Not that I’m suggesting you actually say it, word for word, but rather, truly believe it.

This issue came up while working with a member of my Alliance Mentoring Program. I was asked, “What should I do to sell a book proposal to a big publishing house when I don’t yet have a big platform.”

In this case, the question was about a book proposal, but could have been about pitching/selling anything to anyone when you don’t yet have case studies to prove your worth or statistics to back up your promises. That’s what concerned my client; she felt she had not yet done enough to get the opportunity she was seeking. So, what’s to be done?

Sell yourself and sell the future.

When people — you, me, anyone — buy, invest, choose one thing over another, we weigh the odds of success. Almost every purchase is a gamble. We simply try to get the best odds possible. When we feel that we have better odds of winning with one choice over another, we’ll take that choice; we’ll put our money down and we’ll roll the dice.

Ask an editor or publisher why he chose to buy a book from one particular first-time author over another and he’ll tell you that he bought the author as much, if not more, than the book idea. He felt the author behind the book concept stacked the deck in his favor.

Ask a Venture Capitalist why she chose to invest in one particular start-up company over another and she’ll tell you that she bought the entrepreneur as much, if not more, than the particular business. She felt the person behind the idea stacked the deck in her favor.

It starts with believe in yourself. If you don’t believe that you will succeed, why should anyone else? It succeeds when you paint a picture of the future that makes the buyer believe in you and the thing you’re pitching. Your story confirms:

1. Why it’s going to work.
2. That it’s worth their resources (time, money, etc.).
3. That you are able to make the thing happen.

All of these critical selling points are about what WILL happen. Of course, past performance is one of the best indicators of future performance so use anything you’ve got that will strengthen your case. But in the absence of platform or experience, sell yourself and sell the future. Every success story started with a story of success that someone bought into.

How will you tell the story of success that compels the buyer to say, “The best thing for me would be you!”

Your marketing works when you know:

1. Who your target clients are.
2. What they are looking for.
3. Where they look for you.
4. When they look for you.
5. Why they should choose you.
6. How you want them to engage with you.

Key #1: Who Is Your Target Client or Customer?

Identifying and gearing your marketing to a specific individual (or organization) allows you to make the important emotional connection that is the first step in developing a relationship with your potential client. When you have made the effort to speak and write directly to your ideal client, she’ll feel it. She will feel as though you truly know and understand her needs and desires—because you will. That task alone will go a long way toward building the trust you desire with the clients you seek.

If you’re not super clear on whom specifically you’re targeting, whom you want to reach out to and attract, it’s going to be hard to develop a sales cycle that works because you’ll be chasing after every potential opportu­nity and you won’t be making a strong connection with anyone.

Key #2: What Are They Looking For?

You’ve got to understand what your ideal clients or customers are looking for—the kinds of products or services they think will solve their problems or help them reach their goals. It’s very important to be clear on your answers because if you don’t know what your potential clients are looking for, you won’t know what kind of product and service offers to make in your sales cycle. We usually make offers that we think are relevant. It’s time to put your target market first and work to truly understand what they know is relevant. Then you can decide what you’re going to offer them that will meet their needs, according to the amount of trust that you’ve earned, at various stages in your sales cycle.

Examples: In my case, they want a book that can help them get clients.  They want to read an article or report on how to use social media.  They want private coaching. They want to attend a marketing seminar. Etc.

Key #3: Where Do They Look for You?

Do you know where your target market looks for you? Do they search online? Do they read magazines? Do they call their friends for referrals for the kind of service that you’re providing? What other types of business professionals do they trust to get their referrals from? If you don’t know, survey your current clients. This should always be one of the first questions you ask a new client: “How did you come to find me?” If you don’t have any clients of your own yet, ask a colleague how her clients find her.

Key #4: When Do They Look for You?

When do the people (or organizations) in your target market look for the services you offer? What needs to happen in their personal life or work life for them to purchase the kind of service that you offer? How high do the stakes need to be before they decide to purchase the service you’re offering? They may be interested in what you do, and your offerings may resonate with them, but they might not need you at the moment they find you.

