How many times did the event you were stressing over turn out to be nothing?

How much lost time and revenue has your business lost because of this issue? I would say a tremendous amount.

I was traveling the other day and my first plane had mechanical issues so I changed flights. As a result of this change, I had to make my connection with a shorter layover.

If I missed my connection, the next flight was not for six hours later. That would not fit my schedule. My mind began worrying about missing the flight and that I shouldn’t have changed flights and on and on.

I began to become pre-occupied with my decision when I learned that the first plane took off before my new one would. Even after the decision was made and there was nothing I could do about it, I still was focused on this issue. I then lost valuable time working on a project I had set as a priority to do while at the airport.

I finally cleared my mind by realizing how foolish I had been by keeping focused on things out of my control and chastised myself for wasting this productive time that I would never get back.

The reason this is important for managers and everyone in business is that there are so many things that can distract us from our purpose and we have to be vigilant to know what is important to focus on.

We all can get locked into excuses as to why something did not happen. However, if you were honest with yourself, it was because you were focused on non-productive things.

Maybe you are so obsessed with your competition and what they are doing. This is not helpful because you are not focused on what you are doing to refine your brand, execute better or deliver value. You need to be sold on what you are doing as the most important this to drive your business towards success.

Get rid of these phrases in your vocabulary: “If only”, “I wish” and “Why not us?”.

These are all focused on non-productive things. There is nothing in these words that focus on any actionable tasks. If you want to look at competition, make sure you decide on a plan of action and what you need to accomplish.

Focus on what you can control. Things out of your control will happen anyway. You have limited impact on the universe as a whole but you surely have control of your mind and actions.

Focus on your mission. Ask better questions like:

• ·Did we deliver on time?
• ·Did we execute as directed or expected?
• ·What can we do to improve performance?

These questions impact success and as a leader you need to make sure you and your team are focused on actions, not things out of your control.

Glenn Pasch is the current CEO of PCG Digital Marketing as well as a writer, National Speaker  and Management Trainer

The knee jerk reaction could be to “go emotional” on them. Throw them out immediately, remove any semblance of their work or association with your company, begin to spread vicious rumors online of why they left so it taints their future, bad habits, unflattering photos and….I’m sorry that escalated quickly

The other option is understand as a manager that everyone has a journey. We all have journeys ourselves. Right now, as this person is telling you they are moving on, you remember that you sat in that seat before when you transitioned jobs yourself. Very few of us stayed in the same job or company from the beginning of our journey. Many of us will do not think that our leaving, even an entry-level job, had repercussions for those left behind. We always focus on our own journey.

As a manager or owner you have to sit back, take a breath and realize they may not just be leaving for more money but instead the new job may be able to offer them a different path than you can. I do not want to make the situation sound all so Zen as if to simulate that an employee leaving does not cause any disturbance, but you as a leader have to look at this as an opportunity to change things internally. Look to others to move along their path and maybe, just maybe, it works out well for both parties.

How to Deal With Employee Transition

#1 Find out the timetable for leaving.

This is important. You would like to get as much time as possible to work out an easy transition. Do not think any job is easy to replace quickly.

#2 Document duties the employee was responsible for.

Even as a manager or leader in the company, you may not really know all the minute tasks that this employee was responsible for. Have them document everything that they did so you can assign to a new employee.

#3  Get this employee’s feedback on who should get duties.

This may seem odd but this employee interacted with the team more than you have day to day. Getting their feedback on who could handle some of these tasks provides you with a starting point for assigning new roles. It also may bring to your attention some of your other employee’s skills sets you may have overlooked.

#4  Bring in all affected parties to work out transition.

Once you have an idea of who will be handling the duties, bring them all in together so that there is agreement on taking over tasks. Remember you want buy in from your team, not just a reassignment without taking into consideration how this affects their workflow. You may have to reassign some of the employee’s current tasks to allow for them to take on new duties.

#5  Alert the rest of the company to the new plan.

While your employees will hear quickly through the grapevine about an employee leaving, you should still formally address the company about the transition and have a set plan to present to the entire team. This takes any uncertainty out of question and allows the remaining team to feel reassured that this exit would not impact them adversely. It shows continuation of purpose.

#6  Monitor transition and exit.

One hopes for the best but once someone is thinking about their new job, it is human nature to begin to let go of current duties. Most people do want to exit the right way, so it is important that you monitor the transition to put your company in the best position when this employee eventually does finish up.

