry to keep you hanging on but the systems so slow.” Those are what I call symptoms. Those are the things that are causing people problems that you need to tap into. Those are things you need to refer to so that people go, “Oh, yes that happens to me”. So it shows that you understand the position that your client’s in.

But that isn’t just about the pitch at the networking event. That’s everything to do with your marketing. If you can get this message right, that goes on your website, it goes on your Linkedin profile, it goes on your Facebook page or anywhere that you talk about yourself from what you do that’s where this message comes across. It’s essential. So all the marketing that you do really.

Richard: Yeah. Is it okay for that wording, for that elevator pitch and for whatever, however you might use it to sound a bit salesy?

Alan: It’s preferable if it doesn’t. I don’t think it needs to because I think what you need to do is talk about everyday situations.

I’m a great fan of using questions in marketing. So, again if was speaking in a networking event I would say something, “When you come to a networking event do you feel confident and relaxed about standing up and speaking for 60 seconds in that event?” Knowing that most people.

Or I would say, “Do you fell anxious about it? Do you keep changing your mind about what your message is going to be? Did you try different things but really you’re frustrated because nothing seems to work? So you spend a lot of time going to networking events but you’re actually not seeing any results. You start to wonder is it worth the time and effort I put into this.”

So I ask those sorts of questions and what I’m doing is I’m not talking about me at all. I’m talking about how my potential client is feeling. Because if I get that right which means I understand my client and what their problems are. People will go that’s exactly how I feel. I’ve had people say that. Sometimes they say, “How did you know that? It’s like you read my mind?” Well, yes I did because I understand the people that I work with.

But it’s not focused on the other person. And it’s not about you at all. Nobody cares about you until they realize that there’s a problem that you can solve and then they want to know more about you. But not until they’ve reached that stage.

Richard: Yeah. So using emotive words is a good way to connect.

Alan: Yes. So rather than being salesly talk about everyday things and use emotions because that’s why people pay you money. Say things like, are you struggling with these, are you frustrated by these things happening, not just do these things happen, but how do you feel about it. Struggling, frustrated, tired, overwhelmed by all the things you’ve got to deal with. Because that’s what people carry with them.

When they go to a networking event, they’re sitting at networking breakfast and most of their mind is on all the stuff they’ve got to do with when they get back. And that’s what their frustrated and overwhelmed about. And if you tap in to that, they will go, “That’s exactly how I feel at the moment. I need to talk to you.”

It’s like a doctor saying to you, “Do you get some regular headaches? This side of your head?” The most specific it can be you go, “I do. That’s exactly what I like. What can you give me that will make that better?” And then you’ve got people’s attention.

Richard: Yeah. It’s disruptive as well isn’t it? Because as you say at networking events for those of us who are perhaps not as comfortable, standing up and speaking in front of others or you’re dreading that moment when it comes around, you don’t tend to listen to the ten people before you.

Alan: No.

Richard: Unless, they say something and it sparks you. It disrupts you.

Alan: Absolutely. Yeah, what you’re doing, you’re interrupting the conversation that they’ve already got going on in their head. That conversation is distracting them from your message. Unless your message taps into it. Because you’re basically saying, “Are you thinking this?”

And they go, “Yes, I am. How did you know that?” Well, it’s just my super power. But it’s because you understand your clients and your customers.

One of the things I found of working with business owners is that they haven’t yet put enough thought. Even some of them who’ve been in business for a long, long, time. But they haven’t yet worked out, what is the pain that causes your customers to come and actually pay you money and sort things out for them? They really aren’t sure why people work with them? And you got to work that out.

That’s one of the things I do work through with people if I work with them to help them put this message across. The first thing I’ll do is actually ask them these detailed questions to work out what that message is. Because it’s not just a question of how you put it across. A lot of business owners aren’t even sure what their message is yet. They don’t know who their target market is. They don’t know why people choose them and not somebody else.

It’s all the fundamentals isn’t it? You’d think when people have been in business for quite a long time that they’ve sorted this things out but they haven’t.

Richard: No, not so much. Well, I’m sure my target market is the owners of IT businesses, a lot which should be watching today. The IT industry tends to have a lot of lingo. A lot of buzz words. We talked about emotive words. But what about using buzz words within your elevator pitch. Should we be thinking outside the box? Should we synergize on the side?

Alan: I think you’ve answered your own question there. Jargon is one of these things. Jargon is like a private language that you can use. If you’re in the IT industry you’ll have your own jargon like everybody else has. And if you’re in a conference with IT people you can use the jargon. It makes you like one of them. They understand. “Oh, yes you don’t need to spell that out, we know what you mean.”

