* Hire the right people:

• Help all employees manage the generation gap to reduce internal conflict and improve employee motivation and productivity

* Market your product / service to your best demographic:

• Give your employees and clients relevant messages
• Focus your approach on your Core Competencies, Mission Statement, Vision Statement and Goals

This blog post will explore important work ethics, generation characteristics and motivators of Boomers, Gen X-ers and Millennials (Gen Y-ers), and tips about how  to communicate more effectively.

Baby Boomers: Born between 1946-1964.

When Baby Boomers were in their teens they were individualistic and idealistic – very much like Millennials. They felt they could change the world and in many ways they did. They wanted meaningful work, embraced socially and environmentally conscious companies and were driven more by their values than by money.

By the time mid-generation Boomers started to have families and unemployment had risen to 10%. With mounting responsibility and fewer job options they became less idealistic and more motivated by money, perks and prestige.

Today they hold positions of authority and define themselves by the prestige of the company they work for and their own professional accomplishments.

Employment Expectations
Baby Boomers believe in hierarchy and working your way up the ladder. Experience is more valuable than a degree.

Perks are the reward for hard work, long hours and commitment. They value face time in the office and many don’t welcome work flexibility or other work/life balance trends.

Work Ethic / Loyalty
Boomers are very motivated, hardworking and loyal.  They want to trust their employers and their loyalty means they have not moved companies as quickly as either X-ers or Millennials.

As Boomers approach retirement and feel financially stable many re-embrace their early values of work/life balance and being socially and environmentally conscious – although possession that demonstrate success and prestige remain important.

Generation X. Born between 1965 – 1980

Gen X-ers come from two income and / or divorced families and have grown up with corporate downsizing, massive layoffs and government scandal. With both parents at work Gen X children were left alone or with their siblings, therefore, they became independent, self-reliant individuals.

X-ers are more comfortable with technology, diversity, travel and global awareness than Boomers. They are the first generation of Americans to grow up with cd’s, remote controls, computers and with friends from other cultures.

Gen X-ers place a premium on family time, are ambitious and hardworking and value work/life balance.

Employment Expectations
After witnessing the burnout and / or layoff of their hardworking parents, X-ers entered the workplace as independent, resourceful people who value freedom and responsibility.

They are used to being leading edge – especially with technology. Generation X-ers are entrepreneurial, ambitious and eager to learn new skills that relate to their careers.

Work Ethic / Loyalty
They seek fun and meaningful work. They value the freedom to set their own hours and work-from-home options. Gen X-ers often prefer to work alone rather than in teams. A hands-off attitude often works best when supervising, mentoring or working with this generation. Coach, don’t lecture them, and don’t expect blind loyalty.

Gen X-ers are supreme skeptics and expect change. They thrive on diversity, challenge, responsibility and creative input. If their current firm doesn’t provide them with these opportunities, they’ll move.

Make feedback regular and specific. Annual performance appraisals are too late – they need frequent, rapid, specific feedback.

Millennial (Generation Y). Born between 1981-2000.

Millennials have the reputation of having lazy work ethics and being hard to motivate which isn’t true – they just want interesting work that will make a difference.

They grew up in a culturally diverse school and play environment, are tech-savvy, enthusiastic, confident, well networked and achievement-oriented. Millennials are the best educated generation in history.

Thanks to mobile technology their very attentive “helicopter parents” were rarely out of reach. Their parents introduced them to almost constant education and well supervised activities. Their busy schedules and expanded educational opportunities are the root of their confidence and need for variety and challenge.

Millennials have been told by their parents that they can do anything. They’re often called the “Everybody Gets a Trophy” generation because their parents’ insisted that their childhood experiences be positive (everyone wins), and that everyone has a valid opinion and deserves to be heard.

Employment Expectations
Millennials do not expect to “pay their dues.” They are not shy and expect their opinions to be heard. They want to know they have access to an open door to ask questions. Millennials want to know their work is valuable to the company and / or environment… as well as to them and their career. They are driven less by money and more by accomplishment… for now at least.

Millennials want to express their creativity and be able to complete tasks using their own methods.  They are learning-oriented and if they’re doing something wrong they want to know about it now so they can learn from it, but will not dwell on failure (because everyone wins).

Just like when they were young, Millennials like working in teams and being coached, need lots of praise and need to be told often they are on the right track and doing a great job.

Work Ethic / Loyalty
Millennials need detailed instruction about what you want – but let them determine how to get there. Make the work relevant and important to them and the company. If you engage them the right way they will be loyal and work hard. If they’re not satisfied they will quit now and find that job later – and if that doesn’t work out they can get support from their helicopter parents.

Millennials are accustomed to new ideas and situations, a constant opportunity to learn (or more accurately find out).

Praise Millennials often – daily even… and for sure… coach them.

Conclusion:

Understanding work ethics in the workplace is important to being an effective manager, business owner. Understanding people’s work ethics and their values will give you most of what you need to know to  attract the best customers, reduce workplace turnover, get their best effort and create positive work environments.

Click Here to find out how you can differentiate yourself and your company every time you send an 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: Generational Differences Training, Email Message Style: A Good Thing, and How To Motivate A Multicultural And Multigenerational Workforce.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting facilitates courses including Business Writing, Email Etiquette, Time Management and Mindfulness.

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

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I’d enjoy reading your comments on this post.

Let’s first explore the question “Are Top 10 lists important?”