Lastly, shake hands and wish this person well. You never know how your paths may cross in the future. They may end up exceeding even your vision of what they could do and there may be a working partnership of companies in the future.

Most transitions, if done correctly, work out for both parties. New people step up and surprise you and past employees look to you for guidance in the future because you treated them with respect.

I have had the pleasure of staying in touch with many people who worked under me and it is most rewarding to get notes letting me know of the impact I had on them, or that they continue to use things I taught them to better themselves and their new companies.

If you have managed your company correctly and your employees are akin to your children, then you should always be proud of their future accomplishments and not be bitter that they have left the nest.

Oh what the heck…maybe one little rumor!!!

Glenn Pasch is the current CEO of PCG Digital Marketing as well as a writer, National Speaker  and Management Trainer

My grandfather owned a music store in New Jersey during the 40’s through the 70’s. He relied on two things: word of mouth and excellent service to deliver that great experience to those who came to his store.

Why do I focus on this? I believe that in growing a business, nothing has changed from my grandfather’s time. Today we have so many options to choose from because of the Internet. One problem with the Internet is how big it grew and has overwhelmed many and they are looking online for something had in years past. They are looking for a sense of reassurance and a sense of community to bounce ideas off of.

The beauty is that this community is stretched across boundaries. It is no longer geographic. I call it our social town.

Today we have 500 channels on our TV but we watch only 15. I will offer that we have the same situation in our social town. We have over 500 in our community but interact and rely on 20-25.

Our brains cannot comprehend dealing with 500 people. We could not do it in real life and our online life is no different. We create tiers as we did in real life. We rely for those we have connection with.

The task for businesses in our social town is to get your message out. Just as you created a billboard on the highway, so now you have Facebook Ads. You had people talking about you in their circles of friends, now welcome those discussions on Google +. You wanted coverage in the local newspaper, those“feel good” articles, welcome to blogs, press releases or others posting online of your involvement in the community. Things are no different in our social town; we just have new technologies.

The next step is for your customers to share with their own social towns.

First, you have to make your message easy to share. If it was easy to get someone in to do business with you and you delivered excellence, it then should be easy for your customer to share his experience and talk about it online.

We also need to ask them to share this experience. We cannot rely on those who are connected and love sharing. There are those who love to help and feel compelled to share with their friend, but this is not enough. Nudge everyone because each person who lives in your social town is a resource for someone. Never take a person’s potential influence for granted.

You need to advertise online to grow your business in your social town. You have to engage your customers as you did in the past town. Your business needs to be seen as viable and helpful in your social town just as it was in your real town.

You may need help doing this, so search out the experts just as my grandfather did when he was leveraging the media available in his time.

Those of you who pass off social media and online reviews as a fad or not relevant to your business will be left behind. Remember that store in town that eventually shut down? Do you remember why? Because you forgot that they were even open. They stopped being relevant.

Just because we have new technology does not mean the rules have changed.

Execute or get help.

Glenn Pasch is the current CEO of PCG Digital Marketing as well as a writer, National Speaker  and Management Trainer

These same people are having a hard time choosing because what they are finding online are:
• Confusing marketing messages
• Similar marketing messages
• Catchy tag lines

They really do not know who to trust or who to do business with until something stands out where they want to take action. If they can’t find you, your business is on life support.

Let’s agree that, on average, there are hundreds of people who visit your website because your marketing message worked. You stood out and they clicked to your website. But when they interact with your employees, they get conflicting results to your marketing promises, such as no real response, auto responders or recorded messages and emails that don’t answer their questions. If this continues, you people are burying your business.

So here we are with all of this new technology, but have we lost the ability to really connect?

The Internet is a great thing for all of us. It allows us to have information at our fingertips, accomplish more things quicker than ever and communicate with others wherever we are.

But too many companies hide behind technology or have mixed messages across it, which then causes technology to create confusion.

In the past, consumers may have held off making a choice because we did not know our options. I contend that today our hurdle with marketing is that with the proliferation of information, it has become so overwhelming that we have come full circle and are now holding off choice again.

Now your business landscape may be very competitive in ways it never was before. You are dealing with your competition having a similar website, the same SEO package and the same SEM provider. If everyone is using the same technology, have you all just moved up one level but in essence are still the same?

