6 Ways to Keep Things Simple



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Six Ways to Keep Things Simple

We can have greater success with our Clients when we make our work processes and agreements simpler and more elegant.  This article will give you ideas for making your contracts and commitments, projects and plans, reports and relationships with Clients simpler.  Here then, are six suggested ways to make your products and services more elegant.

1. Ask why.  When we understand the root cause of the client request we are better able to sort out and find simple elegant solutions.  Often complex solutions come from unfocused efforts and expectations.  Asking why can help you make your client contracts much more effective – helping both you and your client.  Clients will appreciate the results of you helping them get to the heart of the matter.


2. Understand the Client’s real needs.  Asking “Why?” helps us get to the client’s real needs.  We can also get to real needs by discovering the needs of all the relevant groups involved.  A little time to build greater understanding will help you build more elegant solutions.


3. Keep the big picture in mind.  While you are building your solution, or delivering your service, keeping the big picture in mind will help you keep it simple.  When we remember how hard deployment of anything(!) can be, we are reminded to Keep it Simple.  Let’s say you are building a training module on customer service for new employees, as a part of their orientation.  The big picture says that these new people will be inundated with new information, expectations, procedures and more.  Your module on Customer Service needs to be simple.  It doesn’t need to incorporate all the nuances of your 9-step model.  It needs to be to the point and easy to access and understand.  Do they need all those nuances?  Maybe later – but the big picture helps us reign in our designs and plans.


4. Keep the communication clear.  “If you can’t write it on the back of an envelope, your idea isn’t clear enough yet.”  So goes the oft quoted advise.  We as consultants are often guilty of not getting our ideas clear, or well focused enough (read NOT simple!).  When we have clear communication as a real goal, we will keep things simpler. 


5. Make it a criterion. Seal all your work with a “KISS” (Keep it Splendidly Simple).  Before sending a draft, a report, a template, a recommendation, whatever, to your client, as yourself if it is as simple as it could be.  If it isn’t simple enough, you (or the client) will have more trouble understanding, communicating and deploying the work product.


6. Apply the Grandma Test. Early in my career, my grandmother asked what I was doing.  I tried to explain about improving client performance, teaching useful skills, etc.  As a retired schoolteacher, she eventually caught on.  “Oh,” she said, “you teach adults.”  Yes Grandma, that is exactly what I do.  I am a better consultant when I remember this lesson.  Your clients and their employees don’t care about your jargon.  They care about results.  Keep it simple.  Tell it like it is.  When you do that you’ll have better success with current projects, and more referrals in the future.



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Blogging is Big Business

guestblogger_thumb15 Stuart R. Crawford (Calgary, AB - Business Development Manager of IT Matters)

How many blogs do you read over the course of the business day? There are many blogs on the Internet today. Businesses are adopting blogging as a way to keep in touch with their client base more frequently, they are using internal blogs to share information throughout a corporation, and many IT professionals use blogging as a tool to share their expertise where other small business IT professionals where we can turn for information.

The world has an abundance of information out there for us to share, learn and interact with. As the world goes global and flattens we all become more and more connected. Having a blog presence will become a normal activity from the smallest of businesses to the largest of corporation as people’s hunger for information on anything subject you want to know about grows.

How can you capitalize on blogging to grow your business?

People are hungry for information on everything from how to use Microsoft Word to do up sales brochures to the most technical information to troubleshoot a down server. Information is definitely the king and the company that can provide the right information on demand and hit the subjects that people are looking for, will ensure your firm is positioned to win in the market.

How can you use a blog to generate new business opportunities and keep your clients informed? Here are four great tips to attracting the right clients to your business using effective blog strategies:

  • Understand your market – Before you can begin to use a blog to attract new business opportunities you need to understand the marketplace that you are in. What specific challenges do businesses in your region have with technology? Does technology affect different market segments differently? What are you an expert at? How can your company help the business segment that you serve? All of these questions need to be addressed before you can start to blog about the challenges your company sees in your area and how you can help them.
  • Keep it simple – There are many great blogs out there on the Internet. Unless you are blogging to attract IT technicians or IT Managers to your company for technical reasons to help them troubleshoot an immediate challenge they maybe having, I would stay clear of making your blog technical focused if you are using this strategy as a marketing tool. When you are using a blog to attract new small business clients, you must ensure that it is kept very simple and to the point. Remember many people do not read in depth, they rather skim information. Make sure you use key phrases that someone in a small business may use to search out an IT service provider.
  • Call to action – Your blog must have a call to action, which is easy to find. There are some awesome blogs out there; however, it is often hard to find out who is the person we need to contact for additional information. Like any marketing campaign it is very important to have a clear calls to action associated with your blog and your postings must make the reader hungry for more information. Do not be afraid to put your email and telephone number on your blog.
  • Keep it fresh – Stale blogs do not attract readers. Active blogs are able to use search engine optimization tactics to attract new readers. It is important for you to determine a schedule and stick to it. If you are committed to adding new content weekly it is critical for you to pick a time to write. Many blog packages will also let you write a posting and then schedule a time to post it to your blog. Keep your information fresh, as accurate as possible and utilize keywords whenever possible.

A great blog can be a wonderful addition to your marketing activities. When you take the time to make your blog look professional, the content is fresh and accurate, you are using keywords to hit the people that are looking for the information that you can help them with and you have a clear mechanism for people to engage with you, a blog can drive new client leads to your business.



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