Yes:

Top 10 email etiquette lists are effective ways to create awareness of behaviours that reduce office productivity, Return-On-Investment and damage personal and corporate reputation. Creating awareness is required before an adult can be motivated to participate in training and therefore learn.

No:

Top 10 email etiquette lists are (by themselves), not effective motivators for adults who need to acquire new knowledge and learn how to apply new behaviour to their work environment. Effective motivators are often linked to significant changes like performance measurements and job requirements or the desire for career advancement.

Motivation leads to Participation & Acquisition which leads to Application

If lists create awareness, are 10 really enough?

I think we need more than Top 10 for the following two reasons:

1. All behaviour creates impressions – not just 10
2. A Top 10 list changes from person-to-person and work environment-to-work environment. It’s not one size fits all.

Let’s look at an Example:

We have two people:

• Bob is 48 and has been working for 28 years
• John is 21 and has been working for 2 months

It’s guaranteed their experiences and communication styles are going to be different. So, what they need to learn is also going to be different right? Yes and no.

Yes:

While Bob may not be familiar with technology he likely knows basic writing and communication styles like punctuation, capitals and paragraphs. Bob will also know how to position information to secure senior executive buy-in. Like many people, Bob’s difficulty maybe in expressing his knowledge or identifying his needs in a way that doesn’t come across as abrupt, bossy or insulting.

While John will be very familiar with technology, using systems like Instant Messenger make many people less dependent on using punctuation, capitals and paragraphs. John’s also part of a Millenial generation and therefore not used to hierarchy, considering senior executives’ needs, and often comes across as too casual.

No:

While both Bob and John have different personal communication challenges, a productive work environment requires they understand how they need to adapt their own communication style to both give and receive / interpret information (written and verbal), and to consider each other’s needs and styles.

Conclusion:

Top 10 lists are important but need to be seen as a means to an end – not the end itself. They are a useful and effective tool to help all people at all levels evaluate what their personal and corporate needs are and where further action (be it training or department wide procedures / policies), may need to be adjusted.

When it comes to training, Bob and John will likely achieve better learning results if they’re able to share, listen and explore each others needs and perspectives in a safe training environment. They have different strengths and weaknesses and through open discussion can be each others mentors / sounding boards. Bob and John’s combined involvement will also help them communicate with other audiences.

So, to help you create awareness of problem areas, here’s an email Top 16 list of email Do’s and Don’ts. As you go through them, circle which may be personal opportunities for changed behaviour and which may be opportunities for people you work with.

Email Etiquette Top 16

These are our main netiquette Do’s & Don’ts.

Do:

1. Do identify / mention attachments
2. Do write a relevant Subject line
3. Do use a friendly greeting, be polite and courteous
4. Do use spell check, correct grammar & punctuation
5. Do pay attention to Cc… when replying
6. Do let the sender know if you need time to reply
7. Do use a signature block
8. Do use an out-of-office message

Don’t:

1. Don’t overuse high priority !
2. Don’t overuse Cc…
3. Don’t use Bcc… – unless you are sending to lots of people – then use it to hide addresses.
4. Don’t overuse Reply to All
5. Don’t expect an immediate response
6. Don’t use jargon
7. Don’t use sarcasm – it’ll likely me misinterpreted
8. Don’t send time wasters / chain letters

Happy communicating.

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Other Interesting BMC Articles: Core Competencies Working Definition, Why Many Email Messages Appear Rude, Business Lessons I Learned From My Dog, and Effective Business Email Writing.

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

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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. Email etiquette will determine if your audience reads your email message, if they understand your message, and if they take your message seriously… or Not!

Good email structure also positively impacts your Time Management by helping you do more important work with less need to follow-up on unanswered messages and / or messages that were not misinterpreted.

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.

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. 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.

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.
• Improve Time Management by writing well structured, professional email messages your associates will open, read, understand and answer promptly. A well written email message reduces the time you spend following-up on unanswered email or questions.

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.

Click here to join our priority list of people who receive our latest Business Communication blog posts.

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 Etiquette and Time Management courses.

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

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

This has been a challenging blog post to write because I really want to be clear I’m not asking you to pretend to love everything. That behaviour is unhelpful… and slightly annoying.

Let’s discuss workplace communication

Great leaders know that giving people encouraging feedback motivates them, creates a better end product and earns them respect. Negative motivation sours your relationship.

Example 1: If you miss sending me your order by noon Thursday you’ll have to wait another week. Verses… Send me your order by noon Thursday and I’ll have it for you on Monday.

Sometimes things are not as good as they need to be (like the first draft of a presentation for the senior team). In cases like these constructive feedback is necessary. It’s ‘how’ you provide feedback that makes all the difference.

Example 2:Your approach is wrong – do it this way. Verses… Your content is great, but consider how you can ensure your ROI message can’t be missed.

Giving feedback is about choice – specifically, how we ‘choose’ to engage. The best approach is to give positive feedback in a way that helps people learn, motivates the recipient and establishes you as an enabler – not a negative or uncaring dictator.

Let’s discuss general daily communication

It’s so easy to say how bad things are and I have to catch myself just like the next guy. That said, I’m happy to say it’s less often than it used to be… and much less often than some people I know.

The reality is you can always improve a conversation by noticing what’s good about even a bad situation. Talking about what’s good helps create harmony. talking about what’s bad creates frustration and easily leads to anger, stressful relationships and can even cause depression.

