Tip Booklets, Success Tips, Business Gifts, Sales and Marketing Tools

How To Answer the Phone

"Incontinence Hotline--Can you hold, please?"

Marketing Lessons from Parade of Homes

My family likes to enjoy the Parade of Homes put on by local builders in Hickory, North Carolina. We get to see wonderful dream homes and have a nice day out together.

• One home was very modern and had wonderful touches like a two story closet off the master bedroom and a pass through from the closet to the laundry room.
• Another home had wonderful signs saying things like, "This door leads to your huge new garage!"
• A third builder had school information, things to do lists and company brochures out for the taking
• But another home had the builder sitting around like a queen with a posse.
• Many had unfinished basements with no suggestions about how to use that space.

The best marketing ideas: signs, information and little touches; were also the most affordable. But the builders needed the ability to step back and see their investment the way a home buyer might see it. So, get your eyes up from that grind stone and try to see things the way your buyer might see them. The builders that did that for this years Parade of Homes sure got my attention.

Be a Hero at Work for FREE!

Ever been at a meeting and needed a certain fact to make a point? Ever find yourself roaming the halls mumbling about some obscure fact or missing information? Now you can get the information you need fast and free with ChaCha.

ChaCha.com is a free mobile phone messaging service. You can call and leave a voice mail, or send a quick text message with a question, and they will look up the answer on-line and text you a reply. It is free. No kidding! I've used it. It works. It's great when you are out and about, or need some obscure piece of information NOW. Here's how it works:

• Using your mobile phone, call 8002ChaCha or send a text message to ChaCha (242242)
• Ask your question
• Hang up

In about a minute, you'll get a reply saying (to paraphrase), "Don't get your knickers in a snit we're working on it." In 2-5 minutes, you'll get a text back with your answer. Don't expect a novel. Quick, factual questions please. I just used it last night to get the part number for an "O" ring I needed to make a poor man's cruise control for my Burgman Scooter. I don't have a text message plan (hate texting), but was willing to pay my mobile phone company 20 cents to get this information. Try it now. Call 8002ChaCha and ask:

"What is the average yearly pay for (say your occupation) living in (say your city and state)."

Or, try this one, "What's the best way to ask my boss for a raise?"

Share your responses using the comment tools below.

How To Solve Any Problem--Part 1

Do you have a problem? Here are the Seven Key Questions you need to ask yourself to solve any problem. Did I say "ANY PROBLEM?" Yes I did. Try it yourself and see.

1. Is there really a problem? If the answer is no; no worries. If you are sure the answer is yes, then keep going.
2. Whose problem is it? If it ain't your problem, delegate it or forget about it and move on.
3. How bad is it, really? The size of the problem often determines the size of the hammer you need to fix it.
4. What is the root cause of the problem? It's probably management, methods, materials, mother nature, measuring system or mankind.
5. Now you can ask, How do I fix it? But you must also ask ...
6. How will I know when it's fixed? and
7. How will I keep it fixed?

That's it. Print this out. Put it up on your wall. Try it for yourself. Post your results using the comment link below.

52 Ways to Write E-mail Emoticons

Emoticons are those strange letter combinations that make faces like this ;~) or send other text based "emotional content." I'm don't have 52 of these fun little keystrokes yet, but here are a few to get you started as an e-mail/IM wizard. If you have more good ones you want to share, use the comment link below this post. Here we go!

<g> Grin
<G> Big Grin
<GRIN> Also a BIG GRIN
:) Smile
:-) Smile with nose
;~) Wink with crooked nose (check the upper left corner of your keyboard for the tilda symbol)
:( Frown
:-( Frown with nose
ROFL Rolling On Floor Laughing
ROFLMAO Rolling on Floor Laughing My Ass Off
IMO In My Opinion
IMHO In My Humble Opinion
IOHO In Our Humble Opinion
BTW By The Way
(:-(|)     Mick Jagger
(::[]::)     Bandaid
@--->--->---- Long Stemmed Rose

To find more emoticons, go to the Computer Knowledge emoticon compilation page.

An Audit Schedule Makes You a Pizza Wizard

Imagine you make pizzas for a living. How would you like to have an almost preternatural ability to avoid problems, make your working life easier and keep your customers happy? You can, by setting a weekly audit schedule. Here’s how it works.

Tuesdays—You focus on safety. Are the knives sharp? Is the back door being kept locked? Are the floors free of trip hazards? Is the first aid kit full?

Wednesdays—You audit freshness. Is the stock being rotated? Does the food smell fresh? Is there any food out of date?

Thursdays—Cleanliness. Floor clean? Hands washed? Bathrooms and exterior looking good?

Fridays—Customer service audit. Are your internal customer (if you’re a pizza maker, that’s the wait staff) happy? Are the final customers (the ones buying the pizzas) happy? This is a good day to check-in with the boss (before the rush starts) and ask if there is anything he wants you to fucus on tonight.

Saturday—Personal relationships. Rules, ethics, checklists and techniques are important, but you still need to be around great people to succeed. Ask how people are doing. Check in with anyone who has been sick or has trouble at home. How are the hostesses doing? What’s going on with your suppliers? Who likes to talk about sports or stocks or babies?

In quality control, we call this an "audit schedule." You will probably find something that needs work in every area, every day. That’s normal. Just imagine the progress you can make by focusing your attention on each of these areas for 52 days every year. What could that type of focused effort be worth in your career? Could preventing a robbery help you? Are clean bathrooms important to customer loyalty? How much is a great rating from the health department worth?

As a quality manager, I’ve used an audit schedule for years. Ben Franklin's personal  audit schedule helped make him a success. Audit schedules, formal or informal, have helped me see steady improvement at every job I’ve every done. The district manager has one. Your manager has one. You can have one too. The point is to keep revisiting the key areas that affect your career success. Make you own audit schedule right now and use the comment tool below to share it with the other readers.

You Think You've Got Problems? I'm Glad!

Have you got problems? Do you have LOTS of problems? Do you have so many problems you can’t see straight or sleep at night? Good! As soon as you recognize that you have problems, you are already standing on the road to solving them.

To really speed up finding solutions to your problem, you need to start walking with your problems, accept them, embrace them, love them, honor them, look ‘em in the eye and give those problems a big hug. Your problems truly reflect who you are, and the choices you’ve made in your life. I’m not saying you have to Keep all those problems, far from it, I’m just suggesting you stop ignoring them and say hello to your problems; then you can start saying goodbye to them.

You may not realize it, but people have been having problems for a while now. Brighter thinkers than yours truly have created some wonderful problem solving tools and techniques. Here are a few you can try: