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Answer Upon - How to Profit from Your Expertise (Part 2 of 2)
Why a Cash Flow Statement?Many business owners believe their financial statements will give them all the information they need. Financial statements are an historical tool that shows you where your business has been. A Cash Flow is the fancy name for a working budget that tells you how much cash your business actually has. Working in sync with your balance sheet your cash flow should be an easy-to-read tool that allows you to monitor sales, costs, profitability, collections and cash. It allows you to plan for future cash needs for growth, while identifying operational issues requiring immediate action.Successful cash flow planning does not require a degree in accounting. What you need is real-time understanding of where the cash is originating, where it is going, and how much is left over (just like you do at home). Businesses need to operate with a cash flow model that looks ahead one year, month by month, and is updated with actual results every week.Create a WorksheetThe formula for successful cash flow management is deceptive
To really knock their socks off, you should include some of your articles, a list of places you’ve given talks, a couple of client case studies, any brochures or printed web pages that are high-value and about the target audience, and a 1-page collection of testimonials from people who’ve attended your past presentations. If you sell products or have “packaged” your expertise into tapes or CDs, definitely throw one in!
The point is to clearly demonstrate how valuable you’ll be for the decision-maker’s audience. Remember, the person booking you for the talk has one concern: that you make their event a success. So they need to know that you’ll be well received, offer loads of value, and not ruin the event.
You’ll build their confidence in you as a goo
There are many features that an office chair should possess to ensure that it is a high quality product. These features will allow a good office chair to withstand intensive use, provide comfort to its user, prevent serious injury, and contribute to overall office productivity. Most important, proper ergonomic design is essential in providing adequate back support and helping to alleviate the discomfort that is often associated with being seated for a prolonged amount of time.Today’s employees can easily find themselves seated for extensive periods of time throughout the workday. Many of their required office tasks involve frequent use of a computer or telephone console. Because of this, it is important that an office chair be durable and conducive to efficient multi-tasking. A wheel castor for office chairs makes this possible by allowing the user to swivel and glide effortlessly while quickly completing daily office tasks.It is critical that consumers choose an office chair with the appropriate type of wheel castor for the floor surface
This month, we’ll look at how to get in front of the right audiences to put your attention-getting articles and talks to work in promoting you and your firm.
Before we go there, make sure you’ve:
• Given your talk or article a compelling title that answers your target audience’s “WIIFM” (What’s In It For Me?). It doesn’t matter how brilliant your content is, if people don’t read past your title or sign up for your talk. Your title is ALL that matters, at first glance.
• Got a title that’s clear and easy to understand, targets the audience specifically, includes core benefits directed at the reader/listener’s self-interest, and leads the reader/listener into the copy/talk.
For specific tips on how to make your titles compelling, read last month’s issue of this e-newsletter at http://www.turningpointemarketing.com:8080/icms/icms.php/cs/9/linktarget.html.
So if sharing your expertise through articles and talks is the fastest way to promote your professional service firm, how do you get in front of audiences that are full of good prospects?
STEP 1: Find the right audiences
In the beginning, this is about promotion and getting the word out through knowledge sharing…not getting paid to speak or write articles. So if you’re doing this for free, get a return on your investment by being in front of your target audience.
Finding the right target audience for your talk or article takes some old fashioned footwork. Here’s what you do:
1. Think about who you want sitting in your audience or reading your article – your ideal target client – and find out where they go for professional education, what associations they belong to, what they read, where they network, etc. Where are you most likely to bump into them?
In some cases, it could even be events held by your larger clients for their own employees (i.e., national and regional meetings for sales, HR, finance, IT staff, etc.)
For ideas and association contact info, try http://www.marketingsource.com/associations/ and http://www.galegroup.com (accessible for free at the public library).
2. Know you “customer.” Check out the websites of the organizations and publications you’re targeting. Find out what the hot issues are. Also research any procedures for speakers and writers – you’ll often find guidelines right on their website. Sometimes you have to complete an online application, other times is less formal.
3. Contact the right person – the one making the decision about speakers or articles. Even if decisions are made by committee (i.e., the Education Committee), they still have a main contact and a process you need to follow. Get the person’s name and talk with them directly.
4. Make it congenial and low-key – this is not a sales call. You’re simply asking if they think their members or readers would benefit from learning more about __________ (and then use one of the catchy, compelling titles that you developed using the guidelines in last month’s e-newsletter!).
5. In most cases, you’ll get a polite “maybe,” “can you send me some information?” or “you need to jump through these hoops…” Great – you’ve got the green light to take the next step!