Example 3: That street light is burnt out. I bet it will take the city weeks to fix it. Verses… That street light is burnt out. Wow – that one light makes it so much easier to see the stars.

I think the biggest problem is that many of us aren’t aware we’re speaking negatively. I have noticed that when I consciously have a positive outlook I feel so much better and so do the people around me. My personal brand is improved.

Example 4: It’s a great restaurant but always full. Verses… It’s a great restaurant and always full, so I recommend going early.

In this example, turning the negative into a helpful recommendation is a way to build great relationship value and personal brand value.

Inserting kindness and awareness of the other persons feelings has a big positive impact.

Kind, helpful words have a great advantage over negative words.

It’s so easy to find the bad of a situation. It’s everywhere around us. Listen to the news – read a newspaper. Within seconds you will be bombarded with negativity.

Even the individual words you choose can evoke anger, frustration, and stress. For example, in my last paragraph I use the word ‘bombarded’… verses perhaps ‘hear’. Bombarded evokes a completely different – much more negative feeling.

Use a positive supportive approach and thoughtful words to bring out the best in people.

Conclusion

So we can see the importance of our overall approach and the impact certain words have on the people we’re communicating with. We can be more careful with the words we choose and be aware of their impact on the tone of our messages. This is as true for written (especially email), and spoken communication.

Look for good in things. Be an enabler. If you see good work let that person know. Celebrate everything you do. Positive thinking and positive speaking is worth the effort for everyone.

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

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www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

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Oh, the quick and easy example of a contraction is when you put two words together. Instead of that is… a contraction is that’s.

When many of the Baby Boomer generation were young they were taught grammar rules that said never to use contractions in formal writing – but they weren’t often told why.

There are good reasons to use – and not use contractions, so my advice is to use them when appropriate for your audience and your objective… and here’s why.

Why Are Contractions Appropriate In Business Communication?

Contractions make paper based copy easy to read

Contractions will make your copy flow and easy to read; especially if you have lots to say. Contractions help the mind absorb what you’re saying partially because you’re saying something with one word vs. two so people will read faster. So especially if you’re trying to get people wrapped up in an emotion, contractions help.

The exception to this is when you’re writing to an audience to whom English is not their mother language.  In this case contractions can be unfamiliar and therefore make it difficult for them to absorb your message.

Contractions make web-based or email copy easy to read

If you’re writing online copy I recommend contractions. Most of the time reading an email, web or blog copy is harder than reading a paper based copy. High resolution 21 inch computer monitors are making online reading easier – but the reasons discussed above for paper based copy are even more true for online copy.

Contractions add a friendly non-confrontational tone

Contractions are more like the way we speak and most of our speech is warm, informal and in a friendly tone. This is especially helpful with online writing as non-verbal communication is void of almost all tone.

Great professional writers like Margaret Atwood, C.S. Lewis or Charles Dickens make writing look easy, but writing routinely lacks tone and context.

Lack of tone in business communication often develops unintended conflict between people because their messages are misinterpreted (I spoke of this on Canada AM). A challenge is that many people have never been trained how to purposely avoid miscommunication and conflict within business communication. And, since as much as 90% of our communication is via email – the problem is escalating and impacting individual and corporate brand reputation. Here’s an example:

• I don’t agree.     Suggests you’re open for discussion and interested in others opinion.
• I do not agree.   Suggests you’ve made the decision and discussion isn’t an option.

If you want to write a formal business letter contractions are likely not appropriate. Also, if you want to sound authoritative or even angry (yikes), then leave contractions out of your writing.

Be careful about sounding too formal – especially online, it may sound angry instead.

Now, go write something great.

Other Interesting BMC Articles: Unique Value Proposition (UVP) and Effective Business Email Writing.

Give us a call. We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is  Strategic    Branded   Relevant.

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

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

• 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

While first impressions can be made in as little as three seconds, we’ve all received email messages that are void of purpose and break countless email etiquette and business etiquette rules. The unfortunate result is a less than stellar first impression.

The whole point of effective business email writing is not to make an email message look pretty – it’s to do ALL of the following three things:

1. Clearly express whatever the message or information you need to share (or receive)
2. Write email in a way that makes the reader WANT to read and respond
3. Enhance your personal & corporate brand and reputation

As the song from Canadian rock band Trooper goes, ‘A 3 dressed up as a 9, you’re only wasting my time’… or in the case of an email – the time of the people the writer is trying to engage.

Conclusion:

Whether you are a student, an entrepreneur or an employee, the following are three email tips you can start practicing to help you go beyond good sentence structure when email writing.

1. Before you start writing, clearly define your objective
2. Before you hit send make it easy for the reader to do what you want them to do
3. Be polite

These email tips will help you make a great first impression every time you write by showing your audience you know what you’re doing and will not… waste their time. These steps will also help you keep your first impression.

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

Give us a call. We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is Strategic   Branded   Relevant

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

• Many Millennials were raised to support teamwork – everyone works together and everyone wins.
• Many Baby Boomers struggle with being a team player – they were raised there was only one winner so you better be the best.

I’ve been part of many successful teams; some small – some large. So, what can each of us do whenever we are part of a team?

Here are some team guidelines:

T.E.A.M.

