A hiring technique similar to 2nd interviews: The emailed question technique

September 30, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Hiring & Firing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

I invented yet another technique for screening companies that is similar in philosophy to the 2nd interview. I call it the multiple email question technique. During an interview, it is good to ask probing questions that reveal the person’s thinking style (if they have one), their personality, and ethics. You can also ask funny sounding questions that reveal a person’s willingness to answer questions as well as their personal style. Unfortunately, we learned through trial and error that Americans are not good at finishing jobs on time, while Indians are not good at answering questions that involve creative and innovative thinking. I blame it on the school system! Americans tend to be good at interviewing, but the results can be deceiving.

During the initial interview, you can ask a handful of questions and just talk. But, save a few of your canned questions for email conversations. During the interview, people are trying to impress you. If you catch them when they are NOT trying to impress you, then you know how they will act in the long run which is what you really need to know!

After the initial interview, you can send three emails at 48 hour intervals to your prospective outsourcing company or prospective employee. Do not ask funny sounding questions like how to fit a giraffe in a refrigerator (I am famous for asking this one). Ask serious technical questions in the email and give enough background information so the person can give an intelligent answer without asking you for clarification or more information. There are four typical types of results of this email test.

(1) Failure to return the email. See if your prospect will even return the email. Many won’t. You can not hire someone who doesn’t get back to you or you are asking for trouble.
(2) Unnecessary requests for clarification. There are those who email you back to tell you that the question is “complicated” and they need more information from you to answer the question. If you included sufficient background information to give a basic opinion, their requirements for additional information are only an excuse to avoid thinking and acting.
(3) Thoughtless answers. If you have a job that involves thinking, stay away from brain dead people.
(4) Quality answers. Finally, you might get a few answers that are thoughtful and indicate that the prospect is really trying. What I learned is that even the best prospects do not give 100% quality answers to complicated questions. They might have an innovative way of solving part of the problem, but few will be able to have a multi-dimensional strike that will solve the problem from multiple viewpoints. You need to compare answers from different prospects to judge who is the smartest. And remember that brain power is no good without timely delivery of finished work!

Please keep in mind that the outsourcing company or prospect might answer the first question, but get tired of your nonsense and fail to answer subsequent questions. If you are hiring someone on a serious project, quitting halfway down the road doesn’t work.

Another technique you can use is to ask questions that might make the prospect feel weird. Obviously don’t ask anything inappropriate, but we found that people backed out of deals if we asked for astrological information. For Americans it was “too weird”. We saved ourselves from being in a few bad work relationships by asking too much in the beginning. Remember, if you are going to be in a serious work relationship, it is like a marriage. You will go through a lot and you will be asking a lot of the other person or company. If a simple question is too much for them, dump them and you will be glad you did, otherwise you will have serious trouble down the line.

Beware of American Programming Companies that sell availability

September 30, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Software Development | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

My experience hiring programmers in America is that they claim to have time to help you when they don’t. I had five instances in a row where I was offered 20 hours a week, and in all five cases 20 became zero. They didn’t even return phone calls in several cases. Baffling. Then, there were more conservative people who were more noncommittal. They also offered me time that they didn’t have. So, how do you know if your American programming company will give you what they promise when they generally don’t keep promises?

My answer is to hire more than one company at the same time. If one doesn’t have time, perhaps the other one does have time. Or, hire one American company and hire someone in a foreign country. Communication is the biggest problem with Eastern Europeans and Indians. But, they generally have time to get the work done. That doesn’t guarantee that they will be honest or accurate, but at least they are doing something!

In my experience, probably only about 10% of software companies are what I would call honest. Maybe my figure is off. Perhaps I am too optimistic. If they don’t lie about one thing, they are probably deceiving you about something else. Perhaps only 5% are honest. But, if you find someone who is “not that bad”, and gets the job done without screwing you too painfully, you are winning the game!

I had a dream where one Russian company said,
“We are not going to screw you more than a little bit today. You look like you have been screwed enough in the last few months”

On the other hand, if someone is handling your domain registration or hosting, any problem there can put you out of business. You need to trust your programming company / software company with your life. When hiring companies, ask yourself:

“Would I trust this company with my life?”
“Would I take a 3 day car ride with these people?”
“Would I let these people marry my daughter if I had one?”

If the answer is “Oh, hell no” to any of these three questions, keep shopping. Finding a good software company is like finding a needle in a haystack. You are more in danger of catching hay fever than pricking yourself. Let’s be realistic.