But of course most of your marketing is aimed at people who aren’t part of your industry. So they don’t understand what you’re talking about yet. I would suggest you avoid the jargon, avoid all the buzz words if possible. Try and make it just as natural as it can be. Get back to the fact that basically it’s just not one human being trying to communicate with other human beings. Don’t think, “Oh I’ve got you. I’m an IT professional so I’ve got to use all that IT buzz words to make it sound as if I really know what I’m doing.” All you’ll do is confuse other people who have no idea what you’re talking about and because IT has a particularly bad reputation in this regard.

So again, one way to differentiate yourself is to talk in layman’s terms and say, “Look I know how you feel. I’m not going to use a load of jargon.”

An example again is that one mistake a lot of the business owners make is that they talk about their processes too much because as business owners we love our own businesses. We think everybody else is as fascinated as we are. Particularly in things like IT, you say, “Oh, we use all these equipment and technology and these processes.” And again, nobody really cares. If I sent my car into the service station off the road, I don’t want them to say, “These are all the tools we’re going to use to look at your car and diagnose it.”

“I don’t care. How much it’s going to cause? Will you fix it? Fine. That’s okay.”

Do I vaguely like the people that work there? I don’t want to know the jargon or the tools and technology they’re using. I’m not interested in it. So, I would try and keep all that out and keep it as simple and straightforward as possible.

Richard: Yeah, yeah. What about length of elevator pitches? I talked about 30 second commercial and 60 second commercial is another one. Does it have to be a set length?

Alan: Well, it depends. Some of the networking events you go to they have a set thing. So you can stand up and speak. It’s an opportunity to speak to the whole room. But of course, sometimes people just come up, they are just chatting and ask “What do you do?”

And then of course there’s no limit to how long except how long the other person remains conscious while you’re explaining and wishing that they haven’t asked that question. So, but again, that’s going to be fairly snappy. Again I would try and again focus on or help people who are struggling with this problem. I wouldn’t say, “Oh I’m in IT support.” Because they’re not likely to ask you anything else after that.

Richard: It’s a label isn’t it? We touched upon this earlier in the conversation.

Alan: Yeah. And that closes the conversation off. This is what I do. Fine, so we move on to talk about something else.

Richard: Yes, yes. I mean, I find it myself and in my own personal business where lots of people refer to me as a business coach. Because it’s a label. But whenever I’m introducing myself to someone I tend to shy away from using that word because people have got pre-conceptions of what it is that you do.

Alan: Yes. They think they know what you do actually they probably don’t.

Richard: So getting back to the elevator pitch then. How do you feel about asking questions in your elevator pitch?

Alan: I’m a big fan of questions in marketing generally and certainly in an elevator pitch because not many people do it. And it’s back to what we said earlier about tapping into the conversation people are having. “Do you feel like this? Are you struggling with this problem? Is this what’s happening to you at the moment?”

People are programmed to answer questions in their head. Obviously these are rhetorical questions. You don’t want people shouting answers out. But if you ask them a question people automatically go, “Oh yes I am, I am doing that. So it’s a great way of getting people’s attention and I would do that. I would do that in my marketing generally on a website for instance. I would some questions. Because one of the things you do is you start qualifying people. You’re sort of saying answer these questions, if this is you, we need to have a conversation.

It’s part of that getting peoples’ attention. I’m a great fan of asking those questions. As long as they’re real questions. But again think who your ideal client would be. What are the problems they are suffering and just write a little list and just turn that into a question. Are you suffering with this problem?

The other thing about if you go regularly to networking events, the question people sometimes have is if I do with 30 seconds or 60 seconds pitch, do I do the same thing everytime or do I change it? And often people change it just because they’re not sure what to say. But I have heard people who do the same one everytime.

In fact I went to a networking event not so long ago. Several of the people there had a little jingle that they finished off with after the end of the thing. And they always done it so often. Everybody else joined in. When they said, so come to. And everybody joined in.

The good thing I suppose is everybody knows what it is. The bad thing is it probably ceases to have an impact. So, I would say, have some different ones ready that gradually build up a picture. And if you’re going to use questions for instance have some different questions. Just have one for one event and say are you suffering with this problem? And then maybe at the next one say another typical problem that people would suffer with. Don’t try and get too much into one.

Richard: Yeah, makes sense. We touched upon this earlier. When you talk about in your elevator pitch the type of people that you work with. So you give them an image of your type of customers that you prefer working with. Niching is good, right? What would you say to a lot of the viewers of this video or listeners of the podcast they say, “We work with small businesses. We do IT support.” Quite broad niche.

Alan: Yes. It’s a range of things.

Richard: And I think, Alan, people tend to be scared about being too niche because then they think they missed out on all the potential business. What would you have to say to people?

