How To Avoid An Entrepreneurial Blowup
August 20, 2010 by suepainter
Steven Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant who exited his job by way of the emergency chute on the flight he was working, has set a new standard for reacting to a work situation that is tense and, in the moment, unbearable. Slater gots a lot of press, some positive and some negative. Media coverage is good, even when it’s controversial – it will help you find followers and make you sales. But the bottom line for Slater is that his JetBlue job is over.
As an entrepreneur, you can’t afford to pull the emergency chute and escape when a customer has gotten under your skin. Here’s a few ways to avoid “pulling the chute” and blowing up your work with a customer who has gotten on your very last nerve.
- Remove yourself from the on-going drama by stepping away, but don’t go so far as to pull the emergency chute. If you’re in person, excuse yourself and go to the back of the room, the restrooom, or the other end of the table. The key here is to physically move before you feel so threathened that in that moment you literally will do ANYTHING to get away, no matter the consequences. If you are on the phone, you can use your emergency exit script, which should go something like this, “I want to settle this disagreement in a way that is respectful to us both, but I can’t do that right now. I’m going to hang up togive myself time to think objectively, and I’ll be back in touch. Goodbye.”
- Close your mouth. By the time you’re totally over it, what comes out of your mouth won’t be anything worth repeating. I suspect that once Slater held forth, he got to a point that he realized his only way out was the chute. One way to stop talking is to train yourself to take a sharp, deep breath in through your nose, and blow it out through your mouth. You can’t breath like this and talk at the same time. Really, you can’t – try it! When you are appalled and angry, it’s natural to sharply take in your breath. So you’re going to do that anyway. Just train yourself to blow that breath out through your mouth, like a big “ha”. Breathing out a big “ha!” instead of giving voice to a string of words that escalate the situation (no matter they may be well-deserved), protects you. It keeps you from getting to the point that you feel threatened, which is when your reptile brain takes over and common sense goes out the door. Do this, and you’ll find that after the first sharp inhale and “ha” exhale, the second and third are much easier. You probably won’t need more than 3 or 4. Your head will clear, you’ll feel calmer, and your brain will be refreshed by the new and better oxygen supply.
- Decide later where to go from here. It may be that you will want to fire this customer from your business. I don’t preach not to fire customers, although some marketing experts will advise against it. I understand why, because negative word of mouth about an entrepreneur typically spreads faster than positive word of mouth. But I’m hoping that you’ve already carried out the first two steps, and that puts you on an entirely different path. Along with removing yourself and closing your mouth, you’ve created better options than blowing up and disappearing down a sliding chute. You now have time to think objectively about whether to end the relationship. Let’s say that you are so turned off that you never want to sell to this customer again. You’ve now positioned yourself to “save it but end it” rather than blowing it to tiny pieces. You can end it in a way that respects both you and the customer, and that will likely prevent the customer carrying out a negative word of mouth campaign. Your goal is to end the relationship without hurting your business, and deciding later helps you to do that. Everyone cools off, and a space opens up for better possibilities than ending it with drinks in hand, heading southward toward hard concrete and jail time.
It’s wise to have an emergency plan in place in case you’re ever carrying out business in a small space with someone who pushes your button. Remove yourself, close your mouth, and decide later are three actions that keep you in control of your emotions, your actions, and your business. Unlike Slater, you won’t be instantly famous, and your entrepreneurial endeavor will be safe.
Three Ways To Build Your Business on Criticism
August 16, 2010 by suepainter
One of the “aha mom
ents” I’ve had in the past few weeks is that many solo professionals (or entrepreneurs) contract and defend after receiving any question or suggestion about how they do their work. Instead of making the choice to relax, take a breath, and look at what was commented on, they waste their time (and their customer’s time, too!) in defending what they did. It’s such a waste of their time and energy, and such a lost opportunity for growing the best mindset for their own life and their business. And it’s a lost business opportunity, too.
If you get a comment or complaint, and then you choose to defend your actions, you are standing in a place of refusing to consider change. That reaction is always, 100% of the time, fear based. You don’t build a great life or a great business based on fear. And your customer, seeing that you defend instead of look with curiousity and openness about the comment, will simply walk away.
Here are three ways to actually INCREASE your business when you get a comment or flat-out criticism of your work.
- Don’t react with “that’s the way we have always done it.” No one cares about how you’ve always done it, they care that what you did didn’t completely do the job they wanted done. In the moment that the client (or customer) says something you did for her didn’t quite work, prick your ears up like a dog on point. You have someone offering you FREE comments on your own work procedures that, with a little bit of thought, can more than likely improve what you do and increase your customer satisfaction. Try saying, “Oh, I appreciate your comment about that. Can you tell me more?” And listen up! You’ll probably keep that customer, and she’ll be so shocked at your positive reaction to her comment that she’ll tell two others who will do business with you, too.