You might also like:

It is done — said the outsourced programmer
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2012/10/10/it-is-done-said-the-outsourced-programmer/

Leaving the job half done
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2012/07/17/leaving-the-job-half-done/

BPO Definition and Information

September 30, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

BPO Definition and Information
 
BPO means business process outsourcing.  It also means broker price option, but in the context of outsourcing, the first definition is the one we will concern ourselves with. There are various types of BPO outsourcing as well as specialties and it is important to understand the distinctions between them.
 
Some BPO companies stick to a particular type of specialty such as Data Entry and it’s associated specialties such as Data Mining, Data Conversion, Data Processing, etc.  Some stick to Call Center (call centre) work and it’s various specialties such as technical support, customer care, customer retention, telemarketing, etc. It is common in India for BPO companies to engage in a wide variety of functions.  I have seen many companies that will do Data Entry, Call Center, Medical Billing, SEO, Software Development, and Web Design, if not even more diverse specialties. BPO companies mostly stick to repetative back office functions like payment processing, information transcription, answering calls, etc.  However, there are other types of outsourcing operations that have very highly trained and highly educated employees.
 
There are various other types of outsourcing that include: KPO, LPO, RPO, and ITO.  There might be more acronyms or terms out there, but these ones are very common. 
 
KPO = Knowledge Process Outsourcing
LPO = Legal Process Outsourcing
RPO = Recruitment Process Outsourcing (HR work)
ITO = Information Technology Outsourcing (Software Development)
 
LPO, RPO, and ITO are easy to understand.  However, the term KPO, which is normally associated with research and analysis,  is often inclusive of legal and software work as well when used in a general way. Most KPO companies engage primarily in various types of research including market research, medical research, pharmaceutical research (a new trend in India), and other types of research.  Business analysis, data analysis, and various types of sophisticated number crunching fit neatly into the category of KPO.
 
The interesting point that one should understand is that it is common for BPO companies to engage in activities which blur the distinctions between BPO and KPO.  It is common for call centers to do surveys and data tabulation.  Taking and inputting the information (which involves call center and data entry work) fall into the general category of BPO. However, many call centers will also analyze the data for you to tell you which market segments you need to spend more time targetting.  Data entry firms will often do data analysis as part of their work.  The grunt work of entering data from forms, online, or databases into another form is low paying work.  However, the analytical work done once the data is in an appropriate format is much more intricate work.
 
Please keep in mind, that if you are browsing BPO websites on the internet, they might refer to themselves as a BPO when they are doing work that falls partly in the BPO category, and partly in KPO or even LPO categories.  You really need to read the “services” page of any website to get a clear idea of what they do.  The next question is what do they do best? Are they wonderful at legal research, but sloppy about data entry?  That question is not so easy to answer.  Good luck!

Please visit our KPO definition blog entry as well

The Magic of Collaboration

September 29, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The miracle of collaboration

Larger companies get it. They know that collaboration is the secret of success. But, smaller companies do not often know how to put successful teams and networks together.

Blogging collaboration
In blog writing, we learned that hiring an outside blog writer is too expensive and not cost effective at our stage in business. They want $40-$150 per entry. But, how much extra traffic do their blog entries get? Enough for us to absorb this exorbitant fee? Not this year. So, what is the solution? I learned that I am a very fast writer, and have some creative ideas, but need someone to proofread my work for spelling errors. I don’t always get my work spellchecked since it is time consuming to do that. But, for more critical articles I do have them proofread.

I can write up to six interesting blog articles in an hour.
For the more thought provoking or longer articles I might spend 30 minutes to an hour, or in a few rare cases more than that. The professional bloggers want to charge me for more than an hour of labor for their perfected articles. What I learned, is that despite their better quality work, the cost:benefit ratio doesn’t work out in my favor. If my time is worth $100 and I can average four blog articles per hour, that is $25 per article of my time — not to mention that I LIKE writing blogs which makes the time spent more agreeable. When a professional writes the blog entry it might get 50% more traffic than my average blog, but is that worth paying $150? Or, when a less professional blog writer who charges $40 writes an entry for me, it might get 15% more traffic. Is it worth the extra cost, plus management time to get slightly better results?

The solution!
My solution is for me to write most of my blogs, but have a professional come up with ideas to ADD to my blog after it is complete. That is a very quick and efficient way of utilizing their expensive time. Also, I could have someone proof my work after it is done. This way I can have a professional “touch” on probably about seven blog entries for the same cost it would be to have them write a single blog exclusively themselves. This collaboration plan involves three people, but raises the quality of output significantly with very modest costs per blog entry.