Alan: Yeah. It’s something I’m sure we all have struggled with over time with our marketing message again. This idea that you focus and that sort of laser focus will get people’s attention. And that sounds to be true because you do have this worry of missing some of the other people. But the problem is if you try and aim too broadly you have what is called a scattergun approach that your message is too mixed up.

I’ve seen this with some people that have a long list of things. “Are you suffering with these problems?” And there’s a list of about ten things. All sorts of stuff and then they go, “I can help with all of that.” Well, for one thing it’s not focused so people aren’t likely to respond because if I’ve got particular problem I don’t want to read through a list of ten other things which don’t apply to me before I reach the problem that actually interests me. I’m probably not going to do that.

But also I might be a bit skeptical that you can help with all those things. So, people tend to want specialists, somebody who says this is what I do. So, although some of the people that you work with might have a range. I think it’s best to focus and pick a couple of things.

Of course you might have slightly different messages for different markets so if you’re going to different networking events for instance be clear who’s on that event because you might have one message for one event because that attracts a certain sector and then you might have a different message for another event. So it’s possible to offer maybe three different services let’s say but keep each message separate. Don’t say, “Oh we do this, this and this as well in case that’s of interest to any of you.” It sounds a bit desperate. “Or if there’s anything else just let me know and we’ll probably do that as well.”

But say this is what we do and that’s focused. And then you might have another message for another element of your business but keep them slightly separate I would suggest.

Richard: It makes a lot of sense again for the people who are watching this predominantly the owners of IT businesses. Of course there can be two types of events that they typically go to. There’s going to be events where the prospective clients are from there. So they’re going to talk about the type of people they work

with and what they can do.

Then of course there’s going to be IT conferences and events amongst their peers. Now, I guess if I sat there and pitched the type of thing they do for their customers it’s going to be a lot the same as everyone else in the room. So it might be a good opportunity for them to cater the speciality they have in IT. That’s almost a pitch to other IT business owners in the room.

Alan: Well, yes. And the other thing as I say is you’re either speaking directly to potential customers or clients or you’re speaking to people who might refer business to you. Those are two slightly different messages. But if you’re in IT and you are talking to other IT people, you do need to be quite specialized then because what you might be saying is, “Well my IT business is quite a niche one and we do some things that perhaps you don’t cover.” What you’re wanting is that those people think about you. If somebody says to them, “Can you do this?”

They think, “That’s not quite what we do but we know somebody who does that.” And then they’ll more likely to actually pick the phone up and ring you. But that does need to be a specialized message that says how you’re different from all the other people who do IT support.

Richard: Yes.

Alan: So you’ve got just like any communication could have pitch your message to the audience that you’re talking to. That might be slightly different so you might have this range of different versions of your elevator pitch but saying depending on who you are speaking to. That’s entirely appropriate because let’s say you’re trying to get into the mind of the person that you’re speaking to and think about your audience. So you might have a number of different ones.

Richard: And there’s a huge knock on effect with referrals because you’re actually making it easier for other people to think about you to introduce you to refer you to others.

Like for instance I know whenever I worked with my clients on their elevator pitches and their specialities and whenever I introduced them to one another it’s easy for me. So, I say, “Hi, this is James, he’s a specialist in Goggle apps. This is Alexis, he works with education.” That sort of things. And it sticks in people’s heads. So, the next time that specific thing comes up I can think about you, aren’t they?

Alan: Well, if you want people to refer you, they need to be really clear what you do, who you work with and the situations that you deal with.

If you’ve been going to a networking event for a while you want to get to a point where if somebody says, “What does he do?” You will be able to say, “Oh he does this, [something quite specific.] He works with these people” because then that person thinks, “Oh, wow, that might apply to me or I know somebody who does that.”

But I’ve spoken to people who’ve been to the same networking event for quite a long time and they’ve said that they actually know that if somebody asked somebody else at that meeting what does he do they’d go, “Oh it’s something in IT.” Well you’re not going to get referrals, “Oh, good I was looking for someone in IT.”

You’re not going to get referrals like that. If you want referrals you need to say to people, “Do you know somebody who’s having this problem?” Because then if they’re talking to a friend of theirs and their friend says, “Hold on for a moment. I’m constantly having to apologize to people on the phone because our system is so old. It keeps crashing.” Then they go, “Oh our networking event can help you with that because that’s exactly what he does.”

Richard: Yeah. So differentiating yourself is very, very, important. So, when it comes to elevator pitch, should people practice it? Should it be something that feels polished? Or should it be something that’s…

Alan: Well, yes and no. It should sound quite natural but you do have to practice it sometimes. Sometimes you just have to say it out loud to get the form of words that you’re comfortable with. Just like anything else. The more you practice it the more it should sound natural. If you haven’t practiced it.

