Monthly Archives: June 2017

TNF #092: Persistence vs. patience

Welcome Professionals…

…Building new client relationships requires a long-term effort. Trust will only grow over time. It may take years to establish a new client relationship. Many times, we will give up too early. For a winning strategy, we need to keep the right balance between persistence and patience.

Persistence is highly important. We must not loose grip if our emails or phone calls do not get answered. We continuously have to think of new ways to add value to the person that we want to build a connection with. We have to keep trying.

There is a tipping point, when persistence is turning into annoyance. When our activity reaches a certain level of intensity and frequency, the target person might feel pushed into something and this will usually put an end to the newly established connection. This is why persistence has to balanced with patience.

Hard to say which number of contact attempts is ideal. My business partner has empirically developed a rule of thumb over the last 30 years in business. According to his practical research, it takes 8 quality interactions per year to develop a new connection. This has proven to be working for hundreds of connections established. A quality interaction is defined as a two way communication that is personalized and linked to the target person’s targets and interests. Sending a simple newsletter does not count, but a personal invitation to an event with an answer received (confirmation of attendance or excuse due to other plans) will be eligible. Phone calls turn out to be the most efficient means for quality interactions.

I have tracked this rule myself and it works for me. Let me know how it works for you!

Malte

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TNF #091: Do it now!

Welcome Professionals…

…As my frequent readers already know, I am not able to use my right hand for writing at the moment and I use the dictation function of Siri instead. This led me to another discovery this week.

One of my least favorite work is transfering minutes into our CRM system and writing detailed reports on interviewed candidates. Whatever, it has to be done, despite all procrastination.

My usual procedure would be to take hand-written notes of interviews and collect them over time in my drawer. Then, when the delivery date of the reports comes close, I would set a time slot in my calendar for writing reports. I would pick a time early in the morning, when my personal reserve of will power is not yet fully depleted.

Now, that stacking hand-written notes is not an option, I have changed my routine to dictating notes of meetings and phone calls immediately, so that I do not forget the essential information. I have done this as well with interview reports. Transcribing the key findings of some 90 minutes of intense conversation to a summary of 2 pages by using the dictation function of Siri.

What can I say: The actual writing (dictating in that case) is done in up to 50% less time. It is done right away without any procrastination. It feels better, because my files are up to date and I do not have to look at the daunting stack of paper all the time.

My learning is: Do the nagging tasks as soon as possible to get them out of my head and out of the way.

Feeling free,

Malte

TNF #090: Tailor the message

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Welcome Professionals…

…Here comes a reminder on an old principle that probably every consultant already knows: The message of a presentation must be tailored to the receiving audience!

Sure, you might say. This is so simple and obvious, yet it gets forgotten so many times. All too often we tend to use the material that we already have and skip the extra tailoring effort. We like the messages that sound convincing to ourselves, not necessarily pursusasive for the individuals we address. We think within the frameworks that work for us, but may be too complicated for the attention span of our listeners.

For every presentation that we prepare, we must answer the most basic questions first:

Who is our target audience of the message/presentation?
What is their status (knowledge, opinion, goals, capacities, restrictions, etc.)
Where do we want to move the audience?

Once the key message is tailored, we should review the following three questions to make our message pursuasive:

How can we create a supportive atmosphere in the beginning (a compliment, a joke, an appreciation of the audience, a consensus, etc.)
How can we address stakeholders during our presentation and show them that we understand them and that we care?
How can we finalize with a positive call for action?

Everything else is just PowerPoint,

Malte

TNF #089: Handicap II

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Welcome Professionals…

…Another week has passed and I still cannot use my right hand. I have to wear a cast for six weeks in total. As announced last week, I will give you a report on my efforts to stay productive.

Having a broken bone is a bummer, but I promised myself I will stay positive and focus on good things to learn. Over the course of the week, I already made some significant productivity gains. I actually made some improvements that I might keep even when the cast is gone.

Here is a list of my productivity adjustments:

Left-hand writing comes out with some readable lines after practicing a bit, but it is still much too slow
Left-hand typing works for a few words, but is also much too slow for longer text
Using the Apple Siri function for a few tasks like making a call, setting a reminder, putting appointments to the calendar and so on is very useful and quick, once I understood which syntax to use
The online dictating function of Siri works much better than the off-line enhanced dictation function and improves over time the more I use it
Setting up shortcuts in the text replacement function of iPhone and MacBook is something that I should have done before
I managed to use my MacBook as the input source for the Microsoft-based computer system in my office, allowing me to dictate text right into word files and also into our CRM system, which is actually much quicker than my 10 finger writing before

There are even some positive side effects, which are quite remarkable:

The inability to take notes during conversations has me focusing much more on my counterpart in both personal meetings as well as in phone calls. It seems I have a much stronger presence in these conversations now.
Dictating a summary after a conversation enables me to focus on the real key lines that are worth memorizing. Though I have to admit that I would prefer to be able to take at least some notes during the conversation, especially on 90 minutes interviews.
Using the dictation function requires me to articulate myself very clearly and precisely and get rid of all these “ers” and “uhs” during verbal expression

I am actually quite surprised what good can come out out of a stupid situation like this. I will keep you posted about for the learnings.

Wishing you a productive week,

Malte