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The Call Rotation--non-optional
By LAZY SUBMIT
A recent internal audit at a major American financial institution determined the following:
If you were an investor having more than $100,000 invested with them, there was a 70% chance you hadn‘t heard from an Advisor from the firm within the past year.
That‘s right: “heard“. That‘s any kind of whatsoever. That‘s right: within the past ‘year‘. The client received virtually nothing from their Advisor during the last 12-month period. These statistics suggest that many great clients are being taken for granted by the Advisors serving them. Are you any different in your business?
Oh sure, the Advisers in this study may have actually talked to their clients over the past 12-month time period, but it was not initiated by them. In other words, their client relationship was based on in-bound, client-driven communication, which is random and unpredictable at best. And, let‘s be realistic here, it probably wasn‘t about anything good either. In-bound is more likely about a problem, issue or concern. Think about the implications of this. Is this really how you would want to interact with your best clients? Does this make your best clients feel like the important clients they are? And, what does this say about the level of professionalism in your practice?
This lack of proactive is clearly not the path to establishing good trust and rapport with your clients. It certainly doesn‘t add any value to the client in terms of the service you deliver. Remember: established trust and perceived value are key ingredients for deserving and receiving quality introductions from your clients. How you treat existing clients has everything to do with how many new ones you receive from them. So, stop now and ask yourself the following: How do you measure up when it comes to communicating regularly with your clients - your best clients in particular? And, be honest with yourself.
First, think about a simple call rotation. Note: call rotation does not mean you call your client to talk about business specifically. It means you simply call them to see how they are doing. In other words, you ask, listen and learn about their family, occupation and recreation. Yes, you actively and consciously make an effort to build trust and rapport with your best clients by learning more about what is important to them. It can take as little as 10 minutes every 90 days. Even better, your Assistant or Associate can easily manage the call rotation for your lower-tier clients so you can focus your time and energy on your best clients.
Now, what do you do with the proprietary information you‘ve gathered from your best client during a call rotation? You share it with your team of course, so they are aware of it and store it in the client profile (ideally built right into your client relationship management software). When this information is used in a professional manner, it demonstrates to your client that you are paying attention. For example, you may acknowledge an important event that has just
A message about OJR from USC Annenberg's School of Journalism
By Geoffrey Baum: A message from USC Annenberg Journalism School director Geneva Overholser:
Thank you for your interest in OJR. The fast-moving changes in digital media are more compelling every day, and they remain an important area of focus for the USC Annenberg School for Communication.
We are committed to keeping the archives of OJR available online and are exploring ways to continue the School's efforts to increase understanding about the revolutionary transformation of news and info
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Goodbye
By Robert Niles: After a decade, the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication has suspended publication of OJR.
One of OJR's goals over the years has been to help mid-career journalists make a successful transition from other media to online reporting and production. I'm pleased to say that USC Annenberg will continue to provide support in that area, through the Knight Digital Media Center. I encourage OJR readers to click over to the KDMC website and its blogs,
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McClatchy Washington bureau shines as bright example for online journalism
By Robert Niles: The past decade has brought the journalism industry some of its darkest moments. On the business side, management teams that grew used to local monopolies could not react swiftly enough to protect their market share as thousands of online competitors emerged. Revenue tanked, readership declined and layoffs became a seasonal task at many newspapers.
On the editorial side, many newsrooms blew or missed one major story after another, from the Whitewater "scandal," hitting the sn
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OJR launches individual reader blogs
By Robert Niles: OJR now allows its registered members to maintain individual blogs on OJR.
Just click the "Post Blog Entry" link near the top of the right navigation rail to get started. OJR's editors and I will read all the submissions, then select ones to go on the OJR front page feed. You can find links to all the most recent reader-submitted blog entries under the "Recent Blogs" header on the right rail.
You can start a free blog just about anywhere on the Web, from Blogger.com and b
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It's a lo-o-o-ong way from Lawrence, Kan., to Loudoun County, Va.
By Tom Grubisich: The headline on the Wall Street Journal story about the Washington Post's widely watched venture in local-local journalism on the Web was unambiguous: "Big Daily's Hyperlocal Flop."