This is why the Book Yourself Solid Sales Cycle is so important. You’ll want to make it easy for them to step into your environment and move closer to your core offerings over time. When their stakes rise, they’ll reach out to you and ask for you. But you’ve got to keep the conversation going.

What are the situations that are likely to drive po­tential clients to seek your services, products, and programs? When do they look for you?

Examples: They’ve lost their job. They’re starting their own business. They’re so disorganized that they’re losing business. They are experiencing extreme discord in their relationship. They’ve just had a baby and can’t seem to lose their baby weight.

Key #5: Why Should They Choose You?

That’s a big question. Why are they going to choose you? Are you a credible authority in your field? What makes you the best choice for them? What is unique about you or the solutions you offer?

For this exercise, it’s crucial that you set your modesty aside and express yourself clearly and with confidence—no wishy-washy answers to these questions. Think back to the last time you went in search of expert help. When you first spoke to the service provider to inquire about his ser­vices, his expertise, and whether he could help you, the last thing you wanted to hear was, “Well, I kinda know what I’m doing. I might be able to help you. I’ll give it a shot.”

While it may feel uncomfortable at first, you’ve got to get comfortable saying, “The best thing for you is me!”

Granted, saying you are the best may be a bit too bold for you, but at the least you’ve got to be able to say, “You’ve come to the right person. Yes, absolutely, I can help you. I’m an expert at what I do and this is how I can help.”

Bragging is about comparing yourself to others and proclaiming your superiority. Declaring your strengths, your skills, your expertise, and your ability to help is not bragging. Expressing confidence is what your potential clients expect, want, and need to hear from you.

Why should your potential clients choose you? (Don’t you dare skip this one! Be bold! Express yourself fully. Remember, this is not the time for modesty.)

Key #6: How Do You Want Them to Engage with You?

Once potential clients have learned about your services, how would you like them to interact or engage with you? Do you want them to call your office? Do you want them to sign up for your newsletter on your web site? What is it that you want potential clients to do?

Naturally, you’d love for them to immediately purchase your highest-priced product, program, or service, but this is rare. Most of your potential clients need to get to know you and trust you over time. They need to be eased gradually toward what they may perceive to be your high-risk offerings. It’s often said that, on average, you will need to connect with a poten­tial client seven times before they’ll purchase from you. Not always, but if you understand this principle you will be on the road to booking yourself solid a lot faster than if you try to engage in one-step selling. “Hi, I’m a consultant, wanna hire me today?” isn’t going to be effective. That’s defi­nitely not the Book Yourself Solid way. Maybe we should call one-step selling one-stop selling because that’s what it’ll do—stop your sales process dead in its tracks.

How do you want your potential clients to interact or engage with you? (Note: Establishing a line of communication is the first step in developing a relationship of trust.)

In Conclusion:

Clearly defining these six keys will help you to determine what you want to offer your potential clients in each stage of your sales cycle and will help you craft the most effective sales cycle possible. Moreover, defining these six keys will also help you tremendously when implementing the Book Yourself Solid 7 Core Self-Promotion Strategies.

Note: this post is dedicated to David Meerman Scott and Scott Stratten. They’ll know why and smile.

We promote each other when we:

a) Like each other
b) Respect each other
c) Believe in each other’s work.

But it’s not my job to do it for you. And it’s not your job to do it for me. Especially when we don’t know each other.

No doubt, our success is primarily based on our ability to inspire others to spread our messages. No doubt, we need each other. And, no doubt, many business are based on partner marketing.

Case in point: my just launched DailySuccessDeals.com. The initial success of the site is, in large part, due to our partners’ willingness to promote it. Over time, the success of the site will be, in large part, based on the customer base that we’ve earned. We’ll then be able to return the support to our partners.

Why are our partners willing to promote?

For some, it’s because they like us AND will make money by promoting the site. However, for all, it’s because of the relationship we’ve developed over time. We support each other. We believe in each other. We respect each other.

But, it’s not their job to promote me. And, it’s not my job to promote them. We do it because we want to.