- Don’t react with a long-winded explanation (or even worse, e-mail) about WHY you did what you did and how long everything you did took. Your customer doesn’t want to listen to your defense of what you did. She wants you to get that she doesn’t completely perceive the value of what she got for the money she invested. There are only two answers to this concern. One is that you actually did charge too much money for her to ever feel she got a good result for what she spent. The second is that you didn’t communicate effectively the full monty (so to speak) of what you actually were going to do, and a part of it is not something your customer values. Your goal is to have your customers saying “that was worth every single penny” not “well, I got the job done but it cost twice what I thought it ought to cost.” Once someone thinks that about your work, making them listen to or read a long explanation about why you did what you did will NOT solve the problem. You’ll lose the customer and the word of mouth referrals.
- Don’t react to a critical comment by building even more policies and operating procedures to further justify the way in which you work. The one big advantage that entrepreneurs and solo professionals have over the big guys is that we are nimble. We can make or break our own rules right in the moment, and sometimes we should do just that. If you try to build a policy or procedure to handle every stinking little thing that ever gets commented on you will soon be spending most of your waking hours either writing the rules, defending the rules, expanding the rules, or explaining the rules. None of this time builds your business.
Once a few years ago I worked with a massage therapist who had a rule that her clients had to show up a full 15 minutes before their massage time. This was a rule she implemented in a foolish attempt to make sure her clients were never late and never impacted her schedule. Notice that I used the word “foolish” just now? The rule came into being because one weekly client always showed up ON TIME but then spent 10 minutes of her hour-long massage hitting the restroom, getting a drink of water, and precisely folding her clothes before hopping on the massage table. In reaction to this ONE client, the foolish “15 minute rule” was implemented on EVERY client. Don’t make a new rule, instead face the problem with the client head on and deal with it only where it makes sense to deal with it. See, not wanting to talk to the offending client was fear. The new “rule” went into effect so that this massage therapist could avoid facing her fear of talking straight out to this client. She could mutely point to “the rule.” Except, as I’m sure you have figured out, it didn’t work. The offender still messed around when she got there and everyone else complained about the new rule and left. Enough said!
When entrepreneurs defend against comments or criticisms they run the risk of leaving thousands of dollars on the table. This makes me sad. Take your customer comments as little gems, go off and sit with them, and evaluate your mindset and your work. Thank your stars that someone cares enough to comment instead of just silently walking away from you and your business. That’s a sure path to success.
Your Customers Know When Yes Is Really No
August 1, 2010 by suepainter
As a small business coach and entrepreneur, I love to read customer service answers to questions that a business’s customers actually ask. Here’s one that came to my inbox this morning:
Question: Do you take orders over the phone?
Answer: We can take orders over the phone, but we go through the same account creation process that you would go through yourself over the Internet. If you want to phone in your order, we will be happy to help you, but you can do it all from the comfort of your own pc as well!
I don’t know about you, but as a customer I’d rather have a “hell, no!” than two “yes, buts” in one answer. It’s obvious from the answer that the business REALLY wants their customers to go order by themselves on the Internet, right? But some unwise person in the customer service department tried to wiggle around the answer and ends up sounding off-putting and weaselly. This answer also comes off sounding like the business doesn’t REALLY want to be bothered taking your order over the phone. Do you feel welcome to call in an order after you read their answer? I doubt it!
Entrepreneurs need to be mindful of how they say things to customers. Here are two ways to handle this that would built customer loyalty and sound a lot more welcoming to the person who asked the question.
- We offer full-service ordering right from your home computer that is easy to use and available 24/7, even when we’re home in bed. We love talking to our customers by phone, we just don’t want you to have to wait if our phone lines are all busy. To talk to us directly, call XXX-XXX-XXXX. To place a “never-have-to-wait” order online, go to www.xxxxxxxxx.com.
- We’ve stopped taking orders by phone and gone to a full-service online ordering system for two reasons. First, you never have to wait to place an order, day or night. And secondly, we decided to eliminate our phone order takers so that we could keep our prices steady. Still, if you ever have a problem with ordering, you can reach customer service online at customerservice@email.com OR call us at XXX-XXX-XXXX. You might have a wait getting someone live on the phone, but we’ll help you quickly once you reach us.
I was appalled when I read this Q&A in an actual, real e-zine I received this morning. While it wasn’t my question (I’m definitely an online order person, LOL!) I pretty much know that the woman asking the question won’t feel any warm fuzzies toward this business. This kind of “yes-but-really-no” answer is called defensive posturing. Defensive posturing NEVER helps build customer relationships. I see small business owners and solo professionals fall into defensive posturing often, but I just know you are a smart entrepreneur and would never, ever do this. Right?
Are People Hungry For What You Offer?
July 25, 2010 by suepainter
You LOVE what you do. You are GREAT at what you do. Then how come your business is slower than you’d like it to be? Are you 
not so great, or what’s the problem?
Here’s the deal….it’s your job to satisfy the hunger in others to have their problem solved. You have to use language that is emotional, not logical. People buy on emotion 100% of the time. They then justify what they have bought with logic.
