Discover practical advice, inspiration, and insights to help you succeed in business and grow both personally and professionally.
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Can you believe it? Cydcor has three weeks until our scheduled move date of Friday November 21st! Last week the carpet and furniture installation started. Rooms are being painted, desks and furniture are being brought in. Looking at the pictures the black frames are the structures for the cubicle workstations.
Our new office space will be modern, clean, and professional and employees will take this into consideration when determining personal items for their new space. T-minus 14 days (work days) before our move!
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A business is nothing without the customers it serves. Truly great businesses also understand that it is important to foster rapport with clients to ensure that you can do business more than once—the key is to have an ongoing relationship with your client instead of just a one-time business dealing.
Clients can provide your business with so much more than money. Happy clients act as advocates, spreading the good word about a business on their own. If done correctly, you might even find fulfilling, long-term partnerships with some clients.
Here are some vital ways to turn your contacts into clients, and clients into trusted friends/partners.
Networking the right way
You are probably familiar with the idea of networking: connecting with a large group of people (business colleagues, business partners, acquaintances, past and current clients) in the hopes of helping each other in some way. The problem is that sometimes it is easy to forget that networking is a two-way street. If you use your network the right way, you can add value to the connections you make instead of only worrying about the value others give to you.
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Keep in contact
Networking is wonderful, but it must be nurtured to survive past the short-term. No matter how engaging or memorable you are when meeting a contact for the first time, you’ll have to remind them that you exist or inevitably they will forget you. Even if your contact is uninterested in what you have to offer at the current time, that might change—and you’ll be there if it does.
Add value to the relationship: reward your returning customers
As mentioned above, be sure to add value to the relationship. This might be in the form of tangible rewards like coupons, discounts, or free merchandise—or it could be something a bit more abstract like passing along useful information or sending friendly messages about new products, services, or deals that they might be interested in. The goal is to not only receive from your clients, but to give back in the hope that they return the favor. This is crucial because, as many studies have found, returning customers spend more on average than first-time customers.
Care about your clients
Care about your clients as both important business transactions (by providing them the best of your services as possible) and as people. Be honest with them at all times and keep your word: it might seem like a no-brainer, but you are dealing with people, so you should treat them with the respect they deserve. They will appreciate it!
The final step: from client to partner
If you do everything right, you can begin forging a partnership with your clients. They will grow in value for you today and in the future—and you for them. They will add value to the relationship as advocates of your business wherever they go. View this partnership like a great friendship, and you will both be very happy.
In March of this year, Cydcor volunteers went to San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico, thanks to our Operation Smile fundraisers—which have raised over $480,000 for the children’s medical charity to date. Helping to fund cleft palate surgeries for needy children around the globe, Cydcor has previously volunteered in Brazil in 2012, where more than 600 surgeries were provided to children.
Cydcor is proud of this partnership with Operation Smile, and with the great success of our Week of Smiles campaign, we are funding another medical mission trip to Guatemala in November 2014. Spending a week in Guatemala, our volunteers will support the screening process, helping families through the procedure and entertaining children while they wait for their procedures.
The mission involves sending doctors, volunteers and equipment to an area where access to healthcare is difficult, providing screenings and surgeries for children. Cleft palates often result in complications to eating, drinking, speaking and even breathing, and many infants do not survive. Operation Smile and Cydcor hope to restore millions of smiles and give those children a better chance of thriving.
One of the most rewarding aspects is our chance to spend time with the families of the children being operated on and see them through the transition of surgery. A large part of Operation Smile’s strategy is to assist facilities in the field, helping enable them to provide treatment of cleft palates and other facial deformities.
You can make a donation to Operation Smile today and support this great cause!
Here is Cydcor's review of Business @ The Speed of Thought by Bill Gates:
About Business @ The Speed of Thought: Microsoft founder Bill Gates is the author Business @ The Speed of Thought, which focuses on the importance of technology. In the book, Gates shows how technology can help businesses better today and gives predictions on how that technology could transform the nature of business in the future.
Gates speaks to the business managers reading and stresses the importance of viewing new technology as a strategic asset, not as overhead or something to be dismissed. He gives detailed examples from Microsoft and Dell, among other successful companies, who have taken the latest technology and used it to their business advantage.
Why Cydcor recommends this book to future leaders:
Bill Gates is essentially the definition of “successful business person,” and he does a fine job explaining how the new digital age can impact all offices across the world. While the book itself might be more interesting to IT folks, as Gates goes in-depth into technology, he does speak to business strategy. In regards to technology, he doesn’t delve too deeply into the pitfalls and problems that can arise from depending too much on such tech.