So it shouldn’t be as you say as say a salesly thing When somebody says, “What do you?” You go and you’ll use your elevator pitch which you practiced. It’s all glossy and shiny those kind of things. It should sound fairly straightforward and in layman’s terms.

Weigh some few things out, try some out practicing and practice them on people that you know and say how does that sound? And they might say it sounds a bit sleek. In which case, you’ll just change the wording a little bit.

But I do want people to get away from this idea in a sense that there is some sort of perfect wording. Because it’s not about that. It’s about building relationships with people. Don’t try and go for the perfect word and then you think if you get that right the money will start flooding in because that’s not what networking is about. It’s just about getting to know people.

I know it’s a cliche but it’s getting people to know, like and trust you. Isn’t it? And just talk about what you do but talk from the point of view of your clients, from the people that you work with.

Don’t worry if it’s not absolutely polished and maybe don’t say exactly the words that you want to. In the end that’s not going to matter as much as focusing on the people that you want to work with. This is why I want to get away from the whole elevator pitch idea in a sense that it’s not about if I come up with the perfect wording suddenly everything will be different.

Richard: They almost put more pressure on you. I’m somebody who stumbles over my words quite a lot as you visit the videos will know and listen to the podcast. Somebody stumbles out more words quite a lot and if you try and polish it too much it becomes unnatural and you’re focusing so much on…

Alan: You’ll worry about getting it word for word perfect. The same when I’d help people in preparing presentations and things and I say try not to memorize a script because when you’re focusing so much on memorizing the script you forget to actually interact with the people in front of you.

The whole thing is just about engaging the people that you’re speaking to. People don’t engage with somebody who seems to be going through a sleek pre-prepared sales pattern. So just talk to them in normal language. If you stumble over a word or two it’s not going to make a great deal of difference. Don’t say, “Oh it’s not how I practiced it.”

Try and say a few things out loud just to see what it sounds like but it’s about engaging with real human beings in the room, speaking to them, having that conversation. They know what you’re there for. Find a different way to say it as you stay focused on them. They’ll put up with a few glitches. So don’t practice it to the point where it’s really sleek, or it will sound artificial.

Richard: Yeah. So, if I may, can I put you on the spot and ask you? If somebody walked up to you in a networking event and said, “Alan, what is it that you do?” Where do you go with that?

Alan: It will depend what event it was. As I said in the beginning I work with I suppose three lots of people. I work with trainers. I work with people who want to do presentations and public speaking and I work with business owners.

So if I was working with a business owner, my main message is that I help business owners to prepare and deliver a clear, consistent and compelling marketing message to have more impact and will bring in more business. Essentially that will be a summary of what I do.

If I was standing up and given 60 second talk in that networking event I would then start with some questions. So I would say things like when you come to networking events do you think you got a clear message that you get across to people? Do you find that people are really interested in what you got to say? Does people come up afterwards and ask you more about your business and talk to you about what you do? Or are you starting to think, is it actually worth turning up to this event because it never has an impact, nobody ever comes up to me. I never had a conversation?

I’d ask those sort of questions and talk about those situations because those are the people I will work with. This is sort of short answers if somebody says what do you do? But then if it was a 60 second talk, I would build in questions and stories.

I haven’t mentioned. I should mention to you stories, anecdotes, case studies. We talk about all those sorts of things. “Are you having this problem?”

“Well, client of mine was having that problem and I was talking to him the other day and we did this and then at the end of it, it was all resolved.” So find that example or case study that you can throw in. This just shows people what you’re doing again. So just to say I would have slightly different messages depending on who it was I was speaking to.

Richard: The stories aspect is really powerful actually. For anybody who sort of gets flasted or think they’re not really sure how to describe it, stories is a great fall back. For instance I might say I work with the owners of IT businesses. Doing what or for instance and then I just have to recall any of the works I’ve done in the last week and tell them a little bit about that. I think it’s a good example of this.

Alan: Yeah. And you don’t have to practice that. You did it so you know.

Richard: Yes.

Alan: So and again if somebody asks you what do you do rather than just giving them a pattern response, “Oh, I’m in IT support.” You say, “Well for instance I was working someone the other day. Here’s a good example of what I do and they called me because they’ve got this problem.” And that’s much more

interesting and it’s much more of a conversation as well because the person’s going to listen and then maybe ask what happened. Because they wanted to find out what happened. So that they engage much more than if you say here’s my label. So stories. It’s just the examples because that’s the real world that you work in on a day to day basis.