IT collaboration
Many smaller software companies have good team members, but the members don’t come together to function as a team. They are not trained to work as a seamless team, and don’t have the personal habits to do so either. I have learned that certain people can crank out code, but cannot interact with others. Some people can strategize about perfect code architecture, but don’t get back to people on time (and don’t answer their phones). While many people have excellent communication and “get back to you” skills who can manage projects and timetables who can’t write code or create architecture. Additionally, there are those who are talented at sales and hiring who are also essential at a software company. If you put a handful of junior developers together with on mid-level developer, and a project manager plus an architect, you have a team that will deliver cost effective, fast, and quality results. The lower level people do the grunt work, but higher level people do the strategy, organizing and double checking everything.

IT collaboration failures
The problem I often see in custom software development companies is that they might have people of all levels and capabilities, but they work as individuals. Or, if they work as a team, they don’t communicate back and forth effectively, or don’t have time to check the work of the less experienced programmers. Failed collaboration results in F quality work. So, the secret here is non-stop coaching to get your whole team to work as a well greased machine. Yes, that is difficult, but it is the difference between business growth, and business failure! Just figure out how to collaborate — and do it masterfully!

You might also like:

Steve Jobs watched his programmers carefully, so should you!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/10/steve-jobs-watched-his-programmers-carefully-so-should-you/

Should you have slack in your schedule as a manager?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/07/should-you-have-slack-in-your-schedule-as-a-manager/

US is training IT workers in Sri Lanka

September 29, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: America | Tagged , | Leave a comment

I’m reading an article in informationweek that is stating that the United States Agency for International Development will partner with private outsourcers in Sri Lanka.  Java, Java EE, general BPO and Call Center skills will be taught to the workers there.   English improvement classes will also be part of the program. 
 
President Obama made a promise to retain more hi-tech jobs in America, but now there is a $36,000,000 program to train thousands of workers overseas. 
 
Many feel that the cost of employing workers in the United States is staggering.  Wages are high, and then accounting fees for payroll are not cheap either.  Social security tax and unemployment tax do further damage. Medical plans are yet another nightmare to deal with. Our U.S. government is stifling our own economy with all of these taxes and policies. There must be an easier way.  If we learned to think like the Chinese do, we would set up our own special economic zones that have different taxation rules. Workers could pay their own social security, and not have unemployment insurance.  If you are serious about work, you can live without the frills.  We could set up one zone in Oklahoma where land and labor are cheap, and businesses would flock there to outsource within our borders instead of to Sri Lanka.  Workers would also flock to this new economic miracle in Oklahoma to live in compounds and work long hours.  People could work for a few years and then go back to their home towns, or areas of choice.  I don’t forsee America gaining consciousness and doing anything like this for at least a few decades, and only if we get into devestating economic shape.
 
On a brighter note, the recipients of the training program in Sri Lanka are mostly underemployed, or unemployed individuals. They will benefit greatly, and their families will enjoy a much better level of prosperity (getting out of poverty).

Subtle Persuasion as a marketing technique

September 29, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Marketing | Tagged | Leave a comment

The same thing happened to me more than once at more than one sushi joint. The sushi chef put a little wooden platter in front of me with ginger and wasabi. When you eat sushi, you have to have soy sauce, ginger and wasabi. But, I hadn’t ordered any sushi. Since the ginger and wasabi was already in front of me, I felt like I was already in the process of ordering sushi. I had no intention of ordering sushi when I walked in that restaurant. I wanted teriyaki. But, because of the ginger and wasabi, I ordered teriyaki, and sushi. Then, I went to another branch of the same restaurant in a different nearby town, and the same thing happened. Bizarre.

My question is, how can you apply the art of subtle persuasion in your business?
The sushi restaurant got me to buy something by giving me what they wanted me to buy — or at least a part of it. Psychologically, they got me in a buying mood just by letting me see something in front of me. If you are in the call center business and you want your clients to purchase data analysis from you as well, how would you do this?

Don’t give them the chance to say, “No!”
One way is to have packages where if you purchase a certain number of hours of call center services, you get one hour of data analysis per month at no extra cost. As clients get used to getting the data analysis reports, they might develop an interest. They might start asking questions. They might realize the value of the data analysis and then want more hours of data analysis. The key here is that you gave them the report without them asking for it, and without them consenting to get it. The minute you ask permission, most people will say no. People are in the habit of saying no to things that they don’t absolutely need, or that they are not in the habit of getting. The minute you get them into the habit without them saying yes, they will be a lot more likely to purchase from you.