Partner Telesummit Breakdown

I bring this up because I was asked to participate in a “telesummit” where, my participation in the event required that I promote it. And, this is not the first time. It’s maybe, like, oh, say…the 500th time.

Here’s what happened. Since I didn’t know the host of the event, I asked my assistant to relay the message that I would be happy to do the event (and bring my A game) but that I would not guarantee a promotion to my email newsletter subscribers. That I might send out a few tweets and/or mention it on Facebook but that I would not guarantee any email promotion. Here is the response she received:

Hi Jaimie,

I very much appreciate your prompt reply to my invitation for Michael to be featured in my Summit in May.

Unfortunately, if Michael is unable to guarantee a solo promotion, then I will need to invite someone else in that spot. It is one of the conditions for participation and I want to ensure consistency with all my guests. I do look forward to potentially working with Michael in the future, in some different capacity.

Thanks again, – please extend my thanks to Michael for even considering this opportunity.

Sincerely,

Name redacted

The email was very respectful in tone and I appreciate the initial request to participate in the event. And, I respect that the host has a way of doing business that works for them.

I am grateful for any and all invitation to share my work. I never take them for granted. In fact, I’m honored when I get these invitations so please keep sending them.

Sometimes I agree to participate because I think it’s going to be a well-attended, impressive event. Sometimes I agree to participate because I think the host is sincere and talented and I want to offer my name and time in support. And, sometimes, I agree to participate just because a friend is hosting the event.

And that’s the key. Rarely do any of these telesummits, “increase my exposure” – as the invitation usually promises.

I’m happy promote, support, endorse the work of budding business owners as well as seasoned vets but, in either case, it’s not my job.

I guess the video that Scott Stratten and I made called, “The Biggest Mistake People Make When Offering Telesummits,” didn’t get enough exposure. Maybe we should do a telesummit?

Final note. I say “yes,” to 90% of the invitations I get. And, often let the people I serve know that I’m participating in the event. I just respectfully request that you honestly tell me why you want me to participate up front and how it will help you. You don’t need to tell me why it will help me. Let me make that determination.

Sales Resources

If you’re just getting started and your need more clients or you’ve been in business for years and you need improve your sales to close more business, this list of sales resources will ignite your passion and help you accomplish your dreams.

• Improve Email Opt-In Conversion by 167%. Here’s How…
• How to Sell More When You’ve Got the Skinny
• How to Use Free Sessions to Book 65% More Business
• Why People Buy – Anything and Everything
• Super Simple Selling (the Book Yourself Solid Way)
• The 8 Types of Buyers and How to Successfully Sell to Them
• How to Promote More Than One Product or Service at a Time
• The Difference: Low Price Point vs. High Price Point
• How to Create a Book Yourself Solid Sales Cycle (plus audio)
• When (and How) to Raise Your Prices
• Bait and Switch Sales-Sky Radio Network and American Airlines
• Give Them More to Love
• How to Overcome Objections
• Save the Sale with Service

Continue to Close More Sales

These sales resources and articles about closing sales will help you no matter what stage of business you are in.

Featuring Michael Port, author of Book Yourself Solid, and hosted by Karl Staib of WorkHappyNow.com this Twitterific party also boasts VIP guests, Liz Strauss, Liz Marshall, Andrea J Lee, Dr. Mollie Marti.

Mark your calendar now: Thursday, January 20^th, 2011 at 2pm ET.

Learn more about how to participate.

Your target market is the group of people you serve, and your niche is the service you specialize in offering to your target market.

For example, you and I might both serve the same target market, say, service professionals, but offer them different services. I might specialize in getting clients and you might help them create systems for their business.

There are three primary reasons to choose a target market.

1. It helps you determine where to find potential clients who are looking for what you have to offer. If you have a target market, you know where to concentrate your marketing efforts and what to offer that is compelling and well received. You know what associations to speak to, magazines and journals to write for, and influential people with whom to network—you know where your potential clients gather. Voila! You now know where to show up.
2. Virtually every target market already has some kind of network of communication established. For your marketing to work, your clients need to spread your messages for you. If they already have a network of communication set up, they can talk to each other about you and your marketing messages can travel that much faster. What are networks of communication? Environments that are set up to help a group communicate—as I mentioned earlier: associations, social networking sites, clubs, various publications, events, and more.
3. And, finally, choosing a target market lets the people in that target market know that you’ve dedicated your life’s work to them.