Richard: I love it. I love it. Another thing I love is free consultancy! So, while we’re here if I share with you my elevator pitch, would you critique it for myself and those watching or listening?

Alan: Why not put me on the spot in front of the camera Richard and end our beautiful friendship!

Richard: Exactly. So typically if I’m asked I will say I work with the owners of IT businesses. They go, “Oh what does that look like?” And I’ll go on to share something like, “Well often where they’re frustrated that they’re spending too much time within their business and not getting enough rewards. So I help them to free up their time, concentrate on what’s important and make more money” Would you critique that?

Alan: I mean what I like about it is that you’re talking about situations. So you’re saying they’re frustrated or they’re overwhelmed by all the things they’ve got to deal with. I think that’s quite a powerful thing to say.

Also you were saying, “I work with the owners of the IT businesses.” It depends on who you’re speaking to. The only danger of that is if I’m not in IT. “Oh that’s alright I’m not in an IT business. It doesn’t matter now.” But you might say for instance just to turn that around slightly although because there is a case to say I work with the owners of IT businesses because you may be asking for referrals so if I know the owner of an IT business that still relevant.

But you might not just say I work with small business owners who are struggling to cope with overwhelming list of tasks they’ve got to do and then solve things that you’re saying. And then you might say predominantly in the IT sector and put that at the end.

The reason for swapping around is that the person might think, “Oh actually that sounds interesting you work with those people.” And then at the end once they are already listening you’d say, “I’m predominantly in the IT sector because it’s the area I’ve got most experience in.” But then that time they’ve already absorbed the other information.

Richard: Yes.

Alan: Rather than, “Oh IT.” And they’re not listening anymore. If that makes sense. So go and slip it in at the end.

Richard: Yeah. Fantastic. Well if any of you watching there want a free critique of your elevator pitch all you have to do interview Alan. So actually check this out. I’ve referred you to a lot of my customers, the owners of IT business to work on these messages. I know you’ve got an offer something to share with the listeners of the podcast and the people watching this video. Come share them on.

Alan: Yes. This is a booklet I’ve prepared which is about how to get more clients by talking about your business by doing a 30 or 60 second pitch. And it’s on a special page on my website. So if you go to alanmatthewstraining.com/60seconds.

There’s a special page which is just the booklet on explaining all the things we talked about today, how to craft a really compelling short marketing message for the people that you work with. You just have to again leave your name and email address and you can download that straight away.

I won’t bombard you with spam or anything. The couple of other things I do, I do work once in a while with people coaching them helping them develop these messages. I do even workshops as well on this topic, public workshops that people can come along to. If you do leave your name there and if I am running any of those workshops I’ll make sure that I’ll let you know. But you can certainly get that report and log on to that webpage. You can follow me on Twitter if you want that’s @alanmatthews11 and also on Facebook and Linkedn if anybody wants to connect with me through that. That would be great.

Richard: Fantastic. And of course we’ve done some work for a number of years together that I’m hugely grateful for. I sing your praises to anybody who will listen!

Alan: Thank you very much.

Richard: I should say we actually first met through your newsletter which I subscribed to for a number of years. You always share content that is of high value. Yours is one the few newsletters that I’ve consistently subscribed to over the past few years.

Alan: Thank you for following me.

Richard: All the value that you’ve given out there is appreciated. So I really appreciate your time today

Alan: Thanks Richard.

Richard: Thanks very much. I hope it’s a value to for all of you listening or watching at home. If you got any questions feel free to reach out to myself at @tubblog or Alan Matthews @alanmatthews11. Alan, thanks for your time.

Alan: Thanks very much Richard.

Dash Smart Driving App

Every Friday I try to share one of my favourite finds of the week – a web-site, tool or app that has impressed me.

My Friday Favourite this week is the Dash Smart Driving App.

Dash Smart Driving App

Dash is a free app for Android and iOS that connects your car to your smartphone and provides data such as trip logs, real-time feedback on your driving, access to vehicle diagnostics (learn what that warning icon on your dashboard means!) and other useful features such as the nearest petrol station.

Bluetooth On-Board Diagnostic

Dash connects your car to your Smartphone via a low-cost piece of Bluetooth hardware called an OBD (On-Board Diagnostic) module. The OBD connects to an industry standard socket in all modern cars, pairs with your Smartphones bluetooth, and can then transmit information about your cars engine, diagnostic info and real-time trip info.

The Bluetooth OBD unit I use is a Cheerlink Mini v2.1 which costs about £8/$10. Most generic Bluetooth OBD’s work with Dash too.

Driving Data

Dash is very easy to use, has a nice looking modern interface and as well as providing a ton of useful real-time info within the app while you are actually driving, Dash also logs information about your driving for analysis afterwards.