So how bad actually is LoudounExtra.com? Let's look.
On the LoudounExtra homepage, I am greeted with this above-the-fold spread:
My squinting eyes try to read the reverse-type blurb, but before I can finish, a new image/blurb is automatically rotated in the space.
After figuring out
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L.A. Times launches sharable electoral vote map
By Eric Ulken: Which campaign will get to 270 in November, and how will they do it? The L.A. Times has built an interactive map that allows readers to create and test their own electoral vote scenarios, and then embed those scenarios in their own sites.
(Sample after the jump.)
We're hoping to improve on this as the campaign heats up, perhaps adding demographic info and data on past elections by state. Would love to hear suggestions.
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Question of the week: Going to journalism school - yes or no?
By Robert Niles: For this week's discussion question, I'd like to hear about the academic preparation OJR readers had for their career.
Obviously, being housed and paid for by the Annenberg School of Journalism at the University of Southern California, OJR's not exactly a neutral forum for this question. One might suspect that we'd have a larger-than-expected number of j-school folk hanging around here. But we do get a fair number of readers who did not come up through the traditional journal
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Back to basics with Flip Video
By Chris Jennewein: In architecture, less is more, and the same appears to be true for video news gathering. The simple Flip Video camcorder heralds a time when every journalist carries a video camera.I bought a Flip Video camcorder for my wife for mother's day. At under $150, it was a bargain. But the primary motivation was having a camera she sould depend upon. Our simple DV camcorder took great video, but seemed to always need charging, or a new tape, and thus wasn't available at the spur of
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Writing print's epitaph - v6.5.08 (service pack 3)
By Robert Niles: My friend Sree Sreenivasan asked members an online journalism e-mail list for reaction to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's interview with the Washington Post, published this morning. Specifically, Sree asked for reactions to this statement from Ballmer: "In the next 10 years, the whole world of media, communications and advertising are going to be turned upside down -- my opinion. Here are the premises I have. Number one, there will be no media consumption left in 10 years that is
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When journalists hate journalism...
By Robert Niles: ... the industry has a problem.You'd think that journalists would be the biggest news hounds around. For the most part, you'd be right. I was talking with some of my Annenberg colleagues at a journalism conference last month, and one asked how many hours a day we each spent reading and watching the news, whether in print, online or on TV. The consensus? About four to five hours a day. But there is one exception to this potential rule: Many journalists despise TV news. They hate
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happened in their life (good or bad) which they have shared with you. Or, you may make a note to your self to follow up on something specific during your next call rotation (how their daughter Jennifer did at the ballet recital; how their backyard renovation turned out; how their two-week cruise to Alaska went; etc). This is what we refer to as investing each conversation into the next. Implementing a regular call rotation and using the information gained appropriately will foster trust and rapport with your best clients.
Now that we are clear on what a call rotation actually is, I want you think about your best client. When was the last time you picked up the phone to implement a call rotation with them? Remember, this means simply doing a quick pulse check to see how they are doing; no sales or product talk. If you said every 90 days, that‘s great. Keep up the good work. If you didn‘t say every 90 days, it‘s not too late to get started. And, although it may not take much of your time to implement a call rotation, it does take commitment to be consistent with the delivery. Especially since in the short-term, call rotations generally provide little in the way of immediate payback or gratification. So, if you are after short-term gains here, you may have trouble staying the course. If, on the other hand, you understand the long-term implications this will have with your best clients, you should have no trouble remaining committed.
Duncan MacPherson and David Miller are the authors of the new bestseller Breakthrough Business Development : A 90-Day Plan to Build Your Client Base and Take Your Business to the Next Level. To Get Your Copy as well as exclusive actionable templates go to www.paretoplatform.com Article Source: http://www.ArticleJoe.com Duncan MacPherson and David Miller are cofounders of Pareto Systems, consultants who help entrepreneurs and knowledge professionals improve their productivity and efficiency. They are also co-creators of the Pareto Platform, a www.paretoplatform.com“>turnkey practice management, business development and www.paretoplatform.com “>CRM solution used by thousands of business people throughout North America. Their clients include Fidelity Investments, Merrill Lynch, Franklin Templeton Investments, American Express, and TD Waterhouse.
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