A Simple "Thanks" Goes A Long Way

Ever wonder what is the best way to sign an email? I am sure it is not something that keeps you up at night, but I bet every once in a while, when you are nearing the end of a painstakingly crafted email of great importance, you might take more than a minute or two thinking about the best way to sign off.

The good folks at Boomerang, a company that says it “helps its customers focus on email that matters, when it matters” through tools that “allow for reading and responding to messages faster and more decisively than before”, were also wondering the same thing, so they analyzed over 350,000 email threads to discover the closings that yield the best response rates.

Boomerang discovered that we should all end all of our emails with one simple word whenever in doubt: thanks. Of all the emails Boomerang analyzed, those that signed off with some form of “Thanks” received a response 62% of the time. Emails without some form of “Thanks” received a response only 48% of the time.

In fact, “Thanks in advance” received the overall best response rate with 65.7%. And of all the closings that Boomerang analyzed, “Best” was actually the worst with the lowest average response rate of 51.2%.

Closing with gratitude, especially thanking someone in advance for their response or further action requested in the email, seems genuine, and of course, appreciative.

So, as with all advice, take it with a grain of salt and don’t simply start signing off every single email with “Thanks”, but when in doubt, remember that just about any form of genuine thankfulness seems to get the best response rates. 

Picture by Burst via Pexels

It's Not The Money's Fault

Have you ever heard people say that some of the richest people they know are also some of the unhappiest? I argue this is because of one of two reasons. The first is that money may not be the actual route to happiness for that person. If the true key to your happiness is the approval of your parents, or finding true love, or having a child, if you don’t have that one thing, all of the money in the world is not going to provide you with the happiness you seek.

The second reason is the fact that once you have enough money to guarantee yourself financial peace of mind, if you had the ambition and drive to obtain that much money in the first place, chances are you will need some other type of goal to strive for or else you will find yourself feeling unfulfilled.

Now, I know a lot of you out there want to cite the actual money itself and having it in large quantities as the root cause for the unhappiness of the rich, but it’s never the actual money itself – it is either the fact that the money has still failed to fill whatever void in that person’s life they were trying to fill with money, or the fact that the successful attainment of that money has left that person with nothing else for which to strive. As much as those without money want it to be the actual money that is causing those they feel are rich to be unhappy, it is just not the money.

So, the next time you find yourself blaming their stacks of money for the unhappiness of the rich, all the while, not feeling the least bit sorry for them, or if you’re standing amongst your stacks and stacks of money, trying to figure out why you’re still not happy, remember that it’s not the money’s fault.

Mind Your Ands

We are always told to mind our Ps and Qs, but what about our ands? Shouldn’t we also be minding those as well?

It sure seems like many of today’s writers and content creators set out to cram every possible thought into a single paragraph-length sentence. But, this can easily confuse readers and force them to reread sentences over and over to determine which of the writer’s thoughts are joined by which and.

Why do they force so many words into each sentence? I was recently reading a report that got me thinking about this subject when I came across a sentence very similar to the one below:

We reviewed the infrastructure and networks that made up the wireless guest networks and the filtering and segmentation between the wireless guest networks and the wired corporate network and the encryption and authentication in use on both networks.

Look at all those ands in one sentence! Six ands!

When you are writing, be sure to count the number of times you use ‘and’ in each sentence. You should rarely have more than one or two, though in the right context, three ands can still make sense. But, once you approach the fourth, fifth, sixth (or even more) and in a single sentence, it is time to split that sentence up into multiple sentences and perhaps use some other conjunction or phrase.

As an example, see what I have done to our ‘six-and’ sentence example:

We reviewed the infrastructure and networks that made up the wireless guest networks, as well as the filtering and segmentation between the wireless guest networks and the wired corporate network. We also reviewed the encryption and authentication in use on both networks. 

You can see by changing one of the ands to ‘as well as’, and splitting the sentence into two sentences, I’ve essentially removed two of the ands. Also, neither sentence has more than three ands. The paragraph is now much easier to read.