I’m already seeing some useful IFTTT recipes for Dash. Dash also connects to Android Wear Smartwatches.

Download Dash

Free to download, you can get Dash for Android from the Google Play store or Dash for iOS from the Apple AppStore.

Webinar – StorageCraft Partner Broadcast – 26th March 2015

A heads-up that I’ll be joining my friends at StorageCraft for the third webinar in the series of StorageCraft Partner Broadcast’s. The webinar takes place at 10am GMT on Thursday 26th March.

StorageCraft Partner Broadcast – Five Strategies to help MSP’s grow

I’ll be presenting on five unusual strategies to help Managed Service Providers (MSP’s) to retain clients, win new business and gain a competitive advantage.

The five strategies are ones that are powerful yet simple to implement — and strategies that, in my experience, your competitors are unlikely to be using! If you’re an IT Solution Provider or an MSP then I can confidently say that by attending the webinar you’ll be taking away some valuable tips to help you grow your business.

Register for the Webinar

Register now for the StorageCraft Partner Broadcast – Five Unusual Strategies to help MSPs retain clients, win new business and gain a competitive advantage.

Can’t make the live webinar? Make sure to register for the webinar and you willl be notified when the webinar recording becomes available to view on-demand.

Hullomail – Smart Voicemail in the Cloud

Every Friday I try to share one of my favourite finds of the week – a web-site, tool or app that has impressed me.

My Friday Favourite this week is HulloMail, smart voicemail in the cloud for your Smartphone.

Smart Voicemail

HulloMail is an app for Android, Blackberry and iPhone that replaces your operator voicemail and allows you to read, play and manage voicemail on your Smartphone. You can view voicemails (and missed calls) through email or through a web portal — useful for when you’re working abroad with free Wi-Fi but don’t want to pay excessive roaming network fees to pick up voicemails, for instance.

Visual Voicemail

The HulloMail Scribe feature converts your voicemail to text so you can read them directly within the app. I’ve found this an efficient way to quickly read and get the gist of voicemail messages without having to listen to them fully.

Personal Greetings

One of my favourite features of HulloMail is the ability to record specific voicemail greetings for certain contacts. Family, friends, VIP clients — you can record a message that only they will hear when they go to leave a voicemail for you. It’s good fun and I find it’s remarked on by people a lot!

Download HulloMail

I’ve been using HulloMail for a couple of years now and it takes the old fashioned voicemail and makes it more efficient to manage.

If you try HulloMail then use my voucher code LLDP99849 and I get a small kickback to say thanks for introducing you. You can download Hullomail at www.hullomail.com/dl

E-Myth your business – My interview on The Marketing Academy Podcast

I’ve spoken before about what I consider to be The Managed Service Provider Bible — The E-Myth Revisited book by Michael Gerber. Understand why you should systemise your business with processes that enable you to grow and scale successfully is something that is applicable to all companies, from a one-man-band up to multi-million pound enterprises.

So when Chris Marr of The Marketing Academy Podcast invited me to be a guest on episode 013 of his show to discuss how to E-Myth your business, I was delighted to!

The Marketing Academy Podcast is consistently one of the top rated Podcasts aimed at business owners, and Chris himself is one of those rare people that just spending time with leaves you energised and inspired. I’m sure that energy shows through in our conversation, which you can listen to below.

Also make sure to check out the show notes for The Marketing Academy Podcast Episode 013 – Richard Tubb: E-Myth your business which contain links and further information based on my Podcast conversation with Chris.

Thanks Chris for hosting me — I enjoyed our chat, and if you enjoyed our conversation then be sure to Tweet Chris to let him know!

Subscribe to The Marketing Academy Podcast

If you found value in the Podcast, then I’d encourage you to subscribe to listen every week. Chris and his guests provide some real insights that can help your business grow. Subscribe to The Marketing Academy Podcast on iTunes, Stitcher or Soundcloud.

The Content Marketing Academy

I’ll also be joining Chris in Edinburgh on 3rd-4th September 2015 where I’ll be speaking at The Content Marketing Academy, Scotland’s first and only annual content marketing Conference.

If you’d like to spend time around some of the top Content Marketing experts in the world — including Marcus Sheridan — as well as being able to exchange ideas with your peers, then make sure to book yourself in for the 3-4th September in Edinburgh now!

I look forward to seeing you there!

The Must Read email newsletters I recommend

Photo by Skley

Email newsletters can be a funny thing. The majority of us typically subscribe to too many newsletters which we think we will value, but which we hardly ever seem to find the time to read. Over time we begin to treat these newsletters as a type of spam cluttering up our inbox.