However, for those who believe that technology will continue to grow and intertwine with business and those who believe it will play an increasingly significant role in the marketplace, this is a must read.
Our favorite part: Gates provides a 12-step program to implement a “Digital Nervous System,” which is a useful guide to integrating IT with existing business resources. Business @ The Speed of Thought also gives detailed case studies of large companies such as Microsoft and other businesses outside of the tech industry, making the “Digital Nervous System” relevant to a broader audience.
Check out Cydcor's YouTube page for a re-cap of our recent R&R 2014 event in Nassau, Bahamas!
Cydcor is growing! The build out crew in our new space has been hard at work and they have made considerable progress! Take a look at the pictures and you’ll see that the framing for most offices and the hallways is close to completion. The next steps were wiring in the office walls and drywall – exciting!
The offices that are along the internal wall have been constructed so there is now clear division. A lot of work has been done on the lobby. The ceiling and walls have been opened up so that the staircase can be built. First, the construction crew needs to put in large heavy steel beams for support.
There has been so much progress made in the past two weeks. The glass frames have been installed for each office and all walls are up and prepped for painting.
The lobby is completely opened up and the staircase is nearing completion. In just two and a half short weeks furniture and fixtures will start being delivered and placed.
Stay tuned for more information on the move!
Head over to Cydcor Media for advice regarding business, leadership, and office life.
Communicating in a clear and effective way is always important, both in real life situations and especially in business communications. We converse so much that we often forget to stop and think about what we are saying. When communicating in a professional context, you need to be aware of the little nuances that are held in your words and actions.
Here are some tips for becoming an influential communicator:
Have a clear goal and benefits for all parties.
Transparency is important. The worst thing that could happen is having your conversation be misunderstood. Therefore, you will want to make a clear goal when talking with a client, or potential client. It also helps to make sure that you frame your message in a way that presents the benefits for that party.
With that said…
Know your audience.
Your audience is whomever you are communicating with. Who are they? What do they want? How do they speak? What do they know? Understanding your audience is incredibly important because it provides you all the information you need to tailor your communications to be the most effective for that specific person or group of people.
Knowing your audience makes it less likely that you will waste time explaining things that are already known, glossing over important details that you assume are understood.
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Be sure to ask the right kinds of questions
Learn to strategically drop “leading questions” that prompt longer answers than “yes” or “no.” This will help guide your conversation in a productive direction.
Ask important qualifying questions to ensure that your leads will turn into a prospect. Largely, you’ll be asking questions that are focused around answering these key questions: Can and will you be able to authorize on the sale? What can I do for you to close on this sale?
Naturally, you should take information you learned from your audience and tailor the question accordingly for them, but these simple questions capture the essence of what you need to find out from your prospect.
Here is Cydcor's review of Cutting Edge Marketing Analytics: Real World Cases and Data Sets for Hands On Learning by Rajkumar Venkatesan, Paul Farris, and Ronald T. Wilcox:
About Cutting Edge Marketing Analytics: Cutting Edge Marketing Analytics calls itself a practical guide to modern marketing analytics. It looks to introduce today’s most valuable marketing methods and tools by introducing case studies that apply analytic techniques to real problems.
Each chapter of the book provides technical notes that look to show statistical background as well as case studies. All the case studies provided are accompanied by real date and used by the protagonists to make decisions. Methods and tools provided by the author include product analytics, customer analytics, and the effective implementation of such analytics into your business or organization.
The authors look to help people identify the right data and analytic techniques by conducting the analysis and obtaining the insights from those data points. They also look to connect those insights to strategic decision-making.
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Why Cydcor recommends this to future leaders: This book is an excellent roadmap for managers looking to make the most out of marketing resources. The material presented strikes the right balance of rigorous analysis and strategic relevance.
Our favorite part: Cutting Edge Marketing Analytics takes an excellent look into how the Internet and mobile technologies available have combined to create an unprecedented level of insight into consumer behavior and customer preferences. This mastery of marketing and customer analytics has become the ‘table stakes’ for understanding and pleasing the customer. This is a great book for practitioners looking for real world applications.
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When you think of productivity, being constantly active might come to mind. But while always being in motion can improve your productivity at times, it can also lead to mindless “productivity” where you waste time doing something that you don’t need to do.
The real trick is to work intelligently. Great time management skills are the first step to becoming a smart worker. Here are some helpful time management techniques that will help increase your productivity.