In order to reach the people you’re meant to serve, you’ve got to know where to find them. That’s why an essential step is for you to identify a very specific target market to serve.

Marketing and sales isn’t about trying to persuade, coerce, or manipulate people into buying your services. It’s about putting yourself out in front of, and offering your services to, those whom you are meant to serve—people who already need and are looking for your services.

No matter how much you might like to be everything to everyone, it’s just not possible.

Even if you could be, you would be doing a disservice to yourself and your clients in the attempt. You can serve your clients much better, offer them much more of your time, energy, and expertise, if you narrow your market so that you’re serving only those who most need your services and who can derive the greatest benefits from what you have to offer.

If you’re just starting out in your business, or if you’ve been working in your business for a while but are not yet booked solid, you may be tempted to market to anyone and everyone with the assumption that the more people you market to, the more clients you’ll get. While narrowing your market to gain more clients may seem counterintuitive, that’s exactly what you need to do to successfully book yourself solid.

Think of narrowing your market this way: Which would you rather be—a small fish in a big pond or a big fish in a small pond? It’s much easier to carve out a very lucrative domain for yourself once you’ve identified a specific target market. And once you’re a big fish in a small pond, you’ll get more invitations than you can handle to swim in other ponds.

There are two primary ways to grow a service business.

1. You can choose a target market and, over time, continue to add new products and services to this same target market. For example: if your target market is fitness professionals, and you’re currently offering them web design services, as you grow, you might start offering them search engine optimization services and then pay-per-click advertising services.
2. Alternatively, once you get booked solid in one target market, you can begin to market and sell the same services in additional vertical target markets. So, if you currently serve wood floor manufacturers, you might offer the same services to manufacturers of tile flooring. Once you get a foothold in that market, you might then begin to focus on carpet manufacturers.

You might be thinking: “If I specialize and only work with a specific group of people, or specific types of companies within a specific industry, won’t that limit my opportunities? And what if I get bored?” Let me answer the second question first. If you’re someone who gets bored easily, you may have that problem no matter what you do. You may want to spend some time reflecting on why you’re not able to stay focused on what you’ve chosen to do. Or, it may be that you’ve chosen a target market that doesn’t excite you, that you aren’t passionate about or interested in.

Over time, you can move into other areas. When I started my business, I helped fitness and wellness professionals get booked solid. Once I was fortunate enough to create demand for my services, I leveraged the reputation I built servicing the fitness industry as a springboard into other vertical target markets, like financial services, and others. As you establish your expertise and reputation, if you choose, you can broaden your target market. (I now serve virtually every type of service professional because my reputation and proven track record affords me that advantage.)

But, if you want to increase your speed to getting booked solid, choose a very specific target market and stay with that target market until you are booked solid. Then you can move into other markets if you like or stay with your original focus and grow your product and service line.

A primary reason that many professional service providers fail to build thriving businesses is that they struggle to articulate in a clear and compelling way exactly what solutions and benefits they offer. They don’t know how to talk about what they do without sounding confusing or bland or like everyone else — and without using an elevator speech. You know, that 30-second commercial that’s supposed to wow someone with what you do in the time it takes an elevator to go from the first to the fifth floor.

No one wants to listen to your elevator speech

I’ve been polling audiences of thousands for years on this issue. During each speech I ask, “How many of you love, love, love listening to someone else’s elevator speech?” No hands go up. I then ask, “How many of you love, love, love giving your elevator speech?” Same thing. No hands.

So what gives? If we don’t like listening to or giving the speech, why is it still being taught? Because, of course, we need to be able to talk about what we do — I get the concept. However, in this case, the elevator speech has been inappropriately appropriated by the service professional. Not only does it not work well, it makes us look foolish, or, worse yet, obnoxious.

The elevator speech does not help sell professional services.

