Accelerated Learning: How Business Training Can Benefit.

Learning styles research tells us different people learn in different ways (OK – we didn’t need research to tell us that).

There have been many learning models to support this. Some models outline three learning styles – other models outline four, eight or more learning styles and associated learning cycles. In a later blog I’ll create a comparison of a few popular learning styles like Kolb and DISC.

No matter which model you use or how many individual learning preferences you focus on, the one thing every trainer should consider is that almost everyone learns best when many learning styles are engaged. This is called Accelerated Learning.

Accelerated Learning

The name given to learning that engages multiple learning styles in a training environment is ‘Accelerated Learning’. The benefit of Accelerated Learning is that it’s a multi-pronged approach to training (especially business training), that should results in improved retention (learning), in less time. This is a plus to help your organization see a greater Return on Investment (ROI).

The best training design therefore combines both traditional fact-based linear training and active learning – alternating frequently / never keeping one going for a long time.

Active Learning does not mean throwing in a few games or plans to get participants to stretch or dance every hour during a traditional fact-based linear training program. It may however include a combination of experiences including:

• Auditory stimulation
• Physical movement
• Sequential learning
• Analytical exercises
• Intuitive thinking
• Hands-on experiences

Why Does Accelerated Learning Work?

Switching between multiple learning styles works because it lets each individual benefit from their preferred learning style, and then also use the other learning styles to reinforce knowledge transfer. Makes sense right? And there is an added benefit that switching between multiple learning styles help keep participants engaged and awake (seriously).

The irony is that traditional fact-based lectures are still predominantly the norm. The problem is that traditional learning (fact-based linear learning), keeps participants physically inactive and most often (within 5 to 20 minutes), participants unconsciously become disengaged. This is true for the child and the adult learner.

It’s not that traditional fact-based lectures are bad. In fact, short burst are great support to have within an Accelerated Learning program.

Conclusion:

Even people with similar learning styles are not the same. We are all different, so even if you and I share the same primary learning style, our preferred learning process will be different. To demonstrate, consider three very natural variables:

• How quickly each of us learn
• How dominant our preferred learning style is (i.e.: strong or weak)
• What our secondary learning style is (and is it being used during training)

So, even though two people with the same preferred primary learning style will learn at a different pace, using multiple learning styles that involve our emotions, body movement, our senses and the full breadth and depth of our personalities will enhance our learning.

To succeed in introducing Active Learning, openly communicate with employees what they will experience and ask them to ‘listen’ and ‘be active’ without judging. Before you know it, they will be fully engaged – to the best of their abilities and learning styles. Mindfulness is key.

______________________________________________________

What might be your primary Kolb learning style?

Accommodating

The Accommodating learning style is ‘hands-on’, and relies on intuition rather than logic. They commonly act on ‘gut’ instinct rather than logical analysis and prefer to work in teams.

Diverging

The Diverging learning styles prefers to watch rather than do, tending to gather information and use imagination to solve problems, tend to be imaginative and emotional, and prefer to work in groups.

Assimilating

The Assimilating learning preference is for a concise, logical approach. These people like to work alone, require good clear explanation, and prefer readings, lectures and having time to think things through.

Converging

People with a Converging style like to experiment with new ideas, to simulate, and to work with practical applications. Prefer technical tasks and to work alone.

Happy communicating… Happy training.

Other Interesting BMC Articles: Unique Value Proposition Definition, Measure Training Effectiveness, Build Client Trust and Effective Business Email Writing Training.

Give us a call at 416.617.0462. We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is based in Toronto and facilitates business writing, email writing and email etiquette courses.

We are… Strategic   Branded   Relevant

bruce@brucemayhewconsulting.com

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Increase Productivity By 15% Or More!

Increase productivity by 15% by writing better email messages every time. On average this will give you 12 days of additional productivity each year and will also have many benefits including:

• Enhanced brand recognition
• Improved corporate and employee reputation
• Greater customer, supplier and employee satisfaction

Email occupies approximately 90% of most office / business communication. If 15% of your email messages don’t get read or answered you’re wasting 12 days of your valuable time each year.