Define and Deliver

Why do we do business with certain companies? It is because we have an expectation of what the experience will be. You need to create that same message so that when they think of what you do, they think of you.

Too many times businesses market in a funnel. They do not understand that your offline marketing has to match what they see online or else seeds of doubt begin.

Now as we move into the other platforms that have different audiences, such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+, you have to tweak the message. The core of the message does not change, but it needs to be tweaked to the audience and platform.

Remember that you are who you are. The experience you deliver is the same and all we are tweaking is the delivery.

If you do not have a clear message, all that technology will do is add on pieces and confuse your audience. If you are not learning how to reach out to your audience and communicate, educate and share with your message with them, your business will die a slow death.

Glenn Pasch is the current CEO of PCG Digital Marketing as well as a writer, National Speaker  and Management Trainer

For myself, who is a little further down the path of marriage, it reminded me of the importance of keeping focused on why I married my wife. All of the wonderful things she brings to my life that can easily get taken for granted in the day-to-day of our lives.

I myself have a good reminder of keeping focused on the wonder because of my children. Both of my sons tell me daily how excited they are for me to help them tie their shoes, tie a tie, ride a bike, and then the oldest (who is 8) hit me with a request to teach him how to drive. I guess he has long-term plans.

I came away though from the wedding with a thought that many of us start in our businesses as blissfully happy newlyweds. We are very excited about the future and the endless possibilities but may not recognize at first that the daily work we all have to do to make our work successful is not always glamorous or “fun.” We then get caught up in the day-to-day and we lose a little of that wonder we had in the beginning of our journey.

For managers of teams, the question is how do you keep that sense of wonder for yourself and your team? How do you build your days with endless possibilities instead of moving through routine checklists? How do you keep that “spark” going?

Employee retention and keeping your team engaged takes a few simple steps:

Communication

This is one of the most important things employees desire no matter what the size of the business. They want to know what is happening within the company, if progress being achieved (or not) as well as reinforcement of the company’s core values. Every time you speak with your team, express not only the company value but also their value to the company.

Potential for Advancement

Everyone likes to work in a business that is moving forward. Employees like to see others moving up into new roles or taking on more responsibility. This allows them to see it is possible for them as well.

Clear Expectations and Feedback

In my opinion, this is the biggest factor for having a company that is still “happy as newlyweds.” When you have employees who fully understand what is expected, taught how to execute the given tasks and then receive feedback to reinforce behavior, this leads to a successful and engaged workforce. Too many companies fall short investing in their employees with training and feedback. Too many just “tell and reprimand.”

Take time each day to reflect on why you started your company or the excitement you felt when you joined your company and make it a point to bring that enthusiasm to your team.

Successful businesses, just like marriages, work each day to share in their successes and are focus on working towards a common goal.

Glenn Pasch is the current CEO of PCG Digital Marketing as well as a writer, National Speaker  and Management Trainer Glenn will be speaking at the upcoming Automotive Boot Camp in Philadelphia May 14-16th.

So to all of you running a business, I say, “You are the message, stupid.”

We, as businesses and as people, must create our message to differentiate ourselves. One problem I see is that many people use technology to build walls around themselves and hide behind the technology instead of using technology to spread their message. For businesses, the question becomes: how do you use the technology at your disposal?

Technology has now brought us back to a time where we had to communicate with our customers. We had to appreciate each of our customers and could not take them for granted because our businesses were local and word would get out around town and affect your business one way or the other.

Today businesses deal with a consumer base that will consider traveling further to buy their product or can, with the touch of a mouse, buy their product online. That sense of local for many people is different today or may not exist. For businesses, this can be a dangerous audience to embrace. One potential pitfall is a feeling that you do not have to take care of each customer because the pool of customers is so large.

My caution to businesses is that not only do other businesses have the same technology to promote and reach out to this vast audience, but more importantly, these customers are using the same technology to reach out to their own large “social town” to share experiences, just as they did locally years ago.

Our customer service must change. It has to go back to the thought of being local where you never knew who would go talk about you well or not so you had to treat everyone well.

When I worked in hospitality in NYC, the owners were always waiting for the NY Times’s food critic to give you a positive review to help publicize your restaurant.  The owners would post pictures of the critic so the staff could be aware and let everyone know if the critic was there. Unfortunately the critic would dress up differently or send in friends so you would not be able to skew service differently than what regular customers would receive.