Warm Marketing
If you studied sales, you will know the difference between a cold sale and a warm sale. Cold selling means selling to absolute strangers with whom you have no credibility. Cold selling is much harder, and generally doesn’t work as well as warm selling. A smart marketing understands the value of getting to know your prospects and clients one by one. You get to know their likes, dislikes and needs. But, most of all, they get to know you and get comfortable with you. If you give them great answers to questions and are nice to them, they will be much more likely to buy from you in the long run than from a stranger. Investing time getting to know people is a great sales technique — it just involves making casual small talk! If you are bad at small talk, it is time to practice getting good at it! But, the concept of getting existing clients to purchase new services by putting the service in front of them at no cost is another manifestation of warm sales technique!

Free samples
Just giving someone a sample without them asking for it is often a great way to get clients. But, sometimes, labor resources come at a hefty price, and you can’t just give them away to anyone. You need to select. It is a great idea to give free samples of your work to prospective clients. Or, give free samples of additional services to existing clients. The quantity of what you give for free should be small enough that it doesn’t put you out of business, but large enough that it gives the client an idea of what the service is like and how well you perform it. I created an entire business giving away free samples of advertising. My business now makes around half a million dollars a year and I still give free samples to about three thousand prospects per year to keep the ball rolling!

Think about the long run
Many businesses don’t like the idea of giving anything away for free. After all, they are there to make money, not to lose money. But, when you give something for free to an appreciative client, they will remember you long after the fact. Don’t waste free services on those who don’t appreciate it otherwise the work goes down the drain, but consider this — if you give $200 of services away, and you are rewarded by $200,000 worth of business from that client in the long run, not to mention potential referrals, was it worth it? What if you had to give samples to ten people to get that big client? Is that worth it?

Discounted samples
One way to make sure your prospect appreciates what you are giving them is to make them pay for their sample, but at a discounted price. You can give them the first 20 hours at a reduced price for example. If they don’t like the quality of the work, they haven’t lost much. But, if they do like it, they can stay with your company forever.

Tips for the road
If you are always giving your clients valuable tips, they is another technique that persuades them to trust you as a source of information as well as services. By giving tips, you mold their mind into associating you with the solutions to their problems. In two minutes of strategic talking, you have channeled their thinking into buying without even trying to sell them anything. Credibility, helpfulness, and knowing you makes people want to buy from you. So, don’t focus on hard selling, focus on getting people comfortable with you which means trusting you.

Summary
Think about using subtle persuasion in your business. Each of us is in a different business. But, if you spend a few minutes philosophizing about this last article, you might come up with some great ideas to make your business double its sales! Change the way you think about business and prosper!

Doing the unknown in business

September 29, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged | Leave a comment

Business is sometimes scary. People want to make millions overnight and sometimes ignore the fact that they have no idea what they are doing and have no experience. On the other hand, conservative types want to avoid doing the unknown at all costs. In business, a certain amount of risk taking and doing the unknown is necessary. Large companies often buy 100 smaller companies per year, not knowing which one will do well. Often it is only one or two that become stars, but the revenue from those is fantastic. I am not an investor, except for very stable stock. However, I realize that there are many new types of things you have to do in business. There are new people you have to hire, new tasks you have to undertake, and new things that you have to do where the outcome is unpredictable.

My suggestion is not to avoid the unknown. It is to try the unknown in small doses in a way where a bad outcome won’t ruin you. You can do test experiments on dummy assignments (which are not real, or that don’t matter much) and see how you do with a new employee or new way of doing the task. Try the unknown — just try it in a safe way. Once you get to know what you are doing, and have refined your methodology, then you have a new way to make money or save money, and it could be huge!

I play with the unknown in social media. I try new types of blog entries. I have no idea how they will do. I try new social media platforms. Right now I am doing a lot with Google+. I have no idea what the long term of this will be. I can only guess. It will be fun to find out, and in a year, I might be one of the really big players on Google+. It’s all a big experiment to me. But, if I win, I will learn something. I just go about my business growing my mediums. I try to measure my success at different stages along the road. To know what will happen if I invest a lot of time in social media, I need to invest a little time and see if anything happens.

Have fun experimenting, and realize that success in the outsourcing business requires being good at experimenting. So master this art!