Similarly, if you have to write one more email to 15% of the requests that come to you (because your co-worker didn’t write a clear message), you’re wasting 12 days of your valuable time each year (and they are also wasting their time).

Even if only 5% of your email messages don’t get read or answered you’re still wasting 6 days each year.  Worse yet – you now have to lower your productivity even further by following up. Argh!

If Email Doesn’t Increase Productivity – What’s Wrong With It?

Nothing. It’s not email that’s broken – it’s how we communicate. 

Most organizations haven’t yet invested in employee training on how to express their core values and to communicate effectively. This is true for phone conversations, voicemail and even face-to-face conversations.  Employee training is an investment that can pay for itself in less than 2 months.

Instead employees communicate in small sound-bites… often confusing and annoying others with unintended sharp tone, fragmented thoughts and their volume of messages without considering phone etiquette or email etiquette. We also don’t:

• Consider our audiences needs
• Ensure our message clearly achieves its objective
• Make sure we’re not inadvertently offending the recipient

All these things train our audiences to be non-responders.

In just a few hours an Effective Business Email Writing Training teaches how to increase productivity through enhanced structure, best practices and email etiquette! Phone etiquette training can help even further.

Example: A Conservative Loss of 12 Days of Productivity

I’ve said in other blog posts that email is perceived as free but it’s far from that. Besides the opportunity lost from wasted time and money, there is:

• The cost of the actual infrastructure to your organization is expensive
• The expense of the time other employees spend listening to or reading poorly constructed email messages
• The cost to your brand reputation (difficult to calculate – but nevertheless real)

We would be much more thoughtful and effective if each email message or phone call cost $5.

What’s the next step?

Three things are important to easily create fast, effective and well branded communication that build stronger relationships and earn more revenue… every time.

• Know your core values and articulate them within your messages
• Define your needs & your audiences needs
• Learn email etiquette and phone etiquette and how to structure your communication

Don’t settle. As I mentioned, employee training can easily pay for itself in less than 2 months – and then you’ll be able to invest that 15% of lost productivity back into your company.

Make marketing strategy, exceptional communication and core values part of your training requirement. Improve how the people in your company are communicating.

Happy communicating.

Please Share Your Unique Insight - Take Our Confidential Poll.

Other Interesting BMC Articles: Unique Value Proposition Definition, Measure Training Effectiveness and Effective Email Writing Training.

Give us a call (or email). We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting delivers business writing, email writing and email etiquette courses.

We are… Strategic   Branded   Relevant

bruce@brucemayhewconsulting.com

Don’t forget to Subscribe to this blog (upper right side). Your email address will be confidential and well-respected.

Core Values: What Values Mean & How To Use Them

Core values define employees, clients, organizations and products / services. They are golden opportunities to build a foundation of expectations and trust.

Organization leaders must be responsible for the values their employees, organizations and their products / services demonstrate. Taking responsibility for their core values allows organizations to build their corporate culture and reputation with confidence.

How To Use Core Values
Core Values Save Time, Money and Reputation

When employees know their organizations values, they have an ethical base that will help them know how to act and what decisions (including strategic brand decisions), are in the best interest of their clients, the organization and its vision. For example, an organization may be striving for:

• Health & safety
• Continuous improvement
• Customer satisfaction
• Transparent communication

The additional benefit for an organization (beyond increased customer satisfaction), is that once employees understand the core values they will be able to make the right business decisions with greater confidence and speed (saving time, saving money and reducing mistakes). For example, values will:

• Assist in the development of the organization (and department), mission statement, vision statement,  value statement and core competencies.
• Influence the product / service design process when developing new products / services.
• Serve as the starting ground for all marketing and advertising strategies and messages.
• Be evaluated and measured within the people being considered for employment.

Example Of Values Disconnect

A large soup company that promotes health and family values has recently announced they will renege on a promise to reduce salt in many of their products – even with evidence that high salt diets have been previously linked to cardiovascular disease.