• Trust – each of us has to be consistently trustworthy.  Be confidential, be respectful, be dependable even in the difficult times. Trust with the little projects leads to trust with the larger projects.
• Empathy – be aware of the feelings of others and let awareness help you build relationships with your team. Slow down, connect, listen, and ask questions. Show your emotions and others will trust you with their emotions. Be a team builder – look for the potential within the project and your team members.
• Accommodation – listen for other ideas. Let people be who they are. Let the team use each other’s personalities and talents. Nobody is perfect – we all need to be accommodated at some time. During the project your role will shift… especially during periods of transition. Take the lead freely and step aside freely to let someone else shine. Community is where you can be part of the bigger picture.
• Mission – success is as easy as having one purpose – a shared common goal. Group activities can help but most importantly, the team needs to know what their objectives are. With this information the team can work together to explore and define tactics, timelines and measurements of success.

Conclusion

1. Successful teams magnify the accomplishments of individuals and the organizations. While much of our current workplace emphasize winning and coming out on top - this behaviour demoralizes the creativity of the rest of the team.
2. Fostering teamwork is creating a work culture that values collaboration and shared vision /goals. It doesn’t mean we have to regroup to make every single decision. It does mean we all get to benefit from the ideas and energy of others.
3. If the team is struggling the challenge may be that a common objective and agreed upon tactics haven’t been defined. Don’t always assume it’s each other’s ability to work together.

Other Interesting BMC Links: Email Writing Training, Social Media Organization Concerns and Create Client Trust.

Give us a call. We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is…   Strategic   Branded   Relevant

http://www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

Your email etiquette may be great – or you may be unintentionally frustrating your clients and co-workers. Let’s face it, email appears free to most of us. It’s also one of the fastest ways to ask a question or provide information and instructions. Terrific Yes?

Sure it’s terrific – but when you unintentionally misuse email etiquette you are also frustrating your clients, co-workers and boss.

This is the second of a two-part series of ‘How to Reply to Email I & II where I review two more email writing challenges.

When To Use Reply vs. Reply All?

The reality is many people abuse To… and Cc… sending their messages to too many people because email is free, fast and hey – better safe than sorry right? What they don’t realize is that 9 times out of 10 they are literally wasting the valuable time of many people – often including their boss. This ends up costing organizations in lost productivity.

If you simply hit Reply All… to a message you’ve received, you will be painting yourself with the same brush (as my dad would say).  In other words, if they misused To… and Cc… your personal and corporate reputation will suffer as well when you hit Reply All…

How do you decide if you should hit Reply or Reply to All…? Protect your reputation by following these two simple rules:

1. Look to see who is in the (To: CC: BCC:) fields. Many of us don’t do this, but we should. Instead, we blindly place our reputation in the hands of whoever sent the email. Yikes!!
2. Decide if your comments are needed by everyone in the distribution list.

With a quick review you’ll know for certain where you’ll do damage if you choose to select Reply All.

Keep Replies Short – But Strategic & True To Your Brand Values

Keep your replies short but don’t be abrupt or rude. I recommend using your personal and corporate values. Consider the following example and the ‘good-will and relationship’ the latter message builds vs. a ‘they don’t really care’ feeling from the first reply.

Example I:        Approved

If this is your response it will be seen as abrupt and rude in 9 out of 10 cases. I recommend this only when each person knows the other very very well.

Example II:       Approved – great working with you and being on schedule

This is a much better choice and enhances your relationship.  

Conclusion

• Take ownership of everything that has your name attached
• Consider the needs of the people you send messages to
• Know that you and other people will make mistakes once in a while (we are all human)
• Correct errors or miscommunication as soon as you are able

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

Give us a call. We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is Strategic   Branded   Relevant

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

I don’t believe there’s one correct approach for everyone. All I can share is my approach and a few options.

I see three options:

1. Connect with everyone you possibly can and hope you will catch a good contact among all the ‘other’ ones
2. Be selective and make contacts only with people you
• Know and/or
• Meet face-to-face and/or
• Have exchanged a few messages with
3. Some combination between 1 & 2

To me, it’s not a popularity / numbers game – it’s a quality game where Truth and respect prevail. I don’t try to get as many contacts as possible. That said, my philosophy is to introduce myself if I think there’s relevance. If there’s a chance for us to add value over time (by sharing best practices, experience and potentially other business contacts), I believe it’s in each of our best interests for me to reach out.

Similar to face-to-face networking, mutual respect often turns relevant connections into valuable connections.  Social Media opportunities like LinkedIn simply provide more chances to network with people from all over the world.

A Connecting Example: I’m in Toronto and am not looking to purchase real-estate in Florida so, I would not reach out to real-estate agents (I don’t already know), in Florida. However, if an agent offered an intelligent, insightful response to one of my LinkedIn Questions, I would try to connect hoping we could share more intelligent conversations (and perhaps connections), in the future.

As my example suggests, one of my favourite ways to connect is to ask people who have prepared a good answer to a LinkedIn Question I have posted (or someone else has posted). This shows they are active on LinkedIn and their character is one of sharing – not of only taking…

When I do invite people I try to start building familiarity by adding a personal message – for example, “We are both members of the Board of Trade“… or perhaps… “I found your answer to my question to be very interesting and thoughtful“.

Out-of-the-blue LinkedIn requests aside – what surprises me is how many people don’t include their email address within their profile. Seriously! If someone wants to contact you for a job, you are putting a road block in their way if you don’t share your email address. LinkedIn is Social Media… right?