The art of the blog

September 29, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Blogging is a new form of communication.  One that has not been mastered yet.  Most blogs are amateurish, and pathetically boring.  I am not a good writer by any standard, but try to be interesting and unique in each post.  But, not everyone can be a blog writer.  Being a blog writer involves a particular type of lifestyle and temperment.

Most writers get an assignment, they do some research, or write based on their knowledge. They do not have to figure out what to write about.  If you run a blog, you need a minimum of 12 posts per month, or you will lose your regular readers. But, how do you come up with 12 ideas per month of issues to write about?

You more or less have to live your work.  If you write about sailing, you need to be sailing all the time and talking to other sailors. Then and only then will you be confronted by the hundreds of issues effecting sailors.  If you simply sit at home and think about what to write — nothing will come to you other than some boring and technical aspects of sailing and good places to go for a sail.

 

I had a happy experience watching cable television yesterday night. I saw a Canadian guy move to Taiwan (I have lived there before and speak the language).  This gentleman struggled with the language differences, and had a lot of trouble finding a place to live that could accomodate his surfboard which was 10 feet long and wouldn’t fit into most elevators.  He had moved to Taiwan to write blogs about surfing and he lived his job.  He is thinking like I am.  By living next to the beach in Southern Taiwan he will have the opportunity to experience a particular environment surfing, and swap stories with other surfers.  I could imagine that after one good (long) day surfing and socializing with many others, he might have ammunition enough to write ten fascinating articles.

Well, I am planning a trip to Dubai, Manila and India where I hope to meet with many different call center managers so I will have lots of things to write about in my blog entries about call centers!  Wish me luck — and don’t hang up on me please!

India Call Center Developments

September 29, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Call Center, India | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Indian Call Center developments
 
In previous blogs we mentioned that the Philippines was neck and neck with India for call center revenues, but I read an article posted on Dec 6th 2010 in the Global Nation Inquirer stating that the Philippines has become the call center capital of the world.  I saw this coming.  Filipino call center employees get statistically more done per hour than in India and have a better command of American English as well as a good level of cultural affinity with the U.S.  Even some Indian companies set up call centers in the Philippines to benefit from their cultural links to the West.
 
My personal feeling is that India excels at intelligent tasks, and that cultural skills are just a matter of learning.  India has no shortage of people who can learn anything.  With a population of 1.1 billion, there will be many who can master every type of skill known to mankind, even if they don’t have a head start.  Indian education emphasizes math and science, and when Indian kids come to America to go to college, they are years ahead of the Americans.  Its just a question of emphasis.  Culture is easier to master than trigonometry, its just a matter of learning it.  Accents can be learned and mastered too, at least to the point of being acceptable for business use.
 
If an Indian call center employee has some Indian accent, that is okay, just as long as they are clear, helpful, and know all of our American faux pas.  But, many could master even regional accents through a good  educational program.  Some businesses put an emphasis on training and mastery while others accept mediocracy.  With the types of prices Indian call centers are charging these days, there is no room for second rate service.  Prices have skyrocketed recently, so quality of service, not price competition need to be the primary focus.
 
Tata Consultancy Service is a multi-billion dollar Indian company famous for cars, dams, and other services.  They have just opened a BPO operation in Manila instead of in their motherland.  It is a sad state of affairs when Indians are outsourcing their tasks outside of India.  The tide has shifted.  Overall outsourcing revenues are still by far the highest in India, but China is catching up fast, and the Philippines with its far smaller overall market share is also gaining… at least in the call center industry.
 
To end this short blog with a joke.  Did you hear about the new car models from 2005?
There was the Ford Hurricane and the Tata Tsunami.

Facebook is international, but Linked In focuses more on American Business

September 29, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Every social media platform is all over the globe. That is a well known fact. But, Linked In is mainly used by Americans with Indians in the #2 spot. Keep in mind that total members in the USA are only 84 million, but the quantity of their usage and pay-per-click fees represented about 80% of their total volume. This is an advantage if you like Targeting Americans! Linked In has also grown to have 277 million members, up from 200 million a year ago. They have had regular and moderate growth for many years. Linked In’s total number of followers needs to be adjusted, because I signed up twice. One for each of my businesses (maybe that is not so important.)

Linked in was launched on May 05, 2003!
Linked In is also almost four times as good for lead generation as Twitter or Facebook.

Professionals recommend using Linked In by joining professional groups, maintaining a professional profile, and posting industry relevant content.

Many companies that want more business don’t understand the value of sharing quality content. If you write useful information about how your industry works, people will be more likely to want to do business with you. You will gain recognition and faith.