If you get a “no,” move on. Learn what you can, adjust your approach if you’re making no progress, and keep going.
STEP 2: Send the right materials
Getting a green light means you need to send something.
Talks
For talks, it usually means sending your “press kit” or “media kit.” This isn’t as fancy as it sounds. Often a well-written, cover letter, 1-page description of your talks, and your bio (again, client-centered and must pass the WIIFM test) will due. In most cases, though, you need more.
To really knock their socks off, you should include some of your articles, a list of places you’ve given talks, a couple of client case studies, any brochures or printed web pages that are high-value and about the target audience, and a 1-page collection of testimonials from people who’ve attended your past presentations. If you sell products or have “packaged” your expertise into tapes or CDs, definitely throw one in!
The point is to clearly demonstrate how valuable you’ll be for the decision-maker’s audience. Remember, the person booking you for the talk has one concern: that you make their event a success. So they need to know that you’ll be well received, offer loads of value, and not ruin the event.
You’ll build their confidence in you as a good
Every year the dance begins. Supervisors and managers know they’ll soon have to do the annual performance review for all of their employees. They get the notice from HR reminding them of the deadlines. They get copies of the forms that will be used. They may even get some training on how to use the forms or conduct the reviews more effectively. Every few years the process will change – either in a small administrative way or in some more substantial way – at least from the perspective of those revising the process.But to the supervisor, it is all the same. Once a year they have to have a performance conversation with their “direct reports.”While the employee doesn’t get the memo from HR, they know the time is coming too – they know that at some point they’ll get an email from their boss, or the topic will come up in a staff meeting. “Performance Reviews will be soon, look at your calendars and let’s find a time to do this.”Most supervisors make this proclamation with a serious tone – they know that they represent the organization’
For specific tips on how to make your titles compelling, read last month’s issue of this e-newsletter at http://www.turningpointemarketing.com:8080/icms/icms.php/cs/9/linktarget.html.
So if sharing your expertise through articles and talks is the fastest way to promote your professional service firm, how do you get in front of audiences that are full of good prospects?
STEP 1: Find the right audiences
In the beginning, this is about promotion and getting the word out through knowledge sharing…not getting paid to speak or write articles. So if you’re doing this for free, get a return on your investment by being in front of your target audience.
Finding the right target audience for your talk or article takes some old fashioned footwork. Here’s what you do:
1. Think about who you want sitting in your audience or reading your article – your ideal target client – and find out where they go for professional education, what associations they belong to, what they read, where they network, etc. Where are you most likely to bump into them?
In some cases, it could even be events held by your larger clients for their own employees (i.e., national and regional meetings for sales, HR, finance, IT staff, etc.)
For ideas and association contact info, try http://www.marketingsource.com/associations/ and http://www.galegroup.com (accessible for free at the public library).
2. Know you “customer.” Check out the websites of the organizations and publications you’re targeting. Find out what the hot issues are. Also research any procedures for speakers and writers – you’ll often find guidelines right on their website. Sometimes you have to complete an online application, other times is less formal.
3. Contact the right person – the one making the decision about speakers or articles. Even if decisions are made by committee (i.e., the Education Committee), they still have a main contact and a process you need to follow. Get the person’s name and talk with them directly.
4. Make it congenial and low-key – this is not a sales call. You’re simply asking if they think their members or readers would benefit from learning more about __________ (and then use one of the catchy, compelling titles that you developed using the guidelines in last month’s e-newsletter!).
5. In most cases, you’ll get a polite “maybe,” “can you send me some information?” or “you need to jump through these hoops…” Great – you’ve got the green light to take the next step!
If you get a “no,” move on. Learn what you can, adjust your approach if you’re making no progress, and keep going.
STEP 2: Send the right materials
Getting a green light means you need to send something.
Talks
For talks, it usually means sending your “press kit” or “media kit.” This isn’t as fancy as it sounds. Often a well-written, cover letter, 1-page description of your talks, and your bio (again, client-centered and must pass the WIIFM test) will due. In most cases, though, you need more.
To really knock their socks off, you should include some of your articles, a list of places you’ve given talks, a couple of client case studies, any brochures or printed web pages that are high-value and about the target audience, and a 1-page collection of testimonials from people who’ve attended your past presentations. If you sell products or have “packaged” your expertise into tapes or CDs, definitely throw one in!
The point is to clearly demonstrate how valuable you’ll be for the decision-maker’s audience. Remember, the person booking you for the talk has one concern: that you make their event a success. So they need to know that you’ll be well received, offer loads of value, and not ruin the event.