The elevator pitch is designed for the entrepreneur to pitch an idea to a venture capitalist or angel investor in the hopes of receiving funding, not for the service professional to try to build a relationship of trust with a potential client.

Venture capitalists often judge the quality of an idea on the basis of the quality of its elevator pitch. Makes perfect sense, in that situation. But this is not how a relationship develops between a client and a service professional. You’re trying to earn the status of a trusted adviser, not trying to raise money to create some new product like metal-detecting sandals. Totally different context. Totally different dynamic.

So, how do you talk about what you do?

By using this crazy concept that I call a conversation. You know when two people actually care about what the other has to say? Shocker, I know. Creative — but not scripted! — conversations will spark curiosity and interest about you and your services, products, and programs. If you know, and I mean really know, who you help, what challenges they face, how you help them, and the results and benefits they get from your services — you can talk about what you do any which way ’till Sunday; thirty seconds, three minutes, three hours, it doesn’t matter.

Or, you could go with an overblown, high-falutin, hyperbole-laden elevator speech that’s supposed to make you look like a rock star in 30 seconds. Unfortunately, I doubt the excessively exuberant elevator pitch is going to compel the listener to whip out his credit card right then and there.

Developing Your ‘Book Yourself Solid‘ Dialogue

Let’s put it all together with a simple five-part exercise that will help you talk about what you do.

Part I: Summarize your target market in one sentence.

Part II: Identify and summarize the three biggest and most critical problems that your target market faces (what they want to get away from).

Part III: Identify and summarize your target markets’ three most tangible desires (what they want to get to)

Part IV: Identify the number one most relevant result you help your clients achieve.

Part V: List the benefits your clients’ experience as an outcome of the result you provide.

You now have an outline that will help you clearly articulate what you do without sounding confusing or bland. In fact, you’ll sound like a superstar because you can use this outline or framework to have a meaningful conversation with another human being.

Reminder: this is not a speech. Don’t stay married to the format. Be sure to improvise. Using the structure can be helpful but you may not need to go through every element of this framework in every conversation. The person you’re engaged with might end up doing all the talking and even supply your side of the dialogue accurately. Then you can just sit back and relax. The point is, if you’re prepared with these five elements, you have the required ingredients for talking about what you do so you can cook up a sweet and tasty business, booked solid with high-paying, high-value clients.

——–

Called “an uncommonly honest author” by the Boston Globe and a “marketing guru” by The Wall Street Journal, Michael Port can be seen regularly on MSNBC and is a New York Times Bestselling author of four books including Book Yourself Solid, now in it’s second edition, Beyond Booked Solid, The Contrarian Effect andThe Think Big Manifesto.

E-mail, calendar, documents, and phone fall into one category because, for me, they are all things Google. Yes, I know they know more about me than my mother, and maybe even the IRS, but I’m willing to trust them, to a point. Google’s products can be so helpful to the small business owner that they get their own category. Google’s products were, and still are, revolutionary, not to mention free. It’s easy to forget how difficult is was, just a few years ago, to share documents and collaborate with others when working on presentations, proposals, financial projections, org charts, and more. Google docs changed all that.

I use Google Apps everyday. Not only for documents and spreadsheets but now I use them to draw and create forms that I embed inside my web pages (example). And, of course I’m writing this post in Google docs before I paste it into my blog editor. Gmail and Google Calendar rock because it makes it so easy for my staff to handle my communication and scheduling. Plus, Gmail is able to block 99% of the spam that comes my way. Google Talk and Google Voice are redonkulous (that means good). They give you video chat within your browser and one phone number that rings any of your phones, allows you to call any phone from within your browser and recieves voices messages as audio files and transcribed text. C’mon, have some appreciation because that’s impressive. Oh, and I can’t forget, your own customized phone number! Mine is (414) FOR-PORT. And, the Google Iphone app gives me better reception, on my Iphone, than my ATT cellular service.

Again, I feel obligated to remind you that all of this is free and it works, all the time. And, these are just the basic Google products. There are many more Google apps that you can use as productivity solutions if you consider stepping up to their enterprise solutions.

