Morning,

Let me introduce you to Erin and Troy Treleaven - they manage the South Central Ontario team for Dale Carnegie Business Group.  Erin was wondering one day where her clients were going, for it was difficult staying connected to them.  She realized the world of connecting to people had changed, even to the point that emails to customers were becoming passé. She saw this because people were constantly moving and leaving companies, that even their best supporters couldn’t be found.

Erin asked Troy, “How do we grow a business if we can’t reach our customers?” Then she asked Troy, “How many of our clients have this problem?”

Troy replied, “Let’s call Jason Atkins to do a workshop for our customers.” Many attended. It was entitled: “How Do You Build Your Capacity to Maintain Relationships?”

They realized that there are the traditional means of meet ups, sales calls, local industry meetings or you can look at the new online tools which Jason Atkins specializes in and built his business from. They found Jason wasn’t a marketing pro trying to sell anything. He was a very successful business person who was just trying to help everyone succeed by using these tools.

The following are some of the lessons that Erin and Troy have applied to grow their business, using Jason’s lessons.

1)      The traditional intent and methods are still important but using tools like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter etc. properly and strategically help you reach and interrupt your clients like never before.

2)      People are using Social Media incorrectly. They are using it to tout their wares with no genuine rapport. Jason taught us how to do it right.

3)      Customers are already interacting online which helps with their busy lifestyles so it works to build a better infrastructure that matches what they are already doing, rather than trying to push something on them. You can’t put an ROI on a telephone - so don’t do it with social media tools. It’s just a method of communicating.

4)      Your social media planning needs to be built right into the DNA of your organization, from front-line workers to back office operations.

5)      Promote your clients on social media channels 12 times more than yourself.

6)      Become genuinely interested and provide sincere value to your network and they won’t view you as an outsider or an unwelcome visitor, like some of the old direct marketing methods.

7)      Don’t just pick one channel. Use many channels because your clients are doing so.

8)      To reconnect, simply ask, “How is it going?… Tell me more about that.” Occasionally offer help when you can.

Actions:

• Join LinkedIn - recommend 5 people to join a discussion group.
• Use the recommendation system that recognizes people for their good work.
• Interview your customers and find out what channels they are using.
• Join those channels and start promoting your customers.
• Read Seth Godin - anything from him is great or Chris Brogin or Mitch Joel from Montreal, he talks about the nuts and bolts of social media.
• Create a volunteer sales force. We have one called the “Carnegie Connectors”.

Most importantly, join us next Monday March 22nd for our “Strategic coffee huddle” Teleconference, where you can listen and talk to Jason Atkins. Troy and Erin will interview him live. Don’t miss this one!

Have a great week!
Kevin

Kevin D. Crone
CEO
Dale Carnegie Business Group
BusinessNext Inc.
Offering Dale Carnegie Throughout Canada
Tel. 905.826.7300 / 1.800.361.2032 ext. 223
kevin@businessnext.ca

Join Kevin on our next complimentary strategic conference call.
Monday, March 22nd , 11:00 am - 12:00 pm EST
With Guest Speaker: Jason Atkins, President & CEO, 360 Incentives

Jason will be talking about:
- How to grow your business with social media tools the right way
- How Jason had phenomenal growth by building his capacity to stay connected with customers