You’ll build their confidence in you as a goo
If you're planning on doing medical billing and sending in claims for oxygen, you better make sure you've had plenty of sleep the night before. Oxygen billing is probably the most complex of all the medical billing procedures because of certain conversions and calculations that need to be done in regard to the oxygen itself. In this installment of our series on medical billing and the electronic transmission of claims using NSF 3.01 specifications, we'll be covering the GX0 record, picking up with field number 14.GX0 field 14, positions 125 - 127, is the oxygen flow rate. This tells the carrier how many liters per minute the patient is supposed to receive. The valid values are 001 - 999. If the patient is going to be getting less than one liter per minute than the software needs to enter 00X.There are some notes that are important about this field, as it is one of the most important fields on this CMN.If you're billing for an oxygen concentrator, the concentrator being given to the patient must go along with the flow rate prescribe
In some cases, it could even be events held by your larger clients for their own employees (i.e., national and regional meetings for sales, HR, finance, IT staff, etc.)
For ideas and association contact info, try http://www.marketingsource.com/associations/ and http://www.galegroup.com (accessible for free at the public library).
2. Know you “customer.” Check out the websites of the organizations and publications you’re targeting. Find out what the hot issues are. Also research any procedures for speakers and writers – you’ll often find guidelines right on their website. Sometimes you have to complete an online application, other times is less formal.
3. Contact the right person – the one making the decision about speakers or articles. Even if decisions are made by committee (i.e., the Education Committee), they still have a main contact and a process you need to follow. Get the person’s name and talk with them directly.
4. Make it congenial and low-key – this is not a sales call. You’re simply asking if they think their members or readers would benefit from learning more about __________ (and then use one of the catchy, compelling titles that you developed using the guidelines in last month’s e-newsletter!).
5. In most cases, you’ll get a polite “maybe,” “can you send me some information?” or “you need to jump through these hoops…” Great – you’ve got the green light to take the next step!
If you get a “no,” move on. Learn what you can, adjust your approach if you’re making no progress, and keep going.
STEP 2: Send the right materials
Getting a green light means you need to send something.
Talks
For talks, it usually means sending your “press kit” or “media kit.” This isn’t as fancy as it sounds. Often a well-written, cover letter, 1-page description of your talks, and your bio (again, client-centered and must pass the WIIFM test) will due. In most cases, though, you need more.
To really knock their socks off, you should include some of your articles, a list of places you’ve given talks, a couple of client case studies, any brochures or printed web pages that are high-value and about the target audience, and a 1-page collection of testimonials from people who’ve attended your past presentations. If you sell products or have “packaged” your expertise into tapes or CDs, definitely throw one in!
The point is to clearly demonstrate how valuable you’ll be for the decision-maker’s audience. Remember, the person booking you for the talk has one concern: that you make their event a success. So they need to know that you’ll be well received, offer loads of value, and not ruin the event.
You’ll build their confidence in you as a goo
No matter what business you are in, there is a culture in your office. The language of the office is fluid, changing as quickly. Keeping up is important because clear communication is the key to success in everything you do. Here a few terms you might have heard but were unclear as to their true meaning:Office Creeper- a person who sneaks into an office during business hours and steals personal items and equipment.This is done often in plain view of others who may be confused as to whether or not that person is supposed to be in the office. These criminals are well dressed and pleasant to all staff while in the building.Butt Calls- These are calls made when someone accidentally sits or their cell phone or an object in their purse accidentally causes the cell phone to call. The recipient of the call will hear nose or the conversation of the accidentally caller with someone else. They are a big problem with people who have phones that have one-touch 911 dialing. These calls plug up the emergency system.Multicolor Collar Workers: the Education Committee), they still have a main contact and a process you need to follow. Get the person’s name and talk with them directly.
4. Make it congenial and low-key – this is not a sales call. You’re simply asking if they think their members or readers would benefit from learning more about __________ (and then use one of the catchy, compelling titles that you developed using the guidelines in last month’s e-newsletter!).
5. In most cases, you’ll get a polite “maybe,” “can you send me some information?” or “you need to jump through these hoops…” Great – you’ve got the green light to take the next step!
If you get a “no,” move on. Learn what you can, adjust your approach if you’re making no progress, and keep going.
STEP 2: Send the right materials
Getting a green light means you need to send something.
Talks
For talks, it usually means sending your “press kit” or “media kit.” This isn’t as fancy as it sounds. Often a well-written, cover letter, 1-page description of your talks, and your bio (again, client-centered and must pass the WIIFM test) will due. In most cases, though, you need more.