Values Measurement

The beauty is Bruce Mayhew Consulting is able to measure the gap between current organizational values and the core values clients have. Once we know the gap we can make adjustments to align ‘out of place’ values through messaging, training and ongoing support.

Conclusion

Imagine how powerful your product development and marketing messages could be if you knew for certain what your best clients’ values were and could address them head-on?

Support employee behaviour by demonstrating (through analysis and training), how employees can use values like health & safety and continuous improvement as they would use tools to do their job. Measure and reward their success by integrating values into each employee’s performance objectives.

Ultimately, defining and controlling the adoption of core values must be an organization wide commitment with buy-in at all levels. Values are living qualities (never static), that define the ethical personality of the organization and the people who work there. Integrating these values must be a priority for everyone.

In a few weeks we will publish a list of values including Physical Values, Organizational Values and Psychological Values.

Other Interesting BMC Articles: Effective Business Email Writing and Good Email Bad Email

Give us a call. We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is Strategic Branded Relevant

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

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How To Brainstorm: Marketing Strategy

Generate Ideas

Will a brainstorm group give your marketing strategy focus?

Yes, it will… and likely quite a bit more. Here’s why.

Brainstorming rewards innovative thinking. It’s about problem solving and thinking outside the box. So, use brainstorming when you want to:

• Generate new ideas
• Enhance team and cross-functional communication
• Uncover a competitive advantage for an organization or a product / service
• Break away from what everyone else is doing

A brainstorm group is a great way for your team, customers or prospects to contribute in an innovative way and focus on innovation and creative ideas. It’s also a great way for them to feel a sense of ownership as they see the outcome as a marketing strategy and strategic plan.

After a brainstorm session it’s time to move into the next phase and build on the generated ideas. This is when analyze and evaluate turns into solutions.

Brainstorm Only One Objective

Have only one clearly defined objective to brainstorm. Develop it as a focused statement that outlines your problem or need. You’ll find that one objective will flourish into many ideas for your marketing strategy.

As a brainstorming facilitator I often get insight into a situation beyond the expected and find that the solution for the brainstorm session is some combination of unique solutions. And, because I’m arms length from the organization that hired me, I get clear – unbiased information.

How To Assemble A Brainstorm Group

Only when you have your objective defined should you begin to hand-pick the participants. A small group of 4 – 8 people is often ideal because they’ll relax and interact well. A large group will likely mean some voices will dominate while some good ideas will not get mentioned.

Within a small group, one person’s ideas will set off a chain reaction of creative thoughts by the other participants… thereby producing even more new and / or extended ideas.

If you have a bigger team or want a larger sample I recommend multiple groups.

Don’t Control The Brainstorm Group – Encourage The Group

A brainstorm session places a significant burden on the facilitator to keep the session flowing, people’s involvement up and sensitivities in check. The facilitator has to encourage everyone to participate (to their comfort level of course), without restrictions or excuses that an idea ‘can’t be done’.

As the ideas are generated a trained facilitator dismisses nothing.

A facilitator should also be free from favoritism to the outcome of your strategic plan and the audience(s) being interviewed. For this reason – it’s always a good idea to employ a facilitator from outside your company.

When The Brainstorm Sessions Are Over…

Once a brainstorm sessions is over you need a longer, more serious meeting to evaluate the ideas generated. It’s at this point that the ideas are prioritized. Some ideas might need to be set aside for future consideration. This phase is the beginning of where raw ideas will be forged into new marketing strategies, strategic plan or product development initiatives.

It’s similar to the sales funnel we’re all used to. There are lots of ideas going in and being evaluated, but you want hot ideas flowing out the bottom.

Conclusion

A brainstorm session is one of the all time great tools for organizations like yours to quickly energize your marketing, advertising and / or customer service areas.

In a nutshell, brainstorming will help you generate lots of new, even crazy ideas. When people see that their efforts are turning into actions they’ll be more motivated and engaged.

Where would a new innovative idea help you?

Other Interesting BMC Article you might be interested in are Increase Productivity by 15%, Business Email Writing Training and Email Is Great For This – Not Great For That.