Project Management Software

Project management software is difficult to create because projects are difficult to manage. But, Basecamp HQ, from 37Signals, helps me organize my projects and keep on track. Sure, there are a few other features that I wish it had so it’s not perfect. No project management software is perfect, just as no project is perfect. The key with project management software is what you do with it. (AKA: actually put information into the thing) I like Basecamp’s simplicity and ease of use. I figure, if I can’t get my project information into a program as simple as BasecampHQ, then I have no business doing projects. I especially like Basecamp’s “template” feature. If you create lots of similar projects, as most of us do, creating project templates will save you time. Add milestones, to-dos, and messages once and you can reuse them on future projects.

Two other project management software programs to consider is Solve360 for a combination of project management and crm tools – I haven’t used it but I’ve heard good things – and Manymoon, if you’re looking for free project and task management solutions. It offers good collaboration tools as well but it’s not going to be as simple and clean as Basecamp. If you’re one of those people who likes long lists so you can compare every project management product under the sun, then be my guest. But, remember, the key to any piece of software is using it not having it.

Social Media Management Software

On my MacBook Pro I use Tweetdeck to manage my Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn streams. It was one of the first Twitter Clients and I think it’s still one of the best. I’ve tried others without too much success. I used to use Tweetie to manage my Twitter account from my iPhone and then one day it just stopped working. Now, I use Twitter’s native app and it works just fine. On my iPad I use Socialable to manage both my Facebook and Twitter accounts. Typically I don’t pre-schedule my Twitter updates. But, when I do I use Social Oomph. People also use Social Oomph to “auto-follow” as a way of building their number of followers but I don’t recommend it. A) I think it’s cheesy and B) when I see someone who is following the same number people that they have following them, I assume the number of followers is, for the most part, artificially inflated. Another cute little Twitter client is TweetBeep, it alerts you when someone has mentioned you on Twitter so you can respond immediately; people appreciate that. For Facebook Page management I like the NorthSocial apps. There are about 3,865 social media management apps from which to choose. Just pick a few and get busy being social.

Sales and Customer Relationship Management Software + Shopping Carts and Email Broadcasting

This is a tricky catagory because when you think of CRM’s you think of software for managing leads and opportunities, software you use to close deals. However, over the last few years, a new catagory of customer or client relationship management software has sprung up in products like GetSatisfaction; what I would really consider software that helps you manage relationships with clients. The typical CRM is really a sales tool as the name of the most popular and biggest demonstrates: SalesForce. (Yes, SalesForce, I know you’re doing many more things now then just manage leads and opportunities, but at your core, in your heart of heart, you’re a tool to help close sales.) However, shopping cart and e-newsletter broadcasting systems, like 1shoppingcart and ConstantContact are also customer relationship management tools. Oiy vey, as my mother would say. Where to start?

I’ve used many Sales Management Software programs over the years and have often found them difficult to use. Not always because the software is difficult, although, sometimes it is, but because I’ve had difficulty creating the habits necessary to use these programs, especially when they’re big, complex programs like SalesForce. When choosing a Sales Management Software choose one that meets your current needs. Some suggest that you choose one to grow into but I find, more often than not, for the small or solo business owner, doing so creates overwhelm and less engagement with the product.

If you’re new and working solo and want to manage your contacts, leads and opportunities, check out HighriseHQ, another clean and simple program from 37Signals. Or you might like Tactilecrm, self-described as an easy web based crm for small business. If you’re on a mac and don’t need a web based crm then have a look at a really nice program from Marketcircle called Daylite. It also provides project and task managment solutions. So it’s a little like Solve360 in that it combines project management and crm solutions into one product. Also have a look at SugarCRM, a commercial, open source customer relationship management software for sales force automation and customer support. If you’re a techie, or have a tech on the payroll, you might want to use the open source version. If you’re not or you don’t, they offer a hosted version. But, it still requires that you understand how a crm works because the set up process is substantial; as it is with most of the big dogs like SalesForce. Of course, there are always the old standbys Act and Goldmine.

