Angela Crocker

Write. Teach. Organize.

Cheryl Bishop: Sales Communication

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I had the pleasure of hearing Cheryl Bishop bring a wonderful energy to her remarks at the Vancouver Mompreneurs event earlier today. Cheryl shared a wide-range of business advice. The follow points, in particular, resonated with me:

 Business is 95% psychology.” ~ Cheryl Bishop

Cheryl Bishop and Petra Crowther
Cheryl Bishop, Make Your Mark Inc., and Petra Crowther, Independent Epicure Consultant

Cheryl emphasized that your thoughts (positive or negative) influence your actions that, in turn, determine your results. If you don’t take action, you won’t get any results. It’s common sense and an oft-repeated piece of advice but I think it’s worth repeating. Entrepreneurs, in particular, can get caught up in the “what-if” stress of running a business.

Are you listening or waiting to speak?” ~ Cheryl Bishop

I love this! Some days I worry that the art of conversation has been lost. Good dialogue is a give and take. As Cheryl remarked, good sales people talk and talk and talk whereas great sales people listen.

Follow-up is critical in your business.” ~ Cheryl Bishop

Yes! Follow-up is essential and it takes time.  I agree with Cheryl’s advice that you have to have a follow-up plan. After every event I attend, especially conferences, I include time in my schedule to follow-up by phone, email or social media. I’ve even been known to send handwritten cards via Canada Post!  Cheryl advises doing the follow-up within 24-hours. I suggest you establish a follow-up timeframe similar to your response time. By consistently following up, you show that you care about the people you’ve met and you add to your credibility.

Consistent, confident communication is essential for business success. What communication challenges do you face in your business?

 

Make your message clear

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When using social media, it’s important to be globally aware in your use of language.  There are regional differences, dialects and local slang that can be interpreted in more than one way depending where you are. In particular, I encourage you to follow these 3 simple rules:
  1. Avoid idioms.
  2. Write out dates.
  3. Don’t use abbreviations.
Idioms are words and phrases that shouldn’t be taken literally.  When used in everyday language (including blogs, status updates and tweets) they have an alternate meaning. Here are some examples:
  • Nest Egg: Savings set aside for future use.
  • Smell Something Fishy: Detecting that something isn’t right and there might be a reason for it.
  • Keep your chin up: To remain joyful in a tough situation.
Using numbers for dates is an efficient way to communicate but only when the writer and the reader agree on the position of year, month and date.
What’s the expiry date on this Chuck E. Cheese’s coupon? It reads 06/10/11 but that could mean:
  • June 10, 2011
  • October 6, 2011
  • October 11, 2006
  • June 11, 2010
Abbreviations can also be a challenge. Of course, hashtags are a specific type of abbreviation on Twitter but I’m talking about commonly used abbreviations that might flow into everyday language. Things like SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), GMT (Greenwich mean time), and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) are understood by many. But what about PMS – is that a Project Management System or something else?
While it’s important to make every character count when you’re limited to 140 in a tweet or 420 in a Facebook status update, be sure to pause and ask yourself if your message is clear.