I myself went on a email newsletter purge during my experiment in reducing my emails by a quarter, culling all but the most valuable newsletters. Those newsletters that escaped my vicious cull were the one’s that help me be happier and healthier, more confident and more productive and a better business owner.

The Must Read email newsletters I recommend (and personally subscribe to)

The litmus test for a great email newsletter for me is whether I genuinely miss reading it if it doesn’t arrive in my inbox.

So, which newsletters are they? In the spirit of shining a light on some great content by real experts in their respective fields, here’s an insight to the must read email newsletters I recommend and personally subscribe to.

Confidence – Alan Matthew’s “Confidence Tricks”

Alan Matthews is a trainer to professional speakers and the author of “The Successful Presenter’s Handbook“. His free newsletter on personal confidence offers a regular reminder to any business owner on how you can be more confident.

Subscribe to Alan Matthew’s newsletter “Confidence Tricks” newsletter while downloading a free copy of Alan’s ebook “The A to Z of Super Confidence, and follow Alan Matthews on Twitter.

Productivity & Motivation – Grace Marshall’s “Monday Motivation”

Need a boost every Monday morning? Productivity Ninja Grace Marshall is the author of “21 Ways to Manage The Stuff That Sucks up Your Time” and her weekly newsletter “Monday Motivation” arrives in your inbox every Monday morning packed with valuable tips, tricks, insights and ideas to help you have the most productive week you can.

I’m regularly prompted to leave a comment on Grace’s blog as a result of her newsletter, which for me is the sign of a thought provoking read!

Subscribe to Grace Marshall’s “Monday Motivation” newsletter and get a free 30 minute audio and action guide to overcoming overwhelm too. You can also follow Grace Marshall on Twitter.

Small Business IT – Karl Palachuk’s Weekly Email

Karl Palachuk is the world’s number one blogger and author on IT Managed Services. Karl’s Weekly Email newsletter contains his insight into the world of Small Business, IT, Managed Services and much more. After years of being a subscriber, I can still say it’s a genuine “must read” for any IT business owner.

Subscribe to Karl’s Weekly Email Newsletter and follow Karl Palachuk on Twitter.

Health & Mind – Tracy Reck’s “Feel Good Friday”

Tracy Reck is a personal trainer and nutrition coach. Her weekly newsletter “Feel Good Friday” is a short but awesome newsletter to help people take action to get leaner, healthier and happier. I find it a really relevant, fun short read each week.

To get Tracy’s burst of Feel-Goodness in your inbox every Friday, subscribe to “Feel Good Friday” and follow Tracy Reck on Twitter.

Work and Psychology – Adam Grant’s “Granted”

Adam Grant is the author of the New York Times best seller “Give and Take“. His monthly newsletter “Granted” focuses on work and psychology and contains some incredible research and insights on goal setting, leadership, motivation and more.

I find that “Granted” is thought provoking and gives you pause to consider how you think about yourself and those you work with.

Subscribe to “Granted” and follow Adam Grant on Twitter.

Your Turn! Which email newsletters do you recommend?

Which email newsletters do you personally subscribe to and recommend? Leave a comment below!

It would also be remiss of me not to bring your attention to my own Managed Service Provider (MSP) newsletter — containing free information, tips, strategies, tactics, resources as well as news of the latest industry events. Sign up to receive my MSP newsletter for free each month!

Could your business benefit from a mobile app?

As a business owner or IT Professional, how much of your day-to-day business do you now conduct on your Smartphone or Tablet device? 10%? 25%? More?

You might be surprised to learn that research (see the infographic below for the full details) tells us that 75% of employees in small businesses use their smartphones to check email — the lesson here is, make sure your emails (including newsletters and sales messages) are mobile friendly.

But even more interestingly, 27% of small business owners already use business related apps. That’s more than a quarter of SMB’s do business via their smart phone or tablet.

Which begs the question, are you making it easy for that growing quarter of the small business community to access your own business via mobile?

Is your web site responsive?

At the minimum, your business web site should utilise a responsive design — an approach to web design aimed at crafting sites to provide an optimal viewing experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones).

My own statistics show than 17% of all visitors to this blog do so via a mobile device. Knowing that the experience of browsing a non-responsive site on a small Smartphone or tablet screen isn’t one lent to encouraging the visitor to return, I quickly made sure my web site design was retrofitted to make it responsive. Visitors on mobiles and tablets can now read my articles without being frustrated by having to zoom in and out.

If you’re about to get your business web site refreshed, then ensure the refresh incorporates a responsive design.

Could you business benefit from an App?

But the traditional world wide web is slowly being circumvented by a technology most of us are already familiar with — the mobile app.