To really knock their socks off, you should include some of your articles, a list of places you’ve given talks, a couple of client case studies, any brochures or printed web pages that are high-value and about the target audience, and a 1-page collection of testimonials from people who’ve attended your past presentations. If you sell products or have “packaged” your expertise into tapes or CDs, definitely throw one in!
The point is to clearly demonstrate how valuable you’ll be for the decision-maker’s audience. Remember, the person booking you for the talk has one concern: that you make their event a success. So they need to know that you’ll be well received, offer loads of value, and not ruin the event.
You’ll build their confidence in you as a goo
Most people pay their debts on a timely basis. Some do not. There are basically 4 types of debtors that do not pay on a regular payment schedule.Magician’s AssistantThis is the hardest type to collect from. In their mind if they do not hear from you about the debt, then the debt does not exists. Thus, they do everything that they can to avoid contact. And if you do make contact they will try everything to get you off track. They will get you to try and focus on less important instances of the account, for example...it is your fault that you sent the letter to the wrong address, your company was not suppose to cash a check until a certain day, they never got your messages because you were leaving them at the wrong number, and on and on. This is where being the professional collector comes into play. You must remain focused, regardless of the smoke screen thrown at you. Get control of the conversation and keep it.Worker AntThis debtor is a hard worker. They are by nature, proud and do not easily ask for help. They go to work everyd
To really knock their socks off, you should include some of your articles, a list of places you’ve given talks, a couple of client case studies, any brochures or printed web pages that are high-value and about the target audience, and a 1-page collection of testimonials from people who’ve attended your past presentations. If you sell products or have “packaged” your expertise into tapes or CDs, definitely throw one in!
The point is to clearly demonstrate how valuable you’ll be for the decision-maker’s audience. Remember, the person booking you for the talk has one concern: that you make their event a success. So they need to know that you’ll be well received, offer loads of value, and not ruin the event.
You’ll build their confidence in you as a good choice, by giving them lots of evidence that you’ll do a great job. That’s what your press kit, your website, and your easy approach with them on the phone will do.
Articles
For articles, you’ll need to do a query letter with a brief description of your article. You can offer to send a sample article or direct them to your website for examples of your writing. Again, the decision maker needs to know they can count on you to deliver the goods.
A couple of points about articles for major publications:
• You probably won’t retain the copyright if you’re writing an original article, but ask for it anyway. At a minimum, make sure you can get “reprint rights” for your own website.
• What you submit will be edited, most likely heavily. Editors have to stick to a word count, which means a lot can get cut. It’s still worth it, considering the exposure you’ll get.
I’ve found that one of the easiest way to get articles distributed is to write and publish them on your own web site, then invite others to use them or link to them on their sites. Word gets around and people are always looking for good content.
STEP 3: Follow up and keep your pipeline full
Like any sales pipeline, you have to keep your speaking/publishing pipeline full of prospects at various stages of closure. Here’s how to manage it realistically:
• After you send your materials, politely and consistently follow up with the decision maker you talked with in Step 1. Be persistent, but not a pest. Keep it focused on his/her needs and the WIIFM of your target audience.
• Set a reasonable goal, say, submitting one article or talk per month to five prospects (editors, education directors, meeting planners, etc.).
• Start with easy audiences and move up. It’s okay to start with lower-stakes audiences, but you’ll need to shift to opportunities that will pay off for you. Hone your skills, then move to the next level.
• Multitask! Offer to write an article that ties into the talk you’re pitching. The article could appear on the organization’s website and/or in their newsletter, just prior to your talk. You get more exposure and they get loads of value.
More tips to get you in front of the right audiences…
• Know what your policy is before contacting prospects (i.e., will you speak locally for free? who pays for materials?, are your expenses covered for out of town travel? do you treat non-profit and for-profit organizations differently? etc.)
• Take a personal approach. Call the right person and have a conversation. Forget about doing a mass mailing or email blitz. It won’t work.
• Remember, this is not about selling yourself. It’s about helping people by sharing what you know. Approached in this spirit, your enthusiasm will shine through and you’ll attract people to what you have to share.
• Never forget that it’s all about the WIIFM. Really focus on the needs of 1) the decision maker who could book your talk or publish your article and, 2) what value you bring to the target audience.
• If you don’t have time to do all of the footwork involved, use this as a career development opportunity for someone in your firm or for a part-time assistant. Just make sure you train them very well – remember, they represent you and your firm in the marketplace. Role model for them how you want this done by making the first few inquiries yourself.
Good luck and let me know how it goes!
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