This is why talking about the features of what you offer makes their eyes glaze over. They DON’T care that your jewelry is 100% sterling silver and comes with a year long guarantee. They DO care that your jewelry will make them feel sexy and pretty when they have been feeling tired and ugly. They care that your jewelry will get them an admiring glance from a husband who hasn’t notice them very much lately.
So, if you want to create sales, create hunger. Tell a story about what your jewelry has done for someone. Show pictures of smiling women wearing your stuff. Demonstrate how someone can place that necklace just SO and it will match their come-hither look. If you can show someone that your stuff creates what they crave then you will make money and even better, your customers will be happy because their problem is solved.
Here’s how to create sales conversations or sales copy that creates hunger:
- Talk about your customer, not you
- Offer clear contrast (before/after or with/without or fast/slow)
- Use tangible examples “more dates, more desire, unbreakable”
- Talk about the beginning and the end only (before/after) don’t talk about the PROCESS that happens in the middle (you choose jewelry, you wear jewelry….not what the order process is like in between)
- Use visual stimuli (pictures) which creates interest 40 times faster than hearing does.
Changing your conversations or sales copy to solve what your customers are hungry for will feed them and you. That kind of satisfaction is just as good as the satisfaction you feel after a good meal, and lasts longer!
Why I Pay To Be In My Mastermind Group
July 21, 2010 by suepainter
I’m still reeling from the long day I had yesterday with the Mastermind group I’m in. We’ve been meeting together for about a year now, usually by phone for a quick hour (once a month) but, three times a year, in person. And yesterday was one of those live-in-person-in-your-face days. Down in the bowels of a big hotel in LA we sat down to work together, to discuss the state of the entrepreneurial world we live in, to give each member time to stand up and put a personal business issue on the table, to get the comments, challenges, support, love, and bright ideas for our own businesses. And to give, in equal measure, to each person in the room.
I am a big believer in personal retreats, and I’m a big believer in putting your time and money out on the line to have the opportunity to hear about other people’s businesses, to starkly state what is going on with your own business, to get challenged and called on your stuff, and to get the wonderful amalgamation of ideas, resources, and help from each other. In a good group, there is bare honesty. There is no time for positioning or fakey stuff. In fact, a good group will catch you and call you before you even half-way get the dishonest or fake stuff out of your mouth. I’m blessed many times over to be in this group. We know each other, like each other, trust each other, and love each other too much to let any one of us get away with being less than we are called to be.
So, yesterday, it just happened that we had a magical day. Everyone was thirsty for the day, everyone is facing honking big personal challenges, everyone is stepping up to a much bigger vision of themselves and their business. Let me say that again. In order to step up to the vision you have for your business, you will be challenged to step up and handle your personal stuff. You cannot do one without the other. And a good Mastermind group will hold you to both, knowing that you can’t be half-assed about your growth. It is worth every penny I pay, the time away from business, the plane fare to do this. Seven other people have my back, and at the same time are asking me, “What in heck are you doing THAT for?”
I just love being in a room with people who will put it right out there on the table, no matter what, who have this truly deep commitment to exposing their thoughts and plans and visions and are willing to take the suggestions even if they are rigorously proposed. We all are kind, but we say it as we see it and we challenge each other. There is laughter but there are tears, too.
I’m honored to know these people, to sit in the same room with them. I love their brightness and their willingness to put it out there, to create something out of nothing but their own vision, which is often felt as a calling. It fed me. The more experienced I get in life and in business, the harder it has become to find places that feed me. In this group we get it that when we talk about our work, we talk about our soul at the same time. The two begin to merge until one’s work is literally a part of one’s spiritual practice. This group understands that. And that’s why I pay with my money and my time, and will fly anywhere to sit with these people.
I’m truly excited to be the creator and visionary of my own work, and I love more than anything to sit with others who are creating work from their own inner visions. I see a group of new, energetically savvy, intuitive-based entrepreneurs that is emerging rapidly to help solve the many issues that face us. For me, it was delicious to have a day of talking and listening. Sometimes, words didn’t matter, it was the energy, the vibration, the vibe in the room . This group gets it that there is no standing still and no status quo. Even if it upsets them, or scares them, they step up. Their brightness is amazing. You can hardly get a sentence out and 4 other people are nodding and taking off on the tail of it, enlarging and supplementing and feeding it back with new ideas. There are no blank stares and “let me think about that.” It is quick, lots of movement, energy flying. Everything is noticed.
I pay for what I learn, the support I get, the opportunities I have to support others, the challenges I’m given. I pay to stretch myself and get out of my own head. All truly successful solo professionals do this. We don’t whine about the money, we cough it up and we come out to play. It’s like putting your life and your business on super-oxygen for a day. At the end you have a zillion ideas and resources, but you’re kind of gasping for breath. Those of you reading this post who are in the group, thank you. I can’t wait until September when we see each other again.