Do regular reviews of your productivity and take action to resolve issues with your productivity. You might want to do reviews either weekly or monthly—not so often that you begin wasting time evaluating everything, but not so far apart that their benefit is diluted.
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Here is Cydcor's review of Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors by Michael E. Porter:
About Competitive Strategy: Published in 1980, Michael Porter’s book still resonates with many individuals today and is the basis for much of what is taught in MBA programs regarding Business Strategy. In fact, the author himself is a professor at Harvard Business School and is a lead authority on the subject. The book has nearly sixty printings in English, has been translated into nineteen languages, and has transformed the theory, practice and teaching of business strategy throughout the world.
Why Cydcor Reviews recommends this to future leaders: Competitive Strategy is fantastic in its simplicity, and the analyses provided can be used as powerful competitive tools and examples on how one can being structure to the task of strategic positioning.
Porter provides the framework for predicting competitor behavior and has given rise to the newer discipline of competitor assessment. It’s a must read for managers, consultants, students and those in business who wish to take up leadership roles in businesses—big or small.
Our favorite part: While the first chapter alone is worth the cost of this book, Cydcor recommends it for the wisdom contained in its entirety. The chapters are organized into three parts: General Analytical Techniques, Generic Industry Environments, and Strategic Decisions.
Porter, being an expert on competition, analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of businesses in the very first chapter. His focuses are the threat of new entrants, pressure of substitute products, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers and the intensity of rivalry among existing competitors. These five forces are the roadmap for determining the competitiveness of individual companies, and are truly eye opening.
For more information about Cydcor and the many opportunities we offer for future salespeople, connect to us on LinkedIn today!
Cydcor is excited to announce the success of our ‘Week of Smiles’ campaign, which served as a great opportunity for to work together to raise money for Operation Smile! Operation Smile is a children’s medical organization that helps children who have cleft lips and palates receive new smiles. It has offices across the country to raise awareness and funds. Cydcor is proud to be a part of the Operation Smile network.
Our ‘Week of Smiles’ has raised over $30,000 for Operation Smile. With these funds, doctors, volunteers and equipment will travel to an area where access to healthcare is difficult, providing screenings and surgeries for children. Cleft lips and palates can often make eating and drinking difficult, and Operation Smile looks to restore smiles and give those children a better chance at thriving.
At the beginning of 2014, Cydcor volunteers traveled to San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico, where they were able to meet some of the individuals that directly benefited from their fundraising efforts. In about a month, another team of ours will be headed to Guatamla for our third mission. In all started In 2012, volunteers made a similar trip to Brazil, where more than 600 surgeries were provided to children. Cydcor is proud of its partnership with Operation Smile and plans to continue working with the organization in the future.
Once again, thank you to everyone in the organization who worked so hard with their fundraisers, we truly couldn’t have done it without you!
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Here is Cydcor's review of Thriving in 24/7: Six Strategies for Taming the New World of Work by Susan Helgesen.
About Thriving in 24/7: Thriving in 24/7 takes a look into the “new” work rules in today’s 24/7 environments. Cheap and portable networked technologies have made communication in the professional landscape simple and fast, but at the cost of being flooded with options that can interrupt our own personal lives. Thriving in 24/7 looks to show another way of setting forth new strategies for working and living appropriate for post-industrial lives.
Why Cydcor recommends this book to future leaders: It’s incredibly easy to be on-call 24/7 with cell phones, tablets and laptops coupled with free wi-fi in nearly any public area. This book looks to help one to be successful while still establishing personal boundaries by setting concrete ways of working. The book emphasizes the importance of locating your inner voice and taking inventory on a regular basis.
Thriving in 24/7 demonstrates ways to create your own work by articulating your values and integrating your passions. It also demonstrates how to incorporate renewal into each day by identifying the true sources of your joy, practicing mindfulness, and cultivating the elements of Slow.
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Our favorite part: The author’s first strategy is to start at the core. If someone wants to create work that suits their individual needs and talents, they must be aware of the forces at work in the world. She also explains that we must also develop a thorough knowledge of ourselves and an understanding of what we have to offer.
“We have to know our priorities, values, temperament, character and ambitions. We have to understand where our blocks life, what emotional legacies might be holding us back or pushing us forward. We have to understand what we fear, what makes us feel stuck or overwhelmed.”
Helgesen also states that starting at the core is crucial in an area of new technologies, as we have so many choices to make every day. By narrowing in on ourselves, we can place an emphasis on the niche that gives us more opportunities to create work that reflects our individual interests.