The reason why I focus on this was our owner was looking to find the important communicators to help spread the message. Today everyone who has a smart phone is a reporter, moviemaker and publisher.  You cannot decipher who has a lot of followers or is influential.  Even if you try to find out, many people hide online behind avatars or photos of objects so you will never know who is the influencer and who could go home and push out a message to their 1000 followers who read their opinions on food, customer service or business.

Anyone can take a quick video and post it online and link it to your businesses name for the next person who searches for you by name, service or location to view.

Technology is not the answer to your message.  It is a device or platform to share a message.

You are the message.

Glenn Pasch is the current CEO of PCG Digital Marketing as well as a writer, National Speaker and Trainer. Glenn will be speaking at the upcoming Automotive Boot Camp in Philadelphia May 14-16th.

It struck me that many companies use the wrong marketing “weapons” to get their message across.

I constantly receive questions from businesses on how to better communicate their message. The questions range from frequency to how to get it in front of as many people as possible, but here’s what they forget to focus on:

• ·What is the objective of the message?
• ·Who is the intended target?
• ·What is the “weapon” of choice to distribute?

Most marketing is still done in a mass media style push. It is trying to hit as many people as possible. Although it does hit its intended target, there is much collateral damage. Hitting people who do not want to hear from you with a message or attacking them with multiple messages from your marketing department can end up turning these people off to your brand even when they are in market for your products or services.

Let’s look at these three aspects of successful marketing

What is the objective?

Just like a military operation, you need to understand the objective. What are you trying to accomplish and what do you want your audience to do? Without a clear objective you are running marketing on hope. Be specific. Be clear on what you want to accomplish and it will be easier to achieve your goal. Small wins are better than a huge assault.

Who is the audience?

Too many times marketing is blasted to an entire database. I heard a quote the other day that people do not want email, they want “me”mail. So whom is the message designed for? Heads of a company? The marketing manager? The consumer? Each of these audiences need and deserve a different message designed for them. As consumers ourselves, we do not like being lumped into a group where all of us are treated as equals. We all like feeling special. Choose your special audience and send them a special message for best results.

What is the weapon of choice?

Not all means of communication are correct. Email blasts, TV commercials, radio and magazines each have their place, but many times the message is the same in all of these. In battle the sniper hones in on one target, follows them and, at the right time, delivers. The same thing should apply to your marketing. Choose the objective, locate the audience, design the message and choose the right delivery message for the audience. Small wins. One effective message is more impactful than 100 emails that have no effect. Remember that collateral damage has long-term implications

The beauty of the Internet and the availability of information at one time were wonderful, but we have gotten to a point where there is so much information at our fingertips and we are overwhelmed to the point of inaction. In order to stand out, you have to be that sniper, cutting through the cloud of information and deliver your message cleanly, and with impact.

Glenn Pasch is the current CEO of PCG Digital Marketing as well as a writer, National Speaker and Trainer. Glenn will be speaking at the upcoming Automotive Boot Camp in Philadelphia May 14-16th.

You are still marketing. You are still following a sales process. What has changed is that you now have a new medium to push out your message. I have previously discussed that if you do not have your message clearly defined you cannot craft an online message that ties into all of your traditional marketing. Your overall marketing becomes a patchwork of ads that do more to confuse your customers than add value each time they see your message.

I recommend that everyone who begins the digital journey should utilize someone to help guide him or her through the myriad of changes on the web. They need someone to help them understand the similarities and differences the web presents in terms of marketing or lead handling. One of the first things that new online marketers need to embrace is that we are using another company’s product (search engines) and there are inherent rules that need to be followed.

One of the questions we are constantly asked in terms of marketing your message is the age-old question of quality vs. quantity.

My answer has not changed. Context always is important. Marketing 101.

Here are the three things you need to ask yourself:

• What are you saying?
• Why are you saying it?
• What do you want your audience to do?

This seems simple, but it is even more important right now. There is such a glut of choices and options that people are looking for great content to engage with.

The answer of how much volume has changed since updates to Google for some because people gamed the system and just threw out volumes of content thinking this would work. It did to a degree. It may have gotten you to the top of Page One, but when someone read the content, was it impactful enough to get him or her to click or engage? Google has now forced the issue to make everyone focus is back on the basics of good quality content.

Your goal as a marketing manager is to create a message that can stand out because it is well thought out and fits with who you are as a company. Create as much great content that supports your message and, in turn, fill your sales pipeline with interested consumers.