So, when you are writing, please remember to limit the use of ‘and’ to no more than three instances per sentence. Your readers will thank you!

Graphic by William L. Savastano

Post-Sale Drip Campaigns

According to Pricing for Profitability: Activity-Based Pricing for Competitive Advantage by John L. Daly, conventional business wisdom contends that it costs 10 times as much to obtain a new customer than it does to retain an existing customer.

If you spend any time researching the actual statistics available out there that show the cost of acquiring a new customer vs. the cost of keeping an existing customer, you will find results that point to it being anywhere from three to 20 times costlier to obtain a new customer. While the numbers vary by industry, location, and product type, one thing becomes clear; almost every study concludes businesses are far more cost-effective when they can retain existing customers.

One of the best ways to ensure a customer who has purchased a product or service from your enterprise remains a happy customer is to consistently engage with them post-purchase. Businesses can easily accomplish this through an instrument that is usually reserved for pre-sale engagement, the email drip campaign.

For those who may not know, an email drip campaign is a pre-programmed periodic sending of emails to prospective customers that provides them with valuable industry and product information without seeming to be an attempt to sell your products or services. When done right, drip campaigns keep your products and services top of mind for prospects, leading them down the sales funnel, and providing the right combination of product and service information as well as useful general industry knowledge.

Unfortunately, a lot of times, once a prospect is converted to a customer, businesses turn off that drip campaign, not realizing they are stopping what actually is also a very important post-sale engagement tool. Instead of completely turning off the drip campaign once a prospect becomes a customer, businesses should simply shift the content the new customer receives.

Businesses should stop sending new customers anything that seems irrelevant such as special offers on products or services they have already purchased and anything that does not refer to them as a customer.

Businesses should send new customers:
• Any relevant company or industry news, including press releases and blog posts
• Tips on using products or services they have already purchased
• Information on other products and services they have yet to purchase
• A steady stream of announcements about new products, features, and services

In many cases, enterprises may find that a good amount of their pre-sale drip campaign content is still very useful in a post-sale drip campaign. Two areas of particular note for inclusion in post-sale drip campaigns should be press releases and blog posts, especially if your blog is heavy on providing industry news and thought leadership content. Press releases, especially those on big customer wins, awards received, or new partnerships, will reinforce with the customer the idea that your business is strong, and that they have made the right choice in going with your products and services. Blog posts that speak to industry events, industry knowledge, and breaking news will ensure that customers view your business as a leader in the industry and view you as someone with whom they should continue doing business.

It is important to remember that while an email drip campaign can be very effective at landing new customers, it can also be very effective in retaining existing customers.

Artwork by Gerd Altmann via Pixabay

Sitting Across A Table

How do you determine with whom you will conduct business?

If you’ve spent any time at all in business-to-business sales, especially if you’ve spent any time as a small business owner, you quickly learn that there are some people out there that you want to do business with, and there are some people out there that you DON’T want to do business with.

The key to discovering which is which is developing a standard operating procedure that you adhere to every time when determining whom you are going to do business with and whose business on which you are going to pass.

You want your screening process to be something you can easily follow every time. You want a process that relies on instinct, is still objective enough to make sure you don’t miss out on a great opportunity, but at the same time, ensures you are not beating your head against the wall in a losing, unprofitable situation. You also want your process to be one that you can apply at any stage in a business relationship.

While all of these requirements may make it seem like there is no simple way to create a process that will work, I have discovered an extremely easy process that works every single time. And all it involves is asking myself a single question.

Am I comfortable sitting across a table from this person?

That’s it. No great formula or massive amount of research. In all the years that I conducted business-to-business sales as a small business owner, this simple process was accurate every single time. Now, as a fallible being, I didn’t always listen to the process, but the process still remains completely accurate every single time.

What I learned over the years was that if I asked myself that question about the person I was about to conduct business with and the answer was yes, I’d proceed with the relationship and the business at hand, and it would always turn out well. Don’t get me wrong, there were bumps in the road at times and sometimes the relationships took a little work, but as long as I still felt comfortable sitting across a table from that person, we continued to do business.