Conclusion

1. Try to connect with people who match your philosophy (inclusion = value for me/those in my network).
2. You never know when a connection you’re interactive with – or who’s following your posts will become a new client. So, make connections and make sure you include a brief message explaining your connection and your intention.
3. Make sure your LinkedIn profile is competed – an incomplete profile may suggest you don’t really care about networking – or that you don’t pay attention to detail.

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

Give us a call. We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is Strategic   Branded   Relevant

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

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This is the first of a two-part series of ‘How to Reply to Email I & II.‘

Look To See Who is in To… Who is in Cc...

When replying to an email the first thing to do is check to see if the person who wrote the email has sent it to people who don’t need to see it? If the writer has, do those people a favour and remove them. They may not know what you just did for them – but at least they will not receive more email they don’t need to see… and this time coming from you. 

Second, ask yourself if there are people in the To… field that really should be in the Cc… field. If there are, help those people prioritize their inbox by moving them. The rule is:

• To… is for the people who need to take action
• Cc… is for the people who need to know
• Bc… is mostly seen as sneaky

Take Control of the Email Subject Line

If the sender wrote a great subject then keep it! This will help everyone track the conversation.

If the subject is poor (for example, if it says “Meeting”), I recommend you take control and adjust it to something that reflects the purpose of the message (for example, change it to “Meeting: Monday for Sales: Agenda Update”). In this case – if you can keep the first word when re-writing the subject it will help everyone track the conversation.

There is much more to say about Email Subject Lines – read my blog post called Write Great Email Subject Lines.

Please read How to Reply to Email II for more valuable, time and cost saving tips. Don’t risk missing it – Subscribe to this blog or perhaps add an RSS feed.

Other Interesting BMC Articles: Effective Business Email Writing and Values in Business

Give us a call. We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is Strategic   Branded   Relevant

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

On the 14th of April I had the pleasure to speak with Beverly Thomson, co-host of CTV’s Canada AM – Canada’s most watched morning news show.

Bruce Mayhew on Canada AM with Beverly Thomson

Beverly Thomson and I discussed how the business email negatively impacts our professional reputations, productivity and also costs our companies in lost productivity for everyone including senior managers.

While we only touched on a few of the main email etiquette subjects I teach, specific topics we discussed were:

• Why people write fragmented email messages
• How to turn an incoherent email with no structure into an actionable message
• Chronic Cc’ing and why people are so attached to this expensive crutch
• The serious challenges our professional reputations face because tone is lost in email

• Keep it in your garage and idle the engine once a year?
• Drive it everywhere and let people notice you?

If you have an incomplete LinkedIn account and can’t remember when you updated it last, you have a Porsche in your garage.

The beauty is it doesn’t take much time to get moving down the highway. All you need are a few concentrated hours to complete your profile, and then about 20 minutes per week. Here are the steps:

1. Define your Objective
2. Complete your Profile and Summary (Using Key Words)
3. Add Business Contacts
4. Join Groups
5. Use the Answer feature to Answer and Ask questions

Define Your Objective

How about I take a stab at guessing your Objective? You would like to:

“Build genuine online relationships that are profitable for you and your contacts by being visible, active and demonstrating relevant value.”

How did I do? If yours is similar to the one above then you are OK. If you don’t want to be visible, active and demonstrate relevant value, Social Media may not be the right tool for you. 

Complete Your Profile & Summary Sections

Make sure all of the fields in your Profile & Summary sections are completed. This includes a photo. Your information is searchable by systems like Google, Yahoo and Bing. If you have an empty Profile and no Photo you will not be found by potential employers or businesses. That’s what I mean by having a Porsche idling in your garage.

LinkedIn has resources to help, but some good advice from someone who knows how will help speed things up and shorten your learning curve.

Add Business Contacts

Don’t start asking every Tom, Dick and Sally to be your, contact. Think about the close business associates and partners. Then, consider associates you have worked with in the past and want to work with in the future.

Invite people who are your best target audience and use the search function to find these people. This is a perfect time to make contact with prospects you have recently met. Write a personal email message and invite them to join your community.

Join Groups

I really began making valuable contacts when I joined ‘Groups’ and began using the ‘Answers’ feature.

Your objective here is to demonstrate your business and the unique value you offer. So, you should join and participate in Social Media Groups. 

Don’t only join groups of people who do what you do (they are your competitors). Join groups where you clients and potential clients are - then, contribute to conversations. By joining discussions you will be get noticed.

When you see a great potential prospect, ask them to join your network. Start getting to know each other… just DON’T SELL. If you throw them a sales pitch they’ll likely run. Let them trust you… get to know you. When you have a dialogue with a customer or prospect you become a valued resource – not a sales person.

Answers and Questions

Social Media is about having a dialogue. Use the ‘Answers’ feature to Ask & Answer questions to build your on-line industry expert reputation. The difference between posting questions here rather than within a ‘Group’ is that this information goes out to the whole LinkedIn community. I like that!

Another thing you can do to build your LinkedIn profile is to begin communicating regularly on Twitter and create a Blog. Both of these are great exposure. If you make connections there – they can also easily become LinkedIn contacts.

I hope this helps you get on the highway with your Porsche and enjoy the ride.

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

The challenge is how to:

• Keep your email messages from going directly to the junk file
• Get your email messages read – ever
• Get your email messages acted on in a timely manner

Unless you are President Obama, I can guarantee that if you don’t have a powerful, relevant subject line your email message is not being read and acted on by everyone you would like.