Give us a call. We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is Strategic Branded Relevant.
Marketing and Communication Training Solutions

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

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Bad Email Habits: What Message Are You Sending?

Email messages often make up 90% of business communication (which lacks vocal inflection and facial gestures). So, when success depends so much on who you know, why is it that great people sometimes makes enemies and lose loyal clients even when they’ve landed their dream job and enjoy going to work?

There are a few things that are likely happening… and often it’s behaviour we’re exhibiting that we don’t recognize as being negatively interpreted. But, as I say in myEffective Email Writing Workshop “Whatever your reader understands and interprets is reality… (whether you meant it or not).” This is true for the spoken word and even more true for every email message. 

This blog post looks at aspects of email communication where ‘personality’ plays a major role. Some of these tips will help you improve your email etiquette and communication style a little – some will help you a lot.

Cause, Effect and Solution

There really are only a few common challenges people have. Think of these four D’s when you are speaking with your family and co-workers. It may be that your language is alienating you from the relationships that are most important to you:

• Demand: Unrealistically asking for more than we should expect
• Diagnosis, judgment, criticism:  Negativity alienating us from others and our actions.
• Denial of responsibility: The problem is never our fault
• Deserve: Reward or punishment that diminishes the value of the person or people we are engaging with

Consider these email etiquette rules:

1. Email vs. Instant Messaging
   Instant messaging (IM), is the closest text-based communications option to a real phone call. If decisions are made on IM, always use email to confirm what was decided and why.
2. New Generation, New Motivators
   Your clients and co-workers can be any age. An employee who is 25 might use slang and abbreviations – they are also motivated differently. People tend to write as though they writing to themselves. In the business world, you need to consider your audience.
3. Embracing Brevity/Seeking Structure
   Many emailers write lines and lines of text that coworkers have to wade through. Brevity is always best so be clear and get to the point fast. Also consider how your e-mail is laid out so that it is easy to read and understand.
4. Don’t Burn a Colleague or an Assistant
   Never burn a colleague or a colleague’s assistant. Email is easy to forward and undoubtedly you will lose twice by making an enemy of your colleague and hurt your reputation by looking like a tattle tale.
5. Jarring Jargon
   Using insider industry terms can alienate prospects who do not know what your terms mean. For the sake of clarity – in most cases it is best to keep in-house jargon out of email.

Conclusion:

Changing a lifetime of habits is not easy, but you also don’t want to put your personal and business relationships at risk because of the email message you send. Learn to identify your communication problems, solve them and then provide ongoing feedback and motivation.

Are you ready to empower the way you communicate with your customers, suppliers or co-workers?

Give us a call (or email). We’ll listen.

Happy communicating.

Please Share Your Unique Insight - Take Our Confidential Poll.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting delivers business writing, email writing and email etiquette courses.

We are… Strategic   Branded   Relevant

bruce@brucemayhewconsulting.com

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LinkedIn: The Largest Professional Social Network

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional social network having recently passed 100 million contacts worldwide. There are 7.5 million professionals in Canada and currently close to half are sharing their professional contacts and personal network on LinkedIn.

You may ask, “With volumes of contacts in the millions, will my profile be lost in the forest, or is there a chance that it can be found?” The answer is… your success depends on you.

Opening a profile and having your name and title appear is not enough. In fact I believe a poorly constructed, bare minimum and inactive account provides a poor personal and corporate brand image.

Google and other search engines evaluate LinkedIn content, so it’s also important to pay attention to keywords when you construct your profile. Why? Because when your profile is complete (100%), and active (which doesn’t take much to be active), then Google can use those keywords to index your account and promote your LinkedIn profile in searches. This is a very good thing.

Having a 100% completed profile

Just like anything in life, a 100% complete LinkedIn profile of value requires an initial investment of your time (and/or a small amount of money). Note: To rate well with search engines you need a completed profile.

The account itself doesn’t need to cost a dime. LinkedIn’s free listing (which is the most common), makes sense for most business people at all professional / executive levels.