But, when the answer to that question was no, no matter how sweet the deal, no matter how much profit there was to be had, every single time I felt the answer should be no, it turned out to be someone that I didn’t, or shouldn’t have done business with. Again, I didn’t always listen to my own answer, but very quickly realized I should have.

And I didn’t just ask myself this question at the beginning of the relationship. I made sure to ask myself this question throughout the relationship at key points and milestones. When the answer to the question was yes at each of these later points in the relationship, I would keep doing what I was doing and the relationship would remain positive, and most importantly, profitable.

But, when I asked this question at later points in the relationship and the answer was no, I had to ask myself a second question and make an important decision. When the answer was no, I then asked myself if the answer was, for whatever reason, ever going to be yes again.

If I felt that I could change that no into a yes, I then would set out to do everything I knew I needed to do – everything I possibly could to change that no to a yes. Sometimes the customer would be responsive and we would move forward, other times, I’d notice the answer was not changing. 

Once I realized that the answer to my question was never going to be yes again, I’d reach out to the customer and let them know that it was time for us to find a mutually beneficial settlement as to what they had paid, the work that had been delivered, and that it was time for us to part ways.

By following this simple process, which stemmed from me asking the question of whether or not I was comfortable sitting across a table from someone, I always find myself in a position where when I do actually sit across a table from that person, our relationship is square and mutually beneficial.

Photo by HO JJ via Pexels

A Practical Guide For The Recently Unemployed

It has happened to virtually all of us at one point or another in our career - we find ourselves unemployed one day. Sometimes it comes as a shock, and sometimes, we probably saw it coming, but either way, it never gets any easier. But, if I have learned one thing over the decades, it is that each time we find ourselves unemployed, we have actually been handed an amazing opportunity to better our careers and ourselves.

Three years ago today, I found myself in just that spot and I used what life threw at me that day as a catalyst to improve a number of things in my life, including my career path. I’m not saying that I have all the answers, nor am I saying that my advice is the only advice you should listen to when you find yourself unemployed one morning, but I thought I would compile the lessons I learned being let go to perhaps help someone else out there who ends up in the same situation.

So, take a deep breath, know that everything is going to be OK, and whether you were let go from your job today, last month, or know that it might be just around the corner, I hope at least some part of my experience will help you on your journey.

Click here to read A Practical Guide For The Recently Unemployed.

Hours 38 to 40: Profit And Your Personal Finances

Once upon a time, when I was working with a consulting company that billed its customers hourly for their time, its CTO offered up an amazing perspective on profitability for its team of consultants during a team meeting. He explained that when it came to generating profit to put back into the business and to fund increases in employee compensation and benefits, the company’s consultants needed to keep in mind that while the company leadership appreciated everyone’s hard work, it was important to ensure that they billed a full 40 hours a week because all of the company’s profit projections were based on a 40-hour billable week.

He went on to explain, approximately of course, that it was hours 1 to 37 for each week that covered the cost of the expenses, but it was hours 38, 39, and 40 that yielded the profits the leadership put back into the business, and for that reason, while consultants might feel that billing close to 40 hours a week was close enough, it was, in fact, actually not.

This lesson in hourly billing and profitability not only resonated with me when I heard it, but still does to this day, because it makes me think of the very same concept as it applies to personal finances as well. While most people would never look at it this way, their personal finances are very similar to the financial models this consulting business and its CTO were addressing that day.

Much like this consulting business, and any business for that matter, each of us as individuals also have expenses that when deducted from our income, yield either a profit or a loss. If you get paid hourly and only work 37 hours per week, but your expenses take up your full amount of pay, which you anticipated being for 40 hours per week, you actually are going to bring in less money than you need to cover your expenses. While this comparison is quite literal, the same holds true for however you are paid, be it hourly, salary, in lump sums as a consultant, or any other way.