Increase Your Email Open Rates

If you don’t convince your target audience to open your email, the time you spent writing your message will have been completely wasted. So, here are 4 tips on how to write a great email subject line.

Tip 1.

Include the purpose of the project or email. For example: ‘Mayhew Artwork’ or ‘CMA Tradeshow’ helps identify the client and the project. This technique also helps the receiver track the history of the project and file the message in their Inbox or Project File.

Tip 2.

Include a call to action in your subject line. For example: ‘Mayhew Artwork: Approval Required’ tells the receiver exactly what they need to do. If they are familiar with the project mentioned, it’s likely they can also estimate the time they’ll need to invest.

If they wrote just ‘Artwork’ that tells the reader very little.

Tip 3.

Keep your email subject line as short as possible, but still informative. There are many good reasons to do this, but the easiest to relate to is that more and more people are using smart phones. If a smart phone is used it’s likely only nine to fifteen characters may be viewed.

Some iPhones are now displaying more of your subject line.

Tip 4.

Write your email subject line after you’ve finished drafting and editing your message. I promise this is the best way to write a great subject line. Not sold? Consider how difficult it is to write a powerful executive summary before your proposal is finished.

Email Subject Line Summary

Your email subject line should be short, tell the purpose of your email and help the reader decide if they’ll open it now or later. A great subject line will also give readers insight into what they’ll be responsible to do.

Now, go write some great subject lines.

Other Interesting BMC Articles: Unique Value Proposition (UVP), Email Writing Training and Increase Productivity By 15% Or More.

Give us a call. We’ll listen.

Happy communicating.

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

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These kinds of mistakes are embarrassing but are unlikely to get you into trouble. What does get you into trouble is when the reader interprets your email tone as bossy, angry or uncaring.

There are many tips & truths I teach in my Effective Business Email Writing Workshop but the following two are particularly relevant for this subject:

1. Whatever your reader understands and interprets is reality (whether you meant it or not)
2. Every interaction creates a personal reaction

The big challenge is that you and I ‘feel’ tone mostly through senses like vocal inflection, hand gestures and facial expressions; senses that do not exist in an email or Instant Messages (IM). When these senses are available they offer our readers valuable insight into what we mean by the words we use.

Without these senses the tone of our email messages often sounds angry / bossy. At best, the one-dimensional nature of email is like a blank painters canvas waiting for the reader to add whatever emotions they are feeling at that moment – such as job stress or impatience. Therefore, frustration caused by demands or inappropriate remarks made from someone unrelated to you (or your email), might find their way into your message – and then impact your relationship.

Example: What are some of the possible interpretations if you emailed the following message to one of your staff:

“I need 10 minutes at the end of our department weekly meeting.”

Interpretations:

• This request could easily be interpreted that you only need to speak to that one person - not the whole department
• For an overachiever this message may get them excited because they think you have a new project to share with only them – then disappointed when they find out you don’t
• For someone who feels stressed this message might move them into a sleepless panic because they think you are disappointed and they are going to be reprimanded – or fired. In addition you’ve asked to meet at the end of a department meeting so all of their associates will also know.

The Real Situation:

The real situation is that you’ve just been given a new department goal by the company President and you proudly want to share the good news. But, look at what emotions your seemingly innocent email might present.

Example Solution: Leave less room for interpretation by sending your email in a way that is still brief but considers who you are writing to – perhaps the following:

“I want to introduce the whole team to a new department goal at our weekly department meeting. Please schedule 10 minutes for this at the end of the meeting.”

So yes, proofreading for things like spelling is important but we also need to proofread considering your audiences needs, knowledge and work environment. We have to be responsible for the reactions and responses our email messages may evoke. The beauty is that the reason why is really self-serving:

• If your messages are clear and easily acted on you build your brand
• If your messages evoke negative reactions you hurt your reputation and your ability to reach your employment goals

Other Interesting BMC Articles: Unique Value Proposition (UVP) and Effective Business Email Writing.

Give us a call. We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is  Strategic    Branded   Relevant.

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

Our communication options have increased dramatically over the last 2o years. I can still remember when touch-tone telephones at home were a big deal – and they took a good 10-15 years to catch on.

In 2010 Apple launched the iPad. In Spring 2011 they launched the next generation iPad with competitor tablet products from BlackBerry, Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and Dell hot on their heels.

Compared to the touch-tone phone (who knows the stats on that), it’s estimated that there will be 45 million tablet sales in 2011 and 70 million tablet sales in 2012 – worldwide. Wow!

So today, besides still speaking over the fence with our neighbours we are able to phone (from anywhere almost), text, IM, email, fax (still), Skype, PIN and who knows what other electronic means of communication we will be able to use before long. All that to say – we are becoming e-llingual.

E-lingual  (Eˈlɪŋɡwəl) 

— adj  

1.  able to communicate in multiple e languages fluently  (example Social media, QR codes, and traditional email) 2.  expressed or written in multiple e-languages 

But how good are we at being heard – and understood? Technology is making communication easier than ever. The problem is how and when we’re using this technology. Being e-lingual doesn’t only mean using multiple communication avenues, it means using the right resource at the right time based on the needs and ease of use of your clients / prospects. 

As I mention in my blog post One-to-One Conversation:  RIP, sometimes we don’t make the effort to get out of our chairs or pick up the phone. Other times we use technology to hide.