Business Insider reports that the web as we know it is being replaced, slowly but surely, by mobile apps.

A responsive mobile friendly web site is good, but if your clients are repeatedly visiting your web site to conduct their business with you, an App might be a better fit for them.

Even if your clients may not directly benefit from a mobile app to do business with you, would your employees benefit from conducting their business more effectively via an app? For instance, how many IT companies are allowing their engineers to log time spent on client sites via a mobile app quickly and easily rather than going via a web interface?

The power of Apps to business is so great that I regularly share my own “Friday Favourite” series of popular blog posts – weekly blogs that typically an App that helps make your business life easier!

Building a mobile app for your business might not be as difficult as you think. Services such as Chupamobile which allow you to create iPhone and iOS apps, even without any coding or skill design using simple templates.

Could you create an app that allows your clients to quickly and easily log support requests with you, or find out information about your business?

If you don’t have an app that does this, consider whether one of your competitors does…

Conclusion

People consume information and do business in the way they find most convenient, and increasingly, small businesses are turning to mobile apps to conduct their business. They find these apps accessible, convenient and quick to use.

Is your business ready to allow your clients to do business with you through mobile devices? Do your staff utilise mobile apps to help them do things more efficiently? If the answer to either of these questions is “no”, then you may find that you’ll slowly but surely fall behind to competitors who are making the most of the new world of apps.

 

Which business systems can you automate today?

Photo by jiuguangw

I was chatting with an IT Consultant recently, a “one man band” who supported the IT infrastructures of a number of local small businesses. We were discussing how he, like many other IT businesses I’ve spoken to recently, had seen an upswing in enquiries from potential clients.

In fact, the demand for him to meet with potential new clients was so great that he was struggling to balance them against the demands of supporting existing clients.

“And so it’s even more frustrating” he shared with me “when I arrive for client meetings and they’ve forgotten we were scheduled to meet!”.

I could feel his frustration. I’ve been there myself. Turning up at a client sites to fix an issue or have a scheduled meeting, only to be told “It’s not convenient right now” is a waste of time, especially when you have so many other people and places you could have been spending your time with instead.

Interestingly though, when I asked the IT Consultant what he was doing to mitigate against this waste of his time and energy, he told me that “I really should telephone ahead on the day of the meeting to make sure the client remembers, but I’m often too busy to remember to make that call!”

This is a prime example of a system created to solve a problem which then fails because of one crucial factor – the human element.

The human element

You’re probably familiar with the human element within your client’s businesses. How many clients do you have who have a data backup strategy that requires somebody to change a USB Hard Disk or a DLT tape each day? How many times does that backup fail because somebody has neglected to change the USB drive or the tape — especially on a Friday afternoon when their mind is focused on trying to get out of the door and go home for the weekend?

Any process that involves the human element — a requirement for a person to do something — is prone to failure. Why? Because we, as human beings, easily forget things, especially when we are busy or distracted.

The answer? Automate these processes to remove the human elements wherever possible

Automating Processes for efficiency

Move your clients from a manual process of backing up to USB Hard Drive to automated on line backup software, and watch as the reliability of backups increases. Sure, there is a cost involved — but I’d encourage you to consider the cost to your business of remediating backups that have failed due to the human element. Count the minutes (and hours) that you spend on this each month, multiply by the cost of the staff time involved, then compare it the cost of automating the solution. Chances are that you’ll actually be saving money through automation.

In the example of our IT Consultant, he knows he’s losing time and money by not confirming appointments with clients, yet his solution — to call the client on the day of the meeting — is a process that also fails because it involves the human element, he often fails to make the call himself.

Instead, he could try using an online calendar such as Timendo for bookings that sends out reminders via email and SMS. The process of contacting the client on the day of the meeting would be automatic, and would save him wasted time travelling to meetings that should have been cancelled. It’s a step he could take today and start reaping the benefits of immediately.

Automated systems = Trust and Professionalism

These type of automated systems often engender a feeling of trust and professionalism with clients too, giving you a competitive advantage as well as a cost saving.

If you need convincing of this, consider yourself and compare any courier business you’ve recently used either for personal or for business.

I’m willing to bet the courier companies you are a fan of are the ones who allow you to track where your package is, and then send an SMS or email to your Smartphone when the package is due to be delivered. Those other couriers who don’t use these automated systems? Even if their service is good, I’m going to guess you don’t view them as favourably as the company who communicates more effectively through automated systems.

Conclusion

Which business systems can you automate today? Which systems or processes do you have in place which could be made more robust by removing the human element and replacing with an automated system?

Calculate the actual cost of the human element in any of your existing systems. Be realistic. Then look at the investment required to automate any of those systems. The cost savings can often be surprising.