The bottom line is that you should always know exactly what your expenses are and should always ensure that your income never falls below the amount of those expenses no matter what you do. In fact, you should always strive to ensure your expenses are as small of a percentage of your income as possible. You should view the difference between your expenses and your income as your profit, and without profit, you cannot reinvest in the things in life that you enjoy and that are important to you and your loved ones.

Your personal profits are the money you use to pay for things like vacations, education, luxuries, or whatever other experiences or items you and your loved ones enjoy. By looking at this money left over after paying your expenses as profit, you can very easily identify and dedicate your efforts in ways that increase that profit.

So, the next time you feel 37 hours is close enough, or spending just a little more than you earn is no big deal, remember that without profits, you will have nothing to reinvest in your life, and what is the point of all of that hard work if all you ever do is just cover your expenses or dig yourself deeper into debt?

Photo by Meditations via Pixabay

Don't Be A Rhino At Work

Are you a rhino at work? Do your coworkers reference bulls and china shops in the same sentence when they describe what it is like to work with you?

Now, when I say rhino, I’m not talking about you physically storming through the halls, leaving twisted and mangled bodies in your wake, but I am talking about how you treat and speak to the people with whom you work.

Granted, some of us are more soft spoken, or out spoken, than others, and some of us are more imposing, or less imposing, but I am specifically talking about those individuals who time and time again end up rubbing their coworkers the wrong way and leave the rest of us marveling at what they just said, how they just handled a given situation, and more so, at how they just do not recognize the intimidation, uneasiness, and generally unwelcome environment that circles around them as they storm through the office.

The best way to tell if you are a rhino at work is to listen to yourself when engaged in conversation with your colleagues, your bosses, and your subordinates. There should not be stark differences in the tone and intensity of your conversations between the three. The same voice and tone you use for your bosses is the same voice and tone you should use for your colleagues and your subordinates. 

Also, look around at others in the office when you are engaged in conversation. Are people purposely looking away, looking down at their desks, or trying very hard to avoid eye contact with you? Are people shaking their heads or shifting uncomfortably in their chairs? Your office conversations should not make people who overhear them feel uncomfortable or uneasy, nor should they make people not want to work with you.

I know it can’t all be roses and sunshine at work, but your coworkers deserve to be treated fairly, reasonably, and with respect. People should not have to endure conversations that make them feel belittled or intimidated. There is just no place for this type of behavior in today’s business environment.

So, be sure to listen to yourself and take note of the reactions of those around you when you are engaged in conversation with people at work. By doing so, you can make sure that you are not your office’s rhino.

Photo by Casey Allen via Pexels

Remember To Reward Yourself

When the conditions are just right on a Sunday morning – cooler temperatures and, even better, a cloudy day during one of the Non-Summer months – at 8:00 AM, you will find my wife and I walking through the turnstiles, just about to head up to catch the monorail into Disneyland via Downtown Disney. This Sunday morning ritual that we try to undertake at least once a month for nine months out of the year is one of the most enjoyable non-working experiences of my life these days.

Once inside the park, we undertake a loosely standardized regiment that consists of a good amount of walking, a number of our favorite rides, and thanks to the off-time and early morning, not a lot of standing in line. A normal Sunday sees us head right to Small World, followed by stints at Pirates, the Haunted Mansion, the Jungle Cruise, Indiana Jones, the Rivers of America boat ride as well as Star Tours. Sometimes we deviate and walk along Main Street or head over to walk at California Adventure, occasionally going on a ride or two on that side instead.

Usually by 11:00 AM, the park has filled up a bit and the clouds have either burned off and/or the temperature has increased enough that we’ve had our fill and are ready to move on to our next activity. Sometimes we have lunch at Downtown Disney, sometimes we have breakfast in the park, and we were even known to pay the inflated cost for the all-you-can-eat BBQ at Big Thunder Ranch before it was closed to make way for Star Wars Land. And while you may think this is some attempt for us to relive our childhoods, it is, in fact, almost the opposite. Our childhoods didn’t involve a lot of trips to Disneyland – definitely many fewer trips than we see kids in our neck of the woods making these days.