Whatever the case, exceptional communication experiences are always possible. Furthermore, we owe it to our personal and professional brand reputation as well as the competitive success of the organizations we work for to make sure we are fully e-lingual.

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

Give us a call. We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is Strategic   Branded   Relevant

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

What makes an email bad? Two common types are:

• Long, grueling, inaccurate writing
• Hostile or angry email (whether the writer meant it or not)

Bad Email Impacts Four Key Audiences

Nobody likes to work with someone who creates long, grueling or hostile email. The following is a list of the audiences impacted by bad email etiquette. I’ve also included brief descriptions of likely implications:

1. Customers / Clients (they quickly repay poor communication with decreased purchases and decreased loyalty)
2. Suppliers (repay poor communication with longer response times and perhaps higher prices or penalties)
3. Other Staff / Co-workers (repay poor communication with slower response times and often unintentionally providing only partial responses)
4. The Organization (poor communication impacts corporate brand and revenue in both lost sales and time wasted on tasks like following-up)

But it doesn’t have to be this way. There is a competitive advantage of smart, strategic, short, well written email for both the individual and the organization.

Whether writing to one person or marketing to thousands, clear, to-the-point email can be written with confidence and speed – and you don’t have to be a copywriter. One of my favourite email writing tips I share is this:

“Before you start your email, write down at the top of the page one benefit the reader will experience from the information you are about to share.  Then, use this benefit as the focus of your email.”

Most tips you learn in an Effective Business Email Writing Workshop will also help you to:

• Write more impactful business letters
• Improve project management
• Prepare for important phone calls

Are you ready to make effective business email writing a part of your success?

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

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

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

bruce@brucemayhewconsulting.com

A QR code (it stands for “Quick Response”), is a  two-dimensional bar code created by a Toyota subsidiary in 1994 for inventory control.

Whether you know them as QR codes or 2D barcodes, today they benefit the business-to-consumer relationship in amazing and wonderful ways by providing businesses and consumers a new ‘electronic’ way to communicate. It’s the equivalent of being E-Lingual, and all we need as consumers are our existing smart phones / camera-enabled mobile devices and a free downloadable application.

Technical slightly dull information you should know

A QR code (or 2D barcode), is more useful than a standard bar code because it can digitally store much more data. The technical specifications for QR codes are the same all over the world so it doesn’t matter where they were created or what software created them. There are as many as 40 versions of QR codes (from 1 to 40), and the lower the QR version, the less information stored. None of this is a concern for a person reading a QR code – but if you are creating one people will read using their mobile devises, it’s recommended you use version 4 or lower (the restriction being the resolution ability of the camera), and a QR code symbol of at least 2cm (0.85inches) across.

Once the QR code is created there is no top / bottom, so it doesn’t matter if you rotate the QR code during production or perhaps wrap it around something round like a bottle.

As I mentioned, to read QR codes you need to download a free application to your smart phone or camera-enabled mobile device. Then, simply scan a code with your device and the QR code will do whatever it is designed to do from that moment on.

What does that mean for anyone working in marketing, advertising or general communication? It means you should always be sure to represent what you are and what you can deliver. If you promise something you cannot deliver, the repercussions to your personal and corporate reputation will be diminished for a very long time. Therefore, first knowing your personal values is a great place to start when considering the topic of truth.

Let’s further explore two statements:

#1. Truth is often in the eye of the beholder.

I know I’m borrowing a popular phrase and then changing it for my own benefit but I am serious – truth does – in part – depend on each individuals own perspective, motivations and past experience.

Continuing along that vein are my three laws of a customer experience:

• Whatever your reader understands and interprets is reality (whether you meant it or not)
• Every interaction creates a personal reaction and will impact your personal brand and corporate brand
• People will instinctively think of themselves and their circumstances first

The lesson here is to listen well, be very clear with what you communicate and to be sure to verify a persons understanding. This will help ensure all parties fully appreciate the current situation.

#2. Truth changes through time.

What’s true today may not be true tomorrow. This may work in our favour – it may also work against us.

Example 1. At one point in time it took weeks – months event to cross from ‘the old country’ to the new world. Today, you can fly from Europe to America in hours.

The impact of this new truth is that in the last 50 years profitable industries have emerged for both business and leisure travel. Also, what was once a very segregated world is now very cross-cultural.

Example 2. Tobacco was fully acceptable – even a sign of being distinguished 40 years ago. Today there’s a very different social and health reaction to smoking. Can a company be responsible for side-effects they didn’t know? I will leave that to the lawyers – instead, I can’t help but dream about the lost opportunities had the tobacco industry transitioned their behaviour (and product), many years ago when the side-effects were becoming known.

Consider what their reputation and revenues might be today had they reinvested their great agriculture, manufacturing and distribution experience (and money), to explore new agriculture industries.

Let’s face it, truth is not always the easy way – but in the long run it’s the best way.

Other Interesting BMC Articles: What Are Your Corporate Values and Effective Business Email Writing

Give us a call. We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is Strategic   Branded   Relevant

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

Many still worry that focusing on a small market (a niche market), hurts their ability to work with… everyone. The base suggestion against that worry is that if you try to be all things to all people, it’s very likely you will quickly lose any distinguishable value to anyone.