Your investment is the time you’re willing to invest to learn what to do and how to do it. If your time is best used doing what you do best… experts can help you get your profile up and running quickly.

Example of how experts can help:

I recently worked with the president of an organization who didn’t have a profile. With a bit of pre-planning and pre-work we worked together to create an 80% published profile (with contacts), in just 45 minutes. And we have a plan to achieve the 100% goal within the next three weeks (the last 15% often takes one to four weeks).

Once your profile is launched, you can decide how often you’ll update your profile depending on your personal schedule, responsibilities and preferences. My recommendation is to have some activity at least one every week. 

Organizations use LinkedIn to find:

• Talent
• Suppliers / Trainers / Experts
• Market research and information (LinkedIn Today as example)

Individuals use LinkedIn to find:

• What jobs are available
• Who’s joining a company and other talent information
• Market information / Expertise (LinkedIn Today as example)

Additional ways you can use LinkedIn:

• Join groups and associations to network with clients / prospect clients
• Research high potential clients and prospects before contacting or meeting them
• Request LinkedIn recommendation from satisfied clients and suppliers
• Use LinkedIn Today to stay up-to-date on a topic or industry by customizing an information / news feed

Conclusion:

LinkedIn is a valuable resource and will be as powerful as you make. LinkedIn isn’t sexy, it is a bit trendy, and does take work to initially set it up. However, it is valuable and once you have your profile established it only takes just a few minutes every few days to:

• Find great new & existing clients
• Demonstrate your core competencies
• Added value to your network

LinkedIn isn’t sitting back – it’s consistently adding additional value. So should you.

Other Interesting BMC Article you might be interested in Email Is Great For This – Not Great For That.

Give us a call. We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is  Strategic    Branded   Relevant.

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

Email Message Style: It’s A Good Thing

Email etiquette is a bridge between what you have to say and what’s important to the reader. So, if you’re wondering how to write then I can assure you etiquette is a good place to start.

The look & feel (or email style), of your email message is polish to your content. It’s similar to the importance of a well structured business letter. In many cases email etiquette is the difference between you getting the respect you deserve, your email message getting read, and your information being understood… or Not!

Example: How motivated are you to read an email that looks like this?

Nobody wants to try to understand the copy in a brick.

Style can make – or break your email message and your reputation.

Whether it’s a business letter or a business email, good structure helps your audience read quickly and understand the information you want them to know - a benefit to you and to them. The look and feel of your message will also determine if your message will be taken seriously.

Since it’s estimated that 90% of business communication is via email, how your message is packaged will have tremendous impact on your professional success.

Example: In one hand I have a perfectly square, polished silver box with an embossed Mercedes-Benz logo. In the other hand I have a wrinkled brown paper bag rolled at the top. They both contain a message. Which package are you motivated to open? Which do you think has the most valuable message?

The business value of email etiquette is experienced in a number of ways, but to succeed your email message first has to be read. To be read you have to be respected.

Are you ready to empower the way you communicate with your clients, suppliers and co-workers? Everyone can win!

Etiquette Rules: Consider a few of my favourite:

1. Value your Values
   Employees should know without hesitation the corporate and department values. They should also know how to use these values to differentiate the company every time they email or speak with clients, suppliers or their co-workers.
2. Subject Line Sliders
   Subject lines are a primary resource to determine if your email will be read now, later or never. They are also the first opportunity for you to make an impression. If you leave the subject line blank – or use a universal word like ‘Meeting’, you risk being overlooked.
3. Serial Cc’ers
   Coworkers Cc’ing each other is an epidemic. In an office of 10 employees, if all the staff Cc the boss an extra 10 times a day, that’s an extra 100 email the boss has to sort through… consider the opportunity lost in that time.
4. Capital Catastrophes
   Every office seems to have one employee that uses ALL CAPS WHEN WRITING EMAILS! This is perceived as aggressive. Conversely, young employees tend to write emails in lower case with little or no punctuation. Proper sentence case should always be used in business communication to promote a professional image.