See, if I can make it to Disneyland nine times in the course of a year, in that year, I will have walked through the gates into the theme park more times than I did in the first 18 years of my life. While I am forever grateful for all of the people who worked hard and sacrificed to make those trips over the course of my first 18 years possible, the true bliss of these Sunday morning walks and rides is the sense of accomplishment we feel in the fact that we can now go there so often.

I whole-heartedly believe it is important for each of us to work hard and accomplish as much as we can to benefit not only ourselves but also those around us. It is important for each of us to discover what we have to offer an industry, a market and/or an employer, as well as the people in our lives. But I also feel it is just as important for us to take a step back every once in a while, put down all the electronic devices, and do something that allows us to feel rewarded for all of that hard work. These Sunday morning trips to Disneyland are just one of the little rewards we give ourselves over the course of the year.

I encourage each of you to not only work hard and find your niche in this world, but to also find something you can do to reward yourself for those accomplishments in a meaningful way. Find something that not only brings you joy, but also provides motivation to keep up the hard work – the motivation to keep driving yourself forward to surpass even more of your goals. Always remember that while hard work and dedication is paramount to your success, if you don’t take the moments to enjoy the fruits of your success, then you just might miss the point of all of that hard work. 

Photo by William L. Savastano

The Opportunity In Being Let Go

It is a sound that I will always remember - the wheels of my big desk chair as it rolled noisily along the concrete floor of the big, open office space. The sound echoed off of the concrete walls and rows of glass desks. It was funny watching the little heads pop up from their desks and monitors, almost like gophers popping their heads up out of the ground for a look as everyone in the room sought to discover what was making that annoying sound.

It was just me, wheeling my big office chair out of the office for the last time. I’d boxed up the few things I kept at work and all that was left was to wheel my chair, my box and my printer to the car and drive away for the last time.

In American corporate culture, we’re supposed to walk out quietly, move on, and then never speak of these final walks out of a place of employment again, even pretend they never happened. We have all experienced them at some point, though, and if I accomplish one thing by continually writing about them, I hope it will be to assure each and every one of you that experiences something like this that the ending of a job truly offers amazing potential when it comes to taking your career and life to the next level.

One such opportunity that is presented to us when a job ends is the chance to expand our personal network. We meet a lot of amazing people at each job, so each time we leave one and start another, we stand the chance of meeting an entirely new set of amazing folks while still being able to stay in contact with the people from the job we have just left. Add in the fact that you will also secure  some valuable contacts while conducting your job search, and there’s some extra icing on that cake.

So, the next time you are walking out of a place of employment for the last time, just remember to hold your head high and smile, knowing that great things are about to happen for you. The potential to improve so many things you have wanted to improve is the greatest at that point in time. To be cliché, the world is yours to shape and mold as you wish on that day. Don’t forget to enjoy the feeling of freedom, then get right to work finding that next opportunity and ensuring it is your best opportunity yet.

As for me, one of the most amazing things about the day I wheeled that big office chair out of that echoing, big concrete and glass office and down to my car was the fact that I did not wheel that chair out alone. I was flanked by people who were now not only former co-workers, but life-long acquaintances that will always share the memories of our time there together, and the memory of that funny time William noisily wheeled his big office chair out of the place on his last day.

On that last day, when that window closes, just remember that the biggest door in the world has been opened for you – a door that leads to limitless potential.

"...How That CAN Work For Me."

You’re reading the latest article by your favorite life coach, business coach, or some other expert. You believe this person has the expertise in a subject you want to learn more about. You plug through the intro and are feeling great about what you are reading. Either you already know this person knows their stuff, or you’re coming to know that fact quickly as you read.

Then, it happens. You’ve finished reading the part in the piece that provides the instructions you should follow and it’s time for you to take action and implement the expert’s advice in your own life. You trust the person knows what they are talking about and you know their method has worked for them, but as soon as that guru tells you to try the same exact thing, your mind instantly drifts to “Well, that worked for you, but there is no way that will work for me.”