Example 1: Consider the impossible challenge of trying to create a single vehicle that will satisfy all customers looking for a:

• Sports car
• Family van
• Luxury experience
• Inexpensive
• Fuel efficiency
• Cargo truck
• Compact solution

Not to say you can’t operate different divisions sharing the similar values. That’s one of the reasons businesses like Toyota have other brands including Lexus – a fleet of high-end models.

Example 2: Could a single store have a reputation that attracts high-net-worth people looking for unique and distinguishable eye glasses AND people attracted to three pair for the price of one? I suggest as soon as the store hangs the ‘three pair for the price of one‘ sign they would never again see their high net worth market. If the storefront looks ultra high-end, the ’three pair for the price of one‘ market may not come in – regardless of the sign.

Are both markets profitable? Yes – of course they can be.

Niche marketing is becoming even more powerful.

Thanks to tools like Google the world population is becoming more and more niche focused as we can now easily search for exactly what we want. I won’t even get into the whole are of each of us trying to have our own ’unique style’.

The simple reality is that the internet and social media encourage us – and enable us to develop niche marketing strategies.

The added beauty of niche marketing is that by exploiting your niche you will have fewer prospects at the top of your inverted sales funnel. That scares many organizations – but fewer prospects means you can spend more time with each prospect building a relationship and effectively positing yourself as a business partner.

How to take advantage of niche marketing (Initial steps):

• Take a hard look at your core competencies, organizational values, and goals (mission & vision)
• Identify a product / service that will meet the needs and wants of a very specific target audience. You will have to invest in researching the important issues of this audience.
• Developed your marketing strategies and promotional messages to attract and engage this very targeted audience.

Once you have developed a niche marketing approach, now is the time to consider the traditional sales funnel – but do it strategically.

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

Give us a call. We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is Strategic   Branded   Relevant

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

Email is great for distributing agendas and attachments, making appointments or confirming decisions. It’s also a very efficient way to reach out to more than one person.

Email is not great for communication like discussing intricate problems, sharing sensitive information or resolving conflict. It’s too one-dimensional to allow everyone involved to fully explore complex situations like brainstorming sessions or to effectively manage the subtleties of demanding situations.

Even if you use exceptional email etiquette and email structure, communication problems cause difficulties and errors that can negatively impact your business success and profitability in the short-term and long-term. If you’re not careful your email may result in lost business, an HR crisis or worse – a PR crisis.

Be careful where and when you use it. Sometimes even the most professional email is not the right solution. One strategy to enhance communication is to pick up the phone – even if you are the receiver of an email ‘discussion’ that you know would be better served with a conversation.

The reality is that conversations often build better business relationships and usually will take less time. Better relationships often equate to more referrals, more testimonials and more profitable services purchased.

Sometimes an email is not the best solution.

Other Interesting BMC Articles: What Are Your Corporate Values and Effective Business Email Writing

GIVE US A CALL. WE’LL LISTEN.

BRUCE MAYHEW CONSULTING IS STRATEGIC, BRANDED, AND RELEVANT.

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

Business writing is part of everyone’s job. So let me ask you ‘How many email messages do you receive that only use one period (if they’ve used punctuation at all).’  I’m guessing many.

The email writer is busy (no argument there), and often they think bite sized messages are helping them be efficient; but all too often they are being interpreted as abrupt, bossy and rude… inefficient even. In short, by not following netiquette rules (email etiquette rules), three troubling situations are resulting:

• A high volume of short messages end up wasting more time for both the writer and reader as important details are clarified
• Short, abrupt messages damage our personal and corporate reputation (as being bossy and unorganized)
• Being perceived as bossy, unorganized and rude keeps us from building supportive and caring relationships that are built on trust and respect – not price

But as a corporate trainer who provides email training, I live in a dream world and our fast paced, overworked and often mobile work environments don’t allow us the luxury of better communication. You know I don’t agree.

The consistent bombardment of short bite sized business email messages causes our audience to start ignoring our messages – or at least prioritizing them very low. Our behaviour and email etiquette may ruin our reputation so badly it becomes hard to get our audiences attention and deliver the high standards of service and knowledge we are capable of. That puts our relationship – and our revenues / ROI at risk.

One of the easiest ways to improve your productivity and your personal and corporate reputation is to pause for a moment before you hit send to define our needs and our readers’ needs. Then, score a communication touchdown by learning how to structure your email messages to make them easy to read – easy to understand and easy to respond.

Improving your personal and business corporate reputation can be done easily.

Other Interesting BMC Articles: What’s Your Unique Value Proposition and Effective Business Email Writing

GIVE US A CALL. WE’LL LISTEN.

BRUCE MAYHEW CONSULTING IS STRATEGIC, BRANDED, AND RELEVANT.

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

Content Is King

When you include strategic keywords that support your customers’ needs, core competencies, and organizational values (as an example), your reader will ‘internalize’ your message much more quickly. Because your content becomes more relevant to your readers, your brand reputation will be enhanced even faster. The added bonus is that search engines like Google notice and rank keywords within copy very high (this is called organic local search engine results), and this helps you get found when prospects are searching for the type of content you are providing.

Here’s where you can use keywords:

• Website, Brochures and Advertising
• Email Messages (not searchable by Google of course)
• Social Media profiles and Blogs
• Conversations and Voice Messages

To read a full article on Keywords and how Content is King, please click here.

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: Be Amazing At Work, Effective Business Email Writing, What is a QR Code? and Bruce on Canada AM

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

We work to build long-term, collaborative relationships that maximize your overall success and earnings.