My next blog post will be titled: Top 10 Email Etiquette Tips & Team Training. It will have 16 email etiquette Do’s and Don’ts.

Conclusion:

• Don’t put your personal and business relationships at risk because of the email you or your employees send.
• Learn to identify your communication problems, solve them and then provide ongoing feedback and motivation.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting’s Effective Business Email Writing Training is designed for business professionals who are looking for a cost-effective way to learn how to write an email message. Our training solutions focus in three strategic areas that help you differentiate yourself and be more successful:

1. Structure Of Your Message
2. Content Within Your Message
3. Sell / Market Yourself and Your Organization within every email

Imagine work being easier. Imagine work being more productive.

Happy communicating.

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If you enjoyed this post we think you’ll like: Email Writing Training, Be Amazing At Work, Measure Training Effectiveness and Good Email Bad Email.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting facilitates business writing, email writing and email etiquette courses.

Give us a call at 416 617 0462. We’ll listen.

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

Social Media Marketing. What’s your Presence?

Does your company have a social media marketing presence?

Here’s the thing, at some point soon – in the next few years – if a company doesn’t have an interactive, responsible, monitored social media experience they won’t exist to an ever-expanding, highly motive group of potential buyers. And existing buyers will be being lured away by competitors with an active social media marketing strategy.

Adding social media marketing to your marketing mix can start small and be built over time into a large product / service experience. It’s really not so hard to get one once you’ve defined why and how you’re going to move into social media marketing.

The important thing when planning is for your strategy to be fully integrated with your brand, core values and mission. Once that’s locked down, be as active and flexible as your company can in one or many social media marketing forums. For example, you can:

• Share knowledge / Get feedback (Blogs, Comments, Questions)
• Be active on facebook, LinkedIn and countless other networking sites – this lets you network and expose your profile / company specifics to online search engines
• Add Video (Company Website, YouTube Product Demo, On-line Training)
• Run Contests (Expand client base – be a good corporate citizen)
• Advertise (Connect with customers and prospects – on others blog sites, or networking sites)
• Respond to customer questions and complaints

Two Social Media Marketing, fears companies have:

• It costs a lot
• What we and our customers say cannot be controlled

My Advice:

Businesses have been unleashing sales people onto the world for years – sending them to conferences, giving them cars, phones and expense accounts – why is social media seen as so expensive and uncontrollable? In reality, social media marketing should be less expensive and the potential is greater. Social media can easily target prospects in your preferred market area.

The added value of social media marketing vs. people go to a conference or on sales calls is that in the social media world everything is online – you can see and track the conversations. You can see where your customer & potential customer interests are… and you can see where your dedicated staff are doing a great job of conversing with them… and where they could use (and want), additional training to be even better.

Training for your social media marketing staff  (and your sales people), is one of the best investments you can make. Make sure they know what your product/service is (sounds obvious – but you’d be surprised), and what value it has as well as the corporate values and mission statement. If your social media marketing staff  are well-trained in customer service and problem resolution – they may be your best – and most public investment in years. Like an online ombudsman.

Social media marketing and social media advertising are places where you don’t have to apply large budgets but can reach a larger audience.

Conclusion:

1. Social media is just one part of the marketing mix and should be coordinated with other marketing activities and your brand.
2. Train, prepare and support dedicated social media representatives so they have knowledge and skill in customer service and understand corporate brand, values and their expectations.

It’s important to leverage social media by connecting and engaging with your customers. This isn’t a sprint – it’s a marathon. It takes time to establish a presence and build credible relationships with your connections… so start today.

Other Interesting BMC Articles: Core Competencies Working Definition

and Effective Business Email Writing.

Give us a call. We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is  Strategic    Branded   Relevant.

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

Your Unique Value Proposition / Unique Selling Proposition (UVP or USP) is one of your most essential messages. It’s a powerful - succinct statement that will:

• Describe how you are unique, and therefore differentiate you and your product / service from your competitors
• Resonate directly to the company brand
• Give you insight about how to effectively market your product / service

If you’re having difficulty defining your Unique Value Proposition, you can be sure your potential customers are as well. How can customers choose you if they are unable to quickly understand what’s unique about what you do?