Decision makers use Linked in as well as Facebook, but they use Facebook more for fun and Linked In is used more to make business contacts and business decision. So, what’s your business decision?

You might also like:

How to attract clients to your call center via Linked In
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/08/13/how-to-attract-clients-to-your-call-center-linked-in/

Twitter Stock — a good idea?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/02/20/twitter-stock-a-good-idea/

Confidence Verses Skills

September 29, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged | Leave a comment

Confidence verses Skills

India is a country that emphasizes hard skills in schools.  Most school systems worldwide do the same thing. But, in business, hard skills, such as technical skills of various sorts are only half the equation.  You need soft skills too, and this means interaction skills.

Communication
When I call India, I notice that people speak very quietly, and mumble.  The phone lines are not good to begin with, and then people’s unclear communication skills makes it much worse.  Good communication skills are paramount in business.  The bosses of companies always have the best communication skills of anyone at their company. But, workers need to communicate too, but generally lack the skills.  Communication needs to be TAUGHT somehow, but someone, somewhere in India.  Having good clerical or technical skills will not win over the desireable clients as much as combining your skills with good communications and customer service.

 
Be confident?
Americans are great with confidence.  We think we can do anything, when in reality we don’t know what we are talking about half the time. This works great in business — at least in the beginning.  In business, it is suicide to overpromise, or underdeliver (which are the same thing in essence). However, it is also suicide to appear shy, squeemish, or lacking in confidence. If you do business with the West, you MUST adopt a “Can Do” attitude, a friendly disposition on the phone, clear English, etc.  It is common in India even with PhD’s to think that they can not do something.  This type of thinking is a psychological damper and has been passed along from generation to generation in India.  Mothers only tell their children “don’t do this, don’t do that”.  It is stifling.  There needs to be a more proactive way of thinking that identifies what is beneficial to do, and then find out how you can do that beneficial thing.

 
In person it is opposite
Indians are a nationality that are amazing in person, and terrible on the phone.  I wonder how such a nationality can survive in the call center issue being so bad on the phone!  I think Indians should do “Meet you in person center” outsourcing instead of call center outsourcing.  They could fly clients to Hyderabad, and meet clients in person, have samosa chat (a common food in Bombay) while people talk to each other and sip on masala chai.  Indians are the most personable nationality when samosas and chai are involved.  The trick is pressing you internal psychological buttons here.  While you are on the phone with a stranger, pretend that they are Lakshmi Aunty and that you are talking about how the family is doing — in person — with no phone — except there will be a phone!  Your whole tone will be much friendlier and people will like you immediately!  Just trick yourself into forgetting that the person is a stranger, and trick yourself into forgetting that there is a phone.  Maybe use a speakerphone and pretend the person is right in front of you!

 
Doing more of it is the key
I have learned a lot in my own personal development.  As a child I was very shy and had all of the bad charactersistics I complain about in my blog.  I had to grow out of my shyness, my mistrust of strangers, and adapt a positive attitude so that I could attract clients — lots of clients — and desireable ones too. What I learned is that you need to do a lot of phone work to get good at it.  Developing a positive tone, asking the right questions, being polite, and wording your questions and answers in a way that leaves a positive feeling in the other person’s mind are all critical skills.

Your Turn: How Social Media is like a game of Monopoly

September 29, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Move your thimble! It’s your turn!

What do social media and a game of monopoly have in common? More than you think. When you play monopoly, you start out with some money, and you move around the board collecting properties. When someone else lands on your property you collect some money. You can use the money to buy more properties. But, if you land on someone else’s property, you have to pay them.

In real life in web business, you can acquire social media accounts and put money or time into getting followers on those accounts. Every time you pass go and collect $200, you get another week of time to invest in building your accounts. The problem is that in web business, whenever something on your web site(s) breaks, you have to pay the programmers big bucks which is like landing on someone else’s hotel in Monopoly.

As you go around the board, you might land on the question mark, pick up a card, and get the Go To Jail card. This is what happens when your SEO technique is something that the Google gods don’t care for.

But, another aspect that links social media and Monopoly is that you don’t acquire the entire world all at once. You develop your empire in bits and pieces. Every step along the road you have to make strategic choices and decisions. Which property do you save your money for? Do you built hotels all at once or do you wait? When do you sell your properties? How much do you save for an emergency? It is all just like real life. The only difference between Monopoly and real life is that:

(1) I am not a thimble and
(2) In real life in addition to hotels, there are resorts!