AtlantaEvent.com NewsFlash - Are you an Angry Customer?

Intro From Jeff Glaze

Jeff Glaze
Editor



"Buy my eye-opening ebook!" from Jeff Glaze, The editor of AtlantaEvent.com

Greetings from Jeff,

First an important notice:

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Atlanta's Largest Business-to-Business Networking Event
and Business Showcase
Network with hundreds of business people!

AtlantaEvent.com and
AtlantaBusinessCalendar.com presents


THE SMALL BUSINESS SHOWCASE
This event will replace the Atlanta Business Mixer for March

Thursday March 24 ~ 3 to 7:30 p.m.

@ Upscale's Event Facility
6600 Roswell Rd. at Abernathy
2nd Floor above Aldo's
Complimentary hors d' oeuvres ~ Cash Bar
Admission: $10 at the door ~ No Reservations Required

Display Tables & Sponsorships Available ~ Call (678) 508-5975
Companies that reserve a table for this event get a FREE table
in the Online Virtual Business Expo (see below)

Bring plenty of Business Cards!

Ok, back to my monologue!

The Groundbreaking Worldwide Online Virtual Business Expo is underway and even though it has started it is not too late to get a table in it. Why is it a good thing to have a table? You will get 2 months of massive exposure in front of thousands of business owners here in the Metro Atlanta Area and around the country. Even if your business is not located in Atlanta, you can reach the business community here through this opportunity.

The Online Expo itself is off to a slow start because we are on the leading edge of Business Events and information and often people do not understand how something new works to their advantage.

Do you use Google? If you do and you search for "business events atlanta" on google, AtlantaEvent.com is #1 in the search. Every time a business owner searches for business events here, they visit our site. Imaging how many people would see your table on the site!

My article this week at the bottom of the page is about the customer's side of customer service. Take a minute to read it and find out how to be satisfied every time when you are out there buying products and services.

Thanks for subscribing to the NewsFlash and remember, each issue we feature different material, so if you don't find what you need this issue, check the next one or suggest a topic that you need help on.

Have a great week!

Jeff Glaze
www.AtlantaEvent.com Editor

Streamline Your People Skills:
A Creative Way to Preserve Your Bottom Line

By Karla Brandau, CSP

Often only a point or two separates a winning proposal from the second place finisher. You should do everything possible to improve your score. Following is a list of ten commonly overlooked things that you can do to improve your proposal win-rate.

Research the project before the bid is released.
Establish contact with the client in advance, if possible. Use the Freedom of Information Act and Open Records laws with government agencies to learn as much as possible about the project and the precise needs and expectations of the client. Create a dialogue with the buyer, if possible.

Provide a clear solution to the client’s problem.
Clients want to feel that you understand the problem that they are trying to solve and that you actually have a solution. On the other hand, they are suspicious of bidders who just tell them what they already know and provide only vague answers to their questions.

Make sound bid/no-bid decisions.
Your proposal win-rate will dramatically increase once you make rational, logical bid/no-bid decisions. You must make a thorough analysis of each bid to scrutinize your organization’s fit with the project, your competition on the bid, and the client

Create the impression that your firm is superior to your competitors.
The truth is that in most situations, several bidders are equally capable of meeting the client’s needs. Your challenge is to create an impression with your proposal that your firm’s approach is unique.

Know your competitors.
It is important that you know the advantages and shortcomings of your competitors. It is also important to know their bidding tendencies. By doing so, you can subtly address their shortcoming in your proposal and know how to position yourself against their tendencies.

Highlight the major points of your proposal.
Use everything from graphic design to repetition to make sure your major proposal points are understood and remembered. All major points should stress the specific direct benefits to the client.

Organize your proposal writing effort.
Proposal writing is a time consuming task. Don’t waste time and labor with a poorly organized writing plan. Allow enough time to review and edit it before your submit your proposal.

Update your business information regularly to prepare for the next proposal.
This will allow you to edit your material with an open mind and fresh pair of eyes and make important improvements on future bids.

Perform the "little things" correctly.
Don’t let small mistakes kill you. Omitting requested information, exceeding page limits, or word counts, ignoring proposal guidelines, placing information in the incorrect place, or failing to repeat or reiterate information in different sections are the small things that will cause you to lose points with an evaluation team.

Make a strong, positive last impression.
Whether it’s in final negotiations or on a site visit, give the client a new reason to accept your proposal. Sometimes this means making a price concession or adding more value to your offer. Sometimes it simply means presenting the client with yet more research on their project to show that you’re still thinking about it and working on it, even after the bid deadline.