It’s hard not to think that someone’s advice based on his or her own experience with the subject will never work for you, so you are not alone. Especially if you have tried similar things in the past, but did not achieve the promised results. And while you’ll soon see that I make this statement with tongue in cheek, I am here to tell you that you are 100% correct! In most cases, the same exact thing this expert did WILL NOT work out exactly the same for you. That is because you are a different person (each of us is unique, right?) and your circumstances, while possibly similar, are not exactly the same as their circumstances.

That being said, the point of this piece is not to discourage you by telling you that you are right in thinking someone’s exact advice will not work exactly the same way for you, but to tell you that you can still heed the advice, but first, must modify that advice just enough so that it becomes practical for your own personal scenario. Don’t just throw your hands up in the air and say “Well, that will never work for me!” but instead, pause for a moment and say, “Let me see how that CAN work for me!”

The shortest route from point A to point B is a straight line, and while that may be true, when you are driving, the route that takes the least amount of time from point A to point B can change based on the driver, the type of car they are driving, their personal driving style (and speed at which they are comfortable driving), traffic patterns at that time of day as well as the influence on the route by other drivers, such as the impact caused by an accident. And just like driving from point A to point B, you should keep in mind there is more than one way to get where you need to go in life, and the shortest amount of time to traverse life’s journey can boil down to the individual making the trek.

So, instead of immediately stomping your feet and saying there is no way the route that person took will ever work for you, keep an open mind, observe, contemplate, and then apply what you already know about the subject and yourself. Factor all of this together with the knowledge their exact route to success will not work exactly the same for you, but then apply their advice to your own situation, again by thinking, “Let me see how that CAN work for me.”

Photo via StockSnap

Why You Need Industry Pages On Your Website

There are two schools of thought when it comes to whether or not you should have separate website pages for the industries your enterprise serves.

One camp believes if you list out the industries you serve on your website, visitors who do not see their industry will assume you do not do work in their field and move on.

The other camp feels if you do not provide industry-specific pages, you are missing out on an opportunity to provide more in-depth information to potential customers that is geared specifically to them.

I think both sides make a great point, but I tend to feel there is a solution that renders both arguments mute. I propose there is a way to list industries on your site, but still provide an impression that if a visitor’s industry is not listed out specifically, you’re still equipped to handle their business. This can easily be accomplished through a link to an “Other Industries” page at the bottom of your industry list.

Go ahead and create an industry page for up to seven main industries, but then list out some of the work you’ve done in other industries on your “Other Industries” page. If you craft your message properly, in just a few sentences, you can show visitors you are equipped to handle either their specific type of business, or better yet, any new type of business that comes along.

Let me walk you through the process. First, let’s address the industries you should actually list out on your site. Spend some time researching which industries drive the most revenue for your company and which industries you anticipate will drive revenue in the future. Once you have a clear picture of which industries they are, generate a list of the top seven. Then, proceed to develop copy, images and other content that speaks specifically to the people in those industries. If you have done your research properly, this should cover a significantly large portion of your existing and future customer base. This should all be pretty easy to accomplish and most likely something you’ve done numerous times before in some capacity.

Now, let’s create your “Other Industries” page. Don’t simply put up a list of additional industries beyond the seven you’ve already listed, but instead, provide a clear and concise message about your experience in other industries and let your audience know you are confident you can translate your success to their challenges, too. Just remember to keep your messaging customer-focused and speak to learning more about their specific industry’s challenges once you have discussed their specific needs.

If possible, try to get some quotes from customers who are not in your seven main industries that can demonstrate how you helped them overcome some very specific challenges. Be sure to feature those quotes on your “Other Industries” page. If you can obtain some quotes that speak to how quickly you learned customers’ industry-specific challenges, even better. Be sure to develop content based on your individual company’s products, services and experience.

By following these simple content creation steps, you can have a robust industry-focused section of your website that not only highlights the main industries your company serves, but also lets prospects whose enterprises do not fall into those industries know you are more than capable of helping them solve their specific challenges.

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