For a shopping cart, broadcasting system, and highly intelligent follow-up engine, consider Infusionsoft (disclosure: I’m an Infusionsoft partner and this link includes an affiliate code.) It’s an “all in one” system minus the project management aspect. However, even though I use Infusionsoft and am a partner, I recommend it with reservations.  Infusionsoft is a big platform and it’s not easy to learn. In fact, I have someone on my team who manages the system for me. So, if you’re not technically inclined and don’t have the resources to get professional help (of the technical kind as opposed to the mental kind) you may end up needing professional help (of the mental kind). Other shopping cart and e-newsletter systems with follow-up engines include 1shopping.com, zen-cart, and interspire,

As with the crm and project management software programs there are also too many newsletter broadcasting systems to choose from including ConstantContact, Aweber, icart, MailChimp and more. If I were starting from scratch today, I’d probably go with MailChimp for my newsletter broadcasting because it’s free for your first 1000 subscribers and it integrates with so many different shopping cart and crm solutions. It’s also really easy to use.

Let’s end this section where we began, with a true customer relationship management program, GetSatisfaction, which provides a simple way to build online communities that create conversations between businesses and their customers. I’m a fan. It also intergrates nicely with ZenDesk, an impressive help desk platform. Other helpdesk platforms include Kayako, HelpDeskPilot, and LiveHelpNow, which includes a cool live chat feature that may increase conversion at point of sale.

Intranet and Online Operation Manual Software

A lifetime ago, when I worked for a large corporation, they gave every new employee an “operations manual” that was so large it took two people to carry it. Ridiculous. Why? Because, as soon as it was printed it was immediately out of date and irrelevant. A good business is constantly improving, making small changes that produce big results. If you’re working from a book that’s outdated and filled with information that’s irrelevant, you’re going to have to a hard time producing improvements. Moreover, if you can’t find what you’re looking for you’re slow and ineffective. I don’t know about you, but when I’m slow and ineffective, I get depressed, frustrated and crabby. You’ve got to be able to find what you need when you need it at a moments notice. Enter the online operations manual. As soon as you start your business you should document every process that occurs in your business, from how you take money to where your website is hosted and how to make changes. Nothing should be set to memory. Instead, it should be documented in an easily and instantly updatable online environment that you can access from anywhere with any computer or handheld device with an Internet connection.

My first online operations manual lived on a typepad blog that I called “Team United.” Each member of my team could add posts and categorize them based on the procedure type. Other members of the team could comment on the post and add to or change the process as needed. The blog software wasn’t ideal for the purposes of an online operations manual so I moved all our documentation to a wiki at pbworks.com. That was fine for a while but it wasn’t integrated into the rest of company’s activities so I moved it to Backpack another simple product from 37signals.com. I even use Backpack for my home “operations manual” to manage everything from the 30 or so contractors that work on my house, my son’s school and teacher information, emergency contacts, utilities, and so much more. I guess I’m starting to sound like a commercial for 37signals.com but I have no relation to the company and don’t know anyone involved in the company (as of today). I even use their Campfire product for team chat’s and conference calls.

There are more software products that I could introduce to you but I think this is more than enough for now. As I mentioned earlier, the point of productivity software is to help you stay organized and get things done. The simpler the product is the better.

Speaking of a simple product that will help you build your network (stay organized) and get booked solid (get things done) is a product that I’m creating based on my book, Book Yourself Solid, called Solid.ly. You can sign up for the beta and you’ll get an invite to participate in the private beta in January or February. Oh, my gosh, I almost forgot to mention the other Book Yourself Solid software product, Book’d. It’s helps you list your services online, take money and let’s clients book sessions. (I’m biased toward these two products for obvious reasons.)

Jolly Old St. Nick is the head of the largest seasonal business in the world, but how does the man in the red suit manage Christmas year after year?

Santa Claus gives an “exclusive” interview on MSNBC revealing his approach to marketing, social media and customer service.

Ok, fine, you got me. It’s me in a Santa suit… which is why the advice is so good! Hey, if you like it, please give it a “thumbs up” on the site.

I thought you might enjoy a good laugh while learning a little something at the same time.

Happy holidays,

Michael Port
(AKA: Santa Claus)