Customers want to work with ‘special professionals’. So, know and use your Unique Value Proposition to show customers you are worth more and they should choose you. Value is the intrinsic worth of your offer to your customers; it defines what they get for their money.

Can you create is a succinct statement that’s only one or two sentences long about what sets you apart from your competitors?  Can you define what the customer will likely experience when doing business with you? Be careful, You’ll need to live up to everything you promise.

What makes you unique? What sets you apart within your organization?

Take the time to understand how your organization is different from your competition. Then, support this message internally to help your employees focus on the deliverables that set your business apart and keep your customers coming back… and providing referrals. 

If you haven’t done a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), analysis in a while, now would be a good time. As part of your SWOT analysis, pay special attention to the characteristics of your product or service and your customer service model. 

What’s important to your clients? Think only like them.

Does language like ‘increasing lifetime value’ or ‘profitability’ or ‘increasing efficiencies’ impact their buying decision? If they do then it’s essential to use this language when defining your Unique Value Proposition. Is Customer Service a factor? Delivery? Reputation? Customability? 

You have to be bold. Ask your customers and employees how they perceive your company and how they would define your UVP. This can be a humbling experience and is best accomplished by a professional facilitator.

As an aid in this process, ask yourself: “What is it about what we do that makes us better and why should anybody care?” Combining your honest answer to this question with some objectivity and customer input will get you far along the path to identifying and documenting your Unique Value Proposition.

One warning: be honest with yourself. Your Unique Value Proposition can not cover up deficiencies in your business or build capabilities you would like to have. Your Unique Value Proposition is not what you say or what you wish… your UVP is what you are.

Once your Unique Value Proposition is defined, use it throughout all your marketing, advertising, sales, and customer service communication.

NOTE: Unique Value Proposition is the same as Unique Selling Proposition or Unique Selling Point.

Bruce Mayhew spoke at an OGL Chamber of Commerce event. Click to read their testimonial.

Click Here to find out how you can differentiate yourself and your company every time you send an email.

Give us a call. We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is Strategic   Branded   Relevant

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

LinkedIn Launches LinkedIn Today

LinkedIn recently launched LinkedIn Today, a service the company hopes will entice members to sign-in every day.

What Is It & Who’s It For?

LinkedIn Today is a fee service for LinkedIn members who want an easy way to stay up-to-date on a topic or industry – on their own terms.  On their own terms means the information source received is fully customizable by each member.

LinkedIn also does not act as an editor, nor does it quantify or qualify the stories. The whole LinkedIn network selects the news based on which stories are recommended, Tweeted, or posted on Facebook. 

Three Ways LinkedIn Members Customize What They See

LinkedIn Today gives members the opportunity to receive personally relevant information by customizing their profile in three different ways. LinkedIn members can read:

• What their connections are reading
• Top articles within specific industries or news sources (22 industries to choose from and growing)
• Headlines from the global LinkedIn network of 100 million members

Members can also share news they think is relevant with their LinkedIn Groups – or email (send), it to one of their LinkedIn contacts.

“Having a professional and tailored lens on news and insights is not only an efficient way to gather information for your work day, but it also arms you with the insights you need to make strategic business decisions.” said Deep Nishar, SVP of product and user experience at LinkedIn.

Share News With Other Social Media

LinkedIn has also built stronger ties with Twitter by enabling members who use LinkedIn Today to send (Tweet), information they see and like.

LinkedIn Today Is Mobile

LinkedIn’s iPhone application version 3.6, lets members view LinkedIn Today news and connect with the over 100 million LinkedIn members. Also, if members see an article they like but don’t have time to read it, iPhone application version 3.6 also lets them save any article and read it later. The application is also compatible with the iPad.

So – here is one more way – and seemingly a very efficient way – for you to stay up-to-date and connected to your network  or within in an industry.

Other Interesting BMC Articles: Effective Business Email Writing and Sales Vs. Marketing

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