Copyright 2000, Randall P. Whatley

Randall P. Whatley is president of Cypress Media Group, Click Here , an Atlanta-based advertising, public relations, political consulting, and training firm. Cypress Media Group has been a government contractor for 19 years and advises both businesses and government agencies on the proposal analysis, writing, and production process. He can be reached by e-mail at randy@cypressmedia.net.

How well do you know them?

by Jeff Glaze

Read Chapter 12 In "Guerrilla Marketing in 30 days" about AtlantaEvent.com

It is often said that it is not who you know that matters, it is who knows you. Well I would like to extend this statement by saying that it is not only who you know and who knows you, but how well do you know them and they you?

In business, networking is the ultimate form of promotion. It can help you to obtain new clients, a new job, or even help you to move up the corporate ladder. It is the process of building relationships. Any time that you attend a meeting, trade show, or a social function, you are networking whether you realize it or not. It is the relationship that you have with people, a prospect or a client that makes the difference between success and failure.

Often we fail to realize the reasons that we have for doing business with an individual or a company. In the case of products that we regularly buy, what helps us to make the buying decision? There are those that will buy a specific brand of product because they trust that brand to be of a high quality or durability. There are others that will make a buying decision based on price, although this is less frequently the case. Often we simply do business because we feel good about it. In fact most purchases or decisions to do business are based on two things. Trust and comfort. Trust is a very intangible emotion or feeling. How do you measure it? How do you develop it?

Trust is measured by the feelings that are generated by a process of letting someone get to know more about you than just product, features and price. I know a gentleman who provides a seminar on selling to C-level executives. He says that to sell to the C-level executive you have to be more than a salesperson selling a product or service. To sell to the executive level, you have to be more of an advisor. You have to find needs other than the ones that you can fulfill and help them to fulfill these needs. In doing this, you become a "trusted advisor". They feel "comfortable" that you have their interests in mind more than just making a quick sale and a commission.

In our daily process of seeking prospective clients, do we often just look for a person to pitch, or do we spend a bit more time getting to know them before we try to sell?

When we take the time to know a persons desires, dreams, and needs, and make an honest effort to help them realize that these things are important to us, we are really on the fast track to doing business with them. We are building the trust, confidence, comfort level, and most importantly the relationship that is needed to not only make the sale, but to create in them a resource for endless referrals.

As we go into the community meeting people who are prospective clients, we should keep the following in mind. The customer is a person just like me. The customer has needs other than the one that I can fulfill. Until I understand what the ultimate goal or dream of the prospect is, I cannot fulfill it with my product or service.

Selling and networking are about relationships. You sell in everything that you do whether you realize it or not. The time is now for more effective selling. Change the way you think about the prospect and the prospect will change the way that they think about you.

Jeff Glaze is the editor of www.AtlantaEvent.com and the author of several e-books. His e-book "The Six Extremes Of Power Business Networking" is available here: http://www.atlantaevent.com/ebook.htm

Copyright © 2005 by MostCool Media Inc.

If I'm Not Satisfied, What Do I Want?

By Jeff Glaze

www.besomeone.org
"Helping Children
One Move At A Time"

BeSomeone.org is the Official supported charity of AtlantaEvent.com

Customer service is all about the customer. As business owners or employees, we have all at one time or another had to deal with an upset customer. What happens when the upset customer is us?

Being in business does not guarantee success. The last thing a business owner wants is to lose our business, so when something goes wrong and we are the customer, do we just accept it and walk away forever or do we seek satisfaction. Of course we often complain, but then again we probably would not remain a customer.

Here is a suggestion to be a satisfied customer more often. Know what you want that will make you happy before you complain. Here is an example.

Last week I bought a pie at a national grocery chain. It was on sale and when I went to eat it, it was the worst thing I ever tasted. I looked for my receipt to return it and noticed that the pie which was supposed to be $2.50 was charged to me for $4.79.

On the way to the store I decided that I would ask for a total refund and a new pie. When I went to the customer service desk, I told the guy working there what I expected for my trouble. He said wait a minute and went into the back office. When he came out he told me to go get a new pie.

As I was looking at the pies, I had a choice of another fruit pie ( the first was blueberry) or pumpkin or a key lime. The key lime was $3.00 more than the original pie, but I have eaten them before from that store and they are always good. I took the key lime pie back to the service desk, explained that I know that the key lime pies are good and the person asked if I would like a bag. He then handed me the cash refund and I left the store.

I will shop at that store again.

My point to this is that when we are the customer, we can most often get satisfaction in a bad situation by knowing what it is that we want that will make us want to come back. When we know what we want we simply have to ask for it. This gives the business person an opportunity to save the relationship and us a way to get what we need to be happy.

As I have said before, all we need to know is what we want and how to ask for it.

Jeff Glaze is the Editor of AtlantaEvent.com and this newsletter.