the dangling carrot
cultivating your business vision
Misc
Communication! Communication!
Jun 17th
Everyone has a different communication style – so how do we assess which styles our customers are? Honestly, sometimes we completely miss the mark!
But in our intitial meetings we observe the prospect to determine if the are visual/audio/or kinestic or a combination. We also specifically ask them how they like to communicate (via phone, email, etc.), and we follow their requests.
So – why am I blogging about this? Because people are not always aware of their own communcation styles (giving and receiving info). And even more are not aware of what they actually do. At CCS, we are doing some introspection to determine how we can improve our communcation!
Business Discipline
May 28th
During the past 2 weeks, I have been being “taught” the lesson that it is really important to “stick to it” and not give up. In my personal life, the lessons are endless with kids, and with an insurance claim…
In my professional life, we had a prospect with a project that promised to be the second largest project for us this year. The prospect had a private investor, who wanted us to provide an estimate for which we had no specifics (only that it would need to include animation and games- but not how much), and to tell them what we would build for them, without a budget – just like asking someone to fix your car, without telling them what was wrong with the car or letting the mechanic look at it. Also, the prospect was unavailable to meet with us as they were busy getting estimates from 15 other web companies.
We respectfully told the prospect that it is not our “business model” to give estimates without determining the customers needs – how could we provide a solution without knowing the problem? Our business methodology has been successful for us – though temptation of big cash projects can be very seductive – we will be disciplined and stay true to what is working. And we recommend that if something is working well for you, that you ”stick with it too.”
The 5 Love Languages – Are they Good for Business Too?
Apr 2nd
In case you are not familiar with the “5 Love Languages” – it was a best-selling book by Dr. Gary Chapman. He believes that there are 5 modalities of communicating love that are universal and that understanding them is the key to successful and happy relationships.
At Creative Carrot Studios, we believe these principles apply and are imperative to successful and happy business relationships:
- Words of Affirmation – Let your customer know that you understand their pain, see the value in their product/services, and that you appreciate their business
- Quality Time – Give your customer your undivided attention – when you are “with” them, be with them
- Receiving Gifts – Provide simples gestures or efforts like remembering their birthday or giving them a promotional item
- Acts of Service – Let your customers know about all of the services you are providing for them. Shame on you of you don’t tell them what you are doing and then expect them to appreciate the effort.
- Physical Touch – Instead of physically touching our customers, we communicate with them and let them know we are thinking about them even after we finish a project – with ideas or possible strategic partnerships.
Love your business!
How to Not Be Your Own Company’s Worst Enemy
Mar 1st
In these times of economic turmoil, people are taking comfort in many things – food, meditation, family, and in what they know in business– even if it is bad for them. Since we started our company, we found that our prospects and customers have been emotionally tied to their company name, logo, processes, system of bookkeeping, etc. But, in the last few months, we have seen these emotional ties turned to unbreakable bonds that are not making good business sense. Some people are becoming their own worst enemy in business.
When making business decisions, we recommend that your choices reflect what your customers want/need – not what you feel “connected to.” This is not easy – it took a few weeks for us to decide on “Creative Carrot Studios” as a company name as we were emotionally tied to it! Unless YOU represent your target market, put yourself in your customers’ shoes – what would they want, like and remember and use this information when making marketing, pricing, distribution, etc decisions.
Not Another Networking Event!
Feb 15th
This blog is for all of you business networkers out there who may be growing wary of the weekly networking grind. In order to stay “fresh” and to skip happily to a networking event, we attend only events where we can grow the business and grow personally. We recently attended a Professional Athlete Business Summit whose keynote speakers list included Shark Tank’s Kevin Harrington, and TLC’s and Chicken Soup for the Soul’s Lisa Nichols. The speakers were captivating and so were the attendees – I met a person who gives away (for FREE) browser software that protects children on the Internet.
We do still attend the occasional Business Expos, but we find that the quality of the attitudes of the people attending these events is not at the level (I am being polite) of those attending the “positive” message events – as the attendees actually want to be there. We also receive more customer appointments and referrals than when we attend networking business card exhcanges. The “fresher” the event presenters, the better we do as a business, and I hear THANK YOU’S instead of complaints!
Happy Networking!