One thing to remember is to utilize your social networks to amplify your message. Create a great message that people will want to share. If your content isn’t high quality, your network will tire of you asking them to put their reputation on the line by sharing substandard content.

Remember that quality content has always reigned supreme. It is even more necessary now.

Glenn Pasch is the current CEO of PCG Digital Marketing as well as a writer, National Speaker and Trainer. Glenn will be speaking at the upcoming Automotive Boot Camp in Philadelphia May 14-16th.

We live in an age of choice. We can go on the web and find multiple options for what we are looking for. As a consumer base, we have become more selective and demanding in what we are looking for or what we expect. Delivering just what we expect will not seal the deal for long-term loyalty; exceeding expectations keep people engaged.

In a previous article, Customer Service Is a Verb, we discussed ways to differentiate your business that sets you apart because so many companies are focused on just getting new business. What we will discuss now are a few small things that will stand out as HUGE to impact retention.

Four things to improve customer retention:

Be available.

I cannot tell you how many times I get frustrated by automated operators. “Press 2 for this” or “press 1 for that” and it takes you forever until you are just yelling at the phone “PLEASE LET ME SPEAK TO SOMEONE.”  When I called my new lawn person, I spoke to a person each time. Now I know you will say they are small so it does not apply to my business, but in reality, the majority of businesses are able to staff a person to answer phones.

Be knowledgeable.

Make sure that the person answering the phones has a working knowledge of what you do and, more importantly, who to channel the call to. I have been bounced around multiple times to different people at companies only to learn they cannot help me. This is a big miss step and poor impression of how you will take care of me in the future.

Be Responsible.

If something goes wrong, for whatever reason, take responsibility to make it right. Zappos has made a mark by not charging for return shipping. While other companies consider this a cost, Zappos looks at this as a way to retain customers. My lawn service made a mistake when trimming some ground cover and instead of waiting for us to find it (or maybe just hoping we didn’t), they went out and bought a new piece to replace it and let us know. That is reason enough for me to keep them.

Be appreciative.

Many businesses today get so caught up in the next sale that they forget to thank a new customer. I came home recently to a handwritten envelope with a thank you card inside to let me know how much they appreciated my business and, if I was satisfied, if I could recommend them. Nice touch asking for referral.

It seems so simple. Not one of these items seems hard to do, but I will tell you that by doing these four things, your company will stand out from your competitors.

Glenn Pasch is the current CEO of PCG Digital Marketing as well as a writer, National Speaker and Trainer. Glenn will be speaking at the upcoming Automotive Boot Camp in Philadelphia May 14-16th.

Why is this odd? New York is filled with actors. Let me explain.

I would ask them how often they auditioned or what was the last project they worked on and their response would be that they were taking classes or they were not ready yet or still working on their material. Now going to classes is important, as I had a vocal coach or an acting coach even though I was working, but their response was more of a reason why they were not working on getting a paying job or just getting out to perform.

The reason why I bring this up is that as you spoke more to this person, I came to realize that the person loved with the idea of being an actor versus the reality of what they had to do each and every day to become an actor.

I see the same thing today with businesses and their relationship with new media or new technology. They fall in love with the new hot service or idea at a conference or from an article they read and they rush back to their company saying, “We are now doing this,” or “This vendor is the best and our competition is using it so I just signed us up.”

While this may allow them to feel current or allow them to brag a bit at their next business or social gathering, in reality, they never take the time to examine if this service or product is right for their culture or business model. They fall in love with the idea, but not the reality of how this new service or product impacts their business.

Technology may be able to solve a lot of problems or make a business more effective, but not every piece of technology or service is right for everyone. You have to ask yourself if it fits in your culture, how it can help us, how will we implement it and at what cost.

The easy access to information and the ability for new trends to be pushed out to us, telling us we need it to maximize our potential can be detrimental if all we are doing is shopping to be in the “cool” club.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from a business associate who told me, “Some of the best customers for our company were the ones we never took.” It took me a bit to understand that, but not all customers are right for your business. The same goes for new technology or services. Some of the best technology or services for your company will be the ones you don’t use.

Glenn Pasch is the current CEO of PCG Digital Marketing as well as a writer, National Speaker and Trainer. Glenn will be speaking at the upcoming Automotive Boot Camp in Philadelphia May 14-16th.